English

Español

Français

Русский

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="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
For the first time, national legislation has been enacted to govern carbon capture and storage or CCS. A new Australian law creates a setting which encourages companies to invest with confidence in CCS technology and inject and sequester CO2 offshore. 
 
Tony Maher from ICEM affiliate the Construction Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), has welcomed the new legislation: &ldquo;Large scale CCS requires a regulatory framework if it is going to happen. Governments need to act quickly to put that in place &ndash; in Australia and around the world. We won&rsquo;t get investment in new power stations, or the retrofitting of existing ones, until there are pipelines and storage sites. We need appropriate laws and regulations for all three stages.&rdquo; 

<img height="100" alt="" src="" width="200" />
Australia also recently announced the formation of the Global CCS Institute, which it has proposed to be the coordinating body for the G8 commitment to develop 20 CCS facilities by 2020. The formation of the Institute is strongly supported by the CFMEU. 
 
At a major coal conference in India in December 2007, the ICEM along with major coal mining unions called for an international body to develop and share CCS technology, The position was strengthened at the 2008 ICEM Global Mining Conference which took place in St. Petersburg, Russia. 
 
Australia and the CFMEU have shown once again they are on the cutting edge of addressing global warming in a way that does not cut short jobs in the coal industry. The need for pooled resources and an international agency to propel the development of CCS will be one of the positions advocated by the International Trade Union Council at the December meeting of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland. The ICEM along with a number of its affiliates, including the CFMEU, will attend.

Australia and CFMEU Make Major Progress in Creating the First National Legislation on Carbon Capture

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Meeting in Aberdeen, Scotland, on 10 November, offshore oil and gas workers unions from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Netherlands, and Norway, together with representatives from the ICEM and International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF), expressed full support to the boycott of Petro-Canada products throughout Canada. 
 
The action is in support of 260 oil refinery workers, members of Communication, Energy Paperworkers (CEP) Union Local 175, who have been locked-out at a PetroCanada refinery in Montreal, Quebec, since 17 November. 
 
Participants at the meeting were appalled to hear that the company has jeopardised safety by attempting to operate the refinery at reduced output using management and scab replacement workers. 
<img height="188" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0811.Aberdeen.Offshore.Oil&amp;Gas.JPG" width="250" />
&ldquo;We call on PetroCanada to immediately end the lockout and accept the work terms and conditions contained in the CEP National Energy &amp; Chemical Bargaining Pattern Agreement. This pattern was set by PetroCanada and the CEP at an oil refinery in Edmonton, Alberta, earlier in 2007,&rdquo; said Norrie McVicar, ITF Offshore Task Force Chairman. 
 
&ldquo;Oil &amp; Gas workers around the world must be informed of this outrageous behaviour by Petro-Canada and we need to increase pressure on the company internationally as the lockout approaches its first anniversary,&rdquo; said Lars Myhre Chairperson of the ICEM-ITF Oil &amp; Gas Workers Trade Union Alliance and President of the ICEM Energy Industries Section. 
 
The meeting took place to plan a conference of North Sea oil and gas workers, slated for early 2009, and participants unanimously decided to invite CEP to this conference to share experiences in the industry.

ICEM/ITF Onshore/Offshore Task Force Pledges Support for CEP’s Petro-Canada Boycott

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Five hundred Canadian miners at Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. had been on strike for over three months seeking a new collective agreement, one that included a commodity-based bonus scheme. The strike ended last week, 13 November, when members of United Steelworkers Locals 7458, 7689, and 189 voted by 77.5% to ratify a new labour agreement. 
 
Miners and processing plant workers at worksites of PotashCorp in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan are expected to be back in their jobs this week. 
 
The three-year agreement provides minimum 18% wage increases over that period, with some increases higher. Roger Falconer, USW&rsquo;s Canadian head of strategic campaign, said, &ldquo;The members are happy to go back to work.&rdquo; Included in the back-to-work agreement is retroactive pay during the strike, which began on 7 August, a supplemental market bonus of C$5,000, and shift premium increases which start at C$1.35-an-hour. 
 
<img height="101" alt="" src="" width="134" />&nbsp; <img height="87" alt="" src="" width="116" /> 

Workers did not achieve commodity-based bonuses &ndash; a central issue being the strike &ndash; primarily because of the rapid economic downturn now. 
 
They did receive a C$50 increase to vacation bonuses, as well as return-to-work bonuses following layoffs of C$800 for the first two weeks of a furlough, and C$400-per-week after that. 
 
PotashCorp reported a profit increase of more than 400% in 2007 over 2006. The company is the world&rsquo;s largest fertilizer enterprise, with the operations that were struck, Cory, Allan, and Patience Lake mines and plants, accounting for 18% of all Canadian potash supply and six percent of the world&rsquo;s capacity. 
 
USW members took their campaign for a fair labour agreement to New York City and London to persuade industry analysts that they were proposals were justified, and that a prolonged strike would severely hurt the company&rsquo;s financial ledger. 

&nbsp;

USW Canadian Members End 99-Day Strike at Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
ICEM Asia-Pacific Region affiliate, the Philippines Cement Workers&rsquo; Council (PCWC), conducted an action on 13 November in Quezon City to retain a 5% tariff on imported cement. Faced with a number of recent layoffs due to the global economic crisis, the PCWC is opposing a Philippines Cabinet recommendation to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to eliminate the 5% tariff. 
 
&ldquo;Our local cement manufacturing industry has already experienced the bad effects of zero tariffs on imported cements in the early 2000s,&rdquo; said PCWC National Coordinator Felix Deyta. This &ldquo;led to closure of some cement plants.&rdquo; 

<img height="100" alt="" src="" width="200" />
Currently, both Philippines Cement and Lafarge Philippines Cement have begun retrenchments because of the economic slowdown. Cemex Philippines also cut 3% of its 587 workers at the end of October due to a restructuring plan. 
PCWC Secretary General Samuel Eslava said further cuts are inevitable of the tariff is rolled back. Added PCWC President Ricardo Pascual, quoted in the Philippines press, &ldquo;If tariffs are lifted, layoffs are certain. We&rsquo;re calling on the President to study the matter again. The issue is not the loss of government revenue, but the loss of jobs.&rdquo; 

<img height="92" alt="" src="" width="200" />
The ICEM issued a letter in support of the PCWC d position and demanded that the government consult with its social partners, including the union, before removing the tariff. &ldquo;Acting in favour of foreign business at a time of a worsening global economy&rdquo; will have &ldquo;a deep impact on the job security of ordinary workers&rdquo; in the Philippines, said the ICEM. 
 
The 5% tariff applies to international trade of Portland cement into the Philippines. A 3% tariff is charged to producers in countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Philippines Cement Workers’ Take Stand to Protect National Cement Industry Jobs

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Months of dispute were brought to an end last week when workers at the Sellafield nuclear energy site in Cumbria, UK, voted to accept a pay offer. 
 
Two UK ICEM affiliates, Unite the Union and GMB, voted by a three-to-one margin to accept terms similar to what a third UK union, Prospect, accepted in mid-September. Unite and GMB had been engaged in limited industrial action at the British Nuclear Decommissioning Authority&rsquo;s (NDA) site as it prepares to sell the last state-owned nuclear assets. 
 
Although the union Prospect accepted a 2.5% pay increase plus a 2.5% bonus in mid-September from Sellafield Ltd., operator of the facility, members of the two ICEM affiliates, Unite and the GMB, rejected the offer as the pay increase was below inflation. 

<img height="117" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The 5,000 of 10,000 Sellafield workers who are represented by Unite and GMB received four months back pay, and two separate bonus schemes of &pound;600 each. An added incentive in the negotiated proposal was a &pound;1,500 &ldquo;goodbye bonus&rdquo; as the NDA prepares to sell its nuclear assets to Nuclear Management Partners, a consortium of French, American, and British energy interests. That sale is scheduled to be finalised on November 24. 
 
During October, Unite and GMB members had strictly performed only work in their own job classifications, refusing to attend meetings on efficiencies, and refusing cross-departmental work. 
 
The Sellafield site, with a technical facility in Risley and a former uranium enrichment site in Capenhurst, will now undergo a massive multi-year reprocessing and clean-up project, estimated to cost &pound;1.3 billion a year.

Unite, GMB Avoid Further Industrial Action at Sellafield Nuclear in the UK

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Meeting on 6 November in Geneva, eight days before an economic summit for the world&rsquo;s political leaders to address a financial crisis that already has caused great social pain, the ICEM Presidium passed a resolution, declaring the recent collapse &ldquo;a turning point in history&rdquo; and proof that &ldquo;the current system of capital has not worked.&rdquo; 
 
After some debate, ICEM Vice Presidents agreed that the current market system has malfunctioned and that &ldquo;creation of a new and fairer system of global capital&rdquo; must &ldquo;contain stringent financial oversight and governance, including a new set of global regulations.&rdquo; 
 
The resolution emphasizes the fact those citizens of the world least responsible for the collapse are the &ldquo;most vulnerable, worst affected, and the least able to cope in the aftermath of the crisis.&rdquo; 
 
The resolution can be read <a href="/index.php?id=3&amp;doc=2856">here</a>.

ICEM Presidium Discusses, Passes Resolution Addressing Financial Crisis

Statement of Xstrata Union Leaders 
 
We as leaders of unions representing workers at Xstrata have met in Montreal, Quebec on October 15 and 16, 2008. 
 
We have exchanged information and discussed our experiences. 
 
We are concerned that Xstrata&rsquo;s actions are having a negative impact on workers and communities around the world. We expect Xstrata to operate at the highest labour and environmental standards around the world. 
 
We agreed as follows: 
&bull; To support members of CAW 599 in their struggle in Timmins, Ontario, Canada with the company. 
&bull; To find concrete ways to offer stronger support to each other during collective bargaining, especially for unions entering into bargaining in 2008 and 2009 (including among others: the Falconbridge Workers Union in the Dominican Republic; Altonorte Smelter Workers Union, in Chile, and Antamina Workers Union, in Peru). 
&bull; To promote worker exchanges to promote solidarity and build awareness on workers&rsquo; issues. 
&bull; To improve communication between us. We need fast and effective communication as the foundation of our work. We will establish a communications network through the internet. 
&bull; To consult with and educate our members in our local unions. 
&bull; To endorse the campaign of the CFMEU in Australia on workers&rsquo; right to be represented by trade unions. We will participate in that campaign through coordinated action. 
&bull; To meet again and bring together more unions representing Xstrata workers. To work with the ICEM and its affiliates. 
&bull; To develop strategies, including media strategies, to advance union campaigns. 
&bull; To establishing an International Solidarity Fund that would provide us with the resources to undertake joint projects and support each other at the appropriate times 
&bull; To work toward: 
&bull; establishing a Workers&rsquo; World Council 
&bull; engaging the company in the establishment of common international minimum standards on occupational health, safety and environment. 
 
The following unions and union federations participated in the meeting and endorse this statement. 
 
ICEM - International Federation of Chemical, Energy, and Mining and General Workers&rsquo; Unions 
 
From Australia &ndash; 
Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) &ndash; Australia, including: CFMEU branches at: 
&bull; Xstrata Newlands Coal 
&bull; Xstrata Oaky North Coal 
&bull; Northern District Branches 
 
From Germany - 
IG Metal, Nordenham, Germany 
 
From Canada &ndash; 
United Steelworkers (USW), including: 
&bull; USW Local 2020 &ndash; Xstrata Nickel, Sudbury, Ontario 
&bull; USW Local 4614 - Fonderie Generale &ndash; Montreal, Quebec 
&bull; USW Local 5385 &ndash; Brunswick Mining &amp; Smelting, Bathurst, New Brunswick 
&bull; USW Local 6887 &ndash; CCR, Montreal, Quebec 
&bull; USW Local 6486 &ndash; CEZinc, Montreal, Quebec 
&bull; USW Local 9449 - Raglan, Qu&eacute;bec 
&bull; USW Local 7085 &ndash; Brunswick Mining &amp; Smelting, Bathurst, New Brunswick 
 
From Chile &ndash; 
Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Fundidora Altonorte, Antofagasta, Chile 
 
From the Dominican Republic &ndash; 
SUTRAFADO, Falconbridge Workers Union, Dominican Republic 
 
From Peru &ndash; 
FNTMMSP, National Federation of Mine and Metalworkers of Peru 
SUTRACOMASA, Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Compa&ntilde;&iacute;a Minera Antamina, Peru

XSTRATA UNIONS GLOBAL NETWORK - October, 2008

<img height="39" src="" width="100" alt="" />
Union and community leaders in the UK&rsquo;s northeast have mounted a campaign to save over 100 jobs at a chemicals plant. UK-based Elementis Plc., the EU&rsquo;s only producer of chromium chemicals used in superalloy production, timber treatments, and metal finishing, is currently in a 90-day consultation period with ICEM affiliate Unite the Union and workers at a plant in Eaglescliffe, near Teesside. 
 
In February, the specialty chemicals company &ndash; the world&rsquo;s largest producer of chromium chemicals &ndash; announced the plant was under &ldquo;a strategic review&rdquo; that could lead to a shutdown by July 2009. 
<img height="138" src="" width="140" alt="" />
Workers and community leaders are petitioning MPs and engaging in other activities to keep the profitable plant operating. Elementis, which also produces surfactants and specialty chemicals for paints, coatings, inks, and cosmetics, saw its chromium chemicals business post an operating profit of &pound;27.7 million in 2008, compared to a &pound;14.2 million profit in 2007. Sales in the division rose to &pound;168.6 million in 2008 from &pound;115.9 million in 2007. 
 
Unite Regional Secretary Bob Bolam stressed that production from the plant was crucial for the EU. &ldquo;If this plant were to close, the EU would be reliant on Kazakhstan and China. We intend to put together a case for the (Elementis) board to keep this site.&rdquo; 
 
The company&rsquo;s other chromium chemicals plants are in the US &ndash; Corpus Christi, Texas, and Castle Hayne, North Carolina. Raw materials used by Elementis come from South Africa and other parts of Africa, and are processed at the Eaglescliffe plant before being shipped to US facilities and other locations. The company&rsquo;s chromium chemicals business produces dichromate, chrome sulphate, chromic acid, chromic oxide, chromide hydrate, and sodium sulphate. 
 
Elementis senior executives have stated that no final decision on closure has been taken. The ICEM supports workers in the Teesside and Wilton area in their buoyant efforts to preserve jobs in this sector.

UK Workers, Community, Unite the Union Fight to Protect Jobs at Elementis Chemicals

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The UK&rsquo;s National Union of Mineworkers and Australia&rsquo;s Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) largely financed the Second International Coal Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, last month. The others on the preparatory committee were the ICEM, CITU and INMF of India, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa, and FNME-CGT of France. The ICEM raised US$7,000 from the ILO to ensure attendance of delegates from Colombia, Mexico, Vietnam, and Mongolia. In total, 120 delegates from 20 coal-mining unions in17 countries attended. 

<img height="93" alt="" src="" width="90" />
The declaration of the conference included two items put forward by the ICEM. One related to the situation with Mexico&rsquo;s National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros, and the other with the urgency for countries to ratify ILO Convention 176, the Health and Safety in Mines Convention. 
 
Delegates were appalled by trade union rights abuses reported by Mexican representatives present, especially compliance of the Mexican government with such abuses. The delegates declared their full support of Los Mineros, as well as ICEM-affiliated Sintracarb&oacute;n of Colombia. 
 
&ldquo;We pledge to provide as much political, financial, and moral support as are within the means of our national unions and call on our internationals to similarly focus on supporting these struggles,&rdquo; read the declaration. Unions pledged to send a delegation of trade unionists and members of parliament to Mexico within 90 days of the Edinburgh meeting to protest the efforts of Grupo Mex&iacute;co and the Mexican government to destroy Los Mineros. 
 
All those present at the conference demanded the ratification of ILO Convention 176, by all member states of the United Nations. Also demanded was a dramatically increased focus on ratification by the ILO itself, including the adoption of Convention 176 as a core convention, and focusing on its ratification in countries where there are the most deaths and injuries at work. India, for example, has yet to ratify the Convention. 
 
Andrew Vickers of CFMEU presented a paper to the conference on the effects of the financial crisis on the coal sector worldwide, pointing the blame for millions of job losses to greed and deregulation of bankers. He noted that demand for coal will be reduced in developed countries, but greatly increased in developing nations. China, Vietnam, and India plan massive expansion in their capacity to produce coal. Vickers called for collective worldwide efforts to protect the interests of coal miners. 
 
The declaration found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0904.mining.pdf">here</a>, was passed unanimously amid enthusiasm of the delegates.

Second International Coal Conference held in Scotland

<img height="39" src="" width="100" alt="" />
A strike by 190 Turkish paperworkers, members of ICEM affiliate T&uuml;mka-İş, against Procter &amp; Gamble ended on 30 March. The end came when workers voted in front of the plant gates in Gebze, Turkey, for a two-year agreement. 
The negotiated agreement is a significant improvement over the American company&rsquo;s proposed wage freeze in the first year of the agreement. Workers will receive a 3.9% increase, an improvement over the 2% offer made by Procter &amp; Gamble 11 days into the strike. In addition, all workers will receive a lump-sum TL 1,250 payment upon returning to work. 
<img height="97" src="" width="160" alt="" />
The second year&rsquo;s wage increase, to come on 1 September 2009, will equal the rate of Turkish inflation. The company&rsquo;s offer in early March was two-thirds the inflation rate. T&uuml;mka-İş retained all work rights already in the collective agreement, and won increases in certain compensations, including night-shift premium pay. 
 
T&uuml;mka-İş General President Kemal Yilmaz thanked the ICEM and the many pulp and paper unions throughout the world which supported workers during the strike. &ldquo;For success to come in a struggle against a giant multinational company such as P&amp;G, international solidarity is a necessity,&rdquo; said Yilmaz. &ldquo;When it is coupled with the decisiveness of workers on the front lines, success can come easily.&rdquo; 
Procter &amp; Gamble manufactures paper towels, tissue, and hygiene products, including nappies, at the Gebze plant outside of Istanbul.

Turkish Paperworkers at Procter &amp; Gamble End 37-Day Strike

Archive

Australia and CFMEU Make Major Progress in Creating the First National Legislation on Carbon Capture

ICEM/ITF Onshore/Offshore Task Force Pledges Support for CEP’s Petro-Canada Boycott

USW Canadian Members End 99-Day Strike at Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan

Philippines Cement Workers’ Take Stand to Protect National Cement Industry Jobs

Unite, GMB Avoid Further Industrial Action at Sellafield Nuclear in the UK

ICEM Presidium Discusses, Passes Resolution Addressing Financial Crisis

XSTRATA UNIONS GLOBAL NETWORK - October, 2008

UK Workers, Community, Unite the Union Fight to Protect Jobs at Elementis Chemicals

Second International Coal Conference held in Scotland

Turkish Paperworkers at Procter & Gamble End 37-Day Strike

About IndustriALL

Follow us

Contact us