Solidarity with unionists militants jailed, wounded, killed and layed out

Solidarity with unionist militants jailed, wounded, killed and layed out

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Kazakhstan: Justice for oil workers!

Over a period of several months, court trials related to the tragic events in Zanaozen of 16 December 2011 have taken place. Many months of dispute between oil workers and the management of oil companies, with the connivance of the authorities, resulted in disorders, violence and the uncontrolled use of force by police, which caused the death of 17 and injuries to dozens of people. Not only oil workers were killed and injured, but also citizens of Kazakhstan who had no involvement with the labour conflict.

Dozens of people, whose involvement is contestable, were subsequently charged. Many of them were sentenced to different terms in prison. During the process, international observers, representatives of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and OSCE, human rights defenders and journalists recorded numerous violations in the trial processes. Almost all defendants and some of witnesses stated that they were tortured in the course of the investigation, but the trials were not suspended. The trials were conducted in an environment of extreme tensions and close to a state of emergency measures in the region.

The international trade union movement demands that the sentences be reconsidered, that all cases of torture and provocation be thoroughly investigated, and that national legislation that envisages criminal responsibility for “calling for social strife” and that is used selectively to put pressure on trade unionists, human rights activists and public figures, be changed.

Turkey: Free jailed trade unionists now

On 25 June, Turkish police detained 71 trade union members and leaders in around 20 cities. They are members of the ITUC-affiliated Confederation of Public Sector Workers’ Unions (KESK) and the KESK-affiliated unions such as BTS, Tarim Orkam-Sen, Egitim-Sen, SES, Tum Bel-Sen, BES, ESM and Haber-Sen. The police raided the union offices and houses of trade unionists in the early hours of the day. This attack – carried out under the pretext of an operation against an illegal terrorist organisation – is the latest in a number of acts of intimidation and harassment against trade unions and their members during the years under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). For example, in February this year, 15 women leaders and activists of a number of KESK-affiliated unions were arrested. While the first link between Turkey’s trade unions and any real or perceived terrorist organisation has yet to be found, the authorities leave no opportunity untapped to refer to such an alleged link as an excuse for harsh and arbitrary repression. Join the ITUC and Global Union Federations such as EI, ITF and PSI in condemning these anti-union harassment tactics by sending this message to Prime Minister Erdogan, urging him to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all 71 detained trade unionists.

UK: Support London bus workers

Hundreds of thousands of people are working tirelessly to make the London 2012 Olympic Games a success; including the bus workers who will deal with the extra 800,000 people expected to be using London’s buses. There is no doubt that there will be massive pressures on London’s transport network and huge demands on London’s transport workers. With only weeks to go to the Games and despite repeated calls by UNITE the union for fairness, London’s bus operators are still refusing the Olympic payment that has been offered to virtually every single London transport worker. This is why London bus workers staged a one-day strike on 22 June. Bus workers are only asking for recognition for their extra contribution to help London run smoothly. For the 29 days of the Olympic and Paralympic Games that’s only an extra £17.24 a day. Join London Bus workers in demanding “FAIR PLAY 4 BUS PAY” . Please send this message to the 21 London bus operators refusing to give the workers a fair deal.

Spain: Striking coal miners on the front line of austerity fight

10,000 coal miners in Spain are on the front line of the European austerity debate as their workplaces are shut down by big national budget cuts, to pay for the debts of the banks.

At the end of May miners began an underground sit-in, triggering a massive regional stoppage, which has been met with some dramatic, bloody and violent responses. The crisis UGT and CC.OO unions are facing was reported to the congress of the new 50 million member IndustriALL Global Union.

Delegates heard that the Spanish government is refusing to talk to the workers about the massive job losses.

China: Who killed Li Wangyang?

