Workers strike at South African solar plant

According to IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, NUMSA, workers are being denied medical aid, housing allowance, provident fund and other benefits they would normally receive if they were working at the state-owned electricity provider, Eskom. Their wages, which are low, are being spent on covering all these expenses.

The strike is significant as South Africa moves to renewable energy production to lower carbon emissions as a signatory to the Paris Accord on climate change. At present most electricity is generated by coal-fired power stations employing tens of thousands of workers in the coal industry.

However, NUMSA is concerned that the transition to renewable energy does not include provisions for workers set to lose their jobs in coal, or lead to wider benefits to the community:

“The Energy Minister claimed that these (renewable energy) firms would bring ‘entrepreneurial opportunities in our rural communities’. Our members can confirm that this is hogwash. There is very little development and certainly no opportunities for entrepreneurship in the surrounding area of the firm,” said NUMSA in a statement.

On 12 March NUMSA, together with Transform SA, successfully applied for a court interdict to block Eskom from signing 27 renewable energy contracts known as Independent Power Production Projects (IPPs).

NUMSA says it is not against renewable energy but is alarmed by proposals from the government to put renewable energy production entirely in private hands through IPPs. As well as putting the South African public at the mercy of private companies in setting energy prices, the privatization of renewable energy leaves no room for a Just Transition for workers losing their jobs in the coal industry.

Brian Kohler, IndustriALL’s director for health, safety and sustainability, said:

“South Africa must not relinquish its responsibility for the energy of the future, nor turn its back on tens of thousands of workers in the coal industry. A Just Transition requires strong and comprehensive social protection; sustainable industrial policy; and creative labour adjustment programmes.”

“There is nothing inherent about greener jobs that guarantees fairness – they will all follow the logic of capitalism if the state does not impose conditions and limits on their behaviour,” added Kohler.

Zambia: Building strong unions to confront hostile employers

The unions have a rich history of organizing workers which goes across decades. The National Union for Building Engineering and General Workers (NUBEGW) for instance, boasts of having leaders who later became Zambian presidents. These are Frederick Chiluba (1991-2002) and Michael Sata (2011-2014).

IndustriALL Global Union affiliates, NUBEGW, the National Union of Commercial and Industrial Workers Union (NUCIW) and the Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ), with support from trade union support organisation, Union to Union, met at a union building project meeting 13-14 March in Lusaka.

The meeting discussed how to confront bullying as some employers are becoming increasingly arrogant and even refusing to sign recognition agreements with unions. Building union capacity in collective bargaining and understanding of labour laws, strengthening health and safety at workplaces and involving women workers in union activities and leadership roles are some of the priorities identified. Recruiting and organizing are key to reversing declining union membership.

The unions also agreed to work together, build solidarity on common issues and organize joint actions to defend their rights.

Says Tendai Makanza, UB project coordinator for Sub Saharan Africa:

The union building project is an opportunity for unions to identify and solve the problems that they are facing including declining union influence that is worsened by an increasing hostile environment from businesses and the government.

Increasing copper prices might see mining companies hiring more workers and thus providing an opportunity for MUZ to recruit more workers in the sector. The big copper mining companies are Barrick Lumwana, FQM Kansanchi, Mopani and Konkola who mine 80 per cent with the remainder being mined by smaller companies. The government of Zambia has shareholding in the companies through the state company ZCCM-IH.

In cement manufacturing unions are fighting to be allowed to organize workers at the Dangote plant in Ndola. MUZ has gone to court after being denied access to workers at the company.

Victory as strike ends at Rio Tinto QMM in Fort-Dauphin, Madagascar

The CBA calls for a consideration of both annual inflation-linked salary increase and a performance based increase, with the aim to make up for the loss of purchasing power. The union has argued that the company’s approach militates against workers in the lower rankings of the salary scale, and that those workers never achieve the intended purchasing power parity intended in the collective bargaining agreement. Instead, supervisors and managers benefit from management’s approach, and this violates the collective bargaining agreement. According to the union, workers at QMM receive very low wages, averaging about US$45/month. 

Members of IndustriALL affiliate, Sendika Kristanina Malagasy (Sekrima) and Syndicalisme et Vie des Sociétés (SVS), suspended the strike in the afternoon of Thursday 8 March after local management promised a labour inspectorate led mediation the following day.

