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Croatian ICEM affiliate, the Autonomous Trade Union of Energy, Chemical, and Non-Metal Workers&rsquo; (EKN) of Croatia, held its Sixth Congress on 18-19 October, and enthusiastically endorsed an agreement to form, with the Croatian Metal Workers&rsquo; Union, a Confederation of Metal and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union of Croatia. 
 
The EKN Congress gave a vote of confidence to Ivan Tomac, re-electing him President for the next term. Upon congratulating Tomac on re-election, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs commended the union in forging the bond with the Metal Workers&rsquo; Union by stating, &ldquo;We see this initiative as a major breakthrough in the process of uniting organized industry workers in your country and the whole region.&rdquo; 
<img height="212" alt="" src="" width="300" /> 
 
EKN President Ivan Tomac
A special Inaugural Congress of the new confederation was held following the EKN Congress. The creation of this new industrial confederation of workers, now the largest in Croatia, was preceded by three years of negotiations and the signing of a Declaration of Intent in October 2005. Establishing the confederation, which now has its own statutory bodies and president, is seen as a way for the two unions to adjust their respective financial and staff policies with the intent to fully merge the organizations in two years&rsquo; time. 
 
The new Confederation holds its doors open to all trade unions in the relevant industries who wish to join it and make it stronger. The ICEM welcomes this initiative as a unification breakthrough in bringing together a labour movement in a part of the world that has been plagued by so much division. 
 
Besides attendance at the Congress by the ICEM and the European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Workers&rsquo; Federation (EMCEF), to which EKN is affiliated on the global and European levels, guests from fraternal unions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovakia, and Croatia were also in attendance.

Croatia’s Power and Chemical Union Moves to Forge Bonds with Metalworkers

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Nigerian oil workers&rsquo; unions again are spearheading the call for security, as well as meeting the challenges inherent in oil and gas production in a developing country. Two weeks ago, the unions PENGASSAN and NUPENG conducted a three-day workshop in Ibadan, Oyo State, to train union members to the multi-faceted changes taking hold in Nigeria&rsquo;s oil and gas fields. 
 
Those changes include outsourcing, reliance on fixed-term employment, privatisation of government assets, and de-unionisation. The government&rsquo;s inability to deal effectively with the Niger Delta&rsquo;s natural resources is also cause for great concern. 
<img height="116" alt="" src="" width="112" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="105" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The workshops produced a long list of necessary reforms that would help remove corruption from government agencies and bring economic opportunities to the indigenous peoples of the Niger River Delta. 
 
&ldquo;The kidnapping and killing of workers in the Niger Delta Region continues to pose serious threats to the security of our members and other workers in the region,&rdquo; said PENGASSAN President Peter Esele. &ldquo;The vandalizing of oil pipelines by economic saboteurs has continued to keep our refineries without crude, leaving the entire nation to depend on imported petroleum products.&rdquo; 
 
The workshops also painted a critical picture of the Nigerian government, from the Oil and Gas Committee Report that has brought on privatisation and casualisation to its handling of the kidnappings and killings so common in the Delta this year.
The conference was held during a three-week period in which seven foreign nationals, all employed in the oil industry, had been kidnapped by an unknown youth militia group. The seven were abducted on 3 October from an ExxonMobil residential compound in Eseakpan, southern Akwa Iborn State, which is used to house contract workers. The seven were released more than a fortnight later following negotiations between the industry and group. 
<img height="101" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Esele pledged to the trade unionists in attendance that the unions would act as a legitimate &ldquo;pressure group,&rdquo; and that &ldquo;no stone will be left unturned in our efforts&rdquo; to bring economic dignity and opportunities to Nigerian citizens. 
 
In a separate trade union gathering occurring in Akwa Iborn State at the same time, the quarterly meeting of PENGASSAN&rsquo;s Producers&rsquo; Forum called on the Nigerian national assembly to amend the statutes governing the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The body says the commission has failed to address the development needs of citizens in the region. 
 
The Producers&rsquo; Forum suggests that the 3% funding of the NDDC that comes from oil prospecting companies should be directly used by the communities in which these firms operate. The forum proposed that monitoring of such projects be undertaken by the National Petroleum Investment Agency. These recommendations, as part of a seven-point action plan, were passed on to PENGASSAN&rsquo;s national secretariat.

