Maruti Suzuki workers prepare hunger strike in India

After the violent incident on 18 July last year in which a manager at Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) was killed, 147 workers have been held in Gurgaon jail without being granted bail. An additional 66 workers have outstanding non-bailable arrest warrants. 2,300 workers have lost their jobs, and it has been a year where thousands of families have been devastated economically and emotionally.

On 23 June the General Body of the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU) decided, following continued struggle and solidarity action, to protest against the injustice of persecution when voicing their legitimate rights.  


“To make the deaf ears of the government hear, we will mark this date by starting an indefinite sit-in demonstration and hunger strike in Manesar. We appeal to workers, organizations and all sections of society to join us on this date in Manesar and organize solidarity actions before and on 18 July across the country, so that we can register the united voice of workers, and other sections of society”, says the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union.  

The demands related to the hunger strike are two-fold:

1. Release arrested workers and activists (147 in the Gurgaon jail, 10 in the Kaithal jail)
2. Reinstate all terminated workers of the three plants of Maruti Suzuki Manesar (546 permanent and 1800 contract workers), Suzuki Powertrain (three since the 2011 strike including the president of the SPIEU union) and Suzuki Motorcycles (two workers, including the general secretary, terminated on 11 June 2013)

The hunger strike also marks a year of resolute tenacious struggle for the workers, who have not given up and continue to defy and challenge the arrogance of capital and its pliant state.

For more information, please see the report released on 27 June by the International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR), entitled Merchants of Menace: Repressing workers in India’s new industrial belt, Violations of workers’ and trade union rights at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

Tough negotiations for new collective bargaining agreement for German paper sector

The new collective bargaining agreement was reached only after several protest actions in front of paper mills and several rounds of tough negotiations with the employers.

Most members of the IG BCE are satisfied with the agreement. Apart from wage increases, the new agreement also contains some very important elements regarding partial retirement, an agreement extended up to the year 2020. As the German graphical sector is undergoing restructuring, this is a tool to be able to reduce the workforce in a socially acceptable manner.

In addition, for the next two years the IG BCE and the employers’ organization, VAP, will develop additional tools to deal with the challenges of demographic change.

DR workers face uphill battle to unionize

When workers at the Free Trade Zone company decided to organize in the face of appalling wages and working conditions, the company’s reaction was swift and brutal. Six members of the union committee were fired, and others suddenly found that their every move was closely watched.

So closely watched, in fact, that some forty workers who met with union leaders in their own neighborhoods were dismissed when they showed up for work the next morning. The company claimed they were terminated because of a lack of orders, but then promptly hired replacement workers.

On Wednesday 10 July the president of the union committee was surrounded on the factory floor by workers armed with knives and bats, who told him his life was on the line unless he quit the union.

IndustriALL Global Union has demanded that the incident be investigated and that those found responsible be punished.

It has also called on the company to negotiate appropriate measures to put an end to the violence and to ensure that workers are able to exercise the right to organize. Such measures should include a policy of zero-tolerance towards violence, the reinstatement of all workers dismissed for exercising the right of freedom of association, and a guarantee that the company will respect the right of workers to organize freely, including providing access to the union federation UNATRAZONAS which is helping the workers to organize.

The Minister of Labour and the company’s sole client, the Red Wing Shoe Company, have been asked to intervene.

Meanwhile, the workers’ courage and spirit of determination continues unabated.

IndustriALL Global Union readies to pull the trigger on Rio Tinto

At its inaugural merger conference in 2012, IndustriALL resolved to launch a multi-coordinated, multi-union global corporate campaign against Rio Tinto for its legendary anti-union and unsustainable labour and community relations practice, including environmental practices and conduct across the globe. With the launch of a Rio Tinto Global Network responsible for driving the global campaign, the June meeting in Johannesburg marks a significant step forward.

The purpose of the global campaign is to force a seismic shift in the way that Rio Tinto relates to workers and trade unions across all of their operations. The specific objectives are to increase trade union density in its operations globally and a recognition by Rio Tinto of trade unions and of IndustriALL Global Union as a formal interlocutor or counterpart.

