Solvay GFA: This is what global level labour relations look like

Together with IndustriALL and Solvay, the Bureau for Workers’ Activities, ACTRAV, presented the industrial relations with Solvay to various departments of the International Labour Organization, ILO, on 28 July.

The advanced industrial relations between IndustriALL and Solvay represent the second generation of global framework agreements. Whereas the first decade of GFAs in the 1990s generally focused on commitments to standards and norms, the next generation strives to commit parties to stringent procedures for enforcing the agreement and proactively solving problems before they escalate.

Joint monitoring and evaluation missions are conducted twice a year, and three missions to China have already taken place. The third revision of the Solvay GFA in 2011 added a global safety panel.

Importantly, through the agreement Solvay expects its suppliers and sub-contractors to respect fundamental principles. The company counts employees and subcontractors the same in terms of industrial accidents.

The company already received warm commendation from IndustriALL in March this year for establishing a new Global Forum with participation of union representatives from different continents. The Global Forum negotiated this year a global performance sharing scheme totaling EUR 10 million, which represents a new development in global level social dialogue.

IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan negotiated each revision of the GFA over ten years:

What we are doing with Solvay is a benchmark for the chemicals industry. We have real, genuine social dialogue and employee involvement in all CSR processes. We respect each other and appreciate the channel that we have.

The Solvay China activities have set an industry-level standard, with elected worker representatives and negotiated collective bargaining.”

Jean-Christophe Sciberras, Human Resources Director for Solvay told the ILO meeting:

“We believe in social dialogue, trust and transparency. The GFA is the constituency of our relationship. It is not only about rights, our agreement is strong because of its implementation and compliance.

Being challenged by an independent organization can only bring us further. For us IndustriALL is a strong challenger. If we cheat they will know. We talk, we exchange, and together we improve.

The Secretary of the Solvay Works Council, and IG BCE member, Albert Kruft said, “It takes time to establish and build mutual trust. Our EWC is 20 years old now and it is right that Solvay workers have global level representatives as we have a global level framework agreement.”

IndustriALL currently has 46 Global Framework Agreements, and together with partner organization UNI, the two global unions have 80 per cent of all GFAs. Half of IndustriALL’s GFAs come from the automotive and energy sectors, and the most common home countries are Germany then France.

Solvay recently acquired US-based company Cytec to boost its presence in composite and adhesive materials for the aerospace and automotive industries and reinforce its mining chemicals business. Making most of its sales in North America, Cytec has 4,600 employees worldwide and annual sales of around US$ 2 billion.

In 2014, Solvay’s net sales were EUR 10.21 billion with 26,000 employees at 119 sites in 52 countries worldwide.

IndustriALL Singapore National Council formed

The activity was attended by more than 100 delegates from IndustriALL affiliates in Singapore.

The inauguration ceremony had participation from Brother Heng Chee How, Deputy General Secretary of the Singapore National Trade Union Congress, Bro. Koichi Asanuma, General Secretary of Japanese Confederation of Metalworkers and Noriyuki Suzuki, Regional Secretary of International Trade union Confederation. IndustriALL was represented by Annie Adviento, Regional Secretary for South-East Asia and Pacific.

The theme of the inauguration was unity and working together for the better life of the workers in Singapore, and supporting the goals of IndustriALL Global Union.

Bro. Cyrille Tan of the United Workers of Electronic and Electrical Industries was elected President of the Council. Jessie Yeo from the Metal Industries Workers Union was elected General Secretary. The leaders of other affiliates were elected Vice-Presidents and Deputy General Secretary.

Said Bro. Cyrille: “I am very happy that we have finally come to this occasion of inaugurating the IndustriALL Singapore Council. Thank you for the cooperation of our affiliates. Let us now move forward and work to improve the life of the Singapore workers. Let us contribute to the achievement of IndustriALL Global Union.”

IndustriALL Global Union general secretary Raina’s solidarity message was read to the meeting:

I am particularly pleased to learn that the focus of your inauguration will be to strive for unity in the aerospace, iron and steel, chemicals, electrical and electronics, shipbuilding sectors and to endeavor to expand the membership of IndustriALL in Singapore from other sectors under the National Trade Union Congress.

Let me also give recognition to the cooperation amongst our affiliates leading to the formation of the IndustriALL Singapore Council. This is a great contribution to the goal of IndustriALL of building united, strong and self-sustaining unions. 

We demand clean elections!

IndustriALL is calling for a speedy resolution of the legal proceedings and a date to be set for a ballot in accordance with national and international legislation on freedom of association.

Honda Mexico continues to implement a vicious anti-trade union policy at its factory in El Salto, Jalisco and is prolonging the legal battle over freedom of association. The workers are fighting for the right to join a union of their choice.

