Rio Tinto Bunder project: un-kept promises for workers and communities

According to Rio Tinto, once developed, the Bunder mine would place Madhya Pradesh in the top ten diamond producing regions of the world.

During the visit to Chattarpur, villagers from neighbouring communities expressed strong opposition to the development of the Bunder project and discontent with Rio Tinto, echoing the result of a public hearing organized by authorities a year ago. According to press reports on the hearing, only seven villagers supported the project while 250 opposed it.

The local community is concerned about Rio Tinto’s employment practices, echoing what IndustriALL has been reporting since the beginning of the Rio Tinto campaign two years ago. The company currently employs around 400 people for the prospecting phase at Bunder, the majority of whom are hired through a local contractor.

Rio Tinto claims on its website that it prioritizes local employment and that 70 per cent of workers at Bunder come from neighbouring communities. However, during the visit by IndustriALL and INMWF, the villagers and PEHAL, an NGO involved in defending local communities, said only one third of the workers actually come from local villages.

Rio Tinto also says local community employment is organized on a rotational basis in order to benefit more families. In fact, villagers complain that they cannot work more than fourteen days a month, with a minimum daily salary of 375 rupees (US$ 5.5) for skilled workers and 235 rupees (US$3.4) for unskilled workers. These conditions do not afford a decent standard of living. In addition, workers prospecting at Bunder have been toiling 12 hours a day. It was also reported that some workers were favoured and classified as skilled labour just because they were supportive of the opening of the mine.

Villagers reported that when workers tried to organize a union to get better conditions, they were all sacked by the subcontractor

“It is unfortunate that a multinational mining giant like Rio Tinto, which came with the promise of employment and development for local communities, is in fact exploiting poor tribal workers and causing harm to the livelihood of local communities. INMF condemns Rio Tinto’s anti-worker practices and will continue our fight to protect workers’ rights,” said S Q Zama, General Secretary of the INMWF.

Rio Tinto also appears to have broken its promises to the local community. In one village visited by IndustriALL and INMWF, villagers reported that, at the start of the Bunder project, Rio Tinto established a water tank. Every family paid 1000 Rupees (US$15) to be connected to the water supply system and (US$0.73) for a watchman to take care of the water tank. However, when villagers began complaining about the mining project, Rio Tinto stopped the system and took away the water pump after only two months. According to villagers, the company said that as long as the villagers opposed the project, they would not fill the water tank. PEHAL also said Rio Tinto had reneged on a promise to plant fruit trees along paths in the vicinity of the project.

The findings from the IndustriALL/INMWF visit showed that little had changed since a report published by Partizans in 2013 criticized Rio Tinto’s behaviour towards workers, the environment and the local community at Bunder.

The development of the Bunder project is not only facing opposition from the local communities. There are political and NGO fronts denouncing the impact this project could have on the livelihood of the communities. According to reports more than one million trees would have to be destroyed if the project were to go ahead, causing large-scale deforestation and damaging the habitat and movement of endangered tigers. It will also require a huge quantity of water in a region with high levels of drought.

The Madhya Pradesh government issued a Letter of Intent in 2012, giving a provisional go ahead to the project. But before that provisional permission can be converted to an official mining lease, Rio Tinto must get environmental and forest clearances to get their mining plan approved.

European unions fight for strike rights

For three years the employers’ group paralyzed the work of the International Labour Organization (ILO) by claiming that the right to strike is not part of international law, even though for decades it had been universally accepted by governments, workers and employers alike. Following a global union campaign, the employers finally backed off in February 2015.

But the fight is not over. In November, the Conservative government of the United Kingdom presented a trade union bill, which would seriously undermine the right to strike. In addition to restricting picketing and protests, the law would allow the use of agency workers to replace permanent staff during strikes. In public services, 50 per cent of members would have to turn out to vote and 40 percent of the entire membership must vote in favour. That amounts to an 80 per cent approval threshold.

In February, the UK unions reached millions of people with an innovative #heartunions campaign, celebrating the positive work done by unions and their members in workplaces and in society, and rejecting the government’s attempts to damage them.

Also in Spain, unions had to take action as the authorities used an old law from the Franco dictatorship era to prosecute striking workers. On 16 February, a Spanish court acquitted the Airbus-8 workers facing prison terms of eight years and three months each for having participated in a peaceful strike in 2010. But the struggle continues to repeal article 315.3 of the Spanish Penal Code and to get rid of other similar court cases.

