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ICEM affiliates of the Asia-Pacific Electric Power Unions Network met in Tokyo last week. Some 20 trade unionists from eight countries committed to collectively continue to insist on proper social dialogue for preserving clear regulations in all privatisation and liberalisation matters. The meeting was hosted by Japanese affiliates ICEM-JAF and Denryoku Soren. Major discussion occurred around the EGAT privatisation in Thailand and the dire political situation in Nepal.

ICEM’s Asia-Pacific Power Unions Meet in Tokyo

In the US, USW returned to bargaining this week with Bridgestone/Firestone (BSFS) in hopes of sparking serious negotiations, something the Japanese tyre maker has failed to do in over two years of bargaining. At a meeting 12 May in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bargaining committee leaders representing 6,000 rubber workers at the company’s eight US plants set an agenda of action and mobilization that will lead to a 15 July strike if BSFS doesn’t get serious at the bargaining table. 
That will include factory-by-factory mobilization meetings by the entire union committee in June, and a mass demonstration at the US headquarters of BSFS in Nashville, Tennessee, on 8 July. That action will be in conjunction with issuance of a mandatory five-day strike notice. USW is seeking job security measures and commitments of capitalization and modernization to BSFS’s US tyre operations. Such assurances have already been won under a pattern agreement with other major tyre manufacturers.

USW to Take Bold Actions to Achieve Bridgestone Contract

Members of ICEM oil workers’ affiliate NOPEF in Norway have given leaders of the union a mandate to begin merger negotiations with the Norsk Kjemisk Industriarbeiderforbund, the country’s Chemical Workers’ Union, also an affiliate of the ICEM. Merger discussions between the two leading trade unions of Norway are expected to begin by late summer.

NOPEF Given Vote to Begin Merger Dialogue in Norway

ICEM affiliate NUM in South Africa issued its demands to the Council of Mines for the gold sector, and the union will press for full implementation on all terms agreed to in the last negotiations—2003. The demands include adequate retirement benefits, death and funeral benefits and an across-the-board wage increase of 20%. In June, the NUM and the Council, representing AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields and Harmony Gold, will begin full negotiations.

NUM Puts Gold Sector Demands Forward in South Africa

USW members in Mayfield, Kentucky, are being further victimized by Continental Tyre of Germany. Following a plant closing 1 January that found 730 workers losing their jobs, Continental has now dropped 350 of those workers from company-paid health insurance, despite the fact that no agreement over extended health coverage was ever agreed to in severance bargaining. Terms of the collective bargaining agreement call for between 30 days to 12 months of health insurance in the event of a closure depending on seniority, but many of the 350 cut were some of the most senior workers at the tyre production plant.

Continental Tire Cuts Displaced Workers from Health Care in US

The president of the Cartagena region of oil workers union USO in Colombia escaped injury 14 May when four heavily armed men on two motorcycles fired on him. Jorge Ortega was riding in an automobile with his family in Cartagena when the attack occurred. Bodyguards of Ortega exchanged gunfire with the assailants. 
USO blames the national government for not providing the necessary measures to protect trade union leaders, as well as not taking necessary action to curb right-wing paramilitaries in their “political and social genocide.”

Attempt on Life of Regional Oil Union Leader in Colombia

IGBCE, ICEM’s Germany affiliate, achieved mutually-accepted labour terms for the chemicals sector 16 June for workers in western Germany. The agreement with chemical employers’ association BAVC meets IGBCE’s pay goals as a result of recent productivity increases and exceeds German inflation of 1.6%. A general wage increase of 2.7% was won, plus a single payout of 1.2% of a month’s salary multiplied by 19. IGBCE bargains for 550,000 workers in chemicals.
IGBCE achieved an increase in the number of trainee or apprenticeship positions in both 2006 and 2007, and the fixed weekly work-time regulation was held at 37.5 hours. Ongoing discussions will occur on making special improvements for trade union members, and talks covering eastern German chemical workers also are in progress.

IGBCE, Chemical Employers Agree to Terms in Germany

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The devastating seven-week lockout of the Finnish paper sector by Finland’s paper companies is over. Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen mediated talks on 27-29 June and ICEM affiliate Paperiliitto’s Delegate Council approved the three-year compromise contract on 1 July. 
Finland’s 25,000 paperworkers gained wage increases similar to the national incomes settlement. They will receive 2.5% this year, 1.9% next year (taking into effect the country’s gender equality allowance), and union and management will negotiate in 2007 for the third year increase. Paperiliitto successfully resisted the worst of the industry’s concessionary proposals, including unpaid sick leave, splitting of holidays, and 12-hour workdays without overtime pay compensation. Christmas and mid-summer shutdown days will be eliminated, but workers will be compensated by reduced working time throughout the year. 
On the all-important issue of contract labour, trade union acceptance must occur on all outsourcing. The two sides agreed to let individual plant negotiating teams reach agreement on the issue locally, but if that fails the issue will be submitted to an arbitration panel composed of the national union, the employers’ federation and an impartial chairman. Introduction of contract labour can then only occur with a unanimous decision. Paperiliitto and the employers will again look at the contract labour issue in mid-term of the contract to review its effectiveness. The lockout by papermaking employers, begun 18 May, was costing €40million per day across all sectors.

Finland's Paper Dispute and Lockout Resolved

In accepting the mediated proposal, Paperiliitto directed especially strong language at one global, Finnish-based paper company, UPM Kymmene: settle the seven-month Canadian paper strike in Miramichi, New Brunswick, with Local 689 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Union. 
Calling it a “distinguished spot of shame for the Finnish forest industry,” Paperiliitto’s Delegate Council demanded that UPM Kymmene “implement negotiations on an equal basis for a fair and quick solution” in Miramichi. “It is necessary to take into account the local bargaining praxis, the needs of the small local society and the feelings of workers,” the Finnish union’s settlement statement said on the strike in Canada. In New Brunswick, bargaining with a provincial mediator broke off 28 June without any progress, but resumed again last week. The 800 members of CEP Local 689 are striking for the pattern paper-mill agreement in eastern Canada, and they seek also to preserve a host of local mill terms and conditions.

Finnish Paper Union Exhibits Solidarity to CEP in Canada

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A strike over issues seen as a sign of things to come under the Howard government ended in Australia on 4 July. One of those issues included unrestrained use of contract labour. Fifty-five mainly immigrant women began the strike against Kemalex Plastics 27 April backed by their union, ICEM affiliate National Union of Workers. 
The strike was over the employer’s plan to make them all individual contractors, this disallowing protection from unfair dismissal, leaving them without sick leave and holiday pay, and excluding them from the mandatory 9% superannuation guarantee contribution. The strike galvanized Australian labour against Prime Minister John Howard’s industrial reforms. Strikers at the automotive components factory in Dandenong near Melbourne agreed to a compromise deal in which they will receive A$100 weekly in additional wages, and will remain permanent employees under an enterprise labour agreement.

Kemalex Plastics Strike in Australia Ends

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