IndustriALL Executive launches action on sustainable industrial policy

Representing 50 million workers from a range of industrial sectors, IndustriALL Global Union wants to push for recognition of the importance of industry to national economies and as providers of good quality jobs.
 
The Executive Committee endorsed a comprehensive action plan on sustainable industrial policy to:

Robust discussions were held around the issues of trade union networks and global framework agreements (GFA) with multinational companies (MNC). IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan reported on newly established trade union networks at International Paper, Sappi, Saint Gobain and Owens Illinois.  This year 21 company and sectoral networks will meet to build solidarity and joint action.
 
Both positive and negative examples of GFAs have been experienced by IndustriALL affiliates.  The Executive decided to set up a working group to monitor the contents and proper implementation of GFAs, and to work on a Charter of Principles to Confront Corporate Bad Behaviour, proposed by Workers’ Uniting.  
 
IndustriALL has concluded over 40 GFAs with major companies.  Recently, a revised GFA was signed with Lafarge, and on 14 June a new GFA with Italian electric power utility Enel will be signed.  The agreements contain improved language on permanent employment over precarious work and neutrality on organizing.  New processes have been initiated with French oil and gas company Total, and the mining giant Anglo American.  
 
The Executive established a working group for developing a new affiliation fee system by the next Congress.
 
The Committee approved the affiliation of the eight unions from Argentina, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Nigeria, Moldova, Tunisia, and the first new independent union from Egypt, the electricity workers’ union.
 
The Executive Committee decided to meet on 4-5 December in Tunis as a show of support for democratic development  in Tunisia after the revolution that launched the Arab spring in 2011.

IndustriALL launches new print magazine “Global Worker”

This first issue includes an in-depth feature on the Bangladeshi garment industry. Going to press just before the Rana Plaza tragedy that has gripped the headlines, this Feature underlines the unsustainable nature of the industry which was claiming hundreds of workers’ lives in horrible fires for years before the Rana Plaza collapse.

A special report on IndustriALL’s discussions on sustainable industrial policy outlines and explains the issue. IndustriALL is launching an ambitious initiative on Sustainable Industrial Policy which aims to stimulate debate and action among affiliates and so promote a union perspective on the key sustainability issues for industry.

Sign up to receive copies of Global Worker in English, French, Spanish or Russian by writing to [email protected].

In this first issue of the new printed journal IndustriALL interviewed the new Director General of the ILO, Guy Ryder. Director General Ryder is working to unblock internal deadlock and strengthen the ILO into an organization that tackles the crisis head-on.

The magazine also includes profiles of Russian trade unionist Alexander Sitnov, Mauritian trade unionist Jane Ragoo and the “Beneath the Shine” campaign supporting the UAW’s organizing drive at Nissan in Mississippi.

Guest author Peter Bakvis argues for a job-focused recovery strategy for Europe in an in-depth report on austerity. Bakvis is the Director of the ITUC/ Global Unions office in Washinton DC.

IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina writes in his foreword:

I hope you find our new journal inspiring and useful in your day-to-day trade union work on organizing and building global solidarity.

Sit-in in support of Maruti Suzuki workers

Leaders of All India Trade Union Congress, Centre of Indian Trade Unions, Hind Mazdoor Sabha accompanied by union members from Maruti Suzuki, Honda, Suzuki Powertrain, RICCO, Suzuki bike, Hero Moto Cop, Sona Koyo Steering and Satyam Auto, have organized demonstration and one-hour sit-in protest against the arrest by the police of over 100 workers 19 May in Kaithal (Haryana state of India).

The action is based on the earlier appeal of Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU) to all workers organizations, trade unions, democratic rights' and civil rights organizations and mass organizations as well as democratic minded individuals to protest against the brutal repression waged by the state authorities against Maruti Suzuki workers.

Since March 24 MSWU had organized actions including protest rallies and hunger strikes demanding reinstatement of 546 permanent and 1,800 contract workers dismissed by the company. According to MSWU the police have so far arrested 147 protestors and issued non-bailable warrants against 66 others. The workers believe the Government was not fully open in dealing with fired workers and always supported the management of the company.

IndustriALL encourages Kazakh oil unions to merge

On 14-15 May an international ILO workshop was held in Atyrau (Kazakhstan) for the oil sector unions. The key issue discussed at the workshop was the merger of various oil sector unions in Kazakhstan. As opposed to many other sectors and industries, oil sector never had a national union.

