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.

Lesotho union observes AIDS Day

The HIV and AIDS prevalence rate for Lesotho is one of the highest globally and most workers don’t even know their HIV status. This explains why this year’s message of "know your status" for World AIDS Day on 1 December is important. Research shows that once someone knows their status, they will access antiretroviral treatment early and change their lifestyles to avoid further infections or affecting others. This is unlike a situation when someone doesn’t know their status or know it late.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho (IDUL) organized two events in Maseru to mark World AIDS Day with support from the Sub Saharan Africa Region’s union building project and Union to Union. The first was a roadshow at Precious Garments on 29 November during the lunch break where the union distributed sanitary pads and diapers to young working mothers living with HIV and AIDS. The timing meant reaching more than 4,000 workers during lunch time. Precious Garments, like most textile and garment factories in the country, employ over 90 per cent women.

The second event was a mass meeting on 1 December, at which the Minister of Health, Nkaku Kabi, said the government is willing to work with unions and non-governmental organizations because HIV and AIDS is a social issue which requires collaborative efforts. Over 1,000 workers turned up from the regions of Maputsoe, Maseru, Nyenye and Tikwe.

At both events there were speakers from Lesotho Network for People Living with HIV and AIDS (LENEPHWA) that IDUL is in a strategic partnership with on HIV and AIDS. While the union fights on workers’ rights to health, the network provides treatment and care for people living with HIV and AIDS, fights stigma and discrimination, and promotes awareness on prevention and treatment.

Says Daniel Teko, the general secretary of IDUL:

“HIV and AIDS affects union members. We have lost brothers and sisters and some children are orphans. It is a social issue that cannot be ignored, and we must work together to deal with the pandemic. IDUL is working with the ministry of health and LENEPHWA to educate its members on prevention, treatment, care, support and related issues.” 

Shell’s hidden shame – Contract workers on the poverty line in Nigeria

Country: Nigeria

Text: Léonie Guguen

Poverty wages are typical for thousands of contract workers in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria. In September 2018, IndustriALL Global Union carried out a mission to Port Harcourt to meet contract workers as part of its global campaign to stop precarious work at Shell. 

Despite 28 years of service as a contract worker at Shell, Oscar Tamuno, has little to show for it. He, his wife and four children live in a tiny two-room, one-storey dwelling in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt. Out the back is a small courtyard where he and four other families share basic toilet and washing facilities. Cooking is done outside on an open stove. 

Precarious work has become the focus of IndustriALL’s campaign, which also urges Shell to engage in global dialogue with IndustriALL and its affiliates. Contract workers outnumber permanent workers two to one at Shell and do the most dangerous jobs. 

In May 2018, IndustriALL’s affiliates from five countries, including Nigeria, raised their grievances to the Shell at the company’s annual general meeting in the Hague. Further, IndustriALL highlighted issues of union busting and violations of freedom of association of contract workers at Shell in Nigeria at the International Labour Conference of the ILO in Geneva in June. Shell has however repeatedly refused to enter into meaningful dialogue with IndustriALL to address these concerns.

IndustriALL affiliates in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria: 

The National Union of Petroleum & Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), which represents blue collar workers, and the Petroleum & Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) representing white collar workers.

Shell in Nigeria 

Shell’s history in Nigeria is blighted by corruption, environmental destruction and human rights atrocities. It is the biggest multinational oil company in the country and pioneered oil exploration in Nigeria in 1936, producing its first shipment of oil in 1958. Nigeria has since become Africa’s largest producer of crude oil with the world’s biggest oil companies including Total, Eni and Chevron operating there. 

Thirteen years after Nigerian independence from British colonial rule in 1960, the Nigerian government took a stake in Shell’s operations in the country. In 1979, the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) was established, which is now owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which has a 55 per cent stake; Shell with 30 per cent; Total with 10 per cent, and Eni with 5 per cent. Shell, however, remains the operator. 

In 1990, frustrated by oil companies’ exploitation of natural resources and environmental damage, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) led by activist and playwright, Ken Saro-Wiwa, demanded an end to oil pollution and a fairer share of profits. 

Shell businesses in Nigeria 

Despite oil being extracted from their lands in the Niger Delta since 1958, they had seen nothing in return.

In January 1993, MOSOP mobilized around 300,000 people to protest against pollution and Shell, which was the largest operator in Ogoniland. It prompted the Nigerian military to move in. Saro-Wiwa and eight other MOSOP activists were hanged in 1995 by Sani-Abacha’s military government causing international outrage. Shell Royal Dutch Petroleum was sued by the US Center for Constitutional Rights for complicity in the repression of the Ogoni people and the executions of the Ogoni Nine. In 2006, on the eve of the trial, Shell settled out of court, resulting in payouts of US$15.5 million to the Ogoni people.

Although Shell moved out of Ogoniland in 1993, its myriad network of pipelines in the Niger Delta remained. In 2008 and 2009 two massive oil spills from its pipelines struck the Bodo community in Ogoniland. They caused catastrophic damage to the environment and devastated the community’s livelihood, which had been heavily dependent on fishing and agriculture. 

In 2015, Shell admitted liability for the Bodo spills, which the UN described as an ‘ecological disaster’, and agreed to pay US$83 million for the clean-up that is expected to take decades to fix.

Today, high levels of poverty, unemployment and the abject failure of oil revenues to benefit local people, has led to increased insurgency and Shell is plagued by militant attacks, oil spills and sabotage. In 2017, SPDC reported oil losses of 9,000 barrels per day (bpd) through theft, costing around US$180 million a year. This was up from 6,000 bpd in 2016. 

US$4 billion – amount earned by Shell from oil and gas production in Nigeria in 2017. Source: Reuters

As the company seeks to move away from dependence on crude oil, it is focusing on Nigeria’s vast untapped reserves of gas, which is regarded by Shell as a cleaner alternative to oil as it seeks to meet greenhouse gas emissions targets. 

Precarious work

NUPENG president, Williams Akporeha, calls Nigeria the “headquarters of precarious work”. Shell has, over time, contracted out almost its entire production workforce, who have low pay, minimal benefits and no job security. The predominance of contract workers is not unique to Shell, but indicative of the situation at most, if not all, of the international oil companies in Nigeria. 

Meeting contract workers at Shell

NUPENG guided the IndustriALL mission on a visit to Shell’s Umuebulu Flow Station at Etche in the outskirts of Port Harcourt. Contract workers in Shell uniforms were eager to tell their stories. Many said they worked under a community contract, which is a contract organized between an oil company and the local community leader, in this case, the local king or chief. Workers under this contract seemed to have the worse deal. Following the death of the king, and then of his son, workers said they weren’t paid for several months. While Shell did intervene to cover some of the wage losses, many workers said they were still owed salaries. 

A community contract worker at the plant told the mission:

“My contractor doesn’t pay when due. I haven’t been paid for six months. My salary is just 50,000 naira (US$137) a month. I will go home and beg my neighbour for food. For six months my children can’t go to school. I’ve been working for eleven years at Shell but I don’t have carpet in my house. I don’t have a radio in my house. 

“If you open your mouth and you want to say something, they will sack you. The next day they (Shell) will call that contractor and they will sack you and they will bring in another person. That’s what we’re facing at this particular Shell (operation).”

“Our salary at Plantgeria is about 95,000 naira (US$260),” said another worker contracted to Shell. “In Nigeria today you can’t do anything on that. You can’t pay your children’s school fees. You can’t eat well. You can’t do anything better for yourself. We do the dirty jobs. We work like an elephant and eat like an ant.” 

All the workers referred to the contractors as their ‘paymasters’ and considered they worked at Shell, as they report directly to Shell management. They said Shell determines what they get paid by contractors. However, their appeals to Shell for better wages are ignored:

“If you ask for a pay rise, you will be escorted out by police. And then your job is finished. No more access to the yard until you sign something saying you will not join a union and you will not ask for a pay rise,” said one worker. 

