10th anniversary collapse of Rana Plaza garment factory Bangladesh: 1100 dead

Webinar on Global Company–Trade Union Agreements: A proxy for regulatory compliance & due diligence

As someone who has worked on and off in the borough for 30 years (I was there today) and been a trade union representative for most of this time on the Tower Hamlets Council Pension Committee (then its Pension Board), I can remember the shock of hearing about the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory. 1100 workers dead and many more injured in the quest for super cheap clothing for British and other Western retail stores.

Newham also has a significant Bangladesh community but I am sure that everyone was horrified at these needless deaths. The role of local trade unions is key to avoiding future disasters. I am more than happy to be chairing this important meeting.

Register here

"19 April at 3pm UK / 4pm CET

Next month marks the 10th anniversary of the collapse of Rana Plaza garment factory complex in Bangladesh, in which over 1,100 garment workers were killed. In the years since the tragedy, several promising initiatives have taken shape, involving collaboration between global labor unions and multinational brands, binding agreements and remedy mechanisms. These are part of an emerging model of supply chain industrial relations, and they include the International Accord for Health & Safety in the Textile & Garment Industry and ACT on Living Wages.

Learning lessons from the failures of “social auditing” and factory certification schemes, this newer model is centered on workers’ rights and company accountability for violations of these rights. Negotiated, binding agreements can also serve as a reliable proxy for investors for regulatory compliance as mandatory human rights due diligence (mHRDD) laws emerge.

And yet, despite its failures, social auditing persists, and proposed mHRDD laws even risk being weakened if such “private voluntary regulation” is allowed to substitute for true due diligence.

Against this backdrop, IndustriALL has commissioned a technical brief that delves into negotiated, binding agreements between business and trade unions, making the case that, besides reducing human rights risks to workers, they can mitigate business risk for investors in the new regulatory landscape. IndustriALL and LAPFF are pleased to invite you to an investor webinar on 19 April at 3pm (UK), where we will present the brief and hear worker and investor perspectives on this model.

The webinar will be chaired by Cllr John Gray from the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum and will include speakers from Due Diligence Design, Aviva Investors, IndustriALL Global Union and Bangladesh Garment & Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF)."

Employment Injury Insurance for Garment Workers in Bangladesh - Social Protection in Action

 

Next week I am moderating this virtual webinar for investors on "Social protection for garment workers". If you are involved in pensions please ask your trustees/pension committee/board members, fund managers and financial advisors to attend.

"Employment injury insurance for garment workers in Bangladesh:

Social protection in action

 Join us for an investor webinar on 18 October at 3pm UK / 10am ET

Registration here

IndustriALL Global Union and the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum will co-host a one-hour discussion of the recently launched Employment Injury Scheme (EIS) for ready-made garment workers in Bangladesh. In addition to presenting the pilot itself, the webinar will explore why garment and textile brands are participating, their role in funding it and the need for their continued involvement in the development of sustainable employment injury insurance.

Speakers include Primark and H&M, which are participating in the EIS pilot; the ILO, which supported the pilot’s design; and IndustriALL, which represents workers on the pilot’s tripartite committee. The webinar is aimed primarily at institutional investors interested in working towards a more sustainable garment industry built on respect for workers’ fundamental rights.

This event is part of a larger initiative spearheaded by IndustriALL on social protection for garment workers. Social protection, which can cover needs such as unemployment support, disability benefits and maternity protection, is an internationally recognized human right. During the Covid-19 pandemic, non-payment of wages due to brands’ cancellation of orders led to deepening poverty for millions of global supply chain workers because of the fundamental lack of social protection in producing countries. In several cases, this triggered large-scale protests and brought operational, legal and financial risks for sourcing brands. 

Employment injury insurance is one of the most basic forms of social protection. The Bangladesh pilot, which involves the government, workers, employers and the ILO, is an example of what is possible in the realm of social protection and of how brands are already participating in the effort. The webinar follows on our earlier event in June (recording here), in which workers from Thailand provided testimony about the impact of wage theft on their lives. This next webinar will bring in brands’ views on the importance of social protection and what their role can be.

