Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand
7 May 2021
Korea: Renault Samsung autoworkers locked out
Renault Samsung Motors management locked out 1,900 workers at its Busan plant, 450 kilometres south of Seoul, on Tuesday morning. Management initiated the lockout in response to strike action the previous Friday, again on Monday and a planned eight-hour walk out on Tuesday.
The unionised workers voted to take strike action in February, in protest against management demands for a voluntary retirement program, a wage freeze and reduced bonus of 3 million won ($2,700), citing reduced sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Workers are demanding a 70,000-won increase in basic pay, a 7 million won bonus and are opposed to the company’s restructuring plans.
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
30 April 2021
India: Bangalore sanitation workers protest for personal protective equipment
Sanitation workers in Bangalore, the Karnataka state capital, protested on Tuesday to demand personal protective equipment, such as masks and gloves, whilst at work. The sanitation workers, popularly known as pourakarmikas, are frontline employees, daily exposed to possible infection from COVID-19 and its variants.
Workers said they were forced to handle dangerous and hazardous medical waste with their bare hands and that many households did not separate their waste. The highly exploited, mainly female employees complained that they do not have access to toilets, sanitisers or canteens during working hours.
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand
23 April 2021
Sri Lanka: State bank workers’ union calls off strike without resolution
The Ceylon Bank Employees Union called off a nationwide strike of state bank employees which had been planned for Thursday. The union made the last-minute cancellation after a discussion with the finance ministry in which an “assurance” was given that the issues in dispute would be dealt with.
Workers are demanding that the state bank revise pensions of employees who joined it after 1996, establish a pension for employees of banks and offer new recruits permanent status after two years of training.
Australian unions back war preparations at Labor Party conference
One of the most revealing features of last week’s Australian Labor Party national conference was the enthusiastic support of the trade unions for the ramping-up of plans for war.
All the unions backed the unanimous votes for a party platform that is committed to expanding military and other war-related production, as well as strengthening the US military alliance because of “its vital importance to Australia’s national security requirements” and demonising China.
Party leader Anthony Albanese set the tone for the conference in his opening address, invoking the record of the World War II and post-war Labor governments of prime ministers Curtin and Chifley from 1941 to 1949. “In Australia’s moment of greatest crisis at the height of the Second World War, John Curtin led the nation out of military danger then Ben Chifley led into reconstruction,” Albanese declared. “Their motto victory in war and victor
EnergyAustralia’s announcement this week it would shut the Yallourn power station four years early underscored the dwindling value of brown coal, as the power giant seeks to phase out high carbon-emitting operations.
Phill Bramstedt is a contract worker a the Yallourn power station.
Credit:Meredith O’Shea
Phill Bramstedt, who works on the belt system at Yallourn, described a “pretty solemn” mood on Wednesday when the company confirmed it would close four years early in 2028.
“A lot of people knew we were next cab off the rank,” he says. “At least they’ve given everybody a warning of what’s going on.”