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	IndustriALL Global Union, which will be established in June 2012 and will bring together affiliates of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM), the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF), and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), will prioritise the fight against contract and agency labour, and other forms of precarious work.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 125px" width="390" />

	IndustriALL will build on the work which has been done through the ICEM&rsquo;s Contract and Agency Labour campaign, the IMF&rsquo;s &lsquo;Precarious Work Affects Us All&rsquo; campaign and the ITGLWF&rsquo;s work on insecure employment in countries such as Peru, Cambodia, India and Turkey.

	The campaign against precarious work will be launched by IndustriALL at its founding congress in June, and the new Global Union will call on all affiliates to mobilise around this issue on the World Day for Decent Work on 7thOctober.

IndustriALL to Prioritise Fight Against Precarious Work

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	The ICEM&rsquo;s Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) project publishes a quarterly newsletter intended to bring the latest news, developments, and trade union initiatives against the growing use of precarious work.

CAL Newsletter March 2012

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	The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF), the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), and ICEM have written Peruvian President Ollanta Humala protesting a newly-imposed decree allowing non-traditional industrial producers to hire workers under short-term contracts to fill specific export orders.

	Under Decree 22342 governing non-traditional exports, manufacturers such as garment companies now are allowed to hire precarious workers on short-term contracts to fill specific&nbsp; orders, meaning a worker employed this month to fill a production order for a multinational garment brand has no guarantee of working next month to fill a similar order for the same buyer.

	The <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Carta%20FITTVC%20FITIM%20ICEM%20a%20Ollanta%20Humala.pdf">letter</a> by the ICEM, ITGLWF and IMF calls the legislation &ldquo;unconstitutional, in breach of international labour standards &hellip; totally out of date in today&rsquo;s global markets and is just downright wrong.&rdquo;

	Said ITGLWF General Secretary Klaus Priegnitz, &ldquo;This level of flexibility in a thriving industry is frankly obscene. In reality, the term &lsquo;non-traditional&rsquo; is a complete misnomer.

	&ldquo;Thirty years ago, when orders were irregular and exporting companies were just finding their feet, &lsquo;non-traditional&rsquo; might have been an apt description of the emerging garment export sector.&nbsp; But today, the situation could not be more different.&nbsp; The sector has grown exponentially as a result of the free trade agreement with the US, making textiles and clothing one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy.&rdquo;

	Priegnitz added: &ldquo;The average wages of workers in the largest and most profitable textile companies in the sector are among the lowest in Peru. Wages are so low that workers and their families are often forced to live with relatives, and when they can&rsquo;t work double shifts many have to supplement their income by working as street vendors.&rdquo;

	The companies in question are fully integrated operations that do everything from weaving to sewing to finishing. For the most part, the largest companies are the worst offenders, in some cases, employing 100% of the workforce on short-term contracts even though those workers perform permanent functions in the factory. Some workers have worked for the same employer for nearly 20 years on a succession of one- to six-month contracts.

	Priegnitz said, &ldquo;The decree and the way it is being applied represent a gross violation of the labour chapter of the Peru-US Free Trade Agreement and of codes of conduct of the major brands and retailers that drive the success of the country&rsquo;s garment export industry.&nbsp; Peru is in danger of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.&rdquo;

	In the letter, the ICEM, the ITGWLF and the IMF call on Peru&rsquo;s government to vigorously support a proposal to repeal Articles 32, 33 and 34 of Decree 22342, which is currently under consideration in the Congressional Labour Commission. For as long as the decree remains in force, the three organisation have also asked the government to monitor its application more closely, intervening in cases where it is being used inappropriately to convert fixed-term employment contracts to open-ended ones.

ITGLWF, ICEM, ICEM Protest Peru Law Exploiting Short-term Contract Workers

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	French oilfields services&rsquo; giant Schlumberger is continuing to resist attempts by a genuine independent trade union in Egypt to organize workers at its operations.

