English

Español

Français

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action Plan 2025-2029

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Campaigns

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Women

Youth

LGBTQI+

Gender, equality, diversity and inclusion (GEDI)

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected Officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Press

In North American paper bargaining, national leaders of Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada are attempting to get a New Brunswick provincial mediator to re-start talks in the seven and- a-half month strike of UPM Kymmene&rsquo;s mill in Miramichi. After some progress was made in three-day mediated bargaining sessions late in June, company negotiators abruptly walked out of the final day&rsquo;s talks without submitting a promised discussion document intended to lead to a final settlement. UPM Kymmene told CEP Local 689&rsquo;s leaders that they can expect bargaining to resume in September.

Progress Noted in CEP&#039;s Strike Talks with UPM Kymmene

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
The global recession&rsquo;s impact on the rubber industry, collective bargaining, work relationships, health and safety, global solidarity, and a plan of action to address these issues were key topics discussed in the US at the ICEM&rsquo;s World Conference for the Rubber Industries in Nashville, Tennessee, 12-13 May. 
 
The conference, which was hosted by US-based United Steelworkers (USW), attracted some 90 trade unionists from throughout the world. The swine flu epidemic and visa problems into the US prevented the conference from having even more participants. 
 
USW Secretary-Treasurer Stan Johnson, who leads the host union&rsquo;s rubber sector, opened the conference. A 22-year veteran of the tyre industry, Johnson led a successful strike as a local branch president against Italian tyre-maker Pirelli at a Nashville plant in the mid-1990s. He was unanimously elected as ICEM&rsquo;s permanent chairman for the Rubber Industry at this conference. 

<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="136" />
USW Secretary-Treasurer Stan Johnson
Johnson painted a picture of the current global economic crisis&mdash;a halt in the auto industry, collapse of the tyre market, and factories operating at low capacities. &ldquo;Our opportunity lies in making sure that work and the value of workers is once again important,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It is our responsibility individually and collectively to step forward and change our future.&rdquo; 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda pointed out that bad policies allowed irresponsible corporate conduct to occur. He said corporate greed was behind &ldquo;casino capitalism,&rdquo; and that national solutions alone will not work to end the crisis. A global response is needed with unions playing an integral role. 
 
&ldquo;Recovery cannot mean the status quo,&rdquo; said Warda. &ldquo;A sustainable economy must be created. There is a great need to build trade union unity to combat the excesses of unregulated globalization.&rdquo; 
 
Warda also presented a resolution on the US Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), important legislation currently before the American government that would eliminate the unfair advantages that employers commonly use to restrict workers from organising. (See the Resolution <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/EFCA%20Resolution.pdf">here</a>.) 

<img alt="" src="" width="240" height="114" />
USW scribe Lynne Baker (left) interviews Forestry, Logging, and Industrial Workers&rsquo; Union of Liberia&rsquo;s (FLIWUL) Austin Natee and Edwin Cisco. At right, USW&rsquo;s&nbsp;Marilyn Brown 
Photo: Kenny Carlisle, USW Communications Department 
But the conference centered primarily on the global economic crisis. Presenters mapped out the problems confronting rubber workers throughout this crisis and the opportunities for positive change. The problems cited were common to all: layoffs, reductions in pay and hours worked, outsourcing to low cost countries, leave without pay, wage freezes, use of contract and agency labour, shutdowns, production declines, and lack of investment, all factors leading to increased family and community stress. 
 
Presenters told how some employers were using the economic crisis to avoid their commitments to workers, and rather to create new work structures, including the use of non-regular and short-term contract workers. 
 
&ldquo;Trade unions need to be at the vanguard of developing a new model that guarantees globalization of rights, an agenda to decrease poverty, and to better regulate the financial sector,&rdquo; said Fabio Lins from Brazil&rsquo;s CNQ/CUT union in Brazil. 

<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="120" />
Fabio Lins of CNQ/CUT, Brazil
Peter Bakvis, director of the International Trade Union Confederation/Global Unions office in Washington, D.C., presented a five-point strategy for the ICEM and other global unions to tackle the economic crisis and build a fairer and more sustainable world economy. 
 
