Proud trade union win at Syngenta Pakistan

The Syngenta Employees Union of Pakistan took on the Swiss-based agrochemicals multinational. The union’s primary goal was for the company to respect Pakistani labour law and give 50 contract employees permanent jobs. The union’s first legal victory was 18 December 2010 when the local labour court ruled to support the workers’ grievances and their lawful right to permanent employment.

The union-busting tactics of the local management included bringing in paramilitaries to the factory to threaten and intimidate workers to join the yellow union; the head of the plant level union learned of his sacking through an article in the local “Daily Jang” newspaper on 23 December 2010, the sacking was effective from the day prior.

That sacked trade unionist is Imran Ali, also president of the Pakistan Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers (PCEM), which is in turn affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union. Imran Ali was summarily sacked one week prior to the end of bargaining that would have brought a new CBA on 1 January 2011.

From this date on management refused dialogue with the union and hired an expensive law firm to fight the union through each level of Pakistani courts. Every level of Pakistan’s courts ruled in favour of the union and every ruling was rejected and appealed by the company.

The last barrier was the High Court of Sindh in the capital Karachi. Finally victory can be celebrated as PCEM general secretary Muhammad Suhail informed IndustriALL last night of an agreement at the High Court. Acting on the agreement Syngenta management has issued appointment letters and accepted all of the 50 workers onto permanent contracts.

PCEM general secretary Suhail said:

“This all happened with the help, and great support of the IndustriALL, and this is the great victory of the IndustriALL in Pakistan that one of the Multinational Company compelled to accept 50 workers as permanent employees of the company with back financial benefits of last three years, specially in the scenario of Pakistani Trade Union Movement, where trade union activities has been crushed by not only employers but also from the side of the government.”

The reinstatement of the Syngenta union head Imran Ali is still pending however.

Jyrki Raina, secretary general of IndustriALL Global Union praises the union for its tenacious struggle:

We are proud to support our affiliate and pleased to see this important victory for Syngenta workers in Pakistan.

Indian unions win for contract workers

In the last five years, IndustriALL Global Union affiliates in India have prioritized organizing contract workers. This agreement is a result of the collective efforts of our affiliates, the Indian National Mineworkers’ Federation and the Hind Khadan Mazdoor federation (HKM).

As the INMF General Secretary S.Q. Zama said:

This is very urgent. If we, the permanent workers don’t act, our existence and power will be at sake.

The INMF strategy has been to campaign for contract workers to be part of the existing unions instead of creating separate structures and consequently to unify the workers instead of dividing them. This is a clear example of the application of the IndustriALL’s golden rules for organizing which promote the non-competition and building cooperation and unity among workers.

The issue of precarious workers has not only been taken up at the political level through the Joint Bipartite Coal Committee of India (JBCCI) but also on the ground, individually at the enterprise level, and were instrumental in influencing the CIL management to frame policies and release the agreement dated 18 February 2013.

The wage of contract workers now also includes medical, social security, allowances, bonus and other statutory benefits. The minimum basic daily wage for contract workers is now 464.00 Indian Rupees (US$7.30).

Categories of employee	Basic rate (Per Day)
Unskilled	Rs. 464.00
Semi skilled/unskilled supervisory	Rs. 494.00
Skilled	Rs. 524.00
Highly skilled	Rs. 554.00

THE REALITY ON THE GROUND

The notification of the implementation is always a big challenge. These miners are not conversant with their labour rights and workplace entitlements.

Although this agreement backdated and effective from 1 January, 2013, is a big step forward in the fight against precarious work CIL has been reluctant to implement it. The proof of this has been the circular in Western Coalfield Ltd. (WCL) a CIL subsidiary, obtained fortunately by INMF. The internal company circular stipulates that the “escalation on mining wage is now under reconsideration for payment or otherwise for ongoing contracts”.

As a response to that, the unions submitted a list of demands for strict implementation across the board for all the contract workers in all subsidiaries of CIL.

Therefore, the INMF affiliated unions are now strongly campaigning and negotiating the implementation of this agreement directly with CIL and avoid negotiating with contract agencies for the implementation of the agreement. Indian labour law stipulates that industrial relations must be conducted between the workers’ representatives and the “principal employer”, in this case CIL and not the third-party contract agency companies.

As a result of these campaign activities Coal India management is now amending all their existing contracts and the new rates shall also be implemented in the new contract as well.

