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In this issue the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin gives information on the procedure leading to the ILO Recommendation on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work. It also takes up the International AIDS Conference, to be held in Mexico City in August.
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The ICEM Calls on its Affiliates to Contribute to this e-bulletin 
 
ICEM affiliates are already engaged in a wide range of HIV/AIDS activities. To spread the information on new agreements, awareness, and prevention campaigns, and educational activities, affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to hiv.aids@icem.org. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome.
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ILO Recommendation on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work 
 
In March 2007, the Governing Body of the ILO decided to place on the agenda of the International Labour Conferences for 2009 and 2010 an item intended for &ldquo;the development of an autonomous Recommendation on HIV and AIDS in the world of work.&rdquo; 
 
The ILO has begun work towards the adoption of a Recommendation in 2010. Under the Constitution and Standing Orders, five reports have to be prepared within specific time limits, with each report to contain specific information. The first report, called a &ldquo;Law and Practice Report,&rdquo; provides an overview of national and international measures taken with respect to HIV/AIDS. This report was published and sent to governments in January 2008. 
 
The Law and Practice Report, which is available at <a href="http://www.ilo.org/aids">www.ilo.org/aids</a>, also contains a questionnaire to which governments, in consultation with employers&rsquo; and workers&rsquo; organisations, are to provide replies to the ILO by the end of July 2008. Consultation usually occurs through national trade union centres. 
The ICEM calls on its affiliates to get fully involved in this process and make sure that substantive replies, with comments which reflect the views of workers, are provided in time. It is only in this way that the second report, which will be prepared by the ILO on the basis of the replies received, reflects the views of workers and their unions. It is worth noting that workers&rsquo; organisations may also provide their comments directly to the ILO. 
(The item above appeared already in the May issue of the e-bulletin. Because of the importance of the campaign, it is repeated here) 

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17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, 3 &ndash; 8 August 
 
The International AIDS Conference (IAC), organised by the Geneva-based International AIDS Society, takes place every two years. The last one was organised in Toronto in August 2006. The Conference is the largest meeting on HIV/AIDS worldwide. Some 25,000 scientists, politicians and activists are expected to participate in the event. This year&rsquo;s IAC is first ever held in Latin America. 
 
Conference organisers are developing a wide variety of plenary sessions around the theme, &ldquo;Universal Action Now.&rdquo; In addition to these sessions there are satellite meetings, exhibitions, and the Global Village. 
 
It is important that union HIV/AIDS activists participate in this event so that labour&rsquo;s voice is heard. In Toronto, the labour movement was well represented, highlighting the impact of HIV and AIDS on the workplace and emphasising the role of workers&rsquo; organisations in fighting the pandemic. 
 
As in Toronto, the Conference in Mexico will be preceded by a Labour AIDS Forum organised by the Global Union AIDS Programme. The Labour Forum will prepare union representatives for their role in the IAC and will deal with topics such as the challenges at the workplace and raising resources at national level. 
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Botswana Mine Company Launches HIV Survey 
 
The ICEM-affiliated Botswana Mine Workers' Union (BMWU) is involved in an HIV prevalence survey launched by BLC mine to determine whether current prevention efforts are effective. 
 
The exercise will enable the company to have data on the size and distribution of the epidemic among its workforce, and also to help management assess the dynamic and growth of the epidemic since the last survey in 2003. It will also enable BCL to re-plan its interventions, including resource mobilisation for the programmes if the outcome indicates that the current prevention efforts have been ineffective. 
 
The survey of all employees is an anonymous exercise and is not a substitute to voluntary counselling and testing. 
 
(Source: Africa News, 29 May from The Reporter, Botswana) 
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South African Military AIDS Policy Faces Court Challenge 
 
The South African military's blanket exclusions of HIV positive members is not medically justified and ignores government policy. A lawyer for the South African Security Forces Union, which is attempting to force the military to review its HIV/AIDS policy, said the army had failed to implement its own and the government's policies. 
 
&quot;The HIV policy adopted by the cabinet in relation to the military and the Department of Defence is not consistent with the policy implemented by the SANDF (South African National Defence Forces),&quot; lawyer Gilbert Marcus told a hearing at the high court in Pretoria. &quot;The cabinet has adopted a policy that HIV status should not exclude candidates from appointments to the SANDF, although it may preclude their appointment to positions that require extreme physical fitness.&quot; 
 
President Thabo Mbeki and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang are respondents, alongside the military. 
 
According to Marcus, the SANDF has admitted that some 23 percent of its members are HIV positive. &quot;It is simply impossible at this stage to have an HIV-free defence force. The question is how we accommodate this.&quot; 
 
(Source: Pretoria News, 15 May) 
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PEPFAR Re-authorisation 
 
Treatment clients from free clinics run by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in South Africa, Botswana, and Rwanda lobbied US legislators to ensure that access to lifesaving antiretroviral treatment remains a key component of PEPFAR. 
 
The PEPFAR legislation, which is up for re-authorisation by the US Congress, currently requires that a minimum of 55% of funds be spent on treatment, a provision that has been completely removed from the re-authorisation bill. The group also calls for a significant increase in PEPFAR's treatment goals &ndash; up only 50% in the re-authorisation despite a 330% increase in overall PEPFAR funding. 
 
PEPFAR was the result of the 2003 State of the Union pledge to bring two million HIV positive Africans and others into treatment and prevent seven million new HIV infections via a five-year, $15 billion US-funded program. It currently operates in 15 focus countries and claims to support antiretroviral treatment for 1.4 million people worldwide. 
 
(Source: Africa News, 10 May) 
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The World Bank&rsquo;s Commitment to Fight HIV/AIDS 
 
A World Bank report says African countries must continue to champion HIV prevention efforts to slow and reverse the rate of new infections. According to the report &ldquo;The World Bank&rsquo;s Commitment to HIV/AIDS in Africa: Our Agenda for Action, 2007-2011,&rdquo; for every infected person starting antiretroviral treatment, another four to six become newly infected, even as regional figures show falling prevalence in some countries. 
 
&ldquo;With AIDS the largest single cause of premature death in Africa, we can&rsquo;t talk about better, lasting development there without also committing to stay the course in the long-term fight against the disease,&rdquo; said Elizabeth Lule, Manager of the Bank&rsquo;s AIDS Team for Africa (ACTafrica). 
 
With this new Agenda for Action, the Bank is moving away from its initial &ldquo;emergency response.&rdquo; It would commit at least US$250 million a year over the five-year period for HIV/AIDS initiatives built on strategic objectives. It will also establish a grant incentive fund of US$5 million annually to promote capacity building, analysis, and HIV/AIDS project components in key sectors. 
 
(Source: World Bank Press Release, 14 May) 
 
Comment by the editor of the e-bulletin: 
While this long-term commitment is laudable, it is surprising that after the Global Union/World Bank consultations on HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa in Washington in December 2007, workers&rsquo; organisations or trade unions are not even mentioned among the organisations which were consulted in devising this new strategy. It is also surprising that the World Bank stresses the importance of providing people with integrated health services when its policies over years have helped to dismantle public health systems. 
 
Following the consultations last December, the ICEM is pursuing a selective approach, in the sectors it represents, to get its affiliates involved in projects financed by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. The objective is to devise effective workplace activities and capacity building for unions. 
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ILO Says Caribbean Making Progress on AIDS in Workplace 
 
The &quot;Saving Lives, Protecting jobs&quot; report (see e-bulletin no. 32, May 2008) indicates that 70 enterprises in Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago have implemented policies and HIV/AIDS education programmes to promote responsible sexual behaviour, and reduce the level of discrimination faced by people living with the disease. 
 
The report shows a 34% increase in awareness about HIV/AIDS services on the job among workers in the tourism, manufacturing, banking, and finance sectors, as well as taxi drivers. Guyana's largest employer, the Guyana Sugar Company, has been lauded for sustaining the initiatives it implemented five years ago.
It has adopted an HIV/AIDS workplace policy and offers HIV services to workers and managers. An official of the Guyana Trade Union Congress said that 78% of partnering enterprises in Guyana have allocated official working hours to HIV/AIDS education during the last six months. 
 
Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago were also praised for their efforts to target members of the informal economy. The governments of both countries have adopted national policies on HIV/AIDS and recently Trinidad and Tobago took it a step further by launching a National Workplace Policy on HIV/AIDS. 
 
The ILO report, however, pointed out that despite the progress being made in some countries, the region continues to grapple with rising levels of infection, even as treatment reaches more people. The Caribbean has the second highest rate of HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world, after Sub-Saharan Africa. 
 
(Source: Caribbean Media Corporation website, Bridgetown, 21 May) 
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Commentary: Dropping the Ball 
(The following is an abbreviated version of an article which appeared in the Global Fund Observer No. 87, 17 April 2008. It was written by Wycliffe Muga, a Kenyan journalist who is the BBC World Service&rsquo;s &ldquo;Letter from Africa&rdquo; correspondent) 
 
If you stopped an ordinary man in the street here in Kenya and told him that there is a Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria which gives money to help Kenya fight the three diseases, he would probably be pleasantly surprised. For not many people here have any idea that such a fund exists. 
 
And if you then told him that at present, Kenya is only receiving about half of the money it could receive from this fund &ndash; not because the money is being diverted to private bank accounts, but because the people charged with preparing proposals and submitting them to the Fund have been unable to come up with proposals which are acceptable &ndash; the likely response would be one of outrage. 
 
In a country where far too many people die of the diseases which this money is intended to fight, anything less than a perfect proposal prepared well in advance would seem like criminal negligence. 
 
For each of Rounds 1 through 6, the Global Fund's announcing of its &ldquo;Call for Proposals&rdquo; led to a flurry of activity in most developing countries: CCMs met, task teams were put together and consultants were sought. As the deadline for proposal submission got closer, people got more and more frantic. 
It was largely because of this &ldquo;controlled chaos&rdquo; that the Fund agreed two years ago that the Call for Proposals will always be on March 1. Thus, people know months beforehand when the Call will be issued. The idea is to enable CCMs to spend those extra months planning what their forthcoming proposals will focus on and seeking technical support. 
 
So it came as a real surprise when one month AFTER this year's Call for Proposals, rather than two months BEFORE it, UNAIDS headquarters sent out an email to UNAIDS offices around the world, instructing them to take action supporting CCMs as they prepare their proposals and seek technical support. 
 
This was not some unexpected deadline which was arbitrarily imposed on the CCMs. It is a deadline that comes around every year, on a date that is known well in advance. How can it possibly be justified that this great effort is being made this late in the day? 
 
Everybody dropped the ball here &ndash; the civil society groups that pressured UNAIDS to take action, but didn't do so until well after the Call for Proposals; UNAIDS itself, for not getting moving on this until it was pushed by the civil society groups; and those many CCMs that delayed strategizing regarding their Global Fund applications until months later than they should. 
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News from the Global Union Programme and Global Unions 
 
The Global Union AIDS Programme is organising an HIV/AIDS African Regional Consultative and Planning Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 12-13 June. The ICEM will be represented by Project Management Assistant Paula Ndessomin. 
 
In its most recent HIV/AIDS Update (No. 42 of 1 May 2008), the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) (<a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a>) gives a detailed analysis on travel restrictions against people living with HIV. The creation of an International Task Team is a critical opportunity to move towards the elimination of all travel restrictions against HIV-positive people.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin

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An expected conclusion to the 11-day strike in Namibia at Skorpion Zinc yesterday did not occur, due to company insistence that wages be tied to ICEM affiliate Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Namibia (MUN) withdrawing a pending court case. During negotiations yesterday &ndash; talks that were expected to finalise a new labour agreement and end the strike &ndash; management &ldquo;took a full u-turn&rdquo; on many issues resolved over the weekend, according to MUN President Andries Eiseb. 
 
