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The International Textiles, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) held its Tenth World Congress in Frankfurt, Germany, from 2-4 December. The ITGLWF adopted several major decisions regarding the coming work re-organization. The theme of this Tenth Congress was “Organise = Decent Work = Decent Life,” and it brought together 214 delegates from 97 trade unions in 68 countries. 
 
It also paid moving tribute to the necessary humanitarian contributions made by the late ITGLWF General Secretary, Neil Kearney. Kearney’s daughters were at the Congress and told of their father. 
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Neal Kearney’s daughters, Nicole and Caroline
The Congress was hosted by IG Metall at its Frankfurt headquarters. 
The Congress took place just two weeks after General Secretary Neil Kearney died from a heart attack while doing important ITGLWF work in Bangladesh. The global trade union movement was shocked and saddened. Kearney, the ITGLWF General Secretary for the past 21 years, performed some of the toughest and most meaningful work in the world. 

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The Frankfurt Congress confirmed the appointment of Patrick Itschert as the new General Secretary. Itschert has led the European regional organization of ETUC:TCL, for nearly two decades. He will continue in both roles. 
 
Congress unanimously elected Hisanobu Shimada of Japan as the organisation’s new president. Hisanobu Shimada is the General Secretary of ITGLWF affiliate UI Zensen. Outgoing president Manfred Schallmeyer of IG Metall received a special message of appreciation from Congress, for his work during the past five years as president. 
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Manfred Schallmeyer hands over the presidency to Hisanobu Shimada 
The ITGLWF’s Congress elected fifteen Vice-Presidents, eight of whom are women, and formally approved the membership of the Executive Committee. 
 
The future of the ITGLWF was a major issue on the agenda. Congress recognised the need for a powerful trade union force across manufacturing industries, in response to corporate restructuring and obvious synergies created within the continual overlaps of the world’s manufacturing sectors. The ITGLWF Congress resolved that the Global Union Federation make all necessary efforts to ensure the creation of a new GUF for manufacturing, and that it be concluded no later than 2011.

Memories, Accomplishments of Neil Kearney Cited at ITGLWF Congress

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Industrial action that was to begin today at a pulp and paper mill in the UK has been cancelled because progress was made in redundancy consultation talks last Friday, 11 December. Paperworkers who are members of Unite the Union voted 226 to 30 for industrial action, after Iggesund Paper – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Swedish Holmen Paper – announced unilateral job cuts in early November. 
 
Iggesund, operating a softwood pulp mill and paperboard mill in Cumbria, sought to cut 99 of 480 jobs at the facility. Following the announcement, local managers said there was no need for consultation. UK law states that redundancies of less that100 workers must be preceded by a 30-day union-management consultation period, while jobs cuts totaling over 100 workers must see a 90-day consultation. 

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External pressure and the overwhelming vote for industrial action convinced management to discuss its reasons for the redundancies. Peter Ellis, a Unite the Union National Secretary, reported that Friday’s talks between the union and Iggesund reduced the number of job cuts by five, with the potential for possibly saving more jobs to occur in coming consultation sessions. 
 
In the lead-up to the industrial ballot, the ICEM delivered nearly 100 messages of support from global pulp and paper unions to Unite the Union, messages that were distributed on the shop floor of the paper company.

Industrial Action at Iggesund Paper Mill in UK Suspended

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Industrial Union TEAM is the new name, effective on 1 January 2010, of the merged Chemical Workers’ Union (Kemianliito), an ICEM affiliate, and the Finnish Media Union. The merger of the two is the product of a larger, six-union merger of Finnish industrial unions that failed to materialize in spring 2009. 
 
Kemianliitto and the Media Union, which represents workers in the graphical, print, and print delivery sections, committed to continue union merger talks following the breakdown of the larger merger. By the end of summer holidays, 2009, committees and an organizational structure were in place to complete to merger. 

