Towards Sustainable Industrial Policy

Preface

IndustriALL Global Union represents 50 million workers worldwide in extractive, manufacturing and processing industries. The future sustainability of these industries, and of the planet we live on, depends on governments making strategic choices. Trade unions have a crucial role to play in working with governments and business to ensure that union goals of job creation, recognition of human rights and protection of the environment are respected in the process.

This is why IndustriALL is embarking on an ambitious program of working with its affiliates to develop and implement sustainable industrial policy. The aim of this paper is to stimulate discussion on sustainability by providing background on some of the key issues that need to be considered. IndustriALL meetings at global, regional, industry and company level will provide opportunities for affiliates to come together to build a common understanding on priorities for each sector or region and how to address them.

Together we can make a difference.

Jyrki Raina

General Secretary

What is Sustainable Industrial Policy?

Sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. That implies a healthy environment, a healthy economy, and a healthy society, built on sound foundations and maintained through good global governance.

An industrial policy is a plan to encourage desired patterns of industrial development and growth. It should strategically target specific industries and sectors, as well as consider broader needs such as transportation and communications infrastructure, education and skills training, research, and energy. A sustainable industrial policy must create a healthy economy and quality employment (decent, secure work that pays a living wage) while minimizing negative environmental impact and advancing the interests of society as a whole.

Sustainable industrial policy is not about creating conditions for companies to thrive at the expense of workers, society and the environment. It’s about creating conditions under which companies can operate in order to make a sustainable contribution to society.

Why do we need it?

The triple crisis

Our current path is unsustainable. We are facing crises on three fronts: environmental, economic and social. Climate change is a real and serious threat. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that to maintain global average warming below 2°C above pre-industrial levels (an amount of warming that will nevertheless have serious consequences) very significant actions need to be taken by 2015-2018. If the world delays to 2020, maintaining the 2° limit will require technologies that have not yet been developed, or are not yet proven. The longer action is delayed, the more likely that social standards and human rights will be sacrificed in a last minute panic to save the planet.

The degradation of our planet’s natural systems continues with reckless speed. Businesses have few solutions to offer. Too frequently, private interests actively try to prevent solutions from being found or implemented.

Global corporations act to maximize private control over resources, production, consumption and investment, while spreading the costs and risks of their activities over the rest of society. Their focus is on maximizing short-term profit, in full knowledge that this is unsustainable.

In the drive to generate ever-greater short-term profits, it has become more profitable to manipulate financial instruments than to actually make anything. Private equity buyouts promise phenomenal returns to investors by maximising the short-term extraction of cash from companies and loading them with debt at the expense of long-term productive investment, jobs and employment security.

The economic crisis resulted from policies that fuelled unbridled financial speculation and short-term profits at the expense of productive investment in the real economy. In countries most affected by the crisis, workers paid the price in massive job losses and rising unemployment. Citizens paid the price when taxpayers’ money was used to bail out the banks whose activities precipitated the crisis, and continue to pay as governments use the deficits caused by the bailouts to justify austerity measures.

The twin crises of the environment and the economy have created a third: a social crisis. Increasing disparities in wealth and income, reduced access to education, degraded population health (including occupational health) and attacks on health care, an explosion in precarious work, and vanishing opportunities, particularly for young people and traditionally disadvantaged groups, are all consequences of the failure to build a sustainable society.

Race to the bottom

Capital is no longer restricted to operating within national boundaries. Companies of all sizes and industries are inter-connected through global networks known as global value chains (GVCs). Multinational corporations (MNCs) have driven the development of GVCs by outsourcing parts or all of the production process.

Countries compete to be part of GVCs, often through narrow specialisation in labour-intensive, low skilled stages of production. Far from developing sustainable industrial policies, many governments rely on Export Processing Zones to attract foreign investment. Tax breaks and other incentives allow the wealth generated by production and labour to go directly into the coffers of the MNCs at the top of the chains, rather than into the hands of workers, or to contribute to the development of local industry.

The result is a global competition to drive down wages. Suppliers further down the chain are dependent on the price buyers above them are prepared to pay, negatively impacting the capacity of the parties to negotiate on wages and working hours and creating health and safety risks. Governments are allowing MNCs to dictate the conditions under which workers labour in their countries by demanding prices which do not reflect the true cost of labour, but which they are able to impose because of their dominant position in the chain.

We are witnessing the breaking down of the historical link between wages and productivity through, among other factors, the decline of collective bargaining as a mechanism to fairly distribute profits and the gains from productivity improvements. In their drive to maximise short-term profits, corporations seek productivity improvements via the low road of intensification of work, rather than through innovation. The enormous and unnecessarily complicated value chains of today’s MNCs have eroded respect for human rights. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights make it clear that corporations have responsibility for what happens in their value chains, but the size and complexity of the chains make it impossible for MNCs to know what is really going on within them.

