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ICEM Contract and Agency Labour Newsletter

Trade unions in four important industrial sectors of Sweden – metal, pulp and paper, forestry, and food service – achieved ICEM-heralded contract language protecting the rights of full-time and permanent workers in wage negotiations in March and April 2010. The first-of-its-kind language, covering 550,000 workers in these sectors, will serve as a major deterrent in utilizing temporary workers hired through labour agency companies. 
 
The language, varying in minor degrees from one sector to the other, was proposed as a bargaining priority by LO-Sweden, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation. It will serve as a very effective restraint, the ICEM believes, for the recent rush by Swedish employers to use temporary labour. 
 
Prior to 1992, all such labour was provided by government-operated job centres. But a change in law that year, in effect, privatised such centres. Yet, the growth of the mega-agencies was slow to catch on in Sweden over the next decade, mainly due to a Nordic social ethic that rightfully grants life-long work and retirement benefits. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SwedenFlag.gif" width="180" height="113"/>
In the early years of the last decade, that slowly began to change. And with the coming of the financial crisis in mid-2008, the trend clearly shifted. Mass layoffs became the norm and in the second half of 2009, when even the slightest uptick in a company’s business caused a need for added staff, company after company relied on employment agencies to fill that need. 
 
Swedish labour unions clearly saw their own need to protect the rights of full-time workers who were victimized by the crisis. 
 
Language in the new collective agreements stipulates that employers have the obligation to negotiate with the respective union before turning to labour-hire companies. Those negotiations are to occur on the local level and must take into account permanent workers who have been made redundant and are on re-hire lists. If such workers are qualified for the jobs that an employer seeks to outsource to an agency, those workers must be re-hired or else the employer faces steep financial penalties. Thus, the effective deterrent is in place inside the collective agreements. 
 
If the trade union and employer cannot agree on qualifications, the case goes to the national level where a joint panel will decide. (In one sector agreement, the national panel also consists of an independent mediator in the event the joint labour-management panel cannot agree.) 
 
Employers face the risk that, if no agreement is made at the local level, and they do bring in agency workers and the national panel rules in favour of the redundant worker, the company ends up paying double salaries, with the redundant worker, in some cases, getting up to a SEK 65,000 judgment award. The employer generally has five days to halt the use of agency labour when such employment is challenged before the penalty applies. 
 
One sector agreement contains a joint labour-management committee to monitor this specific aspect of the agreement in order to shape a “good practices” standard of employment regarding short-term contract and agency labour that is also intended to assure that there are no violations of the language. 
 
All in all, this Swedish model to restrict temporary employment, curtail the exploitative nature of labour agency firms, and promote the concept of decent work through permanent and sustainable jobs is a good one. It is also a model that trade unions in other countries should closely examine.

Sweden’s 2010 Collective Agreements Give First-Ever Language to Stem Agency Labour 

The Zambian Labour and Social Security Minister, Austin Liato, has publically criticised some employers for using temporary workers to fill traditionally permanent positions simply to evade paying statutory employment benefits to workers. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Mineworkers Union of Zambia’s (MUZ) 12th quadrennial conference on 27 April, Mr. Liato said this trend is found not only in the mining industry but other sectors as well. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Austin%20C%20Liato%20MP.%20Zambia.png" width="83" height="107"/>
MP Austin Liato
Mr. Liato said that despite the Government’s commitment to halt the casualisation of employment, the situation has not improved. "The Government has always led a campaign against casualisation. This state of affairs can't be allowed to continue and I urge labour leaders to be vigilant. We should not turn permanent jobs to temporary jobs," he said.

Zambia’s Labour Minister Decries Labour Casualisation at MUZ Conference 

Miners locked out of Rio Tinto’s site in Boron, California for refusing to give in to demands by the company that could threaten their ability to work and support their families are highlighting their plight as shareholders attend the global mining giant’s AGM in London today (Thursday). 
 
Almost 600 workers, all members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30 branch, were refused entry to the Borax mine and processing plant owned by Anglo-Australian corporation Rio Tinto when they showed up for work on 31st January. This followed their refusal to accept the imposition of a new contract that threatened to convert good jobs into temporary, part-time or outsourced positions. 
 
Rio Tinto has used a firm with a notorious reputation for union busting, J.R. Gettier of Delaware, to bus replacement workers across picket lines to mine and process borates. Borates are used in numerous products, including detergents, glass, building materials and as an ingredient in chemicals. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.rio.tinto.london.3.jpg" width="205" height="154"/>
In negotiations Rio Tinto sought to agree to a new contract which would give the company the right to award jobs to outside contractors; require miners in dangerous occupations to work overtime; and require the workers’ themselves to pay for the company’s legal penalties, fines and damages if the company violates state and federal labor laws. 
 
