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

US affiliate United Steelworkers took advantage of union-friendly language in last year&rsquo;s Goodyear tyre contract to win card-check recognition status at a tyre mold plant in Statesville, North Carolina. A vast majority of the 130 workers at the non-union plant expressed a desire for USWA representation through a card signing process, and an independent arbitrator verified that. The union and local management will now negotiate a first collective agreement for the 130. USWA has also submitted a majority of cards to an arbitrator for representation at another Goodyear tyre facility employing 350 workers in Asheboro, North Carolina.

USWA’s Neutrality Language with Goodyear Pays Off

Asia-Pacific labour and management representatives from BASF met in Singapore on 10 February. The network takes shape following the successful ICEM regional dialogue with BASF managers in Latin America/Caribbean. BASF&rsquo;s Eggert Voscherau called the AP network &ldquo;important and necessary&rdquo; and one that &ldquo;has to be continued.&rdquo; Recently, ICEM, German affiliate IGBCE and BASF teamed up so that BASF workers in Malaysia could have trade union recognition rights in Malaysia.

ICEM’s Regional BASF Network Meets in Singapore

Binda Pandey, ICEM vice president and leader in affiliate Nepal Independent Chemical and Iron Workers&rsquo; Union and national labour center GEFONT, is part of a collective nomination of 1,000 women worldwide nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first woman recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Bertha von Suttner. The single entry nomination of 1,000 women is meant to mark women&rsquo;s contributions to counter injustice, discrimination, oppression, and violence. Binda Pandey is a trade union leader committed to non-violent means to reverse the Nepalese monarchy&rsquo;s autocratic rule, and she has proven to be a tireless fighter for a return to democracy in the Himalayan country.

Binda Pandey Among Women Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

ICEM UK affiliate Amicus is in a 90-day consultation period with papermaker ArjoWiggins in efforts to save 150 jobs at the Corpach Mill, near Fort William in Scotland. The company announced closure of the carbonless paper mill last month, but Amicus and two other unions representing workers at the mill are intent to find a buyer for the 39-year-old mill. In 2003, the British government gave the company a &pound;5 million grant for construction of a new biomass boiler system for energy generation, but ArjoWiggins did not go ahead with the project.

Amicus Seeks to Keep UK Paper Mill Open

CEP members ratified by 95% the master paper-mill collective agreement for eastern Canada with Bowater late last week. The agreement follows one with Abitibi-Consolidated last year, and covers 2,400 paperworkers at five mills. The CEP won an unreduced early retirement provision, and 11% pay increases over five years. &ldquo;With this strong ratification vote, our members have achieved the wage and pension improvements in the pattern agreement, and the company has secured five years of labour stability,&rdquo; said CEP President Brian Payne. It was the first bargain between the CEP and Bowater, a US-based newsprint firm that took over the Canadian mills only a few years ago.

Paperworkers in Canada Ratify Bowater Contract

A gas explosion early today in China has killed three and left 81 missing. The incident occurred at the Shenlong coal mine in Fukang city,Xinjiang province. Last week, two separate mine catastrophes killed 18 in China, and the week prior, a mine explosion killed 19. On 7 July at a licensed mine in Chishan township, Jiangxi province, a flood trapped 15 miners. A day earlier, three miners were killed due to a gas combustion explosion. That accident was at the Wangzifen coal mine in Chifeng city, North China&rsquo;s Inner Mongolia autonomous region. On 2 July, 19 of 24 miners working at the illegal Jiajiabao coal mine in Ningwu county, Shanxi province, died after a gas explosion rocked the mine.

Gas Blast in China Kills 81

South Africa has signed up to a key international mining safety standard. 
 
The country's Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana announced the good news in a fax received today by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
ILO Convention 176 on safety and health in mines has now been ratified by the South African parliament, Mdladlana told the ICEM. Parliament also approved the accompanying Recommendation 183. 
 
On 4 November, the ICEM asked South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki to promote South African ratification of Convention 176. President Mbeki, who was the guest speaker at the ICEM World Congress in Durban, promised to raise the matter at the next meeting of the South African cabinet. 
 
Approved by the world's government, trade union and employer representatives within the ILO, Convention 176 sets out international standards for ensuring health and safety in mines. The ICEM played a major role in its drafting and adoption. 
 
The Convention came into force in 1995 and had already been ratified by 12 countries. Ratification by South Africa, one of the world's biggest mining nations, will send an important signal to mining countries worldwide. 
 
ILO Conventions are ratifiable by states and binding upon them. The related ILO Recommendations set out further detail on implementation of the Conventions. 
 
&quot;We wish to thank you for raising this issue with us,&quot; Labour Minister Mdladlana wrote to the ICEM, &quot;and to assure you that we indeed take the matter of health and safety of all workers, including those in mines, very seriously.&quot;

South Africa Signs World Mining Safety Norms

The NUM has settled strikes at two of the world&rsquo;s largest platinum producers, Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum. The pay disputes were settled for increases between 7.75% and 9.5%, depending on job grades, and cycle shift workers who work on public holidays won added improvements.

NUM in South Africa Settles Two Platinum Strikes

South African affiliate NUM sees no harmony, only dishevel in the hostile takeover of Goldfields by smaller gold-mining company Harmony. In a statement, NUM said that considering the high gold price, companies should be investing in development and job growth rather than consolidation and shrinkage. Both South African companies have retrenched numerous workers this year alone. NUM is calling for dialogue between the two companies instead of hostile &ldquo;approaches that send jitters into the market and economy,&rdquo; in the words of Gen. Sec. Gwede Mantashe. NUM is also opposed to a Goldfields preferred deal with Canada&rsquo;s Imagold and said the mining industry in South Africa suffers an &ldquo;anti-patriotic spirit&rdquo; in terms of abandoning national investment.

South Africa’s NUM Chastises Harmony’s Takeover Bid

20 October will go down as a day of death in China&rsquo;s coal mines. Four disasters found 123 dead, including&mdash;at last count&mdash;77 miners of state-owned Zhengzhou Group at Xinmi, Henan province, the worst mine catastrophe in recent years. At the weekend, 71 are still missing from the 20 October gas explosion that tore through several shafts at one of Zhengzhou&rsquo;s larger coalmines. Two other gas blasts added to the death count. Five were killed, 8 still missing at a blast in the southern province of Guizhou and near the southwestern Chinese city of Chongquing, another 12 perished in a natural gas explosion. The fourth 20 October disaster occurred at the Desheng coal mine in Wu&rsquo;an, Hebei province, when flooding cased the deaths of 29 miners.

Day of Death in Chinese Coal Mines, 20 October 2004

Archive