Tenaris/Ternium: Unions escalate struggle as chairman indicted in bribery case

Unions from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Romania and USA participating in the Tenaris-Ternium Workers’ World Council met outside of Mexico City on 26-27 November. It was the tenth anniversary of the council.

SINTRATUCAR President Walberto Marrugo updated the council on Tenaris attacks on workers in Colombia. Tenaris has terrorized leaders of SINTRATUCAR and illegally filmed union activities, potentially putting union members’ lives at risk in the world’s most dangerous country for trade unionists.

Sitraternium described the slow progress being made in discussions with Ternium in Guatemala. Ternium sacked dozens of Sitraternium leaders and refused to negotiate after the union was registered in 2012. IndustriALL together with USW and Sitraternium filed an OECD complaint against Ternium in September 2017. The company began talks with Sitraternium in March 2018.

METAROM reported that Tenaris recently increased pressure on the union in Romania. METAROM organized a series of protests that received national media attention after Tenaris refused to make a fair wage offer. The union achieved a wage agreement but many disputes remain.

Tenaris and Ternium, which are both held by Techint, are violating workers’ rights, provoking wage disputes and threatening to relocate plants to lower wage countries despite earning over US$1.5 billion in profits in 2017.

On the second day of the meeting, Tenaris and Ternium chairman and majority shareholder Paolo Rocca was indicted as part of a bribery case in Argentina. The judge in the case charged Rocca after Rocca testified that one of his company’s executives paid cash to government officials from 2009 to 2012 in order to speed up compensation for a unit nationalized by Venezuela. Rocca claimed he was not involved in the payments.

Techint has also been implicated in the massive Lava Jato corruption scandal in Brazil and has a history of avoiding taxes by moving its headquarters and establishing offshore companies.

“Companies that abuse workers are often irresponsible across the board, and Tenaris and Ternium are no exception,” said IndustriALL's base metals director Adam Lee. “The Tenaris-Ternium Workers’ World Council demands that the companies change course and enter into social dialog with unions globally.”

The unions committed to raise concern about Tenaris and Ternium anti-union practices with shareholders and customers to pressure the companies to live up to their claims to being socially responsible.

The Council demanded that Tenaris and Ternium not take advantage of the current authoritarian political environment in Brazil to harm workers.

The Council dedicated the meeting, which was hosted by IndustriALL affiliate Los Mineros, to UOM member Gabriel Palermo, who was fatally injured at Ternium’s plant in Rosario, Argentina the previous week. The unions discussed ongoing health and safety problems at the companies’ operations and resolved to make improving health and safety a key priority of the world council.

We are just working to die, say Shell workers in Nigeria

IndustriALL’s mission to Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in September this year saw Shell workers living in shocking conditions and found that Shell workers were falling ill and dying as a result of inadequate healthcare insurance.

“Our health insurance as it is, we are not doing well. If you are sick and go to the clinic, they don’t treat you well because the money that they pay to the HMOs is a meagre amount of money, so based on that, we don’t get it right at all. We are just working to die,” said one worker.

Workers also said that if they asked for better wages or wanted to join a union, they would be threatened with dismissal. 

IndustriALL is campaigning to make Shell engage with unions on a global level. Unions want Shell to limit precarious work at the company and ensure that the same high-level standards are applied at Shell operations, everywhere, including its suppliers.

Contract workers outnumber permanent workers 2:1 at Shell and do the most dangerous jobs.

While Shell says it wants to #makethefuture, it’s clear Shell contract workers in Nigeria have #gotnofuture, with no job security, poverty wages and zero prospects.

Watch the video. 

Fighting forward for a sustainable future in the shipbuilding and shipbreaking industry

The IndustriALL global conference on sustainable shipbuilding and shipbreaking took place in Singapore on 1-2 November 2018.  Hosted by Singaporean affiliates the Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Employees' Union (SMEEU), the Keppel FELS Employees Union (KFEU) and the Keppel Employees Union (KEU), 103 participants from 27 unions in 21 countries took part. The union delegates actively discussed the following:

The conference was opened by sector co-chairs Brother Kenichi Kanda and Sister Eileen Chor Gek Yeo, vice chair Brother Vidyadhar Rane, and IndustriALL assistant general secretary Atle Høie.

