Armenia: rubber workers still protest over unpaid wages

In February 2014, 1800 workers of the Nairit plant were laid off. So far, the workers have yet to receive their wages for the last 18 months of work.

Since February this year, former employees together with some of the 480 remaining workers have held weekly protest actions. On Tuesdays they would gather outside the presidential residence, on Thursdays outside the government building. The protesters demand that the country’s leaders draft a clear plan to eliminate the wage arrears now estimated at a total of USD 15 million.

Workers are also demanding that the Nairit plant operations resume. According to a World Bank feasibility study, the amount required is estimated to a US$250-350 million. However, workers do not agree. According to their calculations US$55-65 million would be sufficient to resume operations, the plant would become self-sustaining in three years and its operations would help to develop other industries of Armenia.

The Nairit plant operations were terminated in February 2010, putting more than 1,500 workers on a forced paid leave until February 2015. Protests demanding to clear the wage arrears have been held on a regular basis since 2012.

Nairit was the only plant in the Soviet Union to produce chloroprene rubber, a synthetic rubber used as insulation material and a base for adhesives. In 2006, 90 per cent of Nairit’s shares were sold to British Rhinoville Property Limited. The remaining 10 per cent belong to the Armenian government.

Fire in Philippines footwear factory kills 72

As the fire started, workers in the rubber footwear factory were trapped on the second floor as bars on the windows stopped them from getting out. There was a lack of fire exits and staff had not received proper fire training.

72 workers were killed, and the death toll may go up as bodies remain on the second floor of the burned-out factory.

The fire is though to be caused by welding carried out close to inflammable chemicals.

Kentex Manufacturing Inc. produces flip-flops and rubber slippers for domestic market and employs around 300 workers. According to reports, the company hires workers through a “fly-by-night” subcontractor, CJC Manpower Services, an agency not registered at the labour department. Out of more than 300 workers in the factory, only 54 are regularly employed.

Aside from non-compliance to safety and health standards including a lack of fire safety standards, an initial report from the labour department has found that the company paid workers’ below the statutory minimum wage, as well as withholding pensions, health benefits and other forms of social security.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliates in the Philippines are coordinating with the labour department in the investigation into the fire.

IndustriALL regional secretary in Asia Pacific, Annie Adviento, says:

Those responsible for this fire and for not enforcing regulations must be held accountable. We must make sure there will be no more tragedies where workers pay with their lives.

Women World Conference plans revealed

Around 250 participants from IndustriALL affiliates in 140 countries are expected to take part in the conference in the Austrian capital, Vienna, from 14 to 16 September.

Hosted by Austrian affiliate PRO-GE, IndustriALL hopes to enable as many women unionists as possible to go to the conference, which will also be streamed live on the web for those who are unable to attend.

Key issues on the agenda will be health and safety, violence against women, maternity protection, sustainability through union building and women’s representation.

IndustriALL general secretary, Jyrki Raina, used the committee meeting in Stockholm to stress his support for a women’s quota:

“I want to see 40 per cent women at all leadership levels of IndustriALL,” he said, adding that he will lead the drive to adopt the quota at IndustriALL’s congress in Brazil in October 2016.

Raina also reminded participants of the work IndustriALL is doing continually to empower women trade unionists across the world.

He added that IndustriALL sector co-chairs are already 50:50 men and women.

A draft resolution on the quota was presented to the meeting for review ahead of the world conference in September. The resolution will then be taken to Congress in 2016.

Monika Kemperle, IndustriALL’s assistant general secretary, said:

“The resolution is an expression of what we want to achieve. The next steps will be how we achieve it in practice.”

The question of a 40 per cent quota has been approved by Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Africa, but has yet to endorsed by Europe and North America.

Monica Veloso from Brazilian metalworkers confederation, CNTM, said:

“Many women are invisible in decision making levels. Women are in the workplace but they are not in unions. Women must be full participants and protagonists in their unions at the national and international levels.”

Several participants expressed the need for solidarity and unity amongst women, as well as greater involvement from men to help advance women in the trade union movement.

