Ireland: Fifty workers occupying a Thomas Cook branch in Dublin in a bid to secure a decent payoff have promised to continue their struggle “for as long as it takes”: here.
Trade unionists and leftwingers have slammed the arrest of some 30 Thomas Cook workers at the company’s Grafton St premises in Dublin this morning as “a dark stain on the history of industrial relations in Ireland”: here.
Thomas Cook workers punished while white collar crime continues to be rewarded: here.
Britain: Vestas workers have kept up the pressure on their employers by threatening executives with legal action in advance of the company’s forthcoming attempt to win an eviction order: here. See also here. And here. And here. And here. And here.
‘Close down the Island if they try to evict us’ say Vestas occupiers: here.
Protesters against the closure of a wind turbine factory have chained themselves to Lord Mandelson’s home as the Business Secretary jetted back from his holidays in Corfu: here.
Vestas workers interviewed: in the eye of the storm: here.
South Korea: Four thousand riot police have intensified their brutal siege of a car factory in Pyeongtaek after talks to end a two-and-a-half-month occupation by strikers collapsed: here. And here.
Update 4 July 2009: here.
Helicopter-borne police commandos have fought a pitched battle with militant strikers at a South Korean car plant, but failed to dislodge hundreds of trade unionists occupying a paint shop: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
(Updated August 3) Capitalism vs the environment: Wind turbine
workers fight factory closure with sit-in
* Read more http://links.org.au/node/1168
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For jobs and the environment: Why the workers occupied the Vestas
wind turbine plant
Below is the text of a speech written by a Vestas worker for delivery at
trade union and environmental movement meetings. It gives an excellent
insight into the background of the struggle, and its wider political
significance.
* Read more http://links.org.au/node/1175
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Britain: Vestas workers end occupation, but `the campaign is
anything but over’
August 7, 2009 — The Vestas workers’ occupation of the Newport [Isle of
Wight wind turbine] plant occupation may be over, but the campaign is
very definitely not. In fact, … “it’s just getting going”! Vestas’
doings will still be disrupted as they go about attempting to “tie up”
business on the Isle of Wight. Workers, activists and locals remain
wholly committed, in ever-growing numbers, to the campaign to save the
green-collar jobs in Newport and Southampton.
* Read more http://links.org.au/node/1190
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South Korea: Ssangyong workers occupy plant, win partial victory —
Class war in midst of economic crisis
By Young-su Won
August 6, 2009 — After days of harsh and inhumane assaults by riot
police and company thugs on striking workers occupying the Ssangyong
Motor plant in Pyeongtaek, near Seoul, the Korean Metal Workers Union
(KMWU) and management reached an agreement: the union accepted part of
the company’s redundancy proposal, saving about half the strikers’ jobs,
while the rest will apply for voluntary retirement or unpaid long-term
leave, or accept another job with the spin-off company.
* Read more http://links.org.au/node/1187
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(Updated Aug. 6) Vestas workers: `Fight for green jobs not over …
Change should be made for the people, not for money’
August 5, 6pm, 2009 — With Mike Godley having left yesterday, we spoke
to Mark, one of the six who are still inside at the Vestas sit-in. We
discussed how they had to reorganise themselves now four people have
left. He said that that morale was still good and how they’ll “still be
fighting Vestas”.
* Read more http://links.org.au/node/1185
(Updated August 5) South Korea: Graphic photos, video — Ssangyong
sit-in workers’ appeal: `Our lives are at stake’
http://links.org.au/node/1184
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Lucas Aerospace — When workers said `no’ to military production,
`yes’ to green jobs
By Rob Marsden
August 22, 2009 — Socialist Resistance — Today, the twin drivers of
economic recession and the possibility of catastrophic climate change
are beginning to push working people towards action. A series of
small-scale but high-profile occupations of threatened factories, not
just at Vestas wind turbine plant but also at Visteon car plant, where
600 workers took on the might of Ford and won a greatly enhanced
redundancy package, show what is possible. In the 1970s workers at
Britain’s Lucas Aerospace went even further. We look back at the lessons
of Lucas Aerospace.
* Read more http://links.org.au/node/1216
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