Shell maintains it is not financially viable to give contract workers permanent jobs, as they are not needed all the time. But this belies what workers told IndustriALL:

“They keep on classing us as ad-hoc workers but we have been working continuously for as long as 20 years, while being paid less than US$150 a month,” a worker lamented. “I have a letter that says I am not entitled to any benefits at all. In the last two months, we gathered ourselves to join NUPENG. Now, if they threaten us, we will just say ‘sack us’.” 

Workers said they are initially given a contract for two years, but after that the contractor will keep adding an extension for three or six months, for years at a time. “That’s why we have stagnant wages. There is no variation in the extension of the contract. Sometimes they even reduce the salary,” said one worker.

Prospects for contract workers at Shell are zero: “We have no promotion. We have been on the same salary scale for the past ten years. We have agitated for a pay increment but it has not been forthcoming.”

Vassey Lartson who works as a lab technician for Shell in Houston, USA, joined the mission to Nigeria as a member of IndustriALL’s affiliate the United Steelworkers. He was shocked by the workers’ living conditions. 

“I am ashamed that we work with the same Shell sign on our back. No way should there be that level of disparity between me and those workers. I take it personally that my brothers and sisters are being exploited in the way that they are. If a company is global, then why can’t behave global and pay global?”

There is a stark contrast to expatriate workers at Shell, who can earn up to US$20,000 a month. Nigerian white-collar workers at Shell are paid around US$2,000 a month. Shell has a 224 hectare high-security compound in Port Harcourt where Shell’s local and expatriate staff dependents live and socialize. 

Inadequate healthcare

Many contract workers complained that their healthcare insurance provider (HMO) was inadequate:

“We are exposed to all the hazards. We work in the field. Even with our HMO we are not doing well. We are just working to die. When we are sick and go to the clinic, they don’t treat you well because the money they (the contractor) give to the HMOs is too meagre, so we don’t get the right treatment. They just give you some tablets. Then the doctor will say we can’t go further than that with the level you’re on. So, you use your meagre money to pay again.” 

One worker, who has four children, said he could only claim up to 40,000 naira (US$100) a year for his family. Some workers said they didn’t have any health insurance at all, depending on the contract they had.

The mission visited the bereaved children of Mr Kalu Ngozi, a contract electrician who had worked at Shell for over 20 years. Mr Ngozi had died three days previously leaving his four sons as orphans. Their mother died two years ago, and another brother passed away two months before. His children, aged between 12 and 22, are now alone living in a one room place in a Port Harcourt slum. Mr Ngozi who suffered from a stomach ulcer could not afford the medical attention he needed, and the hospital said that typhoid was a contributor to his death. 

Dangers

Port Harcourt and the Niger Delta have seen increasing levels of violence over the years with kidnapping and armed robbery not unusual. “One of our colleagues, a driver, was recently shot dead in the field. In the end Shell didn’t do anything. The most they will do is one minute’s silence. No one cares about you and your family. If anything was to happen to you today, (Shell) don’t know you, it’s up to the contractor.”

Workers also revealed they faced hazards such as chemicals, carbon pollution, militancy and snakes in the field.

The workers also said they felt ill equipped to handle dangerous situations: “Shell is good at the health and safety paperwork but it’s different when it comes to implementation. They will send you to training, saying ‘this is what you need to do’, but sometimes when you get to the field (the equipment) is not there.” 

A Shell contract driver was recently shot dead during an attempted kidnapping of an expatriate in the Umuebulu area, resulting in immense suffering for his family.

IndustriALL’s director for energy, Diana Junquera Curiel, said:

“Our mission to Nigeria has allowed us to see and hear first-hand how contract workers are suffering at Shell. We will confront Shell with our findings. We will hold them to account. Shell says it wants to take responsibility for workers in its supply chain. It can start right here, in Nigeria.”

Using global framework agreements to raise standards 

While Shell refuses to engage in global dialogue with unions, French energy giant Total has signed a global framework agreement with IndustriALL since 2015. The agreement has helped to resolve health and safety issues in Nigeria by connecting workers on the ground to global management in Paris. As a result of the agreement, Total is also demanding that all its contractors meet international standards on labour rights. In addition, IndustriALL also has a global framework agreement with Italian company Eni, which also operates in Nigeria.

