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<img height="69" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/icem-logo.jpg" width="80"/>
Saturday 17 November 2007  
10.00 – 17.00 Women’s Conference 
 
Sunday 18 November 2007 
09.30 – 17.00 Women’s Conference 
 
Monday 19 November 2007  
09.00 – 17.30 Presidium 
19:00 Dinner for ICEM Presidium Members and accompanying persons 
 
Tuesday 20 November 2007   
09:00 - 17:00 Executive Committee Meeting 
19.00 Dinner for ICEM Executive Committee Members and accompanying persons 
 
Wednesday 21 November 2007   
09:00 - 17:00 Contract and Agency Labour Conference 
17.00+ Meeting of Congress Credentials Committee 
 
Thursday 22 November 2007   
10.00 Opening of Congress 
17.00 Congress Sessions close 
17:00+ WFIW Integration 
19.30 Dinner 
 
Friday 23 November 2007   
09:00 Congress Sessions continue 
17:30 Congress Sessions close 
19.00 Dinner 
 
Saturday 24 November 2007   
09:00 Final Congress Sessions 
14:00 Congress Closure 
15:00-17:00 New ICEM Presidium meets 
<a href="/en/?id=184&doc=2430&la=EN" type="internal">Click here for the detailed draft 4th World Congress Agenda 
</a> 
Departure of Delegations

Provisional Programme for the Fourth ICEM World Congress

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Members of Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada at Stora Enso’s Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, paper mill will meet this week and review a contract proposal presented by the company over the weekend. The Finnish-Swedish paper company presented CEP Local 972 with a proposal on 10 June, after four days of intense talks. 
 
On 30 May, Stora Enso issued an ultimatum to the 600 paperworkers to either finalise a new collective agreement by 24 June or face a closure of the coated papers and newsprint mill. The lockout started on 26 January 2006 over Stora’s insistence on gaining more flexibility regarding outsourcing mill work than allowed under the pattern agreement for the paper industry in eastern Canada. 
 
In negotiations that resumed in early May, the company put forward a restructuring plan that included proposed wage and other cuts totalling between 14 and 18%. This recovery plan included wage cuts of 10%.
<img height="150" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0603StoraEnsoCanada.jpg" width="200"/>
Details of the 10 June proposal were not released until CEP Local 972 members have had an opportunity to review it. The 650 workers have been locked out now for 21 weeks.

New Stora Enso Offer Will Be Reviewed by CEP Branch at Canadian Paper Mill

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A study commissioned by ICEM Finnish affiliate Paperiliitto and the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland (SASK) says a greenfield pulp mill in Brazil operated jointly by Stora Enso and Aracruz Celulose is too dependent on contract workers. 
The study, released 7 June by Observatorio Social, the research institute connected with the Brazilian trade union centre CUT, reports that the joint venture has so many contractors that it cannot adequately monitor them.
<img height="36" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/FINLANDpaperiliitto.gif" width="150"/>      <img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/FinlandSask2.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
The mill, called Veracel Florestal Ltda. and located in Eunápolis, state of Bahia, utilises contractors in the harvesting of eucalyptus for the mill, which causes immense environmental damage. Also, the mill relies on questionable contractors rather than permanent workers for most tasks at the mill, except for the actual production of pulp. 
 
The result is that overall salaries are driven down and labour contract terms circumvented. The study also reports that health and safety is compromised, and there is too much exposure to chemicals by both workers and those living in Eunápolis. The pulp mill went on line in 2005 and can produce 900,000 metric tonnes per year of eucalyptus pulp.

Stora Enso, Brazilian Aracruz Celulose Too Dependent on Contractors, Study Says

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In the US, ICEM affiliate United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) is combating unprecedented mining accidents that have occurred this year in unorganised coal mines, with both court room action and legislative efforts. The UMWA, on 8 June, filed a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., against the Bush administration’s Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA). 
 
The lawsuit seeks to compel MSHA to begin conducting random checks of oxygen devices used in underground mine emergencies. The lawsuit also seeks to force the mine safety bureau to train miners on the use of such devices. 
 
A day before the lawsuit was filed, the US House of Representatives voted 381 to 37 to approve stricter mine safety regulations. The proposed law would mandate mine operators to provide two hours of oxygen in underground mines, and would give them three years to install communication and tracking equipment in underground mines.
<img height="63" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USAFlag.gif" width="120"/>
It also requires companies to report any life-threatening accident within 15 minutes of occurrence and requires all mines to have on-site rescue teams, something only UMWA-staffed mines have at present. In May, the US Senate approved the measure, strongly backed by the UMWA, and it now must go to President George Bush for his signature before becoming law. 
 
To date in 2006, 33 deaths have occurred in US coal mines, all of them in non-union worksites. The majority of those deaths have been caused from carbon monoxide poisoning following explosions, a fact compounded by faulty breathing devices and insufficient oxygen supplies in underground mines.

Mine Workers in US Take Steps to Improve Safety

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On 1 June, 17 coal miners died after a methane gas explosion caused a collapse of shafts at a mine owned by the privately-held Sentas Madencilik mining company in Dursunbey, Turkey. Nine other miners were seriously injured at the unorganised mine in Belıkesir province. 
 
The tragedy, just one in a series of underground mining accidents occurring across the world on almost a daily basis, deserves attention due to the response from business interests inside Turkey, as well as from the minister of Energy and Natural Resources. That response was to explain away the Dursunbey deaths as “such things happen in the mining industry.”
<img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector.JPG" width="100"/>
But in Turkey, as in many other countries, the expansion of coal and minerals mining into remote areas by more and more operators brings with it higher safety risks, particularly when those mines are operated without the monitoring and compliance that trade unions offer. 
 
Following the Dursunbey tragedy and the cold-hearted remarks by both the government’s minister and an employers’ organisation, ICEM affiliate Maden-Īş Sendikasi said that although mine safety legislation is in place in Turkey, weak enforcement is to blame for many mine disasters. “If there were unions at this workplace, safety regulations would be followed,” said the union. 
 
“Where there are unions” in mines, “the number of accidents declines noticeably,” added a Maden-Īş spokesperson. The ICEM addressed the 1 June Turkish mining catastrophe in a letter to the union by issuing unequivocal support for Maden-Īş’s health and safety efforts across the mining industry in Turkey.

Turkish Mine Deaths Illuminated by Callous Official Comments

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The Thai subsidiary of French-based public relations giant Publicis Groupe has withdrawn its ill-brought libel lawsuit against Junya Lek Timprasert and the Thai Labour Campaign (TLC). Lawyers for the company dropped the suit, which was before Bangkok’s Southern Criminal Court, on 20 June. 
 
The TLC, with Lek as coordinator, has received strong support from the ICEM over the years in its efforts to reveal human rights and labour rights violations in Thailand. Their “crime” in the Publicis Thailand case was to republish an article from CSR Asia Weekly on the TLC website regarding an unfair dismissal case brought forward by five women workers of the public relations subsidiary.
<img height="67" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ThailandFlag.gif" width="100"/>
The company, in 2005, had charged TLC and Lek with “defamation by propagation” in the Thai court. Lek faced jail time, while TLC might have had to pay monetary damages and seen limitations to its valuable work, had global pressure not been brought against the French public relations company to drop the lawsuit. 
 
“It is frustrating that we, who are directly in contact with workers that produce for the world and witness many rights violations, cannot bring situations to the attention of the world without the risk of being sued,” said Lek. “Furthermore, workers who report to us, of course, face all kinds of pressures and risk being dismissed.”

Lawsuit Dropped by French PR Firm Against Thai Labour Campaign

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Colombian mining union Sintramienergética ended two coal strikes recently that had begun to impact markets. On 22 June, the union agreed to a two-year agreement with US-based Drummond that ended a month-long strike at the La Loma mines in Cesar state. 
 
Sintramienergética, in addition to winning social benefits, achieved an 8% wage increase for this year, and will receive 1.5% above the inflation rate in 2007. Strike-ending mediations took place under the guidance of the Ministry of Social Protection.
<img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector.JPG" width="100"/>
Some 2,000 miners struck Drummond on 22 May, and the walkout directly affected another 1,000 contract workers, as well as some 5,000 employees of transport, terminal and other service companies connected to Drummond’s coal export business. The company exports some 22 million tonnes of coal annually from its Puerto Drummond, Colombia, deep-water port. 
 
Non-ICEM-affiliated Sintramienergética also came to terms on 6 June with Swiss-based Glencore International at the Carbones de la Jagua mining operation. About 1,000 miners there began a strike on 17 May. 
 
