Unions Form Global Network for Kimberly-Clark
Workers
Thursday 9th May 2007
Representatives of 11 labour unions from 10
nations on four continents met last week with staff and leaders of
Union Network International (UNI), a global union federation, to
form an international network of Kimberly-Clark (K-C) workers.
United Steelworkers (USW) Vice President
Richard LaCosse said: “We have a decent collective
bargaining relationship with this company at the plants where we
represent workers. However, our plants and mills have been targeted
for plant closings and large scale layoffs for a number of years
and it’s no secret K-C doesn’t want us to organize more of its
employees into our union.”
The USW worked closely with UNI to arrange the
meeting and set up the network. Adriana Rosenzwaig, the head of
UNI’s Graphical Sector added: “We intend to assist these
unions, and K-C workers who want to organize into unions, to ensure
their rights are fully respected, and a more positive culture is
created at the company.”
Participants drafted a program emphasizing
labour rights and efforts to combat the contracting-out, or
outsourcing, of union workers’ jobs. “We are going to
struggle together to make sure K-C is doing what is right in every
country where it does business,” said Amnuay Iemraksa, the
president of the Kimberly-Clark Workers’ Union of Thailand, who was
elected to the steering committee of the network.
Also elected to the steering committee were
Andrew Nortje, of the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood &
Allied Workers Union of South Africa, who is chief shop steward of
the K-C Enstra mill near Johannesburg; Antonio Sanchez Moreno, of
the FCE-CC.OO union of Spain, who is chief shop steward of the K-C
mill in Calatayud, Spain; Peter Ellis of the newly-merged Unite
union in the United Kingdom; Franklin Angulo Fernandez, the
secretary of the K-C Union in Maracay, Venezuela; and USW District
2 Director Jon Geenen. Additional seats were reserved for unions
representing K-C workers in Australia, Brazil, and Canada. LaCosse
will serve as the chairman.
“Kimberly-Clark is a global company
and in the absence of a global effort we can have no hope of making
progress. That is what we came here to begin,” said
Sanchez Moreno. The network selected as its slogan: “A real global
agreement for justice at Kimberly-Clark.”
UNI Graphical President Michel Müller said,
“We believe in building strong networks so when we sign a
global agreement with a company, the network is there to make sure
the company respects it.”
On May 4, while the K-C meeting was proceeding
in Chicago, UNI Graphical signed just such an agreement with global
printing giant Quebecor in Barcelona.
“The effort at Quebecor has already
resulted in substantial gains for workers. We will work together to
ensure similar gains at Kimberly-Clark,” said Unite
Assistant General Secretary Tony Burke, a member of UNI Graphical’s
steering committee.
For further information
contact:
Adriana Rosenzwaig, UNI -
011-41-79-202-1926
Richard LaCosse, USW - 1-906-789-0351
Keith Romig, USW - 1-615-714-2704
Ashraf Choudhury, Unite -020 7420 8914
Notes:
The USW has 850,000 members in North America
and the Caribbean, representing workers in a variety of industries
including paper and paper converting. It recently announced plans
to explore a merger with Unite to form the world’s first global
union.
UNI is the global union for skills and
services, representing more than 900 unions in 150 countries with
15 million affiliated members. UNI Graphical combines unions
representing 1.4 million workers in the printing, graphical, and
paper converting industries.
