Oil workers demonstrate in Iraq

The protest was organized by the Committee for the Defense of Oil Workers, including IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), and follows an earlier similar action on 13 February 2013.

The workers, who work in the fields of al-Ramlia north and south, al-Berjesia, Gharb al-Karna, and Bab al-Zubair, gathered in front of the main door of the South Oil Company in Basra calling for the expulsion of corrupt employees and the dismissal of the company director.

The workers demanded a meeting with the company director to negotiate on the payment of withheld benefits dating back to 2010, 2011 and 2012, the right to housing, permanent job contracts and an end to corruption in the company.

The South Oil Company (SOC), which produces more than 80 per cent of Iraqi oil, is a national company responsible for the oil in the south of Iraq.

As the company director has so far refused to meet with the protestors, they are now requesting a meeting with the management and the government in the coming days to bargain on the issues. The protestors have also addressed the Iraqi Prime Minister on their demands.

Some of the workers were subject to threats from company security during the actions.

Union campaign at Bashneft a success

On 27 February the Russian Chemical Workers’ Union (RCWU) reported that the international solidarity campaign proved to be a success with the pressure on both union locals in Orenburg and Ufa, Russia, stopped, and the president of RCWU local in Ufa Zumara Ganieva  included in the all-company collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations committee.

The negotiations led to a collective agreement for 2013-2015, which includes guarantees for trade union activity.

Meanwhile pressure on RCWU locals at Bashneft in Orenburg and Ufa stopped. Union activists are no longer forced to quit the union and join the company-controlled Labour Council. The locals are strarting to get back the union dues, which were blocked by the company for some time.

Earlier in October 2012 when the companies Bashkirnefteproduct in Ufa and Orenburgnefteproduct in Orenburg became part of the parent company Bashneft, the management refused to renegotiate the CBA with the RCWU locals and challenged their right to collective bargaining.

The administration refused to recognize union locals and claimed that the CBA would be negotiated with a Labour Council, created by the company itself.

RCWU responded by holding public actions in Oregnburg, Ufa and Moscow, and launched a national solidarity campaign (In Russian) http://www.trud.org/3/11000.html with the help of the Federation of the Independent Trade Unions of Russia.

IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina sent a letter to the Bashneft top managers, urging them to withdraw from anti-union tactics and engage in good-faith negotiations with the union, and IndustriALL Regional Office staff joined RCWU activists in picketing Bashneft office in Moscow.

Thousands of people sent letters of protest to Bashneft management via TAKE ACTION page on IndustriALL website.

RCWU president Alexander Sitnov offered his sincere thanks to all unions and other organizations, including IndustriALL, which offered their solidarity and helped to resolve the conflict.

"Your participation was an enormous help to us. Thank you," said Alexander Sitnov.

Struggle continues for ISMACO and DESA workers in Turkey

On the famous street of Istanbul’s Vali Konağı Caddesi, 150 workers gathered in front of the stores for which DESA produces leather goods, and of the well-known brand Ermenegildo Zegna, supplied by ISMACO. Both companies refuse to recognize Deri-Is, the leather workers’ union, and continue to violate workers’ fundamental rights.

DESA produces for brands such as Prada, Mıu Mıu, Car Shoe, Marks and Spencer, Mulberry, Burberry, Whistles, Modalu, Carven and Nicole Farhi. Deri-Is has been campaigning to recruit workers at DESA since 2008.  The company’s refusal to respect workers’ rights has included systematic discrimination, intimidation and dismissals. Even after it was proved in court that DESA management dismissed 34 workers for joining a union, company management preferred to pay the workers off instead of reinstating them.

In a meeting in January, IndustriALL Global Union and Deri-Is lodged a series of demands to DESA, requesting recognition of trade union representatives in the factories, and insisted that the company enter into dialogue with trade union members, but company management refused. You can take action in support of DESA workers here.

 
The group also protested at the Ermenegildo Zegna store, a luxury brand for which ISMACO produces. At ISMACO four workers were dismissed for being members of Deri-Is and have been picketing since last December. The local company management has not abstained from openly announcing that they do not want the union in their workplaces. You can take action in support of ISMACO workers here.
 

A production worker at ISMACO earns on average € 380 per month while a shirt from Ermenegildo Zegna is sold for around € 500 at the store in front of which the protest was organized in Istanbul.

“IndustriALL Global Union extends its full support to Deri-Is for both of these campaigns, among others,” said Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary. “This kind of action will continue in the coming days until both companies change their unacceptable attitudes.”

