Oil strike escalates in US

Workers at BP refineries in Ohio and Indiana have joined the walkout that began on 1 February at nine other refineries. From California to Kentucky this is the first nationwide strike in the industry for 35 years.

There are now more than 5,000 USW members on an unfair labour practice strike at 11 refineries owned by Shell, Marathon, Tesoro, BP and LyondellBasell. THe strikes began after Shell failed to offer serious proposals to address the USW's concerns about safety, onerous overtime and unsafe staffing levels. 

Shell is leading the employer side of negotiations for a new national contract. On 6 February the Houston area oil workers took part in a noon rally at Shell US Headquarters to show management that union members are united in their drive for a fair contract that improves safety throughout the industry. The following day, on 7 February, one week into the strike, refinery workers around the country participated in a National Day of Action for Safe Refineries, Secure Jobs and Healthy Communities. Local USW unions carried out actions in solidarity with striking locals, which included a mix of plant gate rallies and rallies at local union halls.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the USW is clear that the main priority of the national strike is refinery safety and resolving the issue of chronic understaffing. USW International Vice President Gary Beevers, who heads the union’s National Oil Bargaining Program, stated that

This work stoppage is about onerous overtime; unsafe staffing levels; dangerous conditions the industry continues to ignore; and flagrant contracting out that impacts health and safety on the job.

In addition to the health and safety issues, the USW unfair labour practice (ULP) strike is over the oil companies’ bad faith bargaining, including the refusal to bargain over mandatory subjects; undue delays in providing information; impeded bargaining; and threats issued to workers if they joined the ULP strike.

The union is committed to negotiating a fair contract that improves safety conditions throughout the industry and USW negotiators are determined to resolve the members’ central issues.

This week has also seen a delegation of striking refinery workers bring their campaign for a safer oil industry to Europe at meetings with allies from trade unions in the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

The group includes striking workers from refineries owned by Shell, Marathon and Tesoro. Shell, which has taken the lead on bargaining for the companies, has its headquarters in the Netherlands. The USW members met with leaders from the FNV oil workers union at Shell and LyondellBasell in the Netherlands and then travelled to the United Kingdom to meet with leaders from Unite the Union, the largest industrial union in Great Britain and Ireland.

Switzerland: workers fight to save jobs at Tamoil

For almost one month UNIA together with the Syndicats Crétiens du Valais (SCIV), representing the workers at Collombey, have been fighting Tamoil’s decision to layoff staff without a real social plan in place. After a number of attempts by the union to negotiate a better outcome for Tamoil staff, it is still unclear what the company will decide.

On 4 February the workers decided to interrupt their shifts from 1pm to 3pm. During this strike they were met by over 600 public supporters from the area, in a demonstration of solidarity for their struggle.

To demonstrate their commitment to the refinery and the disastrous consequences potential closure, some staff released 258 balloons; each balloon had the name of one of the workers that would lose his/her job. Others marched to the sound of funeral music and symbolically planted crosses decorated with their tools (helmet, lamp, tools, etc.). Another group set up a display presenting the quality of their skills at the refinery.

Following Tamoil’s decision to suspend operations at the refinery and fire staff, UNIA had called a general assembly in early January. From the beginning of this struggle, workers’ representatives made it clear that “It is unacceptable that Tamoil proceeds with the collective dismissal of staff without exploring solutions that could maintain jobs and the expertise at the worksite in Collombey, we therefore must come together to show Tamoil our will to keep jobs here and to explore the different avenues that will enable us to achieve a better outcome.”

As a result of the general assembly a resolution was adopted calling on Tamoil to withdraw the collective redundancy procedure, file a formal request to activate temporary layoffs, and waiver all layoff procedures until notification by the competent authority of its decision on possible measures of layoffs. Despite UNIA’s demands Tamoil pressed on with its original layoff procedure.

