Sactwu stands firm on collective bargaining rights

The Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union has responded to the ruling saying that the ruling does not set aside the minimum wage regime in the clothing industry. It also does not mean that non compliant companies now have the right to negotiate outside of the bargaining council system.  Sactwu General Secretary Andre Kriel stated, “For us, the bargaining council remains the only place where we intend to bargain. There will be no negotiations outside this forum.”

Whilst the ruling does not mean that the Minister will no longer in future be able to extend a bargaining council agreement to non-parties, it may set a bad industrial relations legal precedent.  The ruling comes a week after the Free Market Foundation, an organization promoting free market ideals, filed a constitutional challenge against the provisions of the Labour Relations Act that allows collective agreements made in bargaining councils to be extended to employers and employees who are not members of the councils.

“This brutal attack against our country’s democratically legislated industrial relations system, in particular its collective bargaining architecture, cannot be left unchallenged," said Kriel, speaking of the challenge. “We will mobilize to resist the reactionary, right wing economic and destructive intentions of the Free Market Foundation. Their intentions are not of any goodwill. It is nothing other than to create more and more exploitative conditions of vulnerable workers, to militate against our nation’s stated vision of decent work and to unleash a race to the bottom.”

Encouraging women activists in Ivory Coast

167 women workers from the oil and textile sector attended the conference on 15 March 2013 to encourage increased participation of women in the union. Two women activists received an award recognising their contribution to their union, which will hopefully inspire activism among others.

Project Coordinator Charlotte Nguessan urged women to participate in programs to combat HIV and AIDS in their places of work and in the family, in particular addressing stigma and discrimination. She spoke of how women are often rejected by their families when they test positive and the negative impact of denial on the take up of treatment to prevent mother to child transmission. Nguessan suggested that partners need to be encouraged to go for testing together when a woman is pregnant.

There was also an information session on the new Marriage Act in Ivory Coast presented by two representatives of the Association of Women Lawyers. The law has advantages for men and women. It allows for men to benefit from the pension of his wife upon her death. It has also reduced income tax levels for married women with children and workers have already seen their wages increase as a result of the new law.

Building Gender Structure in SINTIME, Module 5 and Final Evaluation

In Mozambique the final workshop of the project on building gender structures in the National Union of Metal; Metal-Mechanic and Energy Workers in Mozambique (SINTIME) ended on 15 March with a decision to continue and further develop this project.

In discussions with CAW, Canada and IndustriALL head office, Paulo Cayres, CNM-CUT President and Marli Melo do Nacimiento National Women’s Secretary, have proposed to host a study visit in Brazil of a group of participants, to further complete their training and provide them with practical experience of the daily union work.

Conducted by the CNM-CUT, the project is a result of international support from the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and IndustriALL in close cooperation with SINTIME. The goal of this project, which involves 25 women workers from our affiliate in Mozambique, is to transmit the experience of the Brazilian metalworkers in developing democratic gender structures at all levels of their union.

As Paolo Cayres, CNM-CUT President says:

It has been a fantastic experience, we have not come to “educate” women, we came to exchange experiences with our Mozambican comrades; in a certain sense, we are returning the solidarity that we received in the past from CAW and IndustriALL to develop the Brazilian women workers’ structures, which has greatly assisted CNM-CUT to advance equal rights and become an example for workers in other countries.

The project started in September 2011 and several top Brazilian women leaders have travelled to Mozambique to work on topics such as women and the labour movement, gender, trade union and human rights, women workers’ health, collective bargaining and women in the labour market.

The project seeks to respond to the difficulties expressed by the young women workers in Mozambique regarding their daily difficulties at work, the lack of opportunity to study and advance as a trade unionist, in addition to the lack of training on National and International labour standards which protect women workers.  SINTIME’s leadership has committed to continue supporting this project by continuing to involve these women participants in all other union building activities. CNM-CUT has further agreed to support SINTIME by sending union leaders to Mozambique to participate in organising drives that the union is carrying out this year.

