In Iraq, trade unions are helping to rebuild popular power

In Iraq’s May national elections, of the 329 parliamentary deputies chosen, Sairoon (meaning ‘Forward’ or ‘the Alliance for Reforms’) scored the biggest win – 55 deputies and 1.3 million votes. Sairoon includes the followers of the powerful Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) the Youth Movement for Change Party, the Party of Progress and Reform, the Iraqi Republican Group, and the State of Justice Party. In Baghdad, Sairoon won 23 per cent of the vote, almost twice that of any of its rivals.

The program of the Sairoon alliance calls for an end to the system that divided political positions and government support along sectarian lines, a system imposed by the United States after its occupation of Iraq in 2011. Basing a governmental structure on sectarian political parties led to a system of patronage and division of spoils, and consequently enormous corruption. As Al-Sadr told the Arab Weekly :

I’ll say this despite the amama [turban] on my head. We tried the Islamists and they failed miserably. [It’s] time to try independent technocrats.

Sairoon also called for independence from foreign domination by the US and Iran. In advance of the election, a senior Iranian politician, Ali Akbar Velayati, threatened reprisals if voters chose Sairoon : “We will not allow liberals and communists to govern in Iraq,” he said. Many secular politicians condemned the statement as interference in Iraq’s internal affairs.

In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, one of the country’s most conservative, voters elected ICP candidate Suhad al-Khateeb, a teacher, women’s rights activist and anti-poverty campaigner. After he victory she said :

We want social justice, citizenship, and are against sectarianism, and this is what Iraqis also want.

The coalition developed from a popular civic movement on the Iraqi streets, with roots in protests going back to 2010, and in the growth and popularity of the country’s unions.

In the summer of 2010, as temperatures soared past 120 degrees, Iraqis began to come out of their homes to protest the lack of electricity. Since the start of the occupation in 2003, US authorities, and later the Iraqi government, have been unable to provide power around the clock, especially during periods of high demand. As Arab Spring demonstrations took place throughout the Middle East, young Iraqis began organising rallies in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, mostly calling for jobs and better electrical service. They called their actions the ‘Iraqi Spring’.

Former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the youths “insurgents and terrorists.” Forty-five people died in the ensuing repression, including 29 people on 25 February 2011 alone (known as the ‘day of rage’). Hundreds were arrested.

In 2015, Iraqis began demonstrating every Friday, denouncing the corruption of sectarian political parties. According to the Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative website :

The demonstrators, mostly youth and civil society activists, challenge the political system as a whole, call for a secular state in opposition to a confessional state, against the division between Sunni and Shi’a populations, [and] for women’s rights and workers’ rights[…]. Iraqi women’s rights groups are actively working to make sure women can take part in the demonstrations without being harassed.

Young people held banners with fiery slogans : “The Parliament and the Islamic State are two sides of the same coin !” “Daesh was born out of your corruption !” “Humans do not survive with religion but bread and dignity !” “In the name of religion, they act like thieves !” And “No to sectarianism, no to nationalism, yes to humanity!”

Last year, on 11 February, thousands of people began a non-violent march from Tahrir Square to the heavily-fortified Green Zone with three demands : reform of the political system, combating corruption and provision of services. Government special forces fired on the protestors as they crossed the Jumhuriyah Bridge. Nine people were killed and 281 were wounded.

Role of the unions

The demand for non-sectarianism reflects a long tradition in Iraqi unions, which have never been organised along sectarian lines. The Iraqi labour movement begun in the 1920s in the oil industry and amongst railroad workers, and for decades the country was the most industrialised in the Middle East. Its unions, part of a strong left-wing political culture, helped overthrow the British-installed king and establish Karim Qasim’s nationalist and socialist government in the 1950s.

Prime Minister Qasim was overthrown and later executed following a coup by the Baathist Arab nationalist party in February 1963, and Saddam Hussein eventually took power 16 years later with the support of US intelligence agencies. He suppressed left-wing parties and only permitted weak unions controlled by the government. Under the recent US occupation, authorities kept unions and the left marginalised, while prioritising the privatisation of Iraqi industry.

Until 2015 Iraq still enforced a Saddam Hussein-era law, which prohibited public sector unions.

