RUSSIA:  On April 21 the Committee of State Duma on labour and social policy approved and recommended the chamber of deputies to adopt in the first reading the bill  banning the use of agency labour. The bill "About measures to prevent employers from avoiding conclusion of labour agreements through the ungrounded conclusion of civil contracts, use of mechanisms of agency labour or other means" was submitted by the deputies Andrei Isaev (FNPR deputy chairman) and Mikhail Tarasenko (MMWU chairman)

The document received strong support from both FNPR and Confederation of Labour of Russia (KTR).

With some reservations the bill also gained the support of the Government, which however demanded some amendments for the second reading. The position of employers did not change, representatives of both big and medium business strongly object to any kind of limitation of agency labour mechanisms.

"I hope State Duma will adopt the bill in the nearest future and the employers who so far created inadequate or even bad workplaces and conditions will no longer have the possibility to do this with impunity", commented FNPR secretary Alexander Shershukov.

Below is the text of the statement issued by FNPR and KTR:

"Statement by the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia and the Confederation of Labour of Russia.

FNPR and KTR support the decision of the Duma Committee for Labour and Social Policy about the necessity to quickly adopt the bill banning agency labour.

We believe that the bill should be finalized and adopted already at the spring session of the State Duma.

We consider as inconsistent and biased the opinions according to which the adoption of this bill will result in higher unemployment. Adopted in Russia the ban on agency labour will force unscrupulous employers to avoid attempting to escape from their social and fiscal obligations.

The trade union movement of Russia expresses its unity in support of this bill."

FNPR Chairman, Mikhail Shmakov

KTR President, Igor Kovalchuk

GLOBAL: April 28th is recognized by trade unions throughout the world as workers’ memorial day, a day in which we stop and think about those colleagues who have lost their lives at work. It is also a day when we recommit ourselves to ensuring health and safety standards improve and the belief that no one should be killed at work. Our aim is to reduce the number of workers killed each year by speaking out against behavioral based safety systems, which blame the worker rather than fixing the hazard.

We are speaking out now against these systems because we believe good occupational safety and health practices are based on the understanding that all work related injuries and illnesses are caused by workers’ exposure to hazards. The goal of workplace health and safety efforts then is to find and fix all hazards and to understand and change systems of work.

Good safety begins with engagement from workers and unions and does not start with expensive consultancy based systems which impede safety by driving down the reporting of minor accidents and near misses. The possible harm that results from a policy focused on discipline is illustrated by a recent incident in a North American steel plant. Three workers voluntarily reported a near miss accident, and suggested steps be taken to prevent a reoccurrence. All three were blamed for the incident and given 5-day suspensions. The discipline was later rescinded, but the damage has been done, and workers are now reluctant to report minor accidents and near-misses because they think they will be blamed for undermining safety efforts.

Rigorous hazard identification, workplace safety audits, and route-cause incident investigations are time-consuming and hard. Punishing workers for alleged rules violations is easy. Given a choice many companies will choice the easy way. Sadly behavior based systems empowers them to substitute discipline for safety. As unions we do not believe that it’s possible to discipline your way to a safer workplace.

It is no coincidence that union workplaces are safer workplaces. That’s because trade unions are a positive force for change and fight for better working conditions for their members. There is no one better at identifying hazards on the job, or come up with ideas to eliminate or reduce hazards, than the worker doing the job.

Building a union alternative to behavior based systems is critical and one way in which to do this is by collectively bargaining employee authorization cards which reinforce an employee’s right to immediately stop any work activity that they feel presents a danger to themselves, co-workers or contractors. These cards empower employees and act as a deterrent to behavior based systems. Often workers report areas for improvement only to be ignored, then after a fatality the management ends up spending 10 or 20 times more than if they had fixed the original problem. Investment which could be better spent empowering union work place safety representatives that can deliver real benefits not just misleading statistics.

For details on actions being taken around the world this April 28, go to: http://www.hazards.org/wmd/countrylistings.htm

GLOBAL: The GoodElectronics and makeITfair network have come together in a campaign to make IT fair for people around the world, they have mobilized 20,000 young consumers across Europe and have raised awareness about labour abuses in the supply chains of major brands in the electronics industry. The international action day is on May 7 and the slogan is "Time to bite into a fair apple. Call for sustainable IT".

On May 7th, people all over Europe and around the world will join in an international day of action. This action day will demonstrate to Apple and to the whole IT sector that we, the consumers, do not accept the unfair working conditions and environmental destruction that the makeITfair campaign has revealed.

