TEXT BY KRISTYNE PETER,                                                     PHOTOS BY STEPHEN NHLAPO and KRISTYNE PETER

While the Zimbabwean economy is in a free fall, workers' wages are worth less and less each day. The cost of transport to and from work now surpasses the average worker's daily wage. What happens when a workforce, teetering on the brink of survival, must pay to work? And what are the implications for union organizing in the country and the region?

 

Charles Chirowdza, a metalworker at CT Bolts and a member of the National Engineering Workers' Union (NEWU), sleeps outside the railway station in downtown Harare about two to three times a week. He isn't alone. On any given night, 150 to 200 workers will be huddled together under the station's faded blue awning that provides little protection from the rain, and no protection from police, drunks or thieves. Here, as in many areas around the city, workers struggle under the constant threat of arrest and violence to report to work the next morning.

In Zimbabwe, the rising price of public transport, which now costs more than the daily wage of an average worker, has forced thousands of workers to live on the streets. In an effort to save the meagre wages they make for necessities such as food, water, and rent, workers sleep in parks and public buildings close to factories and work sites. It is a new breed of homelessness, tempered by weekends with the family.

In the winter months, when temperatures can fall as low as -5° C (23° F), workers burn tires for warmth. A small creek, filled with industrial and human waste, serves as a community bath in the mornings, leaving Charles with severe skin rashes. The area is littered with rotting garbage, discarded clothes, human faeces and snakes. It is hard to imagine the desperation that has forced hundreds of men and women to call this railway yard a temporary home.

PAY TO WORK

The average metalworker in Zimbabwe makes around Z$140,000 (US$559.45 at the official rate, April 2007) per month. The price of public transport costs approximately Z$14,000 per day, round trip. Proud Ndlovu, a NEWU shop steward at CT Bolts, says the "ride deficit" is the union's major issue in negotiations. "At the end of the day, I'm paying the company to work, or I'm subsidizing the company to make its profits," Proud said. NEWU has been fighting for a transport allowance for the 15,000 members it represents for the last three years. However companies are resisting giving in.

In the case of CT Bolts, the company reported profits for the last quarter, but still maintains that a wage raise is not an option. Morale is low. Workers claim the company is expanding, buying new cars for management, and renovating the premises while the workers literally teeter on the brink of starvation.

"We are given a meal," says Charles, referring to the lunch the company provides, which is deducted from his pay "but instead of eating that sadza in the afternoon, we are going into the streets selling that sadza to get bus fare."

NEWU is demanding that employers carry the cost of reporting for duty, either through a transport allowance or by providing real transport.

Given the current situation, it begs the question: Why do workers, still work?

"Hope," says Stephen Nhlapo, IMF regional representative for Africa. "These people have an intense hope that things will change. And IF they change, they'll have employment. But, if they don't continue working and things change, they will lose out on the benefits of that change."

Women workers, who are less able to travel the long distances to factories due to family constraints, are forced into the informal economy, selling vegetables such as tomatoes and onions to subsidize their husbands' shrinking salaries. Often their wares are confiscated by police under Mugabe's orders to crackdown on all unlicensed vendors, a policy the police interpret loosely given their own depreciating salaries.

"Can you imagine negotiating maternity leave?" asks Stephen, "You ask for six months, and they give you three years, with no pay!"

ZIMBABWEAN CRISIS

Zimbabwe, once considered the "breadbasket of Africa", enjoyed a robust economy and thriving workforce in the mid-1990s. Today, the situation for Zimbabweans is dire. Chronic shortages of food, electricity, petrol and medicine has reduced the life expectancy to a tragic 34 years for women, the lowest in the world, and to just 37 years for men. Most Zimbabweans live on one meal a day, some even less. Eight out of ten workers are out of work, and the unemployment rate continues to rise.

Led by Robert Mugabe, independence hero cum dictator, the country's steady decline has been punctuated by a series of bad governmental policy at best, and shocking human rights violations at worst.

"Operation Murambatsvina" which is Shona for "Operation Drive Out Trash", has undoubtedly had the most devastating effect on Zimbabwe's working poor. In May 2005, Mugabe unleashed what he called an "urban renewal program" to squash illegal vendors. The result was the demolition of 94,460 urban homes which left 700,000 people homeless and affected 2.4 million people directly or indirectly, according to the United Nations. Between May 2005 and May 2006, prices for accommodation jumped by 3,000 per cent. Because many of the homes destroyed were outside of industrial complexes, metalworkers were largely impacted.

