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Trade union representatives from Sappi paper mills in Europe, South Africa, and the US gathered in La Roche, Belgium, 22-23 September, to discuss the South African-based company’s European restructuring measures. This restructuring has already led to numerous – and sometimes massive – redundancies at several mills. 
 
The seminar, hosted jointly by the Belgian Unions ABVV/FGTB and ACV BI/CSC BI, was attended by representatives from both ICEM and the European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Workers’ Federation (EMCEF). The two-day event primarily focused on Sappi’s “Project Everest,” a restructuring programme announced in February 2006 for the company’s European operations. Project Everest is aimed at improving the company’s operating income by the end of 2007. 
 
Sappi workers’ representatives from Austria, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, and the UK, who currently face different stages of the restructuring, shared their experiences, while trade unionists from South Africa and the US added to the discussion by updating the participants on situations inside their mills. 
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Union participants in La Roche produced a joint letter from the Global Union Sappi Network to company Chairman Eugene van As, stating common concern over the company’s cost-cutting measures. The letter says that the restructuring is potentially damaging not only to the company’s workers, but also to the company itself. 
 
The letter requested clarification of management’s development strategy for Sappi. The letter also asked van As to direct his reply to Pasco Dyani of ICEM affiliate Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union (CEPPWAWU) of South Africa, who serves as Chairman of ICEM’s Global Sappi Union Network.

Sappi Trade Unionists Meet to Discuss Company’s European Restructuring

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont 
General Sondhi Boonyaratglin 
 
Government House 
Pitsunalok Road 
Bangkok 10300 
Thailand 
 
Brussels, 5 October 2006 
 
Dear General, 
Dear Prime Minister, 
 
Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, today, the ICEM Presidium, the policy setting body of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions, demands the immediate and full restoration of civil rights and democratic freedoms in your country. 
 
The ICEM Presidium members see it as an important priority to lift the current martial law at once. In addition, elections need to be held as soon as possible. 
 
The restoration of fundamental human rights is a necessary and urgently needed first step so that your country can be put back on its route to democracy. As part of this, we call upon you to remove, without delay, the whole range of political restrictions that are currently in place, so that the situation for Thai citizens can be normalised. 
 
The ICEM is scheduled to hold its 4th World Congress in Bangkok next year, from 22 to 24 November 2007. 
 
Thanking you for your consideration. 
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
Fred Higgs 
General Secretary. 

Cc: Embassy of Thailand in Brussels

ICEM letter to Thailand interim government

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The Imerys announcement last July that the French-based building materials company would relocate its UK paper coating operations to Brazil, and sack over 600 workers in the Cornwall region, was a shock to workers, their families, and the communities and towns in the UK’s South West. 
 
The news followed prior closure announcements, a 100-member workplace in Lamotte-Beuvron, France, where work was being shifted to Hungary, and job reductions at the Lixhe plant in Belgium. Now comes word that Imerys has been planning even more sackings; jobs at its Minerali SpA plant in Massa, Italy, where workers recently struck in protest to jobs being moved to Turkey. 
 
In the UK, ICEM affiliate Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU) has called for a mass march and rally on Saturday, 18 November, in St. Austell, Cornwall, in protest not only to Imerys’ community-wrecking job redundancies, but the company’s bad-faith bargaining in the official consultation process. 
<img height="55" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UKTGWU.gif" width="100"/>
The TGWU and two other UK trade unions that represent Imerys workers in the region are preparing memberships for an industrial ballot. In late September, Imerys’ workers gave the unions a mandate to call for a ballot when the time and circumstances are ripe. The company has turned a deaf ear on TGWU ideas for job retention and job creation opportunities, and the redundancy package that has been tabled is ridiculously low. 
 
Recently, in what the TGWU is calling “misleading spin,” the company claimed that a large number of UK workers have already opted for the voluntary redundancy package. A representative of FO Céramique, the French ICEM affiliate which is working with TGWU to correct Imerys’ behaviour, was told the same at Paris headquarters. 
However, Imerys’ count in the UK merely was on the number of workers who had responded to an inquiry to receive more information on the redundancy package. 
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The closure announcement of the company’s Minerali SpA operation in Italy is even more inexcusable. Only a few weeks ago, Imerys CEO Gérard Buffière answered a question from an Italian trade union CGIL representative on the subject, at a meeting with other trade union representatives present, including the head of the European Works Council, Serge Gonzalez from FO Céramique. 
 
Buffière responded by saying that the Italian plant would not be touched. Gonzalez and FO Céramique took note, but then an alert came from Italy that jobs would be slashed and a strike commenced. 
 
