Artisanal diamond miners at work in the alluvial diamond mines around the eastern town of Koidu, Sierra Leone. Credit: Tommy Trenchard/IPS

By Ivar Andersen and Linda Flood
STOCKHOLM, Apr 18 2019 (IPS)

The mining industry is one of the world’s most dangerous industries. Globally, the death toll is at least 14,000 workers per year. But how many lives are actually lost is something that neither trade unions, national governments or the United Nations know.

The men were sitting down for lunch in the canteen. January was about to turn into February but for them life would end then and there. Suddenly, a flood of mud and sludge swept in. The iron ore mine Feijao was destroyed when a dam in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais collapsed.

At least 206 people died in the accident, which could probably have been avoided. Leaked documents have shown that the directors of the multinational mining company Vale knew about the dangers of the dam.

Globally, the mining industry employs more than 24 million people.

Everywhere – from China to Kazakhstan – miners go to work with their lives on the line. Most of the people who die do so in silence.

The mining industry is full of informal jobs. And the number of fatal accidents is considerably higher than in most other sectors.

Getting a thorough picture of the number of fatalities is difficult. When Arbetet Global took a close look at the ten biggest mining countries, it turned out that not even welfare states like Canada had comprehensive statistics.

“In order to get these numbers you would have to contact every province, and then add the numbers together,” a representative from the trade organisation Mining Association of Canada writes.

“I would say 7,000–8,000.”

He stresses that the numbers are unreliable. Some counties have reliable statistics, but globally the reporting on fatal accidents in the workplace has major flaws.

“It’s a big handicap for us. Without reliable data it’s much harder to follow the development. And we don’t have the resources to compile our own statistics. Our investigative unit isn’t that large and we have 14 sectors to organise.”

The ILO’s department of statistics, based in Geneva, calls itself “the world’s leading source of labour statistics”. But not even here do we find comprehensive information. A quick search in the statistical database reveals huge gaps in the reporting.

“We don’t know all that much about work-related fatalities in the world. We only get data if it’s collected on a national level,” says Rosina Gammarano, economist and statistician at the UN agency.

If you want figures concerning employment, stock prices, or BNP-development, all you need to do is a quick google search.

For figures relating to health and safety in the workplace however, you’re much worse off.

Part of the explanation is that responsibility for the reporting is often divided among several departments, as opposed to, for example, financial statistics. But the main problem is something else, according to Rosina Gammarano.

“Compared to other parts of labour market statistics, calculating death tolls is a very complicated, because it’s such a sensitive issue. There are several reasons why it is so under-reported. It could be that employers are not reporting because they don’t want inspections, or that governments don’t want negative attention.”

For Rosina Gammarano and her colleagues, the unwillingness to report fatalities is a source of frustration.

“We tend to only care about what we can quantify. Without statistics, the governments, corporations, and the international community won’t care, because they wont know it’s a problem. Any if you don’t have numbers, it is also always possible for someone to claim that there hasn’t been any accidents.”

For the employees of the world, this is, literally, a question of life or death.

“The lack of statistics hides the fact that there are many, many serious accidents,” Rosina Gammarano says. “It’s only by counting them that you can make the problem visible and force politicians to pay attention to it. For us here at the department of statistics at the ILO, that’s the driving force, to make the invisible visible.”

She’s not overly optimistic.

“This isn’t something you can solve by putting an infinite number of statisticians in a room. It has to start with a genuine desire to shed light on the accidents and eliminate the risks. If governments and employers aren’t serious about wanting to improve safety, I doubt we’ll ever get good statistics.”

A decade ago, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM), which has since merged with IndustriAll, estimated that the yearly number of deaths exceeded 12,000. The decrease is mainly due to lower death tolls in China.

In 2005, almost 6,000 workers lost their lives in the country’s coal mines alone, according to official statistics. In 2018, the number had decreased significantly, to 333.

The independent labour rights organisation China Labour Bulletin (CLB) deems that these numbers reflect an actual decrease, even though many deaths still go unrecorded.

“Those are the accidents and deaths that have been reported. There’s always a risk that some have been silenced, that happens regularly,” according to Director of Communication Geoffrey Crothall.

In the early 2000’s, the Chinese coal marked grew explosively. The country’s massive investments in infrastructure demanded cheap energy and regulations for this wildly growing sector was not prioritised.

According to CLB, the government has since increased the number of health and safety inspections, but Geoffery Crothall argues that the decreasing death toll mostly depends on reduced production.

Hundreds of thousands of coal mining jobs have disappeared as the Chinese economy has slowed down.

“The sector has been decreasing since 2015, demand has been dwindling, and coal workers have lost their jobs. That’s why we see fewer accidents.”