NOWHERE TO GO

In June 2005, Brighton Munyaradzi, a serviceman for AFA PVT LTD and NEWU member, was ordered by police at gunpoint to remove his belongings and leave his Highfield one-room cottage. "The police, they came in their vehicles ordering people to destroy their houses. In a matter of hours we had nowhere to go, we were sleeping outside," said Brighton, referring to his young wife, Itai, and then one and a half year old baby.

Brighton now lives with his wife and two baby girls, three years old and five months old, in a temporary dwelling using plastic for the walls and the roof. During the rainy season the structure leaks, and he gets little sleep trying to protect the children from the damp. Unable to afford the high price of transport, Brighton gets up at the crack of dawn each day to walk the 12kms to work. After putting in a full 9-hour day, he hurries back home, afraid to leave his children and wife unprotected after dark. "It is like I am working twice. At work I have to make sure I work a full day so I can get food for my children. Then I get home and I must make sure my children are protected, from either snakes or thugs who want to steal something from us – me, I have nothing, but they try."

Charles also once had a two-room cottage on the outskirts of Harare in Chitagweza, which he shared with his wife and kids. It was reduced to rubble after government bulldozers flattened it. He now lives with his parents on the days he is able to afford transport home. The modest two-bedroom house provides basic shelter for Charles and 15 other family members. Charles' father, Micheal Chirowdza, is a former telecom worker who thought his children would be able to care for him and his wife in their old age, a point he makes often to Charles.

For Charles and Brighton, and hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans just like them, life before Operation Murambatsvina or "Tsunami" as the locals call it, was pretty good. Brighton had a small garden, a sturdy roof, the protection of doors that lock, and electricity for a TV and radio. For Charles, he had independence, a home for him and his family close to work, and hope for the future. At the moment, the future looks bleak. Charles, whose anger and frustration is noticeable on sight, remarks that things have grown unbearable in the last year, "I don't know where we will be in April, May. We just pray that things might change because ehhhh, I wish I was dead."

KICKS OF A DYING HORSE: WIDESPREAD REPRESSION

As in many parts of the world, the labour movement in Zimbabwe has been a leading force for change. The Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), to which NEWU is an affiliate, has been at the forefront in addressing the workers' suffering under Zimbabwe's economic collapse. Viewed by Mugabe as enemies of the state, members of the ZCTU have been attacked with a force that has astonished the international community, including government-sanctioned beatings, torture, abductions and arbitrary arrests. Mugabe has banned political demonstrations, he has shut down the independent press, and declared war on any and all that criticize his policies.

On April 3 and 4, the ZCTU organized a mass stay away after talks broke down within the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) regarding payment of salaries in accordance with inflation. The TNF is a joint negotiating body that comprises representatives from business, labour and the government, in which the ZCTU plays an active role.

In the days leading up to the action, and those that followed, ZCTU offices were ransacked, staff beaten, and workers and trade union leaders were arrested. Witnesses in the townships reported that people were forced to go to work at gunpoint, however, many of them had no "work" to go to. Helicopters hovered over downtown Harare and businesses were threatened with losing their operating licence, should they shut production down.

The media was quick to call the worker action a failure, however, given the nature of the stay away, its success is hard to measure. Only 20 per cent of the country is formally employed. Of that number, 70 per cent work for the government. Journalists are denied access to Zimbabwe, so those who operate in the country risk arrest, or worse. In April, Edward Chikombo, a cameraman for the state-run broadcaster ZBC, was found pummelled to death in a shallow grave on the side of the road after he leaked images of a beaten Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and former mineworker and ZCTU General Secretary.

NEWU general secretary, Japhat Moyo, who is also acting assistant general secretary for the ZCTU, referred to the recent attacks as, "kicks of a dying horse," and explained the reasoning behind the stay away. "Last time we went to the streets we had our limbs broken," he said, referring to the strike on September 13, 2006 that resulted in the arrest and torture of 15 unionists, many so severely beaten they had to be hospitalised. "If you demonstrate in the streets, you are going to be butchered. We are not going to be sending other people's kids to the war front. We are supposed to be on the front lines ourselves," Moyo said.

