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ICEM’s CAL Newsletter: Developments In and Around the Global Contract and Agency Labour Project

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The ICEM was saddened to learn of the passing of Madhav Neupane, a co-founder of affiliate General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT). Comrade Neupane, 51, unexpectedly died on 29 October from tuberculosis, leaving his wife and two children behind. 
 
GEFONT released a statement on that day, saying, the &ldquo;entire trade union movement of Nepal is now under deep grief. We have lost an always active leader of the movement.&rdquo; 
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Comrade Neupane was one of many democratic activists who were arrested during the autocratic Panchayati period of King Mahendra in the 1970s and beyond. It was then, as leader of the Nepal Independent Hotel Workers&rsquo; Union, that the NIHWU and three other unions formed GEFONT. He was currently a member of GEFONT&rsquo;s Veterans&rsquo; Network. 
 
Following his funeral on 29 October, GEFONT&rsquo;s National Executive Committee met and adopted a resolution of mourning that calls for lowering of the union federation&rsquo;s flag to half-mast for three days throughout the country, as well as to organise a mass meeting to pay tribute to Madhav Neupane on the 13th day following his passing.

ICEM Mourns Co-Founder of Nepal’s GEFONT Federation

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Spain&rsquo;s ICEM-affiliated Confederaci&oacute;n Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO) announced the passing of its first General Secretary, Marcelino Camacho, last Friday, 29 October. 
 
Marcelino Camacho, 92, a symbol for trade union rights and democracy in Spain, dedicated his life to the fight for those most in need, for justice and solidarity. 
 
The son of a railwayman, Camacho was a fighter for freedom and workers&rsquo; rights since his youth. Fighting Franco&rsquo;s 1939-1975 fascist dictatorship, and spending a total of 14 years in prison and concentration camps, as well as several years of political asylum in Algeria, Marceline Camacho was a true working-class hero. 
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Marcelino Camacho
In the late 1950s, Camacho and his comrades founded the CC.OO, now Spain&rsquo;s largest trade union confederation. He was elected General Secretary at its first congress in June 1978, and was re-elected at the second and third congresses. 
 
He was a member of the Spanish Communist Party, and was elected to the Spanish Parliament during the first democratic elections in 1977 following the defeat of the Franco regime. He resigned from the Parliament in1981 to devote himself to trade unionism. 
 
On resigning from the post of General Secretary at the 4th Congress of CCOO, Camacho was elected as President, a post he held until 1996. 
 
His important role was acknowledged with numerous honours and awards, in Spain and abroad.

Labour Movement Mourns Death of Spanish CC.OO’s Marcelino Camacho

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The ICEM continues to support the campaign for the rights of Burmese migrant workers in Thailand. The State Enterprise Workers&rsquo; Relations Confederation of Thailand (SERC) has teamed with LabourStart to call on the Royal Thai Government to end the illegal and unjust practice of blocking Burmese migrants from access to the Workers&rsquo; Compensation Fund (WCF). 
 
The social security fund provides compensation for workers who incur injuries or disease from their work. Burmese migrants are denied rehabilitation assistance and are denied the right to register as disabled if they suffer permanent disabilities from occupational accidents. 
 
Following three years of protest by the ITUC-affiliated SERC, the ILO&rsquo;s Committee of Experts in February 2010 ruled that this denial of access for Burmese migrants was a breach of ILO Convention 19, on equality of accident compensation, which Thailand has ratified. 
<img src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Thailand.png" width="150" height="69" alt="" />
The Thai government&rsquo;s response has been to outsource the compensation of migrant workers to private insurance firms. This cannot create equality of accident compensation with Thai nationals who remain covered by the WCF, and is in breach of international law and human rights standards. 
 
Over two million Burmese migrants currently work in Thailand, most in low-skilled, dangerous jobs. While the majority of these workers entered Thailand illegally, over one million have registered to work. 
 
