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The Canadian Auto Workers’ (CAW) Union last week made a strong statement that it will no longer tolerate employers’ efforts to drive down wages and work terms as a continued response to the economic crisis. Under the banner “Auto Parts Workers United: Enough is Enough!” the union on 27 October held 100 lunch-hour workplace demonstrations at worksites in the province of Ontario. 
 
The Day of Action kicked off a CAW campaign for renewed militancy to resist wage cuts, resist slashing of pensions, reject two-tier wage schemes, and to protest any outsourcing of auto-parts production work. The CAW represents 21,000 auto-parts workers, and last week’s demonstrations made it clear that the 40,000 non-union workers in Canada’s auto-supply sector – workers with no one fighting for them – are welcome to participate in the CAW’s campaign. 
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Angus MacDonald, President of CAW Local 1256, at Oakville Automodular
Accepting “downward pressure to live another day doesn’t work,” CAW President Ken Lewenza told one noon-time rally of 100 workers at Burlington Technologies, a maker of aluminum die castings for the auto industry. “All it is doing is making the race to the bottom a lot quicker.” 
 
The union is pledging to strengthen its defenses by conducting sit-down strikes and plant occupations when plants are endangered, and to create “flying squads” to follow outsourced work, as well as assisting CAW local unions that face contract concessions. In addition, CAW promises that its members will refuse to handle “hot cargo” from plants in which workers are on strike. 
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Part of the campaign will also be aimed at the provincial government in Ontario. Pressure will be exerted in order to pass fair labour legislation, including the prohibition on use of scabs during strikes and adoption of a law to level the playing field for workers seeking to unionise. “What’s so difficult about putting in a law to allow workers to join a union without reprisal?” asked Lewenza. The union’s out-reach effort to non-union plants will include unorganized workers at giant auto-parts maker Magna. 
 
Some of the plants that witnessed last week’s vocal demonstrations included operations of Lear, Cooper Standard, Ventra Plastics, AG Simpson. Guelph CPK Interiors, Brampton Benteler Automotive, Martinrea Fabco, Ingersoll Autrans, Oakville Automodular, Legatt & Platt, Tora Investments, Reiter Automotive, Woodbridge Foam, Tecumseh Engineering, Integram Seating, and TRW. 
 
The CAW says that 21,000 auto-parts jobs were lost in Canada between the fall of 2008 and the spring of 2009.

Canadian Auto Parts Workers Hold Day of Action

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Austerity cuts in the UK will hit the poorest families many times harder than the richest, as the Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition government makes the poor pay for the financial downturn. 
 
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s emergency budget of June was found to cut the country’s poorest families’ average income by 21.7%, six times more than the richest. 
 
The Institute of Fiscal Studies’ analysis of the Cameron government’s regressive cuts in social spending conclude clearly that the tax and benefit changes increase the gap between rich and poor in the UK. 
The Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) last week criticized the OECD for backing the public spending cuts, and found that backing to be inconsistent with the Organisation’s stated objective of prioritizing job growth coming out of the crisis. 
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TUAC points to estimates that the cuts will create one million job losses over the next five years, half in the public sector, and a further half-million jobs in the private sector through knock-on effects. 
 
Massive cuts to public spending can only create high unemployment, increase pressure on the poor, damage the economy, and risk a “double-dip” recession. 
 
Trade unions around the world are outraged by this trend, especially in Europe, of austerity cuts which make the poor pay for the economic crisis. The cuts are completely against the position of the Pittsburgh G20 a year ago, where world leaders pledged to develop action for economic recovery with placed “quality employment at the heart of the recovery.” 
 
At the same time as working people in the UK are being hit hard by Prime Minister David Cameron’s austerity cuts, figures were released last week indicating that the average boardroom executive has seen their salary rise 55% over the last year. The top chief executives in Britain earned £4.9million last year, 200 times the average wage. The third highest-paid CEO of a UK company was Mick Davis of mining giant Xstrata, earning £26.9million last year. Total earnings of the top 100 UK companies fell by 1.5% during the first half of the crisis. 
 
“These mega-pay rises blow away any claim that we are all in this together,” stated TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber.

Tory Cuts in UK to Hit Poor the Hardest

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Immediately following a 99.9% contract rejection and intent-to-strike vote on 27 October, the union representing copper miners at Chile’s Doña Ines de Collahuasi and management called for a five-day government mediation period. If unsuccessful, a strike by 1,550 permanent workers at Collahuasi in northern Chile’s Region I could begin late this week. 
 
