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The Middle East conflict is having a &quot;devastating effect on workers and their families in both Palestine and Israel&quot;, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) said today. It called for an immediate end to the violence. 
 
Following is the full text of the resolution adopted unanimously by the ICEM Executive Committee, meeting in Brussels: 
 
The ICEM Executive Committee, at its meeting on 6-7 June 2002, expresses its grave concern over the continuing conflict and violence in the Palestinian Territories and Israel, which is having a devastating effect on workers and their families in both Palestine and Israel. 
 
The Executive condemns Prime Minister Sharon and his government for its acts of aggression and for its invasion of the Palestinian Territories as well as for the refusal to immediately comply with United Nations Security Council Resolution No.1402 which called for an immediate ceasefire and cessation of hostilities. 
 
The Executive condemns acts of terrorism. 
 
The Executive appeals to the Palestinian People to refrain from any acts of violence, which will only delay a peacefully negotiated settlement. 
 
The Executive calls on the United States, the European Union and other Governments to use their political and economic influence to get a return to sensible negotiations, which will bring about lasting peace and the establishment of a Palestinian State.

Middle East Violence &#039;Devastating&#039; to Workers

Malaysia must release jailed labour activist Tian Chua and other political detainees, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) urged today. Following is the full text of the resolution adopted unanimously by the ICEM Executive Committee, meeting in Brussels 
 
 

<img height="225" alt="" src="" width="190" />
&nbsp;Jailed without trial: Malaysian labour activist Tian Chua 

The ICEM Executive Committee, at its meeting on 6-7 June 2002, condemns the detention without trial of Malaysian labour activist TIAN CHUA under the Internal Security Act of Malaysia. 
 
We urge the Malaysian Government to release immediately and unconditionally TIAN CHUA and other political detainees who are held under the Internal Security Act. 
 
We urge the Malaysian Government to abolish this draconian legislation and other similar laws which provide for detention without trial. 
 
We urge the Malaysian Government to grant the request of the special representative of the United Nations Secretary General on Human Rights to conduct a fact-finding visit to Malaysia. 
 
We call on the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) to raise the detention of TIAN CHUA at the 90th Session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva from 9th - 20th June 2002, where the Prime Minister of Malaysia will address the Conference.

Release Labour Activist Tian Chua, Unions Tell Malaysia

A pledge by the Venezuelan government that it will respect trade union rights has been welcomed by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Last Friday, Venezuelan labour minister Mar&iacute;a Cristina Iglesias said she accepted that the country's labour law should be changed so as to lift some current restrictions on trade union freedom. This is in line with recommendations made by a mission from the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO), which visited Venezuela last week. Iglesias also said she would be taking steps to boost employment. 
 
&quot;The Venezuelan government's assurances are to be welcomed,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs today. &quot;However, it must take full and urgent steps to guarantee trade union rights in practice, including full recognition of the country's trade union movement at all levels. Labour rights are essential to democracy in Venezuela - a fact that the ICEM and others emphasised during last month's coup.&quot; 
 
The military putsch on 12 April against the constitutional government of Venezuela was reversed within two days, but it profoundly shocked the nation. 
 
On 12 April, ICEM Regional President Luiz Gonzaga Ulhoa Ten&oacute;rio issued a statement condemning the coup and calling on ICEM-affiliated unions in the region to do likewise, in order to defend the rule of law and human and trade union rights. Gonzaga also urged the UN and the Organisation of American States (OAU) to investigate human rights violations by the putschists, and he insisted that OAU member governments should not recognise the &quot;provisional government&quot; set up by the coup leaders. 
 
Trade unions and other democratic organisations within Venezuela mounted big demonstrations against the coup. By the evening of 14 April, the &quot;provisional government&quot; had been ousted and constitutional rule was restored. 

<ul>
 <li><a href="/index.php?id=26&amp;la=ES&amp;doc=1233">Rese&ntilde;a en Repudio de ICEM Latinoam&eacute;rica y el Caribe al Golpe de Estado en Venezuela - 12 de Abril</a> 
 
 </li>
 <li><a href="/index.php?id=26&amp;la=EN&amp;doc=1233">Statement by ICEM Latin America and the Caribbean condemning the coup in Venezuela - 12 April</a> 
 
 
 
 </li>
</ul>

Venezuelan Union Rights Vital For Democracy

Unions are holding coordinated rallies in America and Taiwan to mark the first anniversary of a lock-out in the USA. 
 
