Renault blacklisted by Swedish investment bank

In February 2016, management at Renault's Oyak plant in Bursa, Turkey, cancelled planned elections on worker representations the day before they were scheduled to take place, citing pressure from Turkey’s Ministry of Labour and Social Security who had labeled the elections illegal. In addition, the car giant immediately dismissed ten workers, including two spokespersons.

Oyak plant management then fired additional workers; 76 people lost their jobs and around 600 were asked to leave with severance packages in the days that followed. Local factory management engaged police to intervene against the peaceful protestors, intimidating workers at their homes and as they came on and off their shifts.

IndustriALL strongly condemned the actions of the plant management and Renault's blatant lack of taking action to remedy the situation in Turkey, which is in direct violation of the commitments made in the global framework agreement with IndustriALL Global Union, consolidating the company’s commitments to ILO’s labour standards, including freedom of association and neutrality.

Renault is responsible for all its units worldwide and its entire supply chain. The fact that Renault is now blacklisted by a major investment bank shows that there is nowhere to hide if you violate workers' rights,

says Valter Sanches, IndustriALL General Secretary.

IndustriALL Global Union continues to demand that Renault fulfills the commitments established in the GFA.

Workers arrested after a protest at SiderPerú Gerdau

Police unjustly detained five workers in the early hours of 7 June during a mobilization at SiderPerú, which has been part of Gerdau since 2006. Two of the workers were released immediately, while the other three were held during the night.

The march began in the center of the city of Chimbote and culminated in front of the office of the regional Ministry of Labour, where demonstrators asked that SiderPeru Gerdau negotiate in good faith.

The SiderPerú Employees' Union (which belongs to the Mining Federation, affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union in Peru) also denounced Gerdau's anti-labor policy:

"In 2016 and 2017, the anti-labor policy from Gerdau Corporation has increased against those who defend their rights, mostly union affiliates and their leaders"

said the Union in a public statement, and then reported that they already had 180 dismissals.

The Gerdau World Workers' Committee held a meeting in May in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where they approved an action plan and visited, for the first time in four years, one of Gerdau's plants in Ouro Branco.

The Committee interpreted the visit and subsequent meeting with the authorities of the company as a positive sign, meaning there is progress in their demand for Gerdau to recognize them and work together to address the workers concerns.

"IndustriALL and the Gerdau World Union Committee re-emphasize the need of Gerdau to finally recognize the Committee and together seek solutions to conflicts, such as in SiderPeru."

stated IndustriALL base metals director Adam Lee.

Turkish glass workers win large increase after unprecedented action

Almost six thousand members of IndustriALL Global Union affiliate Kristal-İş have won a significant victory after staging a remarkable work-in at nine Şişecam glass factories across the country.

The union announced an intention to strike on 24 May, after failing to agree the wage offer from their employer. To support the employer, the Turkish government banned the strike, citing national security concerns.

The workers resolved to stay in their factories until their demands were met. They maintained their three daily shifts, and at the end of the shift, pitched tents on the factory grounds or slept in the canteen. They were supported by their families, who brought them food and helped to rally a huge amount of community support, with local politicians, religious leaders and small business people showing support.

IndustriALL affiliates sent messages of support and solidarity to the workers, and IndustriALL wrote to the company, urging them to refrain from intimidation and harassment, and negotiate with the workers.

After thirteen days of action, the company agreed to meet with workers’ representatives. After three rounds of negotiation, a comprehensive two year collective bargaining agreement was signed between the union and the employer on 8 June.

The agreement includes shift bonuses for night work, holiday, travel and clothing allowance, and a significant wage increase. Low paid workers got the highest increase, with the average being 16.3 per cent.

IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan said:

“I am very impressed with the courage and determination of the glass workers, which resulted in this impressive victory. Even in countries like Turkey, where workers’ rights to organize are restricted, if we are united and put up a strong fight, we can win.

“Şişecam are a very successful multinational who recently increased their profits by 164 per cent. They can afford to pay a decent wage.”

In a statement announcing the result, the union said:

“At the point where the contract negotiations were blocked, the employer was confronted with the strong will of the glass workers, and the contract was concluded.

