Thousands of miners rally in the US

On 1 April thousands gathered at the Charleston Civic Centre, in West Virginia, for a massive rally organized by the UMWA as part of its “Fairness at Patriot” campaign. The campaign focuses on the health care, wages and working conditions of coal miners.

The crowd marched to the Patriot Coal local office where 16 labour leaders, clergy and UMWA members were arrested for refusing to move off the office tower’s steps during a non-violent protest. The arrested included Cecil Roberts, UMWA International President, and Dan Kane, UMWA International Secretary-Treasurer.

In June of 2012, Patriot filed for reorganization under U.S. bankruptcy law. The company is seeking court approval to drastically reduce or eliminate health care coverage for retired miners, and to make severe cutbacks in the wages, health care, pensions and working conditions of active mine workers.

“This is a crime,” said UMWA President Cecil Roberts. “We’ve been robbed, tricked and lied to. This cannot stand – and with thousands of us from all over the country marching today and keeping us this fight tomorrow, it will not stand.”

The UMWA has staged a number of protests in St. Louis, resulting in many arrests, and is running an ad campaign aimed at pressuring Patriot Coal to abandon plans for shedding liability for pensions and health care benefits. Thousands of retired miners and their families would be affected by that plan.

Patriot Coal was created by Peabody Energy in 2007 with the specific purpose of allowing Peabody Energy and Arch Coal to shed its long-term health care obligations to its retirees and their families. Saddled with too much debt and too little production to keep pace with its debt load, Patriot is seeking to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Peabody Energy and Arch Coal have made hundreds of millions of dollars over the last few years while Patriot has lost millions. IndustriALL supports UMWA’s calls to make Peabody and Arch accept their share of the obligations to those who literally put their lives and their health on the line every day they go to work.

Anglo American workers disappear in Brazil

Six of the mining company’s employees, three directly employed and three subcontractor workers, disappeared after the floating quay sank in the River Amazon. The bodies of three of the six disappeared workers have been recovered by rescue workers.

Two of the bodies were found about six kilometres from Santana, a port on the River Amazon in the Brazilian state of Amapá where the floating infrastructure was located and another was found near the scene of the accident, according to the regional emergency services.

The company said that part of the river bank to which the quay was anchored collapsed and caused the whole structure to sink, including lorries, containers, cranes, cabins and port equipment.

The sinking was initially attributed to a large wave that had reportedly swept along the river. However, the authorities said that they are still investigating the causes and that it appears that the wave was itself caused by the sinking of the quay.

IndustriALL demands a rigorous investigation of the causes of the accident and fair compensation for the families of the disappeared workers irrespective of whether they were directly employed or subcontracted.

Unions strike in Poland against government policy

The general strike was organised by Solidarity, Forum Zwiazkow Zawodowych, OPZZ and August 80 against proposed changes to the labour code, which would extend the use of 'junk' employment contracts and which limit employment rights and reduce overtime payments, and against the government's health policy and changes to the education system.

The protest action was taken by a coalition of trade unions, including affiliates of IndustriALL Global Union, and joined by workers from the rail, mining, metallurgical and energy sectors as well as teachers and public health service employees. Workers at steel mills, mines and electricity plants downed tools till 10am, with the transport sector paralysed for two hours from 8am.

The protest was called after tripartite talks between unions, employers and government on a number of burning labour and social-related problems failed to produce concrete results in January and February.

The demands of the protesting groups are:

Colourful rally opens World Social Forum in Tunisia

IndustriALL’s General Secretary Jyrki Raina and Assistant General Secretary Fernando Lopes marched with over 30,000 participants from around the world through Avenue Mohammed V in central Tunis as the World Social Forum (WSF) opened on 26 March. IndustriALL affiliates from South Africa, Brazil, Colombia, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium and other countries attended the colourful rally.

Seminars on a wide range of issues will be organized at the WSF on 26-30 March, ranging from the fight against neo-liberal and austerity policies, to supporting gender equality, democratic development and human rights in North Africa and the Middle East.

In a session on the financial transaction tax (FTT), unions and non-governmental organizations agreed on continued campaigning for the FTT, tax justice and abolition of tax and regulatory havens. The campaign received a boost in January, as eleven member states of the European union decided to go ahead with FTT. These countries account for two thirds of the EU’s gross domestic product.

