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A 30-day strike by 6,000 rubber workers of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) at six tyre plants ended on 29 September when the union accepted the three-year wage and other terms put forward on behalf of three of four global rubber companies by the New Tyre Manufacturing Employers&rsquo; Industry Association (NTMEIA). 
 
But NUMSA and one of the tyre manufacturers operating in South Africa, Bridgestone/Firestone, remain at odds over a current agreement. The union suspended the strike last week at two Firestone plants that employ 2,500 of those 6,000 rubber workers, and an internal meeting among NUMSA national, regional, and shop-floor leaders at the two Firestone plants &ndash; Brits near Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth &ndash; will be held in mid-October to shape a strategy over this unresolved bargain. 
 
Bridgestone/Firestone, through the NTMEIA, is offering two percent less each year in wages than the other three companies, Continental, Goodyear, and Apollo-Dunlop. 
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With those companies, NUMSA secured fair wage gains over the three years, as well as higher gains for workers who had been stuck in low-end pay grades of many job classifications. NUMSA also won important new language on the use of labour brokers. 
 
A first-year increase, backdated to 1 July, was set at 9%. The second- and third-year increases will each be 7.5% or South Africa&rsquo;s consumer price index in 2011 and 2012, whichever is higher. In comparison, Bridgestone has on the table increases of 7%, 5%, and 5%. 
 
Commencing in July 2011, for those workers with three or more years of service, the difference between the minimum and maximum pay grades in several job categories, about 10% now, will be bridged over a three-year time frame beginning. Thus, roughly half of all rubber workers in South Africa&rsquo;s six factories will see well over the 7.5% increases both in 2011 and 2012. 
 
Regarding labour brokers, NUMSA and the NTMEIA agreed to continue a policy of non-usage of brokers and adopted a policy to begin phasing out all labour brokers. The two parties agreed to a joint monitoring committee on the issue, and that work will begin early in 2011. Goodyear and Continental factories do not rely on labour brokers, but the Firestone and Apollo-Dunlop plants do. 
 
NUMSA has hardened its policy against labour brokers and has won company-paid social benefits and medical aid for contract workers. Along with many South African unions, NUMSA was seeking a total ban on labour-hire firms, with an alternative plan to give contract workers full-time and permanent jobs.

South African Tyre Strike Ends; NUMSA Still in Conflict with Bridgestone

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Hundreds of thousands of trade unionists voiced their anger across Europe last week and the week before against the growing number of austerity measures being proposed by governments. Demonstrations occurred in 11 European cities on 29 September. 
 
A general strike by 70% of all workers occurred across Spain also on that day that saw 10 million people participate, and 80,000 protesting trade unionists from 24 countries converged in Brussels on 29 September. The actions were advanced by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), which fears workers will for years pay the price of reckless speculators who caused the financial morass. 
 
Instead of budget cuts affecting social and employment programmes at a time of already high joblessness, the ETUC is calling for jobs and economic growth as the catapult to recovery. Participating trade unions fear that workers will be the biggest victims of austerity measures, brought about by an economic crisis that was set off by bankers and traders, many of whom received big government bailouts. 
<img alt="" src="" width="180" height="135" />&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" width="180" height="152" />
Part of the German IGBCE Delegation
&ldquo;This is a crucial day for Europe because our governments, virtually all of them, are about to embark on solid cuts in public expenditures,&rdquo; said ETUC Secretary-General John Monks in Brussels last Wednesday. 
 
&ldquo;They&rsquo;re doing this at a time where the economy is very close to recession, and almost certainly you&rsquo;ll see the economy go back into recession as the effects of these cuts take place.&rdquo; 
 
The Brussels protest, coincidentally, came on the day the EU Commission proposed levying large fines on governments that fail to reduce public spending. That proposal comes when several Member-States began flinching at making social cuts in the face of mass street protests. The commission wants to fine countries that surpass the EU&rsquo;s debt ceiling of 60% of GDP. 
 
Brussels police barricaded banks and the headquarters of the EU as streams of unionists marched by, mostly without incident. Among those marching were 400 Romanian police officers, marching under the banner of their union. Five days earlier, they had surprised many by joining a mass civil society march in Bucharest, where demonstrators protested 25% wage cuts on all public-sector workers. 
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Romanian Police Union in Brussels
The 6,000 participating police turned the Bucharest manifestation on the Interior Ministry, causing Interior Minister Vasile Blaga to resign. 
 
Also protesting in Brussels were scores of German and Polish coalminers, who specifically called on the EU to delay its plan to make coal-producing Member-States cut their coal subsidies to power plants. Across Europe over the past two weeks, workers have taken to the streets to protest wage cuts, budget slashing, unjust tax increases, and pension-cutting austerity measures by governments seeking to control debt. 
 
Manifestations were held in Ireland, Latvia, Poland, Serbia, and Greece, where doctors in hospitals staged a 24-hour strike. In Slovenia, 29 September was the third day of a general strike by roughly half of the country&rsquo;s public-sector workers. In the Czech Republic on 21 September, 40,000 trade unionists protested a proposed 10% wage cut for all public workers, as well as planned sackings of workers, abolishment of wage guarantees for longtime workers, and introduction of performance-based pay. 
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Perhaps the biggest European protests last week occurred in Spain with the general strike. With unemployment at a European high mark of 20%, the Spanish government of Socialist Prime Minister J&oacute;se Zapatero last May introduced a &euro;15 billion austerity package that includes a 5% reduction in civil service pay, cuts in pensions, increase to the retirement age, and cuts to government funding. 
 
Led by the national labour centres CC.OO and UGT, Spanish trade unionists answered by staging the country&rsquo;s first general strike since 2002, causing a halt to transportation, daily newspapers not to publish, and television to go off the air. The 29 September strike came one day before Zapatero presented his 2011 budget to parliament. 
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From European Metalworkers' Federation
Commenting in a UK newspaper on the EU Commission&rsquo;s tough reprisal to fine governments who do not adhere to austerity measures, former Danish Prime Minister and European Socialists Leader Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said, &ldquo;Governments are not always right. If governments were always right, we would not have the situation that we have today.&rdquo; Rasmussen accused the commission of lacking &ldquo;an understanding of how ordinary people are suffering.&rdquo;

European Unions Ardently Protest Government Austerity Cuts

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The World Day for Decent Work (WDDW) will be marked on 7 October by trade union actions all over the world. Last year, WDDW saw 472 actions in 111 countries and organisers are aiming for more this year. The significance of the Day this year is high, under a backdrop of a global financial crisis that shows no sign of ending in terms of the crisis regarding unemployment. 
 
The global financial crisis has made 34 million people unemployed and pushed 64 million into extreme poverty. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has identified three core messages for this year&rsquo;s WDDW: &ldquo;Growth and decent jobs, not austerity, are essential to beating the crisis and ending poverty; Quality public services are essential for a decent life and must not be slashed in the name of fiscal consolidation; and, The financial sector must pay for the damage it has caused and be made to serve the real economy and real human needs.&rdquo; 
 
Visit the dedicated website of WDDW 2010 <a href="http://www.wddw.org/-English-">here</a>. 
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On the issue of quality public services and in concert with WDDW, the Council of Global Unions is organising a landmark &ldquo;Quality Public Services - Action Now!&rdquo; conference from 12-14 October in Geneva. 
 
The conference will bring together over 400 delegates from trade unions, governments, and civil society organizations from around the world. Delegates and supporters will develop a global charter and action plan for protecting and improving quality public services that are, along with workers in the sector, under threat as the world seeks to move out of the economic crisis. 
 
Speakers at the conference will discuss evidence that investment, not disinvestment, in quality public services is the most effective way to job creation and a sustainable global economy. 
 
Kumi Naidoo, leader of Greenpeace International and co-chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, will provide the keynote address. 
 
View more <a href="http://www.qpsconference.org/home">here</a>.

