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

<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="138" />
Nigerian affiliate NUPENG held its First Delegates&rsquo; Conference in Benin City, Edo state, this month, and took unprecedented action toward peace and stability for the oil and gas sector of the country. 
The union issued a mandate that all refineries and other government assets that currently are up for privatisation need to maintain 10% stakes held by workers. NUPENG called for only &ldquo;credible and competent&rdquo; investors to take 51% stakes in enterprises, with 39% holdings held by the Nigerian government. 
The union&rsquo;s Delegate Assembly also called on oil exporting companies to build new refineries in Africa&rsquo;s most populous country, and pledged industrial actions between January and June, 2006, to address the issue of casualisation and contract labour. 
Specifically, NUPENG condemned the non-existent screening and auditing of expatriate worker quotas by the government&rsquo;s Directorate of Petroleum Resources. Such standards exist now in memorandums of agreement. 
Peter Akpatason was re-elected as NUPENG President; Ikechi Pius was re-elected as First Deputy; and Wosu Goodluck won election as Second Deputy. In elections for vice presidents, Osai Eddy was elected for Warri Zone, Okeke Basil elected for Port Harcourt Zone, Bako Joseph won re-election in Kaduna Zone, and Fakumoju K. in Lagos Zone. Elijah Okougbo remains NUPENG&rsquo;s General Secretary.

NUPENG Promises Industrial Actions over High Contract Labour Use

<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="138" />
Workers at Mauritanian contractor El Majabaat El Koubra Tours (MKT) remain on strike due to the oil services firm&rsquo;s sacking of union activists. 
The Energy and Petroleum Workers&rsquo; Union (CGTM) of Mauritania conducted a march and demonstration against MKT on behalf of the strikers on 18 November in the capital city of Nouakchott. The event drew over 1,000 protestors. 
The ICEM brought the dispute to international attention and on the day of the rally, MKT, a transport and logistic provider to Australian-based Woodside Petroleum, directed a four-page letter to the global union federation. The company admitted to the firings, but failed to justify reasons why the workers were sacked. 
In early October, MKT and the union reached a protocol agreement over terms, which included union elections for workers. But within days, the company sacked 16 workers, provoking the start of the strike on 14 October. A day later in efforts to reconcile the dispute, MKT agreed to take back ten workers, but not six others who were counted on by fellow workers to stand for election to union positions. 
The ICEM will continue to press MKT and Woodside for justice and recognition of legitimate trade union rights.

Contract Service Workers Remain on Strike in Mauritania

Led by ICEM German affiliate IGBCE, 3,000 protestors on 23 November demanded that tyre maker Continental rescind its decision to fire 320 workers at its St&ouml;cken plant in Hannover. 
<img height="263" alt="" src="" width="350" />
A day before the rally that occurred at the company&rsquo;s headquarters in Hannover, Conti chief executive Manfred Wennemer reneged on a deal to maintain jobs and production levels by stating growth rates at the plant were not high enough. Despite profitability and cooperation from the IGBCE on workplace matters, Wennemer&rsquo;s announcement stung workers and politicians alike, particularly in view of prior production shifts to plants in eastern European countries. 
IGBCE board member Werner Bischoff, vice president of Continental&rsquo;s Supervisory Board, promised the matter will get full attention at the Supervisory Board&rsquo;s 6 December meeting, and said any further cooperative efforts with the company are now in danger.

German Union Protests Continental Tyre Decision

<img height="99" alt="" src="" width="100" />
By way of introduction to the full ICEM background report on the Pulp and Paper Industry, the ICEM prepared a presentation on globalisation in the pulp and paper sector for the ICEM World Conference for the Pulp and Paper Industry, in Brussels, on 15-16 November 2005. 
The presentation builds upon the background document, highlighting the latest sector&nbsp;statistics, unavailable at the time the document went to press. It also provides a few examples of recent labour disputes in the sector, and makes suggestions towards solutions at the global level. 
 
For the presentation, click <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0511EugenePaper.ppt">here</a>. 
 
For the full report, click <a href="/?id=147&amp;doc=1513">here</a>.

ICEM Presentation on globalisation in the pulp and paper industry

23 November 2005 
 
His Excellency Dr Thaskin Sinawatra 
Prime Minister 
Kingdom of Thailand 
Government House 
Pitsunalok Road 
Bangkok 10300 
Thailand
Dear Sir, 
 
I write on behalf of the 20-million-member ICEM on a serious labour matter affecting your country. It is the unregulated and unceasing use of contract and agency labour by major employers in Thailand. 
 
In assessing a number of labour disputes in Thailand, some of which are in ICEM sectors such as energy and rubber, others in sectors such as metals and food, covered by other, fraternal Global Union Federations, the issue of extensive use of contract labour is at the forefront. I ask you to consider the harm such labour practices bring to the overall social development in Thailand. 
 
I write this prior to a group of trade unionists&mdash;many of whom are members of trade unions affiliated to the ICEM&mdash;bringing this issue forward in a rally outside the Ministry of Labour, and I implore you to hear their voice as it calls forth the ill-effects brought to workers, their families and entire communities when permanent jobs are replaced by contractors and agencies. 
 
I invite you to meet with these trade unionists, and I invite the Thai Government to initiate discussions on this critical issue affecting workers and the communities in which they live. 
 
The ICEM is leading a global campaign on contract and agency labour. We would be quite willing to join a dialogue between your government and trade unionists in Thailand who are recognising the dangers, and rightfully speak out on this issue. The ICEM realizes that it is not practical to call for a total ban on contract and agency labour. 
 
But what we do seek is that contract and agency labour be properly controlled to avoid the unnecessary displacement of direct workers and when there is a need to utilize contract or agency arrangements, trade union representatives be consulted and dialogue occur prior to contracts being signed. The logic to this in terms of productive enterprises, and well-being of workers, families and the communities in which they live is clearly evident. 
 
The ICEM is promoting such simple and precise language for employers, governments and inter-governmental institutions to adopt. Again, I respectfully request that your government give this labour issue serious attention, and I and the ICEM stand ready to assist in any manner possible. 
 
Sincerely, 
 
 
Fred Higgs 
General Secretary 
 
CC Mr Somsak Thepsuthin, Labour Minister, Thailand

ICEM letter to the Prime Minister of Thailand on Goodyear Contract labour problems

Application has been made to begin formal dialogue in the chemical sector of Europe. At a conference in Helsinki, Hubertus Schmoldt, president of both ICEM affiliate IGBCE and EMCEF (www.emcef.org), and Hans-Paul Frey, president of the European Chemical Employers&rsquo; Group, announced to trade unionists and employer representatives that dialogue between the social partners would begin this year. The chemical industry is Europe&rsquo;s second biggest industry, employing two million workers.

European Chemical Unions, EMCEF Seek Social Dialogue

The unaffiliated Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEMU) rallied last week and commenced industrial actions against government-run Bahamas Electricity Corporation. Industrial actions officially began on 1 September. About 150 of the union&rsquo;s 900 members rallied on that day outside the utility&rsquo;s headquarters in Nassau. The company has failed to reach compromise on five key issues separating the two sides: safety, a pension scheme, salary disparities, management of work hours, and contract breaches. The union, part of the National Congress of Trade Unions (NCTU) of The Bahamas, is now conducting sit-down actions, go-slow procedures, and action might escalate to power cuts if management remains unwilling to address the concerns of electrical workers

Electric Workers in The Bahamas Start Job Actions

About 400 members of ICEM affiliate Fiji Electricity Workers Association (FEWA) are preparing to strike this week over Fiji Electricity Authority&rsquo;s (FEA) refusal to address pay demands and grievances. The union gave managers a 28-day strike notice on 11 August and insisted that failure to enter meaningful negotiations would cause a walkout. Talks did occur last week, but FEA did not address the wage issue or failure to pay past cost-of-living increases that were due. Fiji&rsquo;s minister of Labour entered the dispute by issuing a letter declaring any strike illegal under the country&rsquo;s Trades Disputes Act, despite the fact that FEWA has been in compliance with all strike notice and secret ballot provisions.

Fiji Electric Workers Threaten Strike

Gold miners at Ghana Goldfields Ltd&rsquo;s Tarkwa mine briefly struck early last week over a dispute on a newly implemented profit-sharing plan. The 1,500 miners of ICEM affiliate Ghana Mineworkers Union (GMWU) struck 29 August but were back on jobs 30 August after negotiations between national leaders of GMWU and regional political leaders. The Tarkwa operation is Ghana&rsquo;s single largest gold producer that now has output of nearly 600,000 ounces annually, up from 530,000 in 2003. In 2004, Goldfields stopped utilizing contract miners at Tarkwa. The Johannesburg based mining house created a permanent workforce and introduced profit sharing that was aimed at supplementing full-time workers&rsquo; salaries.

Ghana Miners Strike Goldfields over Profit-Sharing

<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="138" />
Striking Canadian Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Union members at Invista, a global DuPont spinoff now owned by privately-held Koch Industries of the US, got a meaningful sign of Solidarity 27 August. Brother and sister CEPers employed at two other Invista chemical plants came to picket lines of striking Local 28 in Maitland, Ontario, with 380 black shorts bearing the union logos of all three branches. 
The 380 strikers have been out since 4 June over Invista&rsquo;s unwanted benefit cuts and company insistence to eliminate job security language in the contract to make room for contractors. A mediation session in mid-August did produce some progress, and the two sides are back before a provincial mediator on 12 August. CEP members at local branches in Ajax and Millhaven, Ontario, move closer themselves to initial bargaining with Invista in the coming months.

Invista Unions Rally Behind CEP at Canadian Chemical Plant Strike

Archive