2249개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
About 860 unionized cleaning personnel and janitors at Seoul's Korea, Yonsei and Ewha Womans universities began a (sit-in)strike at 6 a.m. yesterday after they failed to reach an agreement with the schools over the justified(!!) raising their pay Monday.
The workers, all of whom are "irregular" workers hired by out-sourced companies, have demanded 5,180 won ($4.63) per hour since October 2010, whereas the universities have offered only 4,320 won, which is the minimum wage in S. Korea.
According to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions(KCTU), which all the striking workers belong to, they asked for arbitration from the National Labor Relations Commission, a state-run arbitration organization, on Feb. 21.
On Feb. 24-26, KCTU said, 86.5 percent of the workers voted in favor of a strike if the commission failed to mediate the dispute by Monday.
Here some impressions from yesterday's first solidarity rally(by more than 800 workers and their supporters) inside Yonsei University:
Related reports:
☞ Campus cleaners strike over pay (K. Herald, 3.08)
☞ Cleaners' strike hits more universities (K. Times, 3.08)
☞ "장미대신 빨간 풍선을"...청소노동자 파업 결의대회 (NewsCham, 3.08)
[2.20] The End of the Strike at Seoul's Hongik Univ.
Cleaning workers, launched a sit-in strike in opposition to a mass layoff at Hongik University, clean up the site after they reached an agreement with a service enterprise through labor-management talks, Feb. 20. (source: Yonhap)
Yesterday's (bourgeois) Korea Times reported the following:
Hongik University workers reach tentative agreement
Cleaners, guards and other non-permanent workers at Hongik University reached a tentative agreement with their employers, ending the 49-day labor dispute that started with a sit-in protest at the school campus in Seoul.
The two labor supplying companies that fired them decided to rehire them and further negotiated with the school on their behalf, according to the unionized workers. The union of the workers is a member of the the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).
KCTUsaid Sunday that the workers have agreed with the companies regarding payments and working conditions during a meeting on Sunday morning with 86 workers of the 112 union members present. The settlement went through with 89.5 percent of the present voting for the settlement.
According to the agreement, the hourly wage will rise to 4,450 won for cleaners and 3,560 won for security workers on the condition of working eight hours a day, five days a week. The previous hourly wages were 4,120 won for cleaners, which was lower than the minimum legal wage of 4,320 won.
The companies also agreed to pay 50,000 won for meals and holiday bonuses respectively, along with making additional payments for overtime work.
According to the KCTU, the workers will return to work at the school starting from Monday.
The dispute among the workers, school and the labor-supply companies first emerged when some 170 janitors, cleaners and guards of the school formed a labor union Dec. 1 last year demanding higher wages and better working conditions.
The companies asked the school to reflect the demands but when it refused, they informed the workers of the termination of their contracts on Dec. 31 without notice.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/02/116_81737.html
Related articles:
☞ S.Korea: Dismissed workers fight for justice (GreenLeft, 1.30)
☞ 홍익대 청소노동자, 협상 타결...현장 복귀 (NewsCham, 2.20)
☞ 49일만에 ‘새해 첫 출근’한 홍익대 노동자들 (VoP, 2.21)
Related articles:
☞ A Message from Crane No. 85 (Hankyoreh, 2.16)
☞ Mounting protest (Hankyoreh, 2.16)
Two days ago the S. Korean ('left-liberal') Hankyoreh published the following piece, written by George Katsiaficas(*):
The Real Egyptian Revolution Is Yet To Come
Around the world, people are enthusiastically greeting the “Egyptian Revolution”-the astonishing victory won by the historic 18-day People Power Uprising. As events move more rapidly than anyone can anticipate, not only has Mubarak been deposed, his corrupt parliament has been dismissed and new elections promised within six months. People‘s ecstasy in the aftermath of these great victories belies the fact that Mubarak’s authoritarian system remains intact-nay, strengthened-by the ascension of Suleiman and the military to supreme power in Cairo. While the world hails the Egyptian “revolution,” a more sober assessment of recent events would question the accuracy of that label, at least for now.
If we look at other countries for comparison (and there are many recent examples of People Power Uprisings suddenly ending the reign of longstanding authoritarian regimes), I am especially struck by parallels with Korea‘s 1987 June Uprising, when for 19 consecutive days, hundreds of thousands of people illegally went into the streets and battled tens of thousands of riot police to a standstill. On June 29, the military dictatorship finally capitulated to the opposition’s demands to hold direct presidential elections, thereby ending 26 years of military rule.
