Hugo Boss must address rights abuses at Peruvian supplier

In a letter to Hugo Boss CEO, Claus-Dietrich Lahrs, IndustriALL urges the multinational to ensure that Topy Top reinstates sacked unionists and stops terminating the short-term contracts of unionized employees.

The use of export sector short-term contracts by Peruvian textile and garment suppliers not only violates international labour standards and Hugo Boss’s own code of conduct, it also makes it impossible for workers to organize and defend their rights.

IndustriALL’s general secretary, Jyrki Raina, writes:

“Topy Top is well known to us, as we have repeatedly dealt with violations at this company. It is a good example of the problems that arise from the abusive use of short-term contracts.”

The letter comes as Hugo Boss plans to meet Topy Top management at the brand’s German headquarters.

In April, during negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement, Topy Top dismissed SINTOTTSA union secretary Huber Amed Albujar, affiliated to IndustriALL through the National Federation of Textile Workers of Peru (FNTTP).

The company also dismissed 12 union members, five of whom enjoy immunity from dismissal.

Albujar has been an outspoken critic of the exploitation of short-term contracts and a staunch defender of worker rights at the company. It is not the first time Topy Top has tried to get rid of him.

He is now facing four alleged offences all of which he denies.

IndustriALL Global Union, together with its affiliate FNTTP, is demanding that Hugo Boss ensures:

In addition, FNTTP and its member unions have a long-standing demand to see short-term contracts made permanent, in accordance with Hugo Boss’s own code of conduct.

IG Metall commits to strengthen global agreements

During the meeting on 2-3 June 2015 at the union’s headquarters in Frankfurt, the participants of the particular workshop discussed their experiences and overall developments in the area of GFAs, including the forty-six GFAs signed by IndustriALL Global Union with multinationals, within which German-based companies make an important part. These agreements cover a wide range of sectors, from aerospace to mechanical engineering and refer to a number of issues including ILO core conventions, decent work, occupational health and safety, prohibition of child and forced labour and other.

IndustriALL Global Union’s new GFA Guidelines, adopted at the Executive committee meeting in Tunis in December 2014, was also discussed by the participants. The new guidelines also set a number of principles about negotiation and conclusion procedure of new GFAs in a transparent and open way. The participants analysed progression over the GFAs dating back to the late nineties and recently signed ones.

The participants also discussed the results of a survey about existing first and second generation GFAs that has been recently conducted together with scientists. This study proves that these agreements have more influence on MNC policies than thought. On the other hand it shows that there is still a long way to go. It was mentioned at the workshop that “It goes without any question that trade union and works council presence and their pressure are crucial to make a GFA a success story. If we do not follow up, then the agreement keeps dormant, as some bad examples of first generation agreements show”. The workshop also underlined importance of implementation and capacity building for national and local unions in the countries where multinational companies have operations worldwide.

Wolfgang Lemb, Executive Committee member of IG Metall, made it clear that the value of a functioning GFA should not be underestimated and at the same time it is crucial to embed it in a set of activities and trade union presence since a GFA is one piece of a complex toolbox.

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary, said in his presentation:

For IndustriALL, GFA’s have to fulfil the standards we jointly defined in our GFA guidelines. They must contain at least the ILO Core labour standards as the freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining, the ban of child and forced labour and rules for non-discrimination. But we want more. With a GFA that is worth its title we want to make a change for the employees of the signing company and we have to integrate the supply chain and rules for monitoring the GFA with a participation of trade unions.”

Eastern European affiliates meet to build strength in steel and mining

Fernando Lopes, IndustriALL Assistant general secretary, reported on the global trends in the steel industry. According to forecasts based by leading steel companies, China remains the only country that is increasing metal manufacturing and consumption and is expected to show double growth by 2030. USA, which is the second biggest manufacturer, and Russia, the seventh, will both keep their positions between 2014 and 2030, but will slightly decrease their production volumes. The expected downturn is largely due to the use of new materials replacing metal, for instance, in the automobile sector and other industries.

Sergey Komyshev, Chairman of the Metallurgical and Mining Industry Workers Union of Ukraine (MMIWU), reported that the drop in metal production from 40 to 30 million tonnes per year was due to changes in the Ukrainian economy after the financial crisis of 2008-2010, as well as the military conflict in Donbas. He also spoke about the difficulties in relations with employers’ associations in the country. Multinational company employers are not in the employers’ association and therefore are not part of the sectoral collective bargaining agreement.

