Trainees win equal treatment at auto parts producer in India

In July 2014 Plastic Omnium Auto Exteriors India Pvt. Ltd., an Indian division of the French multinational automotive supplier Plastic Omnium and workers represented by the trade union Plastic Omnium Varroc Kamgar Sangathna arrived at an amicable settlement for the company trainees. The matter is that despite of doing the same work the trainees were lower paid than their permanently employed colleagues. To revise the situation and obtain justice for the workers in June 2014 the Union submitted their Charter of Demands on behalf of the 48 trainee workmen employed by the company.

Series of meetings, discussions, dialogues were held between the union representatives and the company, which resulted in an amicable settlement. It is agreed by and between the parties that all the trainees shall be made permanent and permanent workers’ conditions shall be extended to them.

The existing settlement for permanent workers is valid for one year and next agreement applicable to all workmen shall be concluded from 1 July 2015.

During this one year, the trainees who have been made permanent shall be given monthly rise by Rs. 4,000 (50 Euros), so that their total wages shall be Rs. 12,000 (150 Euros) per month, their gross salaries with all the benefits will equal to Rs. 15,000 (185 Euros) per month. The settlement will hopefully serve a benchmark for other companies in the area.

Madagascar: IndustriALL supports drive to organize, educate and fight back at Rio Tinto

The workshop and organizing drive form part of IndustriALL’s global campaign to build union power at Rio Tinto plants around the world. Through increased unionisation in the workplace, the campaign aims to make the mining giant recognise fundamental workers' rights, such as the right to organise and collective bargaining.

QMM, which is 80 per cent owned by Rio Tinto, employs 500 workers directly. Another 1500 workers are servicing QMM through its subcontractors. Their work largely depends on QMM renewing contracts.

IndustriALL is assisting FISEMA in organising the mining industry in Madagascar, with a particular focus on Rio Tinto. Even though working conditions at QMM are considered to be better than many other mines in the country the bar is low and there is a lot to be done; not least as many workers are afraid to join unions.

Local union leaders have committed to organizing all workers at QMM, both direct and indirect. Participants at the workshop devised strategies to strengthen FISEMA and build a network of Rio Tinto workers regionally, nationally and internationally. Plans on educating members and improving leadership training have also been devised. Furthermore, membership targets have been set and monitoring strategies put in place.

Global day of action to fight back

The establishment of Rio Tinto in Fort Dauphin has increased the cost of living in the region and despite the fact QMM workers are paid approximately four times the minimum wage, many still need a second job to be able to survive.

As the extractive industry is new to Malagasy workers, they rely solely on information provided by employers when it comes to operational health and safety.

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL Assistant general secretary, says:

IndustriALL is committed to bringing FISEMA together with the global network of Rio Tinto workers to strengthen the fight for freedom of association and better safety and working conditions at Rio Tinto sites worldwide.

Together, IndustriALL and FISEMA are preparing for the global day of union action at Rio Tinto on 7 October, a day in which IndustriALL affiliates around the world take action as part of the IndustriALL STOP Precarious Work campaign.

Organizing in Bangladesh – changing the dynamics

1,300 garment workers in Gazipur, Dhaka turned to their union federation, IndustriALL Global Union affiliate the Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers Federation (BIGUF) and the Solidarity Center for support. By working to develop a constructive relationship with the employer, Masco Cotton, both sides have been able to sit down and negotiate and resolve issues in the factory.

Despite being faced with serious challenges when some workers lost their jobs and one union application being rejected three times before the Joint Director of Labour (JDL) registered it, workers persevered.

“They worked hard to demonstrate to the employer that overall if both sides sat down and negotiated, worker empowerment through a trade union could be beneficial for the factory,” says Rashedul Alom Raju, acting general secretary of the BIGUF.

“I am very happy that we have established a good relationship with our employer, but it hasn’t been a smooth path,” says Faruk, president of the Masco Cotton Ltd. Workers Union. “At first, I was suspended along with three other workers for trade union activity, and it was two and a half months before we were reinstated.”

Faruk continues:

“It took a lot of hard work for us to make the employer understand our problems. The training we received from BIGUF helped a lot. They trained us how to talk to and negotiate with the management.”

Through the process of negotiation, workers in the union factories have bargained with the employer to ensure they receive their salaries on time, and to increase attendance and other bonuses as well as night-shift differentials. The unions and management now meet monthly to discuss routine labour disputes and other issues. A recent negotiation was on the leave for the religious holiday Eid and to increase the number of fans on the factory floor.

Organizing for a sustainable garment industry

IndustriALL is supporting a major organizing project aiming to build a comprehensive union presence in the Bangladeshi garment factories. And the results are already showing. In 2013, the Bangladeshi government agreed to facilitate the registration of new local unions and in the last 12 months IndustriALL affiliates have organized more than 100 factories and 40,000 workers.

