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Swiss specialty chemical company Clariant has announced a further 400 job cuts at the Muttenz site, near Basel, as the company seeks to move production and increase profits. Clariant CEO, Hariolf Kottmann, oversaw the cutting of 137 jobs last year. Clariant turnover is around $8 billion and the company is a world leader in the supply of chemicals and colors for the textile, leather, paper, packaging, plastics, and printing. The proposed further job cuts will be made between now and 2012, as the company seeks to relocate production to Asia, where production costs are lower. 
 
The mass job cuts would be in breach of the collective agreement and of Swiss labour law. Workers are legally entitled to a period of consultation where alternative employment opportunities can be examined, before any jobs can be cut. 

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ICEM Swiss affiliate UNIA, together with the Clariant Workers Council, is pressing the company to first preserve these jobs, or at least provide acceptable redundancy packages. Demands include replacement jobs for every worker affected by the cuts, practical training and education programs, and no further cuts at the Schweizerhalle pharmaceuticals site. 
 
UNIA and the Clariant workers are organising a demonstration at Clariant headquarters on Thursday 11 March, starting at 5.15am. From there the demonstration will move to Liestal, meeting at the train station at 9am, before marching to the local government building &lsquo;Landratsgeb&auml;ude&rsquo; to call on district councilors to step in to preserve local jobs. 
 
The protesting Clariant workers have a Facebook page with more information.

Swiss Chemical Workers Protest Job Cuts

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The negotiations towards a new national collective agreement for the manufacturing industry in Denmark had been deadlocked, see ICEM report <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3634-Danish-Contract-Negotiations-Deadlocked-on-National-Level">here</a>, but the renewal of the agreement was signed on Monday 22 February by the ICEM-affiliated general union, Central Organization of Industrial Employees in Denmark (CO-industri) and the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI). However the HK private trade union rejected the agreement. 
 
Gains for workers across the sector include two additional weeks for parental leave, improved redundancy pay, improved monitoring of health and safety for night-shift workers, improved working conditions for shift workers, and newly created authority on equal pay. 
 
The collective bargaining round directly affects 240,000 workers in the manufacturing industry. But it also indirectly affects an additional 350,000 workers in the private sector. As previously reported by ICEM, historically, the manufacturing agreement is used as a blueprint for other negotiations. 

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Both Hans Christensen, the negotiator for DI business, and Co-industri President Thorkild E. Jensen, were content with the renewed agreement, after negotiators worked through the night to beat a deadline which would have moved negotiations to a tribunal. Jensen described the agreement as &ldquo;balanced and guaranteed our members&rsquo; jobs&rdquo;. The agreement is valid for the period 1 March 2010 to 1 March 2012. 
 
Night workers were a priority for trade union negotiators in the talks, with free health exams provided every two years and for those employees who are advised against night work, their employer must find them another job. Night workers will also be eligible for up to ten extra days off annually. Changes to the rules on pension contributions will discourage employers from moving to precarious contracts. Apprentices see a 4.5% pay increase over the two years. 
 
The deal has been described as a &ldquo;crisis agreement&rdquo; and sees trade unions agreeing to only a small pay increase and for the first time since 1991, no increase in pension contributions.

Danish Manufacturing Collective Agreement in Place

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More and more, multinational companies, as well as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries, are using non-direct and contract workers to perform key functions in Nigeria&rsquo;s oil and gas industries. That is the assessment of both ICEM affiliates in the country, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN). 
 
The proliferation of such employment &ndash; referred to as casualisation in Nigeria &ndash; in fact, has meant that many companies have completely done away with full-time junior staff, or blue-collar workers, in their employ. One example is Mobil Producing Nigeria, a subsidiary of the world&rsquo;s largest energy concern, ExxonMobil, which has completely phased out NUPENG members in favour of contract staffing. 
<img alt="" src="" width="90" height="95" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="100" height="103" />
Casualisation in Nigeria is synonymous with cheap labour and maximisation of profits. The common fact is that when companies phase out full-time staff, they re-surface as short-term contract workers where rights to Freedom of Association are limited, their social entitlements are curtailed, and career paths become vague or non-existent. 
 
In early February, the two unions combined to wage a two-day strike against Mobil Producing&rsquo;s downstream operations across several states along the Niger Delta. The root cause of the strike was that several contractors serving Mobil Producing had sacked Nigerian nationals from full-time positions, replacing them disposable, casual workers. Those sackings were not just to junior staff, but also came among the ranks of highly skilled, professional, and experienced nationals in technical, engineering, administrative, and commercial positions. 
 
