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The founding congress of PRO.GE was held 26 November in Vienna, a union that is the result of a merger of the former Chemical Workers&acute;Union (GdC) and the GMTN (metal, textile, food, energy, and mining union). Rainer Wimmer, originally from the foodworkers, was elected President, while Alfred Artm&auml;uer (former President of the chemical workers), Karl Hass, Franz Riepl (metalworkers) and 6 others were elected vice-presidents. Peter Schissler (former General Secretary of the chemical workers and Executive Committee member of the ICEM) and Manfred Anderle were elected new executive federal secretaries. Manfred Anderle will remain as contact to the European and International Trade Union organizations. 

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The Congress was held under the motto &quot;Self-confident, combative, solidary&quot;, and brings together over 250,000 blue collar members in Austria. The new union will be negotiating some 140 sectoral collective agreements in 16 different sectors. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda addressed the congress and congratulated delegates on the successful merger which, he said, sets a good example to those at the international level, who also seek to unite unions in the manufacturing industries.

Founding Congress Takes Place of New Austrian Manufacturing Union PRO.GE

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The ICEM participated in the Congress of its affiliate the Vdsz, the Hungarian chemical workers union, in Budapest, 18-20 November. Tamas Szekely was elected as the union&rsquo;s new president, replacing the retiring Gyorgy Paszternak. Tamas, who is 40 years old has served the union as vice-President for several years. Bela Kiss, 53 years old, was elected Vice-President. 

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New Vdsz President, Tamas Szekely 
Congress reports showed that there are still many uncertainties about economic developments in the sectors that the union covers. However, although the chemical industry made 40 percent of the workforce redundant earlier this year, many companies have started to rehire. The tyre sector seems to be profiting from the German car-scrappage program, and has in recent weeks even started with overtime work. 
The union was successful in the Works Council elections in Hankook, but still faces problems about trade union recognition with that company and with Bridgestone-Firestone. Tamas and the union contributed considerably to action against Unilever, as part of the 7th October World Day of Decent Work activities in Budapest. He is planning now to start a campaign to organise Unilever (foodworkers are very poorly organized in Hungary and split into several very small unions). 

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Retiring President, Gyorgy Paszternak
Another future plan of Vdsz is to develop cooperation with the construction workers union and seek a future merger with them. Vdsz serves as a bridge between various splits between unions in the manufacturing industries of Hungary, as they are affiliated to the autonomous confederation but maintain close cooperation with the major confederation Mszos. Both confederations were invited to the congress and made speeches, as did ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda.

Hungarian Chemical Workers’ Congress Elects New President

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A subsidiary of Russian multinational RuSAL, the world&rsquo;s largest producer of aluminium and a major mining house in key resources, has terminated a labour agreement for 600 Guyanese workers over a wage dispute. Rusal announced it no longer recognizes the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers&rsquo; Union, something illegal under Guyana&rsquo;s law and deeply condemned by the ICEM. 
 
General Manager of the Guyanese subsidiary, Sergey Kostyuk, sent a letter to Union President Charles Sampson, stating that the collective agreement between the two entities, and through the Labour Ministry, was &ldquo;terminated with immediate effect.&rdquo; 

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Guyana&rsquo;s Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir reacted by ordering mandatory arbitration, citing the importance of the bauxite industry to the economy of the country. The Bauxite and General Workers&rsquo; Union began a lawful strike on 21 November and that strike is on-going, thus hampering production at a processing plant. 
The union called the strike when RuSAL managers failed to give a promised 10% pay raise to workers in Berbice, located in the centre of Guyana. RuSAL also angered workers and their union by sacking 56 for &ldquo;insubordination, refusal to obey instructions and misconduct,&rdquo; a dubious charge considering workers were engaged in a lawful strike action. 

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A Guyanese political party, Working People&rsquo;s Alliance (WPA), has intervened by pressuring the government to protect the workers&rsquo; constitutional rights. WPA stated that the conflict has &ldquo;grave implications for the entire trade union movement in Guyana,&rdquo; if RuSAL Bauxite Company of Guyana (BCGI) is not stopped in its total disregard for trade union rights. 
 
The ICEM condemns RuSAL for its ignorance of essential global labour standards and for the negative influence this conduct brings to Guyanese labour relations. The ICEM is calling on RuSAL to reinstate the discharged workers at its bauxite plant and to immediate adopt better industrial relations practices in Guyana.

RuSAL’s Labor Conduct in Guyana’s Bauxite Industry Strongly Questioned

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Industrial actions by 1,000 coal miners employed by New Zealand state-owned Solid Energy and its contractors ended in early December when members of the Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) accepted two-year wage and benefit terms from mine operators. 
The settlement at four mines on both the North and South Islands ends an eight-month dispute that erupted into industrial actions, full strikes, sympathy strikes, and a lockout, covering a period from late October to the end of November. The accord also sets in place the terms of the Multi-employer Collective Agreement (MECA), contract terms that had been elusive since March 2009. 
Miners will receive a 5% salary increase in 2010 and 2011, with miners from the Huntly East colliery on the North Island accepting an 8.5% increase to compensate for shift rotation changes. In addition, staff receive a one-off NZ$2,000 bonus for their roles in Solid Energy posting record 2008 profit results. 
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A series of industrial actions started with a &ldquo;go-slow&rdquo; job action at the Rotowaro mine on the North Island in late October. That immediately resulted in a lockout by contractor RWE Mining, leading to sympathy strikes at two South Island mines &ndash; Stockton and Spring Creek &ndash; that are operated by Solid Energy and another contractor. After miners quit the strikes to return to bargaining, the employers again submitted the same regressive terms, resulting in walkouts and renewed sympathy strikes in late during the November. 
With Solid losing millions of dollars each week due to the work stoppages, the two sides reconvened talks on 29-30 November. Shortly after, miners at Huntly East, Rotowaro, and Stockton accepted a revised MECA deal, with miners at Spring Creek ratifying the contract on 3 December. 
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Stated EPMU Assistant National Secretary Ged O&rsquo;Connell, &ldquo;Throughout the dispute, Solid tried to set miners from different areas against each other by offering them different deals within the MECA, but our members stood by each other and made sure that the company knew that an injury to one was an injury to all.&rdquo; 
This is &ldquo;a membership,&rdquo; he added, which was &ldquo;united in their strength and determination to get a fair deal.&rdquo;

New Zealand Miners Win New Contract through Solidarity Strikes

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Industrial Union TEAM is the new name, effective on 1 January 2010, of the merged Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union (Kemianliito), an ICEM affiliate, and the Finnish Media Union. The merger of the two is the product of a larger, six-union merger of Finnish industrial unions that failed to materialize in spring 2009. 
 
Kemianliitto and the Media Union, which represents workers in the graphical, print, and print delivery sections, committed to continue union merger talks following the breakdown of the larger merger. By the end of summer holidays, 2009, committees and an organizational structure were in place to complete to merger. 

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On 13 November, an extraordinary Congress of the Media Union approved the merger, while on 26-27 November, the General Council of Kemianliitto gave its consent. Kemianliitto President Timo Vallittu will lead Industrial Union TEAM, and the merged union will have a 20-member governing body. 
 
The merged union numbers 68,000, a figure that includes retirees. Kemianliitto comes in to the merger with some 31,000 active members, while the Media Union brings 14,000. 

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The larger Finnish industrial merger, in talks dating back two years, was proposed between Kemianliitto and the Media Union, as well as including ICEM-affiliated Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union, the Finnish Metalworkers Union, the Wood and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union, and the Finnish Railwaymen&rsquo;s Union. In spring 2009, the Electrical Workers&rsquo; dropped from talks, while a short time later the Metalworkers&rsquo; withdrew from participating by action of its Congress.

Kemianliitto and Media Union Become Finnish TEAM, 1 January

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Industrial action that was to begin today at a pulp and paper mill in the UK has been cancelled because progress was made in redundancy consultation talks last Friday, 11 December. Paperworkers who are members of Unite the Union voted 226 to 30 for industrial action, after Iggesund Paper &ndash; a wholly-owned subsidiary of Swedish Holmen Paper &ndash; announced unilateral job cuts in early November. 
 
Iggesund, operating a softwood pulp mill and paperboard mill in Cumbria, sought to cut 99 of 480 jobs at the facility. Following the announcement, local managers said there was no need for consultation. UK law states that redundancies of less that100 workers must be preceded by a 30-day union-management consultation period, while jobs cuts totaling over 100 workers must see a 90-day consultation. 

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External pressure and the overwhelming vote for industrial action convinced management to discuss its reasons for the redundancies. Peter Ellis, a Unite the Union National Secretary, reported that Friday&rsquo;s talks between the union and Iggesund reduced the number of job cuts by five, with the potential for possibly saving more jobs to occur in coming consultation sessions. 
 
In the lead-up to the industrial ballot, the ICEM delivered nearly 100 messages of support from global pulp and paper unions to Unite the Union, messages that were distributed on the shop floor of the paper company.

Industrial Action at Iggesund Paper Mill in UK Suspended

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As part of the monitoring of implementation of their global framework agreement, ICEM and central management of French-based chemicals multinational Rhodia carried out a joint mission in the USA from 6-11 December. A similar joint mission occurred first in China in 2007 and in Brasil last year. The principal objective was to ensure that the global agreement is properly implemented at specific workplaces. 
ICEM was represented by its General Secretary Manfred Warda and Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan, while Group Vice-President, Human Resources, Yolene Coppin and Vice President, Sustainable Development, Jacques Kheliff from Rhodia were present. 
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ICEM delegation with plant management
At the first day of the meeting at the headquarters of the North American zone, headed by Jim Harton, Rhodia&rsquo;s North American business was introduced to the mission. Following ICEM&rsquo;s presentation on its general activities and particular efforts on global agreements, there was a special discussion on the US economic and legal situation. Employing around 1600 workers in 18 manufacturing units, the North American section of Rhodia has four categories of operations which are Novacare, Eco Services, Silcea and Polyamide. The majority of the production workers of Rhodia in North America are organised by ICEM-affiliated trade unions, USW, IBT and LIUNA. 
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ICEM delegation with plant union reps
The mission visited the headquarters of the USW at Pittsburgh and met International President Leo Gerard and his Assistant Jerry Fernandez. President Gerard introduced USW and its activities, particularly the drives to secure manufacturing and industrial employment in the US. The mission later travelled to Houston where Rhodia has a plant of Eco Services, organised by the USW. After the meeting with the factory union committee and local officers of the USW, the local management team briefed the group on the plant&rsquo;s activities and labour relations, followed by a site tour. The Rhodia North American team also informed the ICEM about the company&rsquo;s policies and programmes on human resources, employee benefits, and community relations. 
&ldquo;Between 2007 and 2009, in the framework of our global agreement, we have realised various missions in all the zones where Rhodia has business. This clearly demonstrates our engagement with a multinational company at a global scale, and it works very well,&rdquo; commented ICEM General Secretary Warda. &ldquo;We believe that that global agreements can and should play a meaningful and constructive role in labour relations, and our recent visit has shown this.&rdquo;

ICEM and Rhodia in joint mission of monitoring in the USA

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The International Textiles, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) held its Tenth World Congress in Frankfurt, Germany, from 2-4 December. The ITGLWF adopted several major decisions regarding the coming work re-organization. The theme of this Tenth Congress was &ldquo;Organise = Decent Work = Decent Life,&rdquo; and it brought together 214 delegates from 97 trade unions in 68 countries. 
 
It also paid moving tribute to the necessary humanitarian contributions made by the late ITGLWF General Secretary, Neil Kearney. Kearney&rsquo;s daughters were at the Congress and told of their father. 
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Neal Kearney&rsquo;s daughters, Nicole and Caroline
The Congress was hosted by IG Metall at its Frankfurt headquarters. 
The Congress took place just two weeks after General Secretary Neil Kearney died from a heart attack while doing important ITGLWF work in Bangladesh. The global trade union movement was shocked and saddened. Kearney, the ITGLWF General Secretary for the past 21 years, performed some of the toughest and most meaningful work in the world. 

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The Frankfurt Congress confirmed the appointment of Patrick Itschert as the new General Secretary. Itschert has led the European regional organization of ETUC:TCL, for nearly two decades. He will continue in both roles. 
 
Congress unanimously elected Hisanobu Shimada of Japan as the organisation&rsquo;s new president. Hisanobu Shimada is the General Secretary of ITGLWF affiliate UI Zensen. Outgoing president Manfred Schallmeyer of IG Metall received a special message of appreciation from Congress, for his work during the past five years as president. 
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Manfred Schallmeyer hands over the presidency to Hisanobu Shimada 
The ITGLWF&rsquo;s Congress elected fifteen Vice-Presidents, eight of whom are women, and formally approved the membership of the Executive Committee. 
 
The future of the ITGLWF was a major issue on the agenda. Congress recognised the need for a powerful trade union force across manufacturing industries, in response to corporate restructuring and obvious synergies created within the continual overlaps of the world&rsquo;s manufacturing sectors. The ITGLWF Congress resolved that the Global Union Federation make all necessary efforts to ensure the creation of a new GUF for manufacturing, and that it be concluded no later than 2011.&nbsp;

Memories, Accomplishments of Neil Kearney Cited at ITGLWF Congress

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The Geneva, Switzerland-based International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) announces that it gives its unequivocal support to the 560 miners of US affiliated union, International Longshore &amp; Warehouse Union (ILWU), who were locked off their jobs by the Rio Tinto subsidiary, US Borax and Chemical Corp., on Sunday, 31 January. 
 
The workers were refused entry to the mine and processing plant in Boron, California, when they showed for their work shift at 06h00 on Sunday. 
 
&ldquo;We note that all 500 members of ILWU Local 30 voted against the company&rsquo;s contract proposal on Saturday night,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;This should have served as a message to Rio Tinto Minerals to continue negotiating, continue seeking the necessary compromises in order to achieve a mutually acceptable collective agreement.&rdquo; 
 
A prior contract expired on 4 November 2009. Management is seeking unprecedented changes to workers&rsquo; seniority, shift and overtime assignments, and the way in which promotions are made, as well as seeking unilaterally to impose flexibility changes that favour the company to the detriment of workers. 
 
The ICEM condemns the company for its announcement that it will continue production with replacement workers during the company-initiated lockout. The ICEM will use its role, as the leading Global Union Federation in the mining industry, to alert trade unions around the globe, particularly those representing Rio Tinto workers, of the lockout and urge them to take action on behalf of ILWU Local 30 in California. 
 
Borax, or sodium borate, is a mineral used in detergents, glass, building materials, and other uses such as an ingredient in chemicals. The ICEM represents 20 million workers worldwide that are part of 467 affiliated trade unions in 132 countries. 
The ICEM urges all affiliates and supporters to send their own letter to Rio Tinto, condemning the lockout.&nbsp; Click <a href="/index.php?id=5&amp;la=EN&amp;doc=3600">here</a> for a model, paste the text onto your letterhead, and send to Rio Tinto CEO Albanese at <a href="mailto:tom.albanese@riotinto.org">tom.albanese@riotinto.org</a>, copied to <a href="mailto:joe.drexler@icem.org">joe.drexler@icem.org</a> and <a href="mailto:info@ilwu.org">info@ilwu.org</a>.

ICEM Pledges Support to Locked-Out Rio Tinto Workers in US State of California

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The world&rsquo;s biggest steelmaker announced to workers and trade unions at its December European Works Council (EWC) that the company likely will continue to reduce its global workforce in 2010. Trade union projections suggest that ArcelorMittal plans to cut some 10,000 jobs, or 3.5% of its total global workforce, as the company seeks cost savings of US$500 million. 
 
Arcelor Mittal currently employs 285,300 people worldwide. The Luxembourg-based company aims to regain lost market share. Company spokesman Bill Steers told the EWC at a plenary meeting on 9 December that &ldquo;global workforce reductions [will be] due mainly to natural attrition and optimisation of production.&rdquo; 

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The company has said that most of the cuts will affect US and Europe, where its growth potential is limited. ArcelorMittal workers in South Africa were relieved to be told that the announcement of 10,000 job losses would not affect them. Some of ArcelorMittal's facilities in the U.S. and South America are struggling, particularly those producing flat rolled steel for the auto industry. 
 
Dave McCall, District 1 director for the ICEM-affiliated United Steelworkers (USW), said the union did not expect mass job cuts in the US, as demand there is picking up some in the wake of the financial crisis. 
 
Overall, demand for steel is rising again, after most steelmakers took a major hit in 2009 and were forced to cut their production in response to a slump in demand. ArcelorMittal has put a bid down on Zimbabwe's Zisco; it has invested in a mill in India; and is looking at further Brazilian operations to match iron-ore supplies there. The company has operations in 60 countries around the world. 
 
The cuts are expected to affect workers who were temporarily laid off at plants idled last year. 
 
The company had originally planned to eliminate 9,000 positions in its administrative and commercial functions during 2009, but ended up cutting 36,000 jobs, of which 50 percent were in Europe.

ArcelorMittal to Cut 10,000 Jobs This Year

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