Female KTX rail attendants win ruling on injunction
Court says Korail is the attendants’ real employer, but long court battle for their reinstatement is likely to follow

» KTX attendants urge Korail protest at Seoul Station on September 11. The women, who are irregular workers employed by a company called Korail Retail, want Korail to directly hire them as employees. Recently, the court accepted the women’s application for an injunction against Korail, finding that Korail is their actual employer and Korail Retail is just a division of the company.

A court ruling has said that the Korea Railroad Corporation, or Korail, is the real employer of the KTX female attendant crew. Following verdicts in previous criminal cases, the court has now clearly taken the side of the KTX female attendants in the case to determine “worker status” as well. As a result, attention is focusing on whether a first step will be provided toward solving a problem that has dragged on for over 1,000 days.

The Seoul Central District Court’s 50th civil agreements division (Judge Lee Dong-myeong) accepted an application for an injunction Tuesday submitted by 34 female KTX attendants, including Oh Mi-sun, who was fired in 2006. The injunction was filed against Korail and demanded that they acknowledge being the real employers of the female attendants and pay wages.

12/15 Yolo County Courthouse For ILWU Local 10 Longshoreworkers

ILWU Rally December 15

Defend Longshore Workers Rights!

Stop Racial Profiling!

Drop The Bogus Charges Now!

“Port security” under the guise of the “war on terror” is being used to attack workers. On December 15, 2008 at the Yolo County Court House two ILWU Local 10 longshore workers, Jason Ruffin and Aaron Harrison, will go on trial. Their crime?—going to work! Yes, that’s right. These two brothers were beaten and arrested by police when they returned to work after lunch in the port of Sacramento on August 23, 2007. SSA terminal security guards demanded they open the car trunk to be searched. The guards cited new repressive (MARSEC) maritime security regs. When the longshoremen called their union business agent to find out their rights, police assaulted, handcuffed, maced and arrested the two black union members. They were initially charged with "trespassing" (!) and "resisting arrest". The "trespassing" charge was dropped, but the absurd charge of “resisting arrest” of a false charge remains. The port security video shows that they did nothing wrong.

West Sacramento police have a record of racist attacks on African American and Mexican American youth. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is defending minority youth in West Sac against unconstitutional police measures. The defense of our brothers is critical not just for them and the ILWU but for all unions and working people. Port workers face the brunt of this repressive legislation. TWIC cards and MARSEC will be used to fire port workers with past criminal records, to target port truckers many of whom are immigrants and to ban union actions on the docks like picket lines.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/12/01/2008-12-01_new_york_city_bus_driver_stabbed_to_deat.html

New York City bus driver stabbed to death in Brooklyn; suspect in custody
BY PETE DONOHUE, ALISON GENDAR AND BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Updated Tuesday, December 2nd 2008, 7:55 AM

Egan-Chin/News
Scene where a bus driver was stabbed by a passenger in Brooklyn, reportedly sparked by an argument over a transfer.

A city bus driver was stabbed to death in front of terrified passengers Monday as he tangled with a fare-beater on his Brooklyn route, cops said.
The driver, Edwin Thomas, 46, a divorced father of two teenagers, was punched in the head and stabbed in the chest and stomach during the lunchtime horror inBedford-Stuyvesant, police said.
A suspect was taken into custody at Brooklyn's 81st Precinct early Tuesday morning, cops said.
Thomas, who switched from driving armored trucks to buses because he thought it was safer, became the first city bus operator killed in the line of duty in nearly 30 years.
The killer bolted the bloodshed just after noon on the B46 bus, notorious for being the worst in the city for fare evasions.
The first cops on the scene put Thomas in their squad car and rushed him to Woodhull Hospital, where he died in the emergency room.

US Railroad Worker And US Socialist Labor Leader Stopped the Blacklist

http://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1902/blacklist.htm

Eugene V. Debs

Stopped the Blacklist

Written: September, 1902
First Published: September 1902, Wayland’s Monthly
Source: DEBS: His Life Writings and Speeches 1908 by The Appeal to Reason newspaper, Girard, Kansas. Page 297-300
Online Version: E.V. Debs Internet Archive, 2008
Transcribed/HTML Markup: David Walters, August, 2008
Public Domain: The E. V. Debs Internet Archive follows the advice of the original copyright (now expired and in the public domain) published in the title page of the 1908 edition: “Copyright by The Appeal to Reason: “NOTE—Copyright protection is taken upon this volume for the sole purpose of protecting the work of Comrade Debs from prejudiced misues by pirate Capitalist publishers, and will not be invoked against Socialist and Labor Publications and Comrade publishers, they giving us notice.—Appeal to Reason”

It was on a mixed train on one of the mountain roads in the western states. The conductor and both brakemen had already shown me their old A. R. U. cards, which they treasured with almost affectionate tenderness. The soiled, illegible scraps were souvenirs of the “war,” and revived a whole freight train of stirring reminiscences. The three weather—beaten trainmen were strangers prior to ‘94; they were off of three separate roads, and from three different states.

TWSC Protests Threat To Hang Iranian Kurdish teacher by Iranian Government

11/27/2008

The Transport Workers Solidarity Committee (TWSC) demands that the Iranian government halt their plans to execute Iranian Kurdish union activist teacher Farzad Kamangar. We also call for his immediate release from prison. He was arrested for his union activity and for being an activist among Kurdish people in Iran. These democratic rights apparently are worthy of a death sentence by the theocratic regime in Iran. We condemn this assault and warn the Iranian government that the murder of Farzad will be seen as a crime against working people throughout the world and not just in Iran and the Middle East.
We call on transit workers and their unions internationally to protest this attack and to use their power in opposition to these threats.

