3 October, 2024On 25-26 September, 140 representatives from rubber and tyre unions from across the globe gathered in Turkey to address key issues impacting major multinational companies like Michelin, Bridgestone, Goodyear, and Pirelli/Prometeon. The focus was on strengthening union power, improving health and safety standards, empowering women, and tackling supply chain challenges.
Hosted by IndustriALL affiliate Lastik-Is in Izmit, Turkey, the meeting featured participants from 20 countries, including France, Italy, Brazil, South Africa, and Thailand.
IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan opened the event, emphasizing the need for greater gender representation in the sector.
Alaaddin Sari, president of Lastik-Is, echoed this, stressing the importance of unity:
“Our mentality is an injury to one an injury to all, unity to us is very important and we thank IndustriALL for doing this meeting with us. We as the tyre workers need to stand in unity not only for us, but also for all workers.”
Rubber sector director,Tom Grinter, presented a sector overview and highlighted industry challenges such as job losses, low wages, precarious work, and the impact of digitization.
Special focus was placed on countries like Turkey, Thailand, and Brazil, where workers face harsh conditions, including extreme heat, unsafe working environments, and limited union rights. The sector recommitted to their priority work in Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and Liberia.
Panel discussions centred around the main worker challenges in these major multinational corporations. Workers from France, Italy, Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, North America, Liberia, Germany, Mexico, Turkey and the UK provided context on the situation in their companies. The common themes that surfaced were job losses, precarious work, health and safety issues, low wages, production moving to low cost countries, lack of benefits and digitization.
Health and safety were major concerns, with workers from Hungary, Poland, and Germany reporting exposure to noise, dust, and chemicals, alongside poor ventilation and lighting. Mental health issues were also prevalent.
A key agenda item was the underrepresentation of women in the industry. Unions committed to closing gender gaps in pay, career progression, and health and safety, while promoting STEM education for women and pushing for the implementation of ILO Convention C190 on gender-based violence. The affilates are leading by example by electing the first woman co-chair for this sector, Elena Petrosino from Italian affilate FILCTEM-CGIL.
The sector analysed the relocation of production of tyres and the growing dominance of Asia, especially of China as the Chinese tyre market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.22% from 2023 to 2030 and nearly half of the fastest-growing tyre brands, worldwide, are Chinese. The drivers for growth include expanding automobile production, the presence of leading tyre original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), the increased disposable income and vehicle ownership, the growing penetration of Chinese brands and SUV sales and the presence of automotive manufacturing hubs.
Automotive sector changes, like electric vehicles and supply chain due diligence, were addressed by sector director Georg Leutert, who warned of the growing dominance of China and the need for unions to demand stronger human rights protections.
Kemal Özkan closed the meeting with a call to action:
“The world is becoming more unequal. With your determination, we can close this gap and achieve success.”