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Shareholders' investment in tyre multinational Continental &quot;is now being put at risk because of the irresponsible handling of labour relations in the United States.&quot; 
 
That was the disturbing message to shareholders attending Conti's annual meeting in Hanover, Germany, yesterday. 
 
Making the point was US tyreworkers' leader John Sellers. He was supporting a shareholder counterproposal to withhold indemnification of Continental's board until the company falls into line with the worldwide basic labour standards set by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) - &quot;including the right to form unions, collectively bargain and strike.&quot; The counterproposal would also have required Continental to renounce the use of strikebreakers. 
 
Sellers is Executive Vice-President of the Rubber and Plastics Conference of the American tyreworkers' union, the USWA. 
 
Behind his robust remarks in Hanover yesterday is a long-running industrial dispute between US tyreworkers and Continental's American subsidiary, General Tire. 
 
The core issue is that General Tire is refusing to pay workers at its Charlotte plant the going rate among leading employers of US tyre workers, even though the plant is now profitable. The American workers accuse Conti of failing to bargain in good faith and of trying to break the Charlotte local of the USWA. After provoking a strike, the company drafted in &quot;permanent replacement&quot; workers last September, thus effectively locking out and dismissing the strikers. 
 
In 1995, after Continental bought General Tire, the workers bailed out the Charlotte plant by &quot;giving back&quot; about 90 million US dollars in pay and benefits cuts. Charlotte is now showing a healthy profit, but the company is still refusing to bring its pay and conditions up to standard. 
 
As Sellers told the shareholders in Hanover, Continental now faces potentially massive costs for violations of US law. The USWA had experience of winning such &quot;wars&quot; which &quot;inevitably end up costing renegade employers millions of dollars.&quot; And to fight the union's &quot;massive evidence&quot; of violations by the company, Sellers said, Conti also faces &quot;additional costs - estimated to be over ten million dollars - for legal fees.&quot; 
 
Also speaking in Hanover yesterday were Earl Probst, President of the USWA local at Charlotte, and the union's corporate campaigner Jerry Fernandez. They were accompanied by General Tire workers Mark Cieslikowski and Charles Hill. 
 
The shareholder counterproposal was voted down - but with enough votes in favour to show that a fair number of investors had sided with the American trade unionists. 
 
Sellers also took the opportunity to warn that Continental will &quot;soon be the subject of demonstrations and solidarity actions in all parts of the world.&quot; 
 
At the global level, the USWA is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which has launched a strong worldwide campaign in support of the Charlotte workers. 
 
In Brussels today, Sellers told the ICEM Executive Committee about the latest developments in the dispute. He also thanked the ICEM and its affiliated unions for their support - in particular, the German union IG BCE for its assistance in getting the American workers' voice heard at the Hanover meeting..

Your Investment Is At Risk, Continental Tyre Shareholders Told

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

The ICEM is encouraging affiliates to write Drummond Coal in the US protesting the firm&rsquo;s labour record and human rights abuses in Colombia, as well as mine shutdowns in its home state Alabama. The firm refuses any good faith bargaining with mining union Sintramienergetica, and is accused of human rights abuses. US affiliate USWA is spearheading the effort. Write: Garry Drummond, CEO, Drummond Co., 5366 Overton Road, Birmingham, AL 35210- 4009 USA.

US’s Steelworkers Call Attention to Drummond Coal in Colombia

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The Mineworkers Union of Zambia blasted the use of casual labour as a new and growing threat against the work/life social structure. 
MUZ Gen. Sec. Ernest Mutale told the nation that new investment arriving into Zambia is intent on utilizing contract labour, a fact opposite of what these investors must do in their home countries, he said.

Zambia’s Mining Union Sees Threat of Casual Labour

German IGBCE, French FCE CFDT and EMCEF, the European workers&rsquo; federation in chemical, energy and mining sectors, met in Paris 4 May and issued a declaration on the impending Sanofi-Synthelabo and Aventis pharmaceutical merger. The combined firm&rsquo;s two biggest unions vowed to prevent site closures and job loss, maintain existing rights and obligations, and asks that the new management team be innovative inside the framework of existing social dialogue.

German, French Unions Meet over Aventis, Sanofi Merger

Global tyremaker Continental faced coordinated protests on both sides of the Atlantic over the past 24 hours by union leaders from 16 countries. 
 
Demonstrations took place in Akron, Ohio - a centre of the US rubber industry - and in London, England, where the tyre industry is holding a major European trade exhibition. Coordinating the campaign is the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which represents tyre workers worldwide. 
 