Fernando Lopes, IndustriALL AGS, warmly thanked the participants and the CNM-CUT leadership for their commitment and hard work,

this is precisely the kind of fruitful South-South cooperation that IndustriALL hopes to develop with more affiliates in the future.

South African Unilever workers’ solidarity for Dutch colleagues

The Dutch workers, including cleaners, catering workers, security and receptionists, are members of fellow affiliate of IndustriALL Global Union, FNV Bondgenoten. The Anglo-Dutch food and chemical giant Unilever signed a deal with Sodexo in 2012 over the outsourcing of the company’s facility management services in Europe. Unilever rejected key demands of the Dutch workers being transferred to Sodexo to maintain core benefits including pensions and work guarantees.

South African workers at Unilever, members of the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union, CEPPWAWU, stopped work in Boksburg from 1pm on 15 March and all day on 18 March urging Unilever management to negotiate a reasonable transfer agreement with FNV Bondgenoten.

The other reason for the Boksburg action is that a draft recognition agreement has recently been proposed by the local Unilever Boksburg management to be implemented, bringing serious changes to job classification and re-evaluation of the general operator position.

A CEPPWAWU shop steward at Unilever stated:

Also the solidarity action was an opportunity to show management our strength and unity given the current challenges that we are facing in South Africa. Amongst our challenges are concerns of salary cuts being implemented as part of restructuring efforts which effectively is a demotion of certain grades of workers, who carry on doing the same job as before.

Kemal Özkan, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union conveyed the International’s full support to the Boksburg workers’ strike action.

Unilever is a giant global conglomerate of consumer products, whose profits continue to rise. However trade unions throughout the world are being targeted with increased pressure from the employer, in a concerning global trend. International trade union networking of Unilever workers is acting to respond to this new aggression. 

Retrenchment deal softens the blow at Rio Tinto Rossing

“We have raised the bar in Namibia on how retrenchments should be handled with this case at Rossing” said acting General Secretary Jackie Karumbo. Management at Rossing embarked on the retrenchment exercise with the involvement of the union through a transparent process. Once workers accepted that retrenchment proposal due to affect almost a quarter of the workforce was a last resort measure, the union was able to negotiate favourable settlement packages, improving on the initial offer made to workers.

The final agreement exceeds legal minimum requirements for retrenchments in Namibia that only stipulates severance pay of one week wages for every year of service. Retrenched workers will receive three weeks wages for every year served as severance pay plus three months notice pay, pro rata thirteenth cheque, commutation of leave and a farewell donation. Medical aid benefits will remain in place for a period of four months after the retrenchment date.

In addition, retrenched workers have been offered three months training at a local technical college paid for by the company to improve skills that will hopefully assist workers when seeking future employment. They will also be entitled to remain in company housing for six months or receive six months housing allowance if they choose to leave immediately. Retrenched workers will be receive two months pay to assist with relocation on their departure.

Currently a voluntary separation exercise is taking place at Rossing and the union is assisting workers to understand their individual packages so that they can make an informed decision. MUN hopes the exercise will drastically reduce the number of workers that will be involuntarily subjected to retrenchments.

Karumbo says that MUN has learnt valuable lessons from negotiating the retrenchments. “We are not advocating retrenchments but one can not deny that retrenchments will happen in tough times. As unions we need to be proactive and ensure we have negotiated proper retrenchment policies in companies during good times. Companies need to put money away as part of their risk management for when the day comes that the company has to retrench, we hope it never comes but if does then the burden on workers is lessened.” 

Unity and cooperation encouraged in Zimbabwe

The main objective of the workshop held over three days in March 2013 with senior leadership was to understand the union building project and establish common areas of work for the Zimbabwean affiliates. Project coordinator, Paule Ndessomin discussed with participants the IndustriALL 10 point plan and how this could be adapted to the work that would be done with affiliates under the union building project.

The workshop also incorporated training on the principles of financial management. Whilst participants understood the importance of building financially strong organizations, they all face challenging financial issues. There were robust discussions on the survival of trade unions in Zimbabwe in the worsening economic situation. Many employers are under financial stress and have not been paying deductions of membership dues to the union. Unions are receiving as little as 20 per cent of dues owed to them making it difficult to operate at full capacity.

