May 2016 May
1 global worker No. Feature Holding companies accountable
Special Report Four years of fighting precarious work THE BIANNUAL MAGAZINE OF INDUSTRIALL Interview Berthold Huber Welcome to Global Worker
Multinational corporations (MNCs) dominate IndustriALL Global Union’s industrial, energy and mining sectors. But they employ only 6 per cent of the workers who make their products. In this issue of Global Worker, we examine how MNCs can be held accountable for union rights and living wages throughout their supply chains.
In January, the ITUC published their of strong social protection programmes Scandal report, exposing that 50 and sustainable industrial policies. leading multinationals employ only 6 per They will transform existing jobs to be cent of the workers who manufacture more sustainable, as well as create their products directly. Suppliers and new, greener jobs. We want to make subcontractors employ the remaining 94 sure these will be union jobs with good per cent, or 116 million-strong hidden conditions. workforce. Some time ago, we had to take the As a rule, wages and conditions of painful decision to move a number of these workers are worse, and most planned IndustriALL meetings from union rights violations happen in the Turkey to Germany because of sustained supply chain. But as the UN guiding terrorist attacks. However, Turkey principles on business and human rights remains a major priority country. Take confirm, an MNC has a due diligence a look at pages 4 – 6 on the struggle responsibility over its supply chain. of our Turkish unions in all sectors from textile to mining for the right to join a This is what IndustriALL is trying to union, collective bargaining and safe cement with its global framework workplaces. agreements and what the Bangladesh Accord is about. And supply chain The 2nd IndustriALL Congress will responsibility is the basis for our take place in October 2016 in Brazil, cooperation with the ACT garment which has one of the strongest trade brands, to guarantee freedom of union movements in Latin America. The association and living wages through strength has been built through struggle building industry level collective after years of military dictatorship. See bargaining structures. Check pages pages 16 – 17 on how Brazilian unions 12 – 15 for more details. have managed to win considerable wage increases during the past decade The 2nd IndustriALL In December 2015, the historic Paris through united action by different trade agreement on climate change was Congress will take place union centres. adopted as a result of the multi-year in October 2016 in Brazil, COP process. IndustriALL welcomes When the IndustriALL family gathers in the agreement, but recognizes that it Rio de Janeiro to celebrate its first four which has one of the is only the starting point for a long and years of action and victories, it will also strongest trade union challenging energy transformation. debate future strategies and continued global struggle for social justice and This major transformation will happen movements in Latin better lives for workers and their families and that makes it a union issue. We in the spirit of our Congress slogan: America. need to take care of our workers in the Fighting forward – A luta continua! spirit of a Just Transition, while we realize Jyrki Raina the job-creation potential of climate Jyrki Raina General Secretary action. General Secretary As IndustriALL’s sustainability director @JyrkiRaina Brian Kohler writes on pages 7 – 9, a Just Transition requires deliberate public policy choices, building on a foundation
2 global worker | contents Contents
profile
Turkish unions holding the line for workers 4
opinion
Beyond COP21 7
interview feature
IndustriALL Workers’ rights speaks to in global supply Berthold Huber 10 chains 12
profile special report
Action to STOP Brazil – how Precarious Work unity wins major – a key goal for victories 16 IndustriALL 18
IndustriALL Global Union Representing 50 million workers across supply chains in the mining, energy and manufacturing sectors at the global level.
HEAD OFFICE SOUTH ASIA OFFICE LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN 54 bis, route des Acacias No. 5-E, Rani Jhansi Road Avenida 18 de Julio No 1528 CH 1227 Geneva New Delhi, 110 055 India Piso 12 unidad 1202 Switzerland Tel: +91 11 4156 2566 Montevideo Uruguay Tel: +41 (0)22 308 5050 Email: [email protected] Tel: +59 82 408 0813 Fax: +41 (0)22 308 5055 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] SOUTH EAST ASIA OFFICE Website: www.industriall-union.org 473A Joo Chiat Road Singapore 427681 AFRICA OFFICE Tel: +65 63 46 4303 Published twice a year in English, French, Spanish and Russian Physical address: Email: [email protected] by IndustriALL Global Union. North City House Office S0808 (8th Floor) CIS OFFICE Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily 28 Melle Street, Braamfontein Str. 2, d 13, Grokholsky per., Room 203. represent the views of IndustriALL Global Union. 129090 Moscow Russia Johannesburg 2001 South Africa President: Berthold Huber Tel: +27 11 242 8680 Tel: +7 495 974 6111 General Secretary: Jyrki Raina / [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Editor: Petra Brännmark / [email protected] Postal address: P O Box 31016 Cover photo: IndustriALL Braamfontein 2017 South Africa Design: Nick Jackson / www.northcreative.ch
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Unions in Turkey holding the line for workers Union federations: Türk-Iş, Unions are under severe pressure to defend DİSK, HAK-Iş Country: Turkey workers from exploitation as employers Text: Walton Pantland take advantage of anti-union legislation.
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When car manufacturer Renault cancelled laws to discourage unionization, and DİSK, union elections and fired workers at its the Confederation of Progressive Trade plant in Bursa, Turkey, in February 2016, Unions, and its affiliates were banned, and IndustriALL Global Union affiliate Birleşik their executive committees arrested. They Metal-İş sprang into action. The union remained banned until 1992. stopped production and organized a Erdo an’s AK Party came to power in 2002, peaceful demonstration to defend its ğ replacing military rule. A new Law on Trade members. The company responded by Unions and Collective Labour Agreements calling police, who used violence in an was introduced in 2012 to supersede the attempt to break the union. old laws of the dictatorship, but it is still far Despite Renault signing a global framework from ILO standards. agreement with IndustriALL, local management appeared determined to break As a result of this pressure, union density in the unionization of the plant at all costs. the private sector has been reduced to three per cent. Turkish workers are at severe risk This level of confrontation is not unusual of exploitation and abuse. 2 in Turkey; employers are no strangers to violence, intimidation, illegal sackings and Turkey needs strong unions other underhand tactics. Unions do not take The industrial homicide of 301 coal miners this lying down. The recent Renault dispute 1 Demonstration against Hugo Boss in Izmir. in 2014 at Soma is the most compelling shows the fractious and sometimes violent IndustriALL argument for why Turkey needs strong industrial relations landscape. 2 Riot police attack workers at Renault in Turkey. unions. The Soma mine was a death trap Birleşik Metal-Iş Unions in Turkey face an uphill struggle in an and the accident was preventable: it only 3 Demonstration at Hugo Boss in Izmir. Teksif increasingly challenging environment. After happened through a tragic confluence of 4 Petrol-Iş demonstration at Standard Profil in a period of strength and growing militancy greed, incompetence and corruption. The Turkey. IndustriALL in the 1970s, a military coup in 1980 lead mine was owned by the government but 5 DİSK protesting against labour brokers in Turkey. DİSK to the severe repression of trade unions. run by a private company, an arrangement The military government designed labour of semi-privatization that lead to a focus on