“Four years ago, the Honda workers’ independent trade union, STUHM, requested collective bargaining rights. However, the legal proceedings that should have culminated in a workplace vote to allow workers to freely express which union they want to represent them continues to be bogged down by a whole range of obstacles,” explained Jyrki Raina, IndustriALL Global Union General Secretary.

The fight for freedom of association

In an interview published in La Jornada, Mexico, STUHM’S general secretary, José Luis Solorio and the union treasurer, Luis Gerardo Rodríguez, denounced the fact that only two of the country’s 29 auto industry assembly plants have independent trade unions and decent pay levels. All the others are controlled by “protection” unions that do not allow freedom of association for workers.

Solorio and Rodriguez also revealed that the fight to ensure that workers can decide which union should have collective bargaining rights at the Honda plant has been hampered by repression, violence and unfair dismissals. Their greatest fear at the moment is that arrangements for the ballot will not be fair and will favour the company’s accomplice, the “protection” union.

STUHM’s leaders told La Jornada that the Social Security Department gave them a register of workers at the plant that does not bear any resemblance to reality and includes Japanese administrative workers employed by the company, managers, people who are no longer alive and people who left the plant ten years ago. Moreover, the department intends to give voting rights to a further 600 workers who are not relevant current employees, which they say would completely invalidate the process, said Solorio.

Jyrki Raina has written to the president of the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board, Alberto Zorrilla, asking him to expedite a speedy resolution of the legal process, set a date for the ballot and guarantee a reliable voter register, in accordance with national and international legislation on freedom of association. At his last meeting with STUHM, Zorrilla assured the union that a completely reliable register will be used.

The case of Honda Mexico was put on the agenda of the last ILO Assembly in Geneva and the situation of STUHM members was used as an example of serious violations of freedom of association.

During the third regional automotive sector meeting, held in Mexico DF, IndustriALL and its affiliates in the industry signed a declaration supporting STUHM’s fight, reiterated their solidarity with independent trade unions in Mexico, rejected the use of “protection” contracts and demanded compliance with ILO Convention 87 on freedom of association.

FUP prepares September strike in defence of Petrobras

The oil workers’ federation, FUP/CUT, affiliated to CNQ-CUT and IndustriALL Global Union, is organizing action to prevent the privatization of Petrobras. It held a 24-hour strike on 24 July and is planning another strike in September.

Following a corruption scandal and crisis, attempts are being made to sell off Brazil’s biggest oil company, the 64 per cent state-owned Petrobras, at a very low share price. However, members of FUP/CUT want the company to remain in the public sector because of its essential role in ensuring the country’s development.

“Metalworkers, especially those working in this industry, construction workers and contract oil workers are already suffering the consequences of the dismantling of the national oil industry. Thousands of jobs have been lost, construction projects have been put on hold and investments suspended,” said FUP/CUT in a press release published on its website.

The union federation said it will begin an indefinite strike in September if there is not a positive response to its 24-hour strike. It opposes proposed changes in legislation that aim to remove Petrobras’ exclusive rights to exploit the Pre-Salt oilfields.

The 24-hour strike affected refineries, oil platforms, terminals, pipelines, onshore oilfields, biodiesel plants, thermal plants and administrative offices throughout the country. The FUP/CUT said this was the first step in a major historic battle.

Fernando Lopes, Assistant General Secretary of IndustiALL Global Union said that:

Petrobras is essential for the country’s development: the royalties it generates should continue to be used to fund free quality public health and education. The struggle to keep Petrobras in the public sector is not just a struggle of oil workers, it is a struggle of the entire Brazilian people.

Support 1,140 Indian mineworkers organizing at bullying Thriveni

Thriveni is a large scale Indian mining company that sells coal and iron ore to the global market leaders such as Tata Steel.

The organizing drive is being conducted by IndustriALL Global Union affiliate HKMF, the national mineworkers union, and supported by the IndustriALL project to organize workers in the steel, mining and energy sectors of India.

Thriveni’s Odisha Project based in Unchabali includes the following iron ore mines: Unchabali, Balde, Guali, Nuagaon, Thakurani, Jurudi, Ghatkuri, SM & Co, Deojhar, and Murgabeda.

Workers at all of the above locations organized the Thriveni Mazdoor Sabha union from September 2014, with 250 already members and 850 further supporting workers. Thriveni already sacked seven leading organizers on 16 September. Once registered the union will become part of the HKMF.

IndustriALL is informed that B Prabhakaran, the Thriveni owner and Managing Director threatened the union president, Panchratna Mahakud saying that he will be sent thousands of kilometers away and killed. Brother Panchratna was ultimately dismissed on 22 June on sham charges.

HKMF has been forced to raise its case with the Ministry of Labour and Indian Prime Minister’s Office, and is supported in this by INMF, the IndustriALL affiliated national metalworkers federation.

IndustriALL Global Union assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan states:

IndustriALL will not stand by and allow Thriveni to intimidate its mineworkers with death threats and bullying. We have raised our concerns with key buyer Tata and demand that the local authorities do their job and stop the abuse.

IndustriALL Global Union South Asia Regional Secretary Apoorva Kaiwar said:

IndustriALL condemns the anti-worker, anti-union behaviour of Thriveni Earthmover’s Company, and appeals to all IndustriALL affiliates to stand with the Thriveni workers who are fighting for their legitimate rights and justice.

S Q Zama, General Secretary of the Indian National Mines Workers Federation (INMF) and Rajendra Prasad Singha, Hind Khadan Mazdoor Federation (HKMF) jointly state:

"Thriveni Earthmovers is a company that does not respect the law of the land and democratic trade unions. We appeal to all the affiliates of IndustriALL, all over the world to support this movement, where the president of the union has been dismissed illegally by the employers."

NUM fighting back on retrenchments at Kumba Iron Ore

Management of the Anglo American owned company agreed during a meeting with the union on 23 July 2015 that they will work with the union to negotiate retrenchments at its Northern Cape mines.

Currently 261 workers stand to lose their jobs at their operations at Kolomela and Sishen in the Northern Cape. Kumba Iron Ore is also closing its Thabazimbi operation in the Limpopo province which will result in 1160 job losses. A meeting between the union and management has been scheduled for next week on the retrenchments at Thabazimbi.

"This is a tragedy for the mineworkers and the community of Thabazimbi. Each worker supports about 10 people so there are too many people that will be without bread at the end of the day," said Lucas Phiri, NUM Chief Negotiator at Kumba Iron Ore, “but if these retrenchments are inevitable we know what a setback this is for workers and the hardship it causes for them and their families so we will work hard to get them the best possible packages”.

The NUM also questions whether the company met its legal obligation to inform the Minister of Minerals Resources of its intention to retrench and has requested the Minister to intervene to prevent the retrenchments. The union has also demanded a moratorium to be placed on retrenchments at all mines saying “enough is enough”.

22-month USW strike ends in agreement with Crown in Toronto

Workers will finally go back to work after a vicious attack on their employment conditions forced the 120 members of USW Local 9176 out on strike in September 2013.

A tentative agreement was reached on 8 July when the company dropped its intransigent condition that the 34 leading union supporters could not have their jobs back even after a settlement is reached.

IndustriALL Global Union assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan celebrated the strength of the strike:

Our sisters and brothers finally go back to work by standing strong against the attempts to eliminate the union. Congratulations! We will not forget Crown’s shameful union busting attempts.

Crown achieved double profits in 2012 and hailed the Toronto Crown Metal Packaging factory as its best site in North America. Then told workers there that their salaries and conditions were being cut dramatically, and effectively the company was attempting to destroy the union.

The company was allowed to hire contract replacement workers during the strike. The USW criticized the Ontario government for failing to direct binding arbitration.

“These men and women can return to work with their heads held high. They are going back shoulder-to-shoulder, with their union and their principles intact,” said Marty Warren, USW Ontario Director.

"Clearly, this strike demonstrates the pressing need for amendments to the Labour Relations Act that would provide for binding arbitration in long and difficult strikes and would impose a ban on the use of replacement workers. We urge the Liberal government to take the necessary steps through the current labour law review process to commit to those reforms," Warren added.

The battle against union busting by Crown in Turkey is continuing. IndustriALL affiliate Birlesik Metal-Is has been forced to lodge numerous legal complaints and the labour court has ruled that almost all workers sacked by Crown were sacked for joining the union. One of the managers has been convicted with a six-month prison sentence, although the sentence has been suspended. Pepsi and Coca-Cola are conducting audits into the plant.

IndustriALL’s Ghanaian affiliate ICU had to mobilize a campaign in order to force Crown to negotiate redundancies of its members this year. ICU Deputy General Secretary Emmanue Benimah reports: “Crown has now sold up and left Ghana. We were able to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding with the company that brought our members proper redundancy payments, but this was only possible once we put them under great pressure.”

Historic official registration of CTUM union in Myanmar

Khaing Zar Aung, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL’s affiliate Industrial Workers Federation of Myanmar (IWFM), a key member of the CTUM, reports:

The Chief Registrar Myo Aung from the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security presented the National Registration Certificate to Maung Maung, President of CTUM at the Inya Lake Hotel. During this event, CTUM's affiliates, leaders and members were present.

CTUM President Maung Maung returned to Myanmar in September 2012 after a 24-year exile as a union leader.

Determined and successful organizing and campaigning during these first three years of unions being legal in Myanmar have resulted in mass recruitment including over 1,400 new local unions, progress towards a new minimum wage, education of both workers and managers, safety and health drives, and the laying of strong foundations for collective bargaining.

IndustriALL has and will continue to support organizing, training and union building in Myanmar.

