Cambodian government must urgently restart dialogue with unions

“We call upon the government to urgently restart dialogue with the workers’ unions to avoid an escalation of the conflict and a complete breakdown in relations between unions, the government and factory owners," said IndustriALL’s general secretary Jyrki Raina.

The overtime strike, which began on Monday, has had a noticeable impact on the textile sector in Cambodia. The garment workers are demanding the release of 21 protestors arrested during strikes in January which saw four demonstrators shot dead by police.

The strikers also continue to call for an increase in the minimum wage from the current figure of US$100 to US$160 per month.

Despite a constructive meeting with government ministers, global unions and brands on 19 February, IndustriALL is alarmed by the recent turn of events which has seen the government refusing to register new unions until a new trade union law is passed, which might not be until the end of the year.

The government suspension of the freedom of association is in direct contravention of ILO’s Convention 87, ratified by Cambodia, which guarantees that workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, shall have the right to establish and to join organisations of their own choosing without previous authorisation.

IndustriALL is also deeply disappointed by the intention of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) to file a US$72 million lawsuit against six leaders of union groups.

Further to the overtime boycott, unions are planning a public forum on International Women’s Day on 8 March in support of better pay for garment workers, 80% of whom are women, and the release of the 21 detainees, who have been denied bail by a Cambodian court of appeal.

A further stay-at-home strike by garment workers is planned for 12 March.

“IndustriALL, the ITUC, ILO and brands continue to work together to resolve the deadlock over the minimum wage and press for the release of the 21 protestors,” said Raina.

41 years of Indian street vendors’ struggle wins legislative victory

Indian street vendors and their IndustriALL-affiliated trade union SEWA are celebrating the new law as the result of 41 years of struggle. The bill was endorsed by the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) of Parliament on 19 February 2014. The bill regulates and protects the livelihood of street vendors. Both houses of Parliament unanimously passed the resolution.

A hunger strike by SEWA in New Delhi from 16-19 February and last minute lobbying and advocating efforts of SEWA finally resulted in the passing of the bill. It is a historic and one of the biggest achievements for the Street Vendors of India.

In India 2 to 2.5 % of the urban population earn their living through street vending. These street vendors provide essential services to the people at large. They are self earners and earn their living without proving a burden on the Government. Still the vendors are misperceived as illegal encroachers, they are beaten up, their goods are confiscated, summons and warrants are issued against them.

The journey for ‘Rights of Street Vendors’ began in 1972:

Thus, the Street vendors’ bill is unanimously passed by both the houses of parliament and currently pending the final approval of the President of India.

The magnificent victory of Street Vendors has brought happiness in the informal economy of the country. SEWA is celebrating the glorious victory with 1.9 million members, across 13 states including 200,000 vendor members and invites others to participate in their celebration.

Bro. Sudhershan Rao, Regional Secretary, IndustriALL South Asia Office stated:

The long protracted and strategic struggle of the street vendors, spanning four decades, led to a successful resolution in this passing of the bill. Now the real challenge begins, the stakeholders must work with devotion and commitment for a successful implementation of the statute to extend the long awaited benefits to the street vendors.

Los Mineros win clear victory in Zacatecas

This was the decisive verdict of the election held on 21 February, which represented a real and rather rare victory for democratic trade unionism.

Voting began at 7am and closed at 5.30pm and was conducted in an absolutely orderly and respectful way according to international observers. Workers were allowed to vote freely in the presence representatives of three levels of government, the Ministry for Labour and Social Welfare and Minera Frisco, controlled by Carlos Slim. The company is the country’s second biggest gold producer. The terms of the agreement to hold these elections were respected.

The union, which is affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union, said that “the SNTMMSRM won a clear victory, despite the cart-loads of money spent by the few supporters of Carlos Pavón, “la Marrana”, the threats and lies they were guilty of in the election campaign and their last-minute attempt to increase their support by forming an alliance with the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants (CROC) and the CTM”.

The SNTMMSRM received 57% of votes against the 43% received by the other two trade unions in the election and therefore displaced the CROC, which is a “protection union”, as the official representative of the workers. The SNTMMSRM received support from representatives of its other branches. The election was monitored by a neutral group of international observers which included representatives from United Steelworkers, Solidarity Center, PODER, ProDESC and CFO. 

