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

Press

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Paperworkers belonging to ICEM affiliates FIA-UGT and FSC-CCOO in Spain effectively shut the nation&rsquo;s paper and paperboard industry on 23 February. And they will do again on arch if the paper employers&rsquo; 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&rsquo;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&rsquo;s Papertech, and Gom&agrave;-Camps. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.p&amp;p.Spain.jpg" width="340" height="224" />
Paperworkers Strike at Torraspapel&rsquo;s Almaz&aacute;-Soria Region Mill
Central staff of SAICA joined the 24-hour strike last week. At three of four of Barcelona-based Torraspapel&rsquo;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">Solidarity Call</a> on February 23 can be found here. 
 
Spanish paperworkers have grown angry over Aspapel&rsquo;s unwillingness to bend from sweeping flexibility changes and downward wage structure revisions. The dispute is far less on salaries &ndash; the two sides are close on that &ndash; 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&rsquo;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

Special Newsletter: Developments in the Global Contract and Agency Labour Project

<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="50" />
Following an international solidarity campaign, Nike has agreed to pay US$1.5 million to a relief fund for the former employees of two of its Honduran suppliers, Hugger de Honduras and Vision Tex, which closed plants in the Central American country without notice and without paying workers any of the legally-mandated severance payments due them. 
 
Both factories closed in mid-January 2009, without severance payments to approximately 1,800 workers and estimated to total some US$2 million. In addition, Visions Tex failed to pay monies it had committed to paying in December 2008 following a strike, which included the legal entitlement to an annual bonus. The closure occurred just after the formation of a union at the factory. 
<img alt="" src="" width="200" height="92" />
The union representing the workers, the Central General de Trabajadores de Honduras (CGT), the Worker Rights Consortium and the Solidarity Center of the US will jointly oversee the administration of the fund. According to a joint press release by Nike and the CGT, workers will also receive a year&rsquo;s access to the health care system, training, and priority hiring. 
 
This groundbreaking agreement represents a significant step forward in the corporate social responsibility debate, with a major multinational company recognising that it must ensure decent working conditions, and the application of national legislation and international labour standards, for all those from whose labour it profits.

Nike Takes Responsibility for Employer’s Anti-Social Actions

<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="50" />
In February 2005, Mr. Choi, a worker at a subcontracting company of the Ulsan factory of the Hyundai Motors in South Korea, was dismissed for carrying out trade union activities. Mr. Choi had been employed by the subcontractor and stationed at the Ulsan factory since March 2002. 
 
When he was dismissed Mr. Choi, filed an application for remedy to the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) in an administrative lawsuit, claiming that it was an unfair dismissal and that Hyundai Motors, not the subcontracting company, was his real employer. 
 
On 22 July 2010, the Korean Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Choi was an illegal dispatch worker and determined that he, in fact, became a direct employee of Hyundai the day after working two consecutive years. 
<img alt="" src="" width="250" height="115" />
The High Court wrote, &ldquo;Mr. Choi was under the direct human resource (HR) management by the Hyundai Motors after being employed by one of its subcontracting companies. So, it will be assumed that he was a dispatch worker to the Hyundai Motors. Under the Act on the Protection of Dispatch Workers, etc. (Dispatch Worker Act), he should be regarded as a worker employed by the Hyundai Motors from the day after he has worked more than two consecutive years.&rdquo; 
 
Welcoming the groundbreaking ruling, the Korean Metal Workers&rsquo; Federation declared, &ldquo;The ruling puts a brake on discrimination and extortion by employers for non-regular workers. We will request all the employers hiring in-house subcontracted workers including the Hyundai Motors a special round of collective bargaining and also proceed with a series of class action lawsuits gathering dismissed workers, retirees, etc.&rdquo; 
 
The International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) covered this story on 29 July and it can be found <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?id=622&amp;l=2&amp;cid=23679">here</a>.

Groundbreaking Korean High Court Rule Contract Worker is Worker of Primary Company

Bayo is the General Secretary of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
How Prevalent is Contract and Agency Labour and Casualisation in Nigeria? 
 
CAL is increasing and alarmingly taking over Nigeria&rsquo;s Oil and Gas industries. It encompasses various dimensions of precarious work and the worst forms of employment. CAL gives room for unfair labour practices that are repugnant to decent work principles. About 60% of our workforce is now composed of contract and agency workers. Standard, permanent employment is declining. 
 
Is the Issue of Casualisation and Temporary Work Practices a Bigger Problem than it was Before? 
 
The issue is a bigger problem in the Nigeria Oil and Gas Sector now than it was before due to the fact that employers and the government&rsquo;s standpoint is that CAL is now a reality that cannot be wished away. This leaves trade unions with no other option than to tackle the adverse effects of CAL, which are: 
 
&bull; Use of this work practice to replace direct and permanent employment; 
&bull; To adversely change employment forms and conditions, to avoid social responsibilities and obligations which employers circumvent through gaps and inadequacies in our extant laws; 
&bull; To weaken trade union membership, solidarity and relevance, and to prevent union organising and recognition of the collective bargaining principle; 
&bull; It widens the exploitation gaps particularly by user enterprises who prefer to minimise cost and increase profit, at the expense and detriment of labour; 
&bull; It increases workplace discrimination and inequitable terms and conditions of employment; 
&bull; It seriously challenges trade union ability to protect job security; 
&bull; There are conflicts in the definition of employment relationships and the obligations of user enterprises, particularly where laws and employment regulatory agencies do not clarify these issues; 
&bull; And an underlying factor, casualisation and temporary work is a growing phenomenon due to the unemployment situation. Employers are exploiting workers&rsquo; desperation for a means of subsistence for their own profit mongering. 
 
 
What are Differences in Nigeria Regarding Working Conditions Between CAL Workers and Permanent Workers? 
 
Number one, casual and temporary workers are subjected to conditions that are not in accord with the general work conditions in the Oil and Gas Sector. Where CAL workers are lucky and are allowed to organise and bargain collectively, the mandate for negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement is seriously curtailed by the contracts between the contractors and agencies on the one side and by the primary enterprise on the other side. 
 
In addition, these workers are subject to limited or no provisions for basic welfare, pensions and social security, health, safety, security and environmental protection, and other stipulated core ILO conventions. And to cite just one small example, Global Framework Agreements that are signed with Global Union Federations, where functional, are not usually made available and applicable to contract and agency workers. 
 
Any set of negotiations in Nigeria that involves a collective agreement for these workers is prone to grievances, disputes, threats, resistance, and action from labour unions, contractors and agencies, and user enterprises. 
 
What are the Main Ways in which Trade Unions are Supporting Casual and Contract and Agency Labour Workers? 
 
It has become a priority to use union resources and machineries to mobilise support and confront the overall denial that contract and agency workers&rsquo; rights have not right to organise and bargain collectively. We are doing this through increases levels of sensitisation through mobilisations, campaigns, solidarity actions, protests, rallies, pickets, strikes, media work, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, and litigation. 
 
We now have the task of entrenching the more effective and protective organising and collective bargaining strategies for contract and agency workers, with financial and organisation support from our union&rsquo;s Union Solidarity Reserve fund, from organisations like the ICEM, Friedrich-Ebert Foundation of Germany, and the US Solidarity Center. 
 
We are constantly implementing union resolutions, directives, and decisions in the area of campaigns, lobbying, engagements, and advocacy for contract and agency workers&rsquo; issues. 
 
Which Ways Do You Feel the ICEM&rsquo;s Global Campaign on CAL can be Helpful and Most Effective in Confronting the Challenges of CAL in Nigeria&rsquo;s Oil and Gas Sector? 
 
The Global CAL Campaign of the ICEM must use donors&rsquo; resources and mechanisms to mobilise support and confront resistance to full rights of contract and agency workers to organise and bargain collectively. The ICEM must increase awareness of the CAL situation, by all possible means, and it must effectively implement the Campaign through communication, engagement and evaluation, and correcting deviations/gaps in the global campaign strategies. 
PENGASSAN&rsquo;s best hope is that the ICEM will carry out advocacy and lobbying for fair labour policies and laws which are favourable to contract and agency workers, as to campaign for best practices in dealing with employment and working conditions issues relating to this most serious issue.

Interview: Bayo Olowoshile, PENGASSAN General Secretary

<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="50" />
Last Spring, trade unions of the Netherlands and the Dutch Association of Temporary Work Agencies, Algemene Bond Uitzendondernemingen (ABU), agreed to an across-the-board 1% wage increase for all temporary workers in the country. 
 
An increase of 0.5% took effect on 5 July and a further 0.5% increase will be awarded on 3 January 2011. The 1% wage increase granted to the employees was based on the average of increases taken from a selection of 30 collective agreements in other sectors. 
<img alt="" src="" width="97" height="145" />
Marcel Nuyten, Director Temp Workers, FNV Bondgenoten
The agreement was reached between the ABU, the ICEM-affiliated FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Dienstenbond, the executives&rsquo; union, and LBV, an independent union. An agreement was also reached whereby wages may be increased every year on 1 July, amending the Collective Employment Agreement for Temporary Employees 2009 &ndash; 2014. 
 
The Collective Employment Agreement, which can be found <a href="http://www.abu.nl/abu2/?fileid=14231">here</a>, stipulates conditions which must apply to temporary agency workers, including the relationships between the worker, agency, and user enterprise; training entitlement; and the conditions under which temporary employment contracts may be terminated.

Dutch Unions Get Wage Increase with Employers’ Federation for Agency Workers

<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="50" />
While European trade unions on 29 September will manifest against government austerity programmes, German trade unions will use that day &ndash; and, and in fact, all of September and throughout the autumn &ndash; to oppose not only public-sector cuts but equally to vehemently condemn the ugly social dumping caused by the boom in temporary work. 
 
This stems from the DGB Congress last May, where the Congress made it a priority to campaign for equal pay, equal rights, and fixed probation periods before the exploited workers of the temporary sector are made permanent employees. Since that Congress, German unions have ramped up the political heat so much that the Christian-Democratic (CDU) Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Ursula von der Leyen, has introduced a partial remedy in legislation that does address the downward spiral of wages brought on by more and more workers forced into temporary employment. 

But the legislation does not go far enough. 
 
Many of the major trade union affiliates of DGB, including IGBCE, IG Metall, and Ver.di, will emphasise this point in upcoming manifestations. The unions are also taking the issue into workplaces, both inside collective bargaining processes and at plant-gates in the form of protests. This month, IG Metall has introduced the &ldquo;equal pay for equal work&rdquo; principle in sector-wide negotiations in three German states. 
<img alt="" src="" width="202" height="101" />
DGB's Micheal Sommer
DGB President Michael Sommer said in the 6 September edition of newspaper Handelsblatt that German union members will abide by national laws prohibiting strikes over political issues, but &ldquo;workplace meetings and actions at plant gates&rdquo; to highlight temporary work as an abhorrent austerity measure in countering the financial crisis will occur. Sommer said this issue will also be heard loud and clear inside German work partnership structures as well. 
 
Von der Leyen&rsquo;s proposed legislation is called the &ldquo;Schlecker&rdquo; bill in reference to the large drug store chain that tried to sack all full-time workers and then re-hire them as contract employees at half their previous salaries. It would require &ldquo;equal pay for equal work&rdquo; to prevent wage dumping such as at Schlecker, with a fine of &euro;25,000 to offending businesses. 
 
But the legislation would fail to reverse the up-surge in temporary work because employers could still use short-term workers so long as they made equal payment for equal work. &ldquo;Schlecker&rdquo; also does not establish a time limit on when a temp worker must be made permanent, and it also does not include a set minimum wage for temporary workers, something that is a priority on the agenda of DGB and German unions. 
 
On average, temporary sector workers in Germany earn 30% less that full-time, permanent staff, DGB-affiliated unions have found.

Equal Rights for Temp Workers Becomes ‘Hot-Button’ in Germany

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
The military junta ruling Burma have handed employers increased powers in their efforts to eliminate trade union rights in the country. New legislation passed on 20 August will enable employers to sack any worker involved in industrial protest of any kind. The sacked workers will also be blacklisted. &ldquo;If they don&rsquo;t want to be jobless, they won&rsquo;t protest&rdquo; a military official was quoted as saying. 
 
Previously Burmese authorities have dealt with industrial action by imprisoning protest organizers. The change in tactic of the military government is said to be due to increasing criticism from the international community. Now it will be impossible for workers to conduct protests of any kind, for better rights or conditions. 
<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="120" />
The new law was decreed at a meeting in the capital Rangoon, and was drawn up by industry employers, government ministers and Burmese military officials. 
 
