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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" style="width: 110px; height: 50px" width="390" />

	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

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" style="width: 110px; height: 50px;" width="390" />

	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

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" style="width: 110px; height: 50px" width="390" />

	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

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" style="width: 110px; height: 50px" width="390" />

	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 

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

	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

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

	The Rubber Workers of Argentina, SUTNA re-elected General Secretary Pedro Wasijko in elections on 20-22 March. With a high turnout in a contested election, the victory for Wasiejko serves as a strong testament to the significant achievements of the union in recent years.

	Important benefits for workers have been achieved such as profit sharing at one major company, the establishment of a Health and Hygiene Committee obliged to meet once a month as stipulated in the new sector-wide collective agreement, a new general clause obliging companies to incorporate women into the production work, and importantly the adoption of the fight against precarious work and outsourcing at a time when almost nobody in the Argentinian unions were prioritising this issue.

	<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1204-Pedro-Wasiejko-y-comision-directiva.png" style="width: 266px; height: 159px;" width="390" />

	SUTNA has also made important gains in workers’ salaries in the sector, increasing the purchasing power of rubber workers. Wasiejko pledged to continue this work, continuing to oversee the democratisation of workplaces and to improve working conditions throughout the sector.

	Wasiejko applauded the democratic nature of the appointment, stating that SUTNA’s politically rich, democratic culture stood them apart from many other Argentine unions who often present no choice to members in leadership elections.

Argentina’s SUTNA Re-elects General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko

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

	The ICEM this week protested the unfair dismissal of 14 employees of Molds Medellin in Sabaneta La Estrella, Colombia. The members of Colombian affiliate Sintravidricol were informed on 22 March of the immediate cancelation of their contracts with no prior discussion with union representatives and with no reason given.

	Writing to the new CEO of Ross International, Tom Lusk, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda stressed the international attention and expectation on the company’s management following the recent passing of Mr Larry Ross, the company founder. 

	<img alt="" height="174" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1104.sintravidricol.jpg" width="232" />

	Similar damaging downsizing inside Ross International’s operations is affecting ICEM members of the United Steelworkers in the US. Since 2008 the closures of Ross’s Penn Mold facility in Washington, Pennsylvania and the OMCO Mold facility in Winchester, Indiana have ended employment of approximately 150 mould makers. Currently the workforce at Brockway Mold in Brockway, Pennsylvania has been reduced by 50 percent to 44 mould makers with a further 12 slated for layoff.

	Reminding Ross International that their conduct in Colombia was in breach of international labour law, Warda insisted on the company’s respect for the fundamental principle of dialogue with workers, which the unions are sure, could lead to alternative solutions to downsizing and shop closures.

ICEM Protests Ross International’s Unfair Dismissal of 14 Colombians

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

	The campaign to free Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, long-time Thai campaigner for labour rights, is growing as the one-year anniversary of his arrest approaches. Somyot is being held in prison only on remand, facing unproven charges of lèse majesté, or daring to “defame, insult, or threaten” the King Bhumipol Adulyadej of Thailand.”

	Brother Somyot, a former ICEM Thailand Coordinator, must be freed immediately and unconditionally, states the ICEM.

	The disgraceful detention and persecution of Somyot is based on two articles published in the journal Voice of Thaksin, but Somyot was not the author of either piece in question and, in fact, the articles do not threaten or insult the king. Brother Somyot was the acting editor of the publication, but was not the legal publisher.

	Indisputably, Somyot is incarcerated purely for his trade union and left-leaning political activism. For those reasons, he also is not receiving a fair judicial process with violations that include hearings being relocated to distant provinces so that key defence witnesses cannot participate.

	 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1202-somyot-in-chains.jpg" style="width: 88px; height: 178px;" width="390" /> 

	Somyot Pruksakasemsuk

	Brother Somyot has been held in inhumane conditions in jail, where cells are overcrowded to the extreme. Through his transfers to distant judicial hearings, Somyot has been transported standing over 4,000 kilometres in a cage on the back of a truck and bound by heavy chains.

	This unacceptable treatment has moved supporters to push hard for Somyot to be released on bail, but the courts have refused such petitions on eight occasions on the grounds that he would flee Thailand, or interfere with witnesses while on bail. Somyot is 50 and suffers from bad health, reasons why he should be released on humanitarian grounds. 

	The ICEM joins the large international coalition in condemning the continuing use of the “lèse majesté law” to crack down on legitimate protest in Thailand. The archaic legislation allows for harsh punishment for freedom of expression, an internationally recognised fundamental human right. Brother Somyot faces up to 15 years in prison for each of the two articles, if found guilty.

	Send your protest to <a href="mailto:somyot.righttobail@gmail.com">somyot.righttobail@gmail.com</a>. Use the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM%20Somyot%20Protest%20Letter%20April%202012.docx" type="internal">model letter</a> found here.

	A new trial of Somyot begins today, with prosecution witness hearings every day until 26 April, and defence witness hearings 1-4 May.

	See more on the <a href="http://www.freesomyot.wordpress.com">Free Somyot campaign</a> website here.

	Another labour and human rights defender is also in detention on non-credible charges. Brother Sirichai Mai-ngam of Thailand also has ICEM’s full support.

	The ICEM Asia-Pacific Regional Conference resolved last week for the ICEM to launch campaigns supporting the two activists in Thailand so that they are released with all charges dropped.

Free Somyot NOW!  Unionists Urged to Send Letters Demanding Thai Justice!

