IndustriALL mourns Lito

Lito was ex-general secretary of IndustriALL affiliate, the Metal, Construction and Allied Workers' Federation (MCA-UGT), and a former member of the global Executive Committee of the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF).

IndustriALL’s general secretary, Jyrki Raina, says:

“Lito forged an exceptionally long career as a trade union leader. In his actions and his thoughtful and appreciated interventions at IMF’s Executive Committee, he demonstrated a deep sense of international solidarity and a special love for Latin America where countries were developing from dictatorships to democracies, with a need for strong trade unions as important democratic pillars of the new societies.”

Lito worked in ArcelorMittal (former Ensidesa) and began his union career as Secretary for Organizational issues in UGT of the Veriña factory (Asturias).

He continued this responsibility at local level in UGT Gijón and UGT Asturias, where he was general secretary for ten years.

In 1988, he was elected general secretary for the Federal Metalworkers of UGT, and reelected in 1990, 1994 and 1996.

After UGT merged with the Construction, Wood and Allied Federation, he was elected general secretary of MCA-UGT, and again reelected until the 26th Federal Congress in Burgos in 2013, when he was voted in as MCA-UGT president.

Lito was also vice president of the Metalworkers’ European Federation (EMF), which later became IndustriALL Europe and vice president of the IMF which merged to become IndustriALL Global Union.

A Board member at Aceralia, Arcelor and Arcelor Mittal, he was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Asturian Socialist Federation and PSOE regional deputy for Asturias for two terms in office and member of the PSOE Federal Committee.

Lito passed away on 27 June 2014 in Oviedo, in his home region of Asturias, Spain. He was 67 years old. 

Namibian tannery workers strike

Workers are ready to accept the wage increase negotiated between their employer and IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, Manwu, but have stood fast on their demand for transport, voting to go on an indefinite strike after coming to a deadlock on the matter.

The impact of rising transport costs are often overlooked and increasingly low waged workers opt to walk to work in order to not incur these costs. This increases their daily calorie intake requirements which are often not met, thus workers are going hungry.

“Some workers have to walk very long distances to work, up to five kilometres each way every day and what is worse is that they are often victims of crime, being an easy target for robbers,” said Justina Jonas, General Secretary of Manwu. “This time workers felt that they could not compromise on their need for transport.”

Jonas also raised concerns on health and safety at the tannery, saying that the health consequences of long term exposure to chemicals and the lack of protective gear needed to be addressed.

In a letter to Nakara’s Managing Director, Kevin Davidow, IndustriALL's general secretary, Jyrki Raina, said:

We urge you to take seriously the demands of workers for company provided transport to and from work in the interest of their security and well-being. We also call upon you to work with MANWU to address the concerns of your employees including making improvements to health and safety standards at your tannery.

The company has brought in scab labour despite workers being on a legal strike since 28 June 2014. Manwu has applied for a court interdict to prevent this. Nakara was the Africa regional winner in 2011 of the ‘Tannery of the Year’, an awards programme for the global tanning industry, for amongst other things, its commitment to its workers.

US withdraws Swaziland’s preferential trade status

US President Obama announced on June 26 2014 the termination of Swaziland as a beneficiary country of the AGOA, effective from 1 January 2015. The loss of AGOA eligibility will affect duty-free access of Swaziland’s garment exports to the US, worth USD50 million in 2013. 

“The US required that Swaziland address five recommendations, which were reasonable and in fact lenient, but the government failed to act” explains Wonder Mkhonza, General Secretary of Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland (Atuswa). Amongst these recommendations was respect for freedom of association and freedom of assembly.

Amongst key concerns is the 2012 deregistration of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (Tucoswa) and international pressure, including attempts by the ILO to ensure that the Swaziland government recognizes the federation, have thus far failed.  Atuswa, formed through the merger in September 2013 of a number of unions, including three IndustriALL Global Union affiliates, in sectors including manufacturing, metal and mining, also remains unregistered.

Trade union activities are often disrupted by the police. Trade union leaders are subjected to harassment and live with the threat of arrest and detention when going about their work. The recent conviction of a trade union leader and the imprisonment of a union lawyer for criticizing the lack of an independent judiciary the in Swaziland, are further indicators that the situation is worsening in Swaziland. An ILO fact finding mission in January 2014 found that no progress was made in the past decade.

In May 2014, prior to the deadline to meet the eligibility requirements, Atuswa led a march of about 400 garment workers to hand over a petition to the Swazi Prime Minister. “We petitioned the government to address the five recommendations so that Swaziland would keep its trading status with the US and save jobs, but up to today government has not responded to our petition.” said Mkhonza. 

The US will review Swaziland’s AGOA eligibility again in December 2014, thus the Swaziland government does have a window, albeit a small one, to assume its responsibility now to respect workers’ rights and regain preferential trade status.  

