GLOBAL: The IMF's Steering Group on BHP-Billiton met on March 7 in South Africa to discuss the abuse of workers' and trade union rights at the giant metals and mining group. This has involved, amongst others, significant difficulties for collective bargaining at the company's Pilbara operations in Western Australia, its Cerro Matoso nickel mine operations in Colombia, and its aluminium producer Mozal, in Mozambique. The Steering Group, made up of representatives from the IMF and affiliates in Australia, South Africa, Mozambique, Canada and Colombia, discussed at length the extremely serious and on-going situation at Mozal, where 40 workers - all members of the IMF-affiliated SINTIME trade union - were fired last October when they resorted to strike action over collective bargaining demands. The company had previously coerced workers into accepting a no-strike clause in their collective agreement, in contravention of ILO core conventions, and which the government of Mozambique has ratified. The IMF Steering Group on BHP-Billiton will be contacting the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which also has affiliates representing workers at BHP-Billiton, with a view to active cooperation between the two global union federations concerning the mining and metals transnational company.