MEXICO:  On January 13 the U.S. Office of Trade and Labor Affairs (OTLA) in the Bureau of the International Labor Affairs of the Department of Labor has notified Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union (SME, Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas) of its decision to review the submission made by the union on November 14, 2011 under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC).
 
The submission regards the decree of the Mexican Government dated to 2009 on liquidation of the state-owned company Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LFC) and termination of jobs of 44,000 SME unionized workers and their further replacement with non-unionized jobs.
 
The Canadian Labour Congress affiliating a number of Canadian and international unions, as well as provincial federations of labour and regional labour councils welcomed the decision by saying “CLC is pleased with the fact that a complaint by the Mexican Union of Electrical Workers (SME) against their government will be heard in both Canada and the United States“.

“This is a positive development and we hope that it will convince the Mexican government to negotiate in good faith with the workers who they have treated so scandalously,” added Hassan Yussuff, CLC Secretary-Treasurer.

TURKEY: After three long years, Turkey’s Supreme Court handed down its final ruling, concluding that Sinter Metal, a global parts manufacturer, fired workers for joining the IMF affiliate, Birlesik Metal-IS.

The struggle originated in December 2008, when all 378 Sinter Metal blue collar workers, members of Birlesik Metal-Is, were illegally dismissed. Weeks later an additional 16 were dismissed in January 2009.

Immediately thereafter, the workers and their union launched a legal case for their reinstatement and a call for international global action.

The IMF, the European Metalworkers’ Federation and affiliates from around the world repeatedly called on the company to reinstate the workers. IMF and EMF sent a number of delegations to the Sinter Metal pickets and auto unions put pressure on major auto manufacturers to press the company to respect fundamental workers’ rights.

Following pressure from an outside legal expert brought in by the IMF to monitor court proceedings, a December 15 2010 ruling in favour of the workers was finally handed down, two years and ten months after the legal deadline for such cases. The court ruled that the workers were not dismissed for economic reasons as claimed by the company, but for their trade union membership. Sinter Metal was ordered to reinstate them, or to compensate them with 12 months wages and an additional 4 months wages for the judgment process.

While the company appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, the IMF and Turkish unions put pressure on the Turkish government through the International Labour Organisation. In December 2011 the Supreme Court confirmed the decision of the local court. The original number of reinstatement cases was 291. After two years of legal processes 104 dropped their cases, leaving a remaining 187 workers.

“While the Supreme Court ruling is much welcomed, it’s a bittersweet victory for Sinter Metal workers and their union” announced Jyrki Raina, IMF General Secretary.

“Fuelled by a broken legal system and a culture of corporate impunity, this kind of case is all too common in Turkey. The victory we celebrate today is in honour of the determination of those Sinter Metal workers who believed that they could fight one more day than the system that works against them, one more day than the company with its high-priced lawyers and deep political pockets, one more day so that their children may work and live where workers’ rights are respected.”

“We will take up this glaring example of shortcomings in the Turkish judicial system with the government and to push for changes to guarantee workers’ rights against anti-union companies like Sinter Metal,” Raina added.

MEXICO: On February 1, the Human Rights Commission of the Federal District of Mexico (CDHDF) will began consideration of a complaint submitted by 20 trade unions and labour rights organisations in Mexico City against the Local Conciliation and Arbitration Board of the Federal District (JLCADF).

The complaint was presented on January 10 and is being dealt with by Luis Jiménez Bueno, third chief investigator, who deals with labour issues.

Luis González Placencia, CDHDF president, maintains there are serious violations of labour rights throughout the Federal District. He said there is a need for a fresh analysis of international instruments on labour rights to support the work conducted by the country’s local human rights commissions, which have just been given the added brief of labour rights.

“It is clear that work without rights is servitude, if not slavery. The protection of workers’ rights is a mechanism to bring dignity to the act of working, which is something everybody does and is the basis on which all societies function”, he said.

Luis González Placencia said the CDHDF will study the legal merits of the complaint, which will be investigated by the CDHDF Labour Rights Department. He added that the commission will keep the petitioners informed of progress in the case.

The president of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (Asociación Nacional de Abogados Democráticos), Manuel Fuentes Muñiz, explained that the complaint comprises 23 pages setting out the case against the JLCADF, a 44 page labour information bulletin and an analysis of 323 new conditions required of trade unions. He also explained that the rights alleged to have been infringed are: the right to form a trade union, the right to legal certainty; the right to legality; access to justice, legal status and non-discrimination.

Among the unions that signed the complaint are: Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Universidad de la Ciudad de México (university workers); Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de Lavanderías, Tintorerías y Hospitales (laundry, dry cleaning and hospital workers), Sindicato Nacional del Transporte de Pasajeros del Distrito Federal (public transport workers), Sindicato Único de Trabajadores del Instituto de Educación Media Superior del Distrito Federal (Institute for Higher Education workers), Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (Authentic Labour Front), Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de Elevadores (elevator workers) and Sindicato de Trabajadores de Casas Comerciales, Oficinas, Expendios, Similares y Conexos (shop and office workers).

