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Bargaining in Germany’s paper industry for 45,000 workers has broken down over employers’ resistance to compromise. ICEM affiliate IGBCE said it was the first time in a decade that the union and paper companies have not reached a compromise, and the union will not evade a confrontation if conciliation now fails. IGBCE Governing Board Member Werner Bischoff expressed great disappointment at the employers’ unwillingness to seek a compromise. Paper companies stubbornly held to a single payment of €150 per worker for the first eight months of a new collective agreement, and then a 2% increase with a length-of-term proposal for 20 months. IGBCE finds that proposal unacceptable. The two sides will now go to conciliation in which equal numbers of worker representatives and employers will negotiate.

German Paper Bargaining Goes to Conciliation

As locked-out American employees of global tyremaker Continental rounded off their solidarity tour of Europe today, "Conti" workers in Scotland were balloting on possible strike action. 
 
The US delegation represented some 1,450 strikers at the General Tire plant in Charlotte, North Carolina. 
 
Earlier this week they held talks with unions in Scotland, where Continental's Newbridge plant could soon be hit by a strike over imposed workforce cuts and longer work times. 
 
Continental's business strategy declaredly includes "relocation of production to low-cost countries". 
 
On the company's own figures, its production of car tyres in "low-cost countries" has soared, by volume, from 0 percent in 1990 to about 35 percent today. So Continental is well on course to its target of making 40 percent of its car tyres in "low-cost countries". 
 
This is creating pressure on pay and jobs at various older-established Continental plants, and serious prospects of closures. In some of the European countries visited by the US delegation, unions said the local Continental management had warned them not to meet the American strikers - for fear of compromising their own plants' chances of survival. 
 
The US visitors quickly established a rapport and solidarity with their Scottish colleagues, John McAllister says. He is the Branch Secretary for the GMB union at Continental's Scottish plant. 
 
"The American Continental workers' situation is very similar to ours," McAllister told ICEM UPDATE. "The company obviously wants low-cost operations everywhere except in its home country, Germany." 
 
Management at Newbridge is trying to impose new shift patterns that would mean fewer workers and longer hours, McAllister says. The company plans to cut 135 jobs there by April, and a further 60 over the rest of this year. 
 
McAllister saw Newbridge management today with proposals to salvage the situation. "But how do I know that if I give something now, they won't be back for more? We recognise the company's need for profits and productivity. But here at Newbridge, we need some hope for the future. We can't go on working 42-hour weeks." 
 
Talks would be continuing, McAllister said. "Obviously, we are hoping that a solution can still be found that will avert strike action." 
 
 
 
AMERICAN CONTI DISPUTE ENTERS SIXTH MONTH 
 
Meanwhile, the workers at the Continental's Charlotte plant in the USA have been on strike since last September, and have been effectively locked out since November, when the company "permanently replaced" them with strikebreakers. 
 
The core issue in the American dispute is that the company is refusing to pay the going rate among leading employers of US tyre workers, even though the plant is now profitable. 
 
After Continental bought General Tire, the workers agreed to "give back" US$90 million in wages and benefit cuts, in order to get the plant back to financial health. These give-backs amounted to $30,000 per worker. The clear understanding was that the workers would be properly compensated when the plant returned to profitability. In the meantime, General Tire is showing a healthy profit, but there is no sign that the workers are about to be paid their due. 
 
Due to a legal loophole, American employers can fire workers during a dispute, as long as the sackings are termed "permanent replacement". This curious right is not absolute, however. If the company can be shown to have engaged in "unfair labour practices", it could be obliged to take the strikers back and to foot a big bill for wage backlogs and compensation. 
 
The Charlotte workers are confident they can prove that General Tire bargained in "bad faith" - in other words, that it was not trying to reach a settlement. This would constitute an "unfair labour practice", as would the company's withholding of information needed for collective bargaining. The only question is how long the legal proceedings will take. US labour law cases tend to be a slow business. 
 
The Americans' tour of Europe has been coordinated by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), whose membership includes unions organising in Continental's operations worldwide. Affiliated to the ICEM is the US tyreworkers' union, the USWA, as well as the various unions visited during the European tour. 
 
