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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The United Steelworkers (USW) in North America has created a Unity Council around the Evraz Group, the world’s tenth largest steel producer that is controlled by holding companies connected to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. The steelworkers’ network was formed last week at meetings in the US, and initially will include USW local unions representing 2,600 workers in the western US and western Canada. 
 
The Unity Council is expected to expand globally with the help of ICEM and its coal-mining affiliate in Russia, trade unions in South Africa, and the assistance of the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and its affiliates at steel and related mills in Russia, Ukraine, Italy, and the Czech Republic. The company is also expanding in Kazakhstan. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.USW.Steve Hunt.jpg" width="100" height="132"/>    <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.USW.laventure[1].jpg" width="100" height="132"/>
Steve Hunt, Robert LaVenture
Formation of the council “is an important step in bringing workers together across borders to share information, strategies, and plans with respect to a common employer,” said Unity Council Chairman and USW Region 12 Director Robert LaVenture. “Workers across international boundaries know that they need to work together to balance our interests against powerful global companies like Evraz.” 
 
The USW represents workers at steel pipe and tubing mills in Pueblo, Colorado, and in Calgary, Alberta, and Regina, Saskatchewan. 
 
“Ultimately, we would like to see a worldwide group of Evraz workers that is able to meet regularly and work to ensure that the company’s workforce, regardless of country or nationality, is treated fairly and has strong union representation,” added USW Western Canadian Region Director Steve Hunt. 
 
Luxembourg-based Evraz has nine steel mills, five iron ore operations, several coal deposits, and other mine and mill operations, including Highveld Steel and Vanadium in South Africa. 
 
The ICEM’s familiarity with Evraz centres on the company’s major stakes in the Russian coking coal mines of Yuzhkuzbassugol and Raspadskaya, the latter one which saw 90 miners perish in a methane gas blast in May 2010. At Yuzhkuzbassugol, a similar explosion killed miners of ICEM affiliate Russian Independent Coal Miners’ Union (ROSUGLEPROF) in 2007. (See the <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3781-Russian-Mine-Disaster-Restates-Immediacy-for-ILO-Convention-176 " type="internal">2010 ICEM report</a> and the <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2273-Another-Coal-Mine-Blast-in-Russia’s-Kuzbass-Kills-39-Miners " type="internal">2007 ICEM report</a>.)

Steelworkers Form ‘Unity Council’ for Evraz Metal, Mine Workers

<img height="39" width="100" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" alt=""/>
Workers in the chemicals sector scored the highest 2011 pay gains yet in all German industrial and service sectors, thanks to mobilisation rallies, worker involvement, and the bargaining tenacity of ICEM affiliate IGBCE. On the final day (31 March) of the second round of federal talks for 550,000 workers of 1,900 companies in Bad Honnef, a 14-month pay increase of 4.1% was won. 
 
The increase will become effective at different times in different regions: retroactive to 1 March for chemical workers in North Rhine, Rheinland-Pfalz, and Hessen Rückwirkend; on 1 April in Westfalen, Bayern, Baden-Württemberg, Niedersachsen/Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein/Hamburg, and Berlin; and 1 May in Saarland and the North-east. 
 
The agreement also gives flexibility for employers still recovering from the economic crisis to effectuate the wage increase in May, while most of the major chemical companies that are on strong standing will have already given the increase. 
 
Of particular note, the IGBCE and the chemical employers’ association, BAVC, agreed to add small- and medium-sized businesses to the unique “Start in den Beruf” programme, a “start your active job” project that places young people into chemical enterprises with opportunities for career enhancement and advancement. 
<img height="140" width="165" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0907.Michael%20Vassiliadis.jpg" alt=""/>   <img height="132" width="175" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.peter.hausmann.igbce.jpg" alt=""/> 
 
Michael Vassiliadis     Peter Hausmann
These employers will now receive subsides from an industry-funded bank that will offset apprenticeship costs for companies. The highly-successful programme developed in social talks in the mid-2000s between IGBCE and BAVC has brought close to 3,000 young persons into relevant positions in Germany’s keystone chemicals industry. 
 
The 2011-12 accord also grants current apprentices a €35-per-month increase. 
 
