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Meanwhile, coal miners in South Africa, fearful they would be sacked by the sale of Zululand Anthracite Colliery by Ingwe Holdings&rsquo;parent BHP Billiton to Riverdale Holdings, staged an underground strike for several days beginning 10 April. Supported by the NUM, the strikers are seeing assurances that any redundancies at the colliery in northern KwaZulu-Natal State will be met with adequate payments. Another underground mine sit-in occurred in the Free State by 400 NUM members at Star Diamond near Theunissen. Miners were protesting the sackings of two workers who refused to work in dangerous conditions.

South African Coal Miners Stage Underground Strike

After three weeks of futile bargaining, talks broke off last week between Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada Local 689 and UPM Kymmene over efforts to end a four-month paper mill strike in Miramichi, New Brunswick. The Finnish paper company still will not submit the pattern labour agreement for the paper sector of eastern Canada to the striking 700 CEP members, which is the central issue to the strike. Rather, UPM Kymmene was pressuring Local 689 to force a vote of union members on a substandard proposal. Union members 14 April vehemently rejected taking a vote on anything short of the pattern agreement.

CEP, UPM Kymmene Fail in Canadian Talks to End Strike

The Botswana court case in which diamond-mining company Debswana pressed forward in order to extract maximum punishment on some 450 workers who struck last August was dismissed 24 March. An Industrial Court judge issued a detailed, 79-page ruling that said the court had no jurisdiction over criminal matters. Debswana, jointly owned by DeBeers and the government of Botswana, is on a ruthless campaign to destroy the lives of these workers who struck after the company used a new labour law to declare any strike at the 6,000-worker mining operations illegal. Debswana has forcefully evicted the strikers from company housing, and has closed educational opportunities to children of strikers in company-sponsored schools.

Mining Union Wins Court Case Against Debswana in Botswana

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About 120,000 South Korean workers staged a four-hour strike Friday, 1 April, that should serve as a prelude to a larger, nationwide strike if the National Assembly passes legislation to liberalise the use of contract and agency labour. 
Some 231 workplaces took part in the four-hour shutdown called by the Korean Federation of Trade Unions. 
In addition to the bill on the use of non-regular workers, unions are calling on the government to come down hard on companies abusing South Korea&rsquo;s so-called &ldquo;anti-illegal dispatch law,&rdquo; meant as a control to illegal employment practices but a statute continually violated by multinational companies.

Korean Workers Strike Over Labour Reform Bill

Industrial action by Transport &amp; General workers at a Michelin tyre plant in Stoke, UK, ended last week when union members voted 75% to accept a revised pay offer from management. But the union warned that Michelin would now have much work to do to regain the trust and respect of workers. Managers raised threats on the future viability of the plant at the time workers took decisive industrial action. And after revising the pay offer two weeks into the job action, the company tried to impose a voting deadline on T&amp;G&rsquo;s branch, prompting the T&amp;G to call it &ldquo;an attempt to bully our members.&rdquo; Some 500 T&amp;G members engaged in the industrial action at the tyre plant in the Midlands.

Settlement Ends Industrial Action at Michelin in UK

ICEM affiliate Power Workers&rsquo; Union (PWU) of Canada is protesting the province of Ontario&rsquo;s decision to close five coal-fired power plants by 2007. The public-sector union took ad space in major provincial newspapers to say the US$8.2 billion in shutdown costs will be a further burden on price rates&mdash;already up 25% for most provincial customers&mdash;and the answer to Ontario&rsquo;s energy future is a combination of nuclear power and better clean-coal technologies.

Canadian Power Workers Seek to Keep Power Plants Open

some 30,000 chemical workers in Eastern Germany and East Berlin are to receive a pay rise of 5.6 percent over two years, under an agreement signed by their union IG BCE on Saturday. Wages will go up by 2.8 percent on 1 July this year and a further 2.8 percent on 1 July 2001. 
 
Another agreement last week secured a two-stage 6.2 percent rise over two years for around 5,000 East German paper workers. 
 
West German workers in the same sectors will be receiving a two-stage 4.2 percent rise over roughly the same period under agreements signed earlier last month. 
 
When Germany reunified, wages in the East were much lower than in the West. Under separate bargaining arrangements, the gap is gradually being narrowed. 
 
The East German agreements extend the scope for part-time work by older employees, and guarantee them take-home pay equal to at least 85 percent of their last net full-time wage. There is also provision for expanding the number of apprenticeships available in the East German chemical and paper industries. The aim of both measures is to help reduce unemployment in Eastern Germany. 
 
