Indian ‘Guest Workers’ Conduct Hunger Strike in Washington

A group of about 25 Indian “guest workers” launched a hunger strike outside the White House May 14, protesting the slave-like conditions they endured, working at the Signal International shipyards in Pascagoula, Miss. The workers each paid $20,000 to a recruiting agency for work in the United States, often selling their homes in India and taking out loans on the promise of substantial returns from the “American Dream.”

As many as 24 workers were crammed into a trailer and locked in at night, released only for work and for sporadic trips to Wal-Mart for necessities. The workers, who are on a hunger strike, say they speak for 550 co-workers who suffer similar abuses. They are not only putting pressure on Signal to end its involvement with labor trafficking, but to protest efforts to deport them. About 30 more signal workers are scheduled to join the hunger strike in two waves on May 21 and May 28.

The hunger strikers planned to demonstrate three days in front of the White House, three days at the foot of the Mahatma Ghandi statue in front of the Indian Embassy and five days at the Capitol. Jobs with Justice in Washington, the AFL-CIO and the Southern Poverty Law Center are all helping this struggle with petitions, legal advice and solidarity actions. Also, a class action lawsuit has been filed in behalf of the guest workers.

French Civil Servants and Teachers in 1-Day Strike against Job Cuts

Hundreds of thousands of French teachers and civil servants staged a one-day strike throughout the country May 22 to protest plans to cut jobs in the public sector. Union teachers said that at least 60 percent of the 740,000 teachers in France were on strike; the government put the figure at 34.4 percent. The powerful transport unions were scheduled to strike, which will probably halt train, airline and subway service across the country.

French President Nicolas Zarcozy has said he will stand firm in his plans to cut 22,000 civil service jobs this year, including more than 11,000 in education and an additional 35,000 next year. The government says it intends to accomplish the cuts by replacing only half of those who retire. But the unions see a direct threat to their influence, and students are worried about having fewer teachers and less opportunity for good jobs.

As much as 55 percent of the state budget goes to pay for civil service and state pensions. Zarkozy and his prime minister, Frsnçois Fillon, say they want to have a balanced budget by 2012. To achieve their goal, they need to slash the size of the nation’s pubic employees and their pensions and other benefits. The education minister, Xavier Darcos, said the protests, however large, would not change policy and did not answer the problems of French education today, which are expensive, overstaffed and falling class sizes. Zarkozy. lost his fight to eliminate the 35-hour workweek. Will he win in a showdown over education?

6,000 Iranian Workers March on 15th Day of Strike

Thousands of Haft Tapeh sugar cane workers marched again through the town of Shush, a day ahead of the sham trial of five of their colleagues on May 24, a trial that the workers are fighting to revoke. The townspeople have expressed their sympathy with the strikers and also joined in the march. The five workers were jailed for their leading role in the two-week strike.

During the march, the workers also shouted slogans for the payment of unpaid wages and the release of their co-workers. Meanwhile, workers around the country have expressed their support for the strike. The Free Union of Iranian Workers, workers of the Ahvaz Pipe Manufacturing Company and a group of workers from Iran Khodro Car Manufacturing Company issued statements to express their solidarity with the strikers and to condemn the impending trial against the five activists.

Romanian Workers Win Big Pay Raise with Help of 4-Country Network

After a series of two-hour strikes organized by their union, workers at the Romanian-based Tenaris Group, a company that produces seamless steel pipe, received substantial wage increases. Tenaris has plants in Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Italy, which became a network of solidarity in support of the Romanian workers’ wage campaign.

The wage package the union won ranged from 15 percent to 18 percent, with pay increases based on job classifications. The pay boosts establish the entry level at $390, with the average gross pay at $500. The union had demanded a 15 percent pay raise.

Tenaris Silcotub Zalau has 1,080 employee, including 833 manual workers. The union has 670 members.

Toyota to Pay Workers Overtime for ‘Kaizen’ Work

Prompted by a court ruling over a death from overwork, Toyota Motor Corp. will pay full overtime to its factory workers engaged in after hour “kaizen” activities, designed to improve efficiency and product quality, sources said. Japan’s top automaker decided on May 21 to regard kaizen as part of the workers’ job requirements and will start paying allowances on June 1 to cover all activities done after hours. Labor unions at the company have agreed to the new policy.

Toyota’s 40,000 factory workers in Japan are all engaged in kaizen, or continuous improvement, as a core part of the quality control (QC) activities. The company has about 5,000 QC circle groups, which typically consist of eight workers each. The QC activities started in 1964 for production-line workers to brainstorm for improvements. Some employees and their families have said the workers are effectively forced to engage in QC activities because the results and achievements from the activities are included in their evaluations.

Toyota’s decision to pay full overtime for kaizen came amid growing criticism against long work hours, leading to “Karosi,” or death from overwork. McDonald's (Japan) said it will pay overtime to about 2,000 employees it characterizes as managers who have been denied compensation for extra hours worked.

Shrine Workers May Keep Wearing Their Underwear

Employees counting donations at a popular Hindu shrine in southern India will no longer have to take off their underpants at work after the local human rights commission intervened. Police and temple authorities imposed the dress code at the Sabarimala hill shrine in Kerala five years ago after thefts were reported from the shrine’s strongroom.

Employees in the vault, all of whom were men, were made to work topless, wearing only a “dhoti”—a cotton wrap worn around the waist—with nothing underneath. But they found it degrading and their union complained to the Kerala State Human Rights Commission.

“The employees on duty are made to strip before an officer before leaving to ensure they do not carry anything in their underwear,” said Chavara Gopakumar, the union leader. “It is humiliating and an insult to human dignity.” The state’s human rights commission agreed. The shrine authorities said they would end the practice and have begun looking into electronic surveillance systems.

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