Zimbabwe: gender champions to curb sexual harassment at work

Participants, who included members of IndustriALL Zimbabwe Women’s Committee and youth council, discussed how union members can become gender champions with a primary role of receiving and investigating complaints on sexual and gender-based violence, raise awareness on women and workers’ rights, and provide support to victimized workers.

The gender champions will be campaigners for the ratification of the ILO Convention 190, and some will also engage in protecting whistle blowers and workers affected by sexual and gender-based violence.
 
Miriam Katumba, president of the National Union of the Clothing Industry (NUCI), gender chairperson of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and ITUC general council member said:

“Gender mainstreaming is important in the fight for women workers’ rights. Further, recruiting young women into the union is key to attaining gender equality at the workplace.”

According to the workers attending the workshop, sexual exploitation continues to take place in workplaces and is compounded by the low wage economy with average wages below US$100 and high unemployment.
 
Most of the sectors where the unions organize are male dominated. For example, there are less than 20 women among the 600 mineworkers at Jena Mine in Silobela, making campaigning for gender equality in the mines intimidating for women miners.

“The mining sector must employ more women to address this obvious gender imbalance. How are women expected to participate in union and workplace activities when they are such a ridiculously small minority,”

asked Memory Kadewera from the Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Workers Union (ZDAMWU).

Rose Omamo, IndustriALL co-chairperson for Sub Saharan Africa said:

“We congratulate the Zimbabwean unions for launching the gender champions strategy. Gender champions are being used in many African countries, including Kenya, to deal with sexual and gender-based violence at the workplace. They will also promote some of the recommendations in the ILO Convention 190 and Recommendation 206.”

The seven unions attending the workshop are the National Union of Metal and Allied Industries Workers Union (NUMAIZ), National Union of the Clothing Industry (NUCI), Zimbabwe Chemicals, Plastics and Allied Workers Union (ZCPAWU), Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Workers Union (ZDAMWU), Zimbabwe Energy Workers Union (ZEWU), Zimbabwe Leather, Shoe and Allied Workers Union (ZLSAWU), and the Zimbabwe Textile Workers Union (ZTWU).

The work to keep garment factories safe must continue

24 April is the eight anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse, where more than 1,100 garment workers were killed and many more were injured. And yet garment workers still need to raise their voices to demand safe factories; in the month of March alone, over 40 garment workers lost their lives in Morocco and Egypt due to unsafe factories.

As the Accord is nearing its end-date, global fashion brands must continue to guarantee safe working conditions at their suppliers in Bangladesh and step up to ensure that workers in their supply chains globally have safe factories to work in.

In an opinion piece, IndustriALL and Uni Global Union are putting a simple choice to brands – recommit to a binding agreement with the global trade unions that will continue making factories safe in Bangladesh and other countries or turn their backs on millions of garment workers and return to the failed system of self-certification.

We call on brands to step up and sign up, once more, to keep the legacy of the Accord in place. The lives of garment workers in Bangladesh and elsewhere are depending on you. They have not forgotten Rana Plaza – have you?

Taking action for safe factories

During the week leading up to 24 April, IndustriALL affiliates took action to reinforce the call for safe factories. Photos of the actions are found on Flickr and social media.

Together with our global framework agreement partners H&M, Tchibo, ASOS, Esprit and Inditex we held a conversation around safe factories, the Bangladesh Accord and achieving systemic change in the garment industry, which you can watch on Facebook.

IndustriALL executive committee stands firm against repression

IndustriALL president Jörg Hofmann, also president of German union IG Metall, opened the executive committee by remarking that Covid is a human rights crisis, as well as a health crisis.

“There needs to be fair vaccine access for everyone. No one is safe until everyone is safe. It's not over until it's over for everyone,"

said Jörg Hofmann.

The pandemic has brought IndustriALL’s Congress forward a year, to September 2021, and preparations for the online event are under way. The technical platform will enable delegates to participate directly, vote and interact, and it will be possible for observers to follow and communicate on a separate platform. The executive committee voted on a number of recommendations for Congress, including on 40 per cent women’s participation. 

The recommendation for IndustriALL’s action plan for 2021-2025 was unanimously approved, including a political resolution and the four strategic goals: advance worker’s’ rights, build stronger unions, confront global capital and promote sustainable industrial policies.

