Russian unionist freed from prison

The local court in Sakha, Russia, ordered to free Valentin Urusov, jailed trade union leader, from prison. He will pay a fine and do community service instead of serving the rest of his 5-year term. The court decision will take effect in 10 days.

Urusov was jailed in 2008 under what many call a fabricated case for his successful attempts to organize workers at diamond mines in the northern province of Sakha in Russia.

During one of the mobilization campaigns in September 2008, Urusov was kidnapped by local police officers. He was beaten and threatened to death and later placed under arrest. The trumped-up charges—drug trafficking—were proven wrong by the decision of the Sakha Republic’s Supreme Court in May 2009. Urusov was released, but later arrested again. He will finally be free now, but not cleared of all charges.

Confederation of Labour of Russia (KTR), a union center, offered Urusov employment. KTR representative also claims they will not stop until Urusov is cleared of all charges and completely rehabilitated.

Earlier the International Labour Organization recommended investigating allegations of anti-union persecution of Valentin Urusov, and releasing him immediately if these allegations turn out to be true.

IndustriALL supported Urusov and joined the IUF in asking the jury to nominate him for the Arthur Svensson International Prize for Trade Union Rights 2013 for his courageous and praiseworthy union work.

Valentin Urusov has already talked by phone with his supporters and thanked them for their solidarity through all these years.

Minimum wage needed to push back exploitation in Uganda

“The proposal for the 2013 Minimum Wage Bill has been received with a lot of support from trade unionists, members of parliament, civil society organizations and the public,” said Aneno Catherine, General Secretary of the Uganda Textile, Garment, Leather and Allied Workers Union (UTGLAWU), adding, “MP Arinaitwe Rwakajara was given a go ahead to draft the full bill for tabling in parliament.”

Uganda does already have legislation in place to establish a minimum wage, however the 1957 Minimum Wage Advisory Board Act, which would allow trade unions and other stakeholders to participate in setting the wage but this was never implemented. Uganda last set the monthly minimum wages in 1984, at 6,000 Ugandan Shillings (shs), an amount of USD2.26 today. 

The lack of established practice to set minimum wages in Uganda has left workers vulnerable to exploitation, where the high levels of unemployment force workers to accept pay well below what could be considered a decent wage.

 “Without minimum wage being instituted the workers of Uganda are being unfairly paid,” Said Vincent Ojiambo General Secretary Uganda Mines, Metal, Oil, Gas and Allied Workers Union (UMMOGAWU).

A minimum wage would take the investment incentive of labour exploitation through low wages off the table. It would increase the living standards of workers, reduce hardships faced by the working poor and provide a base from which labour can organize to improve upon in its struggle for a living wage. Yet efforts in the past to establish sectoral minimum wages that would ensure workers have the right to earn at least at these levels have not yielded results.    

“This issue has been on since the year 1995 when the Ugandan government appointed a committee to go around the country to get information from the workers of every sector in Uganda and finally came up with the figure of shs 120,000 (US$45) to be the minimum wage of Uganda,” explains Ojiambo. “When the figure was presented, the same committee was asked to come up with a revised figure. This led to a proposal of shs 75,000 (US$28). When the figure was presented to the cabinet it was further reduced to shs 53,000 (US$20), but the President did not endorse it. Up to now the issues of minimum wage has not been finalized.”

Strike notice at Caterpillar Belgium

IndustriALL Global Union affiliates in Belgium have reacted strongly to Caterpillar’s plans to cut 1,400 jobs (1,100 production workers and 300 administrative staff) at its facility in Gosselies near Charleroi, which currently employs a total of 3,700 people. In addition, management has indicated that 190 temporary contracts would not be renewed.  

Belgian unions are outraged by Caterpillar’s move.  “It is disgraceful that a company which makes record profits and benefits from federal aid and regional subsidies can announce a social plan of such magnitude.  Beyond the numbers, it is the future of thousands of families which is being held hostage,” they state in a joint press communiqué.

Since this announcement, unions have stressed the importance of building a large common front, including not only workers and trade unions at the Caterpillar’s plant but also at its subcontractors to develop a joint strategy against the company’s restructuring plan. “We favour social dialogue to find solutions that will ensure the sustainability of the plant but we will change gear and take strong action if we are not heard” warned a union representative. A meeting with management is planned for Thursday 7 March.

IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina sent a letter of solidarity to the workers at Gosselies.  “If we have to meet the economic challenges confronting us, this should not be at the expense of employment and social benefits; nor cannot it be by pitting workers against each other or by threatening them with outsourcing. We have to defend the real economy, we have to defend and promote the industry,” he stated.

The Charleroi facility is Caterpillar’s main production centre in Europe. It produces excavators for the European market and is one of the biggest employers in the region. Caterpillar’s industrial plan has no substance and does not offer any guarantee for the future say the unions. The priority of the union common front is to examine all possible avenues that could prevent this “social aggression”. The unions have given a strike notice for an unlimited length of time.