Transport Workers Solidarity Committee
www.transportworkers.org

http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/show.php?id=917&theme=rights&country=iran

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12/4 SF Rally: UTU 1741 School Bus Drivers Protesting Union Busting & Firing By First Student

November 26, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Laurie Cahn, spokesperson, UTU 1741/San Francisco School Bus Drivers
(415) 608-4092

MEDIA ALERT

School bus drivers gather to protest contract-violating firings by First Student

Drivers suddenly without jobs, health insurance days before the holiday season begins; students lose experienced drivers

SAN FRANCISCO—More than 100 San Francisco school bus drivers are expected to gather to protest the sudden, contract-violating firings of school bus drivers by First Student, the nation's largest operator of school buses. This action is part of a national effort that includes Bus Driver Unions in Santa Rosa, CA; Buffalo, NY; and Boston, MA.

WHEN: Thursday, December 4, 2008, 10:00 AM

WHERE: First Student Bus yard; 2270 Jerrold Ave. San Francisco CA 94124

WHO: A veteran driver with 24 accident free years of school bus driving in San Francisco, fired under an arbitrary new rule, for a minor first time accident.

WHY: San Francisco's school bus drivers are demanding that:
First Student stop arbitrary firings and honor the progressive discipline section of our legally negotiated union contract

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/11/25/319326/us-airline-labour-flexes-its-muscles.html

DATE:25/11/08
SOURCE:Airline Business
US airline labour flexes its muscles
By David Field

Heartened by the presidential victory of Democrat Barack Obama, US airline labour is flexing its muscle as it prepares to recoup its concessions of recent years. At American Airlines, flight attendants have threatened to strike when they are legally allowed, and the airline’s pilots have pressed repeatedly for a federal declaration that their negotiations are at an impasse. And labour at normally placid Southwest Airlines has begun picketing.
William Swelbar of the MIT airline programme says: “Never before have we seen such a convergence of ‘amendable’ dates. Because so many of the present contracts were negotiated during bankruptcy, we have many contracts coming up in a close period.” This means that unions would be able to leverage their negotiations on progress at other carriers.

At American, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants marked the fifteenth anniversary of its five-day strike against the carrier by noting it was ready to strike again, when it legally could, to regain its 2003 concessions. The Allied Pilots Association representing pilots at the carrier, claiming that negotiations are stalled, says it is time to make up for their 2003 givebacks. American responds only that airline negotiations are normally lengthy and it hopes for an equitable settlement.

Northwest flight attendants union sues Delta for union busting schemes
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D94LHM486.htm

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS November 24, 2008, 4:18PM ETtext size: TT
Northwest flight attendants union sues Delta

By HARRY R. WEBER

The union that represents Northwest Airlines flight attendants is suing Delta Air Lines Inc. to block the world's biggest carrier from starting the process to integrate the two carriers' seniority lists until the combined group is given the opportunity to vote on union representation.

Northwest's 8,000 flight attendants are represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, while Delta's 14,000 flight attendants are not part of any union.

Atlanta-based Delta bought Northwest for $2.8 billion in stock on Oct. 29. Federal rules allow for a post-merger union election involving workers from two different airlines if, among other things, it is determined that a single carrier exists.

But in its suit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington on Friday, the AFA-CWA said it has not yet filed its application with the National Mediation Board seeking a single carrier determination that would prompt a union representation vote. It noted Delta has not yet obtained a single operating certificate from the FAA. Therefore, the AFA-CWA said efforts by Delta to start the seniority integration process are premature.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=16484

Posted: 7.32pm Tuesday 18 November 2008

News

Dover dock strikers have bosses all at sea

Marching in Dover last Saturday: dockers from the port started a 48-hour strike this week (Pic: Socialist Worker)

by Esme Choonara reporting from the port of Dover

"We're not just fighting for our jobs and pensions, but for everyone who works in the ports.

"Everyone knows if they get away with this here, it will spread."

So says Graham Gladwin, one of more than a hundred workers at the Dover Harbour Board (DHB) who began a 48-hour strike on Tuesday of this week.

The workers, members of the Unite union, are taking action against plans by the harbour board to outsource around a third of the workforce to a private company.

Many fear that the move would mean worse pensions, conditions and possible job losses – as well as opening the door to further casualisation and privatisation in the industry.

Workers gathering at the picket line on Tuesday morning told Socialist Worker that they are determined to win the dispute.

"This action is just the beginning," said Steve, one of the strikers. "We're out on strike because our boss only cares about profit," added fellow striker Simon.

Terminals want productivity hike
November 17, 2008
BILL MONGELLUZZO
Pacifica Shipper
Cargo volumes are down, and congestion at marine terminals is only a bad memory, but industry veterans know they’ll be scrambling for space when economic conditions improve.

That is why terminal operators intend to use the International Longshore and Warehouse Union contract that was negotiated this year on the West Coast, and the International Longshoremen’s Association contract that will be negotiated next year on the East Coast, as opportunities to improve port productivity.

“Over time, U.S.-based facilities want to have world-class terminals,” said Bill Rooney, managing director for the Americas at Hanjin Shipping Co. “We have to gravitate toward world-class standards based on safety, the environment and productivity.”

Carriers say most terminals on both coasts average 25 moves per hour, compared with 30 or more in Asia and Europe.

European and Asian terminal operators were the first to adopt information technology and modern cargo-handling equipment. They were able to marry computerized terminal-operating systems with ultra-efficient machines to maximize production from limited acreage.