Unions struggle for democracy in Swaziland

Tension grew throughout the week and organizers cancelled the main protest action planned for Friday, not wanting to put protestors in harms way as security forces made it clear that they were prepared to repress the action.

However, some actions did go ahead in Swaziland but participants were subjected to police brutality with beatings and arrests. Other actions were demobilized by police turning back buses and those that managed to assemble were subjected to intimidation including some arrests.

“There is no way we will abandon this,” said Frank Mcina, General Secretary of Swaziland Amalgamated Trade Union, expressing a commitment to the struggle for democracy and human rights shared by most unionists in Swaziland.

“We will continue with pressure until the regime recognizes that people have the right to speak and we regain our rights, including the fundamental labour right of freedom of association,” added Mcina.

After almost 40 years in a state of emergency, Swaziland, one of the world’s last absolute monarchies, is experiencing a deepening economic crisis that has pushed most Swazi people into absolute poverty.

Meanwhile, the Royal family continues to live a lavish lifestyle and king Mswati III is accused by the Swaziland Democracy Campaign of looting the economy. Mswati has maintained control through an oppressive regime, where political parties are banned and activists are regularly arrested, imprisoned and tortured. 

The recently formed Trade Union Confederation of Swaziland (Tucoswa), uniting organized labour in the country, has come under attack with the government seeking to deregister the union.

IndustriALL Global Union wrote to the Prime Minister of Swaziland calling for constitutional reform and multiparty democracy in Swaziland in support of the Global Week of Action on Swaziland.

“We have prioritized giving support to their efforts within Swaziland and at a regional and international level, and I can assure you that we will not cease our efforts until such time as human and trade union rights are upheld in your country.,” wrote Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of IndustriALL.

See here a more detailed report on the week of action in Swaziland.

Numsa strike continues as Dunlop refuses to budge

The 300 Numsa members at Dunlop in Howick, Kwa Zulu Natal have been on strike since 22 August after their demands for a two year agreement with an increase of 10 per cent in the first year and 9 per cent in the second year were not met. Workers are also demanding two weeks bonus pay and two weeks severance pay for each year that they have worked for the company.

“We strongly believe that these demands by workers are reasonable and legitimate,” says Numsa’s Kwa Zulu Natal Regional Secretary, Mbuso Ngubane, “We refuse to allow members to be subjected to starvation and poverty wages.”

The striking workers are made up of permanent and casual workers. Casual workers employed through labour brokers by Dunlop is increasing, which is of great concern to Numsa. “Employment of a sizeable number of workers through labour broker continues to plunge Dunlop workers to unbecoming conditions,” claims Ngubane, “therefore we commit to fight for their permanent employment.”

Dunlop has responded to the strike by employing scab labour and has refused to return to the negotiation table. The company has also employed heavily armed private security, which Numsa claims is a tactic to intimidate and threaten striking workers.

Since the incident at Lonmin where police shot and killed 34 striking workers, there has been a high deployment of police at the strike, which Numsa has described as an exaggeration and a provocation at a very tense time for labour relations in South Africa.

Ngubane speaks of memories this evokes, “This newly found deployment of police officers is no different from the apartheid past experiences where police were irresponsibly used to protect the interests of the capitalist bosses.” He believes that the reaction of the police is unwarranted as the strike has been characterised by a high level of discipline and maturity by workers.  

Alcoa union network supports Italian workers’ fight against plant closure

Despite Alcoa announcing its decision to close the plant earlier this year, and its intention to begin shutting down parts of the plant, the unions have successfully been able to temporarily halt these plans while seeking other solutions to closure. The latest has focused on finding a potential buyer for the operations and talks have been held with the Swiss company Glencore. As a result of these efforts Alcoa has promised to keep all workers employed until the end of the year.

All hope is not lost for the plant and the attempts in Italy to keep the plant open follow similar situations elsewhere in Europe. Unions in the UK successfully managed to keep open a plant in Teesside despite the threat of closure by its owners TATA Steel group. The UK unions oversaw the sale to SSI Thailand and the operations are now continuing. The unions in Italy hope that they can also put together a rescue package that will see the plant remain open.

