Vedanta Resources KCM retrenchment plans rejected

The union had successfully opposed similar plans by KCM to lay off over 2,000 employees in June 2013. KCM cited the falling metal price, an increase in labour, power, input commodities costs and royalty taxes as the reason for wanting to retrench but on 1st November 2013, KCM gave new reasons for intending to retrench 1,529. KCM CEO Kishore Kumar said the move was in a bid to move towards mechanization and automation in view of decreased copper grades at some of its mines.

The Zambian President, Michael Sata has threatened to revoke KCMs mining license if it proceeds to lay off 1,529 employees. President Sata said he would not allow mining companies to blackmail government by threatening to lay off workers every time government introduced legislation meant to collect correct revenues from the mines. He said 49 years after independence; Zambia had survived on mineworkers’ Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax and not what came from the mines.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Wilbur Simuusa says courageous decisions will have to be made by the government to protect jobs and end mismanagement of KCM by Vedanta that has resulted in high operational costs. He said a 10 man technical team that has been appointed by the government would highlight the wrongs in the operations of KCM and make recommendations on how to protect jobs, as well as make the company viable again. He further said KCM had the most demotivated workforce because of announcements of retrenchments and irregularities in the payroll system that had persistently rocked the mining company.

The MUZ General Secretary Joseph Chewe said the union would oppose the mining giant’s plans. He said KCM is similar to Mopani Copper Mines plc (MCM) which is run by Glencore Xtrata. MCM also inherited old mines but is sinking new shafts to extend the lifespan of the mines. KCM could not do the same.

The MUZ President Chishimba Nkole said Vedanta Resource had failed to run the mine and called on the Zambian government to bring in new investors. “KCM will never announce that it has failed. Our duty is to look at the signs and symptoms…are they taking us in the right direction? The writing is on the wall that KCM is no more. It is up to the Zambian government because as a union, we have done our best to bring to the attention of the government the activities of KCM management. KCM has shown all signs that they are unable to move the company forward,” he said.

KCM has over 7,000 permanent employees and a further 12,000 are employed in companies contracted by the Vedanta Resources owned mining giant. 

PROFILE: Angeline Chitambo, Still Fighting On

PROFILE

COUNTRY: Zimbabwe

UNION: Zimbabwe Energy Workers Union (ZEWU)

Text: Aisha Bahadur
Photo: IndustriALL

It all started when ZESA refused to comply with an arbitration ruling to implement the collective bargaining agreement signed off by the company on wage increases for 2012. ZESA suspended 135 workers, including Angeline and other union leaders for allegedly threatening strike action. ZESA then tried to use the reinstatement of the suspended workers as leverage to have the union agree to abandon the collective bargaining agreement, but ZEWU remained resolute.

After a long battle all of the suspended workers were reinstated except for Angeline, who was dismissed.

From the start of this we were not alone and now when it is just me left out in the cold, IndustriALL continues to stand by me,

says Angeline.

I never expected that I would get such support. The initiative taken by IndustriALL to help me and my union during this time has given me strength and courage to keep fighting.

ZEWU took the matter to labour court, which ruled that the charges against Angeline were unfounded and ordered her reinstatement. ZESA refuses to comply with the ruling, seeking to settle the matter by paying her to leave voluntarily.

Angeline, who has worked at ZESA for more than 26 years and served as Vice President of ZEWU from 2000 and then as its President from 2006, interprets the attempt to remove her as a move to undermine the union that has grown into a vibrant worker driven organization under her leadership.

They see me as a threat because I have been pushing forward workers’ issues but I can’t leave like this.

She adds with a laugh,

I have said that I will accept being pushed out if they honour the 2012 collective bargaining agreement.

Angeline points out that in 2006 ZESA tried to violate the collective bargaining agreement but the difference was the response from workers.

We had the biggest strike that Zesa has ever faced, it was considered illegal because we are categorised as essential services workers and denied the right to strike, but everybody participated and nobody could be victimised.

So what has changed? Angeline speaks of the demobilization of workers through state repression. A particular problem is the restrictions on gatherings that require police clearance. Employers use victimization to manipulate workers, resulting in a decline of worker ideology.

Workers have an ‘each man for himself and God for all’ attitude. Without unity amongst workers, the labour movement is as good as dead in Zimbabwe,

Angeline says.

This has severely undermined the power balance in industrial relations, leaving unions without the ability to mobilize workers on their demands.

Again in 2013, ZEWU and ZESA are unable to reach an agreement in the collective bargaining. ZEWU wants a wage increase in 2013 to be applied to wages that include the gains won in 2012. With limited options available to the union to exert pressure, once again a legal route through arbitration must be pursued.

Through the challenges I have faced in the last year, I have come to appreciate the importance of unity and solidarity. We have come together as unions from diverse sectors at a global level, but we can achieve so much more if we build unity amongst ourselves as affiliates at a country level. This is what I pledge to champion in IndustriALL, this will be my thanks for the support I have received,

concludes Angeline.

SPECIAL REPORT: Rio Tinto unsustainable business practice

SPECIAL REPORT

Text: Glen Mpufane, Armelle Seby

Main photo: IndustriALL Global Union joined a diverse group of civil society activists, NGOs and community-based organizations in London to protest against Rio Tinto and Anglo American unsustainable business practices on the occasion of their Annual General Meetings on 18 and 19 April 2013. Amy Scaife/London Mining Network

In the midst of the worst global recession ever to hit the world in 2008, the mining industry experienced a commodity boom. This boom, driven largely by the growth of India and China, created unprecedented demand for coal, mineral resources and precious stones. Against the background of the financial crisis, mining companies continued to outperform the overall market, as consumer sector dependent on demand from developed economies struggled to recover. Most mining companies came through the crisis with robust balance sheets. However, the mining boom has not delivered for workers – mining is the most unsafe industry in the world, and it is tough work.

The Way we Work, Rio Tinto’s global code of conduct, is promoted as an expression of good corporate citizenry and an expression of the company’s values. Rio Tinto is considered by many ethical business rankings as leading in the mining sector, and it continues to enjoy high accolades by ethical indices such as the FTSE4good ethical share index. Yet Swiss-based REPRISK, a firm specializing in assessing the possible environmental, social, governance and reputational risks of companies, listed Rio Tinto as the sixth most controversial mining company of 2011.

Before being accepted as provider of the metals for the 2012 Olympic medals, Rio Tinto went through an audit and certification process. The company was subsequently the first to be certified as a responsible mining company by the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), an organization of companies in the industry and which includes Rio Tinto as a founding member.
However, the certification attesting to the company’s highest ethical, social, and environmental standards, raises questions about Rio Tinto’s influence over the RJC. The London Olympics organizers were subjected to criticism for choosing Rio Tinto without following service provider protocols for auditing and certification. It also appears to have been a rushed-through process which conveniently made Rio Tinto the first mining company to receive this recognition.

The award was widely condemned by human rights NGOs, as well as by IndustriALL Global Union and its affiliates. IndustriALL joined thousands of activists around the world to vote for Rio Tinto as the worst company linked to the London Olympics in the Greenwash awards.

Direct engagement cuts out trade unions

Rio Tinto prefers to avoid negotiations with mineworkers’ unions and find solutions with the workers themselves instead of having a third party involved. They call the practice direct engagement. As articulated by David Peever, a senior company executive in 2012, legislation must take account of the need for ‘direct engagement between management and the work force’. It is best to limit ‘the influence of third parties in areas of the business in particular that are more properly the province of management.’

Since trade unions fall in the category of third parties, they have no place in Rio Tinto’s world and are perceived as an obstacle and a threat to flexibility and the need for improved productivity. Rio Tinto successfully de-unionised its workforce in Australia in the 1990s, becoming the first major mining company to place its workforce on individual contracts and refuse to deal with unions. At the time, Bell Bay was the first significant plant in Australia to stand without a recognised trade union.

But Industriall affiliate the Australian Workers’ Union, AWU, scored a historic victory by winning back the collective bargaining rights at the Bell Bay plant in 2013. This was the result of two years of strategic and systematic trade union work.

In 2012 events along the same lines unfolded in Alma, Québec, where 780 workers were locked out at an aluminium smelter. Workers were effectively being punished for rejecting management attempts to halve salaries and outsource the workforce. The lock-out lasted for six months, but after taking on the mining giant the United Steelworkers, USW, won the fight and saw a new collective agreement ratified.

In August 2013, Redpath Mongolia, a contractor that employs workers at the Rio Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine owned jointly by Rio Tinto and the Mongolian government, fired about 1,700 workers. The reason for firing the workers was never disclosed but was apparently linked to revenue sharing of the mine with the government of Mongolia. Turquoise Hill Resources, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, announced on 12 August 2013 that until “matters can be resolved with the Mongolian government and a new timetable has been agreed”, the funding and development of the mine’s underground expansion would be delayed. Redpath Mongolia was involved in the building of the underground portion of the mine.

In Australia, Rio Tinto has been involved in a run in with authorities over the future of the Gove alumina refinery in Australia, which employs about 1400 workers. In the midst of negotiations with authorities over the security of energy (gas) supply to the refinery and an apparent rejection of the government’s offer, Rio Tinto subsidiary Pacific Aluminium went ahead and warned Gove workers of an uncertain future. Chief Minister, Adam Giles said, while the Government had been conducting negotiations in good faith with Rio Tinto, “the Northern Territory Government is disappointed Rio Tinto has chosen to scare its employees by discussing curtailment of its Gove refinery before all its options have been exhausted and a final decision has been made”.

In New Zealand, IndustriALL affiliate the New Zealand Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union Incorporated (EPMU), brought a case to the courts that involved New Zealand Aluminium Smelters Limited, a Rio Tinto Alcan majority owned smelter. The company was ordered to pay back workers owed annual leave that they were legally entitled to but never received.

IndustriALL affiliate, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), endured a bitter dispute with Rio Tinto in 2010 at an exclusively owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, the Borax mine in southern California. Rio Tinto attempted to impose new precarious contracts on workers that would have increased overtime, scrapped the seniority system in place at the time, given managers discretion to cut jobs and hours, and with little benefits for the workers. After the ILWU put the issue to a vote that unanimously rejected the new conditions, workers who turned up for work the next day found they were locked out by the company. The ILWU mounted a successful global campaign that forced Rio Tinto to withdraw.

Solidarity actions in Indonesia and Mongolia

In May 2013 the roof on a non-operational underground tunnel collapsed during a training session at the Freeport-McMoran’s Grasberg copper mine in Indonesia killing 28 miners. The accident, which can only be described as an industrial homicide, killed 28 members of CEMWU FSPKEP-SPSI. On 15-18 September, Andrew Vickers, chairperson of the mining sector at IndustriALL and General Secretary of CFMEU in Australia, led a high-level global solidarity mission to Indonesia to lend international support to CEMWU
FSPKEP-SPSI.

The mission included delegates from the United Steelworkers of America and the National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa. During the three days, the mission delegates met with the management of PT Freeport Indonesia, as well as government representatives from the Ministry of Energy, Natural Resources and Minerals, and the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.

We learned with horror that the cause of the accident was that the roof collapsed due to faulty lines along the rooftop and deterioration of ground support bolts. As such no one could be held accountable,

Andrew Vickers says.

The mission’s conclusion, supported by the CEMWU FSPKEP-SPSI, was that the cause of the accident was management negligence. No evidence of inspections or risk assessment performed before the accident could be provided.

Last year Sukhgerel Dugersuren of the Mongolian NGO Oyu Tolgoi Watch, addressed the Rio Tinto AGM on behalf of herders who live around the Oyu Tolgoi mine, saying that Rio Tinto was diverting the Undai River – the sole river that supports life in this Gobi desert region – without local community consent and the necessary government permits. It is on this site that Rio Tinto has chosen to dump its waste rock.

IndustriALL’s recent mission to Mongolia to investigate claims of unethical conduct on the part of Rio Tinto discovered that as a result of a flawed investment agreement signed by a former government, Mongolia will not reap the benefits from the Oyu Tolgoi mine for another 20 to 30 years. The current government is involved in a fierce battle with Rio Tinto to review the terms of that investment agreement.
As described earlier, it is a battle that has resulted in the termination of 1,700 workers.

Rio Tinto and IndustriALL Global Union

IndustriALL finds Rio Tinto being in contravention of both national labour laws and international labour standards, which it claims to subscribe to. In order to address this untenable situation, IndustriALL and its affiliates have created a Global Network composed of its affiliates with a presence at Rio Tinto operations worldwide. The main objective and purpose of the Rio Tinto Global Network is to highlight and combat these violations.

Rio Tinto must be held accountable for its conduct and behaviour. Rio Tinto has enormous resources to drag out disputes with individual trade unions in collective bargaining negotiations. It has resources to lobby for its interests with legislative process that are aimed at addressing some of the excesses of its practices. Rio Tinto succeeds in portraying a practice of good corporate governance and sustainable development.

Workers organized by IndustriALL affiliates have been subject to Rio Tinto’s worsts form of abuse. IndustriALL affiliates have on many occasions, separately and individually, responded to these attacks with the might of organized labour and global solidarity. Organized workers cannot be defeated. In 2014, IndustriALL and its affiliates are coordinating a comprehensive response to Rio Tinto’s unsustainable behaviour. This corporate campaign involves a broad alliance of civil society actors such as NGOs, communities and other global union federations. The objective is to force a seismic shift in Rio Tinto’s relationship and attitude towards trade unions, and to recognize trade unions as formal counterparts.

Rio Tinto and precarious work in Madagascar: a way to avoid responsibilities

Rio Tinto’s actions in Madagascar illustrate the company’s strategy to use outsourcing to reduce operation costs and to escape from its responsibilities as an employer. Communities and workers pay the cost. Rio Tinto’s voluntary commitment to the OECD Guidelines on Multinationals and the UN Guiding principles on Business and Human Rights appears to be a facade. Rio Tinto claims no responsibilities, while this policy generates clear adverse impact in its supply chain.

QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) is a joint venture between Rio Tinto (who owns an 80 per cent stake) and the Government of Madagascar. Since the end of 2008, the joint venture has been producing limonite near Fort Dauphin, in southern Madagascar.
In July 2013, QMM ended its contract with the security company OMEGA Risk Solutions. Instead, they opted for two cheaper security companies, Protech Service and G4S, naming cuts in operation costs as the reason for terminating the contract.

300 workers were collectively dismissed with merely one month’s notice. When IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Fédération des Syndicats des Travailleurs de l’Energie et des Mines (FISEMA), tried to engage in social dialogue with QMM regarding the breach of duties concerning social planning for the dismissed workers, the company’s response was flat – it refused to enter into a dispute as the matter concerned human resource management of a subcontractor.

In August 2013, a regional tripartite labour committee was established to facilitate the dialogue between the workers and OMEGA. As a result of this committee, mediation agreements on the collective labour dispute of former employees of the company OMEGA were concluded. However, representatives of the FISEMA expressed their reservations in relation to the agreement because of procedural irregularities in the process. Regional tripartite labour committees are not allowed to conclude such agreements. In this kind of negotiations workers are allowed to be represented by their elected staff reps. In this case only two reps were participating in the negotiations. The workers’ representatives were not provided with all the relevant contracts and information prior to the process. But maybe more astoundingly, the QMM was not represented as an employer but acted as one of the mediators.

A proposal was made to 85 per cent of the dismissed workers to be hired by the new security companies. It was also proposed that the remaining workers would have access to relevant training. The dismissed workers who are hired by the new security companies are earning 20 per cent less than they were earning when employed by OMEGA. By October 2013, no training had yet been provided to the remaining workers, and these workers are today unemployed with no social planning. There is no longer an on-going social dialogue and OMEGA is no longer present in Fort Dauphin. FISEMA has tried to make an appeal to the Labour Inspectorate and the Labour Court, only to be given the answer that as the employer, OMEGA, is absent there is no possibility of appeal.

The case in Madagascar is a far cry from Rio Tinto’s public commitment to conduct its activities in compliance with environmental, health, safety and the well-being of its employees and the community. A commitment repeated in the establishment convention of QMM: QMM SA undertakes to carry out its various activities in the environmental, health, safety and well-being of its employees and the community.

The case in Madagascar is not an isolated case; Rio Tinto is increasingly resorting to outsourcing, leading to the casualization of labour in many of its operations.

