South Africa: Unions prepare for national strike against corruption and retrenchments

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Southern African Clothing Textile and Allied Workers Union (SACTWU), affiliated to COSATU and IndustriALL, will take part in the strike.

South Africa’s Labour Relations Act allows for strikes on socio-economic and political issues such as corruption and retrenchments.

The “state capture” was based on a 2016 report by former public protector Thuli Madonsela who wrote that the state had been captured by private interests including those of business owners including the Gupta family. In the report, the Guptas were allegedly involved in the appointment of ministers and directors of state companies, and corruptly influenced the awarding of state contracts to favour their interests. Recently, a number of international companies, including Bell Pottinger and KPMG, were implicated in the corruption scandal.

Workers continued to lose jobs in mining especially with the recent announcement by Impala Platinum to retrench over 2 100 workers. According to StatsSA 32 000 mining jobs were lost in the last year. The garment and textile also lost 3000 jobs.

Said the NUM:

“The strike is a platform for workers to voice out their displeasure on how South Africa is run and that the looting of state resources and corrupt activities by a network of a certain predatory elite should be condemned. Workers are being left out in the cold to fend for themselves amidst massive retrenchments taking place in various sectors of the country's economy particularly mining”.

SACTWU’s demands during the strike included an end to outsourcing of work through labour brokers. Instead the union wanted more permanent jobs.

Said Fabian Nkomo, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa:

“We support the strike action by COSATU affiliates because corruption is theft. Money meant to benefit workers and society ends up in the bank accounts of corrupt individuals”.

South Africa: Striking against precarious work in the plastics sector

At Mpact, 140 contract workers were demanding equal pay as they were paid less than permanent workers. In solidarity, the permanent workers joined them on their demands for US$3 per hour, from the current US$1.50. They also wanted their jobs to become permanent, and not to work as employees of labour brokers. After a recent court victory by NUMSA, labour brokers cannot employ workers for more than three months. Should they do this, the workers will become permanent at current workplaces.

Said NUMSA: “We commend the permanent employees at Mpact for expressing solidarity with their comrades at the workplace by embarking on a sympathy strike”.

At Flexible Plastics workers were paid US$0.69 per hour adding up to US$122 per month. This is below the proposed national minimum wage of US$270, which will take effect from May 2018.

According to the National Minimum Wage Research Initiative (NMWRI) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, a wage of US$318 is required to bring workers and their dependents out of poverty. Studies by NMWRI concluded that about five and a half million workers in South Africa, who supported up to 10 family members, were “the working poor” because of low wages.

IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa, Fabian Nkomo, said: “We support NUMSA’s calls for permanent jobs and improved wages and working conditions in the plastics sector”.

Swaziland: Bring back AGOA status, say unions

Swaziland was suspended from AGOA in January 2015 for not respecting workers’ and human rights as seen in the refusal to register ATUSWA and TUCOSWA. Further, the Industrial Relations Act, the Suppression of Terrorism Act, and the Public Order Act, had sections which restricted freedoms of assembly, expression, and association. Concerns were also raised over the use of security forces to crush peaceful demonstrations and arbitrary arrests. Although some of the offending sections have been removed, more needs to be done.

The meeting called upon the government to adhere to international labour standards, respect human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Social dialogue that included active participation of stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of the AGOA utilization strategies was recommended. Emphasis was also put on inclusion of small scale indigenous Swazi companies and cooperatives rather than only big multi-national companies as beneficiaries.

The decision to call for the readmission was not taken lightly, but after extensive consultations and assessment by TUCOSWA. This included participation in the ILO process to review whether Swaziland had met the international standards on workers’ rights.

In a press statement released after the meeting, the unions stated:

“We support Swaziland’s readmission to AGOA because this will not only save jobs but create thousands more in the textile and apparel industry, and across the supply chain. In our fight for decent work, these jobs are an important lifeline for young women who constitute over 90% of the workers in this industry. By calling for the reinstatement, we are helping the Government of Swaziland to protect and create jobs, and to also develop sustainable industrial policies. The manufacturing sector is strategically placed to play a role in job creation and government policies must encourage foreign direct investment”.

