Achieving gender equality in male dominated sectors

These sectors, which often provide skilled, well-paid and prestigious work, are dominated by men. Women working in these sectors tend to do the most menial and precarious work, with the lowest wages and status, and are often not visible in positions of authority in their unions.

Opening the meeting, IndustriALL assistant general secretary Jenny Holdcroft said,

“Gender equality is not a women’s issue, it is a core trade union issue. Just as we all campaign against precarious work and don’t expect precarious workers to organize themselves, we need to involve men in this discussion and stop treating this as an issue for women to resolve.”

The meeting addressed a number of stereotypes that are used by people – including some union leaders – to explain the low participation of women. A common myth is that that women are not interested in or capable of doing physically demanding or technical jobs. Another is that women lack the emotional stability to be effective trade union leaders, or should be at home looking after the children.

There are significant barriers to women entering these sectors. These include sexual harassment and gender-based violence, which is often not taken seriously, and treated as part of workplace culture.

Companies fail to make accommodation, such as secure changing and bathroom facilities, and personal protective equipment does not fit. Women are expected to take care of children and household duties as well as their jobs. Young women see very few positive role models in these sectors, and the education system directs them to caring and service work.

When women do work in these sectors, male colleagues sometimes perceive them as weak and are overly protective, denying them the opportunity to be challenged and develop their skills.

The meetings heard from women who worked as highly skilled mechanics, did maintenance work at height at a cement plant, drove heavy mining trucks and trains, or operated machinery at utilities companies. Many had to prove themselves in ways that were not expected of their male colleagues.

Several male delegates to the meeting made a powerful case for how their women colleagues, at work and in the union, did their jobs as well as or better than the men. Gender equality benefits men as well as women, because it disrupts power structures that only serve a few dominant men.

The delegates came up with a series of recommendations, which will be presented at the IndustriALL Executive Committee meeting in Mexico in November. These focus on moving gender equality out of women’s committees and making it a permanent agenda item in sector and network meetings. Organizational structures should develop and be mandated to report on a plan for increasing women’s participation, and unions should use global framework agreements to influence corporate behaviour.

Unions stand up to BHP at AGM

IndustriALL’s assistant general secretary, Kemal Özkan, questioned the world’s biggest mining company’s over its claims of sustainability, which he argued is not just about economic performance but also the environment, society and labour.

As a multinational company, BHP should adhere to international standards and create safe, decent work, while respecting social dialogue, social protection and workers’ fundamental rights, said Özkan.

BHP has laid off 20,000 workers in two years, while distributing a record US$6.3billion to shareholders in 2018. BHP now employs around 26,000 permanent staff compared to 34,500 contract workers.

Jeff Drayton, from Australian union, CFMEU, questioned BHP over the correlation between the rise in contract labour at BHP’s Mt Arthur coalmine in New South Wales and an increase in safety incidents. In a few short years, contract labour has grown from around 10 to 50 per cent of a total workforce of 1,600. Contract labour is paid around 40 per cent less at the thermal coal mine.

Steve Smyth, from CFMEU in Queensland, demanded to know why BHP workers suffering from coal dust diseases are not being reported as 'lost time injuries', despite being months off work. Earlier this year, miner Tyrone Buckton, passed away from coal dust diseases, silicosis and black lung, after decades of working at BHP.

While BHP owned up to two deaths at its mines over the past year, Aldo Amaya from IndustriALL affiliate, Sintracarbón, asked why the death of Carlos Roberto Urbina at the Cerrejón mine in Colombia was not in the annual report. BHP has a 30 per cent stake in the mine. He also accused BHP of using technology in cabs to penalize drivers if they are tired.

Also in Latin America, IndustriALL mining section co-chair Lucineide Varjão from Brazilian union CNQ/CUT, asked BHP what it planned to do about 2,000 workers who lost their jobs following the disastrous collapse of Fundão Dam in 2015, which killed 19 people, among them 14 workers.

IndustriALL’s mining co-chair Steve Hunt from the United Steelworkers in Canada, called on the company to cooperate with unions and carry out joint audits of their mines.

