"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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