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14 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 26/2003
U nion members of three ICEM affiliates in Australia successfully backed Bridgestone from not only a planned lockout, but also blocked the Japanese-headquartered tyre-maker from its no pay raise/cuts to entitlement stand. It was a combination of worker resolve, outreach in the local Salisbury community in South Australia and a flood of international protests led by the ICEM that broke the company's resolve.
Bridgestone was on the brink of locking out 580 members of the Australian Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers' Union (LHMU), the Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU) in mid-August when the protests began. The world's largest tyre manufacturer retreated from a planned two-week lockout, and returned to bargaining under the authority of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
By 5 September, union negotiators had hammered together a minimum 9% pay raise over the next three years and maintained all current conditions of employment. That was a long ways from the company's pre-lockout threat of wage hikes tied only to productivity targets, an increase in work hours and severe reductions to long-practiced entitlement programs. Workers will vote on the enterprise agreement late next week, and indications are that it will pass.
At mass worker meetings on 20 August, LHMU Shop Steward Boyd MacRae told union members, "The reason that Bridgestone is moving its position is that the support of trade unionists from around the globe is unprecedented. You are being assisted by international workers standing along side of you and supporting you."
MacRae read letters of support to the trade unionists and letters of protest to Bridgestone President and CEO Shigeo Watanabe from ICEM affiliates in Romania, the Slovak Republic, Pakistan, South Korea, the UK, US, France, Spain, Turkey and Denmark. FUTINAL, the Latin American rubber unions network, weighed in, and the ICEM's Japanese Affiliates' Federation (JAF) also sent an important letter of support. In part, it read, "We are deeply concerned about the current attitude and behaviour of BFS Australia … We sincerely hope that this dispute will be solved, as early as possible, in a peaceful manner as well as in favour of the Australian workers."
Chris Field, LHMU's Assistant Secretary for South Australia, reported an ICEM Pakistan affiliate vowed to demonstrate in front of the Japanese embassy in that country. "This act of solidarity by our Pakistani sisters and brothers was done knowing full well they risked police repression on the orders of a government hostile to organized trade unionism," he said.
The mayor of Salisbury supported worker resistance of the three unions and local restaurants and pubs made it clear they would provide free meals to workers if Bridgestone proceeded with the lockout. In addition, the unions received valuable local help and aid from CFMEU, the Maritime Union of Australia, the South Australia Police Association, the Transport Workers Union and the Labour Council of South Australia.
The victory, said Field, was the "combination of disciplined unity of tyre workers and strong support from many allies that forced the biggest rubber products company in the world to back off and recognize the collective will and rights of tyre workers."
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, who called the lockout threat "clearly unacceptable behaviour" in an 11 August letter to Watanabe and told delegates on 28 August at ICEM's Congress in Norway of the growing support, praised the fortitude of workers and commended the solidarity. "An established Bridgestone/Firestone Global Network of Workers together with the strength and will of committed trade unionists paid off in reversing a company's demands, pure and simple. There is no better validation of global solidarity than what occurred over the past month at this particular tyre plant in Australia, and it personifies the work we strive to do."
Bridgestone was on the brink of locking out 580 members of the Australian Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers' Union (LHMU), the Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU) in mid-August when the protests began. The world's largest tyre manufacturer retreated from a planned two-week lockout, and returned to bargaining under the authority of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
By 5 September, union negotiators had hammered together a minimum 9% pay raise over the next three years and maintained all current conditions of employment. That was a long ways from the company's pre-lockout threat of wage hikes tied only to productivity targets, an increase in work hours and severe reductions to long-practiced entitlement programs. Workers will vote on the enterprise agreement late next week, and indications are that it will pass.
At mass worker meetings on 20 August, LHMU Shop Steward Boyd MacRae told union members, "The reason that Bridgestone is moving its position is that the support of trade unionists from around the globe is unprecedented. You are being assisted by international workers standing along side of you and supporting you."
MacRae read letters of support to the trade unionists and letters of protest to Bridgestone President and CEO Shigeo Watanabe from ICEM affiliates in Romania, the Slovak Republic, Pakistan, South Korea, the UK, US, France, Spain, Turkey and Denmark. FUTINAL, the Latin American rubber unions network, weighed in, and the ICEM's Japanese Affiliates' Federation (JAF) also sent an important letter of support. In part, it read, "We are deeply concerned about the current attitude and behaviour of BFS Australia … We sincerely hope that this dispute will be solved, as early as possible, in a peaceful manner as well as in favour of the Australian workers."
Chris Field, LHMU's Assistant Secretary for South Australia, reported an ICEM Pakistan affiliate vowed to demonstrate in front of the Japanese embassy in that country. "This act of solidarity by our Pakistani sisters and brothers was done knowing full well they risked police repression on the orders of a government hostile to organized trade unionism," he said.
The mayor of Salisbury supported worker resistance of the three unions and local restaurants and pubs made it clear they would provide free meals to workers if Bridgestone proceeded with the lockout. In addition, the unions received valuable local help and aid from CFMEU, the Maritime Union of Australia, the South Australia Police Association, the Transport Workers Union and the Labour Council of South Australia.
The victory, said Field, was the "combination of disciplined unity of tyre workers and strong support from many allies that forced the biggest rubber products company in the world to back off and recognize the collective will and rights of tyre workers."
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, who called the lockout threat "clearly unacceptable behaviour" in an 11 August letter to Watanabe and told delegates on 28 August at ICEM's Congress in Norway of the growing support, praised the fortitude of workers and commended the solidarity. "An established Bridgestone/Firestone Global Network of Workers together with the strength and will of committed trade unionists paid off in reversing a company's demands, pure and simple. There is no better validation of global solidarity than what occurred over the past month at this particular tyre plant in Australia, and it personifies the work we strive to do."