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Eighty delegates from eight Latin American and Caribbean countries attended the ICEM’s region meeting 4-5 April in Mar del Plata that was marvellously hosted by Federación Argentina Sindical del Petróleo, Gas y Biocombustibles (FASPyGP) at the trade union’s hotel. 
 
The regional meeting produced three resolutions, including condolences to Japan over human deaths brought by the earthquake/tsunami and heartfelt appreciation to aid workers, especially nuclear workers of ICEM affiliate Denryoku Soren, who have worked non-stop to prevent mass disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. 
<img height="150" width="222" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1104.mar de plata.JPG" alt=""/>
Another resolution was in support of Chile copper miners represented by Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi over persecution following a recent strike by Doña Ines de Collahuasi, owned by Xstrata and AngloAmerican. The third was a statement buttressing the legitimate trade unions of Mexico in their current fight to repel regressive labour legislation. 
 
ICEM Latin American/Caribbean Vice President Sergio Novais proudly reported the work plan of the region and that it had exceeded expectations. He also detailed the eight projects he is overseeing in the region. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda gave a progress report on integration with the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), and IMF Regional Representative Jorge Alemida explained how the industrial sectors would be integrated. 
<img height="176" width="150" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1104.mar de plata.2.JPG" alt=""/>
ICEM Latin American/Caribbean Vice President Sergio Novais
Other reports were given by Colombia trade union affiliates, including Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), and Manuel Muñoz and Lincon Esponoza, representing the Collahuasi copper miners of northern Chile, told of their strike and their efforts to ratify ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, in the South American country. 
 
A detailed report was given by Secretary-General Alberto Roberti of FASPyGP on the burgeoning biofuels industry in Argentina. He said his union is in the forefront in defending the environment and emphasized the need to maintain a balance between producing biofuels and sustained food production to meet the country’s growing needs. 
 
Overall, the regional meeting proved a good prelude to ICEM’s Fifth Statutory Congress, to be held 24-26 November 2011 in Buenos Aires, with the host union providing excellent example to Argentine unions in how to meet the logistics for 1,200 delegates and guests expected to attend.

Argentine Petroleum, Gas Workers’ Host ICEM’s Latin, Caribbean Region Meet

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Employment law changes in New Zealand took effect 1 April have given all employers the right to dismiss employees within a first 90-day “trial” period, with no rights to grievance procedure. This rule previously applied for small businesses of fewer than 20 employees.
Now it applies in all workplaces, no matter the side of the workforce.  
 
The regressive changes also include restrictions on trade union access to a worksite, relaxation of fairness tests on dismissals, the ability of employers to bypass the union in collective negotiations, the possibility to exchange holiday days for money, the right to shift public holidays without payment, and the right for employers to demand a medical certificate for one day’s sick leave. 
 
There is nothing fair in the workplace law changes, according to ICEM-affiliated Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU). 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/EPMU Andrew Little.jpg" width="130" height="124"/>
EPMU National Secretary, Andrew Little
Click here to sign the <a href="http://www.epmu.org.nz/petition-2/">EPMU’s petition</a>. 
 
"We are approaching employers with either collective bargaining claims to stop things like the 90 day no rights law, or the new rules on medical certificates being used by employers, or seeking a pledge that they will not reduce themselves to the low level that the law represents," said EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little. Some employers have already agreed not to use the bad new law, including Telecom, which employs 7,000 employees in New Zealand.

New Zealand Labour Law Changes Damage Worker Rights

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Metalliliitto, Finland’s Metalworkers’ Union, has reached a tentative agreement with KMW Engineering, preventing for now a blockade on construction of the nuclear power reactor Olkiluoto III. On 13 April, the Polish air-conditioning subcontractor agreed to compensate workers for shortfalls in pay required under the Finnish labour standards. 
 
