English

Español

Français

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Action Plan 2021-2025

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

Women

Youth

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected Officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Press

The USWA and Goodyear have resolved a potential dispute stemming from union-friendly language contained in last September&rsquo;s precedent-setting labour agreement. Goodyear announced 5 February that production of its new Assurance ComforTred tyre would go to a non-union plant in the state of Oklahoma. Specific job-security provisions in the labour agreement, however, state new tyre lines must go to a unionized plant. Goodyear acquiesced and the new tyre will be made in a Steelworker-represented plant in Gadsden, Alabama.

USWA Tyre Accord with Goodyear Brings Union Work

US affiliate United Steelworkers took advantage of union-friendly language in last year&rsquo;s Goodyear tyre contract to win card-check recognition status at a tyre mold plant in Statesville, North Carolina. A vast majority of the 130 workers at the non-union plant expressed a desire for USWA representation through a card signing process, and an independent arbitrator verified that. The union and local management will now negotiate a first collective agreement for the 130. USWA has also submitted a majority of cards to an arbitrator for representation at another Goodyear tyre facility employing 350 workers in Asheboro, North Carolina.

USWA’s Neutrality Language with Goodyear Pays Off

Asia-Pacific labour and management representatives from BASF met in Singapore on 10 February. The network takes shape following the successful ICEM regional dialogue with BASF managers in Latin America/Caribbean. BASF&rsquo;s Eggert Voscherau called the AP network &ldquo;important and necessary&rdquo; and one that &ldquo;has to be continued.&rdquo; Recently, ICEM, German affiliate IGBCE and BASF teamed up so that BASF workers in Malaysia could have trade union recognition rights in Malaysia.

ICEM’s Regional BASF Network Meets in Singapore

Binda Pandey, ICEM vice president and leader in affiliate Nepal Independent Chemical and Iron Workers&rsquo; Union and national labour center GEFONT, is part of a collective nomination of 1,000 women worldwide nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first woman recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Bertha von Suttner. The single entry nomination of 1,000 women is meant to mark women&rsquo;s contributions to counter injustice, discrimination, oppression, and violence. Binda Pandey is a trade union leader committed to non-violent means to reverse the Nepalese monarchy&rsquo;s autocratic rule, and she has proven to be a tireless fighter for a return to democracy in the Himalayan country.

Binda Pandey Among Women Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

After three weeks of futile bargaining, talks broke off last week between Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada Local 689 and UPM Kymmene over efforts to end a four-month paper mill strike in Miramichi, New Brunswick. The Finnish paper company still will not submit the pattern labour agreement for the paper sector of eastern Canada to the striking 700 CEP members, which is the central issue to the strike. Rather, UPM Kymmene was pressuring Local 689 to force a vote of union members on a substandard proposal. Union members 14 April vehemently rejected taking a vote on anything short of the pattern agreement.

CEP, UPM Kymmene Fail in Canadian Talks to End Strike

The Botswana court case in which diamond-mining company Debswana pressed forward in order to extract maximum punishment on some 450 workers who struck last August was dismissed 24 March. An Industrial Court judge issued a detailed, 79-page ruling that said the court had no jurisdiction over criminal matters. Debswana, jointly owned by DeBeers and the government of Botswana, is on a ruthless campaign to destroy the lives of these workers who struck after the company used a new labour law to declare any strike at the 6,000-worker mining operations illegal. Debswana has forcefully evicted the strikers from company housing, and has closed educational opportunities to children of strikers in company-sponsored schools.

Mining Union Wins Court Case Against Debswana in Botswana

<img height="40" src="" width="100" alt="" />
About 120,000 South Korean workers staged a four-hour strike Friday, 1 April, that should serve as a prelude to a larger, nationwide strike if the National Assembly passes legislation to liberalise the use of contract and agency labour. 
Some 231 workplaces took part in the four-hour shutdown called by the Korean Federation of Trade Unions. 
In addition to the bill on the use of non-regular workers, unions are calling on the government to come down hard on companies abusing South Korea&rsquo;s so-called &ldquo;anti-illegal dispatch law,&rdquo; meant as a control to illegal employment practices but a statute continually violated by multinational companies.

Korean Workers Strike Over Labour Reform Bill

Industrial action by Transport &amp; General workers at a Michelin tyre plant in Stoke, UK, ended last week when union members voted 75% to accept a revised pay offer from management. But the union warned that Michelin would now have much work to do to regain the trust and respect of workers. Managers raised threats on the future viability of the plant at the time workers took decisive industrial action. And after revising the pay offer two weeks into the job action, the company tried to impose a voting deadline on T&amp;G&rsquo;s branch, prompting the T&amp;G to call it &ldquo;an attempt to bully our members.&rdquo; Some 500 T&amp;G members engaged in the industrial action at the tyre plant in the Midlands.

Settlement Ends Industrial Action at Michelin in UK

ICEM affiliate Power Workers&rsquo; Union (PWU) of Canada is protesting the province of Ontario&rsquo;s decision to close five coal-fired power plants by 2007. The public-sector union took ad space in major provincial newspapers to say the US$8.2 billion in shutdown costs will be a further burden on price rates&mdash;already up 25% for most provincial customers&mdash;and the answer to Ontario&rsquo;s energy future is a combination of nuclear power and better clean-coal technologies.

Canadian Power Workers Seek to Keep Power Plants Open

The Oil Workers Federation of Brazil (FUP) staged a 24-hour warning strike at Petrobras 31 March that saw 90% participation by the state-run company&rsquo;s workers. Oil workers are seeking a higher dividend from the company&rsquo;s profit-sharing plan. FUP had been conducting a series of two-hour strikes up to the 31 March action, and now has given the company until 10 April to meet the demands or face escalated strikes. The 24-hour strike last week came a day after Petrobras set a historic daily output record, hitting 1.65 million barrels of oil, a 0.6% increase over the prior record set on 14 March 2003.

Warning Strike Launched by Brazilian Oil Union at Petrobras

Archive