The unions representing workers across the industrial sectors in Argentina assembled in front of the Mexican Embassy in the Belgrano district of capital city Buenos Aires.
A trade union leadership delegation met with Mexican Ambassador to Argentina, Francisco del Río López, and handed over a joint letter to President Peña Nieto supporting the international demands of the campaign in solidarity with Mexican workers.
As part of the Days of Action for Mexico, IndustriALL, together with UNI Americas and affiliated unions, including the Uruguayan national metalworkers’ union UNTMRA (Unión Nacional de Trabajadores Metalúrgicos y Ramas Afines), the bank workers union AEBU (Asociación de Empleados Bancarios del Uruguay) and the Southern Cone Trade Union Centrals Coordinating Committee, the CCSCS (Coordinadora de Centrales Sindicales del Cono Sur), led a demonstration outside the Mexican embassy in Montevideo. A large group of workers held banners with slogans such as: “No to Protection Contracts in Mexico, Yes, to Recovery of the Bodies from Pasta de Conchos” and “International Solidarity with Trade Union Autonomy in Mexico”.
Sixty-five candles were lit outside the embassy to simbolize the deaths caused by employer negligence on 18 February 2006. Seven years after the Pasta de Conchos mining disaster, there are still calls for the Mexican government to show some sensitivity on this issue.
Jorge Almeida, IndustriALL Regional Secretary, Carlos Martínez, UNTMRA International Relations Secretary, Adriana Rosenzvaig, UNI Americas Regional Secretary, Fernando Gambera, AEBU General Secretary and Marcelo Abdala, PITCNT coordinator and UNTMRA General Secretary all made speeches after delivering a letter to the President of Mexico in the presence of a hundred workers beating drums and waving banners.
The speakers denounced the abuses to which Mexican workers are subjected, criticised the employers’ anti-trade union practices and expressed Uruguayan workers’ solidarity towards the just struggle of the Colombian trade union movement.
Jorge Almeida thanked the representatives from sister organisations for attending and reiterated his call for the Mexican government to stop the systematic violation of trade union rights, end all forms of anti-trade union pressure against the National Miners’ Union and other independent unions, comply with workers’ basic human and labour rights and ensure justice for the families of the victims of the Pasta de Conchos disaster.
-Provide justice for the families of the 65 miners killed at Pasta de Conchos on 19 February 2006;
-End the use of employer-dominated protection contracts, which deny workers the right to democratic representation and collective bargaining;
-Repeal the labour law enacted on 1 December 2012 that encourages dismissal of union activists, increases subcontracting, and leads to the massive expansion of precarious employment; and
-Reinstate unlawfully fired union activists (SME, PKC, Vidriera de Potosi/Grupo Modelo, Honda, Calzado Sandak/Bata) and allow free and fair elections (PKC, Excellon, Honda, Atento).
In addition to that, Brother Nishihara, president of JCM insisted to the Mexican embassy that Mexican authorities ensure the safe return of SNTMMSRM’s General Secretary Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, to Mexico from Canada where he is in exile, and act upon the recommendations of the ILO (case no.2694). He also joined the international trade union movement in raising a protest against the violations of workers and trade unions rights in Mexico, IndustriALL affiliates of Japan (JCM, IndustriALL･JAF, UA Zensen) demanded that the Mexican authorities to correct these situations.
Although the discussion failed to reach an agreement, the Mexican embassy promised the delegation to convey trade union demands to the Mexican government immediately.
Mexico has no embassy in Norway, so Fellesforbundet has led other kinds of activities in connection with the Mexico Days of Action:
The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions has sent a letter to the new Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto with a powerful protest on the developments on trade union rights in Mexico.
The unions have had contacts with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs explaining the whole history of trade union violations since the Pasta de Conchos tragedy in 2006. The Norwegian deputy minister has promised that next time a Norwegian official visit to Mexico takes place, they will take this up with Mexican officials, and hopefully be able to meet with Los Mineros to get first hand information on developments.
Representatives of the FGTB, CSC and CGSLB confederations, affiliated to the ITUC, also participated in the meeting.
The trade unionists presented the key demands of unions from across the world, which are taking part in the Global Days of Action for Labour Rights in Mexico. Efforts to tackle the serious violations of trade union rights in the country were among the main demands.
The first day of the forum held in Petaling Jaya, was an open session for affiliates and potential affiliates in Malaysia bringing together 28 trade union leaders representing 14 organizations, 7 of which are affiliated to IndustriALL.
