Lesotho union observes AIDS Day

The HIV and AIDS prevalence rate for Lesotho is one of the highest globally and most workers don’t even know their HIV status. This explains why this year’s message of "know your status" for World AIDS Day on 1 December is important. Research shows that once someone knows their status, they will access antiretroviral treatment early and change their lifestyles to avoid further infections or affecting others. This is unlike a situation when someone doesn’t know their status or know it late.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho (IDUL) organized two events in Maseru to mark World AIDS Day with support from the Sub Saharan Africa Region’s union building project and Union to Union. The first was a roadshow at Precious Garments on 29 November during the lunch break where the union distributed sanitary pads and diapers to young working mothers living with HIV and AIDS. The timing meant reaching more than 4,000 workers during lunch time. Precious Garments, like most textile and garment factories in the country, employ over 90 per cent women.

The second event was a mass meeting on 1 December, at which the Minister of Health, Nkaku Kabi, said the government is willing to work with unions and non-governmental organizations because HIV and AIDS is a social issue which requires collaborative efforts. Over 1,000 workers turned up from the regions of Maputsoe, Maseru, Nyenye and Tikwe.

At both events there were speakers from Lesotho Network for People Living with HIV and AIDS (LENEPHWA) that IDUL is in a strategic partnership with on HIV and AIDS. While the union fights on workers’ rights to health, the network provides treatment and care for people living with HIV and AIDS, fights stigma and discrimination, and promotes awareness on prevention and treatment.

Says Daniel Teko, the general secretary of IDUL:

“HIV and AIDS affects union members. We have lost brothers and sisters and some children are orphans. It is a social issue that cannot be ignored, and we must work together to deal with the pandemic. IDUL is working with the ministry of health and LENEPHWA to educate its members on prevention, treatment, care, support and related issues.” 

Shell’s hidden shame – Contract workers on the poverty line in Nigeria

Country: Nigeria

Text: Léonie Guguen

Poverty wages are typical for thousands of contract workers in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria. In September 2018, IndustriALL Global Union carried out a mission to Port Harcourt to meet contract workers as part of its global campaign to stop precarious work at Shell. 

Despite 28 years of service as a contract worker at Shell, Oscar Tamuno, has little to show for it. He, his wife and four children live in a tiny two-room, one-storey dwelling in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt. Out the back is a small courtyard where he and four other families share basic toilet and washing facilities. Cooking is done outside on an open stove. 

Precarious work has become the focus of IndustriALL’s campaign, which also urges Shell to engage in global dialogue with IndustriALL and its affiliates. Contract workers outnumber permanent workers two to one at Shell and do the most dangerous jobs. 

In May 2018, IndustriALL’s affiliates from five countries, including Nigeria, raised their grievances to the Shell at the company’s annual general meeting in the Hague. Further, IndustriALL highlighted issues of union busting and violations of freedom of association of contract workers at Shell in Nigeria at the International Labour Conference of the ILO in Geneva in June. Shell has however repeatedly refused to enter into meaningful dialogue with IndustriALL to address these concerns.

IndustriALL affiliates in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria: 

The National Union of Petroleum & Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), which represents blue collar workers, and the Petroleum & Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) representing white collar workers.

Shell in Nigeria 

Shell’s history in Nigeria is blighted by corruption, environmental destruction and human rights atrocities. It is the biggest multinational oil company in the country and pioneered oil exploration in Nigeria in 1936, producing its first shipment of oil in 1958. Nigeria has since become Africa’s largest producer of crude oil with the world’s biggest oil companies including Total, Eni and Chevron operating there. 

Thirteen years after Nigerian independence from British colonial rule in 1960, the Nigerian government took a stake in Shell’s operations in the country. In 1979, the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) was established, which is now owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which has a 55 per cent stake; Shell with 30 per cent; Total with 10 per cent, and Eni with 5 per cent. Shell, however, remains the operator. 

In 1990, frustrated by oil companies’ exploitation of natural resources and environmental damage, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) led by activist and playwright, Ken Saro-Wiwa, demanded an end to oil pollution and a fairer share of profits. 

Shell businesses in Nigeria 

Despite oil being extracted from their lands in the Niger Delta since 1958, they had seen nothing in return.

