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<img height="39" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100"/>
French trade unions confirmed in late February that they will issue a call for a day of mobilization on Thursday, 19 March, “resulting in strikes and demonstrations throughout the country.” The joint statement was made by members of the Inter-Eight group at CFTC headquarters. 
 
The CFDT, FO, CFTC, CFE-CGC, CGT, FSU, Solidaires, and UNSA continue to show their trade union unity, building on the one-day general strike of 19 January 
 
Although the 19 January action did lead to some changes to government legislation, such as establishing a social investment fund, ICEM’s French affiliates regard the measures as too fragmentary to change the course of economic policy in these trying times. 
 
French President Nicolas Sarkozy refused to increase the minimum wage, to change his policy on public sector employment, and refused to return taxes on overtime pay. Other factors in organizing the 19 March strike are continued job cuts, further trends toward partial unemployment, and heavy reductions in workers’ purchasing power, all of which amplify the current economic recession for French workers. 

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Several workers’ protests began last week. French workers from two Grenoble area factories of US-based Caterpillar protested in the French Alpine city and then marched in Paris over announced plant closure. Rubber workers at a Continental tyre factory north of Paris also protested due to a threatened closure. 
 
And in Lyon on 3 March, 40 workers of auto-parts firm Preciturn began a 30-hour sit-in at the offices of a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Scotland. The highly debt-laden subsidiary, an accounting firm, had abandoned its contract with Preciturn, leaving unpaid bills and an inability to meet salaries. 
 
In extending its joint declaration of 5 January, the eight trade unions listed their targeted goals as: “Upholding public and private employment; Fighting against job insecurity and social and economic deregulation; Calling for compensation policies that maintain the purchasing power of wage earners, the unemployed and pensioners; and Defending the collective framework of solidarity and social protection.” 
 
The social protests which began last week are expected to gain momentum between now and 19 March, with calls for mobilization among employees in the education sector, doctors and hospital staff, as well as police. According to a 2 March opinion poll, 58% of company executives support the manifestation of 19 March. Workers at Air France have already confirmed that they will take part in the strike. 
 
The group of eight unions will meet again 20 March 2009.

French Unions Call Workers Out on Strike 19 March

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On 6 March, ICEM Dutch affiliate FNV Bondgenoten hosted an international conference on decent work in Utrecht, The Netherlands, attended by 200 activists. 
 
The main topic of the conference was how trade unions globally can work together to respond to and resist the increasing trend of using flexible, contract, and agency workers. The conference featured various speakers from different sectors and regions, discussing union strategies to combat this worrying trend. 
 
As the basis of a now five-year campaign by the ICEM, many corporations throughout the world are increasingly employing workers on temporary contracts, and sometimes use fake employment agencies to avoid labour legislation. The ICEM has documented many instances in which employees remain on rolling, short-term contracts for many years, allowing management to skirt social responsibilities such as health care, welfare benefits, overtime pay, and liveable wages. 
 
The practice of outsourcing allows companies to become extremely flexible in their planning, with improvements in their bottom financial line, while at the same heavily inflicting job security for workers. 

<img height="150" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0704Manfred.jpg" width="109"/>
Manfred Warda
In Utrecht on 6 March, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda chaired the panel discussion on “Flexibilisation: What can you do as a union?” that included Joseph Toe, ICEM regional coordinator for the Contract and Agency Labour campaign in sub-Saharan Africa. The specific case of Unilever workers in Pakistan was examined, which can be found <a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/3015-Support-Needed-for-Contract-Agency-Workers-Forming-Union-at-Unilever-Tea-Factory-in-Pakistan" type="internal">here</a>. 
 
Practical examples of trade union approaches to Contract and Agency Labour were exchanged through workshops. Issues of health and safety brought about by the increased trend were discussed, as well as concrete future steps in the continued fight for decent work.

