| Global daily news 28.07.2011 |
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Pilot Strike Produces Result In Dispute With National Passenger And Freight Carrier
28 July 2011
INDONESIA – It has been a year of mixed fortunes for Garuda, the national air carrier which was informed in April this year that all charges concerning air freight cargo cartel activity had been dropped by authorities in New Zealand despite continuing prosecutions proceeding against a dozen other carriers for collusion over fuel surcharges. Now however the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and its Indonesian member union IKAGI tell us that labour relations at the company are worsening with the company’s pilots striking today claiming the company has intimidated union members and refused to implement a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) since 2009. Garuda bowed to pressure this morning and agreed to go back to the negotiating table The 24 hour stoppage came after a prolonged dispute and Garuda says it laid on 130 extra pilots to ensure most services would continue unaffected, but capitulated under pressure and agreed to return to talks over pay and conditions – native pilots claim they are paid 30% less than overseas licence holders. Usually in this type of situation preference is given to keeping to passenger schedules whilst cargo flights are sacrificed, passengers shout louder than freight forwarders and cause greater expense to the air carrier. The problems at Garuda however are not limited to pilot discontent however according to union sources. IKAGI president Zainudin Malik commented: “We are very concerned about what is going on in Garuda Indonesia. Day by day, industrial relations and working conditions are worsening. The strike by our colleagues in the APG pilots’ union illustrates the kinds of problems workers are experiencing with the policies laid down the management. “ The union claim that the government owned carrier has resisted appeals for a negotiated settlement and are testing their case at an Industrial Tribunal. Mr Malik concluded: “The need for a Collective Bargaining Agreement is urgent. There’s no alternative way for Garuda except to implement the terms of the CBA which have been agreed. We hope that our colleagues worldwide will continue to insist that the Indonesian government takes an active role in ending the uncertain working conditions.” The pilot’s unrest was caused when the airline leased an increased and updated fleet last year but had insufficient qualified pilots to fly them. When faced with aircraft parked and unused Garuda turned to around forty overseas pilots, allegedly at the higher pay rate, to ensure schedules were met.
FROM SKYPORT (UK):
***Airline news roundupA NEW body representing workers in ONEWORLD ALLIANCE airlines has offered a constructive partnership between trade unions and management on problem-solving and negotiation. The One World of Labour Council - which was formed in April by unions affiliated to the ITF (International Transport Workers' Federation) and with members working across the alliance - made the offer in a letter to the CEOs of each of oneworld's 12 member airlines. In it, council coordinator John M Conley said: "At present, industrial relations are clearly strained in a number of airlines within the oneworld group and our unions have pledged to support each other during these challenging times. "Nevertheless, we wish to express our commitment to problem-solving and negotiating in good faith with those among our management counterparts who are wiling to do the same."
FROM MATERIALS HANDLING WORLD:
***Trade union wins UPS negotiation victory28 July 2011
Workers for UPS' Turkish subsidiary have won the right to be represented collectively by the TÜMTİS trade union, fifteen months after the dismissals of 163 workers - all of whom had registered to join the union or were members of it. Non-stop picket lines, backed by an international campaign, won the right to return and compensation, and TÜMTİS has now triumphed again, after a majority of an estimated 3,000 direct-hire employees filed for union recognition. Now Turkey's Ministry of Labour and Social Security has legally-certified the union as the workers' representative.
This achievement is the culmination of the campaign by UPS workers and their union to improve job conditions at the workplaces of global delivery companies operating in Turkey. Kenan Öztürk, TÜMTİS' general President, commented: "This achievement is not only ours. It is the result of the collaboration of many trade unions under the umbrella of the Global Delivery Network of the International Transport Federation (ITF), and especially the Teamsters union in America, which represents hundreds of thousands of UPS workers in the company's home country. The European Transport Federation and its affiliates also played an integral role in this victory."
