IndustriALL women stand by quota demand

The women met on the eve of IndustriALL’s Executive Committee meeting, also taking place in the Frankfurt headquarters of German trade union affiliate, IG Metall.

In the last reunion before Congress in October, the women said they reaffirmed their commitment to the resolution made at the Women World Conference in Vienna in September 2015.

Proposed amendments to IndustriALL’s statutes have been drafted and, if approved by the Executive Committee, will then be put forward for approval by Congress in Rio de Janeiro. The Women’s Committee wants the statutes to include the 40 per cent quota for women’s representation and participation at all levels of IndustriALL.

IndustriALL’s assistant general secretary and director for women, Monika Kemperle, said:

“Trade unions need a more female face. We need to encourage women to join unions and once they are members to become active in them. The clock has turned back on workers’ rights – so we need to look very carefully at how women can be involved in unionization. We need effective representation of women workers.”

As well as the resolution, three IndstriALL regional women conferences – in Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Sub-Sahara Africa – also adopted a target of 40 per cent representation of women in IndustriALL

Jyrki Raina, IndustriALL general secretary, said: “This is a target that I fully support. We need to change the face of the global union network. We need more women in our unions, industries and in leadership positions. This is the right thing to do.”

Christiane Benner, the first female Vice President in IG Metall’s 125-year history, also addressed the Women’s Committee in Frankfurt, telling participants “If you want the best, you cannot do without women.”

She added that it was changes to IG Metall’s statutes and guidelines in 2000 that provided the binding conditions to increase the number of women in IG Metall’s structures. She said IG Metall put particular emphasis on training programmes that were 50 per cent women, as well as listening to women’s needs and demands.

Members of the Women’s Committee also put forward proposed amendments to IndustriALL’s Action Plan.

Christine Olivier, Women’s Committee co-chair, summed up the meeting saying: “This is not a takeover by women. We just want representation in IndustriALL.”

Multinationals are responsible for their supply chains

In January, the ITUC published its Scandal report, exposing that 50 leading multinational corporations employ only 6 per cent of the workers who manufacture their products directly. Suppliers and subcontractors employ the remaining 94 per cent, or 116 million-strong hidden workforce.

As a rule, wages and conditions of these workers are worse, and most union rights violations happen in the supply chain. But as the UN guiding principles on business and human rights confirm, an MNC has a due diligence responsibility over its supply chain.

This is what IndustriALL is trying to cement with its global framework agreements (GFA), which cover already over ten million workers in 47 corporations and their suppliers. This is what the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh is about, working on safer factories for more than two million garment workers.

Supply chain responsibility is the basis for our cooperation with the ACT garment brands, to guarantee freedom of association and living wages through building industry level collective bargaining structures. Setting higher wages across the entire industry prevents individual factories and brands from negotiating lower prices based on lower wages.

Another sector where brands do not manufacture their products themselves, is the electronics industry.  Brand image is vulnerable just like the garment industry. That is why IndustriALL targeted Apple in its successful campaign against union busting by NXP Semiconductors in the Philippines – and Apple reacted.

Our GFA with Swedish retail giant H&M proved instrumental in solving conflicts in Myanmar and Pakistan. Thanks to active intervention by IndustriALL and H&M, a Chinese supplier finally recognized our affiliated union in Myanmar, while 88 dismissed workers were reinstated at Pakistan.

Exploitation and violations of workers’ rights by suppliers and their subcontractors are a hot topic. “Decent work in the global supply chains” will therefore be the main discussion at ILO’s International Labour Conference in June.

IndustriALL and other global unions want to have a Convention on Global Supply Chains to clarify the roles and responsibilities of governments in home and host countries, and the buyers and suppliers. It should establish legal accountability and provide guidance for developing policy and legislation to ensure respect for workers’ rights in supply chains.

Governments do not need to wait for a Convention. The French parliament is debating a law on due diligence obligations for companies. Other countries give buyers responsibilities, for instance, in the case of non-payment of wages or social security contributions.

Corporate structures have changed. Laws and bargaining structures have to follow to ensure union rights and living wages throughout global supply chains.

Jyrki Raina
General Secretary

JYRKI RAINA: Welcome to Global Worker

JYRKI RAINA: 

Welcome to Global Worker

In January, the ITUC published their Scandal report, exposing that 50 leading multinationals employ only 6 per cent of the workers who manufacture their products directly. Suppliers and subcontractors employ the remaining 94 per cent, or 116 million-strong hidden workforce.

