Ugandan unions in joint organizing drive

The meeting was supported by LO-FTF, the Danish trade union council for international development, and brought together four IndustriALL affiliated unions from a wide range of industries including textile, energy, chemical and clerical sectors. There were three main objectives to:

A national organizing strategy was developed and adopted for Uganda by all participating unions which focused on three key strategies:

Engura Geoffrey, the General Secretary of Uganda Chemical Petroleum and Allied Workers Union commented: “The joint action strategy that we have built now through unity and cooperation, if managed properly, will bring change in labour movement within individual unions and East Africa as a whole. We appreciate our global union for this support.”

A national coordinating council of four committee members was formed which will help the project coordinator in the implementation of different project activities within the unions.

A national committee on OHS was formed comprising of eight members with two representatives from each union. Terms of reference for the committe was developed and adopted by all unions.

Affiliates generated different ideas for material development to help for organizing, precarious work and OHS.

Two mapping guide surveys for organizing were discussed and adopted by all the unions.

A national work plan was developed and adopted by all unions for joined action on organizing, precarious work and OHS.

Biryeri Zauja, the organizing and education secretary from the Uganda Textile, Garment, Leather and Allied Workers Union commented, “If affiliates can be committed, we see a bright future for labour movement in Uganda. By coming together we can build a strong pressure group on the Government to change policies on precarious work, occupational health and safety, and organizing."

The four IndustriALL affiliates at the meeting were:

East African unions join forces to tackle common issues

The project aims to make trade unions in the manufacturing and mining industries in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda stronger through national and international cooperation. Stronger unions can better defend their members, improving working conditions and health and safety at the workplace.

A growing number of workers are left with no choice but to accept temporary, precarious and dangerous jobs in order to make ends meet and provide an income for their families. Precarious jobs are an enormous threat for workers, not only at the social and economic level – it also has negative impacts on the communities and on the economy at large.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliates in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda call on their governments, employers, workers and all other stakeholders to cooperate with trade unions in dealing with the explosion in precarious work, as well as to work towards minimizing diseases and accidents in the workplace. This should be done through legislation and collective bargaining.

The specific objectives of the East African union building project include:
·       Organizing and recruiting workers into trade unions, after which the employers also need to recognize the unions
·       Eliminating precarious work and short term contracts
·       Reducing health and safety related risks and incidences at work

The overriding goal is to ensure that IndustriALL affiliates in the three countries gain power, allowing them to become a strong counterforce and dialogue partner to the companies. When workers find ways to have better lives and more decent work, the three countries, as well as the entire East African region, will be better off.

Catherine Aneno, IndustriALL project coordinator, says:

We support unions gaining more power in East Africa. Within the next four-year period, we want to see an increased membership in the region, have less precarious work as well as safer and healthier jobs.

Let us organize, agitate and educate our members.

IndustriALL at the International Labour Conference

During the two-week conference, 24 countries were shortlisted for review by the Committee on the Application of Standards (CAS) for failing to implement the Conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The Committee is a tripartite body with representatives from workers, employers and governments.

Of particular interest for IndustriALL were cases regarding the non observance of Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and the Right to Organize, including Bangladesh, Belarus, Mexico and Swaziland.

In Mexico IndustriALL continues to fight against protection unions, which do not represent workers and serve only the interests of employers and corrupt government officials. The Committee recognized the existence of protection unions and made strong recommendations to the Mexican government to put in place legislative reforms and measures to prevent the registration of the protection unions. Read more here.

Worker statements illustrated the serious challenges that lie ahead in putting Bangladesh in line with the Convention 87, ranging from legal problems, issues with EPZs (export processing zones), anti-union discrimination and violence, and trade union registration, among other factors.

IndustriALL denounced anti-union violence in Bangladesh with particular reference to the case caught on camera of two female union leaders getting beaten up at a factory owned by the Azim Group.

The Committee recommended a high level tripartite mission to Bangladesh in order to make a closer assessment of the country.

The Minister of Labour in Belarus referred to the recent decision by the country’s President Lukashenko to amend his own decree, which dictated a 10 per cent minimum union membership as condition for creation of a new union, to a lesser threshold of 10 people.

Although this is a positive development, workers’ and trade union rights are strangled in Belarus through the dominance of short-term contracts as well as bureaucratic hurdles that prevent independent unions from official registration.

