GLOBAL/MEXICO: Unions around the world delivered letters, held meetings with Mexican government representatives and organized rallies at Mexican Embassies and Consulates worldwide in defense of Freedom of Association and Union Rights in Mexico. The Global Days of Action held February 19 to 25, is part of an ongoing joint campaign of the IMF, ICEM, UNI, ITF and ITUC.

More than 40 unions from 35 countries took action.

Demonstrations were held at Mexican Embassies and Consulates in Seoul, Geneva, London, Pretoria and major cities in the United States, including Washington DC and Chicago. In Japan, a joint action and meeting with the Mexican Embassy is scheduled for March.

Unions called on the Mexican government to implement recommendations delivered by the International Labour Organisation’s Committee on Freedom of Association in March 2011, end the attacks on independent unions and respect internationally recognized labour rights.

The week of international events was kicked off in Mexico City with a candle light vigil in honour of the miners killed in Pasta de Conchos on February 19, 2006. An international Solidarity meeting was held on February 21 in Mexico. Delegations met with representatives of the Mexican government in Korea, UK, Switzerland and Norway.

GLOBAL: Trade unions in mining, energy and manufacturing sectors around the world have agreed to unify their membership in a new global union to be known as IndustriALL.

Meeting at the International Labour Organization in Geneva on February 29, more than 200 trade union leaders from around the world spoke of the serious challenges working people face in the current political and economic climate. Having greater strength and building power across the supply chain at the global level is the motivating force for the creation of the new global union.

IndustriALL Global Union will represent workers in a wide range of sectors from extraction of oil and gas, mining, generation and distribution of electric power, to manufacturing of metals and metal products, shipbuilding, automotive, aerospace, mechanical engineering, electronics, chemicals, rubber, pulp and paper, building materials, textiles, garments, leather and footwear and environmental services.

The new organization will bring together affiliates of the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) and the International Textiles Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF).

The joint executive committee meeting of the IMF, ICEM and ITGLWF discussed the draft Statutes and Action Plan for the new organization and agreed on the proposed new name IndustriALL and logo.

The joint meeting noted the proposed candidates for the political leadership of the new organization. The importance of including women in both the political leadership and representative structures of the new global union was argued for and included in the proposed Statutes.

A founding Congress of the new organization will take place in Copenhagen on June 18 to 20, 2012. The proposed name, Statutes and Action Plan will be decided on at the founding Congress.

BELGIUM: Belgian unions ACV-CSC Metea and MWB-FGTB, together with German union IG Metall, have strongly condemned the violent anti-trade union action at the German company Meister in Sprimont (Belgium) on February 26.

After a week of protest action by the workforce against the decision to relocate to the Czech Republic, employees were faced with a terrifying raid by well-armed German "security agents" to remove equipment and material from the Belgian subsidiary.

Luckily, the unions managed to block the trucks and get the police to intervene. The Belgian unions clearly want no part of this kind of "social dialogue" and firmly condemn the violence with which the workers were confronted. Alerted to the situation by the Belgian unions, IG Metall immediately intervened with the mother company, Poppe + Potthof, calling for sanctions against those responsible and relayed the information to the German press.

A police investigation is taking place and court action will be taken against the company, which failed to ask for authorisation to intervene in another country. However, it is not only this transgression of the law but the company’s total disregard to the need to enter into consultations that the Belgian unions condemn.

TURKEY:  According to the information received from Asli Odman, a specialist on shipbuilding workers in Turkey of the Turkish Union of Port, Dock, Ship Building and Repair Workers (Limter-İş), the concrete reason of two consecutive explosions remains unclear, but the union suspects they were caused by improper storage of inflammable material. Four workers, Ümit Damgaci, Kadir Soy, Ali Okur and Engin Yildiz, were badly injured. The youngest, Kadir Soy, is a student of the vocational technical school. Ten days after the accident on February 14, Ümit Damgaci died in the hospital of severe wounds. The others remain hospitalized.
 
Limter-İş made a press declaration on February 16 in front of the NUH Industrial Path in the Tuzla shipbuilding zone and stated that the fatal accidents at Turkish shipyards will not stop until decent, safe and legal work is offered to shipbuilding workers. The union added that safe working conditions are still seen primarily as cost factors of the industry, which refuses to directly employ workers at yards instead relying on a whole system on precarious, illegally hired subcontracted workers with a very high turnover rate.
 
“The disposable shipyard worker system will inevitably lead to more fatal and non-fatal accidents, not even mentioning the long-term effects of professional diseases in the sector. The accidents do and will continue in the new shipbuilding zones of Anatolia unless ‘a stable and safe working system’ required by law is introduced in Turkey,” reads the Limter-İş statement.
 
Between 2002 and 2012 at least 104 workers died at Turkish shipyards, most of them in the biggest shipbuilding zone of Tuzla, located in the southeast of Istanbul.

