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The US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Region 11, has announced that it will be issuing a second complaint against Continental General Tire, the US subsidiary of global tyremaker Continental. 
 
The new complaint will allege that the company engaged in further unlawful conduct during negotiations which led to the strike at Continental's site in Charlotte, North Carolina. That strike is now in its tenth month. 
 
Continental has faced worldwide trade union protests this week over its conduct of the Charlotte dispute. The action is being coordinated by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the Charlotte workers' union, the USWA, is affiliated at the global level. 
 
Action this week includes: 
 
- A sympathy strike by Continental's South African workers yesterday 
 
- Australian trade unionists' picket of the German consulate in Sydney today - Continental's world headquarters is in Germany 
 
- Protests at Ford Motor Co. dealerships in 61 US cities - Ford fits General tyres as original equipment on several of its models in the US 
 
- Protests at German consulates in several US cities 
 
- Protests by the ICEM-affiliated Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale/Algemene Centrale, the union representing Continental's Belgian workers, and in France by ICEM affiliate the FCE-CFDT, which organises Continental workers there. 
 
The ICEM and the USWA recently filed a complaint with the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) concerning Continental's violations of basic worker rights in Charlotte. 
 
In the US, the NLRB had already issued a complaint against Continental General Tire this April, alleging that the company had violated the National Labor Relations Act by failing to provide five items of information necessary for the union to bargain on behalf of its members. 
 
The NLRB will now issue a second complaint alleging that the Company further violated the Act by: 
 
- failing to provide five additional items of information necessary to bargaining 
 
- engaging in unlawful surveillance of the striking employees' lawful union activities. 
 
The NLRB will also allege that all of these unfair labour practices were a motivating reason for the strike and that the strike has therefore been an unfair labour practice strike from its inception. As a result, the NLRB will also allege that the Company violated the Act by: 
 
- threatening to permanently replace striking employees 
 
- following through on this unlawful threat by &quot;permanently replacing&quot; striking employees (900 of them, on the company's estimation). 
 
By this ruling, the NLRB has made it clear that the company's hiring of &quot;permanent replacements&quot; and its continued insistence on keeping these replacements after the end of the strike is unlawful. The Company will now have to choose between bringing back all striking employees at the end of the strike or being in violation of the National Labor Relations Act.

Continental Tyres Campaign: Continental Tyres Faces New US Charges Of Law-Breaking

That accident was on the agenda and received discussion at the founding conference of the International Nuclear Workers&rsquo; Union Network (INWUN) at ICEM in Brussels 25-26 August. The independent network adopted a fees structure, passed bylaws and statutes, and elected officers. Those elected were Dave Shier, Power Workers Union of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (PWU-CUPE), president; Irina Micu, Energy Trade Union, Romania; executive vice president; Paul Reece, PWU-CUPE, general secretary; and Roland Glibert, Belgian Confederation of Executives and Management Staff at Belgonucleaire, Belgium, treasurer.

Independent Nuclear Network Elects Officers

A fifth Japanese worker died 25 August of severe burns incurred at the 9 August accident at the Kansai Electric Power nuclear site in Mihama. Another five workers are still hospitalized following the rupture of a steam pipe. Workers killed or injured were on the job as employees of Kiuchi Keisoku, a subcontractor doing preparation work on the plant&rsquo;s reactors. Public prosecutors are reviewing the accident to determine whether or not Kansai will be held accountable for Japan&rsquo;s worst nuclear plant accident ever.

Worst Japanese Nuclear Accident Claims Fifth Life

In Nigeria, legislation called the Labour Reform Bill that would severely weaken the labour movement continues to be pushed by the government in Senate hearings. The bill, which would impose restrictions on union membership and union operations, is seen as revenge on the Nigerian Labour Congress for its role in strikes and near strikes over fuel price increases. In vowing that the legislation will not get a reading in the National Assembly, PENGASSAN President Louis Brown Ogbeifun told trade publication Upstream, &ldquo;The government would be shooting itself in the foot if it pushed through measures to decimate organized labour, and I think they&rsquo;ll soon understand this fact.&rdquo;

Nigerian Labour Opposes Workplace Reform Legislation

A bitter diamond-mining strike in Botswana erupted last week when workers angered by a company take-it-or-leave-it pay offer defied union leadership and struck Debswana, the Botswana diamond monopoly run as a joint venture between DeBeers and the government of the southern African nation. 
ICEM affiliate Botswana Mining Workers&rsquo; Union (BMWU) was pushed to the defensive as the company used a prior legal ruling to suspend union matters by charging 32 branch and national officers with contempt of court. Some 2,000 workers among 6,000 miners at four highly profitable Debswana operations struck 23 August over a pay and bonus offer that fell far inferior to one given supervisors. 
According to the BMWU, the workers walked because the inferior pay/bonus offer was pulled from the table after rejection, and also due to an industrial court ruling barring a strike, a clear sign that the justice system was one-sided. The BMWU was attempting to put together a settlement that would end the strike and halt the harsh court action by Debswana and the government at the weekend.

Botswana’s Miners Strike Debswana

The ICEM&rsquo;s North American Women&rsquo;s Conference will be held 13 September in Ottawa at the headquarters of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). The statutory conference will coincide with a CLC march to protect Canada&rsquo;s national Medicare system as political leaders will gather that day to debate the future of the healthcare programme. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Minto Place Suite Hotel.

ICEM’s North American Women’s Conference Set for Ottawa

Eight hundred South African employees of global tyremaker Continental went on strike today in support of American colleagues currently embroiled in a long-running dispute with Conti's US subsidiary. 
 
The South African warning strike at Conti's General Tyre plant in Port Elizabeth today lasted for almost two hours. It was held in solidarity with rubber workers currently on strike at Continental's General Tire plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the United States. 
 
The South African workers downed tools this morning and, joined by an additional 150 union shop stewards, marched to the office of Continental's South African chief executive officer. There, they delivered a letter demanding that the company settle the strike in North Carolina. The CEO immediately agreed to forward the South African union's demands to Continental's parent company headquarters in Hanover, Germany. 
 
The South African rubber workers are members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), and the American rubber workers are members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). Both unions are affiliated globally with the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
&quot;The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa in General Tyre, South Africa, Port Elizabeth, is disgusted by the attitude shown by Continental General Tyre in Charlotte, United States of America, in failing to resolve and negotiate in good faith a protected industrial action led by members of the United Steelworkers of America,&quot; stated the union's memorandum of demands. &quot;We are utterly disgusted that the local management in General Tyre South Africa has refused to intervene to bring sense and reason to their counterparts in Continental Tyre, Charlotte, in the United States of America ... We demand that you use your influence and impress upon management in Charlotte to negotiate in good faith with our fellow comrades represented by the United Steelworkers of America.&quot; 
 
&quot;NUMSA is angry with Continental for refusing to acceed to the workers' demands in Charlotte,&quot; added Dumisa Ntuli, NUMSA spokesman. &quot;The company's refusal to negotiate a fair collective bargaining agreement with the USWA is an international disgrace for the company. NUMSA cannot accept a situation where the company is making huge profits and wants workers to accept substandard wages and working conditions. It was clear today that the workers at Continental's Gentyre in South Africa demonstrated their anger at the company and in support of our fellow workers in the USA.&quot; 
 
Continental's Charlotte plant in the USA is the site of a strike, begun on September 20, 1998, by 1,450 members of USWA Local 850 over the company's unfair labour practices. German-based Continental, which has already been indicted by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board on five counts of violating US federal labour laws, contends it has hired 800 &quot;permanent replacement&quot; workers at the Charlotte facility. 
 
Today's South African action is &quot;a tremendous demonstration of global labour solidarity for the Charlotte strikers,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe. &quot;The South African tyre workers understand that Continental's abuse of American workers is also an insult to them, and they have acted accordingly. It's time that Continental's management in Hanover got the message that this dispute is going to continue to grow until a just settlement is negotiated in North Carolina.&quot; 
 
&quot;We are extremely grateful for this act of solidarity by our South African brothers and sisters,&quot; added George Becker, USWA President and chairman of the ICEM&rsquo;s global rubber section. &quot;They have given new meaning to the old union adage that 'an injury to one is an injury to all.'&quot; 
 
The South African protest is part of a global week of action against Continental, begun on June 21, which is being coordinated by the ICEM. 
 
Other activities this week include protests at Ford Motor Co. dealerships in 61 US cities. Ford fits General tyres as original equipment on several of its models in the US. Also scheduled are protests at German consulates in several US cities. 
 
Protests have also been lodged in Belgium by ICEM affiliate the Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale/Algemene Centrale, the union representing Continental's Belgian workers, and in France by ICEM affiliate the FCE-CFDT. 
 
A demonstration will be held tomorrow at the German consulate in Sydney, Australia. This demo is organised by the Australian Council of Trade Unions and ICEM Australian affiliate the Construction, Forestry, Mining &amp; Energy Union (CFMEU). 
 
The ICEM and the USWA also recently filed a complaint with the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) concerning Continental's violations of basic worker rights in Charlotte. 
 
Continental acquired a 60% interest in Gentyre on July 1, 1998. The company, now called Continental Tyre South Africa (Pty) Ltd., produces about 10,000 tyres a day for car manufacturers in South Africa and for the export market.

Conti Tyre Global Campaign: South Africans Strike In Support Of Americans

Shareholders' investment in tyre multinational Continental &quot;is now being put at risk because of the irresponsible handling of labour relations in the United States.&quot; 
 
That was the disturbing message to shareholders attending Conti's annual meeting in Hanover, Germany, yesterday. 
 
Making the point was US tyreworkers' leader John Sellers. He was supporting a shareholder counterproposal to withhold indemnification of Continental's board until the company falls into line with the worldwide basic labour standards set by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) - &quot;including the right to form unions, collectively bargain and strike.&quot; The counterproposal would also have required Continental to renounce the use of strikebreakers. 
 
Sellers is Executive Vice-President of the Rubber and Plastics Conference of the American tyreworkers' union, the USWA. 
 
Behind his robust remarks in Hanover yesterday is a long-running industrial dispute between US tyreworkers and Continental's American subsidiary, General Tire. 
 
The core issue is that General Tire is refusing to pay workers at its Charlotte plant the going rate among leading employers of US tyre workers, even though the plant is now profitable. The American workers accuse Conti of failing to bargain in good faith and of trying to break the Charlotte local of the USWA. After provoking a strike, the company drafted in &quot;permanent replacement&quot; workers last September, thus effectively locking out and dismissing the strikers. 
 
In 1995, after Continental bought General Tire, the workers bailed out the Charlotte plant by &quot;giving back&quot; about 90 million US dollars in pay and benefits cuts. Charlotte is now showing a healthy profit, but the company is still refusing to bring its pay and conditions up to standard. 
 
As Sellers told the shareholders in Hanover, Continental now faces potentially massive costs for violations of US law. The USWA had experience of winning such &quot;wars&quot; which &quot;inevitably end up costing renegade employers millions of dollars.&quot; And to fight the union's &quot;massive evidence&quot; of violations by the company, Sellers said, Conti also faces &quot;additional costs - estimated to be over ten million dollars - for legal fees.&quot; 
 
Also speaking in Hanover yesterday were Earl Probst, President of the USWA local at Charlotte, and the union's corporate campaigner Jerry Fernandez. They were accompanied by General Tire workers Mark Cieslikowski and Charles Hill. 
 
The shareholder counterproposal was voted down - but with enough votes in favour to show that a fair number of investors had sided with the American trade unionists. 
 
Sellers also took the opportunity to warn that Continental will &quot;soon be the subject of demonstrations and solidarity actions in all parts of the world.&quot; 
 
At the global level, the USWA is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which has launched a strong worldwide campaign in support of the Charlotte workers. 
 
In Brussels today, Sellers told the ICEM Executive Committee about the latest developments in the dispute. He also thanked the ICEM and its affiliated unions for their support - in particular, the German union IG BCE for its assistance in getting the American workers' voice heard at the Hanover meeting..

Your Investment Is At Risk, Continental Tyre Shareholders Told

Nigerian oilworkers may pull out of the country's oil-producing region unless steps are taken immediately to ensure their safety. 
 
That is the warning from oilworkers' union PENGASSAN, which at the global level is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions. 
 
The union gave Nigeria's brand-new democratically elected government one month to tackle the root causes of violence in the oil-producing areas. Otherwise, oilworkers may stop work and move to other parts of the country. 
 
Communities in the oil-rich Niger Delta say they have borne the negative effects of oil extraction, such as the pollution of fishing grounds, without reaping any of the benefits. Dissent in these areas was severely repressed by Nigeria's military dictatorship. The frustrations that this has produced, added to ethnic tensions, have fuelled violence in which oilworkers are frequently targeted. 
 
PENGASSAN's National Executive Committee was meeting today in Warri, at the heart of the troubled oil-producing region, to decide further action. 
 
The union's President Shina Luwoye emphasised that PENGASSAN will not leave the area for as long as its members continue working there. However, he warned that oilworkers would no longer put up with being the targets of violence. 
 
&quot;Apparently, the safety of our members can no longer be guaranteed, as continued cases of arson, tribal killings, hijacks and hostages have threatened both the safety and the security of jobs, personnel and families,&quot; Luwoye said. &quot;In the last three months, for example, operations in Shell, Chevron, Mobil and Agip were most times below 50 per cent of available capacity.&quot; 
 
He said Mobil workers had been reportedly locked out and abducted by community protesters this May, and that seven Chevron staff may have been killed in Warri earlier this year. Two Shell staff had &quot;sustained gun wounds from a shoot-out between soldiers and aggrieved youths in the Western division of the company.&quot; There had also been &quot;cases of arson against facilities and community assistance projects of Chevron, Elf and [national oil utility] SPDC.&quot; 
 
Luwoye said the new government should give high priority to a &quot;legislative and economic framework for the permanent solution of the Niger Delta crisis.&quot; It should also implement &quot;feasible economic and social development initiatives and projects for the Niger Delta&quot;, including &quot;integrated and sustainable agricultural development.&quot; Consideration should be given to establishing a university in Bayelsa state. 
 
Meanwhile, Luwoye insisted, the new government should &quot;immediately set up dialogue and arbitration processes to resolve all conflicts and guarantee immediate restoration of law and order in the Niger Delta.&quot; In the longer term, &quot;the importance of true federalism&quot; for Nigeria &quot;can never be overstressed,&quot; Luwoye said.

Nigerian Oilworkers Warn New Government : End Violence Or We Leave

110,000 chemical workers in Germany's North Rhine area will receive a 3 per cent pay rise from today. 
 
The wage hike was agreed in the early hours of this morning, after tough bargaining between the workers' union, IG BCE, and the chemical employers. Also included in the package is a one-off extra payment of 200 deutschmarks for May 1999. In all, this represents an average income rise of 3.1 per cent. Apprentices' pay is also to be increased. 
 
The new agreement runs until 31 May 2000. Identical deals are now likely throughout the western German chemical industry - altogether, some 590,000 workers in 1,700 enterprises. The country's eastern states have separate bargaining arrangements. 
 
The hard-won deal is &quot;a viable compromise&quot; and &quot;respectable in the context of this year's bargaining climate,&quot; commented IG BCE's head of bargaining Werner Bischoff this morning. &quot;Now, structural questions within the chemical industry must be tackled through collective bargaining,&quot; Bischoff insisted. &quot;We'll be dealing with this in the course of the next few months.&quot; 
 
At the global level, IG BCE is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

German Chemicals Pay Rise

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