Slovenian law changes to restrict precarious work

On 5 March a new law passed in Slovenia to make temporary work more expensive, and therefore less attractive, for employers. Currently, workers in the same position for 2 years must be given an ongoing employment contract. The new law means that an employer cannot have a position that is temporary for more than 2 years, regardless of how many people have occupied that position. If the employer does not convert the position to permanent after a 2 year period, severance pay must be paid to the worker. In addition, unemployment tax for workers in this situation is 5 time higher than for regular workers, a strong disincentive for employers to rely on temporary work.

The second legal change introduces a quota for agency work. Temporary agency work must now not exceed 25 per cent of an employer’s total workforce and not be used for more than 2 years. An employer cannot use agency workers to break strikes, nor if there have been redundancies within the last 12 months. The new law also introduces joint liability for employers and agencies: if an agency does not pay a worker’s salary, the employer at the place of employment must pay it.

This positive result came after a government proposal to allow students, pensioners and unemployed people to work in temporary jobs outside the protections of the employment law was defeated by referendum in 2011 .

IndustriALL Europe Equal Opportunities Working Group meets

It was attended by women from Austria, France, Germany, Sweden, Slovenia, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Spain, Rumania and the Netherlands. It was the first time that such a representative group met. The aim of the meeting was to determine a new chair and to define a work program.

The women all presented their concerns in broad lines. There was nearly always agreement on the themes – the crisis, women working in precarious work, part-time work, not enough women in top leadership, pay gap between men and women, women’s career prospects, combining work and family life, gender-related health issues, equality agreements, equal opportunities for women in skills development, poverty.

The crisis in Europe is on-going with no end in sight. The first to lose their jobs were women and young people, and it was mostly the unskilled jobs that went. Although the crisis is more tangible and acute in southern Europe, economies are also affected by it in the North – when faced by fewer orders from the South, factories close and let workers off. In light of the crisis many cuts have been made to budgets that were earmarked for equality purposes. This has been felt very fiercely in Spain, where equality between women and men had made great strides before the crisis, but in the meantime the situation is reverting to pre-crisis levels.

One good practice in leadership is the Finnish union Pro, a white-collar union which organizes in industry. The union’s membership is 55 per cent women and 45 per cent men. The board has gender parity.

The gender pay gap permeates all sectors. It tends to start at the beginning of the career, and then men move ahead faster. It was felt that encouraging men to stay at home to assume part of family responsibilities would have a positive effect on equality. In spite of all the efforts made over so many years, most shop stewards are still men as are most supervisors. And the glass ceiling still persists.

The group decided on a three-tiered work program – equal pay, combining work and family life and participation. These three issues cover all kinds of themes such as poverty, precarious work, training, pensions, working time, statutory questions, gender parity, quotas and women’s leadership.

It was decided to have a co-chair for the group, with Fabienne Kühn (UNIA Switzerland) and Montserrat Lopez (FITAG-UGT Spain) sharing the chair.

Ford Brazil fined for outsourcing

The Labour Prosecutor’s office in Brazil said that Ford recruited workers employed at its Tatuí plant through AVAPE, an association to promote the interests of disabled people, in order to gain tax benefits. However, none of the 280 employees supplied by AVAPE for more than a decade was disabled.

The judge, Marcurs Menezes Barberino, said Ford would be fined an additional R$ 500,000 (US$250,000) per day if it did not begin direct recruitment for the jobs in question within 60 days. As AVAPE does not have the resources to pay a share of the fine, Ford will have to pay the entire fine of R$400 million (R$200 million to the National and State Funds for Rights and R$200 million to the town of Tatuí for investment in training programmes for disabled people).

The judge stressed that outsourcing is legitimate for secondary activities such as cleaning and security. However, the workers recruited by Ford through AVAPE were employed on core jobs.

SACTWU steps up the fight for a living wage

The living wage demands were consolidated at the SACTWU Annual National Bargaining Conference from 28 February to 3 March in preparation for the 2013 round of substantive negotiations.

SACTWU’s President, Themba Khumalo opened the Conference by reminding delegates that workers join unions for particularly one main reason: to improve their lives, the lives of their families and that of the communities from which they come. He reminded the 200 delegates that to realize these aims workers and their leaders need to be united and militant.

Delegates supported the government’s view that the clothing textiles and footwear industries had stabilised after 15 years of decline in employment in the sector. Delegates appreciated the acknowledgement of this by South African President Zuma in his recent State of the Nation address, where he also mentioned the governments clothing support scheme that has helped to prevent closures and saved many jobs.

The conference convened specialist commissions to develop concrete support for the Living Wage Campaign and to seek ways to address challenges faced by the union and members in the current political environment as well as those in the sector.  Delegates also re-affirmed commitment to strengthen the union and centralised bargaining and provide solidarity support for other COSATU affiliates’ living wage, recruitment and organizing campaigns.

A day of action was held on 1st March, with three protest marches, one to the South African Revenue Services to protest against the continued flow of illegal imports into South Africa, which undermines local jobs and leads to de-industrialisation.

