Jon Dale, Mansfield Socialist Party
Trade unionists, including RMT and Communication Workers Union (CWU) members, held a protest in Hull on 7 October against victimisation of Sri Lankan trade unionists and exploitation of workers in the PPE supply chain.
Hull Trades Union Council organised the protest after hearing from two sacked Sri Lankan workers, via Zoom. Also on the protest were members of Nottinghamshire Trades Union Council, Doctors in Unite and the Socialist Party. At the Ansell site in Hull, leaflets explaining the reasons for the protest were given to workers there. They were assured of trade union solidarity for their working conditions.
Ansell, an Australian multinational corporation, makes rubber gloves and other safety PPE. Its sales rocketed during the Covid pandemic. Profits rose 57% in 2021 to US$246 million. These profits come from massive exploitation of workers in its rubber plantations and factories.
At its Sri Lankan factory, a striking worker was shot dead by police in 1994. Ansell then refused to recognise the workers’ union, the Free Trade Zone General Services Employees Union (FTZGEU). More agency workers were brought in replacing workers with permanent contracts. Machines were sped up and workers were even refused time to go to the toilet. This is also a warning of the threat from the Tories’ plan to set up ‘Freeports’.
In 2013, the FTZGEU branch president was attacked and hospitalised. He complained to the police, and alleged company involvement. Six months later he was himself charged in connection with the assault and suspended from work. Workers went on strike, staying out for 45 days.
Ansell sacked all its 281 workers, only reinstating them two years later (without continuity of service) after pressure from Australian trade unions. But eleven union leaders in the factory were not taken back.
Since then, an international campaign has demanded Ansell reinstate the victimised trade unionists with compensation and union recognition. On the same day as the Hull protest, Australian trade unionists rallied outside Ansell’s head office in Melbourne.
Trade unionists in Britain can find out if their employers buy Ansell’s PPE and ask how this squares with the Modern Slavery Act. UK companies pressuring Ansell on this issue can help the campaign for reinstatement of the sacked trade unionists. However, other PPE manufacturers also have a terrible record of exploitation.
The vital PPE industry should not be run for private profit. The whole supply chain, from plantation to end user, needs democratic planning to meet the needs of all workers. That needs public ownership of the industry and socialist change across the globe.
