English

Español

Français

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

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

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Press

Following yesterday's attacks in the USA, Fred Higgs, General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), has sent the following message to all ICEM-affiliated unions in the United States: 
 
 
On behalf of all ICEM affiliates across the world I wish to convey our horror and disgust at the carnage in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. At this time we appreciate and share the shock and anguish your members must be feeling, and wish to express our deepest condolences to all the casualties, their families, friends and colleagues. 
 
The ICEM will continue to work tirelessly with the help of all our affiliates, through global trade union solidarity to play our part in seeking to prevent such outrages against innocent workers across the world. 
 
 
Higgs commented in Brussels today: &quot;I am sure that in the circumstances following the disastrous events in the US, all ICEM affiliates would show full solidarity and any support needed to our US colleagues.&quot;

Terrorism in US: ICEM Expresses Solidarity with American Colleagues

Unions across South Africa launched a general strike today against the government's privatisation plans. 
 
&quot;At least two thirds of all workers throughout the country participated in the action, uniting over five million workers,&quot; the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) reported this evening. &quot;Most industrial areas were effectively closed down.&quot; 
<img height="145" alt="" src="" width="300" />
Sell-offs challenged by the South African workers include plans for the partial privatisation of Africa's biggest power utility, Eskom. 
 
Called by COSATU, the two-day strike is backed by other South African union federations. Unions taking part include all the South African affiliates of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The UN's World Conference Against Racism has not been affected by the strike action, COSATU emphasised. The conference opens in Durban this Friday. 
 
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said that about 300,000 of its members were taking part in the anti-privatisation strike. 
 
Privatisation should be opposed because it causes job losses, but also because of its wider social impact, the NUM argued: &quot;The selling off of these assets has a negative bearing on the national development programmes, such as electrification, the installation of and access to telephones, the accessibility of water etc. to millions of South Africans.&quot; 
 
Eskom's &quot;competency and efficiency in the delivery of electricity to poor communities is unquestionable,&quot; the union said. &quot;Why then should this asset be privatised?&quot; 
 
&quot;This is a strike against poverty,&quot; the NUM declared.

South Africans Strike Over Electric Privatisation

The success of Africa's economic renaissance will depend on its ability to convert the continent's raw materials into value-added goods both for domestic and international consumption. 
 
That was the main conclusion drawn by African labour leaders meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, last week. They were taking part in the African Regional Executive Committee of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The ICEM African unions emphasised the importance of &quot;sustainable programmes around the development of our human resources, sharing of skills between our countries, promoting better trade relations, securing dignified labour standards, strengthening friendship and solidarity exchanges and mutual assistance in the development of our continent. 
 
&quot;In this context, the role of trade unions is vital,&quot; they noted. &quot;To this end, the ICEM Africa Region has adopted a five-year programme of action to achieve these noble goals.&quot; 
 
ICEM African Regional President Senzeni Zokwana made a strong plea for workers in Africa to unite, organise and strengthen worker-to-worker solidarity in order to bring about peace, democracy and economic development. 
 
Zokwana, who is President of South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), said that the consensus reached by African governments on the New African initiative presents an historic opportunity for the people of Africa, as a whole, to end the scourge of the scourge of poverty, civil conflict and underdevelopment. 
 
&quot;The resources and skill needed to launch a war on this front exist in abundance,&quot; he noted. &quot;What is now needed is the political will and commitment to include all sectors of the population in the reconstruction and development programmes of the continent. This process must inevitably involve the full participation of the trade unions and other progressive mass movements on the continent. This is a struggle too important to be left to governments alone.&quot; 
 
He urged trade unions to be vigilant and to bring their organisational skills to bear on this process. Only a strong, vibrant, united and well-organised trade union movement in Africa could contribute effectively and qualitatively to the movement for change currently taking root on the African continent. 
 
&quot;The daily struggles of workers, for decent work, a living wage and improved quality of life for their families must be seen in the light of the broader struggle against poverty, resulting from corporate globalisation and the plundering of Africa's wealth,&quot; said Zokwana. &quot;The tragedy of our times has been that whilst Africa is richly endowed with natural resources, the beneficiaries have been outsiders, notably those from the rich North. Africa must no longer remain a producer and exporter of raw materials to the North. 
 
