USW members at Kimberly-Clark plants in Neenah and Cold Springs are getting solidarity and support from Steelworkers at home and fellow union brothers and sisters from around the world.
The 120,000-member Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia has passed a resolution pledging support to USW members at Kimberly-Clark, which said it was closing its Cold Springs facility in Fox Crossing, Wisc., where 500 men and women earned a good living. Kimberly-Clark also said it was shuttering its Nonwovens factory. Click here to read USW International President Leo W. Gerard's blog on the closures' connection to the GOP tax cuts and unfair trade laws.
The CFMEU has membership at the company’s Millicent Tissue Mill in Australia. CFMEU Federal Secretary Alex Millar sent USW International Vice President Jon Geenen a letter informing him of the resolution. The letter said Austrialian members "understand the anguish workers in the United States must be feeling with the proposed jobs losses, as workers here are also fearful and concerned that they may be one of the 10 plants the corporation has said will close."
Here is the resolution, which also will be sent to Kimberly-Clark:
CFMEU is the main trade union in building and construction, forestry and furnishing products and mining and energy production in Australia.
RESOLUTION:
CFMEU Pulp & Paper Workers at the Kimberly-Clark Tissue Mill in Millicent South Australia, express their thoughts and support for workers at the Kimberly-Clark, Neenah, Cold Spring & Fullerton plants in the United States.
We wish to express our extreme disappointment and anger in the manner in which the Kimberly- Clark Corporation have made the announcements to close these facilities without providing the employees and their Unions the opportunity to discuss alternatives to closure.
Kimberly-Clark’s decision shows total disdain and lack of respect for not only the workers but also their families and the communities in which they live.
CFMEU members call on Kimberly-Clark to halt any further announcement or actions until they have genuinely and properly consulted with workers and their Unions.