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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="120" height="59"/>
State police in Georgia brutally broke a strike by metalworkers last week in Kutaisi, in western Georgia. In the evening of day three (15 September) of a walkout by some 200 workers at Eurasian Steels that was sparked by ICEM affiliate Metallurgical, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers’ Trade Union and the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC), dozens of police cars escorted Imereti Region Governor Lasha Makatsaria across picket lines and into the steel rolling mill. Police then left those cars and rushed the strikers, taking many away. 
 
As some strikers fled, police rounded them up. Around 40 strikers, including four hunger strikers at the factory’s plant gates, were taken to police headquarters. They were held for several hours, lectured on strike activity, and then made to sign a document stating they would engage in no further action. Some of the 40 were summarily fired by the police who issued dismissal papers from Euroasian Steels. 
 
Twenty-one trade union activists have now been sacked at Euroasian Steels, or Hercules Steel, as it is called, including six on 11 August. Last week’s mass strike was on their behalf, and on many inept management practices that have plague the newly built plant over the past two years. A two-hour warning strike occurred on 2 September that was joined in support by the Georgia Automobile Transport and Highway Workers’ Union, the Independent Trade Union of Agricultural Workers, a food processing union, and two professional unions – the Representatives of Educators and Scientists and the Union of Artists. 
 
Management of the steel mill, led by a prominent Georgian, has refused to address the union or the workers’ serious concerns. 
 
The ICEM reacted with contempt to last week’s police actions. “We witnessed Georgia’s internal police use force to break a strike and now attempt to manage the labour conduct inside this enterprise,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “It is ludicrous, against all rationality, and there has to be sinister reasons behind it. We demand to know why our affiliated trade union’s concerns on behalf of workers have not been heard.”
 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.georgia.2.JPG" width="280" height="210"/>
ICEM will continue the stand with Metallurgical, Mining, Chemical Ubnion of Georgia and with the GTUC. (In 2010, ICEM's Warda and GTUC President Iraki Petriashvile, left)  
 

After the round-up and release of strike activists in the early morning hours of 16 September, police then began raiding the homes of many Euroasian workers – including several strikers from the day before – and forcibly brought them to work. A report said a worker not involved in the strike and who was scheduled to work a late shift on 16 September, was forcibly taken from his home and bought in earlier than usual to work. 
 
Police are controlling shift attendance by workers and internal reports are regularly made to police authorities. When workers inquire as to why the police involvement, they are told it is necessary to prevent another strike. 
 
On Friday, workers returning to the steel mill were met with a mandate to either sign a statement denouncing Metallurgical, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers’ Trade Union, or face dismissal within three days. The ICEM has learned many are resisting and believes this is due to a core group of 180 union activists who are gaining in strength and remain steadfast in their determination not to be deterred from a union voice at Hercules.
The ICEM has vowed to support them through an international outcry in coordination with other labour groups. 
 
Meanwhile, there has been a constant police presence outside the factory over the weekend, 16-18 September. At 13h on Saturday, 17 September, internal security police rounded and arrested three union leaders: Emilo Gumberidze, Irakli Iobidze, and Malkhaz Gogiava. 

The three have been key in coordinating support for the 21 dismissed union members among civil society groups, and the ICEM calls the Georgian government out on violating common freedom of association principals. 

Euroasian Steels is an Indian-Georgian enterprise, 87.5% owned by Dubai-based Euroasian Ventures Ltd., which itself is owned by India’s 12th largest steelmaker, Manaksia Ltd., a company specializing in caps, crowns, and metal containers as well as a metal trader. The Kutaisi mill began in spring 2009 to produce rebar and steel billet for a Central Asian market. Built on the former site of a concrete structures plant in Kutaisi, it employs 400 workers, including 130 Indian nationals. 
 
They are treated like indentured servants. Management is in possession of their passports, their salaries are sent back to India, they are given meagre stipends to live on in Kutaisi, and they are instructed not to make contact with Georgian workers. The Indians work dirty and dangerous jobs on four of the operation’s eight furnaces and they work apart from Georgian workers. 
 
Some months ago, the Indian workers staged a strike of their own, which resulted in the beating of the Indian plant director, Raji Kumar Sureika. 
 
