textiles
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in manufacturing, research and development, mining and materials around the world.
Egypt: New crackdown on Mahalla workers
A report posted from a libcom user in Egypt concerning repression following the recent wave of strikes there.
I just received a text (at 9.35 am) from a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Organization (Trotskyists) saying that state security have besieged the workers in Mahalla preventing them from going to Cairo. The workers started a strike immediately protesting security intimidation. Ghazl Shebeen workers have declared their solidarity and is threatening to launch a new strike.
Vietnam: 700 garment workers wildcat
Over 700 workers staged a wildcat strike Wednesday at a Taiwanese-owned garment company in central Vietnam demanding better payments and welfare.
The Thanh Nien Daily reports that at a mediation meeting later the workers of Quinmax International Company, Thua Thien-Hue province, were not impressed by Taiwanese director Xu Yun Ping’s promise to meet their demands in two weeks.
Egypt: Strikes continue despite clampdown
Workers centres have been shut down by police as the Egyptian government tries to quell the wildcat strikes sweeping the country.
Simon Assaf reported in Socialist Worker that "the Egyptian government has begun a crackdown on trade unionists at the heart of a recent wave of strikes."
In fact, the trade unions themselves have been vehemently opposed to the recent strikes, which have all been unofficial wildcat actions.
He continued:
Egyptian textile workers confront the new economic order
An analysis of the recent strike-wave in Egypt which involved tens of thousands of textile workers and a look at the history of labour militancy in the country.
For the last ten years Muhammad ‘Attar, 36, has worked in the finishing department at the gigantic Misr Spinning and Weaving Company complex at Mahalla al-Kubra in the middle of the Nile Delta. He takes home a basic wage of about $30. With profit sharing and incentives, his net pay is about $75 a month.
Vietnam: More wildcat strikes hit manufacturing
After 3,000 furniture workers struck on Monday, thousands more walked out over low wages.
Thanhniennews.com reported that over 4,000 workers walked out over low pay Monday at four foreign companies in the southern Vietnamese province of Dong Nai and as of yesterday were continuing to strike work at three of the firms.
India: Strike of 10,000 tailors enters seventh day
The indefinite strike of thousands of garment workers in Tirupur for a wage increase continues this week.
Chennai online reported that with talks to find a solution to the demand for increase in stitching charges remaining inconclusive, the strike by job working units for domestic innerwear brands in nearby Tirupur entered the seventh day today.
Egypt's wildcat strike wave continues unabated
As reported previously on libcom, tens of thousands of workers in Egypt continue to defy their unions and the government in the nation's state-owned industries to strike and occupy their workplaces.
The often-successful struggles are over wages, jobs and privatisation at a time when prices are rising, government-owned industries are being sold off and jobs are being slashed.
Dan Morrison on sfgate.com reported:
Bangladesh: Fifty garment workers beaten by hired thugs
Dozens of workers at a clothing factory were injured on Wednesday when over 200 outsiders, allegedly hired by the factory authorities, attacked the workers who were protesting against the bosses' beating of two of their leaders.
The Bangladesh Daily Star yesterday reported that the attackers, led by police informant and local hoodlum Mobarak, beat up the workers, mostly women, and also confined five workers to the office of an executive on the third floor of the seven-storey Padma Poly Cotton Knit Fabrics Ltd.
(Another) Paradise Lost - Strikes and riots in the Export Zones in Vietnam and Bangladesh, 2006
Information and analysis on the workers' movements and strike waves which have swept factories in Asia.
Update on Iranian workers' struggles
A round-up of recent struggles going on in Iran, including textile and petrochemical workers' strikes and opposition to new changes in labour law.
Security forces kill a worker and wounded others
Security forces opened fire on workers and drivers in Bandar-e Daylam’s (Persian Gulf Port Daylam) custom, killing one worker and wounding a few others in November 5, 2006.
