1,700 workers strike at Hankook Tire in Hungary

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Federation of Chemical Workers of Hungary (VDSZ), which represents workers at Hankook’s Dunaújváros plant in central Hungary, say that 70 per cent of 2,400 shift workers have joined the indefinite strike that began on 12 March.  

The union is ready to reach a compromise with a 14 per cent pay rise, but is frustrated at not being able to make the proposal at the bargaining table.

After a two-hour warning strike on 6 March, which had a 100 per cent participation by workers, the company paid a 13.6 per cent pay increase, but VDSZ says the rise does not benefit everyone equally.

For example, longer-serving employees are only receiving a 2 – 6 per cent increase, where as recently-hired workers are getting as much as a 22 per cent increase, says the union.  

Salaries at the plant for shift workers are much lower than in other enterprises. Workers at a nearby factory earn around 300,000 forint (US$957) per month, compared to workers at Hankook Tire who average less than 200,000 forint (US$638) per month.

In the meantime, Hankook, which normally produces 45,000 tires per day at the Dunaújváros plant, has hired scab labour and harassed and intimidated workers to try and break the strike, says VDSZ. Since industrial action began, production has dropped to 10,000 tyres per day.

Union membership at the tire plant has grown by 1,000 workers in recent months.

Hankook has a history of anti-union hostility in Hungary, with several disputes escalating to the courts.

In a solidarity letter to VDSZ president, Tamas Szekely, IndustriALL’s general secretary, Valter Sanches, said:

“IndustriALL Global Union fully supports the struggle of VDSZ members at Hankook Tire Hungary Ltd’s factory in Dunaújváros to bring the company back to the negotiating table, and to put an end to violations of fundamental workers’ rights.”

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Shell worker abuses in Nigeria taken to UN Human Rights Council

In a joint statement to the General Assembly of the Human Rights Council, IndustriALL Global Union and Swiss organization, Europe-Third World Center (CETIM), said:

“Contract workers at Shell Nigeria are living in poverty, with no job security and poor healthcare that is costing workers’ lives. Contract workers face dismissal if they join a union or ask for a pay rise. They lack safety equipment and risk death in the field.”

IndustriALL, through its oil and gas trade union affiliate, NUPENG, represents contract workers at Shell Nigeria.

A recent IndustriALL mission to Port Harcourt in Nigeria found that most, if not all, of Shell Nigeria’s blue-collar workforce are employed by a complex network of recruitment companies on behalf of Shell, making it extremely difficult for workers to organize into trade unions and defend their rights.

A full written statement of the human rights violations of Shell contract workers in Nigeria was submitted to the General Assembly of the UN Human Rights Council and officially published last week.

“My recruiter doesn’t pay on time,” says a Shell contract worker in the statement. “I haven’t been paid for six months. My wage is only 50,000 naira (US$137) per month. I'm going to go home and beg my neighbour for food. For six months, my children can’t go to school. I’ve been working at Shell for 11 years, but I don’t have a carpet in my house. I don’t have a radio at home.”

IndustriALL has informed Shell of its mission findings but the energy giant has shrugged off the report and refuses to enter into discussions with IndustriALL.

“Shell is violating the human and labour rights of Nigerian workers with impunity, highlighting the urgent need for an international legally-binding instrument to regulate the activities of transnational companies,” continues the oral statement.

IndustiALL and CETIM are calling on the authorities in Nigeria to honour their commitment to human rights and international labour standards by taking action to ensure that Shell Nigeria respects the rights of workers working on its behalf to safety, health, a decent income and freedom of association. They also call on the Human Rights Council to urge the Dutch government to hold Shell to account for violations committed on Nigerian soil.

In addition to the written and oral statement, CETIM and IndustriALL also organized a side-event on 7 March in parallel with the 40th session of the Human Rights Council to denounce human rights violations by Shell, and mining companies, BHP and Vale.

Activists in Kazakhstan face continued repression

Independent trade unions in the Kazakhstan continue to be destroyed and their members are persecuted. An international union mission in November 2018 confirmed a serious escalation of the persecution of unions and their members.

The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (KNPK) has been dissolved along with several affiliates. The leaders, including former chairperson of KNPRK, Larisa Kharkova, chair of the trade union of Oil Construction Company (OCC), Amin Yeleusinov, and Nurbek Kushakbayev, labour inspector, have faced criminal prosecution.

The latest in a long line of harassed union leaders is Erlan Baltabai, chair of the Fuel and Energy Workers' Union (FEWU), suspected of embezzling trade union funds. His relatives have been interrogated, police have conducted searches at home and in the office of the FEWU, and seized trade union documents.

Dmitry Seniyavskiy, local leader of FEWU, was attacked and brutally beaten in November 2018.

