25 August, 2008
Focused militancy coupled with poised negotiating gave 325 workers of German industrial gas company Linde in Thailand a solid 31-month collective agreement. The Thai Industrial Gas Local Union (TIGLU), aligned with ICEM affiliate Petroleum and Chemical Workers’ Federation of Thailand, won major gains at 10 chemical plants in a negotiated agreement reached late last week.
On 22 July, in the first round of collective negotiations, local management claimed they had no authority to address the union’s 16 demands. Even at a 28 July tripartite bargaining session in a provincial labour office in Saraburi, management refused to take the demands.
Last Week's Bargaining, TIGLU Committee in Foreground
TIGLU then conducted extraordinary meetings at different worksites where strike authorization was put to a ballot. As important, the union reached out to the ICEM and to German affiliate IGBCE, insisting that parent Linde instruct local management to bargain in good faith.
A strike by two-thirds of the combined workforce started on 6 August, and lasted only four days. A commitment was gained quickly and honest talks began on 11 August. Those talks produced the first written agreement between TIGLU and the company. That happened last Friday, 22 August. In the binding pact, the union scored major gains on 10 of the 16 demands. They also won agreement that the remaining items would be addressed by joint union-management committees.
TIGLU Workers on Strike, 8 August
TIGLU won important contractual commitments on contract labour, giving contract workers the right to full-time and permanent work after time periods. Effective 1 January 2009, a union dues check-off system will be put in place by the company, and Linde’s management agreed to begin giving 39 scholarships for children of workers, ranging from elementary school age to post high-school age.
TIGLU also achieved paid union leave, training courses for all workers on their rights, benefits, and entitlements, and increased health care benefits. That increases to 40,000 baht per year, the equivalent of €750.
They also won Providence Fund increases of up to 10% of salary for workers with 15 years service or more, and 5% increases for workers with less than five years.
The ICEM congratulates the members of TIGLU for their energy, integrity, and ability to use social dialogue to post benefits and work rule improvements for Linde workers in Thailand.