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Australian trade unionists picketed Germany's consulate in Sydney this morning as part of a growing worldwide campaign to secure justice for US employees of global tyremaker Continental. 
 
The Australians called on the German government to press Continental to resolve the long-running dispute at its General Tire plant in Charlotte, USA. Continental is headquartered in Germany. 
<img height="263" alt="" src="" width="390" /> 
 
Today's demo in Sydney was organised by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. 
 
The CFMEU and the US tyreworkers' union, the USWA, are both affiliated at the global level to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The ICEM is currently coordinating a worldwide action week in support of the US Continental workers. 
 
Continental's Charlotte plant in the USA is the site of a strike, begun on September 20, 1998, by 1,450 members of USWA Local 850 over the company's unfair labour practices. Continental, which has already been indicted by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board on five counts of violating US federal labour laws, contends it has hired 800 &quot;permanent replacement&quot; workers at the Charlotte facility. 
<img height="261" alt="" src="" width="390" /> 
 
In 1995, after Continental bought General Tire, the workers there 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. Continental has also been accused of trying to break the union local in Charlotte. 
 
Yesterday, eight hundred South African Continental workers held a two-hour strike in solidarity with their US colleagues. The South Africans then marched to the office of Continental's local CEO. He immediately agreed to forward to the company's world headquarters in Hanover the South African workers' demand that Continental settle the Charlotte dispute. 
 
Other activities this week include protests at Ford Motor Co. dealerships in 61 US cities. Ford fits General tyres as original equipment on several of its models in the US. Also scheduled are protests at German consulates in several US cities. 
 
Protests have also been lodged in Belgium by ICEM affiliate the Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale/Algemene Centrale, the union representing Continental's Belgian workers, and in France by ICEM affiliate the FCE-CFDT, which organises Continental workers there. 
 
The ICEM and the USWA recently filed a complaint with the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) concerning Continental's violations of basic worker rights in Charlotte. 
<img height="261" alt="" src="" width="390" /> 
 
Leading the demonstrators in Sydney today was John Maitland, who is the CFMEU's National Secretary and Vice-President of the ICEM. 
 
&quot;Australian workers and the whole of the ICEM pledge our full support for the Charlotte workers and the USWA,&quot; Maitland declared. &quot;A major multinational like Continental will not get away with applying different standards in different parts of the world. It must reach a fair and just settlement with its workers in Charlotte and cease its futile attempts to break union organisation there.&quot; 
 
&quot;Now is the time for Continental to show some sense and finally resolve the Charlotte dispute,&quot; agreed ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe in Brussels. &quot;Justice and Continental's own best interests demand no less. We will maintain our worldwide campaign until Continental reaches an equitable, lasting settlement with the Charlotte workers and their union, the USWA.&quot; 
 
&quot;We are extremely grateful for the acts of solidarity by our brothers and sisters worldwide,&quot; commented George Becker, USWA President and chairman of the ICEM's global rubber section. &quot;They have given new meaning to the old union adage that 'an injury to one is an injury to all.'&quot;

Conti Tyres Global Campaign: Australians Picket German Consulate Over US Dispute

European law must give workers more say on corporate mergers and takeovers. 
 
That is the call from French chemical and energy workers' union the FCE-CFDT this week as a proposed merger between TotalFina and Elf nears approval. 
 
The two companies have already agreed to merge, but under European competition law they first need the go-ahead from the Commission, the EU's powerful civil service. The new TotalFina-Elf group would be the world's fourth-biggest oil concern. Its combined global workforce is currently around 150,000 people. 
 
After weeks of negotiation, TotalFina officially submitted its proposals to the European competition authorities on 19 January. 
 
The commitments include selling off: 
 
- 70 TotalFina and Elf service stations in France 
 
- interests in oil pipelines and finished product storage depots 
 
- certain liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) logistics and marketing access. 
 
Also, the fuel supply structures at Lyon and Toulouse airports would be opened up to competition. 
 
The Commission is expected to reach a decision by mid-February, and is understood to favour the company's proposals. 
 
The EU competition directorate did meet European trade unions within TotalFina and Elf on 21 January to hear their views. However, the FCE-CFDT criticises &quot;the lack of transparency and the absence of information to employees.&quot; In general, the union says, EU law remains inadequate regarding &quot;employees' right to information and consultation on any plans whatever to merge, take over or regroup enterprises.&quot; 
 
At the global level, the FCE-CFDT is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The companies' divestment offer could lead to &quot;major destruction of jobs,&quot; the FCE-CFDT says. That is why the union has now asked both TotalFina chairman Thierry Desmaret and European commissioner Mario Monti for access to the dossier prepared by the company in response to the Commission's demands. 
 