Apple is a world leader in producing innovative, smart, beautifully designed electronic goods that enrich our lives. Good Electronics is calling on Apple to take the lead in improving working conditions, too, by:

• Improving their purchasing practices, and
• Improving their transparency and communication.

For more information visit: http://makeitfair.org

See campaign leaflet

USA: On April 20, The National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) issued a complaint charging the Boeing Company with illegal retaliation against Boeing employees in the Puget Sound area. According to the NLRB, Boeing’s conduct was "inherently destructive" of rights guaranteed to workers.

"Boeing’s decision to build a 787 assembly line in South Carolina sent a message that Boeing workers would suffer financial harm for exercising their collective bargaining rights," said IAM Vice President Rich Michalski. "Federal labour law is clear: it’s illegal to threaten or penalize workers who engage in concerted activity."

The NLRB’s complaint is in response to an unfair labour practice charge filed by IAM  which represents more than 25,000 Boeing employees in Washington state. The IAM charge cites repeated statements by senior Boeing executives that lawful, protected activity was the "overriding" factor in the decision to locate a 787 assembly line in South Carolina.

Boeing’s decision to locate a 787 assembly line in South Carolina followed years of 787 production delays and an extraordinary round of mid-contract talks in which the IAM proposed an 11-year agreement to provide Boeing with the labour stability it claimed was necessary to keep 787 production in the Puget Sound area.

Despite the IAM offer, Boeing walked away from the talks and signed an agreement with South Carolina that included nearly US $900 million in incentives and tax relief in exchange for building a 787 line in South Carolina.

"Boeing’s current management needs to rethink its strategy of repeatedly alienating its most valuable asset: the highly-skilled workers who build Boeing aircraft," said Michalski. "We will not allow our members to be made scapegoats for any purpose."

See full text of the NLRB decision

CHILE: Three of the five unions at Codelco’s El Teniente Division, all affiliated to the Copper Workers Federation (FTC), which is in turn affiliated to the IMF, have reached an early agreement with the company. The collective agreement will benefit 3,000 workers. They will receive a 3.85 per cent pay rise over 40 months, a 12.3 million pesos (€17,680, US$25,324) bonus, an optional soft loan of 3 million pesos and a 10 per cent increase in the annual bonus for Chilean Independence Day on September 18.

The FTC affiliates that signed the agreement were Union No.5, Union No.7 and the Caleton workers’ union.

At the end of February, the Miners’ Union at the Gaby Mine reached early agreement with CODELCO’s mining subsidiary, with a 24 per cent increase in benefits, a complementary holiday bonus, a rise up the pay scale for 111 union members, 100 per cent payment of the Monthly Variable Index (IMV) for office workers, among other benefits, a 7 per cent real increase in basic pay, resulting from a 3 per cent adjustment in the ACT (Asignación de condición de trabajo) and an end of negotiations bonus of 10 million Chilean pesos.

Emilio Páez, president of the Gaby miners’ union and FTC and Secretary for International Relations, said the agreement was historic and satisfactory, because the terms were similar to those reached at other big mining companies. He added that other unions in the El Teniente division will be negotiating during the next few days.

For additional details see: http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4399-Early-Accord-Comes-to-One-of-Codelco-s-Copper-Mines-in-Chile

SWAZILAND: Many leading trade unionists were arrested as well as other activists and journalists detained and some report of beatings and the use of rubber bullets to disperse crowds. Police and the army flooded the capital Manzini and the other major centre Mbabane, breaking up groups larger than three to prevent the mass action from gaining momentum. Road blocks were in place to prevent people from entering into the cities. A common tactic used by security forces was to round up protestors and drop them off in remote areas without any transport back to the cities. After the three days of action, the number of pro-democracy activists detained were estimated to be in the hundreds.

Protests on March 18, 2011 were far more successful in gathering momentum, when over 7,000 Swazi’s, mostly workers, called for a change in government.  They were protesting government’s proposed 4.5 per cent salary cut for public servants as well as a freeze on annual increases, attempts to reduce the public wage bill as part of IMF conditions to qualify for budget support. Workers were outraged that they were expected to pay for the economic woes of the country especially in the face of extravagant flaunts by the monarchy.

Swaziland, ruled by one of the world’s last absolute monarchs, King Mswati III, is in crisis. Revenue from the South African Customs Union (SACU) on which the fiscus is heavily reliant on, contributing 76 per cent of the government’s income in 2009, dropped significantly by about two thirds in 2010 and is expected to continue declining over the next decade.