Furthermore, employees also called on cantonal authorities to support the steps for removing the collective redundancy procedure initiated by Tamoil and asked them to take the necessary steps with federal authorities to investigate the possibility of increasing the length of compensation for layoffs to 24 months.

It is important that UNIA members are now more determined than ever while negotiations continue between UNIA, SCIV and Tamoil”

said Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary.

IndustriALL will continue to give support and solidarity to this important struggle as it develops.

Georgia: Mineworkers fight against severe union-busting

Recently the employer's representatives have visited the enterprises spreading the drafts of resignation letters to withdraw from the union. They force the employees of both enterprises to leave the union under the threat of dismissal and other trouble.

As a result more than 100 union members could not resist the management pressure and signed resignation letters. The union at RMG Copper had 690 members back in January, but 96 people have withdrawn over the last few days. 14 members out of 320 have left the local union at RMG Gold.

The union busting began after the management once again received a letter from the union reminding that the obligations under the agreement signed back on 23 March 2014 after the end of a 40-day strike have not been fulfilled:

– the collective agreement draft prepared by the union and sent to the employer for review back in April-May 2014 has still not been reviewed;

– the company has not taken measures to increase the workers' salary;

– in case there is a vacancy the company hires an employee from the labor market instead of using the candidates pool list created by the union;

– the labor disputes commission had to be created in April 2014, but only met in August 2014 for the first time and so far three meetings out of seven have been held.

On 14 February 2014, exactly a year ago, the miners of Georgian enterprises RMG Copper and RMG Gold went on strike after the management refused to fulfill its obligations according to the agreement signed back in November 2013 and fired more than 180 employees under the pretext of reorganization in January 2014. After a 40-days strike the union and the management signed an agreement to reinstate 80 dismissed workers, to reinstate other workers later in case the economic situation at the company improves, to sign a collective agreement and increase the salaries. However, the agreement reached at the price of a long strike has still not been fulfilled.

“RMG management must withdraw from disgusting anti-union tactics and stop union-busting immediately, without any delay,” said IndustriALL’s General Secretary Jyrki Raina. “The company must fulfill their obligations according to the agreement.”

Philippines: Lafarge-Holcim unions consolidate forces

Coming together through a national stakeholders’ meeting on sustainability of the cement industry in the Philippines and in the context of the Lafarge/Holcim merger, the local unions affiliated to IndustriALL’s affiliate, the Philippine Cement Workers Council (PCWC), discussed the potential impact of the merger on working conditions.

The 9 February stakeholders’ meeting held in Quezon City took place immediately after the announcement made by Holcim and Lafarge about a project to sell assets to Cement Roadstone Holding (CRH), an Irish construction materials group, in the context of the planned merger, which includes the assets in the Philippines.

According to information, shares of Lafarge Republic, Inc. (LRI) have been offered to buyers. Several specific assets so far in the possession of the Lafarge group are to be sold to potential third party buyers.

The stakeholders’ dialogue provided an overview of the global situation of the cement industry and the state of play in the merger process of both giant multinationals. It was highlighted that workers must be on board in the discussion at different levels, especially in securing workers’ rights in line with the global campaign “No Merger Without Workers’ Rights” being conducted by IndustriALL, the Building & Wood Workers International (BWI) and the European Federation of  Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW).

There must be genuine dialogue that is based on a relationship of mutual respect and good industrial relations,

stated Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, present at the stakeholder meeting in the Philippines.

The buyer of the divested cement plants in the Philippines must ensure that social policy has to be in place through proper information, consultation and negotiation process,

Özkan added.

The process of dialogue between the unions and Holcim remains dismal. “It is quite unusual that Holcim maintained to be mum, since last year unions at the four Holcim plants requested for a dialogue with the management, but to no avail”, said Macario Noble, President of PCWC.

Present at the meeting, a Labour Official stated that the merger must not result in the displacement of workers and committed to call for a tripartite dialogue to further discuss sustainability of the industry in a balanced approach.

