This month: French workers use their superpowers to improve workplaces and wages around the Olympics; labour rights under attach in Sweden and Finland; health and safety disaster in Korea; toxic fumes from welding and office equipment; heat stress; more AI impacts and many tributes to the great organiser Jane McAlevey.
Resources
- French workers seize the torch
- The assault on labour rights in Finland
- Swedish Unions in Crisis
- Aricell battery plant fire was Korea’s deadliest industrial disaster for migrant workers, experts say
- How Empowering Public-Sector Workers Builds Stronger Communities
- More workers than ever are losing the fight against heat stress
- Greek Unions Want Paid Time Off When It’s Too Hot to Work
- Most Australian welders are exposed to high levels of dangerous fumes. More than 40,000 may be at risk
- EU: “Let authors and performers decide on the use of their work by AI”, says group of creators to eurodeputies
- Self-reported symptoms associated with the use of printer and photocopier machines: Results from the nano-Control, International Foundation survey
- Tributes to Jane McAlevey. Celebrations of Jane’s Life and Work
French workers seize the torch
Jamal Elaheebocus
The 2024 Paris Olympics got underway with an ambitious, and very lengthy, opening ceremony across the city on Friday night. It was structured on the French Revolution’s principles of liberty, equality and fraternity, but it’s nigh-on impossible to hide the discontent and political turmoil that has gripped the country. Principally, this is due to the stunning victory of the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) in the parliamentary elections and Macron’s refusal to acknowledge the Left’s win and appoint a government until after the Olympics. However, the discontent runs deeper, with strikes across the country as workers make use of the one of the most high-profile sporting events to fight back in their workplaces.
Authorities and government officials have been desperately scrambling to reach agreements with a swathe of public-sector workers who have carried out strike action or planned strike action over the period of the Olympics.
The sheer scale of the strike action across Paris, and France in general, is inspiring and it appears workers have seized the extraordinary coincidence of the world’s attention being on them as the Olympics get underway, and the Left’s shock victory in the election, to advance their fight for fair pay, decent working conditions and respect in the workplace.
The assault on labour rights in Finland
Antti Alaja and Joel Kaitila
The Orpo government reforms aim in this light to increase employers’ say-so over pay and working conditions, inhibit the right to strike and render unemployment benefit more conditional. Expanding the economy’s low-wage sectors is one motivation; returning Finland to export-led growth is another.
The reforms continue a shift towards a more state-dominated labour-market regime, under way since the mid-2010s. This state steering stands in contrast to the Nordic model, where negotiations between organised labour and capital customarily occupy centre stage. So the government and employer associations have sought to frame the reforms as necessary if Finland is to maintain a Nordic model of industrial relations, based on a selective account of its supposed determinants.
The Orpo government is seeking drastically to shift the balance of power in the Finnish labour market. Its reforms are in line with the long-term goals of Finnish business organisations. They both calculate that the weakening of the left and trade unions has created a window of opportunity to upend labour-market institutions.
https://www.socialeurope.eu/the-assault-on-labour-rights-in-finland
Swedish Unions in Crisis
Rasmus Hästbacka
Many people outside of Sweden look at our country and believe they see an exemplary union movement. I’m sorry to break the news, but nowadays Swedish unions suck. Three pieces of evidence should suffice. First, the leaders of Sweden’s biggest unions supported the introduction of an anti-strike law in 2019. To my knowledge, the only union that has developed a strategy to tackle this law is the syndicalist union SAC.
Second, the same leaders who supported the anti-strike law also supported the weakening of Sweden’s employment protection act in 2022. Third, a labor market slum is growing where migrants are brutally exploited, which might dump working conditions across the board. The syndicalist SAC is the only union that provides effective counterfire.
Now, someone might ask: What did Swedish union leaders demand in exchange for supporting the 2019 anti-strike law? Brace yourselves: nothing. Literally nothing.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/07/11/swedish-unions-in-crisis/
Aricell battery plant fire was Korea’s deadliest industrial disaster for migrant workers, experts say
Goh Gyoung-ju
A committee for measures in response to a deadly fire at a battery plant in Korea is calling for efforts to prevent similar tragedies from occurring, including increased oversight for workplaces employing migrant workers and improvements to the currently lax risk assessment systems.
Experts described the fire at Aricell last month as the “largest-ever collective industrial disaster for migrant workers” and the result of illegal hiring practices and poor safety management at small-scale factories employing large numbers of migrant workers.
The Aricell response measure committee includes members from local civic groups in Hwaseong, the group Minbyun-Lawyers for a Democratic Society, and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).
Attendees said the Aricell tragedy starkly exposed the reality of poor labor relations and safety management underlying South Korean industry, with its reliance on migrant workers in particular.
“With a high proportion of migrant workers employed at small-scale, high-risk workplaces, they are exposed to double and triple risk with linguistic and cultural differences on top of the vulnerable safety and health structures,” said Park Se-yeol, the co-chairperson of the commission’s executive committee.
She went on to describe the fire as the “largest-ever collective industrial disaster for migrant workers.” Eighteen of the 23 people killed in the Aricell tragedy were migrant workers, including many ethnic Koreans from China.
https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1150350.html
How Empowering Public-Sector Workers Builds Stronger Communities
David McCall
Wayne Creasy turned the corner in his municipal work truck, saw emergency vehicles idling at the railroad crossing, and instinctively pulled over to help.