Dutch FNV Bondgenoten Holds Decent Work Conference on Contract, Agency Work

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The 4th ICEM World Congress in Bangkok in 2007 mandated that the ICEM develop a policy on sustainability as a basis for future initiatives, including discussions with employers, governments, and other Global Union Federations (GUFs). An initial meeting of a Working Group toward this end occurred early in 2008, and it established some parameters for ICEM positions and created the basis for development of an initial discussion paper. 
 
Last week, on 14 April, this Working Group reconvened in Geneva to review and comment on the discussion paper. Based on their deliberations, the paper will be revised and will become a draft policy for submission to the ICEM Executive Committee on 23 June 2009. 
 
Representatives from all ICEM Sectors and Regions were invited. The meeting was chaired by Lars Myhre of Norway's Industi-Energi (IE). Other participants included Ivan Mokhnachuk and Victor Miachin of Russia's mining union, Rosugleprof; Jan Strømme of IE; Dave Shier of the Canadian Power Workers Union (PWU); Alfons de Potter, Belgium's CSC Energie Chimie; Marc Blanc, France's Fédération Chimie Energie, CFDT; Ralf Bartels of Germany's IGBCE; Anabella Rosemberg, representing the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC); and Ana Belen Sanchez of the ILO. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda was also a participant. 

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In general, the Work Group expressed satisfaction with the ICEM's initial discussion paper. The group suggested that the final ICEM policy needs to clearly express the viewpoint of an industrial union federation on all aspects of sustainability. 
 
Participants also pointed out that opportunities for a new focus and new dialogue between governments, employers, and unions – as the drive towards sustainability takes shape – must not be overlooked. In that regard, all agreed that the recent financial collapse has opened opportunities for discussions that might not have been possible a year ago. 
 
The role of energy in development, social security, and sustainable jobs were crucial issues to the Working Group, and the ICEM must demand a balanced energy future that includes cleaner use of fossil fuels (including carbon capture and storage/sequestration), nuclear, and, of course, renewable energy sources. The future of energy must consider questions about access to energy and price fairness and stability. 
 
Pulp and paper, chemicals, rubber, and materials sectors all have their particular sustainability challenges, which the ICEM acknowledges. Finally, the Working Group reiterated that sustainable jobs must be decent jobs that recognize the principles of human rights, labour rights, and particularly the respect for the rights of women and other disadvantaged groups. 
 
Warda closed the meeting by explaining the next steps on sustainable development, which will include a draft policy incorporating input from the Working Group, acceptance of the final paper by the ICEM Executive in June, and a possible multi-GUFs’ conference on sustainable development sometime in the future.

ICEM Holds Second Work Group Meeting on Sustainable Development

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Three and a half thousand workers took to the streets on 23 April, in Hanover, Germany, to demonstrate for site preservation. Continental AG workers from across Germany, France, and Mexico turned out in solidarity for their IGBCE, IG Metall, and Verdi colleagues. The 3,500 demonstrated in front of the Conti-Shareholders' Annual General Meeting, for the preservation of the nearly 2000 jobs threatened. 
Several delegations of the European Forum of Continental AG (European Works Council), from Regensburg, Frankfurt, and Berlin, demonstrated alongside trade unionists. 
Werner Bischoff, a senior leader of the ICEM affiliate IGBCE, announced that the Corporate Executive Board can not make decisions alone, on matters of site closure. 
<img height="166" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/IGBCEWernerBischoff.jpg" width="125"/>
Werner Bischoff 
As reported in InBrief No. 128, both factories recorded excellent financial figures for the year 2008. The ICEM supports the common declaration of the 2-3 April meeting of Continental AG workers’ representatives, in describing the proposed job cuts as “morally despicable.” 
 
One German trade unionist at the protest stated, “It's the first time that French union members and German members of the BCE union have come together against the shareholders, who, as we have already said, are talking just about money, whereas we are talking about our families and our hearts” 

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German labour representatives read a statement to shareholders that said "we do not accept that the life of thousands of families, when suppliers are included, are sacrificed to your boundless appetite." 
Continental management has said that no definitive decision has yet been taken on the closure of the Clairoix plant. French workers have staged repeated protests over previous weeks, including the ransacking of administrative offices at the plant. The company had previously pledged to keep the French factory open until 2012 at least. 
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Workers are unanimous that if closure does occur, Continental will have to guarantee solid compensation packages for its employees. 
 
