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On 15-16 April, ICEM German affiliate IGBCE and the BAVC Chemical Industry Association came to 2008 and 2009 wage terms for some 550,000 chemical workers. The union achieved desirable pay gains, but more importantly, posted enhancements to future training opportunities for young workers, as well as a flexible, part-time work arrangement for older workers. 
 
The agreement, which came during the second round of national industry talks, contains a pay increase of 4.4%, retroactive to either 1 March or 1 April, or effective 1 May, depending on the respective IGBCE region. That extends for 13 months. Then, effective in 2009 for 12 months, chemical industry workers won a 3.3% pay raise. 
 
Additionally, on 1 July 2008, workers will realize a one-off payment of 13 times 0.5% of their monthly wage. That will be determined by workers and managers in individual companies, depending on a firm&rsquo;s profitability. The agreement covers some 19,000 German chemical companies.
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&nbsp;IGBCE Head of Collective Bargaining Werner Bischoff
&ldquo;The 2008 chemical accord has set a milestone,&rdquo; stated IGBCE Head of Collective Bargaining Werner Bischoff. He said that not only has the number of training places for young workers in chemicals been dramatically increased in this set of talks, but an &ldquo;occupational bridge&rdquo; has been created through the flexible work scheme. It replaces one due to expire next year. 
 
The new arrangement, however, is more extensive. A fund will be established, on 1 January 2010, that will be paid for by employers, with employee payments added supplementary. The fund, to be governed by works councils, will be used for flexible transition to retirement, including part-time work, partial pension benefits, health incentives, and added insurance for inability to work, to name just a few of the benefits.
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In 2003, IGBCE and BAVC first agreed to create future training opportunities for young workers. In last year&rsquo;s negotiations, for 2007 and 2008, the parties agreed to fund training places for 16,800 young workers in the chemicals sector. In last week&rsquo;s concluding talks, agreement was reached to increased that to 18,200 for 2009 and 2010. 
 
&ldquo;The strong increase in incomes corresponds to the current inflation situation and we met our goal &ndash; a higher pay raise than in 2007,&rdquo; said Bischoff. &ldquo;But the success story of this collective agreement is that &lsquo;Training for the Future&rsquo; has been updated, and we have succeeded in achieving a full flexible transition to retirement.&rdquo;

IGBCE Achieves Novel ‘Job Bridging,’ More Youth Opportunities in Chemical Pay Talks

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ICEM affiliate Paperiliitto of Finland and that country&rsquo;s Forest Industries Federation jointly announced a 22-month labour agreement, covering 22,000 workers at 70 pulp and paper mills. The new accord comes seven weeks before expiration of an existing agreement, with both sides commending the negotiations for meeting the challenges of the changing Nordic paper sector, while taking into account workers&rsquo; needs and development. 
 
&ldquo;The agreement includes numerous positive changes in workers&rsquo; conditions of employment,&rdquo; stated Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen. &ldquo;One important goal of the agreement is to increase real cooperation at the confederation and local level. I also consider it positive that we were able to reach an agreement in good time before the expiration of the current agreement, without outside assistance and without confrontation.&rdquo;
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&nbsp;Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen
The new pact will run from 1 June 2008 to 31 March 2010. 
 
Wage levels will rise annually by 4% each in the first two years. For the third year, an increase will be negotiated by the union and industry in an autumn 2009 set of talks. If the parties fail then to reach accord on the remainder of the pact, the agreement can be terminated. 
 
The pay system for Finnish paperworkers is being reformed in this collective agreement and their job security improved in the face of restructurings by the major paper companies. Workers made redundant due to financial or production-related reasons will be entitled to full pay for a paid-notice period, even if that worker gets a job with another employer. 
 
The re-employment obligation by companies for workers&rsquo; made redundant was extended from nine months &ndash; the applicable period by Finnish labour law &ndash; to 15 months, from the date of the employment termination relationship. Further, the employer is obligated to inform redundant workers of new vacancies for another nine months beyond that. 
 
Perhaps most importantly to Paperiliitto, is that terms and conditions for outsourcing and lay-offs remain unchanged.
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Paperworkers also gained a three-day sick period without proof of medical certificate, a first inside Finland&rsquo;s industrial sectors. The new agreement allows for flexible work time if workers and employers, with union approval, agree to it on the local level. The two sides can also agree on regular 10-hour work days. 
 
The new pay system to be implemented will promote multi-skilled jobs. It provides opportunities, incentives and personal training for diversity of tasks, and for workers to acquire new competencies. This agreement was also achieved outside of Finland&rsquo;s traditional tripartite incomes policy of employer association, national labour centres, and government, but leaves open the possibility to return to the national incomes policy in spring 2010. 
 
Toimihenkil&ouml;unioni TU, ICEM salaried workers&rsquo; affiliate in Finland, which represents white-collar workers in the pulp and paper sector, has currently just begun talks with the Finland Forest Industries Federation on a new labour agreement. That pact also expires 31 May 2008.

Paperiliitto, Finnish Pulp/Paper Industry Come to Amiable Terms

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At last month&rsquo;s ICEM Presidium meeting in Turkey, the body recommended that ICEM solicit donations to assist the valuable communications vehicle RadioLabour with its continuing start-up costs. RadioLabour is a unique web-based broadcasting network that airs valuable labour programmes across the global north and global south. 
 
It was launched early in 2010 and is the brainchild of Marc Belanger, former labour educator at the ILO in Turin, Italy. It can be found at <a href="http://www.radiolabour.net">here</a>.&nbsp; 
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Marc Belanger
&ldquo;Since RadioLabour has come on line, the ICEM has used this valuable twice-weekly labour reporting service frequently,&rdquo; said General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We recognise the valuable connection that RadioLabour has amongst trade unionists in the developing world. In its short existence, RadioLabour has proven to be a low-cost, unencumbered, yet effective voice for global labour.&rdquo; 
 
ICEM affiliates, and individuals as well, are encouraged to keep RadioLabour working by making a bank transfer to: 
RadioLabour, c/o 115 Douro St., Peterborough, Ontario, Canada K9H 1H5 
Account number: 008020168416 
The Bank of Nova Scotia, c/o 111 Hunter St., Peterborough, Ontario, Canada K9H 7G5 
Swift Code/BIC: NOSCCATT 
Canadian Clearing Code: CC0002000802

ICEM Seeks Affiliate Financial Contributions to RadioLabour

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After several months of futile bargaining with employers&rsquo; grouping Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI), members of Unite the Union in the UK will vote in the coming weeks on industrial action. The bargaining committee for Unite&rsquo;s corrugated paperboard industry, representing 2,500 workers at 50 UK factories, will meet tomorrow to discuss details in issuing the ballot. 
 
Last week, Unite announced that paperworkers in the corrugated sector voted by a nine-to-one margin to reject a 2010 pay increase of 2.1% by the CPI. That offer was put forward after weeks of delay by the employers&rsquo; organisation. Contract talks began in late July and the 2009 agreement expired on 1 September 2010. 
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Unite National Officer Peter Ellis
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re dealing with a group of companies that had a very good 2009 and this year, they continue to make profits,&rdquo; said Unite National Officer Peter Ellis. The three major companies comprising the corrugated paperboard talks are D.S. Smith, SmurfitKappa, and SAICA. The 2009 increase was 1%. 
 
&ldquo;At the talks in early October, we could have settled on a modest improvement to the offer, but the CPI insisted that a pay settlement at less than half of the retail price index was as far as it would go,&rdquo; said Ellis. The union had lowered its pay demands to 2.5% in order to achieve accord but with the CPI&rsquo;s lack of movement, the divide might now widen. 
 
Ellis insisted that median wage awards in other UK industries do not apply to the corrugated sector because the packaging industry for food, beverage, and other consumer uses has not suffered compared to other industries. &ldquo;We will not settle for a median offer,&rdquo; he said. 
 
By UK labour statute, unions must allow workers at least a three-week voting period for balloting on industrial actions. That must be followed by a seven-day period for employers to respond with a possible revised offer.

Paper Packaging Workers in UK to Vote on Industrial Action

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Some 117 members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) in New Zealand began a one-day industrial action against the global plastics and packaging company Sealed Air on 8 November at the company&rsquo;s Cryovac subsidiary in Porirua. 
 
The strike came five days after workers at the plastic bag and food packaging plant rejected an inferior 2010 wage offer and then voted for the industrial action. The action includes a ban on all short-notice overtime work. 
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EPMU's Tim Awatere
Cryovac Sealed Air offered a 2% increase. EPMU Organiser Mark James said that falls short of a fair deal, considering Sealed Air&rsquo;s 2009 profit sheet. The world&rsquo;s 19th largest paper packaging firm by assets held, posted US$13.15 million in net profits last year, up US$8.6 million over 2008. 
 
&ldquo;Two percent would effectively be a pay cut for our members because inflation is set to rise over 4%&rdquo; in 2011,&rdquo; said James. EPMU members at Cryovac Sealed Air work 12-hour shifts, four days on, four days off, in what James calls &ldquo;very unsociable hours.&rdquo; 
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EPMU's Aaron Bailey
Pay negotiations were to resume on 11 November but if no improved pay offer was put forward, further strike actions could re-occur.

EPMU Members Strike Sealed Air Subsidiary in New Zealand

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A woman and metalworker won election as General Secretary of Italy&rsquo;s largest labour federation, the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL). Susanna Camusso was elected by the federation&rsquo;s 160-member National Executive Assembly on 3 November with a 79.1% vote, succeeding Guglielmo Epifani who stepped down due to term limits. 
 
Camusso, 55, becomes the first woman to lead a major national labour centre in Italy, and the challenges in front of her are great. Considered Italy&rsquo;s most militant labour federation, the 5.7-million-member CGIL must confront the &euro;23.5 billion in public spending cuts that the Berlusconi government is proposing, and it faces social regressions that car-maker Fiat is demanding in return for investing in Italian auto factories. 
 
Following her election, she said of Silvio Berlusconi, &ldquo;The more he governs, the more trouble he creates.&rdquo; She said the sooner that Berlusconi retires from public office, &ldquo;the better it will be for the country.&rdquo; 
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CGIL General Secretary Susanna Camusso
Regarding Fiat, she must navigate the militancy of CGIL&rsquo;s Metalworkers (FIOM) branch &ndash; once her own constituency &ndash; with the moderation of Italy&rsquo;s other two national labour centres, the UIL and CISL, in dealing with the automaker. One test will be Fiat&rsquo;s insistence on individual factory agreements instead of a national collective agreement. 
 
Another will be the determination by Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne to drive a wedge between CGIL-FIOM and the other federations in coming talks over implementing the company&rsquo;s five-year, &euro;20 billion investment plan in Italy. 
 
Camusso began her union career in 1977 as a union organiser for CGIL&rsquo;s FIOM branch in Milan. Over a 20-year career there, she built a reputation as a fierce negotiator, having bargaining numerous collective agreements in the auto and metalworking sectors. She is considered a pragmatic, results-oriented labour leader. 
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CISL Congress, May 2010 
In 1997, she left FIOM in Milan and became a regional leader for CGIL in the Lombardy region. In 2005, she founded the Italian women&rsquo;s rights movement &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s Get Out of Silence&rdquo; movement. On her election earlier this month, she said full women&rsquo;s rights must be a condition for democracy in Italy and the demeaning issue of prostitution must find a place on the national agenda, an obvious reference to Berlusconi&rsquo;s style. 
 
She was elected a member of the CGIL&rsquo;s 10-member national governing board in 2008, became the federation&rsquo;s deputy general secretary at the May 2010 Congress, and was Epifani&rsquo;s choice to succeed him earlier this month. 
 
Camusso will often be paired in her new duties with Emma Marcegaglia, the leader of the industrial employers&rsquo; federation Confindustria. The two women share a mutual respect for one another other, with Marcegaglia saying early this month she has &ldquo;a very positive opinion&rdquo; of Camusso.

First Woman Elected to Lead Italian National Labour Federation

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The ICEM affiliated oil and gas workers&rsquo; trade union in Nigeria, the white-collar Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) is calling on the Nigerian government to enforce existing labour law and stop companies from blocking collective bargaining agreements with their employees. 
 
It is a practice far too common in Nigeria. Oil and gas companies negotiate collective agreements but refuse to implement the agreements. PENGASSAN will soon mobilise to disrupt operations at operations of the different companies if the government does not step in. 
 
Specifically, the union&rsquo;s call went to the Federal Ministries of Petroleum, Labour, and Productivity, as well as to the Ministry of the Interior, arguing that collective agreements will guarantee industrial stability in the oil and gas sectors. 
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PENGASSAN President Babatunde Ogun
PENGASSAN has identified two prominent oil and gas servicing companies, Baker Hughes Nigeria Ltd., and BJ Services, neither of which has a collective agreement of record. These will be the first target companies of the campaign. 
 
Speaking on the issue, PENGASSAN President Babatunde Ogun said that the union will work together with the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and will not tolerate any company without a CBA to operate in Nigeria. 
 
&ldquo;BJ Services lacks respect for Nigerian law, Nigerians, and the government, while Baker Hughes is operating without a union or a negotiated CBA,&rdquo; said Ogun. &ldquo;This turns Nigerian workers to slaves in our own country. 
 
&ldquo;No company will be allowed to work in our sector if workers do not have union representation and a negotiated CBA. Government, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), and the multinational companies operating in our sectors must stop awarding contracts to these two companies, because we will not allow them to complete them,&rdquo; said Ogun 
 
As a member union of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), PENGASSAN was directly involved in the decision to call a three-day general strike last week, demanding the government of Goodluck Jonathan implement a new minimum monthly wage of N18,000 (&euro;87 euros). 
 
Organised labour accepted an offer from President Jonathan to postpone the strike on 10 November as the Minimum Wage Bill will go to the Nigerian National Assembly in the first week of December. Nigerian trade unions warned the President that if his promise to forward the bill to Parliament and then to ensure speedy passage is not fulfilled, he will face another general strike in December.

Nigerian Oil Workers Threaten Actions in Fight for Bargaining Rights

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Re-emphasizing the immediate need for Chile to take complete regulatory overhaul of mine safety, two workers were killed and a third seriously injured on 8 November when dynamite was mishandled inside the Los Reyes copper mine. 
 
The incident happened 60 kilometres northeast of Copiap&oacute; in the country&rsquo;s northern Region II, a short distance from the San Jos&eacute; mine, site of the dramatic rescue last month of 33 miners after 69 days underground. 
 
Chile&rsquo;s National Geology and Mining Service said the underground Los Reyes mine was new, unregistered, and operating illegally. 
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The two dead miners, one age 40, the other 26, were working their first full day inside the mine. The injured worker, a 21-year-old, suffered a head injury that likely will result in the loss of his left eye. Reportedly, old detonators reacted to heat and humidity and exploded prematurely. 
 
The mine is owned by Sociedad Legal Compa&ntilde;ia Minera Del Sur, a mining company that not much is known about except that it extracts copper from small deposits. A principal of the company, Mexican national German Statures Bazan, immediately fled Chile after the accident on a flight from Santiago to Argentina. Chilean authorities were seeking his capture.

Two Dead in Dynamite Blast Near Chile’s San José Mine Rescue Site

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On the evening of 7 November, U.S. Steel Corp. locked out 900 members of the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1005 at the American company&rsquo;s Hamilton, Ontario, steel mill. The reason given: the union&rsquo;s refusal to submit a concession-laden contract to members for a vote. 
 
In 2007, U.S. Steel bought Canadian steel producer Stelco Inc. and its two steel mills, the Hilton Works in Hamilton and Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke, Ontario, for US$1.1 billion. The 1985 Investment Canada Act contains a provision stating that foreign investment in Canadian enterprises must provide a &ldquo;net benefit&rdquo; to Canada. 
<img alt="" src="" width="238" height="158" />
Photo: Cathie Coward/Hamilton Spectator
The lockout eight days ago frames that flawed premise. In fact, beginning in August 2009 and continuing for eight months, 1,000 steelworkers at the Lake Erie Works were locked out while U.S. Steel extracted pension cuts and other concessions. 
 
Now, in Hamilton, the situation is much the same. The American steelmaker is demanding closure of the defined benefit plan to new hires, an end to pension indexing for 9,000 Stelco retirees, cuts totalling 80% of the value of cost-of-living adjustments, and elimination of two weeks vacation time. 
 
A provincial mediator delivered these social cuts to Local 1005&rsquo;s bargaining committee on 4 November, three months after a prior collective agreement expired. With the union refusing to adhere to a company demand to put the proposal to a vote, U.S. Steel imposed the lockout. Local 1005 seeks status quo in a new labour agreement. 
<img alt="" src="" width="204" height="151" />
Photo: Cathie Coward/Hamilton Spectator
&ldquo;These workers and their community were promised by their government and U.S. Steel that they would benefit from this foreign multinational&rsquo;s takeover of Stelco,&rdquo; stated USW Canadian National Director and ICEM Vice President Ken Neumann. &ldquo;Instead, the takeover has resulted in pain and suffering for working families. U.S. Steel&rsquo;s &lsquo;net benefit&rsquo; has consisted of plant shutdowns, productions cuts, lost jobs, and labour disputes.&rdquo; 
 
Twice in the past two years, U.S. Steel has defied the Investment Canada Act. Only five weeks ago, on 8 October, the company shut Hamilton&rsquo;s blast furnace and idled all steel-making, citing weak customer orders. Although no workers were made redundant then, the shutdown was the harbinger to the 7 November lockout. 
 
From November 2008 to March 2009, a mere 15 months after buying Stelco, U.S. Steel laid off 1,500 of 2,000 workers at both operations as it moved production to steel mills in the US. The Canadian government is attempting to enforce the Investment Canada Act. It has brought a lawsuit in federal court against U.S. Steel for breaking job and production level promises with the 2008-2009 shutdowns. 
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USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann
The government is seeking fines of up to C$10,000 per day for breaching the Act. 
 
But in court arguments, still underway, U.S. Steel used the economic recession to justify curtailments in Canadian steel production. Adding to production flight &ndash; and yet another slap at the Canadian law &ndash; near parity between the Canadian dollar and US dollar now has made a shift in production economical for the company. Slab steel made in both Hamilton and Nanticoke has been destined southward for finishing, and the weak American dollar has now made raw steel production cheaper in the US. 
 
Neumann has seen the Investment Canada Act trampled on too many times. &ldquo;Whether it&rsquo;s Vale in Sudbury and Labrador, or U.S. Steel in Hamilton and Nanticoke, foreign corporations show no qualms about breaking their commitments and inflicting economic pain,&rdquo; he said. 
 
Neumann, the USW, and all Canadian industrial unions seek a re-write to the Investment Canada Act, revisions that give genuine social and economic guarantees to workers in the wake of corporate takeovers.

Flawed Investment Canada Act Again Seen in Steel Lockout

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The ICEM offers continued solidarity to glass workers of Tyneside Safety Glass, members of UK affiliate Unite the Union, as they begin today, 4 October, a second week-long industrial action against an intransigent employer. Some 72 Unite members at two glass factories of the privately-held, family-owned Tyneside Glass/Suntex Glass Industries company in North-East England have been without pay increases for two years, and are now being asked to work longer hours. 
 
The company has refused to negotiate, with the last bargaining occurring in June. Workers subsequently voted for industrial action in a strike ballot and went on the first seven-day work stoppage on 20 September. On 25 September, they met to consider further action, and buoyed by a number of union support letters, voted to issue the mandatory seven-day notice for ongoing action. 
 
That leaves the possibility for further action throughout the autumn. The ICEM rallied to the support of Tyneside glass workers during the first walk-out, and that letter can be found here. As well, other support to glass workers in Gateshead, near Newcastle, came including hearty support from the Glass Section of the United Steelworkers (USW) union in the US through its Chairman, Tim Tuttle. 
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Unite North East Regional Officer, Bill Green
Unite and the USW originated Workers Uniting, a trans-Atlantic workers&rsquo; cooperative that is a registered trade union in four countries. 
 
Tyneside Safety Glass pays just barely over the British minimum wage and used the financial crisis to deny wage increases over the past two years. Now, with salaries even closer to the minimum, the company seeks to preserve a freeze, yet also wants to change shift patterns that would see staff working another ten hours per week. 
 
As stated in the ICEM letter, this would compromise safety on the job, particularly because the company has already made workers redundant and closed a third factory at Gateshead. &ldquo;The ICEM is deeply concerned that longer work hours will result in unsafe work conditions at the glass factories of Tyneside in the North-East,&rdquo; said General Secretary Manfred Warda, adding that management of late has noted a pick up in orders so restoration of lost wages could be made. 
 
&ldquo;We have experienced bullying and harassment by management, but no willingness to continue bargaining,&rdquo; stated Unite Region Officer Bill Green, adding that Unite members gathering at the 25 September meeting were fortified by global trade union support for a relatively small labour dispute. 
 
Tyneside Safety Glass and Suntex Glass Industries is a specialty glass producer that toughens and laminates glass windshields. It buys sheet glass from nearly Pilkington factories, owned by the Japanese company Asashi, and treats the glass for use in earth-moving and heavy equipment. Caterpillar, JCB, and other heavy-industry equipment makers comprise the company&rsquo;s customer list.

UK Glass Workers Begin Second Week of Industrial Actions

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