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On 13 November, an extraordinary Congress of the Media Union approved the merger, while on 26-27 November, the General Council of Kemianliitto gave its consent. Kemianliitto President Timo Vallittu will lead Industrial Union TEAM, and the merged union will have a 20-member governing body. 
 
The merged union numbers 68,000, a figure that includes retirees. Kemianliitto comes in to the merger with some 31,000 active members, while the Media Union brings 14,000. 

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The larger Finnish industrial merger, in talks dating back two years, was proposed between Kemianliitto and the Media Union, as well as including ICEM-affiliated Electrical Workers’ Union, the Finnish Metalworkers Union, the Wood and Allied Workers’ Union, and the Finnish Railwaymen’s Union. In spring 2009, the Electrical Workers’ dropped from talks, while a short time later the Metalworkers’ withdrew from participating by action of its Congress.

Kemianliitto and Media Union Become Finnish TEAM, 1 January

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A subsidiary of Russian multinational RuSAL, the world’s largest producer of aluminium and a major mining house in key resources, has terminated a labour agreement for 600 Guyanese workers over a wage dispute. Rusal announced it no longer recognizes the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers’ Union, something illegal under Guyana’s law and deeply condemned by the ICEM. 
 
General Manager of the Guyanese subsidiary, Sergey Kostyuk, sent a letter to Union President Charles Sampson, stating that the collective agreement between the two entities, and through the Labour Ministry, was “terminated with immediate effect.” 

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Guyana’s Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir reacted by ordering mandatory arbitration, citing the importance of the bauxite industry to the economy of the country. The Bauxite and General Workers’ Union began a lawful strike on 21 November and that strike is on-going, thus hampering production at a processing plant. 
The union called the strike when RuSAL managers failed to give a promised 10% pay raise to workers in Berbice, located in the centre of Guyana. RuSAL also angered workers and their union by sacking 56 for “insubordination, refusal to obey instructions and misconduct,” a dubious charge considering workers were engaged in a lawful strike action. 

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A Guyanese political party, Working People’s Alliance (WPA), has intervened by pressuring the government to protect the workers’ constitutional rights. WPA stated that the conflict has “grave implications for the entire trade union movement in Guyana,” if RuSAL Bauxite Company of Guyana (BCGI) is not stopped in its total disregard for trade union rights. 
 
The ICEM condemns RuSAL for its ignorance of essential global labour standards and for the negative influence this conduct brings to Guyanese labour relations. The ICEM is calling on RuSAL to reinstate the discharged workers at its bauxite plant and to immediate adopt better industrial relations practices in Guyana.

RuSAL’s Labor Conduct in Guyana’s Bauxite Industry Strongly Questioned 

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Started in 2009 with the support of the Dutch national labour centre FNV, ICEM’s Organising and Social Dialogue Project in Turkey continued regional seminars last month in the city of Adana in the Cukurova region, where important trade union representation exists, particularly in ICEM sectors. 
 
Adana is an industrialized city in Turkey’s south that has large-scale industries such as textiles, leather, oil and gas, electricity, chemicals, automotive, and food processing. In recent years, Adana’s importance has increased due largely to the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil and gas pipeline from the Caspian region in Azerbaijan. Adana claims to be the future “Rotterdam” of Turkey, particularly since another new pipeline will come on line, this one from the Black Sea port city Samsun, which will move oil from Russia. ICEM’s intensive trade union energy activities in the Caspian and the Middle East region are closely connected to Adana and the surrounding Mediterranean area. 

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With the overall objective to build Turkish unions’ ability to recruit new members, as well as to discuss the establishment of a base to create a functioning industrial relations system, prioritizing human and trade union rights, and to promote healthy social dialogue, this seminar of the FNV project was attended by more than 60 local trade union leaders, shop stewards, and militants from the ICEM affiliated unions. 
 
