English

Español

Français

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 2025-2029

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

<img height="39" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
Union and community leaders in the UK’s northeast have mounted a campaign to save over 100 jobs at a chemicals plant. UK-based Elementis Plc., the EU’s only producer of chromium chemicals used in superalloy production, timber treatments, and metal finishing, is currently in a 90-day consultation period with ICEM affiliate Unite the Union and workers at a plant in Eaglescliffe, near Teesside. 
 
In February, the specialty chemicals company – the world’s largest producer of chromium chemicals – announced the plant was under “a strategic review” that could lead to a shutdown by July 2009. 
<img height="138" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMchemical.jpg" width="140" alt=""/>
Workers and community leaders are petitioning MPs and engaging in other activities to keep the profitable plant operating. Elementis, which also produces surfactants and specialty chemicals for paints, coatings, inks, and cosmetics, saw its chromium chemicals business post an operating profit of £27.7 million in 2008, compared to a £14.2 million profit in 2007. Sales in the division rose to £168.6 million in 2008 from £115.9 million in 2007. 
 
Unite Regional Secretary Bob Bolam stressed that production from the plant was crucial for the EU. “If this plant were to close, the EU would be reliant on Kazakhstan and China. We intend to put together a case for the (Elementis) board to keep this site.” 
 
The company’s other chromium chemicals plants are in the US – Corpus Christi, Texas, and Castle Hayne, North Carolina. Raw materials used by Elementis come from South Africa and other parts of Africa, and are processed at the Eaglescliffe plant before being shipped to US facilities and other locations. The company’s chromium chemicals business produces dichromate, chrome sulphate, chromic acid, chromic oxide, chromide hydrate, and sodium sulphate. 
 
Elementis senior executives have stated that no final decision on closure has been taken. The ICEM supports workers in the Teesside and Wilton area in their buoyant efforts to preserve jobs in this sector.

UK Workers, Community, Unite the Union Fight to Protect Jobs at Elementis Chemicals

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The union that won a long battle to represent Firestone Rubber Plantation workers in Liberia has now won a Labor Ministry-supervised vote to represent workers at ArcelorMittal’s mining development in Liberia. 
 
On 11 April, ICEM-affiliated Forestry, Logging, and Industrial Workers’ Union of Liberia (FLIWUL), greatly assisted by the United Steelworkers (USW) of the US, easily beat a yellow union in a representation election that took place in Nimba County on the Liberian-Guinea-Côte d’Ivoire border and at Buchanan, a port city on the Atlantic Coast. 
 
ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel-maker, is undertaking a US$1.5 billion re-development of iron ore mining operations near Yekeba in Nimba County and a 250-kilometre railroad line to Buchanan. 
 
The union vote, however, encountered flagrant interference by a company official and a Liberian legislator, despite both an ICEM letter (found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/6%20letter%20to%20Bernard%20Fontana%20-%203%20Feb09.pdf" type="internal">here</a>) and a USW letter warning ArcelorMittal not to interfere in the election. But an ArcelorMittal boss and a national lawmaker showed up in Buchanan several hours after voting began and demanded a halt to balloting. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0904.fliwul.jpg" width="149" height="112"/>
FLIWUL activists in Harbel
On the eve of the vote, the yellow union used a radio broadcast to discourage workers from voting. Election observers also reported that whoever was behind this group had pressed members of the Liberian Parliament to intervene with the Labor Ministry to cancel the vote. 
 
The ArcelorMittal official was Arthur Massaquio, who earlier on 11 April was the company’s designated election observer, but left the polling area soon after balloting began. When he returned several hours later, he was with Representative Gabriel Smith. The lawmaker began questioning workers on why they felt the urgency to have a union vote, before ordering workers back to work because he was canceling the election. 
 
Despite this, and the fact that several workers did leave the Buchanan polling area without voting, FLIWUL won the fair, government-supervised election. FLIWUL got 198 votes, the yellow union 19, and the “no union” option on the ballot received one. In Buchanan, the FLIWUL got 59 votes and the company union 15. The ICEM had an observer present for the vote through a designated representative from the Ghana Mineworkers’ Union. 
 
