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Click to hear RadioLabour's daily broadcasts.
RadioLabour is the international labour movement's radio service.

RadioLabour

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RadioLabour broadcasts a daily round-up of news in the global labour movement. Now the daily broadcast is accessible from the ICEM website. 
 
The Solidarity News shows are five minutes long Monday to Thursday, and the Friday show is ten minutes long and summarizes the news of the week. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101. RadioLabour.jpg" width="174" height="24" alt=""/>
RadioLabour's news programmes are presented by international labour educator, Marc Bélanger, and broadcaster, Irma Arkus. 
 
RadioLabour is also accessible via its <a href="http://www.radiolabour.net">website</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/radiolabour">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://RL-5.net">mobile phones</a>, <a href="http://www.radiolabour.net/itunes-instructs.html">iTunes</a>, UnionBook and Twitter. 
 
The ICEM is proud to provide access to this important labour communications tool.

Access RadioLabour’s Daily Broadcasts on ICEM’s Homepage

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Copper mining unions at Chuquicamata in Chile’s northern Region II are poised to take job action against state-owned Codelco if certain terms and benefits aren’t met. Codelco’s largest copper mine is undergoing a restructuring that includes a drop in production, retirement severances in order to thin job ranks, and then a multi-year US$2 billion investment to develop and extract copper from underground deposits. 
 
Miners of four local branches of Sindicato Minera Codelco Norte are upset that Codelco has reneged on certain conditions regarding retirement severance benefits. They are also upset that Codelco has refused to negotiate a social plan for job growth at the new underground project, called Chuquicamata Subterránea, a nine-year copper and molybdenum project that will extend Chuquicamata’s life span 42 years. 
 
Codelco announced last year that it was cutting production by one-third over the next three years to prepare for the project. In December, senior managers of the national company clashed with supervisors when they pressured bosses to meet retirement quotas in order to set examples at both the Chuquicamata and Radomiro Tomic open-pit operations. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Chile.png" width="200" height="92"/>
Now, Codelco has agitated 800 copper workers by reneging on severance entitlements and refusing – as is the practice in Chile – to engage legitimate trade unions in meaningfully talks on business development. 
Refusal is common as well regarding trade union engagement over health and safety matters. At a smelting plant that is part of the Chuquicamata mine complex, a worker died following a traumatic injury near a refining furnace. The death occurred on 11 January, 13 days after the accident occurred. In October 2010, a contract worker was killed in a pit when a ten ton rock fell on him. And in December, another contract worker suffered serious spinal injuries while working near a crusher. 
 
Codelco has split apart Chuquicamata and Radomiro Tomic by dissolving its Codelco Norte division and making each mining operation a separate division. The strategy distinctly indicates a move toward privatising. 
Codelco is the world’s biggest copper producer and Chuquicamata is the world’s second largest copper mine, behind Chile’s Escondida mine, owned by BHP Billiton (57.5%) and Rio Tinto (30%). In January 2010, Chuquicamata mining unions staged a two-day strike that won workers sizeable pay gains.

Codelco Copper Miners in Chile Ready Strike Actions at Chuquicamata

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The ICEM held its North America Regional meeting in San Francisco, US, on 26-27 January, and General Secretary Manfred Warda expressed thanks to Joe Drexler for the excellent work he has done, and introduced Brian Kohler as the new ICEM Contact Person for North America.
"Joe brought a strong work ethic to the ICEM and he made dynamic and progressive contributions," said Warda. "These traits we will strive to replicate at the ICEM." (See <a href="/index.php?id=5&la=EN&doc=4259" type="internal">Drexler's farewell letter</a>.)  
 
The meeting also saw Warda report on trade union rights violations in Mexico, Colombia, Iraq, Nigeria, and other countries, such as Zambia. He said ICEM Sub-Sahara Africa Regional Vice-President Rayford Mbulu has been ordered by the Zambian government to step down from his union position and leave the country. 
 
Warda also reported on the meeting he and ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana had with the then minister of Labour and Social Welfare. The Santiago meeting proved the government is a nowhere to ratifying ILO 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, despite the promise of to Chilean President Sebastián Piñero late last year in the wake of the San José mine rescue. Warda said the ICEM and others, including affiliates, will continue to press Piñero. He urged North American unions to join this campaign. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.north america meeting.jpg" width="336" height="157"/>
The host union for the meeting, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) reported on efforts to organize a Bayer pharmaceutical plant in northern California. North American ICEM affiliates agreed to form a committee to study a multi-site union recruitment initiative at Bayer’s American plants. 
 
Drexler, the former ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs and Mining Officer who returned early this year to employment at the United Steelworkers (USW), reported on Mexican Days of Action, from 14-19 February, in support of free trade unions in Mexico. There will be simultaneous protests in many countries at the five-year anniversary of the Pasta de Conchos mine disaster in Mexico, 19 February, he said. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/People/Joe Drexler.jpg" width="200" height="150"/>
Joe Drexler
The National Union of General Tire/Continental Workers’ Union (SNTGTM), the union representing Continental Tire workers in Mexico, made a presentation on their union and their current situation with the German multinational, as well as with the Mexican government. Following their presentation, union delegates moved to accept SNTGTM into the North America regional meetings of ICEM. 
 
Affiliates in attendance made reports on their sectors, including energy, chemicals, paper, cement and materials, mining, and rubber. Many sectors are being affected by the economic crisis, globalization, technological change, and contracting out. In the case of electric, gas, and water utility workers, privatization is also an ongoing threat. 
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IMF General Secretary, Jyrki Raina
On day two of the meeting, International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) General Secretary Jyrki Raina joined by teleconferencing, and he and Warda reviewed ongoing discussions on building a new industrial Global Union Federation (GUF). Warda reported that the ICEM is fiscally very healthy and well-prepared to meet the issues for creation of a new global union structure, to include ICEM, IMF, and the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF). 
 
Both Warda and Raina said there are many examples of cooperation between the three GUFs, and hopefully there will be significant progress to report at the time of ICEM’s Fifth Statutory World Congress, to be held 24-26 November, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 
 
The North America affiliates expressed strong support for continuation of ICEM's sectoral work. Regionally in a new global industrial trade union federation, the North American region should be able to adapt easily to an increase in the number of affiliated unions. 
 
The issue of Mexico, with strong economic ties to North America and equally strong linguistic and cultural ties to Latin America, was also discussed on day two. Both Warda and Raina said the wishes of Mexican unions should be respected, but that one possibility could be to consider them member-affiliates of both regions. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/People/Ken.Neumann.USW.Canada[1].jpg" width="99" height="150"/>   <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0610DaveColes.JPG" width="114" height="150"/>
ICEM North American Region Chairs Ken Neumann and Dave Coles
The ICEM’s North American Region is co-chaired by USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann and Dave Coles, President of the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada, both ICEM Vice Presidents. 
 
The next ICEM North America Regional meeting will be 13 June, at the national office of the CEP in Ottawa, Canada.

ICEM North American Regional Meeting Held in San Francisco, US

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A group of union leaders from the energy sectors of Mexico, Canada, and the US, including several ICEM affiliates, met in Los Angeles, US, on 28-29 January and debated topics such as North American energy integration, energy policies and privatization, natural gas policies, and petroleum extraction – particularly offshore – and refining. 
 
The conference, hosted by ICEM affiliate Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), also took up solidarity with the independent trade union movement of Mexico. 
 
Some of the conclusions drawn are that Canada and Mexico have become energy colonies of the US; privatization and deregulation have caused occupational health and safety to suffer; liberalisation of markets has basically seen environmental protection largely forgotten; and good jobs mean liveable, safe, secure, and unionized jobs. Anything less is unsustainable. 
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Conference participants also concluded that decent jobs are being lost while privatized oil and gas companies exploit and export wealth. Delegates also rejected the notion that new electrical capacity must be private and deregulated, and identified this area as the next round of attacks to come. 
 
The conference also said indigenous peoples' rights are being trampled on or bought off, and countries face greater handicaps in assuring that their energy resources help their own citizens. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/MexicoFlag.gif" width="110" height="67"/>
The Tri-Nation Energy Workers’ Network in Los Angeles consisted of Canadian unions Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union, the Power Workers Union (PWU), Canadian Office & Professional Employees’ Union (COPE 378), and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE); US unions included the UWUA, United Steelworkers (USW), and the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (UWUA). 
 
And the Mexican unions included the Authentic Workers’ Front (FAT), the National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (SNTMMSRM), the National Union of Technical and Professional Petroleum Workers (UNTyPP), the Mexican Union of Electrical Workers (SME), and SUTIN, a nuclear workers’ union, and CNEE, an energy union.

Tri-Nation Energy Workers’ Network Convenes in Los Angeles, US

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The cement workers’ union, Sintraincehsa, an affiliate of the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), wrote to the chief labour inspector of the Ministry of Labour in Honduras, Selvin Ramón Martínez, on 21 January to decry the union-busting tactics of local management. The union accused French-based Lafarge of breach of the collective agreement, national and international labour legislation, and the Global Framework Agreement signed by ICEM, BWI, and Lafarge. 
 
Local management of Lafarge Cementos in the city of Comayagua have arbitrarily begun alcohol and drug testing on employees as a means to sack union leaders. The tests are not observed by a third party and were initiated without consultation with the union.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/BWI New.jpg" width="128" height="115"/>
Sintraincehsa requests that inspectors from the Ministry of Labour oversee the testing. The union asked management in June 2010 to work together with it in cases where workers were found to be breaking rules on alcohol and drugs. The union wants to rehabilitate and educate those failing drug or alcohol tests. 
 
However, since December 2010, management has increased its unilateral testing, without agreement or dialogue with the union. Sintraincehsa says that this is the latest tactic in the company’s union-busting campaign, which has seen membership of the union decrease five-fold in recent years. Local management continues to outsource jobs, with 23 sub-contracting firms now operating on site, jobs Sintraincehsa says should be held by direct and permanently employed workers of Lafarge Cementos. 
 
Sintraincehsa and Lafarge Cementos have had a collective agreement in place since March 2005.

Cement Giant Lafarge in Breach of GFA in Honduras

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Senior management of Statoil, responsible for the Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with the ICEM and Norwegian trade union affiliate, IndustriEnergi (IE), met at the ICEM on 16 December 16, 2010, together with Lars Myhre, chair of the ICEM Energy Industries Sector, and ICEM General Secretary, Manfred Warda, to sign the latest version of the GFA. 
 
The Statoil GFA was the first one that ICEM reached with any company in any sector in July 1998, and it is seen as a major benefit to both management and unions around the world. The Statoil delegation was led by Siv Oftedal, newly appointed Vice President of Human Resources, and also included Erling Brevik and Aksel Stenerud. 
 
The text of the agreement remains substantially unchanged, with all agreeing that in its present form, it has served all parties well. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.statoilsigning.jpg" width="220" height="144" alt=""/>
After signing of the renewal, detailed discussions took place that focussed on the company’s investments in Iraq, where it is junior partner with Russian-based Lukoil in the development of the West Querna 2 field. It was agreed that it would be useful to hold a future exchange of information on Iraq early in 2011, with a view to continued contact and the consideration of joint activities. 
 
Another focus was the company’s increased activities in the Caspian Sea. Here it was agreed to consider the introduction of regional social dialog in the Caspian, building on both the work IE has done in Azerbaijan and the ICEM’s Caspian Sea Workers’ Network. Two years ago, ICEM affiliates in the Caspian made a declaration on social rights and last year held a first meeting in which Statoil attended with the Azerbaijan national oil and gas company, SOCAR. 
 
Finally discussions covered offshore safety, particularly in the light of the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon disaster last year in the Gulf of Mexico.

ICEM Renews GFA with Statoil

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US state of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wasted no time starting a major union-busting effort. Just a month into office, Walker is using budget deficit hysteria as excuse to eliminate public-sector unions by eliminating their right to bargain collectively over wages and benefits. 
 
The firestorm of legitimate protests that has overtaken Madison, the state capital of Wisconsin, has spread to other states, where different legislative measures have surfaced by ultraconservative lawmakers that would unequivocally, and overnight, turn the clock back in America by 80 years. 
 
(The ICEM’s North America Region entered the protests in Madison last week by sending representatives from both Canada and the US to the state, and issued a terse letter to Walker. The letter by ICEM Regional Vice Presidents Ken Neumann and Dave Coles states that Walker has “drawn an ideological, anti-labour and undemocratic line in the sand.” The full <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Letter%20to%20Gov%20Walker.pdf " type="internal">ICEM North American letter</a> can be viewed here.) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.wisconsin sign.jpg" width="93" height="128"/>
In Madison, and indeed, throughout the US and in many places in the world, resistance to Walker’s numerous and draconian public spending cuts has drawn an ideological line in the sand. In the early morning hours of 25 February, Republicans who control the Assembly, Wisconsin’s lower legislative chamber, used tomfoolery to pass the cuts. 
 
The regressive measures would have already been signed into law by Walker’s pen had it not for Wisconsin Democrats in the state Senate. Republicans hold a 19-14 in that chamber, but need 20 senators present to take legislative action. All 14 Democrats have left the state in order to prevent a quorum. 
 
The proposed cuts are far more than just the elimination of public-sector bargaining. The 144-page bill contains sweeping cuts to health care for low-income families, it would reduce by US$976 million over the next two years state aid to local units of education, and it would allow the governor to unilaterally privatise any state public utility without soliciting bids and without Public Service Commission consent. And in just one further insult to public employees, the proposed legislation mandates a 5% cut in salaries with that savings going to public-sector pension funds. 
 
The battle in Wisconsin has become a vanguard against right-wing extremism in the US. But why should it matter to the rest of the world? Considering the US is still the world's largest economy, here are five things to understand about the Wisconsin struggle. 
 
1. It is not really about deficits or austerity measures; this is an excuse. Wisconsin was on track for a modest budget surplus of US$120 million this year. However, by taking a worst-case estimate of some real and potential shortfalls in Medicaid, legal aid, prisons, and debts owed to other states, Walker creates the appearance of a US$137 million shortfall. 
 
To put Walker’s budget deficit fabrications into perspective, the American film documentary producer Robert Greenwald points out that withdrawing just 151 US troops from Iraq would save more money than Walker’s trumped-up deficit. Demanding that wealthy individuals and corporations pay a reasonable share of the tax burden would also solve the problem. The earnings of just the top 13 US hedge-fund managers (about US$1 billion each), if taxed as ordinary income instead of capital gains, a US tax loophole, would provide enough new revenue to hire 68,000 teachers. 
 
2. It is not about union intransigence. Public sector unions in Wisconsin have agreed to cuts in wages and benefits. However, they will not agree to permanent removal of their right to negotiate future wages and benefits. That is what Walker is demanding. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.wisconsin 2.jpg" width="291" height="218"/>
3. Public sector workers are not the cause of Wisconsin's problems. However, public sector workers are the last major segment of the US workforce with significant rates of unionization. Resistance in Wisconsin is resistance to a new demagoguery inside the US to destroy public sector unions as the final bastion unionisation strength in America. Wisconsin and Walker and the conservative business-led foundations pressing this assault clearly are using the Midwest state as a test case. A defeat in Wisconsin will mean sweeping attacks on unions elsewhere in the US. 
 
4. To accomplish this, well-funded business organisations and right-wing media outlets have incessantly worked the American mainstream against public sector workers. Their ploy is to direct private-sector worker resentment on the things that they do not have, or have been taken from them like adequate pensions and benefits, towards public-sector workers who still have them. To divide and conquer, and distract from the rich who have sucked up nearly all of America’s wealth, is the name of the game here. 
 
5. Most poignantly, the battle in Wisconsin is about the national political credibility of the US union movement. There are many politicians who do not believe that it is worth their while to pay any attention to union demands. A loss in Wisconsin would cement the view that unions are too weak to matter. 
 
Pure and simple, what is now happening in Wisconsin is nothing less than a class war. 
 
The ICEM is adamant that Governor Walker in Wisconsin must be stopped. A <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/8.ICEM.IMF.Wisconsin.21Feb.pdf" type="internal">joint letter from the ICEM and International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF)</a> is here. Write letters of protest to <a href="mailto:govgeneral@wisconsin.gov">govgeneral@wisconsin.gov</a>, for fax to: +1 608 267 8983. And please copy ICEM when you do at <a href="mailto:info@icem.org">info@icem.org</a>.

Five Things to Know About Protests in US State Wisconsin

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Juan Linares Montufar was released from jail last Thursday, 24 February, in what trade unionists around the world are calling a victory for international solidarity against the repressive Mexican government. The release comes one week after trade unions around the world conducted a week-long "Global Days of Action" for trade union rights in Mexico. 
 
Linares outwitted a coordinated and nefarious grouping of employers/government/yellow unions in accepting their offer of a pardon in exchange for his turning on his union, the ICEM affiliate, National Union of Mine, Metal, and Steel Workers (SNTMMSSRM), only to announce details of the illegal offer and continued staunch allegiance to his union as soon as the pardon was made official. 
 
Linares was a political prisoner, held illegally since 3 December 2008 and without bond since his arrest. The sham charges against him all relate to the transfer of funds from a Trust created by SNTMMSSRM. His detention is one part of the campaign of trade union intimidation and repression by the Mexican government.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.juan.libertad.jpg" width="100" height="140"/>
Juan Linares is the President of the Oversight and Justice Council of the SNTMMSSRM, also known as Los Mineros, and a key member of the union’s leadership. He was greeted on his release at 02h00 on 24 February by over 100 Los Mineros members outside the jail. 
 
The transfer of the trust funds was perfectly legal under Mexican law, as well as being a protected exercise of trade union autonomy under ILO Convention 87. Two state charges against Linares were dismissed during his time incarcerated, but a federal charge against him was dragged out while the courts denied him bail. 
 
Linares was held at the Reclusorio Norte prison in Mexico City. He received regular visits from his family, other Mineros leaders, and international trade union delegations. He said to all these visitors, “I could walk out of this jail tomorrow if I were willing to betray my union. But I will never do that.” 
<img style="WIDTH: 137px; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.napoleon.gomez.jpg" width="142" height="150"/>
Napoleón Gómez
But it was this long-standing offer of freedom with personal payment of millions of pesos that gave Linares his route to freedom. The deal offered to Linares stipulated that he change his chosen defence lawyer, leave the ranks of Los Mineros for a yellow union of miners, and attack Los Mineros leadership. On Linares’ acceptance of these terms, the yellow union complainants appeared before a judge and withdrew their accusations. 
 
Linares said following his release that his pardon could not be revoked, as stipulated under Article 93 of the Mexican Federal Penal Code, and the pardon was irreversibly ratified. In addressing the court, Linares said that neither he nor Napoleón Gómez Urrutia had committed any crime, that the complainants of the case were representatives of the company Grupo México, that during his illegal detainment he was pressured and offered the pardon deal, and that the transfer of bribe money would be made through a contract employing Linares as a “labour peace broker.” 
 
The pardon deal that Linares signed had no legal foundation, especially as it was reached through intimidation and bribery, and was thus discarded. The ICEM salutes Juan Linares for his dignified victory and loyalty to his fellow Mineros.

Mexican Trade Unionist Juan Linares Released from Jail

The second 24-hour strike at paperboard plants in Spain set for tomorrow, 3 March, was cancelled after ICEM’s two affiliates and the employers’ association reached accord early today (2 March) in Madrid. 
 
Trade unions FSC-CCOO and FIA-UGT reached agreement with Aspapel on a three-year national labour agreement for the paperboard sector that wins a 3% retroactive increase for 17,500 workers to 1 January 2010. Retroactive to 1 January 2011 will be a one percent salary increase, plus the amount of Spain’s consumer price increase (CPI). 
 
In 2012, another one percent was won atop the CPI. The Spanish unions also succeeded in keeping sweeping flexibility changes out of the national agreement. A special commission will be established to study that for possible future implementation on the local level. 
 
Without question, the success of a 23 February day-long work stoppage can be attributed to Aspapel and paper industry employers finally moving on a lapsed 2010 national contract. It is obvious by the terms of this agreement that employers did not want another such strike, scheduled for 3 March. 
 
Some 120 paperboard factories come under the new agreement. 
 
The ICEM congratulates paperworkers of both Spanish federations for their resolve in gaining a fair and current collective agreement, and we also thank the many pulp and paper unions worldwide who sent messages of Solidarity to Spanish paperworkers. 
 
An <a href="/en/19-Pulp-Paper/4269-Spain’s-Paperworkers-Shut-Industry;-Will-Strike-Again-3-March" type="internal">ICEM news piece</a> from 28 February, naming the companies involved and citing details on the 23 February general strike, is available for viewing.

2nd Spanish Paper Strike Called Off; Settlement Reached

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