Mandate Trade Union join international IKEA protests
Wednesday 19 June 2013Mandate Trade Union join international IKEA protests
Mandate Trade Union joins international IKEA protests
UNI IKEA Global Union Alliance tells IKEA workers’ rights are not for sale
UNI IKEA Global Union Alliance, which includes Mandate Trade Union in Ireland, announced today it is stepping up its activities in key countries to make IKEA understand: workers rights are not for sale. Today the Alliance is kicking off a series of actions which target IKEA customers, stakeholders and the public to urge IKEA to clean up its act on worker violations in its global network, including allegations of union busting in Turkey.
The Alliance with its network of 40 unions and IKEA workers from 16 countries is today informing IKEA co-workers about the company’s failure to live its values away from home and the inconsistencies in its approach to worker rights and labour relations, There is a clear division between IKEA’s Nordic operations and neighbouring countries where workers’ rights are largely respected and where the company and unions entertain a constructive dialogue and further afield where they are ignored or abused:
- Turkey – illegal dismissals, pressure and bribes, retaliation against union members
- Russia – 60 hour weeks, forced overtime
- Czech Republic – refusal to bargain, creation of fake or yellow union
- Ireland – management openly opposing unionisation
- USA – union access to workers denied, insufficient hours to make a living
- See full list here
Mandate Trade Union’s National Coordinator for Organising and Campaigns, Brian Forbes said IKEA’s inconsistent attitude towards workers’ rights is very evident on the island of Ireland
“Since IKEA opened in Dublin in 2009, Mandate has found dealing with IKEA an extremely frustrating and difficult experience,” he said.
“In Belfast IKEA have a recognition agreement with our sister union, USDAW, affording a range of closer working arrangements and facilities, whilst at the other end of the motorway, in a different jurisdiction, they have a completely different approach to dealing with unions which could be described as union avoidance at best and union busting at worst.”
He added, “Mandate is committed to developing meaningful engagement with IKEA, similar to our positive and productive relationships with many of the leading retailers in the Republic of Ireland.”
Head of UNI Commerce, Alke Boessiger said, “The Alliance is stepping up its action because of IKEA’s failure to take responsibility and live up to the values it professes, away from home. We are not talking about isolated incidents. There are cases of unfair dismissals, unilateral reduction of benefits and increased workload, management support for fake unions, and other attacks on labour rights across the company’s global operations. IKEA has no excuses – it cannot operate a two-tier system. The company should take seriously the reputational risk and change its behaviour globally before its customers say enough is enough and go elsewhere.”
The Alliance is making the following demands on IKEA:
- To be consistent in their approach to labour relations and social dialogue.
- To respect the right of all IKEA workers to join a union.
- To guarantee union access to workers
- To sign a Global Framework Agreement with UNI covering all IKEA stores