“We suspended the strike on Thursday, but the company retaliated with threats of dismissals, loss of benefits, and intimidation when our members reported for work on Friday,” said a Sekrima union representative.

Negotiations between the company and the unions, Sekrima and SVS deadlocked on Friday, and the strike continued on the following Monday, 12 March. Due to threats of intimidation, only 200 workers participated in the strike.

The strike was called off the following morning, 13 March, after an agreement had been reached including :

“As the strike has ended, the next step for the union and local management is revising the current collective bargaining agreement due to start in April 2018. We hope this will continue in the spirit of respect shown during the negotiations to end the strike, like we did with the global dialogue process with Rio Tinto,” said Kemal Ozkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary.

“The conclusion of the strike and more importantly, the content of the agreement is a vindication of the fair and just demand of workers for an inflation linked general increase that maintains the purchasing power of the majority of the workers,” said Anthony Randrianandrasana, president of Sekrima, Fort Dauphin, QMM.

Steve Hunt, District 3 director of the United Steelworkers and co-chair of IndustriALL’s mining and diamond, gems, ornament and jewellery production section, who followed the negotiations closely from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, said: “We are proud of the leadership of Sekrima, who under the most challenging conditions, managed to deliver on the mandate of its members”.

The unions also demanded that the company live up to its supplier code of conduct, presented during the recent joint IndustriALL/Rio Tinto high level global mission to QMM in February, and implement its due diligence requirement for contractors. Contractor employees are afraid to join the union due to intimidation by contractor owners, who fail to respect the provisions of the supplier code of conduct, guaranteeing freedom of association and the right to join a union of choice.

Union in Ghana calls for strike against retrenchment of 2,150 mineworkers

GMWU, affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union, is disputing the reasons put forward for the retrenchments arguing that Gold Fields simply wants to replace permanent workers with contract ones. Despite the Labour Division of the High Court in Accra not ruling in its favour to stop the retrenchments, GMWU has appealed.

Gold Fields is ignoring the country’s labour laws and two collective bargaining agreement that it signed with GMWU which are clear on fair retrenchments.

Prince William Ankrah, GMWU general secretary, says:

Typical of their ruthless character as multinationals and their penchant for disregarding host country legal framework and sanctity of contracts, the company has unilaterally set aside the Labour Act 2003 and the collective agreements and has gone ahead to force redundancy terminations on the workers.” The company is also refusing to negotiate salary adjustments for 2018.

The union is concerned by the military presence at the mine which put so much pressure on workers to an extent that some signed the redundancy letters.

Ankrah says:

Following the huge armed and military presence, an atmosphere of insecurity, fear and panic has since engulfed the workers with most of them not too sure of what to expect next.

Workers who signed the letters were only given a month’s contract afterwards under terms and conditions not disclosed to the union. Those who refused to sign were locked out of the mine while union officials who tried to visit were arrested or refused entry.

IndustriALL Global Union general secretary, Valter Sanches, says:

Gold Fields Limited must instruct the management at Gold Fields Ghana Limited at the Tarkwa mine to revert immediately the decision to terminate the permanent contracts of over 2,150 workers, engage in good-faith negotiations with the Ghana Mineworkers’ Union – thus heeding the repeated calls from the union to sit down to negotiate, inter alia, the 2018 salary adjustment and the collective agreement review – and refrain from violating the fundamental rights of workers and union officials.

The union has also announced that it is planning an international campaign to expose Gold Fields’s bullying and disregard of workers’ rights at international stock exchanges where the company is listed in Johannesburg, New York and the Swiss Exchange. A petition will be sent to the ILO, and South African trade unions and global trade unions will be approached for solidarity.

"100 days of snubbing Zimbabwean workers," says union federation

As no attempts were made to meet workers or trade unions – whether in the formal or informal sectors – the federation says this clearly shows that there is no commitment to improve conditions for Zimbabwean workers. The ZCTU says the government is bent on pursuing neo-liberal austerity and free market policies ignoring workers’ rights.

Retrenchments and precarious working conditions are common in Zimbabwe. Benefits including pensions were wiped out during the hyperinflation period which peaked in 2008, and unemployment is estimated at over 90 per cent. With youth unemployment high, chances of those under the age of 35 getting jobs are slim.

The few workers with jobs are either partly paid or not paid on time. The picket by 300 women demanding the payment of their spouses’ wages at the majority state-owned Hwange Colliery Company, which began on 27 January, illustrates the gravity of the situation. The workers’ wages back date to five years. Intent on evicting the women who had camped at the company premises for a month, but not addressing their grievances, Hwange Colliery even took the matter to the High Court which dismissed the case. The labour minister, Petronella Kagonye, is currently visiting the company to resolve the dispute.

Furthermore, it is difficult for the employed workers to withdraw their meagre earnings because of cash shortages. So, the workers spend long hours in queues only to be given small amounts that are not even enough for their needs.

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

Whilst we welcome statements on economic recovery plans involving businesses and investors, this cannot be done at the exclusion of workers and trade unions who are key stakeholders. The role that workers play in economic development is critical and should not be undermined by the Government of Zimbabwe.

The IndustriALL affiliates in Zimbabwe who belong to the ZCTU are the National Engineering Workers Union, National Mine workers Union of Zimbabwe, National Union of Clothing Industries, the National Union of Metal and Allied Industries in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Chemicals and Plastics and Allied Workers Union, and the Zimbabwe Textile Workers Union.

Mnangagwa took over government in November 2017, following a military intervention that triggered events that ousted former president Robert Mugabe in power for 37 years since independence from British colonial rule in 1980.

DRC: IndustriALL supports new mining code, demands greater share for workers

The DRC will tomorrow sign into law a new mining code, passed by parliament in January 2018, and announced at the African Mining Indaba in Cape Town earlier in February, where IndustriALL participated as a labour representative.

Unions in the DRC believe that the code is progressive, as it seeks to address loopholes that have led to mining companies accumulating profits at the expense of workers and communities. Although the DRC is rich in natural resources, its 80 million people are among the poorest in the world. Despite billions of dollars in private investment in mining, there has been very limited benefit to the people of the country.

It is appropriate that the people of the DRC benefit from the current cobalt-lead commodities boom. Demand for cobalt, pushed by smartphones and electric car batteries, has seen prices skyrocketing by 127 per cent in a year to $75,000 per tonne, and copper prices increasing above $7,000.

The code increases taxes and royalties on mining companies, as well as addressing environmental concerns and the rights of communities, especially those whose livelihoods depend on agriculture, that are affected by mining.

The code increases royalties from 2 to 3.5 per cent for copper and cobalt. Royalties in neighbouring countries are higher: Zambia (6 per cent), Ghana (5) and Tanzania (4). The state’s stake is also increased from 5 to 10 per cent, to be held by the state-owned mining company, Gécamines. The code also seeks to increase corporation tax from 30 to 35 per cent.

The introduction of the new code is opposed by mining companies Randgold, Glencore, China Molybdenam and Ivanhoe. Mining CEOs travelled to DRC to lobby President Joseph Kabila against the code.

On a recent visit to DRC, IndustriALL witnessed a stark difference between the appalling conditions reported by workers at Glencore operations and Chinese-owned artisanal mines, and the facilities available at Gécamines operations. However, Gécamines lacks the capital to develop DRC’s mining potential. The small increase in royalties will give the DRC the capital to develop mining, create jobs and improve infrastructure, including roads, schools and hospitals.

IndustriALL general secretary Valter Sanches wrote to President Kabila to raise the unions’ issues, saying:

“We were saddened and outraged at what we discovered: the daily experience of abuse and violation of fundamental labour rights of Congolese mine workers at these operations are in total disregard of the laws of the country and collective bargaining arrangements.

"Taking into account the appalling working conditions at some multinational mining companies’ operations in the country, we attach extreme importance to the actual implementation of this new mining code.”

South Africa: Metalworkers' fight against precarious work goes to the Constitutional Court

In South Africa, temporary employment services or labour broking companies hire workers which they then place in “client” companies. NUMSA is being challenged by one such company, Assign Services, which wants to continue employing workers on a contract basis for longer than three months.

Despite losing its challenge against IndustriALL Global Union affiliate NUMSA in the Labour Court of Appeal, the company is determined to continue its anti-worker campaign and is hoping that the previous judgements will be overturned. Assign Services is arguing that both the labour broker and the client company where the worker is placed are employers.