The strategy focuses on job creation through public investment, including active labour market policies and protection of the most vulnerable; nationalization of insolvent banks and new roles and mechanisms to control global finance; extension of collective bargaining coverage and strengthening of wage-setting institutions; negotiation of an ambitious international agreement on climate change; and governance reform of the global financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organisation. 

<img alt="" src="" width="377" height="160" />
ICEM Rubber Conference participants
At the conclusion of the conference on 13 May, Chemicals and Rubber Industry Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan presented an ICEM action plan that included campaigning for basic trade union rights and union organising; providing immediate solidarity during conflicts; providing effective and active solidarity for collective bargaining; striving for decent work in the rubber sector, meaning campaigning for sector-wide standards on use of contract and agency labour, equal pay initiatives, and use of Global Framework Agreements to address such issues. 

<img alt="" src="" width="200" height="114" />
ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industry Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan 
Photo: Kenny Carlisle, USW Communications Department 
As well, the work includes improving, strengthening, and creating new workers&rsquo; networks; creating a global level of industrial relations through existing instruments; establishing industry and company-wide standards for health, safety, and sustainable jobs; seeking to improve cooperation between Global Union Federations in the auto-parts and auto supply industries along the global production chain; and providing special solidarity to US unions for passage of the EFCA, to tyre workers at Hankook and Bridgestone in Hungary, to French and German workers of Continental AG, and to Mexican miners. 
To view the action plan in its entirety, as well as to see the presentations made by speakers, click <a href="/index.php?id=20&amp;la=EN&amp;doc=3207">here</a>.
Special thanks to Contributor Lynne Baker, USW Communications Department.

ICEM’s Rubber Conference Focuses on Problems, Opportunities in Economic Crisis

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The prestigious Febe Elisabeth Velasquez Trade Union Award was given last week to a woman trade unionist from Iraq, Hashmeyia Muhsin Saadawi, the President of ICEM-affiliated General Union of Electricity Workers and Technicians. 
 
The award is presented by FNV, a national labour centre in the Netherlands, and is given to a trade union leader who has worked under difficult circumstances, taken enormous personal risks, but has defended trade union rights in countries where such rights are routinely violated. 
 
Hashmeyia Muhsin, the tenth recipient of the award, was nominated by the ICEM. She was honoured at the FNV Congress in Amsterdam, and presented the award on 12 May. 

<img height="175" alt="" src="" width="170" />
In nominating her, the ICEM said Hashmeyia Muhsin &ldquo;has dedicated herself to the protection of both trade union rights and wider human rights in a country which remains under occupation &hellip; and which continues to apply trade union legislation from the Saddam era.&rdquo; 
 
She is the first woman to head a national trade union in Iraq, and is believed to be the first woman to lead a union anywhere in the Arabic-speaking world. The ICEM noted her courage in leading marches, demonstrations, and strikes in the Basra area, while under the threat of death. She also is a dedicated advocate for electricity access to all citizens of Iraq. 

<img height="181" alt="" src="" width="230" />
First elected to head the Electricity Workers and Technicians in September 2003, she has been re-elected twice since, and also is Vice Chairman of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW). In 2007, she was elected to the ICEM&rsquo;s Executive Committee. 
 
The Febe Elisabeth Velasquez Award was named after a Salvadorian trade union leader and former General Secretary of Fenastras. Velasquez was killed on 31 October 1989 when a bomb exploded at the offices of the trade union centre. Previous FNV award recipients include Kim You Mee of Korea, Frank Kokori and Milton Dabibi of Nigeria, Maria Alieva of Belurus, Dr. Taye Woldesmiate of Ethiopia, and Mansour Osanloo of Iran.

Dutch FNV Trade Union Award to Goes to Iraq’s Hashmeyia Muhsin Saadawi

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Hundreds of ICEM affiliates from every continent responded to an ICEM Circular to lend support to American trade unions in their legislative battle to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). In recent weeks, support letters arrived in droves to ICEM&rsquo;s nine US trade union affiliates, which together with the rest of the American trade union movement are waging a bitter fight against a rabid business lobby in order to enact the first meaningful labour law reform measure in the US in 50 years. 
 
The EFCA would simplify and make the process fairer for workers who choose to organise and win US government certification for collective bargaining. The proposed law would give workers the choice of union representation if a simple majority in any given workplace signed a card or petition seeking unionisation. 
 
