Global day of action to free Cambodian garment workers


IndustriALL Global Union, UNI Global Union and the ITUC are garnering international support in solidarity for protestors who were arrested during demonstrations by garment workers for higher wages last month. The call to action to “Free the 23” comes on the eve of a Cambodian court hearing for the workers on 11 February.

The detainees, which include trade union activists and garment workers, were incarcerated after peaceful rallies on 2 and 3 of January were met with brutal force by Cambodian police, which opened fire on demonstrators leaving four people dead and 39 injured.

Unions are being asked to demonstrate outside Cambodian embassies and present a letter to the ambassador condemning the violence against the garment workers and demanding the release of the 23 detainees. The letter also calls on the government to respect the right to freedom of association.

It follows an open letter to the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, from IndustriALL, UNI and ITUC together with 30 of the world’s major clothing brands, including Walmart, Nike and H&M, demanding a thorough investigation into the perpetrators of the killings and appealing to the government to honour its commitment to establish a fair and inclusive process for determining a new minimum wage.

The Cambodian government has so far been unresponsive while the garment manufacturers have taken a confrontational approach to union demands.  

The past few months have seen a succession of strikes by Cambodian garment workers seeking to double the industry's minimum wage to US $160 a month.

Cambodia has more than 500,000 garment workers with textiles making up 80% of the country’s exports. The country’s low wages and government incentives for businesses have seen a boom in the textile industry worth some 5 billion US dollars per year, while living standards for workers have not increased.

Email us for more information on how to join your nearest action: [email protected]

Download this model letter to present to the Cambodian Ambassador.

Download and print the campaign poster, take it to your protest, and send us the pictures.

Join the petition to support Cambodian garment workers: http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=2129

India – 2000 protestors march to free jailed Maruti Suzuki workers

The huge demonstration on 31st January at Jantar-Mantar in the Indian capital marked the end of a two-week padyatra (journey by foot), which began on 15 January 2014 in the neighbouring state of Haryana.

Workers, their families, students and social activisits gathered under the banner of Maruti Suzuki Workers Union to demand the immediate release of the 147 workers, as well as the reinstatement of 2300 suspended workers.

They also called for a judicial inquiry into  death of Avinish Kumar, HR Director at Maruti Suzuki’s plant in Manesar  on 18 July 2012.

After the demonstration, a memorandum of the demands was handed over to the President of India.  

Tapan Kumar Sen, Member of Parliament and eminent Trade Union Leader, congratulated the Maruti Suzuki Workers for their continuous struggle against the nexus of national and international capitalism.  Well known social activists Arundhati Roy and Yogendra Yadav also criticised the anti-labour policies of the Federal and Central Government of India.  

Brother S.M. F. Pasha, from IndustriALL’s South Asia Office, expressed a message of solidarity for Maruti Suzuki Workers and their families.

The protest was supported by many other Indian trade unions including AITUC, HMS, CITU, NTUI and AIUTUC, as well as Sarva Karamchari Sangh-Jal Board workers, Samtamulak Mahila Sangathan and Janrang-Delhi amongst others.

The demonstration ended with a pledge to support the workers until their demands are met by authorities. 

Legal victory for Honda workers’ independent union in Mexico

The company and the Joint Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board (JFCA) have hindered its efforts all the way. The union overcame one more obstacle on 24 January when the justice system ruled that the workers have the right to join the union of their choice and that a separate union does not have the power to request cancellation of STUHM’s official registration as a union.

The ruling means that the company, the government and the protection unions must stop attacks against the union. This is a big victory for the Mexican independent trade union movement, especially for STUHM members.

Since 2010, workers at Honda México and their union STUHM have been organising with the aim securing the right to negotiate a collective agreement to improve health and safety at work, increase pay, eliminate excessive and arbitrary shift allocations, stop unfair dismissals and unexplained deductions from wages and benefits and put an end to official representation of the workers by the protection union, the Sindicato de Empleados y Trabajadores en la Estructura, Armadura Motriz e Industrial (SETEAMI), a CTM affiliate.

The Directorate General of the Registry of Associations, part of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare (STPS) has committed a series of irregularities while processing STUHM’s application for trade union registration. It delayed the process for longer than expected, until 2011, by which time the union’s entire executive committee had been dismissed or threatened. The company dismissed more workers at the Jalisco factory in 2013. The STUHM responded with demonstrations and solidarity actions and demanded immediate intervention by the federal government to reinstate the workers and put an end to the company’s intimidation, threats and violation of the workers’ right to join a union of their choice.