As a rule, wages and conditions of these workers are worse, and most union rights violations happen in the supply chain. But as the UN guiding principles on business and human rights confirm, an MNC has a due diligence responsibility over its supply chain.

This is what IndustriALL is trying to cement with its global framework agreements and what the Bangladesh Accord is about. And supply chain responsibility is the basis for our cooperation with the ACT garment brands, to guarantee freedom of association and living wages through building industry level collective bargaining structures. Check pages 12 – 15 for more details.

In December 2015, the historic Paris agreement on climate change was adopted as a result of the multi-year COP process. IndustriALL welcomes the agreement, but recognizes that it is only the starting point for a long and challenging energy transformation.

This major transformation will happen and that makes it a union issue. We need to take care of our workers in the spirit of a Just Transition, while we realize the job-creation potential of climate action.

As IndustriALL’s sustainability director Brian Kohler writes on pages 7 – 9, a Just Transition requires deliberate public policy choices, building on a foundation of strong social protection programmes and sustainable industrial policies.

They will transform existing jobs to be more sustainable, as well as create new, greener jobs. We want to make sure these will be union jobs with good conditions.

Some time ago, we had to take the painful decision to move a number of planned IndustriALL meetings from Turkey to Germany because of sustained terrorist attacks. However, Turkey remains a major priority country. Take a look at pages 4 – 6 on the struggle of our Turkish unions in all sectors from textile to mining for the right to join a union, collective bargaining and safe workplaces.

The 2nd IndustriALL Congress will take place in October 2016 in Brazil, which has one of the strongest trade union movements in Latin America. The strength has been built through struggle after years of military dictatorship. See pages 16 – 17 on how Brazilian unions have managed to win considerable wage increases during the past decade through united action by different trade union centres.

When the IndustriALL family gathers in Rio de Janeiro to celebrate its first four years of action and victories, it will also debate future strategies and continued global struggle for social justice and better lives for workers and their families in the spirit of our Congress slogan:

Fighting forward – A luta continua!

PROFILE: Two trade union centres with the same objective: Brazil unity wins major victories

Profile

Union Federations: CUT and força Sindical

Country: Brazil

Text: Kimber Meyer

Translation: Chris Whitehouse

On 6 December 2006, 20,000 workers marched in Brasilia and won a historic agreement. Brazil’s two largest trade union centres, the Central Unica dos Trabalhadores (CUT) and Força Sindical had organized a third national march in the country’s capital Brasilia as part of a two-year campaign for annual increases to the minimum wage.

The march was followed by an increase in the minimum wage, and showed how trade union unity and a fighting spirit can win important gains for the country’s workers. The government subsequently agreed with representatives of the unions, employer organizations and retired workers’ and pensioners’ organizations to adopt an annual increase of the minimum wage based on inflation and growth in per capita GDP. This policy is still in operation today.

Another milestone in the history of the Brazilian trade union movement took place in 2008. Representatives from both trade union centres attended the Chamber of Representatives for the vote on a bill that for the first time gave legal recognition to the trade union centres.

The CNTM worked alongside the trade union centres of Brazil for seven or eight years to obtain legal recognition of the trade union centres, which we achieved in 2008. We then formulated a joint agenda for the trade union centres.

The CNTM-força Sindical and the CNM-CUT both attended demonstrations, seminars and congresses in a policy aimed at unifying the trade union movement,

says Miguel Torres, president of the CNTM, an IndustriALL affiliate.

And the struggle continues today. The South American giant is currently going through a major economic as well as a political crisis. A downturn in the economy has resulted in plant closures and lost jobs. However, unions have played a crucial role in defending workers’ rights and saving the jobs of thousands of Brazilians.

At the beginning of 2016, unions affiliated to the CUT and Força Sindical helped organize a successful demonstration and hand-delivered a letter to the Organizing Committee of the 2016 Olympic Games, insisting that Nissan respect the guidelines for official sponsors by respecting human rights in the company’s entire supply chain.

Representatives of the CNM-CUT and the CNTM- Força Sindical also attended a public hearing at the Brazilian Senate Human Rights Commission to denounce the company’s anti-trade union policy in Mississippi, United States. As a result, Senator Paulo Paim agreed to contact Nissan CeO, Carlos Ghosn, to ask him to negotiate with the workers and allow the union to organize the plant.

