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A rare first-contract lockout in the US ended successfully for workers on 2 May when members of ICEM affiliate United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) came to terms with Stepan Chemical in Fieldsboro, New Jersey. Workers ratified an initial contract with the specialty chemicals company with a 33-2 acceptance vote that backed Stepan away from continuing a wage freeze, and making health care cuts. 
 
The lockout began on 26 January 2006 after workers chose UE for representation last year. Typically in the US, a company that loses a union certification vote will merely stall the bargaining process, sometimes for years. But Stepan responded to a spontaneous plant-site protest by the 40 workers by locking out the workforce, and attempting to run the plant with managers and scabs. 
 
Direct action by UE at Stepan&rsquo;s shareholders&rsquo; meeting on 27 April triggered a 180-degree shift by management, and a first contract. UE produced documents that proved the company had spent US$1.8 million on expenses relayed to the lockout, including sums to clean up chemical spills. CEO F. Quinn Stepan, Jr., was shocked at the documentation, believing the figure to be only US$500,000. 
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Within two days, Stepan called offering a return to bargaining. The company and the UE workers&rsquo; representatives, led by Field Organiser Jim Ermi, then hammered together the initial labour agreement. 
 
&ldquo;You shouldn&rsquo;t have to endure a 14-week lockout to get a union,&rdquo; stated UE Director of Organisation Bob Kingsley. &ldquo;A courageous group of workers triumphed at Stepan based on protest and perseverance, but their struggle points out the deepening workers&rsquo; rights crisis facing all of us.&rdquo; 
 
Stepan manufactures intermediates for use in consumer products, and has operations in the US, UK, France, Germany, Indonesia and Brazil.

UE Wins First Contract with Chemical Firm Despite Lockout

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Protests occurred both outside and inside DuPont&rsquo;s annual general meeting in the US state of Delaware on 26 April, as labour unions led by the United Steelworkers (USW) and environmental allies pressed the world&rsquo;s second largest chemicals company to phase out production of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The chemical is used to produce coatings for cookware and stain-repellent coatings for carpets, textiles and fast-food wrappers. 
 
USW is part of a coalition entitled &ldquo;Dupont Shareholders for Fair Value&rdquo; that pressed for adoption of a resolution calling on management to produce a report on options to accelerate the phase-out of PFOA. The proxy question put before shareholders garnered a 27.3% vote, considered extremely high on matters of social and ethical responsibility for US-based companies. Further information on the union&rsquo;s shareholder actions can be found through the USW site&nbsp;<a href="http://www.uswa.org/uswa/program/content/2916.php">here</a>.

Protest of PFOA at DuPont’s Annual Meeting

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Strikes in the Turkish cement sector, scheduled to begin Monday, were averted when ICEM affiliate &Ccedil;imse-Iş and the Cement Producers&rsquo; Association (&Ccedil;MIS) arrived at a new collective bargaining agreement covering 5,000 workers at 43 cement plants. 
 
The two-year agreement, retroactive to 1 January 2006, calls for an increase of 12% this year, and an amount equal to Turkey&rsquo;s consumer price index in 2007. Increases were also realised in social benefits in each of the two years. &Ccedil;imse-Iş had planned strikes at 23 cement plants on 1 May, with walkouts occurring at the other 20 plants on 8 May.

Turkish Cement Industry Calm as Settlement Reached

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Nigerian ICEM affiliate PENGASSAN, the white-collar oil workers&rsquo; union, is bracing for a major dispute with ExxonMobil&rsquo;s subsidiary, Mobil Oil, in Lagos over a breach of a collective bargaining agreement. 
 
Mobil Oil in Nigeria has refused to honour a procedural agreement with PENGASSAN. The agreement sets out housing allowances for 300 headquarters staffers in the capital city, as well as pension requirements. The company told the union it would pay one, but not the other. The company is refusing to honour pension entitlements allotted prior to Nigeria&rsquo;s 2004 Pension Act. 
 

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The union gave Mobil Oil a 21-day ultimatum to make good on the entire procedural agreement, but that expired on 14 April with no movement from the company. PENGASSAN succeeded in getting the matter placed before Nigeria&rsquo;s minister of Labour and a meeting of the parties is set for 3 May. If no solution is reached, industrial action is sure to come. 
 
&ldquo;Management has not shown the sincerity to have the matter resolved amicably,&rdquo; stated PENGASSAN Acting President Peter Esele. &ldquo;If industrial unrest is what they want, they better be prepared to face it.&rdquo; 
 
Another matter which finds the US-based supermajor at odds with PENGASSAN, is a planned relocation of company headquarters out of Nigeria. The union discovered that ExxonMobil is planning to close the Nigerian home office and shift downstream operations to Egypt, while upstream office work would go to Houston, Texas. 
 
