Manfred Warda was appointed to fulfil the final year, 2007, of Fred Higgs' term as General Secretary of the ICEM. The decision was made by the ICEM's Presidium at its 5 October meeting in Brussels.

Higgs has been diagnosed, along with other health-related issues, with pleural plaques of the lungs, a condition brought about by industrial exposure to asbestos while working, near London, at Chloride Battery, where he got his start in the trade union movement as a shop steward in the 1960s.

From left to right: Manfred Warda, ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana and Fred Higgs

Higgs, who will turn 60 in December, will remain ICEM General Secretary until the end of the year.

Warda, 59, is currently Head of the International Department of the German trade union IGBCE. A 43-year member of the IGBCE and before that, Industriegewerkschaft Bergbau und Energie (IGBE), the German Mineworkers' Union, Warda began working in the industrial sector in 1963, in his home city of Bochum, North Rhine Westphalia.

He began his career inside IGBE in 1971, and after serving as an assistant and then Head of the President's Office, he became Head of IGBE's International Department from 1990 to 1997. Following the 1997 merger that created IGBCE, he continued as Head of the IGBCE’s International Department.

The 12-day strike by members of US affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. continues with no negotiations scheduled. The strike by 15,000 trade unionists at 16 US and Canadian plants began on 5 October, and is one of the biggest North American industrial strikes of this decade.

Workers are striking the US-based tyre company for retention of job security guarantees won in 2003 negotiations. They also resist company proposals for steep wage and retirement benefit cuts. With Goodyear teetering on the edge of bankruptcy in 2003, the USW granted financial concessions in exchange for job security and job-retention protections.

This year, with Goodyear in excellent financial health, and with 2005 figures showing that North American production accounts for nearly one-half of its total US$19.72 billion in revenues, the company came to the bargaining table with intentions to take even more from its workforce. In addition, it proposes to close two tyre plants, employing 2,190 workers in Gadsden, Alabama, and Tyler, Texas.

ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs has called on all ICEM’s rubber sector unions that represent Goodyear workers to monitor tyre inventories and production, so as to ensure that they are not undermining the USW's strike. The company claims that some US and Canadian production is continuing with supervisory personnel doing the work. Tyre production also continues from Goodyear's two non-union rubber facilities in Lawton, Oklahoma, and in Napanee, Ontario.

The 12 US plants, eight tyre operations and four engineered rubber products operations in which 13,000 USW members are on strike, are located in: Gadsden and Tyler; Marysville, Ohio; St. Mary's, Ohio; Lincoln, Nebraska; Tonawanda, New York State; Topeka, Kansas; Union City, Tennessee; Danville, Virginia; Sun Prairie, Wisconsin; Fayetteville, North Carolina; and Akron, Ohio.

The four Canadian plants in which 2,000 USW members are striking are at: Collingwood, Ontario; Owen Sound, Ontario; the Toronto, Ontario, logistics center; and the Toronto commercial retread plant.

The Frente Autentica del Trabajo (FAT) will file, on behalf of ICEM US affiliate, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), a rare complaint tomorrow, 17 October, with the US Labor Department over the inability of public employees in the state of North Carolina to engage in collective bargaining.

The complaint, to be filed under the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation (NAALC), a 1993 side agreement to the US, Mexico, and Canada free trade agreement (NAFTA), includes over 40 labour organisations as co-signees, including Global Union Federations ICEM and Public Service International (PSI).

A branch union of UE in North Carolina, Local 150, has aggressively built a membership of 3,000 public workers in the US Atlantic seaboard state. But state law bars the employees, both state and municipal workers, from collective bargaining rights.

Such a prohibition not only violates NAALC, but is also a clear affront to established international labour standards. Two other ICEM North American affiliates have also co-signed the FAT/UE complaint: Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada, and the United Steelworkers (USW), which has membership in both the US and Canada.

