Towards living wages in Iraq and Jordan

The challenge to increase wages is one that cuts across industries in Jordan and Iraq. In Jordan, prices have increased considerably but wages have not kept pace. A tripartite wages committee sets the minimum wage at national level, but the King takes the final decision.

While the lowest wages are those earned by textile and garment workers and workers in industries such as potash, phosphate and cement earn more, the absence of an adequate plan by the government to deal with the economic situation means that unions need to engage with government on a more sustainable industrial policy in order for wages to increase.

In Iraq, the minimum wage is set by the government. There is no collective bargaining in the public sector, which covers more than 75 per cent of workers. The private sector minimum wage is US$200 per month and is set by a tripartite committee. Enforcement is a major problem and there are many demonstrations over unpaid wages.

The oil industry is very profitable, but Iraqi oil workers are paid less than their counterparts in neighbouring countries and the wages are not proportionate to the risks workers take. 85 per cent of Iraq’s revenue is from oil. As in Jordan, a more sustainable industrial policy is needed to ensure that workers benefit properly from their country’s production.

Affiliates discussed what strategies they could adopt to develop a better climate for wage increases. Garment workers in Jordan have taken a significant step with the development of industry-wide collective bargaining covering 62,000 workers of whom 45,500 are migrant workers.

The first agreement was signed in April 2013 after 12 months of negotiation and brought immediate benefits, including reducing disputes and increasing compliance. In 2012 there had been 42 strikes in the sector, but in the 12 months after signing the agreement this reduced to 12. Moreover, the agreement provides a standardized set of conditions that all parties – government, unions and buyers – are able to measure compliance against.

The agreement serves as a useful model for the implementation of the ACT agreement between IndustriALL and global garment brands as it demonstrates that industry-wide bargaining in this sector is both possible and beneficial.

The Jordanian agreement covers approximately 60,000 workers, 70 per cent of whom are migrant and 70 per cent are women, and all employers in the export garment industry. In 2015, the agreement was renewed following 6 months of consultations with workers in the factories to enable their inputs to the negotiations, which this time took 4 months.

In the mining industry in Jordan, affiliates take a different approach as union strength is such that they are able to bargain at enterprise level and use each agreement as leverage for the next.

The union wages strategy in Jordan includes educating workers to gain their support, developing union strength and knowledge of the economic situation, and using the media to build support which in turn gives unions power in the face of employers and government.

In Iraq, where politicians are in control of decision-making on wages, the unions are working hard to have workers’ voices heard among many stakeholders. This involves engaging in lobbying and a media strategy to influence the political process, as well as working with members and union leaders to improve their understanding of their rights.

Caterpillar plant closure threatens 2,200 Belgian jobs

The announcement was made at an extraordinary works council meeting called at 8:30 am on Friday 2 September – already called Black Friday by locals.

Workers at the plant, which makes construction equipment, reacted with shock and anger, with a large group picketing the gates. They have already made many sacrifices, including on salaries and working hours, to keep the plant open. In March 2014, 1,331 jobs were lost in another cost cutting exercise.

A number of IndustriALL Global Union affiliates are active in the Caterpillar network, and are currently meeting to determine a response: Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond ABVV-Metaal and Centrale Nationale des Employés-CNE, ACV-CSC METEA, Fédération des Métallurgistes FGTB Hainaut-Namur and SETCA-BBTK – Syndicat des Employés, Techniciens et Cadres de Belgique.

In a press release, Caterpillar announced that production will shift to Grenoble, France, and to other sites outside Europe. A plant in Northern Ireland will also close, with the loss of 250 jobs.

The company claims that the move is necessary due to a failure to meet targets and poor market conditions. However, the Gosselies plant remains profitable. Caterpillar made the decision to reduce headcount to boost profit, and plans to cut 10,000 jobs worldwide by 2018. The company has already cut 30,000 jobs since 2012.

Matthias Hartwich, IndustriALL director for mechanical engineering and materials industries, said:

“This is part of the ongoing deindustrialization of Belgium, and shows that Caterpillar cares only about return on investment, and not the sacrifices made by its loyal workforce.

“This is a profitable plant that will shut because the company has found a way to cut costs further. Throughout this process, there has been no proper consultation with the works council. This is why it is necessary to install genuine social dialogue.

“We will stand with our colleagues and give them all the support and solidarity they need at this difficult time”.

Indian trade unions call general strike

On 2 September 2016, hundreds and thousands of workers across India will march together in the streets in a national general strike. The strike will cover transport, finance, energy, coal, textiles, automotive, port and dock, steel, oil, defence production, scheme sectors, education and central and state government employees.

