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Unilever workers at UK factories are midway through 11 days of strikes, as the world&rsquo;s third largest consumer products company refuses to talk to unions about alternatives to its unacceptable and unilateral decision to close the final salary pension scheme. 
 
Workers organised by three ICEM affiliates, Unite the Union, GMB, and Union of Shop and Distributive Workers (USDAW), calculate that between 20-40% will be slashed from pensions of thousands of staff, at a time when the multinational corporation posted enormous profits of 4.6&euro; billion in 2010, and awarded CEO Paul Polman a 50% salary increase in a single year. 
 
Well known Unilever brands include PG Tips, Marmite, Pot Noodle, Dove, Comfort, and Surf. 
<img src="" width="214" height="160" alt="" />
Unilever was founded on positive social principles but has aggressively followed a strategy of job cuts and outsourcing of over 100,000 of its global workforce over the last ten years, removing any semblance of social responsibility over work terms in the production of food and household goods. 
 
In closing the UK final salary pension scheme, Unilever management once again prioritises profits over staff, and breaks a promise to protect pensions for long-serving workers. The UK unions are fighting back. The first ever strike ever at Unilever in the UK started on 9 December and moved management to cancel Christmas parties and bonuses for its staff. 
 
This second wave of strike actions started at 06h59 on 18 January, with 11 days of rolling strikes throughout the company&rsquo;s UK production. It runs until midnight, 28 January. 
 
All 7,000 Unilever workers in the UK will see pension earnings hit by this attack as current final scheme members are moved to the inferior Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) scheme from 1 July 2012, and CARE conditions will be decreased across the board. 
 
On 10 January, Unite dispatched its Battle Bus (see <a href="http://union-news.co.uk/2012/01/video-unions-load-up-battlebus-for-unilever-strikes/">Union News video</a>), taking protesting workers from Unite headquarters in Holborn to Unilever&rsquo;s London office on Victoria Embankment. 
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ICEM joined the noisy Battle Bus and protest on the front steps of the firm&rsquo;s London offices, with the company keeping union leaders from entering. Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey told demonstrators, &ldquo;How dare a company that generates massive profits attack your pensions, which you have saved for. We are not prepared to stand back and do nothing.&rdquo; 
 
The current strike action is hitting the following UK plants, with the products they produce: 
&bull; Purfleet &ndash; Hellmann&rsquo;s mayonnaise, Flora 
&bull; Trafford Park &ndash; PG Tips tea 
&bull; Burton &ndash; Marmite 
&bull; Norwich &ndash; Coleman&rsquo;s mustard and sauces 
&bull; Crumlin, Wales &ndash; Pot Noodle 
&bull; Leeds &ndash; Dove Deodorant, Lynx, Sure 
&bull; Port Sunlight &ndash; fabric &ndash; Comfort, Persil 
&bull; Warrington &ndash; Persil, Omo 
&bull; Gloucester &ndash; Wall&rsquo;s Ice Cream 
 
The other sites involved in strike action &ndash; Unilever UK (Central Resources) Ltd are: 
&bull; Port Sunlight &ndash; R&amp;D site 
&bull; St David&rsquo;s Park (Near Ewloe in Wales) &ndash; IT site 
&bull; Colworth, Bedford &ndash; R&amp;D site 
<img src="" width="251" height="159" alt="" />
Unite National Officer, Jennie Formby said, &ldquo;Unilever needs to clean up its act, get back to the table before it ruins its business&rsquo; reputation for good.&rdquo; 
 
The unions have calculated alternative business options for Unilever to make the same savings without cutting pensions. For more information on the campaign and to <a href="http://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigns/unilever_-_hands_off_our_pensi.aspx">send a message</a> to Unilever CEO Paul Polman, go to the Unite website here.&nbsp; 
 
Watch Unite&rsquo;s excellent three minute film &ldquo;<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Theeovq1c&amp;feature=youtu.be">Unilever &ndash; not as clean as it claims</a>&rdquo; here.&nbsp;

UK Strikes at Unilever Continue; Company Refuses Talks

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The ICEM has responded with anger and outrage over the latest cold-blooded murder of a trade unionist in Colombia. Mauricio Redondo, 36, and his wife, Janeth Ord&oacute;&ntilde;ez Carlosama, were murdered in their home in the village of Tetey&eacute;, in the southern department of Putumayo, on 17 January at 19h30 by two gunmen. 
 
