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 2025-2029

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

Press

<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="50" />
The ICEM&rsquo;s Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) Regional Seminar for Sub-Saharan Africa took place in Accra, Ghana, on 8-9 November. The seminar brought together ICEM affiliates from Senegal, Guinea, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Namibia, Nigeria, Mauritius, Ghana, and Togo to discuss CAL developments in their countries. 
 
Representatives from SASK, the international arm of the Finnish national labour centre, which supports the Sub-Saharan Africa CAL project, and the ICEM CAL global and African coordinators also participated in the seminar. 
<img alt="" src="" width="117" height="166" />
Joseph Toe, CAL Sub-Saharan Africa Project Coordinator, at the Ghana seminar
Affiliates exchanged information on what steps they had taken in respect to their specific action plans developed during previous workshops. Many participants reported that dealing with the issue of short-term contract work or agency labour was becoming more and more challenging. This was the case expressed by those coming from Nigeria, where management attitudes are increasingly favouring the use of precarious employment. 
 
Although unions in Nigeria have been demanding that remuneration of contract staff should be determined by the industry in which the contract operates, so that workers receive equal pay for equal work, they have not managed to achieve this yet. 
<img alt="" src="" width="240" height="135" />
Matti Koskinen, from the Finnish Union of Salaried Employees, Toimihenkil&ouml;unioni (TU), made a presentation on how CAL is dealt with in Finland, and said that collective agreements mostly regulate the use of short-term labour. Matti also drew attention to the European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation&rsquo;s second common demand for more secure employment, against precarious work. Joseph Toe, the Sub-Saharan Africa CAL Project Coordinator, presented a paper on membership recruitment, which participants said would prove to be very helpful in their CAL organising campaigns. 
 
Looking to the future, affiliates proposed that they should concentrate more on collecting facts and figures relating to CAL, and that they should prioritise the organising of CAL workers. Affiliates also suggested that dedicated funds should be raised for CAL workers, and that there should be more capacity building for dealing with CAL workers.

Africa Regional CAL Seminar Takes Place in Ghana

<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="50" />
The ICEM held, as part of its ongoing series of national and international events, discussions on Contract and Agency Labour (CAL, known as &ldquo;tercerizaci&oacute;n&rdquo; in Latin America), at an international conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 16-17 November 2010. Participants at this CAL campaign event, sponsored by Swedish LO/TCO and LO Norway, came from Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, and ICEM headquarters. 
 
Judging by participants&rsquo; accounts, the problem of outsourcing and precarious labour seems to be at least as widespread in Latin America as it is in other parts of the world. It was said, for example, that it is not uncommon for up to 40-50% of the formal workforce in these countries to work for subcontracting companies, with outsourced workers often doing exactly the same work as permanent staff, but for a much lower salary. 
 
That said, in nearly all countries in the region there also were - in addition to a large number of bad practice examples - encouraging stories on how different unions successfully managed to deal with part of the problem. 
 
In the host country Uruguay, for example, some unions now have CAL workers as board members and, in the paper sector at least, most outsourced workers are union members. On the other hand, the country is also known for its omnipresent &ldquo;use&rdquo; of cooperatives, which seems to be a means in Uruguay to avoid unionisation. 
 
These cooperatives, which were said to employ great numbers of workers, very often are small, worker-owned and independent enterprises that cater to other, larger enterprises. As such, they have become part of the subcontracting chain and it is not unusual for an entire department of a company to be turned into an &ldquo;independent cooperative.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="113" height="110" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="101" height="110" /> 
 
ICEM Latin American CAL Project Coordinators Rosane Sasse and Elias Pintado
During the last few years, Uruguay has adopted two new laws on temporary employment. The most recent one, adopted in 2007, introduces the idea of co-responsibility in case something goes wrong when workers are in a triangular relationship (i.e., when working for a &ldquo;third&rdquo; company, which is not the &ldquo;user-enterprise&rdquo;). 
 
This co-responsibility, which was mentioned by trade unionists from various countries as a key item, makes sure that workers can claim their salary, benefits, and/or social security from the user-enterprise in case &ldquo;their real employer&rdquo; fails to pay, or, as is fairly common, simply disappears. 
 
