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----- Original Message -----
From: Downwithcapitalism <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2001 3:50 PM
Subject: [downwithcapitalism] Strikes around the World
WSWS. 16 June 2001. Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific.
Excerpts.
ASIA
Indonesian workers battle police.
Thousands of workers protesting against changes to Indonesia's labour
laws clashed with police in major cities across the country on June 13.
Proclaimed at the beginning of June, the legislation allows employers to
cut severance pay and compensation entitlements for laid off and retired
workers and makes it easier for companies to dismiss staff.
Over 2,000 workers in Jakarta battled with riot police who barred their
way to the presidential palace. Police in Surabaya, the country's second
largest city, fired live rounds and tear gas to disperse a crowd of
3,000 attempting to march into the city. Seven demonstrators were
arrested and one worker was hospitalised. There were also clashes in
Bandung, West Java, where workers stoned police and set fire to at least
18 government cars.
A Minister of Manpower spokesman said this week that the government was
striving to create a climate for investment. As well as sharp cuts in
working conditions, the government also wants to cut company taxes and
reduce electricity rates and fuel costs.
Pakistani bank workers oppose layoffs.
Bank workers in Pakistan have launched industrial action in protest over
plans by three major banks to destroy thousands of jobs. The state-owned
National Bank of Pakistan is planning to forcibly retire 5,000 employees
as part of the government's privatisation process, Habib Bank Limited
(HBL) will lay off 12,500 workers and the United Bank Limited (UBL) will
shed staff through a voluntary separation scheme.
The workers at UBL launched an indefinite strike on June 11, after
staging a series of two-hour daily work stoppages. Strikers shut down
all UBL branches in Faisalabad, preventing management opening the banks'
main doors. A number of branch managers who also could lose their jobs
in the cutbacks joined strikers demonstrating outside newspaper offices
and bank branches on June 12.
Senior bank management at UBL banned 19 leaders of the UBL Employees
Action Committee from entering bank premises and gave district
authorities information on 60 employees involved in the strike action.
Police raided the homes of workers named, arresting 12. The strikers
have demanded the release of all those arrested and an end to the police
intervention into the dispute.
HBL workers who struck for 24 hours on June 11 are continuing daily
three-hour pen down stop work action. Besides protesting layoffs, the
workers are also angry that their wages have been frozen since 1993 and
employee applications for loans are subject to discrimination. Union
leaders and action committee members at HBL's main branch in Faisalabad
accused the government of implementing International Monetary Fund and
World Bank demands.
Workers at the National Bank of Pakistan are due to take industrial
action soon, according to a statement issued this week.
Workers in Sri Lanka defend union rights.
Nearly 8,000 members of Sri Lanka's Ceylon Mercantile Union (CMU) staged
a half-day strike this week in protest over a series of union
victimisations.
Company attacks on union rights include the suspension of the secretary,
president and two members of the CMU branch at Ceylon Oxygen, the
dismissal of eight union workers in Ceylon Cold Stores and the sudden
transfer of union members at Colombo Commercial Company. The transfers
followed a campaign by workers against bonus cuts.
Sri Lankan big businesses organisations launched the anti-union campaign
after demanding the government speedily end labour disputes and remove
all restrictions on employer rights to hire and fire.
Sri Lankan government doctors strike in war zones.
Government doctors in war zones in the northern and eastern provinces
began an indefinite strike on June 11 to demand that the government pay
them a risk allowance for working in a dangerous environment. All
hospital services in the provinces, apart from emergencies, have been
brought to a standstill by the strike.
According to the Government Medical Officers Association, the government
has continuously rejected the demand even though doctors in the war-torn
areas suffer severe hardships and risk their lives. The doctors are also
angry over delays in the delivery of drugs and other essential medical
supplies.
Indian doctors demonstrate for salary increment.
Doctors in the south Indian state of Andra Pradesh demonstrated on June
12 to demand the government implement recommendations by it own Task
Force Committee to pay salary increases to doctors in state-run
hospitals.