From the start of the occupation, workers had to organise despite the illegal status of their unions. A new 2015 labour law gave all workers the right to form unions, except for civil service employees, as well as security and police forces. Unions gained collective bargaining rights and the right to strike. Last year, however, the outgoing government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi promulgated a further draft law on professional federations and unions. Labour opposed it, saying it failed to completely guarantee workers’ rights.

A year ago, 3,000 contingent (or contract) workers in the electrical generation and transmission industry formed a union, after the government failed to pay their wages for five months. They then joined with the union for the industry’s permanent workers to form the General Trade Union of Electricity Sector Employees of Iraq.

After the government electrical ministry fired 100 leaders from the union in March, thousands of workers organised sit-ins in power plants across Iraq. Their demands included reinstating the fired labourers, permanent jobs and inclusion in Iraq’s social security system, and a minimum monthly wage of US$300.

Under World Bank pressure, last year the Iraqi cabinet approved a draft social security law that would have increased worker contributions to social security funds while raising the retirement age from 63 to 65.

Adoption of this draft will lead to increased poverty among Iraqis, even though they are living in one of the world’s richest countries in oil,

charged Hashmeya Alsaadawe, president of the Basra Trade Union Federation and the electrical union. Alsaadawe is also the first woman to head a national union in Iraq.

On 18 May 2018, just after the election, the Iraqi government announced that it would not only include all 30,000 contingent contract workers in the electricity industry in the social security system but would guarantee the same rights to all 150,000 contract workers throughout the public sector.

Speaking at IndustriALL Global Union’s executive committee meeting in April, Alsaadawe said that the election results energised people :

Workers have high expectations. They have been very active in demonstrations and on social media demanding their rights.

In December, workers in the critical oil and gas industry finally formed a national network of eight previously competing unions. According to Hassan Juma’a, head of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Employees :

One of the most important priorities is the unity of the trade union movement in Iraq. We have started the first step in the most important sector, the oil and gas sector.

The network’s objectives include defending the rights of contract and migrant workers, who make up a significant part of the industry workforce. Its nationalist spirit is evident in its commitment to “protect national wealth for future generations against capitalist companies that do not respect the rights and opinions of citizens,” and “to urge foreign companies to take responsibility for maintaining the infrastructure of areas near oil fields exposed to toxic emissions.”

Dhiaa al-Asadi, the director of Muqtada al-Sadr’s political office, recently told the Al-Monitor news website that the Sairoon list is

a reform project that represents the hopes and expectations of deprived and less advantaged people. This project of Sairoon constitutes a paradigm shift and a departure from the established norms that have characterized the political process since 2003.

According to Wesam Chaseb of the AFL-CIO-linked Solidarity Center:

Unions are the real face of Iraq. There is no discrimination amongst workers.

This combination of street protests, electoral activism and increasing union strength is now one of the most important features of Iraq’s political landscape, as Iraqis seek to rebuild their country after four decades of war, and a bitter decade of foreign occupation and domination.

This article was originally published in Equal Times

IndustriALL pushes for workers’ rights in diamond sector

The KP was established in 2000 in Kimberley, South Africa by representatives of the governments of 23 major diamond producing and trading countries, the global diamond industry and civil society. It was a result of growing international pressure against the trade in conflict diamonds and the issuing of several diamond sanction resolutions by the United Nations Security Council. Two years later the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) was launched, which established requirements for controlling rough diamond production and trade.

However, the KP has been heavily criticized, because the definition of conflict diamonds does not cover diamonds that are mined or traded in circumstances involving human rights abuses.

The IndustriALL diamond global network brings together unions from across the supply chain of the diamond industry, from mining to retail. In its inaugural meeting in Windhoek, Namibia on 3-5 July 2017, the diamond global network recognized the major challenges confronting the global diamond industry and its value chain.

For the first time, the IndustriALL network, as voice of diamond workers, attended the Kimberley Process (KP) intersessional meeting, held on 18-22 June in Antwerp, Belgium, to push for reforms to protect workers’ rights. The meeting was chaired by the European Union and hosted by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre. Antwerp is the diamond trading and polishing capital of the world.

IndustriALL, with the assistance of Belgian affiliates ACV-Transcom and ABVV, organized a side event at the meeting. The event was attended by government representatives of Lebanon, Cameroon, Togo, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, and Yves Toutenel, the general sector manager diamond ACV-Transcom, and Myriam Dillen ACV-Transcom advisor.

