GLOBAL: Workers making Olympic sportswear for London 2012 for top brands and high street names including Adidas and Next are being paid poverty wages, forced to work excessive overtime and threatened with instant dismissal if they complain about working conditions, according to a new report from the Playfair 2012 campaign published on May 6.

The report called, "Fair Games? Human Rights of Workers in Olympic 2012 Supplier Factories", documents a number of human rights abuses in the Olympic supply chain and in the supply chains of multinational companies.

The report examines whether workers producing sportswear, garments and textiles for the London Olympics are being treated with respect and dignity, in accordance with their fundamental human rights. The report gives in depth information on their researchers findings on the widespread abuse of the human rights of workers which include:

• precarious work
• poverty wages
• forced overtime
• union busting, and
• poor working conditions

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has ignored Play Fair’s demands. It has held a series of meetings with representatives of Play Fair but has taken almost no concrete action to turn the demands into reality. The London Organizing Committee of Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has gone further than any other Games organizer in taking steps to protect workers rights, but it has not done enough as demonstrated by the findings in this report.

"Prior to the Beijing Olympics Playfair called on companies to take action to ensure the human rights of all workers in their supply chains were respected," said Klaus Priegnitz, General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather workers’ Federation (ITGLWF).

"Four years on we see that the denial of the right to freedom of association, the payment of poverty wages and the widespread use of precarious work is still the norm. Companies need to step up their game and work with unions to support the development of mature systems of industrial relations in their supplier factories."

INDIA: Commemorating the International Workers’ Memorial Day on April 27, 2012 at Thiruvananthapuram, State capital of Kerala, the state leadership of central trade unions INTUC, AITUC, CITU and IMF, BWI affiliate KKNTC urged the Government of Kerala to ban asbestos.  In a memorandum to Mr. Oommen Chandy, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Kerala, unions stated that “about 50 countries besides International Labour Organization (ILO), World Health Organization (WHO) and International Agency for Research on Cancer have realised “safe and controlled use” of asbestos is not possible and consequently have banned asbestos because of the incurable but preventable cancer caused by this killer fibre”.
 
The event was jointly organized by the BWI and IMF in pursuance of the Federal State ban approach agreed upon last year. Earlier in the day, inaugurating the event, CITU General Secretary and former Member of Parliament, M.M. Lawrence stated “the vulnerable Indian work force in the hazardous Asbestos industry needs to be made aware of the dangers of this fibre and trade unions should collectively raise voice against its elimination at the earliest”. In his address, AITUC General Secretary, Kanam Rajendran urged that “when safer alternatives are available then Asbestos imports needs to be banned in India”.

Delivering the keynote address, Bro. Sudhershan Rao Sarde, IMF Director for South Asia urged the Government of Kerala for a total ban of asbestos in the state. He emphasized that the State Government should immediately implement the decision of the State Human Rights Commission announced on January 31, 2009, acknowledging Asbestos as a health hazard and its directives to the state government to avoid using of Asbestos in school buildings and instead use country made tiles.
  
Bro. Anup Srivastava, Education Officer, BWI-South Asia explained the memorandum and the key demands put forth before the Kerala State Government.

Ending the event on a high note, KKNTC President Bro. Elizebius Master urged that the struggle for a ban needs to continue and appealed to the leadership of all central trade unions to initiate a joint Ban Asbestos signature campaign throughout the state and maintain the campaign momentum till the total ban on asbestos is achieved.

GLOBAL: In Istanbul, Turkey, an estimated 500,000 workers and activists marched to historic Taksim Square in the center of the city. The heavy police presence, including a number of check points and searches, didn’t spoil the mood of May Day celebrations, which included speeches by union leaders, struggle updates by workers fighting for union representation, and traditional music. Taksim Square is highly symbolic for the Turkish labour movement after 37 workers were murdered on May 1, 1977 when a gunman opened fire. In 2010, after intense pressure, the Turkish government lifted the 32-year ban on May Day in Taksim Square.

In Indonesia thousands of workers, including IMF affiliates FSPMI and LOMENIC,  held Asia’s biggest May Day rally. With higher living costs unions in Indonesia demand better pay and protection of job security and also to put a stop to outsourcing practices. Protesters carried banners saying "raise our salaries" and "stop outsourcing contracts".
In Mexico more than hundred thousand took to the streets in Zocolo including IMF affiliate Los Mineros and STIMACH .

In Thailand thousands of members of the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee (TLSC), national labour federations, union area groups, and the State Enterprises Workers’ Relation Confederation (SERC) joined the May Day rally in Bangkok. Workers expressed three urgent demands for government to reduce the cost of living by regulating commodity prices; address all labour right violations related to the flood last year; and support the reform of the labour relations system, under the principles of ILO Conventions 87 & 98, in order to protect workers from all sectors.
 
