Global trade unions prepare for future mobility markets

Mobility concepts of the future, particularly Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in an urban environment, will differ quite a bit from what we know today – more shared services, less individual mobility, digital connectivity between people, vehicles and infrastructure, driverless vehicles.

Digitalization, urbanization, climate change, new mobility habits and traffic congestion are probably the most important drivers of this change. The interests of the different players also vary – big tech companies dream of a fully digitized and automated system, sociologists and urban planners develop new cities with far less traffic and roads, some groups see the option to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector, commuters want more flexible transport solutions.

The future has already begun with the uberization of mobility. Platforms connecting drivers and riders, with precarious working conditions for their drivers and other service personnel.

Starting with a webinar on 22 November 2021 IndustriALL Global Union, the International Transport Workers’ Federation and UNI Global Union, embarked on a three-year project in close cooperation with German Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) to find out what trade union strategies are required to ensure decent working conditions and pay in in the future.

The webinar, which brought together more than 100 trade unionists and experts from 31 countries from around the globe, was an ideal start the exchange between trade unions from a large range of sectors linked to mobility: the automotive industry, public transport, coach drivers, taxi drivers, call centers, ride hailing services, business service centers and many more. In general, everyone agreed that it is high time for unions to engage in the topic on the global level and to develop joint demands and strategies.

Discussions mainly centered on three questions:

1)    What role will large tech companies play on future markets and what regulations are required to ensure a level playing field between the different market players, and to secure workers’ rights and decent working conditions and pay?

2)    How to develop a supply-network approach to enable a fruitful and effective cooperation between unions from all angles of the future mobility sector?

3)    How to apply a concept of Just Transition to provide training and support to the existing workforce in order to secure their employability in the future?

Many questions were asked regarding the number and the area of expected job losses, but also related to new jobs. In addition, the expected power relation between the traditional players (auto industry, public transport, taxi services etc.) and the new players (tech companies, service providers etc.) was a hotly debated issue. A team of experienced scientists was assigned to develop a related study.

The research will be presented on 17 May, to be debated at a global workshop later in the year, probably end of September.

A gender mainstreaming policy will be applied, as well as the principle of balanced views and inputs from the global North and South. To secure proper implementation, there will be two observers.

Shipbreaker physically assaulted

In February, the cutter at Kabir Steel shipbreaking yard was sacked without a written order. Despite interventions by IndustriALL affiliate, the Bangladesh Metal Workers Federation (BMF), management refused to reinstate him. BMF then lodged a formal complaint with the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE).

Angered by the worker’s action of complaining to the DIFE, management abused him and, according to the worker, also physically assaulted him. 

“We strongly condemn this act of violence meted out to a worker for complaining against Kabir Steel management. These intimidation tactics are unacceptable and action should be taken against the assaulters,”

says IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kan Matsuzaki.

DIFE recommended that the union and the employer try to settle the matter. After a bipartite meeting 15 March, management apologized to the worker and agreed to compensate him by 20 March. The employer also took responsibility for the assault.
 
There has been several accidents at the Kabir Steel shipbreaking yard due to the unsafe working conditions. On 31 January, a worker was killed while working at the yard at night. Local press report that the Ministry of Industry ordered a temporary closure of the yard as the worker’s death created ‘negative perceptions about the ship recycling industry in home and abroad’.

In November last year, the ministry fined Khwaja ship breaking yard, also known as Kabir Steel Ship Recycling Facilities, BDT500,000 (US$5,700) and banned the company from importing scrap ships for four months due to environmental concerns and lack of safety measures at the yard. Operations at the yard were suspended for similar reasons in 2019.

According to reports, Kabir Steel shipbreaking yard has applied for the Hong Kong International Convention for the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships (HKC).

What will it take for the Hong Kong Convention to come into force?

IndustriALL calls for a gender-transformative and inclusive Just Transition

CSW66 – Opening Session in UN General Assembly Hall. Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown

The UNCSW66 takes place from 14 – 25 March. During the Commission’s annual two-week session, representatives of UN member states, civil society organizations, include trade unions, and UN entities will meet, both in person at UN headquarters in New York, and virtually.

The debates will focus on achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes. Parties will make recommendations that will take the form of negotiated agreed conclusions on the priority theme on gender equality and women’s empowerment in climate change.

