Chemical and pharmaceutical unions push for worker protections at ILO global forum

IndustriALL affiliates met with representatives of employers and governments at the meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, which resulted in Points of Consensus that underline the importance of social dialogue in managing the changes of digitalization and Industry 4.0.

Tony Devlin, from UK and Ireland affiliate union, Unite, and spokesperson for the Workers’ Group at the meeting, said: 

“Our members throughout this sector are already experiencing significant changes to their jobs and working conditions from the digitalization process. Workers must have a seat at the decision-making table in order to ensure that none are left behind during these technological advancements.”

The Workers’ Group consisted of representatives from IndustriALL affiliates in 12 countries – Belgium, Brazil, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States – as well as representatives from the International Trade Union Confederation and ACTRAV, the ILO workers’ bureau. 

“As the driving force for these technological transformations of the industry is presently to reduce costs, there is a clear danger that rather than benefiting society, advanced digitalization and related technologies will only re-enforce a race-to-the-bottom mentality in the industry,” said the Workers’ Group in a statement to the plenary. 

“However, there is an opportunity for these technologies to be introduced in a mutually beneficial manner, with better working conditions, increased leisure time, life-long learning, social protection, and a cleaner environment, while protecting workers' rights.”

The Workers’ Group called for extensive analysis of the knowledge and skills possessed by today’s workers in the industries, and research into how best to bridge any skills gap with education and training opportunities.

Social dialogue is key to developing sound policies in the public interest, argued the Workers’ Group, as well as strong social protection programmes necessary to underpin a Just Transition to the new world of work. 

The Workers’ Group called for defined levels of privacy at home and at work to be included in collective bargaining agreements, as new technologies enable companies to harvest huge amounts of personal data. 

“Work life balance is becoming increasingly blurred by these technologies, with workers expected to be online and responsive 24 hours a day. This undermines the Working Time Directive in the European Union,” added the Workers’ Group.

The 17 Consensus Points include points on: 

“IndustriALL Global Union wants a future of work that embraces the positive impacts that Industry 4.0 may bring for all of society while making sure that workers aren’t left to pay the social debts of companies, with governments unwilling to make this transition socially responsible. We cannot allow the benefits to be privatized and the costs to be socialized,” said IndustriALL’s assistant general secretary, Kemal Ôzkan. 

The full Points of Consensus can be found here. 

German union IG BCE secures guarantees as Bayer set to slash jobs

Bayer will also sell off its Scholl foot-care business and Coppertone skin care range, alongside its animal healthcare division. 

"We have ensured that employees are protected against redundancies until the end of 2025. In addition, there are guarantees for the workforce in the subsidiaries for sale, while firm commitments for investments in the German locations provides a viable foundation for averting undue hardship for Bayer employees during this time of uncertainty,” said IG BCE President Michael Vassiliadis to German media. 

The job losses will impact around 10 per cent of the company’s workforce, affecting a "significant number" in Germany where it has around 31,000 employees. 

The announcement comes after a fall in Bayer’s share price by more than a third this year after a take-over of Monsanto. A historic US court decision in August 2018, ruled that Monsanto’s weedkiller ‘Roundup’ had caused a man’s cancer, leading to thousands more lawsuits against the company.

More than a thousand Bayer workers staged a demonstration against the job losses on 30 November at the company’s biotechnology plant in Wuppertal, West Germany, where at least 350 of the 12,000 jobs are set to go. 

“This is a very radical decision by Bayer to cut one in ten jobs throughout its operations. It is not fair that workers are asked to pay the price for changes that they have no control over,” said Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL. “IG BCE has importantly secured a guarantee for its members through a joint declaration to protect the rights and living standards of the affected workers and their families.”

German-based Bayer acquired Monsanto in June 2018 for US$63 billion creating the world's biggest seeds and pesticides company. Bayer plans to focus on pharmaceuticals, consumer health and crop science.

“We want an industrialized Africa” say IndustriALL affiliates

“Africa should boost its manufacturing, which is low according to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization,” said Issa Aremu, Vice-President of IndustriALL representing Sub-Saharan Africa. “The focus should be on manufacturing and value addition that creates decent jobs.”

“We cannot talk of industrialization and Industry 4.0 without infrastructural development. Energy policies are important and access to electricity critical,” Arremu added.

