Pace-setting Union Merger Boosts US And Global Labour

Organised labour is regrouping to meet new challenges. Union mergers have become an important source of strength in many countries.

That process took a big step further in the USA this week with the creation of PACE, the 320,000-member Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Intl. Union. PACE results from a merger between two major US unions, the paperworkers' UPIU and the oil, chemical and atomic workers' OCAW.

PACE immediately gave top priority to organising (i.e. actively recruiting new members) and to international trade union solidarity. Like both its forerunners, the new union is affiliated at the global level to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

First President of PACE is Boyd Young, who until now headed the UPIU.

"We intend to set the pace for organising, a progressive vision and international solidarity," Young said. "The members of this great new union deserve to be and are prepared to be on the cutting edge as labour advances into a new century. We must fight for our future."

The Executive Vice-President of PACE is Robert Wages, up to now President of the OCAW. He will take on key responsibilities in the union's organising programme and will continue to coordinate national oil bargaining.

"When the merger discussions started with the UPIU, President Young and I committed to a basic premise," said Wages. "We were not interested in merging for the sake of being larger; we were interested in creating a new, more powerful and progressive union prepared to do the work our membership expects."

Global trade unionism was highlighted during the merger Convention in a speech by the leader of locked-out Texan oilworkers. Crown Central Petroleum has kept unionised workers shut out of its Pasadena refinery since February 1996. Oil multinational Statoil has now told Crown that its contract to refine Statoil crude for the North American market will not be renewed unless Crown establishes normal relationships with the union. This pressure from Norwegian-based Statoil follows representations by the ICEM-affiliated Norwegian oilworkers' union NOPEF. During the PACE convention, the president of the Crown workers' union local paid tribute to this effective international solidarity.

PACE has members in pulp, paper, oil, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, nuclear energy, cement, automobile parts, appliance manufacturing and a wide variety of other industries.

The advent of the new union was warmly welcomed by ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe, who attended the merger Convention. "PACE represents a substantial consolidation of the ICEM's American membership," Thorpe commented. "We now have a powerful new affiliate with a strong commitment to global solidarity. This is good news for workers everywhere."