4 global worker | profile profit before safety, while the government Alarmed at the growing climate of violence, turned a blind eye to abuses. the Turkish confederations DİSK and Freedom of KESK organized a “Labour, Peace and To add insult to death and destruction, a association under further 2,800 Soma miners were fired by Democracy” rally in the Turkish capital, text message in the wake of the accident, Ankara, on 10 October 2015. threat and affiliate Maden-İş had to fight a serious Two bombs exploded at the rally. 103 Even though Turkey has ratified battle for justice. people were killed in the biggest terror ILO conventions on the Freedom of attack in modern Turkish history. But the tragedy of Soma is just the tip of the Association and Protection of the Right iceberg: there have been 1,500 deaths in to Organize, fundamental trade union Turkish mines since 2000, and it took strong union pressure to get the government to rights remain under pressure. ratify ILO Convention 176 on mine safety. Turkey’s constitution is clear that For C176 to function, unions need to be “employees have the right to form able to operate freely, and workers need labour unions without obtaining to be able to report safety concerns and permission, and they also possess refuse dangerous work. the right to become a member of a Turkey is one of the world’s largest textile union and to freely withdraw from producers. The industry is dominated by membership, in order to safeguard small suppliers and is poorly regulated. Most and develop their economic and textile workers earn the minimum wage of social rights and the interests of their 1,647 lira (US$ 570) per month, which is far members in their labour relations. below a living wage in Turkey. Many workers No one shall be forced to become a are unregistered, vulnerable to exploitation and not paid even the legal minimum. It is 3 member of a union or to withdraw from not unusual to find child labour. membership.” Many premium brands – including Hugo According to the criminal code, Boss, Mulberry, Benetton, Ermenegildo violating the freedom of work and Zegna and Prada - use Turkish suppliers. IndustriALL Global labour and preventing trade union But premium brands are not above turning Union in Turkey rights can be punished. The reality a blind eye to labour exploitation if it lowers however, is different. production costs: workers making clothes IndustriALL has 19 affiliates for Hugo Boss in Izmir were paid far below a According to a study made by Labour living wage and were sacked for joining the in Turkey, three private Studies Community in 2015, 4,362 union Teksif. sector federations, Türk-Iş, workers were dismissed because of the actions taken for defending their rights, Workers making luxury Mulberry handbags DİSK and HAK-Iş. and 1,116 trade union actions were – which retail for up to a thousand dollars – were sacked for joining the union Deriteks. conducted. The report says 2,258 workers IndustriALL launched an international were dismissed just for joining a union, campaign against the brand to support Unreachable collective with 2,104 dismissed for action taken. bargaining thresholds them, forcing the Turkish supplier to Number of actions organized by recognize the union. The Law on Trade Unions and Collective unions at workplaces Labour Agreements sets thresholds for Regional conflict and the collective bargaining certification. A union DİSK BMİS exploitation of refugees that wants to sign a workplace level KESK SES Turkey is on the front line of a humanitarian collective bargaining agreement must DİSK Genel-İş crisis. The civil war in Syria has lead to the organize at least 1 per cent of the entire TÜRK-İŞ Petrol-İş influx of more than two million refugees, of workforce in that industrial sector. TÜRK-İŞ Türk-Metal KESK Eğitim Sen which about 400,000 work in Turkey, mostly In the meantime, there are also workplace DİSK Nakliyat-İş in agriculture, construction and the textile level thresholds of 50 per cent, and for industry. KESK BES companies with more than one workplace it Türk-Sağlik-Sen Refugees are vulnerable to exploitation. is 40 per cent. TÜRK-İŞ Tek-Gida-İş Pressure by unions and civil society has led According to the legislation, employers DİSK Gida-İş to a change in Turkish labour law, allowing can easily file a complaint at the local court HAK-İŞ Çelik-İş some refugees to work legally. Also, the DİSK Dev-Sağlik-İş global framework agreements between claiming that the union concerned does not have sufficient majority to be a bargaining KESK Tüm-Bel-Sen IndustriALL and clothing giants Inditex and TÜRK-İŞ Belediye-İş partner. It is common practice amongst H&M mean that pressure can be placed on İnşaat-İş Turkish employers to get rid of union suppliers to treat refugees fairly. Tasis-der presence at the workplace, or at least to TÜRK-İŞ Maden-Iş The civil war in Syria is having an effect on stall the collective bargaining process. Turkey, which has intervened heavily on DİSK Enerji-Sen the rebel side. Daesh, the Islamic State Court cases take years to resolve, TÜRK-İŞ Genel Maden-İş movement, has exploited divisions in Turkey preventing unions from functioning freely TÜRK-İŞ Yol-İş HAK- Liman- by launching a number of bombing attacks and efficiently, and also undermining the very İŞ İş TÜRK- Teksif within the country, particularly against nature of fundamental trade union rights, İŞ secular, democratic and progressive forces. including collective bargaining rights. 5 global worker | profile
three years. The workers, the vast majority of whom earn less than the poverty threshold with long working hours, discretionary overtime and no social benefits, are seeking a living wage and a voice at work. Whilst Hugo Boss publicly claims to uphold internationally recognized labour standards throughout its global operations, the 3,000 workers in Izmir have had their fundamental rights at work attacked by management. Violations include targeting of union supporters and their family and close 4 friends through threats, punishments and sackings. It took long drawn-out court Right to strike – only on paper Fighting back against processes to prove 20 illegal sackings of trade union supporters between 2011 and Turkey’s labour law allows for lawful strikes precarious work 2014, while a further eight are still pending and lockouts to be postponed by 60 days After a long struggle, IndustriALL affiliate in court. Although the High Court of Appeals if it is “prejudicial to public health or national Lastik-Iş, representing tyre workers, confirmed that those workers were dismissed security”. persuaded multinational manufacturers because of their union membership and Bridgestone, Pirelli and Goodyear to make ordered their reinstatement, management The law also says that “if an agreement thousands of contract workers permanent. took an option open under the law to pay is not reached before the expiry date of them an extra compensation instead. the suspension period, the High Board of Outsourcing, with lower wages and poorer Arbitration settles the dispute upon the working conditions in comparison with The practice continues and the local application of either party within six working permanent workers, has become a big management keeps dismissing key union days. Otherwise, the competence of the threat to union density, collective bargaining supporters. workers’ trade union shall be void.” and solidarity among permanent and contract workers. In reality, the postponement is actually a International solidarity for auto ban, as it is impossible to continue to strike Another affiliate,DİSK -Tekstil achieved component workers after the 60-day period. an unprecedented step forward at Greif IndustriALL’s affiliate Petrol-İş gained legal Enterprises, an American packaging company, recognition as the union representing New attacks: the introduction by making more than 1,200 contract workers workers at Standard Profil in Turkey and of labour brokers permanent through an agreement between commenced collective negotiations after a the union and the company. four-year organizing campaign. The Turkish parliament is currently debating a draft bill proposed by the government giving Standard Profil is a Turkish-based private employment agencies the right to Campaigns multinational supplier of automotive sealing hire workers in a range of sectors. If passed, systems producing for major automakers the new law would entail a huge shift in the such as Audi, BMW, Citroën, Daimler, Fiat, labour market from permanent to short-term International solidarity Ford, GM, Mercedes, Nissan and Opel. contracts, allowing the widespread use of provides a lifeline precarious employment contracts. The union organized more than 50 per cent Turkish unions are fighting hard against of Standard Profil’s 2,300 Turkish workers The draft bill would allow companies to use exploitation. Transnational campaigns from the plant in Düzce and a sister factory agency workers as a percentage of the provide them with the solidarity and in Bursa, and gained formal certification of total workforce in particular circumstances. space they need to organize, and put recognition. Turkish unions argue that this could lead pressure on companies to not take Nevertheless the company then engaged to an excessive use of agency work due to advantage of the situation in Turkey to “unforeseen increase in the business volume in legal challenges to the certification in an seek compliant, cheap labour. of the enterprise” or “periodical business effort to block workers from their legitimate increases”, which employers could argue workplace rights and sacked union activists exist at any time in a production system. inside the larger Düzce factory during the organizing period. A parliamentary commission has endorsed Hugo Boss – luxury brand, the draft bill, and the bill is expected to garbage employer come up for consideration at the Grand Hugo Boss has put up every possible barrier National Assembly (TBMM). If enacted, to union organizing at its most important millions of workers will end up with agency production factory in Izmir. Management work contracts rather than permanent ones. ruthlessly sacks key union members, which they have been found guilty of in Turkey’s TURKI-Iş: @turkiskonf High Court of Appeals. D SK: @disknsesi İ The Turkish Union of Textile, Knitting and HAK-I : @hakiskonf ş Clothing Industry Workers, TEKSIF, an TURKI-Iş: www.turkis.org.tr IndustriALL affiliate, has been supporting DİSK: www.disk.org.tr Hugo Boss workers to organize for over 5 HAK-Iş : www.hakis.org.tr
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1 opinion What is beyond Text: Brian Kohler COP21?
Policy documents, resolutions taken at congresses, Why is climate change a union issue? A transformation and dozens of sectoral conferences and regional is coming, whether the meetings dating from the 1980s to the present, have world takes action on climate change or takes debated and refined union positions on sustainability no action and awaits the and climate change. There are no jobs on a dead consequences. We must not allow it to become a violent planet, and sustainability is no longer a preference scramble for resources but a matter of survival, says IndustriALL’s sustainability such as water, energy, and fertile land that completely director Brian Kohler. dismisses workers’ rights and social protection.
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In Paris, on 12 December 2015 at the climate summit called 2 COP21, a historic agreement to control greenhouse gases and limit climate change was reached. The agreement will have significant effects on most of IndustriALL’s sectors.
Labour’s three top demands for the climate Strong social safety nets are a prerequisite talks in Paris were: for a Just Transition programme, but resorting to such safety nets will never • To raise ambition and realize the job-creation be labour’s first choice. The first choice, potential of climate action and the most Just Transition possible, • To deliver on climate finance and support the will always be to create, evolve, or most vulnerable maintain sustainable jobs. A sustainable, or greener, job is not always what comes • Commit to securing a Just Transition for to an environmentalist’s mind. Even workers and their communities manufacturing solar panels and windmills The necessary ingredients for a successful requires fuel, energy, steel and plastics that climate accord are found in the Paris text. must come from somewhere, and these There is an ambition to hold “global average must be considered sustainable jobs. temperature to well below 2C° above pre- industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C° above Just Transition pre-industrial levels”. There is provision for in reality periodic review. There is acknowledgement that a transformation of the economy is Just Transition was inspired by the implied. There are references, although policies that many governments, weak, to needed finance. notably in the USA, put in place to Just Transition is incorporated in the reintegrate thousands of demobilized preamble with clear language: military into the civilian work force “Taking into account the imperatives of following World War II. A more a just transition of the workforce and the recent and relevant example is how creation of decent work and quality jobs Germany handled the winding down in accordance with nationally defined of most of their coal mining industry development priorities.” in the last few decades. Thanks to Signatory parties must now accept that good social protection programmes, they have made a political commitment creative labour adjustment policies, to Just Transition, strengthened by the collaboration with trade unions - ILO’s recent Guidance document on Just and adequate funding - workers Transition. and communities were kept whole, Perhaps more important than government showing that the social outcomes of commitments will be the signals it sends economic transitions depend on the to the global economy. It will become public policies adopted, and that this increasingly difficult for investors or insurers can be done. to justify the risks of putting their money into fossil fuels. This will not change the financial world overnight, but it will change it. The only way to ensure a Just The Paris Agreement must be seen as a Transition is to create structured starting point, not a finish line, creating programmes to facilitate it and to deal an institutional framework that has all the with its consequences. If workers necessary ingredients to succeed. are blackmailed with their jobs, the environment will lose. Therefore workers A Just Transition for workers must not be asked to make this choice. and the environment Trade unions must avoid becoming the “last defender of the indefensible”. The concept of a Just Transition is that workers, their families, their communities A Just Transition programme has to be and their unions are respected and all encompassing; a flexible approach to protected, while creating new decent helping workers, their families, and their work in sustainable industries. Workers communities. It must involve workers in its did not choose jobs that damaged the design, and it must be customized to each environment; they needed work to support situation. A Just Transition programme themselves and their families. might even assist in the creative restructuring of obsolete industrial sites. It is profoundly unfair that the entire And it must keep workers and their unions cost of changes towards sustainability whole. should be borne by working people. 8 global worker | opinion
The International Labour Organization and Just Transition
In 2015, the ILO convened a Tripartite Meeting of Experts to review, amend and adopt draft guidelines based on a compilation and thorough review of experiences from country policies and sectoral strategies towards environmental sustainability, the greening of enterprises, social inclusion and the promotion of green jobs. The resulting ILO Guidance on Just Transition identifies nine key points to manage the impacts of potential 3 environmental regulations and promote the evolution of sustainable and greener In some aspects, the trade union enterprises, within the framework of a Winning a just transition to Just Transition: a sustainable economy movement has overlapping interests with environmental non-governmental Renewable energies will grow rapidly in • Policy coherence and institutions organizations (NGOs); whereas in other (country specific) the future to make up a greater proportion aspects we share some concerns with our of the overall energy mix, and greener, employers. However, the expertise for • Social dialogue (multistakeholder) more sustainable industrial processes and industrial transformation and how to products will make up a greater proportion make this change socially fair and just, • Macroeconomic and growth policies of overall industrial production. In the lies within the labour movement. meantime the labour movement needs to • Industrial and sectoral policies make sure that workers do not pay the The importance of environmental justice (greener jobs; decent work) in this context is clear: especially in the price for the environmental footprint of their • Enterprise policies industries. developing world, many communities largely depend on single industries such • Skills policies (also education) Global greenhouse emissions need to as mining, but these plants are often also peak now – February 2016 was already the largest environmental delinquents due • Occupational safety and health the warmest ever recorded – otherwise to weak or lacking national environmental • Social protection policies (health the Paris Agreement to keep global regulations and older technologies. warming below 2C° will not be met and care, income security, social the social, economic and environmental A Just Transition is not something that services) consequences experienced by everyone, can be won at the bargaining table. globally, will be catastrophic. It requires deliberate public policy • Labour market policies choices, building on a foundation of strong social protection programmes The ILO’s entry into the Just Transition IndustriALL Global Union, the ITUC and and sustainable industrial policies that debate is of great significance. It the US trade union congress, AFL-CIO, will transform existing jobs to be more gives the concept an internationally met in Washington DC, USA, in March sustainable as well as create plenty of accepted definition for the first time, to discuss how the global labour new greener jobs. as well as an institutional life within movement will tackle policy pressures A Just Transition will not happen by itself a specialized agency of the United resulting from the Paris Agreement and the so-called free market will not Nations. reached at the COP21 climate summit deliver it. It requires intense lobbying last December. and discourse with both companies and governments – otherwise workers will The particular focus of the meeting fall victim to a last-minute scramble for 1 Brian Kohler at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on was how a Just Transition for affected solutions to meet the Paris Agreement Climate Change. IndustriALL without the necessary socio-economic workers can be achieved. Workers in 2 Paris 2015 Un Climate Change Conference. considerations. the energy sector, particularly in coal, COP 21 but also in heavily energy-dependent It is our responsibility to show leadership at 3 Just Transition to a sustainable economy. industries, will be strongly affected by this crucial moment in history. We cannot IndustriALL efforts to control greenhouse gases negotiate with the laws of physics; and limit climate change in accordance but we can – and will – advocate with the Paris Agreement. sustainable industrial policies and demand justice and decent work for all of today’s and tomorrow’s workers.
