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The strike by 350 members of Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Local 28 of Canada continues against chemicals producer Invista in Ontario. Workers rejected a negotiated settlement on 19 September due to a regressive back-to-work proposal presented by Invista, a subsidiary of privately-held and US-based Koch Industries. 
The proposed back-to-work protocol called for any worker not recalled within 12 days of the strike&rsquo;s ending to be considered laid off. This would remove seniority and bumping rights under the contract, giving the company motivation to impose job cuts. The strike began on 4 June.

CEP Members in Canada Reject Invista Contract

And USW&rsquo;s Gulf Coast hurricane relief fund got another US$50,000 boost when the union announced it would inject that amount to victims of Hurricane Rita. The USW originally placed US$50,000 into a fund immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck in late August, and that was matched by $50,000 from USW-Canada&rsquo;s Humanity Fund. The $150,000 has swelled to over $300,000 due to contributions from USW members, local branch unions, and others.

USW Hikes Hurricane Relief Fund in US

US affiliate United Steel Workers (USW) will exert language in its collective agreement with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. to ensure that 2,250 union members at Goodyear&rsquo;s engineered products plants are protected in the event of a sale at any of the seven plants. Goodyear announced two weeks ago that it is exploring such a sale, and the company has acknowledged its contractual commitment with the USW. Under terms of &ldquo;successorship&rdquo; negotiated in 2004, USW must reach agreement with any new enterprise before a Goodyear plant is sold. &ldquo;While the prospect of change always breeds anxiety for workers in these types of scenarios, our members need to know that they will be vigorously represented in the course of any possible transactions,&rdquo; stated USW Executive Vice President Ron Hoover.

Goodyear Spinoffs Will Remain Under Contract with USW

German ICEM affiliate IGBCE will hold its Congress 9-14 October in Hannover with 391 delegates taking on 150 resolutions under the banner &ldquo;Strong Enough for New Paths.&rdquo; The Congress will include some 1,100 guests, and one motion to be considered will be the challenges to trade union cooperation in the greater EU economy and globalisation. IGBCE President Hubertus Schmoldt called recent German elections a mandate against radical reforms to labour law and bargaining regulations, issues brought forth by both the CDU/CSU and neo-liberals. Schmoldt said in a newspaper interview that Germany needs new concepts for it&rsquo;s energy market, as well as creation of better terms and conditions for employment in high-tech workplaces.

German Affiliate IGBCE to Hold Congress

ICEM NZ affiliate National Distribution Union (NDU) has elected Laila Harre as national secretary. Harre, an industrial relations attorney who served as former Alliance Party leader in Parliament, had been head of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation. Last year, she won a NZ$380 million pay equity package for the country&rsquo;s nurses, believed to be the largest pay package in public sector history. She has served in ministerial posts for Youth and Women&rsquo;s Affairs, Statistics, and was Associate Minister of Labour. She is credited for winning paid parental leave for working mothers.

NDU in New Zealand Elects Laila Harre National Secretary

A start-up gold mining project in Ghana turned to violence on 2 September when three persons were injured by police gunfire. Police were attempting to disperse an angry group of workers who lost their jobs following Newmont Ghana Gold Mining Ltd.&rsquo;s construction of mine milling plants. The workers along with persons from the town of Yamfo, Northern Brong Ahafo, had blocked a street that prevented Newmont&rsquo;s buses from carrying workers to jobsites. Newmont, 100% owned by Newmont Mining Corp. of the US, the world&rsquo;s leading gold miner, purchased a tract of Ghana&rsquo;s Sefwi gold belt early this decade, and is expected to commence production in 2006 from two sites in northern Ghana of stated gold reserves totaling 16.5 million ounces. The company established a hiring procedure for all new jobs but when existing workers from the construction phase did not immediately re-apply, Newmont closed off the recruitment process and hired new workers.

