The announcement on the national minimum wage on 6 November came when the unions were on the brink of going on strike which has since been called off. The old minimum wage of N18,000 ($50) was no longer enough for workers to meet the basics including food, transport, housing, health and education and other necessities. The buying power of the minimum wage set up in 2010 had been eroded by inflation. Further, the unions were concerned by the late payment of the wages, even on the paltry old minimum wage, in 33 of the country’s 36 states.
IndustriALL Global Union’s seven affiliates in Nigeria, organizing in the energy, engineering, oil and gas, and textile and garments, welcome the announcement and are calling on the government to speedily gazette the wages into law so that employers can start paying them. Initially, the unions wanted the minimum wages to be increased to over N65,000 (US$179) and are taking an incremental approach.
Says Issa Aremu, IndustriALL Vice President and general secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria:
“Whilst we welcome the minimum wages, the struggle for living wages continue. Nigerian workers should be paid decent wages to get rid of cases of the working poor – workers who live in poverty yet they are employed. The workers’ living conditions must improve, and higher wages can assist in achieving that goal. Efforts must also be made to end precarious work.”
The unions say the Federal Government of Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan and the National Industrial Revolution Plan can boost the struggling economy. They argue that if fully implemented these plans have the potential to revive industries including in the textile and garment sector and to create sustainable jobs.
Further, the unions are recommending that Nigeria, which gets 80 per cent of its export revenue from crude oil, must move away from exporting raw materials by increasing its manufacturing value addition from the current 5 per cent. The country also needs to develop infrastructure such as roads and improve on the provision of electricity as some of the ways to stimulate industrial development.
In addition to the worker rights violations at Gildan's supplier in Haiti, Sewing International SA (SISA), Gildan Mayan Textiles S. de R.L. has launched an anti-union campaign against its workers in Honduras.
In September, 28 workers were fired for being members of the union SITRAGILMAS, part of the Federation of Workers of Honduras (FITH), an affiliate of IndustriALL. The company is refusing to comply with agreements reached with the union, is harassing workers and has made attempts to form a yellow union.
Calling on the parent company in Canada, IndustriALL is urging Gildan to comply with the recommendations of ILO’s Better Work Programme, which has also requested that Gildan reinstate the workers in Haiti.
Gildan is a member of the Fair Labour Association, which has yet to take action against the company's violations.
During an IndustriALL mission to Haiti on 20 and 21 September, attempts to reinstate the union leaders were made during meetings with GOSTTRA, SISA and the labour relations mediator, but Gildan categorically refuses.
Marino Vani, IndustriALL's regional secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean and part of the mission, said that:
IndustriALL is demanding that Gildan Activewear takes urgent action with its suppliers in Haiti and Honduras to reinstate the union leaders who were dismissed in breach of international standards, and that they urgently engage in a genuine social dialogue.
Branch 106 of the criminal court of Arak has sentenced 15 HEPCO workers to between a year to two and a half years in prison and 74 lashes for “disrupting public order” and “instigating workers via the internet to demonstrate and riot” after strike action against unpaid wages in May this year.
HEPCO workers have taken repeated strike action to protest wage arrears, a decline in occupational safety and uncertainty surrounding continued production. This follows years of mismanagement at the company that has seen the workforce of specialized engineers decline from over 8,000 to around 1,000 today.
HEPCO was once one of the most prestigious heavy equipment manufacturers in the region. The company was first privatized in 2001, bailed out by the state after it failed, and privatized again last year, resulting in large scale job losses and a decline in conditions. The company produces construction equipment under license for Volvo, Komatsu and Liebherr and other companies as well as its own brand.
Unions in Iran see the sentencing as an attempt to warn workers against taking action.
In an address to the labour minister Mohammad Shariatmadari, IndustriALL Global Union affiliate the Union of Metalworkers and Mechanics of Iran (UMMI) said:
“Can a hungry stomach by silenced by a legal judgement? Is that the message of the minister to the workers of our homeland? Do Mr Shariatmadari and the Ministry of Labour intend to suppress more unions and starve workers? Strikes and protests are the right of the workers and all the people of Iran. We will not give up this right.”
IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan said:
“Iran is introducing bad economic policies, inspired by neoliberal economics that undermine society and labour. We are angry at seeing this wave of privatization, combined with corruption and a repressive state. This is a recipe for disaster.
“The workers at HEPCO are right to protest against the mismanagement of the company. They have no choice but to take strike action against unpaid wages. They need to eat. The security forces cannot suppress the legitimate demands of Iran’s workers forever. Iran must recognize independent unions.”
