SERBIA/KOSOVO: After 28 days in imprisonment, first in solitary confinement and then in a cell with some 15 other inmates, Hasan Abazi, President of the Independent Metalworkers’ Union of Kosovo affiliated to the IMF, was released on 20 April at noon on bail of €20,000.

The union president who was arrested on March 28 in Southern Serbia while travelling to Zagreb, Croatia, to attend a meeting of three European trade union federations, EMF, EMCEF, ETUF-TCL, is now back home in Kosovo.

His arrest generated immediate and massive protests worldwide, including a number of high-level diplomatic interventions, and raised serious concerns within the international community about implementation of the rule of law and respect of fundamental human rights in Serbia. 

To complement a call for solidarity by unions around the globe, the IMF launched a  Labourstart campaign, resulting in almost 8000 protest letters demanding Hasan’s release, delivered to Serbian authorities. Labour groups and human rights organizations also increased pressure on the Serbian government through the EU, embassies and other diplomatic channels.

"The IMF-ICEM-ITGWF and their European sister organisations are very grateful to all individuals and organisations that have joined in the Labour Start campaign to release him.  Worldwide mobilisation and the pressure put to bear on the Serbian authorities against Hasan’s disgraceful detention have been decisive in getting him out of jail" said Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of the IMF.

See IMF-ITGLWF-ICEM letter here.

GLOBAL: Mining and metal workers’ unions from around the world are campaigning to stop mining multinational Rio Tinto supplying the gold, silver and bronze for medals at the London Olympics in June.

Rio Tinto, sponsors of the 2012 London Olympics, is providing 99 per cent of the metal for minting the London Olympic medals, tarnishing them with the company’s reprehensible labour practices.

Protesting at the Rio Tinto Annual General Meeting in London Marc Maltais, President of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9490 representing locked out workers at a Rio Tinto smelter, said, "World class athletes deserve medals that aren’t tainted by Rio Tinto’s brutal treatment of its own workers and communities."

The campaign (http://www.offthepodium.org/) has been developed in support of nearly 800 Canadian metalworkers and members of the USW locked out of a profitable smelter by Rio Tinto because they refused a plan that put new starters on insecure work arrangements with half the pay.

The workers in Alma, Quebec, have been locked out of their jobs since December 30 as the smelter sits idle, said Ken Neumann, Canadian National Director for the USW.

A LabourStart campaign is also running  in support of the workers. Send a message to the International Olympics Committee (IOC) demanding Rio Tinto be kicked off the podium here. 

Locking out these workers in Quebec is a violation of Rio Tinto’s obligations to fair play under the Olympic charter, said Manfred Warda, General Secretary of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Union (ICEM).

"Rio Tinto would like to bask in the reflected glory of the Olympic Games, but it has a black record on the treatment of its own people," said Warda.

Part of the delegation of USW and international trade union representatives participated in the AGM which can be viewed here, raising questions and challenging the management about its lockout of the workers.

David Cockroft, International Transport Workers’ Federation General Secretary, who was at the protest, said: "Rio Tinto is one of the most aggressively anti-union businesses in the mining industry and deserves to be the subject of ongoing scrutiny and action by unions and workers throughout Rio Tinto’s global supply chain.

"At the AGM, Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese did, however, say that the company was now willing to negotiate with the unions. Let’s see if he keeps to this promise."

Supporting the action at the Rio Tinto AGM in London, Unite also arranged for union-friendly Members of Parliament to submit an Early Day Motion in the UK Parliament.

Meanwhile, unions attending an international mining conference in Sydney, Australia from April 17 to 19, decided to mount a global campaign against the company. A resolution passed at the ICEM World Mining conference in Sydney noted that Rio Tinto, like many transnational mining companies, was recording strong profit growth while engaging in brutal and unethical practices. See more here.

"In a strong field of anti-worker, anti-environment companies in the global mining industry Rio Tinto is worst of all," said Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of the IMF.

"This campaign against Rio Tinto is only the beginning. Unions around the world have resolved at an international mining conference today to build a sustained global campaign against Rio Tinto and its anti-worker and anti-union ways," said Raina.