&quot;In most instances, mining interests of the North fuel the conflicts we see in Africa today,&quot; Zokwana added. &quot;There is clear evidence that the wars in the Great Lakes Area, Sierra Leone and Angola are aided and abetted by the multinational mining corporations seeking to exploit us, without regard to the sanctity of life of native Africans. The international community is aware of the dynamics of these conflicts but has chosen to look the other way as Africa bleeds. This must end.&quot;

Unions Back African Renaissance

Ukraine must act immediately to improve safety in its coal mines, the worldwide federation of miners' unions demanded today. 
 
&quot;We are angry that the safety of the coal mines in the Ukraine has been allowed to deteriorate over the past decade through neglect,&quot; said Fred Higgs, General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
His call followed the latest mining disaster in Ukraine. 49 miners were killed and another 18 seriously injured in an explosion at the Zasiadko pit on 19 August. Miners there say that concentrations of methane gas at the time of the blast were more than three times the permitted maximum - and that, immediately after the accident, production continued in a neighbouring shaft of the same pit at the same depth. 
 
This is by no means the first mining tragedy in Ukraine. 3,653 Ukrainian miners have died in accidents over the ten years since the country gained its independence, the ICEM-affiliated Miners' Independent Trade Union of Ukraine (MITU) notes. This year alone, 181 miners have been killed. 
 
The Zasiadko pit has a particularly bad record. Five major accidents there over the past 18 years have left 228 miners dead and injured. 
 
Mismanagement, corruption and chronic underinvestment in Ukraine's mines are widely blamed for the accidents, as is the practice of paying the miners according to output rather than by the hour. When they are paid at all. Often, wages arrive months too late, and miners sometimes faint from hunger while working underground. 
 
Expressing the ICEM's horror at the latest blast, Higgs said the Ukrainian government must &quot;end this killing machine&quot;. He called for the speedy establishment of a commission of inquiry with full union involvement and insisted that the &quot;families of the deceased must receive full compensation&quot;. 
 
The Ukrainian government must also implement Convention 176 of the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO), Higgs said. This sets out international standards on mining health and safety. In particular, it gives miners the right to refuse dangerous work without being victimised. 
 
&quot;We are appalled by reports that the culture of ignoring safety procedures has become accepted practice in pursuance of productivity targets and bonus pay,&quot; Higgs added. &quot;We are appalled that production continued on the day of the accident.&quot; 
 
In a letter to MITU President Mikhail Volynets, Higgs extended the ICEM's condolences to the families of the accident victims. He also pledged full ICEM support for MITU's &quot;efforts to promote a safe and caring mining industry.&quot; He called on the mine management and the Ukrainian authorities to cooperate with the union on this. 
 
And, in a reference to recent official harassment of MITU, he warned that &quot;any attempt to suppress the union, its members and leaders will be met with the full force of the ICEM.&quot;

Ukraine&#039;s Mining Disasters: End the Killing Machine

Trico Marine Services Inc. has promised to send all its American employees a letter giving the names and addresses of relevant trade unions. 
 
A letter to that effect from Trico USA was received today by NOPEF, the Norwegian oil workers' union. NOPEF has been threatening to black Trico's Norwegian subsidiary unless the parent company in the US respects American workers' right to organise. 
 
In both America and Norway, Trico supplies shipping services to the offshore oil and gas industry. But while the company respects labour rights in Norway, it has been strongly anti-union in the US. 
 
So Trico's change of tack is seen as a first breakthrough in the NOPEF campaign to help organising efforts by the company's American workers. 
 
Today's promise is &quot;a step in the right direction,&quot; NOPEF President Leif Sande said. &quot;As long as we experience progress in what we see as negotiations, we will not start a boycott.&quot; 
 
NOPEF's lawyer will answer the letter from Trico USA this week. 
 