Already 40 countries from Brazil to Pakistan apply some form of financial transaction tax. This counters the argument that an FTT is impossible without full global coverage. As Global Unions emphasize, the FTT would go a long way towards curbing short-term speculative trading and financing job-intensive recovery programs, social protection and development of climate change action.

Earlier, IndustriALL leadership met with the government, the UGTT confederation and its sectoral unions in the metal, textile and petrochemical industries to reconfirm its support for the democratic development process in Tunisia.

IndustriALL’s strategies and action to support free and independent unions in the Middle East and North Africa will be debated at a regional conference on 4-5 April in Beirut.

Sactwu stands firm on collective bargaining rights

The Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union has responded to the ruling saying that the ruling does not set aside the minimum wage regime in the clothing industry. It also does not mean that non compliant companies now have the right to negotiate outside of the bargaining council system.  Sactwu General Secretary Andre Kriel stated, “For us, the bargaining council remains the only place where we intend to bargain. There will be no negotiations outside this forum.”

Whilst the ruling does not mean that the Minister will no longer in future be able to extend a bargaining council agreement to non-parties, it may set a bad industrial relations legal precedent.  The ruling comes a week after the Free Market Foundation, an organization promoting free market ideals, filed a constitutional challenge against the provisions of the Labour Relations Act that allows collective agreements made in bargaining councils to be extended to employers and employees who are not members of the councils.

“This brutal attack against our country’s democratically legislated industrial relations system, in particular its collective bargaining architecture, cannot be left unchallenged," said Kriel, speaking of the challenge. “We will mobilize to resist the reactionary, right wing economic and destructive intentions of the Free Market Foundation. Their intentions are not of any goodwill. It is nothing other than to create more and more exploitative conditions of vulnerable workers, to militate against our nation’s stated vision of decent work and to unleash a race to the bottom.”

ITUA inspected by the authorities in Russia

The headquarters of the Interregional Trade Union of Autoworkers (ITUA) were visited by the officials of the Prosecutor’s office on 20 March. They were accompanied by the Ministry of Emergency Situations employees. Alexei Etmanov, ITUA president, was given a letter specifying the documents which were requested from the union.

Among the requested documents were a full list of ITUA activities in 2011 to 2013, a list of all ITUA members, various financial documents, examples of leaflets and other printed items, bank account listings; 21 articles overall.

ITUA, an IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, was identified as one of the targets of legal inspection by the authorities in Saint Petersburg. The Prosecutor’s office is inspecting all the NGOs in the city.

Russian government is increasingly suspicious of the NGO activities. Recently, it’s put a lot of pressure on such organizations. Apparently, the ITUA inspection was part of a larger campaign quite possibly targeting all the NGOs in Russia.

Interestingly, Russian law explicitly prohibits the Prosecutor’s office from requesting documents which are relevant to other government agencies, for example, financial documents relevant to the tax office. Even so, all the NGOs in Saint Petersburg were requested the same long list of paperwork.

Encouraging women activists in Ivory Coast

167 women workers from the oil and textile sector attended the conference on 15 March 2013 to encourage increased participation of women in the union. Two women activists received an award recognising their contribution to their union, which will hopefully inspire activism among others.

Project Coordinator Charlotte Nguessan urged women to participate in programs to combat HIV and AIDS in their places of work and in the family, in particular addressing stigma and discrimination. She spoke of how women are often rejected by their families when they test positive and the negative impact of denial on the take up of treatment to prevent mother to child transmission. Nguessan suggested that partners need to be encouraged to go for testing together when a woman is pregnant.

There was also an information session on the new Marriage Act in Ivory Coast presented by two representatives of the Association of Women Lawyers. The law has advantages for men and women. It allows for men to benefit from the pension of his wife upon her death. It has also reduced income tax levels for married women with children and workers have already seen their wages increase as a result of the new law.

Union-busting at Vallourec in the USA

Last year workers within V&M tubes plant in Ohio, which is a Vallourec Group Company, contacted the UE for assistance in organizing a union. Immediately management began confronting unionized workers and interfering in union activity.

A supervisor in the plant directly threatened a pro-union leader by implying that he would lose his job if he continued. This is not the sort of behaviour expected of a company with whom IndustriALL Global Union has signed a Global Framework Agreement. In the agreement, Vallourec explicitly recognized the right of all its employees to be or become members of a trade union and to participate in collective negotiations.