The demos are part of global union action to secure basic labour rights for workers at a plant in Ponca City, Oklahoma. On 8 May 2001, Taiwanese-controlled Continental Carbon announced that it was locking out its workers there until they agreed to huge cuts in wages and benefits. The lock-out continues to this day. The plant makes carbon black for the tyre industry. 
 
In a one-mile march through Ponca City today, the local community will gather to recognise workers and their families who have survived a year of hardship. The march will continue out of town to the Continental Carbon plant, where there will be a protest and a release of balloons. The event is backed by PACE, the American paper, allied industrial, chemical and energy workers' union. Speakers at today's rally include Ponca City Mayor Tom Leonard, Oklahoma State Senator Paul Muegge, PACE Region Seven Vice-President Lloyd Walters and Jim Curry, who is the Oklahoma State President of the US national labour federation AFL-CIO. 
 
&quot;The entire community is standing by us in our efforts to end this lock-out,&quot; said Todd Carlson, spokesperson for the locked out workers. 
 
He praised efforts by the community, including a public hearing this April which blasted the economic and environmental hardship that the company had inflicted on workers and residents. Various protests have been raised about the plant's environmental impact.
Carlson said that workers had gathered over 5,000 signatures from residents on a petition calling for an end to the lock-out. He and fellow workers intend to deliver this to authorities in Taiwan next month. 
 
&quot;The community is fed up,&quot; Carlson pointed out. &quot;Continental Carbon will eventually learn that doing business in this country and in Oklahoma is not just taking with both hands and slapping anyone who gets in your way.&quot; 
 
 
TAIWANESE DEMO 
 
In Taiwan, meanwhile, unions and other prominent campaigning organisations rallied in front of the parent company's headquarters yesterday. They also protested outside the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). The demonstrators urged Koo Chun-Fu to end the lock-out and respect labour rights. Koo chairs both the SEF and the family-run Koo Group business empire, which controls Continental Carbon. &quot;All of us were assembled here because we feel ashamed of the Koos' treatment of US labour and the environment,&quot; said the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions (TCTU). &quot;We should unite and force the Koos to solve this issue.&quot; 
The TCTU and the Taiwan Petroleum Workers' Union (TPWU) organised the demonstration. 
 
To get the message across, they brought along an outsize &quot;Anti-Lockout Key&quot; and said Koo should use it to &quot;open up&quot; the situation and end the lock-out. 
 
Key points are nothing new to Koo. As chair of the SEF, he has often been involved in delicate discussions between Taipei and Beijing. Yet SEF representatives who met the demonstrators refused even to touch either the key or the accompanying &quot;Anti-Lockout File.&quot; 
 
&quot;We won't give up,&quot; the Taiwanese unions insist. They point to Koo Group shareholder meetings this June, which will be &quot;a great opportunity to make an impact on the shareholders, the company's management and the public.&quot; 
GLOBAL SUPPORT 
 
Both PACE and the TPWU are affiliated to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which is backing the campaign. 
 
&quot;The first anniversary of Continental Carbon's lock-out at Poca City is a deeply shameful one for the company,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs today. &quot;This year-long lock-out is a violation of workers' internationally recognised basic rights and would be illegal in many countries. On behalf of more than 20 million workers worldwide united within the ICEM, I salute the struggle of our American affiliate, PACE. We pledge full support to PACE and its members. Continental Carbon must end the lock-out immediately and bargain in good faith. 
 
&quot;Trade unions in Taiwan have been conducting an exemplary campaign in support of their American colleagues,&quot; Higgs added. &quot;We congratulate the ICEM-affiliated TPWU and the TCTU on this outstanding example of global solidarity in action.&quot; 
 
 
POLLUTION PROBLEMS 
 
Back in the US, Continental Carbon is also at the centre of a dispute between Ponca citizens' groups and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The groups include representatives of PACE and of the Ponca Indian tribe. 
 
At a news conference in Oklahoma City yesterday, the groups accused the DEQ of acting to protect Continental Carbon's profits rather than the environment and people of Oklahoma. The citizens are calling on the DEQ to pursue additional enforcement against Continental Carbon. They also want the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office and the US Environmental Protection Agency to intercede and investigate the DEQ's relationship with the company for possible conflicts of interest. 
 