"The workers decided that we cannot risk our leaders, let's stay at home as a sign of demonstration. Every three months we are doing these activities, and we are not limiting ourselves to only stay aways. If the situation improves, if government upholds human rights principles, we will be able to go to the streets instead of sitting at home," Moyo added.

Workers like Charles and Brighton believe collective action is the only way change will come. "I have to participate. To make sure that things get better for me, I have to take part in the action," said Brighton a few days before the stay away. "If you want to have a better life you have to do something."

Charles doesn't flinch when asked if he is worried about being attacked by police during demonstrations "being beaten is okay," he says. "Because the situation is getting out of control. People are suffering, people are dying. We are suffering so much, " he said as he placed his hand on his stomach, "being beaten is better than this. At least we are trying to accomplish something."

Every three months, workers plan to risk arrest and torture in a brave attempt to win basic worker rights and a living wage. As Charles put it so succinctly, "I just wish my take home pay would take me home."

PRICES of basic goods in ZIMBABWE

The average Zimbabwean metalworker makes approximately Z$140,000 (Zimbabwean dollar) per month. In April 2007, inflation was at a world record of 1,700 per cent with inflation climbing each day, workers' salaries are worth less and less, while the cost of basic goods continues to soar. In a country where the price of cooking oil is half a month's salary, and a bar of soap is almost a third of a worker's monthly wages, how are Zimbabweans surviving?__________________________________________________ 

Regional and international response

The IMF has taken a three-pronged approach to addressing the problems Zimbabwean metalworkers face.

First, for the past 15 years, the IMF's Africa office has assisted Zimbabwean metal unions in building one strong national metalworkers' union through the merging of smaller unions. Their growing strength has helped metalworkers weather the difficult economic climate (see page 21).

Second, the IMF regional office has been an outspoken critic of Mugabe's attacks on human and labour rights and has worked to encourage IMF affiliates to support change in Zimbabwe through their national centres. "We condemn the current government's terror campaign on the people of Zimbabwe, especially the gross violations of workers rights," said IMF regional representative for Africa, Stephen Nhlapo.

"The sub-regional meeting two years ago adopted a resolution calling on all of our affiliates in the southern Africa region to work with their respective national centers to put pressure on the Zimbabwe government to stop the brutal attack on workers and their leaders. We are also encouraging our affiliates in the region to participate in all campaigns that are organized by the national centers and NGO's which focus on changing the situation in Zimbabwe," Stephen said, noting that international solidarity will only be as strong as the participation of the affiliates in that region.

In South Africa and Botswana, national centers have demonstrated at the Zimbabwean border in solidarity with the ZCTU. Their criticism of Mugabe's actions have been key to private discussions taking place among the leaders of the Southern African Development Community.

Third, the IMF has supported the International Trade Union Confederation's (ITUC) initiatives to block Zimbabwe's participation in key international summits and its work with the International Labour Organization to bring about change. The IMF regularly reports on developments in Zimbabwe, and is urging its affiliates to work through their national centers in supporting the work of the ZCTU.

 

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GLOBAL: With private equity funds spending over US$725 billion on company buyouts in 2006, the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers (IUF) has published a booklet entitled “Workers’ Guide to Private Equity.”

The 36 page A5 brochure is aimed at trade unions and their members around the world and sets out in accessible language what private equity is, how it operates and the dangers it represents to workers and unions.

The IUF points to possible strategies in bargaining with the private equity funds who are becoming increasingly significant players as owners and employers. It explains how a specific political environment of deregulation has made it possible for the funds to expand globally, and how political action can contain the funds.

Available in English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Swedish, a pdf of the booklet is available on the IUF website here.

Alternatively, single and bulk orders for copies of the booklet can be purchased from the IUF with details on prices available on the IUF website here.

Further information on private equity can be found at the IUF website at: www.iuf.org/buyoutwatch

The IMF works with the IUF and other global union federations on the issue of private equity, including organising a conference on the issue with IUF and Union Network International (UNI) on November 16, 2006.

