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A founding Congress in Vienna, Austria, on 3 November gave birth to a new global union confederation for national labour centres. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) was formed, taking the place of its two founding members, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL). 
 
The new ITUC will represent 168 million workers from 306 affiliates in 154 countries. In addition to affiliates from the former ICFTU and WCL, eight other national trade unions, who were not affiliated to a global union organisation prior, are now affiliated to the new organisation. These include Nepal&rsquo;s GEFONT, France&rsquo;s CGT, Poland&rsquo;s OPZZ, Argentina&rsquo;s CGT and Colombia&rsquo;s CUT. 
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ITUC&nbsp;General Secretary Guy Ryder
At the Vienna Congress, the new organisation stressed the need to tackle the adverse consequences of economic globalisation and the devastating effect this has had on millions of workers. Specifically highlighted problems included off-shoring, abuse of workers&rsquo; rights, and increased levels of poverty. 
Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary, said the unification of ICFTU and WCL is an &ldquo;inevitable and welcome development, which we hope will lead to others uniting, creating a single global union confederation.&rdquo; 
 
He also said that the unity at the national centre level was preceded &ldquo;by agreements at sectoral level, including the one on integration between the ICEM and the World Federation of Industrial Workers (WFIW).&rdquo; 
 
Guy Ryder, former head of the ICFTU, was elected General Secretary of the ITUC, while Sharan Burrow of the Australian Council of Trade Unions won election as president. While those two were ICFTU incumbents, at the levels of deputy GSs and deputy presidents, each organisation will have one seat. 
 
Mamounata Ciss&eacute; (ICFTU) and Jaap Wienen (WCL) became the deputy GSs, while Michael Sommer (DGB-Gemany) and Luc Cortebeeck (CSC-Belgium) will serve as deputy presidents. The new ITUC will undergo a four-year transitional process, after which vice presidential seats and representation will be based on the organisation&rsquo;s affiliation protocol. 
 
The new website of the organisation is: <a href="http://www.ituc-csi.org">http://www.ituc-csi.org</a>.

ITUC Founding: A New International Trade Union Confederation

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The joint ICEM-IUF project for South East Europe has developed a website to better assist participating unions in the project. The ICEM and the International Union of Food Workers&rsquo; have been running this union-building project since 1998. 
 
The site, which is available in English and Croatian, can be found at&nbsp;<a href="http://icemiufsee.org/index.php?lang=en">http://icemiufsee.org/index.php?lang=en</a>.&nbsp; 
 
The South East Europe project of the two Global Union Federations aims to increase social dialogue and negotiations between the participating unions and the employers and governments of Balkan nations. Activities focus on workplace representatives for engaging in workplace actions that support dialogue with managements and governments, specifically during industrial restructurings and privatisations.

Joint ICEM-IUF Project in Balkans Gets Website

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A total and complete shutdown of subsea contractors in the UK&rsquo;s North Sea oil fields by divers and their support staff proved effective, with all 900 of them gaining a 44% wage increase over two years. 
 
The ten-day strike, led by UK&rsquo;s Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) Union, an affiliate of the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF), and an important member of the ICEM/ITF Global Oil and Gas Industry Trade Union Alliance, ended Friday, 10 October, after divers and their support teams ratified the agreement with an 84% vote.
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&quot;By any standard, this is a tremendous victory for a group of workers who have displayed grit, determination, and complete solidarity in their campaign to win a fair pay increase,&rdquo; said RMT General Secretary Bob Crow. 
&ldquo;The strike was total from the first moment, and it is to our members&rsquo; immense credit that not one diving support vessel was operational throughout the stoppage.&rdquo; 
 
The strike shut down seven oil-service companies who operate in both UK and Norwegian waters. RMT divers working in the energy sector in Egypt and Singapore also reportedly joined the strike. 
Late in October, divers and support teams rejected by better than a two-to-one margin an employer association offer of 37% over three years. They struck on 1 November, and the rock-solid strike proved too much for the companies, who attempted to get divers to sign individual agreements. The divers do installation and maintenance on underwater wells and pipelines. 
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The RMT members, who have some of the most dangerous jobs in the North Sea working at depths of up to 130 feet, or 40 metres, won an immediate 25% pay increase, with a further 5% increase coming in April 2007. And then further increases occur throughout 2007 and 2008. They also won entitlement pay for eight public holidays, up from the four that they previously had. 
 