	ICEM affiliates representing workers throughout the world are continuing to press the company on behalf of workers who were dismissed soon after the founding Congress of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU), under which a Schlumberger workers&rsquo; branch is affiliated to.

	The pressure has begun to attract the attention of senior management of the company. While Egyptian management ignored a request by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda to meet to resolve the dispute, ICEM has now been informed that the company recently sent a &ldquo;fact-finding committee&rdquo; to Egypt consisting of the legal and recruitment managers of Schlumberger&rsquo;s regional office in Dubai.

	The two company representatives met with the President and the General Secretary of the independent local branch union, both of whom are among the dismissed workers, including some of the workers who were forced to resign from the union.

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	Schlumberger demonstration in Cairo

	In this meeting, ICEM was informed that the managers did appear to listen carefully to the whole story, but made no promises. However, they hinted at the possibility of giving them financial compensation, claiming that is was too difficult to reinstate them since this would be seen as Schlumberger admitting its behavior was wrong.

	ICEM supports the dismissed workers who reject any financial compensation, and insist on returning to their work and activities inside the union. ICEM will continue the campaign until this issue has been resolved.

	In an earlier escalation of the dispute, Schlumberger Egypt arranged meetings with workers of subcontractors in in the operations. Numbering some 1,500 workers, they account for approximately half of the company&rsquo;s workforce in Egypt. In meetings at the Kattamia base and the head office, company representatives gave instructions to all subcontract workers that Schlumberger intended changing subcontracting companies, so they demanded that workers resign from their current contracts and then would receive new contracts under new subcontractors later.

	The new contracts would not take into account previous working periods, thus allowing companies to dismiss workers during the first three months without compensation, according to Egyptian law.

	But Egyptian Labour Law is presently uncertain and largely unusable. In theory, the old Mubarak era law, remains in force while there are at least three new proposed labour laws, drafted by different political groups, circulating in Parliament. The last trade union elections of 2007 in the former unitary government controlled trade unions, all part of ETUF, have been invalidated for corruption and the former governing structures of these unions dissolved with appointed oversight committees put in place to run the organizations until new elections take place &ndash; under a new law in the future.

	The situation allows companies such as Schlumberger to take advantage of the situation to prevent genuine trade representation of their workforces.

	Prior coverage of the Schlumberger dispute in Egypt can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4946-Schlumberger-Ignores-ICEM-s-Offer-of-Dialogue">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4899-Oil-Services-Giant-Schlumberger-Pressured-over-Egyptian-Union-Busting">here</a>.

Schlumberger Continues Destruction of Independent Egyptian Trade Union

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	Mining conglomerate Rio Tinto is destroying the community of Alma, Qu&eacute;bec, by the continued lockout of 780 workers, members of the United Steelworkers (USW). The lockout since 30 December 2011 is an economic move in order to increase profits at an aluminium smelter of subsidiary Alcan in Alma.

	Tomorrow in London, protests will occur outside and in the Annual General Meeting of Rio Tinto by USW Canadian members and their ally in the UK, Unite the Union. The protest will be supported by three Global Union Federations, the ICEM, the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), and the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF).

	Shamefully, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has contracted with Rio Tinto to produce gold, silver, and bronze medals for this summer&rsquo;s Olympics and Paralympics Games in London. Active protests are currently underway against IOC, stating that the Games are tainted and achievements of the world&rsquo;s best athletes are flawed by a company with a long track record of economic and environmental destruction on the communities where it operates. (Join the <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1365">Labour Start campaign</a> to kick Rio Tinto &ldquo;Off the Podium&rdquo; with a message to the IOC here, and view the USW&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.offthepodium.org/">Off the Podium</a> website.)

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	At tomorrow&#039;s protest, Unite will distribute replica Olympic medals to be passed out to the public at the shareholders&#039; venue, the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre. Unite also has arranged for union-friendly Members of Parliament to submit an Early Day Motion in the UK Parliament.

