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Today marks Labour Day in North America and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB) Local 484 in Meredosia will more than double the 1,100-populated town in west-central Illinois with a march and rally. 
The union has been locked out since 6 June by Celanese, an emulsions, adhesives and polymers producer owned by corporate trading goliath Blackstone Group. The rally will feature pro-labour Illinois State Governor Rod Blagojevich. An ICEM Circular last month produced scores of Solidarity messages to the 148-member branch union. 
<img height="147" src="" width="125" alt="" />
&ldquo;The support letters from all around the world really mean a lot to our members,&rdquo; said IBB Local 484 Secretary-Treasurer Paul Craig. &ldquo;It let us know that we are not fighting this battle alone.&rdquo; Blackstone bought the plant in February and when workers rejected harsh health care concessions and company plans to cut 41 jobs in favour of contractors, management locked out workers. 
Following Local 484&rsquo;s second rejection of the same company proposal in late June, Celanese came to the bargaining table in July demanding 20- 40% in pay cuts.

US Boilermakers&#039; Lockout Gains Global Attention

The Global Employee Forum of Norwegian pulp and paper producer Norske Skog has issued a strong statement in support of ICEM affiliate Fellesforbundet. The union is seeking to keep open a 380-worker book and newsprint mill in Skien, Norway, called Norske Skog Union. But the company is intent on closing in order to reduce capacity even though buyers have lined up to acquire the mill. The firm&rsquo;s Global Employee Forum has charged management that it has not &ldquo;prioritized and not taken advantage of the book market&rsquo;s shortage of book paper.&rdquo; Norske Skog has said &ldquo;no to inquiries from customers in this market&rdquo; and the employees&rsquo; forum calls on the company to exhibit the necessary social responsibility to &ldquo;see that production at Norske Skog Union is maintained, at least with new owners.&rdquo;

Norske Skog Workers Protest Closure of Norwegian Paper Mill

A broad workers&rsquo; movement in Nepal backed by global trade union confederations will convene next weekend, 10-12 September, in Katmandu. The conference will call for full restoration of human and trade union rights in the Himalayan kingdom and will issue a road map to that end. Some 1,500 trade union leaders from both inside and outside Nepal will attend. National trade union center GEFONT, one of four Nepalese organisations organising the event, said the conference &ldquo;will declare common mechanism among all workers to fight and safeguard workers&rsquo; rights,&rdquo; adding the conference will &ldquo;train grassroots representatives at once on necessity of democracy for trade unions.&rdquo; Even though a state of emergency issued by the monarchy was lifted last spring, trade union rights continue to be suspended and human rights violations continue to occur.

Labour, Human Rights Conference in Nepal

The ICEM's Asia-Pacific Union Network of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. met in Manila, Philippines, 8-9 August, and attention focused on the American rubber company's fierce resistance to unionisation drives of contract workers in Thailand and Malaysia. Goodyear plant union leaders also discussed the company's retreat from ownership of natural rubber plantations at a time when natural rubber demand coupled with shortages is increasing. Some 21 leaders from Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand took part.

Goodyear AP Meeting Studies Contract Labour Issue

Over the course of the summer, an asbestos scandal hit Japan and has been getting a lot of press attention ever since. According to reports, around 3,000 people die every year from asbestos cancer in Japan and it is feared that these numbers may rise considerably in the coming years. When in 1987, lobbyists began to call for a ban of crocidolite, used, amongst other purposes, in Japanese schools, the government failed to take the necessary action. Similarly in the 1990s, when a move to ban asbestos was blocked after &quot;relentless opposition from within the asbestos industry.&quot;

Asbestos Issue Surfaces in Japan

Following rebel harassment, Unilever Nepal decided on August 17 to close its factory in Basamadi in the Makwanpur district, west of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu. The decision to suspend operations indefinitely was taken after threats by the Maoist insurgents in Nepal to &ldquo;close the factory by force.&rdquo; The events come only one month after another multinational, Colgate-Palmolive, was forced to close its toothpaste factory in the same district. Unilever Nepal is one of the country&rsquo;s largest exporters and has been a target for rebel threats before. Bombs already exploded at the factory on several occasions in previous years. The Nepal Independent Chemical and Iron Employees' Union, an ICEM affiliate, made an appeal to the National Human Rights Commission, as well as to other rights organisations that have been known to mediate with the rebels, asking to demand the guerrillas to withdraw their threat.

Unilever&#039;s Colgate-Palmolive Factory in Nepal Closed

The 20-million-member ICEM, the Global Union Federation representing workers and trade unions in the pulp and paper sector, has denounced Stora Enso&rsquo;s attempts to break from the pattern paper agreement in eastern Canada over contracting out work at its mill in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia. 
<img height="83" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The company locked out 600 members of Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada - an ICEM affiliate - on 26 January after members of CEP Local 972 rejected a bargaining proposal that contained provisions giving managers unprecedented rights to outsource unionised work. 
 