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Why did you get involved in union activities?
The political mood when I joined IG Metall in 1971 was very conducive to trade unions and issues of democracy at the workplace. German chancellor Willy Brandt wanted to extend democracy and it was the time of the biggest approval rates for trade unions in Germany.
What have you learnt in your union career?
I learnt to listen to my colleagues. I learnt to find and define common objectives. I also learnt not to see myself as so important - it is unity that makes us strong. In Germany, after the Second World War, we had the advantage of being able to rebuild a union movement based on the principle of one sector, one union - irrespective of racial, religious, or political background. One union that defends your interests in the sector that you work in. So if you take my union, IG Metall, it is a strong stable union that has, after all the difficulties with reunification, remained strong.
Not long after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, you moved to the former German Democratic Republic as an officer for IG Metall. What role did unions play in Berthold Huber unifying the country? Two completely different worlds met - an Berthold Huber rose from an apprentice toolmaker in a bus extremely productive industry in the West factory to become leader of the world’s biggest national union, merged with an economy that was lagging behind. But it’s fair to say that IG Metall German metalworkers’ union, IG Metall, and President of managed to get one million new members from IndustriALL Global Union. Huber, who says his role as President the former Eastern states. Unfortunately, we is to be the voice of affiliates, will step down at IndustriALL’s lost many of them again, mainly due to massive job cuts and deindustrialization in former East Congress in Rio in October. Germany. Our main task in the beginning was to preserve as many jobs as possible.
Why are global unions like IndustriALL important?
Historically, trade unions in industrialized interview countries have had an international perspective and you can find this in all the important texts of the labour movement.
Union: IG Metall It is also why IndustriALL has its headquarters in Geneva, the home of the International Country: Germany Labour Organization, which has the mandate to regulate international standards at the Text: Léonie Guguen global level. Photos: IG Metall Globalization has further reinforced the need to regulate labour standards internationally. There has always been an important strategic objective to create a counterbalance to global capital, as globalization plays workers off against each other. We need to work together in unity.
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What has IndustriALL achieved where there is improvement in union What are you hoping IndustriALL can in its inaugural four years? building, such as in South East Asia, are achieve in the next four years? also characterized by many company- The biggest achievement is that we based unions. There needs to be one The mere creation of IndustriALL is have managed to come together across voice on a national basis so unions work a success. The preparation for this took our sectoral borders – from extractive together. years, if not decades. We have managed to industries such as mining, all the way address issues across sectors and I have After two bloody world wars in the through the value chain to manufacturing, hardly been to a meeting or discussion last century, global peace is the to form one united global union. where sectoral origins played an important most important issue. This can only be role for participants. But we still need to We have managed major successes achieved by continuing to promote human develop our common culture further. in terms of agreements such as the rights, freedom, democracy, justice and Bangladesh Accord, even though it came growing prosperity for everyone everywhere It is not enough to merely describe out of a cruel tragedy three years ago. No in the world. the evil of global capital. You have single national union would have been able to be active. You have to challenge the to achieve it and without IndustriALL and You were interim Chairman of companies and that is where the need for UNI Global Union it never would have been Volkswagen and are currently deputy visible and effective campaigns comes possible. chairman of the supervisory board into play and the need to further increase IndustriALL’s visibility. IndustriALL has also helped to put living at Audi. With your experience in the wages and minimum working standards car industry, how much of a threat is on the global agenda. 7 October, when our affiliates use the day to protest against Industry 4.0? precarious work, is a major achievement. In When we talk about Industry 4.0 we talk Germany it has become an important day about digitalization but a major challenge where irrespective of what else is going on, is the change from fossil fuels, which also we fight precarious jobs in Germany and adds to pressure on production and jobs. across the world. Electric engines require fewer parts and The five strategic goals that everyone this will affect car-producing countries in supports and subscribes to are a huge Latin America, Asia, Europe and North achievement and I’m not aware of any America. other big organization that has done this. One thing is clear - manufacturing and producing cars will profoundly IndustriALL’s five strategic goals change but different countries will be affected differently. Some countries > Build union power are also heavily involved in research and development and investment goods and > Defend workers’ rights producing robots. Germany is exposed in Beyond the five goals, we have to again the car industry but also in the investment translate this into concrete action and > Confront global capital goods – in the mechanical and equipment the activities we have in the regions, > Fight precarious work industries. for example, with precarious work. Through a bigger focus on organizational > Achieve sustainable industrial If you want to influence this structural development we have to build strong, change in a positive way for workers you policy united, democratic, independent, need strong trade unions. After all it’s jobs representative and self-sustaining trade that are at stake. unions throughout the world. What challenges are unions facing? Firstly, it is a task for national labour unions For this, the role of the regions and the to address. It is a national issue first before regional work definitely needs to be Globalization has contributed to a IndustriALL, which must fight for the strengthened. We can’t do this and other situation where workers’ rights are overarching issues of fair wages, secure tasks from Geneva. violated every day almost everywhere jobs and a safe place to work. in the world. The right to strike, freedom The President is the voice of the of association and the right to collective What are your views on a 40 per cent affiliates. The President needs to have bargaining must be valid to all workers quota for women at IndustriALL? a strong voice and opinion, but the everywhere, not just individual countries. major task is to listen and create a I am unconditionally in favour of a common position and unity. Precarious work is definitely one of quota for women’s representation the big challenges of the 21st century, and I have fought for that at IG Metall. www.igmetall.de whether in an industrialized or new The biggest question is how to achieve it economy. It has pervaded everywhere, and what the sanctions will be if affiliates www.facebook.com/IGMetall although in different forms. The conflict violate the quota? I’m in favour of changing between capital and labour over precarious the statutes, it’s a political statement and @IGMetall and safe work is just the beginning. Youth commitment, but it is more important that unemployment and informal work are also it takes place in reality and not just in our @igmetalljugend major challenges. documents. We need to talk about how We see the pressure building on unions, we actually achieve better participation by for example, in North America. The zones women. 11 global worker | feature
Workers’ rights in global supply chains
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The spread of production tied to multinational corporations (MNCs) worldwide has driven employment growth in many countries. And it has brought new challenges to Workers’ rights the union movement. How can MNCs be held accountable for labour rights violations in global supply chains in their supply chains in the absence of global rules and enforcement mechanisms?
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that the number of jobs linked with global supply chains in 40 countries increased from 296 million in 1995 to 453 million in 2013. This represents more than one fifth of the global workforce. For Text: Jenn y Holdcroft and many workers, jobs in global supply chains mean precarious work, low wages and inhuman working hours. 1 Adam Lee
The expansion of global supply chains could well afford to guarantee all has been driven by a business model workers in their supply chains a expressly designed to take advantage decent standard of living. of low wages and inadequate In the last quarter of 2015, Apple regulation and enforcement. Research reported the biggest quarterly profit shows that respect for workers’ rights ever by a corporation: US$18.4 in supply chains is declining. billion. It is sitting on cash reserves of In the garment industry, there was a US$216 billion. Meanwhile, workers 73 per cent drop in the workers’ rights who make products responsible for score of the top 20 apparel exporters generating these unprecedented to the US between 1989 and 2010. profits receive only US$4 for making At the same time there was a 42 per an iPhone 6 that retails in the US for cent reduction in the price paid for the US$649. clothes they produced. Amancio Oretga, founder of fashion- The UN Guiding Principles make it chain, Zara, is now the second richest clear that MNCs are responsible for man in the world with a personal working conditions in their supply fortune of US$70 billion (yes, billion). chains. Yet many MNCs claim to have MNC buyers at the top of global little control, or even knowledge, of supply chains may not directly employ how much workers are paid, the hours workers in the factories that produce they work, their health and safety or their goods, but their purchasing their employment contracts. But these 2 decisions have a powerful influence same companies are able to make over wages and working hours. very specific production demands of their suppliers over what materials are used, where those materials come from, production processes, delivery times and so on. In fact, the sourcing models designed by companies to maximize their profits are the direct cause of many of the abuses experienced by workers. Short lead times, last minute changes to production specifications, ramp-ups for new product launches and general lack of consideration of how sourcing 1 Sakura factory in Yangon, Myanmar. IndustriALL decisions impact on workers are major 2 Workers at the Sakura factory Yangon, Myanmar. impediments to improving workers’ IndustriALL rights in global supply chains. 3 Action on Oxford Street, London, outside H. Samuel. IndustriALL Workers at all stages of global supply chains can justifiably ask Quarterly profit 4 IndustriALL calling on NXP to improve labour US$18.4 BILLION practices. why their pay and conditions are so poor. They are making products or iPhone 6 sells for 5 Rana Plaza building collapse in April 2013. US$649 IndustriALL contributing services for companies that rake in massive profits and Workers earn US$4 13 global worker | feature
to systematically build their unions’ links across the oil, gas, maritime and transport sectors. The aim is to build union power through communicating, collaborating and organizing across the supply chain. Unions can use brand names of companies to push for workers’ rights in supply chains. The ITUC recently released a report exposing the scandal that 50 leading brand name multinational corporations directly employ only 6 per cent of their workforces. The remaining 94 per cent often suffer from low wages and rights violations, hidden in the shadows of global supply chains. ITUC calls on these brand name companies to take responsibility for their “hidden workforces”. Naming and shaming companies with retail 3 exposure can be especially powerful. While employers in IndustriALL sectors frequently The failure of CSR While it is generally not currently possible do not have retail exposure, they are often to sue companies in their home countries linked through supply chains to companies Unilateral, voluntary and nonbinding for their actions in other countries, there that do. corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts are some movements towards legal have overwhelmingly failed to improve Unions at mining and metals giant Rio Tinto requirements on MNCs. In France, a draft wages and working hours, or to ensure have indirectly pressured the company by law is under discussion which will require respect for workers’ right to join a union. publicly linking jewellery retailer Signet to the largest French multinationals to put in the poor practices of its diamond supplier CSR has spawned a multi-million dollar place a due diligence plan to prevent harm Rio Tinto. social auditing industry, which means that to human rights and the environment. despite the lack of results, there is so much Companies failing to produce such a plan invested that many companies will hope can be required to do so by a judge and to achieve incremental change through fined for non-compliance. iPhone 6 improvements to existing approaches. Meanwhile there are efforts at the UN Bigger, Faster, Flawed But since the compliance and auditing Human Rights Council towards a binding The ethical flaw? Grave labour rights model focuses on individual factory international treaty on corporate human violation by supplier NXP in the Philippines performance without identifying and rights responsibilities. addressing root causes and systemic Unions will be pushing for the International barriers, these efforts will continue to be Labour Conference discussion on Global ineffectual. Supply Chains in June 2016 to lead to There is growing public awareness of concrete measures to address violations the lack of results delivered by CSR of international labour standards in MNC programmes – flashy websites and reports supply chains (see box). are no longer an adequate smokescreen In line with its strategic goal of behind which companies can continue confronting global capital, IndustriALL business as usual. Faith in the auditing continues to take steps towards model was further shaken when it became increasing the accountability of the known that social auditing and certification MNCs in the supply chains of the bodies SAI and BSCI gave clean bills of industries it covers. health, respectively, to the Ali Enterprises clothing factory in Pakistan before it burnt IndustriALL has signed Global 4 down killing 254 workers and Rana Plaza Framework Agreements with nearly before it collapsed, killing 1,134 workers in 50 multinational corporations. These Bangladesh. require the corporations to uphold IndustriALL Philippine affiliate MWAP at workers’ fundamental rights, and they first had little success in negotiating a new What options for unions? generally include a commitment that the labour agreement in 2014 with electronics The UN Guiding Principles and the OECD corporations’ suppliers do the same. company NXP in the country. After NXP guidelines that are based on them clearly attacked the leadership of the union, focus Some unions are developing closer shifted to NXP customer Apple. establish that MNCs are responsible for relationships with other unions present in abuses in their supply chains. Unions can their employers’ supply chains. Affiliates Together with MWAP, protests at Apple take cases under the OECD guidelines but of IndustriALL and sister global union, stores were organized. A petition set this does not lead to binding resolution and International Transport Workers, in up with SumOfUs calling on Apple to results are patchy. Denmark, Norway and the UK are planning demand its supplier NXP improve its labour
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workers, reform of purchasing practices in Now workers, companies and 5 support of industry bargaining is essential. governments will discuss a way forward in the ILO. By linking national industry-level collective bargaining between unions The workers’ group in the ILO will push and employers to the purchasing for conclusions to the discussion which practices of brands, the ACT process reflect the widespread violations of creates a framework for genuine supply workers’ rights in global supply chains chain industrial relations. Through and the fact that global supply chains industry bargaining, workers can get a are not benefitting workers. wage that is enough to properly support themselves and their families, and at the same time the specific nature of the Workers will also push for: industry, working hours, productivity practices gained 150,000 signatures. The • A decision to work towards a Convention and other issues that have bearing on result was a new labour agreement for on Global Supply Chains. This convention wages, can be addressed. MWAP. should clarify the roles and responsibilities For the first time, the ACT process aims of governments (in home and host Supply chain agreements to create a system that, by addressing countries) and companies (both suppliers and buyers). It should establish legal The collapse of the Rana Plaza building in the structural barriers to living wages, has a genuine chance of increasing garment accountability and provide guidance for April 2013 marks the turning point away developing policy and legislation to ensure from the failed CSR auditing model and workers’ wages in a way that is scalable, sustainable and enforceable. respect