New Zealand Unveils $50 million Fund for Laid-Off Workers

A $50 million fund has been created by the New Zealand labor government that would give a 13-week cash benefit to workers who have been laid off during the current global economic crisis. These laid-off workers would receive their unemployment benefits immediately, regardless of their income or assets, Prime Minister Helen Clark told workers at an engineering plant in Kalapol.

The waiting period for the assistance package to laid-off workers would be reduced to one or two weeks. And eligible people would not be subjected to a means test. The payment will apply only to those who have lost their jobs through layoffs, and not to those who are fired or choose to quit their jobs.

The prime minister said that the package would cost no more than $50 million a year and would be funded from existing government baselines.

Machinists Union Reaches Tentative Deal with Boeing

After 52 days on strike, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) reached a tentative agreement with the Boeing Company on Oct. 30 that will provide job security for its members and limit the amount of work that outside vendors can perform in the workplace.

The agreement, affecting Boeing’s nearly 27,000 employees, was hammered out over a five-day period with the assistance of federal mediators and participation at the bargaining table by IAM International; President Tom Buffenbarger and General Vice President Rick Michalski. Job security and the use of suppliers were key issues in the strike that began on Sept. 6, 2008. Among other issues reached in the latest round of bargaining were wage rates, health care benefits, pension improvements and work rules.

Full details of the 4-year contract will be withheld until they can be compiled and distributed to IAM members at all Boeing facilities in Kansas, Oregon, Washington and California. The tentative agreement has the unanimous endorsement of the IAM negotiating committee. It will be presented to the members for a ratification vote in 3 to 5 days. A simple majority is required to ratify the agreement.

Puerto Rico’s Teachers Union Rebuffs SEIU’s Raid Tactics

Although it had been declared illegal and stripped of its basic rights, the Puerto Rico Teachers Union (FMPR) still retains the fervent loyalty of the island’s teachers. It proved this convincingly when it defeated an attempt by Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, to replace EMPR with a puppet union (SPM) that he and Puerto Rico’s governor, Acevedo Vila, could control. Vila is awaiting trial on federal corruption charges.

The Stern-backed SPM suffered a major defeat in an election where the teachers voted 18,123 to 14,675 against joining it, even though the EMPR was denied a place on the ballot. SEIU is reported to have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars to get rid of the EMPR and its leaders. EMPR has presented evidence to the labor relations commission that it still received voluntary financial support from 12,000 members who have continued to pay union dues, even though automatic deductions from teachers; paychecks were discontinued,

While still deprived of the full collective bargaining rights it had before last winter’s strike, EMPR retains a strong shop steward structure, the ability to represent members and mobilize around educational policy issues. It’s worth noting that SEIU members in New York, California and elsewhere have raised money to keep EMPR afloat.

Workers in Iran Petrochemical Plant Strike over Pay Cuts

All 400 employees of a petrochemical plant in Iran walked off the job on Oct. 27 over pay cuts in the city of Lordegan. They were also protesting management’s failure to sign a long-term contract after a 45-day temporary deal. The workers reacted angrily when, after 65 days, the management still refused to sign the new contract. Workers at two nearby sister petrochemical companies are also on strike with the same problems.

Companies, with the government’s backing, rarely hire workers on a permanent basis to escape paying for workers’ health insurance and other benefits. On Oct. 21, Mohammad Jerome, the regime’s Labor Minister, in a rare admission, said: “More than 250,000 workers have lost their jobs in the first six months of the Iranian Persian calendar year starting March 22,” the state-owned news agency ILNA reported.

Last year there were hundreds of strikes in various Iranian cities in sugar cane, tire, mining, textile, telecommunications, public employees and other sectors.

2.7 Million Chinese Workers Expected to Lose Their Jobs

At least 2.7 million factory workers in southern China could lose their jobs as the global economic crisis curtails demand for electronics, toys and clothes, according to industry estimates. The region has seen massive export-driven expansion in recent years by supplying the world with cheap consumer goods, but rising production costs and falling U.S. and European demand have marked a swift end to the boom.

Now, 9,000 of the 4 5,000 factories in the cities of Guangzhou, Don guan and Shenzhen are expected to close before the Chinese New Year in late January, according to estimates of the Dongguan City of Enterprises with Foreign Investment. By then, the association expects overseas demand for products from the three manufacturing hubs to shrink by 30 percent, as the damaging effects of the U.S. housing market collapse and credit crunch filter down to Chinese workers.

The growth of companies in Chins has been spectacular in recent decades, with some firms growing by as much as 40 percent a year Take the example of Harry To, who started a metal business from a small room in Hong Kong in 1975. Today, Harry To employs 8,500 workers in 11 factories in China and Europe. With banks being so tight on their lending policies, bringing down a factory overnight has become easy, says To. All of his expansion plans have had to be put on hold.

French Port Unions and Employers Sign Reform Accord

An agreement to open the way for the privatization of seven French ports has been signed by the unions and employers. The deal will see private companies take over dockside unloading operations previously run by the state. The agreement, required in a law on port reform passed by parliament in July, provoked weeks of protests and work stoppages by port workers earlier this year.

The CGT union said in a statement that workers were “fiercely opposed” to deregulating work at the ports, but it added that a deal was essential for the ports’ strategic future. The new reform would end the state monopoly on infrastructure operation at the ports within two years, while guaranteeing jobs for workers transferred to private sector operators.

The seven ports that will be privatized are Marseilles, Dunkirk, Le Havre, Rouen, La Rochelle, Nantes-Saint-Nazaire and Bordeaux.

Check our web site: http://www.laboreducator.org