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Recent administrative and other changes regarding health and safety governance in the UK clearly reflects the policies of the governing Tory, Liberal Democrat coalition. In late March, Employment Minister Chris Grayling announced a shift of emphasis from safety and health monitoring by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in order to ease regulatory burdens on business. 
 
The package of proposed changes includes eliminating unannounced workplace safety inspections and placing more emphasis on high-hazard worksites and those with histories of unsafe conditions. The ruling government will also conduct a review of all existing health and safety regulations with the notion to scrap measures that are not needed and those that place an unnecessary burden on business. 
 
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) disagrees with the new mandate, seen as a means to chop government spending out of the HSE. 
&ldquo;The possibility of an unexpected visit from either the HSE or a local authority safety inspector helps keep employers on their toes,&rdquo; said TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber. &ldquo;Even now, workplaces can go decades without ever seeing an inspector. 
 
&ldquo;If government cuts to HSE funding do result in fewer safety inspections, unscrupulous employers will simply assume they can get away with taking risks, without fear of ever being prosecuted.&rdquo; 
 
Another change in the UK is a Ministry of Justice proposal for reform of local courts structures regarding who is responsible for legal fees in workplace compensation and other cases. The proposed change, which is under public consultation until June 30, would require plaintiffs that win their cases in courts to carry the burden of paying their own legal fees, regardless of damages. 
 
This &ldquo;no win, no fee&rdquo; proposal is seen as means to reduce the number the number of filings against employers by workers who suffer industrial accidents in order to eliminate a so-called &ldquo;compensation culture&rdquo; in the UK. The Ministry of Justice&rsquo;s aim is also to push more cases out of courtrooms and into mediation. The TUC&rsquo;s Hazards Campaigns sees it as a sham since less than 10% of all workers injured at work receive compensation and, as well, free legal counsel for victims seeking workers&rsquo; compensation has been cancelled by the state. 
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On another note in the UK, this one a milestone, the first company to be convicted of corporate manslaughter under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act of 2007, which became effective in April 2008, occurred on February 15, 2011. Cotswold Geotechnical Ltd., a small geological company, was found guilty by a jury of Winchester Crown Court, Hampshire, in the negligent death of 27-year-old Alexander Wright. In 2008, Wright was working alone in an unsupported 12-foot pit. He died from asphyxia when soil from the collapsed pit buried him. The court fined the company &pound;385,000.

Health, Safety Changes Mirror Con-Dem Policies in UK

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In the 2010 special ICEM newsletter on April 28, the ICEM stressed that the key to getting a global ban on asbestos lies in Canada. If Canadian support for the asbestos industry fails, then a global asbestos ban will succeed. Everyone who cares to examine the evidence by now knows that the link between all forms of asbestos (asbestosis, mesothelioma, other cancers) is irrefutable. 
 
An important step forward was taken by the Conf&eacute;d&eacute;ration des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN) at the union federation&rsquo;s 11 March congress. The congress decided to withdraw the federation&rsquo;s traditional support of the Qu&eacute;bec asbestos industry. This was truly an historic and courageous stand, in a province where the asbestos industry is so closely tied with labour history. 
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Claudette Carbonneau, President of the 300,000 member organization, told the congress: &ldquo;Qu&eacute;bec, like many advanced industrial societies, has been shaken by the use of a resource which sows death. If health and safety conditions do not prevent these deadly illnesses in Qu&eacute;bec, it is difficult to pretend that there can be safe use of asbestos in developing countries.&rdquo; 
 
However, for every step forward, there seems to be at least one step backwards. Just this month, the Qu&eacute;bec government approved a C$52 million economic aid package to expand the Jeffrey asbestos mine, whose products will be exported principally to India, Indonesia, the Philippines and other Asian countries. Proof, once again, that the industry would not be viable without heavy government subsidies. 
 
Meanwhile, the body which regulates place-names in Qu&eacute;bec has given permission for the regional body known as MRC de L&rsquo;Amiante to delete the Amiante (Asbestos) from its title and rename itself &ldquo;MRC des Appalaches.&rdquo; So, evidently there are people even in the region of Qu&eacute;bec that mines asbestos who are perhaps disgusted by the shameless hypocrisy of politicians and profiteers and would prefer not to be associated with the export of this deadly fibre.

