Turkish Parliament adopts new anti-union legislation

In spite of a long-standing campaign conducted by the global and national trade union movement, the Turkish Parliament adopted new anti-union legislation without any improvement to fundamental rights. The new act is still pending final approval by the President of the Republic, and global unions, including IndustriALL Global Union, are joining Turkish trade unions in seeking a Presidential veto.

The new law, called “Trade Unions and Collective Agreement Act”, keeps the main structure of the current individual and industrial relations’ system.

National sectoral thresholds are kept in the process of union certification for collective bargaining. According to the current system, if a union wants to be bargaining party for a local level collective agreement, it must organize 10 per cent of the total national workforce in the industry where the union concerned operates. Even though the threshold is reduced to 3 per cent, a number of unions will lose competencies because of consolidation of sectors.

With the new law there will be 20 sectors instead of the existing 28. As for the IndustriALL Global Union affiliates, textile, garment and leather will be one single sector while the paper industry will be coupled with the wood sector. The shipbuilding sector will be merged with ports and warehouses. This means that 10 out of the currently authorized 50 unions will lose their competencies in 2013 with immediate effect. According to these calculations, if the current membership figures continue as today, 29 unions will be unable to negotiate in 2018.

The workplace level threshold of 50 per cent plus one remains the same while enterprise level agreements covering several workplaces of same employer will be subject to 40 per cent plus one threshold, both of which are major barriers in union organizing.

Public notary endorsement of joining a union and resigning will be replaced by an e-government system, but this will take effect one year later. The details of the new system through the internet are not clear, and Turkish trade unions have serious concerns since it is designed to be under the control of the government.

The new law will also drastically reduce the range of protection of union membership, particularly in small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) employing less than 30 workers. Under the Turkish Labour Code, if an employer dismisses a worker for joining a trade union, it must pay additional compensation. Now around 6 million workers at SMEs, around 70 per cent of total labour market, will be completely unprotected in case of union membership-related dismissals. In addition, strike bans, postponements and limitations will remain in place, although the strike ban in the civil aviation sector, which was brought earlier this year on the occasion of the conflict at Turkish Airlines, has been lifted, which is positive.

IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan commented: “We are outraged and disappointed with this new law which is far from being in harmony with ILO standards and EU norms. This means our struggle together with the Turkish trade union movement will continue as has been. We expect the President of the Republic will use his authority to veto this anti-democratic law, particularly as some provisions will clearly exclude a big portion of Turkish workers from union activity even though international conventions and national constitution guarantee them.”

Los Mineros challenge election results at PKC Mexico

The Mineros miners’ union (SNTMMSRM) fought for the right to represent workers and negotiate a collective agreement, and will now challenge the results at the national and international level, on violations of the Federal Labour Law, the Mexican Constitution, ILO Conventions 87 and 98 and rulings by the Mexican Supreme Court.

The workplace election was conducted on 18 October, in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila at PKC auto parts plants (Arneses y Accesorios de Méxicom, a PKC subsidiary).

The Mexican Confederation of Workers (Confederación de Trabajadores de México, CTM) defeated the SNTMMSRM, led by Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, by a margin of 198 votes. The union said “the figures are a result of PKC and CTM threats and pressure against employees. SNTMMSRM worker representatives won 2,311 votes, while the CTM received 2,509 votes”.

What is extremely concerning is that a number of non-workers were allowed to participate in the vote. The details on this are still being investigated.

There has been a campaign of persecution against workers who supported the miners’ union and who demanded the democratic right to choose their representatives in an attempt to end the miserable conditions that prevail at the PKC plants. These conditions have been accepted since September 2011 by the "yellow union", the CTM, which has subjected workers to this situation without their consent or knowledge.   http://www.industriall-union.org/unions-file-oecd-complaint-against-pkc

Los Mineros cite several examples of worker intimidation by PKC and the CTM. The company refused to allow SNTMMSRM representatives to enter the plants to talk with workers, while allowing access to CTM representatives. The company has made regular and unfounded threats to close the plants and make workers redundant. The local media has constantly repeated these threats. The company forced thousands of workers to attend "training courses" during working hours, sometimes paying them overtime, at which CTM representatives systematically libelled and slandered for hours on end Los Mineros and repeated company threats about job losses if workers chose to be represented by the democratic union. The CTM also offered to pay workers’ electricity and water bills. There is also evidence that the CTM intimidated workers to vote for them. Moreover, the local authorities and the government cooperated with the PKC-CTM to block legitimate trade union representation by IndustriALL’s affiliate.    

