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From 4-6 September 2011 the BASF South American network met in Sao Paulo for extended social dialogue with the presence of BASF management and IGBCE President Michael Vassiliadis. 
 
The meeting opened on Sunday for an internal meeting of the worker representatives from Brazil, Argentina and Chile. The meeting was conducted by Sergio Novais, ICEM Vice-President. 
 
There had been some turbulence in the relations between the network and the company after 2009. 2009 was the year when the 10 year anniversary of the network was celebrated and at the same time a strike was called causing a breakdown in relations for the following two years. In the meantime both sides admit that they reacted in an exaggerated way to the problems that had arisen. From 2010 on the unions and the company set up a working group to iron out the problems and to get dialogue back on track. The work in the group bore fruit and led to a resumption of dialogue. 
<img alt="" src="" width="350" height="121" />
The first day&rsquo;s meeting agreed to focus on the following 6 points: 
 
1. Unify the company&rsquo;s policy toward the fire brigade and first aid providers across the region 2. Ask the company to provide information on ISO 26000 3. Ask the company to provide information on nanotechnology 4. Work on a pattern contract for outsourcing in the region - outsourcing is a permanent issue in the network 5. Ask the company to provide information on restructuring in the region 6. Ask the company to present its policy on health and safety with a view to creating unified standards in the region 
 
Certain points were still pending because of the suspension of the regional dialogue. The workers felt that points pending at national level should be resolved even though the regional dialogue was stalled. The policies and practices need to be the same for everyone. The company should be prepared to discuss these issues at the next meetings. 
 
BASF management has a new team. It is very hard for BASF to keep qualified and loyal workers and to compete in the global labour markets. New investments are planned for Brazil. Workers benefit from the company&rsquo;s results, but these benefits need to be standardised worldwide. 
 
The BASF network has been and will continue to be a reference for social dialogue in the region. The company and the unions are proud of what it has achieved and will continue to make the most of the dialogue.

BASF Network Meets for Extended Social Dialogue

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In Chile's northern Region 1, a planned 24-hour strike at the world's third largest copper mine, Dona Ines de Collahuasi, on 2 September did not happen. The 1,500 miners of Sindicato de los Trabajadores, affiliated to the Chile Federation of Miners (FMC), voted the day prior to forego striking when managers extended a satisfactory albeit temporary resolve to the dispute. 
 
That resolve included an adjusted bonus for the last two quarters of the fiscal year, the first half of 2011, of two million pesos (US$4,345) to each miner, and recall of two of the six miners who were sacked for strike activity on 30 July. 
 
The FMC branch Chairman at Collahuasi, Manuel Munoz, told the ICEM that three of the six miners desired not to return to work high in the Atacama Desert, while the union will continue to fight for the rights of the sixth miner. 
<img alt="" src="" width="183" height="161" />
FMC branch Chairman at Collahuasi, Manuel Munoz
Dons Ines de Collahuasi, jointly owned through 44% stakes each by AngloAmerican and Xstrata and a smaller share by a consortium of Japanese firms controlled by Mitsui, offered to rehire the sixth miner, but is attempting to deny him several benefit entitlements, including health insurance. 
 
&quot;We will continue to wage a stiff fight for our comrade to ensure that fairness and justice prevails,&quot; Munoz reported to the ICEM. 
 
There are several other issues still to be resolved that were behind the 29-30 July strike. They include housing benefits, bonuses based on weather conditions in the extreme altitudes of the Atacama, and a clocking-in, clocking-out process at the mine and copper processing operation that stands as a regression of miners' working conditions. 
 
Labour relations between Dona Ines de Collahuasi and the Mineworkers' Union of Collahuasi have been frayed since the end of a 33-day strike last December. The company filed a criminal lawsuit against the union a month after the strike ended, charging union with libel over items the union posted on its website during the strike.

Collahuasi Miners Partially Resolve Dispute without Striking

Dear Mr. President, 
 
On behalf of 45 million industrial workers represented by the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) we are writing to you to express our serious concern with the situation in Mangystau Province, Kazakhstan. 
 
We have been informed that oil workers of Karazahnbasmunaigaz had to work in harmful conditions. After numerous attempts to settle the issue with the employers with no results oil workers decided to go on strike in May 2011 demanding the employer to improve working conditions and pay additional compensation for the work in bad conditions. Workers of Uzenmunaigaz and other operations in the region joined the strike later on. Unfortunately instead of engaging in good faith negotiations with the workers the employers recurred to tactics of pressure. This led to the aggravation of the social situation in the region. 
 
