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24 July, 2006
The UK’s Transport & General Workers’ Union (TGWU) has enlisted a core of allies, including the ICEM, to resist 800 job redundancies and closures to English China Clay (ECC) operations in the South West by Imerys. TGWU has mapped a comprehensive community and global campaign against the French-based building materials group, which purchased ECC in 1999, in efforts to block the sackings.
The TGWU, together with two other UK trade unions representing Imerys workers in the South West, Amicus and the GMB, have already placed the dire economic consequences of the sackings squarely in front of both local and national government officials. They will now engage a full community awareness campaign aimed at pressuring Imerys to honour a pledge made two short two years ago. That pledge, made after some jobs were lost in the South West, promised that 800 other jobs would remain.
The campaign will consist of mass meetings, rallies, and a petition that will be taken door-to-door across towns and villages of the region. The campaign is also aimed at the British government in hopes that initiatives can be put in place to retain the jobs. The ICEM will head up the campaign on the global level.
The proposed restructuring plan of Imerys fell like a bombshell on the economic fragile South West, where the average Imerys worker earns an annual salary of ₤23,000, some ₤4,500 higher than the local incomes average. Imerys’ surprise announcement in early July said that by the start of 2008, nearly all ECC mines and processing facilities across Cornwall, Devon and Lee Moor would be shuttered, as it moves production of kaolin and high-grade coatings for the paper industry to Brazil. The company cited high energy costs as the reason.
At an emergency debate session in the House of Commons on 11 July, MP Matthew Taylor from the South West said one in five households in the region would be directly affected by the proposed restructurings, “and the number is probably one in three when the knock-on effects are taken into consideration.” Taylor said besides the 800 direct jobs on the line, 800 other jobs likely would be lost due to reduced spending power in the South West.
The European Works Council (EWC) of Imerys responded with a terse 17 July message directed at the company. The statement condemned an Imerys decision to close a 100-member workplace in France, as well as the proposed mass layoffs in the UK. The EWC “objects against the recent decisions of the group of closing a site in France and a huge restructuring in the United Kingdom,” read the statement.
“This strategy of de-localisation of the activities, here to Hungary and to Brazil, is guided only by the search for higher profits. The members of the EWC Committee require Imerys, which is in excellent economic and financial health, to assume the full social consequences of these decisions, both in France and in the United Kingdom. The EWC will also be extremely vigilant on the conditions of employment for the workers in Hungary and Brazil.
“It is not enough that the director of Human Resources for the group, challenged on these subjects during the meeting of 6 July, claims to be open to social dialogue and negotiation. It is also his responsibility to make certain that this policy is applied by the local HR directors. As regarding social relations and also issues of health and safety, local management has carried out actions in total contradiction with principles posted by the Imerys group.”
The overall financial health of Imerys, according to first quarter 2006 disclosures, has not been affected by high global energy prices. The company’s first quarter results show that sales had increased 10.8% over the same period in 2005, and net income was up 13.2% over that of the first quarter of last year.