An interesting presentation was made by ICEM Project Coordinator Patricio Sambonino on the contract and agency labour situation in his home nation, Ecuador, a country where the government in 2008 adopted a new law that bans &ldquo;tercerizaci&oacute;n.&rdquo; 
 
According to a 2010 FES-ICEM research effort that looked into the effects of this new law, the success of the recent ban on outsourcing (the key point of the new law, which still allows exceptions for such jobs as catering, cleaning, security) has been mixed. Among the problems found by the FES-ICEM research was that workers that had to be rehired by the user-enterprise started at a lower salary than those that already had or have permanent jobs. Most workers also did not get lost rights, such as seniority or a decent pension. It was further pointed out that some companies have in the meantime found new ways of outsourcing.
<img alt="" src="" width="95" height="110" />
ICEM Project Coordinator Patricio Sambonino 
In the Ecuadorian mining sector, the level of informal work appears to be so high that the new law has not been able to make a difference. The study described the use of cooperatives in mining and in many cases, cooperatives are, in fact, just another form of bogus self-employment. In the oil sector, the new law has not brought the hoped for progress for workers. In the electricity sector in Ecuador, on the other hand, unions are very happy with the new law and the protection it brings, since many more workers now have direct and permanent contracts. 
 
In total, over 200,000 Ecuadorian workers have been made permanent since 2008. This must be qualified by stating that in many cases, the permanent status is only for one year, after which workers were dismissed again. This is the case for many oil workers. Still, a lot of workers were able to join the social security system for the first time and a few thousand &ldquo;subcontracting&rdquo; companies have closed their doors. 
 
Another important point is that, even though it was &ldquo;predicted&rdquo; by those opposed to the law, none of the major investors left the country as a result of the ban. Unions in Ecuador, who were not involved in the drafting of the law at the time, are now looking to dispel the negative consequences of what is, essentially, an excellent improvement for workers. 
 
Also noted is the fact that multinational companies in Ecuador seem to have accepted the new law much easier than most national companies. Reportedly, multinational companies were faster to calculate that the changes would not bring extra costs, and if any, certainly not in comparison to their total turnover.
<img alt="" src="" width="274" height="149" />
Participants at the Montevideo Seminar 
An interesting &ldquo;best practice&rdquo; example was provided by the representatives of Argentinean ICEM affiliate FASPyGP, the Federaci&oacute;n Argentina Sindical del Petr&oacute;leo, Gas y Biocombustibles. 
 
In each of their sectors (oilfields, oil refineries, and gas) good sectoral collective agreements exist. And each of these sectoral agreements also fully covers all outsourced workers. The result is that, even though the outsourcing rate is around 60%, all workers - CAL or not - receive the same salaries and the same benefits for equal work of equal value. 
 
Participants at the meeting in Uruguay were also informed about proposed legislation that is currently being prepared in Brazil by one of the national labour centres, CUT. If and when adopted, this proposal would strengthen earlier laws that deal with Contract and Agency Labour, which now already foresees co-responsibility in triangular work relationships. 
 
The new law would introduce, among other items, a ban on outsourcing core jobs, a strengthening of the co-responsibility, language to make sure that the union at the actual workplace can also represent the CAL workers, equal pay for equal work, and an obligation to inform unions in advance of any outsourcing plans. 
 
Finally, also mentioned at the seminar was a study by the Brazilian ICEM affiliate FUP, which showed that it would - all things considered - actually be cheaper for state-owned oil giant Petrobras to turn all its outsourced workers into direct workers. Knowing that, there still is a long way to go for Petrobras, as the company employs just over 70,000 direct employees, with almost 250,000 outsourced staff working on its assets.

Precarious Work Mounts in Latin America … But So Do Union Actions to Counter It

<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="50" />
The Finnish Parliament, in an interpellation or action to proceed to a motion of confidence over the government, voted on 19 November to challenge the government more vehemently on measures to ensure full-time, permanent work. Lawmakers from all political parties, left to right, voted 105 to 67 to challenge the government&rsquo;s job creation policies in a no confidence ballot aimed at stemming the grey economy. 
 
The vote was highly significant since it did garner cross-party support and was met with little employer opposition. It also sets the stage for better and more worker-friendly amendments next year to the Finnish law on the Contractor&rsquo;s Obligations and Liability when Work is Contracted Out. 
<img alt="" src="" width="132" height="81" />
The interpellation, initiated by Left Alliance Leader Paavo Arhinm&auml;ki, was supported by many parliamentarians of Finland&rsquo;s centre-right ruling government, and very likely will lead to legislation that goes beyond the requirements of the European Union&rsquo;s Directive on Temporary Agency Work. As well, any new legislation in Finland would likely limit the employers&rsquo; use of fixed-term contracts and prohibit employers from repeatedly using temporary workers when their need is a permanent workforce. 
 
