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Nigerian oilworkers may pull out of the country's oil-producing region unless steps are taken immediately to ensure their safety. 
 
That is the warning from oilworkers' union PENGASSAN, which at the global level is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions. 
 
The union gave Nigeria's brand-new democratically elected government one month to tackle the root causes of violence in the oil-producing areas. Otherwise, oilworkers may stop work and move to other parts of the country. 
 
Communities in the oil-rich Niger Delta say they have borne the negative effects of oil extraction, such as the pollution of fishing grounds, without reaping any of the benefits. Dissent in these areas was severely repressed by Nigeria's military dictatorship. The frustrations that this has produced, added to ethnic tensions, have fuelled violence in which oilworkers are frequently targeted. 
 
PENGASSAN's National Executive Committee was meeting today in Warri, at the heart of the troubled oil-producing region, to decide further action. 
 
The union's President Shina Luwoye emphasised that PENGASSAN will not leave the area for as long as its members continue working there. However, he warned that oilworkers would no longer put up with being the targets of violence. 
 
&quot;Apparently, the safety of our members can no longer be guaranteed, as continued cases of arson, tribal killings, hijacks and hostages have threatened both the safety and the security of jobs, personnel and families,&quot; Luwoye said. &quot;In the last three months, for example, operations in Shell, Chevron, Mobil and Agip were most times below 50 per cent of available capacity.&quot; 
 
He said Mobil workers had been reportedly locked out and abducted by community protesters this May, and that seven Chevron staff may have been killed in Warri earlier this year. Two Shell staff had &quot;sustained gun wounds from a shoot-out between soldiers and aggrieved youths in the Western division of the company.&quot; There had also been &quot;cases of arson against facilities and community assistance projects of Chevron, Elf and [national oil utility] SPDC.&quot; 
 
Luwoye said the new government should give high priority to a &quot;legislative and economic framework for the permanent solution of the Niger Delta crisis.&quot; It should also implement &quot;feasible economic and social development initiatives and projects for the Niger Delta&quot;, including &quot;integrated and sustainable agricultural development.&quot; Consideration should be given to establishing a university in Bayelsa state. 
 
Meanwhile, Luwoye insisted, the new government should &quot;immediately set up dialogue and arbitration processes to resolve all conflicts and guarantee immediate restoration of law and order in the Niger Delta.&quot; In the longer term, &quot;the importance of true federalism&quot; for Nigeria &quot;can never be overstressed,&quot; Luwoye said.

Nigerian Oilworkers Warn New Government : End Violence Or We Leave

110,000 chemical workers in Germany's North Rhine area will receive a 3 per cent pay rise from today. 
 
The wage hike was agreed in the early hours of this morning, after tough bargaining between the workers' union, IG BCE, and the chemical employers. Also included in the package is a one-off extra payment of 200 deutschmarks for May 1999. In all, this represents an average income rise of 3.1 per cent. Apprentices' pay is also to be increased. 
 
The new agreement runs until 31 May 2000. Identical deals are now likely throughout the western German chemical industry - altogether, some 590,000 workers in 1,700 enterprises. The country's eastern states have separate bargaining arrangements. 
 
The hard-won deal is &quot;a viable compromise&quot; and &quot;respectable in the context of this year's bargaining climate,&quot; commented IG BCE's head of bargaining Werner Bischoff this morning. &quot;Now, structural questions within the chemical industry must be tackled through collective bargaining,&quot; Bischoff insisted. &quot;We'll be dealing with this in the course of the next few months.&quot; 
 
At the global level, IG BCE is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

German Chemicals Pay Rise

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has ordered the government to ensure full payment of wages owed to the country's nuclear workers. Staff at Ukraine's five nuclear power stations, including Chernobyl, are owed more than US$15 million. They are threatening to launch an indefinite strike unless they are paid in full. 
 
A meeting took place on Monday afternoon between President Kuchma, leaders of the nuclear workers' union ATU, government ministers and top management of the national nuclear power utility Energoatom. 
 
ATU President Alexander Jurkin and the power station workers' leader O. Litch told Kuchma that the nuclear workers will maintain their protest campaign until the wage debt is fully paid. Emphasising the highly responsible line taken by the nuclear union so far, they informed the President that pressure from the union's rank-and-file for full strike action is continuing to grow. A strike originally called for this Monday was postponed to allow further talks on the dispute. 
 
