STOP Precarious Work mobilization, October 2012

Affiliates from all regions and representing all the industries that make up IndustriALL have recognized precarious work as a common threat to workers’ rights throughout the world that must be resisted. The mobilization around October 7 was significant as the first occasion that IndustriALL affiliates have united globally in a common action.

Affiliate actions
Altogether, 150 affiliates from 46 countries reported taking part in what was a truly global action. Workers took to the streets in Burkina Faso, Colombia, Guinea, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan , Mali, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Thailand and many other countries. Affiliates reported on actions which varied from distribution of campaign materials in workplaces and thematic conferences to demands on government, flash mobs, public hearings and mass mobilisations in marches and rallies.

The full list of affiliate actions plus many inspiring photos can be seen on the IndustriALL website, as well as on Flickr. The photos show unionists around the world mobilizing under the IndustriALL banner. The poster and leaflet created for the campaign were translated into more than 14 languages and were widely used by affiliates to send a strong message to governments, employers and the public that unions are united in their opposition to precarious work. News of the actions was carried on Facebook and Twitter and A STOP Precarious Work Cause page on Facebook was supported by over 1700 people.

Reflecting the spirit of unity in which IndustriALL was founded, affiliates in a number of countries came together in joint actions under the banner of IndustriALL. Many affiliates were also able to influence their national centres to take up the fight against precarious work for their actions on the World Day for Decent Work, further strengthening the IndustriALL campaign. Affiliates also reported significant success in gaining national media coverage of their actions.

‘The Triangular Trap’
On October 2, IndustriALL released ‘The Triangular Trap: Unions take action against agency labour’ as part of the campaign. This report attacks the massive expansion of employment via agencies, labour brokers, dispatchers and contractors and the wholesale replacement of permanent, direct employment. It exposes the lobbying efforts of the global agency industry body Ciett to remove legal restrictions on agency work, and draws heavily on the experiences of IndustriALL affiliates.

Unions have started using “The Triangular Trap” to inform their members and the public of this global threat to workers’ rights, and to strengthen their demands on government and employers. It is available in English, French, Spanish and Turkish on the IndustriALL website, or in hard copy on request.

London rail workers pledge support to Kazakh oil workers

On Thursday 1 November, the Central Line West branch of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) joined the protest started by Russian and Kazakh trade unionists.

The campaign was started to bring the attention of the general public to the horrible massacre of workers by police on 16 December last year in Zhanaozen. The massacre was the authorities’ reply to a wave of strikes lasting seven months, involving around 10,000 workers. At least 16 were killed and 60 wounded.

The London rail workers joined international organizations’ demands for the release of Kazakh oil activists jailed during the strikes, and for an investigation into allegations that the detainees were tortured by police and security services officers before their trial in May this year.

The resolution has been forwarded to the London region of the RMT, and, if supported there, should have a chance of being proposed as national policy for the union, which represents, among others, oil workers in the British section of the North Sea.

The resolution appeared just a few days before the murder of 20-year-old Alexander Bozhenko in Zhanaozen exposing police officers who tortured witnesses to produce “evidence” at the trial of trade union activists, whose only crime in fact was their participation in last year strikes. 

2010 Pike River tragedy “accident waiting to happen”

The extent of the failure of management and the New Zealand Department of Labour to ensure basic safety measures at the mine is shocking, it is now clear that the accident could have happened earlier and should have been avoided after numerous warnings. The warnings were largely ignored in the lead-up to the accident as management cut corners to maintain production levels.

Unions’ calls for stronger regulations, an independent and well-resourced mine safety inspectorate and genuine worker involvement in health and safety, are all echoed by the report’s recommendations as imperative to building a preventative culture into the future.

The damning report supports IndustriALL’s campaign for ratification and proper implementation of ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention and the adoption of its associated Recommendation 183. IndustriALL believes that C176 is not an instrument intended only for developing nations. Many developed countries’ governments avoid ratification and its commitments on mine safety, under pressure from business leaders.

On 19 November 2010, a horrid methane gas blast killed the 29 miners, including 11 members of IndustriALL’s affiliate Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU). It was the worst New Zealand mine disaster in 119 years. A subsequent explosion occurred on 24 November, after which authorities declared the miners dead, and in the days that followed two further explosions occurred.

The miners’ bodies still lie in the mine. EPMU assistant national secretary Ged O’Connell welcomed the findings and recommendations of the Royal Commission and called on the New Zealand Government to implement them, he stated:

“If the 29 men who lie in the mine are not to have died in vain then these recommendations must be implemented without delay and without reservation."

