Unions and civil society organizations cooperate to protect migrant workers’ rights in Malaysia

According to the official data, there were 1.98 million migrant workers employed in Malaysia in 2019, the majority from Indonesia (about 700,000), Myanmar (140,000) and the Philippines (52,000).
 
Migrant workers often suffer violations like lower salaries, and bad working and living conditions. With wages that are too low to live off, migrant workers work overtime to pay off debts and to survive, resulting in less money sent back home than what the recruiters had promised. The fear of losing their jobs and being deported keeps migrant workers silent.
 
In the meeting, twenty-five unionists and activists from sending and receiving countries, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Myanmar, Philippines, Taiwan and Malaysia, explored organizing workers and the development of practical remediation tools for workers suffering supply chain injustice.
 
The first part of the event focused on increasing organizing capacity of the unions in Malaysia’s electronics industry, as well as challenges specific to organizing migrant workers in the country. The second part was dedicated to developing worker-driven remediation principles and exploring how they might be put into practice with the support of the public buyers.
 
More migrant workers should be organized into trade unions and be protected under collective agreements. Participants expressed solidarity with workers abused by employers, and committed to enhance cooperation between stakeholders in protecting their rights.

“Trade unions play a vital role in protecting migrant workers and their right to obtain justice. Our affiliates’ ability to organize workers, including migrant workers, in Malaysia is crucial and we will continue to assist them through building alliances with other trade unions, NGOs and civil society organizations,”

said Alexander Ivanou, IndustriALL ICT, electrical and electronics director.

 

Participants discussed the shortcomings of Malaysia’s current remediation mechanism and proposed to reform regulatory practices that enable abuses, like work permits tied to specific employers, and the lack of comprehensive pre-departure and post-arrival training. They agreed that a flexible work permit system in the event of abuse should be introduced in Malaysia. Union leaders explained how they are urging the government to include industrial unions in the post-arrival briefing for migrant workers to make them aware of their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.
 
During the remediation discussion, participants agreed that not only migrant workers’ organizations should be involved in the remediation process, but an effective process can help to bridge the gap between civil society and lead to their joint cooperation.
 
Trade unions organise and represent migrant workers in electronics factories that supply public sector institutions affiliated to Electronics Watch, which buy from those factories and must make sure fundamental workers’ rights are respected in the process of public procurement. Therefore, their leverage to help stamp out illegal worker exploitation and interference in trade union activities is very important.

"The role of public procurement in workers rights has been underutilised for too long. Collectively public procurers have enough buying power to influence multinational companies to discourage anti-union practices and encourage respect for labour rights so that the number of collective bargaining agreements increases and working conditions for all workers improves. And the Electronics Watch model offers public sector and private sector unions an important opportunity to work across sectors to achieve more together than we can alone,”

said Gemma Freedman, UNISON international officer.
 
 
 
 

Make Amazon pay!

Amazon Fashion is a growing brand within the global garment supply chain. The company has become the leading apparel retailer in the United States, quoted as the number one destination for apparel shoppers, beating Target and Walmart.

Amazon’s supply chain stretches across the globe with production in Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Vietnam.

IndustriALL affiliates in Indonesia

Nazma Akhter, president of the Sommilito Garments Sramik Federation and member of IndustriALL TGSL steering committee, says:

“Garment workers, like those I represent, toil to swell Amazon’s coffers often without any recognition that we are even Amazon workers. Amazon is the third largest direct employer in the world, but when you take us in the supply chain into account, it is even larger. At work we can face sexual harassment from management and victimisation when we try to organise in a trade union against that violence and for better pay and conditions."

Nazma Akhter

Nazma Akhter

“In Bangladesh, we are on the frontline of climate breakdown, so we know climate justice and social justice cannot be separated.”

Please join the workers, unions, global unions and activists taking action on 25 November, showing your solidarity for Amazon workers around the world.

#MakeAmazonPay

Asia Pacific paper unions determined to fight precarious work

Indonesian unions FSP2KI, CEMWU and FSPMI said it is important to lobby the government to enact a new regulation prohibiting outsourcing activities.

