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13 July, 2005No. 15/1999
Global tyremaker Continental faced coordinated protests on both sides of the Atlantic over the past 24 hours by union leaders from 16 countries.
Demonstrations took place in Akron, Ohio - a centre of the US rubber industry - and in London, England, where the tyre industry is holding a major European trade exhibition. Coordinating the campaign is the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which represents tyre workers worldwide.
The current protests centre on Continental's treatment of striking (and locked-out) workers at its General Tire plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. But union leaders have also voiced concern over the company's declared worldwide strategy of shifting production to "low-cost" areas.
The core issue in the American dispute is that "Conti" is refusing to pay the going rate among leading employers of US tyre workers, even though the plant is now profitable. The American workers accuse Conti of failing to bargain in good faith and of trying to break the Charlotte local of their union, the USWA. After provoking a strike, the company drafted in "permanent replacement" workers last September, thus effectively locking out and dismissing the strikers.
In 1995, after Continental bought General Tire, the workers bailed out the Charlotte plant by "giving back" about 90 million dollars in pay and benefits cuts. Charlotte is now showing a healthy profit, but the company is still refusing to bring its pay and conditions up to standard.
Taking part in the Akron protests yesterday were tyre workers' leaders from ICEM-affiliated unions in Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Guatemala, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, Slovenia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the USA and Venezuela. Their demo was held in front of a retail outlet that sells Conti tyres.
And in London this morning, protesters from ICEM-affiliated British unions rolled bald tyres up and down outside the TYREXPO Europe 99 exhibition. Time To Run Continental's Greed Off The Road proclaimed one placard at the London demo, while another said Reinstate 1,450 Sacked Continental Workers In North Carolina USA.
"We will take our campaign against Continental to wherever they do business, here or abroad," John Sellers pledged in Akron yesterday. Sellers is Executive Vice-President of the USWA and heads the union's Rubber And Plastics Industry Conference. "German multinational corporations would not be allowed to abuse workers this way in Germany," Sellers declared, "and we're not going to tolerate such behaviour in the United States, either."
"We are proud to join forces with our American brothers and sisters in protesting against Continental's actions in Charlotte," said British union leader Bert Hill. He is from British ICEM affiliate the GMB, which organises workers at Continental's Newbridge tyre plant in Scotland. Hill is currently in Akron.
"Continental has been systematically trying to wrest concessions from our members in Scotland," he stated, "and we know we have to stand together in solidarity with other Continental workers in other countries against our common employer."
UNIONS DRAW UP GLOBAL STRATEGY
Hill and union leaders from Germany, France, Turkey, South Africa and the US met yesterday to plan a common strategy to support the Charlotte strikers.
"Continental's actions in the United States are a disgrace," said Jacques Caltot, who heads the rubber division of the ICEM-affiliated French union FCE-CFDT. "We will continue to press Continental to adhere to international labour standards wherever it does business, and we will support the USWA strike in Charlotte until a fair and just agreement can be reached."
"The situation at Continental is typical of a problem that we are going to have to tackle globally," commented ICEM Vice-President Fred Higgs just after the London demo. "Companies that pride themselves on being respectable employers in Europe often act very differently in contexts like the United States. We are going to be exerting the fullest possible pressure to secure the reinstatement of all the 1,450 Charlotte workers who have been so unjustly and ungratefully treated by Continental."
Also heading up the London demo was Earl Pabst, President of the union local in Charlotte.
"The support over here is even stronger than I had imagined," Pabst said. "Today's event has taken our message to another level."
Asked what he wanted as a next step, Pabst replied: "I want the scabs [strikebreakers] out and us back in."
Meanwhile, he said, the union would be expanding an "informational campaign" of leafletting customers outside US retailers that sell Continental tyres. "We're now contacting retailers across the USA," Pabst added. "We're telling them who we are and what we want, and we're explaining that we're with them, not against them."
In Akron, ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe pledged continuing global union support for the American workers' campaign.
"Our affiliated unions around the world are behind the USWA," Thorpe said. "We will show Continental there are serious consequences for its violation of workers' rights."
Demonstrations took place in Akron, Ohio - a centre of the US rubber industry - and in London, England, where the tyre industry is holding a major European trade exhibition. Coordinating the campaign is the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which represents tyre workers worldwide.
The current protests centre on Continental's treatment of striking (and locked-out) workers at its General Tire plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. But union leaders have also voiced concern over the company's declared worldwide strategy of shifting production to "low-cost" areas.
The core issue in the American dispute is that "Conti" is refusing to pay the going rate among leading employers of US tyre workers, even though the plant is now profitable. The American workers accuse Conti of failing to bargain in good faith and of trying to break the Charlotte local of their union, the USWA. After provoking a strike, the company drafted in "permanent replacement" workers last September, thus effectively locking out and dismissing the strikers.
In 1995, after Continental bought General Tire, the workers bailed out the Charlotte plant by "giving back" about 90 million dollars in pay and benefits cuts. Charlotte is now showing a healthy profit, but the company is still refusing to bring its pay and conditions up to standard.
Taking part in the Akron protests yesterday were tyre workers' leaders from ICEM-affiliated unions in Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Guatemala, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, Slovenia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the USA and Venezuela. Their demo was held in front of a retail outlet that sells Conti tyres.
And in London this morning, protesters from ICEM-affiliated British unions rolled bald tyres up and down outside the TYREXPO Europe 99 exhibition. Time To Run Continental's Greed Off The Road proclaimed one placard at the London demo, while another said Reinstate 1,450 Sacked Continental Workers In North Carolina USA.
"We will take our campaign against Continental to wherever they do business, here or abroad," John Sellers pledged in Akron yesterday. Sellers is Executive Vice-President of the USWA and heads the union's Rubber And Plastics Industry Conference. "German multinational corporations would not be allowed to abuse workers this way in Germany," Sellers declared, "and we're not going to tolerate such behaviour in the United States, either."
"We are proud to join forces with our American brothers and sisters in protesting against Continental's actions in Charlotte," said British union leader Bert Hill. He is from British ICEM affiliate the GMB, which organises workers at Continental's Newbridge tyre plant in Scotland. Hill is currently in Akron.
"Continental has been systematically trying to wrest concessions from our members in Scotland," he stated, "and we know we have to stand together in solidarity with other Continental workers in other countries against our common employer."
UNIONS DRAW UP GLOBAL STRATEGY
Hill and union leaders from Germany, France, Turkey, South Africa and the US met yesterday to plan a common strategy to support the Charlotte strikers.
"Continental's actions in the United States are a disgrace," said Jacques Caltot, who heads the rubber division of the ICEM-affiliated French union FCE-CFDT. "We will continue to press Continental to adhere to international labour standards wherever it does business, and we will support the USWA strike in Charlotte until a fair and just agreement can be reached."
"The situation at Continental is typical of a problem that we are going to have to tackle globally," commented ICEM Vice-President Fred Higgs just after the London demo. "Companies that pride themselves on being respectable employers in Europe often act very differently in contexts like the United States. We are going to be exerting the fullest possible pressure to secure the reinstatement of all the 1,450 Charlotte workers who have been so unjustly and ungratefully treated by Continental."
Also heading up the London demo was Earl Pabst, President of the union local in Charlotte.
"The support over here is even stronger than I had imagined," Pabst said. "Today's event has taken our message to another level."
Asked what he wanted as a next step, Pabst replied: "I want the scabs [strikebreakers] out and us back in."
Meanwhile, he said, the union would be expanding an "informational campaign" of leafletting customers outside US retailers that sell Continental tyres. "We're now contacting retailers across the USA," Pabst added. "We're telling them who we are and what we want, and we're explaining that we're with them, not against them."
In Akron, ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe pledged continuing global union support for the American workers' campaign.
"Our affiliated unions around the world are behind the USWA," Thorpe said. "We will show Continental there are serious consequences for its violation of workers' rights."