In addition to resolving a quota to guarantee women's participation, IndustriALL needs to organize more women and young people said Kemperle, particularly women in non-manual sectors and precarious jobs.

“The face of trade unions has to change and reflect the new faces in the workforce – women and youth,” she said.

The deadline for registration for the World Women Conference 2015 is 30 June.

Glencore-Prodeco ordered to pay 60,023 million pesos for changing mining contract

After a thorough tax investigation, Colombia’s Comptroller General has ordered the Prodeco group, owned by the multinational Glencore plc, Hernán Martínez Torres, minister of mines and energy between 2006 and 2010, the former director of Ingeominas, Mario Ballesteros and the former technical director of Ingeominas, José Fernando Ceballos, to pay 60,023 million pesos.

Changes made without prior assessment or planning

They were all implicated in changes made to a mining contract resulting in a reduction in basic royalties, additional royalties and compensation due on gross income from production at the Calenturitas mine in 2010, the year in which the changes were made.

According to the Comptroller, the accused made the changes without conducting the assessment or planning procedures required for large-scale mining projects. Consequently, there was a reduction of more than 52 million pesos in royalties.

Former minister Martínez explained that Prodeco representatives visited him at the ministry of mines and told him the company was not happy with the royalty clause because it prevented it from fully developing the mine. He said he disagreed with the company and asked its representatives to discuss it with Ingeominas.

Prodeco representatives said they did not realize they were acting irregularly when they changed the contract. However, the Comptroller said he had the necessary evidence to show that the accused were guilty.

Although Glencore claims to respect communities, collective bargaining and workers’ rights, IndustriALL Global Union knows it is involved in industrial and community disputes all over the world. IndustriALL therefore supports the Colombian Comptroller General’s order, which states that the company violated “the national interest and administrative principles and therefore the Colombian state’s financial interests”.

“The conduct of multinational corporations prejudices Colombian sovereignty. Companies have an impact on the environment and communities, cause displacement in the areas they operate in and leave ill-health and poverty in their wake. A delegation of trade union and community representatives recently denounced the company at the Glencore shareholders’ annual general meeting in Switzerland,” says Carlos Bustos Patiño, projects coordinator for IndustriALL in Colombia.

IndustriALL’s new issue of Global Worker out now

After the industrial homicide at Soma claimed the lives of 301 Turkish coal miners in May 2014, a feature on Turkey’s mining industry exposes how privatization has had devastating consequences.

With the electronics industry being one of IndustriALL’s biggest sectors, an in-depth report examines how unions are organizing and fighting against precarious work in this booming sector.

Another Global Worker special report looks at industry bargaining as an essential tool in the struggle for living wages and the fight against inequality.

While global wealth is concentrated into fewer hands, the increasing inequality is also due to attacks against collective bargaining by corporations, right-wing politicians and international financial institutions. Company agreements offer less protection to a smaller group of workers,

says Jyrki Raina, IndustriALL’s general secretary.

This edition of Global Worker also includes a profile of the Federation of Chemical, Energy and General Workers of Hungary, (VDSZ) and an interview with Nigerian union leader Issa Aremu, whose union the National Union of Textile, Garment & Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTW) has had success organizing informal workers in Nigeria.

In January 2015, IndustriALL welcomed two trade unions from Myanmar as new affiliates. In a country where unions have only been legal since 2012, a report looks at how unions are working hard to organize workers and tackle precarious work in the country.

Also take look at IndustrALL’s interview with Barbara Figueroa, president of the Chilean trade union centre, CUT.

You can also read the Global Worker online.

Mines in Colombia still unsafe

IndustriALL Global Union has approached senior government authorities on several occasions to draw their attention to the unsafe conditions in the mines and the consequent loss of thousands of human lives and demanded greater enforcement and effective safety measures.

Although Colombia has signed ILO Convention 176 on mine safety, the government has failed to comply with its duty to introduce implementing legislation.

Furthermore, miners are not protected by even the minimum health and safety measures. They suffer from many occupational diseases but employers do not recognize them as such or even accept this is a high risk occupation because this would mean they would have to pay higher social security contributions.

