"Solidarity works", says the ICEM, the international union body representing 20 million workers in the chemical, energy and mining sectors. The point was proven during the recent campaign by the ICEM’s US affiliate, the United Steelworkers of America, against the Japanese tyre company Bridgestone. Then, activists all over the world, whether union members or not, were spurred into action through the Internet.

6000 USWA members at six Bridgestone plants in the USA went on strike in July 1994 for fair pay and conditions. The company replaced the strikers with scabs. The strike ended in May 1995, but still no agreement was reached. Finally in October 1996 the company gave in: all union members got their jobs back. An amnesty was agreed for 40 workers who had been accused of strike-related misconduct. Plus there were across-the-board pay increases, bonuses and many other concessions. It had been one of the longest and toughest disputes in the US in recent times.

What made Bridgestone give in? USWA President George Becker says that the struggle was won by the strength of the USWA workers across America. But he also praised the "incredible assistance" from unions in other countries, particularly in Japan where Bridgestone has its headquarters, Europe and Latin America, in a campaign organised through the ICEM.

Part of the ICEM’s campaign was the first ever use of the Internet World Wide Web, the world’s electronic communications system, for a union campaign. The ICEM used the Web, to tell people world-wide what Bridgestone was doing and win their support. Anyone - union members or not - reading the ICEM’s Web site was asked to ‘click’ on a Black Flag which would send an immediate protest by computer to Bridgestone. In this way the phrase "to picket, just click it" was born.

As ICEM says, "The Bridgestone dispute was global both in its origins and in the strategies that unions used to bring it to a successful conclusion".