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

Ukraine's worst mining disaster is now being investigated by a team led by Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko. The probe commission includes Mikhail Volynets, President of the Miners' Independent Trade Union of Ukraine (MITU). 
 
Saturday's explosion at the Barakova mine killed 80 workers and injured seven others, Volynets confirms in a fax received today by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). MITU is an ICEM affiliate. 
 
Describing the accident as "the most serious in recent years", Volynets says the blast happened "during repair work" at the mine and was caused by a "mixture of dust and gas". Barakova is owned by the state holding company Krasnodonugol. As well as investigating the accident, the government team of which Volynets is part is bringing "vital assistance to the families of those killed and injured". 
 
Ukraine has one of the world's highest mining accident rates. Close to 1,500 Ukrainian miners have been killed over the past five years. MITU, backed by the ICEM, has been campaigning to reverse a catastrophic spiral of underinvestment, leading to falls in productivity, leading to further cutbacks in equipment and safety. Non-payment of miners' wages has been another serious problem in the cash-starved industry.  
 
"Beyond sadness and grief, drastic measures need to be taken to address the causes of these series of mine disasters," insists ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in a message of condolence to the MITU. In particular, Higgs calls for implementation by Ukraine of Convention 176 on mining safety, adopted by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has declared 13 and 14 March as days of national mourning for those killed in the Barakova disaster.

Ukrainian Miners' President Joins Disaster Probe Team

Chernobyl nuclear power station is to close before the end of this year, the Ukrainian government confirmed yesterday. 
 
Only one reactor is currently operating at Chernobyl, which was the site of the world's worst-ever nuclear accident when another reactor exploded in 1986. 
 
But now that Chernobyl really is to close, what about the workers? 
 
The station's workforce has totalled around 6,500 people in recent years. At least 5,000 other jobs depend on them - mainly in Slavutich, the town built to house the nuclear workers and their families after they were moved out of the irradiated zone around the plant. And in today's Ukraine, good jobs are very hard to find. 
 
Since 1996, the Chernobyl workers' union and its international federation have been pressing for a "social plan" that would help to avert job losses in the case of closure. That lobbying has now been stepped up. 
 
Yesterday, the Ukrainian Deputy Energy Minister Vitali Gajduk met Alexander Yurkin and Andre Mrost in Kiev to discuss the issue. 
 
Yurkin is the President of the Ukraine Atom Trade Union (ATU). He is also Vice-President of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the ATU is affiliated at the global level. Mrost is the ICEM's coordinator in the region. 
 
They explained the ATU/ICEM campaign to the deputy minister, who fully backed the unions' action. The Ukrainian government has now given its Fuel and Energy Ministry six months to draw up a programme of social guarantees for Chernobyl and Slavutich. 
 
But this begs the multi-million dollar question. Who will pay for the social safety net? 
 
In fact, a comprehensive draft social plan already exists. 
 
The commitment to close Chernobyl by the year 2000 dates back to the Ottawa memorandum signed in 1995 by Ukraine, the G-7 leading industrialised countries and the European Union. This agreement specifically recognised "the implications of the closure of the Chernobyl plant for the workers and their families." It promised that "the European Commission and the Government of the United States will assist the Government of Ukraine to develop an Action Plan for addressing the social impacts of the closure of Chernobyl." 
 
The ICEM and the ATU followed through in 1996 with a world conference of nuclear workers' unions, held in Kiev. The early closure of Chernobyl could be envisaged only if the social issues were properly tackled, the Kiev conference pointed out. In particular, it called for a full "social plan", including the creation of alternative employment for workers in Chernobyl and Slavutich. 
 
A detailed draft social action programme was drawn up the following year by a joint Ukrainian-EU-US working group that included trade union experts. The draft plan provides for retraining and other adjustment measures for the workers. It also entails the promotion of new small and medium-scale industries in Slavutich, notably in the field of energy efficiency and conservation. 
 
Under the 1995 Ottawa memorandum, western commitments to fund the Chernobyl closure included 4 million US dollars for social measures. As the nuclear unions' Kiev conference pointed out in 1996, this pledge is wholly inadequate. Today, an effective social plan for Chernobyl and Slavutich would cost between 50 million and 100 million dollars. 
 
Which is why the ICEM and its affiliated unions are now pressing the G-7 governments, the EU and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to finance the social package in full. 
 
For other aspects of the Chernobyl closure, money is no object. Yesterday's confirmation of the shut-down came just days after western donors had pledged an extra 300 million dollars for the building of a new shell to seal off the Chernobyl reactors. Their total commitment to that project alone is now 700 million dollars. A further 175 million dollars' worth of western aid could go towards paying for new Ukrainian nuclear plants to replace Chernobyl - although some western governments would prefer to finance stations fired by coal, lignite or gas. 
 
All of which puts into perspective the sums needed for a decent social plan. 
 
And there are good reasons for funding a social safety net. 
 
The safe operation, shutdown and decommissioning of Chernobyl depends first and foremost on the skill and concentration of its workers. They have been under great psychological pressure recently, due both to uncertainties over their future and to a problem of unpaid wages that has only just been resolved. 
 
Then there is the world's moral debt to the Chernobyl workers. The "liquidators", who went in just after the 1986 disaster to limit the spread of radiation, included workers from the plant. Some paid the price of their heroism. They contracted diseases linked to radiation, and in some cases they may have incurred hereditary damage. 
 
Not least, the lessons learned from a Chernobyl social plan could be of great value to the nuclear industry everywhere. 
 
As the unions' Kiev conference pointed out in 1996, "worldwide, over two hundred other nuclear reactors are scheduled for decommissioning by 2010. Chernobyl is the first challenge - not the last."

Chernobyl To Close: What About the Workers?

Major investors are backing calls for change at mining multinational Rio Tinto. 
 
In Britain, where Rio Tinto is headquartered, investors with over 28 billion pounds sterling in assets (over 43 billion US dollars) are supporting two resolutions proposed by the Coalition of Rio Tinto Shareholders. One of the resolutions concerns corporate governance. The other calls on Rio Tinto to ensure that its labour practices worldwide comply with the core standards of the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
British investors who have come out in favour of the resolutions include the Co-operative Insurance Society Ltd. (CIS). The CIS decision was announced by Britain's Trades Union Congress (TUC) today. CIS is one of Rio Tinto's largest shareholders, with more than 23 billion pounds sterling under management. A number of British pension funds have also swung their shareholder power behind the resolutions. 
 
Under its dual-listing structure, Rio Tinto holds two Annual General Meetings (AGMs) - one in London (on 10 May this year) and one in Australia (Brisbane, 24 May). The resolutions will be put to shareholders at both AGMs. 
 
"It should come as no surprise that shareholders are welcoming our proposals with open arms," said TUC General Secretary John Monks. "Institutional investors increasingly see the value of AGM resolutions that promote long-term shareholder value." 
 
The two resolutions are being backed by the TUC, by the trade union movements in Australia and the US and by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The ICEM has already offered to negotiate and sign a global agreement with Rio Tinto. Under such an agreement, the ICEM and its affiliated unions worldwide would verify, among other things, the company's compliance with ILO core standards. Through the ICEM, unions would have the right to raise with Rio Tinto corporate management any alleged breaches of these standards. 
 
However, the ICEM has also made it clear that Rio Tinto must resolve current industrial disputes in Australia before a global agreement can be signed.

Rio Tinto: Big Investors Want Change

Talks could begin today on the dispute that has shut down much of Norway's private sector. 
 
National labour federation LO called its secretariat into special session immediately after a press conference in Oslo this morning. LO President Yngve Hagensen told journalists that exploratory discussions have already taken place with the employers' federation NHO. 
 