At Euroasian Steels in the Imereti region, sweatshop conditions persist. There is no Human Resources department, no wage structures, and no adherence to internationally recognised work standards. Work-weeks can last up to 80 hours, there is no overtime pay, workers are routinely refused to use paid vacations, and there is an inordinate amount of industrial injuries.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.georgia.5.JPG" width="205" height="154"/>
As in 2010 in Georgia, ICEM will Vehemently Protest Trade Union Repression in Georgia   
 

In July 2010, workers protested because of wage arrears. Seven of the leaders of that protest were arrested and were jailed for 20 days. 
 
The Georgian who controls Euroasian Steels and whose holding company owns a 12.5% stake is Paata Chkhenkeli. He is general director of the operation and in 2005, he formed a joint venture with the Manaksia Group called Georgia Metalix Ltd. in order to export scrap steel from Georgia. A short time later, he bought a controlling stake of the Georgia-based scrap-metal salvage firm Meoshavliti, and the deal was soon realised between Chkhenkeli, Manaksia, and the Georgian government to construct the Kutaisi mill. 
 
Paata Chkhenkeli, 52, has close connections to senior level figures in the Georgian government. From 2000 to 2003, fresh from a 11-year tenure as director of Iberia Construction Co. in Russia and Georgia, he served as state advisor to Georgia’s Minister of Economy. 
 
The ICEM this week will lodge protests with the Georgian government over last week’s ruthless actions. While union activity inside Euroasian is certain to be stymied temporarily because of last week’s police put-down, the flames of discontent are still very much alive. ICEM will remain connected to shop-floor activists in Kutaisi and their union representatives of the Metallurgical, Mining, Chemical Workers’ Union and GTUC.

ICEM Scorns Blatant Police Repression in Putting Down Georgian Metal Strike

The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) today registered strong condemnation with the Government of the Republic of Georgia over the police crushing of a legitimate workers’ strike and formation of a trade union at Euroasian Steels in Kutaisi, Georgia. Police began using forceful tactics last Thursday evening, 15 September, to break a peaceful strike at the 400-worker steel mill, and on 16 September and over the weekend, arrested, detained, and threatened scores of union workers seeking union representation at Euroasian Steels. 
 
In a letter today to Georgian President Mikheil Saakasvhili and Prime Minister Nika Gilauri, the ICEM calls for restoration of human and trade union rights to members of the ICEM affiliate, Metallurgical, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers’ Trade Union of Georgia, and immediate release without charge of three leading union activists, who were picked up and arrested Saturday, 17 September, on bogus charges obviously related to trade union activity. They ICEM also demands job reinstatements for some 20 other workers. 
 
Emilo Gumberidze, Irakli Iobidze, and Milkhaz Gogiava will appear today in court in the provincial capital of Kutaisi and they could face jail sentences. Last Thursday, Georgian police, unprovoked, broke up a strike by 200 metalworkers in front of the Euroasian steel rolling mill in Kutaisi. They detained up to 40 strike participants and the next day police officers raided the homes of many workers, ordered them into police cars, and then incredulously took them to the factory for work shifts. (An <a href="/en/4-Chemicals-Pharmaceuticals/4667-ICEM-Scorns-Blatant-Police-Repression-in-Putting-Down-Georgian-Metal-Strike" type="internal">ICEM report</a> on this is here.) 
 
In today’s formal complaint to Georgia’s Government over the police actions, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda wrote, “This is an embarrassment to Georgia, a serious stain on Georgian trade and commerce, and it is the opinion of the ICEM that these overt acts of repression bring Georgia back to another time era.” 
 
The ICEM charges Georgian police and the country’s Internal Affairs Ministry with blatant violation of guaranteed social and human rights common in several international charters. The ICEM pledged to stand with the union and the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC) in their fight for workers’ rights at Euroasian Steels. 
 
The ICEM is demanding that internal Georgian security forces stop acting as a front for Euroasian Steels, a two-and-a-half-year-old steelmaking enterprise in Kutaisi that has failed to establish even a rudimentary system of employee relations. The enterprise is 87.5% owned by Dubai-based Euroasian Ventures Ltd., itself owned by Indian steel company Manaksia Ltd., and 12.5% by a holding concern controlled by Georgian national Paata Chkhenkeli, who himself is connected to Georgia’s political and economic elite. 
 
