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ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN N° 18

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ICEM affiliate FUB/FS, Brazilian rubber workers union, invited delegates from several Latin American rubber workers&rsquo; unions to the recent conference of FUTINAL (Frente &Uacute;nico de Los Trabajadores en Las Ind&uacute;strias de Neum&aacute;ticos y Afines de Latinoamerica) at Praia Grande/Sao Paulo, from 5 to 7 December 2007. 
 
Roughly 100 delegates, mostly from ICEM affiliates, including from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and the USA held discussions,&nbsp;among other things&nbsp;on the need to set up more trade union networks for multinational companies. The USW explained&nbsp;the situation surrounding the Goodyear strike in the US and Michael Wolters, ICEM Rubber Industry Officer, reported on the last developments in the rubber sector as well as on the main strategies by the major global tire companies. 
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Unions organising Continental AG plants in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and USA, used the time to coordinate their ideas and activities for the coming International Action Day for all Continental tyre unions from the western hemisphere (13 December 2006) 
 
At the end of the conference, an action plan was adopted for future work. 
<a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0612pptMichaelSaoPaulo.ppt">Click here for the ICEM's Presentation at the conference</a>

Latin American Rubber Workers Hold Conference

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A tentative agreement was reached late on 3 April between ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) and Bridgestone/Firestone North America. The agreement covers some 5,200 rubber workers at six US plants, and concludes master rubber bargaining at North America&rsquo;s three major tyre companies that have multiple plants. 
 
&ldquo;The tentative agreement and contract proposals follow the pattern established in the BF Goodrich (Michelin) and Goodyear contracts,&rdquo; said USW Executive Vice President Ron Hoover. The USW announced that informational meetings for Bridgestone/Firestone workers and secret-ballot ratification votes will occur at all six plants by 25 April 2006.
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USW Executive Vice President Ron Hoover
If ratified, the three-year contract will be backdated to last summer, and will run to 18 July 2009. The contract covers plant locations in Akron, Ohio; Noblesville, Indiana; Des Moines, Iowa; Russelville, Arkansas; La Vergne, Tennessee; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, a plant in which Bridgestone discontinued tyre production in December 2006. Workers at two other Bridgestone/Firestone plants, Warren County, Tennessee, and Bloomington, Illinois, are also represented by the USW and are considering proposed agreements separate from the master rubber contract. 
 
The USW&rsquo;s last set of talks with a tyre producer is currently underway in the state of Virginia. Japan-based Yokohama Tire Co. and the union are in talks over a new contract for some 700 rubber workers at an auto and light truck tyre plant in Salem, Virginia. The current contract there expires on 15 April. 

&nbsp;

USW Members in US to Vote on New Bridgestone Tyre Contract

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Oil workers in Chad, two weeks ago, ended a three-day strike in the rich Doba oil fields, but warned further walkouts could occur. Some 500 workers are angry about job safety and security, as well as delays in meeting pay demands. US-based ExxonMobil operates the vast number of production sites in the Doba fields, as well as a controversial 1,063 kilometre pipeline to Kribi, the Atlantic port of neighbouring Cameroon. 
 
The oil workers, led by Chad&rsquo;s national labour centre UST, took three-day strike actions twice last July over pay disparities. The workers were then paid barely a third of what oil workers&rsquo; in Cameroon earn. Although the 2006 strikes did narrow that gap some, there is still a huge pay differential between oil workers in the two countries. 

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ExxonMobil operates the Chad-Cameroon pipeline with Patronas of Malaysia and Chevron of the US as partners. The rich Doba fields of southern Chad are now producing 150,000-barrels-per-day, and are expected to yield 200,000 in the near future. Doba has reserves estimated at 900 billion barrels over the next 25 years. 
 
Development of the Doba oil fields, together with the three-year-old pipeline to Kribi, has been mired in World Bank controversy. That included a year-long suspension of Bank funds for the project. Construction of the pipeline was also plagued by labour and human rights violations. Many contract workers for Chad-Cameroon Constructors, the building consortium put together by the oil companies, were not paid their wages. As well, an HIV/AIDS rate along the pipeline is three times the national averages of Chad and Cameroon, figures that reflect poorly on the partnering companies&rsquo; social responsibility.

