Democratic unions in Mexico declare new alliance

Mexico is largely dominated by so called ‘protection contracts’ meaning a partnership between unions and employers against the interests of the workers.

The group, which includes unions representing workers at carmakers Volkswagen, Audi, and Nissan, tyre manufacturers, Bridgestone and General Tyre (Continental), and aerospace multinational, Bombardier, met in San Luis Potosí on 13 April. The unions discussed important aspects such as the name, structure, principles, objectives, work plan and operating rules of the new alliance. These matters will now deliberated in the individual unions. 

The meeting also approved a solidarity campaign with Bridgestone workers, took a position against the proposed new labour reform and made plans for a joint meeting to be held in September with with a broader group of international allies. 

The meeting was attended by IndustriALL director Georg Leutert and Fernando Lopes, adviser to IndustriALL’s Brazilian affiliate, CNM-CUT.

Leutert expressed IndustriALL’s support in strengthening genuine unions in Mexico and fighting protection contracts, signed between companies and ghost trade unions, which deny workers the right to freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively.

Lopes stressed that the CNM-CUT will continue to strengthen the ties between unions in the sector in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

The meeting included a press conference where the unions outlined their common objectives and values, as well as their common position against proposed labour reforms in Mexico, which have now been postponed until after the general elections on 1 July.

A follow-up meeting is scheduled for July 6.

Welcome to Global Worker

The future sustainability of industry depends on governments making strategic choices. Unions are developing their own vision of how our industries and jobs should be transformed to meet sustainability goals.

We encourage unions around the world to develop sustainable industrial policies, which is a challenge for all. In Latin America and the Caribbean, many of our affiliates are presenting proposals for sustainable industrial policies to their governments. In Chile for example, affiliates are campaigning to make lithium a strategic national resource. This is an excellent trade union initiative to regulate and determine the production and use of the country’s natural resources. See the full article on pages 16-17.

Organizing to increase union membership is key if unions want to have a voice that is heard. Take a look on page 23 at how IndustriALL affiliate, Mining and Metallurgy Trade Union of Kyrgyzstan (MMTUK) has managed to almost double their membership in a five-year period.

While some unions are thriving, others face serious attack from companies and governments. From the USA to South Korea, Algeria to the Philippines unionbusting is widespread and is becoming increasingly sophisticated, but our unions are fighting back. See our full report onpages 18-22.

Too much power in the hands of multinational companies has negative impacts on communities and societies, governments need to push back against corporate greed, and that includes defending the right of freedom of association through strong action. After years of unsuccessful attempts to engage in dialogue with mining giant Glencore, IndustriALL has launched a campaign that has taken off in full force. There are serious workers’ rights and health and safety issues at their operations globally and something has to be done. Take a look on pages 5-10 to find how Glencore got where it is today.

An IndustriALL delegation visited DRC in February 2018 to meet with local unions representing mineworkers. Affiliates face a huge challenge in organizing in such a vast country, where mineral resources have contributed to war and chaos. IndustriALL affiliate Travailleurs Unis des Mines, Métallurgies, Energie, Chimie et Industries Connexes (TUMEC) is committed to fighting for workers’ rights, better pay, improved health and safety, and to organizing women, see their union profile on page 11.

In November last year, IndustriALL launched a campaign to end violence against women in the workplace. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, we must take the opportunity to push for real change and to combat violence and sexual harassment, see pages 14-15 for more on what unions around the world are doing to make this change.

In 2017 three women were elected in top leadership positions of our affiliated unions; Nora Garofalo FEMA CISL and Francesca Re David FIOM CGIL in Italy, and also IF Metall’s president Marie Nilsson in Sweden who is interviewed on pages 12-13. She talks about what her union is doing tackle harassment, among other things.

Valter Sanches

General Secretary

SPECIAL REPORT: Glencore, the commodities giant with no soul

Text: Walton Pantland

When IndustriALL Global Union visited DRC in February 2018 to meet with local unions at Glencore mines, the company denied access to its operations, and security forces attempted to break up a union meeting in a church and arrest the organizers. What are they hiding?

Last year, the Paradise Papers revealed that Glencore paid huge sums of money to a corrupt fixer to obtain mining interests in DRC. Adding to its reputation for corruption, human rights abuses and environmental degradation, Glencore’s treatment of its workforce – in DRC, and across more than 150 operations in the world – is the scandal that has not received the attention it deserves.

The company directly employs 83,679 people around the world, with a total of 145,977 including contractors. Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL mining director, says:

“For Glencore, workers are a disposable and replaceable resource like any other.”

These include miners at Glencore’s Oaky North mine in Australia who were locked out of their workplace for 230 days, workers at CEZinc in Canada having to strike for nine months to prevent a raid on their pensions, the loss of thousands of jobs through casualization in Zambia, a spate of preventable accidents at the Cerrejón mine in Colombia, and brutal labour conditions in DRC.

IndustriALL’s Glencore campaign

At its Executive Committee meeting in Sri Lanka in October 2017, IndustriALL launched a campaign against Glencore. This follows years of unsuccessful attempts to establish global dialogue with the company to resolve workers’ rights and health and safety crises at its operations around the world.

Speaking at the launch of the campaign, Tony Maher, national president of Australian affiliate the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Engineering Union (CFMEU), said:

“Glencore has no corporate soul. This is a Frankenstein company, stitched together with body parts.”

Glencore is a hybrid, whose sole purpose is to make money, a corporate colossus with a stranglehold on world resources. The company has built up an extremely complex network of 80 or more subsidiaries on five continents, using shell corporations, partnerships and offshore accounts to obscure transactions and avoid tax, and working with corrupt intermediaries to gain access to resources.

Unions representing Glencore workers in Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, DRC, Germany, Italy, Norway, Peru, South Africa, the UK and Zambia have come together to coordinate action against the company: many have been confronted by the arrogance and intransigence of Glencore in their own countries.

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary says:

“The purpose of the campaign is to restrain the monster, to prevent it from causing further damage. IndustriALL affiliates are seeking to negotiate with the company at a global level, to create a transparent mechanism for resolving disputes wherever they arise.”

Company profile

Glencore’s criminal past – its founder was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list for almost 20 years – and ongoing contempt for the law means the company tries to keep a low profile and stay out of the spotlight. But recently, since the company’s public listing in 2011, and the leaks of the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers and Hilary Clinton’s emails, more information about the company’s behaviour has come to light.

Glencore, originally named Marc Rich + Co, was founded in 1974 by Marc Rich, a Belgian-American commodities trader. Before Rich, oil production and trading was dominated by big, established companies like BP and Exxon, who made long term deals with stable governments. Rich flew into conflict zones with borrowed money, making deals with officials to buy oil directly. Rich brought two great innovations to the world of commodities trading: defying international law, and using leverage – trading with borrowed money and reselling at a profit – to corner lucrative markets.

The company’s fortune was built on tax avoidance and sanctions busting: Rich defied international trade embargoes to do business with pariah regimes from across the political spectrum, including Iran during the hostage crisis, Libya under Ghaddafi, Chile under Pinochet, and apartheid South Africa. Rich also did deals with North Korea’s Kim Il Sung, Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Milosevic and the Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos, and through convicted money launderer Gilbert Chagoury, with Sani Abacha in Nigeria.

Never fussy about the sources of his wealth, Rich claimed that breaking the UN embargo of South Africa resulted in his “most important and most profitable” business deals.

In the 1980s, Rich worked with the Israeli secret service, Mossad, to set up a secret pipeline to sell Iranian oil to Israel. In 1983, Rich was charged in the US with tax evasion, fraud, trading with the enemy and illegal business dealings. A fugitive from justice – and for almost two decades, on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list – he fled to Switzerland.

Although Rich was controversially pardoned by Bill Clinton on his last day in office in 2001, Glencore’s headquarters remain in canton Zug in Switzerland. Despite being the largest company in Switzerland, and at number 16 on the Fortune Global 500 of the world’s biggest companies, Glencore prefers to keep a low profile.

In 2011, the company went public and was listed on three stock exchanges; London, Hong Kong and Johannesburg. The public listing forced a greater degree of scrutiny, and Glencore’s dealings are now more widely reported. The company’s prospectus was candid about its strategy of operating in high risk and volatile environments.

Laura Carter, IndustriALL Latin America regional officer, has had a lot of experience with Glencore:

Glencore profits from the misery of others. It is an ogre with the feet of a ballerina, honing in on shortages and disaster with razor-sharp precision.

The business model is to borrow money to buy controlling stakes of commodities, influencing the price and potentially making a huge profit. Glencore originally traded mostly in oil, but moved into coal, zinc, copper, lead, nickel, ferroalloys, iron, aluminium and agricultural products.

Seeing the benefit of controlling production as well as trade, Glencore began investing in mining company Xstrata in 1990. In 2013, Glencore merged with Xstrata, by then the world’s largest coal mining company, and acquired a number of significant mining operations. The company has moved along commodities supply chains, controlling primary extraction as well as value added processing and logistics, and bought controlling interests in mines, coal terminals and freighters, refineries, smelters and warehouses. Glencore also moved into agriculture, buying interests in grains, oils, cotton, sugar and storage facilities.

