Where trade unionists start their day on the net.
In this week's mailing:
* Panama: Protesting workers sacked - urgent appeal for messages
* Very briefly: Guatemala, Spain, Ethiopia
* Labour website of the year: 13 days to go
* Listen and learn: trade union webmasters speak to Radio LabourStart
* Democracy is Power
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PANAMA: PROTESTING WORKERS SACKED - URGENT APPEAL FOR MESSAGES
Last year, our online campaign in support of Group 4 Securicor security guards in Jakarta, Indonesia contributed to a big victory. Workers who had been illegally sacked from their jobs were camped out at the company headquarters while thousands of you sent off messages to this transnational giant demanding justice. The workers were re-hired, and the combined power of international labour solidarity and the new communications technologies proven once again.
And now history repeats itself -- same company, different country. It used to be that a company could treat its workers well in one country (where unions were strong) but behave differently elsewhere. This is no longer the case. Let's make sure companies understand this.
Group 4 Securicor has sacked dozens of protesting workers in Panama, who have asked for an international campaign to be waged on their behalf, holding the company to account.
Please take 30 seconds and send off your message to Group 4 Securicor today:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=182
And spread the word - pass this message on.
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VERY BRIEFLY: GUATEMALA, SPAIN, ETHIOPIA
* Guatemala: The International Transport Workers Federation is protesting the execution-style murder of the leader of the dockers' union, Pedro Zamora. Details here: http://tinyurl.com/334fg7
* Spain - Canary Islands: The IUF is campaigning in support of the hotel workers union, whose leader was sacked and then offered a 300,000 Euro bribe. The union is campaigning under the slogan "Our union cannot be bought". They are asking for messages to be sent to the corporate management. Details here: http://tinyurl.com/35ngcl
* Ethiopia: The Education International is campaigning in support of detained teacher unionists who are currently being tortured. Details here: http://tinyurl.com/3yc3o5
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LABOUR WEBSITE OF THE YEAR: 13 DAYS TO GO
Voting for the 10th annual Labour Website of the Year ends on 31 January and so far thousands of you have voted for your favorite sites. If you've not yet voted, go today to http://www.labourstart.org/lwsoty/index2007.html
To make sure that others can easily vote for your favorite site, get the union webmaster to put up a 'vote for this site' link prominently on the front page. (See the link above for details.)
The best way to promote votes for your favorite site, as your probably know, is to email your members. The second best way is to mail them again. The unions which make the top ten are the ones which have emailed their members and placed 'vote for this site' links on their front pages.
If you voted but did not receive a confirmation email which you needed to click on, your vote was not counted. If you experienced difficulty in voting and wrote to us about it, don't worry -- we've received your message and are reviewing all complaints. Every vote will be counted.
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LISTEN AND LEARN: TRADE UNION WEBMASTERS SPEAK TO RADIO LABOURSTART
As part of the month-long celebration of excellence in trade union website design (coinciding with the voting for the labour website of the year) we're featuring interviews with the people who design and manage some of the best trade union websites in the world. So far, we've featured the following, with more to come:
* John Wood, new media officer at Britain's TUC
* Steve Ongerth, webmaster for the venerable Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
* Chris Lawson from Canada's CUPE, the country's largest union and two-time winner of the Labour Website of the Year
* Andrew Casey, from Australia's LHMU
All the interviews can heard on Radio LabourStart - http://radio.labourstart.org/ - and on our podcast, which is located at http://www.labourstart.org/radio/podcast/podcast.rss
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DEMOCRACY IS POWER
It certainly is. And it's also the title of this week's book of the week, described as a "hard-hitting how-to book written for rank-and-file activists and local officers who believe unions would perform better if the members were truly involved in making the big decisions." Check it out here:
http://www.labourstart.org/bookoftheweek
And have a great weekend.
Eric Lee
Texts appearing here are often press releases sent to us by unions and other organizations which do not appear elsewhere on the web. LabourStart takes no responsibility for their content.