This afternoon, NOPEF leaders met Norway's Minister of Trade and Industry, Grete Knudsen. She had earlier held meetings with employees of Trico Norway, and will be having talks with the Norwegian Seamen's Union later this evening. Knudsen sympathises with the reasons for NOPEF's boycott notice. She is, however, concerned about the jobs in Trico Norway. She expressed the hope that the dialogue between Trico USA and NOPEF will result in a solution. 
 
NOPEF is affiliated both to the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which has been lending global support to the campaign.

Trico: First Breakthrough for Norwegian/US Solidarity

A US employers' organisation is threatening to boycott Norway. 
 
At issue is the plan by Norwegian oil union NOPEF to black the shipping provider Trico Supply ASA unless Trico's parent company in the US gives an assurance that it will respect American workers' right to organise and to bargain collectively. 
 
Now, the President of Norway's trade union federation LO has received a threatening letter from Robert Alario, President of the Offshore Marine Service Association. The OMSA is an association of US companies that contract out services to the offshore oil and gas industry. 
 
Alario tells LO President Gerd Liv Valla that, if Trico fails to obtain contracts in Norway as a result of a NOPEF boycott, then &quot;we will have to inform the US offshore industry that Norway does not take into consideration US Acts, custom and culture. We will be forced to call on our members to be careful with doing business in Norway.&quot; 
 
&quot;This is a threat,&quot; commented NOPEF President Leif Sande, &quot;and we cannot accept that a US employers' association threatens the industry of another country because the employers in the US do not manage to come to terms with their own trade union movement.&quot; 
 
OMSA's ultimatum to a whole country should perhaps be taken with several pinches of sea salt, but it does shed a very crude light on employer attitudes in America's offshore marine services.&nbsp; 
 
Sande called attention to&nbsp;OMSA's website. 
 
Not a site for sore eyes. It is, the Norwegian union leader says, &quot;horrible reading&quot;. 
 
As indeed it is. And no page more so than a recent, now hidden, little piece headed Slow, but Sure? 
 
Penned by Alario himself, it gets straight to the point: &quot;For over two years, OMSA and its members have worked hard and steadily to design and develop a solid and successful strategy to prevent unions from penetrating our industry. So far, so good!&quot; 
 
So far so bad for OMSA-affiliated Trico, which has been desperately trying to convince Norwegians that it recognises US workers' right to join a union. 
 
But Alario is just getting into his stride. Onward and upward he marches, merrily shooting his member company in both feet. On the US unions' organising drives, he believes that &quot;we have been and continue to be largely successful against such an aggressive well-financed machine.&quot; This, he enthuses, &quot;can and should give us confidence that we are beating them, that we can beat them again, and that we will, finally, beat them in the end.&quot; Employers are, however, sternly warned against complacency: &quot;This fight is not over. There is much more to be done.&quot; 
 
For Alario's sense of mission reaches far beyond a few boats and choppers: &quot;The fight is for everyone - offshore drilling contractors, offshore diving and construction contractors, seismic, well servicing, contractors - everyone - not just helicopter or vessel operators. Surprisingly, other sectors of our industry and our suppliers have been relatively slow to fully appreciate and act on the threat posed by these unions to all of us, although we have seen signs, recently, that we and others have been making at least a slight dent in the general apathy that has frustrated us mightily for two years.&quot; 
 
There is much more in similar vein. If nothing else, the piece gives some deep insights into Alario's state of mind. He describes union organising drives as &quot;infiltration of companies under attack&quot; and warns other employers that American unions are &quot;working below industry radar&quot;. 
 
All of which explains why US mariners face a tough task in organising offshore services - and why NOPEF is so keen to help them. 
 
NOPEF is affiliated both to the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which is lending global support to the campaign. There have already been some successes in persuading Norwegian-based oil companies to review their relations with Trico, and the case has also been raised in the Norwegian parliament.

US Firms To Boycott Norway?

&quot;What do we want? A just wage!&quot; chanted demonstrators marching through central Bangkok on Monday evening. &quot;How much do we want? 180 baht a day! When do we want it? Now!&quot; 
 
180 baht is a little less than four US dollars. A modest pay claim by any standards, yet Monday's march was the second that Thai unions have had to hold in support of this and other key demands submitted to Labour Minister Dej Boonlong back in April. 
 