One trade union leader in the country said lack of business resistance to the interpellation vote is a clear signal that employers realize productivity is better and Finnish society as a whole benefits when full-time employment is the norm. 
 
Last month&rsquo;s interpellation vote was preceded by the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) publishing a list of 25 proposals that should be contained in legislation to stifle the grey economy. One such proposal would give more power to the country&rsquo;s trade unions to enforce, through courts and other venues, nefarious work practices.

Broad Political Support in Finland to Erase Precarious Worker Abuse

<img alt="" src="" width="130" height="63" />
The ICEM on Friday, 19 November, expressed hope that 29 miners were still alive inside the Pike River Coal Ltd. mine following a methane gas explosion on the west coast of the South Island, New Zealand. The miners, some of whom are members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), are believed to be trapped two kilometers inside a horizontal shaft of the Brunner coal seam in the Paparoa Range, near the town of Atarua. 
 
&ldquo;We are shocked and saddened by this terrible accident,&rdquo; wrote ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda to EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little, who travelled to Greymouth, 50 kilometrers away, to offer direct support to family members. &ldquo;We pray that a speedy rescue takes place and that the men successfully reach the surface alive and into the warmth of their loved ones,&rdquo; said Warda. 
 
This morning, 21 November, rescue efforts into the mine were stalled due to continued high levels of gas build-up. Tests conducted through a ventilation shaft yesterday revealed a large heat source 1,500 metres underground, indicating that a fire might be still raging. 
<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="182" />
EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little
The blast happened Friday afternoon, New Zealand time, following an electrical malfunction that shut the mine&rsquo;s two large ventilation units. The subsequent explosion was so powerful that a fireball was seen coming from the ventilation shaft. An electrician ventured into the main shaft of the mine to check the outage at the same time the blast occurred. He continued, only to come upon an equipment operator who had been thrown from his machine. 
 
The two manage to escape 108 metres up a ladder inside the ventilation shaft. But the 29 other miners, ages 17 to 62, were entrapped deeper inside. The 17-year-old was working his first shift inside the two-year-old mine. A telephone line was found to be working inside the mine, but there was no answer to numerous calls. 
 
The Pike River mine is the largest underground coal mine in New Zealand and part of the mine is beneath Paparoa National Park. It employs 140 staff, 71 of whom are union members of the EPMU. 
 
Pike River Coal Ltd. is a 14-year enterprise that mines premium hard coal for coking and ultimately steel-making. It is 31% owned by New Zealand Oil &amp; Gas Ltd., 7% by India&rsquo;s Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd., and 8% by Singapore-based Saurashtra World Holdings Pvt. Ltd. The remainder is traded on New Zealand and Australian bourses. 
 
The company made two major shipments this year &ndash; one in February 2010 of 20,000 tonnes, the other in September 2010 of 22,000 tonnes &ndash; to Port Bedi, India, for exclusive use by Gujarat. It exports also to China, Korea, and Brazil. The mine has reserves of 17.6 million tonnes. 
<img alt="" src="" width="200" height="146" />
In recent months, Pine River installed a hydro-monitoring system inside the mine that uses a water canon to blast coal off working faces. The company was also seeking funding for a second ABM20 continuous mine machine it hoped to install. Two years ago, start-up production was delayed after collapse of the newly-built ventilation shaft. 
 
The company&rsquo;s CEO, Peter Whittall, said air compressors were pumping fresh air down the ventilation shaft in hopes that trapped miners were in a nearby rescue area. Whittal has headed the company for only seven weeks and was previously served five years as Pike River&rsquo;s general manager of mines. Before that, he managed various BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal operations in New South Wales, Australia. 
 
Despite rescuers not able to enter the mine today, drilling of a 15-centimetre vertical hole did commence in order to get a camera and possibly supplies down. 
 
The EPMU&rsquo;s Little said in Greymouth, &ldquo;Inevitably there are questions. We don't have an incident like this without there being reasons. There will be a time when we will need to get answers.&rdquo; 

The 29 trapped miners include 24 New Zealand nationals, two Australians, two UK citizens who are Scotsmen, and one South African. The equipment operator who found safety in the aftermath of the blast, 24-year-old Daniel Rockhouse, has a brother, Ben, who is one of the 29. The grandfather of the two passed away Friday evening. 
 