As in Egypt on February 11, 2011, the man who made the announcement in Seoul on June 29, 1987 was none other than the dictatorship‘s No. 2 leader. Roh Tae-woo went on to become the country’s new president after elections marked by both a bitter split between rival progressive candidates and widespread allegations of ballot tampering. People‘s high expectations and optimism after the military was forced to grant elections turned into bitter disappointment. Throughout the country, new massive mobilizations were organized, during which more than a dozen young people committed suicide to spur forward the movement for change.
Like Suleiman, Roh was a long-time US asset with ties to a list of nefarious deeds. In 1996, Roh and his predecessor Chun Doo-hwan were convicted of high crimes, sent to prison, and ultimately ordered to return hundreds of millions of dollars they had illegally garnered. (Roh eventually returned around $300 million; Chun deceitfully pleaded poverty and, although thereby dishonored, he absconded with even more than that amount of Korea’s wealth.)
Roh was never linked to any direct act of sadism, but Suleiman is known to have personally participated in the torture of CIA rendered terrorist suspects. As “the CIA‘s Man in Cairo,” he helped design and implement the American rendition program through which dozens of suspected terrorists were kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured. Suleiman took a personal hand in the torture of Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib. In his memoirs, Habib recounted one torture session of electric shocks, broken fingers and being hung from meat hooks that culminated in being slapped so hard that his blindfold flew off--revealing Suleiman as the purveyor of the violence.
While Habib was innocent, another rendered suspect, Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, confessed to participation in training anti-US fighters and famously asserted under torture that ties existed between al-Queda and Saddam’s government in Iraq. That lie became one of Colin Powell‘s most significant assertions to the UN Security Council when the US convinced much of the world to attack Iraq. When al-Libi later recanted and threatened to expose his lie, he “committed suicide” in a Libyan prison-coincidentally at the same time as Suleiman made his first ever visit to Tripoli.
For his extraordinary efforts on behalf of the US, Suleiman found his fortunes rise. Thanks to WikiLeaks, we know today that almost three years ago, the US was prepared to elevate him to the top slot in Egypt. According to a US diplomatic cable of May 14, 2007, entitled “Presidential Succession in Egypt,” Suleiman was to be named vice-president (as occurred on January 29, 2011).
The chief of the Egyptian armed forces, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, like Suleiman and Mubarak, is a regime insider with long ties to the Pentagon. One U.S. Embassy cable released by WikiLeaks noted that, “Tantawi has opposed both economic and political reforms that he perceives as eroding central government power.” While Suleiman and Tantawi are clearly cut from the same cloth as Mubarek, my objection is not simply to these men but to the system they embody. For a genuine revolution to take place, Suleiman and his kind must be driven from power-even punished for their crimes-not elevated to the highest levels of government.
What the masses of Egyptians want is freedom from dictatorship and foreign domination. They want the right to participate in their own government and to do so freely, with a free press, and in a society where civil liberties are guaranteed. They want an end to the country’s poverty and to take back the mountain of wealth stolen by the super-rich.
As it seems that Korea‘s democratization might hold possible lessons for Egypt, so might the Philippines in 1986. Less than a year after the first “People Power Revolution” sent long-time dictator Ferdinand Marcos into exile, Corazon Aquino’s new government shot to death 21 landless farmers who marched in Manila to demand she keep her promises for land reform. The Philippines today is plagued by increasing hunger, and more than three million children are underweight and underheight. In 1973, students in Thailand overthrew a hated military dictatorship after 77 people were gunned down in the streets of Bangkok. After a two-year hiatus, one of the most free periods in the history of Thailand, the military bloodily reimposed dictatorship and killed dozens of students. In Nepal in 1990, fifty days of popular protests during which 62 citizens were killed won a constitutional monarchy, but within a few years, the royal family again seized absolute power. A 19-day People Power Uprising in 2006 ended the monarchy altogether, but only after 21 more unarmed civilians had been killed by the forces of order.
No one can anticipate the outcome of what has been set in motion in Egypt, but historical antecedents may provide insight into possible outcomes. Will the blood of the 300 murdered citizens in Egypt, like the hundreds of martyrs of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, water the tree of liberty? Or will their sacrifice grease the wheels as US banks and global corporations rush to replace “crony capitalism” with ever more profitable arenas for wealthy investors?
