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Seven trade unions representing Continental AG rubber workers in six countries gathered 18-19 October in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, to discuss the German manufacturer&rsquo;s labour practices. The meeting was hosted by the independent SNTGTM in Mexico. 
 
A declaration resulted from the conference on undertaking future work, including a Day of Action at Continental&rsquo;s global worksites on 13 December 2006. The declaration includes a call to IGBCE of Germany, as the major trade union of Conti workers there, to conduct a meeting of Continental trade unions in order to work toward creation of a global union network. 
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Continental Tyre unionists 
in front of the San Luis Potosi plant
Trade unionists from Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Germany, Mexico and the US attended the meeting in San Luis Potosi. The host union described how management at this plant sacked some union leaders, with SNTGTM taking the matter to court in order to get reinstatements. With that successful, the union has still found it difficult to bargain with the company each year. 
 
Mark Cieslikowski, a local union leader from US affiliate United Steelworkers (USW), told delegates of the harsh manner in which Continental closed a tyre factory in Charlotte, state of North Carolina, this year. Brazilian trade unionists told how, despite a collective agreement in place, managers at a facility in Cana&ccedil;ari block union representatives from entering the plant to speak with or organise workers. 
 
J&ouml;rg Schustereit, IGBCE member and member of the works council of ContiTech, called &ldquo;Euroforum,&rdquo; spoke about the process and workings of that council, while ICEM&rsquo;s Rubber Sector Officer, Michael Wolters, reported on Conti&rsquo;s economic situation, as well as the company&rsquo;s current business strategy. 
 
The ICEM will update Rubber Sector trade unions about developments at Continental, as well as alert unions at Continental worksites about the Day of Action, 13 December 2006.

Rubber Unions Gather to Discuss Continental; Issue Declaration

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Neo-conservative Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, issued sharp criticism at China last week for the way in which the country runs its investment projects in developing countries. According to Wolfowitz, Chinese banks should stop their current practice of ignoring workers and human rights when investing abroad. 
 
A key point in Wolfowitz&rsquo;s assertion was the fact that Chinese banks fail to adhere to the international Equator Principles. 
 
Earlier this year, dozens of commercial banks and lenders signed up to a revised version of the Equator Principles. These principles are a voluntary benchmark for the financial industry, consisting, among other things, of a set of environmental and social standards that should be met by banks when they fund global projects. To date, some 80% of all commercial banks have adopted the guidelines. 
 
Trade unionists everywhere might take an interest in this, since the Equator Principles are partially based on the social and environmental loan conditions of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank&rsquo;s lending arm for the private sector. Cause for some optimism is that the IFC, earlier this year, also adopted a new of social standards. These new IFC standards now include a commitment to respect all ILO's core labour standards, including the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. 
 
When all is tallied, this means that a majority of the world&rsquo;s operating banks, of whom many are involved in mining, oil, gas or other extraction projects in developing countries, have now declared, albeit voluntarily, to demand the respect for the core ILO standards in their projects. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="100" /> 
 
Reg Green,&nbsp;ICEM&rsquo;s Health, 
Safety and Environment Officer
In reacting to a Financial Times article on this subject, Reg Green, ICEM&rsquo;s Health, Safety and Environment Officer, wrote in a letter-to-the-editor that the World Bank&rsquo;s quest for further endorsements of the Equator Principles a sound idea. However, in addition to endorsing the principles, he said that countries could, and should, go a step further. 
 
Green wrote, &ldquo;The single most important asset that African countries currently possess is their mineral wealth. It is also well known that where mineral wealth is concerned there are major temptations to corruption.&rdquo; 
 
Green said more African countries would do well to commit themselves to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) principles, an international effort to &ldquo;improve governance in resource-rich countries through the full publication and verification of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining.&rdquo; ICEM has been supportive of the EITI initiative. In his Financial Times letter, Green describes the EITI as a promising development, even though it is still very young. 
 
Finally, and ironically, the World Bank, which criticises Chinese banks for not abiding by the Equator Principles and the ILO standards, recently issued a highly-circulated publication entitled &ldquo;Doing Business,&rdquo; which encourages violation of a number of ILO Conventions by countries in order to make their economies more &quot;investment friendly.&quot; 
 
For more information: 
EITI : <a href="http://www.eitransparency.org">http://www.eitransparency.org</a> 
Equator Principles: <a href="http://www.equator-principles.com">http://www.equator-principles.com</a> 
IFC adopting ILO standards: 
<a href="http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991223448&amp;Language=EN">http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991223448&amp;Language=EN</a>&nbsp;

On International Social and Environmental Principles

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The two Spanish ICEM affiliates in the oil and gas sector, FIA-UGT and FITEQA-CC.OO., jointly issued a call for a two-day general strike of all gas and petrol station workers, set for 7-8 November. In total, the strike would affect 41,500 workers, spread over some 8,700 petrol stations across Spain. 
 