This pattern is visible all over the world. In the industrialised world, efforts to increase health and safety in the workplace has led to fewer deaths, but globally the decrease stems from the fact that the sector now employs fewer people.

In 1998, the ILO estimated that 36 million people were employed in mining globally, of which six million worked in the informal sector.

Today, the UN agency estimates that there are 24 million mine workers, including both formal and informal employment. ILO is currently collecting information as grounds for a new estimation on the informal sector, a process which involves several different ILO departments.

Trade unions say that the lack of reliable statistics complicate their work, while the ILO says that unwillingness to report deaths hides the true scope of the problem.

But even if all of this would change – if correct reporting of workplace accidents all of a sudden became a top priority on the global political agenda – would a complete picture of the human cost of the mining industry become clear.

When IndustriAll estimates the yearly amount of deaths to 7,000-8,000, it is referring to the formal sector. In the informal sector the uncertainty is too great for Glen Mpufane to dare say a number.

“But the death toll is definitely higher than in the formal sector,” he says.

“It’s a tragedy that is happening every day, with mine workers dying in Pakistan, Peru, Congo, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and they are never added into the official statistics. The deaths we hear about are just the tip of the iceberg.”

Translation: Cecilia Studer

This story was originally published by Arbetet Global

Credit: Bigstock

By Linda Flood
STOCKHOLM, Mar 5 2019 (IPS)

The trade unions’ solution for a greener world is new jobs with good working conditions. The critics argue that there’s not enough time. ”We can either protect industrial jobs in the global north or save the climate”, says political scientist Tadzio Müller.

Politicians, businesses, and unions all agree: there are no jobs on a dead planet. But the road to fewer emissions is full of opinions.

While the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is expected to reach record levels this year, the work towards a “just transition” continues. The aim is to secure workers’ interests when countries and employers convert to more climate friendly ways of doing business.

“It is extremely urgent and I’m worried. But if employers, governments, and big financial interests had been more interested in the carbonization two decades ago we would have been in a great position,” says Samantha Smith.

The UN climate change conference COP 24 took place in December 2018 in Katowice, Poland, and “just transition” was high on the agenda. 53 states, including Sweden, signed the ”The Solidarity and Just Transition Silesia Declaration”, which states that the countries must consider workers’ perspectives while shifting to climate friendly policies.

In Sweden, issues on this matter are being discussed regularly at the Swedish Trade Union Confederation, LO, and Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, among others. Sida recently donated 1,5 million euros to the organisation Bankwatch, to support the transition towards a coal free Eastern Europe.

Samantha Smith points out that every sector in every country will be affected in order to reach the 1,5 degree global warming target.

”We wanted to start with rich countries because they have the wealth and capacity. In some poor countries you have a number of issues going on at the same time, one is recognizing basic labor rights which is also human rights.”

Tadzio Müller, political scientist and senior advisor on climate justice for the leftist foundation Rosa Luxembourg, agrees. He, on the other hand, is even more drastic.

”If Sweden, Germany and Great Britain want to do their bit to save the climate they have to shut down old industrial infrastructure within the next 10-15 years so that the rest of the world can still emit some carbon emissions.”

Tadzio Müller is critical of the trade union movement. The concept of “just transition” was first used by union activists in the U.S. in the 1980s.

”We have to be honest that it was, at least in part, the same industrial trade unions that called for a just transition that were fighting against ambitious climate politics and policies to save jobs,” he says. He mentions Germany’s mining unions as an example.

Tadzio Müller points out that he is in no way interested in limiting workers’ interests.

”I am absolutely for giving workers every social protection that we can manage. I would even argue that a universal guaranteed income would be a great way to transition in heavy industrial regions, like western Germany or the north of France. I don’t oppose just transition, but the fact that the function of just transition has been to slow down ambitious climate action.”

Samantha Smith at the Just Transition Centre says to her critics:

”What is your alternative? Especially in a democracy, like for example Germany. How are you going to shut down coal mines if local government and all the people working in the mines don’t agree to it? ”

She points out that it’s better to do something than nothing.
”And it’s better to do something that will support social justice and strengthen the labor movement and democracy to get down emissions.”

Translation: Cecilia Uder 

***

JUST TRANSITION – COUNTRIES AND FACTS

Canada

The government has decided to phase out coal as a source of energy by 2030 while making investments in natural gas instead. This is a part of Canada’s ”Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change”.

Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, announced that a task force has been created, with representatives from unions, councils, and businesses working together to make the transition from coal to natural gas as fair as possible for the workers in the sector. The President of the Canadian Labour Congress has been put in charge of the project.

Spain

In 2016, the government launched a plan worth almost 2 billion euros to aid the closure of 26 coal mines. The mines were closed by the end of 2018 and approximately 2,000 workers were affected. The transition plan included early retirement for workers over 48 years of age and education in green industries for the rest.

