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Steering Committee Secretary 
Gen MINATO 
 
International Officer of Gomurengo (Japanese Rubber Workers' Union) and of the Bridgestone Workers' Union, Japan 
 
Address: 2-3-3, Mejiro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 171-0031, Japan 
 
Tel:+81 3 3984 5656 
 
Fax:+81 3 3984 5862 
 
e-mail: <a href="mailto:gomurengo-jrc@mvi.biglobe.ne.jp">gomurengo-jrc@mvi.biglobe.ne.jp</a> 
 

 
 
Steering Committee Chair 
 
Mitsuo NAGUMO 
 
President, Gomurengo (Japanese Rubber Workers' Union Confederation) 
 
Address: 2-3-3, Mejiro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 171-0031, Japan 
 
Tel:+81 3 3984 5656 
 
Fax:+81 3 3984 5862 
 
e-mail: <a href="mailto:gomurengo-jrc@mvi.biglobe.ne.jp">gomurengo-jrc@mvi.biglobe.ne.jp</a>
Mitsuo Nagumo is also the Japanese representative on the Steering Committee.

ICEM Bridgestone Network Chair and Secretary

At its first meeting, the Steering Committee of the ICEM Bridgestone Union Network adopted: 
ICEM Bridgestone Union Network Protocol 
Unions recognise that to ensure their members are employed by Bridgestone in well-rewarded, interesting and secure employment, the Company needs to be profitable, efficient, competitive and well- managed. To achieve this, Bridgestone and the Trade Unions should work in partnership at local, national and international level. With the appropriate commitment from the Company to such a partnership, the global union network could be a vehicle to achieve these objectives. 
 
Globalisation of the world economy is in progress, oligopoly and globalisation of capital and companies are also progressing in the rubber industry, especially in the tyre sector. In order to cope with the worldwide strategies of multinational companies, the necessity for labour unions to exchange information and cooperate with each other on a global basis is increasing. 
 
Those cooperating through this ICEM network must recognise, and understand, the differing historical and cultural backgrounds of the countries involved. 
 
Due to these national historic and legal framework diversities, industrial relations vary greatly from country to country, such differences must be recognised and respected by all Network participants. 
 
The Network will particularly concern itself with issues of a global nature, for instance ILO Core Labour Standards, Health Safety &amp; Environment and Human Rights etc. 
 
Steering Committee 
 
1. Each ICEM Region within which there is a Bridgestone site/sites will nominate one member of the steering committee, except Asia Pacific who will have two, one of which will be from Japan. (Gomurengo, the Japanese Rubber Workers' Union Confederation, have agreed to assume the role of administrators to the Network). 
 
2. The Steering Committee shall meet annually, and the venue should be rotated. 
 
3. Activities of the Network will be decided by consensus of the participants. (No decision of the Network can restrain any member organisation from pursuing any actions agreed under the rules or policy of their own organisation.) 

 
Key&nbsp; topics for the Network 
Key topics for the ICEM Bridgestone Union Network will be: 
<ul>
 <li>Health, safety and environment </li>
 <li>The significance of the Bridgestone tyre recall for the future of Bridgestone. </li>
</ul>

 
Principles for the operation of the Steering Committee 

The following principles are agreed for the efficient operation of this Network: 
 
1. All democratic unions that are or intend to be affiliates of the ICEM and which have members employed at Bridgestone shall be entitled to participate in the Network. 
 
2. The Network will not hold regular plenary meetings. It work will be guided by the Steering Committee. Activities and exchange of information are dealt with by the Steering Co mmittee. A plenary meeting of the Network shall be held, when necessary, after discussion by the Steering Committee. 
 
3. The Steering Committee will consist of one representative each from North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and two representatives from Asia-Pacific Region, of which one representative should be from Japan, as well as one ex-officio member from the ICEM Secretariat, a total of seven representatives. 
 
4. Each region shall elect its representative(s) for the Steering Committee and the Chair will be informed of any change of representative(s) by each region. 
 
5. The Steering Committee shall be held annually and the venue shall be rotated. The annual Steering Committee meeting will decide upon the venue for the next meeting. 
 
6. The Steering Committee shall nominate a secretary, who will assist it in its work. 
 
7. When the exchange of information as well as of opinions between the Bridgestone Network and the Management of the Bridgestone Group become possible, the members of the Steering Committee will serve as the representatives of the Network. 
 