The event highlighted workers’ issues, calling for the reform of the KP to address human rights abuses. The KP currently has no mandate to address human rights abuses and risks in the diamond supply chain, undermining the relevance of the certification and due diligence requirements of the KPCS. In addition, there are calls to review the governance architecture of the KP to give greater weight to civil society participation.

Yves Toutenel, chair of the diamond global network, said:

“While the global diamond industry is under greater pressure to improve its social and environmental performance, workers face challenges of job security, respect for trade union rights and achieving the decent work agenda”.

Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL director of mining, diamond, gems and ornaments and jewellery production said:

“As the global network considers a formal application to the Kimberley process by IndustriALL Gobal Union, it remains committed to working with local and global NGOs, community-based organizations, companies in the diamond supply chain and governments, to champion the reform agenda of the Kimberley Process to ensure workers’ rights are defended”.

Time for ATG in Sri Lanka to back off

On 22 June 2018, workers at ATG belonging to the Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees’ Union (FTZ&GSEU), picketed the British Embassy over labour abuses at the company, which has joint Sri Lankan/British investors.

Labour violations have continued at ATG after the union was forced to hold a vote in February 2017 to represent workers, despite already having a mandate to do so. The union easily achieved above the required 40 per cent majority with a turnout of 95 per cent.

However, ever since the election, ATG has gone to extraordinary lengths to undermine the union and its members working at the company’s two factories based in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone.

The company has refused to discuss worker issues brought up by the union, saying its decision is final. Neither has it allowed the union to meet in the factory, even though it is the recognized bargaining agent.

The company tried to relocate the union’s branch secretary to another company it owns, which the Commissioner General Labour said was not legal. However, ATG has refused to adhere to the Commissioner’s ruling for corrective action and demanded that the branch secretary turn up at 1 June at the other plant for work.

Furthermore, 59 workers who celebrated Labour Day on 1 May, after the government decided to postpone the 1 May holiday to 7 May, were put on compulsory leave and their photos were displayed in a notice that claimed they engaged in unlawful strike action.

In another low act of victimization during the company’s 25-year anniversary celebrations in 2017, the company refused to give eight union activists a medal for their five or more years of service, as other workers had received. One worker was given a medal because he left the union.

In a letter handed to the British Embassy on 22 June, the FTZ&GSEU said:

“We take these unholy trends against workers by the ATG very seriously as the Sri Lanka partner is the President of the Katunayake Export Manufacturers’ Association and would thus set the pace in the FTZ in working against unionisation of workers, a very condition the EU has wanted corrected when granting EU GSP ‘Plus’ to Sri Lanka. We therefore appeal to you to intervene at the highest level to ensure workers’ rights are guaranteed in the export sector, in line with EU GSP ‘Plus’ Requirements.”

FTZ&GSEUhas received considerable support from the German ambassador in Sri Lanka, who wrote to the Minister of Labour on 20 June 2018 expressing concerns of the violations of labour rights at the company.

IndustriALL’s assistant general secretary, Kemal Özkan, said:

“We urge ATG to stop breaking international labour standards and Sri Lankan law, and stop intimidating union members. Workers have voted for a union, and the union is there to stay. ATG must respect fundamental labour rights.”

Kenya: Union success in growing garment and textile sector

Brands including Arrow, Calvin Klein, H&M, Arrow, Izod, Cherokee and VF Corporation source from Kenya.

The United Aryan factory in the export processing zone of Nairobi gets orders from H&M and makes jeans for Levi’s. The factory’s 2,800 workers are all members of IndustriALL Global Union affiliate the Tailors and Textile Workers Union (TTWU), which has entered into a closed shop agreement with the management, meaning that workers who are hired by the company become union members.

One of the results of the agreement is that most industrial relations issues at the factory are dealt with at the shop floor. With United Aryan planning to open a larger factory that could employ up to 10,000 workers, the closed shop agreement lays a solid foundation for the TTWU’s organizing and recruitment strategies.

Like most garment producing companies, 80 per cent of the workers in the factory are women and the TTWU is developing a programme to deal specifically with the women workers.

