Union wins agreement at Saint-Gobain subsidiary

The acknowledgement of trade union rights for the workers represented by IndustriALL affiliate Kristal-İş comes on the back of a long and sometimes difficult struggle supported by the Saint Gobain Union Network members around the world.

Kristal-İş members at İzocam went on an indefinite strike on 18 January after negotiations for an agreement on better pay and working conditions collapsed. Workers at two factories, the Tarsus, Mersin plant, which produces glass wool, and the Gebze plant, which produces mineral wool, participated.

After twelve days of the strike, the company agreed to meet with workers’ representatives on 29 January. On the same day, a comprehensive two-year collective bargaining agreement was signed between the union and the employer.

The agreement includes a major benefit package including four bonuses for each year, extra paid leave, much higher travel and clothing allowances as well as a significant wage increase.

In addition to the legal severance and notice payments, three workers who were unfairly dismissed for leading the organizing drive will receive 18 months compensation.

It was also agreed in the CBA that contract workers will gradually be made permanent.

“Signing the CBA is a big achievement that Kristal-İş has fought hard to get,” says Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary. “International solidarity has helped to increase pressure on management and we congratulate Kristal-İş on this victory. We look forward to a continued genuine dialogue between the union and İzocam management.”

IndustriALL affiliate Kristal-İş gained legal recognition as the union representing workers at İzocam in May 2018, after a four-and-a-half-year organizing campaign and legal battle, and commenced collective negotiations in August 2018.

İzocam manufactures insulation and is jointly owned by French multinational Saint-Gobain and Kuwaiti investment company Alghanim.

Organizing is a priority for Romanian unions

The opening of the meeting was attended by Bogdan Hossu, President of Cartel Alfa Confederation, and Dumitru Costin, President of BNS. Both underlined the devastating impact of the 2011 amendments to labour legislation on workers and trade unions.

These amendments have considerably undermined unions and eroded their bargaining power. A large majority of collective agreements today are signed by so-called employee representatives with no bargaining experience and skills. The transfer of social security contribution to employees that was put in place last year has worsened workers’ situation.

In addition to international financial institutions, the Foreign Investors Council has played a key role in pushing through a reform of Romania’s Labour Code. Foreign companies are taking advantage of the weak social dialogue law to bypass trade unions and keep wages low.

Participants reported about corporate abuses of workers’ rights, in particular freedom of association, and behaviour that is not in line with companies’ commitment to respecting international core labour standards.

“Companies would not behave that way in their home country,” according to one participant.

Employers’ interference with workers’ right to join or establish a trade union is common practice.

The challenges unions face vary, according to a union leader. There is a strong need for more solidarity to create an environment for genuine social dialogue. Organizing young people is critical.

Young workers are often not acquainted with unions but, as some examples have shown, they can be won over and become active members when their concerns are addressed. A women delegate indicated that a youth and a women committees have been established in her plant and are working well.

Apart from issues linked to the legal and regulatory framework, affiliates acknowledged that union structures and their functioning have to be reviewed, and unionising has to be made priority if real change is to take place. This means drawing up a plan, identifying organising techniques, focusing on capacity building and earmarking resources accordingly.

IndustriAll Europe’s general secretary, Luc Triangle, said:

There is high potential to build stronger trade unions in Romania. High levels of union membership are the basis for higher wages and better working conditions. We must also strengthen collective bargaining structures and intensify transnational organising campaigns. This is the way forward to get equal pay for equal work.

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL Global Union’ assistant general secretary, stated:

Strong industrial unions are the basis of our bargaining power. We need to rebuild our strength and move towards more unity in Romania. IndustriALL together with IndustriAll European Trade Union will continue to support our Romanian affiliates in their struggle for decent wages and living conditions.

