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The Lafarge Group of France has become intransigent in a year-long dispute with subcontracting workers at a cement plant in South Korea. Despite ICEM and Building and Woodworkers&rsquo; International (BWI) insistence that the company drop legal appeals over freedom of association rights won for eight contract workers, Lafarge continues to spend money and resources on appealing an issue that involves trade union organisation.
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In March 2006, managers at Lafarge&rsquo;s Okgye, South Province, cement plant fired 13 workers, after 21 of 35 workers of Woojin Industry, a subcontractor of Lafarge, joined the Korean Chemical and Textile Workers Federation (KCTF). Lafarge also cancelled the contract of Woojin, and shifted the equipment and jobs to two other subcontractors, Sehwa Industry and Daewon Industry. 
 
In late September 2006, the Gangwon Regional Labour Relations Commission ruled that Lafarge is legally the employer for the dismissed contract workers, since they worked as agency workers for more than two years. The court ordered Lafarge to re-employ the workers, and pay them for the periods of dismissal. 
 
When Lafarge failed to adhere to the ruling, KCFT was forced to take the case to the National Labor Relations Commission. In November, the ICEM and BWI strongly urged senior managers of Lafarge &ndash; through the Global Framework Agreement the two labour federations have with the company &ndash; to step in to resolve the matter in good faith. A month later, in December 2006, the Gangwon Regional Commission issued unfair labour practice citations on Lafarge for failing to negotiate with KCFT over the matter.
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The dismissed workers have conducted sit-downs and picketing at the cement plant, as well as at Lafarge&rsquo;s offices in Seoul and the home of new Lafarge Halla CEO Frederic de Rougemont. Throughout 2006, Lafarge in South Korea has dispatched mid-level managers to talk with KCFT, who have no authority to act. 
 
The case is now before the central labour commission, with Lafarge employing expensive and wasteful counsel to reverse the freedom of association rights inherent for all workers at the Okgye cement plant. 
 
The ICEM and BWI will continue to press this issue through all available avenues. Lafarge acquired Halla Cement of Korea in 1998.

Lafarge Resisting Unionisation of Contract Workers at Korean Cement Plant

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ICEM&rsquo;s Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union affiliate in Finland, Kemianliitto, has taken exception to the recent sale by the Finnish government of its stake in Kemira GrowHow to a Norwegian concern. 
 
In a statement issued immediately following Finland&rsquo;s 24 May sale of its 30.05% stake in the phosphates and fertiliser company to Oslo-based Yara International ASA, Kemianliitto President Timo Vallittu said the sale sends the wrong kind of investment message concerning Finnish industry.
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&nbsp; 
&ldquo;With this decision to sell, it is very reasonable to ask why anybody would go on investing in Finnish industry when even the State abandons a holding of its own,&rdquo; said Valliuto. 
 
The union was not critical of the sale price, or of the buyer, and vowed to hold both the State and Yara to commitments made in the 24 May announcement that jobs in Finland would be retained and production enhanced. 
 
Yara paid &euro;12.12-per-share for the government&rsquo;s stake in Kemira GrowHow, or &euro;672 million. A Kemira stock market filing said Yara, which was spun off from Norsk Hydro in 2004, will continue business operations in Finland as usual and there would be no effects on personnel. The company would continue phosphate rock mining, phosphoric acid, and other production at Siilinjarvi and Uusikaupunki in Finland, and Yara would seriously consider opening phosphate production at the Sokli mine in Finnish Lapland. 
 
Yara is the world&rsquo;s largest producer of nitrogen-based fertilisers, while Kemira GrowHow is a leader in feed phosphates with production facilities in eight countries. Under Finland&rsquo;s Securities Market Act, Yara is now obligated to place tender offers for the remainder of Kemira GrowHow&rsquo;s shares at &euro;12.12-per-share, a 30% premium over the Finnish&rsquo;s firm&rsquo;s 23 May trading price. The merged company will control about 7% of the world&rsquo;s fertiliser market.

Finnish Union Kemianliitto Displeased with State’s Sale of Kemira GrowHow

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The ICEM, together with its Norwegian paperworkers&rsquo; union affiliate, Fellesforbundet, conducted its annual Norske Skog Global Framework Agreement review in Oslo on 21 May. The parties have been signatory to a Global Framework Agreement since June 2002, and the agreement was extended on 21 May for another two-year period. 
 