Brazil. At 10.50 p.m. on the night of Tuesday 5 June, a homemade bomb was thrown at the offices of the Taubaté Metalworkers Union, in Brazil, in a terrorist act. The bomb exploded against a wall of the building and, fortunately, there were no casualties. However, after the attack, the union president Valmir Marques da Silva, alias Biro Biro, who is also the leader of the Sao Paulo Metalworkers Federation, received a death threat in the form of an anonymous telephone call on Wednesday morning, at approximately 11 a.m. The telephone call was answered by one of the union’s telephonists. The caller, who did not identify himself, said the bomb was only a warning, and that Biro Biro and his family would be the next target. The National Confederation of Metalworkers, affiliated to the trade union central CUT, issued a press release expressing its “repudiation of all acts of violence, especially terrorist attacks such as this one, which recall the times of the dictatorship that terrorised and destroyed the lives of thousands of Brazilian workers.” The Confederation added that it “offers its solidarity and total support to our Taubaté colleagues.” Source: National Confederation of Metalworkers (CNM)

INDONESIA: 1,300 workers from the IMF affiliate, Federasi Serikat Pekerja Metal Indonesia (FSPMI), are fighting PT Livatech to pay outstanding wages of four months salary and termination bonuses, as stipulated under Indonesian labour law. PT Livatech owner, Mr. Goh Sing Hing, has closed the factory located in Batam, Indonesia and moved to Malaysia. He is refusing to settle any outstanding balances with the workers. The International Metalworkers’ Federation sent a letter of appeal to the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Malaysian Prime Minister Mr. Abdulah Badawi, urging them to use their considerable influence to resolve the issue. “The IMF is deeply concerned for the welfare of the workers and their families, and asks that you urge Mr. Goh Sing Hing to settle all outstanding balances immediately and fairly,” stated Marcello Malentacchi to the heads of state. The IMF has learned from the FSPMI that PT Livatech has used police and military forces to attack and intimidate workers rather than settle their debts. This is in direct conflict to a decision handed down by the Indonesian labour court ruling that workers receive the four months salary and bonuses. The FSPMI plans to continue fighting with scheduled demonstrations in front of the presidential palace in Jakarta this month.

BRAZIL: On May 23, tens of thousands of workers from the ABC industrial region near São Paulo and workers in several other states, participated in mass mobilizations to support President Lula’s veto of a bill that – if passed – would result in precarious workers losing access to social benefits. On Friday March 16, President Lula signed into law a bill that creates the “Super-Receita” a public organisation that combines the revenue collection units from the federal tax service with the social security tax collections. However, Lula vetoed the controversial “Amendment 3” that had been approved by Congress by a very large margin. This amendment prohibited tax collectors from deciding whether a “self-employed” professional could be considered a “firm” or a regular individual tax payer, effectively limiting workers that are precariously employed from accessing social benefits. Since vetoing the bill, Lula has come under intense pressure from employer groups including in São Paulo the FIESP (Industry Federation of Sao Paulo State) and the local branch of the OAB (Brazilian Lawyers’ Confederation). To counter this pressure and to support precarious workers, trade union national centres CUT and Força Sindical and social movements in Brazil staged mass mobilisations on May 23, including workers from the ABC region protesting in front of the FIESP office on Paulista Avenue in São Paulo, the heart of the Brazilian financial industry. Big public parades and protests also took place in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Brasília-DC. The action was organised by trade union national centres CUT and Força Sindical and was supported by a range of social movements who share a common platform regarding labour law, land reform, better housing and against the criminalisation of social movements. A similar protest action was previously held on April 10. Precarious work is the central subject for discussion at the IMF Central Committee meeting taking place in Salvador, Bahia Brazil on November 28 and 29.

GLOBAL: Speaking at a World Health Organisation seminar on the prevention of occupational and environment cancer in Geneva, Anita Normark, General Secretary of the Building Workers’ International launched the global “zero cancer” campaign and called on workplace regulators and employers to do more to end the worldwide epidemic of occupational cancer, which claims at least one life every 52 seconds. Occupational cancer is the most common work-related cause of death, ahead of other work-related diseases and accidents.

“Bad, and often illegal, working conditions cause ill health that mean disaster for hundreds of thousands of families every year,” said Normark. “The social invisibility of the impact of working conditions on our health creates a vicious circle where diseases are not recognised as occupational, so they are not recorded, notified, treated or compensated and, worst of all, they are not prevented,” said Normark.

A coalition of 11 global unions together representing over 300 million members in more than 150 countries has produced a new cancer prevention guide, which reveals that over 600,000 deaths a year — one death every 52 seconds — are caused by occupational cancer, making up almost one-third of all work-related deaths.

IMF General Secretary Marcello Malentacchi added: “This epidemic has to stop. Trade unions in hundreds of countries have joined the campaign. We’ll be calling for widespread workplace mapping, inquiries and surveys, and a big drive to get rid of the top killers, such a achieving a global ban on asbestos.”