Massive Numsa strike begins in South Africa

“This was not an easy decision, but a painful one,” reads a Numsa statement from the National Executive Committee meeting  last week. “It has never been in our agenda to call a strike; this strike has been imposed on us. Ours is to use the strike as part of a tactic to exert organizational pressure on the bosses, to return to the table and present an offer acceptable to our members.”

Numsa declared a dispute at the end of May after two months of negotiations with the employer bodies, under the auspices of the Metal and Engineering Bargaining Council (MEIBC), failed to achieve an agreement. Workers initially demanded a 15 per cent wage increase but had reduced it to 12 per cent when the dispute was declared. The 220,000 Numsa members on strike represent around half of all workers in the sectors.

Numsa is also demanding that the bargaining agreement with MEIBC covers one year and not a three year period as has been the practice in the past. The union wants employers to agree to scrap the use of labour brokers, and remove the short time and layoff clauses from the main agreement. 

EU and US choose corporations over human rights

The resolution, presented by Ecuador and South Africa and adopted on 26 June, establishes an intergovernmental working group with the mandate of developing binding norms on the human rights responsibilities of MNCs. The vote was 20 for, 14 against and 13 abstentions in the 47-member UNHRC. The United States and EU members, including France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Austria, and the Czech Republic, together with South Korea and Japan, voted against the resolution which was supported by China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan, Philippines and Algeria, amongst others, setting the  stage for a major battle between developing countries and industrialised countries with powerful MNC interests.

Developing an international system to regulate corporations for their human rights violations has been attempted twice before. The first effort , begun in 1972,  ended in 1992 when  some counties opposed a ratification requirement of the code for it to be applied in domestic law.

The second effort began in 1998 when a working group was established to examine the effects of transnational corporations on human rights and to draft norms for a monitoring mechanism that would apply sanctions to MNCs. In 2003 these norms, designed as a 'non-voluntary' international system of regulation for corporate violations of human rights, were sent to the Commission for Human Rights for their approval.  The norms were broadly supported by civil society, but rigidly opposed by some from the business sector and in 2004 the Commission on Human Rights declared them to have 'no legal standing'.

However, the gaping hole in human rights redress for those affected by the operations of multinationals could not be ignored and in 2008 the UNHRC adopted the Respect, Protect and Remedy Framework developed by  Professor John Ruggie which was operationalized in 2011 as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The Ruggie Framework has become increasingly influential, giving greater legitimacy to a host of different multilateral, bilateral and unilateral mechanisms but it does not offer binding standards against which a corporation can be judged for human rights violations.

No doubt, this third attempt will face stiff opposition at the UN by governments representing large capital interests, especially from the EU and US. The US has already stated that countries that voted against the UNHRC resolution will not be required to respect it (which is not the case).

Binding, enforceable standards on MNCs will give unions a powerful tool to address rights violations and to halt the global race to the bottom. Unions will need to cooperate with broader civil society to achieve meaningful and not lowest common denominator standards as well as to counter resistance from those serving the interests of MNCs that have successfully held back a binding instrument for over 40 years.

We will not work in these conditions!

On Monday 6 June, more than 200 ASENAV employees demonstrated in the town of Valdivia, southern Chile, to express their dissatisfaction at the company's response to union demands during this round of collective bargaining. On 20 May, the union of ASENAV workers, which forms part of the Nacional  Industrial Chile, affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union, presented its demands for a 10% pay rise, improved bonus payments, higher clothing and food allowances and an end to subcontracting and precarious work.

On 2 June, the company made an offer much lower than workers’ demands. It offered a 3.8 percent pay rise in stages and a productivity bonus worth 0.315 percent of basic pay to be paid on a quarterly basis until June 2016.

In response, the union organised demonstrations outside company plants and began a strike on Monday 30 June after a mass meeting rejected the company's final offer and voted in favour of a strike. The union says the company offer is practically the same as in 2012.

The union president, Héctor Silva, said that, in view of the company’s intransigence, the union has decided to bring the collective bargaining round out onto the streets rather than continue negotiating with the company behind closed doors: “In addition to our pay demands, we have raised the problem of working conditions in plants 1 and 2, where there is overcrowding and conditions are not safe”, he said.

Horacio Fuentes, president of Nacional  Industrial Chile, expressed complete support and solidarity with the union: “We think the company's proposal is shamefully low, because company profits from the MAERSK boats alone are over US$ 200 million”.

Héctor Silva added: “We will respond with strength and unity and with a single objective, because for years we have produced a quality product for the national and international shipbuilding market. This company has earned billions of dollars thanks to the efforts of the skilled labour force in Valdivia, but does not recognise its most precious resource, which is the metalworkers”.

IndustriALL slams ban on Turkish glass workers’ strike

The strike, launched on 20 June by IndustriALL Global Union affiliate Kristal-İş, mobilized 5,800 unionists at ten factories belonging to Turkey’s largest glass producer, Sisecam.

Under Turkish law, the government can issue a decree to postpone, and effectively ban, a strike for 60 days if it is prejudicial to public health or national security.

In a strongly-worded letter to the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Erdoğan, IndustriALL’s general secretary Jyrki Raina stated:

“We vehemently protest your decree, as it is completely unacceptable to IndustriALL Global Union and its affiliates worldwide. It constitutes a clear attack on the right to strike, which is one of the fundamental workers’ rights, guaranteed by the conventions – which have been ratified by the Turkish government – and the jurisprudence of the International Labour Organization.”

Multinational corporation, Sisecam, is one of Europe’s largest companies employing 18,000 people in eight different countries. Glass workers at the firm are striking for better wages and working conditions.

In the recent past, Turkey has come under attack for unlawfully banning strikes in the glass and rubber industry. The Turkish State Council said that strikes in these sectors could never breach “general health and national security”.

The International Labour Organization also criticized the government for obstructing Freedom of Association by prohibiting strikes in the sector on the grounds of national security, despite no apparent threat.

“We call on the Turkish government to protect the rights of workers in line with international norms and standards instead of securing business interests. Furthermore, we strongly believe that your government must respond in the face of the industrial homicide in Soma, which killed 301 miners and left 432 children without fathers,” wrote Raina.

Kimberly Clark workers in Turkey on strike

The members of Tümka-İş, belonging to the DISK national center, started their strike after midnight of 25 June in the plant located in Pendik, Istanbul. Members were pushed into striking since negotiations for a plant level collective agreement failed after local management of Kimberly Clark refused to meet demands of the workers.

Major demands of the striking workers are proper wage increases, particularly for those who earn just slightly higher than the national minimum, and sufficient notice payment in order to get job security. The latter is important since the company premises will be re-located to another city within the next couple of years.

All the union members fully participate in the strike. Some of the strikers have worked at the plant more than twenty years, and most of the workers complain about bad working conditions, long working hours, as much as 12 hours a day, making a work-life balance impossible.

“As Kimberly Clark has not been responsive to our legitimate demands, strike was the only option“ said Ergün Tavaşanoğlu, General President of Tümka-İş. “We need the support and solidarity of IndustriALL Global Union members around the world to overcome the challenge we have.“

The Turkish subsidiary of the American-based company produces diapers, sanitary napkins, toilet paper, paper towels in the plant in Pendik with the well-known brands Huggies and Kotex.

UK glass workers ready to strike

Unite regional officer Bob Bolam said: "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 strike at the Kingsway and 7th Avenue sites on the Team Valley Industrial Estate in Gateshead will start at 06.00 on Monday and will run until 05.59 on Monday 14 July. This follows a week-long strike earlier this month.

Unite has said that the company could improve the current pay deal, especially as it awarded the highest paid director a 14 per cent pay rise last year and shifted £750,000 from the company’s account to the owner’s trust fund.

The company has offered a three-year deal – three per cent in the first year, and then two per cent in the two subsequent years – but Unite said that this deal had strings attached to make the deal self-funding.

Bob Bolam said: “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.

“The last strike was solid and was well-supported by the Tyne and Wear community, only too well acquainted with mean-spirited bosses.

“We urge the management to get around the table and negotiate a fair and equable settlement for their hard-working employees.”

IndustriALL affiliates show solidarity for Samsung workers

Unionists from IndustriALL’s affiliates at the global union's Executive Committee in Geneva, Switzerland, posed for photographs to show their solidarity for the Samsung workers.

Samsung has a 75-year no union policy but IndustriALL affiliate, the Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU), has defied the diktat by forming the Samsung Electronics Service Workers’ Local. It is the first mass-membership union at Samsung in Korea.

The KMWU local has been in a labour dispute with the firm for several months, with rolling strikes demanding that Samsung end poverty wages, respect trade union rights and conclude a collective bargaining agreement for the 1600 unionized workers.

After months of avoiding collective bargaining, Samsung began retaliating against the workers by reassigning their jobs to the non-unionized and closing three of the unionized centers (Haeundae Center, Asan Center, Icheon Center) with mass dismissal of those workers in March.

Driven to despair by the company's behaviour, 33-year-old KMWU local union leader, Ho-seok Yeom, committed suicide on 17 May 2014. He left a note asking that his body be left in state and not be cremated until the struggle for union rights at Samsung succeeds. Despite this, police forces absconded with his body by force.

The disrespect towards the demised leader's dying wish and the increasing repressions towards trade unionists point that South Korea is sliding to its authoritarian past. International support is urgently needed. Support the campaign and sign the LabourStart petition.