English

Español

Français

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action Plan 2025-2029

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Campaigns

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Women

Youth

LGBTQI+

Gender, equality, diversity and inclusion (GEDI)

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected Officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Press

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
The ICEM French trade union affiliate, the Federation of Chemical and Energy Workers (FCE-CFDT) Union, has launched a new section of their website that includes WebTV and online forum debates, open to all. 
 
Click <a href="http://www.fce.cfdt.fr/ ">here</a> to view. 
 
The forum, the union&rsquo;s first interactive online tool, enables dialogue between its members, employees, and activists. Personal questions and queries are explained by union staffers, with the explanations open for anybody, including workers considering joining the FCE-CFDT. This level of access to debates would not be possible using traditional tools. The new communicating tool is predicted to attract new members. 

<img src="" width="240" height="221" alt="" />
The forum was recently used by the union to conduct a poll on the union&rsquo;s popular new slogan, with the slogan &ldquo;Let us invent the CFDT of tomorrow!&rdquo; receiving the most votes. 
 
The WebTV gives free and open access to films and interviews on the work of the union, as well as news, federal campaigns, and actions underway. The ICEM applauds our French affiliate&rsquo;s initiative!

French FCE-CFDT Launches Online TV

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
On 5 April, 29 American miners were killed at the Massey Energy Company&rsquo;s non-union mine of Upper Big Branch in the state of West Virginia. The catastrophe, caused by a methane gas explosion, was the worst mine tragedy to occur in the US in 40 years and it triggered a fierce debate in America over the merits of union mines versus non-union ones regarding safety. 
 
Three weeks after the disaster, non-union miners at Massey&rsquo;s Montcoal, West Virginia, colliery did what other non-union miners have done in recent times when company negligence has caused a disaster: they called on ICEM affiliate United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) to participate in the investigation. 
 
Under US mine safety law, non-union miners can request the expertise of the UMWA in the event of a disaster, or safety occurrence. That happened at the non-union Crandall Canyon mine in the state of Utah in August 2007, following an explosion that killed six miners, and then days later, three rescue workers. It happened at West Virginia&rsquo;s Sago Mine a year earlier when 12 miners perished due to an underground explosion. 

<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="167" />
UMWA President Cecil Roberts
Then, International Coal Group and its owner, New York investor Wilbur Ross, blocked UMWA safety experts from entering the mine even though miners had designated their participation. The UMWA and the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) had to sue International Coal to gain access and uphold the law. 
 
Despite Massey and its CEO Don Blankenship being vehemently anti-union, that recurrence did not happen when UMWA a safety expert showed up at Upper Big Branch on 23 April to investigate. He was allowed on to the property. 
 
On 27 April, a US Senate hearing on the West Virginia tragedy heard testimony that Massey&rsquo;s Upper Big Branch mine had been cited a total of 515 times for safety violations, and 124 times alone in 2009. The company was hit with fines totaling US$1.24 million, but paid less than US$180,000 because the fines were reduced through continual appeals. And those appeals generally delay the necessary safety corrections. 
 
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very easy to game the system,&rdquo; said Joe Main, who heads MSHA as an Assistant US Labor Secretary. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a catch me if you can mentality,&rdquo; added Main, who once served as Health and Safety Director of the UMWA. 
 
UMWA President Cecil Roberts testified, &ldquo;The miners who work for Massey are scared to death. They&rsquo;re intimidated. This company is run like its 1921, not the present day.&rdquo; 
 
A day after the US Senate hearings in the state of Kentucky, two coal miners were killed when an underground roof collapsed. These deaths occurred at the Dotiki mine, owned by Alliance Resource Partners.

US Mine Workers’ Union Designated to Investigate Massey Coal Mine Killings

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
The European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Workers&rsquo; Federation (EMCEF) and the European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (EMF) joined together on 22 April in a Brussels manifestation, demanding a secure future for industrial sites across the 27 Member States of the European Union. 
 