Glencore’s model of borrowing money to carry out trades almost led to bankruptcy in 2015, when a crash in worldwide commodities prices left the company over-exposed and overwhelmed with debt.

To ensure more sustainable and long-term sources of financing for commodities deals, Glencore has begun to form partnerships with state-owned sovereign wealth funds, such as the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which owns 8.2 per cent of Glencore stock. In 2017, QIA and Glencore bought 19.5 per cent of Rosneft, the Russian state energy company. Other sovereign wealth funds, from Norway, United Arab Emirates, Singapore and China have also been major Glencore investors.

Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg owns 8.4 per cent of Glencore stock, tying his personal fortune to that of the company.

Glencore’s opaque network of shell companies and intermediaries allows it to show a loss in the countries where it extracts raw materials and to sell these products for a pittance to subsidiaries in tax havens.

Contempt for the law

In 2015, Glencore was fined in South Africa for supplying substandard coal to utility company Eskom, and accused by the government of Ghana in 2017 for illegally importing and reselling petroleum products.

The McArthur River mine in Australia has not paid royalties to the government since it opened in 1995, and in 2017, the tax office ruled that Glencore had understated its taxable income by diverting US$190 million offshore. The company was also accused of tax evasion in Zambia in 2011, and in 2018 the UK Court of Appeal upheld sanctions against Glencore for tax evasion.

Subsidiary Xstrata faces a lawsuit in the UK after allegedly paying the police force in Peru to attack protesters. In 2017, the London Metal Exchange fined Glencore US$1.4 million for falsifying warehouse documents.

DRC subsidiary Katanga is subject to legal proceedings in both the US and Canada for giving false statements to investors.

The company also has a reputation for bullying governments, after suing Bolivia and Colombia through Investor-State Dispute Settlements, and using oil-backed loans to control resources in Chad, leaving the country in a financial crisis.

Human and workers’ rights

Glencore has been accused of human rights abuses in many countries. In addition to the case in Peru, in Colombia, Glencore subsidiary Prodeco is accused of financing a paramilitary group between 1996 and 2006, during the country’s armed conflict in an attempt to control the carbon industry.

IndustriALL campaigns director Adam Lee says:

“Workers are expendable commodities to Glencore. In operations in Europe – where Glencore employs few people in an environment of strong unions and regulations – conditions generally meet industry standards. But in many other countries, the company has either neglected or viciously attacked its workforce.”

Health and safety

“Glencore claims to want to be an industry leader in the field of health and safety and proudly announced that it only killed nine people in 2017,”

says IndustriALL health, safety and sustainability director Brian Kohler.

“But our affiliates around the world report a lax attitude to health and safety.”

In Bolivia, workers complain that safety equipment is substandard. Because they are paid for what they produce, stricter health and safety regulations slow production and have led to a considerable drop in wages. Unions say contract workers are not properly trained, leading to fatal accidents. According to Glencore’s annual report, two workers were killed in 2017. After a worker was killed at the San Lorenzo mine in 2014, the company put pressure on the workforce, threatening to close the mine if there are any further accidents.

In August 2017, the Sintracarbón union in Colombia reported that in less than one month there were 13 work accidents at Glencore’s open-cast coal mine, Cerrejón, five of them in a single day. Tragically it was only a matter of time before somebody got killed. On 25 January 2018, Carlos Urbina Martinez died in an accident at the mine.

The problems at Cerrejón have a long history. Colombia is yet another of the resource-rich, conflict-ridden countries favoured by Glencore. As early as 2006, there were allegations of corruption and severe human rights violations with the local union accusing the company of forced expropriations and evacuations of entire villages to enable mine expansion, in complicity with Colombian authorities.

Outsourcing and contracting

Like many employers, Glencore casualizes its workforce to avoid responsibility, leaving over 62,000 of its workers and their families without the security of a permanent contract, pension and health cover. In the last few years, the proportion of contractors to permanent workers has gone up, while overall employment is falling.

In 2016, Cerrejón was fined US$2 million

for illegal and excessive use of contractors. Unions in Bolivia report that the company employs subcontractors even though this is illegal, and hires workers classified as ‘employees of confidence’ to limit their right to organize or to strike.

According to the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia, about half of the workers at Glencore’s Mopani copper operations in Zambia are casual and these workers make on average under a third of the wages of permanent employees. This is despite Mopani’s claim that it aims to pay every contracted employee 80 per cent of a permanent salary.

Breaking industrial relations

A frequent complaint from Glencore workers is that the company refuses to bargain centrally – even at country level – and there is no consistency in terms and conditions at different operations. The company owns a number of operations in South Africa where local unions are campaigning for a company level agreement.

Although Glencore claims that “We are committed to working honestly and openly with labour unions at all our locations and treating employees with respect”, the reality is very different.

Instead of negotiating in good faith with unions as representatives of the workforce, Glencore tries to actively break unions.

In Australia, workers at Glencore’s Oaky North mine were locked out by the company for more than 230 days for resisting a plan that aims to replace permanent workers with contractors. Rather than making a fair offer, the company chose to lock out its workforce.

Workers were punished and intimidated for opposing the company’s plans. Australia’s state labour arbitrator, the Fair Work Commission, had to order the company to stop its surveillance of workers and refusing to allow them to wear union T-shirts. Workers and their families were followed around town to their homes, and filmed at social events, by private security guards employed by the company. Workers say that security guards filmed their children at the playground.

Glencore uses its employees as political tools. In 2017, the Copperbelt Energy Corporation, which supplies electricity to mining companies in Zambia, raised the price of electricity. Mopani halted operations and threatened the Zambian government to retrench 4,700 workers, claiming the hike in electricity tariffs would have a huge effect on their budget. 

Chasing cobalt: Glencore in DRC

Perhaps the starkest example of Glencore’s treatment of its workforce is in DRC. A vast and frequently lawless country, DRC produces a range of extremely valuable minerals, including cobalt and copper. DRC is central to Glencore’s newfound fortune, and much of the company’s recent success is dependent on its operations here.

In 2012, Glencore was exposed for purchasing copper mined using child labour. It has worked hard to improve its public image since then, but conditions remain terrible for workers mining some of the most valuable minerals on the planet.

According to the leaked Paradise Papers, Glencore loaned US$45 million to controversial Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler for his help in obtaining mining concessions from state-owned mining company Gécamines at a discounted price, saving Glencore US$440 million.

Glencore paid Gertler a further US$960 million to buy his stake in the mines. Gertler is linked to a string of bribery allegations and is subject to criminal proceedings in Switzerland. The US treasury sanctioned Gertler in December 2017, saying his corruption had cost DRC US$1.3 billion.

Since buying the stakes, Glencore employs about 15,000 people in DRC through its subsidiaries Mutanda Mining and Katanga Mining. It intends to double its cobalt production over the next few years.

Seven workers died at Katanga in 2016 when the wall of an open pit mine collapsed. A February 2018 mission by IndustriALL to the Glencore operations in the Kolwezi area exposed horrendous conditions. Workers say they are treated like slaves, exposed to danger at work, and are exposing their families to occupational diseases because they have no facilities to wash.

“We are so filthy when we get home that we cannot hug our children,” said one worker.

The grinding poverty of the region was on clear display. Cobalt – essential to the production of many high-tech products – is hugely valuable, yet almost all this wealth disappears into foreign companies, or locally through corruption, with the complicity of foreign companies.

Glen Mpufane said:

"We were shocked by the desperate poverty of the people of Kolwezi, and the lack of development and infrastructure. The contrast with Glencore’s vast wealth is stark. There is a great irony in the fact that environmentally-conscious electric car buyers rely on a supply chain built on Glencore’s environmental and social pillaging".

Glencore denied IndustriALL access to the sites and when local union TUMEC held a meeting in a church, security forces attempted to break it up and arrest the organizers.

It is possible to produce copper and cobalt, and make a profit, while still respecting workers’ rights. Belgian-headquartered Umicore is a competitor of Glencore’s, also producing cobalt, lithium and other precious minerals.

But the company has signed a global framework agreement on sustainable development with IndustriALL covering 14,000 workers in 38 countries. The agreement also covers environmental sustainability, as the company increases its focus on extracting minerals by recycling electronic equipment.

PROFILE: TUMEC – organizing and defending Congolese workers’ rights

Union: Travailleurs Unis des Mines, Métallurgies, Energie, Chimie et Industries Connexes (TUMEC)

Country: Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Text: Elijah Chiwota

The DRC is rich in cobalt, copper, gold and other minerals. About 65 per cent of the global cobalt, whose prices have spiked because of increased demand from electric car batteries and smartphones makers, is mined in the DRC. However, the country’s history has not made organizing easy for TUMEC as multinationals have become used to exploiting workers.

