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ICEM&rsquo;s Latin America/Caribbean Regional Coordinating Committee meeting in S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil, on 18 and 19 May, discussed and took action on two pressing matters involving ICEM sectors in South America. 
 
The Committee resolved, considering the steps taken by the Bolivian people to institute a process of nationalisation of certain natural resources, to call on the governments and companies involved to be coherent in a wise and prudent response so that the rights of workers in these enterprises are not adversely affected. 
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Regarding the dispute between Argentina and Uruguay and the construction of two paper mills on the Uruguay side of the Uruguay River, the ICEM&rsquo;s Committee vowed to put pressure on both governments to immediately resolve the matter. The resolution stated that it was important that the opinions of trade unionists be considered in the combined US$1.7 billion projects by Mets&auml;-Botnia AB of Finland and Grupo Empresarial Ence of Spain. 
 
The resolution also said &ldquo;it was advisable not to ignore contributions made by those at the international level&rdquo; in this debate. &ldquo;In our double role as workers and trade unionists, we have to make sure, as we have done in the past, that control mechanisms exist which guarantee ecological and environmental sustainability for our people,&rdquo; ICEM&rsquo;s Latin America/Caribbean Committee declared. 
To read the resolution (in Spanish), <a href="/index.php?id=26&amp;doc=1814&amp;la=ES">click here</a>.

Nationalisation and Paper Mills: ICEM’s Latin Delegates Take Fresh Look at Two Regional Dilemmas

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North American&rsquo;s offshore oil and gas industry now has its second collective agreement in place after a Newfoundland-Labrador provincial arbitrator issued a 38-month labour contract between employers on the Hibernia platform and the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada. Some 450 workers at Hibernia, whose managing company is US supermajor ExxonMobil, will receive yearly wage increases, plus backpay to 1 July 2004 totalling, on average, C$9,168. 
 
CEP won a guarantee that workplace certification of the platform and terms of the agreement apply to all successor companies or oil-service firms at Hibernia. The interest arbitration award lays out a three-week on, three-week off work rotation schedule. That includes 84 paid hours each workweek, divided into seven 12-hour days while on the platform. 
Hibernia workers were the first offshore oil workers anywhere in North America to organise a union, voting for the CEP in 2001. Workers at the Terra Nova platform, an oil rig also in the North Atlantic that is managed by Petro-Canada, voted for CEP representation in 2003 and the 120 workers there received a first collective agreement through an interest arbitration award issued on 30 September 2005. Legislation in several Canadian provinces provides for such a process in achieving first collective agreements, and also prohibits strikes or lockouts during that period.

Labour Agreement in Place at Hibernia’s Offshore Platform

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The 16-week-old lockout by Stora Enso at a paper mill in Canada will continue into the foreseeable future. The Finnish-Swedish company, which locked 600 members of Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union off their jobs on 26 January 2006, returned to the bargaining table on 8 May. 
 
But the session was short and discouraging. In a return-to-work agreement, Stora Enso demanded a 10% pay cut from workers in mid-April, and the union&rsquo;s counter-proposal last week was met with bitter rejection. The company then bypassed the union-management process by mailing to each worker its plea for acceptance, including the concessionary &ldquo;Recovery Plan&rdquo; that seeks to cut costs inside the Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, mill. With a proposed wage freeze staring at them, workers would actually see an 18% cut in earnings if the proposal were to be accepted. 
 
Stora Enso has brokered C$65 million in subsidies from the province of Nova Scotia, covering seven years. But the aid package is contingent on a new collective agreement between the company and CEP Local 972, and CEP paperworkers in the maritime province will not slash their livelihoods to meet Stora&rsquo;s outrageous demands.

Stora Enso’s Demands Prolong Canadian Paper Mill Lockout

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In South Korea, trade union federations and legislators of the Democratic Labor Party have prevailed on the governing Uri Party not to table the controversial irregular workers&rsquo; bill in the National Assembly, at least not for now. In a series of daring political manoeuvres occurring in April, opposing forces to the pro-business legislation were joined by the major opposition party, Grand National Party, in successful efforts to sideline the proposed bills involving temporary workers. 
 
