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<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
ICEM affiliate Chemical, Non-Metallic, and Rubber Workers’ Union (KNG) of Slovenia and the Sava management of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. at Kranj came to wage terms at a tyre factory this summer, but the new contract still needs attention. At issue is how management is – or rather, is not – implementing language recently inserted into the collective agreement. 
<img height="100" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMrubber.JPG" width="100" alt=""/>
In addition to winning a €90-per-month increase, the 900 workers also agreed to a plan to reduce sick leave in exchange for a sizeable bonus scheme. Management has failed to adequately implement this plan, as well neglecting other aspects of the new agreement. Shop-floor leaders at the Kranj tyre and engineered products plants, Goodyear’s prize operations in Eastern and Central Europe, together with and KNG’s Andrej Zorko, are eager for managers to put the new collective agreement into effect. 
Goodyear produces auto, truck, and bus tyres in Kranj. It makes Sava tyre brands there, as well as its trademarked Avant A3 steer-axle tyre and the Orjak 03 drive-axle tyre. In 2006, Goodyear exceeded all business targets at the Kranj plants. It also made its one millionth tyre there. Goodyear is one of Slovenia’s largest exporters. 
<img height="120" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Slovenia.png" width="118" alt=""/>
The company entered into a majority-stake joint venture with the Sava Group in 1998, which gave it 60% of the tyre-making plant and 75% of the engineered products operation. Goodyear paid US$120 million for those stakes. Previously, Continental AG of Germany held a 28% share of Sava.In 2002, Goodyear bought another 20% stake in of operations for US$38.5 million, and, two years later, the company bought up the remaining shares to give it full ownership. 
 
Besides being affiliated to the ICEM, KNG Trade Union is a proud affiliate of the Association of Free Trade Unions (ZSSS) of Slovenia, which is currently leading an effort in the country to offset inflation with increases in salaries for all workers.

Contract Settled, But Problems Persist at Goodyear’s Slovenia Tyre Plant

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Calling the work-lives of temporary and agency workers in the UK the “dark underbelly” of British society, Trades Union Congress (TUC) General Secretary Brendan Barber gave the issue of contract and agency labour prominence on the opening day of the TUC Congress, 9 September, in Brighton. 
 
Setting out specific instances of temporary or contract worker abuse in the UK, Barber called for new labour rights to be given to such workers in Britain. And in his keynote address to Congress, just prior to Prime Minister Gordon Brown speaking, Barber called on his government to quit the stalling, and endorse the EU Directive on Temporary and Agency Workers. 
<img height="114" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0709Brendan Barber.jpg" width="80"/>
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber
“Since we launched the commission on vulnerable employment,” Barber said, “I’ve met so many victims of unfair, systematic exploitation. 
 
“There are so many issues to tackle in this dark underbelly of British life,” stated Barber. “I urge the government to deliver the promised European directive to give agency workers justice and dignity,” he said. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UKFlag.gif" width="100"/>
In 2004, the Warwick agreement was made in the UK, which was aimed at providing equal employment rights for temporary and agency workers, and to support the EU Directive. Even though the Blair government pledged to do so, it never did. The TUC has now called on the Brown government to not only support the directive, but also to pass UK laws giving temporary and agency workers full employment rights.

UK’s TUC Congress Calls on Government to Adopt EU Directive

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An ICEM affiliate in New Zealand, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), has rebuked a report from the New Zealand Institute, which suggests the country ought to follow rather than lead the climate control debate to avoid having businesses leave due to “carbon flight.” 
 
EPMU challenged that assertion, and said the country can not afford to follow on climate change, saying that a policy response “must ensure a just transition for workers in emission-intensive industries.”
<img height="50" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NewZealandFlag.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
EPMU said the report brings forth the debate on just transition. 
 
“We don’t want to see good, highly skilled jobs going offshore with no thought about how that skilled labour may be redeployed,” said the EPMU in a statement. “A just transition means encouraging investment in new technologies that demand new skills and therefore investment in training for the future. 
 
