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Beaumont, Texas—The USW announced today it has launched a multilingual web site that will allow workers at ExxonMobil sites around the world to communicate easily and make it easier to combine their efforts on issues of common concern.
“This site has been a long time in the making,” said USW Vice President Gary Beevers, who leads the union’s collective bargaining efforts in the oil and gas industry, and who also is chair of the Global Network for ExxonMobil Workers’ Solidarity. “I am confident it will enhance our ability to communicate and make this valuable network all the more effective.”
The web site may be accessed at http://workersatexxonmobil.usw.org. It is presented in five languages, English, French, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. “It contains key information about the company, about unions that have relationships with it, about human rights concerns, links to union-allied organizations concerned with the company, and a space for ExxonMobil workers to comment,” said network administrator Keith Romig.
The Global Network was developed in 2004 in partnership with the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine & General Workers’ Unions (ICEM). “The ICEM has been a valuable contributor to this effort,” said the USW’s Joe Drexler, who directs the USW's strategic research and planning.
ExxonMobil is the world’s largest multinational oil company and is in fact the largest and most profitable privately-owned business corporation in the world. “In the past ExxonMobil has had a reputation of being unwilling to engage with labor and with civil society to make improvements in conditions,” said Beevers. “However more recently the company has taken positive steps in the right direction. We believe our network, and our ongoing dialogue with human rights and civil society groups has played a strong positive role in this change.”
The USW is North America’s largest industrial union, with 850,000 members in the United States, Canada, and Aruba. It is the largest U.S. and Canadian union in the energy sector.
The ICEM is a global federation of unions representing 20 million workers in the chemical, energy, mining, paper and related sectors.
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GLOBAL SOLIDARITY
