Young Nepali unionists demand increased representation

The unemployment rate for Nepali workers between the ages of 15 and 29 is 19 per cent, and is a major challenge for young people in the country.

Young trade union activists highlighted that most young workers in Nepal are precarious workers and struggle with job insecurity.

In order to increase youth membership, participants said unions should pay special attention to creating awareness of the benefits of unions and reaching out to youth to get them into union fold. Unions also need to create adequate youth representation in union structures and leadership positions, and allot financial resources for youth activities.

Participants underlined that unions need to play the role of catalyst in challenging social and cultural factors affecting women’s participation in trade union activities. Unions’ strong interventions to address harassment and violence against women at the workplace and society at large will help increase women membership.

A large number young Nepali workers migrate to the Middle East and South-East Asian countries in search employment opportunities. While labour migration of youth creates positive opportunities for a better life and livelihood, many migrant workers end up in precarious jobs, with dangerous working conditions where violations of workers’ rights are common.

Participants called for international solidarity to defend the rights of migrant workers, and for unions to work effectively at the national level to develop appropriate industrial policies and create adequate employment opportunities.

Participants decided call upon their respective union leadership to undertake following actions:

Create sustainable union structures including youth committees in order to enhance youth representation in union positions
Develop intervention strategies and trainings to stop harassment and violence against women
Build union power through organizing young workers, including precarious workers, and involve young workers in organizing initiatives
Allocate financial resources for youth activities
Communication training for young union members

IndustriALL’s youth and project officer, Sarah Flores, said:

“It is encouraging to see the enthusiastic participation of young unionists in this workshop. There’s no doubt that active participation of young women and men is vital for a strong trade union movement in Nepal and we hope that issues raised by youth are taken seriously by the union leadership.”

Trade unions start network at building materials multinational CRH

The trade union network will aim to better the work and status of the CRH European Works Council (EWC) known as “Euroforum” and increase communication between unions. The Irish company is now one of the top players in cement and construction materials industries.

IndustriALL’s Irish affiliate union SIPTU hosted the meeting, which was organized by the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW). Participants defined a number of issues at the company, but especially in the Euroforum. The participants want to fix these shortcomings.

Participants adopted a joint statement in English, French, Polish, Romanian, Dutch, German indicating their proposals and demands to CRH management and future activities in the network.

In their statement the European trade unions said:

“EFBWW requires the CRH group to respect European Union legislation and to take the appropriate steps to restore mutual trust and social dialogue. The EFBWW invites management to discuss a renewed social partnership. A first and important step would be to clarify the election/designation processes of the current and future members for the countries involved in the EWC. The EFBWW points out that this should be done according to national transposition law.”

The workers’ representatives also selected a steering committee for the trade union network, which will coordinate the network activities and serve as a link between themselves, non-European trade unions and global unions.

IndustriALL director for mechanical engineering and materials industries, Matthias Hartwich, commented:

“I was glad to see how committed the European trade unions and works councils are when it comes to improve dialogue with CRH. I promise that IndustriALL Global Union will do its best to get the non-European trade unions on board. Already next week, we will have the chance to inform the North America Cement Network about the progress being made here. I believe we will have good cooperation between European unions and the unions outside Europe where CRH operates.”

CRH group was born from a merger in 1970 of two leading Irish public companies, Cement Limited (established in 1936) and Roadstone, Limited (1949). For long time the group was the sole producer of cement and the principal producer of aggregates, concrete products and asphalt with 95 per cent of its sales in Ireland. CRH is now one of the top ten world’s construction materials companies operating in 32 countries and employing over 90,000 workers at around 3,700 locations of the world.

The company sales in 2018 reached €26.8 billion. The Group’s major businesses are located in Europe and North America, and it has a growing presence in Asia and South America.

LafargeHolcim fires workers for organizing union in Mexico

A total of 12 workers at LafargeHolcim Apasco cement plant in Hermosillo paid with their jobs for executing their right to organize and join a union of their choice.

