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Hundreds of trade unionists backed by their unions and led by New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) President Helen Kelly fiercely manifested outside the National Party&rsquo;s annual conference in Auckland on 18 July, protesting the ruling party&rsquo;s treachery in launching anti-worker revisions to the country&rsquo;s Employment Relations Act. 
 
Inside, Prime Minister John Key used his keynote to state that the party&rsquo;s legislative mandate will now aim to roll back workers&rsquo; rights and union rights. For starters, the Nationals intend to pass a law extending the rights-less, 90-day probationary period, now at workplaces with fewer than 20 workers, to all workplaces. 
 
The policy paper that formed Key&rsquo;s surprise keynote speech broke earlier commitments made by the prime minister to trade unions and the NZCTU that hard-line changes to the Act would not occur. Several NZ unionists at the manifestation showed their anger by skirting security to take the protest inside the Auckland casino/hotel where the National Party was meeting. 
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NZCTU President Helen Kelly
By Thursday, 23 July, trade unions had met and jointly devised an aggressive mobilization campaign against the legislation. 
 
The Kiwis call the trial 2008 probationary measure &ldquo;the 90-Day Fire-at-Will&rdquo; law. Kelly said that nearly one-quarter of all workers employed under the existing scheme for small employers have been sacked. And 47% of those firings are workers under the age of 23. 
 
Other provisions to the National Party agenda erode existing labour law. The test for justified dismissal under the Employment Relations Authority gets weakened; union access to worksites to defend workers gets restricted; workers can trade one of four annual leave weeks for money to stay on the job; observance of statutory holidays can be changed; and stricter proof of illness in order to take sick-day leave will apply if revisions to New Zealand&rsquo;s labour law takes effect. 
 
&ldquo;Unfair dismissal changes are just the tip of the iceberg,&rdquo; said Kelly, citing other draconian provisions of the proposed legislation, including cuts in entitlement, meal breaks, union education funding, and axing the Pay and Employment Equity Unit of government. &ldquo;To make matters worse, we believe government will also make it more difficult for the Employment Court to question the reason why any worker has been dismissed.&rdquo; 
 
The country&rsquo;s Labour Party had introduced legislation to repeal the 90-day probationary law. That party will now coalesce with the Green Party and the Maori Party to attempt to block the Nationals anti-worker agenda. But the biggest voice expected to halt the labour law roll backs will be the nation&rsquo;s 400,000 trade unionists who will work tediously through their unions to block these spurious changes to labour law.

New Zealand Unions Protest National Party’s Draconian Labour Proposals

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Negotiations to end the Canadian strike between United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9508 and the Brazilian-based mining company Vale in Goose Bay and Voiseys Bay, Labrador, failed on 19-20 July when the company put forward a far inferior bonus plan compared to what USW members in Ontario agreed to on 8 July. 
 
Vale refused to offer Local 9508 members a similar bonus plan that it gave USW members in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, and it refused to discuss other outstanding issues of a renewal collective agreement unless Labrador workers accepted an inferior bonus scheme. 
 
Some 230 members of USW Local 9508 will mark one-year on picket lines in copper and nickel mines and port and processing operations in Labrador on 1 August. 
 
USW District 6 Director Wayne Fraser called on the provincial government of Labrador/Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams to intervene. In a 21 July letter to Williams, Fraser said, &ldquo;It is indisputable that out union and its members at Voiseys Bay &ndash; like their colleagues in Ontario who recently ended their year-long strike &ndash; have shown flexibility and a willingness to compromise to achieve a fair collective agreement with Vale. 
<img alt="" src="" width="150" height="151" />
Wayne Fraser, USW District 6 Director
&ldquo;Mr. Premier, we trust you and your government will agree it is unacceptable that a massively profitable foreign corporation such as Vale would treat Newfoundland and Labrador workers as second-class employees. We also trust you will use every means at your disposal to ensure Vale treats the working families of Newfoundland and Labrador with the respect and dignity they deserve.&rdquo; 
 
The nickel bonus offer presented in Labrador consists of Vale-controlled criteria, such as individual work performance, safety issues, and other unilateral mechanisms. None of these conditions are contained in the Ontario agreement. As well, Vale is insisting on a lower cap on the bonus than what was accepted in Sudbury and Port Colborne. 
 
