English

Español

Français

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Action Plan 2021-2025

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

Women

Youth

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected Officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Press

The ICEM banner in Democratic Republic of Congo continues to show hope for the war-torn country. Last month 13 unions led by ICEM&rsquo;s two Congolese affiliates&mdash;the petrol/chemical union FNTPEC and mining union FENAMICO&mdash;came together in unity and industrial democracy under the ICEM&rsquo;s Regional Shop Steward Development Project of Africa. With war and strife receding in the Congo and multinational concerns rapidly eyeing mining and energy opportunities, the unions have agreed to work together to promote effective leadership and shop steward networks. ICEM Regional Chairperson and NUM President Senzeni Zokwana from South Africa is instrumental in coordination.

ICEM Education Project Making Headway in Congo

The CEP, meanwhile, welcomed 340 Shell oil workers from Montreal into their ranks. An unaffiliated local union there voted to join Canada&rsquo;s dominate energy, paper and communications union and will become CEP Local 121.

Shell Stand-Alone Union in Montreal Joins Canadian CEP

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

Warning Strike Launched by Brazilian Oil Union at Petrobras

<img height="40" src="" width="100" alt="" />
The worst US refinery explosion in over a decade happened at a BPAmoco complex in Texas City, Texas, on 23 March. PACE represents some 1,100 workers at the refinery with a total workforce of 1,800, counting contract employees. 
A total of 15 workers&mdash;all employed by contractors&mdash;died in the blast that occurred near an isomerization unit that boosts octane levels of petrol. The unit was being restarted at the time of the explosion after undergoing scheduled maintenance. 
Over 100 other workers were injured and about 80 of those are employed by contractors. Major contractors, who together with BP will share responsibility for the explosion, include Jacobs Engineering, JE Merit and Fluor.

BP Explosion in US State of Texas Deadly for Contract Workers

US affiliates United Steelworkers (USWA) and PACE will conduct concurrent conventions next week in which PACE members will vote on a merger agreement with the USWA. But continuing the unions&rsquo; two-year-old joint strategic pact developed to take up political and strategic social issues, USWA and PACE targeted 60 Weyerhaeuser forest products worksites last week in the US and Canada with the union message. PACE and the USWA are the ranking one, two North American unions representing Weyerhaeuser workers in forestry, solid wood products, pulp, paper and paperboard worksites. &ldquo;We are stronger as workers when we work together, and we are demonstrating that strength to (Weyerhaeuser),&rdquo; said Gerald Johnston, PACE Regional Vice President and Weyerhaeuser Union Council Chairman.

PACE, USWA in US Braced to Merge

<img height="40" src="" width="100" alt="" />
After one strike ultimatum given in March to Nigeria&rsquo;s oil industry was lifted to conduct further talks, affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN are prepared now to take three-day strike action beginning 11 April. Talks broke off 30 March between the two unions and several global oil companies and their contractors and mediation is being done by the country&rsquo;s Ministry of Labour and Productivity. 
At issue is the ever increasing number of expatriate workers entering Nigeria&rsquo;s oil sector, a fact that shatters set quota levels. The two unions also list among issues casualisation, deductions in worker salaries to fund pension benefits, and Nigeria&rsquo;s downstream restructuring programme which already has brought 4,700 redundancies. NUPENG and PENGASSAN members are wearing red shirts and other red items in the days leading up to the planned 11 April action.

Strike Threat in Nigerian Oil Industry Over Expat Workers

China recorded further mass deaths in yet another coal mine disaster over the weekend. On 19 March, a gas blast at Xishui colliery near Shuozhou, Shanzi province, killed 60, with another nine miners still missing. The explosion collapsed a wall in the adjacent Kangjiayao mine and several of the dead and trapped miners were working there. The Xishui mine was ordered shut last November for safety reasons, but mine owners&mdash;now being held by police&mdash;restarted production early this year in defiance of authorities. This latest disaster comes a mere two days after another gas explosion killed 19 miners in Chongquing in southwestern Sichuan province. And on 14 March, a gas blast at Qitaihe Coal Field Group killed 18 at the Xinfu mine in Qitaihe, Heilongjiang province.

Three Chinese Mine Accidents Kill 100

<img height="40" src="" width="100" alt="" />
South African chemicals company Sasol had yet another fatality at its Secunda, Mpumalanga, synfuels plant. And again it involved a contract worker. On 15 March, a worker for US contractor Fluor was killed in an accident inside the plant&rsquo;s pipe fabrication shop. 
The fatality is the seventh major incident at Sasol operations since a contract employee at Secunda allegedly caused a blast last September, killing ten and injuring 360. Welilo Nolingo, General Secretary of ICEM affiliate Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union, was on site following the death to talk to workers. 
CEPPWAWU said Sasol was refusing to take responsibility for this latest incident. Last month, CEO Pieter Cox said the company was reviewing safety procedures for all contractors after safety related incidents at both Secunda and a refinery in Sasolburg, Free State. A South African radio station reported after this latest death that another contractor performing maintenance work for Sasol was doing that work without the necessary permits.

Contract Worker Victim at Sasol Chemicals in South Africa

A strike by glass workers of several Belgian unions at Glaverbel&rsquo;s AGC Automotive Fleurus ended 15 March in a negotiated settlement over a restructuring plan. The strike, begun in December in the southern Belgian town of Fleurus, included ICEM affiliates CG-FGTB and white-collar SETCa-BBTK. Negotiators managed to soften the impact of those being retrenched by gaining additional severance pay, getting early retirement after age 50, and reducing the cuts from 284 to 247 at the 800- worker factory. Glaverbel is owned by Asahi Glass, the world&rsquo;s second largest glassmaker.

Belgian Unions End Strike at Glass Plant

Members of UK&rsquo;s Transport &amp; General Workers Union at Michelin&rsquo;s Stoke tyre plant in the Midlands are in their 11th day of industrial action following the French company&rsquo;s refusal to consolidate a pay offer with pension, holiday and other benefits. The 400 workers rejected a non-consolidated pay offer 10 March for the second time and are refusing overtime and all cooperative programmes with management. Tying the pay offer of 3% also to pensions and other benefits would cost Michelin less than the revised offer the company made last week that included performance-related payments, said T&amp;G. Workers staged a mass protest outside the factory 15 March, the same day Michelin announced its 2004earnings topped those of 2003 by 60%, &pound; 358 million to 220 million.

Industrial Action at Michelin in the UK

Archive