What does it look like?

Promoting equity

Social sustainability begins with respect for fairness, equity, justice, human rights, and human cultures and communities. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the labour standards of the International Labour Organization articulate many of these values.

Sustainability must address inequality, not by competing on the lowest wages, but by promoting collective bargaining to ensure that productivity improvements benefit those that contribute to them, thus raising wages and in turn contributing to industrial and social stability, reducing inequality and driving demand for the products of industrial production.

Crucially, sustainable industrial policy involves the development of effective industrial relations to mediate between the competing interests of workers and capital.

Harnessing technology

Sustainable industrial policy involves developing strategies to encourage greener technologies that address problems like climate change, while creating large numbers of decent jobs. Technological development should benefit workers and make their jobs easier, leading to increased productivity. It should not be used to reduce work to limited, repetitive tasks which make work unfulfilling, de-skill workers and cause illnesses and injuries, nor to cut jobs.

Advancing labour standards

A sustainable industrial policy includes the effective implementation of labour standards. This includes promotion of collective bargaining, resources for labour inspection, promotion of dialogue between industry and trade unions and labour laws, which restrict precarious work. All international bodies concerned with development need to promote freedom of association and collective bargaining as enabling rights, to make sure that the gains are passed onto workers.

Moreover, a sustainable industrial policy must be underpinned by social protection policies addressing unemployment, retirement and health care, to which industry must be required to contribute.

Building sustainable industry in a globalised world

Participation in global value chains must be about employment and quality of employment, not just driving increased profits for MNCs. Governments need to create industrial policies which lead to a more equitable distribution of the benefits of participation in GVCs towards workers and society and reinvestment in research and development and skills. We need integrated industrial development strategies, linked to the sustainable development of local industries as opposed to the enclave approach of EPZs.

Government policies should aim at encouraging higher level participation in value chains to capture more of the value added, thus strengthening the position of local companies and leading to increased wages, better working conditions and higher skill levels. But these benefits do not flow automatically. Collective bargaining must be promoted as the means to ensuring that workers also benefit from a higher level of participation in GVCs.

Just Transition

Knowing that our present-day systems are failing, the labour movement seeks to create a better, fairer society. There will necessarily be a transition period in getting to where we want to be, from where we are now. It is not sufficient that many new, greener, jobs will be created during that transition. The transition must consider the needs of present-day workers in present-day industries, as well as the potential to create newer, greener jobs in our journey to a sustainable future. This is a “Just Transition”: a complete package of sustainable industrial policies and social programs that will allow workers to benefit from change, rather than bear its costs.

How can it be implemented?

Strengthening the role of government

The free market cannot create sustainable development. There is no automatic link between economic growth and improved living standards. Per capita GDP can increase, while inequality worsens, and the environment is degraded. Government intervention is needed to rebalance the distribution of the benefits of economic activity.

As the only institutions that can stand against corporate greed, governments must create public policy that is genuinely in the public interest; backed by a strong and enforceable legislative and regulatory framework.

But the rise of free-market ideology has seen the decline of industrial policy-making by governments. State intervention to shape the direction of industrial development is challenged as protectionism and an illegitimate constraint on capital. Trade rules and agreements restrict government capacity to legislate environmental and social protections in the interests of their own citizens. Investor-state dispute settlement provisions in international trade agreements allow corporations to sue governments when legislation conflicts with their investment goals.

There needs to be a rebalancing of the power to dictate the terms of industrial development, away from MNCs and back to democratically-elected governments. Industrial policy needs to be revived, in order to correct for market failures through state intervention.

Inclusive policies

Sustainable industrial policy development requires an integrated approach which ensures policy coherence between the different arms of government, including departments of labour, the environment, industry, trade, research and energy. Similarly there must be policy coherence between and within the global institutions – the WTO, IMF, World Bank, ILO, UN, OECD – so that governments do not receive conflicting messages, particularly on labour market deregulation.

Unions must be part of industrial policy formulation and have an equal seat at the table with industry. The transformation of industry cannot happen without the active participation of workers.

Establish targets

Sustainable industrial policy needs targets in areas such as employment, R&D, energy efficiency, carbon emissions, reducing inequality, observance of labour standards, active labour market policies focussed on employment creation, retraining and re-employment of redundant workers, youth skills development. It should be guided by the development of both qualitative and quantitative indicators which are measured and analysed with the involvement of the social partners: business and trade unions.

Who is going to pay for it?

Financing for sustainable industrial policy

Global corporate profits have reached unprecedented levels. Shareholder dividends have increased at the expense of investment, jobs and social protection. Instead of profits being reinvested in R&D and innovation, they are directed towards speculation and rent-seeking. Shareholders are privileged through financialisation of corporate investment to deliver maximum short term financial returns.

