Union takes legal action against anti-union SQM

SQM is the world’s biggest producer of lithium. It is currently mired in controversy because of a series of financial irregularities. It has also violated the basic rights of its workers, who have suffered reprisals and been the victims of anti-trade union practices. The company also dismissed two workers and the union is seeking their reinstatement.

We are taking legal action because of the violation of basic rights, trade union rights and the freedom of association, which is a right that is not only in our labour legislation but also in the Constitution”, said Miguel Soto, the union’s general secretary.

SQM called into question since 2012

The company has had problems for years. In 2012, it won a Special Lithium Operations Contract after offering US$ 40 million for the concession. The contract was for exploration and the production of up to 100,000 tonnes of metallic lithium over 20 years. However, the Special Tender Committee (CEL) declared the tendering process invalid after ascertaining that SQM had not complied with tender rules.

SQM was also involved in the Cascada Case, in which minority shareholders of the Cascada companies accused it of irregularities. The Securities and Insurance Regulator (SVS) investigated the company for possible infringements of the Securities Market Act and the Corporations Act.  Finally, the company is being investigated for its part in a tax fraud scheme that used false invoices in what is known as the Pentagate case.

A company that does not respect workers’ rights

On 6 December 2014, Boris Chaile and Cristian Rojo, employed at the SQM subsidiary Salar, were elected leaders of the Inter-Company Union of Metalworkers. A few days later, the company dismissed both of them after invoking the “needs of the company” clause in Article 161 of the Labour Code. However this failed to recognize the job security rights of elected union leaders.

On 21 January 2015, the Labour Inspectorate at Calama asked the company to reinstate the leaders but the company refused. The workers suffered further reprisals and were the victims of company anti-trade union practices. CONSTRAMET therefore took further legal action against the company for violating basic rights.

Instead of defending the workers, company managers threatened them with reprisals if they continued as members of the Inter-Company union. The managers told the workers that that they ran the risk of being dismissed.

Miguel Soto believes that the company is trying to undermine the right to collective bargaining. With the support of a company union, it has refused to negotiate and has imposed collective employment contracts.

USW oil workers stage nationwide strike

Nearly 4,000 USW oil workers have stopped work at nine US oil refineries and chemical plants in protest at oil companies’ refusal to recognize workers grave concerns over safety.

USW is in the process of negotiating a new agreement to establish a nationwide pattern on working conditions, wages and benefits with oil companies, who are being led by Shell. The previous contract expired at the end of January.

“Shell refused to provide us with a counter-offer and left the bargaining table,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “We had no choice but to give notice of a work stoppage.

The union represents workers at 65 US refineries that produce approximately 64 per cent of oil in the country.

Shell has made a series of derisory offers which have all been rejected by USW.

“We told Shell that we were willing to continue bargaining for a fair agreement that would benefit the workers and the industry, but they just refused to return to the table,” said USW International Vice President Gary Beevers, who heads the union’s National Oil Bargaining Program. 

“This work stoppage is about onerous overtime; unsafe staffing levels; dangerous conditions the industry continues to ignore; the daily occurrences of fires, emissions, leaks and explosions that threaten local communities without the industry doing much about it; the industry’s refusal to make opportunities for workers in the trade crafts; the flagrant contracting out that impacts health and safety on the job; and the erosion of our workplace, where qualified and experienced union workers are replaced by contractors when they leave or retire,” Beevers added.

In a solidarity letter to the USW International President, IndustriALL’s general secretary, Jyrki Raina, said:

“We stand together with USW oil workers who have a fundamental right to be safe at work. Cost cutting through outside contractors, unreasonable working hours, and inadequate training opportunities cannot be allowed to jeopardize lives. We urge the oil companies to take serious consideration for their workers’ welfare and the safety of the oil industry as a whole.”

“IndustriALL Global Union, together with our affiliated trade unions in the oil industry throughout the world, stand firm in solidarity with all our USW brothers and sisters,” added Raina. 

Nissan rejects US government offer to mediate dispute with UAW

The UAW and IndustriALL accepted the NCP’s offer of mediation and joined a preliminary information session in November with mediators from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to learn about the mediation procedures.

“It is clear Nissan behaves one way in some parts of the world but is grossly exploiting workers in the United States. The fact that the company continues to ignore the severity of the situation and its refusal to end these abuses or engage in dialogue that could result in a positive step forward for both workers and the company is absolutely unreasonable.” said UAW President Dennis Williams.

Jyrki Raina, head of IndustriALL, which represents 50 million workers globally including 150,000 Nissan workers and a majority of Renault autoworkers worldwide, expressed grave disappointment at the news. “UAW and IndustriALL affiliates have repeatedly made attempts to meet with Nissan North America to resolve this issue. Nissan’s unwillingness to engage in the OECD process sends a very worrisome message to its partners at Renault and Daimler as well as the global investment community.” Raina said adding, “We have known Nissan for its respect of workers’ rights elsewhere in the world, but in the US we have heard evidence of intimidation and exploitation of its workers and their communities. This is a troubling step backwards for Nissan.”

