English

Español

Français

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action Plan 2025-2029

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Campaigns

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Women

Youth

LGBTQI+

Gender, equality, diversity and inclusion (GEDI)

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected Officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Press

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="45" />
The devastating floods which killed more than 600 people in Thailand have had a serious impact on the livelihoods of CAL workers. Many agency workers were not paid as plants have been shut down since the crisis began in October 2011. As the flooding continued in November and December, hundreds of thousands of agency workers were laid off. 
 
The electronic sector, which employs a high proportion of precarious workers, has been amongst the hardest hit by the flooding. In the Ayutthaya and Pathumthani provinces, north of Bangkok, thousands of electronic factories located across several industrial estates remain swamped by more than two metres of water. Several companies have announced lay-offs and plans to relocate production facilities from Ayuttaya to Malaysia. 
<img alt="" src="" width="150" height="69" />
The Thai government is providing a package to assist companies to retain their workforces. Companies that commit to a policy of no lay-offs, maintain the same level of worker benefits, and pay workers no less than 75% of their wages are eligible for this relief package. 
 
Some unionised companies have continued to pay wages &ndash; from 100% of wages in the first month, to 75% and 50% for November and December. The Goodyear Tyre company paid full wages to both regular and fixed-term workers since its only plant in Rangsit, north of Bangkok, was hit by the floods on 21 October. 
 
Production has not yet resumed at the plant but management and the union are working hand in hand in the recovery process. Workers on fixed term workers at Goodyear whose contracts came to an end on 30th November 2011 did not have their contracts renewed. 
 
At the same time, several companies in the eastern seaboard which were not directly affected by the flood have used the flood as an excuse to delay CBA negotiations or to avoid implementing CBAs.

Flooding in Thailand has devastating impact on CAL workers

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="45" />
An ICEM report has found that the rights of workers in the cement industries of the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and India are being routinely violated through the use of precarious forms of employment. 
 
In many of the plants covered by the research, Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) is being used to restrict or prevent workers from exercising their right to freedom of association. Lafarge in the Philippines, for example, has been using CAL workers to fill permanent positions ever since workers took part in industrial actions as far back as 2000. At one Lafarge plant in Indonesia, all permanent workers are union members, whereas none of the CAL workers are. In India, contract workers at Holcim were dismissed after they joined the union. To make it worse, the company started criminalising the union leaders. 
 
ILO Conventions 87 and 98 apply to all workers, as explicitly stated in the 350th report of the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association: &ldquo;The Committee emphasizes that all workers, without distinction whatsoever, whether they are employed on a permanent basis, for a fixed term or as contract employees, should have the right to establish and join organizations of their own choosing.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="150" height="46" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="150" height="64" />
The report further specifies that the non-renewal of a contract for anti-union reasons constitutes a prejudicial act within the meaning of Article 1 of Convention 98. 
 
In all five countries covered by the research, CAL workers earn less than permanent workers &ndash; despite performing work of equal value &ndash; and are denied access to many of the benefits enjoyed by their permanent counterparts. 
 
In both the Philippines and Thailand, permanent workers are increasingly being used only in supervisory roles. This division of responsibilities highlights the fact that it is often contract and agency workers who are performing core labour tasks. 
 
CAL workers in many cement plants live with the burden of uncertainty. As one interviewee explained, he felt his job would continue only &ldquo;as long as I will cooperate.&rdquo; In the Philippines, some CAL workers reported that they do not even have written contracts. In many cases and countries, CAL workers are also not clear who is responsible for their welfare. In Thailand, agency workers are the most likely to suffer workplace accidents, yet in many plants they are denied the same health care benefits as permanent workers. 
 
The ICEM decries these exploitative practices, and demands that multinational cement companies such as Lafarge and Holcim that operate in Asia guarantee equal rights for CAL workers and take urgent steps to bring their practices in line with not only the various applicable national legislations, but also with all existing international labour standards - including ILO Conventions 87 and 98 and the Employment Relationship Recommendation 198. 
 
Cement companies must also act to ensure that they meet their obligations under the OECD Guidelines for MNEs and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. 
 
The <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/Cement%20Report.pdf">CAL Cement Report</a> is available here.

ICEM Report Exposes Asian Cement’s CAL Practices

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
Trade unionists are encouraged to apply for the Global Labour University&rsquo;s (GLU) two upcoming Masters programmes, one at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India, the other in Germany at the University of Kassel and Berlin School of Economics. Both programs begin on 1 July 2012, and have 1 March deadlines for applying. 
 
The India programme is entitled Globalisation of Labour, while the German curriculum is titled Labour Policies and Globalisation. Both are 14-week semesters of course offerings followed by an internship placement with trade unions or labour research institutes, thus offering the chance to engage inside the labour movement in different countries and at the international level. 
 