The DRC is often used as an example of a country facing “a resource curse” where mineral riches fund wars and bloodshed instead of developing the country’s livelihoods and infrastructure including roads and clinics thus reversing poverty.

Organizing in a country with such a past and as vast in size as the DRC has not been an easy task for TUMEC, but the struggle for due diligence and responsible mining and to unionize more workers continues.

TUMEC fights to ensure that employers conform to labour practices that are agreed upon in collective agreements as protected by the law. Organizing in the mines, in energy, and chemical sectors, including workers from subcontractors and artisanal mines, TUMEC has over 12,000 members in companies that include mining multinational Glencore, and state-owned mining company Gecamines.

TUMEC is part of IndustriALL’s Glencore campaign, aiming to enforce respect of workers at the company’s operations at Mutanda and Kamoto Copper Company in Kolwezi, Lualaba province.

Through continued recruitment and organizing, it is now an established union in Kolwezi, Lubumbashi, Doko, Kisangani, Mbujimayi, Kinshasa, Lukala, Matadi and Muanda. TUMEC campaigned through union elections at workplaces, according to the labour laws. The union with the highest number of votes in the elections becomes the majority union, whilst that with less votes will be a representation union. This year, TUMEC aims to become a majority union, which has power to negotiate with the employer.

Much of TUMEC’s work over the last years has been supported through an IndustriALL union building project funded by Dutch trade union solidarity support organization Mondiaal FNV. 

In the last couple of years, leadership problems at TUMEC in Kolwezi stunted membership growth. However, after last year’s congress a new leadership was elected and recruitment and organizing plans were put in place. Among other workplaces, TUMEC is targeting Mutanda and Kamoto. At Mutanda, it has only 200 members out of a permanent workforce of 6,500, and at KCC it has 175 members out of 5,800 permanent workers. The union is working hard to reverse this situation.

“TUMEC’s recruitment and organizing strategy focuses on problems that workers face daily at the workplace. We then try to solve the problems in participatory ways which involve workers. We don’t attract workers to the union by offering them money or clothes. Instead, they join the union because it is guaranteed that TUMEC will fight for their rights,” says the general secretary Didier Okonda.

In 2017, the IndustriALL DRC women’s committee was set up to address issues affecting women workers in the union. The committee is organizing more women into the union and setting up women’s committees at companies where TUMEC is organizing. There are plans for training workshops on rights and working conditions for women, campaign against sexual harassment, freedom of association, health and safety, laws that affect women, and improving the understanding of gender issues.

“Hopefully the training will develop a strategy to stop violations of working women’s rights’ at workplaces in the DRC and to build their participation and leadership skills,” says Olga Kabalu, chairperson of the women’s committee.

INTERVIEW: Marie Nilsson

Union: IF Metall

Country: Sweden

Text: Petra Brännmark

Marie Nilsson says there is a very clear before and after #MeToo, and that IF Metall reacted quickly when the discussions reached the trade unions.

“Questions on sexual harassment have always been part of our surveys on the workplace environment but never a substantial part of it. But when we realized the extent of #MeToo, we asked the questions in a different way and the answers were different, especially from young women.

“I was shocked how widespread sexual harassment is, even knowing that that we work in a male dominated environment. And I was appalled; we want to organize women and if we do nothing they will leave the union.

“There is a legal framework and guidelines in Sweden, but they are of little use if they are just stuck on a shelf and not used. Employees need to know who to turn to, and that their concerns are taken seriously. And employers and unions share this responsibility.”

IF Metall has met with employers to discuss the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace, and they are taking action together. A number of joint conferences are planned together with one of the employer organizations to discuss the issue, with the local union and the company management to the workplace.

“I am pleased that we are doing this together with the employers. It shows that we agree on the basic principle to fight sexual harassment in the workplace and that we take it seriously."

What can unions do?

“What happens in the workplace is the employer’s responsibility, but as unions we need to be there and take our responsibility. As IF Metall, we are making sure that our regional and local organizations know how to handle cases of sexual harassment.”

Several groupings of professionals have taken to social media in Sweden to talk about experiences in their workplaces. For example journalists, actresses and hospital staff have shared their testimonies of sexual harassment. And the hashtag #InteFörhandlingsbart (non-negotiable) has put focus on sexual harassment in the union movement.

“We have had cases of union representatives behaving inappropriately, which is very difficult for everyone involved. When everyone knows each other there has to be clear instructions on how to deal with it, and maybe move it from a local level to a regional level.

“The discussion on what is ok and what is not has been very important. Even though it is sometimes hard to discuss when sexual harassment happens internally, we have a responsibility and can’t be seen as covering it up.

“And that is why IF Metall has called on our counterparts in industry to use this as a wakeup call. All companies should have a policy and actively work to combat sexual harassment, violation and gender-based discrimination. There has to be zero tolerance.”

How is IF Metall approaching Industry 4.0?

“Industry 4.0 is, without a doubt, our most important challenge. We look at technical development as something positive. We know some jobs will disappear, but we also know there will be new ones.

“Although digitalization has huge effects, it is not really news for us. We have been through this before. But today it is faster and it also touches society as a whole.

“We think the major breakthroughs will come in the next five years or so. This will affect not only those who are new to the labour market, but also the ones already in employment. As a trade union, we have to be part of that journey as a reliable partner in the transformation.

“So we are working on how to make sure our members will have the right skills to be employable in the future. Most of our members work in export industries and they need a safe transition.”

Union membership is going down in Sweden, a country with a traditionally high union density. What is IF Metall doing to counter the trend?

“From 2006 we lost 10,000 members per year but in 2017 we actually increased our membership with 800 new members.

“Organizing is a clear priority. And that is not only organizing new members but also about making sure existing members do not leave IF Metall. We need to talk to them and find out why they want to leave.

“Not knowing why they should be members of a union, not seeing the benefits, are often cited as reasons for leaving. They feel as if no one cares, they are disappointed in us as an organization, we haven’t been present enough and they haven’t received the service they expected or needed.

“To grow, we need to make sure that every new employee is asked to join IF Metall. Younger workers are not always interested, but we have to ask them and motivate them – joining a union is no longer only about solidarity.

“We also inform about trade unions in schools. We know that if we can reach people while they are still in school, they will know what a union is when they enter the workplace and are more likely to become a member.”

With historically close ties to Sweden’s governing party, the Social Democratic Party and Prime Minister Stefan Löfvén, a former IF Metall president, IF Metall is a highly political trade union. How are you preparing for the government elections in September?

“The elections are a large part of our focus this year, especially as opinion polls currently show a tie between the social democrats and the conservative block.

“Until September, political work will be an important part of what we do. Before the current government, we had eight years of conservative rule and as a union we were marginalized. During the recession and economic crisis, Sweden’s industry shrunk and 48,000 of our members lost their jobs. Despite lobbying relevant ministers and government departments to find solutions we were seen as irrelevant.

“We know from experiences in Germany and Belgium that there are ways of dealing with economic crisis where the government, employers and workers share the burden, by reducing working hours for example. But we got the cold shoulder when trying to protect our members. So we know what a conservative government will mean for our members, and we want a government that supports industrial development.

“We have produced material to distribute in the workplace and 36 of our local unions have appointed so called election leaders, who will take the discussion in the workplace about what the election means for the labour market, the industry and the union.

Most importantly, we want everyone to vote. Like many other countries, Sweden has seen a surge in right wing politics and those ideologies often benefit from low numbers of voters.”

IF Metall

REPORT: Seeking sustainable industrial policies for Latin America

Region: Latin America and the Caribbean

Text: Kimber Meyer

Achieving sustainability involves working for a present and future where social and economic needs are satisfied without endangering the environment.

To that end, IndustriALL has been working on developing a sustainable industrial policy since 2013. The objective is to seek solutions to situations affecting everyone: particularly climate change and the environmental, economic and social crisis.

In 2015, 195 countries signed the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit climate change at the global level. All of IndustriALL’s sectors have significant impacts on the environment, but environmental regulations for those sectors are weak.

By getting actively involved, unions can prevent decisions on the future of industries, jobs and the planet from remaining exclusively in the hands of governments, multinational corporations and market forces.

Instead, they can ensure that the voice of industrial workers is heard when developing an industrial policy that allows for a Just Transition to a sustainable future, i.e. by seeking measures to safeguard existing jobs, create new ones, and ensure decent and sustainable workplaces.

“It must be remembered that a Just Transition is not an end in itself – it is a pathway to a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable future,” says the director for health, safety and sustainability at IndustriALL, Brian Kohler.

Neoliberalism vs. a Just Transition in Latin America and the Caribbean

Currently, many countries in the region have neoliberal governments that favour the interests of business above social and environmental rights, thereby obstructing a Just Transition to sustainability.

In Argentina, the government of Mauricio Macri is implementing an economic policy of “adjustment” which has lead to an avalanche of layoffs. Macri is promoting the privatization of state enterprises and the flexibilization of labour with the aim of making Argentina an investor-friendly country.

