Dear All,

HSBC-Jakarta is anti-UNION. More than 100 workers were dismissed in 1996, including all unionists, due to their struggle for the betterment. The union has been silent for long time. Era of 'Reformasi' encouraged few workers of HSBC to reactivate the unions by replacing the pro-HSBC leaders. o­ne of prominent organisers, Agus Wahyuni (Vice President of HSBC Union), was dismissed in November 2001. She has been fighting for 4 years in labour settlement committee, and just last week she appealed to supreme court. She has also brought the dispute before the Police for violation of freedom of association.

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT TO REINSTATE AGUS WAHYUNI

BY SENDING PROTEST LETTERS (letter also o­n the website, just add your organisational name)

TO HSBC GROUP HEAD OFFICE;

ATTN: Sir JOHN BOND

FAX NUMBER +44 2079914922

TO HSBC JAKARTA

ATTN: RICHARD McHOWATT

FAX NUMBER +62 21 5211103

In Solidarity.

CENTRAL COMMITTEE of CONGRES OF INDONESIAN UNIONS ALLIANCE (KASBI)

COMMITTEE FOR ASIAN WOMEN (CAW)

PRESS STATEMENT

Migrants Cry Out: Don't Bleed Us Dry, Stop Extorting Fees o­n Us!

The revelation made by Taiwan�s Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) that what the foreign workers pay as service fee is actually a management fee o­nly shows that the CLA is biased towards the employers and the brokers. It does not give a damn to the rights and welfare of the migrants.

The CLA made this revelation o­n September 6 when it conducted a dialogue with NGO�s. This meeting was called by the CLA in the wake of the recent Thai MRT workers uprising in Kaohsiung because of their poor working and living conditions. The CLA has attributed this to the poor management of their broker firm. This has caused a huge uproar in Taiwan o­n how migrant workers are treated and resulted also in CLA chairperson Chen Chu to resign her position by taking blame o­n the incident.

A picket and press conference o­n the beatings of four Filipino workers in the Formosa Plastics Group plant in Mailiao last August 2 was a huge success this morning. Thirty participants from different human rights, migrant and local workers organizations including students and religious participated in said activity.

Sr. Wei Wei of Rerum Novarum read the participating groups petition letter addressed to the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA). A skit about the exploitative conditions of migrant workers in the said factory was also presented. The broker and employer were depicted as vampires preying o­n the workers with the blessings of the CLA. Most of the participants in the skit were students of Soochow University.

Almost all the representatives of the organizations present spoke about their opinions about the sad event in Mailiao and demanded that this be investigated. Major broadcast and broadsheet media covered the activity.

It�s a case of yet another ranking where India languishes at the bottom. Even as MPs debate the fine print of the women�s reservation bill, here are some numbers that should make them sit up and take notice. According to data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, India ranks 134th among 183 countries in terms of the percentage of women legislators (8.3%) in the national parliament (Lok Sabha). In comparison, the parliament of Pakistan includes 21.3% women, placing it at a highly respectable rank of 40, higher than many western countries. The ranking is helped in no small measure by a law in 2002, under which 60 of the 342 seats in the national assembly (17%) are to be allocated to women. While no country has more women than men in its national parliament, Rwanda heads the list with an impressive 48.8% of its parliamentarians being women. Again, it is committed to sending at least 30% women to parliament. Not surprisingly, Nordic countries dominate the top positions, with 39.9% of their parliament seats being occupied by women.