The Spanish trade unions celebrated the agreement but one group of 800 workers, employed by subcontractors of the mining industry, were not included in the transition. They formed the network ”Plataforma de Santa Bárbara” and gathered to protest that they had been abandoned by the unions and the political parties.

Kenya

The transport system in Kenya’s capital Nairobi is overly chaotic and spews out huge amounts of pollution each year. To tackle this, the government of Kenya has begun the transition towards a new system called “Bus Rapid Transit”, with fewer but larger buses.

This means fewer jobs, so now the Kenyan unions are working together with the International Transport Workers’ Federation, the ITF, to ensure a fair transition that provides new “green” jobs for the workers.

USA

A massive transition is taking place in the state of New York, with 1,5 billion euro projects that include investments in renewable energy. Governor Andrew Cuomo started the initiative “The Clean Climate Careers initiative” in 2017, with the goal of creating 40,000 new climate friendly jobs by 2020.

The jobs will be in major renewable energy projects, including wind and solar. Big money is being invested to redirect personnel to create a more climate friendly workforce.

This story was originally published by Arbetet Global

Secretary General of the ITUC Sharan Burrow at her office in Brussels. Foto: Linda Flood

By Linda Flood
BRUSSELS, Sep 18 2017 (IPS)

Sharan Burrow has just returned from a long weekend in Latin America. In Panama she met with laborers. Out in the real world. That is where she is most at home. Where working conditions are poor. Conditions that she has spent her life trying to change.

It’s Monday at ITUC’s office in Brussels. A first hectic week after the summer is underway. This autumn’s agenda is, as always, the obvious areas of concern for the organization: equality, migration, climate and the eradication of slave labor.

ITUC has launched a campaign that they call “war on climate change”.

– When you consider the losses of life due to weather change and season shifts, it’s already a reality. People are being displaced.

Sharan Burrow scorns the criticism that the ITUC shouldn’t be spending time and money on the climate.

– If you don’t have jobs – you can’t fight for wages and conditions. So if jobs are at risk in the context of climate destruction then it’s our core business.

Among ITUC plans, is to put pressure on the giant pension funds to make sure they make climate smart investments. But pressure and demands are also put on governments, corporations and investors.

ITUC is a confederation of confederations for the world’s trade unions. Sharan Burrow has been Secretary General since 2010 and both represents and is responsible to 176 million members.
– Of all the international bodies that have an influence in the world of work, we are represented there.

The relative importance of organs like the Davos World Economic Forum or the G20 summit for the global labor markets has been downplayed by some critics. But Sharan Burrow doesn’t pay heed to that view.
– People say the G20 is not effective and we could join that critique if solely in terms of implementation, but in terms of establishing an agenda the last G20 reached two very important pieces policies for us. The labor ministers decided that violations of labor rights and human rights could no longer be part of the competition. And they decided that minimum wages had to be based on dignity. That set a framework for fair competition in a global economy that has lost its way.

About 94% of the global supply chains are reliant on a hidden workforce - If you take Latin America, 25 of the largest companies employs 70 million people but only 4 million are employed directly. The rest are a hidden workforce and they are subject to abused fundamental rights and nobody takes responsibility for this
She is both visibly and audibly incensed.

– The global economic model has failed. People are horrified that inequality is growing at such a high rate, well for us it’s not a shock, it’s built into the model.

She is refering to studies that show that about 94% of the global supply chains are reliant on a hidden workforce.

– If you take Latin America, 25 of the largest companies employs 70 million people but only 4 million are employed directly. The rest are a hidden workforce and they are subject to abused fundamental rights and nobody takes responsibility for this.

ITUC’s position is that the importance of a social dialogue is pivotal, and they support the Global Deal initiative launched by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven.

– Collective bargaining is under attack, minimum wages are low and social protection isn’t expanding.

At the moment sixteen countries, seventeen unions and seven corporations are in the Global Deal partnership. Several Swedish large companies that Arbetet Global has spoken to question the intitiative, while employer organizations claim the initiative may undermine the efforts of ILO.

– That’s simply an excuse to take no responsibility. Where we don’t have a social dialogue, then it it easier to deny workers collective bargaining. We need to change the rules of the global economy and Sweden is a good model on which to start.

Sharan Burrow hails the economic system and the labor market in Sweden.

– Collective bargaining is the strength of your economy. Why would you want to change that when you have everything? The rest of the world is trying to catch up with you.

As a warning example she mentions the US.

– What we see now are cities that are bargaining for higher minimum wages because there are workers who can’t live off their wages. Nobody in Sweden, nobody in Europe, nobody in the world wants a labor market and working environment like the US.

