IndustriALL pulp and paper network in South East Asia honours Ikhsan and fights forward

The meeting was chaired by Alex Millar of CFMEU Australia, and brought together unions from Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

The meeting conducted a poignant ceremony with the family of brother Ikhsan Prajarani who was killed in a road accident in February. Trade union leaders delivered a solidarity payment to the family and the pulp and paper network paid its respects. A video of the ceremony can be downloaded here.

FSP2KI leadership responded: “We cannot describe in words how valuable the award is that IndustriALL provides for brother Ikhsan's family. Our sincere thanks.”

There was a very significant session of the meeting dedicated to experience sharing with the Japanese affiliate KAMIPA RENGO. Union representatives from around the region pressed the Japanese colleagues for detailed information on best practices in bargaining, organizing, health and safety, and building power.

Addressing the environmental debate, CFMEU’s Alex Millar, Chair of the network said:

“Our industry is renewable. Our industry can benefit the environment if things are done right. It is the government’s responsibility to make sure that companies do that.”

All unions shared their struggles and successes and held debated how to build power at common employers.

In 2016 the network identified two multinational employers where a number of the affiliates have significant membership, Asia Pulp and Paper, APP, and Kimberly Clark. Now the network has done a more in-depth mapping of employment conditions and union challenges at the two companies.

The meeting analysed recent developments and trends at the two companies, and committed to continued coordination. An on-going trade union conflict was discussed at Kimberly Clark in Australia where the company is destroying good industrial relations that were built up over decades.

IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary, Kemal Özkan, said:


“This meeting has addressed a large range of issues with great hunger for solidarity. I was particularly impressed with your discussion on collective bargaining. We are becoming mature as a network.  We will continue our work on KC and APP.  You are a full part of the global campaigns and the family of pulp and paper workers around the world.”

The network adopted two solidarity resolutions, one calling on Malaysian Newsprint Industrial to pay full redundancy compensation to workers following its closure. The second calls on the Indonesian government to properly consult the IndustriALL affiliate FSP2KI in enacting new environmental legislation.

IndustriALL Research and Industry Officer, Tom Grinter, said:


“This region is so important in the global pulp and paper sector. Precarious work is growing fast. The union struggles are tough but the industry will continue to grow here and so will our affiliates. In Indonesia our affiliates have tens of thousands of members in this sector but overall density is two percent, of the 260,000 direct employees and 1.1 million indirect. We will combat the challenges with international solidarity.”

South Africa: Five miners killed in goldmine

The miners were working 3,100 metres underground when a tremor hit the Kusasalethu goldmine, 90km from Johannesburg, on 25 August. “All of the employees who were trapped underground, are now accounted for,” the company said in a statement.

Rescue teams worked round the clock to try and save the trapped miners who were killed when a tremor measuring 1.2 on the richter scale caused a 10-metre fall in the ground. Operations were hampered by large rocks blocking the entrance to the section where the incident took place.

Gold mining in South Africa is becoming increasingly dangerous as mines reach the end of their productive lifespans. According to the Chamber of Mines, as South African mines have got deeper and reached depths of 4,000 metres, it has brought greater health and safety risks to miners as rock stress increases with depth. Furthermore, the deeper the mine, the longer it takes to reach the rock face, which hinders rescue efforts.

Targets set by the 2003 Mine and Health Safety Summit for the gold sector to reach international safety levels by 2013 have also been missed.

The Kusasalethu tragedy occurred just a month after three mineworkers died in similar circumstances in another accident at Tau Lekoa mine, North West Province, in July.

IndustriALL Global Union joins its affiliate in South Africa, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), in mourning the death of five mineworkers who died, of whom at least three were members of NUM. 

Eric Gcilitshana, NUM health and safety secretary, said: “One of the five deceased miners, was a 25-year-old who buried his father last month and left a three-month-old son. It is painful and sad for the family. The lives of workers must always be prioritized to save lives. A safe workplace is a productive workplace. We believe that working as a collective team, we can save lives and achieve zero harm.”

Fabian Nkomo, IndustriALL, regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa, added: “When mineworkers go to work they expect to return home to their families. Mining companies must guarantee workers’ safety at all cost. This is why we are so saddened when workers continue to die underground due to accidents.”

Colombia – Sintracarbón denounces increase in accidents at El Cerrejón

The National Union of Coal Industry Workers (Sintracarbón) organized a peaceful occupation of the premises of Coomeva, the health service provider in the city of Riohacha, Colombia. Linking arms, workers requested a meeting with Coomeva and the El Cerrejón company to discuss improvements in health and safety at work.

On 23 August the company met Coomeva and union representatives. The meeting was attended by company vice presidents and managers of the coal mining, port and handling sectors. The union presented photographic evidence and dates relating to the standard of equipment and working conditions.

The company is not carrying out the responsible mining it preaches and is not complying with safety standards. Management still authorizes the use of substandard equipment that has maintenance problems,

said Igor Díaz López, Sintracarbón’s safety committee coordinator.

Sintracarbon explained that the company’s new policy of setting the production target at one million has increased the pace of work, directly effecting workers and causing the high number of accidents.

The company said it does not prioritize productivity over workers’ safety and welfare but agreed that the situation described by the union shows that the company “is not dealing with health and safety issues as it should”.

They accepted that the new policy is a mistake and agreed to make changes so that maintenance and production comply strictly with safety standards. Measures will be taken in line with those suggested by the workers in order to deal with the problems. We hope they will act quickly to remedy the situation,

Díaz López concluded.

Finally, the director of IndustriALL, Fernando Lopes said on the matter:

"We cannot allow companies to continue operating without respecting safety standards. Having a safe workplace is one of the priorities of IndustriALL Global Union, that is why we support the action of Sintracarbón."

Grupo Mexico attacks Cananea workers during protest

Los Mineros, affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union, said that some demonstrators were injured in the early morning of 21 August and others were detained and taken to the local public prosecutor’s office.

“Workers and former workers were violently evicted by the company’s private security forces, armed with clubs and weapons only used by the army, just because they were protesting about the non-payment of their share in profits and other benefits owed to them by Grupo Mexico,” explained the president of Los Mineros and joint regional president of IndustriALL, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia.

The workers have been protesting for a month on the railway lines that give access to the mine. They are calling on the Grupo Mexico consortium and its owner, Germán Feliciano Larrea Mota Velasco, to pay them what the company has owed them for ten years and to improve workplace safety.

Los Mineros issued a communique repudiating the company’s attitude and point out that this act of repression violated the right to petition and protest enshrined in Mexican legislation.

“Its aggressive and repressive conduct and the killings that have made this company notorious were displayed at recent events. The government must intervene in this situation to prevent further arbitrary actions,” said the union communique.

IndustriALL’s General Secretary, Valter Sanches, said:

“IndustriALL continues to firmly support Los Mineros and calls on Grupo Mexico to stop its violent union-busting practices."

Zambia: Union condemns plans to cut 4,700 jobs at Glencore’s Mopani Copper Mines

The union said the proposed retrenchments must be stopped as they bring squalor and poverty to the mineworkers. Always keen to retrench, the company laid off 4,300 workers in 2015.

MCM, where Glencore is a majority shareholder with 73.1 per cent, wants to retrench the workers because the Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) reduced its power supply from 130 to 94 megawatts following an industry-wide 30 per cent tariff increase that the company refused to pay.

The government of Zambia argued that if domestic consumers, equally affected by the increase, were paying, MCM should do the same.

Instead of retrenchments, the union demanded that MCM prioritize the interests of the workers, and follow the example of other mining companies in Zambia that dealt with the tariff increases differently.

Chisimba Nkole, MUZ and Zambian Congress of Trade Unions president said:

“We call on the government to stop MCM on the threats of job cuts, and guarantee the employment of mineworkers at Mopani. The government directed MCM and the CEC to negotiate the power increment, which is a commercial transaction, and MUZ is pleased that other mining companies have taken on board the power increment using other options rather than cutting jobs.”

Kenny Mogane, IndustriALL regional officer for Sub Saharan Africa added:

“Protecting jobs and the rights of mineworkers in Zambia is paramount, and companies like MCM should never think that it is acceptable to sacrifice so many jobs. We call upon MCM to protect jobs, respect workers’ rights, and to negotiate its power deal with the CEC without compromising workers interests.”

Georgian trade union signs strong collective agreement with Turkish glass company

On 22 August, the fifth round of negotiations was held to sign a collective agreement at the glass container factory in Ksani (JSC MINA), owned by the Turkish company Şişecam Glass Packaging Group.

IndustriALL affiliate the Trade Union of Metallurgy, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers of Georgia (TUMMCIWG) concluded the collective agreement with a significant package of social benefits. There are 220 workers at the plant. The collective agreement provides the following for TUMMCIWG members:

In addition, a bonus system will be launched from 1 January 2018. Trade union representatives will have the opportunity to present their own remarks and opinions.

This is the third collective agreement in the metallurgical, mining and chemical industry sector after Rustavi Azot and Zestafoni ferroalloy factory. The company accepted the idea of a collective agreement after a month-long strike of 170 workers in February 2016 that paralyzed operations at the plant.

The first two meetings of the union and the plant management were held in Georgia, but because of the strictly centralized structure of the Şişecam company, the general director of the plant could not take a decision on the conclusion of a collective agreement.

