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A unified strike by members of three unions at Saint-Gobain glass plants in Belgium ended Friday, 10 July. But not before Auvelais workers at the French multinational made a defining stand in this industrial action: no company will be allowed to use the financial crisis as a pretext to implement common restructuring! 
 
Workers returned to their jobs 11 July, after voting 58 to 48% to end the nine-day strike, a strike that saw two plants totally blockaded for most of that time. A mediated agreement was put forward on 8 July. The dispute started in February 2009, when Saint-Gobain proposed 241 job cuts. Over the ensuing months, Saint-Gobain resisted all practical alternatives put forward by social partners. 
 
Some 880 are employed at the twin plants of Saint-Gobain Sekurit and Saint-Gobain Knell near Charleroi, in southern Belgium. 
When the strike started &ndash; 2 July, after months of fruitless bargaining &ndash; the company still wanted 215 job cuts. The unions, including ICEM affiliates Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale-FGTB/ABVV and the CSC/ACV, proposed constructive options to the job cuts. But these proposals were ignored. Saint-Gobain as well sought cuts to worker entitlements, such as pre-pension benefits, transfer compensation, and severance on voluntary departures. 

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&ldquo;The absence of meaningful dialogue is an insult to what is now demanded,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We know that Saint-Gobain is guilty of social dumping and we also know that this conduct is not related to the financial crisis.&rdquo; 
 
Trade union strikers blocked access to all company assets at Saint-Gobain Knell throughout the strike, and at Sekurit, a blockade was lifted partially in the sixth day of the strike. Other restructurings have occurred in these Wallonian plants. In May 2008, 100 jobs were cut. The Sekurit plant makes flat glass, while the Knell operation makes glass in building and construction products. 
 
The ICEM extended support to the strikers during the labour action. &ldquo;The ICEM questions Saint-Gobain and its motives in using the world&rsquo;s economic crisis to gain financial strength in the restructuring of the Belgian factories,&rdquo; the Global Union Federation wrote Belgian union members. &ldquo;The ICEM and its family of trade unions worldwide stand with you in Auvelais as you take justified industrial actions.&rdquo; 
 
Saint-Gobain has faced fierce resistance to job cuts in other parts of Europe, as well. Strikes in Italy and France occurred in April and May, and European trade union federations manifested at Saint-Gobain offices in Paris on 20 May. 
 
Currently, CGT in France has called for urgent talks with the company at Mers-les-Bains over 100 proposed job cuts, and social partners at Saint-Gobain Desjonqu&egrave;res in Real Sitio, Spain, began deep discussions over a proposed six-week shutdown in August and September, affecting 180 workers. 
 
In Germany, IGBCE, EWC, and Saint-Gobain completed social talks related to transfer and re-skilling at Saint-Gobain Vetrotex operations.

Financial Stress Brings Industrial Unrest to Belgian Glass Sector

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Workers at the Bridgestone aerospace tyre plant in Frameries, Belgium, will hit the five-week mark on strike this Thursday, 16 July. The strike was brought on by the Japanese-based company&rsquo;s refusal to negotiate. A company decision on whether or not to close down a 140-worker re-treading factory in Frameries has not been communicated to workers and their majority representative, Belgian affiliate Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale-FGTB, and the union exhausted all legal means before striking on 11 June. 
 
That strike came when Bridgestone unilaterally decided to dismiss all 8 workers in one area of the factory without proper social talks. Many of those workers had been on the job for over 20 years. One of the dismissed workers is a senior trade union officer and secretary of the Works Council, who has been working at the plant since 1980. 

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Bridgestone has disrupting social harmony in Frameries, despite a formal commitment to protect jobs in the current collective bargaining agreement. Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale-FGTB insisted that the company exam all options to safeguard employment, including part-time redundancy, early retirement, in-house transfers, time credit, or other such social options. The union also stresses that 14 workers are employed at Frameries on short-term contracts. 
 
Local management at Bridgestone-Frameries has continued its anti-labour practices throughout the strike. Instead of seeking reasonable solutions through dialogue, managers will not even answer telephone calls to address issues. 

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Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale-FGTB condemns such practices, calling them immoral and reprehensible and also condemns the company for criminalizing its own workers who are only defending their rights. 
 
The ICEM also condemns such social behaviour. &ldquo;At the heart of Europe, in Belgium, a multinational company is deciding on issues of employment outside the lawful prerequisites of the social model,&rdquo; said General Secretary Manfred Warda. He added that ICEM&rsquo;s Bridgestone Global Union Network addressed this strike recently in its deliberations and put the issue forward to Japanese senior management. 
 
Bridgestone on the corporate level has not responded. The ICEM is asking global affiliates to send a solidarity message in your own words and your own language to Bridgestone-Frameries workers by clicking <a href="mailto:alain.denooze@accg.be">here</a>.

Bridgestone Tyre Re-treading Strike Continues in Belgium

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The ten-year existence of the ICEM&rsquo;s BASF Workers' Network in South America was celebrated on 30 June 2009 in S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil. The event was attended by more than 100 guests, partners from the trade union movement, employers, workers, and managers from throughout the chemicals industry in Brazil. 
 
As the experiences of the first ten years of the network's operations were recalled from both trade union and company point of view. The network coordinator mentioned the main struggles that occurred and went into the network's future challenges. Those include the issues of subcontracting, health and safety, and unfair dismissals. 

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The ten-year anniversary celebration of ICEM&rsquo;s most successful regional workers&rsquo; network came between two, full working days of the Network, on 29 June and July 1. 
 
The presentation by Wagner Brunini, BASF Human Resources Director for South America, gave evidence to the company&rsquo;s commitment to the network and its appreciation to all forms of workers' representation. Brunini defined one challenge: informing and training all management staff to create a new management culture. 

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Michael Vassiliadis 
Thematic panels were also held during the event on social dialogue, presented by IGBCE Board Member Michael Vassiliadis, and on sustainable enterprises, presented by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. 
 
Vassiliadis emphasised that the workers' experience at BASF in South America ought to serve as a social dialogue example for other companies. According to Vassiliadis, society's interest in this labour relations practice has to be awakened. 
 
&quot;We need trade unions and trade unionists who cultivate a sensible relationship with companies,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;It is necessary to define our requirements and to know where we need to go with dialogue.&quot; 
 
Warda pointed to important fundamentals for sustainable enterprises: &quot;Listen to what the other side is saying, comprehend its needs, and exercise mutual respect.&quot; 
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At the end of the ceremony, an excellent publication was distributed, entitled, &quot;Rede de Trabalhadores na BASF Am&eacute;rica do Sul: 10 anos de Solidariedade Sindical e Di&aacute;logo Social,&quot; a homage to those who conceived of and founded the network. 
 
ICEM Latin America/Caribbean Vice President Sergio Novais coordinated the event, which was also attended by the IGBCE International Officer Michael Wolters, and the President of BASF South America, Dr Rolf-Dieter Acker.

BASF South American Network Celebrates Ten Fruitful Years

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An oil workers&rsquo; trade union, affiliated to Peruvian FENUPETROL, showed its indignation last month at violations of health and safety conditions for workers at ECOPETROL-Knoc, a Colombian/Korean joint venture operating in Peru. The company is guilty of failing to enforce safety standards at its Peruvian subsidiaries called Petro-Tech Peruana SA. 
 
The June National Assembly of FENUPETROL analysed the poor record of safety in the industry in Peru. Petro-Tech Peruana owns numerous petroleum companies, including Diving Del Peru Sac. The union there submitted numerous complaints over failed safety and health protections for members by Jaime Velasco, director of Human Relations, by Luis Navarro Vilela, director of Industrial Relations, and by plant manager Finlay Macdonald. 
 
Twenty-two workers at the company were suspended on 18 April 2009 for refusing to work in unsafe conditions. 

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The company failed to even respond to communiqu&eacute;s by the union to address safety concerns, which include placing inexperienced supervisors in charge of dangerous operations. That has led to two serious accidents in the days preceding the union&rsquo;s National Assembly. In one, a worker lost his air supply while cleaning a suction filter under water at an offshore oil rig. 
 
