The labour struggle for an increase of the minimum wage for garment workers in Bangladesh intensified since October 23rd 2023. Hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike, rallied in the streets, blocked highways and attacked factory property.

The Garment Workers’ Trade Union Center (GWTUC), with whom the ICL Working Group Asia has been in touch for years and also successfully collaborated labour struggles together before (check #UnitedAgainstTheDragon), now calls for the globalisation of the ongoing fight of the garment workers.

International solidarity forever

Interesting, you don't usually see unionization at a company like this, since the hiring company will typically just fire the contractor when it happens.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia — The ninth of November was a momentous occasion for millions of people in Cambodia as they celebrated their nation’s independence from France which occurred 70 years ago. Government officials wearing uniforms of brilliant, spotless white paid their respects to the late King Sihanouk, the father of modern Cambodia, at Independence Monument and at the King’s towering statue. Crowds gathered in celebration at the gates of the Royal Palace, many to catch a glimpse of King Sihamoni, and the new Prime Minister Hun Manet.

But not everyone in Cambodia shared the same feelings of euphoria and jubilance on display by the throngs of people surrounding the Royal Palace. Just a short walk away, union activists and former employees at Cambodia’s largest casino, NagaWorld, hit the streets of Phnom Penh again to protest the recent Court of Appeals decision to uphold the convictions of union leaders.

The Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees at NagaWorld (LRSU) has been embroiled in a bitter labor dispute with the company since April 2021 when 1,300 union members were fired, a move seen by LRSU as a major effort to bust their powerful organization.

read more: https://unicornriot.ninja/2023/cambodian-union-leader-chhim-sithar-to-remain-in-prison/

In less than two weeks, the Blake Street 16 went from facing eviction court to pioneering the first landlord-tenant negotiations in Connecticut’s history.

NEW HAVEN, CONN. — Things looked bleak on Blake Street when, at around 3:30 p.m. on August 19, Jessica Stamp and 15 of her neighbors found eviction notices taped to their door.

Ocean Management, Stamp’s landlord and one of New Haven’s most powerful companies, seemed intent on getting her out. But 13 days later, on Sept. 1, Ocean called off the evictions and came to the bargaining table to negotiate the first agreement of its kind between a landlord and tenants in Connecticut.

In those 13 days, a local tenants union realized just how powerful they’d become.

Going Against ​“Goliath”

Ocean is one of New Haven’s largest landlords, owning roughly 300 New Haven properties containing approximately 1,000 units. The company is notorious for frequent appearances in housing court: Tenants’ complaints have resulted in the city’s housing agency issuing thousands of code violations. According to an analysis of city records I conducted for the New Haven Independent, as of August, Ocean allowed nearly 94% of its rental licenses to expire, substantially diminishing any chance these properties would be inspected for safety and quality.

A representative for both Ocean and the company’s owner, Shmuel (Shmulik) Aizenberg, declined to comment for this story.

The evictions came at a stressful, uncertain time for the union. A few weeks prior, Ocean lit the fuse that would eventually spark the evictions by beginning to call the residents of Elizabeth Apartments, the 70-unit building in which BSTU is based, to tell them their rent was going up 20 to 30%. These increases ranged from $220 to as high as $285, according to internal data collected by the union, all but guaranteeing some residents would be displaced. Among those affected were seniors, tenants on fixed income and multiple disabled tenants, including Michael Portee, an intellectually disabled man with epilepsy, who was hit with a $250 increase.

read more: https://inthesetimes.com/article/tenants-union-mega-landlord-bargaining-table-new-haven-connecticut-blake-street-16-evictions-rent-hike

Obviously they are not taking into account if other parts of the supply chain are unionized and it's only made in america stuff, but interesting none the less

link: https://aflcio.org/MadeInAmerica/holiday-gifts

Protesters carried banners reading, “Weapons made here kill in Gaza” and, “This factory arms genocide.”

More than 1,000 union members with Workers for a Free Palestine blockaded four weapons factories in the United Kingdom Thursday that make components for planes being used by Israel to bomb Gaza.

The workers, who include teachers and healthcare and hospitality professionals, said they had shut down plants in Bournemouth, Lancashire, Brighton, and Glasgow.

“As healthcare workers, we are tired of mourning the deaths of our colleagues — fellow nurses, doctors, dentists, medical students, and other health workers — along with all of the Palestinians massacred by the Israeli regime,” a participating doctor named Mesh of Health Workers for a Free Palestine told Tribune. “We stand here ashamed that the weapons used in the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine are partly made on our own doorstep.”

All of the plants targeted by the workers make components for the F-35 fighter jet. Israel has killed 21,731 people in Gaza since October 7, including 8,697 children, according to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. The Geneva-based group said the death toll has risen by 40% since a temporary cease-fire ended last week.

“Our government could only bring itself to advocate for a temporary pause in these atrocities,” Mesh continued from one of the blockades. “Israel has now resumed its violence: turning hospitals into graveyards, using equipment manufactured in this very factory. As health workers, we have a moral responsibility to act and we will not rest until the occupation ends.”

read more: https://truthout.org/articles/more-than-1000-uk-union-workers-blockade-4-weapons-factories-that-arm-israel/

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The labor conflict against Tesla in Sweden is spreading to neighboring Denmark where transport workers with the country’s largest trade union said Tuesday they will take action in solidarity with Swedish workers against the Texas-based automaker.