CANADA:  Over 180 workers from across Canada gathered at the Canadian Autoworkers (CAW-TCA) skilled trade conference to discuss future skill needs. During the conference participants argued strongly about the need for an industrial policy in Canada that supports manufacturing jobs and encourages investments in skilled trades. Many delegates drew attention to the fact that over 400,000 jobs have been lost in the Canadian manufacturing industry over the last five years.

Today, workers are concerned that companies and governments will erode rather than strengthen the quality and number of apprenticeships leading to skill shortages. During the conference delegates passed 16 resolutions aimed at addressing these concerns. The resolutions covered issues from apprenticeship hiring ratios, new technology and skilled trade training, to the Canada-European Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement.

The conference also took place in preparation for a major collective bargaining round of the master agreements in the big three auto companies (Ford, GM, Chrysler) that will begin later this year. Delegates are determined to secure the future of the auto industry in Canada.

Peter Kennedy, CAW Secretary-Treasurer, told delegates, "Looking to the years ahead a major shift is occurring in our skilled trades memberships as a large number of skilled trades members are retiring, creating skill shortages. These shortages support the need for apprenticeship opportunities, which require governments to supply the necessary leadership and funding for these programs."

Skilled trades are a key part to the Canadian economy and the CAW-TCA has over 20,000 skilled trade members. The members come from major assembly plants to hundreds of parts suppliers, from aircraft and aerospace plants to tool and die shops, from underground mines, railway locomotive and car repair shops, shipyards, to healthcare and retail.

Rob Johnston, IMF Executive Director, informed delegates, "The skilled trades are the backbone of any successful economy. The CAW has set out the framework for an industrial policy that recognizes that fact. But the union cannot do this alone – government and employers must also accept their responsibilities."

Delegates where also presented case studies on skill training schemes in Australia, UK, Japan, Denmark and North America. The case studies covered plant closures, apprenticeship training and skills training.

THAILAND: Since Ricoh opened its manufacturing facility in Thailand three years ago, workers have protested regularly about poor wages and working conditions. When they formed a union to attempt to engage with the company to resolve their grievances, Ricoh Thailand responded by dismissing 54 workers who were active in the union out of a total workforce of 724.

Ricoh’s violations of labour rights include:

• Forced overtime,
• Wage and bonus increases applied unfairly,
• Docking time while workers use the restroom, and
• Insufficient safety equipment.

Management targeted for dismissal those workers who were members of the negotiating team and leaders and activists who signed a petition, finding spurious justifications for the dismissals to disguise that these were the company’s response to legitimate union activities. The dismissed workers are now protesting outside the factory. The remaining workers in the factory have come under heavy pressure from management not to join the union and have been threatened with dismissal if they join the protest of dismissed workers.

The Ricoh union was officially registered on December 16, 2011 and through its membership of the Confederation of Thai Electrical Appliances, Electronic, Automobile and Metalworkers (TEAM) is now an affiliate of the IMF. TEAM has called on the Japanese Ambassador to Thailand to intervene in the case and is supporting the dismissed workers through a case to the Thai Labour Relations Committee.

IMF is calling on Ricoh to immediately reinstate all 54 workers and to engage constructively with the union. IMF has also written to the Global Compact to bring to its attention Ricoh’s violation of its principles. Ricoh has been a member of the Global Compact since 2002.

CANADA: With 95 per cent approval yesterday, Local 27 members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) ratified a closure agreement with Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), part of Caterpillar Inc.’s Progress Rail Services, in London, Ontario.

The loss of 465 union jobs is tragedy in London, Ontario. EMD proposed in collective negotiations that CAW members reduce their wages from C$35-per-hour to C$16-18, and give up a 50% equivalent of all benefits. When workers said no, on January 1, Caterpillar and EMD locked workers off their jobs at a rail locomotive assembly plant.

Thirty-four days later Caterpillar/EMD announced it would close the operation, move production to a start-up plant in the low-wage – US$12-16-an-hour – city of Muncie, Indiana, six hours to the south of London, where Caterpillar had already assembled a virulently anti-union management team.

Caterpillar bought the London plant in 2010 with a series of government tax breaks. Eighteen months later, the plant is closed and Canadian-made machinery and technical know-how is now leaving the country.

CAW President Ken Lewenza said Canada is in desperate need of a manufacturing jobs strategy. He stated that the free movement of global capital from country to country must be stopped because it is undercutting workers’ wages.

"We have to continue the fight," Lewenza said. "Because too many workers are losing their jobs, both union and non-union, because of dead-beat employers – in everything from manufacturing plants to call centres."

Severance packages exceeded what were required by law, partly driven by public indignation of Caterpillar’s conduct and mostly by CAW’s resolve to get the best possible close-out deals. EMD workers will get three weeks’ pay for each year of service and a C$1,500 lump sum payment.

For one-third of the workforce, that means severance payments of 60 weeks’ pay or more, while many will average 20-25 weeks. Workers will gain a measure of extended health care coverage, their pension fund will be fully funded, and EMD agreed to settle all claims and grievances with CAW Local 27. That will amount to a C$350,000 payment to the union within 30 days of yesterday.