 The same is happening in Brazil, where the government of Michel Temer who, after a parliamentary coup, is pursuing a pro-business and financial market agenda, while backing reforms that attack workers’ rights. For example, Temer tried, unsuccessfully, to push through a decree that would allow mining companies to exploit a huge reservation in Amazonia.

To say, these examples will not lead to social, economic or environmental sustainability. Rather, they will lead to increasing environmental catastrophes and social distress. Workers, their families, and the communities that depend upon them will be forced to pay the price.

In addition to the examples above there are free trade agreements (FTAs). Negotiations are continuing with a view to signing an FTA between the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) and the European Union (EU), an agreement which the unions of Mercosur are opposing.

“The intent of such trade agreements is to enshrine and de-regulate business interests – particularly those of the finance industry – above national laws and above all other human and environmental interests. Let it be understood: there is nothing about the financial market that will bring about a sustainable future,” adds Brian Kohler.

The unions from Mercosur argue that what is emerging is not a genuine, fair and balanced association agreement, but rather an FTA prejudicial to national industries, and indeed the long-term sustainability of the less developed countries.

According to the unions, the FTA would promote unemployment in the Mercosur countries as, by lowering import tariffs on products manufactured in Europe, Latin American enterprises would be unable to compete and would go out of business.

In parallel, negotiations are underway for the renewal of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, Canada and the United States.

The unions of all three countries agree that since its beginning in 1994, the treaty has hurt workers’ rights, especially in Mexico. It has also been detrimental to the environment, and put pressure on social protections. Trade unions from the three countries have been pressuring the Mexican government to raise its labour standards and wages to prevent unfair competition with US and Canadian workers.

The unions’ response: alternatives and struggle

Faced with this situation, the unions have devoted their efforts to proposing alternatives and continuing to fight back.

Together with the Coordinating Centre of Southern Cone Labour Confederations, the International Labour Confederation, UNI Americas and other social movements, IndustriALL affiliates have participated in mobilizations against the World Trade Organization, which they consider is only interested in discussing an agenda that defends the interests of the big multinational corporations.

Unions affiliated to IndustriALL in Latin America also held a debate on democracy and fundamental labour rights throughout the world on 12 December 2017 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they undertook to work toward political, social, economic, feminist and environmental alternatives that give priority to human rights and harmony with the environment.

Unions affiliated to IndustriALL in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay also participated in the 2017 Day of Mobilization for Democracy and Against Neoliberalism on 16 November in Uruguay, an initiative of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA).

As part of those activities, IndustriALL organized a seminar for the defence of sustainable national and regional industry with a view to showing that all the countries of the region are continuing to suffer job losses, falling industrial production and violations of workers’ rights, and that the time has come to seek a solution.

The unions have reaffirmed their commitment to oppose policies of precarious employment and harmful social policies of those intent on subjugating them. They agreed to continue work with IndustriALL to develop sustainable industrial policies, including measures to preserve and create secure, well-paid jobs, to ensure sustainable employment and to have a say in the decisions made by their respective industries.

“We have to act together and oppose the policies that encourage precarious work. We must deepen our experiences and debates among the unions so that we can think together, merge and build strong unions with capacity to generate proposals and negotiate on sustainable development,” says the regional secretary of IndustriALL in Latin America and the Caribbean, Marino Vani.

Showing the way to a sustainable future: Just Transition

ARTÍCULO DE FONDO: Afiliados de IndustriALL sufren acciones antisindicales

Texto: Leonie Guguen

Las represivas políticas antisindicales son síntoma de la desigualdad mundial cada vez mayor y de la avaricia corporativa. No es de extrañar que los centros de poder a nivel mundial pretendan reprimir a los sindicatos, que influyen en la situación económica, redistribuyendo las riquezas para que pasen de manos de inversionistas a los trabajadores. Los afiliados de IndustriALL Global Union han experimentado muchos ataques de esta naturaleza.

EE.UU.

Cuando el sindicato United Steelworkers, organización afiliada a IndustriALL, presentó una solicitud para que le autorizaran la realización de elecciones en Kumho Tire en EE.UU., la compañía lanzó inmediatamente una campaña, típica del sur de Estados Unidos, para evitar que los trabajadores pudieran lograr representación sindical.

Kumho Tire, situada en Macon, Georgia, que produce neumáticos para fabricantes de automóviles, incluyendo Chrysler, Hyundai y Kia, contrató a una empresa de consultoría, Road Warrior Productions, pagándole por lo menos US$ 300,000 para contratar a siete personas a tiempo completo para dedicarse a actividades antisindicales en la planta.

Kumho Tire creó un sitio web antisindical, que incluía un mensaje del alcalde de Macon instando a los trabajadores a votar en contra del sindicato. Posteriormente ese sitio web fue eliminado.

Los trabajadores se vieron obligados a asistir diariamente a reuniones antisindicales que duraban varias horas, y los administradores les dijeron que la fábrica recién inaugurada tendría que cerrar si votaran en favor de tener un sindicato. La señalada multinacional coreana está actualmente bajo el control de un comité de acreedores encabezado por el Banco de Desarrollo de Corea administrada por el estado, hecho que recalcaron los administradores de la planta para aprovechar los temores de la fuerza de trabajo.

También se obligó a los trabajadores a asistir en forma individual a muchas entrevistas en que se atacaba al sindicato. Un portavoz de United Steelworkers afirmó:

“Tenemos una grabación donde el director de recursos humanos de la compañía amenaza que se van a perder clientes y cerrar plantas si el personal formaba un sindicato. También tenemos testigos que están dispuestos a declarar que les dijeron en entrevistas individuales que si apoyaban al sindicato los iban a despedir”.

Antes de la implacable campaña alarmista y de intimidación en la planta de Macon, un 80% de los trabajadores de Kumho Tire firmaron tarjetas que decían que querían tener un sindicato. Cuando se realizó la votación, los días 12 y 13 de octubre de 2017, USW perdió las elecciones por 28 votos (164 a 136), una reducción del 34% de la fuerza de trabajo que había estado a favor de tener un sindicato.

A Kumho Tire no le bastó el resultado de la votación: pocos días después de la votación le dio por despedir a Mario Smith, uno de los dirigentes de la campaña de sindicalización. Los Steelworkers han respondido presentando cargos por prácticas laborales injustas ante la Junta Nacional de Relaciones Laborales. Si se acepta este reclamo, se volvería a realizar la votación o se podría mandar a la empresa a entablar negociaciones con el sindicato.

Vale la pena señalar que la fuerza de trabajo de casi todas las 3,700 plantas de Kumho Tire en Corea del Sur cuenta con representación del Sindicato de Trabajadores Metalúrgicos de Corea, organización afiliada a IndustriALL.

La discriminación antisindical es muy común en los estados del sur de EE. UU., incluso en empresas que suelen participar en el diálogo social, como Nissan, Boeing y Airbus. El fabricante alemán de automóviles, Volkswagen, que tiene buenas relaciones con los sindicatos en su país de origen, está luchando activamente contra el sistema legal estadounidense que impide la sindicalización de los trabajadores de su planta en Chattanooga, Tennessee. Los Acuerdos Marco Globales de IndustriALL, tanto con Volkswagen como con Airbus, han tenido poca influencia en los Estados Unidos.

Corea del Sur

Las empresas surcoreanas son bien conocidas por sus actividades antisindicales en el exterior, pero las políticas antisindicales en Corea del Sur están muy arraigadas y son graves. Han Sang-gyun, Presidente de la Confederación Coreana de Sindicatos (KCTU), ha estado encarcelado desde diciembre de 2015. Así mismo la ex Secretaria General de la KCTU, Lee Young-joo, fue detenida en enero de 2018 y ahora se encuentra en el mismo centro de detención en Seúl.

La compañera Lee se había refugiado en la oficina de la KCTU durante dos años después de que se emitiera una orden de arresto por su papel en la organización de la movilización popular masiva del 14 de noviembre de 2015 contra la reforma laboral represiva del gobierno anterior.

Aunque gracias a las movilizaciones de una amplia alianza de sindicatos y la sociedad civil se logró destituir a la Presidenta Park en marzo de 2017, Lee y Han Sang-gyun no figuraron entre los muchos miles de personas indultadas por la nueva administración bajo el Presidente Moon Jae-in.

IndustriALL visitó y se reunió con Han y Lee varias veces después de 2015 como parte de su campaña de solidaridad mundial con el movimiento sindical de Corea del Sur.

En abril de 2017, el Grupo de Trabajo de la ONU sobre la Detención Arbitraria estudió el caso de Han y Lee y recordó al gobierno coreano que tiene “la responsabilidad, también en el contexto de las protestas pacíficas, de prevenir las detenciones y reclusiones arbitrarias, y exhortó a los Estados a que impidieran en todo momento que se abusara de los procedimientos penales”.

