Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

Today on 22 May, transport workers belonging to New Khan Transport and Metro Bus company alongside with labour Party Pakistan activists protested against sacking of their members from job. The bus company sacked 80 workers after they formed the first union.

The activists went in front of the bus company stand at Lahore railway station to protest with banners and placards. Dozens of police officers were deployed at the site of the demonstrations. Over 50 gangsters of the bus company were also standing in front of the place where the demonstration was to take place.

The bus company had hired some one to make a video of every one taking part in the demonstration. Earlier the gangsters of the bus company had threatened the leaders of the union about dire consequences if the demonstration take place.

Despite all the threats over 100 union members and LPP activists came to demonstrate and raised slogans for over an hour. Hundreds more gathered at the place when they saw red flags flying in front of the bus company.

The New Khan bus company is one of three main companies that are running inside Lahore on local routs. One of the rich politicians called Umer Hayat Rokari owns the company. There never had been a union formed at the bus company. The owner took it as a threat that the union is been formed and started sacking every single member of the union. He got one union leader arrested on false charges. Saleem is still in jail for the last one week.

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http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/union-protests-iraq

Thursday, May 22, 2008. Last Update: 04:24PMSEARCH
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Longshoremen Union Protests War
Some Say Walkout Signals a Working-Class Weary of War

By SPENCER ACKERMAN 05/21/2008
According to virtually every poll this election year, the working class voter -- particularly the white working class voter -- is most concerned about the economy, to the exclusion of almost all else. It's through that prism, according to a parade of television pundits, that the working-class views the war in Iraq. Perhaps the war is unpopular to the working class, as it is to approximately 70 percent of Americans, but the greater danger, they believe, comes from overzealous opposition to the war.

If that was the case, the walkout in California earlier this month should not have happened. Across 29 California ports, as many as 25,000 longshoremen -- members of the firebrand International Longshore & Warehouse Union -- refused to show up for work in protest of the U.S. military presence in Iraq. Activity at the ports was significantly diminished on May 1 -- the international day of labor solidarity. Labor historians interviewed by The Washington Independent were hard-pressed to remember the last anti-war labor strike of this magnitude.

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Meeting in Dearborn, Michigan, even as a growing political and economic crisis stoked fears in the United States and the rest of the world, a new caucus of North American railroad workers established an organization that hopes to spur solidarity, unity and democracy within and between unions that represent rail workers across North America. Caucus members came from five different unions in the rail industry, traveling from coasts, as well as north and south, to attend the proceedings. All came on their own time and their own dime.

In the AM session, those in attendance adopted the name “Railroad Workers United” as the official name of the organization, adopted a “Statement of Principles” to serve as a moral compass for the group, and approved, with a number of amendments, a set of bylaws to govern the organization until the next Convention. In the afternoon, nominations and elections were held. Eleven members were elected to the leadership body – the International Steering Committee (ISC). From this body were then elected an Executive Committee composed of three Co-Chairs, a Secretary and a Treasurer. Finally three Trustees were elected. For a complete listing of those elected to lead RWU, see the listing that accompanies this article. Finally, the participants passed twelve resolutions ranging from safety issues to contracting out work, from questions of diversity in the workforce to support for West Coast dockworkers union members protesting the Iraq War. For a comprehensive listing of the Resolutions passed, see the list below. For the full text of the Resolutions that were passed by the Convention, please see the RWU website

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7413967.stm

Page last updated at 23:28 GMT, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 00:28 UK

France braces for day of strikes

President Sarkozy shows no sign of bending to stiff opposition
French workers at the national rail company, SNCF, have begun strike action against President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to reform public-sector pensions.
Workers from other sectors are expected to join them early on Thursday in a one-day protest to pressure Mr Sarkozy to reverse his economic reforms.
Bus drivers nationwide were expected to strike, air service may be disrupted and about 50% of trains are to be cut.
The strikes follow protests by fishermen that blocked French ports.
High-speed international trains between Paris, London and Brussels were not expected to be affected by the SNCF workers' action.
The transport workers are due to be joined by postal, utility and other public sector workers across France.
Job cuts
The walkouts are not expected to cause the widespread travel chaos of last November when transport workers staged a nine-day strike against Mr Sarkozy' plan to scrap their special pension rights.
The government and the unions negotiated an end to the strikes but now workers are upset over plans to make them stay on the job one year longer - for 41 years - before receiving a full state pension.

