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The ICEM Women&rsquo;s Committee adopted a strong action plan on Zimbabwe 19 June, at its annual Women&rsquo;s Committee meetings, which followed the Global Union Federation&rsquo;s Executive Committee in Geneva, Switzerland. The action plan, prepared by Angeline Chitambo, an ICEM Vice President, who is President of the Zimbabwe Electricity and Energy Workers&rsquo; Union (ZEEWU), presents a six-point plan in which ICEM affiliates can lend assistance to what has become a deteriorating political situation.
<img height="195" alt="" src="" width="260" />
&nbsp;ICEM Women's Leaders and Vice Presidents, Evgenia Esenina and Angeline Chtambo 
 

In a statement presenting the plan, the Women&rsquo;s Committee said: &ldquo;Though the situation has always been bad in Zimbabwe, we have seen the worst after the 29th March 2008 elections &hellip; the violence that was released by the government, mainly in rural areas, affected women mostly, as the bulk of women stay in the rural areas where they work on the land for survival.&rdquo; 
 
The statement says that many women give in to pressure, and become prostitutes in order to make ends meet. The result is the increasing spread of HIV/AIDS. 
 
The statement adds: &ldquo;Those who are affected by HIV/AIDS are more vulnerable. Imagine you are the mother, your child dies of AIDS and after all that you have gone through, you cannot bury your child in time because there is no fuel, or the gravediggers are on strike because the city council cannot pay their salaries.&rdquo; 
 
The statement reports that women in Zimbabwe are prepared to go to the offices of the ruling ZANU PF political offices on 27 June to stand up to their repressive and violent measures, and demand the reconstruction of their country.
<img height="100" alt="" src="" width="80" />
The ICEM Women&rsquo;s Committee is calling on affiliated trade unions to: 
 
Understand what is occurring in Zimbabwe and how it affects workers and the poor; Send a team to get a full understand of the Zimbabwean situation; Mobilise basic food supplies to assist affiliated trade unions inside Zimbabwe; Task neighbouring trade unions in respective countries to assist; Press Zimbabwean embassies in home countries on the situation, and get NGOs and other Global Union Federations to assist; and pressure Zimbabwe&rsquo;s government to make food commodities available and affordable.
The ICEM will issue a Circular related to the Women's Committee action in the enar future.
&nbsp;

ICEM Women’s Committee Adopts Action Plan on Zimbabwe

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Last-ditch efforts today by Finnish National Conciliator Juhani Salonius to avert a strike across the nation&rsquo;s pulp and paper sector succeeded, with ICEM affiliate Toimihenkil&ouml;unioni TU and the Finnish Forest Industries Federation agreeing to a 21-month labour agreement. 

The employers&rsquo; association entered the mediation session this morning at 08h00 claiming inability to offer a pay increase, but by late morning the two sides had agreed on a pay increase of 5.3% over the life of the agreement.
Effective 1 July 2008, salaried staff will receive an increase of not less than 2.7%, or &euro;60-per-month. In addition to that, pay hikes of 1.3% and a one-off bonus of &euro;110 per worker will be paid out on local levels.
<img height="68" alt="" src="" width="120" border="1" />
&nbsp;A 0.4% increase is scheduled for distribution on the local level in March 2009. Also, a national pay increase of 0.9% will take effect in March 2009. 

Both parties retain the right to terminate the agreement in March 2009. 

&ldquo;Our rank and file will get a just compensation for the significant increase of their work load and responsibility,&rdquo; stated TU President Antti Rinne, referring to significant job cuts that have occurred since the year 2000. 

He added that the agreement &ldquo;will close the gap between the pay development of salaried employees and (other) workers&rdquo; within the country&rsquo;s pulp and paper industry. He said it was important for TU that pay decisions on the local level will not be solely made by the companies. 

The agreement also states that the two parties will begin a multi-year programme to develop pay patterns for salaried workers. Other improvements made include family leave, specifically a six-day paid paternity leave. Added compensation for safety representatives was achieved, and a working-hour bank established. 
 
