Oil trade unions threaten
strike against Iraq war
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Atlanta city council, mayor back living wage
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Striking Belgium dock workers
clash with cops

Compiled by Eamon Martin

Mar. 8 (AGR)— Around 3,000 striking Belgian dockworkers were met with waves of tear gas, water cannons and a shower of anti-riot bullets on Friday as they demonstrated against a new European Union (EU) law that they fear will price them out of their jobs. Hundreds of dockworkers clashed with police outside European Union headquarters in Brussels over plans to open its ports to greater competition.

The demonstration erupted as the dockworkers, most from the northern seaport of Antwerp, hurled firecrackers, stones, bricks and bottles at riot police and lit up fires next to the headquarters’ entrance.

The EU building and Belgian government buildings suffered shattered windows and other minor damage. No arrests were made.

The Antwerp workers’ daylong strike shut down Europe’s second-largest port. Friday was a possible foretaste of actions planned for next week from Finland to Portugal against EU plans to permit shipping companies to use their own personnel to load and unload cargo. The work is now done by union employees. Union officials say the 6,500 dockworker jobs in Antwerp are under threat.

The move has met with widespread resistance and has galvanized port workers across the EU in their protests. In January, thousands of dockers staged a Europe-wide day of action in opposition to the directive. Strikes are expected next week in France, Finland, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus and other European nations.

“Workers will be mobilizing to reject an ill-conceived piece of political sleight of hand,” said Kees Marges, leader of the dock workers section of the International Transport Workers Federation.

Opponents claim the move will lead to cheap, untrained laborers replacing registered harbor workers.

EU officials insist the legislation is needed to break up monopoly control of port services and make them more “cost-efficient.”

Currently, Belgian dockworkers have to have a special qualification for dock work and their jobs are protected from outside competition by a national statute.

“My great-grandfather, grandfather, and father all worked in the docks before me. Now they [the EU] want to let all kinds of people come in to take my job. I have a house and two children. Do they want us to have to sell our homes?” said one worker.

“The Belgian government just wants more profit out of our labor,” said another.

Sources: Associated Press, EU Observer, Expatica News

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Atlanta city council, mayor back living wage

By Rosa Goldman

Atlanta, Georgia, Mar. 7— Ten members of Atlanta’s city council introduced a “living wage” ordinance at their meeting Mar. 3, supported by Mayor Shirley Franklin. If passed, the ordinance will require the city of Atlanta and every firm that does business with the city to pay employees at least $10.50 per hour with benefits or $12 without. The council’s Finance Committee is expected to decide Mar. 12 whether to ask for a public hearing on the proposal.

“Each day in Atlanta, thousands of working families struggle to make ends meet,” said Cindia Cameron, staff member of Atlanta 9 to 5 and one of the co-chairs of the Atlanta Living Wage Coalition. “Despite working full-time jobs, they do not earn enough money to pay for their basic needs.”

Coalition members say that although the city cannot pass a minimum wage law, it can set an example by helping workers who are paid with public funds. They believe the living wage would raise many poor families out of poverty; increase the tax base that supports government services; reduce the need for welfare and food stamps; make small businesses more competitive; and reduce the costly turnover in critical service jobs.

Monequi Dobbs testified that she cannot make ends meet after working for five months at City Hall for Barton Security, a contractor. “I work at least 40 hours a week, sometimes working an 11-hour shift, at a wage of $7 an hour.” She said that although she and her two-year-old daughter live with her disabled grandmother to save rent, she cannot afford a car to get to night school and is often in debt.

The city has already given raises to some 600 low-wage employees to bring them up to the “living wage” standard, for a cost of $800,000. This raise amounts to one quarter of one percent of Atlanta’s 2003 budget, but it benefited eight percent of the city’s workforce.

The proposed Atlanta living wage of approximately $22,000 per year is actually lower than the $26,779 cost of living for a family of three in Atlanta as estimated in a 2002 study by the Georgia Economic Self Sufficiency Project, sponsored by the Women’s Policy Group. The ordinance also requires that in future, city and contractor minimum wages rise along with the Consumer Price Index.

Some 80 cities and counties have already passed living wage ordinances, including Miami, San Antonio, and Alexandria, Virginia.

The Atlanta living wage ordinance is backed by a coalition of 90 local organizations including churches, women’s groups, service organizations, unions, youth groups, and advocates for human rights, children, and homeless people. Atlanta chapters of the National Council of Negro Women and the National Council of Jewish Women, the Reynoldstown Civic Improvement League, Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless, the Refugee Women’s Network and the Living Wage Campaign of Agnes Scott College are among the members. Mayor Franklin has declared the living wage one of her top legislative priorities.

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Oil trade unions threaten
strike against Iraq war

Calcutta, India, Mar. 10— A global meet of oil and gas sector trade unions has proposed a worldwide indefinite strike in the industry until a “peaceful solution” is found to the Iraq crisis.

The conference, being attended by representatives from India, France, Libya, Sudan, Vietnam, Palestine, Algeria, Greece and Norway, agreed that a strike was needed to deter “warmongers.”

The strike proposal has been floated by Norway’s Federation of Oil Workers’ Trade Unions (FOWTU) and is supported en masse by the attending trade unionists.

“Work in the oil and gas sector should be stopped so long as the warmongers do not give a guarantee of a peaceful solution to the crisis in Iraq,” FOWTU leader T. Nostaad suggested. The meeting decided to coordinate the strike call among the various oil trade unions across the world.

The meeting also resolved that Iraq was facing a conspiracy because of its oil. Participants discussed at length the possible impact on the oil sector if a war broke out in Iraq.

The three-day meet that began on Saturday drew about 100 oil and gas industry trade union leaders, including about 25 from overseas.

The convention discussed the allegedly increasing violation of workers’ rights in the oil industry and rampant job cuts in the present merger and acquisition regime.

In this regard, an International Labor Organization (ILO) report on petroleum and gas industry workers was also discussed.

The grim report had expressed great concern at the growing number of job cuts in the name of mergers, acquisitions, privatization and restructuring.

Organizations such as the London-based International Energy and Mines Organization, the Federation of Oil Workers of the Mediterranean Countries (Libya), and the Chemical Workers Federation of France participated in the conference.

Source: Hindustan Times

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