The union has called on the JFCA to comply with the collegiate court’s ruling and issue a definitive judgment against the outstanding request to cancel the union’s registration because of the plaintiff’s lack of legitimacy. It has also called on the JFCA to set a date for workplace elections so that the workers can vote on which union they want to represent them for collective bargaining purposes.

National and international unions have expressed their support for STUHM and demanded that the JFCA comply with the court’s ruling. IndustriALL Global Union wrote a letter of solidarity, wishing success to the STUHM and its members.

“We want to congratulate you on your legal victory and express our support for your attempts to seek compliance with the ruling that obliges the JFCA to issue a judgment recognising the right of workers at Honda México to belong to a trade union of their choice and establishing that no other union can restrict another union’s activities, intervene in its internal affairs or request cancellation of another union’s registration”.

– Jyrki Raina, General Secretary, in his letter of support to the STUHM.

USW report exposes Crown Holdings’ bad corporate governance

USW carries out research on employers with whom the union has collective bargaining relationships. The current report regards Crown Holdings Inc., a multinational corporation with 149 plants in 41 countries and 21,900 employees. Approximately 12,000 of Crown’s employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements.

The report highlights key corporate governance problems at Crown Holdings including:

–       Excessive executive compensation

–       Under-representation of women on Crown’s board of directors

–       A conflict of interest created by a joint CEO/board chairman

–       Inadequate performance-based pay incentives

–       Lucrative retirement benefits for company executives who are trying to impose cuts on the company’s lowest-paid workers.

The problem of lucrative retirement benefits for company executives is of particular concern of the union in light of the situation at Crown Holdings plant in Toronto, Canada.

In September 2013 Crown Holdings forced workers to go on strike after negotiations of the new collective agreement between Crown and USW Local 9176 in Toronto, Ontario, when the company tried and imposed a two-tier wage schedule, remove d a cost-of-living allowance, provided only minimal wage increases, and kept an already nine-year freeze on pensions.

The situation in Canada is not unique, in Turkey Crown Holdings still continues its union-busting practice by refusing to recognize union as its collective bargaining partner.

The problems raised in the report were also subject of the recent AFL-CIO letter sent to Hans Löliger, a Crown board member and chairman of its compensation committee.

“Findings of the report are not surprizing to us, said Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL’s Assistant General Secretary. Such bad corporate governance by Crown management has an extremely negative impact on labour relations. This is why we conduct a global campaign”.

The USW report and AFL-CIO letter are available on USW campaign website www.takebacksnomore.ca.

Tunisia – Trade Unions Welcome New Constitution

This important development comes three years after an uprising against autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali that inspired a wave of Arab revolts. The country’s largest trade union center UGTT and its member unions, including three IndustriALL affiliates, have played a crucial role in its development.

Largely applauded for its modernity, the new Constitution had been delayed by near political deadlock as different political parties argued over the role of Islam in one of the most secular Arab countries. Finally it was passed with an overwhelming majority in the National Constituent Assembly by 200 votes of the total 216. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed the agreement as an "historic milestone", stating, "Tunisia's example can be a model to other peoples seeking reforms."

Important principles of the Constitution include an emphasis on a civil state and democracy, freedom of worship and the independence of the three powers, the Executive, Legislative and Media. Of crucial importance to the trade union movement is that the constitution now enshrines the right to freedom of association, for unions to organise and the right to strike.

IndustriALL Global Union’s Executive and Finance Committee member and General Secretary of the FGME-UGTT, Tahar Berberi stated,

On Sunday, three years after the outbreak of the revolution, the Constituent Assembly in Tunisia adopted the new constitution of the second republic. Also, a new independent government was formed with the main task of preparing for the elections this year to be overseen by the newly elected Independent Electoral Commission. We now only need to specify the dates of the elections. These three tracks constituted the pillars of the UGTT's Road Map as the platform where the political parties can meet in order to achieve a democratic transition.

IndustriALL General Secretary, Jyrki Raina in passing his congratulations to all the three affiliated trade unions in Tunisia said:

The role of UGTT and member unions, including yourselves, has not only been of crucial importance in achieving this constitution you have been a shining example of how the trade union movement can push for democracy and help change society.

Tunisia's new constitution could also make a momentous change for women, following the adoption of a clause that guarantees gender equality in legislative assemblies and for steps to be taken to protect women against violence, a first in the Arab world. By law Tunisian men and women have been equal since the 1950s, when President Habib Bourguiba passed the Personal Status Law of 1956. However if put into practice, clauses such as Article 45, which requires the government to create parity for women in all legislative assemblies in the country, are bound to make history.

U.S. statistics prove unionized workers get higher wages

24 January 2014 the U.S. federal Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual report on unionization statistics for 2013. The report gives an overview of union membership in United States in 2013.

