No more dirty diamonds

Union representatives met in Windhoek, Namibia 3 to 5 July to set up the Global Diamond Network (GDN), aiming to end human rights abuses and improve wages and working conditions in diamond mining.

The GDN network will work to secure jobs and fight for an end to precarious work and subcontracting. Setting minimum wages, retraining of workers in case of job losses, and fair deals during retrenchments would improve livelihoods for workers. Gender equality, sustainable economic development, and fair competition are some of the key demands.

The GDN plans to work with local and global organizations including companies involved in the diamond trade, as well as governments. It will campaign for the setting up of due diligence standards at local and global levels. In the absence of a world regulatory body on diamond mining, the global network decided to participate in credible voluntary certification systems such as the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) and to call on governments to regulate the industry.

Solidarity initiatives will also be carried out to promote responsible sourcing, that will boycott diamonds produced under conditions of human rights violations.

To achieve the GDN’s goals there will be campaigns for the certification of diamonds and for labour laws, collective bargaining agreements, and health and safety regulations that protected workers’ rights. The network will also promote information and knowledge sharing on organizing, capacity building, collective bargaining, women empowerment and leadership.

The need for the GDN comes from a past tainted with blood or conflict diamonds. Money from such diamonds has financed armies and rebel militias in civil wars that have killed close to four million people in Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Central Africa Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

There were also rights violations including rape, child and forced labour, environmental damage, and health risks to local communities because of diamond mining. In cases of armed conflict in the Central Africa Republic and human rights abuses by government security forces in Zimbabwe, international and humanitarian laws were violated.

Existing mechanisms have been largely ineffective in dealing with the abuses. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, some regulations from the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation and even industry associations including the Responsible Jewelry Council have done little to stop abuses.

Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL mining director said:

The GDN will engage stakeholders, and jewelry brands and retailers, to ensure that the mining of diamonds also benefit workers, and that there were no human rights abuses.

Yves Toutenel, AVC-Transcom, Belgium and Beverley Murangi, Mineworkers Union of Namibia will co-chair the network.

Time for a union at Nissan US plant

Nissan’s Canton plant is one of only three Nissan facilities in the world, including two in Tennessee, where workers are not represented by a union. This week, employees announced plans to seek a representation election on 31 July – 1 August for blue-collar employees.

“Nissan employees want fair wages for all workers, better benefits, and an end to unreasonable production quotas and unsafe conditions in Mississippi,” said Nina Dumas, a Nissan technician who has worked in the plant for five years. “The company doesn’t respect our rights. It’s time for a union in Canton.”

The Canton plant shows a grim pattern of labour abuses, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an agency of the U.S. government, has charged Nissan with:

“When we speak out to demand basic protections, Nissan threatens and harasses us,” said McRay Johnson, a technician in the Canton plant who also has been there for five years. “Employees need and deserve representation in the workplace.”

In addition to the NLRB’s complaint, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued multiple citations against Nissan for violations of federal safety and health laws in Canton. The most recent citations, issued in February 2017, found the company

did not furnish employment and a place of employment which was free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees.

“Every day, we literally are risking our lives at Nissan,” said Rosiland Essex, a technician who has worked at Nissan for 14 years. “We deserve better.”

Management at the Canton plant have already expressed that they are not supporting the workers’ decision to seek representation.

IndustriALL Global Union General Secretary Valter Sanches said:

“It is an outrage that the workers are being denied the fundamental right to join a union. IndustriALL will continue to support the workers’ fight and we call on Nissan to facilitate the vote.”

Nissan employees’ move to form a union comes four months after the historic “March on Mississippi,” when an estimated 5,000 workers and civil-right activists converged on the Canton plant to demand that the company respect workers’ rights. Organized by the Mississippi Alliance for Fairness at Nissan (MAFFAN) — a coalition of civil-rights leaders, ministers and worker advocates — the march featured U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sierra Club President Aaron Mair, former NAACP President Cornell William Brooks, actor Danny Glover and others.

Argentine unions protest at Atucha dismissals

The protest was held on 9 July, the anniversary of Argentina’s declaration of independence. But with the dismissals affecting more than 1,000 families in the city of Zárate, there was not much evidence of any festive spirit at the event.

The protest aimed to highlight the dispute and denounce a situation that is becoming all too common in Argentina. The loss of 1,000 jobs at the Atucha nuclear plant is a direct consequence of economic measures taken by Mauricio Macri’s government.

The government is dismantling energy policies that had facilitated the development of plants such as Atucha in Zarate. The construction of other plants has been suspended or cancelled, worsening the unemployment situation.

Dismissals are taking place in all sectors of Argentina’s economy. Moreover, one in every four dismissals in the second quarter of the year were due to company closures, according to the most recent employment survey conducted by the Centro de Economía Política Argentina (CEPA).

CEPA’s report notes that 3,700 workers have been affected every month since the beginning of the year. CEPA calculates that there has been a total of 264,143 dismissals and lay-offs (76,526 in the public sector and 187,617 in the private sector) since Macri became president in December 2015.

In the case of Atucha, the unions decided to act because the labour ministry failed to initiate mandatory conciliation procedures. The unions will meet ministry officials on 11 July, when they hope to get answers to their questions and solutions for the dismissed workers.

Fernando Lopes from IndustriALL Global Union, said:

“Macri’s government is implementing neoliberal adjustment policies that have an impact on workers. They will not accept these policies and the struggle will get increasingly tough. They have the support of IndustriALL Global Union”.