The unions are protesting against a series of bad working conditions. Workers often work extra hours just in order to cope financially; they earn only &euro;800-900 euros a month, before taxes. They also face &ldquo;excessive rotation and temporary work,&rdquo; including shift and weekend work. Other issues include dangerous working conditions, specifically regarding frequent robberies, and the fact that workers are expected to perform extra shop duties without extra pay. 
<img height="80" alt="" src="" width="80" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="81" alt="" src="" width="100" />
UGT and CC.OO. want a new three-year collective agreement to include a substantial salary increase and a reduction in average working hours. The unions say their demands are very reasonable, certainly given the current profits by the multinationals that control the distribution sector. 
 
And they remain open to negotiations with the employers. A meeting last week, however, failed to bring parties closer to an agreement. The unions and employers are meeting again tomorrow, in a last attempt to avoid a strike. Hopes are not that high though, since negotiations for this sector have been stalled since March.

Spanish Petrol Station Workers Threaten Two-Day Strike

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The Seventh National Convention of ICEM affiliate Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada was held 15-19 October in Vancouver, British Colombia province, and Dave Coles was selected by acclamation as president of the union. 
 
He succeeds Brian Payne, ICEM Vice President, who has served in that capacity since 2000. After 28 years service to the CEP, and before that, ten years as a shop-floor activist in a British Colombia paper mill, Payne retired effective at the close of the convention. 
<img height="208" alt="" src="" width="300" />
New CEP President Dave Coles (at right), with Finnish Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen, ICEM's Paper Sector Chairman
Over 1,000 delegates and alternates moved fervently to adopt a resolution that will significantly boost the union&rsquo;s organising fund. They also debated fiercely the Canadian military&rsquo;s involvement in Afghanistan, a situation which has left over 70 Canadian soldiers and diplomats dead. 
In a softer but equally passionate testimony, delegates expressed their emotions and thanks to Payne for his leadership at CEP, particularly by forging unity and consensus among the union&rsquo;s 150,000 members in forest products, oil and gas, media, and telecommunications sectors. Payne&rsquo;s resolve to protect the interests of CEP members, from defence resources to pattern-bargaining, was lauded. His effort to bring a successful 14-year pay equity battle to closure at Bell Canada telephone was also recognised. 
<img height="200" alt="" src="" width="300" />
Retiring CEP President Brian Payne and his wife Verna
Coles has been CEP&rsquo;s Western Region Vice President. He began his union career in the early 1970s at a pulp mill in British Columbia and has over 30 years of labour and community activism, including work as a CEP organiser in both Alberta and British Colombia provinces.
&ldquo;Thanks to the debate and direction provided at this convention,&rdquo; Coles said at the close of it, &ldquo;we head into the next two years resolved to build an effective, dynamic union. We will make progress through collective bargaining and rise to new levels of social unionism.&rdquo; 
 
Ga&eacute;tan M&eacute;nard, a National Representative who began his union career in 1984 at Local 11, Masson, Quebec, was elected CEP Secretary-Treasurer.

Dave Coles Succeeds Retiring Brain Payne as President of Canada’s CEP

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ICEM affiliate, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), again called for an absolute zero level of tolerance on health and safety incidences inside South Africa&rsquo;s mining industry. 
 
That message again had to be delivered following a pair of seismic events, which caused death on 23 October at AngloGold Ashanti&rsquo;s TauTona gold mine near Carletonville, South Africa. The tremors brought cave-ins and resulted in the deaths of five miners, who were working some 2,700 metres underground in one of the world&rsquo;s deepest mines. 
The NUM questions why miners are even working in an environment so hazardous. AngloGold&rsquo;s TauTona mine had already seen the deaths of another five miners, with ten others severely injured, earlier this year in similar rock falls. Tremors struck the mine southwest of Johannesburg in separate occurrences in January and February. In July 2005, two more miners were killed at TauTona when a tremor caused a rock slide. 
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The two 23 October tremors, which struck near a production seam nearly three kilometres inside the earth, occurred 25 minutes apart, and registered magnitudes of 1.9 and 2.3 on the Richter scale. The resulting rock slides also injured two other miners, one seriously. 
 
South African Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjea questioned the logic of miners working so deep in such environments. &ldquo;In view of an industry-accepted target of zero fatalities, gold mines are the worst performers,&rdquo; she said, in a statement on the most recent TauTona tragedy. 
 
AngloGold produced 120,000 ounces of gold from TauTona in fiscal quarter ending in June 2006. That figure represents 8.5% of the company&rsquo;s total global gold production.

Earth Tremors Bring Death in AngloGold’s South African TauTona Mine

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN N° 16

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The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) filed, at the request of the All-India Council of Unilever Unions, a complaint last week with the OECD National Contact Points in both the UK and The Netherlands. Unilever, the third largest global food company, is an Anglo-Dutch conglomerate. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The OECD complaint is on the appalling behaviour by Hindustan Lever, an Indian Unilever subsidiary, who, as described in a prior ICEM InBrief article, last year sold its Mumbai factory in order to have it closed down by another enterprise. In doing that, the company not only wanted to avoid paying taxes, the effort was also meant to escape duties to its own workforce. 
<img height="361" src="" width="350" alt="" />
The ICEM, together with the IUF, seeks the major global corporation to set things right, and calls on Unilever to respect both the relevant international standards, as well as the national law in India. The two GUFs believe that Hindustan Lever must immediately start fair and honest negotiations with the Hindustan Lever Employees&rsquo; Union (HLEU), the trade union representing its workforce. 
 