Malaysia’s PPPMEU emphasized that more training and social dialogue on precarious work should be held at the worksite level.

Unionists from New Zealand, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines said unions must add a new article in collective agreements to limit the number of subcontracting workers. The government must ensure job security for workers.

 

Participants identified other common issues like wage and benefits, upskilling of women workers, aging and retirement age, union busting, health and safety.

It is in collective agreement that unions must find ways to attract young workers as many of them refuse to join unions. Employers must include unions in occupational health and safety committees to make them effective.

“It is a worrying trend that robots have been deployed to replace paper workers in Thailand. We must strengthen the collective agreements to avoid layoffs, and existing workers should be upskilled or relocated to other factories,”

said Thawatchai Buabkhom, president of Thailand's SIG Workers' Union, affiliated to the Confederation of Industrial Labour of Thailand.

“Asia Pacific is a crucial part of the global pulp and paper network. We need to strengthen the network by integrating provisions in CBA protecting workers’ employment especially with the introduction of paperless communications.
“Let’s continue to organize more workers, we must stand together and make a difference for paper workers in your countries, region and globally,”

said Tom Grinter, IndustriALL director of pulp and paper, rubber Industries.

Twenty unionists from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam joined the hybrid Asia Pacific Pulp and Paper Trade Union Network meeting on 11-12 November 2022 in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

Alarm sounded over safety and health in Iraq's oil and gas sector

The issue must be addressed with an integrated vision taking into account the climate change resulting from global warming and environmental pollution. The emission of gases from extraction operations and oil industries is considered one of the main reasons behind the aggravation of the issue.
 
Participants pointed to the phenomenon of disease outbreaks directly related to certain occupations due to the poor compliance of employers with occupational safety and health measures.
 
This bleak picture requires that government, business owners, unions, civil society organizations, international organizations and development partners take serious steps to improve working ocnditions.

An important step is the development of a legislative framework, in particular a speedy enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Law in line with IILO Convention 155 on Occupational Safety and Health, as well as the adoption of safe and healthy work environment as a fundamental principle and right at work by the International Labour Conference earlier this year. 

Participants called for the establishment of national policies and mechanisms to effectively monitor the compliance of companies the oil and gas sector, taking into account the steps recently taken by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs through its close cooperation with ILO in Iraq. This includes the preparation of a national policy, profile and programme for occupational safety and health, emphasizing the continuing technical cooperation in  implementing the provisions of this policy, activating the notification and recording system of accidents and work injuries for workers, as well as occupational diseases developed by the ILO in Iraq, and periodically building the capacities of the Ministry in the area of ​​strategic compliance planning for occupational safety and health inspections.

Participants appealed to all parties to develop plans and programmes for a Just Transition, to an environment that uses clean energy and technology, placing the protection of workers’ health and safety at the top of its priorities. 

This article was originally published in its entirety by the ILO.

No agreement in sight as COP27 negotiations enter final stretch

At the time of writing, the first draft of the cover decision – the broad outline of a political statement – had been released, with many obvious gaps indicated by the word “placeholder” in the text.

COP26, held in Glasgow last year, saw a number of high profile announcements: the Just Transition Declaration, the first Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), and the Glasgow Climate Pact, calling on countries to submit improved targets within the year.

Billed as a COP of implementation, COP27 has seen fewer dramatic announcements, and has focused on working out the detail of previous commitments. The main areas of negotiation have been:

On most of these measures, very little progress has been made. The world needs to cut emissions by 45 per cent by 2030. Currently, we are on track to increase them by 10 per cent, and emissions hit a record high in 2022. On finance, the already insufficient US$100 billion per year committed by developed countries has never been met, and much of the finance made available has been in the form of loans.

There is also no agreement on loss and damage, with the US climate secretary John Kerry announcing that the country – responsible for 40 per cent of emissions – will not accept liability.

Unlike COP26, which was characterized by vibrant participation from civil society that took the form of an alternative COP outside the green zone, COP27 has taken place in a context of repression, with many Egyptian climate activists imprisoned and unable to participate, and delegations spied on by security officials. Trade unions have had to be careful to ensure the security of meetings.