Despite several conventions between the unions and employers to address casualisation, Mobil Producing refused to address the issue. This led the ICEM to bring the matter to the attention of the US-based parent company. That letter can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/15.exxonmobil.ceo.16Feb.pdf">here</a>. 

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Pengassan and Nupeng leaders at ICEM Headquarters
At one subsidiary of NNPC, the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG), it is estimated that a full 60% of all workers are hired through labour brokers. They have no registered terms or conditions of work, are without social welfare benefits, and can be fired at will. It is equivalent to a modern form of slavery. 
 
NLNG and other companies operating in Nigeria&rsquo;s energy sector claim it is essential to their viability to outsource work not related to their core activities. But the question of what constitutes a company&rsquo;s core business remains open. Is it exploration and drilling, marketing and transportation, catering and cleaning, clerical and administrative? Companies operating in Nigeria&rsquo;s oil and gas patches make the argument that all are non-core. But in reality, all workers in these areas are oil and gas workers, and all deserve a minimum set of social benefits and job security measures, as set by national law and international labour standards. 
 
NUPENG&rsquo;s newly elected President Igwe Achese said there is ample evidence that &ldquo;multinational companies and their indigenous collaborators collude in reducing direct employees in efforts to de-unionise, create disaffection among workers, and to evade responsible employment practices. 
 
&ldquo;All workers, whether full-time workers or those employed by contractors performing tasks for primary employers, deserve set conditions of work, rights and privileges, and certainty in career paths in order that they know they have secure futures.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM will continue to champion NUPENG and PENGASSAN in the unions&rsquo; initiatives to combat the menace that casualisation brings to quality work life in Nigeria.

Casualisation Eroding Decent Work Doctrine in Nigeria’s Oil, Gas Sectors

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ICEM&rsquo;s Colombian affiliate the National Oil Workers Union (USO) called for international solidarity in their conflict with British Petroleum (BP). Workers at the BP plant at Tauramena, part of the Cusiana oil field in Casanare, Eastern Colombia, have been striking since 22 January for improved wages. On 15 February the notorious ESMAD, Colombia's notorioius riot police, were sent in to attack the strikers&rsquo; picket line. Three USO members are still in hospital with injuries sustained from the police attack. 
 
View a union video of the attack <a href="http://www.usofrenteobrero.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=519:trabajadores-petroleros-de-tauramena-agredidos-por-el-emad-video&amp;catid=60:tauramena&amp;Itemid=100">here</a>.&nbsp; 
 
Last week BP attempted to bring in scabs to the central processing plant, but they were stopped by strikers who chained themselves to the entrance gates. This sparked local BP management to come to an agreement with the USO Bargaining Committee; however the outsourced contractors, SAR Energy, operating at Tauramena refused to recognize the agreement. Negotiations have been ongoing since then, through five negotiating committees: labour problems, social investment, goods and services, environment, and human rights, these temporary committees are working toward a deadline of 16 April, when agreement must be reached. 

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USO supporters outside BP Headquarters, London
USO&rsquo;s call for solidarity actions was answered last Friday, 5 March, when protestors demonstrated noisily opposite the BP Headquarters in London. The action was organised by the Colombia Solidarity Campaign. USO urges its supporters to continue to mobilise while the negotiations are ongoing. The ICEM supports the call on the Colombian government to insist that oil companies operating in Colombia respect the rights of workers to organise and to take strike action. USO is also calling for an official enquiry into the close links between paramilitary groups, and oil exploitation companies. 
 
Send protest messages to BP CEO, demand that the company conducts peaceful negotiations with the union, and condemns the ESMAD police repression. Send your message to Executive Director and Group Chief Executive Tony Hayward at email: <a href="mailto:tony.hayward@bp.com">tony.hayward@bp.com</a> 
 
Send messages of solidarity to the workers via USO Human Rights Commission email: <a href="mailto:usopaz@yahoo.com">usopaz@yahoo.com</a> 
 
Visit the Colombia Solidarity Campaign website <a href="http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/content/view/486/">here</a>.&nbsp;

Oil Workers in Colombia Suffer Police Repression

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Today in Brazil, the Central &Uacute;nica dos Trabalhadores (CUT) will begin a 100-kilometre, 10-day march from Campinas in S&atilde;o Paulo state to the city of S&atilde;o Paulo itself in honour of International Women&rsquo;s Day. The march, celebrating 100 years of the announcement of International Women&rsquo;s Day and under the banner &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll Keep Marching Until Every Woman is Free,&rdquo; will highlight the continuing fight for common rights and public services, peace and demilitarization, economy autonomy, and an end to violence against women. 
 