World Day for Decent Work Actions Abound 7 October, and Beyond

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The ICEM&rsquo;s Sub-Sahara Africa Regional Organisation (SSARO), at its Executive Committee Meeting in Mauritius, 27-28 September, adopted a resolution affirming continued commitment to challenge mining multinational Vale in Africa. &ldquo;SSARO affiliates will oppose all Vale investments in Africa and those of its surrogates until Vale demonstrates a willingness to drop its anti-union behaviour,&rdquo; states the resolution. 
 
The resolution was adopted unanimously by the ICEM African affiliates, building on their commitment of 6 April during the &lsquo;Week of Action on Vale&rsquo; when SSARO&rsquo;s Executive Committee denounced Vale&rsquo;s attacks on workers in Canada and throughout the world, and resolved to oppose the investment of Vale in Africa. 
 
Vale continues hostile demands on workers at Voisey&rsquo;s Bay, Newfoundland, Canada, to accept large concessions and worse terms than those agreed in settling the bitter disputes at Sudbury and Port Colborne. The corporate management of Vale maintains the unacceptable position that they cannot intervene in the dispute, instead settlement must be reached by local management and workers. 
 
The ICEM and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) have been fighting a global campaign against Vale&rsquo;s anti-union practices and efforts to spread their intolerable treatment of workers to Africa and throughout the world. 
 
&ldquo;The ICEM affiliates of Africa have shown their strength in unity by confronting the second largest mining company in the world, and refusing their anti-worker practices. We salute them for this and pledge our full continued support to the campaign,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. 
 
The opposition to Vale in Africa includes the 50/50 joint venture between Vale and African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), a South African mining company that acts as a gateway for Vale to Africa&rsquo;s mineral resources. 
 
Vale has begun construction of the Konkola North Project in Zambia, where the Brazilian multinational plans to invest US$400 in the copper mine. This is strongly opposed by the Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ), who have questioned the legality of the mine&rsquo;s lease. 
 
ICEM affiliates in South Africa, Zambia, Liberia, and Guinea have been at the forefront of opposing Vale expansion. Unions have been informing government officials on Vale&rsquo;s global misconduct, and of their demand that Vale move to settle the dispute at Voisey&rsquo;s Bay before entry of the company is considered. 
 
&ldquo;The global campaign will benefit all mining unions. We cannot allow Vale&rsquo;s practices to be imported into Africa or any other continent for that matter,&rdquo; stated ICEM Director of Industry &amp; Corporate Affairs Joe Drexler. 
 
View the Resolution in its entirety <a href="/index.php?id=25&amp;la=EN&amp;doc=4022">here</a>. 
 
Participants at the meeting approved the joint proposal of the United Steelworkers (USW) to hold a regional meeting on Vale in Africa. In these decisions, SSARO emphasised the importance of closer contact with trade unions in Brazil and Mozambique.

ICEM SSARO Endorses Continued Campaign on Vale

In April 2010, ICEM SSARO unanimously adopted a resolution to oppose the investment in Africa by Vale, the multinational mining giant of Brazil. The purpose was to prevent a global decline in mining labour standards due to the anti-union practices of Vale, throughout the world and particularly in Canada where the company forced over 3,500 miners on strike. 
 
ICEM SSARO also took note that Vale had established a partnership with African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) of South Africa to assist Vale in developing new mines and smelters on the African continent. 
 
Despite representations to the contrary made by Vale and ARM, there is little evidence that Vale has changed its attitudes and behaviour. Even after settling two year-long strikes in Canada, when the United Steelworkers agreed to accept some significant concessions, Vale boasted that it had won a power struggle, instead of trying to rebuild the strained relationship with its employees. Vale refused to settle a third strike in Voisey&rsquo;s Bay, Canada, and is demanding that the largely aboriginal workers accept lower standards than what was agreed at the other sites. 
 
Recently, the ICEM and International Metal Workers (IMF) met with Vale officials in Geneva at the request of the company. Vale called for continued social dialogue with the two global trade union federations. The ICEM and IMF stated that social dialogue can only proceed if Vale demonstrates a willingness to change its policies and practices toward trade unions. 
 