On 19 April, the owner invited five representatives of the TUMMCIWG to its head office in Istanbul, Turkey. The meeting made a breakthrough in the negotiations which resulted in the conclusion of a collective agreement.

The president of the TUMMCIWG Tamaz Dolaberidze stated:

“I would like to thank everybody who has been involved in the collective negotiation process. I would like to thank all the employees of the enterprise from which we felt a great deal of support during this period, it gave us great inspiration to move ahead. I appreciate the support of IndustriALL Global Union, whose leaders have visited Georgia several times during the collective negotiations and held meetings with the administration”.

Willbes & Co reinstates 15 dismissed workers in the Dominican Republic

IndustriALL Global Union wrote to the mother company, the brands supplied by Willbes and the Minister of Labour, calling on the company to reinstate the workers who were no longer being paid and to work with the union to end the climate of fear that had been created. The national council of unions affiliated to IndustriALL in the country also expressed its solidarity.

"We feel the strength and solidarity of IndustriALL Global Union’s support for unionizing workers,"

said Carlos Reyes, president of the National Union of Free Trade Zone Workers (UNATRAZONAS, affiliated to IndustriALL).

The clothing factory workers were dismissed at the start of August, a few days after notifying company managers of the creation of a steering committee to form a union at the company, the Willbes Dominicana Barahona Free Trade Zone Union (SITRAWILLBES), affiliated to UNATRAZONAS.

Finally, in the early hours of 21 August, the company reinstated all members of the steering committee to their jobs, including three leaders, who had, at the company’s insistence, accepted redundancy payments. The company agreed to respect the freedom of association.

Laura Carter, assistant regional secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean and regional officer for the textile sector said the following about the workers’ victory:

“This is the result of workers’ courage and national and international solidarity of the trade union movement and other institutions, combined with the intervention of global brands to promote responsible employment in their supply chains. IndustriALL will closely accompany efforts to consolidate the union, negotiate a collective agreement and establish positive labour relations at the company”.

Bangladesh: Haesong garment workers assaulted

The sit-in and strike, which took place outside the Korean-owned company’s headquarters in Hizalhati, Gazipur, was organized by IndustriALL Global Union affiliate the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF).  

Among those injured were the union’s general secretary and vice-president who are both women. Furthermore, an NGWF organizer was kidnapped and released many hours later at 9pm in the evening. Despite multiple requests, local police have refused to file workers’ complaints about the kidnapping or the attacks.  

The demonstration was rooted to an ongoing dispute with Haesong, which suspended 218 workers on 4 April. The workers had been demanding payment for their unused leave for the year 2016.

Haesong presented the workers with a ‘show cause’ letter saying they were being suspended under the pretext of false charges, including work stoppage. Workers responded to the letter but the company has not since replied, nor has it officially terminated the workers.

On 22 June 2017, following workers’ protests, workers reached a written agreement with factory management, which promised to pay all dues and legal compensations by 4 July 2017. When the company failed to comply, the deadline was extended to 4 August. However, the workers have still not been paid, which led to the demonstration on 16 August where the attacks took place.

The NGWF is demanding that the Bangladesh government arrests and conducts a judicial trial of the factory owner, general manager and the attackers. Workers’ representatives have also urged the government and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers & Exporters Association to take steps for immediate payment of all legal dues to Haesong workers. They urged the Prime Minister of Bangladesh to intervene to make sure that the owner of Haesong does not flee from Bangladesh without addressing workers’ demands.

Christina Hajagos-Clausen, IndustriALL director for the garment and textile industry said, “IndustriALL strongly condemns the physical attacks on Haesong workers and the kidnapping of a union activist. Haesong must respect workers’ rights, reinstate suspended workers and should immediately release their dues and wages. The government should take stringent action against the attackers.”

Amirul Haque Amin, President of NGWF, said: “All suspended workers should be reinstated and pending wages and dues must be paid immediately. The factory management must bear all expenses for medical treatment of injured workers. In the meantime, the government should investigate and take action against the police officer who refused to take workers’ complaints.”

ILO launches Future of Work global commission

The high-level international body will work on a comprehensive report providing an in-depth examination of the future of work that will serve as the analytical basis for the delivery of social justice and fairness at work in the 21st century. The commission will focus on the relationship between work and society, the challenge of creating decent jobs for all, the organization of work and production, and the governance of work.

The commission is composed of 28 members, including the co-chairs themselves and its four ex-officio members – ILO Director General Guy Ryder and the officers of the ILO Governing Body. Philip Jennings, general secretary of UNI Global Union, is also part of the group.

The commission was set up as part of the ILO’s Future of Work Centenary Initiative launched by the ILO Director General in 2013. The members of the commission will produce an independent report that will be submitted to the Centenary Conference of the ILO in 2019.