 
CONTI SACKS TURKS FOR UNIONISING 
 
This afternoon, the Americans flew back home from their final stop - Turkey. There, they visited the city of Bursa, about 200km from Istanbul. Continental's ContiTech division has a plant in Bursa, making plastic parts for the car industry. 
 
Last November, workers at the ContiTech plant decided to organise a branch of the Turkey's Lastik-Is union. 47 of the 79 Bursa workers signed up for union membership. As soon as it heard the news, the ContiTech management in Bursa sacked 45 workers. All 45 were among the 47 who had opted to join the union. 
 
The Americans also had discussions with Lastik-Is General Secretary Halil Altunay at the union's headquarters in Istanbul yesterday. Comments by Altunay and the USWA's John Sellers were widely reported by the Turkish press and television. 
 
Sellers is Executive Vice President of the USWA and head of the union's Rubber/Plastics Conference. He accompanied the US Continental strikers' representatives throughout the European tour, and his remarks to the Turkish press summarised the American workers' case. 
 
Halil Altunay stressed the global aspects of the encounter between Turkish and American Conti workers. "This is a good example of international workers' solidarity, as put into practice by our International, the ICEM," he told the Turkish media. "It comes at a time when workers everywhere are having to face the consequences of the globalisation of capital. Instead of bargaining properly, Continental is trying to get rid of the union in a number of countries." 
 
 
WHISTLESTOP TOUR 
 
Over the past week and a half, the Americans also visited Slovakia, the Czech Republic, France and Belgium. In each country, they met with the unions and their leaders, explained their current dispute and received solidarity and support. The delegation also held discussions with the ICEM at its headquarters in Brussels. 
 
Immediately before the tour, USWA and ICEM officers had met in Germany - where Continental is headquartered - with ICEM German affiliate the IG BCE, worker representatives from the Continental Supervisory Board and officials of Continental's German Works Council (see ICEM UPDATE 3/1999).

Locked-Out American Strikers Tour Europe

Rio Tinto, the world's biggest mining company, has suffered a major set-back in its efforts to remove trade unions and union-negotiated agreements from its Australian workplaces. 
 
The Australian Industrial Relations Commission yesterday turned down the company's application to terminate a certified collective agreement with the Australian miners' union, the CFMEU, at its Mount Thorley mine. 
 
Rio Tinto wanted to scrap the agreement so that it could force wages and conditions down to the level of the "safety net award". It would then have been in a stronger position to oblige the workers to accept increases in working hours and loss of conditions if they wanted to get back to anything like their previous wage levels. 
 
In this case, the commission said that it was not in the public interest to allow the company to act in such a unilateral manner, and that the parties should bargain cooperatively. 
 
This is an implied criticism of legislative changes brought in recently by Australia's right-wing federal government. The amendments enable employers to terminate expired agreements unilaterally. 
 
But if justice has been served in the Mount Thorley case, the law is looking more and more of an ass over another flashpoint within Rio Tinto's troubled Australian operations. 
 
On 2 August, the Industrial Relations Commission refused to correct a legal error in its previous ruling on a dispute at Rio Tinto's Gordonstone mine. 
 
The Australian Federal Court had found that the commission erred in law in denying the illegally sacked Gordonstone miners preference of employment. But the commission has now rejected the CFMEU's appeal that it undo the damage its error created. To correct its own mistake would, the commission ruled, be "against the public interest". 
 
"This is a staggering claim," the CFMEU commented. "How can it be 'against the public interest' to right a wrong?" 
 
A valid question, because the commission's refusal means that Rio Tinto will still not have to reinstate the miners who were illegally dismissed by the mine's previous owners and were never rehired by Rio Tinto. Nonetheless, the CFMEU will be continuing to press for the sacked miners to be given first option on jobs that become available at Gordonstone from now on. 
 
But in the meantime, Gordonstone is worth just one Australian dollar. 
 
On paper, at least. 
 
As the CFMEU revealed on 28 July, Rio Tinto is now operating the $ 400 million Gordonstone mine through a "shelf company" registered as Kestrel Coal Pty Ltd. Kestrel is a $1 company with just one share, held by a certain Erin Feros in Brisbane. 
 
The shareholder is outnumbered two to one by Kestrel's directors, Brian Frederick Horwood and Colin Stuart Marshall. They are both also directors of Pacific Coal Pty Ltd, which is a Rio Tinto subsidiary. 
 