Esso-Tchad Workers Strike for Higher Pay

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The Finnish Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union succeeded in a four-month campaign, winning &euro;700,000 in backpay and reciprocity for 88 Polish electricians. The electricians worked on construction projects in Finland. 
 
The union discovered that a Gdansk, Poland-based contractor, MSB, was violating Finnish pay guidelines at a huge construction site near Tampere in November 2006. 
 
The electricians were earning &euro;5-per-hour, while the average electrician&rsquo;s pay in Finland is about &euro;14-per-hour.
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When the Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union sought information from MSB on working conditions in November, the company did not respond. The union then commenced a blockade against MSB, preventing the Polish company from performing any work in Finland. The union demanded that all companies, and their workers, abstain from working with MSB on any construction project. 
 
The Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union also pressed Finnish state authorities to intervene in the company&rsquo;s illegal work practices, as well. 
 
The pressure campaign worked. In early February, MSB came to agreement with the union on the process for paying wage arrears, as well as social security and tax reciprocation with Poland&rsquo;s government. Last week, Trade Union News from Finland reported that the agreement calls for wages to be brought up to levels common in Finnish collective agreements &ndash; &euro;12.30- to &euro;14-per-hour &ndash; and that of the &euro;700,000 sum, &euro;330,000 will be transferred to the Polish tax and social security authorities. 
 
&ldquo;This case is a strong message to companies that employ foreign labour,&rdquo; the Electrical Workers&rsquo; Keijo Rimmist&ouml; told Trade Union News. &ldquo;Respect, voluntarily, the Finnish collective agreements, as, in case you don&rsquo;t, our union will compel you to pay the arrears payments. Letting things go &hellip; you not only risk your reputation, but also risk waking the interest of the police.&rdquo;

Boycott Pressure Forces Polish Firm to Pay Back-Wages in Finland

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The deadly 19 March methane explosion at the Ulyanovskaya coal mine in Russia is still under review, with dozens of possible causes being prematurely suggested. The safety technical inspectorate of Russia will issue a report on the tragedy in April, two weeks after the official on-site inquiry ends. 
 
Meanwhile, the inspectorate, early in April, closed 29 other coal mines in the Kutnetsk coal fields of Kemerovo region, as well as four other collieries in the Rostov region. Several of the mines belong to Yuzhkuzbassugol, owner of the Ulyanovskaya mine and Russia&rsquo;s largest coal producer. Others belong to Sibirsky coal.
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&quot;Danger Zone&quot; (entrance at Ulyanovskaya mine)
&nbsp;The head of the state inspectorate agency ordered work at the 33 mines halted for five days, so the agency could check for compliance of technological documentation per estimated project capacity, as well as safety regulations and changes in project designs. 
 
The Ulyanovskaya mine disaster of 19 March 2007 is Russia and the Soviet Union&rsquo;s worst in decades. It has claimed 110 lives. Recovery efforts have found the bodies of 108 miners, while two others remain deep inside mine shafts. 
 
The Ulyanovskaya mine is recognised as having the most current and sophisticated gas control equipment of any coal mine in Russia. Some 20 senior managers and technicians were inside the mine when the blast occurred, killing all of them. Included among them was a British technician of the company that designed the system, and his interpreter.
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ROSUGLEPROF President Ivan Mokhnachuk
Nearly all of the 1,068 miners employed at Ulyanovskaya are members of ICEM Russian affiliate Independent Coal Miners&rsquo; Union (ROSUGLEPROF). The union&rsquo;s vice president, Ruben Badalov, served on the official investigation team of the Russian state commission at the mine site. He recently returned to Moscow, and the investigative report on the cause of the tragedy is due in the coming weeks.

Cause of Russian Coal Mine Deaths to be Announced Shortly

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A string of three-day lockouts by management of Bridgestone Australia at a tyre plant near Salisbury has only toughened the resolve of members of three unions to gain fair wage increases. Managers locked out workers for three-day periods over the weekends of 23-25 March and again on 30 March to 1 April, and also from 27-29 March. 
 
