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A deadly past several weeks has brought more deaths from China&rsquo;s mines. 
On 11 November, 19 perished due to a gas explosion at Bayinsai Coal Tar Co. in Wuhai city, Inner Mongolia. That was preceded by two separate gas blasts on 6 November, claiming a total of 52 miners. At the one in Xingtai County, Hebei province, three gypsum mines collapsed killing 36 and seriously injuring another 30. The other happened at the Taiping Coal Mine, Shanxi province, where 16 died in a gas blast. 
On 8 November in Qitai County in the autonomous region of Xinjiang Uygur, 14 died in a workers dormitory where an employee of Beitahsan Coal Mine was handling explosives. Sixteen coal miners died on 27 October due to an explosion inside the Zhongxing Coal Mine near Aksu city in northwest Xinjiang region. 
Drilling through a water-eroded cave brought death by drowning to 28 miners on 4 October at Guang&rsquo;an Energy Group&rsquo;s Longtan Coal Mine in Sichuan province. A day earlier in Henan province, 34 miners died from a gas explosion at the Henan Hebei Coal Co., a joint venture between the state and Thai-based Banpu plc. And on the evening of 2 October, ten people died when they were overcome by gas after sneaking into a molybdenum mine in Liaoning province to work illegally. 
China&rsquo;s State Administration of Coal Mine Safety will have closed 7,000 mines due to safety concerns by the end of the year, and another Chinese agency posted on its website that in order to qualify for financial incentives available for safe mining practices, managers must accompany workers into mines on each shift.

More Deaths Hit China’s Mines

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ICEM affiliate National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) won a labour court ruling late last month against Continental Tyre. The court ruled the company must reinstate 40 workers who were retrenched at a Port Elizabeth factory in July. 
The unilateral decision by the company to curtail weekend shift operations and manpower in some areas of the plant last summer brought ICEM intervention with the German Works Council of Continental. 
In a separate decision also issued in late October, a South African Labour Department inspector determined that Continental violated the Employment Equity Act that seeks to correct racial imbalances left over from the apartheid era. The inspector found that Continental&rsquo;s policies have failed to assimilate blacks and whites into common work practices. The Port Elizabeth tyre factory employs 1,200. 
Meanwhile in Germany, IGBCE has won a year&rsquo;s reprieve for 500 Continental Tyre workers at the St&uuml;cken plant in Hannover. The plant was scheduled to close at the end of 2006, but ICEM&rsquo;s German affiliate convinced the company to keep the plant operating until December 2007.

NUMSA Wins Court Ruling in Continental Tyre Dispute

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All in all, South Africa&rsquo;s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is pleased with DeBeers&rsquo; finalised Black Economic Empowerment plan. 
But one major flaw persists: a 15% set-aside for &ldquo;key&rdquo; employees has been inserted into the agreement that has weighted the 26% stake held by newly-created Ponahalo Investment Holdings. Conforming to statute, DeBeers spun that portion of its Consolidated Diamond Mines in South Africa into a minority stake that will be 50% owned by workers and former workers, and another 50% owned by community interests and business people. 
But &ldquo;spoiling the apple-pie,&rdquo; the NUM states, is the 15% set-aside of this latter stake to key employees, which could lead to patronage or even racism. 
NUM Gen. Sec. Gwede Mantashe singled out the positive fact that Ponahalo, or &ldquo;emergence&rdquo; in the Setswana language, will be headed by a former diamond worker and trade unionist. &ldquo;This new partnership with DeBeers will lead to the betterment of workers and the communities of diamond mineworkers,&rdquo; he said.

NUM Sees Flaw in DeBeers’ Black Empowerment Deal

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ICEM&rsquo;s Social Dialogue project in Colombia has seen its first direct positive result, and glassmaker Owens Illinois is the employer that made it happen. 
ICEM and Colombian affiliate Sintravidricol had lobbied the US company to bring multiple plants of its Peldar and Vildriera Fenicia subsidiaries under a common labour agreement. Through commitment to dialogue rather than confrontation, Sintravidricol and the company successfully negotiated separate but similar agreements at two of the plants. 
The ICEM applauds both the union and Owens Illinois managers in Colombia for charting a course of respectful collective bargaining. ICEM&rsquo;s Social Dialogue project in Colombia, launched in October 2004, is in place due to strong support of Swedish unions.

Social Dialogue Project Makes Headway in Colombia

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Heavy-handed tactics by management of Stora Enso ended an 11-day strike by workers at a newsprint and publications mill in Gent, Belgium, 8 November. 
Local managers at the company&rsquo;s Langerbrugge paper mill refused any honest discussions on workplace issues, and succeeded only in placing 330 angry and victimized workers back on paper machines and other equipment. 
ICEM Belgian affiliate ABBV-FGTB, though not the largest union in the mill, led the strike for better pay and dignity on the job. Fifty-six percent of workers voted to continue the strike on 8 November, but a rule called for at least 60% strike approval if the walkout was to continue.&nbsp;

Stora Enso Managers Break Belgian Paper Strike

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Tensions remain high between ICEM affiliate Communications, Electrical &amp; Plumbing Union (CEPU) of Australia and Western Power. The issue of outside contractors is central to the dispute. 
Western Power, citing potential blackouts, has petitioned the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to terminate the 600 line and maintenance workers&rsquo; right to strike. 
CEPU has implemented industrial actions over the pay, overtime and contracting dispute, but on 31 October called off a possible action because the utility had conceded a matter over discipline&mdash;whether or not workers were entitled to union representation. Days earlier, a Western Power confidential letter leaked, detailing outsourcing plans including dividing an entire grid into zones and then allocating maintenance of those zones to contractors. 
CEPU termed the strategy &ldquo;privatisation by stealth.&rdquo; CEPU Secretary Bill Game, quoted in a Perth newspaper, said, &ldquo;Our guys are saying it&rsquo;s clearly their core work that is being outsourced. Part of what we are trying to do is prepare the industry for young people coming in, so that they can have permanency and security and not having to run all over the place doing outsourcing work.&rdquo;

Ongoing Dispute in Australia Between CEPU and Western Power

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ICEM Australian affiliates AMWU and CFMEU, along with public health groups, picketed James Hardie&rsquo;s profit announcement meeting last week in Sydney because of company delays in signing a final compensation package for victims of asbestos-related diseases. 
After heavy pressure, the building products company agreed last December to sign an A$4.5 billion package over 40 years for workers inflicted with the deadly diseases. James Hardie was announcing a half-year&rsquo;s profit jump of 67%, or A$141 million. 
The company, meanwhile, instigated, a labour dispute at two Queensland plants beginning 26 October when it locked out 110 workers, represented by Australian Workers Union (AWU), at one of the plants. Some 120 workers at the other launched an immediate sympathy strike. The dispute is over James Hardie&rsquo;s intent to divide the common enterprise agreement shared by workers of the two plants. 
AWU calls the company action one of greed, timed to coincide with passage of proposed industrial relations reform that would, among other things, severely weaken enterprise agreements. 
The 26 October lockout and strike at Meeandah and Carole Park plants near Brisbane lasted 28 hours and have been repeated twice in the ensuing weeks. Managers at the two plants have also punished workers by withholding scheduled production bonuses, amounting to A$1,200 per worker.

James Hardie Still Problematic in Australia

Global tyremaker Continental today came under growing pressure in its headquarters country, Germany, to settle a nine-month dispute at one of its US plants. It also faces the threat of worldwide union protests to coincide with its annual shareholder assembly on 1 June. 
 
At a press conference in Hannover this morning, the German mining, chemical and energy workers' union IG BCE pledged support for US tyreworkers and their union, the USWA. The IG BCE, which represents Continental's workforce in Germany, hosted the press briefing. 
 
At the global level, both unions are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which is coordinating worldwide support for the US workers. ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe was among the speakers at this morning's briefing in Hannover. 
 
At issue is Continental's treatment of striking (and locked-out) workers at its General Tire plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. But union leaders have also voiced concern over the company's declared worldwide strategy of shifting production to &quot;low-cost&quot; areas. 
 
Explaining the US dispute to the German media in Hannover today were USWA Executive Vice-President John Sellers and the union's international corporate campaigner Jerry Fernandez. Also in Germany for the event were Larry Murray, Vice-President of the USWA local at General Tire's Charlotte plant, and Charlotte workers Andy Hodges, Kay Maree and Linda Hatchell. 
 
The core issue is that &quot;Conti&quot; is refusing to pay its Charlotte employees the going rate among leading employers of US tyre workers, even though the plant is now profitable. The American workers accuse Conti of failing to bargain in good faith and of trying to break the Charlotte local of the USWA. After provoking a strike, the company drafted in &quot;permanent replacement&quot; workers last September, thus effectively locking out and dismissing the strikers. 
 
In 1995, after Continental bought General Tire, the workers bailed out the Charlotte plant by &quot;giving back&quot; about 90 million US dollars in pay and benefits cuts. Charlotte is now showing a healthy profit, but the company is still refusing to bring its pay and conditions up to standard. 
 
Sellers said that Continental's conduct of the dispute breached US law. It also violated internationally recognised standards of corporate behaviour, and his union would therefore be lodging complaints with the UN's International Labour Organisation and with the OECD. 
 
The USWA would also put a resolution before Continental shareholders at their annual assembly on 1 June, urging the company to abide by ILO and OECD standards. And if there were no progress in resolving the US dispute, he said, international union action was planned to coincide with the shareholder meeting. 
 
For Germany's IG BCE union, Hannover regional secretary and Continental supervisory board member Dirk Sumpf urged the company to develop the same &quot;partnership&quot; relations with the USWA as it maintained with the German union. &quot;It's not a matter of what is possible under American law. It's a matter of what makes sense.&quot; 
 
And Manfred Warda, who heads IG BCE's international department, added that it was now &quot;mainly the company's responsibility to show ways of constructively resolving a conflict whose continuation cannot be in the company's own interests.&quot; IG BCE remained ready to support such efforts, he said. Continental's relations with the German union were on the basis of &quot;cooperatively and fairly reconciling interests&quot;. It would, Warda emphasised, &quot;be desirable to use these experiences so as to also make an innovative contribution in the USA to the improvement of employee-employer relations. In that regard, &quot;respect for ILO standards and for the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises is a plausible minimum demand.&quot; 
 
In Charlotte, &quot;Continental is violating the right to organise, as recognised internationally by governments, employers and unions within the ILO,&quot; ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe told the press conference. &quot;The American Continental workers have the unhesitating support of the ICEM and its more than 20 million members in 117 countries.&quot; 
 
In particular, Thorpe said, rubber workers worldwide were watching the Continental dispute very closely to see if the company would &quot;show some social responsibility.&quot; This was a &quot;test case&quot;, Thorpe emphasised, because &quot;the behaviour which Continental and other companies espouse at home in Europe must be mirrored in their operations elsewhere.&quot; 
 
Such companies should also be setting an example of good industrial relations to the new market economies of Central and Eastern Europe, Thorpe said. Instead, Continental's behaviour in the US had shocked and disturbed trade unionists as far away as Russia. To prove the point, he read out a message sent today by Russian trade unionists currently attending a conference in Moscow on unions and globalisation. 
 
The Russians, including ICEM-affiliated unions there, &quot;strongly support the just demands of the USWA workers and call upon Continental/General Tire to put an end to its anti-worker policy.&quot; They &quot;insist that the company adhere to the highest possible labour standards wherever it does business, including respecting the right of workers to join trade unions without employer interference, the right of workers to engage in collective bargaining, and the right of workers to strike without losing their jobs.&quot; So the Russians &quot;urge Continental Tire to return immediately to the bargaining table and to negotiate a reasonable and just contract with the USWA.&quot; 
 
Several speakers at the press conference emphasised that Continental's use of &quot;replacement workers&quot; during the dispute would be illegal in Germany and most other European countries. Also taking part in the Hannover briefing was Jacques Caltot, who heads the rubber division of the ICEM-affiliated French union FCE-CFDT. 
 
Further international support for the US workers came from the International Metalworkers' Federation, whose Organisation and Solidarity Coordinator Brian Fredricks spoke at today's press conference. 
 
In the US, meanwhile, a &quot;public awareness&quot; campaign launched by the Charlotte workers is bearing fruit. Consumers and trade unionists are calling tyre retailers all over the country and urging them to enquire into the safety of tyres built by unskilled &quot;replacement workers&quot; in Continental's Charlotte plant. The callers are also voicing safety concerns about the company's alleged plans to import tyres from Mexico.

Conti Faces Global Union Alliance Over US Dispute

Trade unions representing workers in the world's energy and water utilities want to maintain strong social control over these basic public services. The ongoing revolution in electricity, gas and water sectors is frequently leading to major job losses, higher prices, problems with quality of services, and attacks on union rights. Proper regulation and full involvement of unions and other interest groups in all phases of any reform processes are required to guarantee a socially balanced outcome. 
This was pointed out by union delegates attending the International Labour Organisation (ILO) meeting of workers, employers and governments in session this week in Geneva. 
 
The ILO Tripartite Meeting on Managing the Privatisation and Restructuring of Public Utilities (water, gas, electricity) will exchange views on the impact of these processes on employment, working conditions, human resources development and service delivery. It aims to adopt a series of jointly agreed conclusions and possibly resolutions. 
 
The Workers' Group is coordinated by the Public Services International (PSI) and International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) whose affiliated unions represent millions of workers in electricity, gas and water utilities around the world. 
 
Contrary to claims by neo-liberal politicians and free market advocates, the unions feel that the experience of rapid changes in the utility sector is so far mainly negative. 
 
&quot;We find that the process of restructuring and privatisation of water and energy has frequently resulted in loss of employment, trade union derecognition, higher prices, problems with quality of services, hidden subsidies and guarantees from public authorities to private, and problems of weak regulation&quot;, pointed out Hans Engelberts, General Secretary of the PSI. 
 
According to Engelberts, &quot;provision of water and energy by public sector operations has clear advantages in accountability, public service obligations, stability of services, and stability of employment.&quot; 
 
Unions feel that there is a fundamental conflict of interest between multinational companies who are increasingly allowed to invest in utilities in search of quick profits, and citizens who need reliable, reasonably priced, high quality public services. 
 
The governments have an important role to play in balancing this conflict of interest. Strong regulation and framework conditions are some of the key tools for maintaining social control. 
 
But also unions have new control tools to offer. PSI is urging multinational water companies to sign up the PSI Code of Conduct on water services which lays down a number of basic conditions for lean and safe drinking water and fair labour practices. 
 
ICEM Deputy General Secretary Peter Michalzik cited ICEM's agreements signed last year with the Norwegian oil and gas group Statoil and the main players in the global chlorine industry. These agreements cover union rights, fair wages and benefits, health and safety standards, the environment and training. 
 
&quot;We need more such enforceable agreements and other similar arrangement to construct a social basis for the new global energy and water sectors&quot;, said Michalzik. 
 
 
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
Public Services International (PSI) is a global trade union federation representing 20 million public service workers in 500 unions in 150 countries. 
 
International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) is also a global union organisation with 430 affiliated unions representing 20 million workers in 115 countries. 
 
The UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) is hosting a Tripartite Meeting on Managing the Privatisation and Restructuring of Public Utilities (water, gas, electricity). 20 representatives each of governments, employers and workers will discuss the issues and attempt to agree on conclusions that provide guidance for future action. The Meeting is taking place on 12-16 April 1999 in Geneva.

Unions Want Social Control, ILO Utilities Meeting Told

Chemical sector unions and companies are to cooperate worldwide on the continuous improvement of health, safety and environmental protection. 
Agreement on this was reached following talks in Geneva last week between worker representatives coordinated by the 20-million-strong International Confederation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Unions (ICEM) and employers grouped within the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA). 
 
Specifically, the joint efforts will focus on the chemical industry's Responsible Care programme. This voluntary initiative aims at continuous improvement of health, safety and environmental standards. It stresses the need to communicate the results to stakeholders and the public. 
 
Governments were also represented at the Geneva meeting, which was organised by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
The meeting's conclusions emphasise that &quot;there is a dialogue in progress which will be formalised and continued on the meaningful involvement of workers and their representatives on the subject of Responsible Care between ICCA and ICEM.&quot; 
 
Similarly, &quot;employers should involve fully the workers and their representatives in local Responsible Care activities and brief them and their representatives at the national level in matters such as the status of implementation.&quot; 
 
Responsible Care has had &quot;positive results&quot; and &quot;there is potential, with greater involvement of stakeholders, to go further.&quot; Its goals &quot;should be embraced by all chemical firms and by all those working in the industry.&quot; 
 
But Responsible Care must not just deliver. It must be seen to deliver. &quot;Performance indicators and verification procedures&quot; are therefore &quot;critical for the credibility of the initiative.&quot; 
 
Crucially, the companies, governments and unions recognised that Responsible Care is no substitute for regulation. Rather, &quot;the regulatory framework and voluntary initiatives should be mutually supportive.&quot; 
 
Regulation should ensure that &quot;minimum standards are set and met.&quot; This entails &quot;legally authorised inspections&quot;, coupled with &quot;support programmes&quot; and &quot;sanctions&quot;. But the less prescriptive &quot;goal-setting&quot; regulations also require &quot;suitable government oversight&quot;. 
 
Voluntary initiatives, on the other hand, should &quot;in particular aim at achieving higher levels of performance than those possible through legislation alone.&quot; They should &quot;provide encouragement and mechanisms for bringing all plants and firms up to acceptable performance levels&quot;, and their goals &quot;should not be static but should be based on the principle of continuous improvement.&quot; 
 
The emphasis is on the &quot;development and diffusion of best practices&quot; both between companies and within each corporation. Notably, multinationals should apply their corporate health, safety and environment standards worldwide. There should also be &quot;provision of expertise to chemical industries in developing and transitional countries&quot;, including via the ILO and other UN agencies. 
 
The chemical industry's trade associations and the bigger companies in the sector should help small and medium-size businesses to improve their health, safety and environment performance. 
 
&quot;The development and diffusion of best practices will be rendered more effective to the extent that workers and their representatives play an effective role in the voluntary initiatives,&quot; the employers, governments and unions agreed. 
 
&quot;Internationally comparable systems of performance should be developed and maintained to track chemical enterprises' health, safety and environment performance,&quot; they insisted. &quot;Workers and their representatives should be involved in the development and use of such systems.&quot; 
 
Managers and workers alike need training if Responsible Care is to succeed. The Geneva conclusions set out these training requirements in some detail. Again, &quot;workers and their representatives should have a voice and influence in determining the nature and scope of the health, safety and environment-related information and training provided to them in the context of voluntary initiatives.&quot; 
 
Chairing the workers' group in the committee that drew up the conclusions was ICEM Vice-President Fred Higgs (for a summary of his and the employers' comments, see ICEM UPDATE 9-1999). 
 
Robert Wages, Vice-President of the ICEM-affiliated American industrial union PACE, chaired the workers' group on the resolutions committee. Coordinating the workers' representatives throughout the week-long meeting were the ICEM's Deputy General Secretary Peter Michalzik and Health, Safety and Environment Officer Reg Green. 
 
Global union-employer cooperation on Responsible Care is now set to move forward rapidly. Within the next two months, the ICEM will be addressing the governing bodies both of the ICCA and of the European-level chemical producers' federation CEFIC on this issue.

Chemical Safety: World&#039;s Firms And Unions To Cooperate

Archive

More Deaths Hit China’s Mines

NUMSA Wins Court Ruling in Continental Tyre Dispute

NUM Sees Flaw in DeBeers’ Black Empowerment Deal

Social Dialogue Project Makes Headway in Colombia

Stora Enso Managers Break Belgian Paper Strike

Ongoing Dispute in Australia Between CEPU and Western Power

James Hardie Still Problematic in Australia

Conti Faces Global Union Alliance Over US Dispute

Unions Want Social Control, ILO Utilities Meeting Told

Chemical Safety: World's Firms And Unions To Cooperate

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