The U.S. NCP also noted that it had shared information on the case with the NCPs of Japan, France, and the Netherlands and that “those NCPs remain available to offer assistance to the parties.” Nissan is a Japanese corporation, but France-based Renault owns 43.4 percent of Nissan and the Renault-Nissan Alliance is incorporated in the Netherlands. Following the U.S. NCP’s Final Statement, the UAW and IndustriALL are now considering moves to those forums in an effort to resolve the dispute.

The U.S. government is recommending that Nissan should “conduct a corporate-wide labour rights review” of its adherence to the OECD Guidelines and that Nissan should consider other forms of mediation to resolve the issues raised in the OECD case.

Link to the Final Statement: http://www.state.gov/e/eb/oecd/usncp/links/rls/236972.htm

165,000 German metal workers stage warning strikes

***UPDATE 6 February 2015***  The number of IG Metall members who have held warning strikes has now risen to 360,000.

The work-stoppages come as German trade union, IG Metall, is in the process of negotiating an industry-wide collective bargaining agreement with employers for 2015.

After two rounds of negotiations last month, IG Metall has rejected an offer from the employers' associations of the metal and electrical industries in which they propose a derisory pay increase and a reduction in retirement rights.

The employers have offered a wage increase of 2.2 per cent from 1 March to 31 December 2015, not including the first two months of the year.

IG Metall is demanding wage increases of up to 5.5 per cent for a duration of 12 months.

The employers’ proposal also seeks to reduce the right of partial retirement (where employees have the right to reduce working hours in the final years before retirement) from 4 per cent to 2 per cent of the total number of employees in a company.

Furthermore, only staff with the highest workload would have the option to take partial retirement with employers having exclusive right to decide who can take it. 

The employers have also rejected a call from IG Metall to extend the scope for employees to take paid time off for training and qualifications in the new collective bargaining agreement.

A third round of negotiations will start on 6 February in North-Rhine Westphalia.

Metalworkers’ strike banned in Turkey

Turkish Law on Trade Unions and Collective Labour Agreement, coded 6356, has a provision which rules that “a lawful strike or lock-out that has been called or commenced may be suspended by the Council of Ministers for 60 days with a decree if it is prejudicial to public health or national security. The suspension shall come into force on the date of publication of the decree“.

The Government decree, signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and the entire cabinet, consideres the metalworkers’ strike as “prejudicial to national security”.

This is not new to the Turkish trade unions – in 2014, strikes in the glass and mining sectors were banned by the same Government with the same argument.

“The right to strike no longer exists in Turkey”, says Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary. “This fundamental right, guaranteed by the Constitution of the country and international norms ratified by the government, exists only on paper, not in reality”.

The law also reads “if an agreement is not reached before the expiry date of the suspension period, the High Board of Arbitration settles the dispute upon the application of either party within six working days. Otherwise, the competence of the workers’ trade union shall be void”.

This clearly means that so-called “postponement” is actually a “ban” in real terms as there is no chance to continue to strike after the 60-day period.

Birlesik Metal-Is will certainly apply to the State Council for nullification of the Government’s Decree with a demand of suspension of its execution for being able to continue to strike.

However last experience in the glass industry in 2014 was not positive as the State Council ruled in favour of the Government, the contrary to its earlier jurisprudence on the basis of economic arguments rather than protecting fundamental rights.

Kemal Özkan further states:

It is shameful for the Turkish government to violate fundamental rights in a reckless way. However we will never give up and continue to give our support and solidarity to Birlesik Metal-Is.

Turkey: Time for global solidarity with metalworkers’ mass strike

Members of Birlesik Metal-Is voted to strike in rejection of an offered three-year collective agreement with the metal employers association MESS.

Priority demands of the strike include:

IndustriALL Global Union assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan stated:

The metal industry in Turkey can and must pay higher wages. We staunchly support our Birlesik sisters and brothers in their strong stand for fair and dignified salaries.

The massive strike was kicked off at 9am this morning with loud and colourful marches, mobilizations, and pickets. Birlesik has divided the companies they organize into two groups; the strike began today at half of them, with workers at the second group to stop work on 19 February.

Five of the affected 40 companies organized by Birlesik attempted to manipulate the labour law by pressuring mainly white-collar employees to call for a workplace strike ballot at eight factories. All five strike ballots, run by the Labour Ministry, resoundingly supported the strike.

The majority of the companies are international suppliers headquartered in Germany, France, US, Holland, Japan and elsewhere. The companies produce electrical, heating, and mechanical systems. IndustriALL is contacting those multinationals to call on them to meet with the union and discuss workers’ demands in good faith.

Another common anti-union practice of employers in Turkey when their staff votes to strike is to request the government to postpone the strike by 60 days over so-called arguments about “public health” and “general security”. This bad labour law allows for a strike to be postponed if it risks public safety or security, and effectively bans the strike entirely.

All staff at Birlesik are going unpaid during the strike so that full resources can be committed to the action. IndustriALL Global Union will join the strike picket next week.