The employers gave up their concessionary proposals on travel time, shift allowance cuts, and their demand to exclusively decide on working hours.
<img height="123" alt="" src="" width="120" />
&ldquo;We credit our Finnish affiliate, and their members&rsquo; decision toward strike action in order to resist the concessions the employers&rsquo; federation has put forward,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;It is a progressive and forward-looking collective agreement, and most importantly it came without the necessity to conduct industrial actions.&rdquo; 
 
The settlement averts a strike planned at noon today by 1,000 senior employees at ten Stora Enso operations across Finland. Further rolling strikes were scheduled to occur at other major Finnish pulp and paper producers in June. Some 6,500 salaried, technical, and professional workers are covered by the new agreement.

Finnish Pulp/Paper Salaried Staff Dispute Settled in Last Minute Mediation

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ICEM Regional Vice President Rayford Mbulu chaired the GUF&rsquo;s Sub-Sahara Africa Regional Meeting 9 June in Accra, Ghana. The conference, attended by 35 delegates, adopted a four-point programme aimed at building trade union power in the region. Mbulu is the General Secretary of the Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Zambia (MUZ). 
 
Delegates attended from Botswana, Cameroon, C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. 
 
The action programme adopted target points in four areas: Collective Bargaining and Campaigns; Socio-Economic Issues; Politics; and Health and Safety. 
<img height="115" src="" width="250" alt="" />
Collective Bargaining and Campaigns: 
 
The regional delegates vowed to support the bargaining process for a living wage by the host union, the Ghana Mine Workers&rsquo; Union (GMWU), and called on all ICEM affiliates in the region not to agree to wage increases that fall under the rate of inflation in their respective countries, in light of escalating food and energy price increases. 
 
Delegates also endorsed and pledged to emphasize the global labour and the International Trade Union Confederation&rsquo;s &ldquo;World Day for Decent Work&rdquo; on 7 October 2008, a day of mobilization to end poverty and inequality, to establish rights at work for working women and men, and to establish Solidarity between trade unions on bilateral and multilateral levels. 
 
The statement also pledged to support a Women&rsquo;s Charter to enhance the role of women within all ICEM affiliates, and within the ICEM itself. And it called upon employers to further facilitate HIV education, testing, and access to anti-retroviral medication. 
 
Socio-Economic Issues: 
 
The conference condemned the xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa. 
 
Politics: 
 
Delegates called upon leaders of countries in the region to ensure free and fair balloting in the run-off elections in Zimbabwe later this month. Regarding Somalia, delegates condemned the eruption of conflict, which has claimed the loss of many lives and has deeply affected the working class of the country. 
 
The regional conference also implored the citizens of the Niger Delta in Nigeria to embrace dialogue, and requested that the Nigerian government link dialogue with the urgency to create a sustainable infrastructure and human resource development for citizens in that region. Delegates also urged multinational companies operating in Nigeria to partner with trade unions and other stakeholders in order to institute a socially viable peace and cooperation in the area. 
 
Health and Safety: 
 
The conference took notice of the 8 June coal mine explosion in the Ukraine, resulting in 12 deaths, and called for immediate improvements toward safe mining practices across the world. Delegates also called for added attention by employers, governments, and trade unions on the dangers faced by uranium miners, and for an increase in work by the ICEM in this area.

ICEM’s Sub-Sahara Africa Conference Adopts Four-Point Work Plan

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The ICEM joined four other labour union federations at the ILO&rsquo;s 97th International Labour Conference to condemn the Iraqi government&rsquo;s neglect toward global labour standards, and its harassment of trade unions and trade union leaders in the Middle Eastern nation. 
 
The condemnation came at the ILO&rsquo;s Committee on Standards on 11 June, during a session in support of complaints from Iraqi trade unions. The ICEM joined the national center of the UK, the Trades Union Congress (TUC); the American federation, AFL-CIO; and fellow Global Union Federations, Education International (EI) and Public Services International (PSI) in declaring, before world governing bodies, that peace and prosperity in Iraq depends on strong, free, and independent trade unions. 
 
The statement denounces the occupying forces for raiding and ransacking union offices; condemns the government with maintaining laws that restrict trade unions and interferes with their internal and financial affairs; and admonishes &ldquo;so-called insurgents&rdquo; who &ldquo;target and kill trade union leaders and ordinary workers like teachers who are training the next generation in tolerance and human rights.&rdquo;
<img height="72" alt="" src="" width="155" />
The statement, read by ILO Government Board Member and TUC Representative Simon Steyne, also sets forth five major concerns that hinder peace and normal lives for Iraqi citizens. 
 
