Rio Tinto global union network welcomes commitments from company

In a letter sent to the unions with membership at Rio Tinto operations on 11 April 2017, the company expressed a commitment to a series of fundamental principles and structures for its labour relations. This message was confirmed by Rio Tinto’s head of employee relations, Rick Willmott, who was present at the meeting. He said that the company was motivated to improve perceptions on labour relations. The union network adopted a resolution recognizing this.

The commitment is seen as highly significant. Rio Tinto is the second biggest mining group in the world, and its practices are precedent setting. Industrial relations in the mining industry are frequently strained, and IndustriALL has campaigned for a number of years for social dialogue.

Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL assistant general secretary said:

“IndustriALL welcomes the commitment, and we will invest in developing and monitoring this new relationship.

“Rio Tinto has made a policy decision to change the culture of the company. This is a groundbreaking development, and it is long overdue for this global giant to recognize the role and importance of trade unions. “

The joint steering committee, made up of representative of Rio Tinto and union representatives from different continents, will meet twice a year to develop the relationship and monitor compliance with the policy. Regional platforms have also been established in North America, Sub Saharan Africa and Asia, and country reports will be systematically collected.

IndustriALL mining director Glen Mpufane said:

“We are very pleased with the results of our global campaign, however we remain vigilant to ensure the commitments we have received are put into place."

A major focus of the new relationship will on contracting and precarious work, and efforts will be made to bring contractors into collective bargaining agreements.

The network discussed the appalling working conditions of Malagasy contract workers at Rio Tinto. IndustriALL will facilitate a global fact-finding mission to Madagascar. Rio Tinto will be asked to be part of the mission.

The meeting adopted an action plan laying out the next steps in implementing the new relationship with Rio Tinto, and growing and strengthening the network.

Health and safety, especially occupational respiratory diseases, will be part of the network’s activities. Campaigns to highlight the devastating consequence of non-compliance by the mining industry, like the CFMEU campaign on the re-emergence of black lung in Australian coalmines, will be carried out.

There will be demands to co-design and participate in inspections and monitoring protocols. The network will contest the undue influence of the International Employers Organisation on the ILO concerning the uncritical acceptance of the ISO standards.

The network will focus on gender equity across Rio Tinto’s global operations to address discrimination against women, and encourage the setting up of constitutional women’s structures in unions.

The network will build unity and collaboration within national trade unions and facilitate solidarity within and across borders at Rio Tinto operations, and encourage youth recruitment and participation within the global network.

A resolution was passed condemning the dismissal of more than 4,000 workers in Indonesia by PT Freeport, the local subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan, in which Rio Tinto has a 40 per cent stake. A high-level solidarity mission of IndustriALL affiliates will travel to Indonesia in early August.

In conclusion, Andrew Vickers, co-chair of IndustriALL Mining Section and chair of Rio Tinto Global Union Network said:

“I am very pleased the Rio Tinto has made the commitment to change its stance on industrial relations. We hope this sets a precedent in the mining industry, and that other players, such as Glencore, recognize the legitimacy of trade unions.

“We will continue to share information throughout the network, to report non-compliance with the confirmed principles and agreed processes, and to re-energize the global campaign at short notice if required.”

South Africa: Union victory over precarious work

NUMSA brought the case to court for its members placed by a labour broker, Assign Services, who were working for Krost Shelving and Racking, a company that manufactures storage products including steel racking, shelving and lockers. Of Krost’s 90 workers, 72 were organised by NUMSA, and these included temporary and permanent workers.

The court ruled that a labour broker contract for temporary employment was only for three months. Beyond that, the worker had to be confirmed as permanent by the employer where they were working.

The court victory was welcomed by over one million workers employed under labour broking conditions in most sectors of the economy, including those organised by NUMSA.

Unions have campaigned relentlessly for an end to this casualisation and outsourcing of labour. They argued that labour brokers did not create jobs but instead devalued them through reduced wages and benefits to increase employers’ profits. There were no benefits such as medical aid or pension.

Employers were also known to use labour brokers as a front to dismiss workers. In such cases workers were transferred to a labour broker who then terminated their contracts.

Brokers also ignored union demands for equal pay for work of equal value, and were union bashers who trounced collective bargaining rights. Some of their tactics included employing scab labour to break strikes, and they also reduced workers ability to gain skills when they moved them from one workplace to another on short contracts.

NUMSA’s long campaign against labour broking focused on the need for equal treatment of workers. The union says:

“The case also confirmed that once permanent, contract workers must be treated the same as permanent employees, and be given the same rights and benefits”.