Striking Imerys workers in Italy ended that industrial action last week when news came that the company withdrew its prior announcement of closing the Massa plant. Negotiations will now restart in Italy on the future of the plant. 
<img height="85" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ItalyCGIL.gif" width="65"/>
FO Céramique’s Gonzalez is currently preparing a document, to be signed by all Imerys unions in Europe. An earlier statement by the workers representatives of the Imerys European Works Council described the current relocation wave as profit driven. The company has posted excellent economic returns, and has no compelling reasons to cause such social distress.

18 November Date for Mass Rally against Imerys in UK’s South West

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The 12-day strike by members of US affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. continues with no negotiations scheduled. The strike by 15,000 trade unionists at 16 US and Canadian plants began on 5 October, and is one of the biggest North American industrial strikes of this decade. 
 
Workers are striking the US-based tyre company for retention of job security guarantees won in 2003 negotiations. They also resist company proposals for steep wage and retirement benefit cuts. With Goodyear teetering on the edge of bankruptcy in 2003, the USW granted financial concessions in exchange for job security and job-retention protections. 
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This year, with Goodyear in excellent financial health, and with 2005 figures showing that North American production accounts for nearly one-half of its total US$19.72 billion in revenues, the company came to the bargaining table with intentions to take even more from its workforce. In addition, it proposes to close two tyre plants, employing 2,190 workers in Gadsden, Alabama, and Tyler, Texas. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs has called on all ICEM’s rubber sector unions that represent Goodyear workers to monitor tyre inventories and production, so as to ensure that they are not undermining the USW's strike. The company claims that some US and Canadian production is continuing with supervisory personnel doing the work. Tyre production also continues from Goodyear's two non-union rubber facilities in Lawton, Oklahoma, and in Napanee, Ontario. 
 
The 12 US plants, eight tyre operations and four engineered rubber products operations in which 13,000 USW members are on strike, are located in: Gadsden and Tyler; Marysville, Ohio; St. Mary's, Ohio; Lincoln, Nebraska; Tonawanda, New York State; Topeka, Kansas; Union City, Tennessee; Danville, Virginia; Sun Prairie, Wisconsin; Fayetteville, North Carolina; and Akron, Ohio. 
 
The four Canadian plants in which 2,000 USW members are striking are at: Collingwood, Ontario; Owen Sound, Ontario; the Toronto, Ontario, logistics center; and the Toronto commercial retread plant.

No Talks Slated in USW Strike of Goodyear Rubber

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In New Zealand, the National Party’s assault on workers’ rights in the form of the proposed 90-Day Probation Act has been met by a new website, <a href="http://www.workrights.org.nz">www.workrights.org.nz</a>. A campaign led by ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union (EPMU) is in full swing aimed at stopping the legislation. 
 
The website will allow the public to e-mail members of a select committee of members of Parliament who are overseeing the bill, as well as MPs who currently support the anti-worker legislation. “This bill is not about probationary periods, it’s all about taking rights from all Kiwi workers,” said EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little.
<img height="50" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NewZealandFlag.gif" width="100"/>
The EPMU is leading weekly pickets and information handbilling against the proposed legislation, which would allow employers to fire workers with impunity during their first 90 days of work. The ICEM encourages trade unionists to visit the website to express to New Zealanders their opinion on the proposed bill.

New Website in New Zealand Opposes Proposed 90-Day Probation Bill

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“Hadi Never Died: Hadi Saleh and the Iraqi Trade Union Movement” is a recommended book just released about the continuing fight to establish free and democratic trade unions in Iraq. Written by Abdullah Muhsin and Alan Johnson, and published by UK’s Trades Union Congress, all proceeds of the book benefit Iraqi trade unions. 
 
Hadi Saleh might best exemplify the decades-long fight for open and free trade unions inside Iraq. The country was once moderately tolerant of such unions, which made it an economic and social model for the Middle East. Hadi Saleh, then a leader in the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), was strangled to death with electrical wire in his home after being tortured on 4 January 2005 by assassins aligned with the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein. He was 58. 
 
In 1969, Hadi Saleh was sentenced to death during the early years of a repressive regime for engaging in activities for free and independent trade unions. He was imprisoned for five years and then fled, taking exile in Sweden. At the height of the invasion in spring 2003 which toppled Saddam Hussein, he returned to Iraq to continue the fight for legitimate trade unions. 
 
At the time of his death, he was the International Secretary of the IFTU, now called the Iraqi Workers’ Federation (IWF). 
 
Hadi Saleh has not been the only trade union advocate since commencement of the Iraqi occupation to meet his death for trade union activity. In 18 February 2005, Ali Hassan Abd of the Oil & Gas Workers’ Union was shot and killed while walking home with his children. Less that a week later, Ahmed Adris Abas of the Transport & Communications Workers’ Union was gunned down in Martyrs’ Square in Baghdad. 
 
On 25 January 2006, Alaa Issa Khalaf of the Mechanics’’ trade union of the General federation of Iraqi Workers was assassinated and in late April of this year, Thabet Hussein of the General Union for Health Sector Workers was murdered. In June, Shukry Al Shakhly, a founder of the IFTU, was also murdered. 
 
Others have been kidnapped, or have been victims of senseless killings that occur every day now in Iraq. 
 
Author and IWF liaison Abdullah Muhsin voiced the beliefs of Hadi Saleh at the recent launch of the book: “Free and independent unions will play an important role in making sure investment provides quality jobs and decent public services. 
 
“But unions are also important in forming Iraq’s democratic future and national identity,” he added. “Our independence makes us a home to all Iraqis irrespective of gender, ethnicity, and religion. Unions are an antidote to the sectarian poisons of extremism in Iraq.” 
 
“Hadi Never Died: Hadi Saleh and the Iraqi Trade Union Movement” can be ordered for ₤10 at <a href="http://www.tuc.org.uk/publications">http://www.tuc.org.uk/publications</a>, or by e-mailing <a href="mailto:media@tuc.org.uk">media@tuc.org.uk</a>, or calling +44 20 7467 1294.

Book Celebrates Determined Comrades Fighting for Free Iraqi Trade Unions

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A pattern-setting agreement in the US rubber sector was achieved 5 August, following successful ratification by 4,000 members of United Steelworkers (USW) at three Michelin plants. The three-year labour agreement, now effective at Michelin’s BF Goodrich plants in Fort Wayne, state of Indiana, and Opelika and Tuscaloosa, both in the state of Alabama, preserves job security and prevents future layoffs at the three plants for the contract’s duration. 
 
USW trade unionists at all three facilities voted in favour of the agreement. The common contract needed acceptance by workers at two of the three plants in order to pass. 
 
“We believe we achieved our industry goals when it comes to protecting retiree health care benefits and securing additional job protection measures for our active members,” stated USW Executive Vice President Ron Hoover. 
 
The BF Goodrich agreement does grant the company some lowered operational costs. The accord makes room for 435 rubber workers at the combined plants to take retirement with an enhanced package that includes up to 40 weeks of pay, depending on length of employment. 
 
USW will now shift bargaining efforts to Bridgestone/Firestone (BSF), talks which have already begun. The union represents 6,000 BSF employees at eight manufacturing plants. The USW and Goodyear Tire & Rubber also are in negotiations, but the two sides are far apart on job security and other work terms. Goodyear is the biggest tyre-maker in the US, and the USW represents 17,000 workers at 12 plants. 
 
The prior three-year labour agreement in the US rubber sector expired on 22 July.

US Steelworkers Ratify Contract with Michelin’s BF Goodrich Unit

An alliance between two Global Union Federations (GUFs) covering oil and gas workers became stronger this week when delegates to the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) Congress in Durban, South Africa, gave rousing support to the ICEM/ITF Global Oil and Gas Industry Trade Union Alliance. The ITF and the International Chemical, Energy, Mine & General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) have been jointly operating workers’ rights efforts in various parts of the world over the past two years. 
 
The ITF represents 4.5 million transport and logistics workers from 624 affiliated trade unions in 142 countries. The ICEM represents 20 million trade unionists from 379 affiliates in 123 countries. The ITF is based in London, while the ICEM is headquartered in Brussels.  
 
The two-year cooperative arrangement between the GUFs has mostly centered on the offshore portion of the industries. The official launch of the ICEM/ITF Global Oil and Gas Industry Trade Union Alliance now means that onshore work, from extraction and refining to distribution will get equal attention. 
 
“The success that we’ve had over the past two years demonstrates the strong synergies that exist between the two organisations,” stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. “Today’s energy market and its inter-connecting infrastructure make this alliance a natural for workers’ and their trade unions to have far more power and influence at the very highest international levels of the major companies controlling these crucial markets.” 
 
The union federations will organise on issues from the “wellhead to the wheel,” the motto adopted during the two-year-old project. It means forging a common bond of all workers engaged in work in the oil and gas sectors, from exploration, refining, to manufacture – ICEM’s traditional sectors – through to distribution, including sea, road, rail, and pipeline, ITF’s areas. 
 
The two GUFs have put in place a joint structure that includes affiliated trade unions of both organisations. Besides cooperating effectively on strategic issues that have arisen in such places as the Timor Sea, the Caspian Region, and Nigeria and West Africa, the alliance has mapped trade unions that exist across several oil companies and their major service contractors. The alliance will utilise ICEM’s existing Global Framework Agreements to include transport services, and it will place a special emphasis on extending job protections to the massive number of contract workers employed throughout the oil and gas sectors. 

