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20 June, 2011
ICEM affiliates in the chemicals industry in South-East Europe met in a sectoral regional conference from 9-10 June in Belgrade, Serbia. The meeting came within the framework of the joint ICEM, European Mine, Chemical, Energy Federation (EMCEF), International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF), International Union of Food and Agriculture Association (IUF), and the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT) project, which is supported by the German Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES).
The attending unions saw representation from some 30 unionists from KNG of Slovenia, EKN of Croatia, SSHNFBIH of Bosnia/Herzegovina, and SSHNS and GS HNER Nezavisnost of Serbia.
Mato Lalic
Chaired by Mato Lalic, coordinator of the joint project, the conference welcomed a representative from Serbia’s Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, who spoke on problems arising from company restructurings in the chemicals industry, resulting in job losses and bankruptcies. Comment from participants included the issue of unpaid wages as a result of company liquidations.
ICEM’s Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs, Kemal Özkan, gave an overview on global trends in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. He spoke on trends in employment, wages, and overall working conditions.
At plenary sessions, particular country reports were delivered by Danijel Špičak and Ivan Tomac from Croatia, Tomaž Kumer from Slovenia, Kata Iveljić from Bosnia/Herzegovina, and Zoran Pantelić from Serbia. All reports indicate that recovery is occurring after the global economic crisis, except that employment levels are still low.
The conference also addressed the issue of rising precarious employment through a presentation by Jacim Milunovic, one of the coordinators of the joint project, who guided participants on ways to defend standard forms of employment, and to resist Contract and Agency Labour (CAL).
The participants were given ICEM’s CAL Guide amd IUF’s manual on outsourcing. One point that was emphasized is that legislative environments in South-East Europe are not favorable for workers, which gives important responsibilities to trade unions. The conference concluded with a a joint committment to keep solidarity alive among the unions of the region in the chemicals and non-metal sectors.
The ICEM’s Özkan also travelled to Bosnia/Herzergovina at the invitation of Independent Trade Union of Chemistry and Non Metal Workers’ Union (SSHNFBIH), led by Kata Iveljić. He visited the Canton of Tuzla, since the region is a large industrial zone. SSHNFBIH has large membership in workplaces in the cities of Tuzla and Lukavac, but some industrial relations challenges exist related to social dialogue.
With a purpose to show global support to SSHNFBIH, the ICEM met with Prime Minister Sead Causevic and Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining Zeljko Knezicek, both of the Canton of Tuzla. The group later was welcomed by Dzevad Mujkic, mayor of the Lukavac community. Özkan was interviewed by several local and cantonal televisions about purpose and results of the visit.
The ICEM delegation also visited Sisecam Soda, subsidiary of a Turkish multinational company located at Lukavac, and met with General Director Umut Baris Sönmez together with local union officials. Turkey’s Sisecam Group purchased 80% of shares of Soda Factory Lukavac Bosna i Hercegovina following a privatisation bid in 2006.
Since then, Sisecam Soda and SSHNFBIH developed a constructive social dialogue and industrial relations’ system on restructuring the workplace. Since there had been no sector-wide agreement covering workers, an individual company agreement had been signed but due to economic challenges, yearly wage agreements were not signed for 2009 and 2010. ICEM and SSHNFBIH stressed clear expectations that the company re-start dialogue with immediate effect. SSHNFBIH and Sisecam Soda are expected to settle pending issues very soon.