“However, this should not be used as an excuse to drag our heels on climate change as the New Zealand Institute and other business lobby groups appear to be suggesting. The long term economic consequences of doing nothing are far more costly than emission-reduction actions now.” The EPMU represents 50,000 New Zealanders, including workers in coal mining, manufacturing, electricity generation, and oil extraction.

EPMU Says New Zealand Must Lead, Not Follow Climate Change Transition

The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine & General Workers Unions (ICEM) deplores the arrest, two days after the emergency decree in Pakistan, of Deputy General Secretary Rana Ayub Aki Khan, leader of ICEM affiliated WAPDA Labor Union (PWLU). 
 
“We demand his immediate release, and the release of the others.” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “It should not be surprising that a leader of a trade union – and one that has been outspoken in the way Pakistan has operated its public utilities – is one of the first ones rounded up and arrested.” 
 
PWLU is a strong trade union voice inside the 130,000-worker Pakistani Water and Development Authority (WAPDA). ICEM has learned that Rana Ayub Aki Khan, along with 4 colleagues, were arrested on Monday, November 5, and are in a police jail in Gujranwala, Punjab Province. The ICEM also received notice that other leaders of WAPDA have now gone into hiding. 
 
The union has protested against government mismanagement and inefficiency at the public utility. It has also blamed a political patronage system with failure to deliver basic services, such as education and health. 
 
On October 29, nearly 1,000 WAPDA workers marched in Peshawar in protest of authorities ignoring the kidnapping of a co-worker at a WAPDA subsidiary, Peshawar Electricity Supply Co. Mukhtiar Khan is a driver for the utility. <a href="/en/?id=78&doc=2444&la=EN" type="internal">Click here for more on that</a>. 
 
The ICEM is a Brussels-based 20-million-member Global Union Federation representing oil, gas, power, mine, chemicals, and other manufacturing workers. It has 384 affiliated trade unions in 118 countries. 
 
For more, please contact Dick Blin, ICEM Information Officer, <a href="mailto:Dick.blin@icem.org">Dick.blin@icem.org</a>, Tel: +32 2 626 2026, or +32 2 377 4023

Trade Unionist Immediate Victim of Pakistan Crackdown

The 20-million-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) is lending its support to the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation Local Union (GPOLU), and its allies, in calling for defeat of draft legislation that would, effectively, privatise Thailand’s pharmaceutical drug industry. 
The ICEM is in full support of a manifestation on Monday, November 12, at the Ministry of Public Health in Nonthaburi. That rally, beginning at 13h00, is being organised by GPOLU, the Confederation of State Enterprise Unions (SERC), and allied consumer and civil society organisations. The ICEM encourages Thai citizens to attend. 
<img height="255" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0711Thailand7.jpg" width="300"/> 
Rawai Pupaga, GPOLU President and 
Chairman of the ICEM Thai Labour Committee
“We lend the name of the global trade union for all chemical and pharmaceutical workers to defeat this bill,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “We believe that removing the government as a provider of essential health needs, in any form, is a recipe for higher costs, with a bigger portion of the population going without adequate health care.” 
In a letter to be read at the manifestation, the ICEM pledged to stand with the GPOLU as they “prevail upon current government ministers and lawmakers … that government procurement of pharmaceuticals, first and foremost, must benefit Thailand’s citizens.” 
 
The ICEM, representing 384 trade unions in 118 countries, will be holding its 4th Congress, 22-24 November, at the Queen Sirikit Convention Center in Bangkok. Some 880 trade union leaders from national unions representing workers in the oil, gas, mining, chemicals, pharmaceutical, and processed industries such as pulp, paper, cement, rubber, glass industries will attend the ICEM’s quadrennial Congress.