Participants paid special attention to precarious work, which is increasingly visible in the region. In the Ukraine, the use of precarious work is limited by the “Law on population’s employment”, which came into force on 1 January 2013. The law legalized triangular employment and necessitates a licence to recruit workers for another employer. For example, the regulation lead to the closure of the Azov Personnel Service employment agency that re-employed many workers at metallurgical enterprises. Toiling in sweltering workshops in dangerous conditions at enterprises, but officially employed through the Azov Personnel Service employment agency, these workers were deprived of the benefits they would have been entitled to if they had been employed directly by the enterprise. After the agency was closed, a few hundred workers were reinstated in their permanent jobs. However, it took a long time for the MMIWU to restore the history of their work tenure that they lost during their employment through the agency.

Andrey Shvedov, vice-chair of the Miners' & Metallurgical Workers' Union of Russia, said that Russia had adopted a law banning precarious work.

Assylbek Nuralin, Chairman of the Trade Union of Workers of Mining and Metallurgical Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan, spoke about the difficulties they face while conducting negotiations at the sectoral level. The price of aluminium has dropped twice within the last five years, copper has decreased in value by one third, while iron ore has dropped by 40 per cent. Prices are now close to prime costs. At the same time the number of workers has decreased by more than a third in some industries, making it harder for unions to bargain with employers.

Eldar Tadzhibaev, Chairman of the Mining and Metallurgy Trade Union of Kyrgyzstan, spoke about the development of his union and the structural union reform stipulated in their statutes.

Tamaz Dolaberidze, Chairman of the Trade Union of Metallurgy, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers of Georgia, spoke about the pressure exerted on the unionized workers at the RMG Gold and RMG Copper enterprises. He also reported on the organizing project supported by the Norwegian union Industri Energi.

Participants at the meeting welcomed the decision of IndustriALL’s Executive Committee to accept the Branch Union of Trade Union Organizations of Miners, Metallurgists & Jewellers of Republic of Armenia (TUMMJRA) as a new affiliate, and Fernando Lopes handed over a flag of IndustriALL Global Union to the union delegation.

Madagascar: Sherritt workers attempt suicide after being fired

Sherritt, a Canadian multinational, runs the Ambatovy nickel mining and processing project in Madagascar, where it is the majority shareholder. Ambatovy is the largest finished nickel and finished cobalt operation from lateritic ore in the world.

On 3 June, Sherritt unexpectedly announced it would be firing 1,100 workers at Ambatovy. The retrenchment at Ambatovy represents 12 per cent of direct and indirect workers employed at Sherritt globally.

When workers turned up to the Ambatovy plant on Friday 5 June, they were turned away and told they had lost their jobs. Some were even stripped of their work clothes and made to walk home barefoot.

The short-notice of the sackings has led to a desperate situation for workers and their families, many of whom have taken out loans to build homes on condition of employment at the mining company. The sacked workers have been offered just one month’s redundancy pay.

Only last October Sherritt proclaimed that Ambatovy would be saved from ten per cent job cuts affecting its other operations around the world including Cuba, Spain and Pakistan, marking the Madagascan mine as their top priority after an US$ 7 billion investment.

Ambatovy performance has been rated as excellent for 2014 and the company reported an 11 per cent increase in revenue from Ambatovy for the first quarter.

Production targets were met in March ahead of schedule despite two weeks of closure due to technical problems, as well as a 17-day strike at the extraction site in Moramanga. Sherritt also reported that April’s production was not affected by another 10-day strike at the Tamatave plant.

In May, the company declared that the continued fall of nickel price in the world market has had an adverse effect on its profits, and that the strikes and two week closure of the plant in Ambatovy contributed to the decline in profits.

Trade unions reject the Sherritt’s claims that industrial action affected profits and say the mass lay-offs are in callous retaliation for the worker’s attempts for equal pay between local and foreign staff and protests against the company’s human resources department over 50 cases of unfair dismissals.

Following a press conference called by Ambatovy management, local media aggressively attacked trade unions for contributing to the financial deficit at the company and the job losses. Lack of access for trade unions to financial information at Ambatovy prevents a genuine assessment of whether the sudden decision to terminate 1,100 jobs is due to financial reasons or is in reprisal for earlier strikes.

Trade unions claim that several procedures required by national labour legislation have not been followed in deciding and implementing the retrenchment plan.

IndustriALL Global Union has mining affiliates in Madagascar. IndustriALL’s director of mining, Glen Mpufane, said:

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the family of the Sherritt worker who took her own life. It’s evident that the fate of more than a thousand mine workers is of no consequence to management, whose only concern is profit. IndustriALL Global Union calls upon the government of Madagascar to act in the interest of workers. Worker consultation and a redundancy plan are required by law in the country. If this had been respected perhaps the life of the worker would have been saved.”

Alarm grows over trade union law in Cambodia

The last 18 months have seen workers in Cambodia taking to the streets to voice demands for an increased minimum wage and better working conditions. Too often these actions have been met with violence from authorities.

