[Kabar-indonesia] Securicor's Labour Dispute In Indonesia: Unions Going Multinational

[Joyo at aol.com]

also: Young shoppers scorn ethical wear

The Guardian [UK]
Saturday August 12, 2006

Workers of the world unite

Unions are following corporations and going
multinational, as Group 4 Securicor discovered during
a labour dispute in Indonesia. Phil Chamberlain
reports

For Yachya, a security guard in Indonesia, the strike
hit his children hardest. "They should be in school by
now, but we don't have any money for their school
fees," he says. "We used to have health insurance, but
now we have to borrow money for health care."

Over in Uganda it is alleged that security guards at
one company have been denied the right to form a
union. In India, some security guards claim their firm
fails to pay the legal level of overtime.

What links all three disputes is the British security
giant Group 4 Securicor. With 33,000 employees in
Britain, 430,000 staff worldwide and a global turnover
of more than £4bn, it is a major player.

One union official describes the multinational as
"adopting a common sense approach" to labour relations
in the UK. In June, Tony Blair, the prime minister,
described a union recognition agreement between the
GMB and Group 4 Securicor as "groundbreaking". It took
15 months to negotiate the deal, which says that the
GMB is an appropriate union to represent the firm's
15,500 UK-based security officers and agents.

But a campaign highlighting Group 4 Securicor's
operations in the developing world has put the
blue-chip company under pressure. It began in the US
after the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
got into a recognition dispute with a Group 4
subsidiary, Wackenhut.

"It became clear that they had no intention of
resolving this," says Bill Regan at the SEIU. "The
company said it was a good company and so we looked at
it globally. They are reasonably well thought of in
Europe, but it is a completely different story
elsewhere. We came to the conclusion that they had one
policy for Europe and one for the rest of the world."

So, the SEIU put its muscle into highlighting Group 4
Securicor disputes in India, Uganda, South Africa and
Kenya. But the focus has been Indonesia where, at the
end of last month, security guards concluded a bitter
15-month dispute.

That dispute began when Group 4 Falk merged with
Securicor. Workers at Securicor Indonesia wanted
reassurances about their terms and conditions and,
when negotiations on this collapsed, they went on
strike. They say they were illegally sacked, have not
been paid over the past 12 months as the law requires
and suffered intimidation.

A series of court rulings, including a decision by the
supreme court in Jakarta, had found in favour of the
strikers. Group 4 Securicor remains bullish in defence
of its actions. It says a small group of workers
suddenly claimed membership of a union it had never
heard of. They demanded severance pay five times that
legally required and have rejected all attempts at
negotiation.

The deal finally thrashed out will see the strikers
given back pay and generous severance terms - but it
has tarnished Group 4 Securicor's image. Despite the
huge resources at its disposal, the company has been
wrongfooted by a nimble media campaign, which has
drafted in grassroots support from trade unionists
across the developed world.

A dedicated website was set up, there were
demonstrations at the company's London AGM, speaking
tours by strikers, a very successful email campaign, a
high-powered PR firm was engaged and even Group 4
Securicor's Wikipedia entry altered.

Earlier this year, GMB representative Eddie Parker
travelled to Indonesia to investigate the dispute. "It
is difficult to think that they are the same company
we deal with in Britain," he says. "It is appalling
what has taken place because it is affecting lots of
workers and their families. If it was not a country in
the developing world and its employees were not black
I do not think they would be behaving in this
fashion."

Group 4 Securicor is not alone in having its labour
relations in the developing world scrutinised.
Coca-Cola has had to fight accusations of running
anti-union campaigns at its factories in Colombia and
India. Nike's use of developing world labour to make
its products was a public relations disaster for the
firm. Such companies have undoubted financial clout,
but their iconic status also makes them easily
identifiable targets.

While individual corporations receive attention, some
countries, such as Colombia and Burma, have a
particularly poor record on trade union rights.
Therefore, companies that invest there can find
themselves held to account. Activists have compiled a
list of more than 400 firms that invest in Burma.
These include Britain's GlaxoSmithKline and British
American Tobacco.

Group 4 Securicor absolutely rejected claims that it
violated human rights in the developing world. A
company spokeswoman points out that globally the
company has agreements with more than 60 trade unions,
that half its workforce is covered by them and that
the firm supports international agreements on labour
standards.

"This is all about recognition in the US, nothing
else," she says. "The SEIU would consider themselves
the new face of unionism. At a time when unions and
employers are getting closer together in many
countries, I think that their approach is
retrogressive."

It could also be a sign of things to come, according
to SEIU. "We are seeing more global companies like
Group 4," says Regan. "Our members now work for
companies whose headquarters are in Stockholm or
London.

"For a long time we thought that globalisation only
happened to industrial workers. We need to get ahead
of this before it gets ahead of us."

Labour relations experts believe other unions may
follow companies and transform themselves into
multinational organisations. "This is a good example
of the kind of strategy that recognises that
international companies have got to be responsible for
all that they do," says Keith Ewing, a law professor
at King's College London. "Companies have to behave as
good global citizens."

