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Goodyear&rsquo;s neutrality is not evident in Malaysia, however, where the US firm is busy suspending union officers, violating labour rights, exploiting foreign workers and relying on rampant outsourcing. 
ICEM affiliate National Union of Employees in Companies Manufacturing Rubber Products (NUECMRP) is locked in a dispute with Goodyear Malaysia Bhd. in Selangor with the company. The union is faced with restructuring while Goodyear continues to exceed quotas on foreign workers, namely from Nepal, Burmaand Vietnam. 
The NUECMRP branch at Selangor, numbering about 500 workers, has staged a series of informational pickets to support the suspended officers, as well as nine other workers who have been dismissed or suspended.

Goodyear Violating Union Rights in Malaysia

The USWA again used union-friendly language in it&rsquo;s Goodyear tyre contract to win card-check union recognition for workers. A majority of 158 production and maintenance workers at a textile cord factory in Utica, New York, said they want USWA representation and Goodyear is now obligated to negotiate a first collective agreement. The Utica operation is a joint venture between Goodyear and Sumitomo Rubber Industries. The union has now won four card-check recognitions at Goodyear&rsquo;s US plants since the agreement took effect late last year.

Goodyear Workers in US Win Unionisation with USWA

Bridgestone/Firestone Argentina continues to stall progress toward a resolve to the 11-month dispute with affiliate SUTNA at a tyre factory near Buenos Aires. Facing further industrial action on 19 August, BS/FS agreed to a request by the Labour Minister for Buenos Aires province to continue negotiations. Only nine of 58 workers who were sacked in an illegal rationalization plan have returned to their jobs, and SUTNA continues to press for the remainder as well as meaningful negotiations toward a new collective agreement. In the absence of a better proposal from the company, SUTNA has a mandate from union members to resume the industrial actions it suspended in early July when BS/FS agreed to reinstate workers.

Dispute Between Bridgestone, Argentine Union Continues

Two iron ore strikes in eastern Canada have crippled mining production in Labrador, province of Newfoundland. On 19 July, 1,250 members of ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers of America (USWA) struck the Iron Ore Co. of Canada, 58.7% held by Rio Tinto, over company proposals to strip health care and pensions, freeze wages and install a psychological profiling programme of workers on which to base discipline. The strike affects 1,000 workers at a mine and pellet processing plant in Labrador City and 250 port workers in Sept-Iles, Quebec. Some 350 USWA members are on strike at Wabush Mine in Labrador City and an accompanying processing plant and port in Pointe Noire, Quebec. That strike began 5 July and is against a consortium of firms led by US-based Cleveland Cliffs and is over efficiency issues including contracting out bargaining unit work. The two strikes affect 60% of Canada&rsquo;s iron ore exports.

Canadian Mine Strikes Shut Rio Tinto, Wabush Mine Operations

After a one-week strike, some 300 members of ICEM affiliate Korean Chemical &amp; Textile Workers&rsquo; Federation reached a labour agreement with BASF Korea in Yeosu. The 23 July agreement calls for a base monthly salary hike of 5% and a reduction in weekly work hours from 42 to 40 without any corresponding loss of pay. 
The amiable settlement is contrasted with the harsh response of government and joint venture partners LG Group and ChevronTexaco at the nearby LG Caltex refinery.

Week-Long Strike Brings BASF Settlement in Korea

Progress was made in the 10-month dispute between Argentine affiliate SUTNA and Bridgestone/Firestone. Last October, the firm sacked 90 workers at a tyre factory near Buenos Aires when it illegally imposed a rationalization plan without bargaining with SUTNA. Following an eight-day blockade of the plant in late June and early July preventing suppliers from delivering raw materials, BS/FS agreed to talks through efforts of the provincial labour minister. A handful of the 90 workers have been so far recalled and negotiations not only continue for reinstatement of the remaining, but on a new collective agreement for which the company refused to discuss last year.

Argentine Affiliate Continuing to Pressure Bridgestone Tyre

The United Steelworkers of America (USWA) extended the US national rubber agreement to another tyre company when workers of Yokohama Tire Corp of Japan ratified an agreement in Salem, Virginia. Similar to USWA&rsquo;s rubber workers employed at Goodyear and Michelin&rsquo;s B.F. Goodrich, the 670 trade unionists in the state of Virginia won guaranteed job security measures, as well as increases to their pension formula. USWA currently is in talks with Bridgestone/Firestone over the same issues&mdash;job security, capital investment in US unionized tyre sites and other economics&mdash;at BSF&rsquo;s US tyre factories. Talks on the US pattern agreement for rubber have followed extensions for most companies since 2003 expirations. Bargaining broke off, however, between Continental Tire and USWA during mid-term negotiations when the German company proposed concessionary terms including increased out-of-pocket health care costs for retirees.

USWA’s Master Tyre Contract in US Extended to Yokohama

American affiliate PACE announced that the US government&rsquo;s Mine Safety and Health Administration has found 48 violations of health and safety standards at Imerys&rsquo; calcium carbonate plant in Sylacauga, Alabama. The French-based firm has tallied 44 of the charges, while four are related to substandard conditions created by contractors. PACE has filed further unfair labor practice charges against Imerys, this time for retrenching the job of the local union president, retaliating against other PACE members for lawful union conduct, and unilaterally changing work terms without consultation with PACE. The US government has already found Imerys guilty of three labour code violations. PACE, together with the ICEM, is pursuing an OECD investigation of Imerys for its anti-union conduct at Sylacauga.

Imerys in US Called on Mine Safety Violations

Australian affiliate CFMEU condemned the legal recourse two mining companies are taking over their criminal convictions to health and safety laws. The two, Xstrata and Centennial Coal, say they will challenge to overturn a statute in New South Wales calling for criminal prosecutions of serious health and safety violations. Both have been convicted of such offences. CFMEU says there will be no compromise on the statute. &ldquo;Let these companies tell the miners face to face why they consider their health and safety not worth the protection of the law and why they consider their lives of no value,&rdquo; said Tony Maher, the union&rsquo;s Mining and Energy General President.

Mining Companies in Australia Seek to Overturn Convictions

The Ukrainian Trade Union Federation (FTUU) turned to ICEM Vice President Alexander Yurkin for leadership at a FTUU Council late in January. Yurkin, who heads ICEM&rsquo;s nuclear sector and was president of Nuclear Power and Industry Workers&rsquo; Union of Ukraine, was elected chairman of the national union center. At a 31 January meeting of the ICEM-affiliated Nuclear Power Workers, former Vice President Valeryi Matov was elected to succeed Yurkin.

ICEM Ukrainian Leader Takes Top Post of National Centre

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