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Meeting in Bogot&aacute;, Colombia, on 27 April, the ICEM Latin America/Caribbean Regional Committee gave strong support to non-ICEM affiliate Sintramienerg&eacute;tica in the aftermath of its safety strike against US-based Drummond Coal recently. (Details on that strike can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3151-Contract-Worker-Death-Causes-Safety-Strike-at-Drummond-in-Colombia">here</a>.) 
 
The regional committee adopted a resolution calling on both Drummond and the government of Colombia to be vigilant in implementing an adequate occupational safety and health prevention programme at Drummond&rsquo;s coal operations in C&eacute;sar state. The resolution also calls on the company to immediately re-employ some 600 miners who lost their jobs due to a legal strike by rail transport workers. 

<img height="83" alt="" src="" width="180" />
It calls on Colombia and Drummond, one of the owners of the rail transport line, Fenoco, to respect ILO Conventions 87 and 98, the Freedom of Association and Right to Organise Convention, and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention. 
 
Members of a Colombian Mechanics&rsquo; and Metal Workers&rsquo; Union, Sintraime, staged a month-long strike across Fenoco&rsquo;s coal transport rail lines from 24 March to 20 April for union recognition and workplace rights. The ICEM supports the efforts of these workers to gain their collective rights. 
 
Fenoco, or the Ferrocarrilies Nacionales de Colombia, was bought by the Colombian government in 2006, but immediately commissioned and re-privatised to a handful of multinationals that mine and sell thermal coal from the rich deposits of C&eacute;sar state. Fenoco&rsquo;s biggest shareholders are Drummond and Xstatra, the latter which recently gained a 40% stake of the rail line with transfer of the Prodeco mining enterprise from its Swiss-based holding company, Glencore. 
 
Workers seeking representation with Sintraime engaged in a days-long blockade of the rail line in mid-April. A regional Supreme Court in northern Colombia ruled the strike legal, but Fenoco has now appealed that decision to the Colombia Supreme Court. 
<img height="180" alt="" src="" width="120" />
Sergio Novais
In the resolution, the ICEM regional committee, headed by Chairman Sergio Novais of Brazil, also calls on the Colombian government to provide job security and protection to Drummond&rsquo;s miners, members of Sintramienerg&eacute;tica, and the document points to a current social and economic crisis caused by speculative capital and a failed neo-liberal economic model.

ICEM’s Latin Region Supports Sintramienergética in Colombia Dispute Against Drummond

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Although not occurring at the rate of mining deaths two years ago, the number of miners killed inside South African mines continues to rise this year following tragic deaths at Harmony Gold 11 days ago. And also in late April, two miners employed by AngloGold Ashanti died at the company&rsquo;s Moab Khotsong mine, and another miner went missing deep inside the Great Noligwa mine. 
 
ICEM South African affiliate, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), now says that the official death count is over 60 so far this year. The 2007 rate exceeded 160 official deaths. 

<img height="115" src="" width="250" alt="" />
The incident at Harmony&rsquo;s Tshepong mine, located in Free State, was particularly repugnant because the company apparently was engaged in both underground blasting and drilling on the same day, a taboo according to the country&rsquo;s mine safety laws. Besides the two who were trapped and died from a rock cave-in, another miner who was rescued had his leg amputated. 
 
The Tshepong tragedy wasn&rsquo;t Harmony&rsquo;s only mine killings in April. On 14 April, a contract worker was electrocuted at the company&rsquo;s Target mine in Free State. 
 
The NUM is continuing to do day-long, stop-work actions as &ldquo;Days of Mourning&rdquo; for miners killed on the job. On 20 April, Harmony miners stopped work to mourn, and further work stoppages were done last week at the other mines. 
 
The AngloGold Ashanti deaths occurred at the Moab Khotsong mine, where a collapse of ground killed two miners. At the Great Noligwa mine near Orkney also in the Witwatersrand Basin, a miner failed to surface on 25 April following his shift. 
 