Over 17,000 jobs were affected when AGOA benefits, which included duty-free exports to the US, were withdrawn.

The meeting took place on the side-lines of an IndustriALL-supported young workers' programme that saw youth going on a recruitment drive at Nhlangano’s textile factories, some 92 km from Manzini, where they addressed 2,000 workers, mainly women, during lunchtime. They stressed the need to join the union to strengthen the fight for a living wage, and for better working conditions.

Nationally, ATUSWA is affiliated to TUCOSWA and globally to IndustriALL.

South Africa: Transformation too slow for women mineworkers

The NUM said transformation was slow despite the existence of laws and a constitution that supported change. According to an NUM study, gender discrimination was common in the mining industry in which only 11 per cent of the workers were women. In mining, most women occupied low paying positions with less opportunities for development or empowerment. They also faced sexual harassment, stigmatization, ridicule, and sometimes total disregard of physical differences between male and female workers.

Mining companies were also reluctant to hire women as operators, drillers, shift bosses or blasters. Basic conditions such as maternity leave was denied, and some mines did not provide personal health and safety protective equipment including overalls, boots, earphones, goggles and so on. Women were also forced to carry heavy loads which caused miscarriages, and back and waist pains. Some physical tests, that had no bearing on job performance, were carried out on women.

With a lack of support from male workers, women miners were forced to work harder to prove themselves.

The grievances expressed to the Chamber of Mines included an end to sexual harassment and gender discrimination on wages, promoting equity in business, more participation and integration of women, accepting physical differences between men and women, and an end to patriarchy and violence against women at workplaces.

Phumeza Mgengo, NUM women’s structure national secretary said:

“No country can achieve liberation without the emancipation of women which shouldn’t be an act of charity. We demand that managers be trained to understand what gender equality and 50 per cent gender parity means. Transformation must take place without the risk of women losing their right to integrity, respect and most importantly equality.”

Fabian Nkomo, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa added:

“We support the calls by the NUM for transformation and empowerment of women who are working in the mines”.

South Africa: Five miners killed in goldmine

The miners were working 3,100 metres underground when a tremor hit the Kusasalethu goldmine, 90km from Johannesburg, on 25 August. “All of the employees who were trapped underground, are now accounted for,” the company said in a statement.

Rescue teams worked round the clock to try and save the trapped miners who were killed when a tremor measuring 1.2 on the richter scale caused a 10-metre fall in the ground. Operations were hampered by large rocks blocking the entrance to the section where the incident took place.

Gold mining in South Africa is becoming increasingly dangerous as mines reach the end of their productive lifespans. According to the Chamber of Mines, as South African mines have got deeper and reached depths of 4,000 metres, it has brought greater health and safety risks to miners as rock stress increases with depth. Furthermore, the deeper the mine, the longer it takes to reach the rock face, which hinders rescue efforts.

Targets set by the 2003 Mine and Health Safety Summit for the gold sector to reach international safety levels by 2013 have also been missed.

The Kusasalethu tragedy occurred just a month after three mineworkers died in similar circumstances in another accident at Tau Lekoa mine, North West Province, in July.

IndustriALL Global Union joins its affiliate in South Africa, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), in mourning the death of five mineworkers who died, of whom at least three were members of NUM.

Eric Gcilitshana, NUM health and safety secretary, said: “One of the five deceased miners, was a 25-year-old who buried his father last month and left a three-month-old son. It is painful and sad for the family. The lives of workers must always be prioritized to save lives. A safe workplace is a productive workplace. We believe that working as a collective team, we can save lives and achieve zero harm.”

Fabian Nkomo, IndustriALL, regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa, added: “When mineworkers go to work they expect to return home to their families. Mining companies must guarantee workers’ safety at all cost. This is why we are so saddened when workers continue to die underground due to accidents.”

