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The strike by 32,000 Finnish metalworkers that began on 21 October could end tomorrow following a new proposal presented by National Conciliator Esa Lonka last night, 23 October. ICEM affiliate Ammattiliitto Pro, the trade union of salaried workers in Finland, and Metalliliitto, the country&rsquo;s Metalworkers&rsquo; Union, will consider the proposal later today in separate meetings. 
 
The two unions began a first wave of strike actions last Friday against 45 metal and engineering companies that was to run until 7 November, with a second wave of strikes against another 35 firms to begin on that day.
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Lonka&rsquo;s new proposal addresses the unions concerns on a wage package over the next two years, while Finland&rsquo;s government is expected to legislate the other key issue in the dispute &ndash; a three-day annual training and education leave in which employers sought to use its own discretionary control. 
 
Metalliliitto&rsquo;s 38-member Union Council will consider the proposal at 16h today in Helsinki, while Ammattiliitto Pro&rsquo;s Executive Committee will meet at 17h to take up the government conciliator&rsquo;s proposal. If both bodies accept, the 32,000 workers &ndash; 25,000 metalworkers and 7,000 represented by Ammattiliitto Pro &ndash; will be back to work tomorrow, 25 October. 
 
The major discord was over a 4.3% wage increase for two years, an amount Finnish social partners agreed to on 13 October. Metal and technical employers, under the auspices of the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries, or Teknologiateollisuus, sought to structure that pay rise whereby many metalworkers and white-collar workers would not get the full amount. The new proposal given by Lonka last night, 23 October, proposes that it be granted across the board to all 200,000 workers in the country&rsquo;s metal and engineering sector. 
 
Last week&rsquo;s industrial actions also included an overtime ban across all employers in those industrial sectors. An <a href="/en/23-Nordic-Countries/4723-Strikes-Begin-in-Finnish-Metal-Technology-Sector">ICEM report</a> on the start of the strike from last week can be found here.

Conciliator’s New Proposal Expected to End Short Finnish Metalworkers Strike

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Today in Belgrade, the ICEM affiliate Federation of Chemical, Non-Metal, Energy and Mining Trade Union will lead a joint main board meeting with two other Serbian unions on the final stages of a three-way merger. The 40,000-member ICEM affiliate will be joined by the Trade Union of Metalworkers and the Textile, Leather and Shoe Workers&rsquo; Union in an effort to create a single entity with strong growth prospects in the Central European nation. 
 
The new labour organisation is expected to be called the Trade Union of Industry and Energy and an integration Congress will be held in early May 2012. The 2,000-member Metalworkers&rsquo; union was weakened by a split in that organisation in 2010 and the Textile, Leather Union, numbering now only 1,000 dues-paying members, has been plagued by operational difficulties. 
 
Today&rsquo;s meeting is expected to set an agenda in which the two smaller unions will operate as boards of the Chemical, Non-Metal, Energy and Mining Trade Union until next year&rsquo;s merger. Zoran Stojanovic of the ICEM affiliate said the action plan being developed calls for a merged union to actively organise and provide updated services to Serbian industrial workers, particularly in the different energy sectors.

Serbia’s Chemicals, Metal, Textile/Leather Unions Set Agenda for Merger

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The North American Cement and Building Materials Union Network (NACBMUN) met at the headquarters of the United Steelworkers (USW) in the US city of Pittsburgh on 20-21 October. This third network meeting was co-chaired by Steve Brady, Chair of the USW Cement Conference, and Jim Pressley, Vice President of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB). 
 
The main activity of the network, created in 2008, is information exchange via a collective bargaining database, which includes full analysis of each collective agreement in the cement and building products sector. The database is updated annually. Six managers from Lafarge, Cemex&rsquo;s St. Mary&rsquo;s Cement, Essroc were invited to receive a report on business trends and human resource issues. 
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Phee Jungsun, ICEM Materials Industries&rsquo; Officer, presented an industry report and explained the new global labour instruments on protection of trade union rights in supply chains, including the revised OECD Guidelines and the UN Governing Principles on Business and Human Rights. Ongoing labour disputes at Holcim Cement in India and in Guatemala, and a global action plan to combat Holcim&rsquo;s unfair labour practices were reported. 
 
The network extended full solidarity support to contract workers at Holcim&rsquo;s Ambuja Cement in India, who have long been fighting for the right to join a union and to bargain collectively. 
 
The meeting discussed a plan to regularly conduct social dialogue with human resource managers, and participants agreed to extend the dialogue agenda to cover comprehensive subjects including subcontracting and union work along supply chains. A plan on a common organizing drive at unorganized workplaces is set as the main agenda item for a 2012 network meeting, to be held in Canada.

