metals

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.

Female precarious workers for the Korean firm Kiryung electronics today enter their 1,100th day of action in demand of direct employment.

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.

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
by Alternative Libertaire

The occupation began on March 26th, with the workers producing a list of 11 demands including a 50% wage increase, and the restoration of previously suspended parts of the workers welfare packages.

With a lot of rhetoric and propaganda the Chavez administration has advanced different examples of co-management which, they claim, demonstrate their desire to transform Venezuela’s relations of production. A compañero from Europe visited us recently and got to know two of the most celebrated cases: Alcasa and Invepal.

Members of the Sintracerromatoso union at the nickel mine operated by Cerro Matoso, a subsidiary of the multinational company, BHP Billiton, have begun a strike after negotiations failed to produce an agreement with the company.

Germany's main metal workers union, IG Metall, estimates that up to 10,000 workers participated in the strike on Thursday, most of whom work in the major industrial region of the Ruhr Valley. The strike affected over a dozen plants, including the ArcelorMittal factory in Bremen, where 1,500 workers succeeded in shutting down the plant for the day.