FLIWUL Secretary-General David Sackoh told the ICEM following the vote that an investigation into the Buchanan interruption is underway, but that he is confident the vote will stand. 
 
ArcelorMittal is developing Nimba County’s one billion cubic-metre iron ore reserves in a 25-year concession that will see the Liberian government receive 30% of the net profits, plus 4.5% in royalty fees. Some 2,000 Liberian workers are expected to be employed in the mining enterprise and the rail link and port hub. This northern Liberia mining area was originally operated by the Liberian American Swedish Chemicals Company (LAMCO), but production ceased in 1989 with the outbreak of civil war.

Despite Interference, FLIWUL Wins Union Rights for ArcelorMittal Workers in Liberia

<img height="39" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100"/>
28 April is Workers’ Memorial Day, or more formally, the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers. It is the day that trade unions across the world mourn the dead, but pledge even harder to wage the fight for safe, healthy, and risk-free workplaces. 
 
The commemoration day is rooted in the Canadian labour movement, whose unions worked for several years before the country’s Parliament in 1989 passed Bill C-223, adopting 28 April as the official “Day of Mourning.” While labour groups in several countries began commemorating the day soon thereafter, it became a global day of health and safety recognition and a vivid reminder of the ever-present risks and hazards inside worksites when the UN lit a Commemorative Candle in 1996 for the victims of the Kader toy factory fire in Thailand three years earlier. 
 
Some 188 mostly young women workers perished in that fire and another 500 were severely injured. Now, 20 countries officially recognize the day, with Croatia being the latest, moving in recent weeks to designate it the National Day of Occupational Safety and Health. 

<img height="86" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM100.jpg" width="100"/>
(The others: Argentina, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Greece, Luxembourg, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, and Venezuela.) 
 
The day also is marked by labour unions and workplace health and safety groups in over120 countries. It is more than just a memorial day to remember the estimated two million workers who die each year from workplace accidents, job-related injuries, or occupational illnesses. It is a day of renewal and action for positive change to make worksites safer and risk-free. 
 
ICEM trade union affiliates are encouraged to find an activity next week to take meaningful action. Use the day, for example, to work in your community and within your union to engage your government on ILO Convention 176, the Health and Safety in Mines Convention; or any of the other ILO Conventions which your government has not ratified, such as Convention 155, the Occupational Safety and Health Convention; No. 162, the Asbestos at Work Convention; No. 148, the Work Environment Convention; No. 174, the Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents Convention; No. 119, the Guarding of Machinery Convention; and No. 136, the Benzene Convention. Only through direct action will change occur.

28 April, Day of Mourning: History is Recent but Roots are Growing

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The ICEM condemns the police violence taken against Trinidad and Tobago trade union leader David Abdullah and others on 18 December. Abdullah was one of the organisers of a peaceful protest outside Parliament. He was detained by riot police and charged with “obstruction of free passageway.” The protest was part of the campaign against a proposed Property Bill in the Caribbean islands nation. 
 
A number of other demonstrators, including members of ICEM affiliate Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), suffered injuries during the mid-December demonstration, as police attacked with batons. 
 
The movement opposing the property tax bill, called People’s Democracy, is an umbrella group of trade unions, NGOs, and others in civil society. It organised the 18 December protest outside Parliament to coincide with deliberations on the bill inside the Lower House. OWTU President-General Ancel Roget also participated in the organization of the protest. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1001.david.abdullah.jpg" width="147" height="205" alt=""/>
David Abdullah centre (Photo T&T Newsday)
Several international groups have also condemned the unprovoked police attacks and arrest of Abdullah. UK Trades Union Congress General Secretary Brendan Barber, in a letter to the country’s authorities, urged that “the charges against Mr. Abdullah are dropped and that all citizens are allowed the free exercise of their democratic rights without interference from the State.” 
 
Roget told police, who demanded the manifestation stop any noise making, that they were doing nothing illegal. It was then that police became violent, using batons against protestors holding only placards. Abdullah complained about the violence and was thrown into a police vehicle, while government police beat OWTU members who tried to follow. 
 
Following Abdullah’s arrest on 18 December, four members of the opposition in Parliament came out and joined the march around the Parliament. 
 
Upon release, Abdullah said, “This will further strengthen the resolve of those who are interested in (our country’s) future because we saw physical evidence today of the dictatorship in Trinidad and Tobago. The right to peaceful picketing is a right we will never, ever give up. We have not and will not engage in anything illegal. And even the police could not tell us that we were violating any law by communicating our message by singing, chanting, and clapping our hands.” 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/People/AncelRogetOWTUgenpres.jpg" width="130" height="162" alt=""/>
Ancel Roget
Roget accused the government of beating citizens into submission. 
 
Court action against David Abdullah will continue on 13 January and People’s Democracy members intend to turn out at the court proceedings in support of their leader. The movement picketed the offices of Prime Minister Patrick Manning on Thursday, 7 January. 
 
The campaign against the Property Tax, seen as an ill-advised national policy to offset government shortfalls and wasteful spending, will continue. The campaign can be viewed <a href="http://www.peoplesdemocracytt.org/ ">here</a>.

Trinidad/Tobago Police Use Brutality to Stifle Free Speech, Assembly Rights

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
On 14 December 2009, the Supreme Court of Namibia struck down a two-year-old government law that banned labour hire agencies. In a unanimous, five-judge decision, the court said that government must first try to regulate irregular work imposed by labour hire firms before imposing a ban on them. 
 
The court’s decision also cited the law as unconstitutional because it fails to protect the right to practice “occupation, trade or business.” In 20-year-old Namibia, images of an entrenched contract labour system through apartheid are recent, and this labour issue has both the emotions and the memories to make it a leading story in all of Africa. 
 
The Supreme Court itself called it “an emotive and politically charged” issue, and both opponents and proponents of agency labour expressed sharp differences on the court’s ruling. 
 
The decision was the second time within a year that the High Court in Namibia has taken up the case. It had earlier upheld the ban on labour hire agencies, contained inside Section 128 of the 2007 Labour Act. But Namibia’s largest temporary employment agency, Africa Personnel Services (APS), appealed the constitutionality of this section of the labour code on the eve of it taking effect. The 14 December ruling overturns the High Court’s earlier decision, and now places responsibility on the government and civil society to implement stringent regulatory measures on the operations of labour agencies. 
The head of the Namibia Employers’ Federation, Tim Parkhouse, heralded the court’s decision, calling it an investment attraction. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NUNW_logo[1].png" width="133" height="133" alt=""/>
But the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) reacted angrily to the court’s decision, while Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Immanuel Ngatjizeko, said that although the government must abide by the decision, he pledged the government of President Hifikepunye Pohamba will not allow the labour-hire system to continue in its current form. 
 
Ngatjiseko, in a Windhoek newspaper, said: “It is ironic that a provision of the Namibia Constitution that was intended to eradicate apartheid practices that subjected black workers to the injustice and humiliation of job reservation, influx control and the like has now been interpreted to turn a blind eye to commercial arrangements for the rental of human labour in order to avoid the protections afforded to workers by the labour laws.” 
 
Ngatjiseko said the current system in Namibia, where labour hire firms are allowed to employ people who then provide these people to clients, is exploitative and reminiscent of the apartheid contract labour system because workers in Namibia with few or no other options for gainful employment fall into the clutches of labour agencies. 
 
The NUNW, linked in history with the ruling South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO) 
political party and a union itself banned in the pre-Namibia days of the 1970s and 1980s because it dared to challenge the apartheid labour system, was more blunt in its assessment of the court’s decision. “We firmly believe that one cannot regulate slavery and thereby give it a human face,” said the federation. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="146" height="66" alt=""/>
The court’s decision last month provoked wide opinions, proving again the intensity of the labour hire issue inside Namibia and in all of Africa. 
 
The New Era, a Windhoek publication, predicted, “There is no denying that labour hire is a niece of the contract labour system that we have supposedly got rid, but when weak regulations are approved, the Supreme Court would be left with no choice but to stick to what is lawful on paper.” 
 
An editorial in The Namibian, another Windhoek newspaper, stated, “The principal of labour hire may be an important one, especially in a country with a very high unemployment rate, but it cannot be allowed to perpetuate exploitation of workers to the benefit of middlemen; to provide ways around employer adherence to the Labour Code; and to shut out unions.” 
 
On 5 July 2007, the country’s National Assembly passed an amendment to the labour code stating that “no person may, for reward, employ any person with a view to making that person available to a third party to perform work for the third party.” The law was to take effect on 1 March 2009. But on 27 February, the High Court suspended implementation of the law to hear APS’s appeal.

Namibian Supreme Court Strikes Down Labour Hire Bill

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM’s new global Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) Coordinator/Consultant began work in her new duties last week. Ashling Seely comes from the International Textiles, Garment, and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) and will continue working for the ITGLWF part-time as coordinator for the Global Union Federation’s Sportswear Project and as Policy Assistant to the General Secretary. 
 
Through her work as the new global Coordinator/Consultant on CAL, it is anticipated that more will be done, including support work to affiliates of ICEM, ITGLWF, and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) in their daily struggles and solidarity actions on CAL and precarious work. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Ashling.Seely.JPG" width="164" height="175"/>
New ICEM Global CAL Coordinator, Ashling Seely
Other work at this level will include preparing interviews and newsletters for the ICEM’s special CAL website, preparing country reports, assisting other ICEM staff on the issue of short-term and irregular work, and assistance in work related to the Council of Global Unions. 
 
All affiliates are encouraged to directly contact Ashling Seely with any issues they have over CAL. She can be reached <a href="mailto:aseely@itglwf.org">here</a>. View the ICEM CAL website <a href="http://cal.icem.org/">here</a>.

ICEM Welcomes New Global CAL Coordinator, Ashling Seely

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The publicity and organising campaign launched in the town of Duzce, Turkey, (see report <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3333-Turkey’s-Petrol-Is-Launch-Creative-Organising-Campaign" type="internal">here</a>), by ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş, Turkey's Oil, Chemical and Rubber Workers Union, in mid-2009, has now been built on in the towns of Bursa and Gebze, both areas that have a high density of workers. 
 
The main aim of the campaign is to strengthen public confidence in unions, and to convey the union's positive message about unionising, not only to unorganised workers at their worksites, but also to families and within the local communities. 
 
The campaign adopted an approach which seeks to break down the negative public prejudices and attitudes towards unions. Petrol-İş plans to expand the drive to cover all Turkey. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1001.petrol.is.campaign.png" width="280" height="210" alt=""/>
Petrol-İş President Mustafa Oztaskin launches recruitment drive 
Using campaign materials, including local newspaper ads, billboard posters, local TV and radio spots and adverts, the union calls on workers to exercise their constitutional right to unionise. 
 
The campaign's key slogan, “Be unionized,” is accompanied by the messages “Union is your strength,” “Union is your right,” “Union is the future,” and “Union means solidarity”. The campaign website and brochures give specific information about unions, and the importance of “being unionized,” designed for potential new members. 
 
The Petrol-İş campaign aims to ensure that workers can freely, legitimately, and effectively exercise their right to organise, a basic human right.

Petrol-Iş Continues Aggressive Recruitment Drives in Turkey

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
On 12 January, European unions and the European Mine, Chemical, Energy Federation (EMCEF) formally signed an agreement creating a European Works Council (EWC) for American pulp and paper producer, International Paper (IP). Chartered under the UK transposition of the EU Directive on EWCs, the council will cover IP worksites in Poland, France, Italy, Spain, and Belgium. 
 
