Yearly Archives: 2014

This is the last regular mini news for 2014. The full mini news will restart in the first week of February 2015. The Asia Pacific Currents radio program is also taking a break. The first APC program for 2015 will be on Saturday the 7th of February. The first public […]

It has been well over a year since the massacre of over 1,100 garment workers at Rana Plaza and still the fight for proper compensation continues. Benetton is one of the major brands that has not contributed anything yet. In an unrelated development, owners of two of the garment factories […]

As reported previously, it is workers and their communities who are the greatest losers in the ongoing wars in West Asia. Despite repeated attempts to organise, widespread discrimination and precarious working conditions continue to weaken our brothers and sisters’ attempts to organise in Iraq. In neighbouring Syria, the heroic resistance […]

Around 150 workers in the southern city of Melbourne have been on strike for two months against the giant Otis company, the world’s largest manufacturer of elevators, escalators and moving walkways. Otis employs over 60,000 workers world-wide. The workers are fighting for better wages and conditions with the company trying […]

The last few years have seen growing confidence among workers in Indonesia with the staging of major strikes and actions to win better wages and conditions. Nevertheless, many workers continue to face harsh working conditions, unsafe workplaces and repression by the state. Thus, labour organisations continue to push for their […]

The killing of Ziad Abu Ein, a minister in the Palestinian Authority, by the Israeli army once again has brought into focus the lethal consequences of the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. Ziad Abu Ein was killed when he, and a number of other villagers, were attempting to plant […]

As reported previously, protesters greeted General Prayuth Chan-ocha’s visit to Malaysia last week. This week, further protests were organised by labour and human rights groups in South Korea during his visit for the ASEAN summit. There has now been a call by the Free Thai Movement for Democracy and Human […]

As previously reported, the fight for direct elections has been shaking Hong Kong for a number of months with unions actively involved in these protests. The size of the protests has been fuelled by widespread anger against increasing inequality, corruption and the high cost of living. This week, the Hong […]

Less then two weeks after the global day of action to Stop the Repression Against Trade Unionists, Rolando Pango, a farm worker organiser on the Filipino island of Negros was assassinated by four killers. Rolando had been active in defending workers against exploitation by the dominant sugar plantation farmers in […]

In the big industrial zone of Manesar, Gurgaon near New Dehli, over 300 workers have been on strike for over a month after Asti Electronics, a subsidiary of the large Japanese Asti Corporation, tried to sack them. These workers, mainly young women in their 20’s, were hired by subcontractors to […]