The minimum wage at the factory is 13,000 Kenya Shillings (US $127) per month, higher than other Sub Saharan African countries. This is an opportunity to increase them towards living wages.

Says Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa:

“We will continue to support the recruitment of garment workers by TTWU in Kenya as it contributes to the employment of young women and to the much-needed turnaround to the decline of manufacturing on the continent.”

Kenya’s garment and textile sector can benefit by expanding its market to free trade areas that it belongs to, including the African Continental Free Trade Area, the East African Community, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. The country has also signed Economic Partnership Agreements, the European Union African Caribbean and Pacific (Cotonou Agreement) and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). About 92 per cent of apparel from Kenya is sold in the US under AGOA.

The government of Kenya’s Vision 2030 identifies the garment and textile sector as a driver of industrialization. Currently the sector contributes to 7 per cent of the country’s export earnings.

South Africa: Unions meet to build an Africa-Europe network across the Lear supply chain

Discussions among trade union representatives and shop stewards from German union, IG Metall, and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) are focusing on wages, in particular equal pay for work of equal value; improving adherence to health and safety standards; employment equity; provision of transport; and other benefits. The meeting, which received support from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, seeks to strengthen the 30-year collaboration between IG Metall and NUMSA that can be traced back to the struggle against apartheid.

Employing over 165,000 workers globally, US-headquartered Lear Corporation manufactures automotive seats and electrical distribution systems. Of these workers over 44, 000 are from Europe and 16,600 from Africa. However, most of the African workers are in Morocco where the company employs 13,000 people mostly in electrical systems. In South Africa the company employs 3,600 workers of whom 1,552 are NUMSA members.

The meeting is a follow up to a discussion held last year to form a network that would not only share information and knowledge but also learn from the other’s experiences. The network would enable Lear workers from Africa and Europe to deal with common issues, especially the practice of lowering of conditions of service for workers in countries considered to be low cost by the company. There was also an agreement to facilitate the representation of South Africa on the European Works Council as the continents were under the same management.

Jochen Schroth, IG Metall departmental leader for shop steward policy and the union representative for Lear Corporation in Europe says:

“Transnational union activities make us stronger through joint agreements for future collaboration and learning from each other. This allows us to develop concrete steps towards building a strong network.”

Kenny Mogane, IndustriALL Regional Officer for Sub Saharan Africa, says:

“We welcome the Lear network in the motor sector as it will build solidarity between workers in Africa and Europe, as well as improve working conditions.”

Ukrainian miners stage protest over unpaid wages

Hundreds of miners came to Kiev and participated in the protest action. In the state-owned coalmining sector of Ukraine, workers are compelled to go on wildcat strikes to get paid. Some of the protesting miners from Selidivvugillya have not been paid wages since 2015.

According to the joint declaration of IndustriALL affiliates Coal Mining Workers’ Union of Ukraine and Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine, by 14 June the arrears in wages reached up to 761 million UAH (US$30 million). Half of this amount is due to miners of Donbass and Selidivvugillya.

In the state budget for 2018, 2.5 billion UAH (US$95 million) is allocated to support coal and peat extracting enterprises and their technical modernization. According to calculations by the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy, the coal sector alone needs at least three times that amount. Due to lack of financing, the sector is no longer self-sufficient and as a result, coal production in Ukraine is rapidly declining – from 83 million tons in 2013 to 34.9 million tons in 2017. In the first half of this year coal-mining further declined in Ukraine by an additional 14 per cent.

At the same time, according to the unions’ declaration, the Ukrainian government is increasingly importing coal from abroad. From January to May this year the import of hard coal and anthracite increased by 42.9 per cent at a cost of US$1.25 billion.

The unions raised their voice and demanded that parliamentarians support a bill foreseeing allocation of 2.8 billion UAH (US$105 million) for the coal mining sector in order to maintain and reform national coal mining. The unions believe the adoption of the bill would save state-owned mines and safeguard social stability of Ukrainian cities and families. Thanks to the protest action the bill was put on the agenda, but its vote will take place most likely later in the year.

Following the protests, the Minister of Energy met the miners and promised to provide money needed to cover the arrears, so far only 10 million UAH (US$380,000) was promised to be allocated to the miners of Selidivvugillya as the first payment of arrears. Miners and their unions decided to suspend the protest action, but declared they will start again if wage arrears are not paid within 10 days.