The complaint is also backed by the Sindicato de Trabajadores del Instituto Nacional de Capacitación Agropecuaria (National Agricultural Training Institute workers), Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Industria Metálica, Acero, Hierro (metalworkers), Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Industria del Acero y Derivados (steel workers); Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Costura (sewing workers) and Sindicato Nacional de la Industria Textil (textile workers).

Organisations supporting the complaint are: Alianza de Tranviarios de México (tram workers), Asesoría Legal (Legal Advice), ANAD, Campaña contra los Contratos Colectivos de Protección Patronal (Campaign Against Protection Contracts), Centro de Acción y Reflexión Laboral (Centre for Labour Action and Debate), Centro de Investigación Laboral y Asesoría Sindical (Labour Research and Trade Union Advice Centre), the Confederación Regional Obrera (Regional Workers’ Confederation), Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (electricity industry workers), Sindicato de la Unión Nacional de IEMS, Sindicato de Telefonistas de la República Mexicana (telephone workers); Unión Nacional de Técnicos y Profesionistas Petroleros (oil industry technical and professional workers) and the Unión Nacional de Trabajadores (National Workers’ Union).

MEXICO:  The website LabourStart launched a solidarity campaign in support of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME, Sindicato Mexicano de Electrisistas). In October 2009 44,000 SME members were forced out by police from their working places.

Their jobs were terminated after liquidation of the state-owned company Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LFC). The contract for power supply to Central Mexico and LFC’s assets were handed over to the equally publicly owned power company Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), organized by a union with a reputation for passivity and corruption.

After LFC’s closure previously safe jobs with highly skilled organized workers were replaced with non-unionized workers lacking professional training and experience. This resulted in 30 fatal accidents in two years.

Since then 16,599 SME members, who rejected severance pay and continued to fight for their jobs, have demanded that the government finds a “substitute employer” as stipulated in Mexican law. IMF strongly supports the SME members in their fight for their rights and calls upon the affiliates to visit the LabourStart campaign page and send on-line protest letters to the Mexican Government.

The protests are all the more important given upcoming negotiations with the government. Its initial commitment was to have a solution by November 30, 2011; however, negotiations were called off after the death of the country’s Interior Minister in a helicopter crash.

UNITED KINGDOM: BMW and Unite agreed on January 12 to enter into a meaningful dialogue in regard to the company’s pension scheme.

BMW also agreed that it will not proceed with its plan to use Regulation 10 (the "Swedish derogation") in the agency workers’ regulations. Local meetings will take place between the union and the company on general conditions for the continued use of agency workers.

The agreements reached have been endorsed by all shop stewards across BMW and Rolls Royce Motor Cars in the UK.

Commenting on the agreement, Roger Maddison, national officer said: "As always we are prepared to have meaningful discussions with companies in the car industry. Unite is determined to protect all the terms and conditions of our members and ensure that agency workers are treated fairly, in the true spirit of the agency workers’ legislation."

GLOBAL: The NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a coalition of human rights, labour rights and environmental organisations working on the shipbreaking issue, has released its third yearly list of European companies that have sent end-of-life ships to the infamous scrap beaches of South Asia.

The European Waste Shipment Regulation prohibits EU Member States from exporting hazardous wastes, including those present in the structure of ships to developing countries. Still, the vast majority of European shipping companies continue to avoid the costs of proper disposal by selling their ships to South Asian breaking yards known for the lack of enforcement of environmental and labour laws, exposing some of the poorest communities to extremely dangerous working conditions and severe pollution.

The top 10 European dumpers in 2011 were Greece (100 ships), Norway (24 ships), UK (13 ships), Netherlands (12 ships), Germany (11 ships), Italy (9 ships), Cyprus and Switzerland (5 ships each), Bulgaria, Denmark and Romania (4 ships each), Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Spain and Sweden (3 ships each), and Belgium, Finland, Ireland and Slovenia (1 ship).

In total, approximately 800 ocean ships reach the end of their service life each year and are broken down to recover steel. About 80% of them are simply run ashore on tidal beaches in developing countries such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, where unscrupulous shipbreaking companies exploit minimal enforcement of environmental and safety rules to maximize profits. The IMF has reported extensively on efforts to organize shipbreaking workers.

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform participated at the first joint IMF-EMF Global Conference on Safe, Sustainable and Green Jobs in Shipbuilding/Shipbreaking, September 13-14, 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey."

COLOMBIA: The president of the Colombian Oil Workers’ Union (USO), Rodolfo Vecino has been reinstated by the company’s president, who has reversed the decision made by the company’s Internal Control Office. The ban on holding office has also been revoked.