Some 25 union leaders and activists from the oil regions in Kazakhstan took part in the workshop. Experts included Gul’nara Zhumagel’dieva (assistant president of the Federation of Unions of Kazakhstan), Sergius Glovackas (ILO Moscow), Dzhahangir Aliev (president of the Oil Workers Union of Azerbaijan). The workshop was conducted by Vadim Borisov of the IndustriALL Global Union Moscow office.

Since there are many foreign-owned plants in the oil sector, the participants of the workshop noted the rise in agency labour at their workplaces. According to the union activists, agency work isn’t practiced much at the nationally-owned plants.

The majority of plants are undergoing a process of ‘optimization’, accompanied by dismissals and rising workload. This causes frustration among oil workers.

The workshop was opened by Abelgazi Kusainov, president of the Federation of Unions of Kazakhstan. He spoke of the need to implement reforms in the trade union movement to address workplace problems more quickly. Kusainov also emphasized the problems caused by the lack of unity between oil sector unions in Kazakhstan.

Dzhahangir Aliev recalled his experience of establishing a national oil sector union in Azerbaijan. He claimed that the power of national union is manifested in the fact that the employers which earlier didn’t recognize local unions now step forward and express their commitment to social dialogue, especially during the periods of social tension at their plants.

The participants identified a list of tasks that should be addressed by the unions at different levels and came to the conclusion of the need to create national oil sector union. A certain suspicion, however, was revealed on the part of the presidents of local unions towards the idea of a merger. A long ‘freewheeling’ time was a factor in the lack of motivation to share the very real income from union dues in the name of unity and solidarity, still seen as abstract values.

Vadim Borisov and Sergius Glovackas assured the participants that they will continue to bring international support to all the initiatives to create a powerful national oil sector union in Kazakhstan.

IndustriALL Executive Committee pays homage to Marcello Malentacchi

Opening the Executive Committee meeting at IG Metall headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, IndustriALL President Berthold Huber paid homage to the outstanding service of Marcello Malentacchi who served as General Secretary of the International Metalworkers’ Federation from 1989 to 2009. Marcello was a great, devoted and combative trade unionist who died on 24 May 2013 aged 66.

Delegates also mourned the 1,127 Bangladeshi garment workers killed in the Rana Plaza industrial homicide. General Secretary Jyrki Raina Day reminded the delegates of the amazing complacency of the global clothing brands, which only changed as more dead bodies were pulled out of the rubble day after day, and the global media outrage was so huge that IndustriALL and UNI managed to force the brands to the bargaining table. The legally binding Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh has already been signed by more than 40 major brands and retailers. IndustriALL has taken its place as a strong counterpart at the global level.

IndustriALL’s Executive Committee committed to a four-point action plan for Bangladesh:

General Secretary Jyrki Raina updated delegates on the negotiations around the Bangladesh Accord and other work.

Assistant General Secretary Kemal Ozkan updated the Executive Committee on IndustriALL’s priority work in the Middle East, focusing especially on the three key countries for action Egypt, Iraq and Tunisia. The Committee pledged its support for the persecuted oil workers’ union leader Hassan Juma’a in Iraq, and a training program with independent trade unions in Egypt. The next Executive Committee meeting is planned to be conducted in Tunis.

Assistant General Secretary Fernando Lopes presented IndustriALL’s program on organizing and campaigning, including training on skills for the staff and affiliates, continued action to stop precarious work, a corporate campaign against mining giant Rio Tinto, and action to guarantee human and union rights in Fiji.

Key challenges facing IndustriALL’s affiliates around the world were examined in Europe, Russia, South Africa, Colombia, Middle East and North Africa and elsewhere.

The victories of the Indonesian trade unions in the areas of minimum wages, precarious work, social security and pensions were commended by President Huber as an example for others to follow. Huber congratulated FSPMI leader Said Iqbal for receiving the Dutch Elizabeth Febe prize and promised continued support for the Indonesian unions.

Napoleon Gomez of Los Mineros in Mexico, a titular member of the IndustriALL Global Union Executive Committee, was once again blocked from travelling to take his seat due to a renewed court case in the sham legal claims against him by the Mexican authorities. Delegates committed to continue the long-term campaign to build strong, free and democratic unions in Mexico. 

South African garment workers strike on low wages

The warning strike was in protest of violations by member companies of the United Clothing & Textile Association (UCTA). SACTWU’s core demand is immediate compliance with the legally prescribed minimum wage and an end to UCTA’s sustained attack on bargaining rights of clothing workers.

