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Global worker No1 2022

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THE FOUNDATION of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions, the ICEM, is a new departure for world trade unionism. Member organisations of the former MIF and ICEF will blend the best of their traditions and aspirations into a new international trade union federation. This new international will be a powerful body capable of acting decisively on behalf of the workers it represents into the 21st century and beyond. A global organisation, it will focus on achieving practical results and gains for its members. Strength is its sinew, service its duty, action its day-to-day business. Solidarity in practice, permanently renewed and strengthened, is the ICEM's driving force. 
 
The ICEM represents workers who extract, transform and produce vast quantities of the world's requirements and riches. Its membership works at the forefront of industrial activity in a wide range of industries including: chemicals, energy, mining and quarrying, pulp and paper, rubber, glass, ceramics, cement, environmental services and other services. It represents manufacturing and production workers, administrative, clerical, scientific, professional, supervisory and technical staff in these industries. The industrial logic and breadth of its coverage represent a major source of the ICEM's strength and legitimacy. 
 
The grip of transnational corporate power on the world economy is a phenomenon which did not exist when the ICEF and the MIF were created. Under the new and powerful influence of the transnational corporations, governments have often become mere agencies to facilitate the free flow of capital, technology, information and products. The real needs and wants of working men and women are ignored in the balance sheets of corporate giants. Unemployment and destitution are still on the increase. Child labour and forced labour continue to shame human decency. Wars and conflicts are still raging. The arms race is not yet over. 
 
National, regional and local trade union issues must now be addressed from an international perspective. Within the sectors it represents, the ICEM will face these issues squarely, with effective policies and programmes. 
 
Exploitation of workers continues. In many parts of the world, this abuse is at least as crude as anything seen in the last century. Combating exploitation, discrimination and poverty today and in the future requires powerful and refined means, as well as a renewed sense of urgency and commitment. The ICEM will develop both the means and the commitment needed to champion change in defence of its members. Similarly, it will spearhead the promotion and defence of trade union rights in its sectors as an integral part of the broader fight for basic human rights. The ICEM will have the resources to develop a new power relationship with the real decision networks of an ever more integrated world, whether those networks be corporate or governmental. The ICEM will actively represent its members in all fora where their interests are at stake. It will forge the necessary alliances with other groups of international civil society sharing the same basic aims. 
 
The ICEM is committed to safeguarding the health and safety of its members and the sustainability of the world environment. In this respect its commitment goes beyond the immediate interests of its members and encompasses the interests of their offspring, their families and the broader community. 
 
In all its activities and in its decision-making, the ICEM will actively promote equal rights and opportunities for women, not least by making women's contribution more visible. 

The ICEM hereby dedicates itself to the following six principles: 
 
COMMITMENT 
 
The trade union movement has a soul. The ICEM is driven in its activities by the will to right wrongs and injustice. It has at heart the real lives and problems of people. 
 
The ICEM is committed to achieve positive and progressive change in the lives of working men and women, in their communities and in society at large. It is morally engaged on the side of the exploited, the poor, the downtrodden and the victims of discrimination. This commitment will express itself in prompt responses to the requests of all member-organisations and in untiring efforts to reach the goals set by its Congress of members. 
 
SOLIDARITY 
 
International trade union solidarity is about finding shared solutions to problems that arise. It is the single most important weapon for winning improvements globally. It is a permanent and pro-active process of sharing resources, companionship and objectives. Solidarity is not just proclaimed. It must be built, permanently consolidated and demonstrated in practice. 
 
Through its global relations with the rest of the international democratic trade union movement, the ICEM will be an essential link in the vast chain of international workers' solidarity. The ICEM will be a unique means for member organisations to give and receive international solidarity. It will seek constantly to improve the quality and effectiveness of its own solidarity action. It will favour the forging of direct ties with like-minded individuals and organisations. 
 
Justice is not to be found everywhere and forever. It is won by continuously fighting oppression in all its forms. Both within the organisation and in its relations with the rest of the world, the ICEM will fight for justice and equality and will itself be even-handed and just. 
 
The ICEM will be its member unions' watchdog to ensure acceptance and application of relevant international law and standards. 
 
DEMOCRACY 
 
The legitimacy of the international trade union movement derives from its elected structures and the democratic nature of its decision-making. Policies of the ICEM are decided and owned by representative national and local trade unions and their members. This specific feature distinguishes the international trade union movement from many other voluntary organisations and confers on it authority, credibility and responsibility. 
 
The ICEM will constantly strive to strengthen the checks and balances that are essential to internal democracy. The organisation secures its income from fees paid by its members. It will ensure the proper management of its income and the implementation of the decisions of its governing bodies in an accountable and transparent way. 
 