The executive committee heard from two candidates for general secretary; current assistant general secretary Atle Høie from Norway and current assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan from Turkey, Current general secretary Valter Sanches from Brazil will step down in September.

Valter Sanches, reported on the organization’s activities since the last executive committee in November 2020.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced workers around the world to find alternative ways to communicate, interact and work, becoming more reliant on digital solutions. IndustriALL has been active in strengthening affiliates’ digital capacity, providing technical equipment, reliable internet and digital meeting platforms.
 
As highlighted in the secretariat report, in the face of adversity, unions are still able to win. In Pakistan, homebased workers managed to get social protection benefits;  in India, 1,257 workers got their jobs back after an eight-month long international union campaign; unions in Spain successfully defended jobs at Repsol; Canadian cement workers fought for justice and won; after an agreement with the employer, Colombian union Sintracarbón ended an historic strike; a union deal in the UK saved jobs at Rolls Royce.
 
Building strong unions remains central to IndustriALL’s activities, and the meeting approved to re-affiliation of the Nigerian Chemical and Non-Metallic Products Senior Staff Association – CANMPSSAN and the affiliation of the Argentinian Coordinación Nacional de Trabajadores/as de Industria de la CTA Autónoma.
 
In their report the executive committee, IndustriALL’s women’s committee reported on the continued fight against gender based violence and the promotion of ILO Convention 190. Training will be organized at sectoral, regional, national and workplace levels.

This year has seen increasing attacks on democracy in the Philippines, Belarus, and Myanmar. IndustriALL continues to support its affiliates in those countries in their fight for democracy, as well as in Haiti and Hong Kong.

The Philippines’ anti-terror law is used to attack social movement and trade unionists. In March, the vice chair of Pamantik-KMU, Dandy Miguel, was killed.

35,000 people have been arrested in Belarus since the rigged presidential elections in August last year. 300 unionists have been prosecuted and the offices of independent unions have been searched and vandalized.

Since the military took power in Myanmar in February, more than 700 people have been killed.

"There is no future, no rights, no freedom, and no prosperity under military rule. We need your support to restore democracy and to isolate the military junta within the country and internationally,"

said Khaing Zar, president of Industrial workers' federation of Myanmar.

 

The executive committee unanimously adopted a resolution on Myanmar, calling on companies to end commercial ties with military; on all affiliates to pressure governments for economic sanctions; on governments to recognize the new National Unity Government of Myanmar.

“For more than a year, the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted our world with enormous consequences for workers all around the world. IndustriALL will continue to defend workers’ right, fight violations and demand equitable access to vaccines for everyone,”

said Valter Sanches.

INTERVIEW: Khaing Zar

INTERVIEW

From Global Worker No. 1 May 2021

INTERVIEW: Khaing Zar

COUNTRY: Myanmar

Text: Petra Brännmark

As of December 2014, IndustriALL counts two affiliates in Myanmar: the Industrial Workers Federation of Myanmar (IWFM) and the Mining Workers Federation of Myanmar (MWFM). Both trade unions are affiliated to the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar (CTUM).

Khaing Zar is president of IWFM, treasurer of CTUM and member of IndustriALL’s executive committee. Khaing Zar became involved in the trade union movement in 2007, while working in garment factories on the Thai Myanmar border.

How did you become a trade unionist?

I finished high school at 16 and started working to help support to my family. I showed an ID-card of a person who was 25 years old, borrowed from my cousin, and that got me a job in a textile factory. I was subsequently fired from that factory for being under-age; the legal working age in Myanmar is 18.

I then worked in different factories, doing double shifts to be able to attend distance university classes. Once I got my university degree, I found work in garment factories on the other side of the border, in Thailand.

When I was working in factories in Myanmar and in Thailand, I worked with children as young as 13 and 14 who wanted to go back to school.

I was struck by the poor living standards, how workers were exploited, and how little or no chance they had to improve their lives. So, I went to a trade union training session while I was working in a garment factory in Thailand and have not looked back since. 

I joined the Federation of Trade Unions Burma (FTUM), now called the Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar (CTUM), where I have been member of the executive committee since early 2007. At the time, we educated migrant workers in Thailand on Thai labour law to make them aware of their rights, helping workers who had lost their jobs or had problems in the workplace. As trade unions were illegal in Myanmar, we invited workers from Myanmar to come for training in safe places.