In January 1993, MOSOP mobilized around 300,000 people to protest against pollution and Shell, which was the largest operator in Ogoniland. It prompted the Nigerian military to move in. Saro-Wiwa and eight other MOSOP activists were hanged in 1995 by Sani-Abacha’s military government causing international outrage. Shell Royal Dutch Petroleum was sued by the US Center for Constitutional Rights for complicity in the repression of the Ogoni people and the executions of the Ogoni Nine. In 2006, on the eve of the trial, Shell settled out of court, resulting in payouts of US$15.5 million to the Ogoni people.

Although Shell moved out of Ogoniland in 1993, its myriad network of pipelines in the Niger Delta remained. In 2008 and 2009 two massive oil spills from its pipelines struck the Bodo community in Ogoniland. They caused catastrophic damage to the environment and devastated the community’s livelihood, which had been heavily dependent on fishing and agriculture. 

In 2015, Shell admitted liability for the Bodo spills, which the UN described as an ‘ecological disaster’, and agreed to pay US$83 million for the clean-up that is expected to take decades to fix.

Today, high levels of poverty, unemployment and the abject failure of oil revenues to benefit local people, has led to increased insurgency and Shell is plagued by militant attacks, oil spills and sabotage. In 2017, SPDC reported oil losses of 9,000 barrels per day (bpd) through theft, costing around US$180 million a year. This was up from 6,000 bpd in 2016. 

US$4 billion – amount earned by Shell from oil and gas production in Nigeria in 2017. Source: Reuters

As the company seeks to move away from dependence on crude oil, it is focusing on Nigeria’s vast untapped reserves of gas, which is regarded by Shell as a cleaner alternative to oil as it seeks to meet greenhouse gas emissions targets. 

Precarious work

NUPENG president, Williams Akporeha, calls Nigeria the “headquarters of precarious work”. Shell has, over time, contracted out almost its entire production workforce, who have low pay, minimal benefits and no job security. The predominance of contract workers is not unique to Shell, but indicative of the situation at most, if not all, of the international oil companies in Nigeria. 

Meeting contract workers at Shell

NUPENG guided the IndustriALL mission on a visit to Shell’s Umuebulu Flow Station at Etche in the outskirts of Port Harcourt. Contract workers in Shell uniforms were eager to tell their stories. Many said they worked under a community contract, which is a contract organized between an oil company and the local community leader, in this case, the local king or chief. Workers under this contract seemed to have the worse deal. Following the death of the king, and then of his son, workers said they weren’t paid for several months. While Shell did intervene to cover some of the wage losses, many workers said they were still owed salaries. 

A community contract worker at the plant told the mission:

“My contractor doesn’t pay when due. I haven’t been paid for six months. My salary is just 50,000 naira (US$137) a month. I will go home and beg my neighbour for food. For six months my children can’t go to school. I’ve been working for eleven years at Shell but I don’t have carpet in my house. I don’t have a radio in my house. 

“If you open your mouth and you want to say something, they will sack you. The next day they (Shell) will call that contractor and they will sack you and they will bring in another person. That’s what we’re facing at this particular Shell (operation).”

“Our salary at Plantgeria is about 95,000 naira (US$260),” said another worker contracted to Shell. “In Nigeria today you can’t do anything on that. You can’t pay your children’s school fees. You can’t eat well. You can’t do anything better for yourself. We do the dirty jobs. We work like an elephant and eat like an ant.” 

All the workers referred to the contractors as their ‘paymasters’ and considered they worked at Shell, as they report directly to Shell management. They said Shell determines what they get paid by contractors. However, their appeals to Shell for better wages are ignored:

“If you ask for a pay rise, you will be escorted out by police. And then your job is finished. No more access to the yard until you sign something saying you will not join a union and you will not ask for a pay rise,” said one worker. 

Shell maintains it is not financially viable to give contract workers permanent jobs, as they are not needed all the time. But this belies what workers told IndustriALL:

“They keep on classing us as ad-hoc workers but we have been working continuously for as long as 20 years, while being paid less than US$150 a month,” a worker lamented. “I have a letter that says I am not entitled to any benefits at all. In the last two months, we gathered ourselves to join NUPENG. Now, if they threaten us, we will just say ‘sack us’.” 

Workers said they are initially given a contract for two years, but after that the contractor will keep adding an extension for three or six months, for years at a time. “That’s why we have stagnant wages. There is no variation in the extension of the contract. Sometimes they even reduce the salary,” said one worker.

Prospects for contract workers at Shell are zero: “We have no promotion. We have been on the same salary scale for the past ten years. We have agitated for a pay increment but it has not been forthcoming.”

Vassey Lartson who works as a lab technician for Shell in Houston, USA, joined the mission to Nigeria as a member of IndustriALL’s affiliate the United Steelworkers. He was shocked by the workers’ living conditions. 

