TURKEY: On November 28, some 8,000 workers from metal sector union Birlesik Metal Is, transport sector union Nakliyat Is and private health care workers’ union Dev Saglik Is took to the streets of Gebze in a march and demonstration against labour law reform under the AKP government’s "New Employment Strategy".

Workers see this "New Employment Strategy" as being grounded in flexibilization of working conditions and employment with massive expansion of precarious work in Turkey. Proposed changes to the labour code include:  

• Decrease the number of days on which severance pay is paid or transferring severance pay to a private fund
• Legalization of subcontracting in core work and freeing the principle employer from responsibility
• Extension of time period for flexible working hours from within a two month period to within a one year period
• Legalization of Temp Agencies
• Decrease of overtime pay premium from 100 per cent to 75 per cent

In biennial collective bargaining over the national agreement, the Metal Product Industrialists’ Association (MESS) proposed wording to derogate severance pay, overtime and working hours (period for flextime arrangements) to the statutory minimum when the new labour code is passed.  The representative of the employers’ association declared, "from now on we will take what we want–not at the negotiating table–but by changing the labour code."  Thus, Birlesik Metal Is had no choice but to reject this proposal and declare industrial dispute on November 9, 2010. The members began work-to-rule overtime refusal since November 10 and the union can take all-out strike after 60 days if the two sides cannot conclude an agreement.  

The Gebze action was significant in that it was the first time Turkish trade unions have protested the proposed labour law reform.  IMF participated in the action as did the president of the DISK confederation. Birlesik Metal Is president Adnan Serdaroğlu said, "We will continue the struggle against precarious work through actions in the factories and neighborhoods."  DISK president Süleyman Çelebi said, "Today is the first day of a larger campaign against the proposed labour code", while the IMF representative reiterated that the Birlesik Metal Is workers were not alone but part of a larger global struggle against precarious work.  

KENYA: The leadership of four IMF affiliates and one potential affiliate met on November 23 and 24 in Nairobi, Kenya to discuss and develop strategies to organize new members and build stronger unions in the region. This important sub-regional meeting was also attended by the IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina and the IMF executive committee member Christine Olivier.

Some of the key decision which came out of the meeting are as follows.

The sub-region has many workers who remain unorganized especially in countries like Uganda and Kenya and we therefore need to intensify our organizing and recruitment strategy. This process should include a discussion between our Kenyan affiliates to discuss unity of the unions in Kenya.

We need to have a target approach when organizing and develop different strategies for different targets especially youth and women workers. The key challenge in east Africa especially in Kenya is the fact that non manual workers are in most cases not allowed to join unions in the name of been part of management and majority of these workers are women and youth.

The meeting also agreed that affiliates should exchange experiences and learn from each other and where possible the stronger affiliates should assist the weak affiliates with resources to organize.

Affiliates should work towards improving their communication strategies and tools to able to provide better service to members. There is a need to train the union leadership about maximum utilization of the new technology.

The issue of climate change was discussed and the meeting agreed that affiliates will discuss the issue in their structure and give feedback to the regional office in preparation for next year’s climate change regional meeting

The meeting agreed to develop a project for our affiliates in Kenya to deal with gender representation in the union structures in the workplace. The project will include building gender structures in the local and region and recruiting women workers. We also agree that this project should include building union structures in general.

GLOBAL: The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Business and Human Rights, Professor John Ruggie, posted on November 22 the draft "Guiding Principles for the Implementation of the UN ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework" on his online consultation forum, http://www.srsgconsultation.org/

The forum, intended to gather views from a broad range of stakeholders, will remain open until January 31, 2011.

The Guiding Principles elaborate and clarify for companies, states, and other stakeholders how they can operationalize the UN ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework, by taking practical steps to address business impacts on the human rights of individuals. The UN Human Rights Council had endorsed the Framework unanimously in 2008, and asked Ruggie to provide this additional concrete guidance.

The International Metalworkers’ Federation welcomes and supports the content of Ruggie’s proposals. "These are very helpful to clarify responsibilities along the chain of suppliers and the nature of business responsibilities on fundamental rights at work as a matter of unquestionable human rights, not as a voluntary exercise of good will," said IMF general secretary Jyrki Raina.

The IMF has been closely following this process, including making an earlier submission to Ruggie on how employers are using various forms of precarious employment expressly to prevent workers from joining a trade union and bargaining collectively and will continue to work with others in developing its response to these Guiding Principles in this latest round of consultation.

Anybody can access the forum to read the Guiding Principles. In order to post and rate comments, it is necessary to register. Recognizing that there are legitimate reasons why some cannot comment publicly, private correspondence can be submitted to: [email protected]

After the forum closes in January, Ruggie will submit the final text of the Guiding Principles to the UN for translation, before presenting it formally to the Human Rights Council at its June session.