In the UK Unite the Union launched Union Solidarity International (USi)  which is a tool  built around a social media framework to maximize trade union members participation, interest and activity on the latest international issues relating to the movement. For more details click here and visit the website: http://www.usilive.org/

Watch Global May Day Video on IMF TV:

 

CZECH REPUBLIC: With over 100,000 protesters, the demonstration of April 21 against Government reforms was the biggest anti-government demonstration since November 1989. The  demonstration was organized by the Bohemian and Moravian Trade Union Confederation (CMKOS), the Association of Independent Trade Unions (ASO), civil society organizations and  representatives of trade unions which included IMF affiliate OS-KOVO.

Protesters waved union flags and banners with slogans like "Stop the government" and "I am ashamed of the government and the president"  and "Stupid Capitalism, Stupid Government, Stupid Cuts". Unions warned the government that they were ready to organize more radical protests, including a general strike, if their demands are not met.

The protesters from all over the country urged the government to abandon the austerity cuts and resign. In the Czech Republic this is the first time in modern history that trade unions and civil society organizations have  met to agree on a common joint action. 

MEXICO: On May 2 2012, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Mexican Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (SNTMMSSRM) and its leader and general secretary, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, in response to the union’s appeal on behalf of its leader.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare must now recognize Napoleón Gómez Urrutia as the union’s legitimately chosen general secretary and issue the corresponding formal recognition papers (toma de nota).

Fernando Lopes, IMF Assistant General Secretary and Jorge Almeida, Regional Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean were present when the court announced its ruling, as were Lorraine Clewer of the AFL-CIO, Benjamin Davis of the USW and doctors Carlos del Buen and Oscar Alzaga.

The union appointed Napoleón Gómez as general secretary in May 2008, but the Ministry of Labour refused to recognize the validity of his election, alleging violations of union rules. Gómez Urrutia went into exile in Canada and the National Prosecutor’s Office requested the federal courts to issue a warrant for his arrest on suspicion of the criminal use of illegally obtained funds of $55 million. The final arrest warrant outstanding for the miners’ leader was cancelled at the end of April this year.

The IMF congratulates all Mexican miners on this victory, said Jorge Almeida.

GERMANY: Warning strikes started on May 2, 2012 when workers in the manufacturing sector downed tools till midday at over 100 companies across the country. IG Metall is asking for a 6.5 per cent wage increase for all its members this year and rejected as “a provocation” an offer of a three per cent hike over 14 months for 700,000 workers in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia made in April. The employers also refused to assure full work guarantees for apprentices once their training tenures are over and more job rights for contract and agency workers.

Warning strikes in German metalworking, engineering and electronic sectors will broaden with the break-down last week of the third round of bargaining between IG Metall and employers’ associations in several states.

The union demands are based on an increase in productivity development, as well as projected inflation in 2012 and 2013. Guaranteed opportunity for apprentices and contract workers is also based on the fact that Germany currently experiences a shortage of skilled workers.

The manufacturing sector has all the grounds to get a good deal. In March another big sector union ver.di, organizing public workers, reached an agreement for 6.3 per cent increase over the next two years for its two million members. These negotiations were also accompanied by warning strikes, paralyzing the country’s transport and services.

Last weekend’s warning strikes began on April 28 in the eastern city of Zwickau in Saxony state, where hundreds of young metalworkers conducted a motorcycle parade. Other demonstrations over the weekend occurred in Bavaria, Berlin, NorthRhine-Westphalia, and Nordenham in northern Germany, where workers from several plants held a protest and mass breakfast early on Sunday morning.

More details are on ICEM website http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/5003-German-Warning-Strikes-Begin-in-Metals-Electronics-Sectors

UNITED STATES: On May 1, just as a prior six year labour agreement expired, 800 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) went on strike against Caterpillar Inc. in Joliet, Illinois. The plant manufactures hydraulics and other components for heavy equipment, including mining trucks that Caterpillar makes at other factories in Illinois and elsewhere.

In the first quarter of 2012 Caterpillar has registered profits of US$1.5 billion and is asking IAM Local 851 members to take a six-year wage freeze. Caterpillar is also seeking medical cost reductions by proposing a doubling of workers’ out-of-pocket health care costs.

According to the IAM in 2011 Caterpillar CEO Douglas Oberhelman has been paid in US$16.9 million which is 60 per cent higher of what he received in 2010, other top executives also received sizable pay increases.

Another local branch of the IAM is now in its second week of a full strike at a major US Defense Department contractor, Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas.

Some 3,600 workers represented by IAM walked out when their contract ended at midnight on April 22 to protect pensions and health care benefits at Lockheed Martin facilities in Texas, California and Maryland for new hired employees. According to IAM the last offer of the employer “included language to bar new hires from participating in the defined benefit pension plan.” The rejected proposal also called for switching a majority of Lockheed workers to a high-deductible, high-cost health care plan with no cap on annual out-of-pocket expenses.

“This is ground zero in the nationwide fight to protect health care and pension benefits,” declared IAM Southern Territory General vice president Bob Martinez. “The defined benefit pension plan at Lockheed is a legacy benefit that was won for us by earlier generations of IAM members, and we are not about to be the generation that gives it back.”

