Two thousand Serbian FIAT workers take strike action

The strike began on Tuesday 27 June after two days of warning protests. Two thousand blue collar workers, representing 90 per cent of the workforce, have taken strike action to demand a small wage increase, paid overtime, an end to layoffs, a reorganization of work to cut workload, and compensation for transport costs for shifts that start or finish when there in no public transport.

The core issue is the intensification of work, and low wages. Last summer, a whole shift was laid off, but the volume of work stayed the same.

Workers took strike action after management refused to negotiate. IndustriALL has two affiliates at the factory, the Autonomous Metalworkers’ Union of Serbia (SSMS) and the Industry, Energy and Mining Workers’ Union, GS IER Nezavisnost. Both unions are taking action, coordinated through a join strike committee.

The strike is seen as a highly significant test of Serbian workers’ ability to resist the intensification of work, and win a decent living wage. Many European auto manufacturers have shifted production to Eastern Europe, where wages are low. FCA Srbija production workers earn about 400 Euros per month. Recently, Slovakian VW workers won a significant wage increase after taking strike action.

The factory is Serbia’s biggest export earner. It produces Fiat Punto and 500L cars. The factory has a production target of 440 cars per day, which means that the strike has already cost the company several thousand vehicles.

The general secretaries of IndustriALL Global and IndustriAll Europe, Valter Sanches and Luc Triangle, today wrote to the management of FCA, copying in the leaders of the Italian metal unions. They said:



“IndustriAll European Trade Union and IndustriALL Global Union fully back the workers’ strong decision to go on strike. Taking full account of this critical situation, it is imperative that FCA Group intervene immediately to put an end to the dispute.

“Therefore, we urge you to instruct your subsidiary representatives to operate in full cooperation with our members, SSMS and GS IER “Nezavisnost”, and to start negotiations with the strike committee without any further delay in view of finding a common beneficial solution.

“IndustriAll Unions are committed to the fight against precarious work and have been campaigning for more and better quality jobs throughout Europe. We thus stand in full solidarity with our members and FCA Srbija workers to strive for decent wages and working conditions.”


The FIAT workers have received solidarity messages from Volvo workers in Sweden, as well as other workers in the region. The leaders of the Italian unions at FIAT offered their support, saying that Serbian workers are correct to fight poor wages and intense working practices. The Italian unions are planning a solidarity visit to Serbia to show their support personally.

The strike committee’s demands are as follows:

  1. Increase the minimum wage per hour from 2 to 2,40 Euros (290 dinars);
  2. Improve production organization, and replace workers who are absent for maternity and paternity leave, or for long periods of illness;
  3. Recognize bonuses linked both to the achievement of efficiency goals and to the recognition of bronze and silver in World Class Manufacturing principles;
  4. Apply the collective bargaining agreement to both the transport allowance when working outside the standard working hours and no public transport is available (at night from 22.00 to 05.00).
     

Guatemala: Workers’ World Council takes fight to Ternium

They had just concluded the annual meeting of the Tenaris – Ternium Workers’ World Council, which ran from 3 to 5 July. The Council brings together unions at Ternium, which has steel manufacgturing plants across in Latin American and the US, and steel tube producer Tenaris. Both companies are held by the Luxembourg based Techint with over US$15 billion in 2016 sales.

The Council scheduled the protest after Ternium management failed to respond to the Council’s repeated requests for a meeting. Instead of management, the Council was met at the plant by a couple of dozen armed guards, police and military police. They were also joined at the shift change by dozens of Ternium workers and supporters from other Guatemalan unions.

Participants in the Council meeting from eight countries at Tenaris and Ternium again called on the companies to formally recognize the Council and work with it collaboratively in areas of common interest including health and safety. There were three worksite fatalities at Tenaris in 2016.

Participants discussed strategies for dealing with current challenges including unfair international trade and new technologies that reduce employment levels. A recurring question was why Ternium refuses to negotiate with IndustriALL affiliate FESTRAS’ Sintraternium union at its Guatemala plant even though it recognizes unions at its other operations around the globe.

Guatemala’s Vice Minister of Labour Guillermo Gándara met with the Council earlier in the week and committed to call on Ternium to meet with Sintraternium if the company doesn’t do so within thirty days.

IndustriALL Director Fernando Lopes denounced the Government of Guatemala at the June International Labour Conference for failing to enforce the law requiring Ternium to bargain collectively with Sintraternium, five years after the union’s registration.

Sintraternium leadership said Ternium “has created a climate of terror” in Guatemala. The company illegally fired the entire union organizing committee and refused to reinstate them until the Supreme Court ordered them to two years later. Ternium is illegally denying paid leave to union activists and making it difficult to collect union dues from members’ paychecks in an attempt to deny the union necessary resources and expertise to function.

Support action by the Committee helped union Sintratucar achieve recognition from Tenaris after facing a similar union-busting campaign in Colombia in 2010.

“It’s disgraceful what Ternium is doing to its Guatemalan workers, and equally disgraceful that the Guatemalan government is doing nothing to prevent it,” said IndustriALL Base Metals Director Adam Lee.

“IndustriALL and the Tenaris – Ternium Workers’ World Council call on Ternium to end its anti-union campaign, recognize Sintraternium and negotiate a fair collective bargaining agreement. We have committed to support this struggle at the Council’s worksites, at the ILO and in Luxembourg until the company does so.”

Trade union centres in Brazil lead protests against Temer

It is the second time in two months that workers from across the country have came out on to the streets. In a recent poll conducted by CUT-Vox, 90 per cent of Brazilians said they opposed the labour and pension reforms being debated in Congress.

The day of action included strikes, marches and rallies: 40,000 people filled Avenida Paulista in São Paulo. Protesters want to convince parliamentarians to reject the bills presented by the government.

“We know that unity of action is crucial in the trade union struggle, especially in such troubled times as these,” said the trade union centres in a joint press release.

The labour reform will come into force if it receives Senate plenary and then Presidential approval. However, reform of the pension system is at a standstill in the Chamber of Deputies.

The protestors object to the reduction in their rights contained in both of the proposed changes to labour legislation. They also reject the growing unemployment, which is now over 13 per cent in the country. There are about 14 million people out of work in Brazil, the largest economy in South America.

Unions are also against Temer staying on as president, who has been involved in a series of scandals in recent months.

He recently entered the history books as the first serving Brazilian president to be the subject of criminal charges filed by the public prosecutor. Temer has been charged with corruption after an owner of the JBS group, the largest meat processing company in the world, accused the president of taking bribes since 2010.

The trade union centres announced that they will not give up the fight. They will be back on the streets on the day that the Senate votes on labour reform in Brasilia.

IndustriALL Global Union director Fernando Lopes said:

“The united action of workers is essential to put a stop to these reforms, which destroy rights. The struggle continues until we have won!”

Young workers in Mozambique build unity

They planned for greater unity amongst unions present, in order to increase youth membership.

The youth meeting was held on 21-23 June, in the north of Mozambique. The meeting was led by young workers and counted a total of 21 participants (9 women/11 men) from the following industriALL affiliates:

“These activities are important because they strengthen unions and will help us fight the attitude of bosses who seek to prevent the creation of unions” said Adriano Zandamela, youth coordinator at local mining union, SINTICIM.

Participants came up with a plan of action where each province commits to visit companies with the aim of organizing more young workers. This outcome is an important move forward as it demonstrates unity amongst local unions as it will be carried carried out by all three unions jointly.

“We thank IndustriALL for encouraging youth participation in union activities; this is essential to show that unions are close to the workforce and will in turn give more visibility and allow for growth,” said Zandamela.

Lesotho: Low wages an injustice, say young workers

The young workers, from IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho (IDUL), wanted the government, which is responsible for setting minimum wages, to respond in 30 days. They said the low wages were unjust. Further, they wanted social dialogue on how to make the Directorate of Dispute Prevention and Resolution as well as the labour courts more effective.  
 
Present at the meeting was Lesotho’s newly elected Prime Minister, Thomas Thabane, who said the issues raised by the workers would receive immediate attention. Invited but absent was the Lesotho Employers' Association.
 
In 2016, a trained machinist was paid a monthly minimum wage of US$104, while a general worker got US$77. The union hoped that the minimum wage for 2017 would be $155.
 
Inflation adjustments of seven to eight per cent per year didn’t improve workers’ welfare and weren’t enough to cover living expenses. Some couldn’t even afford transport costs to go to work and walked long distances to factories. Exhausted on arrival, they were exposed to occupational injuries.
 
