Support Fijian trade unionists!
A message to all members of UnionBook
| The trade unions of the Pacific island nation of Fiji are under attack.The trial of the leader of the Fiji Trades Union Congress is due to start this week.Please take a moment to join thousands of other trade unionists from around the world to send your message of protest:http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1086 Please Thank you! Eric Lee |
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Shiraz Socialist 
Jim Denham said,
August 31, 2011 at 8:23 am
Here’s your comment where it belongs, George; thanks for alerting me to this strange and annoying little quirk of WordPress (ie disabling comments without being asked to):
6.George Clinton formally known as Monsieur Jelly est formidable said,
August 31, 2011 at 1:07 am · Edit
wanted to say on yer Fiji post but no comments box…if ever there was a country deserving the moniker ‘apartheid state’ then that’s yer country right there. The people of Indian origin who live there are treated fuckking appallingly. Disgusting little tin-pot cuntry.
Jim Denham said,
August 31, 2011 at 8:17 pm
From the United Left e-list:
IUF
Uniting food, farm and hotel workers world-wide
On September 2, Daniel Urai, general secretary of the IUF-affiliated Fijian National Union of Hospitality Catering and Tourism Industries Employees (NUHCTIE) and union organiser Nitin Goundra will go on trial for “unlawful assembly”. Their real “crime” is to have met and advised members about pending collective bargaining negotiations with hotel management. The case is just one in a long line of incidents of assault, harassment and intimidation of union leaders in Fiji over recent months.
Fiji has been under a military dictatorship since 2006. In 2009 the Public Emergency Regulation gave powers to the government to ban any and all assembly in Fiji. Specific articles of the regulation gave police sweeping authority to limit freedom of movement and to arrest and detail people. The military government has also issued several decrees specifically aimed at curtailing labour rights.
However, the anti-union actions really stared to gather pace on July 29 when the government promulgated the Essential Industries (Employment) Decree which the Fiji Trade Union Congress says ‘effectively abolish all trade unions in Fiji”. On August 4 this was followed by another decree prohibiting check-off facilitates for all public sector workers.
A global campaign has now been launched to demand the government repeals the July 29 decree and other anti-union measures and stops the intimidation and harassment of trade union officials. Click here to send a message to the Fijian authorities. For more information, read the full story here.
Ron Oswald
General Secretary, IUF
International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF)
8, rampe du Pont-Rouge
1213 Petit Lancy, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 793 22 33
Fax: +41 22 793 22 38
website: http://www.iuf.org