Please join us on 18 October. Register here

Speakers:

Anne Marie La Rosa, Senior Policy, Legal & Labour Rights Specialist, ILO

Christina Hajagos-Claussen, Director Textile & Garment Industry, IndustriALL Global Union

Leyla Ertur, Head of H&M Group Sustainability, H&M Group

Katharine Stewart, Group Corporate Responsibility Director, Primark

Liz Umlas, Senior Advisor, IndustriALL Global Union

Cllr John Gray, Vice Chair, LAPFF (moderator)

Colombian worker perspectives from Cerrejón Coal mine - LAPFF webinar

Last week I chaired this webinar on behalf of the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF). While it can at times be tough being a trade union activist in this country it is nothing to the perils and physical dangers facing Colombian trade unions. 

Check out this account of the meeting below by LAPFF (video of meeting can be seen by its members of their website) and also the article on the IndustriALL website  http://www.industriall-union.org/colombian-worker-perspectives-from-cerrejon-coal-mine (picture credit above)

"On 8 April, LAPFF Vice Chair, Cllr John Gray hosted a webinar with IndustriALL Global Union to provide investors with an update on how Cerrejón’s operations are affecting workers in Colombia. This webinar follows on from a recent LAPFF webinar with a community member affected by Cerrejón. Two workers from SINTRACARBON, a national union of the Colombian coal industry and the main union at Cerrejón, spoke about serious health and safety concerns at the mine.d

After Cerrejón and the union recently concluded a collective agreement, the company turned around and implemented a punishing shift change that will have serious health and safety implications for workers and their families, and an enormous impact on jobs at the mine. In what the union is calling a “jobs slaughter”, Cerrejón is now talking of 450 dismissals in connection with the shift change, with workers’ rights being sacrificed as the mine’s three owners, BHP, Glencore and AngloAmerican, seek to exit thermal coal. Igor Kareld Díaz López, president of SINTRACARBON, spoke about the labor situation at Cerrejón, the actions workers have taken in response, and why Cerrejón and its owners need to take workers’ rights seriously. He also addressed questions about a “just transition” at the mine.

Further, all three companies say that diversity and inclusion are integral to their success are very public in their efforts in training and hiring more women. Unfortunately, these gestures do not reflect the reality for women. Behind the narrative, there are still huge gaps as to how diversity and gender equality are addressed in reality. Hidanora Pérez, a Sintracarbón union leader employed at Cerrejón, addressed existing gender discrimination and inequality at the mine and described what her union is doing to hold the mine to account for the gaps between policy and implementation".

LAPFF Webinar Colombian worker perspectives from Cerrejón Coal mine

 

Next week I will chair this LAPFF (Local Authority Pension Fund Forum) webinar which is aimed at investors. If you wish to join please apply here

Unions stand up to BHP and exploitative mining companies

 

Today I took part in a pension trustee in an online asset owner briefing by PIRC and Global trade unions (IndustriALL Global Union) who organise workers in Columbia, Chile and Australia who are employed (directly or indirectly) by the multinational mining giant BHP. 

There were a number of investment fund managers and advisors who also took part and asked questions. 

I was very disturbed to hear about the failure of BHP to engage with its trade unions across the different continents and also its failure to protect workers against Covid-19 infections. 

It was incredible to learn that BHP has set up so called "joint venture" dummy companies to employ staff at their sites at reduced wages and benefits, while at the same time washing their hands over their health and safety. 

I asked the local union organisers, what can pension fund trustees in the UK do to help them and was told in no uncertain terms that they want us to push for meaningful dialogue with their employer. They want senior managers, who have the authority to take decisions and make things happen to negotiate with them and not just ignore or dictate to them. 

Many UK pension funds have have huge investments in mining companies and are they are liable to potential massive risks if these investments go wrong. If companies fail to engage with their trade unions and fail to mitigate these risks, then investors must question if these companies are really suitable to put pensioners money into them. 

(picture of trade unions protesting outside the BHP AGM in London 2018. Check out protests at last months virtual BHP meeting)