FROM BALTIC BUSINESS DAILY:
***Trade unions expect govt's decision on raising share capital in Latvia's Airbaltic
28 July 2011
RIGA, Jul 28, BNS - The Latvian Federation of Aviation Trade Unions (LAAF) expect the government's decision on solutions for raising the share capital in Latvia's national carrier Airbaltic, said LAAF chairman Vladimirs Golakovs told BNS. He confirmed that the employees of the aviation sector would be ready to purchase up to 6 percent of Airbaltic's shares if the company's share capital should be increased by issue of new shares. He reminded that the trade union made such a proposal already several years ago. "The proposal on purchase of shares was voiced four years ago when privatization of Airbaltic was discussed," he said. Assessing the processes, Golakovs said that it will require a long time -- first the respective decision should be made by the government, then regulations should be prepared. Transport Minister Uldis Augulis said earlier that LAAF would be interested to purchase up to 6 percent shares in Airbaltic. He said that Airbaltic's share capital can be raised in many ways, including through new issue of shares. "Discussing the issue with the LAAF, its representatives voiced an opinion that they would be interested in purchase of a certain number of shares. Thus, aviation employees would have a certain control over the company," said the minister, adding that the trade union would be interested in up to 6 percent of shares. The state plans to decide on raising Airbaltic's share capital on Aug. 9. Airbaltic serves direct routes from all three Baltic capitals -- Riga, Vilnius and Tallinn -- and also flies passengers on several domestic flights in Finland. Airbaltic, established in 1995, belongs to the Latvian state, which holds 52.6 percent of shares, and Baltijas Aviacijas Sistemas (Baltic Aviation Systems, BAS), which holds 47.2 percent. A 50 percent stake in BAS belongs to Airbaltic CEO Bertolt Flick, and another 50 stake is held by Taurus Asset Management Fund Limited, a company registered in the Bahamas. LAAF was founded in 1947. It unites the Latvian Trade Union of Flight Attendants, the Latvian Association of Trade Union of Civil Aviation Pilots, the Latvian Trade Union of Airport Workers, the Latvian Trade Union of Aviation Workers, and the Latvian Trade Union of Flight Controllers. LAAF is a member of the International Transport Workers Federation.
FROM THE FINANCIAL (GEORGIA):
FROM REBANADAS DE REALIDAD (ARGENTINA):
FROM TRADEWINDS:
Canadians claim V.ShipsV. Ships has been acquired by Omers Private Equity in a $520m deal.
 V.Ships big guns, Roberto Giorgi and Bob Bishop.
The buy-out division of leading Canadian pension fund Omers replaces Exponent Private Equity as financial partner in the parent V Group along with senior management.
Probably most interesting is the price paid for the world’s largest independent shipmanagement outfit.
Exponent paid $338m as recently as 2007. The 54% hike in price to $520m, including debt, is despite the global economic crisis and impact it has had on the shipping industry.
During that time V Group has expanded with three major acquisitions, including Dubai based International Tanker Management.
It now serves a fleet of more than 1,000 vessels including tankers, bulkers, gas carriers, containerships, cruiseships and offshore, the latter being an area targeted for expansion.
Clive Richardson, who was brought in as chief executive by Exponent, said: ”V Group has a tremendous future and the management team is excited in working with our new partners in the next chapter of growth in our business.”
V Group has been owned for some time by different private equity companies and over 200 management shareholders on an approximately 50-50 basis.
Mark Redman, senior managing director of Omers Private Equity in Europe, describes V Group as having “an attractive and differentiated outsourcing-based business model and is led by an exceptional team.”
He said: ”We believe that V Group’s extensive global network, track record of profitable growth, compelling customer value proposition and breadth of services provides significant long-term potential.
“As global leader in operating in robust and growing segments of the market, we believe the future opportunities for V Group are extremely attractive.”
RBC Capital Markets is providing finance for the deal.V Group was advised by Lazard and others, while V Group management has been advised by Kinmont and Travers Smith.
The Canadian pension fund buyer is already a stakeholder through Borealis Infrastructures of Associated British Ports.Borealis was a partner in acquiring the concession to own and operate Britain’s high-speed rail link to the Channel Tunnel.