Landmark judgement against Rio Tinto in Mongolian court

A Rio Tinto worker was dismissed for protesting against discrimination over the remuneration paid to Mongolian employees. The unequal remuneration pay between Mongolian nationals and expatriates employed by Rio Tinto translate into a disparity of MNT 3 million for local Mongolian, to MNT 30 million for expatriates a month on average.

The Ministry of Labour has confirmed that Oyu tolgoi and Rio Tinto were in violation of Clause #8.1 of the OT IA “in the most blatant, wanton manner and never made a single step towards enforcing this obligation”. The Supreme Court ruled that the termination of the employment was unjust and unlawful.

The ruling of the Supreme Court was the final arbiter over Rio Tinto’s intransigence and arrogance to refuse two lower court judgements in favour of the employee. Rio Tinto took the matter on appeal to the Supreme Court and lost.

IndustriALL applauds this important victory, and Assistant Secretary General Kemal Özkan says:

This is a huge victory not only for Sainkhuu Gantuya, but for all workers in Mongolia, especially at Oyu Tolgo. This is a significant and important pushback against Rio Tinto, particularly in the context of IndustriALL Global Union’s global corporate campaign against Rio Tinto.

IndustriALL remembers comrades killed at work

On 12 November 2013 protesters clashed with police in Phnom Penh as hundreds of workers from the Singaporean owned SL Garment Processing Factory marched toward the home of the Prime Minister to demand better working conditions. SL Garment supplies brands such as Gap and H&M. This was the latest in a series of outbreaks of worker unrest at factories that produce for European and North American brands. The union, the Coalition of Cambodia Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union, organized the march and said that violence broke out when police tried to stop over a thousand workers from protesting.

Hundreds of riot police were armed with batons and shields and roamed the streets which were littered with rocks and tear gas canisters after the protesters were dispersed. Police rounded up more than a dozen people, including several monks. Officers beat protesters up and left several bleeding.

SL workers have been demonstrating for weeks in a dispute with employers that includes claims of intimidation over the use of military police in factory inspections. Two women have died in two months in violent protests in Cambodia.

Violence against workers is a threat to democracy while they are fighting for their rights. The Second World Women’s Conference organized by the ITUC in Dakar from 19 to 21 November 2013 called for a new ILO Convention to combat violence at work. Unions everywhere are called upon to join together to achieve a new convention to prevent the continuing scourge of violence that women and men suffer at work.

IndustriALL Sub-Saharan Africa Region creates Women’s Committee

One of the main concerns raised by the Committee, was how to reach the many women in the huge continent of Africa. The Committee also wanted to avoid the exclusion of any countries. But as a start the structure was conceived this way, and the women pledged to make it work.

The women’s committee will always meet in connection to the regional executive. The women and indeed the men welcomed the establishment of the structure because that would be one step toward changing the masculine make-up of IndustriALL.

In addition it was agreed to set up national structures to feed into the regional structure. The regional office will need to monitor the national activities. In addition the region was divided up among the office bearers.

Christine Oliver and Jane Ragoo will attend to Southern Africa, Angeline Chitambo and Margaret Ndagile to East and Central Africa and Beauty Zibula and Yuyi Sikanu to West Africa. They are responsible for reporting on challenges and activities in those sub-regions. They will challenge the affiliates to organize women’s activities. Unions have to contribute more to achieve the objectives.

The women saw the following roles for the women’s structure:

On 5 November the women met with some 50 women from IndustriALL’s Nigerian affiliates. There was a fruitful exchange that focused mainly on issues of women’s leadership.

Ethiopian textile workers union empowers women

Mainly of the textile factories have women’s desks. In their introductions the women stated that they wished to fight to solve women’s problems, they wanted to make the most and upgrade women’s skills and organize them. Organizing women in their communities was also a concern.

The workshop worked on the basis of body mapping, work mapping and life mapping. The body mapping showed that the women suffered from ailments that they developed on the job, such as dust. The dust affects their eyesight and their breathing. The women got headaches from the noise and the chemical fumes. They had trouble picking up heavy loads. The factory union needs to learn to take women’s health issues seriously and find a solution with management.

