Tony Maher, CFMEU National President and Andrew Dettmer, AMWU National President met Guillermo Puente Ordorica, Deputy Head of Mission and Rafael Ignacio Montoya Bayardo, Third Secretary and raised the issues facing Los Mineros, SME, BATA Sandak workers. See the unions' report of the meeting attached.
The union's president, Henk Van der Kolk, will deliver a letter on behalf of the organization to the Mexican Ambassador to the Hague. The letter will condemn the on-going violations of core trade union rights in the country. While the letter is delivered inside, members will handout leaflets and campaign materials
See more on FNV Bondgenoten's website here.
The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (Nupeng) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (Pengassan), came together in November 2012 to take action against employers in the free zone that were refusing oil workers’ union rights. Of the 123 companies in the zone, only 5 had allowed the unions to organize workers and at all 5 companies, union leaders have been victimized and dismissed.
When companies did not heed the ultimatum issued by Nupeng and Pengassan, at the end of January 2013 the 2 unions issued notice of a 3 day strike to start on 13 February, if dismissed shop floor union leaders were not reinstated and union rights established in all companies in the free zone.
Seeking to resolve issue before the strike, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu agreed together with the Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority (OGFZA) and the unions that companies would be given 90 days to comply with provisions in the law that require companies to allow for unions to be put in place.
The communique issued after the meeting also requires companies to establish industrial relations departments to interface with the free zone authority and the unions. It also requires companies to comply with labour laws and ILO conventions stating, “No worker shall be victimized for any role played in the unionisation process and union activities.”
Isaac Aberare, Acting General Secretary of Nupeng says of the victory; “the free zone authority had been going about its business as if legislated union rights did not apply in the free zone, now these have been established through the intervention of government and oil workers in the free zone will soon benefit from being free to become members of the union.”
“IndustriALL Global Union salutes this historical victory of Nupeng and Pengassan. Unionization is the only way for workers and societies to get a fair share from the wealth, which the oil sector produces. This struggle and victory should be an example for all oil unions, particularly on the African continent,” said IndustriALL Global Union General Secretary Jyrki Raina.
Unions representing O-I workers in four continents formed the global alliance and conducted this first coordinated international week of action in response to, and rejection of, new company policy of cutbacks that are hitting workers hardest and causing concern for the future. See more background here.
The United Steelworkers sent a strong message of unity from plants across the US and Canada. See photos attached.
Australian affiliate AWU mobilized O-I workers, together with the AMWU, across Australia. See photos attached.
IndustriALL’s Colombian glassworker affiliate Sintravidricol averted a strike in January through a new collective agreement at O-I, reached with the support of the international union alliance. The union mobilized all of its sections to mark the days of action, including those representing workers at other companies than O-I. The union also wrote to CEO Al Stroucken. See photos attached to this article.
Spanish O-I workers from CC.OO. held actions at worksites in Seville and Barcelona. See photos attached.
Other actions at O-I workplaces were also conducted in the UK, Germany, France and other countries in Europe.
Brazilian colleagues at CNQ-CUT are using the international alliance to strengthen the national unity of O-I workers, represented by a number of unions within the confederation. Colleagues in Peru are currently fighting increased outsourcing in bargaining with O-I and are strengthened by the international coordination.
Indonesian affiliate FSP KEP joined the global action and wrote to O-I CEO Al Stroucken.
A Solidarity Flyer will be developed to be distributed to all trade unions in the global glass alliance around the world during the week of March 4, 2013 highlighting and sharing members’ solidarity. The Flyer will be translated into a number of languages recognizing the diversity of the Alliance.
The global alliance received a written response from Senior Vice President Paul Jarrell on 30 January. In a respectful tone, Jarrell acknowledged the formation of the global alliance and commits to good faith industrial relations throughout the company’s operations. The on-going coordination and solidarity of the global alliance will put these promises to the test.
The picket is part of the larger campaign of protest against the attack on RCWU locals. Moscow city authorities allowed only five people to take part in a picket. This small group took action outside Bashneft office during one hour on 12 February. However, many more people came to support the action. The protesters kept changing over so that other people from the group of RCWU activists standing at some distance from the picket could joing the protest.
Soon after reorganization 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 a collective agreement with the RCWU locals and challenged their right to collective bargaining.
Due to threats and pressure from the management, hundreds of workers left RCWU locals both in Ufa and Orenburg. In response RCWU rallied in both cities and launched a national solidarity campaign.
Thanks to the support from IndustriALL Global Union, this solidarity campaign became international in scope. 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.
More than 1,300 people sent letters of protest to Bashneft management via TAKE ACTION form on IndustriALL website.
The situation is still tense both in Orenburg and Ufa. Bashneft management refused to meet with RCWU leaders on 4 February.
After the picket Alexander Sitnov, RCWU president, stated, "We will continue to fight for our rights. We hope that Bashneft managers will hear us."
If the situation doesn’t change and Bashneft management doesn’t withdraw its anti-union policies, both RCWU and IndustriALL will put more pressure on the employer.
The UE, an affiliate of IndustriALL Global Union, represents the workers at the 70,000-barrel a day refinery and is seeking a buyer to keep the refinery open, preserve jobs and protect the supply of gasoline to the local market.
"Finding a buyer to operate the Port Reading refinery is more than just saving the hundreds of good family-supporting jobs that depend on it," said UE National President Bruce Klipple.
"The New Jersey-New York region needs the gasoline refining capacity that the Hess facility provides. Without it customers will pay higher prices and see more of the life-threatening and costly episodes as we experienced during Hurricane Sandy," explained Klipple.
