***Global Labour Leaders Vow Action in Richmond Ikea Fight
Ongoing dispute now ‘under the gaze of a wider labour movement’, says international union brass.
‘We’re not ruling anything out,’ said Nordic union secretary of support for Teamster employees, seen here picketing outside the Richmond Ikea location. Photo via Teamster Local 213 Facebook page.
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Company insists it cares ‘tremendously’ about workers as dispute drags on.
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Fight against two-tier contracts shifts to Safeway, other BC chains.
- Read more: Rights + Justice, Labour + Industry,
The increasingly-fractious, six month labour dispute at IKEA’s big box store in Richmond may be on the verge of a dramatic escalation — all the way to Europe.
After listening to a wealth of emotional testimony from embittered IKEA employees during a hearing in Vancouver, international trade union representatives are pledging overseas action on behalf of the Richmond store workers, if the prolonged conflict continues.
“We will do everything we can that’s in our power,” declared Peter Lövkvist, secretary of the Nordic Transport Workers’ Federation, which represents 400,000 union members across all five Nordic countries, including IKEA’s home base of Sweden. “We’re not ruling anything out.”
Asked for specifics, Lövkvist mentioned measures such as publicizing the dispute in Scandinavia, demanding a “friendly” meeting with the worldwide company’s top brass at its Swedish headquarters, and union members refusing to handle IKEA products. “That could include seafarers, dockworkers, longshoremen, truck drivers, warehouse workers,” he said in an interview. “It depends. We could do a lot.”
Erin van der Maas, strategic industrial project co-ordinator for the the International Transport Workers’ Federation, who also sat in on the hearing, was equally adamant on the readiness of international union organizations to pitch in to help those on the picket line in Richmond. If the company is successful in breaking that union local and imposing concessions, it will be a defeat for unions everywhere, he said.
“Their dispute is now under the gaze of a wider labour movement… I can definitely see this going further,” warned van der Maas.
While hoping the threat of international pressure would prompt IKEA to return to the bargaining table, van der Maas noted that Christmas is coming. Boycotts are not out of the question. “We need to raise awareness of this dispute right across Europe,” he said. “We’ve got many members in many countries who buy IKEA, and soon it will be Christmas… Those are things we don’t need to spell out.”
Uniting across borders
Although nothing will happen immediately, vows by the two international union leaders definitely up the ante in the local IKEA dispute that began in the lazy, hazy days of mid-May. They also signal growing awareness that a fair settlement for 300 employees at a single location, fighting to resist concession from a worldwide, retail heavyweight like IKEA, may only be possible with powerful, outside allies.
Van der Maas, who is based in London, said labour organizations have understood this for some time, but only now are they starting to translate that into concrete strategy.
“We are realizing we have to be a lot more reactive and work with affiliate unions much faster, so we can respond to a crisis in a quick, meaningful way,” he said.
“If you’re going to challenge a big company, you need to work across borders, because [picketing] one store in Richmond is not enough to get the message across.”
The two international labour leaders are members of a fact-finding panel invited to investigate the strike/lockout by the B.C. Federation of Labour and the Teamsters Union, which represents the IKEA workers.
The four panelists spent Wednesday talking to store managers and employees on the picket line, followed by a two-hour public hearing Thursday afternoon at the Wosk Centre for Dialogue in downtown Vancouver.
Panelists will first compile a report on their findings, then make it public. At that point, further strategy will be mapped out in conjunction with the Teamsters.
Lövkvist, who chaired the panel, said he expects their report to be finished within a month. He noted that Albert Martens, head of corporate human relations for all of IKEA, declined an invitation to explain the company’s position. “Once we write the report, we will be contacting IKEA again.”
‘They’ve become demigods of the furniture world’: worker
Meanwhile, emotions continue to run high among picketers as the foul weather of November moves in. They accuse managers of distributing information on an anti-union organization called Labour Watch, which counsels workers how to get rid of their unions, and calling employees at home, inviting them back to work. So far, more than 30 union members have crossed the lines and been expelled by the Teamsters.
Picketers who testified Thursday clearly moved panelists with their determination to stick it out and their sense of betrayal over what they said was the loss of social values that had been part of IKEA’s approach throughout its astonishing global expansion under legendary founder Ingvar Kamprad.
‘We will do everything we can that’s in our power’ to support Richmond Ikea workers, declared Peter Lövkvist, secretary of the Nordic Transport Workers’ Federation, which represents 400,000 union members in Nordic countries. Photo via Teamster Local 213 Facebook page.
“He was always willing to find a way. That was his philosophy. But they don’t think that way at IKEA anymore,” said Marc Caron, a values trainer at the store and an employee for more than 20 years.
“Kamprad also said that only while sleeping, do we not make mistakes. All of a sudden, the company doesn’t make any mistakes,” Caron said. “They’ve become the demigods of the furniture world, quick to tell you how wrong you are.”