North American Cement, Building Materials Network Meets in Pittsburgh

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The ICEM&rsquo;s Brazilian affiliate ABC Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union project called &quot;The Chemical Industry in 2020 &ndash; A New Direction is Possible&quot; launched earlier this year was finalized with an international conference from 26-28 September in Santo Andre with 150 union leaders, government officials, and business and civil society representatives attending. 
 
The project&rsquo;s main goal is to promote sustainable growth in the Brazilian chemical industry through social dialogue and decent work. ICEM&rsquo;s Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal Ozkan was keynote speaker and the conference fostered many discussions toward achieving 2020 targets by the UN, as well as producing and using chemicals not harmful to human health and to the environment. 
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The event was also an opportunity to prepare the ABC Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union, together with social partners, for the UN&rsquo;s Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20) to be held in June 2012. 
 
With topics covering economic, social, and environmental dimensions, the conference deepened and expanded a series of discussions in three parts with participation of workers, entrepreneurs, public authorities, and others. Another highlight was presenting the ILO report called &quot;Restructuring the Brazilian Chemical Industry and its Impact on Employment and Social Dialogue.&quot; 
 
Paulo Lage, President of ABC Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union, opened the meeting by citing progress made since the first round of discussions in June 2011, especially a joint agenda between the union and the Brazilian Association of Chemical Industry (ABRIQUIM). &quot;Our industry has a terrible trade deficit which directly affects the jobs of workers, and only through debate and dialogue we will have a better world for everyone,&quot; said Lage. 
<img src="" width="170" height="161" alt="" />
Kemal Ozkan
At the conference&rsquo;s opening, Ozkan presented a detailed overview of the world&rsquo;s chemical industry, highlighting the prospects of growth in Asia, particularly China, which today is among the leaders in producing specialty chemicals industry. 
 
Yasuhiko Kamakura, senior ILO specialist for the chemical industry, addressed another important topic &ndash; Social Dialogue in the Chemical Industry. He gave worldwide data on restructuring and the effects of social dialogue, contents of which are contained in the ILO study. He also addressed the trend of mergers in the chemicals industry, saying some four million jobs were lost between between 2000 and 2006 due to corporate integration. 
 
The conference&rsquo;s closing was made by Artur Henrique, the president of Brazilian national labour center, Central &Uacute;nica dos Trabalhadores (CUT) and following, a proposed document was produced to strengthen the Brazilian chemical industry, which will be delivered by the unions and employers to the federal government.

Decent Work, Social Dialogue to Mark Brazilian Chemical Industry

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The 10th Congress of ICEM Turkish affiliate T&uuml;mka-İş, the All Paper and Cellulose Industry Workers&rsquo; Union, was held on 15-16 October at the offices of Birleşik Metal-İş in Istanbul and it paid tribute to Kemal Yilmaz, the president of T&uuml;mka-İş who retired at the Congress after a sterling 50-year career in the Turkish labour movement. 
 
The Congress elected Erg&uuml;n Tavşanoğlu to succeed the storied union leader, while İlhan &Ouml;zel was re-elected as the General Secretary. 
 
Comrade Yılmaz started work in the rubber industry in Turkey and was a member of another ICEM affiliate, Lastik-İş, the Rubber and Plastics Workers&rsquo; Union. While a regional officer for the union in the 1970s, he represented workers at factories defined in the paper industry. It was then that T&uuml;mka-İş was established and he became the first President of the pulp and paper union in the mid-1970s. He was also eleceted to the Executive Committee of Confederation of the Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK), and during the military coup d&rsquo;etat of the 1980s, he was imprisoned for his trade union activity from 1980 to 1984. 
<img src="" width="163" height="161" alt="" />
Kemal Yilmaz
After DISK re-started activities in 1991, he again took the lead in organizing paper workers under the umbrella of T&uuml;mka-İş. He organised workers at several paper companies, including Procter &amp; Gamble, Kimberly Clark and Europackaging. At the Congress nine days ago, the T&uuml;mka-İş Executive Committee praised his achievements and committment to Turkish workers, and pledged that the banner and work of Kemal Yılmaz will never be scaled down. 
 
Delegates to the Congress discussed important legislative matters inside Turkey, as well as the country&rsquo;s paper industry in Turkey, particularly impacts from the financial crisis. According to official figures, employment in the industry dropped down from 34,075 in 2007 to 33,850 in 2008. By the end of 2008, however, Social Security Agency statistics showed an improvement and that has gradually improved to where in April 2011, employment was at 37,696 in 1,930 workplaces. 
<img src="" width="153" height="160" alt="" />
T&uuml;mka-İş Members Voting on 16 October
The Congress demonstrated its determination to organise in the post-crisis environment and precarious employment created through subcontracting was tagged as the main threat in union recruitment. 
 
