BOILERMAKERS INTERNATIONAL President Newton B. Jones was elected chairman of the Materials Sector at the ICEM’s World Conference for Materials, held November 3-4, 2009, in Izmir, Turkey. The conference was attended by 118 delegates representing workers in the cement, glass, and ceramics industries in 31 countries.
ICEM — the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Unions — comprises more than 460 unions representing over 20 million workers in 132 countries on all continents but Antarctica. ICEM is divided into six industry sectors — Energy (oil and gas), Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Mining, Pulp and Paper, Rubber, and Materials. Jones also serves as president of ICEM North America.
International labor confederations like ICEM are an important component of the labor movement, said Jones. “The best way for unions to effectively stand up to multinational corporations is for unions themselves to become multinational,” he said. “We do that through ICEM and other international confederations.”
Last year, ICEM played an important role in bringing pressure on Lafarge, one of the world’s largest employers of workers in the cement industry, to settle three long-contested contract negotiations with Boilermaker locals. (See related story on page 2.)
A number of presentations were made throughout the two-day conference, including three from Boilermaker officers and staff. International Vice President-Industrial Sector Warren Fairley discussed how the global economic meltdown in 2008 is affecting industrial unions in the United States. Executive Director of Industrial Sector Operations James A. Pressley spoke about a new coalition of North American unions representing workers — the North American Cement and Building Materials Unions Network — which figures prominently in collective bargaining efforts in the cement industry. Director of Health & Safety Services Mark Garrett also gave a presentation on asbestos.
