Owen TudorThe union campaign calling for better working and living conditions in the tobacco fields of North Carolina took a step forward on Thursday at the BAT annual general meeting after union protests in London and the USA led to BAT asking the TUC to organise a meeting for US unions to meet with the company top brass. The AFL-CIO organised protests outside the UK Embassy and consulates in ten cities across the USA, and handed in letters calling on the UK Government to press BAT to deliver better working conditions.
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This week the TUC has been helping US farmworkers’ union FLOC to lobby a British-based multinational to ensure better conditions for tobacco workers in North Carolina. British American Tobacco (BAT) is headquartered in London and holds its corporate AGM today, Thursday. FLOC, AFL-CIO and IUF representatives will be at the AGM to protest about the conditions facing farmworkers in North Carolina who supply BAT’s North American subsidiary, R.J.Reynolds, with tobacco leaf. The mostly migrant workforce experiences low wages, terrible health and safety risks, and appalling accommodation.
Union protesters outside BAT headquarters
BAT claims that their lack of a direct employment relationship (farmworkers are employed by growers/farmers who contract to the tobacco companies, sometimes through a further intermediary) absolves them of responsibility or power over the farmworkers’ conditions. But it is in the nature of global supply chains that such multinationals are, in fact, responsible for the employment and living conditions of the people from whom global profits are extracted. And unions are increasingly using those supply chains to campaign for union recognition and better terms and conditions for some of the least powerful workers in today’s global market.
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The trade union movement in Swaziland is struggling against repression from the last feudal monarchy in Africa, whose King lives in lavish splendour while his people live in poverty, with the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world. Earlier this month, protests in Swaziland for democracy were brutally crushed despite worldwide protests. One of the TUC’s partners in Swaziland, Percy Masuku of labour research and education organisation IRALE, gave his personal testimony to us.
Now you can help fight back. King Mswati III is coming to London next week for – you guessed it – the Royal Wedding. He and his 50-strong entourage will hole up in London’s swanky Dorchester Hotel, in a display of wealth and privilege that turns the stomach. ACTSA and the Swaziland Vigil have called a protest which the TUC supports for 6pm on Tuesday 26 April. Let ACTSA know if you can come, and spread the word!
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This blog has long championed the belief that unions and collective bargaining are good for workers, good for companies, good for the economy, and, crucially, good for social justice and reducing income inequality.
So it was heartening today to see Iain Gray, Labour’s leader in Scotland respond positively to a recent report by Unite which called for the establishment of ‘sector forums’ (hat-tip Keith Ewing). Speaking at the STUC Congress in Ayr, Gray announced,
“That is why I was pleased to learn that Unite have announced plans today to promote more employer and trade union joint working through sectoral bargaining and as First Minister I will explore the potential of such an initiative to attack pay inequality and protect workers in dispersed workforces.”
Of course, we’ve been here before, sort of…the so-called ‘Warwick Agreement’ contained a commitment to ‘new ‘Sectoral Forums’….to improve pay, skills, productivity and pensions’, but it will be interesting to see if and how the Labour Party run with this in Scotland should they form a government after May 5.
Could Scotland prove to be the test-bed for a new, positive, settlement between unions, employers and government?
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Unions and community organisations came together to oppose the massive public sector cuts in the United Kingdom. They have formed coalitions to organise numerous events and rallies at the local and regional level, as well as the successful national demonstration in London on 26 March.
But sustaining a movement that not only “resists” austerity but wins new economic reforms and shifts the political climate is no easy task.
How will the coalition between unions and community groups sustain participation locally and pressure nationally to win people-friendly reforms?
The experience from the US, Canada and Australia shows that coalitions between unions and community organisations can deliver transformative social change and strengthen civil society organisations, but only under certain conditions.
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The AFLCIO has produced a fund-raising badge to oppose attacks on working families and unions in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and other states, and we have a limited number for sale in the UK. For every badge purchased, $12.95 (£8.05) goes to workers and unions under attack.Starting in Wisconsin, but now in other states, Republican Governors are using the excuse of high public sector deficits to justify taking away the right to collective bargaining – a fundamental human right – from public sector workers. The badges were launched for the 4 April We Are One solidarity actions – but the struggle continues.
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The TUC and National Union of Students will be holding a round-table on Internships at the TUC, Congress House, London on April 20th. They will be joined by a number of other organisations that are involved in campaigning for fairer access to internships and better employment rights for interns.
The roundtable is being held to capture the full extent of work currently being undertaken by a range of organisations and campaign groups in relation to interns; discuss recent political/policy developments and develop a coordinated action plan to take forward issues of mutual concern and priority.
Places at the round-table will be limited but to register your organisation’s interest please email Joanne Adams at the TUC on jadams@tuc.org.uk.
Paul Nowak
Amandatattersall
Carl Roper