The dangerous, illegal, and lax attitude of ECOPETROL towards workers&rsquo; safety received international condemnation, with the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) speaking out last month. In a letter to ECOPETROL Vice President Lic Navarrete, following an accident which hospitalized a worker with first and second degree burns, LO called for an immediate change in the safety culture. 
 
Other fatal examples by affiliates of ECOPETROL have seen divers die after being trapped under water without supervisors even noticing. 

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Petro-tech Peruana has also come under heavy criticism for its continued refusal to adopt a social development programme, a plan that would install gas connections to homes. Such a plan would create jobs. The company has made pledges on social responsibility, but has repeatedly refused to enter into dialogue with inhabitants in Talara Province. 
 
The ICEM demands swift improvement to the health and safety policies and practices of ECOPETROL and its subsidiaries. The ICEM will work together with new Colombian oil workers&rsquo; affiliate, USO, to improve health and safety within the company.

ECOPETRO-Knoc in Peru Criticised for Lax Health, Safety Conditions

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A unique happenstance followed an ICEM workshop on Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) in Guinea recently: the Industrial Relations manager of Russian bauxite and steel producer RUSAL was expelled from the country following revelations at the conference of the company&rsquo;s horrid labour practices in Guinea. 
 
Mineworkers in Guinea, backed by leaders of the trade union federations, provided vivid evidence on working conditions, including child labour, at Compagnie des Bauxite de Kindla, RUSAL&rsquo;s joint venture bauxite mining concern with the government. 
 
The testimony resulted in the government, led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, to expel Anatoly Pantchenko from Guinea. 
 
Trade unionists told how the RUSAL manager had organized a culture of outsourcing at the mine and at RUSAL&rsquo;s wholly-owned Friguia alumina smelting plant. The company utilises some 120 outsourcing companies. Discussion centered on how the system has aggravated poverty and created extremely poor work conditions and salaries, leaving workers under RUSAL&rsquo;s umbrella with little means for improved living conditions. 

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From left to right: Ibrahima Fofana, Rabiatou Sereh Diallo, Manfred Warda and Yamodou Tour&eacute;
The report was not new to the ICEM. In 2007, after street protests in Guinea loosened the dictatorial powers of President Lansana Cont&eacute;, Rabiatou Sereh Diallo, General Secretary of the National Confederation of Workers of Guinea (CNTG), visited the ICEM in Brussels. She and other trade union leaders from Guinea then told how RUSAL relies heavily on &ldquo;phantom&rdquo; subcontracting companies that are tied to Cont&eacute; associates. 
 
In December 2008, following the death of Cont&eacute;, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara and a team of military officers took over the country. They immediately forged relations with the three main trade union federations and pledged to end corruption in the mining sector. 
 
Since then, relations between RUSAL and the government have been tenuous, and ICEM&rsquo;s CAL workshops in May provided all the evidence Moussa Camara needed to expel RUSAL&rsquo;s top manager from Guinea. In mid-April, workers at the Friguia refinery staged a strike, and RUSAL &ndash; now the world&rsquo;s second largest steelmaker &ndash; said the work stoppage was instigated by the government. 

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The ICEM&rsquo;s CAL conference agreed on a plan of action for Guinea&rsquo;s mining sector, which will see trade unions and the government push for a review of the national mining convention, a code that became obsolete and neglected under the corrupt Cont&eacute; regime. Such a review will make it possible to properly address outsourcing, as well as to include guarantees on working conditions in employment contracts. 
 
A new committee was established with the government that is tasked with carrying out the review. The committee is composed of 13 members, two of whom are trade union leaders. 
 
The West African nation of Guinea holds two-thirds of the world&rsquo;s bauxite deposits. A second multinational bauxite miner, called Halco, also operates in Guinea. But trade unionists tell the ICEM that work conditions there are far superior&nbsp;to those existing at RUSAL. Halco is an enterprise 51% owned by US-based Alcoa World Alumina and Alcan of Canada, with the remainder owned by Guinea&rsquo;s government.