Government action is needed to drive companies towards re-investing in development. Equally, companies need to be protected from destructive private equity buyouts. Governments must (re-) establish a regulatory environment which promotes productive investment. Legislative changes that have opened the doors to private equity buy-outs must be reversed. Preference should be given to investment in venture capital funds which focus on longer-term development and can thus contribute to job creation. External costs should be internalised so that companies are liable for the true costs of their business, not society. Governments should steer behaviour towards sustainable practices, for example through the creation of incentives and public procurement.

Thanks to corporate exploitation of tax loopholes and tax havens, governments are missing out on enormous amounts of tax revenue which could otherwise be used to support local industrial development and the public infrastructure that it needs. Regulation is needed to close the loopholes as well as action by global institutions to chase down missing tax revenue.

The financial sector must be put to the service of the real economy. Sustainable industrial policy needs to improve access to private sector financing for the transition to sustainable production as part of the reregulation of the financial sector.

The introduction of a Financial Transactions Tax would have the benefits of restraining the excesses of the financial sector, helping to stabilize currencies and raising a great deal of money that could be used to address climate change and other global issues.

What can IndustriALL do?

IndustriALL, representing 50 million workers in both energy producing and energy consuming industries, has a critical role to play in calling for sustainable industrial policy. The industries where IndustriALL’s members work create value through the transformation of extracted natural resources into products, through manufacturing and processing. How this is done can have significant positive or negative impacts on sustainability.

Every industrial sector and every region has its own particular challenges and concerns, with considerable variation between and within them. Sustainability can only be achieved when each of those challenges and concerns is dealt with in a consensus-seeking, integrative fashion that attempts to balance the environmental, economic and social imperatives of sustainability.

The IndustriALL Action Plan calls for strong industrial policies that recognise manufacturing as a key engine of growth for national economies. Yet well-paid, secure industrial jobs, which have traditionally been drivers of social progress, are in decline, thanks in part to global competition to drive down wages and the spread of precarious forms of employment. Many countries still have no industrial policy to speak of, let alone one that incorporates sustainability.

IndustriALL has a responsibility, reflected in its Action Plan, to:

The way forward

Significant work has already done by IndustriALL’s founding organizations, which each have a long tradition of work on sustainable development. This earlier work created the space for IndustriALL’s affiliated trade unions to speak up for a fair, ambitious and legally-binding global agreement on greenhouse gases.

Now there is a real – and urgent – need for IndustriALL to look at resource extraction, processing, manufacturing and energy through the lens of sustainability to develop a coherent and sustainable industrial policy at the international level, and to assist its affiliates in their work at the national and regional levels.

To this end, IndustriALL is developing a framework for sustainable industrial policy to be endorsed by affiliates and widely promoted as a basis for influencing governments, the global institutions and MNCs. This will involve building on our alliances with other labour organizations and with broader social movements.

All affiliates are encouraged to get involved in shaping IndustriALL’s approach to sustainable industrial policy, to maximise the impact we can make towards reorientating the global economy towards a sustainable future.

Asbestos is a killer

It’s still around. Roofs, walls, cars’ brake linings, floor tiles, kitchen stoves or industrial furnaces may still contain asbestos.

Asbestos remains a popular material in the developing world.

ASBESTOS IS A KILLER

And no one knows that better than trade unions.

We have become – and not by choice – authorities on asbestos and the havoc it has created in workplaces and among families.

The sad reality is that our files are replete with the tragic stories of members and their families who have suffered horrific illness and death as a result of workplace exposure to asbestos.

It was largely due to the efforts of unions representing those who suffered that regulations controlling the use of and exposure to asbestos were finally enacted in many countries.

Unfortunately, a global ban on asbestos has yet to be achieved. Asbestos is still around and there are those who continue to tout it as the “magic mineral.” In developing countries, it continues to be popular to make many products, most notably fibre-reinforced cement sheeting. In all countries, asbestos exposure continues to be a danger because of its long history of use: not only cement products but in hundreds of other uses such as brake linings, floor tiles, insulation and fireproofing. Weak regulation and enforcement allows people to continue to be fatally exposed to the killer fibres.

There are many lessons to be learned by union activists from the decades of battle waged to protect ourselves and the public from asbestos hazards:

If you think there is asbestos in your workplace:

Demand an immediate workplace asbestos survey. Your Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) should lead the effort to identify and map all occurrences of asbestos and should be given all resources required to do the job.