In the fight for better working conditions ITUC want to see a mandatory monitoring of businesses, so called due diligence. Sharan Burrow wants all companies to make a risk analysis of the working conditions, in terms of potential abuses involved in product safety, product placement or property rights.

– We want to see mandated due diligence but so far France is the only country to legislate for due diligence.

This story was originally published by Arbetet Global

Excerpt:

Striking miners relased from police custody on Sep. 3 2012. Credit: Nat Nxumalo/IPS

By Linda Flood
RUSTENBURG, South Africa , Aug 21 2017 (IPS/Arbetet Global)

It was two thirty at night. Inside his home, the telephone rang. Sibongile Nota’s brother’s life drew nearer its end. A few minutes passed, the telephone rang again. His brother was now dead.

“His workmates killed him on his way to work”.

Five years have passed since that day when they lost brothers, fathers, husbands. Inside the conference room, silence is near absolute. Outside there is the noise of traffic. The local office in Rustenburg for the National Union of Mineworkers sees a gathering of eight women and men. All sitting with their backs to the wall.

“Now…for the first time I feel like a normal person again”, Sibongile Nota adds.

Reliving the past. On the 9th of August 2012 a group of miners working for the British mining corporation Lonmin at the platinum mine in Marikana, 120 kms northwest of Johannesburg choose to go on strike.

They demand higher wages. Their monthly salary of around 300 euros is far below the union demands of 800.

Over the next few days, their action gains support. The conflict between employees, the company and the police increases, and turns violent. Nearly ten employees are killed or injured. Two Lonmin security guards are also killed.

The violence does not end there.

On the 13th of August, three miners are found dead. One is Sibongile Nota’s brother.

In 2012, 70 percent of Lonmin’s 23000 strong workforce were members of the miners’ union NUM.

“For a long time, we had been demanding wage increases, but in vain. Yet the management of Lonmin, while claiming the wage level couldn’t be raised, saw their own salaries increase by 18 percent. That fuelled protests” recalls Eric Gcilitshana, Health and Safety Secretary of NUM.

A majority of the mineworkers at Lonmin were members of NUM, who thereby represented all workers in negotiations. There was though an existing rivalry and power struggle between labour unions with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) criticizing NUM for being too closely aligned with the governing political party in South Africa, the ANC.

The rivalry between the unions starting getting out of hand. In order to gain the upper hand, AMCU put forward more radical demands and attempted to engage all workers in a strike. Eric Gcilitshana describes that development;

“They said our negotiations with the employers was undermining their strike. And they said that they would kill us!”

The strike is in its seventh day. The demonstrating strikers and the police negotiate to cease hostilities.  But reach no deal.

The following day is the 16th of August. Demonstrators gather in a field a few hundred meters away from the mine. A special unit of the police open fire. Within minutes they shoot and kill 34 mineworkers. Injuring at least 78.

South Africa was in shock. A new massacre in South African contemporary history. The worst since the Sharpeville shootings in 1960.

“I was so afraid”, Themba Gowana gestures with his hand, “I ran that way when the police started shooting”

The field where it took place is dry. The grey loamy soil is cracked. Themba Gowana’s tin shed is nearby. He stands in his garden peeling potatoes over a bowl. 5 years have passed.

”Things are a little better now. After the strike I became a member of AMCU. They have made our jobs more secure.

He wasn’t alone in turning to NUMs rival. After the shootings, AMCU won over thousands mineworkers and could therefore push forth their agenda in negotiations with the corporate management.

“Lonmin are alright. Although mineworkers can be sacked without due warning, just because they might do something wrong. If you talk too much, you get sacked. They don’t want us to talk….”

After the Marikana massacre, wage levels for mineworkers have almost doubled. Now they are at around 9000 rand, about 600 euros. But that is still a few thousand rands less than what the union demands.

Themba Gowana grows quiet.

Birdsong can be heard from the trees and a sheep bleats at a distance.

“I am afraid I will lose my job”.

Across the gravel path from Themba Gowana’s shed lives Siyabongile Rofu. He has just woken after nightshift in the mine. A stainless steel refrigerator stands next to the bed that he shares with his brother. Siyabongile Rofu starts cleaning his shack. Near the ceiling, three green soaps lay on a board. Next to the fridge, there’s a plastic basin, two buckets and two pots. A calendar from a local health center hangs on the wall.

Siyabongile Rofu is meticulous. After an hour of cleaning, he still hasn’t finished despite the schack being no larger than ten square meters. White lace fabrics from under the TV are dusted and the plastic floor is swept and wiped.

”Tonight I am going home, to my wife and my three children. They live in the Eastern Cape province and the minibus trip takes twelve hours”.

His children are twelve, eight and five years old. Siyabongile Rofu has worked in Marikana for fifteen years and expects to go on for an equally long time.