Vale must be held accountable for Brazilian dam disaster

“This is a crime, not an accident. We mourn for the dead and sympathize with the victims of this terrible tragedy. Vale has failed to learn from the past. And now its workers are paying the ultimate price with their lives. There can be no more excuses. It’s time for Vale to listen and take real action to improve safety. The Brazilian authorities must shut down all companies’ operations with tailings dams until they are rigorously inspected,” says IndustriALL Global Union’s general secretary, Valter Sanches.

At the time of writing, at least 60 people have been killed and hundreds are still missing after the tailings dam operated by Brazilian mining company, Vale, released a huge wave of iron ore waste.

This latest tragedy comes after IndustriALL and BWI filed an OECD complaint against Vale and British-Australian mining giant, BHP, following the Fundão Dam disaster in Mariana, also in Minas Gerais. The November 2015 tailings dam failure claimed the lives of 19 people and was Brazil’s worst environmental disaster. 

IndustriALL and BWI are demanding a thorough investigation into the causes of the Brumadinho dam failure, which includes participation of unions. The global unions are also calling for immediate consultation with unions and civil society on tailings dam safety, and expeditious and just compensation for victims. 

Vale has ignored the International Council on Mining & Metals guidelines on preventing catastrophic failure of tailings storage facilities, released after the Fundão Dam collapse. Further, it has failed to adhere to standards in tailings dam management outlined by the multistakeholder Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance standard (IRMA).

Vale is the world’s biggest producer of iron ore, which is converted by its customers into steel and is a vital part of metal industry supply chains. 

“IndustriALL is calling on all companies in Vale’s supply chains, including multinational steel and auto producers, to share responsibility for this disaster and to use their leverage with Vale and the government of Brazil to ensure it is never repeated,” adds Sanches.

Ambet Yuson, general secretary of BWI says:

“This tragic accident could have been prevented had measures been put in place when it was revealed publicly that Brumadinho dam posed safety risk to workers and the community. Vale failed to adhere to these warnings and once again shown its disregard to safety.  Workers have paid tragically with their lives.”

Will blockchains verify virtue in the value chain?

– By Brian Kohler and Glen Mpufane

The lure of the quick technological fix

We live in a time when new technologies seem to promise new solutions to old problems. IndustriALL has studied the digitalization of industry and the rise of an assortment of advanced and disruptive production technologies: Industry 4.0.

An example of digitalization is blockchain technology. Blockchains are promising everything from the protection of privacy to its final destruction, from a new intrusion of artificially intelligent machines to the salvation of humanity.

As discussed in IndustriALL’s research paper, “The challenge of Industry 4.0 and the demand for new answers”, mining falls into the low immediate impact category of Industry 4.0. However, blockchain technology ranks high among pathways proposed to address and tackle labour abuses and other unsustainable practices in mineral supply chains.

What is a blockchain?

Fundamentally, blockchain is an information security strategy. It provides a deeper level of security than defending a database held on a computer server. Blockchain encrypts specific records or “blocks” of data, structured in what are called linked lists to form a “chain”. Each item on each list has identifying data and a link to the previous and the next item. Each new block of data must authenticate itself at particular points by some kind of proof, for example performing a mathematical operation, in order to be added to the chain. This proof must be difficult to falsify but easy to verify, to discourage spammers and hackers.

This creates a data chain where one can be reasonably certain that each item was added in chronological order and not manipulated. It works fairly well with Bitcoin, for example. It is this property that makes blockchain seem attractive for the task of verifying the cobalt supply chain.

The example of cobalt in the DRC

A traceable and verifiable digital record of cobalt from its origin in mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through to its installation in the battery of a Tesla car would, proponents argue, enable anyone to know exactly when and in which mine – and potentially even by which miners – the particular cobalt in a particular battery was produced. This could provide assurance that environmental and social abuses, such as child labour, or abuse of trade union rights – were not used in the production of the cobalt, or if they were, enable tracing and tackling the abuses for remedy or punishment. Access to remedy is fundamental, and represents the litmus test for blockchain technology’s utility in bridging the divide between abuse and remedy.

