Founding Declaration of the ICEM

THE FOUNDATION of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions, the ICEM, is a new departure for world trade unionism. Member organisations of the former MIF and ICEF will blend the best of their traditions and aspirations into a new international trade union federation. This new international will be a powerful body capable of acting decisively on behalf of the workers it represents into the 21st century and beyond. A global organisation, it will focus on achieving practical results and gains for its members. Strength is its sinew, service its duty, action its day-to-day business. Solidarity in practice, permanently renewed and strengthened, is the ICEM's driving force.

The ICEM represents workers who extract, transform and produce vast quantities of the world's requirements and riches. Its membership works at the forefront of industrial activity in a wide range of industries including: chemicals, energy, mining and quarrying, pulp and paper, rubber, glass, ceramics, cement, environmental services and other services. It represents manufacturing and production workers, administrative, clerical, scientific, professional, supervisory and technical staff in these industries. The industrial logic and breadth of its coverage represent a major source of the ICEM's strength and legitimacy.

The grip of transnational corporate power on the world economy is a phenomenon which did not exist when the ICEF and the MIF were created. Under the new and powerful influence of the transnational corporations, governments have often become mere agencies to facilitate the free flow of capital, technology, information and products. The real needs and wants of working men and women are ignored in the balance sheets of corporate giants. Unemployment and destitution are still on the increase. Child labour and forced labour continue to shame human decency. Wars and conflicts are still raging. The arms race is not yet over.

National, regional and local trade union issues must now be addressed from an international perspective. Within the sectors it represents, the ICEM will face these issues squarely, with effective policies and programmes.

Exploitation of workers continues. In many parts of the world, this abuse is at least as crude as anything seen in the last century. Combating exploitation, discrimination and poverty today and in the future requires powerful and refined means, as well as a renewed sense of urgency and commitment. The ICEM will develop both the means and the commitment needed to champion change in defence of its members. Similarly, it will spearhead the promotion and defence of trade union rights in its sectors as an integral part of the broader fight for basic human rights. The ICEM will have the resources to develop a new power relationship with the real decision networks of an ever more integrated world, whether those networks be corporate or governmental. The ICEM will actively represent its members in all fora where their interests are at stake. It will forge the necessary alliances with other groups of international civil society sharing the same basic aims.

The ICEM is committed to safeguarding the health and safety of its members and the sustainability of the world environment. In this respect its commitment goes beyond the immediate interests of its members and encompasses the interests of their offspring, their families and the broader community.

In all its activities and in its decision-making, the ICEM will actively promote equal rights and opportunities for women, not least by making women's contribution more visible.

The ICEM hereby dedicates itself to the following six principles:

COMMITMENT

The trade union movement has a soul. The ICEM is driven in its activities by the will to right wrongs and injustice. It has at heart the real lives and problems of people.

The ICEM is committed to achieve positive and progressive change in the lives of working men and women, in their communities and in society at large. It is morally engaged on the side of the exploited, the poor, the downtrodden and the victims of discrimination. This commitment will express itself in prompt responses to the requests of all member-organisations and in untiring efforts to reach the goals set by its Congress of members.

SOLIDARITY

International trade union solidarity is about finding shared solutions to problems that arise. It is the single most important weapon for winning improvements globally. It is a permanent and pro-active process of sharing resources, companionship and objectives. Solidarity is not just proclaimed. It must be built, permanently consolidated and demonstrated in practice.

Through its global relations with the rest of the international democratic trade union movement, the ICEM will be an essential link in the vast chain of international workers' solidarity. The ICEM will be a unique means for member organisations to give and receive international solidarity. It will seek constantly to improve the quality and effectiveness of its own solidarity action. It will favour the forging of direct ties with like-minded individuals and organisations.

Justice is not to be found everywhere and forever. It is won by continuously fighting oppression in all its forms. Both within the organisation and in its relations with the rest of the world, the ICEM will fight for justice and equality and will itself be even-handed and just.

The ICEM will be its member unions' watchdog to ensure acceptance and application of relevant international law and standards.

DEMOCRACY

The legitimacy of the international trade union movement derives from its elected structures and the democratic nature of its decision-making. Policies of the ICEM are decided and owned by representative national and local trade unions and their members. This specific feature distinguishes the international trade union movement from many other voluntary organisations and confers on it authority, credibility and responsibility.

The ICEM will constantly strive to strengthen the checks and balances that are essential to internal democracy. The organisation secures its income from fees paid by its members. It will ensure the proper management of its income and the implementation of the decisions of its governing bodies in an accountable and transparent way.

As part of its efforts to strengthen internal democracy and bring the decision-making process as close as possible to its members, the ICEM will introduce a regionalised structure and increase regional exchanges and activities.

INFORMATION

The ICEM will base its activities on a unique mastery of the policies, facts and figures which matter for its member organisations. This capability will deliver good, timely data and analyses which are relevant to its members and are not readily available elsewhere. The ability to provide data on collective bargaining, wages, industry trends and corporate changes can help member organisations to improve the working and living conditions of their members. This is the ultimate objective of all the ICEM's information and research.

This aim can be achieved only if all participate in the global effort. Member unions will express their needs and will provide structured information when requested. They will also show preparedness to share, with others who need it, the expertise that has been built within their organisations. The ICEM itself will concentrate on gathering and analysing sector-specific data with a strong emphasis on labour conditions and related matters.

ORGANISING

An organisation founded on deeply-held principles still needs to build the power to act on them. Acquiring know-how and the capacity to articulate clearly their needs and wants, building strong and sound organisations, and promoting and defending the rights and conditions of all workers are therefore vital to the empowerment of workers and their organisations.

The strength of argument and the argument of strength go hand in hand when combating exploitation and poor working conditions. Acquiring the capacity to propose their own solutions and the power to oppose, influence or enter into partnerships, as and when necessary, is what unions need in order to be effective at local and national level.

The ICEM will be at the forefront of this struggle internationally.

EFFECTIVENESS

The ICEM's resources will remain limited, but the needs of its affiliates are immense. In allocating resources and carrying out activities, the ICEM will constantly seek to make the best possible use of its resources in order to achieve the best possible results. Professionalism, commitment and quality will be the hallmark of the ICEM's services, and each of its campaigns and programmes will be strategically planned with a view to being result-oriented.

The ICEM's agenda and programmes will be set with the sole aim of assisting its affiliates. It will also join campaigns and participate in events which are of direct relevance to its affiliates and their members.

To achieve these aims, trade unions everywhere must unite the organised workers and organise the unorganised.

Therefore, on this historic founding day of a new industrial trade union international, the ICEM and its affiliated trade unions worldwide solemnly recommit themselves to

UNITE AND ORGANISE