Young activists in Cairo remain camped in Tahrir Square-for now at least-where they have already had to stand up to the army‘s attempt to clear them out. Remaining steadfast, they are calling for substantive reforms-for a new system and democracy worthy of the name. Even with Mubarak gone, so long as his military commanders and chief of intelligence remain in power, nothing like a revolution can be said to have transpired in Egypt.
For that to be said, rather than celebrating their victory from high positions of power, Suleiman and his buddies should themselves be guests in the very prisons where they were previously hosts. The full turning of the wheel of justice-a revolution in the true sense of the word-demands nothing less. The sites where Suleiman tortured Habib and al-Lidi should become public museums open to ordinary Egyptians to sadly recount the country’s decades of suffering under the US-backed dictatorship of Mubarak. Instead, unless the movement continues to propel the country forward, Suleiman‘s torture chambers may be destined to be used against young activists whose only crime is to insist upon making reality what is today claimed by nearly everyone-a revolution in Egypt.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_opinion/463472.html
* G. Katsiaficas (whose mother was born in Cairo) is a professor of humanities at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. He is currently completing Asia’s Unknown Uprisings, a study of recent People Power uprisings.
Related articles:
☞ Egypt protesters remind army who is really in charge (Haaretz, 2.16)
☞ Waiting for a 'real' revolution (al-Jazeera, 2.16)
☞ Is the revolution being co-opted? (Asia Times, 2.15)
The (bourgeois) Korea Times published y'day the following report:
Hanjin Heavy locks factories
Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction (HHIC) imposed a lockout at its main shipbuilding yard and factories Monday, in reaction to a strike against a layoff plan by its union that started on Dec. 20. The company plans to make 190 employees redundant today as it previously announced.
The union pledged to continue their fight for the abolition of a massive layoff plan. On the same day, two more union members also joined a female protestor on a 50-meter-high crane in a shipyard in Busan, who has been there for over a month.
HHIC reported to the provincial labor authorities Monday that it had locked the Yeongdo shipyard and Dadaepo factory in Busan and its Ulsan factory to protect them from the union’s strike and protests.
The company and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) have been struggling against the layoff plan since December.
“Since they started the protest, they have caused financial and other damage to the company and related subcontractors,” an official from the company said. “It’s an inevitable decision to protect the company from illegal protests.”
Following the lockout, the company will only allow limited union members to enter the company’s properties on days of negotiation. It also ordered some 600 laborers to leave worksites immediately, and is considering calling the police to crackdown on illegal protestors.
Union members were in shock on hearing of the lockout, due to the unexpected move by the company.
“It’s too sudden. The company has not informed us of the decision yet. We learned it from news reports,” an official from the Busan office of the KCTU said. “We’re discussing necessary steps regarding the decision, but we’ll continue the strike until our demands are met.”
Kim Jin-suk, a member of the direction committee for the Busan office of the KCTU, has continued a protest from the 50-meter high driver’s seat of a crane at the company’s Yeongdo shipyard since Jan. 6.
She refused to stop the protest even after the court ruled she must leave the site and prohibited her from entering again. She now has to pay a one million won ($890) fine each day she continues the illegal protest.
She was joined by union members Moon Chul-sang and Chae Gil-yong on Monday.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/02/117_81390.html
Related reports:
☞ 한진중, 172명 해고 통보...노조 “끝장 투쟁이다” (NewsCham, 2.15)
☞ 한진중공업 '정리해고' 법정 간다 (OMN, 2.15)
Egypt, last Friday afternoon:
After 18 days of mass protests (at least 300 people were killed and thousands injured), finally it took just over 30 seconds for Egypt's "vice-president", Omar Suleiman (aka the "Sheikh al-Torture"), to announce that dictator-president Hosni Mubarak was standing down and handing power to the military.
"In the name of Allah the most gracious the most merciful," Suleiman read. "My fellow citizens, in the difficult circumstances our country is experiencing, President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak has decided to give up the office of the president of the republic and instructed the supreme council of the armed forces to manage the affairs of the country. May God guide our steps."
Well, that's a great victory for the pro-democratic movement in Egypt!!!
But the party - and what a party - is over. Now it's hangover time - and what a hangover.