Women workers, making up 90 per cent of the lowly paid textile workers, were the most affected. Some supplemented the poor incomes with informal work during weekends. So, they didn’t rest.
 
The meeting called upon the government to ratify ILO Convention 183 on maternity protection and wanted discrimination on maternity leave faced by the textile workers to stop. The workers were given only six weeks whilst public sector workers got 12 weeks maternity leave.
 
Employing around 46,500 workers, the garment and textile sector is Lesotho’s largest formal private sector employer. It also has jobs along the value chain such as the small packaging industry, road freight transporters, courier services, clearing agents, security, passenger transport, food vendors, residential accommodation, water, and electrical and telecommunication utilities.
 
Said Seabata Likoti, assistant general secretary of IDUL:
 
“We have spent a long time talking about decent work in the textile sector with government, employers and the ILO. But decent work is not possible without a living wage that caters for nutritious food, safe water, decent housing, adequate health care, education and clothing.”
 
Said Fabian Nkomo, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa:
 
“We appreciate the willingness of the Prime Minister and the government of Lesotho to improve wages, and hope that these efforts will end poverty wages in the sector”.

Bangladesh: 11 workers killed and over 50 injured in garment factory blast

The incident took place at the Multifabs Limited garment factory in Gazipur on the outskirts of Dhaka at about 7.30pm. At the time of the explosion, workers at the dyeing section were reportedly engaged in maintenance work on the boiler. The impact was so severe that a section of the four-storey factory building was also damaged.

In a statement released today, IndustriALL Global Union, which represents trade union affiliates in the Bangladeshi garment industry, expressed heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, as well as sympathy for the many people injured in the blast.

Multifabs Limited, which supplies knitted apparel to a variety of Western brands and retailers, is covered under the Bangladesh Accord on fire and building safety and has been inspected by Accord engineers.  As a consequence, the factory installed fire separation from the boiler room and carried out other fire and structural safety renovations.  However, the Accord does not cover boiler inspections, which are monitored by the Bangladesh government.

IndustriALL Global Union also said:

“There is still an enormous amount of work to be done to improve safety in the Bangaldeshi garment industry. This latest tragedy underlines the need for the work by the Bangladesh Accord to continue, and union signatories to the Accord will demand that it be expanded to include boiler safety as soon as possible.” 

Fortunately at the time of the accident, most of the company’s workforce of around 3,500 people were on Eid vacation and not due to resume work until 4 July. According to reports, the exploded boiler’s validity had expired on 24 June and it was not renewed. The district administration has formed an eight-member investigation committee to probe the incident.

Valter Sanches, IndustriALL’s General Secretary, said:

“We are pained at the tragic loss of life caused by the explosion at the Multifabs garment factory. All those injured in the blast must be given suitable medical treatment, while appropriate compensation must be provided to the victims and the dependents of those killed. 

“The government and employers must strengthen cooperation with trade unions and the Accord to improve fire and building safety in Bangladesh, which must now include boiler inspections.”

Many of the injured are receiving treatment at the Dhaka Medical College hospital and the Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital.

On 29 June, a new 2018 Accord was launched extending the safety programme, due to expire in May 2018, until 2021. The new Accord includes additional commitments to the right of workers to organize and join a union in order to protect their own safety. The Multifabs factory was non-unionized. Sanches said:

“The new Bangladesh Accord puts greater emphasis on workers’ rights to freedom of association, recognizing that trade unions have a vital role in improving workplace safety. Workers are the eyes and ears of a factory and with the backing of a union they are more empowered to demand safe conditions and refuse dangerous work.”

Multifabs Limited is listed by the Bangladesh Accord as actively supplying the following signatories: Lindex, ALDI North, ALDI South, Dansk Supermarked A/S, Shop Direct, Wuensche Group, Teddy Spa, and Gekås Ullared AB.

Multifabs management has closed the factory for an indefinite period. A further 10 garments factories in the area have closed today following the incident.

International unions join striking workers at GOŠA railway factory in Serbia

On 23 June, representatives from Metalicy (Bulgaria), FNS Solidaritatea Metal and FSLI Metal (Romania), VASAS (Hungary) and Industrijski Sindikat Srbije and the Autonomous Metalworkers’ Union of Serbia joined striking workers in an hour-long blockade at the factory in the town of Smederevska Palanka.

