Nigeria: unions stage national protest over labour crisis

The protest was organized by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in solidarity with workers in Imo, Nasarawa and Benue states over protracted wage issues, which led to the killing of two workers in Nasarawa in July.
 
Despite a bailout from the federal government, more than 20 states in Nigeria have been unable to pay monthly salaries. Some workers have not been paid since January 2016. In some states, workers have had their pay and hours cut, and have been told to go and grow food for themselves on farms, under a Back to the Land programme designed to cut costs.
 
Protests were held across the country. In Lagos, the protest was lead by Issa Aremu, the general secretary of IndustriALL Global Union affiliate the National Union of Textile and Garment Workers, a member of the national executive committee of the NLC, and chairperson of IndustriALL in sub-Saharan Africa.
 
Aremu called on president Muhammadu Buhari and labour minister Chris Ngige to intervene and urge the governors of Benue, Imo and Nasarawa states to respect Nigerian labour law and stop wage cuts and the arbitrary redeployment of workers to farms to avoid paying them.
 
Aremu highlighted the situation in Nasarawa state, where two workers were killed when police opened fire on a protest on 29 July 2016 against the failure to pay salaries. A further two workers received gunshot wounds. State governor Tanko Al-Makura arbitrarily cut workers’ pay by 50% and threatened to sack striking workers and replace them with “fresh graduates”.
 
Aremu said:
 
“No colonial governor during the hated British colonialism so verbally casualized the dignity of labour with respect to contracts of employment on pay and tenure as governor Tanko Al-Makura unacceptably did.”
 
Aremu pointed out that constitution of Nigeria explicitly guarantees the sanctity of public service at both federal and state levels, with adequate security of tenure, hours of work, health and safety, adequate remuneration and pensions. The constitution guarantees decent work for civil servants in the public service and does not subject them to the whims of executive governors.
 
He argued that it is “bad governance” to “shift the burden of declining revenue onto the workforce” while maintaining the huge cost of the executive overhead. To turn civil servants into farmers overnight as a cost cutting measure is “an unacceptable joke”.
Referring to the killing of workers in Nasarawa state, he said:
 
“The unprovoked action by the police against unarmed workers on a peaceful protest is criminal and unacceptable. It is a gross violation of workers’ rights to protest as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution and International Labour Organization provisions. We support the demand by the NLC for the Nasarawa state government to investigate the incident, apprehend the culprits and bring them to justice.”
 
Fernando Lopes, IndustriALL assistant general secretary, said:
 
“The situation in Nigeria is absolutely disgraceful: attempting to balance the books by cutting salaries and telling workers to become farmers. It is outrageous that workers were killed by the police for protesting against this arbitrary and unlawful move.
 
“We expect the government of Nigeria to intervene and ensure that workers are paid properly, that the right to organize and freely assemble is respected, and that those who ordered the killing of workers are brought to justice”.
 
The labour minister responded to the demands of the protest by convening a meeting between union leaders and the government of Nasarawa state on 30 August. The state of Nasarawa agreed to compensate the families of the workers who were killed. The issue of unpaid salaries remains unresolved.

IndustriALL affiliates ready to tackle minimum wage in Uganda

During an IndustriALL Global Union workshop in Kampala on 25 and 26 August, supported by the FES, 25 workers, including 9 women, from affiliate unions in the mining and metal, textile, chemical and engineering sectors came together to determine how to engage the government on the revision of the minimum wage. Participants also looked at ways trade unions can contribute to establishing a minimum wage that is decent and will improve workers’ lives in Uganda.

Yoweri Museveni, who has been President of Uganda for the past thirty years, has recently softened his position on the minimum wage, so together unions at the workshop decided to be proactive and take a common approach in setting an agenda for discussions around the minimum wage, as well as other potent labour issues.

Workers were taken through the pros and cons of a minimum wage versus industry bargaining where workers are set to benefit more. The latter would however necessitate strong national unions in the various sectors, which is currently not the case. Uganda has seen a fragmentation of unions over the years in all sectors, weakening union’s bargaining power.

Affiliated unions at the workshop agreed to:

South African petrochemical workers win three-week strike

The deal is the culmination of a three-week strike that started on 28 July and was supported by some 15,000 petroleum workers at refineries, including the biggest owned by Chevron, Shell, BP and Sasol.
 
The strike affected the fuel supply in Gauteng province, where two of the country’s most important cities are located, the capital Pretoria and the largest city Johannesburg, the industrial hub of the country.
 
Although the quantitative effect of the strike was not extremely high, the strike forced the employers to recur to contingency measures to prevent fuel disruption across the country.
 
The initial workers’ demand included a 9 per cent wage increase, to compensate for the current inflation rate of 6.3 per cent. According to the new agreement the employers will pay 7 per cent raise this year and 1.5 per cent hike next year. Workers will receive their increase starting from July.
 
