Read this article in:
7 August, 2005ICEM News release 82/2000
Trade union leaders from the pulp and paper industry worldwide resolved today to join forces to better cope with the increasing globalisation trends in their industry.
They were taking part in the two-day world pulp and paper sector conference held in Sainte-Adèle, Quebec, by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
The unions pledged to form global networks of workers employed by the same multinational corporations to exchange information and to take solidarity action when necessary. They also called on the major multinational employers in the pulp and paper industry to commit to global standards in their operations worldwide through agreements with the ICEM.
"Many of our major employers in the Canadian pulp and paper industry now have a global reach and we have to respond in kind," said Brian Payne, President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, which hosted the conference. "Fletcher Challenge's acquisition by Norske Skog of Norway and REPAP's purchase by UPM-Kymmene of Finland are just two of the latest examples of foreign-based multinational corporations gaining a larger share of the Canadian industry, and our union is actively working to forge alliances with unions in other countries representing employees of these same companies," he said.
"As unions, we are always stronger united together than we are acting separately," said Jarmo Lähteenmäki, President of Paperiliitto, the Finnish paper workers' union. "The unions represented here have taken a major step forward in committing to forge global union networks that can provide the sort of practical solidarity that our members need," he said.
Lähteenmäki, who today was elected chairman of the ICEM pulp and paper industry section, pointed to the solidarity strike waged earlier this year by the Swedish paper workers' union and other solidarity shown by other ICEM affiliates in other countries in support of a national strike by the Finnish paper workers as an example of the kind of cross-border union solidarity that can be effective. That strike resulted in a victory for the union.
"We have witnessed first-hand the power of international labour solidarity," said Boyd Young, President of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union, based in the United States. "The globalisation of the paper and pulp industry requires that we build global unions."
"The pulp and paper industry has a relatively high union density around the world," said Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary. "Nonetheless, the growing globalisation and the concentration of wealth and power and market share by fewer and fewer companies puts new pressures on our unions and their members."
"Global companies necessitate global unions and the ICEM is ready to play that role," said Higgs. "That means we are prepared to negotiate global agreements with multinational corporations which wish to acknowledge their obligations to their employees and the communities in which they do business worldwide, and we are prepared to wage global pressure campaigns against those employers which choose, instead, to violate their employees' rights."
The ICEM has already signed such global agreements with multinationals Statoil and Freudenberg.
Attending the pulp and paper conference were union leaders from Albania, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay.
They were taking part in the two-day world pulp and paper sector conference held in Sainte-Adèle, Quebec, by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
The unions pledged to form global networks of workers employed by the same multinational corporations to exchange information and to take solidarity action when necessary. They also called on the major multinational employers in the pulp and paper industry to commit to global standards in their operations worldwide through agreements with the ICEM.
"Many of our major employers in the Canadian pulp and paper industry now have a global reach and we have to respond in kind," said Brian Payne, President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, which hosted the conference. "Fletcher Challenge's acquisition by Norske Skog of Norway and REPAP's purchase by UPM-Kymmene of Finland are just two of the latest examples of foreign-based multinational corporations gaining a larger share of the Canadian industry, and our union is actively working to forge alliances with unions in other countries representing employees of these same companies," he said.
"As unions, we are always stronger united together than we are acting separately," said Jarmo Lähteenmäki, President of Paperiliitto, the Finnish paper workers' union. "The unions represented here have taken a major step forward in committing to forge global union networks that can provide the sort of practical solidarity that our members need," he said.
Lähteenmäki, who today was elected chairman of the ICEM pulp and paper industry section, pointed to the solidarity strike waged earlier this year by the Swedish paper workers' union and other solidarity shown by other ICEM affiliates in other countries in support of a national strike by the Finnish paper workers as an example of the kind of cross-border union solidarity that can be effective. That strike resulted in a victory for the union.
"We have witnessed first-hand the power of international labour solidarity," said Boyd Young, President of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union, based in the United States. "The globalisation of the paper and pulp industry requires that we build global unions."
"The pulp and paper industry has a relatively high union density around the world," said Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary. "Nonetheless, the growing globalisation and the concentration of wealth and power and market share by fewer and fewer companies puts new pressures on our unions and their members."
"Global companies necessitate global unions and the ICEM is ready to play that role," said Higgs. "That means we are prepared to negotiate global agreements with multinational corporations which wish to acknowledge their obligations to their employees and the communities in which they do business worldwide, and we are prepared to wage global pressure campaigns against those employers which choose, instead, to violate their employees' rights."
The ICEM has already signed such global agreements with multinationals Statoil and Freudenberg.
Attending the pulp and paper conference were union leaders from Albania, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay.