International solidarity with Turkish unions during economic crisis

One of the world's fastest growing economies over the last decade, Turkey has fallen into the trap of foreign debt fueled growth, bringing the country into deep economic turmoil as deficits in both fiscal and current accounts reach alarming levels. The Turkish government used foreign credit to drive growth through infrastructure and construction investments, the return on which is insufficient to service the debt.

Since Turkey has inadequate hard currency reserves to rescue the economy, the Turkish lira has fallen sharply against major currencies and lost 4 per cent in value since August, and 50 per cent from the beginning of the year. Coupled with a series of political crises, this has resulted in economic fallout that could trigger a harsh crisis in the banking system in the country and other emerging economies, and even in Europe, considering the close economic ties.

In the meantime, the Turkish Statistical Institute announced that yearly retail inflation reached 24,52 per cent, with 6,3 per cent recorded for the month of September alone. The Institute reported that wholesale price inflation reached 46,15 per cent, showing a huge gap with retail prices. There is an expectation that yearly inflation will surpass 30 per cent.

Turkey’s main export drivers are the automotive and auto supply sectors, textile and garment industries and petrochemicals, which are organized by IndustriALL affiliates.

In addition, Turkey suffers from tariffs imposed by the US in the steel and aluminum sectors, among others, which impact industrial jobs in manufacturing.

The sharp devaluation of the lira has resulted in a drastic decline in purchasing power for workers. At the beginning of the year, the legal minimum wage was increased from 1,404 to 1,603 lira net, at the time more than €350, now worth less than €200. Turkey’s minimum wage has become lower than neighbouring countries.

Turkish unions are united in demanding a quick fix by increasing the legal minimum wage to 2,000 lira, which remains far from being sufficient for survival.

It is reported that a number of companies have already filed for bankruptcy with the authorities, creating massive job losses without protection.

Turkish affiliates must also fight for the fundamental trade union rights and liberties of workers guaranteed by international conventions and the country’s constitution. There is continous pressure and intimidation against workers and trade unions, particularly when they engage in organizing campaigns and collective bargaining negotiations.

The IndustriALL visit coincided with a major labour dispute regarding the construction of the giant third airport in Istanbul, where 32,000 workers are employed. Since the start of the project, at least 37 workers have died, and workers say the number could be much higher. Workers have reported problems with safety, excessive working time, food and accommodation.

To protest the rising number of fatalities and poor working conditions at the airport construction site, workers went on strike, but security forces were brought out to repress the industrial action. Union officials and members have been arrested and are still in prison. IndustriALL Global and European trade unions joined the international union movement in protesting the situation, writing to the country's President and the construction consortium IGA.

Addressing the meeting, Valter Sanches and Luc Triangle, respective general secretaries of IndustriALL Global and Europe made a statement, saying:

“Our sincere hope and expectation is that Turkey resolves its current hard economic problems without having to turn to international financial agencies, particularly the International Monetary Fund, since their anti-labour austerity policies in the past are still fresh in our memories.
“IndustriALL Global and European trade unions are fully committed to continuing to give full support and solidarity to all our Turkish affiliates in your fight for fundamental trade union rights.
“Both organizations are present here to demonstrate our consistent support to our Turkish affiliates in these difficult times for the workers in the country.”

Understanding the challenge of Industry 4.0 from a labour perspective

Opening the meeting, Iwan Kusmawan, chair of IndustriALL Indonesia Council said:

Industry 4.0 was introduced by the government and employers. Unions and workers are pushed to accept the challenge and also to face problems related to job losses.

For the discussion, there was a panel consisting of representatives from the ministry of industry, the Indonesian employers’ association, unions and media.

The representative from the ministry said that the Indonesian government is optimistic that Industry 4.0 will have a positive impact, and in April this year an Industry 4.0 road map covering five sectors was launched.

The five sectors to be developed for the forth industrial revolution are food and beverage, textiles, electronics and chemicals. The Indonesian government believes that Industry 4.0 can improve the competitiveness of Indonesian products in the global market and create 10 million new jobs by the year 2030.

The representative from Indocement-Heidelberg highlighted the importance of social dialogue between employers and trade unions to deal with the issue.

An action plan was agreed upon by the participants where workers and unions should see Industry 4.0 as an opportunity rather than threat, and increase awareness through education and trainings. To overcome the challenges, strategies should be developed, using the tools of international labour standards. Unions need to strengthen their collective bargaining agreements and include covering the impact of Industry 4.0.