Kenichi Kanda stated in his opening speech:

“Disparity, discrimination, poverty. We, the international trade union movement, should make effort to eliminate those conditions from our society. We must promote our industrial policy which puts workers and people first to secure our lives and to make this industry sustainable.”

In opening the conference, participants observed a minute of silence in memory of the 28 workers who died in an accident on 1 November, 2016 at the Gadani shipbreaking yard in Pakistan. 

A guest speech was made by Patrick Tay, a member of parliament and trade union leader from Singapore who addressed the challenges of new technology.

The world shipbuilding industry has been in gradual recovering since the economic crisis in 2008. However, the industry still faces excess supply and capacity. Kan Matsuzaki, IndustriALL sector director, showed key trends on the world order book, new build ship types, and selected large shipbuilding companies who are key players to the market and trade union networks. 

Elspeth Hathaway from industriAll European Trade Union said that the major challenges which the EU faces are decline in employment and an increase in outsourcing. The EU needs to develop social dialogue and skills training for future shipbuilding.

The shipbreaking industry is expected to grow over the next 25 years, and the implementation of international rules and standards (such as the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships) is a pressing need in the South Asian countries of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan where more 70 per cent of world shipbreaking is located.

Fahimuddin Pasha from IndustriALL South Asia office explained the issues, challenges, union activities and achievements of the organizing project. Unions in South Asia have doubled their membership in the shipbreaking industry over the last four years, and now have more than 30,000 members.

The number of precarious workers in the shipbuilding industry has been rising rapidly over the last decade. Abdelkrim Ahil (FTM-CGT, France), Jaewon An (KMWU, Korea), Edson Carlos Rocha Da Silva (CNM-CUT, Brazil) and Julian Wang (KFEU, Singapore) shared unions’ challenges and activities on how to reach precarious workers, especially to sub-contracting workers and women, foreign and migrant workers, to protect their basic rights within the same collective bargaining agreements as the organized regular workers.

Highlighting the situation of shipbreaking workers in South Asia, representatives from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh asserted that they will continue their efforts towards the ratification the Hong Kong Convention in their respective countries. Representing the Ministry of Industries and the International Maritime Organization in Bangladesh, Mizanur Rahman said that implementation of the Convention is a legal mandate for the government.

The SENSREC project (Safe and Environmentally Sound Ship Recycling in Bangladesh) is creating a fertile ground for ratification. The participating unions committed to continue supporting the shipbreaking workers’ unions, as well as to reach unorganized workers and promote OHS. Marry van der Stel of FNV Metaal shared OHS training good practice of with shipbreaking workers in India.

Promoting sustainable industry policy in shipbuilding is key to maintaining employment. Brian Kohler, IndustriALL director for health, safety and sustainability, said that Industry 4.0 will have a major impact on the shipbuilding industry for which the workers and unions must prepare, working towards Just Transition. 

Since shipbuilding requires the integration of a wide range of manufacturing techniques and skills, international safety and health standards in this industry need to cover many activities and occupations. A presentation on the ILO’s revised code of practice on safety and health in shipbuilding and ship repair was given by Yasuhiko Kamakura, International Labour Office Geneva.  

Setsuki Nakata (JBU, Japan), Mohammad Afzal (FF, Norway), and Thomas Søby (Co-industri, Denmark) shared their respective unions’ views and practices on shifting to high value-added shipbuilding by demanding sustainable industrial policies to the governments and employers as well as OHS activities.

During the conference, the Australian Shipbuilding Federation of Unions (ASFU) signed important cooperation agreements with both the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions in the UK, and CGT NAVAL unions in France.

