IMF-ICEM-ITGLWF move towards the creation of a new International

Welcome to this first issue of a quarterly newsletter in 2011 of IMF, ICEM and ITGLWF aimed at providing information on the creation of a new International uniting industrial workers.

Trade unions around the world affiliated to the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) have a common interest in becoming a stronger voice for industrial workers.

A joint IMF-ICEM-ITGLWF task force met in Japan in February to continue its examination of how to unify the world's industrial workers into one global union federation.

Task force members of the three GUFs from five continents confirmed the rationale of creating a united voice of the industrial workers of the world, and a strong counter-power to major transnational corporations. Unions want to underline the role of manufacturing industry as the locomotive of national economies and as a creator of good quality jobs with decent working conditions and trade union rights.

The task force heard the reports from the working groups on statutes and finances, and discussed in detail the decision-making, regional and sectoral structures of a possible new global union federation. The task force decided to meet again on May 5 in Frankfurt, Germany, to finalize a proposal to the Executive Committees of the three organizations at the end of May.

Already the three GUFs work together on a number of joint areas and through joint initiatives in trade union rights and campaigns, precarious work, climate change, sustainable  trade and development, networking and union building have demonstrated the advantages of greater unity.

By creating a new International and combining our strengths we believe we can do more on mobilizing workers, defending trade union rights and organizing unorganized workers throughout supply chains into strong and self-reliant unions. Together we can create a powerful counterpart to transnational corporations and fight more forcefully for good quality industrial jobs and against precarious forms of employment.

By combining resources we can achieve greater visibility and impact, better service to affiliates and find synergies through a reduction of overlapping activities.

In this and future issues of our joint newsletter in 2011 we hope to show just how industrial workers around the world are Stronger Together!

Jyrki Raina
Manfred Warda
Patrick Itschert

Unions join forces to demand trade union rights in Mexico

Unions from around the globe came together holding actions, writing letters and taking meetings with Mexican ambassadors and political figures to highlight massive labour rights violations in Mexico. Everywhere the message to the Mexican government was the same:

• Hold employer and government officials accountable for the Pasta de Conchos mine explosion that killed 65 miners on February 19, 2006.
• Abolish systemic violations of workers' freedom of association, including employer-dominated "protection contracts" and interference in union elections.
• End the use of force-by the state or private parties-to repress workers' legitimate demands for democratic unions, better wages and working conditions, and good health and safety conditions.
• End the campaign of political persecution against the Mexican Miners' Union (Los Mineros) and the Mexican Electrical Workers' Union (SME).

In Mexico itself each day of action was marked with the independent labour movement conducting over 27 actions throughout the country, including visits to embassies of 23 countries, a march and demonstration in Mexico City, seminars and a protest rally at the Monument of the Revolution. The leaders of Los Mineros and SME signed a pact of national unity.

In Canada high-level trade union delegations met with Mexican ambassadors and consuls in four cities, while pickets continued outside. In six cities across the U.S., rallies, meetings with ambassadors and consuls, and pickets, sent the clear message to the Mexican Calderón government that pressure is building inside the country's largest trading partner that labour rights abuses must end.

Elsewhere more than 50 meetings with Embassy representatives or policymakers took place, shining a light on Mexico's refusal to honour its international commitments to respect Freedom of Association. In Switzerland, the office of the Ambassador to the United Nations was targeted by a rally and other significant actions took place in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa and Spain

These action were key as the Committee on Freedom of Association met in the first week of March at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to discuss three significant complaints filed against Mexico, two regarding union autonomy and the other regarding "protection contracts".

You can still join the campaign through LabourStart by sending a message to Calderón. More than 3,500 messages were sent via the campaign in the first week, and the numbers are growing every day.

The action in support of the democratic and independent trade unions in Mexico was initiated by unions from around the world affiliated to the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), UNI Global Union, and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

In addition, the International Textile, Garment, & Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) called for fundamental rights in the Mexican garment sector, where "protection contracts" deny workers of their basic labour rights, as is the case throughout Mexico.