Omers (Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System) was created to handle retirement benefits of local government employees in Ontario. It manages $53bn in net assets.
V Group is reported to be its private equity arm’s first majority takeover in Europe.
FROM FAIRPLAY DAILY NEWS:
SeaFrance threatens court counterattack
FRENCH Dover Strait ferry operator SeaFrance told Fairplay today it would seek a court order to prevent the group’s main union from blocking talks on cuts.
FROM THE JOURNAL OF COMMERCE:
Tiger working towards resuming Australia flights in August (SYDNEY) Tiger Airways is working with Australia's aviation regulator towards the resumption of domestic flights in the country by early August, a source said yesterday, after its flights were grounded more than three weeks ago on safety concerns. Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is expected to lift a ban on the Singaporean budget carrier flying on Aug 1, the source familiar with the situation said, although the exact timing of Tiger resuming flights was still being discussed. A Federal Court hearing is scheduled for today to consider extending an existing flying ban which expires on July 31, but Tiger is expected to seek an adjournment to that hearing, the source said. Australia halted Tiger's local flights on safety concerns on July 2, the first time that a carrier's entire fleet has been grounded in the country. A Tiger spokeswoman said that the airline continued to 'work constructively' with the regulator but declined to say when it expected to resume services. 'There is no information available yet as to when Tiger Airways Australia may resume services, but it is committed to do so as soon as possible,' the airline said in a statement. CASA said that no decision had been made on Tiger resuming services yet. 'We are aiming to finalise the matters on or before Aug 1, and we are still working towards that deadline. No decision has yet been taken,' a CASA spokesman said. While analysts had said that Tiger had also considered scaling down its Australian operations or even exiting the business, aviation sources said that the airline is now expected to resume services. Shares in Tiger, which is a third owned by Singapore Airlines, were trading up 0.9 per cent at $1.19 in Singapore yesterday. The company listed in January 2010 at $1.50 per share. Tiger's chief executive officer, Tony Davis, took over the day-to-day running of the troubled Australian operations earlier this month, replacing Crawford Rix who will leave the company by the end of the month. Tiger generated 45 per cent of its $622 million revenue in the 2011 financial year from the Australian operations. -- Reuters
FROM THE JOURNAL OF COMMERCE:
ILWU Chief Promises to Work With ILA
McEllrath criticizes other unions for doing waterfront jobs
The president of the West Coast longshore union pledged cooperation with the International Longshoremen’s Association and criticized other unions he said were poaching dockworker jobs. Bob McEllrath, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, told delegates at the ILA’s quadrennial convention that employers “are using the word ‘competition’ to put a wedge in between” the ILWU and ILA. “We are one,” he said. “I’m going to work with the new (ILA) president, Harold Daggett…We’re going to fight together, we’re going to keep our jurisdiction and we’re going to keep our (unions’) jobs.” McEllrath complained that other unions from other industries are trying to take traditional longshore work on both East and West coasts. “Everybody is coming after our jobs,” he said. The ILWU is battling the operating engineers’ union over work jurisdiction at a grain elevator in Longview, Wash. “Where in the hell is this country going to?” McEllrath said. “Where is labor going to? Are we going to backdoor everybody? Is that where we’re going? Absolutely not.”
UNION/LABOUR RELATED MEDIA
FROM IN THESE TIMES:
***In the Wake of Oslo Attacks, a Path Forward for Labor?
Bikers comfort each other on July 26, 2011, on the coast of lake Tyrifjorden as they drive through the villages near Utoeya island in honor of the victims of the July 22 shooting spree at the Labour Party youth summer camp. (Photo by JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images) “For all dead comrades, not a minute's silence, but a life of struggle."
