Global briefs

LATIN AMERICA: The largest source of foreign income in 
Latin America is emigrant workers sending money home, according 
to the Inter-American Development Bank. Last year alone Hispanic 
workers living in industrialised countries sent home US$38 
billion. This is more than the total foreign investment in the 
region and greater than the total amount of foreign aid. In the 
case of Mexico, emigrant workers resident in the US sent home 
US$13 billion, the second largest earner for the economy after 
its oil exports.

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INDIA: India has asked for membership in the Shanghai 
Cooperation Organisation (SCO), according to Mr Lavrov, the 
Russian Foreign Minister. "India made such a request not to 
Russia or China, but it directly asked the organisation", Mr 
Lavrov pointed out. The Russian foreign ministry stressed the 
fact that the organisation is an open one, rather than some 
military-political bloc. As of today, the Shanghai Cooperation 
Organisation consists of six countries: Kazakhstan, China, 
Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

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JAPAN: At Nestli Japan, a subsidiary of the Swiss-based 
multinational instant coffee maker, workers have had 15-minute 
breaks in the morning and in the afternoon to refresh themselves 
with a cup of coffee in the canteen. They were paid breaks. 
Without warning the company decided to only pay workers for 10 of 
the 30 minutes. The union immediately demanded that the company 
revoke its decision.

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FRANCE: After one year on strike, 30 employees at the 
Strasbourg-St Denis McDonalds in the centre of Paris have won a 
great victory. Salaries have been increased by 6-6.5 per cent, 
the manager removed, a sacked trade union shop steward reinstated 
and the company has agreed to pay the strikers for 35 per cent of 
the time they were on strike — about four months' pay. A 
McDonalds spokesperson tried to soften the company's defeat by 
saying that "no-one wins when a strike lasts one year", but the 
CGT (peak left-wing union body) official Karl Ghazi hailed its as 
a "magnificent victory" against a company which wanted a 
"resigned, insecure and flexible workforce", McDonalds had hoped 
to make this as an example for workers at other branches.

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COLOMBO: Sinaltrainal, the union representing workers in 
Colombian factories that bottle Coca Cola, has announced that it 
is suspending a hunger strike after 276 hours. The union said 
that a number of agreements had been reached with the company. 
They included a commitment to a further meeting with the union. 
Delegates from all plants involved in the conflict will be 
allowed to attend. The company agreed not make reprisals against 
hunger strikers and to revoke sanctions already imposed. It will 
also grant two weeks' paid leave to the hunger strikers to 
recover physically and would pay for medical treatment needed for 
their full recuperation. The company also agreed to pay to 
publish a notice in a national daily newspaper demanding that the 
protestors' claims and the workers' lives be respected. 
Sinaltrainal thanked the many trade union and solidarity groups 
around the world that had supported the hunger strikers.