The SNTMMSRM has thanked IndustriALL Global Union, the Finnish Metalworkers’ Union and other international organizations for their support and solidarity with their struggle. Unions in Finland and Mexico joined with IndustriALL on 28 August in filing a complaint with the OECD against PKC for union busting in Mexico and will jointly continue to support the workers fight for freedom of association. See the text of the OECD complaint here.

Marathon labour dispute ends at BMA in Australia

The deal was the fourth to go to a ballot of the 2,600 unionized workers across the coking coal operations of the Bowen Basin, central Queensland. This was the first to have union support, and earlier ballots were voted down by 92 and 83 per cent margins. Workers stood together under the Single Bargaining Unit (SBU) comprising of IndustriALL affiliates Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) and Electrical Trades Union (ETU).

A key trade union priority in the stubborn negotiations was the maintaining of onsite safety and health representatives belonging to the union, not the company. The SBU held firm and that clause, as well as an important clause on work rosters, stays in the agreement. Local housing entitlements for workers are improved by the new deal, a 5 per cent pay increase for each year of the contract, and a pension contributions increase from 9 to 12 per cent were also won.

CFMEU’s, the union that led the charge on BMA, District President Stephen Smythe thanked union members for their solidarity during the dispute in the face of a hard-line approach from BMA’s managing partner BHP. He condemned the ideological aggression from the company:

“It could have been reached a year ago, had BHP not taken an ideological approach that prioritised picking a fight with its workforce over coming to a reasonable deal.” 

Improvements are still needed and will continue to be pushed for in the next round of negotiations on housing and rostering conditions, and the struggle will continue to move the employers away from the outdated WorkChoices-era approach to labour hire and contract workers. The unions will continue to fight for the equal pay for equal work principal.

The BMA workers’ solidarity in face of BHP’s bad-faith bargaining must be saluted. The protection of the trade union safety regulators is centrally important, following the New Zealand Pike River mine disaster which was in part attributed to the safety deregulation to management. Management now must work hard to rebuild a conciliatory working environment with much bitterness caused by their actions.

The agreement covers about 3,000 workers at operations including the Goonyella-Riverside, Peak Downs, Crinum, Blackwater and Saraji mines.

AngloGold dismisses striking mineworkers in South Africa

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is concerned the dismissals by AngloGold have the potential to escalate into a violent and confrontational situation. NUM is opposed to the dismissals of the striking mineworkers and believes that such a move will work against all efforts to normalize the situation and get the mineworkers back to work.

The dismissals come on the same day that a deal is to be signed between labour and gold companies, AngloGold, Harmony and Gold Fields at the Chamber of Mines, which hopes to end the strikes in the gold sector.

The NUM has consistently argued that dismissals should be a measure of last resort and has been against similar actions taken by Anglo Platinum and other mining companies. These actions ignore efforts that are in motion to normalize the situation.

One such act is the Social Pact between the Presidency, mining companies and labour signed a week earlier. The social pact seeks to address the underlying multiple causes of the unrest which include the appalling levels of pay and dreadful working conditions in the industry and is meant to promote stability and address socio economic issues in mining areas.

Unlike the platinum industry, the gold sector is part of an established centralized collective bargaining and negotiations are continuing with the Chamber of Mines in efforts to address both the immediate and long term causes of the unrest in the mining industry.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) made strong statements against the dismissals, calling for the immediate reinstatement of workers. COSATU is mobilizing solidarity protests in support of mineworkers’ demands in the coming weeks.

IndustriALL Global Union is against these dismissals and reiterates its earlier call to the mining companies in South Africa to address what COSATU describes as the underlying causes of the escalating unrest. IndustriALL supports the NUM and COSATU in calling for another commission that will investigate the underlying employment and social conditions of workers in the industry, trace the history of mining, its past and present discriminatory practices, its reliance on cheap labour, and the history of treating mine workers as subhuman.

Membership audit at AngloGold vindicates Tanzanian union

Management at Geita Gold Mine owned by AngloGold has disputed the membership figures of Tanzania Mines, Energy, Construction and Allied Workers Union (Tamico), leading to a protracted struggle since 2004 at a branch level for recognition and resulted in the dismissal of the branch chairman and secretary. Through the intervention of IndustriALL Global Union, who has a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with AngloGold, the two were reinstated and AngloGold agreed to resolve labour relations issues at the mine.

Using the GFA, IndustriALL was able to argue that Geita management was violating the clause on trade union rights through union bashing and victimisation of members that were put under pressure to resign from the union. The GFA supported Tamico to gain credibility amongst workers to champion their issues and gain recognition.