Reiterating their call for the strike, in a joint press conference today in Delhi, central trade union leaders expressed disappointment over the government’s anti-worker polices, failure to respond to union concerns and undemocratic attitude.

Unions went on a national strike with a 12 point charter of demands on the same day in 2015. In March 2016, in the national convention, central trade unions called for the 2 September 2016 national strike and called upon the government to come to the negotiation table.

However, the government has failed to meet with all unions to address their demands, meeting only one national centre, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), which is the trade union wing of the right wing Hindu nationalist Bahartiya Janata Party, the leading party of the ruling coalition.

In a desperate attempt to avert the growing labour crisis, on 30 August the government announced a minimum wages hike for unskilled central government workers from Rs 246 (US$ 3.70) to Rs 350 (US$ 5.20) per day, or Rs 9100 (US$ 135) per month.

After this announcement the BMS, one of the largest national union centres, backed out of the strike, while the other ten central trade unions strongly criticized the meagre wage increase, which applies only to central government and is not binding on federal units. Unions demand a raise of the minimum wage to Rs 18,000 (US$ 268) per month.

The unions also rejected the appeal from the minister of labour and employment to call off the strike. Ironically, unions found that the letter from the ministry was almost the same as the one sent a year ago, and that the ‘proactive’ labour reform measures listed by the minister as actions taken in favour of workers’ demands were in fact anti-labour measures vociferously opposed by unions.

These anti-worker policies include introduction of fixed term employment in the apparel manufacturing sector through an executive order; an increase in the permissible limit of overtime work from 50 hours per quarter to 125 hours, and the diversion of workers’ social security, the employees provident fund, for investment in the shares market.

Unions view the ongoing unilateral labour law reforms through both central and state governments as designed to exclude the majority of workers from coverage by basic labour laws. Unions denounced government’s move of privatization and disinvestment of strategic public sector units and promoting foreign direct investment (FDI) in sensitive sectors like defence, railways, banks, insurance, retail and pharmaceuticals.

The trade unions’ 12 point charter of demands includes:

Urgent measures to contain price rises through universalization of public distribution system and banning speculative trade on the commodity market.
Concrete measures for employment generation.
Strict enforcement of all labour laws and stringent sanctions for violations
Universal social security cover for all workers
Minimum wages not less than Rs 18,000 per month
Assured pension not less than Rs 3,000 per month for entire working population
Stop disinvestment of central and state public sector undertakings
Stop contract work (precarious work) in perennial work and equal wages for same work
Removal of all ceilings on payment and eligibility of bonus, provident fund and increase the quantum of gratuity
Compulsory registration of unions within a period of 45 days and immediate ratification of ILO conventions C87 and C98
Stop labour law amendments
Stop FDI in railways, insurance and defence

The ten central trade unions participating in the strike are INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, UTUC and LPF. The strike is also supported by independent federations of workers and government employees.

IndustriALL condemns union-busting factory closure in Bangladesh

Dhaka-based Habib Fashions, which was a sub-contractor to many factories producing for international brands, including FILA, closed in August on the grounds of non-availability of orders.

However, IndustriALL affiliate, the Sommolito Garment Sramik Federation (SGSF), which had applied for registration at the factory, says that Habib Fashions is instead trying to break the union and has orders beyond its capacity. SGSF also said that workers were forced to work from 6am till 10pm during Ramadan in June to fulfill orders on time.

SGSF President, Nazma Akter, said:

“The owner of Habib Fashions must respect freedom of association and the fundamental rights of its workers, according to the laws of the country. I also call on the Government of Bangladesh to take immediate action in order to speedily resolve the issue.”

SGSF applied to register the union at the factory with the Joint Director of Labour (JDL) in Bangladesh on 30 June 2016. Due process of law was being followed, and the JDL had written to SGSF raising certain objections. The SGSF was in the process of addressing the objections when the factory management met SGSF leaders on 19 July 2016 and asked that the application for union registration be withdrawn. When they refused to do so, the factory management began shifting machinery on the night of 27 July 2016 and declared a temporary closure to take effect as of August 2016. Habib Fashions has given no indication of how long the closure will last.

S.186 of the Bangladesh Labour Act makes it clear that “no employer shall, while an application for registration of a trade union formed in his establishment is pending, alter the terms and conditions of service of any officer of that union, without prior permission of the Director of Labour, to the disadvantage of such officer.”

In a letter to the managing director of Habib Fashions, Shahadat Hossain, IndustriALL’s general secretary, Jyrki Raina, said:

“These factors make it clear that the factory has been closed only to get rid of the union and ensure that the workers will not form any union even in future. There are still plenty of orders from several factories. This is a blatantly illegal action on your part.

“IndustriALL Global Union calls upon Habib Fashions to immediately reopen the factory and provide the workers with regular work and wages. Furthermore, we call on Habib Fashions to establish sound and fair industrial relations, including negotiations with the Sommolito Garment Sramik Federation in full accordance with national labour law, and fundamental core labour standards.”

Electric power unions in Asia strengthen ties

The electric power industry in Asia is becoming increasingly privatized, a development driven by global capital and national governments. Mongolia's power industry was recently privatized, and in both South Korea and Taiwan attempts are made to privatize the electricity market.

The IndustriALL Global Union’s electric power union network met in Seoul, South Korea on 24 – 25 August, where participants discussed sustainable, safe and security energy policies and exchanged updated information in relation to the developments in their countries.

In Indonesia, for example, around 6 per cent of the companies have collective agreements and most of them only cover the basic rights of workers.

The right to strike is more or less non-existent in energy companies in Indonesia, as they are considered serving public interest. According to the Indonesian employment law:

“Implementation of the strike by the workers who work in companies that serve the public interest and/or will lead to the endangerment of human lives is set so as not to interfere with the public interest and endangering the safety of others.”

Coal and fossil fuels currently make up 78.3 per cent of the global energy production, but there is an increased use of renewable energy. Hydropower accounts for most, and is followed by wind and solar power.

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary says that networks are necessary to secure workers’ right in the energy sector:

Through solidarity and cooperation across borders we fight to protect the rights of all workers and against anti-union policies.

The meeting was hosted by IndustriALL affiliate Korean National Electrical Workers Union (KNEWU) and its umbrella organization Federation of Korea Public Industry Trade Union (FKPIU).

DNO Yemen union wins case against Norwegian oil company

The Yemeni labour court in Sana’a ruled on 3 August 2016 that Norwegian oil company DNO should pay the wages of the workers it sacked, or have its property confiscated and assets seized.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate the General Union of Petroleum, Minerals and Chemical workers in Yemen, which represents DNO workers, took the company to court after it sacked 200 staff in by text message and email in April 2015, leaving them destitute.

The law in Yemen states that if a company is granted a license to operate an oil field, it must pay wages and social obligations for as long it has the license. DNO used the war and political situation in Yemen to avoid responsibility for its staff, terminating its operations on 27 April 2015. The company paid no redundancy or compensation, and staff were left without a social and economic safety net in a country that stands on the brink of collapse.

“DNO workers have nothing, and many of them are struggling terribly. There is a war and lack of food, and several of the families of workers now have no money to buy food and go hungry. The situation for workers with families with small children is serious,” said union leader Ryadh Al-Gharady.

The union won recognition at DNO in 2010, and has fought a number of battles with the company to defend workers’ rights. After the sackings, the union was supported in an international campaign by Norwegian affiliate of IndustriALL Industri Energi, as well as by IndustriALL. Industri Energi petitioned the company’s headquarters in Oslo, while IndustriALL sent messages of support and solidarity.

The court ruled that:

There will be a continuity of contracts
The company must pay 75% of salaries from June 2015, including the 2015 Ramadhan bonus. Medical fees are excluded.
The company must pay 50,000 Yemeni Riyals (US $200) per employee in legal fees

There are concerns that DNO will appeal the verdict, or simply refuse to pay.

“We will not keep silent about our rights and if they appeal, we will appeal. We will not keep silent about our rights with such a greedy company.

“Unless DNO pay us what the law requires and as the court has stated, we will pursue this internationally,” said Al-Gharady

Leif Sande, Industri Energi president and co-chair of the IndustriALL energy sector, said:

“The judgement in Yemen is entirely appropriate, and DNO must take responsibility to pay its workers’ wages. They cannot continue to avoid this, as they have for several years. DNO is trading on the positive image of Norway abroad while evading its social obligations.”

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary said:

“We are very pleased that the labour court has found in favour of the union. It is unacceptable that DNO has dodged its responsibility for so long. We urge the country to pay what it owes. We will continue to stand by our affiliate in Yemen until they receive justice.”

DNO has around 260 workers in Yemen and a license to operate six oilfields. The company has extracted over 100 million barrels of oil from Yemen. DNO began operation in Yemen in 2000.