 
Among other things, the groups allege that the DEQ privately assured the company, immediately after issuing two separate Violation Notices this February, that no penalties would have to be paid. 
 
One of the notices followed a complaint by Continental Carbon employees, who suspected that the company's drinking water system was unsafe. They also believed that the hazardous chemical dibutylphthalate was being poured down the laboratory drain. The ensuing DEQ investigation found the water supply system to be a &quot;potential health hazard&quot;, and the hazardous chemical was found in the laboratory sewer. The second notice charged the company with wastewater system violations. The most serious of these concerned illegal discharges of hydrocarbon-contaminated wastewater.

Year-long lock-out sparks protests in US and Taiwan

To help end corporate support for the Burmese military regime, shareholders in energy multinational Unocal are being urged to back two proposals calling for the adoption of best corporate practices in the company's operations worldwide. 
 
Backing the campaign are the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and the AFL-CIO, which is the national trade union federation in the USA, where Unocal is headquartered. 
 
Shareholders will vote on the resolutions at the company's annual meeting on 20 May. 
 
While many global corporations have withdrawn from Burma, Unocal continues to participate in a 1.2 billion US dollar natural gas joint venture with a firm owned by the Burmese military dictatorship. 
 
Widely condemned for its systematic use of forced labour and other human rights abuses, Burma is subject to US sanctions against new investment. Unocal's investment has exposed the company to potential significant liabilities resulting from two lawsuits filed in US courts by Burmese refugees. They allege Unocal's involvement in human rights violations. 
 
The first shareholder resolution is sponsored by the LongView Collective Investment Fund of the Amalgamated Bank and ICEM American affiliate the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE). It urges the Unocal board of directors to adopt and implement an employee policy based on the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work adopted by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
The second resolution urges the Unocal board of directors to appoint a special committee of the board to review ways to link executive compensation with the company's social performance. It is sponsored by Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, As You Sow Foundation and Walden Asset Management. 
 
The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), one of the world's largest pension funds with assets totalling 156 billion dollars, has already announced its support for both shareholder proposals. 
 
The ICEM and the global labour movement have made it clear that we will not sit back and watch as multinational corporations continue to prop up the brutal military dictatorship in Burma,&quot; said Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary. &quot;We will continue to stand with our brothers and sisters in Burma's outlawed trade union and pro-democracy movements and demand that Unocal follow the example of the many other companies that have disinvested their operations from Burma until full democracy and human rights are restored.&quot; 
 
&quot;Working people investing in Unocal want to make sure that Unocal isn't bolstering a regime in Burma which uses forced labour and commits other human rights abuses,&quot; commented Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer. &quot;The long overdue recent release of Burma democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is a positive sign, but the military junta has yet to show that it is genuinely changing. Until the pro-democracy and trade union movements are allowed full freedom without curbs or harassment, the international demand for economic pressure on the Burmese regime is likely to continue,&quot; said Trumka. 
 
The activities of the two labour federations are part of a global initiative by trade unions to restore democracy and respect for human rights in Burma. In November 2000, the ILO took the extraordinary measure of urging its members to &quot;review their relations with Burma&quot; and &quot;ensure that such relations do not perpetuate the system of forced or compulsory labour in that country.&quot; This has prompted an expanded effort among labour unions to urge foreign companies to withdraw from Burma. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the European Trade Union Confederation issued a call in April for the European Union and its member governments to implement effective economic measures to put pressure on Burma. Britain's Trades Union Congress (TUC) has urged UK investors to support the Amalgamated Bank/PACE resolution.

Unocal Shareholders Urged to Back Corporate Best Practice

The Chinese authorities have stepped up repression against protesting oil workers in the north-eastern city of Daqing, it was reported today. 
 
Meanwhile, the Daqing workers' unofficial union has been contacted by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which has offered them its full support. 
 
Up to 50,000 workers have staged a series of demonstrations in Daqing over the past month, and supporting protests have been reported in other Chinese oil-producing areas. 
 
The Daqing workers had been retrenched from their jobs in one of China's most important state-owned oilfields. Their main grievances concern breaches of their retrenchment agreement with the Daqing Petroleum Administration Bureau (PAB). 
 