Once the asbestos has been identified, the JHSC should develop recommendations to control exposure. There are four generally accepted approaches. In order of preference, they are:

  1. REMOVAL OF THE ASBESTOS MATERIAL In all cases, this is the recommended solution. It is the only way to ensure that the hazard is eliminated. Strict procedures for removal must be followed and enforced to prevent additional exposure. This calls for careful planning and attention to the training of all workers and supervisors as well as to the choice of replacement materials.
  2. ENCAPSULATION OR SEALING OF THE ASBESTOS MATERIAL Coating or impregnating the asbestos material with a bonding agent immobilizes the fibres and reduces their release. Danger still exists, however, because the bonding material will deteriorate with time, and work (cutting, grinding, repairs, etc.) may be performed on the material, creating the potential of fibres being released. Encapsulation should be considered a temporary measure with the objective of removing the asbestos material at some appropriate future date.
  3. ENCLOSURE OF THE ASBESTOS MATERIAL If neither removal nor encapsulation is possible within a reasonable time, the next best approach is to separate the asbestos material from the rest of the workplace by some kind of fixed barrier (removable ceilings or walls are not acceptable). Enclosure is not a control measure and should be accepted only as a temporary means of protecting workers until removal can be completed.
  4. ASBESTOS MANAGEMENT PLAN If materials cannot immediately be removed completely and safely, a management plan is required. If any asbestos materials remain in the workplace, even if encapsulated or enclosed, an ongoing system is needed to:

There will be a day of reckoning for them. I don’t know when it is but I hope it’s as hard and hurts as much as it does for me…

            – Blayne Kinart

I last saw Blayne Kinart alive around 2000. He was then a strong and fit-looking 54-year old. He had been  a chemical worker, an industrial millwright and a union activist. I had known him for several years as we both worked in Sarnia’s chemical valley and were involved with the (then) Energy and Chemical Workers’ Union (ECWU), which later merged into the CEP, which in turn became Unifor.

It was in 2002 that Blayne was diagnosed with mesothelioma. He died painfully on 6 July, 2004.

Blayne had worked for Welland Chemical, a producer of anhydrous aluminum chloride and sodium hypochlorite on land near Sarnia, Canada. The plant site was entirely surrounded by the lands of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation. Aluminum chloride was produced there by the direct reaction of molten aluminum with chlorine gas, for use mainly as a catalyst in other petrochemical processes. Welland, associated with the W.R. Grace and Company, abandoned operations in Sarnia in 1998 during a labour dispute that dragged on for over four years. The site was seized by the city of Sarnia for unpaid taxes.

Although many toxic effects can be attributed to the products and by-products of Welland Chemical, it was the asbestos insulation used on and around the aluminum furnace and process equipment that killed Blayne. We know this because mesothelioma, a cancer of the linings of the lungs, is a very specific form of cancer that is only known to be caused by asbestos.

As his body wasted away and death approached, Blayne allowed himself to be photographed so that the world could see what asbestos had done to him.

– Brian Kohler

What is Asbestos?

Asbestos is a class of silicate mineral fibre. There are three main asbestos minerals: chrysotile, crocidolite, and amosite. These are sometimes referred to as white, blue, and grey or brown asbestos, respectively.

The most common type used today is chrysotile. Formerly, crocidolite was also widely used. Amosite was used less commonly and occurs today mainly in old products and materials. Other varieties of asbestos exist that were not generally used in industry but may exist as contaminants in some products; an example of this is tremolite which may contaminate vermiculite and talcum powder.

Because of their chemical structure, they form long crystalline fibres of amazing strength and fire resistance which can be recovered from the mineral.

Most commonly, asbestos is used in textiles, cement products, brake linings, filters, roofing tiles, flooring, fillers for plastics and thousands of other products.

A watch list of asbestos related issues

There are a multitude of environmental and health related issues surrounding the use of asbestos in society.

Despite advances in health and safety standards on many fronts, asbestos is still in use. The first published article linking asbestos to disease came out in about 1906. No other cause of occupational disease has been as extensively studied, yet the industry remains. The art of denying scientific evidence and creating doubt in the public mind was perfected by the asbestos industry; and the tactics have been used by other industries wishing to avoid liability for their actions or products.

It is useful for health and safety activists to keep alert on the dangers inherent with the use of asbestos and to keep the focus where it should be: saving our members’ livelihoods and lives.

With that in mind, here is an overview of the issues at stake today:

EXPOSURE LIMITS Even though there is no evidence that there is any safe level of exposure, most jurisdictions have enacted limits. Check with the authorities in your jurisdiction on what applies in your workplace. When working with or near asbestos, workers need to assure themselves that exposure limits are not being exceeded; that protective measures are adequate (respirators, clothing, etc.); and, that you are not endangering yourself. Unions have made the right to refuse unsafe work one of the fundamental health and safety demands.

SMOKING AND ASBESTOS An asbestos workers who smokes will have many times the risk of cancer than a non-smoking asbestos worker or a non-asbestos exposed smoker would have. But attempts to deflect the dangers of asbestos by blaming high cancer rates on smoking are irresponsible. The fact is that asbestos workers who have never smoked in their lives can also die of asbestos related cancers.

BLUE vs WHITE There has been some suggestion that only blue (crocidolite) asbestos is a problem and that white (chrysotile) asbestos is relatively safe. If true, why is asbestos related disease so widespread when crocidolite accounts for only 3 per cent of all asbestos used? In fact, the difference in working conditions for miners in countries where crocidolite was mined, probably accounts for the different mortality rates observed.

IMMOBILIZED FIBRES Particularly for asbestos-cement products, industry makes the argument that the fibres are immobilized or bound together in such a way that they cannot be released. But, there are workers who must handle these fibres prior to their incorporation into such products and others who must saw, cut or fasten them in such a way that the fibres may be released.

FIBRE MODIFICATION There is no evidence that chemically modifying asbestos fibres renders them safer, and the only way to find out we are wrong is to wait decades for workers to die or get sick.

SUBSTITUTE PRODUCTS Fibreglass and other synthetic mineral fibres are the main asbestos substitutes for insulation and fireproofing. While it may be true that they are safer to work with than asbestos, the best approach for workers is to treat asbestos substitutes with suspicion and handle them with caution. The more similar the substitute is to asbestos, the more likely it is to have similar health effects. Cellulose fibres have been found to be an effective and safer susbstitute for asbestos in cement products.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES Asbestos provides a good example of the linkage between occupational and environmental health and safety. Widespread environmental contamination with asbestos in asbestos producing region and near industries which use asbestos may be causing a “cancer epidemic in slow motion.”

JUST TRANSITION Regrettably, the money already spent by governments propping up this sunset industry could have been used to create a first class Just Transition programme for asbestos workers, their families and the communities that have depended on the asbestos industry. Instead, producer countries have chosen to remain the last defenders of the indefensible.

HOW ASBESTOS KILLS

Asbestosis is one disease caused by asbestos in the lungs.

Some scientists think that when asbestos fibres are inhaled, cells called macrophages attempt to engulf and digest them. The fibres are not easily dissolved by the digestive enzymes, however – although certain harmful chemical constituents of asbestos may be dissolved enough to be a problem in themselves.

As well, the size and shape of asbestos fibres causes some of them to project through the cell wall of the macrophages, allowing these powerful enzymes to leak out and attack surrounding lung tissue.

The end result is progressive scarring and damage to the lungs, resulting in loss of elasticity of the lung tissue.

Damage can become severe enough to cause disability and death.

Cancer is another consequence of asbestos exposure. Estimates of the number of cancer cases vary widely but one estimate is that up to 5 per cent of all cancer deaths in in any given year could be attributable to asbestos.

Of the cancers that asbestos is known to cause, 80 per cent are lung cancers; 10 per cent are mesotheliomas; and 10 per cent are others such as throat, stomach and intestinal.

Although some asbestos cancers are difficult or impossible to distinguish from cancers caused by other agents; mesothelioma ( cancer of the lining of the lungs or intenstines) is ONLY known to be caused in humans by asbestos. Mesothelioma is 100 per cent fatal.

Don’t take your rights to the grave

Most jurisdictions have regulations governing asbestos removal. In general, they describe how to:

  1. Prepare the work and isolate the area where removal will take place
  2. Protect the workers
  3. Minimize the accidental release of asbestos
  4. Decontaminate the area and complete the work

If there is any doubt about whether the work is proceeding safely or not, remember that the regulations are a minimum standard. Compliance with regulations may not be sufficient in some cases.

Remember that in many jurisdictions, by law or by collective agreement, workers have the right (and in some cases the duty) to refuse unsafe work. If this applies to you, and you believe that the work puts you or fellow workers at risk – don’t do it. Don’t take your rights to the grave!

Peaceful Indonesian packaging workers smashed by police

The workers were calling for PT Indofood CKA to pay the new minimum wage level passed by the local Purwakarta government in December 2013, an increase of US$39 per month.

Other confrontations and intimidation had occurred throughout June, but on 2 July the level of brutality was dramatically stepped up. The attached photos illustrate the serious injuries sustained by 20 workers from indiscriminate kicking, hitting, stone throwing, and the firing of tear gas canisters directly at them. Police also damaged and stole parts of the workers’ motorbikes that they use to get to work, and arrested six workers.

IndustriALL’s proud Indonesian trade union affiliate FSPMI is calling for protest letters to be sent to the heads of the Indonesian government and police. 539 of the total 890 PT Indofood CKA workforce are FSPMI members. Use the attached solidarity machine to write to those figures. Condemn the police brutality, demand the release of the six detained workers, demand worker compensation for their damaged motorbikes, and an end to the violence.

IndustriALL general secretary Jyrki Raina wrote to the Indonesian authorities:

This treatment of workers exercising their inalienable right to organize and bargain collectively shows the worse possible image of Indonesia to the world. You must use your influence to rectify this unacceptable situation and heal the wounds made by your police’s violence.

