Oil and gas workers network is launched in MENA region

Given the recent dramatic fall in the global price of oil, the meeting took place at a particularly appropriate time. It brought together unions from across the region, including major exporters of oil as well as major importers.
25 Participants came from both IndustriALL – affiliated trade unions and potential affiliates from 12 countries of the region were joined by  representatives from oil and gas unions from Germany, France and Spain. The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Resident Director, Achim Vogt, also participated fully in the conference proceedings.

Discussions centered on the global oil and gas industry and the role and Importance of the MENA Region in the production. Following a detailed overview of the situation by Jim Catterson, IndustriALL Director of Energy Industries’ Section, delegates outlined the present situation of the industry in their countries,  as well as the economic effects of the dramatic recent falls in the price of crude oil. Obviously there were major differences between countries that were major exporters of hydrocarbons and those that were major importers, however all saw that widely fluctuating prices had major detrimental effects.

The challenges and difficulties for oil and gas unions in the region were discussed, as well as how they could successfully ensure union building and organizing against a background of political and economic problems. Unions discussed the importance of building networks as well as better use of Global Framework Agreements (GFAs).

The importance of this was quickly realized when the Kuwaiti delegation were contacted by their union and informed that the government there had just announced an intention to change the oil and gas legislation in the country in a way that could result in the privatization of the industry. Clearly the union intended to struggle against this decision by all means possible. Conference delegates discussed the situation after hearing a report from their Kuwaiti brothers and together with the secretariat offered their full support and solidarity in such an important struggle.

Participants also examined  the presence of multinational companies in the oil and gas industries of their countries, as well as whether or not the workforce was organized. The intention was to highlight potential organizing targets. However it was realized that there needed to be more time spent on gathering detailed information for this to be effective and it was decided that the secretariat would develop a questionnaire, that would be circulated in Arabic, to all participants and affiliated trade unions in the region to gather more information and a focus on identifying potential organizing opportunities would take place when the questionnaire results were analysed.

It was also agreed that the unions needed to both improve the participation of women and youth representatives in the Network, and also to ensure that their unions participated in the respective networks on these issues established at the MENA region.

Participants agreed to establish a small steering group which would take the work forward and ensure that the network of all the unions present would function in between this meeting and a follow up foreseen for next year. It was resolved that the steering group would include  the oil unions from Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.

Jim Catterson says:
"This conference is a first step towards bringing the unions together in an effective network. Increased international cooperation and work will be essential to ensure trade unions not only survive but increase influence in a region dominated at present by armed conflict."
 

Rana Plaza – a last push to close the compensation gap

On 24 April 2013, more than 1,100 workers were killed and thousands more were injured in an industrial homicide which opened the world’s eyes to the conditions in garment factories.

Two years after the deadly building collapse, the Rana Plaza compensation fund is still missing US$2,7 million from the targeted US$30 million.

IndustriALL Global Union general secretary Jyrki Raina says:

“Let us now close one of the most shameful chapters in the history of the garment industry and move on. The multi billion-garment industry has the resources. We call upon all leading brands to end the funding crisis.”

On the anniversary people all over the world manifested the need for a changing garment industry.

IndustriALL affiliates around the world organized solidarity actions; on the streets of Dhaka children made orphans two years ago staged a sit-in; the IndustriALL Bangladesh Council (IBC) formed a human chain followed by a rally.

“We urge buyers and other stakeholders to pay off the remaining compensation and we demand a safe workplace,” said leaders of the IBC. 

Towards a living wage

Since the collapse, progress in making Bangladeshi garment factories safer have been made, using the legally binding Bangladesh Accord.

However, with the remediation process currently behind schedule and an increasingly anti-union approach from factory owners and the government, the struggle for garment workers in Bangladesh is not over.

Jyrki Raina says that brands and factory owners have to be part of the solution, working together with IndustriALL.

“Important progress has been made. Now the garment industry needs sustainable jobs with living wages, safe conditions and reasonable working hours. For that there needs to be bargaining structures in place where brands pay a bit more to enable living wages for the millions of workers in countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia and Myanmar.”

Renault Works Council goes truly global

The Amendment was signed by union representatives from major Renault facilities in Europe, IndustriALL Global Union and Renault management. It is part of a process initiated several years ago to build social dialogue at global level and strengthen the role of workers’ representation within the Group.  

The agreement sets out the various configurations for the Group Council meetings. The World Works Council meets once a year for the purpose of interaction with top management on the situation and strategic issues of the Group as well as development prospects. It is composed of 40 titular members, 9 of whom are from outside the European Economic Area. For the first time this year India will have a seat on the Council. Morocco, where the company operates two plants with over 6,000 workers, will have two representatives.  

