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<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
Continental AG, the German tyre manufacturer, wasted little time in slamming shut the negotiation process by announcing the closure of a union-represented plant in the US. Despite an offer by the United Steelworkers (USW) on 28 April to cut labour costs by US$16 million in order to keep an auto and light-truck tyre plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, operating, the company said the cuts were not enough. 
 
Managers then stormed out of talks and issued a formal letter stating negotiations had reached impasse. On 1 May, a day after expiration of a collective agreement for 800 rubber workers, Continental implemented its basket-load of cuts, totalling US$32 million, and announced tyre production in Charlotte would cease altogether by the end of September. 
<img height="150" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0605Continental.jpg" width="200" alt=""/> 
 
USW / IGBCE Press conference in Hannover
“We consider this action unlawful and will take every step to see that the company’s action is reversed,” said USW Exec. Vice President Ron Hoover. The union has filed a US labour law charge against the impasse declaration and the unilateral implementation of pay and benefit cuts amounting to 35%. 
 
On 5 May, USW took its fight for job retention and fairness in Charlotte to the company’s AGM in Hannover, Germany. The US Steelworkers, led by former Rubber Sector Chairman John Sellers, were joined by rubber manufacturing representatives of IGBCE in planning and implementing a protest and setting up a press conference denouncing Conti’s harsh and abrupt actions.
The company, which sacked 140 Charlotte workers in March, says it will fire another 170 workers this month, with 480 slated to go in mid-September. Continental said only 200 workers will remain after September, performing mixing, calendaring and warehousing duties, while tyre production will shift to a non-union plant in the US and to plants in3 Mexico and Brazil. Continental realized record profits in 2005, as well as seeing share gains topping 25%.

Continental Gives No Ground in US Tyre Talks

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Following results of German Works Council elections this spring, ICEM affiliate IGBCE has raised its representation voice inside companies to 85%. That is 5% better than results reflected in the last overall elections in 2002. 
 
IGBCE Governing Board Member Michael Vassiliadis termed the new number “an outstanding result” and a “clear signal” of worker confidence in Germany’s most diverse industrial union. 
 
“Under difficult conditions, we continue to add,” said Vassiliadis. IGBCE has over one million members in Germany, and the union, through its worker representatives, has strong voice on some 3,700 Works Councils.

IGBCE Gains Strength on German Works Councils

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The global mining industry did produce one piece of good news over the past fortnight. Canadian mining house Ivanhoe announced it would withdraw from Burma, expressing to sources discomfort with having to deal with the military junta, which jointly owns a copper mine with Ivanhoe. The company will sell its 50% in the Monywa mine to a consortium of South Korean investors, including Daewoo International, which already has investment deals with the Burmese generals. 
 
The Ivanhoe Mines exit will happen in a July 2006 sale. Last week, Burma’s military junta extended the house arrest on Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Her strong voice for democracy and human rights in Burma has now been silenced for the past three years by the corrupt Burmese military rulers. In total, she has spent a total of ten of the past 17 years in detention.

Canadian Ivanhoe Mines Pulls Out of Burma

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ICEM Norwegian affiliate NOPEF and other unions achieved a 2006 wage increase of 4.5% in the offshore oil sector. The accord came on 17 May after offshore workers rejected a 2.5% offer from the Oil Industry Association (OLF). 
 
The agreement covers 6,200 workers and also lays a framework for further dialogue on work conditions including the rising demand for skilled workers in Norway’s offshore oil sector. A total of 2.4 million barrels of oil daily is pumped from rigs off the Norwegian continental shelf.

Norway’s Offshore Energy Workers Negotiate 4.5% Raise

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On 19 May, ICEM’s French affiliate Fédéchimie CGT-FO elected, unanimously, Hervé Quillet as its new general secretary at an extraordinary National Committee meeting. 
 
The new general secretary replaces long-serving and popular general secretary Michel Decayeux, who is retiring, but will remain on as a member of the organisation’s Bureau Fédéral as well as of its Commission Exécutive Confédérale until the union’s next congress. He also remains in charge of European and international relations. Decayeux is a former ICEM Materials Section chairman and an Executive Committee Member of the ICEM.

Michel Decayeux Steps Down as GS of Fédéchimie CGT-FO in France

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ICEM German affiliate IGBCE and the country’s chemical employers’ federation, BAVC, announced in Berlin today, 12 June, a joint declaration toward implementing family-friendly policies in the workplace. The agreement is the first of its kind in any sector in Germany.
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The initiative serves as the pioneering effort toward achieving the necessary balance between work and family life. “This is a significant step to better compatibility between occupation and family duties,” said IGBCE’s Edeltraud Glaenzer. She added that the basic principles contained in the position paper will now need to be put in practice in chemical industry worksites. 
 
German Family Affairs Secretary Ursula von der Leyen, who was present for the signing, stated, “For the trade union and employers’ organisation to declare this family-friendly personnel policy, is a decisive prerequisite for a better balance between work and family life.”

IGBCE, Chemical Industry Announce ‘Family-Friendly’ Protocol Agreement

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Locked-out members of Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada Local 972 ratified a collective agreement with Stora Enso on 20 June, thus ending a five-month labour dispute and ensuring that the paper mill in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, remains open. 
 
The 600 paper mill workers ratified the contract by the narrowest of margins, 54%, while a separate clerical unit gave approval by an even slimmer margin. The coated paper and newsprint mill was threatened with shutdown by Stora Enso unless a new labour agreement was not ratified by 24 June.
<img height="99" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMpaper.jpg" width="100"/>
  
The mill is plagued by Stora’s insistence on cutting paper capacity, and the current high value of the Canadian dollar in relation to the US dollar. Stora Enso has now petitioned the province’s utility commission in order to gain a power rate reduction before it re-starts the mill.
The province of Nova Scotia has already given preliminary approval to a C$65 million, seven-year property tax decrease so that the company would continue to operate the mill. 
 
Throughout the 23-week lockout, CEP Local 972 received vast support from several sources. 
In a letter announcing the ratification, Local 972 stated, “This support came from other CEP Locals across the country, other unions across Canada and many other countries, numerous other unions, associations, affiliates, local businesses, local individuals, and our own members who also cared and looked out for one another. This tremendous show of support will be long remembered.”

Stora Enso Lockout in Canada Ends with Ratification Vote

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The Japanese Trade Union Confederation, Rengo, continues to post solid gains for part-time workers in this spring’s set of wage negotiations. The labour federation has targeted raises for temporary workers as a priority in this spring’s shunto, or spring wage offensive, as well as delivering improved working conditions for part-timers. 
 
Rengo is also encouraging part-time workers to file lawsuits against enterprises which are not in compliance with a court ruling that says they must not receive less than 80% of full-time pay. Speaking at a meeting of representatives from local chapters on 16 June, Rengo President Tsuyoshi Takagi said the labour umbrella group would assist part-time workers to pursue such lawsuits.

Rengo Continues Spring Offensive on Behalf of Part-Time Workers

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The ICEM participated in a United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) conference in Geneva, Switzerland, 19-21 June over implementation of SAICM – the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management. 
 
The conference, attended by 90 participants from governments, industry, trade unions and NGOs, discussed how to implement SIACM principles at national level, in order to raise awareness among workers, communities and customers of chemicals, ensuring safety and risk-free management. 
 
The conference’s workshops served as the first follow-up to the adoption of SAICM ambitious goals by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) in February 2006. Many recommendations and suggestions were developed during last week’s conference. ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Officer Michael Wolters represented the Global Union Federation at the meeting.

Management in Chemicals Sector Gets Hearing at UN’s Training and Research Agency

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A protest in Kiev tomorrow, organised by the Ukrainian Trade Union Federation (FPU), is expected to turn out over 100,000 people. The demonstrations and march, deliberately organised a day before Ukraine’s Constitution Day, are an attempt to block further increases by the government on utility tariffs. 
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On 21 June, FPU organised regional demonstrations against the hike in gas and electricity tariffs which brought out 200,000 protestors across Ukraine. In the eastern cities of Donetsk and Kharkiv, 10,000 marchers, displaying FPU banners turned out, demanded a moratorium on utility tariffs, while thousands more protested in the western city of Lviv and the southern city of Kherson. 
 
Ukraine’s National Electric Regulatory Commission increased the tariffs for customers on 1 May, and then again on 1 June. The government has scheduled another increase on 1 July that will, in total, result in an 85% increase in less than 60 days.
<img height="138" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/People/AlexanderYurkin.jpg" width="100"/> 
 Alexander Yurkin
FPU, headed by former ICEM Regional Vice President Alexander Yurkin, has promised continued street mobilisations until the government relents. The labour federation sponsored a 24 May demonstration in Kiev that mobilised well over 100,000 citizens. Thus far, Yurkin said, “the protests have not produced any reaction from the government.” He said public pressure by the labour federation will be escalated until fairness comes to consumers.

Major Protest in Kiev on 27 June Over Unfair Utility Tariff Hikes

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