The situation at Portovesme is being closely monitored by the Alcoa global union network and unions that make up the network have pledged support to the Italian workers in their battle. High energy prices have been blamed as one of the key factors for the shut down with labour costs only a small part of the total fixed costs.

When faced with a similar situation in Australia the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) campaigned vigorously to keep open the Point Henry Smelter and succeed in putting together a 42 million (AUD) rescue package that saved the plant.

Liam O’Brien, AWU National Organizer, said, “In these tough times for Aluminum workers its essential that governments show the necessary support to ensure the future of the industry and have strong industrial polices that support jobs.”

The largest union in Alcoa, the United Steelworkers (USW), has also pledged support to the Italian unions in their struggles. Jim Robinson, USW Director District 7, said, “We are closely monitoring the situation in Alcoa Italy and support the efforts of the unions to keep the plant operational. Our union and our members at Alcoa will stand in solidarity with these workers in their fight.”

Alcoa has operations in 31 countries and its operational headquarters are in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The IndustriALL Global Union network has developed a strategy of meeting the day prior to the company’s shareholders meeting. 

Historic victory for trade union freedom in Myanmar

IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina today stated:

“The return of Brother Maung Maung to Rangoon is an emotional development for the entire labour movement. Our sisters and brothers in Myanmar can count on the support of IndustriALL Global Union as they now restart the wheels of social justice and union organizing in their country. We salute all those who struggled in this brave and ultimately successful campaign.”

Now all efforts will turn to ensuring the FTUM is officially recognized, with Maung Maung and others as its leaders; support in developing a policy of responsible investment; trade union building with all existing obstacles to form and register trade unions removed.

The suspension of sanctions on Myanmar by a number of countries has triggered international companies to return to Myanmar en masse. The government of President Thein Sein, which replaced the harsh military junta in March, has begun some reforms towards democratisation including workplace laws passed to allow the formation of unions. Over the past two months over 100 company level trade unions across all sectors have been registered, however harassment and intimidation of these workers continues by employers and the authorities.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Council of Global Unions (CGU) plan to open an office in Rangoon, and the ILO Yangon office proposes establishing a legal research and advocacy centre in Myanmar’s biggest city.

Maung Maung was reunited with his wife, son and father whom he had not seen during his 24 years of exile. His return follows his removal from the government immigration blacklist along with 2,082 others in August. But 4,083 remain on the blacklist.

Key IndustriALL target sectors to be organized by FTUM are the garment sector and the mining sector. A mineworkers’ trade union has recently been founded representing 4,000 gold workers with immediate priority challenges of responsible mining, safety and health, and artisanal mining.

An example of the former military junta’s iron fist approach to trade union activities was seen in 2009 when FTUB members were arrested immediately after returning from participating in the 1st National Congress of the FTUB. The three-day FTUB Congress was held in a border area inside Burma, and the fact that courageous Burmese trade unionists conducted democratic proceedings inside highly repressive Burma was exemplary.

IndustriALL’s Manfred Warda will act as coordinator of the Council of Global Unions’ (CGU) joint action on Burma. Warda’s October meeting with Maung Maung has now been relocated from Bangkok to Rangoon.

Global youth unemployment is on the rise

In developed economies in 2007, before the financial crisis began in the United States and spread to the euro zone, the unemployment rate for young people was only 12.5 per cent as opposed to 17.5 per cent in 2012 and a projected 15.6 per cent in 2017.

“Ironically, only in developed economies are youth unemployment rates expected to fall in the coming years, but this follows the largest increase in youth unemployment among all regions since the start of the crisis,” said Ernst Ekkehard, lead author of the ILO paper on Global Employment.  “This decline is mainly related to the fact that increasingly, young people are dropping out of the labour market as they find it more difficult to find a job [and] they are not counted among the unemployed.”

An ILO paper on the “Global Employment Outlook: Bleak Labour Market Prospects for Youth” shows that the impact of the euro crisis is spreading as far as East Asia and Latin America, making the situation worse for young jobseekers.