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

“Working under labour broking conditions, which treat workers as disposable commodities, makes life difficult for the worker as they can lose their job at any time. When that happens, they have no benefits at all to fall back on. Therefore, we call for an end to precarious working conditions and support decent work and living wages.”

Tanzania – new communication structure to increase union power

From 10 to 12 July, a project monitoring and planning meeting was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania at the head office of TUICO, (Tanzania Union for Industrial and Commercial workers), to follow up on the project’s advances and challenges.

Despite many plant closures and job losses, TUICO continues to grow, thanks to a union culture of permanent and strategic organizing. TUICO has become one of the most important unions in Tanzania and East Africa with over 80’000 active members, some 35’000 of these which belong to IndustriALL sectors. The union’s influence also extends to the National Centre TUCTA, where several TUICO leaders hold important positions.

Organizing is a priority

As Boniface Nkakatisi, General Secretary, and Samuel Lyimo, Education Secretary reported, at the beginning of each month the Regional Secretaries report back to head office on the number of workers organised, versus the number of workers targeted.

However, all union membership records are administrated on paper, which is extremely cumbersome, time consuming and bureaucratic. The union’s internal communication system was very slow, as it took more than two weeks to send information between the regional offices and the national head office. The project seeks to address these issues, hence equipping the head and regional offices with electronic communication infrastructure and  building a union membership database.

Since 2015, Shahmez Khimji, Unifor Director for Information Technology, has been assisting the union and working directly with the project committee team in TUICO head office to shape up their IT structures. TUICO is now organizing basic IT training for all their staff members.

The project has a two-fold objective, targeting internal and external communication structures. At the internal level, an infrastructure for rapid exchanges of information is being built. This will help members to get information from the union to improve essential organizational functions; handling of labour disputes and case handling, providing education to members, organizing new members, and sharing information to conclude collective agreements.

The second objective is to develop Tuico’s external communication structure, to develop outreach and alliances with civil society, connect with other unions in the region and improve access to IndustriALL’s sectorial networks and activities. The meeting last week addressed these next steps.

Both Unifor and TUICO presented their union structures, and Mohamad Alsadi, Unifor’s  Director for Human Rights and International Department, explained how the Social Justice Fund functions.  TUICO was particularly interested in the way UNIFOR reaches out to their members and communities to keep them involved and active in nation-wide political struggles understood as union issues.

Suzanna Miller, IndustriALL project and rights officer, said:

"As the communication project progresses, IndustriALL looks forward to supporting and hearing more about workers’ struggles and successes in Tanzania."

Union bashing in Ivory Coast’s oil sector must end

Libya Oil, which operates in 18 African countries, the Island of Reunion, and the United Arab Emirates, cited economic reasons for the recent retrenchments of eight workers. IndustriALL affiliate SYNTEPCI says that Libya Oil is not only ignoring but refusing to update an agreement signed in 2008. Workers’ rights were also ignored, and the reasons given for the retrenchments were unjust and misleading.

SYNTEPCI has approached the Minister of Labour, Jean Claude Kouassi, and the National Council of Social Dialogue, for the retrenchments to be reversed.

A three-week strike, the third in two years, against privatization at the state owned National Oil Company of Ivory Coast, Petroci, ended on 18 July. With no social plan to protect jobs, workers feared that Petroci’s proposed privatization would leave them worse off.

However, an agreement was reached, and wages for workers with more than ten years experience will be reviewed and the rights of the 13 workers transferred to a private company, Puma Energy, after the sale of petrol stations, protected. Working conditions for precarious workers will be discussed, as well as health insurance, pensions, and housing for workers. Packages paid to 48 workers retrenched in 2016 will be reviewed.

At Klenzi, a fuel distribution company, there were blatant violation of the rights to organize, and shop stewards were not recognised. Management, which refused to meet the union, openly harassed workers and threatened them with dismissals if they remained union members. Other grievances included the company’s failure to pay overtime, health insurance and pension benefits.

SYNTEPCI has written to the government, expressing its disappointment on how the labour ministry was dealing with the union bashing and trampling of workers’ rights.

Said Jérémie Wondje general secretary of SYNTEPCI:

“We wrote to the Directorate General of Labour on how badly they were managing workers grievances that we have brought to their attention. We told them that their failure to act was weakening our union.”

Diana Junquera Curiel, energy director at IndustriALL, says:

“We are calling upon Libya Oil, Petroci and Klenzi to stop attacking unions, and to instead engage in good faith dialogue and to work with them to resolve their grievances. Workers’ rights are protected by labour laws and international conventions that the Ivory Coast has signed.”

Women’s issues are union issues

IndustriALL invited three experienced women organizers from affiliates in Zambia; MUZ, NUBEGW and NUCIW, to a three-day meeting with affiliates TUICO & TAMICO in Tanzania.  

