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Number 8 Spring 2014

The Call of the Millions We are nothing and we should be everything. This is the call of the millions…

Workers of the world - welcome to 2014

In this issue: global sport and workers rights – Rio p2; protection and the unions p4; millions in action p6; in short p7; book review p8; solidarity interview p10; the extras p13.

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righting the wrongs: Rio We've seen the dire situation facing workers building the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2022 World Cup. In the case of this year's World Cup though there's a more positive story to tell. Brazil shows us what the power of unions can do when confronted with the need to create huge structures at rapid speed..... The Brazilian preparations are vast, covering the construction of a dozen World Cup venues. Carrying on from their previous work, the BWI linked up with Brazilian unions in 2011 on a campaign to secure workers rights in the run-up to Rio 2014. By 2013 the Pact for Decent Work was ready to launch, cementing respect for a set of labour rights established by ILO Conventions. These cover the use of forced and child labour and human trafficking; the prevention of sexual exploitation of children and adolescents; and the building of initiatives so the labour involved in preparing the event becomes permanent employment.

Prior to this the institutionalised clout of the Brazilian unions was already at work, with the signing of a tripartite agreement covering the construction sector in 2011.

This pact established commitments in the areas of recruitment, vocational training and health and safety at work.

But as we know, any agreement is only as strong as its enforcement and policing at the grassroots level of the workplace. And the events of the run-up to Rio 2014 have demonstrated this truth many times over...... Unions are increasingly drawing attention to health and safety violations and short cuts at the stadia (and other projects), with a sharp rise in the number of injuries and fatalities in recent months as the pressures to finish these massive constructions in time for 2014 mount. Arenas in Sao Paulo, Manaus and Curitiba have all been put into the spotlight here, 6 workers paying the ultimate price as working days lengthen, and safety procedures short-circuited. In the case of Curitiba, a local judge delivered this verdict after an inspection showed over 200 safety violations:

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workers were in danger of “being buried, run over and of collision, falling from heights and being hit by construction material, among other serious risks”.

Unions have been forced to take strike action many times over to protest at these working conditions, as well as issues over pay and benefits. We asked Nilton Freitas, regional representative of the BWI, about the extent of this action. He reckoned: “Thousands of construction workers went to strike, around 300,000 in 2012 during the top of the developing projects.”

The stoppages have been held all over the country. Stadia in Salvador, Recife, Natal, Fortaleza, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte as well as Rio de Janeiro's famous Maracana site have been affected. The Sao Paulo construction workers union SINTRAPAV-SP has staged 25 stoppages itself. Gains have sometimes been substantial. In a 2011 walkout at the Mineirao stadium, the STICBH union won wage and benefit increases that raised overall salaries by around 15%. Nor are these actions isolated examples – elsewhere in the construction sector, workers have taken action. The FENATRACOP union reported that around 150,000 workers walked out in the first three months of 2012 alone.

From a wider angle, the efforts of these unions to defend workers rights dovetail with the protests of working people and the poor that rocked the nation in summer 2023 and more recently. These actions were mounted originally against rising public transport costs, but embody more general calls for better public services and social justice in one of the most unequal societies in the world. And rightly so.

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the price of protection 2014 began with some optimistic economic predictions on the fortunes of a quartet of rising economies. Under the acronym MINT (= Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) promises of new and exciting 'investment opportunities' were made. As for the workers, little has been said about them in this stargazing. COTM thinks it’s time to ask that question, beginning here with M for Mexico.....

Political Incorporation Mexico is a country with a long tradition of trade unionism, but there are widely held concerns on its scope and effectiveness. Well entrenched unions and union federations – CTM, CROM, CROC – have been closely associated with the predominant political party, the PRI (and its recent successor the PAN). Critics consider these official unions as part of a tripartite power structure, in concert with employers and the state. This acts to police labour disputes and hamper grass- roots activism through a mixture of political co-optation, state repression and a restrictive labour law system.

Any small independent unions and federations that have emerged and survived in this context, such as the Authentic Labor Front (FAT), are continually battling against the range of obstacles set up by this 'triple alliance'.

