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.

Union busting attempt suspected at Lesotho Johnson Controls

The unfair dismissals are on the grounds that the workers have failed to make the grade during their probation period. Yet the law in Lesotho requires that a contract must be in place with the worker stipulating the probation period which may not exceed four months. None of the dismissed workers had contracts with Johnson Controls and some had worked for the company for longer than four months.

The dismissals come after Nutex submitted demands to the company and expected to begin negotiation that would secure union recognition as well as wage increases and other benefits. Machine operators at the company earn only about USD100 a month whilst quality control workers earn more than double this.

“Workers feel that they should not be such a huge gap between the two categories of workers”, says Solong Senohe, Nutex General Secretary. “Machine operators are earning less than even a subsistence wage in Lesotho and yet without them there is no product, they at least deserve a living wage.” 

Johnson Controls employs about 600 workers in Lesotho and about 350 are union members. Senohe is concerned that the dismissals may have been an attempt to push the union below the 50 per cent plus one threshold needed for recognition. At the very least, the dismissals may intimidate the remaining workers to back off from their demands.

IndustriALL has written to management in Lesotho and urged the company to reinstate the dismissed workers immediately, recognise Nutex and negotiate with the union to address the worker demands. IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina has warned,

Our global union family includes several other unions organising in your operations across the globe. These unions can be called upon for support should the issues at Johnson Controls remain unresolved in Lesotho.

Meanwhile the General Secretary of IndustriALL affiliate the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), Irvin Jim has also sent a letter to the company drawing attention to global agreements that IndustriALL has with several auto companies that source from Johnson Controls that have committed themselves to working with suppliers and observing fair labour practices. 

"The conduct of Johnson Controls in Lesotho clearly violates the principles that we have agreed upon and we do not want you to become an agenda item at our international meetings this year to discuss the implementation of the agreements." says Jim. "In the event that this matter is not amicably resolved, we will be left with no option but to call for an international campaign against Johnson Controls. We are informing our members in Johnson Controls South Africa and the companies you are supplying here about the situation in Lesotho."

Mexican training workshop reflects changing times

A growing number of women are employed in Mexico’s mining industry which barely a decade ago was entirely dominated by men.  The ‘Women of Steel’ workshop, supported by the USW, was aimed at promoting equal opportunities and the empowerment of women both in the industry and in trade unions. The workshop was conducted at Goldcorp’s Minera Peñasquito, a company which is implementing programmes aimed at integrating women into the workforce.
 

IndustriALL raises the bar for global agreements

The new GFA guidelines were adopted by IndustriALL’s Executive Committee in Tunis in December 2014 following a proposal made by the special Standing Working Group.

The guidelines scale up the negotiation, content and implementation of global agreements, which are designed to safeguard labour rights across the supply chains of multinational companies (MNCs).

IndustriALL’s general secretary, Jyrki Raina, said:

“IndustriALL is convinced that global framework agreements are important instruments for union organizing and improved labour relations at multinational companies and their subsidiaries. The clear procedures we have put in place will make for stronger agreements, as shown by our recent GFA with Total signed at Davos in January.”

Under the new guidelines, GFAs must:

A GFA must also explicitly include references and recognition of the rights reflected in ILO Conventions including:

Furthermore, GFA’s must be approved by IndustriALL’s trade union affiliates that represent the majority of the unionized workers at the operations of the multinational company concerned.

Once a GFA is signed it must be translated into the agreed languages and made available to everyone working for the company, either directly or indirectly.

IndustriALL has GFAs with 44 multinational companies covering 10 million workers in a range of sectors. 

Global fight for workers’ rights continues at Crown Holdings

Some 120 workers of Crown Holdings at the company plant in Toronto, Canada, who were all once awarded a top company honour for “dedication, commitment and personal accountability”, are now in the 17th month of a strike, which began in September 2013. Workers were forced to take strike action when Crown management demanded huge concessions, including a 42 per cent pay cut for new employees and permanent lower wage scale, trying to build even bigger profits on workers’ backs.

Last summer Crown made a miserable offer to the workers. While removing the demand for a two-tier wage system, the company demanded a 30 per cent cut of all wages instead. Workers overwhelmingly rejected this proposal by 117 to 1 vote.

IndustriALL has given solid support to its affiliate United Steelworkers, USW, which has launched a special campaign “Take-Backs No More!”.

In April 2014, IndustriALL and USW organized a special protest action in Philadelphia at the Crown annual general assembly of company shareholders. Further protest actions were staged in Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, and France.

However, instead of changing its behaviour Crown announced that it wants to replace three quarters of the workforce at its Toronto plant, even if the dispute is settled. It means that striking workers will lose their jobs.

In Turkey, Crown used gaps in local legislation to avoid negotiating with the officially-recognized bargaining counterpart, IndustriALL affiliate, Birlesik Metal-Is. The company rejected good faith negotiations, and in violation of principles of freedom of association, has dismissed union activists for no good reason.

In October last year, IndustriALL  with fellow global union, IUF, wrote to Crown’s customers denouncing the company’s dishonest behaviour towards its workers.

At the end of January 2015, Crown once again showed its ugly union busting face in Ghana. Without any preliminary discussion or warning, local management locked out 42 workers who are affiliated to IndustriALL through the Industrial & Commercial Workers' Union, ICU. The workers staged protests in front of the closed factory demanding their severance packages that have been in discussion since last year and are determined to continue with protests until their claims are met.

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary said:

Our entire 50 million strong IndustriALL family stands in firm solidarity with Crown workers in Canada, Turkey and Ghana. We are determined to escalate our global campaign against Crown Holdings and we will challenge their union busting practices by all possible means at national and international level. We will continue to raise the issue with all their board members and major customers and suppliers, and will inform the general public about every single step they take.”

Iranian workers continue fight for basic rights

Miners: In January this year, 150 coalminers went on strike protesting the company’s plans to close the mine. The workers at the Sangroos Coalmine are also demanding the payment of over 8 months of non-paid wages; they are also raising issues to management regarding the health and safety issues.

Bus Drivers: On 6 January, bus drivers from the Union of Tehran Bus Transit Workers (VAHED) protested against the unfair sacking of workers and the failure of the company to fairly grant promised funding for worker’s housing.

Teachers: Three months into the start of the academic year, members of the Teachers Trade Association of Iran (ITTA) are protesting the three month “overtime salary” delay for nearly half a million teachers.

Metalworkers: While the cost of living continues to increase in Iran, wages remain very low. On 7 January 2015, at the Iran Khodro Industrial Group IKCO (an auto assembly plant), workers began a hunger strike to increase their low wages. The strike spread to all sections of the plant.

Iran, a country with little respect for fundamental human and trade union rights continues to be an important priority for IndustriALL Global Union.

“These actions are really encouraging and inspiring”, says Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary. “Our solidarity and support towards our Iranian sisters and brothers continue.”

In the meantime, the Union of Metalworkers and Mechanics of Iran (UMMI) continues to defend and advance trade union rights in very difficult conditions. With its new web site, the union wants to make its communication with workers stronger, trade unionists and friends of the labour movement in Iran and around the world.

The website is bilingual, Farsi and English, and covering materials and statements of Iranian independent labour unions in English.

This new website is the fruit of labour of the workers whose hearts beat for unity in the labour movement and belongs to all Iranian labour unions,

says the UMMI.

Don’t tarnish your love with Rio Tinto’s dirty diamonds!

This Valentine’s Day, IndustriALL Global Union, London Mining Network, Earthworks, and LabourStart are challenging the world’s biggest jewellery retailer Signet to demand that its major diamond supplier, multinational mining company Rio Tinto, clean up its mining practices so that they respect worker rights, indigenous peoples and the environment.

With global sales of US $6 billion annually, Signet’s 1,400 Kay and Jared jewellery shops are in every US State, 1,600 Zales stores are throughout the US and Canada, and 500 H. Samuel and Ernest Jones shops are visible on UK high streets. The National Retail Federation anticipates that twenty-one per cent of US shoppers will gift jewellery to their loved ones on Valentine’s Day this year, fuelling US jewellery sales of nearly US $5 billion.

The coalition is calling on Signet to abide both by its own Responsible Sourcing Policy, and its 2006 public endorsement of the No Dirty Gold campaign’s Golden Rules for more responsible mining. Signet’s Responsible Sourcing Policy declares the company “committed to the responsible sourcing of our products and the respect of human rights, and we expect the same from our suppliers around the world.” Endorsement of the Golden Rules, endorsed by over 100 jewellery retailers around the world, commits signers to pressure their suppliers to come into compliance with the Rules — which are drawn from broadly accepted international human rights laws and basic principles of sustainable development.

But Rio Tinto is a notorious violator of labour rights, communities, and the environment.

Rio Tinto’s campaign to undermine workers’ fundamental organizing and bargaining rights has recently been documented in the report Rio Tinto and ‘Direct Engagement’.  The company’s abuse of human rights, communities and the environment has recently been profiled in the report Unsustainable: The ugly truth about Rio Tinto.

