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 2021-2025

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

Logos of IndustriALL Global Union

Press

<img height="39" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100"/>
Errol McLeod, the former head of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) of Trinidad and Tobago, was named Minister of Labour on Friday, 28 May, by newly-elected Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the first woman to ever lead the twin island republic in the Caribbean. 
 
McLeod, also a former ICEM Executive Committee member, will head a Cabinet ministry entitled Labour, Small, and Macro Enterprise Development. He retired as President of OWTU a year ago after 21 years as leader of one of the world’s most militant trade unions. 
 
The newly-founded Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) political party, which counted McLeod as a candidate for elections to Parliament a week ago, is part of a multi-party coalition called the People’s Partnership that elected Persad-Bissessar and won 29 of 41 seats in Parliament on 24 May. 

<img height="167" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/TrinindadOWTU.jpg" width="180"/>
Those elections proved a crushing defeat to former Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his People’s National Movement party. 
 
McLeod came on the political scene as a strong and charismatic leader of workers in the early 1980s when he founded the Committee for Labour Solidarity in Trinidad and Tobago. Even prior, his confident demeanor and apt leadership were apparent in the 1960s when he first worked at the former Texaco refinery in Pointe-à-Pierre. That complex is now part of state-owned Petrotrin and sits at the vanguard of workers’ militancy in Trinidad and Tobago. 
 
McLeod’s fearless, honest, and tactful leadership over 30 years won working class gains for tens of thousands not just in his home country, but all across the Caribbean and the Commonwealth nations. 
 
“The entire family of ICEM trade unions extends its hearty congratulations to Errol,” stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “His great number of achievements on behalf of workers bodes well for all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago and we truly look forward to working again with him.”

Errol McLeod Named Labour Minister in Trinidad and Tobago

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The Workers’ Network of Bayer meeting, held 6-7 May at the Hotel Terras Altas in Itapecerica da Serra, São Paulo, was supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) of Germany and was attended by workers, members of factory committees, and managers from Bayer plants in Brazil and Argentina. This eighth meeting was also attended by representatives by CNQ/CUT, the National Confederation of Chemical Industry, the Social Observatory Institute, CUT’s Multi Action on Multinationals Project from the Brazilian national labour centre’s International Relations Secretariat. 
 
The participation of comrades from the pharmacists' union in Argentina stimulated the discussion on the regional expansion of the network and also allowed a better understanding of the reality of Bayer employees in that country. The Argentine trade unionists spoke on collective agreements, benefits, restructuring and acquisitions in the region, and on relations between business, workers, and unions. 
 
According to CNQ International Relations Secretary Antenor Nakamura, the network must engage in regional expansion, but in order to do that it has to consider the differences in trade union structures in the region. According to Eder Correa, manager of labor relations at Bayer in Brazil, the company acknowledges the Brazilian network, but emphasized that the Brazilian structure cannot interfere in Bayer’s positions in other countries. "We can’t guarantee recognition of the network in other regions, but we can make a strategic disclosure of the dialogue practices," he said. 
The impact of nanotechnology for workers was another topic discussed during this eighth meeting. The coordinator of the research institute Renanossoma, Dr. Paulo Martins, introduced the theme and spoke about the lack of regulation for products made with nano particles and the lack of research investment and that impact on processes. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.bayer.jpg" width="227" height="180" alt=""/>
"Nanotechnology allows the creation of new products, but we still do not know if they are safe. The social, environmental, and ethical concerns should be taken into consideration," he stated. 
 
During the two-day meeting, workers and Bayer managers covered topics such as fundamental rights at work, moral harassment in the corporate world, control system of working hours, incorporation of benefits, dissemination of social dialogue in all areas of the company, newsletters, and the functioning and structure of the network. The next meeting of workers network at Bayer will be held in April 2011. 
 
At the social dialogue forum, Bayer representatives were present during the whole meeting and discussed all themes proposed by workers. They presented an overview of the business in the country and its prospects for the future. The President of Bayer Brazil, Dr. Horstfried Laepple, stressed the importance of transparency in dialogue with workers, unions, and factory committees. In his institutional presentation, Laepple spoke about the positive results of the company in 2009 in Brazil, with R$3.8 billion in sales, about the possibility of business expansion, and also the positive projections for 2010. That includes investment of R$180 million in technology upgrades and amplification of plants. 
 