Send your message of solidarity to the striking Birlesik members from this page.

Indonesia: another fatality at the Grasberg mine

A worker at the Freeport copper and gold mine in the Indonesian province of Papua was killed in a workplace accident on 24 January.

Mining giant Rio Tinto, who owns a stake in the mine, is consistently failing to take public responsibility for the numerous deaths at this site. In internal e-mails to the staff following the two most recent fatal incidents at the mine, Rio Tinto’s CEO Sam Walsh even blames the workers themselves for the accidents, citing bad driving practices and workers being “complacent”.

The Freeport mine has a chequered history when it comes to work related accidents.

In May 2013, 28 mineworkers died at the mine in what was described as the worst mining accident in the history of Indonesia. The roof on a non-operational underground tunnel collapsed during a safety training session, killing 28 miners.

In September 2014, another five workers lost their lives in two separate fatal incidents at the mine.

IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan slams Rio Tinto’s blatant avoidance of responsibility:

“It is always very convenient for the company to blame the “careless worker” without addressing the workplace culture. Workplace safety culture comes from the top, with management overtly or subtly rewarding risk-taking in favour of production.

Rio Tinto must own up to its responsibility as part-owner of the mine and stop treating workplace deaths lightly. It’s time to clean up, Rio Tinto!

Glencore to close Optimum Coal Mine in South Africa

The closure proposed by the mining giant would affect approximately 1,000 permanent employees and 500 contractors.
 
“The decision to close down the operations has left our members shocked as they were not given any prior notice of closure before being invited by the management yesterday afternoon to a meeting at 5 pm”, says Stanley Lebelo, NUM Highveld Regional Secretary.
 
Glencore cites difficult market conditions and a continued deterioration in the export coal price as reasons to close the mine.
 
NUM argues that the mining industry needs to move from putting profits first to emphasizing human development.
 
Stanley Lebelo continues:
“This is a catastrophe for our members and we request Glencore management to reverse this unfortunate decision and engage with its employees.
 
“The NUM will fight tooth and nail to make sure that its members are not retrenched cheaply.”
 
IndustriALL Global Union Director if Mining, Glen Mpufane, calls upon Glencore to reconsider and negotiate with the NUM to find alternative options to retrenchment:
“We are as shocked as the NUM that Glencore has decided to lay off about 1,000 jobs at its Optimum coal operations in Mpumalanga. It is sad that mineworkers are once again sacrificial lambs in the face of global market conditions, but are not invited to celebrate in booms times.”

Our message at Davos

Last week the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting took place in Davos, Switzerland and the global union leaders were there to tackle the issue of growing inequality.
 
If you take a look at the International Trade Union Confederation’s poll last year, governments and businesses should be worried. 82 per cent of people say that their income has been stagnating or falling against the cost of living and 68 per cent say that the government has been doing a bad job in fighting unemployment.  Only one in two believe that the next generation will have decent jobs.


For more, watch Jyrki Raina’s January GS Corner click here

CTM intimidate Teksid, Gunderson and Pytco workers at court hearing

Inside the building were 50 members of the miners’ union, the union’s legal representatives, Italian observers from Teksid and CTM representatives.

Collective agreements cover 900 workers at Teksid, 1800 at Gunderson and 150 at Pytco. The workers at these companies have expressed their wish to join the National Miners’ Union and are contesting the CTM’s right to represent them.

In search of a democratic union

Workers at Teksid Hierro, which is part of the Fiat Chrysler Group, have been fighting for their rights since the start of 2014. On 18 April, the company dismissed three workers and between 80 and 100 thugs attacked another 11 workers who had decided to join a democratic union instead of the CTM, which they say has failed to defend workers’ interests. 

Workers’ right to democratically elect their representatives for collective bargaining purposes is a basic right that is protected by International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 87. On 22 April 2014, Teksid Hierro therefore agreed that the SNTMMSRM should represent its employees rather than the CTM. The company also promised to reinstate the dismissed workers and not take reprisals against striking workers.

In May 2014, the SNTMMSRM began the fight to represent the workers by recruiting workers who were unhappy about the low sums paid to workers as part of the company’s profit-sharing scheme. Despite the agreement with workers and the miners’ union in April,  Teksid dismissed 17 workers on 26 November, including the workers’ spokeswoman and leader, Imelda Jimenez.

Solidarity averts violence

With memories of last year’s violence, the union took steps to prevent further violence at the hearing in Monclova. It alerted the federal authorities and asked deputies and Bishop Raùl Vera for help. This solidarity was enough to avert further violence.

The hearing was suspended until 25 February. Meanwhile the SNTMMSRM is trying to bypass the local board and get the federal board to authorize a vote so that workers at Teksid, Gunderson and Pytco can decide whether they want to stay with the CTM or change to the SNTMMSRM.

IndustriALL Global Union and its affiliates will continue to monitor the situation closely. They express their unconditional support for the demands of the workers at the three companies in their fight for a democratic union.