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Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. of South Korea received sizeable development and training subsidies in 2006 from the Hungarian government when it built an auto and light truck tyre plant in Dunaujv&aacute;ros, south of Budapest. A year later and several months following the start of production, the pay-back has been broken labour laws and blatant discrimination of trade unionists. 
 
The world&rsquo;s seventh largest tyre producer, 10% owned by Michelin, has paid fines for labour code violations, has seen large portions of its subsidies suspended by the Hungarian government, and has sacked one leader of the VDSZ Tire Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union, while refusing to negotiate with the ICEM affiliate, the Federation of Chemical, Energy, and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (VDSZ).
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Since production start-up early this year, the company has circumvented EU labour standards, and has violated ILO Conventions at its 28,500-unit-per-day tyre factory, now employing 800 blue-collar workers. Hankook Tire Magyarorszag Kft. has been found guilty or charged with non-payment of overtime pay, unsanitary work conditions, forcing a six-day work-week before a two-day leave, making work mandatory on public holidays, interrogating workers on their lawful right to join a union, and illegal dismissing workers. 
 
Besides using Hungarian subsidies to get the plant up and running this year, Hankook has used aid totalling nearly &euro;100 million from the European Commission. The company has reciprocated by paying fines for illegally employing 32 Korean workers and missing deadlines on registering employees to social security programmes. 
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Hankook&rsquo;s anti-social behaviour in Dunaujv&aacute;ros was a major talking point in mid-September discussions between South Korean Prime Minister Han Duk Soo and Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcs&aacute;ny. 
 
VDSZ is adamant that Hankook respect EU, ILO, and Hungarian standards and regulations. The ICEM supports VDSZ in its struggle with Hankook. In a further letter to Hankook&rsquo;s managing director on 23 November, VDSZ President Gy&ouml;rgy Pasztern&aacute;k stressed that a Hungarian court has certified the union&rsquo;s Tire Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union as bargaining representative, and that the company must negotiate terms and conditions with the union, as well as deal with the VDSZ branch on matters related to EU Works Council elections.
At its 4th World Congress in Bangkok, from 22 to 24 November, the ICEM adopted unanimously adopted a solidarity statement in response to the ongoing violation of workers&rsquo; rights by Hankook Tire Hungary Ltd. The statement was conveyed by the ICEM in a <a href="/index.php?id=20&amp;doc=2495&amp;la=EN">letter to the company</a>.

Korea’s Hankook Tire Company Setting Bad Precedents in Hungary

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Tuesday, 4 December, is Unilever Day of Action in Europe, and beyond. European trade unions will manifest in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Unilever workers throughout the world are expected to take action. The Anglo-Dutch consumer products conglomerate is inflicting job cuts on 20,000 workers worldwide. 
 
Half those numbers are occurring in Europe. Already, Unilever&rsquo;s reorganisation has cost hundreds of jobs in The Netherlands, UK, and Italy. 
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The Rotterdam agenda tomorrow includes a 13h00 forum at De Doelen conference centre, Kruisplein 40, that will highlight adverse Unilever case studies of job abuse from six countries. European labour leaders will also speak. At 15h00, a march to Unileverhouse in central Rotterdam will happen. 
 
The ICEM has joined with the International Union of Food Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF) to call attention to this Action Day against Unilever in workplaces and at union meetings globally. Unilever initially avoided proper social dialogue in its recent European reorganisation, and the company has violated workers&rsquo; rights in India, Pakistan, Chile, Colombia, and South Africa. IUF has brought abuses in India and Pakistan before the UK National Contact Point for OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. 
 
ICEM and IUF encourages Unilever workers throughout the world to distribute the joint statement that can be found <a href="/index.php?id=154&amp;doc=2488&amp;la=EN">here</a>. 
Take action against Unilever on European Day of Action, 4 December!

Day of Action on Unilever Rings Tomorrow in Europe

On August 2nd, Unilever announced to the financial community its intention to cut 20,000 jobs world-wide over the next three years, with 60 factories to be closed or disposed of. 
 
Under pressure from shareholders and ratings agencies, Unilever has over the last 7 years closed or sold off over 125 factories around the world, halving the global workforce to 179,000. Over these years, profits have steadily risen. 
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Systematic outsourcing has led to the elimination of permanent jobs at Unilever in many parts of the world and the creation of vast complexes of precarious labour. Outsourcing is now set to increase from 15 to 25% of volume. Many workers who produce for Unilever have been employed on renewable, &quot;temporary&quot; contracts for over a decade! 
 