During the Conference, Belarus was listed as one of the world’s ten worst countries for workers by the ITUC as it launched its 2015 Global Rights Index. The report says Belarus is characterized by anti-union discrimination, forced labour and repression of protests.

No wonder that the Committee expressed “deep concern that, ten years after the Commission of Inquiry’s report, the government of Belarus has failed to take measures to address most of the Commission’s recommendations. Workers continue to face numerous obstacles in law and in practice to the full exercise of their right to form or join trade unions of their own choosing.”

Despite having registered labour federation Tucoswa last month, Swaziland was again shortlisted for examination by the Committee which concluded that the government has a way to go before Swaziland is in full compliance with Convention 87.

The conclusions of the discussion on Swaziland list nine actions that the government is urged to take immediately. At the top of the list is a call for the unconditional release of a jailed lawyer for the Trade Union Confederation of Swaziland (Tucoswa), Thulani Maseko, who is serving a two year sentence for contempt of court; as well all other imprisoned workers whose right to free speech has been violated.

The committee also called for the registration of IndustriALL’s affiliate, the Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland (Atuswa) without further delay. Atuswa was formed through a merger in 2013 of several unions that organize industrial workers in Swaziland, including textile, garment and metal workers. An affiliate of Tucoswa, Atuswa has not been registered despite meeting the requirements set out by government for the registration of a trade union.

The Committee also listed legislative reforms required to bring the country into compliance with the freedom of association Convention and has urged the Swazi government to accept technical assistance to achieve this.

Read the full report from this year’s Committee on the Application of Standards here. 

Madagascar: Sherritt workers attempt suicide after being fired

Sherritt, a Canadian multinational, runs the Ambatovy nickel mining and processing project in Madagascar, where it is the majority shareholder. Ambatovy is the largest finished nickel and finished cobalt operation from lateritic ore in the world.

On 3 June, Sherritt unexpectedly announced it would be firing 1,100 workers at Ambatovy. The retrenchment at Ambatovy represents 12 per cent of direct and indirect workers employed at Sherritt globally.

When workers turned up to the Ambatovy plant on Friday 5 June, they were turned away and told they had lost their jobs. Some were even stripped of their work clothes and made to walk home barefoot.

The short-notice of the sackings has led to a desperate situation for workers and their families, many of whom have taken out loans to build homes on condition of employment at the mining company. The sacked workers have been offered just one month’s redundancy pay.

Only last October Sherritt proclaimed that Ambatovy would be saved from ten per cent job cuts affecting its other operations around the world including Cuba, Spain and Pakistan, marking the Madagascan mine as their top priority after an US$ 7 billion investment.

Ambatovy performance has been rated as excellent for 2014 and the company reported an 11 per cent increase in revenue from Ambatovy for the first quarter.

Production targets were met in March ahead of schedule despite two weeks of closure due to technical problems, as well as a 17-day strike at the extraction site in Moramanga. Sherritt also reported that April’s production was not affected by another 10-day strike at the Tamatave plant.

In May, the company declared that the continued fall of nickel price in the world market has had an adverse effect on its profits, and that the strikes and two week closure of the plant in Ambatovy contributed to the decline in profits.

Trade unions reject the Sherritt’s claims that industrial action affected profits and say the mass lay-offs are in callous retaliation for the worker’s attempts for equal pay between local and foreign staff and protests against the company’s human resources department over 50 cases of unfair dismissals.

Following a press conference called by Ambatovy management, local media aggressively attacked trade unions for contributing to the financial deficit at the company and the job losses. Lack of access for trade unions to financial information at Ambatovy prevents a genuine assessment of whether the sudden decision to terminate 1,100 jobs is due to financial reasons or is in reprisal for earlier strikes.

Trade unions claim that several procedures required by national labour legislation have not been followed in deciding and implementing the retrenchment plan.

IndustriALL Global Union has mining affiliates in Madagascar. IndustriALL’s director of mining, Glen Mpufane, said:

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the family of the Sherritt worker who took her own life. It’s evident that the fate of more than a thousand mine workers is of no consequence to management, whose only concern is profit. IndustriALL Global Union calls upon the government of Madagascar to act in the interest of workers. Worker consultation and a redundancy plan are required by law in the country. If this had been respected perhaps the life of the worker would have been saved.”

