Han Sang gun, the president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) has received worldwide support for defending workers’ rights in South Korea. The South Korean government is trying to crush the workers’ movement by jailing Han, and a number of other labour activists, for many years. This is […]
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This coming week, the sacked workers at the Carlton & United Brewery (CUB) in Melbourne, are stepping up their fight against out-sourcing. They have been on a community protest since the company tried to restructure their jobs from permanent to temporary, with a massive pay cut. This coming Monday 4 […]
Another indiscriminate bombing in Istanbul has claimed many lives, this time at Ataturk airport. On 28 June, 41 people were killed and over 200 injured. Many of these were workers at the airport. Over the last 12 months, almost 300 people have been killed in bomb attacks in Turkey. Unions […]
The first week of July in Australia is National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance week (NAIDOC). Its origins stem from the 1920′s when Aboriginal groups started to campaign to increase awareness in the wider community of the status and treatment of Indigenous Australians. NAIDOC week is an opportunity to continue […]
Workers all around the world organise to increase their wages, fight for secure employment contracts, and achieve safe and healthy workplaces. They are opposed by companies who want workers to work harder, for longer, and for less so profits can be higher. Governments help companies by passing laws that criminalise […]
Earlier in June, Japanese union members held a demonstration outside the Central Minimum Wage Council to demand a substantial minimum wage rise. Workers are demanding that the minimum wage be increased by at least 25%. In an unrelated dispute, Filipino workers at a Toshiba plant in Tokyo’s Fuchu City who […]
Last week, a huge explosion rocked the western suburbs of Tehran, the capital city of Iran, when underground subway workers hit a gas pipeline. The explosion left a crater up to 50 metres deep. Two workers died as a result, but had the explosion occurred in a more populated area, there […]
Friday 24 June 2016 marked 100 days since 41-year-old Han Kwang-ho, committed suicide. Han was a union organiser at YooSung Entreprise, a Hyundai auto part supplier in South Korea. Han had endured five years of intimidation, repression and attacks by the company in retaliation for his trade union activities. On Friday, labour activists commemorated […]
In mid-June, 50 workers employed by Carlton United Brewery, part of the SABMiller group, the second largest brewer in the world, were fired. They were then told that they could reapply for their jobs with another company that would then sub-contract to CUB. Their new positions would be on individual […]
The Australian labour movement lost another stalwart feminist unionist this month, with the passing of comrade Lynn Beaton. Lynn is best known to her political activists in Melbourne Australia, and is fondly remembered as a political activist, author, community academic and trade union warrior. Vale Lynn Beaton.