By looting its own resources, Unilever management has been paying itself bonuses and buying back its own shares with cash made available through job cuts and outsourcing. Cash freed up through restructuring will be used to finance &euro;25-30 billion in dividends and share buybacks. The money will not be invested in the long-term future of the company. 
 
Through closures, job cuts, outsourcing and labour contracting, Unilever is destroying jobs and livelihoods across the globe, harming communities, and weakening the collective strength of Unilever unions. 
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Europe is now being targeted in a major way: 10-12,000 of the announced job cuts will be carried out there. 
 
On Tuesday, December 4th, Unilever unions in Europe will organise a day of action featuring a protest march and public assembly in Rotterdam. Concurrently and throughout the week, unions will stage actions at Unilever plants throughout Europe. 
 
Unilever's attack on jobs in Europe is only the latest in a continuing world-wide attack on employment. Unilever unions throughout the world are called on to support their comrades in Europe and to take global action as part of the fight to halt the global job destruction and to expand global union power at Unilever!

4 December 2007 Joint ICEM/IUF Unilever Message

The ICEM&rsquo;s Pulp and Paper Sector convened 21 November 2007 and formulated an expedited work plan for 2008. The plan is ambitious in scope and timely in light of paper industry developments. It will centre on intense networking and communication between global trade unions in the pulp and paper sector, specifically in coordinated bargaining, health and safety, contract labour, trade rules, climate change, retraining, and peak attention to social responsibility matters. 
 
The 50-plus delegates to the sector meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, agreed to form a rapid response network to deliver key information on bargaining, health and safety incidents, and corporate reorganisations. They also agreed to form a geographic-diverse work group that will meet in the early weeks of 2008 to prepare and implement an action plan.
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That plan will take into account first-half 2008 labour bargaining in the Finnish pulp and paper sector, it will meet restructurings with unified actions, and it will develop common policies shared by different national unions on global warming, contract labour, trade, and jobs skills relating to restructuring and health safety. Regarding social responsibility, leaders of pulp and paper unions pledged to use leverage to force the sale of mills during reorganisation, rather than closures and capacity reductions. The work group will also examine the unbalance of supply and demand in paper production. 
 
These exact policies will take hold when the ICEM conducts its Pulp and Paper Industry Conference in December 2008, a date chosen by the assembled delegates, and one moved up from a scheduled Industry Conference the following year. The delegates agreed to hold that Conference in Latin America in order to better link trade unions from the global north and the global south, and to draw sharp attention to work terms, working conditions, and trade union and human rights in the global south, as well as in ICEM&rsquo;s Asia-Pacific Region. 
 
The ICEM has endorsed the agenda, and will expand trade union participation by inviting Global Union Federations representing forestry workers and workers in the graphical papers sector. The ICEM global networking activities will also tie work together with the European Works Councils of the major pulp and paper companies.

Global Pulp, Paper Unions Put Forward Solidarity Action Plan

Delegates to the 4th World Congress of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Union (ICEM) elected Senzeni Zokwana, President, and Manfred Warda, General Secretary, for four-year terms. 
Some 840 trade union leaders from 75 countries are attending the Bangkok, Thailand, Congress, which concludes tomorrow with a crucial motion on the occupation of Iraq, the country&rsquo;s the oil industry, and support for emerging trade unions. Other business tomorrow includes action on Burma, Thailand and closer co-operation with other Global Union Federations. 
 
Zokwana serves as President of the 300,000-member National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa, and was first elected by the ICEM&rsquo;s Presidium in a special election in October 2005. He is a 24-year members of the NUM and got his start in the labour movement as a shop steward in a gold mine in South Africa&rsquo;s Free State.
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Manfred Warda and Senzeni Zokwana
Zokwana, NUM President since 2000, is a forceful advocate of bringing modern safety techniques to the developing world&rsquo;s mining industry. He is also an outspoken campaigner for ending the marginalisation of Africa by using the continent&rsquo;s resources to end poverty and to create opportunities for African people. 
Warda has been Acting General Secretary of the 20-million-member Global Union Federation since January 1 of this year. He is a 44-year member of Germany&rsquo;s Industrial of Mine, Chemical, and Energy Workers (IGBCE) and its predecessor, the Industrial Mining and Energy Union (IGBE). 
He began his trade union career with IGBE in 1971, and after serving as an assistant and then Head of the President's Office, he became Head of IGBE's International Department from 1990 to 1997. Following the 1997 merger that created IGBCE, he continued as Head of the IGBCE&rsquo;s International Department. He began working in the industrial sector in 1963 in his home city of Bochum, North Rhine Westphalia. 
 
Today&rsquo;s ICEM Congress also elected its first Vice President from the Middle East/North Africa Region. Elected was Mohamed el-Sayed Morsi of Egypt&rsquo;s Public Syndicate of Public Utilities. ICEM delegates also changed the federation&rsquo;s statutes to permit a head office move from Brussels, Belgium, to Geneva, Switzerland. That move is to occur in the first half of 2008. 
 
Tomorrow&rsquo;s motion on Iraq calls for the &ldquo;swiftest possible withdrawal of coalition troops,&rdquo; and states that &ldquo;the oil and gas resources of the country remain the property of all the people of Iraq.&rdquo; The motion commits ICEM to intensify its work with the trade unions of Iraq.

ICEM elects Senzeni Zokwana, Manfred Warda to lead 20-Million-Member Global Union Federation

4th ICEM World Congress - Speech by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda

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In a bold move aimed at narrowing the disparity between high and low wage earners in Japan, the Trade Union Confederation Rengo, on 4 December, adopted an official policy of raising pay levels for contract workers in its 2008 spring wage negotiations. 
 
The policy was adopted at Rengo's Central Committee meeting, and means that now it and Japanese Trade Union Confederation UI Zensen have prioritised that contract and temporary workers receive equal treatment to that of full-time employees in the country's social-work agenda. 
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Rengo's Central Committee also adopted a policy aimed at curbing the long work hours traditionally performed by Japanese workers. Rengo will demand that the legal premium for overtime pay be raised to 50% for work done on weekdays, and 100% on holidays. Currently, overtime pay is formulated at 25% above straight-time pay for weekdays and 35% for work performed on holidays. 
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In the spring 2008 wage offensive, Rengo will demand that companies sign a minimum wage agreement for contract workers, ensuring them of a salary that is higher than the official minimum wage. It will also push for revision of Japan's Worker Dispatch Law. That proposed change will guarantee more rights for contract workers and temporary workers. 
 
Both Japanese trade union confederations, Rengo and UI Zensen, are acutely aware that the number of workers recruited for full-time employment has decreased, while recruitment of temporary workers, or workers through labour staffing agencies, has dramatically increased.

Rengo&#039;s Central Committee Moves to Prioritise Higher Pay, Better Rights for Contract Workers

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Last month, full worker participation in a future, pan-European company became a reality with agreement by chemicals firm BASF that creates a European Works Council, and includes workers' representatives on its supervisory board. 
 
The employee participation agreement was signed by management and a special negotiating body representing BASF workers in Ludwigshafen, Germany. It is a final step in BASF converting from a German company, or Aktiengesselschaft (AG), to a European company, or Societas Europaea (SE). That transformation is expected to occur early in 2008. 
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Following that, BASF's supervisory board will be reduced from 20 to 12 members, with six of those to be workers' representatives. The newly-formed European Works Council will consist of 23 members from 12 European nations, of which eight will be from Germany. 
 
The agreement strengthens the participation of all European employees in the company. BASF said the accord will improve corporate governance. Legally, the new employee participation agreement will govern cross-border information and make sure that the consultation process involves workers. 
 
That social partnership process will convene three times yearly. In addition, the European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Workers' Federation (EMCEF) will hold the right to be present during all European Works Council meetings, as well as at the SE supervisory board meetings. ICEM German affiliate IGBCE called the BASF negotiated pact a yardstick by which to measure other companies seeking to become European entities.

BASF Signs Accord for Pan-European Worker Representation on Company Panels

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On 4 December, 500 European trade unionists from 17 countries gathered in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, for a European Day of Action against consumer products maker Unilever&rsquo;s harsh restructuring course.
The event, sponsored by the European Federation of Food, Agriculture, and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT), the European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Federation (EMCEF), and the European Works Council of Unilever, included a mass meeting, followed by a march to Unilever&rsquo;s Rotterdam headquarters, where a formal declaration was presented to senior executives.
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Globally, trade unions in a number of countries expressed solidarity with the European Action Day. In Mumbai, India, some 150 unionists, organised by the All India Council of Unilever Unions, held a mass rally on that day to protest the cuts. And in South Africa, Unilever workers from two plants conducted plant-gate pickets during the noon hour.
The six-point Rotterdam declaration presented to Unilever includes: clarity and perspectives from Unilever to European workers of the company; a halt to the current restructuring plan; an end to job dismissals and plant closures; respectful treatment to Unilever&rsquo;s No. 1 asset &ndash; its workers; and a call for full social dialogue with workers&rsquo; representatives to find alternative solutions to job cuts. 
<img height="253" alt="" src="" width="380" />
In early August 2007, the Anglo-Dutch company announced a global reorganisation plan that would make redundant one-tenth of its 180,000 employees. Of those 20,000 job cuts, 10,000 to 12,000 were from European operations, with 20 to 25 plants endangered over the next 3 years.

700 March in Rotterdam against Unilever on European Day of Action

The ICEM welcomes the news that Thaneth Jhanluechai, a paperworker at New Zealand-owned SIG Combibloc in the Rayong industrial area of Thailand, was reinstated to his job. Global trade union actions forced the reinstatement, particularly in New Zealand, where Rank Group, an equity house with a portfolio of forest product assets, bought the 420-worker SIG Combibloc paper packaging factory from a Swiss company last spring.
Thaneth Jhanluechai will return to work this week with full backpay and benefits dating to when he was unjustly sacked, 4 May&nbsp;2007. 
 
Jhanluechai is a leader of the SIG branch union of ICEM affiliate Paper and Printing Federation of Thailand (PPFT). He was sacked by SIG Combibloc for encouraging workers to honour the Songkran holiday. He did this while serving as vice president of the PPFT branch union and as a member of the factory&rsquo;s Employment Committee.
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The discharge came as SIG Combibloc was readying the plant for Rank Group&rsquo;s purchase. To do this, it eliminated the 8-hour work day for 12-hour shifts, a change that would reduce workers fixed pay and would cut their shift differential pay. Thaneth&rsquo;s call for workers to stay home on a legal Thai holiday was reason for discharge, said managers, because it damaged the business. 
 
Following Rank Group&rsquo;s purchase of the Rayong paper converting facility in June, ICEM took up Thaneth&rsquo;s case. In a letter to Rank&rsquo;s CEO, Graeme Hart, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said this &ldquo;matter concerns the employment status of Thaneth Jhanluechai, a conscientious lab technician who was unjustly fired by managers of the Swiss-based company, shortly before the purchase by your company of SIG Combibloc. He is a 10-year employee who has always gone above and beyond the call of duty at this enterprise.&rdquo; 
 
New Zealand labour unions, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and the National Distribution Union (NDU), both ICEM affiliates, played key roles in this just reversal, as did Union Network International (UNI). 
 
The pressure, including a manifestation at the New Zealand embassy in Bangkok during the recent ICEM Congress, forced Rank Group to send a senior manager to Rayong. A meeting between the branch union committee, PPFT, and Rank Group representatives occurred on 27 November. Managers listened to six major grievances, and heard first-hand how workplace leaders felt over the unfair treatment of Thaneth. 
 
Two separate meetings occurred next, both on 6 December, one to address the sacking, the other to address the issues. The firing was reversed and the issues, including obstruction of union activity, contract labour matters, unfair work rules, discrimination and favouritism, now get full hearing. The ICEM congratulates everyone involved with the result of this 9-month struggle for justice.

Justice Restored with Reinstatement of Thai Paperworker, Thaneth Jhanluechai

Archive

Korea’s Hankook Tire Company Setting Bad Precedents in Hungary

Day of Action on Unilever Rings Tomorrow in Europe

4 December 2007 Joint ICEM/IUF Unilever Message

Global Pulp, Paper Unions Put Forward Solidarity Action Plan

ICEM elects Senzeni Zokwana, Manfred Warda to lead 20-Million-Member Global Union Federation

4th ICEM World Congress - Speech by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda

Rengo's Central Committee Moves to Prioritise Higher Pay, Better Rights for Contract Workers

BASF Signs Accord for Pan-European Worker Representation on Company Panels

700 March in Rotterdam against Unilever on European Day of Action

Justice Restored with Reinstatement of Thai Paperworker, Thaneth Jhanluechai

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