This 10th Congress of T&uuml;mka-İş coincides with proposed mmodifications to Turkish trade union law to correct some of the deficiencies seen by the ILO. One specific modification relates to the paper sector in defining the exact number of sectors in which trade unions can operate. The proposed modification reduces the number of sectors from 28 to 18. 
 
If passed into law, the paper industry would be merged with the wood industry sector. This would require T&uuml;mka-İş to have to a Congress within a year of enactment to harmonizing its statutes with new provisions of the law. T&uuml;mka-İş and its national labour center, DİSK, find the proposal inadequate, and demand far more democratic measures in order to assure paperworkers the ability to enjoy freedom of association and other trade union rights.

Turkish Tümka-İş Pays Tribute to Retiring Leader, Kemal Yilmaz

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Broad strike activity accelerated a positive wage agreement in the Austrian metal sector. In the early morning hours of 18 October, Austrian trade unions PRO-GE and GPA djp, the Salaried Employees, Print, Journalism, Paper Union, emerged from bargaining on behalf on 170,000 metal and industrial workers with positive results. 
 
The 2011 pay awards will range from 4.2% to 4.4%, with the minimum wage in the sector increasing by &euro;80-per-month, or a sizeable 5.3%. The ICEM commends these wage gains as a sterling European example in creating consumer power to offset the dire financial climate of the Eurozone. PRO-GE and GPA djp are to be congratulated for negotiating &euro;300 million into the Austrian economy in this single set of talks. 
<img alt="" src="" width="180" height="120" />
This was made possible by strategic and early strikes on 13 and 14 October that moved third-round bargaining up from 20 October to 17 October, and forced the employers&rsquo; hand in raising their wage offers to above 4%. (See <a href="/en/5-Mining-DGOJP/4719-Wage-Shame-Drives-Austrian-Metalworkers-into-Warning-Strikes ">ICEM report</a> on Austrian coordinated strikes last week here.) 
 
&ldquo;We have met our main demands of sustainable wage and salary increases, particularly for the lowest paid workers,&rdquo; said Rainer Wimmer, PRO-GE&rsquo;s chief negotiator. &ldquo;I thank the stewards, members, and supporters who made this deal possible. Without the 800 workplace actions and the pressure generated by the strikes, this would not have been possible.&rdquo; 
 
Those surprise strikes were to continue into the week of 17 October, but employers recognised the growing momentum among workers for fair wage gains and they reached settlement on union terms. That recognition came in hastily called exploratory talks held on Sunday, 16 October, that included &Ouml;GB national labour centre President Erich Foglar and the leader of the chief employers&rsquo; association, the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WK&Ouml;). 
<img alt="" src="" width="105" height="160" />
Rainer Wimmer
The two sides then reached accord in the early morning hours of 18 October after a 14-hour bargaining session. 
The agreement grants a 1 November pay rise of 4.4% to bottom rung workers, 4.3 to mid-level, 4.2% to senior staff, and 4% to top level people. In addition, pay for apprentices increases by 4.3% and all benefit indemnifications increase by the same amount. 
 
Perhaps the crowning achievement was hiking the minimum wage by 5.3%, or up to &euro;1,584-per-month. The wage agreement positively affects the buying power for 25,000 autoworkers, 16,000 who work in basic steel and iron, 5,000 in non-ferrous metals, 5,000 in utility work, and tens of thousands more in machinery, metal goods, and other industrial production. 
 
Austria&rsquo;s metal sector agreement now sets the template for 450,000 retail sector workers, who began bargaining through their unions with retail employers on 19 October.

Surprise Strike Brings Austrian Metalworkers Sizeable Wage Gains

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By a 61% vote on 15 October, members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1005 in Hamilton, Ontario, ended U.S. Steel&rsquo;s chokehold on the livelihoods of 900 Canadian workers. Union members accepted a three-year labour agreement that ended a 49-week lockout at the steel mill. 
 
The agreement meant workers began returning to their rightful steel mill jobs on 18 October for week-long health and safety training. Further recalls for the training are expected this week and next. The new pact is not altogether satisfactory because it creates a two-tier pension scheme with new hires placed in an inferior plan, and it ends cost-of-living indexing for 9,000 retirees, a key issue in the 14-month dispute. 
 
