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EPMU members at a new tyre plant of Bridgestone began picketing that jobsite on 26 April in protest of the Japanese company's failure to meet demands. The 24 strikers are highly skilled electricians, engineers and mold changers who are also seeking the 5%, as well as shift allowances and a minimum nine statutory holidays. The actual work stoppage began 9 April.

Discord by Skilled Workers at Bridgestone Tyre in New Zealand

In India, a three-day strike by coal mines of the Singareni Collieries Co. ended 27 April, but the union--Singareni Collieries Employees Union-- promised an indefinite strike if the uniform pay increase from India's wage board is not implemented. Strikes at mines in Adilabad and Warangal districts saw 100% support by miners, while other areas such as Khamman and Karimnagan saw somewhat less participation. In total, the 72-hour strike had support from 75% of over 92,000 miners.

Coal Strikes in India’s Mines

Twenty-four tradesmen, members of EPMU in New Zealand, agreed to a two-year deal this week with Bridgestone at a tyre factory in Christchurch, ending a four-week strike. The agreement was termed satisfactory, but not reflective of the intense effort put in by the bargaining unit composed of highly skilled electricians and engineers. 
Contract labour will be a continual issue, and EPMU Southern Operations Director Ged O’Connell said, “We have a significant problem with contractors and agency temps who are able to work in our plants and are not covered by our Collective Agreements.” Although the union prevented contractors from doing bargaining unit work during the strike, salaried staff performed some of that work, and that is an issue with the EPMU. A separate bargaining unit represents about 200 production workers at the tyre factory on the South Island.

Skilled Trades Workers Reach Accord with Bridgestone in NZ

After a one-week strike, some 300 members of ICEM affiliate Korean Chemical & Textile Workers’ Federation reached a labour agreement with BASF Korea in Yeosu. The 23 July agreement calls for a base monthly salary hike of 5% and a reduction in weekly work hours from 42 to 40 without any corresponding loss of pay. 
The amiable settlement is contrasted with the harsh response of government and joint venture partners LG Group and ChevronTexaco at the nearby LG Caltex refinery.

Week-Long Strike Brings BASF Settlement in Korea

Two iron ore strikes in eastern Canada have crippled mining production in Labrador, province of Newfoundland. On 19 July, 1,250 members of ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers of America (USWA) struck the Iron Ore Co. of Canada, 58.7% held by Rio Tinto, over company proposals to strip health care and pensions, freeze wages and install a psychological profiling programme of workers on which to base discipline. The strike affects 1,000 workers at a mine and pellet processing plant in Labrador City and 250 port workers in Sept-Iles, Quebec. Some 350 USWA members are on strike at Wabush Mine in Labrador City and an accompanying processing plant and port in Pointe Noire, Quebec. That strike began 5 July and is against a consortium of firms led by US-based Cleveland Cliffs and is over efficiency issues including contracting out bargaining unit work. The two strikes affect 60% of Canada’s iron ore exports.

Canadian Mine Strikes Shut Rio Tinto, Wabush Mine Operations

Bridgestone/Firestone Argentina continues to stall progress toward a resolve to the 11-month dispute with affiliate SUTNA at a tyre factory near Buenos Aires. Facing further industrial action on 19 August, BS/FS agreed to a request by the Labour Minister for Buenos Aires province to continue negotiations. Only nine of 58 workers who were sacked in an illegal rationalization plan have returned to their jobs, and SUTNA continues to press for the remainder as well as meaningful negotiations toward a new collective agreement. In the absence of a better proposal from the company, SUTNA has a mandate from union members to resume the industrial actions it suspended in early July when BS/FS agreed to reinstate workers.

Dispute Between Bridgestone, Argentine Union Continues

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
Goodyear’s neutrality is not evident in Malaysia, however, where the US firm is busy suspending union officers, violating labour rights, exploiting foreign workers and relying on rampant outsourcing. 
ICEM affiliate National Union of Employees in Companies Manufacturing Rubber Products (NUECMRP) is locked in a dispute with Goodyear Malaysia Bhd. in Selangor with the company. The union is faced with restructuring while Goodyear continues to exceed quotas on foreign workers, namely from Nepal, Burmaand Vietnam. 
The NUECMRP branch at Selangor, numbering about 500 workers, has staged a series of informational pickets to support the suspended officers, as well as nine other workers who have been dismissed or suspended.

Goodyear Violating Union Rights in Malaysia

Globalised labour relations take a step forward this week as the world's industrial trade union leaders meet in Brussels to select target companies for global networks and agreements. 
 
The union leaders from all continents are taking part in the Presidium and Executive Committee sessions of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The Brussels meetings, from 31 May to 2 June, are the first since the ICEM World Congress in Durban, South Africa, last November. 