The MUN has suspended the strike, but has given no guarantee that a further walk-out by its 450 union members at the zinc mining and smelting operation near Rosh Pinah in southwestern Namibia will not occur. 
 
In talks yesterday, management linked a 12% pay offer to Skorpion, owned by major mining house AngloAmerican, gaining an exemption from Namibia&rsquo;s Labour Ministry to move to continuous operations. MUN gave the company a promise that it would support such an application to the government, but that pledge hinged on workers immediately gaining the pay hike 
 
Also, Skorpion management changed the effective date of any new agreement, from 1 May 2008 to the effective date of signing.
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The court matter, dating to 2004, involves compensation &ndash; specifically, overtime pay &ndash; on the operation&rsquo;s shift to continuous operations. MUN has argued that overtime pay be tied to the basic requirements contained in Namibia&rsquo;s labour code. 
 
&ldquo;The company&rsquo;s demand that the wage issue can only be settled once the court action has been withdrawn has crippled the whole negotiation process,&rdquo; said Eiseb. &ldquo;We feel we are being kept at ransom to a pending court case, said Eiseb, adding that the company&rsquo;s negotiation posture has been one of &ldquo;bad faith, intimidation, harassment, and arrogance.&rdquo; 
 
The strike by 680 miners at one of the world&rsquo;s richest zinc operations began on 9 May. The ICEM believes that the MUN and its membership has been a steadfast partner in an operation which has provided the London-based company with its largest profit contribution of late. Since Skorpion came fully on line in 2005, zinc prices on global markets have risen more than 300%.

Skorpion Reneges; Deal to Settle Zinc Dispute in Namibia is Scuttled

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The Council of Global Unions, the coordinating body for most of the 11 Global Union Federations, as well as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee of OECD, has launched a new website, <a href="http://www.global-unions.org">www.global-unions.org</a>. 
 
The site will rely on RSS feeds from the representative global bodies and will provide relevant data and timely calls for action on issues concerning global trade unions. The site was launched on 1 May, and in the coming weeks will be further updated to include features. 
 
The website was a creation of a global union communicators&rsquo; task force, and had the technical expertise of the ITUC&rsquo;s Alex Gomes in design and innovation. Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, chaired the task force.
<img height="105" src="" width="160" alt="" />
&nbsp;Education International GS Fred Van Leeuwen
&ldquo;The website is just the latest way to improve how we talk to the world,&quot; stated Fred Van Leeuwen, General Secretary of Education International, who is also chairman of the Council of Global Unions. &ldquo;Global-unions.org is the new starting point for anyone, anywhere, who works and is looking to someone in fight in their corner.&rdquo;

Global Unions Raises New Website to Heighten Profile

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The ICEM filed strong protest with the government of South Korea last week over the detention and deportation of two leaders of the Migrants&rsquo; Trade Union (MTU). President Tornu Limbu and Vice President Abudus Sabur were arrested outside the union&rsquo;s offices in Seoul on 2 May, and held in the Cheongju Detention Centre. 
 
The two were deported by South Korea&rsquo;s Justice Ministry on 15 May, according to a release issued by Amnesty International. Due process was denied them, as they were not given legal rights to challenge the deportation order.
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&ldquo;It is very clear to the ICEM, and its 475 affiliates in 173 countries, that the two have been incarcerated because of their trade union activities, a clear violation of accepted international norms and standards,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda in a letter to the Korean head of Mission at the UN in Geneva last week. &ldquo;Migrant workers, like all other workers, deserve the respect and treatment afforded them under freedom of association, as enshrined in ILO Convention 87.&rdquo; Click <a href="/en/7-Asia-Pacific/2652-ICEM-Letter-to-Korea-Over-Detention-Expulsion-of-Migrant-Workers'-Leaders">here</a> to find the ICEM&nbsp;letter. 
 