The seven employers that are party to the UK Offshore Diving Industry Agreement include: Acergy, Technip, KD Marine, Integrated Subsea Services (ISS), RBG Ltd., Subsea7, and Well-Ops.

UK’s North Sea Divers and Support Staff Win 44 Percent Salary Increases

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Spanish petrol station workers went on strike last week, 7-8 November, as last minute negotiations between unions and employers yielded no resolve earlier in the week. 
 
The two-day strike, held prior to a long weekend in Spain due to a national holiday, had been called by Spanish ICEM affiliates FIA-UGT and FITEQA-CC.OO. Strikes affected stations throughout Spain, except for two provinces, which have a separate collective agreement.
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According to the unions, the strike&rsquo;s success was &ldquo;massive,&rdquo; with approximately 70-80% of all petrol station workers taking part. Some 1,811 petrol and gas stations, some 20% of the entire petrol market in Spain, were forced to remain open on 7-8 November due to a Spanish law intended to guarantee minimum service.
The mass industrial action was brought on because of a series of bad working conditions: long, often unpaid or poorly paid working hours; excessive rotation and temporary work, including shift and weekend work; job-related health and safety problems; and extremely low remuneration. 
 
Workers in the sector earn gross pay totalling &euro;800&ndash;900 a month. Considering that the price of petroleum has tripled over the last three years, even though it has dipped of late, Spanish unions are seeking only modest salary increases for petrol station operators. 
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Employers&rsquo; statements indicate that the union demands &ldquo;do not correspond to reality.&rdquo; But the reality is that Spanish petrol stations employ nearly 42,000 workers at 8,700 stations, with 50% of them immigrant workers. And of those immigrant workers, 60% are women. It is employers who reject upgrading wages and working conditions for Spanish petrol station workers. 
 
A union representative said it is important that employers now &ldquo;change their rigid behaviour and agree to a fair collective agreement for the workers in the gas and petrol stations so that they can work in decent conditions.&rdquo; 
 
Discussions are scheduled to continue this week. However, the unions have said their options would remain open, with further strikes possible.

Spanish Gas Station Workers Strike for Realistic Working Conditions

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A central labour court in Thailand on 31 October ruled that Goodyear Thailand&rsquo;s termination of contract worker Chalom Kongnok was illegal, and ordered the company to reinstate him and award him backpay and full collective bargaining benefits for the past ten years. 
 
This case is one of 16 cases that ICEM affiliate Petroleum and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Federation (PCFT) now is pursuing on behalf of long-term contract workers employed in the warehouse and rubber stock department of Goodyear&rsquo;s Bangkok tyre factory. They were fired in October 2005 for attempting to exert their legitimate right to collective bargaining. 
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Several, such as Kongnok, had been working for Goodyear for up to ten years under one-year contracts. The labour court&rsquo;s ruling on 15 other sacked contract workers is expected on 30 November. 
 
The 16 had won a previous Industrial Court Commission ruling last spring that called for reinstatement. But when they turned up at the factory for work on 3 May 2006, management refused entry. 
 
Seven months before, Goodyear&rsquo;s Thai management acted hastily in sacking the workers when they demanded collective bargaining benefits and protections. They had been deducting dues from the contract workers for, in some cases, up to four years. In an effort to avoid unionisation in this area of the plant, Goodyear later in 2005 halted direct employment of the contract workers and brought in a labour agency as employer. 
 
The ICEM will continue to stand with the PCFT and its plant-level affiliate, the Tyre Makers&rsquo; Union, in its rightful quest for full rights and permanent employment for all contract workers at Goodyear Thailand Ltd.

Goodyear Ordered to Take Back Thai Contract Worker with Ten Years’ Backpay

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North America&rsquo;s bitter industrial strike in the rubber sector between the United Steelworkers (USW) and Goodyear Tire and Rubber will see the antagonists come face to face tomorrow, 14 November, when the parties commence bargaining. It will be the first set of talks since the strike by 15,000 US and Canadian rubber workers began on 5 October. 
 
USW President Leo Gerard said: &ldquo;We look forward to productive discussions whereby our members can return to making quality products and sincerely hope that this is a good faith attempt by Goodyear to solve problems and not place further obstructions in the path to reaching a fair and equitable agreement.&rdquo; 
 
Good faith is something Goodyear is a stranger to in this 40-day strike. The US-based rubber-maker announced during the strike it was closing a plant in Tyler, Texas, potentially sacking 1,100 workers, even though the issue of job security and closures was still open on the bargaining table. 
 