The unions have organized several demonstrations to stop multinational companies dismissing workers, for example, at Mercedes Benz’s plant in Sao Bernardo do Campo (SP), where a strike saved 1,500 jobs. Rafael Marques, representing the ABC Metalworkers Union, affiliated to the CNM-CUT and Miguel Torres, representing the CNTM-Força Sindical both participated in the protest.

Confederations from the two trade union centres have supported each other in other sectors, for example, in the chemicals sector.

Lucineide Varjao, President of the CNQ/CUT, affiliated to IndustriALL, and the first woman to hold this position in the confederation, says:

We have had support from unions in the chemical sector (feQUIMfAR – força Sindical, affiliated to IndustriALL) and from the Osasco and Curitiba metalworkers (força Sindical) on several issues. for example, the fight to defend democracy, stop the coup and ensure that Dilma’s government stays until she has completed her term in office, and in the fight for a new economic policy that promotes economic growth and employment.

The CUT describes itself as “a Brazilian trade union of the masses, working-class, independent and democratic, committed to defending the immediate and historic interests of the working class”. It was founded on 28 August 1983, in São Bernardo do Campo, Sao Paulo, two years before the restoration of democracy in Brazil, after 20 years of military dictatorship.

This is why the CUT’s first battles were to fight for wide-ranging political, economic and cultural changes able to guarantee the universal rights of workers.

A few years after the CUT was founded, another trade union was created for Brazilian workers. Força Sindical was founded on 8 March 1991, during the International Women’s Day celebrations. It aims to consolidate a modern workers’ movement that was “independent, free, pluralist, open to internal and public debate, with a well-defined project for a better, fairer Brazil, more solidarity and able to promote the welfare of its children.”

The 2nd Congress of IndustriALL Global Union will be held in Rio de Janeiro in October 2016. 

SPECIAL REPORT: Four years of IndustrIALL action to STOP Precarious Work

Special Report

Text: Armelle Seby

The last decades have seen a widespread increase of precarious work all over
the world. Although 70 per cent of the workforce in Europe and the United Sates are still in permanent and direct employment, precarious forms of employment are increasing. In low-income countries, self-employment, contract and casual labour are the dominant forms of employment.

The rapid increase in precarious work is driven by both business and governments. Companies put flexibility as a condition
for employment creation. In the name of economic growth, governments are deregulating the labour market and allowing the expansion of insecure and low quality jobs. In a globalized economy, with high level international competition and outsourced production processes, pressure is on cutting costs. Multinational companies have imposed a supply chain model which generates precarious work, particularly in sectors like textile or electronics. Technological changes enable employers to impose ever more flexibility and insecurity.

Fighting against precarious work: a key strategic goal for IndustriALL

At IndustriALL’s founding Congress in Copenhagen in June 2012, the campaign to STOP Precarious Work was unanimously adopted by IndustriALL affiliates.

In the name of this global campaign, unions committed to mobilizing their members on 7 October, the World Day for Decent Work.

The number of affiliates participating in the global day of action increases every year, which is both a testament to the priority that affiliates put on the need to stop precarious work, and a very visible demonstration of IndustriALL’s determination to stamp out abusive employment contracts.

The continuing expansion of precarious work is one of the biggest threats that unions face, not only to workers’ job security, pay and working conditions but to their capacity to organize workers to fight collectively for their rights.

For IndustriALL, the fight against precarious work is a key strategic goal which is integrated into all its work at global, industrial and regional level,

says Jyrki Raina, general secretary, IndustriALL.

Organize to fight against precarious work

The spread of precarious employment is clearly part of a corporate attack on the right to organize and bargain collectively. Precarious work is characterized by a little or even total absence of trade union rights, with numerous and substantial obstacles for precarious workers to join trade unions,

says Jyrki Raina.

IndustriALL’s campaign to STOP precarious work is encouraging and supporting affiliates to organize precarious workers. Trade union projects funded by Swedish Union to Union, SASK in Finland, LO Norway, Dutch FNV, ACV-BIE in Belgium, and FCE-CFDT in France, provide concrete support to affiliates in building their capacity to develop and implement action plans on organizing, collective bargaining and campaigning. The fight against

precarious work plays an important role in promoting unity of action among affiliates, including the creation of national campaign teams representing all affiliates, notably in Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia.

Affiliates participating in precarious work project activities have reported organizing tens of thousands of precarious workers since 2012. Last year alone, affiliates reported that 34,000 precarious workers were organized.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, affiliates organized around 17,000 precarious workers in six countries: Togo, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Senegal.

