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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
ICEM Hungarian affiliate, the Federation of Chemical Workers Union at the MOL Bányász Szakszervezet (MOL RT), held its Congress in Budapest, 27 March. 
 
The Congress unanimously elected László Biri as the new President of the union. He replaces the outgoing József Kudela, who has retired. In letters between outgoing József Kudela and ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, each of the two thanked the other for a long period of friendship and close cooperation, protecting the interests of Hungarian oil and gas workers, and developing international trade unionism in the region. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.hungary.congress.png" width="201" height="151"/>
ICEM congratulates László Biri on his election, and looks forward to continuing good relations and successful work together. 
 
The MOL Group is an integrated oil and gas company, also present elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. With 34,000 employees in total, MOL is the second largest company in Central and Eastern Europe.

Hungarian Chemical Workers’ Congress Elects New President, József Kudela Retires

Unions Make Work Safer: Today, 28 April, Every Day

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The ICEM German affiliate, IGBCE, accomplished substantive commitments for youth apprenticeship positions inside an 11-month national labour agreement with the chemical employers’ association, the BAVC. Those commitments will carry over for the next three years, and will mean another 27,000 young people will have career opportunities in Germany’s keystone chemicals industry through apprenticeships. 
 
The 11-month length of the contract is a concession to chemical employers, with hopes that all 1,900 enterprises will regain solid financial footing before the IGBCE and BAVC resume bargaining for wage increases early in 2011. A wage freeze takes effect now for 550,000 workers, with ratification bonuses awarded instead. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0907.Michael%20Vassiliadis.jpg" width="180" height="153"/>
IGBCE President Michael Vassiliadis
“It is a good conclusion” for the present, stated IGBCE President Michael Vassiliadis. “It is fair considering the varying conditions in the industry and it helps build a bridge between the economic crisis and recovery.” 
 
Foremost in the new accord is a social-partners commitment for life-long job opportunities for young people, which includes €25 million in money provided by companies of the industry. The employers agreed to create 1,000 permanent jobs for young people in each of three years, with the fund used to subsidize companies at €1,000 per month for each worker given a permanent position. 
 
The IGBCE negotiated the requirement that subsidies can only be given for workers that are IGBCE members. 
 
The ratification bonuses, to be included in workers’ salary pay checks this month, amount to €550 for day-shift workers, €611 for workers on five- or six-day swing shifts, and €715 for night-shift and workers required to work across seven days per week. 

<img style="WIDTH: 142px; HEIGHT: 210px" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0811.IGBCE.jpg" width="150" height="242"/>
Workers in enterprises that have not suffered due to the economic crisis will receive a further €200 bonus on top of their stipends. For enterprises still facing difficulties, and with the consent of the respective European Works Councils, the overall bonus can be reduced, but not below €300. 
 
Peter Hausmann, IGBCE Governing Board member, who heads the union’s Collective Bargaining Department, said the new collective agreement reflects a stronger set of initiatives created by social partners for the industry. We have created “new perspectives created for young people,” as well as better job security provisions for existing workers, said Hausmann. 
 
The agreement was reached on 21 April in Würzburg, following two days of national talks.

Youth Job Guarantees Won by IGBCE in German Chemicals Agreement

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The former ICEM Projects Coordinator in Thailand, Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, was released last night, 13 June, from a prison at a Thai army base. He had been imprisoned since 24 May, together with academic Suthachai Yimprasert from Chulalongkom University, after the two presented themselves to police after they heard arrest warrants had been issued for them. 
 
Yimprasert was released 5 June from a prison at the Adisorn military base in Saraburi, 115 kilometres north of Bangkok. Both were arrested under the government’s Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES), a hastily put together decree stemming from May’s political turbulence in Thailand.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/somyot.jpg" width="200" height="123" alt=""/>
Somyot Pruksakasemsuk
The release of Brother Somyot follows a criminal court’s decision rejecting the CRES arrest order. Even after that decision, the government held him for another seven days. 
 