What has organizing workers been like since trade unions became legal in Myanmar?

Between 2017 and 2019, IWFM increased its membership from 17,000 to 24,000. However, the pandemic has brought job losses and also a decrease in union membership. Currently, the IWFM counts 13,000 members.

There are different things that make organizing difficult. People see union leaders being dismissed and are afraid to join a union for fear of repercussions. Changing people’s behaviour takes time.

And even though unions are legal, the registration process with authorities is difficult. Officially, the process should take three months but often takes a lot longer, so we encourage local union leaders to start the union work for its members anyway according to the Freedom of Association Guidelines.

Myanmar does not have a tradition of social dialogue and the general knowledge about unions is quite low, both among workers and employers. There is a great need to build functioning labour-management relations at factory level, which will require training of both union and management representatives.

The IWFM does a lot of training for workers, including what is a trade union, what does a union do, what is social dialogue, what are the process of collective bargaining agreement, labour laws, organising strategy, gender equality, occupational health safety and international labour standards.

Many think that the union is about fighting and a class struggle, but it is about education. We want good jobs, and we want to improve working conditions, but it has to be through negotiations. If employers lose business, we lose jobs. We encourage workers to use strike action as a last resort.

What role are unions playing in the civil disobedience movement, protesting against the military rule?

Hundreds of thousands have participated in the peaceful demonstrations across the country. The civil disobedience movement is really bringing together people from all over Myanmar, regardless of ethnical, social or geographical position and workers from different sectors like transport, energy, mining, garment, construction, medical.

Unions have been very active and our members in the garment industry have joined the demonstrations. As you can be dismissed after three days of strikes, there has been negotiations with management for approved leave to join the movement. In some cases, the unions/workers have submitted a letter to the employer that they are joining the peaceful demonstrations, necessary because of the country’s current situation and that they are exercising their basic human and freedom of association rights.

Union leaders have been targeted by the military. Police have issued arrest warrants for 20 union leaders, the majority from IWFM, including our vice president, Ma Soe Lay. Employers have been put under pressure to give up information of the union leaders to the military, and many union leaders have been forced into hiding.

On 14 March, there was a serious attack in Yangon’s biggest industrial zone, Hlaing Thar yar. More than 100 people were killed, and thousands of workers have left the industrial zone because of the shootings and arrests.

Despite the challenges, many factories re-opened in March. There is a real risk of factories using the current situation to terminate workers. If you miss work for more than three days the employer can avoid paying severance, which they would be obliged to do in regular cases of retrenchment. We already see this happening, which is unfair in cases where workers cannot go to work over security concerns.

What does the IWFM need the international community to do?

The IWFM has worked relentlessly to protect the rights and improve the lives of garment workers and their families since we were allowed back into the country after the previous dictatorship, back to Myanmar in 2012.

We will continue to fight back the current military coup because we know how cruel military rule is. And we have had eight years of partial freedom and witnessed the development of the country. No one wants to go back to the dark ages. It is certain that there is no future, no freedom, and no prosperity under military rule.

We need comprehensive sanctions against Myanmar, especially in the oil and gas and the insurance industries to cut the income of the military regime. And we need a general international arms embargo against Myanmar.

IWFM is pushing for the big garment brands that produce in Myanmar to ask suppliers not to punish workers who participate in the protests. And IWFM has called on brands to condemn the military coup in Myanmar and to show that the military coup will have negative impact on foreign investment.

We also need that employers and brands who produce in Myanmar do not to fire workers in the current situation. Many workers have already lost their jobs, trade unionists are forced into hiding and families are without income. Our courageous people continue to defy the brutal terrorist military. Workers and the people of Myanmar need humanitarian help immediately. 

German supply chain law reaches parliament

German unions have campaigned for years for a supply chain law to strengthen the human rights due diligence obligations of German companies. The government is now on the verge of passing this law. However, business and employers' associations are attempting, even at this late stage, to prevent or further undermine the law.

Jörg Hofmann speaking at the executive committee meeting

Speaking at the IndustriALL Global Union executive committee meeting on 22 April, IndustriALL president Jörg Hofmann said:

“After a long struggle, and with the support of the trade union movement, we have succeeded in achieving a bill that will oblige companies to take responsibility for what happens in their supply chains, making global trade fairer.

“If companies fail to meet their human rights obligations, trade unions and NGOs will be able to sue them in German courts.”