India, which has already been designated as one priority country under IndustriALL’s Global Precarious Work project will now be the beneficiary of a special project in South Asia that will concentrate its effort in three target Countries. The main objectives are related to changes at the political and legal level and to the fight to organize and represent precarious workers. This achievement shows us that through these strategies the rights of precarious workers are respected.

Supporting union growth in MENA

As part of its priorities, IndustriALL Global Union continues to strongly support the work and actions of our affiliates in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). Our focus countries are Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia and Morocco.

In Egypt, president Mohammed Morsi was removed by the army in July, following massive demonstrations where independent unions were visibly present. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood government had decided to take over the ETUF confederation, not least because of the huge property amassed by the organization during decades, enjoying special protection of the earlier regimes. Over 60 year-old union leaders were replaced with government favourites.

After this second revolution, upheaval continues also in the union movement. Disappointingly, even the new government has interfered with trade union democracy and appointed new leaders within the ETUF. The situation remains messy.

In the meanwhile, IndustriALL supports independent unions in Egypt through training on organizing and building stronger unions. We have held a number of seminars for metal, energy, textile and garment workers in 2013. In October we hosted a conference on Trade Union Rights and Industrial Relations in Multinational Companies (MNC). In the presence of the Minister of Manpower, parliamentarians and academics, the 100 delegates adopted a series of recommendations on labour laws, minimum living wages, precarious work and violations of fundamental rights at numerous MNCs.

In Iraq, IndustriALL and the ITUC have launched a campaign to reform the labour laws as a matter of urgency. The current legislation is a remnant of Saddam Hussein's oppressive regime, preventing trade unions from carrying out organizing, collective bargaining and strikes. In July, IndustriALL’s six affiliates in Iraq came together to create a new National Council to consolidate their forces and fight for better laws that would guarantee the fundamental rights of workers.

In Tunisia and Morocco, our affiliates have created National Councils in a step towards increased unity building and coordination of international actions. The focus is on developing networking in MNCs that are present in the countries, organizing, precarious work, and the protection of women workers.

Tunisia is the country were the Arab Spring started in a revolution in January 2011. IndustriALL affiliates in the metal, petrochemical, textile and garment industries are all part of the UGTT, overwhelmingly the largest trade union confederation and a respected party in ongoing political negotiations. Despite recent difficulties, Tunisia is leading the way in building a democratic society through consultation and social dialogue.

Problems remain in the MENA region. Trade unions are illegal in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. And there are other good reasons than the scorching heat for not holding the football World Cup 2022 in Qatar.

IndustriALL’s goal is to help trade unions to become central pillars of the new, hopefully democratic societies in the Middle East and North Africa. We are making progress, but it will be a complicated journey.

Jyrki Raina

General Secretary

Kronos workers approve the new agreement

Blitz negotiations restarted on 13 November, five months after the beginning of the conflict, when two days before the expiry of the collective agreement Kronos Canada announced a lockout.

IndustriALL congratulates its Canadian affiliate, Fédération de l’Industrie Manufacturière de la Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux – FIM-CSN, representing Kronos workers, with their great victory. The CSN in its turn extends their gratitude to the entire international trade union movement for received solidarity, which helped Kronos workers to win.

According to the FIM-CSN, the newly achieved agreement, which is valid until 15 June 2018, resolves many of the points of conflict. For instance according to the agreement subcontracted members of the union get a full guaranty of employment, while subcontracted work will be limited in several departments.

Workers keep their acquired benefits regarding the work schedule and performed overtime work. In addition, a vocational program will be launched in order to give employees who want to get to other positions opportunities for special training.

In terms of the financial benefits employees will be retroactively paid an increase equal to the consumer price index (CPI) together with a lump sum payment of 1,000 CAD (710 euros) during the first year, and the rest of four years of the agreement the increase will be equal to the CPI plus 0.5 percent annually.

The pension system will be reformed with a view to move from the fixed benefit to a fixed contribution system. Both active and retired workers will maintain their currently existing life insurance, in addition the employer agreed to increase his contribution.

The factory will restart working gradually so as to regain full capacity by February 2014.

IndustriALL marks one year since Tazreen fire

Tazreen survivors and members of victims' families shared their stories of the day with IndustriALL and UNI at the site in October.

Watch this video to hear one of these accounts.

IndustriALL Global Union general secretary Jyrki Raina said:

The stories of the Tazreen survivors are so harrowing. Still now, one year after the deadly fire, anyone visiting the site can see the fire damaged building where workers jumped from the third floor windows to escape. Many of those survivors broke their legs when jumping to safety.
The psychological scars are worse than those on their legs. Many survivors talk of being ordered to remain at their posts while managers safely escaped via stairways, of hearing their colleagues scream, and of never seeing their friends and relatives since the moment the smoke filled the factory.
I hope these stories are known by those complacent brands who have stayed outside of the compensation negotiations after sourcing from Tazreen.
One year has passed and families are in extreme hardship because the Tazreen factory was allowed to become a death-trap.

Trade unions join walkout of Warsaw Climate Talks

Brian Kohler, Director for Health, Safety and Sustainability at IndustriALL explained:

These talks have degenerated from tragedy, to farce. Even with the stark warning provided by Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, national leaders have failed to show sufficient ambition to address the problems. Indeed, we have observed the opposite, with attempts to backtrack on decisions taken at previous COPs.

ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow said:

We have been shocked by some of the wealthiest nations including Canada and Australia showing a lack of responsibility for ambitious targets and with almost all developed nations failing to commit vital finance and even questioning the need for 'just transition' measures for the worlds' workers and their families."
The corporate dominance on show is unacceptable. It is the same companies that advocate environmental and social responsibility that exploit workers and the environment through their supply chains.

Added Kohler: "Only an orderly and planned process to a sustainable future, that respects and protects existing workers while seeking and sharing the technology to create future decent jobs will save us from climate catastrophe. Our demand remains the same as it has been for many years: a Just Transition to a sustainable future based on a fair, ambitious, and legally binding global emissions regime."

It is unsurprising that powerful corporate voices would wage a campaign of disinformation and job blackmail to delay action. This has nothing to do with science, and everything to do with trillions of dollars worth of fossil fuel reserves whose value may be affected by any action plan. What is shameful is that democratically-elected governments would listen to those voices over the voices of their own citizens, and the other citizens of planet earth. Trade unions expect government negotiators to reflect on whose interests they serve and return to the next COP, planned for Lima, Peru in 2014, with a mandate to strike a meaningful deal. Time is running out.

Pharmaceutical Unions Boost Networking

Met upon invitation by IndustriALL Global Union’s Japanese Affiliates in the chemical and energy sector (IndustriALL-JAF), the meeting received reports from Assistant Director of Economic Affairs Division Health Policy Bureau from Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour & Welfare and Managing Director of Japanese Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association about the perspective of the Japanese pharmaceutical industry.

The meeting deeply discussed global developments and challenges in the sector. The participants focused on sectorial tendencies, major actors, transition from brands to generic drugs, possible impacts of upcoming patent expirations, mergers, acquisitions and general restructuring in the sector with possible effects on employment, research and development trends, healthcare systems and its relationship with employment, social dimension of the sector and corporate social responsibility activities.

Sustainability and trade union policy in pharmaceutical industry was widely discussed by the participants with a special attention on “Access to Medicine”. The meeting noted that expenditure on medicines accounts for a major proportion of health costs in developing countries, and this means that access to treatment is heavily dependent on the availability of affordable medicines. The participants agreed that for sustainability of the sectors there should not be destruction over the jobs, and continuous improvement access to health care by enabling development of social security systems. At the end, it was decided that there should be a joint paper on sustainability in pharmaceutical industry with trade union point of view at global scale.

Union Organizing in the sector with a special attention on white collars and agents was among the discussion items. Employment structure in the sector was analyzed with specific country examples. The participants shared their difficulties in union organizing while success stories were applauded by the participants. The meeting promised to provide support and solidarity to the reported cases in South Korea, Philippines and Turkey.

The pharmaceutical unions debated to use of international tools such as trade union networks and global framework agreements with some principles and targets. The meeting welcomed the intention of Japanese Takeda Pharmaceutical Union to create a global network among the unions organizing the company’s employees throughout the world. Furthermore the participants decided to develop networking among the unions organizing subsidiaries of French-based Sanofi Aventis. The meeting also underlined importance of continuation of sector-based networking among the pharmaceutical unions.

The meeting elected Masato Shinohara, President of Takeda Pharmaceutical Union which is affiliated with UA Zensen from Japan, as Chairman of the Network while Alexandra Krieger of IG BCE of Germany as Vice-Chairperson.

“The Tokyo meeting was so encouraging and promising” said Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union. “We will create a genuine union power in the global pharmaceutical industry through our strong networks as decided by our affiliates”.