&ldquo;We have a responsibility not just to our members, but also to the country,&rdquo; said Esele. &ldquo;You cannot have companies making so much money from the resources of our country, and then simply relocating. This is unacceptable to us as Nigerians.&rdquo;

PENGASSAN Ready for Battle with ExxonMobil

Twenty years after the world&rsquo;s worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, some 4,000 workers employed in the contamination exclusion zone regularly face non-payment of wages, lack of funding for equipment, clothing and other essentials, and general disregard by Ukrainian government authorities. 
ICEM affiliate Atomprofspilka, the Nuclear Power Workers&rsquo; Union of Ukraine, represents most workers inside the zone, and continually is drawn to the needs and grievances of workers of the different enterprises operating in the 30-kilometre exclusion zone. 

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Earlier this year, workers at the government-operated EcoCentre&mdash;the agency charged with monitoring radiation levels and other hazards&mdash;declared a labour dispute when wages went unpaid. At another enterprise, ChernobylService, funding is virtually non-existent for special clothing and even soap and detergents for the 1,350 workers. 
 
Nikolai Teterin, a member of Atomprofspika&rsquo;s Executive Committee, believes the central tenet to current problems is that the Ukrainian government has adopted no work plan for the zone. He says all budgets and proposals put forward by the Ministry for Emergency Situations are ignored by the Ministry of Finance. When workers employed inside the zone press their claims in court, the Cabinet of Ministers contests each case filed. 
 
&ldquo;This is characteristic of the government&rsquo;s attitude on the problems inside the exclusion zone 20 years following the disaster,&rdquo; said Teterin. &ldquo;We maintain the infrastructure in its normal condition and make sure that radionuclides do not get beyond the zone. We monitor the water bodies, the forest, yet the situation is that qualified and dedicated specialists are leaving because they cannot afford to work for miniscule wages, which are not even paid on time.&quot; 
 
In the morning of 26 April 1986, a loss of coolant inside Chernobyl&rsquo;s reactor No. 4 forced the reactor power to increase several times the normal maximum causing a massive explosion. The 100-ton reactor lid blew into the sky, and for nine days after, fire raged. 
 
But in the years that followed, particularly with the break-up of the Soviet Union in other nation-states, little was done in the way of social protections and ensuring the necessary infrastructure for Ukrainian workers. 
 
For the enterprises inside the exclusion zone, the process is the same each year, according to Gennady Mikhailuk, deputy president of the Chernobyl territorial union organisation. &ldquo;We try to prove to the state what is needed and exactly what tasks must be done,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The only funding that comes arrives from whatever is left from other expenditures, and that is very little.&rdquo; 
 
Nikolai Novgorodsky, the workplace leader at the TechnoCentre, &ldquo;We have been writing about all our problems to zone management, but one gets the feeling they just don&rsquo;t hear us up there.&rdquo; 
 
A 1991 law protecting the life standards of those working inside the zone, as well as citizens who were victimised by the disaster, was suppose to provide adequate financial support to exist in the zone. But the financial support inside the law has simply eroded, said Atomprofspilka&rsquo;s Chairman of the Workplace Conveners Council Sergei Budyansky. For example, proper nutritional and dietary care was intended for employees forced to work inside the contaminated zone. The meal stipend today for three daily meals is stuck at 6.26 Gryvnas, equivalent to &euro; 1. 
 
&ldquo;Now, is that adequate money to provide meals to people who do physically hard work, in the open air, in a territory that is contaminated with radionuclides?&rdquo; asks Budyansky. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs has visited Chernobyl twice in recent years. The ICEM has been a leading global advocate for a two-prong response to the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. One was for international financial institutions and the world community, after the closure of the plant in year 2000, to come to the assistance of Ukraine to develop new power sources. The other is to ensure a comprehensive solution to the social problems of personnel in and around the facility. 
 
&ldquo;It is quite clear that the social provisions of workers employed inside the 30-kilometre radius of the plant have not been met,&rdquo; said Higgs. &ldquo;There is far more that the Ukrainian government must do, and the international community must step up to ensure that these workers are not only fully compensated, but also treated with dignity and provided with the maximum possible protection.&rdquo;

Forgotten Workers Inside Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone

Chernobyl’s Workers of Today Endure Horrid Conditions

ICEM InBrief

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Pharmaceutical workers, members of US affiliate United Steel Workers (USW), were locked out off their jobs by Medco Health Solutions on 5 April. Some 500 pharmacy technicians at Medco's prescription mail-order business in Las Vegas, Nevada, are faced with an illegal and unilateral reduction of health care benefits. 
The lockout has been deemed illegal when the US National Labor Relations Board issued an unfair labour practice complaint against the company on 31 March for retaliating against technicians who took part in solidarity actions, protesting the health care cuts. 
Some 25% of the company's prescription business is done through union-sponsored health care plans, and Medco itself admits that six million union workers in the US are covered under Medco prescription plans. The USW has mounted a campaign among unions tied to those plans to protest directly to the Medco's CEO.

