New 'Super' Union Is Formed to Defend Workers on Global Scale

The first trans-Atlantic trade union will come into existence next month to enable international labor to act as a counterforce to the power of corporate globalization. It will be formed by a merger of the U.S.-based United Steel Workers (USW) and UNITE, which was formed about a year ago as an alliance between Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union. It brings together some three million manufacturing, transportation, energy and public sector workers in Britain, Ireland the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.

"There are really no American companies any longer," said Wayne Ranick, USW spokesman. The big companies that we think of as being American, "all of them are multinational," often with a presence overseas. "Right now, there is no countervailing force to global capital," Remick said. Since the mid-1990s, workers have for years reached across borders to advance their interests, collaborating with unions from every continent.

Many labor leaders see the new union as the beginning of a larger process of consolidation that eventually will include workers in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia. It could enable them to fight the exodus of jobs to countries with lower wages and worker protections.

Iraqi Government Removes Many Union Leaders from Oil Operations

More than a dozen activists have been moved, demoted or fired this month by the Iraqi government in the country's southern oil sector, causing strong protests from domestic and international union officials. Hassan Juma Awad, president of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, said that eight of the 11 people who were demoted or fired from the South Refinery Co. were union members, including several in important leadership posts.

Oil Minister Hassan al-Shahristani has launched a series of attacks against the union, which officially is not legal, because a Saddam Hussein-era law has not been overturned or replaced by the Iraqi Parliament, despite the 2006 constitution calling for such a move. However, the workers immediately formed a union after Saddam's overthrow, and attempts to break them have failed. Last year the oil minister sent letters to the state oil companies, telling them not to communicate or recognize the unions.

The unions have been one of the more vocal opposition groups in the debate over the draft oil law. They view it as giving insufficient support for the domestic industry and far too generous with Iraq's oil toward international companies. They are against the Oil Ministry's new plan to bring international oil; companies in for long-term development deals for Iraq's largest-producing oil fields.

Millions of Malaysian Workers Gain Free Health Checkup

The Social Security Organization (Socso) of Malaysia will provide a one-time free medical checkup for contributors aged 35 and above. Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr. Subramaniam, who made the announcement to its 5.1 million contributors on May 28, said Socso hoped to provide more benefits to them.

He also called on employers to notify Socso of injuries sustained by their workers so that the processing of compensation could be speeded up. "We have trained more than 900 government doctors to carry out examinations for workers seeking compensation for injuries. At the same time, our panel of doctors will help speed up rehabilitation of payments so they can return to work as soon as possible," Dr. Subramaniam said.

The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) and the M.alaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) welcomed the free medical checkup. MMA president Datuk Dr. Khoo Kah Lin said that older people may require not only more frequent checkups but more stringent ones, adding that checkups should be conducted when people are young so that abnormalities can be detected early.

German Dairy Workers Launch Nationwide Strike

Working members of the German Federal Dairy Farmers Association (BDM) went on a nationwide strike May 27 in protest against the pricing practices within the industry. The workers have expressed anger over the European's decisions to lower milk prices, and at the same time increase the overall production quota. The regulations were supposedly a response to the growing shortage of milk products.

Strikers are demanding a price of at least 43 cents per liter of milk, according to Romauld Schaber, the head of the BDM, which has about 33,000 members. Schaber explained that the drop of prices from 40 cents to between 28 and 34 cents was part of the cause of the milk shortage, as it had a significant effect on the German milk farmers.

There was reportedly no word on how long the strike is expected to last. Schaber had advised businesses to gather up on their milk supplies, so as not to be affected by any shortages the strike may cause. The BDM is the supplier of about 50 percent of Germany's entire milk supply.

Skorpion Zinc Lockout of Namibian, Miners Ends with Settlement

With the help of ICEM, a 20 million-member Global Union Federation, a settlement was reached May 31 between the Mineworkers' Union of Namibia (NUM) and Scorpion Zinc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of London-based Anglo-American Plc. The settlement ends a lockout by Skorpion management that started May 21 at the mining and smelting operation in the southern Karas region. The issue of overtime pay was resolved by the company agreeing to comply with a pending court case brought by MUN for overtime pay beyond nine hours per day.

The one-year agreement, which gives miners a 12 percent pay raise, will be presented jointly to the 600 miners on June 1 by MUN branch leaders and Skorpion management. The agreement will be backdated to April 1, 2008. The next day, the miners will return to work.

"We believed throughout that Scorpion must honor the Namibian labor code regarding payment of overtime for additional work," said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda "and we shared that belief with mining unions across the world."

Singapore Refuses to Grant Maids Mandatory Days Off

Singapore is maintaining its stand against legislating mandatory rest days for foreign domestic helpers, saying they were adequately protected by existing measures. Acting Manpoiwer Minister Gen Kim Yong told parliament his ministry currently requires employers of maids to be responsible for their well-being, including providing them with adequate rest. He said that employers who fail to comply with the requirement face a fine of up to 5,000 Singapore dollars ($3,670) o a six-month jail term or both.

Advocacy groups joined forces last month to initiate a campaign to provide foreign maids with rest days, citing a poll showing only about 50 percent of the 170,000 foreign domestic workers are given a day off. Some maids are made to work seven days a week during their two-year contract, going out only on errands or when bringing their wards to and from school.

Most of the city-states' maids come from impoverished villages in Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Their counterparts in Hong Kong are by law granted one day off every week and public holidays.

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