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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

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
ICEM’s US affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) opened up the possibility for strike action at Continental Tyre’s North America plant in Charlotte, North Carolina. The decision by the union to authorise a strike if deemed necessary, a common action for trade unions in the US, is the logical result of the failure so far to get to an agreement between the workers at Continental and local management. 
Current collective bargaining has been ongoing for over half a year and remains dead-locked, due to the harsh demands by the company. The USW now said it wants a new agreement before April 30, when the current agreement ends. Continental, which threatened earlier to suspend tyre production indefinitely in Charlotte as of September 2006, wants to cut costs at the Charlotte plant by US$32 million. Amongst other things, this plan proposes across-the-board 35% pay cuts. 
<img height="70" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMrubber.JPG" width="70"/>
Last year, the company already announced that it would make redundant 510 of the plant’s 1,083 jobs in 2006. In March,140 workers were dismissed, and 170 more are scheduled to suffer the same fate in May. 
The USW since made a few more realistic counter-proposals, which do include job security provisions and a guarantee towards future productivity. So far, to no avail. The USW also strongly protests against the company’s threat that it may start to alter benefits for its retirees as soon as the insurance agreement expires, which would be 90 days after the expiry date of the current bargaining agreement.

Negotiations between US Workers and Continental Tyre Could Turn into Strike in North Carolina

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
Canadian Ivanhoe Mines, one of the larger foreign investors in Burma, has been forced to temporarily close its copper mine in Burma for a few weeks last month. Problems related to the mine’s bank and insurance broker ending its relationships with the operation, a result of the economic sanctions that the US government installed on Burma. According to Ivanhoe, the mine has been reopened in the meantime, albeit at a lower level. 
Company sources reportedly acknowledged that the US sanctions are making it increasingly difficult to work in Burma. The company also admitted having a few technical problems with the Burmese government, including on import permits. The Monywa Copper Project is operated as a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines and the Burmese government. The Burmese government forces joint ventures on all foreign investors operating inside Burma, guaranteeing the dictatorial regime a steady flow of income.

Canadian Investor Needs to Temporarily Close its Mine in Burma

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
Leading into May Day, International Workers’ Day, news from Nepal is that King Gyanendra has met his fate, as defying protestors stood their ground on the streets during curfews and martial law. 
 
During what is now known as Popular Movement II, a general strike in Nepal, which lasted for 23 days, forced the despotic king late on 24 April to restore the country’s Parliament, a first and necessary step toward a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. “ 
<img height="125" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/binda.jpg" width="200" alt=""/>
With the sacrifice of nearly 20 people’s lives, some 5,000 who were seriously injured, and the arrests of 2,000, continuous struggle has meant we have achieved something,” wrote Binda Pandey, ICEM Vice President and a leader inside Nepal’s labour federation, GEFONT. “Let us celebrate this together as an initial victory, but there still is a long way to go to sustainable peace, prosperity and a dignified Nepal.” 
 
April’s general strike brought hundreds of thousands of Nepalese citizens to spontaneous demonstrations across the Kathmandu Valley. Wives, children and relatives of police and army personnel stepped to the front of barricades as a way of getting security forces to defy clear orders to beat and shoot demonstrators at will, highlighting the fact that it was a unified public action that crossed all castes, classes and ethnic origins. 
<img height="96" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0604Nepalstoprepression.jpg" width="120" alt=""/>
On 22 April, some 300,000 marched to the centre of Kathmandu, to within 500 meters of Gyanendra’s palace where they were met by soldiers with heavy weaponry. ICEM’s four affiliated trade unions all played crucial roles in the organised movement. (The general secretary of the Nepal Independent Chemical and Iron Workers’ Union was badly beaten and hospitalised with a broken knee.) Scores of leaders and activists from the unions were either injured or arrested. 
 
The ICEM issues an alert that resources and organisational support from the global trade union movement will be needed once Nepal reaches a full people’s democracy in order that unions and trade union rights can flourish in the Himalayan country.

Peoples Movement Defies King in Nepal

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
Nigerian ICEM affiliate PENGASSAN, the white-collar oil workers’ union, is bracing for a major dispute with ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Mobil Oil, in Lagos over a breach of a collective bargaining agreement. 
 
Mobil Oil in Nigeria has refused to honour a procedural agreement with PENGASSAN. The agreement sets out housing allowances for 300 headquarters staffers in the capital city, as well as pension requirements. The company told the union it would pay one, but not the other. The company is refusing to honour pension entitlements allotted prior to Nigeria’s 2004 Pension Act. 
 

<img height="101" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMOil.JPG" width="100" alt=""/>
The union gave Mobil Oil a 21-day ultimatum to make good on the entire procedural agreement, but that expired on 14 April with no movement from the company. PENGASSAN succeeded in getting the matter placed before Nigeria’s minister of Labour and a meeting of the parties is set for 3 May. If no solution is reached, industrial action is sure to come. 
 
“Management has not shown the sincerity to have the matter resolved amicably,” stated PENGASSAN Acting President Peter Esele. “If industrial unrest is what they want, they better be prepared to face it.” 
 
Another matter which finds the US-based supermajor at odds with PENGASSAN, is a planned relocation of company headquarters out of Nigeria. The union discovered that ExxonMobil is planning to close the Nigerian home office and shift downstream operations to Egypt, while upstream office work would go to Houston, Texas. 
 
“We have a responsibility not just to our members, but also to the country,” said Esele. “You cannot have companies making so much money from the resources of our country, and then simply relocating. This is unacceptable to us as Nigerians.”

PENGASSAN Ready for Battle with ExxonMobil

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
Strikes in the Turkish cement sector, scheduled to begin Monday, were averted when ICEM affiliate Çimse-Iş and the Cement Producers’ Association (ÇMIS) arrived at a new collective bargaining agreement covering 5,000 workers at 43 cement plants. 
 
The two-year agreement, retroactive to 1 January 2006, calls for an increase of 12% this year, and an amount equal to Turkey’s consumer price index in 2007. Increases were also realised in social benefits in each of the two years. Çimse-Iş had planned strikes at 23 cement plants on 1 May, with walkouts occurring at the other 20 plants on 8 May.

Turkish Cement Industry Calm as Settlement Reached

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN N° 11

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
ICEM’s paperworkers’ union affiliate in Finland, Paperiliitto, began a 48-hour strike today at some 64 paper mills owned by companies affiliated with the Finnish employers’ organisation, Forest Industries Federation. The strike by 20,000 Finnish workers is in protest to the harsh social measures through which the industry has chosen to improve profitability. 
 
The strikes, begun at 6h00 today and are set to run until 6h00 on 17 May, affecting all major paper firms including Stora Enso and UPM Kymmene. Other mills and paper converters owned by M-real, Metsä Tissue, Myllykoski, and other, smaller companies are also affected. Paperiliitto’s Executive Committee decided to allow Stora Enso’s mill at Panakoski and UPM Kymmene’s mill at Voikkaa mill to operate. Stora has the Panakoski mill up for sale, while UPM intends to shut down the Voikkaa mill by year end, even though it is a viable operation that could be sold. 
On 17 May, office workers across the Finnish paper sector, represented by the Union of Salaried Workers Trade Union, will strike for 24 hours in similar protest. 
<img height="126" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0511paperpresident1.jpg" width="150"/>
Stora and UPM, the largest Nordic paper companies, announced broad restructuring plans of late. In order to cut production capacity to maintain high prices, Stora Enso announced in the last quarter of 2005 that it would slash 2,000 jobs and close 10 mills worldwide. UPM Kymmene said it would cut 2,560 jobs, and that three mills in Finland would be shuttered. The other companies have also cut jobs in Finland, although at smaller numbers. 
 
Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen, chairman of ICEM’s Pulp and Paper Sector, said the cuts to jobs and workers’ livelihoods reflect a disturbing trend as to social awareness by the paper manufacturers. “Finland has moved to a management culture where shareholders are now the priority,” he said. “Paperworkers feel deeply insulted at the way they have been treated by employers.”

Paperiliitto Launches 48-Hour Strike in Finnish Paper Sector

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