The Chemical world This week
UNIONS TAKE AIM AT 6L0BAL BAR6AINING Sooner or later it was bound to happen. As chemical companies increasingly branched out into diverse lines of activities and became more international in scope, it was logical to assume that before long executives of the unions associated with the companies' various product spheres would start getting together to view the corporate structures in their global totality. That's precisely what happened in Geneva, Switzerland, the other week. There, 25 union officials representing workers in chemicals, foods, and beverages at W. R. Grace & Co. plants around the world met to chart a combined plan of action toward strengthening their overall effectiveness in representing their members' interests. The International Federation of Chemical and General Workers' Unions (ICF) and the International Union of Food and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF), both with Geneva-based secretariats, are the groups involved. The meeting is the first instance of two international trade union federations combining to form a joint world council for a company, claim Dr. Charles Levinson, secretary general of ICF, and Don Gallin, his IUF counterpart. So far Grace is not too worried about it all. The company points out that the unions involved aren't the major ones representing its workers. But the company admits it will continue to watch developments. Other chemical companies will likely be watching, too. Apparently Grace won't be alone for long in bearing the brunt of such international and multilateral cooperative union developments. Dr. Levinson says that "there are many other chemical companies on our selective strategy list." He adds, "In months ahead we plan to establish similar cooperative councils for such giants as Du Pont, Imperial Chemical Industries, Dow Chemical, and others." Grace, says Dr. Levinson, was a natural choice for the unions to focus attention on initially. He points to the fact that Grace's consumer products group accounted for 30% ($581 million) of the company's 1970 sales and revenue figure, and 17% ($11.4 million) of its aftertax income that year. The group's 2 C&EN MARCH 13, 1972
activities include production of a range of grocery and confectionery products in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Far East. Grace is rapidly expanding its restaurant operations in France and Spain as well as in the U.S. And last year it took over a leading Italian food products maker, a move that "materially strengthens our consumer products position in Europe," as Grace's group executive, Thomas E. Hanigan, Jr., puts it. Grace is also heavily involved internationally in producing industrial, agricultural, and specialty
Levinson:
other firms are on list
chemicals and plastic packaging, while the natural resources group has exploration and mining interests in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and Australia. Grace is one of the most internationally oriented of all major domestic chemical industry companies. Overseas sales—currently running at about $650 million per year—account for about 35% of total sales. The firm's 29,000 foreign employees make up almost half of its total work force of 60,000. But apart from the broad scope of the company's international involvements, Grace's policy of buying into operations, and of selling off or shutting down others deemed unprofitable by corporate management, creates hardships for em-
ployees, Dr. Levinson says. "Grace isn't alone in doing this sort of thing," he says, "but it is one of the worst around." The 25 union delegates meeting in Geneva represented chemical, food, and beverage workers in Grace plants throughout Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, West Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S. Affiliated unions in other countries who, for various reasons, couldn't send delegates to the meeting wrote in to pledge their support. By the close of the three-day meeting, the conferees had established a permanent joint council cochaired by I. Lamagni of Italy and Andre Baudois of Switzerland. They had also drawn up a program of activities aimed at harmonizing the demands of workers throughout the Grace empire. The program deals with such established interests as working conditions, income, job security, hours of work, health and safety, and so forth. The next stage, now getting under way, is the exchange of information among all the unions involved, and the drawing up of documents in readiness for a second meeting scheduled for June. Meanwhile, a dialogue will be opened with Grace executives at their corporate headquarters in New York. One of the first items that the union officials hope to accomplish is a harmonizing of the contract renewal dates for its member workers throughout the company. Dr. Levinson doesn't foresee the extreme situation developing where a global walkout of Grace workers might occur. "But our primary aims are to coordinate collective bargaining throughout the company affiliates, and to organize the strategies of the union members. Conceivably, there could be strikes called simultaneously against a number of plants in different countries," he admits. As the unions move further into this new phase of activity, and as the idea takes hold among other unions, they will gain considerably greater power and bargaining leverage that could result in important social and business effects internationally.
