The Safi fur and wool factory in Herat, western Afghanistan, has more than 350 female and 300 male workers who earn only 300 Afghanis (US $6) for their 48-hour, six-day week of labor. The factory produces coats, jackets, hats and other garments for the European and North American markets. There are more than 1,500 women working in four such factories in Herat.

The air in the Safi processing plant is full of dust from dirty furs that workers tear to pieces with their bare hands. Workers have to separate fur from goats’ hair and weave sheep’s wool without protective gloves or masks. Ahmad Zia Rahmani, a lung and chest disease specialist at the Herat city hospital, says workers at fur and wool factories are vulnerable to virulent microbes which harm the respiratory system and cause chest infections.

Almost all workers in factories in Herat province have no written contract with their employers, particularly in the private sector. Workers and employers have only verbal agreements which do not cover medical and health insurance. In the past 12 months, seven women workers in the wool and fur factories in Herat have died, due to respiratory diseases and chest infections, said Mohammad Ibrahim Ghafori, an official at the Safi factory.

800 striking Asian Workers Still in Custody in Dubai

About 800 of the more than 4,000 foreign workers who participated in the massive strike on Oct. 23 in Dubai are still in custody, after thousands of strikers were released from jail, said the Dubai police chief. The workers, from two different companies, were detained a day after the protests, where police vehicles and public property were vandalized and stones were thrown, according to the authorities.

The two-day strike by thousands of South Asian construction workers was provoked by harsh working conditions, including low pay and rising prices in the Emirate. They also demanded better housing and improved services to construction sites. In staging their walkout, the workers ignored the threats of deportation. The Indian Ambassador to the UAE, Talmiz Ahmad, said most of the workers had no grievances and were glad to go back to work. “We got in touch with the company and they too do not have a problem of taking the workers back,” he said.

In June, the government offered (no questions asked) a free one-way plane ticket to illegal workers hoping to leave. They have since been swamped by 280,000 workers who, caught in a squeeze between a rising cost of living and low wages, were ready to go home. A booming economy in India also means that many Indian workers no longer need to travel to Dubai and the Gulf for jobs, analysts say.

A Dispute over Light Bulbs Hits Irish Hospitals

A controversy over who can change electric light bulbs at an Irish hospital has escalated into a jurisdictional dispute, resulting in the suspension of electricians over a work-to-rule policy. Electricians in the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU), who work in the health service sector, have been suspended because they refused to allow “non-qualified electricians” to change light bulbs at Cork University Hospital.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) which runs Ireland’s health services, says that a work-to-rule tactic, from Oct. 31, means that union members are refusing to carry beepers or answer pagers and mobile phones. They are also failing to complete any paperwork, and are ignoring any written instructions, only accepting verbal orders. Twenty staff members have been taken off the hospital payroll.

Owen Wills, TEEU general secretary, said that the row was more complicated than one about light bulbs, which, he claimed, had been introduced for “spin” by the HSE. The dispute covers pay, the use of outside contractors, and on-call and out-of-hours emergency cover, a “protocol for which had yet to be agreed to,” he added.

WTO Dusts off Hidden Collection of Workers’ Art

Works of art with a powerful social message, donated by trade unions in the first half of the 20th century, will be displayed at the World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters after being deliberately hidden for the past 30 years. Paintings and pottery representing the school of socialist realism predominant in those decades in left-wing intellectual circles around the world, and particularly in the Soviet Union, were covered up when the recipient of the art works, the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva, ceded its building to the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT). The WTO succeeded the GATT in 1994.

When proletarian art was no longer fashionable or in favor, it was hidden behind mirrors or layers of plaster, The artworks were covered up because “they addressed the issues of work, social justice, justice in the workplace, and the socialist realism of the 1930s,” said Victor do Prado, the deputy chief of staff at the WTO.

“They are extremely beautiful works of art and some are worth millions of dollars, like a painting by a U.S. artist, exalting the power of the working class in the United States,” do Prado said. There has been no announcement as to when the art collection will be ready for public viewing.

Court Makes It Harder for UK Businessmen to Shut Factory Gates

Companies will find it more difficult to lay off staff in Britain after a landmark court decision Nov. 1 that firms cannot suddenly close their workplaces. Until that date, employers could decide unilaterally that a factory or office was uneconomic and dismiss the entire workforce with only a few weeks of redundancy notice. However, a key legal decision involving U.K. Coal, the country’s biggest coalmining company, has brought Britain closer to continental Europe’s more employee-friendly regulations.

All British employers have to give their staff at least 90 days’ notice of any intention to close down a place of work that employs 100 or more workers before the start of any normal redundancy period. That means that it would at least double the time required to close a plant to a minimum of six months.

The latest court ruling will force employers to enter detailed talks with union representatives to justify the business rationale for closing workplaces and sites. Legal experts fear that the changes may also result in more costly redundancy payoffs and the leaking of sensitive business information to competitors.

Sick Leave Protest in Thailand Wins Pact for Railway Workers

A mass walkout by railway workers in Thailand on Nov. 1 over the government’s privatization plans has led to an agreement following six hours of tripartite negotiation. Members of the State Railway Workers’ Union of Thailand‹from train drivers to technicians‹brought train services on the country’s three main routes to a standstill, following a “sick leave” protest. State workers in Thailand are barred from taking formal strike action.

After six hours of intense negotiations between union officials, railway executives and government representatives, the parties agreed to meet all union demands. The agreement includes the withdrawal of the amendment to the railway act and the revoking of the railway restructuring scheme. They also concurred that train drivers and other employees working in rail freight transport should be permanent workers and have the same conditions as other railway workers.

Mac Urata, ITF Inland Transport Section Secretary, commented: “We have seen so many cases of failed rail reform all over the world, where the workforce is reduced, unprofitable routes closed, safety standards compromised, and investments go missing in the profit-first regimes. We congratulate the union for bringing the government and management to a tripartite agreement and urge its full implementation.”

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