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17 November, 2008
A recent workshop in Buenos Aires, Argentina, saw workers’ representatives from 18 labour organisations, representing 50,000 rubber workers, come together to shape an action plan for the region’s rubber industry on Contract and Agency Labour. The ICEM and FUTINAL, the Latin American Rubber Unions’ Front covering trade unions in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay organised the event.
It was hosted by SUTNA-CTA, the Rubber Workers’ Union of Argentina, and 35 delegates attended.
Following a presentation on the general, regional, and national trends in the rubber sector by ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal Özkan, workshop participants heard about the ICEM’s global campaign on Contract and Agency Labour, as well as examples from different industries throughout the world.
The issue inside the Brazilian rubber industry exists in the areas of maintenance, warehousing, security, cleaning, and catering. Brazilian labour agreements in the sector do have strong language preventing outsourcing, or the use of contractors or agency labour in production. In Argentina, the rate of outside labour during the 1980s was low, but in the 1990s, with the liberalised policies of then-President Carlos Saúl Menem, employment flexibility flourished, particularly concerning employment practices with use of short-term contract workers.
In Argentina’s rubber industry, there now is a trend, led by SUTNA, to roll back that labour liberalisation. With a new collective agreement recently put in place, tyre producers have agreed to reduce the number of agency workers, much to the credit of SUTNA bargaining on the issue.
SUTNA General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko
“In a globalised tyre industry, we must react globally to the challenges in our respective countries,” said SUTNA General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko. “The kind of detailed cooperation displayed here is an important base for international trade union solidarity.”
Özkan said the ICEM has now put together viable rubber workers’ networks in the Asia-Pacific and Latin American/Caribbean Regions, and that recent meetings provide “much hope for future activities,” including the ICEM’s World Conference for the Rubber Industry, to be held in 2009.