The spate of deaths and accidents comes just over two months since a safety audit was released in South Africa, showing that overall safety in mines was running at a dismal average of just 66%. The safety audit prioritised the maintenance of infrastructure as a necessity for improvement. 
<img height="128" alt="" src="" width="90" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="117" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Frans Baleni &amp; Senzeni Zokwana
&ldquo;No condition should justify why a worker should lose a life,&rdquo; said NUM President Senzeni Zokwana at the time of the audit&rsquo;s release. Added NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni, &ldquo;Safety should be a constitutional right of all workers.&rdquo;

South Africa Mine Deaths Continue to Rise

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An ICEM mission to Argentina has gained first-hand accounts on how the global recession has affected the South American country, as well as laying the groundwork for ICEM&rsquo;s 2011 Congress in Buenos Aires. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda met the GUF&rsquo;s Argentine affiliates on 29 April in an exchange of views on the economic collapse, and also met with non-affiliated trade unions on the crisis and their plans to affiliate. 
 
A decision on the location for the Fifth World Congress will be taken at the ICEM Executive Committee meetings, 23-24 June in Geneva. Argentina trade union affiliates are enthusiastic on hosting the Congress. 
 
Warda, along with ICEM Latin America/Caribbean Contact Person Carol Bruce, met with the Rubber Workers&rsquo; Union of Argentina, SUTNA, as well with the Energy and Oil Workers&rsquo; union, FeTERA, and the private-sector Oil and Gas Workers&rsquo; Union, FASPyGP. The ICEM delegation also met with Uni&oacute;n Obrero Metal&uacute;rgical (UOM), which is interested in joining ICEM on behalf of nuclear workers that the union represents, as well as with trade unions affiliated with the national centre Central de Trabajores de la Argentina (CTA) on joining the ICEM. 

<img height="198" src="" width="264" alt="" />
Bruce participated in two manifestations while in Argentina. On 22 April, she marched with the CTA in which the national centre&rsquo;s secretary-general, Hugo Yasky, called for a 180-day moratorium in Argentina on job layoffs and an emergency outlay of state money to cover lost wages of workers. 
 
On 30 April, she marched with the other major labour centre, Confederaci&oacute;n General del Trabajo (CGT), in its support of the government of Cristina Kirchner in late June elections, and against neo-liberal policies that created the crisis and job losses, estimated to be some 50,000 in Argentina. 
 
The ICEM mission was supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation of Germany, which also provided a presentation on the impact of the economic crisis in Argentina.

ICEM Mission to Argentina Probes Crisis

Some 100 trade union leaders in the rubber sector from 22 countries will converge in Nashville, Tennessee, next week for pivotal discussions on recent developments in that sector. The event is the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) quadrennial World Conference for the Rubber Industries, which takes place on 12 and 13 May at Nashville&rsquo;s Sheraton Music City Hotel. 

&ldquo;In this time of global economic crisis, particularly in the automotive industry, it is important that key trade union leaders of the rubber sector gather to share ideas, discuss strategies, and move the issue of workers&rsquo; rights to the forefront of any recovery agenda,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. 

The conference, which will be hosted by ICEM&rsquo;s largest North American trade union affiliate, Pittsburgh-based United Steelworkers of America (USW), will be presided over by USW President Leo Gerard, who is Chairman of the ICEM Rubber Industry Sector. 

The conference will feature a presentation by ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan on &ldquo;Global Industry Trends and Challenges.&rdquo; It will also feature five panel discussions: &ldquo;Effects of Global Crisis on the Industry and Trade Union Challenges,&rdquo; &ldquo;Rising Hardships and Distortion in Work Relationships,&rdquo; &ldquo;Global Agreements, Global/Regional Company and Sector Networks and Campaigns,&rdquo; &ldquo;How to Improve Health and Safety for Workers: What Kind of Industrial Policy for a Greener Environment for Securing Jobs,&rdquo; and &ldquo;How to Better Coordinate Global Union Solidarity, Support and Cooperation.&rdquo; 

Other presentations on the agenda will include: &ldquo;Collective Bargaining in the Rubber Industry,&rdquo; &ldquo;Global Trade Union Response Against Challenges,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Healthy and Safe Work, Environment and Sustainable Development.&rdquo; The conference will conclude in the afternoon of 13 May with &ldquo;Development of an Action Plan&rdquo; for trade unions of the global rubber sector. 
 
The Geneva, Switzerland-based ICEM is a Global Union Federation numbering 20 million workers, encompassed by 467 trade union affiliates in 132 countries. 

For further information, contact: Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries Officer, +41&nbsp;79&nbsp;734&nbsp;9044, or kemal.ozkan@icem.org, or Dick Blin, ICEM Information Officer, +41&nbsp;22&nbsp;304&nbsp;1842, dick.blin@icem.org.

