Unions’ determination brought step back over Eni's plans to reduce production in Italy

On 31 July, following a series of meetings both with the company and the Government, an agreement has been reached with Eni regarding Gela and Porto Marghera refineries, which would suffer the most should the drastic plans of the company be implemented.

According to the unions, the parties have shared a written agreement committing the company to restart the preliminary operations, particularly Line 1 of the refinery of Gela, including through the involvement of the outsourced workers, with the view to provide investment in the second phase of the conversion project "green refinery" in Porto Marghera accoring to the schedule and time stipulated in the agreements signed in July 2013 and February 2014.

Over ninety per cent of workers supported the national strike action announced on 29 July by the unions. Hundreds came in front of the Montecitorio Palace in Rome, the seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, in order to protest against the plans that could have been devastating for Eni workers in Italy.

Despite the earlier proclaimed strategy and investment plan a few weeks ago Eni had announced a change in its plans regarding the Gela site, including reconversion of the site into the most technologically advanced refinery. According to the new plans the Gela refinery had to be dismantled, and a new "green-refinery" would be built. Unlike the previous one this new plan however brought at serious risk the jobs and conditions of at least 2,500 directly and indirectly employed workers and their families in the Gela region, not to mention that it could cost some 7 per cent loss of GDP to economically poor Sicily.

The refinery business in Italy and Europe and developed countries in general has been facing severe difficulties, resulting in plant closures and mass job losses. Possible consequences led the Italian workers in the whole industry to go on a two-hour strike in order to attract the attention of Eni, whose strategy according to the unions should be strongly re-focalized to face the present challenges and prevent further closures / redundancies in the refining and marketing business, as long as the Eni exploration and production business is currently generating profits.

The unions believe strongly that Eni has strong economic, technical and labour resources, and that the Italian government, as one of the Eni key shareholders, should play a positive role (within the limits of European Union rules) in order to maintain the fundamental presence of Eni in the industrial and energetic Italian context.

“IndustriALL Global Union salutes the determination and resistance shown by its Italian affiliates in getting this important result”, said Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary.

Day of action against outsourcing in Colombia

The meeting was attended by 120 representatives of the trade union centres CUT and the CTC, the Colombian sections of the GUFs (IUF, UNI, BWI, ITF, EI, IndustriALL and PSI), the FNV Colombia Country Programme, the Mining and Energy Sector Trade Union Unity Committee (CUSME) and its member unions and a Swedish delegation led by the Mayor of Trollhättan. It analysed the broad lines of a draft bill to be presented to a group of senators for their consideration, and which could serve as a rallying point for a campaign to pass legislation against outsourcing, a practice that impoverishes workers and does not provide decent work.

The president of the CTC, Miguel Morantes, highlighted the significance of the date chosen for the day of action. It was on 28 July 1983, thirty-one years ago, that approximately 200 outsourced workers were buried in a tragic accident as they were engaged in the construction of an access tunnel for the country’s biggest hydro-electricity generating plant, in the municipality of Ubalá (Cundinamarca), in the region of Guavio. Although workers had warned that geological fault lines could cause such a tragedy, the engineers and their managers paid no heed to them. This kind of accident almost always happens precisely because of the complete lack of protection for this type of precarious worker. That is the significance of choosing this day as the day of action against outsourcing. The dam is now operated by the multinational company ENEL-ENDESA, whose employees are members of SINTRAELECOL, which is affiliated to IndustriALL and the CUT.

Fabio Arias, CUT general secretary, welcomed participants, expressed his wish for a successful event and welcomed the representatives of the Columbia sections of the GUFs, the Swedish delegation and the FNV’s Colombia Country Programme.

In a series of panels, representatives of trade unions and support centres presented their views on the central issue. Paul Akerlund’s speech deserves a special mention. He explained how the Swedish trade union movement had succeeded in controlling the harmful effects of outsourcing by actively working with outsourced workers to bring their wages and benefits up to the level enjoyed by directly-employed workers. Outsourcing only takes place on an occasional basis and workers are paid at a level that allows it to be classified as decent work.