IndustriALL is urging the government of Kazakhstan to comply with national labour legislation, and 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), which were ratified by Republic of Kazakhstan.

IndustriALL general secretary Valter Sanches says:

“There needs to be an immediate stop to the repression of unions and union activists. IndustriALL is calling on Kazakh authorities to release 19 activists arrested for participating in peaceful rallies, and to start a social dialogue with workers and the unemployed.”

Sanand Ford India workers protest against meager wages

The Sanand Ford India workers union, Karnavati Kamdar Ekta Sangh, has been negotiating for a collective bargaining agreement for the period of 2018 to 2020. Currently the workers receive extremely low wages of about INR 17000 (US$ 244) as net pay. Workers are demanding wages that reflect their work experience.

Most of the 864 union members at the plant have more than nine years of work experience. After series of negotiations, the management has marginally increased the wage offer from INR 9800 (US $141) to 10000 (US$ 144), to be phased in during the three years of the agreement.

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Maldevsinh Jadeja, the union president, says:

“We are in a very difficult situation as management refuses to increase our wages. We are the lowest paid automobile workers in country, and we can’t provide our families with decent living conditions. Management is applying pressure by subjecting workers to disciplinary actions on flimsy grounds and insisting that we should report to the factory even if we are sick, in order get it examined by the company doctor.

So to express our concerns in a decisive but peaceful manner we continue to boycott the food provided by the company”.

Georg Leutert, IndustriALL automotive director says:

“That one of the world’s leading auto manufacturers pays their workers a pittance is unacceptable. Ford management should refrain from any pressure tactics, and instead take on board the workers’ concern, engage in dialogue and find an acceptable solution to the demands.”

Workers at the Ford India plant at Sanand are among the lowest paid in India’s auto industry, as the compairison below shows. 

The net monthly wages at other auto plants in the region and across the country for workers with similar qualifications and work experience:

Brazil: protests against Ford plant closure

The decision to continue the fight came after unsuccessful talks on 7 March between Ford's CEO James Hackett and leaders of the ABC Metalworkers' Union –  members of the National Confederation of Metalworkers (CNM-CUT), which is affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union.

On 19 February, Ford announced that it would shut the factory in Brazil, which has operated since 1967, failing to first discuss the closure with worker representatives in the region. Ford said that the shutdown was part of its international reorganization and followed its decision to stop producing and selling trucks in South America.

The closure will affect  2,800 workers permanently employed at the plant, as well as an additional 1,700 temporary workers. The union estimates that it could have an impact on a total of 10,000 people, taking into account the entire production chain.

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Why are som many auto plants closing?

Union leader Wagner Santana called on members to keep up the struggle:

"We mustn't give up. We have to keep fighting and put pressure on Ford to go back on the decision. Each worker here, each mother and father, helped to build the company's wealth from the ground up, and you are its most valuable asset."

Santana also urged workers to to stay at home and not go to work, and to meet again on 13 March to decide on the next steps. He said that he would continue to meet with authorities to get Ford to withdraw its decision and keep negotiating.

To garner support, union leaders have already met with a number of politicians, including members of parliament, the local mayor, city councillors and the country's vice president.

IndustriALL's general secretary, Valter Sanches, participated in an event with the workers held in São Bernardo do Campo, on 7 March:

"Ford has to rethink its strategy and find new investments and products to remain competitive. It's a difficult time, but what unites us is our solidarity. IndustriALL will do everything it can to help Ford workers around the world whose jobs are under threat."

IndustriALL women in Turkey stand for equality and rights

This activity was part of the IndustriALL Turkey Women Network formed in 2015 with the political and logistical support provided by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES).

“Gender equality remains a problem all over the world despite all the efforts developed. New approaches are needed,” said IndustriALL gender coordinator Armelle Seby in the meeting. “Gender equality is not a women’s issue, it is a fundamental trade union issue. Gender perspective is integrated in every section of our work and an increased participation of women is the main aim of this meeting.”

During the meeting, the participants made detailed analysis over the obstacles for increasing women’s participation in their unions and industrial sectors organized by IndustriALL in general. The main issues highlighted by the participants were women’s unemployment, violence and harassment against women at work, and lack of women participation and representation in their unions.

The women representatives acknowledged the further difficulties for women to access to the labour market in Turkey compared to men. The unemployment rate, at between 10 to 12 per cent, remains high in the country, and despite the high percentage of well-educated women. They are still more affected by unemployment than men because of social and cultural reasons. Namely the delegates listed the following:

  • Discrimination by employers at the time of recruitment;
  • Women are more likely to bear the responsibility for looking after children and elderly people in the family;
  • Male members in the family may not allow women to work.

