* Workers at Cerro Verde copper mine to strike on March 31* Workers at Shougang iron mine to strike March 29* Miners demand larger share of profits By Teresa Cespedes and Patricia Velez LIMA, March 24 ( Reuters ) - Workers at the Shougang Hierro Peru iron mine and Cerro Verde copper mine will go on strike next week to demand better wages and a larger share of profits, union leaders said on Wednesday. Miners at Shougang Hierro Peru will put down tools on March 29, while workers at Cerro Verde will strike on March 31.

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Petition Calling on Samsung to Accept Responsibility for Occupational Deaths and to Provide Safe and Decent Working Conditions The families and friends of electronics manufacturing workers at Samsung in Korea have discovered a cancer cluster among young workers exposed to toxic chemicals.   The pattern of cancer deaths bears a striking resemblance to the pattern of cancer deaths among IBM “chip” workers in the US* and to other electronics cancer clusters around the world.   March 6th is the third anniversary of the death of Yu-mi Hwang, a Samsung semiconductor factory worker, who died from leukemia at age 22.  Her death – and similar coworker deaths - has motivated people to demand that Samsung:

by Sadie Robinson Source: Socialist Worker Online. 19 March 2010 Factsheet: British Airways Strike - The Facts Unite union officials have confirmed that a three-day strike of British Airways cabin crew will go ahead. It begins tomorrow. The announcement follows an angry mass meeting today where cabin crew demanded that union officials go ahead with the action.

(This article is written in English.)

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Source: Inter Press Service via Asia Times BANGKOK - China and, initially, six of its Asian neighbors enacted the world's largest free trade area at the start of the year. Billed as a welcome boost for the economies of its Asian partners, some analysts also see it as a panacea for the region as they battle through the global financial crisis. Such optimism stems from the free-trade pact cementing a relationship that has seen the value of trade between the world's fastest-growing major economy and the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) jump six-fold since 2000 to US$193 billion.

The Jakarta Post,  Thu, 01/21/2010 Thousands of workers took to the streets in Surabaya, East Java, and Semarang, Central Java, on Thursday to protest the implementation of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA), Antara state news agency reported. The protesters in Surabaya, who came from the East Java regencies of Gresik, Sidoarjo, Pasuruan, Mojokerto and Jombang, staged their protest rally outside the East Java Legislative Council on Jl. Indragiri.

Lot van Baaren, Paul Benschop Source: International Viewpoint Online magazine : IV421 - February 2010 It’s 1989, PTT Post, the Dutch state-owned postal company, is privatized. During the following years the company is split up in different parts responsible for postal deliveries, telegraph and telephones. The different parts are made independent and the stocks are sold on the market. The post is not the only publicly owned or controlled company that is privatized and sold off. The Dutch railways, the former state-owned mines – now a chemicals company – and public services follow. Neoliberalism and all it entails has become the dominant way of thought.

by Tolga Korkut (Monthly Review) Six union confederations in Turkey have announced that they will go on a general strike if the government does not respond to the Tekel workers' demands by 26 January 2010.  The hunger strike mentioned below is now on hold pending the government response by the deadline.  -- Ed. Worker Yaşar from the Tek Gıda-İş union: "The workers expect the confederations to put a general strike on the agenda.  There is no area left that was not attacked by the government.  The hunger strike was our last resort.  If I died today, my children would benefit from a higher pension".

(Source: Today's Zaman. 7 January 2010) Workers dismissed from Tekel, Turkey’s alcohol and tobacco monopoly, decided on Wednesday to continue their demonstrations, which have now entered their 23rd straight day, in protest of factory closures. The results of a vote conducted among workers countrywide revealed that some 8,150 out of 8,180 valid ballots were cast in favor of continuing the demonstrations.