Mauricio Redondo was a provincial leader of ICEM Colombia affiliate Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera (USO) and both he and his wife were activists in a community group that advocated for better working conditions, environmental stewardship, and labour and human rights in the booming oil and natural gas fields of the Putumayo basin in southwest Colombia. 
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In fact, four days before the killings at a meeting in the municipality of Orito, at a forum called Primer Foro Petrolero por el Derecho al Trabajo, la Reivindicaci&oacute;n Social y Econ&oacute;mica de Orito, Redondo was an active speaker in talks to open public protests over these issues. According to initial reports, the two gunmen were wearing work uniforms of the local oil contracting company Empresa de Energ&iacute;a del Bajo Putumayo, EEEP (Energy Company of Lower Putumayo) and fired multiple gunshots into the couple. Redondo and Ord&oacute;&ntilde;ez are survived by five young children. 
 
&ldquo;Once again we witness the price that dedicated trade unionists in Colombia pay when they attempt to stand up for a dignified way of life,&rdquo; said General Secretary Manfred Warda, who was in Colombia when the murders happened. 
 
&ldquo;Along with USO, we mourn the grisly deaths of Mauricio Redondo and Janeth Ord&oacute;&ntilde;ez and we call on Colombia&rsquo;s federal and provincial prosecution teams to extend all efforts in apprehending and bringing to justice those responsible.&rdquo; 
 
Mauricio Redondo was employed by Medellin-based P.E.I. Energy, an upstream oil and gas drilling company. He was a leader of the 220-member USO committee in Orito, in which 40% are employees of Ecopetrol and 60% employed by contract companies of the state-held energy company. 
 
The deaths of the couple came just days after three other USO Orito leaders &ndash; Manuel Coronado, Jos&eacute; Socimo Erazo and Julio Vargas &ndash; were threatened by calls made to their mobile telephones. It also came after a bomb threat was directed at the USO regional office in Orito. 
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Said Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) Human Rights Director Alberto Vanegas, the worst aspect of the 17 January heinous crimes are that &ldquo;five children were left as orphans. This is what we leave with such murders: orphans and widows throughout the country.&rdquo; 
 
The killings of Mauricio Redondo and Janeth Ord&oacute;&ntilde;ez mark the first murders of trade unionists in Colombia in 2012. In 2011, at least 29 trade union leaders were killed in calculated and cold-blooded political assassinations.

ICEM Condemns Assassinations of USO Leader, His Wife in Colombia

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ICEM Nordic Region Vice President Anders Ferbe was elected 1 February by IF Metall&rsquo;s Executive Board to serve as Acting President of Sweden&rsquo;s largest industrial union, replacing Stefan L&ouml;fven who stepped down 27 January to head the Social Democratic Party of Sweden. 
 
Ferbe, 57, had been IF Metall&rsquo;s First Vice President since 2008 and has been an ICEM Presidium member since 2007 when he was elected at the Fourth Statutory Congress in Bangkok. He will head the 355,000-member IF Metall going into the union&rsquo;s 2014 Congress, a key year with federal elections slated to occur in September 2014. 
 
L&ouml;fven, President of IF Metall since the union was formed on 1 January 2006 with the merger of the Swedish Industrial Union (Industrifacket) and the Swedish Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (Metall), was elected to head the country&rsquo;s once dominant Social Democrats by the party&rsquo;s Presidium 11 days ago. 
<img alt="" src="" width="141" height="160" />
Stefan L&ouml;fven
&ldquo;I am both humbled and honoured by the trust shown me,&rdquo; Ferbe said following last week&rsquo;s Board election. &ldquo;Our job to retain and create sustainable jobs is paramount. It means training, hard work and wages that are both fair and equal.&rdquo; IF Metall&rsquo;s board elected Veli-Pekka S&auml;ikk&auml;l&auml; to replace Ferbe as First Vice President. 
 
