Sri Lankan garment workers rally to keep jobs

The Free Trade Zones and General Employees Union, FTZ-GSEU, called on the government to commit special attention to fake investors who use Sri Lanka’s workers and then flee the country without paying wages, and putting thousands of workers into unemployment and destitution. The Sri Lankan government has not shown sufficient action to develop a strategy to retain the garment industry, even though it represents 60% of the country’s exports.

Garment workers in Sri Lanka have often made huge sacrifices to leave their homes and jobs in tea plantations to work in garment factories. IndustriALL joins FTZ-GSEU in calling on the Sri Lankan government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to take measures to protect these vulnerable workers.

IndustriALL participated in the 10 March demonstration and extended its message of international solidarity with the workers’ struggle to keep their jobs. In IndustriALL’s address to the rally, the vital importance of international solidarity between workers was put forward.

The trend is too common around the world that when unions fight to improve the appalling conditions of garment workers, brands and suppliers threaten to leave the country. This happens in Cambodia, where workers work to exhaustion without sufficient food due to their low wage, in Lesotho where women are denied birth rights and given only one week of maternity leave, Bangladesh and Pakistan where workers go every morning into a death trap without knowing what will happen to them during the shift. To stop the abuse of garment workers, and the fleeing of brands and suppliers to countries that provide the lowest working conditions, IndustriALL works towards strengthening the international coalition and solidarity of workers in the sector. IndustriALL calls for garment workers to speak in one voice while demanding better conditions.

ETUC action day: No to austerity!

The European Union (EU) needs to have a strong social dimension that is why the ETUC is organizing a European trade union action on 13-14 March 2013, ahead of the European Summit scheduled for 14-15 March. Thousands of workers, union representatives and citizens from Europe will call for the suspension of the EU’s austerity policies, which have had a terrible impact on the economy. 

On 13 March, national mobilizations were organized in several European countries. A European trade union rally will take place in Brussels on 14 March, trade union delegations from all over Europe will be there to demand a change of direction. ETUC leader Ignacio Fernández Toxo and general secretary Bernadette Ségol will give speeches along with other union leaders.

Unions won’t be alone to mobilize against austerity policies.  NGOs, associations and social movements gathered within a coalition, “For a European Spring.” also have a program of initiatives and their demonstration will meet with the ETUC’s in Brussels on March 14, with the slogan “Our democracy against their austerity!”

Austerity is driving the economy into recession and forcing the most vulnerable citizens into poverty. Only a change of economic and political governance can improve employment and growth. One of the priorities of the ETUC action will be to focus on young people who are paying the heaviest price for the crisis and austerity.

Where? At the Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels

When? On 14 March, 2013 from 2pm to 4pm.

GM Daewoo fined for illegal use of dispatch workers

The Supreme Court has upheld a ruling that GM Daewoo illegally used workers hired from subcontractors at its assembly lines. A 2010 Supreme Court decision declared the practice illegal at Hyundai following tough campaigning by IndustriALL Global Union’s affiliate the Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) that organizes irregular workers in the sector. The latest judicial ruling follows that major KMWU victory and hands down criminal liability and punishment in the form of fines. 

After an investigation, the Employment and Labour Ministry also found that a Korean retailer K-Mart illegally used dispatch workers. These decisions should put the brakes on the unfair labour practice by other companies throughout South Korea. The Court also determined that both the manufacturer and the business owner of the partner company have the same degree of criminal liability.

On 28 February the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the appeals court. The court had ruled that David Nick Reilly, the former president of GM Daewoo Motors who had been indicted on charges of violating the Act on the Protection of Temporary Agency Workers, should pay a fine of 7 million won (US$6,457). Fines of 3 to 4 million were also upheld for six other defendants who had been tried on the same charges as Reilly, including a man surnamed Kim who is president of a partner company to GM Daewoo.

Irregular employees receive a fraction of what their regular co-workers make and are the first to be laid off when the economy becomes fragile. Korea has a very high number of irregular workers, and many of them are employed by subcontractors to work for the prime contractor.