Vallourec management hired a union-busting consultant, M. Vanetti, of Vantage Point Alliance and the Labor Relations Institute. On his public LinkedIn profile, Vanetti boasts of his skills in maintaining union free work environments. The Labor Relations Institute famously offers a “Guaranteed Winner Package” meaning that if it cannot block workers’ efforts to form a union, the company does not pay. Vanetti has held captive-audience meetings at the plant, at which he has allegedly dispensed disinformation about unions.

IndustriALL Global Union has sent a letter to Vallourec President Philippe Crouzet expressing concern over the anti-union behaviour of the company. “We expect Vallourec to take a position of neutrality towards attempts to organize a union. Hiring a professional union-buster is not neutrality. We expect that Vallourec will cease these actions and allow the workers to make their own decisions.”

IndustriALL supports democracy process in Tunisia

On 25 March, IndustriALL’s General Secretary Jyrki Raina and Assistant General Secretary Fernando Lopes met with social affairs minister Khalil Zaouia in Tunis. Zaouia said the government was committed to implementing the tripartite social pact signed in January.  The agreement aims to boost economic growth, social security, creation of quality jobs, training and skills. Programs target especially youth and women who have suffered most as the economic crisis in Europe has led to job losses also in Tunisia.

Raina and Lopes called upon the government to complete the investigation into the attack on UGTT activists and staff on 4 December which left dozens of people injured. The minister promised that  report of a joint commission would be published soon, after being slowed down by a new wave of unrest in February.

Hassine Abassi, general secretary of the UGTT confederation, thanked IndustriALL for its continuous support to the union movement in Tunisia. He hoped for similar backing to the independent unions that were struggling to grow in a number of countries in North Africa and Middle East, facing opposition from government, employers and government-backed unions.

Despite job losses in the industry, IndustriALL-affiliated metal and electronics workers' union FGME-UGTT continues its impressive growth. According to Tahar Berberi, the union leader and member of IndustriALL’s executive committee, the union has almost tripled its membership during the past years. Of the 37,000 members, 70 per cent are women.

IndustriALL leadership will also meet with UGTT-affiliated unions in the petrochemical and textile industries. Their visit is related to the World Social Forum on 26-30 March, which is expected to gather more than 50,000 participants to Tunis.

ArcelorMittal faces union action in Europe

The day of action will highlight the need to maintain a vibrant steel industry with a long-term future in Europe, rather than the continuation of an approach that will see the industry decline through lack of investment.

IndustriAll European Trade Union argues that the weakening of the industrial base of Europe’s leading steelmaker is resulting in a major retreat by the group on the European market compared to its competitors. The trade unions fear that if it continues along this path, it runs the risk of not being able to respond when demand for steel recovers.

Europe is facing tough economic conditions and many manufacturers are struggling to stay afloat. In the medium- and long-term its vitally important that production facilities will need to be more innovative and adapt to the pressures of global competition, but this can only happen if they survive through this period of acute pain.

Since the global financial crisis hit the steel industry there has been a crisis of demand and this is set to continue. The growth in global steel demand is expected to be slower in the coming decade than the previous 10 years, but longer-term prospects are nevertheless favourable according to Industry and Government officials at the OECD Steel Committee meeting held in Paris 6 and 7 December 2012.

If ArcelorMittal management can also take a longer-term view this would be a tremendous boost for their employees. But unions believe the company is failing to get the most out of its ideas and intellectual property because of insecurity. ArcelorMittal assets in Europe can be world class. But first they need to be coupled with world-class research, innovation, and a highly skilled workforce. All of these ingredients should lead to a world class manufacturing business.

Put simply, during this period of slow demand all stakeholders must develop a long-term industrial policy, which recognizes the importance of employment stability at its heart. A failure to maintain facilities will make Europe poorer and rob nations of the potentially huge benefits that stable employment brings.

Rob Johnston, Executive Director of IndustriALL Global Union, believes, “nobody doubts the economic pressure ArcelorMittal is under in Europe, but the company as a whole has a responsibility to its workers. If the company can show faith now in the long-term it will reap far greater benefits than a short-term fix of closing facilities and damaging communities.”