Dave Irish, one of the locked out miners protesting at the AGM, said: 
 
“After working the mine for generations, families are being jeopardized by a newly-proposed system of insecure working patterns and conditions, and dog eat dog struggles for jobs I believe. Rio Tinto wants to starve us into submission, forcing us to accept a contract that we fear will destroy decent, family-supporting jobs. When we tried to use our legitimate negotiation rights, we were locked out of our own jobs and replaced by union busters. We’ve been forced to survive on unemployment insurance and handouts ever since. We are determined to fight for our jobs, our families and our community. 
 
“Having us back in our jobs is in the best interests of shareholders, too. As experienced workers, we are much better able to guarantee the quality and quantity of production to meet customer demand. We hope the shareholders will listen to us and demand that the corporation ends the lock out and negotiates a fair contract with us so that we can get back to work.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.rio.tinto.london.5.jpg" width="163" height="231"/>
Dave Irish left, locked out Local 30 worker, and ILWU VP Ram Familathe 
Ray Familathe, International Vice-President of the ILWU, said: “We have come to London to highlight the courage of ordinary workers and their families in standing up to a powerful global business. The Boron miners simply want to work hard and to be treated fairly and with respect. This seems the latest example of appalling behaviour by Rio Tinto around the world in terms of the way it treats its workers, communities and the environment. This is not just a problem for the small community in Boron, California which relies on the mine for its survival but a global threat when a corporate giant such as Rio Tinto gets away with riding roughshod over its employees.” 
 
The action against Rio Tinto is a joint initiative of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), which is based in the UK; the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Union; and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF). It is supported by a range of other organisations, including the London Mining Network. 
 
ITF General Secretary David Cockroft said: “The lockout is the lowest reaction of the employer to a workforce that strives for dialogue. We support the fight of the miners and applaud their strength and courage and support the ILWU’s call for an end to the lockout and proper negotiation to reach agreement on staff contracts.” 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.rio.tinto.london.4.jpg" width="205" height="154"/>
Four Rio Tinto executives were found guilty of bribery and commercial espionage by a Chinese court at the end of March. This follows a case against the company by residents of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea accusing it of complicity in human rights abuses by the operation of its copper-gold mine. Rio Tinto has also been alleged to have colluded with the Apartheid government in South Africa and some of the world’s most despotic regimes, including Suharto’s in Indonesia. 
 
Workers from South Africa, Australia, Turkey, New Zealand, Canada, Europe and Papua New Guinea have expressed solidarity with the locked out Boron miners in the USA. 
View the Fact Sheet on the Rio Tinto lockout in Boron <a href="/index.php?id=5&la=EN&doc=3705" type="internal">here</a>. 
 
 
For further information, please contact: 
• about the Boron lockout – Craig Merrilees, Communications Director, ILWU, on +1 (0) 415 775 0533 ext 113 or <a href="mailto:craig@ilwu.org">craig@ilwu.org</a>   
• about the AGM protest or to interview Dave Irish or Ray Familathe – Dee Sullivan on 020 8613 8071, 07949 010639 or <a href="mailto:dee@greenshootsconsultants.co.uk">dee@greenshootsconsultants.co.uk</a>

Unions Protest Rio Tinto's US Lockout at AGM

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM’s Sub-Sahara Africa Regional Organisation (SSARO), at its Executive Committee Meeting in Dakar, Senegal, 6 April, adopted a resolution of strong solidarity and support for the striking Canadian Vale workers. 
 
The Resolution marked the Vale ‘Week of Action’ of 5-11 April, called to denounce to denounce Vale Inco’s attacks on workers in Canada and throughout the world. Vale, the second biggest mining company in the world, operates in 36 countries. 
 
More than 3,000 Steelworkers in Sudbury, Port Colborne, and Voisey’s Bay, Newfoundland, Canada, are into the ninth month of a strike, the longest ever at Inco. While the company persists with its demands on profit-sharing, pensions, job security, outsourcing, and seniority rights. Vale continues to refuse to enter into a binding arbitration, as instructed under Canada’s labour laws. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Senegal.png" width="250" height="115"/>
The SSARO Resolution comes in light of the 50/50 joint venture between Vale and African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), a South African mining company that will act as a gateway for Vale to Africa’s mineral resources. 
 
ICEM SSARO affiliates resolved to lobby their governments, national centres, NGOs, and communities, to condemn and take concrete actions in support of the struggle. 
 
