Salon.com > Margie Mason

Workers stage May Day protest for higher wages, better conditions

Wed, 01 May 2013 11:53:00 +0000

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Tens of thousands of low-paid workers took to the streets on May Day to demand higher wages, better benefits and improved working conditions a week after a building collapse in Bangladesh became a grim reminder of the dangers of lax safety regulations in poor countries.

Laborers in Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines and elsewhere marched and chanted en masse Wednesday, sounding complaints about being squeezed by big business amid the surging cost of living. Asia is the manufacturing ground for many of the world's largest multinational companies.

Thousands of garment factory workers in Bangladesh also paraded through the streets calling for safeguards to be put in place and for the owner of the collapsed building to be sentenced to death.

In Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous country, tens of thousands of workers rallied for higher pay and an end to the practice of outsourcing jobs to contract workers, among other demands. Some also carried banners reading: "Sentence corruptors to death and seize their properties" and protested against a proposed plan for the government to slash fuel subsidies that have kept the country's pump prices among the cheapest in the region.

U.S. diplomat allegedly punched Vietnamese official

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 15:32:00 +0000

Vietnam's state-controlled media on Friday accused an American diplomat of creating a public disturbance following reports he was roughed up by Vietnamese police for attempting to visit a prominent dissident.

The U.S. has filed a strong protest over the incident, which happened Wednesday in the central city of Hue, calling it a matter of grave concern.

The Thanh Nien newspaper, one of Vietnam's most popular, quoted witnesses as saying political officer Christian Marchant shouted curses in English and Vietnamese, shoved a local official and punched another person in the face.

An American official in Washington said Marchant was attempting to visit Catholic priest Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, a pro-democracy dissident, in a prearranged meeting when he was roughed up and a car door was repeatedly slammed on his legs.

U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia reported that Marchant was wrestled to the ground, put into a police car and driven away. He has since been released.

Marchant was injured slightly during the scuffle, but is up walking around, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. Marchant's work in Vietnam recently earned him a State Department Human Rights and Democracy Award that he's expected to receive next month.