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="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	The two unions representing 43,000 Austrian chemical workers &ndash; ICEM affiliate PRO-GE and GPA-djp &ndash; reached 2012-13 wage terms with Fachverband der Chemischen Industrie (FCIO), the Chemical Industry Association on 11 May. The deal came following four difficult rounds of bargaining, and also came after public protests and authorisation for warning strikes late last week by PRO-GE&rsquo;s General Board.

	The result was an increase in minimum salaries of 4.5%, effective 1 May, and actual increases for all workers of 4.35%, or at least a monthly minimum increase of &euro;90 that, in essence, will lift the pay for lower salaried workers to over 5%.

	The agreement is for 12 months and covers some 270 chemical companies represented by FCIO.

	The unions won a 4.5% pay increase for apprentices, 4.5% added to shift and night shift premiums, and a 3.2% hike to work allowance benefits.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 180px;height: 120px" width="390" />

	3 May Manifestation in Schwechat

	But perhaps most notable in the new collective agreement is improved maternal leave language whereby women can spend up to two years at home, with 16 months of that credited in calculation of wage increases and retirement benefits. The unions also won for chemical workers added bereavement leave in cases of death of children, either those living at home or away from home.

	Deputy PRO-GE Chairman Alfred Artm&auml;uer and GPA-djp Secretary Roman Krenn, who jointly led the unions&rsquo; bargaining efforts, credited shop stewards across the Alpine nation for conducting meetings and mobilising chemical workers for the favourable agreement after the third round of talks failed on 27 April.

	Indicative of the mobilisations was a 3 May one in Schwechat near Vienna where 800 workers manifested at a Borealis polyolefin plant.

After Testy Talks, Austrian Chemical Workers Agree to 4.35% Wage Hikes

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />The current propensity by multinationals to lock-out Canadian workers when they refuse cutbacks to their work standards continues. On 5 May, Evraz North America, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Evraz Group, locked out 105 union members of Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 551 in Camrose, Alberta.The lockout comes three months after expiration of a prior labour agreement and more tellingly, comes during a boom cycle of steel pipe manufacturing, with the Camrose mill residing squarely and profitably inside the booming bitumen oil production fields of western Canada.Evraz is seeking elimination of the defined benefit pension scheme for new employees, cuts in retiree benefits for future pensioners, and has offered pay rates in a new three-year contract that are less than what it agreed to at union-represented tubular pipe factories in Regina, Saskatchewan, and Calgary, Alberta, late last year. The company also seeks to slash vacation benefits in Camrose.Meanwhile, due to an acute shortage of skilled workers in the Canadian tar sands, the Camrose factories have been unable to hire enough metalworkers to operate around-the-clock operations and even before the lockout, the company has been stretched thin in meeting existing orders from oil- and gas-producing firms.&ldquo;It is completely unfathomable that workers in the oil and gas industry working in the hottest economy in North America are being attacked and threated to give back long fought gains,&rdquo; said CAW National Representative Todd Romanow.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 157px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;Todd RomanowLast year, the United Steelworkers (USW) set up a global <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4346-Steelworkers-Form-a-98Unity-Councila-for-Evraz-Metal-Mine-Workers">Unity Council</a> for workers and their unions of the Evraz Group. In a message to USW Local 6673 in Calgary and USW Local 5890 in Regina, Romanow wrote:&ldquo;At the heart of this attack is the removal of our defined benefits plan and retiree benefits for future employees but make no mistake, the fight is bigger than that as it is an attack from a multinational conglomerate on working people and the middle class.&rdquo; He added it is &ldquo;all in the name of corporate greed and insatiable profits.&rdquo;The Evraz Group is controlled by holding companies connected to the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, owner of UK&rsquo;s Chelsea football club of the English Premier League. It is Russia&rsquo;s largest steelmaker, operates iron ore and coal mines throughout the world, and is North America&rsquo;s largest producer of tubular pipe and second largest maker of steel plate.In Camrose, a facility Evraz got in 2007 with the US$2.3 billion acquisition of US-based Oregon Steel Mills, the company operates two pipe mills, one making 16-inch piping and casing for drilling and transport of oil and natural gas, the other producing large-diameter pipe used in transmission lines.

Evraz Pipe Shamefully Locks Out Members of Canadian Auto Workers

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 59px" width="390" />

	The current propensity by multinationals to lock-out Canadian workers when they refuse cutbacks to their work standards continues. On 5 May, Evraz North America, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Evraz Group, locked out 105 union members of Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 551 in Camrose, Alberta.