“Last year, we signed an agreement that was a bridge between crisis and recovery,” said IGBCE President Michael Vassiliadis. “Now, as we predicted, we signed a growth agreement. This shows the social partnership in chemicals remains on solid footing in solving some very difficult problems.” 
 
IGBCE Head of Collective Bargaining Peter Hausmann added: “We fought hard for this achievement. We mobilised and without the outstanding support from workers in the various enterprises, we would not have come to this result.” 
 
An ICEM report on <a type="internal" href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4340-IGBCE-Mobilises-for-Second-Federal-Round-of-German-Chemical-Talks ">IGBCE’s two months of mobilisations</a> leading up the final Bad Honnef settlement can be found here.

IGBCE Carves 4.1% 2011 Increase for 550,000 German Chemical Workers

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A two-week strike against Finnish papermaker UPM by 1,000 members of ICEM affiliate Ammattilitto Pro is continuing. Production is seriously crimped at six pulp and paper mills of Finland’s largest pulp and paper firm, with work stoppages at 20 other facilities including UPM’s administrative centre in Tempere and its export facility at the Kotka port. 
 
The strike began 6 April and will run until 20 April. Ammattiliitto Pro, representing 4,000 white-collar salaried, technical, and clerical workers across the Finnish pulp and paper sector, targeted UPM because of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation’s (FFIF) unwillingness to offer a national salary structure during a March reopening of a two-year labour agreement. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1104.rauma finland paper.jpg" width="240" height="135"/>
UPM's Rauma, Finland, Mill
The ICEM issued a <a href="/en/19-Pulp-Paper/4355-Action-Needed-Votre-intervention-est-souhaitée-Se-requiere-acción-urgente" type="internal">Solidarity Alert</a> to global trade unions of the sector on 6 April, and union activists are encouraged here to heed that call by sending messages of support to Ammattiliitto Pro.
 
The industrial action came after a government conciliator failed to put forward a compromise on 4 April. Despite promises in early rounds of talks that a national pay scheme would be submitted and structured around work skills and work requirements in a sector dramatically downsized, the FFIF put forward nothing in federal level talks. 
 
Instead, it deferred all bargaining over pay to the individual mills, or within local workplaces. Pro is seeking some level of equity for lower-paid staff, many of whom are women and deserve some semblance of pay equity. 
 
“We want a system that recognises the increased work and greater responsibility taken on by our members,” said Pro’s chief negotiator for the Pulp and Paper Sector, Jukka Hämäläinen. Some 1,000 clerical and salaried staff in Finland’s pulp and paper industry have been furloughed over the past few years because of an economic downturn that only now is recovering. 
 
On 17 March, the union sent notice of termination of the agreement, effective 1 April. It issued its intent to strike on 23 March and following the complete failure of mandatory government intervention on 1 April and again on 4 April, the strike began 6 April.

Ammattiliitto Pro Strike in Finland Against Paper Firm UPM Continues

<img height="39" width="100" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" alt=""/>
The European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF) and Areva, the Paris-based nuclear power and nuclear service provider, signed a protocol agreement on 1 April intended to facilitate career enhancement and employee competencies within the 13 European countries that Areva operates in. 
 
Entitled “Memorandum of Agreement on Professions and Competences Forecast,” the protocol framework is the second that EMF and Areva have adopted, the first being a 2006 Equal Opportunities pact that a European Commission (EC) project now oversees. 
 
The new agreement is intended to forecast and manage career development of Areva staff by providing training, work-life balance, mobility, transfer of knowledge throughout the company, as well as giving a positive work environment across a person’s entire employment career with Areva. 
 
(See the <a href="http://www.emf-fem.org/Areas-of-work/Company-Policy/News/EMF-and-Areva-sign-important-agreement ">EMF announcement and the 12-page agreement</a>.) 
<img height="100" width="112" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/EMF.png" alt=""/>
The three-year agreement will be tracked under a separate EC project called Forecasting and Anticipating Competencies in Europe through Social Dialogue (FACES). The protocol calls for an annual appraisal that will “articulate the positioning of the employee in such a way that their qualifications and their payment is in relation to their level of competencies and performance.” 
 
The agreement states that such assessments will not conflict with existing national collective bargaining agreements. 
 
It commits the company to develop a training policy in step with the needs of workers “to both preserve and renew competencies in order to have the best possible career evolution.” Each of Areva’s 35,000 workers in Europe will have access to 30 hours of training per annum, which can be allotted over three years. 
 