Julia Buczek, a younger, part-time employee, said IKEA had been a big part of her upbringing, as her Polish immigrant parents furnished most of their house with IKEA products.
“But now it seems the company I’d loved and grown up with has become one big corporate machine. Their Swedish values appear to have gone down the drain, at least over here,” Buczek said.
Another part-time employee, Kourosh Shahrokhzadeh, told how he experienced more and more difficulty getting sufficient work hours at the store to qualify for benefits. The atmosphere was far different from his time working at an IKEA store in Sweden.
One of his children is autistic and his wife has breast cancer, he said. “I’m just speaking from my heart. My co-workers were so good to me. They gave me a sense of belonging. But now I only see the black end of the tunnel. The IKEA culture here is certainly not what I was expecting when I was hired.”
Ikea ‘committed to being a great employer’: spokesperson
IKEA’s Richmond store is one of only two in Canada with a unionized workforce.
On May 13, after workers voted resoundingly to reject a contract offer laden with concessions and a two-tiered wage package, they were locked out for an hour. Employees were then invited back by the company under terms of a new agreement that imposed the two-tier wage system (lower rates for new staff), fewer benefits, tougher management rules and a new pay grid that required much longer service to attain the top wage rate. Workers stayed on the picket line, where they remain today.
In subsequent bargaining, the company abandoned its demand for two-tier wage rates, but called instead for advancement up the wage grid to be based on the level of sales at the store. According to the union, such a condition is unprecedented in the industry.
Madeleine Löwenborg-Frick, public relations manager for IKEA Canada, said she was travelling and could not provide comment on the latest development in the dispute until late Friday or Monday.*
In an interview with the CBC earlier Thursday, however, she said the company had not been invited to participate in the public hearing, but did meet with two panelists at the store in Richmond.
“So we did have an opportunity to reiterate to them that we are committed to providing wages that exceed industry standards,” Löwenborg-Frick told the CBC. “We are not proposing any wage reductions. We are committed to being a great employer and providing long-term, sustainable jobs.”
She said the company is willing to return to negotiations if the Teamsters step forward “with a reasonable offer.”
The dispute has caused IKEA to close its restaurant and children’s play area, and shut down completely one day a week, hardly a grave financial blow for a chain that reported about $4 billion in profit last year.
Peter Lövkvist said he was quite startled to hear about IKEA’s attitudes towards its Richmond employees, given the company’s generally fair treatment of workers in much of Europe.
“IKEA has a good reputation in Sweden. It’s a good employer,” he said. “But it seems the farther away from Sweden they get, the worse IKEA gets in labour relations.”
*Story updated Friday, Nov. 8 at 12:35 p.m.
Read more: Rights + Justice, Labour + Industry,
Rod Mickleburgh was a journalist at the Globe and Mail for 22 years, until leaving the paper this summer. He is currently freelancing and writing a blog. Before joining the Globe he was a labour reporter for 16 years, in the days when there were full-time labour reporters in B.C.
FROM VOXY (NZ):
***APAC union leaders gather in Port Moresby
Monday, 11 November, 2013 – 15:56
Maritime union leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region will chart out the future of a proposed regional maritime federation in a high-level meeting convening on November 13 in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
The leaders represent key maritime unions in the region: the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ), and Papua New Guinea Maritime and Transport Workers Union (PNGMTU).
The one-day conference will analyse the maritime trends in the area and debate the outlines of the federation’s goals, strategy, and governance.
“When it comes to the future of workers in the maritime industry in the Asia-Pacific region, there are no borders,” MUA national secretary and International Transport Workers Federation president Paddy Crumlin said.
“Our livelihoods and working conditions will be protected and enhanced by building strategies, campaigns and advancing our mutual interests in unison.
“We will maintain the integrity and special identity of each union but, indeed, our regional coordination will bolster the future for all maritime workers in each nation.”
MUNZ general secretary Joe Fleetwood added: “Our region will continue to see great growth in commerce across the oceans and our goal is to make sure that the workers who make sure goods move efficiently from nation to nation share in the bounty of economic prosperity.”
PNGMTU secretary Reg McAlister, who is serving as the host, said: “Our alliance with our neighbours goes back many years and we see great potential in a federation that will enhance our capacity in PNG.”
The conference will take place at the Lamana Hotel in Port Moresby. Among the dignitaries who will address the conference are the Honorable Michael Malabag, PNG’s Health Minister and the Honorable Ano Pala, PNG’s Transport Minister.
FROM WORLD SOCIALIST WEBSITE:
***Norwegian dockers in boycott
Dockworkers began a boycott at Risavika terminal November 1 after management refused to sign up to a national agreement covering the docks.
The web site of the International Transport Workers’ Federation charged that rather than agreeing to pay dockers based on a national contract, the employer “is said to be proposing to use seafarers to carry out cargo handling duties.”
Norwegian maritime unions have requested that vessels divert to other ports where there is a NTF agreement in place, while the boycott is in force.