8. A maximum of three key topics for the immediate attention of the Network should be agreed by the Steering Committee. 
 
9. When necessary, the Chair of the Network will distribute a newsletter, as an instrument of communication, to the member organisations of the Network.

DECISIONS of the ICEM Bridgestone Union Network Steering Committee

<img height="285" alt="" src="" width="380" />
The 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) this afternoon elected a new leadership. The ICEM's World Congress is currently in session in Durban, South Africa. 
Main election results: 
 
President: 
John Maitland (Australia) 
 
 
Vice-Presidents (by alphabetical order of surname): 
 
Juraj Blahak (Slovak Republic) 
Sune Ekbage (Sweden) 
Luis Gonzaga (Brazil) 
Jerry Jones (USA) 
Verner Klemmensen (Denmark) 
Daisaku Kochiyama (Japan) 
Paul Lootens (Belgium) 
James Motlatsi (South Africa) 
Rosa Novoa (Chile) 
Margaret Prosser (UK) 
Ben Roodhuizen (Netherlands) 
Antonio Scalfaro (Italy) 
Hubertus Schmoldt (Germany) 
N. Tsumaki (Japan) 
Robert Wages (USA) 
Alexander Yurkin (Ukraine) 
 
General Secretary: 
Fred Higgs 
 
Immediately before the elections, delegates marched through the streets of Durban in a demonstration of global trade union solidarity. 
 
Red-and-black ICEM banners and caps predominated throughout the crowd, but union banners from all continents were also on prominent display. The confident, good-humoured demonstration paused in front of Durban's city hall, where the mayor addressed the marchers from the steps. 
 
Some 800 trade unionists from all parts of the world took part in the march, accompanied by plenty of singing and dancing. It was a powerful display of the ICEM's central aims - to UNITE AND ORGANISE. 
 
Incoming ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, elected unanimously, is a British trade unionist who has worked his way up from the shopfloor, through national trade union posts, to his new international position. He told delegates that he saw his election as a sign that &quot;you want our International to become a real international trade union.&quot; 
 
Higgs paid tribute to outgoing General Secretary Vic Thorpe, who had not stood for re-election. 
<img height="425" alt="" src="" width="319" />
 

New ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs: 
 
&quot;You want the ICEM to become a real international trade union.&quot; 

Vic Thorpe has, Higgs said, been &quot;a giant in pursuing, on behalf of working people, their interests in the international arena.&quot; 

<img height="285" alt="" src="" width="380" />
 


<img height="285" alt="" src="" width="380" />
&nbsp;

ICEM Elects New Leadership - World Union March Through Durban

The South African government is to give urgent consideration to ratifying a key international standard on mining health and safety, President Thabo Mbeki announced this morning. 
<img height="292" alt="" src="" width="390" /> 
 
GLOBAL SOLIDARITY 
 
About 800 trade unionists from all over the world marched through Durban this afternoon. 
He was addressing the World Congress of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), currently in session in Durban. 
 
Welcoming Thabo Mbeki, ICEM President Hans Berger asked him to help ensure that South Africa ratifies Convention 176 of the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). Mbeki replied that he would put the issue on the agenda of the next cabinet meeeting in two weeks' time. 
 
Approved by the world's trade union, employer and government representatives within the ILO, Convention 176 sets out international standards for ensuring health and safety in mines. The ICEM played a major role in its drafting and adoption. The Convention came into force in 1995 and has already been ratified by 12 countries. Ratification by South Africa, one of the world's biggest mining nations, would send an important signal to mining countries worldwide. 
 
South African mine safety has been in the spotlight recently, following a series of fatal accidents. The ICEM-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has insisted that safety must be improved urgently, and some leading mining companies have conceded that their safety provisions are inadequate. 
 
Mbeki received a standing ovation from around 800 union leaders of all continents attending the Congress. Thanking unions worldwide for their support during the struggle against apartheid, he said South Africa must be &quot;part of the world forces fighting for a better world.&quot; In particular, he told the Congress, &quot;we must respond to the forces of globalisation which Vic Thorpe has analysed very correctly in the document before this Congress.&quot; 
 
To applause, Mbeki stated that the slogan &quot;Workers of the World Unite&quot; had &quot;never been more appropriate than today.&quot; Citing the strong alliance between South African trade unions and the ruling African National Congress (ANC), he said it was important that workers and their unions should have a strong input into national policy-making. This would be &quot;one guarantee that we will have a government that will focus on the interests of working people.&quot; 
 
Africa must become more than a supplier of raw materials to the North, President Mbeki insisted. He also issued a strong call for peace throughout Africa: &quot;The people who benefit from these wars are not the ordinary working people of our continent. The people who die, who become refugees, are the ordinary working people.&quot; And Africa must &quot;put corrupt governments behind our backs.&quot; 
 
Deploring the &quot;growing disparities of wealth&quot; between North and South, but also within the North and within the South, Mbeki said: &quot;What it means in real terms is that children are going hungry. We cannot continue with the absurd situation where the poor African countries become net exporters of capital to the rich countries, because of a heavy debt burden. It is clearly not correct that you have huge concentrations of capital in one part of the world and huge concentrations of poverty in another part.&quot; 
 
One problem, he emphasised, is that &quot;those who own the capital are not driven by the concerns that drive you and me. They are driven by what would make the biggest possible profit for themselves in the shortest possible time.&quot; 
 
&quot;As far as the South African government is concerned,&quot; Mbeki pledged, &quot;you can rely on us not to abandon the camp of the progressive people of the world.&quot; He welcomed the holding of the ICEM Congress in South Africa, because &quot;we would very much appreciate your own ideas on these issues, and on how to reinforce the spirit of solidarity between ourselves, so that we can act in the interests of working people.&quot; 
 
But, he warned, &quot;the forces that we confront are very powerful.&quot; So &quot;we all have an obligation to show a little bit of courage, to think properly and to act, because we cannot simply get used to millions of people dying of hunger.&quot; 
 
The labour response to globalisation is the main theme of the ICEM Congress, which opened on 3 November and will continue until 5 November. This afternoon, trade unionists of all continents will march through Durban in a display of global trade union solidarity. 

<img height="425" alt="" src="" width="319" />
South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki: 
&quot;We must respond to the forces of globalisation.&quot; 
<img height="425" alt="" src="" width="319" />
James Motlatsi 
ICEM Vice President 
President, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM, South Africa): 
 
&quot;Trade unions must be at the forefront of the struggle against injustices against workers worldwide ... 
We must ensure that dictators who have no regard for human rights and workers' rights are removed.&quot; 
<img height="425" alt="" src="" width="319" />
Vic Thorpe 
Outgoing ICEM General Secretary: 
 
&quot;We will advance in our goal to Unite and Organise. 
It will be a measure of our success that the ICEM's members can say with us: 
Power is OURS - Amandla Awethu!&quot; 

<img height="397" alt="" src="" width="253" />
Bill Jordan 
General Secretary 
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU): 
 
&quot;The worst of times is what workers, with few exceptions, have experienced from globalisation. 
Only organised strength will earn us the respect we need to win.&quot;

President Thabo Mbeki Addresses Unions&#039; World Congress

Rio Tinto, the world's biggest mining company, has suffered a major set-back in its efforts to remove trade unions and union-negotiated agreements from its Australian workplaces. 
 
The Australian Industrial Relations Commission yesterday turned down the company's application to terminate a certified collective agreement with the Australian miners' union, the CFMEU, at its Mount Thorley mine. 
 
Rio Tinto wanted to scrap the agreement so that it could force wages and conditions down to the level of the &quot;safety net award&quot;. It would then have been in a stronger position to oblige the workers to accept increases in working hours and loss of conditions if they wanted to get back to anything like their previous wage levels. 
 
In this case, the commission said that it was not in the public interest to allow the company to act in such a unilateral manner, and that the parties should bargain cooperatively. 
 
This is an implied criticism of legislative changes brought in recently by Australia's right-wing federal government. The amendments enable employers to terminate expired agreements unilaterally. 
 
But if justice has been served in the Mount Thorley case, the law is looking more and more of an ass over another flashpoint within Rio Tinto's troubled Australian operations. 
 
On 2 August, the Industrial Relations Commission refused to correct a legal error in its previous ruling on a dispute at Rio Tinto's Gordonstone mine. 
 
