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Globalised labour relations take a step forward this week as the world's industrial trade union leaders meet in Brussels to select target companies for global networks and agreements. 
 
The union leaders from all continents are taking part in the Presidium and Executive Committee sessions of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The Brussels meetings, from 31 May to 2 June, are the first since the ICEM World Congress in Durban, South Africa, last November. 

<img height="285" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/exec2.jpg" width="380"/> 
 
ICEM Executive in Brussels
That Congress set the ICEM a target of global campaigning and networking within major multinationals in its sectors. It also mandated the ICEM to negotiate global agreements with companies, notably on trade union rights, health, safety and environment and equality at work. 
 
The aim is to ensure consistently high standards worldwide by securing the right of the ICEM and its member unions to monitor companies' global performance on these and other issues, and to raise any alleged breaches of the agreements with corporate headquarters management. 
 
This is the crucial difference between global agreements and companies' own self-declared and self-assessed codes of conduct. The ICEM emphasises that such agreements are also in the best interests of the companies and their stakeholders, as they give substance and credibility to corporate ethics. 
 
New ICEM President John Maitland and General Secretary Fred Higgs were elected on a platform of achieving global agreements and of creating the necessary global trade union networks within the companies concerned. 
 
Target multinationals under discussion this week are headquartered in Germany, France, Japan, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries. 
 
"Dialogues are currently underway with, among others, Shell, Rio Tinto, BP Amoco and Freudenberg," Higgs said. "In a number of cases, draft texts have been exchanged. Discussions are particularly far advanced with Freudenberg, the German-headquartered rubber multinational. We hope to finalise an agreement with them by the end of June." 
 
The ICEM already has a company-level global agreement with oil multinational Statoil. 
 
Talks are continuing with the chemical companies' world body, the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), over plans for the first-ever global sectoral agreement. This would concern the chemical companies' Responsible Care programme, which aims to achieve the highest standards of occupational health and safety and of environmental protection. ICEM participation in the monitoring and implementation of Responsible Care would help to ensure consistently high standards worldwide. 
 
"We are already in a serious dialogue with the ICCA," Higgs said. "By the time we meet them again in Tokyo this November, we will be very close to signing a global agreement on Responsible Care."

World Unions Set Targets For Global Agreements

Lawlessness and intimidation" in Zimbabwe are now impacting negatively on trade union rights there, world industrial union leaders declared in Brussels this afternoon. 
 
The Executive Committee of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) called on the Zimbabwean government to "allow trade union activities to take place freely and without fear or intimidation." 
 
Trade union rights and human rights must be guaranteed "irrespective of political tensions in the country," the ICEM said. It also called for "free political activity" in Zimbabwe and the "creation of an environment conducive to free and fair elections."

Zimbabwe Union Rights Under Threat

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko must end his government's serious breaches of trade union rights, a world labour federation urged today. 
 
In a fax to Lukashenko, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) backed a union complaint to the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) against the Belarus government. The ICEM also pledged "pratical assistance" for any other measures considered necessary by ICEM-affiliated unions in Belarus. 
 
Belarus is flouting its commitments under ILO Conventions 87 and 98, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs told Lukashenko. The country is fully signed up to both Conventions, which protect freedom of association and collective bargaining. 
 
Higgs cited various breaches of "these fundamental human rights" in present-day Belarus: 
 
State and employer interference 
The head of the presidential administration ordered ministers to take control of union elections and to ensure that "constructive forces" are elected. Subsequently, enterprise directors and ministry officials have been trying to manipulate trade union conferences in order to ensure the election of pro-government chairpersons and delegates. 
 
Strike curbs 
The legal requirements for calling a strike are highly restrictive and take at least two months to complete. And the President is empowered to postpone any strike for another three months on the ill-defined grounds of a supposed threat to national security, public order, public health or the rights and freedom of other persons. 
 
Harassment of union members 
Employees have been dismissed for taking part in trade union activities or threatened with dismissal if they do not leave their trade union. The state security service, the KGB, has been observing trade union activities and has paid regular visits to trade unionists for "information purposes". 
 
Compulsory registration 
The state has made trade union registration obligatory and demands the immediate dissolution of non-registered unions. At the same time, the registration requirements are so cumbersome and complicated that in practice it has been virtually impossible for many trade union organisations to obtain registration. 
 
Barriers to organising 
A minimum of 500 founding members, representing the majority of regions of the Republic of Belarus and Minsk, is required in order to set up a nationwide trade union organisation. The list of names has to be provided to the Ministry of Justice. To establish a trade union in enterprises, offices, organisations and other places of work, membership by at least 10% of the entire workforce is required, with a minimum of ten people. This makes it virtually impossible to create new trade union organisations. 
 
Higgs strongly urged Lukashenko to "withdraw the discriminatory measures without delay and to ensure respect for trade union rights in your country, both in law and in practice". 
 
Bill Jordan, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, will be visiting Belarus on 11-12 July. Lukashenko should heed Jordan's recommendations, Higgs said, and should "implement them in full".

Belarus: World's Unions Condemn Rights Violations

Canadian nickel mining concern Inco Ltd. has caused a labour dispute at a mine and processing operation at Saroako on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The company sacked 250 workers on 25 January and has refused dialogue with the legitimate union, FSP KEP, the Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Union affiliated with the Indonesian Trade Union Congress. Although none of the workers are members of SPSK, a rival, former Suharto-aligned union, Inco contacted this group on the reductions in efforts to undermine FSP KEP. The ICEM will continue to investigate Inco’s unfair treatment of the miners and FSP KEP.

Dispute Caused by Canadian Inco Mining in Indonesia

A 15 March manifestation in Paris over Total’s decision to cut jobs at a petrochemical plant in Saint-Auban, Alpes-de-Haute Provence, has pushed the company off rationalisation of its Arkéma subsidiary. Total’s plan was to cut 548 jobs, 380 of them at the plant in southeastern France. ICEM affiliate FCE-CFDT, along with CGT, took action with workers of the subsidiary in Paris and the company suspended the plan. Worker representatives and managers at the 1,000-worker Saint-Auban plant will now sit down to examine worker proposals for costs savings. FCE-CFDT predicted economic disaster for all workers in management’s restructuring had occurred.

French Strike Cancels Total’s Chemical Plant Restructuring

Members of UK’s Transport & General Workers Union at Michelin’s Stoke tyre plant in the Midlands are in their 11th day of industrial action following the French company’s refusal to consolidate a pay offer with pension, holiday and other benefits. The 400 workers rejected a non-consolidated pay offer 10 March for the second time and are refusing overtime and all cooperative programmes with management. Tying the pay offer of 3% also to pensions and other benefits would cost Michelin less than the revised offer the company made last week that included performance-related payments, said T&G. Workers staged a mass protest outside the factory 15 March, the same day Michelin announced its 2004earnings topped those of 2003 by 60%, £ 358 million to 220 million.

Industrial Action at Michelin in the UK

China recorded further mass deaths in yet another coal mine disaster over the weekend. On 19 March, a gas blast at Xishui colliery near Shuozhou, Shanzi province, killed 60, with another nine miners still missing. The explosion collapsed a wall in the adjacent Kangjiayao mine and several of the dead and trapped miners were working there. The Xishui mine was ordered shut last November for safety reasons, but mine owners—now being held by police—restarted production early this year in defiance of authorities. This latest disaster comes a mere two days after another gas explosion killed 19 miners in Chongquing in southwestern Sichuan province. And on 14 March, a gas blast at Qitaihe Coal Field Group killed 18 at the Xinfu mine in Qitaihe, Heilongjiang province.

Three Chinese Mine Accidents Kill 100

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
Bargaining will continue today in efforts to end the lockout of 25,000 paperworkers in Finland. Six major paper companies, headed by the Forest Industries Federation of Finland, locked out members of ICEM affiliate Paperiliitto on 18 May for two weeks, and then tacked on another two weeks as a retaliatory measure for industrial action of 16-17 May. Employers are seeking harsh concessions including unlimited outsourcing, elimination of Christmas and mid-summer shutdown days, and greater job flexibility including 12-hour work shifts. 
Paper unions in Sweden and Norway have successfully turned back orders originating from Finland at mills and paper converters in those countries, and the ICEM has encouraged paper sector unions at all European operations to refuse production work from the closed Finnish mills. The European Works Council of Stora Enso has taken positive solidarity action, as has the European working committees of UPM Kymmene and M-Real. The other three major paper companies instigating this lockout are Ahlström, Metsä Tissue, and Myllykoski.

Paper Employers Lock Out 25,000 Workers in Finland

Meeting in Washington this week, senior officials from seventeen paper and graphical trade unions in eleven countries resolved to build global union networks at four multinational corporations. 
 
The unprecedented meeting was jointly sponsored by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and UNI Graphical, both global trade union federations. The union leaders came from Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. 
 
The unions agreed to build global trade union networks at four multinational companies in the paper, packaging and graphical industries - Finnish-based Huhtamäki, Irish-based Jefferson Smurfit Group plc and its affiliated company Smurfit Stone Container Corp, Canadian-based Quebecor Inc. and Swedish-based Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget. These companies employ approximately 170,000 people in over 40 countries around the world. 
 
The unions agreed to form global union networks for workers to share information and experiences, build international union solidarity, and develop new tools for unions to contend with the challenges of globalisation. 
 
The delegates expressed their concern about the uneven record of these and other multinational companies in their treatment of their employees' rights to organise unions and engage in collective bargaining, and agreed to take joint action to try to ensure that workers' rights are respected everywhere in the world that the companies conduct business.

Paper And Graphical Unions Forge Cross-Border Networks

Belarus unions will stage a Day of Action tomorrow (Thursday) to defend their basic labour rights. 
 
Trade unions are under mounting pressure in Belarus. The country's President is establishing a monopoly over political power. 
 
Inflation has already eaten away the temporary rise in salaries. 36% of companies are no longer profitable and this figure is rapidly increasing. Non-payment of wages is becoming commonplace and unemployment is looming. 
 
It is no coincidence that the Belarus unions, the only remaining democratic institution in this society, have become the prime target of this totalitarian power. 
 
Over the past few years, unions in Belarus have faced unprecedented state pressure: deliberately bureaucratic recognition procedures; attempts to replace legitimate union leadership with government puppets; threats against union activists; union-bashing at all levels; a ban on international assistance to trade unions; the creation of "yellow" unions; and a ban on the check-off of union dues. 
 
The unions now seriously fear the confiscation of their property, and possibly even the outright banning of trade unions. 
 
The current Belarus regime is openly flouting the Conventions of the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
The Action Day this Thursday 28 March will be held by the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus and is supported by the Congress of Free Trade Unions. Both federations include unions affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). The ICEM and other union internationals are backing the Action Day.

Belarus Unions' Action Day For Labour Rights

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