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The United Steelworkers (USW) in America on 30 June selected Michelin&rsquo;s BF Goodrich tyre operations as the bargaining template in order to achieve a master rubber contract for 27,000 workers in North America. Talks with three major tyre producers, Michelin, Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber, and Bridgestone/Firestone (BSF), have already started. 
 
The current master labour agreement for the US tyre-making sector expires with all companies on 22 July, but the USW and the major tyre producers generally go beyond that deadline in negotiations. Smaller manufacturers in the US, such as Yokahoma, also follow the bargaining pattern. 
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USW represents some 4,000 Michelin workers at three BF Goodrich plants, while it covers 17,000 Goodyear workers at 12 plants and 6,000 BFS workers at eight tyre facilities. 
 
&ldquo;Significant in the selection of BF Goodrich is the fact that we believe that we can set an industry pattern that looks after our retirees, enhances job security and protects standard of living for our active and retired members,&rdquo; stated USW Lead Negotiator and Executive Vice President Ron Hoover.

Michelin Chosen for Tyre Bargaining Pattern in US Talks

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US affiliate United Auto Workers (UAW) has successfully organised two PPG Industries auto-glass plants in recent weeks, and has a US government-conducted election scheduled at a third on 27 July. 
 
On 28 June, workers at a flat-glass plant in Evansville, state of Indiana, voted for UAW bargaining representation, and a week earlier, glass staff at a PPG factory in Crestline, state of Ohio, joined the UAW. The Evansville&nbsp;plant employs nearly&nbsp;400 workers, while the Crestline factory&nbsp;has 260 bargaining unit jobs. 
The UAW election on 27 July is at a PPG Industries plant in O&rsquo;Fallon, state of Missouri. The operation, a former Chemfil company worksite, produces metal and other fastenings for glass destined for the auto industry. The UAW currently represents workers at four American PPG plants and is active in the 16-union Joint Union Council of PPG Industries in North America.

UAW in US Succeeding in Organising Auto-Glass Factories

The campaign to totally ban all forms of asbestos took a leap ahead last month when the Workers&rsquo; Group of the ILO Conference passed a decisive statement that all asbestos types, including white chrysotile, are cancer-causing. 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s Mining/DGOJP Sector is currently initiating dialogue with mining affiliates on the correct path toward implementation of ILO Convention 162, the safety in the use of asbestos convention. This is in accord with the four-year work plan established at the ICEM&rsquo;s Mining and DGOJP World Conferences in 2004. 
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Last month&rsquo;s resolution at the annual ILO Conference states &ldquo;that the elimination of the future use of asbestos and the identification and proper management of asbestos currently in place means to protect workers from asbestos exposure and to prevent future asbestos-related diseases and deaths.&rdquo; It also supports elimination on any future use of the product, and calls for renewed efforts toward ratification by countries of ILO Conventions 162 and 139, the latter related to occupational cancer. 
 
The resolution was boosted some two weeks before its 14 June ILO passage when France became the 40th country to ban future asbestos use. South Africa, a leading mining nation, also is close to passing a complete ban on white asbestos mining, something Zimbabwe&rsquo;s government is fiercely resisting due to sizeable exports of the product to South Africa. 
 
Major producing countries of white chrysotile asbestos include Canada, Russia, Brazil, China and Zimbabwe. The amphibole asbestos types, blue amosite asbestos and brown crocidolite asbestos, are proven to cause asbestos-related respiratory diseases and are banned under World Health Organisation guidelines.

ILO Workers’ Group Takes Strong Stand on Asbestos Ban

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ICEM North American affiliated United Steelworkers (USW) and Stora Enso applauded an innovative labour agreement at four paper mills located in the state of Wisconsin, following union membership ratification on 17 January. 
 
The labour accord, covering some 1,400 USW members, is a five-year contract that will now backdate to 30 April 2005. It expires in 2010. It contains wage increases of 9% over the term of the agreement, and a US$3,000 ratification bonus also was negotiated. 
 
The agreement provides job security for all union members against contract labour, and gives USW local unions a strong voice in workplace redesign and restructuring at the paper mills in central Wisconsin. Workers also will be awarded quarterly bonuses for the redesign. The collective agreement contains language pledging Stora Enso to be neutral in union organising efforts, and contains a successorship clause in the event any facility is sold. It also brings all the mills under the same collective bargaining expiration date. 
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&ldquo;These negotiations are a model for improving the competitiveness of the US paper industry in the world market,&rdquo; said USW President Leo Gerard. &ldquo;Stora Enso recognizes that high productivity is tied to high road employee relations.&rdquo; 
 
Added USW Paper Sector Vice President Dick LaCosse, &ldquo;The willingness of Stora Enso and the USW to forge a new path in collective bargaining will make the company and union stronger.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;Simply put,&rdquo; said USW District 2 Director Jon Geenen, &ldquo;companies that rely on confrontation with the union lose a competitive advantage. Those that focus on working with the union to find innovative solutions benefit from it.&rdquo;

USW Achieves Innovative Collective Agreement with Stora Enso in US

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The Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada used 22 January as a National Day of Action in Canada to expose a government devoid of effective policies on halting job losses in the pulp, paper, and the forestry sector. Together with local branches, the CEP waged a massive e-mail campaign aimed at MPs and Premier Stephen Harper, and conducted a symposium in Ottawa on the jobs crisis. 
 
CEP also aired radio advertisements across Canada, demanding urgent action from Parliament on the issue. 
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&ldquo;The industry is facing unprecedented hardship impacting on more that 300,000 Canadians who depend on it for their livelihoods,&rdquo; said CEP President Dave Coles. &ldquo;There are solutions to this crisis, solutions based on the fair treatment of workers and their families, sustainable forest practices, value-added productivity, and more. But the first step is to break the silence and open discussions with all parties affected.&rdquo; 
 
The CEP symposium on Parliament Hill heard from labour leaders, elected officials from affected areas, representatives from the Forest Products Association of Canada, and members of Parliament. Coles said, &ldquo;The survival of dozens of communities are threatened, and yet we have had very little response from the federal government.&rdquo; 
 
The CEP reported at an ICEM statutory meeting last year that, in the preceding two years in the paper sector alone, 34 full, partial, or permanent mill closures had occurred, costing 7,000 jobs.

CEP Draws Attention to Massive Job Losses in Canadian Forestry Sector

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A three-week strike by ICEM Belgian affiliate&nbsp;La Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale FGTB against ArjoWiggins is expected to end today at two paper mills. Union members over the weekend voted, by a 62% margin, to approve an amended company proposal that calls for a restructuring of the two Wallonian mills. 
 
Union members had twice before rejected the company&rsquo;s proposed social plan, once on 15 January, and again on 23 January. French-based ArjoWiggins is closing a paper mill and converting operation in Nivelles, and will transfer the paper converting portion there to the company&rsquo;s paper mill in Virginal-Samme. 
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The restructuring was to make 147 workers redundant, as well as 80 temporary employees. The company manufactures carbonless writing and printing papers at both locations. ArjoWiggins future plans for Nivelles are to use the mill merely for warehousing and logistics. 
 
The company and workers&rsquo; representatives, led by FGTB, came to a satisfactory agreement on 26 January, after pressure was brought on the company by both federal and provincial employment ministries. Belgium&rsquo;s federal labour ministry will conduct a final conciliation hearing on the dispute tomorrow, 30 January. 
 
ArjoWiggins is owned by the French holding company Sequana Capital, formerly called Worms &amp; Cie. Sequana is primarily owned by the Agnelli family of Italy.

Belgian Paper Strike at ArjoWiggins Ends

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The Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) on 22 January issued a call to enhance the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, in order for the Guidelines to become more transparent and more thoroughly implemented. The proposals from the DGB come at the outset of Germany&rsquo;s G8 Presidency term. 
 
The national labour centre&rsquo;s plan includes creating an inter-ministerial structure for National Contact Points (NCP) that will provide more efficient and pro-active case work. DGB also proposes to expand transparency among NCP offices through better public dissemination of cases, as well as insisting that the NCP&rsquo;s annual report to the OECD Investment Committee also includes those cases that the NCP decides not to move forward. The reasons for such decisions must be explained in a public declaration, DGB states. 
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A third proposal is to have the Guidelines codified in EU legislation, as well as established as the international benchmark for corporate social responsibility. In this, DGB calls on Germany and other countries to provide greater financial commitment to the OECD. This proposal also includes making the complaints procedure easier, and giving only MNCs who pledge, in writing, to comply with the Guidelines access to foreign trade instruments. 
 
&ldquo;The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises have proven to be the strongest international instrument to date for promoting corporate social responsibility,&rdquo; states the DGB. &ldquo;In practice, however, their implementation encounters limits. 
 
&ldquo;The DGB takes the view that the OECD Guidelines hold the potential to promote corporate social and environmental responsibility worldwide and to make an effective contribution to sustainable development and to the social dimension of globalisation.&rdquo;

DGB Trade Union Confederation Calls for Strengthening OECD Guidelines

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German ICEM affiliate IGBCE has called recent statements by Economic Affairs Minister Michael Glos &ldquo;irresponsible,&rdquo; referring to the federal minister&rsquo;s remarks that the stock market listing of German coal and industrial company RAG as a publicly-traded company must be tied with the removal of coal subsidies. 
 
IGBCE President Hubertus Schmoldt challenged the comments on the eve of a summit on Germany&rsquo;s hard-coal industry, which began yesterday in Berlin. &ldquo;The economic minister endangers the coal discussions and creates an unnecessary uncertainty for 100,000 people,&rdquo; said Schmoldt. RAG employs some 100,000 German workers in coal mines, power stations, chemical enterprises, and in real estate. 
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Glos has sided with provincial authorities in the provinces of North Rhine-Westphalia and in Saarland, who have called for the end of German subsidies to the coal industry. He has proposed that the capital raised from RAG&rsquo;s listing could be used as a replacement for coal subsidies. 
 