In Germany, the Hans Boeckler Foundation has extended its grant programme for Labour Policies and Globalisation programme, which grants scholarships to colleagues from EU Member States. Further information and applications to the German programme can be obtained <a href="http://www.global-labour-university.org/74.html ">here</a>, or contact directly the coordinator, <a href="mailto:Glu.germany@uni.kassel.de">Simone Buckel</a>. 
 
For information and application to the GLU&rsquo;s Tata Institute programme, contact <a href="mailto:gluindia@gmail.com">Mandira Zutshi</a>. Or visit <a href="http://www.global-labour-university.org/">GLU&rsquo;s website</a> to complete and overall information. 
 
The GLO, part of the ILO, has trained 214 trade unionists in economics and social sciences since 2004, giving young national and local trade union activists the opportunity to learn specific curriculums tailored to improve their skills at home. 
 
Course offerings are in English, and the GLU awards a limited number of scholarships to participants from developing and transition countries. Applicants must have the endorsement of a trade union to apply for a scholarship.&nbsp;

1 March Close for Global Labour University’s Masters Applications in India, Germany

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
With on-line voting about to end at midnight on 26 January, the United Steelworkers (USW) has issued a last-minute alert for global trade unionists to make the Brazilian mining company Vale the shameful recipient of the 2012 Public Eye Award, as bestowed by a Swiss NGO, the Berne Declaration, and Greenpeace. 
 
Going into the final week&rsquo;s balloting, Vale trails the Japanese electric energy company TEPCO by less than 300 votes &ndash; 17,276 votes for TEPCO, 16,996 for Vale. 
 
Visit the <a href="http://www.publiceye.ch/en/vote/">Public Eye website here</a> to cast your ballot, and push Vale into the number one spot. 
<img alt="" src="" width="118" height="160" />
In early January, the two organisations launched this year&rsquo;s version of the contest, with six multinationals judged as being the worst violators of environmental stewardship and human rights abuses. Besides TEPCO and Vale, the other nominees are the US mining company Freeport-McMoRan, Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung, Swiss chemicals company Syngenta, and the British bank Barclays. 
 
The winner will be announced at a press conference on 27 January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Vale, of course, besides heaping environmental damage the world over, extracted more than just minerals from the earth in recent years; it extracted deep and unnecessary economic concessions from USW members in 2009-10 strikes in Canada.

USW Makes Last-Ditch Appeal to Shame Vale as Public Eye Recipient

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Hundreds of garment workers staged a symbolic sit-in strike on 16 January in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka city, Bangladesh, demanding that Parliament takes up and passes a key piece of labour legislation. 
 
The legislation has been ready for presentation in Parliament for three years, but the Labour Ministry has stalled the process. Demonstrating workers warned of mass mobilisations before the Labour Ministry, Prime Minister&rsquo;s Office, and Parliament if the bill is not considered during the next session which begins, which begins this Wednesday, 25 January. 
 
The demonstration was organised by the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF), a highly-active trade union affiliate of the International Textile, Garment &amp; Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF). 
<img src="" width="214" height="160" alt="" />
NGWF President Amirul Haque Amin led speeches which included contributions of numerous labour leaders. All speakers agreed that the existing labour law of 2006 runs against the rights of workers, but also against industrial development, and is the cause of much labour unrest across the industrial sectors. 
 
The current government of Bangladesh repeatedly promised to amend the unjust labour law, both before and after the last general election in December 2008. The existing draft amendment was prepared through a long, tripartite process, consisting of viewpoints from workers, government and employers. But the draft amendment has been held up inside the Labour Ministry for the last three years. In that time three separate labour bills have been adopted by parliament. The first suspended trade union rights inside the country&rsquo;s Economic Processing Zones, the second exonerates factory owners from serving jail time for breaking labour laws, and the third also increases the rights of employers over workers.

Bangladeshi Garment Workers Lead Charge for Just Labour Legislation

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Several European trade unions, led by the European Mine, Chemicals, Energy Federation (EMCEF), are desperately trying to exert public and governmental pressure to keep the continent&rsquo;s independent petroleum refiner from going totally insolvent. 
 
In late December, a consortium of 13 banks froze a &euro;1 billion credit line on Swiss-based Petroplus, and immediately the oil company shut three of its five refineries &ndash; the Petite-Couronne refinery near Rouen, France, an Antwerp, Belgium, facility, and the Cressier refinery in the region of Neuch&acirc;tel, Switzerland. 
 
The publicly-listed company also reduced capacity at its Coryton refinery in Stanford-le-Hope, UK, and at Ingolstadt, Germany. At stake, is 2,500 jobs, with roughly half of that number already idle. 
 
