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

&nbsp;<img height="40" src="" width="100" alt="" />
The worst Polish mining tragedy in three decades claimed 23 lives on 21 November, as a methane gas explosion struck deep inside the Halemba mine in Ruda Slaska in Poland&rsquo;s southern Silesia industrial region. The mine, which had not been operating since March 2006, is owned by the state-run Kampania Weglowa (KW), the EU&rsquo;s largest mining company. 
 
The miners were some 1,000 metres underground when the methane gas ignited. They were sent into the 50-year-old mine to retrieve equipment, valued by the company at US$23 million. The shafts in which they were working had been closed last spring, due to dangerously high concentrations of gas. 
<img height="63" src="" width="100" border="1" alt="" />
Poland&rsquo;s President, Lech Kaczynski, visited the area and declared a three-day national period of mourning from 23-25 November. All cultural and sports events across the country were cancelled. The government also announced a special fund totalling US$234,700 for family members of the victims. 
 
Some 60 persons, including 23 surviving children, will share the compensation award, expected to amount to about US$10,000 per person. 
 
Poland&rsquo;s Higher Authority for Mining set up a special commission to investigate the tragedy, with work beginning on 24 November. The KW supervisory board will meet on 11 December to take up the reasons and consequences of the catastrophe. Meanwhile, KW has dismissed general directors at all 17 of its collieries in Poland, and the mines will be managed by technical and administrative personnel.

23 Miners Killed inside Poland’s Halemba Coal Pit

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;
The ICEM has written to the leaders of Maoist political parties in Nepal, protesting against the recent attacks on trade union representatives by Maoist groups in the country. 
 
The latest of these assaults took place on Saturday, 18 November, at a mill owned by Bhrikuti Pulp and Paper Nepal Ltd., in Gaindakot in the Nawalparasi district of Western Nepal. 
<img height="125" alt="" src="" width="100" />
NICIWU's Tika Ram Paudel
Tika Ram Paudel, the Central Treasurer of ICEM affiliate Nepal Independent Chemical &amp; Iron Workers&rsquo; Union (NICIWU), and Shree Mahato, the NICIWU Vice President at Bhrikuti&rsquo;s mill, were brutally attacked by Maoists.
Both were beaten after Paudel, who had been receiving Maoist threats over the last few months, was summoned &ldquo;for consultation&rdquo; by Maoists, who had suddenly appeared at the plant.
Regrettably, more reports on violence against trade unionists have come out of Nepal recently. The ICEM was also informed by its affiliates of an attack on GEFONT trade unionists by Maoists in Hotel Malla. 
<img height="99" alt="" src="" width="75" />
These violent incidents are deplorable in view of the fact that the country is just months out of a period of brutal repression by the government. Last spring, the people of Nepal removed their autocratic King Gyanendra from power. And within the past month, a peace agreement was signed between Maoists rebels and the government, ending a ten-year period of fighting. 
 
In the ICEM letter, the Global Union Federation joined the call by NICIWU to &ldquo;strongly demand the Maoist leadership to respect the peace code of conduct,&rdquo; as well as &ldquo;to investigate the incidents immediately.&rdquo; Reportedly, the Maoist leadership has already committed itself to investigate the incident. However, earlier such promises have been broken. The ICEM will continue to monitor the fragile state of peace and security not only in the Himalayan country as a whole, but also inside the workplaces of Nepal.

Situation Remains Precarious for Nepalese Trade Unionists

&nbsp;<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
French multinational Saint-Gobain, one of the world&rsquo;s largest companies in the building materials sector, has quickly taken advantage of the Howard government&rsquo;s WorkChoices law in Australia to undermine enterprise bargaining in favour of individual labour agreements. 
 
The company has imposed the practice at two plant sites in the Sydney area, intending to break collective representation by ICEM affiliate National Union of Workers (NUW). 
 
As a result, Saint-Gobain Abrasives Pty. Ltd. staff at the Lidcombe and Wetherill Park worksites are currently on strike, seeking a new collective bargaining agreement. The strike started after it had become clear that Saint-Gobain, instead of starting negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement, was applying to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to terminate the existing one. 
<img height="50" alt="" src="" width="100" />
As part of the same process, Saint-Gobain is attempting to have employees sign Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs). AWAs are individual contracts, whose key characteristics are that they prohibit the right of employees to bargain collectively and exercise other rights of union membership.
The use of AWAs, and the refusal to bargain collectively, is inconsistent with international law. This was recognised, in July 2005, by the Special Committee on the Application of Standards of the ILO, which found that Australia is not meeting its obligations to protect the rights of workers through the provision of AWAs. 
 
