Displaying items by tag: Union

Australia: The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) has expressed concern over contaminated cement produced at Adelaide Brighton’s Birkenhead plant. Several large construction projects around Adelaide have used the contaminated cement the union has told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News. Adelaide Brighton says it is investigating an issue with its bulk cement that took place at the plant between 7 April and 10 April 2017.

Several companies including Boral distributed the cement. Adelaide Brighton says it has reviewed the situation and taken action subsequently to minimise the effect. This has included disposing of a large volume of cement.

Gabon: The workers union at CimGabon have held a press conference calling for state intervention in the local cement sector. They blamed ‘uncontrolled’ imports of cement for threatening the closure of the producer’s grinding plant at Owendo, according to the Binto Media Group. The calls for state action follow the suspension of investment by Ciments de l'Afrique (CIMAF) on an upgrade project at the plant. In 2014 the company shut down its clinker plant at Estuaire and its cement grinding plant at Franceville. Germany’s HeidelbergCement also has a stake in the producer.

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim and employee representatives in Europe have established a new European Works Council (EWC). The forum for consultation and dialogue at a transnational level will bring together worker representatives from 19 countries with senior leaders from LafargeHolcim.

“People are essential to the success of LafargeHolcim and our commitment to social dialogue through the new European Works Council is testament to this. During a period of transformation, we recognise that ensuring the full commitment, mobilisation, and engagement of our employees is a key building block for success,” said Eric Olsen, chief executive officer of LafargeHolcim.

The EWC was established based on an agreement signed by Olsen and Executive Committee members Caroline Luscombe, responsible for Organisation and Human Resources and Roland Köhler, responsible for Europe, Australia / New Zealand and Trading as well as Sam Hägglund, General Secretary of the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers EFBWW, among other management and employee representatives. Chaired by Köhler, the EWC replaces the previous European Works Councils. Countries represented in the EWC include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.

Jordan: The General Association for Construction Workers has opposed Lafarge Jordan's decision to give workers at its Fuheis cement plant a three-month paid holiday. The worker’s body has requested that Lafarge provide staff with guarantees that they will receive their full rights after the holiday period ends, according to the Jordan Times. The paid leave started on 2 March 2017 and was implemented to reduce costs at the plant. Clinker production stopped at the plant in 2013 and cement grinding and packaging stopped in July 2016. Around 200 workers are affected by the arrangements.

Venezuela: The Venezolana de Cementos (Vencemos) Guayana grinding plant in Bolivar state needs US$47m to repair its transport fleet. Union head Johnny Linares said that only four vehicles out of 65 are working correctly in comments made to the Ultimas Noticias newspaper. The fleet is used to move clinker from the cement producer’s Pertigalete cement plant to the grinding plant. Production capacity at the plant fell to 28% at 97,000t in 2016 from 346,000t in 2012. Linares added that the national cement industry only received an investment of US$7m in 2016 but that he believes it requires US$25m/yr.

South Africa: The Congress of South African Trade Unions, a federation of unions, has publicly complained about government permission granted to China’s CBMI Construction to bring workers into the country. CBMI Construction was awarded a tender for a US$90m upgrade project at PPC’s Slurry plant in 2015 and the union says it was allowed to import 242 Chinese workers to work on it. It is alleged that these workers have been working in the country since October 2015 and will continue to do so until 2018. The federation has asked the Department of Labour to look into the issue.

World: Workers at LafargeHolcim are holding a ‘global day of action’ in advance of International Human Rights Day on 10 December 2016 to draw attention to the world’s largest cement maker’s alleged widespread violations of workers’ rights, according to the IndustriAll Global Union federation. Workers in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas will ‘mobilise, take actions and demand’ that LafargeHolcim respect workers’ rights.

The union action intends to highlight alleged worker rights violations including an increase in workplace fatalities in 2015, an increasing use of precarious employment, illegal replacement of striking workers in Canada, use of child labour and targeting of union members for dismissal in Uganda, unfair treatment of displaced families due to the development of a plant in Ambuja in India and a ‘poor’ response to workplace accidents in Indonesia.

Unions in the federation are demanding that LafargeHolcim use less precarious work, cooperate better with trade unions on health and safety and restructuring, and enter into ‘meaningful’ negotiations with them about the future of labour relations and social dialogue.

“We expect that the world number one in the cement sector is not only number one in figures and cement sales, but also in labour standards and workers’ rights,” said general secretary of the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW) Sam Hägglund.

Venezuela: Union representatives from the Corporacion Socialista de Cemento have met with their counterparts from the aluminium industry to discuss how to obtain a collective contract for workers in the cement industry. The Cement Union Coalition (Coalicion de los Sindicatos Cementeros), comprising unions such as Sintracemex, Sintraboica, Sutracompeblo, Invecem and Sintracea, is seeking to sign a national unified agreement for cement workers to unify worker benefits, according to the Nueva Prensa newspaper. At present there are over 20 collective contracts in the cement sector with variations in wages and working conditions. The union has compiled a draft collective contract that will be revised before being passed to the government for negotiation.

Uruguay: Fancap, the workers union of the Administración Nacional de Combustibles, Alcoholes y Portland (ANCAP), has criticised imports of cement produced in Turkey by Cementos Charrua. It says that these imports have been dumped in the country at lower than the local price of production, negatively impacting the local industry, according to the El Observador newspaper. Cement is allegedly imported from Turkey and then it is repackaged in bags with the Uruguayan brand for resale. Fancap has asked the government to reassess tariffs for cement imports. It says that these imports are affecting operations at both ANCAP and Cementos Artigas.

CORRECTION: This story originally mentioned Turkey's Çimsa Çimento in relation to Cementos Charrua. Çimsa says it has never been involved in any commercial cooperation with this company in Uruguay.

Italy: Italcementi will start temporary lay-offs for workers at its Scafa and Monselice cement plants when unemployment benefits end on 31 January 2017. The plans were announced at a meeting on 14 October 2016 following agreements signed in December 2015 at the Ministry of Labour by trade union representatives and Italcementi’s workers, according to the Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper. The cement producer has confirmed that the on-going reorganisation at its plants are related to poor market conditions and not the acquisition of Italcementi by HeidelbergCement.