Posts Tagged ‘labour unions’

Brooding isn’t very constructive

Posted: July 5, 2012 in Rights around the world
Tags: , , , , ,
0
English: Loyalist Mural, Donegall Pass, Belfas...

About as helpful as this (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last month a rare spat took place at the International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s annual conference.

The ILO is grounded in the notion of tripartite co-operation between employer organisations, employee organisations and governments.

Year after year, a moment has been taken to highlight the worst violations of trade union rights around the globe.

This year, the employer groups pulled the carpet, and got it taken off the agenda. Union federations reacted with great indignation at this affront to the co-operative process of the ILO.

I beg to differ.

The segment was the affront to the ILO process, in fact I’m amazed it had persisted this long. How are groups supposed to discuss things rationally if one group is forced to sit through a session specifically about how untrustworthy they are? How is that supposed to build trust and co-operation?

Imagine if the roles were reversed: Suppose employers got to play a video every year about the most egregious examples they could find of union misbehaviour.

Or translate the scenario to decisions in your own family. Imagine if, every time you sat down to discuss some major decision, your spouse/parent said ‘Hang on, before we talk about that, we’ll just have to stop for a minute and watch this slideshow about the time you were given decision-making responsibility and screwed it up royally.’ Well that’s pretty much what’s been happening.

The whole scene reminds me of the Orange Order in Northern Ireland, who thought it was critically important to hold annual marches to remind people of a military victory their ancestors won several centuries ago. As a result of their confrontationalism they have the distinction of being the last place on earth where Catholics and Protestants murdered each other over their religious differences. Most other European nations had discovered toleration by the 1700s.

So, far from being “an affront to the system”, last months’ agenda change may actually herald an approach more oriented towards results and less towards grandstanding. Let’s hope.

Related posts:

Where the rubber hits the road: Union organising in EPZs

Posted: March 27, 2012 in Rights around the world
Tags: , , ,
1
Cavite Export Processing Zone

Cavite Export Processing Zone (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If union organising can succeed in an export processing zone (EPZ), it can succeed anywhere.

I have hit upon an important article, published in 2006, about successful unionisation in EPZs titled The Squeaky Wheel’s Dilemma.

The very fact that we hear so much about the EPZs of the world (did someone say Shenzhen?) tells us that they have the potential to be organised. It’s something of a paradox. The International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) bewails the state of Batam’s factories yet, relatively speaking, the island is a stronghold of membership. After hearing what McKay had to say, I am no longer surprised.

As human beings, we all want to find the silver bullet. The unmoveable object or the unstoppable force. Time and again it proves illusory or -more likely- creates an asymmetry which is soon rebalanced. Think of what happens in business: whenever a new, highly profitable, product is launched, the competitors are out with imitations to eat up market share, or they might even target the entire company for takeover. Unfortunately labour conditions can’t be fixed once and for all but require continued hard work to be secured and thereafter to be retained.

Labour in EPZs sounds outrageously inexpensive to a business considering relocating. Not only are wages lower but cost of regulatory compliance and risk of industrial unrest are lower too. In addition to being officially red-tape free zones, EPZs also prefer to employ mostly young, rural females in their first job.

The deck is stacked pretty solidly in favour of employers: Labour laws are weak or unenforceable, contracts are short-term, and the workers are migrants with no social ties to the place of work anyway. It’s all a little too good to be true, and it is.

McKay uses Cavite in the Philippines as his example. Despite all of these advantages, companies still require the assent of both the workforce and, moreover, the local authorities to continue their operations. Few will stare down a workforce that is prepared to strike. Also workers have the advantage of being voting residents of the local area, whose authorities can be lobbied into taking action about flagrant abuses. Lastly labour can access international support that can not only provide advice and resources but also place pressure on the company at various levels.

It’s not as dire as it seems. The very fact that we are hearing about Foxconn means that someone is taking an active interest in those workers’ rights and is getting some access to them. The problems are real but capable of improvement.

Source:

Related posts

Anti-union strategies in sportswear supply chains

Posted: May 10, 2011 in Indonesia
Tags: , , , , , , ,
4
Fotothek df n-04 0000033

Image via Wikipedia

The global union confederation for the textile and garment industry, the ITGLWF,  represents workers in clothing manufacturing companies.

In the last fortnight they published a comprehensive report into the sportswear industry, surveying 83 factories in Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Indonesia which collectively employ over 100,000 workers.

A range of shortcomings were documented. All of them are very concerning and I don’t want to gloss over any aspect, so I might unpack this report over a series of posts.

Victimising of union activists

The first problem found was that Freedom of Association is routinely suppressed by means of harassment, bribes, failure to renew short-term contracts and even factory closure.

The right to free association is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and also in Protocol 98 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which states:

all workers without distinction whatsoever, whether they are employed on a permanent basis, for a fixed term or as contract employees, should have the right to establish and join organisations of their own choosing.

Suffice to say, the ability of workers to combine interests and bargain for improved pay and working conditions hangs on the effective exercise of this right, so it is critically important in the economic development of these nations’ citizens.

Sri Lanka has ratified ILO Protocol 98. The researchers found that some companies circumvented this requirement by having the Employer Council (a non-representative body capable of being controlled by the employer) registered as a union. It therefore does not attract the usual due process protections. For example, there is no guarantee of secret ballots for representatives.

As a result union activists are – predictably – victimised and impeded in their work. If they are contract workers, which many are, they find their contracts are not renewed.

In Indonesia interference in union organising activities took a more straightforward form: organisers were denied access to office space, refused allocated time to participate in trade union activities and given unrealistically high production targets to prevent them having any time to carry out union duties.

In the Philippines, workers organising for their rights also faced employer reprisal. Employers also made use of ‘stacked’ employee representative committees. In one case a company resorted to closing a factory of 800 people instead of recognising their union – and is now facing court for doing so.

Overall, employer reprisal was the number one barrier to trade union organising, followed by use of legal red tape.

April 28 – Workers’ Memorial Day

Posted: April 28, 2011 in Labour History, Rights around the world
Tags: , , , , , , ,
2
Memory Lines sculpture in Sydney's Darling Harbour

Lost to workplace accidents

Today, 28 April, is designated as the Workers’ Memorial Day by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

There are over two million fatal workplace accidents around the world each year, many of them sadly preventable. 100,000 die of asbestos-related illnesses alone.

Services are being held around the world to remember those who have lost their lives to workplace accidents.

I attended the one in Sydney. The peak union body here, Unions NSW, has done a fine job of elevating the day above partisan and sectarian divisions. The service was co-presided over by a rabbi, imam, priest and minister. State Government Ministers from the right-leaning Liberal Party and their counterparts from the left-leaning Labor Party were in attendance. Unions and industry groups were both in attendance.

The commemoration was held before the ‘Memory Lines’ sculpture in Sydney’s Darling Harbour. The sculpture is located on the site where Australia’s first steam mill was constructed in 1813, powering a saw mill, grain mill and foundry. Symbolically it is the birthplace of Australia’s industrial revolution. (Despite its proximity to Sydney’s Central Business District, Darling Harbour was an industrial area right up until the early 1980s.)

The emotional focus of the service was the placing of flowers and mementos on the sculpture by families who had lost loved ones to workplace accidents in the previous year. It was very difficult to watch, like attending several funerals at once, however to turn away would be to turn away from the reality. Deaths at work are not statistics, they are the faces above and many more.

Successful global campaign brings Nestlé to bargaining table

Posted: April 4, 2011 in Indonesia
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
1

Indonesian workers at Nestlé’s plant in Pandung have finally won a three-year campaign to compel the company to negotiate pay and conditions with their union.

The “Nespressure” campaign was officially brought to an end when company representatives signed an accord last Monday in Switzerland. Local company and union representatives also signed last Thursday.

Nestlé operates in 86 countries and employs over a quarter of a million people (-Wikipedia).

The campaign was orchestrated by the IUF, the global union confederation for food workers, whose many affiliates echoed the desires of the workers in Pandung in places as diverse as India, Australia, Ukraine and Fiji.

The video below explains the workers demands:

Related posts:

Vietnamese not thrilled by lowest cost status

Posted: March 25, 2011 in Rights around the world
Tags: , , , , ,
2

The My Phong factory. Image: Nam Tuan via Panoramio

Just over a year ago the Vietnamese authorities arrested 3 organisers of a strike at the My Phong factory in Tra Vinh, Vietnam.

In that strike, 10,000 workers walked off the job protesting essentially at their low rate of pay, just USD 58 a month, which is insufficient to cover the cost of living.

The crime of Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, Do Thi Minh Hanh and Doan Huy Chuong was to distribute leaflets encouraging people to strike and purporting to form their own employee association without asking permission of the government.

They were sentenced to 9 years jail last October and last Friday the appeals court upheld their sentence.

Nine years in jail for attempting to exercise the right to free association! Disgraceful.

Source:

Related post:

Global economy; Global unions

Posted: February 11, 2011 in Rights around the world
Tags: , , , , , , ,
3

There are ten international union confederations, each of them focusing on a particular economic sector. UNI Global Union comprises 900 national service-sector unions, representing over 20 million workers.

UNI deals with workplace relations matters at the United Nations level hence it is headquartered near the International Labour Organization offices in Switzerland.

UNI sees the way forward as negotiating agreements with multi-national companies. It’s the same principle seen on the shop floor, but taken to the next level: A united workforce gets a better outcome in negotiations than one individual. It stands to reason that a united global workforce will get a better result than a local effort.

UNI is spearheading a push for something called Global Framework Agreements. These are commitments made by multi-national companies that they will observe certain minimum standards in all the countries that they operate, including:

·     Recognising the right to bargain collectively

·     Recognising the right to join a union

·     Not discriminating in employment

·     Observing decent working conditions

These agreements do not set wages; those are negotiated at the national or local level.

By early 2010, 36 Global Framework Agreements had been signed with multinationals including Ikea and the Accor Hotels group. More are on the way. The beginning of things to come?

State of the World’s Workers in 2010

Posted: January 1, 2011 in Rights around the world, Statistics
Tags: , , , ,
3

The London-based International Centre for Trade Union Rights (ICTUR) has recently published new editions of its freedom of association map. This map illustrates ratification of relevant ILO standards and highlights compliance shortfalls worldwide. A second map, on child labour, is also available.

In each case ICTUR has sought objective views on compliance. The assessment for freedom of association relies on clearly reported murders and arrests identified in their annual Violations Survey or other trade union rights monitoring programmes.

The notes are drawn from International Labour Organization (ILO) and International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) documentation.

The picture is not rosy: last year trade unionists were arrested, imprisoned or subject to criminal prosecution in 50 countries and killed or assassinated in 15 countries.

A 3MB PDF of the map can be downloaded here and hard copies can be ordered here.