Global Trade Unions for the Rubber Sector Gather in Nashville, Tennessee, Next Week

Nashville, Tennessee, USA 
May 12-13, 2009
A g e n d a

&nbsp;
Monday, May 11, 2009 
 
Arrival of participants 
 
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 
 
08:00 Registration 
 
09:30 Opening of the Conference: 
Stan Johnson, International Secretary-Treasurer/Chairman of the Rubber&amp;Plastics Conference of USW 
 
10:00 General Report on ICEM Activities 
Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary 
 
10:30 Presentation: &ldquo;Global Industry Trends and Challenges&rdquo; 
Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries Officer <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Kemal%20presentation%201.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
11:00 Coffee-break 
 
11:30 First panel discussion: &ldquo; Effects Of Global Crisis on the Industry and Trade Union Challenges&rdquo; 
Peter Bakvis, ITUC/Global Unions <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/PETER%20BAKVIS%20PRESENTATION.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
Fabio Lins, CNQ-CUT, Brasil 
Jacques Caltot, FCE-CFDT, France 
Alexander Sitnov, RCWU, Russia 
K.K. Siritharan, NUECMRP, Malaysia 
 
Discussions 
 
13:00 Lunch 
 
14:30 Presentation: &ldquo;Collective Bargaining, Wage Developments and Employment Relationship&rdquo; 
Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries Officer <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Kemal%20presentation%202.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
15:00 Second panel discussion: &quot;Rising Hardships and Distortion in Work Relationships&quot; 
Pedro Wasiejko, SUTNA-CTA, Argentina 
Edwin Cisco, FAWUL, Liberia 
Kevin Johnson, USW, USA <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20presentation%20johnson.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
Holger Michel, IG BCE, Germany 
 
16:00 Coffee-break 
 
16:30 Discussions 
 
Summary of panels 
 
17:00 End of first day work 
 
19:00 Conference dinner 
 
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 
 
09:30 Presentation: &ldquo;Global Trade Union Response Against Challenges&rdquo; 
Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries Officer <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Kemal%20presentation%203.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
10:00 Third panel discussion: &ldquo;Global Agreements, Global/Regional Company &amp; Sector Networks and Campaigns&rdquo; 
Cyrille Poughon, FCE-CFDT, France <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20poughton.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
Jesus Delgado, FIA-UGT, Spain <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20delgado.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
Fabio Lins, CNQ-CUT, Brasil <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20futinal.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
Michael Mersmann, IG BCE, Germany 
Melinda Newhouse, USW, USA <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20newouse.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
11:00 Coffee-break 
 
11:30 Presentation: &ldquo;Healthy and Safe Work and Environment; Sustainable Development&rdquo; 
Brian Kohler, ICEM Health, Safety and Sustainibilty Officer <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Health%20&amp;%20Safety%20Rubber%20Conf.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
12:00 Fourth panel discussion: &ldquo;How To Improve Health And Safety for Workers; What Kind of Industrial Policy for Greener Environment by Securing Jobs&rdquo; 
Jim Frederick, USW, USA <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20usw.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
Jacques Caltot, FCE-CFDT, France <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20caltot.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
13:00 Lunch 
 
14:30 Presentation: &ldquo;Action Plan For Upcoming Period&rdquo; Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries Officer <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20kemal%204.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
 
15:00 Fifth panel discussion: &ldquo;How To Better Coordinate Global Union Solidarity, Support and Cooperation&rdquo; 
Jerry Fernandez, USW, USA <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/rubber%20usw%202.pdf">(click for presentation)</a> 
Phil McNulty, T&amp;G-AMICUS, UK 
Pedro Vasiejko, SUTNA, Argentina 
Austin Natee, FAWUL, Liberia 
 
16:00 Coffee-break 
 
16:30 Discussions 
 
Summary of panels and presentation of action plan 
Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary 
 
16:45 Election of Industry Chairman 
 
Closing speech of Chairman 
 
17:00 End of the conference 
 
Thursday, May 14, 2009 
 
Departure of participants

ICEM World Conference for the Rubber Industry

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
ICEM'in d&ouml;rt yılda bir d&uuml;zenlenen Lastik İşkolu D&uuml;nya Konferansı 12-13 Mayıs 2009 g&uuml;nlerinde ABD'nin Tennessee Eyaleti&rsquo;nin Nashville kentinde 70'i aşkın katılımcıyla toplanıyor. ABD Birleşik &Ccedil;elik İş&ccedil;ileri Sendikası'nın ev sahipliğini yapacağı Konferans&rsquo;ı, aynı zamanda sendikanın genel başkanı olan, ICEM Lastik İşkolu B&ouml;l&uuml;m&uuml; Başkanı Leo Gerard y&ouml;netecek. 

