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A bid to settle Norway's nationwide private sector dispute was launched at 15.00 local time this afternoon, when the official mediator called union and employer negotiators to his office. 
 
84,600 Norwegian workers have been on strike across the private sector since 3 May, following the membership's rejection of a previous mediated settlement offer. The strike is scheduled to spread at 6.00 a.m. tomorrow local time, after which a total of 102,119 workers will be out. 
 
Industrial unions affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) are playing a major part in the campaign.

Mediation Tried to Resolve Norwegian Strike

A proposal that would have undermined workers' right to a global say on workplace health and safety has been rejected by members of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). 
 
Taking part in the poll were national standards organisations affiliated to the ISO. The proposal before them would have declared the ISO competent to set global standards in the field of occupational health and safety management. 
 
Any ISO efforts on this would have cut across work already well under way within the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). And the ISO, unlike the ILO, excludes organised labour. 
 
The ILO sets ratifiable and binding international standards on a wide range of labour-related matters. Worker, employer and government representatives from all over the world meet on equal terms within this &quot;tripartite&quot; UN agency. All three groups draw up and adopt the ILO's standards, and all three monitor national governments' compliance with them once they are in force. 
 
Occupational health and safety is a major focus of these ILO norms, and organised labour has been one of the main driving forces behind the adoption and application of the standards. 
 
No such labour representation exists within the ISO, where strong corporate influence is brought to bear. 
 
For this reason - and because the explicit aim of the ISO bid was &quot;a faster response to market needs&quot; in health and safety management - the world trade union movement had campaigned against the proposal. Labour internationals that spoke out included the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Following the ISO vote, responsibility for global standards on occupational health and safety management systems will rest with the ILO. 
 
The ILO has already drafted non-mandatory guidelines on occupational health and safety management systems, drawing on a detailed review of standards and codes of practice worldwide. These guidelines are due to be tested this year. 
 
&quot;We greatly welcome the outcome of the ISO vote,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, &quot;and we look forward to the setting of binding and effective ILO standards on occupational health and safety management, with the full participation of workers and their trade unions.&quot;

ISO Health And Safety Grab Voted Down

Chemicals and pharmaceuticals multinational Novartis stands accused of anti-unionism and bad faith bargaining in Korea. 
 
Local subsidiary Novartis Agro Korea (NAK) has an &quot;anti-labour business system and philosophy,&quot; says the Korean Chemical and Textile Workers' Federation (KCTF). At the global level, the KCTF is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Last October, the KCTF organised a company-level union at NAK. The management responded by transferring all union activists away from the company's headquarters to remote branch offices. By the use of threats, it also forced 20 of the new union's original 76 members to withdraw from the union. 
 
Management then ignored all collective bargaining requests by the company-level union, which therefore mandated the KCTF to negotiate on its behalf. 
 
After a campaign which included protests from the company's customers, as represented by the Korean Farmers' Association, NAK reluctantly agreed to open negotiations with the KCTF. However, it still refused to recognise the company-level union. 
 
So union members in the sales department launched a strike on 6 March, and three days later this industrial action spread to the company's Iksan factory. After 14 days, NAK promised to bargain in good faith, and the strikers returned to work. 
 
In fact, though, the company tabled an offer below what it had proposed to the KCTF before the strike. The union reports that its members are now &quot;getting angry&quot; over the company's bad faith. 
 
Novartis Agro Korea's opposition to wage bargaining is in breach of Korean law, the KCTF says. 
 
NAK's reluctance to recognise the union is, the KCTF points out, partly due to the &quot;abnormal employment system&quot; in the Iksan factory. Only 69 of the workers there are on permanent contracts. The other 130 are temporary. This set-up is &quot;against Korean business culture,&quot; the union says, and &quot;reflects NAK's intention to hire and fire at will.&quot; 
 
The KCTF is continuing its campaign for real collective bargaining, and says it is confident of victory. It points out that a defeat for &quot;NAK's illegal activities&quot; would strengthen the hand of all Korean workers employed by multinationals.

Novartis&#039; Bad Faith Sparked Korean Dispute

The nationwide strike in Finland's paper industry is likely to end tomorrow afternoon, following union and employer acceptance of a mediated settlement that meets the union's main demands. 
 
Paper is one of Finland's main export industries, and the strike could have caused major disruption both to Finnish trade and to newspaper, magazine and book production in various countries. The industrial action began on 11 April, following the employers' rejection of a previous mediation bid. 
 
The Executive Committee of the paperworkers' union Paperiliitto accepted the new settlement proposal this afternoon, as did the employers. The proposal now goes to Paperiliitto's National Council for approval. The National Council is likely to end the strike tomorrow, with effect from 2.00 pm local time. 
 
The settlement provides for: 
 
 
- tighter regulation of outsourcing in the paper industry 
 
- better national-level provisions against compulsory redundancies 
 
- a start on regulating the bonus system, which was previously more or less at the employer's discretion 
 
- one extra day's holiday per year for workers on daily and weekly shift rosters 
 
- an across-the-board pay rise totalling 4 percent this year 
 
- improved workplace equality provisions. 
 
The agreement runs for three years, but the pay provisions are for one year. The union therefore has the right to lodge further pay claims in 2001 and 2002, and to strike in support of them if necessary. 
 
&quot;Today's proposal is a satisfactory outcome which significantly improves the pay and conditions of Finnish paperworkers,&quot; commented Paperiliitto's President Jarmo L&auml;hteenm&auml;ki this afternoon. 
 
An important role in the settlement had, he said, been played by international solidarity coordinated through the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which Paperiliitto is affiliated. 
 
&quot;We received messages of support and offers of practical help from paperworkers' unions worldwide,&quot; L&auml;hteenm&auml;ki pointed out. &quot;This support drew considerable attention in the Finnish media - notably our sister unions' readiness to black any attempted production transfers to Sweden or other countries. We thank the ICEM and paperworkers everywhere for this effective solidarity.&quot;

Finnish Paper Strike Settled

Latin American union networks within the leading tyre and rubber multinationals were the main topic when rubber workers' leaders from nine countries in the region met in Brazil on 13-16 April. 
 
They also gave the green light for future coordinated Latin American bargaining with the main rubber and tyre companies. 
 
The structure of international union networks in Goodyear, Bridgestone-Firestone and Titan was discussed, and the conference laid the foundations for Latin American networks of unions in Pirelli, Michelin and Continental. 

<img height="183" src="" width="380" alt="" /> 
 
 
Taking part in the Brazil conference were leaders of some 70,000 Latin American tyre and rubber workers. The event was organised by the Latin American Rubber and Tyre Workers' Federation (FUTINAL), which groups 20 unions in the sector. Support came from the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which organises rubber and tyre workers worldwide. Also backing the conference was the ICEM-affiliated North American rubber workers' union USWA, together with the Solidarity Center of US national labour federation the AFL-CIO. 
 
The experience of ICEM-coordinated international campaigns such as those on Bridgestone and Continental featured strongly in the discussions on networking. The USWA and FUTINAL were at the heart of these campaigns. 
 
&quot;FUTINAL firmly believes that only through international action will we be able to resist the attacks of the multinational tyre corporations in the region,&quot; commented FUTINAL administrative secretary Terezinho Martins da Rocha. &quot;That is why we have a slogan - An Injury To One Is An Injury To All.&quot; 
 
The conference denounced anti-union practices by Goodyear subsidiaries in Colombia and Guatemala. It also condemned the Venezuelan government's attacks on basic union rights, and opposed a trade agreement between Chile and Korea which would damage the Chilean tyre industry. 
 
A comprehensive socio-economic study of the rubber industry in Latin America will form the basis for regional-level union policies in the sector. 
 
A coordinated list of bargaining demands will be the aim of the next FUTINAL meeting, scheduled for this October. The unions then intend to propose regional-level negotiations with tyre and rubber multinationals operating in Latin America. The October meeting will also be supported by the ICEM, the USWA and the AFL-CIO.

Regional Bargaining Is Latin American Rubber Unions&#039; Aim

Finland's mighty paper industry was brought to a virtual standstill from 1.00 p.m. local time today. 
 
Some 30,000 paperworkers nationwide - almost the entire active workforce in the sector - were called out by their union Paperiliitto after mediation broke down at about 3.00 a.m. this morning. 
 
Paper is one of Finland's main exports. The indefinite strike could have a major impact both on Finnish trade figures and on newspaper, magazine and book production in other countries. 
 
The dispute is over union demands in this year's collective bargaining round. During the night, the mediator tabled a proposal on one issue - outsourcing. The suggested compromise was accepted by the union but rejected out of hand by the employers. In the circumstances, the mediator felt that there was no point in continuing the talks, so the union confirmed its strike call. 
 
