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

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The strike by ICEM oil and gas affiliate NOPEF against oil service companies on Norway&rsquo;s continental shelf has intensified. The Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF), representing the companies, and NOPEF have not met since the start of the strike on 21 June. 
 
The selective strikes against a handful of oil service firms, including Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Weatherford and Oceaneering, has had serious impact on drilling, exploration and well maintenance for a number of companies. Statoil, ConocoPhillips, and Norske Hydro have been seriously impacted to date, with Statoil forced to halt drilling at its Sn&oslash;hvit and Kristin fields. 
<img height="75" alt="" src="" width="100" />
If the strike lasts too much longer, drilling and development efforts undertaken by ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell will be impacted. OLF said the strike has disrupted production of 37,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day. 
 
The strike was caused when the oil service providers refused to harmonise its national collective agreement in Norway with other national contracts in the oil sector. That has been the central demand by NOPEF, which seeks to win for workers regular weekly schedules and such items as compensation for waiting time, something that is common in other oil sector agreements.

NOPEF Strike against Oil Service Providers Continues in Norway

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Oil fields workers&rsquo; in southern Chad launched a three-day strike against Esso-Tchad, US-based ExxonMobil&rsquo;s operating unit there, over wage discrimination and neglect over implementation of a career development plan by the oil and gas supermajor. Oil workers in Chad are also upset that the money produced through their labours is not reflected in their socioeconomic standing. 
 
The strike by over 400 workers lasted from 4 to 6 July in the Doba oil fields of Kome, Miandoum, and Bolobo. Oil workers served notice that future strikes would occur, possibly production of the 200,000 barrel-a-day output sent through the three-year-old Chad-Cameroon pipeline, unless workers&rsquo; demands are met. The strike was caused by Esso-Tchad when it placed an inferior pay offer before the workers a day before the walkout began. 
<img alt="" src="" width="100" />
Management offered a pay increase of only 7.5%, while workers are seeking 25% in order to bring pay levels closer to oil workers on the transit side of the upstream development in Cameroon. Chad&rsquo;s national labour centre, Union des Syndicats de Tchad (UST), is assisting oil workers in talks. 
 
In March, the union representing the workers issued demands in the form of a statement that called out the unequal pay practices between oil workers in Chad and Cameroon, and charged that a phantom &ldquo;career progression plan had never been seen by the Chadian personnel, who continue to receive a salary that is not equivalent to the services rendered or the socioeconomic situation.&rdquo; Esso-Tchad made no response to those demands. 
 
The Doba fields, connected to the Cameroon port of Kribi by a 1,063-kilometre pipeline, belong to a consortium of oil companies, with ExxonMobil holding 40%, Malaysia&rsquo;s Petronas 35%, and US-based Chevron a 25% stake. The World Bank-funded development project became mired in controversy when, in January 2006, Chad&rsquo;s government changed the bank&rsquo;s financial arrangements, and diverted monies away from poverty relief and social programmes to counter civil strife, leading to a mass of refugees entering eastern Chad from the Sudan. 
 
With a stalemate brought by the World Bank&rsquo;s dispute with Chad&rsquo;s government, ExxonMobil decided to stop royalty payments to the government of Chad, worth some US$20 million per month, which further choked resources in one of the world&rsquo;s poorest countries. 
 
The World Bank-sponsored Chad-Cameroon pipeline has been plagued by other labour and human rights problems as well. In September 2005, Chad&rsquo;s national gendarmerie broke up peaceful protests by contract workers who had been denied overtime pay while employed by Chad-Cameroon Constructors, the oil companies&rsquo; consortium building the pipeline. The police action left three dead and three seriously injured.

Chad’s Oil Workers Target ExxonMobil for Strike Action

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
French materials producer Imerys has reneged on a commitment made two years ago to British workers. The promise, made in 2004 when the company moved some jobs from Southwest England to Brazil, guaranteed that 800 other jobs would remain. 
 
However, in early July, Imerys dropped a proposed restructuring plan on all former English China Clay mining and manufacturing operations, which Imerys bought in 1999, near Cornwall and Devon, telling the communities that all 800 jobs would be gone and production will move to Brazil by 2008. With Imerys being the region&rsquo;s largest private employer, such a scenario would be fatal to the economic lifeblood of the Southwest. The ICEM will again join with UK&rsquo;s Transport &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union (TGWU), and two other UK trade unions representing Imerys workers, to resist the company&rsquo;s destructive restructuring plan. 
<img height="50" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Early in 2005, Cornwall and Devon workers, together with their unions, fiercely resisted Imerys insistence on closing the final pension scheme and downgrading benefit levels for existing workers and retirees. That fight was waged to retain the spending power that thousands of workers and retirees had rightfully earned due to years on the job. Now the fight is survival. 
 
Since the proposed plan was uncovered just a week ago, TGWU has already organised a general stewards&rsquo; meeting and demanded from Imerys an immediate and preliminary meeting. In addition, an MP from the area, Matthew Taylor, representing Truro and St Austell, has scheduled an emergency debate on the economic consequences to the region in Parliament tomorrow, 11 July.

French-based Imerys Drops Bombshell on Southwest England

A book authored in part by Paul Lootens,&nbsp;FGTB's&nbsp;Federal Secretary in Belgium, reveals the comprehensive legal&nbsp;maneuvering following the nation's worst mining accident. In August 1956, near the&nbsp;Belgian city of Charleroi, 262 coalminers perished due to equipment failure and subsequent chain of events.
<img height="134" alt="" src="" width="120" />
FGTB's Paul Lootens&nbsp;&nbsp;
The aftermath of this tragic&nbsp;worksite story is depicted in a book entitled Tutti Cadaveri: The Trial of the Catastrophe at the Bois du Cazier in Marcinelle by&nbsp;Lootens, also an ICEM vice president,&nbsp;and historians Marie-Louise De Roeck and Julie Urbain. The book&rsquo;s title, Tutti Cadaveri, comes from the Italian rescuer who, after surfacing from the mine, said, tragically, &ldquo;All corpses.&rdquo; 
 
The book takes the reader through the legal wranglings of an employer intent on avoiding guilt over safety shortcomings, and the victims&rsquo; families who seek the truth. 

On 5 July, some 3,000 people turned out&nbsp;near the Belgian town of Marcinelle, just south of Charleroi,&nbsp;to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the country&rsquo;s worst coal mining tragedy in history. The event occurred in Bois du Cazier, where on 8 August 1956, 262 miners perished in a fiery inferno caused by an electrical blast from a shaft elevator. 
<img height="213" alt="" src="" width="320" />
The majority at the 5 July event were descendants and friends of 136 Italian miners, who together with the 152 others, died from the fire and subsequent carbon monoxide poisoning when the elevator blocked the flow of fresh air. 
The commemoration also was vitalized by trade union members and the colours of the Belgian socialist union FGTB, as well as their comrades from the Italian trade union, Patronato INCA-CGIL. 
 
The commemoration also included the unveiling of a sculpture marking the tragic event, a bronze globe commissioned by INCA-CGIL and made by Italian artist Antonio Nocera. The sculpture sits in front of the main mine shaft, now a museum, in which miners from 12 different nations died in 1956. 
<img height="300" alt="" src="" width="200" />
A surviving miner in front of Antonio Nacero's sculpture
At Bois du Cazier on the actual day of the 50th anniversary, 8 August, a bell tower clock will ring out 262 times, beginning at 08h00, with the name of each victim read out. At 10h00, flowers will be laid at the monument dedicated to the many accidents occurring at the mine, from 1901 to the 8 August 1956 underground firestorm. At 11h00, a ceremony will occur at the Marcinelle cemetery, and then at 12h30, another commemoration will occur at Bois du Cazier. 
 
The French language book, Tutti Cadavreri, by Lootens, De Roeck and Urbain,&nbsp;was&nbsp;published only on 1 May 2006, but is already in its second printing. It is available from Aden Publishers for &euro;22, and can be ordered by contacting Aden at <a href="mailto:editionsaden@skynet.be">editionsaden@skynet.be</a>, or calling +32 2534 46 61. 
More information on the book can also be found&nbsp;<a href="http://www.aden.be/tutti_cadaveri.html">here</a>. It can be ordered online <a href="http://www.rezolibre.com/librairie/detail.php?article=526 ">here</a>.