The meeting as an opportunity for the various trade unions to discuss the current issues of the labour movement. Those participating were unified in the view that the prevailing labour law in the country was designed to weaken, bust and crash the existing unions in Malaysia.
Similarly, the government is systematically discouraging the formation of unions by allowing employers to challenge the competency of unions and by ensuring that the workers will not be able to comply with the 50 per cent workplace representation requirements for union recognition.
According to statistics, there are 80,000 unionized workers out of a workforce of 3 million. This figure has been stagnant for more than 10 years. The other priority issues the unions at the meeting identified in addition to organizing were low wages and precarious employment.
On the second day, only those unions affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union attended and decided to form the IndustriALL Malaysian Council. The unions appointed Bro. Rajasekaran (MIEU) and Bro. Gopal (NUTEIW) as coordinators of the group who will initiate the first meeting of the affiliates to formalize the discussion on the proposed structure to be held sometime in April. It was agreed that the strategy going forward would be to determine education programs based on need and in consultation with all affiliates.
The affiliates recognize that IndustriALL will be very effective in initiating global pressure on government and employers to respect the rights of workers around the world. The affiliates also decided to seek the assistance of IndustriALL in mounting international pressure on the government and employers to respect freedom of association.
The affiliates expressed high hope that in the IndustriALL Malaysian Council, they will be able to protect the rights of the workers by working together to counter the prevailing hostile environment for trade unions in Malaysia. It’s the only way!
See the letter from KMWU President Sang-chul PARK to President Peña Nieto here.
Following intervention by the companies to whom Fontana Pietro supplies dies, local company management has relinquished its court case in which it was challenging the legal certification of the union by the Ministry of Labour. Birlesik Metal-Is now expects to start collective bargaining negotiations once bureaucratic procedures are completed.
Birlesik Metal Is, an affiliate of IndustriALL Global Union, organized the majority of workers at the Fontana Pietro plant in Tuzla, Turkey and received legal certification of its majority status in August 2012 as required by Turkish labour laws.
Soon after, Fontana Pietro, an Italian-based company that specializes in engineering, making dies and stamping steel and aluminium for the auto sector, began a systematic campaign to harass the union members, including dismissals, and challenged the union’s legal recognition in court.
According to the terms of the Global Framework Agreements signed with IndustriALL Global Union and Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW, the auto companies agree to fundamental rights at work including freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, and that these rights should also be observed by supplier companies.
IndustriALL Global Union reported to the Works Councils of VW, Daimler and BMW about the violations taking place at Fontana Pietro and asked the companies to intervene based on the terms of the Global Framework Agreement.
FIM-CISL and FIOM-CGIL, Italian unions affiliated to IndustriALL that has members at Fontana Pietro plants in Italy, met with the company management in late 2012 in an effort to solve the issue. At the time, the management at head quarters in Italy refused to intervene on the basis that it was up to local management.
“Global solidarity, global framework agreements and the strength of the union in Turkey has forced Fontana Pietro management to finally accept fundamental rights at work and recognize Birlesik Metal Is,” said Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union.
See the letter here from the Czech metalworkers' federation president Josef Středula to President Peña Nieto.
At the first of a series of actions in The Netherlands, a group of employees at Unilever’s Unox plant in Oss provided colleagues lunch outside the factory on 28 February, offering them a choice between a 'sour sandwich without supplements' or a 'nice sandwich with supplements'.
The Anglo-Dutch food and chemical giant Unilever signed a deal with Sodexo in 2012 over the outsourcing of the company’s facility management services in Europe.
As a result, in The Netherlands, all Unilever ‘facility management services’ employees still directly employed by Unilever or already outsourced to a service provider will be transferred to Sodexo.
These include cleaners, catering workers, security and receptionists, about 80 employees, including members of IndustriALL Global Union’s affiliate FNV Bondgenoten.
Under EU legislation on employment transfers, some but not all labour conditions are guaranteed after the transfer. The transfer takes effect on 1 May, from which date former Unilever employees will be doing the same work for Unilever under vastly inferior conditions.
Unilever has rejected the union’s demands to safeguard the conditions of the affected workers. The demands are:
You can support the workers in this struggle by sending a message of solidarity to FNV Bongenoten on the IUF website here: http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/campaigns/show_campaign.cgi?c=733
Or simply write your own message and send to Marjolein Dubbelaar at: [email protected]
The IndustriALL Global Union/IUF Unilever Global UnionNetwork to be held on 6 and 7 March in Eastbourne, UK will also discuss this conflict and possible solidarity actions.