The agreement’s overall monitoring device is a committee of Areva management and the European Works Council Select Committee, which will evaluate and present the results yearly to the EMF. 
 
Areva is a ten-year-old company that was formed through a three-way merger between CEA-Industrie, COGEMA, and Framatome to combine the French Government's interests in several nuclear power and information technology businesses. CEA-Industrie, (Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique or French Atomic Energy Commission) owns about 80% of Areva. The company globally operates in 43 countries and employs 48,000 staff. 
 
Areva designs and builds nuclear reactors and components for nuclear power plants, and it also supplies nuclear fuel, engineering, maintenance, and inspection of nuclear facilities.

EMF, French Nuclear Group Areva Sign Worker Training, Evolution Accord

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Turnout by EDF and GDF SUEZ workers for a day-long strike 7 April called by five French unions was enough to cut power output by over 15,000 megawatts across the country, according to one of the unions. Upwards of 80% of workers of the two former French government companies protested last Thursday, although the utilities said only half of total staff participated. 
 
The electric and gas workers were striking over a plan by the companies to reduce the preferential rates that workers get on electric and gas bills. French unions CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, and CFTC endorsed the industrial action as a way to express workers’ displeasure with the proposed take-aways. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1104.gdf edf strike.jpg" width="220" height="139"/>
French workers have had the discounted rate plan since 1946, when the companies where chartered and nationalised following World War II. The partial rate discounts amount now to between €1,000 and €1,500 annually and workers consider the discounts a complement to their now stagnant wages. 
 
The last time management of the then state-owned companies tried to eliminate the discounts, in 1983, strike participation by 96% of workers dissuaded the companies from following through. The unions met last Friday, 8 April, to assess what next step to take if the current plan to reduce discounts continues. 
 
Last Thursday’s power outages saw the equivalent of ten nuclear plants out of France’s 58 total plants that stopped generating electricity. Gas and supply deliveries were also halted across the country, as manifestations occurred in scores of French towns and regions, including a massive one attended by thousands of EDF and GDF SUEZ staff at la Défense, Paris’s corporate capital and site of headquarters of the two companies.

French Power Cut as EDF, GDF SUEZ Staff Manifest on 7 April

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Neil Reimer, National Director Emeritus of the Canada’s Energy and Chemical Workers’ Union (ECWU) – one of the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union’s founding unions – passed away on 30 March in Edmonton, Alberta. He was 89. 
 
Neil Reimer has been described as a "giant of the labour movement," and surely no one could argue with that description. 
 
For nearly 70 years, Reimer was a strong and dedicated advocate of workers’ issues. Beginning his career in 1942 as an organizer for the Oil Workers International Union (OWIU) while working at Consumers Co-operative refinery in Regina, Saskatchewan, he played a major role in organising his first energy workers’ union there. He 1951, he moved to Edmonton, where he organised oil and chemicals plants. He was also mayor of Edmonton. 
 
He helped found the New Democratic Party (NDP) of Canada in 1961, and was elected the first leader of NDP’s Alberta branch in 1963. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.IB 178.NeilReimer.jpg" width="133" height="190" alt=""/>
Neil Reimer
He went on to become leader of the Canadian district of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW), and ultimately founder of the independent Canadian union, the ECWU. 
 
His retirement from this position in 1984 only slowed him some, as he remained active in politics and social justice movements until his death. 
 
Canadian trade unionists and social leaders knew him as a “visionary.” He did not simply look toward the future, he tried to build it according to the principles he believed in. Those principles included decency, respect, and dignity for workers and their families. 
 
He understood the need to organize and he believed in the independence of the Canadian labour movement. He believed that Canada should control its own natural resources – especially energy resources – for the benefit of Canadians. Under his direction, some of the most progressive union policies of the day were produced on topics from energy and the environment, to working hours to national collective agreements, to health and safety. 
 
Neil played a big role inside the ICEM. He was a personal friend of many ICEM elected representatives and staff officers. He was an influential member of the then ICEF Executive Committee up until his retirement, and many of his ideas live on in ICEM policies. 
 
Neil led a long and active life and his accomplishments helped make the world a better place. The Canadian labour movement, the CEP, the ICEM, and indeed all workers have much to thank Neil Reimer for. He will be well remembered and sadly missed.