FAT and UE have had a decades-long relationship that has protected workers' labour and human rights on each side of the US-Mexican border.

NAALC, the only agreement signed by the US government that deals with labour standards as a supplement to an international trade agreement, ensures that the three countries' labour laws provide for "high labour standards and continue to strive to improve those standards."

The FAT/UE complaint will be submitted to the US Labor Department's Office of Trade Agreement Implementation (OTAI), which has 60 days to either accept or decline to review the complaint. If accepted, consultations on the issue begin with the respective national administration offices for the trade pact of the other two countries.

The modus operandi by US multinational Ross International on human rights reads like the script of ‘how to behave badly in a globalised world.’ The company, which manufactures moulds for the glass container industry, appears to follow a handbook on how to subcontract and outsource work, while eliminating trade unions at the same time.

In a letter to the company last week, ICEM took on the company’s anti-union techniques in Colombia. ICEM Colombian affiliate Sintravidricol is running a campaign in that country to get the company to deal responsibly with its workforce.

Ross International owns one facility in Colombia where a collective bargaining agreement exists, called Moldes Medellin Ltda. Reportedly, this modern facility operates at only 50% capacity and is constantly reducing its number of workers, with a prohibition in place on hiring new ones. The company also owns four other factories in Colombia, which all are enlarging their capacity.

New jobs at these facilities come with far less job security and at lower salaries, with most workers being hired through temporary work agencies. On top of that, Ross International ignores union requests in the one plant with an agreement. It also refuses to comply with earlier agreements in that plant.

In the US, where the company is headquartered in the state of Pennsylvania, ICEM North American affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) faces very similar problems. There as well, union members are the victims of Ross efforts to downsize mould shops, and outsource work that has, for years, been performed by USW members. The serious reductions in staff at Ross International’s US operations affect three of the four company plants in the US: Penn Mould, Ross Mould, and Brockway Mould.

Another sign that the company is not taking its obligations towards its workers seriously is that representatives of the USW have had seriously difficulties to even get a meeting with the management of the company to discuss the issues of downsizing, layoffs and possible solutions.

As a mould manufacturer, Ross International serves both Owens-Illinois and Saint Gobain Container, Inc.

A severe industrial explosion at DuPont’s Guarulhos facility, in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, reportedly injured three local workers on 5 October. One worker was seriously wounded and brought to hospital, allegedly with burns on 50% of his body.

Information on the accident is limited. According to the ICEM affiliated Brazilian chemical union, Sindiquímicos, the local DuPont company declined to provide information on the accident. The union was not allowed to enter the plant, further stating that “not even the number of victims” was communicated by the company.

Jim Rowe, United Steelworkers (USW) Local 943’s president from New Jersey, visited both the Guarulhos and Camaçari DuPont facilities in Brazil in August 2006, together with USW Director Joe Drexler. The company denied them the opportunity to tour the plants. In a USW news release on the current accident, Jim Rowe wonders how “DuPont continues to maintain its reputation as a safe company and sell its safety program to other companies in the wake of serious accidents?”

Workers at DuPont’s Guarulhos facility, waiting for information

The tour of the facilities in Brazil was part of a larger effort by the USW to draw attention to safety and environmental problems stemming from DuPont plants worldwide.

The USW states in its news release that, last year, a worker was killed by an explosion at the Camaçari facility. According to a report from the State of Bahia in Brazil at the time, DuPont was blamed for failing to implement control devices to prevent the explosion. Three serious accidents also happened over the last two years at a US DuPont plant in Niagara Falls, state of New York.

The USW is the lead union in ICEM’s Global DuPont Workers’ Network.

The dispute in Argentina between ICEM affiliate Sindicato Único de Trabajadores del Neumático Argentino (SUTNA) and the Fábrica Neumáticos de Avanzada (NA), a competition tyre making company in Córdoba, is going from bad to worse. Over the last few weeks, trade unionists have been harassed and intimidated, including many of the dismissed workers at the tyre plant, their family members, SUTNA union representatives, and the union’s attorney.

