Unions targeted all over the world

Today is international Labor Day. Though many Americans associate the May 1 Labor Day with communism, it's actually been long celebrated in most countries of the world.

Given that celebration, here are a few articles on the difficulties faced by labor union organizers, both abroad and at home.

-Labor activists targeted in Cambodia.

Hy Vuthy, a prominent member of the Free Trade Union of Workers in the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTU), was shot dead while riding his motorbike home on 24 February. The FTU president at the Suntex garment factory had just finished his night shift when he was gunned down within a kilometre of his workplace in the Dangkao district of the capital, Phnom Penh. To date, no one has been arrested for the killing. He is the third FTU official to be killed in three years...

In recent years, attacks on FTU activists have intensified, with perpetrators going unpunished and the government failing to take any action to reverse the trend of violence. The FTU is one of the largest trade unions in Cambodia and is especially active within the garment industry, campaigning against the exploitation and sub-standard working conditions of garment workers. With high profits at stake, FTU’s actions have been met with a ruthless counter-campaign of harassment and intimidation.



-Union activists in Colombia are being assassinated by right-wing death squads. Most disgustingly, the death squads were apparently given their information by the 'democratic' country's intelligence services. It doesn't help that eight members of Colombia's Congress have been imprisoned for working with these death squads. All the Congressmen have ties to President Alvaro Uribe.



-Union busting tactics at Wal-Mart are nothing new. But according to a piece in the UK Guardian, the retail giant's abuses are so bad that it merited a damning report by Human Rights Watch... an organization usually more concerned with dictators and mass murders.

The daily explained: The company is accused of focusing security cameras on areas where staff congregate and shifting around loyal workers in "unit packing" tactics to ensure votes for union recognition are defeated.

American store bosses get a "manager's toolbox" - a manual which openly describes itself as a guide on "how to remain free in the event union organisers choose your facility as their next target".

They are told to phone a special "union hotline" if they suspect staff. Teams of union busters are then sent from Wal-Mart's Arkansas headquarters who regale workers with vitriolic presentations on the perils of unionisation.

[...]

In a breach of US law, Wal-Mart has allegedly banned union organisers from distributing flyers outside its stores and has confiscated literature found on the premises. Since Wal-Mart began in 1962, there has only been one successful formation of a union - among meat cutters in Texas seven years ago. The department was subsequently shut down - an act ruled illegal by US labour authorities.



-Want to scaremonger against a union? The same Guardian piece on Wal-Mart had this interesting nugget.

Paul French & Partners specialises in making bespoke, glossy films dramatising the so-called impact of union recognition - strikes, redundancies and uncompetitive, failing businesses.
Wal-Mart uses Paul French to produce films ostensibly to explain "the facts" to workers about union membership. But the Georgia-based firm's website makes no bones about its true purpose - to prevent union recruitment drives.

Its clients include General Electric, Fruit of the Loom, Lockheed Martin and Wrangler.

An anti-union propaganda piece by French & Partners for Delta Mechanics, depicts organisers as silky-tongued manipulators who pressurise staff around the clock until they join.

A third film for Allied Holdings dramatises the pain of redundancies caused when union-negotiated pay rises make a company uncompetitive.



Such demonization by management is to be expected. Certainly there are union abuses in some cases that make the workers suffer. But in most cases, unions are clearly a net good for their members.

But in many cases, unions benefit society as a whole. Let's not forget they were the unions who fought for things like the 40-hour work weeks, workplace safety regulations and paid vacations, things that most American workers take for granted now, whether or not they belong to a union.

Trade unions in Zimbabwe are seen as one of the biggest threats to the appalling dictatorship of Robert Mugabe. So much so that the country's forces of disorder have banned unions from any May Day celebrations. Union members have also faced death threats by Mugabe's thugs. But they are also the only organized group able to put pressure on the regime to address the country's unfathomable inflation rate and lack of basic goods.

In Guinea, West Africa, trade unions were instrumental in forcing the country's strongman to back down and name a technocrat prime minister to lead the government instead of another crony. Their general strike also pushed the regime to put a cap on the skyrocketing prices of rice (the country's staple food) and fuel (which affects the price of the public transport that most citizens use). All Guineans, not just union members, benefited from this.

Update: This article from The Washington Post caught my eye. Circuit City fired 3,400 of its highest-paid store employees in March, saying it needed to hire cheaper workers to shore up its bottom line. Now, the Richmond electronics retailer says it expects to post a first-quarter loss next month, and analysts are blaming the job cuts.