PT Indofood CBP Makmur Tbk, located in the capital Jakarta, produces numerous popular, market leading food products in Indonesia. The packaging workers’ plant is one of four large facilities in South-Central Jakarta, owned by Indonesian state fugitive Liem Swie Liong.

Regardless of the excellent profitability of the company, FSMPI members were forced to strike from 11 March following four months of management refusing to discuss increasing their poverty wages. Now the striking workers have been attacked by the Brimob Brigade that is normally reserved for terrorists.

In December 2013, the employer dismissed 450 workers requesting a change in their employment status from precarious contract to permanent workers.

UAW forms local union in VW Chattanooga plant vicinity

It is the first time that UAW has set up a local union branch specifically to represent workers in a single workplace.

UAW said the new Local 42, which is organized by Volkswagen employees, will give workers a voice at the plant through the German company’s works council approach to employee engagement.

Gary Casteel, UAW’s secretary-treasurer, said:

“We’ve had ongoing discussions with Volkswagen and have arrived at a consensus with the company. Upon Local 42 signing up a meaningful portion of Volkswagen’s Chattanooga workforce, we’re confident the company will recognize Local 42 by dealing with it as a members’ union that represents those employees who join the local. As part of this consensus, the UAW is committed to continuing its joint efforts with Volkswagen to ensure the company’s expansion and growth in Chattanooga.”

The Tennessee plant is the only Volkswagen manufacturing unit in the world which is not unionized.  

IndustriALL’s general secretary, Jyrki Raina, said:

We applaud the initiative from UAW to set up a local union branch as well as Volkswagen’s close cooperation with the union. It is high time for real freedom of association in the South of the United States, so that workers can freely join a union of their choice, without interference or intimidation.

In February 2014, UAW failed to gain the majority they needed to set up a works council within the Chattanooga plant by just 626 votes to 712. The election process was widely condemned for outside interference after an aggressive opposition campaign led by Republican politicians and anti-union groups, involving threats and intimidation.  

The State’s lawmakers threatened to withhold State economic incentives for the plant if it were unionized. Furthermore, in the lead up to the election Republican Senator Bob Corker wrongly claimed that Volkswagen would only produce a new SUV at the Chattanooga plant if the UAW failed to get union representation, which the car manufacturer vehemently denied.

UAW has now renewed requests for the State of Tennessee to extend the economic incentives so Volkswagen could add a new product line at the plant.

“State officials have assured the public and the Volkswagen workforce that the decision on incentives for Chattanooga is not related to whether workers exercise their right to join a union,” said Ray Curry, director of UAW Region 8.

The Local 42 is a big step forward in the efforts to organize more plants in the United States, particularly the South. IndustriALL is now working with affiliates to create local union branches for workers at other non-unionized companies in the country.

Inditex

The ground-breaking agreement between IndustriALL Global Union and Inditex, which was renewed in 2014, is the first of its kind to cover a retail supply chain.  

It underlines that freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively play a central role in a sustainable supply chain because they provide workers with the mechanisms to monitor and enforce their rights at work. 

Under the GFA, which was originally signed with IndustriALL's predecessor the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation in 2007, Inditex recognizes IndustriALL as its global trade union counterpart. Both parties undertake to collaborate to ensure the sustainable and long-term observance of all international labour standards across Inditex's operations, including its suppliers. 

Inditex’s Code of Conduct for External Manufacturers and Suppliers underpins the agreement which outlaws forced labour, child labour, discrimination and harsh and inhumane treatment throughout the Inditex supply chain. It provides for the payment of a living wage for a standard workweek, limitations on working hours, healthy and safe workplaces, regular employment and environmental awareness. The terms of the agreement apply equally to direct suppliers, contractors and sub-contractors including homeworkers. No subcontracting is allowed without the prior written consent of Inditex and suppliers allowed to subcontract will be responsible for subcontractor compliance.

Recognizing the role of organized labour and collective bargaining, Inditex and IndustriALL will keep constantly under review developments in this area in the Inditex supply chain and will co-operate in finding solutions where problems are detected, including collaborating on training programmes for management and workers.

To facilitate this ongoing review Inditex will provide IndustriALL with relevant information on its supply chain and both Inditex and IndustriALL will jointly develop training policies and programmes to drive compliance.

The application of the agreement will be reviewed annually by a six person group drawn jointly from Inditex and IndustriALL. 

Support for UNITE glass workers on strike in North East England

The 112 Unite members are at two sites, Kingsway and 7th Avenue on the Team Valley Industrial Estate in North East England. The company makes laminated and toughened glass for bus windows and windscreens, as well as bulletproof items.

Negotiations failed in talks through the UK conciliation service Acas on 26 June. Cost of living increases for the workers mean that workers need more than the “paltry” offer that the company is refusing to increase, or change the “strings attached” that make the offer self-funding for the workers.

