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Multiple gold strikes by affiliate NUM in South Africa may have been tempered some by a court decree late last week declaring an end to one strike, Gold Fields involving 30,000 miners. But ongoing stoppages and potential strikes could still pull 100,000 NUM members out, shutting down the country&rsquo;s gold mining industry. On 23 March, 21,000 NUM miners at Harmony Gold&rsquo;s Free State mines struck after the company reneged on a labour agreement from last summer. Harmony unilaterally terminated that agreement and announced job cuts to 4,900 workers without NUM consultation, thus shredding an understanding between Harmony and NUM reached last July. 
The 30,000 Gold Fields miners could return to strike lines once NUM serves a legal notice. A key issue at Gold Fields is housing. The company still provides only common-sex hostels in mining areas, a throwback to apartheid days. Pay disparity between black workers and white workers also is an issue, as is the fact that white women receive maternity leave while black women do not. At the weekend, NUM worksite leaders from South Africa&rsquo;s other third big gold mining house, AngloGold Ashanti, were meeting to consider their options.

Retrenchments Cause of Mining Strikes in South Africa

ICEM affiliate National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) is in dispute with German rubber producer Continental Tyre over shift changes and restructuring at a Port Elizabeth factory. Up to 200 of the plant&rsquo;s 1,400 workers could be retrenched under a company plan to cut weekend shift operations and manpower in various departments. Because management imposed the restructuring without consultation with NUMSA&mdash;a violation of the tyre industry agreement&mdash;over 300 workers staged spontaneous stop-work actions last week.

NUMSA Takes Issue with Continental Tyre&#039;s Restructuring

United Steelworkers (USW) and Bridgestone-Firestone in the US reached tentative labour agreements on 8 June covering 6,000 workers at eight plants. The proposed agreements include the union&rsquo;s master rubber contract for plants in Akron, Ohio, Des Moines, Iowa, LaVergne, Tennessee, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Noblesville, Indiana, and Russellville, Arkansas, and accords at plants in Bloomington, Illinois, and Warren County, Tennessee. Steelworker members at those locations will review and vote on the proposals over the next few weeks. 
The labour agreements will run until 23 July 2006. If ratified, the Bridgestone agreement will complete master rubber bargaining in America the USW, which represents 70,000 workers in the industry. Prior contracts were achieved with Goodyear, Michelin&rsquo;s BF Goodrich tyre unit, and Yokohama Corp.

Steelworkers Reach Accord with Bridgestone in US

<img height="55" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/InBrief1.gif" width="138" alt="" />
ICEM affiliate FNV Bondgenoten will find out today how serious Shell Nederland is to resolving a pension dispute. The company will present an alternative over a prior, inadequate proposal to the union and the Central Works Council. 
If the offer does not improve and further bargaining is not renewed by 21 June, Bondgenoten is prepared to commence strikes by late summer. Shell needs to maximize premium payments for workers under the Dutch pension system so they too, like nearly all Dutch workers, become eligible for early retirement.

FNV Bondegenoten, Shell Work to Resolve Pension Issues

Canadian offshore oil workers at Hibernia, members of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Union, are voting over the next few weeks on their first collective agreement. CEP organized the 450 workers in 2001, was certified by the Newfoundland provincial labour board in October 2001, but was met by union-blocking legal challenges since by Hibernia&rsquo;s lead company, ExxonMobil. &ldquo;We felt it was time for our members to have a say on what has been settled and tabled in bargaining,&rdquo; said CEP National Energy Sector Coordinator Joe Gargiso. The successful organising of the offshore oil workers by the CEP was the first of its kind in North America.

Canadian Offshore Oil Workers Near Deal at Hibernia

French unions have called for protest action at Michelin tyre plants throughout France tomorrow, 21 September. 
 
At issue are the company's plans to restructure and to cut thousands of jobs. 
 
On 8 Sept, Michelin announced a 20 percent growth in net income during the first half of this year. In the same breath, the French-based tyre giant said it was going to fire 7,500 of the workers who produced this outstanding result. 
<img height="393" alt="Cartoon: Thierry Lenoir/ICEM" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/michelin.jpg" width="252" />
Cartoon: Thierry Lenoir/ICEM
&quot;This decision is unacceptable both in its form and in its substance,&quot; says French chemical and energy workers' federation FCE-CFDT, which organises Michelin workers. It notes that neither the unions nor Michelin's workers were told about the plan before it was publicly announced. The FCE-CFDT accuses Michelin of &quot;visceral contempt&quot; for &quot;both the unions and the workers, who are never considered either as partners or as people.&quot; 
 
The union recalls that Michelin brought in no less than eight &quot;social plans&quot; in France alone between 1982 and 1998. Altogether, these cut the workforce from 52,000 to 27,000. 
 
