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New labour agreements covering more than 8,000 workers at nine Bridgestone/Firestone plants in the United States were overwhelmingly approved by union members in secret-ballot ratification votes over the past 10 days. 
 
The master agreement between the tyre multinational and the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) was expanded to cover seven Bridgestone/Firestone plants, and was approved by a nearly 4-1 margin. Separate agreements for two other facilities were adopted by margins of 10-1 and 17-1 respectively. All three contracts expire on April 23, 2003, and negotiations for successor agreements will all take place in the same location. 
 
Highlights of the master agreement include: 
 
Restoration of full cost-of-living protections. Coupled with general wage increases of US$0.65 over the life of the agreement, the 100% cost-of-living payments could generate a total wage increase of $2.30 per hour by 2003, based on recent inflation history. 
 
 
Pension benefits of $50 per month per year of service at all locations. A worker retiring with 30 years of service would receive a guaranteed pension of $1,500 per month, a 47% increase over the previous agreement. 
 
 
A nearly 700% increase in the early retirement supplement, from $50 to $340 a month. 
 
 
Extended supplemental unemployment benefits, which will pay workers with 10 or more years of service an additional 13 weeks of benefits at 80% of their average weekly wage once state unemployment benefits are exhausted. Workers with 20 or more years of service receive an additional 26 weeks of benefits. 
 
 
Significant improvements in health care and other insurance benefits with no employee contributions at any location. 
 
 
New language designed to preserve and expand skilled trades at Bridgestone/Firestone plants by limiting the company&rsquo;s right to subcontract maintenance work. 
 
 
Vastly improved health and safety provisions. 
 
 
Seniority improvements at all locations, giving workers greater control over their working lives. 
 
The two other agreements are broadly similar. 
 
The deals are a major success for the American union - and for organised labour in Bridgestone worldwide. 
 
Bridgestone workers' unions on all continents had pressed the company to reach a US settlement, as had the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the USWA is affiliated at the global level. 
 
Worldwide union support for the American workers was mobilised via the global network of unions in Bridgestone recently set up by the ICEM.

Bridgestone US Agreements Approved

Union members at nine US plants of leading tyre multinational Bridgestone/Firestone were not immediately called out on strike at one minute after midnight this morning, when their collective agreements expired. 
 
However, they remain poised for industrial action as negotiations continue between the company and the tyre workers' union, the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). 
 
The union's President George Becker announced last night that the start of the strike would be postponed, as the talks with the company had made some progress. 
 
&quot;Key elements of a settlement are yet to be resolved, and much drafting will remain if and when an agreement in principle is reached,&quot; Becker said. &quot;But we have made enough progress over the past two days that the union is willing to continue working while bargaining goes on.&quot; 
 
There would be no formal extension of the contracts (collective agreements), Becker stated, but the union's members at all the plants would &quot;continue working under the terms and conditions of their expired contract while we see if we can reach an agreement.&quot; 
 
Union negotiators stressed that members will be working day to day, and will not indefinitely postpone a strike. 
 
&quot;This will not be a long-term process,&quot; said John Sellers, USWA Executive Vice-President and chair of the union&rsquo;s negotiating team. &quot;We will either have an agreement with Bridgestone/Firestone in very short order, or we will have a labour dispute.&quot; 
 
The USWA is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which recently set up a global network of trade unions in Bridgestone - see ICEM UPDATE 66/2000. 
 
This week, unions organising Bridgestone workers around the world have put the company under mounting pressure to reach a settlement in the US.

Bridgestone Strike Postponed As US Talks Continue

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

In Canada, USW held a rally in the province of Ontario 26 May to keep open a copper smelting refinery employing 140 steelworkers. Toronto based Inco Ltd. has threatened to close the Copper Cliff refinery. &ldquo;This is about keeping jobs in our communities,&rdquo; said USW Ontario/Atlantic Director Wayne Fraser. &ldquo;This company has made huge profits for decades using the blood, sweat and tears of our members. Inco owes it to the community to invest in upgrading the Copper Cliff refinery.&rdquo; The USW represents over 4,000 copper and nickel miners employed by Inco in and around Sudbury in western Ontario, and another 1,500 in the province of Manitoba.