for workers’ rights in supply towards global supply chain industrial chains. relations. It made possible the Bangladesh Drawing on these experiences, and those Accord on Fire and Building Safety, a of the Bangladesh Accord, there is no • A revision of the MNE Declaration. groundbreaking legally-binding agreement reason why similar models cannot be The MNE (multinational enterprises) between global unions and more than 200 developed to address other labour rights Declaration is an ILO instrument that garment MNCs. problems that are entrenched in the way makes recommendations to companies and governments concerning employment The Accord identifies and addresses the that supply chains are constructed and managed. conditions. However it covers mainly underlying reasons why factories had companies’ own operations, not their not been made safe despite years of This is the opportunity that unions now supply chains. Workers will demand its auditing and CSR programs. It includes have to address working conditions in coverage is broadened and that it includes commitments by brands towards their global supply chains, towards genuine a complaints mechanism that can lead to supplier factories to maintain orders and supply chain industrial relations. mediation or arbitration. to ensure that financing is available to factories to do the necessary renovations. Struggle for supply chain • A commitment from employers for greater If factories do not comply, signatory transparency in their supply chains. brands are required to end their accountability heads to ILO • A commitment to work towards increased business relationship. Global supply chains are delivering for large corporations but not for workers. Now the safety and reduction of precarious labour The Bangladesh Accord promises to struggle to defend workers in global supply in supply chains. change forever the way that companies chains will be taken up at the ILO. • Promotion of sectorial collective deal with abuses in their supply chains. The bargaining and establishment of minimum challenge now is to build on this model to In June, the ILO will hold a discussion at living wage rates and minimum wage address other systemic violations of labour its International Labour Conference (ILC) setting mechanisms. rights in supply chains. on how to promote decent work in global supply chains. The ILO is the tri-partite IndustriALL has signed a Memorandum of organization tasked with setting standards Understanding with a number of leading for the world of work. The ILC is organized The employers’ group is expected to take brands in the garment industry. The aim annually by the ILO to make decisions about a different approach to the ILO supply of the agreed process, known as ACT, the ILO’s general policy, work programme chains discussion, portraying global supply is to establish systems of industry-wide and international labour standards. chains as an important tool for economic collective agreements supported by brand development and downplaying violations of purchasing practices as the primary The global economy currently suffers workers’ rights in supply chains. Employers means of wage-fixing in the global garment from an accountability gap. Many are likely to resist any measures that put industry. The MoU is explicit in identifying companies claim to uphold workers’ demands on them for greater transparency, the development of industry bargaining in rights in their supply chains, but fail to accountability or improved conditions for garment producing countries as essential take measures necessary to ensure those workers. to achieving living wages and the need rights are respected. Governments take for effective recognition of workers’ rights little responsibility for workers’ rights at to freedom of association and collective their companies’ suppliers abroad. The To ensure that the discussion at the bargaining in order for this to be realized. countries where those suppliers are located ILO leads to increased supply chain often have laws to protect workers’ rights accountability, unions must be ready to In the context of global supply chains, but are not able or willing to enforce them. pressure their governments to support the where the buyers at the top of the supply workers’ group’s proposals. chain have the greatest power to influence The UN and OECD have taken steps to where value is distributed along the chain address this accountability gap. In 2011, and how much of it ends up in the hands of the UN endorsed its Guiding Principles and the OECD updated its Guidelines.
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Union Federations: CUT and Força Sindical Country: Brazil Text: Kimber Meyer Translation: Chris Whitehouse
1 Two trade union centres with the same objective: Brazil unity wins major victories
2 More than 40 per cent of workers in Brazil are affiliated to one of the two big trade union centres, the CUT and Força Sindical. With their constant struggle and tireless work, they have both won major victories for the country’s workers.
The CNTM worked alongside the On 6 December 2006, 20,000 workers agreed with representatives of the trade union centres of Brazil for marched in Brasilia and won a historic unions, employer organizations and seven or eight years to obtain legal agreement. Brazil’s two largest trade retired workers’ and pensioners’ recognition of the trade union union centres, the Central Unica dos organizations to adopt an annual centres, which we achieved in Trabalhadores (CUT) and Força Sindical increase of the minimum wage based on had organized a third national march in inflation and growth in per capita GDP. 2008. We then formulated a joint the country’s capital Brasilia as part of a This policy is still in operation today. agenda for the trade union centres. two-year campaign for annual increases The CNTM-Força Sindical and to the minimum wage. Another milestone in the history of the Brazilian trade union movement took the CNM-CUT both attended The march was followed by an increase place in 2008. Representatives from demonstrations, seminars and in the minimum wage, and showed how both trade union centres attended the congresses in a policy aimed at trade union unity and a fighting spirit Chamber of Representatives for the vote unifying the trade union movement, can win important gains for the country’s on a bill that for the first time gave legal says Miguel Torres, president of the workers. The government subsequently recognition to the trade union centres. CNTM, an IndustriALL affiliate.
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3 IndustriALL in Brazil
IndustriALL has 22 affiliated unions in Brazil that are affiliated to either the CUT or Força Sindical. It is currently working with its affiliates on training and education projects for young trade unionists, for the inclusion of women in unions and to combat precarious work in multinational companies. Automotive sector unions in Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Mexico also And the struggle continues today. The South “We have had support from unions in the cooperate and are working together to American giant is currently going through a major chemical sector (FEQUIMFAR - Força Sindical, build trade union networks in Brazilian economic as well as a political crisis. A downturn affiliated to IndustriALL) and from the Osasco multinational companies. IndustriALL in the economy has resulted in plant closures and and Curitiba metalworkers (Força Sindical) has a global framework agreement with lost jobs. However, unions have played a crucial on several issues. For example, the fight to energy giant Petrobras, that is unique in role in defending workers’ rights and saving defend democracy, stop the coup and ensure Latin America. the jobs of thousands of Brazilians. that Dilma’s government stays until she has 1 completed her term in office, and in the fight IndustriALL has a national council in At the beginning of 2016, unions affiliated to for a new economic policy that promotes Brazil, on which six confederations of the the CUT and Força Sindical helped organize a economic growth and employment.” two trade union centres in three sectors successful demonstration and hand-delivered a (textiles, metalworking and chemicals) letter to the Organizing Committee of the 2016 The CUT describes itself as “a Brazilian trade Olympic Games, insisting that Nissan respect union of the masses, working-class, independent are represented. the guidelines for official sponsors by respecting and democratic, committed to defending the human rights in the company’s entire supply chain. immediate and historic interests of the working class”. It was founded on 28 August 1983, in São CUT: @cutnacional Representatives of the CNM-CUT and the CNTM- Bernardo do Campo, Sao Paulo, two years before Força Sindical also attended a public hearing at the restoration of democracy in Brazil, after 20 Forca Sindical: @CentralSindical the Brazilian Senate Human Rights Commission to years of military dictatorship. denounce the company’s anti-trade union policy CUT: www.cut.org.br in Mississippi, United States. As a result, Senator This is why the CUT’s first battles were to Paulo Paim agreed to contact Nissan CEO, Carlos fight for wide-ranging political, economic Forca Sindical: www.fsindical.org.br Ghosn, to ask him to negotiate with the workers and cultural changes able to guarantee the and allow the union to organize the plant. universal rights of workers.