Book Depicts Aftermath of Belgium&#039;s Bois du Cazier Mine Tragedy

South African trade unions today, led by national centre COSATU and ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), picketed the Johannesburg offices of BHP Billiton over the company&rsquo;s labour policies in Australia.
BHP Billiton, the world&rsquo;s largest diversified mining, energy and steel company, has been quick to follow the Howard government in Australia in instituting the draconian effects of the country&rsquo;s new WorkChoices law. In resource-rich Western Australia, for example, BHP Billiton is currently stretching state labour statute in order to align with the new federal law by demanding from workers that they sign individual employment contracts rather than adhering to traditional enterprise agreements. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; <img height="98" alt="" src="" width="90" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="103" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;&nbsp; 
The COSATU and NUM protest, joined by five other South African unions from 11h00 to 13h00 (GMT) today, 29 June,&nbsp;is in solidarity with week-long protests sponsored by the Australian Council of Trade Union (ACTU) that are currently underway in protest to the WorkChoices law. ICEM affiliate Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) in South Africa also participated in the Johannesburg protest.&nbsp; 
 
In New Zealand, ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing &amp; Manufacturing Union (EPMU), together with other trade unions there, are also showing support to the ACTU by conducting demonstrations at Australian targets in Auckland and Wellington. 
 
Besides the individual work agreements, known as AWAs in Australia, the WorkChoices law places prohibitions on workers from attending union-provided health and safety training, removes protections from unfair dismissals, reduces a union&rsquo;s involvement in dispute resolution, and opens the way for employers to use contract labour and employment agencies in place of full-time, permanent employees. 
 
Earlier this month, the ILO&rsquo;s International Labour Conference in Geneva placed the Howard government&rsquo;s anti-worker labour law on its agenda, specifically on whether or not it adheres to labour rights Convention 98, the Right to Organise and Bargain Collectively Convention, a core convention that Australia ratified in 1973. 
 
The South African protests against BHP Billiton come at the exact time in which Prime Minister John Howard is in China pushing more export of Australian iron ore and natural gas, resources in which BHP Billiton is a leading producer of from Western Australia.

BHP Billiton Targeted in South Africa over Australian Labour Conduct

<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Global Framework Agreement with SCA Includes HIV/AIDS Clause
During a review meeting in Stockholm in January with the Swedish paper multinational Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA), the ICEM and the Swedish paperworkers&rsquo; union, Svenska Pappers, proposed to include a clause on HIV/AIDS in the updated Global Framework Agreement, which SCA accepted. The company agreed to comply with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work. 
Note to ICEM affiliates 
If a company agrees to comply with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work, this opens a whole range of possibilities for negotiations and activities for the unions organising in a Global Agreement company. The ten key principles of the Code of Practice include non-discrimination, gender equality, confidentiality, prevention, care and support. You can obtain the Code of Practice from any ILO office or download it at <a href="http://www.ilo.org">www.ilo.org</a>. It exists in more than 30 languages. 
 
Please note that a Global Agreement applies to all operations of a company worldwide. Often, local management is not familiar with a Global Agreement signed by their head office. Insist on implementation and compliance! 
 
ICEM&rsquo;s other Global Agreements which include an HIV/AIDS clause are Lukoil, Statoil, and Lafarge. The latter company signed one jointly with the Building Workers&rsquo; International. In reviews of existing Global Agreements or in drafting new ones, the ICEM will insist on the inclusion of an HIV/AIDS clause referring to the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work.
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Global Fund Chooses new Executive Director 
 
The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria has chosen Michel Kazatchkine, a physician and global health expert, as the next Executive Director of the Global Fund. He replaces Sir Richard Feachem, the founding Executive Director, who steps down at the end of his five-year term on 31 March. 
 
Professor Kazatchkine is a physician who has treated people with AIDS for more than 20 years, and led the world&rsquo;s second-largest AIDS research agency. He currently serves as France's Ambassador for HIV/AIDS and Communicable Diseases. Professor Kazatchkine is a former Vice Chair of the Global Fund Board and first Chair of the Global Fund&rsquo;s Technical Review Panel, which assesses the quality of grant proposals. 
 
In just five years, the Global Fund has become a leading force in the fight against the three diseases. It provides two-thirds of international funding for the fight against malaria and TB, and 20% of the global funding to fight AIDS. 
 
The Global Fund has approved grants for 450 programs in 136 countries with a total commitment of US$7 billion. As of December 2006, 770,000 people have begun antiretroviral (ARV) treatment through Global Fund-supported programmes and nearly 18 million insecticide-treated bed nets have been distributed to prevent malaria. In addition, tuberculosis programmes have detected and treated two million TB cases under DOTS, the internationally-approved TB control strategy. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Press Release, 8 February 2007)
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Global Unions Continue G8 HIV/AIDS Campaign 
 
Global Unions continue their campaign for the creation of a high-level Working Group on HIV/AIDS by calling on unions to make representation to German embassies. Such actions are hoped to convince the Heads of State attending the G8 summit this June in Germany to agree to such a Working Group. 
 
The G8 summit in St. Petersburg last year agreed on a tangible process for surveillance of infectious diseases like AIDS. But the G8 has not identified how this process would become a reality and so this has remained an undelivered promise. 
 
The Global Union HIV/AIDS Programme calls on unions to organise special events to deliver letters to the German Embassy in their country on 28 April, the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers. 
 
The German embassy action is twined with lobbying at international meetings of environment, health, and labour ministers at the annual meeting of the United Nations Environmental Programme, the World Health Assembly, and the International Labour Conference. 
 
(Source: Global Unions press release, 23 February) 
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Some 71,000 people in Ghana are HIV-positive 
Out of 71,000 people living with HIV/AIDS throughout Ghana who need drugs, only 6,000 are receiving anti-retroviral drugs from 32 health facilities. 
 
The director-general of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Professor Sakyi Awuku Amoa, said by July this year, 50% of all district hospitals will be prepared to administer the drugs. 
 
Awuku Amoa was speaking at a workshop for some selected people from the private sector and FM stations in Accra. More than 50 participants from all over the country attended. 
 
Awuku Amoa also said this year a lot of attention will be given to the youth, women and girls as they are more vulnerable. He therefore urged the media to champion the course of the crusade. 
 
The monitoring and evaluation coordinator at the AIDS Commission, Emmanuel Larbi, urged the participants to develop and implement workplace programmes such as condom distribution to reduce the spread of the disease. Topics treated included the National HIV and AIDS Research Agenda, and Ghana HIV Stigma Reduction campaign. 
 
(Source: Radio Ghana, Accra, 7 Feb 07 as supplied by the BBC Monitoring Service) 
&nbsp;<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
NUM Protest against Impala Platinum&rsquo;s Hospital Care 
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa gave Impala Platinum a seven-day ultimatum to respond to demands to improve health care services at the Impala Mine Hospital near Rustenberg, North West State. 
 
The ultimatum was given when miners staged a march on 23 January. NUM was protesting unfair and inferior treatment of workers at the facility. The union also accused the mine management, doctors and hospital administrators of denying antiretroviral drugs for treatment of HIV/AIDS. 
 
The subsequent strike ended on 18 February after management agreed to address the grievances presented to them. 
&nbsp;<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
China: Workplace Programme to Help AIDS Prevention 
At the end of January, China launched a national program on HIV/AIDS prevention and care in the workplace. 
 
The $3.5 million HIV/AIDS Workplace Education Program, funded by the United States Department of Labor, will be overseen by the International Labour Organization (ILO), and implemented in the provinces of Anhui, Guangdong, and Yunnan. 
 