The Australian Federal Court had found that the commission erred in law in denying the illegally sacked Gordonstone miners preference of employment. But the commission has now rejected the CFMEU's appeal that it undo the damage its error created. To correct its own mistake would, the commission ruled, be &quot;against the public interest&quot;. 
 
&quot;This is a staggering claim,&quot; the CFMEU commented. &quot;How can it be 'against the public interest' to right a wrong?&quot; 
 
A valid question, because the commission's refusal means that Rio Tinto will still not have to reinstate the miners who were illegally dismissed by the mine's previous owners and were never rehired by Rio Tinto. Nonetheless, the CFMEU will be continuing to press for the sacked miners to be given first option on jobs that become available at Gordonstone from now on. 
 
But in the meantime, Gordonstone is worth just one Australian dollar. 
 
On paper, at least. 
 
As the CFMEU revealed on 28 July, Rio Tinto is now operating the $ 400 million Gordonstone mine through a &quot;shelf company&quot; registered as Kestrel Coal Pty Ltd. Kestrel is a $1 company with just one share, held by a certain Erin Feros in Brisbane. 
 
The shareholder is outnumbered two to one by Kestrel's directors, Brian Frederick Horwood and Colin Stuart Marshall. They are both also directors of Pacific Coal Pty Ltd, which is a Rio Tinto subsidiary. 
 
Pacific Coal is the real operator of Gordonstone. Or, as Rio Tinto would now say, of Kestrel. For good measure, the company has also renamed the mine. 
 
So what prompted these bizarre changes? 
 
&quot;This one-dollar company is the employer of the workforce,&quot; explains CFMEU National Vice-President Reg Coates. &quot;The whole scheme has been structured so that Rio Tinto will have no liability in the event of any problems. 
 
&quot;Rio Tinto is pulling a fast one here,&quot; Coates says. &quot;The Federal Government has promised to clamp down on shonky corporate business practices - now what is it going to do about Rio Tinto?&quot;

Rio Tinto: Australian Ruling Thwarts Pay Cut Ploy

Rio Tinto, the world's biggest mining corporation, today came under growing pressure to release occupational health records on workers at its former Capper Pass smelter in England. 
 
&quot;Those records are vital in investigating the cancers and other industrial diseases suffered by the workers,&quot; legislator Kevin McNamara said in a statement issued from Britain's House of Commons this evening. 
 
The workers' health records have been repeatedly requested by British lawyer David Russell, who is investigating allegations of dangerous pollution in and around the Capper Pass plant. Russell has the written permission of the workers concerned, or their widows, to examine the records. 
 
In correspondence with Russell, Rio Tinto has conceded that it holds the health records at its London headquarters. However, it says that the records are the property of the site's current owners and cannot be released without their permission. 
 
Capper Pass &amp; Son Limited, which became a member of the Rio Tinto group in 1967, ceased smelting in 1991. In 1995, it was sold to Envirogen Limited, which last year changed Capper Pass's name to Melton Land Limited. 
 
In its letters to Russell, Rio Tinto has also denied any legal responsibility for what went on at Capper Pass. 
 
Russell has not yet released the full report of his investigations - because, amongst other reasons, he would like to analyse the occupational health records first. The period covered by the records would probably be long enough to reveal any latent patterns of cancer and other serious diseases. 
 
However, in a pre-publication summary of his findings, Russell does state that &quot;the UK government monitored repeated breaches by Capper Pass, including the dumping of arsenic, cadmium, mercury etc. into the River Humber.&quot; Although the repeatedly monitored discharges reached &quot;dumping levels&quot;, Russell says, &quot;Capper was not prosecuted.&quot; 
 
The pre-publication summary also states: &quot;The Capper Decommissioning Reports were obtained and established that the workers were variously exposed to radioactive substances, to include polonium-210. There was regular exposure to lead, arsenic, cadmium. Heavy metal exposure was extensive.&quot; Russell says his full report &quot;will contain many case studies, particularly in respect of cancers suffered by Capper Pass employees and the leukaemia cluster (as well as high incidence of cancers) suffered by children.&quot; 
 
Earlier this week, Kevin McNamara tabled a motion in the House of Commons, calling on Rio Tinto's directors to release the records. 
 
