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.

Expanded training centre opens for shipbreaking workers in India

One of its kind in the South Asia region, the training centre, which educates and train shipbreaking workers on safe and sustainable recycling of ships, has been expanded with added facilities and was inaugurated on 13 March 2019.

Speaking at the launch, Harbhajan Singh Sidhu, general secretary of trade union centre, Hind Mazdoor Sabha, said:

“ASSRGWA made a significant contribution and worked to improve the lives of shipbreaking workers, who are almost exclusively migrant and precarious workers and some of the most vulnerable workers in the world.”

Kan Matsuzaki, IndustriALL director for the shipbuilding and shipbreaking sector, commented:

“The training centre is a significant achievement of union solidarity in the shipbuilding, seafaring and shipbreaking sectors, to support a better environment for shipbreaking workers in the South Asia region. ASSRGWA’s efforts will inspire unions across the region to emulate establishing similar infrastructure and promote workers’ rights in their own countries.”

V. V. Rane, ASSRGWA’s general secretary, said,

“We thank all the stakeholders, including ship recycling employers, government representatives and the Gujarat Maritime Board for extending much needed cooperation. More importantly, consistent solidarity support from IndustriALL and FNV played a crucial role in strengthening ASSRGWA’s initiatives.”

Over 350 shipbreaking workers participated and the launch event, which was presided over by S. K. Shetye, president of ASSRGWA and witnessed participation from Apoorva Kaiwar IndustriALL South Asia regional secretary and representatives from employers and government officials.

Subsequently, Joop van Oord and Martjin van de Beurcht of FNV led the training of trainers programme in which 24 participants nominated by various ship recycling companies took part. The programme for safe and sustainable recycling of ships covered various aspects including communication, observation, colour code, safe handling of asbestos, appropriate use of personal protective equipment, safety from noise pollution, understanding and preventing causes and consequences of accidents, and safe use of wire rope, tools and shackles.

VDSz historic Hungarian Hankook strike settled with major gains

During the first week of the strike at the Dunaújváros plant, local management refused to talk with the union, strongly harassed and intimidated strikers, and offered 50 per cent wage increases to work during the strike.

Leading up to the full strike, VDSz first presented wage demands in mid-February, a lack of any good faith bargaining led to a 6 March two-hour warning strike that caused the company to increase pay by 13.6 per cent, however that increase was made without direct discussion with the union. The full strike began on 12 March demanding further and more evenly-distributed increases to pay and benefits.

With the strike still going strong after a week, and receiving wide solidarity support from unions in Hungary and abroad, corporate management from Hankook’s home country, South Korea, sat down with VDSz President Tamás and his team, and reached a settlement within 24 hours.

IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan stated:
“We are so proud of our sisters and brothers at VDSz. We salute the strikers’ commitment and bravery, as well as the skilled organizing and negotiating of President Székely’s team. Under the current anti-union environment in Hungary, VDSz is leading the struggle for workers’ rights. We now expect Hankook to fully recognize VDSz as its bargaining partner at Dunaújváros, and to ensure healthy industrial relations going forward.”

VDSz thanked IndustriALL Global Union and IndustriAll Europe, as well as affiliates from several countries for strong international support sent to the strikers.

The overall gains negotiated for workers combine different improvements that add up to an average of 18.5% increase. The settlement includes a 6% increase in shift allowance for all, improvement to the annual personal bonus, improvement of the seniority loyalty bonus, and fair distribution of wage increases.

As per the settlement, VDSz has agreed to drop its pending legal action against Hankook.

Production at the plant returned to normal on 22 March.

Africa energy network demands Just Transition

The network, which is supported by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Trade Union Competence Centre for Sub Saharan South Africa (FES-TUCC), met 12-13 March, Johannesburg, and rejected the unbundling of state-owned enterprises as a disguise for privatization. It supported the positions taken by South African affiliates, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) which strongly oppose the recent announcement by the government that the country’s power utility, Eskom, will be broken into three parts – generation, transmission and distribution.

In Zimbabwe, the network is supporting the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority’s bring together of its companies into one but with no job losses or removing of workers’ benefits. This move is reversing an earlier decision to unbundle.

In Eswatini the network condemned unfair dismissals and suspensions. It called for the reinstatement of 11 workers. Four were dismissed and 17 suspended by the eSwatini Electricity Company after a strike in January.

Participants at the meeting were drawn from 13 Sub-Saharan African countries that organize in the energy sector including in oil and gas. Formed a few years ago, the network initially catered for Southern Africa but has since been expanded to Sub Saharan Africa.

Bastian Schulz, director, FES-TUCC says:

“A sustainable energy transition in Sub-Saharan Africa and the final energy mix is of great interest to the FES because of the impact on jobs, communities, and sustainable development policies. It must be central to the labour movement in Africa, and unions must be included in the policy making.”

Diana Junquera Curiel, IndustriALL energy industry director stressed the importance of networks:

“As part of IndustriALL’s energy networks, SSAEN will align with other networks from Asia, MENA Region and Latin America. This is important in building the strength of the network. Importantly, the ability to create a rich pool of solidarity and learning among the affiliates is useful. Experiences that resonate with national issues can be adapted. This also builds the network’s knowledge and informs its response to the current issues.”

