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Some 500 truck drivers of two contract firms attached to Royal Dutch Shell in the UK voted overwhelmingly for industrial action last week. The drivers, represented by Unite and employed by Hoyer and Suckling Shell, haul petrol and other refined products for the multinational across the UK. 
 
Ron Webb, Unite&rsquo;s National Secretary for Road Transport, said the votes &ndash; 95% at Hoyer and 87% at Suckling Shell &ndash; reflect drivers&rsquo; feelings of increasingly being short-changed. &ldquo;These drivers are paying a hefty price for Shell&rsquo;s stratospheric profits,&rdquo; said Webb, noting they work 48-hour weeks and take home a mere &pound;23,000 after taxes.
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Unite is seeking a minimum gross salary of &pound;36,000 per year, about &pound;2,000 more than Shell drivers&rsquo; current gross pay. &ldquo;Shell would be far better placed if they were to stop stuffing their shareholders&rsquo; pockets and ensure their contractor Hoyer had the resources to conclude a deal that is acceptable to our members,&rdquo; said Webb. 
 
Unite and Hoyer are expected to meet for further negotiations in order to break the pay deadlock. The drivers work out of several UK terminals of the oil giant, and work under Shell fuels distribution contracts.

Contract Tank-Truck Drivers for Shell at UK Vote Industrial Action

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After 14 long months of struggle and dispute with American consumer products company Procter &amp; Gamble, 350 workers represented ably by Sindicato de Trabajadores de Procter &amp; Gamble Industrial Peru (SINTRA P&amp;G) have won their first collective agreement through arbitration. 
 
In the agreement, the union secured fundamental workers&rsquo; rights principles guaranteed under ILO standards, particularly the right of freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively. In making the announcement, the Peruvian union thanked the ICEM and other organisations for assistance and solidarity since the new union began organising at the chemicals, soaps, and detergents factory in San Isidro, near Lima, in March 2007.
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&nbsp; 
The contract became viable through arbitration with the Ministry of Labour and Employment Promotion. Procter &amp; Gamble Peru management had resisted going to arbitration throughout, despite the fact that it had engaged in previous such sessions with a predecessor union. 
 
SINTRA P&amp;G has now pledged to take up the cause of 39 trade unionists at the factory who had been fired for asserting their right to form a union. SINTRA P&amp;G stated that despite the resistance from management to form a union, &ldquo;It is now time to turn the page and encourage all to move forward on the right path&rdquo; of active trade unionism, referring to organising and collective bargaining. 
 
The union&rsquo;s intention now is work toward an improved second collective agreement, and SINTRA P&amp;G has opened its doors to all workers who seek healthy work lives. Procter &amp; Gamble Peru also utilizes 400 indirect workers in its production and distributions operations. 
 
The ICEM welcomes the recent success of its future Peruvian affiliate!

SINTRA P&amp;G Successful in First Contract at Procter &amp; Gamble Peru

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Prior to IF Metall&rsquo;s First Ordinary Congress in mid-May, ICEM&rsquo;s Swedish affiliate held a charged and enthusiastic two-day conference entitled &ldquo;Decent Working Conditions for All &ndash; Fair and Just Globalization.&rdquo; The conference, held 11-12 May in Stockholm, brought together hundreds of local Swedish trade union representatives with international union leaders. 
 
In opening the conference, IF Metall National President Stefan L&ouml;fven stressed that the 400,000-member union favours global free trade, but only if free trade ensures good and favourable work conditions for all. The conference heard from Jan Eliasson, chairman of Sweden&rsquo;s Social Democratic Party&rsquo;s Foreign Affairs Advisory Committee, and Kari Tapiola, Assistant Director-General of the ILO.
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IF Metall President Stefan L&ouml;fven 
It also featured a number of workshops on day two, including &ldquo;Trade Union Solidarity in a State of Change,&rdquo; &ldquo;Global Cooperation in Practice between Companies and Trade Unions,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Political Platform of the EU &ndash; Today and in the Future,&rdquo; and &ldquo;The State of the International Trade Union Movement &ndash; a Challenge and Need for Change.&rdquo; 
 
Participating on panels across those workshops were ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda; General Secretary Neil Kearney of the Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF); Horst Mund, Head of International Department, IG Metall, Germany; G&ouml;ran F&auml;rm, Swedish Member of the European Parliament, representing the Social Democratic Party; and Ingrid Schullstr&ouml;m, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility for H&amp;M, the Swedish department store chain. 
 
Earlier, on day one, International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) General Secretary Marcello Malentacchi delivered an address on &ldquo;Activities of the Global Union Federations,&rdquo; emphasizing that today, international trade union work is a part of everyday life on the local level. He shared a session with AB Electrolux President and CEO Hans Str&aring;berg, called &ldquo;The Role and Task of Multinational Companies in a More Global World, Their Contribution Towards a Fairer Globalization.&rdquo; 
 
During IF Metall&rsquo;s Congress proceedings, Malentacchi and the union&rsquo;s International Secretary, Mats Svensson, denounced Swedish multinational Ericsson AB&rsquo;s contract labour practices in Bangladesh. Recently in Bangladesh, a contract worker fell into an unprotected zinc and acid tank. Ericsson manufactures components for telephones in Bangladesh.
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&nbsp;IF Metall International Secretary Mats Svensson

IF Metall and IMF used a press conference to insist that Ericsson go beyond its own code of conduct by engaging in discussions toward a Global Framework Agreement with the IMF. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s clear in this case that (Ericsson&rsquo;s) unilaterally adopted rules for the environment and security of employees is not working,&rdquo; stated Svensson. 
 
He added that if decent work conditions are to become real, there must be cooperation between multinationals and employees&rsquo; global union representatives. &ldquo;An agreement signed between a multinational and an international trade union organisation is a tool for social justice,&rdquo; said Svensson. &ldquo;The company puts itself at the negotiating table, and creates a tool that ensures&rdquo; proper and decent work conditions are observed. 
 
At the Congress itself, IF Metall&rsquo;s 300 delegates ratified initiatives supporting Global Framework Agreements and for Sweden to adopt ILO Convention 94, the Labour Clauses (Public Contracts) Convention. Fifty-nine countries have ratified the 1949 Convention, which calls for social and labour clauses to be inserted into public procurement clauses, but Sweden has not.
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&nbsp;Raising of the Flag: Solidarity, Socialism, Equality 

In other Congress business, IF Metall delegates called for a change of government in Sweden&rsquo;s next elections, and criticised the centre-right coalition that currently rules the government for its sharp reductions in unemployment insurance. 
 
The Congress reaffirmed its approach on sustainable development, that an integrated approach must take hold that includes research, innovation, new technology, and lifelong learning and skills development. The Congress also called for a halt to the decommissioning of nuclear power facilities. 
 
President Stefan L&ouml;fven was re-elected President, and Veli-Pekka S&auml;ikk&auml;l&auml; won election as the new National Bargaining Secretary. The Congress featured an address by the President of Colombian ICEM affiliate Sintracarb&oacute;n. Jaime Deluquez Diaz thanked the Swedish union for providing strength and knowledge to his 4,000-member coal miners&rsquo; union in Colombia.

‘Fair and Just Globalization’ Workshops Organised by IF Metall in Sweden

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ICEM Turkish trade union affiliate Lastik-İş made good on its 8 May strike notice by calling 4,000 tyre manufacturing workers out at four factories, operated by three multinational tyre companies. The strikes began late on Saturday, 31 May. 
 
Negotiations continued until the early morning hours of that day, with the employers&rsquo; association offering last-minute wage and social payment proposals to avert strikes. Those offers were presented to rank-and-file members of Lastik-İş, but were rejected by an accumulative 80% vote.
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Lastik-İş President Abdullah Karacan 
 

The strikes then began at factories of Bridgestone Brisa Sabanci and Pirelli, and two plants operated and majority- owned by US-based Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Co. The four tyre plants are in the Turkish cities of Izmit and Adapazari. The union and management association has been negotiating since September 2007 on a new labour agreement. 
 
&ldquo;The decision to strike was taken by workers and I believe we shall overcome the employers&rsquo; intransigence,&rdquo; said Lastik-İş President Abdullah Karacan. &ldquo;The salary offer made by employers is far from meeting the work performed by tyre workers. Our decisiveness for gaining our demands is resolute.&rdquo; 
 
The union is seeking a 12% wage increase for the first six-month period of a two-year labour agreement, and the Turkish rate of inflation for each six-month period thereafter. The tyre companies are resisting inflation-rate payments for the three six-month periods. The two sides differ also on various social payments customary in Turkish work schemes.
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Striking Rubber Workers at Pirelli Factory&nbsp;
All agenda items within the 59-article labour contract, save for the wage and social payment items, have been agreed upon by the two sides. 
 
Goodyear operates an auto, light truck, bus, and heavy equipment tyre plant in Adapazari, employing 800 rubber workers, and a truck, bus, and agriculture tyre plant in Izmit, where 500 workers are employed. Bridgestone Brisa Sabanci, jointly owned by Japanese-based Bridgestone and Sabanci Group of Turkey, manufactures auto, truck, and heavy equipment tyres in Izmit, employing 1,500, while Italian-based Pirelli has another auto and truck tyre plant in Izmit, in which 1,200 workers are employed.

4,000 Turkish Rubber Workers Strike Bridgestone, Goodyear, and Pirelli

The ICEM, a 20-million-member Global Union Federation covering trade unions in the Mining Sector, welcomes the settlement reached today between the Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Namibia (MUN) and Skorpion Zinc, a wholly owned subsidiary of London-based Anglo American PLC. 
 
The two parties came to terms today in Windhoek in mediation successfully completed by the head of Namibia&rsquo;s Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare&rsquo;s Labour Commission, Bro-Mathew Shinguadja.
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The settlement ends a lockout by Skorpion management that started 23 May at the mining and smelting operation in the country&rsquo;s southern Karas Region. It also resolves the central issue behind that lockout &ndash; the company&rsquo;s insistence that the MUN drop its claim to overtime pay in a to move to continuous shift operations, daily work shifts of 12 hours, with seven days on and then seven days off. 
 
MUN will support Skorpion&rsquo;s application to the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare for a labour code exemption, which, if granted, will allow the longer work shifts. But the issue of overtime pay was resolved by the company agreeing to comply with a pending court case brought by the MUN regarding overtime pay for work performed beyond nine hours per day. 
 
&ldquo;We believed throughout that Skorpion must honour Namibian labour code regarding payment of overtime for additional work,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, &ldquo;and we shared that belief with mining unions across the world. We commend the MUN, Skorpion, and Anglo American for reaching this agreement, and thank the many trade unions around the world who promptly responded to our call. 
 
&ldquo;We now ask miners and Skorpion management at this important Namibian enterprise to seek reconciliation and move forward from what has been a bitter labour dispute.&rdquo;
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ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda
Skorpion agreed to lift the lockout immediately, with miners returning to work on Monday, 2 June. The agreement will be jointly presented to the 600 miners on Monday by MUN local branch leaders and Skorpion management. 
 
The one-year labour agreement will be backdated to 1 April 2008, and contains a 12% pay increase for miners. 
 
The ICEM drew global attention to the dispute when Skorpion reversed terms of a near settlement on 19 May, an agreement then that would have ended an 11-day strike by miners. The next day, MUN suspended the strike but three days later &ndash; on 23 May &ndash; Skorpion management imposed its lockout, seeking a waiver on all overtime pay. 
For further information, contact: Dick Blin, ICEM Information Officer, +41 22 304 1842, +41 79 734 8994 (mobile), or <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>

Skorpion Zinc Lockout Ends with Global Mine Union Pressure

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An expected conclusion to the 11-day strike in Namibia at Skorpion Zinc yesterday did not occur, due to company insistence that wages be tied to ICEM affiliate Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Namibia (MUN) withdrawing a pending court case. During negotiations yesterday &ndash; talks that were expected to finalise a new labour agreement and end the strike &ndash; management &ldquo;took a full u-turn&rdquo; on many issues resolved over the weekend, according to MUN President Andries Eiseb. 
 
The MUN has suspended the strike, but has given no guarantee that a further walk-out by its 450 union members at the zinc mining and smelting operation near Rosh Pinah in southwestern Namibia will not occur. 
 
In talks yesterday, management linked a 12% pay offer to Skorpion, owned by major mining house AngloAmerican, gaining an exemption from Namibia&rsquo;s Labour Ministry to move to continuous operations. MUN gave the company a promise that it would support such an application to the government, but that pledge hinged on workers immediately gaining the pay hike 
 
Also, Skorpion management changed the effective date of any new agreement, from 1 May 2008 to the effective date of signing.
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The court matter, dating to 2004, involves compensation &ndash; specifically, overtime pay &ndash; on the operation&rsquo;s shift to continuous operations. MUN has argued that overtime pay be tied to the basic requirements contained in Namibia&rsquo;s labour code. 
 
&ldquo;The company&rsquo;s demand that the wage issue can only be settled once the court action has been withdrawn has crippled the whole negotiation process,&rdquo; said Eiseb. &ldquo;We feel we are being kept at ransom to a pending court case, said Eiseb, adding that the company&rsquo;s negotiation posture has been one of &ldquo;bad faith, intimidation, harassment, and arrogance.&rdquo; 
 
The strike by 680 miners at one of the world&rsquo;s richest zinc operations began on 9 May. The ICEM believes that the MUN and its membership has been a steadfast partner in an operation which has provided the London-based company with its largest profit contribution of late. Since Skorpion came fully on line in 2005, zinc prices on global markets have risen more than 300%.

Skorpion Reneges; Deal to Settle Zinc Dispute in Namibia is Scuttled

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The second meeting of the Brazilian National Network of Unions representing Belgian chemicals and pharmaceutical company Solvay was held from 9-11 June in S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil. The network was created in September 2007 when Brazilian trade unions at nine worksites gathered to create coordination and solidarity. 
 
Chaired by ICEM Latin America/Caribbean Regional Vice President S&eacute;rgio Novais, the network is coordinated by Juvenil Nunes da Costa from the ABC Regional Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union of Brazil. With support from the Brazilian national labour centre CUT, the National Confederation of Chemical Workers&rsquo; of Brazil (CNQ-CUT), as well as from the ICEM, the meeting also had the full solidarity from Belgian union Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale and the European Works Council (EWC) of Solvay.
<img height="233" src="" width="350" alt="" />
The EWC sent a solidarity message and a detailed presentation, explaining composition and activities of Solvay&rsquo;s structure. 
 
Along with the global economic situation of the company, participants gave reports from the nine Brazilian plants. Enhancing integration and solidarity of Solvay&rsquo;s workers, complying with the major ILO Conventions regarding trade union rights, combating all forms of discrimination, protecting workers&rsquo; health and safety, and maintaining the fight against outsourcing were defined as important principles for the network&rsquo;s activities. 
 
Delegates also decided to seek all opportunities for social dialogue with the company, to increase global solidarity with trade unions throughout the world, and to enter into deeper relations with the EWC. 
 
The Solvay Brazilian Network published a first edition of a newsletter following last September&rsquo;s meeting, and will do another one shortly to inform all Brazilian Solvay workers of its activities. 
 
Another network meeting has been scheduled for December 2008, again in S&atilde;o Paulo.

Brazilian Solvay Chemicals Network Organises Second Meeting

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At the triennial convention of the United Steelworkers (USW) in the US state of Nevada on 2 July, a cross-border merger of two big amalgamated unions took place. The USW and UK&rsquo;s Unite announced an alliance creating a structure to be called Workers Uniting. 
 
&ldquo;This union is crucial for challenging the growing power of global capital,&rdquo; said USW President Leo Gerard. &ldquo;Globalisation has given financiers license to exploit workers in developing countries at the expense of our members in the developed world.&rdquo;
<img height="139" alt="" src="" width="120" />
USW President Leo Gerard
Added Unite Joint General Secretary Derek Simpson, &ldquo;In addition to empowering the interests of our unions&rsquo; members, our mission is to advance the interests of millions of workers throughout the world who are being shamefully exploited.&rdquo; 
 
In a video broadcast to the convention, attended by 3,500 USW delegates, as well as 77 international trade unionists from 23 countries, Unite Joint General Secretary Tony Woodley stated: &ldquo;The creation of our new union is only the beginning. We&rsquo;re laying the foundations of an even larger and stronger union yet to come.&rdquo;
<img height="228" alt="" src="" width="210" />
Unite Joint General Secretaries Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson
The USW has some one million members in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean. It is the product of previous mergers between steelworkers, oil and chemical workers, paperworkers, rubber workers, glass workers, and the wood-workers union of Canada. 
 
Unite represents some two million workers in the UK and Ireland. It is a product of a recent merger between Amicus and the Transport and General Workers&rsquo; Union. Amicus, itself, is an amalgamated union that over the past six years has merged the Graphical, Paper, and Media Union (GPMU) with the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU), the Manufacturing, Science, and Finance (MSF) Union, as well as UNIFI, a former financial services union. 
 
The new structure, Workers Uniting, will have a joint steering committee and will be headed by an Executive Director. Staff will include research, international affairs, and communications specialists. 
 
The USW convention also saw the election of its first woman to its Executive Board. Carol Landry, a 16-year union activist from the union&rsquo;s largest Canadian sector &ndash; mining &ndash; was elected by unanimous vote of the 27-member Executive Board. She is an 8-year staff member of USW-Canada, and prior to that had been prominently active in a number of positions at her local union, which represents workers at Highland Valley Copper in the province of British Colombia.

North American Steelworkers, UK’s Unite Forge Trans-Atlantic Union Alliance

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The Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada reached agreement with Canfor Pulp Ltd. on 6 July, marking the bargaining pattern for this year&rsquo;s pulp and paper sector for the Canadian West. 
 
And then on 10 July, that pattern was achieved for 480 CEP members at Howe Sound Pulp and Paper Ltd., an enterprise north of Vancouver, British Colombia, jointly owned by Vancouver-based Canfor and Oji Paper of Japan. 
 
The four-year Canfor accord, retroactive to 1 April 2008, will now be used this summer as the pattern for some 12 other pulp, paper, and converting companies, employing 14,000 CEP union members in Western Canada.
<img height="171" src="" width="130" alt="" />
CEP President Dave Coles
&ldquo;Under the current economic conditions, it is a very good settlement. It will set the pattern in the Canadian West, and hopefully for the Eastern section of Canada next year as well,&rdquo; said CEP President Dave Coles. Coles said a key accomplishment was bringing the term&rsquo;s contract length down from six years to four. 
 
CEP members at a Canfor Prince George, British Colombia, pulp mill, as well as linerboard mill workers at a separate mill there will begin voting on the agreement tomorrow. Howe Sound workers will vote 30 July. The pattern is expected to be presented at Catalyst Paper&rsquo;s four locations next. 
 
The tentative agreement calls for wage increases of 2% in the first year, 2.5% each in the second and third years, and 3% in the fourth. In addition, the tentative agreement contains significant benefit increases, a C$.70-an-hour craft trades adjustment, and job security provisions, including a severance package. 
 
The CEP attempted to negotiate a contract extension with the Canadian East&rsquo;s lead company, AbitibiBowater, in early March, a year ahead of scheduled expirations there. But that company came to the table seeking major concessions, and talks were ended. Contracts for 20,000 unionised pulp and paperworkers in the East, including 5,500 at AbitibiBowater&rsquo;s 13 mills, expire 1 April 2009.