Chief among items discussed were proposals by the ICEM and Fellesforbundet for the agreement to incorporate the ILO&rsquo;s Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS, and to initiate a consultation process between the company and its trade unions prior to management at particular worksites engaging contract labourers or agency labour providers.
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&nbsp; 
Another request put before senior managers of Norske Skog by the unions was to drop a lawsuit brought by managers at the Tasman paper mill in New Zealand against ICEM affiliate Manufacturing and Construction Workers&rsquo; Union. Members of the union did stop-work actions after managers failed to fully consult with the union over cost-cutting measures concerning the elimination of back-up shifts. Such elimination presents serious safety concerns for workers. 
 
Norske Skog is reviewing that situation. The company has pledged to fulfil a section of the Global Agreement which states that employment in the company &ldquo;shall, as a main rule, be based on permanent employment. Temporary and part-time employees should as a main rule receive the same relative terms and conditions as full-time permanent employees.&rdquo;

ICEM Conducts Global Agreement Review Meeting with Norske Skog

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Arrests and injuries from police gun-fire haunt Democratic of Congo&rsquo;s (DRC) trade unions, as activists struggle to exert their rights in the war-torn but resource-rich African country. 
 
On 22 May, General Secretary Jean-Benoit Ntando of the ICEM affiliated mining and energy trade union, Organisation des Travailleurs Unis du Congo (OTUC), was arrested near Kinshasa. He was leading a demonstration of Foire Internationale de Kinshasa (FIKIN) workers and along with two other union leaders, was detained at a police detention centre in Limete, Kinshasa. 
 
The three were released two days later.
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&nbsp; 
 
The main reason for industrial action by the FIKIN workers&rsquo; was non-payment of salaries and other benefits, a persistent problem in the DRC. In spite of the many promises by the company, workers, as well as middle managers, suffer from non-payment of wages for up to 17 months. Trade unionists also were protesting against the abusive dismissal of co-workers, and the employer&rsquo;s failure to consult with the union on important decisions, as required by the company&rsquo;s statutes. 
 
In a memorandum addressed to the DRC&rsquo;s Minister of Portfolio, Jeannine Mabunda, on 22 May, the FIKIN trade union delegation called for the removal of the company&rsquo;s top-level management. 
 
The situation for the workers at the state-run diamond mine called Soci&eacute;t&eacute; Mini&egrave;re de Bakwanga (MIBA) near Mbuji-Mayi, in south-central Kasai-Oriental Province, also remains precarious. 
 
A strike there by some eight ICEM-affiliated mining unions over non-payment of wages began on 23 April, but was suspended four weeks later after a new interim management team was installed. Although the company did pay one month&rsquo;s back wages, the dispute regressed when MIBA used police force against workers. 
 
Ngandu Ntumba, a union leader of the ICEM-affiliated SYTRAME-CDT, disappeared for 48 hours into the hands of DRC&rsquo;s security forces, while another SYTRAME trade unionist named Tshimpaka was shot in the leg by police, and then was trampled by police forces as they rushed other protesters. This occurred in mid-May. 
 
The victim remains in a hospital in Bonzola in eastern DRC, after doctors removed a bullet from his left leg. But he is still without proper medical necessities. The ICEM is cooperating with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in order to get the necessary care and medicines to him.
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&nbsp;L&eacute;on Ngoy Bululu 

Also in the DRC, Vice President L&eacute;on Ngoy Bululu of the Solidarit&eacute; Syndicale des Travailleurs et Cadres du Congo, an affiliate of the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) was released from Makala prison in Kinshasa on 15 May. Bululu was arrested on 20 April following an appearance on local television, where he criticised the state-owned transport agency ONATRA. 
 
A hearing on 11 May had already acquitted him of all charges. Both ITF and ICEM had demanded his release.

Dangerous Times for Mining Union Activists in Congo

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The Amicus section of newly-formed UK union, Unite, has accused ExxonMobil of an attack on North Sea oil drilling jobs. In a letter to the UK Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alistair Darling, the union says ExxonMobil&rsquo;s decision to suspend drilling in the Beryl field for a period of three years will cost 70 jobs. 
 
Unite, the merged unification of Amicus and Transport and General Workers&rsquo; Union, is requesting that Britain&rsquo;s Trade and Industry agency investigate the US supermajor&rsquo;s decision, and to suspend the company&rsquo;s license to operate in the field if necessary.
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The loss of jobs would affect Aberdeen, Scotland, based KCA Deutag, ExxonMobil&rsquo;s main drilling contractor at the 40-year-old Beryl field production site. Workers at KCA Deutag, long represented by Amicus, say that over the past year, ExxonMobil has spent more that ₤20 million in preparing rigs for a renewed five-year drilling project. 
 
