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ICEM Nigerian affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN have threatened to pull all oil workers from the Niger Delta unless the government moves to improve security and rebel groups cease using violence to gain political ground. Since four expatriate workers were kidnapped on 11 January at the Shell-operated EA offshore field, a spate of attacks at other installations has killed 22 workers.
<img height="104" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/NigeriaNupeng.gif" width="100" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="105" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/NigeriaPengassan.JPG" width="100" />
In a joint statement, NUPENG and PENGASSAN said, &ldquo;If the restiveness and consequent harassment and violence on workers in the oil and gas industry persist, we shall not hesitate to withdraw our members in the various oil and gas companies operating in the region.&rdquo;
The unions called on the government to urgently resolve tensions in an amicable way and to use peaceful means to secure the release of abducted oilmen. They also called on kidnappers to release the Shell contract workers, and demanded militia groups to stop the &ldquo;violence unleashed in the Niger Delta on our members, leading to the loss of 22 lives, the taking of oil workers as hostages and the shutting down of a flow station in Benisede in Bayelsa State.&rdquo;

Nigerian Oil Affiliates Seek Halt to Niger Violence

Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen of Finland, ICEM&rsquo;s Paper Sector Chairman, has questioned whether the current paper employers&rsquo; frenzy to contract out jobs is in the best interests of the companies&rsquo; own future financial health.
Because of the agreement that ended last year&rsquo;s bitter lockout in the Finnish paper sector, mill-level negotiations on outsourcing are underway at some 30 enterprises, work capably done now by Paperiliitto members. Ahonen told the Finnish press that employers would be wise to consider that such practices might backfire on them in the future.
<img height="171" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0511paperpresident2.jpg" width="120" /> 
 
Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen
If mill-level talks on sub-contracting do not reach mutual accord, the matter goes before a national arbitration panel that includes Paperiliitto, the employers&rsquo; federation, and an impartial chairman. All final decisions by such a panel must be unanimous.

Paperiliitto President Predicts Finnish Outsourcing Will Backfire

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ICEM ASIA MNC Project

The Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada on 16 January conducted 14 separate demonstrations across the North American country to protest the jobs crisis in the forest industries sector. Last week&rsquo;s actions came seven days before Canadians go to the polls in national elections today.
The protests were aimed at demanding government aid for stricken communities, as well as government subsidies tied to maintaining and creating jobs in forest products sectors.
&nbsp;<img height="131" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0601CEPBrianPayne.jpg" width="92" /> 
 
CEP President Brian Payne
&ldquo;These jobs and communities are worth fighting for, and it&rsquo;s about time the politicians joined our fight,&rdquo; stated CEP President Brian Payne. Some 7,600 jobs have been lost due to shutdowns and cutbacks in the past year in Canada, and 40,000 over the past five years.

Canadian CEP Union Calls for National Action Over Forest Sector Jobs

ICEM Zambian affiliate National Energy Sector and Allied Workers Union (NESAWU) is facing retaliation and union repression for bringing to light mismanagement at the state power authority Zambia Electric Supply Corp. (ZESCO).
<img height="161" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/ICEMelectricity.JPG" width="160" />
The company has fired union President Peter Chupa, along with several branch leaders, and has cancelled the legitimate union responsibilities of General Secretary Yotam Mtayachalo. Since early last year, ZESCO has consistently been months late paying wages to utility workers. Lately, it has resorted to costly bank overdrafts to pay salaries. The utility has also failed to remit workers&rsquo; pension contributions. 
On 20 April 2005, ZESCO withdrew NESAWU&rsquo;s recognition agreement because of a week-long strike in early March 2005 for unpaid wages and a demand by the union for resignation of ZESCO&rsquo;s managing director. Retaliatory measures have only intensified since.
The union supported casual workers who struck early this year over low salaries and late payments at a new addition to the Kafue Gorge power plant, and ZESCO responded by locking 30 of the strike&rsquo;s leaders from their jobs. 
On 10 January, Chupa was blocked by three dozen police officers from entering a ZESCO board meeting that was convened to choose a new chairman for the utility. But the existing chairman ran the meeting and had no intention of resigning. 
ZESCO has been plagued by power outages and transformer malfunctions due to management&rsquo;s ineffectiveness in making capital improvements in equipment and infrastructure, particularly in areas affecting households. NESAWU has been outspoken on the many misdeeds that have caused such failures.