A previous Commons motion tabled on 11 May called for a full public enquiry into Capper Pass. It has so far been signed by 31 British legislators. 
 
The allegations surrounding the smelter are &quot;an extremely serious matter which must be fully investigated,&quot; McNamara insisted this evening. He was &quot;aware of the great concern of the former workers of Capper Pass and their families&quot; and he wanted &quot;no stone left unturned in the investigation.&quot; 
 
&quot;I understand,&quot; McNamara added, &quot;that at Rio Tinto's AGM last month, its Chairman, Robert Wilson, stated that their policy was one of 'transparency' together with accountability in respect of all environmental, health and safety matters.&quot; 
 
McNamara concluded that &quot;there can be no excuse for obstructing or delaying such an important investigation.&quot;

Rio Tinto Must Release Worker Health Records, British Politician Says

Hundreds of demonstrators braved heavy rain in Perth, Australia, this morning to protest against human rights abuses by the world's biggest mining company, Rio Tinto. 
The demo took place as shareholders filed into the company's Annual General Meeting. Demonstrators included trade unionists protesting over Rio Tinto's industrial relations policies in Australia and elsewhere. 
 
Rio Tinto is currently embroiled in a number of industrial disputes in Australia, essentially over the company's attempts to deunionise its mining operations there and move away from collective agreements. 
 
Inside the AGM, 90% of the questions raised by shareholders were critical of Rio Tinto's financial performance and policies. Questioners cited the company's links with human rights abuses, its failure to honour internationally recognised labour standards, its continued environmental destruction and its deteriorating record on health and safety. 
 
Despite the concerns which dominated the meeting, Rio Tinto chairman Robert Wilson refused a request to make a transcript of the AGM available. 
 
A transcript would have enabled Rio Tinto shareholders and stakeholders throughout the world to read what the directors reported to the Perth AGM and what concerns the shareholders expressed there. 
 
Tony Maher, General President of the Mining and Energy Division of Australia's Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), attended the AGM. He condemned Rio Tinto's refusal to make the proceedings publicly available. 
 
&quot;Rio Tinto claims it has a policy of transparency,&quot; Maher pointed out. &quot;So what is it afraid of? It is no big deal these days to post the transcript on the Internet or indeed to make copies available to its shareholders and other interested parties. 
 
&quot;What is Rio Tinto trying to hide? Why won't it come clean?&quot; 
 
At the global level, the CFMEU is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Maher warned that the CFMEU and the ICEM will continue to work with human rights, indigenous and environmental organisations to campaign for Rio Tinto to accept UN-backed international standards at all its operations.

Protests At Rio Tinto&#039;s Australian AGM

By a 2-1 vote, Australian miners yesterday turned down an anti-union package offered by Rio Tinto, the world's biggest mining corporation. 
 
The miners' international, the ICEM, immediately urged Rio Tinto to open talks on a worldwide agreement to protect union rights and other human rights in the company's operations everywhere. 
 
Rio Tinto has been trying to deunionise the workforce at its Hunter Valley No. 1 coalmine in Australia, but workers there voted 2-1 yesterday against a proposed company non-union agreement. The votes were cast in a secret ballot conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), which announced the result this morning. 
 
The bitter long-running dispute will now go to arbitration, where the workers will be represented by the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU). 
 
At the global level, the CFMEU is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which has rallied worldwide support for workers who are challenging Rio Tinto's anti-union stance in various countries. 
 
The Australian federal government, on the other hand, has consistently sided with the company. Throughout the long drawn out Hunter Valley dispute, the administration of Prime Minister John Howard has given its full support to Rio Tinto in opposing the CFMEU's attempts to have the matter arbitrated. 
 
CFMEU Mining and Energy Division General President Tony Maher described the result of the ballot as &quot;a victory for the principle of collective bargaining through the union and an enormous setback for Rio Tinto's deunionisation campaign. 
 
&quot;The Hunter Valley No.1 mineworkers have been subjected to a war of attrition by Rio Tinto in an attempt to beat them out of the union after the initial attempt to bribe them out had failed,&quot; Maher declared. &quot;Rio Tinto have used every anti-union law the Howard government armed them with to break the union. The workers have endured mass sackings and victimisation of union activists. Almost every local union representative was sacked at Hunter Valley by Rio Tinto in December last year. 
 