Michelin is also showing its disdain for small shareholders, the FCE-CFDT says, because they will not benefit from the surge in the company's share price. The profits are being taken by speculators. 
 
Not least, Michelin's announcement demonstrates &quot;provocation and contempt vis-a-vis the [French] government and the parliamentarians who decided that the working week should be cut from 39 hours to 35 on 1 January 2000, in order to create jobs and reduce unemployment.&quot; As the union points out, Michelin has been particularly vocal in its opposition to the government's plan for work time cuts. 
 
Stressing that the company &quot;is 'managing' its employment at the European level,&quot; the FCE-CFDT calls for the establishment of a European Works Council within Michelin, and says this &quot;should happen within the next few days.&quot; 
 
For comments by French union F&eacute;d&eacute;chimie CGTFO, which also organises Michelin workers, see ICEM UPDATE 53/1999. 
 
At the global level, the FCE-CFDT and F&eacute;d&eacute;chimie CGTFO are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
&quot;The ICEM and its unions worldwide pledge full support to the campaign by our French brothers and sisters,&quot; commented ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe. &quot;Michelin has long been known as a patriarchal, arrogant employer. If this company is to drag itself into the twentieth century, it does not have much time left.&quot;

French Unions Call Michelin Action

Just as Australian unions, asbestos victims and renegade building materials firm James Hardie were getting close last week to resolving an A$2 billion shortfall in an asbestos liability fund, the company&rsquo;s CEO and CFO resigned, taking a combined A$10 million severance package. Peter Macdonald and Peter Shafron still face Australian criminal charges on misleading investors and other deceptive stock market practices by establishing and then underfunding an asbestos victims fund. Hardie had cut its own liability in constructing the fund.

James Hardie’s Executives Take Massive Severance Payouts

Michelin, the world's No. 2 rubber company, last week announced a 20 percent growth in net income during the first half of this year. 
 
In the same breath, the French-based tyre giant said it was going to fire 7,500 of the workers who produced this outstanding result. 
<img height="393" alt="Cartoon: Thierry Lenoir/ICEM" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/michelin.jpg" width="252" />
Cartoon: Thierry Lenoir/ICEM
The news caused widespread outrage in France, including within the government. But it is unlikely that the French government's views will prevail over those of the multinational. 
 
Michelin's attitude is &quot;scandalous&quot; and &quot;a provocation,&quot; say French chemical and allied workers' federation F&eacute;d&eacute;chimie CGTFO - part of the Force Ouvri&egrave;re union confederation - and the FO unions within Michelin. 
 
&quot;Michelin shares went up by 12.5 percent,&quot; F&eacute;d&eacute;chimie CGTFO points out. This will have increased the already more than ample wealth of the Michelin family, which &quot;owns 30 percent of this stock.&quot; To achieve this boost to share value, &quot;Michelin is cutting 7,500 jobs in Europe.&quot; 
 
&quot;This is the true face of ultracapitalism, Michelin-style,&quot; F&eacute;d&eacute;chimie CGTFO says. &quot;The Michelins' fortune comes from the sweat of the brow of workers who labour in appalling conditions for poverty wages.&quot; 
 
At the global level, F&eacute;d&eacute;chimie CGTFO is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). The French union says it will work with the ICEM and with the European chemical and allied workers' federation EMCEF to &quot;defeat this umpteenth restructuring plan, which goes way beyond the previous ones.&quot;

Michelin Man Gets Fatter - And Greedier: 7,500 Sackings After Profits Boost?

A Swiss mega-union was created 16 October with the merger of four unions. The new union, called Unia, includes ICEM affiliate Syndicat Industrie &amp; Batiment (SIB) and now represents over one million workers. Unia covers Swiss workers from engineering to construction industries, and also in retail and catering sectors.

Four Unions Merge in Switzerland to Inform Unia

The NUM has settled strikes at two of the world&rsquo;s largest platinum producers, Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum. The pay disputes were settled for increases between 7.75% and 9.5%, depending on job grades, and cycle shift workers who work on public holidays won added improvements.

NUM in South Africa Settles Two Platinum Strikes

Archive

Retrenchments Cause of Mining Strikes in South Africa

NUMSA Takes Issue with Continental Tyre's Restructuring

Steelworkers Reach Accord with Bridgestone in US

FNV Bondegenoten, Shell Work to Resolve Pension Issues

Canadian Offshore Oil Workers Near Deal at Hibernia

French Unions Call Michelin Action

James Hardie’s Executives Take Massive Severance Payouts

Michelin Man Gets Fatter - And Greedier: 7,500 Sackings After Profits Boost?

Four Unions Merge in Switzerland to Inform Unia

NUM in South Africa Settles Two Platinum Strikes

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