Russia's Ford Plant Shuts to Jan. 21; Workers Get Two-Thirds Pay

A Ford factory near St. Petersburg announced on Dec. 24 that it would shut down production until Jan. 21. In line with the Russian Labor Code, the company will be paying the workers two-thirds of their salaries. The company said it made the decision, which went into effect on Dec. 24, in connection with the January vacations, the ongoing financial crisis and the necessity to reduce production due to the expected drop in sales.

The plant has seen significant worker unrest in recent years, including a strike last year that lasted nearly a month. Some 1,000 employees halted production on Nov. 20, 3007, demanding a 30 percent raise. The strike ended when management agreed with the union to increase wages by 21 percent.

This year, workers have prepared 600 suits against the plant's management over what they say is 9 million rubles ($330,000) in night shift wage arrears. The plant's management filed a 4.5 million ruble ($164,000) suit to compensate for losses from the strike.

Israeli Manufacturers' Leader calls for four-Day Work Week

Shraga Brosh, president of the Israeli Manufacturers Association, will suggest to the Ministry of Finance to support a four-day work week, at least in some plants. He urged the move as a way to deal with the economic crisis. Brosh explained that his suggestion is not in lieu of another proposal where employers would place workers on unpaid vacation for three months, while the government pays their unemployment benefits.

Under another model, proposed by Eli Yaffe, chairman of the Metal and Electrical Industries Association, the government will bear the cost of paying the salary for the fifth day, when the employee is at home. "For some sectors of the economy, the unpaid vacation mechanism is preferable, but some facilities cannot allow themselves a break in production, For them, the four-day work week is a practical option," Brosh explained.

Brosh repeated his pessimistic outlook, according to which 65,000 workers will be laid off during 2009, but said that a shortened work week could reduce the number of layoffs by 70 percent.

Coca-Cola 'Abused Worker Rights' in China, Report States

Coca-Cola came under fire after a private investigation accused it of "serious infringement" of the rights of its dispatched workers in China. The charges against the company were contained in a 28-page report by seven university students after a month of participatory research.

The report, released on Dec. 21 in Beijing, stated: "These employees are involved in the most dangerous, intense and tiresome labor, work the longest hours, but receive the lowest wage and face arrears and even cutbacks in their pay," The students collected the information between July and August while working in Coca-Cola's bottlers in Guangzhou and Huiizhou, as well as the company's supplier in Shanghai and other facilities.

Dispatched workers are employed by agencies that send them to fill "temporary, supporting or replaceable positions," according to Clause 66 of the Labor Contract Law. The report concludes by demanding that the company apologize to the Chinese people and the dispatched workers. Copies of the report will be sent to the All China Federation of Trade Union (ACFTU) and Coca-Cola China.

14-Month Lockout Ends at Canadian Oil Refinery

Locked-out employees of the Petro-Canada oil refinery in east-end Montreal have voted 94.6 percent in favor of ending the 14-month labor dispute and returning to their jobs on Jan. 12. At a general meeting, 222 of the 260 members of Local 175 of the Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union followed the recommendations of their leaders and accepted the oil company's last offer for a new three-year contract retroactive to January 2007.

The contract gives the workers a 5 percent and a 4.5 percent raise for 2007 and this year, respectively, followed by another 4.5 pay boost in 2009. There are also $4,000 signing bonuses and payments for their 2008 holidays. Current salaries range between $60,000 and $82,000.

The workers, who had been locked-out since Nov. 17, 2007, had been seeking pay parity with their counterparts at the Edmonton refinery. Besides wages, the conflict also centered on health and safety issues, training and management's call for a six-year agreement instead of the accepted three-year contract.

Tunisian Government Launches Jobs Program for Young People

Under a new agreement signed Dec. 15 in Tunis, the Tunisian Labor Ministry will collaborate with the United Nations and other partners to improve the employment of youth in some of the country's more troubled regions. The project aims to boost youth employment, region by region, and by preparing prospective workers with training and job placement services. ,

The Labor Ministry will launch the three-year project in January 2009, with financial support in the form of a five million-dinar ($3,823,214) grant from the Spanish government and the cooperation of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and other agencies. The Tunisian government has promised to create one million jobs by 2016.

A study by the World Bank in 2007 showed that the number of unemployed graduates in Tunisia had doubled over the previous decade to about 330,000. Despite some progress, the government estimates the unemployment rate at 14 percent, a figure that includes an incasing number of university graduates.

Deaths In South AfrIcan Mines Fell 23 Percent in 2008

South African mine deaths fell 23 percent to 166 in 2008, compared to 221 in 2007, the Solidarity union said. South Africa, which has the world's deepest mines, has one of the highest rates of work-related deaths in the industrialized world. "If the lower death toll could be repeated in the next few years, South African mines would be able to compete with North American and Australian mines by 2013, when it comes to safety," said Solidarity spokesman, Jaco Keynhans.

Shoddy maintenance and poor technology to detect tremors are partly to blame, but human error - by executives, supervisors or miners - is the main cause of the fatalities in the world's No. 1 platinum producer and top gold exporter. South Africa's Parliament passed new mine safety laws last month that enforces strict penalties and makes mine executives criminally responsible for deaths.

Mine unions, that have called for higher penalties for companies, have asked workers at mines where there had been fatalities to boycott work for a day of mourning, for which they should be paid in full. Industry players, represented by the Chamber of Mines, have criticized the new laws as being too punitive, saying they would drive away managers to other parts of the world where regulations are less stringent.

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