International campaign helps to free two more Kazakh oil workers

On 10 December 2013 the campaign "Kazakhstan: Free jailed oil workers" was launched and attracted strong attention of the international community. The campaign enjoyed the support of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Kazakhstan (KSPK) with help of  IndustriALL Global Union, the international web based union rights website LabourStart, Confederation of Labour of Russia (KTR), the International Union of Food, Agricultural and Hotel workers (IUF) and Association of Human Rights in Central Asia, as well as independent trade unions of Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia.

In May 2011 thousands of workers of the oil company KazMunaiGaz (earlier Kazakhoil) went on strike. Due to inactiveness of the authorities bordering to intentional escalation of aggressive behaviour of the oil company the labour conflict resulted into bloody clashes in Zhanaozen. Consequences were terrible: 17 people were killed and more than 100 injured. The consequent trial orchestrated by the Kazakh authorities in March 2012 condemned 37 people to different type of imprisonment and other punishing measures.

Some positive changes were noted since then, however the general situation concerning trade union rights worsened in Kazakhstan.

In 2013 a new national trade union of oil sector workers of the Republic of Kazakhstan has been created. This was a good idea in itself as for many years workers of the oil sector were divided and in the best case joined their forces only at the level of separate enterprises. But in this particular case the international trade union movement was outraged by the fact the chairman of the newly created union became Sultan Kaliev, former deputy director of the company KazMunaiGaz.

IndustriALL Global Union is concerned by the development under which the head of the sector trade union becomes the person de facto representing the opposite to the workers side of the 2011 conflict in Zhanaozen. This fact has already been many times reported when the opinions about control of the new trade union by the corporation KazMunaiGaz and the government of Kazakhstan were expressed.

Kaliev’s entry into capacity of the chairman coincided in time with submission for consideration of the Parliament of a bill “About trade unions” and adoption in the first reading of a new draft of the Crimial Code, seriously limiting the activities of trade unions genuinely protecting workers’ rights. The bill “About trade unions” in case of its adoption will mean reinforcement of trade union vertical which in absence of democratic procedures will bring to demotivation of membership. Besides the new bill also gives possibilities for fragmentation of trade union movement and creation of single plant trade unions.

Shipbreaking kills four workers in Bangladesh

According to the information provided by IndustriALL Bangladesh Council of trade unions, the plant owner closed the gates after the accident. People from the local community gathered in front of the entrance and had to break down the gate in order to rescue the injured workers and take them to the hospital.

The employer later claimed that injured workers were not part of the employees. Instead they were hired externally by an electric cable trader to dismantle the cables at the ship beached a month ago for scrapping. The employer also said the workers were equipped with the safety gear, but did not use it.

According to various reports from January 2008 to June 2013, there were 78 deaths and 119 injuries recorded in the Bangladesh shipbreaking sector. However there is no official occupation and health and safety data available. The Bangladesh Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Foundation-OSHE estimates the real figures might be up to 20 times higher.

Kan Matsuzaki, IndustriALL Global Union Director for shipbuilding and shipbreaking sector, who has researched the situation of shipbreaking workers in South Asia says: 

“We deplore the victims of this terrible accident and mourn together with their families and friends. Our affiliates have been putting a lot of efforts into organizing the shipbreaking workers in Bangladesh to protect the workers’ lives from hazardous OHS conditions. However, the employers are busting the union activities. The government must immediately initiate the tripartite dialogue and negotiations about practical measures aimed to protect human lives at the yards, as well as fundamental workers’ rights.”

Building unity and power in Thailand

A majority of the 800 workers at the Michelin plant in Thailand went on strike more than a month ago, when company management tried to impose a fixed three-year bargaining agreement against union demands to negotiate annual adjustments of bonus and wage increases.

The workers, represented by IndustriALL Global Union affiliate TAW/TEAM, walked out and picketed the entrance of the company. However, after several incidents of intimidation, including shots fired against their cars, demonstrators deemed it was safer to occupy the entrance to the Ministry of Labour in Bangkok.

IndustriALL assistant general secretary Fernando Lopes and leadership from the newly formed Confederation of IndustriALL Labour of Thailand (CILT), which brings together the auto, metal, textile, chemical & petrol workers of Thailand, met with the union committee and addressed the striking workers. The majority of the workers are very young and many are women. The workers listened to messages of worldwide solidarity and support, as well as encouragement for their fight to improve their working conditions.

IndustriALL union building project

As many leaders and participants expressed during the two-day workshop held to launch a new Union Building project with the CILT in Bangkok, anti-union violations occur daily in Thailand, without any media coverage and in total impunity.IndustriALL affiliates confirmed their commitment to work together to improve their communication and campaigning skills, to build up their capacity to organise and educate workers about their rights and to “organise, organise, organise”.

