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The International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers' Association (IUF) scored a victory in its ongoing struggle for the rights of workers at Unilever in June, by reaching a settlement with the multinational to permanently employ members of a union Action Committee at the Rahim Yar Khan plant in Pakistan. 
 
Permanent positions were created for workers, who had previously been employed precariously. Unilever dismissed those workers after they protested against status as fixed-term contract workers. 
 
In October 2007, the IUF began a concerted campaign against the mass dismissals, supported by the National Federation of Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Workers of Pakistan, which was conducted in the country&rsquo;s courtrooms, as well as on streets. The Action Committee was then formed to fight for rights for permanent jobs. 
 
Last month&rsquo;s negotiated settlement was agreed to through mechanisms of the OECD, including applying standards of its Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, which require companies to ensure that all its subsidiaries conform to global labour standards, including ILO Conventions 87 and 98. 

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The 120 new positions were created at the Rahim Yar Khan plant as of 24 June 2009. All Action Committee members were appointed to these posts. Under the terms of the agreement, these workers are to suffer no discrimination or victimization, and will be free to organize and bargain collectively. 
 
Implementation of the agreement will be continuously monitored by the IUF and Unilever. 
 
Despite this positive settlement, Unilever continues its policy to employ large numbers of CAL workers. There has been no improvement to the rights of workers at the Lipton tea factory in Khanewal, Pakistan, which was reported <a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/3015-Support-Needed-for-Contract-Agency-Workers-Forming-Union-at-Unilever-Tea-Factory-in-Pakistan">here</a> by the ICEM in January 2009.&nbsp; 
 
&ldquo;I am encouraged by the news of a just settlement at the Rahim Yar Khan plant,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;This is a step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go before we succeed in ending the anti-union employment strategies of Unilever.&rdquo; 
 
The Khanewal factory employs just 22 permanent workers, with another 723 hired through six labour agency companies.

Victory Noted for IUF in Unilever Contract Labour Struggle in Pakistan

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At ICEM&rsquo;s Executive Committee in late June, the body acted on a 2007 Congress resolution to develop a mandate for an ICEM policy on sustainable development. That policy was adopted, following a presentation by Sustainability Work Group Chairman Lars Myhre and ICEM&rsquo;s Health, Safety, and Sustainability Officer Brian Kohler. 
 
The working document can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/EN%20ICEMsustainability090518.pdf">here</a>.&nbsp; It establishes parameters for ICEM positions and &ldquo;a good, balanced, sensible, and intelligent industrial policy&rdquo; to go forward with, in the words of Tony Maher of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia. 
 
The challenge now, according to Executive members, is to bring this balanced industrial plan to senior-level policymakers at UN climate change forums. 

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ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana gave special tribute to long-time Executive members Michel Decayeux of France and Errol McLeod of Trinidad/Tobago
The ICEM policy calls for a new focus and new dialogue between governments, employers, and unions. The policy calls for an energy future that includes cleaner use of fossil fuels (including carbon capture and storage/sequestration), nuclear, and renewable energy sources. The future of energy must consider questions about access to energy and price fairness and stability. 
 
Pulp and paper, chemicals, rubber, and materials sectors all have their particular sustainability challenges, which the ICEM acknowledges. Most importantly, the notion of sustainable jobs must be decent jobs and inherent in those jobs is the recognition and practice of principles of human rights, labour rights, and particularly respect for the rights of women and other disadvantaged groups. 
 
Also during the June Executive meetings, the body endorsed a resolution submitted by the Asia-Pacific Region of the ICEM. That resolution calls on all affiliates of the ICEM to lend support to Thai labour unions. They are battling hostile work environments imposed by multinational companies, including rubber manufacturers Goodyear and Michelin and industrial gases company Linde, to name just a few.

ICEM’s Executive Formally Adopts Sustainability Policy

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The 2009 annual meeting of ICEM&rsquo;s International Nuclear Workers&rsquo; Union Network, (INWUN) took place in Geneva 25-26. INWUN covers all nuclear workers and not just those involved in electric power generation, but also unionised workers producing medical or industrial isotopes, and workers involved in the reprocessing and enrichment of uranium and uranium mining. 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s Joe Drexler gave a presentation on the increased investment taking place in uranium mining, as well as a programme on radiological hazards in uranium that began in May in South Africa. 
 