The ICEM is a Geneva, Switzerland-based Global Union Federation, representing 20 million workers that belong to 467 trade union affiliates in 132 countries. 
 
For further information, contact ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin, <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 22 203 1842.

ICEM Condemns Georgia Police in Suppressing Union Rights at Euroasian Steels

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In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report on the UN General Assembly Declaration on HIV and AIDS, on a call by unions for more funding for HIV and AIDS, and more workplace activities and on efforts to find a vaccine or a cure to the disease. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
UN Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS 
 
On 10 June, the High Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly adopted its outcome document, the new United Nations General Assembly Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS. 
 
The Declaration reaffirms the commitment of governments to fight the pandemic with time-bound targets laid down in the Millennium Development Goals, such as halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV by 2015. It commits governments to work toward the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015. Efforts must be accelerated to achieve the goal of universal access to antiretroviral treatment for those eligible based on WHO treatment guidelines by 2015. 
 
Governments also pledge to eliminate gender inequalities, gender-based abuse and violence, and increase the capacity of women and adolescent girls to protect them from the risk of HIV infection. The Declaration calls on young people to help lead global HIV awareness. 
 
Of particular importance to unions and the world of work is Article 85 of the Declaration which says: “Commit to mitigate the impact of the epidemic on workers, their families, their dependants, workplaces and economies, including by taking into account all relevant ILO conventions, as well as the guidance provided by the relevant ILO recommendations, including ILO Recommendation No 200, and call on employers, trade and labour unions, employees and volunteers to eliminate stigma and discrimination, protect human rights and facilitate access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.” 
 
While the Declaration recognises that funding has increased in the period from 2001 to 2010 over eight-fold to US$16 billion, it expresses concern that the global financial and economic crises have a negative impact on the HIV and AIDS response. 
 
(Source: UNAIDS and ILO/AIDS press releases) 
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Unions Call for Closing Funding Gap; More Workplace Action 
 
Trade unions told a key meeting of UNAIDS, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS that, along with real commitments from governments to fill the US$8 billion funding gap, the potential impact of workplace-based activities in tackling the pandemic is still not being realised. 
 
Unions called on the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board, the organisation’s governing body, to add its weight to the UN call (see article above) and ensure that work-related activities are a full part of the overall response to HIV and AIDS. 
 
The action plan by the ITUC and its Global Union partners stresses reduction of stigma and discrimination, increase in access to prevention services, scaling up of social protection services and access to treatment, care and support. 
 
(Source: ITUC press release, 24 June) 
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Toward an HIV Cure? 
 
On the 30th anniversary of the first medical reports of a new illness, articles appeared on new efforts to find a cure for the AIDS virus. 
 
The new head of the International AIDS Society (IAS), Bertrand Audoin, said that a cure is the only way to keep ahead of the HIV epidemic in the long term during tough financial times. He admitted, however, that it may take as long as 25 years to find a cure. 
 
IAS has convened a working group of international researchers to develop a strategy that might lead to a cure. The group is co-chaired by Professor Françoise Barre-Sinoussi, who won the Nobel Prize in 2008 for discovering HIV together with Luc Montagnier. 
 
Barre-Sinoussi writes in the International Herald Tribune that there is now robust evidence that early and highly active antiretroviral therapy can have a major impact on HIV transmission, demonstrating the “treatment as prevention” concept. AIDS is no longer the death sentence it was, but there now remains extreme uncertainty concerning the long-term sustainability of treatment access, especially in resource-limited settings, she writes. 
 
The Economist devotes its 4 June cover to the epidemic: “The end of AIDS? How 5 million lives have been saved, and a plague could be defeated.” The lead article gives this stark statistic: since the discovery of AIDS, 25 million people have died and another 34 million are infected. But the death rate is dropping. In 2005 the disease killed 2.1 million; in 2009 the number was down to 1.8 million. Inside, an article gives a detailed account of the present state of research. If a few people’s immune system controls the disease naturally, it suggests that a vaccine might be possible. And if antibodies have been discovered that neutralise the virus, that might form the basis of AIDS-clearing drugs. 
 