Marching under the banner &ldquo;Power to Jobs in Europe! Time to Act!&rdquo; 1,200 people marched and then leading figures of EMCEF, EMF, and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) met with EU Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner L&aacute;szl&oacute; Andor and Industry and Entrepreneurship Commission Antonio Tajani to stress the impact that climate change, energy prices, and high raw material costs have on jobs. 

<img src="" width="240" height="180" alt="" />
EMCEF General Secretary Reinhard Reibsch 
 
Photo: Andy Michaelis
Demonstrators in Europe&rsquo;s capital city also called for stricter regulation of financial markets and the necessity to add needed social dimensions to EU emission-trading schemes. 
 
A simultaneous EMCEF/EMF manifestation occurred in the German city of Duisburg, home to the large German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp. 
 
Buses and trains replete with industrial workers waving the colours of their unions descended into Brussels. One busload of workers came from Scunthorpe in the Yorkshire region of the UK, where the steel-maker Tata Corus has shed jobs. 
 
&ldquo;We are uniting in Brussels to ensure workers come before profits,&rdquo; said Unite the Union National Steel Officer Terry Pye. &ldquo;Rising electricity prices are damaging our already weakened industries, making windfall profits for electricity companies. Pressure on raw material prices is also heightened by financial market speculators trying to make a quick buck on the back of our industries.&rdquo; 

<img src="" width="200" height="150" alt="" />
Photo: Andy Michaelis
Belgian ACV-CSC Metea President Marc De Wilde said industrial production in the Benelux country dropped by 30% in 2009, with a 10% reduction in the number of workers as a consequence. He said previously, suppliers and others provided long-term contracts that assured steady pricing and workplace stability. &ldquo;Now, only short-term contracts&rdquo; are given and that means instability for both workers and enterprises. 
 
EMCEF General Secretary Reinhard Reibsch spoke at the manifestation. He said, &ldquo;We need a clear policy of the European Union that is in the interest of our jobs and the economic future of Europe.&rdquo; Reibsch added that the economic success of Europe has historically been the industrial model, and that industrial production must remain the basis for creating a just and equitable society. 
 
Reibsch, EMF General Secretary Peter Scherrer, and ETUC Secretary Jozef Niemiec then met with EU officials. An open letter from the European labour federations to Commission President Jos&eacute; Manuel Barroso, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, and the heads of government of all 27 Member States stated that the time to act for preservation of industrial enterprises is now.&nbsp;

EMCEF, EMF Join to Demand European Preservation of Industrial Sectors

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
In October 2009, Paperiliitto of Finland faced a re-opener inside a 22-month labour agreement. Then, the state of the Finnish pulp and paper industry was so depressed that employers were certain to seek deep concessions from the union&rsquo;s 20,000 members. 
 
Instead, Paperiliitto opted to let the collective agreement terminate and wait until spring 2010 to renew bargaining. Even though the industry is not much better off now than it was last year, that strategy has worked. In recent weeks, the union and the Finnish Forest Industries Federation came to agreement on a two-year contract that began 8 April and runs until 31 March 2012. 
 
The new agreement contains no concessionary items. In fact, several forward-looking contract language provisions have been inserted in the agreement. Finnish paperworkers will realize a modest 2010 wage increase of 0.5%. A second-year wage increase and possible further language modifications will be negotiated before 15 March 2011. 

<img alt="" src="" width="180" height="151" />
Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen
&ldquo;Paperiliitto&rsquo;s Union Council believes this new agreement creates a good foundation for Finnish employers to secure continuous production at the endangered mills and gives our members the job security they deserve,&rdquo; said President Jouko Ahonen. 
 
The new agreement contains five amendments intended to protect workers in terms of job security. One major aspect of the accord is creation of six labour-management sub-groups that will engage in continuous negotiations on select items. 