The company also presented the project Hamonia, a people management tool that uses the methodology of skills. The tool has recently been installed in its plant in Belford Roxo, in order to align human resource practices between the two businesses in that plant and set career tracks, as well as giving more transparency to the criteria for evaluation, promotion, and remuneration. The theme of "Jobs and Wages," discussed by the Bayer Workers’ Network until 2008, was one of the instigators to this project. 
 
The signing of a term that will deal with Bayer's commitment to adopt and respect the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in the restructuring theme should be discussed by company and workers network in the future.

Bayer Workers’ Network Seeks Regional Expansion Across Latin America 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Started in 2009 with the support of the Dutch national labour centre FNV, ICEM’s Organising and Social Dialogue Project continued its seminars in Turkey last month. Regional seminars involving local union officials and militants in April were held in Thrace and Gebze, both areas considered to be emerging industrial zones that surround Istanbul. 
 
There are a number of multinational companies within ICEM sectors in both cities, some of which are organised by ICEM-affiliated trade unions. There are also a number of organsing efforts by the unions. 
 
With the overall objective to build Turkish trade union ability to recruit new members, as well as to discuss the establishment of a base to create a functioning industrial relations system, prioritizing human and trade union rights, and to promote healthy social dialogue, the seminar in Thrace was attended by 64 local trade union leaders, shop stewards, and militants from ICEM-affiliated unions, while those attending in Gebze numbered 68. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.thrace.JPG" width="321" height="157"/>
Participants at the Thrace, Turkey, workshop 
The Thrace seminar welcomed several international trade union leaders from the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Spain. Celil Çoban and Mail Ürker of FNV Bondgenoten in the Netherlands, Sylvain Lefebvre and Jacques Caltot of French FCE-CFDT, Michael Wolters of IGBCE of Germany, and Isidor Boix of Spain’s FITEQA-CC.OO exchanged the experiences and trade union knowledge from their countries. 
 
ICEM Health, Safety, Sustainability Officer Brian Kohler also shared his trade union experiences from Canada. During the seminar, a solidarity visit was made by the French delegation to the plant of Zentiva, a part of the multinational Sanofi-Aventis. The Zentiva plant is organised by ICEM Turkish affiliate Petrol-İş. At the time of the visit, there was a collective bargaining conflict. The French delegation met with company managers as well as workers, and it was decided to put the dispute on to the agenda of the European Works Council through the help of FCE-CFDT. 
 
The seminar in Gebze in May hosted international trade union leaders from the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. Celil Çoban and Mail Ürker of FNV Bondgenoten and Michael Wolters of IGBCE again participated, as did Mats Svensson from Sweden’s IF Metall and Jorgen Juul Rasmussen of Dansk-El Förbund of Denmark. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.gebze.JPG" width="320" height="121"/>
Participants at the Gebze, Turkey, workshop 
ICEM Central and Eastern European Coordinator Anatoly Surin shared his trade union experiences from Russia, as well. As a prompt practical result of the seminar, IGBCE’s Wolters visited the plants of two German-based multinationals, Bayer and BASF, where he met with union officials and company managers with a view to enhancing social dialogue at local levels. It was decided to develop this particular agenda in the upcoming period. 
 
Both seminars got presentations from Turkish trade union expert Üzeyir Ataman, Director of Education and Collective Bargaining of Lastik-İş, on union history and the current labour relations situation in Turkey. Later, the seminar focused on Power and Weak Points, Challenges and Opportunities, and Concrete Organising Targets inside Turkey, with contributions and inputs by participants from different towns around both Thrace and Gebze. 
 
“Both seminars in Thrace and Gebze created a good environment for international solidarity after many militants did get together with their comrades from different countries,” said ICEM Rubber and Chemicals Industries Officer Kemal Özkan, coordinator of the two-year project. Özkan also made a presentation on globalisation and labour relations. 
 
The project will continue with similar seminars in the second half of 2010. One such session will occur in September in the city of Bursa, said to be the “Detroit” of Turkey for its auto industry, as well as being known as the capital of the textile and garment industry. The other will be devoted to youth organising in the Eagean region. That will occur in October. The project will close with a conference at the end of October in Ankara.

ICEM’s Turkish FNV Mondiaal Project Continues in Thrace, Gebze

About Rio Tinto 
 
 Rio Tinto is a multi-billion dollar global corporation that mines and processes aluminum, coal, copper, diamonds, gold, iron ore and uranium, as well as industrial minerals including borates, titanium dioxide, salt and talc. 
 
 The company is based in London and Melbourne, Australia and traded on the London, Sydney and New York Stock Exchanges. 
 