The young democratic movement in Egypt is far from to be victorious: For now, it has resulted in a paradox. The dictator-president has indeed stepped down, but the protesters who demanded democracy are now getting a state under control of the military, an institution that by its very nature is far from a civilian democracy...(*)
Today's top figure in Egypt is Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, the country's defence minister who is not a known reformer (resp. he's well-known for his ant-reformist attitude: In 2008 he told senior American officials he was opposed to economic or political reforms in his country, claiming it would weaken Mubarak's regime, according to a leaked diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks).
And his main goal is to "restore law and order", demanded by the Egytian ruling class and supported by the so-called "int'l community", i.e. the ruling class in the U.S., the E.U. and the rest of the "civilised" world.
In a sign that the army will only tolerate a limited challenge to its power, al-Jazeera reported a short while ago that the "Egypt's military leaders are preparing to ban strikes and any act against 'chaos and disorder'..."
Today's Asia Times(HK) writes: At this stage, no one knows whether Mubarakism will survive with a minimal facelift; whether Mubarakism will co-opt the next elections while the army stays in the shade; or whether a real social and political revolution will radically, eventually reorganize all the structure of wealth and power in Egypt.
Mahmoud Nassar, one of the organisers behind the Tahrir Square protests, said the demonstrations would go on. "The revolution is continuing. Its demands have not been met yet," he said. "The sit-in and protests are in constant activity until the demands are met. All are invited to join."
Here some pieces about the armed forces' role (in behalf of the Egyptian dictatorship/ruling class) during the days of uprising:
☞ Military tortured, “disappeared” thousands of demonstrators (LibCom, 2.12)
☞ Egyptian army tortures protestors (Yedioth Ahronoth, 2.10)
☞ Egypt's army 'involved in detentions and torture' (Guardian, 2.09)
Related articles:
☞ Army orders last protesters to leave... (Haaretz, 2.14)
☞ Under the (Egyptian) volcano (Asia Times, 2.14)
Today is the 15th day of the Popular Uprising in Egypt.
But there is a growing number of observers, political "analysts" and Middle East "experts" who are saying that the COUNTER-REVOLUTION is already gaining ground...
For example Joshua Stacher (Assistant Professor of Political Science at Kent State University) wrote y'day the following:
Despite the tenacity, optimism, and blood of the protesters massed in Tahrir Square, Egypt's democratic window has probably already closed.
Contrary to the dominant media narrative, over the last ten days the Egyptian state has not experienced a regime breakdown. The protests have certainly rocked the system and have put Mubarak on his heels, but at no time has the uprising seriously threatened Egypt's regime. Although many of the protesters... and analysts have concentrated on the personality of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, those surrounding the embattled president, who make up the wider Egyptian regime, have made sure the state's viability was never in question. This is because the country's central institution, the military, which historically has influenced policy and commands near-monopolistic economic interests, has never balked... (in: Egypt's Democratic Mirage, Foreign Affairs)
Also y'day Pepe Escobar wrotes:
As predicted the counter-revolution is on, and brought by the usual suspects; the Egyptian army; Mubarakism's comprador elites; and the triad of Washington, Tel Aviv and European capitals... (in: Counter-revolution brought to you by..., Asia Times)
And today he's stating that "The Egyptian revolution is being dissolved right in front of the world's eyes by an optical illusion" (in: 'Sheik al-Torture' is now a democrat, Asia Times)
But finally, despite some (possibly inevitable under the current "balance of power") setbacks, the forces of the uprising - fighting for political and social liberation - still need our SOLIDARITY!
World Trade Unions Mobilising for Democracy in Egypt: February 8 Action Day
Trade unions around the world will join tomorrow a...
Day of Action for Democracy in Egypt
...following a decision by the ITUC General Council meeting in Brussels.
Unions will organise demonstrations at Egyptian embassies, and continue to press their governments to demand democratic transition in Egypt and to ensure that those responsible for the violent repression of peaceful demonstrations are brought to justice.
“We will continue to push the international community to put pressure on the regime of Hosni Mubarak to respect the wishes of the Egyptian people. Our support for Egypt’s independent trade unions and the other forces for democracy is unwavering, and we are determined that there shall be no impunity for the people responsible for the killings, assaults and intimidation of innocent people,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.
For more info please check out:
http://www.ituc-csi.org/world-trade-unions-mobilising-for.html
Related article:
☞ Australian unions join global day of action (ATUC, 2.07)
For more labour news from/resp. related to Egypt please check out LabourStart!!
For today's updated news please check out:
☞ Live blog Feb 7 - Egypt protests (al-Jazeera)
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