Además de las autoridades, los sindicatos en Corea tienen que combatir constantemente los ataques brutales contra los derechos de los trabajadores en las poderosas empresas familiares del país (conocidas como “chaebol”) como Hyundai y Samsung.

Argelia

Los gobiernos prestan poca atención a los convenios internacionales del trabajo diseñados para proteger los derechos sindicales, aun cuando su país los haya ratificado. En 1962, Argelia firmó el Convenio 87 de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) sobre el derecho a la libertad sindical y la protección del derecho de sindicación y el Convenio 98 sobre el derecho de sindicación y de negociación colectiva.

Sin embargo, una poderosa alianza constituida por el gobierno, empresas y el poder judicial, está empeñada en destruir a los sindicatos independientes en Argelia, incluyendo SNATEGS, organización afiliada a IndustriALL. SNATEGS representa a más de 30,000 trabajadores de la empresa estatal de electricidad y gas Sonelgaz. Cuando el sindicato exigió un aumento salarial y mejores condiciones de salud y seguridad, tuvo que enfrentar represalias terribles.

Desde su registro oficial en 2013, SNATEGS y sus dirigentes han sido víctimas de represión cada vez más severa y persecución judicial. En diciembre de 2016, el presidente de SNATEGS, Raouf Mellal, quien fuera despedido por Sonelgaz por sus actividades sindicales, fue condenado en su ausencia a seis meses de cárcel después de revelar la inflación ilícita de las facturas de ocho millones de clientes de Sonelgaz durante un período de diez años.

Cinco meses después, el Ministro de Trabajo anuló el registro de SNATEGS faltando apenas unos días para que comenzara una huelga nacional de los trabajadores de Sonelgaz. En una carta con fecha de 16 de mayo de 2017, el Ministro afirmó que el sindicato había irrespetado la ley argelina 90-14/1990, pero en esa carta no se proporcionó ninguna información relacionada con esa supuesta infracción a la ley. También dijo que Mellal fue destituido de su cargo como Presidente del sindicato.

Posteriormente, fue condenado a un total de 17 meses de cárcel, con multas de 10,000 euros (US$ 12,300) por una serie de acusaciones falsas. Actualmente no está bajo custodia y ha apelado contra los cargos.

La persecución judicial se ha extendido a otros miembros de SNATEGS. El Secretario General y otros altos dirigentes del sindicato, e incluso el abogado que representa a SNATEGS, ahora se enfrentan cargos falsos.

En numerosas ocasiones, las fuerzas de seguridad han sido desplegadas para evitar que el sindicato organice manifestaciones. El 20 de enero de este año, unos 10,000 policías argelinos se hicieron presentes para impedir una manifestación pacífica organizada por SNATEGS en la capital, Argel. Tomaron preso a unas 1,000 personas que iban a participar en la manifestación. Los detenidos fueron trasladados en autobús a zonas remotas, donde les negaron alimentos y agua durante diez horas. Las fuerzas de seguridad confiscaron sus teléfonos y borraron fotos de la manifestación, y así como evidencias de la represión policial. Según SNATEGS, algunas mujeres manifestantes fueron acosadas sexualmente y otros sindicalistas fueron agredidos.

Los sindicatos mundiales, IndustriALL, UITA, la ISP y la CSI, escribieron al Ministro de Trabajo de Argelia, Mourad Zemali, para manifestar su repudio por el mal trato que sufrieron los manifestantes, que incluían sindicalistas y personas de la sociedad civil que simpatizaban con las reivindicaciones de los trabajadores.

En febrero de 2018, se suspendió la visita de una misión de contactos directos de la OIT a Argelia después de que el gobierno se negara a permitir que la delegación se reuniera con sindicatos independientes.

Bangladesh

En diciembre de 2016, el gobierno de Bangladesh utilizó las huelgas espontáneas de las trabajadoras y trabajadores de la confección que exigían un aumento salarial como una excusa para lanzar una gran ofensiva contra los sindicatos del sector. A consecuencia de la política gubernamental, treinta y cinco dirigentes sindicales y trabajadores de la confección fueron detenidos, permaneciendo en detención arbitraria durante varias semanas. Las oficinas del sindicato en las zonas de producción de prendas de vestir cerca de la capital, Dhaka, fueron saqueadas y cerradas por las autoridades. La Asociación de Fabricantes y Exportadores de Prendas de Vestir de Bangladesh (BGMEA) suspendió la producción en 59 fábricas y dieron de baja a más de 1,600 trabajadores y trabajadoras. La policía presentó cargos contra 600 trabajadores y dirigentes sindicales.

Este ataque a gran escala contra los sindicatos recibió una fuerte respuesta del movimiento sindical. IndustriALL movilizó una campaña de solidaridad internacional #EveryDayCounts, que contó con el respaldo de UNI Global Union y sus afiliados en todo el mundo.

Cientos de fotos de todo el mundo se publicaron en las redes sociales, y los sindicatos de más de 20 países enviaron cartas al Primer Ministro de Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, pidiendo la liberación de los detenidos. En más de 16 ciudades, los sindicatos protestaron y visitaron a las embajadas de Bangladesh, mientras que una campaña de LabourStart para liberar a los activistas encarcelados logró más de 10,000 firmas.

Al final, el 23 de febrero de 2017, después de dos meses de encarcelamiento, se llegó a un acuerdo tripartito entre el Consejo de IndustriALL en Bangladesh, el Ministerio de Trabajo y BGMEA, poniendo en libertad a los sindicalistas y trabajadores de la confección detenidos, y retirando todos los cargos en su contra.

Sin embargo, a pesar de este gran avance, las relaciones entre los propietarios de las fábricas, el gobierno y los sindicatos del sector de la confección de Bangladesh siguen siendo sumamente frágiles y peligrosas. Apenas seis meses después de que los sindicalistas fueran puestos en libertad, 50 trabajadores de la confección fueron gravemente agredidos por una banda de matones por participar en una protesta pacífica frente a las instalaciones de Haesong, empresa fabricante de jerséis. Los manifestantes se sentaron para protestar junto con algunos huelguistas frente a la sede de la empresa de propiedad coreana en Hizalhati, Gazipur. Esta acción fue organizada por la Federación Nacional de Trabajadores de la Confección (NGWF), organización afiliada a IndustriALL.

Entre los heridos figuraban mujeres, incluyendo la Secretaria General y la Vicepresidenta del sindicato. Además, un activista de la NGWF fue secuestrado y luego puesto en libertad muchas horas después. A pesar de muchas solicitudes al respecto, la policía local se negó a aceptar una demanda por los reclamos de los trabajadores, ni sobre el secuestro, ni respecto a la agresión contra los manifestantes.

Es esta impunidad lo que hace que sea peligrosa la labor de organización sindical en Bangladesh.

Filipinas

Las personas que trabajan en las complejas cadenas de suministro mundiales son especialmente vulnerables a violaciones de sus derechos, malas condiciones de salud y seguridad, y bajos salarios. Se responde poco por las responsabilidades ante lo que es una fuerza de trabajo oculta de las empresas multinacionales, y muchas veces se acoge con poco agrado a los sindicatos.

En su planta en Lipa City, al sur de Manila, Furukawa Automotive Systems, empresa de propiedad japonesa en Filipinas, fabrica componentes de automóviles para importantes marcas como Toyota, Suzuki y Nissan.

Los trabajadores de Furukawa lograron un importante triunfo en enero de este año después de votar por un amplio margen para ser representados por una seccional de la Alianza

de Trabajadores Metalúrgicos de Filipinas (PMA), organización afiliada a IndustriALL. Casi 1,500 trabajadores de una fuerza de trabajo de 5,000 votaron en favor de tener un sindicato; más del 50% de estos trabajadores son temporales o contratados por agencias.

Se ganó la lucha por el reconocimiento sindical en Furukawa con el apoyo de sindicatos encabezados por la PMA, el Sindicato del Consejo de Trabajadores Metalúrgicos del Japón, y también de sindicatos mundiales y otras organizaciones.

Sin embargo, a pesar del hecho de que la PMA ganó la votación sobre su certificación sindical, continúan las acciones antisindicales en esa compañía. Otro sindicato, que cuenta con el apoyo de la empresa, está retrasando el proceso de negociación colectiva acudiendo al tribunal laboral para afirmar que también tienen miembros en Furukawa. Hasta que se resuelva la intervención de este sindicato, no puede haber negociaciones para establecer un convenio colectivo.

Colombia

Al igual que Filipinas, la CSI califica Colombia como uno de los diez peores países del mundo en lo que se refiere a los derechos laborales, ya que ofrece un ambiente donde las empresas pueden fácilmente atacar a los sindicatos.

TuboCaribe, propiedad de la multinacional siderúrgica Tenaris, fabrica tubos de acero en una planta en el puerto caribeño de Cartagena. En diciembre de 2017, después de negarse a firmar un nuevo convenio colectivo con los trabajadores, TuboCaribe despidió tanto al presidente como al vicepresidente del Sindicato de Trabajadores de Tenaris en Colombia (Sintratucar). Luego, después de que se afiliaran al sindicato, TuboCaribe se negó a recontratar a veinte jóvenes que habían estado trabajando con contratos renovables de seis meses.

