Numsa opposes proposed electricity tariff hikes

Energy regulator had agreed to 3 multi year price determination (MYPD) periods each for three years and the second MYPD is due to come to an end in March 2013. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) argues that Eskom’s proposal for the third MYPD to be extended from three years to five years is a ploy to extend the security period of these enormous tariff hikes.

The tariff increases will result in a 110 per cent increase, raising the price of electricity from the current 61 cents per kilowatt-hour to 128 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2017/18. 70 per cent of energy production is consumed by industry and mining and manufacturing companies will be hard hit by the increase, especially many energy intensive users where Numsa has a strong membership base.

Numsa is concerned that the massive rice increases will adversely affect local industries and companies will be forced to shut down or reduce the size of their workforce through retrenchments. The union has proposed single digit increase that is inflation based.

In his presentation to Nersa at the public hearing in Cape Town, Deputy General Secretary of Numsa, Karl Cloete said, “In a country with already shocking and unacceptable levels of unemployment we cannot facilitate the retrenchment of workers by allowing Eskom to deepen companies’ already severe financial strain and further erode their competitiveness.”

Numsa also raises concern on the impact this will have on poor households for whom the price increase will be far above inflation. These households will also have to faced increase costs of consumer good as a result of the hike.

Eskom’s proposal is based on the need to generate R1.1 trillion in revenue to cover its costs including a massive capacity expansion programme required as a result of poor planning and investment that led to a supply crisis and rolling blackouts in 2007/8.

Whilst Cloete recognises the necessity of the capacity expansion programme, he argues, “Citizens, the poor in particular and local industry cannot be punished with outrageous hikes to the point of deepening unemployment, poverty and inequality as a result of inaction or wrong policy choices by political elites.”

Numsa questions some of Eskom’s revenue requirements, including the accumulation of R43 billion over the proposed MYPD period for its sole shareholder, the South African government, which does not go to the fiscus but is returned to Eskom to bolster its balance sheet to achieve a good credit rating. 

Numsa plans to picket at all nine provincial hearings that will be held through the second half of January.

IndustriALL outraged by savage union-busting in Turkey

The striking workers at the Daiyang SK Metal plant located in the European Free Trade Zone of Corlu, Tekirdağ, North-West Turkey have battled for their basic trade union rights for nearly three years. They began the 15 January sit-in protest when they heard news that local management brought scabs from Korea to run the dormant machines of the striking workers.

The members of IndustriALL Global Union-affiliated Birlesik Metal-Is were viciously attacked by police wielding batons and tear gas, injuring five workers, two of whom were sent to hospital in an ambulance. The workers were attacked for conducting a peaceful sit-in to protest their illegal mistreatment by management.

Daiyang SK Metal is a joint venture between Korean firms SK Networks and Daiyang Metal. Daiyang owns 70 percent and supplies stainless steel coil to many multinational brands for use in IT, electronics, and home appliances. These multinational brands including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Electrolux, Siemens, Toshiba, Whirlpool, Bosch, Daewoo and Gorenje.

IndustriALL is now working to exert pressure through these client companies, which are organized by IndustriALL affiliates, and three of which are Global Framework Agreement partners.

Following a long legal battle where management repeatedly rejected the opportunity to sign a collective bargaining agreement, the Birlesik Metal-Is members took the decision to strike. The strike began on 15 November in line with Turkish legislation. During the strike, private security officers of the Free Trade Zone attacked and destroyed the strike tent, the company used other workers to run striking workers’ machines, a Korean manager tried to use violence against one of the striking workers and they various intimidation and repression tactics were employed.

Korean Metalworker affiliate KMWU has a long history of fighting union-busting with Daiyang, consistently refusing to sit down at the bargaining table with the union since 2006, and instead hiring thugs to repress their strike and lodging cases against the union leaders.

In a 28 December letter to the CEOs of Daiyang Metal and SK Holdings, IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan urged the companies to “enter into meaningful and constructive dialogue with Birlesik Metal-Is without any delay to conclude the collective bargaining process”.

