Improving maternity protection in South East Asia

An IndustriALL project on gender-maternity protection started with the implementation in four countries; Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Philippines. Regional secretary Annie Adviento and project coordinator Lorna Ferrer met with key officials of the four countries’ trade union councils and its Women’s Committees on 17-29 September to introduce the project.

IndustriALL’s affiliates in the countries have been campaigning on ILO convention 183 on maternity protection. Participants vowed to continue and intensify the campaign towards ratification of the convention through continued dialogue with parliamentarians and employers, as well as forging alliances with other organizations.

Women trade union leaders and members are encouraged to be more pro-active in their advocacy to lobby and campaign on improved maternity protection. Organizing women workers, strengthening women committees and development of pro-women provisions in the collective bargaining were some  of the highlights of the discussions during said activities.

The project will gather statistics on women’s leadership in trade unions which will form part of a study on women workers’ situation related to maternity protection, focusing on health of pregnant women and her child, breastfeeding provisions and work-leaves and cash benefits.

A brief summary of the study will be presented in November at a regional conference, expected to frame consolidated campaign strategies and concrete action plans to achieve improved maternity protection and strengthen women workers within IndustriALL.

Bangladeshi trade union leader receives human rights award

As president of NGWF, affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union, Amirul Haque Amin has been fighting for the rights of garment workers in Bangladesh for more than three decades.
 
As a trade union leader, Amin has been active in the introduction of a minimum wage and the signing of the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety.
 
IndustriALL general secretary Jyrki Raina applauds the distinction:

It puts the spotlight on our affiliates’ continuing struggle in Bangladesh. Awarding Amirul Haque Amin this prize is an important acknowledgement of his and the trade unions’ efforts on organizing and fighting for safe and healthy workplaces, and a living wage in the country.

The international jury praised Amin for "the tenacity and intrepidity with which he has tried to improve the lives and working conditions" of Bangladeshi garment workers.
 
The Nuremberg International Human Rights Award is presented every two years to individuals or groups who have, in an exemplary manner, committed themselves to human rights, sometimes at considerable personal risk.
 

Interview: How Jordan’s unions are helping Syrian refugees

However, this month the World Food Programme was forced to stop food aid to almost 230,000 Syrian refugees living in Jordan as it can no longer afford to feed them. Another 200,000 refugees in the country have had their aid cut in half. This has left some Syrian families living on less than 50 cents a day.  

Speaking at IndustriALL Global Union’s Women World Conference in Vienna last week, Ahlam Alterawi from the General Trade Union of Workers in Textile Garment and Clothing Industries (JTGCU) explained what unions have been doing to integrate refugees into the workforce…  

How have trade unions in Jordan been assisting Syrian refugees?

When Syrian refugees started arriving in Jordan four years ago, we helped to provide practical relief such as food and blankets. But they couldn’t find work without paying for a permit and residency, which was a cost they couldn’t afford. So they came to us for help. At the same time, some businesses asked us for support so that they could use the skilled Syrian labour rather than migrant workers from countries such as Bangladesh.

At the end of 2013, our union and other unions went together with the Jordanian business association to the Ministry of Labour to ask if skilled Syrians could join the labour market. The Labour Ministry agreed and also reduced the cost of a work permit for Syrian refugees by 50 per cent.

How else has Jordan been indirectly affected by violence in the region?

As well as the large number of Syrian refugees in the country, more and more Iraqis are also coming to Jordan. This has been a problem for our country. We have had to decrease our use of water, oil and electricity. We have to import more food, more energy for electricity, and more oil to cover all that is needed for all these people that are in Jordan. Our population used to be around six  million. Now we are nearer nine or ten million. For this reason, they have started building refugee camps in the desert and all the empty places on the border with Saudi Arabia.

How have refugees affected the labour market in Jordan?

We still have thousands of Syrians who cannot join the labour market. However, there are large numbers of Syrian refugees living in Jordan’s cities. Many are young and skilled in sectors such as food services, textile and garment, and the construction industry. For this reason employers and owners of some companies prefer to take on Syrians because they are more skilled than the young Jordanians. Also, the refugees are prepared to accept lower wages, which are supplemented by support from the UN. Local Jordanians can’t afford to accept such low salaries.

What is being done to help local Jordanian workers?

Now international organizations are putting together a programme to include Syrian refugees in the workplace without it having an adverse affect on local women and young people in the labour market. By training the Jordanians, giving them skills to work, side-by-side, with Syrian workers so that Jordanians don’t lose their jobs, especially educated people. We have a high percentage of well-educated women and young people with university degrees and good qualifications.