"These could - and I emphasise the could - lead to a resumption of negotiations with NHO as early as today," Hagensen said. 
 
But strike action could continue in parallel with any negotiations, he stressed. 
 
"If we are to succeed in the negotiations, we must demonstrate our strength," Hagensen explained. 
 
84,600 Norwegian workers have been on strike across the private sector since 3 May, following the membership's rejection of a previous mediated settlement offer. The strike is scheduled to spread at 6.00 a.m. tomorrow local time, after which a total of 102,119 workers will be out. 
 
Industrial unions affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) are playing a major part in the campaign.

Norwegian Strike Talks Today?

UK affiliate Transport & General Workers’ Union suspended industrial action against Michelin 2 March for seven days after the company determined it could do better on a pay offer. Action was to begin 4 March at a tyre plant in Stoke, Midlands, and 400 T&G members were set to begin a ban on overtime, forego any cooperative efforts with management, and start a work-to-rule campaign inside the factory. On that day, French unions at Michelin were to stage a manifestation at Michelin’s Paris headquarters in support of the UK union, while the Stoke workforce planned a mass protest at their factory. Industrial action will commence 11 March if Michelin does not improve on a non-consolidated offer of £650 or 3%, meaning the pay hike would not count towards the formula for pensions and other benefits.

Michelin Returns to UK Bargaining Table to Avoid Industrial Action

UK’s BPB Paperboard announced suddenly 3 March that it was closing a plasterboard liner-paper mill in Aberdeen, Scotland, throwing 276 workers out of jobs. The announcement of the closure, to occur in June, brought sharp rebuke from ICEM affiliate Amicus. The UK union’s Graphical, Paper and Media Section recently went through a 90-day consultation period with paper mill management of the building materials company, and no mention of the closure occurred. “The decision to close had evidently been made well before the formal consultative period started,” said Amicus’ Scottish Branch Secretary Jimmy Robertson.

Amicus in UK Resists Paper Mill Closure

German affiliate IGBCE used an innovative collective bargaining agreement with BASF to win 500 jobs for Berlin. The jobs and a new worksite, to be created late 2005 when BASF centralizes its financial, accounting and human resources into a shared service center, were possible after IGBCE proposed a forward-looking plan to the German chemicals producer, which had been considering many different sites. IGBCE President Hubertus Schmoldt said the social partnership the union has with BASF doesn’t just exist on paper, but has evolved into lateral thinking on how the two parties do things. The new service center “benefits everybody concerned: the people who find work (at the Berlin site), the company that can run a cost-effective business operation, and it is an important testimony to Germany’s industrial competitiveness,” said Schmoldt.

IGBCE in Germany Achieves Innovation Agreement with BASF

Frank Hanley, president of US affiliate International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) since 1989, retired effective 1 March. Secretary-Treasurer Vincent Giblin will serve the remainder of Hanley’s term to April 2008.

Operating Engineers President In US Retires

Nepal’s national labour centers GEFONT and NTUC, along with ICEM affiliates, had received permission from the district administrator to conduct silent commemorations on International Women’s Day, 8 March. Banners and placards declaring support for gender equality in the workplace and in society were to be displayed by hundreds of trade union activists in Katmandu and in towns and cities across Nepal. But late the night of 7 March, security forces cancelled the permit and intermittent demonstrations the next day were met by baton-charging riot police. Some 226 arrested.

Nepal Cancels International Women’s Day Celebrations

In Brazil, the chemical workers union FEQUIMFAR in Sao Paulo, affiliated with CUT, won a reduction in weekly work time from 44 to 42 hours. The agreement was signed 8 March with pharmaceutical and other companies, and also includes a 2% increase in real wage terms for workers in chemicals, plastics, cosmetics, fertilizers and other industries. “This is the first step toward a 40-hour week, which is our goal for all workers in all industries,” declared FEQUIMFAR President Danilo Pereiro.

Chemical Workers in Brazil Win Gains Through Union

Archive