Membership audit at AngloGold vindicates Tanzanian union

Management at Geita Gold Mine owned by AngloGold has disputed the membership figures of Tanzania Mines, Energy, Construction and Allied Workers Union (Tamico), leading to a protracted struggle since 2004 at a branch level for recognition and resulted in the dismissal of the branch chairman and secretary. Through the intervention of IndustriALL Global Union, who has a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with AngloGold, the two were reinstated and AngloGold agreed to resolve labour relations issues at the mine.

Using the GFA, IndustriALL was able to argue that Geita management was violating the clause on trade union rights through union bashing and victimisation of members that were put under pressure to resign from the union. The GFA supported Tamico to gain credibility amongst workers to champion their issues and gain recognition.

AngloGold Ashanti engaged Ernst & Young to conduct the membership audit, which concluded that over 50 per cent of 1,525 employees at the mine are Tamico members thus the union meets the legal requirement to represent all workers in negotiating with management over salaries and working conditions.

“The Ernst & Young audit report vindicates Tamico’s  long battle and signals a new era of worker representation and access with full organisational rights,” says Kenny Mogane, regional project officer for IndustriALL. “This means that Tamico can now work towards the improvement of working conditions at Geita.”

Lively debate strengthens IndustriALL’s trade union networks and GFAs

The conference was in unanimous agreement on the importance of trade union networks as central tools to build trade union power and solidarity. While some networks have been born out of struggle and are a long way away from culminating in a GFA, others have operated well in certain regions but encountered communications and inclusion challenges elsewhere.

IndustriALL President Berthold Huber opened the conference. “Our central task is to enforce minimum social standards in order to make globalization more humane. We are negotiating with companies on Global Framework Agreements so as to implement minimum conditions in all locations of the company and in their supply chains,” he said.

On the issue of trade union networks, IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Kemal Ozkan added, “We must strategically choose target companies for building networks and genuine global union solidarity. Then the global union should be able create the infrastructure with the full involvement of affiliates as the real owners of the network.”

Experience and policy differs between member trade unions regarding GFAs and the thematic conference was important in developing ways forward for IndustriALL to strengthen practices that improve existing agreements and the process of signing new ones.

The conference identified some problems around the joint ownership of agreements and the need for a more inclusive, transparent standardized process to establish new agreements.

The conference reached unanimous agreement on a number of clear recommendations to the IndustriALL Executive Committee to be held in December. The recommendations include:

Also, IndustriALL will now structure its world sector conferences differently and couple them with breakout company specific meetings. Identified target company networks will be built and developed through this new practice.

The conference was successful in clarifying areas that need improvement in the GFA and trade union network activity of IndustriALL, and was successful in reaching agreed proposals to make those improvements.

The world conference was held upon invitation of IG Metall on 17-18 October in Frankfurt, with around 150 participants from more than 30 countries, representing all regions and industrial sectors, with FES support.

Implats target of Num march

In January 2012, workers at Impala Platinum went on an unprotected strike, in protest to the company taking a unilateral decision to give some workers an 18 per cent increase. The increase was given outside of the collective bargaining structure and without the involvement of Num. The six week strike was finally resolved through negotiation with Num for an across the board increase of 18 per cent.

However, the action of Impala Platinum resulted in mine workers in other companies making demands outside of the collective bargaining process and pressurising mining companies to bargain outside the established and recognised structures. This was the issues behind the Lonmin strike and subsequent labour unrest that has claimed the lives of at least 70 people so far.

Two forces were at play here, a rival union looking to make inroads and opportunistic behaviour of mining companies, described by Num spokesperson Lesiba Seshoko as “motivated by divide and rule tactics, to ensure that workers have no confidence in the union”.

These two forces have been enabled by violence and intimidation that has gone unchecked at Impala Platinum. According to Seshoko, “Impala has done nothing to address the violence, even allowing workers to carry guns and other weapons to work. Our Num office at Impala was violently closed in January and remains closed in the current atmosphere of intimidation. What’s more is that Impala has taken no disciplinary action against perpetrators.” Num demands that the security issues at Impala Platinum are immediately addressed to end the violence and intimidation and reopen the Num offices.    

Impala Platinum has also publically spoken of a decline in Num membership in the company from 70 per cent to 13 per cent but has backed out of a verification process. Num alleges that workers have been forced to resign their membership and join the rival union and has demanded an independent verification exercise, in the absence of intimidation, to establish their representation at the mine. 