In western Africa, despite legislation limiting the use of casual and daily workers, these contracts are regularly used abusively. In some chemical companies in Senegal, the entire workforce is made up of daily workers or temporary agency workers. Through IndustriALL efforts, a training programme for organizers has been put in place and affiliates have launched organizing drives and campaigns in targeted companies.

Union strength is dependent on membership. We have to organize contract workers, unionize them, fight for them and increase our strength.

B.K. Das, general secretary INMF, India.

In Pune, India, companies are hiring fewer permanent staff and are using more non-union contract workers. Permanent workers are dismissed and temporary workers are rehired for the same work but for a fraction of the salary.

The Indian federation SEM (Shramik Ekta Mahasangh) is fighting back and organizing precarious workers. Contract workers used to be victimized when joining a union. To overcome this situation, SEM registered a separate union for the manpower workers in the Maharashtra State, the Maharashtra Contract Workers Union (MCWU), in September 2014. With the support of IndustriALL, the MCWU trained organizers and organized 650 contract workers in one month.

IndustriALL encourages affiliates to organize and represent precarious workers, rather than to create separate unions. But when that proves too difficult and creating a union for precarious workers is the only solution, the solidarity and support of permanent workers’ unions is essential. These unions provide the necessary information to organize precarious workers at their plants.

Collective bargaining is key

In 2015, through the project alone, affiliates succeeded in converting 10,000 precarious workers to permanent ones.

Over the last few years, numerous examples have been reported of affiliates succeeding in negotiating improved conditions for precarious workers or to extend collective bargaining coverage to precarious workers. Many of these examples are included in IndustriALL’s publication ‘Negotiating Security’.

Fighting for and against legislation

Effective legislation that limits the use of precarious work and is properly enforced is essential.

In Indonesia, affiliates conducted a survey of more than 500 workers in ICT/ Electronics, automotive, textile/garment, cement, shipbuilding/shipbreaking, pulp and paper, mining, chemicals and energy industries in order to gather evidence of non-compliance with existing legislation. Most of the contract and direct temporary workers interviewed had their contracts renewed several times, despite the law only allowing temporary contracts to be renewed twice. Some of them had been continuously employed for 14 years.

The majority of the precarious workers were working on core business activities of the companies, while the law clearly limits which types of activities precarious workers can perform. Affiliates will use the results to conduct a campaign for better compliance with the law.

In the Philippines, affiliates organizing joint campaigns to push the parliament to adopt a bill on security of tenure that would promote regular and permanent employment and aim to curb precarious work, particularly agency labour, which is growing in all industrial sectors.

In Brazil, IndustriALL affiliates have been running a campaign for years to prevent the adoption by the Congress of a bill liberalizing outsourcing. The proposed law to open up use of contract workers without limitation has been discussed for more than a decade. After being effectively blocked by unions for several years, employers managed to get the bill adopted by the House of Representatives in April 2015. The text is now in the Senate for a vote. Opposition to the bill has been coordinated between trade unions and broader civil society, supported by IndustriALL. So far the movement has been able to delay the vote in the Senate.

As part of the preparations for IndustriALL’s industry world conferences, affiliates have been sharing information on precarious work in their sectors. Survey responses clearly illustrate the stark inequalities between permanent and precarious workers. In all sectors, the majority of precarious workers do not receive the same treatment as permanent workers.

Their salaries are lower – the wage structure in several automotive component factories in the Chennai area in India, shows that contract workers get a wage almost eight times lower than permanent workers.

At Rio Tinto Madagascar, outsourced workers earn one quarter of permanent workers’ salaries.

Precarious workers do not benefit from the same social protection, if any at all. It is rare that precarious workers have access to company benefits like medical facilities provided to permanent workers.

Affiliates report that precarious workers do not always have access to the same facilities at the worksite as permanent workers. In many companies in India, and at Rio Tinto Madagascar, they are forced to eat outside in the dust while permanent workers eat in their canteen. In the Cavite area, Philippines, contract workers in the electronics or textile sectors walk to work in the morning to save money, while permanent workers benefit from the company’s transportation service.

Precarious workers are exposed to higher health and safety risks and often have more physically demanding jobs with longer working hours. They receive less training and have less experience.

Precarious work has become a central issue in the work of several global and regional company and industry networks.

