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1 April, 2011
The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Union (ICEM), a Geneva, Switzerland-based global union federation represented rubber workers across the world, announced today that it would lend its full support to the National Union of Metalworkers’ of South Africa (NUMSA) in its fight to keep Bridgestone South Africa compelled to wage terms negotiated in the New Tyre Manufacturing Employers’ Industry Association (NTMEIA).
South African management of the Japanese-based company locked out 1,200 members of NUMSA at two former Firestone tyre producing plants, Brits and Port Elizabeth, on 22 March. At issue is Bridgestone South Africa’s defiance of a private arbitrator's award that the tyre manufacturer is bound to certain wage terms contained in a three-year collective agreement that was negotiated between NUMSA and NTMEIA that ended a 30-day strike against four tyre producers on 29 September 2010.
In a 31 March letter to Bridgestone South Africa CEO Kenji Shoda, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, “Please know that the current situation in Brits and Port Elizabeth will be communicated to all Bridgestone facilities throughout the world and if your current labour relations conduct is not halted, we will begin to mobilise within these facilities.”
The ICEM will support NUMSA as it ramps up a campaign against Bridgestone inside South Africa. And it will take that campaign into Bridgestone tyre plants from Japan and throughout Asia, to Europe and in North and South America. The ICEM is adamant that wage rates negotiated by the NTMEIA for 4,000 other rubber workers at Continental, Goodyear, and Apollo-Dunlop factories in South Africa also be instituted at Bridgestone’s two factories.
The ICEM is the global union federation for 20 million workers in the energy, chemical, rubber, mining, and other industrial sectors. It is composed of 467 trade unions in 132 countries.
For further information, contact ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin, [email protected], +41 22 304 1842, +41 79 734 8994.