Union Prescription Drug Provider Locks Out USW Members in US

Unions Make Work Safer: Today, 28 April, Every Day

Dear Colleagues, 
 
Svenska Pappers, the Swedish Paperworkers Union, and the Forest Industry Employers&rsquo; Association (SFIF) reached excellent union-friendly terms on a collective agreement last night, 26 April, just minutes before a second wave of strike action at six further Swedish pulp and paper mills was to begin. (See ICEM report of a week ago <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3709-Swedish-Paper-Strike-Continues">here</a>.) 
 
The union and its negotiating committee, led by President Jan-Henrik Sandberg, deserves a solid congratulatory note from all for holding firm against a business-backed employers&rsquo; group that was attempting to use the financial crisis to short-change workers. Indeed, the terms of this settlement reflect the very best industrial package achieved in and beyond Sweden of late, and Pappers truly deserves your congratulations. Please send a note in your own words, and your own language to Mikke Sterbeck at <a href="mailto:mikke.sterbeck.fk@pappers.se">mikke.sterbeck.fk@pappers.se</a>. 
 
Pappers is very pleased with the settlement, as well they should be. Following an 11-day strike at six mills, and on the verge of striking another six mills, the employers agreed to terms giving 18,000 paperworkers a 3.3% wage increase over 22 months. The first year&rsquo;s increase will be given 1 May, instead of the 1 June date that employers sought, and the second increase comes on 1 April 2011, again ahead of when the employers wanted to give it. Actually, in calculating the total pay package, it comes out to 3.4%, considering other items, including a 0.4% additional increase for the lowest paid workers in the sector. 
 
Pappers won excellent language regarding workers (and on behalf of these workers) who are hired through labour agencies, and the union won company-paid compensation for retirees in an aspect of the pension scheme that was at issue. In addition, Pappers won an additional month of company-paid maternity/paternity leave. The union is holding a teleconference with branch unions on Tuesday morning, 27 April, to explain this excellent package, a package that came about mainly due to the fact that 99.9% of its members were willing and did take industrial action. For this, the union deserves a congratulatory note from everyone in the global pulp and paper sector. Again, send to <a href="mailto:mikke.sterbeck.fk@pappers.se">mikke.sterbeck.fk@pappers.se</a>.

Settlement in Sweden; Union Deserves Congratulations

African trade unions affiliated with the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM), meeting yesterday, 15 September, in Lagos, Nigeria, passed a unanimous resolution criticizing Brazilian-based global mining giant, Vale, for its &ldquo;anti-worker, anti-union practices&rdquo; in Canada, and called on African governments to stop Vale from developing mines and exporting such practices to the continent. 
 
Rayford Mbulu, Chairman of ICEM&rsquo;s Sub-Sahara African Regional Organization (SSARO), and President of the Mineworkers' Union of Zambia (MUZ), said, &ldquo;The time has come to challenge these global mining giants, and Vale will be a test case for us.&rdquo; African trade unions will be contacting their respective governments about not granting permits to Vale and its partners for exploration and mine development. 
 
Vale forced a strike in mid-July by 3,500 miners and smelter workers in Canada, members of the United Steelworkers (USW), by demanding unnecessary cuts in pensions and other areas. The company, which earned vast profits from its Canadian operations since its purchase of Inco Mining in 2006, has recently announced it will use replacement workers to break the strike. 
 
The African unions are also protesting Vale&rsquo;s practices in Brazil where the company routinely terminates staff without cause, denies workers the right to union representation, and forces workers to sign individual contracts to circumvent collective bargaining agreements. 
 
&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t want Vale to come here and export its anti-union practices to our countries,&rdquo; said Mbulu. &ldquo;So either Vale improves its labour practices or stays out of Africa.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;Vale&rsquo;s strategy is to gut its best collective bargaining agreements and to set a precedent for deep cuts in wages, pensions, and worker rights worldwide,&rdquo; said Ken Neumann, Canadian National Director for the USW, and an ICEM Vice President for the North American Region. &ldquo;Vale will use the savings extracted from workers to finance the company&rsquo;s ambitious plans for expansion and further its campaign to weaken trade unions throughout the world.&rdquo; 
 
Vale has opened offices in South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and recently signed an agreement with South African-based African Rainbow Minerals Ltd. to conduct exploration and participate in joint ventures. It is targeting numerous Africa countries for expansion. 
 
Vale earned US$13.2 billion in net profit in 2008 and paid its six top executives US$33 million in 2008 compensation. 
 
The USW is working with trade unions in Europe, Asia, and South America, as well as with the ICEM and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), which together represent over 45 million workers, in a widening campaign. 
 
The ICEM is a Geneva, Switzerland-based Global Union Federation consisting of 467 affiliated trade unions in 132 countries. 
 
For further information, contact, Joe Drexler, ICEM, at +41 22 304 1845, or <a href="mailto:joe.drexler@icem.org">joe.drexler@icem.org</a>, or Bob Gallagher, USW-Canada, at +1 416 487 1571, or <a href="mailto:bgallagher@usw.ca">bgallagher@usw.ca</a>.

ICEM’s African Trade Unions Tell Vale: Improve Labour Practices or Stay Off Continent

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