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The 13-month lockout by Petro-Canada of 260 refinery workers in Montr&eacute;al, Quebec, likely will end tomorrow when unionized members of Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Local 175 vote on a new collective agreement. 
 
Since 2 December, the union and management of Canada&rsquo;s second largest oil company have been engaged in private mediation with Special Mediator Lucien Bouchard, who served as Premier of Quebec Province in Canada from 119 to 2001. That mediation apparently has paid off. The two sides agreed to a tentative agreement late last week. 
 
CEP Local 175 will ballot members tomorrow evening, 23 December. 
 
The union is not releasing terms of the proposed contract until members vote on it, but CEP Local 175 is recommending the proposal for acceptance to membership. CEP Representative Daniel Cloutier said the union&rsquo;s bargaining committee &ldquo;is glad to submit the proposal to the membership,&rdquo; and he predicted it would be accepted. 
 
Petro-Canada locked out workers at the 130,000 barrels-per-day refinery on 17 November 2007. The company was attempting to break from the collective bargaining pattern of the CEP&rsquo;s National Energy and Chemical Bargaining Programme, ironically negotiated first between the union and Petro-Canada at an oil refinery in Edmonton, Alberta, in spring 2007.

Likely End to Petro-Canada Lockout to Come Tomorrow

<img height="68" src="" width="140" alt="" />
A breakthrough came this month in the dispute over trade union rights for workers employed by subcontracting companies of Unilever at warehouses in Turkey. International pressure by three Global Union Federations (GUFs) &ndash; the ICEM, the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF), and the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers (IUF), together with Turkish affiliates &ndash; can be credited with this first and major step toward resolving the dispute. 
 
Management of the subcontracting companies, &Ccedil;ipa and Şimşek, agreed to a protocol agreement with T&Uuml;MTIS, the Turkish Motor Vehicles&rsquo; Workers Union, an affiliate of the ITF, which addresses some of the issues in the dispute. This occurred in December, some six weeks after the GUFs, and ICEM affiliate Petrol-&Iuml;ş and IUF affiliate Tek-Gida-&Iuml;ş, met in a summit in Turkey, and pledged to bring pressure against Unilever on behalf of T&Uuml;MTIS and the subcontracting workers.
<img height="255" src="" width="340" alt="" />
The protocol agreement does not yet give T&Uuml;MTIS recognition status for hundreds of warehouse workers in Gebze, near Istanbul, but it does resolve some issues surrounding the sacking of 87 workers who joined the union. And the employers did agree not to oppose union activity inside the warehouses. 
 
Whether or not &Ccedil;ipa and Şimşek does recognize and bargain with T&Uuml;MTIS is a now a matter that will be resolved in a Turkish labour court. The union agreed to end a continual manifestation in front of warehouses. 
 
Within the protocol agreement, some workers who were fired received payments from employers, while others &ndash; which had won court cases over unfair dismissals &ndash; received add-ons to their indemnity payments. Some workers did get reinstated, while the union is still seeking reinstatement for others. 
 
T&Uuml;MTIS General Secretary G&uuml;rel Yilmaz reported that the protests, and the global labour support, have seen the number of workers who have taken up union membership soar to over 200. He said this has given momentum and renewed motivation among the trade unionists to continue recruitment efforts. 
 
Yilmaz, however, is urging the union partners who joined hands in the 20 October summit to continue their efforts. The ITF will continue to press its trade union rights case in the matter under terms of the OECD&rsquo;s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. 
 
The ICEM, in concert with the ITF and IUF and Turkish trade unions, will continue to monitor this Unilever subcontractors&rsquo; case, and press for union recognition and a collective agreement for the subcontracting workers. &Ccedil;ipa and Şimşek are companies that handle and distribute Unilever products in Turkey and throughout the Middle East.

Joint Global Union Action Gives Contract Workers of Unilever First Grasp of Victory in Turkey