A number of unions attended the network meeting for the first time, showing an increased interest in nuclear power from many countries as a possible contributor to reduced carbon emissions and a &ldquo;nuclear renaissance&rdquo; that is clearly linked to climate change discussions. 

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Indeed, interest was shown by a number of unions in the work ICEM has done following the appointment of Brian Kohler late last year as Safety, Health, Sustainability Officer, and in preparations for the UN&rsquo;s COP 15 Climate Change Conference, scheduled for December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. 
 
A presentation on the sustainability work of ICEM was made by Lars Myhre, chair of the ICEM Energy Industries Section who has also chaired the ICEM sustainable development discussions. 
 
A detailed presentation by Roland Schneider of TUAC on their work at the OECD in Paris and the work of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the OECD led to discussions on how ICEM and INWUN can link to the work of these agencies. 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s Energy Officer, Jim Catterson, is in contact with TUAC to take this further. ICEM made a presentation on the present state of the Energy Industries and the future role foreseen for nuclear power. That was followed by an industry viewpoint from an official of the World Nuclear Association. 
 
Next year&rsquo;s INWUN meeting will be held in connection with the ICEM World Energy Conference, planned for the second half of 2010. This will maximise attendance and increase the input of unions from ICEM&rsquo;s energy sector attending the world conference. 
 
Unions present made detailed presentations of their own national situations, and these presentations will shortly be loaded to the Energy Industry section of the ICEM website. INWUN is presided over by David Shier of the Canadian Power Workers&rsquo; Union (PWU).

Nuclear Workers’ Network Holds Annual Meeting in Geneva

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As part of the cooperation and alliance between ICEM and the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) in the oil and gas industry, the two Global Union Federations (GUFs) cooperated in an ILO tripartite sector meeting called &ldquo;Promoting Social Dialogue and Good Industrial Relations from Oil and Gas Exploration and Production to Oil and Gas Distribution.&rdquo; 
 
Lars Myhre, from Norway&rsquo;s Industri-Energi (IE) Union and the ICEM Energy Industries Chairman, was elected chairperson of the Workers&rsquo; Group, while spokesperson Mick Dolman from the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) was elected as Workers&rsquo; Group vice chairman. Dolman chaired one of the plenary sessions of the meeting. 
 
ICEM Energy Officer Jim Catterson was elected secretary of the Workers&rsquo;Group. Ingo Marowski of the ITF closely followed all the discussions and worker delegates from both GUFs participated in both the plenary sessions and the working party, which produced tripartite conclusions following extensive negotiations. 

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The Workers&rsquo; Group ensured that as well as a strong focus on trade union rights and the ILO Core Conventions, there was detailed discussion of health and safety issues, especially the adverse long-term health effects of diving on workers. Helicopter safety to and from offshore rigs, given a recent spate of accidents in the Brazil, Canada, and UK, also was a prominent agenda item. 
 
A special solidarity message was sent by the Workers&rsquo; Group to the Offshore Divers&rsquo; Union in Norway, an organisation that includes many IE-organised divers. The organisation is presently engaged in compensation litigation. Other issues debated at length included the situation of contract and sub-contract workers, the respective responsibilities of operators and contract companies, and the specific problems of contract workers in the Mexican oil industry. The latter was a major issue for ITF, which had nominated both a worker delegate and an advisor from their Mexican affiliates. 
 
The agreed conclusions and report of the meeting&rsquo;s deliberations, as well as the detailed background report provided at the meeting are available from the ICEM Secretariat. However, it should be noted that the conclusions and report need to be approved at the next meeting of the ILO Governing Body before becoming official documents. 
 
ICEM has begun discussions with the ILO regarding follow-up work from the meeting.

ILO’s Oil and Gas Meeting Promotes Social Dialogue

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ICEM Indonesian affiliate, Federasi Serikat Pekerja Pulp Dan Kertas (FSP2KI), conducted training on collective bargaining and labour law from 4-5 July in Karawang with 30 participants. The union represents workers across the country&rsquo;s pulp and paper sector. 
 
The training was attended by workplace leaders of Asia Pulp &amp; Paper&rsquo;s PT Indo Deli, PT Graha Cemerlang, Asia Pacific Resources International&rsquo;s (APRIL) Riau Andalan paper and power operations, and DSS Karawang. 

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The workshops had the expertise of Akhirnya Asfinawati, the leader of the legal aid service LBH Jakarta; Khamid Istakhori from the Congress States Labour Congress of Indonesia (KSBI); and Odie Hudaya from the Labour Working Group, an Indonesian workers&rsquo; training institute. FSP2KI shop-floor leaders were instructed on bargaining techniques and legal procedures as outlined under Peneltian Hukum Indonesia, the country&rsquo;s legal information guide. 
 
The union intends to provide follow-up training to the 30 participants in order to give maximum protections to trade union members. 
 
Etin Rodiana serves as General Secretary of FSP2KI and Irzan Zulpakar is the President.

Indonesian Pulp, Paper Union, FSP2KI, Conducts Training for Mill-Level Leaders

The ICEM lodged strong protest early this week demanding Turkey President Abdullah G&uuml;l veto a bill giving &ldquo;Private Labour Offices&rdquo; broad rights to place temporary workers in enterprises. On 9 July, President G&uuml;l did veto the bill, and now the ICEM demands the Turkish Parliament not bring it back. 
 
The bill was submitted by Parliament to G&uuml;l in late June after it cleared the legislative body without hearings or direct input from the country&rsquo;s labour federations. The ICEM calls attention to this anti-social fact because global unions are targeting actions in&nbsp;Turkey and Thailand on Day of Decent Work, 7 October 2009, specifically over the precarious labour issue. 
 
The legislation, as written, would have given fees to labour brokers and it would have created a slave market composed of short-term contract workers. The proposal read that any person or entity could establish a private labour hire agency with a modest investment of TL 20,000, or &euro;9,250. 
 
&ldquo;We applaud President G&uuml;l and his administration for doing the right thing to veto this,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We now call on the global community to assist our Turkish comrades to make sure this bill does not surface again.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM credits Turkey&rsquo;s three trade union federations for immediate and effective opposition to the legislation. The ICEM now calls on the Turkish Parliament to abandon this anti-people measure. 
 
Mustafa Kumlu, President of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (T&uuml;rk-İş), said accurately it would render existing mechanisms between unions and government useless. Kumlu, an ICEM Executive Committee member, said &ldquo;social rights, social security, and other benefits&rdquo; would disappear under this legislation. 
 
In the 7 July letter to G&uuml;l, Warda said creating such a labour system in a society is equivalent to &ldquo;placing dynamite under the social structures.&rdquo; He called it a &ldquo;21st century employment relationship based on slavery.&rdquo; 
 
ICEM work leading up to 7 October and after will partly focus on Turkish failure &ndash; in the eyes of the ILO &ndash; to implement Labour Conventions that the country has already ratified. A focus will also ensure that transparency and fairness become full partners in all social discussions leading to possible Turkish ratification of ILO Convention 181, the Private Employment Agencies Convention. 
 
The ICEM said in the letter to the Turkish government that the proposed law is not in compliance with the EU Directive on Temporary Agency Work, a standard passed in October 2008 that the ICEM insists must be adhered to by Turkey. The ICEM also labels the legislation a misguided response to the economic crisis, and an inhumane practice to even pronounce it as a measure to reduce operating costs. 
 
For further information, contact the ICEM&rsquo;s Kemal &Ouml;zkan at <a href="mailto:Kemal.ozkan@icem.org">Kemal.ozkan@icem.org</a> of +41 79 734 9044, or Dick Blin, <a href="mailto:Dick.blin@icem.org">Dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 79 734 8994.

Turkey: Labour Hire Veto Applauded, More Work Demanded

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MEXICO CITY, JULY 10 &ndash; Day one of the five day delegation saw Parliamentary and trade union leaders from 13 countries, including Manfred Warda and Jyrki Raina, General Secretaries of the ICEM and IMF, join Mexican union leaders and legislators yesterday to call for an end to the persecution of the Mexican mineworkers&rsquo; union and its leader, Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia. 
 
The international delegation with members of the special commission of the Mexican Senate established to investigate the strike at the Cananea mine, which has been ongoing for nearly two years. The meeting also included federal deputies and leaders of the National Union of Workers (UNT) and Mexican Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union (SME). 
 
Jack Layton, leader of Canada&rsquo;s New Democratic Party, raised the delegation&rsquo;s concerns in a meeting with Mexico&rsquo;s Labor Secretary. &ldquo;We made it clear that the government&rsquo;s interference in union governance, its jailing of union leaders and freezing union bank accounts, declaring strikes illegal and failing to prosecute the killers of union leaders, are serious and unacceptable violations of basic human rights,&rdquo; he stated. 
 
Layton, Australian Labor MP Graham Perrett, and a group of union leaders also met with Marcelo Ebrard, chief executive of the Federal District (Mexico City). 
 
Members of the delegation held meetings with the Embassies of Australia, Canada, Germany, Norway, Poland, and the United States to inform them about the Mexican government&rsquo;s actions. The delegation&rsquo;s message, according to United Steelworkers District 7 Director Jim Robinson, was that &ldquo;when NAFTA was passed, we were told that it would raise wages for Mexican workers. Now the Mexican government and Grupo Mexico are trying to destroy the Mineworkers because they are doing just that.&rdquo; 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda emphasized the importance of the delegation, &ldquo;The ICEM and the International Metalworkers Federation here represents over 45 million workers worldwide. Ours is a unified voice of staunch solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Mexico, in their fight for the right to freely form trade unions and bargain collectively&rdquo;.&nbsp;&nbsp;
See the previous press release on the Mexican delegation <a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/3299-PARLIAMENTARY-UNION-LEADERS-VISIT-MEXICO-TO-SUPPORT-MINEWORKERS-UNION">here</a>.

PARLIAMENTARY, UNION LEADERS DEMAND MEXICAN GOVERNMENT CEASE ATTACKS ON MINEWORKERS

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ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa is outraged by the further retrenchment of 400 miners in the diamond-mining region of Kimberley, Northern Cape. DeBeers said that it would sack the workers, employed near the Koffiefontein diamond mine&rsquo;s New Treatment Plant, by the end of the year. 
 
The company has not, as of yet, conducted the proper consultation process with the NUM. The union also is angered at DeBeers for not providing advance notice of the closure so that &ldquo;avenues or alternatives to retrenchments&rdquo; could be explored.
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&ldquo;In our view, this constitutes bad faith on the side of the employer, who know the magnitude of problems that come (for people) with this kind of mass retrenchment,&rdquo; said the NUM. 
 
The New Treatment Plant was only opened in the year 2000, and was expected then to extend the life of diamond-mining operations in Koffiefontein by 15 to 25 years. But DeBeers closed the Koffiefontein mine last year, costing 600 miners their jobs. In all, over 2,500 miners have been left jobless in the Kimberley area.

South Africa’s NUM Disputes DeBeers’ Further Retrenchments at Koffiefontein

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Over the past two years, ICEM affiliate Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) has faced obstacles that would have crushed any normal union. The National Executive of the union has witnessed two mining companies, Debswana and BCL, now an enterprise of global mining house LionOre, subvert the union&rsquo;s national leadership, instigate a wildcat strike (BCL) in order to sack workers, withhold union fees from BMWU, and now start a rival, yellow union. 
 
But the BMWU hasn&rsquo;t flinched, and has met every onslaught with a legal and dignified response to the overt divide-and-conquer tactics of the two companies. On 3 November, the BMWU General Council met in session and reaffirmed the union&rsquo;s role as the Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Botswana.
It also set in motion resolutions passed from the 2004 Congress, national union initiatives that had been stalled by the companies&rsquo; conduct, and followed through on a restructuring plan that gives BMWU four regions. 
 
However, interference from both Debswana, a joint diamond-mining company between DeBeers and the government of Botswana, and BCL continues. Debswana is actively pushing members into a rival union, and strong evidence exists that management is funding such a union. 
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&ldquo;The Human Resources Department works around the clock to divert our members,&rdquo; said BMWU General Secretary Jack Tlhagale. He said Debswana took a full year, until September 2006, to recognise the legitimate branch committee from Orapa, a major mining area of Debswana, and has withheld union fees due the BMWU. 
 
Tlhagale also said the world&rsquo;s largest diamond-mining enterprise has unilaterally taken union dues money and used it for fees owed in an appellate court case the BMWU lost in April 2004. Separately, the BMWU is still seeking justice for 461 workers fired in August 2004 when they went on strike, but the case is consistently being delayed in an Industrial Court. BMWU is convinced that the court is unduly influenced by the government and DeBeers in the matter. 
BCL, a copper and nickel mining operation bought by LionOre only in 2005, has entered into an illegal collective agreement with dissidents inside the Selebi-Phikwe branch of BMWU, dissidents who have been jailed for failing to comply with multiple court orders to turn dues monies over to the national union. 
 