For further details see the CAW website here:
http://www.caw.ca/en/10975.htm

BELARUS: On Feburary 21 around 21:00 customs officers at the Gudogay station got REPAM president Gennady Fedynich off the train. REPAM is an IMF affiliate in Belarus.

Fedynich was on his way back to Minsk from Vilnius, where he met with his colleagues from Lithuanian unions. He was detained by the shift supervisor Alexander Voinovich. Fedynich and his female colleagues were asked to fill the customs declaration. They were also subjected to the thorough personal search.

"An extremely unpleasant story," said Fedynich in an interview to Praca-by.info.

"Both me and the women were stripped to the underwear. They found nothing, of course. And yet, they didn’t even apologize. We were released only at 01:00 the next day. We were forced to go to Minsk by various other trains."

According to Fenynich, this speaks of the close attention paid to him by special forces.

"Apparently, they control my movements by monitoring my surname on the travel tickets. There’s no doubt that the customs officers acted on someone’s instructions. Such a thorough search is conducted very rarely," said Fedynich.

In May 2010 there was a search in REPAM’s office in Brest (Belarus). The computers and office equipment were seized. They were returned more than a year later, in a non-operating state.

On October 26, 2011, on the eve of the IMF regional conference in Prague, Fedynich was detained in the Minsk airport. Thus he was unable to take part in the conference. On the following day, October 27, the delegates of the conference unanimously voted on a resolution condemning the actions of Belarus authorities against Gennady Fedynich.

KYRGYZSTAN: On February 17 at 07:00 striking workers at Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan returned to work. The strike was successful: the day before the administration signed a deal agreeing to satisfy both workers’ demands.

According to the agreement, signed by Kumtor Operating Company and the striking committee, wages rise by 4.5 per cent counting from January 1, 2012. The workers will also be paid a special bonus with annual budget of over 2 million USD. An IMF-affiliated Mining and Metallurgy Workers’ Union (MMWU) states that this way the rising fees to the government insurance fund are completely compensated.

The union also informs that the company agreed to compensate the family of Asanbek Orozaliev, who died after a workplace accident, in accordance with the tentative settlement. Thus all the workers’ demands are met.

Earlier the company declared the strike illegal and filed a lawsuit in a local court. The management agreed to abandon the claim.
MMWU president Eldar Tadzhibaev noted that letters of solidarity from various CIS unions had a crucial role in the success of the strike. IMF general secretary Jyrki Raina sent a letter of protest to Robert Wunder, president of Kumtor Operating Company.

"The success would be impossible without the workers’ perseverance and unity. They risked their jobs and lost income by staying on strike all these days, defending their legitimate rights and interests," claimed Tadzhibaev.

The strike began on February 7, 2012.

GERMANY/GLOBAL: At the Daimler World Employee Committee (WEC) meeting on February 16 and 17, 2012, Erich Klemm, chair of the WEC, welcomed members from Germany, USA, Brazil, Japan, Spain and South Africa, and special guests, in particular from China.

According to the reports given at the meeting, 2011 has been an economically successful year for almost all Daimler companies with only few exceptions. All employees have contributed to the record result. At the same time, it became evident that the financial crisis had left extensive marks in many countries. In Japan, the main focus was on coping with the environmental and nuclear catastrophe in March 2011. The Japanese WEC member was deeply moved by the support that his country had had in a bad time from the workers, the World Employee Committee and the company. He expressed sincere thanks for the solidarity.

At a joint meeting where the World Employee Committee, the Economic Committee and the Employee Representatives of the Supervisory Board met with members of the Board of Management, the current situation and the plans for the next years were reported and discussed.

China has experienced exceptional growth for several years, where Daimler has achieved remarkable gains over the last years. China has developed into the third largest sales market for Mercedes-Benz Cars. With the dynamic market development as a backdrop, China also plays an increasing role as a production site. For this reason, the chairman of the company union from Beijing Benz Automotive Co. (BBAC), the passenger car-joint venture between Daimler and BAIC, was invited as a guest to the World Employee Committee Meeting. It became apparent that, due to their history and the political system, Chinese unions have a different self-understanding from unions that are independent of the state and party. Nevertheless the dialogue and co-operation shall be continued and intensified.

The ultimate goal of the WEC is employee representation of all large global sites. Only by means of representation, the developments in the company, which have become more and more international, may be accompanied in a meaningful way by employee representatives. The American autoworkers’ union, UAW, is currently endeavouring to establish employee representation in the Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa. The WEC emphatically supports these efforts.

Based on the principles of social responsibility, which were first agreed upon by the management and the WEC in 2002, Daimler is committed to respect fundamental workers’ rights. Freedom of association, the right to establish unions and the right of collective bargaining are the essential parts of these principles.

Daimler also expects its business partners to respect these rights. Since their inception, a total of 24 possible violations of the principles of social responsibility at business partners could be scrutinized worldwide. Most of these conflicts have been solved in a satisfactory manner.