The 500 workers and their unions have been locked in a pay dispute for nearly a year with the Japanese-based rubber company. Production workers, numbering about 450, are represented by ICEM affiliate Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU), while maintenance workers at the auto and truck tyre plant are represented by the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU) and the Communications, Electrical, and Plumbing Union (CEPU), both also ICEM affiliates.
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&nbsp;Bridgestone is offering a mere 2% wage increase for each year of a proposed three-year contract, while workers and their unions are seeking 4% per year. The cost-of-living in Australia is 3.3%. 
 
A LHMU spokesman said rubber workers have struggled over the past several years to win pay increases that keep pace with inflation. Prior to 2006, annual raises totalled just 3% and now Bridgestone seeks to pay even less.
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&nbsp;The lockouts have been described by union representatives as aggressive and irresponsible, and come as Bridgestone Australia is asking staff to make improved productivity changes, while earning less money. 
 
Beginning in early March, workers began job actions, which included four-hour strikes and overtime bans. The company has admitted that the job actions have significantly disrupted production during the month of March, but it remains unwilling to reopen talks with the union. Instead, Bridgestone re-issued its insufficient salary adjustments in letters to individual workers that included the lockout notices.

Lockouts Strengthen Resolve of Bridgestone Rubber Workers in Australia

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ICEM Belgian affiliates CG-FGTB and SETCa-FGTB have warned Japanese-owned Asahi Glaverbel Glass that further restructuring at the AGC Automotive glass plant in Fleurus, Wallonia, or other AGC worksites, can only be done through strict adherence to solutions already put forward by the unions. 
 
On 29 March, Asahi Glaverbel announced possible redundancies of 380 jobs at Fleurus, Zeebrugge, and Lodelinsart in Belgium. This restructuring occurs a short two years after Belgian unions mounted a 105-day strike at the Fleurus plant. That strike, from December 2005 to March 2006, came about because of Asahi&rsquo;s failure to come to meaningful social dialogue over an irrational restructuring plan.
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That restructuring exercise cost some 280 jobs at Fleurus then, and other job losses occurred a year later at Asahi Glaverbel&rsquo;s Zeebrugge flat-glass plant. 
 
&ldquo;In all three plants,&rdquo; said the CG-FGTB in a press release, &ldquo;the workers of Glaverbel have made major efforts in terms of productivity, flexibility, and efficiency. The management of AGC-Fleurus recognises this fact today, and this is also evident by investments&rdquo; made in other Belgian operations of Glaverbel. 
 
&ldquo;The workers of Glaverbel-ACG do not deserve&rdquo; further redundancies, stated CG-FGTB. 
 
The unions did enter social dialogue with the company late in March, and a second meeting was scheduled for 3 April. CG-FGTB and SETCa-FGTB are insistent that they will be thoroughly involved in any business plan put forward this time by the company.
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CG-FGTB and SETCa-FGTB say their first priority will be to save all the jobs, and they will not tolerate outright sackings. If necessary, transfers for workers between Glaverbel worksites, or voluntary and pre-pension arrangements will be put negotiated. 
 
&ldquo;Industrial managers (of Asahi) and the political community made promises in the past,&rdquo; stated the two unions, referring to the negotiated outcome in 2005. &ldquo;Today, they must honour those pacts. They must listen to the solutions that we have proposed, and support the industrial projects at Glaverbel-ACG that are worthy of solid, job-sustaining initiatives.&rdquo;

Belgian Unions Declare Strong Intent to Save Asahi Glass Jobs

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Labour relations in Trinidad and Tobago tilt pointedly toward turbulent unrest, as witnessed by mounted riot police and barricades that met 200 labour protestors on 29 March at Whitehall, the prime minister&rsquo;s offices in Port-of-Spain. The 200 peaceful marchers were forced by the barricades and mounted patrols away from the site of their strategic protest, and into an adjacent park.
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Workers employed at national and global companies &ndash; firms that have either stalled collective negotiations, or refused to engage in them &ndash; marched on Whitehall during a cabinet meeting with PM Patrick Manning in protest of high food prices and nagging inflation. This economic hit on workers comes at a time when bosses are delaying salary increases. 
 
