IndustriAll, IUF and Unilever create gender equality working group

The issues that the working group will take up in the beginning are twofold: the areas of focus can be broadly considered to protect and promote. That means that on the one hand the issues will be based on minimum labor standards and will look at how to prevent violence and provide maternity protection. On the other hand the point will be women’s promotion, that is, how to provide economic opportunities to women and how to attract more women into non-managerial roles.

Unilever prefers to use the term diversity in a wider context than gender equality. Diversity has been on Unilever’s agenda for some time with varying levels of attention and success, but now it has risen to a higher level, and more attention is paid to it. Since 2012 the program Winning Balance has been in place which aims to raise awareness of gender equality. One of the crucial points is to retain and develop female talents. The other is to ensure diversity in the supply chain. The goal is for every factory to have gender balance in every job. Apparently Australia has already reached this goal with 50/50 gender balance, according to Unilever.

Externally Unilever has certain policies as a business on the role of gender equality. Unilever endorses the UN guiding principles in which women’s rights are relevant. It subscribes to the UN women empowerment principles. It is important to give thought to how to breathe life into the documents that come from the UN Global Compact, which Unilever has signed up to.

Unilever considers that some work has been done on diversity in white-collar jobs, for example in India. There the issue is blue collar, because the society does not accept women well in blue-collar jobs. A lot needs to be done on awareness raising. Nevertheless there are 15 factories where women are working on the shop floor.

Jobs and equipment need to be designed so that men and women can do all jobs. Studies show that safety is better when women work on the shop floor together with men.

On the union side the position is that women workers still suffer from many kinds of discrimination – the gender pay gap is great, women do not have the same access to jobs as men, and many women have no maternity rights. Health and safety provisions are still deficient – most jobs are designed for white European men, without any consideration for women or other races. Precarious employment is rampant. And sexual harassment continues to plague women. Women are still afraid of losing their jobs if they refuse to provide sexual services. Violence in a broader sense is also an issue.

Unilever also realizes the need of addressing violence. Women’s and girls’ safety needs to be guaranteed, otherwise it is hard to work on self-esteem. Domestic violence is also a workplace issue. Bullying is another aspect of violence that must not be left out.

IUF has an agreement with Danone which started off as an agreement on gender equality. In the meantime it is now a diversity agreement. IUF is also working with Nestle on a gender equality program.

In the meantime the group will develop some benchmarking criteria to determine where success is being achieved.

Brazil Actions

The demonstrators marched to the headquarters of the São Paulo State Federation of Industries (FIESP), where they delivered a document calling on employers to act responsibly during collective bargaining, show respect for trade union organization and extend tripartite dialogue.

The march also passed in front of the Nissan dealer in Mooca, Sao Paulo, to protest at the company’s anti-trade union practices in Mississippi, United States.

Thailand Actions

On 7 October IndustriALL affiliates in Thailand, the Confederation of Industrial Labour of Thailand (CILT), the State Enterprise Unions Confederation (SERC), Thai Labour Solidarity Committee and the migrant workers network and the informal sector network, marched to the Government House demanding the ratification of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 and labour law reform that adheres to international labour standards. 3000 workers from various industry sectors joined the march.

Chalee Loysoong said that

Thailand is one of the founding members of the ILO and it's time for Thai government to ratify the two important conventions to pave the way for labour law reform in this country.

The right to organize and bargain collectively is our basic right but as the current labour law has shortcomings and loopholes, workers who want to form or join trade unions are not sufficiently protected under the current labour law

Thai unions demand that the Thai government bring the issue of ratification into discussion with the House of Representatives. Once the House of Representatives has voted to support the ratification, the next step is for the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to proceed with ratification process. After ratification, the government has one year to amend the labour law so that it's in line with the ILO Conventions.

What we are asking for today is that government start the discussions with the cabinet ministers, agreeing on the timeframe and steps toward the ratification and that by 2nd May 2014, Thailand will have ratified the two ILO Conventions

said Loysoong

Ratification of the two core conventions will benefit all the workers in Thailand and contribute to sustainable social economic development and decent work in the country,

he continued.

Thailand has more than 2 million migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. These workers are struggling to unionize in order to better protect their rights.

At the end of the day, Deputy Prime Minister Pracha Promnok gave a commitment to discuss the issue with the cabinet members in October, also that a Working Group consisting of government representatives and workers representatives will be formed to work out procedures toward the ratification of the two conventions within 60 days.

Launch of Confederation of Industrial Labour of Thailand

The new Confederation has 148,540 members from 211 local unions active in the sectors of electronics, electrical appliances, auto and metal, textile and garment, paper, petroleum, materials, chemical, oil, gas and electricity.

Four national federations are founding members of CILT namely Thai Confederation of Electronic, Electrical Appliances, Auto and Metal Workers (TEAM), ICEM Thai Council, Textile and Garment Workers Federation of Thailand (TWFT) and Automobile Labour Congress of Thailand (ALCT).  

CILT vows to fight precarious work and push for labour law reform for better protection of the right to organize and collective bargaining.

The new Confederation has also on its agenda to intensify trade union education for rank and file members and precariously employed workers.  Importantly, CILT has committed to promote women participation at all levels of union structure.

Chalee Loysoong, President of TEAM said, “CILT will work not only for its current members but will also reach out to unorganized workers.  We will recruit more workers into the union movement.”

Sia Jampathong, President of TWFT said, “Capital is moving fast and there is no other way to fight but to organize every workplace.  And we need a powerful industrial union to do that.  Our members at Thai Rayon textile are now on strike and we will do everything we can to support the workers.”