&ldquo;Paper companies in Eastern Canada have agreed to a status quo on existing contract-out letters and memorandums with our affiliate,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &ldquo;Stora Enso&rsquo;s attempt to break from this pattern is unacceptable and the ICEM will support paperworkers at Stora&rsquo;s only Canadian paper mill in every way possible.&rdquo; 
<img height="180" alt="" src="" width="120" />
 
In a letter to Stora Enso CEO Jukka H&auml;rm&auml;l&auml; in Finland, Higgs urged the world&rsquo;s largest pulp and paper producer to return to bargaining immediately. &ldquo;The ICEM strongly urges you to personally intervene to amicably resolve this dispute,&rdquo; wrote Higgs. &ldquo;We appeal to you to apply the principled custom of Nordic fairness and to direct North American managers to immediately reopen dialogue with the CEP to resolve this dispute.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM received assurances from CEP President Brian Payne that the union is willing to reconvene bargaining immediately. 
<img height="128" alt="" src="" width="90" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<img height="128" alt="" src="" width="100" /> 
Brian Payne, CEP President, and Fred Higgs, 
ICEM General Secretary
CEP Local 972 members in Port Hawkesbury rejected Stora Enso&rsquo;s proposal with better than an 80% vote late on 25 January. The next morning the company began the lockout after issuing a 48-hour lockout notice under provincial labour code on 28 December. The two sides had been in non-stop bargaining for eight days leading up to the company&rsquo;s demands for contracting-out changes on 18 January. Such changes would eliminate jobs and severely inhibit job security, said the ICEM. 
 
Stora Enso and the CEP, which has been without a current labour agreement at Port Hawkesbury since 31 May 2004, have agreed on economic aspects contained in the paper sector pattern agreement reached with all companies with operations in Eastern Canada. 
 
The issue of contract and agency labour has become a central campaign issue for the ICEM on a global basis. The Brussels-based GUF believes the rush to utilise contractors and agencies by multinational companies in place of full-time, directly-employed workers is destructive to communities. 
 

<hr />
To read the ICEM letter to the company, <a href="/index.php?id=19&amp;doc=1636&amp;la=EN">click here</a>.

ICEM Cites Stora Enso for Breaking from Pattern on Contract Labour in Canada

<img height="61" alt="" src="" width="125" />
The contentious dispute between ICEM German affiliate IGBCE and Continental Tyre over 320 job cuts by year-end 2006 at the St&ouml;cken plant in Hannover, Germany, was resolved Tuesday evening, 24 January, in negotiations between the two sides and the Works Council of the plant.
<img height="126" alt="" src="" width="100" />
In the tentative agreement that is expected to be finalised in February, the German tyre-maker has agreed to return to an agreement put in place in May 2005. That agreement called for no job cuts before the end of 2007. Throughout 2007, Continental will offer job opportunities to St&ouml;cken workers in other facilities and also offer early retirement options to eligible workers. In addition, the company will make research and development investments at the St&ouml;cken plant.
IGBCE board member Werner Bischoff said the union succeeded in preserving the future of Hannover&rsquo;s Continental facilities, as well as making a stand that last May&rsquo;s agreement cannot be undermined.

Pact Reached in Germany Between IGBCE, Continental Tyre

For the urgent attention of His Majesty 
King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev 
Narayanhity Royal Palace 
Durbar Marg 
Kathmandu 
Nepal 
 
By fax: +977 14 413577 and +977 14 228235 
 
 
Brussels, 24 January 2006 
 
 
King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, 
 
I am writing as General Secretary of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), in the name of the 20 million members that we represent worldwide in over 120 countries, to protest the ongoing repression in Nepal against numerous trade union leaders. 
 
Over the course of the past week, as your regime began preventing planned pro-democracy demonstrations and engaged itself in a brutal and repressive wave against peaceful protests, a large number of trade union leaders were arrested, together with many other leaders and activists from other organisations. 
 
Amongst the trade unionists arrested were GEFONT Chairperson Makunda Neupane and Gefont Secretary-General Binod Shrestha, as well as Ms. Manju Bhattarai, NTUC Central member and Mr Radheshyam Pathak, NTUC District President. 
 
We are calling upon you to ensure the immediate release of all trade union leaders and members that have been arrested over the last few days, as well as for the release of all political leaders and activists that are currently in detention. 
In addition, we understand that the curfew that was in place since 16 January has now been lifted in Kathmandu and its neighbouring city Lalitpur. However, much more remains to be done in order to put your country on the path to democracy. For example, new curfews have been announced, and others remain in place, and these should be lifted. I would like to urge you to rescind these curfews as a matter of priority. 
Thanking you in advance for your kind cooperation 
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
Fred Higgs 
General Secretary

ICEM Letter to King of Nepal

US affiliate United Steel Workers (USW) intends to file a lawsuit in a federal courtroom in the state of South Carolina over Giant Cement&rsquo;s improper reporting of hazardous wastes emitted from the company&rsquo;s plant in Harleyville, South Carolina.
<img height="99" src="" width="100" alt="" />
USW claims Giant failed to report the identity and quantity of hazardous wastes burned at the plant, as well as hazardous chemicals used and stored on the jobsite of late. The suit will allege violations of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986
&nbsp;Giant, a subsidiary of Spain-based Cementos Portland Valderrivas, is operating the cement plant with replacement workers and some 50 of the 138 workers who struck the plant in August 2005. The strike ended on 24 September, but the company has refused to take back the majority of unionised workers.

US Steelworkers File Environment Suit Against Spanish Cement Firm

Archive

US Boilermakers' Lockout Gains Global Attention

Norske Skog Workers Protest Closure of Norwegian Paper Mill

Labour, Human Rights Conference in Nepal

Goodyear AP Meeting Studies Contract Labour Issue

Asbestos Issue Surfaces in Japan

Unilever's Colgate-Palmolive Factory in Nepal Closed

ICEM Cites Stora Enso for Breaking from Pattern on Contract Labour in Canada

Pact Reached in Germany Between IGBCE, Continental Tyre

ICEM Letter to King of Nepal

US Steelworkers File Environment Suit Against Spanish Cement Firm

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