There are many accidents every year but the authorities always claim that the mines are operating legally. However, the emergency services almost always establish that the explosions are caused by methane gas emissions in the tunnels.

IndustriALL is very concerned about the frequency of such mining accidents and is therefore organizing a global campaign for countries like Colombia to ratify the ILO Convention and ensure the proper management of health and safety in the mines in order to avoid more deaths and occupational diseases.

JYRKI RAINA: Welcome to Global Worker

JYRKI RAINA

Welcome to Global Worker

With 18 million workers, electronics is the second biggest IndustriALL sector after the textile and garment industry. Low wages, problems with union rights and precarious work make it a priority target for our action.

A report in this Global Worker shows that while corporate executives are taking home big pay packages, electronics workers are toiling long working hours on low salaries. Foxconn raised wages after 14 desperate workers committed suicide in China in 2010, but its CEO is still worth more money than what all of the company’s one million blue-collar workers earn in a year.

Samsung of Korea, the biggest selling electronics company in the world, has a long history of violating labour rights. Managers are trained on efficient “union-free” policies. Recently, a high Vietnamese labour official had to intervene with the corporate management to ensure the union’s right to organize Samsung workers in the country.

IndustriALL is helping electronics unions to build their capacity on organizing, collective bargaining with multinational corporations and their suppliers, networking, union rights and precarious work.

One focus area is the ASEAN region to which the electronics industry is shifting. In 2014, over 600 unionists from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam were trained on organizing.

Another special report in this issue looks at industry level bargaining as an essential tool in the fight for living wages and against inequality.

While global wealth is concentrated into fewer hands, the increasing inequality is also due to attacks against collective bargaining by corporations, right-wing politicians and international financial institutions. Company agreements offer less protection to a smaller group of workers.

Therefore, IndustriALL is supporting developments towards industry level bargaining particularly in supply chain industries like garments and electronics. We are working with major brands to make sure that their purchasing practices with long-term commitments and adequate pricing facilitate the payment of living wages.

Myanmar is a country that will attract a number of multinational investors into labour intensive industries, as the country takes steps towards democracy after 50 years of military regime.

In December 2014, IndustriALL affiliated the industrial and mine workers’ unions of Myanmar. Together with our partners, we are supporting a major organizing and training effort to develop skills and institutions that did not exist during the dictatorship.

Wildcat strikes of impatient factory workers demanding higher wages are spreading. Handling them peacefully will be one of the key tests for the new society in Myanmar.

In this Global Worker, we commemorate the one-year anniversary of the explosion and fire that killed 301 mine workers at Soma in Turkey on 13 May 2014. Our feature shows that greed, incompetence and corruption made it another industrial homicide – like too many other disasters in mining and other sectors.

The IndustriALL family will continue its efforts to make sure that every worker can go to work without having to fear for being killed or injured. A union workplace is a safer workplace.

Jyrki Raina

General Secretary

REPORT: Electronics industry, organizing and fighting against precarious work

REPORT

Text: Kan Matsuzaki

The supply chains that feed the electronics industry are getting bigger and more complex as technology pervades every area of our lives. Apple deals with over 750 suppliers to make products such as iPhones and iPads, and in the automobile industry, electronic components can make up to 40 per cent of total costs in all car categories. It is estimated that the electronics industry employs 18 million* workers worldwide.

Highly competitive, innovative, fast changing and with short production cycles, the electronics industry mostly operates on a ‘just-in-time’ production model, fuelling a rise in precarious work.

In 2014, IndustriALL’s ICT Electrical and Electronics sector conducted a survey on precarious work in the industry. The results show that permanent workers are being pressured into precarious positions. Unions are struggling to reach out to the rapidly increasing numbers of agency, contract and outsourced workers, as well as migrants, who have little or no chance to bargain collectively on their terms and conditions of employment.