U.S. Steel pressured steelworkers into submission by first imposing the lockout on 7 November 2010, and then supplying its Canadian customers from the former Stelco mill in Hamilton with finished steel from American mills. In the end and after nearly one year, most of Local 1005&rsquo;s members were on the verge of losing unemployment insurance benefits, which coupled with the USW&rsquo;s C$200-a-week strike benefit gave workers about two-thirds of their normal income. 
<img alt="" src="" width="218" height="163" />
The agreement contains a C$3,000 ratification bonus, to be paid within 60 days of the 15 October vote, and it also includes a lump sum pay-out of C$1,000 to retirees taking in less than C$1,500-per-month in lieu of annual pension indexing. Active workers will also see reduced cost-of-living annual increases. 
 
A profit-sharing plan for active employees will be implemented in the fourth quarter 2011. It will come from a pool of money totalling 6.5% above C$25 million in earnings from the Hamilton Works and could mean an added C$3,500 in income per worker. Union members will receive credited service for the 11 months of the lockout, meaning some workers will be closer to taking retirement. 
 
All workers will be guaranteed 26 weeks of employment at 40 hours per week. That countered a U.S. Steel proposal from mid-September in which the company sought call-back language that would have left many workers without jobs long after ratification and the end of the lockout. As it is, U.S. Steel will only re-start the coke ovens, the cold line, and the Z line. There are no plans in the near future to re-start Hamilton&rsquo;s blast furnace. 
 
The new agreement, which took effect on 15 October, calls for new hires not to be included in the existing defined benefit pension scheme and placed in a union-administered plan that will see U.S. Steel contribute C$2.50-per-hour worked. 
 
On USW Local 1005&rsquo;s website, union leaders said, &ldquo;We have made a huge effort so that the members can make an informed vote on whether to accept or reject this contract. We wanted to ensure that they are fully aware of the situation they face and of the responsibilities towards not just themselves and their families, but also towards the retirees, the future generation of workers, their union and their community. This whole process has shown that there are serious challenges facing us going forward.&rdquo;

U.S. Steel Canadian Lockout Ends

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Pressure is building on US-based Freeport-McMoRan as talks again broke down with striking miners at the Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde copper and molybdenum mine in southern Arequipa region. A branch union of the ICEM-affiliated National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (FNTMMSP) of Peru met with management on 20 October in an attempt to end the strike, but once again company negotiators refused to move closer to union demands. 
 
Management originally offered a 2,000-sol (US$735) one-time bonus and a 3% pay rise but the union has demanded an 11% increase to current wages. 
 
Very important to the struggle was a government declaration on 30 September that the strike is legal. This is the first time a strike at the mine has been declared legal in its 40-year history. This judgement means Freeport cannot hire temporary replacement workers, or scabs. The company is however using 600 volunteers and management staff to continue operations. This is illegal and has been confirmed to be so by the government, which has ordered the mine to stop its unsafe use of replacement workers or face a fine of 72,000 soles (US$26,500). 
<img alt="" src="" width="241" height="161" />
Replacement workers damaged an ore-crushing facility at the mine, causing a three-day total shutdown until repairs could be made. The copper mine has now exhausted its stockpiled ore. No new blasting is being carried out. Pressure is high on management to meet the union demands. 
 
The indefinite strike is respected by all 1,220 FNTMMSP members at the third largest copper mine in Peru. Miners downed tools on 29 September. 
 
Some strikers went on hunger strikes on 17 October, demanding the company and regional authorities respect their demands. Leoncio Amudio, the secretary general of the branch union of FNTMMSP reported that workers marched on 18 October to the Arequipa regional government headquarters. 
 
The Cerro Verde mine produces some 2% of the world's copper mine. Miners of Cerro Verde are unwilling to accept anything less than an 11% pay increase.

Peru’s Mineworkers’ Strike against Freeport-McMoRan Now in 26th Day

<img src="" width="120" height="59" alt="" />
By a 61% vote on 15 October, members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1005 in Hamilton, Ontario, ended U.S. Steel&rsquo;s total chokehold on the livelihoods of 900 Canadian workers. Union members accepted a three-year labour agreement that ends a 49-week lockout at the steel mill. 
 
The agreement means workers will begin returning to jobs tomorrow, 18 October, for week-long health and safety training. The new pact is not altogether satisfactory because it creates a two-tier pension scheme with new hires placed in an inferior plan, and it ends cost-of-living indexing for 9,000 retirees, a key issue in the 14-month dispute.
<img src="" width="218" height="163" alt="" />
U.S. Steel pressured steelworkers into submission by first imposing the lockout on 7 November 2010, and then supplying its Canadian customers from the former Stelco mill in Hamilton with finished steel from American mills. In the end and after nearly one year, most of Local 1005&rsquo;s members were on the verge of losing unemployment insurance funds, which coupled with the USW&rsquo;s C$200-a-week strike benefit gave workers about two-thirds of their normal income. 
 