USW Seeks to Keep Inco Mining Operating Open in Canada

On June 12, the ILO will focus a day on child labour in the mining sector in celebration of its fourth World Day Against Child Labour. The ICEM and mining employers&rsquo; organisation International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) last week signed an accord calling for an end to child labour in all mining and quarrying activity. 
The ILO&rsquo;s International Programme on Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has found that most child miners are employed in small-scale enterprises which are unregulated and undocumented. IPEC has undertaken pilot projects on child labour in mining in Mongolia, Tanzania, Niger and the Andean countries of South America. Results show the best way to halt such practices is direct involvement in local mining communities and providing access to quality education with real prospects of meaningful employment when children leave school.

ILO’s Child Labour Focus to be on Mining Sector

Oil workers in France at Total won a major victory to preserve holidays by successfully conducting a five-day strike in mid-May. The job actions at five Total refineries saw the French supermajor back down by agreeing to keep Pentecost as a holiday even though the French government abandoned it as a national holiday this year. That means Total will assume all government payouts, giving workers the extra paid day in 2005. Total also agreed to pay workers during the 16-20 May strike. The unions involved were the CFDT, CGT and Force Ouvriere. The Total refineries that were shut: Gonfreville, in northern France; Feyzin and La Mede plants in the south; Grandpuits near Paris; and Donges in western France.

Strike at Total in France Protects Holidays

Also in Brazil, the Brazilian National BASF Network of ICEM&rsquo;s Latin American BASF Network took place 4-6 May in Sao Paulo. Delegates defined priorities to be proposed for the first national social dialogue, and met with BASF managers regarding problems workers confront in BASF&rsquo;s Brazilian facilities. In attendance were members of the Factory Commission of German-based BASF, IGBCE chemical sector representatives, as well as delegates from the Secretariat and International Relations Department of CUT. The ICEM&rsquo;s Regional Coordination Committee meeting of the BASF Network along with social dialogue talks with the company is occurring over the next several days.

ICEM’s Regional BASF Network Meets in Brazil

Twenty-four tradesmen, members of EPMU in New Zealand, agreed to a two-year deal this week with Bridgestone at a tyre factory in Christchurch, ending a four-week strike. The agreement was termed satisfactory, but not reflective of the intense effort put in by the bargaining unit composed of highly skilled electricians and engineers. 
Contract labour will be a continual issue, and EPMU Southern Operations Director Ged O&rsquo;Connell said, &ldquo;We have a significant problem with contractors and agency temps who are able to work in our plants and are not covered by our Collective Agreements.&rdquo; Although the union prevented contractors from doing bargaining unit work during the strike, salaried staff performed some of that work, and that is an issue with the EPMU. A separate bargaining unit represents about 200 production workers at the tyre factory on the South Island.

Skilled Trades Workers Reach Accord with Bridgestone in NZ

<img height="40" src="" width="100" alt="" />
Strike action by ICEM affiliate Paperiliitto against Finland&rsquo;s paper manufacturers intensified this week with near total shutdowns on 16-17 May of all paper mills following failure of mediated talks over the weekend. Employers now threaten a two-week lockout beginning 18 May in retaliation. 
After pulling out late last year from the national incomes policy agreement, the employers&rsquo; Forest Industries Federation is now seeking rash concessions including eliminating Christmas and mid-summer shutdown days, greater flexibility including 12-hour shifts and sick leave cuts, making the first two days unpaid. 
That proposal, however, was tempered some in recent mediation. Paperiliitto&rsquo;s resistance to the irrational proposals has been boosted by the commitment of ICEM affiliate Svenska Pappers. The union has imposed a ban on overtime in its papermills in Sweden, and will refuse to perform work shifted into Swedish paper mills from mills in Finland. Some six major companies are involved: Stora Enso, UPM Kymmene, M-Real, Mets&auml; Tissue, Ahlstr&ouml;m and Myllykoski.

Finnish Paper Union Strikes Against Harsh Concessions

Archive

Bridgestone US Agreements Approved

Bridgestone Strike Postponed As US Talks Continue

Canadian Offshore Oil Workers Near Deal at Hibernia

Australian Unions Resist Government's Labour Reforms

USW Seeks to Keep Inco Mining Operating Open in Canada

ILO’s Child Labour Focus to be on Mining Sector

Strike at Total in France Protects Holidays

ICEM’s Regional BASF Network Meets in Brazil

Skilled Trades Workers Reach Accord with Bridgestone in NZ

Finnish Paper Union Strikes Against Harsh Concessions

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