Meanwhile, BHP’s chairman Ken MacKenzie refused to discuss legacy issues from mines it spun off in a separate company, South32. IndustriALL affiliate, the National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa have been severely affected by job cuts at the company.

“BHP says safety is its first priority but from our experience this is just not the case. The responses we got from at the annual general meeting today were wholly inadequate. If BHP wants to be safe and sustainable, it must start by including workers and trade unions at every step,” said Kemal Özkan.

While in London for the AGM, IndustriALL’s BHP global network meeting met from 16 to 18 October and agreed to focus on issues of contracting, health and safety and organizing women workers at the company. BHP plans to employ 50 per cent women by 2025.

Trade union leaders beaten and arrested during Zimbabwe austerity protests

In an attempt to stop a march from taking off in Harare, the police surrounded the offices of the ZCTU, beating up and arresting the federation’s president Peter Mutasa and secretary general, Japhet Moyo, according to unions. About 20 protesting workers were arrested in Mutare and 13 in Masvingo.

Five IndustriALL Global Union affiliates took part in the marches in solidarity with other unions.

Recently, the Zimbabwean government announced monetary and fiscal policies to remedy the economy arguing that the reforms were “painful and necessary”. But the opposite happened as the economy nose-dived. The austerity policies are wiping out the value of wages and workers can no longer afford basic necessities

Following announcements to increase taxes on mobile money transactions to two per cent per dollar, and that bank deposits made in US dollars would now be converted to local currency, people went into panic mode buying basic goods out of fear of the return of hyper-inflation. Food prices skyrocketed as goods disappeared from the shelves. Businesses closed for “stock taking” and “renovations” or simply increased prices for their goods and services.

While the government maintains that the exchange rate for the local currency to the US dollar is 1:1, the reality is that on the parallel market one US dollar is 4.85 Zimbabwe dollars, called bond notes. This makes the panic understandable. In 2008 workers lost wages including pensions when their retirement benefits and savings could not even buy a loaf of bread due to hyperinflation.

Says Christian Ranji, secretary for the IndustriALL Zimbabwe Youth Committee: “Workers have no option but to fight austerity. We can’t be taxed to fund wasteful government spending. Companies are closing, and workers losing jobs. The announcement caused instability as grocery shops increased prices and citizens started buying in bulk to get value for their money.”

Valter Sanches, IndustriALL General Secretary, says:

“We call upon the government of Zimbabwe to respect the rights of workers to protest against the austerity measures and condemn the acts of violence and intimidation. The arrest of the ZCTU leadership, comrades Peter Mutasa and Japhet Moyo, and the protesting workers is unacceptable. We call for their immediate release, and for the government to seek social dialogue with the unions.”

IndustriALL workshop boosts collective bargaining skills in Madagascar

The workshop follows a strained relationship between the unions and the local management and comes on the eve of the commencement of collective bargaining at the ilmenite operations.

The workshop was run together with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa, who provided collective bargaining expertise to about 16 shop stewards from the two affiliates. Led by Thomas Ketsise, the production unit head at NUM, and Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL’s director of mining, came amidst growing frustration by the local unions at what they consider as local management’s increasing hostile attitude towards unions.

This hostile attitude, the unions claim, manifests in the daily industrial relationship experience of workers and contractors, and they regard this attitude as being at odds with Rio Tinto and IndustriALL’s global employee relations’ principles.

Eugene Chretien, regional secretary of SVS, said:

“The training allowed participants to understand the power of QMM as a Rio Tinto Subsidiary and that they need to be better prepared before collective negotiations.”

Anthony Randrianandrasana is regional president of Sekrima, the most representative union for QMM’s direct workforce. He said:

“This is the first training for the newly elected shop stewards. The knowledge they gained from the trainings gave them the technical skills and confidence to enter into collective negotiation."

