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Most of the Turkish tyre industry has been hit by a strike launched this afternoon over a bargaining dispute. 
 
Goodyear, Pirelli and Bridgestone are among the companies affected by the action, the Turkish rubber workers' union Lastik-Is reports. 
 
Lastik-Is has been negotiating with the tyre companies since last November for a new agreement covering this year and 2001. At the global level, the union is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which organises tyre and rubber workers worldwide. 
 
The companies' final offer to Lastik-Is was a 22 percent pay increase for the first half of this year, followed by a further 6 percent in the second half, plus a small lump sum. For the year 2001, the companies propose to make an additional payment dependent on the prevailing exchange rate between the US dollar and the Turkish lira at the time. 
 
This is a wholly inadequate offer, the union points out, in view of the steep rise in the cost of living. Turkey's inflation rate last year was 68.8 percent. The tyre workers would need a pay rise of the same order simply in order to restore their purchasing power. 
 
Altogether, some 5,000 workers are involved in the disputeMost of the Turkish tyre industry has been hit by a strike launched this afternoon over a bargaining dispute. 
 
Goodyear, Pirelli and Bridgestone are among the companies affected by the action, the Turkish rubber workers' union Lastik-Is reports. 
 
Lastik-Is has been negotiating with the tyre companies since last November for a new agreement covering this year and 2001. At the global level, the union is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which organises tyre and rubber workers worldwide. 
 
The companies' final offer to Lastik-Is was a 22 percent pay increase for the first half of this year, followed by a further 6 percent in the second half, plus a small lump sum. For the year 2001, the companies propose to make an additional payment dependent on the prevailing exchange rate between the US dollar and the Turkish lira at the time. 
 
This is a wholly inadequate offer, the union points out, in view of the steep rise in the cost of living. Turkey's inflation rate last year was 68.8 percent. The tyre workers would need a pay rise of the same order simply in order to restore their purchasing power. 
 
Altogether, some 5,000 workers are involved in the disputeMost of the Turkish tyre industry has been hit by a strike launched this afternoon over a bargaining dispute. 
 
Goodyear, Pirelli and Bridgestone are among the companies affected by the action, the Turkish rubber workers' union Lastik-Is reports. 
 
Lastik-Is has been negotiating with the tyre companies since last November for a new agreement covering this year and 2001. At the global level, the union is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which organises tyre and rubber workers worldwide. 
 
The companies' final offer to Lastik-Is was a 22 percent pay increase for the first half of this year, followed by a further 6 percent in the second half, plus a small lump sum. For the year 2001, the companies propose to make an additional payment dependent on the prevailing exchange rate between the US dollar and the Turkish lira at the time. 
 
This is a wholly inadequate offer, the union points out, in view of the steep rise in the cost of living. Turkey's inflation rate last year was 68.8 percent. The tyre workers would need a pay rise of the same order simply in order to restore their purchasing power. 
 
Altogether, some 5,000 workers are involved in the dispute

Turkish Tyre Strike Hits Multinationals

80,000 workers across Norway will launch an indefinite strike from 6.00 a.m. local time on 3 May, the national union federation LO announced this afternoon. 
 
This means that over a third of all the country's private sector union members will take industrial action next week - and many more could be called out if the dispute drags on. 
 
The strike call follows a membership vote to reject a mediated settlement covering much of the private sector. 64.3 percent of the votes cast were against the proposed settlement, which was reached at the beginning of this month. 
 
The strikers will include 5,000 chemical and allied workers organised in the NKIF union, which is affiliated at the global level to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Sectors affected will include cement, explosives, rubber products, paints, plastics and oil-based products. At the same time, warning will be given of strike action by another 500 chemical workers from 15 May onwards, when their agreements expire. For public health reasons, however, the pharmaceutical industry is among the sectors exempted from the strike. 
 
In oil and gas, members of the ICEM-affiliated NOPEF union in a number of onshore ancillary services and catering will strike from 3 May. 
 
However, NOPEF says that Norwegian oil output &quot;will not be needlessly affected at this stage of the dispute.&quot; 
 
Members of ICEM-affiliated general workers' union Fellesforbundet will strike in a number of sectors, including asphalt production. 
 
Electricity workers in the ICEM-affiliated EL&amp;IT union are not involved in the dispute at present, but could become so after 15 May, when their own agreement expires. 
 