EMCEF General Secretary Michael Wolters said there must be &ldquo;a financial solution to stop Petroplus from going bankrupt and we call on the responsible national and European authorities&rdquo; to safeguard these workplaces. 
 
But despite getting a temporary revolving credit loan on 11 January to keep Coryton and Ingolstadt partially operating, time is running short. Late last week, the Zug-based company said it was shutting down refinery equipment at Petite-Couronne and Antwerp, making a sale of these facilities and re-start much more difficult and expensive. 
 
The French unions CGT, CFDT, and CFE/CGC have been actively pressing their government to facilitate a sale, and Unite the Union in the UK has engaged with MEP Richard Howitt for Eastern England to find a solution. The Swiss union Unia has petitioned the federal government to intervene by calling for countries with companies exporting refined petroleum to Europe to pay added duties because generally those companies do not adhere to European environmental standards. 
<img alt="" src="" width="66" height="83" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="177" height="69" />
The ABVV/FGTB and ACV/CSC in Belgium and IGBCE in Germany have also stepped up efforts to save Petroplus refineries in their countries. 
 
Of major concern for workers of Petroplus are imports of refined petroleum markets. But also not to be discounted are the faulty decisions made by senior leaders of the company after the private equity firms Carlyle and Riverstone took the company public in late 2006. Carlyle and Riverstone soon after exited ownership with huge dividends. 
 
And then on the front end of the economic collapse, new management paid a premium to buy Coryton from BP and Ingolstadt from ExxonMobil in 2007, and followed in 2008 with purchase from Shell of the French refineries Petite-Couronne and Reichstett near Strasbourg. Petroplus then shuttered Reichstett in 2009. It also shut a refinery in Teeside, UK, in 2009, as exports to the US dwindled and refining margins dropped. 
 
Since the Petroplus went public in 2006 on the Zurich bourse, the company has lost 98% of its value. The crisis the downstream oil producer is now in stands as a stark reminder of inept managerial decisions during an economic downturn, with workers suffering the ultimate consequences.

European Trade Unions Make Dire Efforts to Keep Petroplus Operating

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
The unjust decision to dismiss Rodolfo Vecino Acevedo, President of ICEM affiliate Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera (USO), was reversed on 12 January. Heavy pressure was exerted on the Colombian government and the management of Ecopetrol, the 95% state-owned oil company. 
 
Letters were sent to Ecopetrol president Javier Gutierrez Pemberthy from all corners of the world, from trade union organisations and activists angered by the blatant attempt to derail the union and punish Vecino for his role in the strong campaign for improved conditions and salaries at Canadian-based Pacific Rubiales. 
<img alt="" src="" width="216" height="159" />
Rodolfo Vecino centre, with Manfred Warda and Carlos Bustos
The decision to dismiss Vecino and end his 27-year employment at Ecopetrol was taken on 13 December by the company&rsquo;s Office for Internal Discipline, and was only overturned after the company president bowed to pressure and instructed overturn the office&rsquo;s decision. 
 
This victory must now send a strong message to Ecopetrol&rsquo;s Office for Internal Discipline that they must end the ongoing attempts to dismiss other USO officials and activists. The USO General Secretary Edgardo Lozano was to be the next target. 
 
The shoddy charge used to dismiss Vecino had been linked to his participation at a political event marking the anniversary of the death of a previous Vice-President of the CUT. 
 
Legislation had been manipulated which stipulates individuals holding public office cannot be involved in partisan politics. This legislation clearly should not apply to trade unionists, and this decision being overturned has avoided a dangerous new precedent. 
 
See more details in the <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4832-ICEM-Affiliates-Called-on-to-Support-Sacked-Colombian-USO-President-Rodolfo-Vecino">ICEM news article</a> here.

Global Pressure Gets USO President Reinstated at Ecopetrol

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
Although wage negotiations will continue this week at Zambia&rsquo;s largest copper mine, a strike there on 3-4 January ended early last Thursday when the Minister of Labour, Sport, Youth and Gender directly intervened to correct glaring mineworker exploitation. 
 
Some 2,000 miners, the majority represented by ICEM affiliate Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Zambia (MUZ), took strike action against Canadian-based First Quantum Minerals Ltd. at the 231,000-tonne-per-year Kansanshi mine after negotiations slowed late in 2011. 
<img src="" width="190" height="138" alt="" />
Workers returned to jobs on 5 January after Labour Minister Fackson Shamenda, MUZ President Oswell Munyenyembe, management representatives, and an officer of the National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW) brokered a deal late the night before. 
 
The deal is reported to displace short-term contracts with permanent and pensionable conditions of work, as well as a company pledge to review 12-hour work shifts. Miners are seeking an eight-hour day. The brokered settlement also saw First Quantum agree to award a 13th pay check beginning this year. 
 
