Low-paid Asian workers rally for better work conditions, benefits
Source: Agencies |
May 2, 2013, Thursday
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Print Edition
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TENS of thousands of low-paid workers took to the streets on May Day to demand higher wages, better benefits and improved working conditions a week after a building collapse in Bangladesh became a grim reminder of the dangers of lax regulations in poor countries.
Laborers in Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines and elsewhere marched and chanted en masse yesterday, sounding complaints about being squeezed by big business amid the surging cost of living. Asia is the manufacturing ground for many of the world's largest multinational companies.
Thousands of garment factory workers in Bangladesh also paraded through the streets calling for work safeguards and for the owner of the collapsed building to be sentenced to death.
In Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous country, tens of thousands of workers rallied for higher pay and an end to the practice of outsourcing jobs to contract workers, among other demands. Some carried banners reading: "Sentence corruptors to death and seize their properties" and protested against a proposed plan for the government to slash fuel subsidies.
A day earlier, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the country must reduce fuel subsidies that are a major drain on the budget. In 2011, the subsidy bill ran close to US$20 billion, the same amount targeted for spending on infrastructure this year.
In the Philippines, an estimated 8,000 workers marched in Manila to also demand better pay and regular jobs instead of contractual work. "Wage increase, increase!" members of a coalition of workers' groups chanted while holding streamers that also called for lower food and utility prices.
Some workers rallied outside the US Embassy, torching a wooden painting stamped with the words "low wages" and "union busting" that depicted Philippine President Benigno Aquino III as a lackey of US President Barack Obama.
Several thousand people in the Chinese city of Hong Kong also protested, including dockworkers who have been on strike for a month. They want better working conditions and a pay raise to make up for cuts in previous years.
And an estimated 3,000 people demonstrated in Singapore, where any form of public protest is rare, to rally against the ruling People's Action Party.
Violent clashes erupted in Turkey when demonstrators tried to break through police barriers to reach Istanbul's main hub, Taksim Square. In Cambodia, more than 5,000 garment workers marched in Phnom Penh, demanding better working conditions and a salary increase.
Laborers in Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines and elsewhere marched and chanted en masse yesterday, sounding complaints about being squeezed by big business amid the surging cost of living. Asia is the manufacturing ground for many of the world's largest multinational companies.
Thousands of garment factory workers in Bangladesh also paraded through the streets calling for work safeguards and for the owner of the collapsed building to be sentenced to death.
In Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous country, tens of thousands of workers rallied for higher pay and an end to the practice of outsourcing jobs to contract workers, among other demands. Some carried banners reading: "Sentence corruptors to death and seize their properties" and protested against a proposed plan for the government to slash fuel subsidies.
A day earlier, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the country must reduce fuel subsidies that are a major drain on the budget. In 2011, the subsidy bill ran close to US$20 billion, the same amount targeted for spending on infrastructure this year.
In the Philippines, an estimated 8,000 workers marched in Manila to also demand better pay and regular jobs instead of contractual work. "Wage increase, increase!" members of a coalition of workers' groups chanted while holding streamers that also called for lower food and utility prices.
Some workers rallied outside the US Embassy, torching a wooden painting stamped with the words "low wages" and "union busting" that depicted Philippine President Benigno Aquino III as a lackey of US President Barack Obama.
Several thousand people in the Chinese city of Hong Kong also protested, including dockworkers who have been on strike for a month. They want better working conditions and a pay raise to make up for cuts in previous years.
And an estimated 3,000 people demonstrated in Singapore, where any form of public protest is rare, to rally against the ruling People's Action Party.
Violent clashes erupted in Turkey when demonstrators tried to break through police barriers to reach Istanbul's main hub, Taksim Square. In Cambodia, more than 5,000 garment workers marched in Phnom Penh, demanding better working conditions and a salary increase.
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