The workers have been on strike for 100 days, after not receiving their salary and benefits for 15 months. The workers at the factory are represented by three affiliates of IndustriALL Global and IndustriAll European Union, Industrijski Sindikat Srbije, the Autonomous Metalworkers’ Union of Serbia and Industry, Energy and Mining Workers’ Union – IER Nezavisnost, who are all taking action.

The GOŠA factory produces trams and railway carriages. It was one of the most important industrial plants in the former Yugoslavia. In 2007, the plant was privatized and sold to a Slovakian company, ŽOS.

ŽOS is heavily indebted, and owes the workers two million euros for 15 months of unpaid wages, and unpaid retirement and health insurance fund contributions. The company also owes three millions euros to the Serbian government. A buyer was recently found for the troubled company, and a deal was signed on 15 May which included a plan to pay the workers what was owed.

However, workers have not been paid, and the company claims the deal is no longer valid.

The problem is made worse by the fact that due to the sale, the workers have no clear negotiating partner. When it needs to motivate the workforce to complete an order, the company occasionally pays a small amount, such as 100 euros, every few months. This gives the workers false hope that things are being resolved. The situation is desperate for workers, with one worker hanging himself in the factory after not seeing any way out of the situation.

At the beginning of the strike, the general secretaries of IndustriALL Global and IndustriAll European Union sent a joint letter to ŽOS, demanding that it pay what it owes.

Dragan Matic, president of Industrial Trade Union of Serbia, said:

“Solidary support of the colleagues from Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, internationalized this strike, the first time this has happened in Serbia. We will do all we can to find a just solution for the workers of GOŠA, but it is necessary that state institutions get involved.”

Unions also hold Serbian state institutions – the labour ministry, the ministry of the economy and particularly the finance ministry – responsible for tolerating unpaid taxes by the company for more than a year. They feel that there is no political will to resolve the situation, which for an EU candidate state is serious.

IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan said:

“Ten years ago, ŽOS bought an important part of Serbia’s industrial heritage in a privatization deal. The company has failed, and has abandoned its workforce, who find themselves in a desperate situation.

“It is the responsibility of ŽOS, the new owners, and also the government of Serbia to find a just solution for the workers of the GOŠA railway factory. Their wages must be paid, and their future secured.

The international movement will continue to stand with the workers.”

IndustriAll Europe general secretary Luc Triangle said:

“When our affiliates joined the GOŠA workers in blockading the railway line, they reflected the solidarity of trade union members across Europe.
“The workers at GOŠA and their families were put in an extreme living poverty situation, abandoned by their employer and ignored by their government. We will continue to fight to bring them justice.”

The workers at GOŠA have pledged to blockade the railway line for several hours every day.

The delegation of metalworkers was attending a conference in Belgrade on the information and consultation process in the metal sector.

Statement on the fatal explosion at Multifabs Limited garment factory in Bangladesh

The explosion at the non-unionized Multifabs factory highlights the urgent need to address boiler safety in garment and textile factories in Bangladesh. As a factory covered under the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, Multifabs has been inspected by Accord engineers. It had completed fire separation of the boiler room, and all other fire and structural safety renovations, except for installation of sprinklers. The Accord does not cover boiler inspections, which are monitored by the Bangladesh government.

There is still an enormous amount to be done to improve safety in the Bangaldeshi garment industry. This latest tragedy underlines the need for the work by the Bangladesh Accord to continue, and union signatories to the Accord will demand that it be expanded to include boiler safety as soon as possible.  

Since the Rana Plaza tragedy of 2013, when over a thousand garment workers were killed, the Accord has completed fire and building safety inspections at 1,800 garment factories supplying more than 200 signatory brands. Accord engineers have identified over 118,000 fire, electrical and structural hazards at these factories. Today, 79 per cent of workplace dangers discovered in the Accord’s original round of inspections have been remediated.

On 29 June, a new 2018 Accord was launched extending the safety programme, due to expire in May 2018, until 2021. The new Accord includes additional commitments to the right of workers to organize and join a union in order to protect their own safety. So far fifteen brands have signed the 2018 Accord. We urge more brands to follow suit. 