The workshop, carried out in the framework of an organizing project in Zambia, supported by Swedish IF Metall and UniontoUnion, had three key objectives:

The meeting was hosted by both affiliates with over 22 women leaders and organizers present from five regions in Tanzania to interact with women delegates from Zambia. The participants represented the mining-construction, steel, metal and industrial workers.

Through extensive and lively exchanges, participants nailed down the main challenges, shared organizing experiences and skills, visited workplaces and met with branch committees. An action plan and strategies to support each other in building policy and space for increased women’s representation in their unions was devised.

The last day each union group presented lessons learned and proposed a way forward, where each union drew up three key points to discuss within their unions and committees, to address and engage union leadership to support proactive measures to build more equal unions.

All women participating expressed that

Women committees cannot be the only space for women workers’ representation in our unions- women’s issues are union issues

Although participants recognized that women committees are a valuable first stepping stone to gather strength and to develop more knowledge about the problems women face in their workplaces, ultimately women cannot aim to remain confined in women committees, while most leadership positions continue to be occupied by men.

Women need to stand up for positions, firmly support each other, and gain backing from both male and female workers in their workplaces and unions. The participants also highlighted that “women and men urgently need to learn to work together in all union matters and structures including leadership”.

In a return visit three Tanzanian women organizers will travel to Zambia to meet with women members and leadership in November, to assess progress and finalize action plans.

No more dirty diamonds

Union representatives met in Windhoek, Namibia 3 to 5 July to set up the Global Diamond Network (GDN), aiming to end human rights abuses and improve wages and working conditions in diamond mining.

The GDN network will work to secure jobs and fight for an end to precarious work and subcontracting. Setting minimum wages, retraining of workers in case of job losses, and fair deals during retrenchments would improve livelihoods for workers. Gender equality, sustainable economic development, and fair competition are some of the key demands.

The GDN plans to work with local and global organizations including companies involved in the diamond trade, as well as governments. It will campaign for the setting up of due diligence standards at local and global levels. In the absence of a world regulatory body on diamond mining, the global network decided to participate in credible voluntary certification systems such as the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) and to call on governments to regulate the industry.

Solidarity initiatives will also be carried out to promote responsible sourcing, that will boycott diamonds produced under conditions of human rights violations.

To achieve the GDN’s goals there will be campaigns for the certification of diamonds and for labour laws, collective bargaining agreements, and health and safety regulations that protected workers’ rights. The network will also promote information and knowledge sharing on organizing, capacity building, collective bargaining, women empowerment and leadership.

The need for the GDN comes from a past tainted with blood or conflict diamonds. Money from such diamonds has financed armies and rebel militias in civil wars that have killed close to four million people in Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Central Africa Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

There were also rights violations including rape, child and forced labour, environmental damage, and health risks to local communities because of diamond mining. In cases of armed conflict in the Central Africa Republic and human rights abuses by government security forces in Zimbabwe, international and humanitarian laws were violated.

Existing mechanisms have been largely ineffective in dealing with the abuses. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, some regulations from the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation and even industry associations including the Responsible Jewelry Council have done little to stop abuses.

Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL mining director said:

The GDN will engage stakeholders, and jewelry brands and retailers, to ensure that the mining of diamonds also benefit workers, and that there were no human rights abuses.

Yves Toutenel, AVC-Transcom, Belgium and Beverley Murangi, Mineworkers Union of Namibia will co-chair the network.

Young workers in Mozambique build unity

They planned for greater unity amongst unions present, in order to increase youth membership.

The youth meeting was held on 21-23 June, in the north of Mozambique. The meeting was led by young workers and counted a total of 21 participants (9 women/11 men) from the following industriALL affiliates:

“These activities are important because they strengthen unions and will help us fight the attitude of bosses who seek to prevent the creation of unions” said Adriano Zandamela, youth coordinator at local mining union, SINTICIM.

Participants came up with a plan of action where each province commits to visit companies with the aim of organizing more young workers. This outcome is an important move forward as it demonstrates unity amongst local unions as it will be carried carried out by all three unions jointly.

“We thank IndustriALL for encouraging youth participation in union activities; this is essential to show that unions are close to the workforce and will in turn give more visibility and allow for growth,” said Zandamela.

Lesotho: Low wages an injustice, say young workers

The young workers, from IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho (IDUL), wanted the government, which is responsible for setting minimum wages, to respond in 30 days. They said the low wages were unjust. Further, they wanted social dialogue on how to make the Directorate of Dispute Prevention and Resolution as well as the labour courts more effective.  
 