BCL has financially supported the jailed group of workers, and has refused to recognise a duly-elected Selebi-Phikwe branch committee that replaced the one consisting of some of the jailed workers. That recognition case is scheduled to be heard in Industrial Court on 20 November. 
 
Perhaps BCL&rsquo;s biggest offence is that management led machine workers and spannermen into a non-sanctioned strike in order to sack them. Some 181 workers were fired after BCL management told them they have no union to represent them. &ldquo;The general manager did this deliberately as a trap to eliminate them,&rdquo; said Tlhagale. &ldquo;He was fully aware that a legitimate union committee was in place, but he said they have no union because the union he recognises is in prison.&rdquo; 
 
The BMWU&rsquo;s National Executive Committee will continue to receive the support, guidance, and solidarity of ICEM and its affiliates as it continues it&rsquo;s legal and moral course for justice and a dignity for all Botswana&rsquo;s miners.

Botswana’s Miners’ Union Fights Repressive Companies, BCL LionOre and Debswana

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Nigerian oil workers&rsquo; unions PENGASSAN and NUPENG are demanding that the country&rsquo;s National Assembly investigate the sale of Eleme Petrochemicals Ltd. by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to Indorama of Thailand. The privatisation of an olefins refinery in Port Harcourt to a group of investors was called into question by the two unions over several fiduciary disparities. 
On another level, the two ICEM oil and gas union affiliates in Nigeria also continue to negotiate with management of Agip, a division of Italian energy company Eni, over security protections. The talks come during another peak in kidnappings and energy installation occupations along the Niger Delta, this time with Agip worksites as the main targets. 
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Agip staff has threatened a strike to shut all of the company&rsquo;s production down unless it provides the same level of security that it provides to expatriate workers. Agip office workers at a regional headquarters in Port Harcourt did strike on 30 October, and barricaded the office in protest to the company&rsquo;s delays in providing extra security and pay. 
 
The security issue also threatens to renew a national oil and gas strike in Nigeria. On 11 October, PENGASSAN and NUPENG, after meeting jointly in Lagos, issued a statement that said a second phase of a national strike is close to being called because of &ldquo;failed implementation&rdquo; of the safety requirements that were agreed to after a two-day September strike. 
 
The Nigerian oil and gas workers&rsquo; unions protested the government&rsquo;s &ldquo;lukewarm attitude&rdquo; in convening a security forum. They also called the failure to date to set up a commission to investigate the kidnapping and murder of PENGASSAN member Nelson Ujeye &ldquo;unacceptable.&rdquo; 
 
The unions, furthermore, called on the government to drop any plans to privatise the Kaduna refinery and petrochemicals division. 
On the flawed BPE privatisation sale, the official communiqu&eacute; to the government from PENGASSAN and NUPENG provides staunch evidence that the investors not only defaulted on loan requirements and still got possession of the refinery, but that after gaining possession Indorama sold spare parts to generate funds for the sale. 
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Since 75% of Eleme Petrochemical had been owned by the state, PENGASSAN and NUPENG said it was seeking the investigation &ldquo;with a deep sense of patriotism.&rdquo; 
 
The joint statement reads: &ldquo;The Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mrs. Irene Chigbue, was quoted as informing unsuspecting Nigerians that Indorama had paid the full price of US$225 million (N$30 billion) for the Eleme Petrochemical Co. Ltd. She was also quoted as describing the sale of EPCL as a star deal of the privatisation programme. 
 
&ldquo;While Mrs. Chigbue is entitled to express her opinion and make personal assessments of her &lsquo;achievement&rsquo; in BPE, we in NUPENG and PENGASSAN have consistently maintained that the sale was another asset stripping and charade, ever done on the national assets of our great country.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;Our position is premised on the fact that the selling of the plant at US$225 million is less than the US$336 million, which the Federal Government will pay as outlandish liabilities before Indorama took possession of the plant,&rdquo; the communiqu&eacute; stated. 
 
Meanwhile, a rash of violent acts again hit Niger Delta oil and gas installations, proving the Nigerian government still has not found viable solutions to the safety and security of workers in the area. 
 
About 40 Agip workers, all Nigerians, are still being held by militant youths at Eni&rsquo;s Tebidaba flow-station in Bayelsa State. They, and eight other Nigerian workers, who managed to escape, were kidnapped there on 6 November by some 70 heavily-armed youth militia. The eight who had escaped told of a security guard being shot.

Nigerian Unions Close to Second National Strike

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