English

Español

Français

Русский

New english test page

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Action Plan 2021-2025

Campaigns

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

Women

Youth

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected Officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

testing new page

Logos of IndustriALL Global Union

Press

10 December 2007 
Honourable Ellen Johnson Sirleaf 
President of the Democratic Republic of Liberia 
The Executive Mansion 
PO Box 9001 
Capitol Hill 
Monrovia, County of Monteserrado 
LIBERIA 
 
Dear President Sirleaf: 
 
I write in the wake of worker unrest at the Firestone Rubber Plantation in Harbel, Liberia. I also write on behalf of the ICEM&rsquo;s global family of trade unions, calling on you to expedite the certification process for one of those affiliated trade unions, the Firestone Agriculture Workers&rsquo; Union of Liberia (FAWUL). 
 
Last week&rsquo;s flare up of turbulence was unfortunate. However, we have been assured by leadership of FAWUL that they did all they could to get workers not to take strike action. We now understand that Liberian police have rounded up and arrested several workers, who are charged with instigating the strike and the subsequent actions. We ask that amnesty be granted them. 
 
We are convinced that a normalised work atmosphere, as well as a peaceful labor-management relationship is obtainable at Firestone Rubber Plantation if the proper trade union is registered, and that this union be fully allowed to conduct its lawful trade union activities in representing the Firestone Plantation workers. 
In the name of Free Trade Unions worldwide, we call on you to use your influence inside the Liberian government to recognise the legitimacy of the Firestone Agriculture Workers&rsquo; Union. We insist that your government certify the elected leaders of FAWUL, and ensure that local management at the Firestone Plantation engages in full and meaningful collective negotiations with this union. Last week&rsquo;s unfortunate strike in Harbel can only be blamed on the frustration of workers, who have been denied their legitimate voice on workplace matters for too many months now. 
Your attention and action on this above matter is urgently needed. Please, if there is any way the ICEM can assist in bringing reconciliation to the parties in this matter, do not hesitate to contact me. 
Sincerely, 
 
Manfred Warda 
General Secretary

ICEM Letter to President Sirleaf of Liberia Over Firestone Plantation Dispute

<img height="39" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" alt="" />
The Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia has called on the new Kevin Rudd government in Australia to reverse John Howard&rsquo;s policies on the environment. In a report released on 6 December, CFMEU is calling on the government to devote more funding to new technologies aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. 
 
Specifically, the CFMEU is urging the Rudd government to take the global lead in promoting carbon capture and storage technology. The CFMEU also called on mining houses operating in Australia &ndash; BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and Xstrata &ndash; to also invest at least A$1-per-tonne of coal produced into new technologies for carbon capture. CFMEU National President Tony Maher said coal companies currently are only placing A$0.20-a-tonne into clean coal research. 
<img height="120" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0712CFMEUMaher.jpg" width="80" alt="" />
CFMEU's Tony Maher
&ldquo;While some call for extreme responses like banning coal altogether,&rdquo; said Maher, &ldquo;the real challenge is to accept that developing nations, in particular India and China, will be reliant on coal for some time and we need to reduce the impact of this energy source on the environment.&rdquo; 
 
Maher was part of the official Australia government delegation to the UN&rsquo;s Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia. That delegation, in stark reversal to Howard&rsquo;s policies, announced to a panel on 5 December in Bali that it supports a Kyoto protocol measure for Australia, calling for carbon emissions curtailment of 25-40% by the year 2020. 
 
&ldquo;Making carbon capture and storage a reality for our future is the brave step that Australia must take as it embarks as a global leader on climate change,&rdquo; said Maher on release of the CFMEU report. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why Australian coal miners have embraced the Kyoto process,&rdquo; he added, stating that the world&rsquo;s major coal producers ought to be investing at least A$1-per-tonne on clean technologies.

Australia’s CFMEU Calls for Cleaner Measures to Reduce Carbon Emissions

The 20-million-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) has called on Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to expedite union certification of trade union, FAWUL, as workers&rsquo; representative at Firestone Rubber Plantation. The ICEM also urges calm to rubber workers in Harbel, Liberia, who are rightly frustrated by delays of government jurisprudence in granting them what they have democratically, and fairly, won. 