The two-week strike action started on 30 June and will run until next Monday, 14 July. This follows a seven day strike from 16 June. 

Unite’s regional officer Bob Bolam stated:

Our members are taking strike action as a last resort over this paltry offer. They believe that this profitable company could well afford to be more generous… The Tyneside Safety Glass claim that it is cash-strapped has a very hollow ring as it had oodles of cash to give to one of its directors and also to generously top up the owner’s trust fund.

You can support the strikers by sending messages of solidarity to Unite regional officer Bob Bolam.

Nigerian abducted schoolgirls must not be forgotten

Militant Islamic group, Boko Haram, seized 270 girls from their school in the north-eastern Nigerian state of Borno almost three months ago. While some girls have managed to escape, more than 200 remain captured.

The resolution, passed in June at IndustriALL’s Executive Committee meeting in Geneva, calls on the Nigerian government and girls’ captors to speedily ensure that all the girls are safely returned to their homes, unharmed.

Boko Haram has threatened to sell the girls as slaves or marry them off as child brides unless the government releases all imprisoned militants. 

The resolution, put forward by IndustriALL’s Women’s Committee, underlines that the girl-child suffers most in conflicts around the world and urges the Nigerian government to take measures to prevent further abductions from occurring.  

The Executive Committee pledged its solidarity with the girls, their parents and their communities.

IndustriALL has also written to Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva to convey the demands to the government.

Resolution on Nigeria and the schoolgirls captured by Boko Haram

Noting that women and children all over the world are the worst victims of economic, social, political, cultural and religion inspired violence;

Recognizing that the girl-child suffers the most in conflict situations around the world;

Fully committed to and supportive of the global call for the release of the more than 270 girls captured in north-east Nigeria on 14th April 2014, we the delegates to this IndustriALL Conference call upon the Nigerian government and the captors of the girls to speedily ensure that the girls are all safely returned to their homes, unharmed.

We pledge our solidarity with the girls, their parents and their communities.

We furthermore demand that measures be taken to prevent further abductions from happening.

25th June 2014

(Resolution sponsored by Women committee.)

IndustriALL flags labour violation in iPhone 6 production

Trade unions in a number of countries marked an international day of action on 2 July calling for reinstatement of the NXP 24. First Union in New Zealand kicked off the day and was followed by actions particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. The NXP workers being vindictively attacked by their local management are members of the Philippine metalworkers union, affiliated to IndustriALL, MWAP.

Included in the sacked 24 trade unionists is national MWAP union president Reden Alcantara.

IndustriALL Global Union general secretary Jyrki Raina explained in his 8 July letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook:

The malicious union-busting by NXP management in Cabuyao, Laguna, Philippines casts a dark shadow over the upcoming iPhone 6. Consumers will be disappointed to learn that at this key stage in the production of the iPhone 6 workers are denied their fundamental rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. If Apple does not urgently act to fix this problem, the sacking of 24 trade union activists under fraudulent pretenses to punish workers for organizing will not only constitute a bad breach of international instruments ILO Conventions 87 and 98, it will send the clearest signal of Apple’s attitude towards the workers in the developing world who make their products.  

We expect an urgent and effective intervention from Apple to fix this problem at NXP Philippines so that you continue to source from this facility while ensuring it complies with your supplier responsibility guidelines. We know that NXPSCI supplies a number of well-known brands, and expect Apple to lead the response in reaching a solution.

The local NXP subsidiary in question is NXP Semiconductors Cabuyao Incorporated (NXPSCI). Located in one of the Philippines’ special economic zones, notorious for hostility towards unions and high levels of outsourcing, NXPSCI employs around 5,000 workers.

The NXPSCI workers’ union attempted to conduct good faith collective bargaining with management to renew the existing CBA from December 2013. The two priorities of the union bargaining unit was to increase the low wages by 8 percent, and to regularize the precariously employed contract workers at the plant, some of whom have been working on rolling contracts for over two years.

To bust the union and block the demand for increased salaries, local management sacked 24 leading trade unionists on 5 May on the sham charges of not reporting to work on 9, 17 and 19 April and 1 May. The 9, 17 and 19 April are all national holidays in the Philippines, and 1 May is Labour Day which the existing CBA stipulates union members can take off work to mark the day. The NXPSCI work rules say that management can request employees to work on holiday days at double salary, however no request was made to work on these days in April and May. The 24 trade union leaders’ absence from work was labeled by management as an illegal strike.

A list of further aggressive tactics has been employed by the management to force through a new CBA on their terms and to completely bust the union.

Over 8,000 supporters have signed up to the online campaign run by IndustriALL, MWAP and LabourStart since the dismissals.

NXP has a history of gross labour rights violations, including during a lockout by NXP of workers in Thailand last year. NXP is now also in dispute with IndustriALL affiliate ROCMU over non-payment of a bonus at its facility in Taiwan.    

