Australian unions tell Ansell AGM: protest postponed for Sri Lanka solution

The TCFUA, AMWU and CFMEU postponed a planned rally at the AGM in light of recent dialogue with the company during which Ansell committed to work together toward a solution in Sri Lanka. Around 290 Ansell Lanka workers were unfairly dismissed for union activities in 2013 and their reinstatement is needed for the dispute to be resolved.

The four participants at the AGM were Michele O’Neil (TCFUA), Andrew Dettmer (AMWU), Lorraine Usher (CFMEU) and Peter Colley (CFMEU).

The unions made it clear that their campaign would continue until the violations in Sri Lanka are reversed. The union group informed the shareholders of a disturbing pattern of disputes and poor labour relations at Ansell in Brazil, India, Malaysia and Portugal.

Michele O’Neil, representing Australian unions and IndustriALL Global Union, said from the AGM floor:

“Trade unions appreciate that the company has recently made efforts concerning the resolution of the dispute. However, we wish to see further urgent progress to a firm mechanism for reinstating those of the 290 workers who want to return the to company.

Our wish is that “Ansell Protects” will apply not only to your products but to the rights of the workers who make them.”

Andrew Dettmer of the AMWU asked:
“A substantial proportion of the company’s workforce at many locations is unionized. What processes will the company put in place to ensure that industrial disputes are either prevented, or resolved early, through active engagement with the unions representing your workers?”

Responding to the union statement and question, the Ansell management committed to meeting the IndustriALL affiliated FTZGSEU in Sri Lanka in November. The senior management also committed to continue working with the unions towards a fair solution.

IndustriALL general secretary Jyrki Raina states:
“Ansell knows that we won’t go away until our members in Sri Lanka have been treated with the respect they are owed. We respect the company’s commitment to work with us. My message to the company is, let’s together make Ansell a good news story, with good products being made in good conditions, with genuine social dialogue that fixes disputes before they escalate.”

Hope for Honda Mexico workers

A legal and transparent ballot at Honda Mexico represents a significant step towards freedom of association at the plant as set out in ILO Convention 87, ratified by Mexico. After being notified the vote will go ahead on 15 October, the independent Honda Workers’ Union (STUHM) is hopeful for change.

Although jurisprudence requires that ballots should take place on neutral ground in order to guarantee a free vote, the independent union was given only five days’ notice that the ballot will take place at the company’s Jalisco plant.

Latest reports, on 14 October, are that the yellow company union, SETEAMI, part of CTM, has direct access to the three shifts of workers at the plant. Workers say that protection union SETEAMI is threatening people that if they vote for STUMH the plant will close down. CTM boss Carlos Arias has sent an audio message to be read out to all the workers in the three shifts. STUHM meanwhile is not being granted access to the workers or to the plant, which they are allowed to by law.

The STUHM requested a register of observers at the election, which will be attended by representatives of major IndustriALL Global Union affiliates. They are travelling to Jalisco to observe the conditions in which the first trade union elections at Honda Mexico will be held.

The union has called on the JFCA and the Mexican government to follow up the public statements made by the Secretary for Labour and Social Welfare, Navarrete Prida, regarding her willingness to put an end to protection contracts. The union has also complained to the ILO and other national and international trade union organizations about irregularities and constant harassment by SETEAMI, whic currently holds bargaining rights at the company.

IndustriALL and its affiliates in the sector throughout the world support and extend their solidarity to STUHM and all Honda workers in Mexico in their struggle to defend their right to choose a union to represent them at the Saltillo plant in Jalisco.

Jyrki Raina, IndustriALL General Secretary, has again written to the President of the JFCA asking him to guarantee that the election will be fair and free, with a secret ballot using transparent ballot boxes at a secure location.

In his letter, Raina emphasized that: “IndustriALL and its affiliated unions will closely follow the election. It goes without saying that the integrity and reputation of the Honda Mexico Board and that of the Mexican government itself are at stake.” 

Trinidad and Tobago

The keynote address was delivered by Douglas Mendes S.C. who will speak on the recent landmark judgement awarded by the Privy Council against ArcelorMittal in a matter around the issue of contract work. 