The ICEM also calls for amnesty to arrested workers from Firestone, who are alleged to be involved in spontaneous strike actions at the plantation last week.
<img height="180" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0707Liberia2.jpg" width="240" />
FAWUL is the Firestone Agriculture Workers&rsquo; Union of Liberia, a new affiliate to the ICEM, and the rightful representative for 4,700 Firestone Plantation workers. In an election marking the first time in 85 years that Firestone workers were not impeded from voting for the trade union of their choice, FAWUL won a sizeable majority of votes. Liberia&rsquo;s Labor Ministry supervised the election and impaneled a special elections committee to monitor balloting. 

&ldquo;In the name of Free Trade Unions worldwide, we call on you to use your influence inside the Liberian government to recognise the legitimacy of the Firestone Agriculture Workers&rsquo; Union,&rdquo; wrote ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We insist that your government certify the elected leaders of FAWUL, and ensure that local management at the Firestone Plantation engages in full and meaningful collective negotiations with this union. Last week&rsquo;s unfortunate strike in Harbel can only be blamed on the frustration of workers, who have been denied their legitimate voice on workplace matters for too many months now.&rdquo; 

The ICEM is responding to a spontaneous strike that started on Tuesday, 4 December, one which turned unruly over the next two days in Harbel. Injuries occurred to workers when military police of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the Liberia National Police fired shots in the air on 6 December. A day later, Liberian police arrested 12 workers, including two leaders of FAWUL. The ICEM emphasized in the letter to President Sirleaf that leadership of FAWUL had urged workers to use only peaceful dissent in meeting both governmental delays to union certification, as well as Firestone management&rsquo;s refusal to deal with the new union. 

On 7 July 2007, workers overwhelmingly voted for FAWUL and its leadership team over a longstanding union that had extracted dues from workers, with Firestone&rsquo;s complicity, but failed to provide representation. This rival organisation, which had been in place for decades, and Firestone managers in Liberia are now engaged in futile legal actions in order to nullify the election. 

The Firestone Rubber Plantation in Liberia, owned by Bridgestone Corp. of Japan, is a million-acre reserve in the West African country that has become notorious for low pay and abuse of worker, including child labour practices. 
 
The ICEM is a Global Union Federation consisting of over 400 trade unions in some&nbsp;125 countries. It covers workers in the oil, gas, chemicals, mining, and processed industry sectors, which includes rubber, paper, and the manufacture of building materials.
The ICEM letter to Liberian president Sirleaf can be found <a href="/en/?id=20&amp;doc=2512&amp;la=EN">here</a>.

ICEM Calls on Liberia to Recognise Correct Trade Union at Firestone Rubber Plantation

The ICEM welcomes the news that Thaneth Jhanluechai, a paperworker at New Zealand-owned SIG Combibloc in the Rayong industrial area of Thailand, was reinstated to his job. Global trade union actions forced the reinstatement, particularly in New Zealand, where Rank Group, an equity house with a portfolio of forest product assets, bought the 420-worker SIG Combibloc paper packaging factory from a Swiss company last spring.
Thaneth Jhanluechai will return to work this week with full backpay and benefits dating to when he was unjustly sacked, 4 May&nbsp;2007. 
 
Jhanluechai is a leader of the SIG branch union of ICEM affiliate Paper and Printing Federation of Thailand (PPFT). He was sacked by SIG Combibloc for encouraging workers to honour the Songkran holiday. He did this while serving as vice president of the PPFT branch union and as a member of the factory&rsquo;s Employment Committee.
<img height="92" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Thailand.png" width="200" />
The discharge came as SIG Combibloc was readying the plant for Rank Group&rsquo;s purchase. To do this, it eliminated the 8-hour work day for 12-hour shifts, a change that would reduce workers fixed pay and would cut their shift differential pay. Thaneth&rsquo;s call for workers to stay home on a legal Thai holiday was reason for discharge, said managers, because it damaged the business. 
 
Following Rank Group&rsquo;s purchase of the Rayong paper converting facility in June, ICEM took up Thaneth&rsquo;s case. In a letter to Rank&rsquo;s CEO, Graeme Hart, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said this &ldquo;matter concerns the employment status of Thaneth Jhanluechai, a conscientious lab technician who was unjustly fired by managers of the Swiss-based company, shortly before the purchase by your company of SIG Combibloc. He is a 10-year employee who has always gone above and beyond the call of duty at this enterprise.&rdquo; 
 
New Zealand labour unions, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and the National Distribution Union (NDU), both ICEM affiliates, played key roles in this just reversal, as did Union Network International (UNI). 
 
