Bangladesh: fire safety responsibility of government and brands

IndustriALL Global Union in collaboration with Bangladeshi trade unions continues to promote the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement that was agreed with PvH in March and Tchibo in September to stop unsafe working conditions in apparel factories and to stop competition between employers and governments at the cost of fire and building safety.

IndustriALL calls upon all brands involved in the Tazreen fire and all brands sourcing from Bangladesh to sign the Bangladeshi Fire and Building Safety agreement as soon as possible. Furthermore IndustriALL supports the Bangladeshi Trade Union Demands on Fire Safety.

Garment workers in Bangladesh continue to protest in the streets of Ashulia, a manufacturing hub outside Dhaka, to demand better working conditions and safety in garment factories in the country.

Meanwhile workers are frequently fleeing from factories in fear of fires following the devastating fire that left more than 120 workers dead, mostly women paid as little as 37 dollars a month, at the Tazreen Fashion garment factory near Dhaka on 24 November 2012.  US giant Walmart, Dutch retailer C&A, Hong Kong supplier Li & Fung and the brand owned by US rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs were the customers of the factory.

Reports on a recent round of fire safety inspections in Bangladesh, since the blaze, indicate that 25 per cent of the 232 factories inspected by Bangladesh authorities were deemed unsafe. Bangladesh’s US$20 billion-a-year garment industry, which accounts for 80 per cent of the country’s total export earnings, employs more than 3 million people, most of them women from rural areas, in 4,000 garment factories.

IndustriALL wrote to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister requesting a meeting and demanding his government enforce national laws on health and safety and on fire safety in particular.

Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, is calling for multi-stakeholder consultation, wherein, brands, government, industries and trade unions develop an integrated plan of action to ensure work places are made fire proof and that workplace are safe and not a death trap.

“We are saddened and outraged by the death of more than 100 workers in Tazreen Fashion factory. This is not the first deadly fire accident in garment factories in Bangladesh, yet workers are still waiting for measures to be taken to ensure safety in the workplace,” said Raina.

Raina is also calling for compensation of the bereaved families and free medical support for the injured and a high-level judiciary inquiry into the tragedy.

“Brand owners and retailers must verify that the factories they use comply with applicable safety standards and must ensure that their pricing and sourcing practices make this feasible,” said Raina.

IndustriALL women commit to joint international work

The Committee decided to establish a working group of 6 women, 1 from each of the regions of IndustriALL Global Union. The working group was charged with consulting within the regions and putting forward proposals to the next meeting on a process for the election of the chair and vice chair of the IndustriALL women's committee, to be conducted at the next meeting in May.

The working group will also develop proposals on the structure, membership, operation, objectives and broad agenda of the global Women's Committee for discussion and adoption at its next meeting and then endorsement by the May 2013 meeting of the Executive Committee of IndustriALL.

The meeting heard reports from each of the women present about the situation for women in their unions, industries and countries. Issues such as the gender pay gap, maternity protection, representation of women in union structures and violence against women were some of the issues raised by the women in their presentations.

Monika Kemperle, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, welcomed the participation of the women in the meeting and their commitment to working together internationally on an agenda to improve the situation for women.

“The work of this Committee will be crucial in delivering on the political agreement reached at the founding Congress to continue to work for a gender balance at all levels of leadership, decision-making bodies and sectoral structures of IndustriALL, now and in preparation for the Congress in 2016,” said Kemperle.

Global supply chain alliance set to build union power

The Components to Carriers initiative, led by the ITF and its global union partner IndustriALL Global Union, will provide unions with the opportunity to share best practice, foster solidarity action and develop joint strategies to help build union power. It will also enable activists to map union strength in strategic locations and collect intelligence on global corporations and shifts in the supply chain.

Representatives from the ITF’s ground staff committee and civil aviation section and IndustriALL’s aerospace section meeting have recognized the potential of connecting groups of workers across the aeronautical industry. They are leading the Components to Carriers work through a joint ITF/IndustriALL working group.

