[APWSLMembers 543] News from Around the Region

[parat nanakorn]

*News from Around the Region*



*Tawan*

According to an investigative report conducted by the Children's Welfare
Association in Taiwan, 66% of the working mothers surveyed said they feel
heavily burdened and need more support from the society to help them raise
their children. Among these working mothers, 76% said their biggest wish is
to spend more time with their children, 46% wished to have successful
careers, and 37% hoped that they did not need to worry about their
children's tuition.

*Cambodia*

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday his government is pushing
ahead with a planned amendment of the labor law to reduce nighttime pay for
garment factory workers, who are paid twice as much as those on the day
shift.

He said the move is crucial for creating more jobs in an industry, a major
hard-currency earner for the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.

The country currently has 300 garment factories that employ 355,000 workers.
But only about 10 of the factories run night shifts because the higher pay
is a "disincentive," said Ken Loo, secretary-general of Garment
Manufacturers Association in Cambodia.

He said lowering nighttime payment will not only create more jobs at the
factories but will also increase peripheral economic activities for those
operating transport and selling food to the workers at night.
*Pakistan*
** All Pakistan Trade Union Federation strongly condemned the removal of
Chief Justice Iftekhar Mohammad Chowdary by President Musharraf and
curtailing of his freedom of movement by putting him under house arrest has
resulted in an unprecedented protest from lawyers, workers and people around
the country. Bar associations, lawyers and working class all over Pakistan
extremely support chief justice.

The outpouring of support for the Chief Justice was merely an expression of
the enormous frustration the people have felt by the continuous suppression
of all freedoms by the military regime and particularly the consistent
attack on the independence of the judiciary. It was a worst judicial crisis
in Pakistan.



*Korean*





SEOUL, May 17 (Yonhap) -- A group of top unionized civil servants offered to
resign Thursday amid a growing dispute over whether their labor union should
become a legalized body.The Korean Government Employees' Union (KGEU) was
launched in 2002, but they have yet to register with the Labor Ministry,
which they believe will not provide them with rights equal to those of other
labor organizations.
The union has been embroiled in internal fighting as one quarter of its 186
local chapters decided to take steps to become independent legalized labor
entities.
"Our comrades who have shared joy and sorrow are directing violence and
abusive language against each other, only because they have different
opinions over how to surmount a crisis in our organization," said the 10
members of the KGEU's executive council in a statement posted on the
organization's in-house communication network.
The council is a 30-member decision-making body.



*Chaina*

This power imbalance between owners and workers in China means that almost
200 million Chinese workers go to bed every night in overcrowded dormitory
rooms after having worked eighteen-hour days in Dickensian factories where
some employees are literally worked to death. The phenomenon has even added
a new word to the Mandarin vocabulary: *guolaosi*, or overwork death, where
fatigued workers fall off their stools bleeding from the ears, nose and
anus. **

**

*Japan***

A record 205 individuals qualified for workers' accident compensation
insurance in fiscal 2006 after being diagnosed with depression and other
psychological disorders brought about by work-related stress, the health
ministry said Wednesday.

The figure, which is about 1.6 times that of the previous year, offers the
strongest indication yet that despite better economic conditions, life for
the average Japanese worker has not improved substantially



*Vietnam***

*Vietnam**: Farm-workers' union members remain in jail*

May 15th, 2007 by jef costello <http://libcom.org/user/jef-costello>

Five organisers from the independent United Workers-Farmers Organization,
were arrested and remain in prison.

In Vietnam independent unions are illegal, Nguyen Tan Hoanh, Tran Thi Le
Hang, Doan Huy Chuong and his father Doan Van Dien were arrested in November
last year, a month after the organisation was launched. Tran Quoc Hien was
arrested in January this year after his election as a spokesman for the
UWFO.

The union has tried to demand safer and better working conditions and an end
to corruption and land seizures.

**

**

*Vietnam***
Dynamic outsourcing shows urgent need for policy May 16, 2007

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union is renewing its calls for
government to change its approach to manufacturing following the
announcement of 200 job losses at Christchurch-based high-tech manufacturer
Dynamic Controls.