Dismissed Turkish Workers at Punto Deri Continue to Struggle

Located at Istanbul’s famous leather zone Zeytinburnu, Punto Deri produces for may international brands such as ZAPA, Strenesse, Lacoste, Laurel, Armani, Beckham, Bijing Sheng, Denham the Jean Maker, Girgio Sam, Hugo Boss.

Deri-Is started its organizing campaign earlier this year since Punto workers were seeking to improve their working conditions since they faced with long working hours, low premiums, inability to fully use official holidays and non-payment of overtime works.

Three months ago majority of Punto workers joined Deri-Is, but the answer from the management was to dismiss pioneering union members even though they merely exercised their fundamental right to join a union which is guaranteed by the Constitution of the country as well as international conventions ratified by the Turkish Government.

In the meantime Deri-Is offered Punto Deri management dialogue for a peaceful contractual relationship at the workplace, but the management repeatedly refused. In addition to earlier 28 dismissals, twenty-two workers have received notices that their employment contracts will be terminated at the end of this year.

Over the initiative taken by IndustriALL Global Union, serious audits were conducted by one of your major clients of Punto Deri, and serious violitions against fundamental rights have been identified at the workplace. That brand has stopped its commercial relations with Punto Deri until the situation is restored.

IndustriALL Global Union has sent a letter to Punto Deri urging the management to immediately reinstate the dismissed workers without any delay, and enter into constructive dialogue with Deri-Is as legitimate representative of the workers for rectifying the situation. Along with this, IndustriALL Global Union has visited picketing workers on the spot earlier this month.

“IndustriALL Global Union will continue to support its affiliate Deri-Is with its all resources together with all member organizations throughout the world until this problem is resolved peacefully“ said General Secretary Jyrki Raina in his letter to Punto Deri. “You should be aware that if the situation continues as today, we will use our influence over your customers where our global union has very strong presence“.

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking unions will focus on organizing Precarious Workers

IndustriALL’s Shipbuilding-shipbreaking Action Group(AG) meeting took place on 12-13 November 2013 at Metalskolen (Metalworker’s school) in Jørlunde, Denmark and was hosted by Co-industri/Dansk Metal. 38 participants from 21unions were present.

IndustriALL affiliates from Australia, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan ROC, UK and USA actively discussed the following agenda items:

Global Trends in Shipbuilding and Shipbreaking Industries
Organizing and Fighting against Precarious Work
Promoting Sustainable Industry
Creating Trade Union Network
Developing Future Activities as IndustriALL Global Union

At the beginning of the AG meeting, all participants remembered the victims of the disaster (super typhoon HAIYAN) that hit the Philippines, including Cebu Island, where some major shipyards, are located by having a minute of silence.

The global shipbuilding industry has been facing over capacity of shipyards since 2008 and the world new orders in 2012 have declined – 77.6 per cent from 2007. As a result of severe competition, social dumping is rampant in the industry and precarious work is increasing globally in workplaces. At the same time, precarious workers are over 130,000 in shipbreaking industry in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan while shipbreaking will continue to increase in next 25 years. In both the shipbuilding and shipbreaking industry, there are still large numbers of workers who have little or no chance to bargain collectively on their terms and conditions of employment.

Promoting a sustainable industry has become an important matter in the industries. Unions from traditional shipbuilding countries/regions are seeking a way to survive and maintain the shipbuilding workers’ jobs by shifting to high value-added products and services such as off shore and eco-friendly areas by demanding sustainable industrial policies to governments and the employers.

As many shipbuilding companies are now operating globally, there is need for cross-border union solidarity to increase the bargaining power on implementing workers’ rights, improving working conditions and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), and tackling issues of precarious and migrant workers. The AG agreed to start seeking possibility to create new Trade Union Networks of transnational companies in the shipbuilding industry such as BAE, Navantia, STX, Keppel, Damen, etc.

As summary of the discussion, the AG agreed that all the unions will continue to follow up the conclusions of the IMF-EMF Global Conference on Safe, Sustainable and Green Jobs in Shipbuilding-Shipbreaking in 2011 and agreed on the following 10 priorities for 2014:

Organizing and Fighting Precarious Work

Strengthen and organize precarious workers (especially sub-contracted workers, foreign and migrant workers) and improve their working conditions through collective bargaining.
Strengthen communication between the unions in the sector on precarious work, unions will get actively involved in IndustriALL’s STOP Precarious Work Campaign.

