The MENA region oil and gas network meeting, held with the support of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), brought together 31 delegates representing unions from the MENA countries as well as Turkey and Norway.

The social implications of lower oil prices and unions’ responses globally and in the MENA region, were at the centre of discussions. The meeting also reported on the progress of the network’s first year, as well as furthering sustainable networking at national, regional and company level. 

Delegates from a number of multinational companies that operate in the region, including DNO, Exxon Mobil, FENOSA, Total and Shell, participated in the meeting and set up mechanisms for networking at company level in the region.

Based on the preliminary results of the questionnaire which was distributed earlier to the MENA unions, delegates from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and Yemen pointed out the issues and union responses on: labour and union laws; health and safety; wages; workforce and unionization; union structures; precarious work; multinational companies; women and youth; social dialogue; and collective agreements.

The Turkish Oil Union, Petrol-is, and Norwegian union, Industri Energi, shared their experiences on transnational companies, which operate in the region, and building union power at international level.

In recent months, workers in the oil and gas industry in the region have been going through several struggles at industry and company level. The delegates discussed some key ongoing cases and concluded solidarity resolutions with Kuwait oil workers’ strike SAMIR refinery workers in Morocco, DNO workers in Yemen, as well as supporting the current struggle of the General Union of Petroleum & Chemical Workers in Jordan.  

Participants further developed the action plan for the period to come and emphasized enhancing and expanding multinational networking and information exchange in the region; supporting capacity building of the new affiliated MENA oil and gas unions; increasing women’s participation; and improving solidarity at regional level.

The April network meeting followed the reunion of the MENA oil and gas Steering Committee in December 2015 in Amman, Jordan.

It follows IndustriALL’s extensive one-week trade union building mission in Madagascar from 23 to 29 April 2016, the second of its kind, following a similar intervention in 2015.

The trade union building effort in the country comes off the back of continuous, unrelenting attacks on trade union rights by multinational companies, Rio Tinto and Sherritt Ambatovy, as well as a local mining company, Kraomite Malagasy.

IndustriALL conducted four workshops for its mining and textile sectors in three different regions in Madagascar: at Fort Dauphin where Rio Tinto operates QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) an ilmenite mine; Ambatovy where Sherritt International operates a nickel mine; and in the capital, Antananarivo.

IndustriALL addressed a mass meeting of members of its affiliates to hear personal stories of their working conditions at Rio Tinto QMM. Two workers who spoke about the atrocious working conditions at Rio Tinto QMM were subsequently threatened with dismissals for speaking out.

FES Madagascar organized an extremely well-attended press conference to highlight IndustriALL’s mission in Madagascar. Two very important research findings were presented at the press conference, one commissioned by IndustriALL on mining and the impact of precarious work in the Malagasy society, and another commissioned by FES on precarious work in the textile sector in Madagascar. The two research findings vindicated IndustriALL’s call for the elimination of precarious work in the country.  

The explosion of precarious work as a business and production model is having devastating consequences for Madagascar’s labour market and economic growth, benefitting big multinational companies such as Rio Tinto and Sherritt Ambatovy, the two leading drivers of this pugnacious practice.

IndustriALL affiliates have emerged out of the week-long workshops determined to organize precarious workers and defend the collective rights of workers in Madagascar. They regard precarious work as a threat to the security of permanent workers and by extension, an attack on the trade unions in Madagascar. They also vowed to protect the two contract workers that have threatened with dismissal following their speaking out at the mass meeting.  

The leader of the IndustriALL delegation, director of mining, Glen Mpufane, said:

“The violations of trade union and employee rights by principally Rio Tinto QMM and Sherritt Ambatovy must come to an end. It is our collective duty to fight the injustices in Madagascar. It cannot be right that Madagascar, so richly endowed in mineral resources, remains one of the poorest countries in the world, where 70 per cent of the Island’s 22.6 million population, live on less than US$2 a day and 59 per cent on less than $1.25. This is a tragedy.”

Representatives from IndustriALL affiliates in Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Mauritius, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe focused on preparations for the IndustriALL Congress to be held in Brazil, Rio De Janeiro in October 2016.

The meeting received reports and held discussions on the IndustriALL statues and action plan groups, resolutions and nominations process for the IndustriALL leadership, regional executive committee members in Sub Sahara Africa and the women report. The meeting also discussed an assessment of the work and impact of IndustriALL in Sub-Sahara and internationally.

In his open remarks to the meeting, general secretary of the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU), Hassan Musaihon, said that the major challenges facing Sub-Sahara Africa are the eradication of poverty, improvement in literacy levels, strong trade unions, and the development of policy that promotes industrialization to create jobs.

Fernando Lopes, assistant general Secretary of IndustriALL, told participants that IndustriALL has managed to recruit 160,000 new members globally through organizing projects work alone. This is 60 per cent more the the 101,000 recruited in 2014. But he added that more work needs to be done by affiliates to continue this growth, particularly in organizing precarious workers. Lopes said unions need to call on their national governments to establish and grow manufacturing industries to create jobs, as well as promote a sustainable industrial policy that includes investment in research and development.

Monika Kemperle, assistant general Secretary of IndustriALL, told participants of the changes both positive and negative posed by Industry 4.0 to both workers and the workplace.

The Sub Sahara Africa regional report to the REXCO covered work done in the region on the IndustriALL five goals of building union power; challenging global capital; defend workers’ rights; fight precarious work; and ensure sustainable industrial employment.  The meeting heard that Zambia has passed a law to stop precarious work, while noting the need to continue the campaign against precarious employment. The meeting further called for a resolution by IndustriALL affiliates to organize the increasing number of informal sector workers in Sub Sahara Africa.

A report of the women’s meeting was presented and adopted. The report called on IndustriALL affiliates need to strengthen work on health, safety and environment as more women continue to be affected at the workplace. The women’s report also called on IndustriALL to launch a permanent campaign on violence against women. The women’s meeting resolved that IndustriALL needs to demand that Boko Haram release the young girls captured in Nigeria and called on the African Union to do all in its power to help return the captured girls.

The REXCO meeting took resolutions on the need to organize the informal sector; to strengthen the campaign on precarious work; on Palestine; and for a campaign against violence on women. Drafts of the resolutions will be referred for IndustriALL Congress in 2016.