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Italy&rsquo;s three major unions came together on 23 April for an eight-hour strike against Pfizer pharmaceutical. The unions protested Pfizer&rsquo;s destructive job losses at a time in which the US-based company is posting record earnings. 
 
Italian unions FILCEM-CGIL, FEMCA-CISL, and UILCEM-UIL rallied 2,400 workers at a manifestation in Rome at the offices of the Labour Ministry and the Economic Development Ministry. 
Inside a mass worldwide restructuring plan, Pfizer has targeted the sacking of 440 research and development staff in Italy, as well as curtailment of antibiotic production in Varese, Italy. The unions also object to the February sale of a business in Nerviano, and cite some 2,200 staff that have been discharged since 2003. 
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Workers at the Rome manifestation included staff from four Pfizer worksites &ndash; Latina, Ascoli, Pisticci, and Nerviano &ndash; which are affected under the giant drug-maker&rsquo;s restructuring plan. 
 
Pfizer earlier this year announced that 10,000 jobs would be cut worldwide. The company announced this in the face of quarterly profit returns of US$9.45 billion. Pfizer cited competition from generic drug-makers as a reason for the 2007 restructuring.

Italian Unions Protest Pfizer’s Cuts in Rome

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Spanish and Portuguese workers of Compagnie Saint-Gobain will join French workers in strike action on 11 May, as called by four unions at all French plants of the major global glass and materials producer. 
 
The strike has the united support of the CGT, CFDT, FO, and CFTC, and the four unions have called 60,000 Saint-Gobain workers to strike in protest to the Paris-based company&rsquo;s industrial decisions. 
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Central among issues is Saint-Gobain&rsquo;s uncertainty over its Desjonqu&egrave;res glass business. Saint-Gobain is exploring either a sale or a spin-off of this business. 
 
The workers&rsquo; representatives in France, which called for the 11 May action, say the company has made strategic choices that have adversely affected employment. They cite the acquisition of British Plasterboard as one example of a non-strategic business decision. 
 
Trade union representatives from France met with Spanish and Portuguese glass-union leaders in Lisbon on 17 April to plan next week&rsquo;s action. 
 
The one-hour strike this coming Friday is just another in a series of escalating protests to Paris managers of Saint-Gobain. In February, the four unions already brought hundreds of workers from four factories to a manifestation outside the company&rsquo;s headquarters at La D&eacute;fense near Paris. 
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Saint-Gobain workers demonstrating early 2007
Saint-Gobain faces labour turmoil in other sectors in France as well. On 6 March, 100 workers took strike action at an abrasives factory in Nazelles-N&eacute;gron. The CGT called that strike over stalled wage negotiations. Another recent strike at a Saint-Gobain plant in Ch&acirc;teaubernard tells the level of discontent inside the company. A spontaneous monetary collection by workers at another operation netted &euro;7,788 for the Ch&acirc;teaubernard strikers.

French Workers to Strike Saint-Gobain 11 May in Three Countries

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More than 300 rubber workers mobilised to direct action recently in Callao, Argentina, seeking a negotiated settlement already agreed to with major rubber companies. The workers marched to the office of the Work Ministry behind the banner of ICEM affiliate Sindicato Unico Trabajores del Neum&aacute;tico Argentina (SUTNA), demanding the negotiated package that is already in place at the major tyre producers, Bridgestone, Pirelli, and FATE. 
 
The labour dispute is currently before a government conciliation process. 
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Earlier this year, SUTNA won 38% wage increases for 4,000 workers at the major firms. SUTNA Gen. Sec. Pedro Wasiejko also has pledged that, in this round of national rubber bargaining, no worker would earn less than 2,741 pesos (&euro; 600) per month. 
 
The 300 rubber workers in Callao have placed this minimum monthly salary demand as a priority. They also seek the pay packages earned at the tyre factories. 
 
Wasiejko said that across the entire Argentine rubber sector, labour costs are but a small fraction of total production costs. According to the Argentine labour leader, rubber companies can afford the pay raises. Such labour cost increases will not affect the customer or the consumer.

Rubber Workers Take Action in Argentina to Achieve Pattern Agreement

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As an election nears for workers at the Firestone Rubber Plantation in Harbel, Liberia, violence broke out during a three-day strike. Riot police stormed a picket line on 27 April, clubbing and tear gassing strikers. Some two-dozen workers were hospitalised, at least two seriously. 
 
The police violence came one month before some 6,000 agriculture workers will vote on their choice of union representative. An insurgent union, called the Firestone Agriculture Workers Union (FAWU), has strong support among workers tapping rubber at this million-acre rubber plantation owned by Bridgestone Corporation of Japan. 
 