Shoji Arino, chairperson for IndustriALL ICT Electrical and Electronics, says the sector’s business model not only increases precarious work, but also leads to disparities in standards of living and a crisis in sustainability:

Governments and multinationals in the electronics sector are employing nefarious tactics to obstruct trade union activities, especially in Asian developing countries. We, as unions in this sector, must take wide-ranging action to combat them.

ASEAN and India – hot spots of production

China, once the world’s electronics production hub, is now losing out to South East Asia and India. Multinationals (MNCs) are shifting production to ASEAN countries, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam, as well as India, where wages for manufacturing workers are lower than China (Table 1). 62 per cent of TV (LCD, LED), 70 per cent of semiconductors, 76 per cent of car navigation systems, 86 per cent of mobile/smart phones, and 100 per cent of digital cameras are manufactured in Asia.

ASEAN countries and India are helping to attract foreign investment by offering special incentives to electronics MNCs. Companies are rushing to India and the ASEAN countries to take advantage of the lower manufacturing costs and attractive investment conditions. As a result of the Vietnamese government’s preferential treatment towards Samsung Electronics, in 2014, the company built the world’s largest smart phone factory in the country. Samsung will employ 100,000 workers by July 2015, making it the largest foreign company in Vietnam. Elsewhere, Foxconn is planning to invest US$1 billion in a manufacturing project in Indonesia, estimated to create more than 100,000 jobs in the coming years.

Ducking international labour standards

The world’s five highest earning electronics companies originate from countries where the ILO conventions on freedom of association (ILO convention No.87) and the right to collective bargaining (ILO convention No.98) are not ratified. They also operate in and/or outsource labour intensive production processes to suppliers located in countries where these ILO conventions are not respected (Table 2 and 3). In the labour intensive production processes of the electronics industry, the workplaces have very low or no union density. Many workers are forced into a precarious working environment weakening their chance to bargain collectively.

Foxconn, Apple’s biggest supplier, has grown massively since the company began operating in mainland China in 1988. In 15 years, the company has become one of the world’s biggest electronics manufacturers, employing more than 1.2 million workers worldwide. The company has had many serious labour problems related to working conditions – low wages, long working hours, irregular work-loads, huge use of agency workers outside of China – and occupational health and safety (OHS). In the absence of trade unions in the workplace Foxconn has faced riots by groups of unorganized workers.

Samsung, the biggest selling electronics company in the world, has a long history of disrespecting labour and human rights. Samsung’s violations of workers’ rights range from kidnapping and battering of union leaders, to special training for managers to implement an effective “union-free” policy, as evident in Korea and other countries in Asia.

Who wins with the electronics business model?

Top management from the leading electronics companies are ranked among richest people in the world. Samsung chairman, Lee Kun-hee, has an estimated net worth of US$12.6 billion; Apple CEO Tim Cook took home a salary of more than US $9 million last year. Hewlett-Packard CEO, Meg Whitman, got a pay package of US$19.6 million in 2014, and the CEO of Hon Hai Precision (Foxconn), Terry Gou, has a net fortune estimated at US$6.1 billion.

This stands in contrast to standard Foxconn workers in China assembling products for Apple and HP. They are paid on average US$5,000 dollar per year, which means Foxconn’s CEO is worth more money than the combined annual salary of all the company’s one million blue-collar workers.

Despite the fact that IBM recently announced plans to lay off more than 100,000 employees (25 per cent of the total workforce) in 2015, the company’s CEO, Virginia Rometty, got a pay package worth more than US$20 million last year, including a US$3.6 million bonus.

The worker unfriendly business model adopted by major players in the electronics industry has had a negative influence on organized workplaces and sustainable employment in the sector. The numbers of unorganized and precarious workers are growing in the complicated supply chain system. Unions must fight back by organizing and fostering strong negotiation skills among workers.

Over the last few years, IndustriALL affiliates and the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) have succeeded in organizing Foxconn workers. Collective bargaining with management has led to improved working conditions and OHS at organized workplaces in China and Brazil

Kan Matsuzaki, Director of ICT Electrical and Electronics at IndustriALL, says that these successful cases and models should be developed and expanded to all Foxconn’s workplaces:

“It is vital that unions get together and take action to achieve fair and decent working conditions in all the major electronics companies.”

