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Spanish and Portuguese workers of Compagnie Saint-Gobain will join French workers in strike action on 11 May, as called by four unions at all French plants of the major global glass and materials producer. 
 
The strike has the united support of the CGT, CFDT, FO, and CFTC, and the four unions have called 60,000 Saint-Gobain workers to strike in protest to the Paris-based company&rsquo;s industrial decisions. 
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Central among issues is Saint-Gobain&rsquo;s uncertainty over its Desjonqu&egrave;res glass business. Saint-Gobain is exploring either a sale or a spin-off of this business. 
 
The workers&rsquo; representatives in France, which called for the 11 May action, say the company has made strategic choices that have adversely affected employment. They cite the acquisition of British Plasterboard as one example of a non-strategic business decision. 
 
Trade union representatives from France met with Spanish and Portuguese glass-union leaders in Lisbon on 17 April to plan next week&rsquo;s action. 
 
The one-hour strike this coming Friday is just another in a series of escalating protests to Paris managers of Saint-Gobain. In February, the four unions already brought hundreds of workers from four factories to a manifestation outside the company&rsquo;s headquarters at La D&eacute;fense near Paris. 
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Saint-Gobain workers demonstrating early 2007
Saint-Gobain faces labour turmoil in other sectors in France as well. On 6 March, 100 workers took strike action at an abrasives factory in Nazelles-N&eacute;gron. The CGT called that strike over stalled wage negotiations. Another recent strike at a Saint-Gobain plant in Ch&acirc;teaubernard tells the level of discontent inside the company. A spontaneous monetary collection by workers at another operation netted &euro;7,788 for the Ch&acirc;teaubernard strikers.

French Workers to Strike Saint-Gobain 11 May in Three Countries

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More than 300 rubber workers mobilised to direct action recently in Callao, Argentina, seeking a negotiated settlement already agreed to with major rubber companies. The workers marched to the office of the Work Ministry behind the banner of ICEM affiliate Sindicato Unico Trabajores del Neum&aacute;tico Argentina (SUTNA), demanding the negotiated package that is already in place at the major tyre producers, Bridgestone, Pirelli, and FATE. 
 
The labour dispute is currently before a government conciliation process. 
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Earlier this year, SUTNA won 38% wage increases for 4,000 workers at the major firms. SUTNA Gen. Sec. Pedro Wasiejko also has pledged that, in this round of national rubber bargaining, no worker would earn less than 2,741 pesos (&euro; 600) per month. 
 
The 300 rubber workers in Callao have placed this minimum monthly salary demand as a priority. They also seek the pay packages earned at the tyre factories. 
 
Wasiejko said that across the entire Argentine rubber sector, labour costs are but a small fraction of total production costs. According to the Argentine labour leader, rubber companies can afford the pay raises. Such labour cost increases will not affect the customer or the consumer.

Rubber Workers Take Action in Argentina to Achieve Pattern Agreement

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As an election nears for workers at the Firestone Rubber Plantation in Harbel, Liberia, violence broke out during a three-day strike. Riot police stormed a picket line on 27 April, clubbing and tear gassing strikers. Some two-dozen workers were hospitalised, at least two seriously. 
 
The police violence came one month before some 6,000 agriculture workers will vote on their choice of union representative. An insurgent union, called the Firestone Agriculture Workers Union (FAWU), has strong support among workers tapping rubber at this million-acre rubber plantation owned by Bridgestone Corporation of Japan. 
 
The FAWU succeeded on 9 April in getting Liberia&rsquo;s Labor Ministry to conduct the election against the General Agriculture and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union (GAAWUL), the recognised union that FAWU activists accuse of malfeasance and providing little or no representation. 
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The police force, which included electric shocks from batons, occurred after strikers had questioned contract workers who were unloading rubber from trucks. The three-day strike was nearing an end at the time, with Firestone managers and workers nearly in agreement on issues related to the strike. 
 
Government and local officials denied calling out the police, and indications are that Firestone Rubber Plantation managers called for the forceful police raid. NGO and trade unions, who have been monitoring the longstanding trouble surrounding this rubber plantation, videotaped some of this police violence. 
 
While plantation workers count down to a union election, scheduled by the government for the last week of May, Bridgestone is defending itself in a US court against charges of longstanding child labour practices, other slave-like employment practices, and environmental degradation at the Firestone plantation. The Alien Tort Claims Act lawsuit in a US federal courtroom has been brought by the International Labor Rights Fund and 35 plaintiffs, including ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers.

