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 But this closure shows that the company isn’t focused on a shining future, but on pursuing an outdated vision based on cheap labour and short-term profit.”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." 

IndustriALL suspends global agreement with Volkswagen

At IndustriALL Global Union’s executive committee in December last year, there was a unanimous decision to suspend the global framework agreement, called the Declaration on Social Rights and Industrial Relations at Volkswagen, safeguarding workers’ rights, if the German car giant continued to refuse to allow workers at its plant in Chattanooga to join a union.

“We regret Volkswagen’s behaviour and as long as the company refuses to honour its 2002 commitment with IndustriALL we see no other alternative than to consider the agreement suspended as of today, while we consider further actions together with our affiliated unions,” says Valter Sanches, IndustriALL general secretary.

Skilled workers at Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga voted in December 2015 to join US union UAW. Not only has the democratic election result not been recognized in the workplace, Volkswagen is actively fighting it in court, trying to stop the workers from joining a union.

Volkswagen has appealed against a ruling of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in August 2016, which ruled in favour of the UAW, to stop the workers exercising their fundamental right of freedom of association.

In a letter to IndustriALL dated 15 January this year, the company states that it will accept the final ruling of the NLRB, but makes no reference to withdrawing its appeal from the NLRB’s previous ruling in favour of the UAW, which IndustriALL is demanding.

“We have good working relations with Volkswagen elsewhere in the world and suspending the GFA is unfortunate. But the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining is central to us,” Sanches continues.

“The vote held by the skilled workers at the Chattanooga plant is in accordance with ILO Convention No. 87 as well as US law, and Volkswagen must respect the right of the workers to freely choose their union.”

In a meeting in December, 2018 the World Works Council of Volkswagen Workers unanimously declared full solidarity with the VW workers in Chattanooga and defended their legitimate right to join the UAW.

Stop the war on wages and close the wealth gap

The report Public Good or Private Wealth shows the gap between rich and poor is growing as billionaires’ wealth increased US$2.5 billion a day in 2018. 

The Oxfam study is timed with the World Economic Forum’s meeting in Davos this week, where every year the global elite says more must be done to create a fairer society, but does absolutely nothing about it. 

Low taxes and offshore holdings are making companies and individuals rich beyond imagination and yet the desire to squeeze every last penny of profit is insatiable. This month, garment workers in Bangladesh have been protesting in their thousands calling for better wages as they earn a pittance making clothes for global brands, whose owners are among the top billionaires. 

At Shell, one of the world’s biggest companies, a recent mission by IndustriALL found contract workers in Nigeria living in poverty and unable to pay for basic healthcare, despite working decades at the oil and gas giant. 

In many countries, such as Brazil or Hungary, labour legislation to protect workers is being undermined or overturned.  

Trade unionists fighting for better wages and safe working conditions are under attack, often with the complicity of the judiciary, as seen in Zimbabwe, Belarus and Algeria. 

Industry 4.0 and energy transition are new threats to workers and the present model will only concentrate wealth into the hands of a smaller minority. The surge in contract, temporary and agency work further weakens workers’ bargaining power. 

Unless governments protect workers, stand up to multinational companies and listen to trade unions, nothing will change. 

After the first industrial revolution, trade unions fought for and won higher wages, safer conditions and social benefits. Now as the Fourth Industrial Revolution gathers pace, with rights eroded and real wages falling, trade unions must be ready to bargain for a just world of work.

It’s no surprise that the Spice Girls T-shirt was made by workers on poverty wages

A report in the Guardian has revealed that a charity T-shirt promoting women’s equality is made by Bangladeshi women earning well below a living wage. Sold for £19.40 for Comic Relief’s “gender justice” campaign, the women make just 35p per hour. The factory is part-owned by a government minister.

This follows a number of other sourcing scandals, including a case in 2015, when it was revealed that a campaign T-shirt with the slogan This is What a Feminist Looks Like was made by women on low wages in Mauritius. The workers were beaten by police for protesting against their working conditions.

This shows a failure in ethical procurement processes which should be standard in any charity – but it also reveals the difficulty of doing due diligence properly. Supply chains are opaque by design. Hiding the circumstances in which products are made allows retailers to claim plausible deniability. To put it simply, we cannot trust what retailers say about their sourcing practices, and self-regulation has no credibility.

We need transparency, strong unions and clear sourcing guidelines. This can only come about with a structural change in the relationships between production, sourcing and retail, with a clear role for workers’ representatives. IndustriALL Global Union has done a significant amount of work in changing these relations through developing binding agreements with global companies.

This work is most advanced in the ACT initiative, which is developing a new way to ensure accountability in supply chains, and guarantee that workers’ voices are heard.