“That should be enough”, he says.

Following the strike of 2012, life has improved. The higher wage allows Siyabongile Rofu to send more money home to his family as well he can buy better food.

“I joined AMCU because it is stronger and better than NUM. Almost everyone at the mine belongs to AMCU now”

Siyabongile Rofu knew several of the men who died in the conflict five years ago.

“It was so stupid. But now worker relations are better”.

At NUM’s headquarters in Johannesburg, Health and Security secretary Eric Gcilitshana bemoans the situation.

“We try to recruit new members but it is difficult”.

He rejects the criticism that NUM were too close to Lonmins management and the governing ANC.

“We had to have a positive cooperation. Without it we wouldn’t have had any possibility to influence management”.

14 members of NUM were murdered by other miners in the days before and after the massacre. Their cases have not been included in the commission of inquiry that formed soon after the shootings.

With their own lawyers and with private detectives, NUM has tried to find out what happened in these killings of its members.

“We will help the families and justice must be served” , says Eric Gcilitshana.

Back in the conference room in Rustenburg, a short distance from Marikana, tears roll down the cheeks of Kefiloe Gungqwa.

“Since my husband died I have felt no joy, not at home and not at work. I do not speak to my workmates, I just say hello”.

The stories told by family members in the conference room are not only tragic in their loss of loved ones, but also peculiar as they were forced to seek employment at Lonmin.

Lonmin’s Communications Group Head Wendy Tlou explains: ”This was done to look after the families of the deceased and to ensure that their livelihoods were not negatively impacted by the tragedy.”

Kefiloe Gungqwa dries her tears. She was married for 14 years. A month after the Marikana strike, her husband was stabbed to death. He was an elected representative at NUM.

“Since no one in the family could take my husband’s position I was forced to move here. Now I work as a cleaner and often I am insulted by my co-workers”.

Hands in her lap, fingering a white tissue damp from her tears. Kefiloe Gungqwa may be seated in the NUM office but she is a member of ACMU. She explains:

“I was forced to join. I felt my life was in danger if I didn’t”.

The story is echoed by Thando Nqumkana. And by Siphokazi Mankhala. Nomhle Dibakwane, a teacher, tells a slightly different story. Her husband was murdered but she refuses to join AMCU:

“I cannot betray my husband and join a union that murdered him. Labour unions are a good thing but you cannot force people to join”.

Nomhle Dibakwane says she lives in constant fear.

“It is awful. Our voices, our stories have not been heard. Deaths are deaths. Why is a difference made between those who died in the massacre and those that died before and after it?

The rivalry and the violence between AMCU and NUM has not been limited to Marikana. There are many examples of fatal violence. One year ago a member of AMCU was hacked to death at the platinum mine Northam, north of Marikana.

And last autumn, at the gold mine Sibanye, south of Johannesburg, a NUM member was killed by workmates who belonged to AMCU.

Crispen Chinguno, a researcher at the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, points to the root of the conflict:

“As the absolute rights are given to one union at a particular mining house, unions fight to meet the minimum threshold to get the absolute rights and push others out. It will be very difficult for the unions to cooperate if the labour relations system is not changed to allow and promote a multiplicity of unions at the same work place.”

The rivalry between AMCU and NUM is part of the system.

Lonmin’s Wendy Tlou declines to comment on the rivalry between the unions within the company and ascertains that relations between parties depend on mutual respect.

“This was evident in the recent signing of a 3 year wage agreement without any work stoppages“.

The silence from the official political leadership has been evident.

It wasn’t until earlier this year that the South African government conceded the right to compensation for the families of the victims of Marikana.  Also, over ten police who were involved in the shooting will be charged and brought to trial.

ACMU’s official comment was:

“We have waited more than four years for a commitment from government. But those at the top still haven’t taken responsibility, including Lonmin bosses, the police and the state.”

One of the key persons involved in the disastrous developments of Marikana was the South African Deputy president and former union leader Cyril Ramaphosa.

He was one of the founders of NUM in 1982. During the following decade his career in the union married well with his advancement in both politics and the private sector. In 1994, following South Africa’s first democratic election, he was given a seat in parliament representing ANC.

In 2012 Cyril Ramaphosa was a non-executive director in Lonmin. In the days leading up to the massacre, he requested police reenforcements to the area and called the strike “dastardly criminal acts”. He also opposed negotiations with the miners, which was revealed in the investigation that followed. In 2015 the report into the massacre, exonerated both Cyril Ramaphosa and the minister of police Nkosinathi Nhleko.

In May of this year, for the first time, Cyril Ramaphosa apologised for his behaviour during the strike and said that he was willing to make amends with those he had insulted.

Political analyst Nic Borain commented in the newspaper Business Day: ”His claim was that it was a criminal act, not a strike, but history has proven him wrong. The characterisation of the workers as criminals was wrong and thoughtless and in a way arrogant because it implied the only legitimate union was NUM”.

”The legacy of colonialism and apartheid is central in explaining some of the main challenges faced by the workers” says researcher Crispen Chinguno, pointing to the difficulty for South African unions in keeping out of politics.

Life in Marikana goes on as usual for most people. Despite the horrible memories, Siyabongile Rofu’s brother Abongile dreams of a job in the mine, regardless of the tough shifts in the dark.

”Look at my arms”, he says showing the red stripes on his lower arms – scars from lemon trees.

”If I fill 50 sacks a day with lemons, I make only 20 euros per week. I have to find a better job. I am desperate.”

Translation: Ravi Dar

This story was originally published by Arbetet Global

Excerpt:

The United Nations is stepping up pressure on Congo to ascertain the reasons for the brutal murder of Swedish Zaida Catalán who was investigating human rights abuses in the country. “The latest news is that the inquiry will continue” says Carl Skau, Sweden’s ambassador to the UN.

In mid-March, Zaida Catalán and Michael Sharp, a U.S. citizen, were in the Kasi-province of Congo on mission for the UN. Together with interpreter Betu Tshintela, they were investigating crimes against international humanitarian law and human rights as part of the UN Security Council’s sanctions against Congo-Kinshasa, when they were abducted and murdered.

Human rights groups have expressed their suspicion that the perpetrators could be found among Congolese army soldiers.

A week ago, information came from Congo that the murder investigation had been closed as they had two suspects. But now, according to UN ambassador Carl Skau, word is that the investigation will continue.

So those arrested were not the guilty ones?

“That I can not answer. But we have been very careful in our demand that the full inquiry is completed, and we don’t feel we are there yet”.

Carl Skau explains that there are three different inquiries. The first is the ongoing murder investigation that the US, Sweden and Congo are working on, in which the US and Sweden are working closely together.

The second is a UN appointed board of inquiry that is made up partially of former UN staff that are experts on security issues. They are to collect information in order to map the precise run of events, but also to draw conclusions on what lessons can be learned.

The third started last week as Sweden, through its position on the Security Council, requested additional backing for the ongoing investigations.

“We have requested that the General Secretary takes a closer look, but the legal aspects are not straightforward. Our position is that we need to find out what happened, make sure the guilty are tried for their crime, and of course we do all we can to avoid similar situations in the future.”

According to an article in the New York Times, Zaida Catalán and her colleague had received inadequate training for a mission in a dangerous situation. The newspaper reported that Zaida Catalán and Michael Sharp travelled to no-go zones and moved around without UN escorts.

This description has been refuted by both the UN and the families of both Catalán and Sharp.

Is there a revision of the situation of other UN investigators on mission in dangerous areas?

”I take for granted that that is the case. The UN has been rigorously involved from day one”. Carl Skau adds, “and there are most certainly lessons to be learned to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.”

Translation: Ravi Dar

 This story was originally published by Arbetet Global

Israel's separation barrier as seen from Al Ram. Credit: Jillian Kestler-D'Amours/IPS

By Linda Flood
STOCKHOLM, May 22 2017 (IPS)

The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) has voted in favour of a boycott against Israel, which is expected to affect cultural, economical and academic ties. Condemnation has come from Isreali politicians, diplomats and unions.

By a vote of 197 for and 117 against, the LO congress passed the motion even though the representative General Council has not been in support of such a step.

According to Norwegian media organisation NRK, the newly elected president of LO, Hans-Christian Gabrielson, had warned delegates that a boycott could have negative consequences for Palestinian workers and trade unions.

Hans-Christian Gabrielsen. Photo: LO Norge

Histadrut, Israel’s largest federation of trade unions, reacted with great disappointment.

In correspondence with Arbetet Global, the Director of international relations,  Avital Shapira-Shabirow, expressed:

”It would have been better for the organization to concentrate on promoting positive agendas between the parties rather than to adopt this miserable resolution, which is in utter contradiction to the cooperation of the Histadrut and PGFTU”.

She continues:

”Once again this emphasizes the unbalanced and discriminatory policy of LO-Norway towards the Histadrut and its workers.”

LO has also encouraged the Norwegian government to recognize a Palestinian state within the borderlines of 1967.

”Precisely at this time when there is another attempt to renew the negotiations between the parties, it would have been appropriate to show more responsibility and avoid adopting a unilateral resolution that does not contribute at all to promoting a possible solution to the conflict”, Avital Shapira-Shabirow writes to Arbetet Global. 