Ferbe is a native of J&ouml;nk&ouml;ping in southern Sweden and his work in the metal industry began there as an assembler at an industrial fan manufacturer now called Svenska Fl&auml;kfabriken. 
 
He held a number of local branch positions of Metall and in 1984, after six months working inside the union&rsquo;s training center, he took a Metall training and education position in the Stockholm headquarters in environmental education. 
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In 1989, he began a 16-year career as the union&rsquo;s press and communications officer and upon the 2006 merger of Industrifacket and Metall, he was elected IF Metall&rsquo;s Second Vice President. A year earlier, he was elected to the ICEM Executive Committee. 
 
Both Ferbe and L&ouml;fven will work to restore the strength of the Social Democratic Party inside Sweden. The Social Democrats were beaten in consecutive elections in 2006 and 2010 and the ICEM is confident that with a trade union leader heading the party, &ldquo;the Social Democratic Party once again will not only lead Sweden, but continue to serve as the stellar social model for all the world to follow,&rdquo; said General Secretary Manfred Warda in a 26 January letter congratulating L&ouml;fven. (The full <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/9.ICEM%20Stefan%20Lofven.26Jan.pdf ">ICEM letter</a> is here.) 
 
L&ouml;fven, 55, served as Vice President of Metall from 2002 until his election as the first President of IF Metall in 2006. The 55-year-old L&ouml;fven had been employed by Metall since 1995, first as a national bargaining officer, then as Secretary, and from 1999 to 2002 as head of the Organising Department. 
 
He was born in Stockholm but grew up in &Aring;dalen, &Aring;ngermanland, Sweden. His first industrial job was at a sawmill in Domsj&ouml; in 1979, but he then went to work that same year as a welder at the military and all-terrain vehicle manufacturer H&auml;gglunds and S&ouml;ner AB, now part of UK-based BAE Systems. He started his trade union activism as a shop steward, sector president and branch president.

IF Metall’s Board Elects Anders Ferbe to Replace Stefan Löfven

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The European Works Council (EWC) of Rio Tinto last week condemned the global minerals and metal producer for its unwarranted lockout of 780 Canadian members of Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos d&rsquo;Alma, an affiliate of the United Steelworkers (USW) in Alma, Qu&eacute;bec. 
 
The intervention made by Rio&rsquo;s EWC Secretary V&eacute;ronique Roche from Paris comes at a time when the USW along with the ICEM and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) are ramping up a campaign. Actions have been launched to bring attention and pressure on the multinational in support of aluminium smelter workers of Rio Tinto subsidiary Alcan, who were unjustly locked off their jobs on 1 January in the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region of Qu&eacute;bec. 
 
A mass protest of Canadian and global trade unionists will take place in Alma &ndash; some 380 kilometres north of Alcan&rsquo;s headquarters in Montr&eacute;al &ndash; on 31 March. That will come a day after the ICEM North America Region holds its committee meeting in the region as a show of support for the victimised members of Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos d&rsquo;Alma, USW Local 9490. 
<img alt="" src="" width="239" height="160" />
photo: lapresse.ca
An initial thrust 11 days ago by ICEM and IMF global affiliates in the form of protest letters to Rio Tinto&rsquo;s President and CEO Tom Albanese saw a company response a day into the action: the company turned off its fax machines to avoid a deluge of written protests. 
 
The EWC intervention, however, is sure to resonate. Roche said the EWC has found that Rio Tinto Alcan management failed to even consider proposals made by the union, a &ldquo;destructive and socially irresponsible position.&rdquo; 
 
The 2 February letter added to Albanese: &ldquo;Please know that our European forum will stand alongside the United Steelworkers in all organised efforts in Europe and elsewhere, and we will participate in actions deemed necessary by the USW to repel this anti-social attack.&rdquo; 
 
The EWC then demanded that Rio Tinto end the lockout and order local management back to the bargaining table to negotiate a fair, equitable and acceptable labour agreement with workers that does not decimate the economic well-being of the community. (The <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/lettre%20TOM%20ALBANESE%20ALMA%20FEV%202012%20engx.pdf ">full letter</a> can be read here.) 
 