The seminar also welcomed several international trade union leaders from the Netherlands, France, and Belgium. Celil Çoban and Mail Ürker of FNV Bondgenoten in the Netherlands, Marc Blanc of French FCE-CFDT, and Chris Vanmol of Belgium’s CSC-Chimie Energie exchanged experiences and knowledge from their countries. ICEM Energy Officer Jim Catterson, who was on an oil and gas fact-finding mission in southeast Turkey prior to the seminar, shared his experiences from the UK, where he worked in the trade union movement prior to joining the ICEF/ICEM. 
 
The seminar also heard a presentation from the Turkish trade union expert Üzeyir Ataman, Director of Education and Collective Bargaining of Lastik-İş, on union history and the current labour relations situation in Turkey. Later, the seminar focused on Power and Weak Points, Challenges and Opportunities, and Concrete Organising Targets inside Turkey, with contributions and inputs by participants from the different regions, namely Adana, Mersin, Adiyaman, Batman, and Elazig. 

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Üzeyir Ataman
“This seminar in Adana has given great happiness and hope for the future,” said ICEM Rubber and Chemicals Officer Kemal Özkan, who coordinates the two-year project and did a workshop on globalisation and labour relations. “The active involvement and enthusiasm of participants clearly shows that Turkish unions have an important role to play in shaping a society moving towards a real democracy based on fundamental human rights, which, of course, includes trade union rights.” 
 
The FNV project will continue with further regional seminars in the Thrace region in April, and in Gebze in May. The Adana seminar was held 11-12 March.

ICEM’s Organising and Social Dialogue Project Continues in Turkey

About Rio Tinto 
 
 Rio Tinto is a multi-billion dollar global corporation that mines and processes aluminum, coal, copper, diamonds, gold, iron ore and uranium, as well as industrial minerals including borates, titanium dioxide, salt and talc. 
 
 The company is based in London and Melbourne, Australia and traded on the London, Sydney and New York Stock Exchanges. 
 
 Rio Tinto is the 3rd largest mining company in the world, operating in more than 50 countries on six continents, with the majority of production occurring in Australia and North America. 
 
 In 2009, Rio Tinto reported net earnings of almost $5 billion on revenues of $44 billion. 
 
About Rio Tinto’s Borate Business 
 
 Rio Tinto’s borate mining and processing business is part of its Diamonds & Minerals product group, which reported net earnings of $800 million in 2009. 
 
 The company’s borate business consists primarily of its mine – the largest borate deposit in the world – and processing plant in Boron, California, USA. Rio Tinto also operates a small borate mine and processing plant in Argentina, as well as plants and/or distribution facilities in Wilmington, California, France, Spain and the Netherlands. 
 
 Rio Tinto supplies nearly half the world’s demand for refined borates. Together with Etimine of Turkey, Rio Tinto enjoys a virtual monopoly on the global borate market. 
 
 Borates are industrial minerals with a wide variety of uses, including glass, ceramics, fertilizer, detergents and wood treatments. 
 
 Although Rio Tinto often tells reporters that it has lost 25% of its share of the borate market in order to garner sympathy and justify its attack on families in Boron, the company’s claim has never been independently substantiated. Rio Tinto does not report publicly on the financial performance of its borate business. Like most companies, Rio Tinto has been temporarily impacted by the economic recession, but the outlook for Rio Tinto’s future is bright and already improving. In his “State of Business” address in August 2009, Rio Tinto Vice President Chris Robison said, “the financial position of the company is very strong.” Independent experts predict demand for borates will increase significantly in 2010, mainly due to the growth in Chinese manufacturing. China is Rio Tinto’s largest destination market. 
 
About the Mine in Boron 
 
 Located in the Mojave Desert, about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, the Boron mine is the largest open-pit mine in California. 
 
 The mine has been operating since borates were first discovered in Boron in 1925. The facility was acquired by Rio Tinto in 1967. 
 
 The mine serves Rio Tinto’s borate customers in almost 100 countries around the world. 
 
 There are about 570 hourly workers at the mine, many of whom have worked their entire lives at the facility. Some employees have more than 40 years of experience there. 
 
About the Lockout 
 
 On January 31, 2010, Rio Tinto locked out about 570 hourly workers from the Borax mine. 
 
 Employees had refused to accept Rio Tinto’s concessionary contract ultimatum. Their demands included allowing the company to convert good jobs into temporary, part-time or outsourced positions. 
 
 Since the lockout, Rio Tinto has replaced its experienced, skilled workforce with workers from its other facilities and with contract workers supplied by Gettier Security, a Wilmington, DE-based company that specializes in providing workers to firms engaged in strikes or lockouts. 
 
 The locked out families are relying on unemployment insurance and other forms of public assistance to help feed their children and pay mortgages. 
 
 
For more information about Rio Tinto and the Lockout in Boron, or to learn how you can help the miners and their families, please contact Craig Merrilees, Communications Director, ILWU on +1 (0) 415 775 0533 ext 113.

Facts About Rio Tinto and the Lock Out in Boron, California

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ICEM Hungarian affiliate, the Federation of Chemical Workers Union at the MOL Bányász Szakszervezet (MOL RT), held its Congress in Budapest, 27 March. 
 
The Congress unanimously elected László Biri as the new President of the union. He replaces the outgoing József Kudela, who has retired. In letters between outgoing József Kudela and ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, each of the two thanked the other for a long period of friendship and close cooperation, protecting the interests of Hungarian oil and gas workers, and developing international trade unionism in the region. 

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ICEM congratulates László Biri on his election, and looks forward to continuing good relations and successful work together. 
 
The MOL Group is an integrated oil and gas company, also present elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. With 34,000 employees in total, MOL is the second largest company in Central and Eastern Europe.

Hungarian Chemical Workers’ Congress Elects New President, József Kudela Retires

Unions Make Work Safer: Today, 28 April, Every Day

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The ICEM German affiliate, IGBCE, accomplished substantive commitments for youth apprenticeship positions inside an 11-month national labour agreement with the chemical employers’ association, the BAVC. Those commitments will carry over for the next three years, and will mean another 27,000 young people will have career opportunities in Germany’s keystone chemicals industry through apprenticeships. 
 
The 11-month length of the contract is a concession to chemical employers, with hopes that all 1,900 enterprises will regain solid financial footing before the IGBCE and BAVC resume bargaining for wage increases early in 2011. A wage freeze takes effect now for 550,000 workers, with ratification bonuses awarded instead. 

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IGBCE President Michael Vassiliadis
“It is a good conclusion” for the present, stated IGBCE President Michael Vassiliadis. “It is fair considering the varying conditions in the industry and it helps build a bridge between the economic crisis and recovery.” 
 
Foremost in the new accord is a social-partners commitment for life-long job opportunities for young people, which includes €25 million in money provided by companies of the industry. The employers agreed to create 1,000 permanent jobs for young people in each of three years, with the fund used to subsidize companies at €1,000 per month for each worker given a permanent position. 
 
The IGBCE negotiated the requirement that subsidies can only be given for workers that are IGBCE members. 
 
The ratification bonuses, to be included in workers’ salary pay checks this month, amount to €550 for day-shift workers, €611 for workers on five- or six-day swing shifts, and €715 for night-shift and workers required to work across seven days per week. 

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Workers in enterprises that have not suffered due to the economic crisis will receive a further €200 bonus on top of their stipends. For enterprises still facing difficulties, and with the consent of the respective European Works Councils, the overall bonus can be reduced, but not below €300. 
 
Peter Hausmann, IGBCE Governing Board member, who heads the union’s Collective Bargaining Department, said the new collective agreement reflects a stronger set of initiatives created by social partners for the industry. We have created “new perspectives created for young people,” as well as better job security provisions for existing workers, said Hausmann. 
 
The agreement was reached on 21 April in Würzburg, following two days of national talks.