Even though there has been economic growth over the last two decades, the African continent has not seen a rise industrialization. Growth has been the result of expansion of domestic markets and some macroeconomic developments, favorable commodity prices, urbanization and increasing public and private investment.

The conference stressed that the development model of low-tech extraction and export of raw materials including minerals, oil and gas, and agricultural products isn’t working. African industry generates merely US$700 of GDP per capita, compared to US$2,500 in Latin America and US$3,400 in East Asia.

The conference recommended an alternative development model will be one anchored-on manufacturing, responsible mining, sustainable industrial policies, fair trade, Just Transition and living wages, and should be in sync with the UN Sustainable Development Goals especially on green and decent jobs. 

However, the success of an alternative model is hinged on the political will of governments and strong national institutions, reforming international finance institutions approaches to development, responsive multinational companies, sustainable environmental policies, and the essential involvement of civil society organizations and communities. 

“Africans live in poorness surrounded by richness,” said IndustriALL’s Assistant General Secretary, Kemal Özkan. “This cannot be the destiny of our African sisters and brothers. Industrialization is the best route for change and a means to promote economic and social policies that benefit African people.” 

Participants agreed that unions must have a say in shaping economic and social policies as important actors representing workers. Fair representation of young workers, education and lifelong learning, and innovation in collective bargaining are needed for changing workplaces. 

The conference recommended that unions adopt some of the recommendations of The Africa Mining Visionwhich articulates what should be done for mineral resources to support sustainable industrialization. 

The participants decided to take action vis-à-vis African Union as part of the ongoing campaign for sustainable industrial development, and design and develop national plans and actions through IndustriALL’s national affiliates’ councils.

“Our campaign of Africa Industrialization is critically important for our affiliates in Sub-Saharan African countries. IndustriALL Global Union will continue to support its affiliates” said Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary.

The conference, hosted by IndustriALL Global Union and its affiliates in Sub Saharan Africa, was supported by the International Labor Organization (ILO), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), national trade union centers and civil society organizations.

Strong union presence in renewables is key to future

Participants from Austria, Belgium, Germany, India, Japan, Poland, Spain, Sri Lanka and Sweden shared their experiences. Development of the renewables industry is uneven across the world, but there is a clear direction of travel, and a lot to learn from countries where development is advanced.

Opening the meeting, Rainer Wimmer, president of Austrian affiliate Pro-Ge and sector co-chair said:

“As mechanical engineers and trade unionists, technology is the most important contribution we can make to mitigating climate change. We need wind, we need solar, we need biomass. And we need strong unions to ensure that energy transition is just.”

Angelika Thomas of German affiliate IG Metall said:

“I was a delegate at COP24. We are very happy with the Silesia Declaration, which is a commitment to address the social dimensions of climate change through a Just Transition.”

Equipment manufacturing is an essential part of the renewable energy supply chain, which is why IndustriALL affiliates in mechanical engineering are keen to organize employees in this growing sector. The meeting discussed opportunities to use global framework agreements and trade union networks with energy and equipment manufacturing companies.

Matthias Hartwich, IndustriALL director for mechanical engineering, said:

“This is new work. We’re bringing together experts from the mechanical engineering sector who work in renewables to discuss the jobs of the future. This meeting is a laboratory, where we organize learning experiences from each and discover which direction our unions need to move in.”

The renewable sector in Sweden is comparatively mature, especially when it comes to hydro-power. IF Metall president Marie Nilsson explained the growth potential, saying:

“We’re not afraid of new technology – we’re afraid of old technology. Gothenburg is the industrial backbone of Sweden, and we are seeing big investment in the region. The population is growing, and Industry 4.0 is changing jobs. Unemployment is at a record low. Our problem is a skills shortage.”

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary, addressed the meeting by video conference, and said:

“We need a network for the renewable sector that works in close cooperation with the energy and electronics sectors.

“The network must have a strong focus on organizing, and be able to respond with solidarity support where there is conflict.”

The meeting included a visit to the SKF bearing factory, established in the city in 1907. SKF bearings are used in wind and tidal turbines, as well as in transport, robotics, processing and every industrial field that contains moving parts. Slight efficiency improvements in rotation result in cumulatively tremendous energy savings.

The SKF factory is highly automated, with the workforce shifting from blue to white collar. But the blue collar union on site, IF Metall, believes that work will change rather than disappear.

“To paraphrase an old saying from the workers’ movement”, said local IF Metall president, Zarko Djurovic, “the worker of the future will program a machine in the morning, talk to customers in the afternoon, and develop a new production process in the evening. This is an evolution of work.”