Reportedly, both Tornu Limbu, a citizen of Nepal, and Abudus Sabur, from Bangladesh, were beaten while in detention. The crack-down occurred just following newly-elected South Korean President Lee Myung-bak&rsquo;s public vow that foreign workers in the country, who are without the necessary papers, will be flushed out of Korea even through use of force. 
 
Limbu, 42, and Sabur, 39, had been effectively organising migrant workers in the country for 16 and nine years, respectively. Limbu has been a vocal critic of the difficulties and unfairness inherent in the work permit process in Korea for foreign workers.
The MTU and the fight for rights for migrant workers have the backing of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. On 18 March, the plight of migrant workers in Korea was the central focus of a seminar in Geneva, which called on the United Nations to take strong action to ensure that migrant workers work with dignity as part of their basic human rights.

ICEM Protests Expulsions by Korea of Migrant Workers’ Union Leaders

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The Labour Government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown appears to have brokered a deal that will give agency workers new and better rights in the UK. Late last week, negotiators for both the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Confederation of British Industry struck a deal that would bring the UK more in line with the European Union nations that seek a Temporary Workers Directive. 
 
Although some details of the proposed UK law concerning agency workers still need to be worked out, staff of agencies would get job protection rights after 12 weeks of work. Employer groups had sought up to a year&rsquo;s working time before a doctrine of unfair dismissal could take effect. Equal pay and similar work conditions for 1.4 million agency workers also is included in the UK dialogue, although details on those issues are still in discussions. 
 
Last week&rsquo;s news was a clear victory for the TUC and UK&rsquo;s trade unions, which mounted an effective campaign early in 2008 for work rights for agency workers. 
 
In a speech early last week, Brown tipped his hand to the impending agreement, promising legislation that &ldquo;will, for the first time, ensure new rules for the fair treatment of agency workers here in Britain.&rdquo;
<img height="107" src="" width="75" alt="" />
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber&nbsp;
On Wednesday, 14 May, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said of Brown&rsquo;s draft legislative plan: &ldquo;I welcome the Prime Minister&rsquo;s clear recognition that agency workers get a raw deal. Unions will now step up their campaign to secure proper protection and a fair deal for agency workers.&rdquo; 
 
That campaign produced a record 136 MPs supporting a Private Member&rsquo;s Bill on the issue of rights for temp agency workers. That bill, by Labour MP Andrew Miller, which garnered a full third of the House of Commons in February, left little doubt that the Brown Government must act on a draft law. 
 
Winning work rights for agency workers in Britain will also have enormous significance inside the EU, where a directive has been blocked by only a handful of countries, including the UK. The proposed EU directive has a six-week period for temp workers to gain employment rights.

UK Moves Closer to Granting Agency Workers Better Rights

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African trade union leader&nbsp;&nbsp;Fran&ccedil;ois Yao announced that a 34-month dispute between ICEM affiliate National Union of Workers in Electricity, Gas, and Water (SYNASEG) in C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire and Compagnie Ivoirienne d&rsquo;Electricit&eacute; (CIE), a subsidiary of French-based Bouygues Group, ended recently with a framework labour agreement calling for continual social dialogue and respect for trade union rights. 
 
The framework accord was signed on 30 April 2008, after five months of intense negotiations between SYNASEG leaders and CIE. Yao, the SYNASEG General Secretary,&nbsp;announced the agreement at a 1 May, Workers&rsquo; Day, news conference. 
 
&ldquo;We have now opened a new spirit of tolerance and dialogue that will ensure harmony and cohesion within (our country&rsquo;s) electrical sector,&rdquo; he said. He termed the negotiations &ldquo;difficult, but frank and sincere,&rdquo; and credited Bouygues&rsquo; chief manager in C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire, Marcel Zadi Kessy, with providing an atmosphere that made the draft agreement possible.
<img height="66" alt="" src="" width="100" border="1" />
The union will now begin informational meetings with electricity workers across the West African nation in order to inform them of the accord. 
 
