Industrial Workers of the World

Industrial Worker - Issue #1713, February/March 2009

Headlines: Starbucks: Where's Anna's Money? Workers Occupy Thomson Factory in Poland Independent Unionism in Cambodia

Features: Unionbook.org reviewed Pakistani women workers "unnamed" Wisconsin paper mill closes

Related Links Industrial Worker http://www.iww.org/projects/IW/

PDF copy http://www.iww.org/PDF/IndustrialWorker/IWFebMarch09.pdf

http://www.iww.org/en/node/4613

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Iran: Isfahan Steel workers stage symbolic hunger strike It is reported that workers at the Isfahan Steel Mill Factory have begun a symbolic hunger strike on February 28th 2009 which will continue for two weeks. According to reports from Iran, they will not have the meals served at the factory premises. The initiative comes in protest to inappropriate working conditions and both open and veiled discriminations against workers. They are also objecting to a wide gap in pay between full time and part time employees in the factory, as well as lack of job security. Isfahan’s Steel Mill Factory has over 10,000 part time and 8,000 full time workers.

On December 2nd 2008, some 1,000 workers of the factory had set up a blockade on the main Isfahan to Shahr-e Kurd highway in protests over pay disputes. In the past couple of months, deprived and angry workers in factories and work shops in various cities across the country have staged protests against lack of job security, unpaid wages and monthly benefits and shortage of minimum necessities for themselves and their families. These workers include employees at the Haft-Tapeh sugar cane mill of Khuzestan, Ahvaz Pipe Mill, spinning and weaving companies of Meh Nakh and Farnakh in Qazvin, Khavar Cotton Mill, Pars battery of Qazvin, Korom Chemical Plant of Sari, Shabestar Textile Company, Lead and Zinc factory of Zanjan, Vegetable Oil of Qou and Kesht-o-San’at of North.

Mr Abbas Davari chair of the Labor Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran condemned that the systematic violation of workers’ rights over the past three decades of the mullahs rule, especially the violation of various labor agreements such as those related to wages, the rights to protest and strike and the rights to establish labor organizations independent from the regime, among others. He called on all international human rights organizations and labor syndicates and unions to condemn the mullahs’ anti labor policies and support protests by the oppressed Iranian workers, while adopting immediate measures to guarantee respect for the workers’ minimum requirements.

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http://www.chinacsr.com/en/2009/02/27/4640-panasonics-top-management-besieged-by-disgruntled-employees/

Panasonic's Top Management Besieged By Disgruntled Employees - February 27, 2009 Dissatisfied with a compensation package offered by the company for voluntary redundancy, more than 600 employees of Panasonic Electronic Devices (Beijing) Company besieged the office of three top company executives for about six hours.

The employees, who later left the office after the executives escaped from a back door, said they would file a complaint against PEDBC with the labor department since the company urged them to quit the job of their own volition to evade its responsibilities. It is understood that PEDBC held a staff meeting on February 25 at which it encouraged the employees to quit on a voluntary basis and promised to offer the employees economic compensation in return.

The employees were dissatisfied with the company's offer, for they thought that they would get higher compensation if their jobs were retrenched by the company. The general manager of PEDBC was quoted by the local media as saying that the company adopted the measure of voluntary redundancy because of the bad market situation. The employees also said that the company had began to receive less and less orders since the second half of last year. Panasonic currently has three factories in Beijing, which are engaged in manufacturing kinescopes, capacitors, and electronic devices, respectively. In addition to Panasonic Electronic Devices, the other two factories are also said to have also received a notice to close.

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Russia, Freedom to union activist Valentin Urusov!

Dear friends!

In July of 2008, in city of Udachniy in Sakha (Yakutia) Republic workers of the biggest Russian diamond mining company ALROSA formed an independent trade union, which became a member of the independent trade union association Sotsprof. During two months more than 1000 workers joined the union. But 3rd of September 2008 leader of the union Valentin Urusov was arrested with drug possession charges. Drugs were planted on Valentin, in order to destroy union and any resistance of the workers. 26th of December Urusov was sentenced to 6 years to be served in a work camp.

