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 height="55" alt="" src="" width="138" />
Workers at Mauritanian contractor El Majabaat El Koubra Tours (MKT) remain on strike due to the oil services firm&rsquo;s sacking of union activists. 
The Energy and Petroleum Workers&rsquo; Union (CGTM) of Mauritania conducted a march and demonstration against MKT on behalf of the strikers on 18 November in the capital city of Nouakchott. The event drew over 1,000 protestors. 
The ICEM brought the dispute to international attention and on the day of the rally, MKT, a transport and logistic provider to Australian-based Woodside Petroleum, directed a four-page letter to the global union federation. The company admitted to the firings, but failed to justify reasons why the workers were sacked. 
In early October, MKT and the union reached a protocol agreement over terms, which included union elections for workers. But within days, the company sacked 16 workers, provoking the start of the strike on 14 October. A day later in efforts to reconcile the dispute, MKT agreed to take back ten workers, but not six others who were counted on by fellow workers to stand for election to union positions. 
The ICEM will continue to press MKT and Woodside for justice and recognition of legitimate trade union rights.

Contract Service Workers Remain on Strike in Mauritania

Led by ICEM German affiliate IGBCE, 3,000 protestors on 23 November demanded that tyre maker Continental rescind its decision to fire 320 workers at its St&ouml;cken plant in Hannover. 
<img height="263" alt="" src="" width="350" />
A day before the rally that occurred at the company&rsquo;s headquarters in Hannover, Conti chief executive Manfred Wennemer reneged on a deal to maintain jobs and production levels by stating growth rates at the plant were not high enough. Despite profitability and cooperation from the IGBCE on workplace matters, Wennemer&rsquo;s announcement stung workers and politicians alike, particularly in view of prior production shifts to plants in eastern European countries. 
IGBCE board member Werner Bischoff, vice president of Continental&rsquo;s Supervisory Board, promised the matter will get full attention at the Supervisory Board&rsquo;s 6 December meeting, and said any further cooperative efforts with the company are now in danger.

German Union Protests Continental Tyre Decision

<img height="99" alt="" src="" width="100" />
By way of introduction to the full ICEM background report on the Pulp and Paper Industry, the ICEM prepared a presentation on globalisation in the pulp and paper sector for the ICEM World Conference for the Pulp and Paper Industry, in Brussels, on 15-16 November 2005. 
The presentation builds upon the background document, highlighting the latest sector&nbsp;statistics, unavailable at the time the document went to press. It also provides a few examples of recent labour disputes in the sector, and makes suggestions towards solutions at the global level. 
 
For the presentation, click <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0511EugenePaper.ppt">here</a>. 
 
For the full report, click <a href="/?id=147&amp;doc=1513">here</a>.

ICEM Presentation on globalisation in the pulp and paper industry

23 November 2005 
 
His Excellency Dr Thaskin Sinawatra 
Prime Minister 
Kingdom of Thailand 
Government House 
Pitsunalok Road 
Bangkok 10300 
Thailand
Dear Sir, 
 
I write on behalf of the 20-million-member ICEM on a serious labour matter affecting your country. It is the unregulated and unceasing use of contract and agency labour by major employers in Thailand. 
 
In assessing a number of labour disputes in Thailand, some of which are in ICEM sectors such as energy and rubber, others in sectors such as metals and food, covered by other, fraternal Global Union Federations, the issue of extensive use of contract labour is at the forefront. I ask you to consider the harm such labour practices bring to the overall social development in Thailand. 
 
I write this prior to a group of trade unionists&mdash;many of whom are members of trade unions affiliated to the ICEM&mdash;bringing this issue forward in a rally outside the Ministry of Labour, and I implore you to hear their voice as it calls forth the ill-effects brought to workers, their families and entire communities when permanent jobs are replaced by contractors and agencies. 
 
I invite you to meet with these trade unionists, and I invite the Thai Government to initiate discussions on this critical issue affecting workers and the communities in which they live. 
 
The ICEM is leading a global campaign on contract and agency labour. We would be quite willing to join a dialogue between your government and trade unionists in Thailand who are recognising the dangers, and rightfully speak out on this issue. The ICEM realizes that it is not practical to call for a total ban on contract and agency labour. 
 
But what we do seek is that contract and agency labour be properly controlled to avoid the unnecessary displacement of direct workers and when there is a need to utilize contract or agency arrangements, trade union representatives be consulted and dialogue occur prior to contracts being signed. The logic to this in terms of productive enterprises, and well-being of workers, families and the communities in which they live is clearly evident. 
 
The ICEM is promoting such simple and precise language for employers, governments and inter-governmental institutions to adopt. Again, I respectfully request that your government give this labour issue serious attention, and I and the ICEM stand ready to assist in any manner possible. 
 
Sincerely, 
 
 
Fred Higgs 
General Secretary 
 
CC Mr Somsak Thepsuthin, Labour Minister, Thailand

ICEM letter to the Prime Minister of Thailand on Goodyear Contract labour problems

<img height="67" alt="" src="" width="150" />
Just hours before 130 paperworkers of the ICEM affiliate Svenska Pappers were about to strike an ABB Power Technologies paper mill near Oskarshamn, Sweden, on 15 November, a settlement was reached between the union and Swiss-based engineering firm. 
The agreement actually exceeds the standards in place in Sweden's paper sector. It guarantees workers at the paperboard mill the right to health care, education, all benefits and income development, plus ABB will pay Svenska Pappers 1.5% of the total salary cost for follow up and administrative costs during the term of the agreement. 
Pressure to resolve the two-year-long dispute was brought on management when,&nbsp;on 10 November, a Swedish labour court ruled the workers not only had the right to strike, but that sympathy strikes by other unions operating at the mill were lawful. 
The threat of a strike also was heightened when&nbsp;Finnish union Paperiliitto, another ICEM affiliate, announced it would engage in industrial action against ABB if Swedish workers&nbsp;at the ABB's Figeholm mill struck. Svenska Pappers was instrumental last spring and early summer in sympathy actions in support of Paperiliitto during a 7-week lockout of Finland's paper sector, affecting 25,000 paperworkers. 
&quot;We are happy to avoid a strike,&quot; said Svenska Pappers Negotiations Secretary Lennart Olovsson. &quot;But I am more relieved over the fact that we could stand up against ABB and their intention to introduce a completely new and inferior collective agreement into the Swedish paper industry.&quot;

Strike Threat, Finnish Pressure Wins Paper Mill Dispute in Sweden

<img height="55" src="" width="138" alt="" />
The nearly five-month strike by Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada at a plant of chemicals company Invista ended 28 October when the workforce to 350 voted by 77% to return to work. 
A back-to-work accord was reached in Ottawa on 25 October, and bettered the back-to-work protocol workers rejected 19 September that would have voided seniority provisions. CEP Local 28 and Invista, a wholly-owned subsidiary of giant US energy company Koch Industries, had agreed to terms contained in the new three-year agreement earlier. 
The strike at the nylon intermediates and polymer plant in Ontario began on 4 June.

Invista Strike By CEP in Canada Ends

<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="138" />
Copper-mining and smelter workers, members of US affiliate United Steelworkers (USW), voted 12 November to accept a collective agreement. The ratification ends a four-and-a-half month strike at Asarco, a unit of rich Grupo Mexico SA de CV, now a global mining company enjoying healthy profits from high metals pricing. 
Strikes by 1,550 steelworkers and members of other US unions at six mine and smelting operations in Arizona and Texas began in late June and early July and were followed by Grupo Mexico taking Asarco into US bankruptcy protection. 
Formal US government labour law complaints against Asarco moved creditors to settle the strikes, and the resignation recently of Asarco Chairman and President Daniel Tellechea helped clear the way for agreement. 
The dispute centered on further wage and pension freezes at a time when world copper prices are at an all-time high. Two other US affiliates of the ICEM have minority representation in some of the six Asarco southwestern US worksites, including the Boilermakers (IBB) and Operating Engineers (IUOE).

Copper Strike in American Southwest Ends

<img height="55" src="" width="138" alt="" />
A&nbsp;compromise was reached in the pension dispute at Shell Nederland that nearly shut all operations of the company in Holland, including the giant gas fields and plants of NAM Nederland BV, the joint venture between Shell and ExxonMobil. 
ICEM affiliate FNV Bondgenoten and Christian union CNV Chemie en Energie reached the compromise on 3 November, three days after shutdown procedures began at the Pernis oil refinery in Rotterdam and a petrochemicals plant in Moerdijk. Workers at Shell and NAM won through their unions an agreement that the early retirement age would stay at 60, while pension contributions by workers would not exceed more than 2% annually. 
Some 10,800 Shell and NAM employees are covered under the pension scheme.

Pension Dispute at Shell Nederland Ends

<img height="55" src="" width="138" alt="" />
Five global union federations, including ICEM, joined together on 31 October and 1 November to start the union-building modernisation project in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. 
The launch of the three-year project occurred in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and included unions from the host country, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Russia and Ukraine are also included in the project. 
Vsevolod Barbaneagra was appointed project coordinator, and an education unit of the unions will be established in Bishkek by the end of the year. 
Besides ICEM, GUFs involved include IFBWW, ITF, IUF and UNI. The project is funded by FNV Mondiaal of The Netherlands.

Joint GUFs Project in Central Asia Kicks Off

<img height="55" src="" width="138" alt="" />
A four-hour general strike across Italy is scheduled for 25 November in protest to the Berlusconi government&rsquo;s proposed 2006 budget. 
All three major trade union federations&mdash;CGIL, CISL and UIL, numbering 11.2 million workers&mdash;have called for the strike.
The Berlusconi budget, which must be approved by Parliament by year&rsquo;s end, calls for US$24 billion in spending cuts, plus regressive revenue-raising measures. Among the proposed cuts are US$2.4 billion in social security costs that companies now must pay for the welfare of workers.

Italy Poised for General Strike on 25 November

Archive