English

Español

Français

Русский

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy 

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action Plan 2021-2025

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Campaigns

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Women

Youth

LGBTQI+

Gender, equality, diversity and inclusion (GEDI)

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL 

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia 

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean 

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Logos of IndustriALL Global Union

Press

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has ruled that a shareholder resolution offered by PACE Union must be submitted to shareholders of DuPont on the chemical firm’s 2004 Proxy Statement. The resolution urges DuPont’s board of directors to adopt, implement and enforce a company-wide human rights policy based on the ILO’s Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

PACE of US Will Bring DuPont Resolution to AGM

Three major mine accidents occurred in China last week, killing 28 workers. A methane gas explosion at a coal mine in Guizhou Province killed 19, while at an unlicensed coal mine in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, a broken cable caused a fire killing six miners. On 12 July, an accident at a fluorite mine near Qingyuan, Guangdong Province, killed three miners.

Mine Accidents in China Kill 28

Also in the North American rubber sector, the USWA has filed a US labour board charge against German rubber manufacturer Continental Tire. The charge is over the firm’s intent to close a tyre plant in Mayfield, Kentucky, by year-end that would cost 800 steelworkers their jobs. The union contends the announcement of the closure was timed to coincide with a 22-24 July unionization vote at a nearby Continental tyre plant in Mount Vernon, Illinois, thus serving to discourage workers there from voting for USWA representation. The USWA has obtained internal documents verifying Continental’s anti-union bias, including plans to manipulate financial statements, and will present the evidence in its case before the US National Labor Relations Board.

USWA Protests Continental Tyre’s Plant Closure in US

An eight-day strike by the Electric Power Workers Trade Union of Serbia ended 5 August with guaranteed assurances that union rights and full employment levels will be maintained at state-run EPS as it prepares for restructuring into five separate enterprises. The strike by 1,250 workers at EPS’s Kostolac Mine and a thermal power plant in Kostolac won guaranteed employment at the five new companies for a four-year period, as well as an excellent redundancy package for any workers laid off thereafter. According to Power Workers Trade Union President Milan Kovacevic, another crucial aspect of the agreement is a provision that EPS must reassess in three years whether the separation to five business entities is justified before finalization of the process occurs. The restructuring of EPS will not begin until the five labour agreements of the new businesses are completed with the union. 
 
 
Correction: In ICEM’s 17 August InBrief, at Serbia’s state-run electric company called EPS, the number of separate companies that the firm has broken into is 23, not five as written. The eight-day strike by 1,250 workers occurred at one of those companies now splitting into five units. ICEM affiliate Electric Power Workers Trade Union won job security assurances through the strike that occurred at part of two companies, firms connected with the Kostolac Mine and thermal power plant.

Eight-Day Strike in Serbia Protects Union Rights

Punishing workers who took part in a 20-day strike at LG Caltex refinery in South Korea is now the agenda of management. ICEM affiliate Korean Chemical & Textile Workers’ Federation ended the strike 6 August but when 200 workers returned to their jobs the following Monday, 9 August, they were denied entrance and told they would be recalled on an individual basis. 
LG Caltex, a joint venture between the Korean LG Group and US supermajor ChevronTexaco, is seeking disciplinary action against some 70 strike leaders of KCTF. In addition, the government had issued arrest warrants for dozens of KCTF union officers.

LG Caltex Punishes Workers Who Struck in Korea

Paperworkers in the UK represented by Graphic Printing & Media Union (GPMU) are on the verge of industrial action following a breakdown in talks with the Confederation of Paper Industry companies. The ICEM affiliate sent notices to some 12,000 members that industrial action could commence after 26 August if progress is not made in talks. Union workers in the paper sector voted for possible industrial action last June. GPMU has rejected a proposal by the industry for a 2.85% pay increase.

Paper Dispute in UK Threatens Entire Industry

A bitter diamond-mining strike in Botswana erupted last week when workers angered by a company take-it-or-leave-it pay offer defied union leadership and struck Debswana, the Botswana diamond monopoly run as a joint venture between DeBeers and the government of the southern African nation. 
ICEM affiliate Botswana Mining Workers’ Union (BMWU) was pushed to the defensive as the company used a prior legal ruling to suspend union matters by charging 32 branch and national officers with contempt of court. Some 2,000 workers among 6,000 miners at four highly profitable Debswana operations struck 23 August over a pay and bonus offer that fell far inferior to one given supervisors. 
According to the BMWU, the workers walked because the inferior pay/bonus offer was pulled from the table after rejection, and also due to an industrial court ruling barring a strike, a clear sign that the justice system was one-sided. The BMWU was attempting to put together a settlement that would end the strike and halt the harsh court action by Debswana and the government at the weekend.

Botswana’s Miners Strike Debswana

The Ukrainian government has transferred some new funds to the country's cash-starved nuclear power stations. However, the sums involved are far from enough to resolve the ongoing crisis over the non-payment of nuclear workers' wages. 
Information on the payments and other government moves has just been received by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) from the Ukrainian nuclear workers' union ATU, which is an ICEM affiliate. 
 
Workers at Chernobyl and Ukraine's four other nuclear power stations will launch an indefinite strike on 22 March unless the wage backlog of more than 15 million US dollars is paid off by then. 
 
A decree to provide new credits for the power stations, specifically in order to pay off the wage debt, was signed into force yesterday. But the total earmarked in the decree is 120 million hryvnia - and the sector's total debt has now risen to 150 billion hryvnia. Credits actually transferred to the power stations' bank accounts between 1 March and 9 March amounted to 4,319,000 hryvnia. 
 
Prime Minister Valery Pustovoitenko met the directors of the nuclear power stations yesterday, and a further meeting between the Prime Minister and the unions was scheduled for today. 
 
The ATU Presidium will meet on 17 March to examine the government's measures to date. 
 
Meanwhile, the commission established last week to tackle the problem of Ukraine's massive unpaid electricity, heating, gas and coal bills has started work under the personal supervision of Deputy Prime Minister V. Kurachenko. The commission is empowered to cut off all supplies to major defaulters. 
 
According to information received by the ATU, the commission has already decided to cut off some 18,000 Ukrainian enterprises.

Ukrainian Nuclear Crisis - Government Transfers Some Wage Funds - But Not Enough

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
The Mineworkers Union of Zambia blasted the use of casual labour as a new and growing threat against the work/life social structure. 
MUZ Gen. Sec. Ernest Mutale told the nation that new investment arriving into Zambia is intent on utilizing contract labour, a fact opposite of what these investors must do in their home countries, he said.

Zambia’s Mining Union Sees Threat of Casual Labour

The on-again, off-again bid by NUM in South Africa to save jobs at Harmony Gold Mining Ltd. is on again as the two sides this past weekend signed an agreement preventing closure of six mineshafts targeted by the company. In April, the firm agreed on a process to continue employment for 5,000 miners, but that was broken in late June when Harmony insisted the jobs must go. The latest agreement calls for a plan to integrate both marginal and profitable shafts, thus creating new job opportunities. “We are in the process of creating history with this agreement,” said NUM Gen. Sec. Gwede Mantashe. “The fact that we ensured that the shafts are not closed augurs well for our goal to save jobs.”

NUM, Harmony Gold Resume Talks in South Africa

Archive