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Press

Norway's nationwide strike will spread to more industries next Tuesday, union leaders told a press conference in Oslo this morning. 
 
102,119 workers will be on strike across the private sector from 6.00 a.m. local time on 9 May. These include the 84,600 union members who have been out since 3 May - already more than a third of the country's private sector union membership. 
 
Among the new strikers next Tuesday will be 5,200 pulp and paper workers organised by the general union Fellesforbundet. At the global level, Fellesforbundet is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
ICEM sectors already on strike in Norway include asphalt, cement, explosives, rubber products, paints, plastics and a range of ancillary and catering functions in the oil and gas industries. Electricity and electrochemical workers could join in later this month. 
 
The strike follows a membership vote to reject a mediated settlement covering much of the private sector. 
 
"It is true that we have national-level collective agreements and that we have a tradition of bringing out whole sectors of coverage during a dispute," commented Fellesforbundet President Kjell Bjørndalen at today's press conference. "We call out everything or nothing." 
 
No new offer has so far been received from the employers, Yngve Hågensen told the journalists this morning. He is President of the national trade union federation LO, which is coordinating the action. 
 
"We're going to conduct a big, solid strike without hitting 'third parties' too hard," Hågensen added. "We'll do it in such a way that it will be first and foremost the companies, the owners, who will feel it."

Norwegian Strike To Spread

Twenty-four tradesmen, members of EPMU in New Zealand, agreed to a two-year deal this week with Bridgestone at a tyre factory in Christchurch, ending a four-week strike. The agreement was termed satisfactory, but not reflective of the intense effort put in by the bargaining unit composed of highly skilled electricians and engineers. 
Contract labour will be a continual issue, and EPMU Southern Operations Director Ged O’Connell said, “We have a significant problem with contractors and agency temps who are able to work in our plants and are not covered by our Collective Agreements.” Although the union prevented contractors from doing bargaining unit work during the strike, salaried staff performed some of that work, and that is an issue with the EPMU. A separate bargaining unit represents about 200 production workers at the tyre factory on the South Island.

Skilled Trades Workers Reach Accord with Bridgestone in NZ

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Bargaining will continue today in efforts to end the lockout of 25,000 paperworkers in Finland. Six major paper companies, headed by the Forest Industries Federation of Finland, locked out members of ICEM affiliate Paperiliitto on 18 May for two weeks, and then tacked on another two weeks as a retaliatory measure for industrial action of 16-17 May. Employers are seeking harsh concessions including unlimited outsourcing, elimination of Christmas and mid-summer shutdown days, and greater job flexibility including 12-hour work shifts. 
Paper unions in Sweden and Norway have successfully turned back orders originating from Finland at mills and paper converters in those countries, and the ICEM has encouraged paper sector unions at all European operations to refuse production work from the closed Finnish mills. The European Works Council of Stora Enso has taken positive solidarity action, as has the European working committees of UPM Kymmene and M-Real. The other three major paper companies instigating this lockout are Ahlström, Metsä Tissue, and Myllykoski.

Paper Employers Lock Out 25,000 Workers in Finland

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US affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) expressed disbelief that BP blamed workers for the 23 March explosion at its Amoco refinery in Texas City, Texas. BP said in an interim report that the “root causes” were a failure to follow operating procedures by workers and supervisors, but backed off that statement when the USW called the company on it. 
USW Region Six Director Gary Beevers said the blast that killed 15 and injured 170 could have been prevented had BP taken the union’s advice to properly vent hydrocarbons released from an isomerization unit and had not violated its own policy by granting a variance in placing contractors’ trailers in a dangerous location.

BP Wrongly Blames Workers, Managers in Deadly US Explosion

Talks continued in New Zealand last week at the highest level to resolve issues surrounding a series of strikes over the past two months by coal miners of ICEM affiliate EPMU. National Secretary Andrew Little and Solid Energy CEO Don Elder met to clarify issues and to seek an end to the dispute. Miners are seeking a 6% pay hike and a national coal mining agreement that will bring pay parity to miners on both the North and South Islands, and in underground and open cast mines.

Talks Pressing Forward for End to New Zealand’s Coal Dispute

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A branch leader of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) was run over and killed by a cement mixing truck 14 June while striking with ICEM-affiliated FKTU-Chemical Workers Union. Kim Tae-hwan, leader of the Chungju branch of FKTU, was killed when police ordered a replacement driver through a picket line at cement company Sajo Remicon. 
Drivers are seeking to unionise with FKTU-Chemical Workers Union and gain permanent work status, as well as qualify for full rights under Korea’s Labor Standards Act. They have been on recognition strikes since 8 June at three cement companies. The drivers are considered selfemployed contract workers, contrary to union beliefs. On 18 June, 6,000 workers together with other activists rallied at the city hall of Chungju demanding accountability for Kim’s murder, including accountability of ten police officers that were at the picket line scene on 14 June.

Korean Labour Leader Killed on the Picket Line

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ICEM Nigerian affiliate PENGASSAN is adamant about improving laws and regulations concerning the use of casual workers. At a four-day workshop in mid-June in Owerri, Imo State, leaders of the white-collar petroleum union issued a communiqué aimed at both the Nigerian Department of Petroleum Resources and contractors: PENGASSAN members “frown at the increasing level of casualisation and contract staffing in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry because of its dehumanizing and exploitative nature but cautions that the proposed Recruiters License should be given to consultants who will respect Labour Laws.” 
PENGASSAN also stated such licenses “be renewed annually to check abuse while the Association should be made to certify that the vacancies to be filled are temporary in nature. Also, the workshop reaffirms the stand of the Association on unionizing contract workers and urges Companies that are yet to enter into Collective Agreements with this category of workers do so immediately.” 
The union is also seeking an amendment to the Petroleum Act of 1969 in that private enterprises awarded licenses to build new refineries are given two-to-three years maximum to construct such refineries, or risk losing permits and licenses. PENGASSAN insists that at least 40% of all crude oil drilled in Nigeria be refined in the country in order to create jobs for Nigerians.

Nigerian Unions Seek Controls on Casual Labour Use

A vote by two UK unions for industrial action against Imerys has moved the French materials company back to the negotiations table over a contentious pension issue. Union members of ICEM affiliates Transport & General (T&G) and GMB voted to take industrial action at Imerys’ English China Clay at several southwestern UK worksites. Rather than face an angry 2,500 workers ready to disrupt operations over pensions being chopped, Imerys agreed to negotiate after a meeting between T&G General Secretary Tony Woodley and corporate managers of the company. 
Imerys previously had refused any dialogue over its plan to close the pension scheme to new workers and cut anywhere from 33-40% in pension benefits to existing workers. In the US, Imerys workers in Dry Branch, Georgia, represented by another ICEM affiliate, USW, ratified a three-year agreement with the company, but fellow USW union members in Sylacauga, Alabama, still seek a commitment from management that it cease union-busting.

UK Unions, Imerys Agree to Re-start Pension Talks

ICEM affiliates in South Africa today have taken their members out on strike, joining labour centre COSATU’s call for protest against soaring job loss and unemployment levels now reaching 40%. Over 200,000 workers are expected to strike. ICEM affiliates National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) are also using the day-long strike to call attention to the lack of progress in wage talks. NUM is negotiating with the Chamber of Mines in gold sectors talks, and is also bargaining for workers in the precious mineral. NUMSA has been stalemated in pay talks in the metal, automotive and engineering sectors.

South African ICEM Affiliates Lead Mass Strike

A satisfactory result came from recent negotiations in Brazil by ICEM rubber affiliate inside Frente Unica da Borracha (FUB). Employers in tyre manufacturing agreed to meet Brazils’s inflation rate of 6.93% and workers in those business enterprises won 7%. Profit-sharing increased from R$2,750 to R$3,250. In the rubber materials sector, an 8% pay increase was attained and several improvements were made in that collective agreement as well.

Rubber Accord Reached in Brazil

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