The 535,000-tonne copper mine, the world’s third largest, is 44% owned by Xstrata and 44% by AngloAmerican, with the remaining 12% held by a consortium of Japanese companies led by Mitsui & Co. Collahuasi miners ended a three-year contract just days ago, a contract that came into place after a four-day strike in 2007. 
 
Miners are seeking a 10% wage increase, and a bonus comparable to the one awarded by BHP Billiton (57.5%) and Rio Tinto (30%) at its joint venture Escondida mine in Region II last year. That bonus was US$28,000. Collahuasi management is offering a wage increase of two-to-three percent less than the union’s demand, and a bonus of US$19,000. 
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An industry representative involved in the 2007 talks told Reuters there is no question that the company can pay what miners are demanding. A strike could prove costly for mining giants Xstrata and AngloAmerican with the price of copper at record levels. The mine posted net earnings of US$1.56 billion last year. 
 
The strength of a strike by workers represented by Chile’s national private-sector miners’ union federation will largely depend on whether or not contract workers at Collahuasi honour strike lines. They are quite likely to do so, after staging their own week-long blockade of roads in May 2010 that caused the company to declare force majeure. There are some 4,000 contract workers employed by scores of sub-contractors at Collahuasi, which is just finishing the first phase of a US$750 million expansion project. 
 
A strike could also set the template for other unions representing copper miners in Chile, most notably at state-run Codelco’s Radomiro Tomic mine in Region II. It is part of the company’s largest and most profitable operation – Codelco Norte – and the 760 miners at Radomiro Tomic already rejected an inferior offer in September. The collective agreement expires at the end of November. 
 
Radomiro Tomic contributed 23% of Codelco Norte’s first-half 2010 net earnings of US$1.28 billion. The Codelco Norte division also includes the Churquicamata and Mina Sur mines, and the three mines produced 440,000 tonnes of copper in the first half of 2010, up from 391,000 tonnes in the same period of 2009.

Xstrata, AngloAmerican Chilean Copper Mine on Verge of Strike

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The ICEM offers continued solidarity to glass workers of Tyneside Safety Glass, members of UK affiliate Unite the Union, as they begin today, 4 October, a second week-long industrial action against an intransigent employer. Some 72 Unite members at two glass factories of the privately-held, family-owned Tyneside Glass/Suntex Glass Industries company in North-East England have been without pay increases for two years, and are now being asked to work longer hours. 
 
The company has refused to negotiate, with the last bargaining occurring in June. Workers subsequently voted for industrial action in a strike ballot and went on the first seven-day work stoppage on 20 September. On 25 September, they met to consider further action, and buoyed by a number of union support letters, voted to issue the mandatory seven-day notice for ongoing action. 
 
That leaves the possibility for further action throughout the autumn. The ICEM rallied to the support of Tyneside glass workers during the first walk-out, and that letter can be found here. As well, other support to glass workers in Gateshead, near Newcastle, came including hearty support from the Glass Section of the United Steelworkers (USW) union in the US through its Chairman, Tim Tuttle. 
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Unite North East Regional Officer, Bill Green
Unite and the USW originated Workers Uniting, a trans-Atlantic workers’ cooperative that is a registered trade union in four countries. 
 
Tyneside Safety Glass pays just barely over the British minimum wage and used the financial crisis to deny wage increases over the past two years. Now, with salaries even closer to the minimum, the company seeks to preserve a freeze, yet also wants to change shift patterns that would see staff working another ten hours per week. 
 
As stated in the ICEM letter, this would compromise safety on the job, particularly because the company has already made workers redundant and closed a third factory at Gateshead. “The ICEM is deeply concerned that longer work hours will result in unsafe work conditions at the glass factories of Tyneside in the North-East,” said General Secretary Manfred Warda, adding that management of late has noted a pick up in orders so restoration of lost wages could be made. 
 
“We have experienced bullying and harassment by management, but no willingness to continue bargaining,” stated Unite Region Officer Bill Green, adding that Unite members gathering at the 25 September meeting were fortified by global trade union support for a relatively small labour dispute. 
 