The house of Ignacio Ferrer, a lawyer working for SUTNA, was turned upside down during a break-in by unknown aggressors. A clear sign that the burglary was only meant to intimidate, is the fact that nothing was taken.

Further aggravation came when the provincial police refused to take action, arguing that they could do nothing since nothing was taken. Failure by the police to do something seems to be endemic in Córdoba as none of the other intimidation complaints have been investigated by the police either.

Union representatives, as well as union members, have been threatened on at least five different occasions, mainly through bullying by unknown individuals. Similar things happened to their family members.

The Union’s Assistant secretary, Rubén Silva, for example, was approached by the company’s security people while he was talking to the strikers in front of the plant. He was told by a company security guard that the man “would break all his bones so that he could never **** again.” Another tactic used against the same man is to drive around in cars without license plates in the area where he lives, asking neighbours where his house is.

NA refuses to participate in mandatory reconciliation efforts, thereby turning down any possibility for a dialogue. As part of that, the company’s security personnel refused entry to an officer from the Department of Justice, accompanied by, among other people, the union’s lawyer and two police officers. They were refused entry in spite of the fact that they had a warrant issued by a court. The group later managed to get in by jumping a gate.

The conflict started in early August when NA, in a clear violation of trade union rights, started to dismiss staff members for becoming SUTNA members. Things escalated when the company became openly hostile to SUTNA’s industrial actions, which occurred in support of the 25 sacked SUTNA members. The dispute follows the signing, for the first time in 31 years, of a national agreement for the Argentinean rubber sector with the employers’ association.

The second Trade Union Seminar for Repsol-YPF trade unionists took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 9-11 October. Repsol-YPF, a Spanish-Argentinean multinational, employs 16,000 workers worldwide and ranks in the top ten of oil and gas companies.

ICEM affiliate Fiteqa, with the active support of CC.OO’s Paz y Solidaridad Foundation (FPS) was again leading this initiative. Trade unionists from Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba met to debate around their common concerns and to create a union network. ICEM was represented at the event by its Latin-American Vice-President and its Energy Officer.

The seminar gave participants the ability to compare their industrial, economic, social and political realities as well as to reinforce their unity and solidarity. For Isidor Boix, International Secretary of Fetiqa, “the level of discussions and the commitment shown by all the colleagues who participated constitutes a very sound basis for the future work of the network”

The Repsol-YPF unions have also decided during this meeting to set up a web site to extend and deepen the information resources of the workers they represent. At the end of the sessions, representatives of the union network met representatives of Repsol-YPF to introduce their future work plan.

The next meeting will take place in Peru in October 2007, while the webpage should be launched over the coming months.

The ten-month dispute between ICEM affiliate Oilfield Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) and the Trinidad and Tobago state oil company Petrotrin ended early this month when a new three-year agreement was agreed to.

Agreements were reached for all five Petrotrin bargaining units, covering 5,000 workers in total. The different labour agreements are similar, sharing many of the advances reached, for example a 15% salary increase over three years.

Differences between the five agreements can be found in the periods that the agreements cover, with some going back to 2005, and others to February 2006. The 1,500 refinery workers, for example, will receive a 6% wage increase backdated to February 2006. They will be given a 5% increase in 2007 and a further 4 % in 2008.

Agreement was reached on a wide set of issues, includes on health and safety topics and on cost of living allowances. According to an OWTU Spokesman, the union regards the agreement as a good agreement, given the circumstances.

The dispute was marked by several industrial actions by the refinery workers at the Pointe-a-Pierre set of plants, as well as by marches on the company's corporate offices by OWTU members of all the bargaining units.

A miners' strike in Kazakhstan that started following the deadly 20 September methane blast in a coal mine that killed 41 has ended. Some 24,500 workers at eight coal mines in central Kazakhstan, owned by the world's largest steelmaker, Arcelor Mittal Steel, returned to their colleries on 5 October after safety and pay demands were partially met.

