BASF South American Workers’ Network Nears 10th Anniversary

Established in October 1999, ICEM’s South American BASF Workers’ Network and Social Dialogue programme will close in on its tenth anniversary next year. The 17th gathering of the Network was held from 13-17 May, 2008, in Santiago, Chile.

Composed of trade union representatives from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru, last week’s meetings were also attended by representatives from ICEM’s German affiliate, IGBCE, as well as representatives of the BASF European Works Council and ICEM staff.

Before the Social Dialogue section of the meeting, in which management of various BASF South American facilities take part, representatives from trade unions held a preparatory meeting. On the first day, following a presentation by ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries Officer Kemal Ozkan on ICEM activities in general, as well as in Latin America, IGBCE’s Michael Wolters from the union’s International Department, made a presentation.

 Trade union participants to the 17th BASF South American meetings in Santiago, Chile

After that, the 25 trade unionists present discussed possible amendments on the principals and status of the Network.

On day two, national reports were heard on developments in Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Chile, and work that has been done by the Network in the period 2006-2008 was discussed. Having heard presentations by Robert Oswald from the European Works Council on the situation in Europe, and from Michael Vassiliadis, a Supervisory Board member of BASF, who also is an Executive Committee member of both IGBCE and ICEM, on the company’s general and human resource policies, delegates to the 17th Network meeting debated the activities of the Network for the coming 2008-2009 period.

Chile

They also elected representatives from countries who led the Social Dialogue portion of the meetings. Those elected included Fabio Lins of Brazil, the current coordinator of the Network, and Vilobaldo Machado, also of Brazil; Ruben Caroselli and Fabian Akim of Argentina; Victor Ramirez and Fernando Saldano of Chile; and Germán Remigio of Peru.

The meeting was chaired by ICEM Vice President for Latin America/Caribbean, Sergio Novais, who served as the first coordination of the Network at inception in 1999. Novais also served as co-chair of the Social Dialogue section, together with Wagner Brunini from BASF management.

Brazil

At that meeting, the BASF global situation was presented, which included financial data from the group and the regions, the Global Site Benchmark initiative was discussed, and the CO-2 balance measure was addressed by Dr Harald Schwager, chief global human resources manager of the company. Also making a presentation was Dr Rolf Dieter Acker, head of BASF’s South American region, who addressed regional and country data, as well as developments since 2006.

The meeting also heard the company’s international human resource polices, including facts and figures, and the human resources strategy and the company’s Global Employee Survey, as well as corporate social responsibility practices.

Argentina 

The trade union group then presented results of its preparatory meeting, and constructive discussion ensued. The main topics in the following day’s meeting, as defined by the workers’ group, were creation of workplace committees in plants located in Colombia and in Faria Lima, Brazil; establishment of a trade union organisation in BASF’s Peruvian factory; and enhancing social dialogue in Argentina between trade unions and management.

Trade unionists also raised problems created by subcontracting, that deeper national dialogues must occur to find solutions to it and promotion Decent Work, and also discussed health and safety, company restructuring, specifically the need for transparency on information, and creation of communications and negotiations, and also on the issue of termination of employment contracts with justified reasons.

Peru 

It was also decided to produce a special publication for the tenth anniversary of the Network for next year.
In parallel to the well-tuned BASF Workers’ South American Network, the ICEM’s BASF Asia-Pacific Workers’ Network meetings will take place in August 2008. There are also plans to do similar activities in other regions, such as North America, as a basis of global level Social Dialogue in line with the special resolution adopted at ICEM’s 4th Congress in Bangkok in November 2007.