View the Resolution in its entirety <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.ssaro.resolution.vale.pdf" type="internal">here</a>. 
 
View the USW Vale strikers’ campaign website <a href="http://www.fairdealnow.ca/">here</a>.

SSARO Meeting Vale Resolution in Support of Canadian Strikers

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Each of the three Industrial European Trade Union Federations has given their leaders a mandate to move towards a merger. ICEM’s sister organisation, the European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers’ Federation (EMCEF), the European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF), and the European Trade Union Federation for Textiles, Clothing and Leather (ETUF:TCL) seek to create a single European industrial trade union federation. 
 
On 25 March 2010, the presidents and general secretaries of the three organisations met in Berlin, to discuss next steps in the merger process. A merged organisation will bring together 8 million workers in the manufacturing industries, and united they will be stronger. Other factors cited include continued integration of countries in Europe, globalisation, the recent financial and economic crisis, and several significant recent mergers at the national level. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.emcef.merger.png" width="201" height="151"/>
The three presidents and three general secretaries, present at the Berlin meeting, underlined their belief that the combining of their resources would increase efficiency and strength, in their role of representing and protecting European workers throughout the industrial sectors. 
 
The leaders of the three federations agreed to oversee intensified discussions within their statutory bodies over the creation of a joint EMF-EMCEF-ETUF:TCL organisation. 
 
A joint Working Group for building the new organisation was created, and will now produce a timetable for the process.

Discussions Advance in Building Single European Industrial Trade Union Federation

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
RadioLabour, the online news radio service of international trade unionism, interviewed ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, last week, on the ICEM Global Campaign on Contract and Agency Labour (CAL). 
 
As companies throughout the world, and in every sector, continue to outsource their workforce in the race to lower costs, the significance of the campaign grows. As directly employed jobs are lost to sub-contracting companies or agencies, workers find themselves with little or no job security, inferior benefits, and with substandard working conditions. This is leading to a two-tier workforce with fewer and fewer directly employed workers, and increasing numbers employed through contracts or agencies. 
 
As Warda stated in the interview with RadioLabour presenter, Marc Bélanger, “In some countries, we must unfortunately say that contract and agency labour has almost become the ‘regular’ employment situation”. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Marc.Belanger.png" width="101" height="134"/>
Marc Bélanger
Use the audio player below to listen to part of Manfred Warda’s interview with Marc Bélanger, or click <a href="http://www.radiolabour.net/ICEM/cal-warda.mp3 ">here</a> to find the interview on the RadioLabour website. 
 
RadioLabour reports on events of interest to unionists via "The Solidarity Report", a half hour audiocast of international union news every Sunday morning. Part of Manfred Warda’s interview can be heard on yesterday’s <a href="http://www.radiolabour.net/">Solidarity Report</a>. Marc Bélanger also presents "RadioLabour 5", a five minute global labour news update, every Friday morning. 
 
RadioLabour is an important instrument in the building of international solidarity amongst unionists, also serving as a model and source of expertise for unionists who want to start a service similar to RadioLabour in their country or for their organization. Contact us if you need advice or assistance in developing a labour-based audiocasting service. 
 
Canadian national, Marc Bélanger, producer and host of RadioLabour, is a labour union educator. He worked for the Workers' Activities Programme of the training centre of the ILO in Turin, Italy, from 2000-2008. He was head of the Programme from 2007-2008. The Programme operates the largest international union education school in the world.

RadioLabour Interviews Manfred Warda on CAL

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
ICEM General Secretary, Manfred Warda, in a letter to the Iraqi Minister of Petroleum, condemned the recent decision of the government-owned Southern Oil Company to transfer four trade union leaders, in an attempt to silent the union. 
 
The key leaders of the Basra-based Refinery Workers’ Union find themselves out of their jobs, transferred to remote locations, as an apparent punishment for trade union activities. Those targeted are Ibrahim Radhi, President of the Refinery Workers Union and Vice President of the umbrella Iraqi Federaton of Oil Unions (IFOU, an ICEM affiliate); Ala’ Sabah Miri’e, Refinery Workers Union Vice President and President of the Central Council of the IFOU; Faraj Rbat Mizba, Refinery Workers Union media officer and IFOU Central Council member; and Khez’al Kadhim. 
 
This is a clear attempt by the company to block the union from continuing their campaign for reforms. Since March 2010, the trade union has been organising peaceful protests, calling for fair pay, payment of overtime owed since 2007, an end to the recruiting of CAL workers into permanent jobs, a transparent recruitment process, modernisation of production equipment, but most importantly the recognition of the union. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.iraq.campaign.logo.jpg" width="180" height="168"/>
As Manfred Warda states in the letter to the Oil Minister, these actions by the company constitute a clear breach of the Freedom of Association, recognised in Iraq’s Constitution, as well as in the core ILO Convention. 
 