	Rio Tinto has posted profits of US$20 billion over the past two years and despite the fact that the Alcan aluminium smelter in Alma is one of the most efficient and profitable in the world, it has used a lockout to reap even more profit. Alcan management of late has refused to engage the USW in meaningful negotiations to end the lock-out, predicated on the company&rsquo;s desire to force mass outsourcing by eliminating and full and direct employment

	Alcan seeks to replace each retiring worker with a subcontract worker that will see 50% less than the current average union wage of C$34-an-hour. USW negotiators in early April submitted a proposal in bargaining to end the lockout, but Alcan management walked from the table still seeking the unlimited right to subcontract.

	Alcan has continued to receive special assistance from the province of Qu&eacute;bec in a generous agreement whereby Hydro-Qu&eacute;bec buys back unused electricity from the company while the lockout is ongoing.

	The lockout by Rio Tinto Alcan in Alma has triggered a global campaign against Rio Tinto that took on further dimensions early this week at a special Mines and Metals Networking meeting in Sydney, Australia, as well as at the 17-19 April ICEM World Mining Conference, also in Sydney. Trade unionists resolved to build a long-term global campaign against the world&rsquo;s second largest resource company.

Global Unions, USW Bring Rio Tinto Alcan Canadian Dispute to Shareholders

The ArcelorMittal Health and Safety Committee, created in June 2008 in a common effort by the company and unions to improve safety in ArcelorMittal, issued its first report of activities on 15 August called &ldquo;Together for Safety.&rdquo; The number of fatalities has declined since 2008, but remains unacceptably high in the company. 
 
In 2008, ArcelorMittal management and unions signed an agreement to create a Joint Health and Safety Committee to address the high number of fatalities in the company&rsquo;s units. The Committee is composed of representatives of the IMF, the European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation, the United Steelworkers (USW), CNM-CUT, a mining area representative, and company Health and Safety representatives. 
 
On 15 August, the Joint Global Health and Safety Committee launched its first report, concluding it has had a positive impact on the number of fatalities, which it ascribes to good workplace cooperation between trade unions and management. 
 
Since its inception, the Committee has created local health and safety committees and made site visits in priority company sites in Kazakhstan, Brazil, Mexico, Czech Republic, Romania, South Africa, USA, Argentina, and Ukraine. During these visits, local union members and management met with committee members to review the local safety situation and develop a health and safety action plan. The committee has then arranged follow-up visits. 
 
The committee concludes that it has had a positive impact on the number of accidents in the workplace, especially fatalities, and helped reduce risk faced by workers. It has also helped to improve communication and cooperation between unions and management, locally and globally. 
 
The committee, however, also notes an increase in the number of fatalities in the last year &ndash; from 36 in 2009 to 41 in 2010, which is considered to be unacceptably high by both unions and management. 
 
There remain issues of dispute between unions and management. The company has publicised a set of &ldquo;Golden Rules&rdquo; for safety and associated actions, including penalties for violations, while unions fear that this violations policy will impede safety by dissuading workers to report about minor accidents and near misses, thereby creating a lazy safety management culture. 
 
There is also joint criticism of inconsistent responses to requests for health and safety training, and a deficient dialogue on the subject at some business units and work sites. 
 
The parties remain committed to the committee&rsquo;s work, and see the joint report and accompanying union and management statements as evidence for a working dialogue and commitment to building a positive workplace culture. 
 
The report, &ldquo;Together for Safety,&rdquo; has been issued in English, and will be published also in French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese. 
 
For further details, contact Joint Committee co-chair Rob Johnston at <a href="void(0);/*1316099350265*/">rjohnston@imfmetal.org</a>.

Common Efforts Input to Workers’ Safety at ArcelorMittal

Multi-stakeholder negotiations in Indonesia, bringing together major sportswear brands, key manufacturers and five unions &ndash; including ITGLWF affiliates SPN and Garteks &ndash; have cumulated in the signing of a protocol to protect trade union rights. 
 
