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Nashville, Tennessee, USA 
May 12-13, 2009
A g e n d a

&nbsp;
Monday, May 11, 2009 
 
Arrival of participants 
 
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 
 
08:00 Registration 
 
09:30 Opening of the Conference: 
Stan Johnson, International Secretary-Treasurer/Chairman of the Rubber&amp;Plastics Conference of USW 
 
10:00 General Report on ICEM Activities 
Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary 
 
10:30 Presentation: &ldquo;Global Industry Trends and Challenges&rdquo; 
Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries Officer <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Kemal%20presentation%201.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
11:00 Coffee-break 
 
11:30 First panel discussion: &ldquo; Effects Of Global Crisis on the Industry and Trade Union Challenges&rdquo; 
Peter Bakvis, ITUC/Global Unions <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/PETER%20BAKVIS%20PRESENTATION.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
Fabio Lins, CNQ-CUT, Brasil 
Jacques Caltot, FCE-CFDT, France 
Alexander Sitnov, RCWU, Russia 
K.K. Siritharan, NUECMRP, Malaysia 
 
Discussions 
 
13:00 Lunch 
 
14:30 Presentation: &ldquo;Collective Bargaining, Wage Developments and Employment Relationship&rdquo; 
Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries Officer <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Kemal%20presentation%202.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
15:00 Second panel discussion: &quot;Rising Hardships and Distortion in Work Relationships&quot; 
Pedro Wasiejko, SUTNA-CTA, Argentina 
Edwin Cisco, FAWUL, Liberia 
Kevin Johnson, USW, USA <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20presentation%20johnson.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
Holger Michel, IG BCE, Germany 
 
16:00 Coffee-break 
 
16:30 Discussions 
 
Summary of panels 
 
17:00 End of first day work 
 
19:00 Conference dinner 
 
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 
 
09:30 Presentation: &ldquo;Global Trade Union Response Against Challenges&rdquo; 
Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries Officer <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Kemal%20presentation%203.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
10:00 Third panel discussion: &ldquo;Global Agreements, Global/Regional Company &amp; Sector Networks and Campaigns&rdquo; 
Cyrille Poughon, FCE-CFDT, France <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20poughton.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
Jesus Delgado, FIA-UGT, Spain <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20delgado.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
Fabio Lins, CNQ-CUT, Brasil <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20futinal.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
Michael Mersmann, IG BCE, Germany 
Melinda Newhouse, USW, USA <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20newouse.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
11:00 Coffee-break 
 
11:30 Presentation: &ldquo;Healthy and Safe Work and Environment; Sustainable Development&rdquo; 
Brian Kohler, ICEM Health, Safety and Sustainibilty Officer <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Health%20&amp;%20Safety%20Rubber%20Conf.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
12:00 Fourth panel discussion: &ldquo;How To Improve Health And Safety for Workers; What Kind of Industrial Policy for Greener Environment by Securing Jobs&rdquo; 
Jim Frederick, USW, USA <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20usw.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
Jacques Caltot, FCE-CFDT, France <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20caltot.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
13:00 Lunch 
 
14:30 Presentation: &ldquo;Action Plan For Upcoming Period&rdquo; Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries Officer <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20kemal%204.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
15:00 Fifth panel discussion: &ldquo;How To Better Coordinate Global Union Solidarity, Support and Cooperation&rdquo; 
Jerry Fernandez, USW, USA <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20usw%202.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
Phil McNulty, T&amp;G-AMICUS, UK 
Pedro Vasiejko, SUTNA, Argentina 
Austin Natee, FAWUL, Liberia 
 
16:00 Coffee-break 
 
16:30 Discussions 
 
Summary of panels and presentation of action plan 
Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary 
 
16:45 Election of Industry Chairman 
 
Closing speech of Chairman 
 
17:00 End of the conference 
 
Thursday, May 14, 2009 
 
Departure of participants

ICEM World Conference for the Rubber Industry

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
ICEM'in d&ouml;rt yılda bir d&uuml;zenlenen Lastik İşkolu D&uuml;nya Konferansı 12-13 Mayıs 2009 g&uuml;nlerinde ABD'nin Tennessee Eyaleti&rsquo;nin Nashville kentinde 70'i aşkın katılımcıyla toplanıyor. ABD Birleşik &Ccedil;elik İş&ccedil;ileri Sendikası'nın ev sahipliğini yapacağı Konferans&rsquo;ı, aynı zamanda sendikanın genel başkanı olan, ICEM Lastik İşkolu B&ouml;l&uuml;m&uuml; Başkanı Leo Gerard y&ouml;netecek. 

<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="140" />
Leo Gerard, ICEM Lastik İşkolu B&ouml;l&uuml;m&uuml; ve Birleşik &Ccedil;elik İş&ccedil;ileri Sendikası Başkanı 
ICEM Kimya ve Lastik İşkolları Sorumlusu Kemal &Ouml;zkan &ldquo;K&uuml;resel Sekt&ouml;rel Trendler ve Sorunlar&rdquo; konusunda bir sunum yapacak. 
 
Konferans şu beş konuda yapılacak &ccedil;alışma toplantılarından oluşacak: &ldquo;K&uuml;resel Krizin Sekt&ouml;r &Uuml;zerindeki Etkileri ve Sendikal Sorunlar&rdquo;, &ldquo;&Ccedil;alışma İlişkilerindeki Zorluklar&rdquo;, &ldquo;K&uuml;resel S&ouml;zleşmeler, K&uuml;resel/B&ouml;lgesel Ağlar ve Kampanyalar&rdquo;, &ldquo;İş&ccedil;i Sağlığı ve G&uuml;venliğinin İyileştirilmesi: &Ccedil;evre Bağlamında İstihdam Politikaları&rdquo; ve &ldquo;K&uuml;resel Sendikal Dayanışmanın, Desteğin ve İşbirliğinin Koordinasyonu&rdquo;. 
 
ICEM İş Sağlığı, G&uuml;venliği ve S&uuml;rd&uuml;r&uuml;lebilirlik B&ouml;l&uuml;m&uuml; Sorumlusu Brian Kohler sekt&ouml;rde iş sağlığı ve g&uuml;venliği konusunda bir sunum yapacak.

ICEM&#039;in Dünya Lastik Konferansı ABD&#039;nin Nashville kentinde toplanıyor

<img height="71" alt="" src="" width="50" />
<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0801KEMAL-OZKAN-SUNUM.ppt ">Altişveren ve D&uuml;zensiz Istihdam</a> 
Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM
&nbsp;<img height="43" alt="" src="" width="30" />
<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0801CAN-SAFAK-KRISTAL-IS-SUNUM.ppt ">T&uuml;rkiye'de Cam Fabrikalarinda Altişveren Uygulamalari 
</a>Can Şafak, Kristal-Iş Sendikasi, Turkiye
<img height="43" alt="" src="" width="30" />
<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0801FIKRET-SAZAK-TURKIYE-MADEN-IS-SUNUM.ppt ">Madencilik Sekt&ouml;r&uuml;nde &Ouml;zelleştirmenin Etkileri ve Altişveren Uygulamaları</a> 
Fikret Sazak, Maden-Iş, Turkiye
<img height="43" alt="" src="" width="30" />
&nbsp;<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0801CELIL-COBAN-FNV-BONDGENOTEN-SUNUM.ppt">Altişveren ve D&uuml;zensiz Istihdam</a> 
Celil &Ccedil;OBAN, FNV Bondgenoten, Netherlands
<img height="43" alt="" src="" width="30" />&nbsp;
<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0801OSMAN-ELMACI-FNV-BONDGENOTEN.ppt ">Altişveren ve D&uuml;zensiz Istihdam 
</a>Osman Elmaci, FNV Bondgenoten, Netherlands 
<img height="43" alt="" src="" width="30" />
<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0801EMCEF-TR.ppt ">D&uuml;zensiz İstihdam</a> 
&nbsp;Reinhard Reibsch, EMCEF 
(Turkish version)
<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0801EMCEF-EN.ppt ">Contract and Agency Work</a> 
Reinhard Reibsch, EMCEF 
(English version)
<img height="43" alt="" src="" width="30" />
<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0801HANS-PALMQVIST-IFMETALL-TR.ppt ">D&uuml;zensiz İstihdam &ndash; İsve&ccedil; Modeli </a> 
Hans Palmqvist, IFMetall, İsve&ccedil; 
(Turkish version)
<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0801HANS-PALMQVIST-IFMETALL-EN.ppt ">Contract and Agency Labour &ndash; The Swedish Model 
</a>Hans Palmqvist, IFMetall, Sweden 
(English version)
<img height="43" alt="" src="" width="30" />
<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0801ILO-TR.ppt ">D&uuml;zensiz Istihdam: ILO&rsquo;nun Faaliyetleri</a> 
Vladislav Egorov, ILO 
(Turkish version) 

<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0801ILO-EN.ppt">Contract and Agency Labour - ILO Action</a> 
Vladislav Egorov, ILO 
(English version)
<img height="43" alt="" src="" width="30" />
<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0801MICHAEL-WOLTERS-IGBCE-TR.ppt ">ICEM D&uuml;zensiz İstihdam Konferansı</a> 
Michael Wolters, IG BCE, Almanya 
(Turkish version)
<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0801MICHAEL-WOLTERS-IGBCE-EN.ppt ">ICEM Workshop on Contract &amp; Agency Labour</a> 
Michael Wolters, IG BCE, Germany 
(English version)

Contract and agency labour presentations, Turkey, February 2008

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) are calling for another &ldquo;Day of Action&rdquo; on 6 March 2008, demanding the release of two trade unionists locked inside Iran&rsquo;s prisons. The two global federations are calling on trade unions worldwide to lobby their relevant governments, as well as public officials, regarding visits to Iran in order to win the release of the two trade unionists. 
 
The ICEM joins the ITUC and ITF in demanding the release of Mansour Osanloo, the leader of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Workers&rsquo; Union, and the release of Mahmoud Salehi, the founding member of the Saqez Bakery Workers&rsquo; Association. 
<img height="212" src="" width="188" alt="" />
ITUC and ITF chose the date of 6 March because it is just prior to Iran parliamentary elections, as well as the Iranian New Year. 
Osanloo was arrested for the third time on 10 July 2007, following a tour of European labour institutions and labour unions, in which he spoke of the labour abuses and restrictions on freedom of association by Iran&rsquo;s Islamic regime. He was taken from Evin Prison on 24 January to a hospital where he underwent a second surgery for an eye disorder, an injury caused by beatings from government agents. 
Despite doctors recommending that he remain in the hospital for a month, he was returned to the harsh conditions of Evin Prison on 2 February. The ITF&rsquo;s website page on Osanloo can be found here <a href="http://www.freeosanloo.org">www.freeosanloo.org</a>. 
<img height="102" alt="" src="" width="102" />
Mahmoud Salehi, an Iranian Kurd, is also in ill-health, suffering from kidney disease. He also had to be hospitalized in December 2007. He was arrested for union activities in April 2007. 
 
Already last week, the Indonesian Seafarers Union, an ITF affiliate, has written to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, urging him to cancel a planned trip to Iran in protest to the incarcerations, or face harsh political reprisals both at home and abroad. 
 
The ICEM strongly encourages affiliated trade unions to take meaningful action on 6 March.

Action Day in Support of Iranian Trade Unionists Set for 6 March

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Turkish has been added as the eighth language on the ICEM website. By clicking <a href="/tr">/tr</a>, Turkish-speaking and Turkish-reading trade unionists around the world can now follow the topical developments from the world of work, as reported on the ICEM site. 
 
This came about because of the work and assistance of ICEM&rsquo;s Turkish affiliates, particularly Petrol-İş. Many existing web-pages were translated into Turkish over the past several months, as well as the interface, including basic information on the ICEM, pages with information on ICEM activities, such as Contract and Agency Labour, Global Framework Agreements, HIV/AIDS, as well as many recent ICEM industry reports. 
<img height="66" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Through its Turkish homepage, the ICEM aims to continue updating the world&rsquo;s Turkish-speaking audience &ndash; in Turkey and beyond &ndash; on ICEM developments, as well as on relevant and useful news from ICEM&rsquo;s sectors. This new communication channel will also be used for updates on specific issues that are important to ICEM Turkish affiliates. Welcome, Turkish brothers and sisters!

ICEM Introduces Turkish Language News, Content to Its Website

<img height="39" src="" width="100" alt="" />
The ICEM is asking trade unionists to write protest letters to Unilever&rsquo;s vice president for Global External Affairs, drawing attention to trade union rights violations in Pakistan and India. The ICEM is assisting its sister Global Union Federation, the International Union of Food Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF), in protests to the company over its conduct at food and beverage plants. 
 
In November 2007, Unilever management at a factory in Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan, fired all but five of the plant&rsquo;s temporary workers, following a Pakistani union&rsquo;s announcement that it would allow membership to the workers and fight to secure permanent status for them. 
 
The fired workers were replaced by staff from a labour agency. The sacked workers were forced to sign termination letters in front of armed police and Elite Troops forces, who were called into the plant by local management.
<img height="100" src="" width="100" alt="" />
This latest incident coincides with an IUF complaint to the UK contact point over violations of the OECD&rsquo;s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. 
 
Additionally, Unilever managers at a plant in Assam, India, have actively undermined trade union leaders in that factory. Management has sponsored creation of a yellow union there in the course of a long lockout aimed at supplanting the legitimate trade union. 
 
A model letter can be found <a href="/index.php?id=7&amp;doc=2576&amp;la=EN">here</a>, that includes the name, address, and fax number of Unilever&rsquo;s Global External Affairs vice president. Please send a copy of your letter to ICEM&rsquo;s Chemicals Officer, Kemal &Ouml;zkan, at <a href="mailto:kemal.ozkan@icem.org">kemal.ozkan@icem.org</a>.

ICEM Encourages Unilever Protest Letters on Company’s Pakistan, India Conduct

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
BHP Billiton&rsquo;s hostile bid for mining rival Rio Tinto escalated last week, just prior to a 6 February deadline by the UK Takeover Panel to either increase a November 2007 bid or walk away from the takeover for a period of six months. BHP Billiton increased its share-swap offer by 13%, offering 3.4 shares of BHP stock for one Rio Tinto share. 
 
In November, BHP offered a three-to-one share swap, meaning the price of the takeover would be US$120 billion. This latest unsolicited bid raised that price to US$147 billion. If successful, the combined company would dominate world production and sales of bauxite, coal, copper, diamonds, lead, silver, titanium, and uranium. It would also rank a high second, behind Brazilian Vale, in iron ore output, but would control vital markets of Australian ore destined for China. 
<img height="50" src="" width="100" alt="" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="51" src="" width="102" alt="" />
The proposed takeover would represent the world&rsquo;s second biggest corporate takeover. Only Vodafones&rsquo;s US$172 billion buy-up of Mannesmann in the year 2000 surpasses BHP&rsquo;s current bid to Rio Tinto shareholders. Rio Tinto executives said the latest offer still undervalues the assets of the Australian- and UK-based company. 
BHP was pressed to increase its offer following a 1 February purchase of some US$14 billion of Rio&rsquo;s London-traded shares by Aluminium Corp. of China (Chinalco), a state-run mining company. Chinalco put up US$12.8 billion, while US-based Alcoa put in US$1.2 billion. Together, they now own 9% of Rio Tinto, and the share price paid increased the valuation of Rio Tinto by 23%. The premium share purchase was seen as a blocking move by Chinalco that is sure to complicate a further, enhanced bid by BHP Billiton. 
 
According to Sweden&rsquo;s Raw Materials Group, a combined BHP Billiton/Rio Tinto would control a full 17% of world production of mined resources. If constituted under the latest bid, Rio Tinto shareholders would hold 44% of the combined company, an increase from the 36% under terms of the offer posed in early November.

BHP Billiton Raises Stakes in Pursuit of Rio Tinto

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The British labour movement came together last week to push a Private Member&rsquo;s Bill into committee stage of the House of Commons. That bill, authored by Labour MP Andrew Miller, would give labour agency workers the same rights and benefits as full-time, permanent workers. 
 
On 6 February, labour unions, led by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), held a mass day of lobby at Westminster, spotlighting a second hearing of Miller&rsquo;s bill that saw trade unions produce gruesome testimonies of abuse by agency workers themselves. British work sectors &ndash; from service to foods to industrial &ndash; have been flooded by labour agency firms offering low-wage, no-strings-attached workers to employers.
<img height="50" alt="" src="" width="100" />
&nbsp;Last week&rsquo;s turnout moved the Private Member&rsquo;s Bill to a House hearing, which will occur on 22 February. The day of lobby also came six days after the Labour Party&rsquo;s Executive Committee voted to endorse it, an action that Labour Party Prime Minister Gordon Brown cannot ignore without serious fall-out from trade unions. 
 
&ldquo;The Labour Party committed to introduce UK legislation to protect agency workers before the last election,&rdquo; said Chairman Tony Dubbins of the Trade Unions for Labour Organisation, &ldquo;and now we and 1.4 million agency workers in the UK&rdquo; have been promised it again. &ldquo;Now we need the government to act on that promise by backing Andrew Miller&rsquo;s bill.&rdquo; 
 
But that may not come easy, just like it didn&rsquo;t during the Blair government, despite a Labour Party commitment for equal rights to all workers contained in the 2004 Warwick Agreement. British business groups are opposing the measure, claiming it would hold back achieving flexible labour markets, and often, serve as a means for gaining a full-time job. 

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said, &ldquo;Far from providing a bridge to permanent work, this runs the risk of creating a whole underclass of temporary workers who cannot get permanent work. Many employers are using agencies to replace secure jobs with reasonable terms and conditions with insecure, badly paid agency staff.&rdquo; 
The TUC points out that employer&rsquo; interests will advance when temporary workers gain equal workplace rights, at the same time as receiving fair pay and social benefits. The union federation said there is a disturbing lack of awareness among employers on how maximizing experience and skills of workers out of labour agencies can benefit their enterprises. 
Besides Barber, the day of lobby also featured Tony Woodley, Joint General Secretary of Unite, and Bill Hayes, General Secretary of the Communications Workers&rsquo; Union. Woodley called passage of the agency worker bill a &ldquo;defining moment&rdquo; for the British government &ldquo;because people are looking for equal treatment.&rdquo;
<img height="50" src="" width="100" alt="" />
In Ireland, trade unions are pressuring their government to stop acting as a barrier to a European Directive for equal treatment for contract and agency workers. Blair Horan, representing the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said trade unions will withhold affirmative support to the Irish government for passage of the Lisbon Treaty referendum until the government reverses its agency-worker stand in Brussels. Ireland, Germany, Poland, and the UK have blocked a European Directive on Agency Workers.

UK Push for Law Granting Equal Rights to Temp Workers

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
In August 2007, 13 ICEM affiliates created an ICEM Turkish Coordination Committee. At that time, Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) was defined as one of the priorities on which joint activities would occur. 
 
In cooperation with Germany&rsquo;s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), a Turkish national conference of those affiliates was held on 31 January &ndash; 1 February, 2008, in İstanbul on CAL. Some 80 trade unionists, journalists, and university professors attended. 
The conference opened with a speech by Mustafa Kumlu, an ICEM Executive Committee member and President of the Turkish Electricity, Water, and Gas Workers&rsquo; Union, Tes-Iş. He is also the current president of the country&rsquo;s biggest national labour centre, T&uuml;rk-Iş. The meeting also saw the active participation of ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, and FES&rsquo;s İstanbul representative, Bettina Luise R&uuml;rup. 
<img height="212" alt="" src="" width="350" />
ICEM's Kemal &Ouml;zkan and Manfred Warda, EMCEF's Reinhard Reibsch
After presentations by ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan on the the Global Union Federation&rsquo;s CAL Project, by the ILO&rsquo;s Slava Egorov on ILO actions on contract labour, the employment relationship, and agency work, and by EMCEF General Secretary Reinhard Reibsch on the European situation, the conference heard national experiences from Germany, Sweden, and The Netherlands. 
 
In Germany, IGBCE&rsquo;s Michael Wolters reported there are now 630,000 agency workers employed by 19,000 labour agencies in the country. This constitutes 10-15 % of the total workers in industries in which the German union operates. Agency workers earn 30 % less than permanent workers. 
 
According to Hans Palmqvist of Swedish IF Metall, there is an Authorisation Board in Sweden that controls 450 private agencies, employing 43,000 workers. A Swedish trade union has managed to reach a collective agreement with one such agency, C&amp;L. 
<img height="142" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The agency labour issue is also a burning issue inside The Netherlands. Celil Coban and Osman Elmaci from FNV Bondgenoten, both Turkish-originated trade union officials for the union, reported that only 1,200 agencies out of 12,000 are operating with official certification. Even when FNV Bondgenoten negotiates with employment agencies for collective agreements, wages remain low and working conditions are sub-standard for agency workers. 
 
The three examples from Germany, Sweden, and Holland clearly shows that the unionisation rates for agency workers are far less than those for permanent workers. 
 
The conference also heard detailed reports and analyses on Contract and Agency Labour in Turkey. During the conference, a major explosion at an unregistered factory operating in the black economy resulted in 23 deaths. 
 
According to statistics, the number of workers employed in the informal economy in Turkey is 4.7 million, according to Mustafa &Ouml;ztaskin of ICEM affiliate Petrol-Iş. Dating to the 1980s, the problem in Turkey is that new owners in privatised sectors have used subcontracting in order to eliminate union representation. 
 
Metin Bozkurt, Organising Secretary of Cement Workers Union, &Ccedil;imse-Iş, reported that multinational companies in the cement industry use subcontractors in all facets of production. Privatisation has also caused problems in energy, reported Murat Aytemiz, Vice-President of Tes-Iş. According to Aytemiz, some 50% of the workforce in the energy sector is employed by subcontracting firms. 
 
The situation in the mining sector was defined as thus by Dr. Fikret Sazak, Director of Education Department of Mine Workers Union, Maden-Iş: &ldquo;Our mining areas have become mole holes after privatisation and subcontracting.&rdquo; He reported that contract labour in pits is overwhelming, for example, in a main coal mining area, 2,750 out of 10,500 miners are subcontractors.&nbsp;
<img height="285" src="" width="380" alt="" />
In public services as well, subcontracting and agency labour is a major factor in lowering salaries and weakening the working environment. Ismail Hakki Kurt of Belediye-Iş pointed out that &ldquo;trade unions have real difficulties in bargaining because permanent workers are the minority, while agency workers are not unionised.&rdquo; 
In the glass industry, according to Can Safak, Director of the Collective Bargaining Department at Kristal-Iş, subcontracting first appeared in nonqualified and side jobs. Kristal-Iş tried to tackle the problem through reclassification of positions. The union also managed to get language in the sectoral level collective glass agreement, stating that no subcontractor can be employed at the production level. 
 
At the end of the discussions, it was agreed that a series of joint activities on organising, in general, would be undertaken. And then, specifically, the issue of Contract and Agency Labour in Turkey will now come under the ICEM&rsquo;s global project. 
 
<a href="/index.php?id=73&amp;doc=2593&amp;la=EN">To access presentations at the Conference, click here</a>.

ICEM Turkish Affiliates Gather to Discuss Contract and Agency Labour

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
As reported by the ICEM in its newsletter on 28 January 2008 (<a href="/en/?id=78&amp;doc=2564&amp;la=EN">click here</a>), private-sector strikes slated for 6 February across Slovenia were cancelled when agreement over wages was initialled between employers and the nation&rsquo;s largest labour federation, Zveza Svobodnih Sindikatoc Slovenije (ZSSS), on 25 January. 
 
The ICEM has been informed by its affiliate, KNG Chemical, Non-Metallic, Rubber Union, a ZSSS affiliate, that when it came time to sign the social agreement on 1 February, Slovenia&rsquo;s Chamber of Commerce and industry associations backed away from the pact that called for across-the-board increases of 5.6%, nearly equalling the inflation rate of the Central European country.
In calling for European Union and global trade union support toward renewal of a general strike, ZSSS President Du&scaron;an Semolič stated: &ldquo;Although the social dialogue has reached a dead end, the employers&rsquo; associations continue with manipulation in companies and are trying to enforce the agreements on pay adjustments in which a very low percentage of adjustment is offered to workers.&rdquo; Employers are also implementing no-strike agreements within these individual companies. 
<img height="50" alt="" src="" width="100" border="1" />
The 6 February statement by ZSSS can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0802Slovenia.pdf">here</a>. 
 
Since mid-2007, trade unions and employers&rsquo; groups have been working on an agreement to raise base wages in order to counter Slovenia&rsquo;s spiralling inflation rate, as well as agreement on holiday bonuses and other remuneration issues. That agreement was nearly reached on 25 January, averting a mass strike that likely would have eclipsed the one on 17 November 2007, in which 70,000 workers marched through the streets of Ljubljana. 
 
But that agreement was broken by employers in a serious social breach. The ICEM stands supportively behind Slovenia&rsquo;s workers in all sectors at a time when their pay has not kept pace with rising prices brought on by the nation&rsquo;s entry into the European Union. 
 
Also in Slovenia, the ICEM, together with a dozen Central European affiliates, took action to support KNG-affiliated workers at glass plants, brave workers of the company Steklarna Hrastnik.

Strike Threat Renewed in Slovenia as Employers Renege on Deal

Archive

ICEM World Conference for the Rubber Industry

ICEM'in Dünya Lastik Konferansı ABD'nin Nashville kentinde toplanıyor

Contract and agency labour presentations, Turkey, February 2008

Action Day in Support of Iranian Trade Unionists Set for 6 March

ICEM Introduces Turkish Language News, Content to Its Website

ICEM Encourages Unilever Protest Letters on Company’s Pakistan, India Conduct

BHP Billiton Raises Stakes in Pursuit of Rio Tinto

UK Push for Law Granting Equal Rights to Temp Workers

ICEM Turkish Affiliates Gather to Discuss Contract and Agency Labour

Strike Threat Renewed in Slovenia as Employers Renege on Deal

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