IndustriALL made clear when setting trade union priorities that Just Transition plans must be coupled with the implementation, involving trade unions, of sustainable industrial policies aimed at creating decent work, especially for workers who will be impacted by industrial transformations. These policies must guarantee equal opportunities for both men and women, by addressing existing gender inequalities.

“Policies on energy transition must seek to achieve, with the involvement of trade unions, decent working conditions for men and women workers in the renewable energy sector and its supply chain. These policies must also address structural and behavioural gender inequalities to allow women, especially young women, to participate in jobs and sectors from which they have been traditionally excluded, including in sciences, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). They must meet women’s needs, addressing gender energy poverty though universal access to energy, ”

said Diana Junquera Curiel, IndustriALL director for energy and Just Transition.

IndustriALL joined other global unions in a joint statement calling on member states to act immediately by adopting ambitious Just Transition plans that preserve our planet and adequately address the profound inequalities and inequities in the world of work. These plans are fundamental for building resilient, sustainable and just societies, equipped to respond to the climate emergency, and to meet the targets set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Adequate and increased investment in a Just Transition towards a gender-responsive and inclusive green and caring economy is critical. This requires guarantees to provide decent work for all, including the formalization of informal work and universal access to social protection. Universal access to public quality care, health and education services, including transport services, overcoming sectoral and occupational segregation, realizing equal pay for work of equal value, eradicating wage and skills gaps and providing occupational health and safety are also central tenets of a Just Transition.

The UNCSW66 is a key opportunity to influence states to develop gender-transformative and inclusive Just Transition plans. The agreed conclusions will be an important tool for IndustriALL, and its affiliates, to advocate and negotiate with governments and corporations to ensure that their response to climate change addresses the specific impact, and the related transformation in the world of work, on women. IndustriALL will build on the outcomes of the UNCSW66 to develop further strategies.

Currently, gender equality is absent from many government Just Transition plans. It is also missing from the agenda of many trade unions. The UNCSW66 is an occasion to raise the visibility of gender equality in our ranks, and to articulate the importance of integrating gender in our action around Just Transition.

A series of important virtual side events, open to all, have been organized during the UNCSW66 on a range of issues related to the impact of climate change on women and to a gender-transformative and inclusive Just Transition, including equal pay, women in STEM, and feminist solutions to climate change.

Main photo: CUPE/Hatnim Lee

Health and Safety must be a fundamental principle and right at work

The amendment would see OHS joining the four fundamental principles and rights at work that the Declaration currently recognizes: freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively; the prohibition of forced labour; prohibition of child labour; and the elimination of discrimination in employment.

The Governing Body meets three times a year, in March, June and November. It takes decisions on ILO policy, decides the agenda of the International Labour Conference, adopts the draft programme and budget of the organization for submission to the conference, and elects the Director-General.

The call by global unions’ is consistent with the 2019 ILO Centenary Declaration on the future of work and a global campaign for OHS to be added to the fundamental principles and rights at work. In June 2019, UN experts urged the ILO to immediately recognize and adopt safe and healthy working conditions as one of its fundamental principles and rights at work. A follow-up to the resolution on the ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work called for proposals, including safe and healthy working conditions, to be added to the ILO’s framework of fundamental principles and rights at work.

According to the first joint WHO/ILO monitoring report, released on 27 September 2021, at least 1.9 million workers lose their lives every year due to the work-related diseases and injuries. However, when adding causes of death by risk factors not included and filling in information gaps from poor record-keeping, the number is closer to a staggering three million deaths.

“Health and safety at work is neither a perk to be bargained for nor a favour to be asked. It is our right,”

said IndustriALL mining director and OHS lead, Glen Mpufane.

“No wage is worth our health or our life, and no remedy can be granted by an arbitrator that will restore our health or our life, once it is lost.”

At the November 2021 meeting of the ILO Governing Body, global unions finally secured agreement that the agenda for the 2022 International Labour Conference would include an amendment to the ILO 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work to achieve this.

On the back of this achievement, and to maintain the momentum and ensure that the  ILO Governing Body takes the decisions workers need on OHS, IndustriALL Global Union calls on its over 50 million members and affiliates to amplify the call by the ITUC to call on governments and employers:

“The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights include a duty and responsibility to protect the health and safety of workers. With the United Nations’ resolution recognizing access to a healthy and sustainable environment as a universal right, another historic moment awaits the Governing Body to make the correct decision,”

said IndustriALL assistant general secretary, Kan Matsuzaki.

