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That rebuilding effort, however, is proving as troublesome under the provisional Iraqi administration as it was under Saddam&rsquo;s rule, according to the Workers&rsquo; Council of the National Company for Chemicals and Plastics Industries in Baghdad. A statement by the fledgling union says &ldquo;the same fascistic policies of the former regime&rdquo; are still in place including punishments, dismissals, threats and dismissals. The council is demanding raises in the minimum wage to match inflation, rescinding punishments and full pay for 25 workers, and distributing the yearly gains of the company to workers.

Iraqi Occupation Hindering Workplace Progress

Belgian affiliate CG-FGTB held a day of manifestation 21 December followed by strikes at glass plants in protest to Glaverbel&rsquo;s decision to eliminate 284 out of 840 jobs. The protests, which included the white-collar Belgian union SETCa-FGTB and FNV Bondgenoten of The Netherlands, come as Glaverbel rapidly expands in eastern Europe and Russia. Glaverbel, Europe&rsquo;s second largest flat glass maker, is owned by Japanese petrochemical producer Asahi Glass, which bought a majority stake of the firm in 1981, upped its share to 90% in 2001 and purchased the remaining 10% a year later.

Belgian Unions Protest Japanese Glass Restructuring

Political instability in Iraq and lack of security there was felt dramatically by the ICEM and the global trade movement on 4 January. That day the body of Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) Executive Committee member Hadi Saleh was found at his home in Baghdad after Saleh was strangled by electrical wire. Known as Abu Furat, Saleh, 58, was tortured prior to his murder, a murder in which the IFTU believes was done by remnants of Saddam Hussein&rsquo;s secret police. Saleh was sentenced to death in 1969 by Saddam&rsquo;s regime for engaging in independent trade union activities. After spending five years in prison, he fled Iraq for exile in Sweden. He returned in April 2003 in efforts to build an independent trade union movement. The ICEM and global trade union bodies are working with the IFTU and other Iraqi labour centers to construct a viable and independent union movement in the war-ravaged country.

Trade Union Leader Slain in Iraq

A court injunction 20 November ended a one-day strike by 100 oil workers, members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing &amp; Manufacturing Union (EPMU) of New Zealand. The EPMU members employed at five oil and gas rigs in Taranaki and Taupo struck over lack of progress in NZ&rsquo;s Onshore Oil Exploration Drilling Rig Agreement, a multi-employer collective agreement. EPMU is seeking a 5% wage adjustment, better redundancy provisions, meal provisions, and changes to training time, which is currently done outside of regular work hours. NZ&rsquo;s Employment Court will conduct a full hearing on the temporary injunction gotten by oil drilling employers on 24 November.

Oil Companies Get Injunction to End New Zealand Onshore Strike

The UK&rsquo;s Transport &amp; General Workers Union (T&amp;G) says French-based Imerys has unilaterally decided to implement pension scheme concessions on its 2,500 UK workers. Without consultation with the union, the company says it will eliminate the final salary scheme for new hires and terms of the scheme for existing workers will be downgraded. T&amp;G points out that Imerys &ldquo;had taken a three-year pension holiday&rdquo; from 2000-03 that cost the scheme &pound;9 million. Imerys also announced it would cut 80 jobs in the UK by next spring.

Transport &amp; General in UK Has Pension Issues with Imerys

The CEP of Canada is requesting the OECD undertake an investigation of labour practices against Finnish papermaker UPM Kymmene under the Parisbased organization&rsquo;s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. At UPM Kymmene&rsquo;s lone Canadian mill in Miramichi, New Brunswick, the firm unilaterally announced closure of the pulp mill&mdash;chopping 400 jobs effective 31 January 2005&mdash;but also engaged in vicious anti-union behaviour. Management turned rabid after the CEP local union protested the closure on grounds the firm&rsquo;s logging licenses for harvesting government lands mandates that it operate the mill. CEP charges UPM Kymmene with creating a &ldquo;cold war&rdquo; atmosphere of labour relations by suspending local union leaders for performing their statutory duties, monitoring and spying on workers&rsquo; activities with a hired security team, and refusing to negotiate with the union or to provide information pertinent to bargaining.

CEP of Canada Takes Paper Dispute to OECD

ICEM affiliate USWA, meanwhile, achieved a first collective agreement in the US for 130 Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber workers in Statesville, North Carolina. Workers there chose USWA for representation last February through a newly instituted card-check/neutrality agreement signed between the union and US rubber-maker in 2003 negotiations. The first labour agreement for the 130 at the tyre mold plant means they will come under the network of job security provisions agreed to in those 2003 negotiations, including the company&rsquo;s commitment to utilize USWA members before reaching outside for contract labour. The USWA is still negotiating at two other Goodyear plants where workers chose union representation through the card-check, or showing of interest procedure spelled out in the 2003 labour agreement with Goodyear. Those plants are a steel tyre cord plant in Asheboro, North Carolina, employing 350 workers, and a Goodyear textile plant in Utica, New York, employing 160.

USWA Reaches Agreement with Goodyear at Newly-Organized Site

The long, bitter dispute between ICEM US affiliate PACE and Continental Carbon is over. After a three-and-a-half-year lockout by the Taiwanese-based firm of 86 workers who make carbon black for the rubber industry in Ponca City, Oklahoma, PACE members ratified a new labour agreement this weekend that includes a satisfactory back-to-work agreement.

US Affiliate PACE, Taiwanese Continental Carbon Reach Terms

The United Steelworkers of America (USWA) and German-based Continental Tire are in disagreement over severance and health care benefits for 700 workers about to be sacked due to a plant closing in Mayfield, Kentucky. The company announced earlier this year it was discontinuing manufacture of auto and light truck tyres effective 31 December 2004 in Mayfield. The USWA on 17 September submitted a US$20 million costs-savings proposal to Continental, but the company rejected it, stating investment and lower-cost tyre production from Brazil, Mexico and China is the firm&rsquo;s priority. Continental will maintain warehousing and a mixing unit in Mayfield, employing only 200 workers.

USWA Takes Issue with Continental Tire’s US Plant Closing

FCE-CFDT also announced the draft of a social responsibility agreement with Electricit&eacute; de France (EdF), discussions which have involved the ICEM. Besides standard language upholding health and safety standards, social conditions and consistent policies on worker training and mobility, the draft contains commitments by EdF to provide access to electricity to those least able to afford it, careful and demanding selection of contractors, and stringent defence of the environment with the necessary equipment to promote energy efficiency.

French EdF Signs Social Responsibility Pact in Electric Sector

Archive

Iraqi Occupation Hindering Workplace Progress

Belgian Unions Protest Japanese Glass Restructuring

Trade Union Leader Slain in Iraq

Oil Companies Get Injunction to End New Zealand Onshore Strike

Transport & General in UK Has Pension Issues with Imerys

CEP of Canada Takes Paper Dispute to OECD

USWA Reaches Agreement with Goodyear at Newly-Organized Site

US Affiliate PACE, Taiwanese Continental Carbon Reach Terms

USWA Takes Issue with Continental Tire’s US Plant Closing

French EdF Signs Social Responsibility Pact in Electric Sector

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