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In Ukraine, ICEM affiliates are seeking to block a section of labour reform currently in the country's legislative assembly, the Rada. The specific section is Chapter 3, Book 4 of the draft labour code, which would grant loopholes to small businesses regarding union membership. Such an exclusion would not only run counter to ILO Conventions, but also infringe on Ukraine's Constitution and existing law. To exclude this particular section, ICEM affiliates and labour activists are encouraged to write to Volodymyr Lytvyn, chairman of the Rada, at fax +38 044 255 41 70, or Yuriy Yekhanurov, chairman of the Industry Policy Committee, at fax +38 044 255 2495.

Ukrainian Unions Seek to Block Business Loopholes in New Law

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Strike action by ICEM affiliate Paperiliitto against Finland’s paper manufacturers intensified this week with near total shutdowns on 16-17 May of all paper mills following failure of mediated talks over the weekend. Employers now threaten a two-week lockout beginning 18 May in retaliation. 
After pulling out late last year from the national incomes policy agreement, the employers’ Forest Industries Federation is now seeking rash concessions including eliminating Christmas and mid-summer shutdown days, greater flexibility including 12-hour shifts and sick leave cuts, making the first two days unpaid. 
That proposal, however, was tempered some in recent mediation. Paperiliitto’s resistance to the irrational proposals has been boosted by the commitment of ICEM affiliate Svenska Pappers. The union has imposed a ban on overtime in its papermills in Sweden, and will refuse to perform work shifted into Swedish paper mills from mills in Finland. Some six major companies are involved: Stora Enso, UPM Kymmene, M-Real, Metsä Tissue, Ahlström and Myllykoski.

Finnish Paper Union Strikes Against Harsh Concessions

The ICEM mourns the death of Hungarian trade union leader Lajos Főcze, retired president of the Chemical, Energy, Paper and General Workers’ Unions (VDSZ). He died 3 May at age 68. Brother Főcze was the first Eastern and Central European trade union leader to seek solidarity and affiliation with the ICEF, predecessor to the ICEM. 
In 1990, he was a founding member of the Autonomous Trade Union Confederation of Hungary and served as its president until his retirement in 1999. He began his career with VDSZ in 1974 as a specialist in workers’ safety and social policy. He was president of VDSZ from 1988 to 1999. The ICEM, along with the entire Hungarian trade union movement, will remember Lajos Főcze as a tireless advocate of a free trade union movement globally.

ICEM Saddened by Loss of Hungary’s Lajos Focze

Harmony Gold retreated from its illegal retrenchments in the Free State before a South African mediation commission. ICEM affiliate NUM pressed the matter on the legal front, effectively gaining a significant social rights judgment from the courts in the face of Harmony’s current hostile takeover of bigger rival, Gold Fields. 
The company had unilaterally abrogated a prior agreement and commitment by sacking 5,000 miners in a restructuring move. A court ruling and Harmony’s retreat now means the jobs of the 5,000 are secured. 
Meeting in Midrand on 12-14 May, the NUM’s Central Committee harshly criticized Harmony along with DRDGold, IngweCoal and DeBeers for job destruction inside South Africa. In related gold mining news, the NUM said a safety rep for the union had raised structural questions in mid-April about the Driefontein Mine of Gold Fields. The report cited the company with using temporary support structures in one portion of the mine while it was being operated. On 11 May, an earth tremor shook the mine, killing five and injuring three.

Harmony Gold Retreats from Job Retrenchments in Free State, SA

Nigerian Labour Congress President Adams Oshiomhole was arrested 9 October at gunpoint by the country’s secret police. The arrest came on the eve of today’s mass general strike called by the NLC that ICEM affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN are supporting. The strike is over the government’s 15% October petrol price hike. The NLC has become the leader of mass dissent among Nigeria’s population over government’s failed social and petroleum policies. In September, a federal court in Abuja ruled that the position of NLC president does not exist under law and the labour federation has no power to call a strike.

Nigerian Secret Police Arrest NLC President

Shell Employees Union of Batangas, an independent and fearless rank-and-file trade union at Shell in the Philippines, threatened to strike a refinery in Batangas Province over the company’s proposal to place a moratorium on wage increases. In mid-September, the Philippines labour secretary took jurisdiction of the dispute, a move objected to by the 100-member union. Shell has placed the future of the 100,000 b/d refinery in jeopardy and the refinery’s general manager said at the weekend that it suffers from insignificant investment by the super-major. Shell’s Tabangao refinery is one of only two refineries in the Philippines.

Philippines Union Threatens to Take On Shell Over Wages

20 October will go down as a day of death in China’s coal mines. Four disasters found 123 dead, including—at last count—77 miners of state-owned Zhengzhou Group at Xinmi, Henan province, the worst mine catastrophe in recent years. At the weekend, 71 are still missing from the 20 October gas explosion that tore through several shafts at one of Zhengzhou’s larger coalmines. Two other gas blasts added to the death count. Five were killed, 8 still missing at a blast in the southern province of Guizhou and near the southwestern Chinese city of Chongquing, another 12 perished in a natural gas explosion. The fourth 20 October disaster occurred at the Desheng coal mine in Wu’an, Hebei province, when flooding cased the deaths of 29 miners.

Day of Death in Chinese Coal Mines, 20 October 2004

The All Pakistan Trade Union Federation held a mass rally and march across several industrial areas of Lahore. The demonstration was against government policies restricting wage hikes and collective bargaining, as well as rampant retrenchments and price hikes. Similar protest meetings were held in several industrial cities across Pakistan. The protests continued with a major march in Rawalpindi on 6 October.

Pakistan Labour Marches Against Government’s Labour Stand

A week-long strike by ICEM affiliate Associated Mineworkers of Zimbabwe (AMWZ) ended 13 October with agreement by the Chamber of Mines to enter arbitration over a wage dispute. Specifically, to enter into wage talks quarterly, as promised by the employers’ group early this year. AMWZ won a ruling last month that financial incentives granted mine owners by the government and reserve bank must be passed to workers. The Chamber was appealing that ruling, thus the strike by 25,000 workers in coal, platinum, chrome, gold and other minerals. The AMWZ is insistent on quarterly wage bargaining since Zimbabwe’s inflation rate runs at near 600%.

Zimbabwe’s Miners Come to Terms’s with Chamber of Mines

Affiliate CEP in Canada held its 6th National Convention in Quebec City and pledged to raise C$500,000 for HIV/AIDS relief in Africa. The money will be channelled through CEP’s Humanity Fund which union members support by payroll deductions of one cent per hour. CEP also made a firm pledge to keep open the Mirimichi, New Brunswick, kraft pulp mill currently being shut by Finnish UPM Kymenne. By acclamation, Brian Payne was re-elected president of the 150,000-member CEP and Andre Foucault as secretary-treasurer.

CEP’s Congress in Canada Moves on Providing HIV/AIDS Relief

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