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18 November, 2005ICEM News Release No. 27/2005
The ICEM’s two-day World Conference for the Materials Sector, covering the cement, glass and ceramics industries, discussed several labour disputes plaguing these industries, and took definitive action to build global trade union unity around these disputes.
“We call on all our affiliates to take note of the companies that have brought adverse labour relations to these workplaces,” said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, “and we also call on trade unions worldwide within these companies to bring these disputes to the attention of their own managements.”
From left to right: ICEM Materials officer Phee Jungsun, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, vice-chairperson of the Materials conference Michel Decayeux and the newly elected chairperson Jim Hickenbotham.
Three of the ongoing disputes are in the US and involve two French-based companies, in addition to a Spanish concern. The fourth dispute happened in Belgium earlier this year, and was instigated by a glass company from Japan.
In the US, Imerys, a French building materials company, continues to victimize members of the United Steelworkers (USW) at a calcium carbonate operation in Sylacauga, Alabama. Despite a vote by the 500 workers at the mine and processing plant to retain the union in a US government-conducted election, local managers discriminate against union members and violate terms of the collective agreement.
At another workplace in the American South, a strike at Giant Cement in Harleyville, South Carolina, in August and September by the USW was met by local managers permanently replacing the strikers. This action was done by the company - a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cementos Portland Valderrivas of Madrid, Spain - on the eve of strikers abandoning the strike on 23 September 2005.
Delegates to the ICEM’s Materials Sector conference also discussed the reprehensible actions by American managers of French-based Saint Gobain at an abrasives factory in Worcester, Massachusetts. A majority of 770 workers voted for representation by the United Auto Workers (UAW) in August 2001 and despite nearly four years and some 140 collective bargaining sessions, Saint Gobain managers refused to enter into an agreement. In January of this year, in a decertification vote against the union, the US government found management had used illegal means to influence the vote.
The fourth dispute also was a strike, and involved a unilateral decision by Japanese management of Asahi Glass to shift production and make redundant over a quarter of 840 workers at Glaverbel’s AGC Automotive glass plant in Fleurus, Belgium. The company initially refused social dialogue with ICEM affiliates CG-FGTB and SETCa-FGTB.
The Materials Conference elected a new chairperson for the coming four-year period. Jim Hickenbotham, an officer for the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB) from the US, was elected by acclamation, while Michel Decayeux, general secretary of CGT-FO Fédéchimie in France was elected vice chairperson.
To read the Declaration that was adopted at the conference, click here.
For more information on this conference, including background documents and presentations, click here.