Two days after the 23rd anniversary of the June 4th Massacre, Li Wangyang, a labour activist since the 1980s, was found dead in a hospital in which he was being detained, in Shaoyang City of Hunan Province. The police claimed that it was a suicide and forcibly took his body away. Li’s family is not convinced by the police version and requests an investigation into his death. However, the Chinese Government disregarded the public concern and cremated Li’s body. Just a few days before his mysterious death, Li gave an interview to a Hong Kong television station, publicly criticizing the Chinese government for oppressing dissidents. Many believe that his death could be retaliation by the authorities. Li Wangyang’s fate is shared by many dissidents in China. The Chinese government has a long tradition of outlawing labour activists and brutally cracking down on their actions. According to the ITUC/GUF Hong Kong Liaison Office’s information, at least 36 labour activists are imprisoned, due to their involvement in organising strikes, protests or independent workers’ organisations. This figure is just the tip of the iceberg, as many of them are detained without any legal proceeding or simply cracked down by the police. Very often, their stories are never heard. We call upon the international labour unions and civil society to show us solidarity, by joining us in sending this message to the Chinese government.

Iraq: End harassment of oil union activists

Iraqi government agencies frequently interfere with internal union affairs, punishing union activists by imposing forced transfers, demotions, fines, travel restrictions, and other penalties allowed by Iraq’s labor law, which dates from the Saddam Hussein regime, as well as the law governing state employees. The suppression of worker rights has been most severe in the oil sector, where the Oil Ministry has worked hand in hand with the oil companies to enforce these punishments.

This harsh approach is evident in the April 17, 2011, arrests of 26 workers at the Maysan Oil Company in southern Iraq who were peacefully demonstrating against corporate corruption. Even though they had received advance permission to hold their demonstration, a Ministry of Oil investigation led to the reprimand of eight workers and a warning to 18 others. All 26 were instructed that further actions would lead to greater penalties being applied against them. Individual letters sent by the company on December 13, 2011, essentially stated that the workers’ livelihoods would be jeopardized if they continued to engage in such activity.

Additionally, Abdul Kareem Abdul Sada, vice president of the General Federation of Trade Unions and Workers’ Councils of Iraq (GFTUWCI)–Basra Branch, received a reprimand and six-month suspension of his salary bonus, in accordance with recommendations made by investigative committee No. 1129 on January 11, 2012. Hassan Juma’a Awwad, president of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), received a three-year grade demotion; Adel Abood, a board member of the southern oil union of the IFOU and member of the IFOU assembly board, received multiple written reprimands; and Abdul Khaliq Naser, a member of the GFTUWCI Oil union, received a warning letter, based on the recommendations of the same investigative committee. All were accused of “inciting unrest.”

Kazakh mining giants seek to placate labour dissent

At 65, Pavel Shumkin says he has lived a decade longer than the average coal miner in Kazakhstan. He recalls a time when he drank beer with his bosses after ascending, face blackened, from the coal face.

“Now, these bosses have billions and I have my pension of $150 a month,” he said. “They breathe a different air.”

Shumkin, an independent activist in the city of Karaganda, fights the corner of those who earn a modest living mining the resources that have made Kazakhstan’s $185 billion economy the largest in Central Asia.

Their demands have become impossible to ignore for the companies responsible for the country’s colossal Soviet-era plants and the towns that grew up around them. One thing must be avoided at all costs: another Zhanaozen.

At least 14 were killed during the riots that followed a seven-month labour dispute in the oil town in December, violence that shattered the image of stability cultivated by strongman President Nursultan Nazarbayev, himself a former steel worker.

With authorities at pains to ensure no repeat, employers have acquiesced to the wage demands of opportunistic workers who have staged a number of quick fire strikes since.

“It’s a good thing this boil has been burst,” said Shumkin. “If nothing changes, how can they answer the question: why won’t another Zhanaozen bubble up?”

Eight of Kazakhstan’s 27 designated “monogorods”, or single-industry towns, can be found in Karaganda province, a vast steppe region about the same size as Iraq. Most of Kazakhstan’s coal, copper and steel is produced here, in the nation’s centre.

Temirtau, Iron Mountain in Kazakh, is dominated by the smokestacks of the steel mill that employs a tenth of its 170,000 population. Nazarbayev spent a decade working in its blast furnaces. The eldest of his three daughters was born here.

Trams filled with steel workers rattle along the main avenue to the plant, past the bright orange logo of its owner, ArcelorMittal , the world’s largest steel maker.

Though monthly wages averaged about $775 last year, a third above the national average, living costs have also risen. In May, steel workers held a rally to demand a 30 percent hike in base salaries on top of an inflation adjustment of 7.4 percent.