“It is clear to us that Daiyang SK has been, since the beginning, very hostile against unionization and union members who just want to use their basic rights to join a union, collective bargaining and right to strike guaranteed by the Constitution of Turkey as well as international labor conventions which Turkey has ratified.”

Unions prepare for Mexico Days of Action

In the Mexican capital, national unions will march with international and North American trade unionists on 19 February and further actions are planned throughout the country during the week.

During the Days of Action IndustriALL affiliated trade unions, together with transport workers and others, will revisit the Mexican Ambassador to their country and push for action on:

One of the current key conflicts involving democratic trade unions in Mexico is at the Finnish-based auto parts multinational PKC in Ciudad Acuña, where eleven members of the national Mexican mining union Los Mineros Section 307 ended a six-day hunger strike on 14 January protesting the severe union-busting campaign against them.

The hunger strike was called off once Los Mineros achieved a new round of workplace voting to be held at PKC-Arneses next month. This follows an 18 October election marred by intimidation and threats from management leading to a tight defeat for Los Mineros to yellow union CTM. It is clear that the workplace would elect Los Mineros in a free and democratic election.

The hunger strikers were illegally dismissed between 14-20 December 2012, when PKC-Arneses management forced 122 workers involved in organizing the workplace to resign. These 122 workers must now be reinstated.  

The new workplace representation election date will be fixed at a meeting on 31 January. International solidarity is now focussing on ensuring there is no repeat of the repression conducted before the October election by management, with full complicity of the local authorities and paid thugs. The company also financed a massive media campaign through local TV, radio and press in the lead-up to the October election discrediting the Mineros union.

The group of workers have struggled for four years to organize and officially form Section 307 of Los Mineros. The list of daily violations of workers’ rights at PKC-Arneses indicates what the management fear from a democratic representative trade union at the factory. Under the watch of the yellow CTM union management has got away with paying poverty wages of less than 100 Mexican pesos a day (6 Euros), running illegally long work shifts of 10 hours a day with 5 minutes break, and abuses of the workers’ leave and other benefits.

Electrolux imprisons then sacks workers in Thailand

In a letter addressed to the company management in Sweden, which is signatory to an International Framework Agreement on workers’ rights, IndustriALL Global Union joined with Swedish union IF Metall in expressing outrage at the unjust and anti-union actions of Electrolux Thailand.

On 11 January 2013 Electrolux Thailand management called a meeting of all workers at 8am and announced a two-month bonus, but then refused to discuss the workers demands for fair wage increases and permanent employment for agency workers after 6 months.

Instead the managers forcibly removed the union president, Phaiwan Metha, from the meeting throwing him onto the street and dismissing him. When the gathered workers learnt of the dismissal they continued to sit on the floor and demanded his reinstatement and return.

Management then called security and police and surrounded the workers, preventing them from leaving for 8 hours, including a pregnant woman in her sixth month who tried to leave. At 5pm the workers were released, one by one by the security guards. The workers returned to work on 14 January to find written dismissal notice for 127 workers.

The dismissals followed more than a month of efforts by the union to negotiate on the new minimum wage and annual wage adjustments due to be implemented by 25 January 2013. The management had refused to accept the proposals by the union and instead attempted to impose wage adjustments that had not been agreed to.

In the letter to Electrolux IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina states that the company’s actions “constitutes a crystal clear union-busting attempt to force upon workers an unfair collective bargaining process”.

“I strongly urge you to use your influence to immediately reinstate the dismissed workers and union members and return to the collective bargaining table to achieve a fair and just resolution of this conflict as well as create a constructive relationship between labour and management,” writes Raina.

The union at the plant in Thailand was formed in 2010 at which time it managed to negotiate a collective agreement that is due for renewal this year. The products of the Electrolux plant include washing machines, refrigerators and other electrical appliances for European and Asian markets.

The dismissed workers are now fighting against the management’s unjust union busting tactics and have submitted their grievances to the Parliament’s Labour Commission.

5,000 Jakarta workers rally for wages

The 16 January 2013 rally marched from in front of Jakarta`s Metropolitan Police Office at 9am to the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources’ and then to the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration (Ministry of Labour). The police and military deployed 9,000 officers to oversee the demonstration.