Millions of gasoline customers in the New Jersey-New York region were subjected to crippling gas shortages during Hurricane Sandy late last year. The Port Reading Hess refinery supplied critical fuel to emergency first responders from the tri-state area during the storm and resumed operations after just several days.
Multiple refinery closures in the northeast and U.S. in recent years have led to much higher fuel prices, frequent price increases, and disruptive shortages.
Within days of the announcement of the refinery¹s closure, retail gasoline prices hit an all-time seasonal high in the U.S. Oil industry analysts linked the spike in price directly to the refinery¹s imminent cessation of operations and other refinery-related factors.
"Refinery closures in the developed world are a big threat against employment of workers who have contributed to the growth of this business for many years. What UE does right now by seeking a new buyer is a respectable and responsible union policy. IndustriALL Global Union will continue to give its full support to UE in this important drive," said IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina.
The giant autoparts manufacturer based in Illinois, US supplies metal bumpers, interior and exterior plastic parts, lighting and stamped metal components primarily for General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Nissan. Flex-N-Gate is a US$3 billion company owned by Shahid Khan, the 179th richest American, and is one of the fastest growing autoparts companies in the US. But despite the massive resources, Flex-N-Gate has illegally obstructed UAW’s organizing effort in its non-union facilities in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Texas for over a year. The non-union workers are also exposed to life-threatening hazards on the job.
The 13 February simultaneous “Unite for Justice at Flex-N-Gate” pickets at plants in five states called on Flex-N-Gate to invest in its US workforce by improving safety, paying a living wage, and reversing its anti-union organizing strategy at its non-union plants. The pickets were joined and supported by UAW members at client companies, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.
At plants in Warren, Michigan, and Belvidere, Illinois, UAW members are in the final stages of negotiating a new contract with Flex-N-Gate. Over the weekend, 9-10 February, workers there voted overwhelmingly to strike, if necessary, to achieve a fair contract.
"We have raised concerns about issues at both unionized and non-union plants during these negotiations," said Billy Williams, a member of UAW Local 155's bargaining committee in Warren. "Wages and working conditions at Flex-N-Gate's non-union plants directly affect our ability to bargain a fair contract. When the company is allowed to pay poverty wages and cut corners on important issues like safety at its non-union plants, it's that much harder for us to continue to move forward in our contract negotiations. Those plants undercut the standards we've worked so hard to establish. They don't compete based on quality or efficiency – just on how low they can drive standards."
See more at the UAW’s dedicated Justice at Flex-N-Gate campaign page.
The UAW is continuing to ramp up pressure on Nissan at its assembly plant in Canton, Mississippi, another organizing target.
The court found that Blanco, who supplied food services for Drummond's La Loma mine in the northern department of Cesar, had arranged with rightwing paramilitaries for the killing of Valmore Locarno and Víctor Hugo Orcasita, leaders of the mine's union. Blanco's assistant, Jairo Charris, was convicted in 2009 in the same murder plot and was sentenced to 30 years.
Judge Castiblanco also ordered prosecutors to investigate Drummond's president and three former employees to determine whether they might also be responsible after several witnesses, including the convicted man, alleged Drummond senior managers ordered the killings.
In addition, the judge supported a request by the victims' relatives to ask the Supreme Court to investigate former assistant prosecutor Edgardo Maya for allegedly failing to act to protect unionists in Cesar; Maya is Jaime Blanco's half-brother.
Blanco, who ran a food services concession at the Drummond mine, was sentenced to 37 years and 11 months in prison and fined him $369,000. The judge said that Blanco "took advantage of his closeness to commanders of the paramilitaries" to help him eliminate Locarno and Orcasita, who represented union members who had complained about his food service.
Drummond management has long been suspected of involvement of the murders of Locarno and Orcasita and of another La Loma unionist, Gustavo Soler, who was killed later in 2001.
The US-based International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) and the United Steelworkers (USW) union filed a civil suit against Drummond in March 2002 under the 1789 Alien Tort Statute in federal court in Birmingham, Alabama, where the company is based. The Birmingham jury found the company not liable in 2007.
In July 2012, Patriot Coal, the company Peabody spun off in November 2007, filed for bankruptcy with executives arguing it could no longer provide health care to retired miners. Many believe Patriot was set up to fail so that benefits of workers could be stripped away.
Ten people, including UMWA Secretary Treasurer Dan Kane, were arrested on 13 February 2013 during a protest of over 1000 people outside the Peabody Energy headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
It was the second protest in two weeks that the UMWA organized. UMWA President Cecil Roberts was among 10 other members who werearrested during an earlier protest on 29 January 2013. The protests were peaceful, and so were the arrests.
Patriot executives argue that because the company is bankrupt, they shouldn't have to provide health care to retired miners. UMWA members said they were promised health care benefits in exchange for a lifetime of hazardous work.
The union said that about 10,000 retirees and an equalnumber of dependents, predominantly from West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, could lose pensions and health care benefits through Patriot Coal's bankruptcy.
"We will be returning to St. Louis again, and again, and again, until Peabody and Arch Coal decide that they're going to live up to the obligations that they made to retired coal miners, they're descendants, and their widows," said Phil Smith, UMWA Communications Director.
IndustriALL Global Union sent a letter of solidarity to UMWA. “IndustriALL Global Union pledges solidarity with you in your hour of need and will not allow such shameful behavior to go unchallenged,” writes, Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of IndustriALL.
