IndustriALL affiliate in Madagascar, the Fédération des Syndicats des Travailleurs de l’Energie et des Mines (FISEMA) produced a banner for the global day advertising Rio Tinto's excessive use of precarious labor. They also took their concerns about precarious work to the CEO of Rio Tinto Madagascar on 7 October.
At Rio Tinto's Madagascar Minerals operation, there are double the numbers of contract workers as permanent staff.
The IndustriALL affiliates in Indonesia held an action in front of Bundaran HI, Jakarta to mark the World day for Decent Work and the Rio Tinto Global day of Action . Around 500 workers, including their key leaders, joined the activity. The workers came from 10 federations, which included: FSP KEP, CEMWU, SpN, FSP2KI, LOMENIK, FSPMI, FSP2KI, GARTEKS, ISI, FPE, and KIKES. IndustriALL affiliate the Chemical, Energy and Mines Workers Union (CEMWU) took this opportunity to raise the issues that workers face at Rio Tinto/ Freeport and Geo Services.
The IndustriALL Indonesia Council urge the Indonesian government to abolishe the contracting and outsourcing system in Indonesia labor law and that it ratify ILO Convention No 176 and 183 on Maternity Protection.
IndustriALL Affiliate the Amalgamated Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union (EPMU) held a Rio Tinto 2-hour stop work meeting in Invercargill in support of the Rio Tinto Global Day of Action.
EPMU members working at the Tiwal Point Aluminium smelter are concerned by the number of worker injuries at the plant.
IndustriALL affiliates, the CFE-CGC (Confédération française de l'encadrement – Confédération générale des cadres), the CGT (Confédération générale du travail), the CGT-FO (Confédération générale du travail – Force ouvrière) and the CFDT (Confédération française démocratique du travail) distributed "Rio Tinto , the ugly truth" flyers at worksites and at the union offices.
In Paris, at Rio TInto France, workers wanted to know more about the campaign. A general assemply was later organized to provide more information to workers about the precarious working conditions at Rio Tinto globally.
On 8 October IndustriALL affiliate FIOM-CGIL held an action of protest in Milan dedicated to the Global Day Action to STOP precarious Work and called a strike in Milan against the measures of the Italian Government making it easier to dismiss employees in the industry.
The choice of the date was determined by the European Union Jobs Summit, which took place on the same date in Milan.
FIOM is planning to continue with strikes in other cities of Italy in the next weeks leading up to the National demonstration on 25 October called by the trade union confederation CGIL in Rome. If needed the union is prepared to call to a General National Strike.
As part of the actions within the campaign STOP Precarious work on 30 September 2014 IndustriALL affiliate FIM-CISL organized an action with participation of some 1,700 representatives of metalworkers in Piazza Montecitorio in Rome, in front of the Chamber of Deputies and the Presidency of the Council. The event was also the first flash mob in the union's history in Italy. The participants of the action demanded the government to take economic policy measures aimed at re-directing public and private investment at supporting the manufacturing industry, creating new jobs and fighting against unemployment and precarious conditions faced by millions of young people.
IndustriALL affiliate, the Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN), produced a press release about Rio Tinto's unsustainable practicies at the Rossing operation in Namibia, and shared information about the global day of action with union members.
Under the banner that “Union Rights are Civil Rights”, the UAW has been campaigning for four years to establish a company-recognized trade union into the Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi. The 50-year anniversaries of key moments in the civil rights movement are being marked and mirrored in the current campaign.
While Nissan employees in Japan, Spain, UK, South Africa, and Brazil have constructive industrial relations with the carmaker, union supporters in Canton face extreme intimidation and threats from management all the time. Also in the delegation were unions from Nissan’s corporate partner Renault, with whom IndustriALL has a global framework agreement.
Leading the international solidarity mission, IndustriALL Global Union general secretary Jyrki Raina stated:
We are Pro-Nissan, Pro-Union. Workers here in Canton, Mississippi have many complaints about health and safety, bullying, shift scheduling, and increasing precarious workers. Much of these issues would be worked through if there were a union mechanism in the plant. Our message to Nissan is that we will not go away until they afford the Canton workers the right to form a union.
In a large union meeting the local activists explained the ways in which management threatens workers against joining the union. But more importantly they energetically expressed their urgent readiness to organize the plant.
Nissan in Canton is one of three major organizing campaigns of the UAW in the Southern US. The other two are moving forward with UAW Local 42 very close to recognition from Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and brand new Local 112 forming last Friday at Daimler in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
An IndustriALL solidarity road trip led by the general secretary visited the inspiring members, leaders and organizers of Locals 42 and 112 this week. These important campaigns will set the standard for organizing the other non-American auto companies operating in the southern states.
International solidarity has been central to the organizing of VW and Daimler. German union IG Metall flexed its muscle to ensure neutrality from both companies and a pathway to establishing UAW union locals. The Japanese JAW and JCM are working with UAW to win similar assurances from Nissan.
Autoworkers in the southern US deserve the right to form a union, just as workers around the world do in these same multinational companies.
The Donets Basin, also known as the Donbas, was until recently the important coal-mining area in the Ukraine and a major contributor to the economy, providing for around 40 per cent of gold and foreign currency inflow.
However, the Donbas is at the heart of the military conflict with pro-Russian separatists, which began in April this year. A reported 64 out of 104 mines in the region have stopped operations due to the fighting or damage from military fire, leaving almost 100,000 miners out of work.
Up to a third of workers have quit their jobs at some mines, most of whom are under the age of 40, leading to concerns over who will operate the mines once peace returns.
Wage arrears for June and July amount to 347 million hryvnia, or US$ 26.8 million, and wages for August also remain unpaid.
Neither are workers and retired miners receiving free domestic fuel to which they are entitled to by law. As a result, around 100,000 coal-mining workers and thousands of retirees in the Donbas area have virtually no money and no domestic fuel at the beginning of the cold season.
According to the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry, Ukraine has already lost 3.4 million tons of coal that could have been produced at the idle enterprises.
Consequently, for the first time in 15 years, Ukraine is importing coal. "If today we bring coal from abroad, tomorrow we will destroy our mines," said Mikhail Volynets, the Chairman of the Independent Trade Union of Coal Miners of Ukraine.
The situation in Ukraine was a major topic for discussion at the ITUC World Congress in Berlin, Germany in May 2014. In her Congress Plenary Statement on Ukraine, ITUC’s general secretary, Sharan Burrow, said: "The main repercussions (of the conflict) are primarily and directly affecting the ordinary people – the continuing disruption of their lives on a daily basis; dysfunctional communities and civil structures; and the mounting uncertainty for their future in the years to come."
"Our affiliates’ reports about the desperate state of the mining industry in the Ukraine are a major concern to us," said Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union. "IndustriALL offers its utmost solidarity to the miners in the Ukraine, and demands an immediate restoration of peace for the benefit of all people.”
