Don’t criminalize the right to strike in Spain, IndustriALL demands

The eight workers who are members of IndustriALL affiliates, FI-CC.OO and MCA-UGT, were arrested after demonstrating outside the Airbus factory in Getafe, Madrid which employs more than 2,000 people in manufacturing aircraft parts.

After protracted court proceedings, the union members are set to stand trial imminently, with the prosecution recommending they are each sentenced to eight years and three months in prison.

“The prosecution’s demand for such a grossly excessive prison term is totally out of proportion to the charges and marks a dangerous step towards the criminalization of the right to strike in Spain,” says Jyrki Raina, General Secretary at IndustriALL. “Not only is it an affront to democracy, it is also unprecedented in the post-Franco era.”

IndustriALL has written to the Attorney General in Spain denouncing the false accusations and extreme sentencing orders against the workers, who were exercising their legitimate right to demonstrate in front of the Airbus factory.

The letter also urges Spanish authorities to give up their policy of violating workers’ rights and to end the repression of democratic freedoms.

“We demand justice for the eight workers who were demonstrating in defense of the working class against the casualization of labour and industrial relations; unemployment; welfare cuts; and the abolition of labour rights,” writes Raina.

FI-CC.OO and MCA-UGT believe the false accusations are part of a wider campaign by Spanish authorities against trade union organizations.

IndustriALL together with FI-CC.OO and MCA-UGT, also questions why judicial proceedings have been solely focused on persecuting unionists without taking into account the abusive and illegal actions of the police on 29 September 2010, who opened fire on demonstrators wounding dozens of people.

Demonstration of unpaid EVM chemical workers in Budapest

The workers started a blockade-type strike at the chemical factory on 3 February.

One hundred demonstrating workers and sympathizers were present in the center of Budapest in spite of the cold and rainy weather. The main speakers at the event were the local union president and the chairman of the works council. They demand that workers receive the wages, allowances and all the documents that are needed for further employment and tax returns. For this reason the workers of EVM started a blockade to stop the company removing valuable machinary.

The company owners are unreachable and during the demonstration, news was received of the former CEO resigning. The out-going CEO blamed the perilous condition of the company as the main reason behind this decision.

As the president of the VDSZ trade union, Tamás Székely announced to the demonstration, the union will provide all possible legal assistance to help the workers. The speaker read out the name of other trade unions from Hungary and international unions who sent solidarity messages.

President Tamás stated:

We would like to wish our thanks for all the solidarity declaration and good wishes for the workers of EVM.

The EVM employees continue the blockade type strike continuously, because as of the 10 February deadline they received no wages. The VDSZ union will continue to support this group of workers into the future as well.

Indonesia – minimum wage must equal living wage now!

IndustriALL Global Union secretary general Jyrki Raina expressed the global union’s full support for the Indonesian trade unions’ campaign for continued increases of minimum wages to secure a living wage, the social security reform and limiting outsourcing in favour of decent jobs.

At a meeting with the director general of the Ministry of manpower on Thursday, Jyrki Raina conveyed the message that wage increases are nothing to fear.

“Last year, we saw increasing minimum wages in many countries around Asia. Unions in Bangladesh managed to get a 77 per cent increase in 2013, and the minimum wage in China is already higher than in Indonesia. It is high time that Indonesian workers and their families get their share of the profits they actually help create.”

President of the FSPMI and the KSPI Said Iqbal said that for 2015, the unions would ask for a 30 per cent increase of the minimum wage.

“We need a good minimum wage if we want to build a welfare state. And we refuse to wait.”

Earlier in the week, KSPI members came out in full force on the streets of Jakarta as 30 000 workers rallied for an increased minimum wage and access to the general health insurance promised by the government.

The universal health insurance is meant to apply to all citizens in Indonesia from January this year, but it still leaves more than 10 million people lacking cover. Now there are increased concerns to secure the pension reform agreed to enter into force as of 1 July 2015. Increased social security will help people move from the informal to formal sector. Employers’ attempts to draw back already adopted reforms are a threat to social peace and Indonesia’s path towards prosperity for all citizens.

Jyrki Raina concludes:

“Although the Indonesian trade unions have achieved a great deal, struggles lie ahead. But with their force, commitment and ability to organise I’m convinced that we will see the minimum wage move closer to becoming a decent wage. Indonesian trade unions are an inspiration to us all.”

Launch of global campaign against Rio Tinto in Cape Town

On 6 February the Rio Tinto Global Union Network drew hundreds of participants to a rally against mining corporation Rio Tinto. Demonstrators marched through the streets of Cape Town, South Africa, for the right to decent work for Rio Tinto workers. The rally marks the official launch of the network's campaign to increase unionisation at Rio Tinto operations around the globe.