Occupational Cancer/Zero Cancer: a union guide to prevention, provides information about workplace cancer risks and advice on practical steps workers and unions can take to make workplaces safer and is available at: www.imfmetal.org/cancer

GENEVA: In Organising the Unorganised: Career Development and Lifelong Learning the IMF publishes a series of presentations and reports given at a seminar on this issue held in Paris on October 24-25, 2006.

Lifelong learning is fundamental to empowering workers in the knowledge-based economy and in facilitating their career development. The reports at the seminar looked at developments and current practices in various countries and examined the way in which unions have been advancing lifelong learning on the bargaining agenda.

Mari-Ann Kranz, Sif general secretary and president of the IMF non-manual workers department, said that adopting new perspectives, like the lifelong learning, is crucial when it comes to organizing new members.

“Unions have an increasingly important role to play when it comes to supporting members in their professional career. To me the meeting in Paris showed the vitality and creativeness among the IMF-affiliated unions around the world," she said.

The IMF publication is available in English and French and is available for downloading under "Publications" on the IMF website.

GLOBAL: A worldwide epidemic of occupational cancer is claiming at least one life every 52 seconds, but this tragedy is being ignored by both official regulators and employers.

This stark warning comes from a global union coalition, which this week launched stage one of a “zero cancer” campaign to tackle what it says is the No.1 workplace killer worldwide.

Marcello Malentacchi, General Secretary of the International Metalworkers’ Federation, says: “Occupational cancer is the most common work-related cause of death, ahead of other work-related diseases and accidents, but it is not taken seriously by regulators or employers.”

Preventing occupational cancer, the most common work-related cause of death, is the subject of the new guide, published today. Occupational Cancer/Zero Cancer: A union guide to prevention addresses the growing epidemic of occupational cancer and outlines steps unions can take to protect workers in the workplace. The guide was produced as part of the first ever international zero occupational cancer campaign, involving 11 global trade union organisations together representing over 300 million members in more than 150 countries.

“Despite occupational cancer being the single largest cause of work-related deaths, the risks have been downplayed by governments, health and safety enforcement agencies and employers. The end result has been a wholly preventable epidemic of cancers,” says IMF general secretary Marcello Malentacchi.

“This epidemic has to stop. Trade unions in hundreds of countries will be joining the campaign. We’ll be calling for widespread workplace mapping, inquiries and surveys, and a big drive to get rid of the top killers, such as achieving a global ban on asbestos,” adds Malentacchi.

IMF published the guide with the support of the International Trade Union Confederation the other global union federations: BWI, EI, ICEM, IFJ, ITGLWF, ITF, IUF, PSI and UNI.

Copies of the guide are being sent to IMF affiliates along with a zero cancer campaign poster, both available for download on the IMF website in English. The guide will also shortly be available in French, Spanish and Russian, in print and as a pdf on the IMF website at: www.imfmetal.org/cancer.

Affiliates that would like to receive additional copies of the guide should contact the IMF at: [email protected].

Taking global action against precarious work is the focus of the IMF Central Committee debate in November, 2007. To prepare for the debate, affiliates are being encouraged to consider the issue of precarious work and, where possible, develop regional positions and inputs on taking action against precarious work in advance of the meeting.


Precarious work is typically non-permanent, temporary, casual, insecure and contingent. Workers in these jobs are often not covered by labour law and social security protections. Precarious work is caused by employment practices designed to maximize employer profits and flexibility and to shift risks onto workers. In highly-industrialised countries full-time jobs are being replaced by precarious jobs, while in developing countries precarious work has always been the norm.


Employment practices often associated with precarious work include the following:

• Direct hire on temporary labour contracts,
  
• Hiring in labour via employment agencies or labour brokers,
  
• Contracting out functions to other companies,
  
• Personal labour contracts as bogus ‘self-employed’ workers,
  
• Abusive probationary periods,
  
• Disguised employment training contracts,
  
• On call / daily hire,
  
• Illegal or involuntary part-time work, and
  
• Homeworking.

Precarious work is an increasing problem on every continent, undermining wages and conditions of work and threatening to divide working people. It flourishes wherever there is a labour surplus and workers are driven to accept work at any cost – conditions that exist in many, if not most, parts of the world today.