The workshop follows the recent mission in early February 2018 by IndustriALL and a senior-level delegation from Rio Tinto led by Michael Gavin, Rio Tinto’s head of global employee relations. The joint mission was in response to industrial relations challenges at the operation and to set in motion processes to address them. A subsequent strike by the union over unfulfilled collective bargaining commitments by management underscored how fractured the relations were.

The decision to include the NUM follows the union’s recent signing of a collective bargaining agreement at Rio Tinto’s Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) in South Africa, where the union is organized. Rio Tinto’s QMM and RBM operations mine the same mineral, ilmenite, using the same mining methods.

The workshop was held as part of the Sub-Sahara union building project, supported by Swedish union donor organization Union to Union.

Workers in South Africa strike against union bashing at Lanxess mine

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), says Lanxess, which is listed on leading sustainability indices, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good, is intimidating and harassing its members. For example, the workers are being threatened with dismissals and retrenchments for joining the union.

Lanxess’s specialty chemicals and plastics global value chain employs over 19,000 workers in 25 countries. The chrome mine, which is in Rustenburg, North West Province, supplies organic leather chemicals and chrome tanning salts to the company’s leather operations in China, Germany, Italy, and South Africa. The company is also not cooperating with a request by the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration to finalize the numbers of workers belonging to the union. NUMSA says it will fight against the deplorable behaviour that is meant to continue the abuse and exploitation of workers.

Furthermore, Lanxess mine is failing to respect health and safety standards by not reporting incidents and accidents. To force the company to comply with the law, NUMSA has written to the Department of Mineral Resources to act against the mine.

The Mokhukhwini (shack dwellers) community around the mine has joined the workers’ protest and is demanding that the mine fulfills its promises to build houses. Instead of listening to the workers and the community demands, Lanxess mine management resorted to bullying tactics by closing electricity and water supplies to the community as “punishment for joining the protest”.

Says Jerry Morulane, Hlanganani regional secretary for NUMSA: “We condemn the backward management at Lanxess and will continue to expose the abuse of workers. Their threats will not stop us from demanding our rights.”

Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa concurs with NUMSA: “Workers’ rights are protected by the Labour Relations Act and other laws. It is shameful that Lanxess mine chooses to ignore workers’ rights and continues to bash unions. We commend NUMSA for sending a clear message to the mine management that this unacceptable bullying will be resisted.”

Malawi: union negotiators learn Mandarin Chinese to deal with errant employers

Five IndustriALL Global Union affiliates in Malawi, part of a union building project supported by SASK, took this decision after facing difficulties communicating with the Chinese employers.

It is common for the employers to say they don’t understand English whenever workers put forward their demands for better wages and working conditions. Besides low pay, the companies are not complying with labour laws on conditions of employment. Most of the workers are employed on precarious conditions of short-term contracts that come with no benefits. Health and safety standards are also being ignored at their factories and operations.

To remove the language barrier, five shop stewards from energy, engineering, mining, and textile sectors are on a nine-month Mandarin Chinese course in Blantyre and Lilongwe. It is hoped that when they finish the course in March 2019, they will be able to negotiate with the employers in their own language.

With China committing to over 60 billion dollars for Africa during the recent Forum on China Africa Cooperation, of which over 100 million dollars will go to Malawi through investments by Chinese companies, the Mandarin lessons are a worthy investment for the unions. Further, China is involved in infrastructural development including road construction, and in the energy sector especially the construction of the Kammwamba coal-fired power plant. However, questions are being asked on why China is investing in coal instead of renewable energy.

Generally, China is supporting Malawi’s economic development programmes that are aimed at reducing poverty and promoting sustainable development. Yet, the balance of trade favours China which sometimes exports labour to Malawi instead of employing locals.

Says Amos Chasowa, the IndustriALL project coordinator for Malawi:

“Unions concluded that they had to learn the Mandarin Chinese language because negotiating with the employers was increasingly becoming difficult. Besides English, the Chinese do not speak any local Malawian languages. The dilemma was that whilst the employers did not understand the workers grievances, unions still had to push for these demands at the workplace”.