	The lockout comes three months after expiration of a prior labour agreement and more tellingly, comes during a boom cycle of steel pipe manufacturing, with the Camrose mill residing squarely and profitably inside the booming bitumen oil production fields of western Canada.

	Evraz is seeking elimination of the defined benefit pension scheme for new employees, cuts in retiree benefits for future pensioners, and has offered pay rates in a new three-year contract that are less than what it agreed to at union-represented tubular pipe factories in Regina, Saskatchewan, and Calgary, Alberta, late last year. The company also seeks to slash vacation benefits in Camrose.

	Meanwhile, due to an acute shortage of skilled workers in the Canadian tar sands, the Camrose factories have been unable to hire enough metalworkers to operate around-the-clock operations and even before the lockout, the company has been stretched thin in meeting existing orders from oil- and gas-producing firms.

	&ldquo;It is completely unfathomable that workers in the oil and gas industry working in the hottest economy in North America are being attacked and threated to give back long fought gains,&rdquo; said CAW National Representative Todd Romanow.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 157px" width="390" />

	Todd Romanow

	Last year, the United Steelworkers (USW) set up a global <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4346-Steelworkers-Form-a-98Unity-Councila-for-Evraz-Metal-Mine-Workers">Unity Council</a> for workers and their unions of the Evraz Group. In a message to USW Local 6673 in Calgary and USW Local 5890 in Regina, Romanow wrote:

	&ldquo;At the heart of this attack is the removal of our defined benefits plan and retiree benefits for future employees but make no mistake, the fight is bigger than that as it is an attack from a multinational conglomerate on working people and the middle class.&rdquo; He added it is &ldquo;all in the name of corporate greed and insatiable profits.&rdquo;

	The Evraz Group is controlled by holding companies connected to the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, owner of UK&rsquo;s Chelsea football club of the English Premier League. It is Russia&rsquo;s largest steelmaker, operates iron ore and coal mines throughout the world, and is North America&rsquo;s largest producer of tubular pipe and second largest maker of steel plate.

	In Camrose, a facility Evraz got in 2007 with the US$2.3 billion acquisition of US-based Oregon Steel Mills, the company operates two pipe mills, one making 16-inch piping and casing for drilling and transport of oil and natural gas, the other producing large-diameter pipe used in transmission lines.

Evraz Pipe Unjustifiably Locks Out Canadian Auto Workers Unionists

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390">

	Some 200 delegates and international guests gathered 11 May in the Serbian city of Kragujevac for the founding Congress of Industrija, Energija, Rudarstvo, or IER Nezavisnost, the new 35,000-member industrial front of UGS Nezavisnost that brings together the ICEM-affiliated Chemicals, Non-Metals and Mining Trade Union, or GSHNER Nezavisnost, with the federation&rsquo;s metalworking union (GSM Nezavisnost), and the Trade Union of Textile, Leather and Shoe Industries (GSTKO Nezavisnost), an affiliate of the International Federation of Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF).

	The merger marked the first time in Serbia that trade unions combined to gain greater strength, rather than past trends of pulling apart.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 221px;height: 79px" width="390">

	Guest speaker, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, made note of this fact and drew the parallel of this historic achievement to what is now occurring on the global level with the creation of IndustriALL.

	The founding Congress was held in Serbia&rsquo;s fourth largest city, a community now gearing up with production of a 2,500-worker Fiat automotive plant in which union recruitment will be essential. The Congress saw guests come from the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), the European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (EMF), IndustriEnergi (IE) of Norway, FIM-CISL of Italy, FNME-CGT of France, Petrom of Romania, EKN of Croatia and KNG of Slovenia.

	Also in attendance were several representatives from regional-based companies, which signal realistic expectations that tri-partite and bi-lateral social dialogue is on the horizon.

	The Congress elected former GSHNER Nezavisnost President Milorad Panović as President and Dragon Vesić of that former union as General Secretary. Elected as Vice Presidents were former GSM Nezavisnost President Nenard Matić and former GSHNER Nezavisnost Vice President Zoran Pantelić. GSTKO Nezavisnost is represented on the eight-member Executive Committee by Bo&scaron;ko Karalić.