To conclude the meeting, the participating unions in concert demanded that “there should be no merger without taking into account workers’ rights”, if the merger process must move forward then the negative impact has to be minimized, if not totally prevented. “We strongly urge our government to step in and take appropriate measures ensuring that workers are not the ones that will be on the losing side of this project that cares more about the interests of shareholders rather than employees worldwide”, said Noble.

Russia: IndustriALL affiliate ITUWA celebrates victory against short-term contracts

On 9 February the Kaluga Regional Court took the decision to reinstate in their jobs two female employees fired when their short-term employment contracts expired at the PCMA Rus automotive plant in Kaluga, Russia. Short-term contracts have been widely practiced at the plant during the last two years as they allow the employer to manipulate workers’ rights and to get rid of unwanted employees at the end of their short-term contracts at no additional cost.

Almost two years ago the PCMA Rus (Peugeot Citroen Mitsubishi Automobiles Rus) plant that assembles Peugeot, Citroen and Mitsubishi cars stopped employing workers via permanent employment contracts. The workers for core operations have only been employed on the basis of short-term contracts for the period of three to six months. Later on these contracts have either been extended for another short term keeping the employees in uncertainty, or the workers got fired when the short-term contract expired.

As there is a limited list of reasons to legally conclude short-term contracts according to the Labour Code of Russia, the formal reason that PCMA Rus used to employ short-term workers was a "temporary expansion of production". This reason has been used for the past two years, despite the fact that the Labour Code allows such expansion for up to one year only. At the same time the duties of short-term employees were exactly the same as the duties of workers on permanent contracts.

Permanent workers are slowly being replaced by temporary workers on the pretext of temporary expansion. At the moment nearly 40 per cent of the PCMA Rus plant employees are working on the basis of short-term contracts.

ITUWA has repeatedly opposed this practice, as the short-term contract is a powerful tool for the management to fire any worker for any reason, including their union membership, by not extending the contract for another term.

This is exactly what happened to two PCMA Rus female employees who joined the ITUWA local union, and as a result the employer refused to prolong their short-term contracts. However, the union appealed to the court claiming the dismissals illegal. Both female employees were reinstated by court decision and their employment is now recognized as permanent.  

This court decision is very important as it stops the practice of short-term contracts which was promoted persistently by the PCMA Rus management and supported by local authorities. Earlier the Prosecutor of Kaluga and the Kaluga District Court recognized the dismissal of employees "after the expiration of a short-term contract" as legal and reasonable, and they also confirmed the possibility to use short-term contracts at the PCMA Rus plant, which gave the wrong signal to managers of many Kaluga enterprises who started developing programs to introduce short-term contracts at their enterprises.

ITUWA union activists are sure that this important victory in the struggle against temporary work is just the beginning of a mass transfer of short-term contracts into permanent contracts at the PCMA Rus plant. It is necessary to stop the expansion of temporary employment that is so convenient for the business, but can lead to the extinction of permanent employment in the Kaluga region.

Bangladesh: union strength and brand pressure

The Azim Group is one of Bangladesh's most important and influential employers. They have consistently refused to recognize trade unions at the Global Garments factory.

Union representatives at the factory are no strangers to harassment, false charges and even physical violence. A CCTV (close circuit TV) recording from November 2014 shows two separate instances where female union leaders were beaten up by thugs.

Police did nothing about the violent attacks. In an effort to put a stop to the harassment and anti-union behaviour, IndustriALL Global Union American affiliate Workers United took action and approached the US brands sourcing from the factory.

After discussions the brands held off placing new orders or resuming production until Azim recognized the union in the workplace.

In December, an agreement was reached where the trade union has the right to represent workers in the factory. It states that factory management and union officers are “working together with good faith and into a friendly environment”. A further agreement was reached at the beginning of this month.

Jeff Hermanson from Workers United says:

“This has been a long and complex struggle, and it is far from finished. By our collective action we have won a temporary truce and hopefully helped save the GGLWU and GTLWU from destruction.”

