lockouts
New Zealand Dairy Workers Locked Out
New Zealand company Open Country Cheese, part-owned by Talleys and tied to various National Party MPs via New Zealand's Dairy Investment Fund and Kaimai, is fighting dirty in an attempt to break workers seeking a collective agreement with basic redundancy and transfer of undertakings protection.
From Aotearoa Indymedia:
Strikes and lockouts in South Korea
As the economic recession hits South Korea, striking car workers have been locked out of their factory while earlier in the week construction workers go on strike in and around Seoul.
Ssangyong Motor Company has locked striking workers out of its plant to stop them disrupting production at the carmaker, which is in bankruptcy protection.
Unionised workers at the South Korean automaker have been on strike since May 21, demanding management keep the assembly line workforce at current levels in a self-rescue plan the company is devising under a court order.
Cab drivers wildcat against management racism
At least 25 taxi drivers in Saskatoon, Canada, have been suspended by United Cabs after raising allegations of racism and discrimination by their employer at a demonstration Wednesday. The company denies the allegations and says it moved to lock out the employees for a wildcat strike.
Around 50 drivers, mostly of Pakistani descent, gathered Wednesday night at a parking lot near the airport to raise concerns about alleged verbal abuse by company managers and to protest the firing of a co-worker.
Flight attendants stand strong against lock out across New Zealand
240 flight attendants spent Thursday 7th - Sunday 10th May locked out from work across Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The attendants are contracted to Zeal 320, a shell company owned by Air New Zealand, and operate on trans-Tasman and Pacific routes for the airline.
Despite doing the same job as flight attendants contracted directly to Air NZ, the Zeal crew are paid significantly less. The Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union (EPMU), which represents the workers, has been negotiating with Air NZ for months, but Air NZ have been unwilling to move towards pay parity for the Zeal staff.
New Zealand: Over 300 Wellington bus drivers locked out
Over 300 Go Wellington bus drivers and workshop workers who took industrial action to protest $12.72 poverty wages will be locked out from today unless they accept the companies offer.
Lockout Notice and Union media release | Workers Party: Background to Wellington Bus Lockout
Indymedia Exclusive: The company is accusing Wellington Tramways Union President Nick Kelly of stealing a bus and taking it to a union stopwork meeting.
Clothing company beating of Bangladeshi workers in Athens met with wildcat collective action
Bangladeshi workers in clothing sweatshop in Athens, Greece, were attacked by company thugs for refusing to work on Sunday. When their co-workers walked out in solidarity, the company fired 120 out of 180 of the working force. In response the workers have sealed the factory off forcing the company to withdraw the lay-offs and negotiate.
On Monday 23 of June 2008 Bangladeshi foremen and thugs in the pay of the “LADY FASHION” clothing sweatshop in Votanikos, Athens, attacked Bangladeshi immigrant workers who had refused to work in the previous day (Sunday being an official day-off in Greece), using iron bars and wooden clubs.
Mexico: 250 Corona bottle makers fired for forming an independent union
More than 250 employees of a factory that manufactures beer bottles for Corona (amongst others) in San Luis Potosí have been fired for associating with a legally recognised independent union. The factory's owners are also purging the factory of sympathisers of the sacked workers.
Almost two years of unionising activity had resulted in workers ousting the corrupt, mainstream Confederación Revolucionaria de Obreros y Campesinos (CROC) union from the shopfloor of the Industrial Vidriera Potosí (IVP) glass factory and replacing it with the independent Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Empresa IVP (SUTEIVP).
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange: union overtime ban forces trade to end three hours earlier
Following a declaration on Thursday (March 6th), the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange workers` union has declared an overtime ban. This has resulted in management closing down trading three hours early for two days straight.
The ban took effect on Sunday (March 9th), and has been maintained on Monday (March 10th) as well. This step is a direct response to current conditions, which preclude overtime pay from counting into workers` pension plans.
Mexico: miners strikes in Sonora and Guerrero
A long-running miners' strike in Cananea, Sonora continues despite strikers being repressed by police and military and a judge declaring it illegal. In Taxco, Guerrero however, the bosses respond to striking miners by closing down the site permanently.
The 1100 workers in Cananea have been out since 31 July, demanding improved hygiene and security, and show no signs of abating, despite the picket line being attacked by a combined force of 800 police (including the hated Policía federativa preventativa [PFP] who crushed the Oaxaca revolt in 2006) and milita
Mexico: Maquiladora factory closed after workers change union
The Vaqueros Navarra factory in Tehuacán, Puebla will never make another pair of jeans again following the victory of the leftist Frente Auténtico de Trabajo (FAT) over the corrupt unions in workplace elections.
Employees became suspicious when upon returning from a Christmas break (which management had extended to 21 January without offering extra pay), they were locked out, told that the factory's doors had not been ordered open. Two days later, the workforce - comprising of at least 450, the majority of whom are indigenous women - learnt of their universal redundancies.