As part of its efforts to strengthen internal democracy and bring the decision-making process as close as possible to its members, the ICEM will introduce a regionalised structure and increase regional exchanges and activities. 
 
INFORMATION 
 
The ICEM will base its activities on a unique mastery of the policies, facts and figures which matter for its member organisations. This capability will deliver good, timely data and analyses which are relevant to its members and are not readily available elsewhere. The ability to provide data on collective bargaining, wages, industry trends and corporate changes can help member organisations to improve the working and living conditions of their members. This is the ultimate objective of all the ICEM's information and research. 
 
This aim can be achieved only if all participate in the global effort. Member unions will express their needs and will provide structured information when requested. They will also show preparedness to share, with others who need it, the expertise that has been built within their organisations. The ICEM itself will concentrate on gathering and analysing sector-specific data with a strong emphasis on labour conditions and related matters. 
 
ORGANISING 
 
An organisation founded on deeply-held principles still needs to build the power to act on them. Acquiring know-how and the capacity to articulate clearly their needs and wants, building strong and sound organisations, and promoting and defending the rights and conditions of all workers are therefore vital to the empowerment of workers and their organisations. 
 
The strength of argument and the argument of strength go hand in hand when combating exploitation and poor working conditions. Acquiring the capacity to propose their own solutions and the power to oppose, influence or enter into partnerships, as and when necessary, is what unions need in order to be effective at local and national level. 
 
The ICEM will be at the forefront of this struggle internationally. 
 
EFFECTIVENESS 
 
The ICEM's resources will remain limited, but the needs of its affiliates are immense. In allocating resources and carrying out activities, the ICEM will constantly seek to make the best possible use of its resources in order to achieve the best possible results. Professionalism, commitment and quality will be the hallmark of the ICEM's services, and each of its campaigns and programmes will be strategically planned with a view to being result-oriented. 
 
The ICEM's agenda and programmes will be set with the sole aim of assisting its affiliates. It will also join campaigns and participate in events which are of direct relevance to its affiliates and their members. 
 

To achieve these aims, trade unions everywhere must unite the organised workers and organise the unorganised. 
 
Therefore, on this historic founding day of a new industrial trade union international, the ICEM and its affiliated trade unions worldwide solemnly recommit themselves to 
 
UNITE AND ORGANISE

Founding Declaration of the ICEM

Placer Dome, the world's third-biggest gold miner, faces a global trade union campaign aimed at reversing the company's recently announced job cuts and pressing it to repair the severe environmental damage that it has caused in a number of countries where it operates. 
 
Gold mining workers' leaders from around the world unanimously adopted a resolution to that effect this afternoon, at the close of a World Gold Forum held in Durban, South Africa. The event was organised by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), whose membership includes gold mine workers on all continents. 
 
The forum also agreed proposals for safeguarding the future of the world gold industry as a whole. 
 
The World Gold Forum precedes the ICEM World Congress (Durban, 3-5 November). This will map out a trade union response to globalisation. 
 
Today's resolution was sponsored by South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which is campaigning for the reinstatement of 2,895 workers recently retrenched at Placer Dome's Western Areas joint venture near Johannesburg. The sackings represent a cut of around 40 percent in the company's South African workforce, and are a potentially explosive issue in a country which has an unemployment rate of about 30 percent. 
 
Seconding the action call was Australian mining union the CFMEU. In solidarity with the South Africans, CFMEU members will picket Placer Dome offices in Australia next Monday morning - just a few hours after an NUM rally at Western Areas on Sunday 31 October. 
 
Full text of today's resolution: 
 
 
Noting that: 
 
1. Placer Dome is a Canadian transnational having mining interests in many countries. 
 
2. Placer Dome has a terrible record of destroying jobs and the environment and a disregard for the communities, wherever they have invested, in pursuit of profits. 
 
3. The owners and management have a history of union bashing while projecting itself as the best gold mining company on the earth. 
 
 
Believing that: 
 
1. Global investment should be socially responsible and must not undermine human rights, trade union rights, the community and the environment. 
 
2. In those countries where investments are made, collective bargaining conventions must be respected. A balance between global rules and the scope of domestic regulation has to be struck. 
 
 
We therefore resolve that: 
 
1. Placer Dome be targeted for an international campaign by the ICEM. 
 
2. This campaign should entail demands on the reinstatement of retrenched workers in the Western Areas Gold Mine Joint Venture; and restoration of the environment destroyed in the Philippines, Chile, Peru, Papua New Guinea and Australia. 
 