The brands have also committed to establishing a bipartite commission with Workers United and the Solidarity Center to visit the Azim factories regularly to ensure the agreements are implemented and to help encourage improved labour relations.

IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Monika Kemperle says that the Azim case is the latest in a growing number of cases of harassment against unions.

These systematic attacks against unions are increasingly violent and aimed at destroying factory level unions. Together with a growing number of arbitrary rejections of applications to register a union, they mark a changing attitude of employers and government who are trying to slow the steady unionization of garment workers following the collapse of Rana Plaza.

Attacking freedom of association is unacceptable and IndustriALL will continue to support the courageous fight of union representatives fighting for a better workplace.

Jeff Hermanson concludes:

“Hopefully this resolution may have a broad impact and demonstrate that the use of violence against trade unionists will not be successful. Instead, it will cause the employers who use violence to suffer great damage to their reputation and face the possible destruction of their business.”

Ghana: IndustriALL members locked out at Crown Holdings

On 27 January, workers at Crown Cans Ghana Limited, specializing in the manufacturing of metal packaging for the food industry, staged a protest in front of the company gate. Management had without any preliminary notice closed the gate. The only information given was a piece of paper left at the gate saying “factory shut until further notice” and undersigned in smaller letters “management”.

For three years the ICU has encountered a number of difficulties in organizing the factory and tough resistance from management. When the union finally succeeded to organize workers, the company management in retaliation dismissed all the initial union executives.

Later, Crown Cans refused to negotiate with the ICU and announced the closure of the factory. The union submitted the case to the National Labour Commission (NLC) and as a result Crown Cans was instructed to negotiate with ICU representatives.

Eventually Management informed the union that they were ready to start negotiating but only after removing their machinery and equipment from the factory. Obviously based on previous negative experiences the ICU rejected the proposal from the company.

The NLC requested that the two parties select mediators/arbitrators to enable negotiations. The ICU complied with this proposal, but Crown Cans management refused and instead decided to bring cranes into the factory to remove the machinery and equipment.

In response to the workers resistance, Crown management requested protection from the local police from the workers. The company’s demand was rejected and instead the police advised that the company follow the due process.

In view of current situation the NLC has requested an emergency meeting between Crown Cans management and the ICU aiming to resolve the dispute.

In his letter to Crown Holdings’ CEO, Jyrki Raina, IndustriALL General Secretary exposed the facts about the workers’ rights violations at the factory in Ghana and urged the company to reopen the factory, and to start negotiations with ICU representatives in good faith.

First Quantum Minerals dismiss workers demanding healthcare access

In early January 2015, workers downed tools at Kalumbila mine at the refusal of FQM to transport a deceased worker to a mortuary. The mine is located in a remote area and workers were angered at the lack of compassion. They have demanded that the mine provide transport to a health facility for those that are ill or injured. They also want a reduction in housing rental costs as the lowest rental charged by the company amounts to over 40 per cent of the minimum wage earned by workers at the mine.

As the government has yet to appoint a Minister of Labour, the Minster of Home Affairs was tasked with an intervention to resolve the matter and a delegation visited the mine including the Labour Commissioner and trade unionists. The company assured the Minister that no workers would be disciplined after the strike and that a report would be prepared on the issues raised by workers.

However on 29 January, 14 workers were dismissed for allegedly inciting the strike. MUZ challenged the dismissals in light of the assurance given by the company and was notified on 10 February that the company had reinstated eight of the dismissed workers.

Amongst the six workers that remain dismissed is the branch chairman of MUZ, Precious Masaba. "Masaba’s dismissal is in violation of the recognition agreement we have with FQM," says MUZ General Secretary, Joseph Chewe. "We cannot accept these dismissals as they are unfair, unprocedural and harsh."

Workers have raised legitimate demands, amongst which they seek to address concerns on access to health care and housing. Given the remote location of your operation, it is vital that these concerns are immediately addressed,

said Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of IndustriALL in a letter to FQM.

