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Most of the Turkish tyre industry has been hit by a strike launched this afternoon over a bargaining dispute. 
 
Goodyear, Pirelli and Bridgestone are among the companies affected by the action, the Turkish rubber workers' union Lastik-Is reports. 
 
Lastik-Is has been negotiating with the tyre companies since last November for a new agreement covering this year and 2001. At the global level, the union is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which organises tyre and rubber workers worldwide. 
 
The companies' final offer to Lastik-Is was a 22 percent pay increase for the first half of this year, followed by a further 6 percent in the second half, plus a small lump sum. For the year 2001, the companies propose to make an additional payment dependent on the prevailing exchange rate between the US dollar and the Turkish lira at the time. 
 
This is a wholly inadequate offer, the union points out, in view of the steep rise in the cost of living. Turkey's inflation rate last year was 68.8 percent. The tyre workers would need a pay rise of the same order simply in order to restore their purchasing power. 
 
Altogether, some 5,000 workers are involved in the disputeMost of the Turkish tyre industry has been hit by a strike launched this afternoon over a bargaining dispute. 
 
Goodyear, Pirelli and Bridgestone are among the companies affected by the action, the Turkish rubber workers' union Lastik-Is reports. 
 
Lastik-Is has been negotiating with the tyre companies since last November for a new agreement covering this year and 2001. At the global level, the union is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which organises tyre and rubber workers worldwide. 
 
The companies' final offer to Lastik-Is was a 22 percent pay increase for the first half of this year, followed by a further 6 percent in the second half, plus a small lump sum. For the year 2001, the companies propose to make an additional payment dependent on the prevailing exchange rate between the US dollar and the Turkish lira at the time. 
 
This is a wholly inadequate offer, the union points out, in view of the steep rise in the cost of living. Turkey's inflation rate last year was 68.8 percent. The tyre workers would need a pay rise of the same order simply in order to restore their purchasing power. 
 
Altogether, some 5,000 workers are involved in the disputeMost of the Turkish tyre industry has been hit by a strike launched this afternoon over a bargaining dispute. 
 
Goodyear, Pirelli and Bridgestone are among the companies affected by the action, the Turkish rubber workers' union Lastik-Is reports. 
 
Lastik-Is has been negotiating with the tyre companies since last November for a new agreement covering this year and 2001. At the global level, the union is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which organises tyre and rubber workers worldwide. 
 
The companies' final offer to Lastik-Is was a 22 percent pay increase for the first half of this year, followed by a further 6 percent in the second half, plus a small lump sum. For the year 2001, the companies propose to make an additional payment dependent on the prevailing exchange rate between the US dollar and the Turkish lira at the time. 
 
This is a wholly inadequate offer, the union points out, in view of the steep rise in the cost of living. Turkey's inflation rate last year was 68.8 percent. The tyre workers would need a pay rise of the same order simply in order to restore their purchasing power. 
 
Altogether, some 5,000 workers are involved in the dispute

Turkish Tyre Strike Hits Multinationals

80,000 workers across Norway will launch an indefinite strike from 6.00 a.m. local time on 3 May, the national union federation LO announced this afternoon. 
 
This means that over a third of all the country's private sector union members will take industrial action next week - and many more could be called out if the dispute drags on. 
 
The strike call follows a membership vote to reject a mediated settlement covering much of the private sector. 64.3 percent of the votes cast were against the proposed settlement, which was reached at the beginning of this month. 
 
The strikers will include 5,000 chemical and allied workers organised in the NKIF union, which is affiliated at the global level to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Sectors affected will include cement, explosives, rubber products, paints, plastics and oil-based products. At the same time, warning will be given of strike action by another 500 chemical workers from 15 May onwards, when their agreements expire. For public health reasons, however, the pharmaceutical industry is among the sectors exempted from the strike. 
 
In oil and gas, members of the ICEM-affiliated NOPEF union in a number of onshore ancillary services and catering will strike from 3 May. 
 
However, NOPEF says that Norwegian oil output &quot;will not be needlessly affected at this stage of the dispute.&quot; 
 
Members of ICEM-affiliated general workers' union Fellesforbundet will strike in a number of sectors, including asphalt production. 
 
