Post by Mitch on Oct 21, 2005 11:35:21 GMT
19th October 2005
* Harry Potter, Halloween and Child Labour in Mexico
* Sugar workers in Indonesia need your support today
* Gate Gourmet - again!
* Why the long face? Another union tries viral marketing
* Go Cards?
***
HARRY POTTER, HALLOWEEN AND CHILD LABOUR IN MEXICO
Don't you just love it when you send off a protest email to a
corporation and promptly get back a long, detailed response? That means
that (a) your emails are reaching the target, (b) they are being
counted, and (c) you've touched a nerve. That's what's been happening
with a campaign we launched earlier this week at the request of unions
in Mexico, protesting the use of child labour at a factory producing
Harry Potter and Star Wars Halloween costumes. To send your message
(and, yes, to receive a personalized response from the company), please
go to:
www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=59
***
SUGAR WORKERS IN INDONESIA NEED YOUR SUPPORT TODAY
I can't guarantee that you'll get a response from our next campaign.
But I can tell you that it's important -- and that our campaign might
produce results. We've been asked by the sugar workers union in
Indonesia for support. They want us to send email messages to the
government demanding that union rights be recognized. Those of who you
have followed our campaigns in the past may recall that this is not the
first time we've been asked to help Indonesian workers -- and this has
worked in the past, notably in resolving the Shangri-La hotel dispute
some time back. Please send off your message by going to:
www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=60
***
GATE GOURMET - AGAIN!
Remember the Gate Gourmet dispute at London's Heathrow Airport? Of
course you do. Over 8,000 of you sent off email messages in what turned
out to be LabourStart's largest online campaign ever. You contributed
over £2,000 to the Gate Gourmet hardship fund. Your efforts were hugely
appreciated by the workers and their union, the Transport and General
Workers Union (TGWU). But according to the IUF, within days of the
Heathrow dispute drawing to a close, a fresh dispute between unions and
the global catering company broke out at Dusseldorf airport in Germany.
Gate Gourmet workers went out on strike on 7 October following a
deadlock in collective bargaining. You can learn more about the dispute
and send a solidarity message to the workers by going here:
www.iuf.org/den2376
***
WHY THE LONG FACE? ANOTHER UNION TRIES VIRAL MARKETING
This is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face:
www.community-tu.org/Templates/internal.asp?nodeid=90010
Produced for Community, a British trade union, it's another imaginative
use of the new communications technology to bring more people into unions.
***
GO CARDS?
And one more thing. When I was in St. Louis, Missouri last month to
attend the Change to Win convention, I couldn't help noticing the "Go
Cards!" banners all over the city. I now understand what this means.
The city's baseball team is today engaged in a life-or-death struggle
with Houston's team to see which one gets to go on to compete in the
World Series. Now I know nothing about baseball, but I do know that St.
Louis is a union town with over 20% of its workforce organized, and
Houston is, well, in George Bush's Texas. A no brainer, right?
* Harry Potter, Halloween and Child Labour in Mexico
* Sugar workers in Indonesia need your support today
* Gate Gourmet - again!
* Why the long face? Another union tries viral marketing
* Go Cards?
***
HARRY POTTER, HALLOWEEN AND CHILD LABOUR IN MEXICO
Don't you just love it when you send off a protest email to a
corporation and promptly get back a long, detailed response? That means
that (a) your emails are reaching the target, (b) they are being
counted, and (c) you've touched a nerve. That's what's been happening
with a campaign we launched earlier this week at the request of unions
in Mexico, protesting the use of child labour at a factory producing
Harry Potter and Star Wars Halloween costumes. To send your message
(and, yes, to receive a personalized response from the company), please
go to:
www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=59
***
SUGAR WORKERS IN INDONESIA NEED YOUR SUPPORT TODAY
I can't guarantee that you'll get a response from our next campaign.
But I can tell you that it's important -- and that our campaign might
produce results. We've been asked by the sugar workers union in
Indonesia for support. They want us to send email messages to the
government demanding that union rights be recognized. Those of who you
have followed our campaigns in the past may recall that this is not the
first time we've been asked to help Indonesian workers -- and this has
worked in the past, notably in resolving the Shangri-La hotel dispute
some time back. Please send off your message by going to:
www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=60
***
GATE GOURMET - AGAIN!
Remember the Gate Gourmet dispute at London's Heathrow Airport? Of
course you do. Over 8,000 of you sent off email messages in what turned
out to be LabourStart's largest online campaign ever. You contributed
over £2,000 to the Gate Gourmet hardship fund. Your efforts were hugely
appreciated by the workers and their union, the Transport and General
Workers Union (TGWU). But according to the IUF, within days of the
Heathrow dispute drawing to a close, a fresh dispute between unions and
the global catering company broke out at Dusseldorf airport in Germany.
Gate Gourmet workers went out on strike on 7 October following a
deadlock in collective bargaining. You can learn more about the dispute
and send a solidarity message to the workers by going here:
www.iuf.org/den2376
***
WHY THE LONG FACE? ANOTHER UNION TRIES VIRAL MARKETING
This is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face:
www.community-tu.org/Templates/internal.asp?nodeid=90010
Produced for Community, a British trade union, it's another imaginative
use of the new communications technology to bring more people into unions.
***
GO CARDS?
And one more thing. When I was in St. Louis, Missouri last month to
attend the Change to Win convention, I couldn't help noticing the "Go
Cards!" banners all over the city. I now understand what this means.
The city's baseball team is today engaged in a life-or-death struggle
with Houston's team to see which one gets to go on to compete in the
World Series. Now I know nothing about baseball, but I do know that St.
Louis is a union town with over 20% of its workforce organized, and
Houston is, well, in George Bush's Texas. A no brainer, right?