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The quadrennial National Convention of the Mining and Energy Division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining &amp; Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia was held last week in Queensland, and delegates took up two critical issues: ending the 11-year reign of Prime Minister John Howard later this year and adoption of clean coal technologies. 
 
Coming under a unified banner entitled &ldquo;For a Clean, Safe, and Secure Future,&rdquo; CFMEU delegates from mines, power stations, oil refineries, and coal ports came together on 14-18 May during a pivotal time in Australia. The entire labour movement in Australia has been besieged by radical workplace reforms, passed in 2005 by the Howard government. 
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As well, the union has embarked on a critical climate change position, intended to preserve Australia&rsquo;s ranking as the world&rsquo;s biggest coal exporter, while working diligently to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 
 
Delegates heard from Australian Labour Party leaders on the ALP&rsquo;s agenda to unseat Howard in November with Kevin Rudd. And more importantly, they heard from Australian Council of Trade Unions Secretary Greg Combet on how labour unions will mobilise to get that job done. 
 
The enactment of Howard&rsquo;s WorkChoices law has opened the way for employers to scuttle collective agreements in favour of individual work contracts, also known as Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs). CFMEU delegates were critical of the country&rsquo;s mining and metals employers&rsquo; association, as well as of mining houses Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. Both companies call for the preservation of individual contracts in order not to suffer decreased productivity they claim will total A$6.6 billion. 
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That claim, made in February in the face of a growing public groundswell against Howard&rsquo;s industrial reforms, is far from the truth. A good majority of coal miners in Australia are covered by collective agreements, while virtually no AWAs exist in the sector. And productivity growth of the coal sector has averaged nearly 3% for each year dating back a decade. 
 
CFMEU&rsquo;s Mining and Energy Division has adopted policies related to massive investments for clean coal technologies, increased use of renewable energy sources, and carbon emissions trading. The union also supports ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. 
 
The convention included a session on global solidarity, which featured ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, South Africa&rsquo;s National Union of Mineworkers General Secretary Frans Baleni, as well as Maritime Union of Australia National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. Tony Maher serves as General President of the CFMEU&rsquo;s Mining and Energy Division.

CFMEU’s Mining, Energy Convention Occurs at Critical Juncture in Australia

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Labour Unions in the US, including ICEM affiliates United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), the United Steelworkers (USW), and the United Auto Workers (UAW), begin bargaining this week with General Electric (GE) over a new collective agreement. 
 
Some 23,000 US workers belonging to 13 unions negotiate jointly as the Coordinating Bargaining Committee of GE Unions (CBC). They have a four-year labour agreement with US-based manufacturing and financial services company General Electric expiring on 17 June 2007. 
 
Central among issues are expected to be job security, health care, and pensions. GE, which posted US$20.7 billion in net profit last year, is expected to seek greater cost-sharing of health care expenses from workers, curtailments on early retirement eligibility for staff, and reduced benefit levels, including pensions, for newly-hired workers. The unions will resist such proposals. 
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GE, which increased its dividend to shareholders for the 31st consecutive year in 2007 and spent US$8 billion last year on a share buy-back plan, is a major world manufacturer of plastics and chemicals, airplane and rail engines, power turbines, energy and gas equipment, as well as medical equipment. GE also owns major US broadcasting and television company NBC. 
 
Besides the UE, USW, and UAW, other US-based trade unions involved in the CBC include: the IUE-CWA, Machinists Union, NABET-CWA, Teamsters, Electrical Workers (IBEW), Federation of Professional &amp; Technical Engineers, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), Sheet Metal Workers Union, the United Association of Plumbing and Pipefitters Union, and SEIU&rsquo;s Firemen &amp; Oilers Division. 
 
The UE, the coalition&rsquo;s second largest union of GE workers, will host a CBC-wide contract rally on 2 June in Erie, state of Pennsylvania, home of two of the UE&rsquo;s branch unions that represent GE workers.

US Unions Begin Bargaining at General Electric This Week

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A peaceful protest by 1,000 members of ICEM&rsquo;s two Nigerian oil workers&rsquo; affiliates &ndash; PENGASSAN and NUPENG &ndash; was met by 150 riot police last week, 17 May. The protest occurred at the national headquarters of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) in Abuja, while privatisation bidding on two NNPC refineries was going on elsewhere in the Nigerian capital city. 
 