At the global level, IG BCE is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

Pay Gains Achieved in East German Paper, Chemical Sectors

Imerys, the ceramics, minerals and construction materials multinational, must recognise the trade union rights of its American workers without further delay. 
 
That was the message from Fred Higgs when he addressed cheering Imerys workers at a rally in Sylacauga, Alabama, on Saturday. 
 
Higgs is General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which has been campaigning against the anti-union stance adopted by Imerys at its US sites. The US Imerys workers' union, PACE, is an ICEM affiliate. 
 
PACE and the ICEM will &quot;make it so hot for Imerys that they will be looking for a solution,&quot; Higgs promised more than 250 workers attending the rally. They responded by taunting Imerys with chants of &quot;ICEM&quot; and &quot;PACE Will Be In Your Face&quot;. 
 
The restructuring that led to the formation of Imerys last year included the merger of unionised and non-unionised production plants in the USA. PACE now wants the chance to represent workers throughout the newly merged Imerys operation there, but the company has hired professional &quot;union-busters&quot; to discourage union organising and is blocking all attempts to let its workers decide if they want to be represented by the union. 
 
Imerys is based in France, where unions are backing the American workers' campaign. Support is also coming from unions in England, where Imerys has major production sites and Belgium, where financiers the Frere family hold a substantial interest in Imerys. 
 
In Europe, Imerys recognises trade unions and has taken a &quot;social partnership&quot; approach to industrial relations. Higgs has dubbed Imerys a &quot;chameleon corporation,&quot; accusing it of trying in America what it would not dare to attempt in Europe. 
 
Company tactics in the US so far have included compulsory meetings at which workers are shown videos that equate trade unions with the mafia. At Saturday's rally, Higgs told the American workers that Imerys was using in the States industrial relations methods that would be illegal in Europe. 
 
Higgs also noted the abrupt departure last week of Dennis Rediker. Prior to the sale of English China Clays to Imerys forerunner Imetal, ECC was run by Rediker, who was its chief executive officer and major shareholder. After Imetal acquired ECC, Rediker was made a Vice-President of Imerys-owned Georgia Marble and was put in charge of its Pigment Division. 
 
Rediker has a long history of anti-unionism and PACE believes that he was the main reason why Imerys' attitude to trade unions in America has clashed so markedly with its policies in Europe. 

Little is known about the circumstances of Rediker's sudden departure, but he is understood to have been replaced by Imerys executives from France. 
 
&quot;The fact that Rediker has moved on just now is not coincidental,&quot; Higgs said. &quot;It is symptomatic of the ideological rift between the US management and the centre.&quot; 
 
Speakers at Saturday's rally included Don Langham, PACE Vice-President and ICEM Executive member; Stuart Burkhalter, President of the Alabama State branch of the US labour federation AFL-CIO; Jimmy Colston, the PACE officer who organised the Georgia Marble plant 29 years ago (the Sylacauga plant at which Imerys has withdrawn recognition of the union); and ICEM North American Regional Coordinator Ken Zinn. 
 
All emphasised the need to rid Imerys' American operations of anti-unionism. 
 
A strange little incident shows just how urgent that task has become. 
 
Prior to Saturday's event, management told a number of union members that if they brought in food from the rally, they would be fired. 
 
So Imerys American management is even frightened of union-bought snacks. 
 
Food for thought in Paris.

Higgs Vows at US Rally: &#039;We&#039;ll Make it Hot for Imerys!&#039;

A 4.2 percent wage increase over two years has been secured for 580,000 chemical workers and 50,000 paper workers in western Germany under collective agreements concluded this week. 
 
In both cases, pay will go up by 2.2 percent this year and 2 percent in 2001. The precise dates of application vary by region and by sector. 
 
The agreements for both industries also emphasise job creation measures, notably a further increase in apprenticeships for young job-seekers. Retirement provisions for older workers are improved, as are the possibilities for taking early retirement on what in many cases adds up to almost the same net income as for those in work. 
 
The agreements have been negotiated by the mining, chemical and energy workers' union IG BCE, which at the global level is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
By and large, German collective agreements cover all employees within a given industry, regardless of their trade and their job category. In the chemical sector, this principle has come under pressure in recent years due to the current managerial fashion for hiving off activities considered &quot;non-core&quot;. German chemical firms' logistics and staff canteens have been particularly subject to this trend. 
 