In Newcastle alone, where the prescribed minimum starting wage is as low as USD43 a week, 4,200 workers participated in the strike action. The rest of the workers supporting the strike were in other parts of the KwaZulu Natal region.  

“UCTA wants to break the power that workers have spent decades building to try to protect themselves against abuses,” states Sactwu in it memorandum of demands “UCTA wants to lower the legal wages of workers. UCTA pretends that workers at their members’ companies are actually happy with the treatment they get from their employers! But this is not true. Workers want a better life. Workers do not want to be treated like animals.”

Unprotected strike at Mercedes-Benz South Africa

Members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) at Mercedes-Benz in East London had been engaging on lunch hour pickets, which escalated into full-blown unprotected strike action last week Thursday.

Workers whose demands relate to a transport allowance as well as an end to outsourcing at Mercedes-Benz became frustrated when management responded negatively to the pickets, threatening disciplinary action.

Management sought an interdict declaring the strike illegal. Numsa has upheld the court decision in favour of management despite concerns that members are being bullied for exercising their democratic right to embark on a picket.

“The strike action was imposed on them after serious provocation and threats by the employer to subject all workers to a kangaroo style disciplinary process for picketing”, says Numsa National Treasurer Comrade Mphumzi Maqungo. “Numsa has however agreed with workers that they return to work on Tuesday and that the union takes up their legitimate demands in negotiations with the company.”

In memoriam Marcello Malentacchi

Marcello was a great, devoted and combative trade unionist who served the metal workers at local, national and global levels for more than 40 years, promoting solidarity and trade union values of social justice during decades of major changes in the world economy and politics.

Inspiring a generation of trade unionists around the world, Marcello was a man of intelligence, culture and intuition who, working in six languages, responded actively and strategically to the many attacks on local and global rights and the dignity of labour, believing collective bargaining and strong independent unions were an essential part of society.

In retirement, Marcello was pursuing his many interests, including following world politics, returning to the classroom as both a student and teacher, reading widely, travelling and enjoying family and friends and cycling.

Throughout his life, Marcello never forgot the shop floor and working life where he came from. Born in 1947 in Grosseto, Italy, his father was an agricultural labourer and an active Italian Socialist. After leaving the village school, like many young Italian workers in an economy with few jobs, at the age of 17 he immigrated to Sweden.

In Sweden he began working at the Volvo Torslanda auto assembly plant in Gothenburg in 1965.  Very soon he became active in the trade union. Marcello was hired as Svenska Metall’s health and safety officer in 1974, and he was appointed to the IMF in 1981 to work with health and safety matters. Marcello was elected IMF General Secretary in 1989 and held that post until his retirement in 2009.

Marcello will be remembered as a wonderfully warm and empathetic comrade.

IndustriALL Global Union extends its deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to Marcello’s wife, Joséphine, daughters, Christina and Sandra, and his extended family in these terribly difficult times of grief.

A memorial will take place in Messery, France near Geneva on 17 June.

Kuwait oil workers win after strike!

After exhausting all means of negotiating with the employer, Sunday 19 May, 2013 saw more than a thousand workers at the state-owned Oil Sector Services Company (OSSO) taking strike action. The company provides security and other services to the industry in the country and is owned by Kuwait Petroleum Corp.

Workers returned to work after four days of strike when management acceded to worker demands. Initially the company had attempted to break the workers resolve by sending individual letters to the strikers threatening them with forced transfers, cut wages and even dismissal. However workers stood firm and maintained their strike despite the employer intimidation and after four days of industrial action the company administration changed attitude and the union was able to quickly sign an agreement with the company which we are informed is implementing all worker demands.

The workers are members of the IndustriALL Global Union affiliate in Kuwait, the Oil & Petrochemical Industries Workers Confederation and their action had been unanimously approved by the General Assembly of the Union.

We join with the union in congratulating the workers on their resolve and determination which led to this resounding victory.

Jyrki Raina speaks about the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh

More than 40 companies have already signed the agreement and we now are covering more than 2000 factories, we have the critical mass to produce real and sustainable change in Bangladesh. It is tragic that it took the lives of more than 1,800 workers killed in factory fires and building collapses during the past seven years before we got to this point. And It is not only about safety, it is also about creating a labour law reform which makes it possible for every workers to join the union and to raise the wages from 38 dollars a month.