1.) Saddam&rsquo;s 1987 Decree 150, banning public sector trade unions: &ldquo;The public sector in Iraq &ndash; including oil, energy supply, public service, and health &ndash; accounts for 80% of the workforce. The decree prevents the vast majority of Iraqi workers from exercising their fundamental rights and must be abolished.&rdquo; 

2.) Decree 8750, imposed by the occupation&rsquo;s forces: It &ldquo;empowers the Government to take over trade unions at will, and has been used to freeze all Iraqi union bank accounts. It is odious, contrary to (ILO) Convention(s), and it too should be abolished.&rdquo; 

3.) Labour and Social Security Law: &ldquo;Apparently, an ILO-compliant labour law sits in the Ministry of Labour. Though ready for several years, we are often told it is under review. It should be adopted and implemented as promised. Any review can take place once Iraqis have seen how it works in practice.&rdquo; 

4.) Government interference, through both Decrees 150 and 8750: &ldquo;Earlier this year, the government told the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) that it would release some of the frozen funds so internal elections could be held. Those elections are needed &ndash; but it should be GFIW&rsquo;s members&rsquo; decision when to hold them &hellip; the Government insists that election candidates must be Iraqi citizens, which is unacceptable to a free trade union movement representing workers wherever they come from. And in flagrant violation of Convention 98, (such nominees for union office) must have the support of their employer. The Government has used Decree 150 to insist that only unions in the private sector will be involved. This would forcibly restructure those unions with members both in and out of the private sector, and prevents the vast majority of GFIW members from having any say in their organisation&rsquo;s leadership.&rdquo;
<img height="80" alt="" src="" width="120" />
5.) Physical Transfer of IFOU Activists: &ldquo;Eight leaders of the ICEM-affiliated Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) are to be moved from their jobs and homes in the southern oil fields to a violent part of Baghdad, in a move calculated to disrupt the union&rsquo;s activities and put them in danger. The same trick, tried previously against the leaders of the GFIW-affiliated port workers union in Um Asr, was prevented by international and Iraqi trade union opposition.&rdquo;
In conclusion, the statement, read, &ldquo;The Government must explain the contradictions between its words and its deeds, must halt anti-union repression and introduce a labour law promoting social dialogue, freedom of association, and collective bargaining.&rdquo; 
 
In a TUC statement, Simon Steyne said, &ldquo;It is strange that a Government too busy fighting violence should spend so much time and effort harassing one of the few institutions which unites workers regardless of tribal, ethnic, or religious boundaries and is committed to women&rsquo;s emancipation and the creation of a peaceful and prosperous Iraq.&rdquo;

ICEM Teams with Labour Groups to Condemn Iraq’s Trade Union Abuses at ILO

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The Canadian province of Quebec&rsquo;s Labour Relations Board issued a stern reprimand to Petro-Canada over its attempt to circumvent the bargaining committee of the Communications, Energy, &amp; Paperworkers (CEP). In a 4 June ruling, the provincial government ordered the company to cease its intimidation of individual workers, and to begin good-faith bargaining with CEP Local 175 of Montr&eacute;al in earnest efforts to end the company&rsquo;s seven-month lockout of 260 refinery workers there. 
 
Negotiations did re-start on 13 June, but there was no immediate indication that Canada&rsquo;s second largest energy company would meet the CEP&rsquo;s National Chemical and Energy Bargaining agenda. In prior talks this spring, the company placed further and more severe concessions on the table than what was proposed at the time of the 17 November 2007 lockout.
<img height="213" alt="" src="" width="160" />
CEP Local 175 Members Still Standing Strong
Then in early May, just prior to submitting another in a series of &ldquo;final offers&rdquo; to Local 175, managers at the Point-aux-Trembles refinery in Montr&eacute;al&rsquo;s east end contacted individual union members. They threatened closure of the refinery, urged an overthrow of the union&rsquo;s bargaining committee, and intimidated workers in attempting to coax them to accept the company&rsquo;s regressive proposal. 
 
In the 4 June ruling, Labour Relations Board Commissioner Suzanne Moro ordered the company to &ldquo;cease attempts to impede the activities of CEP Local 175, attempts to interfere in the activities&rdquo; of the union and &ldquo;attempts to dominate&rdquo; Local 175. 
 
The writ ordered company representatives to cease efforts &ldquo;to create double negotiations and to negotiate a collective agreement in good faith.&rdquo; Canadian press reports cited the company with denying the charges. But workers taped the conversations, and presented that as evidence to the labour board. 
 
