Global labour movement condemns seizure of union property by government of Afghanistan

IndustriALL answered the call to ITUC affiliates by sending a letter to the country’s president, after the government ignored repeated calls for dialogue.

This follows a decree issued by the government of Afghanistan on 31 August 2016, mandating the seizure of all property of the National Union of Afghanistan Workers and Employees (NUAWE), the Afghanistan Farmers’ Cooperative Union, and the Youth Union, and the transfer and registration of it as state property.

In April this year, the ITUC and NUAWE – Afghanistan’s only national trade union centre – filed a complaint with the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association against the decree. Instead of opening dialogue, the Afghan government sent armed police and military to raid and seal NUAWE property in Kabul and 16 districts. One of the buildings has been taken over by the Ministry of Defence.

The union’s bank accounts have been frozen, its certification has not been renewed, and freedom of expression has been hindered. All offices of the union remain closed, and staff have not been paid for five months.

In the letter, IndustriALL general secretary Valter Sanches echoed the ITUC call, saying:

“We call on your government to immediately withdraw the decision to seize union property and to allow for appeal against any court order to confiscate union property, as well as against the pertinent Government Decree.

“In light of the ILO’s centenary and its commitment to universal ratification of core labour standards by 2019, we also call on your government to ratify ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, as a matter of urgency. “

Indian electronics unions resolve to fight precarious work and develop network

The 14 trade unionists came from six companies: GE, Siemens, Ever Electronics, LEONI Wiring, ELANTAS Beck and NCR. They reported that employers in the sector rapidly replace permanent workers with agency, contract and outsourced workers who are challenging to organize, and resolved to intensify their organizing and fight against precarious work.

They discussed the challenge of Industry 4.0 to workers and the union movement. Unions emphasized the importance of building union power, developing trade union networks and engaging with government and employer associations to face the challenges.

The unions produced a work plan to fight against precarious work and to strengthen their organizing and collective bargaining, and committed to building a strong union network of by proposing a regional and national structure.

Apoorva Kaiwar, South Asia regional secretary, said:

“This is the first meeting of electronics and electrical unions in India. This is an important sector for us, and we will need to build IndustriALL’s influence in the sector.”

Kan Matsuzaki, IndustriALL director for ICT, Electrical and Electronics said:

“Workers in this rapidly growing sector in India face a double challenge: an increase in precarious work, and changes to the production process brought about by Industry 4.0.

“These issues cannot be addressed in isolation. We need to build a strong network, and this meeting is a good first step.”

SKF IndustriALL world union council drives discussion about Industry 4.0, flexibility and health and safety

SKF, a world leader in the bearings business, is one of very few multinational corporations that have not only a world works council but a world union council (WUC). This group represents trade union leaders worldwide within SKF. Delegates and observers find the exchange to be very important for all employees in SKF, especially when it comes to challenges for traditional social dialogue structures in the group.

Kennet Carlsson, Swedish chairman of the WUC, said with respect to the discussions with top management:

“This is a unique opportunity to raise the questions that we have towards the management – and we must use it – for the sake of our members and of all employees in SKF.”

The WUC spent a whole day in dialogue with SKF top management, including group president and CEO Alrik Danielson, about the company’s development, strategy and activities. Since SKF is very advanced when it comes to digitization, this was one of the top priorities in the discussions, including skills management and training programmes. 

In addition, exchange over other important issues like health and safety programmes, well-being and other company-specific programmes took place.

On 4 October, a joint visit to SKF’s Biasca plant was the most important topic on the agenda. In the Biasca plant, the WUC not only visited the production lines and the logistics centre, but also had the chance to discuss upcoming changes in production and logistics with plant management. The Italian trade unions who hosted the meeting, together with SKF’s local HR team, did their utmost to arrange an interesting and fruitful meeting.  

Matthias Hartwich, IndustriALL’s director for mechanical engineering, assists the WUC and its steering committee to drive the discussion forward. In his presentation, he encouraged all delegates to increase cross-border dialogue, improve global coordination and overcome borders, especially when politicians in many countries intend to build walls. With respect to the dialogue between top management and the WUC, he summarized:

“I see very mature and open dialogue between top management and trade union representatives to jointly shape the future of SKF. Maybe this can become a showcase for social dialogue in the 21st century.”

Global unions condemn anti-union violence in Colombia

A delegation made up of representatives from TUCA, CTC Colombia, CUT Colombia, BWI, PSI, ITF, UNI and IndustriALL Global Union held a number of meetings with the Colombian government from 12 to 14 September.

During a meeting with the Minister of Labour, Alicia Arango Olmos, the delegation expressed concern about the safety of social and union leaders in Colombia. They also condemned campaigns run by the national police force and members of the new government to systematically criminalize union and other social protests.

They made specific reference to recent statements by the Minister of Defence, Guillermo Botero. At the Confecamaras Congress held on 13 September in Cartagena, Botero told Colombian radio station Caracol that gangs linked to drug trafficking and the international mafia were financing the social protests.

Ms Arango Olmos, who also served as secretary to former president Álvaro Uribe and has been director of the Central Democratic Party since 2014, surprised the delegation by totally discrediting its claims.

She claimed that international unions were not aware of the problems in Colombia and were in no place to talk about what was happening there. She accused us of laying blame without the proper facts. Killings, threats and attacks against social and union leaders are on the rise in Colombia. Protection mechanisms don't work and are often not available at all, and any assistance provided often comes too late.

We are very concerned about the government's statements, which only serve to incite more violence and further criminalize the social protests and the right to freedom of association. The international union movement will continue to support workers in Colombia. We will seek to strengthen unions and social organizations by working together to bring sustainable development to the country.”

said IndustriALL's regional secretary, Marino Vani.

IndustriALL workshop boosts collective bargaining skills in Madagascar

The workshop follows a strained relationship between the unions and the local management and comes on the eve of the commencement of collective bargaining at the ilmenite operations. 

The workshop was run together with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa, who provided collective bargaining expertise to about 16 shop stewards from the two affiliates. Led by Thomas Ketsise, the production unit head at NUM, and Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL’s director of mining, came amidst growing frustration by the local unions at what they consider as local management’s increasing hostile attitude towards unions. 

This hostile attitude, the unions claim, manifests in the daily industrial relationship experience of workers and contractors, and they regard this attitude as being at odds with Rio Tinto and IndustriALL’s global employee relations’ principles. 

Eugene Chretien, regional secretary of SVS, said:

“The training allowed participants to understand the power of QMM as a Rio Tinto Subsidiary and that they need to be better prepared before collective negotiations.”

Anthony Randrianandrasana is regional president of Sekrima, the most representative union for QMM’s direct workforce. He said:

“This is the first training for the newly elected shop stewards. The knowledge they gained from the trainings gave them the technical skills and confidence to enter into collective negotiation."

The workshop follows the recent mission in early February 2018 by IndustriALL and a senior-level delegation from Rio Tinto led by Michael Gavin, Rio Tinto’s head of global employee relations. The joint mission was in response to industrial relations challenges at the operation and to set in motion processes to address them. A subsequent strike by the union over unfulfilled collective bargaining commitments by management underscored how fractured the relations were.

The decision to include the NUM follows the union’s recent signing of a collective bargaining agreement at Rio Tinto’s Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) in South Africa, where the union is organized. Rio Tinto’s QMM and RBM operations mine the same mineral, ilmenite, using the same mining methods.

The workshop was held as part of the Sub-Sahara union building project, supported by Swedish union donor organization Union to Union.

Olympic 2020 partner Mitsubishi Electric humiliates workers in Thailand

In December 2017, 1,800 members of IndustriALL Global Union affiliate the Confederation of Thai Electrical Appliances, Electronic Automobile and Metalworkers (TEAM) were locked out by Mitsubishi Electric Consumer Products Thailand. The union and company then reached an agreement through collective bargaining on 29 January 2018, ending the dispute.

Mitsubishi Electric agreed to reinstate all the locked-out workers, which is also a legal requirement. However, before reinstatement, workers were called into a meeting to “check their attitudes” and pressurized to disclose compromising information about union leaders.

The company forced the locked-out workers to attend a four-day camp at a military base to “learn discipline and order”, undergo five days of training by an external human resources firm, where they were expected to “reflect on their wrong doing”, one day of cleaning old people’s homes to “earn merit”, and three days at a Buddhist temple, with no regard for their religious beliefs. The workers were also made to post apologies to the company on their personal social media accounts. 