Precarious work destroying workers’ lives in Nigerian oil and gas industry

Some 25 representatives from IndustriALL affiliates, the National Union of Petroleum & Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum & Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) met in the southern city of Port Harcourt for an oil and gas workshop on 19 and 20 September 2018.

Testimonials from members of NUPENG, which represents blue-collar workers, and PENGASSAN, which represents white collar workers, revealed the extent to which precarious work in the sector is undermining unions and leading to a vicious cycle of poverty. Participants worked across a range of companies including: Total, Shell, Indorama, the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, Plant Geria and Halliburton.

All NUPENG’s members are contract workers, while PENGASSAN reported that jobs that were once permanent are now being casualized, even though the work remains the same. Participants reported that in some cases workers are made redundant and then immediately being rehired for the same job with no medical insurance, life insurance or redundancy benefits.

The gulf between working conditions experienced by permanent staff and contract workers in the industry is huge, said participants and unions agreed that more should be done to close the gap. A contract worker could earn around US$280 a month for doing the same job as a permanent worker earning around US$2,000, or even more.

Furthermore, precarious work is being used by the oil companies to destroy unions. Contract workers often find they are unlikely to get rehired once they join a union, while white-collar workers find do not have the same access to training or promotion opportunities if they are union members.

Unions also said Nigerian workers do not have the same training opportunities as foreign workers, and that expatriates are being used to do jobs that could easily be done by Nigerian workers.

Stagnant wages are another major problem, with NUPENG saying that wages have not increased since 2014, and in some cases longer.

Health and safety is an ongoing issue and unions agreed that workers need to be better educated about the rights, especially when it came to health and safety.

Industry 4.0 is affecting the industry – an accountant from PENGASSAN said that part of his role had been taken over by a robot at his company. Automation is also being used to do jobs in the lubricant sector, such as labelling and filling cans.

Vassey Lartson, a Shell Lab Technician and union representative, who attended the workshop on behalf of the United Steelworkers (USA), told participants he was shocked by the wage disparity between Shell workers in the USA and those in Nigeria. Vassey joined a visit to meet workers at a Shell facility in Port Harcourt the day before the workshop, which included a visit to workers’ impoverished homes.

The meeting also included a report from Charles Egwabor, a lawyer from Port Harcourt, who said high unemployment in Nigeria made it easier to casualize the labour market, which in turn further increases poverty in the country.

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

“This workshop has been truly valuable in hearing the problems and challenges facing unions in Nigeria first-hand. We commend our affiliates in their battle to fight precarious work as well as the other challenges in the industry, and we stand by to support them as they campaign for decent work in the oil and gas sector.”

eSwatini union condemns violence against striking workers

On September 19, the police arrested and beat up organizers from the Amalgamated Trade Unions of Swaziland (ATUSWA) – affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union – to stop them from protesting. Over 10,000 workers from five garment and textile factories began protesting two weeks ago after negotiations were deadlocked at the Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration Commission. They are frustrated by their employers’ refusal to honestly engage in collective bargaining to improve wages and working conditions.

The three-day protest action called by ATUSWA is taking place in Mbabane, Manzini and other places, and is happening in accordance with the country’s laws. According to the union, organizers Sbonelo Tsabedze and Nhlanhla Tsabedze were arrested at Nhlangano while mobilizing workers to assemble at the gates of Zheng Yong factory to push for their demands.

The ATUSWA leadership says the police confronted the well-organized workers who were protesting peacefully:

“The police resorted, without provocation, to disperse the workers using teargas and started going after union members and beating them up. We are receiving reports that a lot of our members are injured and running for dear lives as they are hounded by the police. Therefore, we call upon our members to remain united despite glaring attempts to disunite them. As this is a battle for workers, we call on government and the police to stop harassing and victimizing the workers for exercising their right to protest. We further make a call for the release of our organizers.”

Says Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa:

“To build industrial peace, it is important for authorities in eSwatini to respect the workers’ rights to protest. These rights are protected in the labour laws and in ILO Conventions. So, we strongly condemn the use of intimidation and violence against protesting workers and support ATUSWA in its struggle for better wages and working conditions.”