The chief issue behind the lockout is Rio Tinto Alcan&rsquo;s desire to have unlimited outsourcing rights, something that would eventually half the wage base of the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region. Since Rio Tinto purchased Alcan in 2007 for US$39 billion, Alma management has replaced each worker taking retirement, or in other reductions in force, by outsourcing to sub-contractors who use low-wage staff without full social benefits. 
 
Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos d&rsquo;Alma tried to set a floor on full-time, direct employees in collective negotiations. Alcan refused and immediately locked out the unionised workforce on expiration of a prior five-year agreement. There is mounting proof that Rio Tinto Alcan is partially operating the 438,000-tonne facility with the use of scabs during the lockout, a prohibition under provincial Qu&eacute;bec labour statute and something the USW is pursuing through the legal system.

Rio Tinto’s Euro Works Council Irate over Québec Aluminium Lockout

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The Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) cited mining giant Vale with union interference in blocking the Vice President of United Steelworkers Local 6500 from entering work zones for representation purposes. The positive OLRB ruling came 16 months after a bitter, year-long strike between Brazil-based Vale and the USW at Sudbury and other Canadian locations. 
 
Patrick Veinot was one of nine Local 6500 members who were fired by Vale for strike activity and when he was elected following the end of the strike in July 2010, Vale refused to allow him on company property. Veinot is chairman of the Local 6500 grievance committee and his duties include meeting with shop stewards and grievants to resolve workplace differences. 
<img src="" width="172" height="160" alt="" />
Patrick Veinot
&ldquo;I think the message Vale Inco has sought to communicate is cold and hard and I conclude there has been a substantial interference both in the administration of the Union and its representation of employees,&rdquo; stated OLRB Chairman Bernard Fishbein. 
 
Veinot and the eight others were charged with criminal harassment but were acquitted of those charges by a jury trial in early 2011. But they remain sacked by Vale pending a separate proceeding lodged by the USW before the OLRB to win their jobs back. 
 
&ldquo;The Board made it quite clear,&rdquo; said USW District Director Wayne Fraser. &ldquo;Vale&rsquo;s post strike assault on the continuing determination and solidarity of our members will not be tolerated.&rdquo; 
 
Added USW Canadian National Director and ICEM Vice President Ken Neumann, &ldquo;Patrick has become a living symbol of the union&rsquo;s strength and like all discharged strikers, Patrick and his family have suffered at the hands of this autocratic employer hell bent on achieving its goals without regard to the interests of its employees.&rdquo;

Ontario Labour Board Rules Discharged USW Sudbury Leader has Worksite Access

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A mass rally is scheduled for Saturday, 21 January, in London, Ontario, to support locked out members of a bargaining unit of Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 27. Sponsored by the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), the Day of Action against Caterpillar Inc. will begin at 11h in the southwestern Ontario city of 40,000. 
 
CAW Local 27 members were locked out late in the evening on New Year&rsquo;s Eve by Caterpillar&rsquo;s Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) in a callous display of corporate might. The 650 CAW members voted by 98% on 30 December for strike action and 24 hours later &ndash; just as they were returning to jobs following a holiday shutdown &ndash; they were locked out. 
 
&ldquo;We see this fight as being central to the entire labour movement and we are going to dig in our heels and fight Caterpillar with everything we&rsquo;ve got,&rdquo; said OFL President Sid Ryan. 
 
Caterpillar&rsquo;s EMD &ndash; run as part of the company&rsquo;s Progress Rail Services Corp. &ndash; lockout followed workers&rsquo; total rejection of unreasonable wage and benefit concessions sought by the US-based company. There is little doubt that the company is trying to knock back wage and benefit levels of Canadian workers as a ploy to shift production of electric-powered diesel engines and associated railroad components to a start-up and lower wage plant in Muncie, Indiana, in the US. 
 
EMD began operations in Muncie in October 2011. Until the New Year&rsquo;s Eve lockout, CAW and EMD had bargained under a seven-month contract extension. However, EMD never once wavered from an initial, hostile and family-wrecking proposal that demanded wage cuts from C$35-per hour to C$16.50, health benefits cut in half, and elimination of a pension scheme. 
<img alt="" src="" width="107" height="155" />
CAW President Ken Lewenza
At the same time, EMD was advertising for a Human Resources manager in Muncie with the stipulation that he/she have &ldquo;experience with providing union-free culture and union avoidance.&rdquo; 
 
EMD is paying average salaries between US$12-16-per hour in Muncie. Caterpillar and its wholly-owned Progress Rail Services is seeking to dislodge General Electric&rsquo;s (GE) Transportation Division as the US&rsquo;s premiere supplier of train locomotives at a time when government stimulus funds are available for infrastructure and transport needs. GE operates three major rail division plants that are unionised and it pays average salaries of US$30-per hour or more. 
 