For more information see: http://www.imfmetal.org/mexico2011

Fight back on film!

GLOBAL: Showcasing unions fighting back against austerity cuts will be featured in the line-up for the Global Labour Film Shorts in 2011. Affiliates are invited to submit their films for possible inclusion in the one hour line-up of the best short films from around the world by 1 April 2011.

Since the beginning of the global economic crisis trade unions internationally have denounced its fast and increasing negative impact on workers. Some of this action has been captured on film, an essential platform for communication in many union campaigns and actions today.

Over the last four years the Geneva Labour Film Shorts Festival has taken place in downtown Geneva enabling unions and working people worldwide to share their stories. This year, in order to reach a wider international audience, the festival is refocusing to an on-line and DVD presentation that will be submitted to over 36 labour related film festivals around the world. The line-up will also be available on DVD for affiliates of all Global Union Federations and the International Trade Union Confederation to use in their own events and activities.

The one-hour DVD will focus on short films that are excellent examples of communicating labour stories and messages and the selection will include a range of different films from different parts of the world. The launch of the Global Labour Film Shorts 2011 will take place at the European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF) “Unions in Motion” film festival, coming up on 10-11 June at Landschaftspark Nord in Duisburg, Germany.

Please send copies of your films on DVD with a short paragraph describing the film, why it was produced and how it was used. The IMF, coordinating work, the  will need unfettered rights to show the film and publish it online, of course with full acknowledgement of who created the material. Due to resource constraints for interpretation, the IMF is only able to accept films in English language or with English subtitles.

We need to receive copies of all possible films by 1 April 2010.

Please send to:
Cherisse Fredricks
International Metalworkers' Federation
Case Postale 1516
CH1227 Geneva
Switerland

Global Unions to hold Chile accountable on mine safety

For a country in which 49 per cent of all export revenue is derived from mining, Chile's mining safety is in the dark ages. A dichotomy was in full view last fall: while the government of Sebastián Piñera marshalled the very best global technical and engineering expertise to rescue 33 miners from the San José copper mine under the world's spotlight, Chile continues to wallow in safety practices that are cumbersome, unmanageable, and deadly.

Despite an October 18 Piñera promise heard throughout the world – five days after the rescue – that Chile would reform a disjointed national safety structure and adopt global standards, nothing has happened. In fact, in early 2011 ICEM met with senior government officials and was told there is nothing on the agenda to reform internal safety standards or to adopt global standards.

The ICEM reminded the leaders that just as Piñera lifted Chile's world status during the rescue, the country's significance is because it is a rich exporter of basic metals and minerals. If it is to be world-class in any way, it must implement world-class safe mining practices for the workers who dig those riches.

Thus, the ICEM, together with the IMF, began a campaign to press the Piñera government for change. That campaign was joined by other Global Union Federations, national unions, and trade union activists to demand that Chile ratify ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. (See ICEM's global Convention 176 campaign.)

The campaign was joined simultaneously by unions affiliated with Chile's two main mine union federations, representing workers at both state-run copper company Codelco and at the major mining houses that own large-scale operations.

Government cynicism might best be found in the commission Piñera set up to investigate San José. No trade union representatives were invited to sit on the commission, even though 130 miners were represented by a union. ILO Convention 176 states that workers and their trade unions shall participate in mine inspections and accident investigations.

At San José, Union No. 2 of Campañia Minera San Esteban repeatedly warned of safety hazards and once even presented a legal challenge to close the mine. But the common refrain from both government and industry when unions warn on safety and health conditions is that the union's duty is to negotiate economics, not to take part in safety or health matters.

After a miner was killed in 2007, San José was shut for a brief period by SERNAGEOMIN, the National Service of Geology and Mining. But it quickly reopened on orders from another government official who failed to read the closure report, and relied on the owner's pledge that deficiencies would be corrected.