Regardless of the fact that it is forbidden for workers to be dispatched in the direct assembly lines of manufacturers, companies in the industry have been using illegal dispatch workers by abusing legal loopholes through subcontracting. Now that the Supreme Court has set a precedent for criminal prosecution of business owners, it is expected that there will be changes in such industry practices.

IndustriALL Europe holds white-collar meeting in Paris

Anne-Catherine Cudennec of CFE-CGC kicked off the meeting by introducing her union, a union that organizes engineers and managers as well as technicians and supervisors in the metalworking industries. In France 20 per cent of metalworkers are women. In the meantime more women and young people are joining the union. And as everywhere, since there are more and more people working in white-collar jobs, more and more people are joining the CGC unions, which organize those who have responsibility for people who work under them.

Bart Samyn, Deputy General Secretary of IndustriAll Europe, explained some of the key issues confronting the European federation as well as some of the focuses of the work program. In June 2014 a collective bargaining conference will be held in Vienna. The theme will be the crisis. The challenges are how to find common positions and common solutions to the crisis. How can we close ranks in Europe? What can we propose? Changes in legislation? How can we recover what we have lost? The crisis has had massive effects on equality for instance. The wage share in GDP has been dropping constantly. Nevertheless there are huge increases in productivity, which prove that the employers’ claims that the wage share is excessive are unfounded.

Stress and burnout must be contemplated in the work program. The opt-out clause, which first was instituted by the UK government, is being used by more and more governments to pressure workers to work longer hours. We are against member states opting out. The notion behind the opt out is autonomy, which is not a clear concept. With autonomy the EU working time directive need not be followed. Managerial staff are not included in the directive. They should be, but the chances for that are slim. IndustriAll Europe on the other hand has a guideline on working time, which stipulates that 38 hours is the most anyone should work. No country has anything near 48 hours a week working time. In addition no one should accumulate more than 100 hours of overtime in a year. But many situations are uncontrollable, not even to mention black overtime. All work must be captured and paid.

In the meantime the negotiations on working time have stopped. And once negotiations stop, it is the Commission who takes over. The European Parliament is expected to make some minor changes, but there are likely to be net losses. The trade union side was reluctant to negotiate because there was never a chance to achieve anything. The ETUC wants to exclude as few people as possible from working time regulations. The employers want no change. The ETUC would like to limit the exclusions to top management. The employers, however, are good at changing people’s titles to make it possible to treat them more flexibly.

The crisis has had a definite and adverse effect on work-life balance. Combining careers and families is still complicated. Pursuing a career after taking time off for childbirth or a family phase is tough, and the higher the career level, the more complicated it is. Fathers need to be mentioned expressly in parental leave arrangements. Employers do not always understand why fathers need to take leave. Demographic change leads to many discussions. Life expectancy is longer and longer, but heavy physical work cannot be done endlessly.

Training and education together with precarious work need to be followed up. The crisis had led to extreme levels of youth unemployment. Young people are leaving, and the loss of skills will soon be another problem. Some people are talking about a lost generation. Young people in traineeships are also often misused. All jobs must be treated as work, and there must be equal treatment. And all jobs must be unionized.

A new development is interim contracts for managerial staff, and for IT engineers in particular. Engineers are recruited for one project. In France 90 per cent of new contracts in the metalworking industries are short-term. Thus precarious jobs are not just a challenge for those with lower skill levels.

In Denmark the government created a program called the Danish Innovation Assistant Programme. It was set up in part to remedy the problem of skilled people leaving because of the crisis. In this program small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) can have public support for hiring a person with higher education. Most people in Denmark work in SME’s, but most people with higher education work in larger enterprises. Thus there is a huge potential in SME’s for people with higher education. Studies show that SME’s with highly educated people perform better and create more jobs. For every person with higher education hired, more jobs are created for other people in companies. Some barriers needed to be overcome. SME’s sometimes have trouble getting financing. Bureaucracy can be a problem – companies have to comply with a lot of rules and do a lot of reporting. They sometimes lack people with vision, and they do not always have the competence to expand. They need a push to create new ambitions and develop new ideas. Therefore SME’s receive a grant for a year to strengthen the hiring of highly educated persons. The innovation assistant must implement a specific task for the company in terms of product development and quality, development of marketing strategies and cultivation of new markets, strategy development, strategic management, employee development, optimizing of production processes, improvement and planning of work and work organization.