The conference also focused on trade union networks to increase the negotiating power of unions at multinational corporations at global level. Moderated by Matt Murphy (CEPU, Australia), Glenn Thompson (ASFU, Australia), Ian Waddel (Workers Uniting Europe, UK), Manuel Velado Cambero (FICA-UGT, Spain) and Warren Fairley (IBB, USA) actively discussed developing effective and constructive trade union networks in multinationals such as BAE, NAVAL group, Fincantieri and Navantia.

Before the conference, two trade unions network meetings for BAE Systems and NAVAL-Fincantieri took place on 31 October, and new action plans were set up. NAVAL and Fincantieri trade union networks launched for the first time.

The co-chairs and a vice chair of the sector were unanimously re-elected at the conference. Kenichi Kanda from JBU/JCM, Japan and Eileen Yeo Chor Gek from SMEEU, Singapore as co-chairs, and V.V. Rane from SMEFI, India as vice chair of the sector, representing the shipbreaking unions, will continue to lead. The conference also adopted the sector action plan for 2019-2022.

Kan Matsuzaki said,

“Our priority is to protect workers’ lives and to promote sustainable employment in the sector.  The new sector action plan is comprehensive and a lots of commitments and efforts from our affiliates will be required. Let us move forward to achieve our goals by strengthening solidarity actions.”

Atle Høie said,

“The conference showed great determination to improve the situation for shipbreaking and shipbuilding workers in the world. Trade union networks are being established in multinational companies and there is full commitment to working for the ratification of the Hong Kong Convention. We must once and for all remove the circumstances that allow rich ship owners to strand their ships on beaches of Bangladesh, Pakistan and India to avoid responsibility for the lives lost and the injuries incurred by their inhumane practices. ”

In the afternoon of 2 November, warmly hosted by KFEU, the delegates visited the Keppel FELS shipyard. The company mainly works for the offshore and marine industry and also operates outside of Singapore. The delegates learned of activities and industrial relations in the yards.

Samsung must engage with unions to improve safety

After an 11-year struggle by SHARPS, a South Korean advocacy group which represents affected workers, Samsung Electronics has made a formal apology and finally offered compensation to former and current workers who have suffered serious occupational diseases, including lung cancer and leukemia, as a result of being exposed to chemicals at its semiconductor and LCD plants since 1984.

“It has taken far too long for the company to apologize – eleven years too long. Samsung should apologize for denying its employees trade union freedoms. The right to know about dangers in the workplace and the right to have an independent trade union are crucial preconditions for any long-term meaningful system of prevention,” said a spokesperson for IndustriALL affiliate, the Korean Metal Workers' Union (KMWU).

In 2007 Yumi Hwang died from leukemia after working at a Samsung Electronics chip factory, triggering alarm at the hazards workers were being exposed to in the company’s factories. 

SHARPS has since documented hundreds of Samsung workers with serious work-related illnesses – including cancer, blood disorders, pulmonary conditions, and miscarriage. Samsung ignored these workers, many of whom have died, and refused accept responsibility or pay compensation. However, on 23 November 2018, Samsung president, Kinam Kim, offered an apology to “workers who have suffered with illnesses and their families” also mentioning that the company failed to “sufficiently manage health threats”.

Speaking after the compensation announcement on 1 November, Yumi’s father, Sang-gi Hwang, said:

“Workers' compensation is important but more important is prevention. The right to know and participate for all workers and members of the community – so workers can know what chemical substances they are using – must be guaranteed by strengthening the Industrial Safety and Health Act.”

Instead of making improvements, KMWU says Samsung has been shifting hazardous work down the supply chain and to factories abroad. KMWU is calling for stronger laws to hold multinational corporations accountable for abuses throughout their supply chains. 

Valter Sanches, IndustriALL’s General Secretary says:

“Samsung should respect fundamental trade union rights and engage with union representatives to ensure health and safety and guarantee workers’ rights at all Samsung Electronics’ facilities. The management should know that the union will make the workplace safer.” 

