LabourStart’s Meeting in U.S. Attracts Global Online Writers

A large turnout of union staffers and labor communicators from around the world are attending LabourStart’s annual conference at the AFL-CIO’s headquarters in Washington D.C. The meeting, that began Aug. 21, will discuss online tools and strategies that unions can use to promote their agendas internationally. Attending the conference are writers from India, Canada, Finland, Switzerland and Australia, as well as contingents of labor activists and loggers.

Participants will be exchanging information on how they are mobilizing workers and creating workable networks using online facilities. They will observe LabourStart’s wide variety of resources, including customizable newswires in 15 languages, the Radio LabourStart network and Unionbook, an online social network for union members and activists.

LabourStart was founded by Eric Lee as an online service for the international trade union movement. It is used by more than 700 websites around the world and appears in 20 languages. News is collected by a network of over 500 volunteer correspondents. Lee said he hoped to build a stronger  relationship with the U.S. labor movement.

Royal Mail Strikes May Paralyze Postal Services in Britain

Up to 20,000 members of the Communication Workers Union are expected to strike over the coming week as the threat of a national strike comes closer. A week-long chain of 24-hour strikes across Britain begins Saturday, Aug. 22, and is likely to delay deliveries by up to four days, as drivers and depot workers stage their work stoppages

The union is planning to ballot all 130,000 postal members next month for a national strike in the increasingly bitter dispute with management about the staff’s rising fear of compulsory layoffs, office closures, pay freezes and claims of “daily bullying and harassment from managers” to meet unrealistic targets.

The union has accused Royal Mail of reneging on a deal to negotiate how plans for modernization announced in 2007 would be implemented. Postal workers are also angry over pay freezes, which came as Royal Mail announced record profits.

I.G. Metall Demands a Return to Secure, Full-Time Jobs

I.G. Metall, Germany’s largest and most powerful union, called on political leaders on Aug. 19 to ensure that priority is given to secure full-time jobs as  the economy recovers, and that the use of agency labor is limited and based on equal pay for equal work.

The union’s demands were also backed up by the results of a study, released on the same day, which found that enterprises are increasingly using agency labor to pass on business risks to workers.

Both I.G. Metall Vice President Detlef Wetzel and Klaus Dorre, the  director of the research team, warned that it is likely that the use of agency labor will increase even further in the next upswing of the economy. The number of people in Germany employed in regular, full-time jobs with social benefits has fallen in the last ten years from 72 percent to 66 percent.

Telecom Engineers in New Zealand Continue Their Strike

Nearly 900 lines engineers will take part in a nationwide one-day strike on Aug. 24 in an effort to get Telecom’s network division, Chorus, to abandon a contract agreement with Australian company Visionstream. They say Telecom’s moves will leave many staff people without a job put the future of New Zealand’s telecommunications network at risk.

“This dispute isn’t just about our members’ employment, but about an industry that has been run down and squeezed for profit until it is about dry,” said Joe Gallagher, a national union organizer. The union has also criticized the current state of the New Zealand network, which Gallagher called outdated and inadequate.

“A lot of telecommunications infrastructure dates back to the 1930s and many of our exchanges are a decade past their use,” Gallagher added.

Machinists and Flight Attendants Face Tough Fight at Delta Air Lines

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA recently asked the National Mediation Board to rule that the 2008 merger of Delta and Northwest Airlines created a single carrier, a move that would require union elections for various workers. Stakes are high for the unions, which are looking to ensure they have bargaining  rights for workers at the world’s largest airline.

“There’s definitely this element of a hurdle. Because Delta flight attendants have no experience with union representation,” said Rene Foss, communications chair at the Northwest flight attendants union/ “We believe we stand to lose a lot if we lose our representation,” Foss said.

Last year, before the Northwest acquisition, only about 40 percent of Delta flight attendants voted to join AFA.  Delta flight attendants also rejected unionization in 2001. At this stage, the two unions are given a “long shot"” chance of winning a Delta election.

Dozens Are Presumed Drowned in Siberian Hydroelectric Plant

Hundreds of rescuers scrambled to try to locate more than 60 workers trapped in a Siberian hydroelectric plant after an accident on Aug. 17, but only two survivors were recovered.  The acting chief executive of RushHydro,  said that most of the workers had probably drowned.

At least 10 people were confirmed dead after the bursting of  a water conduit that leads to the turbines at the hydroelectric plant in the Khakassia region of Siberia. As many as 64 workers from the plant, Russia’s largest power generator, were still missing the day after the explosion.

Meanwhile, the environmental toll continues to grow. The damaged plant has released a vast oil slick on the Venisei River, the Natural Resources Ministry said. Power was lost for five major factories, which will be supplied by burning coal, company officials said. Restoring the plant could take years.


Keep informed about workers and their unions in other countries by reading our weekly “The World of Labor.” www.laboreducator.org