Moroccan unions jointly protest austerity policy

The march was organized in answer to the Moroccan government reluctance to open a serious dialogue with the unions and reconsider polices that lead to declined citizens’ and workers’ purchasing power and recently increased cases of union rights’ violations.

According to the unions under pressure of the international financial institutions the government is using austerity measures like ending subsidies on fuel, which hit in the first place the poorest part of the population.

Government unpopular policies led the Moroccan unions to overcome their differences and join forces in an unprecedented coalition that is currently in the forefront of the social struggle.

Soon after the protest march the Government replied to earlier ignored letter from the unions, however the tone of the reply according to the union leaders was more looking like a summon rather than a genuine invitation to participate in a properly organized social dialogue.

Organizing displaced women in India

In uprooted families it is generally women who battle their way through; as widows or heads of the household they face daily struggles for survival. Aiming to increase displaced women’s access to rights through international and national advocacy, the IndustriALL Global Union South Asia Office endeavours to provide access and to organise them.

The Bokaro Steel Plant is located in the Bokaro district of Jharkhand, and is the fourth integrated public sector steel plant in India. Proximity to coal, iron ore, manganese, and other raw materials helped in the selection of this place.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, construction of the steel plant and the township was done on a large scale. During this process of industrialization and urbanization, local people were forced from their homes and displaced. A tenable solution was never found, and the next generation is lacking housing, social security and often a proper roof over their heads.

The steel plant has reduced its permanent workforce from 40,000 to 1,800. At the same time there has been a huge increase of precarious workers, who now amount to 22,000. These contract workers are denied statutory wages, medical facility and social security. Women are consistently over-represented in this type of work.

With the active participation and cooperation of the INMF National and State committee's, IndustriALL India Women's Committee and local stakeholders, the IndustriALL’s South Asia office has initiated a consultation with these communities. The first steps have been to build trust and establish working relations. Activities such as awareness camps, rights advocacy, medical camp and workshops will be held as part of the IndustriALL projects for improved understanding of the displaced communities, and to subsequently organise them. Working with displaced people is also one of the objectives of the India Steel, Energy and Mining Organising project, as well as for the Organizing Precarious Workers Project for South Asia.

On 6 April, South Asia Office through IndustriALL's affiliate INMF, India Women Committee and local stakeholders organised a meeting with the displaced women. More than 300 women workers belonging to tribal and displaced communities attended the meeting and shared their concerns and demands.

Speakers including IndustriALL South Asia regional secretary Sudhershan Rao Sarde, INMF General Secretary Raghunath Pandey, IndustriALL South Asia regional coordinator, Shahnaz Rafique and chairperson of IndustriALL India Women Committee, Devika Singh addressed the challenges of the displaced communities.

IndustriALL South Asia regional secretary Sudhershan Rao Sarde says:

The traditional trade union movement has failed to incorporate the genuine concerns of these displaced communities. It is high time IndustriaLL Affiliates recognize this historical folly and make amends by organizing them.

Brazilian workers call for more rights and greater equality

The unions said they will take further action on a larger scale if there is not a positive response to the Eighth March of the Working Class, which took place under the banner: “For More Rights and Quality of Life”.

The march showed the working class’s capacity for organisation and unity, with the trade union centrals CTB, CGTB, CUT, Nueva Central, Força Sindical and UGT presenting a joint list of demands including a reduction of the working week to 40 hours without reduction in pay; abandonment of the congressional bill to increase outsourcing; changes to income tax rates; an increase in the minimum wage; land reform; investment in health, security and education; and decent work.

Miguel Torres, president of Força Sindical and the CNTM, one of the metalworkers’ unions affiliated to IndustriALL, said: “Our demands were approved by the unified trade union movement in 2010 but there has still been no response. We must therefore increase the pressure and seek greater public support for the union agenda, which is socially wide-ranging, progressive and democratic”.

Vagner Freitas, president of CUT, a central to which several IndustriALL unions are affiliated, also highlighted the importance of trade union unity, the same unity that allowed Força, UGT and CUT to elect Joao Felicito as president of the International Trade Union Confederation. He said: “There is no movement more organised than the Brazilian one. If we don’t get a response, we will organise bigger demonstrations”.

The unions have requested a meeting with President Dilma Rousseff to discuss the working class’s agenda for a national plan for growth based on sovereignty, democracy and proper recognition of the value of work. The unions will also present the document to the presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies as well as to Supreme Labour Court.

Energy Unions lay out roadmap “Towards Sustainable, Social and Safe Energy Policies”

Hosted by IndustriALL’s two affiliates FITAG-UGT and Industria-CC.OO., the Conference made an extensive debate over the five strategic goals of the global union which were endorsed by the Executive Committee. Delegates reported similar stories from all five continents of trade unionists in the industry being undermined by precarious work, aggressive liberalization, unsafe work and union busting.

“Unions in the industry are fighting back”, IndustriALL General Secretary Raina told delegates in his opening address. “Every day is a campaigning day for IndustriALL Global Union”.

Spain’s Secretary of State for Energy Alberto Nadal addressed the conference in its opening session, giving importance to developed industrial relations with IndustriALL’s Spanish affiliates. The country’s highest energy official told delegates: “Energy should be a universal right for all. Without cheap energy, there is not development, and without secure energy, no economic growth. Energy is the base of all economies”.

