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Vol. 72/No. 8      February 25, 2008

 
On the Picket Line
 
California campus workers
rally for higher wages
SANTA CRUZ, California—Several hundred workers, students, and others demonstrated at the University of California, Santa Cruz, January 31 to demand higher wages for campus workers. After a spirited rally in front of the campus bookstore the protesters marched to the chancellor’s office.

Workers told the Militant that with rising prices for rent and food, they are having a hard time paying their bills. Custodians, for example, start at $10.90 an hour. After seven years they make only $11.97.

The workers, including food service workers, janitors, shuttle bus drivers, and others, are members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299. Their contract expired the day of the demonstration.

—Betsey Stone

Vietnam factory workers
strike for more time off
Nearly 10,000 workers struck a toy factory in Danang, Vietnam, January 30, demanding higher bonuses and more time off for the Tet lunar New Year holiday, Agence France-Presse reported. The plant is owned by Hong Kong-based Keyhinge Industrial Co.

“Many of us live very far away,” a worker told the Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper. “With this low bonus and short holiday, we can’t even manage to go home for Tet.”

The Tien Phong Vietnamese daily reported that a strike began the same day at a shipbuilding plant in southern Khanh Hoa province. The plant is operated by Hyundai-Vinashin, a Korean and Vietnamese joint venture. Workers at a seafood plant in Hau Giang province also reportedly walked out that day.

Agence France-Presse reported that the minimum wage for laborers was raised in January, but “workers have complained the wage rise has not kept pace with spiraling food, fuel, and other consumer prices.” The government reports prices were up 14 percent in January, compared to a year ago.

—Paul Pederson

After strike, Ford workers in
Russia agree to wage deal
Workers at a Ford auto plant near St. Petersburg, Russia, have approved a contract with wage increases of 16 to 21 percent. The auto workers struck for four weeks in November and December.

The deal includes a pledge “not to repeat strike action in the immediate future,” according to a union leader interviewed by Reuters.

The plant produced 75,000 of Ford’s Focus models last year. Management plans to invest $100 million to boost capacity to as much as 125,000 Focuses in 2009 and open production on another model.

—Paul Pederson  
 
 
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