&quot;China is now at a critical stage in fighting HIV/AIDS,&quot; said Hu Xiaoyi, vice-minister of Labor and Social Security, during the launching of the programme in Beijing. &quot;We should try our best to prevent the spread of the disease from high-risk groups to the general public.&quot; Hu believed the 39-month programme would be a good model to promote China's anti-AIDS education policy and implementation. 
 
Hu said another five-year education program, jointly launched by 12 ministries in 2005, had set a target of making 85% of the nation's rural migrant workers knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS prevention by 2010. 
 
The Regulation on AIDS Prevention and Control stipulated that no employer or individual should discriminate against people with HIV/AIDS or their relatives. The regulation protects their rights of marriage, employment, medical care, and education. 
 
The goal is that all workers with HIV/AIDS are well protected; that they can get jobs, keep jobs and have access to AIDS prevention services, such as education, treatment, and voluntary testing and counselling, 
 
Statistics by the ministry shows in some of the provinces, working-age HIV/AIDS people account for 90% of the total infected population and a majority of them are under age 35 years. 
 
(Source: chinadaily.com.ch 27 January 2007) 
&nbsp;<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Global Fund Round 7: Aidspan Releases Documents to Help Applicants 
With the Call for Proposals for Round 7 due on 1 March, Aidspan has published three documents providing guidance for applicants considering applying in this round. The three documents are: 
 
1. &ldquo;Deciding Whether to Apply for a Round 7 Global Fund Grant.&rdquo; 
2. &ldquo;Deciding Whether to Submit a Non-CCM Proposal for Round 7.&rdquo; 
3. &ldquo;Deciding Whether to Submit a Regional Proposal for Round 7.&rdquo; 
 
All three documents are available at <a href="http://www.aidspan.org/guides">www.aidspan.org/guides</a>. 
 
The text of each document has been extracted from a forthcoming guide, entitled &ldquo;The Aidspan Guide to Round 7 Applications to the Global Fund,&rdquo; which will be released shortly after 1 March 2007, the expected date for the release of the Call for Proposals. 
 
Already available on the same web page, is &ldquo;An Analysis of the Strengths and Weaknesses of Proposals Submitted to the Global Fund in Rounds 3-6 &ndash; Based on Comments of the Technical Review Panel,&rdquo; which is another excerpt from the forthcoming Round 7 guide. 
 
When &ldquo;The Aidspan Guide to Round 7 Applications to the Global Fund&rdquo; is released, it will contain, in addition to the above-mention extracts, a step-by-step guide to filling out the Round 7 Proposal Form. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 70, 5 February 2007. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>.) To receive GFO (if you haven't already subscribed), send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 18

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Some 300 French glass sector workers from four different unions protested in front of Saint-Gobain corporate offices in Paris on 20 February. The manifestation by workers of four Saint-Gobain Desjonqu&egrave;res (SGD) glass factories was over the company&rsquo;s intention to reduce the workforce at a perfume and pharmaceutical bottle plant in Mers, as well as the possible sale or joint-venture spin-off of the Desjonqu&egrave;res glass business.&nbsp;
<img height="285" alt="" src="" width="380" />
The unions, CFDT, FO, CGT, and CFTC, gained a meeting with senior managers during the protest, in which Saint-Gobain delivered a declaration that no workers would be sacked for economic reasons, and that any downsizings would occur through voluntary retirements and attrition. 
The declaration also included a guarantee that investment would be made to keep open the No. 7 furnace at Mers if demand is sufficient. In a statement last month, Saint-Gobain Desjonqu&egrave;res said it would shutter that furnace in 2008, cutting 125 jobs at the 1,245-worker factory. 
 
The unions also pressed management to take into account that some 400 temporary workers are employed at Mers. Workers from Saint-Gobain factories from Mers, Verreries de la Somme at Abbeville, Verreries de l&rsquo;Orne at Argentan, and SGD Sucy-Enbrie took part in the manifestation. 
<img height="203" alt="" src="" width="200" />
On the day following the protest, the unions obtained a salary increase from Saint-Gobain of 2.5%, with a minimum wage hike of &euro;55-per-month. They also won a &euro;12-a-month increase in employer-paid health insurance, and a one-off bonus of &euro;400. The unions credited the protest the day before with the substantial gains. 
 