“I am ashamed that we work with the same Shell sign on our back. No way should there be that level of disparity between me and those workers. I take it personally that my brothers and sisters are being exploited in the way that they are. If a company is global, then why can’t behave global and pay global?”

There is a stark contrast to expatriate workers at Shell, who can earn up to US$20,000 a month. Nigerian white-collar workers at Shell are paid around US$2,000 a month. Shell has a 224 hectare high-security compound in Port Harcourt where Shell’s local and expatriate staff dependents live and socialize. 

Inadequate healthcare

Many contract workers complained that their healthcare insurance provider (HMO) was inadequate:

“We are exposed to all the hazards. We work in the field. Even with our HMO we are not doing well. We are just working to die. When we are sick and go to the clinic, they don’t treat you well because the money they (the contractor) give to the HMOs is too meagre, so we don’t get the right treatment. They just give you some tablets. Then the doctor will say we can’t go further than that with the level you’re on. So, you use your meagre money to pay again.” 

One worker, who has four children, said he could only claim up to 40,000 naira (US$100) a year for his family. Some workers said they didn’t have any health insurance at all, depending on the contract they had.

The mission visited the bereaved children of Mr Kalu Ngozi, a contract electrician who had worked at Shell for over 20 years. Mr Ngozi had died three days previously leaving his four sons as orphans. Their mother died two years ago, and another brother passed away two months before. His children, aged between 12 and 22, are now alone living in a one room place in a Port Harcourt slum. Mr Ngozi who suffered from a stomach ulcer could not afford the medical attention he needed, and the hospital said that typhoid was a contributor to his death. 

Dangers

Port Harcourt and the Niger Delta have seen increasing levels of violence over the years with kidnapping and armed robbery not unusual. “One of our colleagues, a driver, was recently shot dead in the field. In the end Shell didn’t do anything. The most they will do is one minute’s silence. No one cares about you and your family. If anything was to happen to you today, (Shell) don’t know you, it’s up to the contractor.”

Workers also revealed they faced hazards such as chemicals, carbon pollution, militancy and snakes in the field.

The workers also said they felt ill equipped to handle dangerous situations: “Shell is good at the health and safety paperwork but it’s different when it comes to implementation. They will send you to training, saying ‘this is what you need to do’, but sometimes when you get to the field (the equipment) is not there.” 

A Shell contract driver was recently shot dead during an attempted kidnapping of an expatriate in the Umuebulu area, resulting in immense suffering for his family.

IndustriALL’s director for energy, Diana Junquera Curiel, said:

“Our mission to Nigeria has allowed us to see and hear first-hand how contract workers are suffering at Shell. We will confront Shell with our findings. We will hold them to account. Shell says it wants to take responsibility for workers in its supply chain. It can start right here, in Nigeria.”

Using global framework agreements to raise standards 

While Shell refuses to engage in global dialogue with unions, French energy giant Total has signed a global framework agreement with IndustriALL since 2015. The agreement has helped to resolve health and safety issues in Nigeria by connecting workers on the ground to global management in Paris. As a result of the agreement, Total is also demanding that all its contractors meet international standards on labour rights. In addition, IndustriALL also has a global framework agreement with Italian company Eni, which also operates in Nigeria.

Gas flaring and effects on workers

Gas flaring is caused by burning of natural gas that comes to the surface during the extraction of crude oil. According to the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership, not enough is being done by oil companies in Nigeria, particularly the Niger Delta, to capture the leaking gas, which is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the world. It is cheaper to burn the gas off rather than find expensive ways of capturing it. 

Most recent figures from the government show that while gas flaring has dropped from two billion cubic feet per day ten years ago, it still stands at 700 million cubic feet per day – enough to generate 3,000 megawatts of power. But this reduction does not help workers and communities who remain badly affected by the flaring. 

Reports in Nigerian media say villagers at a Polaku community in Bayelsa State, who are living near the SPDC’s Gbaran Ubie Integrated Oil and Gas plant, say they can’t sleep at night and their homes are coming apart due to the vibrations caused by gas flaring. The flaring causes acid rain which contaminates crops and water, and villagers say their children are getting ill. They say the flaring takes place at night to avoid public outcry. 

Workers IndustriALL spoke to at Etche had similar experiences: 

“There is a lot of gas flaring. If you park a white vehicle overnight the yellow crude oil and soot will cover it by morning. You wake up and your nose is blocked with soot. It affects your eyes too.” 

