It is the 12th time since 1932 that the Thai ruling elite has used the military to suppress popular discontent against the inequality and corruption of Thai society This latest coup follows the one in 2006, the mass shooting of demonstrators in 2010 and is a part the ongoing divisions […]
Monthly Archives: May 2014
31 posts
This week saw the imposition of martial law and then the establishment of a fully-fledged military coup headed by army general Prayuth Chan-ocha. This coup follows on from months of political instability and a deadlock between different factions of the Thai ruling elite. The objective of this military coup is […]
Tens, if not hundreds of people, are believed to have been killed when a major apartment block collapsed in the capital Pyongyang due to substandard construction. Uncertainty also surrounds whether the building had been recently completed or was still under construction. The significance of this collapse was highlighted only some […]
With the burial of the final dead miners, attention is now shifting to bring those responsible for this massacre to justice. While a number of people have been detained, and three arrested, many workers, given the government’s record, are very sceptical that a government-run inquiry will produce the truth. Workers […]
Earlier this month, 24 Filipino workers were sacked by NXP Semiconductors. These workers were all rank and file delegates who made up the executive of the NXP in-house union. They were involved in negotiations over wage increases and permanency status for workers. NXP is a global electronics company that operates […]
The carnage of workers at shipbreaking yards in South Asia is continuing with at least 15 workers being killed and many others injured. In the latest incidents, two workers died at Alang ship-breaking yard in Bhavnagar, India when steel plates fell on them, while another four workers were killed when […]
As reported previously, Samsung has a terrible OHS record, and has historically been one of the most anti union companies in South Korea. Last week, Ho-seok YEOM, the chair of the local Samsung Electronics Service union committed suicide due to the unrelenting pressure that the company put him under. Yeom’s […]
Wu Guijun has been in jail for a year waiting to be tried for ‘gathering a crowd and disturbing the order of public transportation’. This was in relation to a demonstration held by workers at Diweixin, a furniture maker in May 2013. The workers were protesting against the company’s refusal […]
On Tuesday the 13th of May an explosion at the Soma coal mine unleashed an inferno that killed an estimated 302 workers. This fire happened at a mine that was privatised in 2005, it had ‘passed’ recent health and safety inspections, and the company, Soma Holding, recently announced that since […]
With the devastating effects of the decades-long war in Afghanistan, the situation for workers in this country remains terrible. Just the day before international workers day, May 1st, an explosion in a coal mine in Samangan province left at least 20 workers dead. This is not the first of such […]