You also have over a million migrant workers in Jordan, of which only a quarter are officially documented…

There are many migrant workers in Jordan, especially in the textile sector. They make up 75 per cent of textile workers and come mainly from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka Myanmar, China, Nepal and Madagascar. There are around eight nationalities working in the sector.

The migrant workers are popular with employers because they earn lower wages, work longer hours, don’t get pregnant and take their annual leave at the end of their contract. Local women have more family responsibilities; she uses her annual leave and sick leave and maternity leave. So businesses prefer migrant workers. But we are trying to replace these migrant workers with Syrian refugees because they are already in Jordan. Employers don’t need to spend money on flights bringing them to the country.

What is the average wage for a textile worker in Jordan?

The wage for textile workers is around 110 Jordanian dollars (US$ 155). However, the average Jordanian wage is 350 to 420 JD. (US$ 490 to US$ 590). Which means most local people are not interested in working in our sector.

What are you doing to try and increase wages in the textile sector in Jordan? 

We signed a sectoral agreement in 2013 to increase salaries for all workers – migrants and Jordanians – by 5 JD (US$ 7) per year. This is expired in May 2015 but we now have an extension to 2017 when the minimum wage will be 120 JD per month by the end of 2017 (US$170). 

Mulberry: €1,000 handbags made with worker abuse

Mulberry excuses its inaction by saying that audits have been conducted at this supplier. However no audit at SF Leather ever consulted the trade union concerned, Deriteks, an affiliate of IndustriALL. Nor were the findings and process of the audits made public.

Mulberry also says that while a Turkish court case is ongoing into the violations at SF Leather, it should not discuss details of the case. However current international labour standards make clear that companies and unions can jointly work toward resolving a dispute while the matter is being adjudicated.

IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan says:

We told Mulberry in July that if it has genuine commitment to upholding its own Sourcing Principles then IndustriALL Global Union, together with its Turkish affiliate Deriteks, offers a meeting to seek a solution at SF Leather. So far the offer has not been taken.

Workers making expensive Mulberry products have the right to join a union and have a voice at work. Mulberry, meet with us and Deriteks, and start to repair the damage at SF Leather.

This case risks setting a dangerous precedent in Turkey. SF Leather is trying to bypass the labour law, and bust the union with the “Law of Commerce and Code of Obligations”. A legal precedent whereby this commercial law overrides the labour law would effectively remove the already weak legal protections of workers’ rights in Turkey.

It was under this law that the company busted Deriteks and stopped their activities. SF Leather argues that the union caused “unfair competition” by organizing the workers. Under this argument Deriteks has been taken to the Criminal Court to pay compensation for causing “unfair competition”.

Under this law the demonstrations in front of the plant were banned, union banners seized, and a news blackout was ordered.

“Mulberry now risks being the brand responsible for undermining trade union organizing throughout Turkey,” added Özkan.

Sign the IndustriALL-LabourStart campaign here and write to the UK-based brand.

Chevron sacks union organizers in Bangladesh

Chevron operates in exploration and extraction of oil and gas oil in Bangladesh. The US based multinational has been in the country for nine years since acquiring the operations from Unocal.

Some of the 463 Chevron workers have been employed there for the last 10 to 20 years. Of the 463 workers, only 37 have been employed on permanent contracts, with the rest remaining on rolling temporary contracts in some cases for 20 years. This is against the Bangladeshi labour law that limits temporary employment to three months.

The management ignored repeated verbal and written requests from the workers over many years, calling for changes to unacceptable conditions of employment.

After years of oppression and intimidation, workers organized themselves in a general assembly and decided to form a workplace union, following the legal process. The new Chevron workers’ union filed for official registration with the labour authorities on 14 April 2015. Out of the workforce of 463, 218 workers joined.

On 20 May 75 employees filed cases at the Labour Court claiming their right permanent employment status.

Management reacted to the workers’ union registration aggressively. On 26 May management mobilized police and security forces to blockade the union office. Workers defied the police and demonstrated in front of the office.

The following day, 27 May 2015, Chevron hung up a list of 17 sacked workers outside its office. The list included all the newly elected leaders of the new union, including president Saiful Islam, Kamaluddin, General Secretary and Hasanur Rahman Manik, Organizing Secretary.

The union responded to the mass sacking with demonstrations, a symbolic hunger strike, a human chain action and a press conference.

The workers then approached the IndustriALL affiliated national union, the Bangladesh Chemical, Energy and Allied Workers’ Federation (BCEF) for help.

