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 2025-2029

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

Press

German ICEM affiliate IGBCE will hold its Congress 9-14 October in Hannover with 391 delegates taking on 150 resolutions under the banner &ldquo;Strong Enough for New Paths.&rdquo; The Congress will include some 1,100 guests, and one motion to be considered will be the challenges to trade union cooperation in the greater EU economy and globalisation. IGBCE President Hubertus Schmoldt called recent German elections a mandate against radical reforms to labour law and bargaining regulations, issues brought forth by both the CDU/CSU and neo-liberals. Schmoldt said in a newspaper interview that Germany needs new concepts for it&rsquo;s energy market, as well as creation of better terms and conditions for employment in high-tech workplaces.

German Affiliate IGBCE to Hold Congress

ICEM NZ affiliate National Distribution Union (NDU) has elected Laila Harre as national secretary. Harre, an industrial relations attorney who served as former Alliance Party leader in Parliament, had been head of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation. Last year, she won a NZ$380 million pay equity package for the country&rsquo;s nurses, believed to be the largest pay package in public sector history. She has served in ministerial posts for Youth and Women&rsquo;s Affairs, Statistics, and was Associate Minister of Labour. She is credited for winning paid parental leave for working mothers.

NDU in New Zealand Elects Laila Harre National Secretary

A start-up gold mining project in Ghana turned to violence on 2 September when three persons were injured by police gunfire. Police were attempting to disperse an angry group of workers who lost their jobs following Newmont Ghana Gold Mining Ltd.&rsquo;s construction of mine milling plants. The workers along with persons from the town of Yamfo, Northern Brong Ahafo, had blocked a street that prevented Newmont&rsquo;s buses from carrying workers to jobsites. Newmont, 100% owned by Newmont Mining Corp. of the US, the world&rsquo;s leading gold miner, purchased a tract of Ghana&rsquo;s Sefwi gold belt early this decade, and is expected to commence production in 2006 from two sites in northern Ghana of stated gold reserves totaling 16.5 million ounces. The company established a hiring procedure for all new jobs but when existing workers from the construction phase did not immediately re-apply, Newmont closed off the recruitment process and hired new workers.

Violence at Newmont Mining&#039;s Start-up Project in Ghana

ICEM Jordanian affiliate General Trade Union of Workers in Mining and Metal Industries has promised to strike if their demands are not met for deeds to 100 housing units built near the Shidiyeh Mines in Maan, Jordan. The union is demanding the housing be turned over to miners and their families, as promised by King Abdullah, before Jordan Phosphate Mines Co. (JPMC) is privatised, which is expected by the end of the year. The Jordanian trade union, protecting the rights of the 1,350 JPMC workers, warned it will stand firm on the housing rights issue as a precursor against curtailment of any set of rights or workers&rsquo; benefits once the company is privatised.

Jordanian Affiliate Demands Housing for Miners

New Zealand&rsquo;s unions will embark on a third round of stop-work actions at Carter Holt Harvey&rsquo;s (CHH) wood and paper operations starting tomorrow. ICEM affiliates Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and the National Distribution Union are protesting the company&rsquo;s inferior pay offers of 2.8% to 4%. NZ unions have set a minimum pattern of 5% across all sectors. On 12 September, workers at five CHH wood products plants and one paper converting operation engaged in one-day strikes, and subsequent rolling work stoppages occurred at other jobsites. Workers at one of the company&rsquo;s pulp and paper mills&mdash;Kinleith&mdash;are also protesting a poor pay offer. A set of three-day talks between CHH and EPMU there concluded on 2 September with the company offering only 4% and less for some job classifications. The labour unrest comes when the 50.5% majority stakeholder of CHH, US based International Paper Co., has received a US$1.5 billion sale offer for sale to NZ&rsquo;s richest individual, Graeme Hart and his Rank Group Investment Ltd. CHH&rsquo;s board of directors, however, has recommended shareholders vote down the offer, saying it is 9.1% under the company&rsquo;s true market value.

Carter Holt Harvey Targeted over Wage Deficiencies

The ICEM today, 12 September, signed its first Global Framework Agreement in the Materials Sector&mdash;a social responsibility code of behaviour with French-based Lafarge, a building materials manufacturer. The agreement was signed in Paris jointly with the global union federation International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (IFBWW), and the World Federation of Building and Woodworkers Unions (WFBWU), a Christian labour federation. 
 
The Global Agreement marks ICEM&rsquo;s twelfth such international code of standards contract with a multinational enterprise, and the second that has been jointly signed with another global union federation. 
 
&ldquo;We welcome Lafarge&rsquo;s commitment to uphold high principles of social responsibility in all global operations, whether it&rsquo;s on workers&rsquo; rights, union recognition, environment, health and safety, or other recognised international work standards,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. 
 
IFBWW General Secretary Anita Normark also welcomed the commitment of Lafarge to apply international labour standards at all worksites worldwide. &ldquo;The value added of the agreement with Lafarge must be seen, that the three federations have a global network of trade unions which are able to monitor the agreement,&rdquo; said Normark. 
 
&ldquo;Lafarge is convinced that there can be no sustainable economic success without progress in the fields of social responsibility and environmental protection,&rdquo; said Christian Herrault, the company&rsquo;s Executive Vice President for Human Resources and Organisation. &ldquo;Consequently, this broader vision which goes beyond economic factors to embrace human, labour and environmental aspects has been built into our programmes underpinning performance and managerial processes.&rdquo; 
 
Herrault added that Lafarge &ldquo;has consistently valued the central role played by its workforce within the company and signature of this agreement represents a further step forward in our ongoing dialogue with staff.&rdquo; 
 
The agreement cites the International Labour Organization&rsquo;s (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the ILO&rsquo;s Tripartite Declaration of Principles on Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, the United Nations Global Compact, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development&rsquo;s (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. 
 
The agreement states in its preamble: &ldquo;Lafarge considers respect for workers&rsquo; rights to be a crucial element in sustainable development&rdquo; and the 172-year-old company &ldquo;will seek to use the services of those trading partners, subcontractors and suppliers, which recognise and implement principles&rdquo; contained in the Global Agreement. 
 
Those principals include: 
&bull; No forced labour; 
&bull; No discrimination in employment; 
&bull; No use of child labour; 
&bull; Freedom of association and right of workers to collective bargaining; 
&bull; Living wages paid at least at the level of national legislation or collective agreements, as applied in the industry/sector concerned; 
&bull; Working hours comply with relevant national legislation, national agreements and industry/sector standards; 
&bull; Safe and healthy work environment in accordance with ILO Convention 156 and ILO Guidelines for Occupational Health Management Systems; and 
&bull; Development of Skills Training for all workers in cooperation with trade unions. 
 
The Lafarge Global Agreement establishes a review process group composed of representatives from company management and the signatory trade union federations that will meet at least annually for review and implementation of the principles in all Lafarge worksites. 
 
Lafarge employs 77,000 workers in 75 countries. The company is the worldwide leader in building materials; number two producer of aggregates and concrete; and the world&rsquo;s number three producer of gypsum. 
 
The ICEM has 420 affiliated trade unions in 125 countries, encompassing 20 million workers. The IFWBB has 10.5 million members in 281 trade unions, also in 125 countries. The WFBWU represents 1.5 million workers affiliated to 55 Christian unions in 41 countries.

ICEM Signs Global Agreement with French-based Lafarge

ICEM affiliate EGAT-LU continues to be repressed by Thailand's government and management of public utility Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). On 28 April at the union's extraordinary meeting at EGAT headquarters in Nonthaburi, the company broke precedent by denying hundreds of union members and EGAT-LU use of a meeting room and sound system. The meeting was moved outside and a key issue was an EGAT freeze on a scheduled 15% annual wage adjustment. Other public sector workers received the increase. The government and utility are pushing privatisation of an initial 25% and that process escalated recently when the State Enterprise Policy Committee approved corporatisation of the utility.

Thai Government Repressing Electric Union over Privatisation

Another ICEM affiliate in Turkey is continuing its fight against privatisation in a courtroom in Ankara. Petrol-Is presented its case 2 March to again block privatisation of oil-refining company Tupras by the Turkish Privatisation Authority that now is seeking to sell a 14.8% stake. The authority holds 66% of Tupras, while 34% is publicly traded. Last year Petrol-Is convinced a court to halt the sale of the 66% stake to a joint venture composed of German Efremov-Kautschuk GmbH, a subsidiary of Russian Tatneft, and Turkish holding company Zorlu, a home textiles and home electronics company. Tupras operates four refineries and a petrochemical plant in Turkey.

Turkish Oil Union Fights Privatisation in Court Room

Turkish ICEM affiliate Sel&uuml;l&ouml;z-Is received mass support from two national trade union centers 4 March in its continued occupational of the SEKA paper mill in Izmit. The Sel&uuml;l&ouml;z-Is center, DISK, and TURK-IS mobilized affiliated unions to join the occupation that day. Some 700 paperworkers of Sel&uuml;l&ouml;z-Is plus family members have occupied the mill since 20 January in order to block privatisation of state-run company SEKA. Scores of ICEM affiliates from around the world have registered strong letters of protest to Turkish affiliates in their countries as a result of a 16 February ICEM Circular.

Support for Paper Mill Occupation in Turkey Growing

The ICEM, as part of Global Unions, supports the &ldquo;Global Call to Action Against Poverty&rdquo; (GCAP), which was launched at this year&rsquo;s World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. Backed by a wide range of organisations, the GCAP aims to pressure the world&rsquo;s governments to dedicate the necessary resources and time to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG). These MDGs set world targets to decrease overall poverty. Examples include reducing child mortality by two thirds by 2015, ensure primary education and reduce by half the number of people without access to safe drinking water. Trade unions can play an important role in this anti-poverty campaign, as their support often makes the difference in areas such as fair trade, debt reduction or AIDS. Detailed campaigning material on GCAP, including trade union-related info on MDGs, can be downloaded from the ICFTU site: http://www.icftu.org (in English, French and Spanish). Unions can also get in contact with their national centers for more information on this campaign.

ICEM Supporting Poverty Action Call

Archive

German Affiliate IGBCE to Hold Congress

NDU in New Zealand Elects Laila Harre National Secretary

Violence at Newmont Mining's Start-up Project in Ghana

Jordanian Affiliate Demands Housing for Miners

Carter Holt Harvey Targeted over Wage Deficiencies

ICEM Signs Global Agreement with French-based Lafarge

Thai Government Repressing Electric Union over Privatisation

Turkish Oil Union Fights Privatisation in Court Room

Support for Paper Mill Occupation in Turkey Growing

ICEM Supporting Poverty Action Call

About IndustriALL

Follow us

Contact us