—Olav Magnus Linge, Norway's Socialist Youth The labor movement has always derived its power from its ability to mobilize people as a collective whole. But that potential to catalyze social action, and to resonate across lines of color and nationality, is precisely what makes the movement a political target around the world. And that's why the attack on young progressive activists in Norway was both shocking and yet not unpredictable. When taking aim at the Utøya summer camp of the Labour Party Youth Movement (AUF), the killer knew exactly what he was destroying: the next generation of young people who would challenge right-wing ideologies. Though it was a relatively mainstream political gathering, the camp symbolized the kind of inclusive society that extremists like Anders Behring Breivik view as a key obstacle to their agenda of engulfing Europe in racist barbarism. The attack could have been directed at a cultural symbol of “foreignness” in Norway—an immigrant neighborhood or a religious institution, perhaps. But what made the camp a more ideal target was that it encouraged transcendence of cultural allegiances and envisioned a society that could move past ethnic and sectarian conflict. That is, labor was attacked because its strength stems from solidarity rather than divisiveness and exclusion--the political currency the far-right trades on. The bloodshed in Oslo appears to have injected fresh urgency into campaigns for workers' rights and social equity. The Norwegian trade union coalition, LO, has posted statements of support from other unions around the globe, including some in places where assaults on economic and human rights are more routine, like Palestine, Syria and Colombia. In a collection of solidarity messages on the International Transport Workers' Federation website, Victor Moore of Australia's Rail Tram and Bus Union said the victims “shared a dream of hope for the future and support for the cause of labour.” Reflecting on labor's history of youth organizing, he added:
M. Raghavaiah, general secretary of the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen, said the “barbarian acts” resonated with past attacks in Mumbai, which spurred citizens and workers' organizations “to come together and put up an act of substance” by aiding in the post-crisis recovery. Although Breivik, who had been linked to the right-wing Progress Party, saw Labour as a whole as too tolerant of immigrants and Muslims, the AUF was known for more radical leanings than the mainstream Labour Party. According to Britain's Socialist Worker Party paper, the AUF often publicly criticized the government's policies on issues like Norway's refugee community and involvement in the Afghanistan war under NATO. Representatives of the International Socialists are reportedly planning a mass mobilization in the wake of the attacks that will include Oslo's LO, with hopes that AUF members will also “continue their political activities in honour of the victims. ... We want a demonstration in solidarity with the AUF, but also for a multicultural society, tolerance and unity against racism.” In the wake of such unimaginable horror, a path forward through direct action is difficult to contemplate, particularly when many unions in highly industrialized countries tend to focus on bread-and-butter workplace issues. Yet some hope the Oslo attacks could reinvigorate militant labor activism. To socialist commentator Dave Stockton, it isn't the state of Norway per se that needs protection from the right, but rather, “the values of international solidarity,” which encompass Norwegian Muslim communities as well as peoples struggling against oppression in Palestine and across the Middle East. In the labor movement at home, Stockton pointed to “the need to organise our own stewards, our own security, our own defence against the far right who will aim to use the crisis to rally ever more enraged people to their ranks.” So far it's not clear what shape this united front would take, but the discussion does give new valence to strategic mass mobilization. And it sheds light on ongoing threats that fueled the political climate from which Breivik emerged. The Socialist Worker pointed out that among the many groups and outlets that inspired Breivik's rhetoric (on both sides of the Atlantic), the ultra-right wing English Defence League had a special place. Weyman Bennett of London-based Unite Against Fascism told the paper, “There’s a network of Nazis across Europe who support and sustain racists like Breivik. What happened in Norway shows we have to redouble our efforts against the racist ideology of Islamophobia.” Writing from London, author and activist Alan Woods said labor's most effective tactic against the extreme right would be organizing on the street, rather than alignment with the official law enforcement response. Norway's government, he argues, has pivoted to the right along with other European leaders, and an act of terror should not drive people to duck obediently behind the state.
We're used to seeing strikes and demonstrations in the day-to-day business politics of unions, while grassroots organizing is increasingly distanced from bureaucratic leadership structures. Can labor effectively militate toward ideals of justice, democracy and equality in the face of terror? Now that so many youth have perished in the name of those principles, labor can turn a time of mourning into a moment for reaffirming its purpose.
FROM UNION MAGAZINE:
***Working conditions 'worsen' at Indonesian airline
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