The notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, where many independent trade unionists have been imprisoned in recent years, and where activist Mehdi Shandeez has recently been incarcerated. Photo: Ehsan Iran.

I have blogged at Amnesty International UK about the latest wave of arrests of independent – or free – trade unionists in Iran.

You can always find more about Iranian trade unionism at Justice for Iranian Workers.

The organisers say:

The institutional and political dynamics that affect the workplace increasingly extend across national boundaries. These dynamics include actions by elites, such as the investment or sourcing decisions of multinational firms, directives of the European Commission, or bailout packages of the International Monetary Fund.  But they also include actions by workers, their representatives, and their allies, such as the Occupy movement, the US and UK Uncut, the Indignados movement, and the daily work of European Works Councils and Global Union Federations.

Workers, unions, and social movements have been playing catch-up as elites have reconstituted themselves and their institutions at a transnational scale.  There are now several examples of workers and unions operating at a new scale in response to the internationalization of markets and politics.  But there are also many examples of civil society failing to respond to some challenge from the transnational sphere.  The politics of austerity in the Euro zone is just one example.

Why do workers, unions, and other progressive campaigners so rarely operate at the transnational level?  What lessons can be learned from leading cases of success or failure?  Are contemporary patterns of resistance from below more striking than organised labour initiatives from above? Are there new actors (the informal sector, migrants, young workers, the precariat) playing an important role in resistance? Are these movements showing signs of internationalizing themselves? How has the sovereign debt crisis challenged international forms and agents of worker representation? Have experiences of organizing in countries still experiencing rapid economic growth (China and India in particular) transformed unions’ strategies and structures of international solidarity?

This workshop is an attempt to assess the state of knowledge about transnational industrial relations and to assess what it means for progressive social movements.  We invite abstracts in the following areas:

• Industrial relations in multinationals: Works Councils (European and Global), International Framework Agreements, Corporate Social Responsibility
• Organizing an international workforce: worker hyper-mobility and trafficking, corporate campaigning, organizing across supply chains, cultural diversity in unions
• Supranational political action: promoting alternatives to neoliberalism within in or against European Union institutions or the global governance framework (e.g. ILO, IMF, World Bank)
• Transnational actors: activist networks, Global Union Federations, cross-border union mergers, Non-Governmental Organizations

The AFLCIO reported that:

“Overall union membership increased by 49,000 from 2010 to 2011, including 15,000 new 16- to 24-year-old members, according to new U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data out this morning. An increase of 110,000 in the private sector was partially offset by a decline of  61,000 in the public sector, making the rate of union membership essentially unchanged at 11.8 percent, with some 14.8 million U.S. workers union members. Public-sector density increased from 36.2 percent to 37 percent though November 2011. Private-sector union membership remains at 6.9 percent. The largest increases in union membership were in construction, health care services, retail trade, primary metals and fabricated metal products, hospitals, transportation and warehousing.”

Workers in education, training, and library occupations had the highest unionization rate, at 36.8 percent, while the lowest rate occurred in sales and related occupations (3.0 percent). Among states, New York continued to have the highest union membership rate (24.1 percent) and North Carolina again had the lowest rate (2.9 percent). In 2011, among full-time wage and salary workers, union members had median usual weekly earnings of $938, while those who were not union members had median weekly earnings of $729.

In 1983, the first year for which comparable union  data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent and there were 17.7 million union workers.

Handing in the million signature petition to recall Gov Walker. Photo: Wisconsin AFL-CIO

Unions in Wisconsin, a year into their titanic battle with Republican Governor Scott Walker over the scrapping of collective bargaining rights for public sector workers, were celebrating today as they handed in over a million signatures on a recall petition demanding a new election for the Governorship. Under Wisconsin law, they only needed 540,000, but the final count showed that over a million Wisconsin voters want Walker out. What’s really incredible about this is that there are only 3.2 million people registered to vote in the state, and at the last gubernatorial election, only just over a million voted for Governor Walker. The summer recall election – in a state that voted Democrat in 2008 but Republican in 2010 – will be a key indicator of how the Presidential election will go. At the same time, recall petitions on three Republican state senators were also handed in.

The Government has reinstated part of the subsidy so that a litre of petrol will be reduced from the N141 price (57p)  imposed on 1 January to N97 (39p). This is more than the original N65 (26p) price per litre, and the unions made clear it was still a unilateral decision rather than an agreement between unions and Government. But together with pledges to act against corruption in the oil sector, and reduce the governance costs of the energy sector, the unions decided that further protests could endanger their supporters, and that enough had been secured. Nigeria has a history of military coups, and there were worrying signs that the dispute could lead to even more loss of life.

The dispute has also reaffirmed the strength of the trade union movement in Nigeria, and seriously weakened the President’s authority. As the Presidents of the NLC and NTUC, Abdulwahed Omar and Peter Esele, said in a joint statement:

“With the experiences of the past eight days, we are sure that no government or institution will take Nigerians for granted again.”

The TUC has sent a message of congratulations and solidarity to Nigerian unions.

Members and supporters of Greek energy union GENOP/DEI march in Athens in 2011. Photo GENOP/DEI

The Greek trade unionists facing jail for protesting against austerity will be back in court on Friday 20 January, so there is still time to send the Greek Prime Minister an online protest, urging him to drop the case as demanded by the TUC’s sister trade union confederation in Greece, the GSEE, who have called a further strike against austerity on Tuesday 24 January. As reported here on the first day of the trial, 5000 people worldwide had taken action to defend Nikos Photopoulos and his colleagues who were accused of trying to prevent energy company PPC adding the hated new property tax to people’s energy bills and cutting off those who don’t pay, regardless of circumstance.