The agreement contains a C$3,000 ratification bonus, to be paid within 60 days of Saturday&rsquo;s vote, and it also includes a lump sum pay-out of C$1,000 to retirees taking in less than C$1,500-per-month in lieu of annual pension indexing. Active workers will also see reduced cost-of-living annual increases. 
 
A profit-sharing plan for active employees will be implemented in the fourth quarter 2011. It will come from a pool of money totalling 6.5% above C$25 million in earnings from the Hamilton Works and could mean an added C$3,500 in income per worker. Union members will receive credited service for the 11 months of the lockout, meaning some workers will be closer to taking retirement. 
 
All workers will be recalled and they will be guaranteed 26 weeks of employment at 40 hours per week. That countered a U.S. Steel proposal from mid-September in which the company sought call-back language that would have left many workers without jobs long after ratification and the end of the lockout. 
 
In the new agreement, which takes effect today, new hires will not be included in the existing defined benefit pension scheme and placed in a union-administered plan that will see U.S. Steel contribute C$2.50-per-hour worked. 
 
On USW Local 1005&rsquo;s website, union leaders said, &ldquo;We have made a huge effort so that the members can make an informed vote on whether to accept or reject this contract. We wanted to ensure that they are fully aware of the situation they face and of the responsibilities towards not just themselves and their families, but also towards the retirees, the future generation of workers, their union and their community. This whole process has shown that there are serious challenges facing us going forward.&rdquo;

Canadian Steelworkers Ratify U.S. Steel Pact, Lockout Ends

<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="59" />
ICEM Austrian affiliate PRO-GE and GPA djp, the Salaried Employees, Print, Journalism, Paper Union, sent stern warning last week to metal and industrial employers on 2011 wage packages. After second round bargaining failed on 12 October to close pay differences, workers surprised the industry by launching one-to-three hour warning strikes the very next day. 
Some 300 Austrian employers witnessed workers&rsquo; reaction last Thursday to the bosses&rsquo; proposal of a miserly half-percent above the 3.1% offer tabled in the opening round on 4 October. The strikes escalated on 14 October when the unions targeted 60 employers for 24-hour work stoppages. 
<img alt="" src="" width="160" height="160" />
PRO-GE and GPA djp are negotiating on behalf of 170,000 metal, mining, and energy workers in Austria. Workers and their unions are steadfast that 5.5% is due them on 1 November. Their rationale is that productivity gains combined with healthy balance sheets and a September inflation rate of 3.6% warrants nothing less than the 5.5%. 
&ldquo;We know that the money is there,&rdquo; said PRO-GE Chief Negotiator Rainer Wimmer. 
PRO-GE and GPA djp have laid down a precision perfect strategy of rapid mobilization keyed on bargaining developments, or non-developments as was the case last week. The unions held hundreds of meetings with workers inside companies from 5-7 October after first round talks went nowhere, and then they held 400 mobilization meetings on 10-11 October in preparation for the 12 October second round. 
<img alt="" src="" width="105" height="160" />
Rainer Wimmer
Going into Friday&rsquo;s escalated industrial actions, leaders of the two unions offered to continue talks over the weekend but a shell-shocked employers&rsquo; association representative would only say that 20 October is the next scheduled bargaining date. That means more job actions are likely to occur early this week, with the ICEM learning that the number of enterprises in which workers chose strike actions last week grew exponentially. 
Industrial workers realize that a 5.5% wage increase is fair compensation for inflation and a fair share of the expected 2011 economic growth of 3% that has been brought on by industrial productivity. In 2009, during the height of the financial crisis, metal/industrial negotiations produced a 1.45% salary increase, while in 2010 that increase was 2.45%. Now, Austria is posting strong export numbers and purchasing power during the first half of 2011 is on the climb. 
In a joint statement, Wimmer and GPA djp Deputy Federal Director Karl Proyer said, &ldquo;The fact that sustainable wage and salary increases are economically viable means that we can further support and strengthen purchasing power, thus boost the economy of Austria.&rdquo; 
Just some of the workplaces where 24-hour stoppages took place on Friday include the engine-maker MAN in Steyr, Opel assembly at Aspern Airfield, Opel powertrain at Donaustadt, Schindler-Aufz&uuml;ge in Vienna, Doppelmayr chair lifts in Wolfurt, Bosch in Hallein, Magna car parts in Steyr, Andritz AG in Graz, and Salinen AG salt mines in Ebensee.

Wage Shame Drives Austrian Metalworkers into Warning Strikes

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