&ldquo;The importance of this decision is it demonstrates what has been ongoing since bargaining began,&rdquo; said CEP Administrative Vice President for Quebec, Joe Gargiso, who also heads the union&rsquo;s Chemicals and Energy Bargaining Programme. &ldquo;Petro-Canada has had no intention of bargaining in good faith, only seeking a strategy of imposing a new collective agreement that our members don&rsquo;t want.&rdquo;
<img height="119" src="" width="200" alt="" />
CEP's Admin. Vice President (Quebec) Joe Gargiso
He added the locked-out workers are withstanding the pressures &ldquo;extremely well,&rdquo; and that they are &ldquo;united and standing solidly behind their bargaining committee.&rdquo; He also said the 260 oil workers are receiving strong financial support from the CEP, and from CEP&rsquo;s energy local unions across Canada. 
 
On 24-25 May, the union&rsquo;s National Chemicals and Energy local unions met in Montr&eacute;al, and adopted a strong statement to the company&rsquo;s president and CEO, Ron Brenneman, saying: 
 
&ldquo;We find it totally unacceptable that in Montr&eacute;al, your Company attempts to break the national Bargaining Settlement made with CEP at (Petro-Canada&rsquo;s) Edmonton refinery in April 2007. This settlement has been followed by Petro-Canada in its other locations, as well as by Imperial Oil, Shell, Husky, Suncor, etc. 
 
&ldquo;And we find it unacceptable and shameful that your Company is attempting to trash the Montr&eacute;al collective agreement by trying to impose a host of rollbacks in a clear design to curtail the union&rsquo;s ability to play its role in the workplace and ensure a safe environment.&rdquo; 
 
Petro-Canada has further breached Quebec&rsquo;s labour law by employing 34 replacement workers during the lockout. The inexperienced workers have teamed with managers, who are working 70-hour work-weeks in order to maintain outflow, and the combination has created obvious safety and environmental hazards to the refinery, which is located in a residential area.

Petro-Canada Breaks Law in Failed Effort to Break Workers’ Resolve

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
A two-day workshop on Chinese investment in Africa was held 10-11 June in conjunction and following the ICEM&rsquo;s Sub-Sahara Africa Region meeting in Accra, Ghana. Thirty-one delegates attended the ICEM workshop, which had valuable support from Germany&rsquo;s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation (FES). 
 
Rayford Mbulu, ICEM Regional Vice President, who chaired the conference, said, &ldquo;We are experiencing a new form of direct investment from China and based on what we&rsquo;ve seen to date, we are deeply concerned that it could lead to a lowering of labour standards throughout the continent.&rdquo; 
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="250" />
Participants at the workshop adopted a resolution, which will be presented to this week&rsquo;s ICEM Executive Committee meetings in Geneva for approval. 
 
The workshops focused on the thrust by Chinese state and other companies for the raw materials so vital to driving China&rsquo;s economy, and also on the exploitation of labour, communities, and the environment that such rapid development is leaving on Africa. The ICEM delegates concluded that any wealth generated from the extracted resources of the continent must be directly aligned with the ILO&rsquo;s concept of Decent Work, as well as providing for the health, housing, and education for Africans in a sustainable future. 
 
The conference also lauded the April 2008 Solidarity action by the South African Dockworkers&rsquo; Union (SATAWU), which refused to off-load a shipment of 77 tonnes of armaments destined for the repressive Zimbabwean regime of Robert Mugabe. A Chinese government cargo ship, the An Yue Jiang, was forced to depart the port of Durban with the cargo still on board.

ICEM’s Africa Delegates Attend Relevant China Investment Forum

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Tensions are mounting with ICEM Nigerian affiliate PENGASSAN against Royal Dutch Shell&rsquo;s holdings in the country. Shell Petroleum Development Co. Ltd. (SPDC) is embarking on major retrenchments in its upstream sector, by merging four oil and gas businesses into a single entity. 
 
PENGASSAN, the senior staff union in Nigeria&rsquo;s oil and gas sector, has threatened to strike Shell&rsquo;s operations if the company continues to ignore labour law and undermine the union&rsquo;s collective agreement regarding social dialogue over redundancies. Shell is a 45% partner with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) in the various operations, but serves as operating partner. 
 