Part of the strategic outcome of the meeting was the launch of a strategic alliance against Rio Tinto (START), envisaged as an alliance of progressive social, community, environmental, faith-based and economic justice network. To this end, an environmental activist persecuted for exposing mining environmental abuses in his country addressed the meeting. A Researcher at one of the leading universities in South Africa also addressed the meeting on the community abuses and social dislocation associated with mining in his home country.

Belgium ends historic discrimination between white and blue-collar workers

The discrimination had been going on for a century and an attempt to stop it had been blocked for 27 years, when the government finally managed to find a compromise in June. It was the solidarity between the two types of workers that made the agreement possible. It means that the classification of blue or white-collar, or manual and non-manual, worker, will disappear. Simply the term “worker” will remain.

The former blue-collar workers seem the most satisfied by the agreement as their notice period will be extended and granted according to seniority. Moreover trial periods have also been scrapped, and all sick days will be paid, whereas before the first day of a sickness was unpaid. However, not all differences between the two types of workers have been withdrawn. The calculation and the payment of annual leave, wage and salary payments, short-time work are still pending and will need to be settled by the Labour Council, a national body.

Employers are afraid that the costs for firing workers will go up. And the unions are afraid that employers will have recourse to more temporary work. The unions will join the negotiations at the Labour Council where the details will be worked out, hopefully in the workers’ interest. The final differences will have to be ironed out by the social partners within a certain deadline.

Walmart/Gap Bangladesh safety plan: pale imitation of Accord

The Walmart/Gap initiative falls short of the standard set by the binding Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. The Accord is an enforceable building safety programme backed by more than seventy global brands from 15 countries. Unlike the Accord, the Walmart/Gap initiative is unclear on enforceability and there is no commitment from the brands to stay in Bangladesh, nor is there full transparency.

IndustriALL Global Union, General Secretary, Jyrki Raina said,

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety signed between global unions, more than 80 global fashion brands, and NGOs provides assurance through a legally binding process that the commitments to inspect and improve garment factories will be carried out. This is the highest possible standard and one the Walmart/Gap initiative should be seeking to replicate. Instead what it provides is a pale imitation in terms of commitment and transparency. The workers’ and their unions’ voices will be heard loud and clear in the Accord but it will be muted in the plan presented by Walmart and Gap today.

UNI Global Union Deputy General Secretary, Christy Hoffman said,

Walmart are bringing their discount practices to factory safety. This is not a price war; this is about people’s lives. Walmart has dragged Gap and a number of other brands down the wrong track. We now urge the Walmart/Gap initiative to think again and raise its standard to those of the Accord out of respect for Bangladesh and the Bangladeshi garment workers.

Comparison of Accord with Walmart/Gap scheme

Walmart has a history of labour rights violations on a global scale. Gap and the other companies who have allowed it to take the lead on this initiative should ensure that standards are raised to the highest possible level as set by the Accord.

Contacts:
Tom Grinter, IndustriALL, Mobile: +41 79 693 44 99, 
[email protected]
Richard Elliott, UNI Global Union, Mobile: +41 79 794 9709,
[email protected]

Mexican electricity workers reach agreement with the government on pensions

Following this victory, the SME has decided to dismantle the camp set up on 5 June in front of the Ministry of the Interior. However, union leaders acknowledge that the substantive issue resulting from the government’s dissolution of the state-owned utility company Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LyFC) has not been resolved. During the next few days, talks will continue on the financial and employment conditions for reinstating the workers who lost their jobs at the LyFC.

Electricity workers maintained a permanent presence at the camp for one month, which led the government to recognise the pension rights of those workers among the 16,000 in dispute who have 23 years’ service and who have refused to accept their dismissal since the closure of LyFC in October 2009.

The SME said that it will now focus on securing the reinstatement of workers who have not accepted the Felipe Calderón’s government’s redundancy offer. One tentative proposal for a solution is to reinstate them to jobs at a subsidiary of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), which replaced the LyFC.

IndustriALL has closely followed the SME’s struggle for some years now, praises the persistence of the union and its members and congratulates them on this victory. It hopes that the struggle will have a successful outcome for the union and its members.

It congratulates the SME’s Central Committee, recently elected for the period 2013-2015, in which an absolute majority of more than 23,000 votes re-elected Martín Esparza Flores as General Secretary. José Humberto Montes de Oca Luna was re-elected as Secretary for External Relations.

