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14 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 05/2004
T he US National Labor Relations Board issued a labor law violation against E.I. DuPont this week that cited the giant chemical firm with interfering, restraining and coercing union activities and union members at its Louisville (Kentucky) Works plant. To settle the complaint, DuPont has agreed in writing to halt its interference of shop-floor union activity that is protected by US law.
ICEM affiliate Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical, Energy (PACE) Union in the US brought the charge forward after local managers in Louisville unlawfully prohibited PACE Local 5-2002 members from wearing union t-shirts and buttons, and removed the local union's bulletin board inside the plant.
PACE recently affiliated the local union in Louisville after it stood as a stand-alone union for several decades, having been first established by DuPont in the 1930s to avoid militant union drives. PACE has been resisting DuPont's decision to move jobs from the neoprene facility in Louisville-a decision announced after the affiliation vote-to a non-union plant in the state of Louisiana.
This week's labour law violation against the US-based chemical firm comes two weeks after PACE brought the issue of DuPont's sour labour relations behaviour to the attention of UN General Secretary Kofi Annan. DuPont is signatory to the UN's Global Compact, a voluntary accord by multinational companies pledging to adhere to a set of nine principles, including a guarantee to uphold fundamental labour and human rights and sound stewardship of the environment in all countries in which a company operates.
Part of the labour law violation stemmed from Louisville manager Mike Sanchez's "state of the business" address to workers in which he made derogatory comments about the local union and PACE national union, specifically comments uttered disparagingly over PACE President Boyd Young's letter to Kofi Annan.
"DuPont has obviously not come to terms with the fact that workers in a number of their US worksites have chosen PACE for representation," stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, referring to seven stand-alone and unaffiliated DuPont unions voting to become part of PACE in recent years. "The ICEM will continue to monitor DuPont's labour relations not only in the US but elsewhere in the world."
ICEM affiliate Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical, Energy (PACE) Union in the US brought the charge forward after local managers in Louisville unlawfully prohibited PACE Local 5-2002 members from wearing union t-shirts and buttons, and removed the local union's bulletin board inside the plant.
PACE recently affiliated the local union in Louisville after it stood as a stand-alone union for several decades, having been first established by DuPont in the 1930s to avoid militant union drives. PACE has been resisting DuPont's decision to move jobs from the neoprene facility in Louisville-a decision announced after the affiliation vote-to a non-union plant in the state of Louisiana.
This week's labour law violation against the US-based chemical firm comes two weeks after PACE brought the issue of DuPont's sour labour relations behaviour to the attention of UN General Secretary Kofi Annan. DuPont is signatory to the UN's Global Compact, a voluntary accord by multinational companies pledging to adhere to a set of nine principles, including a guarantee to uphold fundamental labour and human rights and sound stewardship of the environment in all countries in which a company operates.
Part of the labour law violation stemmed from Louisville manager Mike Sanchez's "state of the business" address to workers in which he made derogatory comments about the local union and PACE national union, specifically comments uttered disparagingly over PACE President Boyd Young's letter to Kofi Annan.
"DuPont has obviously not come to terms with the fact that workers in a number of their US worksites have chosen PACE for representation," stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, referring to seven stand-alone and unaffiliated DuPont unions voting to become part of PACE in recent years. "The ICEM will continue to monitor DuPont's labour relations not only in the US but elsewhere in the world."