According to NUMSA there is only one employer. Argues NUMSA’s lawyers Suzanna Harvey and Tembeka Ncgukaitobi in their papers to the Constitutional Court:

The parallel employer interpretation is not correct because it does not result in the intended protection. The only interpretation which properly protects precarious workers is that the client becomes the sole employer for purposes of the Labour Relations Act.

The Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa, reserved judgement on the matter.

In a statement, NUMSA says that:

NUMSA won a decision at the Labour Appeals Court last year which confirmed that temporary and casual workers must become permanent after three months, with the same rights and benefits. Assign Services took the matter to court because they want to be able to continue to abuse the working class with temporary contracts, poor working conditions and low pay. The only way they can do this is if these contracts continue endlessly.

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

We are in solidarity with NUMSA in their struggle against precarious working conditions of the temporary and contract workers. By going all the way to the Constitutional Court the labour brokers are determined to continue exploiting workers, but NUMSA is showing them how equally determined workers are in fighting against the labour brokers.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Union organizes artisanal cobalt miners

Local communities were moved off their land involuntarily and resettled without adequate compensation. Their land was then sealed off and they returned to work as artisanal and small-scale miners in the mines that they once owned. Their backyards became mines, now owned by Chinese companies CDM, MKM and Cicomin, says TUMEC, the IndustriALL Global Union affiliate in the DRC.

IndustriALL visited the area as part of a mission to investigate conditions in cobalt supply chains and campaign for commodities giant Glencore to respect human and workers’ rights in Kolwezi.

Artisanal and small-scale miners contribute significantly to cobalt production in the DRC. This is seen by the many cobalt collection depots that line the roadside on the approach to Kolwezi from Lubumbashi. Artisanal and small-scale miners are regulated by the ministry of mines’ division of small scale mining and exploration.

TUMEC is working with the miners to improve health and safety, and deal with the harsh effects of mining on the environment, and on the communities.

“We are dealing with fair trade issues, as some of the cobalt buyers are engaging in unfair trade practices by buying our cobalt cheap and then lying to us that the grade is low when this is not the case,” said a worker in an interview.

Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL director of mining, said:

“We support initiatives by our affiliates that reach out to the community and believe that mining companies have a social responsibility to the communities in which they have operations.

“Therefore, they must improve the infrastructure in the communities by building roads, clinics, and houses. Instead squalor, poverty and diseases are common in the adjacent communities next to the concessions”.

An example of responsible mining can be drawn from the state-owned Gécamines, which has invested in education and health. However, Gécamines has scaled down its operations and ceded its stakes to private companies, including Glencore. The global mission took a tour of some of the infrastructure developed by Gécamines, which contrasted sharply with the Chinese operations at Kasulu.

DRC: IndustriALL mission finds Glencore gravely mistreating workers at cobalt mines

Systemic human and workers’ rights abuses ranging from constant threats of dismissal, poor health and safety practices, occupational diseases, racism and discrimination, unfair and unjust job classifications, low remuneration, and inferior salaries for local workers compared to foreign workers were among grievances raised at a mid-February meeting of the mission with around 80 workers from the mines at the St. John’s Cathedral in Kolwezi.

Glencore just reported record-breaking profits for 2017 and said it anticipates increasing its cobalt production by 133% over the next three years, largely in response to increasing demand for electric vehicle batteries from companies like Renault, Volkswagen and Volvo. Cobalt from Glencore’s DRC mines is also used in the batteries powering Apple and Samsung phones.

The DRC Glencore workers, who are members of IndustriALL affiliate union TUMEC, described their treatment and conditions of employment as “no less than slavery”, comparable to “Guantanamo Bay”. Workers reported that their families are exposed to occupational diseases because they bring their work clothing home, as there are no facilities at work including laundry facilities, ablution, and showers.

“We are so filthy when we get home that we cannot hug our children,” said one worker.

The workers complained that the 750 ml of drinking water that they are given per shift was not enough. They described how their families did not have access to the Glencore hospital because of the distance between the medical facility and the community.

Workers described the different treatment and conditions of employment between Glencore’s Mutanda and KCC operations as a deliberate attempt by the company to divide and weaken trade unions.

