Where trade unionists start their day on the net.
In this week's mailing:
* Outsourced, pay cut, sacked
* What's your home page?
* "Union avoidance"
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OUTSOURCED, PAY CUT, SACKED
Unfortunately, this will be a familiar story to many of you.
You've got a job with an employer who decides to save money by outsourcing your job to a contractor. The employer sacks you and then the contractor re-hires you -- with a 60% pay cut. And we're not talking about high-paid workers here. This is a story about a very determined group of hotel workers in South Korea.
What the Marriott Renaissance Hotel did was illegal, even in South Korea, but when the workers took legal action, they were sacked.
This happened on New Year's Eve 2005. And every day since then, they have been on the picket line, demanding justice.
Their global union federation (the IUF) has launched an online campaign in their support. Please send off your messages today, from here:
http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/campaigns/show_campaign.cgi?c=213
You can get more detailed information here:
http://tinyurl.com/npfhf
Please spread the word!
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WHAT'S YOUR HOME PAGE?
We want to know how you start your day on the net. We've prepared a very short online survey (only 5 questions). It will take you only a few seconds and will help us a great deal. Please click here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=484522678597
Thanks.
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"UNION AVOIDANCE"
What an unpleasant term! It reminds one of "ethnic cleansing" and "collateral damage". And yet this term is increasingly used in the world of business to describe what we in the unions call "union busting".
The last issue of International Union Rights (a quarterly journal) focused on "union avoidance" and noted that "hostility to unionisation is now the norm throughout the Anglo-Saxon world". That issues's articles provided an overview of employer opposition in four Anglo-Saxon countries -- Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand as well as the role of union avoidance consultants in promoting aggressive employer opposition in the United States.
International Union Rights is essential reading for everyone who reads LabourStart and who cares about trade unions. I strongly urge you to subscribe online today:
http://www.labourstart.org/ictur/
Have a great weekend.
Eric Lee
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