NEW ZEALAND: The International Metalworkers’ Federation joined with its affiliate the Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) in morning for the death of 29 miners declared dead on November 24 at the Pike River coal mine disaster in New Zealand.

In a letter to EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little, IMF general secretary Jyrki Raina said, "Our hearts go out to the families of the miners and to all of you at the Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU)."

The IMF expressed its full support behind EPMU’s request to the government to establish an independent inquiry to investigate the circumstances of the explosion, including a public hearing in front of a senior judge and leading technical experts.

The IMF is committed to continue working closely together with the ICEM on the campaign for ratification of the ILO Convention 176 concerning safety and health in mines. The Pike River coal mine disaster is yet another sad reminder of the importance for governments, including the government of New Zealand, to become parties to ILO Convention 176 and, in consequence, enforce strict health and safety standards in mines.

For a more detailed report on the disaster go to the ICEM website here.

CHILE: There have been increasing numbers of reports of deaths in work accidents in Chile, and one of the companies where this has been repeated is Soquimich (SQM), which has not complied with the health and safety of its employees. The latest accident happened on November 6, killing six workers.

Concerned about the situation, the International Metalworkers’ Federation sent a letter to Mr. Patricio Solminihac, one of the SQM’s managers, asking for better working conditions, given the accidents are the direct consequence of a lack of control on mining sites.

In the letter, which can be seen here, the IMF also asks that ILO Convention 176, which sets international standards for health and safety in mines, be ratified by the Chilean government.

The Canadian company Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS) controls 32 per cent of the total shares of SQM.

Currently, 90 per cent of SQM’s production is sold in international markets and has plants in countries such as Mexico, Belgium, Holland, USA, Thailand, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa, and United Arab Emirates, among others.

MALAYSIA: The Malaysian government, through legislative and bureaucratic interference has denied and deprived the more than 200,000 electronics workers their legitimate right to form a union, for almost four decades. The IMF had been at the forefront in supporting the formation of a single national union to cater for this sector. Despite all efforts the Malaysian government resisted the formation of a national union in this sector.

However, last year after a high level ILO delegation visit to the Ministry of Human Resources the Malaysian government relented and allowed the formation of regional unions. Thus far four regional unions to cater for this sector have been registered.

The IMF had a series of meetings with these unions and based on the outcome of a meeting attended by Assistant General Secretary Fernando Lopes, formulated a plan to assist these union to build their capacity to better serve their membership.

The first workshop was held on the November 20-21, 2010 in Skudai, Johor. Sixteen participants out of whom seven are women members of the EIEU (Southern Region) participated in this workshop, which acted as an "eye opener" for these union activists. The participants came from five newly organised factories.

Mohd. Salleh Ahmad, the local coordinator for this union, urged the participants to play active roles in developing this newly formed union. He thanked the IMF for assisting the union in union building activities and hoped that the union will gain strength over a period of time.

IMF Regional Representative P. Arunasalam said that the IMF would assist this union to become stronger in every aspect. He called on the leadership to focus on organizing, dues collection, leadership capacity building, administration and developing activities like collective bargaining so as to strengthen this union.

The participants felt encouraged and motivated to carry out active trade union work. They also formed organizing committees to actively carry out organizing in their localities where their factories are located.

KOREA: Precarious workers organized by the Korean Metal Workers Union (KMWU) at Hyundai Motor started a sit-in strike on November 15 at the first factory of the Ulsan plant.

Forty workers of the in-house subcontractor entered into the first seat factory of Hyundai Motor where they work at around 5:30am demanding Hyundai Motor employ in-house subcontracted workers directly in accordance with the Supreme Court ruling on July 22. The workers started the sit-in protest and stopped a manufacturing line.

The strike came after the workers were dismissed unexpectedly on November 15 due to the subcontractor’s notice of closure of business on October 14 and Hyundai Motor’s terminating the subcontract. Hyundai Motor was insisting that the workers would only be rehired by the new subcontracting company if they withdrew their membership from the KMWU.

Hyundai Motor Ulsan non-regular workers’ local branch of KMWU already resolved on November 4 that the unionized workers in the seat factories would not sign a new employment contract with a new subcontracted employer and planned to start the strike when the company dismissed them.

However, all of the workers were hauled out violently by the company thugs and immediately arrested by the police after only one hour of protest.

After that, 500 workers gathered in front of the car seat first factory and the KMWU called for an urgent afternoon strike of the unionized subcontracted workers at the 1st and 2nd plant of Hyundai Motor Ulsan. Consequently, KMWU notified an overall strike from the night shift to all unionized non-regular workers of all five plants and 1,000 workers gathered at the first plant and started sit-in strike there from 21:00, also supported by the regular workers’ representatives of KMWU Hyundai Motor Branch.