IndustriALL General secretary Jyrki Raina says that the aim is to beat those numbers in 2014.

Increasing union membership is a pivotal part of the long march towards a safe and sustainable garment industry in Bangladesh.

"The next step is then to provide the needed training to build the new union leaders’ capacity for collective bargaining, health and safety, and for solving problems.“

Mahbubul executive director of the Masco factory group says that training for both the management and the union can play an important role in developing a constructive relationship and maintaining industrial peace:

“The potential benefit of having a union in the factory is that we hear the voice of all the workers. Management can then understand the workers’ issues and work to solve those problems.”

Sanjida Akhter, worker and president of Masco Industries Ltd. Workers Unity Union, one of three union factories affiliated with BIGUF in the five-factory group, says:

 “Before we formed a union in our factory, workers had no way to communicate with the employer. But now things are different. Management will even approach the union to work out and discuss issues in the factory.”
 
 

Credit: Solidarity Centre

Two-month UWUA strike defeats subcontracting attack

Members of UWUA System Local 537 ratified the new four-year agreement on 16 August. The almost 150 UWUA workers’ eight-week work stoppage paid off with solid job protections in the contract. The agreement covers four Pennsylvania-American Water worksites through the Pittsburgh area, USA.

The new agreement also drops management’s earlier attempt to heavily curtail employee sick leave benefits, and awards workers significant “catch up” salary increases after four years without a raise. But the major priority for the UWUA members was to block the subcontracting language that would have allowed management to replace their jobs with outsourced contractors.

Kevin Booth, System President of UWUA Local 537 saluted the new agreement:

We can now return to work delivering essential public services to our customers without fear that management will destroy working families’ jobs through unfair subcontracting.

The previous collective agreement expired in May 2011 and the union struggle for this new labour agreement was hard-fought.

IndustriALL Global Union general secretary Jyrki Raina congratulated affiliate UWUA:

When we fight, we win. This is the sort of standard setting victory against the global trend of employers using precarious work to weaken trade unions and the rights of all workers. UWUA’s members deserve job security. We salute this win.

Honeywell Once Again Locks USW Members Out in the US

The facility converts milled uranium, known as yellowcake uranium, into uranium hexafluoride (UF6) that is used in nuclear fuel enrichment. The potentially dangerous process requires the experience and knowledge of the now locked out Steelworkers, and the irresponsible corporate decision is putting local communities at risk.

The last time, three years ago, that plant management attempted to continue production during a 14-month lock out, there were two near-miss tragedies due to mishandling of dangerous chemicals, and management was cited by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for helping replacement scab workers to cheat on exams that ultimately allowed them to operate the facility.

The previous lock out was the precursor to a three-year collective agreement, ratified by USW members on 2 August 2011. At the start of that lock out, Honeywell was intent on taking away pension benefits, the accompanying health care benefits, as well as union-protection provisions. But Local 7-669 members won the decent collective agreement that is now up for renewal.

This time around, Honeywell is going all out in an attempt to bust the union. The company proposal in bargaining with USW includes language that would allow management to systematically replace permanent, union workers with contractors. The unskilled contractors cost Honeywell more than the permanent USW workers already at the plant.

At approximately 11:45 pm August 1, Honeywell management entered the bargaining room and offered a virtually unchanged proposal, despite the union offering a comprehensive counter proposal 4 hours earlier. When the union’s negotiating committee declined to take the offer to the membership for a vote, the company notified the union that they would be locked out of the plant effective immediately.

Sign the petition here – https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/dont-put-our-communities-at-risk-end-the-lockout-and-bring-back-the-experienced-usw-workforce

IndustriALL Global Union general secretary Jyrki Raina told Honeywell CEO Cote today in a letter:

What a message to send to your workforce and local community, that your company would rather risk a nuclear accident than bargain in good faith with their Local 7-669. This is disgraceful corporate misbehaviour and we will continue to support the USW members at Honeywell until they get a fair collective agreement they deserve.

Another round of bargaining will take place at 10 a.m. on 18 August. The job security issue is not the only company attack that management is refusing to address. The present company proposal is a cut to workers’ health care equaling a 10% cut in wages. Honeywell workers are exposed to increased radiation so justifiably propose proper safety checks.