The current protests centre on Continental's treatment of striking (and locked-out) workers at its General Tire plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. But union leaders have also voiced concern over the company's declared worldwide strategy of shifting production to &quot;low-cost&quot; areas. 
 
The core issue in the American dispute is that &quot;Conti&quot; is refusing to pay the going rate among leading employers of US tyre workers, even though the plant is now profitable. The American workers accuse Conti of failing to bargain in good faith and of trying to break the Charlotte local of their union, the USWA. After provoking a strike, the company drafted in &quot;permanent replacement&quot; workers last September, thus effectively locking out and dismissing the strikers. 
 
In 1995, after Continental bought General Tire, the workers bailed out the Charlotte plant by &quot;giving back&quot; about 90 million dollars in pay and benefits cuts. Charlotte is now showing a healthy profit, but the company is still refusing to bring its pay and conditions up to standard. 
 
Taking part in the Akron protests yesterday were tyre workers' leaders from ICEM-affiliated unions in Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Guatemala, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, Slovenia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the USA and Venezuela. Their demo was held in front of a retail outlet that sells Conti tyres. 
 
And in London this morning, protesters from ICEM-affiliated British unions rolled bald tyres up and down outside the TYREXPO Europe 99 exhibition. Time To Run Continental's Greed Off The Road proclaimed one placard at the London demo, while another said Reinstate 1,450 Sacked Continental Workers In North Carolina USA. 
 
&quot;We will take our campaign against Continental to wherever they do business, here or abroad,&quot; John Sellers pledged in Akron yesterday. Sellers is Executive Vice-President of the USWA and heads the union's Rubber And Plastics Industry Conference. &quot;German multinational corporations would not be allowed to abuse workers this way in Germany,&quot; Sellers declared, &quot;and we're not going to tolerate such behaviour in the United States, either.&quot; 
 
&quot;We are proud to join forces with our American brothers and sisters in protesting against Continental's actions in Charlotte,&quot; said British union leader Bert Hill. He is from British ICEM affiliate the GMB, which organises workers at Continental's Newbridge tyre plant in Scotland. Hill is currently in Akron. 
 
&quot;Continental has been systematically trying to wrest concessions from our members in Scotland,&quot; he stated, &quot;and we know we have to stand together in solidarity with other Continental workers in other countries against our common employer.&quot; 
 
 
UNIONS DRAW UP GLOBAL STRATEGY 
 
Hill and union leaders from Germany, France, Turkey, South Africa and the US met yesterday to plan a common strategy to support the Charlotte strikers. 
 
&quot;Continental's actions in the United States are a disgrace,&quot; said Jacques Caltot, who heads the rubber division of the ICEM-affiliated French union FCE-CFDT. &quot;We will continue to press Continental to adhere to international labour standards wherever it does business, and we will support the USWA strike in Charlotte until a fair and just agreement can be reached.&quot; 
 
&quot;The situation at Continental is typical of a problem that we are going to have to tackle globally,&quot; commented ICEM Vice-President Fred Higgs just after the London demo. &quot;Companies that pride themselves on being respectable employers in Europe often act very differently in contexts like the United States. We are going to be exerting the fullest possible pressure to secure the reinstatement of all the 1,450 Charlotte workers who have been so unjustly and ungratefully treated by Continental.&quot; 
 
Also heading up the London demo was Earl Pabst, President of the union local in Charlotte. 
 
&quot;The support over here is even stronger than I had imagined,&quot; Pabst said. &quot;Today's event has taken our message to another level.&quot; 
 
Asked what he wanted as a next step, Pabst replied: &quot;I want the scabs [strikebreakers] out and us back in.&quot; 
 
Meanwhile, he said, the union would be expanding an &quot;informational campaign&quot; of leafletting customers outside US retailers that sell Continental tyres. &quot;We're now contacting retailers across the USA,&quot; Pabst added. &quot;We're telling them who we are and what we want, and we're explaining that we're with them, not against them.&quot; 
 
In Akron, ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe pledged continuing global union support for the American workers' campaign. 
 
&quot;Our affiliated unions around the world are behind the USWA,&quot; Thorpe said. &quot;We will show Continental there are serious consequences for its violation of workers' rights.&quot;

Continental Tyres Faces Intercontinental Trouble

An ICEM Nuclear Power Union Network is out of the starting blocks after 14-15 April meetings in Brussels. The network will be formalized at a conference tentatively set for 27-30 August in Romania. Unionists from affiliates in Belgium, Canada, Romania, UK and US attended the Brussels meetings.

Nuclear Power Network Forms with ICEM Assistance

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