Young workers in Zimbabwe engage on the future of unions

How young workers are to become catalysts for change in unions is the central theme discussed at a recent five-day activist school in Harare organized by IndustriALL Global Union with support from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

The activist school, to which constitutional and labour experts made presentations on scenarios for the country, discussed topical issues on governance and human rights, social and economic development, trade unions and activism, and organizing, recruitment and mobilization. Emphasis was put on understanding the context of the recent elections as well as national economic development strategies. There were also sessions on project management and media and communication.

Given Zimbabwe’s current crisis, characterized by the disputed 30 July elections, economic collapse, high prices and cash shortages, high unemployment, and a public health crisis in which 25 people have died from a cholera outbreak in townships where most of the workers live, these are important topics. Local governments in cities including Harare are failing to provide clean water to residents and even basics such as regular garbage collection.

The closure of factories and the slowing down of activities in most sectors of the economy led to declining union membership while those working earn low wages. With most workers now in the informal sector, unions need to find innovative ways to recruit them. To this end, the suggested mobilization strategies included campaigns, demonstrations, pickets and strikes

Nineteen young workers, eight of them women, from eight IndustriALL affiliates under the Union Building Project attended the activist school. The workers agreed to establish a network to defend workers’ rights, develop leadership skills, promote learning and sharing of information and knowledge, and build solidarity and collaboration at workplaces and within communities. Affiliates from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions also attended the workshop.

Says Tendai Makanza, IndustriALL regional officer for Sub Saharan Africa:

Young workers have immense potential to revive unions in Zimbabwe. This workshop starts the process to strengthen youth capacity for trade union work.

Kenyan union demands decent jobs in the auto sector

Kenya Vehicles Manufacturers assemble for Tata and Scania, whilst Associated Vehicles Assemblers is contracted to Toyota. The value chain includes parts, distribution and maintenance.

With the East African Community customs union relaxing requirements to make it attractive to assemble vehicles in Kenya, this is a growth opportunity for the sector. Promoting the buying of locally produced vehicles instead of used cars from other parts of the world is another stimulant.

However, retrenchments in the auto sector are common and cheap imports continue to flood the market. Unions say this is worsened by weak protection mechanisms in industrial policies and the lack of an integrated economic strategy.

To discuss the challenges and solutions in the sector, the IndustriALL Global Union Sub Saharan Africa region recently organized meetings in Nairobi that were attended by affiliates, the Amalgamated Union of Kenya Metalworkers (AUKMW) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA). Collaboration and learning between affiliates in different countries was emphasized. A further meeting is planned for next year, to integrate African auto unions into the global network.

The meetings heard that in 2015, VW, which receives near-complete vehicles from South Africa — only short of doors, bonnets, tyres and a few other items which are fitted by four full-time workers — announced plans to open a bigger assembly line with the potential to create 2,000 jobs. The government even promised to boost production by purchasing vehicles from the plant. Sadly, the AUKMW reported that despite high expectations, the company still employs only four full-time workers. Further, it employs 118 workers who have been on short-term contracts for 10 years. AUKMW is challenging this, but its attempts to push for permanent employment through the courts failed.

After the meeting, AUKMW facilitated a collective bargaining workshop that was attended by shop stewards from Isuzu, KVM, battery manufacturer Chloride, Sunfilter, Choda Fabricators, and Pelican Signs. The national labour centre, the Centre for the Organisation of Trade Unions, was represented at the meetings. There were exchanges on Kenya’s plant level bargaining versus South Africa’s centralized collective bargaining with the deputy labour commissioner expressing an interest in introducing bargaining councils to improve labour relations in the country.

NUMSA explained how it protected workers' interests when General Motors closed shop in South Africa, and during the transfer of some of the workers to Isuzu.

Says Kenny Mogane, IndustriALL regional officer for Sub Saharan Africa:

“We welcome AUKMW’s fight for permanent jobs and better working conditions for workers in the automotive sector and will continue to support their efforts to improve collective bargaining.”