We have to remain vigilant, as attacks against the right to strike could spread to other countries.

The global economic crisis has already offered a pretext for a number of right-wing governments to curtail workers’ rights and cut social protection. Romania faced the most massive slaughter of rights when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2011 pressured the government to bypass the parliament and extend precarious work, abolish collective bargaining and restrict the right to strike.

Collective bargaining was also banned in Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Cyprus during the worst crisis years. Now the Irish and Spanish governments have agreed to rebuild the bargaining systems.

These examples show that trade union rights are not self-evident even in Europe, where the union movement started. Attacks against workers’ rights are definitely ideological, coming from governments who listen their business advisers rather than the people. And too often business prefers to have obedient workers who shut up and do what they are told, instead of entering into cumbersome negotiations.

Guaranteeing union rights will always be a fight about values and political will to build societies based on democracy and social justice. For that fight, we need to continue organizing and mobilizing workers to build union power.

Jyrki Raina

General Secretary

IndustriALL stages Nissan protest at the IOC

Nissan has broken the guidelines for sponsors of the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games through aggressive anti-union discrimination at its 6,000 worker plant in Canton, Mississippi, USA, where workers are trying to organize with IndustriALL affiliate the United Auto Workers.

IndustriALL wants the IOC to intervene and urge the Rio 2016 Olympic Committee to ask Nissan for a corrective action plan at the Canton plant. It is also calling on the IOC to remove Nissan as a sponsor if they refuse to adhere to the social responsibility expectations of the Rio Games.

Questioned over anti-union discrimination in the French parliament last week, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn claimed workers are free to join a union wherever it operates in the world.

IndustriALL general secretary, Jyrki Raina, disputed Ghosn’s response in a speech outside the IOC offices in Lausanne, saying:

Well, Mr Ghosn, I have been to Canton Mississippi and the workers told me a very different story. They spoke about intimidation, threats of dismissals and even of plant closure if they choose a union. This is not freedom of association and this is against the Olympic rules. That is why Nissan is not fit to be an Olympic sponsor. We demand that Nissan changes its behaviour now – otherwise it’s time to extinguish the Olympic flame for Nissan.

Jyrki Raina and the IndustriALL delegation were met by Ben Seeley, Head of Marketing Communications at the IOC who promised to pass IndustriALL’s letter voicing its concerns to Thomas Bach, President of the IOC.

The solidarity action followed a demonstration of around 200 trade unionists in Brazil on 18 February. Trade union leaders hand delivered a protest letter against Nissan’s conduct in Canton to the organizers of the Rio 2016 Olympics, set to begin in August.

Nissan workers use dialogue and demonstration to advance their cause

Hundreds of members of unions affiliated to CUT, Força Sindical, UGT, the United Auto Workers (UAW) and IndustriALL Global Union held a demonstration at the 2016 Organizing Committee’s meeting in Barra da Tijuca, Río de Janeiro on 18 February. Waving placards and banners, they denounced Nissan’s anti-trade union practices in the USA and called on the Japanese car company to act in a socially responsible way.

"Together, we can pressure this multinational company to respect workers in Mississippi, USA. If Nissan does not cease its anti-trade union practices, we will denounce it at the Olympic Games” said Miguel Torres, president of CNTM-Força Sindical, affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union.

Edson Rocha, Secretary of Administration and Finance for CNM/CUT, also affiliated to IndustriALL, said his union had denounced Nissan’s actions in the USA before. “We will continue to act in solidarity with our UAW colleagues until Nissan respects workers' right to organize in a trade union”, he said.

During the demonstration, about 20 union representatives met Ambassador Agemar Sanctos, Director of Institutional Relations for the Organizing Committee. They hand delivered a letter stating that the intimidation suffered by Nissan workers is in contradiction with the principles set out in the Sustainable Supply Chain Guide for sponsors of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (http://www.industriall-union.org/nissan-not-fit-to-be-an-olympic-sponsor).

There was a positive response to this letter and he agreed to arrange another meeting at a date to be confirmed next week. Sanctos also agreed to speak to Nissan management and seek a response to the complaints presented by the unions.

"The meeting was very productive, but we are ready to demonstrate again in order to make ourselves heard. And we will do so for as long as it takes", said Ricardo Patah, president of the UGT, which represents more than 80 per cent of Nissan dealers in Brazil.