Although the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) has certified Rio Tinto, unfortunately the RJC is highly flawed.  It is neither independent – it is governed by industry, excluding labour, civil society and impacted communities. Nor is it transparent – it is impossible for the public to determine whether an RJC-certified company complies with RJC’s own certification requirements, let alone international human rights and environmental standards.

IndustriALL Global Union general secretary Jyrki Raina states: “Until Rio Tinto drastically changes its ways, the company will sully the reputations of all its major business partners. Signet is no exception. Signet says that its involvement in non-independent business-run social auditing programmes is a sufficient response to our concerns. This is insulting to all those affected by Rio Tinto’s anti-social conduct, not least Signet customers.”

Earthworks’ No Dirty Gold campaign director Payal Sampat declares: “Nobody wants their symbol of love made with gold or diamonds that harmed ecosystems or communities. Signet can’t provide a meaningful guarantee that its jewellery isn’t made with dirty gold or gems. It’s high time that the world’s largest jeweller cleaned up its supply chain.”

Richard Solly, Co-ordinator of London Mining Network, said: "Rio Tinto has a long history of violating indigenous peoples' land rights, dividing communities, polluting land and water and attacking unions.

There are continuing real concerns about the human and environmental impacts of its copper and gold mining operations at Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia, and at Grasberg in Papua, where its violations of indigenous peoples’ rights and environmental destruction led the Norwegian Government’s state pensions fund to disinvest.”

Stand up for the right to strike on 18 February

It is a response to unprecedented attacks by employers and governments against both the right to strike and International Labour Organisation (ILO) defense of that right.

“The right to strike is an essential element of freedom of association and collective bargaining. Unions will stand up on 18 February to defend this fundamental right around the world against attacks from employers and governments,” said IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina.

For much of its near-100 year history, the ILO has supervised the application of ILO Conventions and Recommendations with the full support of the tripartite constituents – workers, employers and governments. However since 2012 the Employers’ Group of the ILO has attacked this system including through challenging the right to strike.

IndustriALL supports the Workers’ Group of the ILO in calling for the referral of this dispute to the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion. However the Employer’ Group and some governments blocked this referral at the ILO Governing Body in November 2014. Instead, a tripartite meeting was scheduled for 23-25 February 2015 to discuss the matter further.

The prolonging of this dispute has an impact outside the walls of the ILO. For instance the Turkish government’s ban last week of the metalworkers’ strike in Turkey cannot be effectively challenged at the ILO while the current deadlock persists.

“The outcome of this dispute within the ILO will be felt in workplaces around the world. We need to take action in our countries and demand that striking continue to be recognized as a fundamental, global right,” said Raina.

Unions can participate in the 18 February global day of action in a number of ways:

–           Lobbying of governments that do not support referral of the matter to the International Court of Justice (Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Botswana, Cambodia, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Pakistan, Russia, Tanzania, Thailand, USA, Zimbabwe)

–           Protests outside offices of these governments

–           Public protests against employers’ organizations

–           Communications to members explaining the dispute

–           Social media actions

Please inform [email protected] of what actions you take on 18 February

Safety first? Another fatality at Rio Tinto

A worker operating an excavator next to a tailings pond on the night shift at Rio Tinto’s QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) died on January 28 when his excavator fell into the pond.

Although his colleagues immediately called an emergency line for help, the worker was not located until 17 hours after being submerged in the pond. His body was found outside the cabin of the excavator after the water from the pond was drained.

IndustriALL affiliate FISEMA represents workers at Rio Tinto in Madagascar. FISEMA is raising questions about the cause of the incident, why it took 17 hours to find the deceased worker’s body, why the worker’s body was found outside the cabin, and whether such dangerous work should be carried out at night.

This incident casts doubt on whether Rio Tinto has adequately considered safety of night shift workers as well as having in place appropriate emergency equipment and procedures. We urge Rio Tinto to work closely with FISEMA to identify the causes of this fatality and take all measures necessary to ensure this never happens again.

said IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan.

The January 2015 fatalities in Madgascar and at Rio Tinto’s minority-owned Grasberg mine in Indonesia – where 39 workers have been killed over the last two years – calls into question Rio Tinto’s often-stated claim that it puts a high value on worker safety.

“Numerous unions at Rio Tinto around the world have told IndustriALL that Rio Tinto applies health and safety procedures in an arbitrary way; pressures workers to put production before safety; disciplines workers for refusing unsafe work; and does not genuinely address workplace hazards. We demand that Rio Tinto change these practices immediately in order to live up to its safety claims,” stated Özkan.