Ten representatives from Malaysia Food Industry Employees Union (FIEU) came to Lampung to provide solidarity support to Indonesia Nestlé Panjang Workers Union (SBNIP).
FIEU represents 7,000 workers in the food industry, including 2,200 Nestlé workers in six factories and one warehouse in Malaysia.
We reproduce below the opening address of Hans-Olof Nilsson, the president of the Swedish Food Workers Union (LIVS) at its recent Congress (May 29 - June 3), to which the IUF-A/P Regional Secretary was invited. Hans-Olof Nilsson is also the current president of IUF.
The speech is notable for a number of important points about the future direction of the union and the union’s wider views:
1. the strategic necessity for deeper co-operation and coordination (on collective bargaining) among the unions of food workers in the Nordic countries to deal with common employers in the food industry rather than merging into larger unions of other industries within a country;
2. the importance of the Swedish food industry which has become the country’s 4th largest industry (and its fastest growing export industry) with an annual turnover of approximately US$20 billion, a third of which is derived from exports;
3. the increasing pressure of the Swedish food industry federation of employers on its members to toughen their stance against LIVS;
4. the role of unemployment insurance through the union as a key component in trade union work and the Swedish model;
5. the unsustainability of the current world food system;
6. the launch and publication by LIVS of a book on the global food system written by the editors of the union’s monthly magazine.
Regarding the current global financial crisis, which has also affected Sweden, Hans-Olof Nilsson declared, “We will continue to advocate a classical Keynesian economic policy with massive investments in our common welfare as the only way out of this misery!”
Report from IUF Pakistan 
Dalda Food Employees Union members, Karachi, 23 May 2009.
Almost one year since their struggle for decent jobs and trade unions rights began, the members of the Dalda Food Employees Union, who made Unilever’s Blue Band margarine in an outsourced factory, organised a protest demonstration at the Karachi Press Club on 23 May 2009. More than 200 union members attended a court hearing related to their dispute and then marched to the Karachi Press club.
Due to the political situation in Pakistan, Karachi is in a grip of violence. On this day almost the entire city was closed, all markets were closed, public transport was not available and roads were deserted because of fear of violence.
The on-going military operation in Swat and other parts of the areas bordering Afghanistan has led to more than two million internally displaced people. Many are coming to Karachi seeking jobs and shelter.
On 25 May 2009, members of the IUF-affiliated Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) were active at the annual general meeting (AGM) of the GPT Group, a diversified property group with assets of over US$9 billion and investments in the hotel sector. GPT operate a number of brand name hotels in Australia, including the Holiday Inn in Brisbane. At the Four Points Hotel in Sydney, workers have voted to refuse to accept contracts which strip away rights. GPT is refusing to accept this vote and behaving as if the anti-worker industrial relations laws of the previous right-wing Australian government are still in place. Outside the AGM, LHMU members distributed leaflets to shareholders regarding the comany’s industrial relations practices and inside the AGM questions were raised with the directors over the company’s actions. Further details and photos can be found here.
On 30 April, in conjunction with the Faculty of Law at the University of Lampung and The Lampung Post, a discussion was held on the topic of “protection of freedom of association and wage negotiation for workers”. Speakers at the forum were F.X. Sumarja, Faulty of Law, University of Lampung, Domiril Hakim, head of the Ministry of Manpower Office, Lampung City and Eko Sumaryono, SBNIP President.
The following report was sent from the IUF Pakistan Office in Karachi.
Torch rally, PC Hotel Workers Solidarity Committee, 30 April 2009
The Pearl Continental (PC) Hotel Workers Solidarity Committee organised a torch rally to mark May Day in the evening of 30 April in Karachi. At present, the law and order situation in Karachi is terrible, violence occurs throughout the city and more than 40 people were killed on the day before labour day.
The whole city had a deserted look, public transport was not available, school and colleges were closed and most people prefered to stay at home. The police had prohibited the Solidarity Committee from organising a May Day activity because sanction were in place on public meetings and gatherings. Nevertheless, the Solidarity Committee decided to hold the rally because of the powerful symbol the torch rally has become for the PC Hotel workers struggle.
The following is an edited version of an article which appeared in The Assam Tribune on 28 April 2009. The story details corruption within the Assam Tea Brokers Association and a police investigation of fraud amounting to approximately US$200,000 (1 crore [cr] is equal to 10 million). The article hints that corruption may be more widespread. Such information or allegations should come as no surprise given the conditions of the tea industry in India, which has seen rampant criminal activity by employers through their refusal to abide by laws governing working conditions and wages of tea workers. Moreover, corruption such as indicated in the article below, hints at the black economy which exists in the tea industry–tea sold by employers and brokers ungoverned by regulation or oversight and untaxed and thus completely “off the books” allowing employers to claim their enterprises are “unviable” and thus defraud workers of their legal entitlements. Another implication of the scandal is this throws into extreme doubt any claims of traceability within the tea supply chain in Assam. If corruption on the scale described below is possible, where documents and consignement notices were regularly forged by the head of ABTA (who was also a plantation owner), how can claims of environmentally-friendly or child labour-free tea from Assam be treated seriously?
Yet the now-notorious Grand Aquila Hotel, located at the entrance to Bandung on the highway from Jakarta, has done just this, as a result of the management coming under police investigation for brutally busting the union formed by workers late in 2008. The workers were no longer prepared to put up with slave-like conditions and have their income cut at management’s whim.
When the management proclaims “love” of the union, they do not mean the real union whose banner hangs across a hotel entrance and whose leader is talking to the union demonstrators and passers-by.
The IUF, Educational International (EI), the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) released the following statement on 27 April 2009. The statement is available to download in Farsi.
May Day 2009 and Freedom for Imprisoned Trade Unionists in Iran
Around the world, for over one hundred years, workers and their trade unions have celebrated May Day - International Labour Day. It is the day on which workers internationally show their shared commitment to justice and freedom. Since the first International May Day in 1890, it has been celebrated in public gatherings but also in jails and prisons - for there are still governments which forbid unofficial gatherings on the first of May.
Iran is one such country. For years, workers attempting public May Day demonstrations have been harassed, beaten, and jailed. For the past two years, workers and labour rights supporters seeking to organize May Day gatherings have
been sentenced to public whippings. Mahmoud Salehi, leader of an independent bakers union in Iran’s Kurdistan province, served one year in prison for attempting to organize a public rally on May Day 2004.
The IUF, International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), Education International (EI) and the ITUC have jointly called for a worldwide day of action on June 26 to highlight the ongoing denial of rights and arrests of trade unionists in Iran. To participate in activities and for more information see www.justiceforiranianworkers.org
IUF Newswire LabourStart