The controversy arises out of Shell&rsquo;s desire to lop 2,000 of 7,000 white-collar jobs without national level dialogue, as well as demanding that workers re-apply for their jobs in the consolidated company. 
 
According to PENGASSAN General Secretary Bayo Olowoshile, the company is selectively targeting for layoff union members who are close to full retirement, but not fully there.
<img height="180" alt="" src="" width="120" />
PENGASSAN Gen. Sec. Bayo Olosohile
To qualify for full pensions, a senior staff member must be at least 45 years of age and have 15 years of service. 
 
&ldquo;We maintain that these retrenchments, first and foremost, must be voluntary and elective,&rdquo; said Olowoshile, adding that 1,000 workers have expressed interest in redundancy packages. &ldquo;But we also question why Shell has only targeted the middle and lower ranks for retrenchment, while whole levels of top managers are unaffected.&rdquo; 
 
Olowoshile said Shell has pierced the integrity of the national collective agreement, as well as the union&rsquo;s constitution, by addressing the redundancies at branch level, rather than with PENGASSAN&rsquo;s national secretariat. 
 
Olowoshile also said Shell is creating discord in the communities of Nigeria&rsquo;s oil patch. &ldquo;Local citizens are becoming disoriented because they feel that Shell has now taken steps that will curtail job opportunities.&rdquo; 
 
In a 4 June letter to SPDC that gave notice of possible industrial action, the union calls the company&rsquo;s retrenchment exercise &ldquo;insensitive to the public and national interest.&rdquo; In February, Nigeria&rsquo;s National Assembly called for a halt to SPDC&rsquo;s unilateral decision to retrench. And more recently, the NNPC has come on record, stating only those who have reached the retirement age, or who volunteer to be made redundant, should leave.
<img height="60" alt="" src="" width="120" border="1" />
PENGASSAN awaits a SPDC&rsquo;s response and a meeting with union leaders on the national level. The SPDC concern is a major issue before the union&rsquo;s five-day Strategy Planning Synergies Conference, meetings involving the union&rsquo;s 80-member Central Working Committee, which begins today in Ogun State. 
 
Meanwhile, a PENGASSAN threat of strike against US-based Chevron&rsquo;s upstream operations has diminished, following dialogue last week that relieved some of the serious safety concerns plaguing workers. And regarding Chevron downstream operations in Nigeria, the union is continuing to meet with Nigerian equity partners to obtain the 60% stake that the American company is selling.

Nigeria’s PENGASSAN Threatens Strike Action Against Shell over Unilateral Job Cuts

<img height="78" alt="" src="" width="160" />
A 14-day tyre strike by 4,000 members of ICEM affiliate Lastik-İş in Turkey ended Friday night, 13 June, and workers at three multinational rubber companies were back on their jobs for the afternoon shift on 14 June. 
 
The strike ended when a two-year accord was reached between the union and the three employers, who jointly represent the tyre industry in talks. The companies include Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Co., Bridgestone Brisa Sabanci, and Pirelli.
The bargaining on 13 June&nbsp;was the first set of negotiations since the strike began on 31 May. Talks first began on a renewal labour agreement for 2008-2009 for the four&nbsp;tyre factories in September 2007. 
 
The two sides agreed to a 14% pay increase for the year 2008, and an increase equaling the Turkish rate of inflation for 2009. In 2007, the Turkish rate of inflation was 8.39% and is expected to rise above that this year. Lastik-İş had sought a 12% wage hike for the first six months of 2008, with increases matching the inflation rate in each six-month period through 2009. 
 
All levels of social benefits will also increase by the inflation rate over the life of the labour agreement. The ICEM, the Global Union Federation covering the chemicals, rubber, plastics, and pharmaceutical sectors, considers the 2008-2009 Turkish rubber agreement a major achievement, considering wage and social benefit gains were stymied in the late 1990s and early years of this decade due to strike bans imposed by the Turkish government.
<img height="178" alt="" src="" width="180" />
&nbsp;Lastik-İş President Abdullah Karacan 
 

&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t make any concessions, we preserved our contractual and work-rule provisions, and we posted substantial economic gains,&rdquo; stated Lastik-İş President Abdullah Karacan. &ldquo;The decisiveness of our union members at these four factories was effective and ultimately proved successful in bargaining.&rdquo; 
 
The four tyre plants, which saw workers return to work at 16h00 on 14 June, include two of&nbsp;US-based Goodyear&nbsp;in Izmit and Adapazari, and one operated by Bridgestone Brisa Sabanci, a joint venture between Japan-based Bridgestone and the Turkish Sabanci Group, and the other owned by&nbsp;Italian-based Pirelli. Both&nbsp;the Bridgestone&nbsp;and Pirelli plants&nbsp;are located&nbsp;in Izmit.