The union membership rate in 2013 was 11.3 per cent, which is similar to 2012. The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions was 14.5 million. In comparison, during the first year of data collection 1983 the rate was 20.1 per cent.

According to the report being a union member in U.S. has a financial advantage. In 2013 full-time wage and salary workers, union members had median usual weekly earnings of US$950, while those who were not union members had median weekly earnings of US$750. The details are in the comparison table of the Report called Median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by union affiliation and selected characteristics.

Other highlights based on 2013 data:

The entire report is available on the link http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

Migros and Coop refuse to sign Bangladesh safety accord despite 1800 deaths in 7 years

Swiss-based global unions IndustriALL and UNI wrote to the two supermarket chains late last year urging them to sign the Accord, which was founded following the Rana Plaza factory complex in April in which more than 1,100 people died. More than 120 global brands that source products from Bangladesh have now committed to strict, independent safety inspections including major European supermarket chains such as Carrefour, Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

The two global unions have now written a second time asking for a meeting with the CEOs of both companies.

IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina says it is high time the Swiss brands join the more than 120 signatories:  "Together we need to make Bangladesh a label of pride. COOP and Migros need to take their responsibility for a sustainable garment industry and sign the Accord."

UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings said, “There is simply no excuse for not signing the Accord. 1,800 mothers, fathers and children died simply because of unsafe factories in which western brands source their products. Migros and Coop have a responsibility which they refuse to meet.”
 
The accord, an unprecedented agreement between brands and global unions carries out strict, independent safety inspections on factories and allows workers to refuse to work if a factory is deemed unsafe. In letters to the CEOs of both Migros and Coop, Philip Jennings and Jyrki Raina spelt out why the two Swiss companies should join the Accord and asked for a meeting with the CEOs.

No going back! SUTEIVP's six years of struggle for the reinstatement of workers at Vidriera del Potosí

“The dismissals and the dismantling of the workers’ union, the Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Empresa Industria Vidriera del Potosí (STUEIVP), was a radical step by the company, but it was endorsed by the authorities and backed up with a show of public force to deprive them of their trade union  representation on 9 May 2008. It may have hindered the struggle but it did not stop it” (reference from an article published in Jornada de San Luis on 23 January 2014).

A total of 220 workers were dismissed in 2008, including the entire union executive committee. The company made the move prior to signing a new collective agreement with the corrupt leaders of a yellow protection union chosen by the company.

Throughout all these years, SUTIEVP has refused to accept the dismissal of the 220 workers because they had employment security under the terms of the collective agreement in place at the time. Today, 33 workers have managed to resist the company’s pressure to give up their demands and have every hope of successful legal action to require reinstatement.

At a symbolic act of resistance outside the company on 26 January, SUTEIVP showed that it intends to continue the fight and demanded that the competent authorities and Grupo Modelo’s management find a solution to the dispute. The union thanked all the national and international trade unions that have given their unconditional solidarity to this struggle.

“Since 2008, Industria Vidriera del Potosí has carried out a further 600 unfair dismissals. During these six years, it has dismissed colleagues who supported us and forced others to join the protection union, the CROC, which has threatened workers with immediate dismissal if they support our struggle. In addition, the dismissed workers and our wives, sons and families have been blacklisted when our only crime has been to defend our employment and human rights as enshrined in the Mexican Constitution”, says the union.

The company and the labour authorities have obstructed the legal case for the reinstatement of the 33 dismissed workers in an attempt to wear down the workers and drag out proceedings. At the commemoration event for the six years of struggle, the workers issued the following list of demands to Grupo Modelo:

IndustriALL Global Union again expresses its support and solidarity for its affiliate SUTEIVP, calls on the workers in struggle to continue with their demands and calls on the labour authorities to arrange speedy arbitration and find in favour of the workers and their families.

African unions confront precarious work

The IndustriALL Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Precarious Work Conference, which took place at the ITUC training centre in  Lomé, Togo on 27-28 January, enabled affiliates to identify regional objectives, strategies and priorities on precarious work leading to 2016 as well as strategies and actions for 2014, within the framework of IndustriALL’s global goals and strategies.

Participating unions painted an all too familiar picture of precarious work spreading throughout the region. In the mining and manufacturing industries it is being driven particularly by multinational companies to reduce wages and conditions and to exclude trade unions. Global employment agencies continue to pressure governments to allow them to extend their operations and replace permanent employment with temporary agency work.

Precarious workers in the region are generally excluded from social security provisions and health and safety protections and are subject to lower salaries and conditions than permanent workers. In Mauritius it is a government strategy to replace local workers with migrant workers on wages that fall way below the poverty level.