See the full details of the bargaining committee’s proposals on the Local 7-669 website here – http://usw7-669.com/story/what-we-are-fighting

Future still uncertain on AGOA

Trade and investment, specifically the extension of AGOA, topped the agenda at the US Africa Leaders Summit from 4 to 6 August 2014 in Washington DC.  AGOA is a non-reciprocal preferential trade programme under which products from eligible sub-Saharan African countries have duty-free access to US markets. It was first passed by US Congress under the Clinton administration in 2000 and is due to expire in September 2015.  The uncertainty over its extension is having an increasingly negative impact on orders placed with African based suppliers.

As a result, IndustriALL Global Union is calling for AGOA to be a permanent programme to encourage longer-term and higher capital investment, which may also lead to increased diversity in exports from the region. 

Tens of thousands of jobs in the garment sector are dependent on exports under AGOA, which make up one fifth of non-petroleum exports under the trade agreement. However, there are poor working conditions in many of these garment factories.

There are many examples; most recently Jane Ragoo and Reaaz Chotoo of Mauritian union Chemical Manufacturing and Connected Trades Employees Union reported that “Workers' interests are the least priority of AGOA and thus the US. The wages are so low and the job so precarious that a vast majority of Mauritian workers do not want to join the textile sector.  Consequently, more than 50 per cent of the workforce in the textile sector is made up of foreign workers and month after month this number is increasing. So the competitive edge of the textile sector in Mauritius is geared towards the exploitation of foreign workers.”

IndustriALL has also recommended that the special provision given to Lesser Developed Countries, which allowed fabric from a third country to be used in the production of garment exports under AGOA, be extended to all AGOA eligible countries, such as South Africa.

“South Africa’s apparel exports to the US have collapsed since the early 2000s partly due to the fact that it has been displaced by exports from mainly Asian countries and because the South African textile sector has shrunk with fewer spinning, weaving and knitting mills,” reports Etienne Vlok, researcher at the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union. “This has meant it has been very difficult to comply with the current AGOA rule of using local yarn and fabric in order to benefit from AGOA.”

IndustriALL hopes the need for redress on exploitative conditions and other issues will result in a revision of AGOA that strengthens the protection of workers and jobs. Due consideration of the recommendations from labour, including the largest federation of unions in the United States – the AFL-CIO, as well as from other stakeholders may increase the time it takes to draft the reauthorisation. When AGOA will be addressed by Congress is anyone’s guess, with some holding little hope that the extension will happen before 2015.   

Cambodian garment workers toiling to death

In a single week in July, over two hundred workers were admitted to the Prek Anhchanh Health Centre clinic on the outskirts of Phnom Penh after passing out at work in garment factories.  

However, more alarmingly, garment workers are actually dying at work.

Sokny Say from IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC) said:

"2014 is remarkable because while we have had many cases of mass faintings in the past, this is the first year that people have died. We must not become immune to the fact that so many garment workers are collapsing in the factories. It can be a precursor to death."

Two workers employed at factories located outside Phnom Penh died at the end of July.

Thirty-five-year-old seamstress Nov Pas, who spent nearly four years making clothes for brands like Gap and Old Navy, passed out at her post in the Sangwoo factory at 8a.m on July 24th, 2014. By 9am she had been admitted to the nearest provincial hospital, and around 6pm she was pronounced dead. 

When contacted for comment, Chea Sok Thong of the Korean-owned Sangwoo factory denied corporate responsibility for Ms. Nov’s death, claiming medical carelessness from the hospital where she was receiving treatment.

Garment worker, Vorn Tha, 44, collapsed and died at the New Archid factory, which makes clothes for H&M, after he had worked many long days from 7am to 10pm.

A third garment worker, employed at the Cambo Kotop Ltd factory in Phnom Penh, died in March.

IndustriALL’s general secretary, Jyrki Raina, stated:

“This sinister development of workers collapsing at work and then dying cannot go unchallenged. Poverty wages mean that garment workers cannot afford to eat properly and a lack of food, long hours and intolerable factory conditions are proving a lethal combination.

We continue to back Cambodian unions’ demands for a raise in the minimum wage so garment workers can afford enough food to live on and no longer have to work such punishing overtime hours to survive.”

Unions at Rio Tinto gear up for global day of action

Representatives from trade unions at Rio Tinto in Australia, Canada, France, Indonesia, South Africa, the UK and the US met at the convention in Las Vegas. They form part of the global network of unions at Rio Tinto, which earlier this year launched a global campaign against the company. They were joined at the meeting by union leadership from Germany and IndustriALL Global Union.

Participants discussed plans for their global day of action against Rio Tinto on 7 October, when IndustriALL affiliates around the world will take action to demand decent work as part of the STOP Precarious Work campaign.

The Rio Tinto Global Union Network chose 7 October to hold their global day of action because the billion-dollar company is increasingly introducing precarious forms of work at its operations around the globe.