O’Connell added:

"We are particularly pleased to see the re-introduction of worker-elected check inspectors, a strong focus on strengthening mine safety regulations and the creation of a new Crown agency to monitor health and safety.

Convention 176 demands that mines must be properly constructed with at least two separate means of exit. Sufficient ventilation with monitoring for contaminants must be provided. If serious dangers are detected, operations must be stopped and workers evacuated. Workers have the right to report accidents and dangerous occurrences. Workers have the right to refuse unsafe work. In addition, workers can select workplace health and safety representatives and they have the authority to participate in investigations and inspections.

The Pike River colliery is New Zealand’s largest underground mine, laden with 17.6 million tonnes of hard coking coal under the Paparoa Range of the South Island. Pike River Coal Ltd., an enterprise previously owned by New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd. filed for bankruptcy due to the tragedy. 

Support continues for Gerdau workers in Colombia

In Brazil the Gerdau workers’ union in Rio Grande do Sul, didn’t waste time and included a section in their newsletter on the treatment of Gerdau workers in Colombia. The union distributed the newsletters in front of work places in support of Gerdau Workers in Colombia.

Since arriving in Colombia, Gerdau has enriched itself at the expense of workers. The steel multinational closed operations at Laminados Andinos and Sidelpa to move production to other plants. Management attempted to close another plant in Duitama but, when they were forced to re-open, they hired only contract workers. Today in Duitama, there are 3 outsourced workers to each permanent worker.

After the continuing violations of workers' rights in the Gerdau plants in Colombia, coordinated action was taken by the company union network between 31 October and 3 November. Local unions belonging to the International Council distributed leaflets in their plants to inform their members and management of the situation.

The Gerdau Workers’ World Council is one of the most active worker networks of IndustriALL affiliates. See their campaign leaflet in support of Colombian workers. The campaign leaflet states:

The Gerdau Workers’ World Council defends the right to have a decent life and decent work in all countries where it represents workers. We will not fall for the company’s strategy to pit us against each other when their only goal is to improve profits at our expense. Gerdau speaks of "ethics" and "respect", but in practice we see the opposite.

The Council continues calling on Gerdau to create an International Joint Health and Safety Committee. Gerdau must accept that the workers’ wellbeing is more important than profits.

The struggle continues at Zesa

Lopes met with the Minister of Energy and the CEO of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) to discuss ongoing labour rights violations at ZESA that suspended 135 workers on 17 July 2011 for allegedly threating to strike.

Whilst workers have been reinstated, three workers, facing the same charges as the rest, have been dismissed and have not been granted appeal hearings. Most of the workers that have returned to work, after being suspended for more than two months, have not received pay for their suspension period. 

Angeline Chitambo, ZEWU President and an IndustriALL Executive Committee member, has been dismissed by ZESA without a fair hearing. Another ZEWU leader, Dennis Mukote remains suspended. 

ZESA also continues to disregard an arbitration ruling, which entitles workers to a fair wage increase and is central to the current labour issues at ZESA. ZESA’s further challenge in court of the impartiality of the arbitrator is a transparent attempt to undermine the arbitration process in an attempt to nullify the wage increase that has been awarded to workers.

Lopes stressed that the violation of hard won worker and trade union rights would not be allowed to go unchallenged. He urged the Minister of Energy to intervene to ensure that the issues are resolved and warned both the Ministry and Zesa that if the issues were still ongoing at the time of the Executive Committee meeting in December, IndustriALL would rally up support to ramp up its campaign. 

Since the meetings, Zewu reports that there have been discussions between the Ministry and Zesa and that the union remains hopeful that the issues will be resolved. The union is waiting for a date set by Zesa to appeal the dismissal of Chitambo. It has been agreed that Makote’s case will be heard by an arbitrator. Zewu has also taken the matter of the 3 dismissed workers to the Ministry of Labour, citing unfair labour practice.

Whilst Zesa is still pursuing a high court challenge of the arbitration award, Zewu has laid criminal charges for contempt of court against Zesa managers for failing to apply the arbitration ruling.  

“It is going to end” says Assistant General Secretary Mbonisi Sibanda “but the journey ahead is still long, tough and very thorny”.

Chilean workers discuss new trade union structure

As part of the trade union strengthening project being implemented by IndustriALL Global Union in Chile, a seminar on “A New Trade Union Structure and New Collective Bargaining Strategies” was held on November 5 with the aim of democratising discussions on the construction of a new structure.