EMD&rsquo;s London, Ontario, plant was purchased by Caterpillar in August 2010 for US$820 million from Greenbriar Equity Group and Berkshire Partners. The two capital companies in turn bought the manufacturing plant in 2005 for a quarter of that amount from General Motors when GM was shedding its non-auto making businesses. 
 
Then, Caterpillar was interested in buying the southwestern Ontario plant but CAW opposed the deal because of Caterpillar&rsquo;s horrid labour relations record in the US. Now, with Caterpillar in control and the company displaying obvious whipsawing of CAW members against non-union Muncie workers that will swell to 650 this year, Unit 2 of CAW Local 27 is forced to blockade the London plant to prevent equipment from leaving for the Indiana city 350 miles to the south. 
 
CAW President Ken Lewenza called the lockout &ldquo;a serious attack on working people, their families and the greater community of London. 
 
&ldquo;If (Caterpillar) is not going to do business in Canada, this wage cut is designed as a mechanism to blame workers,&rdquo; said Lewenza, referring to production flight and a possible plant closing. In mid-December, the CAW lodged a formal complaint with the government over Caterpillar&rsquo;s violation of the Investment Canada Act. 
 
The company has benefitted by tax breaks given the predecessor equity firms in 2008. In fact, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper used the plant as a backdrop in March 2008 to tout the federal government&rsquo;s corporate tax breaks. The enterprise&rsquo;s buyers received a C$5 million tax break then and a wider C$1 billion tax break on industrial capital investment. 
 
EMD has other railroad manufacturing facilities in Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, and Sahag&uacute;n, Hidalgo state, Mexico, a facility it operates jointly with Bombardier. It also operates a unionised facility in LaGrange, US state of Illinois. EMD sells locomotives, replacement parts, and diesel powered engines for marine propulsion, oil drilling and power generation in 130 countries, and currently has major contracts with companies providing equipment for state railways in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. 
 
Caterpillar&rsquo;s deep contract concession proposals, the lockout, matched with lucrative incentives from Indiana&rsquo;s anti-union state government for the Muncie start-up are a cause of great concern, particularly for two countries that each lack worker-friendly industrial policies in the wake of a financial crisis.

Rally Set for Locked Out Caterpillar Workers in Canada on 21 January

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Around 35 trade union representatives from various rubber companies, namely Goodyear, MRF, JK Tyres, Birla Tyres, Apollo Tyres, and Ajanta Rubber formed the Indian Rubber Unions National Network in a workshop entitled &ldquo;ILO/ICEM Workshop on International Labour Standards and Social Dialogue in Indian Rubber Industry.&rdquo; The forum was held on 14-15 December 2011 in Mumbai with the support of the ILO. 
 
India is becoming one of the world's fastest-growing rubber producing countries due to the emerging automotive industry, as well as availability and closeness of raw materials such as natural rubber. The tyre market attracts global manufacturers due to high growth figures, while India itself has its own multinational companies that also invest elsewhere. 
 
&ldquo;This is the first time that Indian rubber unions have come together, which is promising for the future,&rdquo; said Ravindra Ghoshalkar, General Secretary of ICEM-affiliated Chemical Mazdoor Federation (CMFI), the union that inaugurated the ILO/ICEM Workshop in Mumbai. Opening speakers included Pradeep Kokas, Education Secretary of the ICEM affiliate Indian National Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation (INMF) and Sayeed Ahmed, Secretary of the Maharashtra State of the Indian national labour federation, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU). 
<img alt="" src="" width="276" height="160" />
The workshop received detailed presentations from keynote speakers. Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM&rsquo;s Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs, briefed the participants on the global situation of the rubber industry with economic, employment, and trade union angles. 
 