One of the campaigns bringing the industrial unions in Thailand together is their demand that the Government ratifies ILO Conventions 87 & 98.

Yongyuth, TEAM’s general secretary, gave several examples from the garment, electronics and auto industries, where less than 50 per cent of the workers have permanent contracts and workers are brutally harassed by employers when they seek to join unions:

Freedom of Association does not exist in Thailand, and in particular not in the garment industry. It is considered to be a “special economy”, where workers, operating in conditions close to slavery, are expected to show respect and gratitude for their employers and can’t join a union.

The CILT is working towards changing the external image and reality of Thailand, where labour costs are kept low and workers remain docile, to build the industrial workers’ negotiation power and gain decent working conditions for all.

For the coming three years, the IndustriALL Union Building project will focus on developing affiliates' communication and campaigning skills, increase their membership density through strategic and targeted organizing, in particular in the manufacturing supply chains, and build up the capacity of the CILT to act jointly and to grow sustainable and strong national unions in Thailand.

Clothing brands fail Rana Plaza survivors

IndustriALL and UNI and leading labour rights network Clean Clothes Campaign today demand all brands associated with Rana Plaza pay up and ensure the survivors and victims families receive the much needed support before the first anniversary on April 24. 

The Donor Trust Fund, which provides a central coordinated approach to collecting claims and distributing the money, needs US$ 40 million in contributions to ensure that the 1,138 victims families and over 2,000 survivors receive much needed payments for loss of income and medical expenses.

To date just half the companies who have been connected to a factory in the building have made commitments, and the fund has just one third of the funds required.

“Currently 15 brands, including Benetton, Matalan, Adler Modemarkte and Auchan, have failed to even make an initial contribution to the Donor Trust Fund,” says Phillip Jennings of UNI Global Union, “we call on all of them to immediately make a significant donation to the Donor Trust Fund – the only inclusive, transparent and ILO-recognised compensation programme for Rana Plaza victims.”

Not all of the brands who have made donations have publicly stated how much they have contributed, however those that have have typically donated between US$500,000 and US$1 million.

Ineke Zeldenrust, of Clean Clothes Campaign says “The 29 brands that sourced from factories within Rana Plaza either at the time of the collapse or in the recent past have combined profits of well in excess of US$22 billion a year, they are being asked to contribute less than 0.2% of these profits to go some way towards compensating the people their profits are built on – the Donor Trust Fund has been open for two months now and it is still a long way off the US$40 million that is required. The Arrangement clearly has the necessary buy-in: the current donor list includes some of world's biggest brand names, from both Europe and the US,  but they are coming in frankly shockingly low levels given what they can afford. 

It is clear that with two weeks to go and over two thirds of the money still needed even those brands who have made contributions need to make further donations, to bring their contributions up to a more significant level.

Only Primark have donated a more significant amount, with US$1 million directly to the Fund and payments made directly to workers in New Wave Bottoms, the factory they were sourcing from, implemented under the auspices of the scheme, taking their donation up to just under US$ 7 million.

The ILO chaired Arrangement under which the Donor Trust Fund is operated has already begun the process of registering claimants, Jyrki Raina, of IndustriALL Global Union says “ The needs of the workers who survived this catastrophy, and the families of those who did not, are desperate. This last year the victims have seen medical expenses, lack of income and the horrors of that day relived. The brands can show that they can be part of the solution – but only if they pay up.  When in two weeks’ time the world asks all of us what we have done in response to the Rana Plaza disaster a year ago, do they want to say they have failed the victims? ”

As the countdown to April 24th begins, actions are planned by trade unions and NGOs across Asia, Europe and North America, jointly with allies International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) and Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN). 

Korean union leader Kim Jungwoo is free

Kim Jungwoo is a former leader of the Ssangyong Motor branch of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, an IndustriALL Global Union affiliate. Since June 2013 he was under arrest after participation in the protests actions in favor of workers dismissed by Ssangyoung Motor in 2009, and in memory of the 24 workers and family members who either killed themselves or died of stress-related disorders during the campaign. There was a serious threat of a heavier sentence for Jungwoo by the Supreme Court of Seoul.

Under the South Korean criminal law Penal Code 314, employers can impose large fines on unions and their leaders up to the seizure of union officials’ assets for "Obstruction of Business". For instance the total amount of claims to the national center KCTU is about USD 122 million. According to the district court ruling Ssangyoung workers are obliged to pay some USD 1.28 million in compensation to the police and USD 3.1 million to the company for damages during workers incurred while they were on strike.

Back in 2009 International Metalworkers’ Federation, one of the three founding organizations of IndustriALL Global Union, reported about brutal response of the Korean government towards legitimate industrial dispute, when Ssangyoung Motor members started a strike in protest of company’s order of mass dismissals without notifying trade union in violation of the existing collective agreement.