Serbian Branches of UGS Nezavisnost Merge Into Single Industry, Energy, Mine Union

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390">

	A strike by ICEM Indonesian affiliate KSP2KI at one of the world&rsquo;s largest paper mills last week produced sizeable salary increases for over 13,000 workers. With strike support from nearly all workers at Asia Pulp and Paper&rsquo;s (APP) PT Pindo Deli&rsquo;s twin mills in Karawang, West Java, the union achieved substantially more than the minimum government-mandated increase that APP was at first willing to distribute.

	As well, KSP2KI won substantial increases for the lowest paid paperworkers and an APP pledge that it would engage in continuous social dialogue with the union.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 212px;height: 159px" width="390">

	FSP2KI Strike Leaders

	The two-year accord became retroactive to 1 April and grants workers, in some cases, a doubling of the provincial government minimum. KSP2KI, or&nbsp; Federasi Serikat Pekerja Pulp Dan Kertas, the Pulp and Paper Union of Indonesia, announced a three-day strike on 7 May but because of the large strike turnout, management resumed talks and agreed to the across-the-board increases on the day the strike started.

	In March, managers of the 900,000-metric-tonnes-per-year paperboard, writing papers and tissue mills had unilaterally decided on the minimum increase while still in bargaining. The strike and immediate return to the table saw wages lifted from 9.14% to 18% for most workers at low-end classifications, with increases to 14.14% and 11.14% in medium- and top-level classifications.

	That translates to an average IDR (Indonesia Rupiah) monthly increase of 139,363 (US$15.12). The minimum monthly pay at PT Pindo Deli in Karawang had been IDR 1,450,000 (US$157), so the pay grid for most workers will climb to above US$180-per-month.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 225px;height: 169px" width="390">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	The ICEM commends the KSP2KI &ndash; a union with 7,650 members at the twin Karawang mills &ndash; for the well-organised strike action and subsequent result, and encourages all workers at Karawang, including workers of outsource companies operating inside the mills, to take up union membership.

	APP is part of Indonesian Sinar Mas Group and operates some ten paper machines and 14 paper-coating machines in the Karawang No. 1 and No. 2 mills in West Java. It also operates wholly-owned or majority-controlled pulp and paper mills &ndash; some nine in total &ndash; in other parts of Indonesia.&nbsp;

Indonesian Paperworkers Win Big Pay Gains in Short Strike

<img alt="" height="59" src="" width="120" />

	Just over a year after a People&rsquo;s Revolution shook Egypt, a glimmer of legislative light regarding trade union freedoms and formation of independent unions has come to the country. On 8 February, the Draft Law on Trade Union Freedoms was submitted to the People&rsquo;s Assembly, the lower house of Egypt&rsquo;s Parliament.

	After months of promises to leaders of the Egyptian Democratic Labour Congress (EDLC) and the Centre for Trade Union and Worker Services (CTUWS) for such legislation, it was introduced just over two weeks from the time the People&rsquo;s Assembly opened its session following elections.

	If enacted, the law would codify many of the core ILO Labour Conventions that Egypt has ratified over the years, but has failed to implement due to draconian laws and decrees by the Mubarak regime, and more recently the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). Continuing Revolution Party Parliamentarian Aboul Ezz Al-Hariry is said to be championing the new law, and the EDLC and CTUWS &ndash; as well as the newly formed Independent Union of Workers in Electricity and Energy&mdash;are hopeful some provisions of it can still be strengthened.

	The draft law was prepared by Minister of Labour and Migration Ahmed Hassan El-Borai and had been discussed in eight tri-partite meetings of Egypt&rsquo;s Manpower Committee before it was submitted to SCAF, which was silent on it.

	Now officially in Parliament, it will go before the Committee for Suggestions and Complaints and then to special Committees on Manpower and Legislative in public sessions.

	Foremost, the law would guarantee the right of freedom of association and encourage free and independent trade unions to thrive. It is hoped that other debate in Egypt will also occur on adopting an effective minimum wage policy, giving permanent contracts to temporary employees, and lifting bans and penalties on sit-ins, demonstrations and other forms of freedom of expression.

	&ldquo;A year has gone by since the people of Egypt &ndash; most specifically workers&rsquo; groups &ndash; have stood and demanded their freedoms,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We are encouraged by the Trade Union Freedoms draft law and fully intend to support an Egyptian labour law that is in full compliance with global labour standards.&rdquo;

ICEM Encouraged by Draft Labour Law in Egypt

&nbsp;

	Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 9 February, the ICEM&rsquo;s Sub-Saharan African Regional Organisation (SSARO) adopted a moving statement that denounces violence against women in the workplace, most specifically a rape and murder earlier this week inside Anglo American Platinum Ltd.&rsquo;s (Amplats) Khomanani Mine in Rustenburg, North West Province.

	ICEM affiliate National Mine Workers (NUM) of South Africa has given North West police until the end of this week to arrest those responsible for this horrific act of violence. The SSARO statement follows:

	&ldquo;On the morning of 6 February, a 28- year-old female worker was violated and murdered underground at Khomanani Mine, which is owned by Amplats, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anglo American.

	&ldquo;This barbaric and neanderthal act against an innocent young worker is the most glaring case of gender-based discrimination against women and abuse of power. Sexual assault is cruel, inhuman, horrible. A mineworker underground on a daily basis has to deal with death or injury that can come from a rock fall or machines. Having to deal with death and violation against your person sexually and otherwise compounds the insecurity of a human being. A fellow worker who was supposed to act as a fellow human being acted as an animal.

	&ldquo;The National Union of Mineworkers has been fighting to enable women to work in mines. This and similar incidents should not be misconstrued to undo the progress that women have made to achieve equal employment rights.&rdquo;

	He who does not love a woman, who does not respect a woman, despises his own mother having come out of a kind womb of a woman.

	&ldquo;As the ICEM African Executive Committee and the ICEM African Women&#039;s Structure, we strongly condemn this atrocious act of barbarism.

	&ldquo;Mines and all workplaces must be safe environments for women and men. It is up to the employer to ensure that the workplace is safe for all. We will be holding the employer accountable for this tragedy.

	&ldquo;We call for a speedy and thorough investigation into these crimes. We are confident that the perpetrators will be brought to justice, whoever they are. We call on the police to do a thorough investigation as the mine has records of who works what shift. We call on them to use all the forensic technology at their disposal to find out who the perpetrator is. We will be following up on this case and checking that justice is done. We also call for a tough sentence for the perpetrator or perpetrators once found.

	&ldquo;This young woman was only 28 years old and had one child, and her future and dreams were destroyed by a barbaric act of violence by a male counterpart. This is the triple oppression that we need to continue to fight against to attain true liberation for African women.

	&ldquo;We call on comrades to rally around this slogan: Not Another Woman Must Be Reaped, Not Another Woman Must Be Murdered.

	&ldquo;We call upon affiliates and sister organisations of ICEM to post this statement on their websites and to disseminate it widely to the press.&rdquo;

ICEM SSARO Condemns Grisly Rape, Murder of Woman inside Amplats Mine

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390">

	A deadly coal mine tragedy and two near misses occurred in Ukraine&rsquo;s eastern coalfields over the past three weeks. The worse came on 6 February when a methane gas explosion rocked the Pivnichna coal mine near the city of Dzerzhynsk.

	One 54-year-old pitman died instantly and seven others died from severe burns in the days to follow in the Donetsk burn centre. The Coal Mining Industry Workers&rsquo; Union of Ukraine (PRUPA) was taking stock of the gas blast and welcomed a Donetsk regional prosecutor&rsquo;s criminal investigation of the tragedy.

	The mine, operated with 136 workers at the time of the explosion, is owned by the state-owned Dzerzhynskruhillia company. In August 2010, a methane explosion killed two workers at Pivnichna and trapped several more.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 120px" width="390">&nbsp;

	Another mine accident happened a week earlier at a different eastern colliery. This occurred at the Rumaniantseve mine in Horlicka, Donetsk, and it trapped four miners. PRUPA said sound communication was made early with the trapped miners and rescue followed.

	The other near miss came on 2 February at the Kalinin mine of the Donetsk Coal Energy Co. when a fire torched wooden carriages inside the mine. Seventy-three miners were working inside at the time, and the fire immediately trapped 22 of them. They were eventually all rescued from depths of 1,000 metres.

	Ukraine&rsquo;s government has officially put the number of miners killed on the job in 2011 at 161.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Spate of Mine Deaths Plague Ukraine in February

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Somyot Pruksakasemsuk was once again denied bail on 20 February by the Thai Criminal Court and is still incarcerated at the Bangkok Remand Prison. Somyot, a long-time labour activist in Thailand, was arrested on 30 April 2011 for his activities as a journalist in the run-up to the Thai elections last July.

	He is charged with violating Section 112, or the l&egrave;se majest&eacute; law, a charge of defaming, insulting and threatening the King, Queen and heir apparent.&nbsp;Somyot is also alleged to have resisted arrest.&nbsp; He denies all charges.

	Now working as the prison librarian, the Court ruled against bail on the following grounds: 
	- The trial is high profile and evokes strong reactions from the public; 
	- That Somyot is likely to escape Thailand if he is released; and 
	- That Somyot would interfere with the prosecution witnesses if released. 
	These reasons are not credible to Somyot&rsquo;s supporters.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 88px;height: 178px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Somyot Pruksakasemsuk

	Somyot&rsquo;s son, Panithan Pruksakasemsuk, conducted a well-publicised 112-hour hunger strike that ended on 16 February, to protest against the order of the Criminal Court to deny his father&rsquo;s bail. The request for bail has been made seven times and sufficient deposit has been offered. His protest is aimed at demanding the right to temporary release of his father.

	Prosecutors have relocated Somyot to various provinces of Thailand for hearings by the prosecutor&rsquo;s witnesses.&nbsp; This has been described as a form of persecution of Somyot as several witnesses live in or near to Bangkok.

Thai Trade Unionist Somyot Pruksakasemsuk Still in Prison

&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Automotive and supplier sectors in Thailand have been booming. Some say Thailand is on the way to becoming the &ldquo;Detroit&rdquo; of Asia. The export oriented industry is overwhelmingly located in the cities of Bangkok, Chonbori, Rayong, Samutprakaran and Pathumthani.

	Thailand&rsquo;s tyre industry is made up of 16 companies, most of them multinationals, and operating in 20 factories employing 30,000 direct employees. Only nine factories are unionized, and those unions come from different sector and regional labour bodies in Thailand.

	Some 33 union representatives from factories of French-based Michelin&rsquo;s two plants, US-based Goodyear, Japanese-based Bridgestone and Yokohama, Taiwan-based Maxxis, and the Thai national company, Siam Rubber, came together in an ICEM workshop held 18-19 February in Bangkok. The meeting&rsquo;s purpose was to organize a common union view of the tyre industry at both global and regional levels, introduce international labour standard applications, and chart the future union strategies in rubber in Thailand.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 369px;height: 144px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	&ldquo;The Thai tyre industry has developed and international&rsquo;s support of the sector&rsquo;s unions is a must,&rdquo; said ICEM Thai Council Chair Prakob Parimon in opening the meeting. Chaiyuth Choosakul, the new President of ICEM affiliated Petroleum and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Federation (PCFT) said six out of 18 unions belonging to his federation are active in the tyre industry.

	&ldquo;We need knowledge, experience and support from the outside to better serve our members in the tyre industry,&rdquo; said Choosakul in his initial remarks.

	The workshop examined general trends, and challenges economically and socially that affect labour matters, presentations by ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal &Ouml;zkan. Participants also warmly welcomed the Secretary of the European Works Council from Michelin, Cyrille Poughon, a member of ICEM&rsquo;s French affiliate FCE-CFDT.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 261px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	from right to left: FCE-CFDT&#039;s Cyrille Poughon, Kemal Ozkan, ICEM Thai Council Chair Prakob Parimon

	Poughon provided detailed information on the French union and collective bargaining structures, as well as rubber industry collective agreements with details such as wages, work hours, labour relations in France and in Europe, as well as Michelin&rsquo;s corporate situation. ICEM&rsquo;s Asia Multinational Companies and Social Dialogue Project Coordinator Yoon Hyowon addressed international labour standards such ILO Conventions, OECD Guidelines, the UN&rsquo;s Global Compact, and other instruments.

	The participants then extensively discussed their difficulties, challenges, strong points, opportunities and future ideas on cooperation and solidarity. Widespread union de-recognition practices by employers in the sector was specifically mentioned. Differences in wages and social payments between different tyre companies, even among subsidiaries of the same companies, were noted as important challenges to overcome.

	At the meeting&rsquo;s conclusion, delegates unanimously agreed to form a national tyre union network for defending the interests and rights of employees in the sector. The participants further agreed that regular network activities must materialize in the near future. Continuation of ICEM&rsquo;s leading role was underlined. Participants from Michelin asked French union representatives to assist them in upcoming negotiations to break the negative attitude of local management by intervening with senior management.

	&ldquo;The ICEM is proud to take the lead in a workers&rsquo; voice in the start-up of the Thai tyre network,&rdquo; said &Ouml;zkan. &ldquo;Following the initiative to form a national network in India last December, ICEM will follow the same decisiveness in Thailand to ensure that effective union networking occurs in the tyre sector.&rdquo;

Thailand’s Tyre Unions Join Forces into National Network

Archive