STOP Precarious Work mobilization, October 2012

Affiliates from all regions and representing all the industries that make up IndustriALL have recognized precarious work as a common threat to workers’ rights throughout the world that must be resisted. The mobilization around October 7 was significant as the first occasion that IndustriALL affiliates have united globally in a common action.

Affiliate actions
Altogether, 150 affiliates from 46 countries reported taking part in what was a truly global action. Workers took to the streets in Burkina Faso, Colombia, Guinea, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan , Mali, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Thailand and many other countries. Affiliates reported on actions which varied from distribution of campaign materials in workplaces and thematic conferences to demands on government, flash mobs, public hearings and mass mobilisations in marches and rallies.

The full list of affiliate actions plus many inspiring photos can be seen on the IndustriALL website, as well as on Flickr. The photos show unionists around the world mobilizing under the IndustriALL banner. The poster and leaflet created for the campaign were translated into more than 14 languages and were widely used by affiliates to send a strong message to governments, employers and the public that unions are united in their opposition to precarious work. News of the actions was carried on Facebook and Twitter and A STOP Precarious Work Cause page on Facebook was supported by over 1700 people.

Reflecting the spirit of unity in which IndustriALL was founded, affiliates in a number of countries came together in joint actions under the banner of IndustriALL. Many affiliates were also able to influence their national centres to take up the fight against precarious work for their actions on the World Day for Decent Work, further strengthening the IndustriALL campaign. Affiliates also reported significant success in gaining national media coverage of their actions.

‘The Triangular Trap’
On October 2, IndustriALL released ‘The Triangular Trap: Unions take action against agency labour’ as part of the campaign. This report attacks the massive expansion of employment via agencies, labour brokers, dispatchers and contractors and the wholesale replacement of permanent, direct employment. It exposes the lobbying efforts of the global agency industry body Ciett to remove legal restrictions on agency work, and draws heavily on the experiences of IndustriALL affiliates.

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. It is available in English, French, Spanish and Turkish on the IndustriALL website, or in hard copy on request.

The struggle continues at Zesa

Lopes met with the Minister of Energy and the CEO of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) to discuss ongoing labour rights violations at ZESA that suspended 135 workers on 17 July 2011 for allegedly threating to strike.

Whilst workers have been reinstated, three workers, facing the same charges as the rest, have been dismissed and have not been granted appeal hearings. Most of the workers that have returned to work, after being suspended for more than two months, have not received pay for their suspension period. 

Angeline Chitambo, ZEWU President and an IndustriALL Executive Committee member, has been dismissed by ZESA without a fair hearing. Another ZEWU leader, Dennis Mukote remains suspended. 

ZESA also continues to disregard an arbitration ruling, which entitles workers to a fair wage increase and is central to the current labour issues at ZESA. ZESA’s further challenge in court of the impartiality of the arbitrator is a transparent attempt to undermine the arbitration process in an attempt to nullify the wage increase that has been awarded to workers.

Lopes stressed that the violation of hard won worker and trade union rights would not be allowed to go unchallenged. He urged the Minister of Energy to intervene to ensure that the issues are resolved and warned both the Ministry and Zesa that if the issues were still ongoing at the time of the Executive Committee meeting in December, IndustriALL would rally up support to ramp up its campaign. 

Since the meetings, Zewu reports that there have been discussions between the Ministry and Zesa and that the union remains hopeful that the issues will be resolved. The union is waiting for a date set by Zesa to appeal the dismissal of Chitambo. It has been agreed that Makote’s case will be heard by an arbitrator. Zewu has also taken the matter of the 3 dismissed workers to the Ministry of Labour, citing unfair labour practice.

Whilst Zesa is still pursuing a high court challenge of the arbitration award, Zewu has laid criminal charges for contempt of court against Zesa managers for failing to apply the arbitration ruling.  

“It is going to end” says Assistant General Secretary Mbonisi Sibanda “but the journey ahead is still long, tough and very thorny”.

MUZ leaders commit to union rebuilding

The three day workshop, on 30 October to 1 November in Kitwe, gave branch leaders the opportunity to reflect on the challenges that the union faces and to come up with strategies to address these.

One of the biggest challenges is the proliferation of small unions since the privatization of the mining industry in Zambia, a situation that seemed to be encouraged during the previous regime. This has resulted in three or four unions competing for the same membership in mining companies and inevitably led to worker disunity.

The climate has changed positively for organized labour under the present government and participants felt that there seems to be genuine commitment to allow the unions to develop into a strong, representative and united force. 