Jyrki Raina, IndustriALL’ s General Secretary, says:

“The creation of world works councils is one of the key priorities of IndustriALL Global Union and part of our Action Plan. Such councils already exist in a number of automotive companies. We welcome Renault’s commitment to go a step further in strengthening social dialogue worldwide."

In line with ILO Convention 135, the Amendment stipulates that the members of the Council enjoy protection status afforded to workers representatives in enterprises.

The World Works Council is also the body for the monitoring and follow-up of the global framework agreement that IndustriALL signed with Renault management in July 2013 and opens the way to other global agreements. 

Russian automotive unions discuss GFAs

The workshop was organized by IndustriALL Global Union, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), the Center for Social and Labour Rights, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR) and the Confederation of Labour of Russia (KTR). Among three dozen participants were representatives of IndustriALL affiliates, including the Automobile and Farm Machinery Workers' Union of Russia, Rosprofmash and ITUWA, from the largest automobile assembly and auto parts plants operating in Russia, such as AVTOVAZ, GAZ, Ford, Volkswagen, GM, Bosch, and Peugeot Citroen Mitsubishi Automobiles Rus. The members of the unions at Ford, Renault and Leonie AG from Germany and France shared their experience of using GFAs.

Participants worked in groups and discussed the purpose, principles and value of GFAs, conditions that should be set for the efficient use of GFAs, as well as the future of GFAs in Russia. The discussion showed that the majority of workers and unions at Russian enterprises are not aware of GFAs or don't know how to use them, because the wording of GFAs is too general. There is a lack of experience on GFA implementation in Russia, and no knowledge of how to put pressure on the employer to follow the GFA. The majority of the participants also mentioned that it is sufficient for Russia to have labour laws that provide for and protect workers' rights, as well as collective bargaining agreements that extend these rights.

Vadim Borisov, regional representative of IndustriALL Global Union in Moscow, and Boris Kravchenko, president of KTR, mentioned a few examples of successful union use of GFAs at Russian branches of TNCs, such as Volkswagen and Renault, to solve the disputes, establish union activity and a social dialogue with the employer.   

Oleg Sokolov, a FNPR secretary, emphasised the need to seek union responses to the calls of global capitalism and to study the best tools existing in the world, GFAs being one of them.

This workshop was one of the steps towards trilateral conference on GFAs that will take place in Moscow in November and will be attended by the unions, employers' organizations and governmental agencies. 

Indonesia: organizing and educating workers is key

IndustriALL affiliate, the Indonesian Federation of Pulp and Paper Workers Union (FSP2KI) held their 4th Congress on 17-19 April 2015 in Jakarta. The union reinforced their policy to continue unionizing contract and outsourced workers in the pulp and paper industry.

100 union delegates travelled from Sumatera Selatan, Riau, Jambi and West Java to attend the Congress.  There were also international guests from IndustriALL’s Swedish affiliate PAPPERS.      

The Congress delegates voted in favour of the federation’s policy to start a collective bargaining campaign towards industry based and company group Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs).   

The FSP2KI’s CBA policy is aimed at tackling the growing issue of precarious work in the pulp and paper industry. Their policy is also aimed at promoting sustainable industrial policy.

Contract and outsourced workers, mostly women, employed to do sorting, packing, as well as in the seeding and plantation of eucalyptus trees that feed into the pulp and paper industry, will be unionized by the FSP2KI.     

Many of these women workers though working in the pulp and paper industry are earning very low salary and we need to fight for their living wage and participation in the trade union movement,

said Hamdani, FSP2KI President.   

Since 2005, the FSP2KI has been educating union members and raising awareness on precarious and contract labour issues. The educational activities organized by the FSP2KI have seen good participation by both regular and contract workers who often come to the union office after working hours to discuss, share and learn from one another about union organizing and collective bargaining.

At present, contract and outsourced workers at Tanjung Enim Lestari, RAPP (APRIL Group), Kimberly Clark and APP have joined the trade union, owing to the organizing and education work of FSP2KI,

said Khamid Istakhori, FSP2KI Education Officer.   

Maintenance workers of Tanjung Enim Lestari who have organized a union known as ‘United Workers and Care Services TEL’ (SP3-TEL) affiliated to FSP2KI, and are currently negotiating collective agreements involving both Truba Jaya Engineering, the company that supplies maintenance workers, and Tanjung Enim Lestari, the principal company, management.   

This is our first CBA negotiation for maintenance workers; many of us haveworked at Tanjung Enim Lestari for many years servicing the pulp and paper mill,

said Ikhsan Prajarani, the newly elected FSP2KI General Secretary.  

The FSP2KI Congress also endorsed the policy of 40 per cent women participation in union activities. 