Outside of the plenary sessions where negotiations have taken place, trade unions focused on lobbying their country delegations to include pro-worker language in the texts, as well as in ensuring practical implementation. A particular area of concern was that the term “just transition” has been coopted by many stakeholders, including corporations and countries, and used to argue that they should be compensated for decarbonization.

Union activists intervened in many sessions to insist on the correct definition of Just Transition as transition achieved through social dialogue with unions. The IndustriALL Global Union director for energy and just transition, Diana Junquera Curiel, spoke on a number of panels to reinforce this point.

Speaking at a panel with Revierwende and the German union confederation DGB, Junquera introduced the idea of global just transition agreements with companies, overseen by the UN. She also spoke on a panel with IRENA about the potential for job growth in renewables.

Unions also closely monitored the progress of the South African JETP. The first phase of this project is underway now, with the Komati power station being shut down and replaced with renewables on the same site, with no loss of jobs. The project aims to significantly reduce South Africa’s emissions by funding the shift from coal to renewables. A just transition framework is in place, and IndustriALL will monitor implementation very closely.

A US$20 billion JETP was signed with Indonesia at the G20 in Bali this week.

Diana Junquera Curiel said:

“We are going to be watching the implementation of these JETPs very closely – particularly the first live example, at Komati in South Africa. If this project is successful, with a genuine just transition for all the workers in the value chain, it will provide a pathway to climate finance that will be emulated around the world. If it fails, trust will be broken, and we will be further than ever from our goals.

“We aim to bring our Indonesian and South African affiliates together to share experiences and strategies to ensure workers are not left behind.”

IndustriALL’s Executive Committee strategizes for global challenges

Jörg Hoffman, president of IndustriALL and German union IG Metall, opened the meeting saying that the victory for Lula in Brazil, is a victory for us all. 

“Faced with several crises around the world, our strength as unions will lie in how we can increase our power on the international level. We need to organize more workers; with that strength we will be a counterforce to capital attacking workers’ interests.”

COP27 is in its second week in Egypt, and IndustriALL is present, working hard to ensure Just Transition standards at all levels of the negotiations. 

"In Egypt, the International Labour Organization pavilion is called the Just Transition Pavilion, a token of the work we have put in and the success we have had in making sure it is on the agenda,"

said Atle Høie, IndustriALL general secretary.

“There is a need for a clear roadmap on Loss and Damage and an institutional financial framework that creates a fairer cost distribution between rich and poor countries.” 

Hashmeya Alsadawe from Iraq reported from the Womens’ Committee, which met earlier in the month, focusing on the establishment of a gender task force, advancing gender equality and due diligence in global supply chains.

On global framework agreements (GFAs), IndustriALL assistant GS Christine Olivier presented the discussions from the working group. IndustriALL has over the past ten years signed numerous GFAs and has developed tools to monitor and evaluate the implementation of GFAs.

“Our biggest challenge in implementing GFAs are along the supply chain, and we need to increase awareness in understanding GFAs and building union power to counter pushbacks from employers,”

said Christine Olivier. 

As the war continues, around 18 million people in Ukraine need humanitarian assistance, IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan told the Executive Committee.  

After nine months of war where the people of Ukraine have been subjected to looting, violence and rape, and missiles are again raining over Kyiv, Valeriy Matov, president of Nuclear Power and Industry Workers of Ukraine, voiced concerns over Russian troops reaching Ukraine's largest nuclear plant. 

Mykhailo Volynets, chairperson of Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine, described the urgency as energy infrastructure in the country is destroyed.

IndustriALL president Jörg Hoffman urged all affiliates to continue to provide concrete support to Ukraine, as nine months into the war, the needs are still great. 

IndustriALL affiliates in Belarus have been disbanded by the Supreme Court. The Executive Committee adopted a resolution, condemning the dissolution of the independent trade unions, demanding the immediate release of all trade unionists in Belarus. 