Improved maternity protection needed in Uganda

Participants put together a list of issues that the unions must champion with regard to maternity protection which, include enforcement of legal rights on maternity leave and trade unions taking up grievances on the problem.

They listed health and safety concerns affecting pregnant women as well as concessions that need to be made for special circumstances, such as premature birth. Maternity rights and job security for contract workers was also discussed.

The meeting, which took place in the Ugandan capital, Dar es Salaam, was attended by Angeline Chitambo, member of IndustriALL’s Executive Committee. Participants were enthused with the exchange of experience and advices given by Angeline, who reiterated the need for strong women structures that are constitutionally recognized by unions and which play a major role in encouraging more women to join the trade union movement.

The women’s meeting was preceded by a meeting of the IndustriALL Uganda national council, during which the general secretaries and education officers from affiliated unions agreed to intensify organizing and recruitment of new members, including contract workers, and to develop strategies on labour agencies. They also discussed skills needs now that the labour court in Uganda is being reinstated after a more than a 20-year hiatus. 

Lesotho unions merge

Bargaining power in Lesotho has deteriorated significantly over a decade as splinter unions has emerged, competing with each other for membership. As a result individual union membership has remained below the threshold for recognition in many factories. This situation has benefitted employers but has resulted in the erosion of real wages against inflation, so that workers are barely able to survive on their earnings.

Lesotho affiliates Factory Workers Union (Fawu), Lesotho Clothing and Allied Workers Union (Lecawu) and National Union of Textile Workers (Nutex) recognised that the only way to engage government and employers on a living wage would be to build unity amongst workers. They have been engaging their membership to build support for a merger whilst working together over the last two years, supported by IndustriALL and its Swedish affiliate IF Metall. 

On 31 May the new constitution was unanimously adopted by the 92 delegates at the inaugural congress. Newly elected President Leticia Mohobelo, appealed for unity to be maintained amongst textile and garment workers in Lesotho. 

IndustriALL and IF Metall will continue to support the development of IDUL to effectively represent workers.

In a message read to the merger congress, IndustriALL general secretary Jyrki Raina said:

Today, workers in Lesotho have hope for building a strong union that is able to recruit more members, put in place solid structures that keep it accountable to its members. A union committed to improve conditions of employment and increase wages as well as address precarious work and job security.

Strengthened through this unity, workers can take on the fight for a living wage and decent work.

Mauritius – learning to organize in the supply chain

Union leaders and workers in export processing zones in Mauritius took part in the joint IndustriALL/FES workshop on 27 to 29 May.

Garment workers have the lowest minimum wage in the country, and IndustriALL affiliates reported long working hours with an obligatory overtime of ten hours per week.

Participants also relayed the difference in treatment between local and migrant workers, which is illegal under national legislation.

Most textile and garment factories are located in the country's Export Processing Zone, where trade unions do not have access to the plant to organize workers. Hence less than 5 per cent of the 60,000 workers are unionized.

Mauritius has ratified the International Labour Organization’s Convention number 87 on the right to freedom of association and organize, but it is not implemented. Participants agreed that the law needs amending to force freedom of association in export processing zones.

Mauritius is producing for South Africa and USA brands, as well as some European retailers.

A delegation from IndustriALL’s South African affiliate, SACTWU, shared their experiences in organizing, introduced South African brands to the participants, and committed to support unions who are organizing in factories supplying for South African retailers.

In discussions with the new Minister of Labour, Soodesh Satkam Callichurn, after the workshop, IndustriALL and its affiliates asked the Minister to raise the minimum wage in the garment sector and requested that a mechanism is put in place to enforce freedom of association and collective bargaining in the country. They also called for the harmonizing of working conditions between local and migrant workers.

Mauritius was among the pioneers in the garment industry, long before the fast fashion changed the face of the sector, and long before export processing zones were established to attract investors from around the world. It has adapted to the changing dynamism of the garment sector through investing in the latest textile and garment technology, establishing fashion and design schools, and maintaining cheap labour through migrant workers.

Survival of the fittest in Zimbabwe

At a leadership meeting in May 2015, Zimbabwean unions shared their challenges, including a trend for companies to not pay across membership dues after this has been deducted from workers’ wages. This further weakens the unions that are already struggling with declining membership that reflect job being haemorrhaged by Zimbabwe’s ailing industries.