Como consecuencia de esto, otros 100 trabajadores renunciaron a afiliarse a Sintratucar por temor a perder sus trabajos. En cambio, la empresa renovó los contratos de estos trabajadores.

“Me han despedido debido a la creación del sindicato”, dijo Walberto Marrugo, Presidente de Sintratucar. “Tenaris no respeta la libertad de sindicación. Estamos tratando de anular los despidos a través del sistema legal, pero si resultara necesario, vamos a acudir a un tribunal de arbitraje y tomar otras medidas”.

Al enterarse de los despidos, la Red Sindical Mundial de IndustriALL para Tenaris/Ternium lanzó una campaña de solidaridad con los trabajadores y dirigentes sindicales despedidos. El 17 de diciembre, Sintratucar realizó una serie de protestas y una reunión masiva de sus miembros en las puertas de la fábrica. Los trabajadores reunidos hicieron un llamado a todos los trabajadores del mundo para que se uniesen a una campaña en Facebook para intensificar la presión sobre la empresa. Sintratucar también instó a todos los empleados de Tenaris a que grabasen un vídeo que demostrase las actividades antisindicales de la empresa y que exigieran la reincorporación de los trabajadores despedidos.

Después de que el sindicato presentara una demanda, el juez municipal de Cartagena ordenó a TuboCaribe a reincorporar al Vicepresidente de Sintratucar, Jairo del Río, aduciendo que no se justifica que se rescinda su contrato. Fue una victoria clave, pero el Presidente del sindicato, Walberto Marrugo, y los otros trabajadores jóvenes siguen luchando por sus puestos de trabajo.

Rusia

Se ha calificado como un duro golpe para los sindicatos independientes en Rusia la reciente decisión de un tribunal ruso de disolver la Asociación Sindical Interregional de Trabajadores (ITUWA).

El 10 de enero de 2018, el tribunal local de San Petersburgo dictaminó la disolución del ITUWA, diciendo que el sindicato había realizado actividades políticas y que había recibido fondos del extranjero.

ITUWA reúne a 4,000 trabajadores del sector automotriz y otras industrias. Según la oficina del fiscal, la decisión se basó en el apoyo solidario que ITUWA brindó a camioneros que protestaban contra los aumentos de los impuestos y también se debía a las críticas que el sindicato había publicado en su sitio web respecto a las políticas socioeconómicas del gobierno.

El tribunal también incluyó, como parte de las evidencias para su decisión, las actividades y la naturaleza intersectorial de la membresía del sindicato, además del hecho de que recibiera fondos del extranjero para participar en talleres conjuntos con IndustriALL.

Ocho afiliados de IndustriALL en Rusia emitieron una declaración conjunta en defensa de ITUWA. La declaración fue enviada a la Duma Estatal, a la Fiscalía, al Presidente del Tribunal Supremo y al Presidente de Rusia, diciendo lo siguiente:

“Consideramos que la decisión del Tribunal Municipal de San Petersburgo no sólo ha violado flagrantemente los derechos de los trabajadores y de los sindicatos que representan sus intereses. Esta injusta decisión también impide la regulación adecuada de las actividades sindicales en Rusia, al dejar estas normas fuera del contexto de los marcos legales nacionales e internacionales”.

ITUWA ha apelado al Tribunal Supremo de Rusia y se está preparando para nuevos juicios.

Costa de Marfil

Los trabajadores comenzaron a sentir todo el impacto de las políticas antisindicales del grupo energético marroquí, Akwa, poco después de que el grupo adquiriera una participación del 80% en la empresa de distribución de combustible marfileña Klenzi, en diciembre de 2014.

Al tratar de destruir a SYNTEPCI, sindicato del sector de la energía afiliado a IndustriALL, Klenzi ha demostrado una falta total de respeto por la legislación laboral, por la inspección del trabajo y por el Ministerio de Trabajo de Costa de Marfil.

Los problemas comenzaron en septiembre de 2015, cuando Klenzi se negó a permitir la elección de representantes de los trabajadores porque habría significado pedir a SYNTEPCI una lista de los candidatos, reconociendo así al sindicato en la empresa. Al final, después de una reunión de arbitraje organizada por la inspección del trabajo en mayo de 2017, el Director General de Klenzi, Ali Boutaleb, no quiso entregar el acta de la reunión.

Después de eso, los trabajadores fueron sometidos a todo tipo de amenazas y acoso, intimidándolos con el fin de obligarlos a renunciar al SYNTEPCI. Después de que tres empleados se negaron a elaborar una lista identificando a los trabajadores clave para esta acción antisindical de la empresa, el 5 de julio de 2017 el mismo Director General dirigió una carta a los trabajadores, solicitándoles renunciar a su afiliación al SYNTEPCI. Al poco tiempo se hizo evidente que la compañía estaba obligando a los empleados a firmar la carta bajo coacción, a consecuencia de lo cual el Secretario General de SYNTEPCI, Jeremy Wondje, presentó una queja urgente al inspector del trabajo.

La inspección del trabajo convocó a una reunión entre las partes el 3 de agosto, pero la dirección de Klenzi no apareció. Los trabajadores que asistieron a la reunión fueron sancionados con advertencias escritas por abandonar el trabajo sin autorización.

Después de la intimidación constante, uno de los diez trabajadores que se había negado a firmar la carta renunciando a su afiliación a SYNTEPCI, envió un mensaje de texto a sus colegas revelando que había cedido bajo presión, diciendo: “Hola compañeros, de verdad soy débil, no podía seguir resistiendo. Lo firmé. Les pido disculpas”.

De los nueve empleados restantes que se negaron a firmar la carta renunciando a su afiliación a SYNTEPCI, ocho han sido despedidos.

Cuando la secretaria del Director General también se negó a firmar, la enviaron a trabajar como operadora de bombas en la mina Tongon en Korhogo, donde Klenzi entrega combustible.

El 31 de enero de 2018, SYNTEPCI realizó una huelga de tres días para protestar por las violaciones de la libertad de sindicación en Klenzi, así como por los problemas con otras empresas petroleras en Costa de Marfil. Sin embargo, la situación sigue sin resolverse.

EL CAMINO A SEGUIR

Los gobiernos deben reconocer el papel legítimo e imprescindible que realizan los sindicatos para corregir la desigualdad, aumentando la prosperidad y ampliando la base tributaria a través de salarios más altos. Los gobiernos también deben hacer más para proteger a los sindicatos, señala el Secretario General de IndustriALL, Valter Sanches:

“Las empresas multinacionales son demasiado ponderosas, realizando acciones antisindicales para proteger sus ganancias. Esto es perjudicial para comunidades y sociedades enteras. Los gobiernos deben rechazar la avaricia corporativa, y eso incluye tomar medidas enérgicas para defender el derecho a la libertad de sindicación”.

Existe una nueva generación de trabajadores, que enfrentan trabajo precario y bajos salarios, que se va dando cuenta de que la acción colectiva es la mejor manera de defender sus intereses. Esto constituye una pequeña luz de esperanza. En 2017, se afiliaron 262,000 nuevos miembros a los sindicatos en EE. UU., de los cuales un 75% tenía menos de 35 años. Algunos de los mayores avances se lograron en campañas de sindicalización dirigidas por mujeres y personas de color.

Sanches concluyó diciendo: “Mientras más crezcan los sindicatos al dirigirse a los jóvenes y mujeres, más fuertes serán para combatir los ataques antisindicales”.

FEATURE: Union busting, IndustriALL affiliates under attack

Text: Leonie Guguen

Union repression is symptomatic of increasing global inequality and corporate greed. It is no wonder that global forces seek to suppress trade unions, which are economic actors in the redistribution of wealth from capital to labour. IndustriALL Global Union affiliates are no strangers to these attacks.

USA

When IndustriALL affiliate, the United Steelworkers filed an election petition at Kumho Tire in the USA, the company immediately launched a campaign to destroy workers’ chances of union representation that is typical in the American South.

Kumho Tire in Macon, Georgia, which supplies tyres for auto manufacturers including Chrysler, Hyundai and Kia, hired a consultancy firm, RoadWarrior Productions, paying them at least US$300,000 to employ seven full time union busters at the plant.

Kumho Tire set up an anti-union website, which included a message from the mayor of Macon urging workers to vote against the union. The site has since been taken down.

Workers were forced to attend daily anti-union meetings that lasted for several hours, with managers telling them that the newly-opened factory would be forced to close if they voted for a union. The Korean multinational is currently under control of a committee of creditors headed by the state-run Korea Development Bank, and plant managers emphasized this to play on workers’ fears.

Workers were also made to attend many one-on-one anti-union meetings:

“We have a recording of the company human resources manager threatening loss of customers and plant closures if they unionize. We also have witnesses who will testify they were told one-on-one that if they supported the union they would be fired,” said a spokesperson from the United Steelworkers.

