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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="110" height="54"/>
Branch leaders of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669 in Metropolis, Illinois, took their 11-month lockout at a US uranium processing plant of Honeywell to Europe and won the support from major trade union federations. They also won support from Honeywell’s European Works Council (EWC) Chairman, who put Honeywell’s risky American lockout in front of the American company’s 30,000 European staff. 
 
The European Mine, Chemical, Energy Workers’ Federation (EMCEF), European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF), and European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) all endorsed the struggle and called on global technology giant Honeywell to end the lockout. The plant employs 228 steelworkers, who convert yellow-cake uranium into uranium hexafluoride (UF6) for enrichment use in nuclear reactors. 
 
See a previous <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4120-Talks-Again-Fail-in-Honeywell-s-US-Lockout-of-Steelworkers" type="internal">ICEM news article</a> on this critical US labour dispute.  
 
USW Local 7-669 leaders John Paul Smith and Steven Lech, together with USW District Director Dan Flippo, were hosted by UK’s Unite the Union in Europe and met with national works council members in Germany and the European trade union federations in Belgium, as well as with members of Honeywell's EWC in Brussels. While in Germany, the USW delegation also met with leaders of ICEM affiliate IGBCE in Hannover.
The European trade union federations demand an end to the lockout, “with all workers welcomed back to their plant without reprisals, and with full agreement of the union the United Steelworkers.” 
 
The EWC member called out Honeywell’s careless contingency plan to operate the facility during the lockout, as did a Unite officer from the UK, Ian Tonks. “We believe the safety of the plant has been compromised on several occasions by the present temporary workforce,” Tonks and EWC Chairman Michael Petersen said jointly. 
 
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) gave Honeywell approval to re-start the conversion plant on 3 September 2010. Two days later, a hydrogen blast happened when accumulated hydrogen reacted with another gas during a venting process. The plant in southern Illinois also has seen uranium hexafluoride and hydrofluoric acid releases since replacement workers took up the jobs of skilled steelworkers in July 2010. The lockout started on 28 June. 
 
In Metropolis, the USW and Honeywell continue bargaining and talk more frequently than the once monthly set of negotiations in the first half of the lockout. But progress has been slow and Honeywell has been elusive and reprehensible at the bargaining table over the main issues in this long dispute – seniority, work rules, contracting out, a two-tier pension scheme, and health care costs. 
 
Following the last round of bargaining on 4 May, a Steelworkers spokesman told of the frustration: “Every time we address the company’s concerns, they say it’s not good enough and demand more. (They) change their position with respect to their own proposals, and we cannot bargain with a moving target.”

EMCEF, EMF, EPSU Condemn Honeywell Lockout in US

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Today, the ICEM Presidium held its bi-annual meeting in Geneva, with the annual meeting of the Executive Committee scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, 24-25 May. The meetings are being held at the ILO. 
 
Besides presenting a Secretariat Report and preparations for ICEM’s Fifth Statutory Congress, the decision-making bodies will receive an ICEM Action Plan for the Congress and beyond. The Action Plan will be a working document through to the Congress, scheduled for 24-26 November 2011 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 
 
On Wednesday afternoon, 25 May, the Executive Committees of ICEM, International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and the International Leather, Textile and Garment Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) will meet in joint session to review the integration progress. IMF and ITGLWF statutory bodies are also meeting separately in Geneva this week. 
 
The three Global Union Federations (GUF) have been conducting joint task force deliberations to explore integration and to lay the groundwork for it. The task force has met four times since September 2010, with the most recent meeting – in Frankfurt on 5 May – producing a tangible outline for a new and dynamic industrial GUF. In Frankfurt, Nordic trade unions stepped forward and offered Copenhagen as the site for a founding Congress, likely to be held in 2012.

ICEM Statutory Bodies Meet in Geneva this Week

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The ICEM has decided to support the case of the Mexican union, Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Empresa Industria Vidriera del Potosí S.A. de C.V. (SUTEIVP) in a complaint about violations of trade union rights at the International Labour Organization (ILO). 
 
SUTEIVP represents workers employed by Industria Vidriera del Potosi S.A., (part of Grupo Modelo) a manufacturer of glass bottles used by Mexico's famous Corona beer. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1105.mex protection contract.jpg" width="125" height="160"/>
In early 2008, the company summarily dismissed 220 workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement, including the executive committee of SUTEIVP. The company then entered into "negotiations" with a "union" that they invited in to create a sub-standard agreement and to act as a shield to keep out the real union. Such practices are common in Mexico, and are known as employer protection contracts. The yellow union and its corrupt leadership are generally invisible - often unknown to the workers - until a real union attempts to organize the workforce. 
 
SUTEIVP attempted to file a complaint under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Companies, using Mexico's OECD National Contact Point. In 2010, the Mexican NCP dismissed their case for "insufficient evidence". 
 
Manfred Warda, ICEM's General Secretary, will highlight the SUTEIVP situation in a speech to the upcoming International Labour Conference. The case will then be reviewed by ILO's Freedom of Association committee.

ICEM Support Mexican Glass Workers’ ILO Complaint

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On 13 May in Madrid, two great unions from the Spanish UGT confederation merged to form a new union, the 150,000-member FITAG-UGT, the UGT’s new union for food and industrial workers. 
 
Dissolution congresses of the two predecessor unions, FTA-UGT for food and FIA-UGT for chemicals and industrial, preceded the founding congress, with delegates voting better than 97% in both congresses to go ahead with the merger. Antonio Deusa Pedrazo was elected General Secretary of FITAG-UGT. The new Executive is made up of 17 members, six of whom are women. Roughly 32% of the new union’s membership is women. 
 
The union will negotiate 31 collective agreements in sectors that cover 10% of Spain’s total industrial base. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1105.ugt woman.jpg" width="239" height="159"/>
Mari Luz Rodriguez
The founding Congress made it clear that special attention will be given to sectors that are more difficult to organise such as ones containing small- and medium-sized companies. One focus will be immigrants who work in great numbers in some of the sectors that the new federation will represent. 
 
Spanish Secretary of State for Employment, Gender and Youth, Mari Luz Rodriguez, spoke at the founding 
Congress. She recognized the new union for its reinforced union structures and for defending the interests of workers. 
 
FITAG-UGT also made it clear it was laying the foundation for facing the challenges that confront trade unions, both at national and international levels. Those include: to respond to globalization and fight neoliberalism; strengthen the union role and strengthen European Works Council roles in facing multinationals; to make the most of international trade unions; to demand and get more stable and secure employment with more rights; and to demand more appropriate social protections and defend the welfare state. 
 
To meet these goals, FITAG-UGT resolved to organise more workers in all sectors that the new union serves, and to get more shop stewards to be present in all workplaces and to increase the union’s influence. The union believes better training, information, and structures will be put in place to achieve these goals. 
 
ICEM affiliate FIA-UGT itself is a product of mergers in Spain’s labour movement. The former Chemical Workers’ Union first merged with UGT branches representing oil and gas workers and then merged again with branches of miners and textile workers.

Industrial, Food Workers of UGT in Spain Merge

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Negotiations resume today and tomorrow, 20-21 June, for 4,000 Australian coal miners employed by the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA), the world’s top exporter of metallurgical coal. Union allies, led by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), conducted successful stop-work meetings last week that saw broad agreement among miners that they want job security and an end to work practices of Australia’s bygone WorkChoices era. 
 
The union alliance, called the Single Bargaining Unit and consisting of CFMEU, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) and the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU), met yesterday to prepare for this week’s pivotal talks. 
 
The six-hour and longer stop-work meetings, held across seven BMA mines of the Bowen Basin, Queensland, from 14-17 June, saw miners vent frustration at BMA intransigence that has stalled bargaining, and company arrogance inside those talks. The two sides have been bargaining since December 2010. See ICEM <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4463-Aussie-Coal-Miners-Vote-92-to-Strike-BHP-Billiton-Mitsubishi-Alliance" type="internal">InBrief No. 182</a> report on this enterprise bargaining dispute here. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.cfmeu steve smyth.jpg" width="110" height="110"/>
Stephen Smyth
Union members are “sick and tired of the same rhetoric being spat out of the company’s PR machine,” said CFMEU District President Stephen Smyth to the Central Queensland News. Miners and export facility workers voted in May for lawful industrial action by better than 92%. They are vehemently opposed to BMA proposals on changes in work rosters and moves toward subcontracting that will cost jobs and equitable incomes. 
 
The stop-work meetings were attended by between 300 and 1,000 miners each in forums at BMA’s Broadmeadow and Saraji mines on 14 June, Blackwater and Gregory Crinum mines on 15 June, Goonyella Riverside and Norwich Park mines on 17 June, and Goonyella and Peak Downs mines on 18 June. BMA is a 10-year-old joint venture between two of the world’s industrial titans that produces 58 million tones annually of coking coal.

Stop-Work Meetings Raise Stakes in Queensland Coal Talks

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From the International Union of Food & Agriculture (IUF) Association
Business is doing well at Unilever’s personal products factory at Doom Dooma in the Indian state of Assam. But nearly four years after management tried to destroy the union with a punishing six-week lockout, and almost one year since the IUF and Unilever formally concluded an agreement to settle the dispute under the auspices of the UK government, the workers are still waiting for their union to be recognized as their collective bargaining agent. 
 
The workers’ mood is one of deepening frustration. How has this happened? 
 
On July 15, 2007 a dispute over the breach of a provision in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) led to a lockout of 700 union members of the Hindustan Lever Workers’ Union. Management’s condition for ending the lockout was that the legitimate union disbands and that all workers transfer their membership to a hastily improvised construction dubbed the Hindustan Unilever Democratic Workers Union (HUSS). Workers were forced to sign forms to this effect as a condition for returning to work on September 3. Shortly after this, a CBA with the new organization was registered with the local authorities – and workers found that their union check-off was being paid to the sham union against their wishes. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0711Unileverlogo.jpg" width="150" height="161"/>
On December 5, 2007, the union protested this illegal subsidy to a non-representative trade union to management – together with a petition with 372 signatures, of names and employee numbers. 
 
In October 2007, the IUF followed a complaint about these union-busting practices with the UK National Contact Point (NCP) responsible for the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises. Nothing happened, either in Doom Dooma or at the NCP. 
 
In June 2008, the NCP suspended the complaint because the legitimate union petitioned the Assam High Court to hold a state-supervised election to determine which organization represented the workers for collective bargaining purposes. The Court took its time. Unilever continued to illegally deduct the check-off subsidy for their own creation. 
 
In February 2010 the High Court finally got around to issuing a decision: it had no jurisdiction to supervise an election, but there was no legal obstacle to the parties agreeing on an election procedure outside the court. 
 
In July 2010, Unilever and the IUF agreed, under the auspices of the NCP, to do just that. The illegal dues check off would cease, the authorities would be asked to conduct an election under agreed conditions, and should the authorities refuse a procedure was agreed to hold voluntary elections under a third party. 
 
The deductions stopped for a month – and then resumed. Only in February this year, did illegal deductions to the yellow union definitely cease. But workers cannot use the check-off to support the work of their own union – there is no check-off. And the elections exist only on a paper signed in London, with one excuse after another invoked to explain why they don’t take place. 
 
For four long years, workers at the plant have been denied the right to support, with a contribution from their wages, the union they have repeatedly declared should represent them. By consistently refusing to implement an agreement signed by the IUF in good faith, Unilever has shown contempt for the Assam workers, for their union, for the IUF and for the UK National Contact Point. The IUF will take all necessary action in support of its members in Doom Dooma. 
 
See the full <a href="http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/951">IUF report</a> here.

Patience Thin at Unilever-India as Company Evades Union Rights

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A strike by over 200 militants of the Metal and Allied Namibian Workers’ Union (MANWU) from 6-9 June succeeded in winning salary and housing increases at the companies of the Plastic Packaging Group, a polymer manufacturing and recycling chain of companies that operates in Namibia, Angola, and the Northern Cape of South Africa. 
 
At Namibian workplaces in Windhoek and Okahandja, striking MANWU workers forced company managers back to the bargaining table on 9 June, where they increased a previously unacceptable pay and housing allowance offer. The bargaining was aided by mediation from the Namibian Labour Commissioner’s office, which on 23 May had declared the collective agreement unresolved. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Namibia.png" width="170" height="78" alt=""/>
The strike caused Plastic Packaging managers to raise a prior and combined 12% offer closer to the 19% demands of workers. The compromise agreement will give each worker an N$280 (€29) monthly pay and housing increase retroactive to March of this year. 
 
The dispute was fraught with charges and counter-charges of threats and intimidation on shop stewards who were calling for the strike. The Plastic Packaging Group is Namibia’s only maker and distributor of polymer packaging products. It consists of Plastic Packaging Namibia, Polyoak Packaging Namibia, and Namibia Polymer Recyclers, as well as Plastic Packaging Cape and Agno Plastics. 
 
MANWU is affiliated to the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF).

Metal, Allied Namibian Union Wins Pay, Housing Gains in Packaging Strike

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“The Chemical Industry in 2020 – a New Direction is Possible” is the motto of the project initiated by ICEM’s Brazilian affiliate, the ABC Chemical Workers’ Union, with business, trade unions, local governments, and civil society. The project was launched at a panel discussion held on 10 June in Santo André that addressed economic dimensions of chemical industry. 
 
On 8 July and 12 August, respectively, further debates will ensue on social and environmental dimensions. The final international conference will then take place on 26-28 September. 
 
For composition of panel discussions and conferences, the ABC Chemical Workers’ Union contacted with individuals from labour, business, and local and federal government agencies, as well as with the ILO, Dieese, Inmetro, and others. The idea is also finish off with a conference to include former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.brazil chems meeting photos.png" width="127" height="189" alt=""/>
"In the International Year of Chemistry, we want workers to enter into debates in chemicals over economic, social, and environmental responsibilities with a view to contribute to discussions for reaching the Rio +20 goals (year 2020 goals),” said ABC Chemical Workers’ Union President Paul Lage. “Our initiative aims to discuss with all social actors the promotion of sustainable development in the Brazilian chemical industry on social dialogue and decent work." 
 
The project received support from industry. "It's an opportunity to take stock of all actions that meet the goals for 2020,” said Luis Paulo Bresciani of the Inter-municipal Consortium of the Greater ABC Region. He added that the initiative is attune to the present with a view toward the future through an objective discussion on sustainability. 
 
“The future of the chemical industry is the future of our region,” Bresciani said, referring to the ABC region of seven municipalities around São Paulo. The industry will benefit not only from the debates but also in terms of public policies that will come from them, he said. 
 
“ICEM is proud of this important initiative led by our affiliate ABC Chemical Workers’ Union,” said ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal Özkan. “This is a clear example on how our affiliates in chemicals mobilize for industrial policy and sustainable development.”

Brazil’s ABC Chemical Workers’ Union Launches Social Dialogue Project

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From the International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers' Federation
A historic agreement has been signed, 7 June, regarding trade union rights in factories in Indonesia. The pact was signed by Indonesian textile, clothing and footwear unions, major supplier factories and the major sportswear brands, including Adidas, Nike and Puma. A keynote speech was delivered by Mr. Muji Handoyo, General Director of Labour Inspection, who expressed his appreciation of the efforts of the parties to ensure that freedom of association is respected. 
 
Workers in Indonesia and in other countries producing sportswear are frequently prevented from organizing at sportswear supplier factories and from carrying out union activities. Recent research covering 18 factories in Indonesia found that all had taken anti-union measures. 
 
“This protocol is important because our law does not cover technical implementation of freedom of association. It also ensures brands take responsibility to ensure respect for union rights” states Lilis Mahmudah, Head of Program for SPN. “Our members have been waiting for this agreement to be concluded. It will help us in our bargaining efforts” adds Emelia Yanti, General Secretary of GSBI. 
 
The agreement has been made possible by the Play Fair campaign, which since 2004 has been campaigning for global sportswear brands to take concrete steps to improve conditions in their supply chains. The campaign was represented at the signing by Oxfam Australia, the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation and the Clean Clothes Campaign. 
 
“The signing of this freedom of association protocol is an important first step in improving the situation for the hundreds of thousands of sportswear workers facing low wages and poor conditions” says Jeroen Merk of the CCC. “The real test, however, will be in its implementation” adds Ashling Seely of the ITGLWF. 
 
In the run up to the London 2012 Olympics the Play Fair Campaign will be encouraging other sportswear and garment brands to sign up to the <a href="http://www.play-fair.org/media/wp-content/uploads/FOA-Protocol_English-translation_May-20112.pdf">protocol</a>.

Indonesia:  Historic Pact Strengthens Sportswear Workers' Union Rights

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Over 400 delegates and guests attended the 5th Congress of the ICEM-affiliated Russian Oil, Gas, and Construction Workers’ Union (ROGWU) 22-23 December 2010, at the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. 
 
The Congress re-elected Lev Mironov as President in a closely fought three-way election. ROGWU also elected two Vice Presidents, Vladimir Kosovich and Nadezhda Zvyagintseva. 
 
The Congress also marked 20 years of the union in its present form, having been established in December 1990 with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the Russian Federation as an independent state, making it necessary to restructure trade union work. However, the origins of the Oil, Gas, and Construction Workers’ Union dates back to 1906 and the first organisation of workers at the oil plants in the Caspian Sea city of Baku, now Azerbaijan. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.rogwu congress.jpg" width="259" height="182"/>
Today the union represents around 1.4 million members. Functioning in 63 subjects of the Russian Federation are some 2,700 primary union organizations, 28 territorial elective bodies, and six inter-regional trade union organizations of the companies Lukoil, Gazprom, Sibur-Holding, Tatneft, Novatech, and Sodrujestvo. 
The Congress approved the basic directions of activity for ROGWU for 2011-2015 and adopted amendments to the Charter of Oil, Gas, and Russia, as well as a resolution on the institutional strengthening of trade unions, a resolution dealing with the urgent issues of social protection, labour rights, and economic interests of workers, union policies on youth, on information and analytical work regarding gender equality, as well as an appeal to employers organizations of the oil and gas industry. 
 
Jim Catterson and Anatoly Surin represented the ICEM Secretariat at the Congress, with a number of important oil industry affiliated unions, including Norway’s IndustriEnergi (IE) also present. 
 
ROGWU has posted material about the Congress <a href="http://rogwu-center.ru/en/news/detail.php?ID=9584 ">here</a>.

ROGWU Re-Elects Lev Mironov at Fifth Congress in Moscow

Archive

EMCEF, EMF, EPSU Condemn Honeywell Lockout in US

ICEM Statutory Bodies Meet in Geneva this Week

ICEM Support Mexican Glass Workers’ ILO Complaint

Industrial, Food Workers of UGT in Spain Merge

Stop-Work Meetings Raise Stakes in Queensland Coal Talks

Patience Thin at Unilever-India as Company Evades Union Rights

Metal, Allied Namibian Union Wins Pay, Housing Gains in Packaging Strike

Brazil’s ABC Chemical Workers’ Union Launches Social Dialogue Project

Indonesia: Historic Pact Strengthens Sportswear Workers' Union Rights

ROGWU Re-Elects Lev Mironov at Fifth Congress in Moscow

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