This time around, the numbers had grown. 47 private and public sector unions and people's organisations took part. Significantly, the more than one thousand union demonstrators were joined by students and representatives of the urban poor. 
 
The rally was coordinated by the labour union of workers in the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). At the global level, the EGAT Labour Union and a number of the other unions taking part are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The ICEM has declared its full support for the Thai demonstrators' demands. 
 
The current daily legal minimum wage in Thailand ranges from 133 to 165 baht, depending on the region. The unions want 180 baht nationwide. In Bangkok, a family cannot live reasonably on much less than 500 baht a day, and most industrial workers have to take several jobs or put in excessive overtime just to make ends meet. Many are actually paid less than the legal minimum. 
 
The government has been dragging its feet on the issue, pointing out that a national employer/union/government committee is responsible for setting the minimum rate. But this process tends to be very slow-moving, and it has never come up with a real living wage. 
 
The employers, meanwhile, are opposing the pay demand. They say four dollars a day would be a body blow to Thailand's global competitiveness! 
 
Another focus of the protests is a proposed new Labour Relations Act, which would further weaken collective bargaining and the right to strike. The unions want the government to withdraw this legislation, and instead to adopt a union-drafted law that protects worker rights. 
 
Further demands by Monday's marchers included immediate implementation of an unemployment insurance scheme and other social security improvements and the ending of a long lock-out at a textile plant. 
 
&quot;Workers and urban poor - our problems are the same,&quot; a representative of the Network for the Urban Poor told the rally. &quot;[Prime Minister] Thaksin says that in ten years' time, there will be no more poverty. Perhaps he means that, ten years from now, all the poor will have died!&quot; 
 
During the last elections, the now ruling Thai Rak Thai party promised that, if voted into office, it would implement an unemployment insurance scheme and increase wages. 
 
But a worker delegation that met with government officials during Monday's demo reported little progress, except that the government undertook to respond within a month to the demand for unemployment insurance. 
 
The government has broken its promises, said Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, of the Centre for Labour Information Service and Training (CLIST). 
 
&quot;Thai capitalists are able to go on golf vacations in other countries,&quot; Somyot told the demonstrators,&quot;while we assemble electronic pieces in the factories as our bosses yell insults like 'Hurry up, Buffalo, work faster!'&quot; 
 
165 baht per day &quot;is far below a just living standard,&quot; Somyot insisted, and &quot;the money that is in the unemployment fund is our money, it is the people's money.&quot; 
 
The rally closed with music from members of the Student Federation of Thailand and a vow from workers to keep the pressure up.

Thai Workers Demand Four Dollars A Day

A three-day power strike across South Africa has ended in victory for the country's electricity unions. 
 
In a statement issued this evening, the unions say they have &quot;signed the proposed collective bargaining wage agreement after the 21 000 workers accepted the current revised settlement proposal from the Eskom company.&quot; Eskom is South Africa's parastatal power utility. 
 
Launched on Tuesday, the nationwide strike &quot;will effectively end tomorrow 27/07/2001 starting with the first shift at 6H00 in the morning,&quot; the unions declare. 
 
The settlement includes: 
 
&middot; A 9 percent wage increase effective now for the lowest paid workers and a further 1 percent effective in January 2002. 
 
&middot; A 7 percent wage increase effective now for the highest paid workers and a further 0.5 percent effective in January 2002. 
 
&middot; Four months' paid maternity leave. 
 
 
Two of the unions involved in the strike, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), are affiliated at the global level to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which declared its solidarity with the South African unions' campaign. 
 
The ICEM has also expressed its support for South Africa's miners, who have given the NUM a massive mandate for strike action over a wage claim and other issues. Talks with the mining employers, particularly the gold producers, are scheduled to resume tomorrow. 
 