Jobs are an important consideration, as is town and country planning, the union insists. The Commission should therefore &quot;take full account of all these factors, and not just the competition rules, before reaching a final decision.&quot; 
 
The FCE-CFDT says it will work with the European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers' Federation (EMCEF) to secure better legal information and consultation rights for European workers faced by corporate restructuring. It will also ask the French government to press for stronger EU legislation.

EU Workers Need Legal Say On Mergers, TotalFina-Elf Union Insists

Settlement has been reached in a Canadian mining dispute that had cut world nickel supplies. 
 
Members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) in Thompson, Manitoba, yesterday voted to accept a new agreement with Inco. The vote - 66 percent in favour - ends Inco's 12-week lockout of 1,100 employees at its Thompson nickel mine. 
 
The three-year agreement, which will run till Sept. 15, 2002, is a victory for the union in that it addresses the wage and pension issues that Inco had refused to negotiate when negotiations broke down in September. The agreement maintains the pattern of increases established among USWA members in other Inco Canadian operations. 
 
The settlement includes wage increases of over 5 per cent, and 13 per cent in pension improvements. Along with an immediate signing bonus of 1,000 Canadian dollars, wage increases over three years will bring the average wage up to C$24.48 an hour by the end of the contract, up from C$23.31. 
 
Pensions will increase so that the minimum monthly benefit for a retiree with 30 years of service will be C$2,675 by the end of the contract. 
 
A negotiated Success Sharing Plan will divide the positive results of a co-design programme aimed at improving efficiencies in the operation. That plan, along with a Savings Fund Plan and the maintaining of the Nickel Price Bonus, could mean a payout over the life of the agreement of as much as C$9,000 per employee. 
 
&quot;The support of the membership for this agreement is proof of the workers' resolve to settle this dispute on their terms,&quot; said Bob Desjarlais, President of the union's local in Thompson. &quot;We are equally determined to work with the company in a way that will maximise the potential benefit to our members during the next three years.&quot; 
 
Lawrence McBrearty, the USWA's National Director in Canada, added that maintaining the pattern of bargaining with Inco in Manitoba &quot;is an important building block in upcoming negotiations with Inco in Ontario.&quot; 
 
At McBrearty's request, the USWA campaign for a just settlement at Inco had been supported by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the USWA is affiliated.

Canadian Nickel Dispute Settled

Canadian-based Inco will have to declare force majeure on some of its deliveries, the company admitted yesterday. 
 
The defaults on shipments result from Inco's lock-out against workers at a Canadian nickel mine in Thompson, Manitoba. 
 
Inco's blunder in Thompson will seriously weaken its credibility as a supplier, observers predicted. The company's sales slogan is Stronger For Our Experience. 
 
&quot;The total quantity of products that the Company is currently expected to be unable to supply as a result of the continuation of the work stoppage represents about 15 percent of the Company's average monthly primary nickel sales for the first nine months of 1999,&quot; Inco said yesterday. 
 
On its own figures, Inco supplies about 26 percent of the world's nickel demand. It is also an important producer of copper, precious metals and cobalt. 
 
1,040 workers at the Thompson mine have been locked out since 14 September. They are members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). The lock-out followed the union membership's rejection of the company's final offer. The Inco offer did not include any improvements in pensions, wages or benefits. USWA members at two other Inco Canadian operations have suspended their participation in joint labour-management design projects until the lock-out at Thompson is settled. 
 
At the global level, the USWA is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Earlier this month, USWA Canadian National Director Lawrence McBrearty asked the ICEM World Congress to back the Inco workers' campaign. Inco's behaviour is an example of a &quot; heartless corporate culture that puts profits before people,&quot; McBrearty told the Congress in Durban, South Africa. The USWA would take &quot;the struggle for justice&quot; to &quot;the four corners of the globe,&quot; he declared. 
 
&quot;We will mobilise our affiliates worldwide to communicate their solidarity with the USWA,&quot; responded ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, &quot;and we will use every means to urge Inco to reach a settlement with the union expeditiously.&quot; 
 
Inco is present in 14 countries, and has production operations in Canada, the UK, Indonesia, Japan, Guatemala, France, China, New Caledonia and the United States.

Inco Lock-Out Hits Nickel Supplies

About 3,000 South Africans suffering from asbestos-related diseases are pressing for their compensation claims to be heard by courts in Britain. The claims are against British-based asbestos multinational Cape. 
 
&quot;These claims should be heard in Britain and should be settled quickly,&quot; said Fred Higgs in Durban today. Higgs, who is General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), is himself a British citizen. He is in South Africa for the ICEM World Congress, which ended yesterday. 
 
&quot;It is a disgrace that Cape is even contesting the claims,&quot; Higgs said. &quot;It treated these people atrociously, and it should pay up immediately and in full.&quot; 
 
Many of the compensation claimants were employed in Cape's mining and milling operations in South Africa when they were children. That was during the apartheid era, and the children were forced to work in appalling conditions, with no protection against the deadly asbestos. 
 
In the latest round of the long legal battle between Cape and its victims, a British court ruled last month that the claims could not be heard in Britain. However, the claimants are now likely to take the matter to the House of Lords, Britain's highest court of appeal. &quot;We believe that the rights of the victims have been ignored in favour of commercial interests,&quot; their British lawyer said in London. 
 
The child labourers who survived Cape's ill-treatment are now adults, and many are desperately ill. This week, South African TV showed pictures of their emaciated bodies. 
 
The case took a macabre new turn on Thursday, when between 200 and 250 unmarked graves were discovered next to a mine dump in Prieska, near Kimberley. South Africa's ICEM-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which is backing the claimants, believes the graves are those of asbestos workers who died during the apartheid era. 
 
&quot;Delegates to our World Congress were outraged to hear about this case and about the latest discoveries,&quot; Higgs said today. &quot;There were immediate consultations between British delegates and the NUM, and they agreed that the cases must be heard in Britain without further ado.&quot; 
 
Both British and South African ICEM delegates went on South African TV last night to call for the immediate hearing of the claims in Britain and the payment of full compensation. 
 
The asbestos victims and their supporters in the Northern Cape are planning a protest march to urge the House of Lords to allow their case to be heard in Britain.

Asbestos: South Africans&#039; Case Should Be Heard In Britain

Just as Australian unions, asbestos victims and renegade building materials firm James Hardie were getting close last week to resolving an A$2 billion shortfall in an asbestos liability fund, the company&rsquo;s CEO and CFO resigned, taking a combined A$10 million severance package. Peter Macdonald and Peter Shafron still face Australian criminal charges on misleading investors and other deceptive stock market practices by establishing and then underfunding an asbestos victims fund. Hardie had cut its own liability in constructing the fund.

James Hardie’s Executives Take Massive Severance Payouts

A Swiss mega-union was created 16 October with the merger of four unions. The new union, called Unia, includes ICEM affiliate Syndicat Industrie &amp; Batiment (SIB) and now represents over one million workers. Unia covers Swiss workers from engineering to construction industries, and also in retail and catering sectors.

Four Unions Merge in Switzerland to Inform Unia

Affiliate CEP in Canada held its 6th National Convention in Quebec City and pledged to raise C$500,000 for HIV/AIDS relief in Africa. The money will be channelled through CEP&rsquo;s Humanity Fund which union members support by payroll deductions of one cent per hour. CEP also made a firm pledge to keep open the Mirimichi, New Brunswick, kraft pulp mill currently being shut by Finnish UPM Kymenne. By acclamation, Brian Payne was re-elected president of the 150,000-member CEP and Andre Foucault as secretary-treasurer.

CEP’s Congress in Canada Moves on Providing HIV/AIDS Relief

A week-long strike by ICEM affiliate Associated Mineworkers of Zimbabwe (AMWZ) ended 13 October with agreement by the Chamber of Mines to enter arbitration over a wage dispute. Specifically, to enter into wage talks quarterly, as promised by the employers&rsquo; group early this year. AMWZ won a ruling last month that financial incentives granted mine owners by the government and reserve bank must be passed to workers. The Chamber was appealing that ruling, thus the strike by 25,000 workers in coal, platinum, chrome, gold and other minerals. The AMWZ is insistent on quarterly wage bargaining since Zimbabwe&rsquo;s inflation rate runs at near 600%.

Zimbabwe’s Miners Come to Terms’s with Chamber of Mines

The All Pakistan Trade Union Federation held a mass rally and march across several industrial areas of Lahore. The demonstration was against government policies restricting wage hikes and collective bargaining, as well as rampant retrenchments and price hikes. Similar protest meetings were held in several industrial cities across Pakistan. The protests continued with a major march in Rawalpindi on 6 October.

Pakistan Labour Marches Against Government’s Labour Stand

Archive

Conti Tyres Global Campaign: Australians Picket German Consulate Over US Dispute

EU Workers Need Legal Say On Mergers, TotalFina-Elf Union Insists

Canadian Nickel Dispute Settled

Inco Lock-Out Hits Nickel Supplies

Asbestos: South Africans' Case Should Be Heard In Britain

James Hardie’s Executives Take Massive Severance Payouts

Four Unions Merge in Switzerland to Inform Unia

CEP’s Congress in Canada Moves on Providing HIV/AIDS Relief

Zimbabwe’s Miners Come to Terms’s with Chamber of Mines

Pakistan Labour Marches Against Government’s Labour Stand

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