Mexican glass workers still fighting

The combative Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Empresa Industria Vidriera del Potosí (SUTEIVP) has refused to accept the 2008 summary dismissal of 220 workers covered by a collective agreement. The mass dismissals in 2008 included the entire executive committee of SUTEIVP, and preceded the signing of a protection contract with a corporate yellow union with corrupt leaders.

IndustriALL salutes the committed struggle of its affiliate SUTEIVP.

The company Industria Vidriera del Potosí is a subsidiary of the global beer company Grupo Modelo. It is one of the four bottle manufacturers who produce for the famous Mexican beer Corona, and is owned by Mexico’s richest woman, María Asunción Aramburuzavala. Grupo Modelo is in the process of being bought by global market leader AB InBev, producer of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Becks beers. The combined company has projected sales in 2013 of US$47 billion. This sale will not change the plant management’s anti-union stance.

A group of 33 remain campaigning for their jobs back, as vindictive management have labelled these workers as “trouble-makers” and distributed the black list to other employers. A management smear campaign against the 33 has included their contacting the wives, children and families of the SUTEIVP officials.

Unsurprisingly the Mexican authorities have been complicit in this union crushing of SUTEIVP. Labour authorities employ the usual tactic of drawing out the legal process at every opportunity.

SUTEIVP attempted to file a complaint under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Companies, using Mexico's OECD National Contact Point. In 2010, the Mexican NCP, part of the Mexican establishment, dismissed their case for "insufficient evidence". The union also issued a complaint to the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association mid-2011, supported by one of IndustriALL's predecessor organizations, the ICEM. The union actively joined all other independant and democratic unions to fight against the recently passed reform of the labour law in Mexico and continues to fight for labour justice at Grupo Modelo and elsewhere in Mexico.

Build solidarity with union networks and global agreements

The Action Plan adopted by the congress of IndustriALL Global Union gave us a task to develop a multinational company (MNC) network strategy for exchange of information, joint initiatives, common platforms, coordination of national collective bargaining and mobilization in case of violations of workers’ rights by MNCs and their suppliers. We also agreed that IndustriALL would pursue agreements with MNCs to establish mechanisms of social dialogue at global and regional level to enable constructive industrial relations.

To underline these ambitious but crucial goals, we gathered 150 participants from all five continents to IndustriALL’s first major activity, a global conference on trade union networks and global framework agreements on 17-18 October 2012 in Frankfurt.

Two days of lively debate among true experts highlighted our rich experience in the industrial sectors represented by the three founding organizations of IndustriALL. Much has been done in the past. Now we want to create a common understanding of developing a new culture that builds on achievements in the past, and takes further steps forward.

Participants were unanimous in underlining that union networks are a crucial tool for building genuine union power and global solidarity. Exchange of information is functioning in a number of major companies. Good examples of joint action were cited at companies such as Caterpillar, Gerdau, Tenaris and Rio Tinto, which has been chosen as a major corporate target for IndustriALL because of the viciously anti-union policies of the mining giant.

But now it is the time to move forward. We need to use the emerging collective power of union networks to systematically target unorganized plants and make them union operations. Networks have to become a practical organizing tool.

Networks facilitate mobilization when workers’ rights are violated by MNCs and their suppliers. In serious cases, action will grow into global level corporate campaigns.

The conference emphasized the need to push for recognition from employers for formalized networks or world works councils. Ford Motor Company was the latest one to join Volkswagen, Peugeot Citroën and others in agreeing to finance regular meetings of union representatives from different parts of the world.

IndustriALL inherited 40 global framework agreements with major MNCs from its three founding organizations. These cover companies such as Inditex and Mizuno in the textile and garment industries, oil giants Petrobras and LukOil, and auto manufacturers BMW and Renault.

It was emphasized that new agreements should be pursued in a democratic and transparent process, with timely information and consultation of affiliates with membership in the company concerned. This helps create ownership of the agreements among our unions.

Global framework agreements are based on a commitment to comply with the core conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). With today’s company structures, it is important to cover also suppliers and sub-contractors, which need to refrain from anti-union activities. Union networks are the best tools for effective implementation and enforcement.