Iran: government trying to deregulate labour, says union leader

Question: What is the attitude of employers to unions?

MG: Employers do not recognize independent trade unions. With the flogging of the Agh Dareh miners, we entered a phase where the state disciplines labour at the employers’ request.

Employers see trade unions as obstacles to profit, while government aims to deregulate labour. In July, the government excluded more than 28 areas of the country from labour law and declared them free trade zones.

Q: Is labour law properly implemented?

MG: Whether laws are enforced anywhere in the world depends on the balance of power between labour and the government. On some basic issues, we can challenge employers and defend workers’ rights. But on bigger issues, labour law is ignored. The labour ministry imposes its own structures as the sole representatives of workers.

Q: Have institutions such as the House of Labour and Islamic Labour Councils had any positive impact?

MG: In the thirty years that these institutions have been active, they have been controlled by the ministry and have no independent function. They are not worker organizations as they are ideologically exclusive – belief in Islam is a pre-condition of membership. They are state-controlled religious organizations. They have never done anything positive for workers.

Q: President Rouhani promised to address labour issues and trade union freedoms. Has he done so?

MG: Unfortunately not. His labour ministry has failed to intervene in disputes between workers and employers, and failed to prevent the security forces attacking strikes. The payment of the housing allowance has been delayed, while senior government officials have enjoyed a 50% increase.

Imports continue unabated while domestic industries are in recession. Unemployment creates havoc, but the prescriptions of the International Monetary Fund are implemented. The government’s main concern is providing cheap labour for foreign investors.

Q: Are the conditions for government and corporate white collar workers any better?

MG: There is no such thing as job security in Iran and the trade union rights of civil servants and private sector workers, white and blue collar, are violated every day in the same way.

Q: Has the signing of the Joint Compliance Plan of Action – the nuclear deal – improved things for workers?

MG: No. Our country’s officials promised that the economy would be reenergised with the lifting of sanctions and the return of billions of dollars in oil and gas revenue. These promises have not been kept, and the US and Europe have not kept their side of the deal by lifting sanctions in the banking and monetary system.

To attract foreign investment, the government has intensified its programme of privatization and lowering labour costs. This year, trade unionists in the oil industry were sacked. Everywhere in the sector you meet workers who have not received wages for months.

Q: UMMI has been able to engage successfully with the international trade union movement, and in particular with the IndustriALL Global Union. How can unions in other countries support you?

MG: IndustriALL has helped us in various campaigns to reduce the pressure on trade unions. We have had important consultative meetings with the leadership of IndustriALL and we hope that this solidarity is expanded and strengthened every day.

We ask international trade union organizations across the world to use their influence in powerful bodies such as the ILO to press the Iranian authorities and employers to implement ILO conventions 87 and 98.

We believe that the strength, influence and success of any union anywhere in the world is also the strength of Iranian unions, including the Union of Metalworkers and Mechanics of Iran, and we celebrate that.

Authorities disrupt union women's conference in Belarus

On 27 August activists of BITU, an IndustriALL Global Union Belarusian affiliate, organized a union conference to assess the results of the network's activities and discuss plans for future.

Forty minutes after the start of the conference, the fire brigade, police and ambulance arrived at the building and requested everyone to leave. Instead of discussing their work and plans for the future, women activists had to wait outside the building. Half an hour later the participants were told that the conference could not continue. The reason given was an alleged fire inside the men's rest room. The conference participants however noticed no evidence of fire or smoke, and not even the smell of it while they were in the hall. Luckily the activists prepared an additional option and continued their conference in the private house of one of the activists.

Even at the stage of organizing the event BITU faced a number of administrative hurdles. The union had to obtain numerous permissions from the authorities, in order to hold the conference. Then the union had to provide a very detailed programme for few international guests who attended the conference.

According to the participants the authorities try to undermine their work all the time. Earlier this year eight women activists who were also the organizers of the Salihorsk women's conference faced accusations of public disorder for posting online a 14-second video protest message against raising the retirement age in Belarus. They all received a warning as administrative penalty.

Time and again the Belarusian authorities interfere with the internal affairs of independent trade unions. All means are used, including administrative pressure, sabotage of genuine union work, harassment of trade union activists: everything is done to silence workers.

The Belarusian case on violations of freedom of association has been under constant consideration of the International Labour Organization since 2000 when trade unions filed their complaint against the government of Belarus. Since then not many things changed. In 2016 the case of Belarus was again on the agenda of the International Labour Conference. This time the complaint was about violation of the ILO Convention on forced labour.