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By: J. Pierce with Adam Welch

Independent truckers in California's San Joaquin Valley shut down their rigs on Friday, May 2nd declaring an open-ended strike. At $4.80 a gallon, sky-rocketing diesel prices top the list of grievances. As their main demand, drivers insist on doubling the rates paid for hauling a container. The second biggest demand is a fuel surcharge of upwards of 55%. The brokers currently pay surcharges varying from 30-40%. If drivers can keep the trucking bosses from stealing it, the increased surcharge would help place the burden back on those who can afford it.

"We're fighting for survival." That's how Gerardo Cordoba explains the struggle. He's been driving for 10 years and raises a seven year-old on what he brings home after costs. The rates haven't seen an increase in a decade and most truckers bring home less than $30,000 year. In fact, when asked how much an average driver earns, Dewey Obtinalla, a Filipino driver who regularly does long haul up the coast, replied, "If you're making $30,000, that's good, very good... With fuel, insurance, and registration, I don't know a lot of people who are doing that well." Brave strikers don't need to look far for others willing to fight.

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http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article2430769.ece

Airport strike spreads, no settlement in sight
A strike by workers at five Norwegian airports also shut the airport at Kristiansund over the weekend, and more flights were cancelled on Monday. The two sides in the conflict remained far apart.

Domestic flights in and out of Oslo Gardermoen were affected as well.

Norway's main international gateway airport at Oslo Gardermoen remained largely shielded from the labour walkout, but at least another 5,000 passengers trying to leave Oslo on flights to other Norwegian cities were stranded on Monday.

Around 50 flights were cancelled, since airports in Bergen, Molde, Kristiansund, Mo i Rana, Harstad/Narvik and Mosjøen are closed. More airport closures were expected on Tuesday.

Officials said 32 flights from Oslo were cancelled on Sunday and 16 more on Monday, disrupting travel plans for around 60,000 passengers through the Oslo airport. Many commute weekly to and from jobs in Norwegian cities.

There has been no contact between Norway’s civil aviation authority Avinor and the union representing Avinor workers, LO Stat, since a strike was called on Friday. No new meetings were planned for Monday.

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Petition against Persecution of Costa Rican Union Leaders for Opposing CAFTA

To: Dr. Óscar Arias Sánchez, President of Costa Rica
Francisco Morales Hernández, Minister of Labor
We, the undersigned Australian union members and supporters of free speech and association, call on the government of Costa Rica to stop retaliating against union leaders who oppose implementation of the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
We adamantly insist that you rescind the disciplinary actions, and threats of action, against the union officers listed below who have worked for years in public service and who are tireless advocates for workers rights:
Alicia Vargas, Secretary of the Women Workers section of the Staff Union of the National Insurance Institute (UPINS);
Luis Salas, General Secretary of UPINS and the Central Labor Council (CGT);
Fabio Chavez, General Secretary, and Executive Board members Francisco Aguilar and Jorge Vega, Association of Employees of the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ASDEICE);
Jose Luis Castillo, Financial Secretary of the port workers union in Limon and Moín SINTRAJAP); and

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/berl-m17.shtml

Berlin transport workers vote on contract

How should workers proceed?

By Ulrich Rippert
17 May 2008

Following eight weeks of industrial action, including strikes, opposition is growing amongst workers employed by the Berlin Transport Authority (BVG) as the real content emerges of the deal stuck by their trade union, Verdi, at the beginning of the month.

Many workers have already made clear that they will vote “No” on the contract in the ballot scheduled for this Monday. At the same time, there are widespread fears that the Verdi bureaucracy will win the necessary 25 percent of “Yes” votes that would usher in yet another round of declining wages and worsening working conditions.

At meetings held at depots and transport departments, Verdi functionaries have tried to persuade workers to accept the deal by placing the contract in the most favourable light. Nevertheless, all their juggling with numbers cannot hide the fact that the so-called average wage increase of 4.6 percent is a sham, or, more precisely, a deliberate deception.

