South Africans mark Mexico days of action
See here the letter sent by IndustriALL-affiliated CEPPWAWU to the Mexican president.
See here the letter sent by IndustriALL-affiliated CEPPWAWU to the Mexican president.
See here the letter to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto from the Finnish Metalworkers' Union marking the 2013 days of action.
The tone and content of the positions taken by the Mexican government representatives were significantly more positive than those of a similar meeting a year ago. Commitments were made by the Mexican representatives for action on a number of key issues including safety and health in mines, labour legislation, transparency and accountability.
IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan, along with UNI General Secretary Phillip Jennings, and ITUC’s Esther Busser condemned the inaction at Pasta de Conchos, the labour legislation especially allowing for the Protection Contract system and barriers to trade union recognition, the anti-union judiciary, and the climate of pressure and intimidation against democratic trade unions in Mexico.
Mexico’s Deputy Minister of Labour Ignacio Rubi, Head of the Ministry of Labour’s International Department Dr. Jose Luis Stein, the new Labour Attaché to the Geneva Mission Luis Morales, and the Legal Advisor to the Mission Salvador Tinajero all joined Ambassador Mr. Juan José Gómez Camacho in meeting the trade union delegation. The trade union delegation was supported by a demonstration outside the Mission.
The commitments made by Deputy Minister of Labour Ignacio Rubi will be followed up on, as the changes were promised to be enacted within a maximum of eight months. The dubious claim made by the Deputy Minister that new president Enrique Peña Nieto is a “friend of the workers” will be reexamined.
IndustriALL-affiliated union Petrol-Is wrote to Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto marking the global days of action. See the letter here.
The campaign was based on the statistic that one in three women in all countries will be victims of violence in their lifetimes, as explained by USW International President Leo W. Gerard in this video. http://www.usw.org/media_center/news_articles?id=1301
The actions on V-Day succeeded in mobilizing communities and building global solidarity across borders and races, in focusing on the causes of violence – patriarchy, poverty, corporate greed, environmental degradation, imperialism, religion, militarization, exile, political repression. One Billion Rising ensures that awareness of the issue of violence against women will never be ignored again.
The recent high profile cases of murder in India and South Africa show yet again how pervasive the issue of violence against women is in our societies. Gender-based violence takes many forms – domestic violence, sexual abuse, date rape, child abuse, “corrective rape” due to sexual orientation, gang rape, forced pregnancy, honor killings, acid throwing, female genital mutilation, dowry death, violence and rape in armed conflict, trafficking of women and girls, sexual harassment at work, and the list goes on. Unfortunately in many countries the incidence of violence against women is on the rise, in some cases exponentially. Some say that violence is fed by the economic crisis. But as long as women are sidelined and not taken seriously, violence will continue unabated.
Even the best laws in the world are insufficient to protect women from violence. That is why civil society is taking initiatives such as One Billion Rising, and trade unions are taking up the issue of violence against women as a priority. What trade unions can do is primarily educate their members about domestic violence and respect, work together with and sponsor shelters for battered women, include clauses on violence in agreements, negotiate for leave to address the issues that affect members who are suffering from domestic violence and not least create a culture of zero tolerance of violence.
International Women’s Day, 8 March is just around the corner. The International Trade Union Confederation’s focus this year is on violence, and work will be carried out at the United Nations at the Commission on the Status of Women to create international guidelines on how to combat the scourge of violence against women. We call upon you to take action in your union to educate your members and to fight violence. Send reports about your activities on 8 March or any other day to [email protected] , and please let us know what successes you have had.
The mine had been closed for the past 6 months, as the majority of coal had already been extracted. However, with the intention of extracting more coal, the owner of the mine deployed workers, without safety measures, who entered the mine and fell victim to the toxic gas explosion.
According to reports from IndustriALL affiliate, the Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF), during this fatal accident around 10 coal miners were working underground and were all buried under debris following the explosion. Eight workers died and 2 workers were left unconscious due to the poisonous gas.