The meeting, held at the offices of the trade union central, the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Chile (CUT), was attended by approximately 150 representatives of trade unions affiliated to the metal, industrial and service workers confederation, CONSTRAMET. Representatives of Union N°1 from Huachipato, which is affiliated to IndustriALL, and mining and paper industry union leaders also attended the seminar.

IndustriALL representatives also attended, along with Erland Lindkvist from the Swedish Metalworkers’ Union, IF Metall, which is funding the project.

Fernando Lopes, IndustriALL’s Assistant General Secretary, pointed out that the number of unions in Chile has increased but fewer union members are covered by collective agreements. He went on to say that the movement needs strong organizations that will work together and with other important social actors to formulate a way forward for the country.

Bárbara Figueroa, president of CUT Chile, welcomed the opportunity for debate. She highlighted the importance of developing organizations from the bottom up and raising workers’ awareness of the need to promote unity and strengthen the movement. “We need this type of discussion, in order to define what we want to build”, she said.

Participants learned about part of the plan for a new trade union structure, a process being led by CONSTRAMET. Jorge Almeida, IndustriALL’s Regional Representative, and Erland Lindkvist gave presentations about the Argentinean and Swedish models respectively, providing ideas on how unions in Chile might move forward and end the stagnation of the movement.

The discussion focused on the current situation of the trade unions and collective bargaining and criticised the government for backing employers and leaving workers defenceless, at the workplace and in terms of the law. There was also some self-criticism by union leaders regarding their previous commitment to the project.

Marino Vani, IndustriALL’s Assistant Regional Representative and responsible for the trade union strengthening project, said that the seminar provided an opportunity to identify common criteria for changes to the trade union structure.

The discussion made it clear that the current structure in Chile is not fit for purpose and that unions must work together if the movement is going to make progress.

Finally, Horacio Fuentes, president of CONSTRAMET, encouraged workers to get involved so that “they are in a position to tell people what we are doing, which is building a political and trade union structure that will allow us to conduct collective bargaining together”.

IndustriALL Global Union will continue to work with our Chilean affiliates to promote unity and efforts to strengthen collective bargaining.

IndustriALL-LabourStart-Amnesty International-PRODESC join forces for Mexican miners

Join the petition here and send your appeal to the local state governor and Mexican minister of the interior, after the authorities were complicit in allowing bulldozers and 180 armed thugs to destroy and burn the protest camp on the morning of 24 October.

As reported last week on the IndustriALL website, mineworkers were protesting together with community landowners, demanding freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining for Section 309 of the National Miners’ Union (SNTMMSRM) after a long organizing struggle against a yellow union at the La Platosa mine, located in La Sierrita, Durango and owned by the Canadian mining company Excellon Resources Inc.

The protest camp had been established for the last three months at the entrance to the La Platosa mine, with protestors conducting peaceful protests beside access roads, decrying the local management’s efforts to bypass democratic systems of industrial relations with the IndustriALL-affiliated Los Mineros union, and instead operate with the corporate Gomez Sada “trade union”.

Men, women and children from a communal landowners group known as Ejido La Sierrita have been peacefully and legally demonstrating outside Excellon's La Platosa silver mine for three months. The landowners accuse Excellon of breaking commitments to their community and refusing to negotiate a resolution to the festering conflict.

IndustriALL and its global partners support SNTMMSRM Local 309 in its demands for an end to company violence and a solution to the dispute.

The Mexican government is currently processing a raft of regressive reforms to the labour legislation, selling out the last remaining legal safeguards for workers’ rights in Mexico in favour of higher flexibility for employers. Mineworkers at Excellon’s La Platosa mine continue though to push for their right to organize collectively with Section 309 of Los Mineros in face of complicity between the state authorities and the Excellon management.

On 6 November over 150 mineworkers and community landowners formed a protest caravan and marched to Durango City to publicly denounce the current inaction of the state and federal government which allows Excellon to use thugs to threaten and to retaliate against the protestors in total impunity, once again criminalising social protest in Mexico.

The protestors called on the Federal Government and on the State of Durango to offer a solution to the conflict within a framework of respect for the community landowners’ human rights and to safeguard the physical integrity of the protestors.

Excellon has been responding to the online campaign with claims that the 24 October eviction was not violent. The 6 November rally labelled these claims as “LIES”.