Turkey’s 14-Day Rubber Strike Ends with 14% First year Wage Gain

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Today is Day 12 in Harare Central Remand Prison for the two top leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). The two, President Lovemore Matombo and Secretary-General Secretary Wellington Chibebe, were denied bail on 12 May, and they await a further hearing on 23 May. 
 
And at that bail hearing last week, a leader of one of the two teachers&rsquo; unions in Zimbabwe was detained. Raymond Majongwe, Secretary-General of the Progressive Teachers&rsquo; Union, was seized at the Harare High Court. 
Education International (EI) is calling for protest action. For more, <a href="http://www.ei-ie.org/en/urgentactionappeal/show.php?id=11&amp;country=zimbabwe">click here</a>. 
 
It is believed&nbsp;that Majongwe is being held for chronicling the number of teachers in his union who have been victims of political violence for failing to contribute to the ruling ZANU-PF&rsquo;s party vote total in March&rsquo;s parliamentary and presidential elections.
<img height="160" alt="" src="" width="200" />
ZCTU's Wellington Chibebe&nbsp;
Comrades Matombo and Chibebe were arrested on 8 May and charged with &ldquo;communicating falsehoods prejudicial to the state and inciting public violence.&rdquo; Those allegations came from speeches they made on International Workers&rsquo; Day, 1 May, before 1,500 Zimbabweans inside Harare&rsquo;s Dzivaresekwa Stadium. 
 
The two presented themselves to police on Thursday, 8 May, after armed police turned up at their homes searching for them. Both had been severely beaten when they were last in police custody, in September 2006. 
 
The arrests of the trade union leaders are part of a wider crackdown on civil society defenders inside Zimbabwe in the wake of the 29 March elections. The ruling ZANU party of Robert Mugabe lost those elections, but results showed that Movement for Democratic Change candidate Morgan Tsvangirai did not win the necessary 50% plus one for the presidency, so a run-off election is now required. The Mugabe government has not yet set the date for that election.

Zimbabwe’s Repression, Jailing of Trade Union Leaders Continues

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The ICEM is backing seven Turkish road transport workers who have been imprisoned since November 2007, and who will have their first court hearing on 6 June. The seven, as well as eight others &ndash; all connected with the Labour Union of Turkish Motor Vehicles&rsquo; Workers (T&Uuml;MTIS) &ndash; will be in an Ankara courtroom, charged with &ldquo;setting up a criminal organization.&rdquo; 
 
In fact, the road transport workers were organizing other transport workers in two separate recruitment drives for T&Uuml;MTIS around Ankara. The ICEM has joined the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF), as well as affiliate Petrol-Is, in seeking justice for the trade unionists. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="250" />
The ITF has established an online campaign (which can be found&nbsp;<a href="http://www.itfglobal.org/solidarity/TUMTIS.cfm">here</a>). It has also filed protest letters with Turkish Prime Minister Re&ccedil;ep Tayyip Erdoğan, and taken the matter before the European Parliament&rsquo;s Human Rights Department. 
 
&ldquo;These kinds of attacks on trade union organizations directly violate the internationally established conventions protecting trade union rights, which Turkey has ratified,&rdquo; said the ITF. If found guilty, the workers face further prison terms, as well as a court order shutting down their union. 
 
On 20 November 2007, 17 transport workers were detained for exercising their legitimate trade union rights. Three days later, seven trade unionists were formally arrested &ndash; along with eight others &ndash; and the seven have been held in Sincon prison near Ankara since. 
 
The ICEM encourages affiliates to visit the ITF site, and to lodge protests with Turkey&rsquo;s government. Protest letters can be sent to <a href="mailto:bilgi@basbakanlik.gov.tr">bilgi@basbakanlik.gov.tr</a>, or faxed to&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;+90&nbsp;312&nbsp;417&nbsp;0476&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;,&nbsp;or&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;+90&nbsp;312&nbsp;418&nbsp;0476&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Case of Turkish Transport Workers Organising Union Goes to Ankara Court on 6 June

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