Unions in Korea are trying to change the country’s trade union act. On 12 November, 90,000 workers rallied on the streets of Seoul, demanding labour law. IndustriALL Executive Committee adopted a resolution urging Korea’s national assembly to pass a bill implementing ILO Conventions 87 and 98. 

With human rights violations, including abuse of labour rights, on the rise, there is a need for strong regulation to address and prevent violations along the supply chains. Voluntary codes of conduct and other unilateral approaches are simply not credible. 

The Executive Committee discussed trade union strategies on supply chains and due diligence, with Kemal Özkan stressing the need for transparent supply chains and trade union involvement. 

“Full involvement of workers and unions to safeguard freedom of association, collective bargaining, and health and safety is needed.  Due diligence is an important tool for unions to achieve their main objectives, that is to defend and promote workers’ rights and interests.”

IndustriALL will hold a mid-term policy conference in South Africa next year in June. The conference will look at achievements since IndustriALL’s 3rd Congress in September 2022, and key issues to further advance the fight for workers’ rights. ExCo participants engaged in a lively discussion on the proposed programme.

IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kan Matsuzaki presented action taken by affiliates in September and October as part of the joint work of IndustriALL and industriAll Europe on fighting inequality and the cost-of-living crisis. Unions from the Philippines and Bangladesh to Tanzania and Peru took action to demand a better future.

“Working people everywhere are facing a cost-of-living crisis, with wage increases not meeting soaring inflation and rising energy costs, combined with attacks on unions and workers’ rights,”

said Kan Matsuzaki.

“We are continuing our call that is time to pay up with more action throughout the year.”  

Health and safety as a strategic organizing tool

Participants in the cross-sectoral online meeting on 26 October heard how Indonesia’s Chemical, Energy and Mines Workers had used OHS to organize workers, after more than 100 workers had died at mine sites.

CEMWU has developed educational material and training on health and safety for organizers in different provinces, including OHS principles in collective agreements, and holding related social dialogue with employers.

Julius Carandang, general secretary of Metal Workers’ Alliance of Philippines (MWP), underlined that OHS is an important strategy to organize, adding that when an electronics factory in Philippines forced pregnant women workers to work the night shift, workers were outraged and joined the union in response.

Participants discussed the ratification, implementation and monitoring of ILO OHS Conventions, like C176, C155 and C187, critical parts of the global victory of ILO declaring health and safety a fundamental principle at work.

“IndustriALL adopts a rights-based approach on OHS. Every worker has the right to know, participate and refuse, and that cannot be bargained with. When employers deny trade unions entry in the area of OHS, it is the duty of unions to regain control to save workers’ lives,”

said Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL mining and OHS director.

While unsafe and unhealthy workplace practice affects both men and women, women workers are exposed to greater risks due to their reproductive roles in society.

“We need a gender-responsive OHS policy. Companies and unions should conduct joint OHS risk assessments for women workers, and women should be given opportunities to join OHS committees,"

said Annie Adviento, general secretary of the Confederation of Labor and Allied Social Services of Philippines (CLASS).

IndustriALL’s manual for health and safety activists, Saving ourselves, is a resource for union health and safety activists, particularly those who are just starting out. The manual provides an overview of basic structures and programmes that workers need to understand when fighting for safer and healthier workplaces.

65 unionists from Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, and Philippines attended the meeting and agreed to set up a regional cross sector OHS platform.

Photo: E. Tuyay / ILO

Piloting workers in mechanical engineering towards a greener future

Participants discussed the research report from late 2021 and its implications for the future trade union work in the sector, as well as potential organizing and campaigning in the growing segment of green tech. The war in Ukraine overshadows the sector’s economic situation in many regions of the world, in particularly by causing disruptions in the supply chain.

For IndustriALL, green tech activities in the sector are part of the overall strategy to work on a just transition and to create a sustainable industrial policy, in accordance with the strategic goals adopted at the 2021 congress.

“Green tech represents the future of mechanical engineering and goes hand in hand with digitalization. We face a double challenge to be present in the smart plants of the future. Our most promising approach is to embrace the changes and pilot our members through it. We are here to work on a better future for our members,”

said sector director Matthias Hartwich.