The FAWU succeeded on 9 April in getting Liberia&rsquo;s Labor Ministry to conduct the election against the General Agriculture and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union (GAAWUL), the recognised union that FAWU activists accuse of malfeasance and providing little or no representation. 
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The police force, which included electric shocks from batons, occurred after strikers had questioned contract workers who were unloading rubber from trucks. The three-day strike was nearing an end at the time, with Firestone managers and workers nearly in agreement on issues related to the strike. 
 
Government and local officials denied calling out the police, and indications are that Firestone Rubber Plantation managers called for the forceful police raid. NGO and trade unions, who have been monitoring the longstanding trouble surrounding this rubber plantation, videotaped some of this police violence. 
 
While plantation workers count down to a union election, scheduled by the government for the last week of May, Bridgestone is defending itself in a US court against charges of longstanding child labour practices, other slave-like employment practices, and environmental degradation at the Firestone plantation. The Alien Tort Claims Act lawsuit in a US federal courtroom has been brought by the International Labor Rights Fund and 35 plaintiffs, including ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers.

Police Beat Insurgent Unionists at Firestone Rubber Plantation in Liberia

ICEM Belgian affiliate la Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale FGTB held its Congress in Blankenberge 17-20 November with a theme entitled &ldquo;Delegates Without Borders for More Social Justice.&rdquo; The theme was a call to union activists to go beyond the &ldquo;borders&rdquo; of enterprises and conduct union work on international and European levels. The Congress debated global and European issues with emphasis on creating trade union networks. The Congress also marked the retirement of five members of FGTB&rsquo;s Federal Secretariat with Alain Clauwaert elected new President and Jacques Michiels as General Secretary. Other members of the Secretariat include Werner Van Heetvelde, Paul Lootens, Rik Desmet, Bruno Bachely, Herman Baele and Eric Neuprez.

Belgian Affiliate la Centrale Generale FGTB Holds Congress

ICEM sectoral conferences on Mining and on Diamonds, Gems, Ornaments &amp; Jewellery production are being held this week in Benoni, South Africa. The Diamonds/Gems conference is being held today with 130 global trade unionists attending. A joint session of the two sectors will be held tomorrow with the Mining Conference and its 190 registrants meeting on 24-25 November. The conference will develop a four-year ICEM work plan on Mining.

ICEM’s Mining, Diamonds and Gems Sectors to Merge

ICEM affiliate Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) won a round against global paper and packaging firm Visy Industries when the firm backed off forcing single-site labour agreements at 13 of its corrugated packaging plants in Australia. Visy had offered workers A$1,000 cash payment to accept the stand-alone labour agreements, but AMWU unity and resistance defeated the measure. The two sides agreed on a three-year, 14.25% wage hike covering some 600 paper-converting workers that preserves a system-wide agreement.

AMWU Wins Master Contract for Paperworkers in Australia

US affiliate United Steelworkers of America (USWA) and Bridgestone/Firestone will return to negotiations 16-17 November in St. Louis, Missouri, after a yearlong recess. The union halted talks in November 2003 and instead reached agreements with other global tyremakers in the US and Canada. USWA represents 5,000 rubber workers at seven Bridgestone/Firestone factories in the US.

Bridgestone and USWA Return to Bargaining Table in US

Brazilian affiliate FUB-CNQ will conclude voting on a new collective agreement with state-run Petrobras tomorrow, thus preventing unions from striking operations of the oil and gas major by 40,000 workers. Workers stand ready to approve a 12.1% pay hike plus additional benefits for retired workers. Petrobras will also create a special body to study workers&rsquo; retirement plans.

Oil Union in Brazil Gains Deal with Petrobras

The ICEM is central to global protests against the Colombian government&rsquo;s expulsion of four international trade unionists on 31 October. ICEM, along with representatives from the Textile, Education and Journalists GUFs, as well as ICFTU and Human Rights activists, met with Colombian Ambassador to Belgium Nicol&aacute;s Echavarr&iacute;a on 5 November in Brussels over the expulsions. Colombia has officially apologized for the trade union breaches, blaming the incident on immigration officials and &ldquo;erroneous interpretation&rdquo; of decrees. The four were due to attend a regional trade union coordination meeting. About the same time, union leaders from the UK, Ireland and Spain who were in Colombia at a women&rsquo;s trade union meeting had their 60-day visas cancelled and were permitted inside the country for only three days.

ICEM Protests Expulsions of Trade Unionists to Colombia

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