More on the dispute can be found on the IUF&rsquo;s web-site <a href="http://www.iufdocuments.org/cgi-bin/dbman/db.cgi?db=default&amp;uid=default&amp;ID=3745&amp;view_records=1&amp;ww=1&amp;en=1 ">here</a>.

OECD Complaint Filed on Unilever India

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The ten-month dispute between ICEM affiliate Oilfield Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) and the Trinidad and Tobago state oil company Petrotrin ended early this month when a new three-year agreement was agreed to.
Agreements were reached for all five Petrotrin bargaining units, covering 5,000 workers in total. The different labour agreements are similar, sharing many of the advances reached, for example a 15% salary increase over three years. 
<img height="93" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Differences between the five agreements can be found in the periods that the agreements cover, with some going back to 2005, and others to February 2006. The 1,500 refinery workers, for example, will receive a 6% wage increase backdated to February 2006. They will be given a 5% increase in 2007 and a further 4 % in 2008. 
 
Agreement was reached on a wide set of issues, includes on health and safety topics and on cost of living allowances. According to an OWTU Spokesman, the union regards the agreement as a good agreement, given the circumstances. 
 
The dispute was marked by several industrial actions by the refinery workers at the Pointe-a-Pierre set of plants, as well as by marches on the company's corporate offices by OWTU members of all the bargaining units.

Trinidad&#039;s State Oil Company Comes to Terms with Workers

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The second Trade Union Seminar for Repsol-YPF trade unionists took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 9-11 October. Repsol-YPF, a Spanish-Argentinean multinational, employs 16,000 workers worldwide and ranks in the top ten of oil and gas companies. 
 
ICEM affiliate Fiteqa, with the active support of CC.OO&rsquo;s Paz y Solidaridad Foundation (FPS) was again leading this initiative. Trade unionists from Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba met to debate around their common concerns and to create a union network. ICEM was represented at the event by its Latin-American Vice-President and its Energy Officer. 
<img height="81" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The seminar gave participants the ability to compare their industrial, economic, social and political realities as well as to reinforce their unity and solidarity. For Isidor Boix, International Secretary of Fetiqa, &ldquo;the level of discussions and the commitment shown by all the colleagues who participated constitutes a very sound basis for the future work of the network&rdquo; 
 
The Repsol-YPF unions have also decided during this meeting to set up a web site to extend and deepen the information resources of the workers they represent. At the end of the sessions, representatives of the union network met representatives of Repsol-YPF to introduce their future work plan. 
 
The next meeting will take place in Peru in October 2007, while the webpage should be launched over the coming months.

Repsol Union Representatives from 9 Countries Meet in Argentina

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In a meeting with French building materials company Imerys last week, British trade union Transport &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union (TGWU) asked the company to reconsider its plans to cut 800 jobs by the beginning of 2008 in Cornwall, Devon, and Lee Moor in the country&rsquo;s South West. 
 
TGWU said the job cuts, which would bring economic devastation to the region, are &ldquo;totally unjustified&rdquo; and said the company must give serious consideration to counter proposals put forward at the 15 August meeting. 
<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="62" alt="" src="" width="120" />
&ldquo;The company is in a strong position to have a bright future in Cornwall, and everything should be done to persuade them to stay,&rdquo; said TGWU National Secretary Jennie Formby. &ldquo;(Imerys has) a hardworking, long-serving workforce who deserve better than being dismissed with massive job cuts and a redundancy offer that will in no way compensate for their lost employment.&rdquo; 
 
Added Malcolm Mellow, TGWU Convenor at Imerys in the South West: &ldquo;Members have been rocked by the news that they will lose their jobs after devoting years of loyal service to Imerys. The workforce and their families deserve better.&rdquo; 
 
Imerys cut some jobs in the region in 2004, but promised then that the remaining 800 jobs would be secure. That pledge was breached early in July 2006 when a proposed restructuring plan surfaced saying the vast majority of jobs in kaolin mining and processing at former English China Clay operations would be lost, and the work transferred to Brazil. Imerys bought English China Clay in 1999. 
 
The ICEM is working with affiliate TGWU, as well as with UK affiliated trade union Amicus, which represents a smaller number of Imerys workers in the South West, to preserve the jobs and the region&rsquo;s economic viability.

UK’s TGWU Meets with Imerys to Dissuade Job Cuts

Archive

Rubber Unions Gather to Discuss Continental; Issue Declaration

On International Social and Environmental Principles

Spanish Petrol Station Workers Threaten Two-Day Strike

Dave Coles Succeeds Retiring Brain Payne as President of Canada’s CEP

Earth Tremors Bring Death in AngloGold’s South African TauTona Mine

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN N° 16

OECD Complaint Filed on Unilever India

Trinidad's State Oil Company Comes to Terms with Workers

Repsol Union Representatives from 9 Countries Meet in Argentina

UK’s TGWU Meets with Imerys to Dissuade Job Cuts

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