 

Chilean trade union leader shot dead

On Thursday 21 February, Juan Pablo Jiménez, employee of the electrical engineering company Azeta, was shot dead as he was walking to his office at the company. He was found by colleagues, who took him to the medical service. However, Juan Pablo was pronounced dead on arrival.

According to the police who investigated the crime, Juan Pablo was killed by a bullet fired from the residential areas close to the company premises.

Juan Pablo Jiménez was president of N°1 union at the company and president of the Chilectra Federation of Subcontractors. On Friday 22 February, he was due to attend a hearing to continue denunciations of the company’s anti-trade union practices.

On 27 February, many trade union leaders and representatives of social and political organizations picketed the company, demanding “Truth and Punishment” of those responsible for killing Juan Pablo Jiménez.

Constramet, an-IndustriALL affiliated union said the working class has a moral duty to get involved in this fight and thanked all those who attended protests in Santiago and the regions. A march was held later that same day, at 7pm through the centre of the capital.

Horacio Fuentes, president of Constramet called on the authorities to investigate the murder of Juan Pablo.

IndustriALL Global Union has expressed its solidarity with the union leader’s family and with the Chilean trade union movement.

Swedes mark Mexico days of action

In the mid-March meeting at the Mexican Embassy, IF Metall’s President Anders Ferbe expressed Swedish workers' concern with the situation of trade union rights in Mexico and brought up a number of key issues facing democratic unions in Mexico.
 
Concrete exchanges were conducted on issues including the sham criminal proceedings keeping Napoleon Gomez in exile in Canada; the problematic 1 December 2012 reformed Labour Law; the need to ensure transparency in union accounts and to protect workers’ rights to form their own unions; the claims of the Mexican Government to have positively addressed the June 2012 recommendations from the ILO committee on Freedom of Association in relation to  Protection Contracts; as well as the question about Mexico’s eventual ratification of ILO convention 98; regarding the follow up to the Pasta de Conchos tragedy, unfortunately the Ambassador could not confirm any steps to resolve the pending issues.
 
IF Metall has engaged the dialogue with the Ambassador and will continue to monitor the workers’ rights in Mexico. 

See the letter to Mexican President Peña Nieto from IF Metall President Anders Ferbe here.

Zambian government seizes Collum Mine over poor working conditions

There has been frequent industrial unrest at Collum Mine that has been under Chinese ownership since 2003. As early as 2005, submissions were made to government on poor working conditions and government considered its closure in 2006 after a delegation saw first hand the poor working conditions that workers had to endure.

In October 2010, 13 mineworkers were injured when two managers of the mine opened fire on striking workers. Workers went on strike when they were not paid and to protest poor pay and working conditions. Charges against the two managers were later dropped by the state.

Tensions continued to mount at the mine as labour issues remained unresolved. A pay dispute at the mine after government raised the minimum wage in 2012 resulted in a spontaneous protest by workers during which a Chinese supervisor was killed and another was injured. 

“Since the mine was privatized, Muz has taken up the serious concerns of workers on the violation of labour laws, health and safety issues, even implementing the bargaining agreement has been a continuous dilemma,” says Joseph Chewe, General Secretary of the Mineworkers' Union of  Zambia (Muz), an IndustriALL Global Union affiliated union. “Muz supports the seizure of the mine by government; this is in the best interest of workers especially since workers’ jobs are secure. But the government must ensure that the new investor follows the labour laws and ensures good working conditions at the mine for these long suffering workers.”  

The government revoked mining licences held by the company that owns Collum mine after no improvements had been made at the mine. The state will operate the mine until a new investor is found. Government has assured workers that there would be no job losses.

A recent study by Human Rights Watch (HRW) concludes that whilst there have been some improvements in working conditions in Zambia’s mines under President Sata since 2011, much still needs to be done to ensure labour law enforcement and to improve safety standards, especially in the copper mines.  Sata had promised to improve labour conditions in the mines during his election campaign.

A number of trade unions and civil society organizations in Zambia have welcomed the seizure of Collum mine, hoping that this action is a strong signal that the government will not tolerate investors that flout the law and abuse workers' rights.

Ghana proposes criminalizing scrap metal export

Ghana’s new Minister of Trade and Industry, Haruna Iddrisu, has proposed a bill to make the export of scrap metal a criminal offense. The initiative is an effort to clamp down on ferrous scrap exporters that ignore the administrative ban that is in place.