On top of all that, on 8 November, the Federal Court of Australia determined that Saint-Gobain unlawfully terminated the employment of two NUW delegates. The two employees, Jeff Gearin and Tony Seymour, who had been working at the site for 18 and 30 years, were dismissed, according to the company, for lack of skills. In court proceedings, it became apparent that the necessary training would have taken &ldquo;two to three hours&rdquo; and that one of the two had earlier asked for the training, a request that management had denied. 
<img height="225" src="" width="300" alt="" />
NUW delegates Jeff Gearin and Tony Seymour
In a letter to the company, the NUW quotes the third principle - on freedom of association and collective bargaining - of the UN&rsquo;s Global Compact, which the company joined in June 2003. 
 
The ICEM has been in direct contact with its French affiliates in the materials sector in an effort to press Paris-based senior management of Saint-Gobain to respect freedom of association at the Australian plant. The ICEM and French unions are also seeking an end to Australian management&rsquo;s pressure on Lidcombe and Wetherill Park employees to accept individual contracts, and want management to begin earnest negotiations with the NUW toward a new collective agreement.

Saint-Gobain Initiates Regressive WorkChoices Law in Australia

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;
Last week&rsquo;s kidnappings and poor rescue attempt of seven Eni SpA employees by the Nigerian Navy has prompted FEMCA-CISL, ICEM affiliate in Italy, to make a second demand within a month on the Italian energy company concerning its Global Framework Agreement with the ICEM. 
 
This time, FEMCA-CISL contacted senior management of Eni with concerns over how to report on workers&rsquo; security to the agreement&rsquo;s partners. Earlier in November, the union had already voiced, in a letter to Eni&rsquo;s top managers, its displeasure over a brewing dispute with the two ICEM affiliated oil workers&rsquo; unions in Nigeria, PENGASSAN and NUPENG. That dispute, covered in the 13 November issue of InBrief (see: <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2022-Nigerian-Unions-Close-to-Second-National-Strike">/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2022-Nigerian-Unions-Close-to-Second-National-Strike</a>) relates to Eni providing more security in Nigeria to expatriate workers than to native Nigerians. 
&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="73" alt="" src="" width="100" align="middle" />
FEMCA-CISL, along with the ICEM and Italian trade unions FILCEA-CGIL and UILCEM-UIL, is signatory to a Global Framework Agreement with Eni, Europe&rsquo;s fourth largest oil producer. The agreement has been in effect since June 2001. 
 
On 21 November, armed militants raided Eni&rsquo;s Saipem subsidiary offshore loading vessel Mystras, located some 30 miles off Rivers State, and captured seven foreign nationals. The next day, Nigerian Navy forces engaged in a fire fight with the militants, killing one worker &ndash; the 58-year-old British production superintendent of the vessel &ndash; as well as injuring one other employee. Two of the kidnappers also were killed, as well as one Nigerian seaman. 
 
In the message to the Italian management, FEMCA-CISL demanded that the issue of the company&rsquo;s security in Nigeria be included on the agenda of the very next meeting of partners of the Global Agreement. The union also insists for the agreement&rsquo;s partners to be timely informed on any security occurrences anywhere in the world. The company should furthermore inform the unions of all initiatives and discussions with local workers&rsquo; representatives. 
<img height="104" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="95" alt="" src="" width="90" />
The demand stems from a health and safety stipulation contained in the Global Agreement. In that, the company commits to deploy its best efforts to improve the safety and health of its workers. In part, it reads, &ldquo;Eni guarantees the highest standards of health and safety for its employees and the communities in all the areas of the world where it operates.&rdquo; 
Eni&rsquo;s Saipem and Agip subsidiaries in Nigeria have been the targets of recent violence in the Niger Delta. On 6 November, gunmen took 48 workers &ndash; all indigenous Nigerians &ndash; hostage at Agip&rsquo;s Tebidaba flow station in Bayelsa State over an environmental dispute, reportedly over pollution caused by gas flaring. And earlier, militia took workers hostage at a Clough Creek flow station, also in Bayelsa State. 
 