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

	The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF), the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), and ICEM have written Peruvian President Ollanta Humala protesting a newly-imposed decree allowing non-traditional industrial producers to hire workers under short-term contracts to fill specific export orders.

	Under Decree 22342 governing non-traditional exports, manufacturers such as garment companies now are allowed to hire precarious workers on short-term contracts to fill specific  orders, meaning a worker employed this month to fill a production order for a multinational garment brand has no guarantee of working next month to fill a similar order for the same buyer.

	The <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Carta%20FITTVC%20FITIM%20ICEM%20a%20Ollanta%20Humala.pdf" type="internal">letter</a> by the ICEM, ITGLWF and IMF calls the legislation “unconstitutional, in breach of international labour standards … totally out of date in today’s global markets and is just downright wrong.”

	Said ITGLWF General Secretary Klaus Priegnitz, “This level of flexibility in a thriving industry is frankly obscene. In reality, the term ‘non-traditional’ is a complete misnomer.

	“Thirty years ago, when orders were irregular and exporting companies were just finding their feet, ‘non-traditional’ might have been an apt description of the emerging garment export sector.  But today, the situation could not be more different.  The sector has grown exponentially as a result of the free trade agreement with the US, making textiles and clothing one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy.”

	Priegnitz added: “The average wages of workers in the largest and most profitable textile companies in the sector are among the lowest in Peru. Wages are so low that workers and their families are often forced to live with relatives, and when they can’t work double shifts many have to supplement their income by working as street vendors.”

	The companies in question are fully integrated operations that do everything from weaving to sewing to finishing. For the most part, the largest companies are the worst offenders, in some cases, employing 100% of the workforce on short-term contracts even though those workers perform permanent functions in the factory. Some workers have worked for the same employer for nearly 20 years on a succession of one- to six-month contracts.

	Priegnitz said, “The decree and the way it is being applied represent a gross violation of the labour chapter of the Peru-US Free Trade Agreement and of codes of conduct of the major brands and retailers that drive the success of the country’s garment export industry.  Peru is in danger of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.”

	In the letter, the ICEM, the ITGWLF and the IMF call on Peru’s government to vigorously support a proposal to repeal Articles 32, 33 and 34 of Decree 22342, which is currently under consideration in the Congressional Labour Commission. For as long as the decree remains in force, the three organisation have also asked the government to monitor its application more closely, intervening in cases where it is being used inappropriately to convert fixed-term employment contracts to open-ended ones.

ITGLWF, ICEM, ICEM Protest Peru Law Exploiting Short-term Contract Workers

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

	Some 35 trade union leaders, mostly from Indonesian pulp and paper mills of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), attended a two-day workshop on 28-29 March in Serong, Indonesia, on trade union rights, environmental issues, and the health and safety record of the multinational company that is part of Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Group.

	The workshop was intended to kick-start w Global Workers’ Network around APP, a company within the Indonesia-based Sinar Mas Group that also includes palm oil holdings and the European and North American pulp and paper company Paper Excellence. The workshop was generously supported by the Humanity Fund of the Canada’s Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia, and the Solidarity Center of the US.

	The ICEM’s Indonesian Council of Unions, headed by D. Patombong Sjaiful, hosted the event and aptly handled all logistics.

	 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1204 pulp paper indonesia.jpg" style="width: 229px; height: 159px;" / width="390"> 

	Delegates from multiple Indonesian labour confederations and affiliated trade unions, including the forestry and pulp union Kahutindo, that represent workers at APP owned and partially held Indonesian mills attended, and  received valuable training on global labour standards contained in ILO Conventions, OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and the UN’s Global Compact.

	They also heard presentations on APP’s forestry practices in Indonesia, the ways and means of the world’s three forest certification programmes, and they participated in a session on community-building that was conducted by Tim Woods of FitzpatrickWoods consulting group of Australia.

	Also participating were union representatives from CFMEU’s Pulp and Paper Division of its Forestry sector, local union presidents from CEP Local 440 in Nova Scotia – representing workers of Paper Excellence at the Pictou Mill there – and CEP Local 1092 in Mackenzie, British Colombia, representing Paper Excellence pulp mill workers there.

	<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1204 pulp paper indonesia 2.jpg" style="width: 255px; height: 159px;" / width="390">

	As well, the United Steelworkers (USW) of the US had delegates from a pulp mill in Halsey, Oregon, attend, and the US-based union provided a look at its labour-environmental network called the BlueGreen Alliance. Other representatives came from the Swedish Paperworkers Union, Pappers, which sponsors a pulp and paper project in Indonesia, and the Pulp and Paper Products Manufacturing Employees’ Union (PPPMEU) of Malaysia.

	The central conclusion formed at the workshop is that intensive work must now start in order to unite the different unions and their respective confederations at APP’s Indonesia’s pulp, paper and tissue mills.

Pulp, Paper Unions Conduct Workshop on APP in Indonesia

Archive

IndustriALL to Prioritise Fight Against Precarious Work

Updated Global Union Principles on Temporary Work Agencies

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

Strike Against Labour Brokers in South Africa

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

Argentina’s SUTNA Re-elects General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko

ICEM Protests Ross International’s Unfair Dismissal of 14 Colombians

Free Somyot NOW! Unionists Urged to Send Letters Demanding Thai Justice!

ITGLWF, ICEM, ICEM Protest Peru Law Exploiting Short-term Contract Workers

Pulp, Paper Unions Conduct Workshop on APP in Indonesia

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