Besides the 230 members of three bargaining units of Local 9508 on strike, 50 workers employed by Ushitou Maintenance also have been on strike since 1 June 2010. These workers are also members of Local 9508, and perform electrical, pipefitting, instrumentation, and other functions for Vale at its Voiseys Bay operations. 
 
Vale continues to use scab labour to operate Goose Bay and Voiseys Bay. On Wednesday, 28 July, all unions in Labrador/Newfoundland will meet in St. Johns under the umbrella of the provincial Federation of Labour Council. Trade unions will discuss taking action on a push to adopt anti-scab and binding arbitration legislation in the province, as well as to discuss methods to get the Tory premier, Danny Williams, to use his office to re-start negotiations. 
 
In Sudbury and Port Colborne, some members of USW Locals 6500 and 6200 have returned to their rightful jobs, with most of the 3,000 staff expected to return throughout August. Members of the two locals are under a joint agreement and on 8 July, ratified a five-year labour contract that ended a 360-day strike in Ontario.

Talks Fail Between Vale, Steelworkers in Efforts to Resolve Labrador Strike

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As the mineworkers&rsquo; strike at Gammon Gold&rsquo;s El Cubo mine in Mexico&rsquo;s Guanajuato State was deferred to the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board, the authority abandoned all activities and took summer vacations until August. 
 
The recess forces workers to continue the strike with no possibility of settlement before labour authorities return to litigate and rule on the legality of the strike. The authority gave no instruction to Canadian-based Gammon to start negotiating with the workers. 
 
The 409 workers are represented by Section 142 of ICEM-affiliated National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Related Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMRM), or Los Mineros, at the mine in south-central Mexico. 
 
As previously reported by ICEM, the strike began 30 June, primarily because of Nova Scotia-based Gammon&rsquo;s refusal to make profit-share payments to workers, a condition that had been agreed to in bargaining with the union in return for a lengthening of miners&rsquo; work days from eight- to ten-hour shifts. 
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In the absence of a profit-sharing arrangement, union leaders took strike action, demanding a bonus of 50,000 pesos (US$3,968) per worker. A further demand was that the company improve safety standards at the mine, following five deaths at the site in recent months, accidents which were not properly investigated or even sometimes not recorded by authorities. The families of the five dead miners have not received any compensation. 
 
As was predicted by the ICEM in an earlier, 28 June, report (see <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3896-El-Cubo-Mexican-Mine-Shut-in-Attempt-to-Crush-Union">here</a>), the company has moved to restart production with scab labour. This decision was authorised by Labour Minister Javier Lozano, who pushed through a ruling via the Federal Conciliation Board for 70 &ldquo;emergency personnel.&rdquo; The obvious anti-union stance of the Mexican government is again illustrated by these rulings and lack of pressure from the authorities on Gammon to negotiate with Section 142. 
 
Gammon Gold has repeatedly claimed that it does not have the financial resources for profit-sharing payments, which are mandated by law, or to make improvements to worker safety at the mine. Los Mineros filed for a fiscal audit to be conducted by the Mexican Treasury into Gammon, in May 2010. In typical government inaction regarding Los Mineros, there has been no response to this request. 
 
In a familiar trend now used in Mexican labour conflicts, workers at El Cubo were physically attacked by the company&rsquo;s private security team on 18 June. 
 
Gammon Gold recorded US$207 million in revenue from gold and silver mining operations in 2009. The company operates exclusively in Mexico, with a large gold-silver complex in the northern state of Chihuahua, known as Ocampo. Exploration work is on-going at the neighbouring Guadalupe y Calvo gold-silver mine, and Gammon recently acquired the El Mezquite and Venus projects in the states of Zacatecas and Chihuahua, respectively. 
 
Gammon Gold&rsquo;s director in Mexico, Luis Chavez, was previously the Director of Mines in the Ministry of Finance, and then Director of Mines in Coahuila State government, a position he held when 64 miners died inside the Pasta de Conchos mine in February 2006. After protecting Grupo M&eacute;xico in the wake of the accident, Chavez moved to his current position as head of Gammon Gold. The corrupt links between the Mexican government and Gammon Gold are deep. 
 
Politicians in the country&rsquo;s Senate and House of Representatives demanded that Labour Secretary, Javier Lozano, act as mediator to the conflict.

Mexico Government No Help in Resolving Gammon Gold Mine Strike

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Elections for Germany&rsquo;s Works Councils occur every four years, with votes cast in May and June 2010. The ICEM-affiliated IGBCE received strong backing in these elections. With some results still to be analysed, around 81.2% of newly-elected council members in the union&rsquo;s industrial sectors are IGBCE members. 
 
IGBCE is present in approximately 3,450 companies in Germany. The 2010 results show a stabilisation of the turnout (74.3%) and of IGBCE&rsquo;s strong position, with very little change from the 2006 and 2002 elections. The number of council chair-people who are members of IGBCE has risen slightly, to 92%, as did the number of women who were elected &ndash; 26.2%. 
 
The IGBCE is now running a support project for newly-elected Works Councils in small companies, with less than 200 employees. The coaching lasts 14 weeks, and includes an online password protected forum, where views and guidance can be exchanged for newly elected council members. 
 
IGBCE also recently won a legal case, entitling Works Council members to have internet access in the workplace. Employers are now obliged to supply council members with a computer connected to the internet, in addition to an office. 
 
Works councils are employee representative bodies with a range of co-determination, information, and consultation rights with respective companies. 
<img alt="" src="" width="150" height="112" />
IGBCE Deputy Chairman Ulrich Freese
The recent results are seen as a clear indication of trust and confidence in the IGBCE. &ldquo;We have played a major role in ensuring that the financial crisis did not break through on jobs. Strong unions and strong works councils have prevented redundancies and ensured stability,&rdquo; stated IGBCE Deputy Chairman Ulrich Freese.

German Works Council Elections Cement IGBCE’s Strong Mandate

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The 14-year exchange and engagement between ICEM and the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) took a major step forward recently when a 13-member ICEM delegation, led by President Senzeni Zokwana, visiting Beijing for top level meetings with several leading ACFTU officials. 
 
The 15-16 July meetings, attended by 45 people, found discussions centering on the theme &ldquo;The Global Crisis and Job Protection.&rdquo; The meetings mark a new crest in ICEM-ACFTU relations, following participation by ACFTU representatives in ICEM Asia-Pacific activities this year. The activities include the regional committee meetings in Sydney, Australia, in April, and an electricity network meeting in Korea. 
 
In the near future, ACFTU representatives will take part in an oil and gas workers&rsquo; workshop in Vietnam in August and a pharmaceutical unions&rsquo; workshop in Indonesia in September. 
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The mid-July Beijing forum opened with presentations by Zokwana and Jiang Guangping, ACFTU&rsquo;s Director-General of the International Department, who welcomed the ICEM by stating engagement with an active industry-based Global Union Federation is crucial to the ACFTU. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda gave reports related to Contract and Agency Labour, ILO Convention 176 (the Health and Safety in Mines Convention), Sustainable Development and Just Transition efforts, Global Framework Agreements, and Social Dialogue initiatives. Chinese industry sector leaders then reported on coal, electric power, petroleum, petrochemical, chemicals, pharmaceutical, and land resource matters in China. 
 
Other ACFTU officials that lead structures within the Chinese Defense Industry, Postal and Telecommunications Workers&rsquo; Union, the Chinese Finance, Commerce, Light Industry, Textile and Tobacco Workers&rsquo; Union, and the Machinery, Metallurgical and Building Materials Workers&rsquo; Unions also gave reports. 
 
Participants shared country experiences on trade union actions, and also discussed plant-level responses and solutions regarding for job protection. Germany&rsquo;s Petra Kronen, for instance, the head of the Works Council and a supervisory board member of Bayer, explained flexible work-time arrangements taken between her union, IGBCE, and Bayer in order to avoid layoffs during the financial crisis. 
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Besides Zokwana and Warda, the ICEM delegation consisted of ICEM leaders from several affiliated unions, including: Per S&ouml;rensen of 3F Union, Denmark; Mats Svensson of IF Metall, Sweden; Michael Mersmann and Petro Kronen of IGBCE, Germany; Isidor Boix of FITEQA-CC.OO, Spain; Fran&ccedil;ois Laurent, CSC B&acirc;timent, Industrie &amp; Energie, Belgium; Yoshio Sato of ICEM-JAF, Japan; Ian Murray of Construction, Forestry, Mining, Energy Union (CFMEU), Australia; and Robert Reid of the National Distribution Union (NDU), New Zealand. Also in attendance were Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries&rsquo; Officer, and Phee Jung-sun, ICEM Materials Industries&rsquo; Officer and Regional Contact Person for Asia-Pacific Region. 
 
The ACFTU officials participating included Zheng Chengfu, President of the Chinese Energy and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union; Fang Dan, Vice President of Chinese Defense Industry, Postal and Telecommunications Workers&rsquo; Union; Cai Ruixia, Vice President of Chinese Finance, Commerce, Light Industry, Textile and Tobacco Workers&rsquo; Union; Ma Hua, Director of Chinese Machinery, Metallurgical and Building Materials Workers&rsquo; Union; Zhang Jianguo, Director General of the Collective Bargaining Department of the ACFTU; Enyi Xu, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Energy &amp; Chemical Worker&rsquo;s Union; Guo Wencai, Director General of ACFTU&rsquo;s Organizing Department; Xie Liangmin, Deputy Director General of the Law Department of the ACFTU; and Chen Jieping, Deputy Director of ACFTU&rsquo;s Social Security Department. 
 
A full and detailed report on the mission, prepared by the ICEM&rsquo;s &Ouml;zkan, can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/ACFTU%20Edited.pdf">here</a>.

ICEM, ACFTU Complete High Level Mission in China

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Chemical workers employed by French-based Rhodia in University Park, Illinois, chose the United Steelworkers (USW) in a US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) union certification election on 15-16 July. The vote for USW representation, by an overwhelming 62-11 count, came after the union enforced plant management neutrality through the ICEM&rsquo;s Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with Rhodia. 
 
When University Park workers contacted the USW in spring 2010, they were seeking a voice at work and economic parity with other unionised Rhodia workers in the US. Rhodia bought the specialty surfactants, polymers, and cosmetic preservatives plant earlier in 2009 from privately-held McIntyre Group of US. Among seven Rhodia plants in the US that are organised by the USW, three are in the Chicago, Illinois, area, so University Park workers did not have far to go to do comparisons. 
 
But their bosses had a different idea. They began traditional efforts to dissuade workers from joining the USW, including pay offers and work-time meetings in which anti-union messages were delivered. 
<img alt="" src="" width="200" height="133" />
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Rhodia CEO Jean-Pierre Clamadieu at the 25 March, 2008,&nbsp;signing
The USW responded by reaching out to corporate leadership in France through the ICEM in order to halt local management&rsquo;s violation of the GFA neutrality commitment. With ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan working directly with senior leaders of Rhodia in Paris, a joint ICEM-Rhodia declaration was distributed in early July to University Park workers by both the USW and local managers. 
 
It was signed by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Rhodia Group Vice President Pascal Jeury, with CEO Jean-Pierre Clamadieu endorsing the joint message. The declaration reminded that Rhodia&rsquo;s &ldquo;commitment to remain strictly neutral&rdquo; in workers&rsquo; unionization campaigns is intact, and cited seven points in Article 3, Paragraph 7 of the GFA (found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0809RhodiaGFAEnglish.pdf">here</a>), including the point: &ldquo;Rhodia respects the right of employees to organise themselves collectively and will remain strictly neutral concerning their choices in this matter.&rdquo; 
 
&Ouml;zkan also secured a pledge from the corporate office to stop the in-plant managers&rsquo; meetings. 
<img alt="" src="" width="180" height="99" />
With the government-supervised election nearing, workers became unconstrained by management rhetoric and harassment and voted for USW by 86%. Warda said the vote reflects a promising future for labour-management harmony at University Park, and thanked corporate Rhodia for its immediacy. 
 
The USW effectively put the language of the agreement in motion, and won US government certification. &ldquo;Rhodia has committed to strict neutrality under an ICEM agreement and pledge,&rdquo; said USW Organising Director Mike Yoffee. &ldquo;While the US managers did not fully live up to this, it still had somewhat of an impact on neutralizing the company&rsquo;s campaign, and gave our organizers the opening to make an issue of whether the US managers could be trusted to live up to their commitments.&rdquo; 
 
The new bargaining unit at the 18-month-old Rhodia-owned plant numbers 83. 
 
The USW also won union bargaining rights for miners in British Colombia, Canada, last week. Some 260 workers at molybdenum mines and operations owned by US-based Thompson Creek Metals had their union finally certified by the provincial labour board. They voted 26-28 May, but details prevented the BC labour board from opening the ballot box until 22 July. The miners work at the Endako Mines and now are proud members of USW Local 1-424 based in Prince George, BC.

In America, USW Forces Neutrality to Win Labour Rights for Rhodia Workers

Global Unions have released a set of principles to protect the rights of workers by focusing on the impact of temporary employment agencies on employment. The principles address both the exploitation and abuse of workers provided by temporary work agencies as well as the damage to regular employment relationships caused by the misuse of these agencies. 
 
In recent decades, the use of temporary agencies to supply workers has exploded all over the world, spreading also to sectors and occupations that had previously depended on directly employed workers. Not only do temporary agency workers typically receive lower pay and fewer benefits, when the financial crisis rapidly became an employment crisis, temporary agency workers were among its first victims. Many companies simply terminated their contracts with temp agencies so that the workers did not receive the minimum compensation or social benefits that they would have received as direct employees. 
 
The expansion of temporary agency labour, together with other forms of temporary, casual and precarious employment, has been promoted by international organisations like the World Bank, the IMF and the OECD as &ldquo;labour market flexibility.&rdquo; It has contributed to a general erosion of workers' ability to exercise their rights to join trade unions and bargain collectively with their employers, thereby posing a major challenge to the labour movement. These principles seek to address that challenge. 
 
Although there are varying approaches taken by trade unions in different countries and sectors to dealing with temporary employment agencies, ranging from total bans to partial bans to strict regulation, all Global Unions have reached agreement on a number of key principles. 
 
They include: 
 
1.) the primary form of employment should be permanent, open-ended and direct; 
2.) agency workers should be covered under the same collective bargaining agreement as other workers in the user enterprise: 
temporary agency workers should receive equal treatment in all respects; 
3.) the use of temporary agencies should not increase the gender gap on wages, social protections, and conditions; 
4.) temporary work agencies must not be used to eliminate permanent and direct employment relationships; and 
5.) the use of agency workers should never be used to weaken trade unions or to undermine organising or collective bargaining rights. 
 
The Global Unions&rsquo; principles also emphasise the special dangers for migrant workers, who are often engaged by temporary agencies or other intermediaries. Abuses of migrant workers supplied by agencies are all too common. They include the denial of trade union and other human rights, human trafficking, confiscation of passports, deceptive practices with respect to wages and working conditions, and the denial of legal redress in the countries in which they work. 
 
Governments are called on to seriously address the problems of workers supplied by temporary agencies through legislation that defines the employment relationship and ensures that triangular, or indirect, employment does not result in any loss of rights or social protections. Governments are urged to pay special attention to occupational health and safety hazards faced by agency workers and to strengthen labour inspection, so that laws are properly implemented and respected. 
 
Manfred Warda, General Secretary of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) and chair of group which developed the principles for the Council of Global Unions (CGU), stated: &ldquo;The Global Unions agreement on Principles on Temporary Work Agencies will lead to better collective action by the international trade union movement. 
 
&ldquo;Global Unions are rightly focusing on the rights of contract and agency workers and on the impact of precarious employment, a growing practice that is one of the primary reasons for the widespread violation of rights and growing inequalities among workers in our societies. Workers dispatched by temporary work agencies all suffer from the lack of a direct employment relationship with the very employer that controls their work and determines their working conditions. 
 
&ldquo;If we want more, rather than less social justice, this issue must become a priority not only for trade unions, but for governments and employers throughout the world.&rdquo; 
 
For the full text of &ldquo;Global Union Principles on Temporary Work Agencies,&rdquo; click <a href="/en/73-Contract-and-Agency-Labour/3861-Global-Union-Principles-on-Temporary-Work-Agencies">here</a>. 
 
&ldquo;Global Unions&rdquo; is a term for Global Union Federations (GUFs), which represent national trade unions by sector and occupation, together with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD, which represent national trade union centres (multi-sectoral).For more information on Global Unions, visit its site <a href="http://www.global-unions.org">here</a>.&nbsp; 
 
For further information, contact Fons Vannieuwenhuys, ICEM, <a href="mailto:fons@icem.org">fons@icem.org</a>, +32 2 224 0341 or +32 473 18 6770 (mobile); or Jenny Holdcroft, International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), <a href="mailto:jholdcroft@imfmetal.org">jholdcroft@imfmetal.org</a>, +41 22 308 5034 or +41-79-616 0103 (mobile).

Global Unions Adopt Set Principles on Temporary Agency Work

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At the Fifth Congress of the Mining and Metallurgical Trade Union of Kyrgyzstan (MMTUK) in Bishkek on 3 June, the union&rsquo;s Central Committee reported grave safety conditions in both mining and metal operations. The committee said the number of accidents continues to grow yearly, and cautioned its report does not give the full picture since inspections were only carried out in and around 34 union-represented installations. 
 
MMTUK&rsquo;s technical labour inspection has investigated 111 accidents over the past few years, and found a total of 525 violations. The Central Committee said that between 2005 and 2009, the number of industrial accidents in which persons were injured or killed increased five-fold.
<img alt="" src="" width="230" height="106" />
It said that number most probably is much higher if inspections were to be done in workplaces without the presence of a union. The union&rsquo;s statistics also did not take into account illnesses brought on by occupational disease. 
 
MMTUK said four workers died in its operations in 2009. It also said that antiquated equipment was a partial reason for the increased accident reason, and also reported that one-third of all the accidents that the union investigated occurred in road-traffic accidents involving industrial transport. 
 
The Congress also noted that despite several trans-national companies taking up operations in Kyrgyzstan, the global financial crisis, as well as the social, political, and economic upheaval inside the Central Asian country, has caused deteriorating work conditions. 
 
In April, citizens&rsquo; unrest forced the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyey and since, civil strife has been a regular occurrence in the southern part of the country.

Mining, Metallurgical Union of Kyrgyzstan Reports Upsurge in Safety Mishaps

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The Hungarian Labour Inspectorate levied a fine recently against Hankook Tyre Magyaroszag Kft. for obstructing the duties and activities of a branch of ICEM-affiliated Federation of Chemical, Energy, and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (VDSZ). Although the fine was small in monetary amount, &euro;3,646, it was significant in the fact that Hankook, at its burgeoning tyre factory in Dunaujvaros, has proven again its unwillingness to accept a trade union. 
 
According to VDSZ President Tam&aacute;s Sz&eacute;kely, Hungary&rsquo;s labour agency fined Hankook for refusal to allow lawful entry to the plant of a VDSZ official and a member of the company&rsquo;s supervisory council. Management then refused to recognise the capacity of the union leader.
<img src="" width="166" height="221" alt="" />
&nbsp;VDSZ President Tam&aacute;s Sz&eacute;kely 
 

The violation comes on top of other breaches of Hungarian labour law, as well as European Union statutes. When the factory at Dunaujvarous started up in June 2007, low pay, excessive overtime, and a forced six-day work-week made the then 800 workers turn to the VDSZ Tyre Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union for representation. 
 
Management would not recognise the union and even after a labour tribunal granted certification, the company appealed the decision through the courts. The company interrogated workers on their lawful right to join VDSZ and illegally dismissed union activists. Ultimately, Hungarian jurisprudence fully recognised the union, but that did not stop Hankook from interfering with union involvement in formation of a European Works Council (EWC). 
 
VDSZ proved successful in EWC elections, but the most recent Labour Inspectorate fine proves the Korean-based company still is not ready for the European-style social model, despite the fact that the European Commission funds totaling &euro;100 million were used in start-up of the Dunaujvaros factory. A Hankook spokeswoman said the company will appeal the latest fine. 
 
Meanwhile, Hankook, the world&rsquo;s seventh largest tyre manufacturer which is 10% owned by Michelin, is preparing to increase its Hungarian workforce from the current 1,250 to 2,000 by next year. The company plans to double tyre production at Dunaujvaros to 30,000 tyres per day. The company in late May won an exclusive supply contract with Volkswagen to produce tyres for all models of vehicles. In March, it signed a development contract with BMW that the company expects will lead to a supply contract. 
 
Hankook has faced numerous labour battles in its home country, specifically with the Korean Metalworkers&rsquo; Union two years ago at its ASA aluminum wheel subsidiary in Guemsam, South Chungcheong Province.

Hankook Tyre in Hungary Fined for Impeding Union Activities

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Two ICEM Belgian affiliates and members of the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (CSC/ACV) consummated a merger Congress in the city of Gent on 5 June. CSC/ACV Energy and Chemicals Union and CSC/ACV Construction Union merged to create a stronger union structure representing 284,000 Belgian workers.
<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="59" />
The union will be known in French as CSC B&acirc;timent-industrie &amp; &Eacute;nergie (CSC-BIE), while its Flemish name is ACV Bouw-industrie &amp; Energie (ACV-BIE). The merged union will cover workers in many sectors, including construction, chemicals, gas, electric, and oil, graphical and paper, pharmaceutical, wood products, leather, and even hairdressing and beauty fitness.
<img alt="" src="" width="180" height="120" />
Vice President Alfons De Potter and President Luc Van Dessel&nbsp; 

The prior president of the Construction Union, Luc Van Dessel, was elected President and Alfons De Potter, previously the President of the Energy and Chemicals Union, was elected Vice President. De Potter will continue in his role as a member of the ICEM Presidium, and two of the newly-elected National Secretaries of the merged union, Justin Daerden and Franćois Laurent, will also remain active in ICEM structures.
<img alt="" src="" width="200" height="143" />
Newly elected leadership of ACV-BIE/CSC-BIE
The merger Congress was a celebratory event, with song and dance throughout. It also contained an overview of the union&rsquo;s new statutes. CSC/ACV Confederation President Luc Cortebeeck delivered a video speech from Geneva, where he was attending the 99th Session of ILO&rsquo;s International Labour Conference. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda also attended the congress.
The new union will have 15,000 elected shop-floor delegates.

CSC Chemicals and Energy, Construction Unions Merge in Belgium

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