Belarusian union REP forced to replace leader Gennady Fedynich

REP’s Board unanimously decided to name Zinaida Mikhnyuk as acting chair till the next Congress of the union in 2020. A close friend and colleague of Gennady, Zinaida was the deputy chair of REP.

However, Gennady Fedynich does not leave the union movement since the REP board unanimously appointed him as advisor, a specially created position. In this capacity, Gennady will consult for the union by taking the floor in court on behalf of the union, representing the union in different state agencies and other organizations, analyzing the work of the union and its structures as well as participating in negotiations and collective bargaining.

After her elections as acting chair of REP, Zinaida Mikhnyuk comments:

“We are a team that worked this entire year in a special mode because of the criminal case. I, as the first deputy chair, signed complaints to the Prosecutor General’s Office, to the Presidential Administration, signed characteristics of the leaders of our union, financial documents.” 

“For me, there is nothing new. I hoped till the very last moment that the decision of the court would be canceled, that the international organizations which attended each court hearing would influence the adoption of a fairer decision. As our leader, Gennady Fedynich, said: “it was not Komlik and myself who were tried, it was our organization, the independent trade union movement that was tried, that is, all of us. But we are a team, and we will work until the next congress: we have a programme, and we have a plan.”

Gennady Fedynich does not believe everything is over and is going to appeal the court decision further:

“There is a possibility to appeal through the chairman of the city court, or the Supreme Court … We also prepare documents to the UN Human Rights Committee … If the government hoped to hobble our union in this way, then I will now have even more opportunities to visit people.”

Kemal Özkan, assistant general secretary comments on the verdict regarding the “trade union case” and further developments in Belarus:

“In the clear absence of rule of law and a fair trial, we fully support our affiliate, the trade union REP and its leadership in their legitimate actions to protect their union from interference by the authorities.

“As for us, we will inform European and international institutions of these recent developments and will build further pressure on the Belarusian government. In particular we will address the governments of the countries which are the main trading partners of Belarus and demand they reconsider their relations with Belarus. We are also going to address the organizing committee of the European Games which are planned in Minsk in summer 2019 and demand that they reconsider the location of the games in light of these constant violations and injustice towards trade unions in Belarus.”

Sanofi global union network calls to reignite genuine dialogue

The meeting of the Sanofi global union network was held at company headquarters in Paris, the day after the meeting of the European Works Council (EWC). In addition to EWC members, it was attended by union representatives from a number of countries, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Japan, Indonesia, Turkey and Vietnam. 

The meeting noted that the pharmaceutical industry is experiencing consistent growth, and company sales and profits are soaring, including at Sanofi. However, changes in production processes and labour relations pose huge challenges for employees.

In September, Sanofi unveiled a major reorganization of global business units to provide greater focus on its operations in mature markets and emerging markets, particularly in China, which has become Sanofi’s second market after the US.

Deep concerns were expressed about the plan, which will be in place from the beginning of 2019, and is expected to have a serious impact on employment. The restructuring process has been ongoing for some years at company locations in different countries.

Delegates reported on the development of subcontracting to reduce costs across all operations, not only in production but also in research and development. In Brazil, the new labour law now allows for unrestricted outsourcing, worsening workers’ rights and conditions.

Implementation of the French law on duty of vigilance was the subject of a specific agenda item. Strong emphasis was put on the role of stakeholders and, in particular, trade unions to help ensure that the law is abided by in all countries where Sanofi operates and along its supply chain. A consultation process has been established and a risk mapping is to be presented in February 2019.

Globally, however, the participants lamented the weakening of social dialogue and poor consideration of employee representatives by management. Changes in the company business structure will be presented to workers’ representatives at the beginning of next year, after they are already in place. Unions are increasingly side-lined and social dialogue is becoming ineffective, while Sanofi claims to be a socially responsible company. 

The participants concurred that these developments require a strong response from labour. They agreed to deepen cooperation and strengthen the network, formed a year ago, through better exchange of information and regular communication between regional representatives.