<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="140" />
Leo Gerard, ICEM Lastik İşkolu B&ouml;l&uuml;m&uuml; ve Birleşik &Ccedil;elik İş&ccedil;ileri Sendikası Başkanı 
ICEM Kimya ve Lastik İşkolları Sorumlusu Kemal &Ouml;zkan &ldquo;K&uuml;resel Sekt&ouml;rel Trendler ve Sorunlar&rdquo; konusunda bir sunum yapacak. 
 
Konferans şu beş konuda yapılacak &ccedil;alışma toplantılarından oluşacak: &ldquo;K&uuml;resel Krizin Sekt&ouml;r &Uuml;zerindeki Etkileri ve Sendikal Sorunlar&rdquo;, &ldquo;&Ccedil;alışma İlişkilerindeki Zorluklar&rdquo;, &ldquo;K&uuml;resel S&ouml;zleşmeler, K&uuml;resel/B&ouml;lgesel Ağlar ve Kampanyalar&rdquo;, &ldquo;İş&ccedil;i Sağlığı ve G&uuml;venliğinin İyileştirilmesi: &Ccedil;evre Bağlamında İstihdam Politikaları&rdquo; ve &ldquo;K&uuml;resel Sendikal Dayanışmanın, Desteğin ve İşbirliğinin Koordinasyonu&rdquo;. 
 
ICEM İş Sağlığı, G&uuml;venliği ve S&uuml;rd&uuml;r&uuml;lebilirlik B&ouml;l&uuml;m&uuml; Sorumlusu Brian Kohler sekt&ouml;rde iş sağlığı ve g&uuml;venliği konusunda bir sunum yapacak.

ICEM&#039;in Dünya Lastik Konferansı ABD&#039;nin Nashville kentinde toplanıyor

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Effective 24 March 2009, the ICEM will be located in new office space in Geneva. The new offices, located in the Eaux-Vives section of Geneva near the old city, are located at 20 rue Adrien Lachenal, 1207 Geneva. 
 
The general phone number, fax number, and all individual extension numbers will remain the same. 
 
The new offices have 570 square metres of space spread across two floors of a modern building. It will serve as more functional and accommodating leased office space compared to the 150 square metres of temporary offices that the ICEM occupied since the April 2008 move from Belgium to Switzerland. 
 
We encourage all ICEM affiliates and their representatives, whenever in Geneva, to visit us at 20 rue Adrien Lachenal.

ICEM Relocates inside Geneva, Effective Tomorrow, 24 March

<img height="39" src="" width="100" alt="" />
In efforts to hold the government of &Aacute;lvaro Uribe responsible for prosecuting the real perpetrators behind the murders of trade union activists before a US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement is enacted, the US House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee heard vivid testimony last month on several murders. 
 
One was the 2001 assassination of Jorge Dar&iacute;o Hoyos, who was once the Colombian coordinator for the Miners&rsquo; International Federation (MIF), one of the predecessor trade union federations of the ICEM. 

<img height="111" src="" width="100" alt="" />
Yessika Hoyos
Testifying in Washington, DC, was his daughter, 25-year-old Yessika Hoyos. She said that despite police arresting two individuals who actually committed the crime, no effort has been made to apprehend and prosecute those who ordered the assassination. 
 
&ldquo;We know there is evidence of other perpetrators, including members of the national army,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;The investigation remains open, but with no follow-up of the evidence as requested, and no identification of other possible perpetrators.&rdquo; 
 
Dar&iacute;o Hoyos, then 61, was gunned down in his home town of Fusagasuga, in central Colombia near Bogot&aacute;, on 3 March 2001.At the time, a paramilitary group called the Block Centaurs was thought to have carried out the killing. He was MIF&rsquo;s national coordinator from 1984 to 1991, and then served as an organiser and collective bargaining advisor to unions representing teachers, bank workers, and telecommunications staff. 
 