The negotiations began in November 2009 following a major Play Fair campaign and a commitment by major sportswear brands to engage country-by-country with trade unions in order to agree concrete steps to bring about improvements to working conditions in the industry. 
 
The protocol, signed on 7 June, addresses the fact that unions in Indonesia&rsquo;s garment and footwear sectors are frequently denied the time and space they need to carry out their duties. The protocol outlaws all forms of anti-union discrimination and requires that a CBA, where none exist, be negotiated within six months. The agreement provides for the release of union officials from work duties in order to carry out their union activities; requires provision of adequate office, meeting and notice board space; gives unions the freedom to distribute information without interference; and commits signatory factories to facilitate a check-off system for collecting union dues. 
 
Initial signatories comprised multinational brands adidas, Nike and Puma, their key suppliers, and five Indonesian unions including SPN and Garteks. Playfair 2012 launched an action, exactly one year before the London 2012 Olympics, to encourage additional brands to commit to the protocol. The action was well supported and since then Pentland &ndash; owners of the Speedo brand, Asics, and New Balance have agreed to sign the protocol. 
 
Although implementation is in the embryonic stages, some steps have been taken to socialise the protocol. adidas have held workshops for their 58 Indonesian suppliers to inform them about the protocol and encourage them to agree to its provisions, and Nike have promised that all of their suppliers will know about the protocol by the end of October. ITGLWF affiliate Garteks report that the protocol has opened the door for them to negotiate a CBA and they have also seen their membership increase in that factory. 
The ITGLWF is urging all garment and footwear brands sourcing from Indonesia to sign the protocol.

Multi-Stakeholder Negotiations Lead to Garment Framework Agreement

Oil industry multinationals employ over 12,500 workers in the Meta Region of Colombia, mostly by outsourcing work to contractors. These precariously employed workers are subject to poverty wages, exhausting working hours including working 49 days consecutively, and other sub-standard working conditions, all in clear violation of Colombian law and international minimum standards. 
 
Colombian Senator Robledo has described the workstations of the Puerto Gait&aacute;n oil fields as more like concentration camps, with overcrowded tents, water shortages, malnutrition, unhygienic sanitation, and degrading treatment. Oil contractor Pacific Rubiales conducts a public disinformation campaign in which it describes trade union USO as &ldquo;armed criminals, forcing work stoppages&rdquo;. 
 
The fight back against this untenable situation began on 19 July with mass demonstrations and work stoppages in the Puerto Gait&aacute;n and Campo Rubiales installations. Protestors were met with violent police brutality. Key support and action has been supplied by ICEM affiliate Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera (USO), which traditionally has organised employees of Ecopetrol, Colombia&rsquo;s listed state-owned oil company. Along with Ecopetrol, the contractors employing the Meta region oil workers are providing services for Canadian-based Pacific Rubiales, and CEPCOLSA, a subsidiary of Spanish-based CEPSA. 
 
The explosion of mass protests moved the Colombian government, notoriously compliant in the repression of trade unions, to hold a tri-partite forum on 3 August, chaired by Vice-President Angelino Garz&oacute;n. The forum created nine working groups to assess the various issues over 15 days and reach conclusions leading to a settlement of the conflict. Unfortunately and predictably not one recommendation of the 15-day working groups has been enacted. Instead unions have been hit with fierce persecution. Contractors MR, Intricon, and Medell&iacute;n Electricians ended the employment of 70 workers who had been involved in the 19 July mobilisation. Another contractor Duflo SA instructed employees to cancel their union membership, under threat of dismissal. 
 
The failure to implement any of the roundtable recommendations was met with protest from the local Puerto Gait&aacute;n community, who blocked all major roads leading into the municipality on 19 August. The local community&rsquo;s discontent was then compounded when the oil companies began hiring new staff, without employing anybody locally. 
 
