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The All Pakistan Trade Union Federation is holding a series of rallies to protest price hikes, rising unemployment, retrenchment of workers and restrictions on trade union activity. The first rally, led by Gen. Sec. Gulzar Ahmed Chaudhry, was held yesterday at the Press Club in Lahore. Further rallies are set for tomorrow in different industrial areas of the country.

Pakistan’s National Labour Centre Rallies Over Union Restrictions

A pipeline project between Chad and Cameroon headed by ExxonMobil has come under scrutiny with a study detailing abuse of workers by two contractors, TCC and Subsahara Services. US affiliate PACE and NGOs the union is working with have brought the issue to the attention of the US supermajor in ongoing talks over human and trade union rights at company worksites. The study says contract workers are not paid for certain social benefits; violations of work rules exist regarding the number of working hours; non-payment to workers who are injured is prevalent; and the firms are absent of plans regarding demobilization, professional reconversion and social reinsertion.

ExxonMobil Stands Accused of Pipeline Abuses in West Africa

CEP is seeking binding arbitration for workers at offshore oil producer Hibernia, the ExxonMobil-led energy consortium that has flagrantly dodged a first union contract at the oil platform off the coast of Newfoundland. Some 420 workers voted for CEP representation in October 2001 but the company has used legal appeals and stall tactics to avoid the bargaining table. CEP is already in first contract arbitration at a similar North Atlantic oil platform called Terra Nova operated by Petro-Canada. Some 90 workers there voted for the CEP in April 2003. &ldquo;Our members at Hibernia and Terra Nova have waited far too long to get Coordinator Joe Gargiso. &ldquo;We prefer to negotiate terms but employer resistance is forcing us into following the mandatory first contract arbitration procedure.&rdquo;

Arbitration Sought to Settle Canadian Offshore Oil Dispute

Members of Canadian affiliate Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Local 689 struck Finnish papermaker UPM Kymmene 16 December in Miramichi, New Brunswick, over the firm&rsquo;s refusal to table the paper industry&rsquo;s pattern agreement for eastern Canada. Some 790 CEP members at a kraft pulp mill and a fine papers mill are striking to gain the pattern set when CEP signed a six-year accord with Abitibi-Consolidated last July.

CEP in Canada Strikes Finnish Paper Company UPM Kymmene

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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

The Oil Workers Federation of Brazil (FUP) staged a 24-hour warning strike at Petrobras 31 March that saw 90% participation by the state-run company&rsquo;s workers. Oil workers are seeking a higher dividend from the company&rsquo;s profit-sharing plan. FUP had been conducting a series of two-hour strikes up to the 31 March action, and now has given the company until 10 April to meet the demands or face escalated strikes. The 24-hour strike last week came a day after Petrobras set a historic daily output record, hitting 1.65 million barrels of oil, a 0.6% increase over the prior record set on 14 March 2003.

Warning Strike Launched by Brazilian Oil Union at Petrobras

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The worst US refinery explosion in over a decade happened at a BPAmoco complex in Texas City, Texas, on 23 March. PACE represents some 1,100 workers at the refinery with a total workforce of 1,800, counting contract employees. 
A total of 15 workers&mdash;all employed by contractors&mdash;died in the blast that occurred near an isomerization unit that boosts octane levels of petrol. The unit was being restarted at the time of the explosion after undergoing scheduled maintenance. 
Over 100 other workers were injured and about 80 of those are employed by contractors. Major contractors, who together with BP will share responsibility for the explosion, include Jacobs Engineering, JE Merit and Fluor.

BP Explosion in US State of Texas Deadly for Contract Workers

SIPTU, Ireland&rsquo;s general workers&rsquo; union, is waging a campaign for recognition, pay gains and work improvements at a Merck KgaA pharmaceutical laboratory in Baldoyle, Dublin. The union has sought and won a determination from an Irish Labour Court under a rare application for indirect representation under the amended Industrial Relations Act. The court ordered Gerard Laboratories, or Merck KGaA, the German firm&rsquo;s European manufacturing arm for generic drugs, to increase rates of pay, introduce a sick-pay plan, and spell out grievance and disciplinary procedures, as well as recognise SIPTU as bargaining representative. The union has the solid backing of Merck&rsquo;s EWC in efforts to bring the company to the bargaining table.

Irish Unions Campaign Against Merck

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