Left to right: Khaista Rehman, Khalid Pervez and Ghulam Rasool
An agreement negotiated between the IUF, the Atlanta, USA-based The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) and Coca-Cola Icecek (CCI, Coca-Cola’s Turkey-based bottler for the Middle East, Pakistan and Central Asia), has successfully resolved a long and bitter conflict over employment and trade union rights at Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan (CCBPL). CCBPL is jointly owned by TCCC and CCI.
Under the agreement, all unfairly dismissed workers will be reinstated with full compensation. The company recognizes the People’s Employees’ Union (PEU) as the representative of IUF members at the Multan bottling plant and guarantees that there will be no harassment or victimization of union members and officers.
To rectify precarious employment practices which undermined the right to trade union membership in CCBPL’s bottling operations, the agreement creates 187 permanent, directly employed positions.
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The following story was published in the in English-language Indian press and covers the on-going campaign to defend the rights of tea workers at the Tata-controlled tea garden Nowera Nuddy in West Bengal. The story is presented here for the information of readers but does not necessarily reflect the views of the IUF.
Tata Tea plantations in north Bengal are likely to face stiff protests from a section of tea plantation workers. Tea workers’ unions in Jalpaiguri district are planning to launch an agitation against the management to protest the termination of eight workers of Nowranuddy Tea Garden (Amalgamated Plantation Limited).
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"Workers Solidarity Hut" - SPKMF rally with members and families for wage bargaining rights.
Following two months of negotiations and trade union activities, the IUF-affiliated Kirin Miwon Foods Workers’ Union (SPKMF) has reached an agreement with PT Kirin Miwon Foods which secures real wage bargaining rights. This is an historic victory for it is the first time a trade union has successfully bargained wages with PT Kirin Miwon (a joint venture between the transnational company Kirin from Japan and Daesang of Korea in Lampung, southern Sumatra).
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Send Tata a protest message now!
Mrs Arti Oraon (centre with baby) leaves her thumbprint as a signature on documents while seeking anticipatory bail outside Jailpaiguri disctrict court, 7 May 2010.
In early May 2010, two events occurred, worlds apart, but telling signs of the disconnect between the owners and managers of Tata Tea, a multinational beverages company from India and owners of the Tetley tea brand, and the workers who pluck tea for the company. As Tata Tea trumpeted a new name and global vision for itself, a young woman worker grossly mistreated by the company was desperately trying to avoid jail on false charges brought by the management.
On May 7, following a decision of the board of directors of Tata Tea, the company was renamed Tata Global Beverages. According to R. Krishna Kumar, Tata Tea vice chairman, the change in name, “…demonstrates our intent to build a new and strong global brand” (The Business Standard, 7 May 2010). This “new” global brand, what is it built on? How are the workers who generate the company’s profits year after year treated?
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Farzad Kamangar, independent trade unionist, teacher, executed 9 May 2010 by the government of Iran.
The execution of five human rights activists on May 9 at the notorious Evin prison in Tehran has led to worldwide protests and condemnation. Four of the five people executed were Kurds active in human rights and trade union movements in Iran. At least three of the five had been tortured during their incarceration periods before the executions.
Reaction to these heinous crimes by the regime of President Ahmadinejad has also occurred within Iran. In a remarkable show of courage and defiance, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, have participated in a general strike in Iran’s Kurdish eastern regions on May 13. Workers refused to go to work, students refused to go to school, business were shut and markets closed across the entire region. The strike was called in protest against the executions and to warn the Iranian regime against further executions.
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SPKMF members rally calling for wage negotiations.
In March 2010, the IUF-affiliated Kirin Miwon Foods Workers Union (SPKMF) in Indonesia began wage negotiations with management. The union has proposed a collective agreement for 2010 which includes wage increases in line with the increase of living expenses. In countries throughout the world, this is a standard practice between unions and companies. It is a right protected under international law and the laws of Indonesia. Wage negotiations are also practiced in many countries where Kirin, the Japanese food conglomorate, operates; Australia and Japan, for example. However, in Indonesia, the company has refused to negotiate with SPKMF. Management is insisting on persisting with practices inherited from the Suharto dictatorship, when wages were imposed by diktat and the “official” unions were controlled by the management.
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Stop Nespressure! Send a protest message to Nestlé.
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30 April is the final day that the global agricultural commodities company Cargill will own and operate palm oil plantations in Papua New Guinea (PNG). In late February, Cargill announced the sale of its three PNG palm oil operations for US$175 million to New Britain Palm Oil (PNG’s largest palm oil producer, controlled by the Malaysian state-owned enterprise Kulim). Cargill only operated palm oil plantations in PNG for a short time, arriving in November 2005 and departing four-and-a-half years later. Those four and a half years were highly profitable for the company, both within PNG and globally.
However, for workers at Cargill’s palm oil operations at Higaturu Oil Palm (HOP) in Popondetta (the largest of the company’s three sites in PNG) the years were ones of difficulty and the ongoing denial of trade union rights. As Cargill departs PNG with a mountain of cash, the company leaves in its wake a legacy of thousands of hours of unpaid overtime, the refusal to properly transfer workers’ membership dues to their union, the refusal to engage in genuine negotiations (including over wages) and the refusal to provide proper information to the local union.
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