“Life gets more expensive every day,” Viktor Kovyazin, 38, said at the end of his day’s shift in the plant’s coking shop. “The average person just doesn’t earn enough.”

The same message can be heard in the unkempt mining towns that surround Karaganda. A group of coal miners queuing for their bus under gathering stormclouds in Shakhtinsk were too afraid of losing their jobs to be identified.

“Our wages are too small for the three or four mouths that we have to feed,” one miner grumbled through gold teeth.

ArcelorMittal Temirtau paid its coal division employees an average monthly salary of $915 last year, an increase of slightly more than 12 percent on the previous year.

SHRINKING MARKETS

This year, the company has offered both its steel and coal workers a 10 percent increase in base salary. It’s a compromise that was accepted on June 19 by the coal miners’ trade union, on the understanding that talks will resume when markets improve.

Kazakh mining giants, including Glencore-controlled Kazzinc and London-traded Kazakhmys and ENRC, have reaped bumper profits on record-high commodity prices. They count some of the country’s richest men among their shareholders.

But the spectre of labour dissent has been compounded by a recent downturn in the market. Copper prices, for example, have fallen by nearly a fifth in the last year as concerns mount over Europe’s debt crisis and slowing economic growth in China.

ArcelorMittal’s Temirtau plant faced an even more sudden shock to demand when Western financial sanctions on Iran closed the door overnight on a market that accounted for a considerable portion of the mill’s sales last year.

Vijay Mahadevan, chief executive of ArcelorMittal Temirtau, said the government had advised the company to resolve its labour issues peacefully. Talks with the steel workers’ union are continuing.

“They way they are advising the company, they are also advising the unions to have continuous dialogue and come to a resolution based on negotiations rather than demonstrations,” he said. “Starting a strike is easy. Ending it may not be.”

Kazakhmys, the world’s 11th-largest copper miner, knows this too well. In May, around 80 miners refused to leave the Annensky mine when their shift ended. More than 200 joined the underground sit-in, emerging three days later with the promise of a pay rise.

A source close to Kazakhmys, who requested anonymity, said local activists had played on events in Zhanaozen to agitate for a strike at the Annensky mine, even though the company had begun a comprehensive overhaul of its wage structure months earlier.

Workers at its 1930s-built copper smelter in Balkhash had their salaries raised by at least 35 percent this year, with one proviso: they had to pass an exam to test whether their knowledge matched their pay grade. Fewer than 3 percent failed.

If Kazakhmys began its salary review programme pre-Zhanaozen, the government, on Nazarbayev’s orders, has devoted more attention to labour since.

“Everybody needs to plug into this: trades unions, employers and the state,” Labour Minister Gulshara Abdykalikova said. “A worker can make demands and an employer should consider them. It should not lead to the kind of situation we had in Zhanaozen.”

After the riots, Nazarbayev, never tolerant of dissent, removed his son-in-law from the top job at sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, ultimate owner of the oilfields around Zhanaozen. The fund has since created advisory bodies on labour issues.

A Western executive who attended one of the fund’s recent seminars said particular attention had been devoted to mid-level managers, who are often prone to neglect labour problems for fear of rebuke from further up the command chain.

It’s a problem that Shumkin has witnessed in Karaganda.

“Before you know it, the whole mine is at boiling point,” he said. “The big problem for society in Kazakhstan, and other countries in the same situation, is to change the way managers think before we reach breaking point.”

While companies are responsible for their workforce, social problems in one-industry towns run deeper. The wounded citizens of Zhanaozen interviewed by Reuters in December were mostly unemployed residents of a town that had outgrown its original purpose.

The government’s role is to support alternative industries. In Balkhash, another of Karaganda region’s monogorods, this means reducing dependence on the Kazakhmys copper smelter that looms by the shore of the half-freshwater, half-saline lake.

After the last increase, the average monthly salary at the smelter rose to about $1,000. But outside the plant, they are lower. After spending half his $400 wage on rent, power station worker Oleg Kudinkov, 46, says little is left to provide for a wife and two children.

A city government programme envisages that investment in road-building, fishing and tourism should help raise the working proportion of the population to 60 percent by 2020 from slightly less than half.

The miners of Karaganda region who will continue working underground, however, are hoping the promise will not fade of greater rewards for the dangerous work that they do.

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