In 2016, IndustriALL affiliates in the cement sector in India, Philippines and Indonesia adopted joint national action plans, prioritizing organizing precarious workers.

The use of precarious workers in the sector especially in Asia is widespread. The LafargeHolcim global network organized a global day of action on 7 October 2015. Trade unions from Europe, Asia, Africa, South and North America organized rallies, conferences and meetings to send a strong signal that LafargeHolcim must address the widespread use of precarious work at the company. More than 300 people have died during last four years while working for Lafarge and Holcim – almost 90 per cent of these were employed by subcontractors or third parties.

Indian affiliate PCSS won an important victory in January at LafargeHolcim’s ACC Jamul cement plant after years of struggle and an OECD complaint supported by IndustriALL. The settlement achieved employment security for half of the 1,000 contract workers with a progressive readjustment of contract worker salaries to reach the national wage agreement for the cement industry, as well as severance packages and support for rehabilitation for the dismissed.

Precarious work is one of the priorities of IndustriALL’s Rio Tinto global campaign. Attention has been drawn to the numerous abuses linked to an extensive use of precarious work at Rio Tinto. Affiliates are actively organizing precarious workers.

In 2013, FISEMA was able to organize 300 outsourced workers at QMM (Rio Tinto Madagascar). In Australia, the CFMEU has been organizing permanent workers together with labour hire workers at one Rio Tinto worksite; a difficult task as labour hire workers are employed by the hour and employers can easily get rid of them.

Action towards the ILO

IndustriALL is fighting for ILO recognition on how precarious work is undermining respect for international labour standards. There is a lack of institutional awareness and employers and governments have not been prepared to address the issue. After years of advocacy at the ILO, supported by the workers’ group, there was a step forward in February 2015 when IndustriALL participated in a tripartite Meeting of Experts on Non-Standard Forms of Employment.

The conclusions of the meeting have the potential to significantly strengthen the ILO’s responses to precarious work. They include recommending that the ILO improve data collection and reporting on precarious work. Importantly, the recommendations also called for future Meetings of Experts on temporary employment and on discrimination on the basis of employment status, opening up the possibility for future international labour standards to be developed in these two areas.

Campaigning and winning

Thanks to the wealth of knowledge and experience that has been developed over the four years of the campaign to STOP Precarious Work, building on the work that had already been done by our founding global unions, IndustriALL affiliates throughout the world stand ready to confront precarious work in all its forms,

says Jyrki Raina.

The fight against precarious work is not over, nor will it be any time soon. At our second Congress in Rio de Janeiro in October, affiliates will be asked to reaffirm their commitment to the global campaign as it moves into the next phase. It will be a time to reflect on the many, many achievements of the campaign and to gather strength for the challenges ahead.

What we can be sure of is that wherever precarious work takes hold, IndustriALL affiliates will be organizing, bargaining, fighting politically and uniting their strength to protect workers’ rights.

Training future women leaders in South East Asia

The training in the cities of Phnom Penh, Yangon and Jakarta from 6-12 May focussed on increasing women in leadership and decision-making positions in union structures; promoting gender-equality at unions and workplaces; and identifying strategies to campaign for improved maternity protection.

The women, who are all leaders and members of unions from IndustriALL affiliates in the three countries, gained better understanding on gender equality and acquired basic skills in leadership particularly in communication, facilitation and dispute settlement. Although the majority of workers in the manufacturing sectors, particularly textile, garments and clothing industries in Cambodia, Myanmar and Indonesia are women, they lack appropriate skills to hold leadership positions and be part of decision-making structures both at federations, unions and workplaces.   

The participants shared their experiences on how they are considered in society – particularly by their male counterparts – in the family, workplace and community. Group activities revealed problems of discrimination, occupational health hazards and harassment. Wage gap, invisibility, heavy work-loads, discrimination in promotion and training, and sexual harassment are some of the issues and concerns raised by the participants.

Priorities for the year include improved maternity protection through legislative proposals; integration in collective bargaining; and lobbying their governments to ratify ILO Convention on Maternity Protection (183). They resolved to increase the number of women in their union membership; increase participation in leadership and decision-making structures, and educate men workers on gender equality. The women also undertook to work towards the attainment of 30 per cent women’s active participation in trade unions.