To our knowledge, the oil workers&rsquo; strike resulted in numerous acts of repression. 
 
On August 8 Natalia Sokolova, a union lawyer, was sentenced to six year imprisonment for alleged offence of &ldquo;inciting social hatred&rdquo;. During her one week trial, the judge allowed neither testimonies of defense, nor evidence by independent experts. 
 
A number of other workers and activists involved in the strike were also accused of participation in illegal protests and spent some time in prison and/or were ordered to pay substantial fines. Hundreds of workers were fired. 
 
On July 8 and 10 workers&rsquo; rally in Aktau was stormed by riot police. The participants of the rally were violently beaten. 
 
The situation in the region was aggravated by a number of horrendous murders. 
 
On August 2 Zhalsylyk Turbaev, 28-year old drill operator and a union activist, was murdered right at his workplace, his skull was broken. 
 
On August 24 Zhansaule Karabalaeva, 18-year old daughter of the president of the union committee at Uzenmunaigaz, was found dead on the outskirts of Zhanaosen. She received multiple knife wounds; her skull was broken, her jaw was crushed. 
 
Oil workers and their family members are frequently beaten by thugs. Every day workers also receive death threats. 
 
Mr. President, we believe that human rights issues are one of your central concerns. In 2010 Kazakhstan took the presidency in the OSCE. At the OSCE summit in Kazakhstan, Astana Commemorative Declaration was adopted, once again reinstating the commitment of OSCE members to human rights. In the word and spirit of this declaration, as well as the Constitution of Kazakhstan and international standards, we urge you to start immediate investigation of the facts of persecution and violence in Mangystau province, and take all the necessary measures to stop the suffering of the workers. 
 
Yours faithfully, 
 
 
Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary 
Jyrki Raina, IMF General Secretary

ICEM-IMF Letter to Nursultan Nazarbaev, President of Republic of Kazakhstan

The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) today registered strong condemnation with the Government of the Republic of Georgia over the police crushing of a legitimate workers&rsquo; strike and formation of a trade union at Euroasian Steels in Kutaisi, Georgia. Police began using forceful tactics last Thursday evening, 15 September, to break a peaceful strike at the 400-worker steel mill, and on 16 September and over the weekend, arrested, detained, and threatened scores of union workers seeking union representation at Euroasian Steels. 
 
In a letter today to Georgian President Mikheil Saakasvhili and Prime Minister Nika Gilauri, the ICEM calls for restoration of human and trade union rights to members of the ICEM affiliate, Metallurgical, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers&rsquo; Trade Union of Georgia, and immediate release without charge of three leading union activists, who were picked up and arrested Saturday, 17 September, on bogus charges obviously related to trade union activity. They ICEM also demands job reinstatements for some 20 other workers. 
 
Emilo Gumberidze, Irakli Iobidze, and Milkhaz Gogiava will appear today in court in the provincial capital of Kutaisi and they could face jail sentences. Last Thursday, Georgian police, unprovoked, broke up a strike by 200 metalworkers in front of the Euroasian steel rolling mill in Kutaisi. They detained up to 40 strike participants and the next day police officers raided the homes of many workers, ordered them into police cars, and then incredulously took them to the factory for work shifts. (An <a href="/en/4-Chemicals-Pharmaceuticals/4667-ICEM-Scorns-Blatant-Police-Repression-in-Putting-Down-Georgian-Metal-Strike">ICEM report</a> on this is here.) 
 
In today&rsquo;s formal complaint to Georgia&rsquo;s Government over the police actions, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda wrote, &ldquo;This is an embarrassment to Georgia, a serious stain on Georgian trade and commerce, and it is the opinion of the ICEM that these overt acts of repression bring Georgia back to another time era.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM charges Georgian police and the country&rsquo;s Internal Affairs Ministry with blatant violation of guaranteed social and human rights common in several international charters. The ICEM pledged to stand with the union and the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC) in their fight for workers&rsquo; rights at Euroasian Steels. 
 