Violence and harassment against women at work continues to be an issue of serious concern in Turkey. The silence of the problems by the women themselves does not help to step out of this vicious circle. Low level of awareness about their rights in many workplaces does little to decrease violence and harassment. The union activists recognized the need to raise awareness about this issue in their workplaces.

Further work needs to be done to improve and implement gender equality wording in the union constitutions or statutes. Unions should encourage male leaders to get engaged on the issue of women’s representation. It should indeed become a priority. Local meetings need to be organized at a more practical time for women workers to enable them to attend. It was also highlighted that, in order to organize more women members, the unions should really train more women organizers. The experience shows that, especially in female dominated sectors, unions managed to attract many more women workers when the organizers were women.

There was a consensus to continue the work of the network. The participants agreed on the fact that there was a need to meet on a regular base once or twice a year. It was further agreed that the unions can work individually on some common and identified issues. One of these would be to tackle the problem of violence against women as a priority issue.

Deal reached with Yves Rocher after 297 days of heroic resistance

The Gebze branch of IndustriALL-affiliated chemical and rubber union Petrol-Is, together with union national leadership, reached a deal with the company on 7 March 2019.

The company agreed to pay out severance payments, notice payments and special compensation equal to 16-months’ salary to each of the 132 dismissed workers, without waiting for the results of the pending union court cases.

Also, according to the deal, the company has agreed that if the court rules that Petrol-Is has sufficient majority as a bargaining partner, they will recognize the union as the collective bargaining agent. The deal was approved by a majority vote of workers.

The union held a press conference in Gebze on 8 March to announce the agreement. Flormar workers, union leaders and activists, political parties, associations and union-friendly organizations attended the meeting. IndustriALL Global Union representatives were also present.

Armelle Seby, IndustriALL gender equality officer, congratulated Petrol-Is and its members for a fearless and exemplary struggle for workers’ rights, “Your struggle was indeed inspirational not only for workers in Turkey, but also for workers all around the world. Your fight has been written in golden letters in the history of trade union movement.”

The Petrol-Is executive committee sent an official announcement of the victory and the end of the strike and thanked the IndustriALL family for the support and solidarity during the struggle:

“With this proposal approved by the parties, all the fired workers reached their legal rights on one hand and on the other hand the parties (trade union and the company management) will wait for the court decision for concluding a collective bargaining agreement. And during this process, Petrol-Is will continue its organizing campaign at the workplace,” reads Petrol-Is’ letter.

In March 2018, following an intensive recruitment campaign by Petrol-Is, a sufficient number of workers at Yves Rocher’s subsidiary in Turkey exercised their right to join a union. Once proof of the majority was obtained, Petrol-Is approached the company with an offer to discuss collective bargaining. Instead the company rejected the offer and challenged the union certificate issued by the Ministry of Labour in court. Despite pressure and intimidation, the workers refused to give up their union membership.

Yves Rocher/Flormar workers received strong support both inside and outside Turkey. IndustriALL organized international solidarity actions in Geneva, Switzerland and Paris, France, where the headquarters of Yves Rocher is located. Another solidarity action was organized by IndustriALL affiliate FCE-CFDT and social movement ActionAid in Rennes. These actions were coupled with intensive media campaigns.

Valter Sanches, IndustriALL general secretary said,

“We congratulate Flormar workers for this victory, we salute your determination and strong commitment during these 297 days of heroic resistance of the sisters and brothers at Flormar. Your fight is our fight. We also express our gratitude to our partners, namely our affiliate Fédération Chimie Energie (FCE-CFDT) and social movements SumOfUs and ActionAid. Thanks to their efforts this case became well known beyond Turkey and thousands were mobilized in support of Flormar workers.”

Flormar cosmetics brand exports its products to more than 60 countries in the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. Since 2012, worldwide cosmetics and beauty brand Yves Rocher has owned a 51 per cent share of Flormar.

Time for real democracy in Algeria

The announcement came after thousands of workers, including members of IndustriALL affiliate, SNATEG, took part in a general strike on 10 and 11 March in protest at the ailing 82-year-old’s attempt to run for office.

The 18 April presidential elections in the country have been suspended but it is not known when Bouteflika will stand down.

SNATEG members say 'NO' to a fifth mandate

IndustriALL’s assistant general secretary, Kemal Özkan, said:

“Algeria urgently needs a democracy with rules and institutions that meet the demands of the people, particularly workers. In the last 20 years under Bouteflika, the Algerian people have suffered so much. Civil society, democratic organizations and free trade unions have faced many challenges, repression and intimidation. We stand in solidarity with our affiliate SNATEG, their allies and the Algerian people who fight for democracy, dignity and fundamental rights.”