Elsewhere from 13-14 May 2016, more than thrity women union leaders and members from IndustriALL affiliates in Thailand held a planning workshop aimed at reviewing women’s role and position in union structures. IndustriALL Regional Secretary Annie Adviento gave a presentation on establishing workplace level women committees, while Project Coordinator, Lorna Ferrer, explained IndustriALL’s project on gender-maternity protection project in South East Asia.  Thailand women will be part of the project implementation this year.  The workshop participants came-up with concrete plans on increasing leadership positions in trade unions and identified issues including maternity protection as one of their priority campaigns.  

Changing the face of the global textile and garment industry

135 representatives from over 60 textile and garment unions from 35 countries came together to discuss organizing workers, living wages and industry-wide collective bargaining.

In many parts of the world the garment and textile industry is synonymous with low pay and job insecurity. In the four years since its creation, IndustriALL has made major achievements in securing workers’ rights and safeguarding their right to join unions.

The ground-breaking Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, negotiated in the aftermath of the collapse of the Rana Plaza, is a legally-binding agreement between global unions and more than 200 multinational fashion brands to make more than 1,600 garment factories safe.

Speaking at the conference, Rob Wayss, executive director of the Accord, said that the Accord is changing how the garment industry operates:

“It is real and it has teeth. It is protecting workers in Bangladesh’s garment industry. To date more than 1,600 factories have been inspected and many vital safety measures have been taken.”

“As unions we have fought and we have risen from tragedy, said Christina Hajagos, IndustriALL textile director. “A call to move beyond corporate social responsibility must be the legacy of Rana Plaza.”

Confronting global capital was a recurrent theme during the two-day conference. During a panel debate with union leaders as well as company representatives from H&M and Inditex, global framework agreements (GFAs) were discussed as a way of boosting global union solidarity.

IndustriALL has three global framework agreements (GFAs) in the sector. The two with the world’s largest garment producers, H&M and Inditex, together protect the rights of 3 million garment workers.

Presenting IndustriALL’s living wage strategy, which aims to introduce industry-wide collective bargaining linked to the garment brands’ purchasing power, Jenny Holdcroft, IndustriALL policy director, said that it is when brands and trade unions work together that real change can be made.

Athit Kong from IndustriALL Cambodian affiliate C.CAWDU, said:

“Global garment brands must take their responsibility for living wages for garment workers. We need industry bargaining to stop brands from negotiating lower prices based on lower wages.”

Conference participants gave testimonials on collective bargaining, harassment at the workplace, increasing levels of precarious work, as well as successful conversions into permanent contracts, and building union power through organizing.

Delegates signed a banner calling for Hugo Boss to respect workers’ right to join a union at the factory in Izmir. The banner will be delivered as a symbol of solidarity to the fired workers.

An action plan, focussing on IndustriALL’s key strategic goals as they relate to the sector was adopted.

Athit Kong from C.CAWDU, Cambodia, and Akiko Gono from UA ZENSEN, Japan, were elected as co-chairs for the sector.

“I look forward to developing well functioning industrial relations in our sector,” said Akiko Gono.

Indian unions to intensify organizing in textile and garment sector

Organizing precarious workers is a key priority for IndustriALL’s union building project with Swedish non-profit organization, Union to Union, in the textile, garment, shoe and leather sector in South Asia. Various initiatives taken by IndustriALL and its affiliates to combat precarious work and defend workers’ rights were discussed at the workshop.

Winning workers’ confidence in unions is a major challenge faced by union organizers. Social security for precarious workers has been a key demand pursued by unions. In the absence of secure work, union intervention in enabling precarious workers to obtain government sponsored social security schemes have made a positive impact in organizing workers.

In various places, unions are also facing challenges of dealing with factory closures, particularly tanneries, due to environmental regulations. Precarious workers are left with no compensation or alternative employment opportunities in such situations.  Unions decided to take up factory closures on a case-by-case basis and fight for appropriate compensation and alternative employment opportunities for precarious workers.

Participants also discussed the benefits and drawbacks of industry-wide and company-specific collective bargaining agreements.

Addressing the workshop Apoorva Kaiwar, regional secretary of IndustriALL urged participants to build union power at plant level. She said:

“In today’s scenario the textile, garment and leather industry is witnessing a rapid growth, but the workforce is facing the serious challenges of precarious jobs. Migrant, young and women workers are becoming the face of the workforce in this sector and we need to organize them in a way suitable to the next generation workers.”

Details of IndustriALL’s global framework agreements with H&M and Inditex and the means to use them to defend workers rights in their supply chain were highlighted in the workshop.