New Zealand has not ratified ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention.

Hope Still Alive for 29 Trapped Inside Pike River’s New Zealand Coal Mine

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
ICEM Swedish affiliate IF Metall launched a new campaign &lsquo;Strong Together&rsquo;, 20 November, to highlight the strength of their local trade union reps, and to illustrate that there is power in unity. That message was made with members picking up cars at the locals in the cities of Kiruna, Ume&aring;, Eskilstuna, Trollh&auml;ttan, Gothenburg and Malm&ouml;. 
 
&ldquo;Alone you cannot lift a car, but together we can,&rdquo; said Jan Thelin, a shop steward at LKAB mine in Kiruna, and one of the members who lifted a car. &ldquo;Imagine what more members can do together!&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="141" height="146" />
The campaign will be continued until the IF Metall Congress in June 2011. See videos of the events and further information on the campaign <a href="http://www.ifmetall.se/ifmetall/home/home.nsf/LUUnique/CADBBFCAB43A8C90C12577E000299F9D?OpenDocument">here</a>.&nbsp; 
 
The first group of IF Metall members to be the focus of the action was the 14,500-strong health and safety representatives. Those representatives conducted a hazard investigation before the lift.

IF Metall Campaign &#039;Stronger Together&#039;

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
ICEM Nigerian affiliate the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) is demanding the immediate release of its 10 members who were aggressed and arrested at work at 10.30am last Thursday, 25 November. 
 
The employees of oil multinational Halliburton did not know who the armed men were who arrived at company offices in Lagos, after attacking the security guards at the entrance. The men were officers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), investigating the bribery and corruption scandal around Halliburton and the multi-million dollar bribes paid to top government officials in exchange for the contract to build Africa's first liquefied natural gas plant in Bonny, Rivers state. 
<img src="" width="100" height="150" alt="" />
PENGASSAN President Babatunde Ogun
It is widely suspected that the bribery and corruption reached the very top levels of government and the establishment in Nigeria, including three former presidents. This is another reason why PENGASSAN are angered by the arrests of their members. 
 
PENGASSAN President, Comrade Babatunde Ogun said, &ldquo;Many Nigerian names appeared on the Halliburton investigating list in the United States and Nigeria. Names of three former heads of states, Late Gen. Sani Abacha, Gen.Abdusalami Abubakar (rtd) and President Olusegun Obasanjo as well as the ministers of Petroleum under their regimes were implicated as recipients of bribes. Why is it that it is only innocent Nigerians that the EFCC picked?&rdquo; 
 
Those arrested and brutalised by the EFCC are Jarvis Peter, Hans Kempeneers, Liliy Adiogu, Lawal Yakubu, Iseoluwa Ogundele, Efe Collins, Isa Saibu, Barnabas Iroegbulem, Chi-Ukpai, and Theodore Okonkwo. 
 
The association also condemned the barbaric nature with which the anti-corruption agency carried out its operations at Halliburton office on November 25, 2010, by beating the workers and molesting the female staff, which have been reported by Branch Chairman of the union Abel O. Agarin.

Police Brutally Arrest Innocent PENGASSAN Members

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Plastics and packaging members of New Zealand&rsquo;s Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) won&rsquo;t be taking further industrial action against Sealed Air&rsquo;s Cryovac subsidiary. A week ago, on 22 November, 117 workers at a plastic bag and food packaging factory in Porirua ratified a two-year wage settlement that will bring them 3.19% pay gains for both 2010 and 2011. 
 
EPMU members had engaged in three weeks of industrial actions in late October and November that caught the attention of the ICEM. (An InBrief report from two weeks ago can be seen <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4109-EPMU-Members-Strike-Sealed-Air-Subsidiary-in-New-Zealand ">here</a>) 
<img alt="" src="" width="222" height="148" />
EPMU's Tim Awatere
Sealed Air&rsquo;s original wage offer of 2% for a one-year contract drove workers to take strike actions, which included a one day walkout on 8 November and a ban on all short-notice overtime work. 
 