Unite&rsquo;s Aberdeen-based regional officer, Graham Tran, said that Deutag detailed the project&rsquo;s work to staff, guaranteeing they had a long-term future on Beryl field platforms. He said the drilling contractor had instituted a two-weeks-on, three-weeks-off rotation schedule for staff.
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&ldquo;ExxonMobil has now put the drilling programme on hold for three years, which has put around 70 drilling jobs at risk,&rdquo; said Tran. &ldquo;The behaviour is disgraceful and deceitful. (ExxonMobil is) being dishonest to the employees, and also to the UK government and the UK taxpayer,&rdquo; he added, alluding that ExxonMobil just might be attempting to get out of North Sea oil production. 
 
&ldquo;I am therefore calling on the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to investigate this matter and if ExxonMobil refuses to reverse this decision, then government should take the necessary steps to remove its operating license and make this productive field available to operators who believe in the future of the North Sea.&rdquo;

ExxonMobil Accused of Job Destruction in North Sea

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A 14-month-long freedom of association fight on behalf of workers of Lafarge subcontractors in Korea ended on 28 May when the company and ICEM affiliate Korean Chemical and Textile Workers&rsquo; Federation (KCTF) signed an accord granting the workers employment rights and union rights. 
 
The agreement ends a bitter dispute that started when workers of Woojin Industry, a Lafarge subcontractor at its Okgye, South Province, cement plant, joined the KCFT in March 2006. Thirteen of the workers were sacked, and Lafarge cancelled its contract with Woojin, moving the jobs and the company&rsquo;s equipment to two other subcontractors.
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Under terms of last week&rsquo;s agreement, covering six workers who still sought their rightful return to work, Lafarge Halla management in Korea will make &ldquo;best efforts&rdquo; for the former Woojin workers to be employed by three subcontractors now on site. The agreement also pledges to ensure that none of the subcontractors, Sehwa Sanup, Daewon Sanup, and Soogwang Maintenance, will discriminate against the workers because of their union membership. 
 
Additionally, all legal complaints, petitions, and requests for remedies &ndash; from both sides &ndash; were to be withdrawn. 
 
The ICEM, together with the Building and Woodworkers&rsquo; International (BWI), the two global union federations signatory to a Global Framework Agreement with Lafarge, had ardently pressed the issue of freedom of association for the contract workers before senior managers of the company in Paris on several occasions.
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ICEM Gen. Sec. Manfred Warda
&ldquo;We commend our affiliate, the Korean Chemical and Textile Workers&rsquo; Federation, for its diligence in seeing that justice was delivered for these contract workers,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;This serves as a strong example that trade unions have an important role to play in protecting labour standards that contract workers and agency workers are entitled to.&rdquo;

Lafarge Agrees to Give Employment, Union Rights to Korean Contract Workers’

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Leaders of ICEM&rsquo;s Colombian mining affiliate, Sintracarb&oacute;n, marshalled an occupation of La Guajira&rsquo;s state Social Security building from 23-25 May in the city of Riohacha. The occupation, by some 40 trade unionists and activists in Colombia&rsquo;s northeast region, occurred because of failed health care practices by both the state and the area&rsquo;s single biggest employer, Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n. 
 
The two-day sit-in produced redress of all demands made by the protestors, some of whom included employees of the state&rsquo;s health department. Day-long negotiations occurred on 24 May between 11 Sintracarb&oacute;n leaders, representatives of the state and federal health agencies, &Aacute;lvaro L&oacute;pez, Cerrej&oacute;n&rsquo;s Labour Relations director, and Dr. Rodrigo Daza, Cerrej&oacute;n&rsquo;s chief medical practitioner.&nbsp;
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&nbsp;Sintracarb&oacute;n&rsquo;s leaders, who led the occupation: Jos&eacute; Nicol&aacute;s Brito Mendoza, union director; Jaime Deluquez Dias, president; and Jes&uacute;s Brochero, Maicao Mine president 
 

&ldquo;Normally, we engage the company in social dialogue over issues,&rdquo; stated the union&rsquo;s Maicao Mine President Jes&uacute;s Brochero. &ldquo;But there are times when direct action is necessary. With the number of health cases both from the mine and from communities not being addressed, this was one of those times.&rdquo; 
 
Specifically, the occupation was to draw attention to over 40 miners who have had various work disabilities lingering for as long as a year. Also, it sought to focus attention on some 700 patients in surrounding communities who have been stricken with diseases, and who have not had adequate health treatments from either the mine &ndash; owned equally by AngloAmerican, BHP Billiton, and Xstrata &ndash; or state and federal agencies. 
 
Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n employs 4,700 full-time miners, while another 3,500 contractors work at a complex of eight coal pits and a 150- kilometre rail link to the Caribbean Sea port of Puerto Bol&iacute;var.
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The negotiated end to the building occupation granted assurances that all medical payments due disabled miners would be made immediately. Among some other 20 points of agreement stemming from the occupation, accord was made that all pending health care cases will be examined individually and diagnoses of diseases or injuries both on the job and in communities will occur promptly.

Building Occupation in Colombia Yields Health Care Assurances

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Global Framework Agreement with SCA Includes HIV/AIDS Clause
During a review meeting in Stockholm in January with the Swedish paper multinational Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA), the ICEM and the Swedish paperworkers&rsquo; union, Svenska Pappers, proposed to include a clause on HIV/AIDS in the updated Global Framework Agreement, which SCA accepted. The company agreed to comply with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work. 
Note to ICEM affiliates 
If a company agrees to comply with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work, this opens a whole range of possibilities for negotiations and activities for the unions organising in a Global Agreement company. The ten key principles of the Code of Practice include non-discrimination, gender equality, confidentiality, prevention, care and support. You can obtain the Code of Practice from any ILO office or download it at <a href="http://www.ilo.org">www.ilo.org</a>. It exists in more than 30 languages. 
 
Please note that a Global Agreement applies to all operations of a company worldwide. Often, local management is not familiar with a Global Agreement signed by their head office. Insist on implementation and compliance! 
 
ICEM&rsquo;s other Global Agreements which include an HIV/AIDS clause are Lukoil, Statoil, and Lafarge. The latter company signed one jointly with the Building Workers&rsquo; International. In reviews of existing Global Agreements or in drafting new ones, the ICEM will insist on the inclusion of an HIV/AIDS clause referring to the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work.
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Global Fund Chooses new Executive Director 
 
The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria has chosen Michel Kazatchkine, a physician and global health expert, as the next Executive Director of the Global Fund. He replaces Sir Richard Feachem, the founding Executive Director, who steps down at the end of his five-year term on 31 March. 
 
Professor Kazatchkine is a physician who has treated people with AIDS for more than 20 years, and led the world&rsquo;s second-largest AIDS research agency. He currently serves as France's Ambassador for HIV/AIDS and Communicable Diseases. Professor Kazatchkine is a former Vice Chair of the Global Fund Board and first Chair of the Global Fund&rsquo;s Technical Review Panel, which assesses the quality of grant proposals. 
 
In just five years, the Global Fund has become a leading force in the fight against the three diseases. It provides two-thirds of international funding for the fight against malaria and TB, and 20% of the global funding to fight AIDS. 
 
The Global Fund has approved grants for 450 programs in 136 countries with a total commitment of US$7 billion. As of December 2006, 770,000 people have begun antiretroviral (ARV) treatment through Global Fund-supported programmes and nearly 18 million insecticide-treated bed nets have been distributed to prevent malaria. In addition, tuberculosis programmes have detected and treated two million TB cases under DOTS, the internationally-approved TB control strategy. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Press Release, 8 February 2007)
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Global Unions Continue G8 HIV/AIDS Campaign 
 
Global Unions continue their campaign for the creation of a high-level Working Group on HIV/AIDS by calling on unions to make representation to German embassies. Such actions are hoped to convince the Heads of State attending the G8 summit this June in Germany to agree to such a Working Group. 
 
The G8 summit in St. Petersburg last year agreed on a tangible process for surveillance of infectious diseases like AIDS. But the G8 has not identified how this process would become a reality and so this has remained an undelivered promise. 
 
The Global Union HIV/AIDS Programme calls on unions to organise special events to deliver letters to the German Embassy in their country on 28 April, the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers. 
 
The German embassy action is twined with lobbying at international meetings of environment, health, and labour ministers at the annual meeting of the United Nations Environmental Programme, the World Health Assembly, and the International Labour Conference. 
 
(Source: Global Unions press release, 23 February) 
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Some 71,000 people in Ghana are HIV-positive 
Out of 71,000 people living with HIV/AIDS throughout Ghana who need drugs, only 6,000 are receiving anti-retroviral drugs from 32 health facilities. 
 