3. Placer Dome be pressured to sign a Global Agreement on Industrial Relations with the ICEM. 
 
4. A solid foundation for this campaign be built by organising a workshop early in the year 2000 for representatives from countries where Placer Dome has operations. A common platform for worker rights and working conditions and a programme for international worker solidarity must be agreed at this workshop. 
 
5. Unions affiliated to the ICEM must, where necessary, make available organisers and leaders to give direct practical assistance to worker struggles and organise the unorganised in Placer Dome operations throughout the world.

Placer Dome: Unions Launch Worldwide Campaign

Leaders of trade unions worldwide will be addressed by South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki on 3 November, when he opens the World Congress of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
<img height="180" src="" width="240" alt="" />
 
World labour's response to globalisation is the main theme of the Congress, which will run from 3 to 5 November in Durban, South Africa. 
 
More than 600 delegates from all continents are expected to take part. The Congress slogan is AMANDLA AWETHU - POWER IS OURS. 
 
&quot;We are very pleased that President Mbeki will be with us at what promises to be a highly significant Congress for global trade unionism,&quot; said James Motlatsi in Johannesburg today. Motlatsi is ICEM Vice-President and President of the ICEM African region. In South Africa, he is President of the ICEM-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers, which is Africa's biggest union. The NUM is co-hosting the World Congress, together with ICEM South African affiliates CEPPWAWU, NUMSA and SACWU. 
 
&quot;Thabo Mbeki's presence at the Congress is a recognition of the vital role played by trade unions in the construction of South Africa and of the developing world as a whole,&quot; Motlatsi emphasised. 
 
&quot;We are honoured that President Mbeki will address the Congress,&quot; commented ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe in Brussels this afternoon. &quot;We will listen to him with great interest and respect. All the more so because, since the ANC came into government in South Africa, it has introduced some of the most progressive and far-sighted labour legislation in the world.&quot;

South Africa&#039;s President Thabo Mbeki To Open Unions&#039; World Congress

A week of action against global tyremaker Continental was launched today by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). 
 
The worldwide protest is over German-based Continental's union-busting at its General Tire plant in the American town of Charlotte, North Carolina. The plant is the site of a strike by 1,450 members of USWA Local 850 over the company's unfair labour practices. 
 
The week of action is occurring as the Charlotte strike enters its tenth month. 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. 
 
In addition to replacing the striking workforce with these &quot;scabs&quot;, Continental cancelled health care coverage for the Charlotte workers and their families just before Christmas and has hired a private security firm to harass and intimidate strikers. 
 
The centrepiece of the action week is a consumer awareness campaign at Ford Motor Company dealerships in 54 US cities. The campaign raises the question, &quot;If quality is Job 1, why is Ford using General tyres?&quot; General tyres are used as original equipment on several Ford models. 
 
In addition to protest action by union members at the Ford dealerships, the USWA has put up large rolling billboards outside the dealerships picturing a flattened General tyre and the question: &quot;Should You Trust Tyres Made by Strikebreakers?&quot; 
 
The USWA is also airing radio commercials throughout the United States that raise questions about the quality of General tyres available to Ford. The union has cited examples of &quot;scores of defects being returned&quot; and tyre stores &quot;refusing to place orders for General tyres until the strike is resolved.&quot; 
 
Unions representing Continental workers in other countries will also be stepping up their action in support of the American strikers. Workplace demonstrations, meetings and petition-gathering are expected to take place this week at Continental facilities in Europe and South Africa. 
 
In addition, unions in several other countries will be taking their case against Continental to German embassies and will urge the German government to help resolve the US conflict. 
 
In the US, protest demonstrations are scheduled to take place at German consulates in several cities. 
 
The week of action has also been endorsed by the 22-million-strong International Metalworkers' Federation, which includes unions representing workers at Continental's recently-purchased Teves braking subsidiary and at the automobile companies which are Continental's largest customers, and by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. 
 
&quot;This week of action represents an escalation of our united campaign to bring justice to the striking tyre workers in Charlotte,&quot; said Vic Thorpe, ICEM General Secretary. &quot;It is appalling that Continental has behaved in such an outrageous manner at its operations in the United States.&quot; 
 
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.

Conti Tyres Faces Global Protest Week

Global tyremaker Continental faces a new worldwide cybercampaign on the Web over an eight-month unfair labour practice strike at its US subsidiary. 
 
The cybercampaign in support of strikers at Continental's General Tire plant in Charlotte, USA, was launched today by their union, the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), and by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The ICEM, to which the USWA is affiliated, is known for its innovative global trade union campaigning on the Web. 
 
Last Friday in Brussels, leaders of ICEM unions worldwide backed the USWA and pledged full support for their fight to gain justice from the company. 
 