Québec Labour Federation CSN Takes Heroic, Historic Stand on Asbestos

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A strike by the ICEM affiliate, Pan-Hellenic Federation of Employees in Petroleum Products, Refineries, and the Chemical Industry (POEPDHV), was extended another week until 19 April. The strike began at Hellenic Petroleum&rsquo;s (ELPE) flagship refinery in Aspropyrgos on 3 April, and then spread to Hellenic&rsquo;s two other refineries at Elfsina and Thessaloniki after a judge declared the walkout legal. 
 
Greek oil workers are striking over inadequate staffing levels and safety issues at ELPE&rsquo;s new refinery units at Elfsina and Thessaloniki, as well as resistance to company plans to curb pay gains and link pay with productivity. The strikes, originally of 10-day durations, came with orderly shutdowns to ensure operational integrity of the refineries is maintained, and with assurances that full safety compliance is followed. 
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On Thursday, 7 April, POEPDHV announced another week of strike action, due to occur 12-19 April. Three days earlier, a judge denied ELPE&rsquo;s request for injunctive relief in an effort&nbsp;to declare the strike illegal. POEPDHV President Nikos Orfanos said the extension is in full support of the workers&rsquo; struggle and on demand from refinery workers. Further bargaining between the union and ELPE is scheduled for 13 April. 
 
ELPE operates three of Greece&rsquo;s four refineries and controls 50% of the country&rsquo;s downstream market. The company is 35.5% owned by the Greek government. 
 
The ICEM fully support its Greek trade union affiliate and calls on the company to adequately staff its new refining units for safety reasons, as well as to justly compensate oil refinery workers.

Greek Petrochemical Union Extends Refinery Strikes until 19 April

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Bahrain&rsquo;s authorities and business leaders are retaliating to a general strike led by the national trade union centre General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU) with a campaign of mass sackings, intimidation, and violence against all workers involved. 
 
The general strike was called on 13 March, and ended 22 March, in support of pro-democracy protests in the Persian Gulf island-state. The agreement to end the strike included a promise to GFBTU, an affiliate of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), by authorities that strikers would not suffer repercussions. 
 
Estimates suggest over 1,000 workers will be laid-off during the crackdown, including staff at Alba Aluminum Bahrain BSC, Bahrain Telecommunications Company, Gulf Air, Bahrain Airport Services, and APM Terminals Bahrain at the Khalifa Sea Port. All sackings were due to worker absence during the strike. 
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BAPCO Union President Abdul Ghaffar Abdul Hussain
The president of the union at Bahrain Petroleum (BAPCO), Abdul Ghaffar Abdul Hussain, has been fired for his absence during the strike and also for &ldquo;inciting workers to strike.&rdquo; The company has begun legal prosecution of Hussain. BAPCO also fired nine other workers, and is investigating the cases of&nbsp;230 workers&nbsp;who participated in the strike. 
 
BAPCO union President Hussain was central in the creation of the GBFTU. All employees at BAPCO are now fearful of losing their jobs in the coming days. Absenteeism of BAPCO employees on 16-17 March was 60%. 
 
(See <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/27.ICEM.Bahrain.6April.pdf ">ICEM's letter to the King of Bahrain</a>.) 
 
Last week, security forces&nbsp;closed down the GBFTU headquarters and are expected to soon call the organisation&rsquo;s president, Salman Mahfooz, in for questioning. Roads leading to the union office were closed and workers were blocked from reaching the headquarters. Most of those workers had been seeking guidance from their union following their sacking. 
 
The GBFTU website has been shut down. Parliament is calling on the government to immediately refer trade union leaders involved in the strike to the public prosecutor&rsquo;s office. 
 
All members of the GBFTU executive, spanning all industries, have been suspended from work pending investigations. On top of this cynical multi-faceted attack on Bahrain&rsquo;s independent trade unions, companies are now planning legal cases against the unions in a further attempt to permanently end their activities. 
 
Over 300 activists have been arrested with many missing and at least 20 killed since protesters took to the streets in February, inspired by popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The violent suppression of the Bahraini people&rsquo;s reform protest has been facilitated by armed forces from neighbouring Saudi Arabia. 
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ILO Director-General Juan Somavia
This disgraceful attack on core human and trade union rights of the Bahraini people must end immediately, global trade unions say. ILO Director-General Juan Somavia issued a statement on 6 April calling&nbsp;repercussions to the strike &ldquo;extremely alarming, in particular as the GFBTU had called on workers to return to work and had been given assurances by State officials that they will not face any punitive measures for their participation in strikes.&rdquo;

Kingdom of Bahrain Retaliates Against Trade Unions for General Strike

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The European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (EMF) and Areva, the Paris-based nuclear power and nuclear service provider, signed a protocol agreement on 1 April intended to facilitate career enhancement and employee competencies within the 13 European countries that Areva operates in. 
 