The ICEM is demanding that internal Georgian security forces stop acting as a front for Euroasian Steels, a two-and-a-half-year-old steelmaking enterprise in Kutaisi that has failed to establish even a rudimentary system of employee relations. The enterprise is 87.5% owned by Dubai-based Euroasian Ventures Ltd., itself owned by Indian steel company Manaksia Ltd., and 12.5% by a holding concern controlled by Georgian national Paata Chkhenkeli, who himself is connected to Georgia&rsquo;s political and economic elite. 
 
The ICEM is a Geneva, Switzerland-based Global Union Federation, representing 20 million workers that belong to 467 trade union affiliates in 132 countries. 
 
For further information, contact ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin, <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 22 203 1842.

ICEM Condemns Georgia Police in Suppressing Union Rights at Euroasian Steels

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State police in Georgia brutally broke a strike by metalworkers last week in Kutaisi, in western Georgia. In the evening of day three (15 September) of a walkout by some 200 workers at Eurasian Steels that was sparked by ICEM affiliate Metallurgical, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers&rsquo; Trade Union and the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC), dozens of police cars escorted Imereti Region Governor Lasha Makatsaria across picket lines and into the steel rolling mill. Police then left those cars and rushed the strikers, taking many away. 
 
As some strikers fled, police rounded them up. Around 40 strikers, including four hunger strikers at the factory&rsquo;s plant gates, were taken to police headquarters. They were held for several hours, lectured on strike activity, and then made to sign a document stating they would engage in no further action. Some of the 40 were summarily fired by the police who issued dismissal papers from Euroasian Steels. 
 
Twenty-one trade union activists have now been sacked at Euroasian Steels, or Hercules Steel, as it is called, including six on 11 August. Last week&rsquo;s mass strike was on their behalf, and on many inept management practices that have plague the newly built plant over the past two years. A two-hour warning strike occurred on 2 September that was joined in support by the Georgia Automobile Transport and Highway Workers&rsquo; Union, the Independent Trade Union of Agricultural Workers, a food processing union, and two professional unions &ndash; the Representatives of Educators and Scientists and the Union of Artists. 
 
Management of the steel mill, led by a prominent Georgian, has refused to address the union or the workers&rsquo; serious concerns. 
 
The ICEM reacted with contempt to last week&rsquo;s police actions. &ldquo;We witnessed Georgia&rsquo;s internal police use force to break a strike and now attempt to manage the labour conduct inside this enterprise,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;It is ludicrous, against all rationality, and there has to be sinister reasons behind it. We demand to know why our affiliated trade union&rsquo;s concerns on behalf of workers have not been heard.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
<img alt="" src="" width="280" height="210" />
ICEM will continue the stand with Metallurgical, Mining, Chemical Ubnion of Georgia and with the GTUC. (In 2010, ICEM's Warda and GTUC President Iraki Petriashvile, left)&nbsp; 
 

After the round-up and release of strike activists in the early morning hours of 16 September, police then began raiding the homes of many Euroasian workers &ndash; including several strikers from the day before &ndash; and forcibly brought them to work. A report said a worker not involved in the strike and who was scheduled to work a late shift on 16 September, was forcibly taken from his home and bought in earlier than usual to work. 
 
Police are controlling shift attendance by workers and internal reports are regularly made to police authorities. When workers inquire as to why the police involvement, they are told it is necessary to prevent another strike. 
 
On Friday, workers returning to the steel mill were met with a mandate to either sign a statement denouncing Metallurgical, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers&rsquo; Trade Union, or face dismissal within three days. The ICEM has learned many are resisting and believes this is due to a core group of 180 union activists who are gaining in strength and remain steadfast in their determination not to be deterred from a union voice at Hercules.
The ICEM has vowed to support them through an international outcry in coordination with other labour groups. 
 
Meanwhile, there has been a constant police presence outside the factory over the weekend, 16-18 September. At 13h on Saturday, 17 September, internal security&nbsp;police rounded and arrested three union leaders: Emilo Gumberidze, Irakli Iobidze, and Malkhaz Gogiava. 

The three have been key in coordinating support for the 21 dismissed union members&nbsp;among civil society groups,&nbsp;and the ICEM calls the Georgian government out on violating common&nbsp;freedom of association principals. 

Euroasian Steels is an Indian-Georgian enterprise, 87.5% owned by Dubai-based Euroasian Ventures Ltd., which itself is owned by India&rsquo;s 12th largest steelmaker, Manaksia Ltd., a company specializing in caps, crowns, and metal containers as well as a metal trader. The Kutaisi mill began in spring 2009 to produce rebar and steel billet for a Central Asian market. Built on the former site of a concrete structures plant in Kutaisi, it employs 400 workers, including 130 Indian nationals. 
 