A main objective of the pilgrimage will be CUT&rsquo;s drive for total wage equality between men and women. Even though Brazil has ratified ILO Convention 100, the 1951 Equal Remuneration Convention, the South American country has a long ways to go in order to achieve wage parity. 

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CUT Secretary of Working Women, Rosane Silva, said that every nation that has ratified ILO Convention 100 must speed up laws and practices to ensure that the articles of the convention are met. In Brazil, as a means to enhance subsidies to meet that goal, CUT has done a national study on wage disparities. Throughout 2010, the national labour centre will present those figures before governing bodies and employers to get them to comply with Convention 100. 
 
Also today in S&atilde;o Paulo, Sindicato Nacional dos Papeleiros (SINAP), the ICEM pulp and paper affiliate that is part of CNQ/CUT, will conduct a manifestation demanding equal rights for women in front of the Suzano paper mill.

CUT-Brazil to Conduct 100-kilometre, 10-Day Women’s March

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Today, International Women&rsquo;s Day, was marked in Geneva with a large demonstration at plaine de Plainpalais, between 12pm and 2pm. The ICEM, along with other Geneva-based Global Union Federations turned out in support. 
 
The manifestation, organized by ICEM&rsquo;s Swiss affiliate UNIA, protested the issues of raising the retirement age of women, fighting for gender equality on wages, the effective application of equality legislation, protesting against the proposed lengthening, in Switzerland, of opening hours of shops, this sector employs more women than men. 

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Today&rsquo;s action will be followed by a national Women&rsquo;s March in Bern on Saturday 13 March. Saturday&rsquo;s march is again organized by UNIA, pick up from Geneva will be 10am from Place des 22 cantons. Call the UNIA Secretariat at +41 22 949 1200 to sign up to Saturday&rsquo;s action. 
 
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has recently published a report &ldquo;An examination of the factors influencing women&rsquo;s decisions for work&rdquo;, view that document <a href="http://www.ituc-csi.org/ituc-report-decisions-for-work.html ">here</a>. 
 
Visit the official website of International Women&rsquo;s Day <a href="http://www.internationalwomensday.com/default.asp ">here</a>, to see what actions are being organized in your home country.

Geneva Marks International Women’s Day

ICEM International Women’s Day Bulletin: 8 March 2010 / Boletín de la ICEM

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A campaign for equal treatment for agency workers was launched by the Irish trade union federation SIPTU on 19 November at Liberty Hall in Dublin. The campaign is aimed at securing enabling legislation in Ireland to forbid employment agencies from circumventing existing equality provisions in labour legislation. 
 
The 200,000-member Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU) held a press briefing in the afternoon on 19 November, and then conducted a full public hearing that evening with workplace testimony from victimised contract workers. 
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Under the heading &ldquo;An Injury to One Is a Concern to All,&rdquo; SIPTU launched a campaign that includes a petition drive to build support for legislation, as well as materials to secure equal treatment for contract workers in collective agreements. That campaign can be found here <a href="http://www.siptu.ie/agency">www.siptu.ie/agency</a>. 
&ldquo;The abuse of agency workers is the most serious issue of substance in the workplace,&rdquo; stated SIPTU General President Jack O&rsquo;Connor at the launch of the campaign. &ldquo;The absence of legislation to prevent abuse is not only detrimental to those directly affected, but also harms all other workers because it facilitates the undermining of standards,&rdquo; he added. 
SIPTU indicated on the day of the launch that Ireland is one of three EU countries in which temporary workers recruited through agencies can be employed at lesser terms and conditions than those in direct employment. O&rsquo;Connor also hit out at the Irish government for being one of the few countries that is blocking an EU Directive on full rights for contract and agency workers. 
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&ldquo;We cannot continue with the paradox of social partnership on the one hand, while we are virtually unique in Europe in our treatment of agency workers,&rdquo; he said. 
SIPTU estimates there are over 520 employment agencies operating in Ireland. The union is campaigning for agency work to be confined to a period no longer than one month, after which an agency employee must become directly employed by the primary employer.