Canadian Energy Union Stalwart, Neil Reimer, Dies at Age 89

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0904Labourrose.JPG" width="50" height="65"/>
Every April 28, the labour movement remembers the fallen. April 28 is known as International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers and is marked by trade unions and safety and health groups in over 140 countries. 
 
Globally, 2.3 million workers die as a result of their work every year, according to the ILO. The ICEM considers this number, shocking as it is, to be understated by at least a factor of ten. Many millions more are injured or made ill due to occupational disease. Every one of these deaths, injuries, and illnesses is needless; in fact, senseless. 
 
ICEM affiliated trade unions work in some of the most dangerous and toxic workplaces on the planet. High-profile tragedies such as explosions and fires at oil and gas facilities, out-of-control nuclear power plants, methane gas blasts and cave-ins at mines, and untold number of equipment failures in manufacturing that cause death, limb loss, other injuries are all part of a sad culture that the ICEM aims to reverse. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.28April.jpg" width="360" height="90"/>
The continuing toll of deaths, injuries, and illnesses is quite simply unacceptable to the ICEM. That is why the ICEM is there to assist its affiliates on any occupational health and safety issue. It is the reason that the ICEM has led the way in bringing occupational health and safety into Global Framework Agreements. It is why the ICEM has an ongoing campaign for the ratification of ILO Convention 176, a long-standing project on HIV/AIDS, and it is also why the ICEM engages other international organizations for better standards and better cooperation in occupational health and safety. 
 
What would make workplaces safer? While employers and governments spend enormous sums seeking magical solutions, the ICEM knows that the answer is really quite simple, although burdensome to some in implementing: workers have rights, employers have obligations. 
 
Here then, is the answer. 
 
• Unions make work safer, therefore the first and most important workplace health and safety programme stems from a strong union. To achieve this, we demand respect for the ILO Core Labour Conventions, especially those protecting freedom of association, the right to organize unions, and the right to collective bargaining. 
• Workers’ rights: the fundamental rights of workers with respect to occupational health and safety include: the right to know about the hazards of work and to receive training in how to do the job safely; the right to refuse – and shut down, if necessary – unsafe work; the right to participate in the formulation and implementation of workplace health and safety policies, programmes, and procedures. This right is best achieved through a Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) that plays a central and obligatory role in an employer's internal responsibility system. 
• Employers’ obligations: Employers should concentrate their efforts on making work safer. This means process safety management, identification and use of best available technologies, industrial hygiene, ergonomics, occupational disease recognition and investigation, and a precautionary approach to chemical, biological, physical and other hazards. 
• Employers’ prohibitions: Employers should not be allowed to use methods and practices whose principal purpose is to blame victims, or suppress the reporting of accidents and artificially improve statistics in order to gain improved workers' compensation experience ratings, premium reductions and rebates, and public relations points. This includes prohibiting behaviour-based safety programmes, workplace drug and alcohol testing (particularly post-incident), safety incentives that encourage under-reporting of accidents, and waging fights against recognition of workplaces diseases. 
 
The theme, “Unions Make Work Safer” on April 28 and on every work day, is sometimes known as Workers’ Memorial Day. It is fitting because a major role that trade unions play in everyday work-life is to monitor – and improve – occupational safety and health. Trade union activists are encouraged to find an activity and to take meaningful action to better safe work practices through the strength of their union.

Commonality of April 28: Unions Make Work Safer

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
from the ITGLWF 
 
The Global Union representing workers in the garment industry last week released a damning report on working conditions in Asian sportswear supply chains. 
 
Says Patrick Itschert, General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF): “This report highlights how factories supplying multinational sports and garment brands, many of whom will be fitting out teams for the London 2012 Olympics, are routinely breaking every rule in the book when it comes to labour rights.” 
 
The report focuses on conditions in 83 factories in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Indonesia which together employ over 100,000 workers.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Patrick.Itshert.ITGLWF 2.jpg" width="180" height="138"/>
ITGLWF General Secretary Patrick Itschert
Through worker interviews and surveys, researchers uncovered a litany of workers’ rights abuses, including the widespread suppression of the human right to join or form a trade union by means of harassment, bribes, the failure to renew short-term contracts, and even factory closure. In Indonesia, the majority of trade union officials reported that they were denied the basic facilities to enable them to adequately perform their duties. In Sri Lanka, the Board of Investment promotes the use of Employee Councils as a form of worker representation, but the workers interviewed had no way of raising concerns at these Councils and unions expressed frustration that they are used to undermine true freedom of association. 
 