UMMI reports severe economic hardship, saying that more than 60 per cent of industrial workshops have shut. The influx of unemployed workers to unemployment insurance is unprecedented, and could lead to the bankruptcy of the social security.
The French-owned company locked out 35 workers on 2 August, after the IndustriALL Global Union affiliate refused to ratify a proposed contract that would have gutted key benefits and work practices.
For more than three brutal months, L-D239 members manned a picket line day and night and steadily gathered allies and advocates, making it clear they were in it for the long-haul. At the same time, pressure against Imerys gained momentum, while extra security, plus scabs Imerys brought in from out of state drove up costs.
“This was a hard-fought victory, and it’s a victory to be sure. In this lockout, the workers from L-D239 endured extreme hardships: no paychecks, no insurance, the daily stress of picket line, constant uncertainty and the disappointment of a failed mediation attempt,” said J. Tom Baca from the Boilermakers Western States Section. “But they stuck it out. They didn’t give up.”
Their determination worked. Imerys agreed to go back to the negotiating table on 25 October, where the two parties reached an agreement to end the lockout. Days later, L-D239 ratified a new three-year contract that reclaimed most of the benefits and work conditions the union initially sought to preserve from previous contracts, including seniority and overtime provisions. Imerys agreed to a one-year extension before health insurance will no longer be available as a benefit to new retirees. The union agreed to drop unfair labour practice charges it filed against Imerys with the National Labor Relations Board.
“Thirty-two workers [three workers left Imerys for other jobs] getting their jobs back and with an agreeable three-year contract in a tiny town in Montana might not seem like much to some, but the reality is, this is a major win not only for the Boilermakers, but for all unions. What L-D239 achieved is proof that solidarity works,” said Tom Baca.
Union members were joined on the picket line by their families, the community, politicians and other unions. In addition to support from local businesses and Boilermaker brothers and sisters nationwide, IndustriALL, the AFL-CIO and other unions championed L-D239 and stoked the pressure on Imerys.
“We’re glad to be back at work,” said L-D239 president Randy Tocci, “And we’re focused on doing what we’ve always done: working hard and producing the best possible product for the mill’s customers. The picket line was not where we wanted to be.”
IndustriALL’s director for mechanical engineering and materials industries, Matthias Hartwich, said:
“We congratulate our affiliate, the Boilermakers, on their victory. This again shows the power of solidarity and determination; although local management tried everything to break the resistance of the locked-out workers, they did not give in. IndustriALL and its affiliates did their best to support the Imerys workers in Montana – we organized support and contacted the Imerys headquarters and European Works Council backing the locked-out workers.”
25 delegates and observers from 10 countries gathered in Paris, where they debated on the future of their company and their jobs. In the nearest future Saint-Gobain is planning to change its structure, adapting it more to a digitised future in materials’ industries. The changes will imminently affect working conditions and working relations. The delegates exchanged over the different experiences on the process of digitisation already taking place within Saint-Gobain, a highly innovative player in the sector. Workers’ experience varies from country to country, but some things are clear already today: the company will change drastically, and some of the new structural changes will come very soon.
On the second day, the delegates had an open exchange with Mr Régis Blugeon, Social affairs director at Saint-Gobain group. Mr Blugeon pointed out that the group had to adapt its structure to the new market situation and must become lighter, more flexible and speedier.
Mr Blugeon also made a presentation about the values and core strategies of the group. The different trade union delegates used the opportunity to demand that the employees and their trade unions need to be part of the change process. They explicitly asked for information and consultation during the process and beyond. They also raised several open issues and addressed social dialogue matters. Mr Blugeon promised to look into the open cases and come back with answers, proposals and solutions. At the same time, he granted that the social dialogue would be taken serious on every level of the group, and that some matters required social dialogue also on global level.
Matthias Hartwich, IndustriALL’s director for materials industries and mechanical engineering, stated:
“IndustriALL believes in social dialogue. And we know from experience that some issues cannot be solved on local or country level alone; at some point, solutions can only be found on global level. We are willing to work together with management to find ways and means for this kind of problem solutions.”
In light of the discussion about social dialogue, the participants requested Saint-Gobain management to stick to its responsibility and keep the social dialogue with Brazilian trade unions. At the end of the meeting, the participants also decided to adopt a special statement in solidarity with Brazilian workers and their trade unions.
Saint-Gobain, a French multinational corporation, employs approximately 180,000 people in 67 countries of the world. In 2017, the Group generated 41 bn. euro in sales. The Group provides solutions for construction sector and also supplies materials to industrial and consumer markets, including automotive, aeronautical, and health and energy sector.
