[Info-Bureau] Workers demand better jobs, pay on May Day
Autor: Revista Crítica do Direito | Publicado: 2011-05-07T16:44:00-03:00

Workers demand better jobs, pay on  May Day &nbsp; By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA,  Associated Press � 1 hr 15 mins ago &nbsp; ISTANBUL � Activists  marking international workers' day Sunday staged a massive march of 200,000 in  Turkey's capital and rallied in cities around the world to demand more jobs,  better working conditions and higher wages. &nbsp; Most of the annual May Day  workers' rights marches were peaceful, although demonstrators in the Philippine  capital set ablaze a cartoon effigy of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III  to protest his buying a luxury car secondhand. &nbsp; In Istanbul, about 200,000  workers gathered in Taksim Square in the largest such rally there since 34  people died on May Day in 1977, when shooting triggered a stampede. The Turkish  unions weren't allowed back into the square May 1 until last year. &nbsp; "We want light to be shed  on the 1977 massacre," Suleyman Celebi, who is running for Parliament in the  upcoming elections in June, told CNN-Turk television. Celebi had served as  leader of one of the country's largest labor unions, DISK. &nbsp; Pro-labor demonstrations  were also expected Sunday in Russia and Germany. &nbsp; In Asia, one of the biggest  rallies took place in South Korea, where police said 50,000 rallied in Seoul for  better labor rights. They also urged the government to contain rising inflation,  a growing concern across much of Asia, where food and oil prices have been  spiking and threatening to push millions into poverty. &nbsp; Thousands of workers also  marched in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines to vent their anger over the  rising cost of living and growing disparities between the rich and  poor. &nbsp; Police in Seoul said about  50,000 people gathered in a park near the National Assembly, waving signs and  chanting anti-government slogans. Some of the protesters marched toward the  Assembly building after the rally but no violence erupted, police said. About  8,000 people held a separate rally near City Hall. &nbsp; "We want to put an end to  the barbaric times of unlimited competition and winner-take-all systems," Kim  Young-hoon, head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, said in a speech  at the rally, according to his office. &nbsp; In China, Sunday was the  second of a three-day weekend. In the morning, thousands of Chinese  holidaymakers flocked to Beijing's Tiananmen Square to watch the daily flag  raising ceremony. &nbsp; The People's Daily, the  ruling Communist Party's flagship newspaper, extolled the importance of workers  in a changing economy and world. "Work diligently, work honestly, work  innovatively," read the editorial's headline. &nbsp; "Today, when the ways of  the world and the national condition undergo profound change, the working class  and the working masses, their contributions and hard work, still have a bearing  on the realization of the country's goals, the development of China's future and  the glory and the dreams of hundreds of millions of Chinese people," the  editorial said. &nbsp; In the Philippines, about  3,000 left-wing workers demanding higher wages held a protest in a Manila square  that included setting alight the effigy of Aquino grinning in a luxury car.  Aquino was criticized earlier this year for buying a secondhand Porsche in a  country where a third of people live on a dollar a day. &nbsp; They later marched toward  an access bridge near the Malacanang presidential palace that was blocked off  with barbed wire and heavily armed anti-riot forces. &nbsp; Aquino earlier met moderate  labor leaders in a breakfast meeting, which was snubbed by left-wing groups, and  assured them his government was doing all it can to ease their  plight. &nbsp; In Taiwan, about 2,000  people rallied in Taipei to protest the widening income gap and to demand their  government create better work conditions. &nbsp; Protesters said that while  President Ma Ying-jeou has made engaging China the centerpiece of his presidency  and big companies have benefited from close Chinese trade ties, he has not  focused enough on the needs of the middle and working class. &nbsp; China and Taiwan split amid  civil war in 1949. Beijing still claims Taiwan as its own. &nbsp; In Hong Kong, thousands  took part in various marches even as the territory's first-ever minimum wage  took effect. &nbsp; About 3,000 people took  part in a Sunday morning protest while another 5,000 were expected at an  afternoon rally, local media reports said, citing union organizers. &nbsp; The government said about  300,000 workers will benefit from new legislation that sets the minimum wage at  28 Hong Kong dollars ($3.60) an hour. &nbsp; But unions are upset about  the way the way it has been implemented by the government, saying it doesn't  specify whether lunch breaks and rest days should be paid. &nbsp; ____ &nbsp; Associated Press writers  Kelvin K. Chan in Hong Kong, Gillian Wong in Beijing, Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul,  South Korea, and Aaron Favilo in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this  report.