Global Agreements

In 1999 at the ICEM's Durban Congress in South Africa, the global union federation made it a priority to achieve negotiated Global Framework Agreements with multinational companies. Through hard work and diligent attention to language, the ICEM now has several Global Agreements in the oil, chemical, electric, rubber and paper sectors.

Agreements currently in effect, and which are reviewed regularly with company officials and trade unions globally, include: Rhodia, EDF, Lukoil, SCA, RAG, Eni, AngloGold, Norske Skog, Endesa, Freudenberg, Statoil, Lafarge and Umicore.

ICEM's aim in achieving Global Agreements is to put in place the very best standards on trade union rights, health, safety and environmental practices, and quality of work principles across a company's global operations. Global Agreements establish a set of principles in all operations of a multinational regardless of whether or not those standards exist in an individual country's legal statutes.

The ICEM signs Global Agreements in concert with an affiliate or affiliates in the multinational's home country. A Global Agreement does not supplant collective bargaining at a particular worksite, but rather assures that high standards are consistently met regarding human rights, trade union rights and health, safety, environmental practices wherever a company has operations.

A key ingredient to the content of ICEM Global Agreements is language providing a mechanism to regularly review the agreement by top officers of the company and trade union leaders. This makes the agreement a practical, living document that better enables monitoring of a company's performance and one that can be amended or improved in light of experience. This review mechanism also distinguishes a Global Agreement from a company's standard code of conduct.