Unions on strike at South African gold mines

The strike began with the night shift on 9 March after Sibanye Stillwater’s fifth proposal on the wage negotiations fell short of the workers’ demands and was rejected by the unions.
 
Earlier, the NUM held joint mass meetings with other unions including IndustriALL affiliate, UASA, over the mining company’s refusal to meet the wage demands. Protracted negotiations have also taken place before the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), but an agreement was not reached.

 

The CCMA issued a certificate of non-resolution which allows unions to give a 48-hour strike notice. According to South African labour laws, labour disputes can be referred to the CCMA for conciliation.
 
According to the NUM, the unions are demanding an increase of R1000 (US$65) per month for surface and underground miners, and 6 per cent for artisans, miners, and officials.

William Mabapa, NUM acting general secretary says:

“Mineworkers are determined to embark on the strike action until their demands are met. The union has noted the arrogance of the employers in maintaining that they are unshakable in their 5 per cent and R700 (US$46) pittance offer. However, the NUM is unshakable too in its demands for a living wage.
 
“The NUM has been reluctant to take industrial action in favour of negotiations but given the arrogance of Sibanye Stillwater the union is forced to embark on the nationwide industrial action that will change the gold mining landscape forever. The captains of the industry have continuously awarded themselves huge bonuses while mineworkers are earning poverty wages.”

 Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL director for mining, says:

“We support the strike for living wages by gold mineworkers at Sibanye Stillwater and commend the NUM for its solidarity with other unions. Workers’ unity is important in this strike. Further, this strike is also about preserving the gains that workers have made as found in existing collective bargaining agreements between the employer and the unions,”

Sibanye Stillwater, which employs 31,000 workers in gold mining, also mines platinum group metals in South Africa and the USA. The company is also involved in the mining of battery metals. The company is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange.

First regional statutory meetings since Congress

The women’s committee discussed the new terms of reference (ToR), adopted at the global women’s committee meeting in December last year. Outgoing co-chair Eva Arcos, highlighted the priority areas for the coming years:

Titular members, substitute members and observers participated in a rich discussion on the ToR for the gender equality taskforce. Jenny Kruschel from Australia and Kalpona Akter from Bangladesh were elected as the new co-chairs of the regional women’s committee.

Meeting participants and committee members expressed solidarity with workers and members of IndustriALL affiliate Confederation of Industrial Labour of Thailand (CILT), who were fired without notice in March 2021 as the factory, supplier to lingerie giant Victoria Secret, suddenly closed. Workers have yet to receive salary and severance pay.

Committee members reported on activities undertaken in the region during last year.

“Women has to be a part of work place transformation, as well as the conversation around the future of work. Women cannot be left behind in the transformation. There’s also a need for creating second-level leadership, especially of young leaders, who can carry our ideas forward,”

said IndustriALL assistant general secretary Christine Olivier.

Day 2 of meetings
IndustriALL vice president and regional co-chair Akira Takakura opened the Asia Pacific executive committee meeting by congratulating the new leadership.

IndustriALL general secretary Atle Høie and Kemal Özkan, assistant general secretary, participated in the meeting. Kemal Özkan outlined the action plan for 2022.

Apoorva Kaiwar and Shinya Iwai, regional secretaries for South Asia and South-East Asia respectively, presented the strategic plan for the region this year.

Khaing Zar, president of Burmese union IWFM, highlighted the current situation in Myanmar. Participants reinforced the continued message of solidarity to unions and the working people of Myanmar.

Jenny Kruschel and Kalpona Akter presented a brief overview of the women’s meeting. Other members of the Executive Committee gave short report of the activities undertaken in the region.

“We want to make IndustriALL Global Union more democratic and build a strong union,”

said Kemal Özkan.

“A great humanitarian tragedy”

"It's a very cold winter. Food is running out. This is a great humanitarian tragedy,” one trade union leader.
 
Due to the difficult conditions, only half the affiliates were able to join the meeting. Those who were able to join appealed for help for people who are in grave danger from the Russian invasion, staying in shelters or fleeing. For people in beleaguered cities, life has come to a standstill without electricity or water.
 
The workers’ representatives explained the situation in different sectors and regions in great details. Only half of the country's companies are still working, and many struggle with supply problems. Many trade union members are now soldiers.
 
Nuclear workers raised the very real dangers caused by the Russian attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station and the occupation of the Chernobyl site.
 
IndustriALL president Jörg Hofmann reiterated IndustriALL’s solidarity pledge:

“We demand an immediate end to the war and the withdrawal of Russian troops. We will continue to help those affected and refugees with concrete solidarity in the form of donations and aid deliveries. We stand with Ukraine.”

As the humanitarian situation in Ukraine is worsening, there is a need for solidarity and financial assistance in all parts of the country. If you want to help, please make your donation, in euros to reduce transaction costs, to IndustriALL Global Union’s bank account.

Closing the gender pay gap

A need for an inclusive collective bargaining

The gender pay gap is the result of gender inequalities in society, the economy and the labour market. Recent legislation, like in Spain, takes a broader approach with compulsory development of equality plans for companies that analyse and respond to possible discrimination in recruitment, promotion, pay, health and safety, etc.

Through collective bargaining trade unions play a central role. Collective bargaining can be used as a tool to promote equality in the workplace and address many of the entrenched misconceptions about the role of women workers. Evidence shows that collective bargaining contributes positively to reducing pay inequalities between women and men.

Ensuring gender balance in decision-making, social dialogue and collective bargaining teams is key.  Women’s positions in union leadership and presence on collective bargaining teams has a significant impact on the extent to which collective bargaining outcomes are gender sensitive. Many equality issues are only included in collective agreements when women participate directly in negotiations

Unequal distribution of unpaid work and childcare

The magnitude of unpaid work is huge. Substantive progress to close the gender pay gap cannot be achieved without effective recognition, valuing and redistribution of unpaid work between men and women, but also between families and quality care public services.
Over 70 per cent of unpaid care work is still done by women, and this amount significantly increases with the presence of young children in the household. On average, women’s share of childcare is three times that of men’s.

The unequal share of unpaid work and childcare comes back to old stereotypes where men are seen as the primary breadwinners and mothers as the primary caregivers. Tackling entrenched gender norms and stereotypes is a first step in redistributing responsibilities for care and housework.

The unequal distribution has a direct impact on the gender pay gap and contributes to the motherhood pay gap, as illustrated by the ILO.

Ongoing trade union campaigns show how investing in care – health, education, child and aged care and other social care services – is crucial in enabling women’s effective participation in the broader economy.

Many unions in Europe have prioritized policies on the reconciliation of work and family life, including provisions of childcare to promote more equal parenting and to close the gender pay.

Based on the spirit of the Childcare and Family Care Leave Act, unions in Japan will discuss measures to promote active parental leave for fathers this spring. The aim is to promote the formation of a society in which men and women can participate together through child-rearing, which is currently biased toward women.

 

Undervaluing women’s work

“As unions, we often believe that because we have bargained a wage grid, there’s no gender pay gap; women and men performing the same job will be paid the same. But that is not enough as it does not automatically eliminate the factors that contribute to a gender pay gap, like occupational segregation, undervaluing of work that women are more likely to perform, unequal access to bonuses and allowances. We need to bring the value of the work carried out to the centre of negotiations,”

says Christine Olivier, IndustriALL assistant general secretary.

Social norms and gender stereotypes keep women away from the better paid industries and sectors, like sciences technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Women in these sectors face discrimination, making it professional development difficult. On average, their salaries are lower than that of their male colleagues. In the energy or ICT sectors, the wage gap globally amounts to 31 and 25 per cent respectively.

A recent report from Comisiones Obreras in Spain, shows that almost forty per cent of the monthly pay gap between women and men is found in allowances/bonuses. These additions reward typically male aspects of work, like physical effort, hardship and night work, while parts of work like attention, precision, endurance are not rewarded.

Pay transparency initiatives like equal pay audits and surveys can help highlight the low pay of work performed by women. The ETUC and European unions are calling for a European Directive making all employers produce pay information (audits) and annual action plans on pay equality, and supporting unions to negotiate with employers to tackle the pay gap.