The pressure, including a manifestation at the New Zealand embassy in Bangkok during the recent ICEM Congress, forced Rank Group to send a senior manager to Rayong. A meeting between the branch union committee, PPFT, and Rank Group representatives occurred on 27 November. Managers listened to six major grievances, and heard first-hand how workplace leaders felt over the unfair treatment of Thaneth. 
 
Two separate meetings occurred next, both on 6 December, one to address the sacking, the other to address the issues. The firing was reversed and the issues, including obstruction of union activity, contract labour matters, unfair work rules, discrimination and favouritism, now get full hearing. The ICEM congratulates everyone involved with the result of this 9-month struggle for justice.

Justice Restored with Reinstatement of Thai Paperworker, Thaneth Jhanluechai

Ref: ICEM07/ENGC/124 
 
 
 
 
Tony Burke, 
Assistant General Secretary 
AMICUS 
 
 
Brussels, 13 November 2007 
 
 
Dear Brother Tony, 
 
It is with great sadness that I&rsquo;ve learnt about the death of Christopher Massey at the Kimberly-Clark tissue mill in Cumbria. On behalf of the ICEM members and its staff I ask you to convey our deepest condolences to brother Massey&rsquo;s family and his colleagues. 
 
This fatal accident has yet again shown with terrible clarity the importance of the unions&rsquo; continuous HSE work with the companies as the only way to make sure that such tragedies never happen again; and the ICEM is prepared to assist you in this work in all possible ways. 
 
Fraternal Greetings, 
 
Manfred Warda 
General Secretary 
ICEM

ICEM Letter of Condolences Over Kimberly-Clark, Barrow, UK, Death

UK affiliate Unite has called for more vigilance on machine guards in factories following the tragic death of a Kimberly Clark (KC) employee at Barrow-in-Furness on 8 November. That accident, in which 28-year-old Christopher Massey was dismembered by a Perini 900 series winder machine inside the tissue mill, has caused Unite to seek a statement from KC.
<img height="117" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/UKUNITE.jpg" width="100" />
&nbsp; 
The company has responded by stating that the investigation is still ongoing by both the Health and Safety Executive and the company. Unite is seeking expedited information so as to encourage preventative measures in other workplaces. 
 
The union&rsquo;s review of the accident states that the machine had been modified by the manufacturer to handle two-ply sheets of tissue rolls. Christopher Massey was trapped by a cross bar connecting two guards &ndash; fitted as part of the modification &ndash; when the carriage moved into position as part of a reel change. 
 
Unite states that it must be standard industry practice to review risk assessments on winder operations in the wake of this tragedy. Specifically, the union demands that all parts of machinery be properly guarded; that Safe Systems of Work are in place; that any manual intervention is governed strictly by Standard Operating Procedures; and that all personnel are competent. 

The ICEM offered its condolences to United and to the family of Christopher Massey. That can be found <a href="/en/?id=19&amp;doc=2508&amp;la=EN">here.</a> 
Unite is offering legal support to his family.

Unite Demands Safety Answers from Kimberly Clark on Barrow Death in the UK

<img height="35" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Aids20ribbon.jpg" width="25" />
ICEM Reconfirms Commitment to Fight HIV/AIDS Pandemic 
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. 
 
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. 
<img height="113" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0705ICEM2007Congresslogo-100.jpg" width="100" />
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. 
 
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; 
<img height="35" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Aids20ribbon.jpg" width="25" />
Global Fund Approves Round 7 Grants 
The board meeting of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria held in Kunming, China, approved 73 Round 7 grants that will cost US$1,119 million over the first two years and US$2,762 million over five years. As a result of recent new pledges, the Fund has sufficient money to pay for all grants that were recommended by the Technical Review Panel. 
 
Round 7 applicants to the Global Fund submitted fewer, but bigger and better, proposals than applicants in all previous rounds. 
 
The two-year cost of approved Round 7 grants &ndash; US$1,119 million over two years &ndash; is a record amount. In the six previous rounds, the two-year cost of approved grants ranged from US$571 to 968 million. 
 
The percentage of proposals recommended for approval was also a record &ndash; 49%, up from an average of 38% over the previous six rounds. On the other hand, this still means that just over half of all proposals submitted were not approved, despite the fact that there is an enormous need for scaled-up programmes to tackle the three diseases and that there is an increased availability of funding. 
 
The average two-year cost of the proposals recommended for approval in Round 7 was US$15 million &ndash; again a record, up from an average of US$10 million over the previous rounds. On the other hand, the number of eligible proposals submitted in Round 7, at 150, was the lowest ever. 
 