The election was held to determine which union should represent the workers, following a long struggle by the miners’ union to defend the interests of workers at Zacatecas.

On behalf of IndustriALL, Jyrki Raina warmly congratulated Napoleón Gómez Urrutia for this marvellous and fully-deserved victory by the miners:

This victory for the workers’ absolute right to freely choose the union they want to represent them is a massive step in the fight of all Mexican workers and fills us with happiness and hope!

Unions building global power against attacks by Crown Holdings

The meeting was convened by IndustriALL, whose affiliates represent 50 million workers and was joined by IndustriALL’s sister organizations, UNI Global Union representing graphical and packaging sector workers and the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) representing workers at the major food and beverage companies that are major customers of Crown Holdings.

Despite doubling its profits in 2012, Crown is demanding a permanent lower wage scale and 42% pay cut for new-hires in its plant located in Toronto where IndustriALL affiliate, the United Steelworkers (USW), represents workers. The demand forced workers to go on strike in September 2013 after a decade of sacrifices that workers in North America made to restore the company to profitability. At the same time, Crown provided lucrative executive pay and pension packages to its top executives.

The USW is conducting an active campaign called Take-Backs No More with a website – www.takebacksnomore.ca

Likewise in Turkey, IndustriALL affiliate United Metalworkers’ Union Birlesik Metal-Is is campaigning to obtain union recognition and improve working conditions at two Crown plants located in the cities of Izmit and Osmaniye. However Crown management has stalled the process of recognition even though Ministry of Labor already issued a certificate giving legitimacy to Birlesik Metal-Is to become bargaining partner. The case is still pending at the Court of Appeals, and workers at Crown cannot enjoy their fundamental rights.

The Geneva meeting included comprehensive reports from the trade unions in Europe that outlined substantial decline in the quality of labor relations and the lack of company transparency.  European participants shared concerns about the future of some of the operations in Europe and the reluctance of Crown to share any information about possible plant closures. The participants outlined an action plan to escalate the campaign against Crown. 

IndustriALL is sending a letter to Crown CEO John Conway with an offer for an immediate meeting to discuss and resolve the current problems.

Unions and global union federations also decided to mobilize at Crown’s upcoming shareholders’ meeting  and contact Crown’s major customers worldwide, particularly in food and beverage sectors through support and solidarity provided by the IUF.

“Our meeting has shown clear and strong determination of our global union family to build a genuine power at Crown operations worldwide” said Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union. “Our objective is to make Crown a more socially responsible company.”

Victory! USO leaders released in Colombia

Héctor Sánchez Gómez, Campo Elías Ortiz and José Delio Naranjo Gualteros were accused by the public prosecutor of a series of crimes, including “aggravated kidnapping, conspiracy to commit a crime, making threats, violation of the right to work, obstruction of the public highway, damage to natural resources and aggravated damage to private property”.

From the start, the USO said the detentions “were part of a politically motivated plan to stigmatize and persecute the union because it has campaigned against multinational companies like Pacific Rubiales in the department of Meta and denounced violations of the rights of workers and communities”.

The USO welcomes this victory, won by the union, in conjunction with the legal defence team, national and international trade unions, such as the AFL-CIO Solidarity Centre, IndustriALL, UNIFOR, PASO Internacional and the Canadian Brotherhood and Solidarity Network with Colombia, “which, in all kinds of ways and through various media, have criticized this difficult situation, denounced the detention of our colleagues and demanded their release”.

At the end of 2013, IndustriALL repudiated the detention of USO leaders and wrote to the Colombian government to demand their immediate release and an end to the persecution of the union.

“We will continue to fight for the release of our colleague and leader, Darío Cárdenas, vice-president of the union’s executive committee in Meta and we will continue to campaign against attempts to criminalise social struggles in Colombia”, said the USO.

IndustriALL believes the release of our three colleagues is a real victory for the USO, which has been persecuted and stopped from conducting trade union activity just because it has demanded labour rights and the freedom of association for oil industry workers.

Ukraine: Political deal must lead to genuine restoration of democracy and human rights

Following all-night talks with protestors, mediated by three European foreign ministers, the President agreed on 21 February to restore the 2004 constitution within the next 48 hours and form a national unity government in the next 10 days.

Constitutional reform to balance the power of the president, government and parliament will start immediately and the presidential election will be held no later than December 2014.

IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan stated:

Ukraine, its people and its trade unions have suffered greatly in the horrific violence of the past few days. We hope that with this new political deal, the Ukrainian government will put an immediate end to the bloodshed and focus all efforts on restoring democracy and human rights and constructing open dialogue with opposition groups. 

IndustriAll European Trade Union Deputy General Secretary Luc Triangle said:

One thing is clear, peaceful protest is part of any democratic society. Ukraine should come as soon as possible to a political compromise between the current President, government and the protesters. Our thoughts and support are with Ukraine, its people and its workers!

IndustriALL Global Union and IndustriAll European Trade Union are angered by the deadly violence against activists in Maidan Square, Kiev, and an arson attack that destroyed much of Trade Union House on the night of 18 February.

The trade union headquarter building housed the majority of IndustriALL affiliates. The fire destroyed important equipment, computers and documentation. Indications point to Ukraine’s special police unit “Berkut” as those who purposely destroyed the building. It was widely known that the building was being used to shelter demonstrators.

The world is constantly watching now as murdered demonstrators’ bodies are carried away from the area around the October Palace and Maidan Square, some lying dead on the pavement for hours before being taken away. Most of the dead were killed by police gunshots, even those wearing bulletproof vests were killed as police fired armour-piercing bullets.

Other deadly threats to protestors are police snipers stationed on the roofs of buildings around Maidan Square, and hired thugs known as “titusky” allegedly paid by the government. Arsenalna metro station is a grouping point for pro-government forces and demonstrators fear an attack from this area.

Similar civil unrest has been occurring throughout Ukraine, with angry crowds targeting buildings housing the government and heavy-handed security forces.

IndustriALL calls for justice on the eighth anniversary of the industrial homicide at Pasta de Conchos

“Eight years is a long time to spend trying to right an injustice”, said Jorge Almeida, IndustriALL Global Union’s Regional Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, who attended events held to remember the industrial homicide that occurred on 19 February 2006.

The National Miners’ Union (SNTMMSRM), affiliated to IndustriAll, is demanding recovery of the bodies in order to give them a decent burial, a thorough investigation to identify the cause of the accident, punishment for those responsible and payment of fair compensation to victims’ families.

The Regional Secretary reiterated IndustriALL’s solidarity with the mining town of Coahuila and with the union, led by its general secretary, Napoleon Gómez Urrutia, who is also a member of IndustriALL’s executive committee.

On 19 February, as part of the programme of events held to mark the anniversary, victims’ families held a mass in front of the offices of Grupo Mexico. Members representing different branches of the union and representatives of IndustriALL and the United Steelworkers of America later marched from the offices of Grupo Mexico to the Angel of Independence monument. Activities also included a meeting in front of the United States embassy to protest against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The union is also calling on the government to find a solution for the three strikes at mines in Cananea, Sombrete and Taxco, and to take the steps necessary to make it possible for Napoleón Gómez Urrutia to return to the country.

The Pasta de Conchos disaster anniversary took place just a week after another  accident at a Grupo Mexico mine, this time at San Luis de Potosí, where five miners died because of the company’s negligence and failure to respect trade union rights.

IndustriALL calls for an end to violence in Ukraine

Many offices of IndustriALL affiliates were located in the building. Earlier it was occupied by protesters. The fire destroyed the building together with all the documents and equipment of IndustriALL affiliates.

IndustriALL Global Union is seriously concerned with the dramatic developments in Ukraine. IndustriALL expresses support to all its affiliated trade unions and hopes for a swift restoration of peace, before it escalates into a civil war.

General secretary Raina stated:

IndustriALL calls for an end to violence in Ukraine. When citizens are shot dead on the orders of their government, the world is horrified. IndustriALL remains in constant contact with its affiliates in Ukraine. Many of these organisations are now operating under even more difficult circumstances following the malicious arson of Trade Union House.