Under the agreement, KMW Engineering did give an accounting that showed arrears in Sunday and overtime pay. It agreed to compensate back wages and pledged to uphold Finnish terms of employment in the future. It also agreed to correct its deficient safety and health standards on the 1.6 gigawatt (1,600 megawatt) nuclear plant.
 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.finnish%20nuclear%20power%20plant.jpg" width="337" height="190"/>
Construction of Olkiluoto III 
Photo: YLE/Termonen Tapio  

Metalliliitto had given the subcontractor until 15 April to comply with Finnish social standards, or face a construction-wide blockade that would have halted all work on Finland’s fifth nuclear reactor. (See <a href="http:// /en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4343-Finland’s-Metalworkers-close-in-on-Blockade-of-Nuclear-Plant-Work">ICEM report</a> from 28 March.) A Metalworkers’ blockade had endorsement and would have been honoured by Finland’s Construction Trades Union, the Electrical Workers’ Union, and Proliitto, the union for salaried workers of Finland. 
 
A regional state labour agency of Finland’s South-West found in late March that KMW did not keep overtime records as required under the working hours act. It also determined that payment of wages for Sunday and overtime work varied. Failure to comply could have brought state sanctions to the nuclear construction site, which would have affected other contractors. 
 
Metalliliitto Compliance Officer Jyrki Virtanen said the union will now fully monitor future social conduct by KMW Engineering. The Olkiluoto III nuclear power station is owned by private-sector energy concern Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO), and has as general contractor Areva of France. Olkiluoto III, a €3.95 billion project that is now €1.5 billion over budget, is the biggest investment in the history of Finnish industry.

Polish Engineering Firm Concedes to Finland’s Metalliliitto at Nuclear Plant

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Recent administrative and other changes regarding health and safety governance in the UK clearly reflects the policies of the governing Tory, Liberal Democrat coalition. In late March, Employment Minister Chris Grayling announced a shift of emphasis from safety and health monitoring by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in order to ease regulatory burdens on business. 
 
The package of proposed changes includes eliminating unannounced workplace safety inspections and placing more emphasis on high-hazard worksites and those with histories of unsafe conditions. The ruling government will also conduct a review of all existing health and safety regulations with the notion to scrap measures that are not needed and those that place an unnecessary burden on business. 
 
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) disagrees with the new mandate, seen as a means to chop government spending out of the HSE. 
“The possibility of an unexpected visit from either the HSE or a local authority safety inspector helps keep employers on their toes,” said TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber. “Even now, workplaces can go decades without ever seeing an inspector. 
 
“If government cuts to HSE funding do result in fewer safety inspections, unscrupulous employers will simply assume they can get away with taking risks, without fear of ever being prosecuted.” 
 
Another change in the UK is a Ministry of Justice proposal for reform of local courts structures regarding who is responsible for legal fees in workplace compensation and other cases. The proposed change, which is under public consultation until June 30, would require plaintiffs that win their cases in courts to carry the burden of paying their own legal fees, regardless of damages. 
 
This “no win, no fee” proposal is seen as means to reduce the number the number of filings against employers by workers who suffer industrial accidents in order to eliminate a so-called “compensation culture” in the UK. The Ministry of Justice’s aim is also to push more cases out of courtrooms and into mediation. The TUC’s Hazards Campaigns sees it as a sham since less than 10% of all workers injured at work receive compensation and, as well, free legal counsel for victims seeking workers’ compensation has been cancelled by the state. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1104.hazards.tuc.jpg" width="130" height="65"/>
On another note in the UK, this one a milestone, the first company to be convicted of corporate manslaughter under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act of 2007, which became effective in April 2008, occurred on February 15, 2011. Cotswold Geotechnical Ltd., a small geological company, was found guilty by a jury of Winchester Crown Court, Hampshire, in the negligent death of 27-year-old Alexander Wright. In 2008, Wright was working alone in an unsupported 12-foot pit. He died from asphyxia when soil from the collapsed pit buried him. The court fined the company £385,000.