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
ICEM leaders and senior managers of French-based chemicals multinational Rhodia travelled to Brazil from 2-5 December for a second round of monitoring the Global Framework Agreement. This kind of joint mission was first realised last year in China with a view toward making sure the agreement is properly implemented at specific workplaces. 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, ICEM Latin America/Caribbean Vice-President S&eacute;rgio Novais, and Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan represented the ICEM, while Rhodia&rsquo;s Exeuctive Vice-President Bernard Chambon&ouml;, Sustainable Development Director Jacques Kheliff, and Communications Vice President Lucia Dumas participated, as did the Brazilian team of Rhodia, headed by Latin American President Marcos De Marchi. 
<img height="210" alt="" src="" width="280" />
The social partners discussed the global agreement in Brazil in general, and specifically, at the regional headquarters in S&atilde;o Paulo. The delegation visited plants in Paulinia, Santo Andr&eacute;, and Cubatao, and met with local trade union leaders at those worksites. 
The ICEM team was informed about products, technology, safety, health, and environmental matters, and received information on salaries, social benefits, staffing, and local community relations in the plant visits. 
In terms of trade union representation, all Rhodia workplaces are organised by six different unions, each with collective agreements. The ICEM proposed a network among these different unions so coordination can occur and a common dialogue can happen at the national level. 
<img height="210" alt="" src="" width="280" />
&ldquo;I am pleased by the positive results of our agreement with Rhodia,&rdquo; commented Warda. &ldquo;The successful visit to Brazil, coordinated effectively by management, has shown us that a GFA can be a positive tool in industrial relations at the global level. 
&ldquo;It also secures an understanding on how local and national level social dialogue can proceed in a cooperative manner,&rdquo; Warda added. The Global Framework Agreement with Rhodia was renewed in March 2008, and now contains succinct language related to union recruitment and company neutrality.

ICEM, Rhodia Monitor Global Agreement at Brazilian Plants

The International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) has conducted a survey of how Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) is affecting workers and unions, and what steps are being taken to deal with the issue. Forty-eight ITGLWF affiliates completed the online survey, which was conducted with the assistance of the ICEM&rsquo;s CAL project. 
 
The results of the survey overwhelmingly indicate that CAL is an increasing problem in the textile, garment, and leather sectors, with 69% of affiliates who responded saying that the share of short-term and agency labour work in their sector and country increasing over the past year. A full 37% said that CAL had increased by 16% or more. Some 26% of respondents said that the share of CAL has decreased. 
 
In parallel with affiliates of the Global Union Federations ICEM and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), who conducted similar surveys earlier in the year, ITGLWF affiliates indicate that CAL workers receive significantly lower wages than permanent, direct-employed workers. Over 66% of those who replied said that wages paid to CAL workers are less than those paid to permanent workers, and 21% said that CAL workers&rsquo; wages are less than half those of regular workers. Some 41% of those who responded indicated that the wages and benefits gap between permanent, direct- employed workers and CAL workers had increased as a direct result of the global economic crisis. 
<img alt="" src="" width="146" height="66" />
The survey results make clear that employers evade their obligations to CAL workers in various ways with non-payment of overtime, denial of maternity and family leave, and denial of vacation and holiday leave being the most common forms of abuse. Some 18% of the total responding said that CAL workers are denied access to social security and pensions, and 15% said that the biggest way employers evade their obligations centres on occupational health and safety. 
 
There is a substantial difference in the number of CAL workers that ITGLWF affiliates represent. Fifty-two percent of affiliates indicated that CAL workers make up between 0 and 5% of their membership, while 19% say that CAL workers made up more that 31% of their membership. Almost one quarter of affiliates said that they had organised more CAL workers in the last year, while 17% said they had lost CAL members. The survey asked affiliates what were the obstacles to organising more CAL workers, and the results clearly demonstrate that the biggest obstacle to CAL workers joining a trade union is fear of dismissal or discrimination. Twenty-three percent of affiliates responding say that government legislation was a barrier to organising CAL workers in their country. 
 
ITGLWF affiliates are including CAL issues in their collective bargaining agendas. The four most common CAL-related bargaining objectives were to guarantee equal pay for similar work, to ensure non discrimination and realisation of trade union rights, and to convert precarious jobs into permanent jobs. 
 
In response to the fact that there is an increasing trend towards indirect and insecure forms of employment, 43% of affiliates indicated that they are currently taking action to ensure that new jobs created in the sector are filled by permanent workers with direct employment relationships. 
 
More details on the results of the ITGLWF CAL Survey are available <a href="http://www.itglwf.org/lang/en/documents/CALSurveyresultsITGLWF.pdf">here</a>.

ITGLWF Survey: Garment Sector Experiences Big Increase in Short-term, Agency Work

Following the start up seminar of the ICEM Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) project in Dakar, Senegal, in March 2009, the Industrial Workers' Union of Senegal (SUTIDS), conscious of the issue and consequences on workers and their organisation, started a media campaign through the major outlet channels of the country. 
 