Labour activists submitted a petition to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 26 October, calling for action on this issue and on the general abuse of migrant workers in Thailand. The LabourStart campaign condemns the Thai government&rsquo;s inaction on the human trafficking of migrants. 
 
Visit the LabourStart Act NOW Campaign <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=783">here</a>, to send a message to the Thai Government.

Burmese Migrant Workers in Thailand Warrants Support

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ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person Phee Jungsun visited ICEM affiliates in India and Pakistan 18-22 October. The mission was to increase understanding of the challenges facing ICEM members in those countries, and to coordinate ICEM support. 
 
The activities in India included a joint meeting with the four ICEM Indian affiliates, in Nagpur, 19 October. Those unions are the Indian National Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation (INMF), The Indian National Cement Workers&rsquo; Federation (INCWF), the Indian National Diamond &amp; Ornaments Workers&rsquo; Federation (INDOWF), and the HMS Chemical Mazdoor Federation. 
 
The National Chemical and Petroleum Federation joined the meeting as an observer. The meeting was chaired by Warda and Brother BK Das, INMF General Secretary, who also serves as the India Representative of the Council of ICEM Indian affiliates, formed in 2009. 
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The common focus of the four unions is on issues of Contract and Agency Labour (CAL), and organizing. The INMF reported on progress in mines in the state of Orissa, where a collective bargaining agreement was obtained to provide equal benefits of social security for CAL workers. In the cement sector, around 60% of all workforces are CAL workers. Several unions were set up by CAL cement workers, who then either joined INCWF or applied for membership directly to ICEM. Cement employers sack CAL workers whenever they try to form union or to join. 
 
The proposal was agreed by affiliates to hold a joint rally and symposium in New Delhi, the capital of India, on the issue of national legislation and social security benefits for CAL workers. It will be a joint action with the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) and the International Textiles, Garment, Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF). 
 
In the chemicals sector, due to common characteristics of small numbers of employees in a company, trade unions are not powerful, except for in the large state-owned fertilizer or petro-chemical companies. 
 
Pharmaceutical unions in MNCs were active until ten years ago, but have been destroyed by aggressive relocation strategies of employers, seeking unorganized workforces. Contrary to the high economic growth rate every year, trade unions in the manufacturing sector are in decline, especially in private companies. The unification of trade unions in Indian manufacturing seems more and more necessary. 
 
The mission continued to Karachi, Pakistan, on 21-22 October, where meetings were held with the three ICEM affiliates: the Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF), the Pakistan Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Union (PCEM), and the Pakistan National Federation of Chemical, Energy, and Pharmaceutical Workers&rsquo; Union. 
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ICEM Mission to Pakistan
The Secretary General of the PCMLF, Sultan Muhammad Khan, and Pir Muhammad, Education Secretary, presented the challenges of the major industry federation, based in Quetta, Balochistan Province. It is the largest mining union in Pakistan, with a total membership of 130,000. Members suffer from occupational diseases, including TB, and Hepatitis A and C, with high numbers of fatal accidents at work. The numbers of death at work cases are 136 per year, with little help from the government since many labour inspectors are corrupt. 
 
The PCEM, led by General Secretary Muhammad Suhail, has 2,000 members, and is based in Karachi, Sindh Province. 
 
The Pakistan National Federation of Chemical, Energy, and Pharmaceutical Workers&rsquo; Union, led by General Secretary Khalil Ur Rehman, has 1,500 members, and is also based in Karachi. The union has national affiliation to the APFOL-PWF, an ITUC affiliate.

ICEM Supports Pakistan, India Affiliates in Tough Challenges

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A six-week strike by contract workers of Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) in Tamil Nadu state, India, ended on 27 October, after intervention by state Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi. Some 13,000 contract workers, represented by six unaffiliated unions, began strike actions at the state-owned coal and electric generating company on 19 and 20 September after putting forward a ten-point charter of demands. 
 
Included in that charter was a demand to make workers with ten years or more of service permanent workers of the company. Other demands included wage revisions, equal pay for equal work, regularization of services, and certain work terms. 
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The settlement came after the six unions requested mediation by both state officials and the Coal Ministry in New Delhi. Also crucial in settling the walkout was a threat by the 750 permanent workers of NLC that they would strike if an accord was not reached. On 22 October, permanent staff also did a day of fasting in support of the striking contract workers. 
 
The agreement, reached late in the evening of 27 October, gave contract workers an additional monthly pay of 1,560 rupees (&euro;26), plus 1,000 rupees (&euro;16) on top of a minimum bonus. There was also an assurance that the contract workers would not be victimized by taking part in the strike. 
 
The strike was marked by road blockades to power plants, and mass arrests. Two weeks into the strike, contract workers affiliated to two other unions &ndash; an affiliate of the Labour Progressive Front, connected to the Tamil Nadu ruling party Davida Munnetra Kazhagam, and the Union of Dalit Panthers &ndash; broke with the other unions and signed a five-year contract with NLC.

State Indian Coal Company Settles Strike with Contract Workers

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The ICEM Asia Social Dialogue Project, funded by FNV Mondiaal of The Netherlands and Sweden&rsquo;s LO-TCO, with the support of Swedish affiliates IF Metall and Pappers, organizes some 50 seminars per year for trade unionists in the region. ICEM Project Officer Fons Vannieuwenhuyse participated in two recent seminars, on 13-15 October in Indonesia, and 20-21 October in India. 
 
Two new project coordinators have joined the work, Indah Saptorini in Indonesia and Ashutosh Bhattacharya in India, both now country coordinators. Both Indah and Ashutosh are already valuable members of the team. 
 
Workers in both countries reported that participation in ICEM project work was valued highly, with, in addition to the ICEM Asia Social Dialogue Project, also two other projects being very active: the ICEM HIV &amp; AIDS project and its Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) programme. The CAL Project in India, for example, has led to a number of successful organising drives, and it also has uncovered some horrid working conditions. 
<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/1010.India_.Ashutosh.jpg" width="110" height="140" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/1010.IndonesiaIndah.jpg" width="130" height="133" /> 
 
New ICEM Project Coordinators, Ashutosh Bhattacharya, Indah Saptorini
At both seminars, contact details were exchanged and mini-networks set up, to be coordinated by the country coordinators. 
 
Both seminars had a number of women participating, and a significant proportion of participants were young workers. 
 
In both Indonesia and India, the problems of outsourcing and contracting were identified by all as a key issue. In Indonesia, virtually no CAL worker is unionised, while the organising rate of directly employed permanent workers inside companies represented was reasonably high. The situation is a little better in India, although it changes drastically from sector to sector. In the public sector, which includes mining, organising CAL workers is possible and is being done. In the private sector, it is much more difficult. Trade unions in both India and Indonesia also face major difficulties in bargaining with employers, as they receive little to no information from the company on anything. 
<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/1010.project.Indonesia3.jpg" width="220" height="113" />
ICEM General Project coordinator Yoon Hyowon, right
Korean Projects Coordinator Yoon Hyowon leads most of the seminars of the project, which runs in 6 different South-East and South-Asian Countries. In Indonesia, participants indicated that direct permanent workers get a &ldquo;decent wage&rdquo; (defined as &ldquo;enough for a family to survive on&rdquo;) in 16 out of the 23 companies present. On average, the direct permanent workers earn around 2.5 million Indonesian rupees (about &euro;200). In contrast, a &ldquo;decent wage&rdquo; was paid to CAL workers in only one out of 23 companies. 
 
These CAL workers, working for the same multinational companies, but through a subcontractor, get on average only 1.25 million Indonesian rupees (about &euro;100), or about half for doing the same job. Judging from the figures quoted at the seminar in Indonesia, typically around 20-50% of the workforce is outsourced, depending on the company. Sometimes it is even more. 
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In India, unions indicated that the number of industrial disputes is low, but that, as in Indonesia, more and more core workers find their jobs outsourced. Once a job is outsourced, the same work is typically being done at much lower wages and much lower benefits. In the mining sector in India, CAL workers earn, on average, about 45% of what direct permanent workers earn. 
 
Without exception, all average salaries quoted by outsourced workers in India, from Lafarge, BASF, Rhodia, Holcim, FAG, Goodyear, and others, were lower than the decent wage. Around 25-60% of all workers in the ICEM sectors are said to be outsourced. For these outsourced workers, an average wage is 4,000 to 6,000 Indian rupees (or &euro;65-100), while the suggested needed living (&ldquo;survival&rdquo;) wage was said to be 15,000 Indian rupees (&euro;250). A typical wage for a directly employed permanent worker in India in the ICEM sectors, doing the same job as the outsourced worker, is around 15,000 to 20,000 Indian rupees (&euro;250-350). 
 
The Indian National Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation (INMF) is organising CAL workers, bringing in over 30,000 CAL workers in the last two years. And the union is close to achieving an additional clause on contract workers in its national mining agreement for the first time. That provides a bonus for contract workers. The situation is worse in the cement, diamond, and chemical sectors, where virtually all CAL workers are dismissed as soon as they try to set up or join a union.

ICEM Asian Project Work Uncovers Shocking Conditions for Contract Workers

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Scores of electrical workers descended on the headquarters of the National Power Authority (NPA) in Freeport, Sierra Leone, on 25 October, protesting the failed implementation of promised wage increases. Their target was Energy, Power, and Water Minister Ogunlade Davidson, who workers claim does not even know the number of staff employed at NPA. 
 
The manifestation was not a strike, but a strike is threatened if the government does not follow through on a negotiated 60% wage increase plus other social provisions that are due. In Sierra Leone, a country that is still struggling to come out of an 11-year civil war, the standard of living for workers is among the world&rsquo;s lowest. 
<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/SierraLeone.png" width="150" height="69" />
At the 25 October protest, electricity workers chanted slogans saying they were tired of waiting for long-awaited salary increases, and growing weary of supporting the government&rsquo;s Agenda for Change. One demand calls for workers in the meter reading and disconnection service of NPA, some of whom have been working for NPA as casual staff for up to eight years, to finally be put on the official payroll. 
 
Several government leaders were allowed to address the demonstrators but when Davidson himself attempted to speak, he was shouted down. 
 
The leader of the Senior Staff Association for Energy and Water Resources, Emmanuel Wilson Taylor, said 20% of the negotiated increase had been awarded, but the remaining 40%, which was suppose to take effect in early October, was not granted. At a follow-up meeting on 21 October, government officials told union representatives that the remaining salary increase would only be made if workers agreed to forego the many social improvements they were offered. 
 
The ICEM supports the electricity workers of Sierra Leone in their justified efforts to improve their working lives and their livelihoods.

Public Sector Electrical Workers Protest in Sierra Leone

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The garment workers of Delta Style in the city of Soligorsk, Southern Belarus, have been attempting to organize a local union within the structure of ICEM-affiliated Belarusian Independent Trade Union (BNP) for some time. The 101 women at the factory have seen their efforts blocked by the local administration repeatedly, according to BNP Chairman Vasili Korabau. 
 
Efforts by the women to achieve trade union recognition began on 29 May 2009, when they conducted three constituent assemblies, each time submitting registration documents to the Soligorsk District Executive. 
 
Local officials, however, rejected the submission on administrative grounds, saying that certain documents were submitted late, or not signed by the correct people. Reacting to the submission for trade union recognition, the local authorities requested details of the trade union meeting, and of those workers present. When this information was given to the local authorities, company management immediately began intimidating those workers named. Workers were brought into the director&rsquo;s office and interrogated and also present for these meetings were others, presumed to be employees of the local authority. 
<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Belarus.png" width="150" height="153" />
This blatant breach of labour rights by the company, teamed with the local government, is appalling and the ICEM condemns such nefarious actions. 
 
The intimidation caused 30 workers to leave the trade union. The Regional Chair of BNP, Natalia Mihnjukevich, attempted to meet with those workers in recent months and was promptly arrested for attempting to organize meetings with the workers. She was then found guilty in a regional court on 27 August, and fined. 
 
This treatment of Mihnjukevich moved those 30 workers who had left the union, to return and re-submit the documents for trade union recognition once again. The submission was again refused, on the grounds that all workers involved in making the request were no longer employed at the factory at the time of consideration. If these grounds for refusal are permitted to stand, the company has the power to relocate one worker during the consideration period, which lasts at least one month. The other main reason for the rejection of trade union recognition was, according to the authorities, that the local had not yet applied to become part of the BNP regional organization. Although the BNP rules require local recognition prior to becoming part of the regional and national union. 
 
The ICEM is requesting that affiliates support BNP and its oppressed workers by taking action. Write a note of protest to the Soligorsk Regional Executive Committee and the JSC Delta Style management <a href="mailto:solret@tut.by">here</a> and <a href="mailto:deltastyl@tut.by">here</a>.&nbsp;

Belarus: Local Government Blocks Women Garment Workers in Organising

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Oppression of the 30,000 technical and professional employees of PEMEX, Mexico&rsquo;s state-owned petroleum company, continued on 22 October when the General Secretary of Local 1 of the National Union of Technical and Professional Petroleum Workers (UNTyPP) was given &ldquo;forced retirement.&rdquo; 
 
The sacking of Mois&eacute;s Flores Salmer&oacute;n of Coatacoalcos, Veracruz State, is a clear attempt to intimidate workers and to block effective organising. He was informed of his &ldquo;retirement&rdquo; by the manager of labour relations of PEMEX, Francisco Javier Ramirez Rodriguez. There was no disciplinary procedure of any kind, and ironically came nine days after the PEMEX CEO appeared before the Mexican House of Deputies on 13 October, and expressed recognition and respect for UNTyPP. 
 
PEMEX white-collar staff of UNTyPP achieved official trade union recognition on 19 December 2009, following several years of struggle. After this successful legal battle, culminating in certification from the Secretary of Labour and Social Welfare office for the Registration of Associations (STPS), members of the new union were informed by company management that in order to retain their jobs, they would be required to sign two documents, one calling for the cancellation of the registration, the other a resignation from the union. 
<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/ICEMoil3.JPG.JPG" width="110" height="109" />
Those who refused, along with organisers of the UNTyPP, were fired and violently removed from their workstations by paramilitaries, including the entire National Executive Committee of the union. 
 
A global campaign putting pressure on the Mexican House of Deputies from March 2010 did lead to some reinstatements of those sacked, and to some limited progress in negotiations, although the PEMEX management chooses to conduct dialogue mostly with the corrupt union STPRM, with whom &ldquo;protection contracts&rdquo; have been agreed. 
 
This is the second time that Mois&eacute;s Flores Salmer&oacute;n has been sacked by PEMEX for trade union activity. The first sacking came seven years ago. He was reinstated last year. 
 
Also in Mexico, the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) held a strategy meeting on union building in Mexico City on 13-14 October, seeking ways to jointly build democratic union power in Mexico. The meeting, which included participation by the ICEM, was a follow-up to the <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3882-Mexican-Teach-in-Charts-North-American-Union-Solidarity">Mexico Teach-In</a> conference in Toronto, 20 June. The ICEM proposed to carry out action days at Mexican embassies and a tour for Mexican trade unionists in the US and Canada.

Leader of White-Collar PEMEX Union in Mexico Sacked

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