Despite the ban, scrap metal continues to leave Ghana, whilst the local steel sector is under strain operating at only 30 per cent capacity. ICU reports that a large steel company, Wahome has recently had to shut down leading to 700 job losses.

Ghana has no iron ore.  As a result, metal scraps serve as raw material to the steel industry, which would otherwise need to be imported.

“The exportation of metal scraps from Ghana leads to scarcity of raw materials hence a huge threat for the survival of the steel industry in Ghana,” says General Secretary of ICU, Solomon Kotei. “Countries like China, Thailand, Malaysia among others, offer attractive prices for metal scraps which the local industries cannot afford to pay. As a result, casualization, redundancy is what has befallen workers in the steel industry.”

Exporters of scrap metal are appealing to government to levy the export of scrap metal rather than criminalize it. Exporters advance funds to scrap metal suppliers in order to secure supply whilst local steel industries need time to effect payment for the supplies, putting local industries at a disadvantage.

The proposed bill will not be enough, even if government makes every effort to enforce the ban as the value chain to scrap metal is quite unique. Additional support to local steel industries will have to be considered, especially access to finance, so that suppliers can be promptly paid. Ensuring good working conditions, including health and safety and social protection in the supply chain is another area that will need to be examined. ICU is aware of these issues and plans to discuss these with the Minister.  

"The exportation of scrap metal from Ghana will virtually collapse the steel industries if no drastic national policy is put in place to ban it,” says Kotei  “It is for this reason that the ICU-Ghana associates itself strongly with the statement made by the Minister of Trade and Industry. We are therefore collaborating with the honourable minister on the ban of exportation of scrap metal.”

Attack at Cerrejón coal mine

The national coal miners’ union, Sintracarbón, publicly condemned the attack. The union represents Cerrejón workers, who have been on strike since the beginning of February.

It declared its solidarity with the company, Carbones del Cerrejón Limited, which employs around 12,000 direct and outsourced workers. The union has called on the national government "to fulfil its responsibility to ensure Carbones del Cerrejón’s constitutional right to operate and Sintracarbón’s freedom of association and right to conduct collective bargaining and strike. These fundamental rights were violated by the terrorist attack on Sunday morning”.

The union has called on the competent authorities to guarantee security at the workplace and carry out an investigation.

Finally, the union said “the attack was prejudicial to the strike that began on 7 February after 97% of Sintracarbón members voted in favour of the stoppage. The strike has been conducted according to this trade union’s democratic and non-violent traditions and history of defending workers’ rights and the Guajira community”.

Sintracarbón said the strike has complied with the Constitution and the law and it hopes that an agreement will be reached very soon. Negotiations on the unions list of demands, notably health issues, resumed on Monday 25 February.

IndustriALL Global Union has been appalled at the intransigent position taken by Carbones. Cerrejón is the world's fourth-largest coal exporter and a joint venture between BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Xstrata. IndustriALL is appealing to all affiliates to support Sintracarbón in their negotiations and to provide international solidarity support by sending protest letters to Carbones del Cerrejón to meet the demands of Sintracarbón.

A further gravely serious development has been the numerous death threats received by Sintracarbón's leaders and members of its negotiating committee since bargaining began in November 2012. These issues will be taken up on 4 March by IndustriALL leadership in a meeting with the Colombian Ambassador in Geneva. 

Workplace information spreading on situation in Mexico

MCA-UGT oversees distribution of the leaflet in support of Mexican workers in Gerdau plant located in Villalba, Madrid, Spain. See photos attached.

Nigerian unions to work together to organize workers

Affiliates met with African Regional Secretary of IndustriALL, Fabian Nkomo to discuss how to ensure that all Nigerian workers in sectors represented by IndustriALL are organized and united. The meeting was lead by the General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment & Tailoring Worker (NUTGTW) and IndustriALL Executive Committee member Issa Aremu and attended by all affiliates as well as 6 potential affiliates that expressed interest in joining the global union.

Affiliates identified metal, steel and related industries and chemical, pharmaceutical and allied industries as sectors with the biggest potential to increase IndustriALL’s representation in Nigeria. Potential affiliates were encouraged to join IndustriALL through alliances at a national level, strengthening ties between unions organizing in the same sector

Nkomo also used the visit to learn more about the inspiring union building work of NUTGTW and visited a textile factory in Lagos.

Nigeria is a key economy in the region and its unions are well established and sustainable. Nigerian affiliates are expected to play a leading role in West Africa and IndustriALL is keen to have them assist in organizing and union building initiatives in the sub-region.