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Photos - Imerys demonstration South West 18 November 2006

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
Today starts the ICEM World Conference for the Energy Industries in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The conference will run until Wednesday, 29 November. On that day, a second ICEM conference will start, the World Conference for the Chemical Industries.
Documents from the two ICEM World conferences
<a href="/?id=166" type="internal">Click here for the ICEM Energy Conference 
</a> 
<a href="/?id=165" type="internal">Click here for the ICEM Chemical Conference</a>
ICEM sectoral conferences are held once every four years, providing ICEM affiliates from the respective sectors the opportunity to discuss and exchange information on global, regional, and national developments and challenges in their sectors. 
 
The two conferences have their own specific agendas. Some issues, however, such as the increasing use of contract and agency labour and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, two global ICEM priorities, will be discussed at both conferences. Gender and health and safety issues will also be part of both agendas, as will be global framework agreements and global networks. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMelectricity.JPG" width="100"/>
The energy conference will be opened by Lars Myhre, Chair of the ICEM energy section, Errol K. Mcleod, General President of OWTU, Hon. Partrick Manning, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary. 
 
Some of the main topics include: a general outlook for the global energy sector, climatic challenges, clean coal technologies, alternative sources, LNG, the challenge of renewable energies, the nuclear renaissance and the ICEM-ITF Global Oil and Gas alliance. 
 
One specific subject of the Energy Conference will be a presentation by the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada on the booming oil extraction occurring in Alberta’s tar sands, with specific emphasis on the union’s agenda of assuring that refining occurs inside Canada. 
<img height="99" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMchemical3.jpg.JPG" width="100"/>
On 29 November, the Chemicals Conference, the second of its kind ever, will start. The first two days of the conference will be devoted to the chemicals sector. The last day, 1 December, will deal exclusively with issues involving the pharmaceutical sector. 
 
The chemical agenda includes, among many other things, company mergers and acquisitions, the increasing demands of China and the Middle East, REACH, the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). 
 
On Friday, 1 December, which is World HIV/AIDS Day, the conference will discuss the responsibility of the pharmaceutical industry in delivering HIV/AIDS-drugs to the least developed countries on a fair and equitable basis.

ICEM World Conferences on Energy and Chemicals Opens Today

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
French multinational Saint-Gobain, one of the world’s largest companies in the building materials sector, has quickly taken advantage of the Howard government’s WorkChoices law in Australia to undermine enterprise bargaining in favour of individual labour agreements. 
 
The company has imposed the practice at two plant sites in the Sydney area, intending to break collective representation by ICEM affiliate National Union of Workers (NUW). 
 
As a result, Saint-Gobain Abrasives Pty. Ltd. staff at the Lidcombe and Wetherill Park worksites are currently on strike, seeking a new collective bargaining agreement. The strike started after it had become clear that Saint-Gobain, instead of starting negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement, was applying to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to terminate the existing one. 
<img height="50" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/AustraliaFLAG.gif" width="100"/>
As part of the same process, Saint-Gobain is attempting to have employees sign Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs). AWAs are individual contracts, whose key characteristics are that they prohibit the right of employees to bargain collectively and exercise other rights of union membership.
The use of AWAs, and the refusal to bargain collectively, is inconsistent with international law. This was recognised, in July 2005, by the Special Committee on the Application of Standards of the ILO, which found that Australia is not meeting its obligations to protect the rights of workers through the provision of AWAs. 
 
On top of all that, on 8 November, the Federal Court of Australia determined that Saint-Gobain unlawfully terminated the employment of two NUW delegates. The two employees, Jeff Gearin and Tony Seymour, who had been working at the site for 18 and 30 years, were dismissed, according to the company, for lack of skills. In court proceedings, it became apparent that the necessary training would have taken “two to three hours” and that one of the two had earlier asked for the training, a request that management had denied. 
<img height="225" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0611StGobainAustralia.jpg" width="300" alt=""/>
NUW delegates Jeff Gearin and Tony Seymour
In a letter to the company, the NUW quotes the third principle - on freedom of association and collective bargaining - of the UN’s Global Compact, which the company joined in June 2003. 
 
The ICEM has been in direct contact with its French affiliates in the materials sector in an effort to press Paris-based senior management of Saint-Gobain to respect freedom of association at the Australian plant. The ICEM and French unions are also seeking an end to Australian management’s pressure on Lidcombe and Wetherill Park employees to accept individual contracts, and want management to begin earnest negotiations with the NUW toward a new collective agreement.

Saint-Gobain Initiates Regressive WorkChoices Law in Australia

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
A court in France last week sided with French energy trade unions, who argued that Gaz de France (GDF) needed to provide more information first to its European Works Council (EWC) before it can merge with Franco-Belgian utility group Suez. The court decision is likely to have serious repercussions on the planned €80 billion merger between GDF and Suez. 
 
The unions filed the complaint after GDF failed to provide EWC members with crucial information, needed to get an informed opinion back to the company. The consultation process between the GDF and its EWC is one of the necessary steps in the merger process. The French judge last week ruled that GDF cannot take any decision on the merger before the EWC has given its opinion on the deal. 
 
Trade unions are requiring from GDF information on the “social impact” of the planned merger. The unions are particularly concerned over the impact on employment, and seek details on the consequences of possible job losses and/or relocations in countries like France, The Netherlands, Italy and UK. 
<img height="100" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMelectricity3.JPG.JPG" width="100" alt=""/>
Because of the court decision, it became impossible for the boards of the companies to meet and take decisions last week, making it, in turn, impossible for shareholders to vote on the merger before the end of the year. That means that a vote on the merger will be postponed to some time early next year, possible until March or even later. 
 
With French public opinion strongly in favour of state-controlled utility services, and with the French presidential elections looming early next year, unions representing GDF workers now believe it possible that the entire merger will be abandoned, particularly if the Socialist Party in France wins election. 
 
On a separate issue, French unions at GDF strongly protested the planned decision by the presidents of GDF and Suez to assign only three seats, out of a total of 24, of the Administrative Council of the merged group to union representatives. That number would be the bare legal minimum. At GDF, unions have six seats out of 18. 
 
A joint French trade union front, consisting of CGT, FNEM FO, CFE-CGC, and CFTC, has been resisting the government’s forced privatisation of Gaz de France, through the merger with the French-Belgian water and power concern. Another energy union, FCE-CFDT, while also hostile to the privatisation of GDF, suggests a separate solution, advocating a partnership between GDF and Suez. In a press release last week, FCE-CFDT repeated that position, saying it would have solved a lot of the current problems.

Unions Win Important Legal Battle in GDF-Suez Merger Saga

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Unions from France and Belgium convened early this month in Montreuil, France, to discuss a complete lack of information to workers over the merger plans of Owens Corning’s Reinforcements Business with Saint-Gobain’s Reinforcement Composites Businesses, known as Vetrotex. 
 
Under the auspices of the Fédération Nationale du Verre et de la Céramique CGT, the CGT Owens Corning l’Ardoise and Vétrotex St Gobain Chambéry met with representatives of the Belgian FGTB et CSC, representing Owens Corning workers in Battice, Belgium. 
<img height="52" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/BelgiumFLAG.gif" width="80" alt=""/>        <img height="53" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/FranceFlag.gif" width="80" alt=""/>
The consultations concluded with the unionists condemning the fact that neither Owens Corning, a US multinational, nor French Saint-Gobain had taken the trouble to answer the questions posed by the unions since the announcement of the merger was made last July. Workers are extremely concerned about the planned merger’s impact, including a possible sale of one or more of the two companies’ entities. 
 
The trade unionists from the French and Belgian unions said that they have not been provided information on either a social or industrial plan, thus creating the fear of the negative consequences that workers could face if the merger becomes reality.

French, Belgian Unions Meet Over Possible Owens Corning, Saint-Gobain Merger

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN N° 18

The 86-day strike by members of the United Steelworkers (USW) at 12 Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. plants in the US ended 29 December, after rubber workers voted to approve a new accord at America’s biggest tyre producer by a two-to-one margin. USW announced yesterday that 10,000 of 14,000 striking union members voted in balloting, and that approval of the new three-year labour agreement was gained by a majority of members at all 12 branch locals.
<img height="66" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USAUSW.jpg" width="120"/>
Some 500 Canadian USW members at four rubber accessory plants in the province of Ontario are voting on a separate contract proposal. Both the US and Canadian Goodyear workers have been on strike since 5 October 2006. 
 
"It took a strike, but we achieved a fair and equitable contract that protects quality health care for active and retired members,” said USW Executive Vice President Ron Hoover. "And by winning major capital investment expenditures, it secures our jobs for the future." 

The strike in the US centered on heath care coverage and job security. USW won a guarantee from Goodyear that it would commit US$550 million in capitalisation investments at the 12 plants over the next three years. 

The union also pushed Goodyear in week-long talks beginning on 19 December to increase a health care trust fund for active workers and retirees. The US-based company agreed to place US$1 billion in a Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association, from which medical and prescription drug benefits for current and future retirees will come. Future contributions into this fund will include diverted cost-of-living payments and profit-sharing plants. 
During the strike, Goodyear announced that it would close a tyre plant in Tyler, Texas, in 2007, thus making 1,100 workers redundant. USW and Goodyear agreed in the December talks that closure would occur no sooner than 2008, and the union won sizeable retirement buy-outs, enhanced severance packages, and medical coverage for Texas workers for a full two years beyond closure of the private-label tyre operation. It also won a guarantee that future manufacture of such tyres will be done in a plant that had been on strike. 
<img height="100" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMrubber.JPG" width="100" alt=""/>
The 12-week strike was marked by the company circumventing the union and appealing directly to USW members to abandon the walk-out and return to work. But there were few defections among the nearly 15,000 strikers, and that fact no doubt forced Goodyear to compromise its original demands. 

“The credit really belongs to our members and their families, whose solidarity prevented the company from short-changing them, despite all of its attempts,” stated USW President Leo Gerard. 
 
This week’s contract ratification means workers will return to work on 2 January at both tyre and engineered rubber product plants in Akron, Ohio; St. Marys, Ohio; Marysville, Ohio; Gadsden, Alabama; Buffalo, New York; Lincoln, Nebraska; Topeka, Kansas; Fayetteville, North Carolina; Danville, Virginia; Tyler, Texas; Sun Prairie, Wisconsin; and, Union City, Tennessee.

USW Ends US Goodyear Strike after Membership Vote Approval

The 20-million-member ICEM, the Global Trade Union Federation representing workers in the mining industry, today commended its Colombian affiliate, Sintracarbón, and coal producer Carbones del Cerrejón for achieving a new collective agreement over the weekend. After the union’s National Assembly of Delegates issued a strike mandate on 25 January, Sintracarbón’s six-member bargaining committee met with the management of Colombia’s biggest coal enterprise throughout the weekend to achieve the new two-year agreement. 
 
“The ICEM applauds the fact that both sides saw the rationale to continue discussions even after it appeared a strike was inevitable,” stated General Secretary Manfred Warda. “This is a testament to the commitment that Sintracarbón and the company has for the Social Dialogue process.” 
<img height="115" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Colombia.png" width="250" alt=""/>
Carbones del Cerrejón, with its three multinational stakeholders, AngloAmerican, BHP Billiton, and Xstrata, are partners with the ICEM and Sintracarbón in a unique Social Dialogue arrangement adopted in 2004 in Colombia. The agreement, which also covers other multinational companies and several other ICEM-affiliated trade unions in Colombia, established a formal process for meaningful labour-management discussions between parties. 
 
Warda said it was essential that the three parent companies asserted themselves in talks over the weekend. 
 
The agreement, covering some 4,000 miners, awards a pay increase of 7.7% in the first year of the agreement, with a second year increase of either 1.5% above Colombia’s consumer price index for 2007, or 6%, whichever is higher. 
 
The ICEM congratulates Sintracarbón and its membership for standing steadfast in these negotiations in order to meet their other contractual demands. Those include sizeable payouts in both years of the agreement for university educations for children of miners; a series of bonuses for Cerrejón’s workers, which includes a ratification bonus and a set production bonus that will increase when the company’s coal price exceeds US$48-per-tonne; additional employer contributions to a pension fund in each year of the agreement; and extra monthly medical stipends for family members. 
 
The ICEM is specifically proud of the achievements Sintracarbón made for contract workers employed at Carbones del Cerrejón in Guajira state. That includes bringing 80 temporary workers to full-time, permanent status; and enlarging the level of benefits for contract labourers once six months of employment is complete. One more requirement is for the company to conduct interviews with contract employers to ensure they are complying with Colombian law, and that this process is shared with the union. 
 
For further details: <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2105-Sintracarbón’s-Miners-Poised-to-Strike-at-Carbones-del-Cerrejón-in-Colombia" type="internal">/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2105-Sintracarbón’s-Miners-Poised-to-Strike-at-Carbones-del-Cerrejón-in-Colombia</a>.

ICEM Applauds Coal Agreement Reached in Colombia

The 20-million-member ICEM filed a strong protest yesterday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over this week’s assassination attempt on a prominent trade unionist. 
 
Rasem Al Bayari, deputy general secretary of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), managed to escape in the early morning hours of Monday, 29 January, when assailants fired rockets into his home. A day after this violent act, more attackers returned to his home and fired shots at the house. 
 
“The Palestinian Authority, as a responsible Authority, must uphold internationally recognised rights,” wrote ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda to Abbas, “including full respect for the fundamental human rights of workers, such as their right to life.” 
 
The ICEM has demanded that the Palestinian Government ensure the safety of Al Bayari and his family, and urges “a thorough investigation into the rocket attacks and the shootings” so that the perpetrators are brought to justice.
<img height="203" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0701Saed.jpg" width="160"/>
 PGFTU Gen. Sec. Shaher Sae'd pionts to a bullet hole in the wall of the PCFTU conference room 
 

On 12 October 2006, the PGFTU’s headquarters in Nablus was attacked. This assault was followed by death threats to the union’s leaders. The Palestinian national labour centre then called it an escalation against trade unionism, because PGFTU leaders had been strongly speaking out on behalf of workers. 
 
The ICEM stands solidly behind PGFTU, and echoes the commitment of the Palestinian labour centre, at it reacted to this week’s cowardly and violent act on the Al Bayari’s home: “This act will not silence the workers and will not stop our activities to build the structures of the Palestinian State for the benefit of our people and workers.” 
Read the ICEM Letter to Palestinian Government <a href="/en/24-North-Africa-Middle-East-/2124-ICEM-Letter-to-Palestine-President-Mahmoud-Abbas" type="internal">here</a>.

ICEM Issues Strong Protest to Palestinian Government

The 20-million-member ICEM strongly condemns the Friday, 2 February, rocket blast that destroyed the Gaza headquarters of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) in Jebaliya in northern Gaza. The blast and subsequent assault destroyed the PGFTU’s Voice of Workers radio station. 
 
“The ICEM finds it totally unacceptable that peaceful trade unionists, working hard to promote the rights of workers, must work and live in fear of their lives and that of their family members,” ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said in a letter to Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas. 
 
“The Palestinian Authority has a duty to ensure the personal safety of all trade unionists in accordance with internationally recognised rights, namely the right to life and freedom of association.” 
 
The 2 February destruction of the PGFTU comes just days after the attack on the home of the labour federation’s deputy general secretary, Rasem Al Bayari. It also came amidst the worst sectarian violence in Gaza over the past year. Since 1 February, 28 people have been killed in Gaza and some 250 wounded. 
<img height="183" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/06PalestineShaherSaed.jpg" width="130"/>
PGFTU General Secretary Shaher Sae'd
Yesterday, 4 February, PGFTU conducted a march and labour demonstration in Ramalah, rejecting the recent violent incidents and attempts to silence the voice of workers. PGFTU General Secretary Shaher Sae’d said that workers reject the killings and destruction of property at a time when Palestinians need to face the impacts of poverty and unemployment. 
 
The ICEM, comprised of 384 trade unions in 125 countries, stands with the PGFTU in its call for a peaceful end to the sectarian violence in Palestine, and the need for a national unity government. 
 
To view the ICEM’s protest letter to Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas, click <a href="/en/24-North-Africa-Middle-East-/2125-ICEM-Letter-to-Palestine-President-Mahmoud-Abbas" type="internal">here</a>. For background on the 29 January assassination attempt on Rasem Al Bayari, click <a href="/en/24-North-Africa-Middle-East-/2123-ICEM-Issues-Strong-Protest-to-Palestinian-Government" type="internal">here</a>.

ICEM Condemns Attack on PGFTU, Destruction of ‘Workers’ Voice’ Radio in Palestine

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