The Etche facility IndustriALL visited is just a stone’s throw away from many schools in the area. “What is happening here affects the world. Shell asks us to not steam our motors for so long, but they are polluting the whole planet!” says one worker.

Union signs recognition agreement with Walker Industries in Kenya

Following a recruitment and organizing drive that saw union membership increasing by 387 male and 338 female workers, IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Kenya Shoe and Leather Workers’ Union (KSLWU) signed a recognition agreement with Walker Industries on 13 November in Nairobi. The company manufactures EVA slippers, PVC sandals and gumboots. The slippers and sandals are popular because they can easily be molded into different shapes unlike those made from leather.

The recognition agreement establishes labour relations harmony at the company and commits to cooperation between the employer and the union. It also aims to create relationships that will promote better working conditions and living wages. Workers’ right to strike and collective bargaining will be respected and labour disputes will be dealt with according to the Labour Relations Act. Provisions of the ILO Convention 135 on the protection of workers’ representatives against dismissals and other forms of victimization that arise from their being representatives of a union will be respected.

The recruitment and organizing drive is part of the IndustriALL East African union building project, supported by the Danish trade union federations’ LO/FTF Council, which promotes social dialogue and labour rights in developing countries. The project aims to build strong unions in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. 

Says Catherine Aneno, IndustriALL coordinator for the project:

“We welcome the signing of the agreement with Walker Industries. Recognition agreements are one of the crucial instruments that are used to promote better working conditions and social dialogue in the factories. Further, it is important to commend the vigour that is being put by the KSLWU into gaining more members. It is this energy that will make unions grow in Kenya.”

The government’s policies including the Kenya Vision 2030 identifies manufacturing, including in the textile and garment sector, as a key driver for the country’s industrialization. The country also exports to the USA under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act whilst international garment brands source from the country.

South African plastics strike enters sixth week

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) called for the indefinite strike on 15 October with support from another affiliate, the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union, and other unions.

The unions are demanding that the employer organizations, the National Employers Association of South Africa and the Plastics Converters Association of South Africa (PCASA), improve wages and benefits instead of removing them. For example, the unions are condemning the reduction of wages, in some grades, by 50 per cent and are calling upon employers to restore bonuses and leave benefits.

NUMSA is demanding that workers in the plastics sector be paid same wages as other workers in the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC), which the plastics sector falls under. The MEIBC has a 2017 to 2020 agreement, which gives workers a better deal, and was signed by NUMSA and other unions. But the employers are refusing.

The strike is affecting over 450 companies along the plastics value chain and NUMSA has been picketing at plastics factories in Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal.

However, management response has been to intimidate workers to sign “inferior individual agreements”, lockouts and violence including hiring private security companies to shoot at workers as what happened at Mpact in Pinetown.

NUMSA has rejected accusations of strike violence by plastics companies and blames infiltration by “criminal elements and agent provocateurs.” NUMSA says the companies are using the courts to break the strike. For instance, the recent temporary order, if finalized, will fine NUMSA R1 million (US$73,000), general secretary Irvin Jim and sector coordinator Vusi Mabho R100,000 (US$7,300) each for strike violence. The union is challenging the court order.

Says Andrew Chirwa, NUMSA president:

“Instead of engaging us, employers keep rushing to court to make frivolous court applications to undermine the strike. It is in everyone’s interest to resolve the strike. We repeat the call for employers to come to the table and negotiate meaningfully and in good faith!”

Jim explains why the strike is on:

“We are fighting for workers in the plastics sector to retain wages and benefits which they fought so hard for. It is unfair and immoral that they should unilaterally be denied these benefits. They are the creators of wealth and deserve a living wage and better life.”

Women in the textile and garment sector in Ethiopia trained in labour law

A five-day workshop in Addis Ababa, 26-30 November, which drew 19 participants from women's committees in the textile, garment and shoe factories, recognized the pivotal role of the law in employment contracts and discussed that it is always better for the contracts to be in writing. Collective bargaining agreements also protect the rights of workers and improve working conditions as well as wage determinations.

The topics discussed in detail included what the law says on basic rights and the obligations of the workers and employers, freedom of association, labour proclamation provisions, grievance handling, and resolving conflict at the workplaces. It was also highlighted that Ethiopia had ratified ILO Conventions on the freedom of association, protection of the right to organize, and collective bargaining.

