Swaziland: labour federation finally registered

When the two main trade union centres, the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions and the Swaziland Federation of Labour, as well as the independent Swaziland National Association of Teachers came together to form Tucoswa, the merger was widely welcomed.

However, shortly after the founding congress in March 2012, TUCOSWA was informed that the registration granted was invalid as the labour law did not cater fort the registration of federations. As a result the two main employers’ federations were also subsequently deregistered.

Initially the accusation from some government officials was that the new federation had political aspirations after the Tucoswa congress decided to boycott upcoming national elections if political parties remained banned in Swaziland. There has been building pressure for the registration of Tucoswa. At the International Labour Conference (ILC) of the ILO in 2014, the Swaziland government brushed aside accusation of repression centred on the unresolved issue of Tucoswa’s registration, in real terms constituting a ban on the labour federation.

The deadline of 15 May 2014 had passed for the five benchmarks that needed to be met for Swaziland to continue to benefit from preferential trade access to the US under the African Growth and Opportunity (AGOA). One of the five benchmarks was, “Full passage of the amendment to the Industrial Relations Act allowing for the registration of trade union and employer federations.” So shortly after the ILC, the US announced the withdrawal of Swaziland’s AGOA eligibility effective from 1 January 2015.

The situation worsened when in July 2014 international concerns for the freedom of expression and association and the rule of law in Swaziland peaked at the conviction of a human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko and a journalist Bheki Makhubu for contempt of court and they were handed down two year jail sentences after a drawn out trial.

But pressure has continued in 2015 after several thousands of jobs have been lost as a result of the withdrawal of AGOA eligibility and mounting support for campaigns to release Maseko and Makhubu. At the end of March 2015, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa and the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in Africa called for the immediate and unconditional release of Maseko and Makhubu.

The registration was granted without much fanfare but before the 2015 ILC. However this may come too late, as the focus has moved from calls for the unbanning of Tucoswa onto the imprisonment of Maseko and Makhubu, which has highlighted the plight of other political prisoners in Swaziland jails.

On 21 May 2015, the European Parliament will debate on cases of breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law with regard to Maseko and Makhubu and a motion for resolution on Swaziland has been put forward.

It is hoped that widespread international condemnation will result ultimately in condemnation from African governments as well as concrete actions to get Swaziland to comply with international standards on human and labour rights.

General Secretary of ATUSWA, Wander Mkhonza says that whilst the registration of the federation is a victory to be celebrated, this is only the beginning:

I think what we managed to do, is that we were able under the circumstances to remain in the minds of the people in general and workers in particular. Our immediate task now is to win back the confidence of the workers.

Dialogue needed to save diamond polishing jobs in Botswana

Two companies, Teemane Manufacturing Company and Diamond Manufacturing Botswana, are toclose their operations and shedding about 300 jobs. This follows recent layoffs in two other companies, Leo Schachter and Eorostar Botswana.

The companies have operated in Botswana for years but now claim to be unable to compete with lower costs of cutting and polishing diamonds in Asia. One of BDWU’s major concerns is that cutting and polishing companies in Botswana are obligated to buy only from DeBeers in order to retain their licences, meaning that DeBeers can set the price. As most of these companies have operations in other parts of the world they can easily shift production when supply price in Botswana exceeds what they can source elsewhere.

The BDWU is petitioning the government to set up an industrial bargaining council. The government has so far refused and there is a lack of support from the employers.

The BDWU says in a press statement that the governement is both regulator and businessman: “Government has active and major interests right from the mining of diamonds, through to the sorting and valuing of diamonds. By virtue of its business involvement in the industry, government is severely constrained to exercises its regulatory role.”

BDWU says that they are excluded from discussions between employers and government and are only informed once the decision to retrench has been taken. The union is calling for the setup of a social dialogue forum for the sector.

“A lot of problems could have been avoided if the industry partners were open to social dialogue and sharing important information pertaining to the industry,” says the BDWU.

Government should have long played a leading role in this arrangement by creating a forum at which labour, business, and government come together to address issues pertaining to the sector.

The union also wants the Botswana government to develop an empowerment policy for local diamond entrepreneurs with the hope that local participation in the industry may engender greater commitment than that of multinational companies to the sustainability of the sector.

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.