Tyneside Safety Glass and Suntex Glass Industries is a specialty glass producer that toughens and laminates glass windshields. It buys sheet glass from nearly Pilkington factories, owned by the Japanese company Asashi, and treats the glass for use in earth-moving and heavy equipment. Caterpillar, JCB, and other heavy-industry equipment makers comprise the company’s customer list.

UK Glass Workers Begin Second Week of Industrial Actions

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A new slate of officers won election at the Congress of ICEM-affiliated Mineworkers’ Union of Namibia (MUN), held 17-19 September in Swakopmund, Namibia. The Congress met under the banner of stronger enforcement of safety and health regulations in all workplaces. 
 
Elected to the position of General Secretary was Jonas Lumbu, who replaces Joseph Hengari. Elected President was John Ndawedapo, replacing Andres Eiseb. The Congress elected Michael Heita as Vice President, Eben Zarondo as Assistant General Secretary, Eliphas Iita as National Secretary, Gerson Max as Vice National Secretary, Paul Rooi as Treasurer, and Phillip Muninguni as Vice Treasurer. 
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The theme of the Congress comes at a time when the Namibian mining sector is experiencing its worst fatal and serious injury accident rate in ten years. The MUN has witnessed mass retrenchments due to the financial crisis, but delegates to the Congress said a recovery is underway. The MUN has been frustrated by an American company that holds uranium mining rights because the company hinders union representation rights. 
 
Debate at the Congress also took place over a recurring issue inside Namibia’s trade unions, that of union leaders holding decision-making positions inside enterprises or on boards. This issue has spawned conflict-of-interest charges inside many unions affiliated to the National Unions of Namibian Workers (NUNW).

Mineworkers in Namibia Elect New Leaders

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ICEM’s Danish affiliated union 3F conducted its second Congress, 11-17 September, in the Aalborg Culture and Congress Centre. There were 855 delegates to the Congress, including ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, who attended as an international guest. 
 
3F is the largest trade union in Denmark, with 352,588 members from the following sectors: Transport, Building & Construction, Manufacturing industries, Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture/Market Gardens, Cleaning, Hotel & Restaurants, Delivery and distribution of newspapers and magazines. 
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3F President Poul Erik Christensen
The 3F Congress sets policy and elects the union’s leadership and Executive Committee members. The six sections of 3F held separate conferences to discuss internal affairs of the section and to elect representatives to be put forward for election to the Federation’s Executive Committee. Also elected in the section conferences are the section leaders, and negotiation secretaries. Those six sections are: Industry, Public-Sector, Transport, Construction, Private-Sector Services, and Green. 
 
Among those re-elected at the Congress were President Christensen, and Per Soerensen 3F’s delegate to the ICEM Executive Committee. 
 
3F President Poul Erik Christensen proposed the at the union makes large financial backing to enact a change in government of Denmark, his proposal was accepted by Congress. Christensen will spend US$1million, “The question is not whether we can afford to support this, but whether we can afford not to,” stated President Christensen. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda addressed an event at the Congress for international guests. Warda praised 3F for its international solidarity work.

Denmark’s 3F Conduct 2nd Congress

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Last week, the ICEM was involved in meetings in Ecuador to get acquainted with unions whose interests coincide with the Global Union Federation. These meetings were unfortunately overshadowed by events on Thursday, 30 September, in which a small band of disgruntled police officers attempted a futile coup. 
 
The Ecuador meetings were sponsored by the FNV, the Dutch trade union national centre, which also supported a study on Chinese investment in Latin America, carried out by social research organisations of the Red Lat network. The study was presented on 28 September, also in the presence of the Chinese ambassador to Ecuador. 
 
China portrays itself as a soft power, a promoter of development, but the harder side of Chinese investment is its quest for natural resources. Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Peru are the countries that are the most attractive to China. Mining, oil, gas, and the accompanying infrastructure are the targets of Chinese investment. 
 
Unfortunately, China concentrates investments in areas that do not generate great employment. And even then, worker participation and decision-making in the production process are not considered. The sectors in which China invests primarily entail greater risks for precarious work, that is, mining and energy. For example, practices in the mining industry in Peru worsened after the arrival of Chinese investors. 
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One further concern involves Chinese workers who accompany the investments. If there were more Chinese workers, most likely their presence would lead to a serious decline in labor standards. 
 
In general, trade unions expect an employment boost from foreign investment, and if the investment is not followed by greater employment, then the country could be even worse off. 
 