Rainer Wimmer, president of IndustriALL Austrian affiliate Pro-Ge and sector co-chair, said:

"Five years ago, we started to look more closely at green tech. We made it the main topic of our world conference in Stuttgart in 2019, we have had a lot of input from individual countries and regions, and we commissioned a scientific study together with Syndex. Now we want to bring this knowledge to the ground with our power and make sure that green jobs become good jobs.”

The meeting took place as COP27 was under way in Egypt, underlining the urgency of greening the industrial production in all discussions. Participants agreed that the transition must be a just transition, and renewed the position from the Green tech manifesto, adopted in November 2020.

According to the manifesto, affiliates in the sector are willing to   

REPORT: Energy crisis – an opportunity for unions to achieve a Just Transition for workers sooner?

Report

From Global Worker

no 2 November 2022

  

Region: Global

Theme: Just Transition and the energy sector   

Text: Cherisse Gasana

Why a Just Transition Initiative for the energy sector now?

The energy sector plays a critical role in national, regional and global economies. National and international energy companies have provided millions of organized jobs in the past and energy sector revenues are key for national budgets.

Geopolitical conflicts, growing instability, strategic competition, and security threats have made some countries reassess their energy systems; from importing fossil fuels to speeding up growth of all forms of clean energy. Energy security is a critical issue that, combined with climate concerns, is accelerating efforts to develop clean energy with secure and domestic supply chains. 

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the energy sector employs about 65 million people worldwide (around two per cent of the global formal workforce) in 

Although clean energy is fueling employment growth, job losses are acute in certain regions and sectors. A lot of investment is needed to ensure a good transition. Rapid employment growth also represents risks: more skilled workers needed, growing skills gaps, and insufficient focus on decent work.

While projections show significant growth in jobs in a transition to clean energy, no single clean energy technology or activity will involve as many jobs, and as many quality jobs, as workers have in today’s oil and gas sector. While today’s jobs in oil and gas are among the best jobs in the economy, so far jobs in new clean energy companies are often lower quality than fossil fuel jobs, with some employers hostile to unions.  

In 2022, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), LO Norway and IndustriALL Global Union collaborated on a global union initiative on Just Transition in the Energy Sector. The initiative aims to ensure that the union movement has the information, tools, and plans to get good jobs and Just Transition for energy workers. 

The initiative provides a table for unions around the world to exchange information, examples and strategies. It is an opportunity to listen to experts on the renewable technologies that are set to replace and create jobs in the energy sector. It has also explored the potential for a new, tripartite process led by the UN and focused on Just Transition in the energy sector, starting with oil and gas.

A Just Transition leaves no one behind

Just Transition is a term coined by the trade union movement, referring to policy needed to secure workers' rights and livelihoods when economies shift to sustainable production. The goal is that the transition must be as fair and inclusive as possible, creating decent work opportunities and leaving no one behind.

The pandemic and the energy crisis have propelled Just Transition to one of the most important priorities, accelerating the need for unions to have a seat at the table before industries shift with only the interests of governments and capital. 

Many countries have plans to invest in clean energy transition technologies, but there is no guarantee that a move to these technologies will keep and create good jobs. Companies unilaterally invest in energy transition, leaving workers out of the process, but are not investing enough to attain the commitments set by the Paris Agreement.

“Trade unions are not satisfied with efforts by energy companies so far. Existing collective bargaining, climate target-setting, and responsible business initiatives are not getting enough results,”

says Diana Junqera Curiel, IndustriALL energy sector and Just Transition director.

Lives and livelihoods at stake

What does Just Transition mean for the refinery engineer in the US set to lose his job next month, as the refinery will close? 

What does Just Transition mean for the gas extraction engineer in Denmark who has just found out about the cancellation of latest round of gas extraction licensing due to government climate goals?

Workers in fossil fuel industries are often portrayed as resistant to clean energy, but the resistance is more often driven by uncertainty about what happens to traditional energy jobs. Climate change has a direct impact on communities and on workers’ livelihoods in these communities. 