The Board's decisions as to which proposals got approval was, as always, entirely based on the advice it received from the Technical Review Panel (TRP), an independent and non-political body of 34 experts from around the world who serve in their personal capacities. No board members or Secretariat employees are members of the TRP. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Press Release, 12 November 2007 and Global Fund Observer Issue 79, 12 November 2007. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>. To receive GFO, send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 
<img height="35" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Aids20ribbon.jpg" width="25" />
News from Affiliates 
The United Mineworkers&rsquo; Union in Sierra Leone continues its excellent work in peer education. Two more training workshops were held in Hangha and Jembeh in November. A total of 76 participants attended these two workshops. 
 
The training was conducted in partnership with mining companies, artisanal miners, and the communities. Funding was provided by the ICEM HIV/AIDS project. 
 
The union&rsquo;s General Secretary, Ezekiel Dyke, attended the Workshop on the Role of the Private Sector in the Fight against HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa in Bamako, capital of Mali, organised by the World Bank. 
<img height="35" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Aids20ribbon.jpg" width="25" />
Swedish Project Targets Workplaces 
The Swedish Industrial and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union, IF Metall, and the International Council of Swedish Industry are jointly involved in workplace-based HIV/AIDS programmes throughout sub-Saharan Africa. 
 
The project, which is co-funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), presently operates in 25 workplaces of large Swedish multinational companies, involving over 10,000 workers with more than 45,000 family members. 
 
The project aims to strengthen workers and management leadership through joint workplace committees. Through these committees voluntary counselling and testing, peer education, management awareness, condom distribution, couple counselling, and treatment are made possible.
<img height="35" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Aids20ribbon.jpg" width="25" />
UNAIDS 2007 Epidemic Update 
The 2007 AIDS Epidemic Update by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that global HIV prevalence - the percentage of people living with HIV - has levelled off and that the number of new infections has fallen, in part as a result of the impact of HIV programmes. 
 
However, in 2007, 33.2 million people were estimated to be living with HIV, 2.5 million people became newly infected, two-thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa, and 2.1 million people died of AIDS. 
 
The significant reduction from almost 40 million people infected at the end of 2006 is only, to a small extent, due to the impact of HIV programmes. The new report reflects improved and expanded epidemiological data and analyses that present a better understanding of the global epidemic. These new data and advances in methodology have resulted in substantial revisions from previous estimates. 
 
While the global prevalence of HIV infection&mdash;the percentage of people infected with HIV&mdash;has levelled off, the total number of people living with HIV is increasing because of ongoing acquisition of HIV infection, combined with longer survival times, in a continuously growing general population. 
 
(Source: UNAIDS Press Release, 20 November. The report can be accessed at <a href="http://www.unaids.org">www.unaids.org</a>) 
<img height="35" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Aids20ribbon.jpg" width="25" />
News from the Global Union Programme and Global Unions 
 
In its most recent HIV/AIDS updates (nos. 32 and 33 of 1 and 28 November) the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a> reports on the signing of a joint commitment of the central unions in India, and the launching by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees of an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign among high-risk groups in Nepal. 
 
On the eve of World AIDS Day, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) launched a global action plan against HIV/AIDS. It will focus on three main aims: enhance HIV/AIDS work by ITUC affiliates; strengthen global advocacy on HIV/AIDS; and coordination and cooperation between national union centres and the Global Union Federations. (Source: ITUC Press Release, 30 November).

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin

<img height="39" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" />
Several Belgian trade unions, as well as NGOs, will be forming a human rights chain at the Brussels Palace of Justice on 10 December, International Human Rights Day. Among the Belgian trade unions that have signed on to the event are ICEM-affiliated La Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale FGBT/ABVV, ACV/CSC, LBC-NVK, and CNE. 
 
