Vietnam
Content about workers' struggles, war and events in Vietnam.
Workers' struggles around Asia (September 2009)
A round-up of links to reports about workers' struggles around Asia (excluding China). Updated 1/10/2009.
This month where has been news from Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia and far eastern Russia. And now additional news courtesy of Welt in Umwaelzung (listed first).
Indonesia
Various protests from Cambodia to Malaysia, and Sweden.
Here are some links to articles on various protests that have taken place recently in Cambodia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and a strike by Vietnamese workers in Sweden.
Villagers in Cambodia have sent representatives to the government baring a petition asking for action over land grabs, which are becoming more common. 80% of the population live in rural areas, and there is no safety net, but as over 90% of land has no legal title (mostly destroyed under the Khmer Rouge) it is easy for companies, the rich and powerful etc. to simply take land.
Vietnam: The collapse of the armed forces
A US military officer reports on the increasing incidence of insubordination, desertion and rebellion in the US army over the course of the Vietnam War. While we obviously don't agree with the officer's political perspective, the article contains lots of useful information on the GI resistance movement during the Vietnam War.
Introduction
The morale, discipline and battleworthiness of the U.S. Armed Forces are, with a few salient exceptions, lower and worse than at anytime in this century and possibly in the history of the United States.
Vietnamese workers stage walkout over management bullying
Over 300 workers at a Taiwanese company, Hwata Vina, in Ho Chi Minh City went on strike July 3 after complaining about managers’ draconian rules.
They said that the company, which produces water tanks and Inox appliances for kitchens, had made unreasonable stipulations. For example, workers were permitted to go to the toilet just three times a day for five minutes each. Workers would not get paid for periods when electricity was cut.
500 Vietnamese textile workers wildcat for pay increase
About 500 workers at a joint-venture garment factory in Ho Chi Minh City have launched a wildcat strike.
Tran Van Truong, a police official in the ward where the Minh Phat Garment Company is located, said officers had been sent to the factory 'in case workers take extreme action, like damaging property.'
'End crackdown on labor activists' in Vietnam, says human rights group
The Vietnamese government should immediately free activists who have been unlawfully imprisoned for peacefully campaigning for workers' rights, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.
The 32-page report, "Not Yet a Workers' Paradise: Vietnam's Suppression of the Independent Workers' Movement," documents the Vietnamese government's crackdown on independent trade unions and profiles labor rights activists who have been detained, placed under house arrest, or imprisoned by the Vietnamese government in violation of international law.
Wildcat strike in Vietnam over New Year's bonus
More than 1,000 workers at a Taiwanese-owned garment factory in central Vietnam have gone on strike last Thursday (22nd January).
Ngo Gia Linh, a trade union official in the central Vietnamese port city of Danang, said workers at the Valley View Vietnam garment company struck Wednesday to demand the company pay them their one-month-wage year-end bonuses before the start of Tet, the Vietnamese lunar New Year.
Garment workers strike in Vietnam over management abuse
Nearly 4,000 workers at a Taiwanese footwear plant in Vietnam have gone on strike to protest alleged ill-treatment by their bosses.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/media/ALeqM5g-5VKZDTshv4LzNvyGAjccK-JcjA?size=m
Week-long strike in Vietnam factory ends
Wildcat strikers at a South Korean owned firm returned to work yesterday 11 December gaining promises of improved working conditions.
Thanhniennews.com reported that on Thursday last week, around 1,300 workers gathered in front of Doosan Vina Company office in the Dung Quat Economic Zone in the central Quang Ngai Province to demand proper treatment and payment of allowances.
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.