For more photos of the action in London see:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imfmetal/sets/72157629853279091/
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/itf/sets/72157629852526685/

AUSTRALIA: International mining unions declared Rio Tinto their number one target for global campaigning, due to the company’s legendary anti-union, anti-worker, unsustainable labour, community and environmental practices worldwide.

The unions were gathered at the ICEM World Mining Conference, held in Sydney, Australia on April 17 to 19, 2012 with unions representing mine workers from every continent and with a combined membership of over 50 million.

A resolution unanimously passed at the conference noted that Rio Tinto, like many transnational miners, was recording strong profit growth while engaging in brutal and unethical practices. The global union body resolved to commit resources to drive a global campaign against Rio Tinto leading up to the London Olympics and beyond.

The resolution called for a number of actions, including:

• The re-launch of an Xstrata and BHP-Billiton Global Network
• To support affiliates in resource rich countries in the negotiation and implementation of a mineral resource tax
• To support affiliates in their demands to have the ILO Convention 176 ratified in their countries
• To initiate a white ribbon trust to be managed by the NUM in recognition of gender violence and the memory of Pinky Mosiane, a woman miner who was brutally murdered in one of the mines in South Africa.

"Mineworkers continue to die in the killing fields of the mining industry as health and safety continue to be sacrificed at the altar of profit and Mining Companies undermine efforts to ratify ILO Convention 176," stated the resolution, adding, "the Mining sector continues to be a site of struggle for gender oppression and liberation, the continued discrimination, sexual harassment and violence against women, and a glaring violation of decent work and a severe signal of gender inequality."

Conference participants pledged their full support for the many struggles going on in the industry and vowed to make sure issues raised in the meeting would remain front and center on the agenda of the new global union, IndustriALL.

BRAZIL: Trade union and social movement leaders used the opportunity presented by Vale’s annual meeting of shareholders to protest outside the company’s offices on April 18 in the centre of Rio de Janeiro. Protestors displayed posters and handed out leaflets to the public explaining the reasons for the protest. The company is world champion when it comes to violating human rights and labour rights, as well as being responsible for serious damage to the environment in Brazil and elsewhere. The Brazilian transnational company was awarded the Public Eye prize for 2012 for causing the most harm to the environment and human rights.

Brazil’s CNM/CUT and Canada’s USW, unions affiliated to the IMF, participated in the demonstration. CNM/CUT General Secretary, João Cayres, who was attending an international event in Rio, communicated his confederation’s solidarity with the protestors. "Brazilians are ashamed that Vale received the prize for the worst company in the world, because we are fighting so hard against the harmful actions of foreign multinationals and now a company that had been the pride of the country is doing the same things", said Cayres.

The protestors also denounced the workplace accidents that have caused the deaths of various workers. The most recent was on April 11, when two of Vale’s workers in Colombia were killed and five injured when a crane collapsed. The crane was used for loading coal and mounted on an offshore platform at the company’s port, located between Santa Marta and Ciénaga. Rafael Vásquez Vargas, 42, and Luis Cantillo Vargas, 41, were the victims of this workplace accident. The injured were Reiner Alfonso Suárez Rozo, Pedro Bustamante Calderón, Milton Cervantes García, Juan Alberto Pertuz Ballestas, Nadín Enrique González Góngora and Javier Jerónimo, who were taken to Ciénaga General Hospital.

The IMF was also present at the protest on April 18, organized by the unions that defend the interests of Vale’s workers. João Cayres read out a letter from the IMF and the ICEM to the company, repudiating the Brazilian multinational’s conduct.

RUSSIA: On April 11 the regional court in Kaluga, Russia, closed the case on the legality of the Benteler strike organized by the Interregional Trade Union of Autoworkers (ITUA), an IMF affiliate. An earlier successful strike at this Volkswagen supplier company opened a collective bargaining process. However, negotiations are stalled, as the Benteler management has tried to force the union to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Workers are under pressure to quit the union.

