Tokyo: 25 years protest and picket

On June 29 1981, OKI sacked one of its workers who had refused to sign the choices he was offered, a transfer order to work far from his home or to a piece of paper that said he agreed to be fired.

Yesterday, 25 years later Tetsuro Tanaka, was forcefully evicted from the company's shareholders meeting. This violence against a shareholder who dared to ask a question was reported today in a Tokyo newspaper. A number of Japanese companies have been forced to appoligise to their stockhoders on matters of corruption and other violations of their legal responsibilities.

Tanaka has become famous around the world for his daily picket of the OKI factory where he worked in Takao. He sings songs he has composed about his struggle with the company.

Late last year he was awarded a Japanese human rights award in Tokyo for his determination and support for other workers who find themselves in similar situations, being unfairly dissmissed or being punished for standing up for themselves.

The German magazine Der Spiegel wrote about Tanaka last February and his story was picked up recently by a Turkish website but the best place to find out more is from his own website at http://www.din.or.jp/~okidentt/eigohome.htm

Congratulations on on the 25th anniversary!

Canberra: Libs Laugh At Sacked Mum

Howard backers taunted a sacked Mum with cries of "Get a job" when she took her case to federal parliament.

While their leader refused to make eye contact with the dumped childcare worker, last week, Liberal MPs left little doubt where their sympathies lay.

Emily O'Connor accused John Howard of dishonesty and cowardice, after he played the Sergeant Schultz card, in response to questions about her dismissal.

Howard told Parliament he neither knew, nor could be expected to know, of the highly-publicised case in which a Canberra employer boasted WorkChoices meant she didn't have to advance a reason for O'Connor's sacking.

According to bewildered parents, Blinky Bill child care centre manager, Anna Maria French, told them she had taken "full advantage" of the new industrial relations laws in dismissing O'Connor.

"He pretended he didn't know," said O'Connor, who was in the gallery when the Prime Minister was asked if he could "look Emily O'Connor in the eye?"
"He knew exactly who I was. Doesn't he watch TV or read the papers?
"He just dodged the issue. Any decent person would find this situation shocking. I think he has lost sight of what the Australian people want. It was a gutless thing to do."

O'Connor was shocked at the reaction of Liberal politicians when her case was raised in parliament. With Andrew Laming, Liberal member for Bowman, waving a paper at her and telling her to "find a new job".

"I felt like they were going 'look at this girl, she's nothing, she's nobody'," O'Connor said.
O'Connor says she came forward because of the large number of people being affected by the new laws who were too scared to speak up. She has been buoyed by the support from her community and the LHMU.

"It's important people speak up. Just because it's legal doesn't make it right," she said.

June 28th: 300,000 join IR protests

150,000 in Melbourne ...

40,000 in Blacktown ...

including the Blue Mountains contingent ...

UNION ESTIMATES OF RALLY NUMBERS

The largest turnout was in Melbourne, with around 150,000 people rallying in the centre of the city at the corner of Bourke and Swanston Sts.

40,000 people attended the main NSW rally in the outer suburb of Blacktown - almost double the number organisers expected.

Around 25,000 turned out in Brisbane.

An estimated 10,000 attended rallies in Adelaide.

In Launceston Tasmania, around 2,000 people rallied including rescued Beaconsfield miner Brant Webb. A further protest is planned for Hobart on Saturday 1 July on Parliament House lawns.

There was a strong turnout in Perth with around 20,000 people marching and around 500 attending a protest in Darwin.

Unions estimate a further fifty to sixty thousand people also attended rallies in regional centres across Australia today:

In Queensland 7,000 attended a rally on the Gold Coast and protests were also held in Gladstone, Rockhampton, and Townsville.

In NSW, 6000 attended a rally in Newcastle and 7000 in Wollongong. There were also protests in Albury, Armidale, Bathurst, Coffs Harbour, Goulburn, Lismore, Nowra, Tweed Heads, Tamworth, Queanbeyan and Wagga Wagga.

Workers also rallied in regional Victoria today with protests in Ballarat, Geelong, Hamilton, Portland, Warrnambool and Wodonga/Albury.

National week of action: Striking Out Rights

As Australian trade unionists prepare for the latest National Week of Action, broader consequences of the IR changes are becoming apparent. And they are not good for democracy.
Some of the less scrutinised clauses in WorkChoices relate to industrial action, and the severe restrictions that now apply.

Employers now have no option but to dock workers who attend rallies this week four hours pay. In the construction industry, it goes even further, where workers face criminal charges under the government's special laws for the building industry.

Some employees, emboldend by the new powers are going further - Australia Post, for example, is threatening to take formal disciplinary action against workers who march.

These threats will keep some works away, but they also turn those who to attend into heroes, prepared to put their own well being on the line.

It is just the pointy end of an all-out assault on the right to strike - with costly secret ballots now required before workers can withhold their labour.

At the same time the government has handed itself unprecedented power to rule any strike unlawful, exposing unions and individual workers to any economic loss incurred.

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Howard's IR Laws feel the boot

Sport and politics mixed as hundreds of people protesting against the Federal Government's industrial relations changes took to Canberra Stadium yesterday during the half-time break in the game between the Canberra Raiders and Sydney Roosters.

Those supporting the union movement's fight against the IR changes held orange balloons and carried placards warning that, among other things, "weekend footy" and "decent wages" were under threat.
















The protest follows the Raiders signing up the ACT branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union as its main sponsor from 2007-09 in a deal worth more than $2 million.

It coincided with the start of a week of action by the unions to highlight what they say is the "disastrous impact" of the Government's reforms.

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