Philippines: Let’s All Work for a Better Party-List System (tags)
Recently, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) concluded its process of scrutinizing groups that will participate in the 2013 partylist election. It marked the end of a long and arduous process that the poll body has undertaken to cleanse the party-list system of fake partylist groups which have used and abused the system to advance their vested interests.
Philippine Airline workers intensify protest actions (tags)
The Philippine Airlines Employees? Association (PALEA) today asserted that Philippine Airlines (PAL) President Jaime Bautista?s announcement that they no longer acknowledge Gerry Rivera and Bong Palad as union officers exposes union busting as the real aim of outsourcing. ?Truly a fish is caught by its mouth. Actually PAL is not just recognizing me and Palad as union officers but 62% of PALEA?s leadership and 70% of its membership who have been illegally lockout and terminated. Outsourcing thus is tantamount to union busting,? stated Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of Partido ng Manggagawa (PM - Labor Party).
PHILIPPINES: Absent major policy reforms, there will be no social transformation (tags)
President Aquino?s communication advisers said the President?s second State of the Nation Address (SONA) will focus more on ?social transformation?. What would that mean in real sense, however, largely depend on how Filipinos would view their lives today and in the immediate future. And for the Filipino masses who have been used to hearing nice words from their leaders, this new buzzword assumes no meaning at all unless accompanied by major policy reforms.
Workers Party challenges Philippine President to protect labor rights at Hanjin (tags)
The militant labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) challenged President Benigno Aquino III (PNoy) to uphold and protect workers rights at the giant Hanjin shipyard in Subic, Zambales as complaints mounted of violations of labor and safety standards. Dozens of members of PM and the Philippine Airlines Employees? Association (PALEA) joined the Church-Labor Conference, an alliance of labor and religious organizations that is co-chaired by Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, in a rally this morning at Mendiola in Manila.
Thousands of militant workers march for higher pay in the Philippines (tags)
Manila, Philippines - Thousands of workers led by the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) and its allied organizations converged in key cities on Labor Day to reiterate their demand for better wages, improved economy, jobs, security of tenure for workers and an end to demolition of squatter shanties.
May Day Strike Against the War Shuts Down All U.S. West Coast Ports (tags)
On May 1, every port on the West Coast of the United States was shut down to demand an end to the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The historic May Day walkout by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is the first time ever that an American union has struck against a U.S. war. The union ranks defied the rulings of an arbitrator, who twice ordered them to go to work. They overcame the capitulations of the ILWU leadership, which didn't want the work stoppage in the first place, tried to water it down and cowered before the threats of legal action while waving the flag. The employers' Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) declared the May 1 port shutdown an "illegal strike." But after all the huffing and puffing from the bosses' mouthpieces, the dock workers pointed the way to defeating the imperialist war by mobilizing working-class power. In the end, it was more than a work stoppage. The dock workers' May Day strike against the war was a first step, a show of what it will take to bring down the warmongers in Washington. Their "symbolic" action was felt all the way to Iraq, where dock workers in two ports stopped work in solidarity with the ILWU. But it was only a beginning. What is needed is not only industrial action but a political offensive against the Democrats and Republicans, the partner parties of American imperialism, to build a class-struggle workers party.
For Workers Strikes Against the War! ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Against War (tags)
In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East.
ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan (tags)
In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. This is the first time in decades that an American union has decided to undertake industrial action against a U.S. war. The action announced by the powerful West Coast dock workers union, to stop work to stop the war, should be taken up by unions and labor organizations throughout the United States and internationally. And the purpose of such actions should be not to beg the bourgeois politicians whose hands are covered with blood, having voted for every war budget for six and a half years, but a show of strength of the working people who make this country run, and who can shut it down!
J24: National Rank and File Labor Conference in Chicago: Take Back Our Unions! (tags)
A one day rank and file labor conference on Sunday, July, 24 - the day before the AFL-CIO National Convention opens in Chicago.
Borders Books Union Worker Speaks (tags)
Borders Union worker speaks at the "Meeting the Challenge" labor conference