Trinidad &Tobago Labour News

Labour Day 2007

Labour Day 2006

Labour Day 2005

Labour Day 2004

Labour Day 2003

Labour Day 2002

Visit our Current Campaigns

Current Research

COLA & UNEMPLOYMENT

  OWTU's Media Releases

OWTU's Diary of Events

Quintin O'Connor Library

  Lyrics to OWTU's Union Songs

THE VOICE OF OWTU - Radio Feature 

Mon, Wed & Fri, 6:15 p.m. on   90.1 FM 

  Petrotrin - an HSE Time-bomb

OWTU SPEAKS ARCHIVES

FAQ's about Labour in T&T

 Annual Conference of Delegates

FITUN's Media Releases

Union Week

OWTU Bulletins

Labour Quote of the week:

"If Africa, East Asia, South Asia and Latin America were each to increase their share of world exports by one percent, the resulting gains in income could lift 128 million people out of poverty."

-www.maketradefair.com 

______________________________________

Make Trade Fair

Oxfam is determined not only to present a powerful case for change but to work to make change a reality. That is why they have launched the Oxfam trade campaign, MAKE TRADE FAIR. We know that trade will only become fair when large numbers of people demand it, in rich countries as well as in poor. We want to work with the many organisations and individuals around the world who are already campaigning to make sure that trade makes a real difference in the fight against global poverty. Together, we seek to build the kind of movement that has brought an end to apartheid, banned the use of landmines and made real progress in reducing Third World debt. The ambition is great and the task is not easy, but we believe that if this campaign succeeds, the lives of poor communities could be transformed in a way never seen before.

________________________________

Update from Labourstart

THOUSANDS ARE SACKED - BY TEXT

It's rare that we get a report that "Thousands are sacked - by text" 31 May 2003

Thousands of insurance staff were sacked by text messages today. The bulk of the 2,500 jobs were at the Manchester–based personal injury claims firm The Accident Group.

The redundancies came after The Amulet Group, The Accident Group's parent company, called in administrators.

Today, employees at The Accident Group, which in the past has been accused of aggressive selling methods, were told of their fate by a text message with a number to ring at head office.

You can find comprehensive coverage of the sacking here:

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=410945

To keep fully up to date on all health and safety issues, you should subscribe for free to the TUC's email newsletter, Risks, by going here:

http://www.tuc.org.uk/newsroom/register.cfm

 

PAKISTAN:

Management Orders Mill Union to Dissolve the Day After Joining National Sugar Industry Federation

Abdus Salam Memon, General Secretary of the Army Welfare Sugar Mill Workers' Union, speaking at the founding convention of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Workers' Federation in Karachi on 18th May 2003, where he was subsequently elected as National General Secretary. Barely a day after the inaugural congress of the Pakistan Sugar Mill Workers' Federation (PSMWF), one of the founding members, the Army Welfare Sugar Mills Workers' Union (AWSMWU), has been told to dissolve by the management. Abdus Salam Memon, General Secretary AWSMWU, was elected as Secretary General of PSMWF on 18th May 2003 at the first National Convention. Returning to his work place on the evening of the 18th he received a warm welcome from fellow workers. On Monday, 19th May, workers of the factory were congratulating him when the management called the union office bearers to the office of the acting general manager, Colonel (retired) Zahinullah Khan. The acting general manager showed the union officer bearers a confidential letter from the Director of Farms, Head Office, Army Welfare Trust (AWT), in which the director noted that the Army Welfare Sugar Mill was the only enterprise of AWT in which a union existed. The letter further noted that the sugar mill is running at a loss yet the union has continued to serve a charter of demands. Because of this, the letter stated, trade union activities in the factory cannot continue and the union should be abolished immediately LabourStart's full coverage can be found here: http://www.asianfoodworker.net/pakistan-sugarfed02.htm

Strike in Peru

LIMA, Peru - Peruvian labor unions and university students threatened to hold protests in defiance of a 30-day nationwide state of emergency, increasing pressure on embattled President Alejandro Toledo.

LabourStart's full coverage can be found here:

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/dbman/db.cgi?uid=default&db=default&view_records= View+Records&mh=100&sb=4&so=descend&Country=Peru

NEW LABOUR NEWSWIRES NOW AVAILABLE

At the request of some readers, we've now put together an Asian Labour NewsWire which you can have on your website by simply copying and pasting a single line of code. Full details are here:

http://www.labourstart.org/asia/test.shtml

We've also corrected a historic wrong by creating two Canadian newswires in the two official languages of that country. Similarly, now that we have correspondents posting Canadian labour news in French as well as English for the first time, we've separated out the two languages onto two news pages. Full details can be found here:

http://www.labourstart.org/canada/

LABOUR WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

This week's winner, Is called CyberLodge: Taking the labor movement open source. There's a site review on the front page of LabourStart and you can go directly to the site here:

http://www.cyberlodge.org/

SARS

Canada Strikes, SARS, Airline Crisis: Nurses still determined to hold convention in Toronto [CFNU] (More info) 01-Jun-2003

Canada Nurses union moves national convention to Toronto as SARS cases rise [Reuters] 01-Jun-2003

Canada Nurses point finger at govt [Straits Times] 31-May-2003

Canada Ontario cuts cause layoffs amid new SARS crisis [NUPGE] 31-May-2003

Canada Funding cuts force hospital layoffs during SARS crisis [OPSEU] 29-May-2003

Canada Focus should be on hospital worker safety, says CUPE [CUPE] 29-May-2003

Burma: military junta faces second ILO procedure on workers’ rights 30/5/2003

Brussels, 30 May 2003 (ICFTU OnLine): The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions today said it had started a new international legal procedure against Burma’s military government. The move came in the form of a 33-page formal complaint lodged on 28th May 2003 before the Committee on Freedom of Association of the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO, Geneva). With its 170 pages of annexes, the complaint provides overwhelming evidence that Burma’s military regime systematically violates one of the ILO’s key international labour standards, the Convention on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, or ILO Convention n° 87, adopted in 1948 and ratified by Burma in 1955.

More details can be found here:

http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991217531&Language=EN