UNREST AROUND THE WORLD

Each and every day there is more news of students and workers saying enough is enough.

Some examples:
France-
President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and senior cabinet ministers met late Sunday to discuss the contentious reform, which the country's powerful labour unions claim will force many to work longer for a smaller retirement payout.

As both the government and unions vowed to stand firm, businesses started counting the costs of the strike which began last Thursday when some 800,000 people took to the streets across France in a mass rejection of plans to introduce a single, points-based pension scheme, unifying 42 existing plans.

The stoppages stranded commuters, closed schools, and hit tourism and Christmas retail.

Many people opted to take days off or to work from home, but thousands had no choice but to squeeze into perilously overcrowded suburban trains and metros whose numbers were slashed to a minimum.

The biggest labour unrest in years came as France's economy is already dented by more than a year of weekly anti-government demonstrations by so-called "yellow vest" activists protesting unemployment and waning spending power.

I am betting on the workers in France. Watch the government back down eventually.

Finland-
HELSINKI, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Some 100,000 Finnish employees in industrial sectors began a three-day strike on Monday to back up their salary demands.

The action comprises both worker and management unions. The strike was called by the Finnish Industrial Union, the Trade Union Pro and the "white collar" Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff YTN. In addition, workers in the building and electrical sectors have announced solidarity strikes, bringing the total number of employees embarking on industrial action to nearly 100,000.

The strike includes employees in fuel production, pharmaceutical companies, mines and several technology companies.

The state mediator Vuokko Piekkala told Finnish national radio Yle over the weekend that the views on salary increases between the employee and employer unions are widely apart.

Last week the Finnish Industrial Union rejected mediation proposal by the state mediator. Riku Aalto, President of the Industrial Union said the proposal was "less than the two or three percent increases" obtained by employees in "the key competitor countries of Finland". Details of mediation proposals are not public in Finland.

Finnish unions have largely set the increase levels of key competitor countries, mainly Germany, as a benchmark for their demands. In Germany the average nominal increases agreed this year have been over three percent and the metal sector there has exceeded that, according to German economic research institutes.

Go Finnish workers.

Hong Kong-
Hong Kongers marched again on Sunday, chanting “five demands, not one less” as the city’s anti-government protests approached their six-month milestone.

Demonstrators have been locked in a stalemate with the local government since early June amid protests initially sparked by a bill that would have enabled extradition to mainland China. On June 9, a million people marched through the financial center to demonstrate their opposition. Approximately 2 million people marched in protest a week later.

While Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has since retracted the bill, fulfilling one of the five demands, critics regarded the move as too little, too late. Social unrest in the city has since taken on broader anti-government sentiment as protesters push for greater democracy in Hong Kong.

Government opposition was fueled by anger with police conduct as well as how Lam’s administration dealt with the protests, Ma Ngok, associate professor in the department of government and public administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told CNBC.

“The government hasn’t actually responded, so a lot of people think they just cannot give up on the protest” Ma said.

I am a supporter of the democracy movement in Hong Kong.

Chile-
Students keep driving protests demanding change in Chile

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Nearly two months ago, Catalina Santana jumped a turnstile in the Santiago metro and helped launch a movement that changed the course of Chilean history.

Student protests over a fare hike morphed into a nationwide call for socioeconomic equality and better social services that brought millions to the streets and forced President Sebastián Piñera to increase benefits for the poor and disadvantaged and start a process of constitutional reform.

But Santana, 18, isn’t done. Although the headlines have faded, she and thousands of other young people are still taking to the streets of Santiago and other Chilean cities almost daily to demand the government follow through on its promises of chance.

Two similar student-driven movements over the last decade and a half led to significant but limited reforms in education policy, including lower costs for university students. The young protesters are hoping that this time around they will be able to force the government to make deep-rooted structural changes that address the fundamental causes of inequality, economic injustice and poor social services in Chile.

“If my grandmother retires, she shouldn’t die of hunger,” Santana said during a recent protests in central Santiago. “If I go to a hospital, I shouldn’t die waiting for treatment. The professor teaching my classes shouldn’t be paid so little money. It can’t be this way.”

Starting with high-school students in 2006, then university students five years later, Chile has been hit by regular, large-scale protests led by young people that have won concessions from the government.

Those are some amazing high school students in Chile.

And yes there are even actions in the United States
All Fairfax Connector buses are expected to run their regular routes Monday now that the bus strike in Virginia’s largest county is ending.

Transdev, the private company that operates buses for Fairfax County, said the strike is ending without a finalized contract.

“Transdev and the union have come to a mutual agreement to end the current strike. The parties are continuing to bargain in good faith and hope to come to a contract soon,” Transdev said in a statement.

The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1764 bargaining team said the remaining issues are wages, vacation, sick time and retirement issues but “a deal is within reach.”

One reason the strike is ending now is that parties expect to meet Monday with Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman-Elect Jeff McKay, the union said.

As part of agreeing to go back to work, workers will not be disciplined for participating in the strike.

The agreement to return to work is a single page promising that union workers return to their jobs Monday. Negotiations will continue all week and into the following week. In addition, the union will provide 72 hours notice if a second strike occurs.

The separate strike against Transdev’s Metrobus operations out of the privatized Cinder Bed Road garage continues. That strike has been going on for about seven weeks.

More on the second strike:
A Metrobus strike disrupting thousands in Northern Virginia will likely drag on, and could begin to impact bus routes that have been providing limited alternatives for travelers.

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 sees the ongoing strike against a Metro contractor at the Cinder Bed Road garage in Lorton as part of a broader fight against private contracting, and other pay and staffing cuts in the transit industry.

“The only way to say it, and I don’t know a better way to say it, is that they are treating American workers like slaves,” Local 689 President Raymond Jackson said.


Working people and students fighting back all over the globe. Meanwhile in NYC classrooms, it's business as usual for teachers who sometimes tell us here about being abused but anonymous comments are their chief method of protest it seems. Better to organize your friends, grieve something, file a safety complaint, or just do anything instead of complaining here.

It's not easy to exert your rights but in the end much more can be accomplished than by anonymously protesting here.