The CRES charges against him were for inflaming public sentiment against the government for holding a news conference on 21 May in which he called for the resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. He also edited a newspaper that supported the viewpoints of the Red Shirts in recent political strife. 
 
The ICEM called the charges a serious breach of universal free speech rights. 
 
International human rights groups throughout the world, as well as several Global Union Federations, sent protests to the Thai government over the unfair arrests of Somyot and Suthachai. An online appeal by the Dutch-based Clean Clothes Campaign also generated pressure on the government.

Thai Labour Activist Somyot Pruksakasemsuk Finally Released

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The Hungarian Labour Inspectorate levied a fine recently against Hankook Tyre Magyaroszag Kft. for obstructing the duties and activities of a branch of ICEM-affiliated Federation of Chemical, Energy, and General Workers’ Unions (VDSZ). Although the fine was small in monetary amount, €3,646, it was significant in the fact that Hankook, at its burgeoning tyre factory in Dunaujvaros, has proven again its unwillingness to accept a trade union. 
 
According to VDSZ President Tamás Székely, Hungary’s labour agency fined Hankook for refusal to allow lawful entry to the plant of a VDSZ official and a member of the company’s supervisory council. Management then refused to recognise the capacity of the union leader.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0912.hungary.tamas.jpg" width="166" height="221" alt=""/>
 VDSZ President Tamás Székely 
 

The violation comes on top of other breaches of Hungarian labour law, as well as European Union statutes. When the factory at Dunaujvarous started up in June 2007, low pay, excessive overtime, and a forced six-day work-week made the then 800 workers turn to the VDSZ Tyre Manufacturing Workers’ Union for representation. 
 
Management would not recognise the union and even after a labour tribunal granted certification, the company appealed the decision through the courts. The company interrogated workers on their lawful right to join VDSZ and illegally dismissed union activists. Ultimately, Hungarian jurisprudence fully recognised the union, but that did not stop Hankook from interfering with union involvement in formation of a European Works Council (EWC). 
 
VDSZ proved successful in EWC elections, but the most recent Labour Inspectorate fine proves the Korean-based company still is not ready for the European-style social model, despite the fact that the European Commission funds totaling €100 million were used in start-up of the Dunaujvaros factory. A Hankook spokeswoman said the company will appeal the latest fine. 
 
Meanwhile, Hankook, the world’s seventh largest tyre manufacturer which is 10% owned by Michelin, is preparing to increase its Hungarian workforce from the current 1,250 to 2,000 by next year. The company plans to double tyre production at Dunaujvaros to 30,000 tyres per day. The company in late May won an exclusive supply contract with Volkswagen to produce tyres for all models of vehicles. In March, it signed a development contract with BMW that the company expects will lead to a supply contract. 
 
Hankook has faced numerous labour battles in its home country, specifically with the Korean Metalworkers’ Union two years ago at its ASA aluminum wheel subsidiary in Guemsam, South Chungcheong Province.

Hankook Tyre in Hungary Fined for Impeding Union Activities

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
UK’s Unite the Union held its first Policy Conference 31 May to 3 June at the Manchester Central Convention Complex with 700 delegates present. Entitled “Working for Working People,” the biannual event was the first jointly held conference since the 1 May 2007 merger between the Transport and General Workers Union and Amicus that created Unite. 

Central themes of the four-day conference included winning back the British Labour Party for working people, keeping a sturdy manufacturing base in the UK, stopping erosion of public services and public sector workers against Tory assaults, and addressing the bullying affront by British Airways against the union’s cabin crew members. 

The conference also took up several intentional topics, including support for Canadian strikers of the United Steelworkers (USW) at mining company Vale, strong condemnation of Israel’s aggressive policies against Palestinians, support to Latin American unions resisting capitalist demands, and, closer to home, a hearing over the lack of rights for Unite’s Moroccan members working in Gibraltar.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006.unite.vale.gfernandez.jpg" width="302" height="193"/>
Tony Woodley, USW’s Gerald Fernandez, Canadian Vale striker Bob Belowos, United Executive Council Chair Tony Woodhouse, and Derek Simpson  

Some 180 policy issues were tabled. 

The biggest debate occurred on 2 June over whether or not Britain ought to scrub its £76 billion Trident nuclear weapon system when its service life ends in 2024. The debate centered on peace and disarmament versus jobs and workers’ livelihoods, with discussion on how cancelling the programme can liberate monies for public services, such as health, education, and social services. After a fierce debate, Unite’s Executive Council recommendation for peace and disarmament won out. 

On 2 June, UK’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) Secretary General Brendan Barber spoke. He said that manufacturing must become the centerpiece of a new economy. “Whether it’s high-speed trains or electric vehicles, whether it’s wind turbines or more efficient airplane engines, we have the skills, the experience, and the expertise to build them here.”
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006.unite.2gs.jpg" width="180" height="120"/>
Woodley and Simpson
Barber lashed out at the consequences hoisted on British society by financiers. “It is just plain wrong that our schools, hospitals, and local councils should pay the price for a crisis inspired by the free-market dogma, created in the City of London, and caused by the richest minority of the richest minority.” 

Unite’s Joint General Secretary Tony Woodley had harsh words for the Labour Party. “It is a scandal that at the end of 13 years of Labour government, the right to strike is hanging by a thread. (It is) at the mercy of employers who would rather sue than settle, and Tory judges who … think strikes are OK as long as they don’t inconvenience the bosses. 

“So I want to make one thing clear to all Labour leadership contenders. Our vote should only go to the candidate who pledges – unequivocally, no mealy-mouthed phrases, to do what Labor was set up to do – create a level playing field at work, and scrap the anti-union laws.”
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006.unite.voting.jpg" width="240" height="160"/>
 Unite Delegates Voting on a Policy Measure 

Speaking on the conference’s final day, 3 June, Joint General Secretary Derek Simpson – who will retire at year’s end – addressed Unite’s merger coordination with the United Steelworkers of North America, called Workers Uniting. He said it was the UK’s failure to implement social partnership models, common throughout Europe, which has left the markets to rule in the UK – as well as in the US. 

“If you need to fight the employer on a multi-national field,” said Simpson, “you need a multi-national union and the USW feels the same way.” 

While Simpson will retire this year, Woodley will follow him to retirement in the next calendar year. Unite branches are conducting nominations and five candidates announced their intent to succeed Woodley, with elections to start in October of this year.

UK’s Unite Takes Policy Initiatives at First Tactical Conference

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Svetlana Klochok was elected to lead the ICEM affiliate, Belarusian Chemical, Miners’, and Oil Workers’ Union (Belchimprofsoyuz) early this month, despite heavy intrusion by the national labour centre Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FPB) and its president, Leonid Kozik. The election and Belchimprofsoyuz’s Fifth Congress took place on 3 June in Minsk. 

During the final week of preparations for the Congress, strong pressure was exerted on the 197 delegates to place into leadership a colleague of Kozik’s. The effort failed and Klochok won in a free and democratic vote of delegates, signaling a very strong slap to FPB for meddling in the internal affairs of an affiliated union. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Belarus.png" width="240" height="244" alt=""/>
Klochok had served as Vice President of the union. She succeeds Ludmila Grushetskaya who, after many years leading the union, decided not to run for re-election. 
 
The Congress took note of the global financial crisis, and despite it, the Belchimprofsoyuz secretariat reported the union did remarkably well in protecting working collectives, particularly in the oil and chemical industries. It achieved higher salary levels and maintained the number of jobs at levels near the number before the crisis. 
 
Some 90% of all workers in Belchimprofsoyuz’s sectors are union members. The union’s membership is 153,000, and it added 12,000 new members over the past four years. 
The Congress was attended by international trade union delegates from Russia and Italy, and the ICEM was represented by its Central Europe and Eastern Europe/Central Asia Coordinator Anatoly Surin. 
 
The ICEM welcomes the new President of Belchimprofsoyuz, Svetlana Klochok, and looks forward to continued good and fruitful relations with the Belarusian union.

Belarus Affiliate Wards Off National Centre Interference, Elects Democratic President

The UK Equality and Human Rights Commission recently published the damning results of an inquiry into the recruitment and treatment of agency workers in the meat and poultry processing sector in England and Wales. 
 
Although the investigation focused exclusively on the meat and poultry industry, it was said that “...the Commission has no evidence to suggest that supply chain practices in the meat processing sector are more detrimental to workers than in any other sector that makes significant use of low-paid, agency migrant labour.” 
 
The Commission found evidence of widespread poor treatment of agency workers, especially among those who are migrants or who are pregnant, both by agencies and by user enterprises. In particular, the Commission found evidence of practices that contravene legal requirements, ethical trading standards, and basic human rights. Other types of treatment were described as being “an affront to dignity.” 
 
One-third of agencies told the investigators that they had acted unlawfully by recruiting workers of particular nationalities, by giving preference to candidates with particular nationalities they judged the user firm would prefer, or by discriminating against certain nationalities at the direct request of the user firm. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.cal.equality.png" width="237" height="60"/>
While flexibility is often cited as being an advantage of agency work by the industry, only two workers cited the flexibility of agency work as a positive aspect. Almost all workers said they would prefer permanent work due to the security and rights it offers. More than 80% of the interviewees said that agency workers were treated worse than permanent workers in every aspect of their job. The agency workers said they received poorer pay, were allocated the worst jobs, and were treated like inferiors. Not a single interviewee thought that agency workers were treated better than their permanent counterparts. 
 
Workers reported being refused toilet breaks, and enduring physical and verbal abuse. Concerns about health and safety were raised in over half the interviews, and many interviewees expressed concern that their personal protective equipment was poor quality, ill fitting, shared with other workers, or missing altogether. 
 
The Commission found that abusive treatment was less common in organised factories, and said that “In workplaces where unions are recognised, or have a strong presence, we found that they provide a significant degree of protection for workers.” However, some workers reported that their right to Freedom of Association had been restricted and reported instances where hostility of companies towards union activities discouraged people from joining a union for fear of retribution. 
 
The report concludes with a set of recommendations to key bodies in the industry to “encourage a systematic change in behaviour,” and improve the operations of the Gangmaster Licensing Authority (GLA). Although outside of its remit, the Commission said “...that there is a case for broadening the GLA’s remit to include other sectors where low-paid agency workers are at risk of exploitation” and urged the government to positively consider this proposal. 
 
Commenting on the findings, Nicola Smith, Senior Policy Officer at the UK’s Trades Union Congress (TUC), said, “This strongly evidenced based report demonstrates the scale of mistreatment that continues across low paid industries, where temporary workers with insecure employment status face some of the greatest risks. The TUC remains concerned that such exploitative practices are not confined to the meat processing sector.”

Report on Abusive Treatment of Agency Workers in the UK 

Making available a significant number of key statistics, including the ICEM’s own, as well as a wide range of “best practice examples,” the ICEM issued a new comprehensive presentation on “CAL and the ICEM CAL campaign.” Slide by slide, this education tool provides information on the ICEM’s national and international CAL work, highlighting, among many other items, what unions around the world are doing in their daily struggles against precarious work. The presentation can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/2010CAL.ppt" type="internal">here</a>. 
 
The statistics indicate that the phenomenon of short-term, contract, agency and other precarious work is still growing in almost every part of the world. On the other hand, there also is progress being made. In a lot of countries, for example, laws have been changed for the better. In other cases, unions managed to gain improvements for precarious workers through successful collective bargaining. Trade unions are also increasingly looking towards their own structures and strategies, aiming to better protect and defend often non-affiliated CAL workers.

New CAL Facts and Figures Overview 

Strike actions in April and a flurry of trade union activities over the past two weeks have succeeded in bringing formal recognition to the ICEM affiliate, Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Industry Workers’ Trade Union of Georgia, at the Zestafoni Ferroalloys Plant and the Georgian Manganese mines, some 40 kilometres from Zestafoni in Chiatura. 
 
That was reinforced on 13 May after the union, backed by the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC), and top managers met for a second conciliation commission session and made headway towards resolving a host of demands put forward by workers. 
 
Miners and metalworkers were buoyed massively when, ten days after a three-day strike ended on 25 April that got management’s rapt attention, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal Özkan travelled to western Georgian to meet with workers. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.georgia.2.JPG" width="300" height="225"/>
(LtoR) Irakli Petriashvili, President of GTUC, Manfred Warda, GTUC interpreter, Kemal Özkan 
Bringing pledges of solidarity from the ICEM and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), Warda told Georgian workers they were not alone. And speaking before regional news media and to workers directly, Warda assured all that the combined strength of the two federations was ready and willing to take this fight beyond central Asia if that was needed. 
 
The message underscored a resolve borne through several months of struggle, culminating in a series of April incidents, including grievous intimidation tricks (see prior ICEM report <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3731-Miners-Metalworkers-Not-Intimidated-by-Georgian-Manganese-Managers" type="internal">here</a>) by management that served only to bring more staff into the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers’ fold. 
 
Initially in the 13 May negotiations, managers and their attorneys sought involvement of an existing but dying “yellow” union in the talks. But the seven union members of the joint, bilateral commission threatened to walk out and begin renewed strike actions. The union and GTUC representatives then showed managers a large number of power-of-attorney statements by workers that expressed their allegiance to the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers’ Union. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.georgia.3.JPG" width="300" height="142"/>
Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers’ Union Members
Recognition was achieved. The numerous petitions that workers demand to improve their working lives were then open for discussion. Foremost among them were wages. In the hours leading up to the talks, the ICEM and IMF scrambled to gather and succeeded in delivering wage rates from associated ferroalloy plants in Ukraine, owned by the metals arm of PrivatBank. 
 
Miners at the Georgian Manganese complex are paid an average monthly wage of GEL (lari) 450, or US$238, €192. Metalworkers at the ferroalloy plant in Zestafoni earn a monthly average of GEL 562, or US$298, €240. With both sides having already agreed to 1 May as the effective date for salary adjustments, management proposed a 15% increase for shift workers and 8% for day workers. 
 
This is unsatisfactory to the union side of the commission. But they are confident that further negotiations on 17-18 May, and again on 20 May, will bring long overdue percentage increases higher. The union did get a commitment at the 13 May set of talks that the enterprises will begin to comply with Georgia labour law regarding sick leave payments, including retroactive compensation for those workers who have been denied such pay. 
 
“It is a big step forward,” said Gocha Aleksandria, Vice President of the GTUC, who is a member of the 14-member conciliation commission. “The administration now accepts our union, but the hardest part is still ahead. We intend to achieve the obvious, meaningful, and tangible results for our members and that is permanent labour contracts that address all issues.” 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.georgia.4.JPG" width="304" height="241"/>
Some of those issues include raising the number of yearly paid leave days from 30 (metal) and 32 (mining) to 35; creation of a joint contributory pension fund to supplement a miserly state pension; better safety and health conditions; and an upgrade to medical facilities. 
 
Even prior to the first commission negotiations, on 7 May, management reacted to workers’ militancy and ICEM’s mission statement of that week by agreeing to permanent work contracts, as well as reinstatement of two union leaders who were discharged for strike activities. (At the 13 May session, management agreed to pay the two their full April salaries.) 
 
Another accomplishment in the recent bargaining is that union leaders will bring their demands directly to Georgian shareholders of the enterprises. The complex ownership of the ferroalloy plant and manganese mines has stock ownership by privately-held Stemcor Holdings of the UK, with shares also traded publicly on the Georgian bourse with Georgia entrepreneurs and the Ukrainian oligarch Gennadiy Boholyubov and his manganese empire that is tied to PrivatBank holding vast sums. 
 
For now, the 3,600 miners and 2,200 metalworkers have a free and democratic union they can call their own – the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Industry Workers’ Trade Union of Imereti Region. But as Aleksandria states, the journey now begins in earnest: erstwhile dialogue to gain the wage levels, benefits and work conditions that they justly deserve.

Recognition Realised for Georgian Miners, Metalworkers at Manganese Operations

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