Diana Junquera Curiel presented the Shell Campaign as an example of the work of IndustriALL Global Union to confront global capital and that existing global framework agreements in multinational companies, Total and Eni, were useful examples of global social dialogue.

Brian Kohler, IndustriALL director of health, safety and sustainability says:

“A Just Transition is a pathway towards a sustainable future and reduces fear amongst workers by promoting fairness. It rests on sustainable industrial policy, robust social protection, and creative labour adjustment programmes.”

Brian Kohler further explained the energy options that exist for Sub Saharan Africa which include biofuel, biomass, co-generation, fossil fuel (coal, oil and gas), geothermal, landfill gas, nuclear, solar (photovoltaic and thermal), tidal, wave and wind.

United call for sustainable shipbreaking in Bangladesh

The tripartite meeting, held with the support of FNV and the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS), reviewed the current issues facing shipbreaking workers, including implementation of labour legislation and occupational health and safety.

Participants underlined the importance and urgency of ratifying the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships adopted in 2009.

Shipbreaking sector unions reported that despite progress in forming unions, workers continue to face dangerous working conditions, low wages, precarious work and an unfavorable environment to exercise workers’ rights. They urged government of Bangladesh to expedite the process to ratify the Hong Kong Convention.

Representatives of the Bangladesh Ship Breakers and Recyclers Association emphasized that gradual improvements are being made towards sustainable recycling of ships and improvements in working conditions.

Kan Matsuzaki, IndustriALL Director for Shipbuilding and Shipbreaking sector said:

“It is important build effective social dialogue and intensify efforts to ratify and implement the Hong Kong Convention. It is encouraging to see that employers and the government are open to working together with unions to move towards a sustainable ship recycling industry.”

Apoorva Kaiwar, IndustriALL South Asia Regional Secretary, said:

“Vulnerable working conditions in the shipbreaking sector can be effectively changed with tripartite initiatives. It is important to raise awareness of occupational health and safety issues and strengthen the political will towards the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships.”

The tripartite meeting committed to the campaign for the ratification of the Hong Kong Convention, as well as effective social dialogue for the betterment of workers and industry.

Participants agreed on the importance of improving government vigilance of yards to prevent workplace injury and death. Appropriate safety training should also be given to workers, as well as personal protective equipment, which they should be encouraged to use. All parties, which included the government, employers, and IndustriALL affiliated unions, committed to intensifying efforts towards a sustainable shipbreaking sector in Bangladesh.

Unpaid garment workers in Indonesia target South Korea

PT Selaras Kausa Busana (SKB) garment factory, located in Bekasi, West Java Province employed 4,000 workers, who are nearly all women, before it was abruptly abandoned by its South Korean owner in October last year.

The protesting workers, who are members of IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the National Industrial Workers Union Federation (SPN), demanded unpaid wages, social security premiums and severance pay on behalf of 2,000 workers who lost their jobs without any explanation in August and September last year.

Factory owner Kim Jae-Chul fled to Korea with 97 billion IDR (US$6.8 million) and shut down the factory in October 2018 leaving the workers and their families on uncertain conditions.

President of the factory union at SKB, President Miss Verawati, said:

“It is an obligation of the Indonesian government to protect their citizens’ rights and the Korean government bears responsibility due to the Korean owner’s illegal gain from the factory. We want the owner, Kim Jae-chul, to be brought back to Indonesia and pay back the workers’ salaries and other benefits. We also call on brands that sourced from SKB to take responsibility for workers in their supply chain. We want our rights.”

Workers at SKB have been earning lower than the Bekasi minimum wage since 2013, after SKB requested a wage-postponement to the Indonesian government. The factory, which began operating in 1990, has very poor working conditions, with bad ventilation, poor and dirty toilets, and no meals or canteens at the workplace. Workers also had to work long hours to meet company targets.

The workers formed a picket line outside the factory and applied to the Bekasi Labour Office to ask for mediation. However, the company management failed to make an agreement at the mediation meeting in November 2018. The union, SPN, has since filed a case at the Industrial Relations Court in Bandung and is preparing a new lawsuit with the Ministry of Manpower against the factory owner on the grounds of corruption.  

News that the company had failed to pay wages to more than 3,000 employees gained widespread media attention in South Korea, and on 7 March the country’s president, Moon Jae-in, ordered a probe into SKB. The government is also due to carry out a fact-finding mission to Indonesia.

The situation at SKB is not an isolated case, according to SPN President, Djoko Heriyono, who says there are dozens more South Korean garment investors who have run away and fled to their home country.

SPN and the LIPS (Sedane Labour Resource Centre) have begun working together to expose South Korean direct investments in Indonesia that are violating Indonesian labour laws by paying under the national minimum wage, forcing workers to work long hours in precarious conditions or engaging in verbal or non-verbal violence. This cooperation already identified 22 such Korean garment investors in the country.