Negotiations for a general increase in salaries will occur this week. Workers through their unions seek a 20% hike, while management has offered only 9%. The open-cast Kansanshi operation, begun in 2005, is First Quantum&rsquo;s flagship mine and began expanding last year to where it will produce 400,000 tonnes annually of copper concentrates and copper cathode by 2015. Construction of a new concentrator also is underway this year and is scheduled for commissioning in 2014.

Two-Day Strike at Zambian Kansanshi Mine Ends with Permanent Contracts

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
Thousands of trade unionists around the world are writing to Prime Minister Lucas Papademos of Greece, calling on the government to drop charges against a dozen members of the GENOP/DEI trade union of power workers, including union president Nikos Photopoulos. The group will make their first court appearance at 9am tomorrow, 10 January, charged with protesting against the harsh austerity measures imposed on the Greek people by the International Monetary Fund and European Union technocrats. 
<img src="" width="200" height="136" alt="" />
Nikos Photopoulos
During extremely difficult economic times in Greece, the austerity package sets out to once again make workers pay for a crisis they did not cause. The specific austerity measure that the GENOP/DEI activists are charged with protesting against is a new arbitrary property tax which is a flat rate for all, regardless of income or ability to pay. Those who refuse to pay or are unable to pay the regressive tax have their power supply to their homes cut off. For fighting for these families to remain connected to the power supply, and conducting a peaceful occupation of a government office,&nbsp;the trade unionists now face up to five years in prison. 
 
Support the campaign for these charges to be dropped and send a message through <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1231">LabourStart</a> here.&nbsp; 
 
The GSEE trade union confederation is leading the calls inside Greece for president Photopoulos and his comrades to be free from all charges. 
 
View the <a href="http://strongerunions.org/2012/01/09/greek-trade-unionists-say-thanks-for-solidarity-messages/">message of thanks</a> from GENOP President Nikos Photopoulos for all the international support on the UK TUC &ldquo;Stronger Unions&rdquo; website here.&nbsp;

Greek Trade Union Leaders in Court Tomorrow, Facing Jail for Protesting Austerity

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Workers employed by Rio Tinto Alcan, the global mining giant&rsquo;s aluminium producer, were locked off their jobs in the Canadian province of Qu&eacute;bec on 1 January in a dispute centering on the company&rsquo;s ceaseless subcontracting. Some 780 metalworkers, represented by Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos d&rsquo;Alma Local 9490, affiliated to the United Steelworkers (USW), were thrown off their jobs at contract expiration at one of the company&rsquo;s most modern plants, the Alma, Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region, Qu&eacute;bec smelter. 
 
The three bargaining units of the union voted to reject a new contact late in December after the company refused to limit subcontracting. The lockout at the end of a prior five-year contract comes before USW Local 9490 had even submitted demands regarding salary adjustments, vacations, or benefits. 
 
The three bargaining committees are seeking a floor of 750 unionised jobs at the Alma facility and a halt to subcontracting that reduces full-time, stable jobs to levels below that. In recent years, since Rio Tinto purchased Canada-based Alcan for US$39 billion in 2007, Alma management has used each worker retirement and other reductions in force as a means to reduce costs and manpower by contracting out more and more work. 
<img alt="" src="" width="105" height="160" />
USW District Five Director Daniel Roy
Last year, USW District Five Director Daniel Roy said Rio Tinto has removed some C$7.4 million in salaries and purchasing power alone from the resource-rich region. Roy and leaders of Local 9490 will hold a press conference in Alma on 13 January to highlight the negative economic impact of the lockout and Alcan&rsquo;s insistence on unlimited contracting out rights. 
 
The union states that the average C$36-an-hour unionized wage rate is reduced to about C$16 with each subcontract employee. 
 
On 3 January, Alcan succeeded in Qu&eacute;bec Superior Court in obtaining a temporary injunction limiting the number of pickets at the main plant gate to 20. Locked-out picketers must remain at least 500 feet from the entrance. A full hearing on that injunction will happen tomorrow, 10 January. 
 
Rio Tinto Alcan announced force majeure at the aluminium smelter on 3 January, stating that it would operate only 122 of 432 electrolytic production cells. Alcan said it would operate at one-third capacity with use of 200 management and other personnel. The USW has lodged a complaint with the provincial labour board that Alcan is violating Qu&eacute;bec legislation by using scab or replacement workers during a labour dispute. 
 
The Alma operation at full capacity can produce 438,000 tonnes annually and in 2010 Alma accounted for 11% of Rio Tinto&rsquo;s global aluminium production. Rio Tinto Alcan operates two smelters in the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region and has a 25% stake in a third, in B&eacute;cancour where Alcoa is the majority partner.

USW Affiliate in Québec Locked Out by Rio Tinto at Aluminium Plant

Archive