 Rio Tinto is the 3rd largest mining company in the world, operating in more than 50 countries on six continents, with the majority of production occurring in Australia and North America. 
 
 In 2009, Rio Tinto reported net earnings of almost $5 billion on revenues of $44 billion. 
 
About Rio Tinto’s Borate Business 
 
 Rio Tinto’s borate mining and processing business is part of its Diamonds & Minerals product group, which reported net earnings of $800 million in 2009. 
 
 The company’s borate business consists primarily of its mine – the largest borate deposit in the world – and processing plant in Boron, California, USA. Rio Tinto also operates a small borate mine and processing plant in Argentina, as well as plants and/or distribution facilities in Wilmington, California, France, Spain and the Netherlands. 
 
 Rio Tinto supplies nearly half the world’s demand for refined borates. Together with Etimine of Turkey, Rio Tinto enjoys a virtual monopoly on the global borate market. 
 
 Borates are industrial minerals with a wide variety of uses, including glass, ceramics, fertilizer, detergents and wood treatments. 
 
 Although Rio Tinto often tells reporters that it has lost 25% of its share of the borate market in order to garner sympathy and justify its attack on families in Boron, the company’s claim has never been independently substantiated. Rio Tinto does not report publicly on the financial performance of its borate business. Like most companies, Rio Tinto has been temporarily impacted by the economic recession, but the outlook for Rio Tinto’s future is bright and already improving. In his “State of Business” address in August 2009, Rio Tinto Vice President Chris Robison said, “the financial position of the company is very strong.” Independent experts predict demand for borates will increase significantly in 2010, mainly due to the growth in Chinese manufacturing. China is Rio Tinto’s largest destination market. 
 
About the Mine in Boron 
 
 Located in the Mojave Desert, about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, the Boron mine is the largest open-pit mine in California. 
 
 The mine has been operating since borates were first discovered in Boron in 1925. The facility was acquired by Rio Tinto in 1967. 
 
 The mine serves Rio Tinto’s borate customers in almost 100 countries around the world. 
 
 There are about 570 hourly workers at the mine, many of whom have worked their entire lives at the facility. Some employees have more than 40 years of experience there. 
 
About the Lockout 
 
 On January 31, 2010, Rio Tinto locked out about 570 hourly workers from the Borax mine. 
 
 Employees had refused to accept Rio Tinto’s concessionary contract ultimatum. Their demands included allowing the company to convert good jobs into temporary, part-time or outsourced positions. 
 
 Since the lockout, Rio Tinto has replaced its experienced, skilled workforce with workers from its other facilities and with contract workers supplied by Gettier Security, a Wilmington, DE-based company that specializes in providing workers to firms engaged in strikes or lockouts. 
 
 The locked out families are relying on unemployment insurance and other forms of public assistance to help feed their children and pay mortgages. 
 
 
For more information about Rio Tinto and the Lockout in Boron, or to learn how you can help the miners and their families, please contact Craig Merrilees, Communications Director, ILWU on +1 (0) 415 775 0533 ext 113.

Facts About Rio Tinto and the Lock Out in Boron, California

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
ICEM Hungarian affiliate, the Federation of Chemical Workers Union at the MOL Bányász Szakszervezet (MOL RT), held its Congress in Budapest, 27 March. 
 
The Congress unanimously elected László Biri as the new President of the union. He replaces the outgoing József Kudela, who has retired. In letters between outgoing József Kudela and ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, each of the two thanked the other for a long period of friendship and close cooperation, protecting the interests of Hungarian oil and gas workers, and developing international trade unionism in the region. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.hungary.congress.png" width="201" height="151"/>
ICEM congratulates László Biri on his election, and looks forward to continuing good relations and successful work together. 
 
The MOL Group is an integrated oil and gas company, also present elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. With 34,000 employees in total, MOL is the second largest company in Central and Eastern Europe.

Hungarian Chemical Workers’ Congress Elects New President, József Kudela Retires

Unions Make Work Safer: Today, 28 April, Every Day

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The ICEM German affiliate, IGBCE, accomplished substantive commitments for youth apprenticeship positions inside an 11-month national labour agreement with the chemical employers’ association, the BAVC. Those commitments will carry over for the next three years, and will mean another 27,000 young people will have career opportunities in Germany’s keystone chemicals industry through apprenticeships. 
 
