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Vol. 71/No. 7      February 19, 2007

 
On the Picket Line
 
Miners in South Africa strike
against racist wage discrepancies
Some 2,500 mine workers in South Africa went on strike January 26 at the Modikwa platinum mine in Limpopo province. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which represents these workers, is demanding an end to wage discrimination in which Black workers receive lower pay. The union also wants a 100 percent transportation subsidy and the immediate phasing out of the seven day, 24-hour production schedule at the mine. NUM represents mainly Black mine workers. The Modikwa mine is owned by African Rainbow Minerals and Anglo Platinum.

“We are protesting against the many discrepancies caused by racism in the company,” stated NUM spokesperson Onis Serothwane. “Working conditions for whites here are made to be much better than their black counterparts.” NUM general secretary Frans Baleni added, “Our cadres must fight the supremacist tendency when and where it rears its ugly head.”

—Ryan Scott

Copper miners in Arizona, Texas
vote on new ASARCO contract
LOS ANGELES—The United Steelworkers (USW) together with several other unions reached a tentative agreement on a new contract with ASARCO, a Tucson-based copper mining company. The pact covers 1,600 workers. USW members are voting on the contract February 5-9. The agreement must also be approved by the bankruptcy court.

According to a union press statement, the agreement includes a $3 per hour wage raise over the three-and-a-half-year contract, a 20 percent increase in the pension formula, and no increase in costs for health-care coverage for active workers. It also restores most of the health-care benefits for retirees that were cut by ASARCO in August 2003, and reduces retirees’ monthly contributions.

Workers in Arizona and Texas struck ASARCO for four months in 2005. The company was demanding massive wage and benefit concessions, including 12-hour days with no overtime payment and no benefits for new hires.

—Dean Hazlewood

Machinists strike Harley-Davidson
plant in Pennsylvania
SPRINGETTSBURY TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania—Nearly 2,800 workers at the Harley-Davidson motorcycle plant here went on strike February 2. Twenty-four hour pickets began after members of International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local 175 rejected the company’s concessionary contract. Workers are opposing introduction of a two-tier wage system, pension concessions, and that employees for the first time make payments for health insurance coverage. The walkout has won solidarity from area workers. Pickets on the line said Harley plans to hire hundreds of new workers over the next few months. The plant employs more than 3,200 union and nonunion workers.

—Osborne Hart

Garment workers in Vietnam
strike south Korean-owned plant
Some 4,500 workers walked off the job at a south Korean-owned garment plant in southern Vietnam February 2. The workers at Hansoll Vina factory in Binh Duong province are demanding higher pay and better work conditions. The plant’s Korean managers routinely insult the workers, an official of the Binh Duong Trade Union told Associated Press. The bosses also force them to work even when they are sick, reported the Toui Tre newspaper. Binh Duong province is 19 miles west of Ho Chi Minh City.

—Brian Williams
 
 
Related articles:
Factory workers in Scotland stage sit-in to protest layoffs  
 
 
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