As for the Eskom package, the statement issued by NUMSA this evening said that it &quot;will go a long way to addressing the short and long-term needs of workers. The agreement will create certainty for workers and improve their purchasing power. This victory will boost morale and show to all workers that they have power to change their wages and working conditions.&quot; 
 
The strike began after Eskom tried to set the level of wage increases unilaterally, but the Labour Court ruled yesterday that the company did not have the right to do so. &quot;We hope the company and the government will learn a lesson on this case,&quot; the union statement emphasised. &quot;We trust and hope that the Eskom company in future wage negotiations would not adopt the same paternalistic and parochial approach to the wage talks. The unions salute all workers who took part in the strike and congratulate them on a great victory.&quot;

Power Workers Victorious in South African Strike

South Africa's national power utility Eskom has no right to fix wage increases unilaterally, the Labour Court in Johannesburg has ruled. 
 
The verdict is a signal victory for the country's electricity unions, who launched a nationwide strike on Tuesday after Eskom attempted to impose wage hikes lower than those sought by the unions. 
 

<img height="159" alt="" src="" width="161" />&nbsp; <img height="166" alt="" src="" width="170" />
Eskom wanted to unilaterally implement pay increases of between 7 and 9 percent. The unions say these rises would not be enough even to maintain the electricity workers' meagre purchasing power, and would &quot;lead to serious poverty and misery.&quot; The electricity unions are demanding 11 percent for the lowest-paid workers and 9 percent for the highest-paid. 
 
In another significant legal move, Eskom yesterday withdrew an application for a court order restraining workers involved in &quot;minimum essential service&quot; electricity provision from joining the strike. One of the unions involved, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), commented: &quot;We always insisted that the company's urgent application was irresponsible and unnecessary in the light of the unions' written undertaking that the workers in the essential services will not participate in the strike action. We are now vindicated and feel victorious that the matter has been withdrawn. The company should not play double standards but must concentrate on resolving the issue of wages rather than focusing on court interdicts.&quot; 
 
So far, though, Eskom has made little real effort to end the dispute. As the unions have repeatedly pointed out, the strike could have been avoided altogether if Eskom had sent competent senior managers to this year's bargaining round. Instead, it used junior executives who had little real authority to negotiate. 
 
Eskom has still not got the message. During an attempted conciliation session yesterday, the company's attitude remained the same. 
 
The session &quot;failed dismally,&quot; a clearly irritated NUMSA said, because &quot;the company was not taking the unions seriously. The company requested a caucus after the trade unions presented their proposals at 14H30. The junior negotiators of the company went to the caucus for 5 hours and came back to the plenary insisting that they still do not have the mandate and would not reciprocate on our demands. The meeting ended without a settlement. The biggest question that everyone should ask is, what is it that they were caucusing about for 5 hours?&quot; 
 
Conciliation bids are due to continue today, but the unions insist that, if the talks are to succeed, Eskom will have to bring in some real negotiators. &quot;We believe that the essence of any wage negotiations is on compromises in order to break the deadlock,&quot; the unions state, &quot;and such talks should be based on fairness, transparency and proper vision to deal with sensitive issues. This is critical, in order to ensure a speedy resolution to the strike action. The Eskom junior negotiators have not been properly orientated to wage negotiations because they are not prioritising the matter under dispute.&quot; 
 
The Eskom strike remained solid yesterday. The unions reported &quot;overwhelming support from the majority of the workers with a turnout of 90 percent. Protest marches were held at different cities and towns throughout the country, with thousands of workers taking part in the action. Memorandums were handed to Eskom head office and regional offices.&quot; 
 
Again, Eskom showed a remarkably poor grasp of human relations. A middle-ranking manager was delegated to receive the main petition. Seeing this as an insult, union members occupied Eskom's offices until company chairman Ruel Khoza deigned to fetch the memo in person. 
 
The nationwide protests were peaceful. The only incident occurred when police teargassed demonstrators at a power station in the province of Mpumalanga as Eskom attempted to bring in strikebreakers. &quot;The police must learn that they do not have to interfere in legal strike action,&quot; NUMSA commented. 
 
Two of the main unions involved in the power strike, NUMSA and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The ICEM has declared full solidarity with the South African power workers, and with the country's miners, who have given the NUM a massive mandate for strike action over a wage claim and other issues (details in ICEM UPDATE 46/2001). 
 
