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28 June, 2010
ICEM affiliated trade unions in Central and Eastern Europe discussed challenges in the chemicals and pharmaceutical industries with a view to reinforcing representation, industrial relations, and social dialogue in an 8-9 June seminar in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. The meetings, hosted by ICEM’s Slovakian affiliate, the Chemical and Energy Workers Union (ECHOZ), were supported by the German Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), one of the principal project partners in the world.
The meeting was chaired by Juraj Blahak, ICEM’s Vice President for Central Europe, who underlined the importance of the meeting for unions in chemicals who face restructurings, including privatisation that has had severe impacts on employment and trade unions.
Clemens Rode, representing FES in the region, stressed the role of trade unions in shaping economic and social life in Central Europe. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda gave specific attention to the togetherness of Central and Eastern European trade unions, calling exchanges of information and experience in restructurings as vitally important. Warda also made a specific presentation on precarious employment and ICEM’s global Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) campaign.
Attended by around 30 trade union leaders from Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Belorussia, and Tadjikistan, the meeting received an extensive report from the ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries’ Officer, Kemal Özkan, on global chemical and pharmaceutical trends, with specifics on the Central and Eastern Regions and individual countries.
The meeting also got a presentation from Mr. Roman Karlubik, President of the Association of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industry of the Slovak Republic, who drew the overall picture of the Slovak chemical industry and social dialogue with ECHOZ.
The industry in Central and Eastern Europe suffered through the economic crisis in parallel to many economies in the region posting negative GDP growth, with some countries suffering near financial meltdown. Prior to the crisis, the region was seen as a good place to invest. For the pharmaceutical industry, generic medicines represent around half the industry in the region, with a number of number of companies including KRKA, Gedeon Richter, Polpharma, and Zentiva specifically focusing on generics.
Central and Eastern European countries are projected to spend an estimated US$157.1 billion on healthcare in 2015, equal to 6.9% of total GDP. At present, only 30% of spending in the region is private, but over 85% of this is composed of out-of-pocket payments by people.
The Bratislava meeting agreed that in Central and Eastern Europe, chemical and pharmaceutical industries are still in the restructuring process, although levels differ from country to country. Restructuring occurs in ownership, particularly with privatisation, production, technology, and labour relations, which brings fear and challenges trade union recognition and survival. The participants agreed that there could an important exchange of experience on privatisation between Central and Eastern Europe, particularly for countries now undergoing privatisation, namely Belorussia.
Another important point stressed was that the region’s chemical industry is still under the dominance of basic chemicals, like fertilizers in Central Asia for example, which brings sustainability problems regarding jobs to workplaces.
Occupational Health and Safety was specifically mentioned since current production systems create serious problems on this issue. A need for capacity building for unions in the region was underlined by the participants.
Participants also drew attention to the effects of the standards such as REACH and ETS, which regulates the environment where the chemical industry operates over employment. Outside of the European Union, there are also initiatives in the individual efforts of countries, such as Russia, to be able to harmonise their chemical legislations for survival of the industries. A need for a specific work about this particular area was mentioned by the participants.
At the end of the meeting, it was agreed that networking, regular exchange of information and experience, capacity building on industry matters, collective bargaining, and trade union issues should be continued.
“The Bratislava meeting has clearly shown to us that Central and Eastern Europe is still the area where the ICEM needs to focus its activities in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry,” said Kemal Özkan. “Coming just months before ICEM’s World Chemical Conference in October 2010 in Istanbul, Turkey, the meeting has given us a great overview on what to do for having genuine global union activities in this industry.”
On 7 June 2010 a regional ICEM Central Europe Council meeting took place in Bratislava, Slovakia. Trade Union representatives from Hungary, Macedonia, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia took part in the meeting. The meeting was headed by Juraj Blahak, ICEM Vice-President and President of the Central European regional Council.