Displaying items by tag: Union

Uruguay: Production has resumed at the Administración Nacional de Combustibles, Alcoholes y Portland’s (ANCAP) Minas and y Paysandú cement plants following a strike, according to the El Espectador newspaper. The disruption ended following negotiation between management, the union, the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. In April 2018 it was reported that production at the Minas plant had stopped for two months due to union action.

Trinidad & Tobago: Union members from the Trinidad Cement branch of the Oilfields Workers Trade Union have protested at the Port of Chaguaramas over cement imports from Turkey. A union member claimed that a batch of imported cement had no import duties paid, according to the Trinidad Guardian newspaper. Trinidad Cement has taken legal action in the Caribbean Court of Justice against Turkey’s Sonmez Cimento for breaking local tariff rules. In 2016 Trinidad Cement made an official complaint to Caricom, the Caribbean Community organisation, about tax concerns for a cement import from Turkey.

Tunisia: Carthage Cement says that production has restarted at its Djebel Ressas plant. NLSupervision, a subsidiary of Denmark’s FLSmidth that holds a contact to operate the plant, resumed activity on 14 April 2018. Carthage Cement has also started marketing the cement locally once again. Production at the unit stopped in early April 2018 following a dispute between NLSupervision and staff. The company’s owners put the plant on sale in late 2017.

Tunisia: Production remains suspended at Carthage Cement due to a dispute between the NLSupervision and the staff. The management of NLSupervision, a subsidiary of Denmark’s FLSmidth that holds a contact to operate the plant, and union representatives have met several times to try and resolve the matter, according to the Tunis Afrique Presse. On 4 April 2018 NLSupervision shut down the plant for 60 days.

Uruguay: The Administración Nacional de Combustibles, Alcoholes y Portland’s (ANCAP) Minas cement plant has been shut for two months due to union action. The cement producer has been forced to supply cement from its Paysandu plant instead, according to the El Pais newspaper. If the situation continues then ANCAP may need to buy cement from its competitor Cemento Artigas.

ANCAP’s cement division has accumulated debts of US$207m since the early 2000s. Revenues have been reportedly lower than costs since 2004. ANCAP started a restructuring plan at the cement producer in 2017.

Tunisia: Clinker production at Carthage Cement’s plant in Djebel Ressas has stopped due to union action by the staff of NLSupervision. Concrete production, aggregate production and clinker export is proceeding as normal. The cement producer said that the management of NLSupervision and union representatives are currently meeting to resolve the issue. NLSupervision, a subsidiary of Denmark’s FLSmidth, holds an operation and maintenance contract for the cement plant.

UK: Strike plans by truck drivers working for Hanson Cement have been cancelled following a revised pay offer. The planned industrial action scheduled for 26 – 27 February 2018 was expected to negatively effect deliveries from the Padeswood cement plant, according to the Daily Post newspaper. The Unite union said that its members at eight depots across the UK had voted ‘overwhelmingly’ to accept an improved two-year pay deal.

About 240 workers have accepted the overall package that will mean an increase of 3.7% from 1 January 2018 and for 2019, an increase that could range from 3.4 - 4.4%. The union members of Hanson subsidiary Castle Cement are based at eight depots in the UK at Avonmouth, Bellshill in North Lanarkshire, Birmingham, Clitheroe in Lancashire, Kings Cross in London, Middlesbrough, Mold and Stamford in Lincolnshire. The company delivers bulk and ready-packed cement to customers across the UK.

Switzerland: The IndustriALL Global Union and Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) have expressed their dismay at LafargeHolcim’s failure to sign a global framework agreement intended to support industrial relations. The company signed a memorandum of understanding committing to sign the agreement in July 2017. However, the unions’ say that LafargeHolcim backed out of the deal in late December 2017, saying that its current internal arrangements were sufficient.

The unions, together with other international and national partners, have called on LafargeHolcim to sign the agreement, stop poor treatment of sub-contracted and third party workers by the company and to prioritise the health and safety of all of its workers.

“This recent decision to break the agreement on building a social dialogue further damages the credibility of the company. We strongly believe that the shareholders, board of directors and all decision makers in LafargeHolcim must think carefully what the future will hold for LafargeHolcim if this destructive approach prevails,” said Valter Sanches, the General Secretary of IndustriALL.

Germany: Union delegates representing workers at HeidelbergCement have created a trade union network. Forty delegates from Europe, Middle East and North Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific and South Asia met in early November 2017 in Bremen. The meeting was organized by IndustriALL Global Union with support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, also involving IndustriALL‘s sister organisation Building and Wood Workers’ International.

“With the creation of the HeidelbergCement union network, we open the door to social dialogue if management is willing, and we hope union activists will contribute seriously to the promotion of workers’ rights and interests in the company. To this end, the steering committee will be in close interaction with the national unions. Finally, we strongly believe that HeidelbergCement will only win through workers’ active participation and engagement,” said Matthias Hartwich, director for materials industry at IndustriALL.

The meeting discussed recent developments in the cement sector and sustainability issues. The experience of global and national unions interacting with management at another big cement giant company, LafargeHolcim, was also raised. At the end of the meeting, delegates unanimously adopted a Bremen declaration and elected a steering committee for the network, which will coordinate the work in between its global meetings. No representative of the group’s global management attended the event despite being sent invitations.

Tunisia: A planned strike by workers at Carthage Cement for late October to early November 2017 has been cancelled. The decision to call off the industrial action follows a meeting between Finance Minister Ridha Chalghoum and UGTT Secretary General, Noureddine Taboubi, according to African Manager. Further meetings between the management of the cement producer and the unions have been scheduled.