The World of Labor - October 17, 2009



	THE WORLD OF LABOR — October 17, 2009 By Harry Kelber Puerto Rico Braces for ‘People’s Strike’ About 200,000 people are expected to answer the call by Puerto Rican labor unions for a “people’s strike” on Oct. 17 to protest Gov. Luis Fortuño’s plan to cut 30,000 jobs and end collective bargaining rights. Participants in the one-day strike in San Juan, the island’s capital, will march to Plaza las Americas, a mall whose 300 stores, restaurants and banks mark it the Caribbean’s largest. On their web site (todopuertorico.org), strike organizers said the government is “insisting on promoting a model of development based on privatization, government job cuts, the elimination of basic public services, the destruction of our cultural identity, the exclusion of small businesses … and contempt for the environment and citizen participation in decision-making.” Puerto Rico’s unemployment rate exceeds 15 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka sent a letter of support to the Puerto Rican workers, stating “We are completely committed to bringing the full-force of the AFL-CIO to fighting for the rights and well-being of our affiliated unions. their members and the people of Puerto Rico." Rallies expressing solidarity with Puerto Rican workers were held in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and other cities. Haitian Garment Workers Can’t Climb out of Poverty Wages Twenty-five years ago, Haiti produced almost all of the world’s baseballs. Women would stand in the factories all day, hand-stitching the cowhide, 108 stitches a ball. It cost about 9 cents to produce a baseball, and woman could stitch three dozen a day. They earned $3 a day, under the ruthless Devalier dictatorship. Twenty-five years have passed, and not much has changed for the men and women on the production line. Well, it’s garments, not baseballs. They still earn about $3 a day—enough to buy a bottle of milk and a loaf of bread in the local supermarket. Today, breakfast, lunch, dinner and public transportation consume what the average T-shirt maker earns in a 10-hour workday. The Haitian government recently vetoed legislation that would raise the minimum wage to 200 gourdes a day ($5.32). It said that a rise in the minimum wage would mean massive unemployment. It cited the case of the Dominican Republic, where a raise to a $5 a day minimum had cost the loss of 110,000 jobs in one year. But Haiti is experiencing s “brain drain.” Four out of five university graduates are leaving the country to find jobs in the United States, Canada or elsewhere. Singapore Unions Push to End Pay Cuts at Age 60 Unions want to put an end to the widespread practice of Singapore companies cutting the pay of workers when they reach the age of 60. More than 80 percent of the companies do it, and often, they cut the maximum 10 percent allowed under the law. Labor chief Lim Swee Say, in objecting to the practice, said, “We are not declaring war, but something ought to be done.” The labor official says it is time to review the practice, because most companies have moved away from a seniority-based wage system where salaries are determined more by length of service than performance. The practice unfairly penalizes older workers who have to do the same work at less pay. The National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) has concluded a three-day conference to chart its future directions. There was general agreement that the practice of reducing a worker’s wages at 60 should be stopped. Most companies now pay according to performance not age, and older workers can earn higher salaries because they may be more productive than younger ones. Burmese Trafficking Victims Freed from Thai Vessels Eighteen Burmese nationals who were sold as fishermen to two Thai captains have been released this week, thanks to a joint operation in Thailand. Their release came after a raid on the boats and brokers’ homes in the Thai fishing town of Samisen in Satanic Province. The raid was part of a joint operation involving the ITF-affiliated Seafarers’ union of Burma (SUB), which operates in exile in Thailand), the Labor Rights Promotion Network and the Thai Department of Special Investigation. Job brokers inside Burma had promised the victims they would be assigned factory jobs in Thailand. Instead, they were sold as fishermen to the captains of two Thai vessels. Once on board the vessels, they were told they would have to sacrifice their wages to pay off the trafficking costs, amounting to 22,000 baht $650US). Aung Thu Ya, the Burmese seafarers’ president, believes the government in Burma was responsible for the trafficking problem, because fishermen in the past had been arrested for seeking help from trade unions and had had their seafarers’ licenses revoked, when they returned to Burma. Petrobras Workers Strike over Pay impasse Petroleum Brazilieiro SA workers, representing about one-fourth of the state-controlled oil producers refinery employees, went on strike Oct. 15, after failing to reach an agreement on a pay increase, a union official said. About 10,000 workers began striking at several units throughout Brazil, said Edson Munhoz, legal director at the Rio de Janeiro-based Sindipetro union. Munhoz said workers are seeking a 16 percent increase in wages, plus inflation losses, while Petrobras is offering a 4.9 percent increase. He said he expects negotiations to restart this week. Workers at refineries and oil platforms will arrive two hours later for their shifts, he said. “We don’t intend to disrupt production now, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t disrupt it later in case we don’t reached an agreement,” the union official said. Israelis Protest Cabinet’s Decision to Deport Kids of Migrant Workers Hundreds of people turned out in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Oct/ 14 to protest the cabinet’s decision to deport 1,200 children of foreign workers and their parents next summer. Social welfare organizations held a vigil in front of the Knesset as the legislators inside discussed the deportations. Another vigil was held at the same time across from the Interior Ministry building in Tel Aviv. Rotem Ilan of the Israeli Children organization that organized the protests, said: “As long as the deportation is on the agenda, no matter the date, we’ll keep on working.” He added: “Those kids can’t be living on hold, in permanent anxiety. Until the day arrives on which those 1,200 children, who are 100 percent Israelis, get a legal status, we won’t stop.” Keep informed about workers and their unions in other countries by reading our weekly "The World of Labor” at our web site.