The meeting approved a declaration, which will be distributed to the media in the next few days. It calls on the main sector unions to try to recruit outsourced workers and for the trade union movement to remain active in promoting formal employment in every possible way, whether through legislative means, collective agreements or direct industrial action.

Journalist and human rights lawyer in Swaziland receive two-year prison sentences

Their unfair conviction and sentencing can only be seen as sanctions on human rights activities in the country and proves judicial complicity in harassment

said Fernando Lopes, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union.

Maseko is a prominent human rights lawyer and a senior member of Lawyers for Human Rights Swaziland and has a close working relationship with the labour movement in Swaziland. Makhubu is a columnist and Editor-in-Chief of The Nation, considered as the sole independent newspaper of the country.

Background on the sentence: Convictions confound Swazi reform hopes

Rio Tinto's 'sustainable mining' claims exposed

Rio Tinto uses its sustainability reporting to bolster the argument that it is a responsible company and therefore entitled to a license to operate.

Rio Tinto subsidiary, Energy Resources of Australia (ERA), has threatened the Mirarr people that if it is not allowed to expand its Ranger uranium mining operations underground, it may be unable to fully fund rehabilitation of the open pit mine.

The Ranger mine is located in the traditional lands of the Mirarr, the world heritage-listed Kakadu national park in Australia's Northern Territory.

If ERA does not complete rehabilitation of the site, which suffered a radioactive spill last year, the water, air quality and soil in the area could be scarred with toxic radiation for generations.

'It's not our problem'

When a shareholder confronted Rio Tinto CEO Sam Walsh about this at the company's April annual meeting, Walsh flatly refused to commit to full rehabilitation or take responsibility for the mess.

Walsh said it is a problem for ERA, not Rio Tinto: "We are clearly shareholders [of ERA], but it's a matter for all shareholders and a matter for the ERA board."

What he did not mention is that Rio Tinto is the controlling shareholder of ERA, and that five out of six ERA board members are current or former Rio Tinto employees.

Read the full article on The Ecologist website.

Continued union-busting by Deva Holding in Turkey

The eight workers were fired when joining IndustriALL Global Union affiliate Petrol-Is. They were exercising their legitimate fundamental rights of freedom of association, guaranteed by international labour conventions of the ILO, as well as Turkey’s Constitution and national trade union legislation. After the dismissed workers staged protest outside the plant gates and Petrol-Is has gained nationwide media coverage, the situation is still in a deadlock.

Petrol-Is was a bargaining partner at Deva operations. However, the last four years have seen a deterioration of labour relations and the recent dismissals are part of Deva’s anti-union policies. Management has used different tactics to demolish a 40-year-long union existence, contractual labour relations and mature social dialogue at Deva Holding plants located in the towns of Çerkezköy, Kartepe and Topkapı area of Istanbul.

During this time, management has announced that there will no longer be a collective agreement using the pretext of high production costs and government’s policies in the pharmaceutical industry. They exerted pressure on workers to sign individual labour contracts in place of the collective agreement and then dismissed 74 employees because they had refused to sign individual contracts.

IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan says:

The workers have a legitimate and legal right to choose their unions freely. IndustriALL urges management at Deva Holdings to immediately re-instate the eight dismissed union members; withdraw all pressure exerted over the union members; and enter into constructive dialogue with Petrol-Is.

Update: Shahabi released to civilian hospital

Shahabi, the treasurer of the ITF-affiliated Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (or Vahed union) was unjustly arrested in 2010 for his trade union activities. His health has apparently suffered as a result of injuries sustained during his imprisonment, while repeated calls for his release from international organisations including the ITF, International Labour Organization (ILO) and Amnesty International, have yet to be taken up fully by the Iranian government.

In a letter to ITF acting general secretary, Stephen Cotton, IndustriALL offered its full support to the ITF in its campaigning and demanded “the immediate and unconditional release of Brother Reza Shahabi and proper medical treatment for securing his life. The IndustriALL family strongly feels that global unions should work together to mobilize solidarity for making sure that Iran respects human and trade union rights.”

