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ICEM’s Spanish affiliates in the Chemicals industry have agreed a renewal of the collective agreement for the sector. The previous agreement expired in December 2009. The agreement, signed 9 February by ICEM affiliates FITEQA-CC.OO. and FIA-UGT, was described by CC.OO.’s Communications Officer Fernando Lezcano, as a model to be followed by others in overcoming the financial crisis. 
 
The Agreement will be valid for three years, from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2012. 
 
The economic and financial crisis caused the loss of 1.5 million jobs in Spain over the last 18 months, making negotiations between business and trade unions more significant. Spain is now in its seventh consecutive quarter of recession and unemployment is at 4 million for the first time in Spain’s history. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SpainFIAUGT.jpg" width="130" height="131"/>    <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SpainFITEQA.jpg" width="155" height="126"/>
The unions accepted the limitations of what could be achieved in the negotiations, but prioritised commitments on job stability and changes that would stop the rise of precarious work. The new agreement recommends that local collective agreements place emphasis on permanent jobs and a reduction of temporary work. Also equal opportunities for women and young people must be prioritised. These issues will be continually negotiated on during the period of the agreement, in the newly-created Follow-up Committee. 
 
Factors such as re-distribution of work, shorter working hours, and a program of partial retirement along with replacement contracts, are seen as important tools to avoid redundancies. 
 
Wage policies for the next three years were agreed by the trade unions and employers’ organizations, raising salaries by 2.5% over the three years of the agreement.

Spain: Renewed Collective Agreement for the Chemicals Sector

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The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus in Trinidad and Tobago, will hold a colourful afternoon event this Thursday, 11 March, in honour of International Women’s Day. Entitled “From One to Many: Techno-Politics, Revolution, and the Art of the Possible,” the forum will be hosted by the university’s Institute of Gender and Development Studies. 
 
It will feature three lectures, the final one – by Dr. Alexis DeVeaux of the US’s University of Buffalo at SUNY – to be followed by a question and answer session. Dr. DeVeaux will speak on “Audre Lorde and the Longing for Home(land).” 

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Preceding her will be Dr. Gabrielle Jamela Hosein speaking on “A Revolution is a Way of Life,” and Sonitha Krishnan on “Impassioned by Silence: Where Do I Begin.” 
 
The forum has the support and endorsement of the ICEM affiliate on the Caribbean nation-islands, the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU).

Women’s Symposium to be Held in Trinidad and Tobago, 11 March

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Two global trade union federations whose affiliates represent over 45 million workers, together with four Norwegian trade unions, have asked the Council on Ethics of the Government Pension Fund of Norway to divest its holdings in the Mexican mining conglomerate Grupo Mexico because of alleged labor and environmental violations. 
 
The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mining and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) and the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) sent a <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Ltr_to_Ethical_Council-Mexico.pdf">letter</a> requesting the divestment to the Council on Ethics, which is charged with overseeing responsible investments of the Government Pension Fund, the second largest pension fund in the world. Grupo Mexico is accused of labor rights violations, environmental destruction and shareholder fraud. The letter also requests divestment in Southern Copper, Grupo Mexico’s wholly-owned subsidiary. 

<img height="147" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Arve.Bakke.jpg" width="190"/>
Arve Bakke, Fellesforbundet President
“We are supporting this action on behalf of trade unionists in Mexico to call attention to the extreme abuses of Grupo Mexico and to ask the Council on Ethics to drop Grupo Mexico as an investment in accordance with the Fund’s very high standards and Norwegian law,” said Fellesforbundet President Arve Bakke. “The wealth of future generations in Norway must not be invested in companies which systematically attack labor unions and damage the environment, as Grupo Mexico has done.” 
 
Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary, stated, “We have national mining unions in over 60 countries, and nowhere have we found more despicable behavior than that demonstrated by Grupo Mexico.” 
 
The overt attempt by Grupo Mexico to crush the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM or Los Mineros) and gross violations of workers’ rights to freely associate and collectively bargain as defined by the International Labor Organization are core arguments for divestment set forth in the letter. 
 
“The illegal practices of Grupo Mexico, unfortunately supported by a corrupt Mexican government, include seizing the union’s assets, attempting to replace the legitimate union with one selected by the company, and launching a protracted campaign of repression against the union’s leadership,” said IMF General Secretary Jryki Raina, 
 
In August 2007 the government and Grupo Mexico forced workers at eight mines to join a company-sponsored union using “elections” in which workers had to vote publicly in front of their employer. One union leader has been imprisoned without bond since December 2008. There are also credible allegations that Grupo Mexico is responsible for the violent deaths of two workers on two separate occasions. 
 
Despite these attacks, Los Mineros continues to negotiate wage increases across the country that average twice the government-imposed wage cap, which unions believe is a major motivation for Grupo Mexico’s attacks. It is especially noteworthy that Los Mineros maintains non-confrontational labor relations with most employers and has some 70 collective bargaining agreements with multinational employers such as Goldcorp, Bombardier and ArcelorMittal. 

<img height="145" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Mexico.SNTMMSRM.jpg" width="120"/>
The company is accused of gross health and safety violations at the Pasta de Conchos mine, where 65 workers died in an explosion in 2006, and the copper mine at Cananea, where workers have been on strike since July 2007. 
 
Studies of Grupo Mexico smelter operations in Mexico illuminate the company’s shameful environmental record where abnormal levels of toxic minerals such as lead, zinc, copper, cadmium, mercury, and magnesium were found among the general populations, including high levels of arsenic and cadmium among children. In Peru, Grupo Mexico was forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to remediate its contamination of water and air. In Chile the company is accused of developing a mining project on indigenous land without consultation with local natives or assessing environmental damage. 
 
According to sources cited by the trade unions submitting the letter, the cost to shareholders of Grupo Mexico’s abysmal labor practices exceeds $3 billion (USD) on top of the hundreds of millions required to remediate the company’s environmental destruction in Peru. Grupo Mexico was convicted by a U.S. court in 2009 of defrauding shareholders of a wholly-owned subsidiary. Another subsidiary has been linked to drug trafficking. 
 
Covalence Ethical Quotation System, which tracks the ethical reputation of multinational companies, ranked Grupo Mexico 573rd out of 581 global companies in 2009. 
 
The trade unions and labor federations submitting the request for disinvestment anticipate that the Council on Ethics will thoroughly investigate the information and make an expedient decision to divest. 
 
Los Mineros is affiliated with both the ICEM and IMF. The Norwegian trade unions signing the letter include Fellesforbundet, Handel og Kontor i Norge, Industri Energi and Norsk Arbeidsmandsforbund. 
 
The ICEM represents 467 trade unions in 132 countries and the IMF covers over 200 trade unions in 100 countries. 
 
For more information see the <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?n=663&l=2 ">IMF</a> and <a href="/en/67-Search-ICEM-site?keywords=los+mineros" type="internal">ICEM</a> websites. 
________________________________ 
 
For further information, please contact: 
Dick Blin, ICEM, +41 22 304 1842 
Anita Gardner, IMF, +41 22 308 5032

Trade Unions Ask Norwegian Pension Funds to Divest of Grupo Mexico Shares

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ICEM workshops in Tanzania on 12-13 March reveal blatant abuses of freedom of association by subsidiary mining enterprises of AngloGold Ashanti and Barrick Gold. The workshops were done specifically for ICEM affiliate Tanzania Association of Mining and Construction Workers’ Union (TAMICO), under the auspices of ICEM’s Sub-Saharan African Regional Organisation (SSARO), with ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana and ICEM/SSARO staff person Fabian Nkomo leading the important sessions. 
 
In attendance were the secretaries of TAMICO’s four regions, plus district secretaries and key Tanzanian union activists. This ICEM project, called the Organizational Growth Project, is sponsored jointly by FNV Mondiaal of the Netherlands and LO-TCO of Sweden. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0810Senzeni3.jpg" width="100" height="117"/>
ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana
The focus of the two-day meeting was on AngloGold’s 100%-owned Geita Holdings Ltd. and African Barrick Gold Plc., 75% owned by Barrick Gold of Canada and an asset that this week will see an initial public offering of the remaining 25% on the London Stock Exchange.. Both companies, separately, have engaged in labour relations conduct that is counter-productive to adherence of ILO Conventions 87 and 98, the basic workers’ rights of freedom of association and right to organise and bargaining collectively. 
 
At Geita Gold, management illegally screens all TAMICO membership forms, and has refused union recognition to those workers that it does not want in the union. Despite the union recruiting 900 mill and mine workers into TAMICO, Geita management in the Mwanza Region of Tanzania only recognizes 400 workers as members of the union. The ICEM has long known that Geita human resources director Philemon Tano openly discriminates against union membership, and this issue has been brought before AngloGold, a company that is obligated to respect labour and other standards with the ICEM through a Global Framework Agreement. 
 
From the outcome of these workshops, SSARO will again lodge a compliant with AngloGold Ashanti in Johannesburg, South Africa, on this inappropriate conduct. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Fabian.Nkomo.jpg" width="110" height="153"/>
Fabian Nkomo
At Barrick’s, Tanzania’s largest gold producer with mines at Bulyanhulu, Buzwagi, North Mara, and Tulawaku, management has continued to issue dismissals as a method to discourage membership in the union. In 2007 at the Bulyanhulu mine, following a break-down in negotiations between TAMICO and management over salaries, working conditions, and medical care that caused a strike by some 1,000 miners, Barrick’s summarily fired all strikers. Reports at the workshop stated that TAMICO members are sacked almost on a daily basis by African Barrick Gold Plc. 
 
(On 16 March, three miners were killed at the underground Bulyanhula mine when a cave-in brought giant rock down on the miners. The ICEM extends deep sympathies to the families of the miners – Dickson Kadelema, Vedasstus Wilfred Tandise, and Joel Nicholas – and calls on Barrick’s to ensure proper safeguards are in place inside its mines in Tanzania and elsewhere.) 
 
The 12-13 March ICEM workshops in Dar es Salaam did produce an aggressive action plan. Participants vowed to strengthen organizationally TAMICO, particularly the union’s regional structures and the development of mandates from the union’s leadership. This plan was put forth to better monitor and record AngloGold and Barrick’s employment and trade union abuses. TAMICO’s four regional secretaries attending the workshops pledged to recruit a total of 12,000 new members in 2010. 
 
Participants also launched a campaign specifically at AngloGold’s Geita subsidiary to win full union recognition by the end of June 2010. South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which already works closely with TAMICO, will ramp up efforts through SSARO to strengthen the Tanzanian union’s structures in order to meet the workshop’s goals.

Breaches of Freedom of Association Rife at AngloGold, Barrick Gold Mines in Tanzania

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The International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) is calling on the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers’ and Exporters’ Association (BGMEA), as well as sourcing companies that use the Garib & Garib knitwear factory in Gazipur, Bangladesh, to better compensate the families of 22 workers killed and 50 others injured in a factory fire on 25 February. 
 
The ITGLWF is demanding that the BGMEA and multinational sourcing companies join the Global Union Federation in setting up a relief scheme that fully meets the needs of families of the deceased, as well as those injured at Garib & Garib in Gazipur, some 30 kilometres outside of Dhaka. 
 
To date, the BGMEA has stepped forward with payment of 200,000 taka (€2,085) to each family, while owners of the Garib & Garib have given a mere pittance to families to cover funeral expenses – 2,085 taka (€150). 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1003.itschert.jpg" width="132" height="174" alt=""/>
Left, ITGLWF General Secretary, Patrick Itschert
Said ITGLWF General Secretary Patrick Itschert, “The establishment of a multi-stakeholder team to determine the needs of those affected, on the basis of field research into the demographics of the victims” is essential for fairness. “Involving the (BGMEA) in this exercise in particular is an important means of making them aware of the level of compensation necessary to assist families in such circumstances,” he added. 
 
The ITGLWF is offering to hold a round-table meeting in Dhaka with the employers’ association and the brand names to implement the compensation scheme. The union federation said that in 2005, following the collapse of the nine-story Spectrum garment factory that killed 64 and seriously injured 84 others in Savar, Bangladesh, ITGLWF and Spanish retailer Inditex established a compensation protocol that could serve as the model for victims and workers of Garib & Garib. 
 
To date, only H&M of Sweden and Teddy SpA (Terranova) of Italy have confirmed they source from Garib & Garib, but neither company has yet to announce its compensation to victims. 
 
In the evening of 25 February, an electric short-circuit on the second floor of the factory caused a fire, trapping workers because stairwells were blocked by goods and production materials. Many of the workers retreated up several flights of stairs, where they were consumed by rising black smoke and heat. Reportedly, security guards on duty did not know how to operate fire extinguishers and water hydrants. Of the 22 victims, 15 were women. 
 
Only seven months before, in August 2009, another fire at the Garib & Garib factory in Gazipur killed a firefighter and injured seven workers.

ITGLWF Demands Proper Pay Protocol in Aftermath of Deadly Bangladesh Apparel Fire

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Five members of the United Steelworkers (USW) were killed at a Tesoro Corp. oil refinery in Anacortes, US state of Washington, when an explosion occurred during a re-start of the refinery’s naphtha unit. Killed were three men at the scene, while two women died in the hours after the fiery explosion in a Seattle hospital. 
 
Two other workers remain in critical condition. 
 
The tragedy occurred in the early morning hours of 2 April. A Washington state labour investigator speculated that a fire and subsequent explosion occurred in a bank of boilers that heats fluids under high temperature and pressure in the production of naphtha, an extremely volatile hydrocarbon composite used as a feedstock in high-octane petrol. 
 
The three process operators killed at the scene were Matthew Bowen, 31, Darrin Hoines, 43, and Daniel Aldridge, 50. The women, who died from severe burns and other injuries in the Seattle hospital, 110 kilometres from Anacortes, were operators Kathryn Powell, 29, and Donna Van Dreumel, 36. All were members of USW Local 12-591. 
 
Severely injured were USW member Matt Gumbel, 34, and Lew Janz, 41, a supervisor who had been a long-time USW member. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0811GaryBeeversUSW.jpg" width="110" height="159"/>
Gary Beevers
USW Vice President Gary Beevers said it was vital that the cause of this blast is fully investigated so that “the rest of the oil industry (can) apply the lessons learned. There have been too many accidents and near-miss incidents in the oil refining industry. In honor of our brothers and sisters who were killed and seriously injured at the Tesoro refinery, we urge the industry to take steps to ensure an incident of this type never happens again.” 
 
USW District 12 Director Robert LaVenture said, “While we mourn now, we will seek justice.” 
 
US oil refineries are considered the least safe in the world due to age and poor safety processes. Last Friday’s Anacortes tragedy was the deadliest since the March 2005 explosion at BP/Amoco’s Texas City, Texas, refinery that killed 15 and injured 170. As a result of the BP explosion, the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board and state inspection agencies began safety probes at all 150 US refineries. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/TexasCityExplosion[1].jpg" width="190" height="126"/>
BP explosion aftermath, 2005
From that, in April 2009, Tesoro’s Anacortes refinery was cited with 17 serious safety and health violations, defined as those with potential to cause death or serious injury. It fined the company US$85,700. Inspectors also found 150 instances of deficiencies and said Tesoro did not ensure safe work practices, and failed to update safety information when changes were made to equipment. 
 
Tesoro appealed the fine and through a settlement negotiation process, in November 2009 the number of serious violations was reduced to three and the fine reduced to US$12,250. 
 
The US Chemical Safety board, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industry, and USW’s Emergency Response Team and Safety and Health Department are all investigating the deadly 2 April explosion. 
 
Tesoro, an independent, downstream refiner and retail marketer of petroleum products based in San Antonio, Texas, operates seven refineries in the US states of Alaska, California, Hawaii, North Dakota, and Washington. The Anacortes, Washington, refinery has a production capacity of 130,000 barrels per day, and produces gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel fuel from crude oil brought in from Alaska.

Five Steelworkers Killed in US Oil Refinery Blast on 2 April

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Collective negotiations across all of Sweden’s work sectors were fractious over the past month, but none as much than between the Paperworkers Union, Svenska Pappers, and Skogsindustrierna, the employers’ Forest Industry Association (SFIF). Late on Thursday, 1 April, a three-member mediation panel used its option under Swedish industrial relations rules and set back by one week planned job actions that Pappers was to begin today. 
 
The two sides had been making progress in the hours up to and beyond the 31 March midnight expiration of a prior three-year labour agreement that covers 18,000 paperworkers at 62 pulp and paper mills of ten companies. 
 
