CALL OF THE MILLIONS #11 WINTER 2014

Justice and Development in the World EconomyJustice and Development in the World Economy

in this issue: Turkey - more than Soma p2; after Rana Plaza p4; millions in action p7;solidarity interview p8; back in black friday p9.

The Turkish Context

News of the mining disaster at Soma hasdominated labour reporting of Turkey in 2014. Understandably so. But there is farmore to the Turkish scene than this. And here's a round-up of the action, with Turkey now lauded by some as a new investment opportunity....

Justice and Development

Turkey's workers, like many many others,found history in reverse gear towards the end of the last century. Economic and political crises signalled the end of the state-led development era and a shift to neo-liberal politics under the care of a military government. During the following decades manufacturing and state-led industry collapsed, with the loss of well paid union jobs; job security was swapped for flexibility and deregulation; the public sector faced privatisation; and informal labour practices boomed. By the dawn of our century, only 5% of the workforce wereunionised; and new production networks emerged as Turkish craft and home-working industries found their niche in globalising supply chains, beyond union reach.

Politically the Turkish state passed into the hands of the AKP (Justice and Development) party after 2002. Though drawing support from the millions of poor Turks, the AKP stayed bolted to the neo-liberal agenda. From here it designed new restrictions on worker's rights: to organise,strike or collectively bargain.

Unions have been harassed and shut down; democratic protest by workers (and others)have invited imprisonment. The political protests of June 2013 across the country showed graphically what Justice and Development mean in today's Turkey.

Union Power today

Take a closer look at the balance of forcesin the Turkish economy. Latest reports suggest an overall union density of9.6%.This figure hides massive variations: in the public sector, over 70% of workers are unionised. And agriculture - still accounting for 20% of the total workforce – is overwhelmingly staffed by unregistered workers and children.

Some labour disputes in Turkey have gained an international profile thanks to the work of particular GUFs and Labour Start - think of the recent Deva Holding case supported by IndustriALL and its local affiliate Petrol Is, or the cross-border response to the trials of KESK members. Over the last few years, hundreds of members and leaders of the KESK-affiliatedtrade unions have been arrested, detained,prosecuted and tried on several grounds forexercising their rights to freedom of expression and to peacefully demonstrate.

Further evidence of the obstacles to union activity is provided by the police raidon Istanbul's Burlap bag factory (where workers had been organizing work stoppageactions) and the banning of strike action atthe Sisecam glass factory.

The news isn't all bad though. UNI affiliate Guvenlik-Is reports spectacular growth results in the early days of its unionorganising. Since November 2013 it has grown from 800 members to over 7,000, now reaching the required density level to be able to collect fees and campaign for recognition in some of Turkey's large companies. UNI has brought organisers from its German affiliate to help out – a most practical form of international solidarity.

Health, Wealth and Safety

Soma was no one-off isolated incident. The evidence of a systemic disregard for safe workplaces across the Turkish economy is massive – the safety of wealth, not workers health, wins every time.According to the opposition Republican Peoples Party, there have been over 13,000deaths in the workplace during the AKP years in power – a staggering total. Though mine disasters get the headlines, other sectors like agriculture and construction have heavy casualties too. In the recent construction boom the number of workers in this sector grow from1.2 to 2 million. Apart from this massive influx, the structure of Turkish employment relations – where sub-contracting has grown apace – is also a significant factor in poor workplace safety.

Fragmentary work structures, poor training and a lack of job specification allow concerns for safety to slip between the cracks, no-one accepting responsibility.On top of that, the large number of unregistered and temporary workers in the Turkish economy make under-reporting of accidents more than likely.

The Source of the Problem ?

Sub-contractors are now major players in both the private and public sectors, with over one million workers trapped in their networks. Concerns over the working practices this temporary labour force endures have been at the forefront of Turkish labour protests in 2014.

In February an estimated 50,000 workers demonstrated in Ankara at the unfairness of subcontracted labour – including 20,000 members of the construction and building workers union YOL-IS.

Three months later, the subcontracting system found itself under concerted attack after the Soma mining disaster, with many of the casualties being part of these networks. The government was notoriously slow to accept any responsibility for this disaster; in fact at the same time, it was pushing for new legislation that would extend sub-contracting to remaining areas of the Turkish economy. That is what 'development' means in this context. Investors welcome; workers beware.

After Rana Plaza: Steve Grinter, ex-ITGLWF officer looks to the future.

High street brands from Europe and theUSA have blood on their hands in Bangladesh. Four million largely female Bangladeshi garment workers risk their lives every day in the production of cheap garments for European and US markets..... The collapse of the Rana Plaza factory inSavar, Dhaka in April 2013 was exceptional only in the fact that there were 1,200 fatalities. The Spectrum Factory also in Savar collapsed in similar circumstances in April 2005 killing 62 workers and seriously injuring 70 more.

At the Cloth Face

Workers in the 4,000 plus garment export factories are not only at risk from their factories collapsing but also from fire. Hundreds of factories are located in shared-use premises with enterprises such as shops and restaurants. This compounds hazards of fire and limits the chance of escape. The Garib fire in 2010 killed 21 workers; it was the second fire at the factory within 6 months.