According to the new agreement employers also met workers’ demand for shift allowance although at a smaller rate.
 
Workers are supposed return to their workplaces on Monday, 22 August.
 
Commenting on the reached agreement CEPPWAWU chief negotiator, Jerry Nkosi said, “The strike was generally successful and finished with workers’ victory and improved working conditions. One disturbing factor though is that some companies including  SASOL and Total at the the refinery called Natref used union bashing tactics by paying workers a bonus for no participation in a strike. The strategy backfired, as the company later stopped the payments, but that has already dampened the moral of other workers in other establishments such as Engen, Shell and BP. This made the strike also difficult for the union.”

1,700 jobs under threat at South Africa gold mine

The NUM has said it is shocked and saddened to receive notice from Sibanye Gold of the retrenchments of almost the entire workforce at its operation in Westonaria, west of Johannesburg.

In a statement on 11 July, the NUM called on the Minister of Mineral Resources, Mosebenzi Zwane, to intervene immediately to stop the retrenchments that will leave hundreds of mineworkers and surrounding communities in a dire situation.

"The NUM will fight tooth and nail to make sure that its members are not retrenched cheaply. The NUM remains fearless, committed, dedicated and unshaken in fighting for the mineworkers. The NUM does not want to see mineworkers being retrenched. We will engage Sibanye Gold,” said the union. 

Sibanye intends to shut down the unprofitable mineshaft at Cooke 4 to concentrate on other operations at Cooke 1, 2 and 3. However, the NUM says that the mine has been operating at a loss because of improper planning in terms of labour and production.

NUM says the company has failed to provide proper and adequate equipment needed to reach production targets, and that the operation is pumping out water at a cost of R18 million (US$1.25 million) a month.

However, Cooke 4 could be profitable, argues NUM, if Sibanye recruits new, skilled employees, changes the infrastructure and resolves the geological issues underground.

“With so many jobs and livelihoods at stake, we urge Sibanye Gold to explore all means possible of salvaging the mine at Cooke 4 and dedicate the right people and the right resources to turning it around,” said IndustriALL’s assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan.

The NUM will have the first consultation meeting with Sibanye Gold on 20 July under the auspices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. The NUM is meeting with all the affected employees.

Botswana: IndustriALL calls for immediate action at deadly mine

The BCL mine employs around 5,000 employees, of which over 3,200 are union members represented by IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Botswana Mine and Allied Workers Union (BMWU).

Frustrated at the government’s inaction the BMWU staged a demonstration on 6 July 2016, in Botswana’s capital Gaborone where union leader Jack Tlhagale handed over a petition to the country’s vice-president Mokgweetsi Masisi.

“The mine has been a problem for a long time – security and productivity have declined. Despite the mineworkers’ appeals to the company management and the government there has been no improvement. The company also threatens to retrench many of our members and close some of the shafts,” said Tlhagale.

The BMWU’s petition is clear and calls on the government to:

Vice-president Masisi assured BCL mineworkers that the government would investigate the declining safety issues: "We don't want employees to feel unsafe at work. We don't want a situation where miners go to work asking themselves whether they are going to be able to come back to their families," said Masisi.

"This is simply not enough. It is not only workers’ livelihoods that are at stake but also their lives. If the government continues to postpone action on the deteriorating safety conditions at the mine, it will certainly result in more deaths,” said IndustriALL general secretary, Jyrki Raina.

IndustriALL calls on the Botswana government to involve the BMWU in measures to ensure that adequate health and safety standards be put in place immediately to avoid any further preventable accidents at the BCL mine.  It is equally important to include the union in the development of a plan for the BCL mine to become economically viable and ensure job security for the workers.

In a letter to Botswana’s Vice-president, IndustriALL calls the Government to involve the BMWU in the implementation of measures to ensure that adequate health and safety standards be put in place immediately to avoid any further preventable accidents at the BCL mine.  It is equally important to include the union in the development of a plan for the Bamangwato Concessions Ltd. (BCL) mine to become economically viable but also to ensure job security of the workers.

Worker rights violations under spotlight at the ILO

ILO’s Committee on Application of Standards (the Standards Committee or CAS) dealt in June with a number of complaints on violations of workers’ rights, with special focus on countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Cambodia and Mexico.

Bangladeshi union representatives told the Committee that while there was progress in improving safety in the major garment industry, freedom of association remained a problem.

In the immediate aftermath of the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, many new unions in the Bangladeshi ready-made garment sector were registered. In the last two years, union registration has become increasingly difficult with about 70 per cent of new registrations being rejected, in particularly those filed by independent unions.

IndustriALL regional secretary Apoorva Kaiwar told the Standards Committee that aggressive union busting by management has led to a reduced number of active unions, leaving workers with little or no protection against employers. In addition, trade unions are completely banned in Bangladesh’s export processing zones.