Workers at LafargeHolcim demand good, safe jobs

Workers and their trade unions from Europe, Asia, Africa, South and North America organized rallies, conferences and meetings giving a strong and unified signal that LafargeHolcim must address the wide use of precarious work at the company.

Poor and precarious employment conditions are the most common reason for injuries and fatalities at work. They also do little to inspire loyalty thus making it extremely difficult to build harmonized labour relations in the company.

More than 300 people have died during last four years while on job for Lafarge and Holcim. Almost 90 per cent of the dead were employed by subcontractors or third parties.

After the merger in July 2015, LafargeHolcim, committed to provide “safe, healthy and inclusive workplaces”. The company also set the goal of “zero harm” to their workers. This is certainly a good declaration. Now the promises must be followed with deeds.

Unions also used 7 October to highlight workers’ insecurity and uncertainty about their future as a result of the merger of Lafarge and Holcim.

At rallies and actions, LafargeHolcim workers from all over the world demanded that the company:

LAFARGEHOLCIM, RESPECT WORKERS’ RIGHTS!

Indian shipbreaking union calls on government to ratify Hong Kong Convention

The Alang Sosiya Ship Recycling & General Workers Association, ASSRGWA, is the shipbreaking workers’ union at the biggest shipbreaking yard in the world, Alang, West India.

The letter states:

“It is only a dream for most workers (in the industry) to live to the age of 60… therefore the ASSRGWA demands the Indian Government to be part of an effective solution to the problem of unsafe and unsustainable shipbreaking, and urgently ratify the Hong Kong Convention.”

Kan Matsuzaki, IndustriALL Director for the Shipbuilding and Shipbreaking industries says:

“The network of shipbuilding and shipbreaking trade unions is taking action to make the Hong Kong Convention a reality. To come into force we need 12 more government ratifications from countries with a major shipping industry. Momentum is growing in this campaign and we will keep pushing until the industry is safe.”

Union Secretary V. V. Rane stated:

“We will be taking up this issue very strongly during the campaign of precarious work on 7 October 2015 in Mumbai and Alang.”

See the actions of the campaign here.

Belarusian unions use rare chance to rally on 7 October

Despite being denied every year since 2011, unions at last received permission to hold a rally on 7 October in Minsk for one hour. Authorization was granted just days before the presidential elections held on 11 October.

Precarious work predominates in Belarus. In 1999, President Lukashenko adopted Decree No. 29, and since then majority of workers in Belarus have been forced to conclude fixed-term contracts with a duration of one to three years or less. This system shifted almost the entire working population of Belarus to short-term contracts, abolishing permanent employment in the country and adding insecurity and uncertainty to the workers' future.

Three out of four IndustriALL affiliates in Belarus participated in the Minsk rally on 7 October: Belarusian Radio and Electronic Industry Workers' Union (REP), Free Metalworkers' Union (SPM) and Belarusian Independent Trade Union of Miners, Chemical workers, Oil-refiners, Energy, Transport, Construction and other workers (BNP). 

Rally participants adopted a resolution demanding that authorities take measures "to immediately develop a new economic policy that could solve the problems of employment and provide for new jobs, significant wage increases, and a modernization of production facilities".

Independent unions also insisted on abolition of the four notorious presidential decrees (Nos. 29, 9, 5 and 3) that offend human dignity of workers and make it impossible to achieve decent work. 

There has never been any public scrutiny or consultation about decree No. 29 and neither for the later-issued decrees Nos. 9 (2012), 5 (2014) and 3 (2015) which further undermine workers’ freedoms and possibility to protect their rights.

In the 2015 ITUC Global Rights Index, Belarus was listed among the ten worst countries for working people together with China, Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland and the United Arab Emirates.

IndustriALL condemns brutal terror attack on Turkish peace march

The large “Work, Peace and Democracy” rally and mass meeting were organized by four organizations, DISK (Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions, KESK (Confederation of Public Employees), TMMOB (Union of Turkish Cambers of Engineers and Architects) and TTB (Union of Doctors of Turkey).

