Australia Asia Worker Links

Solidarity with Indigenous people with their fight for justice, equality and land rights. Aboriginal Struggles are Union Business. And look here.

Celebrate 222 years of resistance at the Survival Day concert
January 26, 2pm to 8pm, Treasury Gardens, Melbourne.

On Tuesday 26 January at 11am join Gilla McGuinness live on 3CR from the Belgrave Survival Day concert through until 4pm.

Come to the AAWL Public Meeting 'The labour movement and solidarity with indigenous people'. The meeting will hear about current indigenous struggles in Australia and the role that labour movement solidarity can play.

The meeting is open to all, starts at 6pm, Wed 3 February, Trades Hall, 54 Victoria St, Carlton South, Victoria.

On December 20, 2009 Toyota Motor Philipines Corporation Workers Association held an end year activity for the families and members of TMPCWA.  It is the ninth year celebration of Christmas specially for the illegally dismissed members and their families.

In the program is the one year activity report of TMPCWA: For instance the protest action in front of Toyota in commemoration of the mass dismissal case; the protest in front of the Japanese embassy and other agencies of the Department of Labor and Employment; the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals; The Global Day of protest against Toyota and many protests; in Toyota Japan the launch by the Support Group for TMPCWA in Japan. Read more here.

A longstanding and bitter struggle at the Turkish port of Mersin paid off after unionists won a ground-breaking agreement, giving members bargaining rights for the first time.

Port drivers, represented by the ITF-affiliated transport union Türkiye Motorlu Tasit Isçileri Sendikasi (TUMTIS), signed an agreement on 21 December 2009, following a year-long battle against the anti-union land-side company, Akansel Nakliyat. Last year the company dismissed 192 workers for joining TUMTIS; union protests eventually led to their reinstatement. Full story.

A groundbreaking union report has found that Malaysian law severely restrict workers in their ability to organise at the workplace, and to bargain collectively.

The report by the ITUC on core labour standards in Malaysia, published to coincide with the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) review of their trade policies, has found many workers barred from exercising their right to organise, to collectively bargain and to strike. Migrants' suffer from blatant disregard of their rights, including the use of violence.

Read the full report here.

The militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has began the New Year by stating why they oppose, and will campaign against, the new Revised Law relating to Union Pluralism and the Status of Full-time Union Officials. Read the full statement here.

Gurgaon in Haryana is presented as the shining India, but behind the facade, behind the factory walls and in the side streets of the industrial areas thousands of workers keep the rat-race going, producing cars and scooters for the middle-classes. And the rat-race will not stop; on the outskirts of Gurgaon, Asia’s biggest Special Economic Zone is in the making.

Car workers in the Gurgaon are fighting against speed ups, long work hours, unsafe OH&S standards and management bullying. Workers who organise for better conditions then face been blacklisted by the companies.

Find out more by reading GurgaonWorkersNews - Workers News from the Special Exploitation Zone.

Thai railway workers are still fighting for re-instatement after OH&S dispute last year led to six union delegates being sacked:

The International Transport Workers’ Federation this week called on the Thai government to reinstate the six railway workers.

The ITF has welcomed the findings of an industrial relations body in Thailand that railway union officials who took part in industrial action should not be dismissed.

Read the full story.

Amid continuing attacks on their rights, Iranian workers at the Isfahan Steel Company have formed a 'Council of the Isfahan Steel Workers' to better unify the workers' ranks and defend their rights:

"The Isfahan Steel Company (ISC) has been one of the largest industrial enterprises in all Iran. Nevertheless, despite many small and large efforts by workers throughout the years to improve their working condition, they have been strenuously deprived of the right to have a workers-led organization of their own to defend their rights and just demands.

In this connection, faced with an uncertain future and generally worsening conditions, and mindful of the crushing weight of the economic crisis on the workers’ shoulders, we, a group of ISC workers, have decided to form the “Ad Hoc Council of the Isfahan Steel Workers”, whose mission it is to unify the workers’ ranks and defend their rights."

Read the full statement here.

More than 2,000 employees of a Taiwan enterprise in the Eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu went out into the streets last Friday to protest against poor working conditions and low pay. The riot police intervened in the dispute.

The dispute arose because workers have long been dissatisfied with the management, payment and food provided by the company, according to the Suzhou Industrial Park administrative committee.

According to China Labour Net the company, United Win (China) Technology Ltd Co, is the core supplier for Apple's iPhone products. Read more and view images here.

Nearly one thousand tea workers and their families continue to suffer collective punishment at the hands of India's Tata Group.

Workers at the Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate in West Bengal, India went without pay, food and rations from September 14 until December 12 last year following a protest in August over the mistreatment of Mrs. Arti Oraon, a 22 year-old tea garden worker who was denied maternity leave and forced to continue work as a tea plucker despite being 8 months pregnant.

During the three months to December 12, during which there was no pay and no statutory rations,  the only food the workers received was a single serving of emergency relief supplies distributed by the local district administration, normally reserved for the victims of natural disasters. The lockout was clearly intended to teach the workers a lesson: if you want to eat, renounce your right to protest! Read more here.

The struggle for justice continues at Nowera Nuddy, led by the workers' Action Committee. You can support their demands - click here to send a message to Tata/Tetley!