What needs to be considered is the balance between environmental, labor, economic, social, and even gender aspects. The investments must be followed by decent work and decent pay. What has to be prevented is the replication of the bad practices on the part of most European and North American multinationals in connection with labor relations. 
 
Trade unions have learned that they must be involved in the design of industrial policies as well as demanding a commitment to their implementation. Trade unions in Latin America must increase their exchanges in order to track the investments, since effects may prove to be similar. The best way to face the onslaught may be increase regional coordination. What is at stake is ultimately the Latin American model of development which provides for national sovereignty, followed by job creation and social inclusion. 
On 29 September, a study was presented on a Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES) commissioned on post-subcontracting. It concerns mining, the oil industry, and electric power, and is the only study to date to deal with the effects of Ecuadorean legislation on the issue. 
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Ecuador is the only country to pass a law banning subcontracting. Chile, moreover, has a law from 2006 that intends to regulate subcontracting, and legislation is still pending in Brazil, but Ecuador's law prohibits it. 
 
Trade unions in Ecuador had been suffering from flexibilization of labor, but there had not been any analysis of it, there were no proposals to combat it, and no strikes had been called to fight it. 
 
The mining industry in Ecuador is geographically dispersed with little organizational capacity. Ninety percent of mining in Ecuador is informal. Thus, there is no need to make the miners any more precarious. 
 
Subcontracting has vital effects on health and the environment. 
 
Mandate 8, as the legislation is called, is not likely to have much effect in mining because there are no strong unions to implement the measure. In the oil sector, it is a state enterprise was responsible for subcontracting. Companies have found ways to circumvent the legislation. When they were required to reinstate the regular workers, they were reinstated at lower salaries with no seniority. 
 
The electric power industry was dismantled and many workers left. Very few were left over from the previous regime, others again came back as contract workers, with new and younger workers hired. What is certain is concern on the part of trade union for contract workers. The union also created a branch for contract workers. 
 
What the legislation shows is that it is possible to fight subcontracting successfully. Nevertheless, the effects can be reversed, and the problem may reoccur under another name. That is why strong trade unions are necessary more than ever to monitor and ensure implementation of legislation. 
 
The study will be revised with information from the unions and presented soon to the government.

Coup Attempt in Ecuador Does Not Derail ICEM Project

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Over 3,300 garment workers in Kandal province, southern Cambodia, have been sacked after they took strike action in protest of the new monthly minimum wage for the sector. That wage, set in July, is for US$61 a month. 
 
There is also widespread discontent among workers in the sector over poor working conditions and unemployment. The main cause of anger now is the retaliatory sacking of strikers, and especially of the trade union activists for their roles in the strikes. 
 
Workers had demanded a raise of the minimum monthly wage from US$50 to US$93. The new minimum of US$61 does not constitute a living wage in Cambodia. Unions began a four-day strike on 13 September. The strike did not become an issue for employers until the third day, at which time an estimated 200,000 workers had joined the walk-out. It was stopped on 16 September so talks could resume. 
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ITGLWF General Secretary Patrick Itschert
But then further strike action was carried out by 10,000 workers on 17 September, calling for the reinstatement of 200 suspended union representatives, blocked from returning to work in blatant breach of their rights to organize, bargain, and strike. 
 
Social Affairs Minister Ith Sam Heng called for the reinstatement of all sacked workers, and pleaded with unions not to strike. His call was followed by three factories in Kandal province employing 3,300 workers who announced their refusal to comply with the Minister’s request. 
 
While it was the promise of more negotiations that stopped the strike, neither the government nor employers have indicated any likelihood of significant concessions. The government did call employers and unions back together on 27 September for talks. 
 
The International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) welcomed the meeting on September 27 brokered by the government, but criticised the strike-breaking tactics of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government. 
 
“[The government] filed law suits against union leaders on charges of ‘incitement,’ and appealed to the police to collaborate with the industry association GMAC in cracking down on the strike and in seizing materials which could be used in legal action against the strikers,” said ITGLWF General Secretary Patrick Itschert. 
 
Clothing brands and retailers including Adidas, Gap, H&M, and Levi’s wrote to employers and unions to express their “great concern” at the unrest, but have expressed no concern over the poverty wages paid to those workers making their products. 
 
Global retailers must take responsibility for the social damage caused by the “race to the bottom.” It is impossible for workers to receive anything higher than poverty wages unless global retailers pay suppliers reasonable prices. Instead, suppliers are forced year on year to produce larger orders at lower costs. 
 