“We thank all of our members.”

One of the factory workers said:

“We waited in our factory for 13 days, we didn't go home, we didn't see our children. The boss has seen our union and our determination.

“Now we understand that there is no power to stand against us if we have a conscious and organized struggle. I earned my win, but if we were even better organized, we'd have more rights.”

Southern African garment unions to collaborate on supply chains

Countries in Southern Africa are involved in all points of the supply chain in the garment sector: producing raw materials, garment  making and retail. For example, cotton lint was sourced from Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Garment factories and distribution and retail networks were found in most of the countries.

Recognizing the importance of the supply chain, the Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland, the Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho and the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) all representing over 110,000 workers agreed to fight for equal-pay-for-equal work across the national borders. This could be achieved by sharing collective bargaining agreements. Additionally, exchange programmes between unions allowed for learning from each other’s experiences.

South African brands that came under scrutiny included Edcon, Foschini, Mr Price, Truworths and Woolworths. These brands bought goods from factories that relocated production from South Africa to Lesotho and Swaziland, where wages are lower.

The factories also ignored bargaining rights, and freedom of association. Enforcement of labour laws was also weak in the two countries. When workers demanded better conditions, the employers threatened to close shop. But in South Africa, Sactwu organised the factories, watched errant factory owners and took action when workers’ rights were threatened.

The meeting adopted a plan based on ACT – the IndustriALL initiative with global brands for living wages in garment supply chains. It also drew from the Bangladesh Accord, setting health and safety standards for workers in factories.

It is important for unions to strengthen their power along the supply chain by working together in coalitions

said Paule-France N’dessomin from IndustriALL’s Sub Saharan regional office.

The meeting was supported by the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, and was attended by 21 union leaders and shop stewards including ten women.

Miners in Kyrgyzstan demand wage arrears

The workers, who are members of IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Mining and Metallurgy Trade Union of Kyrgyzstan (MMTUK), have said they will hold an indefinite protest if the debt is not paid soon.
 
TK Geo Reserve processes gold ore from the Kuran-Jailoo mine into concentrate at its factory in the Kemin district of Kyrgyzstan. The company is owned by Boratero Trading Limited, registered in Cyprus, and belongs to Russian oligarch, Dmitri Bosov.
 
At the beginning of June 2017, MMTUK held two days of meetings with company management calling on them to reimburse wage arrears from January to April 2017, which amounts to approximately US$150,000. They also asked management to provide work clothes and to conclude open-ended employment contracts instead of three-month contracts.
 
Management had originally promised to resolve the issue of the unpaid wages by 2 June. Now this deadline has been postponed until 14 June. The company’s general director has refused to fulfill the workers’ demands, citing a lack of funds from concentrate sales and the difficulty in obtaining permits.
 
However, according to the president of MMTUK, Eldar Tadjibayev, the company recently signed a major deal to sell enough concentrate to repay the wages:

“TK Geo Reserve has sold 300 tonnes of concentrate, and now it is preparing permits for another 1,000 tonnes. We talked to the management, as well as the owner, and suggested that they ask for an internal loan, as the company is part of a major Russian diversified corporation. The company could then payback the loan after the concentrate sale. We are working on this proposal.”

Non-payment of wages is a gross violation of article 157 of the Labour Code of the Kyrgyz Republic and the law "On ensuring timely payment of wages, pensions, allowances and other social payments" adopted on 26 June 1996.
 
The legal inspectorate of MMTUK has called on the company to stop the violations of labour legislation of Kyrgyzstan, which could make management subject to disciplinary and criminal charges. If the debt is not paid in the near future, more than 100 workers will stage an indefinite rally in front of the company’s office in Bishek.

US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement is bad for workers and bad for the planet

On Thursday, June 1 2017, Donald Trump announced that the USA would withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. This has global implications, of course, but is also quite clearly against the interests of the citizens of the USA, including – or especially – workers, their families and their children, and the communities that depend on them.

Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement throws some red meat to the understandably angry, alienated and deliberately misinformed voters that elected Trump, and will in the very short term boost the share prices of coal companies, enriching the Koch brothers and a few other mega-billionaires who own him.

It will not create jobs, for reasons explained below. In return, it will put the health and well-being of people (and other species) – today and for unknown future generations – at serious risk.

When leaders act against the clear best interests of the people they are supposed to represent, there can be only two possible explanations: stupidity, or corruption. Take your pick.

Although announced by Trump, this is a decision of the ruling Republican party. Every leading Republican candidate and almost every Republican politician has more or less promised to do this. It has been an article of faith for many years that any aspirant to Republican Party support must deny climate change. The Republicans were, however, careful not to directly deny climate change in the announcement of withdrawal, thereby sidestepping the criticism that the announcement is based on climate denial and instead pretending that it is about the economy and jobs. But make no mistake: this decision is only possible if you do not really believe that climate change is a problem

Reaching the Paris Agreement was the culmination of over 20 years of difficult negotiating. It is an imperfect document but still a major step forward. Many of the compromises that it contains were put there by the USA, with reluctant acceptance by other countries to keep the USA in the Agreement. The idea that Donald Trump will be able to negotiate a better deal is ludicrous. When Trump says he wants to re-negotiate the deal, what he really means is that he wants to dictate terms to countries like India, and China. Unfortunately for Trump, this is 2017, not 1947, and China will not be dictated to.

Furthermore, Trump has apparently not even considered that other countries might impose a countervailing tariff on American goods for being unfairly subsidized by lower carbon costs. Being on the outside of the Paris Agreement, there is nothing to prevent that. So much for job creation.

What the USA's Withdrawal Will Not Do

This decision will not bring back coal mining jobs. Even if (at best) it results in an unlikely and very short term increased production rate, technological change has ensured that this will not result in very many, if any, additional jobs. It simply does not take as many workers to produce a tonne of coal in 2017 as it did in the 1950s.

More importantly however, the economics of energy have shifted. It is already cheaper in many cases to produce electricity from wind, or solar. Most investors are not interested in sinking their money into new coal mines, and would rather invest in renewable energy projects that have a more certain future. Banks and insurance companies are increasingly reluctant to finance or insure a technology that is seen as a “sunset industry”. Trump's announcement will not change this.

What will change for workers, however, is that the USA will no longer be committed to the Paris Agreement's expectations that governments create a Just Transition for affected workers in coal mining communities. This will weaken the ability of trade unions to negotiate good deals for affected workers when faced with the industrial transformations that are inevitable – Trump, or no Trump.

In short: no new jobs; and less protection for workers.

Abandoning the Paris Agreement won’t make the USA greater in any other meaningful sense, either. Doing so cedes leadership in tomorrow's technologies to countries that are actually prepared to invest in research and development, for example in the Asian region, and particularly China. These are countries, by the way, that are not actively engaged in tearing down public education and compromising their universities. China already owns key technologies in renewable energy. Trump's announcement ensures that the USA will not catch up.

On climate change, the science is clear, and irrefutable. The worry is not that the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have exaggerated the problem. The real worry is that they have understated the problem.

IPCC scientists are appointed by governments and they know that they are delivering a message that most of their bosses would rather not hear. Therefore if any criticism of the IPCC is valid it is that its estimates tend to be cautious – erring on the conservative side and assuming that the relationship between greenhouse gases and global warming is generally smooth and consistent, and will continue in this manner. This assumption has yielded climate models that are remarkably powerful and scientifically beyond reproach. However they do not make any attempt to predict potential climate "tipping points" – points at which the earth's climate may be transformed to an entirely new point.

A tipping point is a change of state that one cannot easily return from. Think about an egg in a bowl. If you rock the bowl you can move the egg but if you stop rocking the bowl the egg will return to its starting position. However if you rock the bowl too violently you can cause the egg to go over the edge of the bowl and crash to the floor. Now, if you stop rocking the bowl the egg will not return to its starting position – it is in an entirely new state that it cannot return from.