2017 was another record-breaking year for renewable energy, characterized by the largest ever increase in renewable power capacity, falling costs, increases in investment and advances in enabling technologies. According to reports, 10.3 million people were working in renewable energy in 2017, with 60 per cent of the jobs in Asia. Of renewable energy jobs, solar power was the largest employer with nearly 3.4 million jobs.

All participants at the meeting agreed to continue with the work and cooperate closely with neighbouring sectors like energy and ICT, Electrics and Electronics to organize and ensure union power in future-oriented workplaces.

Austrian, Croatian and Slovenian textile unions cooperate on organizing

On the second day, national and local union representatives were joined by the Croatian government, employers and institutes on technology and vocational training to discuss how to work together on developing a thriving textile-leather industry with a qualified workforce, industry-level collective agreement and living wages.

The national seminar was part of an EU-funded project under the title “Strengthening the capacity of trade unions in South-East Europe to improve wages and working conditions in the garment and footwear sectors”, carried out in cooperation between industriAll Europe and IndustriALL Global Union. The project targets seven countries in the region: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia.

Austrian investment in Croatia is considerable. Therefore, on the first day of the seminar, a session was dedicated to concrete cooperation on organizing workers and reaching collective agreements at major factories of Austrian leather processing companies Boxmark and Wollsdorf, which together employ more than 3,500 workers in Croatia and almost 2,000 in Slovenia.

Austrian and Slovenian national and local level representatives of Boxmark and Wollsdorf attended the seminar and agreed on the follow-up.

“We took important steps today on concrete cross-border cooperation to increase union density and reach collective agreements," said Gerald Kreuzer of Austrian industrial and commercial union Pro-Ge, who together with his colleagues presented a case study on organizing in Austria. This was followed by training on organizing techniques and the use of global framework agreements (GFA). Both Austrian companies are suppliers to GFA partner companies Daimler, BMW, PSA, Renault and VW. 

Croatia´s textile, garment and leathers industries employ 24,000 workers, which is considerably less than in some other South-East European countries such as Romania or Bulgaria. 

The minimum wage in Croatia is 462 euros per month, increasing again by 9 per cent in 2019. Average monthly net wages in the textile and leader sectors are around 530 euros. This is a clearly higher level than in the neighbouring countries, prompting Croatia to try to compete with other means such as a highly skilled workforce, innovation, new technologies, and high value-added products. 

A Croatian speciality is the Faculty of Textile Technology which focuses on education and research on innovative technologies, automation and Industry 4.0. Every year 200 students graduate and everybody will get a job. However, many of the recent top students have left Croatia for careers with better pay in Sweden, Germany, France and even China.

“We have to find ways to keep people in Croatia,” said professor Dubravko Rogale. “Minimum wage hikes and general salary increases may encourage employers to take an interest in their workers.”

Danijela Pustahija Musulin from the Agency on Vocational Education and Training (ASOO) was on the same line: “Employers have to see their workers as an investment and not cost factors. There are growth opportunities in the sector, but we need to attract young people and offer them skills and new competencies.”

Nenad Leček, President of the textile workers´ union TOKG, confirmed that his union was a partner for cooperation to make the sector thrive, but there was a need to do more to get rid of the bad image of the textile and leather sector.

“We have to focus on wages which today are below a decent level, while foreign companies are making huge profits. We need a sectoral collective agreement to offer protection for workers and a more level playing field for companies,” insisted Leček.

Ana Falak, Director of the Textile and Leather Association of the HUP employer organisation, was open for continued dialogue with TOKG: “We have discussed a branch collective agreement and have not found major obstacles, as many companies already have local CBAs. There are good experiences from the construction sector, but we also need some support from the government.”

Ivana Tabak from the Ministry of Labour said the government supported social dialogue. Ante Rezo from the Ministry of Economy acknowledged the importance of the textile-leather industry which needs support, contributing also through indirect employment to keeping communities alive in many parts of the country.

IndustriALL Global Union’s Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan stated:

“The Croatian textile industry has important development potential.  But unless workers are treated with respect and properly paid for their work, they will continue to go away and deprive the country of much needed skills.  Decent wages and working conditions are key to ensuring a sustainable textile industry in Croatia.”  