The second demand of the rally was for government to block the proposed increase to electricity prices that will drastically reduce workers’ purchasing power.

A month after Indonesian unions mobilized 3 million workers in massive rallies on 3 October 2012 the Jakarta minimum wage was set to be raised from US$157 to US$230 for the year 2013.

Around 986 companies, mostly in the shoes, garment and textile industries have since sent letters to the Labour Ministry asking to be exempt from paying the new minimum wage until next year at least, and 46 labour-intensive firms already have approval. Many of those 986 companies are continuing to use the military and yellow unions to intimidate workers from organizing into democratic unions.

The powerful Federation of Indonesian Metal Workers' Union FSPMI led by president Said Iqbal mobilized thousands of metalworkers. Iqbal is also president of trade union confederation KSPI which also rallied members to the march. The new Indonesian workers' council MPBI, that united the country’s three major trade union confederations (KSPI, KSBSI, and KSPSI), also participated.

Said Iqbal argues that the Ministry of Labour only has the right to grant exemptions to companies under one of two sets of circumstances. Either the company has been shown in an audit to have made a loss in each of the past two years, or that an agreement has been reached with workers to delay the salary increase.

Compensation for victims in Pakistan

KIK Textilen, one of the major buyers of Ali Enterprises, agreed on 5 January 2013 to make the US$1 million payment to victims of the textile factory fire in Baldia Town, create a long-term compensation plan, and improve labour protection in Pakistan. 

The compensation package came after demands by Pakistani trade unions, supported by international organizations including IndustriALL Global Union and the Clean Clothes Campaign.

According to the agreement between PILER and the KiK, the disbursement will take place in two phases. The first phase focuses on families of victims who have not received any compensation from the government where the bodies of the workers at Ali Enterprises are decomposed beyond the point of identification.

KiK has also expressed willingness to compensate workers who faced severe injuries in the fire leading to disability and loss of future employment.

The remaining workers will be assisted in the next step after a compensation amount is agreed upon through a consensus between all stakeholders including employers and other buyers, he added.

To facilitate the compensation process PILER also filed a petition with the Sindh High Court (SHC). The petition sought that the court constitutes an independent commission to oversee the compensation process and determine all necessary details for the purpose.

On 15 January the Sindh High Court (SHC) issued notices to the owners of Ali Enterprise to submit PKR 50 million (US$ 512,000) compensation before the Nazir of the court.  The court also directed the advocate general of SHC to submit the inquiry commission report with regard to the factory fire.

According to a statement by PILER, the German buyer, KiK, has been engaged in a dialogue not only to seek compensation for the victims of Ali Enterprises, but is also involved in a plan towards building a long-term workplace safety regime for Pakistani workers. 

Pact on decent jobs signed in Tunisia

A joint social pact opening new ways to development of industrial relations in Tunisia was signed on 14 January 2013 at the headquarters of the National Constituent Assembly in Bardo by the head of government of Tunisia, the secretary general of the federation of trade unions, UGTT, and the President of the employers association, UTICA.

The ceremony coincided with the second anniversary of the events that led to the Arab Spring uprisings that started in Tunisia and then spread to the region.

The signing ceremony was also attended by international guests, including the Director General of the International Labour Organization, Guy Ryder, and the Belgian Minister of Labour, Monica De Connick.

The document, which enters into force on the date of its signature, contains five main areas, namely:

Tahar Berberi, General Secretary of the IndustriALL Tunisia affiliate Fédération Générale de la Métallurgie et de l'Electronique and member of UGTT, commented, “This social pact is an achievement of long months of negotiations and engagement from the side of the government, employers and workers. It is the result of the desire of the three parties to work together and ensure a positive social climate and enable economic recovery in Tunisia, including the prerequisites for the creation of quality jobs in sufficient quantity for the entire Tunisian population, especially youth and women hit hard by the unemployment crisis.”

To promote implementation of the agreement a special national council for dialogue will be set up within one year.