Trade unionists blocked traffic in and out of the NNPC building for the better part of the day. 
 
The unions were not objecting to the privatisation of refineries in Port Harcourt and Kaduna, but rather to NNPC ignoring a memorandum it signed with the two unions only last week allowing them to carry out independent audits of the refineries before the sales occur. 
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The concerns of the two unions centre on the loss of 4,000 jobs, with no plan on how to meet the pension commitments of sacked workers. &ldquo;We are saying, yes you can privatise, but let us sit down and thrash out the labour issues,&rdquo; Williams Ibiba Inko, NNPC&rsquo;s union chair and leader of the protest, told This Day newspaper. 
 
&ldquo;This process is going to kill our pension. Most of the concerned staff has passed the employment age bracket,&rdquo; said Inko, adding the memorandum calling for due process by workers&rsquo; representatives was signed by the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE). &ldquo;We believe (the process) is being hijacked by the BPE to suit its purposes.&rdquo; 
 
As part of last Thursday&rsquo;s protest, PENGASSAN and NUPENG also lodged stop-work actions at NNPC operations in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Mosimi, and Kaduna. All of the protests remained peaceful and no arrests were made. 
 
Bidding on the federal government&rsquo;s 51% stake in the Port Harcourt refinery, Nigeria&rsquo;s largest with a capacity of 210,000 barrels-per-day, was awarded to a Nigerian consortium called Bluestar Oil, for US$561 million. Bluestar is composed of the Dangote Group, Nigeria&rsquo;s biggest cement producer, Zenon Oil, Transcorp, and the Rivers State government. Sale of 51% of the Kaduna refinery, however, was not completed after the lone bidder, China National Petroleum Corp., failed to meet the reserve price. CNPC&rsquo;s bid was US$102 million. 
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The BPE last week conducted privatisation bids on 18 public entities, including electric power, cement, and palm oil companies, as well as liquid petroleum gas depots, and coal and other mining blocks. 
 
Meanwhile, PENGASSAN President Peter Esele is pleading with militants in the Niger Delta to stop committing violent acts in the region, since such acts hamper legitimate development. Esele spoke out after three oil pipelines of Italian company Eni were blown up during the week of 7 May in Bayelsa state. 
 
&ldquo;The effect of blowing up pipelines is grave,&rdquo; he said in an interview with This Day. &ldquo;It is very dangerous to the environment because it pollutes and it increases the costs&rdquo; for development. PENGASSAN and NUPENG call for a truce in the unstable Delta region, so that development and investment can serve as a means to reduce poverty.

Nigerian Oil Unions Protest Lack of Transparency in Refinery Sales

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Meeting in Brussels on 10-11 May, the ICEM&rsquo;s Executive Committee passed two separate resolutions, one calling on multinational companies not to interfere with new labour regulations being proposed in China, and one declaring continued support and solidarity for strikers at German-based Fresenius Medical Care&rsquo;s Novamed factory in Turkey. 
 
The ICEM Executive also tabled several resolutions that will be considered at its Fourth World Congress this November in Bangkok, Thailand, including continuation of projects on HIV/AIDS and Contract and Agency Labour. 
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GLOBAL UNITY, GLOBAL EQUALITY
ICEM 2007 World Congress logo
The resolution on the draft Chinese labour law condemns those companies which attempt to water down the draft labour law of China&rsquo;s government. The motion notes that even though the proposed law falls far short of common international standards regarding workers&rsquo; rights, some companies operating inside China oppose implementation of new labour regulations. 
 
The ICEM also calls on multinational companies not to oppose the movement of workers in China to form &ldquo;free, strong and independent trade unions.&rdquo; The resolution, in its entirety, can be found <a href="/index.php?id=7&amp;doc=2259&amp;la=EN">here</a>. 
 
Regarding the ongoing dispute that ICEM Turkish affiliate Petrol-Iş is waging on behalf of 84 strikers, 82 of whom are women, the ICEM resolution deplores the conduct of Novamed. The company operates in the Antalya Free Trade Zone and makes bloodline and kidney dialysis equipment. 
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Novamed strikers in Antalya Free Trade Zone, Turkey
Managers of the company caused the strike, in September 2006, by severely restricting workers&rsquo; rights, particularly those of women. Such inhumane practices as making women apply for permission to become pregnant, forbidding employees from talking on the job, and threatening to move the plant from Turkey unless workers reject Petrol-Iş were severely criticised by ICEM Executive members. 
 