For instance, the Steelworkers union at Rio Tinto subsidiary Kennecott in Utah, USA reported that Rio Tinto has adopted the practice of reducing the workforce through attrition and then replacing the retiring workers with contractors.

“Unions at Rio Tinto are coming together like never before to demand decent work. We will send that message loud and clear on 7 October,” stated IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Kemal Ozkan.

The unions agreed at the meeting on the need for Rio Tinto to change its approach to unions and recognize them as a key stakeholder worthy of respect. Until that happens, “We want to poke them in the eye and kick them in the shins,” stated CFMEU Mining and Energy General Secretary Andrew Vickers, who is also the IndustriALL mining section Chairman.

Customers, students, NGOs and unions all demand that NXP “Bring Back the 24!”

In defending and maintaining its gross violation of human rights, NXP’s argument is that the 5 May sacking of the entire elected leadership of the NXPSCIWU union was justified because union members did not work on three public holidays in April 2014.

The claim that this failure to work on national public holidays amounted to an illegal strike and sackable offence is both immoral and wrong. The labour authorities of the Philippine government are brokering conciliation talks between the union and local management. However NXP remains intransigent against the reinstatement of the sacked 24, offering instead a payoff that was unanimously rejected by workers.

Watch this moving video overview of NXP’s violation in the Philippines and its effects on the sacked workers. During the interviews, the sacked workers explain that NXP’s vindictive mass sacking forced them to take their children out of school, as they can no longer afford it.

IndustriALL Global Union general secretary Jyrki Raina stated:

How can the executives of NXP and their customers such as Apple sleep at night knowing the facts of this case?

Apple’s iPhone 6 and many other everyday electrical items have important microchip technology built by this abusive employer NXP. It is the duty of those corporate customers to force the misbehaviour of NXP to stop, with an immediate first step being the reinstatement of the 24 sacked trade union representatives.

The union busting attack by NXP was launched in retaliation to the union’s bargaining unit, led by President Reden Alcantara, negotiating for a daily pay increase of US$1.39 and the regularization of 1,500 contract workers. The 8% pay increase sought by the union would be enough to buy a kilo of rice and a pack of dried fish.

As well as Apple, two other top NXP customers Ericsson and Nokia are looking into the situation at their supplier, following an alert by IndustriALL affiliates in Sweden and Finland.

On 6 August NXP workers marked the third month of their campaign to “Bring Back the 24” with a 1,000-strong march inside the special economic zone, LISP1, where NXP is located. Other trade unions and community supporters joined the workers’ caravan from capital Manila to Southern Tagalog. Large steel barricades designed to block the march were pushed out the way. When marching past the NXP facility, workers inside showed their support with raised fists from inside the windows.

Reacting to the constant firm support for the union by remaining NXP workers, management has now installed cameras throughout the inside of the plant, and instructed internal security guards to prevent workers from wearing “Reinstate the 24 Officers” t-shirts and from posting support messages on social media.

NXP’s management continues to escalate its violations of the rights of its employees and make a mockery of the corporate claims that: “NXP is a reputable company that respects the rights of its workers. We have always enjoyed a strong and mutually beneficial partnership with our local employees and look forward to reaching a fair agreement with them soon.”

Akzo Nobel Korea refuses to recognize IndustriALL affiliate KCTF

The Korean Chemical & Textiles Workers’ Federation (KCTF) organized 62 of the 115 employees at Akzo Nobel Korea, with the new local officially forming on 10 May 2014. Two days later the local sent their written demand to management as to begin collective bargaining towards establishing a collective agreement.

However, instead of respecting international standards and national Korean labour legislation, local management employed delaying tactics and hired a union-busting law firm. Now, as management refuses to attend bargaining meetings, international support is required.

In today’s support letter to KCTF, IndustriALL general secretary Jyrki Raina wrote:

I am shocked and angered to hear of the reaction of the plant level management and will be taking up my concern with the top management of Akzo Nobel.

This bad corporate behaviour is in breach of numerous important international labour standards as well as the national Korean labour law. It is unacceptable.

The main concerns for employees at Akzo Nobel Korea, until being denied their fundamental right to bargain collectively, were: wages, working hours, retirement age, noise levels, industrial disease.

Union requests for meetings were ignored for 12 May, 28 May, 3 June and 13 June. Finally management attended a meeting with the new KCTF local on 23 June, but management showed zero commitment to bargain in good faith with the union. The notorious union busting attorneys were sent to represent the company in the next bargaining meeting on 8 August.

Additionally, the management has blocked the local union from installing a union notice board inside the factory, and tried to prohibit the local union leaders from wearing their union name tags. While several months have passed since the union demanded a sincere negotiation, the management is still failing to show any sincere commitment to bargain in good faith with the union.