Currently, it is the employer that chooses which of two methods &ndash; &ldquo;card-check&rdquo; recognition or a one-sided election procedure &ndash; to certify a bargaining representative. In nearly all instances, a company chooses the election method because the government-conducted vote is held at the worksite and trade unions have no on-the-job access to workers in the 30-45 days leading up to the vote. 

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="100" />
Instead, over the past three decades, employers have fine-tuned the process, using stop-work meetings to vilify the union, sacking workers who support the union, and utilising threats and intimidation by stating that if the union is voted in, layoffs or plant closures will occur. Although such union-avoidance tactics currently do violate US labour law, no penalties are attached so bosses have crafted the election process to their distinct advantage. 
 
If the EFCA is passed, financial penalties will be levied on employers who deploy such tactics. Perhaps most significantly, the proposed legislation contains a first-contract arbitration provision in which contract proposals are submitted to a government mediator if an initial collective agreement cannot be reached. Oftentimes at present, management&rsquo;s strategy following a union win in a government-supervised election is to &ldquo;surface bargain&rdquo; without ever intending to come to an agreement. After one year, the union can then be decertified. 
 
ICEM&rsquo;s call to its global affiliates came immediately after Global Unions, comprising the 11 Global Union Federations, plus the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) of the OECD, issued a statement, demanding passage of the EFCA: &ldquo;There is no defense for employers who interfere in workers&rsquo; decisions to form trade unions &hellip; It is time for the United States to join the other democracies around the world that respect the fundamental rights of workers to form trade unions and bargain collectively with their employers. Members of the US Congress should muster the courage to resist a massive, multi-million dollar employer campaign of propaganda, scare tactics, and distortion. 

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="100" />
&ldquo;We, the Global Unions, representing around 200 million workers on all continents and in all industries, call on the United States Government to adopt the EFCA.&rdquo; 
 
Many of the ICEM affiliates that wrote to the US unions alluded to the current global economic crisis, and the best means to rise out of that crisis. &ldquo;We know that a strong economy depends on workers given the opportunity to join a trade union and to bargain collectively so that fair wages and social benefits are lifted for all in a society.&rdquo; 
 
The letters concluded by stating: &ldquo;Please pass to your union membership, as well as to your elected officials, that our union fully supports EFCA, and that we consider it an essential element in a free society that workers be allowed to join a trade union in an unobstructed way.&rdquo; 
 
American trade unions are currently pushing members of the US Senate to adopt the bill. US unions played the major role in electing members of the Democratic Party to substantial majorities in both the Senate and US House in last year&rsquo;s elections. But a number of supposed pro-worker Democrats in the Senate have come under the influence of the business lobby&rsquo;s misinformation campaign putting passage of EFCA in jeopardy. 

<img alt="" src="" width="227" height="100" />
As committees of Congress prepare to debate EFCA, Democrats in the Senate are suggesting compromises, such as workers submitting &ldquo;card-check&rdquo; authorization directly by mail to the US labour board, or proposing alterations to the first-contract arbitration procedure. 
 
This is the fourth time in recent years that EFCA has been proposed in the US Congress, but the first time it has a realistic chance of enactment. This is due to President Barack Obama&rsquo;s pledge to sign it, as well as the US labour movement&rsquo;s yeoman work in elections six months ago that gave a political mandate to do away with George Bush&rsquo;s draconian policies. 
 
In March 2007, the last time the measure was before Congress, it passed the US House by a 241-185 vote. But it died in the US Senate when proponents failed to gain the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture, or the vote to shut down filibustering on a piece of legislation. In the coming weeks, Democrats are expected to have exactly 60 seats in the 100-seat Senate. Labor&rsquo;s strategy this time is to first gain passage of EFCA in the US Senate before taking it to the House.

Trade Unions Worldwide Respond to ICEM’s Call for Fair Organising in the US

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Dutch delegates to the recent two-day Congress of FNV Bondgenoten re-elected Henk van der Kolk as chairman of the largest trade union in The Netherlands. The Congress was held in Rotterdam. 
 
Also re-elected were General Secretary Ellen Dekkers, Federal Secretary Anja Jongbloed, and Treasurer Willem Noordham. The end of the Congress on 30 January thus began third terms for this leadership team. 

