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6 February, 2006
Tuesday, 7 February, will mark a full year that US members of United Steelworkers (USW) in Cincinnati, Ohio have been on strike against Cognis, a German chemicals company.
USW Local 14340 will observe the anniversary by placing further attention on Cognis and its joint-venture partner who are operating the plant at great environmental risk, and with known health and safety deficiencies.
Workers struck because Cognis would not agree to union recognition through a “successorship” clause in the labour agreement when Cognis and Malaysian Golden Hope Plantations formed a joint venture to run the oleochemicals division of the plant. The company is now refusing to accept strikers back to work even if the strike is ended.
In a letter to Cognis CEO Antonio Trusi Oliva, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs called this “unacceptable” and urged him to use his “influence inside this new enterprise to assure that a settlement to this strike will include jobs for all USW union members who wish to return to work.”