Nigerian Oil Workers’ Unions Offer Common Sense Reforms

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Global multinational, Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Co., has suddenly become protectionist in its US rubber business, or so it would seem from reading the company&rsquo;s strike weeklies, which are aimed at softening 15,000 American workers into giving back more of their hard-earned incomes. 
 
The strike by ICEM affiliate, United Steelworkers (USW), of 16 Goodyear plants in the US and Canada passed the three-week mark on 26 October. The company has expressed its scorn at striking union members, who are trying to protect their livelihoods, by very publicly pronouncing that 300 auxiliary workers will get the sack due to the strike. These workers are USW members that were only recently organised at a steel-thread plant.
The same scorn is heard in the truth-defying words of North American Goodyear President Jon Rich, in his weekly missives. 
 
His message is clear: loyal &ldquo;associates&rdquo; of Goodyear are invited to abandon the strike, abandon the USW as the last front on job protections, and join the corporatist mindset in which security, retirement, and hope will not be part of any equation. &ldquo;As the strike continues,&rdquo; Rich wrote last week, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s tempting to start shifting the focus from &lsquo;what are we trying to achieve?&rsquo; to &lsquo;when will this be over?&rsquo;&rdquo; 
<img height="100" alt="" src="" width="100" />
It&rsquo;s abundantly clear what Goodyear is trying to achieve: the flexibility to slash jobs, cut incomes, and play the hand that it so quickly played at the steel-wire plant just days into the strike. 
 
When will it be over? It is becoming evident by the strikers&rsquo; resolve and their anger at being asked once again to concede to the company&rsquo;s agenda, that it will be over once Goodyear retreats from its concessions and begins treating the last stakeholder in a resounding three-year success story with the dignity and respect it deserves. 
 
&ldquo;Hasn&rsquo;t everyone but our members benefited from the turnaround since 2003?&rdquo; asks a USW spokesman. &ldquo;Despite the innovations we brought to the table and the sacrifices we made, the company is demanding more closures and more concessions.&rdquo; 
USW made contract concessions and agreed, in 2003 negotiations, to one US plant closing in exchange for job security and job-retention policies at the other North American plants. This occurred with Goodyear teetering on bankruptcy. Now, with a 17% global market tyre share and nearly one-half of the company&rsquo;s 2005 revenues, totalling US$19.72 billion, derived from North American operations, Goodyear seeks to unravel those 2003 job-security guarantees, as well as proposing that salaries be cut and retirement benefits slashed. 
Rich said in last week&rsquo;s report that Goodyear is &ldquo;trying to save American manufacturing.&rdquo; In an earlier one, in describing that negotiations are not about &ldquo;labor versus management&rdquo; but rather &ldquo;Goodyear versus the competition,&rdquo; he supplies deplorable protectionist rhetoric, aimed at driving a wedge between US workers and Goodyear workers worldwide. 
 
&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s not lose sight of the bigger flag &ndash; the stars and stripes &ndash; as we are fighting to preserve American jobs and American manufacturing,&rdquo; said Rich in a 13 October letter to striking workers. 
<img height="53" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Current bargaining proposals to close two US tyre plants that provide liveable incomes for nearly 15% of the 15,000, and ripping the living standards out from under the rest is not preservation, but rather, destruction of quality American jobs. &ldquo;How can you talk about saving American manufacturing when you look to close plants and downsize domestic production?&rdquo; adds the USW spokesman. 
 
Goodyear and Rich lay a heavy burden on US workers in these anti-worker messages. In order to gain the requested givebacks, the company continually uses terms such as &ldquo;global competition&rdquo; and &ldquo;competitive disadvantages&rdquo; to describe the global marketplace. But truth be told, Goodyear has been a global leader in driving down labour costs and attempting to achieve bottom-piercing labour precedents by attacking all workers&rsquo; gained rights. 
 
In Turkey earlier this year, it was Goodyear which forced a lockout of its workers in a failed effort to get work-rule concessions from all Turkish rubber workers, including those at two of its competitors. Union members, behind ICEM affiliated union Lastik-Iş, resisted the cuts, and retained their work rights by getting workers to stand shoulder to shoulder at all three tyre-makers. 
 
In Thailand, Goodyear continues to resist placing long-term contract workers in full-time positions, something that the ICEM affiliate pushes as a matter of fairness and dignity for the contract workers. In Malaysia, Goodyear has broken quota levels by employing low-wage foreign nationals in order to drive down Malaysian labour rates. 
 