Pappers announced on 22 March that it would impose a total overtime ban beginning at 18h00 on 5 April, as well as a blockade of temporary and agency workers onto worksites. The one-time option by the mediation panel means such industrial actions cannot begin until 12 April. The union and SFIF are expected to return to the bargaining table either late on 7 April or 8 April. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0810PaperRollArt.jpg" width="240" height="145"/>
In talks that lasted late into the evening on 1 April, the two sides were closing in on a 22-month contract before the panel called adjournment and postponed the industrial action. On wages, that agreement would look much like what was achieved in other Swedish industrial talks – 3.2%. 
 
What separates Pappers and SFIF is how the pay accord will affect the lowest-paid workers, meaning a supplement should be in order for those workers, and a reduction provision on the pension scheme. Pappers is insistent that the first part of the pay deal be made with a 2% increase on 1 April, with the remainder to take effect on 1 January 2011. An addendum also is under consideration regarding union consultation on temporary or labour agency work. 
 
If no agreement is reached this week, the overtime ban and blockade of non-regular workers will go ahead for 12 April, with industrial action to escalate to selective strikes after that. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Sweden.IFMETALL.png" width="250" height="80"/>
On 27 March, ICEM affiliate IF Metall reached agreement with Teknikföretagen, the Swedish Engineering Industries Association, covering 160,000 workers. That agreement is for 3.2% over 22 months. A centerpiece of the agreement is that employers must negotiate with IF Metall before employing temporary staff for longer than one month. The union pressed this issue because employers should not be using labour agencies while full-time workers are either on layoff or working shortened work weeks. 
 
Also in accord with employers is the union GS, which signed a 22-month contract covering 35,000 workers in the forestry, wood, and furniture industries. Another part of GS, the graphical workers’ section, has an agreement expiring later this year.

Job Actions Delayed as Swedish Paperworkers, Employers to Keep Talking

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On the basis of a March 2008 provision mutually agreed to between ICEM and French-based specialty chemicals company Rhodia in a Global Framework Agreement (GFA), a joint Global Safety Forum was created in order to bring higher health and safety standards into the company for its 15,000 worldwide employees. 
 
Having agreed to an addendum to clarify terms and conditions of the global forum, ICEM and Rhodia recently signed and officially established the body. 
 
It will consist of nine members, three appointed from Rhodia Group’s general management, two from the ICEM Secretariat, and one Rhodia employee each from the company’s four operational zones (Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America), to be selected by the ICEM. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/KemalOzkan.jpg" width="100" height="130"/>   <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Brian.Kohler.b.JPG" width="99" height="149"/>
Kemal Özkan, Brian Kohler
The ICEM representatives will be Kemal Özkan, Rubber and Chemicals Officer, and Brian Kohler, Health, Safety, and Sustainability Officer. Following consultation with ICEM affiliates in the four regions, the regional representatives include Maurice Tritsch from France, Scott Harrington from the US, Thiago dos Reis Martins from Brazil, and Jie Dong from China. 
 
The addendum defines the role of the Global Safety Forum as a monitor for “the safety situation within the Group.” The forum is to meet at least once yearly, with each annual meeting to be held at a Rhodia plant chosen by the nine-member committee. With a commitment to a continuous progress approach to health and safety, the forum shall “issue observations and recommendations for improvement.” 
 
Having realised a first-ever joint activity on health and safety at Rhodia’s subsidiary in Freiburg, Germany, on 19 June 2009, the Global Safety Forum will have its first official meeting in the second half of 2010. 
 
View this addendum to the ICEM-Rhodia GFA <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.Rhodia.Agreement.pdf" type="internal">here</a>.

Formal Safety Forum Adopted Inside Rhodia Global Agreement

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Peruvian mineworkers at the US-owned Doe Run mine operations at Cobriza have settled a strike dispute by accepting a deal that gives all workers at the copper mine a one-time productivity bonus of 3,500 soles (US$1,232). The bonus will be paid to workers in two installments; the first 1,500 soles will be paid on 9 April, with the remainder paid on 20 August. 
 