(Sources: BBC News, 1 June; International Herald Tribune, 4/5 June; and the Economist, 4 June.) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
South Africa: New Policy Saves Thousands of Babies from HIV 
 
The South African government has slashed the HIV transmission rate from pregnant mothers to their babies to merely 3.5%, potentially sparing some 67 000 babies from HIV infection. The success is due mainly to the Health Department vastly improving its programme for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV infection (PMTCT) from April last year. 
 
“It is possible to prevent all HIV-positive mothers from passing the virus on to their babies, but we now have to concentrate on the care of babies after birth,” said Precious Robinson, deputy director of government’s PMTCT programme, at the release of the new figures at the SA AIDS conference. 
 
Under the old treatment programme, mothers and their newborns were given one dose of the antiretroviral drug nevirapine. At best, this reduced the HIV transmission rate to 8.8%, according to small local surveys. But in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal, one in five HIV-positive mothers were still infecting their babies despite getting nevirapine. 
 
In order to save babies, the PMTCT treatment programme was prioritised. From last April, the Health Department advised that all pregnant women with HIV are given the ARV called AZT from 14 weeks of pregnancy and three ARVs during labour (nevirapine, tenofovir, and 3TC). If a pregnant woman has a CD4 count of less than 350, she should be put onto triple therapy (three ARVs) within two weeks of getting her CD4 test results. Newborn babies are now given nevirapine syrup for as long as their mothers are breastfeeding them, or for six weeks if not they are not breast-fed. 
 
(Source: <a href="http://www.health-e.org.za">www.health-e.org.za</a>, 9 June) 
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‘Red Card’ to Keep Children Free from HIV 
 
Captains of national football teams competing in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011 soccer championship in Germany are signing up to the Give AIDS the Red Card appeal in support of a global plan to eliminate new HIV infections among children by 2015. The Give AIDS the Red Card appeal, which was launched by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) one year ago at the FIFA 2010 Men’s World Cup in South Africa, uses the power and outreach of football to unite the world around stopping new HIV infections in children. 
 
Every day more than 1,000 babies are born with HIV. However, with access to HIV counselling and testing for pregnant women and their partners, and treatment when needed, the risk of transmission can be brought down to less than 5%. 
 
On signing the pledge, team captains appeal to football players and fans across the world to “celebrate life and support the global campaign to prevent mothers from dying and babies from becoming infected with HIV.” 
 
(Source: UNAIDS press release, Geneva, 24 June) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Websites of Global Fund County Coordinating Mechanisms (CCM) 
 
According to research conducted by Aidspan, at least 20 CCMs have established their own websites. Countries with CCM websites where the ICEM cooperates on HIV/AIDS include: 
<a href="http://www.india-ccm.org ">India</a> (Language: English) 
<a href="http://ccm-mauritius.org ">Mauritius</a> (Language: English) 
<a href="http://ccmnigeria.org ">Nigeria</a> (Language: English) 
<a href="http://www.gf.or.tz ">Tanzania</a> (Language: English) 
 
The information available varies considerably from one website to another, with the India site being by far the most comprehensive. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 149 of 8 June. GFO is a free service of Aidspan www.aidspan.org; to receive GFO send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
News from Global Unions 
 
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF – <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a>) published the fifth issue of Agenda, its yearly magazine dedicated to HIV and AIDS. Agenda features, among other articles, case studies from ITF affiliates, strategies to fight HIV and AIDS at the workplace, and a new study on the civil aviation sector which reveals workers’ exposure to HIV infection, as well as stigma and discrimination. 
 
In the ITF HIV/AIDS updates 108 and 109 of 1 June and 15 June, respectively, articles can be found on peer education for civil aviation workers in Ecuador, a life skill education programme on HIV and AIDS in Indonesia organised by the Indonesia Seafarers’ Union, and the critical role the Transport and Dock Workers’ Union at Mumbai Port is playing in the implementation of a workplace policy on HIV and AIDS. 
 
The June Newsletter of the Swedish Workplace HIV and AIDS Programme (SWHAP), jointly run by the International Council of Swedish Industry (NIR) and the Swedish Industrial and Metalworkers’ Union (IF Metall), reports on a range of peer educators and other HIV and AIDS programmes in East and Southern Africa. SWHAP focuses on the response to HIV and AIDS at Swedish related workplaces. 
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Five Years Ago: From the July 2006 Issue (No. 10) 
 
The first issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin was published in October 2005. In current issues, we refer to an article from the same month five years ago and reflect on developments. 
 
In the July 2006 issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin, we reported on the first seminar on HIV and AIDS and the workplace organised by ICEM affiliates in Colombia in cooperation with UNAIDS and the Ministry of Social Protection. 
 
We also reported on the concern the ICEM affiliate in Mongolia expressed about the increase in HIV infections. In a report to the ICEM Asia and Pacific Regional Committee, the Mongolia Mining and Energy Union gave an account of the recent increase in HIV prevalence in the country. Despite the still very low prevalence rate, the potential for a further increase due to unsafe sex, high infection rates among migrant workers and mobile traders, and lack of education among young people is high. It will be recalled that, with the help of the Japanese affiliates, the ICEM later initiated an HIV/AIDS programme in Mongolia. 
 
The article devoted to the United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS stated that unlike the 2001 UN General Assembly Session on HIV/AIDS, relatively few world leaders attended this meeting which took place in New York from 29 May to 2 June, 2006. Civil society organisations criticised the final declaration. Difference over prevention strategies, such as abstinence and condom use, intellectual property rights and the naming of vulnerable groups have resulted in a weaker declaration and in serious omissions. In deference to Muslim and conservative Latin and Vatican opposition, the Declaration refers only to “vulnerable groups” at risk for infection without naming sex workers, homosexuals, or intravenous drug users as in need of particular attention. Civil society also noted an insufficient commitment to women’s rights. Most of these deficiencies seem to have been removed from the new Political Declaration (see first article in this issue). 
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This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter – How to Subscribe 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an email to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put “subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin” in the subject line.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 70, July 2011

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The ICEM conducted a seminar entitled “Modern Occupational Health and Safety Management in the Mining Industry,” in Tbilisi, Georgia, on 4-8 July. The seminar was facilitated with the financial support of the ILO through its Moscow branch, and included the participation of ILO specialists. 
 
Representatives of ICEM affiliates in Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, as well as respective national trade union centres, were brought together with trade union leaders responsible for workers’ safety and health. 
 
ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, was the central topic. ILO Conventions 187 and 155 on occupational health and safety, and their related Recommendations were also studied by participants. In-depth discussions were conducted over the systematic and preventive approach of the ILO, particularly in the mining industry, and risk assessment and implementation of state standards for enterprises were studied. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.Georgia mine safety.jpg" width="354" height="159"/>
At the opening session, Confederation of Trade Unions of Georgia President Irakli Petriashvili, took the floor. He noted the relevance of the chosen topic, as well as the importance of the realisation of such a project in Georgia. As before, the relationship between unions and the government remain strained, he said, and there is no social dialogue. Most importantly, there is no legal basis for the adoption of necessary documents concerning labour protection. 
 
Petriashvili thanked international trade union representatives for their participation, which would again pressure the Georgian government to respect the national trade unions and their struggle for workers’ rights. 
 
Especially significant was involvement in discussions from representatives of ICEM affiliated unions in Armenia and Azerbaijan. The trade unions in these countries are working closely with their governments and employers. Armenia ratified Convention 176 back in 1999, while Azerbaijani participants reported a good situation for workers in the mining industry. In Georgia, there is no possibility of ratification of ILO Convention 176 in the foreseeable future, due to a total lack of dialogue between unions and the government. 
 
The seminar was attended by the ICEM Representative for Central and Eastern Europe, Anatoly Surin, and ICEM Health, Safety, Sustainability Officer, Brian Kohler. From the ILO, Viking Husberg, Specialist in Occupational Safety, and Oksana Gerasimova, Occupational Safety Coordinator of ILO Moscow took part. Also participating was Martin Hahn, Chief Specialist of the ILO responsible for the mining industry.

ICEM, ILO Conduct Mine Safety Seminar in Tbilisi, Georgia

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Some 10,000 workers employed at El Teniente by sub-contractors of Codelco, Chile’s state-run copper and molybdenum miner, have been on strike now for 13 days. Even though the walkout falls outside Chile’s labour law, the strike is legitimate: contract employees demand that Codelco engage their unions in direct dialogue. 
 
The strike started 25 May against over 20 contracting firms and Codelco. It is happening at El Teniente, one of five Codelco divisions, which is the world’s largest underground copper mine located 90 kilometres south of Santiago. Contract workers at cleaning, catering, supply and other firms want a primary employer to come to the table to address failed bonus schemes, unpaid hours, no job security and other grievances. They also demand that there be no recriminations over strike actions, a clear sign of the fear, precariousness, and trade union discrimination at El Teniente. 
Codelco is standing by the “acuerdo marco,” or framework agreement of 2007 in maintaining it has no obligation to address grievances of contract workers. Codelco CEO Diego Hernández said the company’s legal responsibility ends at health and safety compliance, and social security compliance of the sub-contracting firms. Unions representing contract workers want a re-write of the marco agreement. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.chile%20codelco.jpg" width="240" height="159"/>
Contract Workers Strike at El Teniente
The job actions have gained the support of civic officials and political leaders in the region and the ICEM commends contract workers at El Teniente for taking direct action in an effort to get a primary company to address its concerns. 
 
The three branches of the Federación de Trabajadores del Cobre (FTC) at El Teniente, representing 2,300 direct Codelco workers, issued a statement on 30 May, in part, stating that the Cobres federation “has always maintained a stance of solidarity with the legitimate aspirations of the employees of sub-contractors. The FTC has been a key player to open talks between unions representing workers, contractors themselves, and the client company Codelco, in order to see positive agreements. 
 
“The FTC expresses its solidarity with the contract workers and their representative trade union organizations, and we clearly do not support the manipulation and exploitation of a legitimate movement to promote interests other than that of workers.” 
 
The dispute was peaceful during the first nine days of the strike, but turned unruly on Friday, 3 June, when contract workers blocked roads leading to the mine complex. The blockade caused buses carrying regular workers to be turned away. 
 
Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, saw its first quarter pre-tax profit balloon to US$2.31 billion due to high copper and molybdenum prices. That is an 87% increase over the same period in 2010 and is partially due to the state company’s sell-off of its 40% share of electrical producer Edelnor. 
 
Separately, the Federación de Sindicatos de Supervisores y Profesionales Rol A Codelco (FESUC), the supervisory and professional union federation at Codelco, charged that senior managers are transforming the company solely for the purpose of privatisation. This comes at a time when supervisors at some divisions are being furloughed without the option to transfer. 
 
FESUC President Ricardo Calderón said layoffs, precarious employment, and outsourcing are the precursor for privatization, while another FESUC leader called on CEO Hernández to publicly state the company would not be sold off to private investors.

Contract Workers Strike Codelco at El Teniente Mine in Chile

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Australian coal miners of three unions, led by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), gave leadership a strong mandate for industrial action against the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) on 2 June. Some 4,000 miners and coal-processing workers in central Queensland voted by 92% to authorize union leaders to embark on varying industrial actions. 
 
Better than 90% of the 4,000 miners and export facility workers voted in the on-site, two-week ballot. The three unions – CFMEU, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) and the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) – are jointly bargaining with the world’s number one exporter of metallurgical coal and have been stymied since January by BMA’s radical proposals for work rule changes. 
 
The strike ballot was preceded by BMA’s breach of Australia’s privacy act when it sent text messages to wives and partners of workers telling them that voting was not compulsory. The company used emergency contact numbers of the workers. In order for the ballot to be legal, better than 50% of workers needed to vote, and the strike ballot had to be passed by a simple majority to be valid. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.mining hat.jpg" width="99" height="74" alt=""/>
BMA is seeking a seven-day roster, instead of a five-day one, flexibility on operators’ jobs, and retention of bygone WorkChoices-era employment practices. The pay package is also expected to be an issue. 
 
“There is a massive concern amongst the workforce about BMA’s desire for increasingly family-unfriendly working conditions,” said CFMEU Queensland Region Vice President Steve Pierce, referring to the seven-day roster. Pierce expressed concern that many experienced miners would quit their jobs if forced onto non-family-friendly shift schedules. 
 
The unions are seeking job security and enhanced training opportunities. The two sides will resume negotiations on 10 June. 
 