We will be monitoring your company for violations of trade union rights and are prepared to take action at an international level should issues raised by workers at First Quantum in Zambia remain unresolved.

Organizing white-collar workers

Not all trade unions are willing to organize these categories of workers as they sometimes are considered too close to management. Other unions include supervisors in their ranks. Another issue is the name of the IndustriALL group – non-manual workers is not considered to be a term conducive to attracting new members.

The composition of the workforce has changed. In the 1990’s at Volkswagen in Brazil, there were 30,000 blue-collar and 15,000 white-collar workers. In 2014 it was the opposite – 15,000 blue-collar and 30,000 white-collar workers. This is a huge challenge for trade unions. Due to outsourcing sometimes all workers are not in the same union, which makes things even more difficult.

Some good practices were presented. Unionen is the largest private sector union in Sweden and has successfully organized 100,000 new members in four years. With a focus on organizing, Unionen concentrates on the huge changes in working life, starting with globalization, non-stop technical developments and boundary-less working (working independently of how, when and where the job is). This involves particular health and safety and working time concerns.

In general the fundamental issues both for blue and white-collar workers are the same, although white-collar workers need special attention on certain concerns such as stress and career development. But the overriding issue is that of solidarity for all workers.

Lines tend to blur between white and blue-collar workers. Sometimes production workers take over “coordination” functions, but their pay is no different. Other challenges include companies’ evaluation and pay systems, as well as profit sharing.

Moreover companies tend to take non-manual workers out of collective agreements. And then they resist unions’ efforts to organize workers, which has happened for example in car plants in Argentina. It will become increasingly difficult to keep straight lines between the two because of robotization.

During the process of privatization of the electric power industry in Colombia, engineers had a troublesome role. They were keen on being managers, but because they did not have union representative, they lost out. They are now returning to the union.

Organizing in Sweden and Norway

The context for organizing differs from one country to the next, although there are still lessons to be learned from each other. Twenty years ago in Sweden, blue-collar workers were better organized than white collar workers, but the situation is now reversed. Unions were seen to have a new role in modern Sweden.

Even in Sweden not everyone understood what unions do so communication played an important role. It was important for the union to contribute to security and satisfaction in working life. Organizers would stand outside workplaces and hand out breakfast bags. The union strengthened its image and became identified as a team of superheroes, using TV commercials. Union representatives’ business cards have a membership application on the back. These were not uncontroversial moves in the union, but new ways had to be tried. And Unionen managed to organize some 100,000 new members in four years.

In Norway the LO national center has some 900,000. Of these 200,000 have higher education. In Norway the principle is one company, one union. Members are organized from bottom to top and common values are stressed.

The easiest place to recruit new members is to get them while they are studying, which is why IE puts effort into working with students. IE tries to be an attractive option for employees with higher education. The usual themes are pay and bonuses as well as psychosocial work environment. Students do not pay membership fees, but they will pay later. The union organizes mentor weeks. They want to attract engineers and be an alternative to the engineers’ organizations.

Wages and overtime

One issue that was highlighted was pay and rating systems. Some think that the systems are motivational to make people work harder, but that is not always the case. An evaluation can be fair or based on favoritism. A bad score may lead to termination especially when a company wants to cut jobs.

Most executive staff have individual wages, and often overtime is included in pay. Sometimes there is more pay for hours worked. Sometimes pay combines fixed pay and bonuses. Sometimes pay goes down in recessions. Being available by phone and email 24/7 has to be compensated. A clear distinction has to be made between work and time off. Not everyone gets overtime pay because the salary already covers overtime. Otherwise the rate for salary and wage earners is the same. The percentage contributed to the pension is the same for everyone, and retirement age is 67 in Norway.