The union did this through the two biggest television channels of Senegal and the West African region. 
 
Statements made by the general secretary of SUTIDS, those of the ICEM/CAL Project Coordinator for Sub-Saharan Africa, and a representative of the Minister of Labour were broadcast and commented on in most of the languages in Senegal (Ouolof, French, Toucouleur, S&eacute;r&egrave;re and English). 
<img alt="" src="" width="250" height="115" />
The conclusions of the seminar were also sent to the Office of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister&rsquo;s Office, the National Assembly, the Senate, the National Labour Advisory Commission, the Ministry of Labour, and the ILO. 
 
When the General Secretary of SUTIDS met the Prime Minister of Senegal, he had the opportunity to raise the issue of outsourcing and interim employment, making the country&rsquo;s leader aware of the sensitive nature of the issue. The Prime Minister requested to see all of the reports of the ICEM/CAL seminar held in March 2009. 
 
SUTIDS therefore organised a media and advocacy campaign among the highest state authorities of Senegal. 
 
These actions contributed to the adoption and promulgation by the President of the Republic of Senegal of Law No. 2009- 1412 on Private Recruitment Agencies and Casual Employment.

Origins of a New CAL Law: ICEM Work in Senegal

Trade unions in four important industrial sectors of Sweden &ndash; metal, pulp and paper, forestry, and food service &ndash; achieved ICEM-heralded contract language protecting the rights of full-time and permanent workers in wage negotiations in March and April 2010. The first-of-its-kind language, covering 550,000 workers in these sectors, will serve as a major deterrent in utilizing temporary workers hired through labour agency companies. 
 
The language, varying in minor degrees from one sector to the other, was proposed as a bargaining priority by LO-Sweden, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation. It will serve as a very effective restraint, the ICEM believes, for the recent rush by Swedish employers to use temporary labour. 
 
Prior to 1992, all such labour was provided by government-operated job centres. But a change in law that year, in effect, privatised such centres. Yet, the growth of the mega-agencies was slow to catch on in Sweden over the next decade, mainly due to a Nordic social ethic that rightfully grants life-long work and retirement benefits. 
<img alt="" src="" width="180" height="113" />
In the early years of the last decade, that slowly began to change. And with the coming of the financial crisis in mid-2008, the trend clearly shifted. Mass layoffs became the norm and in the second half of 2009, when even the slightest uptick in a company&rsquo;s business caused a need for added staff, company after company relied on employment agencies to fill that need. 
 
Swedish labour unions clearly saw their own need to protect the rights of full-time workers who were victimized by the crisis. 
 
Language in the new collective agreements stipulates that employers have the obligation to negotiate with the respective union before turning to labour-hire companies. Those negotiations are to occur on the local level and must take into account permanent workers who have been made redundant and are on re-hire lists. If such workers are qualified for the jobs that an employer seeks to outsource to an agency, those workers must be re-hired or else the employer faces steep financial penalties. Thus, the effective deterrent is in place inside the collective agreements. 
 
If the trade union and employer cannot agree on qualifications, the case goes to the national level where a joint panel will decide. (In one sector agreement, the national panel also consists of an independent mediator in the event the joint labour-management panel cannot agree.) 
 
Employers face the risk that, if no agreement is made at the local level, and they do bring in agency workers and the national panel rules in favour of the redundant worker, the company ends up paying double salaries, with the redundant worker, in some cases, getting up to a SEK 65,000 judgment award. The employer generally has five days to halt the use of agency labour when such employment is challenged before the penalty applies. 
 
One sector agreement contains a joint labour-management committee to monitor this specific aspect of the agreement in order to shape a &ldquo;good practices&rdquo; standard of employment regarding short-term contract and agency labour that is also intended to assure that there are no violations of the language. 
 
All in all, this Swedish model to restrict temporary employment, curtail the exploitative nature of labour agency firms, and promote the concept of decent work through permanent and sustainable jobs is a good one. It is also a model that trade unions in other countries should closely examine.

Sweden’s 2010 Collective Agreements Give First-Ever Language to Stem Agency Labour

Through a series of thorough and well-designed inspection visits, held between October and December 2009, labour inspectors in Peru investigated whether or not Skanska Peru, a &ldquo;major subcontractor&rdquo; to state-owned Brazilian oil company Petrobras, respected Peruvian labour law in regard to contract and agency labour in Piura, Peru. The inspectors, who worked closely with the Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Skanska de Peru, which is affiliated to ICEM affiliate FENUPETROL, wrote down their findings in a lengthy report, published early in 2010. 
 