In February this year, a draft text of the law was published, which contained disappointing compromises. For instance, the law will initially cover only companies with more than 3,000 employees, and only cover direct suppliers, while most abuses occur further down the supply chain. A provision for a Safe Harbours standard that would allow companies to limit their liability by signing a global framework agreement with the relevant global union was also not included.

However, unions welcome the law as setting an important precedent that would also help to promote due diligence legislation at European level.

Wolfgang Lemb, executive committee member of IndustriALL affiliate IG Metall said:

“The paradigm shift from voluntary commitment to human rights due diligence by companies to legal regulation is within reach. We need this law so that we can finally take an important step closer to humane working conditions along the supply chain.”

Unions are defending the law from attacks while calling for it to be strengthened. The existing text is considered a minimum compromise, and any further weakening will not be accepted. Unions have a number of criticisms of the draft law:

The draft law only holds companies responsible for direct suppliers. However, it is often the indirect suppliers at the end of the supply chain who violate human rights most seriously.

The draft law does not provide for trade unions and works councils to be involved in risk management within the company. It also makes no provision for the involvement of unions representing affected parties in the supply chain. Participation rights for unions should be strengthened, using global framework agreements as a positive example of social dialogue.

The draft law often refers to national law in supplier countries when considering human rights. However, in some countries it is compatible with national law to restrict freedom of association and prevent trade union activity.

In an interview with Euractiv, the president of IndustriALL affiliate IG BCE, Michael Vassiliadis, said:

“Many multinational companies accept workers’ rights and co-determination in Germany and Europe. But when we point out problems in other countries, they reply that they do nothing there that is not mandatory. Which is true, because in Asia or South America, for example, workers’ rights are not yet as developed, but universal human rights should apply worldwide.”

Unions are also calling for companies whose headquarters are not in Germany to be included in the new regulations if they have major operations in Germany.

Valter Sanches: Welcome to the Global Worker (#1-2021)

Global Worker No 1 May 2021

Although vaccinations have begun, the rollout is slow and unequal. IndustriALL supports the temporary TRIPS waiver on vaccines at the WTO, as proposed by India and South Africa and supported by the WHO. With a temporary suspension of the patents’ rights, hundreds of pharmaceutical units around the world could be quickly reconverted and added to the global effort of production of vaccines. We must continue our strong stand for people before profit. A fair and equitable access to vaccines is crucial for overcoming the pandemic and for the health and safety of our members. 

Telework has expanded massively during the pandemic and is here to stay. For some workers it has been a positive experience but working remotely over a long period has also revealed limitations and risks. IndustriALL is opening a consultation for a guide to advise our affiliates in negotiations to making sure that workers benefit from teleworking while avoiding potential pitfalls

We continue to support our unions as they fight to protect the health, safety, jobs and income of their members. This year on 28 April, as we observe International Workers’ Memorial Day (IWMD), an opportunity to remember all workers who have lost their lives at work due to occupational ill- health and safety failures, the global trade union movement is making the case for occupational health and safety to be recognized by the ILO as a fundamental right at work, along with the other eight fundamental rights’ conventions This can contribute to raising the degree of institutional protection and coverage by collective bargaining agreements.

Unions do make a difference. The Alang Sosiya Ship Recycling and General Workers Association (ASSRGWA) is a successful example of organizing India’s informal sector workers. The union has contributed to improving wages, social security measures and occupational health and safety for shipbreaking workers. 

Some governments are taking a twisted advantage from the pandemic to seize power and democracy like in Belaurs, the Philippines and Myanmar. The people of Myanmar, led by the trade unions are standing up in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against the military regime that overthrown a democratically elected government in a coup in 1st February. In her interview, IWFM president Khaing Zar is calling for international support for their struggle. 

Our affiliate Industrial Chile-Constramet was declared illegal during Pinochet’s dictatorship in the 1970s, but celebrated 40 years of defending workers’ rights in December last year. Along with the Chilean national center CUT, Constramet now campaigns for workers’ rights to be improved in the new constitution.

While this pandemic is not yet over, we will continue to demand equitable access to vaccines, to defend workers’ rights, and to ensure workers’ right to health and safety, jobs and income. 

A luta continua! 

