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A complaint just issued by the official US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is the &quot;first step toward possible prosecution&quot; of Imerys, a leading materials, minerals and ceramics multinational. 
 
So says America's Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical &amp; Energy Workers Union (PACE). The new NLRB complaint found merit in several charges lodged by the union. 
 
Imerys is the target of a global trade union campaign launched by PACE and the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Organised labour worldwide is bolstering Imerys workers in Sylacauga, Alabama, as they fight to maintain union recognition there. The employer in Sylacauga is Imerys American subsidiary ECCA Calcium Carbonates, Inc. 
 
&quot;Let there be no doubt - the company's vigorous effort to de-unionise even includes disdainful violation of US laws protecting workers from harassment,&quot; said Joe Drexler, PACE Director of Special Projects. &quot;Our union allies at the company's operations in England and France can now see the stark contrast with the high-road industrial relations it practises closer to home.&quot; 
 
The NLRB complaint names ECCA Vice-President Ray Barker, Sylacauga Plant Manager Randy Sandrik and five other managers. The NLRB alleges that Barker instructed supervisors to maintain records of employees' union sentiments; that Sandrik threatened employees who supported union organising efforts; and that two supervisors interrogated employees about their union activities. All are violations of Section 8(a)(1) of the US National Labor Relations Act, which prohibits employer interference, restraint or coercion of employees exercising their rights to organise. 
 
ECCA is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Imerys USA, Inc., formed by the 1999 merger of Imetal and English China Clays, Inc. Prior to the merger, Imetal and ECC operated neighbouring plants in Sylacauga, with the Imetal facility represented by PACE. On the effective date of the companies' merger, Imerys withdrew recognition from PACE and repudiated the labour contract (collective agreement) signed by Imetal and PACE. 
 
&quot;The issuance of this complaint by the Board puts the authority of the USA government behind the charges made by PACE and the Sylacauga employees beginning last September,&quot; said Attorney Robert Weaver, who filed the charges on behalf of PACE. &quot;For months the company has said there was nothing to the charges, and more recently that the charges were 'insignificant.' The Board's investigation and this complaint show just how high up the corporate ladder the violations go.&quot; 
 
PACE and the ICEM have highlighted the company's hiring of professional union-busters in an aggressive drive against PACE efforts to organise workers in Alabama and elsewhere in the southeastern USA. 
 
The company drive includes obligatory meetings at which employees are shown anti-union videos, while not permitted to ask questions. In a recent trip to discuss the situation with European labour leaders, Sylacauga worker Keith Fulbright said the videos, the interrogation and company threats to cut wages and remove benefits have many workers &quot;scared to death.&quot; 
 
The global labour campaign on Imerys is receiving strong support, notably from unions in France, where the company is headquartered and has production sites; in England, another big Imerys production centre; and in Belgium, where financiers the Frere family are major investors in the company. 
 
&quot;Imerys is a chameleon corporation,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Brussels today. &quot;It is preaching social partnership on one side of the Atlantic and bashing unions on the other. That is simply not on, and we have made this very clear to Imerys corporate management in Paris. Ultimately, the company's world headquarters bears the responsibility for the actions of its American management. We call upon Imerys to end immediately its anti-union campaign in the USA and to embark on a new, constructive relationship with the ICEM and its affiliated unions worldwide.&quot;

Imerys Could Be Prosecuted, US Union Says

A new safety culture is urgently needed at the Sellafield nuclear plant, British trade unions insisted today. 
 
Britain's official Health and Safety Executive this morning released three highly critical reports on safety at Sellafield, which is run by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). 
 
&quot;The time has come for all at Sellafield to accept a collective responsibility,&quot; commented Jack Dromey, spokesman for the BNFL industrial trade unions. &quot;We must build a new world-class safety culture, rooting out the remaining vestiges of the old discredited culture of complacency. 
 