The new cybercampaign lets Web users pump up the pressure on Continental. As well as giving background on the dispute, it enables anyone to send electronic messages to top Continental management in Charlotte and at the company's world headquarters in Hanover, Germany. 
Cybercampaigners can also e-mail German government officials in Bonn and in Germany's Washington embassy at the click of a mouse. 
 
For US and Canadian shoppers, the website gives the toll-free numbers on which they can phone the company's customer relations department and major tyre retailers Sam's Club and Wal-Mart Stores. In this way, customers can register their feelings about the ongoing dispute. 
 
Supporters can also download handbills for distribution at dealers which market Continental's tyres. 
 
At issue in the dispute is Continental's refusal to pay its Charlotte workers the going rate among leading US tyremakers, even though the company now has the fastest-growing profits of any tire company in the world. The American workers accuse Conti of failing to bargain in good faith and of trying to break the Charlotte local of the USWA. After provoking a strike, the company drafted in &quot;permanent replacement&quot; workers last September, a practice illegal in Germany. 
 
In 1995, after Continental bought General Tire, the workers 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. 
 
On 30 April, the Region 11 director of the US National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) issued a complaint against Continental, charging the company with five counts of violations of US federal labour laws. 
 
Continental stands accused of further violating US law, and more particularly of engaging in other &quot;unfair labour practices&quot; - a charge which could lead to the compulsory rehiring of the striking workers and could also make the company liable for millions of US dollars in back-pay and compensation. 
 
&quot;Continental made a serious error in judgement in trying to bust the Steelworkers' union in Charlotte,&quot; said USWA Vice-President John Sellers. &quot;It won't work, and through our actions on the ground and in cyberspace we will continue to hold Continental accountable for its actions and let the public around the world know what a bad corporate citizen this company is until a just agreement is reached.&quot; 
 
&quot;No global corporation should be allowed to get away with double standards,&quot; agreed ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe. &quot;Continental is trying to do in America what it would not be allowed to do in Germany and in most of Europe. When another global tyremaker, Bridgestone, was embroiled in a dispute with the USWA, the ICEM launched a worldwide cybercampaign to back the American workers. Industrial action and cyberaction together ensured that the Bridgestone dispute was resolved in the American workers' favour. Continental should take warning from 
that.&quot; 
 
The cybercampaign is part of a global ICEM-USWA drive for justice at Continental. Action so far has also included protests at Continental facilities, tyre trade shows and tyre dealers in several countries. 
 
In addition, the USWA and ICEM have filed a complaint with the UN's International Labour Organisation, detailing the company's violations of the worldwide labour standards set by the ILO. 
 
And in cooperation with the ICEM-affiliated German union IG BCE, USWA representatives attended Continental's annual meeting in Germany last week and warned shareholders there of the possible financial consequences of the Charlotte dispute.

Conti Tyres: Global Cybercampaign Pumps Up The Pressure

Global tyremaker Continental today came under growing pressure in its headquarters country, Germany, to settle a nine-month dispute at one of its US plants. It also faces the threat of worldwide union protests to coincide with its annual shareholder assembly on 1 June. 
 
At a press conference in Hannover this morning, the German mining, chemical and energy workers' union IG BCE pledged support for US tyreworkers and their union, the USWA. The IG BCE, which represents Continental's workforce in Germany, hosted the press briefing. 
 
At the global level, both unions are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which is coordinating worldwide support for the US workers. ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe was among the speakers at this morning's briefing in Hannover. 
 
At issue is Continental's treatment of striking (and locked-out) workers at its General Tire plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. But union leaders have also voiced concern over the company's declared worldwide strategy of shifting production to &quot;low-cost&quot; areas. 
 
Explaining the US dispute to the German media in Hannover today were USWA Executive Vice-President John Sellers and the union's international corporate campaigner Jerry Fernandez. Also in Germany for the event were Larry Murray, Vice-President of the USWA local at General Tire's Charlotte plant, and Charlotte workers Andy Hodges, Kay Maree and Linda Hatchell. 
 
The core issue is that &quot;Conti&quot; is refusing to pay its Charlotte employees the going rate among leading employers of US tyre workers, even though the plant is now profitable. The American workers accuse Conti of failing to bargain in good faith and of trying to break the Charlotte local of the USWA. After provoking a strike, the company drafted in &quot;permanent replacement&quot; workers last September, thus effectively locking out and dismissing the strikers. 
 
In 1995, after Continental bought General Tire, the workers 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. 
 
Sellers said that Continental's conduct of the dispute breached US law. It also violated internationally recognised standards of corporate behaviour, and his union would therefore be lodging complaints with the UN's International Labour Organisation and with the OECD. 
 
The USWA would also put a resolution before Continental shareholders at their annual assembly on 1 June, urging the company to abide by ILO and OECD standards. And if there were no progress in resolving the US dispute, he said, international union action was planned to coincide with the shareholder meeting. 
 
For Germany's IG BCE union, Hannover regional secretary and Continental supervisory board member Dirk Sumpf urged the company to develop the same &quot;partnership&quot; relations with the USWA as it maintained with the German union. &quot;It's not a matter of what is possible under American law. It's a matter of what makes sense.&quot; 
 
And Manfred Warda, who heads IG BCE's international department, added that it was now &quot;mainly the company's responsibility to show ways of constructively resolving a conflict whose continuation cannot be in the company's own interests.&quot; IG BCE remained ready to support such efforts, he said. Continental's relations with the German union were on the basis of &quot;cooperatively and fairly reconciling interests&quot;. It would, Warda emphasised, &quot;be desirable to use these experiences so as to also make an innovative contribution in the USA to the improvement of employee-employer relations. In that regard, &quot;respect for ILO standards and for the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises is a plausible minimum demand.&quot; 
 
In Charlotte, &quot;Continental is violating the right to organise, as recognised internationally by governments, employers and unions within the ILO,&quot; ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe told the press conference. &quot;The American Continental workers have the unhesitating support of the ICEM and its more than 20 million members in 117 countries.&quot; 
 
In particular, Thorpe said, rubber workers worldwide were watching the Continental dispute very closely to see if the company would &quot;show some social responsibility.&quot; This was a &quot;test case&quot;, Thorpe emphasised, because &quot;the behaviour which Continental and other companies espouse at home in Europe must be mirrored in their operations elsewhere.&quot; 
 
Such companies should also be setting an example of good industrial relations to the new market economies of Central and Eastern Europe, Thorpe said. Instead, Continental's behaviour in the US had shocked and disturbed trade unionists as far away as Russia. To prove the point, he read out a message sent today by Russian trade unionists currently attending a conference in Moscow on unions and globalisation. 
 
The Russians, including ICEM-affiliated unions there, &quot;strongly support the just demands of the USWA workers and call upon Continental/General Tire to put an end to its anti-worker policy.&quot; They &quot;insist that the company adhere to the highest possible labour standards wherever it does business, including respecting the right of workers to join trade unions without employer interference, the right of workers to engage in collective bargaining, and the right of workers to strike without losing their jobs.&quot; So the Russians &quot;urge Continental Tire to return immediately to the bargaining table and to negotiate a reasonable and just contract with the USWA.&quot; 
 
Several speakers at the press conference emphasised that Continental's use of &quot;replacement workers&quot; during the dispute would be illegal in Germany and most other European countries. Also taking part in the Hannover briefing was Jacques Caltot, who heads the rubber division of the ICEM-affiliated French union FCE-CFDT. 
 
Further international support for the US workers came from the International Metalworkers' Federation, whose Organisation and Solidarity Coordinator Brian Fredricks spoke at today's press conference. 
 
In the US, meanwhile, a &quot;public awareness&quot; campaign launched by the Charlotte workers is bearing fruit. Consumers and trade unionists are calling tyre retailers all over the country and urging them to enquire into the safety of tyres built by unskilled &quot;replacement workers&quot; in Continental's Charlotte plant. The callers are also voicing safety concerns about the company's alleged plans to import tyres from Mexico.

Conti Faces Global Union Alliance Over US Dispute

Trade unions representing workers in the world's energy and water utilities want to maintain strong social control over these basic public services. The ongoing revolution in electricity, gas and water sectors is frequently leading to major job losses, higher prices, problems with quality of services, and attacks on union rights. Proper regulation and full involvement of unions and other interest groups in all phases of any reform processes are required to guarantee a socially balanced outcome. 
This was pointed out by union delegates attending the International Labour Organisation (ILO) meeting of workers, employers and governments in session this week in Geneva. 
 
The ILO Tripartite Meeting on Managing the Privatisation and Restructuring of Public Utilities (water, gas, electricity) will exchange views on the impact of these processes on employment, working conditions, human resources development and service delivery. It aims to adopt a series of jointly agreed conclusions and possibly resolutions. 
 
The Workers' Group is coordinated by the Public Services International (PSI) and International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) whose affiliated unions represent millions of workers in electricity, gas and water utilities around the world. 
 
Contrary to claims by neo-liberal politicians and free market advocates, the unions feel that the experience of rapid changes in the utility sector is so far mainly negative. 
 
&quot;We find that the process of restructuring and privatisation of water and energy has frequently resulted in loss of employment, trade union derecognition, higher prices, problems with quality of services, hidden subsidies and guarantees from public authorities to private, and problems of weak regulation&quot;, pointed out Hans Engelberts, General Secretary of the PSI. 
 