Despite undergoing this process of deliberate humiliation, not all workers have been reinstated. The company even began advertising new job openings. Mitsubishi Electric subsequently laid off 24 workers waiting for reinstatement, including ten members of a new union committee elected in June 2018, and filed for permission with the labour court to dismiss two others. 

The company requires workers who have been called back to sign individual contracts to replace the collective bargaining agreement that expired at the end of September 2018. It includes a clause where the worker must agree that they are not members of a union – and if they are, wage increases and benefits additionally gained from the individual contract will be returned to the company.

Mitsubishi Electric has used intimidation and harassment to weaken the union, and attempted to humiliate union members. This constitutes a clear violation of fundamental workers’ and trade union rights, including national labour law and international core labour standards. 

The company is an official partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, which is committed to “Consideration of Human Rights, Labour and Fair Business Practices.”

IndustriALL has written to the company on three occasions, demanding that the dismissed workers be reinstated, but there has been no response from the company up to now.

IndustriALL general secretary Valter Sanches said:

“IndustriALL Global Union calls on Mitsubishi Electric to respect international labour standards, immediately reinstate the 26 union leaders and members, and stop violating fundamental trade union rights.”

During the lockout, workers lost access to all benefits, including health cover. After a worker died during this period, health cover was reinstated for pregnant women only.

Unions unite to defend workers’ rights

The meeting was an important platform for exchanging of information and experiences, with participants united in defending and advancing workers’ rights. One whole day was devoted to discussing gender issues and how the unions can work together to improve women’s rights and participation.

Discussing developments since the last meeting in Yerevan, Armenia in 2017, many delegates spoke about the difficulties they face, including falling living standards, low level of wages and attacks on trade union rights.

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary, said:

“I believe this was a very good and productive three days of work. Like in many other countries, our affiliates here are facing serious challenges, but we are confident we can cope with them.

“The alarming trade union rights’ violations in Kazakhstan and Belarus are upsetting, but with the support of our affiliates we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in these countries.”

As part of a strengthened relationship between the countries in the region and the European Union (EU), IndustriAll Europe general secretary Luc Triangle, reported on the EU, its institutions and social policies.

Industry 4.0 will soon impact the region, and unions are preparing themselves for challenges that will affect production and work in the industries dominating the economies in the region.

The meeting’s third day was dedicated to gender policy and future actions in the region to implement decisions taken during IndustriALL’s Congress in Rio in 2016, according to which, “all affiliates should strive towards a minimum of 40 per cent women representation in their delegations”. The unions welcomed the opportunity for men and women to come together to better understand the challenges faced by women in unions and in the workplace. Affiliates agreed that the best way to make improvements is through addressing the issues at a leadership level with the participation of women and men.

Jenny Holdcroft, IndustriALL assistant general secretary, said:

“I was very pleased to be part of a stimulating discussion that highlighted the different perspectives of men and women of the situation of women workers. It is through discussions like these that we can reach a better common understanding a drive change in our unions.”

What is precarious work?

People in precarious work lack job security and generally have lower salaries, limited social protection, and few, if any, benefits.

Precarious workers face more difficulties to exercise their rights, notably to join a union and bargain collectively for better wages and working conditions. Injury rates are higher for precarious workers, often due to a lack of on-the-job training given to permanent employees.

People in precarious work have little or no choice in determining their working hours and pay, even if they are freelance or independent contractors. Many work on rolling contracts, doing the same job month after month or year after year. For all intents and purposes they are permanent employees but have no rights to holiday pay, paid sick leave or redundancy payments.

Indirect workers can find themselves trapped in triangular employment relationships, when they are officially employed by a subcontractor or agency, but actually working for another company, with neither taking responsibility for workers’ rights.

Bogus self-employment, where independent workers have just one employer, is another form of precarious work. This particularly applies to the gig economy – for example, delivery workers or taxi drivers who take on one job or gig at a time for a single company.

Find out more:

The International Labour Organization’s report on non-standard forms of employment around the world

The International Trade Union Confederation’s report on precarious work in Asia-Pacific.