A few years after the CUT was founded, another 1 Third march for the minimum wage, trade union was created for Brazilian workers. 6 December 2006. Dino Santos Força Sindical was founded on 8 March 2 & 4 Demonstration and meeting with 1991, during the International Women’s Day representatives of the Organizing Committee celebrations. It aims to consolidate a modern of the 2016 Olympic Games. Fernando workers’ movement that was “independent, Cavalcanti free, pluralist, open to internal and public 3 Public hearing at the Brazilian Senate. debate, with a well-defined project for a Senator Paulo Paim, Chair of the Senate better, fairer Brazil, more solidarity and able to Human Rights Commission, agreed to contact the Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn, to ask the promote the welfare of its children.” company to negotiate with the workers. 4 Fernando Cavalcanti
The unions have organized several demonstrations to stop multinational companies The 2nd Congress of IndustriALL Global Union will be held in Rio de Janeiro in October 2016. dismissing workers, for example, at Mercedes Benz’s plant in Sao Bernardo do Campo (SP), where a strike saved 1,500 jobs. Rafael Marques, representing the ABC Metalworkers Union, affiliated to the CNM-CUT and Miguel Torres, representing the CNTM-Força Sindical both participated in the protest. Confederations from the two trade union centres have supported each other in other sectors, for example, in the chemicals sector. 2nd congress of Lucineide Varjao, President of the CNQ/CUT, IndustriALL Global Union affiliated to IndustriALL, and the first woman to 3-7 October 2016 hold this position in the confederation, says:
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1 Four years of IndustriALL action to STOP Precarious Work
Since its founding in 2012, action against precarious work special has been at the top of IndustriALL’s policy and campaign agenda. After four years of organizing, bargaining, report campaigning and fighting legislation by IndustriALL affiliates across the globe, the occasion of IndustriALL’s second Text: Armelle Seby Congress is an opportunity to reflect on the achievements and refocus on the struggles still to come.
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The last decades have seen a widespread increase of precarious work all over the world. Although 70 per cent of the workforce in Europe and the United Sates are still in permanent and direct employment, precarious forms of employment are increasing. In low-income countries, self-employment, contract and casual labour are the dominant forms of employment. The rapid increase in precarious work is driven by both business and governments. Companies put flexibility as a condition for employment creation. In the name of economic growth, governments are deregulating the labour market and allowing the expansion of insecure and low quality jobs. In a globalized economy, with high level international competition and outsourced production processes, 3 pressure is on cutting costs. Multinational companies have imposed a supply chain model which generates precarious precarious work plays an important role in work, particularly in sectors like textile or promoting unity of action among affiliates, electronics. Technological changes enable including the creation of national campaign employers to impose ever more flexibility teams representing all affiliates, notably in The continuing expansion of Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia. and insecurity. precarious work is one of the Affiliates participating in precarious work biggest threats that unions face, project activities have reported organizing not only to workers’ job security, tens of thousands of precarious workers pay and working conditions but to since 2012. Last year alone, affiliates reported that 34,000 precarious workers their capacity to organize workers were organized. to fight collectively for their rights. In Sub-Saharan Africa, affiliates organized For IndustriALL, the fight against around 17,000 precarious workers in six countries: Togo, Cameroon, Democratic precarious work is a key strategic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso goal which is integrated into all and Senegal. its work at global, industrial and In western Africa, despite legislation limiting regional level, says Jyrki Raina, the use of casual and daily workers, these general secretary, IndustriALL. contracts are regularly used abusively. In some chemical companies in Senegal, 2 the entire workforce is made up of daily Organize to fight against workers or temporary agency workers. precarious work Through IndustriALL efforts, a training programme for organizers has been put Fighting against precarious work: “The spread of precarious employment is in place and affiliates have launched a key strategic goal for IndustriALL clearly part of a corporate attack on the organizing drives and campaigns in right to organize and bargain collectively. At IndustriALL’s founding Congress in targeted companies. Precarious work is characterized by a little Copenhagen in June 2012, the campaign or even total absence of trade union rights, to STOP Precarious Work was unanimously with numerous and substantial obstacles adopted by IndustriALL affiliates. for precarious workers to join trade In the name of this global campaign, unions unions,” says Jyrki Raina. committed to mobilizing their members on IndustriALL’s campaign to STOP precarious 7 October, the World Day for Decent Work. work is encouraging and supporting The number of affiliates participating in affiliates to organize precarious workers. the global day of action increases every Trade union projects funded by Swedish year, which is both a testament to the Union to Union, SASK in Finland, LO priority that affiliates put on the need Norway, Dutch FNV, ACV-BIE in Belgium, to stop precarious work, and a very and FCE-CFDT in France, provide concrete visible demonstration of IndustriALL’s support to affiliates in building their determination to stamp out abusive capacity to develop and implement action employment contracts. plans on organizing, collective bargaining and campaigning. The fight against 4
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Abdoulaye Chemical worker, Senegal
I had been working in the same company since 2005 as a daily worker, working 15 days a month, receiving no social protection, no personal protective equipment which I need for work. But since 2014, I have a permanent contract thanks to the action of SUTIDS union. Today my life and that of my family has changed completely: my income has increased by 125 per cent. 60 per cent of the medical care for my wife and four children is covered by the company; I have personal protective equipment; 5 the social security fund offers pre- natal and natal consultation services Collective bargaining is key for my wife; my children have access to medical care from the institution In 2015, through the project alone, that also pays benefits to my wife affiliates succeeded in converting 10,000 Union strength is dependent on precarious workers to permanent ones. after childbirth and children every two months up to the age of 18. membership. We have to organize Over the last few years, numerous contract workers, unionize them, examples have been reported of affiliates Consequently, I am now a militant fight for them and increase our succeeding in negotiating improved activist for the defence of precarious conditions for precarious workers or to workers’ interests. strength. B.K. Das, general extend collective bargaining coverage secretary INMF, India. to precarious workers. Many of these examples are included in IndustriALL’s publication ‘Negotiating Security’. Fighting for and against legislation In Pune, India, companies are hiring fewer permanent staff and are using more • In Cameroon, FENATICAM and USTIC Effective legislation that limits the use of non-union contract workers. Permanent secured registration in the national social precarious work and is properly enforced is workers are dismissed and temporary security system of 600 subcontracted essential. workers are rehired for the same work but workers at N.I.S. Environ of Cimencam. In Indonesia, affiliates conducted a for a fraction of the salary. • In Brazil in 2013, the FUP won an survey of more than 500 workers in ICT/ The Indian federation SEM (Shramik Ekta agreement with Petrobras establishing Electronics, automotive, textile/garment, Mahasangh) is fighting back and organizing a security fund to ensure payment to cement, shipbuilding/shipbreaking, pulp precarious workers. Contract workers used precarious workers. and paper, mining, chemicals and energy to be victimized when joining a union. To industries in order to gather evidence of • In 2015 in India, the INCWF succeeded overcome this situation, SEM registered a non-compliance with existing legislation. in obtaining a bonus for contract separate union for the manpower workers Most of the contract and direct temporary workers in Digvijay Cement, Gujarat in the Maharashtra State, the Maharashtra workers interviewed had their contracts and SMEFI achieved access to medical Contract Workers Union (MCWU), in renewed several times, despite the law facilities for contract workers, similar to September 2014. With the support of only allowing temporary contracts to be those provided to permanent workers in IndustriALL, the MCWU trained organizers renewed twice. Some of them had been the Steel Authority of India Ltd. and organized 650 contract workers in one continuously employed for 14 years. month. IndustriALL encourages affiliates to organize and represent precarious workers, rather than to create separate unions. But when that proves too difficult and creating a union for precarious workers is the only solution, the solidarity and support of permanent workers’ unions is essential. These unions provide the necessary information to organize precarious workers at their plants.