Health, Safety Changes Mirror Con-Dem Policies in UK

Commonality of April 28: Unions Make Work Safer

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Six weeks after an earthquake and tsunami decimated the six nuclear reactors inside the Fukushima power plant in northeastern Japan, union members and staff of Denryoku Soren, the ICEM-affiliated Federation of Electric Power Related Industry Workers’ Union of Japan, work voluntary week-long shifts to contain radiation leakage. They work inside a 20-kilometre zone in which Japanese rescue teams searching for the dead are prohibited from entering due to radiation levels. 
 
Few know it, but inside the offices of Denryoku Soren in Tokyo most work stations are empty. The reason is most union staff workers have volunteered to fill the shortage of workers needed at Fukushima. 
They sleep on concrete floors at Fukushima and consume only bottled water and biscuits for fear that food sources are contaminated. <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Japanese%20Nuke%20Measures.pdf" type="internal">Denryoku Soren’s letter</a> to the ICEM describing what it is up against can be found here. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMenergysector.JPG" width="170" height="172"/>
Last week, ICEM Asia-Pacific Contact Person Phee Jungsun visited Denryoku Soren offices in Tokyo and filed this report: 
 
“It is painful to see union officers here in Tokyo, who are exhausted and worried about their fellow workers at the Fukushima site. Those who have returned after their one-week voluntary shifts are calm and doing paperwork, but signs of fatigue show on their faces. 
 
“President Seiichi Taneoka, who himself has been to the site, is working hard every minute, organising volunteer shift teams and talking to TEPCO control centre officials on a dedicated telephone line. He is also trying to get assistance from local units of government and local police to locate and reach those union members and their families who are missing and haven’t been heard from.” 
 
Although the exact total death count is impossible to know, some ICEM affiliates in Japan have started to make assessments. JEC Rengo, the Japanese Federation of Energy and Chemical Workers’ Unions, confirms that well over 100 of its members are missing, with destruction of members’ homes totaling over 1,000 in the northeastern Prefecture. The same number is estimated by Zenkoku, the Federation of Gas Workers’ Unions in Japan. 
 
Other ICEM affiliates in Japan have registered plants and workplaces that have been affected. The Japanese Pulp and Paper Workers’ Federation has reported mills of Nippon Paper, Mitsubishi Paper Mills, and Oji mills closed or running on limited production. The same is reported at Sumitoma Rubber by Gomu-Rengo, the Rubber Workers’ Union. UI Zensen, the Textile, Chemical, Food and Commercial Union, also has reported damages and vast devastation to workers, their homes, and places of employment. 
 
Six days after the disaster, the ICEM put a call out to affiliates to provide funds to the ICEM Japanese Affiliates’ Federation (JAF) for disaster relief. The response was unprecedented, with over US$1 million sent to date to JAF. ICEM Asia-Pacific Region Vice President Kiyoshi Ochiai and JAF General-Secretary Yoshio Sato, through the ICEM, expressed gratitude for the solidarity and generosity: “We got heartfelt sympathy and encouragement from all over the world. We deeply appreciate the solidarity and fraternity of ICEM affiliates. We really feel that ICEM is one big family.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Ochiai%20ICEM-JAF%20President.jpg" width="177" height="156"/>
 Kiyoshi Ochiai
“Our brave members of Denryoku Soren are working hard to speed up recovery efforts in a very difficult situation. The Japanese people are working together to overcome numerous hardships and to get things back to normal with effort and patience. And ICEM JAF keeps engaging in the reconstruction effort.” 
 
In typical Japanese fashion, on 28 March, Denryoku Soren withdrew its wage demands on TEPCO that was part of the spring offensive “shunto.” The union’s decision reflects the belief that it cannot continue negotiations for now because of the ongoing tragedies of human life and the devastation in the electric power sector at Fukushima.
Due to a misunderstanding of information that ICEM received there was an incorrect description of events in this article, for which ICEM apologised. See the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMletters/37.ICEM.IMFJC.Japan.27April.pdf" type="internal">letter to IMF-JC</a> here.

Workers of Denryoku Soren Face Dire Plight at Fukushima Nuclear Site

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Ammattiliitto Pro, ICEM’s salaried workers’ trade union affiliate in Finland, is asking that white-collar workers at several paper companies not take on extra work in the coming weeks. The union seeks such global unity as it begins its third wave of lawful strikes next week, and continues ones tomorrow against the intransigent employers of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF). 
 
The request also comes after government conciliator Esa Lonka today was unable to shape a compromise proposal because of FFIF intransigence in official mediation in Finland. It was the third consecutive week that employers failed to resolve a downward spiralling labour dispute by not recognising the unfair job demands on 4,000 clerical, technical, and front-line supervisory personnel. 
 
Because of redundancies and speed-ups over the past several years in the Finnish pulp and paper sector, Pro members are asked to work more without adequate compensation, or without recognition of higher job competencies. 
 
In addition to an overtime ban across all pulp and paper companies, strikes that began on 26 April by 1,500 Pro members are continuing this week at Stora Enso, Metsäliitto, Metsä-Botnia, M-real, and Metsä Tissue and a renewed strike will begin tomorrow by 1,000 salaried workers at UPM. 
 
That strike will begin at 06h00 on 4 May and run until 06h00 on 7 May. It is the second strike action against UPM – the first one running from 6-20 April – and production at UPM’s six mills, as well at an administration centre in Tempere and an export facility at the port of Kotka will again be affected. 
 
Ammattiliitto Pro expects employers to try to break the strike by bringing in replacement workers, moving administrative work elsewhere, and to continue to bully Pro members in order to get them to ignore the overtime ban and strike actions. (See prior <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4394-Paper-Dispute-in-Finland-Worsens;-Strike-Expands" type="internal">ICEM report</a> here.) 
 
“Pro appeals for solidarity from workers of UPM-Kymmene, Stora Enso, Metsäliitto, Metsä-Botnia, M-real, Metsä Tissue, and Sappi in other countries not to perform any extra work of the type covered by the strikes, as the companies seek to break the strike by transferring the work abroad,” said the union. 
 
The ICEM is calling on paperworkers throughout the world to support Ammattiliitto Pro in this critical dispute in Finland, and to monitor the administrative, financial, services workload in these pulp and paper companies in order to comply with the union’s request. Also, notes of solidarity should be sent to Pro President <a href="mailto:Antti.rinne@proliitto.fi">Antti Rinne</a>, and collective bargaining directors <a href="mailto:Jukka.hamalainen@proliitto.fi">Jukka Hämäläinen</a> and <a href="mailto:Jari.uschanov@proliitto.fi">Jari Uschanov</a>.

Mediation Fails in Finnish Paper Strike; Strikes Continue

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In the US, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed into law on 11 March legislation that will strip 200,000 state public employees of their collective bargaining rights, as well as target them for deep health-care benefit cuts. The signing comes after a month of fierce citizen protest inside the state’s capitol building in Madison, the likes of which had not been seen in America in decades. 
 
It also came just days after the state’s Republican senators used a secretive and probably illegal legislative manoeuvre to circumvent the necessary 60% quorum to conduct a vote. With Democratic senators taking hiatus out of Wisconsin to block Republicans from pushing through the regressive measures (see <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4267-Five-Things-to-Know-About-Protests-in-US-State-Wisconsin " type="internal">prior ICEM article</a>), the majority party removed fiscal items from the legislation so that the bill needed only 50% present. Republicans control the senate in Wisconsin 19-13. 
 
Late in the evening on 9 March, the 19 voted 18-1 to eliminate collective bargaining for public workers, except police and firefighters. This trickery exposed the real truth to Walker and right-wing America’s assault on US trade unions as played out in Wisconsin: the legislation was never about public budget deficits, but rather stripping Wisconsin public-sector employers of their legitimate work rights. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.wisconsin%202.jpg" width="291" height="218"/>
But the manoeuvre appears to have violated Wisconsin’s Open Meeting Law, which requires public notice of a meeting be given “24 hours prior to the commencement of such meeting unless for good cause such notice is impossible or impractical.” The late 9 March legislative vote was held on two hours notice. 
 
An emergency request for an injunction was immediately filed to block signing, but a judge on 11 March denied the emergency request. A further court hearing will occur this week to stop enactment on a non-emergency basis, and other court action has already been filed. 
 
Labour unions and other public groups have begun recall petition drives to throw Walker and eight Republican legislators out of office. But that could take a year for Walker and ten junior Republicans. In Wisconsin, the recall law states that elected officials must be in office for one year before being recalled. Walker has been governor of Wisconsin only since January. 
 
The law must now be officially and publicly published before it takes effect. If it does, it will make public workers contribute more to their pensions and health coverage, amounting to an 8% pay cut. It also eliminates their right to bargain collectively on anything except wages and only up to the rate of inflation. 
 
Walker’s law makes all public-sector unions recertify each year with the approval of 50% plus one of workers eligible to vote. It stipulates all union fees be paid on a voluntary basis. 
 
Reaction last week by US trade unions was swift and sharp to the midnight raid on workers’ rights. United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard said the attack on workers in Wisconsin is far from isolated. “This is a nation-wide campaign by billionaires and country-club conservatives, to terminate workers’ rights, giving unfettered power to corporations.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.wisconsin afl Neuenfeldt.jpg" width="189" height="175"/>
Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt
Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt said Walker and Republicans “have been lying throughout this entire process and we have been telling the truth.” 
 
Neuenfeldt added: “Republicans have exercised the nuclear option to ram through their bill attacking Wisconsin’s working families in the dark of night. (They) acted in violation of state open meeting laws … and have demonstrated they will do or say anything to pass their extreme agenda that attacks Wisconsin’s working families.” 
 
Similar assaults on unions in America’s statehouses are currently underway in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.

Wisconsin Eliminates Public Sector Bargaining; Resistance Continues

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Spring sunshine shone on March 2, 2011 as an unprecedented crowd, estimated by organisers at 70, 000 people, gathered in the central Inonu Square in the old part of Nicosia and at the nearby Kyrenia Gate at the north of the circular city wall. This was by far the largest of a number of recent demonstrations organised by the trade union movement in the north of this divided island. It was also largely peaceful with the police and military taking a low profile in comparison to earlier demonstrations. (See prior ICEM reports <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4211-Northern-Cyprus-Resists-Ankara’s-Reforms-" type="internal">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3946-ICEM-Urges-Northern-Cyprus-Administration-End-Trade-Union-Repression" type="internal">here</a>.) 
 
Unprecedented numbers? Well 70, 000 people is a truly incredible figure when you consider that the entire population of Turkish Cypriots is said to be 260,000. 
 
The protest was organised by a “Trade Union Platform” which brings together the entire trade union movement in the North of Cyprus and ICEM affiliate, EL-SEN, the Turkish Electricity Authority of Cyprus Workers Trade Union was at the forefront of the demonstration with almost all of their membership present, together with family members. The demonstration was called principally to fight privatisation, threatened as part of a series of austerity measures by the government, that would both attack trade union rights and enforce privatisation of the electric power company, the airport and even universities. All the trade union movement was present as were all of the opposition political parties, the latter at the rear of a demonstration that was clearly trade union organised and led. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.cyprus 1.JPG" width="288" height="192"/>
Workers resent deep private and state sector salary cuts, which were announced last year, following negotiations between the Turkish Cypriot leadership and the government in Turkey, which bankrolls this area with about US$600 million a year. Turkish Cypriot trade unions have vowed to fight the austerity package, which includes rolling back entry level salaries by 40 per cent, taxing pensions and cutting the taxable income threshold from 17 to 10 per cent. The package also foresees selling off state enterprises to private Turkish business interests and such a massive privatisation is deeply unpopular, not only with effected trade unions and workers , but with the wider population. 
 