The unions are also writing to the labour minister, Miguel Rossetto. The unions hope that the committee will present a corrective action plan for immediate implementation by the company.

Marino Vani, IndustriALL Assistant Regional Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean was in the delegation that delivered the letter and he also attended the demonstration. He said:

“We are not protesting against either the Olympic Games or the committee or even Nissan. We believe that workers have basic rights, for example, to organize and negotiate. We want respect from the biggest Olympic Games sponsor.
Solidarity with our colleagues at Nissan in the USA is aimed at getting the company to negotiate with the UAW and allow its workers to organize freely. As a global union, it is IndustriALL’s mission and duty to defend workers and ensure that the Olympic Games is a fraternal, fair and clean competition. We cannot let the Olympic torch be carried by a car produced by a company that maintains anti-trade union practices in its supply chain.
We hope that before the Olympic Games starts, a dialogue can be opened to find a way forward and reconcile Nissan and its workers in the USA. We hope that the company will allow the union to organize, respect workers' rights and set an example of the spirt of peace and respect symbolized by the Olympic flame.”

IndustriALL affiliates review trade union organizing efforts in India

The annual project evaluation of the union building project in the textile, garment, shoe and leather (TGSL) sector took place on 8 – 9 February 2016 in Delhi, India. The project was launched in 2014 to build strong unions and is supported by Swedish union IF Metall and Union to Union.

IndustriALL affiliates shared their organizing experiences and agreed that the project helped them to organize workers and to conduct number of awareness camps and rallies in 2015 to raise awareness on workers’ rights, as well as to inform them of availability and process of accessing social security benefits for textile, garment and leather industry workers.

Christina Hajagos-Clausen, IndustriALL director of textile and garment sectors, presented IndustriALL’s strategic plan for building union power in TGSL Sector and discussed initiatives taken in key producing countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Kenya, Madagascar and countries in Middle East, Northern Africa and in Latin America.

IndustriALL has been supporting its affiliates to develop action plans and strategy to:

Fight Legislation that increases precarious work
Use collective bargaining to address precarious work
Gain permanent status for precarious workers and improve their working conditions and recruit precarious workers in to unions

Progressive efforts in monitoring and implementation of global framework work agreement (GFA) with companies like Inditex, H&M and current discussions to sign new GFAs were also discussed.

Affiliates also underlined various challenges in the process of organizing, including anti-labour attitude of government officials, proposed anti-workers changes in labour laws, presence of complex supply chain, prevalence of migrant workers and low union dues collection. But despite the challenges they expressed a determination to increase union membership and continue their support for workers to defend workers’ rights through organizing precarious workers.

Union building in steel, mining and energy sectors

On 9-10 February, the project advisory committee of IndustriALL/SASK Union to Union India project met in Delhi to review affiliates’ organizing efforts in steel, mining and energy sector worker.

In 2015, IndustriALL affiliates organized 19225 workers. In this process, activities such as trainings on union building, workshops on occupational safety and health, rallies and gate meetings were carried out.

The project was implemented by Indian national metal and mine workers’ federations affiliated to Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) and federations affiliated to national Centre Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) namely Steel Metal and Engineering workers Federation of India (SMEFI) and mine workers federation Hind Khadan Mazdoor Federation (HKMF) participated in the meeting.

G Sanjeeva Reddy, president of INMF and national trade union centre INTUC appreciated IndustriALL’s support:

Against the intense anti-labour policies of the present government, trade unions across political spectrum have come together to defend workers’ rights through nationwide protests and strike actions. In this critical scenario, trade union movement in India need more concrete interventions and support from global unions.

Devika Singh, and Sanjyot Vadhavkar of IndustriALL India Women’s committee presented the findings of research exercise, ‘mapping women workers in the steel sector’. Breaking the popular notion that the sector dominated with male workers, they argued that large number of women workers are also engaged in steel sector. They emphasised the urgent need for union organising efforts to prioritise bringing women workers into the union fold.

Affiliates also informed that newly formed trade unions are progressing well towards sustainability in terms of building strong organizational structures and financial stability through increasing membership dues in the long run. They also decided to intensify their organising efforts.

Presiding both events, Fernando Lopes, assistant general secretary IndustriALL, congratulated affiliates for successfully organizing a large number of workers and urged them to find ways of organizing contract workers:

Precarious work is increasing and it is important to organize these workers.