Following this violence, global garment brands and trade unions have urged the government to revive a trade union law initially drafted in 2011 and later abandoned.

In 2014 the project of the new law was reinitiated and social partners were consulted. Trade unions and garment brands want to see a law protecting fundamental rights and establishing a more stable foundation for industrial relations in the industry.

However, fears are that the current draft of October 2014 does the opposite.

One suggested article governs the structure of unions and sets a 20 per cent minimum membership requirement to establish a trade union, a threshold which is considered excessive and may prove to be an obstacle.

Another article grants the government powers to suspend the union if its actions do not meet with the government’s approval, like strikes. It also appears to prohibit contact with NGOs that are not registered in Cambodia in an attempt to cut unions off from international solidarity.

Last month, IndustriALL Global Union together with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) wrote to the prime minister of Cambodia, urging the government to reassess a law which is “seriously regressive…far out of compliance with international norms”.

Parts of the draft trade union law are not in compliance with ILO conventions 87 (Freedom of association and protection of the right to organize) and 98 (Right to organize and collective bargaining), both ratified by Cambodia.   

Instead the law risks being a substantial step backward and threatening to undermine rather than protect the rights to freedom of association, to organize and to bargain collectively.

IndustriALL general secretary Jyrki Raina says:

The draft trade union law is drawing criticism from all corners. The Cambodian government cannot allow it to antagonize workers, which will inevitably lead to the deterioration of an already fragile relationship.

IndustriALL’s UK steel affiliates to strike against pension cuts

The first national steel strike in the UK for 35 years received strong support in strike ballots of the four major unions at Tata: Community, Unite, GMB and UCATT. Community, Unite and GMB are affiliates of IndustriALL Global Union. UCATT organizes construction workers and affiliates to the Building and Woodworkers’ International.

The largest union at Tata Steel UK is Community, whose members voted 88 per cent in favour of strike action.

Tata Steel UK’s pension deficit has dramatically increased since 2011, and despite considerable worker concessions during the financial crisis, Tata is attempting to make workers foot the bill for the pension fund deficit.

IndustriALL general secretary Jyrki Raina wrote to Tata Steel Chairman Cyrus Mistry to call the company back to the negotiating table and bargain a fair solution with IndustriALL’s affiliates:

Tata prides itself as the world’s most ethical company, but its decision to shut down the British Steel Pension Scheme to future accrual, means that workers and their families, who are the backbone of the company, will suffer financially in their retirement. This decision is in full contradiction with Tata’s own values, plus the company’s refusal to engage with the unions in meaningful dialogue has meant that steelworkers have no alternative but to take industrial actions to defend their hard-won pension rights.

General Secretary Raina also stressed to the company that the UK unions have been ready to discuss alternative measures since last November. The four unions have offered Tata pension savings of £850 million (US$1.3 billion).

IndustriALL’s Executive Committee meeting in Stockholm, Sweden on 19 to 20 May 2015, unanimously backed the British steel workers in their fight to protect their pensions. IndustriALL raised the issue at the OECD on 11-12 May.

Because of the labour intensive work in the steel industry, with long hard shifts, workers were always allowed to retire at 60 years old on a full pension. Tata’s closing of the British Steel pension scheme would make workers lose 25 per cent of their pensions, unless they work an extra five years, losing 5 per cent per year.

Tata Steel UK has four sites in Wales: Port Talbot, Llanwern, Shotton and Trostre, as well as Motherwell in Scotland, and Corby, Scunthorpe, Redcar, Rotherham, Hartlepool, Walsall and Wednesbury in England.

Improved maternity protection needed in Uganda

Participants put together a list of issues that the unions must champion with regard to maternity protection which, include enforcement of legal rights on maternity leave and trade unions taking up grievances on the problem.

They listed health and safety concerns affecting pregnant women as well as concessions that need to be made for special circumstances, such as premature birth. Maternity rights and job security for contract workers was also discussed.

The meeting, which took place in the Ugandan capital, Dar es Salaam, was attended by Angeline Chitambo, member of IndustriALL’s Executive Committee. Participants were enthused with the exchange of experience and advices given by Angeline, who reiterated the need for strong women structures that are constitutionally recognized by unions and which play a major role in encouraging more women to join the trade union movement.

The women’s meeting was preceded by a meeting of the IndustriALL Uganda national council, during which the general secretaries and education officers from affiliated unions agreed to intensify organizing and recruitment of new members, including contract workers, and to develop strategies on labour agencies. They also discussed skills needs now that the labour court in Uganda is being reinstated after a more than a 20-year hiatus. 