The violence has caused Eni to declare force majeure in Nigeria, forcing the company to halt export of 60,000 barrels-per-day of crude oil.

Eni’s Global Agreement Called into Play over Nigerian Security Concerns

&nbsp;<img height="450" src="" width="300" alt="" />
<img height="450" src="" width="300" alt="" />
<img height="233" src="" width="350" alt="" />
<img height="233" src="" width="350" alt="" />
<img height="400" src="" width="300" alt="" />
<img height="263" src="" width="350" alt="" />
<img height="233" src="" width="350" alt="" />
&nbsp;

Photos - Imerys demonstration South West 18 November 2006

Photos of the march and rally can be found <a href="/index.php?id=21&amp;doc=2038&amp;la=EN">here</a>.
A march and mass rally against Imerys&rsquo; rash restructuring in the UK'S&nbsp;South West was held on Saturday, 18 November, in St. Austell.
Sponsored by UK trade unions Transport &amp; General Workers Union (TGWU), Amicus, and GMB, the colourful march&nbsp;featured French, American and global union representatives, who reminded Imerys workers in the Cornwall and Devon region that the company will grant nothing without a fight. The march culminated with the rally and speeches at Polkyth Carpark. 
 
The march and rally, in which 450 people participated,&nbsp;was part of a build-up to an industrial ballot that the UK unions will take in the South West Imerys, a Paris-based multinational that produces building materials. Imerys is targeting some 610 jobs to be made redundant at its kaolin mine and processing operations in the South West by the end of next year.
<img height="50" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The restructuring has gained global attention through the TGWU&rsquo;s outreach to other unions representing Imerys workers around the world. 
Speakers at Saturday&rsquo;s event included 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 Secretary of Imerys&rsquo; European Works Council; Keith Fulbright, a shop-floor leader at Imery&rsquo;s Sylacauga, Alabama, calcium carbonate mine and plant, who is President of Local Branch 3-0516 of the United Steelworkers (USW) of America; and Dick Blin, a representative of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine &amp; General Workers' (ICEM) Unions, the Brussels-based Global Union Federation, which includes Imerys&rsquo; trade unions worldwide. 
 
Also speaking were&nbsp;Jennie Formby, TGWU National Secretary, and Laura Lamprell, TGWU Regional Industrial Organiser. 
 
&ldquo;Imerys has exhibited utter contempt in regards to workers, their families and, indeed, the entire well-being of communities built by the labours of English China Clay,&rdquo; said Formby. &ldquo;That contempt has stretched from the manner in which they made the announcement last July, to the manner in which they&rsquo;ve conducted the consultation process with the workers&rsquo; representatives.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;We have told Imerys that their anti-social policies in the UK will affect their reputation globally,&rdquo; said Serge Gonzales. &ldquo;We demand of Imerys a reversal to the anti-worker conduct that it is displaying in various countries throughout Europe.&rdquo; 
<img height="60" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<img height="62" alt="" src="" width="113" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<img height="60" alt="" src="" width="70" />
In Sylacauga, Alabama, Imerys also has demonstrated a record of union-busting and non-adherence to its social obligations. The USW has fended off two de-unionisation efforts by the company since the turn of the decade, and it is only now, through renewed strength of the USW among the 500-member workforce, that the company has tempered its anti-worker agenda. 
 
&ldquo;The lesson that I bring about Imerys from America to workers of the South West is this: &lsquo;Stay united, stay focused,&rsquo;&rdquo; said the USW&rsquo;s Keith Fulbright. &ldquo;Our experience is that Imerys will attack when they know the union is weak. It was only after we signed nearly every worker into the union that everyone began displaying that fact on the shop floor. It was only then that Imerys backed off.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;Imerys must begin making real commitments to workers and communities of the South West,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &ldquo;The ICEM guarantees that unless fairness and respect are granted, we will do everything in our power to bring this dispute into all the company&rsquo;s global workplaces.&rdquo;

