Representatives of 11 labor 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.
“We have a decent collective bargaining relationship with this company at the plants where we represent workers,” said United Steelworkers (USW) vice president Richard LaCosse. “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.
“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,” Adriana Rosenzwaig, the head of UNI’s Graphical Sector.
Participants drafted a program emphasizing labor 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
“Kimberly-Clark is a global company, and in the absence of a global effort, we can have no hope of making progress,” said Sanchez Moreno. “That is what we came here to begin.”
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
“The effort at Quebecor has already resulted in substantial gains for workers,” said Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke, a member of UNI Graphical’s steering committee. “We will work together to ensure similar gains at Kimberly-Clark.”
The USW has 850,000 members in North America and the
