US Union, CEPPWAWU Protest at Sappi AGM

Union members of two ICEM affiliates rallied today against the anti-union practices of global paper company Sappi Ltd. outside the firm's Annual General Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa.

PACE members from Michigan protest at Sappi AGM in Johannesburg

Representatives of US-based Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical, Energy (PACE) Workers Union joined union brothers and sisters from South African Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) to condemn the company's aggressive attempts to weaken workers' rights in both countries.

The PACE delegation and CEPPWAWU leaders then gained entry to the AGM, while CEPPWAWU members continued to rally outside the firm's headquarters in the Braamfontein financial district of Johannesburg.

"We have taken this action to serve notice to Sappi management that its refusal to deal fairly with workers and their unions must come to an end," declared CEPPWAWU President Pasco Dyani, himself a Sappi employee at the Adamas paper mill in Port Elizabeth. "We are pleased to join with union members from America to build the international solidarity necessary to confront Sappi's attacks on working families."

CEPPWAWU represents workers at Sappi's seven paper mills across South Africa. The union is in dispute with the firm over management demands to unilaterally impose so-called "labour market flexibility" that would severely weaken the union's ability to protect workers' rights on the shop floor.

In the US, PACE Union members have been without new labour agreements for over a year at two Sappi paper mills in Somerset and Westbrook, Maine. Sappi managers at those locations have proposed to drastically cut workers' income and health care benefits. Sappi has also proposed substantial cuts in retiree health benefits. PACE members at the two mills and a third US mill in Muskegon, Michigan, have formed a bargaining alliance to reject management's demands for concessions.

"Sappi stakeholders should understand that management's attempts to lower the living standards of working families and diminish the rights of workers on the shop floor places the company on a collision course with labour," stated Keith Romig, Director of National and International Affairs for PACE.

The labour agreement at the Muskegon mill is scheduled to expire in June. Together, the three mills account for more than 80 percent of Sappi's fine paper production in North America, and 25% of production worldwide.

The ICEM assisted the two affiliates' actions in Johannesburg today. While in South Africa, PACE, CEPPWAWU and ICEM representatives will lay a foundation for more effective cooperation among unions representing Sappi workers worldwide.

"Every Sappi mill in South Africa, Europe and North America is organized by trade unions affiliated with the ICEM," said ICEM Paper and Chemical Sectors Officer Marc Welters. "By building stronger bonds between all unions at Sappi, workers will gain the strength to deal effectively with this company's hostile approach to labour relations."