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9 June, 2011
Suez Environnement, a subsidiary of French-based GDF SUEZ, was hit with an OECD petition pursuant to the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises yesterday by ICEM affiliate Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA). The petition was for alleged environmental failures and unfair labour practice complaints issued by the US government against United Water, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suez Environnement.
GDF SUEZ is signatory to a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with three Global Union Federations (GUFs), including ICEM and Public Services International (PSI). Both ICEM and PSI have jointly criticised the parent company for the insolent social conduct of it’s subsidiary in the US Suez Environnement is 35% held by GDF SUEZ.
The US National Labour Relations Board authorised unfair labour practice complaints against United Water at two separate locations where the UWUA represents workers and is now negotiating with United Water over renewal agreements. The US agency’s charge against management involves failure to provide relevant information to the union related to bargaining.
United Water is demanding steep cuts in employee retirement benefits. Failure to adequately exchange information related to bargaining clearly violates Article 7 of the GDF SUEZ GFA, “Respect for Trade Union Rights,” which references transparency in labour-management forums. The agreement also refers to the OECD Guidelines and the ILO Tripartite Principles, both of which have clear language regarding exchange of information for “meaningful negotiations” in social partnerships.
The GFA, signed in November 2010, covers all of the group’s businesses, even ones in which the company holds a minority stake. In a letter last month to GDF SUEZ CEO Gérard Mestralett, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and PSI General Secretary Peter Waldorff said, “The ICEM and PSI are angry and disappointed with the callousness, indifference, and negative conduct of United Water management in relation to the Global Framework Agreement and abidance to GDF SUEZ’s core social principles.”
UWUA President Michael Langford
The alleged environmental infractions also saw the GUFs take issue with United Water. In December 2010, the US government issued a criminal indictment charging that United Water intentionally manipulated E.coli bacteria monitoring tests at a wastewater treatment plant outside of Chicago. The indictment alleges that United Water engaged in a scheme in which it increased chlorine levels when government-mandated E.coli inspections took place, and then lowered input levels after as a costs-savings measure. The allegations, if proven true, stand as an obvious menace to public health. United Water has pleaded not guilty to the charges. (See ICEM report on that here.)
The UWUA symbolically filed the OECD petition yesterday, along with the American NGO Food and Water Watch, at the French embassy in Washington, DC, as well as to the US government’s National Contact Point. UWUA Local 1-2 in New York City also distributed informational leaflets on United Water’s detrimental conduct outside the French mission to the UN. Under the OECD complaint process, both the US and French governments are obligated to forward the submission to the French parent company and to the US subsidiary for a formal reply.
UWUA President Michael Langford said, “Utility workers have been astonished at the bad faith conduct of United Water in labour negotiations in the US.”