In particular, the workers have been protesting over the sudden withdrawal of their winter heating subsidies and against steep increases in the contributions that they have to pay into their social security fund. 
 
They have set up the Daqing PAB Retrenched Workers' Provisional Union Committee, outside of China's official trade union structures. 
 
A Chinese government official has now confirmed that 800 paramilitary police were deployed a week ago to break up the workers' protests, the Hong Kong Liaison Office (IHLO) reports today. The IHLO is run jointly by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the sector-by-sector Global Union Federations, and the Hong Kong union centres HKCTU and HKTUC. 
 
The police are concentrated in Daqing's Iron Man Square. &quot;Since March 25, police have made daily announcements on local radio and TV condemning rising workers' protests for disrupting social order,&quot; reports the IHLO. &quot;The announcement - broadcast several times a day - also warns workers may be forcibly removed from the Square.&quot; 
 
 
GLOBAL UNION SUPPORT 
 
In a message relayed to Daqing, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs sends warm fraternal greetings from the ICEM's more than 20 million members worldwide to &quot;the leadership and membership of the Provisional Workers' Union.&quot; 
 
&quot;Over the last few years,&quot; Higgs points out, &quot;fellow Chinese workers, particularly in the mining and energy sectors, have been losing jobs on a massive scale as a result of industrial restructuring. Whilst hundreds of thousands workers have become redundant, the social implications require the Chinese Government to take measures, in close consultation with workers, to cushion the effects of unemployment. Anything short of this will no doubt result in more poverty, hunger and social upheaval.&quot; 
 
Backing the Daqing workers' demands, Higgs assures them of the ICEM's &quot;full support in your fight against poverty. 
 
&quot;Your determination to succeed against in a very hostile environment has indeed inspired us all, he adds. &quot;But we remain extremely perturbed both by the lack of good faith negotiations to settle the issues in dispute and the heavy-handed response by the authorities.&quot; 
 
The Promotion of Good Industrial Relations in the Oil and Gas Industry was the theme of a recent meeting held by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). Taking part were representatives of the official All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the Chinese government and the Chinese employers, along with participants from 17 other countries. 
 
The ILO meeting achieved &quot;a remarkable consensus on the important role social dialogue amongst all parties can play in promoting good industrial relations,&quot; Higgs tells the Daqing workers. &quot;This is particularly so in the oil and gas sector where governments have the major investments. We therefore fully support your right to organise and to bargain for your interests.&quot; 
 
All parties at the ILO conference, he emphasises,&quot;agreed that 'where reductions in the workforce are likely as a result of corporate restructuring, appropriate measures should be put in place according to good industrial relations practices to protect, as far as possible, workers' rights and interests.' The ICEM played a leading role at this meeting ... We quote these statements in order to confirm the legitimacy and correctness of your demands and actions.&quot; 
 
&quot;We await further direction from you to determine our next course of action in support of your demands,&quot; the ICEM tells the Daqing workers. &quot;Your struggle is our struggle.&quot; 
 
The ICEM has also contacted the official ACFTU and asked it for details of the current situation. 
 
Further support for the Daqing workers has come from the ICFTU, which has now lodged an official complaint with the ILO over the repression directed against independent workers' movements in Daqing and other industrial areas of China. 
 
 
BEATINGS, ARRESTS AND &quot;DISAPPEARANCES&quot; 
 
Workers who have been posting notices or holding banners in Daqing have &quot;disappeared&quot;, the IHLO reports today. It also says that a 50-year-old woman worker was beaten and arrested after making a speech in the Square. She is now thought to be on hunger strike in a detention centre. A 60-year-old retiree has also been arrested, according to the IHLO. His whereabouts are unknown. 
 
&quot;At one point,&quot; the IHLO says, &quot;city government officials offered to hold negotiations with 10 workers' representatives. After the representatives entered City Hall for the talks, workers waiting outside did not see them leave. They were released after three days on condition that they would no longer go to the Square to join the protests. Authorities continue to refuse any negotiations with the workers and have ensured that the Daqing Petroleum Administrative Bureau (PAB) remains sealed off.&quot;

China&#039;s Protesting Oil Workers Get Global Union Backing

Belarus unions will stage a Day of Action tomorrow (Thursday) to defend their basic labour rights. 
 