IG BCE is keen to uphold the principle that all employees within the chemical industry are covered by the union's agreements and the union's protection. In cases such as logistics and canteens, it has therefore agreed to devolve more bargaining to the enterprise or workplace level. 
 
German collective agreements are negotiated regionally industry-by-industry, but with leeway for some variations at the enterprise level. In practice, the same main conditions are usually agreed for all western German states within a given sector. Eastern German states have separate bargaining arrangements. Their pay and conditions are gradually being brought up to the level of those in the western part of the country.

German Paper, Chemical Workers Win Pay Raises

Unions organising General Electric workers in 20 countries met in Washington today to coordinate their monitoring of GE's worldwide employment practices and to make the company respect trade union rights. 
 
Organised by the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), the conference has been emphasising worker unity both across frontiers and across sectors. At the IMF's request, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) has also mobilised its affiliated unions to take part in the Washington event. GE, like many multinationals, now has operations that cross the sectoral boundaries between the different global industrial trade union federations. It has expanded beyond its traditional metals base into chemicals and plastics. 
 
The GE world council, which is part of the IMF, will monitor GE and share information, the conference decided. The unions are seeking GE's compliance with the IMF Code of Principles. In this, they will be greatly assisted by rapid information exchanges via the IMF's comprehensive GE database. 
 
The unions said they would develop trade union strategies to counter GE activities that are detrimental to many workers' economic and social interests. Over the past few years, they emphasised, GE has &quot;ruthlessly turned its back on thousands of workers throughout the world by laying them off and by exploiting them in countries where internationally recognised labour standards are neither recognised nor enforced.&quot; 

They also noted that GE's &quot;yearly revenue exceeds the gross national product of 130 nations&quot; and that the number of GE workers outside the US has doubled in four years, from 62,000 to 143,000. Altogether, GE has about 340,000 employees. So, as the Washington delegates pointed out, the company's net profits of US$10.7 billion last year represent $30,000 of profit from the work of each and every employee. 
 
&quot;Solidarity and close communication are essential if GE unions are to meet the challenge of GE's globalisation strategy,&quot; said IMF General Secretary Marcello Malentacchi. He noted that the origins of the IMF-GE World Council date from 1966 and said the present conference is being held in the United States &quot;with a view to supporting our US colleagues in their negotiations&quot; with GE. US unions' next bargaining round with GE starts at the end of May. 
 
Malentacchi and John Sweeney, President of the US national labour federation AFL-CIO, opened the two-day conference. Delegates also heard an overview of US bargaining from Edward Fire, chairman of the Coordinated Bargaining Committee of GE Unions (CBC). The CBC bargains on behalf of 40,000 workers in 14 US unions. Fire is President of the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine &amp; Furniture Workers (IUE), which is affiliated both to the IMF and to the ICEM. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs paid tribute to the leadership of the IMF and Marcello Malentacchi in building international trade union solidarity at GE. 
 
Higgs is taking part in the Washington conference, together with ICEM President John Maitland and ICEM North American Regional Coordinator Ken Zinn. 
 
&quot;For the ten-year period 1990 to 1999,&quot; Higgs told delegates, &quot;global operating profits in GE's plastics and chemicals division increased by about 75% ... The division's operating profits of $1.65 billion last year came to 14.8% of total company operating profits, and the division's revenues of $6.9 billion came to 6.2% of total company revenues. So, while this is a minority part of GE's overall business, plastics and chemicals seem to be a growing and significant part of the company's bottom line.&quot; 
 
The implications for the IMF, the ICEM and their affiliated unions worldwide were obvious, Higgs said: &quot;Our federations and our individual affiliates should cooperate as closely as possible, support each other and use our unique strengths to build the kind of trade union power necessary to take on a company such as this.&quot;

General Electric Workers Pledge Unity

Archive

South African Coal Miners Stage Underground Strike

CEP, UPM Kymmene Fail in Canadian Talks to End Strike

Mining Union Wins Court Case Against Debswana in Botswana

Korean Workers Strike Over Labour Reform Bill

Settlement Ends Industrial Action at Michelin in UK

Canadian Power Workers Seek to Keep Power Plants Open

Pay Gains Achieved in East German Paper, Chemical Sectors

Higgs Vows at US Rally: 'We'll Make it Hot for Imerys!'

German Paper, Chemical Workers Win Pay Raises

General Electric Workers Pledge Unity

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