BCEF President Kutubuddin Ahmed states:

Although Chevron’s website lists commitment to the United Nations Human Rights Charter, it is clear that their commitment is limited to website papers.

The BCEF lodged the following demands to Chevron: reinstate the workers, make their job permanent and allow workers to form a trade union, in line with the country’s labour law.

Chevron argued that they were not responsible for the workers’ mistreatment, pointing to a sham triangular employment relationship. Chevron denied that the workers were directly employed, saying a third party labour broker was their employer.

IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan stated:

We will not let Chevron sack these workers with impunity. It was already a crime to keep them on precarious contracts for so many years, sacking their elected leaders is shameful.

New hope for garment worker wages

IndustriALL Global Union together with representatives of global clothing brands met with factory suppliers, unions, government ministries, and the ILO from 14 to 18 September to discuss ACT, a new initiative aimed at creating living wages in the garment industry.

IndustriALL is working with a group of 14 global brands and retailers to transform the way that companies source garments in support of higher wages for garment workers. The ACT process is to develop industry-wide collective bargaining in garment-producing countries which is backed by reform to brand purchasing practices to ensure that higher wages can be paid.

Cambodia, which has a garment and footwear industry worth in excess of US$5  billion a year, has been chosen as the first country in which to start the ACT process.

The ACT delegation, consisting of IndustriALL and representatives from brands including H&M, Inditex, Primark, C&A and Top Shop explained the process in a series of meetings with suppliers, garment unions, the Labour Ministry and the Ministry of Commerce and the garment manufacturers association of Cambodia (GMAC).

“Industry-wide collective bargaining takes wages out of competition, which means supplier factories can’t push down wages to win business,” said IndustriALL’s policy director, Jenny Holdcroft.  

“Support of the brands through their purchasing practices will mean that factories will be able to pay workers more, while improved working conditions, productivity and efficiency can also be covered in an industry-wide agreement.”

The delegation also held technical discussions with the ILO and other expert groups on how a system for industry-wide collective bargaining could be developed in Cambodia.

Women at IndustriALL unanimously adopt quotas and Equality Charter

Women from Australia to Zimbabwe work as heroes in male-dominated sectors such as mines and the oil industry. They are pioneers in these workplaces, all of which have always been designed by and for men. Women have fought to be employed in these jobs. Nevertheless they still face violence at the hands of their bosses and comrades, even more so if they are contract workers. The first step to stop violence is to make it visible; for women to break their silence.

The fight against precarious work is one of IndustriALL’s most important campaigns. Stopping violence against women and providing maternity protection for women workers are part and parcel of this campaign. Pregnant women are afraid to lose their jobs and hide their pregnancy even to the point of miscarriage. Women work long hours, sometimes 10 to 12 hours a day, just to eke out a living. Exaggerated productivity targets make women sick. Earning a living wage would vastly improve their quality of life. 

These and other concerns were included in the Equality Charter, which was adopted by the conference. The conclusions reflect the debates and the Charter and are as follows:

Women’s Health:

Maternity Protection:

Violence:

Sustainability:

The women took these conclusions home and will deliver on them with their typical energy and enthusiasm.

Refugees need our help

The UN refugee agency UNHCR points out that people have always had to escape persecution to foreign lands. Asylums were granted already 3,500 years ago as early landmarks of civilization, during the blossoming of empires in the Middle East including the Babylonians and ancient Egyptians.

It happened in my family as well. During the second world war, 70,000 children were transferred from my native Finland to Sweden, escaping bombings. Including my aunt who was 6 years old, decided later to stay in the country, married a Norwegian, gave birth to my two Swedish cousins and integrated fully in society.

Today at least 60 million people throughout the world are fleeing from poverty, hunger, war and persecution. International crises and failed states are particular causes for mass movements. Often no speedy solutions are apparent.

ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow says it well: “This is not only a crisis for Europe; it is a global crisis. With some two million refugees already in Turkey, the world is faced with the biggest migration movement in 70 years, as people flee armed conflict and abject poverty. Until the basic reasons that people are forced to flee their homelands are resolved, the migratory pressure will continue to grow. Ordinary people, as individuals and through their unions, community and faith groups and sports clubs are showing the way to politicians – solidarity and compassion must be the guiding principles in this as in any other humanitarian crisis.”

The ITUC is calling for the G20 leaders to take responsibility for global solutions at their November Summit, to end the conflicts particularly in Iraq and Syria, which are driving the migration crisis.

Nowhere is the situation more dramatic and need for peace greater than in Syria, 200,000 mostly innocent civilians have lost their lives, some seven million people are displaced inside the country, and four million refugees have left Syria.

