by Shruti P | Jul 27, 2023 | Collective Bargaining Rights, Secure Jobs
State-owned farm workers across Bangladesh are protesting for a week to demand an end to precarious employment as well as abolition of piece rate wage systems and fair wage increase. All workers working at Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) and majority of agricultural workers in other government institutes and farms are employed as precarious workers. The BADC play a crucial role in providing quality seeds to farmers, which requires a permanent, trained workers, yet 100% of workers are precarious.
BAFLF member protesting at Bangladesh Rice Research Institute’s head office in Gazipur
On December 29, 2022 IUF-affiliated Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation (BAFLF) submitted their demands to the agriculture minister. However, after no progress on negotiations, BAFLF members started protests on July 21.
BAFLF members who work at public agriculture research institutes or at the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) as agricultural workers are vital for ensuring food security in Bangladesh. BAFLF played an important role in suspension of commercial release of genetically engineered rice “Golden Rice” posing threat to the environment, food security and public health. BAFLF members at Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), which was developing and conducting field tests for the GMO rice, protested inside the institute and were successful in stopping the commercial release.
In addition to permanent jobs, end to piece rate wage systems and fair wage increase, the BAFLF is also demanding that paid maternity leave be increased from 120 to 180 days, giving farm workers the same maternity rights as farm management.
Farm workers are demanding that government must start negotiations with BAFLF NOW!
by IUF Asia/Pacific | May 23, 2023 | Bahasa Indonesia, Campaigns, Secure Jobs, Sustainable Tourism
Dalam kemenangan besar bagi para housekeeper yang sebelumnya dipekerjakan melalui kontraktor/agen tenaga kerja, 700 housekeeper akan menjadi pekerja tetap yang dipekerjakan langsung di hotel dan kasino Crown Resorts di Melbourne, Australia. Sebagai hasil dari komitmen kampanye, pengorganisiran dan perundingan yang dilakukan oleh United Workers Union (UWU), mereka sekarang akan menikmati upah dan jam kerja yang lebih baik, hak cuti yang lebih baik, dan keamanan kerja yang lebih baik.
Berita kemenangan ini disambut baik oleh serikat hotel dan resor di seluruh wilayah Asia-Pasifik sebagai kemenangan bagi seluruh pekerja yang berjuang untuk mendapatkan pekerjaan yang aman..
Sebagai bagian dari Global Housekeeping Campaign (GHC), serikat pekerja di Asia Tenggara mengungkap kondisi kerja yang kejam, jam kerja yang berlebihan, dan risiko kesehatan yang dihadapi oleh para housekeeper outsource, lepas dan kontrak.
Secara khusus, Global Housekeeping Campaign di Filipina menuntut agar seluruh housekeeper dijadikan permanen dan kuota kamar – sumber utama beban kerja dan cedera yang berlebihan – dihapuskan.
Ketika kami mendengar tentang kemenangan UWU di Crown Resorts, kami segera memberi tahu anggota kami di NUWHRAIN dan ratusan housekeeper yang tergabung dalam GHC Filipina. Ini juga merupakan dorongan besar bagi mereka dan akan merevitalisasi kampanye kami. Geoffrey Labudahon, SENTRO’s coordinator of GHC Philippines.
Kami selalu menuntut agar housekeeper adalah pekerja langsung, permanen, dan bukan outsourcing. Dalam pandemi, semua orang melihat bahwa housekeeper adalah pekerja penting dan mereka berhak mendapatkan gaji yang lebih baik serta pekerjaan yang aman dan terjamin. Sangat senang melihat kemenangan UWU di Crown Melbourne memperkuat pesan ini. Galih Tri Panjalu, General Secretary of FSPM in Indonesia.
Housekeeper memainkan peran yang sangat penting di resor kasino. Mereka adalah bagian penting dari tenaga kerja utama kasino dan pekerjaan mereka sangat penting. Lebih banyak serikat pekerja perlu mengikuti contoh UWU dalam memenangkan pekerjaan tetap untuk para housekeeper. Ben Lawrence, Secretary of GMBWU at Resorts World Casino in Genting, Malaysia.
Anggota resor hotel dan kasino dari Filipina, Indonesia, Malaysia, dan Thailand mengirimkan ucapan selamat dan solidaritas, menyatakan “kalian menginspirasi kami!”
by IUF Asia/Pacific | May 17, 2023 | Campaigns, Secure Jobs, Sustainable Tourism
In a huge win for housekeepers formerly hired through a labour contractor/agency, 700 housekeepers will become direct, permanent workers at Crown Resorts’ hotels and casino in Melbourne, Australia. As a result of the committed campaigning, organizing and bargaining of the United Workers Union (UWU), they will now enjoy better wages and working hours, improved leave entitlements, and more job security.