Lack of financing of the sector and particularly lack of safety inspection, have resulted in an increasing number of accidents in the industry, making mining the most dangerous sector in the Ukraine. At the recent International Labour Conference held in Geneva (Link to the video) IndustriALL raised the issue and demanded that the Ukrainian Government urgently addressed the situation of safety at work, as well as arrears in wages and low wages.

Union persecution continues at Tenaris Colombia

In the complaint, filed with the International Labor Organization (ILO) in early June, and in the protests, Colombian workers have denounced Tenaris’s repeated attacks on the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining that have been taking place since October 2017.

Persecution of the union began when the company sanctioned the president of Sintratucar, Walberto Marrugo, for having created a WhatsApp group for young workers with part-time contracts to report on their working conditions.

The young workers revealed that they were not trained in safety issues and carried out tasks that exposed them to potential accidents at work. The company retaliated by forcing them to leave the union under threat of dismissal.

Tenaris refused to engage in collective bargaining until it was compelled to following an intervention from the ministry of labour at Sintratucar’s request.

However, the outcomes were not good – the company made an unacceptable proposal that included a clause stating there would be no wage increases, and job stability would be eliminated.

Futhermore, the company suspended seven union leaders for seven days without pay after they distributed a pamphlet on collective bargaining.

In addition, another 31 leaders and affiliates were sanctioned with 210 days of salary loss.

The firm also sanctions unionized workers who refuse to work overtime on their days off with up to three days of lost wages.

In September 2017, IndustriALL Global Union filed a complaint with the National Contact Point of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Luxembourg against Ternium (which, like Tenaris is part of the Techint group), for violations of union rights in Guatemala.

Writing in a letter to Paolo Rocca, CEO of Techint Group on 20 June, IndustriALL General Secretary, Valter Sanches, said:

"We urge you to intervene immediately and provide a just solution to the conflicts at steel plants of Tenaris TuboCaribe in Colombia and Ternium in Guatemala. IndustriALL is fully committed to supporting the workers, together with the Tenaris Ternium World Workers Council. IndustriALL reiterates its commitment to establish a solid and mature social dialogue with Tenaris and Ternium, that can both prevent and resolve conflicts, in addition to creating dignified work conditions globally."

Inditex suppliers from India meet to pledge social dialogue

Representatives Inditex, which is the world's biggest fashion retailer, joined the meetings for the sessions on improving social dialogue, industrial relations and sustainability along the the supply chains. The first meeting took place in Bangalore on 11 June and the second meeting was held on 13 June, in Delhi.

Javier Díaz Pena, Inditex Social Sustainability Manager, gave a presentation on the commitment of the global brand by signing the GFA with IndustriALL Global Union and the implementation of the GFA among the suppliers by stating the importance of Freedom of Association, Children Rights, Children Rights, Women Empowerment, Health&Safety Porjects.

Apoorva Kaiwar, IndustriALL South Asia Regional Secretary, addressed the meeting to talk about textile and garment workers’ conditions and rights in India, the importance of being a union member and being paid living wages; and the benefits of GFAs. The meeting of the suppliers is intended help to protect and promote workers’ conditions throughout the Inditex’s supply chain.

Christina Hajagos-Clausen, IndustriALL director for the textile and garment industry, said:

“We are strengthening industrial relations and social dialogue in the textile and garment industries. Industry-wide GFAs have the capacity to ensure living wages and decent conditions for workers in the industry. The active involvement of suppliers in the process would help us to build stronger social dialogue and powerful industrial relations.”

Algeria: Threats soar against democratic unions after ILC

Zemali’s warning to leave the ILO comes after Algeria came under scrutiny for violations of freedom of association at the ILO’s International Labour Conference (ILC), from 28 May to 8 June 2018.

Zemali said that “Algeria is ready to leave the International Labour Organization to preserve its national sovereignty.”

It is the fourth time in five years that Algeria has been examined by the ILO’s Committee of Applications of Standards (CAS) at the ILC. The conclusions of the Committee recommended a high-level mission to Algeria without restriction and without delay, after a direct contact mission in February was cancelled when no guarantee could be given to the ILO to meet independent trade unions.