IndustriALL files OECD complaint against General Electric

IndustriALL and its Algerian affiliate, the Syndicat National Autonome des Travailleurs de L'électricité et du Gaz (SNATEG), have submitted the complaint after GE failed to address human rights violations linked to its multi billion-dollar partnership with Algeria’s state-owned energy company, Sonelgaz.

Since 2013, Sonelgaz has harassed, threatened, fired or disciplined over a thousand SNATEG leaders and members on account of their union activity, making it impossible for the union to function effectively.

Sonelgaz has and continues to oppress SNATEGs members and leaders through the judicial system and summoned 1,114 union members to court for taking strike action in 2017.

“General Electric is directly linked to serious human rights violations in Algeria and has failed to address them. GE has ignored our warnings about these abuses, so we’ve asked the OECD to intervene,” says IndustriALL general secretary, Valter Sanches.

IndustriALL and at least four trade union affiliates with members at GE have written to the company on numerous occasions since January 2018, urging GE to carry out due diligence at its operations in Algeria, but GE has given no response.

GE’s partnership with Sonelgaz includes a 20-year services deal valued at more than US$3 billion and a US$2.7 billion deal to supply large gas turbines and related technology to nine power plants in the country. GE has multiple joint ventures with Sonelgaz and delivers management training programs for Sonelgaz executives.

SNATEG president, Raouf Mellal, who was sacked by Sonelgaz for his union activities, has been sentenced to a total of 18 months in prison with fines of 10,000 euros (US$12,300) on seven spurious charges. It includes a six-month sentence for exposing the decade-long illicit inflation of electricity bills by Sonelgaz, affecting eight million households in Algeria. Mellal has been forced to move to a secret address to avoid harassment and intimidation from authorities.

Abdelkader Kawafi, general secretary of SNATEG, was convicted and sentenced to three months in prison because of press statements in which he spoke about precarious work at Sonelgaz. Similarly, dismissed union leader, Benzine Slimane, president of SNATEG security guards and protection union, was fined and sentenced to prison and is being pursued by Sonelgaz in four arbitrary cases. According to the union, he is accused by Sonelgaz of defamation for calling for an end to sexual harassment of female workers.

This persecution has been documented by the International Labour Organization, which has expressed serious concern at trade union repression at Sonelgaz and by the Algerian government. A planned ILO mission to the country in February this year had to be abandoned after the government refused to allow meetings with SNATEG and other independent unions in the country.

The complaint against GE has been submitted by IndustriALL and SNATEG to the OECD’s National Contact Point in the United States.

Court rules compensation for dismissed autoworkers in Malaysia

Although the judge found the workers guilty of misconduct in his verdict, he considered dismissal was an excessive punishment for 18 former employees of the two auto parts manufacturing companies, Hicom Automotive Manufacturers and Isuzu Hicom. Both companies are subsidiaries of the DRB-Hicom Group, which specializes in assembling cars in Malaysia for Tata-Motors, Honda, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Isuzu.

After their dismissal in 2013, NUTEAIW filed a case in support of their members at the industrial relations department of the ministry of human resources, and hired a lawyer to represent them in court.

Workers were fired after company management discovered a video recording on YouTube dated to May 2013 in which they were handing over a workers’ manifesto to a Malaysian Islamic Party candidate, demanding union rights and benefits. The candidate was running for a seat in the Pahang state parliament in the 2013 general elections.

Management accused workers of using the external source of influence with the aim of improving their wages and working conditions. Because some of the workers were wearing their uniforms with company logos during the hand-over, management claimed the company reputation was damaged and after few months of internal investigation fired 18 workers who participated in the action, including the one who organized it.

The court considered the misconduct was not a criminal offence. The court also noted that the dismissed workers, most of whom stayed with the same employer for 20 years, had never had any serious misconduct in their past record. The court proclaimed the dismissal was “disproportionate to the misconduct” and obliged the companies to pay out all the due wages as well as compensation in lieu of reinstatement since their dismissal. Each worker will get between MYR24,000 (U$5,800 US) and MYR94,000 (U$22,635 US).

End corporate greed and reduce precarious work, unions tell LafargeHolcim

The participants had a detailed exchange over challenges existing at national and international levels at LafargeHolcim, and expressed serious concerns at a lack of genuine social dialogue with the company after the changes in leadership in 2017 and 2018.

