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CONSTRAMET marched against precarious work and delivered a letter to the ministry demanding decent work.
CONSTRAMET marched against precarious work and delivered a letter to the ministry demanding decent work.
MOROCCO: On November 3 – 4 a two-day workshop on "Trade Union Communication and Networking" was held in Casablanca, organized by the IMF together with the SNTIMMEE-CDT as part of an ongoing project aimed at supporting the trade unions in Morocco and Tunisia in organizing workers at multinational companies.
Basic training on available tools of information and communication technologies was provided to the participants in view of the establishment of a permanent communication network among them. The creation of a permanent linkage and the systematic sharing of information are indispensable tools for effective workers’ solidarity and trade union cooperation at national, regional and international level.
The programme of the meeting addressed communication needs in trade union work. It included an overview of trade union experiences in the use of electronic means for trade union action. Examples were provided of communication networks, on the use of Internet-related tools, and on the costs and technical implications of their use.
This initiative is targeting in particular the TNCs that are signatories to International Framework Agreements with the IMF in order to monitor their implementation. It is part of a broader programme implemented with the support of the ISCOD – UGT and with the participation of metalworkers’ unions in Tunisia, Morocco, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
While providing a fruitful opportunity for shop floor union coordination at TNCs, the meeting highlighted the problem of inadequate representation of the female membership, even when women are predominant in the workforce.
GLOBAL: The United Steelworkers’ (USW) global campaign to prevent Brazilian mining giant Vale S.A. from eroding working conditions and denying basic labour rights at its operations worldwide is gaining momentum with the assistance from the International Metalworkers’ Federation, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions and LabourStart.
Members of the two global union federations have held a number of actions around the world targeting Vale business operations and investment. LabourStart, a web-based news service for the international trade union movement, launched an online letter writing campaign yesterday, with more than 1,000 letters sent to Vale CEO Roger Agnelli within hours. In coordination with the letter writing campaign, the IMF launched its global campaign webpage (www.imfmetal.org/Vale) with information about the struggle in four languages.
IMF and ICEM affiliates are being asked to support the global campaign and send letters to Vale. 3500 USW members in Canada have been on strike since July 13 after refusing deep concessions from the Brazilian mining giant. The company has hired replacement workers to continue production during the strike.
On October 26, workers at Vale’s largest Brazilian mine walked off the job in response to the company’s proposal at the bargaining table. Vale workers in Brazil report the denial of basic labour rights, low wages and substandard health and safety conditions.
IMF and ICEM affiliates in October, with the help of the International Transport Workers’ Federation, tracked a Vale copper shipment from Canada to Germany and on to Sweden. Union members held a protest at the port outside of Hamburg and in Sweden, met with board members of Vale customer Boliden AB which owns the Rönnskär copper smelter.
The global campaign is making an impact and has some Vale executives on the run. The company has twice cancelled its "Vale Day" at the New York Stock Exchange and in London respectively. More global actions are planned until a just resolution can be reached.
For more information about the IMF and ICEM global campaign in support of USW and Brazilian Vale workers, go to: www.imfmetal.org/Vale
Numsa held pickets against the use of contract labour brokers on October 7 as part of the global campaign. They carried posters saying "We fought slavery and labour brokering is no different".
INDIA: After 85 days of united strike action by regular workers, trainees and contract workers at the Bosch and Brembo plants in Pune, India, an agreement was reached ending the strike.
The workers went on strike on July 18 demanding the implementation of pay rises stipulated in the 2007 collective bargaining agreement. Significantly the workers’ demands also included equal pay for equal work with precariously employed workers, trainees and permanent workers in unity in the fight, which is led by the Bosch Chassis Systems Kamgar Sanghatana (Employees Union).