Valter Sanches

South-South union solidarity against challenges of energy transition

Both parts of the world face common predicaments on energy transition as governments pursue neoliberal economic policies marginalizing workers and poor communities. Chile was cited as a resource-rich country whose population is mainly poor. The same can be applied to most Sub-Saharan African countries, which are rich in fossil fuels and oil and gas, yet most people live in poverty.

The meeting discussed the energy transition’s potential to drive industrialization and economic development in the regions. Energy, it was argued, must be discussed in the context of the political economy of the continents. There were opportunities for the setting up of renewable power plants, but this should be done while protecting workers interests.

The meeting discussed both regions’ huge potential in renewable energy resources, including hydropower, wind, solar and bio power, geothermal and fossil fuels.

Unions in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico said they want a just energy transition with improved working conditions and a respect for workers' rights. They spoke about the importance of social dialogue to promote sustainable industrial policies and a Just Transition, with the participation of governments, companies, unions and affected communities.

Sintracarbón secretary of education, Fredys Fernández, mentioned the initiative developed since 2015 by Colombian unions USO, Sintracarbón and Sintraelecol called “Social, mining-energy and environmental table”. Together with the community, government authorities and businessmen they debate on energy transition and the construction of a sustainable energy policy for Colombia.
 
Across the Atlantic, unions in Ghana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, part of the Sub-Saharan Africa Energy Network, are fighting against the privatization of public state power companies which often results in increases in the cost of electricity.

“We are against the privatization of the power utility, ESKOM as proposed by the government. We prefer an energy provider that is publicly owned and run in the public interest and not for profit as this will make energy unaffordable and inaccessible to poor communities. On renewable energy, we are calling for the social ownership of renewable energy sources,”

said Enos Mbodi from the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.

Kemal Ozkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary said:

“We need a global energy transition model that promotes industrialization, decent green jobs and the interests of workers and communities. This is only possible if countries in the Global South adopt sustainable energy and industrial plans.”

PROFILE: Supporting Sweden’s pulp and paper workers

UNION PROFILE

From Global Worker No. 2 November 2020

Country: Sweden

Union: Pappers, organizes workers in the pulp and paper industry

Members: 13,500

“The larger unions in Sweden traditionally have quite a lot of political influence, but our advantage is that we actually know our members,” says Pappers president Pontus Georgsson. “We work hard to stay close to them and be a relevant partner.”

Pontus Georgsson has been president of the 101-year-old union since 2019. He worked 22 years in a paper mill, many of those as a full-time union representative.

In the 1980s, the Swedish pulp and paper industry employed 50,000 workers. Today, that number has gone down to 13,000. 

“It has been a challenge for us a union to maintain and change our role to continue to represent our members as the industry has gone through a massive transformation with mill closures and redundancies,”

says Pontus Georgsson.

Since 2015, the Swedish pulp and paper industry has gone through further big transformations. It is now enjoying major investments leading to better products and increased capacity. Although the production for paper for newspapers is dwindling, Sweden is a major producer of cartons and paper for paper bags. Around 90 per cent of the production is exported to the rest of Europe or the US.

The pulp and paper industry is characterized by large machines, powerful vehicles and strong chemicals. In 2019, there were 317 workplace accidents requiring medical leave. Pontus Georgsson says that health and safety in the workplace continues to be a cornerstone of the union work.

Pappers employs 15 people at its head office in Stockholm, where the president and two other elected people also work full time. Swedish labour laws allow for union activities during working hours and most of the union work, including health and safety, is undertaken by union representatives in the workplace.

The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc in many industries in many parts of the world, but Sweden’s pulp and paper industry remains relatively unscathed. Pontus Georgsson mentions one example of a paper mill in Sweden that has had to close; a small mill that is one of only two in Europe that manufacture the pulp needed for beer mats. With the hospitality industry hit hard by lockdown, a consequence of closed bars is a diminished need for mats to put drinks on.

Production of napkins and paper towels has also more less stopped. Toilet paper, however, has seen a hike in production ahead of lockdowns.

“When the pandemic struck, the Swedish government introduced furlough schemes. That meant that jobs were saved at mills where production decreased,” says Pontus Georgsson.

Taking on the future

 

Pappers continues to successfully organize workers, although getting young workers to join the union is proving more of a challenge. Before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Pappers had launched one of the biggest union campaigns in Sweden to organize young workers. Those plans have had to be put on ice but are planned to resume in 2022.