The earth's climate may have tipping points that we cannot predict. To take just one possible example, warming oceans cause greater and greater amounts of methane gas trapped as methane hydrates frozen in ice below polar oceans and in permafrost – to be released. Methane is itself a powerful greenhouse gas, and this release will accelerate Arctic and Antarctic warming, thereby defrosting even more methane hydrates which creates more warming and accelerates more release of methane. No-one as yet knows if this dangerous feedback loop is powerful enough to overcome other climate stabilizing factors. There are other possible scenarios that could trigger a tipping point. The IPCC does not factor these into its climate models, although they are discussed in worrying terms in its literature.

The USA's Republicans, by potentially slowing progress in addressing climate change, have put the entire future of humanity at risk.

But climate tipping points are not the only way in which this decision is terrifying. Even the USA's military has expressed fear that destabilizing the world's climate increases security risks. As the ruling Republicans busily dismantle everything from environmental protection, to education, to health care, a frightening fact emerges. The USA now leads the world in only one area: military power. An old saying is that when your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

IndustriALL launches campaign as Grasberg crisis escalates

PT Freeport has broken Indonesian labour law, and its own collective agreement, by unilaterally placing workers on furlough, and dismissing workers taking strike action. More than 3,000 workers have now been fired from Grasberg mine. Several hundred more have been fired from PT Smelting, a joint venture between Freeport and Mitsubishi that processes copper from Grasberg.

IndustriALL has launched a campaign, with LabourStart, calling on the Indonesian government to ensure that Freeport complies with the law. The message appeals to the government to intervene at Grasberg and at PT Smelting to reverse the unjust dismissal of the workers.

The government must ensure that Freeport and Mitsubishi respect workers’ rights, and that Freeport returns to the negotiating table with CEMWU at Grasberg, and Freeport and Mitsubishi return to the negotiating table with FSPMI at PT Smelting. Workers' fundamental rights cannot be violated, and the government must intervene before these disputes escalate into civil unrest or violence.

Sign the LabourStart campaign

IndustriALL will be meeting with representatives of the Indonesian government in Geneva tomorrow, to stress the urgency of the crisis and press for a resolution.

In a show of defiance and termination, yesterday thousands of striking, furloughed and terminated workers held a peaceful demonstration outside the headquarters of the Mimika Regency local authorities in the administrative centre of Timika, in Papua.

Shipbuilding industry crisis in Brazil leaves 50,000 workers without a job

The golden age of Brazil’s shipbuilding industry seems a distant memory. Gone are the days when order books were full after the state oil company Petrobras discovered the Pre-Sal oilfields and the industry employed 82,000 workers.

The situation today is very different: 50,000 workers have lost their jobs. Twelve of the country’s 40 shipyards are at a standstill and the others are operating below capacity. This is the direct consequence of the whirlwind of corruption scandals that swept through the country and Petrobras.

The industry has sought to diversify into new activities and create industrial and logistics centres. Some workers are considering signing up to the Brazilian Navy’s Submarine Development Programme (PROSUB). Although the training programme began with a small group of 32 navy engineers and technical personnel, it has already expanded to include more than 300 workers and this figure is expected to rise significantly.

Meanwhile, workers are taking action to defend their industry and their rights. The Federation of Oil Workers (FUP-CUT) and the confederation to which it is affiliated, CNQ-CUT (affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union), have organized major demonstrations and the “Petrobras is Ours” campaign against the company’s privatization. The campaign has organized a major rally and protests for 8 June.

Since April, the CNM/CUT (affiliated to IndustriALL) has been pushing for the creation of a Parliamentary Front in Defence of the Shipbuilding Industry, which would support the sector’s demands, lobby the government to take measures to revitalize the industry and fight to maintain and protect jobs, investments and the local content policy.

The CNTM/FS (affiliated to IndustriALL) has also expressed its concern about the loss of jobs in the industry. The confederation opposes the commissioning of platforms from outside the country, supports investment in national engineering and the local content policy and calls for the adoption of measures to guarantee the industry’s growth and the creation of more jobs.

CNM/CUT and CNTM/FS members held a metalworkers’ national day of struggle in November 2016 to show that they are all on the same side and will work together to fight for more jobs, defend national industry and protect workers' rights.

