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18 April, 2012
Asia-Pacific Regional Chemical Unions of the ICEM discussed union organizing and strong union representation inside workplaces at a seminar entitled Coordination of Trade Union Networks and Implementation of Global Framework Agreements in the Chemical and Related Industries.
The seminar was held 9-10 April in Shanghai, China, with support and assistance from German-based Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) through its Shanghai Coordination Office for International Cooperation led by Director Catrina Schläger.
Attended by 50 participants from China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam and India, the seminar was opened by speeches from Dr. Jiang GuangPing, National Secretary of All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), Yoshio Sato, General Secretary of ICEM’s Japanese Affiliates‘ Federation (JAF), and ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda.
Manfred Warda
ICEM’s Kemal Özkan introduced global and regional developments in the chemicals industry, which clearly depicted the rapidly growing importance of the Asia-Pacific region. Representatives from Japan, China, India, Thailand and Pakistan presented their experiences with other participants.
Delegates underscored the importance of a strong union presence at chemical workplaces for getting more shared and added value from the burgeoning industry as it ramps up in the region.
Another important topic discussed was trade union networking inside the ICEM-represented companies and sectors at the global, regional and national levels. Following ICEM’s general overview, trade union representatives from major chemical multinationals such as BASF, Linde and Akzo Nobel put forward their experiences and discussed how to further networks in the upcoming period.
As an important role, trade union networking was analyzed in supporting union organizing and struggling against precarious employment in Asia Pacific Region. Contributions on this subject were presented to the meeting.
The Shanghai meeting also brought forth discussion on international labour instruments, social dialogue and Global Framework Agreements (GFAs), particularly on activities carried out within ICEM’s Project for Multinational Companies and Social Dialogue in the Asia-Pacific Region.
The meeting heard a number of specific examples on how GFAs have successfully worked for shop-floor improvements, including cases involving French-based company Rhodia. Rhodia’s China Country Manager, Michael Zu, presented how the GFA has impacted improvement of labour relations at the workplaces of the company in China.
Two trade union representatives, Lee Daeyong of Rhodia in South Korea and Vadhavkar Sanjay Suryakant from Rhodia in India, shared their respective situations on implementing the GFA in their respective countries.
On the seminar’s second day, participants were divided into two work groups and given the task of devising future cooperation strategies on union networking and GFAs. Specific delegates related to companies BASF, Linde, Akzo Nobel and Rhodia worked in a separate work group. All groups discussed advantages, challenges, and strong and weak points of their tasks, as well as future cooperation opportunities among chemical unions in Asia-Pacific.
“This seminar provided an important opportunity to drive forward union organizing and strong representation through the various instruments that were studied, and to develop networks and resulting Global Framework Agreements,” said Özkan in summary.