Welcome to the first edition for 2010 of AAWL's labour news, an e-newsletter that brings you updates and events about the labour movement in the Asia Pacific region.

Comments and feedback are welcome.

Workers change the world. 

March 8 is International Women's Day (IWD). IWD originated in the USA in 1908, when women garment workers held demonstrations protesting against their appalling and dangerous working conditions. Women's struggles is union business.

AAWL, in solidarity with workers internationally, will celebrate IWD on the 8th of March in Melbourne, Australia. AAWL will read out IWD messages from international organisations at this time. You can send these to aawl@aawl.org.au

May 1st is international labour day. AAWL will join workers all around the world on the 1st of May to celebrate May Day in Melbourne, Australia. 

AAWL would like to write a joint May Day message together with comrades around the world, suitable for reading at workers' rallies and meetings on 1 May 2010. We would like the joint May Day message to be able to be published on websites and in publications together with the names of the endorsing organisations.

If you are interested in participating, contact us at mayday@aawl.org.au. We intend to circulate an initial draft to interested organisations in February 2010.

You can get more information about AAWL on our website, and you can see previous statements we have published here and here

Ending 345 days of hard negotiations over the Yongsan fire that claimed six lives, 5 demonstrators and one police, during an eviction from a redevelopment site, the developer and victims reached an agreement in late December 2009.

It is estimated that 3.5 billion won ($3 million) was offered to the families of the five squatters. The families had refused to hold funerals for the five until they got compensation from the Yongsan developer. The public funeral was held on the 9th of January.

Under the agreement, families were granted ownership of an arcade and the right to run restaurants for construction workers when the redevelopment project restarts. Nevertheless, the evictees' stressed that the tragedy of the Yongsan fire hasn't ended.

"Prosecutors are not opening the 3,000 pages of investigation records from the Yongsan tragedy [that we demanded] and the truth of the incident still remains shrouded," the evictees' groups said in a statement. "If there are no fundamental changes made to policies concerning new town and redevelopment projects, there's no guarantee that another Yongsan tragedy won't happen somewhere else." More information here and more pictures here.

Jafar Ebrahimi, the teacher trade unionist that was held in jail simply for trying to organise a union meeting, was freed on bail in December. However, Education International remains concerned about the continued detention of Farzad Kamangar, Rasoul Bodaghi and Hashem Khastar. EI addressed a letter to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei and the Head of the Judiciary to suspend the execution of Kamangar and to allow for international delegations to visit him in prison and to observe his upcoming court case.

Farzad Kamangar, who is accused of acting against the security of the country, remains in Evin Prison, despite what his lawyer says is a total lack of evidence against him. More information here.

Members of the Maritime Workers Union who have been shifting asbestos from Barrow Island for the Gorgon gas project are refusing to return to work until their safety is guaranteed.

Workers were exposed to asbestos fibres from pellets dug up and transported from Barrow Island. Asbestos was used in pipes and fences about 40 years ago and buried when oilfields were first developed.

The Maritime Union of Australia is demanding an inquiry after laboratory tests confirmed workers had been exposed to asbestos while working on the $43 billion Gorgon project on Barrow Island.

The WA Branch has reported unsafe shipments of asbestos to WorkSafe and alerted other unions on the island after tests confirmed asbestos was being shipped and stevedored without safety precautions.  Both ships crew and waterside workers have been exposed to the deadly dust. Full story here.

In a major win in the closing weeks of 2009, unions representing more than 1,200 workers at Nestlé India’s factories in Moga, Ponda and Bicholim signed collective bargaining agreements on wages and benefits for the first time - marking a major achievement in their year-long struggle for the right to wage bargaining. The agreements also include wage scales and wage information that previously were declared ‘secret’ by management.

This achievement is even more remarkable because Nestlé India management refused to recognize the union at Nestlé Ponda, Goa, when it was formed in 2001, resulting in a legal case that management deliberately delayed for eight years, seeking no less than 54 adjournments. Read full story here.

Some 10,000 workers of the former state-run tobacco monopoly, their family members and supporters are currently demonstrating in Ankara in protest against a snap government decision to close their workplaces at the end of January 2010. They demand fair treatment in accordance with the law, which means the transfer to other public enterprises with their full employee benefits.

Lead by their union Tek Gida Is, the food workers union, the TEKEL workers who gathered in the country’s capital are resisting attacks and assaults by the police, the state, the bosses and the weather.

The president of Tek Gida Is, gave a statement to the workers in front of the largest labor union confederation Turk-Is, where he said the demands of the workers are very clear as they reject all government plans to privatize the jobs and take away the benefits of the workers.

More images and information from sendika.org here. IUF campaign information here.

Clerical workers at The Age have taken protected industrial action outside the new headquarters in Collins St, Melbourne, after newspaper management allowed negotiations to break down.

Workers are taking action after the newspaper’s management refused to budge on a 2.25% wage offer, and insisted on a flexibility clause that would allow overtime and other conditions to be taken away from individual workers.

AMWU Organiser, Nadia Machlouch said that the 100 workers had received lower pay rises than other Age and Fairfax staff in previous years and were no longer prepared to miss out.

Full report from AMWU here.

The National Garment Workers Federation organized a rally of garment workers named "Garment Workers Human Rights Protection Rally" in the capital city Dhaka. Several hundred garment workers participated in this with red flags. It was led by the president and general secretary of the NGWF, Amirul Haque Amin and Miss Safia Pervin. From the rally it urged the government and employers to protect trade union rights in the garment sector because this is a human right. Also mentioned though according to the law garment workers have the right to organize and bargain but that is not the reality. And it happens because of the weakness of the labour laws, absence of commitment of the government and anti-union attitude of the employers.

The Bangladesh EPZ (Export Processing Zone) Workers Center, an organization initiated by the National Garment Workers Federation in 2000, also organized a Rally of EPZ workers in Dhaka. More than a hundred EPZ workers participated in this rally. It was called the "Trade Union Rights - Human Rights Rally". It was led by the Workers Centre co-ordinator and member secretary - Amirul Haque Amin and Mrs Jessmin Begum. The rally raised the issue that, ignoring international law, Human Rights and the country's constitution, EPZ workers are deprived of trade union rights - that is a violation of human rights.