Police Beat Insurgent Unionists at Firestone Rubber Plantation in Liberia

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In the UK, trade unions are calling attention to 28 April&rsquo;s International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers. The GMB is asking all its 600,000 members to convince MPs to officially recognise the day in the UK, as well as making it a national holiday. 
 
GMB wants more MPs to sign on to an &ldquo;Early Day Motion&rdquo; in the House of Commons calling for official recognition of the day. Labour MP Michael Clapham has submitted the motion, and GMB Health and Safety Officer John McClean said, &ldquo;We need (MPs) to do more than just lift their pens&rdquo; on the initiative. Clapham&rsquo;s motion has 78 MPs signed on, and is also supported heavily by ICEM affiliate Amicus and the Communication Workers&rsquo; Union. 
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Amicus, meanwhile, has distributed a petition to its members, also asking the UK&rsquo;s government to officially recognise the day. 
 
Amicus Research Officer Chris O&rsquo;Leary states: &ldquo;Most workers don&rsquo;t die of mystery ailments, or in tragic accidents. They did because an employer decided that their safety just wasn&rsquo;t that important a priority. Sixteen-hundred people die each year in the UK while doing their job, and 20,000 die from work-related diseases. This country should remember them President Rudolf on this day, as they do in other countries and by doing so, reduce this slaughter.&rdquo; 

The ICEM is extremely grateful to the ITUC, and particularly to Lucien Royer at the ITUC for tracking and distributing Workers&rsquo; Memorial Day 2007 activities. Much of the material in this special issue of InBrief originates from Lucien Royer.

United Kingdom: ICEM Affiliates Plan Workplace Actions, Events for 28 April

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In Taiwan, the NGO Tavoi will again organise a demonstration to mark 28 April. But this year, a three-day workshop will follow the 28 April commemoration event. 
 
The workshop will focus on occupational health and safety issues, and will be attended by trade unionists, other NGO members and scholars from India, Hong Kong, Japan, and other Asian countries. 
 
Each day in Taiwan, five workers die from industrial accidents and 20 more workers become permanently injured. The economic miracle that has engulfed Taiwan for the past four decades has also left an appalling trail of workplace carnage.

Taiwan: 3-day Workshop to Focus on Workplace Health, Safety Issues

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In February 2007, South Korea's Labor Ministry announced a total ban on the manufacture, import, and use of asbestos, which will take effect in 2009. Under the plan, the Labor Ministry will restrict the use of products containing asbestos in steps through 2008, in order to allow for the examination of possible substitutes.
In 2009, all asbestos-removal companies will be required to register with the Labor Ministry, and all articles which involve the use of asbestos will be removed, according to Korea's construction laws and regulations. 
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The ministry, in making the announcement, noted that a number of countries in developed nations have already banned asbestos. It also said that when taken into the body, asbestos fibres can cause breathing problems by damaging the lungs, which causes asbestosis and an increased risk to cancer.

South Korea: Labor Ministry announces Total Ban on Asbestos by 2009

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Global Framework Agreement with SCA Includes HIV/AIDS Clause
During a review meeting in Stockholm in January with the Swedish paper multinational Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA), the ICEM and the Swedish paperworkers&rsquo; union, Svenska Pappers, proposed to include a clause on HIV/AIDS in the updated Global Framework Agreement, which SCA accepted. The company agreed to comply with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work. 
Note to ICEM affiliates 
If a company agrees to comply with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work, this opens a whole range of possibilities for negotiations and activities for the unions organising in a Global Agreement company. The ten key principles of the Code of Practice include non-discrimination, gender equality, confidentiality, prevention, care and support. You can obtain the Code of Practice from any ILO office or download it at <a href="http://www.ilo.org">www.ilo.org</a>. It exists in more than 30 languages. 
 
Please note that a Global Agreement applies to all operations of a company worldwide. Often, local management is not familiar with a Global Agreement signed by their head office. Insist on implementation and compliance! 
 
ICEM&rsquo;s other Global Agreements which include an HIV/AIDS clause are Lukoil, Statoil, and Lafarge. The latter company signed one jointly with the Building Workers&rsquo; International. In reviews of existing Global Agreements or in drafting new ones, the ICEM will insist on the inclusion of an HIV/AIDS clause referring to the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work.
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Global Fund Chooses new Executive Director 
 
The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria has chosen Michel Kazatchkine, a physician and global health expert, as the next Executive Director of the Global Fund. He replaces Sir Richard Feachem, the founding Executive Director, who steps down at the end of his five-year term on 31 March. 
 
Professor Kazatchkine is a physician who has treated people with AIDS for more than 20 years, and led the world&rsquo;s second-largest AIDS research agency. He currently serves as France's Ambassador for HIV/AIDS and Communicable Diseases. Professor Kazatchkine is a former Vice Chair of the Global Fund Board and first Chair of the Global Fund&rsquo;s Technical Review Panel, which assesses the quality of grant proposals. 
 
In just five years, the Global Fund has become a leading force in the fight against the three diseases. It provides two-thirds of international funding for the fight against malaria and TB, and 20% of the global funding to fight AIDS. 
 
The Global Fund has approved grants for 450 programs in 136 countries with a total commitment of US$7 billion. As of December 2006, 770,000 people have begun antiretroviral (ARV) treatment through Global Fund-supported programmes and nearly 18 million insecticide-treated bed nets have been distributed to prevent malaria. In addition, tuberculosis programmes have detected and treated two million TB cases under DOTS, the internationally-approved TB control strategy. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Press Release, 8 February 2007)
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Global Unions Continue G8 HIV/AIDS Campaign 
 
Global Unions continue their campaign for the creation of a high-level Working Group on HIV/AIDS by calling on unions to make representation to German embassies. Such actions are hoped to convince the Heads of State attending the G8 summit this June in Germany to agree to such a Working Group. 
 
The G8 summit in St. Petersburg last year agreed on a tangible process for surveillance of infectious diseases like AIDS. But the G8 has not identified how this process would become a reality and so this has remained an undelivered promise. 
 
The Global Union HIV/AIDS Programme calls on unions to organise special events to deliver letters to the German Embassy in their country on 28 April, the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers. 
 
The German embassy action is twined with lobbying at international meetings of environment, health, and labour ministers at the annual meeting of the United Nations Environmental Programme, the World Health Assembly, and the International Labour Conference. 
 
(Source: Global Unions press release, 23 February) 
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Some 71,000 people in Ghana are HIV-positive 
Out of 71,000 people living with HIV/AIDS throughout Ghana who need drugs, only 6,000 are receiving anti-retroviral drugs from 32 health facilities. 
 
The director-general of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Professor Sakyi Awuku Amoa, said by July this year, 50% of all district hospitals will be prepared to administer the drugs. 
 
Awuku Amoa was speaking at a workshop for some selected people from the private sector and FM stations in Accra. More than 50 participants from all over the country attended. 
 
Awuku Amoa also said this year a lot of attention will be given to the youth, women and girls as they are more vulnerable. He therefore urged the media to champion the course of the crusade. 
 
The monitoring and evaluation coordinator at the AIDS Commission, Emmanuel Larbi, urged the participants to develop and implement workplace programmes such as condom distribution to reduce the spread of the disease. Topics treated included the National HIV and AIDS Research Agenda, and Ghana HIV Stigma Reduction campaign. 
 
(Source: Radio Ghana, Accra, 7 Feb 07 as supplied by the BBC Monitoring Service) 
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NUM Protest against Impala Platinum&rsquo;s Hospital Care 
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa gave Impala Platinum a seven-day ultimatum to respond to demands to improve health care services at the Impala Mine Hospital near Rustenberg, North West State. 
 
The ultimatum was given when miners staged a march on 23 January. NUM was protesting unfair and inferior treatment of workers at the facility. The union also accused the mine management, doctors and hospital administrators of denying antiretroviral drugs for treatment of HIV/AIDS. 
 
The subsequent strike ended on 18 February after management agreed to address the grievances presented to them. 
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China: Workplace Programme to Help AIDS Prevention 
At the end of January, China launched a national program on HIV/AIDS prevention and care in the workplace. 
 
The $3.5 million HIV/AIDS Workplace Education Program, funded by the United States Department of Labor, will be overseen by the International Labour Organization (ILO), and implemented in the provinces of Anhui, Guangdong, and Yunnan. 
 
&quot;China is now at a critical stage in fighting HIV/AIDS,&quot; said Hu Xiaoyi, vice-minister of Labor and Social Security, during the launching of the programme in Beijing. &quot;We should try our best to prevent the spread of the disease from high-risk groups to the general public.&quot; Hu believed the 39-month programme would be a good model to promote China's anti-AIDS education policy and implementation. 
 
Hu said another five-year education program, jointly launched by 12 ministries in 2005, had set a target of making 85% of the nation's rural migrant workers knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS prevention by 2010. 
 
The Regulation on AIDS Prevention and Control stipulated that no employer or individual should discriminate against people with HIV/AIDS or their relatives. The regulation protects their rights of marriage, employment, medical care, and education. 
 
The goal is that all workers with HIV/AIDS are well protected; that they can get jobs, keep jobs and have access to AIDS prevention services, such as education, treatment, and voluntary testing and counselling, 
 
Statistics by the ministry shows in some of the provinces, working-age HIV/AIDS people account for 90% of the total infected population and a majority of them are under age 35 years. 
 
(Source: chinadaily.com.ch 27 January 2007) 
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Global Fund Round 7: Aidspan Releases Documents to Help Applicants 
With the Call for Proposals for Round 7 due on 1 March, Aidspan has published three documents providing guidance for applicants considering applying in this round. The three documents are: 
 
1. &ldquo;Deciding Whether to Apply for a Round 7 Global Fund Grant.&rdquo; 
2. &ldquo;Deciding Whether to Submit a Non-CCM Proposal for Round 7.&rdquo; 
3. &ldquo;Deciding Whether to Submit a Regional Proposal for Round 7.&rdquo; 
 
All three documents are available at <a href="http://www.aidspan.org/guides">www.aidspan.org/guides</a>. 
 
The text of each document has been extracted from a forthcoming guide, entitled &ldquo;The Aidspan Guide to Round 7 Applications to the Global Fund,&rdquo; which will be released shortly after 1 March 2007, the expected date for the release of the Call for Proposals. 
 
Already available on the same web page, is &ldquo;An Analysis of the Strengths and Weaknesses of Proposals Submitted to the Global Fund in Rounds 3-6 &ndash; Based on Comments of the Technical Review Panel,&rdquo; which is another excerpt from the forthcoming Round 7 guide. 
 
When &ldquo;The Aidspan Guide to Round 7 Applications to the Global Fund&rdquo; is released, it will contain, in addition to the above-mention extracts, a step-by-step guide to filling out the Round 7 Proposal Form. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 70, 5 February 2007. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>.) To receive GFO (if you haven't already subscribed), send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 18

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Some 300 French glass sector workers from four different unions protested in front of Saint-Gobain corporate offices in Paris on 20 February. The manifestation by workers of four Saint-Gobain Desjonqu&egrave;res (SGD) glass factories was over the company&rsquo;s intention to reduce the workforce at a perfume and pharmaceutical bottle plant in Mers, as well as the possible sale or joint-venture spin-off of the Desjonqu&egrave;res glass business.&nbsp;
<img height="285" alt="" src="" width="380" />
The unions, CFDT, FO, CGT, and CFTC, gained a meeting with senior managers during the protest, in which Saint-Gobain delivered a declaration that no workers would be sacked for economic reasons, and that any downsizings would occur through voluntary retirements and attrition. 
The declaration also included a guarantee that investment would be made to keep open the No. 7 furnace at Mers if demand is sufficient. In a statement last month, Saint-Gobain Desjonqu&egrave;res said it would shutter that furnace in 2008, cutting 125 jobs at the 1,245-worker factory. 
 
The unions also pressed management to take into account that some 400 temporary workers are employed at Mers. Workers from Saint-Gobain factories from Mers, Verreries de la Somme at Abbeville, Verreries de l&rsquo;Orne at Argentan, and SGD Sucy-Enbrie took part in the manifestation. 
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On the day following the protest, the unions obtained a salary increase from Saint-Gobain of 2.5%, with a minimum wage hike of &euro;55-per-month. They also won a &euro;12-a-month increase in employer-paid health insurance, and a one-off bonus of &euro;400. The unions credited the protest the day before with the substantial gains. 
 
The four unions, as well as a supervisors&rsquo; union, CFE-CGC, vowed to continue manifestations throughout the year in order to gain future job security guarantees from Saint-Gobain. Regarding a sale or spin-off of the glass business, the unions point to the fact that the Desjonqu&egrave;res business has enlarged the company four-fold in recent years. Outgoing CEO Jean-Louis Beffa has told market analysts that Saint-Gobain intends to exit the glass business, and to focus on building materials enterprises. 
 
Saint-Gobain bought the glass business of Henri Desjonqu&egrave;res in 1972 and operates ten glass factories around the world.

