Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Int'l Labour News Radio Show Coming

A group of international union activists is getting together to start a labour audio show on the Internet. The show, which will be hosted by labour educator Marc Belanger, will feature news about union activities around the globe. The 20 minute audiocast, called Solidarity News, will be presented on www.radiolabour.net every Monday.

RadioLabour is currently looking for volunteer reporters to provide one or two minute English-language audio reports about union activities in their region of the world. The reporters would be expected to provide their audio-report (as an MP3 file) and a written script of the report. To volunteer, or find out more about the project, email Marc at: m.belanger@radiolabour.org

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Is Union Membership a Human Right?

The latest edition of Radio Netherlands' "The State We're In" asks if forming a union is a human right. Available as a pod off iTunes. Always an interesting show and the only such in English I know of with a human rights theme. Highly recommended as regular listening.

The show's web page is HERE.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Start the Week With Some Solidarity

Welcome to Monday (unless you’re checking in on the weekend, in which case sorry for even mentioning Monday!).

Mining multinational giant Vale is taking on its workers around the world. Concessions are all that’s on offer. That’s the bad news. The good? The workers are fighting back. Globally.

3,500 Steelworkers are in month four of their strike against Vale in Canada. Brazilian Vale workers are taking Canadian union members to their bargaining table, saying if Vale won’t talk to them in Canada, they can in Brazil. Unions in places as far-flung as New Caledonia are telling Vale they won’t talk while the Canadians are out.

German workers are demanding that their employers refuse delivery of Vale products. Swedish unions are using their seats on company boards to push for industrial bans on Vale goods. Indonesian unions are bringing Canadian workers into remote mine sites to speak to their members about their common employer’s tactics.

Join them. USW, the Union representing the Canadian workers, and LabourStart, the international labour news and campaigns website, are running a global e-mail campaign against Vale, in support of the strikers and their communities around the world.

In less than 30 seconds you can become part of something really big. And you can make it bigger. One e-mail at a time.

Join the campaign and tell every contact, friend and relative you have.

CLICK HERE

Monday, November 2, 2009

Winner in Labour Photo of the Year Contest

All finalists will receive a one year Flickr Pro Account.

In addition, the winning photo, "Manual Labour" by K M Asad, has earned him a further one year Pro Account. You can see the winner by going here.

Congrats to all, this year's contest was a great success.

Thanks to everyone who entered, to the finalists, and to our panel of judges. Click on the thumbnails here to see each of the finalists.

Don't forget to look over the photos and remember that most are free to use on your union's website or in its newsletter. Even those which are copyrighted can be used if you contact the photographer and get permission.

All the entries can be found here.