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<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="135" height="66" alt=""/>
A historical achievement happened in Indonesia late on Friday night, 28 October, when the country’s Parliament passed the Social Security Providers Bill (BPJS), thus clearing the way for long-awaited pension, medical, job-related accident, unemployment and other benefits to millions of ordinary Indonesians. 
 
The House of Representatives gave approval to the new law through consensus in a plenary session when the six-party ruling coalition, which had worked to delay the legislation, was pressured by a mass rally outside Parliament to reach terms with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1110.indo demo use this one.jpg" alt=""/ width="390">
25,000 Manifested 28 October at Indonesian Parliament
That rally, organized by the trade union/civil society coalition, Action Committee for National Social Security (KAJS), saw 25,000 Indonesians engage in a boisterous sit-in demanding once and for all passage of the populist bill. BPJS means that the government must now implement compulsory social services mandated by the National Security System Law of 2004. 
 
Labour leaders, however, realize that the BPJS time frame for full implementation of the different social components leaves too much political maneuvering room, especially with federal elections coming in 2014. BPBJS I, or the scheme for heath care for all citizens, must come into effect by January 2014, while BPJS II – social benefits related to occupational accidents, pensions, old-age benefits, and death benefit schemes – must be implemented by July 2015. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1110.sjaiful.jpg" width="154" height="160" alt=""/>
D. Patombong Sjaiful
“Yes, it was a momentous day,” said ICEM Indonesian Affiliates’ Union Chairman D. Patombong Sjaiful, the leader of FSP-KEP, the Chemical, Energy, Mines, Oil & Gas General Workers’ Union of confederation KSPI. 
 
“But now it becomes a process to guard the intent of this new law and not let it get sidetracked by the political system.” 
 
Said Iqbal, the KAJS General Secretary and President of the Federation of Indonesian Metal Workers’ Unions (FSPMI), agreed, stating that the process must be closely monitored on formulating and calculating sufficient costs for the different benefits. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1110.indo metal guy.jpg" width="125" height="160" alt=""/>
Said Iqbal
“This marks a fundamental change in Indonesian social security,” he said. “Now we are assured there will be a minimum level of pension benefits for all, that discrimination against the poor regarding health care will end, and that all working people will have some level of social benefits. 
 
“We must now be vigilant that government and employers adequately fund these programmes.” 
 
Said Iqbal led the KAJS coalition that included some 69 organisations, included 40 trade unions. The coalition, including farm organizations, fishery groups, and many more, included three of the country’s main national labour centres, KSPI, KSBSI, and KSPSI. The coalition is expected now to be transformed into “BPJS Watch.” 
 
The new BPJS law re-makes the four state-owned insurance companies (PT Askes, PT Jamsostek, PT Taspen, and PT Asabari) into two non-profit public companies under the auspices of the President’s office. PT Askes will function for the health care scheme, while PT Jamsostek will administer occupational accidents, pensions, old-age risks, and death benefits.

Indonesia Passes Provisions to Implement Social Security Law

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Canadian-based energy company Pacific Rubiales continues to hit new lows in its illegal efforts to put down ICEM affiliate Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) in the Meta region oil fields of Colombia. On 27 October the ICEM reported on the company signing an accord with company union UTEN on deadline day for a settlement with USO. 
 
Now as the USO activists continue to demonstrate en-masse, the company organises gatherings of its yellow union, complete with armed protection including from a company helicopter. At the same time, the company is financing propaganda campaigns exaggerating the small gatherings. 
 
Evidence is now coming to light of the sinister alliance between the company and local mayor of Puerto Gaitán, Edgar Humberto Silva. Evidence suggests that dead people were registered to have voted for the company candidate in the mayoral elections, with local indigenous communities harassed and intimidated into voting for Humberto Silva. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1111.uso people.jpg" width="213" height="160"/>
Unsurprisingly then, Humberto Silva has done all in his power to allow the Canadian company to continue exploiting the region’s rich resources and poor workers. Residents of the local community have occupied the school where voting took place and are demanding a re-run of the election. Company union UTEN organised a celebratory march following the election of Humberto Silva on 2 November. 
 
State oil company Ecopetrol is allied with Pacific Rubiales and other multinationals active in the region, in establishing the yellow union and using numerous tactics to crush USO. Ecopetrol is exercising its influence and financial strength by running tens of court cases against USO leaders, while ignoring court rulings that favour the strikers. Ecopetrol is also using its wholly-owned subsidiaries Comai and Propilco to launch legal cases against union activists. 
 
The 28 October <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/PacificRubeLet.pdf" type="internal">joint letter</a> from ICEM, the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) General Secretaries, and Canadian Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union to Pacific Rubiales Co-Chairmen and Executive Directors Serafino Iacono, and Miguel de la Campa, has not received a response. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1110.uso%20speaker.jpg" width="276" height="160"/>
In the letter, the three trade union organisations condemn the decision of the company to deceive USO in bargaining and then circumvent the legitimate bargaining partner in signing an accord with UTEN. USO represents over 14,000 actual oil workers in the oil fields of Rubiales and Quifa, while UTEN serves only administrative staff. 
 
The day of the false accord signing, Pacific Rubiales discharged 500 workers, and proceeded to intimidate remaining workers with threats of dismissal for remaining members of USO if they refused to switch allegiance to UTEN. 
 
It must be noted that the Colombian government has allowed Pacific Rubiales to abuse all internationally recognised minimum standards on workers’ rights with these recent tactics. And especially disappointing is the abrogation of Ministry of Labour arbitration that established a timeline for reaching settlement between USO and Pacific Rubiales. That deadline was 21 October, the same day Pacific Rubialies signed the bogus accord with the yellow union. 
 
The ICEM fully supports the campaign of USO and its permanent assembly, in place since 24 October, and the original list of demands including direct recruitment, salary increases, decent housing and adequate food, health, transport and social investment to communities. 
 
The CEP will facilitate the USO leadership to travel to Canada and meet the company management in early December.

Pacific Rubiales, Yellow Union Rig Local Elections, Indignation Rises

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A three-week strike by 4,000 members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) spilled into the streets of Johannesburg this week, as workers at Xstrata’s Boshoek and Wonderkop ferrochrome smelters near Rustenburg took a protest to the Swiss company’s Alloys headquarters. NUMSA members presented a petition to company managers demanding wage parity with workers employed at the Xstrata Lion ferrochrome smelter in Tubatse, Mpumalanga province. 
 
Both operations are undergoing big expansions. Xstrata owns 79.5% of the ferrochrome complexes in South Africa, while publicly-listed Merafe Resources holds a 20.5% stake. Both companies also mine chrome in South Africa. 
 
The strike by NUMSA in the North-West province began on 24 October after conciliation efforts by the country’s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) failed. NUMSA and Xstrata Alloys met two days earlier, but a revised pay offer by the company fell short and workers rejected it. 
 
NUMSA is seeking an immediate 10% pay increase for Boshoek and Wonderkop metalworkers and a reduction of job grading systems from eight to five. That would close the wage gap with workers at the Lion smelter and equalize the grading system. Currently, Boshoek and Wonderkop workers earn 14 to 39% less than at Lion, depending on pay grades. 
 
NUMSA is also seeking a housing allowance of R3,500.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1111.NumsaXstrata.jpg" width="255" height="169"/>
 NUMSA President Cedric Gina (rear) has Xstrata's Edwin Hlatshwayo Sign Receipt of Petition
The petition handed to Xstrata Alloys management on 15 November states: “(The company) has angered workers and instead of focusing on negotiations, they have decided to apply cheap apartheid-era tactics of bashing members through police intimidation of the strike. NUMSA is very angry that workers who went on a legal and protected strike have been treated like common criminals.” 
 
NUMSA President Cedric Gina and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Second Deputy Vice President Zingiswi Losi led the march and handover of the petition. The petition asks the company to respond within 48 hours. 
 
Xstrata is world’s largest producer of metal alloys, which besides ferrochrome includes vanadium and platinum, and accounts for one-third of total global production. The Boshoek smelter is currently seeing an expansion that will lift production to 240,000-tonnes-per-year by the end of next year. A second smelter, meanwhile, is now being constructed at the Lion operation that will see production double from the current 360,000 tonnes when it goes on line in the first half of 2013. 
 
The Xstrata-Merafe joint venture in South Africa will then yield 2.3 million tonnes yearly of ferrochrome, which is used in stainless steel production.

NUMSA Protests Pay Disparities at Xstrata’s Chrome Smelters

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="100" height="45"/>
The union representing permanent and contract workers at PT Cussons in Tangerang, Indonesia, has managed to negotiate permanent positions for 110 contract workers. 
 