According to information just received by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the ATU is affiliated, President Kuchma immediately ordered the Ukrainian government to settle the dispute and put the country's debt-ridden energy sector back on a sound financial footing. In particular, he told Deputy Prime Minister V. Kurachenko, who was present at the meeting, to take personal charge of resolving the crisis. He also ordered Kurachenko to attend a plenary meeting with the union, scheduled for 30 March. 
 
During Monday's meeting, Kuchma is understood to have telephoned the heads of the National Bank, of the state prosecutors and of the security services. He reportedly told the National Bank to facilitate the opening of new credit lines for the nuclear industry. The prosecutor's office and the security services were ordered to stop harassing the ATU's branch offices. 
 
Protesting workers are continuing to gather in the &quot;canvas cities&quot; of tents pitched around the nuclear power stations.

Chernobyl Crisis: Wages Must Be Paid, Ukrainian President Says

South African affiliate NUM had a successful conclusion to a Special Congress 6-8 May in Midrand, near Johannesburg. The Congress aim is to embark on a course of organizational restructuring and realignment.

South African NUM’s Congress Issues Call to Restructure

Tyre multinational Goodyear must rescind anti-union practices and sackings in its Guatemalan operations, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) insisted today. The ICEM, which organises tyre workers worldwide, runs an international network of unions representing workers in Goodyear operations. 
 
And American Goodyear workers have warned that the Guatemalan situation could &quot;erode the collective bargaining process&quot; with Goodyear in the company's home country, the USA. 
 
&quot;The Guatemalan Goodyear workers' union STGINSA has informed us of serious breaches of trade union rights by Goodyear Guatemala,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;We urge the company to investigate this situation immediately, and to ensure that its Guatemalan management respects both the company's global standards of labour relations and the universal trade union rights enshrined in the Conventions of the UN's International Labour Organisation. This is essential to the constructive relationship that we are striving to build with Goodyear at the global level.&quot; 
 
The ICEM Goodyear network unions met members of the company's global corporate management in the US this January. &quot;One of the issues raised during those discussions was the working conditions, and particularly health and safety, at Goodyear operations in Guatemala and Malaysia,&quot; Higgs recalled. &quot;The company promised to look into the situation. We trust that it will do so, and that it will take all necessary remedial action without delay.&quot; 
 
The Guatemalan union has told the ICEM that Goodyear Guatemala summarily dismissed 48 production workers and suspended the employment contracts of two members of the union's executive this February. This, the union points out, &quot;breaches our collective agreement, the labour laws of this country and International Labour Conventions ratified by the state of Guatemala.&quot; The company has ignored rulings by the country's labour authorities that it should cease its anti-union action. 
 
The union also says that local management has threatened to close the plant down. Goodyear Guatemala has recently been pressing for union concessions, notably on &quot;labour flexibility&quot;, and STGINSA believes the company's real intention is to &quot;submit workers to a state of slavery, by attempting to undo the gains won at such cost by the working class.&quot; 
 
In a letter to Goodyear corporate management in the USA, the ICEM-affiliated United Steelworkers of America (USWA) warns that &quot;the harsh actions reportedly being undertaken by Goodyear in Guatemala&quot; will &quot;ultimately erode the collective bargaining process that is critical to the relationship&quot; between the company and the USWA. In his letter, USWA Goodyear Coordinator Ron Hoover says the company must &quot;take the necessary steps to restore the proper integrity to the collective bargaining process and protect the company's 'Good Name'.&quot; 
 
The USWA hosted this January's meeting of the global Goodyear union network, which is chaired by USWA Vice-President Richard Davis.

Unions Press To End Goodyear&#039;s Anti-Labour Practices In Guatemala

A complaint just issued by the official US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is the &quot;first step toward possible prosecution&quot; of Imerys, a leading materials, minerals and ceramics multinational. 
 
So says America's Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical &amp; Energy Workers Union (PACE). The new NLRB complaint found merit in several charges lodged by the union. 
 