The work stoppage was started on 23 March by the ICEM-affiliated National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (FNTMMSP), the country’s largest mining union federation. FNTMMSP General Secretary Luis Castillo has personally led the negotiations for the miners of Doe Run. Castillo argued that the collective agreement had not been fulfilled by management a year into the five-year agreement in 2008. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910PeruFNTMMSPLuis%20Castillo.jpg" width="160" height="120"/>
FNTMMSP General Secretary, Luis Castillo Carlos
It took a strike by the 890 workers at Doe Run’s Cobriza copper mine to bring management to the bargaining table. Company officials immediately began tripartite negotiations with FNTMMSP and the Labour Ministry, following a two-day stoppage that initially started on 28 February. 
 
As repeatedly reported recently by ICEM, the Peruvian Ministry of Labour typically sides with the company and declares mineworkers’ strikes “inadmissible,” moving trade unions to respond with short, rolling strikes to avoid losing their jobs. 
 
Production at the Cobriza copper mine in the Huancavelica Province affects operations at Doe Run Perú’s polymetallic smelter in La Oroya, in Junín Province. The Cobriza mine produces around 30% of the copper concentrates processed by the smelter, which has been operating sporadically since creditors halted their support in March 2009. Doe Run Perú, a unit of the US-based Renco Group, has been hard hit by the recession. Cobriza was Peru's sixth largest copper mine last year, producing 18,519 metric tonnes. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Peru.png" width="250" height="116"/>
Elsewhere in Peru, 1,500 workers at the Marcona mine, owned by China's Shougang state steel company, went on strike on 29 March, seeking better wages and conditions. "The strike is total and of indefinite length," said Julio Ortiz of FNTMMSP. "The factory has already cut salaries and has proposed a ridiculously low offer after already having cut workers' pay by 8% across the board.” 
 
The mine, located in the city of Marcona, 350 kilometers south of Lima, has a history of poor industrial relations. ICEM sided with Shougang workers’ and backed their strikes last July and September, also in protest to low wages and poor labour conditions. Shougang Hierro Peru SAA is Peru's only iron producer. Iron production at Shougang, reached 4.4 million tons in 2009. 
 
A national strike in Peru’s mining sector involving 50,000 unionized workers at 18 mines is taking shape for 30 June 30. The FNTMMSP took that decision on 27 March during the union's annual meeting. 
 
The FNTMMSP is demanding that Peru's government implement two laws. A pension law, which was approved by Peru’s Congress on 27 October 2009, has yet to be implemented, and a second law, which increases profit-sharing at mining companies, also has not gone into effect.

Peru’s Doe Run Miners Reach Agreement, Ending Strike

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“Expanding borders from Brazil to other Mercosur countries” was the central decision taken at the Fifth Meeting of the Solvay Trade Union Network in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, from 29-31 March. 
 
During the first day of the network meetings, the Chemical Workers’ Union of Bahía Blanca of Argentina formally joined the multi-union network, which is now to be called the Solvay Mercosur Trade Union Network. 
 
Solvay is a Belgian-based chemicals company, and the network already had participation from workers at a number of Brazilian locations of the company. 
 
"The principles guiding the network are the same principles guiding our own union work,” said Oscar Strutenberg from the Chemical Workers’ Union of Bahía Blanca. “We are committed to be together, so we will officially work within the group to boost the network.” 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.solvay.network.png" width="235" height="197"/>
In fact, representatives from the Argentine union already had participated in two meetings of the network, but now membership is official, a move viewed very positively by the other unions present. 
 
“I believe this formal new entry shows the growth and maturity of our network,” stated Network Coordinator Juvenil Nunes da Costa from Sindicato dos Quimicos do ABC, a CUT-affiliated regional chemical workers’ union of São Paulo state. “It is an important step in our process, because unions organising workers at the same company in different countries enhances our global alliance.” 
 
With the arrival of the Argentine union, the Network is composed of Sindicato dos Quimicos do ABC, Sindicato dos Trabalhadores da Indústria Química, Petroquímica (the Chemicals and Plastics Union of São Paulo), the Oil and Chemical Workers’ Union of Osasco, and the Paraná Chemical Workers’ Union. 
 
The next steps for the network will be to create a logo, exchange further information, and schedule common actions of the workers’ representatives, including a possible trip to ICEM headquarters in Geneva later this year to discuss issues related to effective social dialogue.

Solvay Brazil Union Network Expands to Include Other Mercosur Countries

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