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12 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 24/2003
Pomp, ceremony and a remarkably stunning symbol of Nordic generosity highlighted day one of the Third ICEM World Congress in Stavanger, Norway, 28 August. After opening Congress with three moving orchestral arrangements, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra announced to 1,000 delegates from 121 countries that they would use proceeds from the performance to add to a benevolent fund the Symphony has initiated to rebuild musical programs and provide instruments to youth in war-torn Iraq.
ICEM Gen. Sec. Fred Higgs and Norsk Skog's Rolf Negård.
The Orchestra has raised 250,000 Norwegian Kroner for its project, and ICEM delegates displayed delight and appreciation at the surprise announcement. The Orchestra performed two arrangements by Edvard Grieg, Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King, and Hector Berlioz's March to the Scaffold.
Opening Day Congress also was marked by welcoming speeches, an account of greed-driven government and business practices dominating today's world by ICEM President John Maitland, and the ICEM's Secretariat Report of programs and activities over the past four years by General Secretary Fred Higgs.
One Nordic business resisting an anti-social agenda was also heard from in the opening session. Norske Skog, a pulp and paper producer is one of two Norwegian firms signatory to Global Agreements with the ICEM and affiliated national unions. Such agreements commit a company to labour, health and safety, and environmental standards wherever they have operations.
Norske Skog Senior Vice President of Human Resources Rolf Negård told Congress that it is the company's philosophy to discuss and listen to union views and issues before decisions are made. "Our workplace practices require openness and an absence of hidden agendas," Negård said, adding a Norske Skog employee should expect to leave the worksite in the same health as he or she entered it, and to earn a decent, above-standard living.
Olav Støylen, president of the Oslo-based, Norwegian Chemical Workers Trade Union, emphatically stated that labour unions must be vigilant to prevent multinational companies from working against worker rights. Stolen said unions must continue placing responsibility for local workplace decisions on central offices of MNCs, and Global Union Federations like the ICEM are best positioned for that work.
Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, spoke on the role of GUFs in today's complex global economic world and the specific work being done by the ICEM Secretariat on achieving Global Agreements and bring HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral drugs to developing regions of the world.
"This is a movement where the borders between the national and the international are rapidly fading," Ryder said. "Today, more than ever, being a good trade unionist means being an internationalist. That does not mean substituting international links and solidarity for national action, but rather extending that solidarity and weighing in to help make the difference between success and failure."
ICEM's Maitland, a leader in the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union of Australia, spoke on regressive trends toward civil society by governments and many international institutions. "At a time when civil society needs tolerance, transparency, balance and engagement, we are up against the political right that thrives on division, intolerance and fear."
General Secretary Higgs gave a detailed report on ICEM work on Global Agreements, global networks of workers within certain companies bonding for communication and solidarity and the ongoing HIV/AIDS drugs work with pharmaceutical companies. He also addressed the spate of terrorism in the world today, and in condemning such actions, said the breeding ground for such desperate acts lies in poverty and inequality. "If you are going to fight terrorism, you do not fight it with bombers and not by invading countries, but you fight it by removing the mass hopelessness that exists in many parts of the world today."
ICEM's theme for the Stavanger Congress is Globalisation: Local Problems, International Solutions By Solidarity. The Congress runs through Saturday, 30 August, at the Stavanger Forum.