Trade union relations with LafargeHolcim went downhill at the end of 2017, when the new CEO reneged on a Memorandum of Understanding to sign a global framework agreement with IndustriALL Global Union and Building and Woodworkers International.

Meanwhile, rampant use of precarious work, namely outsourcing of up to 80 per cent in some sites, poses an enormous threat to workers’ rights and working conditions. LafargeHolcim proceeds with its policy of a shrinking business for the sake of increasing dividends paid to shareholders at the expense of workers creating all the company‘s wealth. Contract workers at LafargeHolcim are less qualified, have no access to training and promotion, and are not properly trained on health and safety. Consequently, three out of four victims of reported fatal accidents at work are contract workers.

The World Union Council issued a statement demanding that LafargeHolcim ends corporate greed and drastically reduces precarious work.

While welcoming the creation of a European Works Council inside the group, workers at the European level are worried their concerns are not being heard by top management. Moreover, participants reported cases of increased pressure on trade union activists from local management. Social dialogue and freedom of association are at risk, as several incidents show, such as in El Salvador.

Participants were able to pose all of these and many other questions to management representative Vincent Giard, head of labour relations and social policies at LafargeHolcim and Yonca Atac responsible for health and safety in Europe, who attended the second day of the meeting.

Pierre Cuppens,Vice-President of Building and Woodworkers International, said:

“This was a very useful meeting, especially because it was attended by management representatives. There is no reason for LafargeHolcim to stay away from a global framework agreement. We are on the same line on many issues, and I believe we need to continue our actions aimed at conclusion of such an agreement. We are willing to negotiate, but if the company continues rejecting it, we must be ready to exert our pressure on behalf of global union movement.”

Matthias Hartwich, director for materials industries in IndustriALL Global Union said,

“The group’s economic strategy is strange: more earnings with less assets and promises for increasing dividends for shareholders. The management is undermining LafargeHolcim’s industrial basis. At the same time, they talk of moving social dialogue to the national local level. We fully disagree with this approach as it will undermine good faith and fruitful dialogue in the future.”

Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, summarised the discussions:

“Through open discussions, fair exchange and concrete action plans, the World Union Committee of LafargeHolcim underlined important challenges in the operations of the company throughout the world, including violations of fundamental rights, lack of genuine social dialogue and excessive use of precarious work. We raised all these issues with representatives of the management. We want to resolve the problems through industrial relations mechanisms. We hope that LafargeHolcim management will reciprocate in a similar way. Otherwise we will continue to conduct our campaign for justice and fairness.”

African unions meet in Namibia to plan for Industry 4.0 and sustainability

The Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 is being ushered in by rapid automation caused by smart sensors, machine learning, data management, artificial intelligence and cloud solutions. Initially restricted to a few sectors such as automotive, aerospace, shipping, mechanical engineering and industrial manufacturing, robots will soon be in all sectors, including textile and garments.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliates from 12 countries in Sub Saharan Africa, with support from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, met in Windhoek, Namibia 18 – 19 October to discuss how unions can build strategies to engage on Industry 4.0 including the possibility of setting up a research network. Further, the meeting agreed that unions should be proactive in public policymaking on sustainable industrialization by looking at the economic, environmental and social dimensions.

In a region with high unemployment especially of young people, participants at the meeting agreed that unions must continue to fight for employment creation, job security, life-long learning for workers to get new transportable skills, living wages and better working conditions including for women. The importance of the local and global contexts featured in the discussions, particularly in relation to the Paris Agreement and the United Nations’ Social Development Goals to end poverty, create decent work and green jobs. International solidarity and Global Framework Agreements were cited as important in protecting workers rights.

The meeting discussed the need for Just Transition plans to protect workers’ rights and welfare because Industry 4.0 is linked to climate change. These plans should include creative labour adjustment programmes, social protection, and sustainable industrial policies to deliver job security. Social justice for affected communities should also be included. Further, it was stated that technological advancement, which is uneven on the continent, is hampered by high data costs, limited internet connectivity and expensive electricity.

According to Jens Dyring from the ILO, the Future of Work Initiative recognizes that the world of work is changing and for unions to be ready.

However, despite fears of job losses, there were benefits to workers’ health and safety when robots took over back-breaking work and workers earned more from high skilled jobs.

Brian Kohler, IndustriALL director of health, safety and sustainability, said:

"When technology makes jobs better and takes away the drudgery; workers can benefit. Unions should fight for a Just Transition because it is a bridge to the new, sustainable world of work. Building that bridge means that workers must play a role in making sustainable industrial policies.”

Tenaris TuboCaribe workers protest against rights violations

Trade unions Sintratucar, Sinaltrametal and Sinaltratenaris held a demonstration on 19 October and will take further action every Friday, as TuboCaribe, which is owned by steel multinational Tenaris, has refused to negotiate with them over their list of demands.

Workers are also protesting against the lack of pay rises in 2017 and 2018, the violations of their right to freedom of association, and the threats made against union leaders. In addition, they are calling for dismissed union members to be given their jobs back and for the company to withdraw its demands for union protection to be rescinded.

What’s more, the company’s head of human resources and its industrial relations manager have held meetings with non-union workers on the factory floor in which they gave the workers false information and distorted the truth. They told the workers that the company had not increased their wages because the trade unions didn’t want it to, and union members have received anonymous death threats as a result.

In addition to holding protests, the workers have sought other ways to resolve the conflict. They petitioned the Special Committee for the Handling of Conflicts Referred to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Colombia’s ministry of labour, and then filed complaints with the ILO and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

It is not only in Colombia that Tenaris takes such an arrogant and negligent attitude towards its workers – unions in other countries have faced similar problems.In Guatemala, for instance, IndustriALL Global Union filed a complaint with the OECD against multinational steel manufacturer Ternium, which, like Tenaris, is part of Techint Group, after it refused to recognize and negotiate with a trade union in the country.

IndustriALL recently informed some of Tenaris' clients of the company's union repression in Colombia. These clients include ENI and Equinor, both of which have entered into Global Framework Agreements with IndustriALL.

IndustriALL is working with the Tenaris Ternium Workers' World Council to set up an ongoing worldwide campaign against the companies' violations of workers' rights in certain countries and to ensure that both firms and their holding company, Techint, recognize the World Council and establish a dialogue with IndustriALL. They will hold an international meeting in Mexico on 26 and 27 November.

"IndustriALL and the World Council will come up with strategies to ensure that the current campaign is a success and to establish a strong and mature dialogue with Tenaris and Ternium, with the aim of preventing and resolving disputes and creating dignified working conditions for Tenaris and Ternium workers around the world," said IndustriALL's general secretary Valter Sanches.

IndustriALL investigation uncovers exploitation of Shell workers in Nigeria

The report documents poverty wages, abuse through contracts, fundamental rights violations, poor healthcare, health and safety hazards and miserable living conditions of Shell’s Nigerian workers.

“We work like an elephant and eat like an ant,” said a worker at the Umuebulu-Etche Flow Station in the outskirts of Port Harcourt. “Our salary at (contractor) Plantgeria is about 95,000 naira (US$257). 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.”

Salaries among the workers ranged from US$137 to US$257 per month, working 12 hours a day, six days a week. Some workers said that they had not been paid by their contractors for several months.

Workers said Shell determines what they get paid by contractors, but 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 is the biggest foreign multinational oil company in Nigeria, earning an estimated US$4 billion from Africa’s largest oil producing country in 2017.

At its AGM in May, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said 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.

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.”

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.”

In its code of conduct, Shell states: “We seek to work with contractors and suppliers who contribute to sustainable development and are economically, environmentally and socially responsible.”

IndustriALL’s general secretary, Valter Sanches, said:

“It’s high time that Shell lives up to its own code of conduct and ensures that the thousands of workers toiling at its operations in Nigeria are treated humanely. Shell needs to stop turning a blind eye to the human rights violations of contract workers at its operations in Nigeria. We urge the company to start dialogue with IndustriALL and its trade unions in Nigeria to remedy the situation, which at present is neither responsible nor sustainable.”

IndustriALL has a global campaign to stop precarious work at Shell, where contract workers outnumber permanent workers by more than 2:1, and do the most dangerous jobs. Unions estimate the ratio is even higher at Shell in Nigeria but the company does not disclose figures for individual countries.

Last month, Shell announced it had joined forces with other energy companies to create a collaborative approach to human rights supplier assessments in the energy industry. Participating companies say they recognize the importance of working with suppliers that respect human rights including the fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organization. However, Shell has refused IndustriALL’s offer to work with the company to investigate the same concerns.

Achieving gender equality in male dominated sectors

These sectors, which often provide skilled, well-paid and prestigious work, are dominated by men. Women working in these sectors tend to do the most menial and precarious work, with the lowest wages and status, and are often not visible in positions of authority in their unions.

Opening the meeting, IndustriALL assistant general secretary Jenny Holdcroft said,

“Gender equality is not a women’s issue, it is a core trade union issue. Just as we all campaign against precarious work and don’t expect precarious workers to organize themselves, we need to involve men in this discussion and stop treating this as an issue for women to resolve.”

The meeting addressed a number of stereotypes that are used by people – including some union leaders – to explain the low participation of women. A common myth is that that women are not interested in or capable of doing physically demanding or technical jobs. Another is that women lack the emotional stability to be effective trade union leaders, or should be at home looking after the children.

There are significant barriers to women entering these sectors. These include sexual harassment and gender-based violence, which is often not taken seriously, and treated as part of workplace culture.

Companies fail to make accommodation, such as secure changing and bathroom facilities, and personal protective equipment does not fit. Women are expected to take care of children and household duties as well as their jobs. Young women see very few positive role models in these sectors, and the education system directs them to caring and service work.

When women do work in these sectors, male colleagues sometimes perceive them as weak and are overly protective, denying them the opportunity to be challenged and develop their skills.

The meetings heard from women who worked as highly skilled mechanics, did maintenance work at height at a cement plant, drove heavy mining trucks and trains, or operated machinery at utilities companies. Many had to prove themselves in ways that were not expected of their male colleagues.

Several male delegates to the meeting made a powerful case for how their women colleagues, at work and in the union, did their jobs as well as or better than the men. Gender equality benefits men as well as women, because it disrupts power structures that only serve a few dominant men.

The delegates came up with a series of recommendations, which will be presented at the IndustriALL Executive Committee meeting in Mexico in November. These focus on moving gender equality out of women’s committees and making it a permanent agenda item in sector and network meetings. Organizational structures should develop and be mandated to report on a plan for increasing women’s participation, and unions should use global framework agreements to influence corporate behaviour.

Unions stand up to BHP at AGM

IndustriALL’s assistant general secretary, Kemal Özkan, questioned the world’s biggest mining company’s over its claims of sustainability, which he argued is not just about economic performance but also the environment, society and labour.

As a multinational company, BHP should adhere to international standards and create safe, decent work, while respecting social dialogue, social protection and workers’ fundamental rights, said Özkan.

BHP has laid off 20,000 workers in two years, while distributing a record US$6.3billion to shareholders in 2018. BHP now employs around 26,000 permanent staff compared to 34,500 contract workers.

Jeff Drayton, from Australian union, CFMEU, questioned BHP over the correlation between the rise in contract labour at BHP’s Mt Arthur coalmine in New South Wales and an increase in safety incidents. In a few short years, contract labour has grown from around 10 to 50 per cent of a total workforce of 1,600. Contract labour is paid around 40 per cent less at the thermal coal mine.

Steve Smyth, from CFMEU in Queensland, demanded to know why BHP workers suffering from coal dust diseases are not being reported as 'lost time injuries', despite being months off work. Earlier this year, miner Tyrone Buckton, passed away from coal dust diseases, silicosis and black lung, after decades of working at BHP.

While BHP owned up to two deaths at its mines over the past year, Aldo Amaya from IndustriALL affiliate, Sintracarbón, asked why the death of Carlos Roberto Urbina at the Cerrejón mine in Colombia was not in the annual report. BHP has a 30 per cent stake in the mine. He also accused BHP of using technology in cabs to penalize drivers if they are tired.

Also in Latin America, IndustriALL mining section co-chair Lucineide Varjão from Brazilian union CNQ/CUT, asked BHP what it planned to do about 2,000 workers who lost their jobs following the disastrous collapse of Fundão Dam in 2015, which killed 19 people, among them 14 workers.

IndustriALL’s mining co-chair Steve Hunt from the United Steelworkers in Canada, called on the company to cooperate with unions and carry out joint audits of their mines.

Meanwhile, BHP’s chairman Ken MacKenzie refused to discuss legacy issues from mines it spun off in a separate company, South32. IndustriALL affiliate, the National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa have been severely affected by job cuts at the company.

“BHP says safety is its first priority but from our experience this is just not the case. The responses we got from at the annual general meeting today were wholly inadequate. If BHP wants to be safe and sustainable, it must start by including workers and trade unions at every step,” said Kemal Özkan.

While in London for the AGM, IndustriALL’s BHP global network meeting met from 16 to 18 October and agreed to focus on issues of contracting, health and safety and organizing women workers at the company. BHP plans to employ 50 per cent women by 2025.