Key union partners of the project SEWA, NTGLWF, INTWF, INGLWF, HMS NCR, TWFI and INTUC Kolkata took part in the workshop. Participants resolved to bring more precarious workers into the trade union fold. 

Repression and violence at Maghreb Steel in Morocco

Industrial tensions at Maghreb Steel have escalated to the extent that sit in protests on 12 and 17 May 2016 were violently attacked by police.
 
The Maghreb Steel Union, which is affiliated to the Moroccan national centre Union Marocaine du Travail (UMT), held sit in protests outside the offices of the banks that had bailed out the troubled steel company. The protests by 630 workers were attacked by police, and several workers were injured.
 
Maghreb Steel was formed in 1975, but it was not until March last year that workers affiliated to the UMT opened a union office. The union held a first strike in August 2015 after members were dismissed for demanding a wage increase.  After this, a conciliation meeting between representatives of the company and union resulted in the signing of a social and ethical charter, with management committing to respect the right of workers to unionize.
 
The company ignored its commitments and dismissed 7 workers, including union leaders, in November, resulting in a second strike that began in December last year. Attacks on the union have multiplied, and the company is now in violation of the law, refusing to pay union activists, and hiring scab labour to replace striking workers, in violation of Morocco’s Labour Code.
 
The Moroccan Constitution guarantees freedom of association and the right to strike, and Morocco has ratified ILO Conventions 98, 135 and 154. These conventions protect the right to strike, recognize union representatives, promote collective bargaining and protect against prejudicial treatment of union activists.
 
Maghreb Steel is the only plant in Morocco producing the steel plate necessary for auto production, and supplies steel to the Renault plant in Tangier. The company also has advanced plans to supply PSA Peugeot Citroën, which is to build an assembly plant in northern Morocco. IndustriALL has global framework agreements with both these companies that cover the entire supply chain, and intends to use these agreements to put pressure on the company.
 
The steel plant has suffered financially, and recently applied via the Moroccan government for safeguard measures against dumping.
 
Maghreb Steel workers are demanding:

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL assitant general secretary, said:
 
“We support the Maghreb Steel workers in their demand for dignity and fundamental trade union rights. We have written to the company, to the Moroccan government and to the company’s clients to express our dismay at this behaviour, and to demand that the company recognizes the union and reinstates the activists who were dismissed.”

Hugo Boss union-busting in Turkey "damages brand"

Hugo Boss has a long-running anti-union policy in Izmir, which has seen many unionized workers illegally sacked since IndustriALL Global Union’s Turkish affiliate, Teksif, began organizing at the factory in 2011.

“Hugo Boss’ anti-union behaviour in Izmir is a threat to shareholder value. The ongoing violations have generated negative media coverage. Over 107,000 potential Hugo Boss customers have signed a petition demanding that Hugo Boss respect workers’ rights. The longer these violations in Izmir continue, the greater the risk that the Hugo Boss brand will be damaged,” stated IndustriALL Organizing and Campaigns Director Adam Lee to the meeting.

Of the 163 lawsuits for unfair dismissals since October 2011, the Turkish courts have sided with workers in 76 per cent of finalized cases. The Fair Labor Association (FLA), which Hugo Boss is affiliated to, also concluded in a January 2016 report that many of these dismissals were related to unionization efforts.

Despite the court decisions and FLA report, Hugo Boss claims there are no problems in Izmir.

“Hugo Boss has not changed its behaviour in Izmir. The company fired Suleyman Budak and Abdullah Satan late last year and Meryem Bicakci in March this year for their union activity. Bullying and harassment of union activists at the Hugo Boss factory in Izmir is as bad as it’s ever been,” Lee told shareholders.

In response, Hugo Boss CEO Mark Langer said that Hugo Boss respected and recognized Teksif and has invited the union to a stakeholders’ meeting.

Earlier this week, Hugo Boss met Teksif in Istanbul but contrary to Hugo Boss’ claims at the shareholders’ meeting, no agreement has been reached.

“Talking is not enough – we want actions not words,” said IndustriALL general secretary, Jyrki Raina. “Hugo Boss has failed to meet the commitments it’s made to us in the past and failed to reach an agreement with our trade union affiliate, Teksif.

“We call on new Hugo Boss CEO Mark Langer to stop the intimidation and threats against union supporters inside the factory; to reinstate the sacked workers; and to work with IndustriALL and Teksif to resolve the illegal violations at their Izmir factory. We demand justice and respect for fundamental rights, particularly freedom of association.”