The strike, which started on 25 September, was joined a few days later by steelworkers from Mittal's steel enterprises in the Karaganda region, as well as by iron ore miners employed by the company.

The metalworkers' union had experienced little movement in two months of negotiations prior to the strike, but significant wage gains were won on that front as well. Arcelor Mittal officials admitted that the strike, which stopped production at all eight coal mines, had caused a 30% decline in steel output.

The Korgau coal miners' trade union reported that Arcelor Mittal gave pledges of new mining equipment to replace antiquated machinery already in use prior to 1995, the year that the company purchased the mines as well as vast steelmaking facilities from a state-run company. Miners also realised a doubling, effective 1 October, of their pay. New pay packets will now be the equivalent of US$700 per month.

Steelworkers, who previously had an average pay of US$300 per month, won a 1 October increase of 20%, and will receive another 10% in February 2007.

The methane explosion at the Lenin mine that claimed the 41 lives was the worst mining disaster on record in the central Asian republic. Last week, Arcelor Mittal announced that it made a one-time allowance equivalent to ten years' pay to each of the deceased miners' families. In addition, those families with children under 18 will receive monthly allowances. The one-off payments, however, hardly compensate for the pain and loss of a primary wage-earner. The average payment amounts to US$63,000.

The strikes and protests that followed the explosion, which also seriously injured six miners, had the support and endorsement from Kazakhstan's government. The lower house of Parliament, the Majilis, moved to seek a change in the Kazakh labour code in which core industries such as mining and metallurgy have defined and set levels of minimum pay.

"Foreign investors economise on everything from equipment to sick leave, making miners work in inhuman conditions," said Parliament Deputy Mukhtar Tinikeyev. He added that Arcelor Mittal had attempted to shift blame of the Lenin Mine disaster "to three person -- the chief engineer and two mechanics. But the blame rests with foreign investors who economise on equipment."

Arcelor Mittal, with 61 steel plants in 27 countries, derives 8% of its total steel-making capacity from its operations in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan.

The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) filed, at the request of the All-India Council of Unilever Unions, a complaint last week with the OECD National Contact Points in both the UK and The Netherlands. Unilever, the third largest global food company, is an Anglo-Dutch conglomerate.

The OECD complaint is on the appalling behaviour by Hindustan Lever, an Indian Unilever subsidiary, who, as described in a prior ICEM InBrief article, last year sold its Mumbai factory in order to have it closed down by another enterprise. In doing that, the company not only wanted to avoid paying taxes, the effort was also meant to escape duties to its own workforce.

The ICEM, together with the IUF, seeks the major global corporation to set things right, and calls on Unilever to respect both the relevant international standards, as well as the national law in India. The two GUFs believe that Hindustan Lever must immediately start fair and honest negotiations with the Hindustan Lever Employees’ Union (HLEU), the trade union representing its workforce.

More on the dispute can be found on the IUF’s web-site here.

ICEM Affiliate Federación de Industrias Químicas y Afines de Comisiones Obreras (Fiteqa) has, together with the Spanish metalworkers union, Federación Estatal Minerometalúrgica, both of which affiliate to CC.OO., published a guide book on how to deal with safety related problems at work.

The guide book follows a change in the law in Spain, which affects both refineries and chemical complexes, and gives workers guidance on how to act in case of an accident.

According to the authors, the guide should be a helpful tool to get more companies in the said sectors to accept propositions by Spain’s social partners to create more health and safety committees. The handbook discusses the urgent need to create such committees in all enterprises.

The guide highlights the need for more and better information and communications between the largest companies in the sector. Its full name in Spanish is “Guía para la implantación de la Coordinación de Actividades Empresariales. Desarrollo de la Ley de Prevención de Riesgos Laborales en las Refinerías y complejos petroquímicos de España.”  It can be found here.