Historic ceasefire in Colombia

“I would like to express IndustriALL's resolute support for the peace process in Colombia. This is what the Colombian people deserve after 50 years of violence that has affected the entire population.

“In particular, it led to the persecution of workers and the trade union movement and violence that cost the lives of 3,000 activists in the last 30 years,” said Jyrki Raina, IndustriALL Global Union general secretary.

The ceasefire began on 29 August, after more than four years of negotiations between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the guerrilla group formed in 1964.

On 25 August, Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, announced that he had ordered his troops to implement a definitive ceasefire against the FARC EP at midnight on 29 August. Three days later, the FARC leader, Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri (Timochenco) also announced the end of the war, ordering his troops to observe a ceasefire at the same time.

Although everything seems set for a return to peace in Colombia, it remains for Colombians to vote on 2 October.

At the end of 2015, IndustriALL’s affiliated trade unions in the mining and energy sectors and environmental, social and community organizations throughout the country formed a mining, energy and environmental social forum to discuss the role of renewable and non-renewable natural resources in peacetime.

On 25 August, they discussed the main proposals, which they had already approved, and held a rally to launch the proposals to the country. They aim to encourage regional and national policies and measures to defend workers’ needs, protect the environment, and ensure that income from natural resources is used to provide decent living conditions.

“IndustriALL and affiliated unions have done their best to complete this work and we will continue to do so because we are convinced that peace is the best option for the people," concluded IndustriALL’s assistant regional secretary, Marino Vani.

Nigeria: unions stage national protest over labour crisis

The protest was organized by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in solidarity with workers in Imo, Nasarawa and Benue states over protracted wage issues, which led to the killing of two workers in Nasarawa in July.

Despite a bailout from the federal government, more than 20 states in Nigeria have been unable to pay monthly salaries. Some workers have not been paid since January 2016. In some states, workers have had their pay and hours cut, and have been told to go and grow food for themselves on farms, under a Back to the Land programme designed to cut costs.

Protests were held across the country. In Lagos, the protest was lead by Issa Aremu, the general secretary of IndustriALL Global Union affiliate the National Union of Textile and Garment Workers, a member of the national executive committee of the NLC, and chairperson of IndustriALL in sub-Saharan Africa.

Aremu called on president Muhammadu Buhari and labour minister Chris Ngige to intervene and urge the governors of Benue, Imo and Nasarawa states to respect Nigerian labour law and stop wage cuts and the arbitrary redeployment of workers to farms to avoid paying them.

Aremu highlighted the situation in Nasarawa state, where two workers were killed when police opened fire on a protest on 29 July 2016 against the failure to pay salaries. A further two workers received gunshot wounds. State governor Tanko Al-Makura arbitrarily cut workers’ pay by 50% and threatened to sack striking workers and replace them with “fresh graduates”.

Aremu said:

“No colonial governor during the hated British colonialism so verbally casualized the dignity of labour with respect to contracts of employment on pay and tenure as governor Tanko Al-Makura unacceptably did.”

Aremu pointed out that constitution of Nigeria explicitly guarantees the sanctity of public service at both federal and state levels, with adequate security of tenure, hours of work, health and safety, adequate remuneration and pensions. The constitution guarantees decent work for civil servants in the public service and does not subject them to the whims of executive governors.

He argued that it is “bad governance” to “shift the burden of declining revenue onto the workforce” while maintaining the huge cost of the executive overhead. To turn civil servants into farmers overnight as a cost cutting measure is “an unacceptable joke”.
Referring to the killing of workers in Nasarawa state, he said:

“The unprovoked action by the police against unarmed workers on a peaceful protest is criminal and unacceptable. It is a gross violation of workers’ rights to protest as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution and International Labour Organization provisions. We support the demand by the NLC for the Nasarawa state government to investigate the incident, apprehend the culprits and bring them to justice.”

Fernando Lopes, IndustriALL assistant general secretary, said:

“The situation in Nigeria is absolutely disgraceful: attempting to balance the books by cutting salaries and telling workers to become farmers. It is outrageous that workers were killed by the police for protesting against this arbitrary and unlawful move.

“We expect the government of Nigeria to intervene and ensure that workers are paid properly, that the right to organize and freely assemble is respected, and that those who ordered the killing of workers are brought to justice”.

The labour minister responded to the demands of the protest by convening a meeting between union leaders and the government of Nasarawa state on 30 August. The state of Nasarawa agreed to compensate the families of the workers who were killed. The issue of unpaid salaries remains unresolved.