Organizing in the electronics industry

In 2013, IndustriALL set up a steering committee on ICT Electrical and Electronics to lead the work in the sector and discuss strategies on MNCs, trade union networks, GFAs, organizing, union rights, precarious work and specific industrial policy.

In 2014, a five-year project supported by the European Commission was launched in cooperation with the GoodElectronics network. It focuses on organizing electronics workers in the ASEAN region, of which 30 per cent are women, including outsourced workers, temporary workers, migrants and students. Last year, over 600 trade unionists from IndustriALL affiliates in Indonesia (FSPMI and Lomenik), Malaysia (EIWU and EIEU coalition), Thailand (TEAM), Vietnam (VUIT) and Taiwan (ROCMU) were trained in organizing.

Concrete results have already been achieved. In Malaysia, EIEU Northern region has succeeded in organizing more than 900 workers at an electronics MNC despite strong resistance and union busting tactics by the management. It is the first time the union has negotiated a collective bargaining agreement that includes migrant workers. This year, IndustriALL will expand the project to the Philippines where the electronics industry is expected to grow significantly in the country’s export processing zones over the next three to five years.

Global campaign defeats union-busting attack

Locking out or dismissing union leaders by picking holes in vague labour laws are typical union-busting tactics used by electronics companies in the course of collective bargaining. In May 2014, one of Apple’s most important suppliers, NXP Semiconductors, dismissed all 24 elected union officials from IndustriALL affiliate, MWAP, at its plant in a special economic zone in Cabuyao, Philippines. NXP claimed the union’s peaceful industrial actions were illegal. It was clear that the company’s persistent acts of intimidation and harassment were aimed at weakening the bargaining power of the union.

MWAP and IndustriALL immediately staged a global campaign to fight back. Actions included large pickets outside negotiation venues and the NXP facility; national mobilizations; and corporate customer action focused on Apple. The unified actions led to victory and brought a fair and just solution. Not only were union members reinstated, MWAP also achieved a significant wage hike and regularization of an important number of precarious workers.

Electronics industry challenged over use of toxic chemicals

IndustriALL is also teaming up with the GoodElectronics Network and its NGO partners to stop the use of cancer-causing chemicals in the electronics industry.

Trade unions and NGOs report hundreds of cases of workers who have contracted cancer and other illnesses over the past five years from exposure to benzene and other highly toxic chemicals used in electronics manufacturing.

More than 200 civil society groups, including IndustriALL and its electronics affiliates in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and the US, have launched a formal challenge to the industry to clean up its act. The challenge emphasizes the importance of disclosure, substitution of hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives, protection of workers, freedom of association, participation of workers in workplace monitoring, environmental protection, and the need for compensation of workers, communities and the environment for harm done.

Collaborated activities with GUFs on MNC – IBM Alliance

Collaboration and cooperation with other global unions is also a key activity in the sector. IndustriALL, together with UNI Global Union and IndustriAll European Trade Union, form The Global Union Alliance of IBM. The alliance gives an opportunity for IBM workers and unions to come together to discuss ways to protect workers and help ensure a better future. Last year, the Alliance agreed on a new global strategy to fight job cuts and demanded that IBM worldwide recognizes trade unions as partners in social dialogue and collective agreements. After IBM announced plans for massive lay offs, the alliance strengthened its activities and demanded an urgent moratorium on job cuts and called for meaningful dialogue with the troubled multinational.

Global Dialogue Forum

In December 2014, there was a constructive discussion on precarious work in the electronics industry at the Global Dialogue Forum (GDF) on the Adaptability of Companies to Deal with Fluctuating Demands and the Incidence of Temporary and Other Forms of Employment, held at the International Labour Office in Geneva. The purpose of the Forum was for tripartite participants to assess the impact of temporary or other forms of employment on electronics companies and workers. The Forum was attended by worker representatives (IndustriALL affiliate unions), governments, and employers, including the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC). The GoodElectronics network acted as an observer.

