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13 July, 2005ICEM News Release No. 20/1999
Trade unions representing hundreds of thousands of workers in the oil and gas industry in South America, North America, Central America and the Caribbean met in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, today and announced the formation of a new oil and gas union solidarity network in the hemisphere. The meeting was held under the auspices of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which will coordinate the new network.
The unions that met represent oil and gas workers in twelve countries - Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, the United States and Uruguay.
They organise workers in all parts of the industry, from exploration and development to refining, distribution and marketing.
As part of their effort toward greater collaboration in the region, the unions elected a six-member steering committee to guide the new network. Errol McLeod, President of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union of Trinidad & Tobago, was elected as the chairman of the steering committee.
The unions recognised that they faced many common challenges, including the privatisation and threats of privatisation of state-owned energy companies; violence by governments and employers against union leaders and activists in several countries, and attempts at union-busting in many others; low commodity prices for oil and gas; over-capacity, reorganisation, and corporate mergers and acquisitions, leading to increased concentration of power in fewer and fewer hands; decreasing employment levels due to corporate downsizing; unsafe and unhealthy working conditions; and common multinational corporate employers attempting to play workers in different countries off against each other.
The unions put forward a joint plan of action to confront these challenges, including the sharing of information on working conditions and collective bargaining in their respective countries; the formation of global union networks at targeted multinational corporations; and joint efforts to assist unions engaged in collective bargaining, disputes, and organising efforts at common multinational corporations.
"The multinational corporations have strengthened their stranglehold over the natural resources and oil and gas markets worldwide, without regard to national borders," said McLeod. "Oil and gas workers have no choice but to unite with each other on a regional and a global basis for the common cause."
"Oil and gas workers are tired of being the victims of globalisation," he said, "and the creation of this network is the beginning of a new, organised resistance."