The Ministry of Social Protection claims to have made 162 visits to the region, but has never met with USO or with the outsourced workers, and has only met with high level company officials on a handful of occasions. In a clear indication of the government&rsquo;s allegiance, from September the administration of President Santos will deploy a military battalion to be stationed in the community, which will in fact have its military vehicles fuelled by the local multinationals. 
 
Pacific Rubiales posted annual profits of US$218 million in 2010. 
 
During this labour conflict, 4,000 workers joined USO en masse in the Meta region. In the past year, over 16,000 contract workers have joined USO throughout Colombia.

Colombian Oil Workers Fight Back Against Mass Persecution

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Australian union members of three trade union organisations are livid with the announcement that BlueScope Steel will lop 1,400 jobs in New South Wales and Victoria. Members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU), the Australian Workers Union (AWU), and the Electrical Trades Union of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (ETU-CEPU) met in Wollongong on 25 August and sternly moved to resist all restructuring until further labour-management consultations can occur. 
 
Today in Canberra, the unions met with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and urged her Labour Government to launch an inquiry into Australia&rsquo;s manufacturing crisis. 
 
BlueScope, formed in 2002 when BHP Steel was spun off in the BHP and Billiton merger, announced on 22 August that it was shedding nearly half of its Port Kembla Steelworks staff of 3,100 and another 200 jobs at a hot-strip steel mill in Hastings, Victoria. 
<img alt="" src="" width="244" height="160" />
AMWU&rsquo;s Dave Oliver (left), AWU&rsquo;s Paul Howes, ETU National Secretary Peter Tighe (right) at Port Kembla Steelworks, 22 August
Photo: Illawarra Mercury
Last Thursday&rsquo;s heated union meeting came when workers also learned that senior managers of the troubled company are awarding themselves A$3.05 million in bonuses, including A$721,000 for CEO Paul O&rsquo;Malley. The company recently posted an operating loss of A$118 million plus an asset write-down of A$900 million, mainly from a rising Australian dollar, high raw material costs, and depressed order books. 
 
The BlueScope job cuts come at a time when booming Australian resource exports are driving up currency exchange rates to the detriment of Australia goods and product manufacturing. BlueScope is chopping 1,200 full-time and contract labour jobs by idling a blast furnace, coking battery, slab caster, and oxygen-based steelmaking vessel at Port Kembla south of Sydney, and the 200 steel-rolling jobs on Victoria&rsquo;s Mornington Peninsula. 
 
Speaking at Port Kembla the day BlueScope made the announcement, AMWU National Secretary Dave Oliver said, &ldquo;The benefits of the mining boom come with very big downsides and 1,400 families have learnt today the hard way about the downsides. &ldquo;Today is a massive wake-up call for to state and federal governments to take more action on this issue.&rdquo; 
 
In news interview yesterday, 28 August, before today&rsquo;s meeting with Gillard, Oliver said the federal government must take immediate action to bolster manufacturing. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s acceptable that 90% of the gear that goes into a resource project is imported from overseas,&rdquo; he said. 
 
AWU National Secretary Paul Howes called on the federal government and the Reserve Bank Australia (RBA) also to kick into action. Howes said the Labour government must impose &ldquo;robust&rdquo; anti-dumping measures, pressure China to stop currency manipulation of the Yuan, and he called on the RBA to lower interest rates in order to promote Australian manufacturing. 
 
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to face the reality of the manufacturing crisis that&rsquo;s before us,&rdquo; said Howes. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t accept job losses as the norm and we can&rsquo;t rely on imported goods in our strategic sectors.&rdquo; 
 
The announcement of BlueScope&rsquo;s job losses in Australia last week came a week after steelworkers, members of New Zealand&rsquo;s Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), downed tools for 24 hours in a protest over outsourcing at New Zealand Steel, a wholly owned subsidiary of BlueScope. Over 850 EPMU members engaged in the industrial action on 15 August at a steel roll mill at Glenbrook, south of Auckland, and at company iron mines at Waikato North Head and Taharoa.