AngloGold Ashanti engaged Ernst & Young to conduct the membership audit, which concluded that over 50 per cent of 1,525 employees at the mine are Tamico members thus the union meets the legal requirement to represent all workers in negotiating with management over salaries and working conditions.

“The Ernst & Young audit report vindicates Tamico’s  long battle and signals a new era of worker representation and access with full organisational rights,” says Kenny Mogane, regional project officer for IndustriALL. “This means that Tamico can now work towards the improvement of working conditions at Geita.”

Korean workers stage protest against Hyundai

The protest started at 10:30 pm on 17 October when Choi Byeong-seung and CheonUi-bong climbed the pylon demanding Hyundai Motor to resolve the issue of illegal use of dispatch workers.

Choi Byeong-seung, 36, a member of the Hyundai Motor Irregular Workers' Union, affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union through the Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU), was dismissed in 2005 from his position as an in-house subcontractor employee at Hyundai Motor. However according to the High Court decision in February 2012 the company had to offer Choi a permanent employee contract based on the fact that he had worked for Hyundai for more than two years, and therefore could not be fired as a subcontractor. Cheon Ui-bong, 31, is Secretary General of the Hyundai Motor Irregular Workers' Local. 

After years of frustration, legal battles and pleas to politicians, Choi has been prompted to take more drastic steps. Both men remain on the 50 meter tall pylon attached with a rope, Choi at a height of 15 meters and Cheon at 20 meters. The company hired private security guards who tried to move them down, however so far these attempts were not successful. Given the cold, wet weather, the workers’ supporters wanted to transfer some warm cloths to the protesters, however company guards did not allow it.

Back in 2006, the International Metalworkers’ Federation, one of the founders of the IndustriALL Global Union, together with the Korean unions lodged a complaint to the ILO http://www.imfmetal.org/files/06090512203284/ILO_complaint_E.pdf regarding the Violation of Irregular Workers’ Freedom of Assembly. The case of Choi is mentioned in this complaint together with a number of others.

On 24 October another protester, chairman of the KMWU Hyundai Motor Irregular Workers' Local, Park  Hyeon-je was violently arrested by plainclothes police who stuffed him inside a vehicle while he was inside the Hyundai Motor plant. This morning Park started a hunger strike.

The protesters receive strong support from their colleagues, permanent workers, who in solidarity with protesters refused to work overtime  on 25 October at Hyundai Motor in Ulsan.

Earlier, IndustriALL reported on the case http://www.industriall-union.org/justice-for-korean-workers-at-hyundai-kia-motors

The Hyundai Motor company is taking an extremely hostile line, including bringing forward accusations against 26 union officials, one of whom is Park Hyeon-je. In a bid to produce further damage the company sued the union for one billion won (US$900,000) for damages and withheld wages.

Union activist dismissed illegally in Russia

On 19 October Dmitry Khokhlov, deputy president of the Interregional Trade Union of Autoworkers (ITUA) local at Benteler Automotive in Kaluga, Russia, was dismissed.

After a successful strike for the recognition of the union in March 2012 ITUA signed a collective agreement with the management, one of the best in the Kaluga industrial cluster. However, apparently the administration didn’t completely withdraw from anti-union tactics.

Khokhlov was dismissed under the article of the Labour Code describing financial malpractice, despite the obvious fact that assembly line operators have nothing to do with company finances.

ITUA notes that two cases of disciplinary action against Benteler workers have already been overturned by court decision. Therefore, there is a consistent pattern of workers’ rights violations at Benteler, and this anti-union policy was maintained even after the massive strike and signing of the collective agreement.

In a letter to Elena Sirotkina, HR director at Benteler, Vadim Borisov, IndustriALL Global Union regional secretary for CIS countries called her to reinstate Dmitry Khokhlov and not to wait for another court decision. Borisov noted that he will notify the European Works Council of Benteler Automotive about Sirotkina’s actions.

Georgian union regroups after a wave of repression

Hercules Steel is a metal plant in Kutaisi, Georgia, notorious for its anti-union policies. Its workers struck in September 2011, and the strike was brutally put down by the police and the management.

However, Trade Union of Metallurgy, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers of Georgia (TUMMCIWG), an IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, never lost contact with Hercules Steel workers. A secret organizing campaign has been carried out at the plant since August 2012. Some 40 new members were recruited.