CEP Achieves Excellent Pattern Settlement in Western Canadian Paper Sector

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ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa last week declared wage disputes with three mining houses, DeBeers, Exxaro Resources, and Kumba Resources&rsquo; Sishen Iron Ore mine. The wage dispute filings come just days after NUM announced that it would take industrial action at Gold Fields&rsquo; four mines in August. 
 
The world&rsquo;s fourth largest gold producer, Gold Fields, has let safety lapse in South Africa, accounting for 23 of the country&rsquo;s 87 mining deaths between January and June, 2008. 
 
In late June, NUM and diamond miner DeBeers agreed on salary adjustments for 2008 of 12%. But the company pulled the offer and &ldquo;put forward a different draft that spoke a different language,&rdquo; said the NUM. DeBeers offered 11% over a two-year period, an obvious slight to miners, with run-away inflation in South Africa with due to rising food and fuel prices.
<img height="120" alt="" src="" width="120" />
 
The two sides will meet on 21 July before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) in an effort to resolve the dispute. If agreement is not reached, some 6,000 miners at six DeBeers operations will then take industrial action. 
 
The dispute at Exxaro&rsquo;s three coal mines is over wage disparities between the collieries that are both inside and out of the Chamber of Mines. NUM is also seeking to establish minimum wage levels. Exxaro is majority owned by private equity company Main Street, with AngloAmerican Plc. holding 9.84%. 
 
At the Sishen Iron ore mine, where 4,000 miners are employed, the dispute is over wages promises that have not been met. 
 
But the continuing story in the South African mining industry revolves around safety. The NUM held a Safety Imdaba from 3-4 July in Boksburg. There, NUM Health and Safety Chairman Peter Bailey stated bluntly, &ldquo;We need to have the same passion about safety as we did in defeating apartheid.&rdquo;
<img height="243" src="" width="220" alt="" />
&nbsp;NUM's Peter Bailey 
 

The summit caused South African Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica to call on the nation&rsquo;s Justice Ministry to join it in investigating and then prosecuting companies negligent over safety. Despite 1,500 workers dying in the mines in the past five years, the Justice Ministry has not taken up a single prosecution case. A new Mine Health and Safety bill is under consideration in South Africa&rsquo;s Parliament. It is intended to mandate stricter enforcement measures, and impose harsher fines on those responsible for safety lapses. 
 
At Gold Fields, the company experienced 15 mining deaths between late April to early May at its South Deep and Driefontein mines. And then on 29 June at its 15,000-worker Kloof mine near Westonaria in West Rand, just hours after the company boasted that it had achieved one million fatality-free shifts, two miners were crushed and died 3,000 metres underground due to a ground shift.
<img height="69" alt="" src="" width="115" />
The company&rsquo;s most egregious accident occurred on 1 May. Nine miners, including two from the same family, plunged 2,880 metres to their deaths at South Deep when a lift cable snapped on a cage that was carrying them. Sonjica said then that the deaths could have been avoided if the infrastructure had been properly checked and maintained. &quot;When you don't service equipment, it will collapse,&rdquo; she told a South African newspaper. 
 
Six other miners employed by Gold Fields, including five at Driefonteion, had died because of rock falls or earth tremors in the week before.

NUM Files Strike Notice on 3 South Africa Mining Houses; Safety Strike Looms at Gold Fields

Archive

Contract Tank-Truck Drivers for Shell at UK Vote Industrial Action

SINTRA P&G Successful in First Contract at Procter & Gamble Peru

‘Fair and Just Globalization’ Workshops Organised by IF Metall in Sweden

4,000 Turkish Rubber Workers Strike Bridgestone, Goodyear, and Pirelli

Skorpion Zinc Lockout Ends with Global Mine Union Pressure

Skorpion Reneges; Deal to Settle Zinc Dispute in Namibia is Scuttled

Brazilian Solvay Chemicals Network Organises Second Meeting

North American Steelworkers, UK’s Unite Forge Trans-Atlantic Union Alliance

CEP Achieves Excellent Pattern Settlement in Western Canadian Paper Sector

NUM Files Strike Notice on 3 South Africa Mining Houses; Safety Strike Looms at Gold Fields

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