The alliance will involve unionists representing a range of specific areas – from aircraft manufacturing and logistics to maintenance, repair and overhaul operations.

ITF organizing globally coordinator Ingo Marowsky said, “Connections between unions representing different types of workers are vital if we want to influence the global supply chain. It’s important that we understand the ‘big picture’ and get ahead of the game.”

Rob Johnston, IndustriALL Executive Director responsible for Aerospace, said, “Our new alliance will be a powerful force for change and bring together workers in vitally important sectors.”

For further information and details of how to get involved visit:

http://www.itfglobal.org/civil-aviation/components-to-carriers.cfm

Gap between wages and profits increases

The new report on global wages from the International Labour Organization (ILO), released on 7 December, paints a startling picture of the extent to which workers are missing out on their fair share of the wealth that they are helping to generate. With some regional exceptions, during the period of the economic crisis real average wage growth globally has remained below pre-crisis levels.

Between 1999 and 2011 average labour productivity in developed economies increased more than twice as much as average wages. The ILO points to various factors that are contributing to this declining labour share including technological progress, trade globalization, financial globalization and the expansion of financial markets. Attacks on unionization resulting in declining union density and bargaining power have had a significant impact.

The result is growing income inequality and a decrease in aggregate demand that is necessary for recovery and growth.

The report calls for ‘rebalancing’ that reconnects labour productivity with wage increases and warns against ‘competitive wage cuts’ leading to a race to the bottom. This must include strengthening minimum wages and support for collective bargaining. 

A copy of the report can be found on the ILO website here:

http://www.ilo.org/global/research/global-reports/global-wage-report/2012/lang–en/index.htm

Palestinian shoe and leather workers go on strike

The decision to hold the strike was taken in response to continuous violations of workers’ rights including the company management practice of abuse of workers' rights through individual agreements, unpaid wages and benefits to 45 people, representing the entire workforce of the company.

In the past the company used to employ 750 workers but due to a free trade agreement production became dependent on the imported material from China, resulting in downsizing of the workforce to 45 people.

The company shares have been recently divided among seven brothers who shut down some departments and ended the services of workers without paying compensation for their saved annual leave and other benefits.

Initially the management agreed to start negotiations after the union threatened to declare an indefinite strike at the plant. As a result of the negotiations conducted by the local union and the workers, the employer has paid out the arrears in wages. However the company refuses to pay compensation for workers' saved annual leave, claiming that it had an earlier agreement with workers employed under different conditions. The local union challenged the company’s claims saying that the conditions in question are in violation of the national legislation.

After 2 two-hour warning strikes in a week, on November 29, representatives of the union, Ministry of Labour and the management met for another round of negotiations. The management offered to pay half of the amount due to the workers for their saved annual leave, referring to a weak financial situation of the enterprise.

The union rejected the offer demanding the payment of compensation in full saying the declaration of unstable financial situation are untrue and blamed the company for the attempts to avoid fulfilling its obligations towards its employees.

The union has notified the management of its intention to take necessary legal actions. However, because of the absence of special labour courts in Palestine the solution of the matter can take years. In a bid to find justice the union decided to start an indefinite strike as of 3 December. Together with the announced strike the union runs a media campaign and mobilizes civil society to put further pressure on the company.

Violence breaks-out in Tunisia against union

The trade unionists were attacked by organized groups on 4 December as they prepared to set off from the UGTT headquarters for a peaceful march to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the murder of Farhat Hached, the historic leader of Tunisia’s national independence and trade union movements.

Speaking from Tunis, Fernando Lopes, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, said, “IndustriALL Global Union stands with its affiliate, the metal and electronic workers’ federation of UGTT, in condemning these attacks against the union. UGTT is a leading force in the revolution and is fighting for democracy and social justice.”

Tunisians are preparing to celebrate the second anniversary of their revolution on 14 December. The union has called for a national strike on 13 December and regional strikes are starting today, 6 December, in the 5 southern states of Tunisia in the lead up to the anniversary. The union is demanding:

Tahar Barberi, General Secretary of the Fédération Générale de la Métallurgie et de l'Electronique – UGTT, said, “The political parties who are currently in government want the UGTT to stay far away from the demands of the Revolution saying they should only take care of the social demands. But we all know that the UGTT is the one who led all the mobilizations that took place after 17 December 2010 until the fall of the regime on 14 January 2011. UGTT is the only national organization that keeps alive our peoples’ hope and demands change based on the expectations of our people. There is no way we will go back to the dictatorship.”

The violent attacks in Tunis on 4 December follow on from those perpetrated a week earlier in the Siliana region. A call made by the UGTT for a general strike to demand genuine measures to tackle unemployment in this disadvantaged region led to at least 252 people being injured by security forces, who shot a number of protesters in the face at close range.

“IndustriALL Global Union will continue to support its affiliate in Tunisia in its ongoing struggle for a free and just society. Tomorrow, 7 December, IndustriALL will join with the workers in the street to protest these recent attacks and demand that the perpetrators of these treacherous attacks be identified and judged,” said IndustriALL's Fernando Lopes.

Progress in cutting agency work at VW in Russia

On 12 November ITUA met with the management of Volkswagen plant in Kaluga, Russia, to discuss the use of agency labour at the plant. Current practice is to hire new workers through the agencies, thus extending probation period, limited by Russian law to three months, up to six-nine months and more.

Earlier during the collective bargaining the union succeeded in including language on agency labour in the collective agreement. Agency workers cannot account for more than 12 per cent of the workforce.

Сurrently VW employs 560 agency workers, about 11 per cent of the total workforce. These workers are employed by a score of agencies, such as Adecco, Kelly Services, Manpower, Russian agency Kariera, etc. Their fate depends on the rules for transferring agency workers to permanent positions.

During the meeting with the management there was some progress in settling these rulers. It was suggested that workers with a year or more of experience working at the plant (excluding holidays, sick leave etc.) should be transferred to permanent positions, if they don’t have disciplinary admonitions.

There are also a designated number of permanent workers at VW plant. If actual permanent workforce is lower than that number, some agency workers can be transferred to permanent positions.

Furthermore, ITUA suggests that all agency workers should be employed through one agency only, Autovision, a VW subsidiary. In that case, there is hope that agency workers will receive the same wages and benefits as permanent workers.

Volkswagen plant in Kaluga is not yet structurally part of the Volkswagen World Works Council body and is not yet covered by the newly concluded agreement on temporary work.

Meanwhile, at the Ford plant in Vsevolozhsk, Russia, ITUA struggles through the third week of the work-to-rules strike. Among the reasons for industrial action are violations of health and safety policy, i.e. lack of proper training, as well as plans of the management to close production at the plant in mid-December and pay workers only 2/3 of their wage during the shut-down.

“Ford workers see it as a gross inappreciation of the year’s hard work”, says ITUA.

Yet another reason for the strike is management’s reluctance to begin new round of collective bargaining. The workers adopted their demands as early as 21 October, but the negotiations haven’t started yet.

The strike, which began on 12 November, costs the employer up to 40 cars a day. Workers strictly follow every health and safety rule, and on several occasions they staged a ‘donor day’. According to the Russian law, when a worker volunteers to give blood, the management should count it as a sick leave for one day. When tens of workers went to become blood donors simultaneously, production at some shops was disturbed.

Despite threats and one-to-one talks with the management, Ford workers are resolved to continue the work-to-rules strike until their demands are met. ‘The general mood’s still combative,’ says Artem Yashenkov, ITUA activist at Ford in Vsevolozhsk.

Union busting at DESA in Turkey soars

DESA, producing for many well-known brands such as Prada, Gucci, Debenhams, Whistless, Marks and Spencer, is one of the leading exporting companies in the leather sector in Turkey with three factories in Istanbul, Duzce and Corlu employing around 2,000 workers.

Deri-Is and its members have faced increasing and systematic discrimination by DESA since the union established a presence at the company’s factories in 2008.

In support of Deri-Is, IndustriALL Global Union and European Trade Union are calling for your messages to be sent from this web page to DESA demanding freedom of association and an end to union busting.

Since 2008, over 50 cases of unfair dismissals and mobbing were brought to the legal courts, and DESA has lost the majority of them and been described by the courts as anti-union.

DESA has faced an international campaign led by the then ITGLWF to respect labour rights at its plants. As a consequence of the campaign and court decisions, in August 2009 the parties signed a protocol to recognize each other, and DESA apparently accepted to respect labour rights. Following the protocol, DESA regained orders from customers. However DESA management has not fully complied with the protocol and has continued its anti-union actions.

DESA management uses various methods of mobbing toward union members to force them to quit from union membership and leave their jobs voluntarily with some incentives. The most frequent form of mobbing has been performance measurement procedures that discriminate against union members by forcing them to sign a document without their consent. When union members refused to sign these documents by protesting discriminatory policies of the management, union members received warning letters from DESA threatening dismissal. Between January and April this year, 25 union members received 111 warning letters.

Managers, line chiefs and the head of security regularly provoke union members by insulting and shouting them. The union members have filed complaints at local courts against the discriminatory actions. While some members have won cases, some of the union members have began to suffer from psychological illnesses.

Recently, company managers banned the wearing of pull-overs inside the plant, claiming that workers may steal some of the products. In addition, union members are put in the same department so as to be isolated from other workers so that union membership cannot be expanded.

“This long-standing union-busting story must end,” said IndustriALL Global Union’s Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan and Luc Triangle, Deputy General Secretary of IndustriAll Europe. “DESA has not been responsive to all our attempts to solve the problem through dialogue. We now call all our affiliates and allies to join our campaign so that DESA workers can freely enjoy their fundamental rights.”

Please use the email petition on this web page to send your message to the DESA management calling for the right to freedom of association and an end to union busting.

Volkswagen limits precarious work globally!

The ground breaking agreement "Temporary Work Charter for the Volkswagen Group" sets principles for use of temporary work in the entire Volkswagen Group worldwide. The agreement, among others, serves to ensure appropriate employment and payment conditions for temporary workers.

With almost 200 participants and guests of the meeting of the Volkswagen World Works Council in Munich present, the Charter was signed by Chairman of the Board of Management, Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, Chief Human Resources Officer, Dr. Horst Neumann, Chairman of the Volkswagen World Works Council, Bernd Osterloh, and President of IndustriALL Global Union, Berthold Huber.

Among other conditions in the charter representatives of the employer and employees agree on the following:

The agreement applies to all plants of Volkswagen Group, members of the World Works Council.

For more information go to :

http://www.volkswagenag.com/content/vwcorp/info_center/de/news/2012/11/charta.html

and

http://www.igmetall.de/cps/rde/xchg/SID-BE4C4204-B316B531/internet/style.xsl/charta-der-zeitarbeit-im-volkswagen-konzern-10997.htm

A copy of the Charter will be published here on the IndustriALL Global Union website once available.

Making a change for a HIV free Zambia

Located in Chingola in Zambia’s Copperbelt, which is responsible for the production of about 60 per cent of the country’s copper production, KCM is the major employer in the area with an estimated total workforce of 28,000, of whom 20,000 are contract workers.

The VCT campaign was co-sponsored by the District Aids Task Force (DATF), KCM  and IndustriALL Global Union. Events started with an awareness raising march that led to the KCM mine club, where KCM and the District of Chingola office made available councilors and testers whose aim was to test 1,000 people during the day. 

The event was well attended by workers, their families as well as members of the community, who were provided with food and drinks and t-shirts to commemorate their participation.

“The spirit was jovial and even heavy rains did not spoil ours plans,” reports Africa Project Coordinator Paule Ndessomin. “By the early afternoon the target was reached, a total number of 1,009 people were tested with 47 found to be HIV positive.”

All those that tested positive were given referral letters to the main hospital for further tests and the District official gave his assurance they will be looked after.