
Issue No 94		04 May 2001

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News

Jageth Backs Jakarta Hotel Workers

By Andrew Casey

An Australian hotel union organiser, Jagath Bandara, joined Indonesian hotel workers in their May Day celebrations and a protest rally outside the Shangri-La Jakarta hotel this week.

Jagath Bandara, from the NSW branch of the LHMU, read out messages of solidarity from the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the international hotel workers federation the IUF.

" I delivered the solidarity messages from the ACTU and Ron Oswald ( the gen-sec of the IUF) when we held a sit-in at the Jakarta Central Court to protest the treatment of the Shangri-La workers," Jagath Bandara said in an e-mail sent from Indonesia.

The IUF Executive Committee has just completed meetings in

Geneva and resolved to maintain the support of all hotel workers' unions for their comrades in Indonesia.

All 87 members of the international executive - representing unions from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean. Continental Western Europe, Eastern and Central Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, Latin America, Nordic countries, North America, the Pacific, UK and Ireland - signed a joint letter to the Indonesian ambassador to the UN registering their protest.

The IUF has also written to the governments and representatives of the so-called G15 countries - representing developing nations - who are scheduled to meet in Jakarta in May.

They have called on the representatives of these countries to boycott the Shangri-La Jakarta hotel - one of the five-star hotels listed for use by government representatives during the international talk-fest.

Jagath Bandara handed over a donation, collected from hotel workers and other unionists in Sydney, of more than $2000 ( which is worth more than 13 million Indonesian rupiahs) to help the Shangri-La hotel workers who have been locked out from their workplace since the end of last year.

Jagath is doing a tour of other major Indonesian hotels, such as the Hyatt and Regent hotel, to build up solidarity, contact and support between hotel workers in Indonesia and Australia.

Hotel managements in the South-East Asia region are increasingly working together so the hotel unions in this region will also need to co-operate.

A few months ago the Regent Hotel in Jakarta sent a group of their employees to work at the Regent Hotel in Sydney.

The Australian hotel attempted to pay the Jakarta workers at

very poor Indonesian rates, until the LHMU stepped in and organised protests to ensure that the Jakarta workers were treated the same as their Sydney brothers and sisters.

For a history of the Shangri-La Indonesia dispute

Contact Arnotts and leave a message by click here to visit the LabourStart Shangri-La website

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Issue 94 contents

Interview: Global Action
The CFMEU has been a world leader in fighting the war on global corporations. John Maitland has been one of the generals.

Unions: Sisters United
In her May Day address, Bus Union state president Pat Ryan looks at the role women have played in the labour movement.

Politics: M1 and the Trade Unions
Phil Davey was one of the forces behind S11 but chose to sit out M1. He looks at this week's action.

History: Il Duce Roberto?
His modern-day fan club might not like it, but Rowan Cahill argues wartime PM Robert Menzies sailed close to the winds of Fascism.

International: Cuban Call for Global Labour Rights
An international meeting of union representatives in Cuba has vowed to start a campaign to defend workers rights from the effects of globalisation.

Economics: The G-Word
ACTU President Sharan Burrow asks if there's a better way forward for global trade.

Media: Birth Of A Nation
East Timor's young journalists are struggling with language barriers and technical difficulties most Australian media professionals wouldn't be able to comprehend. But they're keen and eager to learn.

Review: The Tremulous Hopes of the Fifties
Behind the the good times mythology of the 1950s was a desperate quest for the ordinary.

Satire: Teen Angst Poems a �Danger�
The Teen Angst Gun Massacre Affair has broadened, with staff at the NSW Department of Education revealing that �gangs of conspirators� have been found operating out of high school poetry competitions.

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» Unions Get Down to Workers Comp Talks

» Firefighters Hand Hoses To Politicians

» Unions Back Corruption Fight

» 'Workers Bank' Protest Rally Backs Cleaners

» Smoking Decision Sparks Call for Pub Bans

» Boycott Trade, Travel with Burma

» Qantas Takeover No Impulse Buy

» Sick Chicks Win Privacy Rights

» Arnotts Workers Seek More than Crumbs

» Jageth Backs Jakarta Hotel Workers

» Equity Members Send a Dear John Letter

» New Theatre Under Threat

» A Toast to May Day

» Activist Notebook