Organizing women and youth

In France the CFE-CGC was created in 1944, first for engineers and managers. 17 per cent of the members are women and the challenge is to increase that percentage. In metalworking industries 24 per cent of the workforce are women. 7 per cent of workers belong to unions in France, the lowest in Europe, although it is 11 per cent among higher degree holders. Almost no organizing is done in small companies. In general French workers are not interested in unions. One reason is that collective agreements apply to all workers as well as other benefits in the social security system even though the unions negotiate on them.

Studies show that non-manual workers are not less likely to join unions than manual workers. In the meantime the union is striving for more women, more young people and those who are not engineers and managers. Out of the new members who joined in 2013, 23 per cent were women. There is a switch to focus on topics that interest women such as work-life balance and working conditions. Women who have high positions in companies have more stress and burn-out.

Stress needs to be recognized as a work-related illness. Women go on working after kids go to bed. It is better for women if it is possible to turn off the phone or the computer. Career prospects for women are another concern. Women are stopped due to maternity leave. Salaries are affected as well as their overall career. Breaking down the glass ceiling is another issue. The union attracts women by working on these themes.

Young people are another focus group. The union goes to universities and organizes open-door days to make people aware of what they do and what they offer. They found the best way to organize is on the basis of personal conversations, listening to people, seeing what they want and need.

ASIMRA in Argentina is making progress in organizing mines and auto parts. They are creating the Industrial Union Federation and the Federation of Technological Workers. They do training, also for the members’ children. They have expertise on health and safety and the environment. In Argentina trade unions look after social security, which is why people are still keen on joining unions. They do health care, recreation, sports, holiday centers and children’s activities. They make people understand that they have to be trade union activists.

The Ghana Mineworkers Union organizes professional and managerial staff in addition to blue-collar workers. In the early 2000’s highly skilled professionals appeared in mining. The union had to do rebranding. They developed a new website. They do advocacy on topical issues in mining and others. They have a high level of acceptance in Ghana. They profile their achievements in the Commonwealth Yearbook. It is important to develop the intellectual capacity of the national leadership and negotiators by means of sponsorship for further studies. The union has 90 percent of the mining engineers, metallurgists, doctors, pharmacists, accountants and geologists organized. The union provides collective bargaining and social support, it does campaigning and advocacy as well as training and education, it has a strike fund, it arranges micro credit and negotiates redundancy. Recently 6000 employees were laid off. They were well compensated. Housing was an issue. They have a women’s wing and work on women’s empowerment. The women learned crafts to support themselves. Newmont Ghana wanted to lay off 600 people, but the union was able to reduce the lay-offs.

24-hour availability

In France people have the right to be disconnected. People work at home, or in hotels or at clients so it is hard to measure hours. France is supposed to have a 35-hour working week, but actually it is 39, and in general non-manuals work 44 hours.

In Australia the AMWU had a successful experience with campaigning on the basis of Office in your Pocket in a pharmaceuticals company. The scientists, technicians and engineers are in the union as well as supervisors. The union has started sending around text messages to everyone with 140 characters after meetings and every action. Everyone gets them. Because of that more people started going to meetings, the union started talking to people. It made for better communication with part-timers and the night shift.

Some people go on part-time, especially people with young children and people easing into retirement. One comrade from Brazil explained that she too had 800 people on her email list, but then the company cancelled her email. Now she has what’s app. She continues to get warnings from the company. This makes us think what we can do to have contact to our members, and also what we can do to not rely too much on company channels.

COPE Canada is a union that represents people in very diverse jobs. About 50 per cent of the members are men, but it is still considered to be a “girls’” union. Still there are few women in technical trades. In the history of BC Hydro there has only been one woman lineman and last year there was one female apprentice. Other unions are biased against non-manual workers.

Nevertheless manual and non-manual workers are still union members. It would be more sensible to use energy to fight against employers and governments. Visual minorities and LGBT still present challenges in Canada. One tragedy is the murdered and missing aboriginal women in British Colombia. Before violence against women was irrelevant.