In most cases men and women work together on the shop floor. In general the machines that are more sophisticated are run by men. The women felt that they were receiving the same pay as the men. The women  accumulated their working skills through training and also experience. Because of this a seniority bonus is paid. Often the women were forced to work overtime. This is more a problem for women since women’s time is hard to break down between working time and family time. The women have the impression that nowadays the husbands are starting to help their wives, for example by taking the children to school or picking them up.

The women did a series of role plays. They learned about negotiations and convincing the husbands to spend more time at home in one role play. Another one focused on sexual harassment. The third one concentrated on how trade unions decide on what to prioritize in negotiations, whether they should go for more maternity pay or for higher wages for the men. In another role play the women acted out how women’s committees work on women’s leadership.

There was an extensive discussion of sexual harassment. This is a rampant problem in the textile industry in Ethiopia. It has to be emphasized that sexual harassment is first and foremost an abuse of power, it has little to do with beauty or attraction. In general the women realized that when they had unity and openness, when they went to the union with their problem, it was easier to come up with a solution. Strength and solidarity are determining factors in overcoming the problem. In certain cases IndustriAll can also put pressure on multinationals to put a stop to harassment throughout the supply chain.

The women committed themselves to passing on what they learned to their work colleagues and to the women around them. They want to agitate and translate what they learned. They understood that solidarity would help them achieve their goals. They appreciated the method because it can be used anywhere and even during power cuts. The women returned to their homes and workplaces feeling more empowered as leaders.

7000 South African mineworkers to strike

The NUM demands an increase of R2,100 for core workers and R2,000 for non-core workers. The company has responded with a meagre 6,5 per cent for non-core and 7 per cent for core workers. The NUM has rejected these offers.

“We reached a dispute, went to the CCMA [Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration] and failed to find an amicable solution. We went further to propose another facilitator, the renowned labour lawyer Charles Nupen, but we still failed,” says Ecliff Tantsi, the NUM ’s National  Secretary for Education and Chief Negotiator at Northam Platinum.

The NUM further demands that the current living out allowance be increased to R3718.

“We are now determined to strike at Northam simply to deal with the company ‘s arrogance” says Tantsi.

Burkina Faso Actions

In Burkina Faso, IndustriALL affiliate, the Fédération Nationale des Travailleurs du Textile, de l'Habillement et du Cuir – FNTTHC, took action against precarious work in SOFITEX, one of the largest companies in the textile sector in Burkina Faso.

SOFITEX employs more than 4,000 workers and 2100 are seasonal and work in precarious conditions with temporary contracts of 5 months. In addition 1,000 workers employed through an external agency work without a contract or a decent salary.

The FNTTHC has sent a list of demands to the company requesting enter into meaningful negotiation with the worker representatives and to regularize the growing number of precarious workers in SOFITEX.

Cameroon Actions

IndustriALL affiliate in Cameroon, The Syndicat National Autonome des Travailleurs de l'Energie et de l'Eau du Cameroon (SYNATEEC), mobilized their members on 7 October on the occasion of the World Day For Decent Work. Meetings and seminars were held to discuss the growing issue of precarious work and find solutions to combat the problem.

Workshop on organizing

The workshop was attended by regional staff and project coordinators as well as representatives from three affiliated unions; Tanzanian general union Tuico and textile unions Sactwu from South Africa) and the NUTGTWN from Nigeria. Affiliates shared practical experiences of organising with examples of challenges faced and how the union overcame these. Project coordinators outlined current initatives, highlighting how these incorporated organising.

Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL, Fernando Lopes outlined the principles on which organising work should be conducted at country level, these includes, ensuring that there is no competition between affiliates for membership, that affiliates cooperate in joint activities and that sustainability of affiliates is promoted. Affiliates should include in their organising plans specific effort to organise women, youth, precarious workers and white collar workers. Unions need to collect information on companies in order to develop strategic plans for organising that includes tactics to reduce the risk of victimisation of newly recruited members and other union busting activities. Growing union membership should be seen as the first step of organising, followed by capacity building efforts that ensure structures are put in place for functioning worker democracy in the union.

Sub regional specific strategies were developed to establish organising as a priority in IndustriALL activities and projects. These included supporting affiliates to develop plans and capacity to organise workers, conduct mapping exercises in certain countries and developing targets for union growth.