The ICEM resolution states: &ldquo;The practice of restricting women&rsquo;s maternity rights is against ILO Conventions and EU directives and does not suit a country applying for membership in the European Union.&rdquo; Workers at Novamed GmbH organised with Petrol-Iş in March 2005, but the company has refused good-faith bargaining for an initial collective agreement. 
 
The ICEM resolution on Novamed&rsquo;s horrid labour relations can be found <a href="/index.php?id=71&amp;doc=2258&amp;la=EN">here</a>.

ICEM Executive Passes Motions on China’s Draft Labour Law, Dispute in Turkey

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Union members of ICEM affiliate Engineering Printing &amp; Manufacturing Union (EPMU) in New Zealand were back to work on 4 May, following a three-day lockout imposed by Australian-based Amcor paper and packaging company. 
 
Fifty EPMU members were locked off their jobs at a paper converting facility in Auckland on 1 May. The workers were resisting staffing cuts that would have reduced the factory to unsafe manning levels. 
 
&ldquo;These workers were prepared to stick this out as long as it took,&rdquo; stated EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little. &ldquo;They are relieved this dispute has come to a close so quickly.&rdquo; 
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Amcor lock-out in New-Zealand
Added Little, &ldquo;Our members tried to negotiate in good faith and were met with the most extreme and militant response an employer can make. It&rsquo;s good to see common sense has prevailed and they can now get back to doing their jobs under fair and equitable circumstances.&rdquo; 
 
The negotiated end of the lockout consisted of maintaining staffing levels without redundancies, an extra week&rsquo;s service and shift leave, the industry standard pay raise, and a day&rsquo;s pay to cover part of the lockout period. 
 
Amcor, a major global producer of flexible packaging, last week announced a European restructuring plan that could cut 900 of the company&rsquo;s 7,600-member workforce in Europe. The plan focuses on shifting work to Eastern and Southern Europe. The company triggered this restructuring in February, by announcing construction of a plastic extrusion facility in Poland.

EPMU Members Win Guarantees in Short Lockout by Amcor Packaging

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Union members of the United Steelworkers (USW) in eastern Canada ended a seven-week strike at the Iron Ore Co. of Canada (IOC) two weeks ago. USW members, numbering some 1,300 at two Canadian locations, approved five-year labour agreements, on 25 April and 26 April. 
 
IOC is 59% owned by Australian mining company Rio Tinto. It is Canada&rsquo;s largest producer and exporter of iron ore. 
 
The new accord gives workers wage increases over the five-year term, as well as a ratification bonus of C$4,000 per worker. It also gives workers increases in pension benefits, lifts the ceiling on medical benefits, and grants travel allowance increases. 
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More importantly, the strike blocked IOC&rsquo;s attempt to gain unlimited right to contract out work, and miners and dockworkers preserved their seniority language. 
 
The successful strike counted some 1,050 miners and iron ore processing plant workers in Labrador City, province Newfoundland. That strike began on 8 March. On 19 March, 250 port and dock workers at Sept-Iles, province Quebec, strengthened the strike by their walk-out. 
 
IOC is a major exporter of iron ore pellets and concentrates to steelmakers in Europe and Asia. Besides Rio Tinto&rsquo;s majority stake, publicly-traded Labrador Iron Ore Income Fund has an ownership stake. That holding, admitted in a 3 May posting, that the strike affected the timing of cargo shipments, which will affect IOC&rsquo;s first quarter 2007 sales and earnings.

USW Miners Preserve Contract Language at Rio Tinto in Canada

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An eleventh hour wage settlement by petroleum companies and workers has averted a scheduled strike by 5,500 members of Belgian trade unions. Sectoral bargaining in Belgium&rsquo;s energy sector had hit a standstill and was heading to a 10 May strike, before trade unions and industry representations reached accord late last week. 
 
Workers are now studying the proposal and are expected to vote on the offer soon. 
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ExxonMobil and Total refineries near Antwerp would have been severely affected, and the industry association predicted a crippling supply and transport problem of 700,000 barrels per day if the strike had happened. It predicted fuel pump increases and shortages. 
 
Other oil and petro-chemical operations attached to Belgium&rsquo;s employers&rsquo; association also would have been affected. 
 