In October Hercules Steel workers decided to start negotiations with the company. In a letter to the management Tamaz Dolaberidze, TUMMCIWG president, listed the demands of Hercules Steel employees: 

As Dolaberidze notes, workers at Hercules Steel never know how many working hours are billed and how their wages are calculated at the end of the month. There’s a constant shortage of uniforms, special footwear, protective and supportive materials.

The latest organizing effort at the plant has been carried out under increasing pressure. The workers are under constant surveillance. Head of security at Hercules Steel has been spotted sitting for hours in his private car across the street from the Kutaisi office of the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC). 

Furthermore, the management has established its own yellow union and has been actively recruiting workers (see the picture).

Hercules Steel also employs workers from India. They live in appaling conditions. Despite extensive evidence, a government task force in charge of investigating GTUC allegations of possible forced labour (not allowing workers to return to India) found nothing illegal at the plant and described the living conditions of Indian workers as satisfactory.

Dangerous crackdown on oil workers in Kazakhstan

IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina sent a letter to the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev with copies to prime minister as well as general prosecutor, voicing concerns over the trial of 37 people in connection with 16 December 2011 riots in Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan.

Many of those sentenced to prison for taking part in riots were prominent workers’ leaders during the 2011 oil workers’ strike. Furthermore, during the trial both the defendants and witnesses testified to being tortured.

The trial started in March 2012. In early June 13 defendants received sentences ranging from 3 to 7 years. On 6 August the court in Aktau, Kazakhstan, held an appeal hearing. All the sentences were confirmed by this court of higher jurisdiction, except one. Rosa Tuletaeva’s sentence was reduced from 7 to 5 years.

Those sentenced to prison include most outspoken oil workers, all of whom had assumed active roles in the strike.

What’s more, international human rights organizations reported that during the trial both the defendants and the witnesses had testified that they were subjected to physical and psychological abuse by police and investigators, including beatings, suffocation, and threats of rape or harm to family members.

One of the witnesses, Alexander Bozhenko, 20, testified in court that he was tortured for several days and forced to bear evidence against oil workers in Zhanaozen. He completely renounced his earlier testimony, acquired by torture. He also went public with his story, giving interviews to the media.

Alexander Bozhenko’s testimony was central to the presentation given by human rights activist Galym Ageleulov at the OSCE session in Warsaw, Poland.

On 16 October Kazakh media reported that Alexander Bozhenko was found severely beaten and later died from his injuries.

While the authorities claim that the murder was not connected in any way to the trial, many observers note irregularities in the official explanation.

In a letter to Nazarbaev Jyrki Raina urged him to ensure a full investigation of the murder of Alexander Bozhenko, investigate cases of torture reported by the defendants and witnesses of the Zhanaozen trial and thus revise the results of the trial.

The letter can be found here.

Dangerous crackdown on oil workers in Kazakhstan

IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina sent a letter to the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev with copies to prime minister as well as general prosecutor, voicing concerns over the trial of 37 people in connection with 16 December 2011 riots in Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan.

Many of those sentenced to prison for taking part in riots were prominent workers’ leaders during the 2011 oil workers’ strike. Furthermore, during the trial both the defendants and witnesses testified to being tortured.

The trial started in March 2012. In early June 13 defendants received sentences ranging from 3 to 7 years. On 6 August the court in Aktau, Kazakhstan, held an appeal hearing. All the sentences were confirmed by this court of higher jurisdiction, except one. Rosa Tuletaeva’s sentence was reduced from 7 to 5 years.

Those sentenced to prison include most outspoken oil workers, all of whom had assumed active roles in the strike.

What’s more, international human rights organizations reported that during the trial both the defendants and the witnesses had testified that they were subjected to physical and psychological abuse by police and investigators, including beatings, suffocation, and threats of rape or harm to family members.

One of the witnesses, Alexander Bozhenko, 20, testified in court that he was tortured for several days and forced to bear evidence against oil workers in Zhanaozen. He completely renounced his earlier testimony, acquired by torture. He also went public with his story, giving interviews to the media.

Alexander Bozhenko’s testimony was central to the presentation given by human rights activist Galym Ageleulov at the OSCE session in Warsaw, Poland.

On 16 October Kazakh media reported that Alexander Bozhenko was found severely beaten and later died from his injuries.

While the authorities claim that the murder was not connected in any way to the trial, many observers note irregularities in the official explanation.

In a letter to Nazarbaev Jyrki Raina urged him to ensure a full investigation of the murder of Alexander Bozhenko, investigate cases of torture reported by the defendants and witnesses of the Zhanaozen trial and thus revise the results of the trial.

The letter can be found here.