So far nearly 3000 more people have signed up, with the support of the global union confederation ITUC and the ETUC, and we hope to break the 10,000 mark by the time Nikos and his fellow trade unionists return to court. Their resolve to fight was strengthened on Tuesday by the evidence given by the energy company director who admitted that the union protest that blockaded his headquarters was not, as the police alleged, violent. This only leaves the accusation that Nikos and his union were guilty of opposing Government policy through peaceful protest – a truly appalling charge in a so-called democracy, albeit one now ruled by an unelected Prime Minister carrying out the orders of the international community rather than the will of the people. The official unemployment rate in Greece is now 18.2% but is probably significantly higher: as the GSEE says, this shows that austerity is having a catastrophic effect and that

“the only solution to boost employment is the radical change of policy to take immediate measures to boost growth, the real economy and employment.”

Take action – and please ask others to do so – by signing the LabourStart online email to the Greek Prime Minister.

The NLC and NTUC, who earlier called for the Government’s violent attack on protesters in several cities to be referred to the International Criminal Court, have received support from unions around the world as well as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). But most importantly, they have mobilised workers and consumers across Nigeria. And it’s not the first time they have shown themselves to be a force to be reckoned with – successive previous Nigerian Governments have tried to remove the fuel subsidy, and each time the unions have fought them off.

It’s not just a fuel protest like the ones we’ve seen in western Europe, however, and this explains the almost total support for the strike across the country.  The abolition of the fuel subsiy has done far worse than just push up prices at the petrol pumps, having had a knock on effect on the cost of food, basic goods, medicines and services. The dispute has also shone further light on the corruption and inefficiencies of the Nigerian economy (especially its energy sector) which the current Government has done nothing to correct. It is this corruption and inefficiency that means Nigeria exports oil but imports petrol, and still faces power shortages that make industrial production difficult. Until these issues are dealt with, Nigeria will not be able to develop the economy, raise living standards to an acceptable level, and then – through agreement with the unions – tackle the fuel subsidy.

As he informed a rally in the capital Abuja of the decision to suspend the strike, NLC President Abdulwahed Omar said:

“We want to make sure that [on] Saturday and Sunday people – we – relax. But Monday morning, it is going to be the mother of all crowds!”

Union recall protest, Nov 2011. Photo Karen Hickey / Wisconsin AFLCIO

Today the Associated Press has reported that Wisconsin trade unionists have secured enough signatures to force a recall election on the Republican State Governor, Scott Walker, who led the fight to strip Wisconsin public sector unions of their collective bargaining rights last year and cost two Republicans their seats in the state legislature in recall elections last year. Unions have already collected over half a million signatures in the state (population: 5.7m, so that’s nearly 10% of the entire population), which is the cut-off point, although, as with last summer’s recall campaigns, they plan to gather more. A recall election would pit Governor Walker against a Democratic opponent committed to restoring union rights.

Nikos Photopoulos (front left) leads a GENOP/DEI protest march last summer. Photo: GENOP/DEI

As the total number of people sending a protest to the Greek Prime Minister about the trial of trade unionists for opposing austerity hit 5,000, the leader of the accused, GENOP President Nikos Photopoulos, sent us this message of thanks:

It is with feelings of great joy and emotion that I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the thousands of our colleagues and co-fighters around the world for their support and solidarity. By standing at our side you give us hope and courage.  The flood of your messages shows that the Greek people are not alone in these grim times of injustice.

As the president of GENOP/DEI, a trade union committed to defend workers and their rights, I reiterate our engagement to never compromise, never bend and never lower the banner of the fight for a society of humanity and justice.

There’s still time to send your protest and encourage colleagues to do so, because Nikos and his colleagues are not due in court until 9am (local time) on Tuesday. Since the appeal was launched on Friday morning, over 1,000 people in the UK have sent the Greek PM a protest email.

Send a protest message via Labourstart now

As the NLC statement on the strike reports, the Nigerian Government has repeatedly tried to cut the oil subsidy (and been defeated each time by the trade unions), but has never delivered on the promises to improve refineries (almost all the oil Nigeria produces is exported for refining and then imported for use: a staggering waste of money nut very profitable for the oil companies) and invest in infrastructure and public services. Unions and ordinary Nigerians – who have been protesting since the Government’s surprise move earlier this month to withdraw the subsidy overnight, rather than over a three month period of negotiation – do not trust the country’s politicians on this issue.

So on Monday, despite the intervention of a court which did not bother to involve union representatives and even had to assist the Government’s lawyers to make their case, Nigerian union members in key industries are likely to begin an indefinite strike in defence of ordinary people’s living standards. Civil servants, teachers, aviation and other transport workers, as well as those in the energy industry itself, will be leading the strike. In some cases, they may be risking their lives, as the police fired on one recent demonstration, killing a protester. As usual, you can keep up with developments on LabourStart’s Nigeria pages.

The TUC has sent a message of solidarity with our colleagues in the Nigerian trade union movement, with whom we have had strong links going back to the time of the military dictatorship and beyond. A TUC Aid project helping Nigerian trade unions to address the workplace challenge of HIV/AIDS is due to conclude this summer.