Goodyear&rsquo;s protectionist cry to American workers rings hollow when the company is busy steering the competition on this downward spiral. 
 
The strike by USW members in the 12 US plants and four in Canada is strong. Strikers see past the company&rsquo;s fear-based rhetoric, and know in their hearts that since they figured strongly in Goodyear&rsquo;s great turnaround, they deserve to be rewarded, not punished. 
 
That sentiment also stands with the people who live in the middle-class towns and communities surrounding the Goodyear plants. They know of the hardships and despair that come to all in the race to the bottom. 
 
Support also came from members of the United Automobile Workers (UAW), who turned out in mass on 25 October to boost USW picket lines at a Goodyear plant in Tonawanda, New York. The same occurred a day later when 100 union members from across Canada gathered at a Goodyear picket line in Owen Sound, Ontario. 
 
Goodyear can wax on all it wants about &ldquo;serving our customers,&rdquo; hinting endlessly that this strike must be broken, and then openly wondering when it will happen. But with steadfast resolve only mounting, and with Goodyear losing production revenues at a rate of US$38 million per day (as estimated by one rubber analyst), an end to this strike appears to be Goodyear&rsquo;s call.

Facts Contradict Goodyear’s Anti-Worker Strike Messages in North America

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The Imerys announcement last July that the French-based building materials company would relocate its UK paper coating operations to Brazil, and sack over 600 workers in the Cornwall region, was a shock to workers, their families, and the communities and towns in the UK&rsquo;s South West. 
 
The news followed prior closure announcements, a 100-member workplace in Lamotte-Beuvron, France, where work was being shifted to Hungary, and job reductions at the Lixhe plant in Belgium. Now comes word that Imerys has been planning even more sackings; jobs at its Minerali SpA plant in Massa, Italy, where workers recently struck in protest to jobs being moved to Turkey. 
 
In the UK, ICEM affiliate Transport and General Workers&rsquo; Union (TGWU) has called for a mass march and rally on Saturday, 18 November, in St. Austell, Cornwall, in protest not only to Imerys&rsquo; community-wrecking job redundancies, but the company&rsquo;s bad-faith bargaining in the official consultation process. 
<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The TGWU and two other UK trade unions that represent Imerys workers in the region are preparing memberships for an industrial ballot. In late September, Imerys&rsquo; workers gave the unions a mandate to call for a ballot when the time and circumstances are ripe. The company has turned a deaf ear on TGWU ideas for job retention and job creation opportunities, and the redundancy package that has been tabled is ridiculously low. 
 
Recently, in what the TGWU is calling &ldquo;misleading spin,&rdquo; the company claimed that a large number of UK workers have already opted for the voluntary redundancy package. A representative of FO C&eacute;ramique, the French ICEM affiliate which is working with TGWU to correct Imerys&rsquo; behaviour, was told the same at Paris headquarters. 
However, Imerys&rsquo; count in the UK merely was on the number of workers who had responded to an inquiry to receive more information on the redundancy package. 
&nbsp;<img height="60" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The closure announcement of the company&rsquo;s Minerali SpA operation in Italy is even more inexcusable. Only a few weeks ago, Imerys CEO G&eacute;rard Buffi&egrave;re answered a question from an Italian trade union CGIL representative on the subject, at a meeting with other trade union representatives present, including the head of the European Works Council, Serge Gonzalez from FO C&eacute;ramique. 
 
Buffi&egrave;re responded by saying that the Italian plant would not be touched. Gonzalez and FO C&eacute;ramique took note, but then an alert came from Italy that jobs would be slashed and a strike commenced. 
 
Striking Imerys workers in Italy ended that industrial action last week when news came that the company withdrew its prior announcement of closing the Massa plant. Negotiations will now restart in Italy on the future of the plant. 
<img height="85" alt="" src="" width="65" />
FO C&eacute;ramique&rsquo;s Gonzalez is currently preparing a document, to be signed by all Imerys unions in Europe. An earlier statement by the workers representatives of the Imerys European Works Council described the current relocation wave as profit driven. The company has posted excellent economic returns, and has no compelling reasons to cause such social distress.

