27 March, 2017IndustriALL demanded workers have a voice in steel restructuring and not pay the price for illegal trade practices at the OECD Steel Committee in Paris last week.
Chinese steel production, with state support, has increased five-fold in 15 years. As the Chinese economy slows and domestic demand weakens, excess steel is being illegally dumped on the world market, harming steel workers, their unions and communities.
China has recently claimed it is reducing excess steel capacity. Risks from overcapacity remain as China’s claim has been called into question, and other countries may also adopt similar illegal practices that increase overcapacity.
The primary focus of OECD Steel Committee should be to encourage capacity reductions in countries where market-distorting steel policies have resulted in excess capacity. It should also be to prevent the development of new excess capacity resulting from market-distorting policies,
stated IndustriALL base metals director Adam Lee to the Committee.
IndustriALL spoke to the Committee about the importance of workers and their unions having a voice in the restructuring process.
Social dialogue has helped to lessen impacts of restructuring on workers in Europe. In countries like Brazil, South Korea and the U.S., restructuring is either imposed with little worker input or governments do not provide support that could enable social dialog to minimize impacts on workers.
Global Forum on Excess Steel Capacity
The Global Forum on Excess Steel Capacity met earlier last week. Global Forum was formed by the G20 in 2016 to work with OECD Steel Committee in confronting the excess capacity crisis. IndustriALL reiterated its demand that unions be invited to participate in Global Forum to ensure workers have a voice in global steel restructuring.
Participants in the OECD Steel Committee meeting included government, business and union representatives along with OECD officials. Union participants included IndustriALL, United Steelworkers, IndustriALL Europe and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD. China attended the Global Forum but declined to participate in the OECD Steel Committee meeting.
IndustriALL expressed it solidarity with Chinese steel workers and called on China to permit independent and democratic trade unions and to adopt policies that minimize the impact of restructuring on Chinese steel workers.
IndustriALL is eager to work with OECD Steel Committee and the Global Forum to ensure that workers have a meaningful voice in a fair and sustainable restructuring of the global steel industry,
added Lee.