However, many unions in the developing world have
concerns about following this model and supporting
campaigns such as the SEIU's, says Gregor Gall,
professor of industrial relations at the University of
Hertfordshire. "They are not too keen to get involved
because they see these campaigns as a ruse and, in the
case of American unions, a form of US imperialism and
protectionism.

"In the case of G4, it will be interesting to see, if
recognition is won in the US, whether the concerns for
G4 workers' rights elsewhere is maintained and
campaigned on."

For Eddie Parker, the week he spent in Indonesia
convinced him that such disputes do have a global
impact. "What is the perception in Indonesia of people
in Britain if a British company like Group 4 can
behave like this?" he asks.

"How can they even be considered for Olympic contracts
which are all about fair play and equal opportunity?"

When the strike deal was announced, Ferry Nelson, the
general secretary of the Securicor Indonesia Labour
Union, said jubilantly: "We've forced them [Group 4
Securicor] to respect human rights in Indonesia."

Yachya has a more prosaic response. "For over a year
we have struggled and gone without pay and been unable
to feed our families," he says. "Now we can make a new
start."

Group 4 Securicor is not the only British company to
find its foreign activities under the spotlight

Campaigns to hold UK companies to account for their
treatment of workers abroad have had mixed success.
Commonly, the focus has been on environmental
behaviour by firms such as Shell and BP or the
activities of arms companies rather than relations
between corporations and employees.

Tesco and Arcadia have defended claims that some of
their suppliers have provided garments produced under
poor pay and working conditions in the developing
world. The supermarket giant and the high street
clothing chain are adamant that there are no sweatshop
conditions behind their low pricetags. British
American Tobacco, however, has been castigated for the
way it treats tobacco farmers and its factory
conditions in the developing world.

A new development took place this month when
FirstGroup was forced by shareholders to adopt a human
rights policy. It followed a campaign to highlight the
anti-union activities of a US subsidiary of the
British transport firm.

"Whether these international campaigns are successful
is dependent upon a range of factors," says Gregor
Gall, professor of industrial relations at the
University of Hertfordshire. "For example, the
campaign to save textile jobs in the global north by
trying to raising labour standards in the textile
industry in the global south has failed primarily
because: a) The campaign was essentially to stop
redundancies and when this is the case unions are
always in a weaker position compared with when there
is no threat of divestment or relocation over wage
negotiations; b) There were always other countries the
companies could move to even if some countries tried
to raise labour standards; c) The key to the issue was
wage costs; and d) These jobs could be subject to
mobility.

"The campaigns can be effective depending on where
they fit into these configuration of factors. Unions
have to realistically address whether the companies
have pressure points and how much leverage they can exert."

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The Guardian [UK]
Saturday August 12, 2006

Young shoppers scorn ethical wear

David Adam, environment correspondent

The plight of child labourers and sweatshop workers in
developing countries is far from the minds of most
young people on Britain's high streets, according to a
survey that finds more than half of under-25s do not
care how their clothes are produced.

The findings suggest the new wave of fair trade
outlets face an uphill struggle to convince younger
shoppers to buy organic cotton and ethically produced
garments. Just 42% of under-25s said they took any
notice of ethical issues when it came to what they
wore. Only 27% of people overall said they would be
willing to pay more to guarantee their clothes were
made in a sustainable way.

Over-55s have the greatest awareness of how garments
are produced, with 36% looking for country of origin
before making a purchase, according to the survey of
7,000 people by TNS Worldpanel Fashion.

Ethical clothes were defined as those not made by
child labour or in sweatshops, for which the producers
were paid a fair price, and where the environment was
not damaged.

Brenda Gobine, research manager at TNS, said: "It is
still early days and there is a lack of awareness of
what's on offer; a quarter of respondents didn't know
about the level of availability of ethical clothing."
She said some big retailers may have misjudged public
demand. "Only 14% felt the use of organic fibre was a
very important consideration."

Shoppers felt more strongly about treatment of people
than material factors such as organic production, she
said. Overall, 76% of respondents said an end to child
labour and sweatshops was a very important driver of
ethical production; 60% said offering producers a fair
price was important; and 50% wanted to reduce damage
caused to the environment.

"There is a notable split between the sexes," Ms
Gobine said. Of those who felt ethical production of
clothes was important to them, 59% were women. Just
over half (53%) said they would buy ethical clothes if
they did not cost more, the survey found. Those under
34 said price was more important than quality.

The survey asked people how they rated the ethics of
several high street retailers. M&S scored highest,
with the "value fashion retailers" rated worst.

Rachel Neame of the ethical clothing company People
Tree said its core market was the 25-40 age range. "We
are inundated with requests from students and fashion
students especially about how to source ethical
clothes and materials."

The company convinced TopShop to start selling its
ethical range in its flagship London store in March.
"If 58% of young people said they don't care, that's
42% who do and that's a very significant number," she said.

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