One such pledge was to install a ladder through a ventilation shaft as a second exit, a standard in Convention 176. That was not done, there were no follow-up inspections, and the lack of a second exit, in fact, led to the 69-day entrapment of the 33 miners.

SERNAGEOMIN is not a health and safety inspectorate. It plays that role, but so do bureaus inside six Chilean ministries. Chile has overlapping safety agencies inside the six that cover all sectors of work. None of them have judicial powers to enforce the few regulations there are in mining and all are without the technical capabilities to inspect and prevent accidents before they happen.

In short, all prerequisites of Convention 176 are missing in Chile: regular inspections, set procedures to report and investigate dangerous occurrences and accidents, trade union consultation, regulatory bodies with the authority to shut dangerous mines, the right to refuse unsafe work, workers' ability to select their own safety representatives, and employer obligations to provide training. Convention 176 places responsibility on employers to not only remove workplace hazards, but to remove the causes of those hazards.

That is why the ICEM has targeted Chile for reforming not only its own mine safety laws, but to ratify, implement, and fully adhere to the standards of ILO Convention 176.

ICEM, IMF complete third Umicore mission

Global tools help solve local problems. That was the motto at a recent joint mission by ICEM and IMF to ease labour relations at Umicore's operations in South Africa. This mission was part of activities done in connection with the Global Framework Agreement (GFA) between the Belgium-based company and ICEM and IMF. Umicore is a chemicals, metal technology, and catalyst systems company.

The South African visit was the third such joint mission since the GFA was signed in September 2007. The two previous ones were to China in 2009 and Brazil in 2010. The main objective of the missions, as a regular exercise in accord with the relevant provisions of the agreement, is to monitor compliance.

Umicore's two South African plants are located in the city of Port Elizabeth and are called UACSA and UCPE. They are part of the company's automotive catalysts business segment, one of four business units of Umicore. The area is a leading producer for automobiles and auto parts.

Representatives from the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) from both Umicore plants participated in the mission, as did the Regional Secretary and an Educator from ICEM- and IMF-affiliated National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).

The CEPPWAWU representatives included Skhumbuzo Phakathi, Clement Chitja, David Nzanzeka, Khaya Mkefe, Lindelwa Gxavu, Ncedile Boyce, Sindiswa Silotile, Xola Dlova, and Camagu Mzinyati. NUMSA participants were Vuyo Bikitsha and Mziyanda Twani.

Considering recent issues between local management and trade unions in the Port Elizabeth plants, the visit by ICEM and IMF representatives resulted in positive and constructive evaluations. The plant visits also assisted workers in resolving some outstanding local issues.

The mission resulted in a number of concrete results, including a conclusion to improve local communication on a number of issues, including recruitment procedures, structure of employment, integration of both plants, and training and education. It was agreed that the latter would benefit from greater engagement by both parties. In doing this, the mission's results are in line with objectives of the GFA to create mutually beneficial relations and dialogue between the partners.

The ICEM and IMF representatives were impressed by the excellent work of the local trade union representatives, and also recognized that local and corporate managers play a crucial role in creating better social dialogue throughout the company. This visit will be evaluated in April 2011 at the next GFA Monitoring Committee with management.

Sandblasting: the human cost of fashion

GLOBAL: Eighty years ago, the World Health Organisation warned of its dangers. In the sixties, EU member states regulated or banned it. In 2009, it was outlawed in Turkey. Yet in today's global fashion industry, sandblasting remains the method of choice for giving jeans a trendy faded look.

The process of sandblasting releases silicia dust which, when inhaled, causes infection and scarring in the lungs. Continued exposure can causes silicosis, an incurable disease that worsens over time even after exposure stops.

As a result of long working hours in cramped unventilated areas with little or no protection, workers in the denim industry contract silicosis much more quickly than workers in other sectors, often after four or five years of exposure and in some cases after as little as twelve months.

Around five billion pairs of jeans are produced every year and a growing and very profitable segment of the market is for faded or 'distressed' jeans. In Turkey, the world's third largest exporter of jeans and the only country so far where the effects of sandblasting have come under scrutiny, 550 former sandblasting workers have been diagnosed with silicosis since 2005 and forty-six have so far died of the disease. These officially-documented cases are just the tip of the iceberg both in Turkey and globally.

In April 2009, following a campaign led by workers, their unions, doctors and civil organisations, sandblasting was banned in Turkey. Following the ban, however, sandblasting was relocated to other countries.

The ITGLWF is calling on its affiliates to take the lead in investigating the use of sandblasting in their respective countries. Where it exists, they should campaign to eliminate the practice and exert pressure to ensure that past and present workers are tested and that those affected receive adequate medical care as well as compensation. Workers should be made aware of the dangers and of the need for strong union organisation as well as meaningful worker participation in factory safety programmes to protect them from such abuses.

Governments in producing countries should outlaw the process or enforce existing bans and those in consuming countries should ban the import of sandblasted jeans. And the ILO and the WTO should be called upon to intervene to help impose a global ban.

However, in the absence of effective government regulation brands and retailers urgently need to take voluntary action. Even if brands and retailers adopt rigorous standards regarding sandblasting, there will always be suppliers that do not enforce those standards, thus putting unsuspecting workers at risk. Therefore the best policy is to ban sandblasting altogether in the garment industry.

In January, the ITGLWF convened a meeting of jeans' brands and retailers to raise awareness of the need to eliminate the use of sandblasting.

Says ITGLWF General Secretary Patrick Itschert: "The initial meeting was very positive. It was clear that participating companies were committed to moving forward. Joint efforts are now underway to draft a protocol on the elimination of sandblasting to be tabled at a follow-up meeting within the next couple of months, as well as to invite more brands to become involved in the process.

"Sandblasting is an issue that puts the morality of the fashion world to the test and unions must not rest until the process has been effectively eliminated," he concluded.

Turkish unions of IMF, ICEM, ITGLWF form unity coalition

Turkish national union leaders and local leaders from the Thrace region – all leaders of unions affiliated with the ICEM, IMF, and ITGLWF – convened recently to give mutual support and to tackle several cases of industrial discord in the rapidly-growing manufacturing zone. The February manifestation was the start of a unity coalition aimed at providing aid and assistance to affiliates of the three Global Union Federations (GUFs) in the Free Trade Zone of Corlu.

The ICEM has 14 affiliates in Turkey, while the IMF has three affiliates, and ITGLWF four. This situation indeed makes Turkey a priority country for work by the three GUFs.

The February protest centered on giving support to ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş in its two-month strike against India-base Polyplex company, a plastics and polyester company. (See an ICEM news article and join the LabourStart campaign on Polyplex.)

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=868

Management had sacked trade union activists. The manifestation also addressed other trade union infringements, particularly at worksites where organising drives are underway. The five unions attending the protest pledged to support one another in the Thrace region in ongoing strikes and recruitment drives.

The protest also was aimed at the Turkish government's recent efforts to modify labour legislation regarding casual, temporary, and precarious work. Thrace is an area of Turkey experiencing a high rate of foreign industrial investments, ranging from metals to textiles to natural gas, chemicals, and rubber manufacturing.

"For many days we have been striking at workplaces individually," said Petrol-İş President Mustafa Öztaşkın. "But today all the unions striking in the region have come together. We have unified our powers. We have decided to walk together and to organize joint demonstrations and actions. Our hope is that this bond now starting in Thrace will spread to the whole of the country."

"Regardless of distinction or which confederation the union belongs," added Adnan Serdaroğlu, the President of Birleşik Metal-İş. "We will defend the rights of dismissed workers."

Musa Servi, President of the ITGLWF affiliate Deri-İş, representing leather and shoe workers, said, "Employers will try to exploit by establishing factories in free trade zones where union rights are weak. If we act together, we can change this." The President of TEKSTIL, Ridvan Budak, also attended.