IndustriALL Global Union assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan says:

This is the launch of a campaign to increase trade union membership at Rio Tinto plants and make them recognise workers' rights and listen to trade unions. We must fight back against Rio Tinto's consistent anti-union behaviour and we will not stop until Rio Tinto realises that fundamental worker's rights, such as the right to organise and collective bargaining, benefit everyone in the workplace.

Worker action succeeds at Mauritius Stationery Manufacturers

“Following a 24 hour occupation, the big bosses were forced to convene a meeting and find a solution to the problem,” said Reeaz Chuttoo of IndustriALL affiliate CMCTEU (the Chemical, Manufacturing, and Connected Trades Employees’ Union of Mauritius). “It was very hard but with the solidarity of one and all, we finally succeeded.”

Over 500 dismissed workers were given retrenchment packages when MSM restructured and downsized in 2013 but the job security of the remaining 178 workers had been tenuous ever since, especially after the company was put under administration at the end of last year. Liquidation then provided a loophole so the company did not have to provide redundancy packages for employees.

However, MSM is predominantly owned by GML, a major group of companies in the Indian Ocean region which has an annual turnover of around US$ 1 billion and last year made profits of US$ 60 million.

After tough talks between CMCTEU and MSM following the sit-in on 5 February, the union will now negotiate retrenchment packages for all of the workers.

CMCTEU’s Jane Ragoo, who is also substitute member of IndustriALL’s Executive Committee, argued; “The GML group should give to those who produced the wealth of the company. It is not normal that the GML group, which made profits in the billions, let its workers go without a penny.”

Affiliates emphasise importance of a union voice in industrial development

The results of these consultations, together with information on the next steps planned by affiliates, are covered in an update that has just been released in six languages.

Download the update document on the right hand side of this webpage.

The next stage in IndustriALL’s Sustainable Industrial Policy initiative will be to work with relevant unions to develop action plans specific to each industrial sector. These plans will be developed over the course of the year by relevant affiliates in the course of each department’s sectoral activities.

A major event will be the IndustriALL Energy conference due to be held in Madrid in April 2014 where affiliates will debate approaches to sustainability in that sector which in turn will help inform IndustriALL’s perspective on energy policy.

All affiliates are encouraged to get involved in shaping IndustriALL’s Sustainable Industrial Policy work towards the next Congress in 2016 where there will be a substantive discussion on progress made.

In launching the update to affiliates, General Secretary Jyrki Raina said, ‘We cannot leave decisions about the future of our industries, our jobs and our planet to multinational companies and market forces. Through IndustriALL we can make the voice of industrial workers heard.’

Global union leader supports demands by Indonesian workers

Press Conference

Date: Friday 14 February 2014

Place: Hotel Mega Proklamasi, JL Proklamasi No. 40-42, Jakarta Pusat

Time: 10:00 – 11:30 Local Time

Attending:

Jyrki Raina, General Secretary, IndustriALL Global Union

Said Iqbal, President of the Indonesian trade union confederation KSPI and metalworkers’ union FSPMI

International labour leader and General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, Jyrki Raina will be joined by Indonesian trade union hero Said Iqbal for a press conference on 14 February 2014.

The conference follows discussions with high-level government officials.

Raina backs the campaign of Indonesian trade unions for continued increases of minimum wages to secure a living wage, the social security reform and limiting outsourcing in favour of decent jobs.

He is also concerned that the universal health insurance, which was meant to apply all citizens from January, still leaves 10 million people lacking cover. It is important to secure the pension reform agreed to enter into force as of 1 July 2015. Employers’ attempts to draw back already adopted reforms are a threat to social peace and Indonesia’s path towards prosperity for all citizens.

During his visit to Indonesia from 11 to 15 February, Raina will attend mass rallies and other events with the Indonesian Metalworkers Federation (FSPMI) and the Indonesian Trade Union Confederation (KSPI), as well as take part in a meeting with the IndustriALL Indonesia Council of twelve affiliated unions.

Raina is the architect of IndustriALL’s groundbreaking Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, which sets out to improve working conditions for garment workers following the Rana Plaza disaster that killed 1,129 people.

IndustriALL Global Union represents 50 million workers in 140 countries in the mining, energy and manufacturing sectors and is a new force in global solidarity taking up the fight for better working conditions and trade union rights around the world.

Arrested striking miners released but the struggle continues

Last week we informed you of the strike and the arrests as well as sharing with you the protests we have made to the Iranian President. At the time 20 strikers had been arrested but over the following three days eight additional workers were arrested despite the authorities claiming that nobody would be arrested because of “issues related to their wages.” According to the Chadormalu workers union, the security police of the Ardakan district were directly responsible for the arrests of the workers. Since the first arrests, Hossein Jenayi, the head of the workers union of Toos Asphalt company (the contractor that provided the workers for the Chadormalu mines) and Bahram Hassaninejad, the secretary of the workers union of the mining company were both arrested. The latter was dismissed from his job during earlier protests in November 2013 and on January 26; the Ardakan Labor Office Determination Committee confirmed Hassaninejad’s dismissal orders, sparking new protests among the mineworkers.