FROM NOODLS:
***Turkish Airlines workers get loud support from IUF members in New York
distributed by noodls on 08/11/2013 23:20
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08-11-2013
The iconic Empire State Building was the scene of a strong and vocal protest against Turkish Airlines rights abuses held in New York November 8. The action was in support of 305 Turkish Airlines workers dismissed in 2012 for exercising their right to strike.
IUF affiliates from the New York Hotel Trades Council, union members from IUF- affiliated Unite Here together and the RWDSU/UFCW joined IUF general secretary Ron Oswald and IUF international officer Burcu Ayan to express their anger at the brutal actions of Turkish Airlines.
“Shame on Who?” was loudly answered by protestors “Shame on Turkish Airlines!” as workers and tourists at the Empire State Building heard our message for justice loud and clear. “No Justice, no peace” sent the clear message that IUF members in New York support the global fight for justice for Turkish Airlines workers.
A protest leaflet signed by IUF general secretary Ron Oswald outlining Turkish Airline’s brutality was delivered to the Turkish Airlines office inside the Empire State Building. The company was left in no doubt that the noisy protest outside was directed at them.
Ron Oswald thanked the protestors for this very concrete act of support and solidarity with these words: “Turkish Airlines has again been reminded of the support these brave workers at the airline have from around the world as they continue their long fight for justice. Hotel workers and other affiliates in New York have turned out in numbers to bring that message home in one of the airline’s key markets”. Oswald continued, “On behalf of the IUF, our sister organization the ITF but most importantly Turkish Airlines workers themselves I thank you. As always workers in New York have risen up in support of workers fighting for justice in some other part of the world. That kind of support is inspirational”
The protest, organized by the IUF in support of our sister international union federation the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and its Turkish Airlines members is part of a series of rolling actions around the world. The IUF earlier called on supporters around the world to write to Turkish Airlines and over 8000 supporters did just that in the space of the last week of October.
The struggle for justice goes on in Turkish Airlines and the IUF will stand shoulder to shoulder with the ITF and its members in this company for as long as it takes to win back the fundamental rights that have been so brutally stripped away from its workers.
FROM CANADIAN SAILINGS:
***Container weight rules claimed to be unnecessary and costing billions
Posted on: November 11th, 2013
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By Mike Wackett
Overweight containers could be a problem for years, according to a senior U.K.-based carrier executive, despite some shipper claims to the contrary. Despite September’s vote in the International Maritime Organization [IMO] to amend its Safety of Life at Sea Convention [SOLAS] – which will require the production of a verified weight certificate before a container can be loaded on board a ship – some shipper representatives remain rooted in their opposition to the new regulation.
Speaking at last week’s Intermodal Europe event in Hamburg, Marco Wiesehahn, policy advisor for the European Shippers’ Council (ESC), was adamant: the mandatory weighing of containers prior to shipment was not only unnecessary, but could cost shippers worldwide an estimated $5 billion a year in extra costs.
The ESC claims there is no factual evidence that a serious problem of shippers misdeclaring container weights exists; furthermore, that the new regulation only covers one aspect of the problems in working with containers and would do little to improve safety standards. It is a view supported by the Asian Shippers’ Council. But the Global Shippers’ Forum, World Shipping Council, BIFA and the International Transport Workers Federation are among organisations that have voiced general support for the SOLAS amendments.
And, according to one U.K.-based shipping executive who contacted The Loadstar, the problem is getting worse, while truck efficiency is improving, which disguises the extent of problem, he said. The giveaway signs of a vehicle down on its axels or having problems pulling the load are being compensated by the improved performance and technology of modern high-powered trucks.
The executive claimed the problem of overweight containers was endemic in the container industry, and while he identified boxes destined for West Africa as being especially troublesome at the moment, he also viewed the problem as being “widespread” across other trades. He has compiled a thick file of case histories – one recent example was of a container declared as household effects, booked for Tema, with a gross weight of twelve tonnes. It actually contained thirty tonnes of soft drinks.
Additionally, he said that if truck drivers showed concern at loading bays, they were often “physically threatened and told to stay in their cabs”.
Nonetheless, the legislation is still a long way from being adopted. The next IMO Maritime Safety Committee meeting in May 2014 is the earliest that the agreed amendment can be approved, and then only formerly adopted 12 months after that, in May 2015. Moreover, in practice this process could be extended by a two-year “waiting period”, to ensure the industry has sufficient time to adjust to the new rules. It follows that, for another four years, the executive argued, containers in the global supply chain that have misdeclared weights could be intermodal accidents waiting to happen: he described them as ticking time bombs on roads, railways, inland waterways, in ports and onboard ships.
The IMO ruling, when it comes, will be a marker in the sand, but in the interim, the education of all stakeholders needed to be radically improved, said Mr. Wiesehan, who acknowledged shippers’ legal responsibilities to declare accurate weights.