The rapid increase in precarious work is being driven both by corporations and governments. Across the world, national labour laws are being amended to better enable employers to create yet more precarious jobs at the expense of stable employment. In 2006, the Australian government introduced new labour laws that immediately plunged millions of workers into precarious employment by taking away their right to protection from unfair dismissal. The laws also encourage contract and temporary work.


Now the European Union has launched a consultation paper promoting ‘flexicurity’, the idea that employment growth is stimulated when employment protections such as unfair dismissal laws are reduced and casual employment is increased. UK affiliate Amicus has responded by pointing out the negative impact that Britain’s weak labour laws have had on manufacturing jobs. General Secretary Derek Simpson says that, "well paid secure jobs can only be protected by stronger employment laws than we currently have in the UK."



Precarious work and women

Precarious work has a disproportionate impact on women workers. Women are overrepresented in precarious work throughout the world. Access to full-time permanent jobs for women has always been low and is reducing further.



For example:

• In Australia one in three women workers are non-permanent, paid 21 per cent less than permanent workers and have no access to holiday leave, sick leave or public holidays;
  
• In Canada 40 per cent of women’s jobs are considered non-standard, or precarious, employment; and
  
• In Japan about 30 per cent of metal workers are atypical or contract workers and women form a high proportion of such workers.

Increasingly precarious employment compounds existing gender discrimination. Working time insecurity creates enormous difficulties for women with child care responsibilities. For some women, secure part-time work with predictable hours may be the most desirable employment option, yet most part-time work is temporary and the availability of permanent part-time work is decreasing.


Precarious work makes a large contribution to the pay gap between men and women. In Japan, women part-time workers earn a mere 54.3 percent of the hourly wage of regular women workers, a gap which has widened in the last decade. In Korea, 69 per cent of women workers are precariously employed, known as irregular workers. In 2005, irregular women workers in Korea earned 43 per cent of the salaries of the regular male workers.


Not only are women in precarious employment paid less than their male, full-time counterparts, the majority of such women are not covered by collective agreements that could be used to address pay inequalities. The nature of their employment also excludes them from the reach of equal pay legislation designed to reduce the gender pay gap.


The additional unequal burden that is placed on women in respect of childcare, household work and other caring responsibilities mean that their children, families and communities also suffer the consequences of their precarious work. This is further compounded by governments reducing social services such as childcare and health care, which provide support principally to women in their caring roles.


In a number of countries trade unions have been fighting against the trend of precarious work. International solidarity can and should play a role in trade union strategies to tackle the issue.


IMF affiliates are encouraged to come forward with proposals for action against precarious work for consideration at the IMF Central Committee 2007. These proposals should reach the IMF Secretariat no later than 21 September 2007.

You don’t expect work in a chocolate factory to be deadly. But it killed William Webster. He spent 28 years employed as an electrician at the Cadbury’s plant in Somerdale, England. His death from the cancer mesothelioma, caused by exposure to asbestos used as lagging on pipes and boilers, came in August 2005, aged 80.


Although William lived a long life –he should have lived a longer life and he should have had a better death. As in this case, most occupational cancers strike retired workers because of the time-lag between exposures and development of disease.


James Davies, a solicitor acting for Mr Webster’s family and provided by William’s union, Amicus, said, “Before his death, Mr Webster was an active, physical man. During the last six months of his life he was in a lot of pain and was unable to play any golf or drive a car. Prior to this he had been very independent and very healthy.” He added, “Sadly, it appears that he has become the latest innocent victim of mesothelioma – a tragic illness which is caused by the negligence of employers like Cadbury.”


A January 2007 report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimated the global toll from occupational cancer to be 609,000 deaths each year. This puts occupational cancer at the top of the work-related deaths league table, causing almost a third of all occupational fatalities, and nearly double the number of deaths worldwide attributed to occupational accidents.


Asbestos is the biggest single industrial killer, but is probably only responsible for in the region of one in six of all occupational cancer deaths. There’s every indication the problem — an occupational cancer epidemic — is increasing. And now cases are also emerging in younger workers in unexpected jobs.




Deadly emissions, deadly omissions

“Despite being the single largest cause of work-related deaths, occupational cancer risks have been downplayed in a display of criminal neglect by governments, health and safety enforcement agencies and employers,” says IMF health and safety director Rob Johnston. “The end result has been a wholly preventable epidemic of cancers.”