<img height="130" alt="" src="" width="166" />
Henk van der Kolk FNV Bondgenoten Chairman
In his speech to open the Congress, van der Kolk called on Dutch social partners to initiate a new employment scheme come 1 March when the Working Hours Reduction plan expires. That plan was initially put in place in November 2008 to address the financial crisis, and was extended in January. It allows distressed companies to reduce the hours of workers, with those workers assured of receiving full pay through state funds. 
 
&ldquo;There must be something new after March 1,&rdquo; van der Kolk said, adding the crisis likely will continue throughout 2009 and into 2010. He said the government must be committed to re-training and job creation. He also warned the Social Affairs and Employment minister not to increase the pension age. 
 
Van der Kolk has headed Bondgenoten since the end of 2002, prior to which he was a director for the national centre, FNV. From 1989 to 1997, he worked for the General Union of Education Staff, the predecessor union to Algemene Onderwijsbond (AOb).

FNV Bondgenoten Congress Re-Elects Henk van der Kolk for 4-Year Term

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
A general strike in the French West Indies territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique turned deadly last week when a fifty-year-old union leader, Jacques Bino, was killed as he approached a road block set up by disenfranchised youths in Point-&agrave;-Pitre, the largest city of Guadeloupe. His car was hit three times by 12-gauge shotgun slugs, one of which hit the tax and union official in the chest. 
 
Six policemen were also wounded in Guadeloupe that same evening, 17 February, as widespread rioting took place on the Caribbean island. It is thought that Bino may have been killed after being mistaken for a plainclothes policeman. 
 
The general strike started 20 January by a grouping of 50 trade unions and associations, under the banner &ldquo;Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon&rdquo; (Stand Up Against Exploitation). The strike is over a social caste system that harkens back to the days of slavery on the islands. 
 
On 14 February, thousands of workers marched through the town of Le Moule to the chant, &ldquo;Guadeloupe is ours, it&rsquo;s not theirs.&rdquo; 

<img height="133" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Elie Domota
Elie Domota, spokesperson for the Stand Up Against Exploitation stated, &ldquo;Guadeloupe is a colony, because in a French department they would never have let the situation deteriorate this much before intervening.&rdquo; Demonstrators have targeted the island&rsquo;s &lsquo;b&eacute;k&eacute;s&rsquo;, descendants of white plantation owners who still control much of the island&rsquo;s economy. They account for less than 1% of Guadeloupe&rsquo;s 450,000 population. 
 
Citizens of Guadeloupe are victimised because most food is imported and is far more expensive than in France. However, wages are much lower and unemployment levels reach 20%. The Sarkozy administration in Paris has refused calls to recognise a demanded &euro;200 per month increase in the minimum wage, or to address a demand that price cuts to basic essentials such as food and fuel be lowered by 20%. 
 
It took until the fourth week of the strike, only last week, before Sarkozy did intervene. He spoke of the need for profound changes in the island&rsquo;s economy, but failed to give any concrete proposals. 
 
Similar demonstrations have occurred in neighbouring Martinique, while the strike has threatened to spread to the territories of French Guyana in South America, and the Indian Ocean island of Reunion. Protests could spread to mainland France in the coming days and weeks.

General Strike in Guadeloupe Turns Deadly; Finally Gets French Attention

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
At a founding meeting in the US city of Pittsburgh, state of Pennsylvania, on 9 February, five unions organised the North American Cement and Building Materials Union Network. The founding of the network was sponsored by the ICEM, in cooperation with the Building and Woodworkers&rsquo; International (BWI). 
 
The unions include US affiliates of the ICEM: the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB), the United Steelworkers (USW), the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), the Laborers International Union (LIUNA), and the Teamsters Union. 
 
The IBB and the USW will coordinate the network, and meetings will be held biannually. 
 
&ldquo;The creation of this network is a major step in dealing with multinational companies in this sector,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We believe companies will pay attention to our demands when the various unions are unified and working jointly together.&rdquo; 

<img height="109" alt="" src="" width="350" />
Global companies operating in North America, whose unionised employees make up the network, include Lafarge of France, Holcim of Switzerland, Buzzi Unicem and Essroc of Italy, Cemex of Mexico, and Heidelberg of Germany. Delegates to the initial conference passed a resolution in support of the UMWA at Lafarge&rsquo;s Joppa cement facility in Grand Chain, Illinois. The union has organised 120 workers at this Ohio River cement plant, but managers are attempting to decertify the UMWA as bargaining representative. 
 