Solidarity was immediately declared by the Swedish paperworkers' union Pappers. The Finnish employers had threatened to shift production to neighbouring Sweden, but Pappers has made it clear that it will black any additional paper production for companies affected by the Finnish strike. 
 
Paperiliitto and Pappers are both affiliated at the global level to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
______________ 
 
This afternoon, the ICEM warned paperworkers' unions worldwide that Finnish paper firms may attempt to move production abroad during the dispute. 
 
&quot;If necessary,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, &quot;we will be ready to block the transfer of paper production from Finland to any other country for as long as the dispute continues. We are asking all our paper industry unions to be on the alert.&quot; 
 
______________ 
 
 
 
Paperiliitto's main demands are for: 
 
- better job security 
 
- proper bonus system provisions within the collective agreement (at present, bonuses are paid more or less at the employer's discretion) 
 
- work time cuts totalling 8 hours this year (annual working hours are currently 1,619 - about 34.5 hours a week) 
 
- a substantial wage increase of around 4 or 5 percent (annual inflation is about 2.5 to 3 percent). 
 
 
Outsourcing, over which the employers destroyed the mediation bid, has been a bone of contention in the Finnish paper sector for some years now. In Finland, the outsourcing of jobs is in principle subject to the agreement of the industry union concerned. However, the employers have been increasingly keen to flout this provision. They want to outsource jobs such as maintenance and cleaning, although the union emphasises that this would not necessarily produce any real cost savings. 
 
The mediator's proposal, accepted by Paperiliitto, was that any employer plan for outsourcing should be negotiable in the first instance at the local level. If no agreement were reached, negotiations would shift to the national trade union level. Only after that, if there were still no agreement, would the outsourcing request be considered to have been rejected. This was the compromise that the employers turned down in the small hours of this morning. 
 
Both sides are now digging in for what could be a protracted dispute. 
 
The prospects for a union victory are good. Last month, Finland's chemical and energy workers chalked up a major success after a strike in which international solidarity played a similar role.

Finnish Paperworkers Launch Nationwide Strike

Global Companies Need Global Unions. So says a headline in the online edition of the Financial Times, over a guest article by Fred Higgs, General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Global agreements are in the companies' own best interests, writes Higgs. &quot;If they are to convince a sceptical public of their good intentions, the big global corporations will have to put some content into their ethics. They will also have to go beyond self-proclaimed and self-evaluated codes of conduct.&quot; 
 
&quot;All these agreements, both company-level and sectoral, will specify the unions' right to monitor implementation and to raise any breaches of the agreements with the global corporate management or the international industry federation,&quot; Higgs emphasises. &quot;This is the crucial difference between a global agreement and a company's own code of conduct. 
 
&quot;To workers and the public, a global agreement gives the assurance that standards are being systematically monitored and raised,&quot; he points out. &quot;To corporations, it gives credibility.&quot; 
 
At the present stage of globalisation, the agreements will not be about pay, Higgs believes. Rather, they &quot;will set a framework for global industrial relations in each company and each sector.&quot; They will also &quot;ensure that corporations maintain the same high standards in all their operations as regards the protection of health, safety and the environment - a sphere in which regional variations are unjustifiable and unacceptable.&quot; 
 
The ICEM already has a company-level global agreement with oil multinational Statoil and is currently in talks on a number of others. At the sectoral level, good progress has been made on an agreement with the chemical companies' international body ICCA, under which the ICEM would help to ensure that the chemical industry's Responsible Care programme really does deliver the highest health, safety and environmental standards worldwide. 
 
&quot;Our door is open,&quot; Fred Higgs concludes, &quot;in the companies' interests as well as ours.&quot;

Global Companies Need Global Unions, Higgs Writes in FT

Norwegian unions and employers reached a mediated draft agreement for the country's private sector at 5.10 this morning - just fifty minutes before the start of a nationwide strike. 
 
Despite the late hour - and the date - the proposal is a wholly serious settlement which meets all the unions' main demands. The strike would initially have brought out some 21,500 workers right across Norway from 6.00 am today. It had been called after this year's bargaining round collapsed due to employer intransigence and a series of mediation attempts failed for the same reason. 
 
Private sector unions have coordinated their bargaining this year, and the main negotiations have been conducted between the national labour federation LO and the employers' federation NHO. 
 
Those due to strike as part of the selective action included Norway's cement and explosives workers and catering staff in the oil industry. The biggest contingent of strikers would have been construction workers organised in the general union Fellesforbundet. 
 