Ecopetrol dismissed union president, Rodolfo Vecino in December 2011. Ecopetrol also banned the trade union leader from holding office for ten years. This was the culmination of a disciplinary procedure against the USO president that began in 2010 after he participated in an event also attended by the Polo Democrático candidate for the governorship of Bolívar department.
 
The final decision was in the hands of the company president, Javier Gutiérrez Pemberthy, who was expected to confirm Vecino’s dismissal and punishment.

Meanwhile, Colombian and international unions, such as the ICEM and the IMF were following the situation and giving their solidarity support to their USO colleagues in order to put pressure on the company to make a decision in favour of the trade union leader.

The ICEM Colombia office informed the international trade union movement of the Ecopetrol president’s decision to reinstate Vecino. Carlos Bustos of the ICEM, said: “this decision is the result of the national and international attention given to the case, including by ICEM. This again shows that unity and solidarity between workers is crucial in the struggles that we face”.

GLOBAL: The Global Labour University (GLU) invites trade unionists and labour activists to apply to its Masters in "Labour Policies and Globalisation"
offered in Germany, or the Masters in "Globalisation and Labour" offered in India.  For application and programme details, please visit http://www.global-labour-university.org/.  

The Global Labour University provides a space in which theory meets practice, discussing and shaping new ideas to meet the global challenges for labour.

Since the Global Labour University was established in 2004, 214 students coming from more than 50 countries have completed one of the GLU Masters programmes.  

Deadline for applications is 1 March, 2012.  A limited number of scholarships are available.

UNITED KINGDOM: Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke said: “These figures show the economy is still flatlining and the government has no strategy to boost manufacturing and create employment in the manufacturing sector, particularly for those thousands of unemployed workers who have lost their jobs in the public sector.

The Unite strategy highlights the importance for the UK economy to have a robust and skilled manufacturing base.

“Overall the situation is that the government doesn’t know what to do,” said Burke. “In order to revitalize the economy there needs to be considerable investment in the manufacturing industry. Therefore Unite has put forward this document.”

The 2020 vision is based on ten pillars:

• Build a framework of policies to defend strategically important industries
• Continued financial support through interventionist policies
• Targeted support for small and medium sized enterprises
• Better use of government purchasing power to secure manufacturing jobs in the UK
• Maximizing the opportunities that the low carbon revolution offers
• Delivery of an education and skills framework which meets all industry’s needs
• Creating a university structure which builds on the science base so necessary to secure high skilled jobs
• Create right investment environment for Research and Development
• Creation of a level playing field to deliver security and fair pricing for energy
• A framework of legislation which promotes transparency and engagement for all stakeholders in the future of manufacturing

Unite is committed to its support for manufacturing as part of its alternative economic strategy. The 2020 Vision document sets out the plan for sustainable manufacturing in the UK. “The document has been well received,” said Burke. “We launched it at our sectoral conference late last year, on our website and in our publications.”

 

GLOBAL:  Organized every year since 2000 in opposition to the corporate driven Davos World Economic Forum, the Public Eye project involves a number of non-governmental organizations under the umbrella of the Swiss organizations Berne Declaration and Greenpeace Switzerland, who issue a shortlist of the socially and environmentally most irresponsible companies in the world.

At the end of January 2012 the Public Eye Award “winners” will be presented their shameful awards in an international media conference in Davos, Switzerland, and the organizations who nominated them will present their cases.

This year nominations for Public Eye Award include six world corporate mastodons:

• Japanese TEPCO, nominated for its gross negligence in safety practices at its nuclear power plants;
• Brazilian VALE, notorious for its anti-union practices, was submitted for building the Belo-Monte-Dam in the middle of the Amazonas rainforest, where potentially 40,000 people will be forcefully evicted;
• US mining corporation FREEPORT McMORAN, also known for its hostile attitude to the unions, joining this list for its pollution of the environment in West Papua;.
• Korean SAMSUNG, using banned and highly-toxic substances without informing and protecting its workers, resulting in deadly cancers;.
• Swiss SYNGENTA, a global seeds and pesticides company marketing its herbicide Paraquat in the Global South despite the fact that it has been banned in Europe, and that it already resulted in thousands deaths of farmers; and
• UK global banking and financial leader BARCLAYS, whose speculation on food “futures” drives up global food prices at the expense of the poorest.

Visit the Public Eye Award website and cast your vote against corporate greed that destroys our planet.

One year ago IMF suggested you vote for Foxconn for the Public Eye Award 2011. However the internet voting dedicated the "prize" to the Finnish agrofuel concern Neste Oil selling bio-diesel Europe-wide under the shameless name “Green Diesel.” The huge jump in demand for palm oil fuels rain forest destruction in Indonesia and Malaysia.