metals
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in manufacturing, research and development, mining and materials around the world.
Burnsall strike 1992 - European Counter Network
Report on a 1992 strike at a metal finishing company following a worker suffering miscarriage, after management refused her light duties.
Asian women at Burnsalls, a metal finishing company in Smethwick, have been on strike since June for better health and safety, equal pay, and union rights. Conditions in the factory were so bad that one worker suffered a miscarriage after her request to be transferred to lighter duties was refused by management.
Mongolia: strike at gold mine ends in partial victory
Workers at the Boroo gold mine in Mongolia won enhanced redundancy benefits from their Canadian employer Centerra Gold Inc. on the 16th of June after a three week strike.
The union had been negotiating for months demanding higher wages, better severance pay, and investigation of potential cyanide leakage into the environment. Workers went on strike on the 26th of May when the company suddenly announced that 50 workers were to be terminated.
Galvanising the steel strike, 1980 - Solidarity
An article from Solidarity on the British Steel Corporation strike of 1980, which was one of the early blows of the Thatcher government against workers' organisation in the UK.
The advance publicity given to the steel strike promised us yet another confrontation between the government and the trade unions. It was a confrontation which the unions were determined to avoid, and the government equally determined to provoke.
1,300 manufacturing workers wildcat in Vietnam
The wildcat strike of more than 200 workers from a company in the central Quang Ngai Province escalated on Thursday.
Since Thursday morning, around 1,300 South Korean-owned Doosan Vina Company employees, gathered in front of the company office in the Dung Quat Economic Zone to emphasize their demand for proper payment of allowances.
Strikes hit German car industry
8,000 workers launched a series of co-ordinated strikes at automobile and electronics companies as it and employers spar over wage increases.
The strikes took place at 17 companies, the union, IG Metall, said in a statement.
Car maker Audi was particularly hard hit, as 4,000 workers walked off the floor of an Audi plant in the southern city of Ingolstadt, the union said. Another 1,000 spots went unfilled after a nightshift ended at an Audi plant in Neckarsulm, to the west.
Arrests of Korean trade unionists continue
Following a wave of strikes, the South Korean government has unleashed a massive attack against the Korean Metal Workers' Union targeting more than 75 of the union's key leaders for arrest or investigation.
With the recent arrest of Hyundai Motor Branch First Vice-President Kim Tae-gon on September 16 and the arraignment of Jung Gab-deuk, president of the Korean Metal Workers' Union (KMWU), on September 18 on charges of obstructing business, members of the KMWU are bracing for more assaults. Leaders of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions have also been targets of arrest.
Korean three-year struggle against precariousness
Female precarious workers at Kiryung Electronics Satellite Radio plant in Seoul enter their 1,100th day of struggle.
Female precarious workers for the Korean firm Kiryung electronics today enter their 1,100th day of action in demand of direct employment.
Aircraft machinists strike in Kansas
More than 100 striking machinists lined the streets early Monday outside the Hawker Beechcraft plant in Wichita, Kansas.
The first day of their work stoppage appeared to go smoothly in what is the first machinist strike against the company since 1984. Among the strikers was Juice Bruner, 35, a second-generation machinist who has worked at the plant for 12 years. His father worked at the plant for 42 years before retiring.
Bolivian miners strike against Morales pension reform
The Bolivian government has lost over $1.5 million due to a strike at the country's largest tin mine, Huanuni, where workers are demanding a deeper pension reform.
Roberto Montano said the state-owned mine has been losing about $500,000 a day since workers went on strike, halting production, on Thursday afternoon. The official said the mine always closed on Sundays.
"They (the workers) are staging an indefinite general strike [...] they're waiting for negotiations between the Bolivian Workers Central and the government," Montano said.
The Ecological Challenge: Three Revolutions are Necessary
With a planetary ecological crisis on hand, it can no longer be denied that socialism will be incompatible with mass production and mass consumption. Indeed, even without returning to Malthusian catastrophe theories, we are forced to admit that the planet’s resources are not inexhaustible. These resources could provide for humanity’s needs, but only if they are used in a reasonable and rational way, i.e., in a manner directly opposed to capitalist logic, which in itself is a source of imbalance.
The Ecological Challenge: Three Revolutions are Necessary
by Alternative Libertaire