Then the sit-in 77-day strike started in May 2009 has been brutally broken up with use of corrosive chemicals dropped on strikers from helicopters, violent attacks from taser guns endangering people’s life and causing serious injuries. As this was not enough the strikers were denied access to basic needs like food, water and even basic medical treatment for the injured.

The promise to carry out a Parliamentary inspection of the mass layoffs at Ssangyoung Motors was given by current President of the Republic of South Korea more than a year ago, unfortunately this promise so far is not fulfilled.

Unite workers at Babcock approve new agreement

Unite announced the results of the vote on 3 April, the day after the vote. The vast majority of workers of Faslane and Coulport at Babcock Marine on the Clyde approved the considerably improved pay offer of 2.7 per cent rise.

The dispute involving over 800 Unite members employed in different jobs from hotel and catering staff to those handling nuclear weapons, started after the Babcock management failed to offer a fair deal to the workers.

Babcock made an initial offer of 1 per cent increase, and referred to impossibility of further increase because of the contracts signed with the Ministry of Defence.

The offer was not good enough for the members and the first action for 42 years erupted. 

The action consisted of a two-hour strike of the whole workforce and then a rolling programme of one hour strikes across the sites every 24 hours, plus an overtime ban and a work to rule.

Unite Convenor at Backcock Marine Derek Torrie said, “As well as paying tribute to the magnificent solidarity of our members at Faslane and Coulport which led to Babcock making an improved offer which has now been accepted I also have to say a massive thanks for all the messages of support and offers of assistance from Unite branches, workplaces and from individual members.

In addition to the support from within the UK the international messages from the USA, Brazil, South Africa and Finland were inspiring and uplifting in terms of maintaining and raising the morale of the workforce.

Together we have succeeded and this has been a true demonstration that unity is truly our strength.”

Hard-hitting CCC report names and shames brands for inaction on wages

Research compiled over nine months was used to profile 50 leading European brands. The report could not award the “green” grade to any of the brands, meaning no company was found to be doing sufficient work to ensure that those workers making their clothes receive a wage large enough to live in dignity.

The four brands identified as having started innovative work toward making a living wage a reality were Inditex, Marks & Spencer, Switcher and Tchibo. 

Download the Tailored Wages report in full here.

Report coordinator Anna McMullen said:

A colour-coded assessment was developed to show the progress of each company towards a living wage. This assessment takes into account a variety of work areas which we feel are significant for achievement of the living wage goal: worker empowerment, commitment and practice, collaborative approach and strategy towards a living wage.

The CCC says:

"In a handful of cases we were pleased to notice some interesting work initiated by brands that was actually increasing real wages in workers' pockets.

However, overall, we were disappointed that progress is really still only at the trial stage, and work that is actually putting wages up is still rare. There are very few retailers who have tried to truly ingrain throughout their business work towards a living wage."

ITUWA prepares to fight for every job

The company did not hold preliminary consultations with the trade union and specified the serious changes in the economic situation in Russia as the reason for the announced redundancies. The Russian Interregional Trade Union "Workers Association" – ITUWA, an affiliate of IndustriALL, intends to take counter measures.

In addition to cutting down one third of the workforce at the Ford Sollers Joint Venture in Vsevolozhsk the company announced plans of a complete stoppage of production during two months after 7 April and then after September the work would be organized only in one shift.  

The company claims these tough measures are imposed by serious changes in the Russian economy due to the devaluation of Russian rouble and a considerable decline of the demand for middle class cars. According to the company the reduction of the staff is necessary for an active evolvement of the company under present conditions.

The company has already declared about the launch of a ‘Program of voluntary dismissals’, which would offer workers the possibility to resign on the basis of a mutual agreement. Workers who resign under the Program would receive 5-month salary as compensation.

Igor Temchenko, ITUWA leader at the Ford plant, said there was no preliminary meeting organized with ITUWA representatives. The board of directors informed the workers about the planned redundancies through a news release appearing in the mass media. Workers were notified about these plans only the following day. “The trade union ITUWA will certainly take counter measures. We believe the leadership of our factory tries to shift on workers the burden of their own responsibility for miscalculations in marketing and the planning department. We will fight to safeguard jobs or for a decent compensation for those who are cut down”, declared Temchenko.

The chairman of the ITUWA union Alexey Etmanov expressed support to the workers claims and demanded from the company, “In order to understand what workers can do is enough to look at Belgium and Brazil, where attempts were made to close down the Ford plants. In result, namely through the strikes and demonstrations workers managed to fight back a rather good financial compensation in Belgium, while in Brazil they have even managed to keep their factory. We will not give it up and will fight for every working place. We will demand good compensatory payments, which in Russia are good enough to be able to have the ends met while in search for another job. Some 10-20 salaries, this is what we want to talk about”.