Affiliates in the textile and the metal sectors are prepared to reconsider their positions on mergers as there seems little option if they are to survive in the current economic environment. Magnus Palmgren from Swedish trade union and IndustriALL Global Union affiliate IF Metall took part in the meeting and made a presentation on the trade union Swedish model.

Unions emphasized the need to organize, train paralegals to handle grievances, as well as train a pool of union negotiators for collective bargaining. Leaders were urged to be gender sensitive during the selection for more women negotiators and paralegals are needed to represent women on gender related issues at the workplace.

Women want more from Zimbabwe unions

A woman’s meeting of Zimbabwean affiliates acknowledged that their absence in trade unions structures was the root cause of their misrepresentation in decision-making structures.

Angeline Chitambo, President of the Zimbabwe Electricity Workers Union and a member of IndustriAll Executive Committee shared her experiences as a woman leader and urged women workers to support each other to be active shop stewards and use gender related issues at the workplace as tools for organizing women in Zimbabwe.

The meeting called for more participation of women in trade union structures. Participants discussed the importance of women in the union having practical knowledge of trade union issues and building their skills on leadership, collective bargaining and organizing, acquisition of knowledge on trade unions issues. The need for women negotiators was also emphasized, especially on health and safety issues affecting women specifically which are often overlooked by employers and male trade unions leaders.

Dialogue needed to save diamond polishing jobs in Botswana

Two companies, Teemane Manufacturing Company and Diamond Manufacturing Botswana, are toclose their operations and shedding about 300 jobs. This follows recent layoffs in two other companies, Leo Schachter and Eorostar Botswana.

The companies have operated in Botswana for years but now claim to be unable to compete with lower costs of cutting and polishing diamonds in Asia. One of BDWU’s major concerns is that cutting and polishing companies in Botswana are obligated to buy only from DeBeers in order to retain their licences, meaning that DeBeers can set the price. As most of these companies have operations in other parts of the world they can easily shift production when supply price in Botswana exceeds what they can source elsewhere.

The BDWU is petitioning the government to set up an industrial bargaining council. The government has so far refused and there is a lack of support from the employers.

The BDWU says in a press statement that the governement is both regulator and businessman: “Government has active and major interests right from the mining of diamonds, through to the sorting and valuing of diamonds. By virtue of its business involvement in the industry, government is severely constrained to exercises its regulatory role.”

BDWU says that they are excluded from discussions between employers and government and are only informed once the decision to retrench has been taken. The union is calling for the setup of a social dialogue forum for the sector. 

“A lot of problems could have been avoided if the industry partners were open to social dialogue and sharing important information pertaining to the industry,” says the BDWU.

Government should have long played a leading role in this arrangement by creating a forum at which labour, business, and government come together to address issues pertaining to the sector.

The union also wants the Botswana government to develop an empowerment policy for local diamond entrepreneurs with the hope that local participation in the industry may engender greater commitment than that of multinational companies to the sustainability of the sector.

IndustriALL’s new issue of Global Worker out now

After the industrial homicide at Soma claimed the lives of 301 Turkish coal miners in May 2014, a feature on Turkey’s mining industry exposes how privatization has had devastating consequences.

With the electronics industry being one of IndustriALL’s biggest sectors, an in-depth report examines how unions are organizing and fighting against precarious work in this booming sector.

Another Global Worker special report looks at industry bargaining as an essential tool in the struggle for living wages and the fight against inequality.

While global wealth is concentrated into fewer hands, the increasing inequality is also due to attacks against collective bargaining by corporations, right-wing politicians and international financial institutions. Company agreements offer less protection to a smaller group of workers,

says Jyrki Raina, IndustriALL’s general secretary.  

This edition of Global Worker also includes a profile of the Federation of Chemical, Energy and General Workers of Hungary, (VDSZ) and an interview with Nigerian union leader Issa Aremu, whose union the National Union of Textile, Garment & Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTW) has had success organizing informal workers in Nigeria.

In January 2015, IndustriALL welcomed two trade unions from Myanmar as new affiliates. In a country where unions have only been legal since 2012, a report looks at how unions are working hard to organize workers and tackle precarious work in the country.

Also take look at IndustrALL’s interview with Barbara Figueroa, president of the Chilean trade union centre, CUT.

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