The company practices an extreme form of outsourcing: some 500 of the 600 strong workforce are outsourced workers with poor salaries and no social protection. The company attempted to justify the latest six dismissals as part of restructuring. It is likely they will be replaced by lower paid and less protected outsourced workers.

Earlier, at the end of 2016, a group of six out of 70 permanent workers decided to join Los Mineros. Unhappy about their working conditions and having their rights ignored, workers saw joining Los Mineros as the only way to improve their situation.

The management-controlled union, a member of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), which at that time had some 30 other permanent workers as their compulsory members, learned of these organizing efforts and informed the company which then sacked six activists in February 2017. They were experienced workers with seven to ten years’ tenure.

For years, the CTM has been known for its notorious practice of concluding protection bargaining contracts with employers which block other unions from organizing workers at the factory, and while at the same time preventing them from proper participation in collective bargaining and expressing their demands. At the same time many workers are employed through external contractors, who are allegedly companies owned by managers and directors of the company.

The activists have audio records of the procedure of dismissal during which they were told that that was their last day of work because of the affiliation cards they collected.

The workers fired in 2017 tried to sue the company for violation of their rights and illegal dismissals, but the company replied that the only reason for dismissals was absenteeism, since workers stopped attending work. Workers are blamed the local government and court relations with the CTM which traditionally enjoyed the strong support of previous ruling party PRI.

The situation at the factory reportedly deteriorated after these dismissals. According to audio records, workers complain of constant threats of dismissal from CTM, saying they would share the fate of the fired if they opposed them. Workers are also reporting safety regulation violations leading to different accidents, including the loss of fingers.

Workers are reportedly not allowed to report these accidents to insurance services in order to keep their workplace “free of accidents”. They are then instructed to continue attending work, but instead they are instructed to do paperwork the office.

Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling boosted by Japanese ratification

Japan has become the tenth country, and the first in Asia, to ratify the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe Recycling and Environmentally Sound of Ships, created by UN shipping agency the International Maritime Organization.

The purpose of the Convention is to minimize environmental and Occupational Safety and Health risks, while enabling the replacement of old ships. It requires appropriate safety and environmental management, including the development of a ship recycling plan, specifying the manner in which each ship will be recycled. Ships sent for recycling will be required to carry an inventory of hazardous materials so that they can be properly controlled, to remove risks at the ship recycling facility.

This is to prevent disasters such as the explosion at the Gadani yard in Pakistan in November 2016, caused because workers were forced to start dismantling the ship before the fuel tank could be cleaned of leftover fuel.

The Hong Kong Convention will only enter into force when:

At least 15 states have ratified it
The merchant fleets of the ratifying states account for 40 per cent of global gross tonnage
The ratifying states have recycled at least three per cent of their combined tonnage over the past ten years.

IndustriALL Global Union, which represents workers in both ship building and ship breaking, has long campaign for states to ratify the Convention, and for ship and yard owners to ensure ships are recycled safely.

The Convention has been ratified by Belgium, Denmark, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Panama, the Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Serbia and Turkey, representing 23 per cent of the gross tonnage of the world's merchant shipping. Serbia and the Netherlands ratified the Convention earlier this year, creating a sense of momentum to the campaign.

Kan Matsuzaki, IndustriALL director for ship building and ship breaking, said:

“Japan become the first major maritime state in Asia to ratify the convention. Our affiliates JBU and FNV made a big effort to lobby the Japanese and Netherlands government to ratify the Convention.
“IndustriALL’s campaign on the Convention is definitely working. We will intensify our lobbying to target core shipbreaking countries in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and China which we need for the Convention to enter into force.”

Despite the fact that the Convention has not yet entered into force, intense lobbying by IndustriALL and other actors means that some ship owners have concluded that safe and environmentally sound ship recycling makes good business sense. Ship owners and financiers are aware of the reputational damage of having their ships involved in accidents or causing pollution.

These owners ensure that their ships are only recycled in yards which comply with the Convention. This creates an incentive for yards to compete on compliance rather than cost, and in India, 72 yards now comply with the Convention.

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Workers in Algeria to stage further strikes

Workers in Algeria will hold a three-day general strike starting on 7 April to demand the immediate departure of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and a transition government that includes the opposition.

Bouteflika announced that he will step down before his current terms ends on 28 April but no date has been set for new presidential elections.

IndustriALL Global Union’s trade union affiliate, SNATEG, which represents gas and electricity workers in Algeria, is also demanding that the president of the Senate, and the president of the Constitutional Council should be removed.

SNATEG president, Raouf Mellal, who is also president of national centre, COSYFOP, says they are “categorically opposed” to the new government and cabinet reshuffle made on Sunday.

“We need a transitional government that includes key figures from the opposition and promotes national unity,” says Mellal.

If workers’ demands are not met, there will be a further five-day strike beginning on 14 April.

If Bouteflika has not gone by 18 April, the date originally set for presidential elections, workers will call on the public to join them in nationwide protests against the president and his government.

There have weeks of mass demonstrations in Algeria ever since the ailing 82-year-old president announced he would run for a fifth term in office. Following a previous general strike on 10 and 11 March, Bouteflika dropped his presidential candidacy but remains in office.

On 17 March, SNATEG threatened strike action if the Constitutional Council failed to invoke Article 102, which enables the presidency to be proclaimed vacant if the incumbent is unfit to hold office.

Bouteflika, who has been in power for 20 years, has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013. Most Algerians believe he is being used as a front to maintain control of the country by a coalition of politicians, army officials and businessmen, known as ‘Le Pouvoir’ (the power). The group dominates the National Liberation Front which has been in power since Algerian independence in 1962.

The protest movement is largely made up of young people in Algeria who are demanding a new system of government, not just the replacement of a figurehead.

Meanwhile, IndustriALL together with other global unions, ITUC, IUF and PSI have continued to show their joint support for SNATEG.

South African women’s council pickets against sexual harassment at UNISA

The picket took place at the main campus of the university in Pretoria on 29 March, and was supported by other civil society groups. INWC-SA consists of IndustriALL affiliates, the Chemical Energy Paper Printing Wood and Allied Workers Union, the National Union of Mineworkers, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union and the United Association of South Africa.

Gugu, who is a NUMSA member and was at the picket, is challenging her dismissal by the University of South Africa Centre of Early Childhood Education (UCECE) and says she was sexually harassed and unfairly dismissed. When she demonstrated outside the the seat of government and the President's office, the Union Buildings in Pretoria, a few weeks ago, she was roughed up and arrested by the police. She has made reports to the police and the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration. Further, the Commission for Gender Equality, an official body set up by South Africa’s constitution, is also looking into her case.

Officials from UNISA and UCECE received the petition and said they will reopen investigations into the matter and will meet with the INWC-SA on 2 April. The petition, which was read and signed by Ruth Ntlokose, the second deputy president of NUMSA stated:

“Gugu Ncube, like many survivors of sexual assault and/or sexual harassment who have taken the brave step of naming their abuse or abusers have routinely encountered disbelief, trivialization or minimalization of their experience or expectation, doubt and undermining of their accounts. Sexual harassment causes harm and trauma; it forms part of the continuum of violence against women that includes sexual assault, exploitation and abuse.”

Says Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa:

“We stand for Gugu’s fight for justice in line with the IndustriALL Pledge which is our commitment to stand firm and say no to sexual harassment at the workplace. We are committed to uprooting all forms of gender-based violence from the workplace.”

In 2018 the South African government convened a national summit against gender-based violence and femicide and recently opened a sexual offences court to curb violence against women.

Albanian unions and employers want collective agreement

At a seminar in Tirana on 27-28 March, part of an EU-funded project “Strengthening the capacity of trade unions in South-East Europe to improve wages and working conditions in the garment and footwear sectors”, unions and employers came together to discuss challenges and solutions.