18 November Date for Mass Rally against Imerys in UK’s South West

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1. Increasing of our efforts to sign more global framework agreements not only with companies but also with international branch organisations, like for example CropLife and IFPMA 
 
2. Using the SAICM process to build up a stronger influence on chemicals management, safety and occupational health and safety on a national and regional and global level 
 
3. Organizing of an international exchange of experience dealing with Mergers &amp; Acquisitions (M&amp;A), including the development of a proposal on how to get better involved in the M&amp;A process. 
 
4. Continue the fight against precarious employment and strengthen the common efforts of all ICEM member organisations and all global trade union federations, in order to prevent a further erosion of employee and trade union rights within companies (CAL project) 
 
5. Starting a &ldquo;social dialogue&rdquo; with employers on a global level (for example ILO or global framework agreements with International Employers&rsquo; Organisations) 
 
6. Actively seek to promote the 1990 ILO Safety in the Use of Chemicals at Work Convention 170 and the Globally Harmonized System of Chemical Classification and Labelling (GHS), and engage with the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) regarding trade union involvement in the Responsible Care programme. 
 
7. All ICEM activities will put a serious effort into improving the workplace environment of the chemical industry for women, and improve the possibilities of combining work and private life for men and women. We also ask our affiliates to make sure that the participation of female delegates on international conferences get an appropriate share, and minimally contains one woman (as concluded on last executive meeting).

Action Plan - ICEM World Conference for the Chemical Industries

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&nbsp; 
Reminder to ICEM Affiliates 
 
In our November e-bulletin we have encouraged you to join the campaign on 
World AIDS Day, 1 December 
against stigma, discrimination and victimisation, and for prevention, care and support and treatment. 
 
Please, report back to <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a> on any actions you have taken. 
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="20" />
ICEM HIV/AIDS Workshop in India 
 
21 participants from four ICEM affiliates in the mining, diamond, cement and chemical/electricity sectors participated in a workshop in Puri, Orissa, 16-19 November. The workshop was held at the Gandhi Labour Foundation, which is part of the network of Institutes for Miners and Metalworkers Education (IMME) of the Indian National Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation (INMF). 
 
The workshop was inaugurated by veteran trade union leader, former General Secretary and President Emeritus of the INMF, long-time member of the ILO Governing Body and former Vice President of the MIF, Kanti Mehta. 
 
The objectives of the workshop included the achievement of a solid knowledge about the HIV/AIDS epidemic; the introduction and advocacy of the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work; the development of workplace policies and of a work plan of activities with sustainable funding sources. 
It incorporated a baseline survey of what policies exist and what activities have taken place. IMME had run an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in the Korba area of South Eastern Coal Limited, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited from December 2004 to April 2006 with the support from the Catholic Relief Services. 
 
The workshop answered the question why unions should get involved in HIV/AIDS activities and how they could get involved. Participants drafted a workplace policy which includes non-discrimination and non-victimisation, confidentiality and care and support and came up with an action programme. 
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="20" />
Focus on India 
 
The Indian national response to HIV/AIDS is led by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), a department of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. NACO was created in 1992 and provides the strategy and direction for the whole country. India is a decentralised federation and in each state, a State AIDS Control Society is responsible for coordinating the implementation of the national strategy. 
Besides general awareness, information and behaviour change communication, the strategy is based on targeted interventions aiming at high-risk groups, providing access to VCT, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and, since 2004, access to antiretroviral treatment. 
 
According to the UNAIDS/WHO 2006 Epidemic Update, India is experiencing a highly varied HIV epidemic which appears to be stable in some parts while growing in others. Approximately 5.7 million people, of whom 5.2 million were adults aged 15 to 49 years, were living with HIV in 2005. This is the highest absolute number of HIV infections in the world although the prevalence rate at 0.9% is relatively low due to the large population of more than 1.1 billion. 
 
The majority of HIV infections occur in a few regions. About two thirds of reported infections have been in six of the country&rsquo; 28 states &ndash; mainly in the industrialised south and west and the north-eastern tip. On average, HIV prevalence in those states is 4 to 5 times higher than in the other Indian states. 
 
The bulk of HIV infections in India happen during unprotected heterosexual intercourse. Consequently, women account for a growing proportion of people living with HIV (some 38% in 2005). A large proportion of women have acquired the virus from regular partners who were infected during paid sex. 
In Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra state, for example, 54% and 49% of sex workers have been found to be infected. In such a scenario the likelihood of transmission between sex workers and their clients and their other sex partners is extremely high. Prevention efforts have been started by organisations of sex workers themselves in the state of West Bengal but condom use is still inconsistent in other parts of India. 
 