Technological limitations

Even though we use terms like blockchain, in reality there is no abstract entity called a blockchain. It is just a network of physical computers, owned by a variety of people, using an agreed-upon authentication protocol. Where are these physical computers, and what are their characteristics? Are they vulnerable to failure or compromise?

The application of blockchain to the cobalt supply chain raises the problem of capacity. It can be assumed that most small-scale producers, particularly so-called artisanal miners, will not have the resources or capacity to participate as a link in the chain. Artisanal mining, even though it is legal in the DRC and forms a large part of the country’s mining landscape, presents a huge challenge for the supply chain of cobalt. The industry is forced to sell through bigger operators, creating new opportunities for corruption and the input of questionable data. Technology does not ensure trust in the human sense.

There are geopolitical boundaries within the internet, therefore public blockchains may be difficult to implement in some regions, as could possibly be the case with the DRC. Furthermore, there are developing countries to whom rich countries or multinational corporations will try to sell specific implementations of data infrastructure. This may lock a developing country into one standard that is incompatible with others. Intercommunication and standardization between potentially thousands of actors in different regions in a value chain may be a problem.

Immutability is one of the words frequently used to describe blockchain, and it is this characteristic that makes it suitable for cryptocurrencies. However, it remains vulnerable to fraudulent or misidentified data, particularly at the beginning of the chain. Given the lengths that some employers have gone to avoid or falsify social audits, and the resources that some corporate and government actors have to undermine any system that restricts their behaviour, it would be naive to assume that this will never be attempted. Recent reports involving a major player in the diamond industry point to this as a real possibility. Serious allegations by a major international diamond trader, the Rapaport Group, have emerged against De Beers, accusing it of obscuring the source of origin of the diamonds it markets across its extended sightholder network. It is important to note that these allegations have been made against the backdrop of De Beers’ ground-breaking announcement about blockchain technology being implemented to track the origins of its diamonds and as proof of its ethical sourcing practice.

It all comes down to ensuring the integrity of not just the technology, but also the data that is input to the technology. The current players in the DRC cobalt mining industry do not, at least for now, inspire confidence towards ensuring that integrity. With the emergence of the supply chain sustainability standards, could blockchain technology be the bridge between abuse and remedy? That possibility will remain only aspirational unless this technology can be fully adapted to the non-mathematical characteristics of sustainability’s social dimension – and the quality of input data is assured. Blockchain technology does not alter the principle of “garbage in; garbage out”.

Potential pitfalls and unintended consequences

The traceability and verifiability of blockchain raises concerns about personal privacy. Granted, privacy is not an objective of its application to a value chain such as cobalt. However, it could be problematic if someone identified in the chain were to invoke the EU’s “right to be forgotten” legislation, for example. Removing one piece of data could potentially damage the entire chain. Businesses, too, have privacy concerns. How will these be addressed?

Is the proposal for a public blockchain, or a private one? If the former, who will set the rules and standards that govern it, and can they be enforced on a network of independently controlled nodes? If the latter, who would own it? There are at present different proprietary systems. Who will own the data?

Suppose that a particular lot of cobalt is identified as having child labour in its production or violations of the rights of workers, what then? Will blockchain help law enforcement? Will the cobalt itself be forever tainted, or it will be used nonetheless? A complication is that the metal can be melted and added to any other, becoming physically and chemically untraceable at that point – emphasizing the importance of chain-of-custody in sustainability reporting.

The proposal to use blockchain technology to trace a problematic raw material like cobalt emphasizes the difficulty that blockchain experts are data specialists, computer scientists, and cryptographers. Cryptocurrencies can be viewed as products of pure mathematics. However, the environmental and especially social dimensions of sustainability are not so neat and tidy. Social scientists, human rights lawyers, and ecologists are not typically experts in the technology. This gap would need to be bridged.

