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Global worker No1 2022

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Punishing workers who took part in a 20-day strike at LG Caltex refinery in South Korea is now the agenda of management. ICEM affiliate Korean Chemical &amp; Textile Workers&rsquo; Federation ended the strike 6 August but when 200 workers returned to their jobs the following Monday, 9 August, they were denied entrance and told they would be recalled on an individual basis. 
LG Caltex, a joint venture between the Korean LG Group and US supermajor ChevronTexaco, is seeking disciplinary action against some 70 strike leaders of KCTF. In addition, the government had issued arrest warrants for dozens of KCTF union officers.

LG Caltex Punishes Workers Who Struck in Korea

Members of ICEM Colombian affiliate Sintraquim at the pharmaceutical firm Casar Laboratorios S.A. have been on strike because the firm has not paid wages and benefits since last December. Company management now says it will liquidate the factory and workers&mdash;nearly all family-supporting women&mdash;will be without earning power. Sintraquim President Pastora Rosales and union activist Doris Amanda were employed at the factory. The ICEM is reviewing the situation and action is imminent.

Pharmaceutical Strike in Colombia Over Unpaid Wages

An eight-day strike by the Electric Power Workers Trade Union of Serbia ended 5 August with guaranteed assurances that union rights and full employment levels will be maintained at state-run EPS as it prepares for restructuring into five separate enterprises. The strike by 1,250 workers at EPS&rsquo;s Kostolac Mine and a thermal power plant in Kostolac won guaranteed employment at the five new companies for a four-year period, as well as an excellent redundancy package for any workers laid off thereafter. According to Power Workers Trade Union President Milan Kovacevic, another crucial aspect of the agreement is a provision that EPS must reassess in three years whether the separation to five business entities is justified before finalization of the process occurs. The restructuring of EPS will not begin until the five labour agreements of the new businesses are completed with the union. 
 
 
Correction: In ICEM&rsquo;s 17 August InBrief, at Serbia&rsquo;s state-run electric company called EPS, the number of separate companies that the firm has broken into is 23, not five as written. The eight-day strike by 1,250 workers occurred at one of those companies now splitting into five units. ICEM affiliate Electric Power Workers Trade Union won job security assurances through the strike that occurred at part of two companies, firms connected with the Kostolac Mine and thermal power plant.

Eight-Day Strike in Serbia Protects Union Rights

Also in the North American rubber sector, the USWA has filed a US labour board charge against German rubber manufacturer Continental Tire. The charge is over the firm&rsquo;s intent to close a tyre plant in Mayfield, Kentucky, by year-end that would cost 800 steelworkers their jobs. The union contends the announcement of the closure was timed to coincide with a 22-24 July unionization vote at a nearby Continental tyre plant in Mount Vernon, Illinois, thus serving to discourage workers there from voting for USWA representation. The USWA has obtained internal documents verifying Continental&rsquo;s anti-union bias, including plans to manipulate financial statements, and will present the evidence in its case before the US National Labor Relations Board.

USWA Protests Continental Tyre’s Plant Closure in US

A strike by 1,000 members of USWA also in Canada continues at Michelin&rsquo;s B.F. Goodrich tyre plant in Kitchener, Ontario, despite renewed bargaining that took place in mid-July in Pittsburgh. Despite Michelin net income doubling to C$528 million in the first half of 2004, Kitchener management is seeking wage and benefit cuts amounting to 15%. &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t about being asked to help a company that is in financial difficulty,&rdquo; stated USWA Assistant Ontario/Atlantic Director Marie Kelly. &ldquo;This is about feeding a corporate giant that has always been anti-union.&rdquo; The strike began 1 June. In separate bargaining also in Pittsburgh, the USWA is engaged in hard bargaining with Michelin over the master rubber contract at three US tyre plants.