The Danish engineers’ union IDA was a driver in this process. IDA showed how the program benefits the employers and society. For example employers get money back in taxes and subsidies. Engineers on the other hand understand why it is interesting to work in an SME, instead of always working in a big company.

From 2001 to 2006, companies that had an innovation assistant increased their employment. The program benefits both blue and white-collar workers. Typically one educated person opens up a job for 4 to 5 other workers.

Since 2006 this has been a part of public policy in Denmark. If the EU Commission were to do something for SME’s, this could be a model to follow. Similarly France has a program for apprenticeships for people with masters degrees.

These ways of promoting and boosting employment for engineers and executives should be explored further.

Finally in connection with EUROCADRES certain changes can be expected this year in that organization with new leadership. In addition EUROCADRES intends to propose setting up social dialogue in research sectors.

Global health and safety initiative delivering results

The recent revisit to the ArcelorMittal Lazaro Cardenas steel plant provided the perfect opportunity to see an example of international solidarity that’s working. The plant that was previously visited by the ArcelorMittal Joint Global health and Safety Committee (JGHSC) in 2009 has undergone a huge transformation in standards. Although still a work in progress the results on site are impressive and credit for that must fall to Los Mineros and local management with the help and support of the JGHSC.

One outcome from the original visit was to set up a safety-mentoring scheme between Los Mineros and the United Steelworkers (USW). Both the USW and Mineros have had a long history of close cooperation, particularly following the relentless attacks on Los Mineros Leader Napoleon Gomez. The scheme, which has included regular revisits to the site, sharing resources and educational exchanges, has strengthened both unions. 

Sherman Crowder, District 1 United Steelworkers (USW), has been visiting Lazaro Cardenas for the past 5 years. During that time he has seen both unions benefit from the experience, saying, “I’m proud of what we have achieved and the links we have built with Los Mineros. Each time I return you can see improvements on site. Our support helps to maintain the momentum for change.”

The next exchange will take place in April when over 100 USW members will attend a memorial rally in Lazaro Cardenas. During the activities members of the JGHSC will also revisit the site, carry out safety training programs and continue to build their alliance.

As part of a Health and Safety Lead Team Meeting (HLST) held in Lazaro Cardenas participants carried out a site visit to check on progress. The results overall were good with a few areas identified for improvements these included machine isolation, installing ladder backs and consistent use of personal protective equipment.

Prudencio Perez Chavez, General Secretary of the Los Mineros local union, explained that later this year the union would begin collective bargaining with the company for a new contract. The union has already begun preparations for the negotiations and had also just concluded actions in support of the global week of action on Mexico.

ArcelorMittal Lazaro Cardenas is Mexico’s largest steel plant and has both a blast furnace and electric arc furnace. It has approximately 6,500 employees on site and the majority are union members of Los Mineros.

Despite the ongoing efforts of the ArcelorMittal JGHSC the company had 30 fatalities in 2012. Rob Johnston, Joint Chair of the JGHSC said, “Until we have no fatalities we can not be happy, our unions want to aggressively target those areas which we know will improve performance. We can not let anything slow us down in that aim. This is about saving workers lives.”

Agreement at Cerrejón Colombia

“The workers who attended the meetings to hear the outcome of negotiations recognized that the agreement made significant progress on protecting their rights to health, housing, education and decent work as well as dealing with problems of workers in financial difficulties,” said Igor Díaz, president of the workers' union, Sintracarbón.

Representatives of Sintracarbón and Carbones de Cerrejón Limited are drafting the new collective agreement and workers will return to work as normal at what is the world’s biggest opencast coal mine.

The agreement will remain in force until 2015. Workers will receive a $7,000 bonus accompanied by a 5.1 per cent pay increase in the first year and further inflation-linked pay rises.

Sintracarbón said the agreement represented significant progress, for example, the company recognized the union’s right to participate in decisions about the selection, contracting, evaluation and management of the health company that will provide services through the various health systems. The union said that the health company selected would be asked to invest in infrastructure to improve health care in the department of La Guajira. Workers requiring specialized medical care will have access to new rehabilitation centres in the north and south of La Guajira, which will improve quality of life because workers will not have to travel outside the area to receive such care. Another benefit is that the transport system will be changed and will use buses able to cope with 2 to 3 hour journeys.