I was happy to see participants demonstrate a common understanding that IndustriALL is not an office in Geneva, but a global union family that is committed to building concrete global solidarity and joint action.

We will now take the recommendations from the conference to IndustriALL’s executive committee. I am confident we will get clear directions from our decision-making body for reinforcing organizing, growing union membership and defending workers’ rights with the help of networks and global agreements.

Disastrous labour reform passed in Mexico

The progress of the legislation through the Mexican parliament has been closely followed by IndustriALL and its affiliates in Mexico and elsewhere. The changes, approved by 99 votes to 28 in the Senate on Tuesday, make a historic step backwards in the social protection and labour rights of all workers in the country.

The widespread abuse of workers in Mexico is well-known and mobilizes the international labour movement together in annual “Days of Action”. The new changes to the law will legalize much of these violations of internationally recognized core human rights to organize and bargain collectively in an independent trade union.

The changes will lurch the Mexican workforce further into precarious work, as short-term temporary contracts can become the legal norm. Workers can now be employed on an hourly basis, on a trial basis, and on an outsourced triangular basis. See IndustriALL’s recent Triangular Trap publication here. Outsourcing in Mexico was already prevalent before these changes and the political right wrongly argue that greater employer flexibility will create more formal employment with full social security benefits.

Salaries in Mexico are generally very low, and are offset to some degree by social benefits, profit sharing, housing and medical schemes. An increase in contract work will jeopardize social security benefits and deteriorate the lives of workers further.

The labour law reforms did nothing to counter the widespread abuse of employer protection contracts, which allow employers to bypass the industrial relations system and establish workplace labour agreements covering a workforce that is not even aware of the agreement’s existence or contents.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) political party, of President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto, is closely aligned with Mexico’s corporate yellow unions and for that reason voted down changes for full transparency to the union finances and secret ballot elections for union leaders.

For these reasons the changes have been described as the “worst of both worlds”.

A further serious concern coming from the new legislation is that its passing encourages those pushing the neoliberal agenda to move more measures, such as privatization of public assets, into law through complicity of the two main political parties PRI and PAN.

IndustriALL Global Union, its affiliates and allies, will continue to mobilize worldwide and demand that the new Mexican Government takes seriously the ILO recommendations on case 2694 against Protection Contracts, to dialogue with the International trade union movement, the independent Mexican unions and signatories to the ILO complaint of one of IndustriALL’s predecessor organizations, the IMF.

Eliminate violence against women

The day is designated in memory of three political activists in the Dominican Republican – the Mirabal sisters – who were brutally assassinated by the regime of dictator Rafael Trujillo on 25 November 1960.

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women also marks 25 November to 10 December, to emphasize the connection between women, violence and human rights, which encompasses 25 November, the 1 December World Aids Day, the Montreal Massacre of 6 December 1989, when 14 female engineering students were gunned down in Canada for being feminists, and 10 December, Human Rights Day.

Violence against women is an act that results in or may result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women. Violence against women can occur in private, such as in the home, or in public. These forms of violence can be rape, domestic violence, trafficking, forced prostitution, sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, an arm of warfare and murder, inexorably linked to the problem of HIV-AIDS and gravely impacting on women’s rights. Prevention activities need to take place alongside efforts to reduce violence against women and girls. These programs must address the interconnection between gender and socioeconomic inequality and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.

Gender-based violence is due to the pervasive system of injustice that perpetuates the dominance of men and the subordination of women and is the most glaring example of gender inequality. Gender-based violence adversely affects the world of work. It is described by many as the world’s worst human rights violation. At least one in three women worldwide are estimated to have been forced to have sex, physically beaten or otherwise abused. Apart from the human suffering, there is an economic efficiency argument to eliminating violence against women. Due to life-long discrimination and job stereotyping, most women work in low-paid and low-status jobs with little control or decision-making power or scope for bargaining. They are over-represented in atypical and precarious jobs which are risk factors for gender-based violence including sexual harassment and sexual abuse. Moreover workplace violence can take the form of bullying and mobbing.

The economic crisis is likely to have exacerbated violence against women. Women’s situation is more precarious and thus more vulnerable, which increases the likelihood of violence.

The interplay between domestic violence and gender-based violence at work has become increasingly clear. The victim may even be stalked by the abuser at work, with all the ramifications that this would have for the other employees. The poor job performance by the person concerned affects the whole workplace and decreases everyone’s productivity. The victim suffers from low self-esteem and stops interacting with the outside world. Absenteeism goes up, poor staff relations ensue.

A recent UK study estimates that domestic violence costs the economy 2.7 billion pounds (4.2 billion USD) a year in reduced productivity, lost wages and sick pay. In the United States in 2011 The Novartis Pharmaceuticals Company was found liable in one of the biggest-ever sexual harassment and discrimination cases and ordered to pay 3.3 million USD in compensation and 250 million USD in damages to 5,600 women who were also entitled to seek additional awards of up to 0.3 million USD each.

Unions in male-dominated industries should lead the campaign to stop violence against women. Partnership between women and men must be fostered in order to create an environment which nurtures peace and development. Unions should fight gender-based violence through collective action of men portraying this as a sign of strength and not of weakness. Working with men to eliminate violence against women will be a giant step on the way to gender equality.

Many countries have passed stronger laws to tackle the problem of violence against women. There are a number of regional treaties that have enshrined laws to stop the violence. Nevertheless the workplace itself can be a platform for the prevention of violence. Collective bargaining can be a basis for tackling violence. Equality agreements which provide for transfers and monetary compensation for victims of domestic violence are one more tool.

Brazilian march in solidarity with European Workers

The Gerdau Workers’ World Council, one of the most active trade union networks of IndustriALL affiliates, met this week in Sorocaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil. The representatives of Gerdau workers in Brazil, Argentina, Canada, United States, Peru, Colombia and Chile discussed the current situation in their countries and prepared for continued coordination to improve working conditions throughout the global operations of steel multinational Gerdau.

The social and financial crisis in Europe was addressed by the Council. Participants understood that the governments of Europe were surrendering their sovereignty to banks and large corporations and decided to support the struggle of European workers pushing for a more equal society.

The Gerdau Workers’ World Council marched on the Spanish Consulate together with the seven Brazilian labour centrals on 14 November, 2012.

Before the march the Council visited the Gerdau plant in Sorocaba, Sao Paulo. The employer blocked access of the Council into the plant so Council members met workers at the plant gates during a shift change. The Council greeted the Gerdau workers and shared with them the situation in many other plants around the world.

Sorocaba workers knew of the difficulties facing Gerdau workers in Colombia and Peru, and of the company recently dismissing a union leader in another Sao Paulo plant, Pindamonhangaba. Sorocaba workers were also already aware of the continuous misinformation by Gerdau management regarding their health and safety record.

Comparison work by the Council proves the trend that weaker bargaining power in a Gerdau plant is directly linked to lower wages and benefits of workers there.

The Council resolved to:

Sanction of the Xstrata Glencore merger challenged

Whilst the European Union is still considering the merger in terms of its anti-trust regulations, it has advised Glencore to spin off some of its zinc assets. In South Africa, while the Competition Commission has recommended approval of the merger contingent upon certain conditions being met by Glencore, NUM, NUMSA and South Africa’s energy utility Eskom have lodged intervention applications appealing against the Competition’s recommended approval. The Competition Tribunal will hear the applications on 10 to 14 December 2012.

Glencore is a leading global trader in a number of key commodities including coal that also has shareholding interests in mining production of coal and anthracite. Xstrata is one of world’s largest exporters of thermal coal and one of the largest producers of coal used to make steel. In South Africa there is overlap, as both are miners of thermal coal and in the service of coal traders for export of their production.

IndustriALL Global Union has publicly condemned the deal, it has participated in protests against the deal and has requested meetings with Glencore that were rebuffed by CEO Ivan Glasenberg.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) raised concerns to the Commission stating “Glencore as a bigger producer will probably fix prices for all the targeted firms as opposed to current individual operations who have latitude to agree on a price with a purchaser of the mineral”. The NUM also opposed the retrenchment of 180 workers that would arise from the merger and took issue with the fact that over 50 per cent of the merging parties’ workforce are contract workers. Thus more than 9,000 workers have no job security and are put at risk by the merger.

Eskom is highly critical of Glencore that it is establishing itself as the gate keeper of South Africa’s coal exports and says it has little interest in developing and maintaining the South African domestic market. It claims that Glencore’s philosophy is diametrically opposed to that of Eskom and the public interest, “Eskom perceives Glencore’s end game to be the introduction of an export market related price factor for coal”.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has also submitted an intervention application citing concerns in line with Eskom’s submission on the increased risk to coal supply and price, undermining the utility’s ability to generate electricity on a reliable, stable and sustainable basis. Numsa charges that the Commission has not given sufficient consideration to the likely risks on downstream industries in the value chain, especially those that are energy intensive users.

Numsa also raises the issue that the recent retrenchment of 295 workers at Siltech, a subsidiary of Glencore, was omitted by parties deliberately to reduce the stated effect on jobs of the merger and was not considered by the Commission.

IndustriALL Global Union supports NUMSA, NUM and Eskom in their intervention applications to the South African Competition Tribunal and wish to remind the Tribunal and the Xstrata Shareholders who will be voting on the deal next week that a vote in favour of the deal is a vote for Greed.

South African workers' protest violently put down at Xstrata

Workers went on an unprotected strike when Xstrata failed to take action against a white manager at its Kroondal chrome mine after he assaulted a black worker allegedly for refusing to sign a wage deal without union representation.

On 2 November, 400 striking workers, roughly two thirds of the workforce, were dismissed but protest action continued. On 8 November, police violently broke up the protest firing rubber bullets, injuring 8 workers, one critically, and arresting several workers. Injured workers are unable to access medical care as Xstrata has suspended their medical aid.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) suspected that some police might have fired live ammunition at protestors, however the union was being denied access to injured and arrested workers to establish this. 

Then on 12 November, police shot at protestors chasing them into the township whilst continuing to fire on the fleeing workers. Police shot one of the workers at close range in front of a local ward counsellor that was there to assist with resolving the dispute. Three workers were arrested.

Numsa reports that police have denied the union access to arrested workers, requiring lawyers to intervene. There are also allegations made by arrested workers of police brutality whilst in detention.

Numsa has criticised the police for intervening in what is an industrial relations matter that needs to be resolved through negotiations with the union. “Xstrata calls in the police to do their dirty work, who without even assessing the situation, shoots at workers and chases them,” says Steve Nhlapo of Numsa. “Workers were not undisciplined in their protest but police are using excessive force and trying to intimidate them into submission but this is only making workers more angry.”                                                            

Numsa proposed that in order to resolve the matter to the satisfaction of workers, the manager could be suspended pending a hearing by an independent arbitrator. Xstrata maintains that an internal hearing found that there was insufficient evidence to discipline the manager and mine management are refusing to budge on the matter.

Meanwhile workers at Xstrata’s three ferrochrome smelters in South Africa are also on strike, demanding higher wages and transport allowance. Xstrata is attempting to have workers sign individual contracts in an attempt to undermine Numsa and the resolve of striking workers.  

CFMEU strikes at Rio Tinto mine

The discriminatory measure is being countered by three consecutive shift-length work stoppages across 36 hours at the mine on 13-14 November. The thermal coal mine in central Queensland’s Bowen Basin is closing operations on 23 November after 30 years, letting go almost 170 workers. The mine was once Australia’s largest thermal coal export mine.

The IndustriALL-affiliated CFMEU called the low redundancy payments a "parting shot of discrimination”.

On the overwhelming vote in favour of industrial action, CFMEU District Vice President Glenn Power stated:

All our members are looking for is equality. Workers don't take the prospect of strike action lightly, but when faced with a much lower redundancy package than someone they've worked alongside for years, these workers are determined to tell Rio that the company can't get away with this.

As CFMEU members downed tools at Blair Athol, Rio Tinto Australia managing director David Peever called for unions to be kicked out of workplaces all together with reform of the Fair Work Act,

Direct engagement between companies and employees, flexibility and the need for improved productivity has to be at the heart of the system. Only then can productivity and innovation be liberated from the shop floor up, and without the competing agenda of a third party constantly seeking to extend its reach into areas best left to management.

