One Million in France Hit the Streets to Protest Economic Policies

More than one million people have taken part in nationwide demonstrations across France in protest at President Nicolas Sarkozy’s handling of the economic crisis. A march through Paris alone brought together more people than a similar protest in January which saw up to 300,000 take to the streets of the French capital. The protests have expressed the mounting anger of the population over job losses and factory closures.

To cushion the economic blow, as French unemployment soars past two million, unions have demanded that Sarkozy increase the minimum wage, raise taxes on the rich, and scrap plans to cut public sector jobs. “This is not just a day of protest,” said Francois Chereque, of the powerful CFDT union. “We have made hard proposals, and the government has to give us some serious answers.” Last month, Sarcozy agreed to a package of social benefits worth 2.6 billion euro ($3.5 billion) after a first day of mass protests brought a million people into the streets on Jan. 29.

Some 350,000 people are set to lose their jobs this year as unemployment surges past eight percent. There has been a furious outcry over the announcement of job cuts at oil giant Total, after it posted an all-time record profit. The employers’ federation has rejected a government suggestion that it put a cap on executive pay.

Nestle India Obtains Permanent Ban on Workers’ Freedom of Assembly

Nestle India filed injunctions simultaneously in four courts in three states, seeking a permanent ban on all union meetings, gatherings and rallies within 200 meters of its four factories in India that are unionized, with 1,350 members represented by the IUF-affiliated Federation of All India Nestle Employees.

The Nestle union is demanding the right to negotiate wages. Annual wage increases are unilaterally handed down by management every year. In recent years, the amount of the increase has been far less than the rate of inflation, resulting in the decline of real wages. In particular, dramatic food price inflation over the past two years has undercut workers’ earnings

When Nestle, the world’s largest food company, whose profits increased 29 percent in the past 12 months, offered only a 6 percent wage increase, the four unions affiliated to the Federation of Nestle Employees filed strike notices in preparation for a common day of action. If the company again refuses to bargain with the unions, relying on the permanent ban on an assembly of their workers, the Federation, with the support of the IUF, vows to escalate the campaign to defend trade union rights.

U.N. Chief Champions Sweatshop Development for Haiti

Ban Ki-moon, U.N.’s secretary-general, has made a thinly-veiled demand that the Haitian authorities adopt free trade zones for garment assembly operations as the main thrust of its development strategy. Such a strategy is completely at odds with the country’s progressive civil society organizations and the main bloc in the Chamber of Deputies.

In his recent visit to Haiti, Ban urged the government to take advantage of U.S. legislation giving garments assembled in Haiti duty-free and quota-free access to the U.S. market. He said the HOPE II legislation “provides a golden opportunity to bring in investors and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.” He wants the Haitian authorities to “work together with donors to undertake a targeted program to create export zones,” and to submit it to a donor’s conference on Haiti to be held in Washington, D.C. in mid-April.

The British solidarity organization, the Haiti Support Group (HSG), which has worked closely with progressive organizations in Haiti since 1992, is dismayed that the United Nations is throwing its weight behind a development strategy that has already been proposed, tried and found to have failed in Haiti. HSG’s Charles Arthur said: “We are appalled that, just at the moment when Haitian civil society is mobilizing to press the government to prioritize national agricultural production and environmental rehabilitation, Ban Ki-moon is, in effect, torpedoing the initiative.“

Full-Time Union Leaders Are Banned from Company Pay Role in Korea

A ban on paying wages to full-time union officials is expected to weaken Korea’s labor movement. Starting next year, employers will no longer have to pay wages to full-time union heads under the no-work, no-pay system. The Korean Labor Institute (KLI) said that once the law becomes effective, unions at small workplaces will have to dump their leaders because they will not be able to afford to pay their salaries.

The new rule is expected to shake the dovish Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) and to empower the hawkish Korean Federation of Trade Unions (KCTU). According to the Ministry of Labor, last year there were 10,583 full-time officials who received a total of 429 billion won ($290 million) in wages, mostly paid by companies at where they were present.

Under an agreement between the government, employers and labor unions, a union cannot have an average of more than 3.1 full-time leaders, but actually, they have 3.6 it was explained. At Hyundai Motor, one of the largest and most aggressive unions in the nation, there are 214 full-time union officials, far larger than the agreed upon 95.

Taiwan Bill, if Okayed, Protects Workers’ Right to Strike

It will be much easier for Taiwanese workers to strike if draft amendments to two labor laws, approved by the Council on Labor Affairs (CLA) are passed by the Executive Yuan and the legislature. Under the draft agreement, if half of a labor union’s members vote anonymously to strike, then workers can stage a strike without having to wait for the union to convene a meeting.

Also, workers in all fields will be allowed to strike, except for civil servants, teachers, servicemen or civilians under the Ministry of National Defense and its affiliated agencies, and workers in schools. The labor unions at public facilities, such as air, water and electricity and fuel suppliers and hospitals will only be able to strike if there are prior collective agreements on “necessary service provisions” to provide a minimum level of service during a strike.

CLA Vice Chairman Pan Shih-wei said that having the right to strike does not equate to going out on strike, and that the two measures were designed to get labor and management back to the negotiating table. The amendments would actually contribute to labor-management stability by establishing clear rules of the game, he contended.

Malaysia Pulls Visas for 55,000 Bangladeshi Workers

Home minister Syed Hamid Albar this week ordered the visas for 55,147 Bangladeshis, approved in 2007, to be canceled to stave off unemployment at home, which is expected to rise to 4.5 percent from 3.8 percent last year. All those workers are still in Bangladesh and were waiting to replace compatriots returning from Malaysia after their visas had expired.

Talat Mahmud Khan, labor counselor with the Bangladesh High Commission, said the workers would have worked on plantations and construction sites — jobs Malaysians shun because of the hard work and long hours. “This approval was given by the Malaysian government, and now all of a sudden, they stopped everything. I’m pretty much shocked about this.” He said many workers had paid in advance at least part of their recruiting fees, usually about $2,000.

The Malaysian Employers Federation and other groups contend that foreign workers, who make up a fifth of the country’s 11 million-member work force, are still needed. Malaysia froze the importation of new foreign workers in the manufacturing and service sectors in January,

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