After workers at STALCO Company formed a union, the company terminated 12 Office Bearers of the union and locked workers out of the factory.
On the 18th of August, the All Pakistan Trade Union Federation held a protest demonstrating against the office bearers' terminations, and for the rights of workers to form a trade union.
To send solidarity messages to the STALCO workers via the All Pakistan Trade Union Federation, click here

Following a court appeal, Mr. Han Sang-kyun, the former Chairman of the Ssangyong Motor Company Union (KMWU), has had his prison sentence reduced from 4 years to 3 years.
In the same court case, 21 other trade unionists were freed but with severe restrictions on future union activities.
Mr Kwon Sun-man, a KMWU vice president, will be released in October while Mr. Kim Hyuk, a KMWU executive member, is still serving a 3 year sentence.
The campaign to free them continues
See background information
Download solidarity leaflet

Four maintenance workers have died in Colombia's  largest coal mine this month. They were members of the ICEM affiliated trade union which represent 3,500 workers.   

Previous ICEM organising efforts have encountered harrassment and persecutuion by contractors, yet this latest  fatality of 4 workers highlights the need for free trade unions in order to end unsafe working conditions.

Renewing Cry for Unionisation

An international International Union of Food (IUF) workers fact-finding team has been denied access to an Assam plantation in north east India. The IUF team was requested by trade unions in Assam to investigate the recent deaths of three workers.

The Powai estate is one of the world's largest tea-processing factories. It employs some 1,800 permanent and 1,200 temporary workers.
 

Up to 20,000 garment workers went on strike in Cambodia this month. The strike was organised by the Coalition of Cambodian Apparels Union. The workers were demanding a bigger increase in the minimum wage than the 9% offered by the Government.

They are seeking for the minimum wage to be set at US $93 a month, instead of the present US $61 a month.

The Cambodian garment industry employs about 350,000 workers, most of which are women.