Your last chance to join the Playfair campaign’s call for Adidas, Nike and Speedo to respect workers’ rights.

Yesterday War on Want staff went out on the pickets and march to support public sector workers on strike in London. We received the news that our Bangladeshi partners the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF), which organises sweatshop workers, had called a march in solidarity with striking workers in the UK.

I've been reading bits of last weekends papers on my tube journey this week, and have been inspired, outraged and generally provoked in some sort of manner so I thought I'd share some of the bits I've been reading.

I met Meredith Avelar during my first visit to Codemuh in Honduras in July 2008. At that time Meredith was 28 years old and had just been sacked for the second time as a result of an occupational disease. Her story of fighting back for her rights is very inspiring and I would like to share it with all our supporters.

It is just one year to the day until London hosts the world’s biggest sporting event. While we stand back and admire the Olympic stadia that have been built on time in East London, we should not forget the millions of people working behind the scenes in sweatshops and factories across the developing world supplying major sportswear companies.

Mr Charles Hector, a Malaysian human rights defender, is due to stand trial on 28-29 June for allegedly defaming the company Asahi Kosei Japan, after voicing the grievances of 31 Burmese migrants working at the electronics factory based in Selangor, Malaysia.

Last week hundreds of Sri Lankan free trade zone workers were brutally repressed by the police during a protest to stop the government’s approval of a new pension bill.  According to War on Want’s partner, the Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees Union (FTZ&GSEU), more than 270 protesters were injured with about 16 police officers also suffering injuries. 60 people were seriously wounded and a 22 year old worker died.

Asahi Kosei an electronics factory and subsidiary of Asahi Kosei Japan,  who supply brand names such as Hitachi, Sanyo and Toshiba, has threatened to bring a RM10 million (about USD 3.2 million), defamation lawsuit against Mr. Charles Hector, a Malaysian human rights activist. In early February 2011, Mr. Hector tried to contact this company in response to grievances raised by 31 workers from Burma. The complaints ranged from non-payment of settled wages, unlawful deductions and penalties for absence of work. The company threatened them with termination of employment and possible deportation to Burma.

After trying unsuccessfully to contact Asahi Kosei, Mr. Hector decided to post a blog on the issue. Because of that he has been threatened with a defamation lawsuit. Several local human rights organisations, such as the Malaysian Bar Council and Workers Hub for Change, have called the Malaysian and Japanese authorities to launch immediate investigations into the authenticity of the allegations that Mr. Hector has brought to light and to act to prevent the committing or continuation of any human rights abuses against migrant workers. They are also calling for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the legal action.

Mr. Hector is a Malaysian lawyer and human rights activist. He has previously been a member of the Malaysian Bar Council. For many years, Mr. Hector has represented workers and migrants in various cases. Mr. Hector has a blog, where he details many of the abuses that migrant workers are facing and advocates for legal changes to improve the situation of the several million migrant workers in Malaysia.

The petition campaigning against the charges facing Charles Hector can be found here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/319/--if-gte-mso-9xml-wworddocument-wviewnormalwview-wzoom0wzoom-wtrackmoves-wtrackformatting/

For more information on the case please check the following website:
http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/press_statements/press_release_defend_human_rights_defenders_and_safeguard_migrant_workers.html

Day 4 of the War on Want/GMB delegation. Our first visit to a garment factory – at least this one’s unionised. Thanks to a local trade union we were able to get inside a factory making clothes for Nike and Adidas and fancy dress clothes for children. It would take a worker ‘s salary for a week to be able to buy one of the t-shirts they make. It was someone’s birthday today and generously the company had provided some balloons – pity they took the money to buy them from the workers!

Earlier today the Honduran women’s collective Codemuh sent me a montage of images posted on YouTube from demonstrations in San Pedro Sula held on 15 September in which one person died and several were injured by the police.

A member of the National Popular Resistance Front (NPRF), the women’s collective has denounced the increase in the killing of women and the workers’ rights violations occurring in the country. On 17 September, two days after the massive demonstrations, the President of the Trade Union Workers of the Honduran Institute of Social Security, Joana Bustillo, was killed after a meeting in the San Pedro Social Security offices. 

Read Codemuh’s statement condemning this crime and its call for international human rights bodies to monitor and protect the human rights of all Hondurans, especially women. The collective is also demanding that President Porfirio Lobo take all the necessary steps to bring to justice those responsible for the murder of Joana Bustillo, and all those killed for protesting since the June 2009 coup.