Global Union Federation, ICEM, Calls for Defeat of Thai Public Health Amendments

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Mobilisation of European trade unions is in full force, counting down to a 4 December European Day of Action in Rotterdam, Netherlands, against food and chemicals company Unilever’s unjust job cuts. The mobilisation is being headed by the European Federation of Food, Agriculture, and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT), and has the full support of the European Trade Union Congress (ETUC), the European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Federation (EMCEF), and the ICEM. 
In August, the Anglo-Dutch company announced a global reorganisation plan that would make redundant one-tenth of its 180,000 employees. Unilever would close 60 workplaces, out of 300 worldwide. In Europe, the company’s global plan results in 10,000 to 12,000 job losses, with 20 to 25 plants endangered over the next 3 years. 
<img height="46" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/EMCEF.gif" width="146" align="absMiddle"/>   <img height="85" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/EFFAT.jpg" width="100" align="absMiddle"/>
In The Netherlands, where a number of strikes have already occurred, FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Voeding came to agreement with Unilever recently over a new collective agreement, as well as job security terms over closure of three Dutch plants by the end of 2008. The plants targeted for closure are in Delft, where Calvé food products are made; in Loosdrecht, a plant making Knorr food products; and in Vlaardingen, a Lever Fabergé plant where consumer products are made. 
 
The job security terms state that plant-site Works Councils will study the company’s plans and be allowed to develop alternatives. Those alternatives will then be seriously considered by the company in consultations with workers’ representatives. The two unions also agreed to fair compensation for any proposed job cuts. Unilever also guarantees that there will be no compulsory redundancies. 
In the collective agreement, running from May 2007 to March 2009, Dutch workers received a retroactive backpay award of 3% to last May. On 1 March 2008, they will receive a structural pay raise of 3.5%. The contract covers 3,000 workers. 
<img height="203" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Netherlands.png" width="200"/>
For the 4 December manifestation, the ICEM and EMCEF issued a joint declaration regarding Unilever’s global restructuring. In part, it reads, “Unilever’s August 2007 announced restructuring is the wrong response to the financial community’s criticism of the company.” 
 
The ICEM, along with its sister Global Union Federation, the International Union of Food Workers’ Association (IUF), cites Unilever’s anti-worker behaviour elsewhere as well. In India, the company has engaged in union-busting with the Hindustan Lever Employees Union at a factory in Assam. In trying to avoid social dialogue with the union, Unilever sold the food operation to a shell company. In Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan, at a foods and tea factory, Unilever called in armed militia to break workers protest against a plan to replace 950 permanent jobs, out of 1,200, with casual and contract workers. 
<img height="75" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/IUF.jpg" width="70"/>
In Vinheido, Brazil, Unilever took an uncompromising position in collective negotiations that set the worst precedents on implementing precarious work. Likewise, in Chile, South Africa, and Colombia, Unilever has exhibited clear and negative attitudes relating to labour relations.

European Unions to March 4 December Against Unilever’s Restructuring

<img height="39" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
The ICEM is asking trade unionists to write protest letters to Unilever’s vice president for Global External Affairs, drawing attention to trade union rights violations in Pakistan and India. The ICEM is assisting its sister Global Union Federation, the International Union of Food Workers’ Association (IUF), in protests to the company over its conduct at food and beverage plants. 
 
In November 2007, Unilever management at a factory in Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan, fired all but five of the plant’s temporary workers, following a Pakistani union’s announcement that it would allow membership to the workers and fight to secure permanent status for them. 
 
The fired workers were replaced by staff from a labour agency. The sacked workers were forced to sign termination letters in front of armed police and Elite Troops forces, who were called into the plant by local management.
<img height="100" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0711Unileverlogo.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
This latest incident coincides with an IUF complaint to the UK contact point over violations of the OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. 
 
Additionally, Unilever managers at a plant in Assam, India, have actively undermined trade union leaders in that factory. Management has sponsored creation of a yellow union there in the course of a long lockout aimed at supplanting the legitimate trade union. 
 