IndustriALL also calls on all affiliates to support ITF’s LabourStart campaign in support of Reza Shahabi.

Syngenta Pakistan continues to blatantly ignore court ruling

The case relates to IndustriALL’s affiliated trade union’s effort to ensure that local management of Syngenta respects Pakistani labour law and award 50 contract employees at the plant permanent employment status. These efforts triggered local management to call in paramilitaries to the factory and intimidated workers against supporting the union. The head of the plant level union was then sacked on 23 December 2010.
 
That fired trade unionist, Imran Ali, is also president of the Pakistan Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers (PCEM), affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union. Imran Ali was summarily sacked one week prior to the end of bargaining that would have brought a new CBA on 1 January 2011.
 
Even the High Court of Sindh in Pakistan's capital Karachi ruled in favour of the union.

Incredibly, the case of Imran Ali is still pending, and Syngenta has yet to implement the change in employment status of the 50 contract workers, in line with the High Court ruling.

IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina wrote to top Syngenta management in Switzerland:
 
“I am outraged to hear that your company’s vindictive treatment of its workers in Pakistan is continuing. I thought this case of core labour rights violation had been settled and by now your local management would be well on the way toward healing some of the damage made by over three years of union busting and breaches of international labour standards.”

Dying on the job is not the destiny of mine workers!

This industrial homicide entered the global public consciousness through the sheer numbers of the lives lost and the callous comment of the Turkish Prime Minister, claiming that it was the destiny of mine workers to die while eking out an existence.

It is often said that mining is a hazardous occupation. Despite the numerous precautions taken the harsh working environment does not lend itself to ideal cooperation. The tripartite structure of the ILO is challenged within the mining industry, which accounts for one per cent of global employment with 30 million people. At the same time, the sector accounts for 8 per cent of work-related casualties, making it one of the most dangerous professions.

On account of these horrifying statistics, mining, more than any other industry, requires constant and regular inspections and enforcement of safety measures. 

The chief culprit for the mine accidents is the industry’s preoccupation, almost obsession, with profit. The “race to the bottom” is obvious in the mining industry where the lives of mine workers is often sacrificed at the altar of profit. Statistics regarding fatalities, injuries and occupational disease do not tell the entire story; they exclude the extent of human suffering associated with mining.

In terms of methane related accidents, coal-mining is the most dangerous, because of the likely presence of methane. The toxic, asphyxiating gas can be explosive in high concentration. While the dangers of mining are self-evident, it is still surprising and shocking that only 27 countries have ratified ILO Convention 176 Safety and Health in Mines. Notable mining countries absent from the list include, Chile, the world's top copper producer, as well as Australia, Canada, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Turkey and Indonesia.

The roll call of death has the potential to numb the senses, as witnessed by the Turkish Prime Minister’s comment. If we fail to speak up and instead keep silent in the face of evil, this roll call will continue unabatedly. 

The ILO Convention 176 is central to achieving decent work in the industry. Within the convention, governments are expected to create a legislative and regulatory framework that protects workers’ safety and health. This is to be accomplished by requiring employers and workers to comply with the specifics of ILO Convention 176. In addition, the responsible authorities are expected to maintain adequate regulatory mine supervision and inspection, and require the reporting of accidents and maintenance of statistics.

As a response to the mine tragedy in Turkey and IndustriALL's work on health and safety in mines worldwide, a comprehensive and integrated strategy is required, including a comprehensive global campaign demanding ratification of ILO Convention 176 and the implementation of its recommendation. 

We need a strong health and safety culture in the mining industry across all levels. And such a culture will only come about through strong trade unions and strong collective bargaining. The stronger the union, the safer the mine – trade unions save lives.

Kemal Özkan,

Assistant General Secretary

Unity to fight precarious work in Thailand

In the paper sector, many unions have lost their bargaining power and some even exist by name only. The newly created Confederation of IndustriALL Labour of Thailand (CILT) bringing together the auto, metal, textile, chemical and petrol workers of Thailand vows to fight precarious work.