Pacific Coal is the real operator of Gordonstone. Or, as Rio Tinto would now say, of Kestrel. For good measure, the company has also renamed the mine. 
 
So what prompted these bizarre changes? 
 
"This one-dollar company is the employer of the workforce," explains CFMEU National Vice-President Reg Coates. "The whole scheme has been structured so that Rio Tinto will have no liability in the event of any problems. 
 
"Rio Tinto is pulling a fast one here," Coates says. "The Federal Government has promised to clamp down on shonky corporate business practices - now what is it going to do about Rio Tinto?"

Rio Tinto: Australian Ruling Thwarts Pay Cut Ploy

The unaffiliated Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEMU) rallied last week and commenced industrial actions against government-run Bahamas Electricity Corporation. Industrial actions officially began on 1 September. About 150 of the union’s 900 members rallied on that day outside the utility’s headquarters in Nassau. The company has failed to reach compromise on five key issues separating the two sides: safety, a pension scheme, salary disparities, management of work hours, and contract breaches. The union, part of the National Congress of Trade Unions (NCTU) of The Bahamas, is now conducting sit-down actions, go-slow procedures, and action might escalate to power cuts if management remains unwilling to address the concerns of electrical workers

Electric Workers in The Bahamas Start Job Actions

German ICEM affiliate IGBCE will hold its Congress 9-14 October in Hannover with 391 delegates taking on 150 resolutions under the banner “Strong Enough for New Paths.” The Congress will include some 1,100 guests, and one motion to be considered will be the challenges to trade union cooperation in the greater EU economy and globalisation. IGBCE President Hubertus Schmoldt called recent German elections a mandate against radical reforms to labour law and bargaining regulations, issues brought forth by both the CDU/CSU and neo-liberals. Schmoldt said in a newspaper interview that Germany needs new concepts for it’s energy market, as well as creation of better terms and conditions for employment in high-tech workplaces.

German Affiliate IGBCE to Hold Congress

You can direct all information and requests to the general e-mail address of the ICEM: <a href="mailto:info@icem.org">info@icem.org</a>. Please also use this address in case you have a specific request, but are unsure about whom to contact directly. The ICEM’s general phone number in Geneva is ++41-22-304-1840.
Please also take into account that, in case you try to contact a staff member directly, he or she may not be in the office for a period of time while traveling. In those cases, the staff member concerned may not answer your e-mail as quickly as you would have hoped. 
All ICEM staff can be reached by e-mail as follows: 
<a href="mailto:firstname.lastname@icem.org">firstname.lastname@icem.org</a> 

 Management team
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Manfred Warda PREFERRED.jpg" width="210" height="208"/> 
 
Manfred Warda 
ICEM General Secretary  

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Jimcatterson.jpg" width="100" height="136"/>  
Jim Catterson  
ICEM Director of Organisation 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Kemal Ozkan NEW.jpg" width="110" height="134"/>
Kemal Ozkan 
ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/marie.france.JPG" width="108" height="156"/>
Marie France Sarfati 
ICEM Finance & Human Resources Officer 
 
<a name="I"></a><a name="industry"></a> 
Industry Officers<a name="Industry"></a>
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1105.Dick Blin - Staff foto list.JPG" width="100" height="152"/>
Dick Blin 
ICEM Pulp and Paper Section Officer  
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Kemal Ozkan NEW.jpg" width="110" height="134"/>
Kemal Ozkan  
ICEM Chemical / Pharmaceuticals / Rubber Section Officer 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Phee.JPG" width="100" height="150"/>
Phee Jung-sun 
ICEM Materials 
(Cement, Glass, Ceramics) Section Officer 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Jimcatterson.jpg" width="100" height="136"/>
Jim Catterson 
ICEM Energy Section Officer 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Glen Mpufane.jpg" width="152" height="140"/>
Glen Mpufane 
ICEM Mining & DGOJP Section Officer 
Functional Officers<a name="Functional"></a>
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/carolbruce.jpg.JPG" width="100" height="150"/>
Carol Bruce 
ICEM Gender Issues Officer 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1105.Dick Blin - Staff foto list.JPG" width="100" height="152"/>
Dick Blin 
ICEM Information and Publications, Campaigns Officer 
 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Fons.JPG" width="100" height="134"/>
Kurt (Fons) Vannieuwenhuyse 
ICEM Projects Officer 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Brian.Kohler.b.JPG" width="104" height="156"/>
Brian Kohler 
ICEM Health, Safety & Sustainability Officer 
 