The agreement calls for regular, quarterly meetings between the new social partners. It also pledges both parties to a common goal of profitability and lifting the living conditions of CIE&rsquo;s workforce. And specifically, SYNASEG won full participation in the affairs of the Mutual Investment Fund, a fund established years ago for training, placement, and workers&rsquo; needs. It was the company taking unilateral control of that fund in 2006-2007 that brought the dispute to a near strike in March 2007. Workers make contributions to the fund.
<img height="101" alt="" src="" width="220" border="1" />
&nbsp; 
The dispute itself began in 2005 when CIE began systematic attacks on SYNASEG. That was seen as retaliation against the union for its backing of a then government plan to renationalise the utility and end Bouygues&rsquo; 15-year contract. The ICEM had brought the dispute to both global attention, and to the attention of French social partners. 
 
The ICEM commends both its C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire affiliate and the Bouygues affiliate for reaching a framework agreement that will ensure social harmony. &ldquo;We are sure that this recently achieved milestone of mutual respect and joint confidence will carry the SYNASEG-CIE partnership to greater rewards for both workers and the company,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda.

Three-year Dispute Between Côte d’Ivoire’s SYNASEG and Bouygues Subsidiary Ends

13 May 2008 
 
Sung-joo Lee 
Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea 
Avenue de l&rsquo;Ariana 1, CP 2 
CH-1211 Geneva 20 
Switzerland 
 
Transmitted to Fax Nos. 022 748 0001 and 031 356 2444, and e-mail mission.korea-rep@tie.itu.int 
 
Mr Sung-joo Lee: 
 
The International Chemical, Energy, Mine &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM), a Global Union Federation numbering 20 million workers, including tens of thousands in the Republic of Korea, writes to file sincere protest with the recent arrests and detentions of Torna Limbu and Abudus Sabur, the President and Vice President of the Migrants&rsquo; Trade Union (MTU) in your country. 
 
I urge you to convey to your government that such arrests and detentions are contrary to social conventions upheld by international organisations, such as the ILO. I also urge you to insist to your government that the Republic of Korea respect all human and trade union rights. 
 
Information received by the Geneva-based ICEM states that Torna Limbu was arrested in front of his office at 08h20 on 2 May 2008, and that one hour later, Abudus Sabur was also rounded up and arrested. We have received further information that the two are being held in Cheongju Detention Centre. 
 
It is very clear to the ICEM, and its 475 affiliates in 173 countries, that the two have been incarcerated because of their trade union activities, a clear violation of accepted international norms and standards. We call on you to insist that Korean authorities release the two and allow them to carry on their valuable trade union services to migrant workers. Migrant workers, like all other workers, deserve the respect and treatment afforded them under freedom of association, as enshrined in ILO Convention 87. 
 
Without further delay, I demand that the Republic of Korea release the President and Vice President of the MTU, and that your government ensures they are able to continue their legitimate work inside Korea on behalf of migrant workers. 
 
Sincerely, 
 
Manfred Warda 
General Secretary

ICEM Letter to Korea Over Detention, Expulsion of Migrant Workers&#039; Leaders

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Negotiations concluded on 19 June in Baku, Azerbaijan, between ICEM affiliate Oil and Gas Industry Workers&rsquo; of Azerbaijan (OGWUA) and the Caspian Shipyards Co. Ltd., producing wage gains and health and safety improvements for some 1,000 contract employees. 
They work in the construction of offshore rigs for Agip, a subsidiary of Italian energy firm Eni, as well as repairing and upgrading other offshore equipment.
<img height="59" src="" width="120" alt="" />
The mostly Azeri workforce staged a wildcat strike on 11 June over disparate pay and unfair working conditions. 

The workers at Caspian Shipyards, majority owned by Keppel FELS of Singapore, will now have a legitimate workplace organisation under OGWUA. The negotiations result in a US$78 increase to offset inflation, as well as a 6% wage increase retroactive to 1 June 2008. Minimum salaries have also been increased from a low of $US140-per-week to US$300. Further wage talks will occur annually, beginning in February 2009. 