ICEM Energy Officer, Jim Catterson, joined our affiliate EL-SEN on the protest march and at the demonstration. The day began outside the trade union office by the head office of the electric power company where El-Sen members gathered in the morning, together with union President, Tuluy Kalyoncu and other leadership of the union. The atmosphere was both lively and friendly with many families present as well as a number of retired members – still eager to show their support for their union. Similar meetings of other unions were clearly taking place across the city. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.cyprus 2.JPG" width="256" height="192"/>
After a series of short speeches, where ICEM solidarity on this and previous occasions were applauded, the EL-SEN contingent set out to march to the square and demonstration. Traffic was brought to a standstill but most motorists sounded their horns in support of the marchers. Gradually a whole series of marches coalesced into one and marched into the square, dominated by a massive stage, where in between speeches music was played to entertain the massive crowd. 
 
Despite this massive demonstration the government has so far refused to change policy. Indeed while the demonstration took place the government announced that the council of ministers will send the privatization proposed law to the parliament this week. 
 
The struggle continues. After the demonstration and after the government statement, the Trade Union Platform took a decision to take the next demonstration directly to the government. Unless these policies are changed, March 25 will see the next demonstration both in front of and inside the parliament building. 
 
Still facing the privatization of their employer our affiliate, EL-SEN has decided to call an indefinite strike to begin no later than 25 March, 2011. 
 
ICEM will continue to offer all support and solidarity to the brave struggle of our affiliated trade union.

El-Sen in N. Cyprus Conducts Historic Manifestation 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The Thai Industrial Gases Labour Union (TIGLU), part of ICEM affiliate Petroleum and Chemicals Workers’ Federation of Thailand (PCFT), continues efforts to cement trade union rights for workers who supply industrial gases to the manufacturing and food sectors. The ICEM continues to provide support to what is a courageous and uphill struggle against intransigent employers. 
 
The union is currently engaged on two fronts with multinational companies: German-based Linde and French-based Air Liquide. At both, the union is fighting for reinstatement of workers who have been fired for exhibiting trade union activism. 
 
At Linde, TIGLU is approaching the expiration of a 21-month collective agreement at a plant in Saraburi province. That contract’s expiry is in a week’s time, on 21 March. Although the two sides are negotiating, proposals by the union relate to information demands, hiring agency workers into full-time jobs, and retuning union activist Wasan Ruengloikham to his rightful job. Linde Thailand seeks to eliminate union involvement clauses that were successfully won in 2008. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.thailand Air Liquide Union Activists with TIG LU PCFT and ICEM Thai Committee.jpg" width="358" height="190"/>
TIGLU members at Air Liquide
TIGLU wants managers to utilise Linde’s “Golden Rule” corporate responsibility language to address the sacking of Wasan Ruengloikham in common dialogue with the union. Ruengloikham was sacked on23 September 2010. 
 
The union is also demanding paternity leave, and full-time employment for agency workers and three-year tank-truck drivers Pornpitsanu Puenpha and Surachai Singpasta. 
 
Upon receiving the union’s proposals, managers at the Talan plant submitted their own contract-gutting demands. Linde Thailand seeks to cancel a clause that allows union participation in disciplinary actions, and it seeks to void contract language that allows for company facilitation of six hours per year of education on workers’ rights for all staff. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.Wasan Thailand.jpg" width="150" height="186"/>
Wasan Ruengloikham
At Air Liquide’s Nong-kae plant, also in Saraburi province, one month ago five trade union leaders were given the sack over hideous “causing disturbance” allegations. The matter was due for a hearing at the provincial Labour Ministry on 11 March, at the request of Air Liquide’s Nong-kae managers. But just minutes before the session was to begin, management sent a fax stating they would not attend and the five would remain discharged. 
 
The ICEM takes deep exception to this conduct. On 15 February, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda personally intervened with local managers, calling them out for violating Air Liquide’s global values. Specifically, the ICEM cited Air Liquide social responsibility code that its enterprises “commit to encouraging and respecting social dialogue” and the “respect for human rights and enforce respect for the dignity of their employees.” Review the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/7.ICEM.Air%20Liquide.Thailand.pdf" type="internal">full letter</a> here. 
 
The ICEM will continue to monitor the negotiations at Linde, as well as work to rectify Air Liquide’s harmful social conduct in eastern Thailand.

Thai Union at Odds with Linde in Talks; Dispute Air Liquide’s Sackings

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