Not one of the 83 factories surveyed was reported to pay a living wage, and workers in the Philippines explained that they were so destitute by the months’ end they had no choice but to pawn their ATM cards in exchange for loans. Some factories denied workers the legal minimum wage, while others linked the payment of basic wages to unachievable production targets which workers struggled desperately to meet. 
 
Although international labour standards restrict overtime to 12 hours a week on a voluntary basis, workers told researchers they regularly work up to 100 hours of overtime per month. In many cases workers could not refuse overtime. In Sri Lanka, workers who tried to leave at the end of their shift were denied permission to go and harassed by their supervisors. 
 
Contract, agency and other precarious workers, who comprised 25% of the workforces covered, were found to be particularly likely to suffer exploitation. Although these workers were paid even less than their permanent counterparts, they told researchers they feared they would lose their job if they complained. 
 
Concludes Itschert: “The multinational companies sourcing from these factories need to live up to their rhetoric and ensure that every single workplace in their supply chains complies with national law and international labour standards.” 
 
Key findings of the report (based on research carried out in the final quarter of 2010): 
 
Freedom of Association: 
 
 Freedom of Association is widely suppressed by means of harassment, bribes, the failure to renew short-term contracts and even factory closure. 
 Employees Councils are used by employers to undermining freedom of association in Sri Lanka. 
 Trade Union officials in Indonesia are targeted with huge workloads that are designed to prevent them from conducting union activities at lunch or after work. They face abuse if they fail to meet those targets. 
 In one factory in the Philippines the majority of the CAL workers unionised and notified the employer. The employer immediately began a sustained harassment of union members and subsequently decided to close the factory without any prior notice or payment of wages, severance payments and benefits due. 
 
Contract and Agency Labour (CAL): 
 
 Up to 85% of employees in the factories in Indonesia and the Philippines are employed on short term contracts or on a temporary basis. 
 Systematic circumvention of the law through the use of 5 month contracts in the Philippines. 
 CAL workers are paid less, rarely receive legally mandated benefits, and have lower levels of unionisation for fear or non renewal of contracts. 
 
Forced Overtime: 
 
 Workers in all three countries are frequently forced to work in excess of 100 hours overtime per month. 
 In Sri Lanka workers at one factory workers are forced to work 130 hours overtime per month - the equivalent of 3 full weeks additional work each month. 
 At one factory in Indonesia researchers recorded that management had locked 40 workers that failed to meet production targets in a small room, without water or ventilation for 3 hours at time. This is reportedly a regular occurrence at the factory. 
 At the same factory workers are forced to work up to 160 hours overtime per month. 
 
Wages: 
 
 Not one of the 83 factories surveyed pays a living wage. 
 30% of surveyed workers in the Philippines are paid below the minimum wage. 
 CAL workers earn as little as 33% of the wage of a permanent employee. 
 The wages of some workers in Sri Lanka are linked to productivity targets rather than the legally stipulated daily rates. 
 At two factories in Indonesia workers would have to work 15-20 years to secure a loyalty bonus to make up for non payment of minimum wage. This bonus has never been paid to a worker. 
 
Gender: 
 
 On average 76% of the workforce is female 
 In the Philippines women are more likely to be employed on short term and temporary contracts 
 4 factories in Sri Lanka forced prospective employees to take pregnancy tests before an offer of employment is made.

ITGLWF Finds Horrid Work Conditions in Asian Sportswear Chains

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Metalliliitto, Finland’s Metalworkers’ Union, has reached a tentative agreement with KMW Engineering, preventing for now a blockade on construction of the nuclear power reactor Olkiluoto III. On 13 April, the Polish air-conditioning subcontractor agreed to compensate workers for shortfalls in pay required under Finnish labour standards. 
 