Thirty delegates from 15 different countries representing HeidelbergCement workers across the world, met at the headquarters of the German construction union, IG BAU, upon invitation of IndustriALL Global Union and Building and Wood Workers’ International with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
Although invited, the company’s management did not attend the meeting, and the trade unions reiterated their invitation for next year.
Delegates raised a number of issues workers face in the company, including worker rights’ violations, lack of communication with country or local company management, extensive use of outsourcing, and other types of precarious work. Health and safety is also an issue that needs to become part of a proper and systematic approach from the company in which workers’ representatives must have their word. A functioning social dialogue on the global level is in the interest of the workers and the company, besides, some issues can simply not be solved on local level.
At the meeting, the trade union network considered HeidelbergCement’s efforts to improve the group’s social, ethical and environmental profile through their statement “Human Rights Position of the HeidelbergCement Group”, released on 07 December 2017 as a positive step.
However, the delegates unanimously agreed that the document fails to address a number of shortcomings. In this regard the participants adopted a special declaration stipulating the following:
Finally, the union network urged HeidelbergCement corporate management to enter into a dialogue with the European Works Council and the global unions in order to work on the points raised in the spirit of good practice and fruitful social dialogue.
Matthias Hartwich, IndustriALL’s director for construction materials said, “This second meeting of our union network was a great success. We deepened contacts between ourselves and will use them in future to inform each other about ongoing fights and struggles that our brothers and sisters are facing everywhere in the world. It is indeed a pity that management did not to talk to us. We expect more from HeidelbergCement in the future, especially in the light of their ‘Human Rights Position’ paper”.
HeidelbergCement is one of the world’s leading cement and construction materials companies. It employs close to 60,000 people in around 60 countries.
Photos from the meeting are available on Flickr.
On 1 November 2016, a massive explosion in an oil tanker at the Gadani shipbreaking yard left 29 workers dead and more than 40 suffering burn injuries. Four workers were reported missing, and no one knows for sure how many workers were at work at the time of the accident.
Speaking at a rally on the second anniversary of the accident, union leaders said that a series of accidents since November 2016 show that no lessons have been learnt. Government and employers continue to ignore health and safety at the cost of workers’ lives. The accidents are an unambiguous reminder that shipbreaking workers in Pakistan risk death to earn a living.
On 8 January 2017, a worker fell from a ship and died. On 9 January 2017, at least five workers died in a fire aboard a liquified petroleum gas container ship. Seven workers were injured in a fire accident on 14 October 2018.
On 2 November 2018, just a day after workers marked the second anniversary of the accident and paid homage to the victims, five more workers were injured in an accident while breaking the ship Mistral in yard 66.
Gadani shipbreaking workers face dangerous working conditions, precarious work, poor wages, non-implementation of labour law, hurdles in exercising the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, lack of health facilities and lack of access to clean drinking water.
Trade unions have long demanded that the government of Baluchistan adopt new regulations to improve health and safety in Pakistan’s shipbreaking industry. After the November 2016 tragedy, the shipbreaking workers’ union submitted a draft law to improve safety in shipbreaking yards, but the government is yet to act on it. The government appointed committees to investigate the November 2016 accident and propose new safety regulations, but no significant progress has been made to improve the situation.
Apoorva Kaiwar, South Asia regional secretary of IndustriALL Global Union said:
“It is horrific that management and shipyard owners neglect workers’ safety to the extent that workers’ lives are routinely endangered. Both government and employers should learn lessons from the past accidents and take immediate proactive measures to stop loss of workers’ lives and ensure safe shipbreaking in Pakistan’s shipbreaking industry.”
Kan Matsuzaki, IndustriALL director for the shipbuilding and shipbreaking sector, said:
“We reiterate our demand that the government immediately ratify the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships and adopt national and federal regulations to implement the provisions of the convention.
“The government should set up tripartite health and safety committee with the shipbreaking workers’ union and employers for its implementation without delay.
The US-based Alcoa announced on 17 October that it would close two of its three Spanish aluminium smelters, Aviles and La Coruna, resulting in the layoff of 700 workers. The Alcoa European Works Council (EWC) criticized Alcoa for failing to comply with European information and consultation regulations by not consulting with the EWC in advance and not providing the EWC adequate information. The Netherlands-based EWC has filed a court claim in the Netherlands in order to block the closure and layoff.
Alcoa claims the two Spanish plants are inefficient and that nobody wants to operate them. The company has ignored attempts by the Spanish government and unions to slow the collective dismissal process, which could provide time to identify a company to buy the plants and preserve jobs.
