Barbara E, known as “Emmely”, worked for Kaisers supermarket chain in Germany for 31 years. The company say she had set aside €1.30 worth of bottle deposits for herself, and that these deposit slips were the property of a customer. The suspicion was never proved, but still Emmely was sacked in February 2008.
A few weeks before, Emmely was involved in an 18-month-long national strike. She organised the strike in her shop for the service union Verdi and she had been warned by workmates that she was on the black list.
Her case will be heard at the highest labour court in Germany on 10 June.
The case of Barbara E has caused an outcry across and beyond Germany, stirring up a debate on the treatment of workers. It has drawn attention to the fact that workers in Germany are being sacked on petty charges, such as “stealing” fragments of a euro cent by recharging mobile phones, and that these dismissals are regularly authorised by German labour courts.
The fact is bosses worldwide are using the crisis in order to lay off more workers and to enhance the intensity of labour.
Nicaragua: abortion
A 27-year-old’s life is at risk as a result of pro-life legislation in Nicaragua.
The mother-to-be, known as Amalia, has been denied chemotherapy despite being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer that has spread to her breasts and lungs and may have reached her brain.
The Leon hospital where Amalia’s condition was discovered are refusing to treat her because she is pregnant and the stressful and invasive therapies required may harm the foetus, an offence under Nicaraguan law.
Human rights organisation Amnesty International has issued a legal challenge to the hospital’s decision on the basis that denying Amalia treatment “criminalises the medical profession”, according to Amnesty spokesperson Esther Major.
The legislation that threatens Amalia’s life was only recently introduced by President Daniel Ortega’s administration. Nicaraguan women were granted the right to therapeutic abortion in the 19th century, a right that Ortega overturned in 2006 in accordance with his Catholic faith.
Amalia already has a 10-year-old daughter, who is likely to be orphaned by stringent observation of a law that prices the life of an unborn foetus over the health and happiness of a mother and her existing child.
More details: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates.
France: Calais
Activists in Calais have succeeded in establishing a safe space for beleaguered migrants.
The contested Kronstadt Hangar, a centre where migrants are able to meet with activists and legal advisers to organise and share information, was re-opened with a press conference on Saturday 6 February.
Soutien au Sans-Papiers (SoS) activist Marie Chautemps said: “The Kronstadt Hangar was opened as a direct intervention into a winter of repression that the migrants in Calais have faced.”
The port town in northern France has seen an ongoing wave of battles between sans-papiers migrants and the authorities, since the “Jungle” asylum camp was brutally closed last September.
The Kronstadt Hangar was forcibly closed by French CRS riot police when it was first opened on Monday 7 February. The CRS formed a ring around the centre and successfully stopped migrants from gaining access to much-needed resources.
Many migrants in Calais remain homeless, a direct result of the government assault on the Jungle community.
Embedded SoS and No Borders activists continue to help migrants in their battle for asylum recognition. For more information about the Kronstadt Hangar and No Borders UK, visit http://london.noborders.org.uk/node/290.