Before the relentless campaign of intimidation and scaremongering at the Macon plant, 80 per cent of workers at Kumho Tire signed cards saying they wanted a union. When the vote took place on 12 and 13 October 2017, the USW lost the election by 28 votes (164 to 136) – a drop of 34 per cent in favour of a union.

Not satisfied with the election result, Kumho Tire then fired Mario Smith, one of the leaders of the organizing campaign, just days after the vote. The Steelworkers have retaliated by filing unfair labour practice charges with the National Labour Relations Board. If successful, the election would be re-run or the company could be ordered to bargain with the union.

It’s worth noting that virtually all 3,700 Kumho Tire works in South Korea are organized by IndustriALL affiliate the Korean Metal Workers’ Union.

Anti-union discrimination is rife in the southern states of the US, even at companies that normally engage in social dialogue such as Nissan, Boeing and Airbus. German car manufacturer, Volkswagen, which has good relations with unions in its home country, is actively fighting the US legal system to stop workers from organizing at their plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. IndustriALL’s global framework agreements with both Volkswagen and Airbus have had little sway in the US.

South Korea

South Korean companies are well-known for their anti-union activities abroad, but union-busting in South Korea is entrenched and severe. Han Sang-gyun, president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), has been imprisoned since December 2015, while former KCTU general secretary, Lee Young-joo, was arrested in January 2018 and is now held in the same detention centre in Seoul.

Sister Lee had been seeking refuge at the KCTU office for two years after an arrest warrant was issued for her role in organizing the People’s Mass Mobilization on 14 November 2015 against the repressive labour reform of the former government.

While mobilizations by a broad alliance of unions and civil society succeeded in removing President Park in March 2017, Lee and Han Sang-gyun were not among the many thousands of people pardoned by the new administration under President Moon Jae-in.

IndustriALL has visited and met Han and Lee several times since 2015 as part of its global solidarity with South Korean union movement.

In April 2017, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary detention considered the case of Han and Lee and reminded the Korean government that it has “the responsibility, including in the context of peaceful protests, to prevent arbitrary arrest and detention, and called upon States to avoid the abuse of criminal proceedings at all times”.

Aside from the authorities, trade unions in Korea have an ongoing battle against brutal attacks on workers’ rights in the all-powerful, family-owned companies in the country (known as chaebols) such as Hyundai and Samsung.

Algeria

Governments are taking scant notice of international labour conventions designed to protect trade union rights, even when their country has ratified them. Algeria signed the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Convention 87 on the right to freedom of association and Convention 98 on the right to organize and collective bargaining in 1962.

And yet a powerful alliance of government, enterprise and the judiciary is determined to crush independent unions in Algeria, including SNATEGS, affiliated to IndustriALL. SNATEGS represents more than 30,000 workers at state-owned gas and electricity company Sonelgaz, whose demands for higher wages and better health and safety have been met with extraordinary reprisals.

Since the union was registered in 2013, SNATEGS and its leaders have been subject to increasing oppression and judicial persecution. In December 2016, SNATEGS President, Raouf Mellal, who was fired by Sonelgaz for union activities, was sentenced in absentia to six months in prison after he blew the whistle on the illicit overcharging of eight million Sonelgaz customers over a ten-year period.

Five months later, the Minister of Labour withdrew SNATEGS’ registration just days before a nationwide strike by Sonelgaz workers. In a letter dated 16 May 2017, the Minister said the union had disrespected the Algerian law 90-14/1990 without detailing how. It also said Mellal had been dismissed from his role as union president.

He has since been convicted to a total of 17 months in prison and fines of 10,000 euros (US$12,300) on a plethora of spurious convictions. He is currently not in custody and appealing the charges.

Judicial persecution has extended to other members of SNATEGS. The general secretary and other senior leaders of the union and even the lawyer representing SNATEGS are now facing trumped up charges.

Security forces have been employed on numerous occasions to stop the union organizing rallies. On 20 January this year, around 10,000 Algerian police officers were employed to stop a peaceful rally organized by SNATEGS in the capital, Algiers. They detained some 1,000 would be protestors, who were taken by bus to remote areas and denied food and water for ten hours. Security forces confiscated their phones and deleted photos of the rally, as well as evidence of police oppression that took place. According to SNATEGS, some women protestors were sexually harassed and other trade union members were physically assaulted.

Global unions, IndustriALL, IUF, PSI and the ITUC wrote to the Algerian labour minister, Mourad Zemali, to condemn the treatment of the protestors, who were a mix of trade unionists and civil society sympathetic to the workers’ demands.

In February 2018 an ILO direct contact mission to Algeria was cancelled following the government’s refusal to allow the mission to meet with independent unions.

Bangladesh

In December 2016, the Bangladesh government used wildcat strikes by garment workers demanding higher wages as an excuse to launch a major crackdown on trade unions in the sector. Thirty-five trade union leaders and garment workers were seized and arbitrarily detained for several weeks. Union offices across garment producing areas near the capital Dhaka were shut down and vandalized by authorities. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) suspended production at 59 factories and more than 1,600 workers were suspended. Police filed charges against 600 workers and trade union leaders.

The wholescale attack on the unions was met with a strong response from the trade union movement. IndustriALL mobilized an international solidarity campaign #EveryDayCounts supported by UNI Global Union and affiliates worldwide.

Hundreds of photos from all over the world were posted on social media, and unions in more than 20 countries sent letters to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, calling for the release of the detainees. Trade unions protested and visited Bangladeshi embassies in over 16 cities, while a LabourStart campaign to free the jailed activists amassed more than 10,000 signatures.

Finally, on 23 February 2017, after two months of captivity, a tripartite agreement was reached between IndustriALL Bangladesh Council, the Ministry of Labour and the BGMEA, providing the release of the arrested trade unionists and garment workers, and all the cases against them to be dropped.

However, despite the breakthrough, relations between factory owners, the government and trade unions in the Bangladeshi garment sector remain on a knife-edge. Just six months after the trade unionists had been released, 50 garment workers were badly beaten by a gang of thugs for taking part in a peaceful protest at sweater manufacturer, Haesong. The sit-in and strike outside the Korean-owned company’s headquarters in Hizalhati, Gazipur, was organized by IndustriALL affiliate the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF).

Among those injured were the union’s general secretary and vice-president who are both women. An NGWF organizer was kidnapped and released many hours later. Despite multiple requests, local police have refused to file workers’ complaints about the kidnapping or the attacks.

It is this impunity that makes trade union organizing perilous in Bangladesh.

The Philippines

People working in complex global supply chains are particularly vulnerable to rights violations, poor health and safety, and low pay. Accountability is low in what is a hidden workforce for multinational companies and trade unions often unwelcome.

Furukawa Automotive Systems, a Japanese-owned company in the Philippines makes car parts for major automobile brands such as Toyota, Suzuki, and Nissan, from its plant in Lipa City, south of Manila.

Workers at Furukawa secured a victory in January this year after voting by a large margin to be represented by a branch of IndustriALL affiliate the Philippine Metalworkers Alliance (PMA). Close to 1,500 workers out of a workforce of 5,000 voted for a union, of whom more than 50 per cent are agency-hired or non-regular.

The fight for union recognition at Furukawa was gained with support of trade unions led by PMA, the Japan Council of Metalworkers’ union, as well as global union federations and other organizations.

However, despite the fact that PMA won the certification election, union-busting continues at the company. Another union, supported by the company, is delaying the process of collective bargaining by going to the labour court to claim that they have also members in Furukawa. Until the intervention of this union is resolved, there can be no negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement.

Colombia

Like the Philippines, Colombia is ranked by the ITUC as one of the top ten world’s worst countries for workers’ rights, providing an easy environment for companies to attack trade unions.

TuboCaribe, owned by multinational steel producer Tenaris, manufactures steel tubes from a plant in the Caribbean port of Cartagena. After refusing to sign a new collective agreement with workers, TuboCaribe sacked both the president and vice-president of the Workers’ Union of Tenaris in Colombia (Sintratucar) in December 2017. TuboCaribe then refused to rehire twenty young people who had been working on rolling six-month contracts after they joined the union.

This prompted 100 more workers to leave Sintratucar for fear of losing their jobs. In contrast, these workers had their contracts renewed.

“The reason for my dismissal is the formation of the union,” said Sintratucar president Walberto Marrugo. “Tenaris does not respect freedom of association. We are trying to annul the dismissals through the legal system but we will go to an arbitration tribunal and take other actions if necessary.”

On learning of the dismissals, IndustriALL’s Tenaris/Ternium Global Union Network launched a campaign in support of the dismissed workers and union leaders. Sintratucar held a series of protests and a mass meeting of members at the factory gates on 17 December. The meeting called on workers throughout the world to increase their pressure on the company by joining a Facebook campaign. Sintratucar also urged all Tenaris employees to make a video illustrating the company’s union busting activities and to demand the reinstatement of the dismissed workers.