A spokesman for the Andra Pradesh Government Doctors Association said
that although the committee had submitted its report some time ago the
government remained silent on the issue. We have no other option left
but to protest, he said.
AUSTRALIA AND THE PACIFIC.
Sacked workers picket plant.
Workers from Metro Shelving in the Sydney suburb of Revesby began
picketing the plant this week to demand reinstatement. The 50 workers
were sacked without notice on March 28 after management met with the
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union to discuss health and safety
issues. The company is presently operating with contract labour.
While an Industrial Relations Commission hearing has ruled out
reinstatement the union is planning to appeal this decision before a
full bench of the commission.
Workers strike after legionnaires disease found in hospital.
Building workers on several sites at the inner city Alfred Hospital in
Melbourne walked off the job on June 13 after the death of two people
and five confirmed cases of legionnaires disease.
Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union safety officer Pat Preston
said building work at the Alfred Hospital would not start until an
independent expert examined the health risk to workers.
Hospital cleaners, orderlies and support staff met last week and agreed
to a union and management request not to go on strike. The workers
agreed that hospital management be allowed time to test all staff for
symptoms of disease.
ABC radio staff strike over sacking.
More than 50 ABC radio staff staged a 24-hour strike on June 12 in
support of department head Roz Cheney whose job was abolished while she
was on a month's holiday. On return to work Cheney was given 30 minutes
to leave the building in the Sydney suburb of Ultimo.
Cheney had worked at the ABC for 30 years as a broadcaster, radio arts
editor and department head.
Workers rallied outside ABC offices in Sydney in protest over the
sacking. Radio staff said that Cheney's dismissal was connected to cost
cutting by ABC Radio management who have already axed several programs
and destroyed dozens of jobs in the last year.
New Zealand fish processing workers demand wage parity.
Fish processing workers at the Sanford Fisheries Bluff and Timaru salmon
processing sites on New Zealand's South Island walked off the job on
June 11 over the lack of progress in employment contract negotiations.
The workers returned to work the same day after being issued with
suspension notices.
The workers are campaigning for a multi-site agreement with equal pay
rates at both plants.
Bluff employees earn much less than those at the Timaru site and with a
starting rate of $NZ9.42 an hour are the lowest paid workers in the
Sanford group. Some of the workers have not had a pay increase for five
years.
Contract negotiations have been underway since January this year when
the previous contract expired. Sanford has rejected all proposals of a
multi-site agreement, despite operating a joint contract at its Auckland
and Tauranga plants in the North Island.
New Zealand journalists launch four-day strike.
Journalists at New Zealand's biggest daily metropolitan newspaper, the
NZ Herald, went on strike again this week after another breakdown in
negotiations over employment contracts. The 130 journalists walked out
on June 12, declaring that they intended to stay out until the weekend.
Last week the union called off a strike after three days to recommence
talks with management.
The dispute, which has been running for more than a month, is over
employer attempts to force 30 staff off a collective employment
contract. The current strike is the fourth by NZ Herald journalists and
follows a 13-hour strike on Sunday by workers at the NZ Press
Association, also over collective coverage.
On June 14, journalists, printers and other staff at daily newspapers
owned by the Murdoch-controlled INL chain demonstrated outside the
company shareholder's meeting in Wellington. The newspaper workers say
that there is a concerted campaign by majo newspaper employers to remove
senior editorial staff and salaried workers from collective employment
contracts.
PNG workers resist office closure.
Workers at the PNG Electricity Commission in Gerehu, a suburb of Port
Moresby, are resisting attempts by the government to transfer them to a
new work location at Garden City in the suburb of Boroko. They have
begun a campaign to secure their entitlements, including severance pay.
The workers have officially complained to authorities that there is not
enough room at the Boroko office and overcrowding could jeopardise
health and safety.
The workers were ordered leave the Gerehu office this week after
officers from the government's Privatisation Commission closed down the
premises and removed records and office equipment. The offices were then
trashed.
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