They adopted a statement calling on the company “to establish a mechanism to facilitate regular genuine social dialogue at global level. Constructive social dialogue is critical for quality of life at work and company performance. We again demand Sanofi management to enter into dialogue with the network”.

IndustriALL Global Union assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan stated:

“All reports point to serious shortcomings in terms of workers’ rights. There is a clear deterioration of social dialogue that is in no one’s interest. Having an open channel of communication with management is for us the best way to address these problems together and move forward constructively”.

Sanofi is present in over 100 countries and has production facilities in 36 of them. It employs some 100,000 workers, of whom over half are outside Europe. 

Union activists face new repression and attacks in Kazakhstan

Please join the LabourStart campaign and call upon the Kazakh authorities to put an end to persecution and violence against independent trade union leaders, and ensure freedom and safety for trade union activities in the country.

The Fuel and Energy Workers' Union is a former member of the independent trade union centre, Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (KNPRK), now banned by the authorities.

Seniyavskiy was alone in his garage repairing his car when a group of people entered and attacked him in the evening on 10 November 2018. The union leader was hospitalized in the city of Shakhtinsk with a head injury, arm fractures and numerous bruises on his face and body. Earlier, he received threats by phone and someone broke windows in his house.

Independent trade unions believe this attack is related to Senyavskiy’s union work, since the threats against him started after he attended a conference organized by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The case was reported to the police.

Earlier, on 25 September 2018, the authorities put forward a trumped-up criminal case against Erlan Baltabai, leader of the Fuel and Energy Workers' Union. Other independent union leaders before Baltabai, including KNPRK chair Larisa Kharkova, remain subject to criminal charges, based on interference by the state in internal trade union affairs, in violation of ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association.

In 2017 Erlan Baltabai visited the ILO International Labour Conference and spoke about anti-union repression in Kazakhstan.

The attacks happened just before an international union mission represented by ITUC, International Union of Food Workers (IUF), the Confederation of Labour of Russia (KTR) and Norwegian union Industri Energi, an affiliate of IndustriALL, visited the country on 13 to 15 November.

The mission visited Kazakhstan in light of numerous violations of union rights for freedom of association, particularly due to closure of independent trade union center KNPRK at the beginning of 2017, and followed reprisals against its affiliates and trade union leaders.

In April 2018, Industri Energi awarded the Arthur Svensson International Prize for Trade Union Rights, to the independent trade unions of Kazakhstan.

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL Global Union assistant general secretary, said,

“IndustriALL Global Union condemns these recent brutal and heinous attacks against trade union leaders in Kazakhstan. Earlier we supported the nomination of Kazakh independent unions for the Arthur Svensson Prize, and we will further extend our solidarity support to the entire independent trade union movement in Kazakhstan."

We expect from the authorities a quick and thorough investigation and punishment of those implicated in the crime against brother Senyavskiy. We also demand an immediate end to repression against Erlan Baltabai and other leaders of independent trade unions, including Larisa Kharkova.”

General strike in Tunisia against government cuts

An estimated 6 per cent of the population of Tunisia took part in the strike action, the biggest since 2013. The public sector in Tunisia includes workers organized by UGTT unions affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union.

International lenders, including the International Monetary Fund, have put pressure on the Tunisian government to reduce its budget deficit by reforming the public sector. Reforms include a wage freeze and the proposed privatization of publicly owned resources.

The UGTT has resisted the government’s plans, saying that they risk eroding the quality of public services. Due to rising inflation and a fall in the value of the currency, workers have lost purchasing power and deserve a pay rise.

The UGTT originally called for a strike on 24 October as well as 22 November. The October strike was called off after months of negotiation, when the government agreed to raise salaries for 150,000 workers. However, the government reneged on its commitment.

Yesterday’s strike is a reaction to the government’s failure to respect three previous agreements.