Under the agreement, KMW Engineering did give an accounting that showed arrears in Sunday and overtime pay. It agreed to compensate back wages and pledged to uphold Finnish terms of employment in the future. It also agreed to correct its deficient safety and health standards on the 1.6 gigawatt (1,600 megawatt) nuclear plant.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.finnish%20nuclear%20power%20plant.jpg" width="337" height="190"/>
Construction of Olkiluoto III 
Photo: YLE/Termonen Tapio  
 
Metalliliitto had given the subcontractor until 15 April to comply with Finnish social standards, or face a construction-wide blockade that would have halted all work on Finland’s fifth nuclear reactor. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4343-Finland’s-Metalworkers-close-in-on-Blockade-of-Nuclear-Plant-Work" type="internal">ICEM report</a> from 28 March.) A Metalworkers’ blockade had endorsement and would have been honoured by Finland’s Construction Trades Union, the Electrical Workers’ Union, and Proliitto, the union for salaried workers of Finland. 
 
A regional state labour agency of Finland’s South-West found in late March that KMW did not keep overtime records as required under the working hours act. It also determined that payment of wages for Sunday and overtime work varied. Failure to comply could have brought state sanctions to the nuclear construction site, which would have affected other contractors. 
 
Metalliliitto Compliance Officer Jyrki Virtanen said the union will now fully monitor future social conduct by KMW Engineering. The Olkiluoto III nuclear power station is owned by private-sector energy concern Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO), and has as general contractor Areva of France. Olkiluoto III, a €3.95 billion project that is now €1.5 billion over budget, is the biggest investment in the history of Finnish industry.

Finnish Metalworkers, Polish Firm Agree on Backpay at Nuclear Plant

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
In a first for the European chemical sector, the European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Workers’ Federation (EMCEF) and the European Chemical Employers’ Group (ECEG) signed a framework agreement outlining job profiles for process operators and front-line supervisors.
Signed during a 15 April conference between the social partners that was held at the offices of CSC Bâtiment-Energie in Brussels, the agreement is termed “Competence Profiles for Process Operators and First Line Supervisors in the Chemical Industry.”
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1104.emcef.chems agreement.jpg" width="312" height="125"/>
 ECEG’s Simon Marsh, EMCEF’s Reinhard Reibsch, ECAG’s Jean Pelin
The pact defines a set of four minimum core competencies and training for both occupations and is described by EMCEF as “a strong example of how the trade unions and employers in the chemical sector have worked to help businesses and workforces through the global economic crisis and build a platform for sustainable growth.” 

The agreement is set up to deliver equal quality and value of education and training across EU nations, and was negotiated to support the “Europe 2020” goals of the EU. It also references mobility across Europe in the chemical sector and establishes core competence benchmarks for national qualifications, national vocational education and training for both workers and managers in their human resource development. It also contains a principle encouraging dialogue between workers and companies on job design and development. 
The framework compact says it is not an alternative to national provisions already underway in place, nor shall it impact collective bargaining agreements or remuneration levels in the European chemicals sector. Yearly reports on actions taken under the agreement will be presented to the sector’s social dialogue forum, and full evaluation will take place after three years. 
The signing came during a day-long social partners’ conference entitled “Framework Agreement in the Field of Education, Training, and Lifelong Learning.” A panel on the topic of the agreement included Alfons de Potter of CSC Bâtiment-Energie, Belgium, and Jan Kilmes of Odborovy svaz ECHO of the Czech Republic.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/EMF.png" width="112" height="100"/>
Coincidentally, on the same day – 15 April – the European Metalworkers’ Federation and the Council of European Employers of the Metal, Engineering and Technology-based Industries (CEEMET) issued a joint statement, both applauding the European Commission on recognising the importance of an industrial base and urging the body take further decisive action to strengthen that base in order to meet “Europe 2020.” 

In part, the statement calls on the Commission to exhibit leadership and responsibility, urging strong coordination between the different Directorate Generals. “CEEMET and the EMF underline that there are strong links between industrial and social policy. Only sustainable competitive industries can create high quality jobs and an effective industrial policy fosters the social dimension of Europe.” 

In addressing restructurings, the statement credits sector and company level decisions in finding temporary solutions to recent economic challenges. But it also states that in a quickly changing economic landscape, “there will still remain a need for rules on employment which provide sufficient adaptability and flexibility for companies to meet that chance.”

EMCEF, Chemical Employers Sign Process Operators, Front-line Supervisors Pact

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