&ldquo;This is a good outcome for EPMU members, highlighting the financial benefits of belonging to a union collective agreement,&rdquo; said EPMU Organiser Mark James. &ldquo;Our members took a stand to get a fair share in the company&rsquo;s increasing profits so this is a result they can be proud of.&rdquo; 
 
The Sealed Air Cryovac factory, on New Zealand&rsquo;s North Island north of Wellington, produces plastic bags primarily for the meat industry, as well as packaging for other food manufacturing.

New Zealand EPMU Members Win Pay Gains with Sealed Air

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
For over a decade in Singapore, it had been common practice for employers to reduce salaries of workers by 10% once they turn age 60. That practice is now coming to a screeching halt as trade unions, in a united front, have convinced employers that the practice is degrading and discriminatory. 
 
Seven unions over the past several months, including the Chemical Industries Workers&rsquo; Union (CIWU) and the Metal Industries Workers&rsquo; Union (MIWU), have now negotiated an end to the cut-at-60 practice in an important labour development on the island-nation. 
 
Over 34,000 workers will this year no longer have to witness pay cuts just because they reach age 60. The recent initiative was not instituted by law, but rather came from a strong public urging to employers by National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) General Secretary Lim Swee Say and Singapore Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong. 
<img alt="" src="" width="140" height="66" />
Under some of the negotiated agreements, workers age 60 or above must undergo performance-based indicators to retain their salaries, but in others they do not. The MIWU had elimination of the practice incorporated in all collective agreements. That affected 11,000 senior workers for the good. One union, the Singapore Airport Terminal Service Workers&rsquo; Union, will have the no-cut-at-60 language finalized in December, with payment of salaries that were cut back to January 2010 restored. 
 
Other unions that have succeeded in eliminated the practice include the NatSteel Employees&rsquo; Union, the Singapore Bank Employees&rsquo; Union, the DBS Bank Staff Union, and the Union of Telecoms Employees of Singapore. Elimination of the practice at scores of private-sector employers by the CIWU affects 4,500 senior chemical and petrochemical workers. 
 
The practice began in 1999 when the retirement age was raised to 62 in that year. The Retirement Age Act was then amended to give legal status to the cut-at-60 practice. 
 
NTUC Deputy Secretary General Heng Chee How said it was encouraging that a great number of companies from many different industries and sectors had reviewed with unions the regressive practice and decided to end it.

United Singapore Unions Achieving Voluntary End to Pay Cuts after Age 60

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Len McCluskey won election last week as the future General Secretary of Unite the Union. On the day his election was made official, 24 November, he told a packed news conference that mass resistance was needed to stem the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition government&rsquo;s planned public spending cuts, as well as repressive anti-trade union laws that have set into the UK. 
 
&ldquo;I am not interested in subtlety,&rdquo; he told reporters. &ldquo;I understand what is happening to ordinary working people &ndash; their jobs are being lost, their families and the future of their children are being threatened, their houses are being repossessed, and they are looking around for someone to give them help. 
 
&ldquo;The very fabric of our society is being dismantled before our very eyes and we have a duty to lead a resistance against this attack. It is slaughter by stealth.&rdquo; McCluskey expressed urgency that progressive forces in the UK build &ldquo;an alliance of resistance.&rdquo; He said the planned Trades Union Congress (TUC) manifestation for March 2011 must be &ldquo;so big it rocks the establishment and makes them step back.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="145" height="151" />
Future Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey
The 61-year-old McCluskey, currently an Assistant General Secretary of Unite, won election in October and November mail balloting of union members in the UK and Ireland over three other candidates. He will succeed Unite Joint General Secretary Tony Woodley when Woodley steps down in December 2011. The 1.6-million-member union&rsquo;s other Joint General Secretary &ndash; Derek Simpson &ndash; will retire next month. 
 
McCluskey captured 101,000 votes to easily defeat Jerry Hicks (52,000 votes), Les Bayliss (46,000), and Gail Cartmail (39,000). A former Liverepool dock worker, McCluskey rose up through the ranks of the Transport &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union (T&amp;G), first as a senior shop steward on the Liverpool wharf in 1968 and later, in 1979, as a national T&amp;G officer. 
 
In 1990, he became National Secretary for T&amp;G&rsquo;s general workers&rsquo; group, leading negotiations in several sectors, including building materials, paper and packaging, building services, and the process industries. In 2004, he was promoted to National Organiser for all the service industries, including public services, construction, and the voluntary sector. 
 