The strike at Bosch and Brembo was called off on October 10, after an agreement was reached between the union and management before the Commissioner of Labour on October 9. The terms of the agreement include:
Since this time, the managing director and three vice presidents at Bosch have resigned and the head of manufacturing was transferred to Delhi. In addition, all the workers at Brembo have been paid 50 per cent of the wages owed in arrears and are currently negotiating for the remaining 50 per cent. At Bosch wages for the third year have been paid and negotiations for the payment of arrears from the second year are continuing. Disciplinary charges against the General Secretary and five other workers are pending.
Unfortunately the contract workers remain unemployed and outside the factory gate awaiting a judgement from the Industrial Court. As the law regarding the absorption of contract labour as regular workers is very limited and narrow in scope the contract workers may result in losing their jobs as a result of this struggle.
The struggle at Bosch and Brembo is having an impact on the whole Pune industrial region, with workers reporting that all companies in the region are now strictly implementing the statutory provisions, such as minimum wages, retirement provisions, health insurance and overtime facilities.
"This strike was very significant in the region. For the first time we saw regular workers and contract labours fighting in unity. Unfortunately the union had to take a decision to return to work leaving the fate of the contract workers up to the courts," said IMF regional representative Sudharshan Rao. "Let us hope the leadership comes out with some solution through negotiations with the management in support of the contract labourers, since the process of abolition of contract labour is positioned strongly in the Industrial Courts," he added.
During this dispute, IMF affiliates in Italy, Germany and South Africa with members employed in Brembo and Bosch sent letters of support to the workers and spoke with their own local management about the case in India. In addition the Volkswagen Global Works’ Council intervened via a VW plant in Pune that is supplied by the Bosch plant.
GLOBAL: The International Metalworkers’ Federation and the Volkswagen Group Board of Management signed a Global Charter on Labour Relations on October 29, setting out binding minimum standards for the entire Group in the area of the participation rights of employee representative bodies at the level of individual facilities.
The Global Charter on Labour Relations was signed at the meeting of the Global Group Works Council held at the Volkswagen plant in Zwickau, Germany. The Charter sets out the participation rights of employee representative bodies in the following areas: human resources and social matters, labour organization, remuneration systems, information and communication, initial and advanced training, occupational health and safety, controlling, and social and ecological sustainability.
The agreement distinguishes between three stages in participation, the right to receive information, consultation rights and codetermination. At the Group’s locations, the Charter will be implemented on the basis of specific agreements reached between the managements and employee representatives of the plants concerned.
The Charter also provides for annual location symposia at which management and employee representatives are to discuss the development of the location within the relevant planning period and especially employment prospects.
In addition, the Charter also grants to global employee representative bodies the right to hold workforce meetings at least once per year. At these meetings, management is to inform the workforce on the economic situation, the development of the location and developments in the area of human resources and social matters.
The President of the International Metalworkers’ Federation and President of IG Metall, Berthold Huber, stressed, "The Charter is to improve world-wide labour relations standards at all locations. The fact that employers and employee representatives are negotiating on the future of labour relations in these economically troubled times demonstrates the importance attached to these issues by both sides. The charter is an expression of the special culture of co-determination at Volkswagen, a co-determination culture that Volkswagen has made successful."
A copy of the Charter, in English and German, are published on the IMF website. The translations into further languages will follow.
METAROM organised protests in several locations and a rally outside the government headquarters on October 7 with workers from others sectors, asking for a minimum monthly salary of 740 Lei in 2010 and decent working conditions.
IMF posters and leaflets were distributed.
LINK TO FULL REPORT (only available in Romanian)
RUSSIA: More than 40 union leaders and activists from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan attended an IMF conference called "New Action Programme 2009-13 and IMF affiliates’ activities in CIS countries" on October 27-28 in Moscow. IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina and IMF Director for Non-Manual Workers, Research, South East Europe Anne-Marie Mureau took part in the event.
On the first day of the conference Jyrki Raina presented the new Action Programme and described the changes in IMF structure and staff. IMF Regional Representative Vadim Borisov announced the plan to fight agency labour in courts using Russian labour laws.
