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 2021-2025

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

Affiliate USW has launched an awareness campaign aimed at management and workers of 200 North American paper mills on the use of Zonyl, a chemical made by DuPont. Zonyl is a fluorinated telomer that breaks down into C8, a suspected carcinogen now being investigated by the US Environmental Protection Agency. 
USW is surveying 1,200 local unions in its paper sector to determine the prevalence of Zonyl in paper mills. DuPont recently settled a US$108 million class action lawsuit over the chemical filed by citizens in the states of West Virginia and Ohio for contamination of water supplies.

USW Issues Alert on DuPont’s Zonyl Chemical

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

China was regrettably not alone in mining disasters of late. In Russia as well, mining accidents are the order of the day. Here too, they are frequently the consequence of aging equipment, lack of safety regulations and economic pressures. On 9 February, 22 miners died in the Yesaulskaya mine in the Kemerovo region in Siberia where an explosion in a mine was fatal for most of the 30 workers that were present in the shaft at the time.

Gas Blast Kills 22 in Siberian Mine

South Africa affiliate NUM has called the Harmony/Gold Fields decision by the South Africa Competition Commission last week “heart warming”, as it took a number of the union’s concerns to heart. As part of an ongoing saga featuring two South African gold companies, where the Harmony Gold Mining Company wants to take over Gold Fields, the Commission set a condition for the merger: it shall eliminate no more than 1,500 managerial or supervisory jobs. “The recommendation to save jobs, particularly at the bottom of the ladder, is most comforting”, said NUM.

Preserving Jobs Chief Concern to Harmony’s Goldfields Takeover

An eight-day lockout of CFMEU miners at an Xstrata coal mine operated by Thiess Contracting Pty. ended a week ago when Thiess and the union agreed to a three-year deal. CFMEU won 4% pay hikes for the 250 miners in each year, higher superannuation increases and a payout to workers living in their own homes in Collinsville, Queensland. The miners were locked out after they had planned a four-day strike.

Lockout of CFMEU Members at Australian Coal Mine Ends

ICEM Belgian affiliate CG-FGTB has condemned Glaverbel Glass and its Japanese parent Asahi Glass in management’s continued refusal to engage in dialogue on irrational restructuring at AGC Automotive Fleurus in southern Belgium. The union, along with white-collar SETCa-FGTB, has been on strike now for three months after the company announced in December 284 job cuts at the 840-worker flat glass factory. Glaverbel has unilaterally said it would relocate some production from Fleurus, drastically rationalize both production and maintenance, insert forced flexibility by use of agency labour, and now has discredited and even blacklisted union delegates in their efforts to achieve dialogue over the restructuring. CGFGTB insists that only through real consultation with workers and their delegates will the operation become “liveable, profitable and productive.” ICEM is applying maximum pressure on the Japanese company to resolve the strike and begin good-faith dialogue with the Belgian unions.

Belgian Union Resisting Asahi’s Glass Plant Restructuring

The USWA again used union-friendly language in it’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’s US plants since the agreement took effect late last year.

Goodyear Workers in US Win Unionisation with USWA

The ICEM’s North American Women’s Committee was prominent in Ottawa, Canada, at a rally and march aimed at forcing the government to maintain Canada’s public, non-profit health care system. The ICEM women, meeting in Ottawa, were asked to deliver a live webcam message on the issue.

North American Women’s Committee at Canadian Health Care Rally

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

Archive