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Strikes, marches and mass demonstrations in The Netherlands may be over as ministers for the center-right government have backed away from cuts to the Dutch social welfare system. Dutch unions, employers and the government reached an accord 6 November that will save social programmes from the budget axe, including early retirement rights, the current work-week and holiday entitlement, and industry-wide wage agreements. In return, the unions have pledged restraint in wage talks next year.

NL Center-Right Government Backs Off Social Welfare Cuts

Another general strike over the price of fuel may occur in neighbouring Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Labour Congress has called on its government to rescind a late October price hike—the third fuel price hike in nine months—or face a strike. “Most industrial firms and employers depend on generators. Which invariably affects cost of production with a high probability for redundancy for workers and high process for products,” the national center said in a release last week.

High Fuel Prices May Spark General Strike in Sierra Leone

US affiliate United Steelworkers of America (USWA) and Bridgestone/Firestone will return to negotiations 16-17 November in St. Louis, Missouri, after a yearlong recess. The union halted talks in November 2003 and instead reached agreements with other global tyremakers in the US and Canada. USWA represents 5,000 rubber workers at seven Bridgestone/Firestone factories in the US.

Bridgestone and USWA Return to Bargaining Table in US

South African chemical producer Sasol had another serious workplace safety incident on 30 October when one worker was critically injured during a fire at a refinery in Sasolburg, Free State. The cause was a fuel spill that occurred during a loading process. Two other workers received minor burns. Meanwhile, a commission of inquiry into the 1 September explosion at Sasol’s ethylene plant in Secunda, Mpumalanga, that killed ten and injured 100 has recessed until March 2005. The commission did conclude prior to adjourning that the accident happened when a contract worker opened a pipe containing flammable gas.

More Health, Safety Woes for South Africa’s Sasol

Nigerian unions led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) called off a 16 November mass general strike after the government rolled back fuel prices 8% “in the name of domestic peace.” In September, the government again reduced fuel subsidies and imposed another round of higher fuel prices prompting a four-day general strike. The NLC says it will now rejoin a panel of government officials, parliamentarians and representatives from civil society to find a solution to Nigeria’s refined fuel oil crisis.

Nigerian Government Backs Down; General Strike Called Off

A pattern oil bargaining agreement for 30,000 US workers was reached last week, a year before the current four-year labour agreement was due to expire. ICEM affiliate PACE and Shell came to terms on a three-year extension that will now be carried to other oil companies primarily operating in the US downstream sector. The contract contains wage gains of 3.5% for 2006, 3.5% in 2007, and 3.7% in 2008, plus gives workers a US$1,500 ratification bonus. Perhaps most importantly, however, as a measure to address a problem common in many US labour-management talks is creation of a joint union/management Health Care Strategic Committee that will devise solutions to lessen the impact of soaring health costs on all parties.

PACE Gets US Oil Bargaining Pattern with Deal at Shell

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The worst US refinery explosion in over a decade happened at a BPAmoco complex in Texas City, Texas, on 23 March. PACE represents some 1,100 workers at the refinery with a total workforce of 1,800, counting contract employees. 
A total of 15 workers—all employed by contractors—died in the blast that occurred near an isomerization unit that boosts octane levels of petrol. The unit was being restarted at the time of the explosion after undergoing scheduled maintenance. 
Over 100 other workers were injured and about 80 of those are employed by contractors. Major contractors, who together with BP will share responsibility for the explosion, include Jacobs Engineering, JE Merit and Fluor.

BP Explosion in US State of Texas Deadly for Contract Workers

Strike ballot preparation by Transport & General members in the UK began last week at two sites of French-based Imerys. Imerys late last year unilaterally closed off the final pension scheme to new workers and changed the accrual rate for existing workers that effectively downgrades their benefit levels. Some 2,500 workers are involved. T&G said Imerys took a pension holiday between 2000 and 2003 that turned a large pension surplus into a deficit. If no move is made by Imerys to reverse its pension takeaways, the two workplaces in Devon and Cornwall could face strikes by mid-May.

Strike Ballot Readied by UK Unions at Imerys

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About 120,000 South Korean workers staged a four-hour strike Friday, 1 April, that should serve as a prelude to a larger, nationwide strike if the National Assembly passes legislation to liberalise the use of contract and agency labour. 
Some 231 workplaces took part in the four-hour shutdown called by the Korean Federation of Trade Unions. 
In addition to the bill on the use of non-regular workers, unions are calling on the government to come down hard on companies abusing South Korea’s so-called “anti-illegal dispatch law,” meant as a control to illegal employment practices but a statute continually violated by multinational companies.

Korean Workers Strike Over Labour Reform Bill

America’s second and fourth largest industrial unions merged 12 April, creating North America’s largest industrial union. ICEM affiliates United Steelworkers and PACE are officially one following a resounding voice vote of approval from delegates representing PACE local unions at a special convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Steelworkers’ Executive Board had already approved the merger in January. The merged union now has 850,000 members and is called the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied-Industrial and Service Workers International Union, or simply USW.

PACE and USWA in US Officially Merge

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