ICEM affiliate Oilfields Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (OWTU) organised the demonstration, together with its national ally, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and Non-Government Organisations (FITUN). 
 
The 29 March demonstration comes amidst a wave of job actions on the Caribbean island nation, including a strike two weeks ago by OWTU members at state-owned oil company Petrotrin. Job actions also included a dockworkers&rsquo; strike last week. 
 
At the Whitehall standoff, workers from Petrotrin, Trinmar, PowerGen, Hilton Hotels, Telecommunications Service (TSTT), and University of West Indies (UWI) marched to the beat of a rhythm section right up to the barricades. TSTT and UWI workers demand that their employers negotiate with their chosen trade unions, while Hilton protested their management&rsquo;s refusal to negotiate a pension plan.
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Errol McLeod, OWTU President
Errol McLeod of OWTU said workers&rsquo; patience is grows thin due to the slow pace of wage negotiations at several private and public companies. Dockworkers, in fact, represented by Seamen and Waterfront Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (SWWTU), struck port facilities in Port-of-Spain because wage talks continue now for two years. 
 
McLeod said government officials and companies must realize that by settling wage demands will result in the desired effect of economic growth. The absence of that, he added, either by government, or on the part of management in the public or private sector, will bring only further unrest. 
 
&ldquo;If employers were to meet the just demands of unions, then there would be no need to protest,&rdquo; FITUN President David Abdullah said in a news report. FITUN has been heavily engaged with the Communications Workers&rsquo; Union (CWU) is its fight to get TSTT managers into meaningful collective bargaining. 
 
From 26-30 March, some 400 OWTU took job actions at oil-well facilities of Petrotrin, and protested in front of the company&rsquo;s Santa Flora production headquarters. The OWTU is protesting improper safety practices, brought on mainly through under-staffing. OWTU members also protested Petrotrin&rsquo;s failure to upgrade temporary workers &ndash; some who have worked for as long as 25 years &ndash; to permanent and full-time jobs.

Workers in Trinidad/Tobago Fight High Food Costs, Delays to Wage Increases

The ICEM has condemned the killing of General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) Union Leader Najim Abd-Jasem in a communiqu&eacute; to Iraq&rsquo;s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. 
 
The 20-million-member Global Union Federation (GUF) called this &ldquo;appalling murder another sign of a clearly systematic campaign underway in Iraq to eliminate the leadership of the newly formed independent and democratic unions that strongly oppose sectarianism.&rdquo;
Abd-Jasem, a husband and father of four children, was abducted in Baghdad on 27 March, and his body was found three days later, 30 March, with clear signs that he was tortured before his death. A staunch trade unionist, even as a member of the underground workers&rsquo; democratic movement during Saddam Hussein&rsquo;s ban on independent trade unions, Abd-Jasem was the elected General Secretary of the Mechanic Workers&rsquo; Union of the GFIW. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Iraq.png" width="250" />
In the message to Nouri al-Maliki, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda cited recent attacks on the head office of the GFIW, as well as previous murders and abduction of trade union leaders. &ldquo;Workers and trade unionists must be able to carry out their normal activities in your country without fearing for their lives,&rdquo; said Warda. &ldquo;We call on you to ensure full respect for the fundamental human and trade union rights of workers.&rdquo; 
Abd-Jasem was leader of the Mechanics Workers&rsquo; Union since 2003. He was also a founder of the Iraq Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) and a trade union leader as the IFTU and two other labour federations merged to create the GFIW. During the Saddam regime, he worked as a mechanic in the Health Ministry, but was dismissed from that job for opposing Saddam&rsquo;s official union. 
 
The ICEM, a GUF representing 389 trade unions in 124 countries, expresses deep sorrow to the family of Najim Abd Jasem, as well as to the leadership of GFIW, which has lost a true martyr in the struggle for free and democratic trade unions in Iraq.

ICEM Condemns Killing of Iraqi Trade Union Leader

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