Vol. 78/No. 11      March 24, 2014

A video and photos posted on the Internet by TVsohu.com and others show hundreds of workers marching around the plant in blue factory smocks during several days of protest. At a March 4 action they carried handmade banners that read: “Workers are not a commodity” and “Give us back our respect,” reported the New York Times.

IBM set a March 12 deadline for its employees to either continue at Lenovo at wages “comparable” to what they currently earn or be laid off with severance pay workers consider inadequate. Workers are demanding higher payments both for those who agree to continue with Lenovo and those who decide to leave.

The strike began after IBM fired 20 workers at the plant March 3 without providing any financial compensation, reported WantChinaTimes.com.

The strikers are also protesting long shifts and demanding “occupational health and safety checkups for departing employees and extra compensation for pregnant women workers and nursing mothers,” reported Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin.

“Many of us work from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. for 15 days without a single day off,” an unnamed worker told the group.

The strike is being organized independently of the government-sanctioned All China Federation of Trade Unions.

In another development, workers at several Pepsi factories across China went on strike March 5 against company plans for layoffs, pay cuts and reduced benefits, reported China Labour Bulletin. There were 656 workers’ strikes and protests in China last year, the group said, up from 382 in 2012.

— Brian Williams

British Columbia: truck drivers halt work to protest
low rates
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — More than 1,300 truck drivers at Port Metro Vancouver have stopped work here to protest long waits and low rates for the loads they carry.

The drivers, who are paid by the load, are demanding that the port make changes to cut their wait time or ensure they receive an hourly wage while they wait.

Some 1,000 members of the United Truckers Association parked their rigs Feb. 26. More than 300 drivers who belong to Unifor-Vancouver Container Truckers Association then went on strike March 10 after voting 98 percent to reject a proposed “Return to Work Agreement.” Leaders of UTA and Unifor had recommended their members approve the deal, which included conducting a review of “terminal wait times,” “rate undercutting” and “trip rates.”

“Our members have spoken: the deal was too little, too late,” said Paul Johal, president of Unifor-VCTA.

“There’s like 180 different employers, there’s different unions, non-union, fake unions and so it’s crazy and there’s no stability,” Unifor’s British Columbia Area Director Gavin McGarrigle, told the Vancouver Sun.

According to federal Transport Minister Lisa Raitt, about $885 million worth of cargo moves through the port every week, about $46 billion a year.

“Our people have taken out credit lines, second mortgages and borrowed money for diesel,” UTA spokesman Manny Dosange told the Globe and Mail. “They need some [assurance] that if they’re going back to work they’re going to have income coming in.”

— Dan Grant