An ILO Industrialist Specialist, Yasuhiko Kamakura, presented core labour standards of the organization as well as instruments of occupational health and safety worldwide. ICEM&rsquo;s Asia Multinational Companies&rsquo; and Social Dialogue Project Coordinator Yoon Hyowon informed the participants about international labour standards, such as the OECD Guidelines and the UN Global Compact, while Ashutosh Bhattacharya, ICEM&rsquo;s Multinational Indian Project Coordinator, presented the issue of the Right to Information Act and Workers Participation in India. 
 
The workshop participants were divided into various groups to discuss matters affecting the Indian rubber industry, working conditions, and health and safety situations at various workplaces. Following ICEM&rsquo;s input on union networking in the rubber industry at global and regional levels, Indian rubber workers&rsquo; representatives discussed how to improve cooperation, solidarity, and networking inside the country. 
 
In final discussions, the workshop produced concrete actions for the future. This included regular information and experience exchanges between rubber unions, as well as contant solidarity during collective bargaining negotiations or any other dispute. While forming the India National Rubber Industry Network, the workshop also aimed at developing close relations among the unions of the same company. 
 
Indian union represetatives strongly underlined the improtance of international solidarity. In this sense, it was agreed to establish close relations with union representatives outside of the country that represent workers at Indian-based rubber companies such as Apollo and JK Tyres. It was also decided to organize the next network meeting within a year with the participation of more unions.

Indian Rubber Unions Form National Network

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Negotiations concluded in December between five Swedish unions, representing 540,000 industrial workers, and employers&rsquo; associations. The 14-month national agreements contain general 3% wage rises and run from next month, on 1 February, to 31 March 2013. 
 
The sector-wide pacts cover industrial workers in paper, chemicals, wood, graphics, iron, steel, engineering, food, and other manufacturing workers. In coming months, talks in the Swedish federal and local governmental sectors, retail, retail food, commercial, construction, and transportation sectors will get underway. 
 
The unions involved in late 2011 industrial talks include Pappers, IF Metall, Unionen, GS, the wood and graphics union, and the Swedish Food Workers&rsquo; Union (LIVS). 
<img alt="" src="" width="140" height="142" />
In general, the 3%, 14-month agreements represent fairness factoring in Sweden&rsquo;s jump in GDP last year, and the fact that technology exports grew by 21%. Many of the agreements contain work groups and funds to establish further staff training and development. 
 
IF Metall, representing some 170,000 workers in several sectors, approved agreements on 15 December, and Pappers did the same two days later. Unionen, representing 120,000 workers in many sectors, negotiated 0.2% on top of the 3% for professional development. The union represents white-collar, technical, engineering, administration, and other staff. 
 
Pappers took a major step closer to a June deadline in finalizing industry-wide language banning all social dumping concerning agency and precarious work. The other unions also made strides in limiting and regulating temporary and short-term work. 
 
Pappers also gained flexibility to allot 50% of the wage increase to the local level, with a set of criteria guiding local social dialogue in disbursing the funds, including promotions. The union and paper companies also agreed to press government over insufficient state aid for early intervention of occupational health risks, a force driving long-term illnesses. 
 
IF Metall and employer groups agreed in principle to begin work on contract language halting termination of workers during an economic downturn and rather providing re-training opportunities within the enterprise. 
 
IF Metall President Stefan L&ouml;fven said the agreements in his union&rsquo;s sectors &ldquo;provide opportunities for real wage increases in 2012 as well as maintaining the competiveness of Swedish industry.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="249" height="140" />
Unionen President Cecilia Fahlberg
Unionen President Cecilia Fahlberg said, &ldquo;Each member is guaranteed a salary increase that allows for increased purchasing power.&rdquo;

Sweden’s Industrial Unions Negotiate 3% Pay Hikes for 540,000 Workers

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A 40-day strike in the US state of Massachusetts has ended. Ninety brave members of the ICEM-affiliated Teamsters Union (IBT) backed Saint-Gobain&rsquo;s CertainTeed subsidiary away from severe cuts to their health care plan, and ratified a five-year labour agreement by a 69-0 vote on 29 January. 
 