New union challenges the status quo in DR Congo

Formed only in 2011, TUMEC today has more than 10,000 members from seven provinces. Workers have been drawn in by a promise of doing things differently. Traditionally, trade unionism in the DRC has been shrouded by controversy. For a long time, it remained within the realm of the state and more or less equalled state and private sector interests.

In 1990 as a multi-party system was reinstated, the number of unions increased, producing over 600 unions. Unions emerged as a business model for the benefit of their founders, described as mutually supporting employers, without prioritizing workers’ rights, needs or interest. An open and accepted system of gifts (or bribes) to workers is all too often used to gain votes for union representation.

TUMEC has taken on the challenge to reform, break down barriers and take a new path. It has worked hard to develop a new way of doing things, along with building its own ideological perspective on work relations, representation, equality and leadership. Inspiring leadership and a clear and convincing message are resonating in the difficult conditions and lack of representation that workers have experienced in the DRC.

Through both the Swedish funded IndustriALL Union Building Project and the Dutch funded TUMEC project, TUMEC has succeeded in initiating progressive reforms and increase its attention to serving members, not the other way round.

TUMEC aims to work through a set of principles of unionism in strong contrast to the corruption potential inherent in the established system. TUMEC is working hard to design a more democratic and open system in the appointment of leadership and the management of union affairs.

The most noteworthy has been the slow but thorough construction of trade union systems were almost none existed. TUMEC has increased its focus on strengthening accountability and transparency in the management of union affairs. The union has developed clear mechanisms for combating corruption and enhancing accountability. It has found unique ways to engage with workers and members, not only at work places but also within the community itself, much appreciated by the workers.

Fernando Lopes, IndustriALL assistant general secretary, says that TUMEC’s work in the DRC is ground breaking:

“There is a lot to be learnt from TUMEC’s approach to union building. Many challenges remain, for example in terms of expansion and capacity building, but it is clear that the hard work put into breaking old traditions and instead creating a modern, active union owned by its members has been successful.”

Nissan – Not fit to be an Olympic sponsor

Representatives from trade unions in Brazil will hand deliver a complaint letter to Carlos Nuzman, President of the Organizing Committee for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Ambassador Agemar Sanctos, Director of Institutional Relations today at 12:00pm BRST.

The Japanese-owned car giant, which operates in an alliance with French-based Renault, is supplying around 6,500 vehicles to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Brazil taking place in August, and is the only motor sponsor.

IndustriALL Global Union’s Brazil affiliates say Nissan’s aggressive anti-union suppression at its plant in Canton, Mississippi is in direct contradiction to the Sustainable Supply Chain Guide for sponsors and suppliers of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, which lists freedom of association among its standards.

The 18 February action in Rio de Janeiro will see Brazilian trade unions UGT, Força Sindical, CUT, the National Union of Athletes, as well as the United Auto Workers (UAW) and IndustriALL, unite in support of workers at Canton who have been intimidated and reprimanded by Nissan in retaliation for union activities. Nissan workers from Mississippi will also attend the event.

Despite Nissan allowing union representation at other plants around the world, including Brazil, the Nissan North America employee handbook expressly advises workers to decline union membership.

Nissan Canton employee, Morris Mock, noted that:

“We are simply asking to be treated with the same respect shown to our unionized colleagues at Nissan and Renault workplaces around the world. I am proud to stand alongside my Brazilian colleagues in asking the Olympic Committee to put its values into action.”

In December 2015, following a six month investigation, the National Labor Relations Board in the US filed a formal complaint against Nissan charging the company with breaking the law for threatening to terminate workers for union activities, for threatening workers with plant closure for choosing a union, and for unlawfully imposing a uniform policy after hundreds of Canton workers began wearing pro-union t-shirts.

“By attacking the union, creating a climate of fear in Canton and refusing dialogue, Nissan has treated its US workforce as second-class citizens. I hope that Nissan will adhere to the principles of the Rio Olympic Games and change its behavior in Mississippi,” said Mock.

Workers want a union to give a voice to their concerns over health and safety at Canton and to improve the rights of temporary workers, who make up 40 per cent of the production line workforce. Formal work and safe working conditions are also stipulated in the supply chain guidelines for Rio sponsors.

IndustriALL’s General Secretary, Jyrki Raina, said:

The organizers of the Rio Olympics have rightly put social responsibility at the core of the Games but Nissan is falling far short of the standards expected from sponsors. Olympic guidelines demand respect for labour rights and we call on Nissan to do the same. We urge the organizers of the Rio Games to ask that Nissan put a corrective action plan in place at Canton so Nissan can be a fit and worthy sponsor of the Olympic Games.