Kandal province, where the affected factories are located, completely surrounds but does not include the national capital Phnom Penh.

Cambodian Garment Workers Sacked for Striking

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The leadership of the Coal Industry Workers’ Union of Ukraine (PRUPU) was strongly heard at a meeting of the Coal Ministry Board in Kiev on 15 October. 
 
The Coal Ministry’s Board meeting was held under the instruction of Ukraine’s First Vice-Premier Andrei Klyuev, who said at a Cabinet meeting on 16 September that the challenges facing the coal industry must be addressed. The Vice-Premier’s instruction resulted from a report delivered by Victor Turmanov, PRUPU President, who vividly highlighted the most burning of the problems that besiege the industry’s workers and mine sites today. 
 
There was no “quiet talk” at the 15 October meeting but rather strong words on the industry’s problems among the close circle of the Ministry officials and the heads of state-owned enterprises attending the meeting. Klyuev’s instruction stipulated that the Ministry Board meeting shall involve representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour, State Assets Fund, Ministry of Industrial Policy, Ministry of Transport, Ministry for Fuel and Energy, and the leaders of the Ukrainian coal miners’ union. 
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Victor Turmanov, PRUPU President
Raising wages was one of the main issues that the union raised at the meeting. In line with the effective law, the minimal wage in Ukraine has been raised to 907 hryvnas from 1 October, yet the actual wages at the operating coal mining sites are calculated using the old basic rates and salaries based on the last year’s figure of 744 hryvnas. 
 
And the situation is even worse for the III-d category mines, mine rescue teams, coal-mine builders, and workers at coal processing plants. For workers in the sub-sectors of the coal mining industry, the basic rate of 744 hryvnas is still but a dream. 
 
In this regard, Turmanov pointed out that “our priority task is to ensure that the wages go up for industry workers. This was one of the key issues at the Ministry Board meeting.” 
 
Unfortunately, bringing wages up to the level prescribed by the law is far from being the only problem in the coal mining industry. 
 
In view of the 15 October Ministry Board meeting, leaders of all territorial organizations of the union met on 28 September to prepare a well-defined list of priority issues facing the industry’s sites and workforces to be brought to the attention of the enlarged Ministry Board. 
 
Issues such as the lack of funds for the development of mining facilities or provisions for fuel for homes of coal miners also generated points of discussion. Sharp criticisms were voiced with regard to the Ministry’s efforts reforming the regional (oblast) management structure of coal mining sites and other actions. 
 
Union President Victor Turmanov said that if the Ministry of Coal is unable to reform the industry today, the government – and the President – must be told so in so many words. If reforms contradict the interests of workers and prove harmful to the enterprises, then we should be better off without them, leaving the industry governance system in its present form. The union shall brook no mindless attempts at reorganization, no reforms for reform sake! 
 
View a video report from the 28 September territorial meeting of union leaders <a href="http://www.prupu.org/video/">here</a>. The union’s web site is <a href="http://www.prupu.org">here</a>.

Ukrainian Miners’ Union Get Heard at Coal Ministry Board 

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Some 90 members of Unite the Union in the UK, employed at the Saxon Way, Corby, warehouse of Oxford University Press, will begin a second round of strike actions this week over the publishing house’s inferior 2010 wage offer. Members of the GPM Section of Unite staged an initial 24-hour strike on 12-13 October, following a lawful strike ballot and formal rejection of a 2.5% increase. 
 
Last year, warehouse workers accepted a wage freeze in recognition of the financial crisis, only to learn after signing that managers, call centre workers, and admin staff of Oxford University Press had been awarded 2% increases. The 90 workers, who will soon be moved to new warehouse space at Prologis Park, Ketterling, are seeking a 2010 increase of 4.2% to offset last year’s loss. 
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“The company is doing well. It recorded an 8% increase in profit last year, on the back of a £500 million turnover, so our members believe they are well within their rights to ask for 4.2%,” Unite National Officer Steve Sibbald told the industry publication Printweek. 
 
Further industrial actions are scheduled for next week on 28 October and again on 3 November. Messages of support to workers can be sent to Unite Regional Officer Kathy Brooks <a href="mailto:Kathy.brooks@unitetheunion.org">here</a> who will relay all solidarity notes to striking warehouse workers.

Warehouse Workers of Oxford University Press to Strike Again

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