Say NO to the hazards of precarious work

Hazards magazine has just released “trashed!” a detailed report on the challenges of the dangerous shift to increasingly precarious work. Hazards editor Rory O’Neill examines the lasting health damage caused to an increasingly disposable workforce. “In a recession-ravaged world, even if you’ve got a permanent job, you feel insecure. If you’ve got a temporary job, you are permanently insecure.”

Union activists have already started preparing actions around 7 October. Last week 695 people joined the online cause to STOP precarious work, bringing the total to currently 1,310 members of which 285 have taken the pledge to take action.  Join the cause and sign the pledge to take action around 7 October and help us reach 1,000 pledges 

There are no limits on the forms of action that you and your union can take on or around 7 October to support the global fight against precarious work. Actions could include street protests, seminars, membership meetings, press conferences, public meetings, rallies, workplace actions, letter writing campaigns and delegations to governments.

Let’s turn facebook and twitter RED on 7 October, change your profile picture and share with your facebook community. Download the STOP precarious work image and upload it to your cover picture. Follow IndustriALL on twitter and tweet using the #STOPprecariouswork hashtag and IndustriALL will retweet your actions and photos.

Labour keeps up pressure for democracy in Swaziland

Swaziland, one of the world’s last absolute monarchies, is a country in crisis. For almost 40 years the Swazi people have been subjected to a state of emergency, which has entrenched a repressive state through all levels of government.

In recent years, a deepening economic crisis has pushed most Swazi people into absolute poverty. The health care system is on the brink of collapse which is especially critical given that 25 per cent of the population is living with HIV. The public sector is in disarray due to lack of funding and government struggles to meet the payroll.

Meanwhile, the Royal family continues to live a lavish lifestyle and king Mswati III is accused by the Swaziland Democracy Campaign of looting the economy. Mswati has maintained control through an oppressive regime, with ever increasing human and trade union rights abuses. Political parties are banned and activists are regularly arrested, imprisoned and tortured.  

Labour has been at the forefront of calling for change and is viewed as a threat by the regime. The recently formed Trade Union Confederation of Swaziland (Tucoswa), uniting organized labour in the country, has come under attack from the government.

According to Churchboy Dlamini, General Secretary of Swaziland Electricity Supply Maintenance and Allied Workers Union, Tucoswa’s deregistration by the government is unfounded as all procedures were followed. “The government, who publically congratulated Tucoswa on its formation is now not recognizing the federation,” says Dlamini. “As Swaziland Trade Unions we agreed to form Tucoswa, we speak Tucoswa, we walk Tucoswa, everything we do is united under Tucoswa and there is nothing that will make us change and we will not go back on this.

Labour sought unsuccessfully to urgently challenge Tucoswa’s deregistration in the labour court so that the global week of action could be organized under the auspices of the federation. Unionist interpret the court’s ruling that the matter should be discussed at the Labour Advisory Board as a delaying tactic, designed to demobilize the planned actions. Subsequently, Tucoswa affiliates attempted to mobilize actions as individual unions but were not granted the necessary permission.

Despite this, some actions were able to get off the ground but participants were subjected to police brutality with beatings and arrests. Other actions were demobilized by police turning back buses and those that managed to assemble were subjected to intimidation including some arrests.

Tension grew throughout the week and organizers cancelled the main protest action planned for Friday, not wanting to put protestors in harms way as security forces made it clear that they were prepared to repress the action.

Organizers were able to successfully hold a People’s Summit despite attempts by police to disrupt the meeting and threatening to arrest leaders.  The summit was attended by more than a thousand people despite heavy rains and sought to chart a way forward for a New Democratic Swaziland.

In the week, IndustriALL sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Swaziland calling for constitutional reform and multiparty democracy in Swaziland and demanding that the people of Swaziland should be able to exercise their legal rights without fear of persecution, harassment, intimidation or violence.

The letter also warns the Prime Minister of international pressure. “IndustriALL Global Union stands with the trade unions and people of Swaziland to demand urgent reforms by your Government,” says Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of IndustriALL. “We have prioritized giving support to their efforts within Swaziland and at a regional and international level, and I can assure you that we will not cease our efforts until such time as human and trade union rights are upheld in your country.”

IndustriALL also sent letters to heads of the Southern African Development Community and the African Union as well as to the South African government, calling for their intervention to ensure democracy and freedom in Swaziland. 

“We appreciate the messages of support from organizations globally and those that have come to be with us, particularly from labour. Says Frank Mcina, General Secretary of Swaziland Amalgamated Trade Union. “Comrades from South Africa in Cosatu, especially Numsa have stood by our side here in Swaziland, working alongside us in our struggle.”

“There is no way we will abandon this,” says Mcina, expressing a commitment shared by most unionists in Swaziland. “We will continue with pressure until the regime recognizes that people have the right to speak and we regain our rights, including the fundamental labour right of freedom of association.”

Unions struggle for democracy in Swaziland

Tension grew throughout the week and organizers cancelled the main protest action planned for Friday, not wanting to put protestors in harms way as security forces made it clear that they were prepared to repress the action.

However, some actions did go ahead in Swaziland but participants were subjected to police brutality with beatings and arrests. Other actions were demobilized by police turning back buses and those that managed to assemble were subjected to intimidation including some arrests.

“There is no way we will abandon this,” said Frank Mcina, General Secretary of Swaziland Amalgamated Trade Union, expressing a commitment to the struggle for democracy and human rights shared by most unionists in Swaziland.

“We will continue with pressure until the regime recognizes that people have the right to speak and we regain our rights, including the fundamental labour right of freedom of association,” added Mcina.

After almost 40 years in a state of emergency, Swaziland, one of the world’s last absolute monarchies, is experiencing a deepening economic crisis that has pushed most Swazi people into absolute poverty.

Meanwhile, the Royal family continues to live a lavish lifestyle and king Mswati III is accused by the Swaziland Democracy Campaign of looting the economy. Mswati has maintained control through an oppressive regime, where political parties are banned and activists are regularly arrested, imprisoned and tortured. 

The recently formed Trade Union Confederation of Swaziland (Tucoswa), uniting organized labour in the country, has come under attack with the government seeking to deregister the union.

IndustriALL Global Union wrote to the Prime Minister of Swaziland calling for constitutional reform and multiparty democracy in Swaziland in support of the Global Week of Action on Swaziland.

“We have prioritized giving support to their efforts within Swaziland and at a regional and international level, and I can assure you that we will not cease our efforts until such time as human and trade union rights are upheld in your country.,” wrote Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of IndustriALL.

See here a more detailed report on the week of action in Swaziland.

Numsa strike continues as Dunlop refuses to budge

The 300 Numsa members at Dunlop in Howick, Kwa Zulu Natal have been on strike since 22 August after their demands for a two year agreement with an increase of 10 per cent in the first year and 9 per cent in the second year were not met. Workers are also demanding two weeks bonus pay and two weeks severance pay for each year that they have worked for the company.

“We strongly believe that these demands by workers are reasonable and legitimate,” says Numsa’s Kwa Zulu Natal Regional Secretary, Mbuso Ngubane, “We refuse to allow members to be subjected to starvation and poverty wages.”

The striking workers are made up of permanent and casual workers. Casual workers employed through labour brokers by Dunlop is increasing, which is of great concern to Numsa. “Employment of a sizeable number of workers through labour broker continues to plunge Dunlop workers to unbecoming conditions,” claims Ngubane, “therefore we commit to fight for their permanent employment.”

Dunlop has responded to the strike by employing scab labour and has refused to return to the negotiation table. The company has also employed heavily armed private security, which Numsa claims is a tactic to intimidate and threaten striking workers.

Since the incident at Lonmin where police shot and killed 34 striking workers, there has been a high deployment of police at the strike, which Numsa has described as an exaggeration and a provocation at a very tense time for labour relations in South Africa.

Ngubane speaks of memories this evokes, “This newly found deployment of police officers is no different from the apartheid past experiences where police were irresponsibly used to protect the interests of the capitalist bosses.” He believes that the reaction of the police is unwarranted as the strike has been characterised by a high level of discipline and maturity by workers.  

Global youth unemployment is on the rise

In developed economies in 2007, before the financial crisis began in the United States and spread to the euro zone, the unemployment rate for young people was only 12.5 per cent as opposed to 17.5 per cent in 2012 and a projected 15.6 per cent in 2017.

“Ironically, only in developed economies are youth unemployment rates expected to fall in the coming years, but this follows the largest increase in youth unemployment among all regions since the start of the crisis,” said Ernst Ekkehard, lead author of the ILO paper on Global Employment.  “This decline is mainly related to the fact that increasingly, young people are dropping out of the labour market as they find it more difficult to find a job [and] they are not counted among the unemployed.”

An ILO paper on the “Global Employment Outlook: Bleak Labour Market Prospects for Youth” shows that the impact of the euro crisis is spreading as far as East Asia and Latin America, making the situation worse for young jobseekers.

At the International Labour Conference (ILC) in June 2012 the ILO adopted a resolution calling for immediate, targeted and renewed action to tackle the youth employment crisis.

Today the ILO is calling on governments and social partners to foster pro-employment growth and decent job creation, promote macroeconomic policies and adopt fiscally sustainable and targeted measures such as labour-intensive infrastructure programmes, wage and training subsidies. 

View an interview with Ernst Ekkehard, author of “Global employment Outlook: Bleak Labour market Prospects for youth”  here: http://youtu.be/_RL6XFUgFyI

Stop precarious work on 7 October

Secure jobs are becoming more and more rare, while agency work, contract work and temporary work are taking over. For young people, there is practically no other option – the only jobs on offer are insecure. 

Unions are pushing against this tide by organizing precarious workers, fighting laws that expand precarious work and mobilizing in support of secure employment with good pay and working conditions.

IndustriALL Global Union invites you to join the action on or around 7 October. Start taking action now and:

There are no limits on the forms of action that you and your union can take this 7 October to support the global fight against precarious work. Actions could include street protests, seminars, membership meetings, press conferences, public meetings, rallies, workplace actions, letter writing campaigns and delegations to governments. 

IndustriALL has produced print-ready artwork of posters and leaflets in several languages available for download on its website here: www.industriall-union.org/issues/social-justice-and-globalization/stop-precarious-work

Don’t forget to send us photos and reports of your action once it has taken place. The address to send your action information is [email protected].

Zimbabwean electricity utility continues to deny workers rights

Add your voice to the IndustriALL-Labourstart campaign to support ZESA workers.

135 electricity workers were suspended on 17 July without pay and benefits on charges of a threatened strike when the state-owned utility, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), claimed that it could not afford to pay workers the wage increase.

ZESA is pressurising the Zimbabwean Electricity Union (ZEWU) to set aside the arbitration award and start up a new arbitration process for wage increases. For the abandonment of the award, the company is offering to reinstate workers without back pay for lost wages and benefits. ZESA also proposes 12 month final warning for the President of ZEWU, Angeline Chitambo, who also an executive member of IndustriALL, and two other office bearers that have also been suspended by the company, amounting to a gag order on elected officials of ZEWU.

At the company hearing for Chitambo on 28 August, the union requested that her case also be heard outside of ZESA, as management seems determined to use her reinstatement as a bargaining chip to force ZEWU to relinquish the wage award, and on terms that will undermine her ability to carry out her leadership duties in ZEWU.  

Meanwhile, the regional offices of ZESA have begun holding hearings on the suspensions and 45 workers have been found not guilty and reinstated with pay and benefits.

Of the workers that remain suspended, about 70 are in the northern region, where the hearings for 3 workers have taken place and resulted in their dismissal. The union is challenging the dismissals and is asking that the hearings for suspended workers this region be shifted to the labour court based on claims that management in the region is not following the law.

South African affiliates, the National Union of Mineworkers and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, have each sent an experienced shop steward from South Africa’s utility, Eskom, to Zimbabwe on a mission to provide solidarity support to ZEWU. They have been assisting the union with developing strategies to engage with ZESA and also carrying messages of solidarity to suspended workers.

ZEWU is very grateful for all the support that they have received from affiliates of IndustriALL. “Thank you for coming our way with assistance, you are strengthening us to take on ZESA, which is not easy as they are putting demand after demand,” says Chitambo.

“But with your solidarity, we have proved to ZESA that workers all over the world are behind us and we can win what is rightfully ours.”

Peace talks hoped to turn page on Lonmin troubles

The widely reported worst violence in South Africa in the post-apartheid era saw police shoot 34 miners at the Marikana mining complex on 16 August after 10 people died in fighting during the strike. This week fewer than 8 per cent of the 28,000 workers at the mine are working, with union leadership’s call for a return to work ignored. Peace talks will continue and hopefully reach agreement tomorrow, 31 August.

Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant met with striking workers on 24 August and facilitated the 28 August peace talks meeting between Lonmin, organized labour, representatives of the striking workers, and churches. The major obstacle to negotiations was the management’s refusal to discuss wage demands before peace was restored to the mine and production restarted, while workers remain insistent that production would not be allowed to restart before their demand for a 300 per cent wage increase was met. The success of the peace talks hinges on the resolution of this question.

The return to work call is also hampered by the demand of the arrested mineworkers that they be granted bail without delay, and whether Lonmin will allow for these workers to return to work.

Advocate Lesego Mmusi representing the arrested mineworkers argued in court against further delay in the bail application for the detained miners, stating that if the government was willing to wait for the commission of inquiry before charging police, detained miners should be awarded the same privilege. It is unclear whether Lonmin will allow the detained miners to return to work. It has since emerged that an autopsy has revealed that many of the murdered workers were shot in the back and hence the call for an independent inquiry.