”Norwegian government strongly opposes Norwegian Labour Union’s decision” stated Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs on Twitter, adding:  ”We need more cooperation and dialogue, not boycott”

LO’s close political ally, the social democratic Norwegian Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) were also critical to the result of the vote. Party leader Jonas Gahr Støre told news agency NTB:

”I am against the boycott. I do not believe it will move us closer to a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians, with the establishment of a Palestinian state and a strengthening of human rights”

The Israel embassy in Oslo condemned the decision. Ambassador Raphael Schutz wrote in an e-mail to news agency AFP:

”This immoral resolution reflects deeply rooted attitudes of bias, discrimination and double standard towards the Jewish state”

Swedish LO though have no plans to follow suit. ILO expert Oscar Ernerot explains their position:

”In Sweden we actively support a two state solution and that Israel will cease to occupy Palestine.  That is why we collaborate with the Isreali labour union Histadrut”

The Norwegian LO has 900 000 members which is about one-fourth of the national workforce.

Linda Flood

This story was originally published by Arbetet Global

]]> https://www.ipsnews.net/2017/05/norwegian-trade-union-boycott-israel/feed/ 1 https://www.ipsnews.net/2017/04/world-bank-ignores-land-grabbing/ https://www.ipsnews.net/2017/04/world-bank-ignores-land-grabbing/#comments Mon, 03 Apr 2017 13:21:57 +0000 Linda Flood http://www.ipsnews.net/?p=149766

Farmers in Ethiopia. Photo: WG Film.

By Linda Flood
STOCKHOLM, Apr 3 2017 (IPS/Arbetet Global)

Sales of huge land areas of Ethiopia, by the Ethiopian government, to foreign investors, have led to starvation and forced displacement. In his documentary Dead Donkeys Fear no Hyenas, Swedish film director Joakim Demmer exposes the consequences of land grabbing, and holds the World Bank complicit.

The chase for this Green Gold started over ten years ago. Just before the global  financial crisis, agricultural land areas in developing countries became a target for investment among global investors.

Joakim Demmer experienced at first hand at the Addis Abeba airport how emergency food supplies was being unloaded while local food produce was being loaded for export.

Joakim Demmer

”It was so odd. I started reading up on the subject and became aware of the extent foreign investors were striking deals all over the country.

Pursuing this land grabbing story took him to a local journalist covering environmental issues at an early stage, who directed his attention to the Gambela National Park. Together they discovered that investors Saudi Star Agricultural Development had begun the development of a rice farm.

In order to make the sale to investors, the Ethiopian government displaced the local population.

”Our thoughts were of how we could follow this over an extended time period, so we would return several times”

”My definition of land grabbing is when transnational companies seize public lands in developemnt countries without permission from local communities and without compensation. In Ethiopia this land grabbing is also done by force. People do not voluntarily move from their homes.”

Conditions for following the story were difficult. That is why the documentary was a full seven years in the making.

Women working on a rice farm in Ethiopia. Credit: WG Film

”Ethiopia is in reality a dictatorship even if there are elections. The governmental apparatus is everywhere. If four Ethiopians gather in one place, at least one of them will report to the secret police. So right from the start, we had to ask ourselves whether we could report this story without compromising the safety of others.”

During the documentary process, Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson were imprisoned in Ethiopia. Joakim Demmer continued to film, below the radar of the Ethiopian regime.

"The women are hit the hardest. Men can possibly seek jobs in the cities, which women can not"
Ethiopia is dependent on emergency food aid, which goes to approximately three million Ethiopians. The World Bank has supported the Ethipian development program ”Protection of Basic Services” PBS with billions of dollars. In his film, Joakim Demmer shows a measure of complicity on the side of the World Bank, supporting the mechanisms that promote land grabbing.

”In many parts of Ethipoia the development program has worked, but in several regions, the Ethiopian regime uses these available resources to displace people by restricting funding to new settlements only. New villages that serve as a kind of alibi for the Ethiopian government”.

The Saudi Star rice farm is part of the Midroc Glocal Group corporation, which is owned by the Saudi Mohammed Al-Amoudi. The Swedish subsidiary Midroc Europe was involved in developing the farm for a few years.

”I have tried to get in touch with them, but they do not want to discuss their clients”, Joakim Demmer adds.

After the opening of the film, there has been official comment from Midroc Europe that challenges the accusation of land-grabbing. In an interview with the news journal ”Omvärlden”, managing director of Midroc Europe Roger Wikström considers the relations with local inhabitants as collaborative and refutes the way the documentary portrays their activities and its consequences.

Demmer replies with the situation for the Anuk ethnic minority. ”The World Bank were informed of the situation at an early stage but chose to disregard it. Eventually an internal inquiry was launched, but it ignored testimony from the local inhabitants”

In the documentary, testimony of violence, rapes and betrayal come from several witnesses. Local Anuks were manipulated with lavish but unfulfilled promises. Demmer explains that the local inhabitants now are not just dependent on food aid, but furthermore that their cultural identity is dying as they no longer have access to the lands of their history.