The workers, who make asphalt roofing shingles, gypsum wallboard and fiberglass products at a plant outside Boston in Norwood, Massachusetts, returned to their jobs on 31 January with their heads held high, their pride intact, and most importantly their premium benefits package unsevered. 
 
CertainTeed management came at the members of IBT Local 25 late last year with a proposal to abandon the union&rsquo;s Health and Welfare Fund and replace it with an inferior company-managed plan. Such a plan would have left the workers with far fewer health care benefits, leaving them largely unprotected from illness or injury.
<img src="" width="154" height="160" alt="" />
Workers took strike action on 19 December and when the company refused to move from its regressive proposals in US federal mediation on 13 January, Norwood Teamsters expanded their strike. Besides working with the ICEM and French union CFDT to take the dispute directly to executives of Saint-Gobain in Paris, they began handbilling other non-Teamster and non-represented CertainTeed and Saint-Gobain plants in the US. 
 
&ldquo;Our members would not accept the company plan and made that loud and clear to us,&rdquo; said Local 25 Business Representative George Slicis. &ldquo;We were on the picket line for 40 days, 24/7, through the holidays and in bad weather, and we were not going back unless the Teamster health care plan went back with us.&rdquo; 
 
The 69-0 vote last Sunday made that an affirmative. In bargaining again supervised by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) on 26 January, CertainTeed backed off the takeaways. Although there will be a very slight increase in workers&rsquo; out-of-pocket costs for continuation of the premium health coverage of US$6-per-week, that will be more than offset with the union negotiating a US$500 bonus each in years one through four of the labour agreement. 
 
In addition, starting in year two, or late in 2012, and continuing in 2013, 2014 and 2015, workers will receive a 2% wage increase. Local 25 also won company-paid increases to the New England Teamsters Pension Fund of 10% in years one and two, and 6% each in the remaining years. 
 
The ICEM congratulates Local 25 members at CertainTeed for their resolve in maintaining their earned benefits package and also commends Jean-Francois Renucci of CFDT, who took the case to preserve the US workers&rsquo; health and welfare insurance to top Saint-Gobain leaders.

US Teamsters at Saint-Gobain Succeed in Retaining Premium Health Care

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A joint Executive Committee meeting of three European trade union federations on 31 January put the final touches on statutes, a political programme, and nominated candidates for leadership in what is to become a united eight-million-member industrial workers&rsquo; federation. The meeting, held near Mechelen, Belgium, was attended by 150 national union leaders from 25 nations. 
 
The European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers&rsquo; Federation (EMCEF), European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (EMF) and the European Trade Union Federation for textiles, Clothing, Leather and Footwear (ETUF-TCL) are now geared to formally merge on 16 May 2012 in Brussels, with dissolution Congresses coming a day earlier. 
<img alt="" src="" width="200" height="74" />
The joint Executive decreed that the new federation will strive to become a fighting force for a dynamic economic framework that allows industry to thrive as the motor for jobs and sustainable growth across Europe. The three current federations vowed that &ldquo;social progress and the European social model cannot be sacrificed at the altar of ultra-liberal dogma.&rdquo; 
 
Although the new grouping has yet to formally adopt a name, its temporary moniker is the European Industrial Workers&rsquo; Federation (EIWF). 
 
Michael Vassiliadis, President of Germany&rsquo;s IGBCE, was nominated to serve as President, while current EMF General Secretary Ulrich Eckelmann was nominated to be General Secretary. Anders Ferbe of IF Metall, Sweden, Renzo Ambrosetti, UNIA, Switzerland, and Valeria Fedeli, CGIL FILCTEM, Italy, were nominated as Vice Presidents, while Sylvain Lefebvre, EMCEF, Bart Samyn, EMF, and Luc Triangle, ETUF-TCL, were nominated as Deputy General Secretaries. 
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Michael Vassiliadis
The new federation will consist of four policy committees &ndash; Collective Bargaining and Social Policy, Company Policy Committee, Industrial Policy Committee, and Social Dialogue Policy Committee. It will also be composed of eight regions: South, Benelux, Central, South-East, Eastern, British, Nordic/Baltic, and South-West.

Trade Union Industrial Federation Takes Shape for Europe

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