Of the total of 1,210 workers that Skanska Peru employs, 380 work in Piura, a town in the Talara region. The Skanska workers perform extraction, production, maintenance, and sales jobs for Petrobras. 
 
According to Peruvian law, a subcontractor needs to run its operations on &ldquo;its own account and risk,&rdquo; needs to have its &ldquo;own financial and technical means, as well as its own material,&rdquo; needs to be responsible for its own operational results and needs to directly employ its own workers. Moreover, subcontractors should have more than one client and they cannot be entities that &ldquo;merely supply staff,&rdquo; with workers having a direct and immediate relationship with the user-enterprise. 
<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="122" />
The inspectors found that Skanska Peru violated all of the above. Petrobras, as the user-enterprise, not only decided on the total number, the working hours and the salaries of the Skanska workers employed through the &ldquo;service contract,&rdquo; Petrobras also &ldquo;agreed&rdquo; on collective bargaining agreements and was involved in the evaluation and sanctioning of contract staff. The material used (including even the IT needed to provide the Skanska services) was also the property of Petrobras. Skanska was furthermore found to be working for only one client in Talara, i.e. Petrobras. 
 
Where there merely is a &ldquo;straightforward provision of personnel,&rdquo; the law in Peru foresees that the personnel in question need to be incorporated into the user enterprise. As Skanska was found to &ldquo;fail to comply with the requirements to be a subcontractor,&rdquo; the inspectors came to the conclusion that, as foreseen in the law, the 380 Skanska workers in Talara must be given a &ldquo;direct and immediate&rdquo; employment relationship with the user-enterprise, i.e. Petrobras. 
 
The process currently is in a reconciliation stage, with all parties being given a chance first to react to the report.

Peru Says Petrobras Contract Workers Need to be Made Permanent

Para ver la traducción de este boletín al español, desplazarse hacia abajo

Women’s Bulletin Number 39 / Boletín de noticias de la mujer de la ICEM No. 39

The ICEM stands in strong support of its trade union affiliate in Zimbabwe, the Associated Mine Workers&rsquo; of Zimbabwe (AMWZ), as it starts a continuous strike today, 12 May, against the country&rsquo;s Chamber of Mines. The strike is over fulfillment of badly needed wage increases, salary adjustments that were negotiated and agreed to in an arbitration award last year but never delivered. 
 
&ldquo;We find this strike justified because the mining sector in Zimbabwe has fully recovered, yet employers have reneged on agreed upon wage increases,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We call upon the major mining houses of the world that have enterprises in Zimbabwe to intervene, and correct this injustice so miners can return to work.&rdquo; 
 
Some 25,000 miners struck about 45 different companies early today, shutting platinum, gold, coal, and other mineral production. This came after the AMWZ issued a 14-day intent-to-strike notice on 22 April, which was not inclusive of holidays or weekends. The Chamber of Mines did petition for a show-cause order from the Labour Ministry, but after two meetings, the Chamber&rsquo;s offer of a US$9.50-per-month increase was insulting. 
 
An arbitration award from third quarter 2009 should have meant a total salary increase of US$140.00 for the final three months of 2009, but employers refused to honour that award. For most of the 25,000 miners, no increase in wages has come throughout 2009.
<img alt="" src="" width="220" height="101" />
The ICEM supports the AMWZ&rsquo;s current wage demands of US$496 on top of miners&rsquo; total salaries, and urges mining houses to swiftly act on this in order to re-start Zimbabwe&rsquo;s mining enterprises. As well, the ICEM is disturbed to learn that mining companies have neglected to remit contributions to the Mining Industry Pension Fund, monies owed to the National Employment Council for the Mining Industry, and to the AMWZ for subscriptions. This must also be immediately rectified, said Warda. 
 
&ldquo;Mineworkers have gone too long without salaries, and in some cases, have gone without any pay for months at a time,&rdquo; added Warda. &ldquo;In a country such as Zimbabwe, this is unconscionable and senior leaders of global mining houses must step in at once.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM will closely monitor the strike and provide solidarity and support to the AMWZ through its President, Tinago Edmund Ruzive, and General Secretary, Joseph Midzi.