Under this morning's proposed settlement, the union demand for five weeks' annual leave throughout private industry would be met in full by 2002. Leave entitlements would rise by one day in 2001. For workers aged over 60, annual leave would be six weeks. 
 
The pay proposals in the package satisfy the unions' demands both for a significant across-the-board increase and for greater pay equality. All workers covered by the three-year agreement would receive an extra NKR0.75 per hour from today (about 9 US cents or Eurocents). Those currently earning less than 87.1 percent of the average industrial wage (which was NKR210,841 in 1999 - roughly US$ 25,000 or 26,000 Euro) would get an additional increase of NKR1.25 from today, and a further NKR1.25 raise from 1 April 2001. Those earning between 87.1 and 92 percent of the average wage would get an extra NKR1.00 per hour from today, and again next year. Overall, the deal would give Norwegian private sector workers a real purchasing power increase of about 1 percent. 
 
The employers are still refusing to make their proper contribution to financing workers' further training and continuing education. This was another major sticking point in the negotiations. Under today's proposal, a joint working group would be set up to look into this question. 
 
The proposed settlement also includes further measures to promote equality in the workplace. 
 
The majority of the union negotiators voted to accept the deal, which preserves scope for sectoral and local bargaining. It now goes to the membership for decision.

Norwegian National Pact Reached 50 Minutes Before Strike

Chernobyl nuclear power station is to close before the end of this year, the Ukrainian government confirmed yesterday. 
 
Only one reactor is currently operating at Chernobyl, which was the site of the world's worst-ever nuclear accident when another reactor exploded in 1986. 
 
But now that Chernobyl really is to close, what about the workers? 
 
The station's workforce has totalled around 6,500 people in recent years. At least 5,000 other jobs depend on them - mainly in Slavutich, the town built to house the nuclear workers and their families after they were moved out of the irradiated zone around the plant. And in today's Ukraine, good jobs are very hard to find. 
 
Since 1996, the Chernobyl workers' union and its international federation have been pressing for a &quot;social plan&quot; that would help to avert job losses in the case of closure. That lobbying has now been stepped up. 
 
Yesterday, the Ukrainian Deputy Energy Minister Vitali Gajduk met Alexander Yurkin and Andre Mrost in Kiev to discuss the issue. 
 
Yurkin is the President of the Ukraine Atom Trade Union (ATU). He is also Vice-President of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the ATU is affiliated at the global level. Mrost is the ICEM's coordinator in the region. 
 
They explained the ATU/ICEM campaign to the deputy minister, who fully backed the unions' action. The Ukrainian government has now given its Fuel and Energy Ministry six months to draw up a programme of social guarantees for Chernobyl and Slavutich. 
 
But this begs the multi-million dollar question. Who will pay for the social safety net? 
 
In fact, a comprehensive draft social plan already exists. 
 
The commitment to close Chernobyl by the year 2000 dates back to the Ottawa memorandum signed in 1995 by Ukraine, the G-7 leading industrialised countries and the European Union. This agreement specifically recognised &quot;the implications of the closure of the Chernobyl plant for the workers and their families.&quot; It promised that &quot;the European Commission and the Government of the United States will assist the Government of Ukraine to develop an Action Plan for addressing the social impacts of the closure of Chernobyl.&quot; 
 
The ICEM and the ATU followed through in 1996 with a world conference of nuclear workers' unions, held in Kiev. The early closure of Chernobyl could be envisaged only if the social issues were properly tackled, the Kiev conference pointed out. In particular, it called for a full &quot;social plan&quot;, including the creation of alternative employment for workers in Chernobyl and Slavutich. 
 
A detailed draft social action programme was drawn up the following year by a joint Ukrainian-EU-US working group that included trade union experts. The draft plan provides for retraining and other adjustment measures for the workers. It also entails the promotion of new small and medium-scale industries in Slavutich, notably in the field of energy efficiency and conservation. 
 
Under the 1995 Ottawa memorandum, western commitments to fund the Chernobyl closure included 4 million US dollars for social measures. As the nuclear unions' Kiev conference pointed out in 1996, this pledge is wholly inadequate. Today, an effective social plan for Chernobyl and Slavutich would cost between 50 million and 100 million dollars. 
 
Which is why the ICEM and its affiliated unions are now pressing the G-7 governments, the EU and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to finance the social package in full. 
 