SIPTU Kicks Off ‘Justice for Agency Workers Campaign’ in Ireland

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Workers, retirees, and students marched in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 17 November, in a mass protest against employers, who are stalling needed salary increases. Some 70,000 protestors, most clad in red bibs, marched in a peaceful assembly to one of Ljubljana&rsquo;s main squares, marking unification of six trade union federations. 
The six union federations jointly called the manifestation to protest employers&rsquo; reluctance to pay fair salaries in this round of wage talks in the EU country. The six include Zveza Svoodnih Sindikatov Slovenije (ZSSS), Neodvisnost (KNSS), KSS-Pergam, Konfederacija &rsquo;90 of Slovenia, Zveza Sindikatov Alternativa, and Zveza Delacev Solidarnost. 
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Slovenia, which adopted the Euro at the beginning of 2007, is beset by rising prices and an inflation rate that reached 5.1% in 2007. The trade unions seek autumn salary increases of 3.5%, and they want a February 2008 increase tied to inflation, instead of the normal, untimely August inflationary hike. The union federations are jointly calling for a system of productivity bonuses, as well. Slovenia, which became a member-nation of the EU in 2005, has seen a growth rate this year of 6.5%. 
 
In respect to the workers&rsquo; 17 November manifestation, President-elect Danilo Turek and Labour Minister Marjeta Cotman attended the mass public event. Earlier, Prime Minister Janez Jansa said protests were the wrong forum to address rising prices and stagnant salaries. The average net salary in Slovenia currently is &euro;820-per-month. 
 
All six leaders of the labour federations addressed the manifestation, and all stated that a general strike was possible if employers did not move from their entrenched wage offer, and were willing to move away from their reluctance to award productivity bonuses to the people generating Slovenia&rsquo;s growth.

Slovenian Union Federations Unite, 70,000 March in Ljubljana on 17 November

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The ICEM&rsquo;s 4th World Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, elected Senzeni Zokwana, president of the National Union of Mineworkers, as President of the Global Union Federation, and Manfred Warda, former head of the International Department of German union IGBCE, and Acting ICEM General Secretary, as General Secretary. 
 
The 22-24 November Congress also saw the full integration of the former World Federation of Industry Workers (WFIW) into the ICEM, as well as the selection of two WFIW representatives to ICEM&rsquo;s Presidium, and two to the Executive Committee. 
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Italo Rodomonti and Manfred Warda signing the agreement
Representing the former WFIW on ICEM's Presidium are Italo Rodomonti, Belgium, and Achille Dutu, Romania. Former WFIW unionists on the Executive Committee include Wilson Viera, Brazil, and Alphonse Tshimbu, Democratic Republic of Congo, with Justin Daerden and Alphonse De Potter, both from Belgium, servings as Executive Committee substitutes. 
 
Also at the Bangkok Congress, elected to the ICEM Presidium from Western Europe were: Augusto Pascussi, Italy; Hubertus Schmoldt, Germany; Phil McNulty, UK; and Ben Roodhuizen (Netherlands) and Paul Lootens (Belgium) to the rotating seat. 
 
Elected to the Presidium from the Nordic Region: Anders Ferbe, Sweden; and Liv Undheim, Norway. Elected to the Presidium from the Central Europe Region: Juraj Blahak, Slovak Republic. Elected to the Presidium from the Eastern Europe/Central Asia Region was: Ivan Mokhnachuk, Russia. 
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The newly elected ICEM Presidium
Elected to the Presidium from the North American Region: Ken Neumann, Canada; and Dave Coles, Canada. Elected to the Presidium from the Asia-Pacific Region: Kiyoshi Ochiai, Japan; and Chueh-an Chuang, Taiwan. 
 
Elected to the Presidium from the Middle East/North Africa Region was Mohamed El Sayed Morsi Aly of Egypt. Elected from the Sub-Saharan Africa Region to the Presidium was Rayford Mbulu, Zambia. 
 
And elected from the Latin America/Caribbean Region was Sergio Novais, Brazil. 
 
The two Women&rsquo;s seats to the ICEM Presidium were selected by the Women&rsquo;s Committee, with Evgenia Esenina, Russia, chair of that committee, and Angeline Chitambo, Zimbabwe, the designees.

ICEM Congress Elects Statutory Officers, Welcomes WFIW

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