According to Engelberts, &quot;provision of water and energy by public sector operations has clear advantages in accountability, public service obligations, stability of services, and stability of employment.&quot; 
 
Unions feel that there is a fundamental conflict of interest between multinational companies who are increasingly allowed to invest in utilities in search of quick profits, and citizens who need reliable, reasonably priced, high quality public services. 
 
The governments have an important role to play in balancing this conflict of interest. Strong regulation and framework conditions are some of the key tools for maintaining social control. 
 
But also unions have new control tools to offer. PSI is urging multinational water companies to sign up the PSI Code of Conduct on water services which lays down a number of basic conditions for lean and safe drinking water and fair labour practices. 
 
ICEM Deputy General Secretary Peter Michalzik cited ICEM's agreements signed last year with the Norwegian oil and gas group Statoil and the main players in the global chlorine industry. These agreements cover union rights, fair wages and benefits, health and safety standards, the environment and training. 
 
&quot;We need more such enforceable agreements and other similar arrangement to construct a social basis for the new global energy and water sectors&quot;, said Michalzik. 
 
 
 
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Public Services International (PSI) is a global trade union federation representing 20 million public service workers in 500 unions in 150 countries. 
 
International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) is also a global union organisation with 430 affiliated unions representing 20 million workers in 115 countries. 
 
The UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) is hosting a Tripartite Meeting on Managing the Privatisation and Restructuring of Public Utilities (water, gas, electricity). 20 representatives each of governments, employers and workers will discuss the issues and attempt to agree on conclusions that provide guidance for future action. The Meeting is taking place on 12-16 April 1999 in Geneva.

Unions Want Social Control, ILO Utilities Meeting Told

Chemical sector unions and companies are to cooperate worldwide on the continuous improvement of health, safety and environmental protection. 
Agreement on this was reached following talks in Geneva last week between worker representatives coordinated by the 20-million-strong International Confederation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Unions (ICEM) and employers grouped within the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA). 
 
Specifically, the joint efforts will focus on the chemical industry's Responsible Care programme. This voluntary initiative aims at continuous improvement of health, safety and environmental standards. It stresses the need to communicate the results to stakeholders and the public. 
 
Governments were also represented at the Geneva meeting, which was organised by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
The meeting's conclusions emphasise that &quot;there is a dialogue in progress which will be formalised and continued on the meaningful involvement of workers and their representatives on the subject of Responsible Care between ICCA and ICEM.&quot; 
 
Similarly, &quot;employers should involve fully the workers and their representatives in local Responsible Care activities and brief them and their representatives at the national level in matters such as the status of implementation.&quot; 
 
Responsible Care has had &quot;positive results&quot; and &quot;there is potential, with greater involvement of stakeholders, to go further.&quot; Its goals &quot;should be embraced by all chemical firms and by all those working in the industry.&quot; 
 
But Responsible Care must not just deliver. It must be seen to deliver. &quot;Performance indicators and verification procedures&quot; are therefore &quot;critical for the credibility of the initiative.&quot; 
 
Crucially, the companies, governments and unions recognised that Responsible Care is no substitute for regulation. Rather, &quot;the regulatory framework and voluntary initiatives should be mutually supportive.&quot; 
 
Regulation should ensure that &quot;minimum standards are set and met.&quot; This entails &quot;legally authorised inspections&quot;, coupled with &quot;support programmes&quot; and &quot;sanctions&quot;. But the less prescriptive &quot;goal-setting&quot; regulations also require &quot;suitable government oversight&quot;. 
 
Voluntary initiatives, on the other hand, should &quot;in particular aim at achieving higher levels of performance than those possible through legislation alone.&quot; They should &quot;provide encouragement and mechanisms for bringing all plants and firms up to acceptable performance levels&quot;, and their goals &quot;should not be static but should be based on the principle of continuous improvement.&quot; 
 
The emphasis is on the &quot;development and diffusion of best practices&quot; both between companies and within each corporation. Notably, multinationals should apply their corporate health, safety and environment standards worldwide. There should also be &quot;provision of expertise to chemical industries in developing and transitional countries&quot;, including via the ILO and other UN agencies. 
 
The chemical industry's trade associations and the bigger companies in the sector should help small and medium-size businesses to improve their health, safety and environment performance. 
 
&quot;The development and diffusion of best practices will be rendered more effective to the extent that workers and their representatives play an effective role in the voluntary initiatives,&quot; the employers, governments and unions agreed. 
 
&quot;Internationally comparable systems of performance should be developed and maintained to track chemical enterprises' health, safety and environment performance,&quot; they insisted. &quot;Workers and their representatives should be involved in the development and use of such systems.&quot; 
 
Managers and workers alike need training if Responsible Care is to succeed. The Geneva conclusions set out these training requirements in some detail. Again, &quot;workers and their representatives should have a voice and influence in determining the nature and scope of the health, safety and environment-related information and training provided to them in the context of voluntary initiatives.&quot; 
 
Chairing the workers' group in the committee that drew up the conclusions was ICEM Vice-President Fred Higgs (for a summary of his and the employers' comments, see ICEM UPDATE 9-1999). 
 
Robert Wages, Vice-President of the ICEM-affiliated American industrial union PACE, chaired the workers' group on the resolutions committee. Coordinating the workers' representatives throughout the week-long meeting were the ICEM's Deputy General Secretary Peter Michalzik and Health, Safety and Environment Officer Reg Green. 
 
Global union-employer cooperation on Responsible Care is now set to move forward rapidly. Within the next two months, the ICEM will be addressing the governing bodies both of the ICCA and of the European-level chemical producers' federation CEFIC on this issue.

Chemical Safety: World&#039;s Firms And Unions To Cooperate

The chemical sector will be under continuous and intense public scrutiny for the foreseeable future, workers' spokesman Fred Higgs told a UN-backed world meeting of unions, employers and governments now in session in Geneva. 
Health, safety and the environment will remain the focus of that public attention, Higgs emphasised. Voluntary initiatives such as the chemical industry's Responsible Care programme could play an important role in meeting the sector's responsibility to ensure the highest possible health, safety and environmental performance. But these initiatives have to be credible - and that means they must fully involve workers and their trade unions. 
 
Fred Higgs is Vice-President of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). He is the spokesman for the workers' group at the Geneva meeting, which is being held under the auspices of the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). Unions, governments and employers meet on equal terms within the ILO, whose Tripartite Meeting On Voluntary Initiatives Affecting Training and Education on Safety, Health and Environment in the Chemical Industries ends tomorrow. 
 
According to Higgs, &quot;Voluntary industry initiatives - in particular the Responsible Care programme - will only be viewed by workers and their trade union representatives as important and legitimate components of industrial policy and strategy if they fully and meaningfully involve workers and their trade union representatives from the plant level through to the international level.&quot; That was why companies must base their voluntary approaches on the development of mutual trust and joint union/management involvement at the workplace. 
 
Both the ICEM and his own union, ICEM British affiliate the TGWU, see these voluntary initiatives as part of their everyday concerns, Higgs said. They &quot;very much hope to agree with employers this week the principles necessary to build the joint commitment and involvement on which the Responsible Care programme ultimately depends for its effectiveness and credibility.&quot; Failure to reach such agreement would inevitably result in a considerable hardening of union attitudes towards the Responsible Care programme in particular, and voluntary initiatives more generally. 
 
Unions representing chemical workers worldwide have every interest in ensuring that the chemical industry is at the forefront when it comes to health, safety and environmental protection, Higgs pointed out. &quot;If this can be achieved by genuinely joint commitment and involvement of both sides of industry in voluntary initiatives such as the Responsible Care programme, then voluntary initiatives will perhaps finally have come of age.&quot; 
 
The ICEM has consistently pressed for the chemical firms' Responsible Care programme to be made credible and verifiable, with full union participation. A 1997 world survey by the ICEM found that workers and their unions were neither widely involved in nor well-informed about Responsible Care. Among those that were, many were sceptical about its real value. 
 
In fact, chemical manufacturers now increasingly accept that unions and others must be better involved in the programme if it is to be credible. 
 
&quot;Dialogue is an imperative if Responsible Care is to succeed,&quot; Bryan Sanderson told the Geneva meeting this week. &quot;Governments and Trade Unions are essential stakeholders in this process of dialogue.&quot; 
 
Sanderson is President of the chemical manufacturers' European council CEFIC and chairs the board of their world council, the ICCA. 
 
In Geneva, he called for the development of verification systems for Responsible Care. He also recognised that the chemical industry still has much to do to improve its workers' and external stakeholders' knowledge of the Responsible Care programme. &quot;But we are committed to improving this,&quot; Sanderson promised.

Chemical Safety: Union Involvement Vital, UN Meeting Told

Global Solidarity 
A newsletter for unionised Goodyear workers world-wide
 
ICEM World Rubber Conference Set for Brazil on October 28-29 
 
The World Conference for the Rubber Industry will take place later this month in Sao Paulo, Brazil. 
 
Since the last conference held in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the effects of globalization &ndash; corporate mergers and acquisitions and new strategic alliances &ndash; have become more evident in the rubber industries. 
 
