Many among the 150 workers sitting close together to block the entrance to the company offices said that they were resolved to stay out "as long as necessary." A majority of the strikers were indigenous FijianS and they were seated together with many Indo-Fijians. Divisions between the two nationalities are exploited by the rulers of this country to keep working people divided.

FPTEA general secretary Lasarusa Tuimanu told the Fiji Times that last year the company "gave a 7 percent increase and now we just want another 1 percent." He explained to the Sun newspaper that workers want only a "minute share" of the FJD$25.4 million profit made by Telecom last year. (Fiji $1 = U.S. 44 cents.)

Minister for Labor and Productivity Kenneth Zinck declared the strike illegal, the Sun reported. "I'll be ordering all those workers to go back to work," he said. "But I have been taken by surprise by the whole thing, so I can't say whether they will go back to work." Workers did return to work December 3 for the issue to be submitted to arbitration and negotiation.

Various unions have been campaigning for workers to receive a 3 percent cost-of-living allowance (COLA) previously promised by the government, as well as a further "merit" increase. The government had only budgeted for a 2 percent cost of living increase.

Among actions last year demanding cost of living allowances were the June walkout of 200 workers employed by the Suva city council, a strike of 100 workers at Colonial Life and Insurance in May, and a walkout of 200 union members at the Fiji Institute of Technology in December.

In the latter case, a number of students decided to boycott their exams due to the union action. The strike was declared illegal by Labor Minister Zinck, but to no avail.

Strike warnings by union members demanding cost of living allowances have been issued by workers at the Fiji Electricity Authority, where 350 out of the 400 workers voted for a walkout, and by 1,000 members of the Confederation of Public Sector Unions.

Timber workers on the northern island of Venua Levu, members of the Venua Levu Union of Timber Workers, have been demanding the reinstatement of their former wage levels and back pay, after the bosses used a coup in May 2000 as justification for a pay cut. Before the coup the workers had won a 12 percent increase, but the bosses turned around and cut wages by 15 percent.

The coup was led by former businessman George Speight. Together with a group of armed men, he stormed Parliament and held Labor Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and other members of parliament hostage. The coup was timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the election of a Labor Party–led coalition government.

Speight and his backers posed as defenders of indigenous Fijian rights against the policies of Chaudhry, who is Indo-Fijian. They targeted Indo-Fijian tenant farmers as they sought to reinforce divisions between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians. While defending the domination of political and economic life by hereditary chiefs, who rule in collaboration with local and foreign capitalists, Speight's followers appealed to resentment among Fijian working people and others at the privileges of the ruling political establishment.

The Fijian military command used the crisis to impose an interim military government. Later a caretaker civilian government was set up, led by capitalist politician and former banker Laisenia Qarase, who was subsequently elected prime minister. Despite being currently under arrest and charged with treason, Speight was also elected to Parliament in these elections.

An estimated 25,000 workers have lost their jobs or have faced reduced hours in the period since the coup. Heavy layoffs have been imposed in the garment industry, particularly in factories supplying the Australian and New Zealand markets. For example, the remaining 160 employees out of an original workforce of 700 were laid off from Consolidated Textiles Ltd. in December. The bosses said their buyers had "lost confidence" following the political upheavals of the last two years. South Pacific Textiles Ltd. closed in late November, putting 700 on the street.

A Fiji Times editorial gave a picture of the crisis in garment, which remains an important industry. "As the global economy slows in the wake of highly uncertain business conditions in the United States, our garment industry has taken a severe battering. Factories have closed, thousands have lost their jobs and industry experts predict worse to come. Add the uncertainties and punitive trade measures that followed last year's follies and we discover a very bleak picture. The once rich river of orders has dried up for many of the factories which relied on sales to, for example, Australia."

Brendan Gleeson is a member of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union.  
 
 
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