Thai Railway Workers Punished for Maintaining Safety Standards
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Tim Ryan of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center recently visited Thailand and reports on that country’s railway union’s fight against efforts by management and business leaders to break the union.
Sawit Kaewvarn is general secretary of the State Railway Union of Thailand (SRUT) and the general secretary of the State Enterprises Workers’ Relations Confederation (SERC), the biggest and most powerful union confederation in Thailand. So even though he is the pre-eminent trade union leader in the country, he’s being attacked by the railways management and threatened with being fired.
Over the past year, SRUT, along with Thailand’s Supreme Court, have thwarted attacks on the union and stopped attempts to privatize the railways by politically connected business leaders.
Chicago Charter School Teachers Join Union
Teachers at three Chicago charter schools voted overwhelmingly last week to join the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (Chicago ACTS), an affiliate of the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) and AFT.
The 73-49 vote at the Civitas Schools sets a precedent for teachers at other charter schools whose staff want to organize, union leaders said.
Laura McMahon, an eighth-grade reading teacher at the Civitas Wrightwood campus, said:
Today’s historic victory sends a strong and clear message to Civitas school officials about our desire to have a say in our schools and work collaboratively. We expect Civitas will recognize the union now and begin the collective bargaining process.