”The women are hit the hardest. Men can possibly seek jobs in the cities, which women can not”.

Translation: Ravi Dar

This story was originally published by Arbetet Global

Credit: Dietrich Weinbrenner

By Linda Flood
Mar 9 2017 (IPS/Arbetet Global)

Low wages, precarious employment, and lots of overtime. A recent report from the EU project ”Change Your Shoes” show that Indonesian subcontractors for several European footwear companies, including Ecco and Deichmann, are not in compliance with the law.

Employees within the Indonesian footwear industry have difficulties in organizing themselves in trade unions in order to demand their rights concerning wage levels and work hours. This is due to the precarious nature of employment with temporary hiring and contracts without standard protections.

In 2015 Indonesia was the fourth largest producer of shoes in the world after China, India and Vietnam. Around one billion pairs of shoes are produced annually in Indonesia, which is 5% of the total global production.

The Change your Shoes campaign is a partnership between 18 European and Asian NGOs. Their recent report No Excuses for Homework is based on interviews with 117 laborers at four factories, and 37 homeworkers.

In 2015 Indonesia was the fourth largest producer of shoes in the world after China, India and Vietnam. Around one billion pairs of shoes are produced annually in Indonesia, which is 5% of the total global production.
Of the four factories, three are contractors and one is a subcontractor to the European footwear industry. The situation is worst at the subcontractor for the Danish Ecco, factory PT Prima Dinamaka Sentosa. But the German chain Deichmann is also mentioned repeatedly in the report.

– These two companies state that they have good supervision of their supply chain. But when you dig below the surface into these chains, that supervision fails, says Charlie Aronsson, project manager and assistant head of administation at Fairaction, one of the networked partners of the Change your Shoes campaign.

In the interviews with factory workers, employment conditions were described. At Ecco’s subcontractor it was expected that each laborer works three to four hours overtime every day.

Søren Kragh Pedersen, Head of External Communication at Ecco, says the company is surprised to see what is stated in the report about the working conditions at the factory PT Prima Dinamika Sentosa.

”The conditions described at this factory does not correspond with what Ecco auditors found when checking the conditions at the factory in 2015 for the about 50 persons, who work with the production of some minor shoe components”, Mr Pedersen writes in an email to Arbetet Global.

Ecco emphasize it runs its production and business in general in accordance with its Code of Conduct.
”In relation to PT Prima Dinamika Sentosa, Ecco has only had access to the part of the factory where a small group of workers were producing components for Ecco, and is thus not familiar with the details in relation to the employment facts related to the rest of the about 2000 persons working in this factory.”

Mr Pedersen also adds: 
”Ecco has for some time phased out the cooperation with PT Prima Dinamika Sentosa and from the end of this month the cooperation ends, so Ecco is no longer fully up to date on facts related to this factory.”

At one of Deichmann’s subcontractors, labor contracts were limited to six months of employment at which time the laborer would have to re-apply for the job, despite the fact that temporary contracts are only permitted for short time periods according to Indonesian law. Employees at three factories also claim that the wages they earn do not even cover their costs for basic needs.

– There is a continuing problem with these companies’ sustainability work as they still do not seek out where the risks are greatest but rather choose to only look at the nearest link in the supply chain. It is an outdated method. You need to make a proper analysis of risks to see where the problems are most prevalent, says Charlie Aronsson at Fairaction.

In a statement to Arbetet Global, Deichmann, who have over 20 stores in Sweden, state that they have responded to allegations by reviewing all terms of contract for the laborers at subcontractor PT Mekar Abadi Sentosa.

”It’s fixed-term contracts are now in line with the pertinent statutes. And it has also much reduced it’s staff’s overtime.”

Deichmann add that they have made their own visits at the factory on several occasions, sometimes unannounced.

”We always seek continuous improvement in cooperation with our suppliers. As far as we can tell, this benefits the entire industry’s standards in the respective country of origin. Our work is based upon our Code of Conduct, which, in turn, is based upon the ILO’s conditions of work and employment.”

Charlie Aronsson points to the much lower degree of transparency in the global footwear industry compared to that of other sections of the fashion industry, and also that it is difficult to place all ethical responsibilities on consumer behavior

He does though suggest shoppers to ask ‘stupid’ questions to employees in the footwear industry as well as shoe store staff.

– Without consumer pressure, unfortunately, nothing will happen. There are though companies that are more transparent, and can show where their shoes are made. For example, Eurosko are the only Scandinavian chain that have made their list of suppliers available on their homepage. This is something we are encouraging more chains to do.

This story was originally published by Arbetet Global