At the International Labour Conference (ILC) in June 2012 the ILO adopted a resolution calling for immediate, targeted and renewed action to tackle the youth employment crisis.

Today the ILO is calling on governments and social partners to foster pro-employment growth and decent job creation, promote macroeconomic policies and adopt fiscally sustainable and targeted measures such as labour-intensive infrastructure programmes, wage and training subsidies. 

View an interview with Ernst Ekkehard, author of “Global employment Outlook: Bleak Labour market Prospects for youth”  here: http://youtu.be/_RL6XFUgFyI

IndustriALL Global Union urges a no vote to the Glencore – Xstrata merger

IndustriALL Global Union has consistently condemned the intended merger as being against the interests of workers and society in general. 

Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL Global Union Director of Mining and DGOJP, said, “Global industrial relations and the global labour market in the metals and mining industry do not need another multinational mining company of this monstrous size and power, a new behemoth.”

The anticipated merger between Glencore and Xstrata is poised for a dramatic vote on 7 September 2012. Xstrata equity shareholders look likely to scupper what had been considered to be a done deal before the Qatar sovereign wealth fund started to flex its muscle after it acquired a 12 per cent shareholding in Xstrata. The Qatar sovereign fund’s opposition to the deal is a result of what it considers to be an unfair deal ratio. Glencore has offered 2.8 shares for each Xstrata share while Qatar demands a ratio of 3.25.

Although Glencore owns 34 per cent of Xstrata, it cannot vote on the deal. The deal structure allows 16.5 per cent of shareholders to block the merger and the Qatar sovereign wealth fund needs support from only 4 per cent to block it.

The Qatari fund hopes to hold off the deal after other Xstrata equity shareholders such as Standard Life, Schroder, Norges Bank and Knight Vinke, recommended a vote against if Glencore does not improve its ratio.

Another sore point for Xstrata shareholders is the huge payday for both CEOs Ivan Glasenberg and Mick Davis, some 218 million EUR retention payments if the merger happens.

“The intended merger is bad news for mineworkers across the world and we urge shareholders to vote against it, if not for benevolent reasons but for the sake of their equity interest, which will be jeopardised by the reputational damage Glencore brings to the merger,” added Mpufane.

The lack of transparency associated with Glencore as a hitherto private commodity trading company and its dismal and abhorrent safety and fatality record must be a cause for concern. According to Bloomberg, Glencore reported three deaths for every 10,000 workers in 2011, which is more than triple the 0.8 rate at Xstrata, the world's largest exporter of thermal coal. In June 2011, Reuters reported that the European Investment Bank had frozen all new loans to the commodities trader Glencore and its subsidiaries over serious concerns relating to company’s corporate governance and environmental impact issues. In May 2012, at the company’s first AGM as a public listed company, Global Witness issued a report accusing Glencore of potentially corrupt deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“In the event that the deal happens, IndustriALL Global Union and its 50 million members across 140 countries stand ready, shoulder to shoulder, to take on the new behemoth,” said Mpufane.

Korean workers reach ground-breaking agreement at Hyundai

The 44,000 union members at Hyundai voted 53 per cent in favour of the agreement after months of struggle by the union including partial strikes since July.

Representing a major victory for the workers, the agreement will also see an end to night shifts from March next year. According to the newly reached agreement, night shifts starting at 21:00 and finishing at 08:00 will be replaced with two day time shifts of which the latest will finish by 01:10.

Working at night, combined with long working hours – the longest seen in any OECD country, is resulting in many workers suffering from musculoskeletal disorders, chronic fatigue, sleep disorders and poor family lives.

An estimated one million workers are doing overnight shifts in Korea and Hyundai is the first Korean car company to abolish them. This decision is expected to influence the situation across the industry, including at Kia Motors where KMWU is currently on strike in support of reaching a similar agreement.

Having reached this wage agreement, KMWU will now continue to fight for the company to give permanent positions to about 13,000 contract workers. 