Promoting a Sustainable Industry

Develop IndustriALL’s Sustainable Industrial Policy and strengthen activities against the government in cooperation with national centres and other industrial unions in their own countries.
Contribute to the process of making a new draft code of practice on Safety and Health in shipbuilding and repair developed by the ILO.

Creating Trade Union Networks

Start mapping MNCs in shipbuilding in the commercial and naval sector to seek possibilities of creating new networks.

Women Participation

Achieve more than 30 per cent women participation in the meetings and conferences of this sector.
Improve agenda and programme of the sectoral meetings to attract women participation.

Shipbuilding workers in Greece, members of IndustriALL affiliate, the Panhellenic Metal Workers’ Federation (POEM), have been suffering from severe attacks by their Government. For over a year workers in Greece have been facing severely deteriorating working conditions. The AG adopted a resolution on to call to a STOP to the attacks on the shipbuilding workers in Greece and also call for Solidarity with POEM. IndustriALL, together with IndustriAll European Trade Union will take action to call on the government to drop the charges against Greek trade union activists and to find a fair and just solution for the Skaramanga workers.

The process of election of the chairperson was also discussed and unanimously agreed. In the case there will be two or more candidates for the position, the election by voting will be conducted at the IndustriALL Global Union World Conference on Shipbuilding-shipbreaking in 2014, with one vote per participating country at the conference. The participants also confirmed that the World Conference is planned to take place in Nagasaki, JAPAN in autumn 2014.

On 14 November, the participants of the AG visited MAN Diesel & Turbo located in Copenhagen, one of the world's leading suppliers in shipbuilding. Participants learned about the industrial relations and the plant’s activities on designing and testing engines for ships and it’s production of key components. 50 per cent of diesel engines of the world’s existing ships are designed and supplied by MAN Diesel & Turbo.

Egyptian Workers in MNCs Struggle for Rights and Justice

The Conference welcomed the Minister of Manpower and Immigration, prominent public figures, experts, union leaders, academics, members of the 50-Constitutional Amendment Committee, representatives of international organizations and workers representatives from a large number of MNCs that operate in Egypt.

Throughout its seven sessions, the participants discussed burning labor and trade union related issues in Egypt, including recent developments of the Law on Freedom of Association, Labor Law, minimum and maximum wages, workers' challenges in MNCs along with IndustriALL Global Union’s responses through implementation of international tools for defending and enhancing workers' rights.

The conference included a special session on international labor solidarity with the participation of representatives of all well-known international labor related organizations operating in Egypt such as ILO, ITUC , SC-AFL-CIO, Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) and LO-FTF Council.

Members of the 50- Constitutional Amendment Committee provided up-dated information on the progress of its work as well as intensively-discussed articles of the Egypt’s draft Constitution. Workers from MNCs were able to voice their demands and point out labor related issues such as workers and farmers representation in the upcoming parliament and public freedoms, especially freedom of association.

Kamal Abu Aita, Minister of Manpower and Immigration, informed participants that his Ministry has adopted the latest version of the draft Law on Freedom of Association, which unions have participated in its preparation, and that the law has been submitted to the Prime Minister for adoption by the Government. The participants raised some clear cases at the particular MNCs on violation of workers and union rights, and called on the Minister to intervene vis-à-vis respective companies to come to negotiations.

MNCs’ behaviors and workers responses in Egypt were one of the major topics of the Conference. Workers pointed out improper working conditions, low wages, violations of fundamental rights which exist in the operations of large part of multinational companies. Workers also reported absence of employment contracts, subcontracting, outsourcing and rapid growth of precarious work. At the end, together with workers’ representatives, IndustriALL has identified series of MNCs that need direct interventions to enforce better working conditions an secure workers representations in the period to come.

The Conference ended with a number of recommendations, including, among others, accelerating the adoption of Law of Trade Union Freedoms as well as amending the current Labor Law; adopting and implementing national minimum living wages; confronting MNCs violations and enforcing the respective international tools on defending workers' rights; fighting all forms of precarious work and subcontracting especially with regard to MNCs practices; enforcing more sound local and international trade union solidarity.

With the purpose to continue reaching Egyptian workers in their own regions and provide on-site support, the Conference was preceded by two other seminars in Suez and Borg El Arab. Both cities host large numbers of national and foreign companies that produce not only for local market but also for European markets via exporting facilities in the Egyptian ports.

“IndustriALL Global Union does a significant job in Egypt” said Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary. “We do believe our strong presence and commitment will continue to play important role towards democratic and prosper Egypt”.