Nearby to Corlu, 12 factories have been targeted for union organizing, but many union activists have been dismissed from their jobs because of their union membership. Besides Polyplex, factories of Yeşil Kundura (shoes), Disa Otomotiv (an auto supplier), Anakonda (metal fabrication), Astaş Alüminyum (aluminum), and Grup Suni Deri (leather) have been targeted for unionisation, and evidence of the disputes can be found with several tents of picketers to be found in front of plants. In some workplaces, achievements have been made while solidarity and support activities continue, as does several court cases.

Turkish unions seek to enhance the Thrace region unity to the whole country since the three GUFs are in the process of doing the same on the global level.

Global Unions join forces to fight precarious work

More and more employers are moving away from permanent, direct employment in favour of contract, agency or other forms of precarious work. In response to surveys carried out in 2009 and 2010, 66 per cent of ICEM, IMF and ITGLWF affiliates indicated that precarious work had increased in their sector over the last year alone.

Recognising the fact that precarious work was a growing problem in almost every sector, the Global Unions established the Work Relationships Group (WRG) in 2007, with a view to carrying out joint work on the issue. Since then, the group has met ten times and taken joint positions and engaged in a number of joint activities related to precarious work. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda is chairman of the WRG.

A significant step was made last June, when all Global Union Federations agreed a set of Joint Principles on Temporary Agency Work. While acknowledging that there are many different views and approaches within the trade union movement towards dealing with precarious work, the joint principles set out the points which all of the Global Unions agree on.

These include that the primary form of employment should be permanent, open-ended and direct; that agency workers should be covered under the same collective bargaining agreement as other workers in the user enterprise and should receive equal treatment in all respects; that the use of temporary agencies should not increase the gender gap on wages, social protections, and conditions; that temporary work agencies must not be used to eliminate permanent and direct employment relationships; and that the use of agency workers should never be used to weaken trade unions or to undermine organising or collective bargaining rights.

One primary function of the WRG is to facilitate the exchange of information between the Global Unions, and to identify areas where joint action might be appropriate. One such action took place in October 2009, when the General Secretaries of ICEM, IMF, and ITGLWF met with the Turkish Labour Minister, and expressed their support for President Abdullah Gül's veto of proposed amendments that would have permitted the charging of fees by labour brokers and permitted businesses or individuals to easily become certified as labour agencies.

Since its inception, the WRG has been calling on the International Labour Organization (ILO) to take concrete steps to address the growth of precarious work. Our demands have included that the ILO must equip itself to address the many circumstances under which workers engaged in precarious work are denied the effective right to organize and bargain collectively.

The ILO/ACTRAV Symposium 2011, which takes places in Geneva from October 3-7, will focus on precarious work. Among other topics, the Symposium will look at how different elements of precarious work, including triangular employment relationships and subcontracting, impact workers and their right to bargain collectively.

Industrial landscape of Latin America requires united cross-sectoral approach

LATIN AMERICA: Industrial development in mining and manufacturing sectors will continue to be an essential part of economic development in Latin America, for both the economic giants of Brazil and Mexico and for the other countries in the region, such as Argentine, Peru, Chile and Venezuela.

Despite improvements over the last decade, poverty and inequality continue to be a major feature across the region both within and between countries. Ensuring the benefits of industrial and economic development flow to working people requires a strong and united trade union movement across all sectors, including in mining and manufacturing.

Commodities, particularly oil, silver, copper and iron ore, are generating a lot of wealth in the region and Brazil, Argentina and Mexico have led the way in also developing a significant manufacturing industry, particularly in automotive, petroleum and textiles, on the back of this wealth.

At the national level, the organization of companies often sees workers linked through highly integrated supply chains from one sector to the next. For example in the Maquiladoras of Mexico there is a concentration of textiles, electronics and automotive parts production where workers face similar challenges in organizing and securing a fair share in the profits of the companies.

