SOLIDARITY NEEDED FOR PAKISTANI WORKERS:
Workers at the Coca-Cola plant in Karachi, Pakistan are continuing to struggle for their rights against continued management efforts to deny them their rights. The management of 'Coke-Pakistan' has always attempted to impede the efforts of their workers to unionize. union activists have been targeted in dismissals and when this failed to achieve the desired effect massive "casualization" was tried. Regular employees were classified as temporary so as to expedite their firing if they should seem to be pro-union. Large numbers of employees who were not management in any sense of the term were reclassified as outside of union organization efforts. The management of the plant has also attempted to shift its hiring more and more to "employment agencies". On December 9th termination notices were sent to 150 workers at the plant, coincidentally including known union activists. The Karachi government was very compliant in sending extra police to the plant to add to security after this move.
To learn more about this assault on workers' rights and to add your voice to international solidarity against it visit the IUF site at http://www.iuf.org/den3999 or see our links section for the IUF under the 'Other Interesting Links' section.
Molly