Luc Triangle, General Secretary of industriAll European trade union, underlined the conditions for the Textile, Clothing, Leather and Footwear industry to have a future in Croatia: 

“In an intermediate country like Croatia, we need to invent a new development model for the textile, clothing, leather and footwear sectors, based on higher wages and better working conditions, obtained through sector collective agreements. This is the only way for the industry to attract and retain its workforce, and to maintain its long tradition of excellence. For this to happen, we need international solidarity among workers, the cooperation of big brands, and the continued pressure of NGOs on them. I call for win-win-win progress for brands, for Croatian employers and for Croatian workers.”

IndustriALL mounts pressure on Volkswagen to engage with US union

Three years ago, on 4 December, 2015, 70 per cent of the skilled workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, USA, voted to be represented by the UAW.

But instead of entering into bargaining with the union, Volkswagen has repeatedly taken legal action against the vote, including an appeal against the ruling of the National Labor Relations Board from August 2016, which ruled in favour of the UAW.

IndustriALL general secretary Valter Sanches, says that the behaviour contravenes Volkswagen’s good practices elsewhere around the world with regards to workers’ rights and social dialogue:

“This is not only in violation of US law, but also violates the ‘Declaration on Social Rights and Industrial Relationships at Volkswagen’ signed in June 2002.”

On 30 November, 2018, IndustriALL’s Executive Committee unanimously adopted a resolution demanding Volkswagen to urgently withdraw from litigating against unions. If not, IndustriALL Global Union sees no other option than suspending the Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with Volkswagen (“Declaration on Social Rights and Industrial Relationships at Volkswagen”), as the strongest sign of disagreement available.

Working relationships with Volkswagen are valuable and have proven to be effective and beneficial for millions of workers working directly or indirectly for Volkswagen worldwide.

In a resolution passed by the Global Group Works Council of Volkswagen last week on 6 December, the elected Volkswagen trade unionists from all over the world supported the demand for an immediate recognition of the skilled workers in Chattanooga.

“We protest against the fact that Volkswagen has still not accepted the election of the maintenance workers and has not complied with related bargaining rights and thereby tries to use the anti-union legal environment in the USA to avoid entering into collective bargaining.”

With further examples of workers’ and trade union rights at stake at other manufacturing plants in southern USA, IndustriALL will continue to monitor other multinationals present in the region and coordinate appropriate action to guarantee respect for workers’ rights.

Unions in Hungary protest against “slavery law”

Workers and unions took to the streets of Budapest on 8 December to voice their opposition and to protest against the government’s attempt to increase working hours at workers’ expense by favouring companies’ interests.

The government of Hungary wants to introduce an anti-employee amendment of the Hungarian Labour Code, which would allow employers to raise workers’ allowable overtime from 250 to 400 hours a year and watering down of other labour regulations. If passed, the government-proposed change could mean an extra working day a week and the reference period for calculating working time would be extended from 12 to 36 months.

The right-wing Hungary’s government arguing that there is a growing labour shortage in the country, and that is why workers need to work more. According to Hungarian unions, the country still has the lowest wages in Europe.

Said IndustriALL general secretary Valter Sanches:

IndustriALL calls on Hungary’s government to act in strict accordance with national and international core labour standards. Improving competitiveness should not be based on deteriorating workers’ position and cutting their rights.

At its Executive Committee meeting on 29-30 November 2018, IndustriALL discussed the anti-employee amendment of the Hungarian Labour Code and unanimously adopted a resolution, standing in solidarity with the Hungarian workers and their unions.

The Hungarian parliament will discuss the proposal on 12 December.

Bangladesh government attempts to paralyze Accord and strip its independence

In its submission to the Court regarding the Accord’s appeal against an order that it cease operating in Bangladesh from 30 November, the government has stated that the Accord should only be allowed to continue operations in Bangladesh under a set of highly obstructive constraints which strip the globally-respected safety initiative of its ability to operate independently of government and employer control. The constraints include that this will be the last extension allowed to the Accord maintaining its office in Dhaka.

The government’s conditions, if accepted by the Supreme Court, would destroy the independence of the Accord by subjecting all Accord decisions to the approval of a government committee. Another condition prohibits Accord inspectors from identifying any new safety violations, effectively requiring them to ignore deadly hazards found during their inspections, such as faulty alarm systems, blocked fire exits, and cracks in structural columns. Yet another prevents the Accord from taking any action against factory owners who threaten or fire workers for raising safety complaints.

