The Guardian 15 February, 2006
Global briefs
INDIA: About 23,000 employees at Mumbai and Delhi airports successfully resolved their
strike that followed a decision by the authorities to turn over the airports to private companies for
upgrading. All of India's main airports are state-run enterprises, and some, like Mumbai and Delhi,
are below international standards for modernisation although they serviced about half of the
estimated 50 million Indians who travelled by air last year. Workers say the private companies
announced they would fire 40 percent of the present workforce. "It is the question of the lives of
thousands of airport employees and their families", Nitin Jadhav, General Secretary of Airports
Authority Employees Union in Mumbai, said. Left parties, including the Communist Party of India
(Marxist) and Communist Party of India extended support and served as mediators for the
agreement with the government, but warned against further moves toward privatisation.
IRAQ: A prominent member of the executive board of the recently created General
Federation of Iraqi Workers was assassinated outside his home in the early morning of January 25.
The murder of Alaa Issa Khalaf was strongly condemned by the International Confederation of Free
Trade Unions as one in a series of targeted attacks against Iraqi trade union activists. In a letter to
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, the ICFTU General Secretary urged the government to launch
an investigation into the killing, and the ratification of International Labor Organisation Convention
87 on the right to association.
COLOMBIA: A resolution filed on behalf of five New York City pension funds is before
Coca-Cola shareholders, asking for an independent inquiry into allegations of human rights abuses
at its Colombian affiliate, Coca-Cola FEMSA. Consumer boycotts have affected sales in the US
and Europe amid charges of collusion between paramilitary forces and company officials in
violence directed at union activists. The US/Labor Education in the Americas Project (US/LEAP)
says more trade unionists are killed in Colombia than in all other countries combined.
SOUTH AFRICA: The South African Communist Party(SACP) called on millions to come
out to vote for the African National Congress(ANC) on March 1. The ANC ticket includes
candinates from the SACP and the council of South Africa Trade Unions. Citing advances such as
greater access to clean water, electricity and low-cost housing, more local community clinics,
greater opportunities for training and education and promotion of needs of youth, women, children
and people with disabilities, SACP Secretary General Blade Nzimande said serious challenges
remain. Among the challenges facing national and local government are four million unemployed,
five million living with HIV and many millions living in poverty, Nzimande said. "Our vote for the
ANC is a vote for developmental local government", he said. "Let's build people's power where we
live and where we work."
KANAKY (NEW CALEDONIA): An Indigenous group in New Caledonia has lost its bid to
halt a massive nickel project on the South Pacific island. A court last week rejected the application
by the Kanak Rheebu Nuu Committee to stop the Goro nickel/cobalt project. The Committee had
applied for the exploration licence of the Canadian-based company Inco to be revoked and was
seeking guarantees over environmental protection in the southern tribal area. Thousands of Filipino
workers are set to arrive there in the coming weeks to help construct the multi-billion dollar plant. A
final ruling on the project is expected in three months.
BRITAIN: The Church of England General Synod voted to disinvest church funds from
firms profiting from Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. A key target is the US
company Caterpillar, which supplied vehicles to demolish Palestinian homes.