Credibility of the blockchain solution

 

Past attempts to solve complex social problems with a technological quick fix have often failed. Information technologies that were supposed to democratize the gathering and distribution of news have instead isolated, alienated and fragmented society. Blockchain is a technology. The problems in the cobalt supply chain are social, cultural, environmental, political and economic, and we must always be wary of unintended and unforeseen consequences, for example an explosion in energy consumption to support the blockchain, confounding of certification with truth, or corruption. If evidence of human rights abuses arise after the initiation of a blockchain, will its immutability become a liability rather than an asset?

Much of present knowledge of blockchains arises from cryptocurrencies. In contrast, performance in the social dimension of sustainability is notoriously difficult to evaluate. Typically, the data will be qualitative rather than quantitative, and to a degree subjective rather than objective. This does not make these social indicators less important than economic or environmental ones that are easier to measure and track. However, the attempt to apply blockchain to this problem is to try to apply a solution worked out for an easily quantifiable item – a unit of currency – to a social problem. There are at least two concerns here. One is the assumption that something that has social value can be assigned a monetary value that everyone would agree on. This is rarely, if ever, the case. Furthermore, even if we pretend that we are only assigning a numeric rating with no implied financial value, it becomes a hard number that falsely suggests a degree of scientific certainty.

The real state of virtue of a particular commodity, e.g. cadmium, can only be established by audit. There is an entire industry of people and organizations who specialize in social and environmental auditing, some connected to the traditional financial auditing houses, many independent of them. Blockchain will not change that. It is the output of such audits that will become part of the digital signature of a particular lot of cadmium, an electronic tag on that lot. Unfortunately, it will prove easier to verify the authenticity of the tag, than the real-world conditions under which the commodity was produced.

Alternative solutions

In the case of cobalt, managing the value-chain data could also be accomplished with a database, or a distributed ledger, without blockchain. One question to ask is, what value does a blockchain add that these other approaches lack? Are blockchains the best solution to the problem of verifying behaviour in the cobalt value chain?

Although there is promise in the use of protocols such as blockchain to verify or certify the value chain for cobalt, we should be cautious. It may not add very much benefit versus other, less complicated technologies. Finally, we should not confuse traceability or certifiability with virtue – a dimension of sustainability that will remain complex and difficult to quantify.

Ecopetrol unfairly dismisses union leaders in Colombia

USO'snational executive committee called the dismissals a flagrant violation of the current collective bargaining agreement. It also condemned the company’s attempts to use the unilateral guidelines on the dismissal of Ecopetrol workers to fire Ariel Corzo and Edwin Castaño, who are also members of the national executive committee.

The dismissals are part of a policy of criminalizing union work in Colombia, resulting in disciplinary, criminal and administrative proceedings against union leaders across all sectors nationwide.

The union says that both company management and the Colombian government systematically undermine union workers, in violation of both domestic and international labour standards.

The timing of the dismissals was no coincidence. Ecopetrol fired the workers shortly after USO had urged people to take to the streets in protest against the government's intention to sell off some of Ecopetrol's assets.

IndustriALL's general secretary, Valter Sanches, has written to the president of Colombia, Iván Duque, and the CEO of Ecopetrol, Felipe Bayón, calling on them to reinstate the dismissed workers and to ensure that the right to freedom of association is guaranteed both at Ecopetrol and in Colombia as a whole.

In his letter to President Duque, Sanches wrote:

“We urge your government to ensure that the necessary conditions and guarantees are in place to protect the right to freedom of association and the lives of all social and union leaders in Colombia.”

Canadian union blockades GM HQ to protest plant closure

GM made a commitment in the 2016 collective agreement to keep the Oshawa plant open. Despite this, no production has been allocated past 2019, meaning the plant will close. Two assembly plants in the US will also close, with production shifting to Mexico.

The union sees the closure as a “betrayal” after both the Canadian and US governments bailed GM out when it went bankrupt after the financial crisis. Vehicles produced in Mexico will be predominantly for the US and Canadian market.

“Workers in Canada will not forgive GM if it continues with the plan to close the Oshawa Assembly Plant and decimate the wider community,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President.

