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Also in Brazil, the Brazilian National BASF Network of ICEM&rsquo;s Latin American BASF Network took place 4-6 May in Sao Paulo. Delegates defined priorities to be proposed for the first national social dialogue, and met with BASF managers regarding problems workers confront in BASF&rsquo;s Brazilian facilities. In attendance were members of the Factory Commission of German-based BASF, IGBCE chemical sector representatives, as well as delegates from the Secretariat and International Relations Department of CUT. The ICEM&rsquo;s Regional Coordination Committee meeting of the BASF Network along with social dialogue talks with the company is occurring over the next several days.

ICEM’s Regional BASF Network Meets in Brazil

Twenty-four tradesmen, members of EPMU in New Zealand, agreed to a two-year deal this week with Bridgestone at a tyre factory in Christchurch, ending a four-week strike. The agreement was termed satisfactory, but not reflective of the intense effort put in by the bargaining unit composed of highly skilled electricians and engineers. 
Contract labour will be a continual issue, and EPMU Southern Operations Director Ged O&rsquo;Connell said, &ldquo;We have a significant problem with contractors and agency temps who are able to work in our plants and are not covered by our Collective Agreements.&rdquo; Although the union prevented contractors from doing bargaining unit work during the strike, salaried staff performed some of that work, and that is an issue with the EPMU. A separate bargaining unit represents about 200 production workers at the tyre factory on the South Island.

Skilled Trades Workers Reach Accord with Bridgestone in NZ

<img height="40" src="" width="100" alt="" />
Strike action by ICEM affiliate Paperiliitto against Finland&rsquo;s paper manufacturers intensified this week with near total shutdowns on 16-17 May of all paper mills following failure of mediated talks over the weekend. Employers now threaten a two-week lockout beginning 18 May in retaliation. 
After pulling out late last year from the national incomes policy agreement, the employers&rsquo; Forest Industries Federation is now seeking rash concessions including eliminating Christmas and mid-summer shutdown days, greater flexibility including 12-hour shifts and sick leave cuts, making the first two days unpaid. 
That proposal, however, was tempered some in recent mediation. Paperiliitto&rsquo;s resistance to the irrational proposals has been boosted by the commitment of ICEM affiliate Svenska Pappers. The union has imposed a ban on overtime in its papermills in Sweden, and will refuse to perform work shifted into Swedish paper mills from mills in Finland. Some six major companies are involved: Stora Enso, UPM Kymmene, M-Real, Mets&auml; Tissue, Ahlstr&ouml;m and Myllykoski.

Finnish Paper Union Strikes Against Harsh Concessions

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 Ukraine, ICEM affiliates are seeking to block a section of labour reform currently in the country's legislative assembly, the Rada. The specific section is Chapter 3, Book 4 of the draft labour code, which would grant loopholes to small businesses regarding union membership. Such an exclusion would not only run counter to ILO Conventions, but also infringe on Ukraine's Constitution and existing law. To exclude this particular section, ICEM affiliates and labour activists are encouraged to write to Volodymyr Lytvyn, chairman of the Rada, at fax +38 044 255 41 70, or Yuriy Yekhanurov, chairman of the Industry Policy Committee, at fax +38 044 255 2495.

Ukrainian Unions Seek to Block Business Loopholes in New Law

ICEM affiliate General Workers' Union (GWU) of Malta is using the 1 May celebration to protest that government's elimination of all public holidays that fall on weekends. A legislative change enacted earlier this year means that workers will not get a day of entitlement for holidays that occur on weekends, such as this 1 May holiday. The CWU is considering launch of a referendum to reverse the new legislation.

Affiliate in Malta Protests Government’s Holiday Elimination

Brazils' FUP oil workers' union might call a five-day strike on Petrobras if management of the state-owned company does not provide adequate increases to a profit-sharing plan. Some 38,000 oil workers could take part in the strike that could occur as early as this week. In March, FUP staged a 24-hour strike on the same issue, but that strike was not intended to disrupt production.

Brazilian Oil Union Braces for Strike Against Petrobras

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

Scores of miners were trapped at the Tengda coalmine in Jiaohe city, Jilin province, China, on 24 April after flooding swept into mine shafts from the adjoining Ji'an mine. Some 39 miners were rescued due to a ventilation system that still worked in the Tengda mine, but 30 other miners perished. On Monday, 25 April, four miners died following a gas explosion at the Duzhai mine in the northern province of Shanxi.

Mine Accidents Continue to Occur in China

Global union-employer agreements are &quot;the best way forward&quot; for the Global Compact advocated by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. 
 
That was the message from world union leader Fred Higgs when multinational CEOs, unions and non-governmental organisations met under Annan's chairmanship yesterday at UN headquarters in New York. 

<img height="302" alt="" src="" width="380" />
BOOSTING LABOUR RIGHTS: 
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. 
First launched by Kofi Annan in Davos last year, the Global Compact aims to ensure respect for labour rights, other human rights and the environment within a globalised economy. 
 
&quot;Organised labour and organised business can best 'embrace and enact' the Global Compact by negotiating global agreements,&quot; Higgs told yesterday's meeting. He is General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Most of the multinationals represented at the New York meeting are in ICEM-organised sectors. Higgs challenged them to reach verifiable global agreements with the ICEM as soon as possible. 
 
&quot;Collective bargaining is one of the rights enshrined in the Compact,&quot; he said, expressing strong support for Annan's initiative. &quot;Collective bargaining could also be the means of securing compliance with all of the Nine Principles upon which the Compact is based.&quot; 
 
Not coincidentally, Higgs pointed out, the focus of the ICEM's current agreements with multinationals is &quot;precisely those labour standards, human rights and environmental responsibilities that are enshrined in the Compact's Nine Principles.&quot; 
 
The ICEM already has such agreements with multinationals Statoil and Freudenberg, Higgs stated, and &quot;we expect to reach similar agreements with a number of other global corporations in the near future.&quot; 
 
Meanwhile, current negotiations with the International Council of Chemical Associations could soon produce &quot;the first-ever global sectoral agreement,&quot; Higgs said. This would ensure ICEM involvement in the monitoring and implementation of the chemical companies' Responsible Care programme, thus helping to achieve &quot;the highest standards of occupational health and safety and of environmental protection&quot; at chemical plants worldwide. 
 
Global corporate or sectoral agreements signed with the ICEM give it &quot;the right to monitor compliance and to raise with the global corporate managements or the sectoral federations any breaches of the agreements,&quot; he emphasised. &quot;This is the crucial difference between global agreements and companies' own internal codes of conduct.&quot; 
 
Global agreements also benefit the companies, Higgs argued, as they &quot;give substance and credibility to corporate ethics.&quot; 

Go to: <a href="http://www.unglobalcompact.org/Portal/Default.asp?">Global Compact Web-site</a>

Bargaining For The Global Compact

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