Argentina: metalworking supervisors on state of alert

The union, led by Luis García Ortiz, has issued a press release denouncing the employers’ rejection of union demands for a pay rise and changes to the job classification system in both the manufacturing and administration sectors of the industry. The union accuses the employers of failing to respect the agreement’s clauses on maintaining job categories under review in order to take account of new production methods and technologies. ASIMRA accuses employers of trying ¨to make us believe that Argentinean industry operates like a village smithy”.

The union held a rally at the offices of the employer’s federation on Monday 1 July as employers were holding a meeting at the Ministry of Labour. Roberto Martín Navarro, ASIMRA Secretary, said that the union wants a review of the job classification system. He explained that the union went to the negotiating table with the aim of “updating basic aspects of the agreement. When they won’t agree to what we are asking for, they always start talking about paying us one-off lump sums. We requested changes to the job classification system set out in the collective agreement, in order to bring it up to date with new technologies and production methods”.

Navarro added that the categories in the current job classification table, “were established in 1975 and 1994. We think that things have changed since then, especially the role of supervisors, and we hope that the employers will review the situation to bring them up to date with the current situation”.

He said the union has put its members on a state of alert and called for the government to mediate in order to achieve an agreement.

IndustriALL has communicated its solidarity to our colleagues in ASIMRA in the union’s fight for improvements in the conditions of its members.

Azerbaijani unions to discuss future joint work

It was the first workshop in Azerbaijan since the founding of IndustriALL, and held by Vadim Borisov from the Moscow regional office of IndustriALL Global Union. He spoke of IndustriALL’s recent history and its key activities. Affiliates made presentations about the social and economic conditions in their respective sectors.

Azerbaijan Republic Trade Union of Local Industries and Public Services Workers (ARTULIPSW) had to be “recovered from the ashes”, as one participant put it. After the liquidation of the Ministry of Public Services and the mass privatization, membership of the union drastically declined. Local authorities contributed to this by interfering in union activities. Membership fell from 120,000 to 22,500 workers. The union was so weakened that it had to let go of the regional structures and instead create a system of regional representatives.

The Federation of Metalworkers’ Unions raised the issues of scarce government contracts, old equipment, and bureaucratic obstacles to production at the plants. In general, the metal sector in Azerbaijan is on the rise, whereas mechanical engineering is declining. Engineering plants are relocated outside the cities. “They were quick to demolish them, and rebuilding takes longer”, Ali Gumbatov said. As a result, membership in the Federation fell from 50,000 to 10,000.

The union struggled with an employer refusing to transfer union dues. The Federation went to court and lost due to the lack of information about the dues. However, the union won in a court of higher jurisdiction, and the employer had to pay 40,000 euros and compensate legal costs for an additional 10,000 euros.

Dzhahangir Aliev, leader of the Oil and Gas Industry Workers Trade Union, noted the issue of restructuring which often leads to dismissals and decline in union membership. Outsourcing social services also contributes to this trend. After buying foreign assets State Oil Company essentially became a multinational. Operations outside Azerbaijan steal part of the profits, too.

Rafig Ildarov, president of the Power Stations and Electrotechnical Industry Workers’ Trade Union (ELEKTRO-IS), spoke of the problems at the Azteploenergo company. The administration interfered in union’s activities and forced the workers to sign statements on leaving ELEKTRO-IS. However, after the union fought back and its Central Committee interfered, the local was saved.

The participants of the workshop expressed the need for further IndustriALL activities:

Unions in Georgia Focus on union organizing and plant level bargaining

Vadim Borisov, IndustriALL representative in the CIS countries, spoke about the history of IndustriALL Global Union and presented IndustriALL flags to the affiliates.

The participants shared the situation at their plants. The most difficult conditions are found at Georgian Manganese where a recently created union has failed to gain enough membership to be recognized by the employer. There are three unions at the plant, including one created by the administration itself. While working in small groups participants discussed concrete measures aiming to increase membership.

Interactive training techniques were used during the workshop. After initial discussions in smaller groups on the issue of production, a role-playing game of “Collective bargaining” was held with all the participants.

The workshop highlighted the need for training on internal organizing for the union activists at Georgian Manganese.