As a result of the increasing anti-union climate in the country and the feeble efforts taken by the government to ensure workers’ rights under ILO Convention 87 on freedom of association and the right to organize, the ILO Standards Committee noted the country as a “special paragraph”.

Worker representatives from Indonesia testified about violent attacks on workers by police and armed thugs.

Prihanani Boenadi, from IndustriALL affiliate FSPMI, called on the government to stop violations against workers and that state security is not used to suppress the right to freedom of association, as happened in November 2015 when 25 demonstrators were arrested in Jakarta for protesting against being shut out of the wage-setting process.

The Standards Committee “expressed deep concern regarding the numerous allegations” and urged the Indonesian government to ensure that workers are able to engage freely and that those responsible for the violence are charged.

Ath Thorn from Cambodian IndustriALL affiliate CCAWDU told of violence against trade union leaders, illegal terminations of union leaders, political interference, short term contracts and discrimination against pregnant workers.

The Committee decided to send and ILO Direct Contacts mission to Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Swaziland, Kazakhstan and Mauritania, to assess progress related to conclusions from the CAS.

Mexican mining union Los Mineros’ president and IndustriALL Executive Committee member Napoleón Gómez addressed the Standards Committee on the widespread use of protection contracts made between yellow unions and companies without workers’ consent, and the intimidation and threats to trade unions. Gómez called for an immediate finalization of a labour law reform, based on proposals made in April 2016.

The Mexican government had brought a delegation of 70 representatives from government, business and trade unions to the ILC. However, only one single trade union representative in the delegation was from a democratic union.

The Standards Committee urged the government to fulfill legal obligations and ensure that “trade unions are able to exercise their right to freedom of association in practice".

Miners trapped underground at Impala Platinum in South Africa

Nine workers were trapped after a shaft collapsed at the Impala Platinum mine on Tuesday 17 May 2016. Seven were successfully rescued. Mining has been suspended, and the rescue operation is ongoing.
 
Four miners died in an underground fire at the same mine on 22 January this year.
 
The missing miners are rock drill operators, who do one of the most dangerous jobs in mining. South Africa’s mines are among the deepest and most dangerous in the world.
 
Three miners also remain trapped underground at the Lily gold mine in South Africa, after a collapse on 5 February. Mining operations were suspended, and miners were encouraged to accept a very poor voluntary severance package, leading to mass pickets at the site.
 
IndustriALL is concerned at a spate of mining accidents across the world this year. The global commodity crisis has hit mining profits, leading some producers to cut corners to reduce costs.
 
Livhuwani Mammburu, spokesperson for IndustriALL affiliate the National Union of Mineworkers’ said:
 
“Major multinational corporations like Impala Platinum which should be industry leaders in creating a safety culture are doing far too little to prevent fatal accidents. And the situation will not get better by itself.
 
We call on the department of mineral resources inspectorate to hold the mining industry fully accountable for its failures and adopt a no-nonsense approach when it comes to injuries and fatalities in the mining industry.”
 
IndustriALL mining director Glen Mpufane said:
 
“Mining remains one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, because mining companies put profit before the safety of miners. A voluntary approach won’t help: we need countries to ratify and implement ILO Convention 176 on safety and health in mining.
 
“Implementing this convention will create a strong safety culture from the ground up, and introduce serious sanctions for companies that fail to take safety seriously”.

Settlement reached for state oil workers in Ivory Coast

After a series of strike actions and four months of negotiations with Petroci and the Ministry of Labour, SYNTEPCI trade union has succeeded in reinstating two workers and securing a redundancy settlement worth around US$2 million for the remaining 48 workers.

A deal finalized on 1 May makes provisions for:

  1. The reinstatement of a pregnant worker and worker representative
  2. A redundancy package of 15 months’ gross salary for all 48 workers
  3. 12 months of health insurance for the laid off workers
  4. A social reintegration package for the 48 workers through a work-training programme.
  5. The Petroci Foundation to pay for the medical treatment for a sick child and sick wife of two of the laid of workers.

The total package for the 48 workers is worth more than 1.2 billion francs (US$2 million).

SYNTEPCI general secretary, Jeremie Wondje, said:

“We are proud and grateful to all the workers in our union for their actions and support for the 48 workers laid off by Petroci.

“I would also like to thank our national centre, the UGTCI, as well as IndustriALL Global Union for their support.

“Together we have refused to allow workers’ rights to be violated and we thank you for your individual and collective actions that have restored workers’ dignity.”

Petroci had illegally laid off the workers and went to offer damages and compensation that was far lower than required under national labour law.

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

“We congratulate SYNTEPCI on its hard-won victory in securing a fair and just settlement for workers. Petroci has learnt that it cannot trample over workers’ rights and that the nation’s labour laws have to be respected by all.”