&quot;A failure to act will threaten the very future of the 20,000-strong company,&quot; Dromey said. &quot;The reports are a devastating indictment and utterly unacceptable.&quot; 
 
Dromey is National Organiser at Britain's T&amp;G union. Trade unions at Sellafield include the AEEU, GMB, MSF, T&amp;G and UCATT. 
 
The three inspectorate reports examine various aspects of the Sellafield operation, notably the falsification of quality control data on some batches of uranium and plutonium mixed-oxide (Mox) fuel. These nuclear fuels are reprocessed at Sellafield for a number of clients. The main overseas customer is Japan, whose nuclear plants have stopped using the Mox as a fuel since the false documentation was first discovered last year. The inspectorate says Sellafield's Mox facility, now out of operation, will not be allowed to reopen until a number of changes have been made. These include new monitoring equipment; retraining of workers - several of whom were sacked over the incidents; and big improvements in Sellafield's supervision and management. 
 
Another of the reports draws three conclusions about safety at Sellafield: &quot;The first is that there is a lack of a high quality safety management system across the site which is compounded by an overly complex management structure. The second is that there are insufficient resources to implement even the existing safety management system. The third is a lack of an effective independent inspection, auditing and review system within BNFL. Without a vigorous independent inspection, auditing and review system, the Health and Safety Executive does not see how BNFL can make acceptable and timely progress in delivering a high quality safety management system across the site.&quot; 
 
The reports are &quot;a bitter blow to all those who have worked hard over many years, to challenge old complacency and put in place, in 1999, the building-blocks for a bright future for BNFL,&quot; Dromey said. &quot;The unions drove through the most radical pay and change agreement anywhere in the economy for ten years. This was designed to deliver world-class working practices, and end the Sellafield culture of long working hours. The unions also backed the proposed Public/Private Partnership, essential to introducing new commercial and management disciplines. 
 
&quot;But old habits at Sellafield die hard,&quot; Dromey stated. &quot;The company must bear the brunt of the blame for the fragmentation of the management and irresponsible cuts to manning levels.&quot; 
 
&quot;Finger-pointing, buck-passing and alibi-seeking would be wrong,&quot; Dromey insisted. &quot;There is a collective responsibility for what has gone wrong. The workers at Sellafield are determined to play their part in putting that right. The unions fully support the company's recovery plan (launched today). Combined with the unions' commitment to the proposed Public/Private Partnership, this represents the best hope for a strong future for Sellafield and BNFL.&quot;

Urgent Action Needed At British Nuclear Plant, Say Unions

FCE CFDT also said recent financial figures of EDF suggests the company&rsquo;s stated ill health in 2004 was exaggerated in order to prepare the public for partial privatisation of the state-run company. If finances are maintained for two further years at 2004 tax levels, the union contends, the company will be stable enough not to have to deliver any EDF stake into the hands of private capital.

False Signals Sent Over EdF’s Finances in 2004

A 12-week strike by iron ore workers in eastern Canada ended after the Iron Ore Co. of Canada (a Rio Tinto subsidiary) sweetened a proposal over the one 1,400 strikers barely rejected in early September. The three-year deal with affiliate United Steelworkers of America (USWA) contains no concessions and gives miners, processing plant workers and dock workers a C$1 increase over the contract&rsquo;s term and a C$500 lump sum payment. Meanwhile, 300 workers at Wabush Mines will vote on a five-year contract this week after a deal was struck with the USWA 8 October to end a 15-week iron ore strike in Labrador, eastern Canada.

Iron Ore Strikes in Eastern Canada Winding Down

<img height="40" src="" width="100" alt="" />
Goodyear&rsquo;s neutrality is not evident in Malaysia, however, where the US firm is busy suspending union officers, violating labour rights, exploiting foreign workers and relying on rampant outsourcing. 
ICEM affiliate National Union of Employees in Companies Manufacturing Rubber Products (NUECMRP) is locked in a dispute with Goodyear Malaysia Bhd. in Selangor with the company. The union is faced with restructuring while Goodyear continues to exceed quotas on foreign workers, namely from Nepal, Burmaand Vietnam. 
The NUECMRP branch at Selangor, numbering about 500 workers, has staged a series of informational pickets to support the suspended officers, as well as nine other workers who have been dismissed or suspended.

