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Government-certified leaders of the Botswana Mining Workers&rsquo; Union (BMWU) were escorted off property of Debswana&rsquo;s largest diamond mine, Orapa, on 4 October by security guards. 
Chimbidzani Chimidza and Jack Tlhagale were on site to conduct elections for BMWU&rsquo;s Orapa branch committee, per the union&rsquo;s constitution. Debswana, the joint diamond-mining enterprise of DeBeers and the government of Botswana, is refusing the recognise the union&rsquo;s new leadership, several of whom have been unjustly sacked by the company and BCL, a separate zinc and copper mining employer in the southern African nation.

Botswana Mining Leaders Given Boot by Debswana

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ExxonMobil revealed unfavourable employment plans at two European sites last week. 
In the UK at the Fawley oil refinery, ESSO announced it would recruit foreign labour for contract maintenance, prompting threat of strike action by trade union GMB. Esso said in a statement that consultations with the union to find flexibility in the UK working agreement failed, and that it would reach beyond British workers to find contract labour. Fawley employs 900 full-time staff and 500 contractors. 
In Belgium, the company announced cuts of 550 jobs on 13 October at the ExxonMobil Chemical Films plant in Virton. The firm said excess capacity of polypropylene films, used for food and other labeling, would cause two of 11 production lines to shut in January. Management has been in dialogue with unions since early this year on the restructurings. A union at the plant in southern Belgium did not rule out industrial action.

Job Cuts, Outsourcing for ExxonMobil in Europe

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History was made in the North American offshore oil industry 30 September. Some 120 members of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada won the continent&rsquo;s first offshore oil collective agreement at Terra Nova, a platform 350 kilometers off Newfoundland that is a consortium of seven oil companies led by Petro Canada. 
The agreement came through first contract arbitration in accord with labour law in Newfoundland, which prohibits strikes or lockouts in an initial contract period. &ldquo;It has taken years of patience and solidarity to get to this point,&rdquo; said CEP President Brian Payne. &ldquo;We had hoped for a freely bargained collective agreement but this legally imposed arbitrated settlement is an important stepping stone in improving working conditions.&rdquo; 
The platform workers chose CEP representation by an 84% vote in April 2003, 19 months after workers at another North Atlantic installation called Hibernia voted for CEP, becoming the first NA offshore group to unionise. 
A contract for the 430 workers there is currently before the same arbitration process. Besides Petro Canada, companies with a stake in Terra Nova include ExxonMobil, Norske Hydro, Husky Oil, Murphy Oil, Mosbacher Operating, and Chevron.

First Collective Agreement in NA Offshore Sector

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ICEM energy workers&rsquo; affiliate in Argentina, Federation of Private Oil &amp; Gas Workers (FASPYGP), will launch a nationwide strike beginning today in order to gain pay increases achieved in the oil-producing region of Chubut, Patagonia province. 
Since a month ago, Argentine workers there achieved significant wage increases by striking oil producers such as Repsol YPF of Spain, Pan American Energy, a company 60% held by BP, and Vintage Petroleum, a US independent now merging with Occidental Petroleum. FASPYGP warned there could be fuel shortages in Argentina within 48 hours of any nationwide strike occurring.

Argentina Oil Union Threatens Strike

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Nigerian ICEM affiliates PENGASSAN and NUPENG has stopped privatisation plans of the country&rsquo;s four oil refineries and a separate petrochemical plant until job security demands are met. 
Nigeria&rsquo;s Bureau of Public Enterprises has been attempting to sell off assets of state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), owner of the facilities. Both the white-collar and blue-collar oil workers&rsquo; unions are united in seeking a total severance package including full pensions and benefits for workers before any state asset is sold. 
The unions also seek new negotiations with prospective investors of any of the plants. The NNPC is seeking to transfer workers to its other business divisions instead. 
PENGASSAN and NUPENG have mobilized union members to prevent possible buyers from entering and examining the facilities until demands are met.

Nigerian Oil Unions Halt Privatisation Plans

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Colombian trade unions, together with NGOs and indigenous people&rsquo;s groups convened the largest general strike in over a decade in the South American country on 12 October. 
The strike, called by the national trade union federation CUT, was over the proposed free trade agreement with the US, and a proposed amendment now before Colombia&rsquo;s Constitutional Court that would allow President Alvaro Uribe to stand for a second four-year term next May. 
Strikers also called for an end to consistent trade union repression by the Uribe government, and for the government to take decisive action against paramilitaries, who killed 99 trade union leaders in 2004. Thousands of Colombian judicial, transport and education workers walked off their jobs to join the strike, which forced closure of schools and government offices.

Colombia&#039;s Unions Wage Successful General Strike

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Some 1,300 members of United Steel Workers (USW) in Canada are back to work at Teck Cominco Ltd. following ratification 5 October of a new three-year collective agreement. Steelworkers had been on strike at the company&rsquo;s zinc and lead operations in Trail, British Colombia, since 19 July. 
The strike had been called in order to re-gain wage and pension ground given the company in the 1990s during economic hard times. The new contract has wage increases totaling 10% over the three years, pension gains of 12%, and a C$3,500 cash payment to each worker.

Strike Settled in Canada with Wage, Benefit Gains

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

More Deaths Hit China’s Mines

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

NUMSA Wins Court Ruling in Continental Tyre Dispute

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

NUM Sees Flaw in DeBeers’ Black Empowerment Deal

Archive

Botswana Mining Leaders Given Boot by Debswana

Job Cuts, Outsourcing for ExxonMobil in Europe

First Collective Agreement in NA Offshore Sector

Argentina Oil Union Threatens Strike

Nigerian Oil Unions Halt Privatisation Plans

Colombia's Unions Wage Successful General Strike

Strike Settled in Canada with Wage, Benefit Gains

More Deaths Hit China’s Mines

NUMSA Wins Court Ruling in Continental Tyre Dispute

NUM Sees Flaw in DeBeers’ Black Empowerment Deal

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