Employers have become skilled at presenting to buyers and social auditors a false impression of ‘compliance’ with buyers’, often pathetically weak, corporate codes of social responsibility.

In particular wages and timekeeping records are routinely works of fiction, presented to auditors. The grim reality for workers is a different story: excessive forced overtime, unachievable production targets, brutal repression and above all denial of all trade union rights.

Even today wages remain pitifully low. Currently the minimum wage in the ready-made garment industry is 5,300 Taka or £42per month but even this includes various non-consolidated allowances. Since the industry took off in the early 1990s wages have increased only half a dozen times. Following each wage increase there has been an almost immediate increase in house rents, food and commodity prices leaving real wages virtually unchanged. The garment export industry now accounts for more than 93 % of foreign exchange; earnings in 2014 are expected tobe more than £15 billion. Many Bangladeshiparliamentarians are investors in the industry. This is why the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers’ and Exporters’ Association (BGMEA) is arguably even more powerful than the Government itself.

Accord on Fire Safety and Building Safety

Until 2012 it was the International Textile Garment and Textile Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) which was the Global Union Federation (GUF) leading the campaign for workers’ rights in this industry. IndustriALL was created in July 2012 bringing together affiliates from the formerInternational Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) together with ICEM, the global union for chemicals and mining, as well as the ITGLWF thus uniting trade unions representing workers in all of the global manufacturing industries. Staff and affiliates of the ITGLWF were concerned that the priority needs of workers in ‘our’ industry might be lost in the process of merger into IndustriALL.

However the ground-breaking achievements reacting to Rana Plaza and other vital work (including achieving significant minimum wage gains in Cambodia) has dispelled any doubts about the prominence of the garment and textilesector inside IndustriALL. The creation of IndustriALL enabled the weight and resources of the larger organisation to work on these campaigns and achieve historic progress. The Accord is doing impressive remediation across the industryin Bangladesh; they have identified thousands of fire and safety risks and closed down dangerous factories. Another Rana Plaza could have already happened without this work.

Following the Rana Plaza collapse IndustriALL worked tirelessly to bring the brands and suppliers to the bargaining table with national and international tradeunions and NGOs. Worker representatives led by IndustriALL and UNI Global Union, plus their Bangladeshi affiliates succeeded in negotiating a strong agreement in the form of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. Until Rana Plaza only two brands had been prepared to sign; PVH, the owner of Calvin Klein and Tchibo a German retailer.

The Accord has now been signed by 180 international brands and numerous local trade unions. The ILO acts as the independent chair of the Accord.

The Accord is legally binding, in sharp contrast with the plethora of voluntary corporate codes of conduct and multi-stakeholder standards. Under the terms of the Accord signatory brands are each obliged to contribute up to US$500,000 peryear towards costs of implementing the terms of Accord. Crucially the Accord includes a central role for trade unions in the provision of safety training as well as in the governanceof the programme including membership offactory safety committees. The Accord is managing a huge programme of independent and credible inspection together with effective and timely remediation.

Key issues for the future

1. Bangladeshi employers and Governmenthave hitherto conspired to deny workers their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. It remains a huge challenge for trade unions to take advantage of the space offered by the Accord to build effective factory level trade unions in every one of the 4,000 factories producing garments for export.

IndustriALL is supporting a major organizing programme aiming to build a comprehensive union presence in the Bangladeshi garment factories. In 2013, theBangladeshi government agreed to the registration of new local unions and in the last 12 months IndustriALL affiliates have organized nearly 200 factories and 40,000 workers. This is a historic achievement and progress is very encouraging.

However this is barely 1% of the total workforce so trade union organising remains a top priority. IndustriALL and its affiliates remain committed to ensuring that every worker has the opportunity to join their trade union. Ultimately they aim to establish a mature system of industrial relations for the industry.

2. The brands have failed to deliver their full financial contributions due under the terms of the Accord. A contribution of a fraction of 1% of the global brands’ annual turnover would comfortably secure all of the necessary funds.

3. Many of the leading US brands have failed to sign the Accord and have instead established a rival non-binding buyers’ programme which they have called the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. Leading brands behind this initiative include GAP and Wal-Mart. This initiative lacks credibility internationally and its methodology is based on the failed CSR practices of social auditing without trade union engagement.

The programme mimics the Accord but omits many of the key aspects that make iteffective. It is not legally binding and requires no obligatory financial contribution from the brands. Wal-Mart has always been notoriously anti-trade union both in the US and abroad; however GAP had until recently been regarded as an industry leader on CSR.

Their global reputation for upholding ethical standards has now been exposed asflawed. Yet it is clear that the Alliance would not have existed without the Accordand that it has made some progress. So, albeit indirectly, IndustriALL and the Accord may be credited with compelling even Wal-Mart to bring about some improvements for workers!

