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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. 

<img height="219" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/sappi.gif" width="350" alt=""/>
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."

US Union, CEPPWAWU Protest at Sappi AGM

Trade unions in Belarus are holding a National Day of Action today to demand a living wage and an end to restrictions on trade union rights. 
 
The 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) is "alarmed by recently published facts and figures which clearly indicate an unprecedented decline of the standards of living in Belarus," writes ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in a message of support to ICEM-affiliated unions there. 
 
"Existing structures have prevented the effective development of the national economy and triggered severe inflation," Higgs argues. "Workers' salaries no longer reflect their true contribution to the society and can hardly keep them from the brink of poverty or ensure physical survival." 
 
The Belarus unions "stand as the only force that defends the right of the workers and their families to a decent life," Higgs writes. "This determined attitude has put the unions under severe attack by the authoritarian regime, which the world community is observing with growing concern. I have addressed President Alexander Lukashenko and the Belarus government on several occasions, strongly protesting against the violations of union rights in Belarus." 
 
Pledging full international support to the Belarus unions' campaign, Higgs urges the country's government to "finally negotiate and sign a General Tariff Agreement with the unions".

Belarus Union Action Gains Global Support

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
A last-minute compromise in Norway late in the evening on 31 March averted a strike by 38,000 industry workers. A government-appointed mediator reconciled pay and other issues between ICEM affiliate Fellesforbundet and Norsk Industri, representing some 1,000 industrial firms. 
The union was seeking adequate salary increases for 2006, preservation of an early retirement programme, called avtalefesten pensjon (AFP), and a halt to the practice of paying foreign workers lower pay rates. Government mediation, however, failed to stop a construction strike that began yesterday, 2 April, between 19,000 trade unionists of Fellesforbundet and the National Association for the Building Industry.

Norwegian Industrial Disputes Settled on Eve of Strikes

<img height="41" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief.gif" width="100"/>
Trade union members of Amicus, an ICEM affiliate in the UK, staged a second four-hour strike on 30 March at International Paper Co.’s Inverurie mill in Scotland. The union and its 231 members at the paper mill will escalate industrial actions this week with two further strikes, tomorrow and Thursday, 4 and 6 April, if the company does not revise a pay offer for 2006 and 2007. 
Management has proposed an unacceptable pay freeze for this year and a minimal one-off payment in 2007. Workers for the past two years have contributed part of their weekly earnings to help fill a gap in the company’s pension scheme. The industrial actions have boosted Amicus support inside the printing and writing papers mills, as well as in the nearby community of Aberdeenshire.

Further Strikes at IP Paper Mill in Scotland

<img height="67" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/FranceFlag.gif" width="100"/>
French ICEM affiliate FCE-CFDT has called an eight-hour strike for tomorrow, 4 April, at all Total worksites across France in protest to the government’s contrat premiére embauche (CPE), the “first job contract” labour reform being imposed on young workers. 
<img height="130" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/FranceFCECFDT.jpg" width="100"/>
The union is asking all Total workers to join tomorrow’s inter-sectoral day of action, and has asked all trade union delegates to organise general staff assemblies in preparation. 
French labour federations are united in efforts to push the government and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin off CPE, which passed Parliament by decree without dialogue with social partners. The reform would allow employers to sack workers under age 26 in their first two years of employment without needing justification. 
French President Chirac announced last week the scaling back of the two-year period to one year. FCE-CFDT, who together with other unions rejected the Chirac compromise, has called the strike tomorrow at Total without saying exactly when the eight-hour work stoppage would begin.

FCE-CFDT Calls Total Workers Out on Strike

<img height="41" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
South African affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has challenged Harmony Gold Mining’s sacking of 300 contract workers without consulting the union. Harmony fired contractor DBE Mining at the Kalgold mine in the Northern Cape, and will bring in a new contractor employing other workers. 
NUM, which has filed a complaint over the matter in a South African labour court, is demanding that Harmony, “in the current climate of a boom in gold prices,” hire the 300 on a permanent basis. 
In a statement, NUM said, “Harmony would like to hide behind the myth that the 300 workers are employees of a contractor while in reality they do critical work in a Harmony mine … subcontracting and outsourcing are new forms of exploitation through which big companies try to exonerate themselves from the stain of careless laying off of employees.”

Layoffs of Contract Workers Challenged by NUM

UK Trade unionists of Amicus at International Paper Co.’s Inverurie mill in Scotland will extend industrial actions into next week, giving notice to the US-based company that another four-hour strike will occur on Monday, 10 April, and then an eight-hour downing of tools on Thursday, 13 April. It will be the fifth time since 23 March that the 231-strong workforce will have struck, and the 13 April action will mark the first eight-hour strike. 
<img height="82" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UKAmicus.jpg" width="160"/>
The two sides met on 4 April. The union was heartened that company negotiators moved off a pay freeze for 2006, but the company attached unacceptable conditions to the sub-standard, two-year pay offer. It sought not to make the pay offer retroactive to 1 January, and the company also wants to make the first two days of January mandatory work days each year. 
 
Amicus union officials consulted with union members, and informed management today that their offer was unacceptable. “We will keep the door open to further bargaining,” said Amicus Asst. Branch Secretary Willie Wallace. “We have suggested that ACAS get involved and we sincerely wish to resolve this dispute,” he added. ACAS is the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service of the UK, an independent but public-funded mediation service with a longstanding reputation. 
 
Amicus branch leaders and trade unionists at the Inverurie mill are perplexed by the company’s bargaining posture. Absent in bargaining is good-faith and a fair exchange of ideas and proposals. Instead, managers come to talks with “take-it-or-leave-it” proposals, void of any desire or willingness for dialogue, according to Wallace. International Paper has presented three “last, best and final offers” in recent bargaining sessions, a fact not lost on Inverurie paperworkers as they’ve united more through this dispute than ever before. 
 
This week’s bargaining is a case in point. Amicus members know the company has never had a problem operating paper machines on 1 and 2 January. The voluntary system of working those days has never failed in the past. Considering also the company’s demand that any wage increase for first quarter of 2006 is lost, this week’s restructured “last, best and final offer” was easy to reject. 
 
“The mood among members is hardening,” said Amicus Asst. General Secretary Tony Burke. “The company does not understand that they cannot keep rehashing previous offers which have found no favour amongst our members.”

Eight-Hour Strike Next Week at International Paper’s Scottish Mill

Dear friends,  
 
This is to inform you that ICEM affiliate, the Korean Chemical and Textile Workers’ Federation (KCTF), together with their national centre, KCTU, have launched, on 1 April 2006, a boycott campaign against the products of GS Caltex (formerly LG Caltex) in Korea, in a protest against the company’s labour practices. 
<img height="225" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0604Caltex1.jpg" width="300"/>
In July 2004, the GS Caltex union went on strike against this oil company after a deadlock in negotiations. Talks broke down over such issues as the demand for a five-day, 40-hour work-week and the call for the non-discrimination of contract workers. Instead of bargaining with the workers, the company retaliated against the strikers, with the help of the Korean government, through excessive use of riot police, which brutally suppressed the strike. 
 
After the end of the 20-day strike, management continued its aggressive anti-worker behaviour by screening returning workers, harassing families and dismissing almost all union officials, 30 in number. In addition, eight union leaders were arrested for their roles in the strike, and sentenced to periods of two to three years in prison. A total of 650 other workers were disciplined with three-month suspensions from work. 
 
Until now, there has been no sign from the company that it wants to end its unfair labour practices or reinstate the dismissed union leaders. This led to the decision by the union to announce the boycott of LG-Caltex products inside Korea. GS Caltex Korea is 50% owned by Chevron and 50% by the Korean GS Holding. 
We would like to ask you to support our Korean affiliate by sending <a href="/index.php?id=155&doc=1752" type="internal">a protest letter to the Korean government</a>. A model protest letter is attached for that purpose. 
The letter can be addressed to: 
President Roh Moo-hyun 
1 Sejong-no, Jongno-ku, 
Seoul 110-820 
Republic of Korea 
Fax: +82-2-770.03.44 
E-mail <a href="mailto:president@cwd.go.kr">president@cwd.go.kr</a> 
Please also send a copy to the Korean Ministry of Labour at <a href="mailto:chun-79@hanmail.net">chun-79@hanmail.net</a>. 
We also strongly encourage you to send a message of support to the KCTF. A <a href="/index.php?id=155&doc=1751" type="internal">sample letter of solidarity</a> is also attached. As with the protest letter to the government, please feel free to modify this letter, or to draft a similar one. Messages of support can be sent to: 
BAE, Kang-wook 
President, KCTF-KCTU 
Fax: + 82 2 2632 4755 
E-mail : <a href="mailto:kctfim@hanmail.net">kctfim@hanmail.net</a> 
Please send a copy of your support letter to: <a href="mailto:info@icem.org">info@icem.org</a>. 
 
Fraternally, 
 
Fred Higgs 
General Secretary 

 
For more background, please consult two earlier ICEM stories on the dispute. 

<ul>
 <li><a href="/?id=78&doc=278&la=EN" type="internal">LG Caltex Punishes Workers Who Struck in Korea</a> </li>
 <li><a href="/?id=77&doc=1149&la=EN" type="internal">ICEM Blasts LG Group, ChevronTexaco for Stance in Korean Dispute</a> </li>
</ul>

KCTF-KCTU Seeks International Solidarity on Boycott of GS Caltex in Korea


ICEM calls for support for Korean trade union campaign against Caltex

For the urgent attention of His Majesty 
King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev 
Narayanhity Royal Palace 
Durbar Marg 
Kathmandu 
Nepal 
 
By fax: +977 14 413577 and +977 14 228235 

Brussels, 12 April 2006 
 
King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, 
 
I am writing, in name of the 20 million members that the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) represents in 122 countries worldwide, to protest in the strongest possible terms against the violent response by your security forces to this week’s many demonstrations in Nepal. I particularly object to the brutal repression against numerous trade union members and leaders in your country. 
 
Over the course of the past week, as your regime’s oppression of the Nepalese democratization movement has become more aggressive, we have been informed of the arrests of many hundreds of protesters and democracy supporters, including scores of trade unionists. Most of these took part in protest actions against your government. Others did not even get that far as they were arrested in anticipation to prevent them from doing so. 
 
Estimates are that 2,300 people were arrested yesterday alone, with at least an additional 1,300 still held in detention since Monday. Amongst these detainees are many members and leaders of GEFONT, NTUC and DECONT, as well as of at least one of ICEM’s affiliates in Nepal, the Nepal Independent Chemical and Iron Workers’ Union (NICIWU). 
 
Together with the wider international trade union community and hundreds of other organizations and countries from around the world, I am calling upon you to end the violence by your security forces in Nepal. In addition, all trade union leaders and members that have been arrested over the last few days, weeks and months must be released immediately. 
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
 
Fred Higgs 
General Secretary 
 
Cc: 
Mr. Ramesh Nath Pandey, Minister of Foreign Affairs 
Mr. Narayan S. Thapa, Ambassador of Nepal to the Benelux and European Countries - By Fax: 02-344.13.61

ICEM protest letter to King Gyanendra in Nepal

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
On April 26, 20 years will have past since the largest nuclear disaster the world has ever seen. On that day in 1986, in what now is the country of Ukraine, a deadly explosion inside Chernobyl’s reactor No. 4 led to the release of a radioactive cloud that spread across large parts of the Soviet Union. A number of countries in Europe were also affected, but to a much lesser extent. Today, 20 years later, it is still difficult to identify the exact damage of the radioactive fallout. 
In the immediate aftermath of the accident, the Soviet Union, with the help of the international community, poured in a lot of money to build the infrastructure needed to minimise the immediate adverse effects of the catastrophe, mainly through sealing off the damaged reactor. 
<img height="66" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UkraineFlag.gif" width="100"/>
As years went by, however, it became clear that, where funding was still available for infrastructural work, there was less and less money to take care of the power station workers and others who had gone into the affected area to do the actual work. A large number of these workers, all members of ICEM affiliate Atomprofspylka, the Ukrainian Nuclear Power Workers’ Union, gave their lives fighting the disaster, or subsequently died within months or years. For those who survived, the situation is bleak today with little or no job security and a largely indifferent government. 
The anniversary of Chernobyl comes two days before the international Workers Memorial Day on 28 April, when trade unions everywhere commemorate workers who have lost their lives in workplace accidents.

Chernobyl 20 Years after

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