“Syngenta, stop union-busting and reinstate leader Imran Ali in Pakistan”, demands IndustriALL

IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan addressed the Syngenta Chairman and CEO in front of their shareholders, saying:

Your shareholders should share the shame of the people of Basel for the outright union busting Syngenta has carried out in Pakistan. Imran Ali, standing alongside me here now, was the elected representative of your Pakistani workers. Instead of respecting your bargaining partner, you sacked him and fought his union in the courts. My question to you is simple, why will you not reinstate Imran Ali and stop your ideological union busting today.

The annual shareholders meeting followed on from a major conference in Syngenta’s home city of Basel, Switzerland that shone a light on the company’s abuses of human rights, environmental rights, workers’ rights, and community damage around the world. The event, organized by solidarity organization MultiWatch, heard from PCEM president Imran Ali and general secretary Muhammad Suhail.

The Syngenta case studies in Paraguay, Hawaii, and Pakistan showed a company repeatedly taking illogical business decisions in order to never set a precedent of being held to account.

The blatant union busting case in Pakistan was started in December 2010 in reaction to the Pakistan Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers, PCEM’s, effort to regularize the temporary workforce, in line with Pakistani labour law.

The local labour court ruled in favour of the union’s petition to 50 employees’ right to permanent employment on 18 December 2010. Four days later the plant management in Karachi demanded that union leader Imran Ali sign a blank piece of paper. He refused and learned of his dismissal from the plant reported in the local Daily Jang newspaper the following day.

Both cases, the illegal sacking of Imran Ali, and the permanent employment of the 50 temporary workers were continuously appealed in Pakistan’s courts by Syngenta’s lawyers for three years. While the company was finally forced to award permanent employment contracts in November 2013, the workers have not been properly paid, and more importantly the company continues to block their right to organize and bargain collectively, or to reinstate Imran Ali. In addition, workers again sued Syngenta as full amount of their settlements were not paid by the company.

PCEM president Imran Ali says:

I am here in Switzerland to demand that Syngenta reinstate me in my job. As the union of Syngenta workers in Pakistan we want to improve the company so that we can be proud of our employer. I look forward to the company reacting positively from my visit here.

Miners deserve better!

It is unimaginable that in the twenty-first century mineworkers are continuing to suffer such high rates of death, injury and illness, say the unions. Countries have a responsibility to ensure that the workers who extract the resources that are the lifeblood of modern economies can return from their workplaces safe and healthy.

Mining represents 1 per cent of the world’s workforce, yet accounts for 8 per cent of workplace fatalities, estimated to amount to 12,000 deaths per year worldwide, equaling an average of 32 per day.

In Latin America, the industry’s rapid growth has exceeded the capacity of many countries to regulate it. Hence the fact that in Colombia alone, 138 miners died in mining accidents in 2012.

ILO Convention 176 on safety and health in mines, adopted in 1995, is as relevant today as it was twenty years ago. It is an innovative and well-thought-out standard that represents the global consensus of the tripartite actors. Its provisions are such that they can be applied in any mining country. Unfortunately, only three countries in the region – Brazil, Peru and Uruguay – have ratified it.

Convention 176 establishes the foundations for sustainable mining. It is based on two key concepts: First, it is applicable to all mines and types of mining. Secondly, it puts health and safety at the heart of mine design, operation and maintenance.

Studies show that countries that have ratified Convention 176 have lower rates of accidents and illnesses compared to countries that haven’t ratified it.

Mining unions in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay, who are part of a regional mining network, stress the need for all countries in the region to ratify the Convention in order to establish a floor below which no country can fall as well as to eliminate unfair competition between countries and companies based on poor conditions.

IG Metall has 365 Women's Days a year

The Women's conference was full of highlights. One of them was the address by Gesine Schwan who twice ran for Federal President for the Socialist party SPD. She insists on the principle of partnership in human relations, but for that women need to be financially independent. Financial independence will not however be achieved by mini-jobs. She praised IG Metall for being "an explicit women's union."

The conference broke out into workshops on equal pay, new industrial structures, health, working time models, work-life balance, quotas for women, flexible working time and local women's committees.

Motions dealt with other issues such as flexibility – which is fine as long as it is the way we want it – demographic change and getting rid of stereotypes.

One major concern is the future of work. The continuing technological trends are likely to lead to more productivity and a need for fewer workers. A new working time initiative needs to be launched for the 30-hour week. This reduced working time will help make work-life balance become a reality. It will be possible to divide up paid work better between women and men. Reduced working time will be a real step toward gender emancipation.

In light of the trends in the world of work, women stand to lose out in employment since more jobs are expected to disappear in production and offices. Jobs are likely to be created in highly qualified areas where women currently are under-represented . Qualification and career development will be vital in the future. That is why it will be essential to take measures to guarantee workers' and especially women's livelihoods.