THE WORLD OF LABOR — October 17, 2009

By Harry Kelber

Puerto Rico Braces for ‘People’s Strike’

About 200,000 people are expected to answer the call by Puerto Rican labor unions for a “people’s strike” on Oct. 17 to protest Gov. Luis Fortuño’s plan to cut 30,000 jobs and end collective bargaining rights. Participants in the one-day strike in San Juan, the island’s capital, will march to Plaza las Americas, a mall whose 300 stores, restaurants and banks mark it the Caribbean’s largest.

On their web site (todopuertorico.org), strike organizers said the government is “insisting on promoting a model of development based on privatization, government job cuts, the elimination of basic public services, the destruction of our cultural identity, the exclusion of small businesses … and contempt for the environment and citizen participation in decision-making.” Puerto Rico’s unemployment rate exceeds 15 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka sent a letter of support to the Puerto Rican workers, stating “We are completely committed to bringing the full-force of the AFL-CIO to fighting for the rights and well-being of our affiliated unions. their members and the people of Puerto Rico." Rallies expressing solidarity with Puerto Rican workers were held in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and other cities.

Haitian Garment Workers Can’t Climb out of Poverty Wages

Twenty-five years ago, Haiti produced almost all of the world’s baseballs. Women would stand in the factories all day, hand-stitching the cowhide, 108 stitches a ball. It cost about 9 cents to produce a baseball, and woman could stitch three dozen a day. They earned $3 a day, under the ruthless Devalier dictatorship.

Twenty-five years have passed, and not much has changed for the men and women on the production line. Well, it’s garments, not baseballs. They still earn about $3 a day—enough to buy a bottle of milk and a loaf of bread in the local supermarket. Today, breakfast, lunch, dinner and public transportation consume what the average T-shirt maker earns in a 10-hour workday.

The Haitian government recently vetoed legislation that would raise the minimum wage to 200 gourdes a day ($5.32). It said that a rise in the minimum wage would mean massive unemployment. It cited the case of the Dominican Republic, where a raise to a $5 a day minimum had cost the loss of 110,000 jobs in one year. But Haiti is experiencing s “brain drain.” Four out of five university graduates are leaving the country to find jobs in the United States, Canada or elsewhere.

Singapore Unions Push to End Pay Cuts at Age 60

Unions want to put an end to the widespread practice of Singapore companies cutting the pay of workers when they reach the age of 60. More than 80 percent of the companies do it, and often, they cut the maximum 10 percent allowed under the law. Labor chief Lim Swee Say, in objecting to the practice, said, “We are not declaring war, but something ought to be done.”

The labor official says it is time to review the practice, because most companies have moved away from a seniority-based wage system where salaries are determined more by length of service than performance. The practice unfairly penalizes older workers who have to do the same work at less pay.

The National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) has concluded a three-day conference to chart its future directions. There was general agreement that the practice of reducing a worker’s wages at 60 should be stopped. Most companies now pay according to performance not age, and older workers can earn higher salaries because they may be more productive than younger ones.

Burmese Trafficking Victims Freed from Thai Vessels

Eighteen Burmese nationals who were sold as fishermen to two Thai captains have been released this week, thanks to a joint operation in Thailand. Their release came after a raid on the boats and brokers’ homes in the Thai fishing town of Samisen in Satanic Province. The raid was part of a joint operation involving the ITF-affiliated Seafarers’ union of Burma (SUB), which operates in exile in Thailand), the Labor Rights Promotion Network and the Thai Department of Special Investigation.

Job brokers inside Burma had promised the victims they would be assigned factory jobs in Thailand. Instead, they were sold as fishermen to the captains of two Thai vessels. Once on board the vessels, they were told they would have to sacrifice their wages to pay off the trafficking costs, amounting to 22,000 baht $650US).

Aung Thu Ya, the Burmese seafarers’ president, believes the government in Burma was responsible for the trafficking problem, because fishermen in the past had been arrested for seeking help from trade unions and had had their seafarers’ licenses revoked, when they returned to Burma.

Petrobras Workers Strike over Pay impasse

Petroleum Brazilieiro SA workers, representing about one-fourth of the state-controlled oil producers refinery employees, went on strike Oct. 15, after failing to reach an agreement on a pay increase, a union official said. About 10,000 workers began striking at several units throughout Brazil, said Edson Munhoz, legal director at the Rio de Janeiro-based Sindipetro union.

Munhoz said workers are seeking a 16 percent increase in wages, plus inflation losses, while Petrobras is offering a 4.9 percent increase. He said he expects negotiations to restart this week.

Workers at refineries and oil platforms will arrive two hours later for their shifts, he said. “We don’t intend to disrupt production now, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t disrupt it later in case we don’t reached an agreement,” the union official said.

Israelis Protest Cabinet’s Decision to Deport Kids of Migrant Workers

Hundreds of people turned out in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Oct/ 14 to protest the cabinet’s decision to deport 1,200 children of foreign workers and their parents next summer. Social welfare organizations held a vigil in front of the Knesset as the legislators inside discussed the deportations. Another vigil was held at the same time across from the Interior Ministry building in Tel Aviv.

Rotem Ilan of the Israeli Children organization that organized the protests, said: “As long as the deportation is on the agenda, no matter the date, we’ll keep on working.” He added: “Those kids can’t be living on hold, in permanent anxiety. Until the day arrives on which those 1,200 children, who are 100 percent Israelis, get a legal status, we won’t stop.”

Keep informed about workers and their unions in other countries by reading our weekly "The World of Labor” at our web site.