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In March, the ICEM had the assistance of the IMF in a public campaign in support of ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş in Turkey to get Standard Profil, a manufacturer of rubber products, to begin bargaining. Petrol-İş had gained well past the necessary 50% of Standard Profil&rsquo;s 2,300 employees workers seeking union representation, and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security certified that the company&rsquo;s product line fell into the Petrol-İş negotiating jurisdiction of petroleum, chemicals, and rubber. 
The purpose of the public campaign, which included global letters of endorsement to Petrol-İş by unions and Works Councils representing Standard Profil customers in the automotive sector, was to dissuade the company from appealing the Ministry&rsquo;s industrial sector determination. The union called on the company, in the words of Petrol-İş President Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkin, to &ldquo;start with mutual good will and consideration of mutual interests.&rdquo;
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&nbsp;Petrol-İş President Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkin
The maker of rubberized automotive sealing systems had already engaged with the union over freedom of association and workers&rsquo; rights training through intervention by the Multinational Investment Guarantee Agency, a monitoring agency of the World Bank&rsquo;s International Finance Corp (IFC). The IFC has loaned Standard Profil development money at its two factories in D&uuml;zce and Bursa and criteria for the loan compels the company to foster proper social and environmental conduct. 
In April, the company ignored the workers&rsquo; olive branch made by Petrol-İş and filed an appeal with the government. The company claims its jurisdiction is in the metal industry. Such an appeal in Turkey is meant to thwart union recognition and negotiations by tying the matter up in court procedures for two years or more. And following jurisdiction outcome, an appeal on the 50% plus one is automatic, which further binds the hands of legitimate workers&rsquo; rights to join a union and bargaining collectively. 
This is a main reason why Turkey&rsquo;s archaic labour code is currently under scrutiny at the ILO. 
Despite Standard Profil&rsquo;s labour rights training in 2008-09 under its IFC responsibilities, the company signalled ill-will in sync with its appeal last month by sacking five union activists, including one who is a disabled worker. 
In fact, ICEM and Petrol-İş developed the public campaign with a back-up strategy in the event Standard Profil turned hostile. The Istanbul-based company manufactures rubber sealers for doors, boot, engine covers, and other seals for automobiles. It was owned by Bancroft Private Equity LLP but in early May was sold to the Pawan Ruia Group of India. 
The Ruia Group is heavily involved in the rubber industry and holds big equity stakes in Dunlop Tyre, Monotana Tyre, and Falcon Tyre of India. It also holds a big share of the automotive fastener market, making it a strategic company in the automotive supply chain. ICEM and Petrol-İş will now focus on that fact.

ICEM at Standard Profil: Halting Union Avoidance in Turkey’s Rubber Sector

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Ammattiliitto Pro, ICEM&rsquo;s salaried workers&rsquo; trade union affiliate in Finland, is asking that white-collar workers at several paper companies not take on extra work in the coming weeks. The union seeks such global unity as it begins its third wave of lawful strikes next week, and continues ones tomorrow against the intransigent employers of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF). 
 
The request also comes after government conciliator Esa Lonka today was unable to shape a compromise proposal because of FFIF intransigence in official mediation in Finland. It was the third consecutive week that employers failed to resolve a downward spiralling labour dispute by not recognising the unfair job demands on 4,000 clerical, technical, and front-line supervisory personnel. 
 
Because of redundancies and speed-ups over the past several years in the Finnish pulp and paper sector, Pro members are asked to work more without adequate compensation, or without recognition of higher job competencies. 
 
In addition to an overtime ban across all pulp and paper companies, strikes that began on 26 April by 1,500 Pro members are continuing this week at Stora Enso, Mets&auml;liitto, Mets&auml;-Botnia, M-real, and Mets&auml; Tissue and a renewed strike will begin tomorrow by 1,000 salaried workers at UPM. 
 
That strike will begin at 06h00 on 4 May and run until 06h00 on 7 May. It is the second strike action against UPM &ndash; the first one running from 6-20 April &ndash; and production at UPM&rsquo;s six mills, as well at an administration centre in Tempere and an export facility at the port of Kotka will again be affected. 
 
Ammattiliitto Pro expects employers to try to break the strike by bringing in replacement workers, moving administrative work elsewhere, and to continue to bully Pro members in order to get them to ignore the overtime ban and strike actions. (See prior <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4394-Paper-Dispute-in-Finland-Worsens;-Strike-Expands">ICEM report</a> here.) 
 
&ldquo;Pro appeals for solidarity from workers of UPM-Kymmene, Stora Enso, Mets&auml;liitto, Mets&auml;-Botnia, M-real, Mets&auml; Tissue, and Sappi in other countries not to perform any extra work of the type covered by the strikes, as the companies seek to break the strike by transferring the work abroad,&rdquo; said the union. 
 
The ICEM is calling on paperworkers throughout the world to support Ammattiliitto Pro in this critical dispute in Finland, and to monitor the administrative, financial, services workload in these pulp and paper companies in order to comply with the union&rsquo;s request. Also, notes of solidarity should be sent to Pro President <a href="mailto:Antti.rinne@proliitto.fi">Antti Rinne</a>, and collective bargaining directors <a href="mailto:Jukka.hamalainen@proliitto.fi">Jukka H&auml;m&auml;l&auml;inen</a> and <a href="mailto:Jari.uschanov@proliitto.fi">Jari Uschanov</a>.

Mediation Fails in Finnish Paper Strike; Strikes Continue

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The ICEM Norwegian affiliate, IndustriEnergi (IE), announced on 1 May that Shaher Sae&rsquo;d, General Secretary of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), is the 2011 recipient of the Arthur Svensson International Award for Union Rights. 
 
Sae&rsquo;d becomes the second recipient of the Svensson Award. Wellington Chibebe, the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Confederation of Trade Unions (ZCTU), won the award in 2010, which comes with a NOK 500,000 (&euro;60,000) cash prize. 
 
In selecting Sae&rsquo;d and the Palestinian national labour centre, IE said, &ldquo;PGTU fights for better understanding of the importance of union rights in the Palestinian self-government administration. They also work for Israel to stop the occupation of the Palestinian territories and the illegal settlements.&rdquo; 
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Shaher Sae&rsquo;d, General Secretary of the PGFTU
Some 30 individuals and organisation were nominated for the award in 2011, which will be presented at a dinner and ceremony in Oslo on 16 June. The award is named after Arthur Svensson, a leader of Norsk Kjemisk Forbund, the Norwegian Chemical Workers&rsquo; Association, which merged in 2006 with the Petroleum and Energy Workers&rsquo; Federation (NOPEF) to create IE. 
 
Svensson died in 2008, but left a legacy in Norway and beyond as a man who promoted global peace, disarmament, and a nuclear weapons-free world. 
 
Noting the fact that Shaher Sae&rsquo;d has been imprisoned a number of times, and his own safety and that of his family have been at risk several times, the selection committee said Sae&rsquo;d &ldquo;has shown outstanding leadership of the Palestinian trade union movement, while the political and financial framework has made this work especially difficult. 
 
&ldquo;The Palestinian people have fought against occupation, as well as an independent state for over 60 years. Under the leadership of Shaher Sae&rsquo;d, PGFTU has shown a will for dialogue and has refused to isolate any Palestinian groups, including Hamas. He has been open to a dialogue and cooperation with Histadrut, the organisation of trade unions in Israel.&rdquo;

Palestine’s Shaher Sae’d Winner of Norwegian Arthur Svensson Union Rights Award

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Fifteen United Steelworkers (USW) branches in 11 US states last week ratified a new master agreement with International Paper (IP) by a 73% vote count, the union announced. The four-year agreement covers 6,800 workers at 15 pulp and paper mills, and it now builds on a first master agreement covering multiple workplaces of IP that was achieved in August 2007. 
 
The agreement, to take effect in August, includes wage increases of 1% in 2011, 2% in 2012, 1.5% in 2013, and 2% effective on 31 August 2014. It also includes improvements in a defined benefit pension plan, and lump sum payments into an existing employee savings plan of US$1,000 each in 2012 and 2014. 
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USW Bargaining Committee
In addition, the agreement spells out stabilisation over health care costs, and provides job security, mainly through a &ldquo;successorship clause.&rdquo; That means that if IP sells any of the 15 mills, the new owner must retain all workers, recognise the USW as bargaining representative, and honour the collective agreement. 
USW Vice President Jon Geenen, who heads collective bargaining for the union in the pulp and paper sector, said the IP agreement continues a historic achievement. &ldquo;In the past,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;our locals bargained site by site, even though most companies approach bargaining as part of a national strategy.&rdquo; 
 
Geenen added: &ldquo;The success of our local unions here sets a precedent for bargaining in the rest of the industry.&rdquo;
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USW VP Jon Geenen
The agreement came together in late March and early April after nearly a year of planning and strategic meetings. It culminated in face-to-face discussions in New Orleans, Louisiana, early last month in which an 80-person USW bargaining committee participated. &ldquo;One of the main benefits of all the locals bargaining together at the same time is that everyone gets a voice in shaping the package,&rdquo; said Geenen. 
 
The USW has a similar master accord with IP in the paper converting industry, covering 2,800 workers at 32 paper-converting plants of the company in 18 US states. The first master agreement in converting came into effect in 2008 and expires in 2012.

Steelworkers Renew Master Labour Pact with International Paper in US

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The already-limited freedoms of association in Iraq are under further attack. Last month, the Cabinet arbitrarily dismissed the executive board of the country&rsquo;s largest trade union organisation, the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW), and established a new committee to take over all union structures and assets, oversee and control upcoming union elections. 
 
Cabinet Decrees 95 and 96 were issued on 17 April, withdrawing recognition of the GFIW and appointing a &ldquo;Ministerial Preparatory Committee&rdquo; (MPC), consisting of un-elected, politically bias officials, mostly from the Sadrist Party. MPC employees have already begun distributing union membership cards, arbitrarily choosing members favourable to their faction. Further to this, union offices have been taken over with support from police and military personnel. Upcoming union elections are expected to be held inside the Sadrist Party offices. 
 
The deeply concerning developments follow a recent distribution of government ministries between the various political factions of the coalition. The carving up of responsibilities saw the labour ministry taken over by the small, Shia sectarian Sadrist movement, followers of Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. 
 
Eight years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, his regime&rsquo;s regressive labour laws have not been replaced, meaning all public sector employees have no right to organise or bargain collectively. The vast majority of workers in Iraq are affected by this law. But this latest attack is even in breach of the Saddam legislation. 
 
The TUC in the United Kingdom has been on the front line of a global union backlash, calling on the Iraq government to back down. TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber wrote to Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki explaining that the TUC will exercise its veto right to block the government-nominated workers&rsquo; delegate to the ILO Annual Conference (ILC) in June, unless the attack is reversed. 
 
Support the <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=917">Labourstart campaign</a>, and send your protest message to Iraq Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki here. Also send your opposition to this attack on the GFIW to the Iraqi Embassy in your country. International pressure has proved effective in Iraq over recent years. The labour ministry decree has been publically condemned by the Minister of Civil Society in Iraq. Build the pressure, join the campaign. 
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Oil workers protest in Basra for fair wage
Iraqis continue to bravely organise in face of the government attacks. Oil workers in Basra last week, 10 May, walked out and threatened to stop production at the state-run South Oil Corporation, demanding fair salaries and benefits to match those of oilworkers at the international corporations operating in Iraq. Foreign workers were to be blocked from entering oil fields yesterday, but Basra Governor Khalaf Abdul Samad Khalaf agreed to meet the unions and averted the escalation of the protest, for the time being.

Iraqi Government Moves to End Free Trade Unions, Remove Recognition of National Centre

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The Independent Trade Union of Miners&rsquo; of Ukraine (NPGU) held its Sixth Congress at mid-month in Kiev and besides hearing a 2005 to 2011 report on the union&rsquo;s activities, the Congress elected governing bodies and adopted several resolutions. 
 
Mikhail Volynets was re-elected President of the Independent Miners Union by secret ballot. The Congress was attended by the ICEM and representatives from the ILO, the US Solidarity Center, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) of Germany, representatives of Ukrainian ministries and departments, deputies of the Verkhovnaya Rada, or Parliament, the leaders of other trade unions of Ukraine. 
<img src="" width="209" height="207" alt="" />
Mikhail Volynets (left) and NPGU Vice President Anatoly Akimochkin
Delegates and speakers voiced concern that the new law on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, adopted by the Rada, with many stating that it jeopardizes the gains made over the past 20 years. Specific resolutions of the Congress singled out harmful passages of the Social Dialogue law regarding pension reform and health and safety in Ukraine&rsquo;s coal mines. 
 
The Congress also resolved to: demand that the state establish a system of preferences for employees who are actively involved in creating safe working conditions and for employers who prove that they maintain a steady level of safe working conditions; demand that the work state mine regulatory agencies do be judged on hours worked without incidents, accidents, and fatalities, rather than on the number of orders, reprimands, and fines issued; demand that public institutions in the field of occupational safety and health should be an integral part of safety and health management systems. 
 
Delegates also called on the Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers not to adopt the draft law on pension reform; develop wage reform aimed at legalizing the maximum wage and to significantly increase the wage proportion in a company's production costs to the level of 20-25% to serve as the basis for calculating pension contributions; eliminate the corruption phenomenon in the extractive industries where the shadow market of coal reaches three million tons per year, and to close coal mining off to so-called &ldquo;slave labour,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Kopanki&rdquo;; and improve legislation for heightened liability against employers for violating workers&rsquo; rights.

Independent Miners’ Union of Ukraine Holds Sixth Congress

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On 13 May in Madrid, two great unions from the Spanish UGT confederation merged to form a new union, the 150,000-member FITAG-UGT, the UGT&rsquo;s new union for food and industrial workers. 
 
Dissolution congresses of the two predecessor unions, FTA-UGT for food and FIA-UGT for chemicals and industrial, preceded the founding congress, with delegates voting better than 97% in both congresses to go ahead with the merger. Antonio Deusa Pedrazo was elected General Secretary of FITAG-UGT. The new Executive is made up of 17 members, six of whom are women. Roughly 32% of the new union&rsquo;s membership is women. 
 
The union will negotiate 31 collective agreements in sectors that cover 10% of Spain&rsquo;s total industrial base. 
<img alt="" src="" width="239" height="159" />
Mari Luz Rodriguez
The founding Congress made it clear that special attention will be given to sectors that are more difficult to organise such as ones containing small- and medium-sized companies. One focus will be immigrants who work in great numbers in some of the sectors that the new federation will represent. 
 
Spanish Secretary of State for Employment, Gender and Youth, Mari Luz Rodriguez, spoke at the founding 
Congress. She recognized the new union for its reinforced union structures and for defending the interests of workers. 
 
FITAG-UGT also made it clear it was laying the foundation for facing the challenges that confront trade unions, both at national and international levels. Those include: to respond to globalization and fight neoliberalism; strengthen the union role and strengthen European Works Council roles in facing multinationals; to make the most of international trade unions; to demand and get more stable and secure employment with more rights; and to demand more appropriate social protections and defend the welfare state. 
 
To meet these goals, FITAG-UGT resolved to organise more workers in all sectors that the new union serves, and to get more shop stewards to be present in all workplaces and to increase the union&rsquo;s influence. The union believes better training, information, and structures will be put in place to achieve these goals. 
 
ICEM affiliate FIA-UGT itself is a product of mergers in Spain&rsquo;s labour movement. The former Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union first merged with UGT branches representing oil and gas workers and then merged again with branches of miners and textile workers.

Industrial, Food Workers of UGT in Spain Merge

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The end to bitter strikes by 4,000 members of Ammattiliitto Pro against Finnish paper producers came to an end last week, 18 May. After six weeks of tension, the union and the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF) came to terms over a second-year wage renewal. 
 
The ICEM white-collar affiliate in Finland won an across-the-board national salary increase, something FFIF had denied at the outset, but most importantly they narrowed the pay gap among the clerical, technical, and front-line managerial ranks of the pulp and paper industry. 
 
The 2011 national pay award, effective 19 May, is 1.5%, or &euro;48-per-month minimum, whichever is higher. The effect is to weight the package toward lower-wage clerical workers in order to narrow the pay gap. In the face of rampant administrative redundancies in the Finnish paper sector, these workers are working harder and taking on more responsibilities. 
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The government-mediated settlement calls for an additional 1% to be negotiated at the local level by 17 June. If talks on local issues such as training, development, skill requirements, and work tasks do not conclude by then, the 1% will be awarded on 1 July. Pro and FFIF also agreed to address and develop salary structures in the future in a more transparent direction. 
 
The union had been <a href="-Walkouts-Intensify-Because-of-Strike-Breaking due to strike-breaking">increasing strike pressure</a> and threats and intimidation in attempting to break a lawful overtime ban. Since early April, all Finnish-based companies were met with multiple strikes lasting up to two weeks and South-African-based Sappi was in the middle of a two-week strike last week when government mediator Esa Lonka finally succeeded in putting together a compromise. By last week, about 75% of white-collar staff in Finland&rsquo;s paper industry was on strike. 
 
Following the late night 18 May agreement, shift workers returned to their jobs at 6h00 on 21 May, while day workers returned today, 23 May. 
<img alt="" src="" width="80" height="103" />
Jukka H&auml;m&auml;l&auml;inen
Ammattiliitto Pro paper industry Chief Negotiator Jukka H&auml;m&auml;l&auml;inen said the solidarity among Pro members is reflected in the fact that the union was united in closing the pay gap between men and women. He said improved salary equality between men and women was a major accomplishment in the one-year agreement. 
 
Pro received widespread global labour attention to this bitter white-collar dispute and issued this statement: &ldquo;Pro and its members on strike have received many messages of solidarity during the strike. Pro wishes to thank everyone for these important messages, which served as a significant incentive in this difficult industrial action.&rdquo; 
 
A day after the Ammattiliitto Pro/FFIF settlement, government mediator Lonka crafted a compromise between the Media Sector of Industrial Union TEAM with Finnish print employers, preventing possible industrial actions.

Ammattiliitto Pro Cuts Gender Pay Gap in Finland Paper Agreement

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Today, the ICEM Presidium held its bi-annual meeting in Geneva, with the annual meeting of the Executive Committee scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, 24-25 May. The meetings are being held at the ILO. 
 
Besides presenting a Secretariat Report and preparations for ICEM&rsquo;s Fifth Statutory Congress, the decision-making bodies will receive an ICEM Action Plan for the Congress and beyond. The Action Plan will be a working document through to the Congress, scheduled for 24-26 November 2011 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 
 
On Wednesday afternoon, 25 May, the Executive Committees of ICEM, International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) and the International Leather, Textile and Garment Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) will meet in joint session to review the integration progress. IMF and ITGLWF statutory bodies are also meeting separately in Geneva this week. 
 
The three Global Union Federations (GUF) have been conducting joint task force deliberations to explore integration and to lay the groundwork for it. The task force has met four times since September 2010, with the most recent meeting &ndash; in Frankfurt on 5 May &ndash; producing a tangible outline for a new and dynamic industrial GUF. In Frankfurt, Nordic trade unions stepped forward and offered Copenhagen as the site for a founding Congress, likely to be held in 2012.

ICEM Statutory Bodies Meet in Geneva this Week

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After review of the deadly clash between workers and police at Advanced Chemical Industries Ltd. (ACI) in Siddhirganj, Bangladesh, on 23 January, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union (ICEM) finds ACI&rsquo;s conduct contemptible and the root cause of the violence that left one worker dead and over 100 hospitalised. 
 
The Geneva-based ICEM also supports trade unions in Bangladesh who are risking repression and have demonstrated since last Sunday in opposing the heavy-handed use of police force in central Narayanganj district in putting down the legitimate protests of ACI workers on 23 January. 
 
After numerous attempts to correct disparities inside the 407-worker ACI Pharmaceutical plant, full-time and temporary workers alike attempted to stage a peaceful protest. ACI&rsquo;s response to the worksite protest was to call police, who caused mayhem by firing rubber bullets and some 30 canisters of tear gas at the protestors. 
 
One worker, a 25-year-old temporary worker, Enamul Huq, died in a hospital from wounds inflicted from police. Scores others remain hospitalised and the police now have unfairly issued arrest warrants for workers involved in the protest.
<img src="" width="123" height="151" alt="" />
Arrest warrant: Beaten Striker
The ICEM determines that responsibility for the melee belongs with ACI, which too long neglected the pleas of both workers and their plant-level trade union in addressing legitimate workplace concerns. Workers&rsquo; grievances center on failure to give temporary workers full-time, permanent work status, with some temporary staff working as long as 12 years in those unsecured position and without the level of benefits that permanent workers receive; refusal to allow temporary workers to join the plant-level union; and failure to address extremely low wage rates for both permanent and full time workers. 
 
&ldquo;The fact that nearly all 400 workers, temporary and full-time alike, participated in this disaffection and that is one signal that management of ACI failed in its duties,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re in total support of workers&rsquo; grievances and call on ACI to adopt a higher level of social conduct.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM also reminds civil society that Bangladesh has ratified ILO Conventions 87 and 98, freedom of association/right to organise/right to organise/bargain collectively conventions, and the Bangladesh government has a duty to ensure these global standards are applied. 
 
The ACI plant produces drug aids for human use. The plant employs 167 full-time workers and 240 temporary workers. ACI is major Asian manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of drug aids, agri-chemical and pesticide products, and basic consumer products. 
 
The ICEM is a Global Union Federation representing 20 million workers, encompassing 467 trade unions in 132 countries. 
 
For further information, contact: ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin, <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 22 304 1842, or +41 79 734 8994.

ICEM Condemns ACI Conduct in Deadly Bangladesh Chemical Plant Riot

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