The strike at Benteler lasted for four days and concluded successfully. The first round of negotiations with the management took place on April 4, the second one on April 12. Representatives of the union will meet with the company for the third time today, April 19. However, the negotiations on the CBA didn’t begin properly, as management has tried to force the union activists to sign nondisclosure agreement, so that they wouldn’t be able to communicate with workers and inform them on the process of negotiations. The union is prepared to fight this move, says Alexei Nastin, president of Benteler union committee.

Earlier in 2011, Volkswagen management tried to force ITUA activists to sign the same nondisclosure agreement, however, the union was able to avoid this by informing workers on the situation and putting pressure on the management. The negotiations at Volkswagen in 2011 proved to be successful, with ITUA achieving a significant wage increase.

On April 16, Benteler director Hubert Koopmann was fined for violating Russian Labour Code, specifically, for not giving the union office space at the plant.

However, the management continues to discriminate union members. Thus, all Benteler workers weren’t paid a regular premium for March. Nonetheless, those who didn’t take part in the strike received a significant one-time bonus. Striking workers didn’t get any bonus at all, so their March wages were about 20 per cent lower than usual.

“We will negotiate for wage increases, guarantees for the union and compensations. We will stand our ground on these demands. We also plan to resolve the issue of the March bonus for striking workers, either through talks or by court,” says Alexei Nastin.

“The workers are very surprised by the actions of the management. The company promised no repercussions for the strike, however, now they hold meetings with workers, threaten them with disciplinary action or lack of promotion if they refuse to quit the union. They also misinform workers. This is what’s happening at the moment,” adds Nastin.

IMF will follow closely the developments at Benteler and take solidarity action if needed.

FRANCE: Mandatory annual negotiations on pay and working conditions for Caterpillar workers at the Grenoble and Echirolles plants, which began in December 2011, took place in the context of a fairly settled industrial relations climate and a favourable business environment. The unions reached agreement with management after four months of negotiations. The provisions of the majority agreement include:

• A 2 % pay rise for all (except managers);
• A pay rise based on merit for about 80% of the workforce, calculated at 1% of the payroll;
• An increase for promotion, calculated at 0.4% of the payroll;
• A 3.4% increase in the company’s minimum wage, to €1,515;
• Extension of the pay structure, providing an additional possibility for wage progression;
• Conversion of 80 precarious employment contracts into permanent contracts in 2012;
• Integration of the seniority bonus into the figure used for calculating the STIP (short-term incentive plan), set at 3% of gross annual pay, which will result in about €100 more in average per year for all; 
• Continued annual payment of a €360 service-employment cheque to disabled workers;
• All staff have equal leave rights for family events;
• In the context of new TTX and WHEX production lines coming on stream in 2013, the unions have obtained two supplementary days leave to compensate for the rest days imposed by management to meet production contingencies during the course of the year. This provision shall be in force for two years.

At the end of the negotiations, a majority of the workforce voted in favour of the agreement. 

The Caterpillar plant in Grenoble, which manufactures components for the undercarriages of engines assembled at other plants of the group, employs about 1,100 workers. The Echirolles plant, located near Grenoble, assembles tractors, loaders and wheel excavators and has about 1,300 workers. The agreement is valid for one year, in accordance with labour legislation.

GLOBAL: Every year on April 28, the World Day on Safety and Health at Work, workers take a moment to reflect on the devastating toll taken by workplace fatalities, injuries, and occupational diseases.

An estimated 16,400 will die in 2012 as a result of their work. That’s about 45 fatalities per day. Another 1,570,000 will be diagnosed with a non-fatal occupational disease. An enormous number, millions, impossible to estimate with any accuracy, will be injured on the job.

Unions in the Gerdau and Tenaris global networks will be handing out leaflets to workers at all company facilities on April 28 to highlight the importance of health and safety in the workplace.

The unions will remind company management that there is no simple, magic solution that can be quickly implemented. Instead, occupational health and safety requires hard work and a coordinated effort by unions and company management to continuously improve the working conditions in their plants.

The Gerdau Workers’ World Council and the Tenaris Workers’ World Council call on both companies to engage in the creation of a Joint International Health and Safety Committees with the unions belonging to the councils.