Zambia: Union condemns plans to cut 4,700 jobs at Glencore’s Mopani Copper Mines

The union said the proposed retrenchments must be stopped as they bring squalor and poverty to the mineworkers. Always keen to retrench, the company laid off 4,300 workers in 2015.

MCM, where Glencore is a majority shareholder with 73.1 per cent, wants to retrench the workers because the Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) reduced its power supply from 130 to 94 megawatts following an industry-wide 30 per cent tariff increase that the company refused to pay.

The government of Zambia argued that if domestic consumers, equally affected by the increase, were paying, MCM should do the same.

Instead of retrenchments, the union demanded that MCM prioritize the interests of the workers, and follow the example of other mining companies in Zambia that dealt with the tariff increases differently.

Chisimba Nkole, MUZ and Zambian Congress of Trade Unions president said:

“We call on the government to stop MCM on the threats of job cuts, and guarantee the employment of mineworkers at Mopani. The government directed MCM and the CEC to negotiate the power increment, which is a commercial transaction, and MUZ is pleased that other mining companies have taken on board the power increment using other options rather than cutting jobs.”

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

“Protecting jobs and the rights of mineworkers in Zambia is paramount, and companies like MCM should never think that it is acceptable to sacrifice so many jobs. We call upon MCM to protect jobs, respect workers’ rights, and to negotiate its power deal with the CEC without compromising workers interests.”

Mozambique: South-South solidarity boosts leadership skills for women

The training programme, which is taking place from 2015 to 2017 in Maputo, is carried out by leadership and facilitators from another IndustriALL affiliate, CNM/CUT from Brazil. The programme brings the solidarity and expertise from CNM/CUT to train SINTIME. Both unions organize in the metal and energy sectors, in Sub Saharan Africa and Latin America respectively.

Important topics covered in the training modules include women’s role in political life in Mozambique and globally, women in the trade union movement, in the labour market and in collective bargaining, women’s health at the workplace, and basic human and trade union rights. Participants learn to share experiences and trust each other to grow together within the union.

Under the leadership of Marli Melo do Nascimento, CNM/CUT’s national women’s secretary, and in close cooperation with the IndustriALL head office project officer, two to three participative training modules are designed and conducted yearly in Maputo by a team of experienced union leaders and educators. The Brazilian women leaders from different industrial sectors give examples of women’s needs and demands, and how women leadership was enforced in their unions, showing how this process is relevant for unions in Mozambique. They emphasize the common struggles of the working class against global capital and the importance of building a strong women leadership at local, national and global levels.

Inocência Ernesto Tembe, coordinator of SINTIME’s national women’s committee (Comutra) said:

“The training is helping us to overcome obstacles women face daily at work and in social life. The training emphasizes how to achieve gender equality and to access opportunities for women. We learnt about the Labour Act and how to be effective in collective bargaining processes. The employers now respect us because we know our rights. This is not a struggle that will be won overnight but we will continue to the end. SINTIME decided to conduct additional workshops for women who did not take part in the training programme so that they would benefit as well.”

Maria Eulália Raul Muianga from SINTIME added:

“After the training we were able to interpret the Labour Act on maternity protection and defend our rights as women workers. SINTIME’s women’s committee representatives’ participation in collective bargaining became more noticeable after the training”.

IndustriALL will continue to seek support from its affiliate Unifor, CNM-CUT and other Brazilian affiliates to extend this outstanding and unique experience of women empowering young women.

South Africa: NUM marches against plans to cull 8,500 jobs at AngloGold Ashanti

The union called on the government to intervene through job protection policies in important sectors of the economy such as mining, construction and energy.

The mines have ignored an agreement that ensured job protection, leading NUM to demand a month’s salary for every year served as part of the retrenchment package.

NUM called on mining companies in South Africa to find ways to save jobs especially in an environment where at least 70,000 mining jobs have been lost over last five years, according to the Chamber of Mines.

As well as the proposed job losses at AngloGold Ashanti, close to 6,000 workers are set to lose their jobs at Bokoni Platinum, half of which are contract workers. Meanwhile, Sibanye Gold has announced plans to retrench 10,000 workers. Earlier, this year, South Africa’s Anglo American Platinum said it expected to cut up to 2,000 jobs at its Union and Twickenham mines.