Regional Contact Persons <a name="Regional"></a>
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Anatoly.JPG" width="100" height="134"/>
Anatoly Surin 
Regional contact person for Central and Eastern Europe
Carol Bruce 
Regional contact person for Latin America/Caribbean 
Brian Kohler 
Regional contact person for North America 
Kurt (Fons) Vannieuwenhuyse 
Regional contact person for Western, Nordic and Central Europe  
Jim Catterson  
Regional contact person for North Africa & Middle East
Phee Jung-sun 
Regional contact person for Asia-Pacific <a href="mailto:phee.jungsun@icem.org"> 
 
</a>Support Staff<a name="Support"></a>
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Fanja100.jpg" width="100" height="115"/>
 Fanja Rasolomanana 
Personal Assistant to the General Secretary 
and Conference Coordinator 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/steeve.latte.b.JPG" width="111" height="166"/>
Steeve Latté 
Finance & Administration Assistant
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/tom.g.JPG" width="101" height="138"/>
Tom Grinter 
Communications & Campaigns Assistant
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0809MariaPaula100.jpg" width="100" height="120"/>
Maria Paula Davidson 
Travel & General Administrative Assistant 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Maita Wyss.2.jpg" width="97" height="132"/> 
Maita Wyss 
Receptionist & Database Assistant

ICEM Staff

<img height="55" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="138"/>
Some 1,300 members of United Steel Workers (USW) in Canada are back to work at Teck Cominco Ltd. following ratification 5 October of a new three-year collective agreement. Steelworkers had been on strike at the company’s zinc and lead operations in Trail, British Colombia, since 19 July. 
The strike had been called in order to re-gain wage and pension ground given the company in the 1990s during economic hard times. The new contract has wage increases totaling 10% over the three years, pension gains of 12%, and a C$3,500 cash payment to each worker.

Strike Settled in Canada with Wage, Benefit Gains

<img height="83" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/canadacep.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
History was made in the North American offshore oil industry 30 September. Some 120 members of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada won the continent’s first offshore oil collective agreement at Terra Nova, a platform 350 kilometers off Newfoundland that is a consortium of seven oil companies led by Petro Canada. 
The agreement came through first contract arbitration in accord with labour law in Newfoundland, which prohibits strikes or lockouts in an initial contract period. “It has taken years of patience and solidarity to get to this point,” said CEP President Brian Payne. “We had hoped for a freely bargained collective agreement but this legally imposed arbitrated settlement is an important stepping stone in improving working conditions.” 
The platform workers chose CEP representation by an 84% vote in April 2003, 19 months after workers at another North Atlantic installation called Hibernia voted for CEP, becoming the first NA offshore group to unionise. 
A contract for the 430 workers there is currently before the same arbitration process. Besides Petro Canada, companies with a stake in Terra Nova include ExxonMobil, Norske Hydro, Husky Oil, Murphy Oil, Mosbacher Operating, and Chevron.

First Collective Agreement in NA Offshore Sector

<img height="55" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="138"/>
In Poland, workers of nine trade unions at KGHM Polska Miedz S.A., a publicly-traded copper and silver mining company in which the state holds 45% stake, won an extra month’s salary in collective negotiations due to the high copper prices. 
The unions demanded the increases for 17,000 workers after the company stated its 2005 profit projections would be doubled. After first offering a half-month’s extra pay, KGHM’s board met the demands of the unions, and the extra paycheck will be awarded prior to 4 November.

Polish Copper Workers Score Pay Gains

<img height="55" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="138" alt=""/>
The first issue of ICEM’s e-bulletin on HIV/AIDS was published in early October and can be found on the GUF’s website, <a href="http://www.icem.org" type="internal">www.icem.org</a>. 
The e-bulletin will be a regular monthly feature to ICEM’s information strategy on the pandemic, and gives useful links to materials and websites for union activists who desire to deepen their knowledge on the fight against HIV/AIDS.

ICEM's HIV/AIDS Project Gets Newsletter

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