CALL OF THE MILLIONS #11 WINTER 2014

Justice 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 has
dominated labour reporting of Turkey in
2014. Understandably so. But there is far
more 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....

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.

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 were
unionised; and new production networks
emerged as Turkish craft and homeworking 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 neoliberal agenda. From here it designed new
restrictions on worker's rights: to organise,
strike or collectively bargain.

Union Power today

Take a closer look at the balance of forces
in the Turkish economy. Latest reports
suggest an overall union density of
9.6%.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-affiliated
trade unions have been arrested, detained,
prosecuted and tried on several grounds for
exercising their rights to freedom of
expression and to peacefully demonstrate.
Further evidence of the obstacles to
union activity is provided by the police raid
on Istanbul's Burlap bag factory (where
workers had been organizing work stoppage
actions) and the banning of strike action at
the Sisecam glass factory.

The news isn't all bad though. UNI

affiliate Guvenlik-Is reports spectacular
growth results in the early days of its union
organising. 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.

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 ?

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 13,000
deaths in the workplace during the AKP
years in power a staggering total.

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
Though mine disasters get the headlines,
networks. The government was notoriously
other sectors like agriculture and
slow to accept any responsibility for this
construction have heavy casualties too.
disaster; in fact at the same time, it was
In the recent construction boom the
number of workers in this sector grow from pushing for new legislation that would
extend sub-contracting to remaining areas
1.2 to 2 million. Apart from this massive
of the Turkish economy.
influx, the structure of Turkish
That is what 'development' means in this
employment relations where subcontext. Investors welcome; workers
contracting has grown apace is also a
significant factor in poor workplace safety. beware.

After Rana Plaza: Steve Grinter, exITGLWF officer looks to the future.

In particular wages and timekeeping

records are routinely works of fiction,
presented to auditors. The grim reality for
High street brands from Europe and the workers is a different story: excessive
USA have blood on their hands in
forced overtime, unachievable production
Bangladesh. Four million largely female targets, brutal repression and above all
Bangladeshi garment workers risk their
denial of all trade union rights.
lives every day in the production of
cheap garments for European and US
Even today wages remain pitifully low.
markets.....
Currently the minimum wage in the readyThe collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in made garment industry is 5,300 Taka or 42
Savar, Dhaka in April 2013 was exceptional per month but even this includes various
only in the fact that there were 1,200
non-consolidated allowances. Since the
fatalities. The Spectrum Factory also in
industry took off in the early 1990s wages
Savar collapsed in similar circumstances in have increased only half a dozen times.
April 2005 killing 62 workers and seriously Following each wage increase there has
injuring 70 more.
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 to
be more than 15 billion. Many Bangladeshi
parliamentarians 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
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.

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 former
International 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 textile
sector 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 industry
in 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.

The Accord is legally binding, in sharp

contrast with the plethora of voluntary
corporate codes of conduct and multistakeholder standards. Under the terms of
the Accord signatory brands are each
obliged to contribute up to US$500,000 per
year 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 governance
of the programme including membership of
factory 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 Government
have 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.

Following the Rana Plaza collapse

IndustriALL worked tirelessly to bring the
brands and suppliers to the bargaining
table with national and international trade
unions 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.

IndustriALL is supporting a major

organizing programme aiming to build a
comprehensive union presence in the
Bangladeshi garment factories. In 2013, the
Bangladeshi 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.

4. Success for a global buyer depends

2. The brands have failed to deliver their heavily on the reputation of their brand.
full financial contributions due under the Many of them signed up to the Accord for
terms of the Accord. A contribution of a
fear that failure to do so would reflect
fraction of 1% of the global brands annual badly upon them. However IndustriALL has
turnover would comfortably secure all of
successfully shown that significant and
the necessary funds.
sustainable progress can be made by
working with brands to move towards real
compliance with international labour
standards.

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 idea that garment workers in

Bangladesh should be able to exercise their
rights to freedom of association was before
the 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 of
trade 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 targeted
boycotts of garments marketed by
renegade brands such as Wal-Mart and GAP.
The programme mimics the Accord but
omits many of the key aspects that make it However as with successful work to
establish the Accord the campaign should
effective. It is not legally binding and
be lead by the global trade unions and
requires no obligatory financial
their affiliates with the support of friends
contribution from the brands.
and comrades including pro labour NGOs.
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 as
flawed. Yet it is clear that the Alliance
would not have existed without the Accord
and 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!

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 militarys murderous

Solidarity interview: War on Want

What about Israeli trade unions: has WOW

found any support for the cause among
Unlike many NGOs, WOW has close links them?
with the trade union movement. How
important is this in your work?
We have no links with Israeli trade unions.
There is a particular problem with the
War on Want was originally formed out of Israeli union confederation, the Histadrut,
the labour movement, and that link
which has played a regressive role in
remains crucial to us today. We consider
Palestine, in contravention of the labour
organised labour to be a key political force movement's internationalist principles.
in the struggle for a more progressive
It has spoken in support of the Israeli
future, in the UK and round the world.
military assaults on Gaza, despite the
thousands of Palestinian workers killed in
All major UK trade unions are affiliated to those attacks.
War on Want, and we have ongoing
Back in the 1970s WOW offered its
campaigns in partnership with many of
support to the Grunwick strikers, as an
them. In addition, we run active
partnerships with trade unions in countries exploited migrant workforce. Does WOW
have any plans to take up the cause of
such as Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka,
their modern-day successors?
Honduras and South Africa, as well as
groups organising labour in the informal
Our campaign for a mandatory living wage
economy in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia.
is relevant here. We have united with UK
WOW is a long-standing supporter of the trade unions in calling for the living wage
to be made mandatory rather than
Palestinian cause. What role do the
voluntary for all workers in the UK and in
Palestinian unions play in this struggle?
the global supply chains of UK retailers, in
the sure knowledge that this will have a
The Palestinian trade unions were
major impact on the life chances of
signatories to the 2005 call from
migrant workers. We have also offered
Palestinian civil society for an
support to migrant workers such as the
international movement of boycott,
divestment and sanctions (BDS) to support cleaners campaigns for a living wage in
London.
them in their struggle for justice.
War on Want is the only mainstream British
NGO 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 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 in
their struggles. But increasingly it is clear
that international solidarity consists of
action to challenge our own governments
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 groundbreaking 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 of
the 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 and
Oregon, Maryland, Texas and Wisconsin.
In Los Angeles the first ever sit down strike
at a store took place.

Adding to the pressure on the megaretailer, 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....

For the big day itself, Our Wal-Mart and

Making Change at Wal-Mart pulled out all
the stops, creating the biggest coordinated
action so far. The plan included 1600 stores
across 49 states.
How far this was achieved is unclear. The
company typically reported only a minority
Best of all, the demands to raise wages
of associates were taking part. From the
throughout America has paid dividends,
reports and photo evidence posted online,
with no fewer than 21 states increasing
it seems clear there was a substantial
their minimum wage for 2015. Tens of
presence on the part of Wal-Mart workers.
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.