“The NUM strongly condemns these irresponsible companies. The jobs bloodbath is a clear attack on the working class, communities and the poor, a direct attack on mine workers in particular,” said the union in a statement.

The NUM is accusing the mining companies of only being interested in maximizing profits and mechanizing mines and paying little attention to job security or retraining of workers. Quick retrenchments were convenient for the companies who often cited making losses as the reason behind their decision, even when they had made profits in previous years. Mining companies are not socially responsible when it came to workers’ rights and welfare, argues the NUM.

Gold mining in South Africa is also declining with some mines reaching the end of their production life, getting deeper and unsafe to mine. It is estimated that gold in South Africa will be exhausted in the next 30 years.

Glen Mpufane, Industrial director for mining, said: “We are deeply concerned at the scale of job loses proposed by AngloGold Ashanti which will seriously affect working class communities in South Africa. In 2015, AngloGold Ashanti reneged on our global framework agreement by unilaterally cancelling it. This only strengthens our resolve to unite workers across borders to stand up against the company.

Nigerian oil and gas unions fight against precarious work

The fight against precarious work by the National Union of Petroleum & Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum & Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) has been an uphill battle with multinational companies in the sector opposing them at every turn.

The union project in Nigeria, supported by IndustriALL affiliates FNV (Netherlands), CSC-BIE (Belgium) and FCE-CFDT (France), is part of a wider precarious work project that also includes Cameroon and Senegal. It also included support for a NUPENG and PENGASSAN workshop in Lagos in July 2017, which aimed to reinforce organizers’ and shop stewards’ capacity to organize precarious workers.

Both NUPENG, which represents junior employees and PENGASSAN, which represents senior employees, have a long history of fighting against casualization and contract work in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria. Major oil and gas multinational companies present in Nigeria, including Royal Dutch Shell, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Agip and others, began outsourcing of jobs in the 80s and 90s. Today, agency and outsourced workers represent the majority of the workers in the oil and gas industry.

Herculean task

Organizing precarious workers in the oil and gas supply chain in Nigeria is a Herculean task. Multinationals and contractors prevent workers from joining the unions, while community associations negotiate recruitment and promotions for their members at the oil companies through intermediaries. This indirectly weakens the unions. Companies in the sector are using an increasing number of contractors which fragment the workforce. Some contractor companies are no more than letterbox entities, enabling them to avoid their legal obligations. Worse still, organizers are subject to attacks, and even kidnapping.

Multinational companies have replaced direct employment with third party contracts, destroying job security and permanent employment benefits and contributing to the further impoverishment of workers. Furthermore, these contracts were concluded for only three months, making it difficult for workers to join a trade union for fear of retaliation and non-renewal of their contract. In effect, multinationals operating in cahoots with third parties have tried to subvert Nigeria’s labour laws and limit the right of workers to join trade unions. Challenging this contract labour system is tough because of an ineffective judicial system in Nigeria, which delays the hearing of labour cases in the courts.

Due to a lack of investment, Nigeria has an out-dated refinery capacity meaning that jobs are lost to other countries in the export of crude oil, while state owned refineries are operating at less than 30 per cent of their capacity. More jobs are lost in the petrochemical sector due to on-going social and political conflicts, criminal activities damaging oil pipelines, and social unrest on oil related matters.

Putting the brakes on outsourcing

With a view to help each other in organizing agency and outsourced workers in the oil and gas sector into union branches, the unions created a joint platform called NUPENGASSAN. The project has enabled both unions to organize thousands of precarious workers in the downstream and upstream sectors of the industry. They also managed to secure permanent jobs for 200 contract workers in 2016. The solidarity of workers in the supply chain also played a special role in allowing NUPENG to support organizing of contract workers. For example, NUPENG mobilized tank drivers who arranged blockades in companies resisting the union’s efforts to organize contract workers. Thanks to the action of the drivers, management of the companies finally agreed to recognize the unions.

