English

Español

Français

Русский

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 2021-2025

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

Sri Lanka's emergency regulations have been severely condemned by world industrial trade union leaders currently meeting in Brussels. 
 
Promulgated on 3 May, the regulations suppress "fundamental democratic rights and basic trade union rights," said the Executive Committee of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The ICEM particularly deplores the "total suppression" of Sri Lankan workers' "rights to strike, to picket and to march in public procession" in any sector that the country's President declares to be an "essential service". The wide range of sectors already hit by the decrees includes fuel distribution, electricity supply, commodity exports and "the sale, supply or distribution of any articles of food or medicine or any other article required by a member of the public," the unions point out. 
 
Calling on the Sri Lankan government to withdraw the regulations immediately, the ICEM pledged to mobilise "full solidarity action" by its unions worldwide and to lodge a complaint against Sri Lanka with the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). The emergency regulations breach the ILO's core standards on freedom of association and collective bargaining.

Unions Slam Sri Lankan Decrees

The international community "is still very far from fulfilling its financial obligations" to cover "technical and safety issues" related to the decommissioning of Chernobyl nuclear power station. 
 
That was the warning today from leaders of the world's energy and allied unions, currently meeting in Brussels. 
 
Chernobyl, the site of the world's worst-ever nuclear accident in 1986, is to be closed by the end of this year, the Ukrainian government has confirmed. Funding for the closure and for replacement power sources is to come from the G7 industrial countries, the European Union and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. 
 
But, the Executive Committee of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) said in Brussels today, the funding pledges made by the donors at a meeting this March are inadequate. 
 
The ICEM leaders particularly insisted that "a Social Action Plan developed by international experts and the Ukrainian government, in cooperation with the ICEM-affiliated Ukrainian Atom Union, should be an integral part of any decommissioning scenario and its practical implementation. The international community, the governments of donor countries and the Ukrainian government must ensure the proper financing of the Social Plan." 
 
The social plan is designed to tackle the severe employment impacts of the Chernobyl closure, both at the power station itself and in the town of Slavutich, where most of the Chernobyl workers live.

Unions' Chernobyl Warning

Oil multinational Statoil has told America's Crown Central Petroleum that its contract to refine Statoil crude will not be renewed until normal relationships are established with the trade union at Crown's refinery in Pasadena, Texas. 
 
Statoil has also reportedly informed Crown that no further expansion of business cooperation will be discussed until the US refiner sorts out its disastrous labour relations. 
 
Behind this New Year boost for global labour rights is the Norwegian oil and petrochemical workers' union NOPEF. In solidarity with US oilworkers' union the OCAW, NOPEF pressed Norwegian-based Statoil to help end Crown Central's union-busting in Pasadena. 
<img height="247" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/lars.gif" width="326" alt=""/>
 
 
Crown has kept unionised workers locked out of its Pasadena refinery since February 1996. It launched the lock-out after it had failed to force OCAW members into a strike. The company used trumped-up charges of sabotage to justify the lock-out in its attempt to destroy the union at its Pasadena refinery. 
 
Last August, Statoil signed a two-year agreement for Crown to refine Statoil's crude oil into finished products for the North American market. 
 
The new Statoil threat to ditch Crown is "a highly unusual action by a multinational oil company and further isolates Crown as a corporate outlaw, bully and union-buster on the world scene," said OCAW President Robert Wages. "This should send a strong message to other oil companies not to deal with Crown, and we applaud NOPEF for communicating our concerns to Statoil's management and board." 
 
The news of Statoil's warning to Crown was released by the OCAW, which had been informed by NOPEF. 
 
After a first-hand investigation of Crown's union-busting last September, NOPEF President Lars Myhre declared that "Statoil products should not be tainted by its association with Crown." 
 
"Statoil supplies the American refinery with 35,000 barrels of oil a day," Myhre wrote in NOPEF's magazine last October. "I have been in touch with Statoil and I am going to raise the Crown case with the company again... Statoil must either break off the contract with Crown or use its influence to change the company's ideas for the better, so that the dispute can be resolved decently. Things cannot go on as they are now." 
 