&quot;Today's AEC announcement that the workers have stuck with the union is testament to their courage and to their lack of trust in Rio Tinto,&quot; Maher said. 
 
 
ICEM URGES GLOBAL TALKS NOW 
 
&quot;This decisive Australian vote is one more proof that Rio Tinto can't work against the unions. So they must start working with the unions,&quot; insisted ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe in London today. 
 
&quot;We repeat our call to Rio Tinto to open negotiations with the ICEM on a global agreement to protect trade union rights and other basic human rights in the company's operations worldwide,&quot; Thorpe said. &quot;In the best interests of all Rio Tinto's stakeholders, those talks should begin now.&quot;

Australian Miners Reject Anti-Union Deal

The ICEM is sharply critical of labour practices being carried out by Goodyear Thailand Ltd., a subsidiary of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. of the United States. Local management at the 600-worker factory in Bangkok has systematically denied basic trade union rights to members and officers of ICEM affiliate Petroleum and Chemical Workers' Federation of Thailand (PCFT). 
<img height="188" alt="" src="" width="239" />
PCFT Branch Chairman Anan Pol-ung 
In March, managers fired the chairman of the Goodyear Thailand branch of the PCFT, Anan Pol-ung, for merely carrying out his lawful responsibilities in attempting to achieve social benefits for workers in the factory's rubber stock division. Many of these employees have worked at the plant for over ten years, but are employed under one-year, fixed-term contracts that deny them the same benefits as permanent employees. 
 
&quot;We call on the company to immediately reinstate Brother Anan,&quot; stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;His dismissal by local managers was a blatant attempt to remove an effective voice for workers.&quot; 
 
Anan's dismissal was followed by Goodyear Thailand management denying him access to the plant in order to perform legitimate trade union functions. More recently, another union member in the plant's Quality Assurance Department has been dismissed without union consultation and the PCFT branch secretary has been given a &quot;last chance&quot; warning for merely taking sick leave. 
<img height="182" alt="" src="" width="300" />
Trade unionists at Goodyear Thailand 
support Anan at the Bangkok plant 
The ICEM also protests discriminatory pay practices at Goodyear Thailand in which workers employed in the same position, performing similar work, receive disparate wage rates. It was such practices that Anan and other leaders in the branch brought attention to that earned them disciplinary action. 
 
In an early April letter to Goodyear President, Chairman and CEO Robert Keegan at US headquarters in Akron, Ohio, Higgs wrote: &quot;The ICEM, a global union federation with 20 million members and 425 affiliates, believes these grievance matters are very serious, and in direct violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and Thai labour law. We also believe these labour relations practices are contrary to several ILO Core Conventions and, as well, do not conform to the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).&quot; 
 
Goodyear has failed to respond to the letter, which asked senior leadership of the company to intervene and put a halt to the negative labour practices. 
 
Since, Thai management has unilaterally reduced wages and social benefits for some employees who perform the same work as others, a move that has created even more disparity between workers. 
 
The PCFT has taken the unfair violations to its collective agreement-including the illegal dismissal of Anan Pol-ung-before a Thai labour court. The matter of the employment status of the contract workers also was brought by the union before the labour court, and further hearings on both matters will occur in late July. 
 
&quot;We hope that corporate leadership of Goodyear in the United States recognizes the problems created by management,&quot; stated the ICEM's Higgs, &quot;and acts in a diligent and forthright manner to correct such ill-will toward our affiliate in Thailand. Such behaviour can only harm the company's reputation globally.&quot; 
 
The 40-year-old Bangkok factory produces tyres for automobiles, light trucks and larger vehicles, including heavy trucks and construction equipment, and can manufacture 6,500 units per day.

Goodyear Engaged in Union-Busting in Thailand

On the May Day weekend before Paris-based Imerys' Annual General Meeting, national industrial unions from the United Kingdom and United States, together with two major Trade Union federations jointly condemned the company's work practices at worksites in southwestern England and the American south. 
 
Unions representing Imerys workers in the two countries have been joined by the 20-million-member ICEM and the US national labour center AFL-CIO in condemning Imerys' anti-worker manner of labour relations. The international action also has the support of all five French trade unions that represent Imerys workers (CGT-FO, CFE-CGC, CFDT, CGT, CFTC ). 
 