Supply chains are crucial to Just Transition

“Unions must be present on the ground, on national and on international levels to make sure that Just Transition is dealt with not only in the global north, but throughout the supply chain,”

says Anne-Beth Skrede, LO Norway special advisor.

Global unions represent workers throughout the supply chain, and building climate resilience into supply chains requires that workers be involved, especially if no one is to be left behind.

Clean energy technologies fuel employment growth

There is no single industry that could replace the oil and gas industry in terms of jobs and income. Unions are studying multiple technologies when discussing about where jobs are moving to. The Just Transition and the Energy Sector initiative looked specifically at 

Breaking down the value chains from production, processing, distribution, and end use (upstream, midstream, downstream) provides a clearer view of where the jobs are and where there is a future for workers in renewable energy technologies.

Workers in fossil fuel extraction are highly skilled, with skills applicable to the growing renewable sectors. This is particularly true in oil and gas, where there is transferability and real potential for unions to tap into.

A gender transformative and inclusive Just Transition 

Gender balance is poor in the renewables sector, with women representing only 30 per cent of the workforce due to gender stereotypes, lack of access to jobs, education, hiring practices, discriminatory workplace policies and a lack of work-life balance. Strategies and programmes addressing the effects of climate change must include the participation, experiences, and voices of women.

Unions must address cultural and social norms, as well as structural barriers that stand in the way of gender equality. The gender pay gap and the undervaluation of women’s work are still lacking from conversations on Just Transition.

Trade unions need to build power and alliances with civil society – feminist, youth, communities, racialized, indigenous and environmental organizations. Unions must ensure that their structures are representative of the entire workforce they represent, not only the male workers. All workers must benefit from equal opportunities and equal treatment. They must also defend the rights of the communities they are part of and integrate them in the planning of a Just transition.

What does a successful Just Transition look like for workers? Trade unions must ask if a successful outcome only benefits male workers. Have women, disproportionally under-represented in male dominated sectors like energy, been considered. What about racialized or indigenous workers over represented in precarious and outsourced work? 

“Clean energy jobs are for everyone. The next phase of the Just Transition initiative plans to include gender and racial justice issues to a greater extent and explore what the union movement can do to make sure more women, racialized and young workers get good jobs in clean energy and most importantly, join unions,”

said Samantha Smith, ITUC Just Transition Center director.

Just Transition needs unions at the table!

Energy sector unions and national confederations have mobilized on the issue of good jobs and Just Transition. Their members are experiencing both changes to jobs and job losses, as well as new organizing opportunities due to decarbonization. 

Good examples of Just Transition are usually found in countries with high union membership and where unions have been involved early on. Therefore, unions must make sure that they are prepared. Inclusivity and taking advantage of organizing the new jobs that the transition brings is key for achieving a successful Just Transition for all workers.

Workforces across the world face different challenges and there are significant gaps in the industrial capabilities between country’s different transition pathways. It is a messy and complex picture withno one size fits all when dealing with a Just Transition.

Though many jobs in the oil and gas sector have high skills transfer to clean energy jobs, this is not universally true. The transition will require skilling and reskilling. Similarly, newer technologies such as hydrogen raise new health and safety issues that will require new OHS regulations and skills. Even older technologies, like solar panels require more attention to skills and OHS, as there is currently not enough focus on risks such as falls and high voltages.   

Workers are present throughout supply chains – unions and organized workers will ensure that there is justice in this transition

Renewable energy has pushed businesses to transform their operations and supply chains to meet record demands for clean energy. But the renewable energy sector supply chain especially the solar, wind and battery ones, face criticism over human rights violations. Legislation is developing quickly as a response. 

Companies have a significant role to play in Just Transition; they can no longer make surface changes, they have a duty to make real efforts to achieve sustainability goals, and simply not cosmetic changes to tick Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) criteria check boxes.

Due diligence is discussed on national and international levels – from the European Commission’s proposed a Directive on Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence, and discussions on a UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights, to Japan’s Council of Metalworkers’ (JCM) guide on Trade unions’ role and responses to human rights due diligence, submitted to the parliamentary vice-minister of economy, trade and industry (METI).