Myhre chairs the energy workers' section of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which both NOPEF and the OCAW are affiliated. 
 
Last July, Statoil and the ICEM signed a pioneering global agreement on industrial relations (see ICEM UPDATE 66/1998). Crown Central falls outside the scope of that accord, which applies to Statoil's own operations worldwide. However, the new pressure on Crown will certainly be seen as further proof of Statoil's commitment to union rights worldwide, as set out in the agreement. 
 
In addition to union-busting, Crown stands accused of discriminating against women and African-Americans and of environmental racism for polluting low-income and largely Latino neighbourhoods which surround its Pasadena refinery. 
 
In August, Crown received a 1.1 million US dollar (0.93 million euro) fine from the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. This was the largest air pollution fine in Texas history. 
 
Meanwhile, an OCAW-backed boycott of Crown's US service stations and convenience stores has spread in recent months. 
 
Further proof of the company's isolation is a decision by the American Trading and Production Company, Inc. (Atapco) - Crown's largest stockholder - to relinquish its ownership of Crown stock. Atapco consists of the inherited wealth of Louis and Jacob Blaustein, the founders of Amoco. It filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission to separate its holdings into three separate companies and to give its Crown stock to the family of Crown CEO Henry Rosenberg Jr, 
which is one of three major branches of the extended Blaustein family, in exchange for the remainder of the Rosenberg family's Atapco holdings. 
 
"Even Crown's largest shareholder has had enough of Henry Rosenberg and is trying to get out of the line of fire," said Wages. 
 
Crown stock has been rocked in recent months, and at times it has dropped to below 7 US dollars (5.92 euro) per share, the lowest in its history. Credit rating agency Moody's has given Crown a negative rating. 
 
Recently, Crown shareholders filed a lawsuit against Crown board members and management for malfeasance and presiding over an 80 percent drop in Crown stock during a decade of unprecedented increases in the US stock market and in the stock of other independent US oil companies. The lawsuit alleges that Crown's management and board have rewarded Henry Rosenberg and his two sons, while ignoring shareholder value.

Statoil To Ditch Crown Central?

Tyre multinational Bridgestone has reached a tentative agreement with the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), the union confirmed today. 
 
The breakthrough is a big success for the American union - and for organised labour in Bridgestone worldwide. 
 
Bridgestone workers' unions on all continents had pressed the company to reach a US settlement, as had the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The proposed deal is for new contracts (collective agreements) at nine unionised Bridgestone/Firestone plants in the US. A major strike was narrowly averted, as the contracts had expired at midnight on 1 September. 
 
The settlement is subject to approval by the membership, and the USWA will not be commenting in detail on the package until it has been seen by the rank-and-file in the Bridgestone plants. However, it is understood to mean important gains for the union in terms of wages, benefits, pensions, seniority, restrictions on contracting out, grievances and arbitration procedures. In addition, all the various agreements now have a common expiration date. 
 
International union support for the American Bridgestone workers was mobilised via the global network of unions in Bridgestone recently set up by the ICEM. 
 
"During this difficult time, the existence of the network has proved to be a valuable tool," commented ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs today.

Bridgestone: Tentative US Agreement Brings Labour Gains

New labour agreements covering more than 8,000 workers at nine Bridgestone/Firestone plants in the United States were overwhelmingly approved by union members in secret-ballot ratification votes over the past 10 days. 
 
The master agreement between the tyre multinational and the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) was expanded to cover seven Bridgestone/Firestone plants, and was approved by a nearly 4-1 margin. Separate agreements for two other facilities were adopted by margins of 10-1 and 17-1 respectively. All three contracts expire on April 23, 2003, and negotiations for successor agreements will all take place in the same location. 
 
Highlights of the master agreement include: 
 
Restoration of full cost-of-living protections. Coupled with general wage increases of US$0.65 over the life of the agreement, the 100% cost-of-living payments could generate a total wage increase of $2.30 per hour by 2003, based on recent inflation history. 
 
 
Pension benefits of $50 per month per year of service at all locations. A worker retiring with 30 years of service would receive a guaranteed pension of $1,500 per month, a 47% increase over the previous agreement. 
 
 
A nearly 700% increase in the early retirement supplement, from $50 to $340 a month. 
 
 
Extended supplemental unemployment benefits, which will pay workers with 10 or more years of service an additional 13 weeks of benefits at 80% of their average weekly wage once state unemployment benefits are exhausted. Workers with 20 or more years of service receive an additional 26 weeks of benefits. 
 
 
Significant improvements in health care and other insurance benefits with no employee contributions at any location. 
 
 
New language designed to preserve and expand skilled trades at Bridgestone/Firestone plants by limiting the company’s right to subcontract maintenance work. 
 
 
Vastly improved health and safety provisions. 
 
 
Seniority improvements at all locations, giving workers greater control over their working lives. 
 
The two other agreements are broadly similar. 
 
The deals are a major success for the American union - and for organised labour in Bridgestone worldwide. 
 
Bridgestone workers' unions on all continents had pressed the company to reach a US settlement, as had the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the USWA is affiliated at the global level. 
 
Worldwide union support for the American workers was mobilised via the global network of unions in Bridgestone recently set up by the ICEM.

Bridgestone US Agreements Approved

Ukrainian judges have overturned key anti-union clauses in the country's labour legislation. 
 
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine yesterday struck down Sections 11 and 16 of the Act on Trade Unions, Their Rights and The Safeguarding of Their Activities. Both sections, which severely curtail union rights, were found to be unconstitutional. 
 
The decision is a signal victory for Ukrainian unions and for the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which had lobbied strongly for the repeal of the offending provisions. 
 
Section 16 required unions to obtain state registration, while Section 11 made unions' legal status dependent on membership numbers and a whole range of complicated administrative and geographical criteria. 
 
Together, they added up to a Catch 27 that could have destroyed many Ukrainian unions. Some local union branches had already been thrown out of their offices by employers using the new law. 
 
Passed by the Ukrainian parliament in September 1999, the law was subsequently signed by President Leonid Kuchma. 
 
Leading the fight against it was Mikhail Volynets, President both of the ICEM-affiliated Miners' Independent Trade Union and of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine. He took the case to the constitutional court, where he testified in detail against the legislation. And with the ICEM's help, he lodged a complaint with the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). The ILO committee on freedom of association found that Sections 11 and 16 violated basic international trade union rights standards ratified by Ukraine. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs recently wrote to Constitutional Court Chairman Viktor E. Skomorokha, drawing his attention to the ILO decision and calling for a "just verdict" by the court. 
 
That verdict came yesterday, and was immediately announced to the ICEM Presidium meeting in Prague. The ruling is "an important victory for trade union rights in Ukraine," ICEM Vice-President Aleksandr Jurkin told the Presidium. He chairs Ukraine's Atom Trade Union. 
 
"We congratulate the Ukrainian Constitutional Court on its independence and clear-sightedness," said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Prague. "It has thrown out legislation that was in breach of trade union rights, of Ukraine's international commitments and of natural justice."

Ukraine: Anti-Union Laws Ruled Unconstitutional

Energy workers' trade unions from fourteen countries in the Asia-Pacific region have urged Western oil and gas companies to "cease investment in Burma while the use of forced labour continues". 
 
The unions were attending a regional energy conference organised in Bangkok this week by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The Burma pull-out call was unanimously approved by oil, gas, electric power and coal mining unions from Australia, Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. 
 
The delegates also sent a message of solidarity to the Korean National Electricity Workers' Union whose representatives were absent from the meeting due to an ongoing battle against the privatisation of the state electric power utility KEPCO. The union has threatened to launch a nationwide strike from 24 November if the Korean parliament presses ahead with legislation to split up and privatise the company. The parliament's Industry and Energy Committee is due to consider the draft law by 23 November. 
 
 
 
 
BURMA, SLAVERY AND THE MULTINATIONALS 
 
On Burma, the energy unions noted with alarm the military rulers' decision to cease all cooperation with the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
In 1998, the ILO found that forced labour was "generalised and systematic" in Burma. This verdict was backed by the world's governments, employers and unions, who meet on equal terms within the ILO. 
 
Last week, the ILO Governing Body ruled that the Burmese junta has still not taken the required steps to end forced labour. The new finding follows an ILO mission to Burma this October. Burma therefore remains in serious breach of ILO Convention 29 on forced labour. Unless the regime bans forced labour by 30 November - and there seems little likelihood that it will - then the ILO will advise companies, states and international organisations to review their relations with Burma, so as to ensure that they do not in any way support or condone forced labour. The ILO will also ask the UN Economic and Social Committee to tackle the Burmese situation. The ILO itself described these moves as "unprecedented". 
 
If the ILO spotlight has remained on Burma, this is largely due to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which has continuously compiled and forwarded new evidence of the abuses. More than a million Burmese are still subjected to forced labour, toiling on construction sites for roads, railways, military installations and tourist infrastructure, the ICFTU says. 
 
A voluminous new ICFTU file, sent to the ILO last week, documents still more cases of forced labour relating directly to the building of the gas pipeline linking Burma and Thailand and the construction of tourist infrastructure. One of the country's military leaders, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, is directly involved. 
 
TotalFinaElf and Unocal are in a joint pipeline venture with Burma's state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) to bring gas to Thailand from the Yadana field off the Burmese coast. Since its inception, this project has stood accused of serious human rights abuses, including the use of forced labour. MOGE has also been linked to the laundering of the proceeds from Burmese junta's international sales of illicit drugs. 
 
Quite apart from these allegations, multinational energy investors are clearly helping to prop up one of the world's most repressive regimes. Another oil company heavily involved in Burma is British-based Premier. 
 
The full horror of the Burmese system is again shown in the latest ICFTU evidence. Men, women and children are drafted in for unpaid work - notably as forced porters for the Burmese army, as the country's long-running civil war continues. Forced porters are often sent ahead into minefields. The beating, rape and murder of forced labourers are commonplace. 
 
The following is the full text of this week's resolution on Burma by the Asia-Pacific energy unions: 
 
 
Oil, gas, electric power and coal mining unions attending the ICEM Asia-Pacific Regional Energy Conference on November 20-21 in Bangkok, note with alarm the decision of the military rulers in Burma to cease all cooperation with the International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
The ILO has moved firmly and decisively to isolate Burma because of the continuing use of forced labour. 
 
We reaffirm that freedom from forced labour is a fundamental human right and condemn the Burmese military government for the denial of this basic right. 
 
We call upon all international investors, especially those in the oil and gas industries, to cease investment in Burma while the use of forced labour continues. 
 
ICEM affiliates in ASEAN nations are called upon to press their governments to use all intergovernmental means possible to make Burma apply international minimum human rights standards in the workplace, including abolition of forced labour. 
 
 
 
"The ILO has clearly ruled that forced labour is continuing and systematic in Burma, and our energy unions in the region have made their views very plain," commented ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Brussels today. "The world must not tolerate slavery. The ILO is part of the UN system, and the United Nations should now urgently decide on the most appropriate international measures against the brutal Burmese regime - up to and including mandatory economic sanctions." 
 
 
 
SOCIAL ENERGY 
 
The Bangkok conference also adopted an Asia-Pacific Action Plan to put into practice ICEM's global "Social Energy Programme" which was launched in 1998 by the world's energy unions. The main points of the Action Plan include: 
 
 
 
Unions and the ICEM will increase pressure on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stop pushing for anti-social reforms and for foreign models that do not take local circumstances into account. Unions must be consulted and their opinions must be respected. 
 
 
Unions pledge to intensify information exchange via the Internet, to which practically all of them are connected. This exchange will especially cover experiences on privatisation, strong and efficient regulation, and dealing with multinational enterprises. 
 
 
Unions will take joint action to fight against destructive privatisation and deregulation and support each other whenever needed. 
 
 
Unions will join the ICEM's multinational company networks in the oil, gas, electric power and coal mining industries. They support the ICEM's efforts to negotiate global agreements with corporate management to guarantee union rights and high health, safety and environmental standards wherever the companies operate. 
 
 
Unions will also focus on internal development and will train officials and shop stewards for strategic campaigning. Organising is a priority, and efforts will be made to build stronger unions and to consolidate union structures. 
 
 
The Bangkok event was hosted by the Labour Union of the Thai state electricity utility EGAT. This union only recently won the legal right to collective bargaining and union action. The conference praised the impressive campaign mounted by the union to gain these rights and to preserve the unity of the EGAT company which is among the best-managed and most respected enterprises in Thailand. The union has therefore seriously questioned the World Bank-influenced plans to break up and privatise the utility. "Why risk the future when EGAT is doing a good job and guaranteeing a proper public service?" the union asks.

Asia-Pacific Energy Unions Urge Burma Pull-Out

American workers have voted to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement with tyre multinational Goodyear, thus ending their 64-day strike at the company's Houston, Texas, facility. 
 
The workers' union, the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), successfully fought back against Goodyear's demands for worker concessions concerning seniority rights, contracting out, health benefit cuts and wage cuts. 
 
The strike began on 10 October after the union rejected the company's proposed new agreement. Subsequently, Goodyear proposed even worse terms that called for contracting out 139 jobs or across-the-board pay cuts of 33 percent. Goodyear declared an "impasse" on November 1 and threatened to implement its "final" offer. The IUOE filed unfair labour practice charges with the US National Labor Relations Board and requested assistance from the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). The ICEM unites more than 20 million workers on all continents. 
 
Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary, and Richard Davis, Vice-President of the United Steelworkers of America and Chairman of the ICEM Goodyear Unions Global Network, urged the company to settle the dispute and asked Goodyear unions around the world to lend their support. Among the protests to the company in support of the IUOE were those from unions representing Goodyear employees in France, Germany, Guatemala, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Australia, as well as the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), which represents Goodyear workers in the United States and Canada. 
 
"The strike settlement in Houston is a victory for our local union and its members, who held firm for more than two months, and it is a victory for international union solidarity," said IUOE General President Frank Hanley. "Our union is grateful for the support we received from the ICEM and its affiliates around the world who rallied to our defence." 
 
The settlement involves approximately 350 workers at the plant who manufacture emulsion styrene butadiene rubber, a raw material used in tyre production.

US Goodyear Settlement Ends Strike

Canadian Steelworkers will be in a position to strike Rio Tinto subsidiary Iron Ore Company of Canada in mid-July after rejecting harsh concessionary proposals at operations in Newfoundland and Quebec. Mediated negotiations broke off 25 June and following the conciliator’s report to the Labour Ministry, three branches of the USWA representing 1,400 workers can legally strike 15 days hence. Despite peak demand and booming market for iron ore, Rio Tinto is seeking concessions that amount to C$7-an-hour per worker. A prior labour agreement expired 1 March.

USWA Members in Canada Set to Strike Rio Tinto

The ICEM’s ExxonMobil Global Workers’ Network, led by US affiliate PACE, helped achieve a first collective agreement for ExxonMobil gas production workers in the US state of New Mexico. Following two years of struggle, the Native American workforce chartered as PACE Local 5-50 won a US$2,000 ratification bonus and a wage re-opener in October 2004. PACE conducted two mass mobilizations of all unionized ExxonMobil workers to aid the new union members in the American southwest. More details can be found at the Network’s website, www.exxonmobil-solidarity.org.

US Affiliate PACE Wins Gains for ExxonMobil Workers

Archive