Similarly, a further 10,000 NKIF members in the electrochemical industry, including Norsk Hydro, could join the action after 31 May, when their present agreement runs out.

Norwegians Call Nationwide Strike

Australia's corporate watchdog, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, has ordered the top five shareholders in Rio Tinto Ltd. to release the names of organisations on whose behalf they hold shares. 
 
The ASIC action comes in response to a request from the Coalition of Rio Tinto Shareholders, which is undertaking a proxy campaign for the mining multinational's two forthcoming Annual General Meetings. Under its dual-listing structure, Rio Tinto holds two AGMs - one in London (on 10 May this year) and one in Australia (Brisbane, 24 May). 
 
The Coalition of Rio Tinto Shareholders launched a three-nation shareholder proxy campaign on 8 March. However, its efforts to communicate with fellow shareholders have been restricted by the domination of the Rio Tinto Ltd. share register by nominee companies that are not the beneficial owners of the shares. 
 
This is believed to be the first time that the ASIC has issued a disclosure order with the particular aim of enabling the market to be better informed about a proxy campaign. 
 
Two resolutions have been proposed by the Coalition of Rio Tinto Shareholders. One concerns corporate governance. The other calls on Rio Tinto to ensure that its labour practices worldwide comply with the core labour standards of the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
On this last point, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) has already offered to negotiate and sign a global agreement with Rio Tinto. Under such an agreement, the ICEM and its affiliated unions worldwide would verify, among other things, the company's compliance with ILO core standards and would have the right to raise with Rio Tinto corporate management any alleged breaches of these standards. 
 
However, the ICEM has also made it clear that Rio Tinto must resolve current industrial disputes in Australia before such a global agreement can be signed.

Rio Tinto: Top Shareholders Ordered To Name Names

In a new self-help move by some of the world's poorest workers, the National Union of Working Women (NUWW) last Friday launched a health protection scheme for its more than 300,000 informal sector workers in Chennai, India. The announcement came as the Asia-Pacific Women's Committee of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) was meeting there. The NUWW is an ICEM affiliate. 
 
Like most newly industrialising and developing countries, India has many &quot;informal sector&quot; workers who earn a pittance from unrecognised jobs on the fringes of the formal economy. The informal sector does not have access to social security or other public services. Nor is it covered by labour legislation. Overall, less than 10 percent of the Indian population have access to social security. 
 
Among the informal workforce are NUWW members working on the bottom rung of society. They do such jobs as making incense sticks, matchsticks and fireworks. Although they are making a contribution to society, they are still neglected. 
 
NUWW members pay 24 Rupees per year in subscriptions to their union. 
 
In 1981, a life insurance scheme was started. But it was discovered that, in fact, medical expenses are the biggest burden for the worst-off women workers in the informal sector. After childbirth, for example, they are heavily indebted. So the NUWW members decided to launch health programmes. They negotiated with an insurance company an annual premium of 70 Rupees, which provides coverage for up to 15,000 Rupees of medical expenses a year. It also provides them with good-quality health services and hospitalisation. 1,000 NUWW members have already registered for the scheme.

Indian Informal Workers Launch Health Scheme

some 30,000 chemical workers in Eastern Germany and East Berlin are to receive a pay rise of 5.6 percent over two years, under an agreement signed by their union IG BCE on Saturday. Wages will go up by 2.8 percent on 1 July this year and a further 2.8 percent on 1 July 2001. 
 
Another agreement last week secured a two-stage 6.2 percent rise over two years for around 5,000 East German paper workers. 
 
West German workers in the same sectors will be receiving a two-stage 4.2 percent rise over roughly the same period under agreements signed earlier last month. 
 
When Germany reunified, wages in the East were much lower than in the West. Under separate bargaining arrangements, the gap is gradually being narrowed. 
 
The East German agreements extend the scope for part-time work by older employees, and guarantee them take-home pay equal to at least 85 percent of their last net full-time wage. There is also provision for expanding the number of apprenticeships available in the East German chemical and paper industries. The aim of both measures is to help reduce unemployment in Eastern Germany. 
 