<img height="285" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/exec2.jpg" width="380"/> 
 
ICEM Executive in Brussels
That Congress set the ICEM a target of global campaigning and networking within major multinationals in its sectors. It also mandated the ICEM to negotiate global agreements with companies, notably on trade union rights, health, safety and environment and equality at work. 
 
The aim is to ensure consistently high standards worldwide by securing the right of the ICEM and its member unions to monitor companies' global performance on these and other issues, and to raise any alleged breaches of the agreements with corporate headquarters management. 
 
This is the crucial difference between global agreements and companies' own self-declared and self-assessed codes of conduct. The ICEM emphasises that such agreements are also in the best interests of the companies and their stakeholders, as they give substance and credibility to corporate ethics. 
 
New ICEM President John Maitland and General Secretary Fred Higgs were elected on a platform of achieving global agreements and of creating the necessary global trade union networks within the companies concerned. 
 
Target multinationals under discussion this week are headquartered in Germany, France, Japan, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries. 
 
"Dialogues are currently underway with, among others, Shell, Rio Tinto, BP Amoco and Freudenberg," Higgs said. "In a number of cases, draft texts have been exchanged. Discussions are particularly far advanced with Freudenberg, the German-headquartered rubber multinational. We hope to finalise an agreement with them by the end of June." 
 
The ICEM already has a company-level global agreement with oil multinational Statoil. 
 
Talks are continuing with the chemical companies' world body, the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), over plans for the first-ever global sectoral agreement. This would concern the chemical companies' Responsible Care programme, which aims to achieve the highest standards of occupational health and safety and of environmental protection. ICEM participation in the monitoring and implementation of Responsible Care would help to ensure consistently high standards worldwide. 
 
"We are already in a serious dialogue with the ICCA," Higgs said. "By the time we meet them again in Tokyo this November, we will be very close to signing a global agreement on Responsible Care."

World Unions Set Targets For Global Agreements

Lawlessness and intimidation" in Zimbabwe are now impacting negatively on trade union rights there, world industrial union leaders declared in Brussels this afternoon. 
 
The Executive Committee of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) called on the Zimbabwean government to "allow trade union activities to take place freely and without fear or intimidation." 
 
Trade union rights and human rights must be guaranteed "irrespective of political tensions in the country," the ICEM said. It also called for "free political activity" in Zimbabwe and the "creation of an environment conducive to free and fair elections."

Zimbabwe Union Rights Under Threat

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko must end his government's serious breaches of trade union rights, a world labour federation urged today. 
 
In a fax to Lukashenko, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) backed a union complaint to the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) against the Belarus government. The ICEM also pledged "pratical assistance" for any other measures considered necessary by ICEM-affiliated unions in Belarus. 
 
Belarus is flouting its commitments under ILO Conventions 87 and 98, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs told Lukashenko. The country is fully signed up to both Conventions, which protect freedom of association and collective bargaining. 
 
Higgs cited various breaches of "these fundamental human rights" in present-day Belarus: 
 
State and employer interference 
The head of the presidential administration ordered ministers to take control of union elections and to ensure that "constructive forces" are elected. Subsequently, enterprise directors and ministry officials have been trying to manipulate trade union conferences in order to ensure the election of pro-government chairpersons and delegates. 
 
Strike curbs 
The legal requirements for calling a strike are highly restrictive and take at least two months to complete. And the President is empowered to postpone any strike for another three months on the ill-defined grounds of a supposed threat to national security, public order, public health or the rights and freedom of other persons. 
 
Harassment of union members 
Employees have been dismissed for taking part in trade union activities or threatened with dismissal if they do not leave their trade union. The state security service, the KGB, has been observing trade union activities and has paid regular visits to trade unionists for "information purposes". 
 
Compulsory registration 
The state has made trade union registration obligatory and demands the immediate dissolution of non-registered unions. At the same time, the registration requirements are so cumbersome and complicated that in practice it has been virtually impossible for many trade union organisations to obtain registration. 
 
Barriers to organising 
A minimum of 500 founding members, representing the majority of regions of the Republic of Belarus and Minsk, is required in order to set up a nationwide trade union organisation. The list of names has to be provided to the Ministry of Justice. To establish a trade union in enterprises, offices, organisations and other places of work, membership by at least 10% of the entire workforce is required, with a minimum of ten people. This makes it virtually impossible to create new trade union organisations. 
 
Higgs strongly urged Lukashenko to "withdraw the discriminatory measures without delay and to ensure respect for trade union rights in your country, both in law and in practice". 
 
Bill Jordan, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, will be visiting Belarus on 11-12 July. Lukashenko should heed Jordan's recommendations, Higgs said, and should "implement them in full".

Belarus: World's Unions Condemn Rights Violations

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