Present at the meeting was Lesotho’s newly elected Prime Minister, Thomas Thabane, who said the issues raised by the workers would receive immediate attention. Invited but absent was the Lesotho Employers' Association.
 
In 2016, a trained machinist was paid a monthly minimum wage of US$104, while a general worker got US$77. The union hoped that the minimum wage for 2017 would be $155.
 
Inflation adjustments of seven to eight per cent per year didn’t improve workers’ welfare and weren’t enough to cover living expenses. Some couldn’t even afford transport costs to go to work and walked long distances to factories. Exhausted on arrival, they were exposed to occupational injuries.
 
Women workers, making up 90 per cent of the lowly paid textile workers, were the most affected. Some supplemented the poor incomes with informal work during weekends. So, they didn’t rest.
 
The meeting called upon the government to ratify ILO Convention 183 on maternity protection and wanted discrimination on maternity leave faced by the textile workers to stop. The workers were given only six weeks whilst public sector workers got 12 weeks maternity leave.
 
Employing around 46,500 workers, the garment and textile sector is Lesotho’s largest formal private sector employer. It also has jobs along the value chain such as the small packaging industry, road freight transporters, courier services, clearing agents, security, passenger transport, food vendors, residential accommodation, water, and electrical and telecommunication utilities.
 
Said Seabata Likoti, assistant general secretary of IDUL:
 
“We have spent a long time talking about decent work in the textile sector with government, employers and the ILO. But decent work is not possible without a living wage that caters for nutritious food, safe water, decent housing, adequate health care, education and clothing.”
 
Said Fabian Nkomo, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa:
 
“We appreciate the willingness of the Prime Minister and the government of Lesotho to improve wages, and hope that these efforts will end poverty wages in the sector”.

Pushing back precarious work in Senegal

At perfume and cosmetic maker, Gandour, 65 out of 287 daily workers got permanent jobs. At plastic manufacturer, Polyplast, 58 out of 90 jobs were also made permanent.

If this trend continues, more manufacturing jobs will become secure. This was important to the chemical and construction sectors which were experiencing growth, and more likely to create jobs.

The IndustriALL affiliates have been campaigning to end precarious work in Senegal for the last three years, and the struggle for decent jobs continues.

The campaign against precarious work, which took place at national, sectoral and company levels, targeted employers who preferred giving jobs to temporary workers rather than offering secure permanent jobs. For instance, daily workers were paid lower wages than those of permanent workers for the same work. Further, they were exposed to risks of occupational accidents and diseases, and did not benefit from social security.

IndustriALL coordinator for the Sub Saharan Africa Precarious Work Project, Augustin Adakou, said the Senegalese government should repeal labour laws including Decree 70-183 of 1970 on the employment of daily and seasonal workers. This outdated law did not promote decent work.

Other countries that were part of the campaign to end precarious work included Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Nigeria where similar efforts were being made for more permanent jobs.

In 2016, because of this campaign, IndustriALL affiliates in the project countries organised 4500 precarious workers into unions, and over 1500 temporary jobs became permanent. Workshops were also conducted on labour laws, negotiation skills and collective bargaining. The affiliates organized in sectors including building materials, chemicals, energy, metals, mining, oil and gas, rubber, pulp and paper, textiles and garments, and leather and footwear.

Southern African garment unions to collaborate on supply chains

Countries in Southern Africa are involved in all points of the supply chain in the garment sector: producing raw materials, garment  making and retail. For example, cotton lint was sourced from Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Garment factories and distribution and retail networks were found in most of the countries.

Recognizing the importance of the supply chain, the Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland, the Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho and the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) all representing over 110,000 workers agreed to fight for equal-pay-for-equal work across the national borders. This could be achieved by sharing collective bargaining agreements. Additionally, exchange programmes between unions allowed for learning from each other’s experiences.

South African brands that came under scrutiny included Edcon, Foschini, Mr Price, Truworths and Woolworths. These brands bought goods from factories that relocated production from South Africa to Lesotho and Swaziland, where wages are lower.

The factories also ignored bargaining rights, and freedom of association. Enforcement of labour laws was also weak in the two countries. When workers demanded better conditions, the employers threatened to close shop. But in South Africa, Sactwu organised the factories, watched errant factory owners and took action when workers’ rights were threatened.

The meeting adopted a plan based on ACT – the IndustriALL initiative with global brands for living wages in garment supply chains. It also drew from the Bangladesh Accord, setting health and safety standards for workers in factories.

It is important for unions to strengthen their power along the supply chain by working together in coalitions

said Paule-France N’dessomin from IndustriALL’s Sub Saharan regional office.

The meeting was supported by the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, and was attended by 21 union leaders and shop stewards including ten women.