The country’s capital, Algiers, was brought to a standstill on Sunday as no trams, trains, busses or metros circulated the city. Hundreds of students also marched in the streets to vent their frustration with the government.

SNATEG, which represents workers at state-owned gas and electricity company, SONELGAZ, said a very high percentage of SONELGAZ workers joined the strike, while workers from the railways and agri-industrial sectors also downed tools.

SNATEG has been under constant attack from the Algerian authorities, which have tried to crush the independent energy union by sacking its members and persecuting union leaders through the courts.

The general strike, which was to last five days, has been called off but unions will join opposition groups and civil society in a march calling for a complete break with the current system and a new Republic, planned for Friday 15 March.

Bouteflika returned to Algeria on 10 March, after spending two-weeks at a hospital in Geneva, Switzerland. He has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013.

Some prominent opposition figures in Algeria have warned that the postponement of the elections violates article 110 of the Constitution, which only allows the extension of the presidency in the case of war. They have voiced their support for the 15 March rally.

Senegal: Unions build strength through organizing and collaboration

Participants discussed strategies to build sustainable unions through leadership training, strengthening union solidarity instead of competition, supporting union capacity development and forming a national coordinating committee that will be responsible for joint actions and campaigns.

An organizational assessment exercise evaluated the unions to see what is working and what needs to be attended to. The strategies to strengthen the unions in Senegal will be implemented through the union building project activities.

The workshop also commended the recently concluded precarious work project (2015-2017), which saw over 11,000 workers getting permanent jobs after the conversion of their contracts from short-term and casual to permanent ones in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal.

About 29,000 precarious workers were recruited into trade unions from the four countries. The project also led to better wages and working conditions including improvements in health and safety at workplaces and the payment of benefits such as medical support, leave, housing and transport allowances.

Organized by the IndustriALL Global Union Sub Saharan Africa regional office, with support from the Belgian trade union confederation (ACV-CSC BIE), and the French Chemical and Energy Union (FCE CFDT), the workshop and meeting had participants, mainly women, from IndustriALL affiliates SNTIT, SNTICS, SYNTICS and SUTIDS.

These affiliates organize in the chemical, mining, textile and garment and industrial manufacturing sectors. The other countries that are part of the project, which is co-funded by Swedish Union to Union, and where similar activities are taking place, are Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Says Jan Franco, international officer of ACV-CSC:

“The challenges for Senegalese unions are enormous. During the planning meeting the participants identified priorities and achievable goals. What struck me is the willingness of the trade unions to cooperate and the active presence of women and young unionists. The open atmosphere and debates on methods of approach and action showed a readiness to strengthen capacity.”

Paule France Ndessomin, regional secretary for the Sub Saharan Africa concurs:

“We applaud the Senegalese unions’ commitment to collaboration because this is where unions draw their strength from. As discussed at the women’s meeting, it is important to prioritize the issues confronting women at the workplace including sexual harassment and gender-based violence. Unions must ensure that these are addressed.”

Bangladesh unions call to reinstate over 12,000 retrenched garment workers

Over a hundred workers were imprisoned, over 12,000 were retrenched and cases were filed against over 5, 000 workers in the aftermath of workers’ protests against a meager wage hike in December 2018 to January 2019.

Despite both the government and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) assured that no vindictive actions would be taken in the aftermath of the protests, workers have faced severe repression.

Employers of 107 readymade garment units used this opportunity to punish innocent workers for participating in union activities, as most of the dismissed workers are plant level trade union activists and union members. About 2,500 workers were dismissed at the East West Group and Abonti Color Tex factories. On 26 February, a total of 300 workers at Garib&Garib Company Limited were fired without receiving two month’s wages.

Employers are using a database of over 3.5 million garment workers, collected and maintained by the BGMEA to blacklist dismissed workers and union activists from getting jobs in a new company. After the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, it was difficult identify workers as no credible record was maintained and a database was created for a record of workers – this is now also being used for blacklisting workers.

Many companies have published photos and names of retrenched workers on their website, making it difficult for them workers to find alternative employment.

Valter Sanches, IndustriALL Global Union general secretary, says:

“We are deeply concerned over the continuing violations of workers’ rights in Bangladesh. It is unacceptable that the employers are continuing to be active agents of persecution; the government and multinational brands cannot remain quiet accomplices and need to take immediate action. We stand in solidarity with our affiliates in Bangladesh, in their fight to defend workers’ rights.”

Salauddin Shapon, secretary general of IBC, says:

“Bangladesh garment workers are facing unprecedented repression. Employers are targeting union activists and dismissing workers at will. Many are arrested on false charges and large numbers of workers fear arrests.

"The use of the database, created with the good intent, to blacklist workers must end immediately. The government must act immediately and release the imprisoned, reinstate the retrenched, and stop repression and harassment of workers.”