Mismanaged Zambian Electric Firm Targets Power Sector Union

ICEM affiliate IGBCE has proposed mediation conducted by well-respected German politicians now that talks broke off between the union and Continental Tyre. Negotiations failed on 11 January in efforts to prevent 320 job cuts by year end at the St&ouml;cken plant in Hannover, as announced by the company in November. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/ICEMrubber.JPG" width="100" />
IGBCE was outraged by press remarks made by Continental CEO Manfred Wennemer at the outset of those talks in which he predicted German workers in the future will work 42.5 hours a week, and have two weeks less of vacation. Wennemer also remarked that the world could not care less about Conti&rsquo;s broken agreement made with IGBCE last spring in which the company gained flexible work rules and a 40-hour week in exchange for a pledge of no job cuts.
IGBCE board member Werner Bischoff, vice president of Conti&rsquo;s Supervisory Board, said Wennemer &ldquo;poured oil on to the fire&rdquo; with his comments, and called on the CEO to apologise. On 13 January, the company&rsquo;s European Works Council members pledged to interpret with scrupulous accuracy the council&rsquo;s constitution and legal rules, intending to make Conti&rsquo;s normal business practices impossible. The central works council in Germany also took action by refusing to allow overtime work and opening health and safety inspections to civil authorities. 
A mass demonstration protesting the company&rsquo;s broken promise takes place today, 23 January, in Hannover, with workers&rsquo; meetings also occurring today at all Continental plants to discuss Wennemer&rsquo;s remarks and the St&ouml;cken situation

Continental Tyre: Wennemer’s Remarks Outrage IGBCE

<img height="40" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/InBrief201.gif" width="100" />
ICEM Nigerian affiliate PENGASSAN agreed to a 27% wage increase at the weekend for upstream workers of Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc. The company, a subsidiary of US-based supermajor ExxonMobil, was under an extended strike deadline to tomorrow by the white-collar oil workers&rsquo; union and its 1,700 members employed by the company. 
 
PENGASSAN had targeted ExxonMobil&rsquo;s Nigerian operations because prior wage negotiations with other multinational oil companies had yielded higher pay increases. The union and company will meet again in December to discuss further increases. 
<img height="50" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/NigeriaFlag.gif" width="100" />
Meanwhile, dialogue will continue between the two sides on the use of contract labour in offshore oil operations, as well as PENGASSAN&rsquo;s demand that ExxonMobil comply with an expatriate quota and local content policies that are in effect in Nigeria. The union seeks more full-time employment for Nigerian workers in the oil and gas sector. 
 
On 25 May, PENGASSAN&rsquo;s National Executive Board met and elected Peter Esele as president. He had been serving as acting president since the tragic death of President Uche Okoro in an airline crash last December. Esele is a skilled negotiator and employed at Core Laboratories Nigeria Ltd. as a Health and Environment officer.

ExxonMobil Negotiates Equity Wage Increases to Avert Nigerian Strike

On August 2nd, Unilever announced to the financial community its intention to cut 20,000 jobs world-wide over the next three years, with 60 factories to be closed or disposed of. 
 
Under pressure from shareholders and ratings agencies, Unilever has over the last 7 years closed or sold off over 125 factories around the world, halving the global workforce to 179,000. Over these years, profits have steadily risen. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/IUF100.jpg" width="100" align="absMiddle" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="86" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/ICEM100.jpg" width="100" align="absMiddle" />&nbsp;&nbsp; 
Systematic outsourcing has led to the elimination of permanent jobs at Unilever in many parts of the world and the creation of vast complexes of precarious labour. Outsourcing is now set to increase from 15 to 25% of volume. Many workers who produce for Unilever have been employed on renewable, &quot;temporary&quot; contracts for over a decade! 
 
By looting its own resources, Unilever management has been paying itself bonuses and buying back its own shares with cash made available through job cuts and outsourcing. Cash freed up through restructuring will be used to finance &euro;25-30 billion in dividends and share buybacks. The money will not be invested in the long-term future of the company. 
 
Through closures, job cuts, outsourcing and labour contracting, Unilever is destroying jobs and livelihoods across the globe, harming communities, and weakening the collective strength of Unilever unions. 
<img height="161" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0711Unileverlogo.jpg" width="150" />
Europe is now being targeted in a major way: 10-12,000 of the announced job cuts will be carried out there. 
 
On Tuesday, December 4th, Unilever unions in Europe will organise a day of action featuring a protest march and public assembly in Rotterdam. Concurrently and throughout the week, unions will stage actions at Unilever plants throughout Europe. 
 
Unilever's attack on jobs in Europe is only the latest in a continuing world-wide attack on employment. Unilever unions throughout the world are called on to support their comrades in Europe and to take global action as part of the fight to halt the global job destruction and to expand global union power at Unilever!

