Every week, R@W News will endeavour to give readers a brief round-up of major stories involving rights at work from around the world. Readers wanting to keep up-to-date on global issues on a more regular basis would be well advised to visit the website of LabourStart.
The public services strike in South Africa has entered its second week, and may expand into the private sector.
The strike is posing as a major test of the Government of President Jacob Zuma and of the longstanding relationship between the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the African National Congress. Zuma has now intervened in a bid to end the dispute.
More than a million public sector workers took part in the national general strike on 19 August, which was marred by violence from police. The workers are seeking an 8.6% pay rise, as well as a 1000 rand monthly housing allowance.
Soldiers and police have also threatened to join the strike, which has impacted on hospitals and schools.
In Mexico, workers have secured two important wins in recent days.
American-owned Johnson Controls has reinstated several union members who were beaten and forced to sign letters of resignation under gunpoint. Workers at the factory in Puebla in southern Mexico have been attempting to organise into an independent union, but have been threatened and faced violence from thugs allegedly connected to the company.
Meanwhile, at Cananea near the border with the United States, striking miners have been allowed by a court to return to their mine after they were forcibly removed by police in June.
But the news is not so good from South Korea, where three union leaders remain in jail despite 21 colleagues being released.
The three men are leaders of the KMWU Ssangyong Motor Company Union in Seoul. They led a 77-day strike at the factory after the company violated a collective agreement by undergoing mass sackings without consultation.
As a footnote, this week marks the 30th anniversary of the Solidarity uprising in Poland, which foreshadowed the collapse of the Communist dictatorship there and was the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire.
Solidarity (Solidarnosc in Polish), began with a strike by union members in the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk. It became an unstoppable social movement that eventually overcame the Communist regime. The Solidarity leader, Lech Walesa, was the first elected President of the Free Republic of Poland in 1990.
You can read more about the Solidarity movement here.
Mark Phillips is ACTU media co-ordinator
R@W News is a forum for news, analysis and commentary about rights at work and related issues. The opinions presented in R@W News are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent policies or views of the ACTU.