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An ICEM mission to Argentina has gained first-hand accounts on how the global recession has affected the South American country, as well as laying the groundwork for ICEM’s 2011 Congress in Buenos Aires. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda met the GUF’s Argentine affiliates on 29 April in an exchange of views on the economic collapse, and also met with non-affiliated trade unions on the crisis and their plans to affiliate. 
 
A decision on the location for the Fifth World Congress will be taken at the ICEM Executive Committee meetings, 23-24 June in Geneva. Argentina trade union affiliates are enthusiastic on hosting the Congress. 
 
Warda, along with ICEM Latin America/Caribbean Contact Person Carol Bruce, met with the Rubber Workers’ Union of Argentina, SUTNA, as well with the Energy and Oil Workers’ union, FeTERA, and the private-sector Oil and Gas Workers’ Union, FASPyGP. The ICEM delegation also met with Unión Obrero Metalúrgical (UOM), which is interested in joining ICEM on behalf of nuclear workers that the union represents, as well as with trade unions affiliated with the national centre Central de Trabajores de la Argentina (CTA) on joining the ICEM. 

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Bruce participated in two manifestations while in Argentina. On 22 April, she marched with the CTA in which the national centre’s secretary-general, Hugo Yasky, called for a 180-day moratorium in Argentina on job layoffs and an emergency outlay of state money to cover lost wages of workers. 
 
On 30 April, she marched with the other major labour centre, Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT), in its support of the government of Cristina Kirchner in late June elections, and against neo-liberal policies that created the crisis and job losses, estimated to be some 50,000 in Argentina. 
 
The ICEM mission was supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation of Germany, which also provided a presentation on the impact of the economic crisis in Argentina.

ICEM Mission to Argentina Probes Crisis

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A two-month dispute between Michelin in Thailand and rubber workers backed by ICEM affiliate Petroleum and Chemical Workers’ Federation (PCFT) at a factory in Laem Chabang, Chonburi Province, ended favourably last week. The resolve came via tripartite dialogue and after strong intervention by the ICEM, FCE-CFDT of France, and Michelin’s European Works Council. 
 
The dispute ended in the early morning hours of 28 April when state mediators, PCFT representatives, and Michelin’s Laem Chabang managers reached a six-point accord that hopefully ends retaliatory punishment of 383 of the plant’s 1,500 workers and ends a lockout that began on 25 March. 
 
Workers agreed to end mass protests at Michelin’s plant gates effective on 28 April, and the company agreed to reinstate all workers who had been victimised by local management for refusing to withdraw their names from a petition circulated in early March. That petition called on management to engage in consultation with workers and PCFT representatives before implementing a 13% wage cut. 

<img height="129" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0905.thai.michelin.JPG" width="270"/>
Michelin Laem Chabang PCFT union leaders, from left, Thanakorn Somsin, Rangsan Monchaisong, and Samai Koonswat 
Instead, management imposed a 35% wage cut on workers who refused to retract the petition and some nine days later imposed a lockout on them. 
 
Provincial mediators from Chonburi’s Labour Protection and Welfare Office got both sides together, but on 20 April, local managers would not budge from the harsh, retaliatory 35% cut. The union at that mediation session proposed acceptance of the 13% cut for all until October 2009, but called on Michelin to pay a 2008 two-month bonus that the company had already announced. 
 
The ICEM again intervened on 21 April, calling the attitude of local managers “arrogant and punitive, (warranting) immediate intervention from Michelin corporate headquarters in France.” 

<img height="150" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0905.thai.michelin.2.png" width="251"/>
Photo from Bangkok Post
Last week’s negotiated settlement will see Michelin pay the two-month bonus, with all workers seeing a 13% cut. For those workers not choosing to return to work, they will receive assistance money as set forth under severance provisions of the Labour Protection Act. Michelin also agreed to drop legal and criminal complaints against workers who protested at plant gates. 
 
However, on the eve of the settlement, police arrested 18 of the locked-out workers, plus another worker from a nearby factory for a 20 April protest at the factory. As of today, it is not clear if those charges have been dropped. 
 
Laem Chabang rubber workers received strong support from staff employed at Bridgestone and Goodyear factories in Thailand, as well as from workers at other Michelin plants in the country. 
 