March 2010 saw workers&rsquo; protests, in industrial zones Shwe Pyi Thar, Taung Dagon and Hlaing Thayar, demanding time off during public holidays and increases in overtime pay and salaries. 
 
In March, workers at industries such as launched protests demanding employers give them time off during public holidays and increase their salaries and payments for working overtime hours. 
 
Burmese industrial workers earn between US$20-US$40 per month, far less than a living wage.

Burmese Junta Pass New Decree Banning Industrial Action

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
The ICEM Asia-Pacific Region Oil and Gas Industry Network conducted a meeting on 21-22 August, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The meeting was co-hosted by ICEM, FES, VGCL, and the Vietnam Oil and Gas Union. 
 
Mr Koyanagi, representative of JEC Rengo, ICEM&rsquo;s largest sector union in the region, was elected as Chairperson for the meeting. 
 
Keynote presentations were given by ICEM and fellow global union federation the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF). 
 
For ICEM Geneva, Director of Organisation Jim Catterson presented a broad and detailed overview of the state of the sector, touching on current and future/projected industry patterns, emphasizing the ICEM global sectoral meeting scheduled for Stavanger which started today. Catterson highlighted the ICEM/ITF collaboration on and around offshore oilrigs, aiming to achieve unionization &ldquo;from well to wheel&rdquo;. Focus was also on the impact of the 2008 Economic Crisis, the importance of the Caspian area, the expected resurgence of Iraqi oil production, the oil industry ICEM Global Framework Agreements, the growing role of China as an investor and user of oil and gas, and the problem of the growing gap between drilling technology and security and safety technology.
<img src="" width="240" height="116" alt="" />
For the ITF, Mick Doleman, representing the ITF&rsquo;s Offshore Taskforce Group, recalled the 2006 alliance between ITF and ICEM on offshore issues, and along the &ldquo;pit to the port&rdquo; chain. Mick also emphasized the focus of Australian unions in solidarity work in the sub- region, in Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea in particular, stressing the need for the building of strong and active trade unions. 
 
Delegates received country reports by Japan, India, Korea, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia. 
 
The co-hosting Vietnam Oil and Gas Union presented themselves and the political context in which they operate, detailing union membership at 45,000-51,000 in the industry, at 129 workplaces. Current challenges faced by the union are growing use by employers of contract and agency labour (CAL); and union officials paid by management. 
<img src="" width="146" height="66" alt="" />
ICEM Asia-Pacific responded by recalling the developing contact with VO&amp;GU since 1993, now moving towards formal affiliation, and commended the detailed and structured report presented. 
 
There was a strong emphasis on the importance of solidarity and support amongst and between affiliates themselves. The value of regular sectoral meetings at the regional level was agreed, but the need for active information exchange and interaction between any such meetings was stressed. 
 
The meeting received motivation for two solidarity resolutions, on Linde Group&rsquo;s ongoing anti-union practices in Thailand, and in support of Los Mineros in Mexico, as well as one recommendation to the World Energy Conference. The three resolutions were unanimously accepted.

ICEM Asia-Pacific Region Oil and Gas Industry Network Meets

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union became the eighth US trade union to join the Blue Green Alliance, a well-honed collaboration in place between major trade unions and major environmental groups in America. The announcement two weeks ago weds one of the US&rsquo;s founding industrial unions to a commitment to build cleaner and more fuel-efficient automobiles. 
 
&ldquo;We are thrilled to become part of this unique partnership of working people and environmentalists who are striving to build a cleaner, more efficient and more prosperous American economy,&rdquo; stated UAW President Bob King in the announcement that brought US auto industry labour into the alliance. &ldquo;We have enormous opportunities to revitalize this industry, and the American economy, by embracing the clean energy economy of the future.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="141" />
UAW President, Bob King
The Blue Green Alliance started in 2006 between the United Steelworkers (USW) and the Sierra Club, and since has grown as a labor-environmental bond between leading American unions and both the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). 
 
The Blue Green Alliance now has 8.5 million American workers pursuing Good Jobs, a Clean Environment, and a Green Economy. Besides the leading role the USW has taken in forming the alliance, other US-based unions include the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA), Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), the Service Employees&rsquo; Union (SEIU), and the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association (SMWIA).

American Auto Workers Join Blue Green Alliance

Archive