About 12 feet in the air, a railroad worker writhed in agony, pinned against his seat by a 39-foot-long, 1,500-pound slab of rail that fell from the claws of the crane he’d been operating.
Creasy—crew chief for the Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, Public Works Department and president of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1928—knew exactly what to do.
“Protect yourself. Protect your rights. Protect your benefits,” said Creasy, urging public workers to organize for their own good and that of the taxpayers they serve.
Union membership affords Creasy a say on the job and also provides him opportunities to learn new skills, take on additional responsibilities, and problem-solve. Safety trainings showed him to think his way out of perilous situations, and the union instilled in him the importance of leaving no one behind.
All of that came together to save the crane operator.
“I just had to help the guy… I represent the union, the USW, and it was the USW to the rescue,” said Creasy.
The Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act would afford more public-sector workers the voice and resources needed not only to better protect the public but also to deliver services more efficiently and cost-effectively.
“The union offers training you don’t get anywhere else,” said Kevin Ziolkovski, president of USW Local 9411, who’s aided accident victims, a person in anaphylactic shock, and other stricken members of the public while working for Groton (Connecticut) Utilities.
More workers than ever are losing the fight against heat stress
A new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO), Heat at work: Implications for safety and health, warns that more workers are being exposed to heat stress worldwide. The new data reveals that regions previously unaccustomed to extreme heat will face increased risks, while workers in already hot climates will confront ever more dangerous conditions.
Heat stress is an invisible and silent killer that can quickly cause illness, heatstroke or even death. Over time it can also lead to serious heart, lung and kidney problems for workers, the study underlines.
Overall, the report indicates that workers in Africa, the Arab states and Asia and the Pacific are most often exposed to excessive heat. In these regions, 92.9 per cent, 83.6 per cent and 74.7 per cent of the workforce are affected, respectively. The figures are above the global average of 71 per cent, according to the most recent figures available (2020).
The fastest changing working conditions are seen in Europe and Central Asia, says the report. From 2000 to 2020 the region recorded the largest increase in excessive heat exposure, with the proportion of workers affected rising by 17.3 per cent, almost double the global average increase.
https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/more-workers-ever-are-losing-fight-against-heat-stress
Greek Unions Want Paid Time Off When It’s Too Hot to Work
Moira Lavelle
Greece’s latest heat wave in July highlighted the danger of 100°F-plus temperatures for workers toiling in the sun. Trade unions are proposing a sensible solution: mandatory, paid stoppages on outdoor work when temperatures reach dangerous levels.
https://jacobin.com/2024/08/greece-heat-work-health-protections
Most Australian welders are exposed to high levels of dangerous fumes. More than 40,000 may be at risk
Renee Carey
Welding fumes are a complex mixture of very fine metal dusts, gases and other particles. These fumes have been associated with health harms including cancer, respiratory diseases and neurological disorders.
But little is known about the level of exposure to welding fumes, or the use of control measures to prevent or reduce this exposure, in Australian workplaces.
A survey of 634 workers involved in welding from around Australia, across a range of ages and industries, found most Australian welders are being exposed to high levels of dangerous, carcinogenic fumes. And we’re not doing enough to protect them.
We’ve recently seen increased attention being paid to occupational hazards, in particular with the decision to ban engineered stone and tighter regulation of silica exposure. We need to continue this momentum to ensure all of our workers are protected from harm in the workplace.
EU: “Let authors and performers decide on the use of their work by AI”, says group of creators to eurodeputies
“All generative AI models in existence today have been trained secretly on enormous amounts of copyright-protected content and personal data which have been scraped and copied from the internet, without any authorisation nor any remuneration for the creators we represent”. In a letter sent on 25 July to newly elected members of the European Parliament, European creators’ organisations urged MEPs to place the notions of transparency, consent and remuneration of authors and performers at the heart of all their initiatives related to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Self-reported symptoms associated with the use of printer and photocopier machines: Results from the nano-Control, International Foundation survey
Ojo, Abimbola; Bello, Dhimiter; Heavner, Karyn; Lucas, Kurt; Bello, Anila
A new study on the link between printers and photocopiers and numerous respiratory and other illnesses has highlighted the safety implications of working near these machines and the need for proper ventilation in white-collar workplaces.
The study was based on a survey of nearly 2,000 German workers who used toner-based printers and photocopiers at work or were exposed to their emissions as bystanders.
Ninety per cent of the participants, a majority of whom were office workers, said they suffered frequent respiratory symptoms, while 70 per cent suffered from allergies and 15 per cent from asthma, the researchers found.
Seeing visible toner dust on surfaces, indicating poor ventilation systems and high dust exposure levels, was associated with significantly increased rates of respiratory disorders like asthma, allergies and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchial hyperresponsiveness, cardiovascular disease and chronic fatigue.
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Tributes to Jane McAlevey. Celebrations of Jane’s Life and Work
Many tributes linked here https://janemcalevey.com/media-coverage/tributes-to-jane-mcalevey/
Jane visited Australia in 2016 as a guest of Unions NSW. Here she is in discussion with Mark Moreyhttps://janemcalevey.com/speaking-engagement/book-talk-discussion-at-unionsnsw-new-south-wales-hosted-by-the-leader-of-australias-second-largest-states-trade-union-movement/
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