Anarchoblogs

Last March Molly mentioned a solidarity campaign for workers at Gold Peak Battery in Huizhou China. Since then things have gone from bad to worse, and the latest incident involves the company hiring violent thugs to attack the workers. This is merely one incident out of many as workers in China are increasingly unwilling to accept poorly paid and dangerous sweat shop conditions. Here's the story in the form of a letter from the Good Electronics network.

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Violence used against protesting Gold Peak Battery workers in Huizhou, China‏
Dear Reader,

Earlier this year, you showed your support for the struggle of cadmium affected Gold Peak workers in China. Hundreds of protest letters were sent to Gold Peak. In response, the company sent a lame and noncommittal message, telling us to refrain from contacting GP’s customers as “facts show that GP is a responsible employer and our staff and workers are happy to stay with”. Globalization Monitor has continued working on this case. Today, I feel compelled to inform you about the most recent developments.


Since 16 August, ex-workers of Gold Peak Batteries who are suffering from excessive levels of cadmium are once again trying to engage the company into negotiations about compensation for their health problems. So far, GP has ignored the workers’ demands. On 24 August, over a hundred workers staged a protest outside Gold Peak's factory in Huizhou. Some hours into the demonstration, the protesting workers representatives were surrounded and beaten up by a large group of thugs. A number of workers were badly injured and needed hospitalisation. Shockingly, the thugs told that they were paid 50 dollars to beat up protesting workers. Reportedly, two GP security guards assisted in bringing in the thugs. Workers concerned point a finger at GP for staging this violent incident which is strongly condemned by civil society organisations in Hong Kong and elsewhere. Gold Peak however refuses to pay for the medical expenses. The workers raised fund among themselves in order to pay for the hospital bills.

In an open letter dated 25 August 2010, 200 workers express their shock and anger.


More information can be fund on the websites of the Hong Kong based labour rights group Globalization Monitor and GoodElectronics.
Sincerely,
Pauline Overeem
Network Coordinator
GoodElectronics
International Network on Human Rights & Sustainability in Electronics

The dispute at the Azteca restaurant in Warsaw Poland ( as reported the other day at this blog ) continues as do the pickets of the Polish anarchosyndicalist ZSP. Here from their website is the latest on their continuing actions.

It always does my heart good to see anarchists doing something practical. In Poland the anarchosyndicalist (take a deep breath) Zwiazek Syndykalistow Polski (call them ZSP for short) are picketing the Azteca bar in Warsaw because of the illegal and dishonest practices of the owner. Here's the story from their website.

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First Picket at Azteca Bar
On Aug. 20, ZSP held an action at Azteca Bar in Warsaw. We are demanding an end to the deliberate cheating of vulnerable workers in this cafe.

The problems which led to the conflict are the following:

1. The owner of the bar (Jakub Mazur) uses unpaid trial periods for workers. On top of that, he claims that he provides "training" to the workers and estimates the value of this training at 1300 zloties (326 euro). He gives the workers contracts which state that this money will be deducted from their salaries if they do not work a certain period of time. It is approximately one month's salary - for full-time workers, So if somebody works only one month, s/he will receive nothing.

Most of the workers are students, working part time. Our comrade, a high-school student, was earning about 500 zloties a month (125 euros), so this fake "training" would cost people like that almost three months' salary!

2. Besides this, our comrade was fired and the boss illegally withheld over half of the pay for "damages".

3. The boss tries to get students to agree to work illegally, without any contracts at all.

Azteca Bar is located near a student dormitory. These students, many who are poor kids from other cities struggling to study in Warsaw, are often desperate to find any work in a city with high youth unemployment. Work in Azteca Bar may end up for them as a few weeks or months of unpaid or underpaid labour. We therefore warn them against working in these conditions.

We demand that the bar pay our comrade his due salary, stop the practices mentioned above and raise the wages.

During the action, activists from ZSP blocked the cafe, spoke about the work conditions there and handed out leaflets to passersby. The owner of the cafe called the city guards and police who came but nothing happened. We spoke with the owner, who would not answer questions about his illegal practices and just kept repeating that we should send letters in writing to his bookkeeper and take him to court. We explained that we would come even every day to his cafe if we had to. And we will do exactly that today.

ZSP will also prepare some workshops for the students living in the dormitory on their rights as workers and is preparing a new booklet explaining about deductions and fines at the workplace. It is a common problem and, especially in restaurants and cafes we hear a lot about illegal deductions. We would like people to know what is legal and what is not and give them ideas for action to fight against such practices.

Molly first saw this appeal at the online labour solidarity site Labour Start. It comes originally from the Building and Woodworkers International union where more information on this struggle can be found. Interested readers might also like to check out the independent Cambodian news site KI Media.

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Cambodia: Reinstate sacked construction workers
The Building and Wood Workers Trade Union of Cambodia (BWTUC, an affiliate of BWI, has been struggling to organise the KC GECIN Enterprise, located at No.500, National Road 2, Sangkhat Chak Angre Loe, Khann Meanchey, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. KC GECIN Enterprises is a local construction company, owned by Mr. Kim Chhean, a Cambodian national. This company has two main construction producing sites - one located in Prekho, Kandal District and another main site is located in Kilo 10, Khann Russei Keo, Phnom Penh. It employs around 160 workers all in main headquarter and in the two main sites. However, instead of recognising the union and starting a process to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement, the company has resorted to drastic and discriminatory measures as evident by the illegal termination of 25 union leaders and activists on August 13th and another 25 members who had participated in a legitimate trade union seminar.

The theocratic rulers of Iran have long seen an independent workers' movement as a major threat to their rule and that of their business allies. Because of this repression of the workers is a regular occurrence in that country. The following appeal to release all jailed unionists comes from the Support Workers Councils In Iran group. You can sign the following petition by going to this link.

All jailed workers must be released!

Arbitrary arrests and detentions, long prison terms, violent interrogations, beatings, even use of lashing to degrade and break down, denial of medical care to sick detainees, constant harassment in the form of court summons, heavy bails and daily threats against workers and their families, and the ultimate weapon of cutting workers off their livelihood by firing them, make up a brutal regime of systematic persecution of labour activists in Iran.

We, the undersigned, demand that persecution of workers in Iran and terror and violence against them must stop. Workers in Iran should be able to freely exercise their fundamental right to set up their own organisations, meet, assemble and protest as they wish, take strike action, organise and take part in rallies without fear of being arrested and thrown in jail.

At the moment, Mansoor Ossanlou, Ebrahim Madadi and Reza Shahabi, of the Union of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, Ghorban Ahmadi, Ali Akbar Baghani, Hossein Bastani Nejad, Mahmoud Beheshti Langroodi, Rasoul Bodaghi, Mohammad Davari, Alireza Hashemi, Seyyed Hashem Khastar and Abdollah Momeni, of the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association, and two other labour activists by the names of Behnam Ebrahimzadeh and Mehdi Farrahi Shandiz continue to be imprisoned in Iran. Another jailed teacher, Mr Abdolreza Ghanbari, has been sentenced to death for taking part in the anti-government demonstrations of 27 December 2009.

We demand

• The immediate and unconditional release of all jailed labour activists in Iran
• The reinstatement, with all lost pay backdated, of all those dismissed for carrying out legitimate union activity
• An end to persecution and terrorizing of workers in Iran