Company-based collective bargaining prevails in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria and, on that basis multinational companies in the sector do not recognize the right of contract workers to be protected by the collective bargaining agreements negotiated for direct employees. For example, PENGASSAN and Shell Nigeria have an agreement that only covers workers in the company’s core business (4,500 permanent employees); yet there are over 50,000 contract workers at the firm. In order to get round this practice PENGASSAN and NUPENG established multi-employer collective bargaining with the multiple contractors in the different multinational companies.

Both unions have been pushing for the establishment of labour contractors’ forums in companies in the upstream sector. These forums are an umbrella body in companies for contractors to negotiate with the union representing contract workers. In the downstream sectors, the unions are also conducting multi employer’s bargaining with marketers’ associations.

High unemployment in Nigeria makes it easy for companies in the oil and gas sector to exploit workers. Thousands of workers have been working for multinationals’ contractors for years with no employment contracts. There are huge disparities in the working conditions between employees and precarious workers. Core staff have access to many benefits including free medical treatment, maternity pay, Christmas bonus, leave allowance, profit sharing, a performance bonus and rent allowance. Meanwhile, precarious workers can earn as little as 10 per cent of the wage of permanent employees for equal work. Most of these workers have no access to free medical treatment and pension scheme nor do they benefit from the same health and safety protections.

Through the continued pressure of PENGASSAN and NUPENG, Guidelines on Labour Administration Issues in Contract Staffing/Outsourcing in the Oil and Gas Sector were issued by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity in 2011. Even though the guidelines were not officially published because of the fall of the government, the document remains a point of reference for unions. The guidelines notably include provisions for the restriction of outsourcing of non-core jobs; respect for collective agreements; and mandatory collective bargaining between contractors and their employees. The guidelines also stipulate that contract staff under manpower/labour contracts shall belong either to NUPENG or PENGASSAN. The two unions are still fighting to get these guidelines adopted by the government but progress has been agonizingly slow.

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL Global Union’s Assistant General Secretary, said:

“The way the contract workers are exploited in the oil and gas supply chain in Nigeria is unacceptable.

Unfortunately precarious employment keeps on spreading, but we will keep on supporting our affiliates, like NUPENG and PENGASSAN, around the world to stop it. Our trade union networks in the oil and gas sectors prioritized the fight against precarious work in their actions. They will be active part of the protests against precarious work in October 2017 as per IndustriALL’s call for global day of action.”

South Africa: Mine accident kills four workers

The workers were trapped underground following an earth tremor. This happened after mine management ignored safety advice from rock engineers who had visited the mine a few days before the accident.

The accident happened when workers were working overtime, and it may be the case that pressure to reach production targets forced them to work under unsafe conditions. Union campaigns have highlighted workers’ right to refuse unsafe work.

IndustriALL affiliate, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), said the accident was due to negligence and could have been prevented. The union expressed shock at the number of mineworkers killed in the mines. Although the number of deaths has gone down over the years, NUM fears that this trend might be reversed.

All four bodies were recovered. Three of the mineworkers were South African while one was from Lesotho. The NUM has called on the Department of Mineral Resources to carry out an investigation into the accident.

With 73 mineworkers killed in 2016 and 2,662 injured, occupational health and safety remains a major concern in South African mines. Of the dead, 30 were gold miners, 27 from platinum mines and 12 from diamond, chrome, copper and iron ore mines. With so many workers being killed, achieving “zero harm” in South Africa’s deep gold mines will take far much longer than anticipated.

IndustriALL joins the NUM in sending condolences to the deceased workers’ families. Said Fabian Nkomo, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa:

“We received the news of the death of the workers at Tau Lekoa gold mine with shock and sadness especially when this could have been avoided. Workers safety in the mines must be guaranteed and given priority by employers, and mine management must always ensure workers safety. Adhering to the provisions of the ILO Convention 176 on Safety and Health in Mines as well as the Health and Safety Act was important.”