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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Negotiations to end a 23-week lockout by Honeywell Inc. against 228 members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669 in the US state of Illinois failed last week. The American company, which converts yellow-cake uranium into uranium hexafluoride (UF6) at the Metropolis, Illinois, plant, continued its inflexibility in finding a resolve to the dispute and to return experienced workers to their jobs. 
 
The 22-23 November bargaining came four days after many of the locked-out workers rode a bus throughout the night to demonstrate at Honeywell’s corporate headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey. The manifestation was meant to convince senior Honeywell executives that it was finally time to conduct serious bargaining and end the lockout, according to Local 7-669 President Darrell Lillie. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1011.Honeywell 2.jpg" width="177" height="148"/>
Local 7-699 members at Honeywell's New Jersey offices, 18 November
But at last week’s bargaining, Honeywell only agreed to pay workers their accrued 2009 vacation time in pay, something owed them anyway because most workers had been denied their legitimate work furloughs this year due to the lockout. Further bargaining is scheduled for 13-14 December. 
Meanwhile, the transnational technology and manufacturing company continues to use scab replacement workers to run the highly dangerous plant, one which transforms uranium into UF6 gas and then is frozen and sold for feed to the nuclear enrichment process. 
 
Honeywell has replaced the locked-out workers with 200 scabs from the Shaw Group, Unbelievably, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted certification to re-start the four-stage production process in September. Since, the NRC has issued a number of violations for work infractions. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1011.Honeywell 3.jpg" width="186" height="139"/>
Issues that separate USW Local 7-699 and Honeywell are retirement benefits and the company’s demand to create a two-tier pension scheme; Honeywell’s insistence on gaining broad contracting-out rights, which could mean the loss of many jobs and possible elimination of entire in-house departments; and weakening of workers’ seniority rights. 
 
Honeywell has offered a 3% pay increase, but its pension and work-rule demands are so detrimental that Local 7-669 has offered to accept a wage freeze for continuation of current contract items. 
 
The union has been uplifted by the tremendous support given workers by trade unions in southern Illinois, Kentucky, and elsewhere. Notably, Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 160 of Murphysboro, Illinois, has provided money and food to locked-out steelworkers, and soon will hold a Christmas party for workers’ children. 
 
USW Local 550 in nearby Paducah, Kentucky, whose members are employed by US Enrichment Corp., a private sector company that buys Honeywell’s UF6, also has contributed greatly, as has local branch unions of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and the United Auto Workers (UAW). And recently, a financial contribution was sent to Local 7-699 from Germany’s IGBCE union. 
 
Prior ICEM reports on this lockout in the US can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4066-Talks-Fail-Between-USW-Honeywell-in-US-Uranium-Lockout" type="internal">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3977-Lockout-of-USW-represented-Uranium-Processing-Plant-in-US-Continues" type="internal">here</a>.

Talks Again Fail in Honeywell’s US Lockout of Steelworkers

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
from the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) 
 
The meeting is the first joint activity on the organization of trade union networks in Latin American companies organized by the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and the Building and Woodworkers' International (BWI) to develop new strategies together with their affiliates. 
 
On 23-24 September, an international seminar on forming union networks in Latin American trans-national companies (TNCs) took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, representatives of the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), the Building and Woodworkers' International (BWI), and the ICEM representing workers in metallurgical, chemical, construction and wood sectors took part. 
 
Supported by the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES), the aim of the meeting was to exchange experiences on existing networking activities and joint planning of actions in these companies. GUFs and unions provided information on several companies, as well as on the relationship (or lack thereof) that currently exists between companies and unions. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1010.brazil.creditIMF.jpg" width="331" height="189" alt=""/>
Photo: IMF 
 
The companies reviewed were Vale, WEG, Votorantim, Petrobras, and Arauco Odebrecht. All of the companies are involved in more than one sector, and some engage in unacceptable anti-union practices. 
 
“Unfortunately, we have suffered so much abuse by foreign TNCs. But today we see that the Latin American TNCs are no different. Our experience also shows that the anti-union practices and disregard of workers' rights by some companies are even fiercer in the countries where the company has opened new operations than in their home countries,” said IMF Assistant General Secretary Fernando Lopes. 
 
During the meeting, all participants decided to support the workers struggle at Brazilian Vale's operations in Voiseys Bay, Canada, where 230 workers have been on strike since 1 August 2009, after the company would only accept to renew the collective agreement if the workers represented by USW agreed to a drastic reduction in conditions and increased job insecurity. 
 
The IMF Regional Representative for Latin America and Caribbean, Jorge Almeida said, "This meeting was also a first step in the region. In a few years, we will work on a global scale with the merger of three confederations overall: IMF (metalworkers), ICEM (chemical) and ITGLWF (textiles).” 
 
The meeting included affiliates from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru affiliated to IMF, ICEM, and BWI, and also included were representatives from IG Metall, Germany, and the US Solidarity Center, AFL-CIO.

FES Sponsors Tri-GUF Multinationals Seminar in Brazil

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A joint information campaign by the European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Workers’ Federation (EMCEF) and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is proving successful in alerting trade unions and workers’ representatives to coming deadlines of REACH and the Chemical, Labeling, Packaging (CLP) regulation of the EU. The campaign is aimed at workers inside companies that market or use chemicals in their manufacturing. 
 
REACH is the Registration Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals regulation, an EU statute that took effect in 2007 and which is being phased in over several years. REACH requires industrial operators to register any chemicals they make or import in quantities above one tonne per year with the new European Chemicals Agency. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.emcef.reibsch.jpg" width="240" height="180"/>
EMCEF General Secretary Reinhard Reibsch
The deadline for employers to register is 30 November 2010, and the EMCEF/ETUC campaign is asking workers to remind employers of this fact. The accompanying CLP regulation says they have to notify the new agency regarding the classification and labeling of all hazardous substances that go on the market, regardless of production volume. 
 
A 1 December 2010 exists for CLP Reclassification, while a 3 January 2011 deadline looms for CLP notification. 
 
The two European trade union federations see fulfillment of the requirements as job-saving measures in the European chemicals sector. “Workers in this industry are very interested in sustainable development of the sector based on high environmental values, social progress, and economic success,” said EMCEF General Secretary Reinhard Reibsch, adding the joint EMCEF/ETUC campaign is an extension of that.

EMCEF, ETUC Alert European Workers to REACH Deadlines

The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine & General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) yesterday called on the Government of Chile to radically change the procedural methodology it uses on mine safety once the imminent rescue of 33 miners at the San José mine near Copiapó in northern Chile is complete. 
 
In a letter to Minister of Mining Laurence Golborne Riveros, the 20-million-member global union federation called on the government to streamline workplace safety and health enforcement, now contained in several different ministries, into a single, autonomous agency “that has full powers and full technical capabilities to inspect and correct workplace deficiencies before accidents happen.” 
 
The ICEM is also calling on the government of Chile to begin the process toward ratification of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 176, the 1995 Safety and Health in Mines Convention. By adopting the global principles contained in Convention 176, Chile ensures that workers and their trade unions have a voice on safety matters and the ability to take action to prevent mine accidents. (The full letter can be seen <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/116.ICEM.Chile.MiningMinister.4Oct.pdf" type="internal">here</a>.) 
 
“In a mine, when a trade union safety committee is engaged with the respective company and government representatives, the risks in that mine gets reduced dramatically,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “This is basic to Convention 176 but, unfortunately, is woefully lacking inside Chile’s mining industry.” 
 
The ICEM called on Chile’s government to consolidate ministerial safety investigatory bodies into a fully-staffed independent rule-making agency that has judicial and other powers to ensure safe and healthy workplaces. In the letter, the ICEM states that creation of such an agency can also serve as the mechanism to implement and enforce the global mine safety standards contained in Convention 176. 
 
The ICEM commended Chile’s government for the intensive rescue to save the lives of the 33 San José miners, but reminded that massive work awaits both politically and administratively to prevent such disasters from happening in the future. 
 
The Geneva-based ICEM, composed of 467 trade union affiliates in 132 countries, is the representative global body for some 70 national mining unions in as many countries. The ICEM has a global campaign underway pressing on governments of resource-rich nations to ratify ILO Convention 176. 
 
For further information, contact Dick Blin, ICEM Information Officer, <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>; telephone: +41 22 304 1842 (direct) or +41 79 734 8994 (mobile).

Mine Safety Culture in Chile Must Change, Asserts ICEM 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
On 29 September, ten million bitter people demonstrated across Europe. They protested government imposed austerity measures brought on by a financial crisis not their fault, or the fault of those now feeling the pain from crisis-caused social cuts. 
 
In the weeks since, that bitterness and anger has not gone away. In fact, it is manifesting itself day by day through differing circumstances in different countries. What the angst and anger have in common from one country to another is the feeling that those that caused the pain do not share in it now. 
 
Perhaps nowhere is the anger more pronounced than in France, where last week’s strikes at refineries, pipelines, shipping, and transportation centres were compared to strikes in 2006. The country could be literally shut down this week if the strikes – focused on President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension reforms – continue. Prior 24-hour strikes were extended to continuous strikes last week, and another mass day of action is set for tomorrow, 19 September. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1008.no.to.austerity.banner.jpg" width="174" height="249" alt=""/>
The CFDT said 3.5 million workers taken to the streets by mid-week last. Although Sarkozy has pushed through portions of pension reform, he still seeks legislation to increase the minimum pension age from 60 to 62 and increase the age for a full retirement package from 65 to 67. As the strikes grew throughout last week, a poll showed 69% of French citizens support the strikes. 
 
In Romania on 13 October, Finance Ministry workers stopped work in a spontaneous strike and occupied the Finance Ministry overnight. They were joined by public-sector workers from the Work, Heath, and Post Office, all protesting elimination of bonus payments from July, totaling between €100-150 per month. That accounts for up to 60% of public-sector salaries. 
 
Continual protests in the Central European nation have now had an effect. Late in the week, the finance minister agreed to restore the bonuses for August and September. And a pension reform bill that would have lifted the retirement age for both men and women was sent back to Parliament for amendments because of “people mobilisation” and pressure from trade unions. The protests could become even bigger this week, since the menace behind Romania’s austerity cuts – the International Monetary Fund – is scheduled for an evaluation visit on 22 October. 
 
In the Slovak Republic on 12 October, thousands of trade unions marched in Bratislava and assembled in the city’s SNP Square, protesting the government’s harsh reductions in the 2011 budget. The measures include cutting one-seventh of the entire state budget, including cutting the pay of all public-sector workers by 10%. The Confederation of Trade Unions (KOZ) said the average family of four throughout the country will see a reduction in income of €400 a year, and instead calls for higher taxation on dividend earnings and granting relief measures to ordinary citizens. 
 
In the Czech Republic, trade unions are on strike alert today, anticipating the worst scenario on how a 10% pay cut in across the public sector will be implemented. A poll in the Czech Republic revealed that 58% of people polled believe the austerity measures will result in slower economic recovery. On 21 September, 40,000 Czech public-sector workers took to the streets because of the pay cuts. 
 
In Athens, Greece, protesters that are owed up to two year’s back pay barricaded themselves inside the Acropolis and had to be removed by police force. Other tense confrontations appear to be hotting up for Slovenia, Portugal, and the UK. 
 
Instead of pension reform, wage cuts, and budget curtailments, trade unions see jobs and economic growth as the catapult to recovery. Unions bear witness that most victims of austerity cuts are workers and the working poor, victims of an economic crisis set off by bankers and traders and aided then by the same neo-liberal governmental policies that now call out for social cuts.

Deep Anger to Austerity Continues Across Europe 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
IndustriEnergi (IE), ICEM’s strong Norwegian energy and chemicals affiliate, awarded its first Arthur Svensson International Award for Trade Union Rights to Wellington Chibebe, the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). The award came at the opening of IE’s Congress in Oslo on 11 October. 
 
Chibebe won the award as one of the trade unionists leading the courageous struggle in Zimbabwe for workers’ rights. IE’s Arthur Svensson Award is named after a longtime leader of Norsk Kjemisk Forbund, the Norwegian Chemical Workers’ Association, which merged in 2006 with NOPEF to form IE. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0805ZCTUCibebe.jpg" width="175" height="140" alt=""/>
Wellington Chibebe, ZCTU General Secretary
Chibebe told African radio upon wining the award that Zimbabwe’s unions must continue fighting for its rightful “democratic space” in Zimbabwe’s economic society. The global significance to the award, said Chibebe, is that the world now knows that Zimbabwe has appeared before the ILO Standards Committee every year since 2002, “culminating in the commission on enquiry which came to Zimbabwe last year and a report that moved the government to address the problems that have been facing unions.” 
 
Chibebe and others in Zimbabwe have been effective global voices against the brutish trade union abuses that occur in the country. In May 2008, he and ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo were locked up and charged with an absurd “communicating falsehoods” complaint against the state. In September 2006, Chibebe was beaten in police custody after being one of some 200 trade unionists seeking satisfactory work rights. He began his trade union career in 1988 as an apprentice railway worker. He became president of the railway union and then joined ZCTU in 2001. 
 
In praise of Chibebe’s award last week, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said in a statement that he has “courage, passion, and firmness of principle. We believe the African trade union movement in particular and the global trade union movement in general has an asset in him and we are yet to see more of his outstanding contributions as we intensify our struggle for justice.” 
 
The Arthur Svensson International Award for Trade Union Rights comes with a cash prize of NOK 500,000 (€60,000).

Zimbabwe’s Wellington Chibebe Receives First Norwegian Labour Prize

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) jointly stated on 15 October that they reject the recommendation by the European Commission (EC) to establish a central set of pan-European safety standards for the offshore oil and gas industries. 
 
The two Global Union Federations (GUFs) were responding to EC Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger’s rolled back recommendation for a “centralised and prescriptive” set of safety standards on 13 October. The recommendation follows the European Parliament’s rejection of a moratorium on deepwater drilling on 7 October by a 323-285 vote. 
 
The moratorium proposal was in response to BP’s Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico. Both the ICEM and ITF, as well as the industry group Oil and Gas UK, believe that a uniform safety regime imposed by the EC would infringe on union-management best practices already in place in the North Sea. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Lars Mhyre.jpg" width="157" height="132"/>   <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1010.norrie.mcVicar.jpg" width="125" height="144"/>
Lars Mhyre and Norrie McVicar
Responding to the recommendation that member states should consider suspending offshore licensing in advance of possible new EU-wide safety standards, Norrie McVicar, Chair of the ITF’s Offshore Task Force Group (OTFG), said: “This is the wrong position to take and the wrong time to take it. The EC should be protecting the safety gains made in the UK offshore sector, not eroding them by dumbing them down to a lowest common denominator.” 
 
Said Lars Myhre, ICEM Energy Sector Chair, “You can never be too safe and we would never condone complacency, but the British and Norwegian sectors are generally good examples of best practice. They should be studied, learned from and, where necessary, improved. They shouldn’t be remodeled into a one size fits all – but not very well – Euro model.” 
 
McVicar added: “One very positive feature of the UK industry is OSPRA, the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Advisory Group, which brings together regulators, industry bodies and trade unions such as Unite and the RMT in a joint effort to ensure that we get the oil and gas we need as safely and cleanly as possible. It’s that kind of good practice that we’d like to see adopted by the rest of the global oil and gas sector, not weakened here in Europe.”

ICEM, ITF Reject EC’s Common Safety Prescription in Offshore Oil, Gas

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
For the first time, collective negotiations in Germany’s paper industry will cover both the western and eastern regions of Europe’s largest economy. Those talks between ICEM affiliate IGBCE and Deutschen Paperindustrie (VAP), the employers’ association, started 7 October in Dresden and cover 39,000 paperworkers. 
 
Led by IGBCE Chief Negotiator for the Paper Sector, Holger Nieden, the union insisted in the first round of talks that orders in the industry have picked up, productivity has vastly improved, recovery in the sector is apparent, thus wage increases are justified for both regular workers and apprentices. VAP contended in opening talks that the financial crisis is still in effect due to high raw material and high energy costs. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0810PaperRollArt.jpg" width="190" height="115"/>
A second round of negotiations is scheduled for 12 November in Sulzbach, near Saarbrücken, Germany. IGBCE and VAP are coming off a two-year social accord covering workers at some 220 paper mills and paper converting operations. 
 
Without specifying an exact pay gain, the union said it seeks a noticeable remuneration gain, improvements in general conditions of work, and common collective agreement time frames between enterprises in the east and in the west. The current contract in the west expired on 31 August, while in the east, the two-year agreement runs until 30 November. IGBCE is also seeking special criteria for union members in a new accord. 
 