Rio Tinto, the world's second biggest iron ore producer, continues toward plans to spend almost AUS$16 billion to increase iron ore production in Australia’s Pilbara to 353 million tonnes a year by mid-2015. Rio Tinto is a “repeat offender” that has a pattern of destructive behaviour across the globe.

14 November – Day of Action and Solidarity against austerity

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)-led “Day of Action and Solidarity” had IndustriALL members marching and striking shoulder to shoulder with workers of all industries, in 23 countries.

The failed economic policies of austerity make workers and their families pay the price for the financial and economic crisis, stagnate the economy, deepen a recession and increase unemployment, particularly youth unemployment.

Repeated government attacks on the social model in Europe since 2008 have cut salaries and social protections, weakened labour rights and fundamental public services like education and healthcare, widening inequality and fostering injustice.

On 14 November millions of Europeans took to the streets to shout “austerity isn’t working”. 

There were historic simultaneous strikes in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and Belgium. It is the first time in history that Spain's trade unions have conducted a general strike twice in a year, as they fight to save the welfare state in that country. Spanish protestors furious at government bailouts to the banks while home repossessions have spread through Spain leading to high profile suicides, were met with police violence and mass arrests. In France alone there were 25 different manifestations. Trade union national centres in many countries lobbied national and European-level politicians, demonstrated outside their offices and delivered workers’ joint message calling for jobs, growth and fiscal justice.

The ETUC has drafted a proposal for a New European Social Contract, calling for a return to the fundamentals of the European social model, solutions reached through dialogue with trade unions and other social partners.

IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina joined manifestations in Geneva which started in the banking district and then in moved on the consulates of Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy. See General Secretary Raina's address outside the Portuguese consulate in the video attached.

Massive protests were staged on 6 and 7 November in Athens to oppose the Greek Parliament’s adoption of a further €13.5 billion austerity measures demanded by the country’s creditors to unlock a further €31 billion tranche of bailout funds from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund bailout, still to be confirmed. At least 12 demonstrators were wounded and another 103 detained by police in protest actions.

In Germany the DGB national centre organized gatherings and assemblies in several cities. One of the major actions took place in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

See more details on the actions on the ETUC website here.

IndustriALL seeks action on Government of Fiji’s rights abuses

Despite warnings to stop further attacks on unionists by the regime, IndustriALL Global Union and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) are now calling for action from the United States Trade Representatives Hearings.

Fiji currently qualifies for a General System of Preference (GSP) in the United States. The GSP provides an important tariff reduction on certain goods from Fiji into the US. However in hearings held by the US Trade Representatives, and a post hearing brief, the American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) filed for Fiji to be suspended from the list of eligible beneficiary developing countries. The proposed suspension would be made unless the interim Fijian Government takes immediate and substantial steps to address concerns raised in the petition and in the pre and post hearing briefs.

As part of a new coordinated effort IndustriALL and the ITF have informed the US Trade Representatives of their strong support for the AFL-CIO petition. IndustriALL and ITF have also written to the Fijian regime expressing concerns over the impact that a suspension would have on workers in the manufacturing sector should the Government continue to ignore warnings and refuse to stop its rights abuses.

The abuses include reports of aggressive intimidation of trade unionists, as well as police and military intelligence monitoring over union activities. Fijian authorities demand that union meetings in a public place must only be conducted following issuance of a permit, which often stipulates police presence.  

The assaults on trade unionists in Fiji are well documented in reports of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Committee on Freedom of Association and Committee of Experts. The ITUC has also coordinated letters of protest and actions against these assaults and continues to lead a global campaign.

Jyrki Raina General Secretary of IndustriALL believes “This campaign is about the fundamental question of human and workers’ rights. IndustriALL and our other global partners will not back down from this fight. We will ask the international union movement to show the same strength of purpose that our brothers and sisters in Fijian unions have and we will force a change and win back the worker rights that have been systematically removed.”

The Fijian unions represent workers in many important sectors such as textile, sugar and mining.  IndustriALL will also be closely monitoring multinational corporations seeking to invest in Fiji and also campaigning for a moratorium until workers’ rights are restored.