The resolution calls for French senior managers of Lafarge to dispatch its Reference Group to the site to investigate whether or not American managers are violating the Global Framework Agreement, which ICEM and BWI are signatory to with Lafarge. 
 
The network&rsquo;s aims are presenting a unified message to the North American cement industry; pursuing organising neutrality at non-union worksites; enforcing Global Agreements in North America; promoting higher standards and better working conditions; developing coordinated collective bargaining strategies; recruiting and developing the next generation of union leaders; promoting labour-management dialogue on sustainable development; and continuing to coordinate with unions globally at key multinational employers.

ICEM Fosters Start-Up of North American Cement Unions’ Network

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The body count was still being tabulated early today in China&rsquo;s deadliest coal-mine accident in over 14 months. But at least 74 miners were confirmed dead, following a gas explosion that occurred at the Tunlan Coal Mine early Sunday, 22 February. The mine is owned by the Shanxi Jiaomei Group. 
 
Dozens more are still trapped and the death toll could rise to nearly 100. search and rescue efforts were called off at midday today, 23 February. The tragedy occurred at Gujiao City, Shanxi Province, at the company&rsquo;s Shanxi Coking Coal Co. 
 
Yesterday, family members of some of those trapped received mobile phone calls from miners&rsquo; deep underground, perhaps hearing their loved ones voices for the last time. 

<img height="130" src="" width="130" alt="" />
A total of 436 miners were working at the time of the explosion, and some 300 miners managed to escape. Some 114 of those had been hospitalised, and at least 21 of those faced death-threatening circumstances. The Shanxi Jiaomei Group is a private coal and petroleum company. 
 
The disaster was China&rsquo;s worst coal-mine blast since 105 miners perished on 5 December 2007 at the Xinyao coal mine, also in Shanxi Province. Four months earlier, 181 miners died inside shafts of two adjoining mines in Shandong Province when the mines flooded. 
 
Earlier this month, on 13 February, eight Chinese miners were killed in a gas explosion inside the Zhijin mine in Zhijin County, Guizhou Province, which is in the China&rsquo;s southwest region. Those victims were identified as migrant workers from nearby Chongquing. Twenty-five miners managed to escape that explosion.

Mine Explosion Brings Weekend Death Toll to 74 at Major Chinese Colliery

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda last week congratulated mining unions in India, especially the ICEM affiliated Indian National Mineworkers'&nbsp; Federation (INMF)&nbsp;and its General Secretary BK Das, who took&nbsp;a leading role in achieving a new wage agreement. 
 
The National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA-VIII) gives 500,000 miners across India pay increases totalling 24% over five years. 
 
The agreement, signed in New Delhi on 24 January, also improves working conditions. MK Pandhe, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) President, commended the successful negotiations that were made possible by the unified work of five national federations, CITU, INTUC, BMS, AITUC, and HMS. 
 
The agreement provides a minimum benefit hike of 24% of gross wages effective 1 July 2006, and an annual increment of 3% with cumulative effect. It provides for an open-ended pay scale which ensures no wage stagnation for any employee during the period of the agreement. The agreement also gives a 50% increase in all allowances, effective 1 January 2009. The underground allowance will be 12.5% of the basic scale, and will be treated as part of the basic wage. 

<img height="107" alt="" src="" width="220" />
The agreement will ensure a minimum weekly base wage for a coalminer at INR 9,346 (US$188), the highest in the Indian public sector. 
 
Under the agreement, employees will be provided with a uniform and a monthly washing allowance of INR 75, as well as a transport subsidy of at least INR 10.50 per day. The underground allowance will continue to be paid at 12.5% of the revised basic salary, along with an attendance bonus of 10% of basic pay and a special dearness allowance of 17.95% of the attendance bonus. Annual leave with wages will continue to be governed by the provisions of the Indian Mines Act of 1952. 
 
The unified mining workers rebuffed efforts by management to make the agreement ten years in length. 
 