So far, there is no evidence that Vale has changed its policies and practices. 
 
SSARO trade unions in South Africa, Zambia, Liberia and Guinea have been in the forefront of opposing Vale&rsquo;s expansion in Africa and that of its surrogate, ARM. These trade unions have stated clearly that complete respect for trade union, community and environmental rights is a fundamental condition that multinational mining companies must meet to gain access to Africa&rsquo;s riches. Vale has not met this condition. 
 
SSARO hereby reaffirms its opposition to Vale investment in Africa. SSARO affiliates will continue to educate its governments and it citizens of the dangers of allowing Vale to operate in their respective countries and will oppose all Vale investments in Africa and those of its surrogates until Vale demonstrates a willingness to drop its anti-union behaviour. 
 
ICEM SSARO also stressed the critical importance of involving and working more closely with Brazilian trade unions in the effort to stop Vale&rsquo;s export of anti-union practices and to strengthen the position of trade unions wherever Vale operates.

Vale Resolution -- SSARO

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Following an international solidarity campaign, Nike has agreed to pay US$1.5 million to a relief fund for the former employees of two of its Honduran suppliers, Hugger de Honduras and Vision Tex, which closed plants in the Central American country without notice and without paying workers any of the legally-mandated severance payments due them. 
 
Both factories closed in mid-January 2009, without severance payments to approximately 1,800 workers and estimated to total some US$2 million. In addition, Visions Tex failed to pay monies it had committed to paying in December 2008 following a strike, which included the legal entitlement to an annual bonus. The closure occurred just after the formation of a union at the factory. 
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The union representing the workers, the Central General de Trabajadores de Honduras (CGT), the Worker Rights Consortium and the Solidarity Center of the US will jointly oversee the administration of the fund. According to a joint press release by Nike and the CGT, workers will also receive a year&rsquo;s access to the health care system, training, and priority hiring. 
 
This groundbreaking agreement represents a significant step forward in the corporate social responsibility debate, with a major multinational company recognising that it must ensure decent working conditions, and the application of national legislation and international labour standards, for all those from whose labour it profits.

Nike Takes Responsibility for Employer’s Anti-Social Actions

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In February 2005, Mr. Choi, a worker at a subcontracting company of the Ulsan factory of the Hyundai Motors in South Korea, was dismissed for carrying out trade union activities. Mr. Choi had been employed by the subcontractor and stationed at the Ulsan factory since March 2002. 
 
When he was dismissed Mr. Choi, filed an application for remedy to the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) in an administrative lawsuit, claiming that it was an unfair dismissal and that Hyundai Motors, not the subcontracting company, was his real employer. 
 
On 22 July 2010, the Korean Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Choi was an illegal dispatch worker and determined that he, in fact, became a direct employee of Hyundai the day after working two consecutive years. 
<img alt="" src="" width="250" height="115" />
The High Court wrote, &ldquo;Mr. Choi was under the direct human resource (HR) management by the Hyundai Motors after being employed by one of its subcontracting companies. So, it will be assumed that he was a dispatch worker to the Hyundai Motors. Under the Act on the Protection of Dispatch Workers, etc. (Dispatch Worker Act), he should be regarded as a worker employed by the Hyundai Motors from the day after he has worked more than two consecutive years.&rdquo; 
 
Welcoming the groundbreaking ruling, the Korean Metal Workers&rsquo; Federation declared, &ldquo;The ruling puts a brake on discrimination and extortion by employers for non-regular workers. We will request all the employers hiring in-house subcontracted workers including the Hyundai Motors a special round of collective bargaining and also proceed with a series of class action lawsuits gathering dismissed workers, retirees, etc.&rdquo; 
 
The International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) covered this story on 29 July and it can be found <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?id=622&amp;l=2&amp;cid=23679">here</a>.

Groundbreaking Korean High Court Rule Contract Worker is Worker of Primary Company

Bayo is the General Secretary of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
How Prevalent is Contract and Agency Labour and Casualisation in Nigeria? 
 
CAL is increasing and alarmingly taking over Nigeria&rsquo;s Oil and Gas industries. It encompasses various dimensions of precarious work and the worst forms of employment. CAL gives room for unfair labour practices that are repugnant to decent work principles. About 60% of our workforce is now composed of contract and agency workers. Standard, permanent employment is declining. 
 
Is the Issue of Casualisation and Temporary Work Practices a Bigger Problem than it was Before? 
 
The issue is a bigger problem in the Nigeria Oil and Gas Sector now than it was before due to the fact that employers and the government&rsquo;s standpoint is that CAL is now a reality that cannot be wished away. This leaves trade unions with no other option than to tackle the adverse effects of CAL, which are: 
 
&bull; Use of this work practice to replace direct and permanent employment; 
&bull; To adversely change employment forms and conditions, to avoid social responsibilities and obligations which employers circumvent through gaps and inadequacies in our extant laws; 
&bull; To weaken trade union membership, solidarity and relevance, and to prevent union organising and recognition of the collective bargaining principle; 
&bull; It widens the exploitation gaps particularly by user enterprises who prefer to minimise cost and increase profit, at the expense and detriment of labour; 
&bull; It increases workplace discrimination and inequitable terms and conditions of employment; 
&bull; It seriously challenges trade union ability to protect job security; 
&bull; There are conflicts in the definition of employment relationships and the obligations of user enterprises, particularly where laws and employment regulatory agencies do not clarify these issues; 
&bull; And an underlying factor, casualisation and temporary work is a growing phenomenon due to the unemployment situation. Employers are exploiting workers&rsquo; desperation for a means of subsistence for their own profit mongering. 
 
 
What are Differences in Nigeria Regarding Working Conditions Between CAL Workers and Permanent Workers? 
 
Number one, casual and temporary workers are subjected to conditions that are not in accord with the general work conditions in the Oil and Gas Sector. Where CAL workers are lucky and are allowed to organise and bargain collectively, the mandate for negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement is seriously curtailed by the contracts between the contractors and agencies on the one side and by the primary enterprise on the other side. 
 
In addition, these workers are subject to limited or no provisions for basic welfare, pensions and social security, health, safety, security and environmental protection, and other stipulated core ILO conventions. And to cite just one small example, Global Framework Agreements that are signed with Global Union Federations, where functional, are not usually made available and applicable to contract and agency workers. 
 
Any set of negotiations in Nigeria that involves a collective agreement for these workers is prone to grievances, disputes, threats, resistance, and action from labour unions, contractors and agencies, and user enterprises. 
 
What are the Main Ways in which Trade Unions are Supporting Casual and Contract and Agency Labour Workers? 
 
It has become a priority to use union resources and machineries to mobilise support and confront the overall denial that contract and agency workers&rsquo; rights have not right to organise and bargain collectively. We are doing this through increases levels of sensitisation through mobilisations, campaigns, solidarity actions, protests, rallies, pickets, strikes, media work, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, and litigation. 
 
We now have the task of entrenching the more effective and protective organising and collective bargaining strategies for contract and agency workers, with financial and organisation support from our union&rsquo;s Union Solidarity Reserve fund, from organisations like the ICEM, Friedrich-Ebert Foundation of Germany, and the US Solidarity Center. 
 
We are constantly implementing union resolutions, directives, and decisions in the area of campaigns, lobbying, engagements, and advocacy for contract and agency workers&rsquo; issues. 
 
Which Ways Do You Feel the ICEM&rsquo;s Global Campaign on CAL can be Helpful and Most Effective in Confronting the Challenges of CAL in Nigeria&rsquo;s Oil and Gas Sector? 
 
The Global CAL Campaign of the ICEM must use donors&rsquo; resources and mechanisms to mobilise support and confront resistance to full rights of contract and agency workers to organise and bargain collectively. The ICEM must increase awareness of the CAL situation, by all possible means, and it must effectively implement the Campaign through communication, engagement and evaluation, and correcting deviations/gaps in the global campaign strategies. 
PENGASSAN&rsquo;s best hope is that the ICEM will carry out advocacy and lobbying for fair labour policies and laws which are favourable to contract and agency workers, as to campaign for best practices in dealing with employment and working conditions issues relating to this most serious issue.