ICEM’s Contract Labour Forum in Guinea Forces Expulsion of Russian Mine Boss

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The ICEM calls on South African pulp, paper, and woodlands company Sappi to cease disciplinary matters against 19 shop stewards and 23 other workers at the Enstra mill in Gauteng province. The ICEM supports its South African affiliate, Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU), in its rigorous defense of the 42. 
 
The paperworkers are charged with inciting three safety strikes in May at the 700-worker pulp, printing, and graphics paper mill near Johannesburg. The incident started when shop stewards prevented a worker from doing unsafe work. That worker is now one of the 23 workers still on the job that Sappi now wants to suspend for one week without pay, and issue final written warnings to. 
 
The 19 shop stewards, the mill&rsquo;s entire CEPPWAWU representation team, have already been suspended, and await further discipline at meetings on 7-8 July. 

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The safety strikes took place on 5 May, 8 May, and 28 May. The worker was assigned to do cleaning in a part of the paper mill that a piece of equipment normally performs. When shop stewards protested the unsafe act, management hardened and the safety strikes began. The matter was compounded when a joint labour-management report on the safety incident and subsequent strikes was ignored by the mill manager. 
 
In a 16 June ICEM letter to Sappi, the Global Union Federation told Sappi to drop the disciplinary procedures at the Enstra mill and to &ldquo;get on with building a trusting labour-management relationship at Enstra.&rdquo; The ICEM noted in the letter that Sappi had been engaged over the past six months in building a better labour relations climate at the mill, but failure to follow through with the findings contained in the joint investigatory report was a breach of trust. 
 
&ldquo;The ICEM strongly believes the first and most important component in building a trusting and lasting relationship in labour-management relations must be safety,&rdquo; read the letter. 
 
The ICEM also believes Sappi violates global labour standards at Enstra, not least of which was suspending all CEPPWAWU shop stewards and discrimination in bringing separate sets of charges against the 23 workers and the 19 duly-elected shop stewards. 
 
Some 90% of Enstra workers are CEPPWAWU members.

ICEM Calls on Papermaker Sappi to Halt Safety Discipline

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The ICEM hosted leaders of its two oil and gas workers&rsquo; unions of Nigeria on 18 June. Elected officers from NUPENG, the blue-collar union, and PENGASSAN, representing white-collar workers, visited the ICEM&rsquo;s headquarters in Geneva. 
 
With General Secretary Manfred Warda and Energy Officer and Director of Organisation Jim Catterson present, the Nigerian trade unionists discussed the difficulties of security for workers in the Niger Delta brought on violence and kidnappings, and also the growing casualisation arising in oil and gas in Nigeria. 
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Taking part in the discussions were PENGASSAN General Secretary Bayo Olowoshile and NUPENG General President Peter Akpatason, as well PENGASSAN leaders Stephen Ereyukomhen, Sunday Oginni, and Adamu Unoru. 
 
On the issue of physical security in the Niger Delta, the trade union leaders said it was wrong for the government to be shifting responsibility to the oil and gas operators in the region. The Nigerians also outlined labour law changes enacted over the past few years that are detrimental to workers. 

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Regarding casualisation, there is constant abuse of agree-upon quotas for expatriate workers, and the oil and gas workers&rsquo; leaders emphasized that with the use of more and more casual workers, career development and job careers for Nigerians is being marginalized. 
 
They also expressed concern that outsourcing is being directed at incompetent and poorly trained workers, and that is creating safety hazards in the industry. They expressed regret that the government has not committed to stem the growing use of casual workers. 
 
Finally, NUPENG and PENGASSAN leadership discussed with the ICEM the rising number of Chinese exploration and development companies that are entering the oil patch of southern Nigeria.

ICEM Hosts Nigerian Union Leaders from NUPENG, PENGASSAN

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Two miners in South Africa died on 20 June deep inside South Africa&rsquo;s biggest gold mine, the Driefontein mine owned by Gold Fields. They died when an earth tremor, registering 3.5 on the Richter scale, caused a shift of rock. Eight other miners were rescued, three of whom were hospitalized. One miner is suffering with serious injuries. 
 