The most advanced due diligence initiative that we have seen so far is the German supply chain legislation, the Lieferkettengesetz. From 1 January 2023, workers and their advocates will be able to sue German companies in German courts for environmental and human rights breaches, including breaches of workers’ rights.

A successful Just Transition includes taking responsibility for supply chains and human rights due diligence laws will be instrumental. Workers need to be involved to make sure that due diligence doesn’t fall short of expectations.

Just Transition agreements between unions, employers and led by the UN has the potential to get and enforce global decent jobs and Just Transition agreements between oil and gas companies and trade unions. If successful, global unions plan to expand to include other energy and industrial companies.  

These developments have created a moment in time where unions have an opportunity to build the table that we will sit at.

If businesses fail to implement due diligence measures throughout their supply chains, especially in the renewables sectors there will likely be consequences on their business, as investors, customers and financial institutions are developing human rights-related requirements applicable to everyone that they do business with.

The joint initiative between the ITUC, LO Norway and IndustriALL comes at an important moment in time when unions must reclaim Just Transition. It cannot be hijacked by capital as a tool to tick their ESG boxes. It is ours, and to achieve it we must be at every level of the discussion because workers are in every level of the supply chain.

Overview of what is happening globally around Just Transition

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the USAaims to create clean energy jobs, drive investment in renewable energy, revitalize the manufacturing sector and lower health care costs. The act is projected to create 1.5 million jobs in construction and manufacturing sectors. There are still concerns around the transition itself. There are still no provisions for workers in the fossil fuel industries. The act has its limitations and unions will continue to fight for those workers.

Denmark has a highly unionized workforce that have managed to secure quality jobs in the wind sector.

The industry’s equipment manufacturing footprint is a big factor affecting where jobs are created. It determines a country’s ability to establish a strong local domestic supply chain and the ability to implement and to upgrade and update power grids to feed wind electricity into the grid.

In Norway, eleven offshore floating wind installations will be developed with employers, governments, and unions. These will be the first floating wind facilities powering offshore oil and gas installations. As oil and gas production emissions represent a quarter of Norway’s CO2 emissions, it was important for Norway to electrify these platforms. 

Spain's Just Transition strategy for the energy sector is part of a larger decarbonization effort for the whole economy. Social dialogue is a big part of this process and unions are closely involved. Unions report a complex yet positive start to the process, which started with a coal phaseout and a rapid build-up of renewable energy and in 2021 expanded to include a ban on new oil and gas drilling.

In Brazil there has been an increase in prices and demand in the solar photovoltaic sector since 2021, creating about 151,000 jobs, 43% of those jobs are outside of Brazil, and the jobs are concentrated in construction and characterized by precarious working conditions and low wages in Brazil. 

Energy transition in Brazil is at a critical moment. Presidential election results will have a considerable impact on the country’s direction for Just Transition.

In South Africa unions have developed a Just Transition Blueprint for Workers for the coal-energy value chain, agriculture, and transport. The Blueprint provides policy, collective bargaining, and other tools for unions to ensure that workers can drive the agenda of a radical transformation of the economy. South Africa’s energy mix going forward is under discussion after recent announcements by the government. There will be more renewables, and potentially a greater role for natural gas.  

Japan has an ambitious roadmap to tackle climate change. Cooperation between unions and the government is strong. With tight electricity supply and high natural gas prices, the government and unions see roles for solar power and nuclear energy. To maintain security of supply, the Japanese government is looking for natural gas suppliers.

In Colombia, the mining industry has seen difficult times in the country. Glencore for example, took advantage of the previous government’s softer regulation to dismiss workers.

Workers want to move towards clean energy. With the newly elected government unionsbelieve that they can make progress on a Just Transition, not only in the energy sector but in other sectors as well, like agriculture.

In Iraq transition plans and investment have come to a halt due to instability in the country. There is opportunity for renewable energy in Iraq, yet there is flaring gas all over the country. 

Unions must look at the global picture to see where multinational companies are investing, for example, the German company Siemens has signed an agreement with the Iraqi government to produce Hydrogen in the country. IndustriALL has a Global Framework Agreement with Siemens that can provide unions with leverage to demand workers participation in the transition process.