IndustriALL organized the 14-17 February fact-finding mission in response to an urgent request by TUMEC to investigate the appalling conditions faced by mineworkers at Glencore’s operations in cobalt-rich Kolwezi, Lualaba province. The global mission was led by IndustriALL mining director Glen Mpufane, and included shop-stewards of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA) who work at Glencore in South Africa, as well as representatives from IndustriALL’s Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Office.

Glencore rejected TUMEC’s request for the mission to have access to Glencore’s DRC mines.

Mpufane said in response to a recent media report on the mission,

“Glencore told the press that it’s committed to open dialogue with IndustriALL and has a positive relationship with TUMEC. In fact, Glencore refused to allow the IndustriALL mission to visit its mines, and TUMEC members told the mission that Glencore gravely mistreats them.”

NUM and NUMSA have expressed their concern about how Glencore treats its workers in the DRC, and expressed their solidarity in the struggle to improve that treatment.

The global mission will send a detailed report to Glencore’s Head Office in Zug, Switzerland, demanding immediate attention to the deplorable working conditions at its operations in the DRC. IndustriALL will also share information with Glencore’s investors and cobalt customers.

“Glencore’s rampant violations of the basic human rights of DRC workers present a serious supply chain risk in the global cobalt market,” added Mpufane.

How to get your union’s message into the mainstream media

“Unions must become more aware of workers issues beyond borders, so that we can build a global society which practices equality and dignity for all not just for the few.”

Terry Bell is a South Africa-based journalist, commentator and author with more than 50 years of experience reporting on political and economic analysis and labour issues. He was a guest at IndustriALL’s communications training workshop in Cape Town in December 2017. Terry spoke to IndustriALL about effective communication and how unions can get their message into mainstream media.

Unions in Africa struggle to get their message out to mainstream media. Do you have any advice for them?

"Unions are not communicating enough internally. There has been too much energy put into communicating with outside media. There is also a lack of skill and training among communicators, many unions don't use full-time or trained communicators, often the general secretary or president of the union will make an announcement or write a grammatically badly phrased press release.

"There is a need for professional communicators who are skilled and who understand the sector that they work in, but above all else who understand the principals of trade unionism."

What sort of media should we be using, radio, print and television or social media?

"In Africa we are talking primarily about radio because it is the most widely heard, then print media to a certain degree in some areas but once again it depends on the audience that you are trying to reach.

"You must also be well aware of what language you are using in any specific area. It is significant in South Africa for example among all the trade union websites I have only found one that uses more than one language yet we have 11 official languages here. So with some of the languages being mutually understood you can use at least 3 languages and get to the majority of the population, so one has to think in terms of language."

What is an effective way to reach the mainstream media?

"I think that there is nothing better than rapport with the individual journalist, admittedly it is more difficult these days because there has been a lot of cost cutting in the print and digital media right across the board.

"You also have a lot of people who are under a tremendous pressure who are often very young and often poorly paid, who are having to produce a lot of material. But it is vitally important that the union communicators make contact with these journalists on a personal level to understand and trust one another, because they are both workers after all."

What message should unions have for society?

"The benefit of the union to workers as a whole. I tend to use the term “sellers of labour”. You will sometimes have a journalist or someone who works in a bank say “oh I’m not a worker, I’m white collar therefore professional.” No, anyone who is a seller of labour – and that has to be stressed –  has a common interest. The overwhelming majority of the population in any community, country and throughout the world are workers and this has to be the first point that is stressed by unions.

"In South Africa, for example, we have the Bill of Rights which is a fantastic document says that the “dignity of all shall be cherished”. Unions must make it clear that an egalitarian society is a better society, this has to be stressed as the underlying principle."

"Unions shouldn't simply go into a wage dispute and say we want this amount of money, but rather point out how much people are earning in proportion to others, who is being paid what and the inequality between CEO earnings and workers’ earnings."

"Unions must have a more global perspective, we have to make unions aware of what is going on elsewhere. Unions is South Africa should know immediately about what happened at Rana Plaza where a building collapsed killing 1,135 people. Unions must become more aware of workers issues beyond borders, so that we can build a global society which practices equality and dignity for all not just for the few."