This latest case is yet another example of the urgent need for new labour legislation in Iraq, legislation that is fair and ILO compliant. 
 
ICEM Director Jim Catterson was part the international delegation to hand deliver the ICEM letter to officials at the Iraqi Embassy in Washington D.C. last week. The letter was delivered with a similar letter from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. This followed a rally, last Wednesday, outside the Iraqi Consulate in the American capital, under the slogans “Democracy for Iraqi Workers” and “Labour Rights are Human Rights”. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.iraq.demo.jpg" width="234" height="175"/>
Jim Catterson told the rally “Workers are being sent into exile to places where their lives are in jeopardy, just because they are unionising for better conditions. It’s time now that Iraq accepted freedom of association”. 
 
Pressure was placed on the Iraqi Government last week by TUC (UK) General Secretary Brendan Barber, who protested against the latest union busting to the Iraqi Embassy in London. 
 
See the ICEM letter, sent to Dr. Hussain Al-Shahristani, Iraqi Minister of Petroleum, <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/31.ICEM.Letter.Iraq.Oil.12April.pdf" type="internal">here</a>. 
 
Support the LabourStart campaign for new labour legislation in Iraq <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=669">here</a>. Similar tactics, against Iraqi trade unionists have been reversed in the past, thanks to international solidarity and pressure.

ICEM Condemns Transfer of Iraqi Oil Trade Union Leaders

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
ICEM was represented by Jim Catterson at the 20th Anniversary Congress of this important affiliated trade union, held in Sibiu Romania 23 March, 2010. The Congress was attended by around 400 delegates. 
 
Following a report on delegates present, voting rights, and total votes available, the Congress opened with an excellent, professionally produced film of the first 20 years of the union, covering its foundation, activities and the role it has played internationally within both ICEM and EMCEF. International guests included a delegation from our Austrian affiliated union, PRO.GE., Romanian petroleum company, Industri Energi of Norway and the MOL trade union in Hungary. 
 
Petrom is now 51% owned by the Austrian headquartered multinational company, OMV. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.petrom.jpg" width="233" height="113" alt=""/>
Union President Liviu Luca 4th from the left
The Congress approved unanimously a detailed document on activities, past and proposed, and then accounts and a budget for the immediate future were approved. 
 
Two major issues at the Congress were firstly the fact that privatisation had led to the situation that workplace numbers have been under constant pressure since the OMV investment, with the union losing members as a result. 
 
Secondly Petrom, and other ICEM affiliated trade unions in Romania, are under strong attack by the government in an attempt to reduce both their power and their independence. ICEM is in discussion with our affiliates in the country, including Petrom, as to the best way to support their struggle internationally.

20th Anniversary Congress of Federatia Sindicatelor Libere Independente Petrom 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
As reported in ICEM InBrief No. 152, ICEM’s Norwegian affiliated union, Industri Energi (IE), has established a trade union rights award in the name of the late trade unionist, Arthur Svensson. The award, to come with a cash prize, will be given to a person or organization for outstanding contributions for promoting trade union rights and the strengthening of trade unionism on the international and national levels. 
 
Deadline for nominations for this initial Arthur Svensson International Award for Trade Union Rights is 1 May 2010. The announcement of the winner will be made on 11 October 2010. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1003.Arthur.Svensson.jpg" width="150" height="168"/>
Arthur Svensson
The award comes with a prize of NOK 500,000, equal to €61,016 or US$82,784. ICEM Vice President Liv Undheim (also Vice President of IE) is coordinating the award. Nominations can be sent to her at <a href="mailto:liv.undheim@industrienergi.no">liv.undheim@industrienergi.no</a>, or faxed to +47 23 06 1360. 
 
Arthur Svensson was a long-time leader of Norsk Kjemisk Forbund, the Norwegian Chemical Workers’ Association, which merged with NOPEF on 4 September 2006 to form IE. Svensson died in 2008, but left a legacy in Norway and beyond as a man who promoted global peace, disarmament, and a nuclear weapons-free world. 
 
He was also a driving force from his leadership positions of Norsk Kjemisk Forbund in Norwegian environment law, and a strong proponent of clean energy to drive clean industries. But first and foremost, he was a dedicated trade unionist, maintaining membership in LO-Norway for 61 years, the final 48 of those years with the Chemical Workers. 
 
Announcement of the award can be found here.

1 May Deadline Approaching Fast, Arthur Svensson Labour Rights Award

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