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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 &ldquo;green jobs,&rdquo; can be created, but they must not be &ldquo;mcjobs.&rdquo; They must provide decent work. This implies a need for national industrial strategies. Strong social programmes must back specific &ldquo;Just Transition&rdquo; 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 Canc&uacute;n, 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. 
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ICEM&rsquo;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 &ldquo;Copenhagen Accord&rdquo; emerged from secret backroom talks, trade unions had succeeded in winning the insertion of a paragraph in the &ldquo;Shared Vision&rdquo; 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 &ldquo;Just Transition and Decent Work&rdquo; 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 &ldquo;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.&rdquo; 
 
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&rsquo;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 &ldquo;Shared Vision.&rdquo; 
 
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 &ldquo;fair, ambitious, and binding&rdquo; 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

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Roquette Fr&egrave;res is a family-controlled transnational based in Lestrem, France, that in September 2009 signed the ten principles of the UN Global Compact. One year later, the company submitted over 70 regressive contract proposals to the US union, Local 48-G of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco, and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Union at a corn wet milling plant in Keokuk, Iowa. 
 
When union members rejected the drastic cuts to their living and work standards on 28 September 2010, Roquette America locked its 240-member workforce in Keokuk off their jobs. 
 
That move has now produced an official protest to George Kell, head of the Global Compact. The recommendation to de-list Roquette from the voluntary body comes from the International Union of Food, Agricultural Workers' Association (IUF), the BCTGM&rsquo;s Global Union Federation, the ICEM, and the American labour centre, AFL-CIO. 
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&ldquo;We believe that Roquette Fr&egrave;res actions undermine the legitimacy of the Global Company,&rdquo; stated IUF General Secretary Ron Oswald, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a 3 December letter to Kell. &ldquo;The company should not be able to claim that it supports the Global Compact when in reality it is systematically violating fundamental human rights.&rdquo; 
 
(The entire letter can be viewed <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/1012.Roquette.global%20compact%20letter$.pdf ">here</a>.) 
The company&rsquo;s collective bargaining agenda in a proposed four-year renewal agreement is especially egregious. It seeks unlimited rights to employ temporary workers at the corn starch plant in America&rsquo;s heartland; it wants a two-tier wage scheme in which new hires will receive 47% less than other workers; it desires big increases in worker co-payments on their health care; an end to the company&rsquo;s defined benefit pension scheme, to be replaced by a pension savings plan; elimination of sick leave, maternity leave, and personal days; and Roquette America is seeking an end to workplace seniority on layoffs and job bidding. 
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The company also wants a wage freeze for the four years. 
 
A week into the lockout, Roquette hired scab workers to run the plant. It has brought in management personnel from a plant it owns in Gurnee, Illinois, and is using replacement workers from temporary labour agencies and an enterprise in the state of Ohio that specializes in providing contingency workers when staff of a company strike or are locked out. 
 
In a further rebuke to the principles of the Global Compact, earlier this year Roquette&rsquo;s Keokuk plant was hit with a US$1 million fine as a civil penalty regarding air pollution violations. The penalty was part of a consent order by a local district court judge in agreement with the state of Iowa and Roquette, in which the company admitted wrongdoing.
(The IUF's campaign on Roquette can be viewed <a href="http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/campaigns/show_campaign.cgi?c=539">here</a>.)&nbsp; 
 
Roquette Fr&egrave;res operates in 12 countries and manufactures different corn starches in Keokuk, including starch derivatives and polyols, or sugar alcohols, from the corn wet milling process for use in food and pharmaceutical grade dextrose, corn syrup, and other products.

ICEM Joins IUF in Global Compact Protest of French Firm’s US Lockout

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Ge&ccedil;en hafta İstanbul'da yapılan Kimya Sekt&ouml;r Konferansı'nı a&ccedil;an ICEM Kimya İşkolları Başkanı Tomas Nieber k&uuml;resel kriz nedeniyle d&uuml;zenleyici kuralların ve standartların artırılması &ccedil;ağrısında bulundu. ICEM &uuml;yesi IGBCE'nin Ekonomi B&ouml;l&uuml;m&uuml; başkanı olan ve yeniden ICEM'in kimya ve ila&ccedil; sekt&ouml;r başkanı se&ccedil;ilen Nieber, sekt&ouml;r&uuml;n 2010'da hafif bir toparlanma g&ouml;sterdiğini, politikacıların ve h&uuml;k&uuml;metlerin krize yol a&ccedil;an eski politikalara d&ouml;nmemesi gerektiğini s&ouml;yledi. 
 