Sintracarbón said that there had also been an important step towards providing decent work because the company agreed to give 600 temporary workers permanent contracts. “This step offers those workers job security, improved social security protection and guarantees them the right to become a member of a trade union, all requirements of decent work, according to the ILO definition,” said the union.

Additional benefits include loans for housing  and higher education for workers and their families.

The 2013-2015 collective agreement is the result of the union’s firm defence of direct dialogue as the legitimate mechanism for resolving disputes with the employer.  Direct negotiations lasted 20 days. This was followed by a 20 day extension after which workers voted to go on strike. The strike lasted 29 days, during which time the union remained open to dialogue and negotiating a fair agreement for workers.

IndustriALL Global Union and the United Steel Workers (USW) supported the strike, sending funds to cover the workers’ needs. They also wrote to the government and the company and visited the Colombian ambassador in Geneva. They congratulate the union for improving the quality of life of all the workers concerned and their families.

US Nissan workers at Geneva Motor Show

Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary of the IndustriALL Global Union, opened the ceremony and explained that while Nissan plants are organized all over the world, this is not the case in the U.S.

Nissan USA is denying workers in its Mississippi plant a fair union election and using a campaign of fear to discourage employees from considering a union.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mississippi Nissan workers Michael Carter and Willard “Chip” Wells Jr. described the situation that they face.

“Nissan let’s us know, they don’t want a union in Mississippi,” said Michael Carter.

“They try to scare you about unions. They imply the plant will close if we support a union. We need a fair process so that workers can make up their own minds,” he said.

Nissan has run a fear campaign to prevent workers from organizing a union, which has included:

Also speaking at the ceremony, Nissan worker Chip Wells said, “We want to work together with Nissan. It is a good company that makes good cars. With a union representing us we can make better cars and be more productive.”

The workers, supported by IndustriALL Global Union affiliate UAW, were joined by members of the Mississippi Alliance for Fairness at Nissan (MAFFAN), an organization representing clergy, elected officials, civil rights activists and students.

A delegation of the workers, clergy and UAW organizing staff are in Geneva 5 to 10 March to highlight the violations of labour standards and ask visitors and members of the press attending the Geneva Auto Show to “look beneath the shine of Nissan.”

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50,000 Brazilians march for labour rights

More than 50,000 demonstrators marched down the Esplanade of the Ministries in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, on Wednesday 6 March in support of working class demands for greater public investment in infrastructure and social services, a stronger internal market, the redistribution of income and against neoliberal-inspired attacks on labour rights.

With the participation of samba schools and groups of Bahian dancers, the seventh march of the trade union centrals and social movements for Citizenship, Development and Recognition of the Value of Work paid homage to the recently deceased Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez. Workers also attended the vigil in front of the Venezuelan embassy in honour of President Chavez, who the demonstrators called "the biggest defender of labour causes".

The march took more than 3 hours to reach the National Congress and was organized by unions affiliated to the Central Única de los Trabajadores (CUT), Força Sindical, the Central de los Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de Brasil (CTB), the Unión General de los Trabajadores (UGT), the Nueva Central Sindical de Trabajadores (NCST) and the Central General de los Trabajadores de Brasil (CGTB).

Most IndustriALL Global Union affiliates in the metalworking, textiles and shoes, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, oil, paper and plastics sectors are affiliated to either Força Sindical or CUT. Both centrals value the unity of the trade union movement and this was the driving force behind the march, which united 50,000 demonstrators, including workers, students, men and women, in brief, the Brazilian people.  

The unions are calling for:

Trade unions are battling in New York for the status of women

Focusing on the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls, the trade union delegation to UNCSW57 will call on all member states to take all necessary measures to immediately and without further delay prevent and remedy violence against women and girls.

More than 6,000 representatives of civil society have registered at this annual event organized by the United Nations in New York to examine the status of women.  Global Union Federations such as PSI, UNI and EI are present at the conference as well as national centers and national unions, including IndustriALL Global Union affiliate from Canada CEP.

