English

Español

Français

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy 

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action Plan 2025-2029

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Campaigns

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Women

Youth

LGBTQI+

Gender, equality, diversity and inclusion (GEDI)

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL 

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia 

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean 

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Logos of IndustriALL Global Union

Press

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Paperworkers belonging to ICEM affiliates FIA-UGT and FSC-CCOO in Spain effectively shut the nation’s paper and paperboard industry on 23 February. And they will do again on arch if the paper employers’ association (Aspapel) does not this week make major revisions to its one-sided 2010-2012 bargaining agenda. 
 
The two unions reported close to 100% strike turn-out in nearly all the selected mills and paper plants in nine regions. 
 
Due solely to Aspapel’s year-long failure to compromise on a long-lapsed national collective agreement, Spanish paper plants last week lost 24 hours of production and face that again this week. Multiple plants of Torraspapel, SAICA, SCA, SmurfitKappa, Europac, Newark Group lost production, as did single plants of Holmen, Ibertissue, Kimberly Clark, Sonoco’s Papertech, and Gomà-Camps. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.p&p.Spain.jpg" width="340" height="224"/>
Paperworkers Strike at Torraspapel’s Almazá-Soria Region Mill
Central staff of SAICA joined the 24-hour strike last week. At three of four of Barcelona-based Torraspapel’s paperboard plants, strike participation was 100%. At the fourth, it was 60%. SCA tissue and paperboard mills at LaRiba, Valls, and Mediona were affected. The ICEM took hold of global solidarity, and that <a href="/en/19-Pulp-Paper/4264-Pledge-Support-to-Paperworkers’-Strike-Actions-in-Spain" type="internal">Solidarity Call</a> on February 23 can be found here. 
 
Spanish paperworkers have grown angry over Aspapel’s unwillingness to bend from sweeping flexibility changes and downward wage structure revisions. The dispute is far less on salaries – the two sides are close on that – than it is on imposing adverse salary structures that, in effect, place the burden of a slumping Spanish economy, in part, on paperworkers. In Spain’s paper sector right now, harsh revision of the consumer price index (CPI) calculation is the same as the race to the bottom. 
 
Some 17,500 paperworkers are affected by industry intransigence in meeting a 2010 national labour agreement. 
 
On a different issue inside the Spanish paper industry, a roof collapse which spewed concrete over paper-making machinery caused shutdown of the former Papelera de Besaya mill in Torrelavega, Cantabria. Fortunately, no one was killed or injured in the 18 February mishap. The mill had been operating since November 2010, following Catabria government takeover of a bankrupt paper enterprise.

Spain’s Paperworkers Shut Industry; Will Strike Again 3 March

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person Phee Jungsun reached out last week to New Zealand trade union affiliates in the immediate aftermath of the 22 February earthquake. The 6.3 magnitude quake has claimed the lives of 147 people, with another 200 persons missing and feared dead. 
 
National Distribution Union (NDU) General Secretary Robert Reid said the building his union’s offices are housed and NDU partly owns, the Christchurch Trade Union Centre on Armagh Street, was badly damaged from the quake. Return to work there is uncertain. The NDU’s Christchurch offices are on the fourth floor of the labour building. 
 
“All NDU staff and we think all our members in Christchurch are OK, although many have damage to their homes,” he added. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Robert_Reid NDU New Zealand.jpg" width="196" height="200" alt=""/>
NDU General Secretary Robert Reid
National Secretary Andrew Little of the Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) said, “EPMU personnel are unscathed but we are still ascertaining the impact on our members and their workplaces.” 
 
Little said Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city, suffered “a lot of destruction and it will take a long time for the city to recover.” He added: “The shake was a very violent one.” 
 
Some 600 search and rescue teams are at work in Christchurch and the estimated damages range from NZ$4 billion (US$3 billion) to NZ$16 billion (US$12 billion.) 
 
The 22 February earthquake is the second in less than six months in New Zealand. In September, a 7.1 quake hit some 40 kilometres from Christchurch, but caused less damage because it occurred in a less populated and rural area. Several Kiwi cities sit atop a series of faults connected to Alpine Fault, a subterranean mass where the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates slide across one another.

