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A despicable act of exploitation involving contract labour is in progress at a plastics factory in Australia. Ownership of Kemalex Plastics has caused a strike by a migrant workforce of women who are being threatened with firing and then rehired as contract laborers. Represented by ICEM affiliate National Union of Workers, the 55 strikers are resisting a move that would make them all independent contractors, thus stripping them of job security, sick leave and holiday pay. It would also force them pay their own superannuation. 
The employer, a maker of plastic components for the automotive industry, has attempted to intimidate strikers by sending hooded motorcyclists through picket lines. The women are paid just over minimum wage, and are seeking a 15% pay increase and a redundancy package of three weeks pay per year of service. The factory is in Dandenong in the greater Melbourne area.

Contract Labour Exploitation Causes Australian Strike

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Tripartite dialogue to achieve equal pay and rights for contract and agency laborers in South Korea has failed for the moment. The Non- Regular Workers’ Protection Act before the country’s National Assembly has been postponed until a second extraordinary session occurs in June. 
The leaders of the two main national labour centers, KCTU and FKTU, ended their 12-day hunger strikes 3 May, and jointly stated: “We deeply apologize to the non-regular workers who are suffering from various types of discrimination and employment instability, for failing to establish a law to protect them.” The labour unions are seeking a legislated restriction on the usage period of such workers, a guarantee of employment stability after expiration of the term, and equal pay for equal work. It is estimated that some eight million non-regular workers are employed in the different Korean industrial sectors.

Non-regular Workers Bill in Korea Fails to Reach Common Ground

UK affiliate Transport & General Workers’ Union suspended industrial action against Michelin 2 March for seven days after the company determined it could do better on a pay offer. Action was to begin 4 March at a tyre plant in Stoke, Midlands, and 400 T&G members were set to begin a ban on overtime, forego any cooperative efforts with management, and start a work-to-rule campaign inside the factory. On that day, French unions at Michelin were to stage a manifestation at Michelin’s Paris headquarters in support of the UK union, while the Stoke workforce planned a mass protest at their factory. Industrial action will commence 11 March if Michelin does not improve on a non-consolidated offer of £650 or 3%, meaning the pay hike would not count towards the formula for pensions and other benefits.

Michelin Returns to UK Bargaining Table to Avoid Industrial Action

UK’s BPB Paperboard announced suddenly 3 March that it was closing a plasterboard liner-paper mill in Aberdeen, Scotland, throwing 276 workers out of jobs. The announcement of the closure, to occur in June, brought sharp rebuke from ICEM affiliate Amicus. The UK union’s Graphical, Paper and Media Section recently went through a 90-day consultation period with paper mill management of the building materials company, and no mention of the closure occurred. “The decision to close had evidently been made well before the formal consultative period started,” said Amicus’ Scottish Branch Secretary Jimmy Robertson.

Amicus in UK Resists Paper Mill Closure

German affiliate IGBCE used an innovative collective bargaining agreement with BASF to win 500 jobs for Berlin. The jobs and a new worksite, to be created late 2005 when BASF centralizes its financial, accounting and human resources into a shared service center, were possible after IGBCE proposed a forward-looking plan to the German chemicals producer, which had been considering many different sites. IGBCE President Hubertus Schmoldt said the social partnership the union has with BASF doesn’t just exist on paper, but has evolved into lateral thinking on how the two parties do things. The new service center “benefits everybody concerned: the people who find work (at the Berlin site), the company that can run a cost-effective business operation, and it is an important testimony to Germany’s industrial competitiveness,” said Schmoldt.

IGBCE in Germany Achieves Innovation Agreement with BASF

Frank Hanley, president of US affiliate International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) since 1989, retired effective 1 March. Secretary-Treasurer Vincent Giblin will serve the remainder of Hanley’s term to April 2008.

Operating Engineers President In US Retires

Nepal’s national labour centers GEFONT and NTUC, along with ICEM affiliates, had received permission from the district administrator to conduct silent commemorations on International Women’s Day, 8 March. Banners and placards declaring support for gender equality in the workplace and in society were to be displayed by hundreds of trade union activists in Katmandu and in towns and cities across Nepal. But late the night of 7 March, security forces cancelled the permit and intermittent demonstrations the next day were met by baton-charging riot police. Some 226 arrested.

Nepal Cancels International Women’s Day Celebrations

In Brazil, the chemical workers union FEQUIMFAR in Sao Paulo, affiliated with CUT, won a reduction in weekly work time from 44 to 42 hours. The agreement was signed 8 March with pharmaceutical and other companies, and also includes a 2% increase in real wage terms for workers in chemicals, plastics, cosmetics, fertilizers and other industries. “This is the first step toward a 40-hour week, which is our goal for all workers in all industries,” declared FEQUIMFAR President Danilo Pereiro.

Chemical Workers in Brazil Win Gains Through Union

ICEM affiliate General Workers’ Union of Malta is protesting that government’s introduction of legislation aimed at eliminating all public holidays that fall on weekends. This means workers—if the bill is passed as an amendment to Legislation on Public Holidays—will not get an additional leave day for holidays occurring on weekend days, as mandated in Malta’s Industrial and Employments Relations Act. In 2005, if passed, workers will lose three holidays, including the 1 May holiday and Christmas Day.

Maltese Union Protests Government’s Public Holiday Elimination

Forest Industries Federation of Finland has provoked an industrial dispute with paperworkers represented by affiliate Paperiliitto. Since late in 2004 when the employers’ federation dropped from the national incomes policy agreement, it has engaged in a consistent pattern of intentionally not coming to any deal with the union. The foot-dragging has caused Paperiliitto to issue an overtime ban, which began 30 March. The union represents 29,000 paperworkers in the sector. Paperiliitto has charged employers with breaking a “principle on equality” commitment in negotiations.

Finnish Paper Employers Provoke Industrial Dispute

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