The vast majority of workers with high seniority will get just 60 euros extra per month starting in August. Based on an average gross income of 2,400 euros, this amounts to a mere 2.5 percent. If one includes the 500-euro lump-sum payment for the months January to July, one arrives at an average wage increase of approximately 2.7 percent for the current year. An additional 1 percent has been agreed to for next year—but only to start in August (i.e., the increase will be 0.4 percent in 2009). Over a two-year period, this means that workers will receive a wage increase of less than 1.6 per cent.

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/berl-m17.shtml

Berlin transport workers vote on contract

How should workers proceed?

By Ulrich Rippert
17 May 2008

Following eight weeks of industrial action, including strikes, opposition is growing amongst workers employed by the Berlin Transport Authority (BVG) as the real content emerges of the deal stuck by their trade union, Verdi, at the beginning of the month.

Many workers have already made clear that they will vote “No” on the contract in the ballot scheduled for this Monday. At the same time, there are widespread fears that the Verdi bureaucracy will win the necessary 25 percent of “Yes” votes that would usher in yet another round of declining wages and worsening working conditions.

At meetings held at depots and transport departments, Verdi functionaries have tried to persuade workers to accept the deal by placing the contract in the most favourable light. Nevertheless, all their juggling with numbers cannot hide the fact that the so-called average wage increase of 4.6 percent is a sham, or, more precisely, a deliberate deception.

The vast majority of workers with high seniority will get just 60 euros extra per month starting in August. Based on an average gross income of 2,400 euros, this amounts to a mere 2.5 percent. If one includes the 500-euro lump-sum payment for the months January to July, one arrives at an average wage increase of approximately 2.7 percent for the current year. An additional 1 percent has been agreed to for next year—but only to start in August (i.e., the increase will be 0.4 percent in 2009). Over a two-year period, this means that workers will receive a wage increase of less than 1.6 per cent.

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http://www.mua.org.au/events/460_20080513.html

Back in the Gate: Howard Gone- MUA Here to Stay!

Event date: 31 May 2008
Type:
Location: Brett Park, Five Dock
Time: 11am-4pm
Cost: Free
The Sydney Branch of the MUA invites all members and their families to celebrate the 10 year anniversay of the return to work of Patrick workers with a family carnival and picnic day.

It is hard to believe that 10 years has passed since the Howard Government, Patrick owner Chris Corrigan and others engaged in their criminal conspiracy against the MUA to shed the Australian waterfront of unionised labour.

On April 7 1998, hundreds of guards and dogs stormed the wharves under cover of darkness as Patrick boss Chris Corrigan sacked his entire workforce of 2000 men and women nationwide with the aid of balaclava wearing goons and savage attack dogs. The Australian industrial relations landscape would never be the same again. This vicious attack on wharfies was undertaken with the complete support of the then Howard Government.

What followed was a monstrous battle to stop this criminal injustice perpetrated solely because the 2000 sacked wharfies were members of a union. The reactionary attempts to eradicate waterfront unionism failed because the Australian people rejected such inappropriate tactics that were fundamentally at odds with the aspirations of the Australian people who treasure the concept of a "fair go".

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THE FREMANTLE PICKETS

The Patrick Lock-out, April 18th, 1998

And we were there, on Fremantle Harbour, in 1998;
A few at first in the dusk of that day as the hours ebbed
Away into advancing darkness; gathered at the gate to face
The threat of coming hostile force. We were one
Of the picket lines, with all hands on deck now
As we battened down for a stormy night

Near the wharves from which maritime workers',
The wharfies, had been driven by thugs with dogs -
The curs of Corrigan - and here outside high fences
We faced the wrecking of our rights, our working lives,
As all around the Australian coast our union, the MUA,
Would be fighting that same bitter battle tonight.

We were the Fremantle picket lines, the night watch
On the barricades of belief, tired out after
Long days and nights, but still there on guard
At the gates, shoulder to shoulder, and we were resolute.
All week we had heard that farmers were coming,
Truck on truck by the hundred to smash through

Our pickets, but we were a union united, we held the line.
We were steel fired in the furnace of solidarity -
Welded in the links of that living human chain -
Because we were shackled by belief to our principles

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By Carl Bronski - 9 May 2008, wsws.org

Toronto’s Mayor David Miller has referred to the city’s Executive Committee a motion that would designate the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) an essential service. Such a designation would invite action by the provincial government to strip transit workers of the legal right to strike or to so restrict job action as to make it a token gesture.