The director-general of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Professor Sakyi Awuku Amoa, said by July this year, 50% of all district hospitals will be prepared to administer the drugs. 
 
Awuku Amoa was speaking at a workshop for some selected people from the private sector and FM stations in Accra. More than 50 participants from all over the country attended. 
 
Awuku Amoa also said this year a lot of attention will be given to the youth, women and girls as they are more vulnerable. He therefore urged the media to champion the course of the crusade. 
 
The monitoring and evaluation coordinator at the AIDS Commission, Emmanuel Larbi, urged the participants to develop and implement workplace programmes such as condom distribution to reduce the spread of the disease. Topics treated included the National HIV and AIDS Research Agenda, and Ghana HIV Stigma Reduction campaign. 
 
(Source: Radio Ghana, Accra, 7 Feb 07 as supplied by the BBC Monitoring Service) 
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NUM Protest against Impala Platinum&rsquo;s Hospital Care 
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa gave Impala Platinum a seven-day ultimatum to respond to demands to improve health care services at the Impala Mine Hospital near Rustenberg, North West State. 
 
The ultimatum was given when miners staged a march on 23 January. NUM was protesting unfair and inferior treatment of workers at the facility. The union also accused the mine management, doctors and hospital administrators of denying antiretroviral drugs for treatment of HIV/AIDS. 
 
The subsequent strike ended on 18 February after management agreed to address the grievances presented to them. 
&nbsp;<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
China: Workplace Programme to Help AIDS Prevention 
At the end of January, China launched a national program on HIV/AIDS prevention and care in the workplace. 
 
The $3.5 million HIV/AIDS Workplace Education Program, funded by the United States Department of Labor, will be overseen by the International Labour Organization (ILO), and implemented in the provinces of Anhui, Guangdong, and Yunnan. 
 
&quot;China is now at a critical stage in fighting HIV/AIDS,&quot; said Hu Xiaoyi, vice-minister of Labor and Social Security, during the launching of the programme in Beijing. &quot;We should try our best to prevent the spread of the disease from high-risk groups to the general public.&quot; Hu believed the 39-month programme would be a good model to promote China's anti-AIDS education policy and implementation. 
 
Hu said another five-year education program, jointly launched by 12 ministries in 2005, had set a target of making 85% of the nation's rural migrant workers knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS prevention by 2010. 
 
The Regulation on AIDS Prevention and Control stipulated that no employer or individual should discriminate against people with HIV/AIDS or their relatives. The regulation protects their rights of marriage, employment, medical care, and education. 
 
The goal is that all workers with HIV/AIDS are well protected; that they can get jobs, keep jobs and have access to AIDS prevention services, such as education, treatment, and voluntary testing and counselling, 
 
Statistics by the ministry shows in some of the provinces, working-age HIV/AIDS people account for 90% of the total infected population and a majority of them are under age 35 years. 
 
(Source: chinadaily.com.ch 27 January 2007) 
&nbsp;<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Global Fund Round 7: Aidspan Releases Documents to Help Applicants 
With the Call for Proposals for Round 7 due on 1 March, Aidspan has published three documents providing guidance for applicants considering applying in this round. The three documents are: 
 
1. &ldquo;Deciding Whether to Apply for a Round 7 Global Fund Grant.&rdquo; 
2. &ldquo;Deciding Whether to Submit a Non-CCM Proposal for Round 7.&rdquo; 
3. &ldquo;Deciding Whether to Submit a Regional Proposal for Round 7.&rdquo; 
 
All three documents are available at <a href="http://www.aidspan.org/guides">www.aidspan.org/guides</a>. 
 
The text of each document has been extracted from a forthcoming guide, entitled &ldquo;The Aidspan Guide to Round 7 Applications to the Global Fund,&rdquo; which will be released shortly after 1 March 2007, the expected date for the release of the Call for Proposals. 
 
Already available on the same web page, is &ldquo;An Analysis of the Strengths and Weaknesses of Proposals Submitted to the Global Fund in Rounds 3-6 &ndash; Based on Comments of the Technical Review Panel,&rdquo; which is another excerpt from the forthcoming Round 7 guide. 
 