Pontus Georgsson

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“We need to make an effort,”

says Pontus Georgsson.

“We’ve had to adapt to the circumstances and have instead engaged 80 youth ambassadors in discussions and planning for the future, in order to create engagement. We have also visited all 54 of Sweden’s paper mills to meet young workers.”

Women make up around 16 per cent of the total work force in the pulp and paper industry. However, the number is slightly higher for women under the age of 30, where it is approaching 30 per cent.

“Things are going in the right direction. But the low percentage of women is reflected among our union activists. That number needs to increase; Pappers needs to be a union that is attractive to women.

“Among other things, that means that we need to develop our collective agreements to suit modern family life. Life is more important than work and as a union we represent the entire workforce,”

Pontus Georgsson concludes.

Ukraine must abandon anti-worker law reform

Last year, mass union protests in Ukraine and global solidarity actions ’managed to defeat a regressive draft labour law. Legislators have instead drafted separate laws, which they try to push in the parliament aiming to simplify the regulation of labor relations and give more powers to the employers.

Draft law № 5371, submitted to parliament on 13 April, proposes a new "contractual regime for regulating labour relations" for small and medium-sized enterprises with less than 250 workers, with all working conditions determined by an employment contract instead of by labour law.

“This draft law threatens the majority of workers, because almost 75 percent of employers employ less than 250 people, and 73.1 percent of economically active population work in small and medium-sized enterprises. Given the widespread practice of splitting large companies into smaller ones, it would also apply to giant companies,”

says Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine (NPGU) chairman Mikhailo Volynets.

All norms and provisions that would normally be in the collective agreement, would instead be set in the employment contract with each worker. The employment contract would determine the grounds for dismissal instead of the current strict list of grounds provided by the labour code. The contract would allow for worse working conditions than guaranteed by legislation, that wages are paid once a month instead of twice, which is the case today, and that wages are set without reference to wage rates in the collective agreement.

“Different employment contracts with workers that perform same volume of work in the same working conditions can lead to discrimination if they receive different wages due to personal preferences and other subjective criteria of the employer,”

says the chairman of the Trade Union of Metalworkers and Miners of Ukraine (PMGU), Alexander Ryabko.

According to Atomprofspilka chairman Valery Matov, the biggest worker organizations were not consulted on the draft law, in violation of ILO Recommendation №189.

“We are calling on the Joint representative body of all-Ukrainian trade unions to apply to international institutions and to the President of Ukraine to prevent the adoption of the draft law. Given the difficult economic situation, limited employment opportunities, potential workers will be forced to agree to these conditions in order to get a job.”

IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Ozkan says:

“We support our Ukrainian affiliates in their struggle against the anti-worker and anti-union draft laws and will provide assistance to make sure Ukrainian labour law complies with core international labour standards.”

Mass demonstrations against Indonesia’s Omnibus law

Omnibus law has created turbulence in the Indonesian society since its introduction in January 2020. Trade union confederations like KSPI, KSBSI, KSPSI and KPBI have staged numerous huge demonstrations to oppose the regressive labour law.

The controversial law has removed district sectoral minimum wage, reduced severance pay benefits, widened the scope of outsourcing and made life-long contract workers possible.

 

IndustriALL Indonesia council chairperson Iwan Kusmawan, says:

“The primary objective of the action on 12 April is to highlight the ongoing judicial reviews. We hope that the constitutional court can declare the Omnibus law unconstitutional and scrap it.”

KSPI is urging the Indonesian government to accept its four demands:

“Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, we will continue to fight Omnibus law, a labour policy that puts workers’ interest at risk. We urge the government not to delay its submission to the court, and thank all unionists participating in the street and virtual action,”

says FSPMI president Riden Hatam Azis.

“We are very concerned that Indonesian workers no longer have district sectoral minimum wage, as this is a big rollback of workers’ rights. We support our Indonesian affiliates in their joint campaign against the Omnibus law,”

says IndustriALL South East Asia regional secretary Annie Adviento.

Five of IndustriALL’s affiliates participated in the action, Federation of Indonesian Metal Workers' Union (FSPMI), Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mining, Oil and Gas Workers’ Union (FSP KEP), National Industrial Workers Union Federation (SPN), The Federation of Pharmaceutical and Health Workers Union (FARKES) and Federation of Indonesian Cement Workers' Union.