It was the second accident caused by a shift ground at Gold Fields&rsquo; mines in a month. On 20 May, two miners died deep in the earth at the company&rsquo;s Kloof mine near Westonia in West Rand. A day earlier, one miner at Kloof died in a similar but separate accident. 

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The tragedy that occurred 20 June at Driefontein near Carletonville caused mine production to halt for four days. The spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Lesiba Seshoka, called the latest accident deeply disappointing. &ldquo;There doesn&rsquo;t seem to be any willingness to improve safety,&rdquo; he said. 
 
Gold Fields, the world&rsquo;s fourth largest gold miner with operations in Australia, Ghana, Peru, and South Africa, said in a statement to financial markets late last week that it has had 20 mining fatalities since July 2008. All have occurred in South Africa. In the first six months of 2008, 23 of 87 mine fatalities in South Africa occurred in mines operated by Gold Fields.

Gold Fields Struck by 5 South African Mining Deaths in Past Month

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Germany&rsquo;s two biggest industrial unions, ICEM affiliate IGBCE and IG Metall, urgently called upon elected officials and employers within Germany to begin a constructive dialogue on overcoming the consequences of the current global crisis. The unions recently issued a joint statement to draw attention to the fact that economic and industrial policy challenges cannot be undertaken with mere &quot;cosmetic adjustments without a genuine substance.&quot; 
 
In cooperation with the Hans B&ouml;ckler Foundation, IGBCE and IG Metall organised a joint conference in Oberhausen, Germany, entitled &ldquo;Industrial Policy for Tomorrow.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;The industrial base of our economy must be strengthened to lay the foundations of sustained growth and prosperity,&rdquo; said IGBCE board member Michael Vassiliadis. 

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Added Berthold Huber, President of IG Metall, &ldquo;We need a bridge over the crisis and it must lead to the other shore and not back to the same shore. We must now have a model for a sustainable industrial policy.&rdquo; 
 
In the joint statement, the unions warn of the danger that industrial cores could be lost and entire value-chains in industrial processes might collapse. Therefore, the unions call on the German government to provide &ldquo;short term loans and guarantees, and to generate additional demand.&rdquo; 
 
Specifically, IGBCE and IG Metall call for a public equity fund, effective protections for companies to secure jobs, the adoption of a sustainable industrial policy that would replace unregulated markets, comprehensive social-democratic participation rights, decent work, regulated labour markets, and a coordinated industrial policy for all of Europe.

IGBCE, IG Metall in Germany Combine to Demand Sustainable Industrial Policy

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This month&rsquo;s 98th Session of the ILO Conference adopted a landmark Global Jobs Pact on 19 June. The accord, called a Jobs Pact, was agreed to by governments, trade unions, and employers, and lays out a template for economic recovery and reform. 
 
Jobs, workers&rsquo; rights, social protections, quality public services, and sustainability are at the heart of the proposal for a new system of global governance, said International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Secretary Guy Ryder. 

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ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder
Global labour unions fear that the ILO will return to a course of business as usual, and that world economic institutions will continue with the failed policies of free-market radicalism. Some commentators say that the financial crisis has already bottomed out and recovery is now imminent, but voices at the 19 June ILO session argue that the affect of lost jobs will be lasting and devastating. 
 
The Jobs Pact is seen as an alternative to shocking ILO projections that the crisis will push 50 million workers into unemployment, and that 200 million of the world&rsquo;s population will be pushed into extreme poverty. The creation of sustainable jobs is essential, as is the fight against climate change. 
 
Another aspect of the Jobs Pact is the high level of importance given to tripartite dialogue, social dialogue, and collective bargaining. High standards of working conditions and improved wages are vital, along with education and training programmes for the unemployed. The Jobs Pact calls for increased implementation of public-sector job creation schemes. 
 
The Global Jobs Pact signifies an important and significant step forward. Implementation must now occur. The ICEM supports demands for concrete results before the next G20 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, on 24-25 September 2009.

ILO’s Jobs Pact; a Solid Proposal for Exiting the Financial Crisis

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