Management at Caspian Shipyards also agreed to continue dialogue on making health and safety improvements, signing long-term contracts, annual paid leave, and reducing the disparity between foreign workers and Azeri workers.
<img height="129" src="" width="280" alt="" />
&ldquo;Our union views the results of these negotiations to resolve the Caspian Shipyards conflict as positive,&rdquo; said OGWUA Chairman Jahangir Aliyev. &ldquo;At the same time, we fully realise that not all of the issues have been resolved. However, the work to resolve the social and economic issues will now continue and appropriate monitoring and implementation has been put in place.&rdquo;

Azerbaijan Oil and Gas Workers’ Union Again Wins Recognition, Pay Gains for Contractors

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A second four-day strike by contract drivers of Royal Dutch Shell in the UK was not necessary for 20-23 June. ICEM affiliate Unite, representing 600 tank-truck drivers of Hoyer and J.W. Suckling Transport Ltd., won a two-year, 14% pay increase for the drivers instead, thanks to a strike two weeks ago that pressured Shell. 
 
The agreement came in the days following the end of the first industrial action on 17 June. Drivers voted by a 453-56 margin to accept a pay package that will give them a 9% this year, and 5% in 2009. The wage gains met Unite&rsquo;s goal of lifting drivers&rsquo; gross pay to &pound;36,000 per year.
<img height="100" src="" width="100" alt="" />
A strike from 13 June to the early morning hours of 17 June stopped petrol supplies at Shell&rsquo;s 950 retail stations in the UK, and severely impacted delivery of fuel for BP, Total, and Esso. Most drivers for those companies refused to cross picket lines at Shell depots and terminals. 
 
The dispute was unique for contract workers, since it saw a union successfully bring pressure on a primary company over low contract fees paid to service providers. Unite&rsquo;s pressure on Shell brought the wage increases for drivers, who are directly employed by Hoyer UK, a transport company based in Germany, and J.W. Suckling, wholly owned by the UK equity firm, Harris Holdings.

Tank-Truck Contract Drivers’ Dispute Ends in UK with Pressure Against Shell

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The seven unions representing more than 3,000 workers at a Michelin tyre plant in the northern Spanish province of Alava have united behind a comrade stricken with Mesothelioma. The unions last week sent a petition to both the company and to the regional Institute of Work Security to trace the presence of asbestos in the 42-year history of the plant. 
 
The Michelin plant is in the city of Vitoria and manufactures 36,000 units per day of car and heavy equipment tyres. In early June, the regional health and safety authority reopened an investigation after a worker employed by Michelin for 30 years was diagnosed with the cancer caused by asbestos exposure.
<img height="79" src="" width="120" alt="" />
Workplace representatives of ICEM affiliates CCOO and UGT were joined by five other unions in the call to clarify the causes of the illness. Michelin denies that it currently uses or has any form of asbestos in the plant, but the company did import the product in years past to insulate the factory&rsquo;s heating pipes. 
 
The Vitoria workers, through their union representatives, sent a pledge of solidarity to the stricken worker, as well as committed to conduct voluntary tests of other workers and to assist in the investigation in any way possible.

Unions Mount Pressure on Cause of Asbestos inside Spanish Michelin Plant

Archive

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin

Skorpion Reneges; Deal to Settle Zinc Dispute in Namibia is Scuttled

Global Unions Raises New Website to Heighten Profile

ICEM Protests Expulsions by Korea of Migrant Workers’ Union Leaders

UK Moves Closer to Granting Agency Workers Better Rights

Three-year Dispute Between Côte d’Ivoire’s SYNASEG and Bouygues Subsidiary Ends

ICEM Letter to Korea Over Detention, Expulsion of Migrant Workers' Leaders

Azerbaijan Oil and Gas Workers’ Union Again Wins Recognition, Pay Gains for Contractors

Tank-Truck Contract Drivers’ Dispute Ends in UK with Pressure Against Shell

Unions Mount Pressure on Cause of Asbestos inside Spanish Michelin Plant

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