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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 39px;" / width="390">

	From International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF)

	Workers making Olympic sportswear for London 2012 for top brands and high street names including adidas and Next are being paid poverty wages, forced to work excessive overtime and threatened with instant dismissal if they complain about working conditions, according to a recently released report Play Fair 2012 campaign.

	The report, <a href="http://www.itglwf.org/documents/Workers_in_Olympics_Supply_Factories_Human_Rights_25412.pdf">Fair Games? Human Rights of Workers in Olympic 2012 Supplier Factories</a>, uncovers a range of abuses, providing more evidence to increase the pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to act to improve the working conditions in Olympic supply chains in the run up to Rio 2016, says Play Fair.

	Last autumn, researchers working on behalf of Play Fair campaign, which includes the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) and the Clean Clothes Campaign, visited ten factories – eight of which were producing Olympic goods – in China, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Across the three countries they talked to 175 workers about their working conditions.

	<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1205-play-fair-report.jpg" style="width: 129px; height: 186px;" / width="390">

	The “Fair Games?” report contains many examples where workers making Olympic goods have been badly treated, including:

	• In China, workers at a factory in the Guangdong Province which produces sportswear for Adidas were contracted to work in two separate locations 200km apart so lived in fear of suddenly being sent miles from home for their jobs.

	• Workers at the same Amerseas Enterprises Factory also complained of regularly having to do overtime in excess of the legal minimum (with working hours from 8am to 10pm not uncommon even at less busy times) and of not being able to wear the necessary safety masks to protect against dust because of unrealistic production targets.

	• In the Philippines, workers complained of pay rates so low that they were forced to pawn their ATM cards to loan sharks for ‘pay day loans’ to see them through the month. Workers in the factories producing for Adidas said they were also told when they started that overtime was compulsory.

	• In Sri Lanka, workers also said that their pay was not enough to meet their basic needs – those questioned said they earned a maximum of LKR 25,000 a month (£122), little more than half the country’s living wage of LKR 45,000 (£220).

	• Workers at the Next Manufacturing factory in Sri Lanka reported how the company used an external agent to hire short-term temporary workers. The agent made the workers do double shifts each day – after completing a full shift plus overtime at Next, they were transferred to another factory where they had to work until 2.30am. The next morning they had to report for their 8am shift at Next.

	• There were no unions permitted in any of the factories and in China, workers said that anyone talking to colleagues about the need to improve factory conditions would be dismissed instantly.

	Research undertaken by Play Fair camping earlier this year – which found evidence of child labour, excessive hours, poverty pay and dangerous working conditions in Chinese factories producing pin badges and London 2012 mascots – the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) agreed to get tougher with the factories in its various supply chains.

	This included making information about employment rights available in Chinese and establishing a Chinese language hotline so that workers could complain about ill treatment. The “Fair Games?” report shows that the abuse of workers in Olympic supply chains was also happening in other countries.

	To illustrate the extent of the problem and to convince the IOC that it needs to do more to improve the treatment of workers making goods for the next Games in Brazil, UK’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) has submitted a number of complaints to LOCOG on behalf of the workers from China and the Philippines who are featured in the report.

	Klaus Priegnitz, General Secretary of the ITGLWF, which wrote the report, said: “Prior to the Beijing Olympics Play Fair called on companies to take action to ensure the human rights of all workers in their supply chains were respected.

	“Four years on we see that the denial of the right to freedom of association, the payment of poverty wages and the widespread use of precarious work is still the norm. Companies need to step up their game and work with unions to support the development of mature systems of industrial relations in their supplier factories.”

ITGLWF Report Outlines Abuses of Workers Preparing Olympic 2012 Goods

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	ICEM Colombia Coordinator Carlos Bustos reports that a two-day seminar of young trade unionists from the three Global Union Federations (GUFs) that next month will form IndustriALL came to important conclusions last week. The participation of 20 trade unionists under the age of 30 brought young men and women together from throughout Colombia on 10-11 May.

	Participating unions included International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF)affiliates Utramicol and Fetramecol, and Martina Sanguinetti of the Uruguayan Metalworkers (UNTMRA). Also participating were representatives of ICEM, and CUT and CTC national labour centres.

	The meeting sought to find ways to increase the active participation of youth. A key issue for participants was not for them to be consulted more, but to be centrally involved in decision-making and to be involved and represented at all levels inside unions. This includes deciding the politics and the future of the Colombian trade union movement.

	 <img alt="" height="146" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910Carlos.bustos.jpg" width="180" /> 

	Carlos Bustos

	A commitment was reached to establish a permanent network for communication and information.

	The joint youth project of the three GUFs that also included the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) and was funded by the Finnish Solidarity Organisation, SASK. This project will connect similar processes that are ongoing in Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, and Nicaragua with that in Colombia.

	ICEM project coordinator Patricio Sambonino evaluated the two-day Colombian seminar, saluting the important contribution and participation of the young trade unionists, moving towards generational change for the movement.

Young Colombian Trade Unionists of ICEM, ITGLWF, IMF Connect

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	The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) is demanding that labour and regulatory law in the province of Ontario be toughened in the wake of the social calamity perpetrated by Caterpillar Inc. in the recent lockout/closure of a rail electric diesel factory in the south-western provincial city of London.

	With that nearly all labour law in Canada is governed by the provinces, CAW demanded in a 29 February letter to Labour Minister Linda Jeffrey that Ontario toughen its labour statutes as remedy to lax investment regulations. Specifically, the CAW demands that more powers be granted the Ontario Labour Relations Board to stamp out bad-faith bargaining strategies.

	The CAW is campaigning for a stronger and more modernized labour code in Ontario because of Caterpillar’s subsidiary, Electro-Motive Diesel, blackmailing workers and a community in choosing between non-liveable wages and a major plant closure. (See prior <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4876-Raging-Insult-to-Final-Injury:-Caterpillar-to-Close-Canadian-Train-Locomotive-Plant" type="internal">ICEM report</a> here.)

	 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Ken.Lewenza.CAW.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 145px;" width="390" /> 

	Ken Lewenza

	In the letter, CAW President Ken Lewenza said, “The company’s unjustifiable behaviour – and the resulting devastation now being brought to bear on workers and the community – has touched a nerve with Canadians and triggered broad public support.”

	The CAW is proposing powers of expedited interest arbitration in pitched labour disputes, as well as new provisions to prevent employers from evading collective agreements by using a lockout.

	Also put forward is a ban on scab replacement workers during a dispute, and restoring workers’ plant closing rights to negotiate adjustment plans. The CAW also says fairness demands the lengthening of time for giving plant closing notice, and a minimum two weeks’ pay for each year of service, with elimination of the five-year service tie-in.

	The <a href="http://www.caw.ca/en/10986.htm">CAW letter</a> also calls for an Industrial Inquiry Commission, as stipulated in Section 37, Ontario Labour Relations Act, in order to investigate Caterpillar carnage on workers in the province and the city of London.

	“The Caterpillar debacle demonstrates all too well the ease with which an employer can stall out the negotiation process, bargain in bad faith with impunity and manufacture a dispute in an attempt to evade contractual obligations,” Lewenza stated.

	“Caterpillar did not misjudge or misinterpret Ontario’s labour laws; rather, they understood them all too well, and exploited the laws’ weaknesses as a key part of their overall strategy.”

CAW Demands Change in Ontario’s Labour Laws

The repressive Mugabe regime today found six activists guilty on fabricated charges of inciting public violence. They had been arrested a year ago, together with 39 other people for discussing the Arab Spring and viewing video footage on the popular uprising in Egypt. They had initially been charged with treason, but during the course of the court process, the charges were reduced and the other 39 people cleared.

	The six Zimbabwean activists, Munyaradzi Gwisai, Tafadzwa Choto, Tatenda Mombeyarara, Edson Chakuma, Hopewell Gumbo and Welcome Zimuto, face jail sentences of up to 10 years, to be handed down tomorrow. 

	Three of the six, Munyaradzi, Tafadzwa and Tatenda work with the Zimbabwe Labour Centre a non profit organisation that gives legal support to unions and workers on labour matters and  provides educational programmes. 

	The right to meet, discuss events in the world, share ideas and speak openly and freely is a basic human right for which activists should not be victimised and vilified.  

	Send your SMS text message now to the people who can limit the unfair sentence tomorrow.

	Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena + 263 712 801 172

	Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri + 263 712 808 290

	Police Minister Kembo Mohadi +263 712 605 424

	Security Minister Didymus Mutasa +263 0712 200 532

	Send: "Do NOT send the 6 Harare activists to jail!"

Urgent! Send SMS to Call for Justice in Zimbabwe NOW

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	Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield services company, has sent a clear indication of its unwillingness to seek solution to a damaging labour relations situation at its Egyptian operations.

	Management of the French-based company in numerous locations and levels throughout the world responded over the past month to letters of different trade unions and activist organisations with a similar response each time, outlining their supposed readiness to solve the dispute in Egypt and launch an investigation.

	However, when ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda offered to come to Egypt to meet Amr Essawi, the Area Manager for Schlumberger in Cairo on 8 March, the offer was ignored.

	In May 2011, the process to establish an independent company-level trade union at Schlumberger Egypt was finalised, as part of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU), the trade union centre established during the final days of the Mubarak regime.

	 <img alt="" height="159" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1202.egypt group.JPG" width="263" /> 

	EFITU Founding Congress, February 2012

	On 11 May, when local management was informed of the new union structure, it responded with threats and dismissed the union branch’s General Secretary Mohamed, Abd Elrahman. On 3 July, the day of the union’s founding general congress, local management then dismissed the union’s President, Brother Essam.

	On 5 July, local management summoned union members to the head office and threatened them with dismissal if they did not leave the union. And then on 7 July, local management followed through on an earlier threat and dismissed the union’s Assistant General Secretary, Ayman Abd Elmonem.

	No reason or dismissal letter was given to Abd Elmonem. He was simply blocked from entering the workplace. On 12 July, another union member was dismissed in similar circumstances, Mr. Hossam Al-deed Mostafa, again with no written dismissal notice.

	ICEM affiliates who represent Schlumberger employees in Europe and North America have approached management at their prospective national level, each have been promised that the company is committed to find a solution and establish mature systems of industrial relations throughout the company’s operations and specifically in Egypt.

	But the leaders of the nascent company-level union for Schlumberger workers in Egypt remain sacked from their positions and refusal to discuss the situation with the ICEM is concerning.

	The ICEM, therefore, intends to expand its campaign with the next phase targeting Schlumberger’s clients, the major oil and gas multinationals. Schlumberger employs 2,500 workers in Egypt, 40% of who work for subcontractors at 10 different worksites. 

	Register your protest to Schlumberger Chairman Andrew Gould, CEO Paal Kibsgaard, and Egypt Area Manager Amr Essawy by clicking <a href="mailto:gould1@exchange.slb.com;%20pkibsgaard@exchange.slb.com;%20AEssawi2@exchange.slb.com">here</a>.

Schlumberger Ignores ICEM’s Offer of Dialogue

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	IndustriALL Global Union, which will be established in June 2012 and will bring together affiliates of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM), the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF), and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), will prioritise the fight against contract and agency labour, and other forms of precarious work.

	<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/2010.WDDW.logo.jpg" style="width: 120px; height: 125px" width="390" />

	IndustriALL will build on the work which has been done through the ICEM’s Contract and Agency Labour campaign, the IMF’s ‘Precarious Work Affects Us All’ campaign and the ITGLWF’s work on insecure employment in countries such as Peru, Cambodia, India and Turkey.

	The campaign against precarious work will be launched by IndustriALL at its founding congress in June, and the new Global Union will call on all affiliates to mobilise around this issue on the World Day for Decent Work on 7thOctober.

IndustriALL to Prioritise Fight Against Precarious Work

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	The Global Unions have released an updated set of joint principles on temporary agency work. Although there are varying approaches taken by trade unions in different countries and sectors to dealing with temporary employment agencies, ranging from total bans to partial bans to strict regulation, all Global Unions agree on a number of key principles. They include: • the primary form of employment should be permanent, open-ended and direct; • agency workers should be covered under the same collective bargaining agreement as other workers in the user enterprise: • temporary agency workers should receive equal treatment in all respects; • the use of temporary agencies should not increase the gender gap on wages, social protections, and conditions; • temporary work agencies must not be used to eliminate permanent and direct employment relationships; and • the use of agency workers should never be used to weaken trade unions or to undermine organising or collective bargaining rights.

	<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1204-precarios-work.png" style="width: 253px; height: 160px;" width="390" />

	Speaking about the revision of the joint principles Jim Baker, Coordinator of the Council of Global Unions, explained “The major reason why the Work Relationships Group recommended amending the principles on temporary work agencies is that it was clear in ILO meetings that private employment agencies were being treated as a “sector” even though they supplied, and in many cases, employed workers in multiple economic sectors. In that context, “sectoral” collective bargaining might divide them from the sectors in which they were working; resulting in significant differences in salaries and conditions of temporary and permanent workers, who might be performing the same tasks and working side by side.” The updated Principles make explicit that temporary work agencies do not constitute an economic sector and state that agency workers must be specifically guaranteed their right to negotiate the terms and conditions of employment with the user enterprises which effectively control them.

	Continued Baker: “Another change is to make it clear that Global Unions are concerned about the effect on the rights of workers in triangular situations, where the worker does not have an employment relationship with the real employer, regardless of whether the workers are employed on a temporary or permanent basis”.

	The updated <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/10-03-31%20Amended%20draft%20version%20of%20the%20Global%20Union%20Principles%20on%20Temporary%20Work%20Agencies%20as%20updated%20PR.doc">Global Union Principles on Temporary Work Agencies</a> are available here.

Updated Global Union Principles on Temporary Work Agencies

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	As the use of CAL continues to grow around the world more and more unions and their members are taking to the streets to protest against the degradation of employment relationships.

	An all-India general strike was held on 28th February which brought together workers from various sectors to oppose the neoliberal policies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government. One key demand of the action was to ensure that contract workers are award the same rights and protections as permanent workers.

	The Indian Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act stipulates that contract workers who perform the same or similar work as permanent workers will be entitled to the same wages and conditions. Under this Act, contract labour ought not to be permitted for permanent or core functions.

	 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1202-holcim-india-press-conference.jpg" style="width: 245px; height: 160px" width="390" /> 

	However, as regularly reported by the ICEM, this Act is widely violated and contract workers in India habitually receive inferior terms and conditions of employment despite performing core tasks. On 12 January, the ICEM joined a complaint to the OECD submitted by its local affiliate Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh (PCSS) regarding the illegal treatment of contract workers in India by the Swiss multinational cement company Holcim. Further information on the complaint is available <a href="/en/7-Asia-Pacific/4900-Holcim-s-Violations-in-India-Taken-to-OECD" type="internal">here</a>.

Indian Workers Mobilise to Protest Against Neo-liberal Policies Including CAL

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	More than 200,000 workers dressed in yellow and red took to the streets in 32 city centres in South Africa in an extraordinary show of worker power against labour brokers.

	A general strike against e-tolling and labour brokers organised by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) on March 7, 2012 was a resounding success.

	Addressing tens of thousands of people that gathered in Johannesburg, COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said the protest was not a march, but "an occupation of the city of Johannesburg by the workers". South African unions are resolved to bring an end to the use of labour brokers. "This is a class battle. This is a class war. Labour brokers do not create jobs - they destroy the agenda of decent work," said Vavi.

	<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1204-south-africa-cal.png" style="width: 241px; height: 160px" width="390" />

	General Secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), Irvin Jim addressed thousands of strikers in East London in the Eastern Cape. "Decent work is a right. Labour brokering is just like slavery and is causing major problems for the working class," Jim said, "They are taking up jobs from us and I am raising my finger at them. We must take a firm stand and see them banned for good."

	The strike was also organized to protest e-tolling, a toll road system that is being implemented in Gauteng province in April this year which Vavi called "a new apartheid" as the increased cost to travel would restrict people's movement, especially the poor working class.

	Vavi warned that labour was prepared to take action again on the issue. "If they say they will go ahead with the tolling, we will take all the people here, and more, and put them on the highways of Joburg," he said. "If they insist we pay for public roads then, just as we made the apartheid system unworkable, we will make this system unworkable."

	The protest against labour brokers and e-tolling had wide popular support and many civil society groups and ordinary South Africans spoke out in support of the strike. (Story provided by the IMF).

Strike Against Labour Brokers in South Africa 

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	Indonesia’s largest coal producer, PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC), through its mine services contractor Thiess Pty. Ltd. of Australia, has brutally attacked members of two ICEM-affiliated mine unions through police and military force. The dispute dates to the fourth quarter of 2011 when miners working for KPC, part of Indonesia’s Bumi Resources, first took strike action when it became obvious that neither Thiess nor KPC intended to grant a renewal collective agreement.

	But the dispute at KPC’s Sangatta mine in Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo turned violent on 24 March when 400 striking workers gathered at the coal company’s office in East Kutai district on the counsel of a local citizens group to offer themselves back to work following a second strike dating to last November.

	They were immediately attacked by a regional military brigade serving the interests of Thiess and KPC. Twenty miners were severely beaten and hospitalised. Another 12 were immediately detained and throughout the night of 24 March and into the next day, police and military rounded up yet another four union leaders and jailed them.

	 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1204 SP KEP Thiess member injuty 2.jpg" style="width: 212px; height: 159px;" width="390" /> 

	By last weekend, most of the unionists had been released but police and regional military are still holding two union leaders, the Vice President of the local branch of ICEM affiliate Chemical, Energy, Mines, Oil & Gas Workers’ Union of FSP-KEP, Sumardi, and the Secretary, Maxi.

	The leader of FSP-KEP, D. Patombong Sjaiful, called the situation now “critical” and pleaded that global trade union attention is given this grievous repression by brute force. In the second time in a fortnight, Jakarta-based FSP-KEP dispatched a mission last Sunday to east Kalimantan province, this time to win the freedom of the two remaining unionists.

	The other ICEM-affiliated organisation with membership at KPC is the regional mining and energy union FPE, part of the Indonesian confederation SBSI. Some 2,200 miners work at KPC’s two open-cast thermal coal mines of Sangatta. FSP-KEP has some 1,400 members, while FPE has 200. KPC also consists of five smaller mines at the nearby Bengalon mine.

	<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1204 Thiess worker after medical threatmen due to Police attack.jpg" style="width: 172px; height: 159px;" width="390" />

	The dispute began following the expiration of a two-year agreement on 5 October 2011. Thiess Indonesia management foretold its strategy to eliminate the collective agreement by telling the unions a new agreement would not be valid until after negotiations were complete. And then the stalling began.

	The mineworkers’ only choice was to strike and the first work stoppage occurred from 10 November to 27 December, from which six union leaders were sacked. When the two sides finally did return to bargaining on 28 January 2012, union leaders were summoned to police offices in East Kutai district where they were surprised to see that the police commander representing the company in talks.

	Two days earlier, KPC sent a letter that the status of the six union leaders would not be on the agenda. Miners began a work slowdown resulting in 264 workers getting the sack that, in turn, caused a second strike.

	When Sjaiful and other FSP-KEP leaders visited in mid-March, an agreement was sorted out between the police, a local parliamentarian, and the citizens’ group calling for the strike to cease, recall of the dismissed workers, and a return to negotiations.

	But Thiesse and KPC rejected that. When strikers came to the company’s offices then on 24 March, they were met by police and the mobile brigade wielding batons and other instruments of force.

	The ICEM condemns Thiess, part of Australian Leighton Holdings Ltd. (LEI), whose ultimate parent is the German global construction giant Hochtief AG, for utilising police and military intervention to avert legitimate collective negotiations. It also holds Bumi Resources accountable for this contemptible display of anti-social conduct in its home country.

Thiess, Operating in Indonesia, Uses Police to Bludgeon Striking Coal Miners

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