International Workers Struggles Digest #1 (13/11/22)

Belarus outlaws’ unions:

An entire trade union movement in a European country is now facing extinction as courts declare unions to be “extremist” or “Western agents” — simply for doing what unions do.  

That is the situation today in Belarus.  A national trade union centre and major unions have been made illegal.  Union leaders are in jail facing long prison terms.  The regime has unleashed defamation campaigns targeting unions and their allies. Pressure on the regime in Belarus is intensifying. We join them in demanding the immediate release of all the jailed activists and the restoration of independent, democratic trade unions in the country.

Marlboro workers continue protests at union busting factory in Turkey:

Workers at the Philip Morris factory in Izmir, Turkey, are paid less than the poverty threshold — despite the company earning massive profits. The workers’ incomes are dwindling as a result of the country’s economic turmoil. Furthermore, there is discrimination between permanent and subcontracted workers, though they perform the same tasks and use the same machines. 

Recently, almost all the workers joined the union — but the company then sacked 124 of them in a brazen attempt at union-busting.  While the workers conduct daily protests in front of the factory, the company refuses to negotiate.