At the global level, IG BCE is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

Pay Gains Achieved in East German Paper, Chemical Sectors

UPM Kymmene in Canada has heightened the discord in a five-week strike at a kraft pulp mill and coated papers mill in Miramichi, New Brunswick. The Finnish company sought and won a court order in a New Brunswick court to limit the number of picketers at the mill&rsquo;s five gates. The 700 members of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Local 689 are holding strong in this threat to their livelihoods with strike pay from the national CEP, plus a supplement derived from contributions from other paper-sector members of the CEP. The strike was caused when UPM Kymmene refused to table the paper industry&rsquo;s pattern agreement for eastern Canada. No bargaining has been held since the 16 December strike began.

UPM Kymmene Intensifying Paper Strike in Canada

The Transport and General Workers&rsquo; Union of UK is polling 1,200 members at two Michelin plants for industrial action. Michelin&rsquo;s wage offer in December of either 3% or GBP 650 is inadequate, and separate polling of the two workforces will begin this week. The two sites are Stoke in the Midlands with 400 T&amp;G members and Ballymena in Northern Ireland employing 800.

Transport and General in UK Ready for Industrial Action at Michelin

German affiliate IGBCE proved instrumental in getting a tyre factory in Mexico reopened. The Continental AG plant in the western Mexican state of Jalisco was closed in 2001, idling 1,400. Working with several NGOs and the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), IGBCE convinced Continental to sell the plant to a group of Mexican investors and workers as a cooperative. The tyre plant, now called Western Tire Corp./El Salto Tire Factory, will employ between 600 and 700 workers.

Continental Tyre Plant in Mexico gets New Life Thanks to IGBCE

The Australian Federal Court today ordered mining and materials multinational BHP to cease offering and entering into individual contracts with members of its Pilbara workforce. 
 
The decision is a stunning victory for the Australian unions and for collective bargaining, with the court upholding all three grounds in the unions' case. 
 
The unions submitted that there was a &quot;serious arguable case&quot; that BHP had breached the law through its industrial bribery in the Pilbara by: 
 
- Prejudicing employees because of their union membership 
 
- Inducing employees to leave their union 
 
- Breaching a term of the Contract of Employment which provided that BHP should honour collective bargaining and not enter into individual contracts. 
 
The court's decision is the biggest victory for the Australian trade union movement since the waterfront dispute of 1998. 
 
&quot;BHP should immediately abandon its disastrous deunionisation campaign and respect the right of Australian workers to bargain collectively through their unions,&quot; commented Australian mining and allied workers' union the CFMEU today. 
 
At the global level, the CFMEU is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which has been backing the campaign for labour rights at BHP.

BHP Must Halt Individual Job Contracts in Australia

A new website launched today highlights anti-union practices by ceramics, materials and construction multinational Imerys. 
 
American union the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers (PACE) and the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), jointly announced the start-up of the website on French-headquartered Imerys. PACE is an ICEM affiliate. 
 
&quot;The website allows Imerys workers and their unions throughout the world to communicate, share information and learn about the 'union-busting' practices of Imerys in the US,&quot; said PACE President Boyd Young. 
 
Imerys has been conducting a hostile campaign against union members and supporters at its plants in Georgia and Alabama. In Sylacauga, Alabama, Imerys management hired a professional &quot;union-buster', held mandatory anti-union meetings, and showed a film which implied that US unions are controlled by organised crime and that they cause plants to be closed. Imerys is also using a &quot;secret&quot; manual, uncovered by PACE, which instructs supervisors on how to conduct the anti-union campaign. 
 
PACE has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that Imerys management harassed, threatened and spied on union supporters. Excerpts from the &quot;secret&quot; manual, a summary of legal charges, and an interactive message board are on the website. 
 
Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary, stated: &quot;Imerys so far has refused to stop its anti-union practices, and we will assist US workers who are battling for union representation in whatever way we can.&quot; 
 
The ICEM held a press conference on January 20 in Brussels, together with the Belgian General Labour Federation (FGTB/ABVV) and ICEM Belgian affiliate the Centrale Generale/Algemene Centrale, calling upon the Frere family to intervene. The Frere family controls 23 percent of Imerys shares through one of its many holding companies. The ICEM set up meetings with French and British union affiliates, who also represent workers at Imerys plants, and have pledged support for the campaign.

Imerys Campaign: Unions Launch Global Website

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