After the active discussion, the Forum came to a consensus that:

Employer and worker organizations in the electronics industry should:

promote equitable treatment for all workers, regardless of their employment status;
raise awareness and build capacity on fundamental principles and rights at work-FPRW and promote respect of these principles and rights throughout the supply chains;
jointly explore options in addition to temporary or other forms of employment to respond to fluctuating demands; and
promote long-lasting employment relationships, where possible.

EICC, acting as the Employers’ group coordinator at the GDF, is comprised of more than 100 electronics companies, including the top five. Since the EICC describes itself as “committed to supporting the rights and wellbeing of workers and communities worldwide affected by the global electronics supply chain”, IndustriALL will continue to engage in dialogue with the EICC to find fair and just solution for the issues on precarious work in the sector.

Jyrki Raina, general secretary of IndustriALL, said:

Many electronics companies are purely in pursuit of profits and treat workers as a commodity or a production cost. Brutal attempts to bust unions stink of company arrogance. We must fight back by harnessing our global union power just as we did in defeating the union-busting attack at NXP Philippines.

PROFILE: Nigerian unions get creative and organize informal workers

PROFILE

Country: Nigeria

Text: Cherisse Fredricks

Union: National Union of Textile, Garment & Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTW)

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the National Union of Textile, Garment & Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTW) has used this trend as an opportunity not only to organize the unorganized, but also to strengthen union membership and increase women’s participation.

A tailored approach to organizing

For the survival of the textile and garment sectors, the NUTGTW thought outside of the box and started organizing tailors. Out of 500,000 workers in tailoring, the NUTGTW has now organized around 35,000.

“In the 1970s and 1990s when the textile and garment industries were vibrant, the tailoring aspect of our work was neglected and that is where the informal sector workers are found. The tailors in Nigeria are mostly self–employed and mostly women,” says Issa Aremu, General Secretary of the NUTGTW.

Some of the tailors were already organized through associations in an unstructured way. The NUTGTW quickly realized it was better to get organizers who are tailoring workers with a better understanding of the issues. The tailors face a great deal of harassment by state authorities that collect multiple taxes making it difficult for them to operate.

“These workers don’t have a voice so we provide one for them. We are rooted in the community and part of IndustriALL. Now that these informal workers know that they are part of this global movement it helps to bring them into the circle,” says Aremu.

To provide the tailors with a platform to discuss their issues, the NUTGTW has made efforts to connect them with government officials at local and state level.

The union also provides equipment like needles, sewing machines, buttons and textiles for the tailors. This partnership makes sense because NUTGTW members also produce textiles so the union can serve as an agent to link them to the industry allowing the tailors to have access to quality fabric at controlled prices.

“The country is being flooded with fabric from China. This damages the textile sector in Nigeria and makes it very difficult for tailors to access quality fabric which really undermines their work. So the union is providing a service to these informal workers, which pushes them to join,” says Aremu.

“The informal sector workers have helped to reinforce the NUTGTW’s campaigns because they are greater in number,” he adds.

Creative solutions to organizing challenges

Establishing a fair system for membership dues is a challenge when dealing with informal sector workers. For a worker from the formal sector the procedure is straightforward because they have a pay slip every month, but for workers in the informal sector with an irregular income, it is less so.

If our union can find ways to provide services that workers in the informal sector find valuable, then they are willing to pay for them,” says Aremu. “We have offered annual educational programs that have been amazing. The fees were reduced to start off, but now we have increased them gradually and the workers are willing to pay because they are eager for an education.

The NUTGTW has revised its curriculum to better suit the specific needs of informal sector workers, such as acquiring loans at cheaper rates to source supplies for their businesses.

“We also participate in national conferences and we want them to partake in these conferences in order to give a voice to their issues. And they are willing to raise the resources necessary to participate,” says Aremu.

Integration into union structures

With pressure to meet 40 per cent women participation in union structures, some unions struggle because of low female membership. By organizing in the informal sector, the NUTGTW have not only managed to build their membership but have also reached a higher proportion of women members.