Injecting drug use is the main risk factor for HIV infections in the north-east and in major cities. In Chennai (formerly Madras), 31% of injecting drug users were found to be HIV positive. 
 
The report states that above all, more must be done to combat stigma, which remains rife in all walks of Indian society and to reduce gender and other inequalities which make HIV prevention and treatment such a huge challenge. 
 
The 3rd Five-Year Plan (NACP III) is currently under preparation. In early November, one of the largest Global Fund HIV/AIDS grants for US$ 259 million over the 5-year grant period was approved for India. 
 
(Source: UNAIDS/WHO AIDS 2006 Epidemic Update and UNAIDS country profile) 
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="20" />
The Gates Foundation in India 
 
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given a US$ 200 million five-year grant to operate an HIV prevention programme on a scale never done before. The Foundation&rsquo;s prevention efforts, known as Ahavan &ndash; a Sanskrit word meaning &ldquo;call to action&rdquo; &ndash; target the commercial sex trade, which is a main transmission route for the infection. 
The challenge is complex. Often the sex trade is nearly invisible with sex workers working out of truck stops or even in small village homes. 
 
One of India&rsquo;s hardest-hit areas, the remote northeast, has an entirely different problem. There, most HIV transmissions come from needles shared by hundreds of drug addicts. 
 
All these problems are confounded by the stigma attached to AIDS in a very conservative society. 
 
Ahavan&rsquo;s strategy has been to adopt a business-style structure. The product is prevention, and the Foundation formed a pyramid structure to get to its consumers. It contracted 15 other organisations which, in turn, work with about 150 grass-root groups. They engage some 5,000 sex workers, many of them HIV-positive, to get the message about condom use out. 
 
(Source: Abbreviated article by Gavin Rabinowitz, AP US and WorldMonday, 3 July 2006) 
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="20" />
NUM Calls for Accelerated Conversion of Hostels 
 
The ICEM affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) called upon the South African mining industry to accelerate the conversion of single-sex hostel accommodation to decent family housing. 
 
Speaking at the 2nd Mining Industry Tripartite HIV/AIDS Summit, NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni reiterated that doing away with single-sex hostels would go a long way in dealing with HIV, AIDS and TB. He said that migrant labour travelling between their communities and the mines was fuelling the epidemic and added that a mineworker housing scheme would establish a family environment, which was more likely to deal with the spread of HIV. 
 
Baleni also urged the mining industry to extent antiretroviral treatment to the partners of mineworkers and singled out AngloGold Ashanti, Anglo Collieries, Gold Fields, Harmony and De Beers as firms only treating their workers. 
 
He told the summit that little progress has been made in prevention since the first summit held in 2003. Baleni called on employers and the government to create a more supportive environment for voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) and said that the peer group support system should be improved. 
 
(Source: Mining Weekly, South Africa, 6 November 2006)
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="20" />
AIDS in Zimbabwe &ndash; Facts and Fiction 
 
In its latest report, UNAIDS cites Zimbabwe as an example of successful prevention measures. Between 2002 and 2005, the prevalence rate among pregnant women has dropped from 29.6% to 20.1%. That would make Zimbabwe one of the most successful countries in the world in the fight against the epidemic. 
 
There are, however, strong indications that government-supplied statistics are more based on fiction than on facts. The almost complete collapse of the health system in the wake of a long and severe economic crisis and an absence of prevention campaigns make it hard to believe that prevalence rates have come done. Furthermore, according to the government&rsquo;s own figures, only 23,000 persons received anti-retroviral treatment at the end of 2005 when 321,000 needed it. 
 
If the prevalence rates among different groups have come down, it is due to other factors such as persons living with AIDS simply dying or that HIV-positive people have left the country in search of work elsewhere. It is estimated that two to three million Zimbabweans have emigrated, mainly to South Africa. 
 
(Source: Neue Z&uuml;rcher Zeitung, Switzerland, 20 November 2006) 
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="20" />
Global AIDS Epidemic Continues to Grow 
 
The global AIDS epidemic continues to grow and there is evidence that some countries are seeing a resurgence in new HIV infection rates which were previously stable or declining. However, declines in infection rates are also being observed in other countries, as well as positive trends in young people&rsquo;s sexual behaviours. 
 