For other aspects of the Chernobyl closure, money is no object. Yesterday's confirmation of the shut-down came just days after western donors had pledged an extra 300 million dollars for the building of a new shell to seal off the Chernobyl reactors. Their total commitment to that project alone is now 700 million dollars. A further 175 million dollars' worth of western aid could go towards paying for new Ukrainian nuclear plants to replace Chernobyl - although some western governments would prefer to finance stations fired by coal, lignite or gas. 
 
All of which puts into perspective the sums needed for a decent social plan. 
 
And there are good reasons for funding a social safety net. 
 
The safe operation, shutdown and decommissioning of Chernobyl depends first and foremost on the skill and concentration of its workers. They have been under great psychological pressure recently, due both to uncertainties over their future and to a problem of unpaid wages that has only just been resolved. 
 
Then there is the world's moral debt to the Chernobyl workers. The &quot;liquidators&quot;, who went in just after the 1986 disaster to limit the spread of radiation, included workers from the plant. Some paid the price of their heroism. They contracted diseases linked to radiation, and in some cases they may have incurred hereditary damage. 
 
Not least, the lessons learned from a Chernobyl social plan could be of great value to the nuclear industry everywhere. 
 
As the unions' Kiev conference pointed out in 1996, &quot;worldwide, over two hundred other nuclear reactors are scheduled for decommissioning by 2010. Chernobyl is the first challenge - not the last.&quot;

Chernobyl To Close: What About the Workers?

Ukraine's nuclear power workers have &quot;won their long and difficult struggle in defence of their constitutional right to have their wages paid.&quot; 
 
The news was announced yesterday by Alexander Yurkin, President of the Ukraine Atom Trade Union (ATU), in a message to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Yurkin is Vice-President of the ICEM, to which the ATU is affiliated at the global level. 

<img height="204" alt="" src="" width="300" />
PAID AT LAST 
Full wages for the first time in more than two years 
The nuclear workers' wages have been paid in full this March, Yurkin reports, and the wage backlog is being cleared. The payments had been promised several times by the Ukrainian authorities since the wage crisis in the sector built up in 1998. However, the pledges were not kept in practice. 
 
Work on the repayments began in earnest after the new government headed by Viktor Yushenko took office, Yurkin notes. At a special ATU delegates' conference on the issue last December, Deputy Prime Minister Yuliy Timoshenko guaranteed that full wage payments, in line with collective agreements, would resume by this March.
Since 1998, the ATU and the ICEM have been campaigning against massive delays in payments to Ukrainian nuclear workers. At one stage, wages were six months in arrears. By February of last year, the nuclear workers had introduced go-slow measures and were threatening an indefinite strike at Chernobyl and other nuclear power stations until wages were paid in full. The workers and their many supporters set up &quot;tent cities&quot; around the power stations. 
 
Responsibly, the ATU averted any forms of action that might have compromised safety. At the same time, both the ICEM and the ATU alerted the international community to the dangers of the situation. The wage arrears were in themselves a serious risk factor, as they greatly added to the psychological pressures on key workers in the Ukrainian nuclear sector. 
 
In response, last June the government earmarked special funds for nuclear industry wage payments, and it looked as though the crisis was over. As the year wore on, however, it became obvious that the backlog was still not being cleared. 
 
This month's resolution of the problem is, Yurkin says, partly thanks to union lobbying of the International Atomic Energy Agency, of the International Labour Organisation and of the World Association of Nuclear Operators. Pressure from Ukraine's international donors also helped. 
 
But above all, he believes, the successful outcome is due to international trade union solidarity. He praises the pressure placed on the Ukrainian government by the ICEM and many of its affiliates. Also of great value were the ICEM's information campaigns via the media and the Internet, Yurkin says. 
 
&quot;Only by joint effort,&quot; he insists, &quot;can trade unions defend their members' rights and interests and exert a real influence on the authorities and employers.&quot; 
 
The non-payment of wages is still a major problem for other Ukrainian workers, notably the miners. It is also causing widespread poverty in some other countries of the region, including Russia.

Ukrainian Nuclear Workers Paid at Last

Archive

Mediation Tried to Resolve Norwegian Strike

ISO Health And Safety Grab Voted Down

Novartis' Bad Faith Sparked Korean Dispute

Finnish Paper Strike Settled

Regional Bargaining Is Latin American Rubber Unions' Aim

Finnish Paperworkers Launch Nationwide Strike

Global Companies Need Global Unions, Higgs Writes in FT

Norwegian National Pact Reached 50 Minutes Before Strike

Chernobyl To Close: What About the Workers?

Ukrainian Nuclear Workers Paid at Last

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