Trade unions are under mounting pressure in Belarus. The country's President is establishing a monopoly over political power. 
 
Inflation has already eaten away the temporary rise in salaries. 36% of companies are no longer profitable and this figure is rapidly increasing. Non-payment of wages is becoming commonplace and unemployment is looming. 
 
It is no coincidence that the Belarus unions, the only remaining democratic institution in this society, have become the prime target of this totalitarian power. 
 
Over the past few years, unions in Belarus have faced unprecedented state pressure: deliberately bureaucratic recognition procedures; attempts to replace legitimate union leadership with government puppets; threats against union activists; union-bashing at all levels; a ban on international assistance to trade unions; the creation of &quot;yellow&quot; unions; and a ban on the check-off of union dues. 
 
The unions now seriously fear the confiscation of their property, and possibly even the outright banning of trade unions. 
 
The current Belarus regime is openly flouting the Conventions of the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
The Action Day this Thursday 28 March will be held by the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus and is supported by the Congress of Free Trade Unions. Both federations include unions affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). The ICEM and other union internationals are backing the Action Day.

Belarus Unions&#039; Action Day For Labour Rights

Pressure for the release of two Nigerian oilworkers' leaders will further increase at a conference to be held by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Pretoria, South Africa, on 13-18 April. 
 
Union leaders from all over Africa will press the continent's employers and governments to help secure the release of Milton Dabibi, General Secretary of oil and gas workers' union PENGASSAN, and Frank Kokori, General Secretary of oil and gas workers' union NUPENG. They have been detained without charge or trial in Nigeria since 1996 and 1994 respectively. Both unions are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which is campaigning for the two men's release and has put the Nigerian government on notice of targeted international action against Nigerian oil exports unless Kokori and Dabibi are freed. 
 
Both men's health is deteriorating, and they are being denied access to the medical treatment that they need. Both are recognised by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience. 
 
The OAU's Labour and Social Affairs Commission will be hearing more about their cases at its meeting in Pretoria. The commission includes African union representatives, as well as employer and government delegates from across the continent. In his report to the meeting, Hassan Sunmonu, Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU), will raise the Kokori and Dabibi cases and other violations of trade union rights by the military-led Nigerian government. 
 
The OATUU &quot;has repeatedly tried to send a delegation to Nigeria to discuss these issues,&quot; Sunmonu told ICEM UPDATE from the OATUU's headquarters in Accra, Ghana. But the Nigerian government had responded in exactly the same way as to similar approaches from other organisations, including the ICEM and the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). In other words, it had not responded at all. 
 
&quot;The trade union rights situation in Nigeria must be addressed by Africa as a whole,&quot; Sunmonu, himself a Nigerian trade unionist, insisted. He has just returned from the ILO Governing Body meeting in Geneva, where the OATUU fully backed a decision to set up a special ILO commission to investigate the Nigerian situation (see ICEM News release 21/1998).

African Unions Press For Nigerians&#039; Release

Rio Tinto, the world's biggest mining corporation, is roundly condemned in a new motion tabled for debate by Britain's House of Commons. Rio Tinto is headquartered in London. 
 
The motion was brought in by Member of Parliament (MP) Michael Clapham, backed by fellow-MPs Eric Clarke, Tony Benn, Ken Purchase, Ernie Ross and Ann Clwyd. A further 23 MPs have already signed up to the text, which urges Rio Tinto shareholders to drum some ethics into the maverick multinational. 
 
The parliamentary motion in full: 
 
That this House condemns the activities of the Rio Tinto Corporation, which has been identified by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers Unions as probably the most uncaring and ruthless company in the world judged by its appalling record of human and trade union rights violation, community destruction, environmental damage and disregard for the lives of indigenous people in many of the 40 countries where it operates; and calls on the shareholders at the annual general meeting in London on 13th May to demand a halt to its current practices and the introduction of an ethical company policy based on trade union recognition, compassion for its workers and their families and concern for the environment in which they live. 
 
[end of motion] 
 
Rio Tinto's anti-union stance in many parts of the world has made it a priority target for trade union networking by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). The networking also extends to many other campaigning groups on human rights, notably the rights of indigenous peoples, and on environmental issues. Rio Tinto has come in for widespread criticism on all these counts. 

