News From USW: Steelworkers Pledge Support to Brazilian DuPont Workers on Hunger Strike

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080123006227&newsLang=en

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--News From USW: The 117 DuPont workers who held a hunger strike in Camaçari, Brazil last week gained the support of the United Steelworkers (USW), the largest industrial trade union in North America. The workers, members of the Union of Chemical and Petroleum Workers of Bahia/CNQ-CUT, held the strike to protest DuPont’s derisory profit sharing proposals.

"The USW stands prepared to offer immediate assistance,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “We already have representation in Brazil fully committed to assisting our brothers and sisters there.”

It is the USW's understanding that the local union offered to negotiate a fair profit sharing agreement for 2007 on behalf of its members, but that DuPont rejected all offers as out of hand. At that point, the workers, who make industrial rubber and polymers, decided to take action. Assemblies continue to be held at the factory gate.

The USW coordinates a global network of trade unions at DuPont’s facilities and is challenging DuPont’s so-called “undeserved” reputation for worker safety. In 2005, a worker was killed in an explosion at the Camaçari facility. DuPont was faulted for not implementing control devices to prevent the explosion, according to a full report released by the State of Bahia in Brazil. In October 2007, a Brazilian Labor Court Judge ruled in favor of the deceased worker’s family and fined DuPont for moral and material damages. DuPont will also have to pay a pension to the worker’s mother.

“We’ve seen these same tactics used on our members,” said Gerard. “These situations remind us even more of the need for international Solidarity and for greater cooperation between unions. It is why the USW and the other unions in the Global DuPont Network are formally committed to total cooperation through a strategic alliance when confronting issues with common employers,” said Gerard

The USW represents more than 850,000 members in the U.S. and Canada.

Contacts

United Steelworkers
Shawn Gilchrist (U.S.), 412-562-6968
Carolyn Kazdin (Brazil), 55-11 /3034-0465