The call to restrict the right to strike, put forth by two Toronto city councillors, follows closely on the heels of a day-and-a-half walkout by 9,000 transit workers organized in Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU).

That job action began on the night of Friday, April 25, after workers overwhelmingly rejected a tentative agreement recommended by a thin majority of the union’s executive committee. The strike was abruptly ended the following Sunday afternoon when Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty marshalled the unanimous support of the opposition Conservative and New Democratic parties to force the workers back into the subway and bus barns and impose binding arbitration in the contract dispute.

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Originally published on iww.org

Once again a step ahead of intermodal truckers across the US, Stockton truckers, led by the majority Sikh drivers, launched a strike over the issue of fuel prices on Monday, May 5, 2008.

While many truckers participated in various protest shutdowns on either April 1st or May 1st this year, the 300-400 Stockton truckers working out of the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railyards have shut down their industry until their demands have been met.

Rather than demand the fuel surcharges paid by shippers but often pocketed by companies rather than passed along to drivers, the Stockton truckers are asking for a dramatic increase in the rates paid in order to keep up with increases costs such as fuel.

On April 26, 2004 Stockton intermodal truckers, inspired by rumors circulating of an LA port trucker shutdown, were the first to join what became a strike of west cost port truckers on April 30, and by June had spread to most southern and eastern ports as well.

The issues were largely the same then with increasing fuel
costs coupled with rates that had not increased for sometimes over a decade. The 2004 strike was settled successfully after only six business days into the strike rail yard officials announced an embargo on all container shipments to California to prevent a major rail system backlog from occurring (See The Record, May 4 and May 7, 2004).

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By Reed Fujii - San Joaquin Record Staff Writer, May 06, 2008

For the second time in four years, hundreds of independent truck drivers went on strike Monday against companies that hire them to haul cargo containers out of railroad terminals near Stockton.

And again, as in 2004, the issue was the failure of freight rates to keep up with rapidly rising fuel prices.

Ajit Gill of Stockton, a truck owner-operator and a spokesman for strikers, said the truckers face fuel costs that have more than doubled since 2004, as well as higher costs for insurance, stiffer inspection fees and more. But freight rates have not kept pace.

"There is nothing raised," he said Monday by cell phone.

The drivers would prefer to keep working, if it was practical.

"Unfortunately, we have to stop," Gill said. "Nobody can afford $4.35 diesel."

The strike's immediate impact was uncertain.

Zoe Richmond, Sacramento spokeswoman for Union Pacific Railroad Co., said there was a "minor impact" on her company's giant cargo terminal near Lathrop.

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Disclaimer: The action described here was not organized by the IWW.

By Francine Brevetti - staff writer, inside bayarea.com, May 6, 2008

OAKLAND — About 80 striking truckers from Middle Harbor Road at the Port of Oakland were ticketed and dispersed Tuesday after some of them committed vandalism, police said.

Some drivers had damaged a truck's window while the driver was operating the rig, Sgt. Peter Lau said.

Nevertheless, the protesting truck drivers who own and operate their own rigs vowed to continue demonstrating at the port for the rest of the week. They say motor carrier firms have been underpaying them for diesel fuel.

"No Stopping Anytime" signs are posted along Middle Harbor Road. But on Tuesday the port's main artery was lined with protesters' automobiles and some truck cabs.

"Yesterday (Monday) was peaceful," Lau said. "There were agreements among the officers here that we would let them (the strikers) use their First Amendment rights. However, the port's traffic was not going to be obstructed and people were not being hurt."

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By Jim Crutchfield, IWW NYC GMB - Industrial Worker, May 2008

Members of the New York City IWW branch attended a rally on April 1 at a truck stop on the New Jersey Turnpike, where an estimated 300 drivers, mostly owner-operators, met to protest fuel price gouging and address the media. The rally was part of a nationwide work stoppage by truckers that reportedly shut down several major ports on the East and West Coasts and turned highways around Chicago into parking lots.

