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Global worker No1 2022

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The Global Labour University, supported by the ILO and by Germany&rsquo;s Hans Boeckler Foundation and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, is offering a unique pair of Master Programme labour courses, specifically targeted for young trade unionists. The courses take place at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, in January 2007, and at Germany&rsquo;s University of Kassel and the Berlin School of Economics in September 2007. 
 
&ldquo;Labour Policies and Globalisation&rdquo; (Germany) and &ldquo;Labour and Development, Economic Policy, Globalisation and Labour&rdquo; (South Africa) on sustainable development, social justice, international labour standards, and trade unions, economic policies, and global institutions provide the curriculum. Registration submissions at <a href="http://www.global-labour-university"><a href="http://www.global-labour-university.de">www.global-labour-university.de</a></a> should occur immediately. 
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Successful applicants also have the possibility to study one term of the programme in South Africa and one term in Germany. The course language is English. 
 
This one-year set of programmes is jointly developed by universities and trade unions from around the world and is aimed at young people with experience in labour and social movements. Candidates are expected to assist labour and social movement organisations to engage more effectively in social dialogue, public debate, and policy implementation. Women are strongly encouraged to apply, and the sponsors, as a rule, prefer applicants under age 40. 
 
A limited number of scholarships are available. An endorsement by a trade union is a requirement for a scholarship. The scholarship is conditional on a contribution of &euro;1,500 from the supporting trade union, or another donor. Please consult the website above for further information.

Career-Minded Young Trade Unionists Alerted to Global Labour Courses

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The ICEM has put its weight behind an effort by its Ivory Coast affiliate, SYNASEG, to get local company CIE, the country&rsquo;s electricity operator and subsidiary of the Bouygues Group, to stop its union-busting campaign, and to enter into a meaningful dialogue with the union. 
 
The problems between the union and CIE started in August 2005, after SYNASEG decided to support a national electric sector reform that was proposed by the government then. The government failed to carry out its own plan, and, instead, renewed CIE &ndash; and Bouygues&rsquo; &ndash; contract for a further 15 years. 
<img height="66" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Shortly after that, CIE started its systematic and vindictive campaign to silence SYNASEG. As part of that, the company refused to engage in social dialogue, devised several delaying tactics, obstructed trade union freedoms, and abused the system of dues check-off by withholding fees and used the funds to favour third parties. The company also set up a Mutual Investment Fund, to which employees contribute but do not receive the benefits. 
 
ICEM sent a message to all its affiliated trade unions last week, seeking messages of support be sent to SYNASEG on the occasion of their strike, which was originally targeted for 23-25 October. The strike was first postponed by one week because of state-requested mediation efforts. Talks on Friday, 27 October, in the presence of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo produced an agreement to resume negotiations until the issues are favourably resolved.

ICEM affiliate in Ivory Coast Gets Presidential Commitment to Resolve Work Issues

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The Austrian national labour centre &Ouml;GB has been asking, as part of an ongoing reform process, the opinion of its members on how they see their union and what they expect from it. Questions range from, &ldquo;Are you satisfied with your union?&rdquo; to &ldquo;What benefits are you getting/needing from the union?&rdquo; and &ldquo;What do you think should be our priorities?&rdquo; 
 
Both ICEM affiliates in Austria, the Gewerkschaft der Chemiearbeiter (GdC) and the Gewerkschaft Metall-Textil-Nahrung (GMTN), took an active part in the &Ouml;GB poll, seeking to highlight a number of issues that they feel are particularly important. 
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To that effect, a joint statement was released, co-signed by another Austrian union, Gewerkschaft Bau-Holz (GBH), with whom the two unions have been operating jointly as &ldquo;pro.ge.&rdquo; (Pro.ge stands for short for &ldquo;Produktionsgewerkschaften in den Bereichen Produktion, Technik und nahe Dienstleistungen.&rdquo;) 
 
According to the three organisations, there is a need to organise differently the work done by trade unions in Austria, as the playing field has changed. The world-wide activities of multinational corporations, as well as the ever changing employer-employee relationships are cited as part of that. 
 
In their joint statement, emphasis was placed on the need to support workers in all forms of atypical work, on the urgency in getting more women involved in trade union work, and on the necessity to cooperate more strongly on the international level, with other trade unions and members of civil society.

Austrian Affiliates Take ÖGB Debate to Global Level

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A little-noticed, but monumental vote in the Canada&rsquo;s House of Commons on 25 October was won by the Canadian labour movement. Hundreds of trade unionists, including members from ICEM affiliates Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada and the United Steelworkers (USW), flooded the Parliament in Ottawa to assure passage on this historic vote. 
 
The vote came on the second reading of a &ldquo;private member&rsquo;s bill&rdquo; to ban, under the Canadian labour code, replacement workers or scabs during strikes and lockouts. Labour law in Canada is generally regulated by the provinces. But when an industry such as telecommunications, mining, or transportation crosses provincial lines, the Canadian national code takes effect. 
 
The second-reading vote passed by an overwhelming margin, 167-101, with all New Democratic Party and Bloc Qu&eacute;b&eacute;cois parliamentarians voting in favour. The fact that most members of the Liberal Party, and even a few Conservatives voted for the measure, Bill C-257, is a tribute to the trade unionists who moved this legislation forward. 
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A scab ban across Canada&rsquo;s federally-supervised work areas had been attempted over 10 times before, the latest in April 2005 when it was defeated by 12 votes. What&rsquo;s more, Bill C-257 is a &ldquo;private member&rsquo;s bill,&rdquo; introduced by a Bloc Qu&eacute;b&eacute;cois delegate, and such bills traditionally are extremely hard to pass in Canada&rsquo;s legislative system. 
 
If passed, a federal scab ban law would impose a C$1,000-a-day fine on employers who utilise replacement workers during labour disputes. Efforts to pass the bill have been boosted by two provincial statutes that ban replacement workers, one on the books in Quebec since 1977, the other enacted in British Colombia in 1993. Research shows that not only the length of strikes and lockouts in these two provinces has been shortened compared to the average, but that neither capital investment nor job creation has been hindered by the laws. 
 
&ldquo;There is an understanding among the majority of Members in Parliament that this proposed ban on replacement workers &ndash; scabs &ndash; is a modern and enlightened method of reducing the length and impact of labour disputes, whether they be strikes or lockouts,&rdquo; said USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann, an ICEM Vice President. 
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ICEM Vice President Ken Neumann
&ldquo;Our union represents 15,000 Canadians working in the federal jurisdiction,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;This legislation is important for those workers and employers directly, and will become a fair and balanced model for provincial jurisdictions that do not have it in their labour codes.&rdquo; 
 
At the CEP&rsquo;s Convention a week before the 25 October second-reading passage, delegates were lined up to take on lobbying assignments in the final push for passage. Those efforts, and the efforts of all Canadian trade unionists, paid off in the 167-101 vote. 
 
&ldquo;Canadians who work under the federal labour code are now a little closer to the fairness and balance that exists in labour relations in Quebec and in British Columbia,&rdquo; said Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) President Ken Georgetti. The CLC, which headed the lobbying effort, maintains that scab labour is an outdated practice that does more harm than good.

Historic Scab Ban Legislation Making Way Through Canada’s Parliament

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Croatian ICEM affiliate, the Autonomous Trade Union of Energy, Chemical, and Non-Metal Workers&rsquo; (EKN) of Croatia, held its Sixth Congress on 18-19 October, and enthusiastically endorsed an agreement to form, with the Croatian Metal Workers&rsquo; Union, a Confederation of Metal and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union of Croatia. 
 
The EKN Congress gave a vote of confidence to Ivan Tomac, re-electing him President for the next term. Upon congratulating Tomac on re-election, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs commended the union in forging the bond with the Metal Workers&rsquo; Union by stating, &ldquo;We see this initiative as a major breakthrough in the process of uniting organized industry workers in your country and the whole region.&rdquo; 
<img height="212" alt="" src="" width="300" /> 
 
EKN President Ivan Tomac
A special Inaugural Congress of the new confederation was held following the EKN Congress. The creation of this new industrial confederation of workers, now the largest in Croatia, was preceded by three years of negotiations and the signing of a Declaration of Intent in October 2005. Establishing the confederation, which now has its own statutory bodies and president, is seen as a way for the two unions to adjust their respective financial and staff policies with the intent to fully merge the organizations in two years&rsquo; time. 
 
The new Confederation holds its doors open to all trade unions in the relevant industries who wish to join it and make it stronger. The ICEM welcomes this initiative as a unification breakthrough in bringing together a labour movement in a part of the world that has been plagued by so much division. 
 
Besides attendance at the Congress by the ICEM and the European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Workers&rsquo; Federation (EMCEF), to which EKN is affiliated on the global and European levels, guests from fraternal unions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovakia, and Croatia were also in attendance.

Croatia’s Power and Chemical Union Moves to Forge Bonds with Metalworkers

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Nigerian oil workers&rsquo; unions again are spearheading the call for security, as well as meeting the challenges inherent in oil and gas production in a developing country. Two weeks ago, the unions PENGASSAN and NUPENG conducted a three-day workshop in Ibadan, Oyo State, to train union members to the multi-faceted changes taking hold in Nigeria&rsquo;s oil and gas fields. 
 
Those changes include outsourcing, reliance on fixed-term employment, privatisation of government assets, and de-unionisation. The government&rsquo;s inability to deal effectively with the Niger Delta&rsquo;s natural resources is also cause for great concern. 
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The workshops produced a long list of necessary reforms that would help remove corruption from government agencies and bring economic opportunities to the indigenous peoples of the Niger River Delta. 
 
&ldquo;The kidnapping and killing of workers in the Niger Delta Region continues to pose serious threats to the security of our members and other workers in the region,&rdquo; said PENGASSAN President Peter Esele. &ldquo;The vandalizing of oil pipelines by economic saboteurs has continued to keep our refineries without crude, leaving the entire nation to depend on imported petroleum products.&rdquo; 
 
The workshops also painted a critical picture of the Nigerian government, from the Oil and Gas Committee Report that has brought on privatisation and casualisation to its handling of the kidnappings and killings so common in the Delta this year.
The conference was held during a three-week period in which seven foreign nationals, all employed in the oil industry, had been kidnapped by an unknown youth militia group. The seven were abducted on 3 October from an ExxonMobil residential compound in Eseakpan, southern Akwa Iborn State, which is used to house contract workers. The seven were released more than a fortnight later following negotiations between the industry and group. 
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Esele pledged to the trade unionists in attendance that the unions would act as a legitimate &ldquo;pressure group,&rdquo; and that &ldquo;no stone will be left unturned in our efforts&rdquo; to bring economic dignity and opportunities to Nigerian citizens. 
 
In a separate trade union gathering occurring in Akwa Iborn State at the same time, the quarterly meeting of PENGASSAN&rsquo;s Producers&rsquo; Forum called on the Nigerian national assembly to amend the statutes governing the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The body says the commission has failed to address the development needs of citizens in the region. 
 
The Producers&rsquo; Forum suggests that the 3% funding of the NDDC that comes from oil prospecting companies should be directly used by the communities in which these firms operate. The forum proposed that monitoring of such projects be undertaken by the National Petroleum Investment Agency. These recommendations, as part of a seven-point action plan, were passed on to PENGASSAN&rsquo;s national secretariat.

Nigerian Oil Workers’ Unions Offer Common Sense Reforms

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Global multinational, Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Co., has suddenly become protectionist in its US rubber business, or so it would seem from reading the company&rsquo;s strike weeklies, which are aimed at softening 15,000 American workers into giving back more of their hard-earned incomes. 
 
The strike by ICEM affiliate, United Steelworkers (USW), of 16 Goodyear plants in the US and Canada passed the three-week mark on 26 October. The company has expressed its scorn at striking union members, who are trying to protect their livelihoods, by very publicly pronouncing that 300 auxiliary workers will get the sack due to the strike. These workers are USW members that were only recently organised at a steel-thread plant.
The same scorn is heard in the truth-defying words of North American Goodyear President Jon Rich, in his weekly missives. 
 
His message is clear: loyal &ldquo;associates&rdquo; of Goodyear are invited to abandon the strike, abandon the USW as the last front on job protections, and join the corporatist mindset in which security, retirement, and hope will not be part of any equation. &ldquo;As the strike continues,&rdquo; Rich wrote last week, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s tempting to start shifting the focus from &lsquo;what are we trying to achieve?&rsquo; to &lsquo;when will this be over?&rsquo;&rdquo; 
<img height="100" alt="" src="" width="100" />
It&rsquo;s abundantly clear what Goodyear is trying to achieve: the flexibility to slash jobs, cut incomes, and play the hand that it so quickly played at the steel-wire plant just days into the strike. 
 
When will it be over? It is becoming evident by the strikers&rsquo; resolve and their anger at being asked once again to concede to the company&rsquo;s agenda, that it will be over once Goodyear retreats from its concessions and begins treating the last stakeholder in a resounding three-year success story with the dignity and respect it deserves. 
 
&ldquo;Hasn&rsquo;t everyone but our members benefited from the turnaround since 2003?&rdquo; asks a USW spokesman. &ldquo;Despite the innovations we brought to the table and the sacrifices we made, the company is demanding more closures and more concessions.&rdquo; 
USW made contract concessions and agreed, in 2003 negotiations, to one US plant closing in exchange for job security and job-retention policies at the other North American plants. This occurred with Goodyear teetering on bankruptcy. Now, with a 17% global market tyre share and nearly one-half of the company&rsquo;s 2005 revenues, totalling US$19.72 billion, derived from North American operations, Goodyear seeks to unravel those 2003 job-security guarantees, as well as proposing that salaries be cut and retirement benefits slashed. 
Rich said in last week&rsquo;s report that Goodyear is &ldquo;trying to save American manufacturing.&rdquo; In an earlier one, in describing that negotiations are not about &ldquo;labor versus management&rdquo; but rather &ldquo;Goodyear versus the competition,&rdquo; he supplies deplorable protectionist rhetoric, aimed at driving a wedge between US workers and Goodyear workers worldwide. 
 
&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s not lose sight of the bigger flag &ndash; the stars and stripes &ndash; as we are fighting to preserve American jobs and American manufacturing,&rdquo; said Rich in a 13 October letter to striking workers. 
<img height="53" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Current bargaining proposals to close two US tyre plants that provide liveable incomes for nearly 15% of the 15,000, and ripping the living standards out from under the rest is not preservation, but rather, destruction of quality American jobs. &ldquo;How can you talk about saving American manufacturing when you look to close plants and downsize domestic production?&rdquo; adds the USW spokesman. 
 
Goodyear and Rich lay a heavy burden on US workers in these anti-worker messages. In order to gain the requested givebacks, the company continually uses terms such as &ldquo;global competition&rdquo; and &ldquo;competitive disadvantages&rdquo; to describe the global marketplace. But truth be told, Goodyear has been a global leader in driving down labour costs and attempting to achieve bottom-piercing labour precedents by attacking all workers&rsquo; gained rights. 
 
In Turkey earlier this year, it was Goodyear which forced a lockout of its workers in a failed effort to get work-rule concessions from all Turkish rubber workers, including those at two of its competitors. Union members, behind ICEM affiliated union Lastik-Iş, resisted the cuts, and retained their work rights by getting workers to stand shoulder to shoulder at all three tyre-makers. 
 
In Thailand, Goodyear continues to resist placing long-term contract workers in full-time positions, something that the ICEM affiliate pushes as a matter of fairness and dignity for the contract workers. In Malaysia, Goodyear has broken quota levels by employing low-wage foreign nationals in order to drive down Malaysian labour rates. 
 
Goodyear&rsquo;s protectionist cry to American workers rings hollow when the company is busy steering the competition on this downward spiral. 
 
The strike by USW members in the 12 US plants and four in Canada is strong. Strikers see past the company&rsquo;s fear-based rhetoric, and know in their hearts that since they figured strongly in Goodyear&rsquo;s great turnaround, they deserve to be rewarded, not punished. 
 
That sentiment also stands with the people who live in the middle-class towns and communities surrounding the Goodyear plants. They know of the hardships and despair that come to all in the race to the bottom. 
 
Support also came from members of the United Automobile Workers (UAW), who turned out in mass on 25 October to boost USW picket lines at a Goodyear plant in Tonawanda, New York. The same occurred a day later when 100 union members from across Canada gathered at a Goodyear picket line in Owen Sound, Ontario. 
 
Goodyear can wax on all it wants about &ldquo;serving our customers,&rdquo; hinting endlessly that this strike must be broken, and then openly wondering when it will happen. But with steadfast resolve only mounting, and with Goodyear losing production revenues at a rate of US$38 million per day (as estimated by one rubber analyst), an end to this strike appears to be Goodyear&rsquo;s call.

Facts Contradict Goodyear’s Anti-Worker Strike Messages in North America

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Nigeria&rsquo;s two oil workers&rsquo; unions, NUPENG and PENGASSAN, expressed dismay that no representative from either state or federal government institutions attended last month&rsquo;s funeral of PENGASSAN trade union leader Nelson Ujeya. Ujeya, who was murdered on 20 August 2006, when government forces engaged in a shootout with militants at the time he was to be released, was buried on 16 December in his home town of Uhgelli, Delta State. 
 
Comrade Ujeya was abducted by youth militia on 8 August 2006 in Letugnene, Bayelsa State, and while in the company of senior state authorities. A community liaison officer of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Ujeya and the state officials were inspecting a community development project in Letugnene at the time. 
The circumstances of the kidnapping and murder remain clouded. These circumstances were just one issue in a strike by NUPENG and PENGASSAN last September, a strike that was suspended after two days when, among other promises, the government pledged to conduct a full inquiry into Ujeya&rsquo;s kidnapping and murder. Such an investigation has not yet commenced. 
<img height="115" src="" width="113" alt="" />
PENGASSAN President Peter Esele
&ldquo;We are very sad there were no representatives from the government, especially the Bayelsa State government, at the burial,&rdquo; said PENGASSAN President Peter Esele in a published report. &ldquo;It confirms our long-held argument that our government does not care about us, the ordinary citizens.&rdquo; 
 
Esele added that leaders of the two unions were surprised that not a single representative from either the petroleum or labour ministry paid their respects to Comrade Ujeya. Such absence, Esele continued, reflects the true feelings of top-level governmental officials regarding the promises made to end the September strike. 
Esele did recognise the respect given by SPDC during the aftermath of the murder, in which 10 others were killed, as well as at the funeral. &ldquo;SPDC has provided a lot of assistance, financially, morally, and otherwise to the family to ensure that things are all right,&rdquo; Esele said. &ldquo;So, to SPDC, we appreciate what they have done, but to the government of Bayelsa in whose delegation he was with when abducted and eventually killed, we are very disappointed.&rdquo; 
<img height="101" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Esele delivered a moving eulogy at Comrade Ujeya&rsquo;s funeral: &ldquo;You were, indeed, courageous both in your official duties as a Shell staff member and as a vibrant PENGASSAN activist. Who will ever forget your contributions to the contract staff unionisation and benefits enhancement struggle? Under thick and thin, and under unfriendly and hostile elements, you stood firm with other comrades in 2001 at the height of the contract staff struggle until success was achieved. Today, the lives of contract staff have been improved as a result of the struggle for which you stood firm.&rdquo; 
 
Comrade Ujeye was a Pengassan committee member during a six-week strike that began on 10 May 2001. The strike gave contract staff for SPDC regularised employment with full and vested benefits.

Nigerian Government Ignores Funeral of Nelson Ujeya

Finland&rsquo;s national trade union centre, SAK, has given the issue of contract and agency labour top priority in the nation&rsquo;s parliamentary elections, and promises it will be a primary topic in parliamentary discussions on the opening of labour markets following the 18 March elections. 
 
A SAK task force has already worked out proposals to protect workers employed under fixed-term contracts or by agencies, a phenomenon that has increased dramatically in the Nordic nation in recent years. Finland legalised agency labour over a decade ago. Legislation, however, has not kept pace and offers little in the way of protections for contract workers. 
<img height="68" alt="" src="" width="180" />
One proposal by SAK would be to make agency workers regular employees of the job agencies, a remedy which would guarantee them certain salaries even during periods when their agencies are unable to find them work. SAK believes adoption of such a proposal would limit redundancies of regular workers in favour of contract workers. 
 
Another proposition by the task force is to give shop stewards the right to represent contract workers or agency labourers at their worksites. This would also include the right of shop stewards to have full information on the pay, benefits, and working terms of contract or agency labour. 
<img height="102" alt="" src="" width="100" border="1" />
SAK&rsquo;s agenda is not one to eliminate the use of contract or agency labour. &ldquo;For some people, such as students, fixed-term employment and agency labour may be proper,&rdquo; states SAK&rsquo;s Nikolas Elomaa, the confederation&rsquo;s expert on working conditions. &ldquo;However, the rapid growth of agency-hired work and its expansion to industries it was not meant to be applied to is worrying.&rdquo; 
 
SAK estimates that 2005 revenues of labour agencies doing business in Finland topped &euro;650 million.

Finnish Labour Prioritises Contract Labour Issue on National Agenda

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The Federation of Workers&rsquo; Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI) recently organised a major workers protest against fuel price hikes, on 27 December, in Basra at the Petrochemical State Company. On 12 January, the union also participated in a successful demonstration against corruption in the electrical industry of Karbalā, a city some 100 kilometres south of Baghdad. 
 
The strike at the massive petrochemicals plants in Basra last month was marked by slogan-wearing workers denouncing an Iraqi government policy. The government is increasing costs on all commodities, a move aimed at facilitating privatisation. FWCUI is adamant that rising production costs &ndash; mainly coming through fuel increases &ndash; will render the Basra&rsquo;s state refineries complex, where some 5,000 Iraqi workers are employed, uncompetitive, thus ripe for privatisation. Such a scenario is certain to produce job cuts. 
<img height="192" alt="" src="" width="300" />
Strike at Iraq's Petrochemical State Co., 27 December 
&ldquo;Under the pretext of a lack of production profits, layoffs of thousands of workers will come,&rdquo; said FWCUI President Falah Alwan. Throughout the country, millions of Iraqis are suffering severe economic harm, as price increases have far outpaced pay and salary increases. The lifting of fuel subsidies, with another one due to be scrapped in March, will only make matters worse. 
 
At the successful secular protest in Karbalā this weekend, multi-sector FWCUI was a major participant. The protest saw workers from many sectors, Shia and Sunni alike, march and protest against rampant corruption inside the regional authority&rsquo;s electric administration. 
 
FWCUI has called for the end to the military occupation in Iraq, and believes it necessary that workers take a real and active role in determining the structures, labour laws, and constitution of the Iraqi government.

Iraqi Trade Union FWCUI Condemns Fuel Price Hikes, Corruption with Protest

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