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4 November, 2014American and European trade unions shared their common concerns at the Dow North American Labor Council (DNALC) Meeting in Pennsylvania, USA on 14 October.
The union leaders represent thousands of American and European workers employed at Dow Chemical and Dow Corning Corporation. Through the DNALC meeting, trends were made clear of issues common across their worksites. The unions spent three days sharing collective bargaining data, identifying mutual obstacles and brainstorming potential solutions.
Delegates also met with representatives of Dow Corning, Dow Chemical and CALIBRE Group, LLC to discuss topics such as the state of the chemical and silicon industries, strategies moving forward and the need for a collaborative safety partnership with members at both Dow Chemical and Dow Corning.
Representatives from the United Steelworkers; the International Union of Operating Engineers; Texas City Metal Trades; the International Chemical Workers Union Council/United Commercial Food Workers; the Dow Chemical European Employee Forum; the Dow Chemical-Stade Works Council, belonging to IG BCE of Germany; and UNITE the Union (Great Britain) participated in this year’s event.
The meeting also served to strengthen international connections and increase mutual respect and understanding across Dow’s unionized worksites.
“The DNALC is doing a fantastic job”, said IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan. “Trade union networks of workers throughout a company’s international operations are a bedrock of our power and solidarity building. This ground work laid by the DNALC will be a backbone of the future global network among the unions organizing Dow employees worldwide.”