At the February 2009 US Congress hearing, the House Education and Labour Committee stated, &ldquo;The Colombian government has not done enough to stem the rising violence against trade union leaders or address the backlog of labor union leader killings.&rdquo; A representative from Colombia&rsquo;s National Labour School testified that 60% of all murders of trade union activists throughout the world occur in Colombia.

US Congressional Committee Hears Testimony of Slain Colombian Mine Union Activist

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Yao Fuxin, a Chinese labour activist who led a 2002 peaceful protest against the corruption that drove a steel mill into bankruptcy, was released from prison 16 March. He served a full seven-year term for &ldquo;subversion of state power.&rdquo; 
 
In March 2003, after a hasty four-hour trial two months earlier, Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang were sentenced to prison terms for leading worker protests demanding back wages and pension payments at the Liaoyang Ferroalloy mill in northeastern Liaoning Province. 

<img height="88" alt="" src="" width="200" />
In March 2002, some 15,000 workers at five metal-working operations protested against government and management corruption at state-run enterprises in China&rsquo;s steel belt. At the Liaoyang Ferroalloy facility a year earlier, workers there alleged that 2,000 tons of iron ore disappeared, leading to bankruptcy and non-payment of wages and benefits. 
 
Xiao Yunliang, a retired metalworker, was released just three weeks before his four-year prison term was up in March 2006. 
 
But Yao Fuxin persevered through harsh conditions at Lingyuan No. 2 prison where he suffered two heart attacks, a stroke, and was consistently placed before an open window in the cold of winter. He also suffered from sleep depravation. Prison officials ordered other prisoners to step on him when he fell asleep. 
 
Upon his release last week, Yao Fuxin, now 63, expressed no remorse. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with what I did,&rdquo; he said in a telephone interview with a news wire service, adding he and others were only exercising their rights under China&rsquo;s constitution. &ldquo;I feel no regret at all. What I did was protect the interests of the country and the interests of the people, the law-given interests of the workers.&rdquo;

After 7 Years, China Releases Metalworker Labour Activist

<img height="39" src="" width="100" alt="" />
The ICEM supports the actions of its Ukrainian affiliate, the Coal Mining Industry Workers&rsquo; Union of Ukraine (PRUPU), as it announced a series of mass rallies throughout the country, protesting the situation facing miners in an industry in crisis. 
 
The decision to commence with mass protest actions on 25 March was taken by the union&rsquo;s Shop Stewards at the 3rd Plenary Meeting of PRUPU&rsquo;s Central Committee, held on 27 February. Delegates resolved to launch the mass protest actions, starting this Wednesday, including the picketing of the seats of the state authorities in Kiev and other major coal-mining towns in the eastern Donbass region. 

<img height="100" src="" width="100" alt="" />
PRUPU President Victor Turmanov
Ukrainian miners face ongoing violations of their right to timely remuneration, significant wage arrears, and a reduction of 4.6 times of the budgetary allocations for the industry in 2009 over that of 2008. 
 
The Ukrainian Federation of Trade Unions, in a statement released 11 March, accused the country&rsquo;s leadership of &ldquo;ignoring the interests of the people to please international financial magnates.&rdquo; 
 
In exchange for a US$2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, the Ukrainian government agreed to restrictive conditions for the loan. Notable promises were the cancelling of social utility discounts for poor families, raising the retirement age by five years, and a six-fold increase in gas prices for Ukrainians.

Ukrainian Miners’ Union, PRUPU, to Launch Government Protest Rallies This Week

Archive

ICEM’s Latin Region Supports Sintramienergética in Colombia Dispute Against Drummond

South Africa Mine Deaths Continue to Rise

ICEM Mission to Argentina Probes Crisis

Global Trade Unions for the Rubber Sector Gather in Nashville, Tennessee, Next Week

ICEM World Conference for the Rubber Industry

ICEM'in Dünya Lastik Konferansı ABD'nin Nashville kentinde toplanıyor

ICEM Relocates inside Geneva, Effective Tomorrow, 24 March

US Congressional Committee Hears Testimony of Slain Colombian Mine Union Activist

After 7 Years, China Releases Metalworker Labour Activist

Ukrainian Miners’ Union, PRUPU, to Launch Government Protest Rallies This Week

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