Speaking at a press conference on 12 June, Zemali also singled out independent union leaders Raouf Mellal, President of IndustriALL Global Union energy affiliate, SNATEG, and Rachid Maalaoui of public sector union, SNAPAP, for attack saying they were behind the ‘hounding’ of Algeria by the ILO. Both men had spoken out against trade union repression at the CAS in June.

SNATEG has strongly condemned the minister’s outburst, and denounced his claims that the democratic union leaders only represented themselves and were trying to destabilize the country.

“The Algerian people have the right to know that, unlike the labour minister who was not elected by the people, the president of the national union of electricity and gas workers, Mr Mellal Raouf, was elected by a majority of participants in accordance with applicable laws.”

According to SNATEG, the Ministry has ordered state-run electricity company, Sonelgaz, not to adhere to a judgment to reinstate Mellal as shop steward, nor to recognize him as president of SNATEG. Furthermore, the Ministry of Labour has twice attempted to illegally dissolve the union.

“The Minister of Labour, in his declarations, considers that the freedom to exercise the rights of trade unionists is a blow to the stability of the country,” said SNATEG in a statement on 14 June, adding that trade union freedoms have become nothing more than an ‘illusion’ in Algeria.

Since the conclusions of the Committee of the Application of Standards were made, Algeria has turned up the pressure on independent unions. As well, as attacking democratic union leaders in the press, Raouf Mellal, who has already been sentenced to 18 months in prison for whistleblowing and trade union activities, has been give three summons to appear before the courts before the end of July 2018 on yet more spurious charges.

IndustriALL’s assistant general secretary, Kemal Özkan, said:

“Algeria is showing its contempt for the ILO and international labour standards. It is not a question of impinging national sovereignty but of upholding basic trade union freedoms, enshrined in international labour conventions that have been ratified by Algeria itself. We urge the Algerian government to stop the repression of independent trade unions, accept an ILO high-level mission, and open the doors to dialogue with its labour partners.”

Victory for Indonesian pulp and paper workers

It is the first time that workers at five different outsourcing companies have gone on strike in two locations at the same time in Indonesia, according to FSP2KI. All the companies, which are based in South Sumatra and Lampung, serve operations at the Tanjungenim Lestari Pulp and Paper company.

About five hours after the strike, Kaliguma Transindo, which operates Tanjungenim Lestari’s port in Lampung Province, adhered to workers’ demands to have wage increases taken into effect from 1 January 2018. However, Ahmad Hafids, the local port trade union leader in Lampung, said it would not stop the strike until workers' demands in South Sumatra were also met. The port workers’ strike was particularly damaging to Tanjungenim Lestari because it meant that pulp could not be exported, which has a knock-on effect of filling the warehouse and slowing down production in South Sumatra.

On 14 June, following ten hours of negotiations attended by unions, outsourcing companies and Tanjungenim Lestari management, the parties reached a milestone agreement that guarantees continuity of permanent work if there is a change in a contractor company.

Furthermore, temporary workers who have been employed for more than a year at Wira Putra Perkasa, a service company loading and unloading raw materials at the mill, and the Mayapada Clinic Pratama, a healthcare provider for mill workers and their families, will now get permanent jobs as required under Indonesian law.

FSP2KI has also managed to secure guarantees on working hours, work safety, social security and freedom of association.

Significantly, under the agreement, Tanjungenim Lestari Pulp and Paper, as a principal company is responsible for the implementation of the results of the negotiation.

The strikers were boosted by solidarity support from IndustriALL, Australian union CFMEU, IndustriALL Indonesia Council, IndustriALL affiliates in the pulp and paper sector, as well as other unions at the companies.

Tanjungenim Lestari Pulp and Paper employs around 2,500 workers of which more than 1,700 are employed at outsourcing firms.

IndustriALL’s assistant general secretary, Kemal Özkan, said:

“We congratulate FSP2KI on their significant victory which will improve the lives and job security for hundreds of outsourced workers providing essential services to Tanjungenim Lestari Pulp and Paper. By coming together from five different companies, these workers have shown the power in a union.”

Brother Irman, a local FSP2KI union leader in South Sumatra, says: “This is just the beginning of the fight because there are still many outsourced workers who are enslaved and have not joined the union. But we have shown that we are strong and that we are not alone.”