IndustriALL is also calling for a UN treaty and an ILO Convention on supply chains. This work needs to go further, and crucially, more brands need to come on board and support initiatives that deliver true accountability.

Belarusian trade union case raised with the EU

Representatives of the international trade unions were received by Luc Devigne, Deputy Managing Director for Europe and Central Asia and Director for Russia, Eastern Partnership, Central Asia and OSCE and his team.

The union delegation expressed their anger and concerns over absence of democratic standards in Belarus resulting in demolition of civil society, including independent trade unions.

Belarussian authorities systematically deny registration of structures of independent trade unions under invented pretexts in violation of national legislation as well as international standards.

For years Belarus remains under special scrutiny almost at every International Labour Conference. The ILO Committee on the Application of Standards cited Belarus in special paragraph of its report a number of times. This is a procedure reserved for consistent and serious violations of labour rights, including those enshrined in core labour standards.

"We expect that the European Union will continue to put human, trade union and workers' rights first in their conversations with the Belarusian government. The situation in Belarus is highly critical and the European Union has the key in hand to change the reality for Belarusian people and workers", said Luc Triangle, General Secretary of IndustriAll European Trade Union.

The international organizations raised the “Trade union case” where in an unfair trial and in the absence of convincing evidence, two union leaders from Belarus Radio & Electronics Industry Workers’ Union, Gennady Fedynich and Ihar Komlik, were convicted for large-scale tax evasion and ordered to pay a large fine. Both are subjects to a four-year suspended imprisonment, and a ban on holding senior positions for five years.

In their joint letter, ITUC, IndustriALL, ETUC and IndustriAll Europe wrote to Vice-President Mogherini, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union condemned this court’s verdict, and the decision to reject the appeal.

The international union organizations believe the verdict is politically motivated and done in retaliation to the union for its active stance within the society. The verdict is an attempt to seed fear among activists and block them from resisting the inhuman Decree “On promotion of employment of population” also known as the Decree on social parasites.

Fedynich and Komlik became prisoners in their flats, their moving around is undermined, and certain hours of the day, on weekends and public holidays they cannot go out.

“They are clearly political prisoners of conscience,” said Kemal Özkan, “We once again urged the EU to raise the issue of political prisoners in Belarus with the authorities of the country and support our demand to review the verdict, and provide a full and unconditional acquittal for Fedynich and Komlik.”

The international unions expect that respect to democracy, human and trade union rights must be part of the priorities of the intended Partnership between the EU and Belarus, and jurisprudence of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights must be among the references.

In the meantime, as of 1 January 2019, the notorious Decree 1 entered into force. It contains elements of forced labour and creates supplementary ways to manipulate workers’ rights in addition to fixed-term contracts system. In order to implement the new decree a special data base was set up, however a lot of concerns are risen due to its non-transparency.

Workers at Turkish Saint-Gobain subsidiary strike for a fair contract

Workers have begun an indefinite strike today demanding better pay and working conditions after failure to agree a first contract between the Kristal-İş union and İzocam management. IndustriALL Global Union affiliate Kristal-İş represents some 180 İzocam workers in two workplaces, the Tarsus, Mersin plant, which produces glass wool, and the Gebze plant, which produces mineral wool.

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.

During the campaign, company management took a hostile anti-union position and attitude against workers who joined the union, a basic right guaranteed by the Constitution of Turkey, as well as international labour conventions. Soon after Kristal-İş first applied to the Ministry of Labour for recognition, company management became aware of the drive and dismissed four organizers.

To establish mutual trust during the contract negotiations, Kristal-İş offered a reasonable transition process envisaging a steady increase in real wages, social benefits, overtime and night work, paid holidays, and improved health and safety measures through a two-year collective agreement. In return, the company offered a three-year contract with below-inflation pay increases, described by the union as “a mockery of İzocam workers who have been patiently waiting for their first collective bargaining agreement for five years.”

The company also refuses to rehire the four workers unjustly laid-off for leading union organizing almost five years ago.

There are 21 articles of the collective agreement subject to disagreement, 20 of them regarding wages and benefits.

Matthais Hartwich, IndustriALL director for the materials industries, said:

“I think it is unworthy of a company like Saint-Gobain to tolerate this kind of delay in its Turkish operation İzocam. Kristal-İş has struggled for years for recognition and for fair negotiations, and again local management is playing tricks and trying to delay the process.

“It is high time to come to a fair agreement. IndustriALL stands in solidarity with the men and women working at İzocam and organized in Kristal-İş.”

İzocam is jointly owned by Saint-Gobain and Kuwaiti investment company Alghanim.