A model letter can be found <a href="/index.php?id=7&doc=2576&la=EN" type="internal">here</a>, that includes the name, address, and fax number of Unilever’s Global External Affairs vice president. Please send a copy of your letter to ICEM’s Chemicals Officer, Kemal Özkan, at <a href="mailto:kemal.ozkan@icem.org">kemal.ozkan@icem.org</a>.

ICEM Encourages Unilever Protest Letters on Company’s Pakistan, India Conduct

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Five hundred Canadian miners at Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. had been on strike for over three months seeking a new collective agreement, one that included a commodity-based bonus scheme. The strike ended last week, 13 November, when members of United Steelworkers Locals 7458, 7689, and 189 voted by 77.5% to ratify a new labour agreement. 
 
Miners and processing plant workers at worksites of PotashCorp in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan are expected to be back in their jobs this week. 
 
The three-year agreement provides minimum 18% wage increases over that period, with some increases higher. Roger Falconer, USW’s Canadian head of strategic campaign, said, “The members are happy to go back to work.” Included in the back-to-work agreement is retroactive pay during the strike, which began on 7 August, a supplemental market bonus of C$5,000, and shift premium increases which start at C$1.35-an-hour. 
 
<img height="101" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0811.usw.potash.strike.jpg" width="134"/>  <img style="WIDTH: 126px; HEIGHT: 101px" height="87" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0811.usw.potash.strike.2.jpg" width="116"/> 

Workers did not achieve commodity-based bonuses – a central issue being the strike – primarily because of the rapid economic downturn now. 
 
They did receive a C$50 increase to vacation bonuses, as well as return-to-work bonuses following layoffs of C$800 for the first two weeks of a furlough, and C$400-per-week after that. 
 
PotashCorp reported a profit increase of more than 400% in 2007 over 2006. The company is the world’s largest fertilizer enterprise, with the operations that were struck, Cory, Allan, and Patience Lake mines and plants, accounting for 18% of all Canadian potash supply and six percent of the world’s capacity. 
 
USW members took their campaign for a fair labour agreement to New York City and London to persuade industry analysts that they were proposals were justified, and that a prolonged strike would severely hurt the company’s financial ledger.

USW Canadian Members End 99-Day Strike at Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan

Statement of Xstrata Union Leaders 
 
We as leaders of unions representing workers at Xstrata have met in Montreal, Quebec on October 15 and 16, 2008. 
 
We have exchanged information and discussed our experiences. 
 
We are concerned that Xstrata’s actions are having a negative impact on workers and communities around the world. We expect Xstrata to operate at the highest labour and environmental standards around the world. 
 
We agreed as follows: 
• To support members of CAW 599 in their struggle in Timmins, Ontario, Canada with the company. 
• To find concrete ways to offer stronger support to each other during collective bargaining, especially for unions entering into bargaining in 2008 and 2009 (including among others: the Falconbridge Workers Union in the Dominican Republic; Altonorte Smelter Workers Union, in Chile, and Antamina Workers Union, in Peru). 
• To promote worker exchanges to promote solidarity and build awareness on workers’ issues. 
• To improve communication between us. We need fast and effective communication as the foundation of our work. We will establish a communications network through the internet. 
• To consult with and educate our members in our local unions. 
• To endorse the campaign of the CFMEU in Australia on workers’ right to be represented by trade unions. We will participate in that campaign through coordinated action. 
• To meet again and bring together more unions representing Xstrata workers. To work with the ICEM and its affiliates. 
• To develop strategies, including media strategies, to advance union campaigns. 
• To establishing an International Solidarity Fund that would provide us with the resources to undertake joint projects and support each other at the appropriate times 
• To work toward: 
• establishing a Workers’ World Council 
• engaging the company in the establishment of common international minimum standards on occupational health, safety and environment. 
 
The following unions and union federations participated in the meeting and endorse this statement. 
 