The legislation, if passed, would grant all temporary workers permanent status after two years. However, as it stands now, the bill woefully lacks the safeguards to prevent employers from discarding temporary workers through the two years. Trade unions and democratic advocates maintain that enactment of the law would mean more, not less, of Korea&rsquo;s workforce would be made up of temporary workers. 
 
In early April, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions launched a five-day general strike against the Uri Party initiative.

South Korea’s Irregular Workers’ Bill Sidetracked

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Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero signed, on 9 May, into law a labour reform measure aimed at decreasing the abuse by employers of temporary work contracts. The new law, which becomes effective in July 2006, makes any employee who has held two or more temporary contracts totalling at least 24 months, within a 30-month period, a permanent employee with full social benefits. 
 
Companies, meanwhile, will receive incentives in the form of subsidies for transferring temporary workers to full-time status, as well as reductions in social security contributions for the same. 
Spain&rsquo;s two trade union federations &mdash; CCOO and UGT &mdash; and the employers&rsquo; organisation CEOE, along with the government, have been negotiating this positive reform for the past 14 months in hopes of an overall reduction in the use of temporary workers and to reduce the work-life stress that fixed-term contract labour brings.

New Temp Workers’ Law in Spain Has Positive Aspects

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ExxonMobil in France has been found guilty of trade union discrimination, and ordered to pay &euro;322,000 to four trade union representatives affiliated with French federation CGT. The ruling was issued on 5 May from a court of conciliation in Nanterre. 
 
Three of the four CGT delegates work at Esso&rsquo;s Port-J&eacute;r&ocirc;me refinery, while the fourth is employed at an Esso facility at Fos-sur-mer. The largest award &mdash; &euro;210,000 &mdash; went to a key union person who had been on the job for 34 years. 
 
CGT said the court&rsquo;s findings and awards stand as a call to young workers that it is allowed for militant trade union members &ldquo;not to think like the boss, but on the contrary be free to think differently, not having your professional career sanctioned&rdquo; because you do.

Guilty: ExxonMobil in France for Trade Union Discrimination

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Goodyear Thailand Ltd. has refused to reinstate 18 contract workers it sacked last year, despite an Industrial Court Commission (IRC) ruling that it must do so. Sixteen of the 18 reported for work at Goodyear&rsquo;s Bangkok tyre factory on 3 May, but management refused entry. 
 
Later, the workers received letters stating that the company disagrees with the IRC directive and intends to file papers in Thailand&rsquo;s central labour court to reverse the decision. &ldquo;The IRC&rsquo;s order is not final,&rdquo; the letters read, &ldquo;not until we exhaust the labour court mechanisms and the company cannot reinstate you at this time.&rdquo; 
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The contract workers, employed in the warehouse and rubber stock department, were fired in October 2005 for attempting to exert their legitimate collective bargaining rights. Several had been working for Goodyear for up to 10 years under one-year contracts. Goodyear had been deducting union dues from their pay checks for as long as four years. The IRC delivered its reinstatement order in mid-April. The ICEM will continue to press for permanent employment at Goodyear for the Thai rubber workers.

Goodyear Refuses to Reinstate Thai Contract Workers

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Continental AG, the German tyre manufacturer, wasted little time in slamming shut the negotiation process by announcing the closure of a union-represented plant in the US. Despite an offer by the United Steelworkers (USW) on 28 April to cut labour costs by US$16 million in order to keep an auto and light-truck tyre plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, operating, the company said the cuts were not enough. 
 
Managers then stormed out of talks and issued a formal letter stating negotiations had reached impasse. On 1 May, a day after expiration of a collective agreement for 800 rubber workers, Continental implemented its basket-load of cuts, totalling US$32 million, and announced tyre production in Charlotte would cease altogether by the end of September. 
<img height="150" src="" width="200" alt="" /> 
 
USW / IGBCE Press conference in Hannover
&ldquo;We consider this action unlawful and will take every step to see that the company&rsquo;s action is reversed,&rdquo; said USW Exec. Vice President Ron Hoover. The union has filed a US labour law charge against the impasse declaration and the unilateral implementation of pay and benefit cuts amounting to 35%. 
 