Despite the economic challenges facing the country the Royal family continues to live lavishly, 5 per cent of the 2010/2011 budget amounting to R503 million (over Euro 50 million) has been to cover expenditure associated with the monarchy including building state houses. King Mswati III is the beneficiary of funds created in trust for the Swazi nation and has absolute discretion over the use of the income. These funds are financed by government shares in investments in Swaziland such as the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation, of which the royal family is already the majority shareholder and the South African cellular company network operation MTN Swaziland.

While the monarch continues to abuse its access to national resources, the vast majority of the 1.1 million Swazis live in desperate poverty. Swaziland also has the world’s highest rates of HIV/AIDS and TB and life expectancy is the lowest in the world at just over 30. The deepening crisis in Swaziland is being felt sharply by those in need of health and other social services in addition to the burden being borne by the people of rising costs of basic goods and services.

The need for external funding to bail out the government means that economic reforms are inevitable. Workers have clearly shown that they are not prepared to bear the brunt of these reforms. The coming months will probably be filled with rising tensions in this small African nation. Pro-democracy campaigners have pledged to hold monthly protests and workers urged to wear red t shirts every Friday to keep the campaign spirit alive. And so the struggle for freedom in Swaziland continues.

INDIA: Welcoming the participants to IMF’s international conference on shipbreaking in Mumbai, April 19-20, Sudhershan Rao, IMF Regional Representative for South Asia, argued for the development of a global strategy to organize shipbreaking workers as the industry is expanding and the number of workers involved are also increasing, particularly in South Asia. He further stated that judicial intervention in South Asian countries is required for the regulation of environmentally sustainable and safe recycling of ships and guidelines for health and safety and enforcement of labour laws.

Providing a global overview of the shipbreaking industry Kan Matsuzaki, IMF Director of Shipbuilding, Shipbreaking and Non-Manual Workers, said that it is important to build a strategic link between shipbuilding and shipbreaking workers as both these activities are interlinked and creative change in design at the stage of shipbuilding will greatly reduce the hazardous nature of shipbreaking.

Delivering the inaugural address Dr.Shanti Patel, President of IMF affiliate the Steel, Metal & Engineering Workers’ Federation of India (SMEFI) said that shipbreaking is one of the most hazardous industries with strenuous working conditions. He emphasized that while organizing shipbreaking workers, the unions should go beyond the issues of wages and work and also look at the welfare of workers’ family and their children’s education. Mujibur Rahman Bhuyian of the Bangladesh Metalworkers’ Federation (BMF), Nazim Uddin of the Bangladesh Metalworkers’ League (BML), and Omar Faruq of the Banglagesh Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Foundation (OSHE) resolved to intensify their efforts to organize shipbreaking workers and work closely with established networks.

VV Rane and Manisha Pendulkar spoke about their experiences of organizing  strategies adopted by Alang Sosiya Ship Recycling and General Workers Association (ASSRGWA) and Mumbai Port Trust & Dock General Employees’ Union (MPTDGEU) in Mumbai and Alang shipbreaking yards.

From Alang and Mumbai Shipbreaking yards, government officials and an employers’ representative reported on government initiatives to improve working conditions. A lively exchange and debate took place with government officials and employers around the real working conditions that workers face daily in the shipbreaking yards and the gross negligence of training and organisational health and safety of workers. When the representatives asked for trade union representation in Inter-Ministerial Committee and International Martime Organisation (IMO) officials assured they would take up the mater for positive consideration.

Ariel B Castro, Senior Specialist for Workers’ Activities of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in India outlined the decent work initiatives of ILO and its efforts towards sustainable ship-recycling. Trade unionists called on the ILO to intensify its efforts towards creating an effective tripartite mechanism for the shipbreaking industry and social dialogue at the national and regional levels. Explaining the IMF’s role in organizing shipbreaking workers, Suzanna Miller, IMF Project Officer, said that it is a core principle of IMF to organize precarious workers globally.

During the conference, two documentaries produced by MPTDGU and Pakistan Metalworkers’ Federation (PMF) depicting experiences of accident victims and the deplorable working conditions and benefits of trade union initiatives were screened. The international delegates also visited Mumbai shipbreaking yard and interacted with workers. Extending their solidarity, the delegates called upon the workers to believe in their union and make it stronger.