Some mining companies have finally met the union's demands in full, but the NUM yesterday issued strike notices to the three most recalcitrant coalmining employers - Ingwe, Eyesizwe and Anglocoal. 
 
Ingwe is owned by mining multinational Billiton, whose share price fell by 4.19 percent on the Johannesburg stock exchange following yesterday afternoon's NUM announcement. 
 
Anglo American, owner of Anglocoal, fared even worse. By the end of trading yesterday, its share price had plummeted by 8.18 percent. 
 
Talks with the mining employers, particularly the gold producers, are scheduled to resume tomorrow.

Court Victory For SA&#039;s Power Workers; Shares Drop for Mining Firms

Despite threats of legal action, Norwegian oil and petrochemical workers' union NOPEF is maintaining its notice of a boycott against Trico Marine over the firm's union-busting in the US. 
 
NOPEF announced today that it has received letters both from US-based Trico Marine Services Inc. and its Norwegian subsidiary Trico Supply ASA. Dated 20 July, the letters ask for confirmation, by 27 July, that the boycott will not come into effect. Otherwise, the companies are threatening to take out injunctions against the Norwegian union. 
 
Trico Marine Services supplies shipping to the oil industry in both Norway and America. The company respects workers' right to organise in Norway. But in the US, it is actively anti-union. 
 
On 11 July, NOPEF demanded confirmation, by 16 August, that Trico will &quot;let the employees in Trico Marine Services Inc, USA decide themselves whether they will join a trade union or not, without any interference, harassment, discrimination or threats from the management.&quot; 
 
Trico was also asked to confirm that, if workers at Trico Marine Services Inc, USA choose to join a union, the company will recognise it for collective bargaining purposes. 
 
NOPEF told the company that, if no such assurances were received by 16 August, then &quot;NOPEF's members in Statoil, Norsk Hydro, Phillips, Amoco, BP, CCB, Aker Base, Tananger, Aker Base Dusavik, Fjordbase, Vestbase, Forsyningsbase Helgeland in Sandnessj&oslash;en, Mongstad Base and Polarbase will be called on not to execute work which has anything to do with Trico Marine Services, its subsidiary and companies where Trico Marine Services, USA has beneficial ownership.&quot; NOPEF will also mount a publicity campaign and will press as many oil companies as possible &quot;not to have any kind of financial dealings&quot; with the firms targeted by the boycott. 
 
That boycott notice remains in force, NOPEF's second Vice-President Torbj&oslash;rn Teigland said today. 
 
&quot;We do not accept to be threatened into silence and do not intend to withdraw the notice of boycott, unless our demands are complied with,&quot; Teigland stated. 
 
The Norwegian union has already persuaded oil company Norsk Hydro to halt negotiations with Trico on the chartering of vessels, and the Norwegian-headquartered energy multinational Statoil is also currently examining its options. 
 
At the global level, NOPEF is affiliated to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). 
 
The ICEM, in cooperation with the ITF, has been in contact with senior Statoil management on this issue and has emphasised that Statoil, as a major Trico customer, could use its influence to help resolve the question of trade union recognition in the US. 
 
In 1998, the ICEM, NOPEF and Statoil signed the oil sector's first-ever globally applicable agreement on industrial relations. This covers basic trade union rights, health, safety and the environment, information and training. In March 2001, an updated and further strengthened version of the agreement was concluded. This new agreement takes full account of the UN's Global Compact initiative, under which multinationals commit themselves to promote trade union rights and other human rights.

Global Solidarity: Norway&#039;s Oil Union Defies Injunction Threat Over Trico

Archive

Terrorism in US: ICEM Expresses Solidarity with American Colleagues

South Africans Strike Over Electric Privatisation

Unions Back African Renaissance

Ukraine's Mining Disasters: End the Killing Machine

Trico: First Breakthrough for Norwegian/US Solidarity

US Firms To Boycott Norway?

Thai Workers Demand Four Dollars A Day

Power Workers Victorious in South African Strike

Court Victory For SA's Power Workers; Shares Drop for Mining Firms

Global Solidarity: Norway's Oil Union Defies Injunction Threat Over Trico

About IndustriALL

Follow us

Contact us