English

Español

Français

Русский

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy 

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action Plan 2021-2025

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Campaigns

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Women

Youth

LGBTQI+

Gender, equality, diversity and inclusion (GEDI)

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL 

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia 

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean 

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Logos of IndustriALL Global Union

Press

<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/></div>
 
The ICEM has joined trade unions of Australia, New Zealand, and the UK in protesting flagrant trade union abuses by the military dictatorship in Fiji. On Saturday, 13 August, just two days after dictator Josaia Voreque Bainimarama tried to assure a high-level ILO delegation, including Deputy General Director Guy Ryder, that trade union rights in Fiji were being upheld, police showed up at the opening of Fiji Trades Union Congress’s (FTUC) national council meeting and revoked the national centre’s meeting permit. 
 
That came ten days after Daniel Urai, formerly of the ICEM-affiliated Fiji Electricity Workers’ Union, who is President of the FTUC, and union activist Dinesh Gounder were arrested under Fiji’s new Public Emergency Regulation for meeting with trade unionists without a permit. They were charged with unlawful assembly in meeting with hotel workers over a pending collective agreement. 
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"> </div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1108.fiji daniel urai.jpg" width="120" height="120"/>      <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1108.fiji Dinesh Gounder.jpg" width="120" height="120"/></div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"> 
Daniel Urai, Dinesh Gounder</div>
 
Both were released on bail on 4 August and are due to appear in the Nadi Magistrates Court on 2 September on those charges. (See <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/98.ICEM.Fiji%20Prime%20Minister.10August.pdf" type="internal">ICEM protest letter</a> here.) 
 
The arrests, along with broader trade union repression, specifically against FTUC National Secretary Felix Anthony, are seen as recrimination against Fiji union leaders visiting Australia and New Zealand to speak out against the military dictatorship of Commodore Bainimarama. 
 
Australian unions, led by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), have begun a number of direct actions against Fiji, which have raised the stakes against Bainimarama’s strong-armed tactics. For example, the Australian Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) has threatened to not load or refuel Qantas air flights headed to Fiji, which would severely impact the Pacific country’s tourism trade. The blockade would also include Air Pacific, a Qantas partner and Fiji’s flag carrier. 
 
On 2 September – the date that Urai and Gounder will be in a Fiji courtroom – the ACTU will organise two manifestations in front of Fiji consular offices in North Sydney and in Deakin near Canberra. 
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"> </div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1108.ilo fiji.jpg" width="160" height="160"/> 
</div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; COLOR: rgb(255,0,0)"> </div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; COLOR: rgb(255,0,0)">Dictator Bainimarama with ILO Representatives Last Week</div>
 
On 8 August, UK’s Trades Union Congress and ICEM affiliate GMB called on British sugar multinational Tate & Lyle to challenge the Bainimarama regime’s abusive tactics. Tate & Lyle purchases 100% of Fiji’s sugar exports and the illegitimate Fijian ruler has a controlling stake in sugar production. 
 
On the same day that Urai and Gounder were arrested, 3 August, a dictum was issued by Bainimarama – Fiji’s self-appointed Prime Minister following a 2006 coup – called the Essential National Industries Employment Decree. It bans all industrial actions, will ban workers from being covered by collective agreements in 60 days time, and restricts wage and benefit growth. 
 
Despite this, Bainimarama told the ILO delegation last week he was not trying to ban unions or take away workers’ rights. Not many in the international community believe this, least of all the government of Australia, which has recalled its envoy from Fiji. 
 
On 4 August, the day Urai and Gounder were released, Australian Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs Martin Ferguson, issued a statement saying: “Since 2006 the Bainimarama regime has abrogated the constitution; detained political leaders; sacked the independent judiciary; censored the media; and restricted meetings of civil society, including church groups. 
 
“Despite commitments to hold elections in 2014, it is not clear the regime intends to make good on its promise. 
 
“The restriction of labour rights is part of a concerted campaign to curtail the human rights of the people of Fiji. The rights of workers in Fiji have been targeted through a series of decrees restricting labour rights, the most recent of which was aimed at essential industries.”</div>

Trade Union Repression in Fiji Mounting

<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"> 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/></div>
 
The ICEM affiliated trade union in Botswana, the Diamond Sorters and Valuators (BDSVU), reacted angrily to the government renewing the diamond industry’s classification as an essential service in June that would effectively deny workers and trade unions of the sector their legitimate rights.</div>
The union, under the leadership of General Secretary Jacob Mpasopi, was particularly incensed that they heard of the decision for the first time through local media, and were never consulted. The BDSVU is the main stakeholder of the industry in the southern Africa nation.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Botswana BDSVU.jpg" width="100" height="87" alt=""/>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">The Minister of Labour and Home Affairs had been advised by parliament to consult relevant stakeholders before making a decision. However the union was never given an opportunity to voice its position.</div>
Mpasopi points to the ILO Committee of Experts’ definition of essential services as services in which “the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population.” Indisputably, this definition cannot be applied to the finished diamond sector of Botswana.
The BDSVU has struggled hard to achieve recognition agreements with several employers in the sector, formalizing negotiation, and dispute resolution procedures. All of these gains are put at risk by the unilateral decision by Peter Siele, the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs.
The ICEM fully supports its affiliate BDSVU in its call for this determination to be reversed.

Botswana Diamond Sorters Balk at Government’s Industry Re-Classification

<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"> 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/></div>
Further industrial actions in Queenland’s rich coal fields happened over the weekend and early last week as three Australian unions – joined together as the Single Bargaining Unit (SBU) – continue months-long efforts to gain a fair collective agreement with the world’s number one exporter of metallurgical coal, the BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA).
Mineworkers led by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), and the Australia Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) and Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU), this weekend took 12-hour work stoppages at BMA’s Gregory Crinum and Blackwater mines in the Bowen Basin, while similar rolling 12-hour strikes occurred from 7-9 August at the Goonyella Riverside, Saraji, Peak Downs, and Norwich Park mine sites.
The protected actions are in preparation for SBU-BMA talks this week, 18-19 August. Some 4,000 miners have been stymied by the coal-producing enterprise belonging to the two multinationals since December 2010 over a fair collective agreement. (See prior <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4506-Stop-Work-Meetings-Raise-Stakes-in-Queensland-Coal-Talks" type="internal">ICEM report</a> from June.)
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1108.australia%20BMA.jpg" width="260" height="131"/> 
SBU Picket at Goonyella Riverside Mine, July 
Despite BMA publicly boasting of high miners’ salaries and its own pay offer in these drawn-out talks, the dispute has little to do with money but rather work conditions and quality-of-life issues. The SBU is resisting unwanted extensions on work rosters, which will negatively affect family life, and they oppose BMA’s desire to gain flexibility over contracting out, an obvious job security threat. BMA wants to move from a five-day weekly roster to a seven-day one, and seeks greater rule over operators’ jobs.
Since industrial action began following a 2 June ballot that saw a 92% support, the strength of miners of the three unions has only grown. That was visible at a mass picket at the Saraji mine that was set up on 6 August.
BMA is a ten-year joint venture that extracts 58 million tonnes annually of coking coal from the Bowen Basin and exports it from its wholly-owned Hay Point terminal on Australia’s east coast.

CFMEU Still Seeking Australian Coal Agreement with BHP Billiton/Mitsubishi

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Some 400 train drivers and car examiners at Rio Tinto iron ore operations in the Pilbara of West Australia have voted by 82% for a first collective agreement. The union that won those rights, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), now presents the three-year agreement to Fair Work Australia for approval. 
 
“When Rio Tinto gave in principle support for the historic collective agreement back in June (see <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4505-CFMEU-Wins-Bargaining-Rights-for-Rio-Tinto-s-Pilbara-Train-Drivers" type="internal">ICEM report</a> then), it marked a major milestone in industrial relations in the resources sector,” said CFMEU West Australia Mining and Energy Secretary Gary Wood. 
 
We have now “moved a little bit closer to greater workplace protection for the hardworking iron ore miners of the Pilbara.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.cfmeu%20wood.jpg" width="169" height="160"/>
Gary Wood
Wood added that the new agreement “and the strong support for it open up opportunities for negotiations down the track for further collective agreements at BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.” 
 
The agreement is precedent-setting because it blows away a major barrier that for decades has stymied collective negotiations and collective action in the Pilbara. That has been the long-standing use of individual work agreements by mining houses to avoid enterprise agreements and to remain union-free. CFMEU breaks that barrier with this agreement and deserves hearty congratulations for doing so. 
 
Many of the 400 transport workers are fly-in, fly-out staff and move a good share of Australia’s resource wealth to global markets. They are also to be commended because their unified vote means that the door has been flung wide open for future collective gains, be them big or small through the CFMEU.

Historic Collective Pact Takes Root for Rio Trainmen in Australia

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Some 1,145 Bangladeshi coal miners went on strike against state-owned Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Ltd. (BCMCL) and a Chinese contractor, led by the Bakapukuria Coal Mine Miners’ and Workers’ Union. The five-day strike ended today but workers did not return to their jobs, instead suspending the strike until 3 September while they celebrate the Eid vacation, an Islamic period of family gatherings. 
 
Negotiations two weeks ago between union leaders, BCMCL, and bosses for the China National Import and Export Corp. (XMC), the coal extraction contractor, failed on 22 August and staff stopped work at 6h on 23 August. 
 
All strikers are employed by XMC. They recently witnessed 226 BCMCL get huge pay bonuses due to profitability from the mine near Dinajpur. BCMCL Managing Director Md Quamruzzaman said profit sharing is only for BCMCL staff and miners working for XMC “should get their bonus from their employer if there was any agreement in this regard.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Bangladesh.png" width="250" height="115"/>
In the talks that ended early last week, however, BCMCL did step in with an offer. But it was insignificant. While the Miners’ and Workers’ Union is demanding a bonus of BDT 30,000 (€280), management’s offer was but BDT 4,200 (€40). 
 
For at least three years now, the Bangladeshi miners also seek regularisation of their employment terms. As contract workers, they are not entitled to certain social protections, insurance, and pension benefits. The union staged a four-day strike in late March 2010 in which some pay gains were won. In both this strike and last year’s, the union is enforcing blockades to prevent some 350 Chinese workers from working. And in last week’s walkout, the strikers held BCMCL workers in offices as a symbolic protest to the discrimination in granting bonus pay-outs. 
 
Ironically, BCMCL was attempting to part ways with its Chinese partner when a contract ended last October. But after searching for bids, XMC, which has operated the mine complex since 2005, was the only bidder and BCMCL re-awarded the contract in May. At that time, the state company also installed a contractor to monitor wage levels paid by XMC in order to “discourage (workers) from launching frequent demonstrations,” in the words of the company. 
 
BCMCL produces to mine one million tonnes annually of thermal coal and is one of several subsidiaries of state-held Bangladesh Oil, Gas, Mineral Corp. (PETROBANGLA).

Bangladesh: Coal Contract Staff Strikes State Firm, Chinese Operator

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Security forces in Iraq are still holding 27-year-old Jihad Jalil, a leader of the Mechanics’ and Printers’ Union of ICEM-affiliated General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW). Jalil and three other young activists have been held at the Al Muthana airport detention centre since they were picked up on their way to a protest at Tahrir Square in Baghdad on 27 March. (See <a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/4449-ICEM-Demands-Release-of-Iraq-Mechanics-Union-Leader " type="internal">ICEM news release</a> of 30 May.) 
 
Iraqi authorities had promised release the four within 24 hours at the weekend, but their expected freedom and trial on 5 June never materialized. In a statement released yesterday, the GFIW said their families and attorneys had not been allowed to meet with them at Al Muthana. 
 
The four, including Jalil and students Ahmed Alaa al Baghdaddi, Moyaid Fasil al Taib, and Ali Abdul-Khaliq, were initially charged with inciting violence. But those charges were retracted and new charges placed on them accusing them of carrying false identities. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.iraq protest.jpg" width="206" height="160"/>
Tahrir Square Rally this weekend
Tahrir Square near the Green Zone in central Baghdad has become a staging ground for regular protests for legitimate workers’ rights, jobs, basic public services, and against government corruption. The ICEM believes that the government of Nouri Al-Maliki has escalated repression of trade unions, thus cutting hope that a stable, safe, and secure society can take hold through democratic institutions such as trade unions. 
 
The ICEM also points to the forced relocation of trade union leaders from there regular jobs with the sole purpose of removing them from pockets of worker activism at enterprises. In late May, this happened to Jamal Abdul-Jabbar Akram, the President of the GFIW’s Oil and Gas Workers’ Union of Kirkuk. His crime is that he led a walkout in support of contract workers at the state-run Northern Oil Company (NOC). 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/IraqGFIW.png" width="320" height="38"/>
He had been verbally warned by Iraq’s Oil Ministry to stop his trade union activities. On 29 May, he was given a ministerial order that he was to be immediately transferred from his job at a Kirkuk oil facility to a remote location. 
 
In a 30 May letter to the Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Maliki, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda protested the suppression of democratic freedoms in both the arrests of the four near Tahrir Square and the transfer of Abdul-Jabbar Akram. He wrote, “By restricting trade unions and the right of workers to freely engage in democratic assemblies that will benefit their work lives, and Iraqi society as a whole, your government appears to be stepping back in time.” (View the full <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Iraq%20Letter.pdf " type="internal">ICEM letter</a> to Iraq’s government here.)

Iraq Fails to Release GFIW Mechanics’ Union Leader, Others as Promised

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM Turkish affiliate ÇIMSE-İş, the Cement, Ceramics, Pottery and Glass Industry Workers’ Union, decided at its presidential committee meeting on 2 June to call strikes at 45 cement factories. The decision, occurring in Ankara, comes after disagreement in cement sector collective bargaining negotiations. 
 
The bargaining has hit an impasse, blocking achievement of a new collective agreement. The union and the Cement Industry Employers’ Federation (CEIS) have been negotiating since 7 January. Bargaining in January and February did reach consensus on some 40 provisions on normative regulations. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.cimse is president.png" width="154" height="140"/>
ÇIMSE-İş President Zekeriye Nazlım 

But in the months since, no further progress has been made. ÇIMSE-İş decided to call a walkout on the entire industry at last week’s meeting of the presidential committee, composed of the union’s Executive Committee members and branch chairmen. The committee decided to take the necessary preparations for strike actions without delay. 
 
Some 5,800 union members are employed at the 45 cement plants. 
 
According to the Strike and Lock-out Law, ÇIMSE-İş can lawfully strike within a 60-day period after announcing the strike. The union will soon determine the exact day to start the strike.

ÇIMSE-İş Calls for Strike Actions at 45 Turkish Cement Plants

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
As a policy from ICEM’s 2007 Congress in Bangkok, meaningful social dialogue with employers at global level is intended to build trust, understanding, and the search for a climate to conduct joint actions and initiatives. In this framework, the action plan by ICEM’s World Conference for the Chemical Industries last year instructed the Secretariat to continue to wage efforts to develop social dialogue forums with global employers’ organisations. 
 
This included to organisation of a special event with the chemical industry employers in a short time frame. 
 
With this, the ICEM and the International Chemical Employers’ Labour Relations Committee (LRC) jointly organized a first “Global Social Dialogue Meeting in the Chemical Industry” on 26 May in Geneva. The meeting was attended by more than 30 representatives from both LRC and ICEM, as well as union and employers’ representatives from Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Norway, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and UK. ILO Sector, ILO ACTEMP, and International Employers’ Organization (IOE) representatives were also present. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.ilo chems.JPG" width="288" height="160"/>
The meeting was co-chaired by Wolfgang Goos, President of LRC, and Tomas Nieber, Chairman of the ICEM Chemical Industries Sector. Both expressed their commitment to social dialogue at the outset. ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana stressed that political decisiveness for social dialogue initiatives in the chemical industry is one of the best examples of this commitment. Lutz Mühl, LRC General Secretary, and Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary, presented structures and major priorities of their respective organisations at the meeting. 
 
Both ICEM and LRC consider ILO platforms and meetings as important instruments for developing social dialogue. The meeting received a detailed report from Yasuhiko Kamakura of ILO Sector on agenda, technical details, and preparations for forthcoming ILO meetings in the chemical industry. The ILO will be organizing a Tripartite Meeting on Promoting Social Dialogue on Restructuring and its Effects on Employment in the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries in Geneva on 24-27 October 2011, and a Global Dialogue Forum on initiatives to promote decent and productive work in chemicals, which will be held in Geneva in 2012-2013. The 26 May meeting fully supported ILO meetings on developing social dialogue in the industry. 
 
Participants discussed cooperation framework, principal topics, and follow-up for developing global social dialogue in the chemical industry. The meeting also took up the globally celebrated “International Year of Chemistry – 2011” with a role and contribution in social dialogue. Following deliberations, the meeting agreed to release a joint ICEM and LRC statement called the “<a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/lrc%20joint%20declaration.pdf" type="internal">Geneva Declaration</a>.”  
 
Kemal Özkan, ICEM’s Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs, and the Chemical and Rubber Industries’ Officer, underlined ICEM’s commitment for social dialogue: “The industry has a long-standing culture of social dialogue in major chemical-producing countries. Our duty as social partners at global level is to do our best to strongly follow-up the initiative which we established at this meeting.”

ICEM, Chemical Employers Begin Global Level Social Dialogue Process

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM’s Sub-Sahara Africa Regional Organization (SSARO), together with the United Steelworkers (USW) and the US Solidarity Center, conducted a three-day mine investment conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, last month. Entitled “Making Mining Investment Work for Workers and Communities,” the workshop primarily centered on capitalization projects that the Brazilian mining company Vale is involved in on the African continent. 
 
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa hosted the conference. NUM Deputy President Piet Matosa opened the conference by stating economic opportunities are welcome in Africa, but the concept of decent work must underpin the inflow of all foreign direct investment. 
 
He said the negative impact of mining on communities must be addressed and social networks created to secure local benefits from mine investment initiatives. He said consultation with communities is most important in the negotiation of concession agreements, and communities must be empowered to facilitate negotiations in these concession agreements. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.num piet matosa.jpg" width="74" height="111"/>
NUM Deputy President Piet Matosa
Representatives from Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) of Brazil were in attendance to present a global overview of Vale. Reports were heard from a representative of the ICEM affiliate, the United Workers’ Union of Liberia (UWUL) on the role it is playing between the Liberian government and Vale over iron ore concessions there, and from the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia (MUZ) on its intervention with Vale in the southern Africa country. 
 
Other reports on the Brazilian company came from the unions FSPMICA/CNTG, SYNAMIC/ONSLG, and FESMICA/USTG of Guinea, and SINTICIM of Mozambique. The ICEM affiliate Tanzania Mines and Construction Workers’ Union (TAMICO) gave a report on its difficulties with AngloGold Ashanti and Barrick Gold. 
 
The workshop held three panel forums, including ones on Organising Unions at Mining MNCs, Collective Bargaining at Mining MNCs, and Mining Concessions Agreements: Making Sure They are Transparent and Benefit Workers and Communities. The Southern African Resource Watch also presented the topic “Labour Movements, Transparency and Accountability in the Extractive Industries.” The report highlighted that mining, without robust engagement by unions, is often a zero sum game, and noted the poverty around mine sites when vibrant unions are not present. 
 
The issue of ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, was discussed within the context of inclusion in bargaining concession agreements in efforts to leverage the ratification of Convention 176 in countries. 
 
The conference adjourned with passage of a resolution intended to cement the unions into a multi-MNC ongoing network. That <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Resolution%20Joburg%20Vale%20May%2011.pdf " type="internal">resolution</a> can be found here.

ICEM, USW Hold Mine Investment Workshop in South Africa

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="120" height="59"/>
Suez Environnement, a subsidiary of French-based GDF SUEZ, was hit with an OECD petition pursuant to the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises yesterday by ICEM affiliate Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA). The petition was for alleged environmental failures and unfair labour practice complaints issued by the US government against United Water, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suez Environnement. 
 
GDF SUEZ is signatory to a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with three Global Union Federations (GUFs), including ICEM and Public Services International (PSI). Both ICEM and PSI have jointly criticised the parent company for the insolent social conduct of it’s subsidiary in the US Suez Environnement is 35% held by GDF SUEZ. 
 
The US National Labour Relations Board authorised unfair labour practice complaints against United Water at two separate locations where the UWUA represents workers and is now negotiating with United Water over renewal agreements. The US agency’s charge against management involves failure to provide relevant information to the union related to bargaining. 
 
United Water is demanding steep cuts in employee retirement benefits. Failure to adequately exchange information related to bargaining clearly violates Article 7 of the GDF SUEZ GFA, “Respect for Trade Union Rights,” which references transparency in labour-management forums. The agreement also refers to the OECD Guidelines and the ILO Tripartite Principles, both of which have clear language regarding exchange of information for “meaningful negotiations” in social partnerships. 
 
The GFA, signed in November 2010, covers all of the group’s businesses, even ones in which the company holds a minority stake. In a letter last month to GDF SUEZ CEO Gérard Mestralett, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and PSI General Secretary Peter Waldorff said, “The ICEM and PSI are angry and disappointed with the callousness, indifference, and negative conduct of United Water management in relation to the Global Framework Agreement and abidance to GDF SUEZ’s core social principles.”
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0810Mike LangfordPrezUWUA.jpg" width="260" height="173"/>
UWUA President Michael Langford  

The alleged environmental infractions also saw the GUFs take issue with United Water. In December 2010, the US government issued a criminal indictment charging that United Water intentionally manipulated E.coli bacteria monitoring tests at a wastewater treatment plant outside of Chicago. The indictment alleges that United Water engaged in a scheme in which it increased chlorine levels when government-mandated E.coli inspections took place, and then lowered input levels after as a costs-savings measure. The allegations, if proven true, stand as an obvious menace to public health. United Water has pleaded not guilty to the charges. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4208-US-Affiliate-UWUA-Challenges-GDF-SUEZ-Inside-Global-Agreement" type="internal">ICEM report</a> on that here.) 
 
The UWUA symbolically filed the OECD petition yesterday, along with the American NGO Food and Water Watch, at the French embassy in Washington, DC, as well as to the US government’s National Contact Point. UWUA Local 1-2 in New York City also distributed informational leaflets on United Water’s detrimental conduct outside the French mission to the UN. Under the OECD complaint process, both the US and French governments are obligated to forward the submission to the French parent company and to the US subsidiary for a formal reply. 
 
UWUA President Michael Langford said, “Utility workers have been astonished at the bad faith conduct of United Water in labour negotiations in the US.”

US Utility Workers File OECD Complaint Against Suez Environnement

Archive