According to the latest figures published in the UNAIDS/WHO 2006 Epidemic Update (www.unaids.org), an estimated 39.5 million people are living with HIV. There were 4.3 million new infections in 2006 with 2.8 million (65%) of these occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and important increases in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where in some countries infection rates have risen by more than 50% since 2004. In 2006, 2.9 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses. 
 
(Source: UNAIDS/WHO Press Release, 21 November 2006)

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 15

&nbsp;<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
ExxonMobil workers in Belgium returned to work on 21 November after a week-long strike in protest of the unfair dismissal of five workers at a refinery in Virton. Work continued inside the refinery behind closed plant gates, preventing any trucks from driving in or out. 
 
On 23 November, workers were forced to reopen the gates after the company had sought and won a legal injunction. According to Belgian union representatives, industrial actions will continue as workers pledge to do whatever it takes to get the US-based oil multinational to respect their rights. 
The spontaneous strike started when it became known that the five workers had been dismissed for &ldquo;not respecting the ethics of the company.&rdquo; Reportedly, the workers were found to have exchanged pornographic e-mails. In addition to the five employees that were dismissed, ten others were temporarily suspended for four days.
<img height="90" alt="" src="" width="80" align="middle" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="29" src="" width="97" align="middle" alt="" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img height="36" alt="" src="" width="100" align="middle" />
While acknowledging that company e-mail networks are not to be used for distribution of erotic material, ICEM affiliated unions from both national centres,&nbsp;FGTB and CSC, claim management&rsquo;s reaction was completely out of proportion. The dismissals are extreme and drastic punishments, condemning workers and their families to hardship. The unions contend that ExxonMobil has suffered no moral or financial harm as a result of the e-mails. 
The unions&rsquo; statement said that there are privacy laws in Belgium which ExxonMobil can not violate. Workers and unions denounced the company&rsquo;s radical position on the matter, saying it can, under no circumstances, agree with a company that believes it owns the right to decide what is right and what is wrong. 
 
The unions have taken the matter to court and demand the reinstatement of the workers. They also call on ExxonMobil to bring its &ldquo;code&rdquo; before the unions for discussion. The code, FGTB and CSC believes, must conform to Belgian law.

Belgian ExxonMobil Workers Strike after ‘Unethical E-mail’

&nbsp;<img height="40" src="" width="100" alt="" />
Balloting is underway among paperworkers represented by three UK unions to turn the page on the adversarial relationship that has dominated the country&rsquo;s papermaking industry. 
 
A new framework &ldquo;Partnership Agreement&rdquo; has been agreed to by senior industrialists and national officers of Amicus, the Transport &amp; General Workers Union (TGWU), and GMB, together with Britain&rsquo;s Confederation of Paper Industries, an employers&rsquo; grouping of pulp, paper, and converting companies. 
<img height="62" src="" width="120" align="middle" alt="" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<img height="70" src="" width="70" align="middle" alt="" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="55" src="" width="100" align="middle" alt="" />
The agreement sets out modern approaches to the employment relationship across the sector, and includes as its motto &ldquo;Work Together, Grow Together, Stay Together.&rdquo; The three unions briefed local branch leaders on the agreement earlier in November, and union leaders are recommending that workers now accept the concept. 
 
&quot;The new agreement is an important step in securing modern working terms across the industry, such as work-life balance, actively promoting learning and skills, providing safer workplaces, promoting dignity at work and giving employees an opportunity to be informed and consulted, and actively involved in improving the performance of their workplace,&quot; said Amicus Assistant General Secretary Tony Burke. 
<img height="102" src="" width="100" alt="" />
According to the independent chairman of CPI, Professor Frank Burchill, &ldquo;The agreement provides an essential framework for all the parties to work as partners in tackling the challenges in securing a healthy future for the papermaking industry.&quot; 
 
The agreement, if passed, is expected to take effect in early 2007. 
 
UK&rsquo;s papermaking industry employs over 10,000 people in over 60 worksites, but has struggled to remain competitive in the face of reduced output coupled with high energy costs. Papermaking, along with printing in the UK, is one of the few industries to have industry-wide bargaining.

UK Unions Could Embark on New Partnering Relationship in Paper Sector

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Some 1,000 German coal miners will convene in Dresden tomorrow, 28 November, to lobby the Christian Democratic Party to preserve federal coal subsidies. 
 