Continental slashed around 8,000 jobs worldwide last year, and 6,000 more in the first three months of 2009.

Hanover Demonstration to Preserve Continental Jobs

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An ICEM mission to Argentina has gained first-hand accounts on how the global recession has affected the South American country, as well as laying the groundwork for ICEM’s 2011 Congress in Buenos Aires. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda met the GUF’s Argentine affiliates on 29 April in an exchange of views on the economic collapse, and also met with non-affiliated trade unions on the crisis and their plans to affiliate. 
 
A decision on the location for the Fifth World Congress will be taken at the ICEM Executive Committee meetings, 23-24 June in Geneva. Argentina trade union affiliates are enthusiastic on hosting the Congress. 
 
Warda, along with ICEM Latin America/Caribbean Contact Person Carol Bruce, met with the Rubber Workers’ Union of Argentina, SUTNA, as well with the Energy and Oil Workers’ union, FeTERA, and the private-sector Oil and Gas Workers’ Union, FASPyGP. The ICEM delegation also met with Unión Obrero Metalúrgical (UOM), which is interested in joining ICEM on behalf of nuclear workers that the union represents, as well as with trade unions affiliated with the national centre Central de Trabajores de la Argentina (CTA) on joining the ICEM. 

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Bruce participated in two manifestations while in Argentina. On 22 April, she marched with the CTA in which the national centre’s secretary-general, Hugo Yasky, called for a 180-day moratorium in Argentina on job layoffs and an emergency outlay of state money to cover lost wages of workers. 
 
On 30 April, she marched with the other major labour centre, Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT), in its support of the government of Cristina Kirchner in late June elections, and against neo-liberal policies that created the crisis and job losses, estimated to be some 50,000 in Argentina. 
 
The ICEM mission was supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation of Germany, which also provided a presentation on the impact of the economic crisis in Argentina.

ICEM Mission to Argentina Probes Crisis

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A two-month dispute between Michelin in Thailand and rubber workers backed by ICEM affiliate Petroleum and Chemical Workers’ Federation (PCFT) at a factory in Laem Chabang, Chonburi Province, ended favourably last week. The resolve came via tripartite dialogue and after strong intervention by the ICEM, FCE-CFDT of France, and Michelin’s European Works Council. 
 
The dispute ended in the early morning hours of 28 April when state mediators, PCFT representatives, and Michelin’s Laem Chabang managers reached a six-point accord that hopefully ends retaliatory punishment of 383 of the plant’s 1,500 workers and ends a lockout that began on 25 March. 
 
Workers agreed to end mass protests at Michelin’s plant gates effective on 28 April, and the company agreed to reinstate all workers who had been victimised by local management for refusing to withdraw their names from a petition circulated in early March. That petition called on management to engage in consultation with workers and PCFT representatives before implementing a 13% wage cut. 

<img height="129" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0905.thai.michelin.JPG" width="270"/>
Michelin Laem Chabang PCFT union leaders, from left, Thanakorn Somsin, Rangsan Monchaisong, and Samai Koonswat 
Instead, management imposed a 35% wage cut on workers who refused to retract the petition and some nine days later imposed a lockout on them. 
 
Provincial mediators from Chonburi’s Labour Protection and Welfare Office got both sides together, but on 20 April, local managers would not budge from the harsh, retaliatory 35% cut. The union at that mediation session proposed acceptance of the 13% cut for all until October 2009, but called on Michelin to pay a 2008 two-month bonus that the company had already announced. 
 
The ICEM again intervened on 21 April, calling the attitude of local managers “arrogant and punitive, (warranting) immediate intervention from Michelin corporate headquarters in France.” 

<img height="150" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0905.thai.michelin.2.png" width="251"/>
Photo from Bangkok Post
Last week’s negotiated settlement will see Michelin pay the two-month bonus, with all workers seeing a 13% cut. For those workers not choosing to return to work, they will receive assistance money as set forth under severance provisions of the Labour Protection Act. Michelin also agreed to drop legal and criminal complaints against workers who protested at plant gates. 
 
However, on the eve of the settlement, police arrested 18 of the locked-out workers, plus another worker from a nearby factory for a 20 April protest at the factory. As of today, it is not clear if those charges have been dropped. 
 
Laem Chabang rubber workers received strong support from staff employed at Bridgestone and Goodyear factories in Thailand, as well as from workers at other Michelin plants in the country. 
 
“This is a hopeful sign, that workers, managers, together with government mediators can resolve differences through proper social dialogue,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “The ICEM views this dispute as a result of the paralysing global financial crisis and our wish now is that this tyre plant recovers so that renewed orders and sales will benefit workers.”

ICEM, French Trade Union Pressure Brings End to Michelin Dispute in Thailand

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Last week, ICEM North American affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) pulled out of talks with the American Petroleum Institute on developing two new safety standards, worker fatigue and a set of process-safety performance indicators. 
 
The discussions originated with a 2007 US Chemical Safety Board report investigating BP’s deadly Texas City, Texas, oil refinery explosion, which killed 15 contract workers in March 2005. The Safety Board recommended that labour unions and the industry lead a working group to develop the two standards in the aftermath of the disaster. 
 
The USW formally withdraw from the process on 4 August, citing skewed industry representation on the committee and lack of earnestness toward transparency issues, overtime work, and contract labour questions inside US refineries regarding safety. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0811GaryBeeversUSW.jpg" width="110" height="159"/>
Gary Beevers 
“This industry will simply not get serious about developing standards that have real meat in them,” said USW Vice President and ICEM Executive Committee Member Gary Beevers. He added that USW realised its work on the committee was being met by industry wanting “as few regulations and mandates as possible.” 
 
USW sought to introduce transparency measures by proposing to make public all safety failures in facilities. The union also wanted manning levels monitored and increased due to an industry practice of constant overtime and continuous work that has led directly to worker fatigue. USW was met with resistance on this, saying industry has called it strictly a “management rights issue, and their solution is to force overtime.” 
 
In a news release announcing the withdrawal, the USW was sharply critical of an American Petroleum Institute statement claiming injury rates inside refineries average less than in other manufacturing sectors. In fact, the union said, the industry drew data only on refinery workers that are directly employed by a primary energy operator, and failed to account for injuries, accidents, and deaths of contract employees. 
 
The work group is charged with developing two new standards for the American National Standards Institute. It had been composed of representatives from 22 oil companies and only three trade union representatives, with government and other stakeholders serving as well. 
 
The American Petroleum Institute responded defensively to USW’s withdrawal. In a statement, also issued on 4 August, it charged the union with undermining the process and “trying to silence the voices of other stakeholders on the committee.” Beevers, in an interview with the Houston (Texas) Chronicle newspaper, called industry’s assertion “absolutely ridiculous.” 

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Leo Gerard
Amerca’s largest industrial union forewarned of management’s recalcitrance to improve safety and health inside the downstream oil and gas sector in collective agreement talks that concluded early in 2009. After making health and safety the primary topic in the negotiations, USW was stonewalled on the issue, with USW President Leo Gerard saying “the industry refused to allow us to be equal partners with them in resolving health and safety problems.” 
 
The USW will now conduct a survey related to the two proposed standards and then use it in a direct and targeted campaign in order to get the US Chemical Safety Board to recommend proper fatigue and process-safety standards.

Steelworkers Say US Oil Industry Tainting Safety-Practice Standards

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ICEM Latin America/Caribbean affiliate Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) of Trinidad and Tobago was proud to have ICEM President and National Union of Mineworkers (South Africa) President Senzeni Zokwana keynote its 24-25 July Delegates Conference. Over 300 militant OWTU members attended the conference inside the proud union’s headquarters in San Fernando, with OWTU terming opening day and Zokwana’s keynote a “momentous occasion.” 
 
His theme was “The Only Way Out of the Global Economic Crisis: an Independent Workers’ Agenda and Solidarity Actions.” Comrade Zokwana highlighted the need for independent trade unions to engage political activism and collective mass action in solidarity with workers everywhere. He also addressed the necessity for unions to fight hard to always retain the right to strike and other protests. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0908.senzeni.trinidad.jpg" width="259" height="189"/>
Ancel Roget and Senzeni Zokwana
“Your conference is taking place at a critical time when the global political economy is facing major challenges,” said Zokwana. He added that the crisis has sent sharp signals to trade unions and citizens in the developing world “that capitalism as a system cannot deliver.” 
 
The Delegates’ Conference also reviewed the OWTU’s Report of the General Council, which confirmed that the country’s most powerful union, led by General President Ancel Roget, is continuing OWTU traditions of placing workers’ interests first on the agenda of Trinidad and Tobago. 
 
The conference ended on a high note on 25 July with delegates’ expressing full commitment to OWTU’s “Rescue Mission,” a programme whereby the OWTU lends solidarity to all workers in struggles, with a series of community meetings held in areas affected by employer neglect and labour strike.

ICEM President Zokwana Addresses OWTU Delegates’ Conference in Trinidad/Tobago

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The Federation Chimie Energie CFDT (FCE-CFDT) has pledged full support for the national framework agreement, reached between the Union des Industries Chimiques (UIC) and the Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Employment. The agreement outlines the responsibilities of companies facing difficulties during the current economic and financial crisis. Companies are encouraged to expand training programs for employees, to avoid redundancies, and to develop skills. 
 
The French state has made a commitment of €8.5 million for the implementation of the programmes outlined in the agreement, until December 2011. 
 
The FCE-CFDT will ensure, in particular, that this training development plan will benefit those workers that are most vulnerable, and those companies that are truly facing serious financial difficulties.

French Chemical Workers Respond to Financial Crisis

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Oil-rig workers at Terra Nova off the Canadian province of Newfoundland ratified their first non-mediated collective agreement in March. And with it, the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada is on track to link collective agreement expiration dates between onshore oil, gas, and chemical plants with its two North Atlantic offshore agreements. 
 
Workers at Terra Nova, a consortium of seven oil companies led by Petro-Canada, ratified a two-year agreement by a 60% vote. The 180 workers will receive a 6.5% wage increase retroactive to 1 October 2008, and they will receive a 4.5% increase in October 2009. 
 
Joe Gargiso, an Administrative Vice President for CEP who heads the union’s Oil and Chemicals bargaining, said the main significance of the agreement is that it expires in 2010 when the CEP’s National Energy Bargaining contracts come due. “Our goal is to line up the offshore agreements with the refineries and other energy installations across Canada,” he said. “And we’re now moving in that direction.” 
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The CEP’s other offshore contract, covering 450 union members, is at Hibernia, a North Atlantic platform owned by another consortium of oil companies including Petro-Canada, only led and operated by US based ExxonMobil. The collective agreement there expires on 1 July 2009. 
 
Gargiso said the labour-management relationship there has improved markedly since workers made Hibernia the first North American offshore oil platform to unionise back in 2001. 
 
Workers at Terra Nova, who organised in 2003, saw a first collective agreement take effect through a provincial mediator’s interest arbitration award in 2006. The same holds true at Hibernia, where a Canadian provincial government mediator determined a 38-month initial agreement in May 2006. 
 
At Terra Nova, Gargiso singled out participation in a CEP Health, Safety, and Industrial Relations Fund, as well as wage adjustments ranging from one percent to 6.5% for 117 of the rig’s workers as highlights of the new, bi-laterally negotiated agreement. The CEP’s Fund requires employers to pay C$.03 per hour worked for this purpose. Workers won improvements in shift differential for night-time work, and improvements in training, travel expenses, and vacations. 
 
At both Terra Nova and Hibernia, the CEP collective agreements cover workers employed by all service and supply operators on the two oil platforms.

Terra Nova Offshore Oil Pact Major Step for Canadian CEP

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