Mexican Government Prepares to Crush Electrical Workers Union

The Mexican Preventive Police (PFP) are preparing to occupy the facilities of the Central Light and Power Company in Mexico City in an attempt to break the militant Electrical Workers Union (SME). The union warns that the quasi-military occupation of the plants could come within a week. The PFP have been used in the last three years in attempts to break strikes of miners and steelworkers, as well as to attack popular social movements.

The government of Felipe Calderon, which is also the employer of the electric power company, has reduced the budget for the state-owned utility, and is also calling for a complete restructuring of the company, in a move to undermine the influence pf the union. There are rival factions within the union, but when it comes to fighting government attacks, incumbents and dissidents act in unity

The Mexican Electrical Workers Union has a long history as a rarity in the Mexican labor movement. It is a union that is both independent and democratic. Historically, union elections have often been contested; rival factions argue out their differences within the union, then later, they come together to fight the company and the government that stands behind it.

Egyptian Telephone Workers Stage Sit-in

Some 1,200 employees of the state-run Egyptian Telephone Company staged a sit-in recently in the Maasara region, south of Cairo. Disgruntled workers complained hey had not received monthly salaries for September, Eid el-Fit holiday, bonus or promised annual salary increases.

Salah Heikal, labor syndicate president, called on top government officials to intervene to resolve the impasse. The Egyptian Telephone Company is owned by private investors (70 percent), the Egyptian Telecommunications Company (10 percent) and the National Bank of Egypt (10 percent). The remaining 10 percent is owned by the syndicate (union).

According to the syndicate, private investors hope to liquidate the firm’s assets and lay off redundant workers in order to pay for company premises that extend over 14 acres of Nile-side land.

Chile’s Copper Workers Vote to Strike at Spence Mine

Union miners at Chile’s mid-tier Spence copper mine voted to strike on Sept. 30, rejecting BHP Billion’s collective contract offer and setting a precedent for key labor negations at the world’s top producer, Daniel Ibacache, the union leader, said hat Spence workers will strike, probably on Oct. 8. He also noted that 522 of the 523 union members who cast ballots voted for the work stoppage.

Contract talks at Spence were seen as an opener for other collective negotiations at Chile’s key private mines, due in the coming months, including BHP Billion’s Escondido, the world’s largest, producing more than 5 percent of the world’s copper supply.

Under Chile’s labor laws, BHP Billion can still ask for an additional 5 days of government mediation to try to reach an agreement. Workers are demanding a 5.5 percent wage hike for a two-year contract, along with annual bonuses tied to copper prices.

Russian Carmaker Set to Lay off 27,000 Workers

Carmaker AvtoVAZ, faced with plunging car sales, is preparing to cut a quarter of its workforce, or 27,000 people, in the largest round of job cuts in a single Russian city. Details of the cuts will likely be made public on Oct. 7 and may test the ability of the Russian government to avoid unrest as sharp recession follows a decade of boom.

Aptiva, a Soviet-era behemoth that still produces clunky Lade models on outdated 1960’s equipment and accustomed to decades of state money injections to stay afloat, had a drop in sales of 44 percent last year. Russian Premier Vladimir Putin came to the car factory six months ago with a pledge of 1 billion in state support, but state money has been quickly spent in paying off debts.

Russian jobless rates have eased in recent months from their five-year high of 9.5 percent, but a new wave of unemployment is feared. Pyotr Zolotanyov, the leader of AvtoVAZ’s trade union, says that authorities have no other options than to meet the workers’ demands. “We will find instruments to force the employer to agree with our arguments. There are different strikes, including sit-ins,” he said.

Gibraltar’s Prison Officers Strike over ‘Longstanding Grievances’

Members of the Gibraltar Government Prison Service will be taking selective industrial action as of Monday, Oct.5, their union, Unite, announced. As a result, officers will not be wearing their uniforms as from next week, and this will be visible when they convey prisoners to and from the courts.

District Officer Charles Israeli said the situation of prison officers was “intolerable” and although they had tried to reach a negotiated solution to problems relating to staffing levels and other outstanding complaints with the Gibraltar government, this had proved “unsuccessful.” The union leader explained there were longstanding grievances: behind the decision to strike, but the current discontent related to the discontinuance by prison management of the “time off in lieu” arrangement which allows prison officers to work extra hours, which are accumulated as leave within five-week cycles.

At present, prison officers are working overtime hours because of the increase in prison population, but are not allowed to take advantage of “TOIL.” A Unite spokesman said that the union was still open to “meaningful negotiations" with the government.

Why Are so Many France Telecom Workers Dying?

France Telecom has been rocked by the suicides of 24 of its employees since the beginning of last year, which union leaders blame on harsh management practices and restructuring. In response, Didier Lombard, chief executive, has suspended staff reassignments within the company until the end of October and promised a complete review of working conditions in conjunction with unions.

The crisis at Telecom and the ensuing political and media furor have raised questions about whether the company will be able to implement its plan to cut costs by1.7 billion euros ($2.5 billion). Oervais Pellisier, Telecom’s chief financial officer, conceded that the suicides could have an impact on company’s outlook, saying: “If we are not going to be able to deal with the issue in he next few weeks, it is going to hurt our bottom line.”

France Telecom, privatized since 1998, has 100,000 employees in France, 65 percent of whom have civil service status. The company eliminated 16,000 jobs over three years in a restructuring program that came to an end in 2008. It is relying on a net voluntary job loss of 2,000 this year.

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