On 5 May, USW took its fight for job retention and fairness in Charlotte to the company&rsquo;s AGM in Hannover, Germany. The US Steelworkers, led by former Rubber Sector Chairman John Sellers, were joined by rubber manufacturing representatives of IGBCE in planning and implementing a protest and setting up a press conference denouncing Conti&rsquo;s harsh and abrupt actions.
The company, which sacked 140 Charlotte workers in March, says it will fire another 170 workers this month, with 480 slated to go in mid-September. Continental said only 200 workers will remain after September, performing mixing, calendaring and warehousing duties, while tyre production will shift to a non-union plant in the US and to plants in3 Mexico and Brazil. Continental realized record profits in 2005, as well as seeing share gains topping 25%.

Continental Gives No Ground in US Tyre Talks

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ICEM&rsquo;s paperworkers&rsquo; union affiliate in Finland, Paperiliitto, began a 48-hour strike today at some 64 paper mills owned by companies affiliated with the Finnish employers&rsquo; organisation, Forest Industries Federation. The strike by 20,000 Finnish workers is in protest to the harsh social measures through which the industry has chosen to improve profitability. 
 
The strikes, begun at 6h00 today and are set to run until 6h00 on 17 May, affecting all major paper firms including Stora Enso and UPM Kymmene. Other mills and paper converters owned by M-real, Mets&auml; Tissue, Myllykoski, and other, smaller companies are also affected. Paperiliitto&rsquo;s Executive Committee decided to allow Stora Enso&rsquo;s mill at Panakoski and UPM Kymmene&rsquo;s mill at Voikkaa mill to operate. Stora has the Panakoski mill up for sale, while UPM intends to shut down the Voikkaa mill by year end, even though it is a viable operation that could be sold. 
On 17 May, office workers across the Finnish paper sector, represented by the Union of Salaried Workers Trade Union, will strike for 24 hours in similar protest. 
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Stora and UPM, the largest Nordic paper companies, announced broad restructuring plans of late. In order to cut production capacity to maintain high prices, Stora Enso announced in the last quarter of 2005 that it would slash 2,000 jobs and close 10 mills worldwide. UPM Kymmene said it would cut 2,560 jobs, and that three mills in Finland would be shuttered. The other companies have also cut jobs in Finland, although at smaller numbers. 
 
Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen, chairman of ICEM&rsquo;s Pulp and Paper Sector, said the cuts to jobs and workers&rsquo; livelihoods reflect a disturbing trend as to social awareness by the paper manufacturers. &ldquo;Finland has moved to a management culture where shareholders are now the priority,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Paperworkers feel deeply insulted at the way they have been treated by employers.&rdquo;

Paperiliitto Launches 48-Hour Strike in Finnish Paper Sector

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On 3 May, Nigerian Labour &amp; Productivity Minister Dr Muhammed Hassan Lawal prevailed upon ICEM affiliate PENGASSAN and ExxonMobil&rsquo;s Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc. to come to terms over a company breach on a procedural agreement with the white-collar union. Specifically, ExxonMobil agreed to pay 50% of unpaid housing allowances owed to some 300 workers by the end of May. 
 
Several other matters were discussed, and the three parties agreed in a joint statement that industrial action would be suspended, with lingering issues taken up in further dialogue between the union and Mobil Oil management. 
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However, PENGASSAN&rsquo;s National Executive Council has now issued an ultimatum to the company over its reluctance to curb the use of contract labour. The union&rsquo;s Executive said that if this all-important matter is not immediately resolved in compliance with the laws and policies currently in place on expatriate quotas and local content, industrial action is imminent. PENGASSAN cites several companies within the country&rsquo;s oil and gas industry for violations, but specifically targets Mobil Oil for industrial actions unless the grievances are rectified. 
 
PENGASSAN noted &ldquo;with grave concern the disturbing trend in the recruitment, releases and compensation of well skilled and qualified Nigerians that are being employed as contract workers with no hope of security of employment.&rdquo; 
 
On 2 May, local community members protested at a Mobil Oil export terminal at Qua Iboe over the company&rsquo;s failure to pay compensation and adequately clean up an oil spill. Some 70 workers &mdash; many of them PENGASSAN members &mdash; had been detained by the protestors, but were later released. Production at the 420,000 barrel-per-day terminal was interrupted, but was later restored through efforts of members of PENGASSAN and NUPENG, Nigeria&rsquo;s blue-collar oil workers&rsquo; union.

PENGASSAN in New Dispute with ExxonMobil in Nigeria

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