Hungarian turbine mechanics prepare to strike for fair pay

The Federation of Chemical Workers of Hungary, VDSZ is calling for international solidarity for its members at Granite Hungary. While Granite operates in 100 countries, at 2,500 worksites with 6,000 workers, the employment conditions of the Hungarians are much lower than the rest.

Granite workers conduct maintenance of turbines and compressors used in power generation. The company is based in Florida, USA and is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Electric, GE.

The technicians are often on standby and react immediately when repairs are needed, which involves travelling to the site that can be anywhere in the world. While on standby the hourly wage of 3 Euros is low. The employment conditions while on placement are insufficient and Hungarians feel discriminated against.

After establishing their local trade union in 2014 and joining VDSZ, negotiations were conducted in April 2015 between the new local union and regional Granite employers. With workers’ demands still ignored now, and the employer not acting in accordance with that agreement, VDSZ is preparing for strike action to demand equal treatment as Granite employees elsewhere and correct, performance related wages.

The 30,000-member VDSZ’s President Tamás Székely, Substitute Member of the IndustriALL Global Union Executive Committee, is in dialogue with the Granite management. Solidarity messages to the Granite workers can be sent to [email protected].

IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan pledged the international’s support:

There is no justification for Hungarian employees of Granite being treated with less respect than the turbine-machine workers of the same company elsewhere. Their demands for equal treatment and fair wages are just. We follow their struggle and will celebrate their deserved wage increases when they are achieved.

Unions ready to rebuild Nepal

Union, employer and government representatives from all over the world attended the event. Despite extreme hardship suffered by Nepal during the recent earthquakes, the general mood of Nepalese trade unions is that this is not the end of the story, it is the beginning. Different speakers at the event echoed the idea time and again.

The nation of Nepal is going through a dramatic period in the aftermath of a series of devastating earthquakes, the first of which happened on 25 April this year. The epicentre was in Barpak, a remote village in the Gorkha district, with an estimated magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale. Not a single house remained safe. The next day, some 16 districts were in the zone of a heavy earthquake, which was followed by a series of aftershocks bringing further destruction.

The third major quake impacted the country on 12 May with an estimated magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale, although slightly smaller than the first one, it was no less devastating. All together there have been around 300 shocks noted in Nepal. They provoked a number of landslides that continued the destruction.

According to JTUCC, 8,699 people have been reported dead so far. Almost 22,000 have been injured. More than half a million houses have been destroyed. Numerous education institutions including schools have been ruined. The loss of schools and education institutions is estimated by JTUCC as being as high as 8 billion NPR (approximately 70 million euros), a grave burden for a country like Nepal. Close to 600 heritage sites have been severely damaged or totally destroyed.

A detailed report on the consequences of the earthquake “Nepal’s killer Quake’15, Post quake review: destruction & possibilities” was distributed at the Nepal Forum. Also a heart-breaking documentary “Nepal’s Killer Quake ’15” showing devastating results was projected at the meeting.

After an introduction session by the national Nepalese union leaders, a session of questions and answers was organized. Many solidarity support messages were delivered from union and government participants.

The organizers of the meeting explained the situation of Nepalese migrant workers in Qatar, who have not been allowed to leave their jobs due to Kafala rule in Qatar. According to Bishnu Rimal, JTUCC President, there is an agreement on the horizon with Qatar, which allows Nepalese migrant workers to travel back home. Rimal, also pointed out that in case of problems workers are requested to contact JTUCC.

JTUCC also explained how solidarity support could be channelled to victims of the quakes in Nepal. See our previous story describing the possibility of donations through GEFONT.

A number of IndustriALL affiliates have already made donations to Nepalese unions, including National Trade Union Federation of Pakistan (NTUF) who travelled to Nepal from 12 to 17 May to distribute food items worth 200,000 USD. IndustriALL regional office in India assisted in this trip and is available for help with further arrangements if needed.

At the end of the meeting IndustriALL video interviewed Bishnu Rimal, JTUCC President.

ITUC launches petition to halt TPP trade negotiations

The ITUC has launched an online petition targeting TPP trade ministers asking them to stop negotiations and release the text. The petition is in English, Spanish and French.

The trade agreement is being negotiated between 12 nations – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

“Trade deals being done behind closed doors are setting up working people to lose out and aiming to concentrate yet more power and wealth in the hands of multinational corporations, at the expense of the common good,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

The ITUC’s petition says:

“A good agreement should put people first by enforcing International Labour Organization core labour rights, protecting the environment and public services, not allowing special rights to foreign investors to sue governments thereby undermining local, state and national decisions and laws, and promoting affordable access to vital medicines with fair patent rules. Concluding the TPP before making its sweeping rules public is not consistent with open, participatory governance.”