Gas flaring and effects on workers

Gas flaring is caused by burning of natural gas that comes to the surface during the extraction of crude oil. According to the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership, not enough is being done by oil companies in Nigeria, particularly the Niger Delta, to capture the leaking gas, which is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the world. It is cheaper to burn the gas off rather than find expensive ways of capturing it. 

Most recent figures from the government show that while gas flaring has dropped from two billion cubic feet per day ten years ago, it still stands at 700 million cubic feet per day – enough to generate 3,000 megawatts of power. But this reduction does not help workers and communities who remain badly affected by the flaring. 

Reports in Nigerian media say villagers at a Polaku community in Bayelsa State, who are living near the SPDC’s Gbaran Ubie Integrated Oil and Gas plant, say they can’t sleep at night and their homes are coming apart due to the vibrations caused by gas flaring. The flaring causes acid rain which contaminates crops and water, and villagers say their children are getting ill. They say the flaring takes place at night to avoid public outcry. 

Workers IndustriALL spoke to at Etche had similar experiences: 

“There is a lot of gas flaring. If you park a white vehicle overnight the yellow crude oil and soot will cover it by morning. You wake up and your nose is blocked with soot. It affects your eyes too.” 

The Etche facility IndustriALL visited is just a stone’s throw away from many schools in the area. “What is happening here affects the world. Shell asks us to not steam our motors for so long, but they are polluting the whole planet!” says one worker.

Welcome to global worker

This issue of Global Worker brings a diverse collection of stories that show how our movement is doing just that. While we have terrible news from Brazil, with the election of the fascist Jair Bolsonaro as President after the coup and the jailing of Lula, we have much better news from Mexico: a new left wing political movement, the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) won the election this year.

After 12 years in exile for denouncing the killings in the Pasta de Conchos coal mine, IndustriALL executive committee member Napoleón Gómez Urrutia returned to Mexico and was sworn in as senator. The country ratified ILO Convention 98 on the right to organize, creating space to get rid of harmful protection contracts and establish a genuine independent trade union movement, such as the new federation created in the auto sector. Mexico now has a gender balanced cabinet. Read our interview with new labour minister Luisa María Alcalde on pages 10-11, as she explains her vision for a new social contract for Mexico’s workers.

Corporate power is growing, and can no longer be constrained by national governments, even where the will exists. So how do we achieve justice for workers across increasingly complex supply chains? On pages 12-15, assistant general secretary Jenny Holdcroft argues that IndustriALL leads the way in establishing global industrial relations that hold corporations accountable – but we need global mechanisms to resolve disputes, such as a binding UN treaty and an ILO Convention on supply chains.

Blockchain technology has been promoted as a possible solution to opaque and complex supply chains. Our exploration on pages 5-8 shows that there is no technological quick fix for a social and economic problem. While blockchain has interesting potential, it is only as reliable as the data entered into it.

Continuing our theme of confronting the power of multinational corporations is our exposé of the exploitation of contract workers in Nigeria by Shell, on pages 18-21. Shell is responsible for decades of environmental degradation and complicity in political repression in Nigeria, and has paid out tens of millions in compensation. But Shell’s exploitative business model extends to its workers, most of whom are contractors on low wages. Long term Shell employees barely subsist on the poverty line, and face being fired if they speak up. Now their unions are fighting back.

On page 4, read about the women leaders smashing myths and stereotypes in male dominated sectors.

Finally, meet some of the affiliates at the coal face of defending workers’ rights: on pages 22-23, Belarusian union REP has just endured a punitive politically-motivated court case designed to crush it. On page 9, read about the tremendous progress being made by NUTEAIW in Malaysia as IndustriALL moves its office to that country. And on pages 16-17, read how our affiliates in Peru have formed a national council to fight back together.

The crisis is only half the story: the other half is the workers confronting it, and learning that together, we are stronger. We need each other, now more than ever.

Valter Sanches

General Secretary

Trade unions across the globe show support for Bangladesh Accord

The Executive Committee passed a resolution calling on the Government of Bangladesh to “to guarantee that the Accord is able to continue its work in Bangladesh until such time as there is a competent national regulatory body with the capacity to take-over its functions.”