Goodyear Violating Union Rights in Malaysia

The USWA again used union-friendly language in it&rsquo;s Goodyear tyre contract to win card-check union recognition for workers. A majority of 158 production and maintenance workers at a textile cord factory in Utica, New York, said they want USWA representation and Goodyear is now obligated to negotiate a first collective agreement. The Utica operation is a joint venture between Goodyear and Sumitomo Rubber Industries. The union has now won four card-check recognitions at Goodyear&rsquo;s US plants since the agreement took effect late last year.

Goodyear Workers in US Win Unionisation with USWA

Bridgestone/Firestone Argentina continues to stall progress toward a resolve to the 11-month dispute with affiliate SUTNA at a tyre factory near Buenos Aires. Facing further industrial action on 19 August, BS/FS agreed to a request by the Labour Minister for Buenos Aires province to continue negotiations. Only nine of 58 workers who were sacked in an illegal rationalization plan have returned to their jobs, and SUTNA continues to press for the remainder as well as meaningful negotiations toward a new collective agreement. In the absence of a better proposal from the company, SUTNA has a mandate from union members to resume the industrial actions it suspended in early July when BS/FS agreed to reinstate workers.

Dispute Between Bridgestone, Argentine Union Continues

Two iron ore strikes in eastern Canada have crippled mining production in Labrador, province of Newfoundland. On 19 July, 1,250 members of ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers of America (USWA) struck the Iron Ore Co. of Canada, 58.7% held by Rio Tinto, over company proposals to strip health care and pensions, freeze wages and install a psychological profiling programme of workers on which to base discipline. The strike affects 1,000 workers at a mine and pellet processing plant in Labrador City and 250 port workers in Sept-Iles, Quebec. Some 350 USWA members are on strike at Wabush Mine in Labrador City and an accompanying processing plant and port in Pointe Noire, Quebec. That strike began 5 July and is against a consortium of firms led by US-based Cleveland Cliffs and is over efficiency issues including contracting out bargaining unit work. The two strikes affect 60% of Canada&rsquo;s iron ore exports.

Canadian Mine Strikes Shut Rio Tinto, Wabush Mine Operations

Two British unions have promised more industrial actions against French-based chemical producer Rhodia unless the firm drops its proposal to exclude new workers from a pension plan. Some 625 workers at two UK Rhodia plants - members of ICEM affiliates GMB and Amicus - struck late 17 July and 18 July at Oldbury, West Midlands, and Widnes, Chesire. 
 

<img height="264" src="" width="350" alt="" />
GMB General Secretary Kevin Curran (fourth from left) joined GMB and Amicus members on picket lines at Widnes on 18 July in their one-day industrial action against Rhodia. In foreground, at right, with sign is GMB Convenor Chris Wright. 
The two 24-hour walkouts are the first time British workers have struck to defend their pensions. Talks broke off 1 July when the specialty chemicals maker refused to address its pension curtailments on new employees. The company then failed to respond 11 July to a letter from the unions inviting the firm back to negotiations. GMB and Amicus members then immediately voted to take industrial action at the two plants. 
 
&quot;GMB members know that closing the scheme to new members puts the long term viability of the scheme at risk,&quot; stated GMB General Secretary Kevin Curran. &quot;Their security in retirement is being put in jeopardy by the decisions being made by the company now. 
 
&quot;Rhodia have refused to have a proper debate on our members' pensions and have left us with no option but to strike so their united voice can be heard.&quot; 
 
Amicus Joint General Secretary Derek Simpson added, &quot;This will be the first in a wave of strike actions that will gather pace as more and more workers realize that they face an old age of poverty. The workers at Rhodia are not just fighting for the future of the scheme, it is for the future of their children and their communities.&quot; 
 
By 21 July, the unions were again attempting to re-start talks with Rhodia to address the pension issue. Rhodia has been alerted that another 24-hour work stoppage at the Widnes plant is set for 15 August, while the Oldbury plant will be struck for a full day on 5 September. And intermittent, shift-long actions will occur every few days until then at both sites to protest the pension cuts. 
 