When &ldquo;The Aidspan Guide to Round 7 Applications to the Global Fund&rdquo; is released, it will contain, in addition to the above-mention extracts, a step-by-step guide to filling out the Round 7 Proposal Form. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 70, 5 February 2007. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>.) To receive GFO (if you haven't already subscribed), send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 18

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Some 300 French glass sector workers from four different unions protested in front of Saint-Gobain corporate offices in Paris on 20 February. The manifestation by workers of four Saint-Gobain Desjonqu&egrave;res (SGD) glass factories was over the company&rsquo;s intention to reduce the workforce at a perfume and pharmaceutical bottle plant in Mers, as well as the possible sale or joint-venture spin-off of the Desjonqu&egrave;res glass business.&nbsp;
<img height="285" alt="" src="" width="380" />
The unions, CFDT, FO, CGT, and CFTC, gained a meeting with senior managers during the protest, in which Saint-Gobain delivered a declaration that no workers would be sacked for economic reasons, and that any downsizings would occur through voluntary retirements and attrition. 
The declaration also included a guarantee that investment would be made to keep open the No. 7 furnace at Mers if demand is sufficient. In a statement last month, Saint-Gobain Desjonqu&egrave;res said it would shutter that furnace in 2008, cutting 125 jobs at the 1,245-worker factory. 
 
The unions also pressed management to take into account that some 400 temporary workers are employed at Mers. Workers from Saint-Gobain factories from Mers, Verreries de la Somme at Abbeville, Verreries de l&rsquo;Orne at Argentan, and SGD Sucy-Enbrie took part in the manifestation. 
<img height="203" alt="" src="" width="200" />
On the day following the protest, the unions obtained a salary increase from Saint-Gobain of 2.5%, with a minimum wage hike of &euro;55-per-month. They also won a &euro;12-a-month increase in employer-paid health insurance, and a one-off bonus of &euro;400. The unions credited the protest the day before with the substantial gains. 
 
The four unions, as well as a supervisors&rsquo; union, CFE-CGC, vowed to continue manifestations throughout the year in order to gain future job security guarantees from Saint-Gobain. Regarding a sale or spin-off of the glass business, the unions point to the fact that the Desjonqu&egrave;res business has enlarged the company four-fold in recent years. Outgoing CEO Jean-Louis Beffa has told market analysts that Saint-Gobain intends to exit the glass business, and to focus on building materials enterprises. 
 
Saint-Gobain bought the glass business of Henri Desjonqu&egrave;res in 1972 and operates ten glass factories around the world.

Saint-Gobain Protest Assures Fairness in Glass Business

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A ballot taken by UK&rsquo;s Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) among Imerys workers in the South West has failed to gain the necessary majority. But the country&rsquo;s second largest private sector union has vowed to continue to press the French multinational for a fair redundancy package for 600 former English China Clay workers in Cornwall. 
 
TGWU represents nearly 1,000 of the 2,100 Imerys kaolin mining and processing workers in the region. The industrial ballot, over the company&rsquo;s inferior severance package for workers to be made redundant late this year, was sent out on 7 February and counted late last week. 
<img height="203" alt="" src="" width="200" />
&ldquo;Our members have decided not to take any industrial action,&rdquo; stated TGWU National Secretary Jennie Formby. &ldquo;There were significant numbers of people who voted for action short of strike and for strike action. 
 
&ldquo;While we&rsquo;re aware that those who wanted to fight back will be very disappointed, we understand the huge pressure members have been under after the misinformation and propaganda campaign (Imerys) has been waging over the course of the ballot. Members are also under great pressure as they face the loss of their jobs. 
 
&ldquo;We will continue to do everything we can at home and internationally to ensure workers get a fair deal from this immensely wealthy company.&rdquo; 
 
Formby commended trade unions in the US and Europe for lending support and aid to the TGWU in its campaign against Imerys. She particularly singled out Serge Gonzales from the French trade union F&eacute;d&eacute;ration Force Ouvri&egrave;re (FO) Mat&eacute;riaux, C&eacute;ramique et Thermique, who is also secretary of Imerys&rsquo; European Works Council. &ldquo;He took every opportunity to put pressure on the company, and for this we are truly thankful,&rdquo; Formby said. 
<img height="213" alt="" src="" width="150" />
French FO's Serge Gonzales
&ldquo;We know this is not the end of the struggle against Imerys, both in the UK and everywhere it operates,&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;We will, of course, do all we can to continue to support our members in Imerys UK in our efforts to get fairness.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM maintains that Imerys could and should do much better in the redundancy packages offered to the 600 workers who face joblessness later this year. Imerys, one of the world&rsquo;s biggest and most profitable building materials companies, will fail in its social obligations to the people of the South West, ICEM believes, unless it improves the severance packages.

Imerys Strike Ballot in UK Fails; TGWU will Press for Bigger Redundancy Packages

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