Protection Contracts First and foremost of the problems faced by grassroots trade unionism in Mexico is the phenomenon of the protection contract. These contracts are signed between employers and either one of the official unions or so-called ghost unions. These entities have no presence in the workplace, provide no genuine representation for the workers, and are paid by the employer to maintain labour peace. Typically the workers have no knowledge of this contract, let alone any control over it. In some cases, contracts are signed before the plant or factory is even built. Up to 80 - 90% of all contracts signed in Mexico are reckoned to be of this kind. In Jalisco there were 481 unions declared to be in existence, with 35,674 contracts being signed in 2012: some unions signed hundreds of these. The research carried out by CEREAL noted that one union leader alone signed 466 collective agreements in 2012.

Trying to Organise The main point of these fictions is to prevent independent labour representation. Suppose workers try to get genuine grassroots representation, either by setting up their own plant level organisation or joining one of the few small independent unions. Once their employer declares there is already a protection contract in place, granting representation to another body, the workers need to petition the local labour board for an election, to decide which organisation they want. Coincidentally or not these local bodies

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are staffed with state, employers and ghost union representatives, leaving the petitioners at a bit of a disadvantage..... If an election is eventually held, then another peculiarity of Mexican labour law arises. These take place in the plant, without a secret ballot, and involve workers publicly stating in front of labour board representatives and their employers who they are voting for. Intimidation and corruption are rife, in an effort to secure the 'correct', pro-employer result – usually to significant effect, sadly. There are far too many examples of these practices, witnessed and accounted for in the annals of Mexico's independent labour movement, and its supporters, to doubt their existence.

The Need for Reform Demands for change have been called for by those wishing to see a properly democratic labour movement in Mexico, both from within the country and overseas. IndustriALL ran a week-long series of international protests in February 2013 around the issue. On the wish list is an end to protection contracts; secret ballots in workplace elections; and a public register of union bodies. Labour law reform has been on the agenda of the ruling political parties for some time too. However none of the above issues are a priority for the PRI or the PAN. When the reforms finally got legislative endorsement toward the end of 2012, no democratic demand was included. The protection contract regime is still intact, the barriers to fair workplace elections stand tall. Instead a raft of new measures were

added to the labour law system, to increase labour flexibility and improve competitiveness. None of this involves anything much that helps genuine trade union activity, deliberately so.

Verdicts So if we return to our original question, the significance of increased investment and economic growth for Mexican workers, it seems clear there is no good fortune heading their way. Lets leave it to the radicals of the OECD to sum this up. In a study on the growth of economic inequality done in 2011, it described Mexico like this: “Mexicans have the second highest level of income inequality and the highest level of relative poverty in the OECD”. Latest figures suggest around 53 million people are living in poverty in the country (about 45%of the total population). Let's end with some good news:- A long running effort to gain genuine representation by the Honda workers trade union STUHM, has recently had a decisive boost. A legal ruling on their legitimacy as a workers organisation, and against efforts by the SETEAMI protection union to outlaw STUHM, boosts the chances of a workplace election that Honda workers can hopefully take advantage of. The struggle goes on.......

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the millions in action:

opposing the TPP On January 31 a wave of protests were held across the USA, Canada and Mexico against a new international trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP is a sort of mega NAFTA project designed to further strengthen corporate control over the global economy – it will cover around 40% of world trade.

“Like NAFTA, the TPP has little to do with trade, and more to do with perpetuating a global race to the bottom for all workers”. (Benjamin Gerritz)

“We demand the supremacy of human rights over corporate privileges” (from the Joint Declaration against TPP)

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in short: midwinter You might think our cover photo is an early April fool. It isn't. Warehouse workers in the year of 2014, in the richest nation on earth, really do graft in structures open to the elements.... The story comes from the Wal-Mart distribution supply chain, in a sub-contractor's warehouse, LINC logistics, based in Indiana. January 2014 saw America enduring a big freeze; workers in this warehouse took action to force their employer to provide heat in their store on the coldest day for over 30 years. LINC refused, so the warehousers stopped work.