GENEVA/MEXICO: New evidence highlighting the political persecution of members of the National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM) was submitted to the International Labour Organization (ILO) on April 20 marking the 5th anniversary of the murders of two SNTMMSRM members, Mario Alberto Castillo Rodríguez and Héctor Álvarez Gómez, who were gunned down during a strike defending union autonomy in Mexico.

The new evidence supports ILO complaint no. 2478 calling on the Mexican government to respect union autonomy. It was originally filed in March 2006, just a month before 900 federal and state police, backed by Mexican military troops, stormed the Sicartsa Steel plant to evict striking steelworkers who were taking part in a 48-hour national action in protest of the government’s removal of elected leader Napoleón Gómez Urrutia.

The complaint exposes the ongoing persecution of SNTMMSRM members at the hands of the Mexican government and in collaboration with Mexican mining giant Grupo Mexico, including:

• the unsolved murders of Rodríguez and Gómez, Reynaldo Hernández González and Juventino Flores Salas;
• assault on Mario García Ortiz and the abduction of his wife, Marie Elena de los Santos Echevaria;
• the freezing of union bank accounts;
• illegal detention of Juan Linares Montufar;
• unfounded criminal charges against Napoleón Gómez and SNTMMSRM leadership; and
• numerous cases of violence and intimidation.

The ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association has repeatedly asked the government to investigate these crimes and reply back to the ILO.

In Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico, the SNTMMSRM held an Extraordinary General Assembly in honour of the day. The program included speeches by the family of Rodríguez and Gómez, Napoleon Gómez, USW and a representative of SNTMMSRM members on strike in Taxco, Cananea, and Sombrerete. The group marched from the union hall to the center of town outside the gates of the Sicartsa steel plant where a memorial stands in honour of  Rodríguez and Gómez. There, the group placed flowers at the "Monument of the two Martyrs".

On April 18, the AFL-CIO announced that it would award Napoleón Gómez the 2011 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award. The annual Meany-Kirkland award, created in 1980 and named for the first two presidents of the AFL-CIO, recognizes outstanding examples of the international struggle for human rights through trade unions. Previous winners have included Wellington Chibebe of Zimbabwe, Ela Bhatt, the founder of India’s Self Employed Women’s Association, the Liberian rubber workers, Colombian activist Yessika Hoyos and the Independent Labour Movement of Egypt.

ITALY: A court in Turin sentenced ThyssenKrupp’s CEO for Italy, Harald Espenhahn, to 16 and a half years in prison on April 15 for the murder of seven workers that died in a fire at the transnational’s steel factory in Turin on December 6, 2007.

Five other company officials were also convicted on manslaughter charges and sentenced to up to 13 and a half years in prison. The German company received a 1 million euros fine. In addition, the company will not be allowed to benefit from Italian state subsidies for six months. During the same period, ThyssenKrupp will also be banned from advertising its products in Italy.

At the time of the incident the company was gradually dissolving the factory, with only 200 of the former 400 employees remaining, and failed to maintain health and safety standards. The prosecution’s investigation into the incident proved that the CEO was fully aware of the risks and decided not to take the minimum measures required by law at the plant.

The court’s ruling, which can be challenged, is historic as it sets an important precedent in recognizing the CEO as responsible of voluntary homicide, a first in Italy for a workplace accident.

One worker died immediately in the horrific blaze at the plant in Turin, while the other six died later in hospital. The deaths prompted a nation-wide campaign for improved safety measures in the workplace.

According to press reports, the verdict in this case was welcomed by prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello who said it would "mean a lot for health and safety at the workplace."

ANGOLA: In addition to building unity and strong solidarity between Federaçăo Dos Sindicatos Das Industrias Metalurgicas, Extractiva, Energia E Quimica De Angola (FSIMEQ) and Sindicato Das Industrias Petro-Quimicas E Metalurgicas De Angola  (SIPEQMA), the workshop also aimed at improving focus and basic skills of union officials and shop stewards on organizing.

Participants shared their experiences and found that they were not alone on issues. In fact most experienced the same key challenges in the workplace; no employment equity, wage disparities, occupational diseases, the use of subcontractors and retrenchments. Participants also discussed similarities in the two unions such as shrinking union membership, poor financial resources and the need for leadership and shop stewards training.

Participants discussed strategies to improve organizing including ongoing recruitment campaigns and joint training on collective bargaining. Participants undertook to build unity of workers in different plants and support to each other during disputes. In order to achieve this, participants recognized that communication between plants and the unions would need to be improved.

The unions also recognized the need for better cooperation with each other through joint activities which would build relations that would be useful for a possible merger in the future.