The two Albanian textile unions have around 3,000 paying members. Koco Jani from the BSPSH confederation says that the SPILT union has invested in organising, but workers are afraid, especially in rural areas where there are few employment opportunities. The average worker is just over 30 years, and 90 per cent are women. Once they find a better-paid job, they leave the textile industry.

In 2018, labour inspectors visited 500 out of 1,200 textile and footwear factories and found wage payment delays, missing social contributions, bad working conditions and dismissals. Problems were exacerbated by the lack of unions in the workplaces.

According to Kol Nikollaj, president of the KSSH confederation, Albania lacks laws on trade unions, collective bargaining and conflict. The textile industry needs a branch collective agreement and company level accords.

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL Global Union’s assistant general secretary says:“Many of the issues are related to brand responsibility and sourcing practices. Add to that a high level of informality in the sector, poor working conditions and inefficient labour inspections, which the government must be accountable for.

“There is an urgent need for raising workers’ awareness about their rights, and we will support our affiliates in their fight for better wages and conditions.”

Kol Sinjari from Biznes Albania and Bardhi Sejdarasi from the National Union of Fason support the idea of a functioning tripartite national council and an industry-level collective agreement on wages, health and safety, and other elements. Sejdarasi says that the employer side have merged and covers a majority of textile and footwear factories, turning it into a representative partner.

Unions need to be more representative, and participants at the meeting put together an organizing plan, based on a detailed mapping of the factories and brands present in Albania. They include GFA brands Inditex and ASOS, ACT members Arcadia, Bestseller, Next and New Look, and Benetton.

Luc Triangle, industriAll Europe’s general secretary says:

“As a candidate country for future EU membership, it is unacceptable that workers in the garment and footwear industry have to survive on poverty wages in a highly informal sector. This is first a responsibility of an ignorant government and second from global and European brands exploiting this lack of enforceable legislation and absence of decent working conditions and wages. We will continue to fight against this to achieve change.”

Three NGOs present at the seminar, the Gender Alliance, Center for Labour Rights and ICSE, pledged cooperation with the unions to improve the wages and conditions of workers.

The project is carried out in cooperation between industriAll Europe and IndustriALL Global Union, targeting Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia.

Zambian union on organizing blitz for contract mineworkers

Of the country’s 65,000 mineworkers, nearly half, 30,000, are employed through contractors.

The Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) is on a recruitment drive for contract workers who are often employed on short-term contracts with low pay and little or no benefits. The same workers are put under pressure to perform dangerous work to meet targets sometimes with disregard to health and safety standards. However, when injuries and death happen, employers shift the blame to the contractors.

On 18-19 March MUZ, affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union, with support from the Sub Saharan regional office had a recruitment and organizing blitz in Chililabombwe district at EMR’s Lubambe, and the London-listed Vedanta Mining Resources’ Konkola Shaft 3 copper mines, where the union emphasized the importance of belonging to a union to fight for workers' rights collectively. At Lubambe, all contracts will end in August, creating an uncertain future.

In the last few months, MUZ has signed recognition agreements with the multinational mining contractors, Reliant Drilling and Redpath Rig Resources, among other mining companies. One of the benefits of these agreements is the extension of contracts from three months to two years, but the goal for MUZ is for permanent jobs for the workers.

Brenda Mufika, IndustriALL coordinator for MUZ says:

“Short contracts make workers reluctant to join a union because there is no job security. To counter the short contracts, we are campaigning for decent work and permanent jobs.”

Charles Kumbi, IndustriALL project officer says:

“Organizing is key to building union power as it allows the union to effectively engage the employer in collective bargaining. Recognition agreements are an important tool not only to increase membership but to build the strength of the union.”

Zambia is in the IndustriALL union building programme, which also includes seven other countries in the Sub Sahara region.