USWA Strike in Canada Against Michelin Continues

ICEM Nigerian affiliates PENGASSAN and NUPENG had their demands for upgrading refineries, compliance with labour standards and other relevant issues that have besieged the oil industry in Nigeria met. Major oil firms, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. and the two unions reached accord 20 July, five days before a national strike was to start as announced in a union ultimatum. Full dialogue with the unions over privatisation, the number of expatriates working in the industry, training, oil windfall revenues and contract staff and casual workers will continue.

Nigerian Affiliates Succeed with Pledges for Refinery Upgrades

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited chemical firm DuPont for failure to record on-site injuries that occurred last November at a plant in Niagara Falls, New York State. DuPont failed to list injuries in the official OSHA 300 record-keeping log. 
Two workers had inhaled chlorine gas and one of the two needed immediate medical attention a missed a month of work. 
The violation comes following the US labour board citing DuPont for failure to turn over requested documentation by US affiliate PACE on location of hazardous chemicals at the textile fibres plant. In 2002, DuPont refused to allow PACE health and safety representatives from entering the plant.

DuPont Guilty of Faulty Record-Keeping in New York State

Three major mine accidents occurred in China last week, killing 28 workers. A methane gas explosion at a coal mine in Guizhou Province killed 19, while at an unlicensed coal mine in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, a broken cable caused a fire killing six miners. On 12 July, an accident at a fluorite mine near Qingyuan, Guangdong Province, killed three miners.

Mine Accidents in China Kill 28

Workers at Chernobyl, and Ukraine's four other nuclear power stations, will go on strike unless a dispute over unpaid wages is resolved by tomorrow (6 March). Nationally and globally, unions are warning that the crisis could have implications for safety. 
 
Over the past few weeks, the nuclear workers have gradually been escalating their protests over the wage backlog, which now amounts to more than US$15 million. They have repeatedly warned that serious underfunding of the sector poses a threat to nuclear safety. 
 
Their union, the Atom Trade Union (ATU), issued the strike alert after the government and the nuclear energy utility Energoatom had persistently failed to tackle the wage debt crisis. The union has particularly criticised the government's foot-dragging over a decree that would open new credit lines for the cash-starved Ukrainian nuclear industry. 
 
ATU President Alexander Jurkin is now in negotiations with the Deputy Prime Minister in a last attempt to avert a full strike. 
 
At the global level, the ATU is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
&quot;Our Ukrainian brothers and sisters can count on the full support of their colleagues worldwide,&quot; ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe. &quot;The Ukrainian nuclear workers must be paid what they are owed, and the ICEM stands ready to back their campaign. 
 
&quot;Non-payment of any group of workers is wholly unacceptable,&quot; Thorpe said. &quot;In the case of nuclear workers, it also poses a threat to the wider national and global community. 
 
&quot;Workers are a key factor in nuclear safety. They have to remain fully alert throughout their shifts. Nuclear workers who have serious financial worries, and who may have to take second jobs out of hours in order to make ends meet, could experience difficulty in concentrating. 
 
&quot;The Ukrainian authorities must ensure full payment of the nuclear workers' wages without further delay,&quot; Thorpe insisted, &quot;and they must provide the nuclear industry with the financial resources needed for safe operation. 
 
&quot;The global community must also shoulder its responsibilities,&quot; Thorpe said. &quot;Part of the international funding devoted to nuclear safety in Ukraine must be earmarked for the full, immediate payment of the nuclear industry's wage backlog. And the world's governments must insist that, from now on, wages be paid in full and on time to the workers on whom the world's safety depends.&quot;

Chernobyl Workers To Strike?

The Communications, Energy, Paperworkers Union of Canada would welcome global trade union support in its effort to block the Canadian government from selling its 19% state in Petro-Canada. Log on to www.cep.ca, click on the &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t Sell Petro-Canada&rdquo; link on the home page, and you can draft and send a short message against divestment to the prime minister that is automatically copied to the finance minister.

CEP of Canada Seeks Petition Help on Petro-Canada

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