The ICEM has determined that the agenda for the conference will focus on: 
<ul>
 <li>Economics, future trends and their impact on workers </li>
 <li>Occupational safety and health and the environment </li>
 <li>Global trade union networks </li>
 <li>Global company agreements and other industrial initiatives including employee participation. </li>
</ul>
The conference will be chaired by United Steelworkers of America (USWA) International President, Leo W.Gerard, the chair of the ICEM rubber section. 
 
Turkish unions win new settlement 
 
In late May, Turkish union leaders and three foreign joint venture tire makers reached an agreement and averted the possibility of a strike in the crisis-hit country. 
 
The government earlier had ordered a postponement of strike plans by Lastik-Is, the rubber union at the leading tire plants of Turk Pirelli, Goodyear and Brisa Bridgestone. 
Talks between the union and the firms on pay and social security payments for 2002-2003 had hit difficulties amid a deep economic recession sparked by a financial crisis in February 2001. 
 
Goodyear Cancels Continental Carbon Contract 
 
At the request of the United Steelworkers of America, the company canceled its contract with Continental Carbon in late September. Continental Carbon, a producer of carbon black used to make tires, locked out its union workforce in Ponca City, Oklahoma on May 7, 2001. 
 
The Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers&rsquo; (PACE), which represents the Ponca City locked out workers, has escalated a corporate campaign to include warnings to tire manufacturers, such as Goodyear and Bridgestone, and consumers about the company using replacement workers to manufacture carbon black at the Ponca City plant. 
 
Polish Unit Improves Financially 
 
Debica, the Polish unit of Goodyear, reported a strong second quarter this year. The company attributed the performance to restructuring and a stronger Euro currency.
Last year, the company reduced its workforce by 20%, laying off 800 workers. It also cut general expenses by a similar amount. 
 
Since Debica garners about 70% of its sales from exports, the strengthening of the Euro is expected to continue bettering Debica&rsquo;s results. 
 
U.S. Mold Plant Will Close 
 
It appears that more than 100 workers at Goodyear&rsquo;s Stow, Ohio mold plant will lose their jobs. The facility is currently operating at less than a third of its capacity. 
 
Thirty years ago, Stow was the only manufacturer of tire molds for the company&rsquo;s American tire plants. 
 
That changed in the mid-&lsquo;90s when the company opened a nonunion mold shop in Statesville, North Carolina. In recent years, the Stow shop focused on molds for racing and experimental tires. 
 
To save money, the company now farms out much of its mold manufacturing to independent plants and has reallocated work among it offshore mold plants in Brazil and Luxembourg. 
 
Company Increases Stake in Slovenia Venture 
 
Goodyear announced this spring that it had increased its holdings in its joint venture with Sava Tires of Slovenia from 60% to 80%. Since 1998, Goodyear has invested more than $90 million in modernizing the facility. It holds the right to buy the remaining 20% stake in 2004 and 2005. 
 
The investments increase the company&rsquo;s position in the Eastern European tire market. In 2001, Sava produced more than 6 million car and truck tires at its Kranj, Slovenia facility. The company has 1,400 workers. 
 
Company Plans Expansions 
 
Goodyear has committed nearly $500 million to three major projects. Two of the expansions are planned in the U.S. and the other is slated for China. In addition, the company has committed to a smaller project at a joint venture in New Zealand. 
 
In the U.S., the company plans to spend $250 million over four to five years to modernize its Lawton/Fort Sill, Okla., radial passenger tire facility. 
 
It will spend another $120 million to modernize its Topeka, Kan., farm and earthmover/off-the-road tire plant that will upgrade equipment, processing and technology during the next five years. 
 
In China, Goodyear will invest $120 million through 2006 to nearly triple production capacity for passenger tires at its Dalian facility. Capacity will rise to 5.3 million units by 2006, when employment will double to 1,000. 
 
In New Zealand, Goodyear's South Pacific Tyres Ltd. joint venture will invest about $5 million at its Upper Hutt passenger car tire plant this year to expand output nearly two-thirds to 2.4 million tires annually.

Goodyear network Global Bulletin - English version - October 2002

Archive

Founding Declaration of the ICEM

Placer Dome: Unions Launch Worldwide Campaign

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki To Open Unions' World Congress

Conti Tyres Faces Global Protest Week

Conti Tyres: Global Cybercampaign Pumps Up The Pressure

Conti Faces Global Union Alliance Over US Dispute

Unions Want Social Control, ILO Utilities Meeting Told

Chemical Safety: World's Firms And Unions To Cooperate

Chemical Safety: Union Involvement Vital, UN Meeting Told

Goodyear network Global Bulletin - English version - October 2002

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