The construction workers’ union, UOCRA, affiliated to the Building Workers’ International (BWI), organized the protest with the support of the autoworkers’ union, SMATA and the metalworkers’ union, UOM, both affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union, and the chemical workers’ unions.

Korean unions need your support!

President of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Han Sang-gyun remains in prison. 15 August is a key date when Korean presidents sometimes grant pardons, and pressure must be kept up to ensure Han is pardoned.

IndustriALL Global Union is calling for continued support for the Korean unions. We urge you to take action as soon as possible and by the end of July to demand that KCTU President Han is pardoned, and also demand key reforms that will ensure Korean workers’ rights are respected.

There are a couple of ways you can take action:

We must send the message to the Korean government and national assembly that the world continues to demand respect for South Korean workers’ rights,

says IndustriALL General Secretary Valter Sanches.

G20 leaders can no longer ignore inequality

“The huge amount of security surrounding this year’s G20 meeting shows that governments are failing and people are angry,” said IndustriALL Global Union General Secretary, Valter Sanches.  “The disparities of wealth and opportunity have continued to grow on the back of an economic model that is broken. The G20 leaders can no longer ignore the calls for a more equal society,”

Speaking at the alternative global solidarity summit in Hamburg, held on 5 and 6 July, Sanches said it was not acceptable that eight white men own the same amount of wealth as half the world’s population. He also cited G20 countries such as Turkey, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Argentina and the USA where attempts to organize workers in trade unions face massive opposition. 

IndustriALL actively works to influence the G20 agenda. In May this year, IndustriALL joined other global unions at the Labour 20 Summit to demand a more inclusive, sustainable and responsible model of globalization. 

In a statement handed to German Chancellor and G20 President Angela Merkel, the L20 leaders said:

“Neither ‘trickle- down’ strategies nor fiscal austerity policies are working. While the 1% or 10% of top income earners capture a more than proportionate share of the gains of globalization and technological progress at the expense of the bottom 90%, monetary policy is either ineffective in re-launching the economy or, alternatively, is running the risk of creating debt financed by asset price booms that are ultimately followed by a crash.”

ACT, IndustriALL’s initiative with global brands to achieve living wages in garment supply chains, was presented as a model at this year’s G20 Labour and Employment Ministers meeting, also held in Germany in May. This resulted in ACT being included in paragraph 26 of the Ministerial Declaration from the meeting Towards an Inclusive Future: Shaping the World of Work.  

“We put our demands to the G20 nations and we want them to respect ILO conventions and OECD guidelines not just in their own countries but also in the countries where global supply chains are based. This is an area where there is a governance gap and where workers are particularly exploited in producing products for richer nations,” said Sanches.

While there are many good intentions as a result of the G20 Summit, it rarely results in change.  The Brisbane G20 target of adding an additional 2 per cent of GDP by 2018 appears to be beyond reach.

“IndustriALL will continue to influence the global agenda to help our affiliates in the bargaining process. We recently established a working group on trade and development and will hold a conference on Industry 4.0 and sustainable industrial policy later this year,” said Sanches.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: union fights to save 1,000 jobs

The union – Samostalni sindikat hemije i nemetala u Federaciji Bosne i Hercegovine, or the independent trade union of workers in chemistry and non-metals in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina – is affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union.

The plant, which has been in operation since 1945, is located in the town of Lukavac, 125 kilometres from Sarajevo, in the Canton of Tuzla. There has been an ongoing issue with the 1,000 workers not being paid their salaries on time.

The company signed a collective agreement with the union, and for several months it seemed that the issue had been resolved. However, recently the company started to pay late again. After unsuccessful attempts at negotiation, the union took strike action on 5 June.

The union contends that the company is being mismanaged, with a lack of investment and management stripping capital from the company to pay their high salaries. The union wants management pay to be linked to the average wage in the company, and the ownership structure to be made clear.

GIKIL is a joint venture between Global Steel Holdings and KHK, a coke and chemicals conglomerate owned by the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Global Steel Holdings, an Indian company headquartered in the tax haven of the Isle of Man, acquired the majority share when the company was part-privatized in 2003. The company is owned by Pramod Mittal, brother of ArcelorMittal boss Lakshmi Mittal.

GIKIL has a large amount of debt, but unions believe it has been artificially created, with assets hidden by opaque corporate structures. The plant produces metallurgical coke, and supplies crude tar, ammonium sulphate, crude benzene, anhydride maleic acid and mineral fertilizers.

The union held a demonstration on 7 June in front of the building of the government of Tuzla Canton. The union also held a general meeting within the company premises, which was attended by union members and addressed by the Prime Minister of Tuzla Canton, Bego Gutić, and the minister in charge of the sector, Srđan Mićanović.

On 22 June, under pressure from the union, the Tuzla Canton Assembly held a meeting on the issue, and discussed the demands of union members:

The Assembly adopted a resolution in support of the workers’ demands, but the issue has still not been resolved.

IndustriALL general secretary Valter Sanches wrote to the Prime Minister of Tuzla Canton, saying:

"We strongly condemn the mistreatment of the 1,000 workers at the company, which left the workers no other choice but to strike and demonstrate. Non-payment of wages is an unacceptable breach of international workers’ rights, as well as of the national legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina."

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.