Johnston says the most commonly cited figure for the proportion of cancers caused by work — four per cent — has seen the problem dismissed in prevention priorities. “The only problem with this figure, which is quoted by governments worldwide as fact, is that it is blatantly nonsense.” The four per cent figure is based on a single study written over a quarter of a century ago and based only on industrial workplaces in the U.S. It concluded “lifestyle” factors like smoking and diet were the root cause of the great majority of cancers.


“The lead author on that study, Sir Richard Doll, was receiving substantial and undeclared payments from chemical companies and the U.S. chemical industry trade body,” says Johnston. “The study missed most causes of cancer, ignored risks to women, discounted risks in many industries, excluded African-American workers and did not count cancers in workers aged over 65, at a stroke ruling out the great majority of work-related cancers.”


He says the ILO’s “cautious” estimate would put the real proportion of cancers linked to workplace factors at one in every ten cases. “Our investigations suggest at least eight per cent and possibly more than 16 per cent of all cancers are the result of preventable exposures at work.”


World renowned occupational cancer expert Dr Samuel Epstein agrees. An emeritus professor of environmental and occupational medicine at the University of Illinois in Chicago and the founder of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, Epstein says “based on minimal estimates” work exposures are responsible for ten per cent of overall cancer mortality, with much higher rates in some jobs.


He added, “Lifestyle academics have consciously or unconsciously become the well-touted and enthusiastic mouthpiece for industry interests, urging regulatory inaction and public complacency.”


Whole categories of cancers are being missed, says Professor Andy Watterson of the occupational and environmental health research group at Stirling University, Scotland. “Lung cancers caused by asbestos exposure are not picked up and other occupational cancers simply do not show up on the official radar; the contribution of work to breast cancers is widely neglected and there are a number of carcinogens that attack humans — brain, nervous system, soft tissue sarcomas, cancer of the larynx, kidneys, stomach, bone — which are not adequately regulated.”




Cancer campaigns

In Canada, Bud Jimmerfield’s family and colleagues know the human cost of this failure to recognise and address a workplace epidemic. After an 18-month fight, the husband and father of eight died on January 31, 1998 from cancer of the oesophagus. The disease was caused by inhaling machine oils during 31 years working in a car parts factory in southern Ontario. He was 49.


Addressing a union meeting barely a month before his death, he said, “If I look back at it, if I ask, would I rather have my life back than a dollar, I’d rather have my life back.”


Bud, though, left a legacy. A Canadian autoworkers’ union (CAW) local president and long-time health and safety activist, he was instrumental in the launch of the union’s high profile and on-going national ‘Prevent Cancer Campaign’.


“Bud was the catalyst for our Prevent Cancer Campaign,” explains Sari Sairanen, the union’s national health, safety and environment director, adding, “We wanted to start discussions amongst our membership that cancer it is not strictly a lifestyle issue but could be related to workplace exposures.”


Over the last decade the union has produced detailed materials for use by local union representatives and has run several cancer prevention conferences. CAW’s ‘Devil of a poison’ pamphlet was distributed to 80,000 concerned citizens.


But the most telling changes have come in improvements negotiated in Canadian workplaces. A mix of training, campaigning and collective bargaining has seen a dramatic reduction in exposures to carcinogens — cancer causing substances — in workplaces covering in total more than 100,000 CAW members.


“The Cancer Prevention Campaign brought together for the first time the union’s health and safety, environmental and compensation activists,” explains Sairanen. “Between them they were encouraged to: identify cancer-causing exposures in the workplace; insist the potential cancer cause be removed and substituted with less hazardous substances, or at an absolute minimum insist the process be enclosed; file compensation claims for all workers who may have work-related cancers; and ensure community support by making sure the public knows about air emissions and hazardous waste from workplaces which may cause cancer.”


The most important aspect of the CAW Prevent Cancer Campaign has been pollution prevention, she says. “If we can eliminate carcinogens from our workplaces and replace them with less hazardous substances, then we can both prevent the incredible incidence of cancer among blue-collar workers and among their family members – since they won’t be bringing carcinogens home on their work clothes – their neighbours and others in our communities and among the animals and plants exposed to these same carcinogens.”


CAW has had some startling successes, including negotiating wide-ranging bans on cancer-causing substances in Canada’s car plants. “In addition to the contract language that we negotiated with Ford, Chrysler and GM to remove all of the carcinogens, a number of small workplaces have negotiated better language,” Sairanen says.