USA: Brothers On The Line explores the legacy of the Reuther brothers, Walter, Roy, and Victor. They were pioneering labour organizers and social justice statesman, and were great leaders in the United Auto Workers union (UAW). On May 5, 2012 Brothers On The Line will be screened at the Workers Unite Film Festival in New York. For more information on Tickets and screening times visit: http://workersunitefilmfestival.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=467120.    

The film was Directed by Victor’s grandson Sasha Reuther and narrated by Martin Sheen, the film follows the brothers story from their rise as shop-floor organizers in 1930s Detroit to leaders in collective bargaining, civil rights, and international labour solidarity.

Brothers On The Line brings together archive footage from the UAW, personal photos, and original interviews with a broad range of labour, civil rights and political personalities. It is a timely story of one family’s quest to compel American democracy to live up to its promise of equality.

NORWAY:  Twelve hour long negotiations between Fellesforbundet and its employer counterpart, Norsk Industri, were successfully concluded with a new collective agreement on April 15, 2012.

The agreement is an outstanding achievement from the point of its political results on top of the economic framework achievements.

Among others Fellesforbundet managed to obtain the following improvements for its members:

• General hourly wage increase by 1.25 NOK (0.17 Euro);
• Extra pay increases for workers in the textile and clothing sectors;
• Compensation for rotation agreements offshore;
• Two weeks paternity leave, paid by employer;
• Equal pay and working conditions for employees from the host company and the workers hired through temporary employment agencies, both covered by Fellesforbundet collective agreements;
• Agreement on making the rule of general applicability of collective agreements less government influenced;
• Principal agreement on a new industrial collective agreement for the four agreements included in the frontrunner model.

The new agreement, valid for two years will be submitted for vote to the members. The deadline is May 10, 2012.

The International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) and International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) congratulate the new achievement made by Fellesforbundet in protection of their members’ rights. The benchmarking condition of equal treatment for temporary and permanent staff merits special attention as a showcase on how the spread of precarious work can be combated nationally.

The executive bodies of all three global union federations jointly agreed at their last meeting Geneva in February 2012 that the fight against precarious work will be proposed as one of the main priorities for the new IndustriALL Global Union, which is to be created in June 2012.

INDONESIA: IMF demanded the reinstatement of 204 workers at an automotive supplier company, PT. Surya Gemilang Perkasa, in Indonesia, dismissed for taking legitimate strike action on March 27, 2012 held after the company failed to implement court order to grant permanent employment. PT. Surya Gemilang Perkasa supplies automotive components to Honda, Kawasaki and other brands of motorcycles.

According to an International Metalworkers’ Federation’s Indonesian affiliate, Lomenik, workers at PT. Surya Gemilang Perkasa started to organize themselves and join the union of FKUI KSBSI in the middle of 2011. The plant level union of FKUI KSBSI registered with the Labor Department of Bogor District on November 1, 2011, soon after, management dismissed Mr. Roberto Pardede, Chairperson FKUI KSBSI on December 7, 2011 giving the reason that his employment contract had ended and the company did not want to re-new his employment contract. Management also moved Mr. Suhardi, Vice Chairperson of FKUI KSBSI, to another factory in another district without valid reason.

Following a tripartite negotiation facilitated by the Labor Department of Bogor district, it was recommended that the workers have the right to be permanently employed under the Unlimited Duration of Employment Contract (known as PKWTT) but the company failed to implement these recommendations. In response the workers took legitimate strike action on March 27, 2012 and then the company illegally dismissed the 204 workers who took part in this strike action, including all 15 board members of the FKUI KSBSI.

The IMF has written to the company demanding the reinstatement of all 204 workers, including the union leadership.

"Illegally dismissing the 204 workers who took part in this strike action is a violation of internationally recognized labour standards and undermines labour relations at a time when your company should strive to establish harmonious and mutually beneficial industrial relations," writes Jyrki Raina, IMF General Secretary.

"We urge you to reinstate all 204 dismissed workers immediately, respect workers’ rights to freedom of association and the right to collectively bargain, and begin good-faith negotiations with FKUI KSBSI at once," he said.