Chakri Roengharin, Vice president of the Electric Power Union (EGAT LU) and Chair of ICEM Thai affiliates Council said, “CILT is a big step for the Thai labour movement.  We have moved beyond legal barriers and decided to form CILT for the future of the labour movement.”  

Manit Promkareekul, President of ALCT said, “The main purpose of forming CILT is to strengthen the labour movement.  The only way to go beyond restrictions of trade union rights in a country is to come together and work together.” 

Theerawut Benmart, Deputy General Secretary of TEAM and Coordinator of the CILT Working Group on CILT said, “We have had several meetings to discuss about building sustainable labour movement.  The CILT Working Group has completed its task on drafting CILT statute.  The next step is to organize a general assembly for members to vote on the draft statute.”  

Yongyuth Mentapao, General Secretary of TEAM spoke about the plan to mobilize on 7 October to push the Thai government to ratify the core labour rights Convention 87 and 98 to pave the way for labour law reform in Thailand.

Holcim has to take responsibility for workers

On 1 and 2 October 2013 upon invitation of the Belgian trade union ACV-CSC BIE, representatives of Holcim works councils and trade unionists from North America, Latin America, Asia, North Africa and Middle East, Europa and Asia, met in Ostend, Belgium to discuss the situation of the workers in Swiss based multinational, Holcim. Although the situation is very different from country to country, the ongoing restructurings in this group causes severe problems.

Several delegates stated that according to their experiences Holcim follows more and more a mere finance driven policy rather than an industrial logic. Shareholder value comes first, workers and their living and working conditions are less important for the company. That may make shareholders and banks happy, workers have no reason to be content with the so-called “leadership journey”, which was announced by CEO Bernard Fontana and promises to generate 1.5 billion CHF profit growth until end of 2014.  Workers on the other hand face harsh measures, mass redundancies, repeated restructurings, a lack of fair information and consultation and a growing pressure on living and working conditions.

“This is not the Holcim I started working for many years ago”, one of the delegates stated.

Repeatedly the company violates international standards and also their own values, as published in their Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) statement and on company’s website. Workers have the feeling that – contrary to company’s declarations – the health of the employees does not really matter. In addition the company tends to recur to outsourcing and subcontracting measures in a number of countries. Although the company again and again states that they want a fair treatment not only for their own but also subcontracted workers, this is not the case. This has to change. The Holcim trade union network will send a clear message to the management, demanding that workers’ rights have to be respected and that the company has to take responsibility for those who generate the profits that make shareholders and bankers happy – the workers.

At the end of the meeting the continuation of this network was agreed upon. Appointments were made for next two years. 

Netherlands Actions

FNV Bongenoten: On 4 October FNV held an event for the World Day for Decent Work where they had discussions about the social dimension of the EU.

FNV celebrated the WDDW on 7 October with an event in “De Burcht” the former home of the first Dutch trade union, organizing diamond workers. Members of FNV, among whom domestic workers, meat workers, care workers and teachers debated with the Labour Minister Lodewijk Asscher on decent work and what they need to improve their working life.

Mr. Asscher is currently working on legislation attacking measures undermining collective labour agreements. However, he did not give a clear answer about when the Netherlands will ratify ILO Convention 189 on decent work for domestic workers.

India Actions

IndustriALL Global Union, South Asian affiliates’ SMEFI and INMF conducted a series of programmes across India for the Stop Precarious Work campaign.

The Steel Metal & Engineering Workers Federation of India (SMEFI) organized various programmes all over the country around the day of action to STOP Precarious Work in the NCR region, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, where large number of SMEFI Members participated on 7 October.

SMEFI, Maharashtra State organized a Rally of workers at Thane, in which nearly 500 workers participated. The Rally then culminated at Dy. Labour Commissioners’ Office. On behalf of SMEFI Maharashtra, a memorandum with the issues faced by unorganized and contract workers was handed over to Dy. Labour Commissioner of the Thane region. He assured his fullest cooperation in solving the workers’ issues. 

SMEFI in Andhra Pradesh gathered around 250 workers in the rally on 7 October against precarious work. The workers were informed working hours, working conditions, payment of minimum wages, the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) and the social security scheme.

Indian National Mineworkers’ Federation (INMF) organized a big rally of contract workers working in Western Coalfields Ltd. The rally was followed by a gate meeting in front of the Head Quarters of Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), Nagpur. Around 200 contract workers and activists, from various areas of WCL submitted their list of demands management. Their demands are as follows:

Cambodia Actions

IndustriALL Global Union affiliates in the South East Asia Region met to develop their strategies for 2014 to fight Precarious Work

Finland Actions

IndustriALL Global Union affiliates Metalliliitto, Pro, UIL and TEK in Finland organized a joint seminar with some 100 shop stewards and union activists. The World Day for Decent Work seminar on 7th October will focus both on cooperation with above mentioned unions in the upcoming collective bargaining round and with the experts of the Finnish Labour Institute for Economic Research for working life poverty and distribution of income between factors of production.

The very moderate framework agreement for the next general incomes policy settlement was accepted by the Finnish confederations and employers’ organizations in August. All the unions have time until 25 October to conclude their collective bargaining negotiations with respective employers’ associations. The framework agreement assigns the agreements for the next 3 years.

Belarus Actions

Belhimprofsoyuz: on 17 September the IndustriALL Global Union affiliate Belhimprofsoyuz’s Presidium met and approved an Action Plan for the World Day for Decent Work around 7 October. The actions include the following:

Belhimprofsoyuz’ main position at the negotiations of the General Agreement is to prohibit agency labour in Belarus.