News of the win was welcomed by hotel and resorts unions around the Asia-Pacific region as a win for all workers fighting for secure jobs.
As part of the Global Housekeeping Campaign (GHC), unions in Southeast Asia exposed the abusive working conditions, excessive hours, and health risks faced by outsourced, casual and contractual housekeepers.
In particular the Global Housekeeping Campaign in the Philippines demanded that all housekeepers be made permanent and that room quotas – a major source of excessive workloads and injuries – be abolished.
When we heard about UWU’s win at Crown Resorts we immediately informed our members in NUWHRAIN and the hundreds of housekeepers that are part of GHC Philippines. This is a great boost for them too and will revitalize our campaign.
Geoffrey Labudahon, SENTRO’s coordinator of GHC Philippines
We’ve always demanded that housekeepers are direct, permanent workers and not outsourced. In the pandemic everyone saw that housekeepers are essential workers and they deserve better pay and safe, secure work. It’s great to see the UWU’s win at Crown Melbourne reinforce this message.
Galih Galih Tri Panjalu, General Secretary of FSPM in Indonesia
Housekeepers play a very important role in casino resorts. They are a key part of the main workforce of the casino and their work is essential. More unions need to follow the example of UWU in winning permanent jobs for housekeepers.
Ben Lawrence, Secretary of GMBWU at Resorts World Casino in Genting, Malaysia
Hotel and casino resorts members from the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand sent their congratulations and solidarity, declaring “you inspire us!”
by IUF Asia/Pacific | Dec 9, 2022 | Campaigns, Secure Jobs
On November 25, 2022, the union met with Phillips Seafood Indonesia management to demand that the 40 unfairly terminated women daily workers be given work and be converted to permanent positions. Management refused and repeated that the women failed to improve their “speed” in meeting daily targets.
Five days later, on November 30, management stopped contributions to their mandatory government health care.
by IUF Asia/Pacific | Dec 9, 2022 | Campaigns, Secure Jobs
On December 1-2, 2022, a team of senior management from Phillips Seafood – including US management – visited the crab meat factory in Lampung, Indonesia, to asses upgrading machinery and equipment. They ignored a massive protest by women workers over the
unfair termination of daily workers who demanded permanent jobs. They did not stop to meet the union representatives. They did not undertake any due diligence. They did not call for an assessment of employment status, workloads, working conditions or daily targets. They focused on the replacement and repair of machinery. Does this reflect the values – and the lack of moral values – of a company that claims to be a homegrown family business in Baltimore?
US management ignored this
by IUF Asia/Pacific | Dec 9, 2022 | Campaigns, Secure Jobs, Social Justice
For two decades Sri Rezeki, Eti and Suwarni, worked every day shelling crabs and extracting crab meat at the Phillips Seafood factory in Lampung, Indonesia. As daily paid workers they worked under intense pressure to meet rapidly changing daily targets measured in kilograms of crab meat. They suffered from excessive work, injuries and ill health. Every morning for 20 years they were on standby, waiting for a text message from management to know whether they should report to the factory or not. It was an added layer of insecurity and anxiety in an already insecure job.
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Eti – 20 years processing crab meat for Phillips Seafood
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Suwarni – 20 years processing crab meat for Phillips Seafood
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Sri Rezeki – 20 years processing crab meat for Phillips Seafood
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Desiyanti – 13 years processing crab meat for Phillips Seafood
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Rusmiyati – 13 years processing crab meat for Phillips Seafood
Just as the family-owned Phillips Seafood restaurant business based in Baltimore, USA, is investing in expanding the production of crab meat at the Lampung factory, Sri Rezeki, Eti and Suwarni – along with 37 other women daily workers – stopped receiving text messages on August 30, 2022. They were effectively terminated.
When the union demanded to know why the 40 women are no longer called to work, management claimed that it was due to “poor performance”- failing to meet their daily targets. But what Sri Rezeki, Eti and Suwarni have in common with 35 women workers employed as daily workers for 20 years and another two women, Rusmiyati and Desiyanti, who worked for 13 years, is that they formally requested permanent jobs.They made the request in 2010, 2012 and 2017.
“performance results are just an excuse to change the workers”
After the union won recognition from the company at the end of 2021 (after a 12 year struggle for trade union rights) and negotiated its first collective agreement, the push for permanent jobs for women daily workers escalated in 2022. In response management simply stopped calling them in to work. Only after the union demanded the women resume work and be made permanent did management then claim it was due to “poor performance”. After 20 years. So the question remains: how can a company like Phillips Seafood decide that the women workers in Indonesia who extracted and prepared crab meat for its restaurants in the USA for two decades are now simply disposable?