The job losses are the result of the company's decision to send its mobility
and respiratory manufacturing divisions to China and are likely to impact on
most of the 61 EPMU members who work at the company.

EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little says the closure of Dynamic shows more
needs to be done to maintain New Zealand's manufacturing sector.

"Like Fisher and Paykel, Dynamic is a company that has based itself around
high skills and innovation and yet they're in the process of moving
offshore. We need to look at an approach to manufacturing that offers more
than platitudes about 'Kiwi know-how' and focuses on the real reasons
manufacturing is struggling in New Zealand.

"We're expecting the select committee inquiry into monetarism to address
some of these issues but when a sector that provides a quarter of a million
jobs has coherent framework let alone ministerial representation the
problems will continue."

The EPMU is New Zealand's largest manufacturing union.



*Sri Lanka***

Thousands suffer as health workers go on strike

*By Sandun A Jayasekera*

Health care activities at Colombo National Hospital and other General
Hospitals in the country were crippled yesterday when health employees
staged a half day token strike to protest the introduction of Finger Sensing
Machines to register the arrival and departure at their work places.

However Colombo National Hospital Director Dr. Hector Weerasingha told the
Daily Mirror that he managed to maintain essential patient care services
with the help of available doctors, para medical staff, nurses and some
minor employees,.

"The OPD and the ICU functioned at almost a normal level and food was
provided to indoor patients with the assistance of some relatives of the
patients," Dr. Weerasingha said.



* *

* *

* *

*Indonesia***

*The Jakarta Post*, Jakarta

Tens of thousands of workers staged noisy rallies in major cities throughout
Indonesia on Tuesday to mark International Labor Day and to voice a number
of demands around welfare improvement and work safety.

But each of their demands -- which included making a public holiday of May
Day, safer working conditions, hikes in basic wages and tax exemptions for
low-income families -- was turned down by the government.


*Malaysia* *Union-busting at BAT Malaysia*


Starting in September 2006, British American Tobacco (BAT) has launched two
initiatives intended to seriously undermine the negotiating power of the
44-year old BAT (Malaysia) Employees' Union (BATEU). The key weapon in this
union-busting drive is job reclassification of employees to "management"
status, because under Malaysian labour law managers are ineligible for union
membership. Similar tactics have been used to radically reduce union
membership by other TNCs including Nestlé and Coca-Cola in the Asia/Pacific
region.

* *

*Thailand*

*Thai Gem-Polishing Firm Again Bringing Labour Problems to the Fore***

A gem-polishing dispute that saw intense ICEM involvement in 2001 has flared
again at Almond Jewellery in Bangkok. The New York-based jewellery exporter
locked out 254 workers on 9 April.

Workers are in protest over the firing of two key leaders of the plant-level
union, which occurred in September 2006, and management's refusal to enter
into to obligatory social talks over renewed labour terms. Workers began
picketing the factory on 17 April. On 19 April, 200 of Almond's workers
marched to the Government House in Bangkok and presented a petition. They
were joined by trade union leaders from ICEM's Thai-affiliated unions.



*SINGAPORE*
 A Singapore opposition politician on Sunday started his walk across the
city-state as part of his party's activities to highlight the plight of
Singaporean workers on May Day.

Chee Soon Juan, secretary general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP),
and his sister, Chee Siok Chin, began their walk under the rain at a park
bordering the financial district just after 6:00 am (2200 GMT).

"It's very alarming that our workers can be paid the amount that they are
paid and ministers continue to lavish themselves with such salaries," Chee
told AFP before he began his walk.

"Workers here are still very much exploited," he added.

Wearing a T-shirt with the words "Walking For Our Workers" on the back, Chee
said he did not expect authorities to stop them, as the walk involved less
than five people.

Public protests of five or more people in Singapore require a police permit.

The pair expect to complete the 150-kilometre (93-mile) journey by Tuesday,
which is international labour day, or May Day, Chee said.




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round-up, please email nanakorn at gmail
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