 
PROUD TO BE ANTI-UNION 
 
In its new annual report, to be distributed to shareholders shortly, Rio Tinto writes: &quot;At our operations throughout the world, we respect the right of employees to choose for themselves whether or not they wish to be represented collectively.&quot; 
 
But these pictures tell a very different story. Broadcast on Australian television, they show a ceremony at the company's Hunter Valley No. 1 mine in Australia on 25 June last year. The overwhelming majority of the workers there were on strike over the company's refusal to conclude a collective agreement. So the company mined small amounts of coal by using white-collar staff plus just seven workers who had signed individual employment contracts. 
 
At the ceremony, trophies were handed out celebrating the &quot;First Coal Mined at Hunter Valley No. 1 Mine by Non-Union Labour.&quot; 
 
Footage of this bizarre little rite is included in a new documentary on Rio Tinto, Naked Into The Jungle.

British Legislators Condemn Rio Tinto

US oil, chemical and atomic workers' union the OCAW has stepped up its drive to win the release of Frank Kokori and Milton Dabibi, the Nigerian oil union leaders who have been imprisoned without charge or trial since 1994 and 1996 respectively. 
 
The two Nigerian labour leaders are recognised as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International. Their health is reported to be deteriorating. They have been denied access to adequate medical care and legal assistance. 
 
The OCAW efforts are part of a worldwide campaign to free the jailed labour leaders. The actions are being coordinated by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM), to which the OCAW is affiliated. 
 
The US is the largest importer of Nigerian crude oil. OCAW actions are viewed as a &quot;significant first step to let US oil companies and the Nigerian government know that we are preparing for action,&quot; said Robert Wages, OCAW President, yesterday. The OCAW represents almost all of the unionised oil refinery workers in the US. 
 
Last October, the ICEM put the Nigerian government on notice of targeted international trade union action against Nigerian oil exports unless Dabibi and Kokori are released. In November, Nigerian Head of State Gen. Sani Abacha announced the imminent release of a number of detainees, and it was understood that Dabibi and Kokori were among those to be freed. However, to date, they have not been released. ICEM unions in a number of key oil-importing countries are therefore preparing for action. In the meantime, direct and indirect representations to secure the two union leaders' release are continuing. Dabibi's and Kokori's names are understood to have been on a list of detainees whose release was requested by the Pope during his visit to Nigeria last week. 
 
OCAW campaigning began yesterday at Philadelphia-area refineries operated by Sun Company. Similar efforts will start next week at Tosco, which operates a refinery in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. 
 
&quot;We will be attempting to persuade the companies to find another source of crude oil,&quot; said Roger Bradley, director of OCAW&rsquo;s Atlantic Region. 
 
Informational handbilling and one-on-one discussions will be occurring throughout this week and next at Sun and Tosco refineries in the Philadelphia area. The actions are aimed at informing and educating union members on the situation in Nigeria. OCAW members will also be signing petitions addressed to each company&rsquo;s CEO (chief executive officer), calling for an end to the use of Nigerian crude oil and asking that the CEOs use their leverage to seek the trade union leaders&rsquo; release. 
 
Postcards from OCAW members at the refineries and other OCAW-represented workplaces on the East Coast, demanding the release of Kokori and Dabibi, are being sent to the Nigerian Ambassador in Washington. 
 
The OCAW will gradually escalate its activities, targeting oil refining companies nationwide, until Dabibi and Kokori are released. Other major oil companies importing Nigerian crude into the US are Mobil, Texaco, Chevron, Shell and Phillips Petroleum. 
 
Letters were sent by OCAW President Wages on Tuesday to the CEOs of oil companies which process Nigerian crude, urging them to find an alternative source of crude oil and to use their influence in seeking the Nigerian union leaders' release.

US Oilworkers Press For Nigerians&#039; Release

Archive

Middle East Violence 'Devastating' to Workers

Release Labour Activist Tian Chua, Unions Tell Malaysia

Venezuelan Union Rights Vital For Democracy

Year-long lock-out sparks protests in US and Taiwan

Unocal Shareholders Urged to Back Corporate Best Practice

China's Protesting Oil Workers Get Global Union Backing

Belarus Unions' Action Day For Labour Rights

African Unions Press For Nigerians' Release

British Legislators Condemn Rio Tinto

US Oilworkers Press For Nigerians' Release

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