Violence at Newmont Mining&#039;s Start-up Project in Ghana

ICEM Jordanian affiliate General Trade Union of Workers in Mining and Metal Industries has promised to strike if their demands are not met for deeds to 100 housing units built near the Shidiyeh Mines in Maan, Jordan. The union is demanding the housing be turned over to miners and their families, as promised by King Abdullah, before Jordan Phosphate Mines Co. (JPMC) is privatised, which is expected by the end of the year. The Jordanian trade union, protecting the rights of the 1,350 JPMC workers, warned it will stand firm on the housing rights issue as a precursor against curtailment of any set of rights or workers&rsquo; benefits once the company is privatised.

Jordanian Affiliate Demands Housing for Miners

New Zealand&rsquo;s unions will embark on a third round of stop-work actions at Carter Holt Harvey&rsquo;s (CHH) wood and paper operations starting tomorrow. ICEM affiliates Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and the National Distribution Union are protesting the company&rsquo;s inferior pay offers of 2.8% to 4%. NZ unions have set a minimum pattern of 5% across all sectors. On 12 September, workers at five CHH wood products plants and one paper converting operation engaged in one-day strikes, and subsequent rolling work stoppages occurred at other jobsites. Workers at one of the company&rsquo;s pulp and paper mills&mdash;Kinleith&mdash;are also protesting a poor pay offer. A set of three-day talks between CHH and EPMU there concluded on 2 September with the company offering only 4% and less for some job classifications. The labour unrest comes when the 50.5% majority stakeholder of CHH, US based International Paper Co., has received a US$1.5 billion sale offer for sale to NZ&rsquo;s richest individual, Graeme Hart and his Rank Group Investment Ltd. CHH&rsquo;s board of directors, however, has recommended shareholders vote down the offer, saying it is 9.1% under the company&rsquo;s true market value.

Carter Holt Harvey Targeted over Wage Deficiencies

The ICEM took a major stride in its long-term and unprecedented campaign to curb Contract and Agency Labour in global workplaces with a major conference in Brussels on 15-16 September. The conference was attended by 120 trade union leaders from 41 countries. 
 
It marked the second such conference by the 20-million-member ICEM, the leading Global Union Federation for the energy, mining, chemical and processed industries' sectors. An initial working conference in September 2004 developed a set of strategies, including the right by trade unions to consultation, negotiation and, ultimately, agreement prior to any primary employer engaging a commercial contract that affects the status or working conditions of permanent employers. 
<img height="69" src="" width="80" alt="" />
The 15-16 September conference drew marked differences over the effect Contract and Agency Labour brings to permanent employment in various parts of the world. For example, while trade unions in developed countries of the west have faced the issue for some time, unions in Eastern and Central Europe, as well as Central Asia have not encountered such rampant use. 
 
But delegates from those countries openly recognise that rapid globalisation, privatisation and economic transformation possibly will soon follow the trend of using non-permanent employment and contract labour in developing regions. Trade union leaders attending from those regions stressed the importance of establishing legal guidelines and regulations on contract and agency labour at national levels in preparation of employers choosing against structured, long-term employment that sustains communities. 
 
Another of the ICEM strategies adopted from last year is to take the campaign to global standard-setting bodies. Leaders of ICEM affiliates on 16 September heard from Vladislav Egorov, a senior labour law specialist of the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) Social Dialogue, Labour Law and Labour Administration Department. Egorov outlined the last attempt at an ILO Recommendation or Convention on the employment relationship in 1997-98. That effort failed when the Conference failed to agree on basic terminology of the employment relationship. 
 
&quot;There is no question that labour legislation is lagging behind labour market changes in this area,&quot; stated Egorov. Another speaker was Veronica Nilsson of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The ICEM's agenda also includes lobbying the OECD for a guideline on contract and agency labour. 
 
The conference examined case examples of where the issue is a current flashpoint. In Korea, legislation entitled an &quot;Act on Protection of Fixed-term and Part-time Employees&quot; and a revision of a law on &quot;Protection of Dispatched or Agency Workers&quot; is now before the National Assembly. But Young-sam Park of ICEM affiliate Korean Chemical and Textile Workers' Federation said the proposed legislation does not &quot;protect&quot; such workers, but rather grants employers more extended use of contract workers and agency labour. 
 