Upon the merger in 2007 of T&amp;G and Amicus, forming the UK and Ireland&rsquo;s largest trade union, Unite, McCluskey was appointed Assistant General Secretary, playing a leading role in developing the union's organising strategy, and currently he is AGS for industrial strategy.

Britain’s Unite the Union Elects Len McCluskey as Next General Secretary

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
In late October, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Union made a bold statement that it would unequivocally reject concessionary contract proposals from auto parts manufacturers. It drew a line in the sand with noon-hour demonstrations at over 100 employers in the province of Ontario. (See ICEM report <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4084-Canadian-Auto-Parts-Workers-Hold-Day-of-Action ">here</a>.) 
 
Well, that line is fast proving to be a brick wall in which the no retreat mantra is being used against companies that seek worker givebacks in collective agreements. In the days and weeks after the 27 October manifestations, CAW local branches at two auto-parts suppliers have not only brought the national union&rsquo;s militancy into practice, but managed to carve out meaningful job security gains in renewal agreements. 
 
At Magna&rsquo;s Integram Seating plant in Tecumseh, Ontario, CAW Local 444 and its 725 members used a strike deadline to beat back threats to a collective agreement. A strike would have shut auto-assembly production at a nearby Chrysler minivan factory in Windsor, and that was something Integram managers needed to avoid. 
<img alt="" src="" width="360" height="51" />
The result was a two-year collective agreement that even though freezes wages, does grant two lump-sum bonus payments for workers. It also includes a cost-of-living adjustment in the final quarter of the second year, with a commitment to include cost-of-living increases in the subsequent labour agreement. What&rsquo;s more, improvements were made in post-retirement benefits, including age reduction from 60 to 55 for workers with 30 years service to qualify for full pension benefits. 
 
Ironically, the threat of an Integram strike and shutdown at Chrysler actually protected Local 444&rsquo;s future right to strike. Magna sought to tie the plant into the Framework of Fairness Agreement, a joint CAW-Magna 2007 arrangement that prohibits strikes at new company facilities in exchange for fair play regarding organizing efforts. Local 444 rejected imposition of that framework in this labour agreement. 
 
The other CAW success story occurred at thriving and ever-expanding Martinrea International, a Canadian-based metal-stamping chassis and frame supplier that also sells other auto parts to Chrysler, Ford, GM, and Volkswagen. At two Ontario plants of the company, Ridgetown and Dresden, CAW Local 127 since September had faced deep contractual reductions, including pay cuts from C$21-per-hour to C$14, elimination of the pension plan, cuts to health benefits, and to paid time off. 
<img alt="" src="" width="119" height="205" />
The 375 union members at the two plants rejected the company&rsquo;s backward proposals at a 30 October union meeting, and sent a strong message that Martinrea did not need relief and that Local 127 would set an example for the CAW&rsquo;s Auto Parts Workers&rsquo; United campaign. 
 
The result was Martinrea completely backed off the concessions and the union won first-ever job security language. Even though the three-year agreements at the two plants contain no wage increases, Local 127 won guarantees that neither plant would face shutdowns or reductions-in-force, and also guarantees that future engineered products will not be outsourced but done in the CAW-represented plants. 
 
The new labour agreements at Martinrea stand as testament that CAW workers will have a voice in production decisions. 
 
The CAW&rsquo;s auto-parts campaign &ndash; one of unyielding rank-and-file belief that contractual retreat does not guarantee job security &ndash; is taking hold in Canada and serves as an excellent example of grass-roots activism meant to resist social cuts and preserve living and work standards. Congratulations, CAW!

CAW’s Auto Parts Campaign Paying Off

Archive

Africa Regional CAL Seminar Takes Place in Ghana

Precarious Work Mounts in Latin America … But So Do Union Actions to Counter It

Broad Political Support in Finland to Erase Precarious Worker Abuse

Hope Still Alive for 29 Trapped Inside Pike River’s New Zealand Coal Mine

IF Metall Campaign 'Stronger Together'

Police Brutally Arrest Innocent PENGASSAN Members

New Zealand EPMU Members Win Pay Gains with Sealed Air

United Singapore Unions Achieving Voluntary End to Pay Cuts after Age 60

Britain’s Unite the Union Elects Len McCluskey as Next General Secretary

CAW’s Auto Parts Campaign Paying Off

About IndustriALL

Follow us

Contact us