The conference sought to analyse and develop progressive energy policies that fully take into account the interests of workers faced with rapid change in national energy policies and structures, and ensure change is managed through a process of “Just Transition.” The energy industry plays a key role in IndustriALL’s worldwide initiative of “Sustainable Industrial Policy”, particularly with its close connection with manufacturing sectors as well as sustainability matters.

In addition to the action plan, the Conference unanimously passed five emergency resolutions, issuing urgent solidarity and support for UWUA members under attack in the US by FirstEnergy; in Iraq where an inspirational trade union leader has received death threats against her family; in Indonesia where Pertamina management is acting with impunity and ignoring a court ruling to punish workers for organizing; in Australia where oil giant Chevron is union busting the MUA; and extending solidarity to the Mexican union of electricity workers.

The delegates also applauded IndustriALL’s close cooperation in the energy sector with other sister global unions, PSI and ITF, to advance alliances in the supply chain.

New co-chairs of the sector were elected by delegates in line with the new policy of IndustriALL whereby each industrial sector will be jointly chaired by one woman and one man. The new co-chairs of the energy sector are Apsorn Krissanasmit of Thailand and Leif Sande of Norway.

The Conference also formed an Action Group to handle the day-to-day work of the sector. The make up of the group again reflects the regional, sub-sectorial and gender balance in the industry: Gwenne Farrell of Canada, Linda McCulloch of Workers’ Uniting, Jean-François Renucci of France, Lev Mironov of Russia, Kaoru Kishimoto of Japan, Pablo Emilio Santos Nieto of Colombia, Jorge Fierro Andrade of Chile, Abdelmajid Matoual of Morocco, Aly Al-Adwani of Kuwait, Ady Lombume of Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mfanawelisontfo Dlamini of Swaziland.

Concluding the Conference, IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan stated: “The very high quality discussions, energy, enthusiasm of energy industry comrades from five continents will make IndustriALL a genuine global trade union power in this centrally important industry.”

Voices of resistance to Rio Tinto converge in London

That message was delivered by representatives of unions and civil society organizations from around the globe at the Rio Tinto – Voices of Resistance public meeting held on 10 April in London.

The meeting was organized by London Mining Network and hosted by John Vidal of The Guardian.

It was part of a series of activities leading up to the Rio Tinto annual shareholders’ meeting being held next Tuesday.

“As we increase our organizing efforts, we are also strengthening our alliances with groups that want to make Rio Tinto a more worker friendly, sustainable company,” said IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Kemal Ozkan.

IndustriALL will release the report Unustainable: the ugly truth about Rio Tinto at the company’s shareholders’ meeting. The report is part of IndustriALL’s global campaign at Rio Tinto.

Hard won victory for workers at Vidriera de San Potosí in Mexico

The independent trade union, Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Empresa Industria Vidriera del Potosí (SUTEIVP), with strong support from its members (about 850), won a 19 per cent pay rise in 2007, higher than any won for a long time in the state. The response of companies located at the San Luis Potosí industrial estate was not long in coming. They felt they could not tolerate this unacceptable precedent in labour relations, which showed that an independent union founded by the workers themselves could provide an alternative to “official” trade unionism.

“Vidriera de San Potosí began to dismiss its workers six years, three months and nine days ago, as a reprisal for their decision to leave the CTM and form an independent trade union capable of winning substantial improvements in pay, benefits and working conditions at this bottle-making factory, which supplies the Corona Extra export beer brand” reports Francisco Retama, SUTEIVP policy advisor.

The dismissed trade unionists, with the invaluable support of their wives and families, maintained their strong and firm position to continue their fight under the slogan “no going back”, spread news of their struggle and received widespread support and solidarity within Mexico and internationally.

The reinstatement of the SUTEIVP members in resistance has been a constant demand of the Action Days for Mexico campaign led by IndustriALL, Mexican democratic trade unions and the Trinational Solidarity Alliance in defence of labour and trade union rights of Mexican workers. A complaint about the case was also submitted to the Committee for the Freedom of Association of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which, three years ago, ordered the authorities to resolve the issue “in the near future”.

In addition to ordering the reinstatement of members of the independent trade union, the Conciliation and Arbitration Board “ordered the defendant company INDUSTRIA VIDRIERA DEL POTOSÍ, S. A. DE C. V. to reinstate workers to their posts under the same terms and conditions of employment that existed prior to their dismissal and pay them an amount corresponding to outstanding unpaid wages”, which will continue to accumulate “until they are reinstated in accordance with this ruling”.

This task is now the responsibility of the Grupo Modelo directors appointed after the purchase of the beer company by the Belgian-Brazilian consortium AB-Inbev. It must pay the wages due to the dismissed workers as well as benefits provided for by law, which will accumulate until the workers are reinstated to the jobs they were doing when they were dismissed.

IndustriALL welcomes this major victory of its affiliate SUTEIVP, after a hard-fought battle and exemplary resistance! We hope the company complies with the ruling and we reiterate our support for the reinstatement of the dismissed workers.

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).