Since the beginning of 2011, the union has been active in training contract workers and, out of a total of 200 contract workers, 118 joined the union. PT Cussons management refused to extend the check-off system to contract workers, so these workers pay their dues manually. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1111.CAL Sasmita.png" width="119" height="129"/>
Union Chairman Sasmita
On August 2011, the company announced it would end the contracts of 200 fixed term workers without making any severance payments. The union challenged the company decision, drawing attention to the fact that the contracts contravened Indonesia law by explicitly stating that during a fixed-term contract it was forbidden to be married or to become pregnant, and those workers who did so would be deemed to have resigned without severance pay. 
 
After two weeks of negotiations and pressure from union members, the company finally reversed its decision. They arranged placement tests for the 200 contract workers. Out of 200 workers, 110 have become permanent staff since August 2011. Sasmita, the Cusson Union Chairman, said, “We were satisfied with the result, but yet we still had to struggling for all the contract workers to be permanent.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1111.CAL Cussons.png" width="390"/>
Union officers of Cussons in Union Office
According to Sasmita, the company has ceased using contracts with discriminatory language and now contract workers can marry and become pregnant without fear of being terminated. “Those contract agreements … no longer exist, and we keep our eye (out) to make sure that the company (does) not use (them) anymore,” he added. 
 
The 110 workers now enjoy health insurance and benefits. Tuti, one of the workers said, “Now I am not worried again about my future, (to) become permanent workers is my dream, although still (there is) a long way to go for me together with the union to fights for the welfare of the whole workers in Cussons.”

From Contract to Permanent Work: Victory at PT Cussons Indonesia

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="100" height="45"/>
The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) has launched a nation-wide campaign urging the government to repeal amendments to the Employment Act, which would legalize labour contractors. 
 
The MTUC has been lobbying against these amendments since the bill was originally submitted to Parliament in July 2010. At that time, due to opposition from other political parties and trade unions, the government withdrew the bill. The amendments were re-introduced, with minor changes, in June 2011. Since then, the MTUC has been outspoken against the bill but, despite a picket at the Parliament on 3 October, the bill was passed by the majority Members of Parliament of the Ruling Party on 6 October. 
 
The proposed amendments would introduce “contractors for labour” into Malaysian legislation and create triangular employment relationships in which workers would be employed and paid by a contractor, rather than by the company in which they work. The amendments would also open the way for unequal treatment of workers with respect to wages and benefits. 
 
The MTUC further opposes deferred payment of overtime which, as laid out in the bill, would mean that contract workers would not receive remuneration for overtime until one month later, so that the principal employer time to pay the contractor for labour that in turn pays the contract workers. 
 
The MTUC is committed to pursuing “all avenues available” until the amendments to the Employment Act are withdrawn.

Malaysian Nation Labor Centre Decries Legislation Opening Door for Contract Labour

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="100" height="45"/>
The ICEM published another update of its PowerPoint presentation on “Contract and Agency Labour and the ICEM CAL Campaign”. 
 
This presentation contains not only a large number of statistics on contract and agency labour and other forms of precarious work - from all around the world - it also has a wide array of national and international “best practice examples,” highlighting, among other, what ICEM affiliated union are doing to counter the precarious work problem. 
 
The full-length English version of the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/11-11-03%20for%20the%20web-site%20CAL%20ICEM%20PPT.ppt" type="internal">presentation</a> can be found - and downloaded - here.

Update of the ICEM CAL Facts and Figures Overview

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The prelude to ICEM’s Fifth Statutory Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, this week will be a day-long conference on the successes and best practices achieved in the longstanding Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) campaign. The event will take place at the Congress venue, the Hilton Hotel Buenos Aires, on Wednesday, 23 November, the day before Congress opens. 
 
With activities now in over 25 countries, the six-year-old ICEM campaign is now operating on all cylinders and has reached a level of maturity not only seen in tangible results, but has produced ICEM project coordinators who possess the skills and have honed the tools to make a difference for irregular workers the world over. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1111.Great Dakar picture[1].JPG" width="184" height="140"/>
Several of those coordinators will highlight CAL campaign successes at the conference this week. For example, CAL Asian Coordinator Aranya Pakapath will tell how 1,500 contract workers in Chhattisgarh state, India, formed a cement workers’ union. She will describe how Indonesian outsource workers did the same in that country’s paper industry, as well as struggles cement workers in the Philippines face in building unions. 
 
Joseph Toe, CAL Coordinator in Sub-Saharan Africa, will address ICEM campaigns in Guinea, Nigeria, Namibia, Sierra Leone and other countries where major shifts and successful organising have taken place regarding casual employment. Seyni Mbaye Ndiaye, General Secretary of ICEM affiliate SUTIDS in Senegal, will speak on how his union and the ICEM Sub-Saharan CAL project brought about a Presidential Decree in the west African nation for protection of rights of short-term contract workers. 
 