Rana Plaza compensation arrangement needs brands’ commitment

Consumers around the world will be disgusted to know that this long list of brands connected with Rana Plaza is still refusing to join the Arrangement: Adler, Auchan, Benetton, Camaieu, Carrefour, Carrona, Cato Fashions, Children’s Place, JC Penney, Kids for Fashion, Lee Cooper, Manifattura Corona, Mango, Matalan, NKD, Premier Clothing, PVT (Texman), Store 21, Yes Zee, Walmart.

If a majority of these brands refuse to pay what they owe, the US$40 million needed for compensation in line with ILO standards will not be collected.

Well-known high-street brand Primark, based in Ireland, has played a leading role in the industry’s response to Rana Plaza. Primark paid the stopgap salaries to all 3,600 workers of Rana Plaza for the six months following the collapse, plus a further three months. Primark has also been an important partner in establishing the Rana Plaza Coordination Committee and the Arrangement framework. However, after months of joint work with the highest possible level of guidance from the ILO and UN international experts, Primark is now wavering.

Primark’s initial work in response to the Rana Plaza collapse was positive, including considerable humanitarian relief and work on the ground with the IndustriALL affiliated United Federation of Garment Workers.

Primark signed the Rana Plaza Arrangement with Loblaws, El Corte Ingles, and Bonmarche, together with IndustriALL Global Union, the Clean Clothes Campaign, Bangladeshi unions, the Bangladeshi government, and Bangladeshi manufacturers and employers’ associations. Each stipulation and condition in the Arrangement has been met. But now Primark is hesitating to commit, considering instead going it alone with its own scheme. This scheme is flawed in many ways, but most fundamentally in that it totally undermines the stringent, fair and transparent Arrangement.

The Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund has now been established by the Arrangement. The large number of brands that source from Bangladesh but which were not connected to Rana Plaza are being asked to make voluntary payments into the fund.

Mascot and El Corte Ingles are the only companies to have publically contributed to the fund so far.

You and your organization can also make a solidarity payment into the fund by following the instructions on the dedicated website of the Rana Plaza Arrangement.

IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary Monika Kemperle stated:

Only two brands connected with Rana Plaza have paid into the fund. We implore the rest to pay up now. We urge people to write on their Facebook pages, write on the websites of their national media, and mobilise at the stores of these companies. It is time to name, shame and campaign. On 24 April, one year will have passed since the horror of Rana Plaza. No more excuses. The fund is set up, the management of the fund is reliable, and every part of the mechanism has been negotiated and agreed by all concerned. The support and commitment from all the major stakeholders has been attained. The only outstanding action now is for the brands to pay. The necessary total of US$40 million is realistic. We need all supporters of this initiative to exert their strong influence over these image-conscious clothing companies.

Cambodia – tentative steps towards constructive dialogue

The meeting in Phnom Penh was hosted by Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon, with several ministers including the Ministers of Labour and Commerce and other senior government officials present. IndustriALL Global Union and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) were joined by H&M, Inditex, Gap, C&A and Puma. 

IndustriALL’s general secretary Jyrki Raina was cautiously optimistic after the meeting:

There was some indication of what the government intends to do over the coming period, and there was a commitment of continuing the discussions with the brands and the global unions. We however cannot underestimate the challenges that lie ahead.

Cambodia’s garment industry has grown rapidly and makes up 80 per cent of the country’s exports. Low wages and government incentives for businesses have seen a boom in the industry worth some 5 billion US dollars per year, while living standards for workers have improved slowly.

“The meeting in Phnom Penh is a step towards constructive dialogue aiming for a sustainable garment industry in Cambodia,” says Steve Benedict, ITUC’s human and trade union rights director. “This includes a continued minimum wage reform and freedom of association.”

The violent end to the strike of Cambodian garment workers, rallying for an increased minimum wage in January, left four people dead, 39 injured and 23 workers imprisoned. Recently two workers were released. Of the remaining 21 detainees, 16 are on hunger strike.

The world has seen solidarity actions supporting the plight of garment workers in Cambodia, following a call by IndustriALL Global Union, UNI Global Union and the ITUC to protest outside Cambodian embassies earlier this month.