Companies have used dismal stock market performances by funds holding pension assets as an excuse to attack the sanctity of workers' pensions. And Rhodia's decision to restrict new workers from the pension plan and push them instead into a money-purchase scheme comes after years of the firm underfunding the pension plan. Rhodia has dropped its contributions from 18% to 14% over the past three years. 
 
Roger Lyons, Joint General Secretary of Amicus, said, &quot;The willingness to take action by Rhodia employees is the first rumblings of the groundswell of public opinion which will drown us all in old age unless we deal with the pension crises today.&quot; 
 
GMB's Curran added, &quot;Our members recognise that closing the scheme to new workers is just the first step to eventually stripping current workers of their hard-earned pensions. Employers need to get the clear message that they cannot back off from their duty.&quot; 
 
GMB represents process workers at the two plants in which industrial action occurred 17-18 July, while Amicus represents engineering staff. The Oldbury plant, employing 500, makes flame-retardants, water treatment products, food ingredients and various industrial chemicals. The Widnes plans employs 125 union members and manufactures food ingredients and industrial phosphate chemicals. 
 
The company was created in 1998 when Rhone-Poulenc S.A. spun off two major divisions, Chemicals &amp; Fibers and Polymers, to create publicly-traded Rhodia.

UK Unions Take Industrial Action at Rhodia

T he ICEM-affiliated United Steelworkers of America (USWA) announced 23 June that union members at Kennecott Utah Copper Corp. (KUC)--a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto plc/Rio Tinto Ltd. of London and Melbourne--ratified a new six-year labour agreement with KUC by a margin of 80 percent to 20 percent in a heavy turnout. The Kennecott Coordinated Bargaining Committee (KCBC)--a coalition of local unions affiliated with five US-based international unions led by the USWA--negotiated the master agreement on behalf of 1,300 KUC workers. 
 
The agreement was achieved after a bitter labour dispute that dragged on for more than eight months, but did not result in any work stoppages. Despite the fact that KUC bargainers attempted to force what they called their &quot;last, best and final offer&quot; on the KUC workforce on 1 Oct. 2002, the new labour agreement achieved significant improvements over the imposed proposal and previous labour agreements. The improvements include: 
 
+ Wage gains that average $2.40/per hour over the life of the agreement, depending upon seniority and job classification 
+ Continued health insurance for retirees with improvements (a hotly-contested issue) 
+ Improved health insurance for active retirees 
+ Doubling of retiree life insurance and improved life insurance for active workers 
+ Strengthened arbitration language that especially affects the company's ability to contract out work, and prevents permanent replacement of union jobs by outside contractors 
+ US$6,000 early retirement bonuses for qualified workers and US$500 ratification bonuses 
+ Significant money to settle outstanding grievances (which will be dropped upon signing, along with litigation surrounding charged filed at the US National Labor Relations Board 
 
&quot;This agreement is by no means perfect. No agreement ever is,&quot; said USWA District 12 Director Terry Bonds, who led the negotiations for the KCBC. 
 
USWA International president Leo Gerard stated: &quot;In the mid-1990s, unions that represent workers at Rio Tinto operations around the globe united to form the Rio Tinto Global Network to defend workers against the company's union-busting in Australia, southern Africa and elsewhere. We also began cooperating with environmental groups and human rights groups to stave off Rio Tinto's worst abuses against the enviromental and indigenous communities in the less-developed world. This struggle has only strengthened those ties. 
 
&quot;Our Network has become an active, effective Global Network that is playing, and will continue to play, an important role in the operations of a global corporation in a global economy.&quot; 
 
Besides the USWA, other US-based unions invloved in the KCBC include the ICEM-affiliated International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), the International Association of Machinists (IAM), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU). The new labour agreement expires 30 Sept. 2009.

Steelworkers Ratify Pact at Rio Tinto Copper Mine

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