NDU Christchurch Offices Damaged in New Zealand Earthquake

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="110" height="50"/>
An updated version of the extensive presentation on “CAL and the ICEM CAL Campaign” has now been made available on the ICEM site. This PowerPoint presentation, which can be used by anyone, contains not only a considerable number of key statistics on Contract and Agency Labour and other forms of precarious work, including the ICEM’s own statistics, but also contains a wide range of “best practice examples,” highlighting what unions around the world have done quite successfully to counter the problem. 
 
A full-length version of the presentation in English can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/10-12-02%20Web-site%20version%20CAL%20ICEM%20PPT.ppt" type="internal">here</a>. 
 
The Spanish version of the presentation can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL/10-12-08%20Spanish%20CAL%20presentation.PPT" type="internal">here</a>.

CAL Facts and Figures Overview, now also in Spanish

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM tracks climate negotiations because of their profound implications for all workers, but especially industrial workers in energy-producing and energy-intensive industries. The Global Union Federation supports a fair, ambitious, and legally-binding climate treaty, but insists that decision-makers consider the social implications. 
 
Existing jobs must be made more sustainable, and new, or “green jobs,” can be created, but they must not be “mcjobs.” They must provide decent work. This implies a need for national industrial strategies. Strong social programmes must back specific “Just Transition” provisions. 
 
Lastly, the world must not forget that fundamental structural changes in our economy are needed as the financial crisis demonstrated that the same kind of short-sighted thinking that has jeopardized the environment, equally has jeopardized economic stability. 
 
After the failure that was COP-15 in Copenhagen in 2009, COP-16 in Cancún, Mexico, opened to low expectations. Many felt that the best that could be hoped for was to put the process back on track, build some trust, and aim for real decisions at COP-17 in 2011. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1012.cop16 brian.jpg" width="181" height="125"/>
ICEM’s Brian Kohler speaking at plenary session of Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action
At COP-15, before the talks collapsed and the so-called “Copenhagen Accord” emerged from secret backroom talks, trade unions had succeeded in winning the insertion of a paragraph in the “Shared Vision” portion of the Long-term Cooperative Action draft, covering a range of issues including adaptation, mitigation, financing, research and development, technology transfer, training and education, and Just Transition. This paragraph came to be known as the “Just Transition and Decent Work” paragraph. 
 
For reasons unknown, the Chair of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) removed this paragraph from the document under discussion, and labour was faced with a fight to get it back. 
 
The Just Transition language agreed that “addressing climate change requires a paradigm shift towards building a low-emission society that offers substantial opportunities and ensures continued high growth and sustainable development, based on innovative technologies and more sustainable production and consumption and lifestyles, while ensuring a just transition of the workforce that creates decent work and quality jobs.” 
 
Related stakeholder language that was also missing recognized the need for civil society to participate in decisions that affect their lives, workplaces, and communities. 
 
Recovering this language became a priority of the trade union delegation to COP-16. ICEM Health, Safety, Sustainability Officer Brian Kohler addressed the opening plenary of the AWG-LCA on behalf of trade unions, and emphasized the need for this language. 
 
Throughout the two weeks of COP-16, coordinated by the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC) Anabella Rosemberg, every trade union delegate made efforts to contact members of the negotiating teams to stress the need for this paragraph. Kohler himself spoke to negotiators from Europe, Japan, and the assistant to the Chair of the AWG-LCA, among others. This all-out effort finally paid off: at the last minute, on the last day, it was announced that the text had made it back into the “Shared Vision.” 
 
The final report of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technical Advice, on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) eligibility as a Clean Development Mechanism (part of the Kyoto Protocol track), presented two options on CCS for consideration by the Parties. In the end, the Parties adopted the more favourable of the two options. Therefore, CCS will be an eligible project activity under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), provided it complies with fairly stringent risk and safety assessments. This is a positive development for supporters of CCS, including ICEM and many of its affiliates. 
 
As for protecting the earth from disastrous climate change, much remains to be done. Developed countries must be more ambitious in their emissions reduction targets, and although progress was made on the subject of funding, the poorest nations of the world have yet to see a fully adequate finance plan for mitigation and adaptation. 
 
On balance, however, COP-16 did represent a small step forward, and raises hope that at COP-17 next year, a more effective “fair, ambitious, and binding” climate treaty may be reached. 
 
The full list of agreements reached at COP-16 can be read <a href="http://unfccc.int/2860.php ">here</a>.

COP-16: Modest Trade Union Successes Inside Big Picture

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) has launched an international campaign calling on the Swedish furniture multi-national IKEA and its wholly-owned Swedwood subsidiary to uphold commitments on trade union and worker rights throughout its supply chain. The campaign comes in response to Swedwood and its appalling labour practices at a US factory in Danville, Virginia. 
 
Swedwood is the primary wood manufacturer for IKEA. 
 
In behaviour which has brought comparisons to Walmart, local management in Danville has blocked trade unions access to its 275 factory workers since commencing operations at the site in 2006. The Virginia Occupational Safety and Health Administration in October found Swedwood guilty of numerous unsafe work practices and improper record keeping, hiding the true numbers of serious accidents of workers. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1012.BWI.IKEAxmas.jpg" width="130" height="130" alt=""/>
Other abuses occurring at Swedwood in the US factory include forced overtime without advance notice, workers forced to work 30 days consecutively, managers manipulating work schedules to cut overtime, workers not allowed bathroom breaks, and most importantly, workers denied their right to trade union representation, and forced to work in an unsafe environment. 
 
BWI has always regarded dialogue in its Global Framework Agreement with IKEA as a model. In that agreement, BWI’s first ever, IKEA clearly commits to follow the ILO core labour standards throughout its global operations. Since signing the agreement in 1998, those commitments have been respected in Poland, Russia, and elsewhere, and the Gene3va-based Global Union Federation (GUF) insists that local managers in Danville must be forced to open its doors to the BWI North American affiliate, the International Association of Machinists (IAM). 
 
BWI took the campaign to an IKEA outlet in Vernier, Geneva, on 7 December. Trade union leaders from over 25 countries conducted the protest and sent a clear message to IKEA that they were united against workers’ rights abuses in Danville, USA. See video footage of the campaign <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxrfPUe-2Kc">here</a>. 
 
The GUF is calling on supporters to send a Christmas card to IKEA CEO Mikael Ohlsson, demanding an end to labour rights abuses in Danville. The card states that IKEA’s customers should be assured “that the furnishing products they buy from your stores have been made by workers whose human rights are fully respected.” Click <a href="http://www.goiam.org/ikea/">here</a> to send your Christmas message to IKEA.

BWI Launces Holiday Campaign Against IKEA’s Swedwood on Abusing Trade Union Rights

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
In Moscow, the Fifth Congress of the All-Russian Elektroprofsoyuz finished its work last week. Formed 20 years ago, the ICEM affiliated union remains as one of the most important Russian trade unions over the years, protecting the interests of working people. 
 
Throughout its existence, Elektroprofsoyuz has consistently directed its efforts to preserve and strengthen trade union structures, increase employee participation in the management of organizations through creation and dissemination of social partnerships in order to increase the social responsibility of businesses. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1012.russia.congress.jpg" width="318" height="88"/>
The activities of the union that have been directed at protecting the interests of members of the trade union in the framework of cooperation with state authorities have been significant, as well as the adoption and subsequent implementation of the guidelines of the trade union for the development of social partnerships, which have been very important. 
 
Over the years, everyone working in the power industry, in electrical engineering, and in the peat industry has seen real wage increases. The strengthening of trade union control over state occupational health and safety has led to a marked reduction of occupational injuries. Over the last five-year Congress period, Elektroprofsoyuz has given special impetus to the work of young workers. 
 
Today, the All-Russian Elektroprofsoyuz union has 672,824 members. The average monthly salary for them in the power industry is about 32,590 rubles, or US$1,051. 
 
At last week’s Congress, Valery Vahrushkin was elected president of the union for the next five years.

Elektroprofsoyuz Union Holds Fifth Congress in Moscow

Chile: Help on ILO Convention 176
Dear Pulp/Paper Sector Activists: 
 
The ICEM is making a major push, together with the IMF, to get Chile to ratify ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 
 
We are asking for your participation. The details are in the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/11.ICEM.IMF.Chile176.1March.pdf" type="internal">Joint ICEM/IMF Letter</a> that can be found at this link. 
 
The <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ENGLISH%20ChileModLet%20(2).doc" type="internal">Letter to Chile’s Government</a> can be found here. In this letter are the e-mail addresses, fax numbers and mail address that we are asking unions to send. Please attach this model letter to your union’s letterhead, or your personal letterhead, and send. 
 
We are very grateful for your help on this. And please do not forget to send a copy of your letter to the ICEM, at <a href="mailto:tom.grinter@icem.org">tom.grinter@icem.org</a>. 
 
Again, thank you for your help. 
 
In Unity, 
Dick Blin
<hr/>
Chili: Pour la ratification de la Convention 176 de l'OIT
Chers Militants du secteur papier poulpe 
 
L’ICEM a élargi ses forces avec le FIOM dans la lutte pour la ratification de la Convention 176, la sécurité et la sante en Chili. 
 
A ce sujet, nous demandons votre active participation. Les détails concernant la ratification se trouvent dans <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/2.ICEM.IMF.Chile176.1MarchFR.pdf" type="internal">la déclaration jointe de l'ICEM et du FIOM</a>. 
Vous les trouverez dans le lien suivant. 
 
<a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/FR%20ChileModLet.doc" type="internal">La Lettre au gouvernement du Chili</a> se trouve ici. Dans cette lettre, vous avez les adresses e-mail, numéros de fax et la direction postale des syndicats auxquels il faudra envoyer la documentation jointe. Veuillez SVP, joindre et envoyer la lettre modèle en ajoutant le logo de votre syndicat, ou votre logo personnel. 
 
Nous vous remercions en avance du support et soutien solidaire a ce sujet. Une copie de votre lettre à l'ICEM, à <a href="mailto:tom.grinter@icem.org">tom.grinter@icem.org</a> serait fortement appréciée. 
 
Votre soutien ainsi que vos actions sont fraternellement remercies. 
 
Dans l'unité, 
 
Dick Blin 
ICEM Responsable Information et Communication 
Secteur Poulpe et Papier
<hr/>
Chile, por la ratificación al Convenio OIT 176 
 
Estimados líderes del sector papel y pulpa 
 
ICEM ha unido fuerzas junto al FITIM para luchar por la ratificación del Convenio OIT 176 en seguridad y salud en las minas. 
 
Estamos solicitando su apoyo y participación. Por favor, revise los detalles <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/5.ICEM.IMF.Chile176.1March.pdf" type="internal">en la declaración conjunta ICEM-FITIM</a> que podrá encontrar en este enlace. 
 
<a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SpanishChileModLet.doc" type="internal">La Carta al Gobierno de Chile</a> se puede encontrar aquí. En dicho escrito, encontrara las direcciones de correo electrónico, números de fax y dirección postal de los sindicatos para ser enviadas. Por favor, adjunte y envíe esta carta modelo con el membrete de su sindicato, o su membrete personal. 
 
Agradecemos de antemano su participación y apoyo solidario en esta iniciativa. Mándenos una copia de su carta a ICEM, atte. <a href="mailto:Tom.grinter@icem.org">Tom.grinter@icem.org</a> . 
 
Su acción y soporte son fraternalmente reconocidos. 
 
En la Unidad, 
 
Dick Blin 
ICEM Pulpa y Papel Oficial

Chile: ILO Convention 176/Chili: de la Convention 176 de l'OIT/Chile, Convenio OIT 176 

The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Union (ICEM), a Geneva, Switzerland-based global union federation represented rubber workers across the world, announced today that it would lend its full support to the National Union of Metalworkers’ of South Africa (NUMSA) in its fight to keep Bridgestone South Africa compelled to wage terms negotiated in the New Tyre Manufacturing Employers’ Industry Association (NTMEIA). 
 
South African management of the Japanese-based company locked out 1,200 members of NUMSA at two former Firestone tyre producing plants, Brits and Port Elizabeth, on 22 March. At issue is Bridgestone South Africa’s defiance of a private arbitrator's award that the tyre manufacturer is bound to certain wage terms contained in a three-year collective agreement that was negotiated between NUMSA and NTMEIA that ended a 30-day strike against four tyre producers on 29 September 2010. 
 
In a 31 March letter to Bridgestone South Africa CEO Kenji Shoda, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, “Please know that the current situation in Brits and Port Elizabeth will be communicated to all Bridgestone facilities throughout the world and if your current labour relations conduct is not halted, we will begin to mobilise within these facilities.” 
 
The ICEM will support NUMSA as it ramps up a campaign against Bridgestone inside South Africa. And it will take that campaign into Bridgestone tyre plants from Japan and throughout Asia, to Europe and in North and South America. The ICEM is adamant that wage rates negotiated by the NTMEIA for 4,000 other rubber workers at Continental, Goodyear, and Apollo-Dunlop factories in South Africa also be instituted at Bridgestone’s two factories. 
 
The ICEM is the global union federation for 20 million workers in the energy, chemical, rubber, mining, and other industrial sectors. It is composed of 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, +41 79 734 8994.

Global Union Federation Supports Besieged Tyre Workers in South Africa

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Release from International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) 
 
The Global Union representing workers in the garment industry is convened a meeting of jeans’ brands and retailers to raise awareness of the need to eliminate the use of sandblasting, a method used to give jeans a fashionably faded look. 
 
Patrick Itschert, General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF), said, “Sandblasting is an extremely harmful process which can cause silicosis. The meeting on January 20 in Brussels provides an opportunity to hear contributions by experts, to examine best practices, to exchange points of view and to discuss further steps for action. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Patrick Itschert.jpg" width="130" height="106" alt=""/>
ITGLWF General Secretary Patrick Itschert
“In Turkey, the world’s third largest exporter of jeans and the only country so far where the impact of sandblasting on the health of workers has come under scrutiny, 550 former sandblasting workers have been diagnosed with silicosis since 2005 and 46 have so far died of the disease. These officially-documented cases are just the tip of the iceberg both in Turkey and globally. 
 
“Clearly, government regulation is needed to ban the process or to enforce existing bans. However, in the absence of effective government regulation brands and retailers urgently need to take voluntary action. 
 
“Even if brands and retailers adopt rigorous standards regarding sandblasting, there will always be suppliers that do not enforce those standards, thus putting unsuspecting workers at risk. Therefore the best policy is to ban sandblasting altogether in the garment industry. Several leading brands have already done so and we believe others should now do the same”. 
 
Speakers at the meeting, entitled “Towards the Elimination of Sandblasting in the Garment Industry,” were trade union health and safety experts as well as brands that have taken the step to ban sandblasting.

ITGLWF Convenes Meeting of Jeans’ Companies on Perils of Sandblasting

Trade unionists of SPPTTEL, part of ICEM affiliate FSP2KI in Indonesia, began a strike today and they need your support. The strike is over bullying and bargaining table intimidation by management of PT Tanjung Enim Lestari, almost totally owned by the Marubeni Corp. of Japan. 
 
The ICEM today sent a <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/87.ICEM.PTTanjungEnimLestari.Indonesia.pdf" type="internal">protest letter</a> to mill managers. Please copy all of the letter or better yet, put your own few words into effect and send to the <a href="mailto:ykanbe@telpp.com; eko.ganefianto@telpp.com; amrodji@telpp.com">mill management team</a>. Tell them how you feel about threats and intimidation of legitimate shop-floor union representatives. 
 
The situation is this: collective negotiations began in late June and continued on 12 July and 15 July. They were done in tripartite fashion with involvement from the local government of South Sumatra. But the company managers named above completely stonewalled any movement toward agreement, instead threatening the union committee with termination if they continued their persistence for a collective contract. These managers also threatened layoffs and stated that if paperworkers went on strike, police force would be used. 
 
Today, 26 July, began the first day of the strike. SPPTTEL is expected to continue the strike through to 30 July. 
 
As well, please cut and paste the following support message and send to the unions involved and SPPTTEL union leader below: 
 
We have heard of your strike at PT Tanjung Enim Lestari and we offer you our full support and solidarity. Please let all the workers know they have the support of out union. (signed) 
 
The solidarity messages should go to <a href="mailto:sppttel@telpp.com; mediacentre.fsp2ki@gmail.com; irzanz@yahoo.co.id">SPPTTEL and FSP2KI</a>. 
 
PT Tanjung Enim Lestari is a market pulp mill that employs about 1,000 workers and produces 450,000 metric tonnes per year of market pulp.

Indonesian Paperworkers On Strike at Japanese Marubeni Pulp Mill

Archive