22 February, 2010
The renegade Indian steel company run by Pramod Mittal was made to pay back wages to 1,250 members of ICEM affiliate Independent Trade Union of Chemistry and Non-Metals of Bosnia-Herzegovina (SSHN-FBIH) this month. A deadline of 15 February was met by Mittal’s company, Global Ispat Koksana Industtrija Lukavac (GIKIL), which manages and half-owns the sodium carbonate plant, and wages were paid through December 2009.
Workers at GIKIL, also half-owned by the Canton of Tuzla, and SSHN-FBIH’s President Kata Ivelijc assured that back wages were paid by the delinquent Mittal through their vigilant strikes and determination. They received assistance outside of Bosnia-Herzegovina from the ICEM, the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), and the European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF).
Manfred Warda (centre) with Central European Project Coordinator Mato Lalic (next to Warda), and Kata Ivelijc, 5th from left
After receiving no pay for work performed over the final quarter of 2009, SSHN-FBIH took a week-long strike action on 6 January. That strike gained them back-pay for October and November, and then the outside intervention and workers’ actions at the plant and inside Tuzla got them December’s pay by the deadline, 15 February, a date in which workers were braced to take another strike action.
The empowerment by workers in highly industrialized northern Bosnia was widely noted across Europe. But it stands as a reminder that such victories can be fleeting against wayward companies like Mittal’s. Both the ICEM and SSHN-FBIH pledge unified vigilance on future salaries to be paid on time, justified increases to those salaries, and improved health and safety conditions at GIKIL. (Read the background to this dispute and information on Pramod Mittal’s companies here.)
GIKIL Factory in Lukavac
On 9 February, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda visited the area and together with workers’ leaders, met with Tuzla Canton Prime Minister Enes Mujić and three of his ministers. The meeting produced a promise to seriously question Mittal, in a scheduled and upcoming meeting with government authorities, over his management neglect. The trade union delegation also impressed on the Tuzla government that health and safety concerns around the plant’s coking ovens must also be addressed.
The government took up the matter at its regular 11 February session and determined that workers’ strike actions were justified and legitimate. Those and other conclusions favouring the union were then forwarded to the Assembly of the canton on 16 February.
Further, a commission was established to make corrections to salaries in accord with a previous collective agreement. The commission also will be charged with investigating the health hazards inside the plant. The ICEM is confident that the union and GIKIL workers are now well placed to monitor and participate in the commission’s full work.
Kata Ivelijc thanked the ICEM, IMF, and EMF for “the cooperation and support” and said the intervention “left a strong impression on the institutions and media” in the region.