The new leadership of MUZ is committing itself to rebuilding MUZ and they are open to possibly working with other unions or possible mergers. MUZ recognizes the opportunity to reorganize itself and to redefine their membership’s role in the running of the union to improve union democracy.

Participants defined an organizing programme and discussed the way forward to bring back lost membership. The programme will be supported by the Solidarity Center and will focus on building membership in all the branches in the mining industry.

The workshop was supported by the Solidarity Center.

Lesotho workers march for a living wage

Workers are frustrated because government has failed to give a reason for the delay in gazetting minimum wages in Lesotho, which were to be effective from 1 October 2012. Trade unionist, Daniel Mariasane says that initially government wanted to exclude the garment sector from the minimum wage gazette, so it is probable that resistance from employers to increase the wage is causing the delay.

At a tripartite workshop organized jointly by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Minister of Labour and Employment in February 2012, parties agreed on eight criteria that should be considered by the Wages Advisory Board when setting minimum wages for the garment sector, one of which is a living wage.

A detailed study was then conducted by an independent ILO consultant on what a living wage would be for garment workers in Lesotho, which concluded that workers needed M1,415 (Euro 141) to subsist and M2148 ( Euro 214) to meet basic needs.

These finding vindicate garment workers that had demanded a living wage of M2,020 (Euro 202) a month in protests during 2011. Mariasane reports that a study was also conducted by the Central Bank of Lesotho that suggested R1,396 (Euro 140) as the minimum wage for the sector.

“Employers want workers to accept an 8 per cent increase on a minimum wage of 83 Euro, this is less than 10 Euro increase,” says Mariasane. We want the minimum wage in the sector to be reviewed in line with the ILO commissioned study and the findings of the Central Bank.”    

Other demands that workers took to the Prime Minister are that minimum wages must apply to all workers not only those with more than 12 month service, an end to discrimination of garment workers that only receive 2 weeks maternity leave whilst all other workers in Lesotho are entitled to 6 weeks and that a sector level bargaining council must be established to establish the right to strike on wage issues.

The Prime Minister received the demands and has promised to give the matters urgent attention. 

Goodyear South Africa workers strike over relief allowance

"What used to happen is that when some people went on lunch, some were left behind working,” says Eastern Cape Secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), Phumzile Nodongwe. “But now they want the workers to continue doing the same work but do not want to pay for it.”

Numsa argue that whilst the arrangement is not covered by the bargaining agreement, it is an established practice and workers have come to rely on the allowance.

“The employer cannot now hastily renegade from this, without following proper channels of engagement with the workers,” says Nodongwe, “This Relief Allowance has been a great source of assistance or relief to the livelihoods of these workers, including their families.”

Workers went on a protected strike on 23 October 2012 after two months of negotiations between Numsa and failed to resolve on the matter. 

AngloGold dismisses striking mineworkers in South Africa

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is concerned the dismissals by AngloGold have the potential to escalate into a violent and confrontational situation. NUM is opposed to the dismissals of the striking mineworkers and believes that such a move will work against all efforts to normalize the situation and get the mineworkers back to work.

The dismissals come on the same day that a deal is to be signed between labour and gold companies, AngloGold, Harmony and Gold Fields at the Chamber of Mines, which hopes to end the strikes in the gold sector.

The NUM has consistently argued that dismissals should be a measure of last resort and has been against similar actions taken by Anglo Platinum and other mining companies. These actions ignore efforts that are in motion to normalize the situation.

One such act is the Social Pact between the Presidency, mining companies and labour signed a week earlier. The social pact seeks to address the underlying multiple causes of the unrest which include the appalling levels of pay and dreadful working conditions in the industry and is meant to promote stability and address socio economic issues in mining areas.

Unlike the platinum industry, the gold sector is part of an established centralized collective bargaining and negotiations are continuing with the Chamber of Mines in efforts to address both the immediate and long term causes of the unrest in the mining industry.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) made strong statements against the dismissals, calling for the immediate reinstatement of workers. COSATU is mobilizing solidarity protests in support of mineworkers’ demands in the coming weeks.

IndustriALL Global Union is against these dismissals and reiterates its earlier call to the mining companies in South Africa to address what COSATU describes as the underlying causes of the escalating unrest. IndustriALL supports the NUM and COSATU in calling for another commission that will investigate the underlying employment and social conditions of workers in the industry, trace the history of mining, its past and present discriminatory practices, its reliance on cheap labour, and the history of treating mine workers as subhuman.

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.