NEWU commemorates world day for decent work

NEWU joined the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) in a day of community service, cleaning a clinic. In his address to the workers after the clean-up, the ZCTU General Secretary, Japhet Moyo said that millions of Zimbabweans have lost all hope of securing employment and those few that are lucky, are mostly engaged in precarious work. He added that the demand for salaries and wages above the poverty datum line is an ongoing struggle for Zimbabwean workers.

On this day, NEWU joined the ZCTU in demanding salaries above the $600.00 (which is the PDL) and job security, which also affects the engineering sector. Most employers are underpaying their workers and resort to using casual labour in a bid to evade paying workers their full benefits, leaving workers with no job security. NEWU reports that some workers go to work everyday but with no guarantee receiving their wages at the end of the month.

The non remittance of union dues, deducted from workers salaries by employers, has also affected the union. This is crippling the union’s finances and affecting its service delivery to its members.

In the last two years, the union has failed to reach an agreement through wage negotiations or arbitration, leaving workers with no choice but resort to industrial action in the future. 

Murder of unionists condemned as labour unrest spreads in South Africa’s mines

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) reports that at Num’s Western Platinum branch, the secretary and chairperson were killed in separate targeted incidents and whilst a third branch leader escaped, his wife was killed. A relative of a NUM shop steward was also shot and killed at the shop steward’s home in what seems to be a case of mistaken identity. At another NUM branch, the chairperson was seriously injured after his house was torched and in the West Rand a shop steward was dragged from his room and shot at close range.
 
In a letter to NUM, IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina, expressed his shock and horror for what he describes as, “the spate of callous and cowardly murderous attacks on members of the NUM in the aftermath of the Marikana tragedy.”
 
Cosatu also reports that five Num members, two of them shop stewards, were killed in violence associated with a strike at Lonmin`s platinum mine in Marikana between 10-16 August, and of the 34 people shot dead by police on 16 August, 14 were NUM members. On 11 September, a third NUM shop steward, Dumisani Mthinti, was found hacked to death near the scene of this shooting.
 
“IndustriALL Global Union sends a message of condolence to the families, friends and fellow-workers of those that lost their lives and calls for the speedy arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators responsible for these chillingly brutal and barbaric acts of murder,” writes Raina. “We reiterate our unconditional solidarity support to the NUM in all its endeavours to resolve this most trying challenge to its admirable historic legacy of unstinting struggle for a better live for mineworkers and their families.”
 
According to current estimates, 80,000 to 100,000 platinum and gold miners are on strike, a consequence of negotiating the Lonmin settlement outside of the bargaining process, which has emboldened other workers, who face similar hardships to seek better wages and conditions and unprotected strikes have spread like wild fire. This is not a result of weakness in trade union representation but rather, of workers emotively and reactively pushing back on exploitation in the mining sector that has resisted transformation.  
 
Even with global scrutiny, some mining companies have remained business as usual in their approach to industrial relations. Anglo Platinum has been opportunistic, taking advantage of this trying time for labour to cut its workforce at its marginal Rustenburg operations. On 5 October, Anglo Platinum fired 12,000 workers engaged in an unprotected strike at its Rustenburg operations. 
 
Its motives for the pre-emptive suspensions of the Rustenburg operations on 11 September citing the current volatile situation in the area, which was in fact a lock out that encouraged the strike, are also questionable. Now the company laments publicly that the three week strike has meant huge revenue losses, but it does not speak of its savings on operating costs for the period and on workers bonuses that it will not need to pay. In the meantime, the supply constraint has meant that the price of platinum has risen while the rand has been weakened. All of this is good news for platinum producers including Anglo Platinum, increasing the profitability of the sector. 
 
 

UGANDA ACTIONS

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate the Uganda Textile, Garments, Leather and Allied Workers' Union (UTGLWU) mobilized branches to create awareness on the STOP Precarious Work campaign.

FID challenges IAM Gold dismissals in Burkina Faso

The dismissal, which includes 14 shop stewards, is part of a long battle for better working conditions at the mine. In October 2011, workers demanded, amongst other things, overtime pay for workers that had clocked in more than 80 hours per week, fulltime contracts for workers that had more than two years of service at the company and an allowance for dirt, quarter and dust.

After no response from IAM Gold to the demands, workers went on strike in December 2011, which was abandoned after three days at the request of government. IAM Gold responded to the strike by suspending three quarters of the workforce and in 2012, gradually reinstated all but the 74 that were dismissed.

