Tag Archives: unions

Ideology + Affiliation

Myanmar News | Labor Activists

More than 70 arrested in Myanmar after labor demonstration
  • Police reportedly detained 71 protesters and charged 51 after they attempted to march from their wood-processing factory in Sagaing State to Naypyitaw, the capital.
  • Protesters organized to call for organizing rights and the re-hiring of terminated factory workers.
  • Myanmar’s government has come under fire from rights groups for a proposal to retain junta-era restrictions on assembly and free speech, including the exclusion of non-citizens (including the Rohingya minority) from demonstration rights.

Read more:
“More than 50 people charged in Myanmar after protest: police” (Reuters)
“New Myanmar government proposes keeping some junta curbs on protests” (Reuters)
“Protest law changes fail international standards: Amnesty” (Frontier Myanmar)

Age, Class + Socioeconomics, Ideology + Affiliation

France News | Workers & Police

Massive protests against French labor reform bring about violence, arrests, strikes
  • Demonstrations have been ongoing since March, when labor and student unions organized against government proposals perceived as decreasing job security and negotiating power for workers.
  • More than 1,000 have been arrested during clashes with police in cities like Paris and Nantes that have seen more than 300 officers injured as protesters have alleged instances of police brutality, with police unions organizing counter-protests against anti-police violence.
  • After President François Hollande’s government survived a no-confidence vote, union leaders planned rolling strikes and continuing demonstrations across the country.

Read more:
“Une semaine de grèves et manifestations pour relancer le mouvement contre la loi travail” (Le Monde, in French)
“French police hit back at ‘anti-cop hatred’ after protest violence” (The Guardian)
“French government shrugs off no-confidence vote, faces new strikes” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Geoffroy van der Hasselt/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Class + Socioeconomics, Ideology + Affiliation

Argentina News | Workers

Thousands from Argentina’s main unions protest economic policies in Buenos Aires
  • Demonstrators took to the streets to protest currency devaluation, inflation, and massive layoffs stemming from new President Mauricio Macri’s economic policies.
  • Union leaders delivered speeches accusing the government of shifting the burden of economic stabilization onto workers and demanding measures to protect job security.
  • The mass demonstration took place ahead of International Workers’ Day, with leaders threatening to strike if the government ignored their concerns.

Read more:
“All five umbrella unions hold massive demonstration against Macri’s policies” (Buenos Aires Herald)
“En un multitudinario acto, las centrales obreras reclamaron por los despedidos, inflación y Ganancias” (La Nación, in Spanish)
“Argentine unions flex muscle in anti-government street protest” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: via La Nación)