The German government came up with a hydrogen strategy in 2020 to create strong energy partnerships around the world dominated by technical details, with no worker perspective. Engaging trade unionists, works council members, and value chain experts, DGB produced their own literature on the subject. They carried out interviews with 20 different experts and produced a position paper: Trade union demands for the hydrogen economy – towards a H2 ready workforce.

In Nigeria, trade unions are part of a tripartite social dialogue process on delivering the country’s commitments to the UN climate goals, but more needs to be done especially on what unions can do collectively to have a seat at the table.

The government still invests heavily in oil and gas exploration. Oil and gas exports account for 65% of Nigeria’s national revenue. While oil jobs are below 5 per cent of direct employment, they are the best quality jobs available. 

Indonesia has a net zero roadmap to phase out coal fired power by 2060. However, unions are concerned that there is no clear plan on how to reach these targets or what they mean for the 1.2 million workers in coal mining. Unions want tripartite social dialogue to shape this plan and to include discussions on the future of the oil and natural gas industries. 

unions are focusing on training and upskilling to be able to prepare workers. Including Just Transition language in CBAs and educating on climate change impact is key.

PROFILE: Mexico's Los Mineros mark 88 years of union struggle

Union profile

From Global Worker

no 2 November 2022

  

Country: Mexico

Union: Los Mineros.        

Text: Kimber Mayer

Los Mineros, representing more than 3.5 million workers in Mexico, has marked a number of victories in 2022. It won several union votes giving it the right to negotiate collective bargaining agreements, including at Canada’s Americas Gold and Silver, which runs the Cosalá mine in Sinaloa, and Teksid Hierro, which operates in Frontera, Coahuila.

The union was up against unions affiliated to the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM). Los Mineros say that the companies tended to back these unions because they guaranteed cheap labour and disregarded safety conditions. So far in 2022, Los Mineros have secured wage increases of more than 8 per cent and other benefits, and have managed to protect workers' real wages against inflation.

IndustriALL Global Union followed the process at Teksid Hierro closely where Los Mineros won a resounding victory in September 2022. Almost 80 per cent of the workers voted for the union to become the sole legal representative of the collective bargaining agreement at the company, ending an eight-year-long struggle. Since 2014, workers had condemned the anti-union tactics used to block Los Mineros' initiative to establish a democratic union at the company. 

The elections were held as part of the 2019 reform to the country’s Federal Labour Law. The reform aim to build real industrial relations through new, democratic unions and thus improve freedom of association in the country. It ensures that workers can freely decide, through a secret and direct ballot, which union to join and which leaders should represent them. 

The law also stipulates that workers must approve the provisions of their collective contracts within a period of no more than four years, through an individual, free, direct and secret ballot. This is to ensure that workers are aware of the provisions of their collective agreement and that the collective bargaining is a free process. As part of this procedure, unions first decide whether to keep or reject the existing collective agreements, which helps to eliminate the so-called employer protection contracts.  

The labour reform is being phased in across each of the country's states. The first phase was completed in 2020, the second in 2021 and the third and final stage began in October 2022. According to official government figures, so far:

Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, Los Mineros’ general secretary, a Mexican senator and member of IndustriALL’s Executive Committee, said:

"Los Mineros has faced and overcome many challenges and setbacks since it was created on 11 July 1934, nearly 9 decades ago. Our work has focused on achieving decent wages, fair benefits, better safety conditions that prevent fatal accidents, and respect for the environment.

“We are proud of our history. We are also proud of the role we have played in Mexico’s major social and workers' struggles and our continued commitment to the fight for labour justice, democracy and trade union freedom. "

The official deadline to legalize all collective labour contracts in the country is six months. There are hundreds of thousands of contracts registered with the Secretary of labour and social security. Many contracts will still be won by protection unions as the capacity to fight and win this enormous amount of contracts is overwhelming. IndustriALL hopes affiliates have the power to turn around as many contracts as possible; Mexican workers deserve nothing less