Anger at Imerys Expressed at Rally in UK&#039;s South West

<img height="67" alt="" src="" width="150" />
Just hours before 130 paperworkers of the ICEM affiliate Svenska Pappers were about to strike an ABB Power Technologies paper mill near Oskarshamn, Sweden, on 15 November, a settlement was reached between the union and Swiss-based engineering firm. 
The agreement actually exceeds the standards in place in Sweden's paper sector. It guarantees workers at the paperboard mill the right to health care, education, all benefits and income development, plus ABB will pay Svenska Pappers 1.5% of the total salary cost for follow up and administrative costs during the term of the agreement. 
Pressure to resolve the two-year-long dispute was brought on management when,&nbsp;on 10 November, a Swedish labour court ruled the workers not only had the right to strike, but that sympathy strikes by other unions operating at the mill were lawful. 
The threat of a strike also was heightened when&nbsp;Finnish union Paperiliitto, another ICEM affiliate, announced it would engage in industrial action against ABB if Swedish workers&nbsp;at the ABB's Figeholm mill struck. Svenska Pappers was instrumental last spring and early summer in sympathy actions in support of Paperiliitto during a 7-week lockout of Finland's paper sector, affecting 25,000 paperworkers. 
&quot;We are happy to avoid a strike,&quot; said Svenska Pappers Negotiations Secretary Lennart Olovsson. &quot;But I am more relieved over the fact that we could stand up against ABB and their intention to introduce a completely new and inferior collective agreement into the Swedish paper industry.&quot;

Strike Threat, Finnish Pressure Wins Paper Mill Dispute in Sweden

<img height="55" src="" width="138" alt="" />
The nearly five-month strike by Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada at a plant of chemicals company Invista ended 28 October when the workforce to 350 voted by 77% to return to work. 
A back-to-work accord was reached in Ottawa on 25 October, and bettered the back-to-work protocol workers rejected 19 September that would have voided seniority provisions. CEP Local 28 and Invista, a wholly-owned subsidiary of giant US energy company Koch Industries, had agreed to terms contained in the new three-year agreement earlier. 
The strike at the nylon intermediates and polymer plant in Ontario began on 4 June.

Invista Strike By CEP in Canada Ends

<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="138" />
Copper-mining and smelter workers, members of US affiliate United Steelworkers (USW), voted 12 November to accept a collective agreement. The ratification ends a four-and-a-half month strike at Asarco, a unit of rich Grupo Mexico SA de CV, now a global mining company enjoying healthy profits from high metals pricing. 
Strikes by 1,550 steelworkers and members of other US unions at six mine and smelting operations in Arizona and Texas began in late June and early July and were followed by Grupo Mexico taking Asarco into US bankruptcy protection. 
Formal US government labour law complaints against Asarco moved creditors to settle the strikes, and the resignation recently of Asarco Chairman and President Daniel Tellechea helped clear the way for agreement. 
The dispute centered on further wage and pension freezes at a time when world copper prices are at an all-time high. Two other US affiliates of the ICEM have minority representation in some of the six Asarco southwestern US worksites, including the Boilermakers (IBB) and Operating Engineers (IUOE).

Copper Strike in American Southwest Ends

<img height="55" src="" width="138" alt="" />
A&nbsp;compromise was reached in the pension dispute at Shell Nederland that nearly shut all operations of the company in Holland, including the giant gas fields and plants of NAM Nederland BV, the joint venture between Shell and ExxonMobil. 
ICEM affiliate FNV Bondgenoten and Christian union CNV Chemie en Energie reached the compromise on 3 November, three days after shutdown procedures began at the Pernis oil refinery in Rotterdam and a petrochemicals plant in Moerdijk. Workers at Shell and NAM won through their unions an agreement that the early retirement age would stay at 60, while pension contributions by workers would not exceed more than 2% annually. 
Some 10,800 Shell and NAM employees are covered under the pension scheme.

Pension Dispute at Shell Nederland Ends

Archive

23 Miners Killed inside Poland’s Halemba Coal Pit

Situation Remains Precarious for Nepalese Trade Unionists

Saint-Gobain Initiates Regressive WorkChoices Law in Australia

Eni’s Global Agreement Called into Play over Nigerian Security Concerns

Photos - Imerys demonstration South West 18 November 2006

Anger at Imerys Expressed at Rally in UK's South West

Strike Threat, Finnish Pressure Wins Paper Mill Dispute in Sweden

Invista Strike By CEP in Canada Ends

Copper Strike in American Southwest Ends

Pension Dispute at Shell Nederland Ends

About IndustriALL

Follow us

Contact us