Initially IAM Gold tried to dismiss the workers but permission for the dismissal was denied by the labour inspector, hence the suspension. As the strike was legal, there was no basis for the dismissals or the suspensions, which in any case contravened the labour law in Burkina Faso that provides for a maximum 8 days suspension period.

Attempts by the union to have suspended workers reinstated were ignored and the matter was referred for conciliation. After six sessions, the dispute was not resolved and IAM Gold dismissed the remaining 74 suspended workers. The matter has now been referred to the labour court.  

“The actions of IAM Gold are violations of a number of international labour rights including the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike,” says IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina

The reprehensible behaviour of this multinational has not escaped our attention and we demand that IAM Gold reinstate these victimised workers and urgently address poor working conditions at the mine.

Landmark victory for UWUL in Liberia

This is the first time in the history of Liberia that workers in Grand Gedeh County are to be represented by a trade union. The mine currently employs 580 workers but this is expected to grow to 2,600 by mid 2013.

David Sackoh, General Secretary of UWUL acknowledges the solidarity support his union has received, in particular from United Steelworkers and the Solidarity Centre.

"We want to use this opportunity to express our profound thanks and appreciation to all our partners who supported our organizing campaign in Putu," said Sackoh. "These brothers and sisters have worked with us over the past 7 years to build a useful labour movement in post war Liberia, and wish to encourage you to continue in the spirit of solidarity."

Reacting to the good news, USW International Vice President, Fred Redmond said “The USW extends its congratulations to the members of UWUL who have achieved a landmark collective bargaining agreement which ensures that the people who create the wealth through their hard work will share in the prosperity."

"These achievements are only possible when workers come together and organize and UWUL is leading the way in Liberia when it comes to building power for its members." said Redmond. "Through our joint work the USW and UWUL will continue to build a global labour movement that can demand fair treatment from transnational companies.”

Unions around the world mobilize against precarious work

Unions around the world have joined IndustriALL’s global campaign to STOP Precarious Work. From Argentina to Mali and from Palestine to Germany workers voices are being heard loud and clear.  Workers have taken to the streets in Burkina Faso, Colombia, Guinea, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan , Mali, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Thailand and many other countries. Elsewhere, unions raised awareness of the issues with their members, debated union responses to precarious work and sent letters to their governments demanding action. In many cases, affiliates have been successful in getting national media coverage of their actions. Click here to see where unions have been taking action. 

On 2 October, IndustriALL’s report ‘The Triangular Trap’ was released, attacking the massive expansion of the use of agency work and demanding direct employment. Unions have started using “The Triangular Trap” to inform their members and the public of this global threat to workers’ rights, and to strengthen their demands on government and employers.

In Australia, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) President Ged Kearney said that IndustriALL’s report showed how job agencies around the world were lobbying government to make it easier to cut workers rights.

In Turkey the report is being translated into Turkish by IndustriALL affiliate Petrol-Is for wide distribution to union members, while 36 members of the Textile, Knitting and Garment Industry Workers’ Union (TEKSIF) who were recently dismissed from Texim textile factory in Istanbul distributed the press release on the report to the workers at the factory.

Meanwhile, affiliates of IndustriAll European Trade Union responded to its call to  “stand up for industry as the bedrock of the European economy” in a mobilization from 8-12 October. News of actions has been pouring in from unions in Europe. The full list of participating countries can be seen here.

Arthur Svensson`s International Prize 2013 is open for nominations

The International Prize for trade union rights was established in 2010 by Industri Energi (IE), IndustriALL Global Union affiliate in Norway, with the aim to promote and strengthen trade unions and trade union rights internationally. The prize is granted annually based on proposals from trade unions around the world. The prize is worth NOK 500,000 (approximately US$87,000).

The deadline for nominations is 31 January 2013.

Nominations can be submitted in Norwegian, English, French or Spanish by completing the form on the webpage http://www.svenssonprize.com/nomination/ or by writing to Committee Secretary Espen Løken (IE) at [email protected] or via fax: +47 23 06 13 60.

Since its creation in 2010 there were three winners of the prize. In 2010, the award was given to Wellington Chibebe in expression of deep respect to his fearless commitment to labour rights and democracy in Zimbabwe.

In 2011, the winner was ShaherSae´d, Secretary General of Palestine General Federation of Trade Union (PGFTU) who made substantial input in the fight for trade union rights in Palestine.

The most recent award in 2012, was granted to the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (C.CAWDU) in respect to their persistent grass root struggle and mass mobilization for better pay and working conditions in the Cambodian clothing industry.