IndustriALL Global Union has four affiliates in the DISK Confederation, Birlesik Metal-Is, Lastik-Is, Tekstil and Tümka-Is.

The two bombs exploded in the crowd while marchers sang, danced and held banners calling for an end to war, and for the rights of poor and suffering people. Those same banners were used to cover the dead bodies on the street.

Police and security forces used tear gas and water cannons on the crowd who simply wanted to put flowers in the area where the bombings happened.

In mourning and protest of the atrocity, trade unions that organized the event are conducting a general strike on 12-13 October.

The general secretaries of IndustriALL Global Union and IndustriAll Europe today jointly wrote to Prime Minister Davutoğlu to demand a full, transparent, and independent investigation into this terrorist attack:

“The peace rally was organized to demand work, peace and democracy, and to give voice to millions of unemployed workers, public workers, and poor and suffering people.”

And in writing to DISK President Kani Beko:

“We fully support the general strike today and tomorrow to express our sorrow, mourn the victims, and condemn this atrocity.”

“This is the bloodiest attack in the history of Turkey. This happened to a group of people who demand peace,” said Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union. “While our memories of the bloody May Day killings in 1977 are still in our minds, this is another trauma for workers and unions in Turkey. But we will never give up from our demands for democracy, human rights and peace.”

IndustriALL flashmob for Decent Work

Hundreds of union members of the IndustriALL affiliates from the CIS region participated, as well as the members of the IG Metall union from Germany and FO Metaux union from France.

Participants from Armenia, Belarus, Germany, France, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine formed letters of the “Planet for Decent Work” message in order to show that people across the globe are united by the idea of decent work. The aim of this flashmob is to influence the world public opinion and to popularize the idea of decent work.

Video with flashmob is available on the link https://youtu.be/fwn7D85cIvI

German government commits to ratifying the Hong Kong Convention

The IG Metall Coastal Region called for action from the German government in September 2015. The demand was made by regional secretary Meinhard Geiken in a high profile handover of demands on a large placard, flanked by shipyard workers in Hamburg.

The Parliamentary State Secretary Uwe Beckmeyer responded in a letter:

Ratification of the Hong Kong Agreement

Dear Mr. Geiken,

The establishment of a reliable set of rules and regulations for sound environmentally friendly shipbreaking establishments is our common goal.

I agree with your assessment of the situation that the Hong Kong Convention must quickly be ratified and materialized.  The EU regulation on Shipbreaking of Sea vessels is a primary and important step. Indeed, we need to improve global environment and security standards on working conditions in shipbreaking yards, especially in Asia.

I have transmitted your remark to the person responsible at the Federal Ministry of Transport and digital infrastructure of Germany. Since an agreement on the ratification of the Section 59GG is still to be made, it is still difficult to foresee the exact moment of its implementation. I am committed to ensuring the quick and good progress of these proceedings.

Cambodian unions consider strike action

The 9.4 per cent increase from the current US$128 figure is lower than the garment worker wage in Vietnam, and below unions’ call for US$160 a month.

Ath Thorn, president of Cambodia’s largest independent garment union, IndustriALL Global Union affiliate C.CAWDU, said:

“We are not happy. So on Monday we will be consulting with our general council and colleagues from across the country, as well as other unions in Cambodia, to decide whether or not to strike.”

A tripartite group of trade unions, garment manufacturers and government representatives on Cambodia’s Labour Advisory Committee have spent the last few weeks hammering out a minimum wage proposal, which went to a vote on 8 October. Both independent and non-independent unions made significant progress by uniting behind a figure of US$160 a month during the discussions.

“We are disappointed by the new minimum wage for the garment industry in Cambodia, which is below the expectations of workers who were interviewed in our research before negotiations began,” said Jyrki Raina, general secretary of IndustriALL.

“It illustrates the relevance of our new ACT initiative with global brands, which sets out to increase garment sector wages by building industry level collective bargaining structures.”

Cambodia is a key target country in IndustriALL’s global campaign for living wages, and the organization will be holding its Executive Committee meeting in Phnom Penh in December.