This set off a short and successful campaign by the Indiana workers, including a complaint to Wal-Mart citing violations of the corporations standards for suppliers policy. And so heaters were installed. That wasn't the end of the story. Reprisals began, with workers fired, disciplined, threatened and suspended for taking part in actions. Dion Stammis, a warehouse worker said: “All we want is to work in safety and be treated fairly.... But instead of fixing the dangerous conditions, my co-workers and I were threatened, disciplined and fired”.

in short: exodus Workers rights are in short supply across the Middle East. The armies of migrant workers many countries rely on are in an especially precarious state, as we saw in our report on Qatar 2022. Even here though, they did not face the brutal strategy of mass eviction and deportation by their hosts, that gathered pace in Saudi Arabia in the last months of 2013. The background to this is a new labour law introduced in the oil kingdom, intended to boost the employment prospects of indigenous workers at the expense of migrant labour. Some see this as a calculated attempt to forestall any Arab Spring style uprising by the armies of young unemployed Saudis. Whether that's true or not, the impact of the 'nitaqat' has been catastrophic for the millions of foreign workers the Saudi economy has long relied upon. Ethiopians, Yemenis, Indians and Filipinos have all been caught en masse in the crackdown on the undocumented. An estimated 150,000 Ethiopian workers have been returned to their impoverished homeland, where chances of employment are scarce and poverty rife. Ahead of this over a million workers had already left the kingdom during the seven month amnesty period introduced with the nitaqat.

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book review: 'The Box' Marc Levinson (2008).

This book tracks the growth of containerisation and the changes it brought to the shipping industry and the wider global economy. For Levinson, the humble metal box has been a revolutionary force. Containerised freight dramatically boosted global trade, spurred on new networks of manufacturing across the globe and the rise of massive new ports, where IT systems (not labour) control the flow of goods. Along the way, established labour forces and communities were swept aside, altering the context for trade union activity. In contrast to the revolutionary impact of 'the box', his analysis is pretty conservative – a mainstream perspective of heroic entrepreneurs battling against industry vested interests, government regulation and defensive trade unions, in the heroic cause of efficiency and cheaper freight. Let's begin with the typical way of

transporting cargo before the container – 'break-bulk' shipping. This piece by piece loading, unloading and warehousing of goods was a slow, complicated process relying on armies of manual labour, leaving ships tied up at the docks for days. Although dock work was irregular and reliant on casual labour (hired daily) it had been possible for trade unions to win a foothold in the industry through militant action. In some places unions were in charge of hiring labour and had established a web of rules and practices to maximise employment and control port operations: the ILWU in America is a classic example. Containerisation threatened this balance of forces – transporting large boxes of cargo intact, with automated loading and unloading signalled dramatic reductions in the amount of labour needed and its control over the labour process. Levinson looks at the battles over containerisation in the US during the 1960s by way of illustration. The major longshore unions on the West and East coasts were well aware of what was at stake. On the Atlantic side the International Longshoremens Association fought a number of battles against automation. Eventually in 1965 it agreed a Guaranteed Annual Income package with the employers, protecting income for its members, in return for smaller work gang sizes and less control over dock work. Out West the rival International Longshoremen and Warehousemens union had already reached a settlement covering the entire Pacific coast on mechanisation and modernisation, This secured a wage and retirement package worth $5 million per year, in return for less labour and more productivity. The destructive force of the container is

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well seen in its effects upon the ports. In the fifties New York City handled one third of US ocean trade in manufacturing, employing over 400,000 in its operations and associated industries (including the location of manufacturing nearby). But the creation of a new dedicated container facility across in New Jersey sucked trade away: this grew to become a busy trans-shipment hub, boosted by the arrival of international container shipping in the late 1960s. By the 1970s, New York City was in decline handling only a fraction of the freight passing through it a decade earlier. Massive job losses followed on the docks and in trucking, distribution and wholesale industries. Manufacturing relocated elsewhere, destroying the base of one of the largest industrial centres in the US. Similar dynamics were at work in the UK, where Felixstowe and Tilbury replaced London and Liverpool as maritime centres. The chance to set up new facilities outside of union jurisdiction was an added factor. Across in Asia, massive government investment in container terminals got underway in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, capitalising on the growth of trade routes to the US. Singapore was to become the largest container port in the world by the turn of the century. Levinson is at pains to stress that the triumph of The Box was not a simple or quick process. Many obstacles existed, within the industry and from its regulators. His account of its development is long and drawn out, governed by a master narrative of 'cost and efficiency' that is of limited interest. The main contours of this are worth noting though. Containerised freight required a whole new, expensive transport infrastructure. Change was slow on the land side of the industry and it was only much later that