---- City of Udachniy has 15 000 inhabitants and is located in Russian Far North, 20 kilometers from the polar circle. Closest major city is at a distance of 600 kilometers. City is totally dependent on diamond monopolist ALROSA and local authorities. ALROSA accounts for approximately 25% of the world's rough diamond supply and 97% of Russia's rough diamond production. Workers of ALROSA started to demand better working conditions in spring of 2008.

Already for many years drivers of the union had to work 70-130 hours overtime a month without a proper overtime benefit. Workers in mines work with outdated equipment and without air heating. Health problems due poisonous air are usual amongst miners. As demands were not heard by the administration, from 25th to 27th of August workers were in a hungerstrike. After administration announced that they will form a committee for negotiation, hungerstrike was halted.

30th of August more than 500 workers joined a union meeting in Udachniy. Committee should have finished work 5th of September, but 3rd of September Urusov was arrested with drug possession charges. Arrest, during which 70 grams of drugs allegedly possessed by Urusov, was conducted personally by chief of Mirny department of UFSNK (Administration of Federal Service of Drug Control) S. Rudov, who traveled 600 kilometers specially for the occasion.

Witnesses were vice-director of Aykhal'sk mining plant department of economical safety G. Pustosvetov and his driver. Urusov himself announced to his lawyer, that he was practically kidnapped from doorsteps of his own home. He was taken to 60 kilometer distance from his home, where one of the officers of drug police (UFSNK) forced him to confess that drugs were indeed his, by shooting three warning shots next to his head and promising, that his death will be announced as an attempt to escape.

Right now Valentin Urusov is waiting for a result of appeal in remand prison of Yakutsk. Valentin is also suffering from kidney problems, but is not receiving medical aid. His family is in a need of financial help, and human rights organizations are gathering funds to have him a lawyer. see

http://avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2250

For more information, write to Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow,

abc-msk@riseup.net

www.avtonom.org/abc

Please send the following appeal for Urusov by e-mail, even better if you may send it by fax as well:

To president of ALROSA Sergey Vybornov phone: +7 (411-36) 3-01-80 fax: +7(411-36) 3-04-51, +7 (495) 745-80-61 e-mail: aho@centr.alrosa-mir.ru

To president of Sakha (Yakutia) Republic Vyacheslav Shtyrov fax: +7(4112) 43-50-55 e-mail: upo@gov.sakha.ru, ud-odto@gov.sakha.ru

Dear mr. Sergey Vybornov!

Dear mr. Vyacheslav Shtyrov!

26th of December 2008 district court of Mirny in Sakha (Yakutia) Republic sentenced Valentin Urusov, worker of URMSU "Almazenergoremont" of ALROSA, leader of trade union "Profsvoboda" which is a member of Sotsprof, to 6 years in prison with drug possession charges.

Valentin was not using nor possessing any drugs, and that he was framed up by officers of UFSNK. Lawyer of Valentin Urusov is confirming, that court was not investigating all testimony which would have proven Valentin innocent, and court decision was also distorting evidence given by witnesses of the prosecution.

There are number of contradictions in the investigation. Also according to Urusov, during arrest and confiscation of drugs, he was assaulted and threatened with murder. It is characteristic for the case, that director of the Aykhal'sk mining plant department of economical safety G.Pustosvetov was witnessing the arrest. Thus we have grounds to believe, that arrest and sentence of Urusov are a revenge for his union activity in ALROSA and a measure to scare off workers of the company.

We know, that a number of activists of the union were threatened and repressed as well, with lay-offs, threats and deprivation of a number of payments. We demand to stop repressions against workers of union activists of AK ALROSA. We demand to stop repressions of union activists - workers of AK ALROSA, to free Valentin Urusov, to restore laid off workers and to stop harassment of trade union "Profsvoboda" in the company.

Date Signature

(source: http://avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2311)

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