“This is a hopeful sign, that workers, managers, together with government mediators can resolve differences through proper social dialogue,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “The ICEM views this dispute as a result of the paralysing global financial crisis and our wish now is that this tyre plant recovers so that renewed orders and sales will benefit workers.”

ICEM, French Trade Union Pressure Brings End to Michelin Dispute in Thailand

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Late last month, the Ontario Legislature passed an Employment Standards Amendment Act (Temporary Help Agencies), which grants substantially more rights to workers of labour-hire companies. It will become effective in six months time. 
 
The new law, Bill 139, prohibits temporary employment agencies from charging fees for CVs or interview preparation. It also prevents agencies from charging workers “temporary to permanent” fees. 
 
And together with that, and more importantly, it allows agency workers fair treatment and better opportunities for advancement into permanent and sustainable work. Bill 139 ensures that such workers get paid for public holidays, and that they have the same rights as regular workers to notice of termination and severance pay. That will occur by removing exemptions under the Employment Standards Act’s “elect to work” provision. Specifically regarding temporary workers, that means when they accept work through agencies, they forfeit such rights. That will no longer be the case. 
 
Although the new law does not guarantee equal pay for equal work, it does establish a system for payment of wage arrears by agencies when clients are late in payment. 
 
The legislation was advanced though Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, a programme designed to build a stronger economy by creating more opportunities for low-income families and children. Passage of Bill 139, said Ontario Labour Minister Peter Fonseca, “removes barriers to permanent employment” and we feel “we are helping people achieve their potential and opening doors to opportunity.” 
 
In Ontario, Canada’s largest and most populous province, the number of temporary agencies has grown from 1,300 in 1993 to nearly 4,400 today, with total revenues increasing from C$1.5 billion to C$8 billion in that 15-year time span. 
 
Most labour law in Canada is regulated under separate codes enacted and administered separately by the country’s ten provinces.

Ontario Province in Canada Passes Law Giving Better Protections to Temporary Workers

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A week of industrial actions against AngloGold Ashanti by miners aligned with ICEM affiliate Ghana Mineworkers’ Union (GMWU) was avoided late last month when the union and company came to a Memorandum of Understanding that settles a three-year dispute over an Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP). 
 
The dispute dates back to November 2006, when Ashanti Goldfields fully merged with South Africa-based AngloGold. Then, GMWU proposed an ESOP for Ashanti staff at the Obuasi and Iduapriem gold mines who did not receive a US$1,000 “goodwill package” at the time of the merger. 

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AngloGold refused to take up the proposal, resulting in a two-and-a-year stalemate. In October 2008, the two sides resumed talks on the ESOP with GMWU giving the negotiations process six months to produce an ESOP. By 24 April, when Ghana management of the mining house still would not move toward ESOP parity for the Ghana miners with their South Africa counterparts, GMWU issued a press release calling it “morally wrong for AngloGold Ashanti to discriminate in its employee relations,” and stating a week of protests would result. 
 
But on 28 April, the two sides, meeting in Accra, agreed to an ESOP called for the 5,000 affected miners to receive 20 shares each of AngloGold stock, to be paid across four years in five-share increments. The first such award was made in May 2009. 
 
In a joint statement, GMWU General Secretary Prince William Ankrah and company Vice President for Ghana, Keith Faulkner, said: “We are very pleased that this matter has been finalised. We see it as an important further step towards improved cooperation between the company and the union which we are convinced will advance the interests of both the company’s employees and its shareholders.”

ESOP Accord reached Between Ghana Mineworkers and AngloGold, Averting Industrial Actions

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The roll-out of the revised Global Framework Agreement between EDF, French and other national unions, and the ICEM and global federations did not come without workers’ representatives airing the shortcomings to the electric company’s application of its social responsibility principles. In Paris last week, from 12-14 May, EDF senior managers and the trade unions reviewed performance of the agreement through an established joint Consultation Committee for Social Responsibility (CCSR). 
 
A renewed global pact was agreed to in January 2009 for a four-year period. Last week marked the official unveiling and signing of the improved agreement by the social partners, which included the presence of EDF Chairman and CEO Pierre Gadonneix. The meetings also saw the election of a secretary for the workers’ representatives, selection of a six-member bureau to oversee the agreement, and a thorough review of the 22 articles contained in the social responsibility document. 
 
During the review, the 22 workers’ representatives from seven countries did produce a declaration of dissatisfaction on recent corporate performance. It was read to Gadonneix during an extensive question and answer session on 13 May. The declaration specifically cited workers taking industrial actions in France over social degradation, and a break-down in social dialogue at EDF’s four businesses in Poland which caused workers to stage a manifestation at the French embassy in Warsaw on 5 May. 

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EDF’s CCSR Workers’ Bureau, with Pierre Gadonneix (centre), from left, Guoping Zhou, CCAP, China; Pascal Lambolez, CGT, France; Dominique Tavera, FO, France; Lee Parris, Prospect, UK; Marc Ferron, Secretary, FCE-CFDT, France; and Walentyn Sasim, Solidarnosc, Poland 
The declaration also called EDF’s restructurings and financial deals expensive, with workers suffering adverse effects. We “note a general worsening of the social conditions within all subsidiaries of the group, a worsening in job security due to outsourcing, a worsening of both living and working conditions, and a worsening of social dialogue, particularly when it comes to salary negotiations. We cannot accept that workers pay the price for the strategic choices made by the company.” 
 
The workers’ representatives of the CCSR said it refuses to let the agreement be used as mere “social window dressing for EDF” and demanded that managers at all levels of the company “agree and respect without restrictions” the general spirit of all the articles of the global agreement. 
 
Gadonneix responded by saying that he heard the pronouncements of the declaration. He also said he wants the social responsibility agreement to be window dressing for EDF, but that he desires to have “substance inside that window.” 
 
Workers’ representatives on the CCSR come from five different unions inside France, three from the UK, and representation from trade unions of Poland, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Vietnam, and China. 
 
Marc Ferron, representing ICEM French affiliate FCE-CFDT, was re-elected as secretary of the CCSR, and will serve a two-year term leading the global workers’ representatives to ensure EDF compliance with the agreement. The company is rapidly expanding operations both inside Europe and around the world.

EDF’s New Global Agreement Unveiled, Complete with Company’s Social Errors

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The global recession’s impact on the rubber industry, collective bargaining, work relationships, health and safety, global solidarity, and a plan of action to address these issues were key topics discussed in the US at the ICEM’s World Conference for the Rubber Industries in Nashville, Tennessee, 12-13 May. 
 
The conference, which was hosted by US-based United Steelworkers (USW), attracted some 90 trade unionists from throughout the world. The swine flu epidemic and visa problems into the US prevented the conference from having even more participants. 
 
USW Secretary-Treasurer Stan Johnson, who leads the host union’s rubber sector, opened the conference. A 22-year veteran of the tyre industry, Johnson led a successful strike as a local branch president against Italian tyre-maker Pirelli at a Nashville plant in the mid-1990s. He was unanimously elected as ICEM’s permanent chairman for the Rubber Industry at this conference. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0905.rubber.conf.1.jpg" width="110" height="136"/>
USW Secretary-Treasurer Stan Johnson
Johnson painted a picture of the current global economic crisis—a halt in the auto industry, collapse of the tyre market, and factories operating at low capacities. “Our opportunity lies in making sure that work and the value of workers is once again important,” he said. “It is our responsibility individually and collectively to step forward and change our future.” 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda pointed out that bad policies allowed irresponsible corporate conduct to occur. He said corporate greed was behind “casino capitalism,” and that national solutions alone will not work to end the crisis. A global response is needed with unions playing an integral role. 
 
“Recovery cannot mean the status quo,” said Warda. “A sustainable economy must be created. There is a great need to build trade union unity to combat the excesses of unregulated globalization.” 
 
Warda also presented a resolution on the US Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), important legislation currently before the American government that would eliminate the unfair advantages that employers commonly use to restrict workers from organising. (See the Resolution <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/EFCA%20Resolution.pdf" type="internal">here</a>.) 

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USW scribe Lynne Baker (left) interviews Forestry, Logging, and Industrial Workers’ Union of Liberia’s (FLIWUL) Austin Natee and Edwin Cisco. At right, USW’s Marilyn Brown 
Photo: Kenny Carlisle, USW Communications Department 
But the conference centered primarily on the global economic crisis. Presenters mapped out the problems confronting rubber workers throughout this crisis and the opportunities for positive change. The problems cited were common to all: layoffs, reductions in pay and hours worked, outsourcing to low cost countries, leave without pay, wage freezes, use of contract and agency labour, shutdowns, production declines, and lack of investment, all factors leading to increased family and community stress. 
 
Presenters told how some employers were using the economic crisis to avoid their commitments to workers, and rather to create new work structures, including the use of non-regular and short-term contract workers. 
 
“Trade unions need to be at the vanguard of developing a new model that guarantees globalization of rights, an agenda to decrease poverty, and to better regulate the financial sector,” said Fabio Lins from Brazil’s CNQ/CUT union in Brazil. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0905.FabioLins.JPG" width="120" height="120"/>
Fabio Lins of CNQ/CUT, Brazil
Peter Bakvis, director of the International Trade Union Confederation/Global Unions office in Washington, D.C., presented a five-point strategy for the ICEM and other global unions to tackle the economic crisis and build a fairer and more sustainable world economy. 
 
The strategy focuses on job creation through public investment, including active labour market policies and protection of the most vulnerable; nationalization of insolvent banks and new roles and mechanisms to control global finance; extension of collective bargaining coverage and strengthening of wage-setting institutions; negotiation of an ambitious international agreement on climate change; and governance reform of the global financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organisation. 

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ICEM Rubber Conference participants
At the conclusion of the conference on 13 May, Chemicals and Rubber Industry Officer Kemal Özkan presented an ICEM action plan that included campaigning for basic trade union rights and union organising; providing immediate solidarity during conflicts; providing effective and active solidarity for collective bargaining; striving for decent work in the rubber sector, meaning campaigning for sector-wide standards on use of contract and agency labour, equal pay initiatives, and use of Global Framework Agreements to address such issues. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0905.rubber.conf.2.jpg" width="200" height="114"/>
ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industry Officer Kemal Özkan 
Photo: Kenny Carlisle, USW Communications Department 
As well, the work includes improving, strengthening, and creating new workers’ networks; creating a global level of industrial relations through existing instruments; establishing industry and company-wide standards for health, safety, and sustainable jobs; seeking to improve cooperation between Global Union Federations in the auto-parts and auto supply industries along the global production chain; and providing special solidarity to US unions for passage of the EFCA, to tyre workers at Hankook and Bridgestone in Hungary, to French and German workers of Continental AG, and to Mexican miners. 
To view the action plan in its entirety, as well as to see the presentations made by speakers, click <a href="/index.php?id=20&la=EN&doc=3207" type="internal">here</a>.
Special thanks to Contributor Lynne Baker, USW Communications Department.

ICEM’s Rubber Conference Focuses on Problems, Opportunities in Economic Crisis

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On 18 May, Grafiska Fackförbundet, Sweden’s Graphical Workers’ Union, and Skogs-och Träfacket, the Forest and Wood Trades Union, held their last Congresses in Stockholm. On 19 May, the two Swedish national unions held a successful merger Congress, reports the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI). 
 
Per-Olof Sjöö was elected the new President of GS, the Forestry, Wood & Graphical Workers’ Union, numbering now 70,000 union members. Three Vice Presidents were elected, Tommy Andersson, Kenneth Johansson, and Erik Georgii. 
 
Sjöö said an immediate priority for the union will be the continued and unrelenting struggle to protect jobs, ensuring that it is not workers who foot the bill for the current economic crisis. He promised peace with the LO family of unions, but said it will not be a peaceful Swedish labour movement until the fight for justice has been won. 
 
The ICEM extends its best to GS and knows it is ready to face the struggles that will re-shape Swedish social life and work.

Swedish Graphical, Forestry Unions Merge

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In October 2006, efforts to make the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure of the Rotterdam Convention apply to asbestos were blocked by a handful of countries, including Canada. The Rotterdam Convention is an international agreement on hazardous materials. 
 
PIC is not a ban. It is a requirement stating that information is to be made available, and adequate warning of a substance’s hazards is to be made available when that substance is traded on global markets. However, even this mild requirement has been too much for the asbestos industry to accept. Their fear, no doubt, is that such warnings will cause developing countries – Canada is one of the biggest exporters of asbestos – to question the safety of asbestos. 