“For more than 100 years Oshawa has built and supported General Motors. Today’s actions by Unifor members send the message that GM must reverse the decision to close the plant.”

GM committed in the 2016 collective agreement to keeping the plants open. Under the terms of the agreement, GM has an obligation to keep the Oshawa plant open until at least September 21, 2020, after which restructuring plans will be negotiated.

The economic activity of the Oshawa assembly plant is responsible for 30,000 jobs in the wider economy.

IndustriALL director for the automotive industry, Georg Leutert, said:

“GM says it wants to move toward new technology, with more electric and autonomous vehicles. But this closure shows that the company isn’t focused on a shining future, but on pursuing an outdated vision based on cheap labour and short-term profit.”

For more information on the #SaveOshawaGM campaign visit SaveOshawaGM.ca.

Precedent set as Belarusian authorities register local union

IndustriALL affiliate the Belarusian Independent trade union of Miners, Chemists, Oil-refiners, Energy, Transport, Construction and other workers (BITU) received a notification of registration of its local organization on 15 January 2019 after the third application.

The local is not a new organization. Following restructuring at JSC Belaruskali, a potash fertilizer producer, some units of the company became separate subsidiaries. One unit became a new company named Remmontazhstroy.

Remmontazhstroy workers – many of them members of BITU for years – wanted to maintain their union membership and bargain collectively, but according to Belarusian legislation had to register as a new local organization of the union.

Some 400 people held a founding assembly and duly announced the creation of their local. However, in June 2018, the Soligorsk municipality denied the registration without explanation. BITU appealed the decision in court.

Remmontazhstroy workers appealed to the government, and asked the international trade union community for support. IndustriALL Global Union, ITUC and IUF sent letters to the President of Belarus.

The BITU president Nikolay Zimin states,

“Registration of a trade union organization should be an ordinary procedure that would not take so much time, energy and effort. If people decide to join a trade union, they should not be discouraged or pressured. And public authorities should ensure that the expression of human will is fully respected.”

Unfortunately, other independent trade unions in Belarus still struggle to register locals for arbitrary reasons.

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

“IndustriALL believes that such a long and exhausting registration process is unacceptable. The entire process of registration must be based on notification and not a permission from the state authorities.”

“All those who submitted their applications for registration of their unions or structural subdivisions must be granted such registration immediately.”

Sistema Plastics workers win 16 per cent wage increase

Sistema is owned by the US-based Newell Brands, a large multinational that produces plastic containers. The new Sistema factory in Manakau, Auckland, New Zealand employs around 500 process workers. Before this collective agreement, the workers who are mostly migrant workers from Pacific Islands, India and the Philippines, were paid the legal minimum in wages and conditions, with very long working hours, and no structured way to raise their concerns with management.

Throughout the year-long campaign the management refused to bargain in good faith, or offer any increase in wages and conditions, above the legal minimum.

IndustriALL Global Union and the United Steelworkers wrote to the Sistema Plastics CEO, demanding that the company negotiates in good faith, a new agreement that improves the unacceptable wages and conditions. 

After months of being frustrated by the management stalling negotiations, workers took industrial action for the first time in late November, when the night shift workers walked out. The day shift workers walked out two days later and formed a large picket in front of the plant. Other strikes followed and were voted for by over 90 per cent of the members voting to strike.

The determined workers’ struggle delivered an improved offer from management that was accepted by a workers’ ballot last week. The deal will lift wages by about 16 per cent for all members, by April 2020. Also included are provisions so that workers are always paid a margin above the minimum wage.

Sistema has also agreed to regular meetings between union delegates and its management to resolve issues.

“The agreement is a big step forward and will see us working in a much better workplace than before,” says E tū delegate and Sistema worker, Maria Latu.

E tū advocate, Mat Danaher said:

“These are low paid workers, who work extremely long hours. They’ve been prepared to walk off the job numerous times to get what they want at considerable personal cost. Through it all they’ve stood strong, and this is a well-deserved win.”

IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan said,

“We are proud to be associated from afar with these inspirational E tū members. The example set by the Sistema workers is that when you stand united, and demand respect, you win your union rights. Great job comrades.”

Link to E tū Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/EtuUnion/

Zimbabwe union leader arrested after general strike call

The arrest comes after more than a week of turmoil in Zimbabwe that left 12 people dead and hundreds injured. Police and soldiers, responding to mass demonstrations on 14 January, used live ammunition on protesters.

On 15 January, police raided the home of ZCTU president Peter Mutasa, destroying property. He was not home at the time, and his whereabouts are unknown. His brother, who was home, was severely beaten. Mutasa’s “crime” was recording and circulating a video calling on workers to take part in the general strike from 14-16 January to peacefully protest government policy.

Japhet Moyo – who was not in Zimbabwe at the time of the strike call – was arrested at the airport upon his return to the country and charged with subversion for the part he allegedly played.

The president of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, Obert Masaraure, was abducted, tortured and imprisoned. According to a tweet, in his last call to a friend he says: “I’m not ok; they (security forces) are breaking in.”

Zimbabwe is experiencing a spiraling financial crisis. A currency collapse in 2009 lead the country to use the US dollar instead of its own currency, but it lacks the foreign exchange reserves to meet its obligations. Prices have risen dramatically, and purchasing power has collapsed. Early in January, the country’s 305,000 civil servants gave notice of strike action after they were paid in the local currency called the bond note instead of dollars.

On 12 January, the government raised fuel prices by over 200 per cent, making Zimbabwean petrol the most expensive in the world. The next day, the ZCTU called a three-day general strike, which was supported by a number of civil society organizations. Widespread anger led thousands to take part in mass demonstrations – not called for by the ZCTU – which included looting and property destruction. This led to a brutal crackdown by the security forces. The government also shut down the internet, making communication difficult.

IndustriALL Global Union general secretary Valter Sanches wrote to Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, calling on him release Japhet Moyo and guarantee the safety of Peter Mutasa:

“We are calling for an end to the persecution and harassment of union leaders, and for the government to engage in social dialogue that involves trade unions and other stakeholders to resolve the economic crisis in Zimbabwe and to arrest the hyperinflation environment that is impoverishing workers. We believe that sound economic policies, whose formulation is inclusive, are some of the ways to deal with the crisis.”

ILO puts people first in future of work report

A Universal Labour Guarantee, social protection from birth to old age and an entitlement to lifelong learning are among ten recommendations made by the ILO’s Global Commission on the Future of Work.

The commission, which was set up in October 2017, is co-chaired by South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, two former leaders of trade unions affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union. 

"Countless opportunities lie ahead to improve the quality of working lives, expand choice, close the gender gap, reverse the damages wreaked by global inequality. Yet none of this will happen by itself. Without decisive action we will be sleepwalking into a world that widens existing inequalities and uncertainties," the report stresses. 

The “Work for a brighter future” report arrives at a tumultuous time as digitization, automation and robotics transform the world of work. It proposes a human-in-command approach to artificial intelligence and calls for greater investment in people’s capabilities, the institutions of work, and decent sustainable work. 

“Workers need to upskill throughout their lives. Governments, workers, employers and educational institutions have to build a lifelong learning system. This report provides concrete ways of doing it,” said the South African president at the launch ceremony. 

Among the ten recommendations are: 

The report calls on governments to ensure collective representation of workers and employers through social dialogue as a public good, actively promoted through public policies. “All workers must enjoy freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, with the State as the guarantor of those rights,” it states. 

“This is a strong report that provides the foundations to build a platform for a just and equitable world of work based on social dialogue, investment in people, social protections and protecting fundamental workers’ rights,” said Valter Sanches, IndustriALL’s general secretary. 

"We call on all of our affiliates to take part in discussions of the report, and to put pressure on their governments to adopt its recommendations through public policies, legislation, and regulation. We expect governments and employers to fully support the report's recommendations, given that they were developed in a consensus process that included representatives of the social partners."