<img alt="" src="" width="240" height="145" />
Paperiliitto achieved trial language in the contract that makes alternative work due to injury or sickness to be non-compulsory, with any assigned alternative work subject to the individual employee&rsquo;s consent. A work-time bank was also established, thus opening flex-time scheduling at the local level through negotiations between Paperiliitto&rsquo;s chief shop stewards and mill management. And a prior, tentative provision from 2008 giving workers three-day sick leave without a medical certificate was made permanent, a precedent inside Finland. 
 
In ratifying the agreement last month, Paperiliitto&rsquo;s Union Council sounded warning to Finland&rsquo;s government that upcoming decisions on energy supply for the pulp and paper industry must be made with job retention in mind. As well, the Council noted, &ldquo;The government can secure raw material supplies to the forestry industry in a far better way than previously. Besides close cooperation between the government and social partners, timely measures are required to secure the sustainability of employment, growth, and public financing.&rdquo;

Paperiliitto Ratifies Improvements to Labour Accord in Finland’s Pulp, Paper Sector

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
The ICEM German affiliate, IGBCE, accomplished substantive commitments for youth apprenticeship positions inside an 11-month national labour agreement with the chemical employers&rsquo; association, the BAVC. Those commitments will carry over for the next three years, and will mean another 27,000 young people will have career opportunities in Germany&rsquo;s keystone chemicals industry through apprenticeships. 
 
The 11-month length of the contract is a concession to chemical employers, with hopes that all 1,900 enterprises will regain solid financial footing before the IGBCE and BAVC resume bargaining for wage increases early in 2011. A wage freeze takes effect now for 550,000 workers, with ratification bonuses awarded instead. 

<img alt="" src="" width="180" height="153" />
IGBCE President Michael Vassiliadis
&ldquo;It is a good conclusion&rdquo; for the present, stated IGBCE President Michael Vassiliadis. &ldquo;It is fair considering the varying conditions in the industry and it helps build a bridge between the economic crisis and recovery.&rdquo; 
 
Foremost in the new accord is a social-partners commitment for life-long job opportunities for young people, which includes &euro;25 million in money provided by companies of the industry. The employers agreed to create 1,000 permanent jobs for young people in each of three years, with the fund used to subsidize companies at &euro;1,000 per month for each worker given a permanent position. 
 
The IGBCE negotiated the requirement that subsidies can only be given for workers that are IGBCE members. 
 
The ratification bonuses, to be included in workers&rsquo; salary pay checks this month, amount to &euro;550 for day-shift workers, &euro;611 for workers on five- or six-day swing shifts, and &euro;715 for night-shift and workers required to work across seven days per week. 

<img alt="" src="" width="150" height="242" />
Workers in enterprises that have not suffered due to the economic crisis will receive a further &euro;200 bonus on top of their stipends. For enterprises still facing difficulties, and with the consent of the respective European Works Councils, the overall bonus can be reduced, but not below &euro;300. 
 
Peter Hausmann, IGBCE Governing Board member, who heads the union&rsquo;s Collective Bargaining Department, said the new collective agreement reflects a stronger set of initiatives created by social partners for the industry. We have created &ldquo;new perspectives created for young people,&rdquo; as well as better job security provisions for existing workers, said Hausmann. 
 
The agreement was reached on 21 April in W&uuml;rzburg, following two days of national talks.

Youth Job Guarantees Won by IGBCE in German Chemicals Agreement

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s sustained attack on the National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros, was set back on 23 April, when a criminal court in the Federal District of Mexico dismissed a criminal complaint filed against Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia, the union&rsquo;s general secretary. 
 
The company&rsquo;s court case had accused the Los Mineros head of guilt in regard to financial irregularities during the creation and then dissolution of a workers&rsquo; trust. With Grupo M&eacute;xico alleging that $US 55 million had been embezzled by Los Mineros leadership, the court found this to be not true, with no evidence of any crime committed by the union. 

<img alt="" src="" width="190" height="201" />
Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez
The ICEM has repeatedly reported on Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s attempts to block the rights of its workers to organise and bargain collectively. As general secretary, Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia is forced to operate the union remotely from exile in Canada, and the 23 April decision in Court Number 32 acquits him of the only valid arrest warrant against him. 
 
The court decision needs ratification from the criminal division of the country&rsquo;s High Court of Justice, where the Attorney General will appeal. However, the ruling does have &ldquo;Res judicata,&rdquo; meaning that the decision is final and the defendant cannot be tried twice under the same charges. 
 
Since 2006, when the first criminal charges were made against him, the authorities together with Grupo M&eacute;xico have sustained judicial pressure through numerous cases and intricate legal disputes. 

<img src="" width="256" height="192" alt="" />
The ICEM is attending the 36th Congress of Los Mineros, starting today, Monday, 3 May in Mexico. One issue high on the agenda is the struggle of workers at the Cananea mine in Sonora State, where some 1,200 workers have been on strike since July 2007. As reported, Grupo M&eacute;xico has again teamed with the Mexican government to seek to end the strike, while the picket line has held firm. The Mexican Supreme Court recently backed Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s decision to close the mine. 
 
Los Mineros activists have refused to allow Cananea to be handed over to the company, and responded to the Supreme Court decision with a promise to destroy the mine if the authorities attempt to take it by force. &ldquo;We plan to burn it, if they attempt to force us out,&rdquo; stated Los Mineros spokesman Sergio Bultran. 
 
The ICEM, and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), participated in a demonstration outside the headquarters of Grupo M&eacute;xico in Mexico City on 23 April following a regional meeting of the IMF. The demonstration by some 300 mineworkers and others called on the company to come to the bargaining table to negotiate, and to resolve strikes at Sections 65, 201, and 17 of SNTMMSRM. 

<img src="" width="175" height="234" alt="" />
Demonstrators urged the company and the government not to violently move strikers out of Cananea. IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina was refused the right to deliver a letter to company Chairman and CEO German Larrea, or to any company official. The letter reiterating the support for joint ICEM/IMF affiliate Los Mineros, and the call for justice was finally delivered to a security guard at the front door. 
 
Raina criticised the company for refusing to meet. &ldquo;We are looking to Mr. Larrea, but they tell us they do not have time. Is it because they are counting their pesos or dollars?&rdquo;

Acquittal for Los Mineros General Secretary Napoleón Gómez

The UK Equality and Human Rights Commission recently published the damning results of an inquiry into the recruitment and treatment of agency workers in the meat and poultry processing sector in England and Wales. 
 
Although the investigation focused exclusively on the meat and poultry industry, it was said that &ldquo;...the Commission has no evidence to suggest that supply chain practices in the meat processing sector are more detrimental to workers than in any other sector that makes significant use of low-paid, agency migrant labour.&rdquo; 
 
The Commission found evidence of widespread poor treatment of agency workers, especially among those who are migrants or who are pregnant, both by agencies and by user enterprises. In particular, the Commission found evidence of practices that contravene legal requirements, ethical trading standards, and basic human rights. Other types of treatment were described as being &ldquo;an affront to dignity.&rdquo; 
 
One-third of agencies told the investigators that they had acted unlawfully by recruiting workers of particular nationalities, by giving preference to candidates with particular nationalities they judged the user firm would prefer, or by discriminating against certain nationalities at the direct request of the user firm. 
<img alt="" src="" width="237" height="60" />
While flexibility is often cited as being an advantage of agency work by the industry, only two workers cited the flexibility of agency work as a positive aspect. Almost all workers said they would prefer permanent work due to the security and rights it offers. More than 80% of the interviewees said that agency workers were treated worse than permanent workers in every aspect of their job. The agency workers said they received poorer pay, were allocated the worst jobs, and were treated like inferiors. Not a single interviewee thought that agency workers were treated better than their permanent counterparts. 
 
Workers reported being refused toilet breaks, and enduring physical and verbal abuse. Concerns about health and safety were raised in over half the interviews, and many interviewees expressed concern that their personal protective equipment was poor quality, ill fitting, shared with other workers, or missing altogether. 
 
The Commission found that abusive treatment was less common in organised factories, and said that &ldquo;In workplaces where unions are recognised, or have a strong presence, we found that they provide a significant degree of protection for workers.&rdquo; However, some workers reported that their right to Freedom of Association had been restricted and reported instances where hostility of companies towards union activities discouraged people from joining a union for fear of retribution. 
 
The report concludes with a set of recommendations to key bodies in the industry to &ldquo;encourage a systematic change in behaviour,&rdquo; and improve the operations of the Gangmaster Licensing Authority (GLA). Although outside of its remit, the Commission said &ldquo;...that there is a case for broadening the GLA&rsquo;s remit to include other sectors where low-paid agency workers are at risk of exploitation&rdquo; and urged the government to positively consider this proposal. 
 
Commenting on the findings, Nicola Smith, Senior Policy Officer at the UK&rsquo;s Trades Union Congress (TUC), said, &ldquo;This strongly evidenced based report demonstrates the scale of mistreatment that continues across low paid industries, where temporary workers with insecure employment status face some of the greatest risks. The TUC remains concerned that such exploitative practices are not confined to the meat processing sector.&rdquo;

Report on Abusive Treatment of Agency Workers in the UK

Lacking job security and decent working conditions creates a great deal of stress, particularly in people who are struggling to support a family. Medical researchers discovered, in the 1930s, that stress by itself could produce physical effects. Since then, there has been an ongoing effort to better understand the stress response. 
 
The strict scientific definition of stress is &quot;any stimulus, or group of stimuli, that provokes a physiological or psychological response.&quot; A more useful definition of stress in the work context might be &quot;conditions that exceed a person's normal coping capacity.&quot; In occupational health, we are particularly concerned with the stressful effects on workers of conditions in the workplace. 
 
What are the negative effects of excessive stress on health - and by health, we mean all aspects of physical, mental, and social well-being? 
 
The symptoms of stress are generally thought to arise from the &quot;fight or flight response.&quot; In our evolutionary history, human beings were adapted to respond to a threat by preparing to either fight, give chase, or run away. The body instinctively reacts in certain ways designed to prepare itself for a sudden, short-term, all-out effort to survive. 
<img alt="" src="" width="126" height="95" />
At first, the sense heightens, blood pressure goes up, heart rate accelerates, respiration increases, blood flow to the muscles is increase, muscles tense, and the digestive system shuts down. Your body temperature may change, provoking sweating. In our evolutionary past, these responses prepared you mentally and physically to meet a threat that would be resolved, for better or for worse, within a few minutes. 
 
The problem in modern terms is that our bodies seem unable to distinguish between the &quot;threat&quot; posed by a cave-bear, a bullying boss, or perpetual fear of job loss. The fight-or-flight response, maintained or repeated too often, results in chronic or long-term damage. These can include hypertension and cardiovascular disease, ulcers, colitis, compromised immune systems, headaches, and psychological changes. 
 
To further complicate things, different people respond to chronic stress in different ways and with different symptoms. Faced with the same workplace stressors, Jane may experience diseases of her digestive system while John may develop high blood pressure. These inconsistent symptoms have made it very difficult to get stress symptoms recognized as a legitimate occupational disease. 
 
All working people experience some degree of career stress; but workers who toiled under Contract and Agency Labour (CAL), who lack even minimal job security and often work for lower wages and in poorer conditions than their full-time counterparts, experience much more. Career stress should be thought of as adding to all the other stresses caused by every aspect of a person's life. 
 
To control stress in the workplace, the same hierarchy of controls that are considered in the control of any other hazard should be used. Control the hazard at the source, if possible; failing that, control the hazard before it reaches the worker (along the exposure path); and as a last resort, control the hazard at the worker. 
 
CAL workers have less scope to seek these controls. They may be subjected to heavy work demands, a poor workplace environment, harassment or bullying, shift work, role uncertainty, a lack of training, unrealistic expectations, lack of input or control over the work, poor ergonomic factors, a high degree of scrutiny or monitoring, and of course job insecurity. Stress at work can have a synergistic effect on stress away from work, capable both of exacerbating and being exacerbated by: family problems, financial problems, sleep and fatigue problems, financial problems, and a feeling of powerlessness and low self worth. 
 
Unlike full-time workers, who often experience a level of loyalty to their employer and their work, CAL workers can feel less commitment. In the long term, this can increase the risk of burn-out. Job performance will come to consist of doing just enough to get by, and this can spill over into personal life as the burned out worker fails to look after their own health, relationships, and families. 
 
Stress is not a trivial condition that can be dealt with simply by willing it away. It is a serious problem, and a proven cause of a wide range of medical conditions 
 
Control of the hazard at the source, would in this case mean the conversion of contract and agency jobs to secure, decent work. 
 
Contract and Agency Labour can and does make workers sick.

Contract and Agency Labour … and Stress

The Global Union Federation representing workers in the food, agriculture, and services sector, the International Union of Food and Allied Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF), has written to John Ruggie, UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, requesting that the relationship between precarious work and the effective realisation of human rights be incorporated into his investigations and recommendations as a matter of priority. 
 
In June 2008, Ruggie proposed a policy framework which was unanimously welcomed by the Human Rights Council. The &quot;Protect, Respect, Remedy&quot; framework is made up of three pillars: the state duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business; the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, by avoiding infringing on the rights of others; and greater access by victims to effective remedy, judicial and non-judicial. 
<img alt="" src="" width="145" height="73" />
John Ruggie 
In preparing to make operational the framework, Ruggie is currently consulting with a wide range of actors, including through an online consultation forum, that can be found <a href="http://www.srsgconsultation.org">here</a>, the forum for which the IUF used for its submission. 
 
In that submission, the IUF argues that a meaningful investigation of the relationship between business and human rights must address how the degeneration of traditional employment relationships has impacted on workers&rsquo; human rights. Non-traditional forms of working arrangements, such as agency work, contract work and bogus self-employment, are being used to undermine trade union organising and bargaining. Says the IUF, this is a &ldquo;fundamental human rights issue demanding a strong response rooted in a comprehensive human rights framework.&rdquo; 
 
The IUF draw attention to the ILO&rsquo;s 2008 report on industrial relations at Coca-Cola&rsquo;s Colombia bottlers, which found that the company was systematically denying and restricting the ability to join a union by outsourcing many core jobs. In order to redress this and ensure that workers are capable of fully exercising their rights the global union calls for urgent, systematic action by governments and business to restrict the use of precarious work.

IUF Urges UN Special Representative to Probe Precarious Work

The Zambian Labour and Social Security Minister, Austin Liato, has publically criticised some employers for using temporary workers to fill traditionally permanent positions simply to evade paying statutory employment benefits to workers. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Mineworkers Union of Zambia&rsquo;s (MUZ) 12th quadrennial conference on 27 April, Mr. Liato said this trend is found not only in the mining industry but other sectors as well. 
<img alt="" src="" width="83" height="107" />
MP Austin Liato
Mr. Liato said that despite the Government&rsquo;s commitment to halt the casualisation of employment, the situation has not improved. &quot;The Government has always led a campaign against casualisation. This state of affairs can't be allowed to continue and I urge labour leaders to be vigilant. We should not turn permanent jobs to temporary jobs,&quot; he said.

Zambia’s Labour Minister Decries Labour Casualisation at MUZ Conference

Archive