Miners will handbill the CDU&rsquo;s Congress with a leaflet entitled &ldquo;We Fight for Germany&rsquo;s Energy Future&rdquo;, aimed at reminding German Chancellor Angela Merkel of promises she made to the preservation of the country&rsquo;s coal mining industry. 
 
The action is supported by ICEM German affiliate IGBCE. 
 
Some 700 miners will arrive from the Ruhr region and from Ibbenb&uuml;ren, some 300 others from the province of Saarland. The miners and their union are reacting to motions passed by CDU&rsquo;s North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland regional delegations to reduce the current level of coal mining in those areas, as well as proposing to phase-out mining subsidies by the first half of the next decade. 
<img height="62" src="" width="100" alt="" />
The miners contend that domestic coal is necessary in a balanced energy mix, and argue that Germany has become too dependent on imports of both coal and natural gas. 
 
The handbilling campaign also seeks to remind Merkel, as well as North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister J&uuml;rgen R&uuml;ttgers and Saarland Prime Minister Peter M&uuml;ller, of pledges they made that any adjustments in the coal mining industry would be socially acceptable, and occur without closures to existing mining operations.

German Coal Miners Take Protest to CDU Congress on 28 November

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;
Following failed bargaining between negotiators for the United Steelworkers (USW) and the Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Co. from 14 to 17 November, the ICEM North American affiliate has heightened its safety and awareness campaign against the US tyre-maker. 
 
On 2 December, the USW will dispatch hundreds of strikers and supporters to 13 cities in the US and Canada to handbill Goodyear retail outlets. The effort, following a similar one on 18 November, will call attention to possible safety defects of Goodyear tyres to be sold in America. The company is attempting to run production at several of the 16 plant sites that are currently on strike with managers and temporary workers. 
<img height="109" alt="" src="" width="350" />
The USW has erected an &ldquo;Investor Alert&rdquo; website, <a href="http://www.usw.org/goodyearalert">www.usw.org/goodyearalert</a>, aimed at some 15,000 industry analysts, in an effort to drive the company&rsquo;s stock price down. The site calls into question Goodyear&rsquo;s third-quarter earnings report, and gives a truthful account of the company&rsquo;s future while skilled crafts-people are on strike. 
 
A total of 55% of the company&rsquo;s outstanding shares is owned by ten institutional investors.
The USW has also begun using a video-sharing site called YouTube to educate the public about the strike and the safety concerns stemming from union members being out. That site can be found at <a href="http://www3.youtube.com/watch?v=QDKGJu5eMZo">http://www3.youtube.com/watch?v=QDKGJu5eMZo</a>. 
The union has moreover begun targeting the NASCAR racing circuit, which is 100% supplied by Goodyear, providing high-quality and expensive race car tyres. USW begins a renewed radio advertising campaign this week, targeting consumers in the New York City area with the safety alert. 

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That alert is reminiscent of the campaign the union engaged in against Bridgestone/Firestone some 11 years ago. After that lockout, researchers at Princeton University in the US state of New Jersey examined the causes of the Ford Motor recall of 14.4 million Firestone tyres, and linked it to the temporary workers utilised during the dispute. 
 
These tyres were later linked by the US National Highway Safety Transportation Authority to some 271 road fatalities and more than 800 injuries. 
The Goodyear strike at the 16 US and Canadian tyre and auto accessory plants by 15,000 steelworkers began on 5 October, after America&rsquo;s biggest rubber company proposed harsh concessions and refused to guarantee job security at the unionised plants. 
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The proposed concessionary terms include closing company-paid health care coverage for retirees and a two-tier wage scheme in which new employees will be paid US$13-per-hour with no future opportunity to make what current rubber workers earn. The company also seeks to close at least one tyre-making plant, in Tyler, Texas, where 1,100 workers are employed. 
 
In the mid-November bargaining &ndash; the first talks since the strike began &ndash; Goodyear proposed to create a US$600 million trust fund for retiree health care. The Akron, Ohio-based company, however, carries a US$1.2 billion liability for retiree care. The proposed US$600 million trust would only provide current retirees with six years of coverage, leaving nothing for future retirees. 
 
The USW has promised to escalate the campaign to an even higher level if the strike is not settled by the first of 2007. The Steelworkers&rsquo; general website on all Goodyear related activity can be found at <a href="http://www.gkdsolidarityexpress.org">http://www.gkdsolidarityexpress.org</a>.

Steelworkers Ramp up Campaign Surrounding North American Goodyear Strike

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