Electricity workers in the ICEM-affiliated EL&amp;IT union are not involved in the dispute at present, but could become so after 15 May, when their own agreement expires. 
 
Similarly, a further 10,000 NKIF members in the electrochemical industry, including Norsk Hydro, could join the action after 31 May, when their present agreement runs out.

Norwegians Call Nationwide Strike

Australia's corporate watchdog, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, has ordered the top five shareholders in Rio Tinto Ltd. to release the names of organisations on whose behalf they hold shares. 
 
The ASIC action comes in response to a request from the Coalition of Rio Tinto Shareholders, which is undertaking a proxy campaign for the mining multinational's two forthcoming Annual General Meetings. Under its dual-listing structure, Rio Tinto holds two AGMs - one in London (on 10 May this year) and one in Australia (Brisbane, 24 May). 
 
The Coalition of Rio Tinto Shareholders launched a three-nation shareholder proxy campaign on 8 March. However, its efforts to communicate with fellow shareholders have been restricted by the domination of the Rio Tinto Ltd. share register by nominee companies that are not the beneficial owners of the shares. 
 
This is believed to be the first time that the ASIC has issued a disclosure order with the particular aim of enabling the market to be better informed about a proxy campaign. 
 
Two resolutions have been proposed by the Coalition of Rio Tinto Shareholders. One concerns corporate governance. The other calls on Rio Tinto to ensure that its labour practices worldwide comply with the core labour standards of the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
On this last point, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) has already offered to negotiate and sign a global agreement with Rio Tinto. Under such an agreement, the ICEM and its affiliated unions worldwide would verify, among other things, the company's compliance with ILO core standards and would have the right to raise with Rio Tinto corporate management any alleged breaches of these standards. 
 
However, the ICEM has also made it clear that Rio Tinto must resolve current industrial disputes in Australia before such a global agreement can be signed.

Rio Tinto: Top Shareholders Ordered To Name Names

In a new self-help move by some of the world's poorest workers, the National Union of Working Women (NUWW) last Friday launched a health protection scheme for its more than 300,000 informal sector workers in Chennai, India. The announcement came as the Asia-Pacific Women's Committee of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) was meeting there. The NUWW is an ICEM affiliate. 
 
Like most newly industrialising and developing countries, India has many &quot;informal sector&quot; workers who earn a pittance from unrecognised jobs on the fringes of the formal economy. The informal sector does not have access to social security or other public services. Nor is it covered by labour legislation. Overall, less than 10 percent of the Indian population have access to social security. 
 
Among the informal workforce are NUWW members working on the bottom rung of society. They do such jobs as making incense sticks, matchsticks and fireworks. Although they are making a contribution to society, they are still neglected. 
 
NUWW members pay 24 Rupees per year in subscriptions to their union. 
 
In 1981, a life insurance scheme was started. But it was discovered that, in fact, medical expenses are the biggest burden for the worst-off women workers in the informal sector. After childbirth, for example, they are heavily indebted. So the NUWW members decided to launch health programmes. They negotiated with an insurance company an annual premium of 70 Rupees, which provides coverage for up to 15,000 Rupees of medical expenses a year. It also provides them with good-quality health services and hospitalisation. 1,000 NUWW members have already registered for the scheme.

Indian Informal Workers Launch Health Scheme

some 30,000 chemical workers in Eastern Germany and East Berlin are to receive a pay rise of 5.6 percent over two years, under an agreement signed by their union IG BCE on Saturday. Wages will go up by 2.8 percent on 1 July this year and a further 2.8 percent on 1 July 2001. 
 
Another agreement last week secured a two-stage 6.2 percent rise over two years for around 5,000 East German paper workers. 
 
West German workers in the same sectors will be receiving a two-stage 4.2 percent rise over roughly the same period under agreements signed earlier last month. 
 
When Germany reunified, wages in the East were much lower than in the West. Under separate bargaining arrangements, the gap is gradually being narrowed. 
 
The East German agreements extend the scope for part-time work by older employees, and guarantee them take-home pay equal to at least 85 percent of their last net full-time wage. There is also provision for expanding the number of apprenticeships available in the East German chemical and paper industries. The aim of both measures is to help reduce unemployment in Eastern Germany. 
 