Discussions on creating a EWC with the American-based company have been two years in the making. IP employs some 8,000 direct employees inside EU nations. The EWC composition will consist of two representatives from Poland, and one each from France, Italy, Spain, and Belgium. EMCEF and Belgium will be represented by Peter Ellis, a National Officer for UK’s Unite the Union, who negotiated the agreement along with trade union representatives from the countries. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0810PaperRollArt.jpg" width="180" height="109"/>
“This has been a long set of negotiations, held in the main, in a cordial and professional manner,” said Ellis. He added that the manner and procedures conducted during negotiations “bodes well for a constructive and fully-functional European Works Council.” 
 
Ellis said the new EWC will benefit by the fact that it will hold two meetings per year and that, in addition, two meetings annually of a select committee will also be held, a panel to serve as a steering committee. IP will also fund a union expert to be in attendance at all meetings, with that representative to be EMCEF’s Belgium delegate. 
 
IP operates two integrated pulp and paper mills in Europe, the Saillant mill in Saillat-sur-Vienne, central France, and the Kwidzyn, Poland, mill. In addition it operates 19 corrugated packaging plants: eight in Spain, including two in the Canary Islands; 7 in France, including one on the island of Guadeloupe, and four in Italy.

Trade Unions, Work Partners Form EWC with International Paper

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="120" height="59"/>
The Geneva, Switzerland-based International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) announces that it gives its unequivocal support to the 560 miners of US affiliated union, International Longshore & 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. 
 
“We note that all 500 members of ILWU Local 30 voted against the company’s contract proposal on Saturday night,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “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.” 
 
A prior contract expired on 4 November 2009. Management is seeking unprecedented changes to workers’ 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.  Click <a href="/index.php?id=5&la=EN&doc=3600" type="internal">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

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Workers of ICEM affiliated union GMB in the UK will likely see issuance of a ballot for industrial action this week British Gas, the largest gas supplier in the country that is a part of Centrica Plc. The intended job actions are in response to an opaque but and aggressive flexibility and management performance agenda that could cost up to 5,000 jobs. 
 
In a survey of its members, GMB reported that out of 3,000 responses, by a margin of eight to one, workers say there is a “bullying management culture” within British Gas. The survey directly contradicts the company’s own Employee Engagement programme, and affirms that workers are facing unnecessary pressure and feel alienated from the company due to poor planning and bad management. 
 
The situation has been exacerbated by the fact that workers have been forced to work long hours during the coldest winter in decades, all the while hearing mixed messages and getting competing demands from management. Contained in British Gas internal documents, the company is proposing that 5,000 jobs be cut, which could mean job loss for many skilled engineers who work on domestic appliances. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/GarySmith.GMB.jpg" width="256" height="170" alt=""/>
Gary Smith
“Our members are starting to understand that there is a threat to the terms and conditions of employment that we have fought for over many years,” said GMB National Secretary Gary Smith. “Employees are sick to the back teeth of the pressure they face day to day from senior management.” 
 
Much of the staff anger is pointed at Managing Director Phil Bentley, who has not given the union a straight answer on the job cuts and stands accused by GMB of creating a “new macho management” culture, with its only purpose to cut costs. This cost cutting is across the board and affects such things as the purchase of parts for boilers. Bentley’s new work culture, for example, means creation of an arbitrary performance management process that could lead to easy discipline of employees. 
 
In an e-mail, Bentley stated that at One British Gas, the retail arm of the utility, “the big, hairy, audacious goal I’ve thrown down on One British Gas is to reduce our non-customer-facing full-time employment equivalent by 25%.” The 5,000 job cuts, if they materialize, could prove devastating for British Gas and Scottish Gas workers in Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leicester, Southampton, Uddingston near Glasgow, and Edinburgh. 
 
If the industrial ballot is issued this week, it will be counted and assessed in late February. 
 
Centrica serves 15.6 million residential electricity and gas customers in the UK, largely under the British Gas name. Through its Direct Energy subsidiary, Centrica also supplies residential gas and power service in the US, Canada, Europe, Egypt, Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago.

GMB to Take Strike Ballot at British Gas This Week

Archive