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The Canadian government made the usual public excuses about scientific uncertainty but, in fact, a government memo that became public last year proves that Canada backs the asbestos industry for crass economic and political reasons. The existence, or lack of existence, of any scientific doubt about the hazards of asbestos played little role. 
 
On 31 October, at the most recent Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention, Canada once again managed to prevent the PIC procedure from applying to asbestos. Canadian delegates, aware of the embarrassing stance of their position, chose to keep a low profile, but worked behind the scenes to organise and encourage the very few remaining supporters of asbestos to block any progress. Those nations are India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Ukraine, Pakistan, and the Philippines. 
 
It is interesting to note that the Rotterdam Convention binds signatory countries to consider only the hazard criteria. Economic and trade issues are not grounds for excluding a substance from the PIC procedure. How then were the parties able to prevent the inclusion of asbestos under PIC when no one at the October meeting was able to refute the case that all forms of asbestos – including chrysotile – meet the Rotterdam Convention’s scientific and legal criteria?

Canada Again Serves as Roadblock at Rotterdam Convention on Asbestos

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Thousands of oil and gas workers held a rally on Thursday, 19 November, in continuation of strong protests against the decision to privatize the Qadirpur gas fields. The company, Oil & Gas Development Company Ltd., will lose huge assets to foreign investors. The government is expecting to receive between US$3 and US$4 billion, whereas many commentators value the assets at more than US$12 billion.
The most recent rally was led by the OGDCL Labour Union President, Chaudry Mohammad Akram. “The Qadirpur gas field is a profit-earning entity, making over US$182 million for the state each year, and its privatization will hurt the national interest,” he said. 
 
Hundreds of workers in the Dhodhak oil fields staged a demonstration and blocked the Taunsa Sharif-Dera Ismail Khan road for four hours, while dozens of OGDCL workers from the Qadirpur fields staged hunger strikes, demanding that the government reverse the decision. 

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“President Asif Ali Zardari should act upon the mission and policies of Ali Bhutto instead of following the policies of IMF-World Bank and the United States,” said Badshah Khan Qaiserani, a manager at the Dhodhak oil and gas fields. 
 
Leader of the opposition political party JI, Liaqat Baloch, assured the demonstrators that political parties would support their cause. “We will launch a massive countrywide political move if government fails to withdraw its privatization decision.” 
 
The Pakistan Muslim League-N has also strongly opposed the move to privatize. Information Secretary, Ahsan Iqbal, described the Qadirpur gas fields as “the spinal cord of the Pakistan economy. The country is already facing an energy crisis, this would further worsen the situation.” 
 
Elsewhere in Pakistan, workers from WAPDA Hydro Electric Central Labour Union held a rally, demonstrating against recent price hikes, unemployment and lawlessness.

Workers in Pakistan Unite Against Oil, Gas Privatisation

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The last big pulp and paper employer in Canada’s Western region agreed to the pattern labour agreement, as set by ICEM North American affiliate Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union. Some 2,000 workers of Catalyst Paper, the continent’s second largest newsprint producer, are expected to agree to terms shortly in balloting at four worksites. 
 
That gives some 12,000 paperworkers in Canada’s industry-battered West renewal labour agreements. The CEP still has to negotiate with some smaller pulp and paper employers in the West. The pattern was set when the region’s largest pulp and papermaker – employment wise – Canfor Pulp Ltd. came to terms for total 10% wage increases over the four-year term of the pattern in early July. 

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That was followed by agreement at multiple mills by Howe Sound Pulp and Paper, Domtar Corp., Kruger Products, and West Fraser Timber Co. The pattern accord also contains significant benefit increases, craft trades allowances, and job security provisions, including good severance packages. 
 
“During the tough economic times we are facing, maintaining this pattern across the Canadian West is an important victory,” said CEP president Dave Coles. 
 
The CEP covers seven branch unions at Catalyst’s four mill sites, Crofton, Powell River, Campbell River, and Port Alberni, all in the province of British Colombia. The agreement for pulp and paper firms operating in the West expired on 1 April 2008. A separate agreement covering 20,000 workers in Canada’s East region expires on 1 April 2009.

Last Major Pact in Place for Western Canadian Paperworkers

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