Juha Koivisto of Finnish affiliate Paperiliitto told delegates how the issue was central among issues in the May-June lockout of 25,000 paperworkers in the Nordic country, and how the union defeated the proposal by the paper employers' association that would have left up to one-quarter of that number victimized by contractors. 
 
Delegates to the conference also heard about a situation at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. factory in Bangkok in which the American company's use of long-term contract workers has been challenged in court by the Tyre Makers' Union of affiliate Petroleum and Chemical Unions' Federation of Thailand. The case is precedent-setting in Thai labour law in terms of whether or not contract workers can unionise. ICEM delegates passed a resolution supportive of the union and calling on Goodyear to recognise contract workers as part of the in-plant union, and to ensure that their full rights, pay and benefits are met accordingly.

ICEM Focused on Contract Labour Campaign Following Conference

On the 100th day of a bitter strike by Belgian unions at a glass factory in Fleurus, the 20-million-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) has demanded that the Japanese parent company reverse course and seek a just solution. The strike at Asahi Glass Company&rsquo;s Glaverbel auto-glass plant began in December and is over an unreasonable restructuring plan that would sack nearly a third of the plant&rsquo;s 800-member workforce. 
 
Several unions are striking the plant, AGC Automotive Fleurus, including major ICEM Belgian affiliate La Centrale Generale FGTB (CG-FGTB), whose shop-floor leaders have specifically been singled out for redundancy. A vast majority of workers in the plant hold CG-FGTB membership. 
 
In a letter sent yesterday to Masahiro Kadomatsu, president and CEO of the world&rsquo;s second largest glass maker, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs stated: &ldquo;Your company&rsquo;s European management unilaterally announced this restructuring without consultation or dialogue with representative trade unions in Fleurus, against the European labour relations culture. 
 
&ldquo;What is worse, management has turned vindictive and ruthless toward legitimate trade union delegates by discrediting their efforts to reach a compromise on this matter, and even targeting them for redundancy (blacklisting).&rdquo; 
 
Higgs said he was appalled to learn that Glaverbel managers openly and publicly described these sackings as &ldquo;blacklisting.&rdquo; Of 18 elected trade union representatives in the plant, ten CG-FGTB delegates have been singled out for redundancy. Managers have applied selective criteria for the job cuts without conducting dialogue with the unions. 
 
The restructuring would cut 260 jobs, close one whole production line at the factory, force a flexibility plan in which agency labour would be used rather than full-time workers, and rationalize both production and maintenance workers. 
 
Because of the strike and a cumulative vote last week by members of all unions to again reject the harsh terms of the restructuring, Japanese executives did order European management to resume negotiations but with specific instructions not to move from Asahi&rsquo;s announced plans. Management and the unions were given one week to reach a settlement, or face eventual shutdown of the entire plant. That deadline expires tomorrow. 
 
Higgs said in his letter to Kadomatsu: &ldquo;I must stress that this dispute, and your company&rsquo;s clear anti-union actions will result in both serious political and industrial escalation in opposition to your actions.&rdquo; 
 
If Asahi makes no movement in the final days of its self-imposed deadline, the ICEM will call on affiliated unions worldwide to take direct action against all subsidiaries of the Japanese company, as well as to bring the dispute before automotive unions in the metal working industry for their action.

ICEM Makes Demands of Japanese Glass Firm at Belgian Plant

Archive

CEP Members in Canada Reject Invista Contract

USW Hikes Hurricane Relief Fund in US

Goodyear Spinoffs Will Remain Under Contract with USW

German Affiliate IGBCE to Hold Congress

NDU in New Zealand Elects Laila Harre National Secretary

Violence at Newmont Mining's Start-up Project in Ghana

Jordanian Affiliate Demands Housing for Miners

Carter Holt Harvey Targeted over Wage Deficiencies

ICEM Focused on Contract Labour Campaign Following Conference

ICEM Makes Demands of Japanese Glass Firm at Belgian Plant

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