The global credit crunch is a crisis for free market capitalism which will hit ordinary workers hardest, international unions said Jan. 24, as they called for a huge increase in government regulation of financial markets. “A toxic cloud is moving from Wall Street to Main Street and will impact on the jobs, wages and pensions of ordinary working people,” said Phil Jennings, general secretary of the UNI global union.

Sharon Burrow, head of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, said it was ironic that the U.S. sub-prime mortgage crisis began because the poorest people in the United States were unable to pay their mortgages; the current crisis could result in a lot more people losing their homes. “The drive for more and more profits by banks undermined the system.,” she added.

Gus Ryder, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, said the ICTU was pleased that the U.S. Federal Reserve had slashed interest rates this week, but said that was only a “stop-gap” measure. “The tendency of governments to hand responsibility to global companies has been a failure.”

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France’s Civil Servants in New Protest Against Job Cuts

Tens of thousands of civil servants demonstrated around France to protest job cuts and demonstrate for higher salaries on Jan. 24 in what the government dismissed as a “labor union ritual.” Teachers, hospital workers, firemen and postal workers answered the call of seven of eight public servants’ unions to strike and march.. They jammed streets in Paris, Lyons, Toulouse, Bordeaux and the southern port of Marseille, where labor leaders said 30,000 people turned out, far higher than the police estimate of 7,000.

Unions claimed that almost 40,000 marched in eastern Paris, but the police put the figure at 17,000. After three strikes by transport sector workers, the Jan. 24 walkout was a reply to December negotiations, when the government rejected union demands for an across-the-board salary increase.

“Today, the objective is purchasing power and we’re addressing the employers,” said Francois Chereque, leader of the moderate CFDT union. He asked the government to open salary negotiations, complaining that President Nicolas Sarkozy had failed to deliver better buying power to the French, a common criticism blamed for Sarkozy’s drop in popularity to below 50 percent, according to recent polls.

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Brazil’s DuPont Strikers Are Pledged Support by U.S. Steel Union

The 117 DuPont workers, who held a hunger strike in Camaçari, Brazil last week, gained the support of the United Steel Workers (USWA) the largest industrial trade union in North America. The Brazilian union had offered to negotiate a fair profit-sharing agreement for 2007 on behalf of its members, but DuPont rejected all offers.

The company, which produces industrial rubber and polymers, offered a profit-sharing plan which the workers turned down as laughable, and decided to take strike action. The USWA coordinates a global network of trade unions at DuPont’s facilities and is challenging the corporations “undeserved” reputation for worker safety.

“We’ve seen these same tactics used on our members,” said Leo Gerard, USWA president. “These situations remind us even more of the need for international solidarity and for greater cooperation between unions. It is why the USWA and the other unions in the Global DuPont Network are formally committed to total cooperation through a strategic alliance when confronting issues with common employers,” Gerard said..

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British Police Stage a Demonstration over Delayed Pay Rise

Thousands of police officers staged a rare mass rally in central London on Jan. 23 in a protest over pay. Some 20,000 officers across the country joined the demonstration over a decision by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to delay a 2.5 percent pay rise, said the Police Federation that represents officers. Police officers are not allowed to strike.

The protesting police claim that, because a promised 2.5 percent was backdated only to December instead of last September, it effectively amounts to only a 1.9 percent increase. Police Federation head Jan Berry was expected to present a petition to Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Street office and hold talks with Smith.

Brown defended the pay decision during his weekly question session in Parliament. “I would have liked to give the police more,” the prime minister said. “But if pay rises are wiped out by ever-rising inflation, then no benefit goes to the police or anybody who receives these benefits.”

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Strikes Spreading in Ho Chi Minh City

Thousands of workers at four factories in Ho Chi Minh City went on strike, Jan. 24, joining 8,000 shoe factory workers who staged a walkout early this week, as inflation concerns sparked labor unrest in Vietnam’s largest city. The struck companies include a Japanese-owned sewing machine manufacturing plant with 1,400 workers and an electronic parts company with 1,000 people. On Jan.23, workers at the Chi Hung joint venture footwear company struck for higher pay and better factory-provided lunches.

Salaries at the Chi Hung factory average 845,000 Vietnamese dong (a bit over 52 dollars) a month, said Phan Van Ha, an official at the provincial labor union. He said workers complain this is not enough to live on. Inflation in Vietnam ran at over 10 percent in 2007, with food prices rising even faster, hitting low-income factory workers hard.

The Vietnam General Confederation of Labourers, the country’s state-run trade union, says there were 541 strikes nationwide last year, involving 350,000 workers. Most of the strikes occurred in foreign-invested enterprises.

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World’s Largest Cell Phone Maker to Close German Factory

Thousands of people marched through this West German city of Bochum on Jan. 22 to protest the decision of Nokia Corp., the world’s largest cell phone maker, to close one of its factories. On the same day, Nokia announced the launch of two new handsets for emerging markets, where it said an increasing number of people share handsets‹or want to.

The plant closure, which will likely result in the loss of 2,300 jobs, was announced last week and has infuriated German unions, as well as politicians. Police estimated 15,000 people took part in the demonstration in Bochum, in the industrial Ruhr region.

The head of Germany’s IG Metall industrial union, Berthold Huber, told protesters that Nokia managers should reverse their decision “if they have a shred of decency.” Nokia has cited the German location’s lack of competitiveness as the main reason for closing the plant and said labor costs in Bochum were nearly 10 times those at a Nokia plant in Romania.

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