Imerys is the target of a global trade union campaign launched by PACE and the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Organised labour worldwide is bolstering Imerys workers in Sylacauga, Alabama, as they fight to maintain union recognition there. The employer in Sylacauga is Imerys American subsidiary ECCA Calcium Carbonates, Inc. 
 
&quot;Let there be no doubt - the company's vigorous effort to de-unionise even includes disdainful violation of US laws protecting workers from harassment,&quot; said Joe Drexler, PACE Director of Special Projects. &quot;Our union allies at the company's operations in England and France can now see the stark contrast with the high-road industrial relations it practises closer to home.&quot; 
 
The NLRB complaint names ECCA Vice-President Ray Barker, Sylacauga Plant Manager Randy Sandrik and five other managers. The NLRB alleges that Barker instructed supervisors to maintain records of employees' union sentiments; that Sandrik threatened employees who supported union organising efforts; and that two supervisors interrogated employees about their union activities. All are violations of Section 8(a)(1) of the US National Labor Relations Act, which prohibits employer interference, restraint or coercion of employees exercising their rights to organise. 
 
ECCA is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Imerys USA, Inc., formed by the 1999 merger of Imetal and English China Clays, Inc. Prior to the merger, Imetal and ECC operated neighbouring plants in Sylacauga, with the Imetal facility represented by PACE. On the effective date of the companies' merger, Imerys withdrew recognition from PACE and repudiated the labour contract (collective agreement) signed by Imetal and PACE. 
 
&quot;The issuance of this complaint by the Board puts the authority of the USA government behind the charges made by PACE and the Sylacauga employees beginning last September,&quot; said Attorney Robert Weaver, who filed the charges on behalf of PACE. &quot;For months the company has said there was nothing to the charges, and more recently that the charges were 'insignificant.' The Board's investigation and this complaint show just how high up the corporate ladder the violations go.&quot; 
 
PACE and the ICEM have highlighted the company's hiring of professional union-busters in an aggressive drive against PACE efforts to organise workers in Alabama and elsewhere in the southeastern USA. 
 
The company drive includes obligatory meetings at which employees are shown anti-union videos, while not permitted to ask questions. In a recent trip to discuss the situation with European labour leaders, Sylacauga worker Keith Fulbright said the videos, the interrogation and company threats to cut wages and remove benefits have many workers &quot;scared to death.&quot; 
 
The global labour campaign on Imerys is receiving strong support, notably from unions in France, where the company is headquartered and has production sites; in England, another big Imerys production centre; and in Belgium, where financiers the Frere family are major investors in the company. 
 
&quot;Imerys is a chameleon corporation,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Brussels today. &quot;It is preaching social partnership on one side of the Atlantic and bashing unions on the other. That is simply not on, and we have made this very clear to Imerys corporate management in Paris. Ultimately, the company's world headquarters bears the responsibility for the actions of its American management. We call upon Imerys to end immediately its anti-union campaign in the USA and to embark on a new, constructive relationship with the ICEM and its affiliated unions worldwide.&quot;

Imerys Could Be Prosecuted, US Union Says

A new safety culture is urgently needed at the Sellafield nuclear plant, British trade unions insisted today. 
 
Britain's official Health and Safety Executive this morning released three highly critical reports on safety at Sellafield, which is run by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). 
 
&quot;The time has come for all at Sellafield to accept a collective responsibility,&quot; commented Jack Dromey, spokesman for the BNFL industrial trade unions. &quot;We must build a new world-class safety culture, rooting out the remaining vestiges of the old discredited culture of complacency. 
 
&quot;A failure to act will threaten the very future of the 20,000-strong company,&quot; Dromey said. &quot;The reports are a devastating indictment and utterly unacceptable.&quot; 
 
Dromey is National Organiser at Britain's T&amp;G union. Trade unions at Sellafield include the AEEU, GMB, MSF, T&amp;G and UCATT. 
 
The three inspectorate reports examine various aspects of the Sellafield operation, notably the falsification of quality control data on some batches of uranium and plutonium mixed-oxide (Mox) fuel. These nuclear fuels are reprocessed at Sellafield for a number of clients. The main overseas customer is Japan, whose nuclear plants have stopped using the Mox as a fuel since the false documentation was first discovered last year. The inspectorate says Sellafield's Mox facility, now out of operation, will not be allowed to reopen until a number of changes have been made. These include new monitoring equipment; retraining of workers - several of whom were sacked over the incidents; and big improvements in Sellafield's supervision and management. 
 
