[mobglob-discuss] The World of Labor (February 10, 2006)

[Gordon Flett]

The World of Labor  (February 10, 2006)
By Harry Kelber

Germany's Largest Union Seeks Pay Boost as Strike Continues

The IG Metall engineering trade union this week demanded a 5 per cent pay 
increase for Germany's 3.4 million metal industry employees. The 
negotiations come as public sector workers continued their strike against 
longer working hours. The union says its wage demands are justified because 
wages for industrial workers rose only 1.2 percent  last year, below the 2 
per cent rate of inflation. IG Metall leaders warned that the wage talks, 
due to start Feb. 10, could lead to strike action if union and engineering 
industry representatives failed to reach an agreement by early April.

Thousands of rubbish collectors, hospital workers and kindergarten staff in 
the southern state of Baden-W?tenberg stopped work on Feb. 6 as leaders of 
Verdi, the public sector union, warned that the strike could last for weeks. 
The union is protesting plans by local authorities to raise working hours 
from 38.5 to 40 per week, a move that  union leaders believe will lead to 
widespread job losses.

The strike, the first in 14 years, was approved by a 95% vote of union 
members.  Workers in other states--Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Schleswig- 
Holstein, Saarland and Saxony--are set to vote this week whether to stage 
work stoppages that could begin as early as Feb. 13.

Chinese Workers Raise Pressure on Korean Auto Employers

The in-house union of Beijing Hyundai's only joint venture with Beijing 
Automobile Group has asked for a collective labor agreement. It would be the 
first for the company, which was founded in 2002, and the first with a major 
Korean company in China. The union comes under the China state controlled 
union umbrella, the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU).

Korean businesspeople in China worry that any collective agreement would 
trigger a domino effect that could boost their own labor costs and fuel 
labor disputes in their own businesses. A Beijing Hyundhai Motor staffer  on 
Feb. 7 said the Chinese union requested a collective agreement to replace 
previous practice whereby the company struck a contract with each individual 
employee.

The request does not necessarily mean possible strike action, since China's 
1982 revised constitution does not recognize collective union action. 
Strikes are technically illegal, though foreign companies have seen their 
share of them in recent years. The nationwide ACFTU has published a list of 
foreign and private firms without unions to turn up the heat on them.

Australian Workers Celebrate 150th Anniversary of 8-Hour Day

In 1856, stonemasons of Victoria, Australia, won an eight-hour working day, 
a world first in the struggle for improved working conditions and a fair 
split between work, rest and play. At the launch of celebrations of the 
150th anniversary of this milestone, Victorian Women's Affairs and Arts 
Minister Mary Delahunty said that dividing work and family time was still 
the biggest challenge facing workers.

In 2002, as many as 1.7 million Australians worked 50 hours or more a week, 
according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.  Working parents juggle 
long hours, and women are especially affected by the double shift. 
Fifty-six percent of Australian women are now in the work force, and 32 
percent of them are caring for children.

"We're pleased to offer an eclectic range of events to  both celebrate the 
historic achievements of stonemasons in 1856 and encourage examination of 
the contemporary struggle to control working hours and lead balanced lives," 
Delahunty said.

Canadian Public Employees May Strike Over Pension Issue

Members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in Toronto voted 94 
percent in favor of a province-wide strike over current  pension legislation 
in Ontario. The original purpose of Bill 206, a pension measure to revise 
the province's Municipal Employees Retirement System--which is to get its 
final reading this month--was to put municipalities in charge of their $40 
billion pension plan.

But a major controversy arose over amendments that give police, firefighters 
and paramedics supplemental plans that allow them to retire earlier with 
full benefits.  Municipalities say they'll have to raise property taxes to 
pay for these benefits.

"We're not talking about some little one day political strike. The schools 
won't open, my members won't let anyone in, and it's the same for municipal 
buildings," says Sid Ryan, president of CUPE Ontario. Ryan says he'll take 
120,000 workers on an illegal strike until the government says it will 
change the proposed pension legislation.

Belgian Workers Take 12 Days of Sick Leave Each Year

Belgian workers are, on average, sick 12 days a year, costing employers EUR 
6.6 billion ($7.8 billion), the social management group, Securex, said. 
Securex, which offers social security services to 230,000 workers and 24,000 
companies, based its analysis on absentee data from 2004.

The study yielded a national sick-leave percentage of 4.86 percent, meaning 
that for every 100 workdays, Belgian employees are absent, due to illness or 
accident, for 4.68 days.  Slightly more than half of the nation's workers 
(54 percent) is never sick (or never calls in sick.)

Sick leave costs companies large sums of money, because during short periods 
of absence, workers still receive their pay. However, indirect costs can 
also mount up. If someone else has to take over an absent co-worker's 
duties, that can result in paid overtime or the need to hire a replacement.

Racist Boss Meets Wrath of Workers

Angry workers from the Blantyre Sports Club in Malawi on Feb. 8 put down 
their tools demanding the immediate removal of their manager, Bob Dudley, 
whom they accused of being a racist. This is the third time that the workers 
have had to strike in eight months that Dudley has been in office and each 
time have cited racism as the cause of their industrial action.

Dudley, said to be a white South African, is accused of calling black 
workers monkeys, an accusation he has denied every time the workers go on 
strike. Carrying placards that read "even monkeys want freedom in their 
country," the workers threatened to continue their the strike until Dudley , 
who has been shunning the media, goes back home for good.

Club director Dean Pinto, who came to address the workers, pleaded with them 
to go back to work and assured them that Dudley will not report for duties 
until the whole issue is addressed.  The workers went back to work after 
Dudley drove off from the premises.

Our weekly "LaborTalk" and "The World of Labor" columns can be viewed at our 
Web site: < www.laboreducator.org>.

Harry Kelber's e-mail address is: hkelber at igc.org