Fiji: IFJ Praises Daily Post Strike Success
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IFJ
PRAISES DAILY POST STRIKE SUCCESS
http://www.ifj-asia.org
SYDNEY (International Federation of Journalists/Pacific Media Watch): The International Federation of Journalists, the global organisation of journalists representing more than 500,000 journalists worldwide, has sent a message of support to Fiji's Daily Post media workers over their recent strike success.
"We would like to congratulate you on winning your recent industrial dispute," said the statement by IFJ president Christopher Warren.
"It is only through collective action such as yours that journalists are able to maintain and strengthen their professional and industrial conditions."
Warren offered IFJ support or assistance if Fiji journalists needed it in the future.
The IFJ and its member professional journalist unions of Australia and New Zealand strongly supported efforts by Pacific journalists to establish media unions in Fiji and Papua New Guinea in the early 1990s through an umbrella group, the Pacific Journalists Association.
The striking Daily Post workers returned to work on December 6 after winning Fiji's Labour Ministry recognition of their protest as a trade dispute.
About 60 workers had been on strike since November 7.
The Fiji Times reported that the breakthrough came after Public Enterprises Minister Irami Matairavula told the Labour Minister Kenneth Zinck that the striking workers formed the majority and ought to be recognised.
The editorial and production workers had been pressing for better salaries and working conditions, alleging that the Post, in which the Fiji Government maintains a 44 percent stake, had breached the country's labour laws by failing to pay them superannuation and other entitlements.
The Fiji Public Service Association (FPSA) general secretary, Rajeshwar Singh, said the striking workers got the recognition they wanted.
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