And the union has amended its Constitution to allow women to participate and to operate at higher-level positions:

Women are now moving up in terms of our leadership structures,

says Aremu.

INTERVIEW: Chile: transforming the Labour Code

INTERVIEW

Text: Kimber Meyer

Translation: Chris Whitehouse

Union: Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Chile (CUT)

One of the CUT’s current priorities is the labour reform bill sent to congress on 29 December 2014. What are the main points of the reform that will benefit Chilean workers?

The most important change under discussion is recognition of trade unions as the exclusive agent for collective bargaining purposes. At the moment, bargaining is conducted by a committee of workers set up specifically to carry out this task. This has badly damaged trade unions but things are changing now. The unions will take over the role currently played by these negotiating committees and become completely responsible for this task.

The second issue is about representation. Currently, employers have the right to unilaterally extend improvements to working conditions won by trade unions to all their workers. The reform would end this practice and employers would not be able to extend benefits until they reach an agreement with the trade union. This strengthens the role and power of the unions.

Thirdly, the reform aims to extend collective bargaining rights so that unions are able to negotiate better agreements. We must look to achieving the right to strike, without sanctions or restrictions.

There are, however, certain contradictions in the draft law…

Although the bill recognizes the validity of trade union action and basic union rights, such as the right to strike, it also has weaknesses. It talks of punishing anti-trade union practices, but also introduces measures regarding the conduct of strikes. This is inconsistent because, on the one hand, it talks about guaranteeing rights but then imposes a series of sanctions and restrictions that undermine attempts to put those rights into practice. We welcome the progress represented by the initiative, but we will not really have any rights if we are going to have to ask permission for everything we do.

We have a dual responsibility because this debate will not only have a positive impact on local trade union organization but also contribute to the global debate on basic workers’ rights if we manage to make progress on the necessary reforms.

Do you think that other countries will use Chile as a model for improving working conditions?

That is what we are aiming for, to be able to make progress and create precedents that will contribute to the ongoing discussion. Chilean companies invest in the whole region and we all know that neighbouring countries are much better at recognizing labour rights than Chile.

They say that the reform is causing uncertainty, but this is only while the reform is under discussion. Once resolved, things will be no different to what companies are already familiar with in countries where they don’t hesitate to invest, such as Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. The reform in our country deals with standards that are recognized all around the world. We feel this is a very significant point that carries a lot of weight. We are trying to help workers get their rights back and bring the situation here into line with the standards in the region.

Do you think that once the necessary changes have been made, there will be more support from the unions and they will take steps to get it passed?

I think that if the bill makes good progress in the Chamber of Deputies, we will have to follow closely what happens in the Senate. We cannot allow the trade unions to be excluded from the debate so we will have to concentrate on what is going on. We must keep ourselves informed about the details of any proposed amendments and whether senators are supporting positive reforms or trying to prevent changes being made. We have to be ready to deal with both possibilities.

What we really want people to understand is that the issue of labour reform is important for the whole country and not just for the trade union movement. It is a debate about distributing wealth fairly and ending inequality.

When the labour reform is finally approved, what do you think will be the first changes to take place and what will be the biggest issues?

We hope the bill becomes law as soon as possible, although it will only come into force one year after it has been approved. We do not agree with this and have said that implementation of a reform like this needs to consider existing collective agreements that are still in force. Once the law has been approved, these agreements will still be valid. The government must also strengthen inspection and enforcement institutions, such as the labour courts, in order to ensure compliance with the new legislation.

The challenge we face is to be pro-active organizers and educators about what this labour reform means and take the discussion to every corner of the movement so that our trade unions will no longer have to put up with the labour code introduced by the dictatorship. This requires the trade union movement to engage in a very important process of learning and cultural change. And we have the responsibility for equipping it with all the instruments it needs to make the law a reality.

The most important change under discussion is recognition of trade unions as the exclusive agent for collective bargaining purposes. At the moment, bargaining is conducted by a committee of workers set up specifically to carry out this task.