IndustriALL general secretary Valter Sanches sent a solidarity letter to the UGTT, saying:

“The strike shows the UGTT's commitment to defending the rights of public sector employees, who deserve a wage increase, given rising inflation, the fall in the value of the Tunisian dinar and an increase in taxes.
“We are aware that this strike comes after all possibilities for dialogue have been exhausted and negotiations have failed to reach agreement on the need to raise wages in the public sector.”

Cement factory death mobilizes Albanian trade unions on safety

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Albania (SPMSH), in collaboration with the Centre for Labour Rights (CLR), organized the national seminar for 55 trade union representatives and others responsible for occupational health and safety in the cement, mining and heavy industry sectors.

There have been 531 mining deaths in Albania as a result of poor working conditions over the past 50 years.

SPMSH President, Mr Gëzim Kalaja, said the aim of the seminar was to raise awareness of health and safety and to prevent accidents at the workplace. The law on occupational health and safety is vitally important to trade unions and it must be implemented and enforced correctly and seriously by the responsible institutions.

The seminar was attended by various safety experts including the Regional Chief Inspector Mr Ardit Shabanaj, Ms Frosina Gjino and Mr Edison Hoxha from CLR, who spoke about health and safety in the mines, such as the rules on technical safety, handling of maintenance and repair work, the role of the rescuers, and specific aspects of the mining industry, as well as occupational health and safety in the cement industry.

Participants also discussed the role of the occupational health and safety council, and the overall situation of occupational health and safety in Albania.

IndudstriALL’s director of health, safety and sustainability, Brian Kohler emphasized the importance of viewing occupational health and safety as a system underpinned by workers’ rights: to know about the hazards of their work; to refuse or shut down unsafe work; and to participate fully in health and safety decision-making. Understanding an accident at the workplace should not be seen as an opportunity to blame the worker, even when an employee’s actions might seem negligent, because the investigator must understand that those actions made sense to that worker at that time. The question that must be asked is, WHY did it make sense to act in that way at that time? He also drew the attention of trade unions to their confrontation with new developments and labour market dynamics, digitalization and robotics at work, and so on.

The seminar was also attended by representatives from the Trade Union of Food, Agriculture, Commerce and Tourism and the Trade Union of Oil Workers of Albania. Fushë-Krujë, from the cement factory in Elbasan where the worker died on 19 October 2018, spoke about occupational health and safety from his union’s point of view providing an insight into the reality of industry safety in Albania.

At the end participants concurred that seminars on occupational health and safety related topics should be organized as frequently as possible and should be extended to all levels in all mining and heavy industries in order to prevent accidents at the workplace and occupational diseases.

Not in our workplace, not in our union!

“Join the USW in saying no to violence, harassment against women!” Once US affiliate United Steelworkers’ executive board adopted the pledge, the union created a digital petition and sent e-mail blasts encouraging signatures to support pledge. The union makes sure that the act of signing is well understood and publicized by and within the union. USW is regularly promoting the pledge on social media, as well as presenting it at Women of Steel, local union meetings, and gender discrimination and anti-harassment trainings. The Pledge has been shared with all civil and human rights coordinators, all local union civil and human rights chairs. Many of USW leadership include the Pledge in remarks at various union functions.

In South East Asia, trade unions are developing ways to sensitise members to violence against women. In the Philippines, the issue is integrated into all affiliates’ education programmes, directed at both men and women. During the trainings, the Pledge in presented together with the existing law on violence and harassment.

After adopting IndustriALL’s pledge, the Nicaraguan textile and garment federation FESITEX, launched a campaign called Trade unions and companies, say no to violence and harassment in the world of work. Through the campaign, unions want to encourage employers to work with trade unions to eradicate violence in the workplace. The campaign also wants to raise awareness among women workers in the garment factories in the export processing zones, as well organize workers who are not yet union members.

More affiliates are taking the Pledge. South Korean metalworkers union, KMWU, recently adopted it to mark 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. KMWU reiterates their "commitment to building a culture that respects women and condemns all attitudes and actions that perpetuate sexism and violence".

IndustriALL is calling on affiliates to take action on 25 November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Adopt and share the Pledge!