Following legal action by the union, the municipal justice of Cartagena ordered TuboCaribe to reinstate the vice-president of Sintratucar, Jairo del Rio, citing no just reason for his contract to be terminated. It was a key victory but the union’s president Walberto Marrugo and the other young workers are still fighting for their jobs.

Russia

A recent decision by a Russian court to dissolve the Interregional Trade Union Workers’ Association (ITUWA), has been described as a serious blow for independent unions in Russia.

On 10 January 2018, the local court of Saint Petersburg ruled that IndustriALL affiliate, ITUWA, should be dissolved claiming the union had conducted political activities and received foreign funds.

ITUWA brings together 4,000 workers from the automotive and other industries. According to the prosecutor’s office, the decision was based on ITUWA’s solidarity support for truck drivers protesting against tax increases and the union’s criticism of the government’s socio-economic policies on its website.

The court also included the inter-sectoral nature of the union’s membership and activities as part of the reasons for its decision, as well as receiving foreign funds for taking part in joint workshops with IndustriALL.

Eight IndustriALL affiliates in Russia issued a joint statement in defense of ITUWA, which was sent to the State Duma, the Prosecutor’s office, chairperson of the Supreme Court and the President of Russia. It said:

“The Saint Petersburg city court decision, in our opinion, not only blatantly violates the rights of workers and the trade unions representing their interests. It also moves the proper regulation of trade union activities in Russia out of national and international legal frameworks.”

ITUWA has appealed to the Supreme Court of Russia and is preparing for further trials.

Ivory Coast

Not long after Moroccan energy group, Akwa, acquired an 80 per cent stake in Ivorian fuel distribution company Klenzi in December 2014, workers began to feel the full force of its anti-union policies.

Klenzi has shown a complete lack of respect for the labour laws, the labour inspectorate and the Labour Ministry of Côte d’Ivoire in trying to oust IndustriALL energy affiliate SYNTEPCI.

Trouble began in September 2015, when Klenzi refused to allow elections of worker representatives because it would have meant obtaining a list of candidates from SYNTEPCI and recognizing the union at the company. Eventually, following an arbitration meeting organized by the labour inspectorate in May 2017, Klenzi’s CEO Ali Boutaleb refused to sign the minutes of the meeting.

After that, workers were subjected to all forms of threats and harassment to intimidate them leaving SYNTEPCI. After three employees refused to draw up a list of workers to target, the CEO himself wrote to employees on 5 July 2017 asking them to renounce their affiliation to SYNTEPCI. It soon became apparent the company was forcing employees to sign the letter under duress, which lead SYNTEPCI general secretary, Jeremy Wondje, to make an urgent complaint to the labour inspector.

The labour inspectorate called for a meeting between the parties on 3 August but Klenzi management failed to turn up. The workers who attended the meeting were sanctioned with written warnings for leaving work without permission.

After continuous intimidation one of the ten workers that had refused to sign the letter renouncing affiliation to SYNTEPCI, sent an SMS to his colleagues revealing that he had bowed under pressure, saying: “Hello comrades, truly I am weak, I couldn’t hold out. I signed. My apologies.”

Out of the nine remaining employees who refused to sign the letter renouncing their affiliation to SYNTEPCI, eight have been fired.

When the CEO’s secretary also refused to sign, she was sent to work as a pump operator at the Tongon mine in Korhogo, where Klenzi delivers fuel.

On 31 January 2018, SYNTEPCI held a three-day strike to protest at the violations of freedom of association at Klenzi, as well as problems with other oil companies in Côte d’Ivoire. However, the situation remains unresolved.

THE WAY FORWARD

Governments must recognize the legitimate and essential role of trade unions in redressing inequality, increasing prosperity and enlarging the tax base through higher wages. They must also do more to protect unions, says IndustriALL General Secretary, Valter Sanches:

“Too much power in the hands of multinational companies – that indulge in union busting to protect their bottom lines – has negative impacts on entire communities and societies. Governments need to push back against corporate greed, and that includes defending the right of freedom of association through strong action.”

There is a glimmer of hope as a new generation of workers, faced with precarious work and low wages, realize that collective action is the best way of defending their interests. In 2017, there were 262,000 new union members in the USA, of whom 75 per cent were aged under 35. Some of the biggest gains came in organizing drives led by women and people of colour.

“The more trade unions can grow by appealing to young people and women, the stronger they will be to counter union-busting attacks,” concludes Sanches.

PROFILE: Organizing is a well-defined priority in Kyrgyzstan

Union: Mining and Metallurgy Trade Union of Kyrgyzstan (MMTUK)
Country: Kyrgyzstan
Text: Alexander Ivanou

Trade union activities have three main focuses:

The chosen strategy is paying off. In the mining and metallurgic sector there is a clear increase in working union members. In 2010, the union organized slightly more than half of everyone employed in the sector; two years later, trade union membership was up to 70.5 per cent. It has continued to grow reaching 81.6 per cent in 2015, and finally achieving 84.1 per cent of workers employed in the sector in 2017.

MMTUK is constantly working to improve the appeal for working people to join the union. One important way is spreading information about the union itself, its work and its achievements through mass media, including advertising on radio, television and the internet.

As advertising is expensive, the union created a competition for the best publication promoting MMTUK. The union also promotes its work through stands and banners in the streets, distribution of flyers, organization of meetings with potential members.

Uniting forces with other unions is another way of growing in strength. In the last five years, there have been two mergers; with the coal mine workers and the geology workers.

For employees of the mobile operator Beeline, strength and a genuine internal democracy were the primary criteria when wanting to set up their own local branch of the MMTUK. This allowed the union to bargain for special tariffs for its members. The preferential mobile plan called “Profsoyuznyi” (for trade unions) became another motivational factor for workers to join MMTUK.

The union has had similar negotiations with banks for a special preferential interest rates on loans issued to trade union members.

“We are growing as a result of the work we are doing – constantly trying to address workers’ needs,” says Eldar Tadzibayev, president of MMTUK. “We provide traditional trade union representation at work through collective bargaining, improving health and safety, protecting workers’ rights and so on. At the same time, the MMTUK also provides additional services like legal support and consulting about issues regarding housing rights and domestic relations.”

The MMTUK is also gaining influence at the national level. In 2012, MMTUK established a national centre for research. The primary goal of the centre is to study and provide research on social and labour relations at both national and international levels, assist in improving working standards and conditions, help in implementing principles for decent work, equality, and respect of human dignity.

The centre is currently working on issues related to labour migration and the shadow economy. It is estimated that only 550,000 people out of the working age population of 2.2 million are officially employed. The centre is developing research on how to change the situation.

IndustriALL files complaint against Roy Robson as union busting continues

On 18 April, the company fired Eser Yılmaz. Eser is the 13th union member to be dismissed by the company this year. Eser joined Teksif in January, and was an active union member. Since joining the union, she has been placed under tremendous pressure, and called to account for “poor performance”, after which her contract was terminated.

This follows the dismissal in January 2018 of eleven members of Teksif from the factory in Izmir. IndustriALL general secretary Valter Sanches wrote to the company to demand the reinstatement of the workers. IndustriALL also sought a meeting with the company.

When this was refused, IndustriALL launched a LabourStart campaign. Almost 8,000 people have now written to the company, demanding that they respect workers’ rights.

Roy Robson is a member of an industry partnership for sustainable textiles, the Bündnis für nachhaltige Textilien, that aims to improve social, ecological and economic conditions in the supply chain. IndustriALL filed a complaint with the partnership, copied to the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.

The complaint points out that Roy Robson fired workers for union activity, in violation of ILO Conventions, Turkish labour law, the company’s own code of conduct, and its roadmap under the partnership.

Speaking in Geneva on 23 April, Teksif international secretary Mustafa Perçin said:

“We are calling on Roy Robson’s Turkish facilities to respect fundamental workers’ rights, and we are calling on everyone for international support.”

IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan said:

“Roy Robson is engaging in blatant union busting. We will hold the company to account. Workers have a right to join a union, and we will continue to support our affiliate Teksif.”

Workers want a union to resolve issues including very low wages and timed toilet breaks. Pay is cut if a worker spends more than one minute in the toilet, which workers find humiliating.

The company claims that personnel decisions are made on site by the Turkish company, based purely on production need, and that the company has no idea whether staff are union members or not.

However, Roy Robson in Turkey is not a separate company, it is directly owned, and has explicitly engaged in union busting to counter the organizing drive. The company held long, intimidating one on one meetings with workers to convince them not to join the union. IndustriALL has audio recordings and video footage of anti-union meetings.

In Turkey, union members have to register their membership with the government, managed through an online system. The company illegally forced workers to provide their “e-state” passwords so it could identify union members.

IndustriALL has the names of 13 workers, including a pregnant woman, who were dismissed for joining the union. The Turkish Labour Code number 4857 prohibits terminations for union activity, and the case is currently being fought in the labour court.