In the UK, Imerys has unilaterally and unconscionably closed a pension scheme that will hit pocketbooks of some 2,500 workers in and around Cornwall and Devon. Most workers are represented by Transport &amp; General Workers Union (TGWU), and that union along with AMICUS and GMB begins industrial action balloting on 3 May, the same day Imerys holds its AGM. In the US, Imerys now has a five-year history of impeding unionization by PACE, now the United Steel Workers (USW), the largest industrial union in the US, and has developed a consistent pattern of punishing workers who display union membership. The union is in dispute with Imerys at two locations employing 650 workers. 
 
Additionally, last week USW levied race-bias complaints against Imerys charging managers in Sylacauga, Alabama, with disparate treatment between black workers and white workers. The complaint, with the US government's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleges white supervisors with enforcing work rules and imposing discipline more harshly on black employees, and cites management retaliation for those who have complained of the bias. The union has brought numerous unfair labour practice charges against Imerys dating back to 2002 and the US government has backed those charges by issuing formal violations against the company. 
 
Imerys has settled specific labour law violations with formal pledges of &quot;cease and desist&quot; language with the US labour board, but such settlements have done little to block Imerys from violating US labour code in other instances over the past five years. 
 
&quot;Imerys has never stopped its efforts to destroy our union,&quot; stated Keith Fulbright, the USW Local 3-0516 branch president at Sylacauga, Alabama. &quot;Imerys management purposely incites conflict and continually ignores US laws that protects workers against abuse, unsafe practices and racial discrimination.&quot; 
 
At the other US worksite, Dry Branch, Georgia, a labour agreement between Imerys and the USW local union expired last month, and the company is seeking unlimited ability to contract out union jobs. Leading up to the 31 March expiration, Imerys has set the tone for its anti-union agenda by transferring massive amounts of kaolin production to a non-union worksite also in the state of Georgia. In Dry Branch, Imerys managers have also committed labour law violations as judged by the US government's labour board. 
 
In the UK, Imerys in January unilaterally closed a final salary pension scheme to new employees, and dramatically downgraded benefit levels for existing workers. The unwillingness of management to engage in social dialogue with the British unions over the pension curtailments has caused the unions to initiate a ballot for industrial action. 
 
The T&amp;G said many workers would be forced to take pension reductions equivalent to one-third of the benefit value, while for some it will mean a 40% reduction. Such pain inflicted on retirement livelihoods of 2,500 workers was made worse considering Imerys took a three-year pension holiday from 2000-2003 and refused the advice of trustees in 2002 to start paying contributions again. 
 
&quot;Pensions are part of our members wages,&quot; said T&amp;G Convenor Malcolm Mellow. &quot;They are deferred until retirement, but Imerys has massively reduced these deferred wages without consultation with the union.&quot; 
 
Mellow added, &quot;The effect of this is severe and widespread. Not only on our members, their families and their lives, but on the surrounding area where reduced spending power from Imerys pensioners will become common.&quot; 
 
The ICEM, a global union federation linking Trade Unions in the Building Materials sector as well as other key industrial sectors, has repeatedly called on Imerys to stop its anti-worker, anti-union practices. &quot;Imerys now has a track record of arrogant and abusive worksite conduct, and has provoked labour disputes in two countries,&quot; stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;Together with our American and British affiliates, we urge Imerys shareholders to recognise that such behaviour is not in their best interests.&quot; 
 
Both ICEM affiliates have requested that their respective governments conduct investigations on Imerys under the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

ICEM, UK, US affiliates Take Imerys Work Practices to Shareholders

Archive

ICEM Bridgestone Network Chair and Secretary

DECISIONS of the ICEM Bridgestone Union Network Steering Committee

ICEM Elects New Leadership - World Union March Through Durban

President Thabo Mbeki Addresses Unions' World Congress

Rio Tinto: Australian Ruling Thwarts Pay Cut Ploy

Rio Tinto Must Release Worker Health Records, British Politician Says

Protests At Rio Tinto's Australian AGM

Australian Miners Reject Anti-Union Deal

Goodyear Engaged in Union-Busting in Thailand

ICEM, UK, US affiliates Take Imerys Work Practices to Shareholders

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