According to the Ministry of Labour, agency workers are classified as employees of the service sector. Under the law, unions can only represent employees of their company or workers in the same industrial sector. This prevents unions in the manufacturing and energy sectors to organise and bargain for agency workers, even when they perform the same work as permanent and direct hired workers.

Trade unions also face the opposition of the companies. Even though unions are allowed to organise and represent employees of sub-contractors in the same industrial sector, often they cannot. One example is when Unocal/Chevron in Thailand refused to let the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) cover outsourced workers on the ground that these workers were not company employees, and despite the fact that the sub-contract workers worked under the principal company’s supervision and control.

But despite the challenges and difficulties, IndustriALL Global Union’s Thai affiliates are fighting to find solutions to improve working conditions for precarious workers.

TEAM advises local unions on how to recruit agency workers. As a result, the local union organising the BMW plant in Thailand has now recruited around 100 agency workers. In 2012, IndustriALL affiliate the Paper and Printing Unions’ Federation (PPFT) won a milestone victory when getting the government certificate on recognition of union representation for agency workers, highlighting a disguised employment relationship.

Thai trade unions have also multiplied efforts to regularize fixed terms workers or outsourced/temporary agency workers, in order to include them in the CBA. Last year, 250 agency workers at Kurusapha printing company were converted to directly hired workers and joined the Kurusapha union.

And as a last resort agency workers can organise their own unions. At Chevron, agency workers have created two agency workers unions that have successfully bargained a new CBA, bringing new rights and benefits for their members.

Notwithstanding, employers continually challenge these victories. In this difficult context, unity among the Thai affiliates through the CILT is even more important and necessary to continue the struggle and achieve sustainable results.

IndustriALL women’s workshop in Colombia promotes organizing

Participants learned about the women’s action plan in Colombia, as well as the status of the developments in creating one national union in the mining and energy sector (CUSME). Moreover, they exchanged experiences about precarious work in Colombia and Latin America and developed their leadership skills.

At the IndustriALL regional women’s conference in May 2014, the lack of resources, the absence of gender policies and the male domination in representation emerged as the most salient issues. The women felt that they had less resources for projects and initiatives than the men have. As far as gender policies are concerned, they said that what was there was improvised and spontaneous according to the circumstances. They wanted to find out how to develop a consistent gender policy.

The women did not feel that they were sufficiently informed about activities, as information is stuck in drawers and in the hands of union leadership without it being passed on to those directly concerned.

According to the women they are under-represented in trade unions. There are unions with a lot of women members but whose leadership is exclusively male. In addition there are other unions that do not participate, and these unions need to become active. The women proposed establishing a negotiation group in each trade union.

Precarious work, outsourcing, temporary employment require immediate and permanent tackling. And women need to be involved in these struggles. Women have untapped leadership qualities and need to use them to get more women to join unions, especially those women who are contract workers. This will multiply the unions’ ranks and strengthen them.

Participants did a role play on how to recruit women contract workers into the union. The arguments they developed were to improve gender equity, to earn better pay, to work in better conditions and to have a better quality of life. The women are creating an organizing team, and one of these women will participate in the CUSME meetings.

In 2009, the pay gap between men and women in Colombia was 15.8 per cent. However, it went up to 21 per cent in 2012. 12.9 per cent of women are unemployed; the same number for men is only 6.7 per cent. Women have a harder time having access to jobs than men do. They are often up against inflexible role assignments, are either too young or too old to work, it is either an advantage or a disadvantage to be married, they have children or are yet to have them, they often have to have pregnancy tests, they are either too beautiful or too ugly, they are socially disadvantaged, women’s bodies are used to sell services, and ultimately there is the plague of sexual harassment. Nevertheless some recent legislation in Colombia has contributed to equal treatment and equal pay between women and men.

Women at the workshop worked on communication techniques and set up a communication group in order to remain in contact.