While IndustriALL is currently challenging Samsung for its labour violations in Korea, Apple is Samsung’s main competitor. IndustriALL expects both market leading electronics brands to ensure minimum international labour standards throughout their supply chains, and treat the workers that make their products with respect.

IndustriALL renews agreement with world’s largest fashion retailer

In a ceremony with Gilbert Houngbo, Deputy Director-General for Field Operations & Partnerships at the International Labour Organization (ILO), IndustriALL’s general secretary Jyrki Raina met with Pablo Isla, Chairman and CEO of Inditex, to sign the renewed Agreement at the ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

A GFA serves to protect the interests of workers across the global operations of multinational companies, even those not directly working for the company, setting the best standards for trade union rights, health and safety, and environmental practices.

The GFA with Spanish-based Inditex covers its entire supply chain, involving a million garment workers in around 6,000 supplier factories making clothes for the company’s eight different brands, including Zara, Pull&Bear and Massimo Dutti.

Jyrki Raina stated:

“The GFA with Inditex is a model of mature industrial relations with a multinational corporation. In promoting trade union values, the GFA empowers workers and improves lives, allowing even the most vulnerable people at the bottom of Inditex’s supply chain to be heard and protected. Essentially, with the GFA, Inditex underlines that unions are good for business and necessary partners in creating a fair and sustainable supply chain. We look forward to continuing our successful relationship with Inditex well into the future.”

Pablo Isla stated:

“The collaboration between Inditex and IndustriALL has proven one of the most effective working tools in terms of identifying and prioritizing lines of initiative that deliver continual improvements in the supply chain. Moreover, signature of this agreement under the auspices of the ILO foreshadows a future of tireless dedication to enhancing living and working conditions in our sector.”

Gilbert Houngbo said:

"The ILO welcomes the renewal of the Global Framework Agreement between IndustriALL Global Union and Inditex. This is a positive step towards improving workers' rights and working conditions in the garment industry. It is also a good example of how the strong commitment of workers and employers working together can be turned into action.”

Over the past seven years, the GFA with Inditex has operated as a direct line of communication between the workers and the company, helping to resolve disputes rapidly as well as promote freedom of association, unionization, and raise salaries.

As a direct result of the GFA, the concept of a living wage was introduced into Inditex’s Code of Conduct*.

The initial GFA with Inditex was the first to be signed by a global retailer and was made with IndustriALL’s predecessor the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation in 2007 before it merged with other federations to become IndustriALL Global Union.

Also present at the ILO ceremony were Isidor Boix Lluch, IndustriALL’s Coordinator of the GFA; and trade unionists Agustín Martín Martínez, General Secretary, CC.OO. de Industria, Spain; Antonio Deusa Pedrazo, General Secretary, FITAG-UGT, Spain; and Victor Garrido Sotomayor, from CC.OO de Industria, Spain.

Ends

*The GFA reads: “Wages should always be enough to meet at least the basic needs of workers and their families and any other which might be considered as reasonable additional needs.”

Facts:

For more information, please contact:

Leonie Guguen, Communications Officer, IndustriALL Global Union

[email protected] 

Tel: 00 41 (0) 22 308 50 23

IndustriALL condemns ‘debt vultures’ preying on Argentine economy

At the Executive Committee meeting in Geneva in June, Francisco Gutierrez, International Secretary of the Unión Obrera Metalúrgica (UOM) drew attention to the impact of a landmark US court ruling in Argentina’s 12-year legal battle against global debt speculators.

Speaking on behalf of the Argentine National Council of IndustriALL affiliates, Gutierrez warned that the ruling could have profound consequences not only for jobs and the economy in Argentina, but also for the global financial system and for other struggling nations who could in future find it more difficult to restructure their national debt.

The current crisis has its roots in 2001 when, after an economic collapse that caused years of mass unemployment and widespread poverty, Argentina defaulted on its national debt. The debt had to a large extent been run up in previous years by the former military dictatorship and by financial speculators.

During the next ten years, Argentina reached an agreement with 92% of its lenders to restructure its debt. The default provided Argentina much needed relief and led to rapid growth and development. By the end of 2011, the country had achieved record employment, invested in education and infrastructure, and reduced poverty by nearly 70 percent.

However, a small minority of hedge fund investors who had bought debt bonds at fire-sale prices after the default refused to reach an agreement and instead pursued legal action for full repayment plus interest. In 2005 the Argentine Congress passed a law banning repayments to the holdout creditors.

Now a US federal judge has ordered Argentina to repay the hedge funds. What’s more, the ruling also makes it illegal for Argentina to pay its other creditors unless it also pays the ‘vultures’, and requires US financial institutions to provide information about the Argentina’s assets worldwide.

The IndustriALL Executive Committee expressed its full support for Argentina in its struggle to promote sustainable economic development in the face of attacks from avaricious investors.