BMA is a 10-year-old joint venture that mines some 58 million tones yearly of coking coal from the Bowen Basin. It consists of seven mines – Blackwater, Broadmeadow, Goonyella Riverside, Peak Downs, Saraji, Norwich Park, and Gregory Crinum – as well as the Hay Point coal export terminal near Mackay on Australia’s east coast. The CFMEU represents about 80% of the unionized employees.

Aussie Coal Miners Vote 92% to Strike BHP Billiton/Mitsubishi Alliance

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The ICEM congratulates Comrade Babatunde Ogun on his re-election as President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff of Nigeria (PENGASSAN). Ogun won re-election for a second three-year term. 
 
PENGASSAN branch and sector leaders elected Ogun on 2 June at the Third Triennial National Delegates’ Conference in Abuja. The conference also elected eight other members of the salaried staff’s Central Working Committee. 
 
Ogun won a contested election with 287 votes, while his opponent, Ethelbert Uka, received 109 votes. 
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Ogun confirmed that the election of a new leadership team for PENGASSAN would “energise a strong and modern industrial relations system in the oil and gas industry … and build a knowledge-based system in which all branch executives will be tutored on the emerging trends in industrial relations.” 
 
Other election pledges of the re-elected President include pressure on the Labour Ministry’s company inspectors to perform, improved safety auditing at refineries and other installations, equipping PENGASSAN’s research department, and improving lobbying capabilities. 
 
The other elected officials on 2 June were Adamu Emmanuel Umoru, Deputy President; Hygenius Chika Onuegbu, National Industrial Relations Officer; Segun Jaiyeola, Auditor; Segun Timimene Amanah, Auditor 1; Sunday Ogadi, National Financial Secretary; Zaid Kolawole, National Publicity Secretary; Ijeoma Dom-Nwachukwu, Chairperson of Women-in-PENGASSAN; and David Amanah, Auditor 2; Musa Achimugu, National Treasurer; Rev. Sunday Folorunso Oginni, Lagos Zone Chairman; Friday Otono, Port Harcourt Zone Ag. chairman; Elvis Irefo, Warri Zone Chairman; Muhammed Bulama Saidu, Kaduna Zone Chairman; Fidelis O. Osuagu, Lagos Zone Secretary; Micahel Amadi, Port Harcourt Zone Secretary; Emmanuel Ojugbana, Warri Zone Secretary; and Temitope Oyegbade, Kaduna Zone Secretary.
Bayo Olosohile remains the appointed General Secretary of PENGASSAN, while Lumumba Okugbawa is the appointed Deputy General Secretary.

PENGASSAN Re-elects Babatunde Ogun as President

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A subsidiary of the Swiss-based trading house Glencore International is refusing to consider modest improvements for its employees in the municipality of La Jagua de Ibirico, Cesar Province in Northern Colombia. CI Prodeco is Colombia’s third largest coal producer and disgracefully only 4.91% of the company’s expenditures is used for labour costs. 
 
Workers at Prodeco, organised under the municipality branch of ICEM coal-mining affiliate Sintracarbón, presented management with a list of just demands on 21 September. The company negotiators initiated the direct settlement stage of bargaining on 3 October in the city of Barranquilla. Under Colombian law, the direct settlement stage of bargaining lasts two weeks but despite this, management has refused to bargain in good faith and shows no willingness to reach a collective agreement with workers, thus provoking strike action. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.sintracarbon.jpg" width="232" height="174"/>
Instead of seeking a collective agreement, management announced its intention to renew a unilateral work rules document for a five-year period. The proposed document includes worker conditions below the legal minimum standards. 
 
Prodeco has run a sophisticated propaganda campaign attempting to convince workers that a collective agreement as proposed by the union would not be legal, and that workers stand to lose all benefits previously achieved through bargaining. They then offered the unilateral work rules document. The company campaign is clearly aimed at turning workers against the union and the bargaining process, in blatant breach of international labour standards that have been ratified by Colombia. 
 
The union is standing firm on its demands regarding labour-management relations, safety, occupational health, and on wages, benefits, promotions, education, housing, health, job stability, and use of external contractors. 
 
As pressure from supervisors increases, the ICEM stands in full support of Sintracarbón members at Prodeco as they seek settlement for a collective agreement, or if they are forced to strike in the coming days. 
 
ICEM affiliates and supporters are urged to write to the <a href="mailto:Gary.nagle@prodeco.com.co; miguel.montoya@prodeco.com.co; emerito.benjumea@prodeco.com.co; carlos.martelo@prodeco.com.co; olga.charris@prodeco.com.co">company management</a>: Gary Nagle, Prodeco President; Miguel Montoya, human resources manager; and negotiators Charles Emeritus and Olga Lucia.

Sintracarbón Fights Glencore Subsidiary in Colombia

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Broad strike activity accelerated a positive wage agreement in the Austrian metal sector. In the early morning hours of 18 October, Austrian trade unions PRO-GE and GPA djp, the Salaried Employees, Print, Journalism, Paper Union, emerged from bargaining on behalf on 170,000 metal and industrial workers with positive results. 
 
The 2011 pay awards will range from 4.2% to 4.4%, with the minimum wage in the sector increasing by €80-per-month, or a sizeable 5.3%. The ICEM commends these wage gains as a sterling European example in creating consumer power to offset the dire financial climate of the Eurozone. PRO-GE and GPA djp are to be congratulated for negotiating €300 million into the Austrian economy in this single set of talks. 
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This was made possible by strategic and early strikes on 13 and 14 October that moved third-round bargaining up from 20 October to 17 October, and forced the employers’ hand in raising their wage offers to above 4%. (See <a href="/en/5-Mining-DGOJP/4719-Wage-Shame-Drives-Austrian-Metalworkers-into-Warning-Strikes " type="internal">ICEM report</a> on Austrian coordinated strikes last week here.) 
 
“We have met our main demands of sustainable wage and salary increases, particularly for the lowest paid workers,” said Rainer Wimmer, PRO-GE’s chief negotiator. “I thank the stewards, members, and supporters who made this deal possible. Without the 800 workplace actions and the pressure generated by the strikes, this would not have been possible.” 
 
Those surprise strikes were to continue into the week of 17 October, but employers recognised the growing momentum among workers for fair wage gains and they reached settlement on union terms. That recognition came in hastily called exploratory talks held on Sunday, 16 October, that included ÖGB national labour centre President Erich Foglar and the leader of the chief employers’ association, the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKÖ). 
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Rainer Wimmer
The two sides then reached accord in the early morning hours of 18 October after a 14-hour bargaining session. 
The agreement grants a 1 November pay rise of 4.4% to bottom rung workers, 4.3 to mid-level, 4.2% to senior staff, and 4% to top level people. In addition, pay for apprentices increases by 4.3% and all benefit indemnifications increase by the same amount. 
 
Perhaps the crowning achievement was hiking the minimum wage by 5.3%, or up to €1,584-per-month. The wage agreement positively affects the buying power for 25,000 autoworkers, 16,000 who work in basic steel and iron, 5,000 in non-ferrous metals, 5,000 in utility work, and tens of thousands more in machinery, metal goods, and other industrial production. 
 
Austria’s metal sector agreement now sets the template for 450,000 retail sector workers, who began bargaining through their unions with retail employers on 19 October.

Surprise Strike Brings Austrian Metalworkers Sizeable Wage Gains

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st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }</style>The Coordinating Committee of ICEM affiliates in Colombia conducted a second educational seminar for trade union officers, 8-12 August, in Girardot Cundinamarca, 100 kilometres south-west of Bogotá. The educational program aims to develop an improved, stronger leadership of trade unions in the country.</div>
A total of 38 participants to the seminar came from ICEM six affiliates in Colombia, and trade union friends of the ICEM in the South American country. As in previous meetings, representatives of the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) in Colombia participated, one activist from Sintraindumecol and two from Sintrametal.
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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Topics covered included precarious work, globalization, political economy, and communications.</div>
The intensive workshop totalled 110 hours, with each participant receiving a diploma as an activist of ICEM Colombia. The participants will continue this training and development in 2012.
The organisers’ goal is to hold a major conference after 15 years of the programme, bringing together the large number of trade union activists who have been trained and educated by the program. This will represent a significant group of activists who can then influence management and government strategy.

ICEM Colombia Seminar of Trade Union Activists

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