ICEM Supports Zimbabwe Mineworkers in Valid Wage Struggle

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
K&uuml;resel sekt&ouml;r federasyonu ICEM, Uluslararası Sendikalar Konfederasyonu'nun 26 Haziran'ı İran'da yaşanan iş&ccedil;i hakları ihlallerine karşı k&uuml;resel eylem g&uuml;n&uuml; ilan etmesini destekliyor, &uuml;yelerini bu bağlamda yapılacak etkinliklere katılmaya &ccedil;ağırıyor. K&uuml;resel eylem g&uuml;n&uuml;nde İran'da yaşanan iş&ccedil;i hakları ihlallerine dikkat &ccedil;ekilecek. 
 
K&uuml;resel eylem g&uuml;n&uuml; faaliyetlerinin &ouml;rg&uuml;tlenmesini Uluslararası Tarım, Gıda, Lokanta, Yiyecek, T&uuml;t&uuml;n ve İlgili İşkolları Federasyonu IUF, Uluslararası Taşımacılık İş&ccedil;ileri Federasyonu ITF ve Eğitim Enternasyonali EI Uluslararası Sendikalar Konfederasyonu ile birlikte yapıyor. 
<img alt="" src="" width="90" height="90" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" width="90" height="90" /><img alt="" src="" width="100" height="100" />
Iranlı sendikacılar bir &ccedil;ok kez sendikal hak ihlalleri ve yasa dışı tutuklamalarla karşı karşıya kaldılar. K&uuml;resel eylem g&uuml;n&uuml; sendikayı desteklediklerinden dolayı işini kaybeden iş&ccedil;ilerin işlerine iade edilmeleri i&ccedil;in bir &ccedil;ağrı niteliği taşıyor. K&uuml;resel eylem g&uuml;n&uuml; aynı zamanda İran y&ouml;netimi &uuml;zerinde İLO'nun 87 Nolu &ouml;rg&uuml;tlenme &ouml;zg&uuml;rl&uuml;ğ&uuml; s&ouml;zleşmesi ve 98 Nolu toplu pazarlık yapma s&ouml;zleşmesini imzalanması i&ccedil;in baskı oluşturacaktır. K&uuml;resel eylem g&uuml;n&uuml; etkinlikleri İran iş&ccedil;ilerinin meşru temsilcileri ile işverenleri arasında toplu s&ouml;zleşme g&ouml;r&uuml;şmelerini başlamasına da yardımcı olacak. 
 
Bu &ccedil;er&ccedil;evede 26 Haziran'da b&uuml;t&uuml;n d&uuml;nyadaki İran b&uuml;y&uuml;k el&ccedil;ilikleri ve konsoloslukları &ouml;n&uuml;nde protesto g&ouml;sterileri yapılması planlanıyor. &Uuml;lkedeki iş&ccedil;i hakları ihlallerinin son &ouml;rneği Tahran'da yapılan son 1 Mayıs g&ouml;sterisinde yaşandı. Barış&ccedil;ıl bir şekilde g&ouml;steri yapmak isteyen iş&ccedil;ilere gaz bombaları ile saldırıldı, iş&ccedil;iler yaralandı, hakkını arayan 100 kadar iş&ccedil;i tutuklandı. 
 
26 Haziran k&uuml;resel eylem g&uuml;n&uuml; İran y&ouml;netiminin sendikaya sempati duyan iş&ccedil;ilere y&ouml;nelik ayrımcılığa son vermesi, İLO s&ouml;zleşmelerini onaylaması, bağımsız iş&ccedil;i &ouml;rg&uuml;tlerini tanıması ve hapsedilen sendikacıların tamamını serbest bırakılması bağlamında uluslararası iş&ccedil;i hareketini bir araya getirecek.

GUF ve ITUC 26 Haziran&#039;ı İran Küresel Eylem Günü ilan etti

Archive

Likely End to Petro-Canada Lockout to Come Tomorrow

Joint Global Union Action Gives Contract Workers of Unilever First Grasp of Victory in Turkey

ICEM, Rhodia Monitor Global Agreement at Brazilian Plants

ITGLWF Survey: Garment Sector Experiences Big Increase in Short-term, Agency Work

Origins of a New CAL Law: ICEM Work in Senegal

Sweden’s 2010 Collective Agreements Give First-Ever Language to Stem Agency Labour

Peru Says Petrobras Contract Workers Need to be Made Permanent

Women’s Bulletin Number 39 / Boletín de noticias de la mujer de la ICEM No. 39

ICEM Supports Zimbabwe Mineworkers in Valid Wage Struggle

GUF ve ITUC 26 Haziran'ı İran Küresel Eylem Günü ilan etti

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