27-28 Ekim g&uuml;nlerinde İstanbul'da yapılan ICEM'in kimya konferansına 40 &uuml;lkeden 250 delege katıldı. Konferansın evsahipliğini T&uuml;rkiye'deki petrol, kimya ve lastik iş&ccedil;ilerinin sendikası Petrol-İş yaptı. 
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Petrol-İş Genel Başkanı Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkın
Nieber k&uuml;resel kriz nedeniyle d&uuml;nya &ouml;l&ccedil;eğinde istihdamda 34 milyon kayıp olduğu s&ouml;yledi ve -akaryakıt fiyatındaki artış ve her iki sekt&ouml;rde s&uuml;rd&uuml;r&uuml;lebilir politikalar uygulama zorunluluğu gibi- sekt&ouml;r&uuml;n karşı karşı bulunduğu zorlukları vurguladı. 
 
Nieber, &ldquo;Sendikalar olarak d&uuml;zenlemelerin artırılmasını talep etmeliyiz&rdquo; dedi. 
 
Petrol-İş Genel Başkanı Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkın delegelere hoşgeldiniz dedikten sonra, &uuml;lkesinde sendikaları etkisizleştirme politikaları uygulandığını vurguladı. &ldquo;Sendikal hak ve &ouml;zg&uuml;rl&uuml;klerle ilgili uluslararası s&ouml;zleşmeler sistemli olarak ihlal ediliyor&rdquo; diyen &Ouml;ztaşkın ş&ouml;yle devam etti: &ldquo;&Uuml;lkemizde sendikal faaliyeti d&uuml;zenleyen mevzuat baskıcı ve yasak&ccedil;ı &ouml;z&uuml;n&uuml; koruyor.&rdquo; 
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Konferansa Japonya'dan 27 delege katıldı
&Ouml;ztaşkın, referandumla kabul edilen son anayasa değişikliklerinin aslında sendikal hakları bir&ccedil;ok y&ouml;nden geriye g&ouml;t&uuml;rd&uuml;ğ&uuml;n&uuml; belirtti. Petrol-İş başkanı, T&uuml;rkiye'nin kimya &uuml;retiminde d&uuml;nyadaki ilk on &uuml;lke arasında yer almasına rağmen, yıllardır s&uuml;ren &ouml;zelleştirmenin istihdamı y&uuml;zde 60-70 d&uuml;ş&uuml;rd&uuml;ğ&uuml;n&uuml;, sendikasız ve g&uuml;vencesiz işg&uuml;c&uuml;n&uuml;n kural haline geldiğini s&ouml;yledi. Ayrıca, T&uuml;rkiye'de sendikaların sosyal sorumluluk standartları, atık y&ouml;netimi, iş sağlığı ve g&uuml;venliği standartları ve temiz teknoloji alanlarında &ouml;nc&uuml;l&uuml;k yapmaya başladığını vurguladı. 
 
Konferansta iki g&uuml;n boyunca altı panel yapıldı. Bunlardan biri &ldquo;&Ccedil;alışma İlişkileri, Sosyal Diyalog ve Sosyal Sorumluluk&rdquo; &uuml;zerineydi. Bu panele şu kişiler katıldı: Uluslararası Kimya İşverenlerinin &Ccedil;alışma İlişkileri Komitesi Genel Sekreteri Lutz Mugl, Rhodia Kimya Başkanı Bernard Chambon, Umicore İnsan Kaynakları ve Gelişme M&uuml;d&uuml;r&uuml; Mark Dolfyn ve ICEM Kimya İşkolu Sorumlusu Kemal &Ouml;zkan ile eski IGBCE Başkanı ve EMCEF Başkanı Hubertus Schmoldt. 
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Rusya Kimya İş&ccedil;ileri Sendikası heyetinin başında Başkan Alexander Sitnov, sağda, vardı
Konferans &ouml;n&uuml;m&uuml;zdeki d&ouml;rt yıllık d&ouml;neme ilişkin 11 maddelik bir eylem planının kabul&uuml;yle sona erdi. Eylem/&ccedil;alışma planına <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Chems%20Conf%20ActionPlan%20TURK%20.pdf">buradan</a> ulaşılabilir. 
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Irak Petrol Sendikaları Federasyonu'ndan (GFIW) Hasan Cuma Avad Sdave &ldquo;K&uuml;resel Sendikal G&uuml;&ccedil; ve Dayanışma&rdquo; konulu panelde konuştu
Kimya Konferansı, ayrıca, kemer sıkma politikalarına ve &ouml;nlemlerine karşı greve giden Fransa, Romanya ve diğer Avrupa &uuml;lkelerindeki sendikaları destekleyen bir kararı onayladı. Bu karar &ouml;nce 26 Ekim'de yine İstanbul'da toplanan ICEM Presidyumu (Başkanlar Kurulu) tarafından kabul edildi.

Rekor katılımlı ICEM Kimya Konferansı sonuçlandı

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The second meeting of the Latin American Trade Union Network of Dutch multinational Akzo Nobel was held on from 7-9 December 2010 in S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil. The meeting was jointly organized by the project called CUTMulti, CUT`s International Relations Secretariat, and ICEM&rsquo;s Dutch trade union affiliate, FNV Bondgenoten. 
 
The meeting was attended by trade union representatives from Brazil, the Netherlands, US, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia, together with representatives from the Brazilian national labour centre CUT, ICEM, and Brazil&rsquo;s Social Observatory Institute. 
 
At the opening session, the general coordinator of ICEM affiliate CNQ/CUT &ndash; the National Workers Confederation of the Chemical Sector &ndash; Antenor Nakamura (Kazu) congratulated the initiative to expand the committee, and highlighted the importance of trade union networking in the chemicals sector. 
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Delegates put forward their expectations from the network. Marcel Tesselaar, representative of FNV Bondgenoten, the union representing headquarters workers of AkzoNobel, acknowledged that the company has different behaviours in the Netherlands from the rest of the world. &ldquo;Through meetings like this, we can create a real social dialogue process,&rdquo; he said. 
 
James Carvin, a sub-district director of ICEM&rsquo;s North American Affiliate, the United Steelworkers (USW), told the meeting that his union&rsquo;s intention is to intensify the work with the network and promised to reproduce work done in Brazil in the US. 
 
ICEM&rsquo;s Kemal &Ouml;zkan reported on the current situation of the chemical industry worldwide. A international labor standards and other tools for union action presentation was made by Jos&eacute; Drummond, with emphasis on the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the ILO tripartite declaration for multinationals, UN Global Compact, Socio-Labor Declaration of Mercosur, ISO 26000, and various companies codes of conduct. Data on the AkzoNobel restructuring process was presented by the DIEESE. 
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The meeting also included country reports on existing situations at AkzoNobel plants. A plant visit to Mau&aacute;, discussions on communication of the network, its expansion and political coordination, and strengthening of the Latin American network were the major topics of the meeting programme. 
 
The activities closed on 10 December with a social dialogue session with the participation of the company`s management for South America. Some eight managers attended, including human resource managers and union relations consultants hired specially to deal with the workers network. The social dialogue debates included a presentation of the company on strategic investments in China, a report of the network on the proposals put forward in this second Latin American meeting, international labor standards, the social dialogue process, organization at the workplace, corporate social responsibility, the company&rsquo;s code of conduct, and a proposal on training and labour/union relations for the management of the company.

Latin American Union Network for AkzoNobel Held in São Paulo, Brazil

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Cements workers and others of Jindal Cement and its parent, Indian steel conglomerate Jindal Group or JSW, had a demonstration busted up by riot police firing gunshots over their heads in Gadivemula, India. The 4,000 demonstrators were protesting on 23 January over the misery sum Jindal offered to pay the family of a construction worker who fell and died at the cement plant. 
 
Managers called area Kurnool police used near-deadly force to disperse the workers, who then hurled rocks and other objects at police, damaging a police vehicle. Some workers were injured when they jostled with police while trying to gain entry to the cement plant. 
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Workers claim it was Jindal&rsquo;s negligence that led to the death of the 43-year-old worker, Bikakalagudur, who fell from a high beam while employed on construction of the company&rsquo;s Gadivemula cement works. 
 
Jindal Cement at first offered to pay only one-half the standard ex-gratia to the dead worker&rsquo;s family. 
 
Mumbai-based JSW Group, a US$8 billion concern, is busy constructing cement plants adjacent to many of the company&rsquo;s steel mills in order to take advantage of slag and flyash for use in cement manufacture.

Cement Workers in India Vehemently Protest Over Dead Colleague

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The ICEM directed criticism at Advanced Chemical Industries Ltd. (ACI) of Bangladesh last week over 22-23 January protests inside a pharmaceutical factory in Siddhirganj, central Narayanganj district, that left one worker dead. The ICEM believes that both full-time and temporary workers were pushed to their limits by ACI Plant Manger Ishtiaque Ahmed, who exhibited notoriously cruel behaviour to workers with constant threats of dismissal. 
 
Following peaceful worker protests on 22 January, ACI management responded by calling for armed police action against nearly all 400 workers inside the plant on the following day. The ICEM learned that management refused several times in recent months to engage in earnest discussions over workers&rsquo; grievances. 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s protest to ACI can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/2.GDFSUEZunitedwatLet.pdf ">here</a>. Police fired rubber bullets and 30 canisters of tear gas on 23 January to break up the in-plant protests. One worker, 25-year-old temporary worker Enamul Huq, died from wounds suffered by he police assault. Over 100 others, including some police officers and the plant manager himself, were hospitalised. 
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Arrest Warrant: Beaten Worker
In the early days of last week, local Narayanganj police issued arrest for 30 named workers and another 300 whose names were not listed. 
 
The ICEM finds that the mayhem is attributable to ACI, which for too long neglected the pleas of workers and their plant-level trade union to address issues. Those issues include extended temporary work status to deserving workers, denying those workers union representation, and employing temporary workers at a sub-par level of benefits. Some temporary staff at ACI Pharmaceutical in Siddhirganj have worked as long as 12 years in unsecured job postings. 
 
The ICEM noted that nearly 400 of the plant&rsquo;s 407 workers took part in last weekend&rsquo;s protests. The ACI plant employs 167 full-time and 240 temporary workers. 
 
The ACI plant produces drug aids for human use. The plant employs 167 full-time workers and is a major Asian manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of drug aids, agri-chemical and pesticide products, and basic consumer products.

ICEM Says Bangladesh Chemical Company Provoked Riot that Killed One

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Release from International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) 
 
The Global Union representing workers in the garment industry is convened a meeting of jeans&rsquo; 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&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF), said, &ldquo;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="" width="130" height="106" alt="" />
ITGLWF General Secretary Patrick Itschert
&ldquo;In Turkey, the world&rsquo;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. 
 
&ldquo;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. 
 
&ldquo;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&rdquo;. 
 
Speakers at the meeting, entitled &ldquo;Towards the Elimination of Sandblasting in the Garment Industry,&rdquo; 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

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In early January, the ICEM learned of a major workers&rsquo; protest in al-Ferdous Square in Baghdad by Iraqi public employees and civil servants. More details are now available on that 4 January manifestation, thanks to the Federation of Workers&rsquo; Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI). This legitimate protest was held to uphold work rights for Politically Dismissed Workers. 
 
An inquiry commission is about to wrongly verify documentation acknowledging the sackings of hundreds of workers from ministries and agencies within Industry, Commerce, Agriculture, Irrigation, and other departments of government over political allegiances.
<img src="" width="231" height="155" alt="" />
Public Workers Carry a Symbolic Coffin in Baghdad
The demonstration was vocal and visual, by all accounts. 
 
The manifestation&rsquo;s first demand called for the cancellation of all decisions by the inquiry commission. Secondly, the 4 January rally and march demanded that sacked workers&rsquo; dismissal periods count as actual employment and thirdly, the 500 protesters demanded a stop to proceedings of verification against the politically dismissed workers. 
<img src="" width="230" height="173" alt="" />
FWCUI President Falah Alwan
After trade union activists spoke at al-Ferdous Square, demonstrators carried a coffin as a death symbol to government officials destroying any semblance of global labour standards in this particular case. The march wound its way in central Baghdad to Square Wiz and then back again to al-Ferdous Square. 
 
The protest was widely covered by Baghdad television, radio, and print media outlets. 
 
The ICEM gives global support to Iraqi workers who exercise their legitimate rights under international labour standards.

Public Sector Workers Demand Justice for Sacked Workers in Iraq

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A colliery in northern Notre de Santander state, Colombia, again became a death trap for miners. The La Preciosa coal mine in Sandinata municipality, where 38 miners have already perished over the past three years, was rocked by a methane gas explosion at the morning shift change on 26 January that saw 21 miners die. 
 
The locally-owned mine by La Preciosa Ltda. employs 110 staff and was ordered closed by the National Institute of Geology and Mines (Ingeominas) following the explosion. Twenty miners were killed inside a 600-metre horizontal shaft, while one worker died in an ambulance on the way to medical care. Six miners were rescued and are hospitalised in the city of C&uacute;cuta. 
 