The other two marches were directed at Capitec Bank and the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR). These were organised to protest against the involvement of Capitec’s chairperson, Michiel le Roux, in financing efforts to attack workers’ basic rights. This includes funding the campaign by Newcastle sweatshops to stop vulnerable workers being covered by minimum wages, for which CSSR produced what the union calls, “blatant propaganda and employer agenda-driven research.”  

SACTWU delegates challenged the main architects of the report to live off the illegally low wages which they are prescribing for Newcastle workers. “In this regard, we handed them R278 [USD32] in cash, which is the typical take-home wage which many Newcastle qualified machinists’ earn for a 45 hour week.”

See a previous report here: http://www.industriall-union.org/south-african-union-slams-minimum-wage-compliance-criticism

Leading apparel brands urge Peru to repeal harmful law

In a letter to President Ollanta Humala Tasso, six signatory brands have expressed concern that Decree 22342 governing ‘non-traditional exports’ acts to encourage and condone violations of labour rights and therefore poses an obstacle to the proper application of their codes of conduct.
 
The letter send on 4 March is signed by 47 brands, The Life is Good Company, New Balance, Nike, PVH Corp (which owns Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Van Heusen, Izod, Arrow, GH Bass & Co) and VF Corporation (whose twenty-five brands include North Face, Vans, Nautica, 7 For All Mankind, JanSport, Ella Moss, Timberland, Wrangler, Lee, Kipling and Eastpak).  The US represents Peru’s main destination for apparel exports.
 
The letter comes just 2 weeks before the reconvening of the Peruvian Congress.  A proposal to repeal the labour provisions of the decree on non-traditional exports is making its way through the committee stage but is strongly opposed by textile and apparel manufacturers.
 
Commenting on the letter, Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, says, “We very much welcome this letter, which sends a clear message that in today’s global garment industry decent work is an element of competitiveness alongside quality, price and delivery on time.
 
“Peru produces quality cotton and fibers and has succeeded in positioning itself as a provider for major brands. However, the ‘made in Peru’ label is being tainted by the abuse that comes with the use of short-term employment contract,” concludes Raina.

Dunaferr dispute ends in agreement

This successful strike has strengthened our union at the local and national level. Your struggle was not in vain. The objectives of this properly prepared and well implemented strike have been achieved and has resulted in an agreement. This proves that with sufficient determination and perseverance and a competent negotiation team, we can accomplish any goals we set out to accomplish.

Said VASAS President, Béla Balogh after thanking the workers for taking part in the strike.

The signed agreement includes a 3.5 per cent increase in personal basic wages from January 2013, 1 per cent increase in personal basic wages from July 2013 a 5.3 per cent increase in social benefits from January 2013, a 1 per cent increase in social benefits from July 2013 and a Christmas salary (14th month salary) for 2013; all employees entitled to the 14th month salary will receive it in 2014 divided into 12 equal monthly payments. The agreement is valid for an indefinite period and cannot be terminated before June 2014.  Workers had threatened to engage in further demonstrations and begin a rail blockade to prevent the import of raw materials from Ukraine had the strike been unsuccessful.

Dunaferr Zrt situated in Dunaújváros is the largest group of Hungarian steel plants.  It is a subsidiary of the Ukrainian holding company Industrial Union of Donbass and a major employer in the region employing 6,933 workers of which 3,470 are unionized. The company has faced a number of difficulties in recent years due to the economic crises, this agreement is an important victory for VASAS.

IndustriALL leadership meets with Colombian ambassador

IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina, Assistant General Secretary Fernando Lopes and Rights Officer Suzanna Miller, met with Ambassador Ms. Alicia Victoria Arango Olmos at the Permanent Mission of Colombia to the United Nations in Geneva.

The IndustriALL delegation raised grave concern over serious violations that had occurred in recent months against its affiliates such as the murder of a member of the Unión Sindical Obrera de la Industria Petróleo (USO) in December 2012, death threats received by Tenaris leaders, as well as by Sintracarbón's leaders and negotiating committee members since they began bargaining in November 2012. Jyrki Raina questioned the ambassador on the government’s failure to deal with these issues and measures taken to genuinely protect trade unionists.

Ms. Alicia Victoria Arango Olmos was aware of the issues raised and recognized the scale of the violence but insisted that it was not an issue which is specific only to trade unionists but to all Colombians, she guaranteed that work was being done by the Colombian government and that progress has been made and insisted that unions have come a long way in the past 15 years. Unfortunately all reports to date indicate that Colombia still suffers from the highest number of trade unionists murdered worldwide and the question of impunity remains very acute.

“The ambassador promised to take the issues that we raised to the government and we will continue to follow the developments,” said Jyrki Raina, IndustriALL General Secretary.

Although some progress has been made, the enduring violence against the Colombian trade union movement continues to curse the country and trade unionists are being killed and intimidated. While some efforts have been made to investigate these crimes, the majority of the cases reported by trade union organizations remain unresolved.

“We had a hard but frank discussion with the Colombian ambassador. We will continue to support Colombian workers and fight for the government to protect workers’ rights in Colombia,” said Fernando Lopes, IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary.