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MARUTI-SUZUKI WORKERS IN INDIA FIGHT FOR THEIR UNION
INDIA: The Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) affirms that production is at a complete halt since August 29. The Plant employs around 3,500 workers – 900 regular, 1,500 trainees and 1,100 contract workers and apprentices.
The conflict goes back to June 3, 2011. When workers at the MSIL Manesar plant filed an application for registering Maruti-Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU), the management demanded that workers sign statements that they will not join the new union. Protesting intimidation and demanding trade union rights workers went on sit-in strike from June 4.
On June 17 an agreement was reached between the parties in the presence of government officials. For more details on the 13 day long sit-in strike see here.
According to the agreement, 11 dismissed workers were reinstated pending domestic inquiry and the parties agreed to cooperate. In the meantime, on July 16 elections were held for Maruti Udhyog Kamgar Union (MUKU) which existed at Maruti-Suzuki’s Gurgaon plant. Workers allege that it is a pocket union for which no elections have been held for 10 years. As this union was dominated by workers in Gurgaon, workers in Manesar did not take part in the election, preferring the separate union MSEU.
However, on July 27 the Registrar of Trade Unions rejected their application to register the MSEU, questionning their documents’ genuineness. Subsequently, the management started victimising workers through suspensions and terminations. It peaked on August 29 with the termination of 11 and suspension of 10 workers. On the same day the Maruti-Suzuki management locked gates and declared that only workers who sign a Good Conduct Bond/Undertaking could enter the plant. All workers refused to sign the bond. As of September 8, 23 workers have been terminated and 34 suspended.
The management alleges that workers engaged in go-slow tactics and hampered the production process. Workers are sitting in front of the factory gate in two shifts demanding withdrawal of the termination and suspension orders. A large number of trade unions in Gurgaon including Suzuki’s other plants namely Maruti Suzuki's Gurgaon plant, Suzuki Motorcycle India, Suzuki Powertrain and Suzuki Castings are supporting the struggling workers.
Officers from the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) South Asian Office visited the Maruti site on September 6. The IMF calls upon the Maruti-Suzuki management not to indulge in victimisation and to engage with workers in good faith to solve their genuine grievances on working conditions and trade union rights. [Sep 08, 2011 – G. Manicandan]
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BLUESCOPE STEEL SACKINGS REVEAL CRISIS IN AUSTRALIAN MANUFACTURING
Australian union members of three trade union organisations are livid with the announcement that BlueScope Steel will lop 1,400 jobs in New South Wales and Victoria. Members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU), the Australian Workers Union (AWU), and the Electrical Trades Union of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (ETU-CEPU) met in Wollongong on 25 August and sternly moved to resist all restructuring until further labour-management consultations can occur.
AUSTRALIA: August 29 in Canberra, the unions met with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and urged her Labour Government to launch an inquiry into Australia's manufacturing crisis.
BlueScope, formed in 2002 when BHP Steel was spun off in the BHP and Billiton merger, announced on 22 August that it was shedding nearly half of its Port Kembla Steelworks staff of 3,100 and another 200 jobs at a hot-strip steel mill in
Last Thursday's heated union meeting came when workers also learned that senior managers of the troubled company are awarding themselves A$3.05 million in bonuses, including A$721,000 for CEO Paul O'Malley. The company recently posted an operating loss of A$118 million plus an asset write-down of A$900 million, mainly from a rising Australian dollar, high raw material costs, and depressed order books.
The BlueScope job cuts come at a time when booming Australian resource exports are driving up currency exchange rates to the detriment of Australia goods and product manufacturing. BlueScope is chopping 1,200 full-time and contract labour jobs by idling a blast furnace, coking battery, slab caster, and oxygen-based steelmaking vessel at Port Kembla south of Sydney, and the 200 steel-rolling jobs on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula.
Speaking at Port Kembla the day BlueScope made the announcement, AMWU National Secretary Dave Oliver said, "The benefits of the mining boom come with very big downsides and 1,400 families have learnt today the hard way about the downsides. "Today is a massive wake-up call for to state and federal governments to take more action on this issue."
The full ICEM release is available on the ICEM Web-site. [Aug 29, 2011 – ICEM]
GLOBAL UNIONS DEMAND POLICY CHANGE IN FINANCE
With the prospect of several millions more job losses in a new worldwide economic downturn, the Global Unions urge the financial institutions and G20 group of countries to put a halt to their ‘destructive and ultimately self-defeating economic policies that will lead to a new surge of global unemployment’.
GLOBAL: In an extensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008 and the risk for a new downturn in 2011 the International Metalworkers' Federation and its sister Global Unions, as well as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC), demand action and policy changes in the International Monetary Fund and World bank. These will gather for their annual ministerial-level meetings in Washington, USA, on September 23-25.
In the 12 page statement the unions state the case for employment-creating measures and their support for infrastructure programmes, health care and education, and climate-related investments rather than fiscal consolidation by cutbacks in social programmes that will hit the poor and vulnerable, and risk creating a ‘lost generation of children and young people with insufficient and inadequate education'.
Deficits should be reduced through tax measures that have the least impact on employment, and that help reduce income inequality, such as the replacement of flat taxes by progressive income taxes. The Monetary Fund is urged to support debt restructuring, including reductions of home mortgages and rescheduled sovereign debt repayments in unsustainably indebted countries. A financial transactions tax, as already implemented in Brazil and proposed by Germany and France, should help finance job-intensive recovery programmes and achieve development and climate-finance goals.
In order to avoid new financial crises, the unions urge the Financial Stability Board created after the crisis of 2008, the international financial institutions and their member countries to regulate the financial system by breaking up financial institutions that have become too big to fail, to implement controls over the non-bank shadow financial economy, hedge funds and private equity firms, and to eliminate tax and regulatory havens.
The unions point to serious shortcomings specifically in the World Bank and IFC Doing Business unit: "The popular uprisings in countries of the Middle East and North Africa showed the short-sightedness of analytical frameworks that ignore key phenomena such as persistent high joblessness, particularly among youth; exorbitant income inequality; concentration of wealth from the exploitation of natural resources, industry, trade and finance in a few hands, often as a result of privatization of state assets; lack of freedom of association and expression and political repression.
Some of the countries whose regimes were overthrown were designated top global performers by the World Bank's Doing Business or declared by the International Monetary Fund to have exemplary macroeconomic performance. For example, in February 2011 the Fund's executive board stated that it ‘welcomed Libya's strong macroeconomic performance and the progress on enhancing the role of the private sector and supporting growth in the non-oil economy [and] ... commended the authorities for their ambitious reform agenda'".
A counterexample, highlighted by the global unions, is Brazil, ‘previously one of the most unequal countries in the world, where improved access to education, increased state benefits to the poor and higher minimum wages all contributed to reducing income inequality over the past decade.'
Read the full text of the Statement by Global Unions to the 2011 Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank Washington. [Sep 05, 2011 – Rainer Santi]
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UNIONS, STUDENTS AND CAMPESINOS DEMAND CHANGE IN MEXICO
On September 1 approximately 100 independent and democratic unions and groups took part in two mass-based actions in Mexico City: the "national day of indignant Mexicans" and a rally outside the lower house of congress.
MEXICO: From early morning on September 1 organizations worked together in the Zocalo in central Mexico City to come up with a counter-report in anticipation of Calderon's fifth annual report to the nation. In the afternoon representatives of the unions, student and campesino groups rallied outside of Congress and sent a delegation of leaders from the UNT, SME, the joint IMF and ICEM affiliate Mineros, and others inside demanding a change in direction of the government, an end to persecution of independent organisations and criminalization of social protest, and a halt to the present labour and security law reform.
Lorraine Clewer of the Solidarity Center, AFL-CIO reports that the organisations then marched to the Zocalo where a ‘counter-report' was read out to an estimated 40,000 people: The number of poor has increased with 10 million during this administration, real income is down by a third for the working and middle classes, unemployment is up 3 million, youth unemployment is up 7 million and there have been 50,000 deaths and disappearances as a result of the narcowar since December 2006.
Although they differ in the details, the unions showed unity throughout the day, with representatives from all of the major independent unions present both outside Congress and in the Zocalo.
The Mexican electricians union SME have camped in the Zocalo since March 2011 to protest against mass redundancies in the electrical utility. They demand jobs for the more than 16,000 workers who have not accepted the severance package, an immediate release of 13 detained SME members, access to frozen SME bank accounts and return of expropriated dues, an annulment of arrest warrants against the SME secretary general Martin Esparza Flores and other SME leaders, and that authorities confirm registration of 26 recently elected national union officials.
Many unions and other organizations have joined the camp in the Zocalo. An estimated 1000 people are now camping in the square, and the call is for more people to join. Electricity consumers will march against tariffs hikes on September 8. On September 15 the military plans to parade in the square, but the demonstrators are saying they will not move until there is a solution to the SME conflict, the Mexicana workers conflict and the Mineros conflicts, and jailed unionists have been freed. They fear that the government of Mexico will intervene militarily to evacuate the Zocalo, there have already been threats and movements of Army trucks on September 2. [Sep 06, 2011 – Rainer Santi]
ITALIAN UNIONS MOBILIZE AGAINST AUSTERITY PLAN
The Italian metalworkers’ unions, FIOM, FIM and UILM mobilize against the government’s plans for cuts and retrenchments, that disproportionally hit workers and pensioners, while protecting the wealthy, overpaid politicians and high-ranking state officials. Sit-ins, rallies and a 8 hour general strike are planned for September 1-6.
ITALY: FIM and UILM, and their national centres CISL and UIL, demand the immediate withdrawal of the austerity measures concerning pensions, and will demonstrate in front of the Senate on September 1 against "inadequate measures that hit the usual victims instead of those who created the national debt." They urge the government to withdraw the pension measures, and to concentrate on combating tax evasion, on big fortunes and on the costs of the political system in order to remedy the lack of resources.
FIOM prepares a series of initiatives on September 5 and 6 against the government's plans, the attack on workers and on workers' rights. The national centre CGIL calls for an 8 hour national general strike on September 6 in all sectors to demand changes in the government's austerity plan of August 12. Rallies and demonstrations will be organized in all Italian counties.
The government's austerity plan is considered unequal and ineffective to counter the social, economic and financial crisis affecting Italy.
"The government's measures puts burdens only on workers' and pensioners' shoulders, cutting public sector wages, jobs and services, reducing public funds for municipalities and local authorities and imposing solidarity taxes only on incomes and revenues, preserving private property and wealth."
The government also interferes in industrial relations and divides the social partners, CGIL says, distorting the contents of the agreement on the representativeness recently reached between the main social partners. Without any economic and financial justification, it introduces rules to reduce individuals' protection against indiscriminate firings.
No provision to support growth and employment, particularly for young people, is included in the government package, says CGIL.
Instead of the government's austerity plan, the CGIL proposes several measures designed to boost growth and revenues, such as:
- a structural plan to fight tax evasion, amounting to 130 billion euro per year
- an extraordinary tax on large real estates, generating 12 billion euro
- an ordinary tax on wealth over 800,000 euro, generating income of 15 billion euro
- a reduction of the costs of the political system, politicians and public administrators, a wage ceiling for high-ranking state officials and reductions at public local companies that do not produce services - generating cost savings of up to 8.5 billion euro
- a "Growth and innovation fund" to invest in the insertion of young people in the labour market
- support for incomes, by reducing taxation for workers and pensioners.
NEW CONTRACT WITH JOHNSON CONTROLS RATIFIED BY CAW
CAW members agreed on a new tentative deal with Johnson Controls just hours before a strike deadline on midnight, August 26.
CANADA: "Workers in the auto parts sector across Canada have faced tremendous stress and uncertainty in recent years as employer after employer has demanded concessions and cutbacks and threatened closures," said Jerry Dias, assistant to the Canadian Auto Workers president.
During negotiations management informed the union that they were going to move 165 jobs to a Johnson Controls facility in Michigan, USA. "Ultimately, we were successful in preserving all the current work for the General Motors Oshawa complex," said Jerry Dias.
The members’ base hourly wage was not affected, but the new agreement reduces paid time off and freezes the cost of living allowance. On the positive side, the union was successful in negotiating 40 buyout packages for senior members and to establish an overtime bank for time off.
Production workers voted 85 per cent in favour of the agreement and skilled trades 88 per cent in favour at a ratification meeting on August 28.
"I'm pleased that we were able to reach this agreement that secures our members jobs in the facility well into the future," said Chris Buckley, CAW Local 222 president. The Local represents more than 300 workers at the Whitby facility.
The facility produces door pads and floor consoles for the Chevrolet Impala, as well as seats for the Camaro, which are manufactured at General Motors’ Oshawa plant in Ontario. A strike would have had an immediate impact on car assembly. [Aug 31, 2011 – Rainer Santi]
IMF UNIONS DEMAND FAIR TRADE IN TRANS-PACIFIC AGREEMENT
IMF affiliates from countries in Asia-Pacific and the Americas met in Geneva on August 29 to discuss the ongoing negotiations for a Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. A joint trade union strategy was defined to make the creation of quality jobs and the promotion of fundamental labour standards an explicit goal of the agreement.
GLOBAL: The Trans-Pacific Partnership aims to liberalise the economies of the Asia-Pacific region. Negotiations have occurred in conjunction with APEC summits. The original signatories when the agreement entered into force in 2006, were Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore. Five countries, including in the Americas, are negotiating to join the group – Australia, Malaysia, Peru, United States, and Vietnam. They aim to conclude the negotiations in November 2011.
In an IMF statement the views and the concerns of metalworkers are expressed as well as their unions’ demands to the Governments in the run up to the next negotiation round in Chicago in the beginning of September.
The IMF affiliates believe that sustainable development and the creation of quality employment in each and all of the countries involved must be key explicit goals of any trade agreement. A possible TPP must include a strategic review of the impact of past agreements, and a preliminary assessment of the possible repercussions on jobs and on employment conditions in each country as well as of the development prospects for the developing countries involved. A labour chapter must include all fundamental workers’ rights and other appropriate labour standards explicitly defined by ILO Conventions and accompanying jurisprudence. These labour standards must be met by all signatory countries prior to finalization of the agreement.
Furthermore the TPP must not include provisions on any essential public services; rules that can limit the governments’ sovereign right to legislate in the interest of their citizens or prevent access to affordable medicines; and commitments on financial services and investment liberalization that can limit the countries’ ability to control capital flows and undermine effective financial regulation.
See here for the full text of the IMF statement. [Aug 30, 2011 – Rainer Santi]
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BRAZILIAN AUTOWORKERS GET HIKE AT RENAULT
On Monday, August 29 autoworkers in Sao Jose de Pinhais, Brazil voted in favour of the new agreement negotiated by the Greater Curitiba Metalworkers Union, member of the IMF affiliate Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores Metalúrgicos/Força Sindical.
BRAZIL: In accordance with the new agreement valid from 2011 to 2013 autoworkers at Renault will get up to a 20,19 per cent real wage hike in addition to the inflation indexation, plus R$61.500 as part of their profit sharing bonus.
The agreement is considered the biggest pay deal in the entire history of wage negotiations in Brazil. It sets a benchmark for a new form of negotiations next year.
Sérgio Butka, president of Força Sindical in the state of Paraná, commented: "When there is common sense, you can make good deals that benefit both the worker who sees his work valued and the company which increases its competitiveness in the labour market".
"This agreement is a response to those who criticize the workers' struggle for better pay, saying it will scare away companies from our state. Thanks to this agreement, profit sharing and bonuses alone will contribute to inject R$343 million in the economy of Paraná. This will keep the wheel of the economy turning, increase production and encourage job creation. The metalworkers of Paraná are showing the way, and the country should follow to counter the effects of the global crisis," said Butka.
The Paraná Renault factory employs directly 5,700 workers and has the capacity to produce 224,000 cars per year. Currently the models produced at the factory are New Renault Sandero, Renault Sandero New Stepway, Logan and Grand Tour. The factory also produces ten million spare part units per year for Brazilian and Argentinean markets. 41 percent of the production is exported, with deliveries to Renault factories in Argentina (22 per cent), Colombia (13 per cent), Romania and Mexico (4 per cent). This year the automaker celebrated the milestone of 1 million cars produced since its inauguration in 1998. The company ranks fifth in the national ranking of automakers. [Aug 30, 2011 – Alex Ivanou]
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ITUA STARTS A CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRECARIOUS WORK IN RUSSIA
On Monday, August 29 autoworkers in Sao Jose de Pinhais, Brazil voted in favour of the new agreement negotiated by the Greater Curitiba Metalworkers Union, member of the IMF affiliate Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores Metalúrgicos/Força Sindical.
BRAZIL: In accordance with the new agreement valid from 2011 to 2013 autoworkers at Renault will get up to a 20,19 per cent real wage hike in addition to the inflation indexation, plus R$61.500 as part of their profit sharing bonus.
The agreement is considered the biggest pay deal in the entire history of wage negotiations in Brazil. It sets a benchmark for a new form of negotiations next year.
Sérgio Butka, president of Força Sindical in the state of Paraná, commented: "When there is common sense, you can make good deals that benefit both the worker who sees his work valued and the company which increases its competitiveness in the labour market".
"This agreement is a response to those who criticize the workers' struggle for better pay, saying it will scare away companies from our state. Thanks to this agreement, profit sharing and bonuses alone will contribute to inject R$343 million in the economy of Paraná. This will keep the wheel of the economy turning, increase production and encourage job creation. The metalworkers of Paraná are showing the way, and the country should follow to counter the effects of the global crisis," said Butka.
The Paraná Renault factory employs directly 5,700 workers and has the capacity to produce 224,000 cars per year. Currently the models produced at the factory are New Renault Sandero, Renault Sandero New Stepway, Logan and Grand Tour. The factory also produces ten million spare part units per year for Brazilian and Argentinean markets. 41 percent of the production is exported, with deliveries to Renault factories in Argentina (22 per cent), Colombia (13 per cent), Romania and Mexico (4 per cent). This year the automaker celebrated the milestone of 1 million cars produced since its inauguration in 1998. The company ranks fifth in the national ranking of automakers. [Aug 30, 2011 – Alex Ivanou]
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STOP WORK CRD PROVES ITS VALUE AT ARCELORMITTAL
Producing steel is a dangerous task at the best of times. When workers are faced with intense heat during ten months of the year problems become even greater. Despite this fact the safety performance at the ArcelorMittal LaPlace Steel Plant in New Orleans, USA is steadily improving, as discovered by a visiting group of experts from the ArcelorMittal Joint Global Health and Safety Committee.
USA: Experts from the European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF), United Steelworkers (USW) and International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) found out first hand just how unbearable temperatures and humidity can be during a two day plant visit. The group inspected the site of a fatality in February 2011 which
occurred as a result of an explosion in the melt shop. The fatality happened after 12 months without a lost time injury and deeply shocked the workforce.
The LaPlace plant was built in 1979 and has had a number of owners until ArcelorMittal bought it in 2008. It has two electric Arc furnaces and produces 580,000 tons of steel with 423 employees and 131 sub- contractors. The United Steelworkers have a collective agreement for 280 workers. Around 150 are members of the union. Both the LaPlace plant and the previously visited plant in Vinton are unique in that most of the mini-mills in the United States are unorganized.
The local union President Kinley Porter who is also Safety coordinator of Local 9121 explained that prior to being taken over by ArcelorMittal there hadn't been a day let alone a couple of months without an accident at the plant. But he also wants to see a stronger commitment to a joint approach which includes the involvement of more hourly employees and more resources for the union.
One frustration that was raised by a worker during a visit to the rolling mill was an unsafe practice that he had raised with his supervisor a number of times but that had failed to be addressed. He was advised to use a stop work card that had been issued to all employees next time he had to perform the task, which he subsequently did, stopping production. This led to a number of improvements being made and a subsequent reduction in the number of hazards faced by workers.
Tony Murphy of the European Metalworkers' Federation stated: "I'm pleased to see that this worker felt empowered to use his card as a result of our visit. I hope that more workers follow his example and do the right thing".
As a result of the visit and subsequent feedback a number of areas for improvement were identified. These included training of union and management representatives on corporate standards, joint safety audits, and standardization of personal protective equipment. Electrical safety and training must also be improved. A follow-up visit to check progress may be undertaken in the future. [Aug 29, 2011 – Rob Johnston]
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HANJIN WORKERS AND KMWU CONTINUE FIGHT
Hanjin Heavy Industries insists on dismissals in breach of contract, despite huge company profits and payment of generous dividends and bonuses to owners and senior company executives. KMWU continues its fight to protect the interests of workers. A Hope Bus Rally is planned in Seoul on August 27 to 28 under the theme "Another World is Possible!
KOREA: Hanjin Heavy Industries Group earlier announced that 400 workers at the Hanjin shipyard would be dismissed. With threats of firings the company obtained 230 "voluntary resignations". In the end, the company dismissed 170 workers against their will and in breach of contract. Some of them accepted Hanjin’s pay package but still continue to support the struggle and hope for reinstatement. However, the company claims that they have renounced their rights.
Parliamentary Hearing
On August 18 a parliamentary hearing on the Hanjin mass dismissals was organized. This was the first time in 14 years that the Korean National Assembly called a chairman of one of the Korean Chaebols - the powerful single-family-owned conglomerates - before a parliamentary committee to explain their actions. During the hearing, Hanjin Heavy chairman CHO clung inflexibly to his original positions.
National assembly members called on the Hanjin Heavy Industries Group Chair to withdraw the 170 dismissals, or at least reconsider them for the 94 workers who didn't accept the company's pay packages, and enter open-ended discussions with the union to find a solution. However CHO, Nam ho refused to do this.
After the hearing the KMWU has hardened its stance. Instead of calling on Chairman CHO to solve the problem, KMWU now asks the government to take CHO to court for the illegal mass dismissals that he could not justify with concrete or specific information before the National Assembly of South Korea.
Hope assembly
On August 20 some 10,000 workers and supporters demonstrated in Seoul at the KCTU "National Workers' Rally against the government's anti-worker, Chaebol-driven policy and for a trial of the LEE Myung Bak Regime." Students, civic groups and the larger public joined the all-night and two-day Hope Assembly. Riot police blocked the passage of the Assembly participants for some 3 hours - giving rise to spontaneous rallies in the streets as participants waited to enter Seoul Plaza - but the gathering could not be stopped. The leaders of Korea's 6 opposition parties conveyed their support to the workers.
4th Hope Bus rally in Seoul
KMWU members will be joining a 4th Hope Bus in Seoul on August 27 to 28 under the theme "Another World is Possible!"
You can help! Please click here to send a letter asking the Korean President to do the right thing. [Aug 26, 2011 – Rainer Santi]