The major oil refiners and some others had begun decreasing production in late April to order to guarantee safe and secure shutdowns in the event of a strike.

Wage Settlement Averts Scheduled 10 May Petrol Strike in Belgium

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Italy&rsquo;s three major unions came together on 23 April for an eight-hour strike against Pfizer pharmaceutical. The unions protested Pfizer&rsquo;s destructive job losses at a time in which the US-based company is posting record earnings. 
 
Italian unions FILCEM-CGIL, FEMCA-CISL, and UILCEM-UIL rallied 2,400 workers at a manifestation in Rome at the offices of the Labour Ministry and the Economic Development Ministry. 
Inside a mass worldwide restructuring plan, Pfizer has targeted the sacking of 440 research and development staff in Italy, as well as curtailment of antibiotic production in Varese, Italy. The unions also object to the February sale of a business in Nerviano, and cite some 2,200 staff that have been discharged since 2003. 
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Workers at the Rome manifestation included staff from four Pfizer worksites &ndash; Latina, Ascoli, Pisticci, and Nerviano &ndash; which are affected under the giant drug-maker&rsquo;s restructuring plan. 
 
Pfizer earlier this year announced that 10,000 jobs would be cut worldwide. The company announced this in the face of quarterly profit returns of US$9.45 billion. Pfizer cited competition from generic drug-makers as a reason for the 2007 restructuring.

Italian Unions Protest Pfizer’s Cuts in Rome

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Spanish and Portuguese workers of Compagnie Saint-Gobain will join French workers in strike action on 11 May, as called by four unions at all French plants of the major global glass and materials producer. 
 
The strike has the united support of the CGT, CFDT, FO, and CFTC, and the four unions have called 60,000 Saint-Gobain workers to strike in protest to the Paris-based company&rsquo;s industrial decisions. 
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Central among issues is Saint-Gobain&rsquo;s uncertainty over its Desjonqu&egrave;res glass business. Saint-Gobain is exploring either a sale or a spin-off of this business. 
 
The workers&rsquo; representatives in France, which called for the 11 May action, say the company has made strategic choices that have adversely affected employment. They cite the acquisition of British Plasterboard as one example of a non-strategic business decision. 
 
Trade union representatives from France met with Spanish and Portuguese glass-union leaders in Lisbon on 17 April to plan next week&rsquo;s action. 
 
The one-hour strike this coming Friday is just another in a series of escalating protests to Paris managers of Saint-Gobain. In February, the four unions already brought hundreds of workers from four factories to a manifestation outside the company&rsquo;s headquarters at La D&eacute;fense near Paris. 
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Saint-Gobain workers demonstrating early 2007
Saint-Gobain faces labour turmoil in other sectors in France as well. On 6 March, 100 workers took strike action at an abrasives factory in Nazelles-N&eacute;gron. The CGT called that strike over stalled wage negotiations. Another recent strike at a Saint-Gobain plant in Ch&acirc;teaubernard tells the level of discontent inside the company. A spontaneous monetary collection by workers at another operation netted &euro;7,788 for the Ch&acirc;teaubernard strikers.

French Workers to Strike Saint-Gobain 11 May in Three Countries

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More than 300 rubber workers mobilised to direct action recently in Callao, Argentina, seeking a negotiated settlement already agreed to with major rubber companies. The workers marched to the office of the Work Ministry behind the banner of ICEM affiliate Sindicato Unico Trabajores del Neum&aacute;tico Argentina (SUTNA), demanding the negotiated package that is already in place at the major tyre producers, Bridgestone, Pirelli, and FATE. 
 
The labour dispute is currently before a government conciliation process. 
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Earlier this year, SUTNA won 38% wage increases for 4,000 workers at the major firms. SUTNA Gen. Sec. Pedro Wasiejko also has pledged that, in this round of national rubber bargaining, no worker would earn less than 2,741 pesos (&euro; 600) per month. 
 
The 300 rubber workers in Callao have placed this minimum monthly salary demand as a priority. They also seek the pay packages earned at the tyre factories. 
 
Wasiejko said that across the entire Argentine rubber sector, labour costs are but a small fraction of total production costs. According to the Argentine labour leader, rubber companies can afford the pay raises. Such labour cost increases will not affect the customer or the consumer.

Rubber Workers Take Action in Argentina to Achieve Pattern Agreement

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