The launch of the global body was addressed by Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of Mauritius, and Stefan Löfven, Prime Minister of Sweden.

Opening the ceremony, ILO Director General Guy Ryder spoke about the importance of the future of work in light of the unprecedented large-scale transformative change of the world of labour due to technological innovation, demographics, climate change and globalization.

“It is fundamentally important that we confront these challenges from the conviction that the future of work is not decided for us in advance. It is a future that we must make according to the values and preferences that we choose and through policies that we design and implement,” he said.

In her address at the launch, the President of Mauritius strongly encouraged

“all countries and stakeholders to come up with comprehensive recommendations and novel ideas on how to address the opportunities and challenges of the future of work. We can accomplish this by ‘putting people first’, by recognising that labour is more than simply a commodity in the labour market in the spirit of the ILO Constitution, or even just a factor of production.”

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said:

“We cannot stop development, nor should we even try. What we need to do is come together: to harness innovation to improve the daily lives of millions, to use new technology to build cleaner and more sustainable societies, and at the same time create new jobs with better conditions for everyone. These objectives lie at the heart of this Commission."

Valter Sanches, IndustriALL Global Union general secretar,y attended the ceremony and said,

“As a global player representing the interests of 50 million industrial workers in the world, we certainly welcome the launch of the ILO initiative. Workers must have a place at the table to discuss the Future of Work. A Just Transition is one of our answers to the challenges faced by people of labour in the fast changing work environment. We expect that this initiative will help us on how to achieve fairness and justice especially in the countries where workers’ conditions are still at the level of ‘Industry 0.4’ in terms of precarious working conditions.”

Watch the video of the event is available on the ILO website.

Garment unions from across the world meet in Myanmar to share strategies

Concluding three years of work on organizing in global supply chains and campaigning for living wages under two projects funded by German organization the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), participants from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mauritius, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa and Turkey, compared strategies and evaluated progress in an industry that is seen as synonymous with low wages, long working hours and sub-standard working conditions.

Welcoming the unionists to Myanmar, many of them for the first time, Maung Maung, President of the Confederation of Trade Unions in Myanmar, provided an update on discussions for setting the second minimum wage in the country. Myanmar’s first ever minimum wage was introduced in 2015 at 3,600 kyats/day (US$3.6). It is far from a living wage and unions are currently conducting wage research around the country, before putting forward new demands at the end of September.

Sharing successful strategies for organizing in the supply chain, participants from the Philippines spoke of the increased strength gained by using alliances.

Myanmar unionists stressed the importance of education:

“We meet workers in the streets and in tea shops, and teach them about their rights and the law even before the union in the workplace has been officially registered.”

Turkey counts 1,1 million workers in the textile and garment industry, and there is a need to educate workers on unions and collective bargaining agreements:

“Organizing is made additionally difficult as it is often linked to a big risk of dismissal.

Implementing global framework agreements

IndustriALL has signed global framework agreements (GFAs) with Inditex, H&M, Mizuno and Tchibo.

Talking about the implementation of the GFA with H&M in Cambodia, Christina Hajagos-Clausen, IndustriALL garment and textile director, presented the work of the national monitoring committees (NMC), set up in a number of countries as conflict solving mechanisms.

“The NMCs consist of three union representative and three H&M representatives, and they gives us a possibility to exchange concerns. The GFA has been instrumental in resolving conflicts in Myanmar and Pakistan.

“There is a shift in the supply chain, a move away from voluntary initiatives to functioning industrial relations.”

Creating a level playing field for wages

Campaigning for a living wage is a key goal of  IndustriALL. Many speakers talked about the inadequacy of garment worker wages and how difficult it is to negotiate higher wages when factories are being squeezed by their multinational brand customers.

IndustriALL assistant general secretary Jenny Holdcroft says that unions must look beyond the minimum wage and push for a new wage fixing mechanism that takes account of the way that brands contract with suppliers and the prices they pay.

The meeting was joined by Frank Hoffer, newly appointed Executive Director of the ACT initiative between IndustriALL and global brands who  spoke of how ACT aims to introduce industry collective bargaining linked to brand purchasing practices to garment supply chains.

 “The minimum wage does not take into account other wage-related factors like working hours, skills training and productivity. We need a system that lifts standards across the market and enables workers to enforce their own agrements.

“To achieve a living wage there is a need for higher wages to be set across the entire industry in order to prevent individual factories and brands from negotiating lower prices based on lower wages.”

While many of the countries represented at the workshop have a minimum wage, this is set at a level that does not enable workers to meet their basic needs, leaving them reliant on excessive overtime hours to supplement their wages. Having heard positive examples from South Africa, Sweden and Indonesia, the meeting concluded on the importance of making the case to employers and governments of the mutual benefits of introducing industry bargaining more widely in the garment sector.