1,600 members of the Australian Workers Union (AWU) working at three Alcoa alumina refineries and two bauxite mines recently conducted a 52-day strike after 20 months of negotiations with Alcoa failed to provide a guarantee of no forced redundancies. The company had used threats of termination in an attempt to intimidate the workforce into accepting new working conditions with less secure work.
The strike ended when Alcoa made a new offer that the union submitted for a membership vote. A majority of the workers voted to reject this offer, with an AWU official citing poor treatment of union members on their recent return to work as a reason. Alcoa has applied to an Australian government agency to terminate the existing Enterprise Bargaining Agreement it has with AWU.
Alcoa shutting down a worksite is no guarantee that the company will end its attack on workers, their communities and the environment. Alcoa shut its alumina refinery in Suriname in 2015, dealing a heavy blow to the nation’s economy and putting hundreds of people out of work. This contradicted an agreement Alcoa had entered into with Suriname to continue its aluminium operations there until 2033.
Since 2015 Alcoa has negotiated behind closed doors a replacement agreement governing its exit from Suriname, including to deal with the company’s legacy of environmental contamination. A draft exit agreement has recently been released and strongly rejected as being unfair to Suriname by technical experts and by a coalition of civil society organizations that includes IndustriALL affiliate C-47, which represented Alcoa employees.
C-47 calls for the agreement to be re-negotiated and for Alcoa to adjust pension payments to former employees to compensate for the dramatic decline in the value of the Surinamese currency, resulting in the former workers living in poverty.
Alcoa has locked out for nearly ten months 1,030 members of the United Steelworkers from their jobs at the Bécancour smelter in Quebec, Canada. Nine months into the lockout, Alcoa again demanded more concessions from the locked-out workers, even though the smelter has the lowest labour costs per unit production among all of Alcoa’s facilities in North America.
“If you want to reach an agreement, you need to listen to the other party, capitalize on openings and be open to compromise when the other party is willing to change its position. Alcoa hasn’t done any of that,”
said USW Quebec Director Alain Croteau.
“IndustriALL affiliates have represented Alcoa workers around the world for decades, and negotiations with the company have frequently been challenging. However, Alcoa has never attacked workers and their communities in so many different countries at the same time as they’re doing now,”
said IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan.
“Alcoa is trying to position itself as a responsible provider of aluminium to auto manufacturers and other consumer-facing brands, however its actual practices show otherwise. IndustriALL calls on Alcoa to live up to its sustainability claims and end its attack on workers.”
Hela Intimates, which makes undergarments, sleep and casual wear, has factories in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mexico, and Sri Lanka, supplies global brands in Europe and the US including Victoria Secrets and PVH, which owns Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and a number of other brands. In Kenya it employs over 2,500 workers at its factory in the Athi River Export Processing Zone in Nairobi.
Rather than assuming responsibility for the collective bargaining agreements signed by Alltex EPZ, the company it acquired, Hela is insisting on signing a new agreement. The company is pays a minimum wage of 12,000 Kenya Shillings (US$116) per month instead of 14,000 (US$136) for machine operators, as per government gazette.
IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Tailors and Textile Workers Union (TTWU), has taken the legal route to deal with the employer’s unlawful and unfair labour practices. These practices intimidate workers and make it difficult for unions to recruit members. Further, union organizers find it hard to access the factories because of the hostility from the employer. Hela Intimates’ behaviour is in violation of Kenyan workers’ rights and freedom of association as protected by the Labour Relations Act.
Says Joel Chebii, general secretary of the TTWU:
“We have gone to the police station on countless occasions to have our members released from custody. Their crime is that they joined a trade union. This is an injustice that we will continue to fight. The employer is doing this to silence demands for better wages.”
Says Christina Hajagos-Clausen, IndustriALL director for the textile and garment industry:
“Global garment manufacturers should lead by example and not trample on workers’ rights. We call upon Hela Intimates to respect trade union organizational rights, freedom of association, and to pay living wages.”
Kenya’s industrialization policies identify the labour-intensive textile and garment sector as an important driver of economic development and job creation. According to the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, the sector creates more jobs for the youth. For instance, 17 garment manufacturers in the export processing zones employ 52,000 workers while over 40,000 small-scale farmers grow cotton, with thousands other jobs found along the value chain.
Kenyan cabinet secretary Adan Mohamed visited the factory in March
Hela Intimates EPZ Ltd. has experienced rapid growth, with sales of Kshs.150 million since opening 6 months ago pic.twitter.com/4UT6ItzLfz
— CS Adan Mohamed (@AdanMohamedCS) March 24, 2017