Contact: Dick Blin, ICEM Information Officer 
+32 2 626 2026 
+32 4 74 88 00 54 (mobile)

‘From Wellhead to Wheel,’ Global Oil and Gas Trade Union Alliance Surfaces

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North America’s bitter industrial strike in the rubber sector between the United Steelworkers (USW) and Goodyear Tire and Rubber will see the antagonists come face to face tomorrow, 14 November, when the parties commence bargaining. It will be the first set of talks since the strike by 15,000 US and Canadian rubber workers began on 5 October. 
 
USW President Leo Gerard said: “We look forward to productive discussions whereby our members can return to making quality products and sincerely hope that this is a good faith attempt by Goodyear to solve problems and not place further obstructions in the path to reaching a fair and equitable agreement.” 
 
Good faith is something Goodyear is a stranger to in this 40-day strike. The US-based rubber-maker announced during the strike it was closing a plant in Tyler, Texas, potentially sacking 1,100 workers, even though the issue of job security and closures was still open on the bargaining table. 
 
Goodyear CEO Robert Keegan breached ethical social conduct by stating to investment analysts that the company would bypass the union in order to force Goodyear’s agenda of jobs cuts, work reorganisation resulting in lower pay, and devastating attacks on pensioners’ benefits. 
 
The company has been relentless in its messages to strikers to abandon the walkout. The most recent example is a letter that company coverage of health care would only be guaranteed if staff returned to work by 3 January 2007.
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The ICEM-affiliated USW has made it clear that it is returning to the bargaining table tomorrow with expectations that management is ready for serious dialogue. The union maintains that Goodyear has not negotiated, but rather dictated the terms it seeks to impose on workers. “We stand ready to bargain a fair labour agreement,” said USW International Vice President Tom Conway, “and assume (by Goodyear’s return to bargaining) that the company has abandoned its destructive position on closing plants and slashing health care.”
The USW will continue its campaign to protect jobs and livelihoods of North American rubber workers. On Saturday, 18 November, USW members will again distribute thousands of handbills to both customers and auto dealership managers over the possible safety risk Goodyear is creating by pushing for certain levels of production during the strike. The union has also taken that message to rubber sector and auto-parts trade shows that are attended by thousands of corporate representatives involved in sales and marketing. 
 
The Goodyear strike is one of the largest North American industrial strikes in this decade, affecting 12 plants in the US and four in Canada. Besides production from two non-union operations, Goodyear is attempting to maintain its customer base with limited production from plants that are on strike, using management personnel and temporary workers.

Steelworkers, Goodyear Return to Bargaining in Six-week Tyre Strike

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Spanish petrol station workers went on strike last week, 7-8 November, as last minute negotiations between unions and employers yielded no resolve earlier in the week. 
 
The two-day strike, held prior to a long weekend in Spain due to a national holiday, had been called by Spanish ICEM affiliates FIA-UGT and FITEQA-CC.OO. Strikes affected stations throughout Spain, except for two provinces, which have a separate collective agreement.
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According to the unions, the strike’s success was “massive,” with approximately 70-80% of all petrol station workers taking part. Some 1,811 petrol and gas stations, some 20% of the entire petrol market in Spain, were forced to remain open on 7-8 November due to a Spanish law intended to guarantee minimum service.
The mass industrial action was brought on because of a series of bad working conditions: long, often unpaid or poorly paid working hours; excessive rotation and temporary work, including shift and weekend work; job-related health and safety problems; and extremely low remuneration. 
 
Workers in the sector earn gross pay totalling €800–900 a month. Considering that the price of petroleum has tripled over the last three years, even though it has dipped of late, Spanish unions are seeking only modest salary increases for petrol station operators. 
<img height="78" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SpainFIAUGT.jpg" width="78" alt=""/>       <img height="80" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SpainFITEQA.jpg" width="98" alt=""/>
Employers’ statements indicate that the union demands “do not correspond to reality.” But the reality is that Spanish petrol stations employ nearly 42,000 workers at 8,700 stations, with 50% of them immigrant workers. And of those immigrant workers, 60% are women. It is employers who reject upgrading wages and working conditions for Spanish petrol station workers. 
 
A union representative said it is important that employers now “change their rigid behaviour and agree to a fair collective agreement for the workers in the gas and petrol stations so that they can work in decent conditions.” 
 
Discussions are scheduled to continue this week. However, the unions have said their options would remain open, with further strikes possible.

Spanish Gas Station Workers Strike for Realistic Working Conditions

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