In 2016 and 2017, workers in all sectors affiliated to Brazil’s major trade union centres organized marches in defence of their rights, for more jobs and against the Michel Temer government’s reforms. The trade union centres met in São Paulo on 5 June to agree a timetable for action between now and the next general strike.

Petrobras is responsible for 90 per cent of oil production in Brazil and is one of the main pillars of the shipbuilding industry and the Brazilian economy. The shipyards grew in response to ambitious expansion plans that collapsed in 2014 when the company became the centre of a corruption scandal.

Bangladesh: IndustriALL calls for reinstatement of terminated Chevron workers

Chevron, one of the world’s biggest oil corporations and the largest foreign direct investor in Bangladesh, terminated 148 workers in the past two years.

Chevron kept them as precarious workers for more than a decade, and terminated them when they demanded permanent jobs and the right to form a union.

Challenging Chevron’s unjust termination, over a hundred workers filed cases in the labour court seeking reinstatement.

Workers are deeply concerned as Chevron is now in the process of selling its assets to Himalaya Energy. Chevron has also threatened to fire its present staff, who demand that the company address employees’ concern before proceeding with the deal. Chevron’s exit without addressing workers’ concerns will have a major impact on the lives of workers and their family members.

To defend workers’ interests, IndustriALL Global Union has called on the state-owned Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (PETROBANGLA) to make use of its right of first refusal over the sale of Chevron Bangladesh to Himalaya Energy, until Chevron settles all pending matters. This includes court cases, reinstatement of all dismissed workers, back compensation payments, and job security, for at least three years, in the new company.

Valter Sanches, general secretary of IndustriALL said,

“It is essential that PETROBANGLA intervene to guarantee that Chevron Bangladesh act in full accordance with national labour law, and international core labour standards.  In this regard, Chevron Bangladesh should fully inform and consult the workers, as well as engage in collective negotiations with the representative union to ensure a fair transition.”

The letter urged PETROBANGLA to help safeguard the fundamental rights of workers at Chevron Bangladesh, regardless of the future ownership of the company.   

IndustriALL sets priorities for ICT, Electrical & Electronics sector

Fourteen unions from Australia, Brazil, Denmark, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, UK and Vietnam were present, with women making up 41 per cent of participants.

Prihanani Boenadi, co-chair for the sector stated in her opening speech: “We are facing new challenges in a fast-changing industry. We need to develop an effective strategy against companies behaving badly, like Samsung and others exposed in the ITUC’s End Corporate Greed Campaign.”

IndustriALL’s assistant general secretary, Jenny Holdcroft, reported on IndustriALL’s updated Statutes and Action Plan 2016-2020 which were adopted at the Rio Congress in October 2016. She also said the sector needs to focus on supply chain strategy and could learn from the textile and garment industry on how to gain union leverage in dealing with multinational companies (MNCs).

Global trends and sectoral activities

In the ICT, Electrical and Electronics sector, 70 per cent of the world’s top 20 MNCs (by annual revenue) originate from three countries namely USA, South Korea and China where freedom of association (ILO Convention No.87) and the right to collective bargaining (ILO Convention No.98) are not respected. They continue expanding their business all over the world without the presence of democratic trade unions.

Meanwhile, labour intensive production in the sector continues shifting into ASEAN countries and India, where wages are low. The ratio of precarious workers in the workplace keeps rising throughout the supply chains in these countries. Changes to manufacturing such as Industry 4.0 are already having a massive impact on employment and the industrial relations, resulting in an increasing number of unorganized white-collar workers who are not protected by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Creating and developing trade union networks in MNCs is becoming more important tool for tackling these issues and to increase the power of unions vis-à-vis the MNCs at national, regional and global levels.

Anne-Marie Chopinet, chair of ICT at industriAll European Trade Union, provided an overview of the situation in Europe, highlighting political turmoil and increase in poverty. She also reported on industriAll Europe’s political demands concerning the digital transformation of industry and potential risks and opportunities for the workers. 