One more highlight was Games with Power played by Marion Knaths from the organization She Boss, which showed that anything men can do to get power, women can do better.

IG Metall is changing, moving away from a male-dominated union. Women have to be urged to take leadership positions. They have to develop strategies to win men over, and to work together with men to change the reality at work and in society.

28 April – Unions Make Work Safer

Controlling exposure to toxic substances is one theme that global unions have chosen to emphasize in 2015. Of the hundreds of thousands of chemicals in industrial use, we have substantial knowledge of the health effects of only a small percentage; and suspect that many unidentified killers are among the rest.

Minerals such as silica, and asbestos (which will be a focal point for IndustriALL head office this year) continue to kill thousands of workers. The International Labour Organization estimates that over 80 percent of work-related deaths are caused by occupational diseases, rather than the sudden violent accidents that usually get the most attention.

Latency (the time between first exposure, and the development of a disease); chronicity (diseases that destroy health but take a very long time to kill); and the problem of multiple exposures and confounding factors (both smoking and asbestos cause lung cancer, for example) make the link between the workplace and an occupational disease very difficult to prove. Misdiagnosis and active concealment in many cases make it even harder.

Observance of 28 April as a day to mourn the dead, and fight for the living, began in Canada and spread to other countries. The date gains greater local, national and international recognition each year.

Brian Kohler, health and safety director at IndustriALL Global Union, says:

It is important that 28 April does not become yet another day of tired reminders blaming accidents on worker carelessness. It is a major date in the trade union calendar; a day for workers to demand their rights to know about the hazards of their work; to refuse or shut down unsafe work, and to participate in the health and safety structures and systems at their place of work.

Safety at work is really very simple: workers have rights; employers have responsibilities. Every occupational death is needless death.

Workers around the globe demand Lafarge and Holcim improve occupational safety

Press-release

The two cement giants have announced a mega-merger to be completed by mid 2015. As main shareholders of the colossal cement company are likely to start counting profit margins the rights of the workers, who create these profits, are disregarded.

The death toll is unjustifiably high. Both Lafarge and Holcim must address this serious problem through a series of measures to improve the situation.

Permanent labour is replaced by precarious jobs with deteriorated working conditions. The vast majority, close to 90 per cent, of the perished workers are so called "indirect employees", once again proving that indirectly employed workers run a higher risk of being implicated in an accident.

However the fatal injuries are just a tip of the iceberg compared to the health impact of work in the cement industry. Workers are exposed to hazardous substances and suffer fatal respiratory diseases and increased risk of cancers. Neither of the companies has done nearly enough to protect workers’ health.

Today on 28 April 2015, the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers, workers at Lafarge and Holcim are specifically demanding

IndustriALL General Secretary, Jyrki Raina says, “Workers have built both Lafarge’s and Holcim’s wealth and the companies should treat workers with dignity and respect. Signing a Global Framework Agreement with Lafarge in 2013 was an important step. The new company must take further steps to show a genuinely socially responsible business model. The fundamental workers’ right to return home in good health after work must become the core value of this model.”

Ambet Yuson, General Secretary of the Building and Wood Workers International, BWI says, “These deaths could have and should have been prevented. Despite all their rhetoric about sustainability and corporate social responsibility, these companies know full well that their drive to maximise shareholder profits through outsourcing and precarious contractual relationships is putting workers’ lives at risk and wrecking families around the world.

We demand that Holcim and Lafarge, before their mega merger, reconsider their reckless employment policies and labour practices and start putting people before profits.  No merger without workers’ health and safety rights!“

Sam Hägglund, General Secretary of the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers, EFBWW says, “Precarious employment forms and safety and health risks at work are intimately interlinked. The frequencies of fatal accidents of Holcim and Lafarge are another example of how profit-maximization is done at the expense of workers’ lives. We demand that a policy for workers’ health and well-being are put at the core of what the companies call their ‘sustainability policy’. All health and safety provisions need to be valid and implemented for all workers, independently of employment forms”

NO MERGER WITHOUT WORKERS’ HEALTH AND SAFETY RIGHTS!

Press contacts:

IndustriALL Global Union

Matthias HARTWICH
Director, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Industries
Mobile: +41 79 945 57 26,  Tel: +41 22 308 50 85
Email: [email protected]

Building and Woodworkers International, BWI
Fiona MURIE
Global Director Occupational Health and Safety and Construction Industry
Tel. +41 79 446 12 90
Email: [email protected]

European Federation of Building and Woodworkers, EFBWW
Sam HÄGGLUND
General Secretary
Tel. +32 222 710 41
Email: [email protected]