This week I met with our Italian affiliates in Rome. They said clearly that trade unions can and should be part of efforts to try and find solutions, and educate their members to combat xenophobic and racist reactions that are spreading all over Europe.

IndustriALL’s German affiliates are showing the way. IG Metall calls upon its members, officers and works councils to show solidarity with refugees and mobilize all elements of society to work for their integration in the society. The union allocates 500,000 euros to its local units to initiate and promote local activities for the benefit of refugees.

In the chemical industry, the social partners IG BCE and employers’ BAVC announced in mid-September that they would open up their current one-year ‘Start work’ program to refugees to facilitate job-seeking, including a German language course.

All unions underline that refugees must not be used for scaling down social protection and other essential elements of the labour market. The fundamental rights have to be secured for all workers. 

Jyrki Raina

General Secretary

Senegal – affiliates mobilizing for 7 October

On 12 September, the SYNTICS (Syndicat National des Travailleurs des Industries Chimiques et Activités Rattachées du Sénégal), the SNTIC (Syndicat National des Travailleurs des Industries de la Confection)and, the SUTIDS (Syndicat Unique des Travailleurs des Industries Diverses du Sénégal) participated in a demonstration in Dakar denouncing violation of legislation on the use of daily and seasonal work.

Unions launched the campaign, organizing general assemblies at worksites to mobilize workers and raise awareness about precarious work. They also organized a television campaign with interviews of trade union leaders and a televised report on daily and seasonal work.

On 7 October, the global day of action to STOP Precarious work, IndustriALL’s affiliates are organizing a press conference to denounce precarious work and a demonstration, together with other trade unions. 

The objective of the campaign is to restrict the use of both daily and seasonal work to the limited use provided by the law: replacement of an employee on sick leave and increase in production.


However today in the manufacturing industries, according to some reports around 50 per cent of the workforce is employed as daily or seasonal workers but on a permanent basis.

These workers are employed with precarious contracts to perform production work. They are excluded from social security provisions and health and safety protections and are subject to lower salaries and conditions than permanent workers.

Affiliates in Senegal have a history of fighting against precarious work. Every year trade unions succeed to convert precarious workers into permanent workers. Since beginning 2014, affiliates report to have improved the employment status of more than 450 precarious workers, converting them to direct employees.
 
Last year affiliates in more than 56 countries took action on 7 October.

Bata worker in Mexico arrested

Calzado Sandak, a Bata subsidiary, closed its doors illegally four years ago claiming that the plant was unviable. It has now brought criminal charges against the workers who have been picketing outside the plant ever since, accusing them of ‘extortion’. The General Secretary of the union, Gustavo Labastida Adriano is currently in jail and seven of his colleagues, most of whom have worked at the plant for many years, could be arrested at any time.

“There is a cruel irony here”, says Mr. Raina. “Bata has been able to ignore labour law that protects workers’ rights, and use criminal law to coerce them into giving up their legitimate struggle”.

“In truth, this is a case not of extortion on the part of workers, but of coercion on the part of the company in collusion with the authorities”, explains Mr. Raina. “Although the law says bail for a worker cannot exceed a day’s wages, in this case it has been set at over 2 million dollars. It would take Gustavo 600 years to earn that amount – assuming he still had a job”.

The Mexican labour authorities may be dysfunctional (at this year’s International Labour Conference, Mexico was shortlisted for review of its application of labour standards alongside countries such as Belarus, Swaziland, Bangladesh and Guatemala), but Mexican law is clear: a company must seek approval from the authorities before conducting mass dismissals for economic reasons; the employment relationship therefore remains in effect until terminated through a court ruling or an agreement between the parties.

The company claimed it was forced to close the plant because of low productivity, but here again the workers tell a very different story. They say management took bad decisions, using cut-price materials and outsourcing work to local workshops. In order to safeguard the remaining jobs, the union reached an agreement on productivity, but the company failed to uphold its side of the bargain and closed the factory down overnight.

Says Mr. Raina: “It is surely no coincidence that in a country known for promoting fake unions in order to deny the rights of independent ones, Calzado Sandak was one of the few manufacturing plants where workers had both an independent union and a collective agreement”.

“Nor is it any surprise that the Mexican authorities have played along with the company every step of the way, including accepting the company’s lies that the factory closed because the workers went on strike”.

IndustriALL Global Union has called on top executives of the Swiss-based multinational to recognize the workers as Bata employees, to drop all charges against them and to travel to Mexico to negotiate in good faith in order to resolve the conflict swiftly and justly. The global union has asked for an urgent meeting with the company to discuss the case.