Examples given were drawn from Ethiopian case law, and dealt with dismissals, sick and maternity leave, and occupational health and safety. On health and safety, the law says the employer must give clear instructions to workers, appoint a health and safety officer, provide protective equipment and report accidents among other provisions.

Organized by the Industrial Federation of Textile, Leather, and Garment Workers Union (IFTLGWU) with support from the IndustriALL Global Union regional office for Sub Saharan Africa and FNV Mondiaal, the workshop highlighted some sections of the law especially on unfair dismissals that the unions would like to be changed. Further, the unions wanted minimum wages to be included in the amended labour laws, and for rights of workers to be recognised in the industrial parks.

Unions said they will continue fighting outsourcing which in most instances replaces permanent jobs with precarious ones.

The workshop was facilitated by Alem Abraha, a legal expert from Mekelle University.

Says Sisay Tulu, IndustriALL coordinator for Ethiopia:

“Understanding the labour laws is important to counter situations where employers take advantage of the workers not having a full understanding of the law, and this often leads to their exploitation in the factories. This often changes when workers understand the laws better and are able to stand up for their rights.”

We are just working to die, say Shell workers in Nigeria

IndustriALL’s mission to Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in September this year saw Shell workers living in shocking conditions and found that Shell workers were falling ill and dying as a result of inadequate healthcare insurance.

“Our health insurance as it is, we are not doing well. If you are sick and go to the clinic, they don’t treat you well because the money that they pay to the HMOs is a meagre amount of money, so based on that, we don’t get it right at all. We are just working to die,” said one worker.

Workers also said that if they asked for better wages or wanted to join a union, they would be threatened with dismissal. 

IndustriALL is campaigning to make Shell engage with unions on a global level. Unions want Shell to limit precarious work at the company and ensure that the same high-level standards are applied at Shell operations, everywhere, including its suppliers.

Contract workers outnumber permanent workers 2:1 at Shell and do the most dangerous jobs.

While Shell says it wants to #makethefuture, it’s clear Shell contract workers in Nigeria have #gotnofuture, with no job security, poverty wages and zero prospects.

Watch the video. 

South African mineworkers’ union launches campaign against gender-based violence

According to police investigations, the two women were shot seven times each. The accused is in police custody pending a bail application. This and several other cases of the brutal murder of women are the focus of the campaign launched by 50 women from the national NUM women’s structure in Johannesburg on 19 November. 

Participants at the meeting, which was attended by other unions and a representative from the Commission for Gender Equality, lit candles and observed moments of silence for women who had been murdered. They want effective law enforcement that brings justice.

With over 12 women in every 100,000 killed, South Africa is one of the most dangerous countries for women in the world. As an affiliate of IndustriALL Global Union, the NUM is taking part in the campaign to end violence and harassment against women at the workplace and in the union.

The NUM pledge signed at the meeting condemns harassment of and discrimination against women at the workplace, sexual violence against women and children, rape, abuse and murder, domestic violence, and discrimination against people affected and living with HIV and AIDS. The NUM will work with communities and civil society organizations to achieve the campaign aims.

The union aims to campaign for change in social attitudes towards violence, and to act against the perpetrators. The  mineworkers’ union will also provide support to the affected women and children. As violence is often linked to substance abuse, the campaign is calling for healthier and safer communities and workplaces.

Says Lydia Nkopane, the NUM national women structure chairperson:

“What is happening in our workplaces, communities and homes is painful. Women sometimes disguise bruises with make-up to conceal beatings when they report for work. They also face sexual harassment and precarious working conditions at the workplaces. Further, young women and children are being abused and murdered daily.”

Further, she said social labour plans, in which mining rights applicants are required to carry out programmes that benefit mineworkers and communities, must help women living in mining communities as poverty makes them vulnerable to abuse.

South African unions call for a Just Transition to renewable energy

To push for their demands, workers from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) took to the streets of Pretoria on 17 November and marched to government offices at the Union Buildings where they read out a memorandum of their grievances. However, the government officials who were supposed to receive the memorandum did not show up.

Coal powered stations produce over 90 per cent of the country’s electricity and unions are aware of the high levels of pollution. They also know that South Africa is a signatory to the Paris Agreement adopted at CoP 21, but say a plan should be put in place for an energy mix policy that will extend the life of the coal mines to 2030. They are also asking the government to introduce a socially-owned renewable sector instead of giving the mainly solar and wind renewable energy contracts to businesses but not communities. The unions are irked that they were not consulted when 27 IPPs were given contracts.