Calls for an independent inquiry are gaining momentum as many feel that the judicial inquiry does not have a broad enough scope to address root causes of the conflict and does not adequately address socio economic concerns of miners and affected communities. Amongst the issues that these proponents are seeking to address is the issue of contract labour.

In line with a demand from NUM, the Minister of Mineral Resources, Susan Shabangu, has announced that centralized bargaining will be established for the platinum sector. This will address wage disparities for workers doing the same job in different mining companies, and the question of contract labour. About a third of the workforce in the platinum sector are contractor workers who earn by some estimates, about 60 per cent less than permanent workers. 

Join the online campaign for suspended Zimbabwe trade unionists

Hearings began on 16 August for the 135 trade unionists to have been suspended without pay by ZESA management on 17 July. Although all workers face the same charges, there has been no consistency in the court judgements so far, with some dismissals confirmed and others acquitted, along a regional divide. IndustriALL has strongly condemned this union-busting treatment of its affiliate the Zimbabwe Energy Workers Union (ZEWU).

As previously reported, the ZEWU leadership has also been suspended, and ZEWU President Angeline Chitambo, who is a titular member of IndustriALL’s Executive Committee, is facing suspension on different charges, together with a possible gagging order. At this difficult time for ZEWU, the union’s General Secretary is sick. IndustriALL member unions in Southern Africa are rallying support for ZEWU, through financial and practical assistance to fight the case.

As time passes, suspended workers face increasing hardship without their salary and conditions, which were at poverty levels to begin with. The company hopes that ZEWU will accept to drop their claim to a hard-won arbitration award for increased salary. Workers on the lowest pay grade were ruled to be entitled to salary increases of US$190 to US$275, a level still well below a living wage.

When management ignored ZEWU’s demand for their members’ entitlements through the arbitration award, they threatened strike action. For that they are now facing this strong persecution.

Pressure is now building on ZESA to drop the cases against its workers and to fully implement the improvements of salary in line with the arbitration award. Workers from around the world are responding through the Labourstart campaign, and trade union affiliates of IndustriALL are writing on behalf of their members to Chief Executive Josh Chifamba. Join these actions today.

See a previous IndustriALL report here.

IndustriALL condemns wild killings at South African Lonmin mine

IndustriALL joins NUM in calling for calm to return to the Marikana mine, about 100 km north-west of Johannesburg, and demanding a full and thorough investigation from law enforcement agencies that leads to arrests and prosecution for those responsible. The shootings occurred at the Wonderkop squatter camp at the mine, after police efforts to disperse crowds of demonstrators with teargas and water cannons failed. It is now the responsibility of Lonmin, the UK-based mine owner to ensure calm and safety is restored so that miners can return to work.

The blame and the root cause of the conflict, which had already killed 10 people, lies with the employer who conducted an underhanded attack on the NUM and the established bargaining structure by bypassing the proper channels and offering a unilateral allowance to rock-drill operators.

Today, NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni and an NUM delegation are visiting the mine together with South Africa’s Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu, to give condolences to the families of  the dead workers and to establish a clearer understanding of how the tragedy occurred. NUM President Senzeni Zokwana, also Vice-President of IndustriALL, who is at the mine appealing for calm, stated “rock drillers are always vulnerable to scam artists targeting the platinum industry in Limpopo and the North West.” Referring to the rival union he said “these guys have taken the guise of a union that promises them R12,500 – which NUM adamantly says is unachievable for a rock driller.”

Lonmin followed the example of fellow platinum miner Impala Platinum, where there has also been increasing intimidation and violence this year. At both Lonmin and Impala, NUM is persecuted by management through a number of undermining efforts that favour yellow unions and non-union members. A major contributing  factor is the lack of a centralized bargaining structure inside the Chamber of Mines for the platinum mining industry, as exists for coal and gold mining. South Africa is the world’s largest producer of platinum.

IndustriALL Global Union sends heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of those killed, and joins NUM in calling workers to remain united in face of management attempts at divide and rule. IndustriALL condemns the tactics of Lonmin’s local management which is the root cause for this tragedy.  IndustriALL also calls on the Chamber of Mines to address the need for centralised bargaining in the platinum industry to prevent companies from undermining union rights, closing the  space for such unilateral destructive actions for which workers have paid with their lives.

IndustriALL and NUM demand that the families of the deceased must be compensated as if the deceased died on duty and all workers must be paid full salaries for the period of work stoppage, as it was the company that could not provide them with transport and security to work.

“NUM always stands shoulder to shoulder with trade unions throughout the world when a worker is killed under their motto “an injury to one is an injury to all”. Condolences and solidarity messages are being sent from all regions to NUM at this time,” stated IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan.