website of the IUF in Asia/Pacific – uniting food, farm and hotel workers
On 21st August workers at the Kurumba Resort in Maldives began a strike (news report below). At the heart of the dispute were issues which are common throughout the industry which dominates the economy: low wages, poor living conditions and facilities, unfair distribution of the service charge, refusal to negotiate by managements and overwork. The strike was supported by almost all the workers at the resort.
On 24th August the strike ended following interventions by police and Maldives Defense Forces (MDF). The response of the owners and management of the resort has been harsh: the resort was closed and police arrested 19 workers who had simply attempted to exercise their basic rights to protest following the failure of the management to respond to legitimate demands from workers. The arrested workers were held in the high security Dhoonidhoo prison; yet there are no reports of any violence during the strike or damage to the resort.
In London, on August 5th, representatives from the IUF-affiliated UNITE, the UK Trades Union Congress (TUC), War on Want and IUF Asia/Pacific handed out leaflets and protested in front of the London Crowne Plaza St James and Taj Residences.
These properties are owned by the Tata Group and are located in one of the most expensive parts of London. One night at Tata’s London Crowne Plaza is £230, the equivalent of around 10 months’ wages for a tea worker at Nowera Nuddy.
The IUF-affiliated National Union of Workers (NUW) held a protest on 5 August 2010 outside the Australian headquarters of Tetley, the company owned by Tata Global Beverages (formerly Tata Tea). Tata Global Beverages is the company which controls Amalgamated Plantations Limited, whose management has engaged in the brutal collective punishment and intimidation of workers at the Nowera Nuddy tea plantation in West Bengal, India. The NUW published the following story.
NUW dunks Tetley Tea
The NUW staged a demonstration this morning at Tetley Tea, in opposition to the company’s continued relationship with a tea supplier who mistreats workers in India. The demonstration was part of a global campaign organised by the IUF.
Twelve workers from a tea plantation in West Bengal India, face criminal charges and lengthy prison sentences after protesting against the mistreatment of an eight-months pregnant co-worker who collapsed at work after she was refused maternity leave.
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.
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).
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).
Send Tata a protest message now!
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?
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.
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.
IUF Global Newswire LabourStart