The bodies of 16 miners were retrieved on the day of the disaster, while four were received on 27 January. 
<img alt="" src="" width="209" height="145" />
La Preciosa Miners Worry About Future
In unexpected candor, the Colombian government admitted that its mine safety laws and resources for stricter mine safety regulations are inadequate. Mining Minister Carlos Rodado arrived in Sandinata on 27 January and said the government lacks funds and staff &ndash; Ingeominas exploys only 17 mine inspectors &ndash; to monitor 6,000 legal mines. 
 
La Preciosa, which produces 3,000 tonnes of coal per month, is a legally-operated mine. But in October 2010, six miners died due to gas asphyxiation. In 2007, 32 miners died in a similar gas explosion to the one that occurred last Wednesday. In 2007, the mine stayed close for five months. 
 
A representative from an ICEM-affiliated miners&rsquo; union at another mine in Colombia said the government is too quick to award operating licenses to small- and medium-size companies which do not have the necessary mechanisms in place to monitor safe mining practices. Colombia has not ratified ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 
 
At a funeral service in the mountain town of San Roque on 28 January where ten of the 21 miners were remembered, thousand of residents turned out to mourn, with most residents of the mountainous town affixing Colombian flag to their homes. The mayor of Sandinata, Yamile Ragel, called the tragedy &ldquo;a crime&rdquo; that will &ldquo;not go unpunished.&rdquo; The ten were buried in a local cemetery following a Roman Catholic service. 
 
Ingeominas said that in 2010, Colombia recorded 84 mine accidents in which 173 workers died.

Methane Blast in Colombian Coal Mine Kills 21

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An ICEM and Public Services International (PSI) affiliated trade union, Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), has raised issue with the insolent social conduct of US managers of a subsidiary of GDF SUEZ. The conduct is pointedly contrary to standards GDF SUEZ only in November agreed to in a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with three Global Union Federations (GUFs). 
 
The matter involves a US subsidiary of French-based GDF SUEZ, United Water Services Inc., a private utility that employs about 400 UWUA members in the US. UWUA called on the ICEM and PSI to rebuke United Water over an environment indictment levied in December by the US Justice Department, as well as troubling public comments made by United Water executives to minimize the seriousness of the alleged crimes. 
<img alt="" src="" width="112" height="112" />
After consulting with the third GUF that is signatory to the 16 November 2010 GFA, Building and Woodworkers International (BWI), the ICEM and PSI on 19 January issued the first complaint of this particular agreement, calling United Water&rsquo;s overall conduct a breach of GDF SUEZ corporate social responsibility. (That complaint can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/2.GDFSUEZunitedwatLet.pdf ">here</a>.) 
On 8 December, the US government issued a set of 26 indictments against United Water for conspiracy and felony violations of the US Clean Water Act. The GDF SUEZ subsidiary and two of its executives are charged with tampering and manipulating water quality measurements at a Gary, Indiana, wastewater treatment plant that it had operated on behalf of the municipality&rsquo;s Sanitation Board. 
 
Specifically, over a five-year period, the US Justice Department charged United Water with a scheme that increased chlorine input levels immediately before US government E.Coli monitoring samples were taken, and then lowering the input levels afterward as cost-savings measures. United Water is accused of doing this 68 times. 
<img alt="" src="" width="220" height="69" />
The practice, the US government claims, poses a serious health risk to the public. 
 
The UWUA, ICEM, and PSI also took serious issue following the US Justice Department indictment with public comments made by United Water&rsquo;s president and senior vice president for Corporate Communications downplaying the charges. They stated that the indictments are mere technical disagreements, with the president of United Water, Robert Iacullo, calling the government&rsquo;s environmental charges &ldquo;an abuse of prosecutorial discretion.&rdquo; 
 
In the addendum to the GFA, GDF Suez states that it has &ldquo;responsibilities to society&rdquo; and that &ldquo;it will respect national law and regulations.&rdquo; The agreement also states: &ldquo;Among it activities, GDF Suez distributes energy and water, essential to the health and well-being of society.&rdquo; The ICEM/PSI intervention notes, &ldquo;If the US government&rsquo;s charges prove true, the discharge of untreated, or sub-standard wastewater into waterways poses a serious public health threat.&rdquo; 
 
The GUFs are currently awaiting reply from GDF SUEZ over the complaint.

US Affiliate, UWUA, Challenges GDF SUEZ Inside Global Agreement

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