African women stand up for better conditions

The delegates welcome the 40 per cent quota adopted by the world women committee of IndustriALL last year and resolved that only united can they find a solution to their problems.

Addressing the participants of the meeting Issa Aremu, IndustriALL executive committee member representing affiliates of the region underlined the importance of women work and said, “women's issues are not only problems of the women, these are trade union problems and will be supported by the whole organization.”

Monika Kemperle, IndustriALL assistant general secretary, focused on the IndustriALL maternity protection campaign and health and safety.

In particular, Kemperle raised the issue of the specific health and safety needs of women workers’,  which are different from men's. Referring to the women of the region,  she stressed their need to have a better job protection during pregnancy. No pregnancy testing should be allowed by employers, and they should be prevented from discriminating against women, or making them redundant based on their pregnancy. On the other side, employers should arrange the transfer of pregnant women to lighter jobs.

According to numerous reports of the participants, they have the opposite experience with employers in their countries. Women often do not want to report their pregnancy because of the fear of losing their job or being downgraded as useless. Some reported that employers in the region try to undermine existing collective labour agreements by decreasing time for maternity leave or not providing breastfeeding women with adequate facilities.

Some unions in the region already negotiate introduction of clauses on maternity protection into their collective agreements, but more work is to be done to promote ratification of the relevant ILO Convention 183. So far there are only 31 countries, which ratified the Convention out of 187 ILO member states.

Kemperle also insisted that employers must pay more attention to stress and psychosocial health effects faced by women. Paid maternity leave should not be subject of abuse by men, and different types of families should be taken into account. Fathers need to take their part of responsibilities to allow women to get at least some relief from their double burden between work and house tasks.

Unions in the region should do more work for women on HIV/AIDS prevention and workers must take their part of responsibility for maternity by attending clinics. A lot more enlightening work regarding HIV/AIDS needs to be done to fight prejudices and stigmatization of the disease, which impedes attempts to address the problem in a proper way.

The issue of violence and sexual harassment remains very important and needs to be addressed on a systematic basis. Women in male-dominated jobs usually have a good education, but still have to fight with gender-based prejudices.

The participants resolved that in order to tackle the problems raised, special anti-harassment training should be introduced through union networks, collective and global framework agreements. Also IndustriALL should lead a permanent fight against violence against women.

At the end of the meeting the participants discussed a concrete action plan and strategy paper on how to tackle the issues raised. With the support of IndustriALL, women activists of the Sub-Saharan region will:

At the same time unions of the region will implement the 40 per cent quota, and build a communication exchange platform.

Facing the living wage challenge in Ethiopia

At an IndustriALL Global Union workshop in Addis Ababa on 11-12 April supported by the FES, affiliates from the textile and garment, chemical, electrical and mining sectors met to consider the first steps that need to be taken towards developing comprehensive and effective wage-setting mechanisms in the country.

Affiliates were keen to learn from the experiences of unions in other countries. They heard how minimum wage systems in countries such as Cambodia and Bangladesh have proven to be inadequate to raising wages up to the level of a living wage.

In order to better understand which systems the unions in Ethiopia should be working towards, there was a substantial discussion on the potential advantages and disadvantages that a national minimum wage mechanism as well as industry-wide collective bargaining could bring to Ethiopia.

Affiliates see a national minimum wage as setting a benchmark for wages that cannot be undercut by employers, is enforceable by law and ensures that even workers at companies with less economic power get the same wage.  A national minimum wage would demonstrate the commitment of the government to improving workers conditions and would also contribute towards tax accountability and transparency.

Drawbacks of the system include that workers are not involved in setting the amount, there is no flexibility and the rate may not keep pace with inflation. There is a risk that employers will not be prepared to pay above the minimum, including those with better economic performance.

Jenny Holdcroft, IndustriALL policy director said:

Industry bargaining has certain advantages, primarily that workers have a say in the outcome. Collective agreements were seen as having a positive impact on quality and productivity as they are based on trust and negotiation. There is flexibility to reopen agreements and industry-specific workload, skills and other issues can be taken into account. Importantly, industry bargaining helps build union power to negotiate.

However, it will take time to achieve such agreements when there is currently no system for it, and work needs to be done to increase union power. Both systems were seen as important for creating stability in the industry and certainty for workers and investors.

Ethiopian affiliates agreed to continue these discussions and to engage with the confederation and the ILO to take further steps towards developing wage mechanisms.

Meanwhile, the unions continue to fight for their members and there have been several successes in achieving significant wage increases for members through collective bargaining with individual employers. For example, at the Ayka textile and garment factory, the union has been able to increase the basic wage from 600 to 990 birr and at the Bahirdar factory they have achieved 915 birr, but both unions acknowledge that these increases are still not enough for workers to earn a living wage.