Tesla is non-unionized globally, but the Swedish workers are demanding that the carmaker sign a collective bargaining agreement, which most employees in Sweden have. Tesla has no manufacturing plant in Sweden but has several service centers.

The United Federation of Workers in Denmark, known in Danish as 3F, said there had been speculation that Tesla would deliver its cars to Danish ports and transport them on trucks to Sweden after Swedish dock workers blocked the reception of Tesla cars there.

“Concretely, this means that dock workers and drivers will not receive and transport Tesla’s cars going to Sweden,” 3F said in a statement. “With the sympathy action, that model is no longer possible.”

Jakob Lykke, local head of 3F Transport in Esbjerg, on Denmark’s west coast, told the regional Jydske Vestkysten daily that Denmark’s fifth largest town is the only the harbor through which Tesla cars arrive by ship.

“So as of Dec. 20, we will not drive their cars off board, as we usually do,” Lykke told the daily. It likely will also affect the Danish market.

The head of 3F, Jan Villadsen, said that it was “putting further pressure on Tesla. We naturally hope that they will come to the negotiating table as soon as possible and sign an agreement.″

″Although you are one of the richest people in the world, you can’t just make your own rules. We have some agreements on the labor market in the Nordics, and you have to comply with them if you want to do business here,” Villadsen said.

On Oct. 27, 130 members of Sweden’s powerful metalworkers’ union IF Metall walked out at seven workshops across the country where the popular electric cars are serviced, demanding a collective bargaining agreement.

Swedish mechanics stopped servicing Tesla cars and several unions, including postal workers, have joined in a wave of solidarity with IF Metall’s demands. Dockworkers at Sweden’s four largest ports also stopped the delivery of Tesla vehicles to put more pressure on the automaker.

Last month, Tesla filed a lawsuit against the Swedish state via Sweden’s Transport Agency when postal workers in the Scandinavian country halted the delivery of license plates of new vehicles manufactured by the Texas-based automaker.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter, the social media platform he owns, that it was “insane” that Swedish postal workers were refusing to deliver license plates for new vehicles.

link: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/danish-union-to-take-action-against-tesla-in-solidarity-with-swedes-demanding-collective-bargaining

The California Faculty Association is planning a series of one-day strikes across four campuses.

On Monday, faculty at California State University (CSU), the largest public university system in the U.S., went on strike to demand higher pay and expanded parental leave.

The faculty, represented by the California Faculty Association (CFA), are demanding a 12 percent salary raise and an increase in parental leave from six weeks to a full semester for professors, librarians and other workers.

“What we’re doing is in the spirit of maintaining the integrity of what the public education system should be for,” Maria Gisela Sanchez, a counselor at Cal Poly Pomona, told AP News. “Public education belongs to all of us.”

CFA represents 29,000 workers across the university system’s 23 campuses and is planning a series of one-day strikes this week at San Francisco State University (SFSU), California State University-Los Angeles, and California State University-Sacramento.

“They can afford to provide fair compensation and safe working conditions,” Anne Luna, president of the faculty union’s Sacramento chapter, said in a statement. “It’s time to stop funneling tuition and taxpayer money into a top-heavy administration.”

There is a huge disparity between administrator and faculty salaries. Mildred García, the chancellor of the CSU system, made just under $1 million in total compensation in her first year — more than triple Gov. Gavin Newsom’s compensation. Additionally, according to CalMatters, between 2007 and 2022, the base salaries of CSU presidents have grown an average of 43 percent and the chancellor’s base salary increased by 38 percent. In contrast, the salaries for lecturers rose only by 22 percent to an average of $71,255 a year, in a state where a single person needs to make at least $80,000 a year to live comfortably.

Faculty are also concerned about looming staff cuts. Earlier this fall, the SFSU administration informed lecturers that they should expect massive layoffs in the spring. An estimated 125 full time positions may be cut, according to an August presentation by the school’s budget committee.

Third year SFSU student Armin Abolhassani told NBC Bay Area that he is in support of the strike, despite many, if not all, of his classes being shut down. “I support it because it is really disheartening what’s happening this semester with all the professors being laid off, a lot of great professors have been losing their jobs who have been working here for decades,” he said.

“If they don’t give us a better offer, then we know we start organizing for larger systemwide strikes in the spring,” Brad Erikson, a lecturer at SFSU and a chapter president for the CFA, told NBC Bay Area.

Other CSU workers have also demanded better pay and bargaining rights over the past few months. In October, student workers became eligible to vote to form a union, and in November, plumbers, electricians and maintenance workers employed by the university system held a one-day strike. Teamsters Local 2010, which represents the workers, plans to strike in support of the faculty union.

“Teamsters will continue to stand together and to stand with our fellow unions, until CSU treats our members, faculty and all workers at CSU with the fairness we deserve,” Jason Rabinowitz, secretary-treasurer for Teamsters Local 2010, said in a statement.

Last year, 48,000 teaching assistants and graduate student workers at the university system went on strike, constituting the largest academic strike in US history. The strike resulted in an increase in compensation, child care reimbursement, paid leave, and fee remissions for academic student employees.

Hundreds of students are expected to join the picket lines to support the striking faculty.

link: https://truthout.org/articles/california-state-university-faculty-strike-for-better-pay-parental-leave/