Youth Job Guarantees Won by IGBCE in German Chemicals Agreement

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Whether or not the South African National Assembly passes legislation to ban labour brokers is a question likely to be answered early in 2010. But there is little doubt that the matter has fast become the hot-button employment issue in the country, judging from the current intensity of the debate. 
 
Following two days of raucous public hearings in Cape Town by the Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Labour in late August that firmly pitted political parties against one another, the debate whether to pass a ban or to impose tighter regulations on labour broking moved to four provinces in early October where parliamentary regional hearings were held. 

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And in between, the Congress of South African Unions (COSATU) weighed in strongly in favour of a ban at its Tenth National Congress and immediately launched a national campaign to ban the 25-billion-rand business in coordination with global labour’s World Day for Decent Work (WDDW) on 7 October. 
 
In COSATU’s congress declaration, the federation states, “… as part of the struggle for decent employment, we call for the elimination of the practice of labour broking.” At a press conference following the 21-24 September congress, General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said labour brokers often take up to 20% of a worker’s wages in fees. 
 
Three weeks earlier, at the Assembly’s Portfolio Committee hearings, Vavi called the system a “social ill,” likening it to “HIV and AIDS or crime and corruption. It’s an arrangement made to take advantage of the weak and most vulnerable in a society.” 

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One of COSATU’s WDDW activities occurred on 6 October where 400 members of the affiliated Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) rallied in front of a postal centre in Ormonde. There, some 80% of the total workers are supplied by labour brokers. A CWU representative said eight labour brokers are used and what’s worse, he added, is that some of the postal managers are part-owners of the labour-broking agencies. 
 
One such worker abused by the system and involved in the protest said he earns a monthly salary one-quarter of that of a permanent employee in the postal centre, while another said working in precarious employment is no better than being unemployed. “They use us like condoms. One mistake, you are out and they get another one in your place anyway.” 
 
The ICEM affiliate, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), called on parliamentarians of the African National Congress (ANC) to use its majority to pass a law banning labour brokers. NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim said under the latter-day apartheid employment system, the focus of employers is on labour agencies, not workers. “In a society with high levels of inequalities, it is a crisis to allow this system to flourish,” he said. 

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The political lines have been drawn in the debate. While most ANC legislators favour a ban, the business-friendly Democratic Alliance (DA) is on the defensive and merely calling for regulating labour broking. The fledging Congress of the People (COPE), with little political power following spin-off from the ANC, has been relatively silent on the issue, but is believed to favour tighter regulation rather than an outright ban. 
 
The business lobby says 500,000 people in South African are employed through labour brokers, but it is believed the real number could be triple that. The lobby does admit that of 6,000 labour brokers in the country, only 3,000 of them are properly registered. 
 
In neighbouring Namibia, labour brokers were banned in 2008. But the industry and business lobby has now challenged that law on constitutional grounds, something South African business interests would likely do as well if a ban is passed. 
 
On 27 August, the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), together with its South African affiliate, the Building and Construction Allied Workers’ Union, held a forum in Johannesburg entitled “Multi-Sectoral Conference on Decent Work Towards and Beyond 2010,” aimed primarily at work issues in preparation for South Africa hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 

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National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Construction Coordinator Isaac Ntshangase pointed out that 32% of the country’s building and construction industry is carried out using informal workers. The conference passed a resolution calling for a ban on labour brokers and condemned the sub-standard wages and work conditions common in subcontracting arrangements. 
 
Whether or not section 198 of South Africa’s Labour Relations Act of 1995 gets amended to ban labour brokers totally, or if a compromise is struck placing tighter regulations on the practice, is an open question right now. But there is little question that some form of legislative action will result, which will be good news to the global union forces that are now marshalling efforts to rollback non-sustaining work through labour-hire agencies and indirect employment.

Issue to Ban ‘Labour Brokers’ in South Africa Coming to a Head

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