6
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The majority of the precarious workers were working on core business activities of Precarious work in IndustriALL sectors the companies, while the law clearly limits IndustriALL is continuously gathering information on the nature and spread of precarious work in which types of activities precarious workers its sectors. The majority of affiliates (between 65 to 85 per cent) continue to report an increase in can perform. Affiliates will use the results to the use of precarious work in their sectors. conduct a campaign for better compliance with the law. Percentage of workers (total employment) without a permanent contract
Less than 25% 25-50% 50-75% 75-90%
90-100% Source: ILO
between trade unions and broader civil 7 society, supported by IndustriALL. So far Negotiating Security the movement has been able to delay the Trade union bargaining strategies vote in the Senate. against precarious work In the Philippines, affiliates organizing As part of the preparations for IndustriALL’s joint campaigns to push the parliament industry world conferences, affiliates have to adopt a bill on security of tenure that been sharing information on precarious would promote regular and permanent work in their sectors. Survey responses employment and aim to curb precarious clearly illustrate the stark inequalities work, particularly agency labour, which is between permanent and precarious growing in all industrial sectors. workers. In all sectors, the majority of In Brazil, IndustriALL affiliates have been precarious workers do not receive the running a campaign for years to prevent same treatment as permanent workers. the adoption by the Congress of a bill Their salaries are lower - the wage liberalizing outsourcing. The proposed law structure in several automotive to open up use of contract workers without component factories in the Chennai limitation has been discussed for more than area in India, shows that contract a decade. After being effectively blocked workers get a wage almost eight times by unions for several years, employers lower than permanent workers. managed to get the bill adopted by the House of Representatives in April 2015. At Rio Tinto Madagascar, outsourced The text is now in the Senate for a vote. workers earn one quarter of permanent Opposition to the bill has been coordinated workers’ salaries. In 2014, IndustriALL published Precarious workers do not benefit from Negotiating security: Trade union the same social protection, if any at bargaining strategies against all. It is rare that precarious workers have precarious work, presenting a access to company benefits like medical sample of the creative and progressive facilities provided to permanent workers. agreements that IndustriALL affiliates Affiliates report that precarious workers have been able to negotiate to confront do not always have access to the same precarious work. facilities at the worksite as permanent workers. In many companies in India, and at Rio Tinto Madagascar, they are forced Precarious workers are exposed to to eat outside in the dust while permanent higher health and safety risks and often workers eat in their canteen. In the Cavite have more physically demanding jobs area, Philippines, contract workers in with longer working hours. They receive the electronics or textile sectors walk less training and have less experience. to work in the morning to save money, while permanent workers benefit from the Precarious work has become a central 8 company’s transportation service. issue in the work of several global and regional company and industry networks. 21 global worker | special report
In 2016, IndustriALL affiliates in the cement sector in India, Philippines and Indonesia Haridas adopted joint national action plans, Mechanical engineer, India prioritizing organizing precarious workers. The use of precarious workers in the I worked for 12 years as a contract worker in various companies. It was a difficult sector especially in Asia is widespread. The time with low wages, job insecurity, no transport or canteen facility, and no proper LafargeHolcim global network organized safety equipment. It was like being a slave to the contractor or management. a global day of action on 7 October 2015. Trade unions from Europe, Asia, Africa, Under the guidance of Shramik Ekta Mahasangh (SEM), all the 97 contract workers in South and North America organized rallies, my company joined the union. After various rounds of negotiations with management, conferences and meetings to send a strong the union obtained permanent contracts for all of us. This was followed by signing signal that LafargeHolcim must address a settlement with a wage increase of US$135 for each contract worker, along with the widespread use of precarious work social security benefits and all the facilities that the permanent workers enjoyed. at the company. More than 300 people This brought a huge change to me and my family. Now I have job security, transport, have died during last four years while access to the canteen, and I am able to afford quality education for my children. working for Lafarge and Holcim - almost Overall, my status in society has improved. 90 per cent of these were employed by subcontractors or third parties. Indian affiliate PCSS won an important The triangular trap victory in January at LafargeHolcim’s ACC The triangular Unions take action against agency labour Jamul cement plant after years of struggle trap and an OECD complaint supported by IndustriALL. The settlement achieved IndustriALL report Campaigning and winning employment security for half of the 1,000 focusing on the Thanks to the wealth of knowledge and massive worldwide contract workers with a progressive experience that has been developed readjustment of contract worker salaries growth of agency over the four years of the campaign to to reach the national wage agreement for work and other the cement industry, as well as severance forms of triangular STOP Precarious Work, building on the packages and support for rehabilitation for employment work that had already been done by the dismissed. relationships and how our founding global unions, IndustriALL affiliates throughout the world stand Precarious work is one of the priorities of they are undermining IndustriALL’s Rio Tinto global campaign. international labour ready to confront precarious work in all Attention has been drawn to the numerous standards. its forms, says Jyrki Raina. abuses linked to an extensive use of The fight against precarious work is not precarious work at Rio Tinto. Affiliates are over, nor will it be any time soon. At our actively organizing precarious workers. Action towards the ILO second Congress in Rio de Janeiro in In 2013, FISEMA was able to organize 300 IndustriALL is fighting for ILO recognition October, affiliates will be asked to reaffirm outsourced workers at QMM (Rio Tinto on how precarious work is undermining their commitment to the global campaign Madagascar). In Australia, the CFMEU respect for international labour standards. as it moves into the next phase. It will has been organizing permanent workers There is a lack of institutional awareness be a time to reflect on the many, many together with labour hire workers at one and employers and governments have not Rio Tinto worksite; a difficult task as labour been prepared to address the issue. After achievements of the campaign and to hire workers are employed by the hour and years of advocacy at the ILO, supported gather strength for the challenges ahead. employers can easily get rid of them. by the workers’ group, there was a step What we can be sure of is that wherever forward in February 2015 when IndustriALL precarious work takes hold, IndustriALL participated in a tripartite Meeting of Experts on Non-Standard Forms of affiliates will be organizing, bargaining, Employment. fighting politically and uniting their strength to protect workers’ rights. The conclusions of the meeting have the potential to significantly strengthen the ILO’s responses to precarious work. They Visit IndustriALL’s include recommending that the ILO improve STOP Precarious data collection and reporting on precarious Work page! work. Importantly, the recommendations also called for future Meetings of Experts on temporary employment and on discrimination on the basis of employment Action on 7 October 2015 in: status, opening up the possibility for 1 India. SMEFI future international labour standards to be 2 Thailand. TEAM developed in these two areas. 3 Pakistan. APFUTU 4 Nigeria. NLC 5 India. IndustriALL 6 Japan. JCM 9 7 Switzerland. IndustriALL 8 Sri Lanka. CIWU 9 Brazil. CUT 22 An estimated 5,000 people took to the streets of Madrid on 9 February to protest against the trial of eight trade unionists facing a total 66 years in prison for going on strike. In a victory for trade unions all over the world, all eight were acquitted.
#RightToStrike
IndustriALL protests against Nissan’s aggressive anti-union suppression at its plant in Canton, Mississippi, US. It contradicts the Olympics’ Sustainable Supply Chain Guide, which lists freedom of association among its standards.
#DoBetterNissan It’s time to ratify ILO C176 on safety and health in mines!