Finnish unions stand up for young workers

The Finnish union confederations SAK, STTK and Akava as well as the trade union solidarity centre SASK unanimously condemned the growing suggestions of employers’ associations on the introduction of a lower pay for young workers. The unions jointly labelled these suggestions “unnecessary and unfair”.

The idea to economize on young workers when they start their career is becoming so increasingly popular among employers in Finland that the unions decided to clearly express their position on the issue, arguing that the level of wages and salaries invariably depends on how much work experience an employee has. In addition, the unions believe that the employers already have several options through the hiring of apprentices, who are currently paid 10 to 20 per cent less than the minimum set in collective agreements.

“In Finland, we do not want to have the EUR 1000 generation, familiar across much of Southern Europe. Those young people in the South of Europe cannot afford to live independently and are dependent, often till they are 30 years of age, on the support offered by their parents”, says Ulla Hyvönen, STTK’s expert in student and youth policy. “And lower pay does not even boost youth employment”, she adds.

“A good way to help young people would be to give temporary and part-time employees and agency workers the same working conditions enjoyed by others. This would mean improvements in respect of holiday entitlements, company-based health care, sick pay and income-related unemployment benefits”, stresses Tatu Tuomela, SAK’s youth secretary.

Elina Havu, Akava’s student ombudsman, criticized the existing quality of practical training saying that “Employers often use apprentices to alleviate labour shortages and to replace the input of more experienced employees”. She added, “This kind of behaviour is an abuse of young people’s aptitude and only serves to dampen enthusiasm for work.”

Aleksi Vienonen, in charge of SASK’s communications, underlined the significance and importance for unions to organize young workers. “In countries where the trade union movement is weak, it is common to have problems with regard to labour legislation and in how employees’ rights are respected at work places.”

Victory for Texim workers in Turkey

On 2 November after negotiation with Texim management, a Turkish textile factory that produces clothing for Hugo Boss and Pierre Cardin, the company accepted the key demands of the union, Textile, Knitting and Garment Industry Workers’ Union (TEKSIF). In negotiations supported by IndustriALL Global Union the company accepted TEKSIF’s demands:

Texim openly announced that they would no longer practice anti-union methods and as a result TEKSIF has managed to organize around 50 per cent of the workers and will apply for certification at the Ministry of Labour.

“IndustriALL supported Texim workers by contacting the brands and trade unions in the garment and other sectors throughout the world. This resistance by Texim workers very quickly showed its impact and is an important example of how unionization makes a difference for the working conditions of workers” said Kemal Ozkan, IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary, who was part of the latest negotiations in Istanbul.

Since 2010, TEKSIF has been campaigning for union organizing at Texim. This struggle was a resistance against the unilateral change of working conditions imposed by the employer. Workers, particularly the militant machine operators did not accept these conditions imposed by the employer and their resistance through their union TEKSIF led to their dismissal.

“We would like to convey heartfelt congratulations to all the courageous workers in Texim who resisted for 4 months … this should be an exemplary model for workers in the garment industry,” said Kemal.

Cold Facts: H&M garments produced in miserable working conditions in Cambodia

An investigative Swedish TV show “Cold Facts” throws a number questions to the leading fashion garment brand H&M on its commitment to social responsibility. H&M claims that it is a leader, among its competitors and in the industry, in taking care of social responsibility.

However, the living and working conditions of Cambodian workers producing for H&M do not confirm the claim. The TV show exposes the miserable working conditions of Cambodian workers with the visuals of living spaces and interviews of workers. On the current wages workers are not even able to meet the basic needs and struggle to make ends meet.

H&M’s code of conduct says it is a must for its suppliers to pay the statutory minimum wages or the wage established through collective bargaining. However, it does not ask its suppliers to pay a living wage to their workers that would enable them to take care of their basic needs and live with dignity. In recent times a large number of workers in Cambodian factories have fainted due to overtime work, lack of sleep and malnutrition. Campaigners say it is directly linked to poor wages.

In response to the issues raised in the Kalla Fakta TV show, H&M stated that it has been taking positive views towards increasing the wages in its supplier factories. It is also working in partnership with other brands and lobbying at the political level for higher minimum wages. In Bangladesh during the recent visit Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of H&M urged “the Bangladeshi government to consider an annual review of the local minimum wage that takes national inflation and the consumer price index into consideration”. Currently H&M is working in collaboration with IF Metall, one of the largest trade unions in Sweden and IndustriALL’s affiliate, to introduce a project in Cambodia to improve the dialogue between employers and employees.