Even more critical are  gender-neutral job evaluations and classification, as they address gender bias in assessing women work and fight against the historically undervaluing of women skills and work. Job evaluation schemes will perpetuate existing inequalities if they if they are not designed to address equal pay for work of equal value.

The Icelandic Equal Pay Standard is widely regarded as a best practice of how equal pay for work of equal value can be achieved. The employers should show evidence that a uniform and non-discriminatory system has been established for comparing jobs through a job classification and job evaluation ranking system, across four main criteria: expertise, responsibility, effort, and work environment, and sub-criteria must be formulated and weighted in ways that are relevant to each company or institution.

It is crucial to take the gendered nature of wage setting into account, otherwise collective agreements will continue to institutionalize and legitimise the undervaluation of women’s work.

Trade unions, like USW in Canada or Unite in UK, have developed guidelines on what to bargain on in order improve, existing legislative provisions with regards to pay equity, equal pay surveys or gender-neutral job evaluation.

Vulnerable categories of workers

In many countries women in the informal economy represent the majority of women workers. Campaigns and negotiations towards universal social protection for everyone are key in closing the gender pay gap. Working with other social partners is important as the formalization of the informal economy will help in building a conducive environment for collective bargaining.

Key for closing the gender pay gap is to ensure women’s decent work and to address women’s disproportionate role in precarious and low skilled, low paid and low valued jobs.  There needs to be a political commitment on redistributing resources towards low paid women’s jobs and sectors.

The concentration of women at the very bottom of global supply chains, where regulations are likely to be the weakest and the competitive pressures the strongest, also contributes to the gender pay gap. Global framework agreements with multinational companies can play an important role in improving working conditions as well as negotiations to set national level living wages or sector specific minimum wages. The ACT process will also play a key role in raising women’s salaries in the supply chain.

Urgent need to stop mine accidents at Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park

During a visit to the regional labour office on 23 February, National Industrial Workers' Union Federation (SPN), Mining and Energy Federation (FPE-SBSI), together with the head of the regional labour office decided to form a tripartite taskforce to discuss and resolve issues concerning health and safety at IMIP.
 
For years, members of SPN FPE-SBSI have been raising concerns over the around 1,800 accidents and five fatalities that happen every year, demanding that the employer acts.
 
The unions have also demanded improvement of the toilet situation at the mines. The open-style toilets are dirty and insufficient; one of the mine sites provides a mere three toilets for 2,500 workers. Indonesia’s Manpower Ministerial Decree No. 5/2018 requires employers to provide one toilet for every 15 workers.

 

One of the toilet facilities

“Health and safety at IMIP is impoverished and the situation needs to change. I urge the labour office and employers to engage in social dialogue to improve working conditions. We also need more training to increase awareness of workers’ rights,”

says Iwan Kusmawan, chairperson of IndustriALL Indonesia Council.
 
The employer has ignored the unions’ demands, but the joint commitment calls for improving the poor sanitary conditions, preparing enough and decent toilets at mine sites, and it should be done through company regulation, collective agreements and the formation of an health and safety committee.

“There must be an end to the extraordinarily high accident rate and the unsanitary conditions at IMIP. IndustriALL is calling on the authorities to conduct a labour inspection, formulate a concrete, corrective and preventive action plan to create safe and healthy workplaces for all IMIP workers,”

says Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL mining director.
 
The industrial park, is a joint venture between Indonesia's Bintangdelapan Group and China's Tsingshan Group, part the Belt and Road initiative. It mainly produces nickel and stainless steel in 19 smelters in Morowali, employes around 54,000 workers.
 
Photo: SPN and FPE members from IMIP joined a workshop on 24-25 February to discuss issues facing workers at the mine sites.
 

Talking Threads podcast: Episode 1 – the women behind the label

This podcast is all about putting grassroots stories first, giving garment workers – especially women – a platform to have their voices heard. It is a union production, made by women, and features real sounds captured from the unionized factories that IndustriALL represents.

The podcast is available on all major platforms – subscribe today.

Episode 1: The women behind the label

On International Women’s Day, we hear from women garment workers about the issues they face on the factory floor, and look at how IndustriALL’s campaign aims to achieve better social protections for workers in the industry.

This first episode is dedicated to all the women – around 63 million of them – that work in the garment sector.

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To find out more about some of the issues covered in this podcast check out these links: