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The ICEM has again registered sharp complaint to the Iraqi government over anti-social conduct at its State Company for Petrochemical Industries&rsquo; set of plants in Basra. The latest incident finds a new state manager harassing, and then filing police charges against Mohammed Zaki Ibrahim, the leader of ICEM affiliate Petrochemical Workers&rsquo; Union of Basra. 
 
Last month, Mohammed Zaki was verbally assaulted by the new general manager, who stated his trade union activity was an &ldquo;obstacle&rdquo; to the way he intended to operate the company. The manager also charged Zaki with being under the influence of &ldquo;external forces.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM was compelled to harshly condemn that violation of freedom of association in a letter to Iraq&rsquo;s Minister of Industry and Minerals. 
 
The letter also pointed out that after Zaki left the abusive meeting &ndash; witnessed by other managers &ndash; he was immediately charged by police with trade union activity, and labelled as a danger to the Iraqi national economy. As the Zaki case illustrates, managers have been vindictive in upholding Saddam&rsquo;s decades-old decree banning trade unions in the public sector, a draconian labour code that continued under the occupation forces. 
On 28 January, a workers manifestation over wage arrears at the enterprise resulted in management calling in the army. Managers targeted four union leaders with leading the protest, and then brought cruel and unjust discipline on to one of them: Kareem Johi Sahan was banished from the petrochemicals enterprise for six months and his pay grade was lowered. 
 
&ldquo;The ICEM has paid close attention to events at the Basra facility,&rdquo; said General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;The Iraqi government must also. This must become a worksite where trade union rights are respected and we will continue working from the outside with trade unionists on the inside to fulfil that.&rdquo; 
 
The state-owned petrochemical facility employs 5,000 workers and contains six plants making ethylene, polyethylene, vinyl chloride, and other chemicals. The Basra Petrochemical Workers&rsquo; Union is affiliated to the Iraq Oil Workers&rsquo; Federation (IFOU).

Iraq: ICEM Again Condemns Union Harassment at Basra Petrochem

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Japanese tyre-maker Bridgestone&rsquo;s failure to listen to alternatives on redundancies in social talks has caused a fiery strike at the company&rsquo;s airplane tyre factory in Frameries, Belgium. The strike by all 140 workers and led by ICEM Belgian affiliate FGTB Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale started on 11 June over eight job cuts. 
 
A day into the strike, trade unionists convinced managers to stay away from the factory and the plant has been idle since. 

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Bridgestone seeks to unilaterally lay off eight workers. FGTB and the 140 workers say that decision ridicules a plant rule on job security. They also point to the fact that Bridgestone employs 14 workers on short-term contracts at Frameries. The FGTB states that Belgium&rsquo;s pre-pension plan qualifies 24 workers for leave, but Bridgestone will not consider other solutions to its reduction in force. 
 
The factory is a Bridgestone re-treading plant. The strike at the plant comes at a time when Bridgestone is boasting to global financial markets that its 2009 earnings sheet will be better that previously predicted because of a stronger yen and already-implemented expense reductions.

Bridgestone Tyre Strike in Belgium Erupts

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ICEM&rsquo;s Bridgestone Global Union Network held its 9th Steering Committee meeting in Tokyo, Japan, on 26-27 June, and is was hosted successfully by the ICEM&rsquo;s Japanese affiliate, Rubber Workers&rsquo; Unions Confederation (GOMU-RENGO) and its member organisation, the Bridgestone Workers&rsquo; Union. 
 
GOMU RENGO President Toshiaki Hojo chaired the meeting with the assistance of Akihiro Nagasawa and Gen Tashiro, President and Vice President, respectively, of the Bridgestone Workers&rsquo; Union. (Gen Tashiro also serves as secretary of the Network.) 
 
Following the general report by ICEM&rsquo;s Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan on developments and challenges in the tyre and rubber industry at global level, delegates to the meeting gave country and regional reports. They came from Japan, Spain, Brazil, and South Africa. 

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As the central focus to the Network, delegates deliberated on industrial accidents within Bridgestone across the world. Delegates were informed of the circumstances around serious recent accidents in Japan and Brazil. A lengthy discussion then ensued on measures to improve occupational health and safety at the Japan-based company. 
 
The meeting also saw an extensive report by ICEM&rsquo;s &Ouml;zkan on the ongoing strike at a Bridgestone plant located in Frameries, Belgium, as well as problems in obtaining trade union recognition and health and safety concerns at a factory in Tatabanya, Hungary. 
 
The Japanese host union promised to put these problems before executives at Bridgestone headquarters in Japan. The delegates from Spain, Brazil, and South Africa extended solidarity both to ICEM affiliate FGTB Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale in Belgium and VDSz, the affiliated Chemical and Energy Workers&rsquo; Federation in Hungary. 
 
Along with Hojo, Nagasawa, Tashiro, and &Ouml;zkan, delegates attending included Daniel Demetrio and Batista Goncalves, Rubber Workers&rsquo; Union of Brazil (FUB); Jesus Delgado, Secretary of the European Works Council of Bridgestone and Eduardo Alonso, shop steward at Burgos, Spain, both members of the Federation of Related Industries of Spain (FIA-UGT); Nicholas Masilo from National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA); and Yoshio Sato, General Secretary of ICEM&rsquo;s Japanese Affiliates Federation (ICEM-JAF). 
 
The next meeting of the Steering Committee is scheduled to take place during the last week of June 2010 in Spain.

Bridgestone Global Safety Steering Meets in Tokyo

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The ICEM lodged strong protest a week ago, demanding Turkey President Abdullah G&uuml;l veto a bill giving &ldquo;Private Labour Offices&rdquo; broad rights to place temporary workers in enterprises. On 9 July, President G&uuml;l did veto the bill, and now the ICEM demands the Turkish Parliament not bring it back. 
 
The bill was submitted by Parliament to G&uuml;l in late June after it cleared the legislative body without hearings or direct input from the country&rsquo;s labour federations. The ICEM calls attention to this anti-social fact because global unions are targeting actions in Turkey and Thailand on Day of Decent Work, 7 October 2009, specifically over the precarious labour issue. 
 
The legislation, as written, would have given fees to labour brokers and it would have created a slave market composed of short-term contract workers. The proposal read that any person or entity could establish a private labour hire agency with a modest investment of TL 20,000, or &euro;9,250. 

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&ldquo;We applaud President G&uuml;l and his administration for doing the right thing to veto this,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We now call on the global community to assist our Turkish comrades to make sure this bill does not surface again.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM credits Turkey&rsquo;s three trade union federations for immediate and effective opposition to the legislation. The ICEM now calls on the Turkish Parliament to abandon this anti-people measure. 
 
Mustafa Kumlu, President of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (T&uuml;rk-İş), said accurately it would render existing mechanisms between unions and government useless. Kumlu, an ICEM Executive Committee member, said &ldquo;social rights, social security, and other benefits&rdquo; would disappear under this legislation. 

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Mustafa Kumlu
In the 7 July letter to G&uuml;l, Warda said creating such a labour system in a society is equivalent to &ldquo;placing dynamite under the social structures.&rdquo; He called it a &ldquo;21st century employment relationship based on slavery.&rdquo; 
 
ICEM work leading up to 7 October and after will partly focus on Turkish failure &ndash; in the eyes of the ILO &ndash; to implement Labour Conventions that the country has already ratified. A focus will also ensure that transparency and fairness become full partners in all social discussions leading to possible Turkish ratification of ILO Convention 181, the Private Employment Agencies Convention. 
 
The ICEM said in the letter to the Turkish government that the proposed law is not in compliance with the EU Directive on Temporary Agency Work, a standard passed in October 2008 that the ICEM insists must be adhered to by Turkey. The ICEM also labels the legislation a misguided response to the economic crisis, and an inhumane practice to even pronounce it as a measure to reduce operating costs.

Turkey: Labour Hire Veto Applauded, More Work Demanded

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With 95% and 85% strike votes over the weekend, 3,500 Canadian miners of two United Steelworkers (USW) branch unions voted to take joint strike action beginning early today against Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (Vale-Inco). 
 