BlueScope Steel Sackings Reveal Crisis in Australian Manufacturing

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Jack Layton, the soul of a progressive Canada and leader of the NDP, passed away Monday, 22 August, of cancer. For the past decade and more, Layton has led a populist surge in Canada that has given NDP, the party of fairness and justice, the official opposition stamp &ndash; since May 2011 &ndash; to the ruling neo-liberal Tories. Layton was 61. 
 
Layton had recently been diagnosed with his second bout against cancer. He died early in the morning on 22 August in his home and surrounded by his family. 
 
Layton&rsquo;s energy and conviction inspired ordinary Canadians and statements on his passing testified to that. Statements by North American unions said Layton&rsquo;s inspiration, ideas, and vision must push forward at a faster pace now. 
 
In a statement to Canadian unions expressing condolences over Layton&rsquo;s passing, the ICEM said, &ldquo;What happens in Canada has global significance&rdquo; (see full <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/100.ICEM.Jack%20Layton.Canada.23August.pdf">ICEM letter</a>). The ICEM remembers Layton as a courageous fighter for social justice, depicted best in his own words on the labour strife brought by Vale, the Brazilian mining giant, or to the Mexican government on its union smashing. 
<img alt="" src="" width="290" height="161" />
Toronto: Tributes to Jack Layton
In Sudbury at the beginning of a bitter year-long strike Vale provoked against Canadian living standards, Layton stood among thousands of miners, and emphatically said, &ldquo;They cannot take away what working people have built over generations in this country, or this town.&rdquo; 
 
In 2009, Layton was part a global labour mission to Mexico sponsored by the ICEM and International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF). He accurately summarised the full trade union climate in Mexico: &ldquo;We made it clear that the government&rsquo;s interference in union governance, it&rsquo;s jailing of union leaders and freezing union bank accounts, declaring strikes illegal and failing to prosecute the killers of union leaders, are serious and unacceptable violations of basic human rights.&rdquo; 
 
Dave Coles, President of the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada said: &ldquo;I knew Jack Layton as a principled social democrat who was utterly committed to social justice and peace. Thousands of our members knew Jack by his first name, as a leader who had reached out to them in their workplaces and communities. Jack Layton paid attention to our members&rsquo; deepest concerns and gave them unqualified support in their struggles.&rdquo; 
 
Ken Neumann, Canadian National Director of the Untied Steelworkers (USW), said: &ldquo;Jack reawakened Canadians to the reality that government can &ndash; and must &ndash; play a positive role in ensuring the economic and social wellbeing of its citizens. Steelworkers will help lead the way in honouring Jack&rsquo;s legacy by carrying on his fight to build a better Canada and a better world.&rdquo; 
 
Ken Lewenza, President of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) said in a message to the NDP: &ldquo;At Jack&rsquo;s passing, your voice of conscience is needed more than ever. Your efforts can and will make a difference in the direction of our country.&rdquo; The CAW also said that in mourning, progressive Canada must reflect on Jack&rsquo;s vision for Canada &ldquo;and how we can endeavor to make some of his cherished ideas a reality.&rdquo; 
 
Jack Layton was born in Hudson, Quebec, into a political family. He entered public service in 1982 as a member of the Toronto City Council after leaving academia. His years on the city council of Canada&rsquo;s largest city were marked by many accomplishments concerning poverty, homelessness, public transport, and environmental stewardship. In 2004, Layton won election to the federal Parliament as NDP leader, and the NDP has grown steadily to where it now is the logical political choice for a social Canada, and beyond. The ICEM letter said Jack stood always for workers, the poor, the disenfranchised. 
 
Jack is survived by his wife, Olivia, his dedicated political partner; and a son, Mike, a member of the Toronto City Council, and daughter, Sarah, who works for the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

Jack Layton: 1950-2011

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