Official Restaurant' of Olympics Pays Lowest Wages in Canada

President Jim Sinclair of the British Columbia Federation of Labor, is calling on the "Official Restaurant" of the Olympics to stop paying new employees less than B.C.'s minimum wage, which is already the lowest in Canada. "I talked with several McDonald's workers in the past few days who are making less than $7 (Canadian) an hour and they are not impressed with the company, Sinclair said. These workers deserve a fair wage and respect. That's the real Olympic spirit,"

British Columbia's minimum wage (eight Canadian dollars an hour) has been frozen for eight years. However, McDonald's in the Lower Mainland uses the so-called training wage to lower starting pay to as little as $6.35 an hour. The Liberal government introduced the training wage by lowering the minimum wage by 25 percent Sinclair called on McDonald's to pay all starting employees a minimum of $10 an hour, the wage necessary for a single person working full-time to reach the poverty line.

French Refinery Workers Stage Sympathy Strike

Workers at all six of France's Total refineries staged a two-day strike on Feb. 17 in support of 370 colleagues who face layoffs at a Dunkirk plant that bosses have earmarked for closure. The Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT) union reported that more than 95 percent of the workers were on strike in the refinery and that all depots had been blocked off.

Hundreds of workers are occupying the refinery near Dunkirk, which employers shut down in September. Employees at the facility, who have been on strike since Jan. 12, vowed last week that they would seize control of the plant if the company failed to restart work on Monday. The following day, they made good their pledge, marching onto the site and breaking into administrative offices before allowing the plant director and other executives to leave.

CGT member Davis Calbet emphasized that they were prepared to "stay in these buildings until we have received job guarantees." Total, which made a net profit of 2.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, also acknowledged that 80 percent of its fuel storage depots were affected by the strike.

Striking Algerian Doctors Take to the Streets

Algerian doctors are holding public protests to mark their third month of strikes to force more productive salary negotiations with the government. Their unions demonstrated outside the Health Ministry on Feb. 17, wearing white coats and waving red placards at officials. Future protests are planned outside of administrative offices in several cities.

Public sector doctors are demanding a revision their "special status" designation that currently puts them at the same pay level as nurses and other health workers, while providing no holiday pay. The "special status" label also means that doctors do not receive state housing when they are transferred to hospitals in other cities.

Dr. Lyes Merabit, who heads the National Union of Public Health Practitioners said: "We have tried all possible kinds of negotiations with the powers that be, without success. Rallies are the last resort to get our demands met," he said.

United Steelworkers File Suit on Behalf of Mexican Miners

The families of three miners killed in an explosion in a Mexican mine that took the lives of 65 workers four years ago are getting the support of the United Steelworkers in a wrongful death suit filed in Phoenix, Arizona, against the mine's owner, Grupo Mexico. The lawsuit, drafted by the USW legal department, claims that the families would be unable to receive justice in Mexican courts because the country does not have an "independent or functioning legal system." Instead, the legal system is "held captive by powerful economic interests, such as the defendants, the lawsuit states.

In the years since the explosion, the victim's family members have demanded answers from the company, but they have been ignored, says Daniel Kovalik, senior counsel for the USW. The Mexican union has gone on strike 14 times to protest Group Mexico's refusal to review health and safety measures.

The Steelworkers have worked closely with the union, Los Mineros, in Mexico for the past several years and currently have 21 members on the ground in Cananea, Mexico. They are attempting to provide support to miners in one of Grupo Mexico's copper operations. Though he acknowledges the battle against the mining corporations will be difficult, Kovalik says it is essential in today's global economy.

Disney Hotel Workers End Hunger Strike at Headquarters in Burbank

After a nine-day hunger strike that included camping out for seven days on the streets of Anaheim, a group of Disney hotel workers ended their protest, feeling they had accomplished their mission. "By giving up food and remaining at Disney's doorstep, our 15 fasters have forced Disney to listen," said Adam Briceno, secretary-treasurer of UNITE HERE Local11, after a lively 100-person picket line.

Since the contract expired about two years ago, hotel workers and the company have disagreed on the issue of health care. Workers are protesting that Disney's health-care plan is unaffordable and could leave hundreds of workers without medical coverage. The issue of health-care benefits has become central to the dispute.

The union position is that Disney should continue to contribute to the employee health plan, which covers workers and their families. The union insists that workers have paid for the benefit by reducing their wage demands over the years. The workers, who average about $13 an hour, say that the Disney plan which requires premiums of $500 a month is unaffordable.

Germany's Metalworkers' Union Reaches Wage Deal

IG Metall reached a provisional agreement with employers on Feb. 18, after lengthy negotiations for some 700,000 workers in the state of North Rhine Westphalia. The agreement will likely serve as an example for further negotiations with the entire metalworking and electronics industries, which employ some 3.4 million workers in Germany.

The agreement includes a pay freeze with a one-time payment of 320 euros ($435) for 2010, with plans to raise wages by 2.7 percent in April 2012. The two sides also agreed early in the discussions to secure jobs for employees in Germany's most populous state by lowering the costs of a reduced working hours program. To avoid laying off workers, companies will be able to reduce their schedule to 28 hours per week for six months.

For the first time, IG Metall did not make concrete wage demands or bring threats of strike to the negotiating table. IG Metall leaders in Lower Saxony and Saxony-An halt said they would strive to emulate the agreement for their 100,000 members when their negotiations start on Feb. 25 in Hanover.