Stop precarious work on 7 October

Secure jobs are becoming more and more rare, while agency work, contract work and temporary work are taking over. For young people, there is practically no other option – the only jobs on offer are insecure. 

Unions are pushing against this tide by organizing precarious workers, fighting laws that expand precarious work and mobilizing in support of secure employment with good pay and working conditions.

IndustriALL Global Union invites you to join the action on or around 7 October. Start taking action now and:

There are no limits on the forms of action that you and your union can take this 7 October to support the global fight against precarious work. Actions could include street protests, seminars, membership meetings, press conferences, public meetings, rallies, workplace actions, letter writing campaigns and delegations to governments. 

IndustriALL has produced print-ready artwork of posters and leaflets in several languages available for download on its website here: www.industriall-union.org/issues/social-justice-and-globalization/stop-precarious-work

Don’t forget to send us photos and reports of your action once it has taken place. The address to send your action information is [email protected].

Bata assaults independent union in Mexico

Calzado Sandak, a Bata plant in Tlaxcala in the east of Mexico, closed illegally last July without giving workers advance notice of the closure, without consulting the union representing workers at the plant and without seeking prior authorization from the authorities as required by law.

In protest, the independent union at the plant, the Sindicato de Único de Trabajadores de Calzado Sandak,  which is linked to the Authentic Labour Front, declared a strike.  Workers have been picketing outside the factory for over a year to prevent the removal of machinery and to demand the re-opening of the plant.

On 20 August, after a federal court deemed the strike ‘non existent’, a company representative entered the factory with a team of security guards and broke the seals placed by the local authorities. When workers approached, the security guards physically lashed out at them, pushing and hitting the workers. Two women workers ended up in hospital in need of medical attention.

The company claimed the closure was due to insufficient orders, but its actions tell a different story. After closing the factory and throwing its workforce out on the street, the company then sought to outsource the work to the dismissed employees in their own homes or in small workshops, where underage workers have been found to be working twelve hours a day for the minimum wage.

Not surprisingly, the company chose to ignore the law, which would have required it to obtain prior approval from the labour authorities based on an examination of the company’s performance and an assessment of whether the closure was justified.

Mexico is notorious for its legally-sanctioned union-busting, and this case is no exception. The local authority has done nothing to uphold the rights of the workers and their union or to overturn the company’s illegal action.

IndustriALL Global Union has written to Bata threatening to lodge a submission with the OECD for violation of its Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The global union has demanded that the company re-open and that it engage in prior negotiations with the union and comply with legal requirements in the event of any future restructuring. IndustriALL has also written to the Mexican authorities demanding that the law be upheld and that the safety of the workers be protected. 

1,000 metalworkers rally against aluminium plant closure in Russia

Earlier, in December 2011, Rusal signed an agreement on the modernization of the plant. However, due to the steady rise of energy costs and a decline in the world price of aluminium, Rusal management decided to close aluminium production at the Bogoslovsky plant in August this year.

Every third family in Krasnoturyinsk has one or more members working at the plant. Overall it employs 3,700 people, 950 in aluminium production.

“The closing of aluminium production at the Bogoslovsky plant is a tragedy for my whole family. Five family members (my two daughters, my son-in-law, my wife and me) work in the aluminium shop at the plant. Finding a new job for five people in our town is simply impossible,” said Sergey Lazarev, a master at the plant.

A rally was hosted by Nikolai Prokofiev, leader of the Mining and Metallurgical Workers’ Union (MMWU) local at the plant. The MMWU is an IndustriALL Global Union affiliate in Russia. The leader of the regional MMWU branch Valery Kuskov also addressed the workers. His deputy Nikolai Alexeiev brought words of solidarity and support from 69 MMWU locals in the Sverdlovsk area, Rusal unions and the Central council of MMWU.

Earlier, on 30 August representatives of the union met with Rusal management and the authorities. MMWU notes that it was the first meeting where the company presented its position to the union in a direct manner. MMWU president Alexei Besymiannyh said that the meeting was “a first stab at solving a very serious problem”. The tripartite commission will meet regularly in the future.