Delegates fully endorsed the Action Programme, but emphasized the need to discuss concrete ways through which it should be put in practice. Organizing and communications training, union networks in TNCs and control over the implementation of International Framework Agreements were among particular issues.
Union leaders discussed the two ways of fighting unfair treatment: court action and mass protests. The general consensus was that both ways were absolutely necessary. Jyrki Raina confirmed the essential importance of mass mobilizations.
Russian delegates were highly critical of government responses to the economic crisis. They highlighted the fact that due to inefficient government support the Russian car market was in a worse state than in many European countries.
Anne-Marie Mureau made a presentation on pension system reforms in Europe. Delegates made short comments on the situation in their countries.
On the second day Jyrki Raina talked about traditional forms and new strategies in organizing. He stressed the fact that unions must be active and fighting organizations, constantly recruiting new members.
Overall, the meeting was very rewarding both for the delegates from CIS countries and for IMF Head Office representatives.
GLOBAL: A Bangladeshi boy working in a shipbuilding factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh is the subject of the Labour Photo of the Year, announced November 2, 2009.
The photo features the destitute face of a young boy near a furnace in a shipbuilding factory and can be viewed here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmasad/3951175816/
Taken by K M Asad, the photo profiles the plight of many young boys who are employed by shipbuilding and breaking factories as apprentices with no pay for the first few years. "They work in extreme conditions without safety tools like gloves, goggles, and other protective gears. In exchange, they learn the skills of the trade. But this costs them loss of health and education," writes Asad.
The desperate state of the shipbreaking industry in Bangladesh is the subject of a global campaign supported by the IMF calling on world leaders to do more to protect these workers, as reported here on the IMF website.
Nearly twice as many photos were submitted to this year’s Labour Photo of the Year competition as compared with last year (189 vs 118) and 3,203 votes were cast to choose a winner from a shortlist of five photos.
The Labour Photo of the Year competition is run by LabourStart, http://www.labourstart.org/ – an online news service maintained by a global network of volunteers which aims to serve the international trade union movement by collecting and disseminating information and by assisting unions in campaigning.
Eric Lee, the founder of LabourStart, is one of the speakers participating in the IMF/EMF Communicators’ Forum in Frankfurt on November 17 and 18. He will be speaking in a panel discussion on applications of new media.
At the Forum, participants will also be looking at union communications in the context of organizing, climate change and trade union campaigns. A copy of the draft programme is published on the IMF website.
ITALY: Metalworker unions in Italy are divided over the recent signing of a national agreement for the renewal of the national contract set to expire at the end of 2011.
The draft agreement, signed by IMF affiliates FIM-CISL and UILM-UIL on October 15, is now being discussed by workers at the local level and will be considered by the National Assembly of workers’ representatives of FIM-CISL and UILM-UIL in Bergamo on November 6. A referendum by all FIM-CISL and UILM-UIL members is taking place from November 25 to 27, 2009.
The scope of the agreement includes minimum wage increases, income support fund, training, health and safety initiatives and new rules on collective bargaining, subcontracted labour and part-time work.
The agreement is not supported by IMF affiliate FIOM-CGIL, arguing that the agreement should be submitted to all workers who will be covered by the agreement.
The division between the unions stems from a disagreement on the rules for collective bargaining for a national agreement and on rules for the submission of the agreement reached with the employers to all the workers it will apply to.
As FIM General Secretary Giuseppe Farina explains in an interview with the press, this negotiation is being carried out under the new collective bargaining rules set by the agreement signed at the national level by the national trade union centres CISL and UIL and not by CGIL. It is the first time in Italy that a separate agreement provides the collective bargaining structure for workers.
FIM General Secretary Farina indicated that FIOM were encouraged to be part of the negotiation, but FIOM refused. FIOM states that before the signature, it requested a stop to the negotiations, with the aim of achieving mediation between the two platforms and to decide together the ballot among workers. Earlier, FIOM and 250,000 metalworkers went on strike in defence of maintaining a jointly negotiated national collective agreement, see previous IMF news item here.