Another of the reports draws three conclusions about safety at Sellafield: &quot;The first is that there is a lack of a high quality safety management system across the site which is compounded by an overly complex management structure. The second is that there are insufficient resources to implement even the existing safety management system. The third is a lack of an effective independent inspection, auditing and review system within BNFL. Without a vigorous independent inspection, auditing and review system, the Health and Safety Executive does not see how BNFL can make acceptable and timely progress in delivering a high quality safety management system across the site.&quot; 
 
The reports are &quot;a bitter blow to all those who have worked hard over many years, to challenge old complacency and put in place, in 1999, the building-blocks for a bright future for BNFL,&quot; Dromey said. &quot;The unions drove through the most radical pay and change agreement anywhere in the economy for ten years. This was designed to deliver world-class working practices, and end the Sellafield culture of long working hours. The unions also backed the proposed Public/Private Partnership, essential to introducing new commercial and management disciplines. 
 
&quot;But old habits at Sellafield die hard,&quot; Dromey stated. &quot;The company must bear the brunt of the blame for the fragmentation of the management and irresponsible cuts to manning levels.&quot; 
 
&quot;Finger-pointing, buck-passing and alibi-seeking would be wrong,&quot; Dromey insisted. &quot;There is a collective responsibility for what has gone wrong. The workers at Sellafield are determined to play their part in putting that right. The unions fully support the company's recovery plan (launched today). Combined with the unions' commitment to the proposed Public/Private Partnership, this represents the best hope for a strong future for Sellafield and BNFL.&quot;

Urgent Action Needed At British Nuclear Plant, Say Unions

FCE CFDT also said recent financial figures of EDF suggests the company&rsquo;s stated ill health in 2004 was exaggerated in order to prepare the public for partial privatisation of the state-run company. If finances are maintained for two further years at 2004 tax levels, the union contends, the company will be stable enough not to have to deliver any EDF stake into the hands of private capital.

False Signals Sent Over EdF’s Finances in 2004

A 12-week strike by iron ore workers in eastern Canada ended after the Iron Ore Co. of Canada (a Rio Tinto subsidiary) sweetened a proposal over the one 1,400 strikers barely rejected in early September. The three-year deal with affiliate United Steelworkers of America (USWA) contains no concessions and gives miners, processing plant workers and dock workers a C$1 increase over the contract&rsquo;s term and a C$500 lump sum payment. Meanwhile, 300 workers at Wabush Mines will vote on a five-year contract this week after a deal was struck with the USWA 8 October to end a 15-week iron ore strike in Labrador, eastern Canada.

Iron Ore Strikes in Eastern Canada Winding Down

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Goodyear&rsquo;s neutrality is not evident in Malaysia, however, where the US firm is busy suspending union officers, violating labour rights, exploiting foreign workers and relying on rampant outsourcing. 
ICEM affiliate National Union of Employees in Companies Manufacturing Rubber Products (NUECMRP) is locked in a dispute with Goodyear Malaysia Bhd. in Selangor with the company. The union is faced with restructuring while Goodyear continues to exceed quotas on foreign workers, namely from Nepal, Burmaand Vietnam. 
The NUECMRP branch at Selangor, numbering about 500 workers, has staged a series of informational pickets to support the suspended officers, as well as nine other workers who have been dismissed or suspended.

Goodyear Violating Union Rights in Malaysia

Archive

Nigerian Oilworkers Warn New Government : End Violence Or We Leave

German Chemicals Pay Rise

Chernobyl Crisis: Wages Must Be Paid, Ukrainian President Says

South African NUM’s Congress Issues Call to Restructure

Unions Press To End Goodyear's Anti-Labour Practices In Guatemala

Imerys Could Be Prosecuted, US Union Says

Urgent Action Needed At British Nuclear Plant, Say Unions

False Signals Sent Over EdF’s Finances in 2004

Iron Ore Strikes in Eastern Canada Winding Down

Goodyear Violating Union Rights in Malaysia

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