Current challenges facing INMF are the struggle against privatization, outsourcing, corruption, unsafe working conditions, and the rise of Contract and Agency Labour in the Indian mining sector. 
 
The ICEM joins INMF, CITU, and other union federations in appealing to all coal miners to strengthen the unity achieved with this contract to continue bringing short-term contract and agency workers into the union fold. 
 
During a visit to India recently by Warda, he met with the Committee of the Indian Mineworkers&rsquo; Union on Health and Safety, encouraging the union to work towards an ICEM-sponsored tripartite meeting late this year on Indian ratification of ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 
 
Warda also inaugurated a workshop on Contract &amp; Agency Labour (CAL) that was held in Puri on 15-16 February that was attended by 28 contract workers from the Mahanadi Coalfields, Ltd. He supported the efforts of CITU to organise fixed-term and agency workers. It was reported that since the federation started its campaign to organise, 30,000 CAL workers had joined unions. 

<img height="136" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Kanti Mehta
The ICEM General Secretary also unveiled the life-size bronze statue of the late Kanti Mehta, the founder of the INMF, who passed away on 20 October 2007 at the age of 87. The unveiling occurred on 15 February, on what would have been his 90th birthday.

ICEM Salutes Indian Mining Unions in Wage Accord for 500,000 Miners

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The US labour board has issued a blanket unfair labour practice complaint against Covanta Energy at more than 50 worksites across America. The charge was brought by ICEM-affiliated Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), which organised Covanta staff at a worksite in Rochester, Massachusetts, in May 2008, but has since been unable to secure a first collective agreement because of company intransigence. 
 
Covanta is a waste-to-energy company that operates incinerators and then sells electric power generated from those incinerators to local grids. The ICEM has assisted the UWUA in its first contract fight over the past several months by tracking the company as it seeks new contracts in Ireland and the UK. The ICEM has alerted trade unions, public officials, and environmental groups of the Chicago-based company&rsquo;s anti-union bias. 
 
The US labour law complaint, issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), cites the company with numerous illegal work rules, as outlined in its employees&rsquo; manual. Such violations include threatening to terminate workers for providing any information &ndash; such as environmental or health and safety &ndash; to government regulators, news media, or other &ldquo;outside representatives.&rdquo; 

<img height="160" alt="" src="" width="216" />
The NLRB complaint also challenges a Covanta rule prohibiting distribution of &ldquo;unauthorised&rdquo; material on &ldquo;company property&rdquo; or on &ldquo;company time,&rdquo; a form of anti-union bias that has been illegal in the US for 60 years. Other Covanta workplace policies ruled illegal include guidelines prohibiting workers from discussing their wages with each other, or from wearing &ldquo;political slogans&rdquo; while at work. 
 
The UWUA filed the charge in Massachusetts but since Covanta uses the same employees&rsquo; manual at all US worksites, the NLRB issued the nationwide complaint at all company locations. Only a handful of Covanta&rsquo;s 50 plus workplaces are unionised. 
 
&ldquo;We want Covanta employees everywhere to know that our union will stand up for their rights, not only in Massachusetts but at every other Covanta location,&rdquo; said Gary Sullivan, President of UWUA Local 369, which represents the 130 Covanta workers in Massachusetts. 
 
As Covanta seeks to expand its trash to electric energy business globally, the ICEM will continue to alert social partners of its anti-worker policies in the US.

Covanta Energy Violates US Labour Law

Archive

Progress Noted in CEP's Strike Talks with UPM Kymmene

ICEM’s Rubber Conference Focuses on Problems, Opportunities in Economic Crisis

Dutch FNV Trade Union Award to Goes to Iraq’s Hashmeyia Muhsin Saadawi

Trade Unions Worldwide Respond to ICEM’s Call for Fair Organising in the US

FNV Bondgenoten Congress Re-Elects Henk van der Kolk for 4-Year Term

General Strike in Guadeloupe Turns Deadly; Finally Gets French Attention

ICEM Fosters Start-Up of North American Cement Unions’ Network

Mine Explosion Brings Weekend Death Toll to 74 at Major Chinese Colliery

ICEM Salutes Indian Mining Unions in Wage Accord for 500,000 Miners

Covanta Energy Violates US Labour Law

About IndustriALL

Follow us

Contact us