The social contract is a tripartite agreement is likely to strengthen social security and strengthen the dialogue between the parties of production. The pact recognizes trade union pluralism.

Turkish mining union labels fatal accident “murder”

The accident at Kozlu coal mine in Zonguldak Province on the Black Sea belonging to state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprise (TTK) was caused by a sudden methane gas leak and explosion. Following long rescue efforts, the bodies of dead miners were recovered. All of the workers killed were union members. The Zonguldak Chief Public Prosecutor’s office is conducting an investigation into the local management’s negligence in failing to avoid the accident.

Dangerous methane gas leaks and explosions in coal mining are avoidable through safe detection techniques and technology, strengthened by strong trade union presence and mature systems of industrial relations.

The accident happened in a pit operated by a subcontractor company, called Star, in Zonguldak, Turkey’s main coal mining region. Recent audit reports in the months prior to the accident show numerous inadequacies of the company’s safety measures.

Genel Maden-Is organizes mine workers in Zonguldak region. Over the last couple of years, Genel Maden-Is began organizing miners employed by sub-contractors. The company operating the pit that killed eight union members was organized a few years ago, but company management has used all possible tricks to stall and avoid the collective bargaining process by using anti-labour articles of the Turkish trade union legislation.

The local labour court decided that Genel Maden-Is had a sufficient majority to become the bargaining party, but the company challenged it at Court of Cassation, and a final verdict is still pending. During the organizing period, Genel Maden-Is had announced that this subcontractor violated health and safety rules in the pits concerned, this is why the union’s president defines this accident as “murder”

A second deadly coal mine blast in Zonguldak occurred just three days after on 10 January, once again methane gas exploded killing one miner and poisoning three colleagues who attempted to come to his rescue.

“Turkey has the worst safety record in terms of mining accidents and explosions in Europe and the third worst in the world. We again call upon the Turkish Government to immediately ratify and implement ILO’s Convention 176 on Safety in Mines to save lives of miners” said Jyrki Raina, IndustriALL Global Union’s General Secretary.

Condolence messages can be sent to the union here [email protected]

Copper company busts union in Kazakhstan

Trade Union of Mining & Metallurgy Workers of Republic of Kazakhstan (TUMMWRK), an IndustriALL affiliate, reports that Kazakhmys, a copper company in Kazakhstan, is forcing TUMMWRK members to quit their union and join the company-controlled one.

The company has also prohibited sending union dues from workers’ salaries to TUMMWRK’s account, completely paralyzing the Kazakhmys branch of the union.

The conflict between the company and the union has persisted since September last year.

Kazakhmys controls 90 per cent of copper production in Kazakhstan. The company is registered in London and listed in the London Stock Exchange. It is included in the FTSE-100 Index.

IndustriALL general secretary Jyrki Raina sent a letter to the company’s board of directors, using its British address. In this letter he urged the company to restore good-faith relations with TUMMWRK and withdraw from anti-union tactics.

Raina noted, “If the interests of the union are ignored, IndustriALL Global Union will use the international mechanisms for defending union rights, and will also call the affiliates in the UK for help.”

Tripartite effort on fire safety in Bangladesh

Mourning the loss of 112 workers lives, as well as the injuries suffered, during a terrible fire at Tazreen Fashions on 24 November 2012, the agreement, commits government, employers and workers’ organizations to working together to develop, promote and implement collaborative, participatory and transparent mechanisms to ensure fire safety in Bangladesh.

IndustriALL Global Union welcomes this commitment to fire safety and pledges its support to ensure more is done to protect the safety and health of workers in the textile sector in Bangladesh.

Signed on 15 January 2013, the agreement recognizes that occupational safety and health requires the full involvement and recognition of workers and their representatives.

The signed statement, published here, call on the International Labour Organization for technical support and assistance from development agencies, brands, buyers, donor agencies and non-government organizations.

Monika Kemperle, IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary, who previously demanded government action on fire safety, welcomed the agreement and said,

Fire safety in the textile industry must be ensured by government and delivered by employers and tripartite approach, involving unions, is the only way o ensure that the disaster that claimed more than 100 lives in November last year does not occur again.