After 20 years of gradual wage adjustments and improvements in working conditions for paperworkers in eastern Germany, it is the first time that a common agreement is being negotiated for both the western federal states and the eastern ones.

IGBCE Seeking Wage Gains as East, West Enjoined in German Paper Talks

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM is encouraging trade union activists from southern Africa nations, Brazil, and India to be one of 20 participants in the Global Labour University’s (GLU) six-month “Engage” programme. A 1 November deadline for application approaches for a unique opportunity to engage in a diploma course that puts individuals on the front lines of current labour policies in the rapid globalisation of trade. 
 
The 20 trade unionists from those areas nations assuredly will strengthen their trade union capacities regarding analysis and then intervention on issues affecting labour struggles. “We see this as a big advantage for affiliated trade unions to have people with this experience return home and be involved in strategic national issues,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “We’re very enthused about this shortened curriculum and what it has to offer.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Global.labour.university.gif" width="92" height="87"/>
For details, including application and scholarship availability, visit the site <a href="http://www.global-labour-university.org/216.html">here</a>. Applications should be sent to <a href="mailto:engage@uni-kassel.de">engage@uni-kassel.de</a>. 
 
The curriculum will run from April to September 2011, and takes place at Kassel University in Germany and the Berlin School of Economics, as well as an internship at a global trade union federation. The programme was developed by the GLU, InWent Capacity Building International, a German labour-management development centre, the two German universities, and the global trade union federations. 
 
The six-month course includes 3.5 months of academic instruction that includes policy workshops with trade union representatives, and then a two-month internship on policy initiatives with a global trade union organisation. This is the second offering of the “Engage” programme. The first was a pilot project this year. 
 
The six-year-old GLU, part of the ILO, has trained trade unionists in economics and in social sciences from 49 countries in its short existence. The “Engage” programme gives national or local trade union staff the opportunity to pick up specific curriculums tailored to improve their skills at home.

Global Labour University’s ‘Engage’ Deadline Nears on 1 November

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The steering committee of the Repsol Global Workers’ Network met in Seville, Spain from 16-20 October. It was attended by oil workers’ unions from Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, and Spain. There was an 18 October meeting to prepare a session with Repsol management that dealt with industrial policy, health, safety, and environment issues, and subcontracting and outsourcing. 
<img style="WIDTH: 104px; HEIGHT: 70px" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Argentina.YPF.png" width="60" height="60"/>
Some of the highlights country reporting included: 
<ul>
 <li>
 <div align="justify">In Spain, work-time arrangements were ongoing in the wake of the fifth general agreement on working conditions; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="justify">In Argentina, some work functions were once again in-sourced due to the reorganisation of YPF; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="justify">In Brazil, new activities are in the pipeline because of the discovery of major offshore reserves; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="justify">In Colombia, ICEM affiliate Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) is focusing on organizing contract workers. In addition, there is more openness on the part of the government to discuss labour issues. USO scored a victory when workers sacked during a 2004 strike were reinstated. The government is opening new leases for exploration of oil and gas; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="justify">In Bolivia, employment has become stable due to mobilizations, which led to a consolidation of the situation at YPF.</div>
 </li>
</ul>
At the meeting with Repsol management on 19 October, the human resources representatives reported on the new drug and alcohol policy, the impacts on the environment and society of oil activities, new practices in subcontracting, and the future industrial outlook.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Repsol Red Sindical.jpg" width="171" height="88"/>
With the new subcontracting policy, trade unions are able to participate in the application of the policy in practice, and can follow up on contract workers’ work and employment conditions. The main principle that was stressed was that the workers’ representatives have the right to be consulted, and their proposals must be heard and examined in order for conclusions to be drawn. Regarding the future industrial outlook, the workers’ network expressed a will to be involved in promoting the development of the company. This involvement should be based on regular social dialogue. 
 
The network concluded that it needs to do more work to organise full-time Repsol workers, as well as contract workers who work alongside them. The coordination and mutual flow of information between the unions in Latin America and Spain must be improved. And more regular contact has to be established with Repsol workers in Ecuador, Mexico, Cuba, and Trinidad and Tobago. The next meeting of the network is scheduled to be held in Bolivia in July 2011.

Repsol Workers’ Network Meets in Spain

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