Irvin Jim, the general secretary of NUMSA, says:

“We demand a Just Transition, which will ensure that workers at coal-fired power plants who may lose their jobs as a result of the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, will be trained and absorbed into the renewable energy sector.”

The unions are also against the privatization of the public power utility Eskom which they say will lead to further job losses. Instead, they are urging the government to facilitate better management of Eskom and to end the corruption that is rife at the state-owned enterprise.

David Sipunzi, the general secretary of the NUM, adds:

“We call on the government to refrain from biting the hand that feeds the state. Scrap the power purchase agreement that favour private capital at the expense of Eskom.”

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary stresses:

“This joint action taken by NUM and NUMSA is an important example on union solidarity and cooperation. IndustriALL Global Union is fully behind the legitimate and reasonable demands of the unions and  will give every possible support until a fair deal is reached.”

The Just Transition deal reached by the unions and the government in Spain is a model for South African unions. The deal included fair early retirement packages, and additional payments for workers with asbestosis. Provisions were also made by the government for waste management, recycling facilities, water treatment plants, cleaning the air and infrastructure development.

Congo mining unions unite at Glencore

This is the resolution of a meeting which took place on 13-14 November, in Kolwezi, Lualaba Province. The resolution commits the unions to an organizing target to be met before the next Glencore global network meeting in 2019.

Eighteen representatives, including general secretaries, from four IndustriALL Global Union affiliates CSC, OTUC, TUMEC and UNTC, organizing in the mining sector, formed the IndustriALL Glencore national network which will include unions from the petroleum sector. A provincial network already exists. The meeting agreed that the unions could negotiate with the global mining multinational better as a unified force and through the networks.

The meeting is part of a series of interventions by IndustriALL in the DRC as part of a global campaign to improve working conditions of mine workers at Glencore operations around the world. A joint mission between Glencore and IndustriALL to the DRC, sanctioned by Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg and set to take place early in 2019, is part of these series of interventions to set the course of industrial relations in the DRC on the right path.

The unions agreed to democratize through workers’ control and promote accountability of the union leadership to their members. It was emphasized that the unions should be active at provincial and local levels to ensure that workplace issues were prioritized. Further, the unions committed to building the capacity of leaders and members through worker education and training, using collective bargaining as an instrument to improve workers’ welfare, and developing better financial systems to make unions sustainable.

The unions agreed to strengthen and coordinate their activities including information sharing. Research will be carried out on how the legal system can be used to improve industrial relations and on how to engage with the new mining code adopted by the government of the DRC, despite protestations by the mining industry. Exchange visits will also be made with other mining affiliates in the Sub Saharan Africa region.

Says Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL director for mining:

“Unions must work hard to build trade union power in the DRC. It is through this power, which comes from having more members in a union, that unions can stand up against multinational corporations. With power, trade unions can carry the dreams of the workers, and with it the potential to transform society.”

Memorial lecture pays tribute to slain woman worker in South Africa

But her union, Industrial Global Union affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), and the family are not giving up on getting justice. NUMSA accuses Eskom of negligence because when Yende was murdered the cameras were not working and there were no security guards at the power station as is the norm.

On 3 November, The Thembisile Lucia Yende Foundation, which was formed in her honour, organized a memorial lecture in KwaThema. The foundation aims to fight injustice and promote a safer society for women. It’s programmes promote gender equality and its formation is a response to the unresolved murders of women whose cases are often struck off the courts for lack of evidence or sloppy investigations by the police in which sometimes where credible evidence is destroyed.

The memorial lecturer was attended by representatives from the South African Police Service (SAPS), the South African Human Rights Commission, the government department of social development, and civil society organizations. There was consensus amongst the speakers that improving women’s safety and security at work and in the community is urgent especially as it comes after 549 women were killed in Gauteng Province last year according to the SAPS.

Says Ruth Ntlokotse, NUMSA’s second deputy president:

“As workers, women are breadwinners that provide for their families. They are also an important part of the community and society. The enormity of the threat to their lives and the physical harm common in gender-based violence is a call for us to take to the streets to stop the murders and rapes. South African women face gender-based violence every day and we must unite to confront the menace.”

A recent meeting by IndustriALL affiliates in Cape Town called upon employers to end gender-based violence at work by improving security at workplaces. On 25 November, the world day for the elimination of violence against women, IndustriALL is calling on its affiliates to sign The Pledge, to take action to stop sexual harassment and gender-based violence at work.

A few weeks ago, the government organized the National Summit against Gender-based Violence and Femicide, where calls were made to improve the safety and security of women.