Goodyear CEO Robert Keegan breached ethical social conduct by stating to investment analysts that the company would bypass the union in order to force Goodyear&rsquo;s agenda of jobs cuts, work reorganisation resulting in lower pay, and devastating attacks on pensioners&rsquo; benefits. 
 
The company has been relentless in its messages to strikers to abandon the walkout. The most recent example is a letter that company coverage of health care would only be guaranteed if staff returned to work by 3 January 2007.
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The ICEM-affiliated USW has made it clear that it is returning to the bargaining table tomorrow with expectations that management is ready for serious dialogue. The union maintains that Goodyear has not negotiated, but rather dictated the terms it seeks to impose on workers. &ldquo;We stand ready to bargain a fair labour agreement,&rdquo; said USW International Vice President Tom Conway, &ldquo;and assume (by Goodyear&rsquo;s return to bargaining) that the company has abandoned its destructive position on closing plants and slashing health care.&rdquo;
The USW will continue its campaign to protect jobs and livelihoods of North American rubber workers. On Saturday, 18 November, USW members will again distribute thousands of handbills to both customers and auto dealership managers over the possible safety risk Goodyear is creating by pushing for certain levels of production during the strike. The union has also taken that message to rubber sector and auto-parts trade shows that are attended by thousands of corporate representatives involved in sales and marketing. 
 
The Goodyear strike is one of the largest North American industrial strikes in this decade, affecting 12 plants in the US and four in Canada. Besides production from two non-union operations, Goodyear is attempting to maintain its customer base with limited production from plants that are on strike, using management personnel and temporary workers.

Steelworkers, Goodyear Return to Bargaining in Six-week Tyre Strike

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The Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Namibia (MUN) ended a 13-day strike last Friday, 10 November, by 360 miners at the Kumba Resources&rsquo; Rosh Pinah zinc and lead mine in the south of the country. 
 
Miners won salary increases of 10% for workers in lower pay grades and 9% for those in higher grades. MUN General Secretary Joseph Hengari said miners also won a benefit of one month&rsquo;s salary when they resign or are retrenched. The collective agreement is for one year.
&ldquo;At first, the company refused to move from its salary position,&rdquo; said Hengari. &ldquo;So the final settlement is an improvement over what the company originally offered.&rdquo; South African-based Kumba had offered miners wage increases of 8% and 9%, while workers were seeking an across-the-board increase of 13%. 
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Besides a pay increase reflecting the high prices and demand for Rosh Pinah&rsquo;s major export, zinc concentrates, strikers were seeking better housing subsidies and relocation allowances. They were also seeking to bridge the parity gap that exists between Kumba&rsquo;s workers in South Africa and Namibia. 
 
Kumba is a Black Empowerment Enterprise of South Africa that was spun off from the global mining house, Anglo American. The company is currently undergoing a further split, separating some of its iron ore operations from base metal and coal operations. The latter, which will be called Exxaro Resources, will be the company that the Rosh Pinah operations will be part of. Anglo American will still control 19% of Exxaro. 
 
Rosh Pinah produces 70,000 tonnes of zinc concentrates annually, the majority of which is exported to South Africa for processing. It also produces 28,000 tonnes of lead. Kumba announced during the strike last week that a special &ldquo;unbundling dividend&rdquo; of the company will occur shortly, based on surplus cash after costs. 
 
The MUN also negotiated salary adjustments recently for some 100 uranium miners who had engaged in a two-day work stoppage at Roessing Uranium in late October. Roessing Uranium accounts for 7% of the world&rsquo;s uranium supply.

Kumba’s Namibian Mining Strike Ends in One-Year Agreement

The world&rsquo;s leading forest products company, Stora Enso of Finland, has discarded meaningful relations with its workforce and their workers&rsquo; representatives in order to impose job sackings in both Finland and France. That became evident last week as trade union events in Finland and Brussels protested the company&rsquo;s one-sided dictums over job cuts and paper machine shutdowns. 
 
Last week&rsquo;s stinging criticisms to Stora Enso&rsquo;s intractable position of restructuring-by-job-cuts comes a month after the company&rsquo;s disclosure that two paper mills in Germany and The Netherlands will close in 2007. Paperworkers in Reisholz, Germany, and Berghuizer, NL, had already been absorbed in a successful two-year restructuring project to cut costs and improve productivity, but Stora Enso issued a death warrant for the two mills in early October anyway. Nearly 700 jobs will be lost at those two operations. 
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Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen
ICEM Paper Sector Chairman and Finnish Paperiliitto Union President, Jouko Ahonen, expressed sharp denunciation of the company&rsquo;s &ldquo;lack of will&rdquo; to engage fairly with the company&rsquo;s workers and their representatives. Ahonen, speaking on behalf of himself, said&nbsp;the company&rsquo;s unwillingness to consider local branch recommendations to prevent job losses at the Varkaus Mill in Finland, as well as on the company&rsquo;s broken agreement to sell two paper machines at the Corbehem mill in France, so that an alternative business plan ensuring sustainable development could flourish. 
 