Schmoldt termed the plan &ldquo;adventurism,&rdquo; and called on the federal government to take more responsibility to assure a future for the 100,000 workers. &ldquo;This is no way to run politics,&rdquo; said Schmoldt, adding that the workers of RAG expect to be treated fairly inside a publicly-traded company. He said the listing of RAG is an opportunity for the German federal government to create long-term employment. 
 
RAG is expected to be floated on the Berlin stock market in the second quarter of this year.

IGBCE Blasts Plan to Link RAG’s Public Listing with Removal of Coal Subsidies

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The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa gave Impala Platinum a seven-day ultimatum to respond to demands to improve health care services at the Impala Mine Hospital near Rustenberg, North West State. 
 
The ultimatum was given when miners staged a 23 January march on the hospital. NUM is protesting unfair and inferior treatment of union members at the facility. The union also accuses mine management, doctors, and hospital administrators of denying antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for treatment of HIV-AIDS. 
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&ldquo;We &hellip; condemn the collusion by both the management of Impala Mine and Impala Hospital that seeks to marginalize those not falling with a particular medical aid,&rdquo; NUM said in a statement last week. 
 
The collusion includes charges that managers and medical facilitators make gravely ill staff continue working underground, failing which, they are terminated with insufficient severance money. 
 
The NUM&rsquo;s demands include dismissal of doctors who are denying ARV treatments. The union also cites a host of incidents in which inferior health care was given. NUM said that if the demands were not addressed by 30 January, rolling industrial action would begin. 
 
Impala Platinum employs some 26,000 workers in South Africa. 
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At another platinum mine in the country, NUM union members began a strike on 26 January. Over 2,000 miners downed tools at Modikwa Platinum in Limpopo, Northern State, demanding an end to racism. 
 
The NUM branch there states that both pay and working conditions for white workers is better than that of black workers. The branch union also charges that recruitment and hiring procedures are not evenly applied. 
 
The strike began at 06h00 last Friday, and branch leaders were expecting to meet with Modikwa&rsquo;s management later that day.

NUM Members in South Africa March Against Impala Platinum’s Hospital Care

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On 15 January, a death squad in Guatemala killed Pedro Zamora, general secretary of the STEPQ Dockers&rsquo; Union in Puerto Quetzal. The International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) has pledged that justice will be done in what it is calling a &ldquo;dirty and cowardly act.&rdquo; 
 
Trade unionists are urged to respond to ITF&rsquo;s &ldquo;Campaign for Justice for Pedro Zamora,&rdquo; an immediate call to the Guatemalan government to bring arrest to the perpetrators of this vile crime. Please click&nbsp;<a href="http://www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/zamora.cfm">here</a> and sign ITF&rsquo;s Charter for Justice &lsquo;No Hay impunidad.&rsquo; 
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Pedro Zamora 
Killed on 15 January
Your help is urgently needed in order to put maximum pressure on the Guatemalan government. An ITF-assembled delegation representing a global labour voice arrived in Guatemala City over the weekend, and has called for discussions with police, state and national justice leaders, prosecuting attorneys, as well as President Oscar Berger Perdomo. The delegation includes ILO and ITUC representatives, as well as Spanish and US unionists. Trade unionists from Guatemalan unions ISCOD/UGT, UITA-FESTRAS, and USTAC joined the delegation. 
 
&ldquo;The Guatemalan government will never be forgiven if it doesn&rsquo;t investigate and then bring the murderers to justice,&rdquo; said ITF Gen. Sec. David Cockroft after Zamora was slain in front of his children. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a filthy little act that makes the blood of any decent person boil.&rdquo; 
 
Zamora, 43,&nbsp;was driving his car on 15 January after gathering his children, ages&nbsp;3 and 5,&nbsp;from medical appointments, when a white truck with several assailants in it pulled along side and riddled the car with some 100 shots of automatic gun fire. As the STEPQ union leader lay critically wounded in the front seat of his car, one of the assailants came up to him at close range and shot him in the face. His 3-year-old son was severely wounded in the attack. 
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&ldquo;Pedro&rsquo;s commitment to the union cause is the reason he was targeted for political killing,&rdquo; declared the ITF. &ldquo;His death must not be in vain.&rdquo; 
 
The port workers in Quetzal have been waging a battle to retain their proper trade union recognition in the face of privatisation. In October 2006, they took industrial action, and the strike was met by 300 armed riot police. Their grievance was the company&rsquo;s failure to negotiate a collective agreement, and failure to respect dockworkers&rsquo; views on modernisations to the port. 
 
The ITF delegation, currently in Guatemala, will also lend a protective voice to other activists of STEPQ, five of whom have received telephone death threats and have been followed before Pedro Zamora&rsquo;s death. 
 
Sign the Guatemalan Charter for Justice, and bring as much heat as possible on the country&rsquo;s judicial system: <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/zamora.cfm">http://www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/zamora.cfm</a>.

Justice for Pedro Zamora Campaign Mounted by ITF

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