Numsa strikes on steel

The one day strike was legal after successfully declaring a dispute at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC), South Africa’s tripartite social dialogue forum. Demands with respect to the jobs crisis in South Africa related to an impasse in dialogue on the need for protection and support in the steel sector.

Numsa has been demanding locally produced and manufactured steel as opposed to imported steel be used in Government infrastructure builds including state owned enterprises capital programmes. The union wants a strategic approach to steel to be taken in the proposed Government’s Strategic Infrastructure Projects (SIPs) as a lever to drive local procurement.

Numsa also has continued to argue against Import Parity Price (IPP) and for fair pricing based to some extent on a regulated steel price. The union wants the South African government to take forward its beneficiation strategy including banning steel scrap exports as half of all raw material used in steel is currently being imported.

Numsa as called for government to set up a high level tripartite steel crisis committee with all government, labour and industry players to develop short and long term interventions for sustainability of the industry and jobs.

The strike action included demands against corruption more broadly and enjoyed popular support with many people joining in solidarity with Numsa and to draw government’s attention to a range of burning issues.

Guard strike points to global problem at Rio Tinto

Over 100 workers who provide security at Rio Tinto’s QMM ilmenite mine in Madagascar went on strike on Sunday. They are protesting the firing of two guards who are leaders of IndustriALL affiliate FISEMA. They are also demanding that a manager who is said to routinely verbally abuse workers and their families be terminated.

The guards, employed by Rio Tinto subcontractor Pro’Tech Security, are treated poorly as are other Rio Tinto indirect, precarious employees at the mine.

“Rio Tinto’s subcontracted security guards, catering employees, cleaners and drivers at its mine in Madagascar suffer from poverty wages and a lack of employment security,” stated Eugène Chretien, FISEMA General Secretary for Anosy Region.

“While Rio Tinto’s direct employees have a decent canteen and clinic, the subcontracted employees must eat in the open air in dusty conditions and be treated in an inferior clinic. Also, their personal protective equipment is not always replaced according to the security norms. This is especially troubling in light of the January fatality at the mine,” added Chretien.

FISEMA recently requested a meeting with Rio Tinto to discuss how to improve the treatment of Rio Tinto’s indirect employees in Madagascar, however the company refused.

Rio Tinto’s excessive use of indirect, precarious employees around the world generated a global protest earlier this month.

Unions at Rio Tinto organized a global day of action on 7 October demanding good, safe jobs instead of precarious work.

In Iceland, the VM union held a rally in front of Rio Tinto’s aluminium smelter protesting against the company’s threat to close the smelter if the union doesn’t allow a massive increase in contracting out to lower paid workers.

In Namibia, the MUN union rallied and delivered Rio Tinto’s Rossing uranium mine management a petition demanding an end to exploitation of contractors. This includes paying some contractors only one-seventh as much as regular workers, forcing them to work longer hours with less job security, and victimisation of union members.

Unions representing workers at Rio Tinto in fourteen countries sent a letter to Rio Tinto’s CEO on 7 October requesting to work collaboratively with the company to address these problems.

“The security guard strike at Rio Tinto in Madagascar is a symptom of a global problem that requires a global solution,” said IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan. “We hope Rio Tinto will respond positively to the unions’ offer to work toward that solution.”

Wage deal reached in South African coal sector

30,000 members of IndustriALL affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) went on strike on 4 October after negotiations deadlocked and a dispute was declared. Coal production in all major mines including multinationals Anglo American Coal, Exxaro, and Glencore was affected.

The agreement deal, which the NUM has in principle agreed to, will see entry-level underground workers receive increases of US$60 to US$80 a month in the first year and a guaranteed increase of 7.5 per cent in the second year. Higher paid workers will get increases of between 5 per cent and 7.5 per cent.

“This agreement should assist in bringing stability to the sector as NUM members face the challenges that are to come”, says Glen Mpufane,  IndustriALL mining director.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Nigeria

Mauritius

Kenya

Ghana

Senegal – affiliates mobilizing for 7 October

On 12 September, the SYNTICS (Syndicat National des Travailleurs des Industries Chimiques et Activités Rattachées du Sénégal), the SNTIC (Syndicat National des Travailleurs des Industries de la Confection)and, the SUTIDS (Syndicat Unique des Travailleurs des Industries Diverses du Sénégal) participated in a demonstration in Dakar denouncing violation of legislation on the use of daily and seasonal work.

Unions launched the campaign, organizing general assemblies at worksites to mobilize workers and raise awareness about precarious work. They also organized a television campaign with interviews of trade union leaders and a televised report on daily and seasonal work.

On 7 October, the global day of action to STOP Precarious work, IndustriALL’s affiliates are organizing a press conference to denounce precarious work and a demonstration, together with other trade unions. 

The objective of the campaign is to restrict the use of both daily and seasonal work to the limited use provided by the law: replacement of an employee on sick leave and increase in production.


However today in the manufacturing industries, according to some reports around 50 per cent of the workforce is employed as daily or seasonal workers but on a permanent basis.

These workers are employed with precarious contracts to perform production work. They are excluded from social security provisions and health and safety protections and are subject to lower salaries and conditions than permanent workers.

Affiliates in Senegal have a history of fighting against precarious work. Every year trade unions succeed to convert precarious workers into permanent workers. Since beginning 2014, affiliates report to have improved the employment status of more than 450 precarious workers, converting them to direct employees.
 
Last year affiliates in more than 56 countries took action on 7 October.

Sherritt – show us the evidence for lay-offs

Only 20 of the 900 laid off workers at the Canadian’ multinational’s Ambatovy operation have been re-instated. The remaining 880 workers are still uncertain about their future and whether they will ever be allowed to return to their jobs.

Sherritt unilaterally announced the lay-off of the 900 workers for a period of six months citing economic reasons, a claim totally rejected by the Comité d’Entreprise (workers' committee) at the mine and processing plant.

Sherrit Ambatovy’s performance was rated as excellent for 2014 and the company reported an 11 per cent increase in revenue from Ambatovy for the first quarter of 2015, just a few months before the lay-offs. Production targets were met in March 2015 ahead of schedule.

To further confound Sherrit’s claim that economic factors are the reason for the lay-offs, the company donated US$ 1 million to the country’s national defence force in October 2014, a move IndustriALL considers unethical and against good governance. This amount of money would have paid for an average salary of 600’000MGA (US$ 181) per month for six months for the 900 retrenched workers.

At the same time, Sherritt Ambatovy continues to recruit abroad. In a move that violates Madagascar’s laws and regulations, Sherritt Ambatovy is looking for workers with qualifications that can be filled by Malagasy nationals. The Madagascar mining code for large investments stipulate that priority for work should be given to nationals.  

Sherritt Ambatovy continues to ignore IndustriALL Global Union’s offer to resolve the dispute. Consequently, IndustriALL is now in discussion with its Canadian affiliate union, Unifor, to mobilize solidarity support for Ambatovy workers amongst Unifor members it organizes at Sherritt’s operations in Canada.

IndustriALL is also in discussion with Unifor to hold Sherritt accountable to Canada’s corporate social responsibility strategy for the international extraction sector, which expects Canadian mining companies operating abroad to promote Canadian values and act with the highest ethical standards.

While IndustriALL is mobilizing direct global solidarity action amongst its mining affiliates, it continues to make the following demands on Sherritt Ambatovy: