Workers Struggles: Asia and Australia
26 February 2021
Andhra Pradesh steel workers and youth rally against privatisation
Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) workers and supporters held a 24-kilometre protest on February 20 against the Modi government’s plan to privatise the company. The marches went through Dondaparthy, Thatichetlapalem, Kancharapalem, Urvasi, Marripalem, the airport and ended at the steel plant’s main gate at Kurmannapalem. A public meeting, which attracted a huge crowd of supporters holding placards, was held outside the facility.
The march followed a sit-down protest by thousands of workers in Vijayawada on February 8 opposing the Indian government’s approval for 100 percent disinvestment of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), VSP’s corporate entity.
Workers ramp up industrial action at Victoria International Container Terminal in Melbourne February 15, 2021, by Jasmina Ovcina
Workers at the Victoria International Container Terminal in Melbourne, Australia, are expanding legally protected industrial action later this week, undertaking a series of stoppages and bans as they fight for a new workplace agreement.
The Maritime Union of Australia said the workers have proposed to ensure any containers that contain medicines, medical supplies, or urgent medical equipment are exempt from the industrial action.
The union has also committed to exempting all refrigerated containers from the planned industrial action, ensuring agricultural exports, fresh food, and perishable goods are not impacted.
Victoria International Container Terminal, in the Port of Melbourne, has revealed that it will shortly be subject to extensive industrial action. Shipping Australia CEO Melwyn Noronha comments: “We would like to express our sympathy for ordinary families, for importers and exporters and for the trucking and logistics industries. All of these Australians are already suffering .