Ethiopia: workers strike for a union in Hawassa industrial park

IndustriALL affiliate, the Industrial Federation of Textile, Leather and Garment Workers Union, says that the strike is the result of unions being denied access to organize in the park.

When fully operational, Hawassa will have the potential to employ over 60,000 workers, with more than 20 global brands and retailers sourcing garments from the park.

Teklu Shewarega, IFTLGWTU’s organizing and industrial relations department head says:

“The recent strike is not a surprise. With no unions representing workers, low wages and bad working conditions are prevalent.

We have tried to organize the workers for more than two years without a clear permission from the government so far. We continue our efforts and ask our international partners and the global brands and retailers sourcing from the park for support in putting pressure on the government to allow organizing.“

Wages in the industry are as low as 750 Ethiopian Birr (US$27). To improve wages, the IFTLGWTU is working with different partners, including the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions (CETU) and FNV Mondiaal. According to a recent wage survey, 65 per cent earn less than US$70, while 35 per cent are paid less than US$35, making some of Ethiopia’s textile and garment workers the working poor.

To survive, a worker needs at least US$144.

Workers are also asking for other benefits including housing and transport. The provision of housing next to the parks, will improve workers welfare as most are living in squalid conditions where four or more workers share a room with colleagues to be able to afford the rent.

Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary says:

“Women have a right to a safe workplace and we strongly condemn the sexual harassment of women workers at Hawassa, which violates both labour laws and the Ethiopian Constitution. We call in employers a to urgently address the workers' grievances through dialogue with the union. It is unacceptable for the government to continue denying unions access to organize in the park.”

Rubber workers in Turkey picket for union recognition

Members of IndustriALL Global Union’s Turkish affiliate Petrol-Is (oil, chemical and rubber workers’ union) are protesting against intolerable working conditions, low wages and insufficient health and safety measures at the conveyor belt factory in Istanbul, Turkey.

The majority of workers at Kale Conveyor joined Petrol-İş in last quarter of 2018 and the Ministry of Labour issued an official majority certificate in favor of Petrol-İş recognizing the union as the legitimate bargaining partner on 12 October.

Instead of addressing the issues of workers’ concerns and entering into good faith negotiations, the company used loopholes in the national legislation to challenge the certificate issued by the Ministry of Labour. It has since waged a campaign of intimidation against the workforce, and unlawfully dismissed two union leaders.

Valter Sanches, IndustriALL general secretary, urged the company to correct the misconduct in December 2018 saying:

“Kale Conveyor’s management behaviour constitutes a blatant violation of Turkish labour law as well as fundamental international labour standards, including Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize and Convention 98 on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining of the International Labour Organization (ILO). It is incumbent on Kale Conveyor to abide strictly by national and international labour law.”

In an attempt to resolve the conflict, Kemal Ozkan IndustriALL assistant general secretary met with Kale Conveyor management in January 2019. However, the company continued to deny any wrongdoing and even referred to the country’s independence in an effort to reject the predominance of universally recognized international legislation over Turkish national legislation.

After the industrial action started, IndustriALL wrote again to Kale Conveyor urging the company to drop all legal actions and immediately sit down with Petrol-İş to engage in collective bargaining.

In absence of any proper action from the company, IndustriALL reached out to the major customers of Kale Conveyor asking them “to act immediately by conducting due diligence at Kale Conveyor, which would entail, inter alia, calling on the company to drop any legal actions, reinstate the two leading union members, and engage in collective bargaining with Petrol-İş.”

“Kale Conveyor cannot continue not to pretend to see the legitimate demands of its employees”

said Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL’s Assistant General Secretary.

“Our international campaign will continue until the workers’ voices are heard and justice prevails at the workplace. We will never allow any employer like Kale Conveyor to blatantly violate fundamental workers’ rights.”

Kale Conveyor is the largest manufacturer of rubber conveyor belts in Istanbul, Turkey. Approximately 70 per cent of the company production is exported to more than 40 countries all over the world.