On November 17, 500 non-regular workers left the first plant and entered the second and third plant in order to organize a bigger sit-in strike along with the support of the unionized directly employed workers at Hyundai Motor. The strike was also conducted by non-regular workers unionized at Jeonju and Asan Plants.

Meanwhile, in-house subcontracted workers have increasingly joined the union after the Supreme Court ruling on July 22. More than 1,500 workers have been unionized since this ruling. KMWU will have its 28th periodical representative congress on November 22 and the planning of its industrial general strike of December 1 will be discussed and decided.

The IMF calls on its affiliates to support a solidarity message to the striking workers published here by sending your message of support to the KMWU international department at: [email protected] & [email protected] copied to IMF at [email protected]

 

SWEDEN: As a collective movement, the car lift is the beginning of a series activities giving special attention to IF Metall’s elected local representatives, strengthen the picture of all the good work being done by the trade union and demonstrating that "keeping together we are strong together!"

"All alone you cannot not lift a car, but together we can do it," says Jan Thelin, shop steward at LKAB mine in Kiruna.

As part of the Strong Together Campaign, the first group to be in the center of attention is the 14,500 IF Metall health and safety representatives.  And as they always do before a change in the workplace, they made a hazard assessment before the lift.

The campaign started with the car lifting in Kiruna, Umea, Eskilstuna, Trollhättan, Gothenburg and Malmö, and will continue in various locations until IF Metall’s Congress in June 2011.

Watch the videos here:

http://www.ifmetall.se/ifmetall/home/home.nsf/LUUnique/CADBBFCAB43A8C90C12577E000299F9D?OpenDocument

CHILE & COLOMBIA: From November 15 to 19, the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) held in Santiago, Chile and Bogota, Colombia, two consecutive evaluation and planning workshops of its "Building National Unions Project" supported by IF Metall and Swedish LO-TCO.

In both countries, participants and coordinators from the three different regions participating in the intensive capacity building project carried out by Marino Vain from the IMF regional office in Latin America, analysed collectively the difficulties encountered, the achievements and constructed the political and educational proposals for the following year of activities.

Participants also heard and discussed the preliminary results of the sectoral and union mapping carried out in both countries. When finalized, these investigations will provide our members with valuable information regarding the transnational corporations and unions operating in our sectors, as well as the potential membership to target for organizing.

Rank and file members demanded that the functioning IMF National Councils give full political support to bringing IMF affiliates closer and to invite other unions to join in the creation of strong national industrial unions. Jorge Almeida, director of IMF regional office confirmed this as one of IMF’s Action Programme priorities.

When the project started, the main objective was to create conditions to bring together in one national organization the existing IMF affiliates in each country, but as Fernando Lopes, IMF assistant general secretary explained, due to the existing discussions at international level between ICEM, ITGLWF and IMF, the projects now need to focus on building broader industrial unions and political alliances in the regions.

In Santiago, IMF invited the leadership of three sectoral unions without international affiliation, to join the workshop debates and participate in the upcoming 2011 activities. One of the main decisions approved was to expand project activities in order to allow rank and file members to participate in the debate on building national industrial unions and unifying the trade union movement, thus broad regional assemblies will be held immediately after each training activity.

ICEM affiliated participants who took part in the project activities this year, attended the evaluation and planning workshop in Bogota, Colombia and it was decided to significantly increase their participation in 2011.  Carlos Bustos, ICEM’s project coordinator in Colombia, invited IMF affiliates to participate in their current project activities and in several national meetings. An enlarged National Council including ICEM will also draw up a joint Action Plan to unify workers in 2011.

The project evaluations recognized the very important and positive advances achieved in terms of the participating affiliates’ commitment to unify and build national unions in both countries. 

The union building work in Chile was featured in Metal World No.2 2010 and can be viewed here.

GENEVA: The International Metalworkers’ Federation launched its second issue of Metal World for 2010 today. The issue is now available for reading and download on the IMF website.

This issue of Metal World reports on the union situation in Mozambique, where IMF affiliate Sindicato Nacional dos Trabalhadores da Indústria Metalúrgica Metalomecánica e Energia – Sintime gets stronger and gains better conditions for its members through a renewed focus on organizing and collective bargaining, despite the rampant unemployment, low wages and other challenges in the country still dealing with its colonial passed.

The future of the international labour movement and the ways we can strengthen it is the subject of an interview with Sharan Burrow, recently elected General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

The challenges of uniting the fragmented trade unions limiting their activities to plant level are described in the feature "Chile: Atomized trade unions versus trade union unity".

The back page profiles Jairo del Río, 37, who is the president of Sindicato de Trabajadores de Tubos del Caribe (SINTRATUCAR), the union organizing workers at the Tubos del Caribe plant in Cartagena, Colombia.