Empowering Bulgarian affiliates in the Inditex supply chain

During the meeting, held in the capital Sofia from 17-19 June 2017, IndustriALL’s affiliates, FOSIL and the Federation of Light Industry, and Inditex representatives discussed the situation in the textile and garment sector, and steps to promote implementation of the GFA in the Inditex supply chain in Bulgaria. 

Textile and garment is the biggest employer in Bulgarian manufacturing, employing some 100,000 workers, of whom roughly 9,000 work at Inditex’s suppliers. Union leaders reported sub-standard working conditions and low wages in the sector. “Workers earn the minimum wage, far less than a living wage and young people are not motivated to look for a job in that sector,” said one union leader. “They prefer to leave the country.”

Christina Hajagos-Clausen, IndustriALL Global Union’s textile and garment director, gave a presentation on IndustriALL’s sectoral policy for supply chains and stated “There is no way to have a say in the wage debate without industry-wide bargaining. We want to promote a well-functioning industrial relations model in the supply chain, including here in Bulgaria.”

Bulgarian participants were introduced to the content of the GFA between IndustriALL and Inditex, and how its implementation can help improve social dialogue in the country.  Inditex representatives spoke about coordinated action with IndustriALL to promote respect for the agreement, in particular freedom of association.  “Our objective is to achieve sustainable working conditions and a win-win situation throughout the supply chain,” said Murat Akkün from Inditex Sustainability Department in Turkey. He further talked about the joint training project that IndustriALL and Inditex have developed for workers and managers at a supplier in Turkey, and stressed the benefit of freely elected trade union representatives and good social dialogue for ensuring company sustainability.    

There was a lively debate on the presentations given and actions taken in different countries to promote GFA implementation and resolve problems encountered. Víctor Garrido Sotomayor, IndustriALL’s coordinator of the Inditex GFA gave several examples of violation of workers’ rights and how those were solved successfully, particularly in Turkey where IndustriALL and Inditex conducted joint actions.  Union density in the Bulgarian textile industry is very low and workers are scared to join a union for fear of losing their livelihood. “What we saw and learnt from the presentations at the meeting gives us hope,” said a Bulgarian union leader. However, there is a strong need to empower workers and trade unions if a real change is to be seen in the textile and garment sector in Bulgaria.  

The meeting was followed by a visit to two Inditex suppliers – one located in Pleven and the other in Pernik. The visits gave union leaders an opportunity to meet with local management and workers directly on the shop-floor for the first time.  Affiliates expressed their determination to follow-up on the talks and together with IndustriALL’s support they are planning to engage with other Inditex suppliers in Bulgaria and initiate steps towards a sustainable industrial relations system in the sector.  

Pushing back precarious work in Senegal

At perfume and cosmetic maker, Gandour, 65 out of 287 daily workers got permanent jobs. At plastic manufacturer, Polyplast, 58 out of 90 jobs were also made permanent.

If this trend continues, more manufacturing jobs will become secure. This was important to the chemical and construction sectors which were experiencing growth, and more likely to create jobs.

The IndustriALL affiliates have been campaigning to end precarious work in Senegal for the last three years, and the struggle for decent jobs continues.

The campaign against precarious work, which took place at national, sectoral and company levels, targeted employers who preferred giving jobs to temporary workers rather than offering secure permanent jobs. For instance, daily workers were paid lower wages than those of permanent workers for the same work. Further, they were exposed to risks of occupational accidents and diseases, and did not benefit from social security.

IndustriALL coordinator for the Sub Saharan Africa Precarious Work Project, Augustin Adakou, said the Senegalese government should repeal labour laws including Decree 70-183 of 1970 on the employment of daily and seasonal workers. This outdated law did not promote decent work.

Other countries that were part of the campaign to end precarious work included Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Nigeria where similar efforts were being made for more permanent jobs.

In 2016, because of this campaign, IndustriALL affiliates in the project countries organised 4500 precarious workers into unions, and over 1500 temporary jobs became permanent. Workshops were also conducted on labour laws, negotiation skills and collective bargaining. The affiliates organized in sectors including building materials, chemicals, energy, metals, mining, oil and gas, rubber, pulp and paper, textiles and garments, and leather and footwear.