the first integrated (or 'intermodal') movement of boxes across land and sea appeared. International freight became a reality in the late 1960s, with purpose built vessels and expanding trade routes between America and Asia. The Vietnam War played a critical role here according to the author. Considered purely as a logistical problem, sustaining the US forces in East Asia meant moving huge volumes of material and provisions. The US military were persuaded by advocates of containerisation that a shift away from break-bulk freight was needed, alongside building deep water terminals in Asia. These changes then allowed carriers like Sea Land to ship goods back to the US from Japan on their return journeys, opening up the Pacific trade route. As more shipping lines moved over to container freight, and the global infrastructure of deep water ports, large vessels and new ocean routes grew, so the young industry found itself trapped in the classic capitalist dynamic of boom and bust. During the 1970s, shipping lines saw their fortunes ebb and flow in tandem with wider economic shifts, a non-stop relay of new vessels and ports and intensifying competition. Overcapacity led to pressure upon shipping rates (agreed by cartel-like 'conferences' on each route), cost-cutting, mergers and bankruptcies. The rash of expensive port upgrades left many facilities underused, prompting public authorities to scrap port management and sell their operations to the private sector. The introduction of new independent shipping lines (Maersk, Evergreen), outside the cartels, brought further cost-cutting and competition. They were more than willing to strike individual deals with mega retailers, dealing a fatal blow to the whole conference rate structure. Parallel

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moves to deregulate the transport industry completed the container revolution of the shipping industry. In the US, carriers and users were now free to agree rates between themselves, reducing freight costs still further; railroads now poured massive investment into double-stacked rail cars. Low cost, high volume, quick, seamless freight transportation had arrived. That isn't the end of the story though - The Box was to prove an explosive force further afield. Falling freight costs allowed manufacturers to begin 'dis-integrating' their operations, seeking out cheaper raw materials and components. A profound spatial rearrangement took hold from the 1980s, following the adoption of just-in-time production techniques, whose preference for precise deliveries and reduced inventories altered trade and transport patterns. Major retailers were able to take control of whole supply chains, scattering production and then recombining it through containerised transport: most boxes carry intermediate goods not finished products. These developments transformed the global distribution of manufacturing, Western states losing out as production moved East and South. Today the metal box lies at the centre of an automated system for moving goods from anywhere to anywhere, quickly, cheaply and easily. The container was not just shipping news: it had “sweeping consequences for workers and consumers all around the globe” as Levinson says. But what is missing from this book is any focus on the truckers, railroad and warehouse workers so affected. For that you could track down Edna Bonacich's 'Getting the Goods'.

solidarity interview -

Bert Schouwenburg GMB

The GMB's international focus has been on the tropical fruit industry for some time now. How do you rate its progress? We continue to work with Latin American trade unions representing workers on tropical fruit plantations, often in partnership with the Norwich-based Banana Link who, unusually for an NGO, are much attuned to the labour agenda. With them, we have established our International Solidarity Fund, aimed at raising funds and awareness from GMB regions and branches to support our work. To be brutally honest, it has not been as successful as we would have liked but we understand the competing demands on union funds and the tendency for people to look inwards during times of crisis. It is our job to make GMB activists realise that international solidarity is not something that is separate from the domestic agenda but rather the frontline in a global struggle against the ravages of 21st century capitalism.

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Out in the field, little has changed. Throughout Latin America, conditions for workers producing bananas and other fruits are deeply unsatisfactory, characterised by low wages, long hours, precarious employment, health and safety violations and union-busting. As one would expect, there are variations and exceptions to the rule and, ironically given the prevailing, violent anti-union culture, Colombian union, SINTRAINAGRO’s banana-producing members enjoy some of the best terms and conditions in the industry. Elsewhere, in Guatemala and Honduras for instance, trying to organise trade union activity on plantations is an extremely dangerous business and, consequently, membership levels are very low. The purchasing power of large supermarket chains remains one of the principal reasons why workers’ wage levels are so depressed. Particularly in the UK, banana price wars between the biggest retailers have driven down prices to such an extent that even the more enlightened employers find it difficult to pay their employees a living wage. You served for a number of years as the trade union representative for the Fairtrade Foundation. Has that experience left you optimistic about the role Fairtrade can play in improving workers rights? Fairtrade International has recently unveiled its new “Hired Labour Standard” that certificated plantations are supposed to observe. It is a comprehensive document featuring provision for living wages, freedom of association, health and safety provision and so on. While it is undoubtedly better than the preceding standard, it is only as good as

