Germany to Extend Minimum Pay to Cleaners

By Brian Parkin

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet today agreed to extend minimum-wage rules to industrial cleaners in a step aimed at rooting out unfair competition caused by companies that undercut pay levels agreed with unions.

The BIV cleaning industry group that lobbied for the change said companies caught paying less than the minimum will risk prosecution when the rule becomes law next year. The legislation sets minimum hourly pay rates for cleaners in western Germany at 7.87 euros ($10.09) and 6.36 euros in the eastern states.

The new law ``will help root out the black sheep as tariff busters will face fines,'' said Bonn-based BIV spokeswoman Christine Sudhop in an interview. BIV represents 850,000 cleaners in 2,600 companies.

The Handbook aims to assist states in their efforts to develop new policy approaches, solutions and practical measures for better management of labour migration in countries of origin and of destination. It has been prepared primarily for use by decision-makers and practitioners in the OSCE area and countries served by IOM and ILO. It analyses effective policies and practices and draws on examples from OSCE participating States as well as other countries that have considerable experience in this field.
The book is published jointly by the OSCE, the International Organization for Migration and the International Labour Office.
http://www.osce.org/item/19187.html

This detailled report on the immigrants rights march on May 1st in Chicago has appeared on the nettime mailing list: http://www.nettime.org

Today I went to the big immigrants' rights march/rally. I had enough to say about the day even before I received word, just after having returned home from the event, of an untimely loss for the Chicago art/activist world. Michael Piazza passed suddenly over the weekend. Michael was an artist and a local presence for many years, with a memory of radical Chicago that went back to the Seventies. I cannot speak about May Day in Chicago in 2006 without mentioning the concurrent passing of this colleague beloved by so many because Michael himself played an important role in keeping the observance of May Day vital in the city of its politicized birth, including having coordinated a number of projects that took place on the site of the Haymarket incident. I could say a lot more about Michael and the way he lived his life, but I'll keep it short here and simply offer the observation that much of what happens in this city in the area of cultural activism--the way our networks operate, the way people so generously support and collaborate with each other, the way productive exchanges between allies are made possible--bears the imprint of Michael's innovations and values. I think with time we will realize that Michael's work, in its own way, left as long a shadow in this city as did that of the late Carlos Cortez.

»We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us«. The following text from Fassanito Network about "Movements and Struggles of Migration in and around Europe" was written for and distributed at the 4th European Social Forum (ESF), which took place between 4th and 7th of Mai in Athens/Greece and when migration became the first time an own thematic axis inside the ESF.

On March 25, 2006, Los Angeles immigrants and their supporters came out in mass to protest the recent anti-immigrant legislation being discussed by the US Congress. An estimated 500,000 to 1 million people were out in the streets, in a peaceful protest. News reported 500,000 but organizers estimate over a 1 million came out on Saturday. They came out to protest HR 4437, a bill that is being discussed this month in the US Congress.

The Sensenbrenner Bill is a 247 page bill that is an outrageous law because it makes local law enforcement immigration officers, makes being undocumented a felony (now just a civil case and will be deported), makes anyone who assists undocumented workers a smuggler (also felony and can seize property that was used - office, car, home, etc.), and makes it harder for employers to hire undocumented workers.

MIWON is a multi-ethnic, multi-industry network of immigrant worker-based organizations that seeks to build the political consciousness and participation of immigrant workers in our fight for better living and working conditions. Our key strategies are to fight for legalization and worker rights, to act as a collective voice for low-wage immigrant workers in Los Angeles.

MIWON’s objectives are 1) to support one another in our struggles, 2) to build unity and develop political consciousness through collective political education, 3) to wage campaigns for local, regional and national battles for legalization and workers rights and 4) to build bridges between immigrant and non-immigrant workers for a more just society.

Here is the translation of an article about the strike at Gate Gourmet which has been published in german on indymedia: http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/01/136552.shtml

Saturday, January 14, the strike counter at the striker's tent counted the one hundredth strike day at Gate Gourmet. The union announced "No reason for celebration, but for protest" on its website (in German: http://www.ngg.net). The people understood the message...

A major contract on the London Underground has been terminated today by Metronet Rail after the discovery by the Transport and General Workers' Union of the systematic withholding of tube cleaners' pay by cleaning company Blue Diamond, employed by Metronet.

The Heinrich Böll Foundation is organizing an international conference on labour migration in February 2006 with participation from scholars, policy experts and NGOs across Europe. The conference aims to explore the potential of labour migration for Europe in view of "best practices" and realistic options in migration policy and governance. A guiding principle of the conference is that the potential benefits, uncertainties and disadvantages pertaining to migration must be openly discussed in order to attain the legitimacy from European civil society, which is essential for the successful realisation of migration policies. More information is available at: http://www.migration-boell.de/web/nav/46_53.htm

The company Gate Gourmet is somehow known after the labor-conflicts in London in august 2005 and the spectacular wildcat-strike of British Airways workers. Now another strike in a Gate Gourmet branch in Duesseldorf persists since 9 weeks! And needs international solidarity-actions, for example at 17th of December!