The High Court of Bangladesh has ordered that the Accord cease operating in Bangladesh as of November 30. The decision has been stayed pending a hearing on December 6 of the Accord’s appeal against the order. 

The Accord on fire and building safety has been instrumental in improving the safety of garment factories in Bangladesh, after 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 of which 89 per cent have been rectified. Over two million workers have participated in safety training in over 1,000 factories.

The resolution goes on to state: 

“The Government of Bangladesh has set up a Remediation Coordination Cell to regulate garment factory safety, however this body still lacks the capacity to take over the role of the Accord, despite claims to the contrary by the Government of Bangladesh.” 

In a letter to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, IndustriALL’s general secretary, Valter Sanches, said that the work of the Accord must continue unconditionally. He added: 

“We hope that the Government of Bangladesh can soon develop a robust national public health and safety inspection system.  Nevertheless, until such time arrives, the Accord must continue to play a fundamental role in protecting the lives of millions of workers.”

IndustriALL has 20 affiliated trade union affiliates in the country, many of which are garment unions. 

PROFILE: The Malaysian manufacturing union fighting to change labour law to make organizing more effective

Union: National Union of Transport Equipment and Allied workers in Malaysia (NUTEAIW)

Country: Malaysia

Text: Petra Brännmark

Membership is growing and NUTEAIW, which organizes workers in the automotive sectors, is present in more than 40 workplaces.

“Workers want a union and it is our obligation to be there,” says Gopal. “Where we can organize, more than 95 per cent of the eligible workers are members.”

Gopal says that organizing workers is not difficult from an ideological standpoint, but that the recognition process is complicated. First, the union needs to certify that the workplace falls under their scope. Then, there is a lengthy legal process, which includes a secret ballot.

Under current provisions, the Industrial Relations Act, a union must obtain a simple majority in a secret ballot process conducted by the Human Resource Ministry to represent workers at any workplace.

However, the real challenge in obtaining majority is the formula used by the ministry to ascertain majority. If a worker is not present in the workplace to cast his or her vote at the time of the secret ballot, it is counted as a vote against the union.

“A simple majority should suffice,” says Gopal.

In May this year, Malaysia saw a change to a more union-friendly government. The human resource minister, M Kulasegaran, has announced his intention to review all labour related laws, including the recognition process.

“Where there is a union, there is a CBA”

The NUTEAIW have collective agreements in all their workplaces, normally negotiated for a period of not less than three years.

“In the last two years we have managed to extend the CBA at some companies to include the employee’s family as well.

“We have managed to include family medical assistance to immediate family members like spouses and children. Around 80 per cent of the CBAs gave this provision.

“The Employment Act provides sixty days maternity leave. At car manufacturer Volvo we managed to secure ninety days and are now using this breakthrough to push others to extend the same benefit,” says Gopal.

Aiming for 40 per cent women

NUTEAIW currently has less than 20 per cent women in their leadership structures but are working to achieve IndustriALL’s quota of 40 per cent women representation.

Currently, only three of the 17 members of NUTEAIW’s executive council are women, but 40 per cent of the shop stewards are women.

Gopal says that the union is pushing for a change – in a factory where women are in majority among the workers, the union leaders should be women.

IndustriALL Global Union is in the process of moving its regional office from Singapore to Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur, something Gopal says will have an impact on trade union’s status in the country.

“We are in the process of registering the IndustriALL Malaysian Council as an official body, which will give recognition to the council,” says Kishnam. “We are expecting more unions to affiliate after this, increasing the current number of seven.”

Being part of a global union is important for the NUTEAIW, who have been able to call for solidarity support from unions in other parts of the world on issues at multinational companies.

“We had difficulties at Robot Bosch, but after the works council from Germany intervened and contacted management we were able to get the union recognition we were seeking.

“I strongly believe that a close link with international unions is important to learn from each other, and for assistance and solidarity. We know how to fight, and harnessing the collective power of workers in solidarity really shows how strong we are when we stand up together.”