the measures used to enforce it and on labour standards generally social auditing has proved to be little better than useless. Unless there are independent trade unions present in Fairtrade plantations, the provisions of the Hired Labour Standard will in many cases be largely ignored One of the biggest labour stories of 2013 was the Rana Plaza disaster. In its wake it seems like real progress is now coming to the Bangladeshi garment industry through the Building and Fire Safety Accord. Do you agree? By the dismal standards of the Bangladesh garment industry, the Fire and Building Safety Accord is certainly a step in the right direction but it is a disgrace that it took the slaughter of thousands of workers in countless fires and “accidents” leading up to Rana Plaza before anything was done. And even then, some companies had to be forced to sign up whilst others, notably Walmart, still refuse to participate. Regardless of what accords or codes are in place, they will still have to be monitored and enforced, something that will not be a straightforward task in a country where the government is hostile to organised labour and where unions are fragmented and disunited. Nor does the Accord do anything to address the underlying issue of the skewed terms of trade whereby Bangladesh and other poor countries in the global south compete with each other to provide cheap labour for huge transnational companies from the North who make extensive profits at the expense of an exploited, mostly female workforce. The international page of the GMB

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website says "trade unionism does not stop at international borders". How should trade unions take this insight forward – through grassroots exchanges, supply chain organising, global framework agreements, or what? Paradoxically, those politicians most likely to wrap themselves in the flag and complain about national sovereignty being ceded to Brussels are also those most likely to advocate free movement of capital across national borders and support policies that would give foreign transnational companies more power and influence than elected governments. In that sense, they are the true internationalists! Unfortunately, many trade unionists, let alone the general public, swallow politicians’ rhetoric about ‘national interest’ and allow themselves to be bamboozled by nationalist hyperbole. Trade union officials and activists who understand that the struggle for a better, more inclusive society does not stop at Dover have a fight on their hands to make their concerns relevant to the wider membership at large. Supply chain organising, partnership deals with unions abroad, exchanges and global framework agreements all have their place in moving the international agenda forward but arguably the most important – and most difficult – thing to do is bring our members with us and persuade them that bringing the means of production and exchange under democratic control has an international dimension. You have voiced concern in the past about the domination of multinational corporations over everyone and everything else in the world. What is your view of the Trans Pacific Partnership?

At the end of the last century, the global establishment in the shape of the OECD tried to introduce the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) a measure that, if implemented, would have given transnational corporations unprecedented power over nation states and governments. Following a concerted and ultimately successful campaign to discredit the initiative, it was dropped but that did not stop Big Business and its political representatives from trying other means to achieve their aims. Bilateral investment treaties between countries from the rich industrialised North and poorer countries from the South contained provisions that had been lost in MAI. Occasionally, renewed efforts were made to conclude multilateral treaties such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas, promoted by the younger US President Bush that was rejected by Latin American states during a dramatic meeting in Mar del Plata, Argentina in 2005. The TPP represents yet another attempt to put in place measures that would give unparalleled powers to multinational capital and, as such, has met fierce resistance in the USA where President Obama’s ability to fast track trade legislation has been curtailed by Congress. Perhaps its only saving grace is that it has helped put the spotlight on another ambitious deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which trade unionists everywhere should oppose and ensure that it joins the MAI in the dustbin of history.

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the extras The preparations for Rio 2014 are fully covered by the Building and Woodworkers International at: http://brazil.bwint.org/?page_id=51 On the history of the Mexican labour movement see Dan La Botz 'Mask of Democracy'. For current news the monthly online reports hosted by the UE website Mexican Labor News and Analysis is essential: http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/index.php The protection contract – workplace election nexus can be seen in full operation in the case studies covered by David Bacon in 'The Children of Nafta'. On the Honda workers story see: http://www.industriall-union.org/legal-victory-for-honda-workers-independent-union-in-mexico The Joint Declaration of the unions against the TPP is available here: http://www.ueunion.org/sites/default/files/JointDeclaration-20Nafta-Mexico.pdf The warehouse workers tale is covered by Warehouse Workers for Justice: https://www.facebook.com/warehouseworkersforjustice Al-Jazeera's website hosts a number of video reports of the migrant labour crackdown in Saudi Arabia.