Global problem, global solution

In South Africa, metalworkers’ union Numsa has faced its own occupational disease fight. “In steel companies, fettlers — the workers who use chipping hammers to remove excessive metal from castings — die on average two years after retirement,” says Numsa international officer Hlokoza Motau, adding members exposed to vanadium complain of problems including lung cancer. “We know the jobs are deadly, but the companies blame HIV/AIDS,” Motau says.


Many of Numsa’s members work for multinationals, like BHP-Billiton and Anglo-American, processing metals including manganese, chromium, iron and vanadium.


Numsa has linked up with CAW to develop health and safety training for its union reps and to introduce innovative approaches in the workplace. “We have pioneered the right to refuse dangerous work,” says Motau. “And we have managed to set up committees composed of both management and shop stewards to look into occupational diseases and deaths attributed to manganese, chrome, vanadium and other toxic substances. Numsa is involved in developing joint training for health and safety reps.”


The problems extend beyond traditional industrial workplaces. In the UK, Rebecca Little, a nurse, died aged 53 of cancer caused by her job. Her union, Amicus, fought to prove her death from the cancer mesothelioma was caused by exposure in the 1960s to the asbestos that insulated pipes in a London hospital. The Department of Health eventually admitted liability. In August 2005, her husband, Dr Julian Little, was awarded £175,000 (US$340,000) in compensation, in a case run with legal support from Amicus.


Amicus national officer Gail Cartmail commented, “We would advise anyone who is concerned about symptoms such as breathlessness or chest pains to consult their doctor. Amicus members who are worried that they may have been exposed to asbestos at work can add their names to an Amicus database that registers details of buildings with a confirmed presence of asbestos.”


Cartmail highlights another major challenge facing unions. Two working generations — some in work, some retired – have already faced exposure to a workplace cancer risk, and could go on to develop the disease. Nothing can compensate individuals and families for that eventuality, but compensation may be the closest to justice they can get.


This year James Hardie Industries, a multinational that was once Australia’s largest asbestos company which had resisted finalising an asbestos compensation deal, finally put pen to paper after a six-year, high profile trade union campaign. In February 2007, the company signed the AUS$4bn (US$3.1bn) 40-year deal. It will make an initial payment of around AUS$185 million (US$144m) into an Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund, with further regular payments to be made over the life of the agreement.


Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) New South Wales state secretary Paul Bastian, whose union was prominent in the campaign, welcomed the agreement. He said, “The deal will ensure current and future victims of James Hardie asbestos products are properly compensated.”


Boycotts of James Hardie products and protests in Australia, the Netherlands and the U.S., with the support of unions worldwide, were just some of the activities that eventually forced the company to the negotiating table.


IMF’s Rob Johnston says addressing the workplace cancer issue takes a combination of awareness-raising and company-wide and workplace level action. “Trained, informed and properly supported union reps are the key to identifying and remedying problems at work,” he says.


“And we need to make sure official safety agencies clampdown on those employers who expose workers to risks. At the moment many are allowing companies to get away with murder.”




Key work cancer facts:

• Occupational cancer is the top work killer worldwide, ahead of all other work-related diseases and work accidents.
  
• Over 600,000 workers die of occupational cancers ever year, according to the ILO — that’s one death every 52 seconds. The true toll is almost certainly higher.
  
• More than one in five workers faces a cancer risk from their work.
  
• Between eight and 16 per cent of all cancers are the result of exposures at work.
  
• Almost 100,000 chemicals are used in workplaces worldwide. Barely one in a 100 has been thoroughly tested for health risks.
  
• Over 50 substances are rated by the United Nations’ International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as a definite or probable cancer risk at work. Over 100 more are IARC rated as a possible cancer risk.
  
• Most causes of cancer were identified in studies of workers.
  
• It is not just industrial workers that are at risk. Hairdressers, teachers, nurses, doctors, farm and office workers and workers in many other jobs have also died of occupational cancers.
  
• Tens of thousands of workers generally have to die before scientific studies identify a workplace cancer problem. A precautionary approach is always the safe and healthy option.

More information about occupational cancer and its prevention can be found in Occupational Cancer/Zero Cancer: A trade union guide to prevention, a new global union publication being released for activities on April 28, 2007
and on the IMF
website at: www.imfmetal.org/cancer