At a hearing on 6 December where the Accord’s response to the constraints on its operations was tabled, the government requested another hearing on 10 December to allow time to consider the response. Today, the Government has requested, and been granted, a further delay until 17 December. With no clear direction, the future of the Accord continues to hang in the balance.

The global union signatories to the Accord – IndustriALL and UNI – and the four witness signatories – Clean Clothes Campaign, International Labor Rights Forum, Maquila Solidarity Network, and Worker Rights Consortium – call on Bangladesh’s trading partners and global apparel brands to press the government of Bangladesh to refrain from imposing these shocking impediments to the Accord continuing its life-saving work.

The Accord has been instrumental in radically improving the safety of garment factories in Bangladesh since it was established in the wake of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013 that claimed over a thousand lives. The Accord has identified more than 100,000 fire, building, and electrical hazards and the large majority have been rectified. Over two million workers have participated in safety training in over 1,000 factories.

Despite this progress, dangers remain and workers’ lives are still at risk. Over 50% of the factories still lack adequate fire alarm and detection systems and 40 per cent are still completing structural renovations.

The Government’s conditions would make it impossible for the Accord to identify and report on any new safety hazards, to support factories towards completing life-saving renovations, to respond to worker complaints about safety hazards, and to continue vital health and safety training for workers and managers. A permission to operate under such conditions is no permission at all.

If the government of Bangladesh does not urgently lift these constraints, in order to preserve the standard and independence of its operations, the Accord will have no other choice than to continue to operate from its Amsterdam headquarters, re-locating management of its inspection, remediation and training programs and engaging subcontractors for implementation. This will necessarily have implications for its capacity to support factories in remediation, leading to brands having to terminate their business relationships with more factories that are still not safe.

The Accord has long committed to handing over its functions to a suitable national regulatory body, however the government’s Remediation and Coordination Cell (RCC) is still in an early stage of development. There is broad consensus among stakeholders, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), Bangladesh’s major trading partners, and brands, that the RCC is not yet ready to perform the inspection tasks of the Accord and has no proven record of enforcing safety in the factories under its purview.

The Accord is committed to building up the capacity of the RCC and to cooperation with the government and its inspection bodies to ensure a smooth transition. It has already submitted a plan of how this can be done, but the government has so far failed to comment on it.

A genuine transition plan for factory inspections, safety trainings, and a worker complaint mechanism will need much more time and genuine engagement by the government. It will not be possible unless the Accord is able to continue its operations without restriction. The Accord is a private contract that will remain binding upon the signatory brands until 2021, or until the RCC is demonstrably ready.

The Bangladesh Accord is widely considered by brands, multi-stakeholder initiatives, trade unions, NGOs, investors, government representatives and politicians to be the only credible safeguard for factory safety in Bangladesh. International pressure mounted in the run-up to the court hearing for the Accord to be allowed to continue to operate in Bangladesh until such time as factory safety can be guaranteed by the government.

Bangladesh’s trading partners, including the EU, Canada and the US, want their brands to be able to rely on the Accord to ensure their supplier factories are safe, a position exemplified by a European Parliament resolution. The three funders of Bangladesh’s RCC – the Netherlands, Canada and the UK – should therefore urge the government of Bangladesh to lift any restrictions, report publicly on the progress of the inspection body, and stress the need for political will in Bangladesh to create a genuine transition plan that must also include safety trainings and a mechanism for worker complaints on safety hazards. If the government of Bangladesh does not allow the Accord to operate effectively and independently, trading partners will have to consider the impact this decision will have on their trade policy with Bangladesh overall. Unless the BGMEA and the Bangladesh government swiftly negotiate with the Accord a feasible way for its full operations to continue, the future prospects for favorable tariff treatment for Bangladeshi exports will be much dimmer.

If it wishes to avoid irreparable damage to Bangladesh’s reputation as an apparel exporter, rather than preventing the Accord from continuing its life-saving work, the government should focus on the development of a competent national regulatory body that can assure the safety of Bangladesh’s garment factories into the future.

Gender equality: not just an issue for women

One by one, myths about women working in male dominated industries were addressed and torn apart at a conference held in Cape Town, South Africa in October 2018, attended by women and men from IndustriALL affiliates across the world.

Each of the myths had been told to women at the conference in the course of their working and trade union lives. “Women are too weak to do physical work,” said the statement on the sheet of paper. Vida Brewu of the Ghana Mine Workers’ Union stepped up and neatly tore it in half.

