East Asia
Shanghai workers seize electronics plant
More than 1,000 migrant workers in Shanghai went on strike and held 18 managers hostage for a day and a half following the introduction of a draconian speed-up policy.
Tag: labor
The Caribbean
Dominican Republic: Haitian workers protest
About 100 Haitian immigrant workers protested in front of the Labor Ministry in Santo Domingo, while hundreds more blocked a bridge at the border in the northwest.
Southern Cone
Argentina: massive looting returns after 11 years
Argentina’s first wave of store lootings since 2001 started with people with covered faces breaking into six supermarkets in San Carlos de Bariloche, an Andean ski resort town.
Mexico
Mexico: new details emerge on Wal-Mart scandal
Following up on an exposé last April of bribery by Wal-Mart de México, NY Times reporters have identified 19 Wal-Mart stores whose construction was aided by corruption.
The Andes
Colombia: petroleum workers leader murdered
Two men on a motorcycle gunned down a labor leader as tensions grew in a dispute between petroleum workers and their employer—as police try to implicate the union.
The Andes
Colombia: injured GM workers resume hunger strike
A Michigan autoworker has joined nine former employees of General Motors’ Colombian subsidiary who resumed a hunger strike they started last summer to protest their firings.
South Asia
Riots rock Bangladesh after factory fire
Bangladeshi workers blocked streets in a Dhaka industrial zone, throwing stones at factories and smashing vehicles, to demand justice for 112 people killed in a garment factory fire.
Southern Cone
Argentina: unions call general strike
In a break with President Cristina Fernández, two major labor confederations protested the government’s economic policies with a one-day general strike.
Mexico
Mexico: ‘labor reform’ passes; economists ‘upbeat’
The Mexican Senate passed a controversial “labor reform” after stripping out articles to promote union democracy; pro-business economists promise new growth for Mexico.
East Asia
China: changing of the guard —amid same old repression
Xi Jinping was chosen as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party amid stepped-up repression and a wave of labor unrest in the Fujian and Zhejiang industrial zones.
Greater Middle East
Bahrain upholds convictions of teachers for organizing strike efforts
An appeals court in Bahrain upheld verdicts against two members of the Bahrain Teachers’ Association for organizing a strike last year to support anti-government protests.
Greater Middle East
Egypt: independent unions under attack
Egypt’s new government has launched the most serious set of attacks on workers’ rights since the days of Mubarak, with several activists sacked or prosecuted for organizing.