The strike started in northern Ontario province and at a southern Ontario refinery and port. Production from Ontario accounts for 10% of the world&rsquo;s nickel supply, and the Vale-Inco assets in Ontario are considered among the world&rsquo;s richest nickel and plating resources in the world. 
 
The strike came after the USW, in late May, gave the Brazilian-based company a ten-week extension to complete talks. Management continued pressing for a concession-ridden collective agreement in that period, and Canadian miners spoke with one voice and multiple strike lines in total response to the company&rsquo;s social cuts. 
 
Picket lines went up at midnight on 13 July at mines, a smelter, and processing plants in the copper-nickel belt surrounding Sudbury, Ontario, and at Port Colborne, some 400 kilometres south on Lake Erie. USW represents some 3,300 miners in northern Ontario, while USW Local 6200 represents 200 workers at Port Colborne. A strike website has been created, and is <a href="http://www.fairdealnow.ca">here</a>. 
 
&ldquo;We have spoken to all the unions that work in the global operations of Vale and we have their unanimous support as well,&rdquo; said USW President Leo Gerard, himself a native of Sudbury and a member of Local 6500. 

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Leo Gerard
&ldquo;This is a global fight and we are a global union and we will use our global power to fight these concessions.&rdquo; 
 
Vale-Inco&rsquo;s concessionary proposals are many, including a new and reduced pension scheme for new hires, reductions to production bonuses, loss of value in cost-of-living increases, and amendments to contracting-out provisions, which will decrease job security for Vale-Inco workers. 
 
The company is attempting to supplant a defined benefit pension plan with a defined contribution plan for new hires. Other concessions proposed to the pension benefit include removal of the indexing provision and deep cuts to the disability pension. Regarding outsourcing, Vale-Inco seeks to give outside contractors&rsquo; use of the company&rsquo;s moving equipment, a serious threat in mining to full-time, permanent jobs. 

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In a solidarity letter to nickel miners and smelting and port workers of USW Locals 6500 and 6200 in Canada, the ICEM wrote, &ldquo; &hellip; the fact that young workers and old workers at Inco are standing tall and standing together to preserve future incomes&rdquo; is highly commendable. 
 
&ldquo;We must not let corporate greed and a rush to the bottom stop us from choosing the correct path out of financial malaise,&rdquo; said the ICEM letter. &ldquo;In this fight, in a strategic nickel-processing area of the world, union members of Locals 6500 and 6200 have chosen the correct road.&rdquo; 
 
Vale is the world&rsquo;s second biggest mining company. It bought Canadian-based Inco late in 2006. Also in Canada, at Vale-Inco NL, members of another USW branch local&nbsp;are braced to strike on 1 August at Voisey&rsquo;s Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador province. The company takes nickel, copper, and cobalt reserves from northern Labrador. Similar to Ontario, USW Local 9580 had given Vale-Inco a temporary contract extension to resolve bargaining issues, but little positive movement has come from Inco.

Miners of USW Strike Vale’s Nickel Riches in Canada

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The International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers' Association (IUF) scored a victory in its ongoing struggle for the rights of workers at Unilever in June, by reaching a settlement with the multinational to permanently employ members of a union Action Committee at the Rahim Yar Khan plant in Pakistan. 
 
Permanent positions were created for workers, who had previously been employed precariously. Unilever dismissed those workers after they protested against status as fixed-term contract workers. 
 
In October 2007, the IUF began a concerted campaign against the mass dismissals, supported by the National Federation of Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Workers of Pakistan, which was conducted in the country&rsquo;s courtrooms, as well as on streets. The Action Committee was then formed to fight for rights for permanent jobs. 
 
Last month&rsquo;s negotiated settlement was agreed to through mechanisms of the OECD, including applying standards of its Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, which require companies to ensure that all its subsidiaries conform to global labour standards, including ILO Conventions 87 and 98. 

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The 120 new positions were created at the Rahim Yar Khan plant as of 24 June 2009. All Action Committee members were appointed to these posts. Under the terms of the agreement, these workers are to suffer no discrimination or victimization, and will be free to organize and bargain collectively. 
 
Implementation of the agreement will be continuously monitored by the IUF and Unilever. 
 
Despite this positive settlement, Unilever continues its policy to employ large numbers of CAL workers. There has been no improvement to the rights of workers at the Lipton tea factory in Khanewal, Pakistan, which was reported <a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/3015-Support-Needed-for-Contract-Agency-Workers-Forming-Union-at-Unilever-Tea-Factory-in-Pakistan">here</a> by the ICEM in January 2009.&nbsp; 
 
&ldquo;I am encouraged by the news of a just settlement at the Rahim Yar Khan plant,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;This is a step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go before we succeed in ending the anti-union employment strategies of Unilever.&rdquo; 
 
The Khanewal factory employs just 22 permanent workers, with another 723 hired through six labour agency companies.

Victory Noted for IUF in Unilever Contract Labour Struggle in Pakistan

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At ICEM&rsquo;s Executive Committee in late June, the body acted on a 2007 Congress resolution to develop a mandate for an ICEM policy on sustainable development. That policy was adopted, following a presentation by Sustainability Work Group Chairman Lars Myhre and ICEM&rsquo;s Health, Safety, and Sustainability Officer Brian Kohler. 
 
The working document can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/EN%20ICEMsustainability090518.pdf">here</a>.&nbsp; It establishes parameters for ICEM positions and &ldquo;a good, balanced, sensible, and intelligent industrial policy&rdquo; to go forward with, in the words of Tony Maher of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia. 
 
The challenge now, according to Executive members, is to bring this balanced industrial plan to senior-level policymakers at UN climate change forums. 

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ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana gave special tribute to long-time Executive members Michel Decayeux of France and Errol McLeod of Trinidad/Tobago
The ICEM policy calls for a new focus and new dialogue between governments, employers, and unions. The policy calls for an energy future that includes cleaner use of fossil fuels (including carbon capture and storage/sequestration), nuclear, and renewable energy sources. The future of energy must consider questions about access to energy and price fairness and stability. 
 
Pulp and paper, chemicals, rubber, and materials sectors all have their particular sustainability challenges, which the ICEM acknowledges. Most importantly, the notion of sustainable jobs must be decent jobs and inherent in those jobs is the recognition and practice of principles of human rights, labour rights, and particularly respect for the rights of women and other disadvantaged groups. 
 
Also during the June Executive meetings, the body endorsed a resolution submitted by the Asia-Pacific Region of the ICEM. That resolution calls on all affiliates of the ICEM to lend support to Thai labour unions. They are battling hostile work environments imposed by multinational companies, including rubber manufacturers Goodyear and Michelin and industrial gases company Linde, to name just a few.

ICEM’s Executive Formally Adopts Sustainability Policy

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The 2009 annual meeting of ICEM&rsquo;s International Nuclear Workers&rsquo; Union Network, (INWUN) took place in Geneva 25-26. INWUN covers all nuclear workers and not just those involved in electric power generation, but also unionised workers producing medical or industrial isotopes, and workers involved in the reprocessing and enrichment of uranium and uranium mining. 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s Joe Drexler gave a presentation on the increased investment taking place in uranium mining, as well as a programme on radiological hazards in uranium that began in May in South Africa. 
 
A number of unions attended the network meeting for the first time, showing an increased interest in nuclear power from many countries as a possible contributor to reduced carbon emissions and a &ldquo;nuclear renaissance&rdquo; that is clearly linked to climate change discussions. 

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Indeed, interest was shown by a number of unions in the work ICEM has done following the appointment of Brian Kohler late last year as Safety, Health, Sustainability Officer, and in preparations for the UN&rsquo;s COP 15 Climate Change Conference, scheduled for December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. 
 
A presentation on the sustainability work of ICEM was made by Lars Myhre, chair of the ICEM Energy Industries Section who has also chaired the ICEM sustainable development discussions. 
 
A detailed presentation by Roland Schneider of TUAC on their work at the OECD in Paris and the work of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the OECD led to discussions on how ICEM and INWUN can link to the work of these agencies. 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s Energy Officer, Jim Catterson, is in contact with TUAC to take this further. ICEM made a presentation on the present state of the Energy Industries and the future role foreseen for nuclear power. That was followed by an industry viewpoint from an official of the World Nuclear Association. 
 
Next year&rsquo;s INWUN meeting will be held in connection with the ICEM World Energy Conference, planned for the second half of 2010. This will maximise attendance and increase the input of unions from ICEM&rsquo;s energy sector attending the world conference. 
 
Unions present made detailed presentations of their own national situations, and these presentations will shortly be loaded to the Energy Industry section of the ICEM website. INWUN is presided over by David Shier of the Canadian Power Workers&rsquo; Union (PWU).

Nuclear Workers’ Network Holds Annual Meeting in Geneva

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As part of the cooperation and alliance between ICEM and the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) in the oil and gas industry, the two Global Union Federations (GUFs) cooperated in an ILO tripartite sector meeting called &ldquo;Promoting Social Dialogue and Good Industrial Relations from Oil and Gas Exploration and Production to Oil and Gas Distribution.&rdquo; 
 
Lars Myhre, from Norway&rsquo;s Industri-Energi (IE) Union and the ICEM Energy Industries Chairman, was elected chairperson of the Workers&rsquo; Group, while spokesperson Mick Dolman from the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) was elected as Workers&rsquo; Group vice chairman. Dolman chaired one of the plenary sessions of the meeting. 
 
ICEM Energy Officer Jim Catterson was elected secretary of the Workers&rsquo;Group. Ingo Marowski of the ITF closely followed all the discussions and worker delegates from both GUFs participated in both the plenary sessions and the working party, which produced tripartite conclusions following extensive negotiations. 

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The Workers&rsquo; Group ensured that as well as a strong focus on trade union rights and the ILO Core Conventions, there was detailed discussion of health and safety issues, especially the adverse long-term health effects of diving on workers. Helicopter safety to and from offshore rigs, given a recent spate of accidents in the Brazil, Canada, and UK, also was a prominent agenda item. 
 
A special solidarity message was sent by the Workers&rsquo; Group to the Offshore Divers&rsquo; Union in Norway, an organisation that includes many IE-organised divers. The organisation is presently engaged in compensation litigation. Other issues debated at length included the situation of contract and sub-contract workers, the respective responsibilities of operators and contract companies, and the specific problems of contract workers in the Mexican oil industry. The latter was a major issue for ITF, which had nominated both a worker delegate and an advisor from their Mexican affiliates. 
 
The agreed conclusions and report of the meeting&rsquo;s deliberations, as well as the detailed background report provided at the meeting are available from the ICEM Secretariat. However, it should be noted that the conclusions and report need to be approved at the next meeting of the ILO Governing Body before becoming official documents. 
 
ICEM has begun discussions with the ILO regarding follow-up work from the meeting.

ILO’s Oil and Gas Meeting Promotes Social Dialogue

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ICEM Indonesian affiliate, Federasi Serikat Pekerja Pulp Dan Kertas (FSP2KI), conducted training on collective bargaining and labour law from 4-5 July in Karawang with 30 participants. The union represents workers across the country&rsquo;s pulp and paper sector. 
 
The training was attended by workplace leaders of Asia Pulp &amp; Paper&rsquo;s PT Indo Deli, PT Graha Cemerlang, Asia Pacific Resources International&rsquo;s (APRIL) Riau Andalan paper and power operations, and DSS Karawang. 

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The workshops had the expertise of Akhirnya Asfinawati, the leader of the legal aid service LBH Jakarta; Khamid Istakhori from the Congress States Labour Congress of Indonesia (KSBI); and Odie Hudaya from the Labour Working Group, an Indonesian workers&rsquo; training institute. FSP2KI shop-floor leaders were instructed on bargaining techniques and legal procedures as outlined under Peneltian Hukum Indonesia, the country&rsquo;s legal information guide. 
 
The union intends to provide follow-up training to the 30 participants in order to give maximum protections to trade union members. 
 
Etin Rodiana serves as General Secretary of FSP2KI and Irzan Zulpakar is the President.

Indonesian Pulp, Paper Union, FSP2KI, Conducts Training for Mill-Level Leaders

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