They are treated like indentured servants. Management is in possession of their passports, their salaries are sent back to India, they are given meagre stipends to live on in Kutaisi, and they are instructed not to make contact with Georgian workers. The Indians work dirty and dangerous jobs on four of the operation&rsquo;s eight furnaces and they work apart from Georgian workers. 
 
Some months ago, the Indian workers staged a strike of their own, which resulted in the beating of the Indian plant director, Raji Kumar Sureika. 
 
At Euroasian Steels in the Imereti region, sweatshop conditions persist. There is no Human Resources department, no wage structures, and no adherence to internationally recognised work standards. Work-weeks can last up to 80 hours, there is no overtime pay, workers are routinely refused to use paid vacations, and there is an inordinate amount of industrial injuries.
<img alt="" src="" width="205" height="154" />
As in 2010 in Georgia, ICEM will&nbsp;Vehemently Protest Trade&nbsp;Union Repression in Georgia&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 

In July 2010, workers protested because of wage arrears. Seven of the leaders of that protest were arrested and were jailed for 20 days. 
 
The Georgian who controls Euroasian Steels and whose holding company owns a 12.5% stake is Paata Chkhenkeli. He is general director of the operation and in 2005, he formed a joint venture with the Manaksia Group called Georgia Metalix Ltd. in order to export scrap steel from Georgia. A short time later, he bought a controlling stake of the Georgia-based scrap-metal salvage firm Meoshavliti, and the deal was soon realised between Chkhenkeli, Manaksia, and the Georgian government to construct the Kutaisi mill. 
 
Paata Chkhenkeli, 52, has close connections to senior level figures in the Georgian government. From 2000 to 2003, fresh from a 11-year tenure as director of Iberia Construction Co. in Russia and Georgia, he served as state advisor to Georgia&rsquo;s Minister of Economy. 
 
The ICEM this week will lodge protests with the Georgian government over last week&rsquo;s ruthless actions. While union activity inside Euroasian is certain to be stymied temporarily because of last week&rsquo;s police put-down, the flames of discontent are still very much alive. ICEM will remain connected to shop-floor activists in Kutaisi and their union representatives of the Metallurgical, Mining, Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union and GTUC.

ICEM Scorns Blatant Police Repression in Putting Down Georgian Metal Strike

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
With the United Steelworkers (USW) currently voting local-by-local on adoption of a US National Oil Bargaining Policy, one thing is certain when talks with oil refiners get underway early in 2012: union-initiated process safety improvements will lead the agenda. 
 
Some 300 local USW leaders convened in Dallas, Texas, in late September and adopted a bargaining policy. That policy is now up for ratification by USW branch unions representing oil workers and once 75% of local unions agree, the agenda will be tabled when bargaining begins early in 2012. A current three-year labour agreement between USW and a majority of US downstream oil and petrochemical employers expires 1 February 2012. 
<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="159" />
Gary Beevers
USW Vice President Gary Beevers, who heads the sector, said achieving process safety will be the main issue in this round of talks. &ldquo;We must have meaningful and enforceable safety provisions if we are going to save lives, and we are prepared to strike, if necessary, to get that,&rdquo; said Beevers, an ICEM Executive Committee member. 
 
Process safety refers to a safe and functioning engineering and management controls system that prevents explosions, fires, and toxic releases caused by the highly hazardous chemicals used in refining. USW will strive to get a union-trained safety specialist in each of the 69 refineries where it represents workers as part of that process safety system. 
 
The USW reports that during the term of the current labour agreement, up through early September 2011, there were 131 reported fires in US refineries, about one per week. The USW lost seven union members, including some who were Local 12-591 leaders, in the deadly 2 April 2010 explosion at Tesoro Corp.&rsquo;s Anacortes, Washington, refinery. 
 
The Tesoro explosion was caused by a heat exchanger in a naphtha unit that blew apart due to cracks in a welded area, an obvious flaw in process safety. The Washington State Department of Labour and Industry determined that the Texas-based company failed to test equipment for cracks and fined Tesoro US$2.39 million, a fine the company appealed. 
 
The USW represents 30,000 workers at a total of 168 production, refining, marketing, transportation, and pipeline installations, and its membership in the US&rsquo;s 69 oil and petrochemical refineries gives it representation covering 64% of all workers in the US downstream sector. 
 
Oil bargaining in the US is termed pattern bargaining in which USW selects a lead company to negotiate with and then those terms are presented and expected to be accepted by other companies. Traditionally, the USW and its predecessor unions have selected Royal Dutch Shell as the lead company.

Safety Central Issue in Upcoming US Downstream Oil Talks

Similar to integration on the global level, European industrial union federations are integrating for greater strength and more social power. As part of that, the European Mine, Chemicals, Energy Federation (EMCEF), the European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (EMF), and the European Trade Union Federation &ndash; Textiles, Clothing and Leather (ETUF-TCL) issued a recent common and joint position on the Eurobonds debate aimed at the European Central Bank and the Council of the European Union. 
 
General Secretaries Michael Wolters (EMCEF), Ulrich Eckelmann (EMF) and Luc Triangle (ETUF-TCL) warned banks again could be the nemesis of the real economy and the fight over Eurobonds must be put on hold while action is focused on supplying the real economy with liquidity instead. 
 
The three federations said creation of a Eurobond market is no guarantee that banks will make necessary industrial investments with an economic environment that still allows speculation and opportunism to exist. This bodes badly for small- and medium-sized industrial enterprises, in particular, and lack of investment here could be a death knell. 
 
&ldquo;The recovery of industry &ndash; and hence millions of jobs &ndash; is seriously threatened,&rdquo; stated the three federations. &ldquo;It is foolish and short-sighted to exclusively focus on austerity measures despite the need to discuss budget consolidations and develop a fair framework for responsible governance. 
 
Advocating the Financial Transaction Tax as a start, EMCEF, EMF, and ETUF-TCL said &ldquo;sustainable investments are required to secure the stability of the real economy.&rdquo; Necessary investments can be made by European Union future investment bonds which must be limited in time, related to specific projects, and financed by levies placed on the capital of wealthy speculators that caused the financial crisis in the first place.

European Trade Federations Demand Economic Liquidity for Job Creation

In its decision of May 2011, the Mexican Tribunal for Freedom of Association reported grave violations by the Mexican government of workers&rsquo; freedom to organize unions, and denounced the intensifying climate of violence against union members. 
 
In August, under false premises the Mexican government ordered the detention of General Secretary Martin Esparza Flores and other leaders of the Mexican Electricians&rsquo; Union (SME). The employees of the Workers&rsquo; Support Center (CAT), an organization which supported the unionization of Johnson Controls in Puebla, Mexico, have been publicly charged with destabilizing the situation in that state. 
 
In addition, no just solution has yet been achieved to the conflict of the SNTMMSRM, which is led by Napoleon Gomez and affiliated with the IMF and the ICEM. August marked the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the strikes in Sonora, Taxco, and Sombrerete, with no response from the authorities: collective contracts are not recognized and the independence of the union is not respected. 
 
The IMF, ICEM, ITF, and UNI, together with the Tri-National Union Alliance and the ITUC, stand together with the Mexican unions in their struggle, as was shown by action of unions around the world during the action week of February 2011, as well as by international union participation in the 1 May event in Mexico. 
 
Also in May, the IMF organized a planning workshop attended by representatives of the international union federations and democratic unions of Mexico to jointly design union-building programs. With regard to international solidarity, it was agreed to concentrate work on opposing the PRI-PAN bill on the regressive Labor Reform and the bill on National Security, both of which are on the agenda for the September session of the Mexican Congress. If these reforms are passed, precarious employment will be legalized, employer protection contracts will be strengthened and it will be even more difficult to organize genuine workers&rsquo; unions. 
 
Given that prospect, and added to it the fact that the Government Secretariat intends to remove by 15 September the sit-in protest which the SME Union has been holding on the Zocalo for the last seven months, the unions have been intensifying their action and alliances to confront the new wave of repression. 
 
On 1 September, the fourth anniversary of the Felipe Calderon administration, a &ldquo;National Day of Outrage&rdquo; was held to denounce the disastrous results of his administration for the working class. More than 100 unions and 40,000 people participated in the day; a rally was held in front of the Chamber of Deputies, and later moved to the Zocalo. It demanded an end to the persecution of independent unions and reiterated the importance of building a sustainable and inclusive social model with fairness, justice and democracy.

Greater Unity of Democratic Unions in Mexico against Repression

In Chile, a recent strike by union members of Sindicato No. 1 Escondida of Chile&rsquo;s Federation of Miners (FMC) at the world&rsquo;s largest copper mine galvanized mining unions across the South American country like never before. In unprecedented solidarity, mineworkers&rsquo; unions of the private-sector FMC and those at state-run Codelco, the Federation of Workers of Cobre (FTC), are uniting to lay claim to a bigger portion of the world&rsquo;s copper profits for all Chileans. 
 
Recent joint meetings of the federations have discussed how companies circumvent labour laws and collective agreement conventions at the expense of mineworkers, and how natural resources are exploited to the detriment of Chile&rsquo;s national character. Unions are also united &ndash; at the private-sector multinationals to the Cobres at Codelco &ndash; resist privatisation of Codelco. 
 
Another testament to FMC and FTC unity is at a time when Chile&rsquo;s ministries are eager to meet with them, the federations insist that such meetings will not happen until leaders of the federations meet first. 
 
The labour-management match in Chile happens at a time of soaring demand and high prices for Chile&rsquo;s main export, copper. The same demand and volatile pricing of the red metal worldwide has created a &ldquo;Together We Can&rdquo; cry that says Chile&rsquo;s mineworkers believe unified action can affect the country for the better. 
 
Much was made of the fact that on a single day &ndash; 30 July &ndash; 10% of the world&rsquo;s copper production stopped when FMC miners at Do&ntilde;a In&eacute;s Collahuasi (AngloAmerican and Xstrata) joined a strike by Sindicato No. 1 at Minera Escondida Ltd. (BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto) in a display of simple unity. Although grievances reflected separate sets of negligent circumstances at the two mining complexes, the unity of purpose was clear. 
 
FMC President Cristi&aacute;n Arancibia said that workers are hearing a national calling, that unions of his federation feel a responsibility to the people and communities of mining regions. He said agreement has been reached with the FTC that mineworkers will not be &ldquo;accomplices to Chile&rsquo;s resources sold away for foreign investment.&rdquo; 
 
This very specifically is FMC recognition that Codelco is chipping away at FTC&rsquo;s membership in order to partially privatise the world&rsquo;s largest copper company. 
 
On 30 July, union branches of the FTC supported the symbolic strike of the two FMC branches. Now with common understanding that tripartite dialogue will occur over Chile&rsquo;s export revenues, the unity, decisiveness, and single voice of FMC and FTC will ensure that all Chileans have a stake in copper.

Chile: Mineworkers’ Unity in Times of High Mineral Prices

An oddity has struck Germany: as unemployment has reached the lowest levels in decades, the number of precarious workers in low-wage temporary jobs has risen dramatically. The increase in temporary work in 2010 jumped 32.5% over the previous year, reports Germany&rsquo;s Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden. 
 
A full 75% of all recruitments in 2010 came in the temporary sector and temporary work accounted for 50% of all salaried recruitments, data that places a different light on Germany&rsquo;s economic success story. 
 
This trend has not caught Germany&rsquo;s unions by surprise, with national labour centre DGB making it a priority at its May 2010 Congress to campaign for equal pay, equal rights, and fixed probation periods on temporary workers at its May 2010 Congress. Replacing permanent employees with temp workers (&ldquo;Stammbelegschaft&rdquo;) is regressive and Germany&rsquo;s unions look upon it as wage slashing. In the metal industry alone, wages of temporary workers average &euro;776 per month less than permanent staff. 
 
In 2010, according the Wiesbaden Office, 7.4 million people took low-wage temporary work, or &ldquo;mini-jobs&rdquo;, as created by 2003 legislation with the intent that such work would lead to a full-time, permanent job. It has not as evidenced by Germany&rsquo;s temporary employers&rsquo; federation predicting that double-digit jumps in temp work will occur in 2011 and beyond. 
 
Consider: in hotel and catering work, there is one temp for each German worker in which full social contributions are paid. In trade and retail, that ratio is two to one. 
 
One answer advocated by German unions is a cross-sector minimum wage through legislation, and tougher legislative measures to discourage all forms of precarious work. Equal pay for equal work has become a battle cry for Germany&rsquo;s trade union movement and moving toward that will restore a fairer order of the labour market.

In Germany, Precarious Labour Spikes Even with Low Joblessness

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