Hyundai stops night shifts in Korea

The decision to abolish the overnight shift came after ten years of struggle and negotiations by the KMWU with management, which at times included protest action to support the workers’ demands. Finally in August 2012 the parties came to an unprecedented agreement.

The company will test the new system of shifts for 2 weeks to see if there are unforeseen problems. As of 4 March 2013 the graveyard shift will be completely ended. In the new shifts, team one will work 8 hours and 40 minutes from 7am to 3:40pm. Team two takes over for a 9 hour and 50 minute shift from 3:40pm to 1:30am.

Before, the company had 2 shifts from 8am to 6:50pm, 10 hours and 50 minutes, and from 9pm to 8am, 11 hours. Workers used to work on a fortnightly basis. The work at nights and long working hours overall caused severe sleep disorders and even death from overwork, known in Korea as “gwarosa”. With the new system in place Korean autoworkers will be able to enjoy a better quality of life.

According to local news reports the company plans to invest a total of 300 billion won (US$282 million) to make the facility more efficient to make up for the slightly shorter shifts. Hyundai Motor’s sister company Kia Motors is also getting rid of night shifts on 4 March. The work hours will be the same as at Hyundai.

This move serves as a benchmark to other local carmakers, for instance GM Korea plans to abolish night shifts starting from the beginning of next year. The change will also encourage auto suppliers to synchronize in working hours with their major customers. Hyundai Mobis and Halla Climate Control said they are reviewing their systems of working hours.

Indonesian Bridgestone workers win permanent employment

This change in employment status is a major breakthrough in industrial relations in Indonesia and a great victory for IndustriALL Global Union affiliate KEP SPSI, which represents 3,250 Bridgestone workers across the two plants.

The union at Bridgestone has been dealing with the issue of temporary employment since 2008, following its involvement in the Asia and Social Dialogue Project and the Contract and Agency Labour project conducted by ICEM, now IndustriALL Global Union. The union tried to implement the knowledge acquired from the training delivered as part of the projects. According to the national labour legislation, dated to 2003, the use of agency workers on a production line is illegal in Indonesia. However this law was not observed by the company.

Following a series of negotiations in July 2011, the management promised to stop recruiting new agency workers on the production line and started preparations to change the employment status of existing agency workers into permanent positions through social dialogue with the trade union. At the time 200 agency workers gained permanent employment.

Throughout 2012 the union and company continued negotiations, which were bolstered when in November 2012 the Ministry of Manpower issued a decree stating that companies could use agency workers only in five job categories: security, cleaning, catering, assistant work in supporting systems of the mining sector, and transport services.

After reaching agreement in December 2012, 997 short-term contract and agency workers gained permanent positions. These workers received severance payment and their period of employment is to be calculated based on their first day of entering the company. According to the union, there are still 171 workers employed by the company through labour agencies working as drivers and security guards. The union is planning to negotiate for these workers in January 2013.

Precarious work in Indonesia is a nation-wide issue. Thanks to the union struggle and the landmark ruling of the Constitutional Court made in January 2012 that outsourcing work is against workers’ rights, a lot of trade unions in Indonesia have succeeded in changing their members’ temporary jobs into permanent ones.

In a landmark decision on January 17, the Indonesian Constitutional Court, ruled that out-sourcing work is unconstitutional and against workers' rights as enshrined in the Indonesian Constitution.

Colombian union USO reaches agreement

USO dedicated the new deal to the memory of Milton Parra Rivas, the USO activist leading the permanent workers’ assembly at Termotécnica, assassinated by gunmen on 11 December 2012 because of his role in the labour conflict.

IndustriALL Global Union mobilized affiliates and supporters in solidarity with USO’s 1,100 members in the Colombian municipality of Puerto Gaitán on several occasions during the four-month conflict, and joined bargaining sessions to demonstrate the international support for USO to the company.

Hundreds of letters to the Termotécnica management were sent through the IndustriALL website’s Take Action page. International efforts were taken by IndustriALL and Spanish affiliates to pressure the company CEPCOLSA to which Termotécnica supplied services, and CEPCOLSA’s parent company in Spain CEPSA. Each of the three sets of management refused to bargain in good faith with USO, in breach of Colombian labour law.

There was shocking complicity between local management, military, police and local authorities in attempting unsuccessfully to break the strike. The main factor in winning the new collective agreement was USO’s unity and strength. Workers were offered economic incentives to quit the USO and return to work. The employers hired new workers with better salary conditions in order to replace striking employees. 

The 22 December agreement ended the conflict and includes very significant advances for USO’s members at the contractor, although some union demands were dropped to reach the deal. The deal states the management’s recognition of USO as its representative industrial relations partner, confirms management’s responsibility for the workers’ residential camps, and assures respect for all contract workers of smaller firms paid by Termotécnica.

The agreement sets out 512,000,000 Colombian Pesos (or 221,000 euros) to be distributed among the 254 Termotécnica workers through various mechanisms. The agreement commits management to not take any reprisal measures against union members for their role in the conflict, or any other anti-union tactics.

IndustriALL salutes USO for this important victory and thanks those that took action in support of USO.

Arab Spring?

The meeting took place on the second anniversary of the beginning of what is generally known as the Arab Spring. AWN is a network of women trade unionists working under the motto Changing for Equality. The meeting was attended by women from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia together with GUF’s.

The structure of the AWN is that it is under the umbrella of the ITUC, although it is independent and works with other unions and civil society. Its objectives are capacity building, women’s organization and enhancing women’s leadership. The women strive to work together to fight against discrimination against women.

The women decided to work on common issues. They are minimum wages, equality between women and men, raising human and financial resources to support the network, domestic workers and eliminating the countries’ reservations about CEDAW (the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women). At the meeting the women went into detail about what they had achieved in connection with these aims. For example the minimum wage went up in Jordan and Tunisia as well as in Egypt, but there no one complies. In connection with gender equality the issue is the difference between integration and equality. This is a bone of contention in Tunisia and Egypt.  

Nevertheless the women were very concerned that after the initial euphoria about the Arab spring, women have realized that they are losing ground. The Arab Spring should have driven women forward, but instead they are falling back. In some cases women are being used or abused for political reasons. In this situation networking is more important than ever, and the women promised to reach out to other organizations in civil society and to boost their efforts to communicate and pressure governments.

Union under attack at Bashneft in Russia

Bashneft is one of the largest oil companies in Russia with revenue in the tens of billions of dollars and over 8,000 workers. The huge company is in the process of reorganizing its subsidiaries making them part of the overall structure, and is at the same time escalating an anti-union policy.

The company is refusing to renegotiate collective agreements with RCWU locals, creating its own Labour Councils instead.

Soon after reorganization in October 2012 when the company Bashkirnefteproduct in Ufa, Russia, became part of the parent company Bashneft, the management refused to renegotiate the CBA with the RCWU local and challenged its right to collective bargaining.

“When the legal status of our company changed, we had to renegotiate a collective agreement. However, when the union tried to do so, my authority to engage in collective bargaining on behalf of the workers was challenged for the first time in 14 years,” says Zumara Ganieva, president of the RCWU local at Bashneft’s Ufa plant.

At the same time the management created a Labour Council as a representative body for the workers, despite the fact that 76 per cent of the workforce is unionized. Local management has since pressured workers to quit the union, threatening them with dismissal.

The very same policy was adopted at another Bashneft subsidiary Orenburgnefteproduct in Orenburg, Russia, recently purchased. The management refuses to renegotiate a CBA, while creating its own Labour Council to replace the RCWU local at the plant.

In response RCWU held pickets both in Ufa and Orenburg. On 14 December 30 activists took part in the action in Orenburg, and over 200 workers picketed company offices in Ufa, despite freezing temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius. The protesters demanded that Bashneft recognize the union and abandon its Labour Council policy.

RCWU president Alexander Sitnov said the union was to launch a national solidarity campaign. He also expressed hope that the international labour movement will offer its solidarity to Bashneft unions.

UN human rights officials meet community landowners and workers in Excellon case

After the violent eviction of a protest camp at the entrance to the La Platosa mine owned by the Canadian company Excellon Resources, in the state of Durango, Mexico, the community landowners of La Sierrita and a group of workers from Section 309 of the National Miners' Union (SNTMMSRM) met officials of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights  (OHCHR) to denounce systematic violations of human rights by the federal and state governments and Canadian mining company Excellon.

The workers and community landowners who support the union had set up a camp at the entrance to the Platosa mine during the last three months to demand freedom of association but were violently evicted on 24 October.

Since the situation deteriorated, IndustriALL Global Union has supported the solidarity campaign also joined by LabourStart, Amnesty International and the Mexican NGO, the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project (PRODESC) and criticised the eviction and the company’s intimidation. General Secretary Jyrki Raina wrote to Excellon calling on it to end its anti-trade union practices and respect workers’ right to be represented by a union of their choice without any outside interference.

The company replied to IndustriALL claiming that all was well at the mine and that the eviction was not violent. Jyrki Raina debunked Excellon’s version of events in another letter.

The UN officials also heard how the company has failed to comply with the terms of its agreement to lease land, signed in 2008, which covered the right to land, territory and natural resources, the right to development, the right to water and the right to the freedom of association. Workers also described the company’s campaign of threats and harassment.

The UN officials said they had met local and federal authorities to ask what action they had taken in the case and to find out what measures they had adopted to guarantee and protect the human rights of the La Sierrita community and the workers of Section 309. The Second Representative of the Durango State Commission on Human Rights, Sara de los Santos Llamas, promised to follow-up on this matter.

For the community landowners, the workers and PRODESC, the visit by OHCHR officials is recognition that the company’s dispute with the Ejido La Sierrita and Section 309 is not simply a contractual or labour dispute, but a typical case of human rights violations by a transnational company with the complicity of federal and state authorities.

Aker GFA is extended with an indeterminate duration

On 17 December, the Global Framework Agreement (GFA) was renewed for the third time at Aker ASA. The first and second agreements were made between Fellesforbundet, International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and Aker ASA in October 2008 and in November 2010 with 2 years duration respectively.  This time, the newly signed GFA also includes Tekna and NITO, engineering trade unions, as signatory parties and the agreement is applicable for an indeterminate duration.

The agreement covers provisions on freedom of association and collective bargaining rights, discrimination, forced labour, child labour, health and safety, living wages, employment conditions, working hours, HIV/AIDS, environmental issues and skills training, referencing the standards as established by the core labour conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Aker ASA with its industrial holdings employs approximately 24,000 workers in around 30 countries. The agreement relates to all parts of Aker and states that the company will use its influence to secure compliance with the standards set out in the agreement with its subsidiaries and third party business associates, with non-compliance ultimately resulting in potential termination of a contractual relationship.

At the signing event, CEOs of the industrial holdings from Aker Solutions, Kvaerner, Det norske oljeselskap,  Aker BioMarine, and Aker Seafoods also attended and exchanged opinions on the future implementation of the GFA, together with the trade unions and employee members of the board of directors.

Øyvind Eriksen, CEO Aker ASA insisted on the importance to integrate the GFA into the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy in more practical ways.  All the participants confirmed to work together in building, developing, and managing the process which secures implementation of the GFA in all workplaces.

Outsourced workers at food company in Chile out on strike

In Concepción, in southern Chile, 70 women and 3 men, all members of the WFS Food Services union, affiliated to CONSTRAMET, are on strike because of the company’s failure to meet union demands in negotiations for a collective agreement.

The workers say the company has always tried to restrict trade union power within the company and complain that the company extends benefits won by unionised workers to non-union members. They also say the company tried to form a yellow union.

The union's demands include a 4% pay rise, food vouchers, a nightshift bonus and annual leave. The company provides services to a range of companies, for example, the University Hospital, fishing boats, paper mills, hydroelectricity stations and electricity companies.

The workers on strike have been loyal and enthusiastic participants at regional and national meetings organised by IndustriALL's Trade Union Strengthening project and their union is affiliated to Constramet, which is in turn affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union.

Maritza Contreras, union president, said:

There are 73 of us who are fighting to improve our conditions. We are determined but we realise we will not necessarily get all that we are asking for even though we are not asking for a lot, as you will have realised. We are fighting anti-trade union practices that try to take advantage of our vulnerability as outsourced workers. We do not have much protection and our company’s clients are threatening to end their contracts because of our strike, which however is legal.

She added:

This is the situation in our country and for our workers. We are very clear that we need unity in the trade union movement in order to change things and improve working conditions.

Jyrki Raina, IndustriALL Global-Union’s General Secretary, has written to the company repudiating its actions in particular its anti-trade union practices and has called on it to enter into genuine negotiations. The letter also reaffirmed his total solidarity with the workers and concluded:

We demand a resumption of dialogue and the negotiation of an agreement that benefits the workers and respects their right to conduct trade union activity.

COP18 disappoints

Attending the COP meetings, one has the sense of visiting an alternate reality. Like an unrepentant procrastinator, the Doha Gateway postpones the tough decisions. The science is clear, and the danger is imminent; contrary to the impression created in the media – particularly in North America. Between 1991 and 2012, there have been 13,950 peer-reviewed articles on climate. Of these, only 24 reject global warming.

Scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change inform us that significant action taken within the next three to six years could still keep global warming within the two Celsius degrees above pre-industrial levels that is considered manageable. Yet the gap between currently pledged action, and the level of ambition needed to control the situation, continues to grow.

If action is delayed beyond the 2015-2018 time-frame, our children's future will rely on technologies that are unproven or do not yet exist. The longer we delay, the more difficult and expensive, and perilous, the task will be.

One possible point of action in the near future is the upcoming ILO discussion on Green Jobs and Sustainable Development scheduled for June 2013. It may be the beginning of a dialogue on an ILO standard or instrument on Just Transition.

In conclusion, there are two potential dangers for the labour movement. One, of course, is that through inaction, catastrophic climate change will not be avoided. The rich will no doubt manage quite nicely, but working people and the world's poor will bear the brunt. The other (which may or may not accompany the first) is that the world's peoples will wake up suddenly to the danger, and in their panic, will accept any measures no matter how draconian, to “fix” things. In that scenario, decades of work by the labour movement and other socially-conscious NGOs to insert considerations of social standards, labour standards, human rights, sustainable jobs, decent work, and Just Transition into the environmental debate will be thrown by the wayside in the panic to do something – anything – to deal with the catastrophe at hand.

The reason COP18 will be remembered as less controversial than, say, COP15 or COP17, is not that it accomplished more, but rather that expectations were so low to begin with. It is tempting to say that the COP processes will never accomplish their goal, but it is the only framework that exists for global climate negotiations and abandoning it will require that we create another one. That will take time; time we can ill afford. As Laura Martin Murillo of SustainLabour put it, “this forum also belongs to us – as citizens of this planet; to environmental and development movements and the trade union movements that have helped create it.” It is up to all citizens to put pressure on their governments to do the right thing; and not just once a year when the COP meetings take place.

Global unions call for measures after Tazreen fire

This call comes following the recent tragic fire at Tazreen Fashions in Bangladesh, which produced Faded Glory brand clothing. The global unions are asking Walmart to provide fair redress for the victims, to support a full and transparent investigation,  and to adopt meaningful measures to prevent future incidents. They want a timely public announcement of these measures.

The announcement comes as several shipments of clothing bound for Walmart from the Tazreen factory are due to arrive on the US East Coast.

“Terrible and preventable accidents like the Tazreen fire are the responsibility of the big companies who create the supply chain. Unions involved along the chain – whether in manufacture, transport or retail, are joining together to call for safety and justice for workers like the Tazreen victims” said ITF acting general secretary Stephen Cotton. “As global unions we speak with one voice – and we are determined to effect change and stamp out unnecessary tragedies like this” he added.

Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union commented: “Walmart and other brand owners and retailers profiting from the textile industry in Bangladesh must reveal their list of suppliers in full transparency and verify the safety standards and  workers’ rights at the factories they are sourcing from. Walmart must ensure their pricing and sourcing policy is based on their suppliers complying to safe working conditions so that a tragedy such the one at Tazreen Fashions does not occur again.”

UNI Global Union General Secretary, Philip Jennings said, “UNI, the ITF and IndustriALL are making this call jointly because we and our affiliate unions and their members have all experienced the negative effects of Walmart’s irresponsible behaviour all along the supply chain. The UNI Walmart Global Union Alliance which brings together Walmart workers from around the world is backing this call for justice for the Tazreen victims and improved safety in factories manufacturing Walmart products.  The victims and families of the Tazreen tragedy deserve no less. ”