Also taking part will be the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists, the Global Union Federation for journalists and allied workers. 
<img height="56" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0712StopTheKillings.jpg" width="220" alt="" />
Focussing on the dangerous situations for trade unionists around the world, participating organisations will target a number of specific countries where trade unionists are in every-day danger of violence, kidnapping, or even assassination. The 10 December event in Brussels will highlight the cases of Jonas Burgos from the Philippines, Pedro Zamora from Guatemala, and Ana Sylvia Melo de Rodr&iacute;guez from Colombia. 
<img height="203" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Belgium.png" width="200" />
All are people who were either murdered or disappeared in 2007. Jonas Burgos, an agriculturist working with peasant groups in the Philippines, disappeared on 28 April. He is the son of free speech advocate and opposition newspaper owner Malaya Jose Burgos. Ana Sylvia Melo, a trade unionist with CGT-SINDIMANUELA in Colombia, was assassinated on 19 May. And Pedro Zamora, the leader of Guatemalan dockworkers&rsquo; union STEPQ, who campaigned to rid corruption in the privatisation of Puerto Quetzal, was murdered on 15 January. 
 
The action starts at 19h30 on Monday, 10 December. For more information in Dutch, click <a href="http://www.wereldsolidariteit.be/dmdocuments/10.12.07_affiche%20+%20pamflet%20ned">here</a>. For the French version, click <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/affiche%20+%20pamflet%20fra%20def.pdf">here</a>.

Trade Union/Human Rights Chain Happening in Brussels 10 December

<img height="39" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" />
Annual two-day pay negotiations for 12,000 paperworkers in the UK converting sector produced gains of 3.65% for 2008. The talks, between ICEM affiliates Unite and GMB and the paper employers&rsquo; grouping, Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI), were conducted in late November, and balloting will now begin and conclude in mid-January. 
 
&ldquo;This year&rsquo;s talks were against a back-cloth of mixed fortunes among papermakers,&rdquo; said Unite National Officer Peter Ellis, &ldquo;with some companies making fairly modest profits and one or two causing us some concern. 
<img height="99" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/ICEMpaper.jpg" width="100" />
&ldquo;However, our members faced above inflation pressures in 2006-07, across a whole basket of consumables that make up the day-to-day demands on income. We believe 3.65% represents an affordable outcome for the industry, and I will be very disappointed to be dealing with any &lsquo;inability to pay&rsquo; claims.&rdquo; 
 
In October, Unite and the CPI formally put in place a partnership agreement that had been negotiated late last year and early in 2007. The launch occurred inside UK&rsquo;s House of Commons. It is intended to bring a modern approach to employment practices in the paper industry, including full equalities on the job, employee development, skills training, health screening, and regulation of temporary or agency workers.

Pay Deal Put to Ballot for Paperworkers in the UK

<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" />
Health and safety in the US oil refining sector is as dangerous now as it was nearly three years ago when a blast at a Texas City, Texas, BP refinery claimed the lives of 15 contract workers. So say the results of an in-depth survey of health and safety conditions in US refineries, published by North American affiliate United Steelworkers, the Tony Mazzocchi Center for Health, Safety and Environmental Education, and New Perspectives Consulting Group. 
 

<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0712Texas.jpg" width="150" height="201" />
The 90-page study, which critiques operating practices in some 64 variants inside 51 US refineries, sets forth five &ldquo;Urgent and Critical Actions&rdquo; for the US downstream industry, as well as another five &ldquo;Necessary Support Actions.&rdquo; The recommendations represent an imperative call for better health and safety conditions by oil refiners in the US. 
 
Entitled &ldquo;Beyond Texas City: The State of Process Safety in the Unionized US Oil Refining Industry,&rdquo; the survey takes into account a number of criteria, including use of atmospheric vents on process units, failed instrumentation or alarm systems, allowance of non-essential personnel in restricted areas, and entire process safety systems as they relate to start-ups and shut-downs. 
<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0710USWLeoGerard120.jpg" width="120" height="140" />
USW President Leo Gerard
The urgent actions recommended include establishing a Process Safety Team that includes members selected by the trade union; ensuring that Process Hazard Analyses are reviewed and revalidated at least once every three years; redress to four distinct conditions arising from the 23 March 2005 Texas City disaster; developing and implementing full safety reviews prior to start-ups and shut-downs; and providing adequate and skilled staff to ensure safe working conditions. 
 
&ldquo;These proposals are doable, and while we can&rsquo;t bring back the 15 workers killed at the BP Texas City refinery, they can make it harder for future deaths and injuries to occur,&rdquo; said USW President Leo Gerard. 
The BP Texas City explosion occurred near an isomerisation unit that boosts octane levels of petrol. The unit was being restarted at the time of the explosion after undergoing scheduled maintenance. Contract company trailers and traffic were operating nearby the unit. Besides the contract workers who died, 80 workers suffered injuries.

US Steelworkers Release Insightful Safety Study on Downstream US Oil Industry

Archive