The deceased were identified as Mehrab Khan, Siraj Akbar, Khan Zamin, Shakir, Hazrat Ali, Hakumran, Samiullah and Bhakt Zaman, belonged to Puren tehsil of Shangla, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The condition of the 2 workers who fell unconscious is said to be stable.
In a letter to Sultan Muhammad Khan, President of PCMLF, IndustriALL Global Union General Secretary Jyrki Raina expressed condolences to the union and family members of the deceased and condemned the deaths of the 8 coal mine workers.
IndustriALL calls upon the Pakistan Government to urgently ratify ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, and its accompanying Recommendation Number 183. Although adopted by ILO in 1995 and in force since 1998, Pakistan has not ratified ILO Convention 176. The Convention sets out basic minimum safe practices and workers' rights for mining, and is the subject of an ongoing campaign led by IndustriALL for ratification.
Sultan Muhammad Khan said that, “Mine workers who are the backbone of the country are feeling unsafe and facing financial difficulties,” adding that the government and owners of private coal mine companies are not providing any basic facilities or services to the workers in the field.
Between 2005 and 2012, at least 310 coal mine workers were killed and dozens others injured in major incidents in Pakistan. At least 46 were killed in 21 incidents in 2010 alone. In 2011, some 92 workers were killed in 33 separate incidents and in 2012 till June, 26 died in 24 separate incidents.
The Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de Calzado Sandak is standing firm. It is demanding that the plant reopen, and for the past eighteen months has kept watch outside the factory, a Bata plant in Tlaxcala in the east of Mexico, day and night to prevent the removal of the machinery. Despite the immense hardships they face, these brave union members are determined to continue their struggle. Send them your messages of solidarity from around the world and let them know they do not struggle alone.
The problems at Calzado Sandak started in December 2010, with what at first appeared to be good news: the company offered to engage in negotiations over wages and piece rates without waiting for the expiry of the CBA. But when the company then locked out half the workforce and forced workers to resign in order to collect unpaid wages, it became clear that the pay increases had been an attempt to justify reducing operations in the face of rising labour costs.
In July 2011, just two weeks after signing an agreement with the union on job security, the company locked out the remaining workers, leaving two weeks wages unpaid and offering workers the choice of working from home or collecting severance. Bata shoes are now being made by homeworkers and in small workshops in substandard conditions, including the use of child labour.
The company chose to ignore the law, which would have required it to obtain prior approval from the labour authorities based on an examination of the company’s performance and an assessment of whether the closure was justified.
Union members are holding firm in demanding the reopening of the plant. Many of them are ill, as a result of years of using toxic substances without protection, and they have now been denied medical attention because the company has cut off their social security.
This has had tragic consequences. In August one of the striking workers María Luisa Hernández Moreno, a diabetic, was knocked about by a security guard. She never recovered, and without medical attention her health deteriorated. Six weeks later she was dead.
The union is demanding that Calzado Sendak reopen and negotiate in good faith with the union, and that until that happens the company continue its social security contributions. IndustriALL Global Union fully supports those demands.
Bata is also accused of grave violations of trade union rights of its employees in Malaysia, Kenya and South Africa.
Send your message of solidarity to the workers by email from this webpage or post a video message in support on youtube. Contact [email protected] for more information.
FIM-CISL letter to Mexican President Peña Nieto.
See the special report published 22 February by Conquiste del Lavoro by Gianni ALIOTI the International officer of FIM CISL: "IndustriALL for Mexico".
On 22 February the national coordination of FIM-CISL in Tenaris met in Dalmine and transmitted their solidarity and proximity with the thousands of Mexican workers of Tenaris Siderca who are currently struggling during to elect democratically and freely their union representatives and be able – for the first time – to negotiate a collective company agreement (see photo).
The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, LO-Norway, wrote to PKC President and CEO Matti Hyytiäinen on 13 February to protest in the strongest terms the violations of trade union rights at PKC in Ciudad Acuña. See LO-Norway's letter here.