The rise of non-standard employment in selected ASEAN countries – by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung foundation.

Improved cooperation means better conditions for 600,000 workers

A year ago the European Commission decided to support a 2-year industriAll Europe project in 2018-19 under the title “Strengthening the capacity of trade unions in South-East Europe to improve wages and working conditions in the garment and footwear sectors”. The project targets six countries in the region: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia.

A mapping carried out as the first phase of the project earlier this year revealed that there are more than 600,000 garment and footwear workers in South-East Europe. Their unionisation levels are as low as 3-4%, there are few collective agreements, and workers’ salaries in some countries are around 200 euros per month, or only half of those for garment workers in China.

industriAll Europe and IndustriALL Global Union agreed to work closely together to address the problems and focus on achieving four important results in the years to come:

Growth of union membership through strategic organizing, training and capacity-building
Increase collective agreements (CBAs) at company level
Rebuild industry-level collective bargaining
Develop paths towards living wages through brand cooperation, minimum wage increases and CBAs

Interaction with the key garment and footwear brands sourcing from South-East Europe is important for facilitating progress on the central goals of the project. Therefore, IndustriALL Global Union and industriAll Europe met on 28 September in Istanbul with three leading brands that have signed global framework agreements (GFA) with IndustriALL Global Union, namely Inditex, H&M and ASOS.

The three brands confirmed their support for freedom of association and collective bargaining in South-East Europe, seeing it as part of their strategic cooperation with the global and European unions. Western European trade unions have committed to helping on contacts with other leading brands in Italy, Germany and other countries.

“We are looking for win-win solutions for the workers with good conditions, companies with sustainable business, and governments in the form of economic growth and more equal societies. South-East European countries need to create domestic demand through the payment of living wages”, said Luc Triangle, general secretary of industriAll Europe.

“We see this project and cooperation with the key brands as part of our global broader strategy to profoundly change the garment and footwear industry and make it sustainable worldwide. Global framework agreements and the ACT living wage initiative are essential tools in this process”, said Kemal Özkan, assistant general secretary of IndustriALL Global Union.

IndustriALL Global Union has signed GFAs with six garment and footwear brands, Inditex, H&M, ASOS, Tchibo, Esprit and Mizuno, covering millions of workers throughout the supply chains.  ACT is an expanding, ground-breaking agreement to achieve living wages for workers through industry-wide collective bargaining linked to the brands’ purchasing practices and freedom of association.

The project will now continue with six national seminars, with focus on capacity building, putting together action plans in each country, and interaction with other stakeholders such as employer associations and governments.

Workers in South Africa strike against union bashing at Lanxess mine

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), says Lanxess, which is listed on leading sustainability indices, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good, is intimidating and harassing its members. For example, the workers are being threatened with dismissals and retrenchments for joining the union.

Lanxess’s specialty chemicals and plastics global value chain employs over 19,000 workers in 25 countries. The chrome mine, which is in Rustenburg, North West Province, supplies organic leather chemicals and chrome tanning salts to the company’s leather operations in China, Germany, Italy, and South Africa. The company is also not cooperating with a request by the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration to finalize the numbers of workers belonging to the union. NUMSA says it will fight against the deplorable behaviour that is meant to continue the abuse and exploitation of workers.

Furthermore, Lanxess mine is failing to respect health and safety standards by not reporting incidents and accidents. To force the company to comply with the law, NUMSA has written to the Department of Mineral Resources to act against the mine. 

The Mokhukhwini (shack dwellers) community around the mine has joined the workers’ protest and is demanding that the mine fulfills its promises to build houses. Instead of listening to the workers and the community demands, Lanxess mine management resorted to bullying tactics by closing electricity and water supplies to the community as “punishment for joining the protest”.

Says Jerry Morulane, Hlanganani regional secretary for NUMSA: “We condemn the backward management at Lanxess and will continue to expose the abuse of workers. Their threats will not stop us from demanding our rights.”

Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa concurs with NUMSA: “Workers’ rights are protected by the Labour Relations Act and other laws. It is shameful that Lanxess mine chooses to ignore workers’ rights and continues to bash unions. We commend NUMSA for sending a clear message to the mine management that this unacceptable bullying will be resisted.”