Entitled &ldquo;Memorandum of Agreement on Professions and Competences Forecast,&rdquo; the protocol framework is the second that EMF and Areva have adopted, the first being a 2006 Equal Opportunities pact that a European Commission (EC) project now oversees. 
 
The new agreement is intended to forecast and manage career development of Areva staff by providing training, work-life balance, mobility, transfer of knowledge throughout the company, as well as giving a positive work environment across a person&rsquo;s entire employment career with Areva. 
 
(See the <a href="http://www.emf-fem.org/Areas-of-work/Company-Policy/News/EMF-and-Areva-sign-important-agreement ">EMF announcement and the 12-page agreement</a>.) 
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The three-year agreement will be tracked under a separate EC project called Forecasting and Anticipating Competencies in Europe through Social Dialogue (FACES). The protocol calls for an annual appraisal that will &ldquo;articulate the positioning of the employee in such a way that their qualifications and their payment is in relation to their level of competencies and performance.&rdquo; 
 
The agreement states that such assessments will not conflict with existing national collective bargaining agreements. 
 
It commits the company to develop a training policy in step with the needs of workers &ldquo;to both preserve and renew competencies in order to have the best possible career evolution.&rdquo; Each of Areva&rsquo;s 35,000 workers in Europe will have access to 30 hours of training per annum, which can be allotted over three years. 
 
The agreement&rsquo;s overall monitoring device is a committee of Areva management and the European Works Council Select Committee, which will evaluate and present the results yearly to the EMF. 
 
Areva is a ten-year-old company that was formed through a three-way merger between CEA-Industrie, COGEMA, and Framatome to combine the French Government's interests in several nuclear power and information technology businesses. CEA-Industrie, (Commissariat &agrave; l'&Eacute;nergie Atomique or French Atomic Energy Commission) owns about 80% of Areva. The company globally operates in 43 countries and employs 48,000 staff. 
 
Areva designs and builds nuclear reactors and components for nuclear power plants, and it also supplies nuclear fuel, engineering, maintenance, and inspection of nuclear facilities.

EMF, French Nuclear Group Areva Sign Worker Training, Evolution Accord

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Mobilisation in the Netherlands toward strike action won 330,000 metalworkers a 25-month labour agreement in the small metals and electric-technical sector. The pay package of 4.45% exceeds Dutch inflation and is expected to set the pace for national contracts in the coming weeks in automotive and the big metals sectors. 
 
FNV Bondgenoten, CNV Vakmensen, and De Unie reached a tentative agreement with the Metaal &amp; Techniek industry asssociation, representing 30,000 employers, late on 6 April, which now prevents another two weeks of scheduled mobilisation that could have led to industrial actions. A prior agreement in the sector covering metal fabrication, installation, as well as plumbing, heating, and electrical installation expired 1 April.&nbsp; 

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FNV Bondgenoten&rsquo;s Jan Berghuis 

&ldquo;The employers didn&rsquo;t want a fight and we were quickly mobilising toward strike action,&rdquo; said Jan Berghuis, head of the sector for FNV Bondgenoten, who called the pact &ldquo;trendsetting.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;With inflation expected to be less than 2%, this is a very good result and it will likely prove very important in the big metal and automotive sectors.&rdquo; 
 
Some 150,000 metalworkers in basic steel and other heavy metal production resume talks through their unions on 19 April. The agreement in that sector expires 1 May. The automotive sector, where 90,000 workers are employed, has a social agreement expiring on 1 June. 
 
The accord in light metals and electric-technical provides exceptional training opportunities and investment of such for workers, a key part of the deal. Berghuis also said the unions won language regarding the use of short-term contract labour that specifies this work can only go to labour-hire firms that have collective agreements with the unions. 
 
The 4.45% pay increase will come in four steps over the next 18 months. Berghuis said the only disappointment came in not securing a higher wage or a stipend for young workers. But young workers brought into the sector during the financial crisis will benefit by the 4.45%. 
 
The three unions and Metaal &amp; Techniek industry had been at a bargaining stalemate since late February, and only a week ago mobilisation meetings and union activity indicated there could be a rare Dutch strike in this sector. But a compromise on wages, extending the agreement into a second year, the unions gaining the necessary continuing education and training criteria, and workable language on contract labour means the agreement will be recommended for ratification by all three unions.

Dutch Unions Agree to ‘Trendsetting’ Terms in Light Metals, Electric Sector

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ICEM-affiliated Sintravidricol of Colombia won a much-heralded victory in December 2007, achieving recognition and a collective agreement at three metal-moulding plants owned by US-based multinational Ross International. The victory followed a 23-day strike, and a three-year struggle that garnered international support through the ICEM. 
 
The agreement made all 240 workers at the three plants full-time employees, whereas the majority were previously on fixed-term contracts. 
 
That four-year agreement is now seven months from expiration, and Sintravidricol&rsquo;s Section Presidents for La Estrella and Sabaneta, Brahyan Sanchez Henao and Heriberto Giraldo Hernandez, are calling for the company to come to the table and discuss a new agreement for all employees of the group.
The union seeks improvements on paid leave for union activity, and greater stability and formalisation of employment to stop the increasing use of outsourcing at the plants. Sintravidricol formally submitted their list of demands on 5 April to the company. 
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Outsourced employees at two of the three worksites, Andes International Tooling Limited and Andes Cast Metals Foundry Limited, were successfully&nbsp;brought into Sintravidricol in 2007&nbsp;through a campaign supported by the ICEM and the United Steelworkers (USW) and its Flint/Glass Section, after those plants were opened in 2004. Workers at Moldes Medellin Ltd. had organised with Sintravidricol previously. 
 
During the bitter dispute of 2007 which culminated in the first agreement, the company signed two parallel agreements with non-unionised staff. A central goal of this negotiating round will be to scrap those divisive agreements and reach a settlement to cover all staff. Sintravidricol bargaining representatives will be seeking improved guarantees on development of mature industrial relations at the three plants. 
 
Messages of support can be sent to the union <a href="mailto:sintravidsab@unet.net.co; sintravidestrella@yahoo.com">here</a>. Messages to the employer can be sent <a href="mailto:daniel.posada@moldesmedellin.com.co; rubilem@yahoo.com">here</a>.

Colombian Glass Workers Seek to Build on Gains Made in 2007

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Trade union activists around the world are focussing on Mexico again this week and next in the vitally important struggle to block regressive labour legislation which stands to further legitimise Mexico&rsquo;s breaches of international labour standards.
The proposed labour code revisions would legitimise the illegitimate and pervasive use of &ldquo;protection contracts,&rdquo; increase the undermining of freedom of association through outsourcing and temporary contracts, sharply curtail the right to strike, and restrict the contesting of unfair dismissals. 
 
The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), in proposing the harsh provisions, is widely seen as pandering to big business in the build-up to presidential elections in 2012. The draconian revisions have the full backing of President Felipe Calder&oacute;n&rsquo;s ruling National Action Party (PAN). 
 
Legislators are planning to fast-track the bill through&nbsp;public consultations, in which high-level trade union delegations are contributing, so that the legislative commission of labour can approve the proposal in the final days of this parliamentary session, ending 18 April. The next stage of the bill will likely occur during the Easter holiday. Legislators are refusing to discuss the 30 most contentious articles of the new legislation during the consultation stage.
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During these critical days, write with your organisation&rsquo;s opposition to the proposed labour legislation to parliamentary coordinators of the parties <a href="mailto:jcarlos.ramirez@congreso.gob.mx; frnrojas@congreso.gob.mx; alejandro.encinas@congreso.gob.mx; josefina.vazquez@congreso.gob.mx; alfonso.rios@congreso.gob.mx; jjguerra@congreso.gob.mx; pedro.jimenez@congreso.gob.mx">here</a>. 
 
Further dangers posed by the proposed&nbsp;changes include a cap on backpay when a worker is found unjustly sacked. The proposed cap of 12 months salary, when legal proceedings commonly take five years, effectively gives employers a green light to sack workers arbitrarily with impunity. 
 
Another concern is over a&nbsp;proposal that would&nbsp;give employers the right to negotiate individually with workers on terms other than what is&nbsp;in a collective agreement. This would outrageously destroy the process of collective bargaining, enshrined in international labour law. 
 
Mexican labour law can never begin to resemble acceptable standards without first addressing &ldquo;protection contracts,&rdquo; which make democratic trade union organising near impossible, and the &ldquo;toma de nota,&rdquo; which allows authorities to remove elected union leaders arbitrarily and without legal basis. Legislators from the PRI and PAN political parties ignored trade union demands on these issues and other amendments, including establishing a 40-hour work week and improving seniority bonuses and the holiday system. 
 
Also ignored by the authors of these legal changes was the 23 March report of the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association, which discusses the complaints of the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) and identifies &ldquo;protection contracts&rdquo; as a priority issue which must be dealt with through social dialogue with trade unions. 
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The Z&oacute;calo
A trade union demonstration marched from Mexico City&rsquo;s main square, the Z&oacute;calo, to the Congress on 31 March, where discussions over the regressive labour bill&nbsp;continue. Then, last Thursday, 7 April, a large national day of demonstration was conducted against the proposed labour law. 
 
In Mexico City, protestors marched from the Angel Monument of Independence to the Z&oacute;calo and heard speakers from trade unions of all Mexico&rsquo;s democratic unions. Los Mineros General Secretary Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia, exiled to Canada, sent his message to the demonstration, calling the proposed changes a &ldquo;robbery of labour rights in Mexico,&rdquo; and called for Labour Minister Javier Lozano Alarc&oacute;n to resign immediately so that he does not cause &ldquo;more damage to industrial relations and social peace of the republic.&rdquo; 
 
Public opinion on Mexico around the world is repeatedly drawn away from the shocking denial of human and workers&rsquo; rights toward the bogus war on drugs, funded by the Obama administration as a way to finance Calder&oacute;n&rsquo;s military strength, which in turn is used to crush trade union campaigns such as in <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3975-ICEM-Condemns-Repression-of-Workers-by-Mexican-Government-Grupo-Mexico">Cananea</a>. 
 
An international tribunal on trade union freedoms will be held on 29 April in Mexico City and that body will hear a strong globally-supported case against the proposed labour law, as well as specific cases from affected unions. 
 
The&nbsp;government-business campaign to weaken trade unions in Mexico was again highlighted by an avoidable methane gas explosion which killed two mineworkers in Barroter&aacute;n, Coahuila, on Saturday, 26 March. The explosion at Mine No. 7 belonging to Northern Steel, took the lives of 33-year-old Juan Francisco Rodr&iacute;guez Piedra and 43-year-old Jos&eacute; Camacho Grimaldo. The accident has been described as &ldquo;industrial homicide&rdquo; due to dangerous and negligent&nbsp;safety conditions in the mine. Union leadership at Barroter&aacute;n was forced onto workers through coercion. 
<img alt="" src="" width="73" height="108" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="65" height="108" />
Mario Alberto Castillo and H&eacute;ctor &Aacute;lvarez
Next week, 20 April, Los Mineros will honour the five-year anniversary of the two miners killed at L&aacute;zaro C&aacute;rdenas, Michoac&aacute;n, in 2006. Mario Alberto Castillo and H&eacute;ctor &Aacute;lvarez were murdered by federal and state police in&nbsp;violent&nbsp;suppression of a strike at the Sicartsa steel plant.

Next Two Weeks Crucial to Block Harsh Mexican Labor Law Revisions

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Upwards of a half million people marched through London on Saturday in a turnout that British trade unions said exceeded their highest predictions. The manifestation, heard around the world, was called &ldquo;The March for the Alternative: Cuts are not the Cure&rdquo; and was direct push-back to the deep, rapid, and unfair public sector cuts in the pipeline by the ruling UK Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition. 
 
Turnout for the march and rally at Hyde Park in London&rsquo;s West End was so massive that the rear of the march had just left the Victoria Embankment staging area when the Hyde Park rally &ndash; five kilometres away &ndash; began. The front of the march left Victoria and passed by Parliament four hours earlier. 
<img alt="" src="" width="365" height="192" />
photo: Mac Urata
Using the argument that fiscal austerity is needed to reduce UK&rsquo;s financial deficit, the right-wing government led by David Cameron wants to cripple a social welfare system that will see cuts to people and curtailment of British services. And both will fall disproportionately on the poor and on the workers of Britain. 
 
Deep cuts to education, pensions, and Britain&rsquo;s 62-year-old National Health Service (NHS) are being laid out on the Con-Dem chopping block. And Saturday&rsquo;s manifestation &ndash; the biggest in London since 2003 and an anti-Iraq war protest &ndash; validated the fact that tens of thousands of teachers, doctors, nurses, police and prison guards, municipal council workers, joined by students, retirees, private-sector workers fiercely resist this agenda. 
 
The 26 March manifestation sponsored by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) was civil and peaceful. But the beat of drums, whistles, and chants of resistance made it clear that anger is real. Anger at the fact that for every &pound;4 in spending cuts, there is a &pound;1 tax hike and that mainly is a higher VAT; anger that 50,000 jobs will disappear when the NHS is cut; anger that the brutal cuts will cost 170,000 public-sector jobs. 
<img alt="" src="" width="265" height="189" />
photo: John MacLennon
Instead of cuts, the &ldquo;alternative&rdquo; should be a crackdown on tax avoidance totalling &pound;25 billion alone taken by City of London operators; initiating a Robin Hood tax on banks and financial institutions over their transactions; a stop to exorbitant executive bonuses; and a gradual, sensible, and sustainable deficit reduction plan based on jobs, growth, and tax justice. 
 
At the afternoon rally, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: &ldquo;We will fight these savage cuts and we will not let them destroy services, jobs, and lives. Today we are speaking for the people of Britain, and David Cameron, if you want to meet the Big Society, we&rsquo;re here in Hyde Park.&rdquo; 
 
Unite the Union General Secretary Len McCluskey called it the greatest demonstration in London in a generation, and said there is &ldquo;palpable anger in the country. If the government was brave enough, it would tackle the tax avoidance that robs the British taxpayer.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="133" height="150" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="105" height="160" />
Unite's Len McCluskey, USW's Leo Gerard 
photos: John MacLennon
Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis, whose public-sector union chartered 500 coaches to get people to London, told the assembled at Hyde Park that he wants the Con-Dems &ldquo;to feel the fear and anger of people who have come here today from every part of the UK to vent their frustration and to stand up for a fairer future.&rdquo; 
 
Another speaker was USW President Leo Gerard of North America who drew the link between the purge of public services in the UK to what is happening in several US states. He said the real culprits are the greedy banks and corporations who pull the strings of politicians. 
 
&ldquo;It is their reckless speculation that took down the world economy,&rdquo; said Gerard, adding, The best way to rob a bank is to manage one. We will stand together, we will march together, and we will fight together to demand that our governments protect the rights of public employees and of all workers.&rdquo;

500,000 Protest Con-Dem Coalition’s Public Sector Cuts in London

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Global tools help solve local problems. That was the motto at a recent joint mission by ICEM and IMF to ease labour relations at Umicore&rsquo;s operations in South Africa. This mission was part of activities done in connection with the Global Framework Agreement (GFA) between the Belgium-based company and ICEM and IMF. Umicore is a chemicals, metal technology, and catalyst systems company. 
 
The South African visit was the third such joint mission since the GFA was signed in September 2007. The two previous ones were to China in 2009 and Brazil in 2010. The main objective of the missions, as a regular exercise in accord with the relevant provisions of the agreement, is to monitor compliance. 
 
Umicore&rsquo;s two South African plants are located in the city of Port Elizabeth and are called UACSA and UCPE. They are part of the company&rsquo;s automotive catalysts business segment, one of four business units of Umicore. The area is a leading producer for automobiles and auto parts. 
 
Representatives from the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) from both Umicore plants participated in the mission, as did the Regional Secretary and an Educator from ICEM- and IMF-affiliated National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA). 
 
The CEPPWAWU representatives included Skhumbuzo Phakathi, Clement Chitja, David Nzanzeka, Khaya Mkefe, Lindelwa Gxavu, Ncedile Boyce, Sindiswa Silotile, Xola Dlova, and Camagu Mzinyati. NUMSA participants were Vuyo Bikitsha and Mziyanda Twani. 
 
Considering recent issues between local management and trade unions in the Port Elizabeth plants, the visit by ICEM and IMF representatives resulted in positive and constructive evaluations. The plant visits also assisted workers in resolving some outstanding local issues. 
 
The mission resulted in a number of concrete results, including a conclusion to improve local communication on a number of issues, including recruitment procedures, structure of employment, integration of both plants, and training and education. It was agreed that the latter would benefit from greater engagement by both parties. In doing this, the mission&rsquo;s results are in line with objectives of the GFA to create mutually beneficial relations and dialogue between the partners. 
 
The ICEM and IMF representatives were impressed by the excellent work of the local trade union representatives, and also recognized that local and corporate managers play a crucial role in creating better social dialogue throughout the company. This visit will be evaluated in April 2011 at the next GFA Monitoring Committee with management.

ICEM, IMF Complete Third Umicore Mission

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