Several of the Zimbabwean affiliates are working towards mergers as an opportunity for unions to build financial and organizational strength. This will aid them in representing workers and defending worker rights in a politically and economically strenuous environment. 

Sustainable unionism discussed in Cote d’Ivoire

This was Ndessomin’s first visit to Cote d’Ivoire, one of the 11 countries involved in the HIV and AIDS project. The purpose of the visit was to discuss the objectives and implementation of the project.

Ndessomin stressed the importance of HIV and AIDS workplace policies and encouraged leadership involvement as a key component to the success of these initiatives that can contribute to organizing efforts. She also emphasized the need to build strong and sustainable unions that fight for workers’ rights at the workplace and are financial viable entities that can pay their dues to IndustriALL.

The meeting was attended by 15 leaders of affiliated unions SYNTEPC, SYNTRACUMPRA and SYNTTHACI. Also attending the meeting were other unions interested in joining IndustriALL. Ndessomin spoke about how the IndustriALL merger came about and practical matters of affiliation. She also spoke of unity that has been created through the merger at International level and how unity could also be achieved in Cote d’Ivoire, encouraging affiliates to set the pace for possible mergers. 

IndustriALL marks Global Women's Day

Women of Steel has more than 5,000 activists across North America. More and more women head USW departments. Women are still behind in earning power and economic security. Nevertheless women get more college and graduate degrees than men. In 2010 the wage gap was 77 cents out of every dollar earned by men, and the gap even widened in 2012. Two-thirds of minimum wage earners are women. This translates into a staggering 17 million people who would directly benefit if the minimum wage rose. 60 percent of social security recipients are women. All of this indicates why austerity and budget cuts affect women first and worst.

The conference was conducted mostly in workshops which ranged from topics relating to political influence to union contracts to making the union more inclusive. The United States is one of the countries in the world with the highest rate of infant and maternal mortality. This could be remedied by allowing women to take paid maternity leave. Maternity leave and family benefits can be achieved through collective bargaining, and USW has sample language on these issues.

The USW invited women to the conference where the union has built alliances around the world. These included women from Unite the Union, UK, NUM, South Africa, the FMM-CFDT, France and the AWU, Australia. The women all took part in an international panel on the last day which was facilitated by USW Vice-President Carol Landry.

When it comes to gender equality, Germany lags behind. The pay gap in Germany averages 23 per cent. The reasons for it are manifold – women often work part-time or in mini jobs or in sectors which pay less and where the outlook is not so positive, it is still women who do the lion’s share of household chores, and they interrupt their paid jobs to look after children or elderly relatives. The result is that women are rarely able to stand on their own two feet economically, to support their own families or to accumulate a pension to live in dignity in old age.

That is why IGBCE and IG Metall demanded this year on 8th March:

IndustriALL participated in Women’s Day events in Kathmandu, Nepal on 8 March. National centre GEFONT organized a 600-participant gathering marking Women’s Day with new policy prioritizing the empowerment of women.

On 7-8 March all IndustriALL’s Colombian affiliates celebrated Women’s Day in a national conference. The major trend facing women workers in Colombia is an increasing amount of women working from home. This recent shift is seen as a new tactic by capital to reduce women workers’ ability to organize and struggle collectively.

Simultaneous activities were carried out at the Associated Labor Unions (ALU) national and regional offices in the Philippines on 8 March 2013 in observance of International Women’s Day. A total of 610 men, women and children from the National Capital, Southern Mindanao and Central Visayas regions participated.

ALU has been involved in women empowerment for years and has actively participated in policy formulation and advocacy work, together with coalition partners from all fronts. Information and experiences from members and communities are used to support ALU’s advocacy campaigns. Policy gains are returned to the ground in the form of programs and direct services, where possible, as a matter of policy. 

And finally, women’s organizations in Egypt celebrated International Women’s Day with events that included a march to demand a halt to violence in general and against women at demonstrations in particular, as well as calling for support for women in political life and including them as partners on an equal footing. 

Mauritian unions mobilize against increasing casualization of labor in the private sector

IndustriALL affiliate the CMCTEU (Chemical Manufacturing and Connected Trades Employees Union) has launched a campaign to recruit precarious workers in all manufacturing sectors. Within two years the union has managed to triple its membership by recruiting 3,000 contract workers. The CMCTEU and the CTSP (Workers Confederation of Private Sector) have become key players in Mauritian social dialogue.

We have developed creative strategies to organize precarious workers in order to be more representative and bargain effectively. Yet the battle is not over. Our torturers are actively organizing against us. Our success lies in our capacity to organize workers.

Reeaz Chutto, CMCTEU

In 2010, the CMCTEU amended its status in order to be able to recruit contract workers who represent the majority of private sector employees. The union, which has participated in the IndustriALL precarious work project since 2009, has developed innovative initiatives to overcome casual workers’ fear of joining a union. Fifteen volunteers were trained to go to workplaces and approach precarious workers who began to discretely contact the union to get more information. The CMCTEU meets with them during the weekends and has developed specific services. Two new staff members have been employed to mainly deal with precarious workers’ issues. The membership fee for precarious workers has been set at a symbolic 1 Rupee (instead of 50 Rupees). The union has also created community banking services, accessible to contract workers and their families. Free computer training is also offered to precarious workers.

The CMCTEU denounces particularly the feminization of precarious work in Mauritius. Precarious work is more prevalent in sectors such as the textile industry where female labor predominates. Therefore the CMCTEU have trained many female union leaders to respond adequately to the needs of women precarious workers. To date, 24 per cent of union members are women. The union also works with foreign workers who account for more than 35,000 of workers in Mauritius on precarious contracts, without social protection.

The increase in the number of union members and its ability to mobilize thousands of workers to demonstrate in the street has considerably strengthened the CMCTEU’s bargaining power. Since October 2011, no less than 15 collective agreements have been signed by the CMCTEU and its sister unions also affiliated to the CTSP, securing equal pay for contract workers doing similar work to permanent workers. One of the main preoccupations of the CMCTEU has been the health and safety of precarious workers who represent the majority of the victims of work accidents in the manufacturing sectors. In 2011, the union secured an agreement with several employers stipulating that workers with 12 months or less of service should not be exposed to very hazardous work, unless trained by a competent person.

Their increased strength has helped the CMCTEU and the CTSP to achieve positive results not only for precarious workers. In December 2012, thanks to an important mobilization, trade unions succeeded in postponing the adoption of a government proposal to further deregulate the labor market and undermine the power of unions. The fight continues. Major mobilizations are planned in March against the “anti-worker laws” in Mauritius.

South African state utility hit hard by strikes

Poor industrial relations are contributing to the already long delays in completing Medupi needed to address power supply concerns in the country, with the first power from the station still expected to come on line by the end of the year. Strike action started in January when some workers protested the calculation of their year end bonuses. Workers are also unhappy with some of the terms of the project labour agreement.

Eskom responded by closing the site shortly after the strike started, which worsened the situation as others joined in aggrieved by the lockout, an action that was challenged in court by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa). The strike has had some violent protests and a number of workers have been arrested.

Unions organising at Medupi, including the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Numsa, reached an agreement with site contractors, through the intervention of the Minister of Public Enterprises Malusi Gigaba. Eskom ended the lockout on 6 March. However failure to meet the terms of the agreement resulted in workers downing tools again, days after the agreement which was signed on 8 March.

Eskom’s power supply is facing a more immediate threat, having to rely on coal stockpiles as a result of unprotected strikes at six coal mines of one of its major suppliers Exxaro Resources. More than 3,500 coal miners have downed tools as they did not receive their bonuses, usually paid in February, on the basis that production targets have not been met.

The NUM supports the demands of striking Exxaro workers as they were not made aware of production targets and bonuses at the company have never been linked to targets in the past. The strike, if not resolved quickly, could affect three stations that generate 20 per cent of South Africa’s power.