4 December 2007 Joint ICEM/IUF Unilever Message

On the eve of World AIDS Day, 1 December, the ICEM leadership recommitted to fight the battle to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS through awareness, education, and poverty eradication campaigns. The ICEM&rsquo;s 4th World Congress, held 22-24 November in Bangkok, Thailand, affirmed that commitment. 
 
&ldquo;As the newly-elected leaders, we reaffirm ICEM&rsquo;s commitment to fight HIV/AIDS,&rdquo; said ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana and General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;Hundreds of union leaders representing 180 affiliates in 75 countries signed the pledge for World AIDS Day at our Congress.&rdquo; 
 
That pledge, signed by not only the 840 trade unions leaders attending the Bangkok Congress, but taken back to national unions for thousands more signatures, commits the trade unionists to take the fight inside the workplace. 
<img height="113" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0705ICEM2007Congresslogo-100.jpg" width="100" />
It commits to outright rejection of all forms of discrimination and victimisation of people living with HIV/AIDS; it recognises that the gender dimension of HIV/AIDS, and promises to fight for equal gender relations and the empowerment of women; and, in maintaining ICEM&rsquo;s continued work in this area, it encourages voluntary counselling and testing of workers and family members, as well as providing support for those who disclose their HIV-positive status. 
 
The pledge also makes demands of employers and governments. It demands that companies negotiate policies with trade union that are in sync with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work; it calls on employers to implement awareness-raising and prevention programmes jointly with trade unions; it call on firms operating in remote geographic areas with little or no health services to take responsibility for providing care and treatment; and it promises to undertake efforts to obtain affordable drugs from pharmaceutical companies and production of high-quality generics for those afflicted with the virus. 
<img height="133" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/ICEM_AIDSlogopale100.jpg" width="100" alt="" />
Regarding governments, the pledge advocates access for all to public health, including free or affordable antiretroviral treatments; it promises to promote legislation on discrimination and social protection; and it promises to lobby donor countries for accelerated financial resources for the global fight against HIV/AIDS. 
 
&ldquo;The ICEM and its affiliates are strategically positioned in our sectors, and in our thousands of workplaces, to play a direct role in stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS,&rdquo; said Zokwana and Warda. &ldquo;On World AIDS Day 2007, we call on all social partners to intensify campaigns in order to reverse the HIV/AIDS pandemic.&rdquo; 
 
The International Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) is a 20-million-member Global Union Federation based in Brussels, Belgium.

ICEM Reconfirms Commitment to Fight HIV/AIDS Pandemic

The ICEM&rsquo;s Pulp and Paper Sector convened 21 November 2007 and formulated an expedited work plan for 2008. The plan is ambitious in scope and timely in light of paper industry developments. It will centre on intense networking and communication between global trade unions in the pulp and paper sector, specifically in coordinated bargaining, health and safety, contract labour, trade rules, climate change, retraining, and peak attention to social responsibility matters. 
 
The 50-plus delegates to the sector meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, agreed to form a rapid response network to deliver key information on bargaining, health and safety incidents, and corporate reorganisations. They also agreed to form a geographic-diverse work group that will meet in the early weeks of 2008 to prepare and implement an action plan.
<img height="164" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/ICEMpaper2.jpg" width="160" alt="" />
That plan will take into account first-half 2008 labour bargaining in the Finnish pulp and paper sector, it will meet restructurings with unified actions, and it will develop common policies shared by different national unions on global warming, contract labour, trade, and jobs skills relating to restructuring and health safety. Regarding social responsibility, leaders of pulp and paper unions pledged to use leverage to force the sale of mills during reorganisation, rather than closures and capacity reductions. The work group will also examine the unbalance of supply and demand in paper production. 
 
These exact policies will take hold when the ICEM conducts its Pulp and Paper Industry Conference in December 2008, a date chosen by the assembled delegates, and one moved up from a scheduled Industry Conference the following year. The delegates agreed to hold that Conference in Latin America in order to better link trade unions from the global north and the global south, and to draw sharp attention to work terms, working conditions, and trade union and human rights in the global south, as well as in ICEM&rsquo;s Asia-Pacific Region. 
 
The ICEM has endorsed the agenda, and will expand trade union participation by inviting Global Union Federations representing forestry workers and workers in the graphical papers sector. The ICEM global networking activities will also tie work together with the European Works Councils of the major pulp and paper companies.

Global Pulp, Paper Unions Put Forward Solidarity Action Plan

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