IAM members voted by 94 per cent on 22 April to reject the company’s proposal, and followed that with a 93 per cent vote to strike. The Fort Worth aerospace plant employs another 10,000 contractors and non-bargaining union staff of Lockheed who continue to work through the strike. Lockheed Martin’s first quarter 2012 profits rose a full 20 per cent over postings in for the same period in 2011, with net income rising to US$665 million.

More details are in ICEM report http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/5013-US-Machinists-Strike-Lockheed-Aeronautics-in-Texas-Caterpillar-Plant-in-Illinois

RUSSIA: On April 20 the Center for Social and Labour Rights (CSLR), a Moscow-based think-tank, and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung presented the results of the research on ‘Agency Labour and its Effects on Workers’. About 60 representatives of trade unions, employers and the scientific community took part in the round table.

Petr Bizuykov, CSLR researcher, presented the results of the work. He described the key findings of the research team.

According to Bizuykov, despite the intention to find advantages of agency labour, none were discovered. This is true both for workers and for employers willing to establish a sustainable production, since the motivation and effectiveness of agency workers is low, while rates of workplace injuries are high.

Furthermore, Bizuykov stated that agency labour merely replaces stable permanent employment, despite the agencies’ claims that it is works as a bridge between unemployment and a stable job.

Mikhail Tarasenko, member of both the IMF Executive Committee and Russian parliament, addressed the participants as an expert. He noted that the bill against agency labour passed the first hearing in the Russian parliament last year. A full-scale attack on the authors of the bill followed swiftly, as well as intensive lobbying of employment agencies’ interests with support of foreign associations of such agencies.

Tarasenko said that earlier unions in Western countries hoped that agency labour could be regulated by laws. Now they fight for a lower percentage of agency workers and support Russian unions’ initiative to ban agency labour altogether.

In their turn, Oleg Kulikov, president of the All-Russian Association of Employers in the Electric Industry, and Olga Bacekina, head of the Committee on Labour Issues of the Association of European Business in Russia, spoke of the necessity to legalize agency labour, since flexible work schedule is rather convenient for certain groups of workers, such as students, mothers with little children and intellectual and creative workers. They also claimed that agency work has become a prominent feature of Russian labour market, therefore it should be legalized.

Boris Kravchenko, president of the All-Russian Confederation of Labour, said that he hand’t heard any arguments for the introduction and legalization of agency labour, except the fact that it exists in reality. Corruption grew manifold in Russia recently, but this doesn’t constitute a reason for its legalization, claimed Kravchenko.

Vadim Borisov, IMF representative for CIS countries, said employers make groundless claims that Western unions agree with legalization of agency labour, while in reality unions from all over the world take part in the IMF campaign against precarious work and consider agency labour to undermine workers’ rights and conditions. The neoliberal economic model created the 1997 Asian crisis and the 2008 world crisis. It will reproduce situations of crisis again and again. Employers’ lobbying for agency labour is explained by the fact that they want to ensure the safety of their businesses in such situations and put the risks on the shoulders of workers.

CSLR published a book based on its research called ‘Agency Labour: Effects on Workers’.

The publication in Russian can be downloaded from the CSLR website http://trudprava.ru/files/pub/zaem-trud.pdf .

MEXICO: PKC Arneses y Accesorios de México sacked a local leader of the Mexican miners’ union (SNTMMSSRM), Juan Carlos Palomino Consigno, on April 28, even though he had been working for the company for 13 years.

The company said he had been dismissed because of a fall in orders from PACCAR (manufacturer of Kenworth, Peterbilt and Daf lorries), which required a reduction in the workforce of the first and second shifts and may require the elimination of the third or special shift, on which Palomino is employed.

Palomino refused to accept his severance pay cheque and said it had been inappropriate to sack him because of his seniority. The company refused his request for a transfer to another plant. After Palomino refused to sign severance papers, he was escorted off the premises by company security personnel.

Palomino is a member of Section 307’s executive committee and is deputy secretary for organization, information and statistics.
The SNTMMSSRM expressed its support for Juan Carlos Palomino and for his demand to be reinstated. The union has asked for international solidarity in discussing the case with company management and asked for Palomino’s reinstatement to be added to the international campaign’s list of demands.

SPAIN: In the weeks following the general strike on March 29 against austerity cuts a number of arrests have been made of protesters and workers who participated in the strike. On April 25, 2012 police pulled four trade unionists from their homes, they were detained for questioning. The four workers from Airbus and EADS CASA (Getafe, Madrid) were questioned on the events that occurred at the general strike on March 29, 2012. They were later released after testifying before a judge.

The Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) are shocked at how workers and their representatives are being treated as criminals.  The four unionists were detained for hours in a cell of Valencia on April 25 after giving evidence about what happened on March 29, criminalizing the labour unrest and deepening the social conflict in Spain by focusing on the issue of public order.

The interior minister intends to tighten all public order offences. The new features of the penal code plan to criminalize those involved in organizing violent street protests that disturb the peace. Unions, political parties and other organizations will be held responsible if their members cause violence during demonstrations. Parents of minors caught committing violent acts or damaging property will be held responsible. The government has engaged in a harsh campaign against trade unions who are exercising their rights.