Global Worker News Roundup

Just some union-based news that crossed my desktop. In Southeast Asia, Cambodian workers have been crossing the Thai border for years. They are seeking the sub-subsistence level wages that work in the urban Thai economy provides - largely as construction workers - to migrant workers with no social power and few legal protections. Newsmekong reports last week that the eight-month old “Provincial Decree on Migrant Workers” has started to be enforced by the current junta in power. Raids on worker dormitories have been stepped up:

Under the decree, migrant workers from the three countries are not allowed to own mobile phones, may not use motorised transport and must remain confined to their dormitories from 8 pm to 6 am.

Chattel slavery, anyone? [via]

General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW)

Meanwhile, The General Federation of Iraqi Workers have issued statements protesting the illegalization of collective organization in the Iraqi Oil Industry. Apparently oil workers pose a terrorist-level threat to Iraq’s stability when they have the gall to speak up for their health, safety, respect, and livelihoods. Unionists in the United States are protesting as well, in solidarity. Here’s an excellent interview by David Bacon from 2005 with Ghasib Hassan, member of the executive committee of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions, and general secretary of the Union for Aviation and Railway Workers.

Finally, in Venezuela, a political bifurcation seems to be in the offing. The lefty government, so ruthlessly attacked and undermined by the US, has been defending its bolivarian policies for years now, and is vastly popular. The few criticisms which have held some water have revolved around Hugo Chavez’s tendency to authoritarianism, though most of us have blown these off as relatively unimportant compared to the vast advantages and the popular support involved. However, the government is now refusing to support worker control at an occupied factory abandoned by the owners. This is a disturbing turn of events that bears closer analysis.