A report will be given by Igor Díaz of ICEM affiliate Sintracarbón in Colombia on the hurdles that union encounters in organising and bringing collective agreements to workers of sub-contractors at the world’s biggest coal mine. 
<img style="WIDTH: 186px; HEIGHT: 124px" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1111.FNV Picture[1].jpg" width="214" height="140"/>  <img style="WIDTH: 168px; HEIGHT: 120px" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ARANYA.jpg" width="214" height="160"/>
FNV Bondgenoten Message at Eemshaven, Netherlands, CAL Asian Coordinator Aranya Pakapath  
And Sascha Meijer of FNV Bondgenoten in the Netherlands will show the tools used by that union in bringing dignity and wage justice to migrant workers from Europe’s east at energy plants in the Dutch port city of Eemshaven. 
 
Jørgen Juul Rasmussen of Dansk El Förbund of Denmark will give an overview on the temporary and fixed-term employment situation in Europe, as well as progress on implementing the European Union directive on temporary work. 
 
Sponsored by the German Freidrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), the conference promises to be a wellspring of strategies and best case studies aimed at combating the rampant growth of temporary and short-term employment that affects us all. 
 
The day will conclude with a panel moderated by Council of Global Unions Coordinator Jim Baker that will include General Secretaries from the ICEM (Manfred Warda), the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (Klaus Priegnitz), and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (Jyrki Raina) that will look at future strategies of the campaign within the framework of integrating the three Global Union Federations. 
 
ICEM Latin America/Caribbean Regional Vice President Sergio Novais will chair the day-long session.

ICEM Congress: Contract, Agency Labour Forum to Showcase Achievements

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="120" height="59" alt=""/>
The ICEM was angered and shocked by the madness in Norway late last week, expressing disbelief to its Norwegian affiliated unions that such xenophobic lunacy could occur in such a model democratic social nation. General Secretary Manfred Warda, who was in the US at the time attending another affiliate’s convention, said in a message to Norwegian trade unionists that it was with “deep shock and sadness that I received the horrible news of the shootings and murders of so many young people and the losses from the terrible blast in Oslo. 
 
“I am sure all over the world ICEM-affiliated trade unions feel the sadness and extend sympathies to the families who lost loved ones. We all feel deep solidarity with the people of Norway, we offer our condolences, and these tragic events show how much we need to be on alert to right-wing extremism and intolerable fundamentalism.” 
 
Norwegian Fellesforbundet President Arve Bakke, in a letter to global trade unions on the massacre of young Labour Party activists at Utøya and the Oslo bombing on 22 July, said: “We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for your solidarity and support following the shocking, violent and cowardly attacks that took place at Utøya and in Oslo.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Arve.Bakke.jpg" width="150" height="116" alt=""/>
 Fellesforbundet President Arve Bakke 

“Our thoughts are now with the families, relatives and friends of the victims and everyone affected by this tragedy. 
 
“It is with great shock and grief we were witness to the blackest day in Norwegian labour movement history. In just a few hours many union and political activists from the Norwegian labour movement were brutally deprived of their lives. Also democracy was hit at its core. The centre of national government was bombed beyond recognition and an important part of our future was massacred.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0904Labourrose.JPG" width="80" height="105" alt=""/>
“This is a time to stand firm to our ideals and we condemn the forces that want to destroy everything we believe in. I will make Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s words mine: ‘We must never give up ourvalues. We must show that our open society can pass this test too. That the answer to violence is even more democracy. Even more humanity. But never naivety. This we owe the victims and their families.’ 
 
“Again, thank you for your concern and solidarity.”

ICEM Expresses Anger, Disbelief at Norwegian Carnage

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM-affiliated Teamsters Union (IBT) in the US has mounted a voracious campaign against Germany’s BMW Group to preserve 68 auto-parts warehousing jobs in Southern California. The campaign to stop the outsourcing of family-supporting parts distribution jobs from a BMW warehouse in Ontario, California, has stretched eastward across America and now has gotten very active support from Unite the Union in the UK and IG Metall in Germany. 
 
In early June, the 7,500-member IBT Local 495 of Covina, California, was told by North American BMW that it intended to terminate a collective agreement upon expiration on 31 August and outsource the jobs of Teamster members to an un-named logistics provider. Instead of rolling over and negotiating severance packages, the union and its members fought back. 
 
They began a pressure campaign that has seen trade unionists and supporters handbilling BMW auto dealerships across the US, and Local 495 has zeroed in specifically on the Jackson Lewis LLP law firm. Jackson Lewis is a union-busting legal firm that regrettably BMW North America retained for anti-worker services in industrial relations. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.bmw misery.jpg" width="368" height="121"/>
The IBT has gained support and mobilisation of other American unions at BMW’s five parts distribution depots in the US, as well as from trade unionists at BMW workplaces in Europe. 
 
The union has established a lively website entitled <a href="http://www.bmwultimatemisery.com/ ">“BMW: The Ultimate Misery”</a> and produced a video from a spirited 26 July protest in front of the Jackson Lewis law offices in Los Angeles. (View the <a href="http://vimeo.com/26990405 ">video</a> here.) 
 
Earlier, on 21 July, a Day of Action was held in not only BMW’s US warehouses, but also inside BMW facilities in the UK. Workers wore stickers supporting the California Teamsters and passed out leaflets demanding that BMW not destroy California jobs. Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) at an import distribution centre in the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey two years ago successfully fended off outsourcing, as did United Auto Workers (UAW) members at a BMW parts warehouse in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. 
Both unions now assist the California workers in resisting closure. IBT local unions in America’s eastern states are handbilling BMW dealerships on a daily basis. The Ontario warehouse workers use weekends away from the job to draw attention to BMW’s unfair decision by handbilling dealerships up and down the US West Coast, from Southern California to the state of Washington. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.bmw%20van.jpg" width="308" height="161"/>
Teamsters handbilling in Seattle
In the UK, Unite Assistant General Secretary and head of Manufacturing, Tony Burke, is now spearheading a petition drive aimed at BMW’s European Works Council (EWC). Unite members are demanding that an extraordinary meeting of the EWC meeting slated for 10 September be moved up to August in order to place the scheduled Ontario closure squarely on the agenda. They want BMW to reverse the North America decision. 
 
“We’ll continue to expand this campaign inside the US and internationally in the weeks to come,” said Local 495 Secretary-Treasurer Bob Lennox. “Working with other US unions and now with unions in Europe, we’re convinced that we’ll get a positive resolution for our members and that means retaining our jobs.” 
 
The Ontario, California, warehouse handles 200,000 auto parts for just-in-time delivery to BMW car dealerships and other auto-supply outlets on the West Coast. The ICEM believes such work is best done by experienced and direct-employed BMW workers and urges the German company to retain loyal Teamster members for the good of its business and to preserve family-sustaining jobs.

US Teamsters Ardently Resist BMW’s Auto Parts Outsourcing

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
In a landmark ruling issued 25 July by the full bench of Australia’s Federal Court, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) successfully short-circuited Rio Tinto’s 2008 decision to unilaterally put into effect a non-union collective agreement. The ruling voids Rio Tinto’s sham five-year agreement with ten new hires in July 2008 that was intended to cover thousands of iron ore miners in West Australia, both signed under bygone individual work agreements under the John Howard government and future employees. 
 
The practice was done to avoid law changes then coming under Fair Work Australia. 
 
The 20-page ruling likely will serve as a precedent and a key portal for CFMEU to recruit miners in the mostly non-union Pilbara mining areas and then enter into legitimately negotiated enterprise labour agreements. Besides Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton also implemented long-term phoney collective agreements as a means to escape the CFMEU once the Fair Work Act took effect. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.cfmeu wood.jpg" width="169" height="160"/>
CFMEU's Gary Wood
“Rio and other employers that went down that path were, obviously, looking to shield themselves from the new legislation which brought fairness into the workplace, particularly around bargaining,” said CFMEU West Australia Mining and Energy Secretary Gary Wood. 
 
The CFMEU challenged the validity of Rio Tinto’s 2008 non-union contract last year, but Justice Robert Buchanan ruled in August 2010 that it was valid. On CFMEU appeal, however, the full bench of Justices Peter Gray, Bruce Lander, and Anna Katzmann overturned Buchanan’s decision, determining that the contract was not an “employee collective agreement” as defined by the new legislation. 
 
The case centered on Rio’s subsidiary Pilbara Iron Company Pty. Ltd. and a so-called Pilbara Iron Employee Agreement that was intended to last until 2013. The CFMEU argued that the company could not properly describe employees scheduled to work under the agreement when it was signed on 28 July 2008.

Australia’s CFMEU Wins Major Bargaining Ruling Against Rio Tinto

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