4. Success for a global buyer depends heavily on the reputation of their brand. Many of them signed up to the Accord for fear that failure to do so would reflect badly upon them. However IndustriALL hassuccessfully shown that significant and sustainable progress can be made by working with brands to move towards real compliance with international labour standards.

The idea that garment workers in Bangladesh should be able to exercise theirrights to freedom of association was beforethe Accord little more than a dream. The space provided by the Accord for trade unions to organise has massively strengthened the chance for workers to have a real voice in the struggle for better working conditions.

5. IndustriALL has shown the importance oftrade unions thinking globally and acting locally. The achievements and credibility of the Accord will ensure that pressure is maintained on the brands that continue to refuse to sign up to the Accord.

It may be necessary to step up the campaign to include strategic and targetedboycotts of garments marketed by renegade brands such as Wal-Mart and GAP.However as with successful work to establish the Accord the campaign should be lead by the global trade unions and their affiliates with the support of friends and comrades including pro labour NGOs.

the millions in action: WDDW 2014

What about Israeli trade unions: has WOW found any support for this cause among them?

We do not have any links to Israeli trade unions. There is a particular problem with the Israeli trade union confederation, the Histadrut, in that it has traditionally played a highly regressive role in Palestine,in contravention of the internationalist principles of the labour movement. In addition, the Histadrut has spoken in support of the Israeli military’s murderous

Solidarity interview: War on Want

Unlike many NGOs, WOW has close linkswith the trade union movement. How important is this in your work?

War on Want was originally formed out of the labour movement, and that link remains crucial to us today. We consider organised labour to be a key political forcein the struggle for a more progressive future, in the UK and round the world.

All major UK trade unions are affiliated to War on Want, and we have ongoing campaigns in partnership with many of them. In addition, we run active partnerships with trade unions in countriessuch as Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Honduras and South Africa, as well as groups organising labour in the informal economy in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia.

WOW is a long-standing supporter of thePalestinian cause. What role do the Palestinian unions play in this struggle?

The Palestinian trade unions were signatories to the 2005 call from Palestinian civil society for an international movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) to support them in their struggle for justice.

War on Want is the only mainstream BritishNGO to have taken up that call, and we consider the role of the Palestinian trade union movement to be crucial in persuading British trade unionists to support the move towards BDS.

What about Israeli trade unions: has WOWfound any support for the cause among them?

We have no links with Israeli trade unions.There is a particular problem with the Israeli union confederation, the Histadrut,which has played a regressive role in Palestine, in contravention of the labour movement's internationalist principles.It has spoken in support of the Israeli military assaults on Gaza, despite the thousands of Palestinian workers killed in those attacks.

Back in the 1970s WOW offered its support to the Grunwick strikers, as an exploited migrant workforce. Does WOW have any plans to take up the cause of their modern-day successors?

Our campaign for a mandatory living wage is relevant here. We have united with UK trade unions in calling for the living wage to be made mandatory rather than voluntary for all workers in the UK and in the global supply chains of UK retailers, in the sure knowledge that this will have a major impact on the life chances of migrant workers. We have also offered support to migrant workers such as the cleaners’ campaigns for a living wage in London.

What does the phrase 'international solidarity' mean to WOW?

To us, international solidarity means action. This can be symbolic action in partnership with trade unionists and other activists in other countries, to show that we stand shoulder to shoulder with them intheir struggles. But increasingly it is clear that international solidarity consists of action to challenge our own government’s regressive policies and to press for transformative political change here at home. If we can defeat capitalism in its homeland, we can offer a message of hope to working people the world over.

Back in Black Friday

In 2012 we looked at the ground-breaking strike action of Wal-Mart workers on Black Friday. Two years on, their struggle for justice continues...

Even before we reached 28th November 2014 the Wal-Mart protests were in full swing, in and beyond the US. On the 19th ofthe month, the UNI global federation staged an anti Wal-Mart protest across ten countries. Then 'associates' walked out in two Ohio cities on the 20th, calling for the $15 wage and an end to company reprisals.Further protests occurred in California andOregon, Maryland, Texas and Wisconsin. In Los Angeles the first ever sit down strikeat a store took place.

For the big day itself, Our Wal-Mart and Making Change at Wal-Mart pulled out all the stops, creating the biggest coordinatedaction so far. The plan included 1600 storesacross 49 states.

How far this was achieved is unclear. The company typically reported only a minorityof associates were taking part. From the reports and photo evidence posted online, it seems clear there was a substantial presence on the part of Wal-Mart workers.

Adding to the pressure on the mega- retailer, there is by now wide awareness of its woeful working conditions. The context seems to be slowly shifting the workers way. Fast food protesters have made similar demands on their employers for higher wages and regular shifts. And as an unexpected present in the run-up to Christmas, the law said this....

Best of all, the demands to raise wages throughout America has paid dividends, with no fewer than 21 states increasing their minimum wage for 2015. Tens of thousands of Wal-Mart workers stand to benefit here. And the employer itself has now said it will take action to remedy the wages of the lowest paid associates, by improving scheduling and hours available.

That all adds up to a pretty successful 2014 for the Wal-Mart campaigners.