Now in Brazil there are women’s delegations at police stations. CNM-CUT has a women’s collective. The Brazilian government has promoted pro-women policies. Women benefit directly from family allowances and housing subsidies. The CNM agreements even go beyond what the law provides.

IG Metall is making progress on mobile working. One of the concerns is to bring working time under control. At BMW any kind of work outside the office is considered to be working time. Moreover mobile work is voluntary. About 30 percent of workers do not like to work at home or in a mobile setting. At VW the server is switched off from 6:15 pm to 7 am. At Daimler emails can be deleted during holidays. Nevertheless it is better to find out what people want. People’s wishes are not uniform, they depend on age and life’s stages. On the other hand there are no regulations and standards for freelancers and external crowd workers who are poorly paid and have no social protection. How can we establish decent work for crowd workers? How can we organize click workers?

IndustriALL’s strategic goals

Unionen organizes people who are self-employed. They have a contract and they do work that should be unionized. Crowd workers are people who are not employees, but they need to be organized. It is a serious issue organizing people who work by themselves. Mobilizing them is a challenge, but quality of life is a right. According to IG Metall research 90 percent of people want more time flexibility.

In France there are separate agreements for engineers and managers. There are about 350,000 such people. The agreements concern trial period, seniority, lay-offs, bonuses, night work, flat rate pay, notice period, retirement bonus, travel, moving house, confidentiality – all of these items are arranged differently for engineers and managers. Furthermore engineers must not use their knowledge of one company when moving to another. One agreement covers traineeships for engineers and managers.

Monika Kemperle, IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary, explained IndustriALL’s five strategic goals. They are:

For the non-manual group this mean organizing more highly skilled people. When it comes to confronting global capital, non-manuals’ issues need to be the object of negotiations with multinationals. Defending workers’ rights is equally important for white-collar workers who have mobile working patterns. Fighting precarious work is also an issue for engineers working on contract. And ensuring sustainable industrial employment is vital for non-manuals to have decent work.

The participants made a number of commitments for taking action in the months to come. ASIMRA Argentina will do all it can to organize their counterparts in Chile, including the engineers at Codelco. The Ghana Mineworkers want to organize the people who work for the mining contractors. They intend to use text messaging as a wake-up call for the inactive. They will continue to organize professionals, managers and scientists to build strength.

Anne-Catherine Cudennec will organize a skype call with Australia. Australia and Brazil will do a skype conference on Ford. Steps need to be taken to organize Embraer. These initiatives should help shop stewards deal with multinational employment.

All workers need a union

Martin Linder, Chair of the Non-manual group, summarized the meeting as follows:

Regardless of workers’ status, regardless of being supervisors, managers, support staff, engineers, designers, all workers need a union.

Maternity protection top issue for Philippine unions

The Philippines lags behind other Asian countries in terms of providing maternity protection and benefits to women workers.

“More than 60 per cent of all pregnancies in the Philippines are classified as high risk and maternal mortality rate remains high at 162 deaths for every 100,000 live births”, IndustriALL Global Union project coordinator Ramon A Certeza said in a radio interview on 4 February, quoting relevant data from government statistics.

Speaking on behalf of the IndustriALL’s Philippine affiliates, Ramon explained how the issue of maternity protection has gained importance among the unions. The IndustriALL Philippine women’s committee has passed a resolution taking the issue as top priority issue and moved toward campaigning for the ratification of ILO 183.

International Women's Day 8 March

On 8 March, International Women’s day, IndustriALL’s Philippine affiliates are launching a nationwide campaign to improve maternity protection with particular focus on the five core elements of the convention: maternity leave, cash and medical benefits, health protection at the workplace, employment protection and discrimination and breastfeeding arrangement.

“There is legislation and policy issuances pertaining to maternity protection in the Philippines. But more needs to be done and enforcement of these regulations is still problematic”, Certeza concluded.

Ratification of ILO Convention183 would mean no pregnancy discrimination, safe and healthy pregnancies, as well as minimum 14 weeks paid maternity leave for all working women.