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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.

World's Pulp And Paper Workers Confront Globalisation

Unions Welcome Human Rights Principles For Oil, Gas, Mining

In Canada, affiliate Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) is holding a rally today in the New Brunswick town of Miramichi over UPM Kymmene’s September announcement that it would shutter a kraft pulp mill at year’s end, thus costing 400 workers their jobs. CEO contends the Finnish firm has a legal responsibility to operate the mill it purchased in year 2000 because of a signed agreement to preserve manufacturing jobs in exchange for three Crown licenses granting the firm harvesting rights on government timberlands.

CEP Intent on Keeping Canadian Pulp Mill Open

French workers of ExxonMobil are waging strike actions and manifestations against the US energy company’s decision to close worksites, and make redundant thousands of workers. Backed by five unions, including ICEM affiliates belonging to CFDT and CGT-FO, 80% of all French ExxonMobil workers are engaged in stop-work actions from 11- 19 May. Despite record profits with each passing financial quarter, the world’s largest energy company is following its plan to shut multiple French worksites, affecting hundreds of jobs. 
Unionised workers themselves took the initiative for the actions, and a refinery at Fos was shut off 13-14 May, while another refinery at Dunkirk was stopped 12-14 May. Last week prior to a two-day stoppage at the Port Jerome Seine-Maritime centre, all 700 workers of the facility staged a defiant manifestation. Actions are ongoing at nearly all the company’s French operations: Esso, SAF, Mobil, ExxonMobil Chemical and Noroxo.

French Unions Strike to Stop ExxonMobil Retrenchments

A despicable act of exploitation involving contract labour is in progress at a plastics factory in Australia. Ownership of Kemalex Plastics has caused a strike by a migrant workforce of women who are being threatened with firing and then rehired as contract laborers. Represented by ICEM affiliate National Union of Workers, the 55 strikers are resisting a move that would make them all independent contractors, thus stripping them of job security, sick leave and holiday pay. It would also force them pay their own superannuation. 
The employer, a maker of plastic components for the automotive industry, has attempted to intimidate strikers by sending hooded motorcyclists through picket lines. The women are paid just over minimum wage, and are seeking a 15% pay increase and a redundancy package of three weeks pay per year of service. The factory is in Dandenong in the greater Melbourne area.

Contract Labour Exploitation Causes Australian Strike

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
Tripartite dialogue to achieve equal pay and rights for contract and agency laborers in South Korea has failed for the moment. The Non- Regular Workers’ Protection Act before the country’s National Assembly has been postponed until a second extraordinary session occurs in June. 
The leaders of the two main national labour centers, KCTU and FKTU, ended their 12-day hunger strikes 3 May, and jointly stated: “We deeply apologize to the non-regular workers who are suffering from various types of discrimination and employment instability, for failing to establish a law to protect them.” The labour unions are seeking a legislated restriction on the usage period of such workers, a guarantee of employment stability after expiration of the term, and equal pay for equal work. It is estimated that some eight million non-regular workers are employed in the different Korean industrial sectors.

Non-regular Workers Bill in Korea Fails to Reach Common Ground

Also in Brazil, the Brazilian National BASF Network of ICEM’s Latin American BASF Network took place 4-6 May in Sao Paulo. Delegates defined priorities to be proposed for the first national social dialogue, and met with BASF managers regarding problems workers confront in BASF’s Brazilian facilities. In attendance were members of the Factory Commission of German-based BASF, IGBCE chemical sector representatives, as well as delegates from the Secretariat and International Relations Department of CUT. The ICEM’s Regional Coordination Committee meeting of the BASF Network along with social dialogue talks with the company is occurring over the next several days.

ICEM’s Regional BASF Network Meets in Brazil

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In Argentina, affiliate FeTERA won a dispute with energy company Edea S.A. when the company agreed to place 30 contract workers on its core staff at a workplace near Buenos Aires. “This is a very proud labour achievement,” said FeTERA General Secretary José Rigane. “We are making progress on the issue of contract labour. The energy sector of Argentina belongs to all of the people.”

Victory for Contract Workers at Electric Company in Argentina

In Canada, USW held a rally in the province of Ontario 26 May to keep open a copper smelting refinery employing 140 steelworkers. Toronto based Inco Ltd. has threatened to close the Copper Cliff refinery. “This is about keeping jobs in our communities,” said USW Ontario/Atlantic Director Wayne Fraser. “This company has made huge profits for decades using the blood, sweat and tears of our members. Inco owes it to the community to invest in upgrading the Copper Cliff refinery.” The USW represents over 4,000 copper and nickel miners employed by Inco in and around Sudbury in western Ontario, and another 1,500 in the province of Manitoba.

USW Seeks to Keep Inco Mining Operating Open in Canada

A flooded shaft at an illegal coal mine in eastern Jianxi province, China, killed seven miners on 18 June. The incident occurred near the city of Leping and the bodies of the miners were only recovered 23 June. Two other workers were in the illegal mine, but were rescued late on 18 June. China’s State Administration of Production Safety reports 2,187 miners have perished in the first five months of 2005, a 9.7 increase over the same period in 2004. A total of 23 major accidents—defined as claiming ten or more lives—have occurred so far in 2005, a 274% increase over the same period last year.

Deaths in China's Mines a Recurring Nightmare

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