Ahonen prefaced his remarks by calling attention to a statement by Stora Enso CEO Jukka H&auml;rm&auml;l&auml;, made in reference to social dialogue with trade unions. H&auml;rm&auml;l&auml;, who will step down as CEO in March 2007, commented that if it was not possible to agree with workers or their representatives with a pistol pointing their way, then a shotgun might be needed. 
One does not think it possible to hear this kind of talk from an educated person in a leading position,&rdquo; said Ahonen. &ldquo;With this kind of attitude and behaviour, it is no wonder the company carries out its harsh agenda worldwide. But what has become of Stora&rsquo;s motto that &lsquo;Personnel is Our Most Important Resource?&rsquo;&rdquo; 
 
The Varkaus mill, a newsprint, printing papers and paperboard mill in central Finland, is a case in point. Stora sought job cuts totalling 25 of the mill&rsquo;s 800-member staff. Despite the local branch of Paperiliitto making proposals for considerable savings and for heightened efficiency in order to avoid the dismissals, the company refused the initiatives. 
 
The Varkaus union of Paperiliitto called the firings a breach by Stora of a joint report entitled &ldquo;Working Group on the Future of the Finnish Paper Industry.&rdquo; The report emphasizes trust, transparency, and a full and complete information exchange during restructurings when the jobs of personnel are at risk. Stora&rsquo;s decision to cut the 25 jobs anyway has resulted in the local branch declaring a moratorium on all cooperative efforts with the company. 
 
&ldquo;The local union branch and Paperiliitto were ready to agree on equivalent cost savings,&rdquo; stated Ahonen. &ldquo;And the company has constantly stressed the importance of such costs savings. But the reality is this company&rsquo;s only aim is dismissals, and I feel this is to create an atmosphere of fear. This kind of style cannot be in the best interests of the company, and the owners of the company should be paying attention.&rdquo; 
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One of those owners is the Finnish state, which holds 12% of Stora Enso&rsquo;s shares. Ahonen and Paperiliitto representatives have met several times with Parliamentarians and government officials on Stora Enso&rsquo;s anti-people, anti-worker policies. 
 
On 7 November, the same day that the Varkaus branch union declared the cooperation moratorium, another group of workers&rsquo; representatives was meeting in Brussels with a high-level member of the Finnish Finance Ministry, Pertti Rauhio, with the same message. This meeting involved Stora&rsquo;s anti-people position at the Corbehem mill in northern France. While dozens of French and Belgian trade unionists rallied outside the EU&rsquo;s Parliament, representatives of French unions FCE-CFDT and Filpac-CGT met inside, along with European-level trade union organisations, to tell of Stora&rsquo;s bad-faith decision at the French paper mill. 
 
Following the closure of two paper machines there last summer, Stora entered into an agreement to sell the machines to a French start-up company called Green Recovery, and a workers&rsquo; association called les G&eacute;ants de Papier Solidaires (LGPS). The enterprise delivered a business plan, backed by the French government, which called for reopening of one machine last month, which would make lightweight coated papers, while the other would restart in 2007. The business plan envisioned paper for degradable, fibre bags to replace plastic sacks, which are coming under an increasing level of public scrutiny for being environmentally unsound. 
 
Running of the two machines would have ensured 280 of the mill&rsquo;s 500 jobs. 
 
Instead, Stora suddenly reneged on the agreement, preferring to keep the machines down to keep paper capacity off the market. 
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&ldquo;The paper sector, perhaps more so than any other industrial sector, needs sustained operational development and long-term planning,&rdquo; said Ahonen. &ldquo;Stora Enso is only concerned with &lsquo;quarterly-returns&rsquo; thinking. Even while talking profitability, the company would rather close mills and lose money rather than sell assets to get money.&rdquo; 
 
Ahonen expressed deep concern for Stora&rsquo;s abandonment of the Finnish social model in the situations occurring at Corbehem, at the German Reisolz mill, and the Dutch Berghuizer mill. 
 
&ldquo;Shutting mills and machines is always catastrophic, irrespective of where it happens,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It shakes the very foundation of life for thousands of people. We are truly ashamed of the irresponsible behaviour of Stora Enso&rsquo;s Finnish management.&rdquo; 
 
Corbehem paperworkers, behind their French trade unions, have vehemently lodged several public protests to Stora Enso reneging on the sale of the paper machines. Workers demonstrated in front of both Finnish and Swedish embassies in Paris (Stora Enso is a 1990s merger of two Finnish and Swedish paper concerns), and they began industrial action that blocked production from the company&rsquo;s third machine at Corbehem. 
 
Stora Enso&rsquo;s current policy of short-term market conditions first, human concerns last is best depicted in an analysis on the closing of the Berghuizer mill near Zwolle in northern Holland. Finnish management commended workers and Dutch managers for cutting fixed costs and for creating strong results through a quality programme. But European overcapacity and pricing in printing and writing papers meant the mill must be shut, Finnish managers said. 
 
They told Berghuizer workers that the company would not consider selling the mill. Stora Enso justified this position by stating that any third party buying the mill would face the same economic problems. 
 
Ahonen believes that Stora&rsquo;s business-first mentality should not be exclusive of the merits gained in running a set of business units humanely. &ldquo;The key to being competitive in the marketplace is with a skilled, professional, and motivated staff,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And the motivation part of this equation is highly affected by the way in which personnel are treated.&rdquo;

Stora Enso Ignores Honest Social Dialogue in European Cutbacks

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The Peruvian government has stipulated a wage and bonus, thus ending a strike by a union of FNTMMSP, ICEM&rsquo;s mining and metals affiliate in Peru. The nine-day shut down of the country&rsquo;s only iron ore operation forced the government to impose terms on Shougang Hierro Peru SA, which is wholly-owned by the Chinese government through its Shoulda Iron and Steel Group. 
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The government ordered a pay increase of more than half of what the union was seeking, and also imposed a one-time bonus. Shoungang&rsquo;s 800 miners had earned about US$13-per-day, while the average mining wage in Peru is $33-per-day. The imposed settlement for this year amounts to an 8% salary increase, and a bonus payment that exceeds US$300. 
 
The Chinese state-run company argued during talks that free water and electricity provided to iron ore miners offset the difference in pay schemes with other mining companies operating in Peru. Under Peru&rsquo;s labour law, the regional labour agency can intervene once a work stoppage has been declared legal. The strike lasted from 19-28 June.

Peru’s Government Imposes Wage Deal to Settle Iron Ore Strike

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An eight-week long mining and copper smelting dispute in Poland that included a 28 June threat to strike was resolved last week. Managers of state-owned KGHM Polska Miedz SA, a giant copper and silver conglomerate, agreed to a performance-based bonus plan tied to the company&rsquo;s handsome profits for the first five months of 2006. 
 
Direct pressure on Polish ministry officials, as well on as the enterprise&rsquo;s supervisory board, produced the bonus, which came close to the month&rsquo;s salary that unions operating inside KGHM companies were seeking. The nine unions, all operating under the umbrella Trade Union of Copper Industry Employees (ZZPPM), together with a smaller grouping, ZZPP, won a bonus of 90% of the average monthly salary for the 17,000 KGHM workers. The bonus will be awarded this month. 
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The unions held a joint industrial action meeting and referendum from 28-30 June, which included a 95% strike vote, and on 30 June, thousands of KGHM workers took to the streets with an angry protest march on Poland&rsquo;s Finance Ministry. ZZPPM and ZZPP demands also include a tightening of the political turn-over plaguing KGHM&rsquo;s supervisory board, a fact playing a negative influence on the company&rsquo;s performance. The unions are also seeking more funds for the company&rsquo;s social fund. 
 
KGHM has benefited from high prices of copper on the international market, and saw a net earnings result of &euro;370.5 million for the first five months of 2006. 
 
Coal miners in Poland, represented by ICEM affiliate Miners&rsquo; and Energy Workers Union of Solidarnosc, among other unions, also won a bonus award in late May. That payout was based on 2005 profits from a number of state-owned coal companies, including Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa, Kompania Weglowa, and Katowicki Holding Weglowy. Part of the government&rsquo;s deal in awarding the bonus is to establish uniform collective agreements in Poland&rsquo;s hard coal sector.

Polish Copper Workers Win Bonuses Based on State Company’s Profits

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