Labor Groups Charge U.S. with Violating NAFTA Labor Standards

The 340,000-member National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), along with more than 40 other labor organizations in Canada, the United States and Mexico, will file a charge on April 30 against the U.S. under the North American Agreement for Labor Cooperation (NAALC), the labor side agreement to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The complaint charges that the state of North Carolina and the United States are violating NAALC by denying 650,000 public employees the right to engage in collective bargaining. The agreement requires the United States, Mexico and Canada to provide for “high labor standards” in their laws, and lists freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining as among the core principles.

Angina Laughinghouse, president of the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, said: “We are very pleased with the solidarity being extended to the North Carolina public employees by unions from across the three NAFTA countries across the globe. This shows that North Carolina’s continued denial of basic worker rights is an international disgrace. It’s an injustice and an embarrassment to this state that our elected officials must correct.”

Guinness Brewery May Face First Strike in 250 Years

Guinness employees start voting April 24 on industrial action, which could include an all-out strike at Dublin's St. James’s Gate Brewery for the first time in its 250-year history. The Guinness staff union (GSU), the largest trade union at the company, confirmed that the dispute is about severance terms for the laid-off workers.

A spokesman said union members were angry at the revision of layoff terms and the size of the reductions, which impact differently on different people. He noted that the changes have hit senior workers harder than young employees.

The balloting process is expected to take about three weeks, after which GSU executives will meet to consider members’ responses and decide what action to take. The changes hit senior workers much harder than younger workers. Fears have been expressed that a reorganization of the company could see the loss of 300 jobs, but this was called “speculation” and the “worst possible scenario.”

Venezuela Nationalizes Giant Steel Company

Venezuelan Vice President Ramón Carrizales closed a last-ditch meeting on April 9 between officials of the giant Sidor plant and representatives of the United Steel Industry Workers Union (SUTISS) with the announcement that Sidor would be nationalized. Sidor, state-owned for 33 years and debt-ridden, became the property of Techint, an Argentinean-Italian corporation sell-off by by the Rafael Caldera government in 1997. It employs 5,000 permanent employees and 9,000 non-unionized, outsourced contract workers.

The workers’ struggle gathered steam in January 2007 when President Hugo Chavèz proclaimed “nationalization of everything that was privatized.” Since then, nationalization has encompassed telecommunications, electricity and oil companies, and recently the cement industry.

SUTISS has demanded nationalization of the Sidor plant, along with increased wages and benefits and the incorporation of contract workers into the company’s permanent work force. Sidor owners escaped nationalization last year by agreeing to prioritize steel products for Venezuela’s domestic market.

French Airbus Workers Strike Against Restructuring Sale of Plants

Workers at Airbus went on strike in all four of the airplane manufacturer’s French factories on April 24 in protest against plans to sell two sites under a much-contested restructuring plan. Unions are demanding that French workers be given equal treatment as their German counterparts after Airbus decided to create a holding company for the three plants there instead of selling them off.

Hundreds of workers rallied outside factories in Toulouse, Nantes, Saint-Nazaire and Meaulte, distributing leaflets and setting up roadblocks. Jean-Francois Knepper, an official of the trade union, FO, at Airbus France, said; “We are demanding that Saint-Nazaire and Meaulte, remain within Airbus. There is no reason that French industry, which founded the European aeronautics industry, should be dismantled.”

Trade unions had called for a four-hour strike in all Airbus factories in France, but workers in Meaulte decided to stage a protest over two days. The Airbus plan, unveiled last year, calls for eliminating 10,000 jobs to achieve cost savings of five billion euros ($6.9 billion) with its massive restructuring programs.

COSATU Mobilizes Against ‘Illegal Zimbabwe Regime’

South Africa’s powerful labor movement is meeting with church and civic groups to organize massive protests to demand the removal of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s government from power, as pressure builds on President Thabo Mbeki to act.

Mbeki is the Southern African Development Community mediator in Zimbabwe, but has been accused of failing to apply pressure on Mugabe to allow the release of the results of the March 29 election and to remove all impediments to the democratic process. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) issued a statement that said it regarded Mugabe’s government as “illegitimate,” after it lost the election to the opposition. The union is taking a leading role in the campaign to remove the “Mugabe dictatorship.”

Church leaders in Zimbabwe called on African leaders and the United Nations to intervene to stop the country from sliding into another killing field. In a joint statement, they said: "We warn the world that if nothing is done to help the people of Zimbabwe from their predicament, we shall soon be witnessing genocide similar to that experienced in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and other hot spots in Africa and elsewhere.”

More Danish Unions Join Strike as Negotiations Remain Deadlocked

An additional 12,000 Danish nurses and public sector workers plan to walk off the job next week, joining 36,000 people who are already on strike over a wage dispute that one union official described as deadlocked. Employers set a meeting for April 25 to discuss a lockout, but neither side saw much chance of a quick resolution.

The FOA, which has 211,000 members and the 75,000-member nurses’ union, DSR, are demanding a 15 percent wage increase over three years. The three-year labor agreement that covers union workers expires at the end of April. Under Danish law, these workers can strike only if contract negotiations fail.

“I think this could go on to last eight weeks or more,” said Dennis Kristensen, head of FOA, one of the largest Danish unions. "Right now there is complete silence between the parties.” With an estimated 63,000 activities and events cancelled due to the strike, the Danish association of local governments is threatening to lock out staff and drain the union’s strike funds to end the stoppage.

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