All have now been released although Bahram Hassaninejad was released on bail and appears to have been charged on an employer complaint of “acting against national security. Ominously news reports quote Mohseni Ejei, speaker of the Iranian regime’s judiciary branch, as warned protesters that there would be consequences for “upsetting public order and national security.”

The iron ore mines of Chadormalu in Iran’s central desert, about 180 kilometers north east of the city of Yazd and about 300 kilometers south of Toos provide raw material for various steel production plants in Iran, thus playing an important role in the economy and industrial production of Iran

IndustriALL Global Union continues to follow developments in Iran and develops contacts with various union organizations operating in the country.

Unilever alienating workers in South Africa and UK

Unite the Union members at Unilever’s factory in Purfleet, Essex, have been “offered” a pay cut of up to 30%. Purfleet management has refused to consider all proposals from the union negotiators, instead offering a deal which will slash pensions, bonuses, salaries, replace full time workers with individual contract employees outside the bargaining unit, reclassify jobs, and establish a new shift schedule with much reduced time off.

Purfleet workers have been threatened that the cuts are necessary to maintain the viability of the site, the largest margarine factory in the world. The factory produces millions of tubs of well-known brands Flora and Stork every day.

Unilever espouses at every opportunity the company’s commitment to ethical corporate behaviour, in line with the early history of the company. The workers who make Unilever products around the world want to see clear indications of these high ethics.

Unilever is a giant global conglomerate of consumer products, whose profits continue to rise. The company boasts that every day two billion people use a Unilever product.

However trade unions throughout the world are being targeted with increased pressure from the employer, in a concerning global trend. International trade union networking of Unilever workers is acting to respond to this new aggression.

The international trade union for food, farm and hotel workers, the IUF’s South African affiliated trade union the Food and Allied Workers’ Union (FAWU) is leading 220 members on strike at Unilever’s tea and food factory in Pietermaritzburg. The strike is on-going since 17 January.

IUF reports:

"The strike action revolves around the actual wage increment that workers want at 9%," FAWU general secretary Masemola said. The strike was also to demand "the reversal of a youth wage subsidy-type model where grades are lowered in terms of remuneration rates to employ young workers at lower rates while the content of the grades, or jobs, remains the same".

British Unilever workers at the Port Sunlight factory near Liverpool rallied at the plant gates on 3 February in support of the FAWU strikers.

Workers and their communities have been brutally left out of the company's “sustainable living” plan. Unilever has built a record of hurting its employees in Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, the UK, and elsewhere.

This alarming trend of pressuring workplaces and Unilever workers’ trade unions moved the global network to strengthen mutual solidarity and support.

Said the network statement in March 2013:

“We insist on sustainable workplaces, sustainable employment and guarantees of rights for current and future Unilever workers. So that workers may share in the benefits of the company’s growth, rather than paying for it with the loss of our jobs, our health and our rights.”

Kemal Özkan Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union said:

“Our efforts to unify Unilever workers worldwide with our sister International IUF continue with determination.”

You can send a solidarity message to FAWU by emailing FAWU general secretary Katishi Masemola at this address: [email protected]

Support Hungarian chemical workers striking for rights

The 100 employees of the United Chemical Works Company Ltd (EVM), in Hungarian capital city Budapest, took strike action from 3 February to demand payment of wages owed in arrears.

The employer has been unreachable, communicating with the workers only through lawyers and refusing attempts from the union for dialogue. This untenable situation created the concern amongst employees that EVM would relocate away from the site completely, without paying outstanding salaries.

For this reason the VDSZ members have conducted a permanent picket at the site in Budapest, to stop EVM removing valuable machinery from the plant. These workers need international support in their fight for the jobs and back pay.

Jyrki Raina, IndustriALL’s general secretary wrote to VDSZ President Tamás Székely, substitute member of the IndustriALL Executive Committee:

“We urge the management of EVM to pay in full the workers’ back wages and to sit down with you to negotiate a fair solution to the conflict… IndustriALL Global Union is prepared to further assist you to ensure that the management at EVM comes to the negotiating table rather than cowardly hide from you.”

VDSZ will organise a demonstration in Budapest tomorrow, 12 February, galvanising local support for the EVM workers. Join the international supporters by writing directly to VDSZ using the tool opposite.

Use the message sending mechanism on this page to write to the 100 striking chemical workers and express your support at this time of conflict for basic rights.