Interview: Bayo Olowoshile, PENGASSAN General Secretary

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Last Spring, trade unions of the Netherlands and the Dutch Association of Temporary Work Agencies, Algemene Bond Uitzendondernemingen (ABU), agreed to an across-the-board 1% wage increase for all temporary workers in the country. 
 
An increase of 0.5% took effect on 5 July and a further 0.5% increase will be awarded on 3 January 2011. The 1% wage increase granted to the employees was based on the average of increases taken from a selection of 30 collective agreements in other sectors. 
<img alt="" src="" width="97" height="145" />
Marcel Nuyten, Director Temp Workers, FNV Bondgenoten
The agreement was reached between the ABU, the ICEM-affiliated FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Dienstenbond, the executives&rsquo; union, and LBV, an independent union. An agreement was also reached whereby wages may be increased every year on 1 July, amending the Collective Employment Agreement for Temporary Employees 2009 &ndash; 2014. 
 
The Collective Employment Agreement, which can be found <a href="http://www.abu.nl/abu2/?fileid=14231">here</a>, stipulates conditions which must apply to temporary agency workers, including the relationships between the worker, agency, and user enterprise; training entitlement; and the conditions under which temporary employment contracts may be terminated.

Dutch Unions Get Wage Increase with Employers’ Federation for Agency Workers

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While European trade unions on 29 September will manifest against government austerity programmes, German trade unions will use that day &ndash; and, and in fact, all of September and throughout the autumn &ndash; to oppose not only public-sector cuts but equally to vehemently condemn the ugly social dumping caused by the boom in temporary work. 
 
This stems from the DGB Congress last May, where the Congress made it a priority to campaign for equal pay, equal rights, and fixed probation periods before the exploited workers of the temporary sector are made permanent employees. Since that Congress, German unions have ramped up the political heat so much that the Christian-Democratic (CDU) Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Ursula von der Leyen, has introduced a partial remedy in legislation that does address the downward spiral of wages brought on by more and more workers forced into temporary employment. 

But the legislation does not go far enough. 
 
Many of the major trade union affiliates of DGB, including IGBCE, IG Metall, and Ver.di, will emphasise this point in upcoming manifestations. The unions are also taking the issue into workplaces, both inside collective bargaining processes and at plant-gates in the form of protests. This month, IG Metall has introduced the &ldquo;equal pay for equal work&rdquo; principle in sector-wide negotiations in three German states. 
<img alt="" src="" width="202" height="101" />
DGB's Micheal Sommer
DGB President Michael Sommer said in the 6 September edition of newspaper Handelsblatt that German union members will abide by national laws prohibiting strikes over political issues, but &ldquo;workplace meetings and actions at plant gates&rdquo; to highlight temporary work as an abhorrent austerity measure in countering the financial crisis will occur. Sommer said this issue will also be heard loud and clear inside German work partnership structures as well. 
 
Von der Leyen&rsquo;s proposed legislation is called the &ldquo;Schlecker&rdquo; bill in reference to the large drug store chain that tried to sack all full-time workers and then re-hire them as contract employees at half their previous salaries. It would require &ldquo;equal pay for equal work&rdquo; to prevent wage dumping such as at Schlecker, with a fine of &euro;25,000 to offending businesses. 
 
But the legislation would fail to reverse the up-surge in temporary work because employers could still use short-term workers so long as they made equal payment for equal work. &ldquo;Schlecker&rdquo; also does not establish a time limit on when a temp worker must be made permanent, and it also does not include a set minimum wage for temporary workers, something that is a priority on the agenda of DGB and German unions. 
 
On average, temporary sector workers in Germany earn 30% less that full-time, permanent staff, DGB-affiliated unions have found.

Equal Rights for Temp Workers Becomes ‘Hot-Button’ in Germany

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