According to a report by the World Bank, which was quoted at the conference, women aged between 15 and 44 are more likely to die a violent death than of malaria, AIDS or cancer combined.

This year the International Labour Organization (ILO) is also highlighting the issue of sexual harassment to mark International Women's Day on 8 March. The ILO’s statement to the Commission associates the ILO’s fight for decent work with the fight against violence. The ILO has policies and programs to eliminate sex discrimination at work, including sexual harassment and gender-based violence.

Exact data are hard to come by, but some estimates indicate that 40 to 50 per cent of women in the European Union experience unwanted sexual advances at work. For Asia-Pacific countries it is 30 to 40 per cent. Whenever vicious discrimination is allowed to continue, society needs to step up its fight against gender-based violence. Trade unions include clauses on sexual harassment in collective agreements and tackle it through grievance procedures.

Diplomats in New York are afraid that conservative governments will once again block the final statement of the conference, claiming that religion, customs and traditions prevent them from combating violence against women. They restrict women’s health and reproductive rights and even their integrity by insisting on “traditional” and “moral” positions and attacking human rights which are already enshrined in international instruments.

Women who dare to transgress the values espoused by conservative governments, fundamentalists, paramilitaries or extremists suffer physical violence, marginalization, intimidation, defamation. The women’s rights activists who are present at UNCSW57 are fighting hard to ensure that the achievements that women fought so hard for are not diminished.

Women's economic empowerment was a major theme at the session on Violence against Women and HIV in Africa. Speaking at the session were Ministers for women and gender equality from Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Malawi as well as a sister from the Namibia Women's Network of Women Living with HIV.

Participants agreed that the post-2015 development agenda, after the end of the Millenium Development Goals, has to include equality for women. Women's economic dependence on men makes them vulnerable to gender-based violence and HIV transmission. Economic empowerment translates into decision-making power, greater capacity to refuse sex or negotiate for safe sex, less time spent on seeking food, energy and water and more time spent on education and social and political engagement. Education, decent work and access to clean water were some of the priorities emphasized to achieve women's economic empowerment in Africa.

One of the conclusions is that more women have to be recruited into the police, as blue helmets and as judges. The fight against violence against women needs to be one priority of sustainability, peace and security. And trade unions need to play more their role as legitimate stakeholders in the fight to eliminate violence. The final conclusions of UNCSW57 will be adopted on 15 March 2013.

Swaziland union federation dealt another blow

Organized labour across the globe applauded unity efforts in Swaziland that united workers under one federation when Tucoswa was launched in March 2012 through the merger of the two existing federations, the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) and the Swaziland Federation of Labour (SFL).

The government of Swaziland initially congratulated the federation on its formation, but quickly changed its mind when Tucoswa took a resolution to call for free and fair elections in Swaziland including the unbanning of political parties. Tucoswa was deregistered under instruction from the Swaziland Attorney General and its legitimacy challenged.

The court found that whilst there was provisions in law to register individual trade unions, the existing provision for registering a federation had been removed with the Industrial Relations Act of 2000. Thus it was difficult for the court to interpret if the exclusion was deliberate. The judge called on labour to wait for a proposed amendment bill that provides for the registration of a federation to be enacted. 

The ruling has paralysed social dialogue in the country as labour has recalled all its members in tripartite structures including the Labour Advisory Council and representatives at the countries structure for conciliation and mediation of industrial disputes.

“Whilst the court has given a directive to government and Tucoswa to come to an agreement on its modus operandi until the amendment has been finalized, similar to a recognition agreement, the ruling confirms that there is no freedom of association in Swaziland, despite the legal framework that appears to give these rights,” said Mduduzi Gina, Deputy Secretary General of Tucoswa.

The ruling based on what seems to be a technicality, raises concerns that the judiciary is being manipulated to achieve the objectives of government’s agenda which has been to frustrate attempts by labour in calling for meaningful democracy in Swaziland. The denial of legitimacy to Tucoswa can be interpreted as a delaying tactic by government making it difficult for labour to have the right to organize actions on political issues ahead of national elections scheduled for later this year.