Affiliates from the DRC, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Ghana, Cameroon, Mauritius, Nigeria, Niger, Togo, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal and Guinea described what their unions have been doing to confront precarious work. Hostility of employers and workers’ fear continue to be major barriers to organizing. Nevertheless, many were able to point to successes in organizing precarious workers, converting their status from precarious to permanent, and signing collective agreements that have same conditions for permanent and contract workers. For example, SUTIDS in Senegal has amended its statutes to make it easier to recruit precarious workers and as a result has gained 450 new members.

Unions have also been pursuing legislative changes to protect precarious workers and reduce the incidence of precarious work. In Mauritius, the union has achieved amendments to the labour law that stipulate that all contract workers with 6 months service qualify for leave provisions, all contract jobs of more than 2 years must be converted to permanent and all workers, including contract workers, must receive and end-of-year bonus (13 month salary). In Senegal, legislation that regulates agency work has been passed.

Raising awareness among workers and the general public of the consequences of precarious work continues to be an important strategy for all unions. Affiliates in Ghana and Senegal have successfully used media campaigns to this end.

The meeting formed part of the IndustriALL precarious work project for sub-Saharan Africa which is supported by IndustriALL affiliates in Finland and Belgium. This project is now entering a new phase. In 2013 the unions collected data in order to establish a baseline of the number, distribution and situation of precarious workers which will enable them to measure progress and to better target their actions. In each country affiliates are now working together to develop an agreed action plan that will be implemented by all affiliates, working together. 

Thai and Indonesian unions foster solidarity

Vonny Diananto, IndustriALL regional officer in Singapore presented the Indonesian HOSTUM campaign (Hapus Outsourcing dan Tolak Upah Murah, from Indonesian —Stop outsourcing, fight against low wage), during the workshop in Bangkok. Participants from Thai unions wanted to know how the campaign could be so successful. A program of study visit has been prepared in discussion with IndustriALL regional office and the Indonesian Metal Workers Federation (FSPMI). On 20 December six union representatives from Thailand, three women and three men, representing TEAM, TWFT, PPFT and EGAT LU, spent five days in the Bekasi industrial area in the outskirts of Jakarta. Bekasi is one of the biggest areas in Indonesia for the electronics and metal industry. The aim of the visit to Indonesia was an in-depth study about organizing and campaigning strategy.  

The Thai union representatives met with IndustriALL Indonesian Council chaired by Sjaiful Patombong. Indonesian union representatives shared recent achievements resulting from the national campaigns led by Indonesian Trade Union Confederation (KSPI) under the leadership of Said Iqbal, who is also the president of FSPMI.

The campaign against precarious work is one of the key campaigns of the Indonesian union movement.  After years of campaigning for a better legislation, in 2012 Indonesian Constitutional Court issued a ruling against outsourcing, citing a reason of discrimination and violation of the Constitution. The Indonesian Ministry of Labour also announced a new decree to limit outsourcing to five sectors:  cleaning, security, transportation, canteen and mining service. The union movement led by KSPI organized a large-scale national campaign calling the government to enforce the new labour decree and the employers to observe the new law and correct their practices by directly employing the agency workers in production lines.

On the day of visit to Omah Buruh and Bekasi branch office of FSPMI – where workers and union activists working in East Jakarta Industrial Park often come to discuss and plan their collective bargaining  – Thai and Indonesian unionists exchanged information on collective bargaining strategy and negotiation.

As part of the study visit, the FSPMI also arranged for the Thai union representatives to visit Indonesia Suzuki Motor union to learn about union activity and collective bargaining at company level.  The local union also requested Thai union delegates to put them in contact with the Suzuki Motor union in Thailand, which was formed in Rayong, Thailand in December 2013. Currently the union is in a serious dispute with the company as the union founders were fired after signing their first collective bargaining agreement in December 2013.

The study visit was fruitful for both Thai and Indonesian trade unions. In May 2014, Indonesian union representatives will visit Thailand to attend the IndustriALL Regional Conference and spend a few more days to visit and learn about developments of Thai union movement. 

In appreciation of the shared experience and hospitality the representatives of Thai unions sent a letter where they said:

“Thai union delegates who participated in the study visit to Indonesia would like to express our deep appreciation and gratitude for the great solidarity and hospitality. Although the study visit was only five days, we had a wonderful experience and felt what it’s like to be a part of the strong union movement. We deeply admire the commitment, the hard working of Indonesian union activists and the great capacity to mobilize the working class to better the lives of workers and the people.  The national campaigns for living wage, health insurance and social security for all, and to end precarious work are the concrete efforts by the democratic Indonesian union movement. We also realize the importance of massive workers education which makes the successful national campaigns.”