Other automakers are also decreasing their production in Russia. Recent reports say Nissan is moving its plant in Saint Petersburg to a two-shift replacing three-shift day schedule as of 1 April.

Volkswagen is planning to decrease in 2014 the production at its plant in Kaluga by 15 thousand cars, down to annual 135 thousand, informed chairman of the ITUWA territorial organization Dmitri Trudovoi. 

Georg Fischer consistently spurns union rights in Turkey

Lastik-Is, the Petroleum, Chemical and Rubber Industry Workers’ Union of Turkey, member of DISK national center and of IndustriALL, launched an organizing campaign at the operations of the company called Georg Fischer Hakan Plastik in Turkey a few months ago.

Join the LabourStart campaign here.

Founded in 1802 in Switzerland, the multinational corporation operates in 32 countries, with 124 companies, 48 of them production facilities in the business segments of piping systems, automotive and machining solutions.

Georg Fischer’s reaction against union organizing was harsh, and so far 37 members of Lastik-Is have been dismissed by the local management. The simple reason is that workers exercised 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.

Along with this, instead of settling peaceful labor relations at the plants, Georg Fischer management continues to use intimidation and pressure over the union members to rescind their affiliation with Lastik-Is. This particularly happens in one-to-one meetings conducted by the middle level-managers with all union members.

In the meantime, the Turkish Ministry of Labor and Social Security has sent an official certification to all the relevant parties confirming that Lastik-Is has a sufficient majority of the workforce to be a bargaining party. However Georg Fischer maintains its anti-union behavior refusing any meeting at national and international level.

Even though IndustriALL Global Union and its Swiss affiliate UNIA have several times initiated dialogue with central and local management of the company, the response is always negative.

Georg Fischer violates relevant provisions of Turkish Collective Labor Relations and Penal Codes with its acts in Turkey. The company also breaches OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises that explicitly recognize the right of all employees to be or become members of a trade union and to participate in collective negotiations.

“What Georg Fischer does in Turkey is completely unacceptable,” said Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union. “If the situation in Turkey remains unresolved as is, we, together with our Swiss affiliate UNIA and all other member organizations, will carry out our campaign to escalate our support for Lastik-Is and union members at Hakan Plastik.”

“Put Industry Back to Work”, demand European Trade Unions

The selection of the venue was a clear solidarity message to the union movement in Spain against the government’s austerity policies of the last couple of years.

The crisis in Europe has aggressively destroyed the social and economic conditions of working people resulting in the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs, particularly among the youth. As a response to this worrying trend, European trade unions seek a joint industrial policy approach to be able to overcome all challenges throughout the continent by building up genuine union solidarity.

The Madrid meeting entitled “The future of industrial employment in Europe’ adopted a manifesto with eleven major policy lines: 1) Restart the economy 2) Make economic governance socially and democratically responsible 3) Foster the social dimension of industrial policy 4) Put the finance sector back in its place 5) Create new qualitative jobs 6) Support Innovation 7) Reinvent the traditional industrial sectors 8) Maximize the social and economic benefits of ICT 9) Address the demand side of industrial policy 10) Strive for sustainable, affordable and secure energy 11) Make global trade work for workers and get the institutional framework right.

The Manifesto of IndustriAll European Trade Union sets out trade union demands towards national parliaments, the European Parliament and the European Commission for the legislative term of 2014 – 2019. It further demands maintaining and developing a strong manufacturing base in Europe as a necessary condition for economic growth, creating quality jobs, supporting the transition to an environmentally sustainable industry and finding solutions to the grand societal challenges that European economies are confronted with.

The meeting welcomed important political figures, including Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament and some other European and national parliamentarians. An intensive political debate was made over the role the European Union can play in formulating an industrial policy strategy applicable in all its Member States and how more jobs can be created and safeguarded in an age of rapid technological change and increased global competition. The participants also discussed how the EU’s ‘Industrial Renaissance’ can be ensured.

A special attention was given to the current economic situation and outlook for the Southwest Region of Europe and the role of trade Unions. European Trade unions exchanged their ideas on how they can achieve the best balance between the social dimension and need for competitiveness with employee involvement.

Michael Vasiliadis, President of IndustriAll European Trade Union and IG BCE of Germany, said: “We want to give a clear signal with the manifesto that includes our legitimate demands for economic and social matters in Europe”. Ulrich Eckelmann, General Secretary, mentioned that “IndustriAll Europe discusses ways to properly address the crisis, and change a wrong economic policy."

“IndustriALL Global and European Trade Unions are the strong voices of workers for keeping industry and manufacturing jobs at the center of national economies,” said Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union who attended the meeting in Madrid. “We are now much stronger as our worldwide Sustainable Industrial Policy campaign and the adopted European manifesto of Put Industry Back to Work perfectly complement each other”.