Drivers from as far away as Florida were present at the New Jersey gathering, along with many drivers’ family members and other supporters. Two Wobblies addressed the crowd and were warmly received. The union collected contact information from nearly 100 drivers, many of whom expressed great enthusiasm for continuing their agitation and solidifying their organization.

IWW members also helped pacify the New Jersey State Police, who had started the morning with a barrage of traffic tickets, but backed off and just watched the show after being reassured that the gathering would be peaceful and that drivers would obey parking and traffic regulations.

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Industrial Worker, May 2008

On April 1, troqueros from New Jersey rallied on the New Jersey turnpike. On April 3, Houston followed. Truck drivers across the country participated in scattered actions to protest rising diesel fuel prices.

The price of diesel across the United States has risen by 21 per cent since the end of December 2007, from $3.35 to $4.05 per gallon, according to the US Energy Information Administration. A month before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the price of diesel was $1.71 per gallon.

Something is wrong when we have to choose between feeding our families or buying diesel, said truckers. The message was heard, but it was not loud enough, according to organizers, including members of the IWW, of a new round of protests on April 30-May 1. Truckers across the board had called for better organization and coordination In response, truckers at the three largest ports in the United States —Newark on the Atlantic, Houston on the Gulf of Mexico and Los Angeles on the Pacific— are planning to take coordinated action to shut down ports on the morning of April 30.

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By Steven T. Jones and Amanda Witherell - San Francisco Bay Guardian, May 7, 2008

Workers, students, immigrants, and antiwar activists came together in historic fashion on May Day in San Francisco, but it was hard to tell from the next day's mainstream media coverage, which adopted its usual cynical view of the growing movement to end the war in Iraq.

Sure, there were articles in newspapers from the San Francisco Chronicle to the New York Times about how the International Longshore and Warehouse Union shut down all 29 West Coast ports for the day, with far more than 10,000 workers defying both their employers and the national union leadership to skip work.

But each article missed the main point: this was the first time in American history that such a massive job action was called to protest a war.

"In this country, dock workers have never stopped work to stop a war," Jack Heyman, the ILWU executive board member and Oakland Port worker who spearheaded the effort, told the Guardian.

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" target="_blank">By Yvonne Martinez‚ May 05‚ 2008 - Originally Published at beyondchron.org

Say it ain’t so. The City of Oakland issues May Day threats of suspension to union workers.

City of Oakland SEIU Local 1021 union members have filed Unfair Labor Practice Charges against the City of Oakland citing a long list of labor abuses including threatened disciplinary action against union members for their participation at a May Day rally in front of Oakland City Hall.

While ships were docked up and down the California Coast in a day-long ILWU protest against the War in Iraq, City of Oakland union members as part of a labor coalition that includes the City’s Firefighters, SEIU Local 1021, SEIU Local 1877, IBEW, and IFTE rallied to commemorate May Day and to protest labor abuses by the City of Oakland.

500 members of the four locals and their supporters rallied at City Hall in a first ever May Day Unity rally as they face simultaneous contract expiration dates this June.

City of Oakland, SEIU 1021 union members formed a lunchtime convoy of City trucks and vehicles at the May Day rally in front of City Hall, to both honor May Day as part of a day long West Coast Port shut down and to demonstrate concern about contentious City of Oakland labor contract talks.

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By DAVID MACARARY - Counterpunch, May 2, 2008

On Thursday, May 1, the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union) staged a one-day (one shift, actually) walkout as a protest against the U.S. military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The shutdown affected ports up and down the West Coast, from San Pedro, California, to Seattle, Washington.

Although the PMA (Pacific Maritime Association) had warned the ILWU leadership that an “unauthorized” strike such as this was illegal, and that any rank-and-file dockworker who participated could be punished with a fine, suspension or even termination, the one-shift shutdown went off as planned and was deemed a resounding success. Thousands of workers defied management and failed to show up for the morning shift, resulting in port traffic coming to a standstill.

Despite the threats, no one really expects the port authorities to take any disciplinary action against ILWU members. In fact, if any union member is even wrist-slapped, it will be genuine shock. There are two reasons for this.

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