Saint-Gobain Protest Assures Fairness in Glass Business

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A ballot taken by UK&rsquo;s Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) among Imerys workers in the South West has failed to gain the necessary majority. But the country&rsquo;s second largest private sector union has vowed to continue to press the French multinational for a fair redundancy package for 600 former English China Clay workers in Cornwall. 
 
TGWU represents nearly 1,000 of the 2,100 Imerys kaolin mining and processing workers in the region. The industrial ballot, over the company&rsquo;s inferior severance package for workers to be made redundant late this year, was sent out on 7 February and counted late last week. 
<img height="203" alt="" src="" width="200" />
&ldquo;Our members have decided not to take any industrial action,&rdquo; stated TGWU National Secretary Jennie Formby. &ldquo;There were significant numbers of people who voted for action short of strike and for strike action. 
 
&ldquo;While we&rsquo;re aware that those who wanted to fight back will be very disappointed, we understand the huge pressure members have been under after the misinformation and propaganda campaign (Imerys) has been waging over the course of the ballot. Members are also under great pressure as they face the loss of their jobs. 
 
&ldquo;We will continue to do everything we can at home and internationally to ensure workers get a fair deal from this immensely wealthy company.&rdquo; 
 
Formby commended trade unions in the US and Europe for lending support and aid to the TGWU in its campaign against Imerys. She particularly singled out Serge Gonzales from the French trade union F&eacute;d&eacute;ration Force Ouvri&egrave;re (FO) Mat&eacute;riaux, C&eacute;ramique et Thermique, who is also secretary of Imerys&rsquo; European Works Council. &ldquo;He took every opportunity to put pressure on the company, and for this we are truly thankful,&rdquo; Formby said. 
<img height="213" alt="" src="" width="150" />
French FO's Serge Gonzales
&ldquo;We know this is not the end of the struggle against Imerys, both in the UK and everywhere it operates,&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;We will, of course, do all we can to continue to support our members in Imerys UK in our efforts to get fairness.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM maintains that Imerys could and should do much better in the redundancy packages offered to the 600 workers who face joblessness later this year. Imerys, one of the world&rsquo;s biggest and most profitable building materials companies, will fail in its social obligations to the people of the South West, ICEM believes, unless it improves the severance packages.

Imerys Strike Ballot in UK Fails; TGWU will Press for Bigger Redundancy Packages

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In the United Kingdom, a private member&rsquo;s bill in Parliament to extend full employment rights to workers of employment agencies has the full support of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) and Amicus, both ICEM affiliates. UK&rsquo;s government has been lax in implementing a new European Union directive giving agency and migrant workers new rights across all 27 EU nations. 
 
But that now has changed, thanks to a bill by Labour MP Paul Farrelly of Newcastle-under-Lyme. His bill to introduce into law the same rights, pensions, and working conditions that full-time workers enjoy, apparently has awoken the UK&rsquo;s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), at least partially.
<img height="171" src="" width="120" alt="" />
 
On 20 February, DTI ministers agreed that they will consult on measures to protect the 1.4 million agency employees working in UK&rsquo;s economy. 
 
TGWU Gen. Sec. Tony Woodley said, however, that UK&rsquo;s government must go further, while pledging full support to MP Farrelly&rsquo;s bill: &ldquo;Agency workers need protection, not simply advice on how to deal with abusive employers. Without domestic legislation, 1.4 million agency workers in this country will continue to face discrimination.&rdquo; 
 
Regarding DTI&rsquo;s announcement, Woodley added, &ldquo;At Warwick, the government agreed to support the EU directive on agency workers, the fundamental principle of which is equal treatment. In the absence of any progress at EU level, we need EU legislation that will ensure this equality. What has been announced (by DTI) falls far, far short of this and will not significantly assist workers who endure abuse or undercutting because the law allows agency workers to be discriminated against on essential matters like pay, sick leave, and overtime. 
 
&ldquo;There is an opportunity with Paul Farrelly&rsquo;s private member&rsquo;s bill to outlaw this mistreatment. We urge government to grab it &ndash; and we urge MPs not to be misled into thinking that (DTI&rsquo;s) consultation will deliver the fundamental employment protections that vulnerable agency workers need.&rdquo; 
 
The Farrelly bill received full support from Amicus Gen. Sec. Derek Simpson when it was introduced. MP Farrelly is hoping to get backing from 100 MPs in March for the measure. Britain&rsquo;s government stands accused of actively blocking the directive at the EU level.

UK Unions in Support of Full Rights for Contract and Agency Labourers

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