The settlement gives workers a 7.5% salary increase, and the new agreement also grants social benefits to both Glencore workers and contract employees. Glencore mines some 12 million tonnes annually from this Jagua de Ibirico location in Cesar state.

 Colombian Mine Union Ends Coal Strikes at Drummond, Glencore

<a href="http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1582&L2=1&L3=106">OUTSOURCING GROWS UP</a> 
 
Written in early 2005 by two partners of the McKinsey’s London office, this article shows that the ICEM views on contract and agency labour are beginning to be accepted by influential Management Consultants. 
 
According to the article, the main objective of the first companies using outsourcing, was purely to reduce costs. That has changed somewhat. It is now generally accepted that companies also use contract and agency labour to improve their operational performance. 
 
The authors’ research shows that, in spite of this change, few companies changed the way they make their deals. They also say that that “up to 50% of outsourcing arrangements fail to deliver the expected value”. 
 
Examples are given of companies experiencing severe problems during the operation of the contract, due to the fact that they did not have a clear strategy at the beginning of the process. Towards the end, the article argues to work with all the internal stakeholders that will be affected by the move, including union representatives. 
The article can be found here: 
<a href="http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1582&L2=1&L3=106">http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/ 
article_page.aspx?ar=1582&L2=1&L3=106</a>

Useful Background Articles on Contract and Agency Labour

BAE, Kang-wook 
President 
Korean Chemical and Textile Workers Federation (KCTF) 
Third floor, Woosung Building 
94-14 Yeongdeungpo-dong 7-ga 
Yeongdeungpo 
Seoul 150-037 
SOUTH KOREA 
 
by fax: + 82-2-26.32.47.55 
by e-mail: <a href="mailto:kctfim@hanmail.net">kctfim@hanmail.net</a> 

Dear Sisters and Brothers of KCTF-KCTU in Korea, 
 
We are informed by the ICEM that your union has been, since 2004, the victim of an anti-union repression by GS Caltex, and that you now have decided to launch a boycott campaign against GS Caltex products in Korea. This letter is meant to offer our union’s support and encouragement in your courageous fight against the unfair labor practices by GS Caltex. 
 
We understand that some 30 union leaders at GS Caltex have been dismissed in August 2004 and that eight have faced criminal charges for carrying out their legitimate union duties. It is clear that GS Caltex wanted to punish these dedicated trade unionists, as well as the KCFT-KCTU itself, for its trade union actions. This behavior by the company is abhorrent and far from what can and should be expected in developed and civilized nations. GS Caltex needs to start bargaining in good-faith. 
 
It is also deplorable that the South Korean Government has collaborated with the management of GS Caltex by assisting in the suppression of reasonable union demands through dispatching anti-riot police units and arresting union members. 
 
We salute KCFT-KCTU for undertaking this brave struggle in defense of basic trade union rights, particularly the fight for freedom of association. Please know that the members and leaders of our union stand firmly with you in your pursuit of justice and dignity. 
 
Fraternally, 
 
 
(Name) 
(Title) 
(Union)

Model Letter of Support to KCTF

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ICEM affiliate, the Korean Chemical and Textile Workers’ Federation (KCTF), and its national centre, KCTU, decided to launch a boycott against the products of GS Caltex (formerly LG-Caltex) in Korea. GS Caltex is a joint venture between Chevron and Korean GS Holding, operating mainly on the oil refinery sector. 
The decision to call for a boycott, which was taken earlier this month, comes after years of fruitless negotiations with the company. The origin of the dispute goes back to July 2004, when the GS Caltex union went on strike after negotiations had broken down with the company. Main issues included the union’s demand for a five-day, 40-hour work-week and their call for the non-discrimination of contract workers. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMoil2.JPG" width="100"/>
Union demands were not only met by an unwilling employer, but also by riot police, sent in by the Korean government, which brutally suppressed the striking workers. After a 20-day strike, the company, while still refusing to give in to any of the union’s demands, displayed its ruthlessness by retaliating against returning workers by selecting, at the gate and with police assistance, who could enter and who could not. 
The company dismissed nearly all union officials. It also harassed families of workers with warnings of dismissal. In addition, eight trade union representatives were arrested and sentenced to two or three years in prison. In total, 650 workers were disciplined with a three-month work suspension. 
In support of the boycott, Brother Bae, President of KCFT, went on hunger strike for an indefinite period on 1 April.

Korean KCTF Calls for Korean Boycott of GS Caltex

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