At the global level, IG BCE is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

Pay Gains Achieved in East German Paper, Chemical Sectors

EPMU and Norwegian-based pulp and paper company Norske Skog signed an innovative agreement with Kewerau College for a maintenance training centre. The programme is the first of its kind in New Zealand and will provide training from apprenticeship up to and through advanced levels of skilled maintenance. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a living example of a union and employer collaborating to fix a glaring gap in our skills and training,&rdquo; stated EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little. Norske Skog operates the 600- worker Tasman paper mill, which produces newsprint and directory paper at Kawerau.

New Zealand&#039;s EPMU, Norske Skog Agree to Training Centre

Coal talks between New Zealand&rsquo;s Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and Solid Energy broke down last week, and workers began renewed industrial action at three worksites by refusing to load coal trains. State-run Solid Energy responded by suspending workers without pay. By 10 June, EPMU workers were back on jobsites and further bargaining is scheduled for next week between the union, Solid Energy and five of its contractors. EPMU compromised its wage demands from 6% to 5% in line with the union&rsquo;s national &ldquo;Fair Share&mdash;Five in &lsquo;05&rdquo; campaign, but the coal company has only offered 2.8% in bargaining.

Coal Dispute in New Zealand Again Grows Tense

Three deadly mine accidents last week in China left 33 miners dead. On 8 June, an explosion at the Zijiang coal mine in Loudi, province of Hunan, killed 21 and injured 24. On the same day at an iron ore mine in Shahe, Hebei province, another gas blast killed nine and injured eight. On 7 June at the Shilongxiang coal mine near Zhaotong, Yunnan province, a methane explosion killed three. 
In a further Chinese mine safety note, it was revealed through an investigation that the owner of the illegal Xinfu coal mine in Qitaihe, Heilongjiang province, in which 18 miners died in a 14 March explosion was also a top safety official for the provincial mine supervisory bureau. The Xinfu mine was found to lack basic ventilation and gas monitoring equipment.

Three Mine Accidents in China Leave 33 Dead

Canadian offshore oil workers at Hibernia, members of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Union, are voting over the next few weeks on their first collective agreement. CEP organized the 450 workers in 2001, was certified by the Newfoundland provincial labour board in October 2001, but was met by union-blocking legal challenges since by Hibernia&rsquo;s lead company, ExxonMobil. &ldquo;We felt it was time for our members to have a say on what has been settled and tabled in bargaining,&rdquo; said CEP National Energy Sector Coordinator Joe Gargiso. The successful organising of the offshore oil workers by the CEP was the first of its kind in North America.

Canadian Offshore Oil Workers Near Deal at Hibernia

Australian trade union leaders are fine tuning a National Union Fightback Campaign against the conservative coalition government of Prime Minister John Howard&rsquo;s radical reforms. Such industrial relations reforms would further weaken collective bargaining. Howard&rsquo;s reforms, expected to be rushed into law after conservatives take control of the Australian Parliament&rsquo;s Senate next month, will destroy the power of the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to set minimum wage, job classification structures and minimum statutory employment conditions. 
It will abolish the IRC&rsquo;s ability to judge cases of unfair dismissal of workers in businesses employing less than 100, or two-thirds of all Australian workers. If enacted, approval of enterprise bargaining agreements will pass from the IRC to an agency that now regulates the Howard creation of individual contracts between employees and employers. The draconian reforms will also strip the country&rsquo;s states from employment regulation in favour of a centralized federal system. Trade unions have the support of Australian state governments in resisting the Howard plan.

Australian Unions Resist Government&#039;s Labour Reforms

Archive

Turkish Tyre Strike Hits Multinationals

Norwegians Call Nationwide Strike

Rio Tinto: Top Shareholders Ordered To Name Names

Indian Informal Workers Launch Health Scheme

Pay Gains Achieved in East German Paper, Chemical Sectors

New Zealand's EPMU, Norske Skog Agree to Training Centre

Coal Dispute in New Zealand Again Grows Tense

Three Mine Accidents in China Leave 33 Dead

Canadian Offshore Oil Workers Near Deal at Hibernia

Australian Unions Resist Government's Labour Reforms

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