ICEM - International Federation of Chemical, Energy, and Mining and General Workers’ Unions 
 
From Australia – 
Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) – Australia, including: CFMEU branches at: 
• Xstrata Newlands Coal 
• Xstrata Oaky North Coal 
• Northern District Branches 
 
From Germany - 
IG Metal, Nordenham, Germany 
 
From Canada – 
United Steelworkers (USW), including: 
• USW Local 2020 – Xstrata Nickel, Sudbury, Ontario 
• USW Local 4614 - Fonderie Generale – Montreal, Quebec 
• USW Local 5385 – Brunswick Mining & Smelting, Bathurst, New Brunswick 
• USW Local 6887 – CCR, Montreal, Quebec 
• USW Local 6486 – CEZinc, Montreal, Quebec 
• USW Local 9449 - Raglan, Québec 
• USW Local 7085 – Brunswick Mining & Smelting, Bathurst, New Brunswick 
 
From Chile – 
Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Fundidora Altonorte, Antofagasta, Chile 
 
From the Dominican Republic – 
SUTRAFADO, Falconbridge Workers Union, Dominican Republic 
 
From Peru – 
FNTMMSP, National Federation of Mine and Metalworkers of Peru 
SUTRACOMASA, Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Compañía Minera Antamina, Peru

XSTRATA UNIONS GLOBAL NETWORK

Tomorrow, December 1, is the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. To mark the day, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) has issued a leaflet that can be found here. Since 1988, trade union and civil society efforts have engineered a strong response to the epidemic, and recorded results prove the engineering has solid footing, thanks to labour unions and NGOs. 
 
But more work remains. “The fight to eliminate the scourge of the pandemic is far from finished, and more must be done,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “We’re proud to recognise the 20th Anniversary of December 1, but even prouder to mark this day with commitment to wage this fight until the disease is gone.” 

<img style="WIDTH: 174px; HEIGHT: 195px" height="276" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM_AIDSlogodark.jpg" width="200"/>
The role of trade unions is critical in the struggle against AIDS. Trade unions demonstrate leadership on the issue by pushing early testing and prevention methods in the workplace, and then in homes and communities. The issue is a priority in most governing bodies, in women’s caucuses, on health and safety committees, and most importantly; in negotiations with companies. This impact is positive to the community, to family life, and to national level policies based on workable and achievable grass-roots principles aimed at combatting the disease. 
 
Together with social partners, the World AIDS Campaign set this year’s theme for World AIDS Day as “Lead – Empower – Deliver,” building on last year’s theme to take the lead. Designating leadership as the overall theme for 2007-08 provides an opportunity to highlight the political leadership needed to fulfill commitments, particularly the promise of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support by 2010. 
 
Any union member, shop steward, union official, committee member, or gender representative who takes action today on HIV/AIDS is a leader in the fight against the deadly disease. 
 
The World AIDS Campaign has developed material that can be accessed at <a href="http://www.worldaidscampaign.org">www.worldaidscampaign.org</a>. 
 
 
 
For further information, contact Dick Blin or Tom Grinter, ICEM, <span onmouseup="javascript:skype_tb_imgOnOff(this,1,'0',false,'');return skype_tb_stopEvents();" class="skype_tb_injection" oncontextmenu="javascript:skype_tb_SwitchDrop(this,'0','sms=0',false);return skype_tb_stopEvents();" onmousedown="javascript:skype_tb_imgOnOff(this,2,'0',false,'');return skype_tb_stopEvents();" id="softomate_highlight_0" onmouseover="javascript:skype_tb_imgOnOff(this,1,'0',false,'');" title="Call this phone number in Switzerland with Skype: +41223041840" onclick="javascript:doRunCMD('call','0',null,0);return skype_tb_stopEvents();" onmouseout="javascript:skype_tb_imgOnOff(this,0,'0',false,'');" durex="368" context="+41 22 304 1840" iamrtl="0">            +41 22 304 1840       ; <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a> or <a href="mailto:tom.grinter@.icem.org">tom.grinter@.icem.org</a>.

ICEM Marks 20th World AIDS Day with Commitment to the Future

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