The 11-month length of the contract is a concession to chemical employers, with hopes that all 1,900 enterprises will regain solid financial footing before the IGBCE and BAVC resume bargaining for wage increases early in 2011. A wage freeze takes effect now for 550,000 workers, with ratification bonuses awarded instead. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0907.Michael%20Vassiliadis.jpg" width="180" height="153"/>
IGBCE President Michael Vassiliadis
“It is a good conclusion” for the present, stated IGBCE President Michael Vassiliadis. “It is fair considering the varying conditions in the industry and it helps build a bridge between the economic crisis and recovery.” 
 
Foremost in the new accord is a social-partners commitment for life-long job opportunities for young people, which includes €25 million in money provided by companies of the industry. The employers agreed to create 1,000 permanent jobs for young people in each of three years, with the fund used to subsidize companies at €1,000 per month for each worker given a permanent position. 
 
The IGBCE negotiated the requirement that subsidies can only be given for workers that are IGBCE members. 
 
The ratification bonuses, to be included in workers’ salary pay checks this month, amount to €550 for day-shift workers, €611 for workers on five- or six-day swing shifts, and €715 for night-shift and workers required to work across seven days per week. 

<img style="WIDTH: 142px; HEIGHT: 210px" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0811.IGBCE.jpg" width="150" height="242"/>
Workers in enterprises that have not suffered due to the economic crisis will receive a further €200 bonus on top of their stipends. For enterprises still facing difficulties, and with the consent of the respective European Works Councils, the overall bonus can be reduced, but not below €300. 
 
Peter Hausmann, IGBCE Governing Board member, who heads the union’s Collective Bargaining Department, said the new collective agreement reflects a stronger set of initiatives created by social partners for the industry. We have created “new perspectives created for young people,” as well as better job security provisions for existing workers, said Hausmann. 
 
The agreement was reached on 21 April in Würzburg, following two days of national talks.

Youth Job Guarantees Won by IGBCE in German Chemicals Agreement

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The former ICEM Projects Coordinator in Thailand, Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, was released last night, 13 June, from a prison at a Thai army base. He had been imprisoned since 24 May, together with academic Suthachai Yimprasert from Chulalongkom University, after the two presented themselves to police after they heard arrest warrants had been issued for them. 
 
Yimprasert was released 5 June from a prison at the Adisorn military base in Saraburi, 115 kilometres north of Bangkok. Both were arrested under the government’s Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES), a hastily put together decree stemming from May’s political turbulence in Thailand.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/somyot.jpg" width="200" height="123" alt=""/>
Somyot Pruksakasemsuk
The release of Brother Somyot follows a criminal court’s decision rejecting the CRES arrest order. Even after that decision, the government held him for another seven days. 
 
The CRES charges against him were for inflaming public sentiment against the government for holding a news conference on 21 May in which he called for the resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. He also edited a newspaper that supported the viewpoints of the Red Shirts in recent political strife. 
 
The ICEM called the charges a serious breach of universal free speech rights. 
 
International human rights groups throughout the world, as well as several Global Union Federations, sent protests to the Thai government over the unfair arrests of Somyot and Suthachai. An online appeal by the Dutch-based Clean Clothes Campaign also generated pressure on the government.

Thai Labour Activist Somyot Pruksakasemsuk Finally Released

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The Hungarian Labour Inspectorate levied a fine recently against Hankook Tyre Magyaroszag Kft. for obstructing the duties and activities of a branch of ICEM-affiliated Federation of Chemical, Energy, and General Workers’ Unions (VDSZ). Although the fine was small in monetary amount, €3,646, it was significant in the fact that Hankook, at its burgeoning tyre factory in Dunaujvaros, has proven again its unwillingness to accept a trade union. 
 
According to VDSZ President Tamás Székely, Hungary’s labour agency fined Hankook for refusal to allow lawful entry to the plant of a VDSZ official and a member of the company’s supervisory council. Management then refused to recognise the capacity of the union leader.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0912.hungary.tamas.jpg" width="166" height="221" alt=""/>
 VDSZ President Tamás Székely 
 

The violation comes on top of other breaches of Hungarian labour law, as well as European Union statutes. When the factory at Dunaujvarous started up in June 2007, low pay, excessive overtime, and a forced six-day work-week made the then 800 workers turn to the VDSZ Tyre Manufacturing Workers’ Union for representation. 
 
Management would not recognise the union and even after a labour tribunal granted certification, the company appealed the decision through the courts. The company interrogated workers on their lawful right to join VDSZ and illegally dismissed union activists. Ultimately, Hungarian jurisprudence fully recognised the union, but that did not stop Hankook from interfering with union involvement in formation of a European Works Council (EWC). 
 