Spain: the Airbus 8 acquitted

The eight trade unionists, members of IndustriALL Global Union affiliates, CC.OO de Industria and MCA-UGT, were charged after joining hundreds of workers in a general strike in September 2010, against austerity measures and changes to the Spanish labour code.

The eight men have consistently denied the charges of ‘acting with violence’ and ‘attacking the right to work’, and after the trial concluded on 12 February the Court acquitted the Airbus 8.

“Today is a great day for democracy,” said José Alcazar, president of the Airbus works council and one of the trade unionists charged. “This is important not only for the eight but for the whole labour movement in our country.”

The eight workers, Tomás García, Enrique Gil, Rodolfo Malo, José Alcazar, Raúl Fernández, Armando Barco, Jerónimo Martín and Edgar Martín, had been charged under Article 315.3 of the Spanish Penal Code, which allows for prison sentences for picketing trade unionists.

The law dates back to the Franco regime and has been labeled an attack on trade unions and the right to strike by the union movement.

Trade unions in Spain have protested vehemently against the charges, supported by the international labour movement. On 9 February, thousands of people including representatives of IndustriALL Global Union and industriAll Europe marched on the streets of Madrid to protest against the trial.

“This is a victory for the Spanish unions and for the workers who were exercising their fundamental rights,” says Jyrki Raina, IndustriALL Global Union general secretary. “But we continue to support our affiliates in their demands to drop charges in other similar cases and to repeal Article 315.3, which criminalizes the right to strike.”

Save our steel!

Thousands of workers are set to lose their jobs as steel plants across Europe are closing since they cannot compete with cheap China imports. As steel industry representatives and government ministers met with the European Commission in Brussels on 15 February to discuss the effects of cheap Chinese steel on the European market, workers were raising their voices on the streets.

In a march organized by steel association EUROFER, thousands of steel workers from the UK, France, Poland, Italy, Austria, Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic were joined by steel company bosses calling on the European Commission put a to stop to the influx of Chinese steel, carrying placards saying Stop China dumping in a range of different languages.

Jyrki Raina, IndustriALL Global Union general secretary, said:
"There is a crisis in the steel industry, fuelled by a market inundated with cheap Chinese steel. And our members are paying a high price for this by risking their jobs. We join their call for institutional action to save the European steel industry."

Still no justice, ten years after the Pasta de Conchos homicide

How many more tragedies have to occur before justice is done and we put an end to impunity? It would be wonderful if the Mexican government led by Enrique Peña Nieto could find a definitive solution to this unjust situation,

said Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, President of the Mexican Union of Miners and Metalworkers’ Union (SNTMMSRM), affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union.

On 19 February 2006, there was an explosion at Coal Mine 8 owned by the mining company Grupo Mexico in Pasta de Conchos, Coahuila. Sixty-five miners died and nine suffered multiple burns. Years later, the bodies of 63 of the dead miners still lie buried 100 metres underground because the company suspended attempts to recover the bodies.

This February 18, on the eve of the tenth anniversary, the First National Mining Forum 2016 will take place at the headquarters of Los Mineros, in which members of the National Executive Committee, the General Vigilance, Justice Council and national and international figures will participate. The Regional Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jorge Almeida is going to represent IndustriALL Global Union at the occasion.

Moreover, on 19 February there will be held a protest march to the Ministries of Interior, Labour and Social Welfare, and to Grupo Mexico. They will demand the recovery of the bodies, a fair compensation to the families of those killed and punishment of the responsible for the industrial homicide.

According to Gómez Urrutia, the company acted negligently by suspending attempts to recover the bodies and refusing to remedy safety problems at the mine prior to the disaster, problems that were reported by members of the Joint Health and Safety Committee many times: “The Miners’ Union demanded immediate action but mean and arrogant company managers, led by Germán Larrea and Xavier García de Quevedo, refused to do anything”, he said.

IndustriALL urges the federal government to put an end to impunity, respect workers' rights, ensure that justice is done and show respect for the dignity of the dead and their families.

Fernando Lopes, IndustriALL assistant general Secretary said:

Los Mineros and IndustriALL continue to demand the punishment of those responsible, the recovery of human remains and a fair compensation for the families.