“Women are too emotional to be union leaders.” Rose Omamo, general secretary of the Amalgamated Union of Kenyan Metal Workers, took care of that one.

“Women should stay at home with the children.”

“Women’s brains can’t understand technical issues.”

“Women don’t have the coordination to operate machinery.”

“Women bring bad luck to miners.”

“It is too expensive to provide facilities for women.”

“Women are less flexible, and won’t travel for work.”

“Women don’t want to do these jobs.”

All these myths must be confronted and challenged for women to be treated equally at work and in their unions.

“We have to be twice as good as men to be taken seriously,” said Lena Yuliana of Indonesian cement workers’ union FSP ISI. 
She shared her experience of doing emission monitoring at heights that terrify many men.

Other women shared similar experiences: Rose Omamo was one of the best mechanics in her company before becoming a union leader. Claudia Blanco, branch president at Sintracarbón in Colombia, drives a train to a coal terminal. Many women operate mining trucks, or work underground, or maintain equipment at utility companies.

The mining, base metals, materials and energy sectors provide skilled, well-paid and prestigious work, but the best jobs are dominated by men. Women working in these sectors tend to only have access to the most menial and precarious work, with the lowest wages and status. Unions have very few women in leadership positions, despite their presence in the sector, and consequently have difficulty to recruit women as members.

“Women’s committees have been discussing gender equality in employment and trade unions for decades,” said IndustriALL assistant general secretary Jenny Holdcroft.

“We won’t achieve it until men also get involved in working to remove the barriers to women’s equal participation and representation.

“Instead of expecting women to fit into existing structures, we need to change the way that work is organized, as well as how we look at leadership in our unions, so that women can take their place alongside men. This will benefit everyone, leading to better jobs and stronger unions.”

Union activists tortured in Iran as strike wave spreads

Workers at the Iran National Steel plant in Ahvaz have taken strike action on several occasions over the past year, in an ongoing dispute to demand unpaid wages and the return of their factory to public ownership. They have formed solidarity links with workers at the Haft Tappeh sugarcane complex in the city of Shush, who have been on strike for more than a month over unpaid wages and alleged corruption by managers.

There are also strikes at Abadan oil refinery, the Ahvaz Metro project, and among municipal employees in Hamidiyeh.

Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claims that the strikes are led by foreign enemies attempting to destroy the economy. But workers respond by describing Iran as “the House of Thieves – unique in the whole world”, insisting that “Our enemy is right here – they lie saying it’s America”.

On 18 November, a demonstration in Shush of 4,000 Haft Tapeh workers was attacked by security forces, and 18 prominent worker leaders were arrested. The next day, the sugarcane complex workers were joined in a solidarity rally by thousands of Ahvaz steel workers. The workers rallied in front of the governor's office, demanding the release of the activists.

Students at a number of universities also demonstrated in support.

The authorities released 14 of the activists, but Esmail Bakhshi, Mohamad Khanifar, Moslem Armand, Hosein Fazel and student activist Sepideh Gholian remain in prison.

There have been numerous reports that the activists are being tortured. This was confirmed recently when the families of Bakhshi and Gholian were able to visit them in prison. They reported that both had been subject to severe beatings and kept in solitary confinement. Bakhshi had severe bruising around the head. He had been pressurized to call off the strike.

IndustriALL Global Union’s Iranian affiliate, the Union of Metalworkers and Mechanics of Iran, said:

“We condem the severe physical and psychological conditions forced on Esmail Bakhshi and Sepideh Gholian and call for their immediate and unconditional release.

“The responsibility for their suffering lies directly with the Iranian state. We are deeply and increasingly concerned about their lives.

“We call on workers across Iran and around the world to campaign for the release of all those arrested.”

IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan said:

“This attempt to break the strike through violence and intimidation brings great shame on the Iranian regime. Workers are striking for the wages they have earned, and their leaders bravely suffer torture to defend them.

“Iran must respect trade unions rights and core ILO Conventions, in particular 87 and 98.  Trade unionists must be able to do their jobs without intimidation and harassment, and have the right to establish independent unions.”

Both the steel plant and the sugarcane complex were privatized in dubious circumstances. Private owners bought the plants cheaply and regularly fail to pay wages. The companies do not recognize independent unions, which sometimes succeed in winning back wages after taking wildcat action.