The four unions, as well as a supervisors&rsquo; union, CFE-CGC, vowed to continue manifestations throughout the year in order to gain future job security guarantees from Saint-Gobain. Regarding a sale or spin-off of the glass business, the unions point to the fact that the Desjonqu&egrave;res business has enlarged the company four-fold in recent years. Outgoing CEO Jean-Louis Beffa has told market analysts that Saint-Gobain intends to exit the glass business, and to focus on building materials enterprises. 
 
Saint-Gobain bought the glass business of Henri Desjonqu&egrave;res in 1972 and operates ten glass factories around the world.

Saint-Gobain Protest Assures Fairness in Glass Business

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
A ballot taken by UK&rsquo;s Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) among Imerys workers in the South West has failed to gain the necessary majority. But the country&rsquo;s second largest private sector union has vowed to continue to press the French multinational for a fair redundancy package for 600 former English China Clay workers in Cornwall. 
 
TGWU represents nearly 1,000 of the 2,100 Imerys kaolin mining and processing workers in the region. The industrial ballot, over the company&rsquo;s inferior severance package for workers to be made redundant late this year, was sent out on 7 February and counted late last week. 
<img height="203" alt="" src="" width="200" />
&ldquo;Our members have decided not to take any industrial action,&rdquo; stated TGWU National Secretary Jennie Formby. &ldquo;There were significant numbers of people who voted for action short of strike and for strike action. 
 
&ldquo;While we&rsquo;re aware that those who wanted to fight back will be very disappointed, we understand the huge pressure members have been under after the misinformation and propaganda campaign (Imerys) has been waging over the course of the ballot. Members are also under great pressure as they face the loss of their jobs. 
 
&ldquo;We will continue to do everything we can at home and internationally to ensure workers get a fair deal from this immensely wealthy company.&rdquo; 
 
Formby commended trade unions in the US and Europe for lending support and aid to the TGWU in its campaign against Imerys. She particularly singled out Serge Gonzales from the French trade union F&eacute;d&eacute;ration Force Ouvri&egrave;re (FO) Mat&eacute;riaux, C&eacute;ramique et Thermique, who is also secretary of Imerys&rsquo; European Works Council. &ldquo;He took every opportunity to put pressure on the company, and for this we are truly thankful,&rdquo; Formby said. 
<img height="213" alt="" src="" width="150" />
French FO's Serge Gonzales
&ldquo;We know this is not the end of the struggle against Imerys, both in the UK and everywhere it operates,&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;We will, of course, do all we can to continue to support our members in Imerys UK in our efforts to get fairness.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM maintains that Imerys could and should do much better in the redundancy packages offered to the 600 workers who face joblessness later this year. Imerys, one of the world&rsquo;s biggest and most profitable building materials companies, will fail in its social obligations to the people of the South West, ICEM believes, unless it improves the severance packages.

Imerys Strike Ballot in UK Fails; TGWU will Press for Bigger Redundancy Packages

<img height="40" src="" width="100" alt="" />
In the United Kingdom, a private member&rsquo;s bill in Parliament to extend full employment rights to workers of employment agencies has the full support of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) and Amicus, both ICEM affiliates. UK&rsquo;s government has been lax in implementing a new European Union directive giving agency and migrant workers new rights across all 27 EU nations. 
 
But that now has changed, thanks to a bill by Labour MP Paul Farrelly of Newcastle-under-Lyme. His bill to introduce into law the same rights, pensions, and working conditions that full-time workers enjoy, apparently has awoken the UK&rsquo;s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), at least partially.
<img height="171" src="" width="120" alt="" />
 
On 20 February, DTI ministers agreed that they will consult on measures to protect the 1.4 million agency employees working in UK&rsquo;s economy. 
 