Judy Winarno, president of SPEE FSPMI, spoke about their current activities and challenges in the ICT EE industry in Indonesia, particularly precarious workers and the social security system. Unions in Indonesia have set clear organizing targets and want to increase the number of CBAs.

Organizing and building union power

A five-year organizing project supported by the European Commission is in its fourth year. In the last three years, 1,671 trade union activists and workers (of whom 30 per cent were women) have participated at training sessions under the project in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. It has achieved positive outcomes in reaching out to unorganized, precarious, migrant, women and young workers, in order to include them in the protection of a collective agreement. More than 12,000 new members joined IndustriALL affiliated unions and the number of CBAs has been increased.

The EIEU Northern Region also reported on success of an organizing drive and training scheme under the EC project. VUIT, Vietnam, and CNTM, Brazil, spoke about the situation of workers in the industry in their countries, while JEIU, Japan, reported on their efforts to promote long-term employment for short-term contract workers

Precarious work and supply chain strategy

The ICT EE industry is highly competitive, innovative, fast changing and operates with short production cycles. At the same time, it is fuelling a rise in precarious work. Permanent workers has been pressured into precarious positions. Unions are struggling to reach out to the rapidly increasing numbers of agency, contract and outsourced workers, as well as migrants, who have little or no chance to bargain collectively on their terms and conditions of employment.

Lomenik, Indonesia, and TEAM, Thailand, reported on their struggle against precarious work, which focuses on supply chain workplaces. ETU, Australia, reported on issues of precarious work and the current building code from a construction/contracting perspective as electrician. (See Section 3 ETU, Australia presentation)

GoodElectronics explained their relationship with IndustriALL and shared their experiences and opportunities to jointly address precarious working conditions and workers’ rights issues.

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), responsible mining and e-waste are also big challenges in the sector, especially due to the lack of corporate responsibility by multinational companies throughout the supply chain.

Future manufacturing and promoting sustainable industrial policy

Unions shared their activities on sustainable industrial policy and the issues and challenges that they face to encourage it. The future impact of Industry 4.0 was a big focus for the discussion as smart technology and systems could also lead to extensive control and monitoring of workers’ behaviour and performance. Unions must be prepared for the massive impact on employment, working conditions and workers’ rights, and concentrate on activities towards a Just Transition.

Unite the Union, UK, and Co-industri, Denmark, spoke of the speed and complexity of the current technology changes and addressed issues and challenges on the future of manufacturing. UWEEI, Singapore, shared their structure to develop economic strategies for the future, such as the Committee of Future Economy, which includes unions, business chambers, public agencies, companies, and educators.

Creating and developing trade union networks in MNCs

As stated in IndustriALL’s Action Plan, unions in the sector need to engage in active dialogue with MNCs to build strong industrial relationships that enable union concerns to be raised at all levels of the company and promote cross-border exchange and coordination of workers at locations worldwide. This sector needs to focus more on developing and advancing the processes of creating strong trade union networks at all levels, and strengthen solidarity among affiliated trade union organizations.

Siemens Workers Union, India, reported on their activities to expand the company trade union network in India and to tackle the issue of precarious workers by using the Global Framework Agreement with Siemens and the network.

Follow-up sector action plan and future activities

The Steering Committee agreed on the strategic planning for 2017-2018 and the areas that needed strengthening in order to meet the Action Plan adopted at the World Conference 2015, such as the fight against precarious work, supply chains, trade union network, OHS, cooperation with NGOs, and sustainable industrial policy

Takahiro Nonaka, co-chairperson for the sector, insisted in his closing remarks:

“The ICT, Electrical & Electronics industry has an important role and mission to contribute to a better life for people. Therefore, the leading global companies of this industry must earn the respect from citizens the world over. Companies need to change their mind-set from ‘win global competition’ to ‘put people first’ by eliminating precarious work and poor working conditions.” 

The meeting was followed by a plant visit to PT Honoris Industry, which employs sector co-chair Prihanani Boenadi. The company makes various products such as LED lights, printed circuit boards and plastic injection products. The delegation met with the local union leaders and the management and learned the history and constructive relationship between the union and the management.