VDSZ proved successful in EWC elections, but the most recent Labour Inspectorate fine proves the Korean-based company still is not ready for the European-style social model, despite the fact that the European Commission funds totaling €100 million were used in start-up of the Dunaujvaros factory. A Hankook spokeswoman said the company will appeal the latest fine. 
 
Meanwhile, Hankook, the world’s seventh largest tyre manufacturer which is 10% owned by Michelin, is preparing to increase its Hungarian workforce from the current 1,250 to 2,000 by next year. The company plans to double tyre production at Dunaujvaros to 30,000 tyres per day. The company in late May won an exclusive supply contract with Volkswagen to produce tyres for all models of vehicles. In March, it signed a development contract with BMW that the company expects will lead to a supply contract. 
 
Hankook has faced numerous labour battles in its home country, specifically with the Korean Metalworkers’ Union two years ago at its ASA aluminum wheel subsidiary in Guemsam, South Chungcheong Province.

Hankook Tyre in Hungary Fined for Impeding Union Activities

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
UK’s Unite the Union held its first Policy Conference 31 May to 3 June at the Manchester Central Convention Complex with 700 delegates present. Entitled “Working for Working People,” the biannual event was the first jointly held conference since the 1 May 2007 merger between the Transport and General Workers Union and Amicus that created Unite. 

Central themes of the four-day conference included winning back the British Labour Party for working people, keeping a sturdy manufacturing base in the UK, stopping erosion of public services and public sector workers against Tory assaults, and addressing the bullying affront by British Airways against the union’s cabin crew members. 

The conference also took up several intentional topics, including support for Canadian strikers of the United Steelworkers (USW) at mining company Vale, strong condemnation of Israel’s aggressive policies against Palestinians, support to Latin American unions resisting capitalist demands, and, closer to home, a hearing over the lack of rights for Unite’s Moroccan members working in Gibraltar.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006.unite.vale.gfernandez.jpg" width="302" height="193"/>
Tony Woodley, USW’s Gerald Fernandez, Canadian Vale striker Bob Belowos, United Executive Council Chair Tony Woodhouse, and Derek Simpson  

Some 180 policy issues were tabled. 

The biggest debate occurred on 2 June over whether or not Britain ought to scrub its £76 billion Trident nuclear weapon system when its service life ends in 2024. The debate centered on peace and disarmament versus jobs and workers’ livelihoods, with discussion on how cancelling the programme can liberate monies for public services, such as health, education, and social services. After a fierce debate, Unite’s Executive Council recommendation for peace and disarmament won out. 

On 2 June, UK’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) Secretary General Brendan Barber spoke. He said that manufacturing must become the centerpiece of a new economy. “Whether it’s high-speed trains or electric vehicles, whether it’s wind turbines or more efficient airplane engines, we have the skills, the experience, and the expertise to build them here.”
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006.unite.2gs.jpg" width="180" height="120"/>
Woodley and Simpson
Barber lashed out at the consequences hoisted on British society by financiers. “It is just plain wrong that our schools, hospitals, and local councils should pay the price for a crisis inspired by the free-market dogma, created in the City of London, and caused by the richest minority of the richest minority.” 

Unite’s Joint General Secretary Tony Woodley had harsh words for the Labour Party. “It is a scandal that at the end of 13 years of Labour government, the right to strike is hanging by a thread. (It is) at the mercy of employers who would rather sue than settle, and Tory judges who … think strikes are OK as long as they don’t inconvenience the bosses. 

“So I want to make one thing clear to all Labour leadership contenders. Our vote should only go to the candidate who pledges – unequivocally, no mealy-mouthed phrases, to do what Labor was set up to do – create a level playing field at work, and scrap the anti-union laws.”
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006.unite.voting.jpg" width="240" height="160"/>
 Unite Delegates Voting on a Policy Measure 

Speaking on the conference’s final day, 3 June, Joint General Secretary Derek Simpson – who will retire at year’s end – addressed Unite’s merger coordination with the United Steelworkers of North America, called Workers Uniting. He said it was the UK’s failure to implement social partnership models, common throughout Europe, which has left the markets to rule in the UK – as well as in the US. 

“If you need to fight the employer on a multi-national field,” said Simpson, “you need a multi-national union and the USW feels the same way.” 

While Simpson will retire this year, Woodley will follow him to retirement in the next calendar year. Unite branches are conducting nominations and five candidates announced their intent to succeed Woodley, with elections to start in October of this year.

UK’s Unite Takes Policy Initiatives at First Tactical Conference

Archive