IndustriALL Global Union keeps fighting back through active campaigns

This keeps IndustriALL Global Union fighting back through campaigns to react against those severe violations.

Every hour, every day, every week.

Not only because our global union is constantly fighting to improve the lives of our members, or to organize new members, or to grow our unity and common understanding.

This is a must for IndustriALL and its affiliates throughout the world. We all need to campaign constantly against the egregious violations of employers and governments on a daily basis.

Greece. A clear case on how union rights are trampled as part of austerity policies. IndustriALL Global Union continues to be shoulder-to-shoulder with Greek workers and citizens in this important fight for democracy, human dignity, fundamental rights. Soon IndustriALL will conduct another solidarity mission in Greece to demonstrate constant solidarity. We continue to call for a fair and sustainable solution.

Is Greece alone? No.

This month, workers throughout the United Kingdom are suffering an attack to their legal union rights at work. The Conservative government are pushing a bill through parliament that will greatly reduce the right to strike. The new law will permit employers to hire replacement contract workers to break strikes, require unions to give 14 days advanced notice of industrial action, and require a 50 per cent strike vote while not allowing electronic voting to replace postal voting.

Even strike pickets of more than six people will be criminal. If these changes pass into law the UK will have the most anti-worker strike laws in Western Europe.

These are happening at the heart of Europe.

An overwhelming majority of companies are following the same path. Even worse.

Huge brands and multinational companies force IndustriALL to campaign every day with their disregard for core labour rights in their supply chains. At two factories in Turkey our affiliates’ members are being sacked and threatened simply for joining the union. These workers make expensive products for luxury brands like Mulberry, but the brands have taken no genuine steps to reinstate the sacked trade unionists.

Again in Turkey, Enpay, a national supplier for major companies such as ABB, Alstom, Schneider, are sacking workers because they simply join unions. There are many other similar cases in the metal industry.

Nissan’s abhorrent treatment of its workers in Canton, Mississippi, is resulting in a growing international coalition of unions at Nissan and corporate partner Renault.

This month mining group Thriveni threatened Indian workers wanting to join IndustriALL’s affiliate HKMF. We are demanding that key customer Tata takes action here.

The Syngenta case in Pakistan is still ongoing even though judiciary processes in the country continue to rule the company’s employment practices unlawful. The same is true with multinational glove producer Ansell in Sri Lanka since the company keeps harming workers.

The mining giants Rio Tinto and Glencore continue to bring our mining trade unions closer together with their systematic disrespect of our members on all continents.

The list goes on. IndustriALL will continue to rise to the challenge with workers’ unity and strength.

However there are also good news.

In North America, a six-year collective agreement was reached by the Steelworkers with Crown Holdings for the plant in Toronto after a proud 22-month strike. Our sisters and brothers finally go back to work by standing strong against the attempts to eliminate the union. Congratulations!

Our sisters and brothers in Myanmar managed get their first minimum wage three years after the unions were legalized. They are not alone. A similar campaign is being conducted by Thai unions to increase their minimum wage.

And others.

The fight continues.

Kemal Özkan

Assistant General Secretary

Philippine affiliates affirm sustainable industrial policy as a priority issue

The IndustriALL Global Union Philippine affiliates attending the workshop conclusively agreed to work together to pursue engagement with the government and other key stakeholders in crafting a sound and sustainable industrial policy based on economic growth that creates decent jobs and industrialization with social justice, environmental protection and respect for trade union rights.

To stimulate the discourse on the need for industrial policy taking into account the national context, a resource person from the Action for Economic Reform in the Philippines presented the results of their study that highlight the fact that despite growth in GDP unemployment still persists. A situation best described as “jobless growth”.

An affiliate from the textile and garment sector lamented why the garment industry declined and recalled that during the 1980s the sector was considered as an engine for growth and a key employment generator that peaked at almost 900,000 jobs in 1995.

Kan Matsuzaki, director for ICT, Electrical and Electronics at IndustriALL presented the potential and industrial trends in ASEAN plus India, highlighting how companies in the electronics and electrical sector move from one country to another. IndustriALL’s discussion paper on sustainable industrial policy was presented and highlighted the points where manufacturing as potential for growth for national economies and building solidarity among workers against the negative impact of further opening up of economies to market forces and unabated trade deals.

“In order to further the workers’ agenda on sustainable industrial policy, trade unions have to unite and increase their membership to have a strong voice that will enable them to influence government and policy makers. So the key message is still organize, organize and organize,” said Annie Adviento, IndustriALL regional secretary for South East Asia.

Affiliates identified specific actions to take in furthering their agenda for sustainable industrial policy in the areas such as:

Against the backdrop of the recent mining tragedy on 17 July in Antique where nine workers died, affiliates agreed to come up with a statement integrating safety and health in the mining sector as a policy in industrial development and strongly urged the government to come up with a responsible mining policy.