TGWU Gen. Sec. Tony Woodley said, however, that UK&rsquo;s government must go further, while pledging full support to MP Farrelly&rsquo;s bill: &ldquo;Agency workers need protection, not simply advice on how to deal with abusive employers. Without domestic legislation, 1.4 million agency workers in this country will continue to face discrimination.&rdquo; 
 
Regarding DTI&rsquo;s announcement, Woodley added, &ldquo;At Warwick, the government agreed to support the EU directive on agency workers, the fundamental principle of which is equal treatment. In the absence of any progress at EU level, we need EU legislation that will ensure this equality. What has been announced (by DTI) falls far, far short of this and will not significantly assist workers who endure abuse or undercutting because the law allows agency workers to be discriminated against on essential matters like pay, sick leave, and overtime. 
 
&ldquo;There is an opportunity with Paul Farrelly&rsquo;s private member&rsquo;s bill to outlaw this mistreatment. We urge government to grab it &ndash; and we urge MPs not to be misled into thinking that (DTI&rsquo;s) consultation will deliver the fundamental employment protections that vulnerable agency workers need.&rdquo; 
 
The Farrelly bill received full support from Amicus Gen. Sec. Derek Simpson when it was introduced. MP Farrelly is hoping to get backing from 100 MPs in March for the measure. Britain&rsquo;s government stands accused of actively blocking the directive at the EU level.

UK Unions in Support of Full Rights for Contract and Agency Labourers

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
At a kick-off rally on 21 February in New Plymouth, New Zealand, ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) launched its &ldquo;FairShare &lsquo;07&rdquo; campaign, aimed at mobilising the union&rsquo;s 50,000 members for 5% wage increases in this year&rsquo;s round of collective bargaining. 
 
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re telling employers that this year, we expect pay rises of 5% and we&rsquo;re prepared to do what&rsquo;s necessary to get it,&rdquo; EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little told 1,000 EPMU members at the rally. Little said that with increased business confidence and a strengthening economy, there is no excuse for working New Zealanders to miss out on the economic good times.
<img height="50" alt="" src="" width="100" />
&nbsp; 
The 2007 campaign is a repeat of the EPMU&rsquo;s &ldquo;FairShare &lsquo;05&rdquo; campaign, in which the union negotiated a total of 269 labour agreements &ndash; 85% of the total collective agreements negotiated then &ndash; with 5% wage gains. 
 
As part of this year&rsquo;s 5% drive, the union will be making claims for employer contributions into a workers&rsquo; savings plan. &ldquo;One of the major changes to the employment landscape this year is the introduction of KiwiSaver and we&rsquo;ll be taking employer contributions into account during our negotiations,&rdquo; said Little. 
 
KiwiSaver will become effective on 1 July, and the EPMU will bargain for a minimum 2% employer contribution to an individual worker&rsquo;s account. The supplemental savings scheme allows workers to make either a 4% or 8% personal contribution of their gross taxable earnings, but currently there is no statutory requirement for employers to match a contribution. 
 
Little also said superannuation will also be a key issue in this year&rsquo;s bargaining.
<img height="92" alt="" src="" width="200" />
EPMU, New Zealand&rsquo;s largest union, again has the full support of the country&rsquo;s Council of Trade Unions (CTU) in this year&rsquo;s drive. &ldquo;We need to see wages increased every year if we are to address both our significant social deficit and also the structural problem in our economy of low wages,&rdquo; stated CTU President Ross Wilson, adding that on average, New Zealand wages lag 30% behind those in Australia.

EPMU Renews ‘FairShare’ Wage Campaign for 2007 in New Zealand

Archive

NOPEF Strike against Oil Service Providers Continues in Norway

Chad’s Oil Workers Target ExxonMobil for Strike Action

French-based Imerys Drops Bombshell on Southwest England

Book Depicts Aftermath of Belgium's Bois du Cazier Mine Tragedy

BHP Billiton Targeted in South Africa over Australian Labour Conduct

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 18

Saint-Gobain Protest Assures Fairness in Glass Business

Imerys Strike Ballot in UK Fails; TGWU will Press for Bigger Redundancy Packages

UK Unions in Support of Full Rights for Contract and Agency Labourers

EPMU Renews ‘FairShare’ Wage Campaign for 2007 in New Zealand

About IndustriALL

Follow us

Contact us