Solidarity between Mexico's mine workers and automotive parts workers under the leadership of the Mexican Miners' Union is creating opportunities for gaining freedom of association previously not achieved, as witnessed in the case of Johnson Controls in Puebla. http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=23862&l=2 After a long struggle and with the support of the Mexican Miners' Union, Johnston Control workers at the Resurrección plant in Puebla were able to join a union of their choice and through this union reach an agreement at the plant.

Meanwhile in the Export Processing Zones of the Dominican Republic, textile and electronics workers live and work along-side each other facing many of the same problems and working conditions. Unions here have found that the same strategies are required to organize across both sectors. (See below Gertrudis Santana on cross-sector organizing in Dominican Republic EPZs.)

In Brazil more than three million workers are employed by mining and manufacturing companies in a very integrated cross-sectoral process. From mine sites to the production lines of airplanes, ships, and cars, workers are organized by mine, chemical, textile and metal workers' unions that fight together for better work conditions and benefits.

For unions in Latin America and beyond, a strong international approach will also be required in tackling the transnational corporations that are emerging mostly from Brazil and Mexico in this region. Many of these "multilatinas", such as Vale, Gerdau, Cemex, Grupo Mexico and Tenaris, have a notorious history of anti-union and poor labour relations, which is being exported by the companies as they expands regionally and globally.

Picture caption: Auto plant in the ABC region of São Paulo, Brazil

Gertrudis Santana on cross-sector organizing in Dominican Republic EPZs

Organizing has always been a top priority of unions, requiring significant effort and resources to be successful. Particularly challenging is organizing workers in union hostile areas like Export Processing Zones (EPZs).

The IMF affiliate in Dominican Republic Federación Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros y Metalúrgicos (FENATRAMIM) through the Federación Nacional de Trabajadores de Zonas Francas (FENATRAZONAS) is specialized in organizing at Export Processing Zones also known locally as Zonas Francas.

When Gertrudis Santana first became active with her union she was working at a shoe factory in one of the zonas francas of Dominican Republic. She became an organizer at the EPZ in San Pedro de Macoris. Soon Santana was responsible for organizing at other zonas francas, including both textile and electronics sectors.

“Initially,” explains Santana, “in the EPZs of the Dominican Republic one could see only textile factories present. Later on production of electronic chips also moved in and the metal sector became present through the use of gold in cloth manufacturing.”

Nowadays Santana does not organize workers directly; she is more involved in the political work within her union. She serves as a national secretary of education and trains activists on issues of organizing. Her union constantly has to deal with challenges in organizing due to the problem of restricted access to workers.

“The working conditions in EPZs these days have changed,” continues Santana. “Before workers used to have fixed working hours, now they are paid for finished product. Despite claims that this will result in higher earnings, in practice the workers’ income has shrunk and working hours have increased.”

From her experience Santana notes that in organizing at EPZs the organizing tactics and strategies in different industrial sectors are very similar as the conditions are often the same. However some of the sectors, like welding in metalworking, are notorious with health hazards, while in textiles it is much easier for an employer to change the location of an enterprise as in most cases the machines are rented.

“Freedom of association is still a dream for us,” says Santana, giving the example of the EPZ in San Pedro de Macoris, which is the largest electronics industry area in the Dominican Republic. According to national legislation a union can be established with at least 25 workers. However the creation of a union is not the final goal, since these workers will achieve little at an enterprise employing thousands of workers. Instead the main goal is to form a union big enough to bargain collectively. The union’s current campaign, ‘Fuerte’ (from Spanish “strong”), has organizers communicate with workers at factory gates, bus stops and also try to obtain their addresses in order to contact them at home and convince them to join the union.

The results of this work are promising: nine collective agreements were concluded by FENATRAMIM in EPZs, considering that 50 per cent plus one rule is an obligation for the union to start collective bargaining this is a very serious achievement.

Picture caption: Gertrudis Santana, national secretary of education of FENATRAZONAS in the Dominican Republic