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A five-day strike by 400 chemical workers, members of ICEM-affiliated Oilfields Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (OWTU) in Trinidad and Tobago, ended last week with workers gaining equal voice in managing their production bonuses.
The strike, which began on 18 January against Yara Trinidad Ltd., wholly-owned by Norway&rsquo;s Yara International, also achieved wage gains that workers had fought for during several months of futile bargaining. For the collective bargaining term 2007-2010, OWTU members at the ammonia-producing company&rsquo;s will see a 16.5% salary increase, plus an additional lump-sum payout of 0.5% this year. 
 
Prior to the strike, in some 33 rounds of talks dating to last summer, Yara Trinidad had refused to offer anything close to 16% for that term. This set of talks also saw mediation intervention from the country&rsquo;s Ministry of Labour. Workers sought a profit-sharing plan at Yara&rsquo;s three-plant, 300,000 metric tonne-a-year operations at Point Lisas, Trinidad, an enterprise profitable due to high pricing and strong demand for ammonia. 
<img height="115" src="" width="250" alt="" />
OWTU won guarantees that its workers&rsquo; representatives will be involved in establishing bonus plans in budget preparations and guaranteeing that realistic targets are set. In addition, OWTU won an 80% increase in housing allowance, 50% on travel allowance, and improvements to the medical plan. 
 
OWTU issued official strike notice on 16 January, and workers downed tools on the afternoon of 18 January. The strike caused non-stop bargaining over the weekend of 18-20 January, and agreement came on 21 January. 
 
The Point Lisas operation of Yara was acquired by the Oslo-based company in 2004 when Norske Hydro sold its chemical fertiliser business, Hydro-Agri. Yara is now the world&rsquo;s largest producer of chemical plant nutrients following last year&rsquo;s buy-out of Kemira&rsquo;s GrowHow business from the Finnish state. 
 
Yara also owns a 49% stake in Trinidad Nitrogen Co. Ltd. (Tringen), a joint venture it operates for state-held National Enterprises Ltd. of Trinidad and Tobago.

OWTU Wins Chemicals Strike at Yara Trinidad Ltd.

The ICEM today said Stora Enso must do more to meet its social responsibilities regarding layoffs at two pulp and paper mills in Finland, as well for white-collar workers in the Nordic nation that are also getting the sack. The ICEM supports this week&rsquo;s strike by workers at Stora Enso in Finland. 
 
The Global Union Federation, representing 20 million workers in several industrial sectors, predicted in November that further strikes in the Finnish pulp and paper sector would occur if Stora Enso did not present alternatives to its latest restructuring plan. (That release can be found <a href="/en/?id=19&amp;doc=2442&amp;la=EN">here</a>.)
<img height="143" alt="" src="" width="140" />
On 25 October, the Finnish-Swedish company announced that 1,400 jobs would be cut in Finland, Sweden, and other European nations.&nbsp;Some 1,100 of those jobs were to be lost in Finland. Yesterday&rsquo;s announcement by Stora Enso that mill closures and job cuts totalling 985 is unacceptable, and the ICEM joins with Finnish trade union affiliate Paperiliitto by calling on the company to develop new technologies and new products that will retain workers. 
 
&ldquo;The strikes in Finland are a clear indication that workers themselves are not satisfied with the company&rsquo;s approach,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;As a sizeable minority shareholder in Stora Enso, the Finnish government has an obligation to do more to preserve these jobs.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM reiterates its solidarity to the workers at the Kemij&auml;rvi and Summa Mills in Finland, as well as the Norrsundet paperworkers in Sweden, and white-collar workers in the two countries and in other administrative offices in Europe. &ldquo;They have displayed great strength through their respective trade unions, and the ICEM will ensure that this strength becomes a chain of strength for paperworkers throughout the world,&rdquo; said Warda. &ldquo;We call on Stora Enso to implement strategies that grow jobs, not destroy them.&rdquo;

Stora Enso Must Do More to Fulfill Social Responsibilities

Established in October 1999, ICEM&rsquo;s South American BASF Workers&rsquo; Network and Social Dialogue programme will close in on its tenth anniversary next year. The 17th gathering of the Network was held from 13-17 May, 2008, in Santiago, Chile. 
 
Composed of trade union representatives from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru, last week&rsquo;s meetings were also attended by representatives from ICEM&rsquo;s German affiliate, IGBCE, as well as representatives of the BASF European Works Council and ICEM staff. 
 
Before the Social Dialogue section of the meeting, in which management of various BASF South American facilities take part, representatives from trade unions held a preparatory meeting. On the first day, following a presentation by ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries Officer Kemal Ozkan on ICEM activities in general, as well as in Latin America, IGBCE&rsquo;s Michael Wolters from the union&rsquo;s International Department, made a presentation.
<img height="225" alt="" src="" width="300" />
&nbsp;Trade union participants to the 17th BASF South American meetings in Santiago, Chile 
 

After that, the 25 trade unionists present discussed possible amendments on the principals and status of the Network. 
 
On day two, national reports were heard on developments in Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Chile, and work that has been done by the Network in the period 2006-2008 was discussed. Having heard presentations by Robert Oswald from the European Works Council on the situation in Europe, and from Michael Vassiliadis, a Supervisory Board member of BASF, who also is an Executive Committee member of both IGBCE and ICEM, on the company&rsquo;s general and human resource policies, delegates to the 17th Network meeting debated the activities of the Network for the coming 2008-2009 period.
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Chile
They also elected representatives from countries who led the Social Dialogue portion of the meetings. Those elected included Fabio Lins of Brazil, the current coordinator of the Network, and Vilobaldo Machado, also of Brazil; Ruben Caroselli and Fabian Akim of Argentina; Victor Ramirez and Fernando Saldano of Chile; and Germ&aacute;n Remigio of Peru.
The meeting was chaired by ICEM Vice President for Latin America/Caribbean, Sergio Novais, who served as the first coordination of the Network at inception in 1999. Novais also served as co-chair of the Social Dialogue section, together with Wagner Brunini from BASF management.
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Brazil
At that meeting, the BASF global situation was presented, which included financial data from the group and the regions, the Global Site Benchmark initiative was discussed, and the CO-2 balance measure was addressed by Dr Harald Schwager, chief global human resources manager of the company. Also making a presentation was Dr Rolf Dieter Acker, head of BASF&rsquo;s South American region, who addressed regional and country data, as well as developments since 2006. 
 
The meeting also heard the company&rsquo;s international human resource polices, including facts and figures, and the human resources strategy and the company&rsquo;s Global Employee Survey, as well as corporate social responsibility practices.
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Argentina&nbsp;
The trade union group then presented results of its preparatory meeting, and constructive discussion ensued. The main topics in the following day&rsquo;s meeting, as defined by the workers&rsquo; group, were creation of workplace committees in plants located in Colombia and in Faria Lima, Brazil; establishment of a trade union organisation in BASF&rsquo;s Peruvian factory; and enhancing social dialogue in Argentina between trade unions and management. 
 
Trade unionists also raised problems created by subcontracting, that deeper national dialogues must occur to find solutions to it and promotion Decent Work, and also discussed health and safety, company restructuring, specifically the need for transparency on information, and creation of communications and negotiations, and also on the issue of termination of employment contracts with justified reasons.
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Peru&nbsp;
It was also decided to produce a special publication for the tenth anniversary of the Network for next year. 
In parallel to the well-tuned BASF Workers&rsquo; South American Network, the ICEM&rsquo;s BASF Asia-Pacific Workers&rsquo; Network meetings will take place in August 2008. There are also plans to do similar activities in other regions, such as North America, as a basis of global level Social Dialogue in line with the special resolution adopted at ICEM&rsquo;s 4th Congress in Bangkok in November 2007.

BASF South American Workers’ Network Nears 10th Anniversary

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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

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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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Two ICEM affiliates in Turkey, Kristal-İş and Lastik-İş, are bracing for industry-wide strikes in the coming weeks due to break-downs in negotiations. The unions have been negotiating with employers&rsquo; associations since autumn 2007, but without achieving final resolves. 
 
Salary issues are the main stumbling blocks in both sets of talks.
<img height="41" src="" width="160" alt="" />
Kristal-İş, representing glass workers, is now in its twenty-first term of industry negotiations with the Turkish Glass, Cement, and Soil Industry Employers&rsquo; Association. The bargaining covers 6,000 workers at 11 plant sites operated by glassware companies Paşabah&ccedil;e, Trakya Cam, Anadolu Cam, and Cam Elyaf. 
 
All are entities of the Siscam Group, the fast-growing glasswares multinational that has factories in Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia, and Georgia. 
 
After months of stalled negotiations, on 5 May, the last session, the glass association made a miniscule offer covering social bonuses, while failing to put any offer forward regarding salary increases. With no further progress in talks since that date, the Kristal- İş Executive Committee decided on 9 May to pursue strike action. 
 
In the tyre industry, Lastik-İş has been negotiating with three rubber multinationals &ndash; Bridgestone Brisa Sabanci, Pirelli Lastikleri, and Goodyear Lastikleri. The talks cover 4,000 workers at four factories in the cities of Izmit and Adapazari.
<img height="120" src="" width="160" alt="" />
Some 29 agenda items out of 59 have been concluded in the industry-wide collective talks, but the remainder are at impasse. A recent mediation session did not produce results. The main disagreements cover salaries for new hires, annual paid holidays, the use of temporary workers, and work hours. 
 
Lastik İş is demanding a wage increase of 12% for the first six-month period of a two-year contract, and the Turkish rate of inflation for each six-month period over the remaining 18 months. 
 
The union is also adamant in retaining rights gained in the past 50-year history of collective negotiations, and seeks to exclude industry-proposed rules regarding work flexibility. 
 
The rubber employers&rsquo; association has not put forward proposals concerning salaries or social bonuses. The Executive Committee of Lastik-İş, on 8 May, decided to endorse strike action.
<img height="101" src="" width="220" alt="" />
While Kristal- İş has not announced a date for it strike to begin, Lastik İş President Abdullah Karacan told the Anatolia News Service that a rubber strike has been set for 31 May. Under Turkey&rsquo;s Collective Agreements, Strikes, and Lock-outs Law, work stoppages must now occur within a two-month period from the time a petition was submitted. In the past, however, strikes called by both unions were banned by the government because of so-called &ldquo;national security&rdquo; issues. 
 
In tyre talks in 2004, a government decree prohibiting an industry-wide strike was overturned by Turkey&rsquo;s Supreme Court. That fact brought the rubber association to agreeable terms with Lastik- İş. 
 
The ICEM will continue to follow developments and lend unequivocal support to its two affiliates in their respective industry-wide collective talks. 
 
Meanwhile, Petrol- İş, another Turkish affiliate of the ICEM, has taken strike action at Nese Plastics, a company operating in the city of Gebze. Some 141 union members are striking. Negotiations began on 5 December 2007, but management of Nese Plastics has not made a wage offer, insisting on paying current salaries despite high inflation rates in Turkey.

ICEM’s Turkish Glass, Tyre Unions Readied for Strike Action

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The ICEM affiliate Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Namibia (MUN) and management of Skorpion Zinc, owned by AngloAmerican, are expected to conclude negotiations today, ending a paralyzing 11-day strike that has affected global zinc markets. 
 
According to MUN President Andries Eiseb, the two sides exchanged proposals over the weekend, and spent the entire day on Sunday, 18 May, analysing the proposals. Further review is expected today, and the agreement is expected to be submitted to striking miners either late today or tomorrow.
<img height="66" alt="" src="" width="100" />
&ldquo;There is the intent by both parties now to amicably settle the dispute and we expect conclusion today,&rdquo; said Eiseb, who helped present the union&rsquo;s proposal to management at the mine and smelting operation near Rosh Pinah in southwestern Namibia. 
 
Salary agreement came late last week, when the union and management agreed on a 12% wage increase for all 680 miners. The major stumbling block in weekend negotiations was related to the company&rsquo;s desire for continuous operations, and the needed Labour Ministry exemption for that to occur. The issue of continuous operations also included the matter of adequate compensation. 
 
MUN agreed to support application for the exemption, and Skorpion must now compensate workers at time-and-a-half for all overtime, pending outcome of a court case. In a 2004 labour agreement, MUN won double-time for Sunday and public holiday work and that will remain intact. The overtime issue became complicated in negotiations due to the pending court case. 
 
Other issues that were resolved to the benefit of workers include housing allowances and company transport. The housing allowance was increased to N$1,700 per month, while MUN won a guarantee that the company will provide transport to the capital city of Windhoek, some 650 kilometres from the mine. Previously, transport was only granted to Keetmanshoop, a distance of 200 kilometres. 
 
Miners at Skorpion work seven-day on, seven-day off rotations.
<img height="95" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The ICEM affiliate Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Namibia (MUN) and management of Skorpion Zinc, owned by AngloAmerican, are expected to conclude negotiations today, ending a paralyzing 11-day strike that has affected global zinc markets. 
 
According to MUN President Andries Eiseb, the two sides exchanged proposals over the weekend, and spent the entire day on Sunday, 18 May, analysing the proposals. Further review is expected today, and the agreement is expected to be submitted to striking miners either late today or tomorrow. 
 
&ldquo;There is the intent by both parties now to amicably settle the dispute and we expect conclusion today,&rdquo; said Eiseb, who helped present the union&rsquo;s proposal to management at the mine and smelting operation near Rosh Pinah in southwestern Namibia. 
 
Salary agreement came late last week, when the union and management agreed on a 12% wage increase for all 680 miners. The major stumbling block in weekend negotiations was related to the company&rsquo;s desire for continuous operations, and the needed Labour Ministry exemption for that to occur. The issue of continuous operations also included the matter of adequate compensation. 
 
MUN agreed to support application for the exemption, and Skorpion must now compensate workers at time-and-a-half for all overtime, pending outcome of a court case. In a 2004 labour agreement, MUN won double-time for Sunday and public holiday work and that will remain intact. The overtime issue became complicated in negotiations due to the pending court case. 
 
Other issues that were resolved to the benefit of workers include housing allowances and company transport. The housing allowance was increased to N$1,700 per month, while MUN won a guarantee that the company will provide transport to the capital city of Windhoek, some 650 kilometres from the mine. Previously, transport was only granted to Keetmanshoop, a distance of 200 kilometres. 
 
Miners at Skorpion work seven-day on, seven-day off rotations. 
 
The strike started on 9 May, and immediately drove zinc prices up on the London Metals Exchange. Skorpion, one of the world&rsquo;s leading zinc mining and processing firms, produces 150,000 tonnes of special high-grade zinc annually. Management attempted to leverage its bargaining position last week by bringing in contract workers in efforts to continue production. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="250" />
The Skorpion mining and smelting operation, wholly owned by Irish-based Anglo Base Metals, a subsidiary of AngloAmerican, began operations in Namibia in 2003. It became fully operational in mid-2005, and it produced 56,300 tonnes for the first six months of that year when the price of zinc was at US$660-per-tonne. The MUN strike pushed zinc prices up a full 5%, with it trading at US$2,285-per-tonne late last week. 
The strike started on 9 May, and immediately drove zinc prices up on the London Metals Exchange. Skorpion, one of the world&rsquo;s leading zinc mining and processing firms, produces 150,000 tonnes of special high-grade zinc annually. Management attempted to leverage its bargaining position last week by bringing in contract workers in efforts to continue production. 
 
The Skorpion mining and smelting operation, wholly owned by Irish-based Anglo Base Metals, a subsidiary of AngloAmerican, began operations in Namibia in 2003. It became fully operational in mid-2005, and it produced 56,300 tonnes for the first six months of that year when the price of zinc was at US$660-per-tonne. The MUN strike pushed zinc prices up a full 5%, with it trading at US$2,285-per-tonne late last week.

Skorpion Zinc Strike in Namibia Expected to Conclude Today

<img height="39" src="" width="100" alt="" />
A critical multi-union trade union conference was held in Basra, Iraq, last week, 14 May, under the scope of the Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW). Chaired in part by Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, president of the ICEM affiliate, General Union of Iraq Electricity Workers and Technicians (GUEWT), the conference produced a unified response to the Iraqi government&rsquo;s call for union elections between June and August of this year.
<img height="225" src="" width="300" alt="" />
&nbsp; 
At left, ICEM&nbsp;Executive Committee Member Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein&nbsp; 

The demand called on the government to abolish 1987&rsquo;s Public Law No. 150, a Saddam-era decree forbidding workers employed in the public sector from forming or joining a union. A statement issued to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that followed the meeting also called on it to abolish Decree No. 8750, the draconian instrument put in place in 2005 by the occupational forces. That measure effectively confiscated all trade union funds, and prohibited unions from collecting dues or maintaining assets. 
 
In addition, the 15 trade unions present issued a demand for revival of Article 22, Paragraph 3 of the Iraqi Constitution, which would guarantee Iraqi unions the right to form or join free and democratic trade unions. 
 
Early this year, the al-Maliki government decreed that trade unions inside Iraq must conduct several rounds of elections in order to choose leaders. But under Public Law 150 &ndash; and of equal significance, the occupation&rsquo;s Decree No. 8750, which al-Maliki continues to uphold &ndash; most of the unions at last week&rsquo;s GFIW Basra event could not participate in such elections. 
 
The GUEWT, for example, as well as workers in the oil, railway, transport, ports, and health care sectors, are excluded because these sectors all are part of Iraq&rsquo;s public sector. &ldquo;We agree with the format for union elections, but with reservations,&rdquo; said Abdullah Muhsin, GFIW International Representative. &ldquo;Full freedom of association and common recognition of free and democratic trade unions inside Iraq must come first.&rdquo; 
 
In the letter to Prime Minister al-Maliki, that went as well as to Iraq&rsquo;s President and the President of Parliament, the GFIW states: &ldquo;Five years have passed since the fall of the hated regime. Iraqi workers, instead of receiving the support they deserve, must realize their potential and thus employ this potential to help reconstruction of Iraq&rsquo;s devastated economy.
<img height="101" src="" width="220" alt="" />
&ldquo;In the name of Basra workers, our federation, the GFIW in Basra, appeals to your Excellencies to recognize the sacrifices endured by Iraqi workers in their defiance of extremist onslaughts, and allow workers the right to conduct free and open elections across Iraq&rsquo;s public, private, and cooperative industries.&rdquo; 
 
Besides the GUEWT, the letter was signed by the GFIW Basra Head, Hussein Fadel Hassan; the Mechanic Workers&rsquo; Union of Basra; the Transport Workers&rsquo; Union of Basra; the Service Workers&rsquo; Union of Basra; the Construction and Wood Workers&rsquo; Union; the Municipality Workers&rsquo; Union of Basra; the Iraqi All Ports Workers&rsquo; Union, based in Basra; the Railway Workers&rsquo; Union; the Health Workers&rsquo; Union of Basra; the Engineering and Professional Workers&rsquo; Union of Basra; the Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Union; and the Society for Development and Reconstruction.

Iraqi Trade Union Conference Demands Repeal of Draconian Labour Decrees

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Around 100 African trade union delegates, from 15 countries, attended the ICEM regional conference of the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Organisation (SSARO), held in Gaborone, Botswana, on 5 and 6 July 2007. 
 
Welile Nolingo, regional chair and General Secretary of South African ICEM affiliate CEPPWAWU, opened the conference and reported on the improved political situation in the region, where several countries are recovering from a period of war. Though corruption is still a serious problem in many of those countries, often badly hampering economic development, trade unions are showing their determination in challenging their governments to deal with these, and other, negative aspects of their governance. 
<img height="171" src="" width="200" alt="" />
Welile Nolingo, General Secretary of South African ICEM affiliate CEPPWAWU
The organisational development of the region was discussed, with delegates agreeing that the ICEM members need to be more involved in ICEM activities in the region. This applies not only to the donor funded projects, but also to the need to develop more bilateral contacts and activities. 
 
It was further stressed that the ICEM affiliates in the region need to develop a strategic plan, focussing on the continuing development of strong and democratic unions. A plan was proposed by the secretariat to that extent. Contract and Agency Labour (CAL), HIV/AIDS, Global Framework Agreements (GFA) and Company Networks were also listed as topics that increasingly need to become core business. 
<img height="188" alt="" src="" width="200" />
Rayford Mbulu, incoming ICEM regional chair and General Secretary of the Mine Workers Union of Zambia 
Recognising the growth of activity in the ICEM industries in the region (mining, oil, gas, chemicals), the ICEM General Secretary reconfirmed his engagement to devote more attention within the secretariat to this specific region. He also mentioned the need to empower trade unions and their leaderships in Western Africa, and made an appeal to all members to focus on closer cooperation between members, but also with representatives and affiliates of other GUF&rsquo;s. The integration of the WFIW into the ICEM was expected to lead to additional strength in the region, especially in Francophone countries. 
 
The conference adopted several statutory changes, of which the most important was on formally establishing a Women&rsquo;s Committee within the regional structure. 
 
The conference elected Brother Rayford Mbulu, General Secretary of the Mine Workers Union of Zambia, as the next Regional Chair. Sister Baru Gaaithoboge of the Botswana Diamond Sorters and Valuators Union was elected as the Regional Women&rsquo;s Chair at the Regional Women&rsquo;s Conference, which was held just prior to the SSARO Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.

ICEM Sub-Saharan African Regional Conference held in Gaborone, Botswana

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The last three major mining disasters in Russia&rsquo;s Kemerovo and Vorkuta Regions, which took 159 lives in three months, are a clear indication that the system of mining safety in the country is making miners hostages of profitability. 
 
Officially, the two methane explosions in Kemerovo resulted from faulty cables, which short-circuited and detonated the mixture of methane, air, and coal dust. Systems used at the mine to automatically localise and suppress explosions all failed (and were later prohibited for use in all Russian mines). 
<img height="95" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The high concentration of methane remained undetected because the mines&rsquo; gas detection systems were tampered with. Meters showed methane concentration in the mines to be significantly less than it actually was, and the complete power shut-down, which would normally prevent any short-circuiting in such situations, therefore never took place. 
 
Ruben Badalov, First Vice President of the ICEM-affiliated Russian Independent Coal Miners&rsquo; Union (ROSUGLEPROF), and a member of the Russian State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament, was on the federal investigatory team at the Ulianovskaya mine. Probing beyond the immediate causes, he exposes several indirect ones, whose nature cannot be reduced simply to matters of production discipline. 
<img height="185" alt="" src="" width="240" />
These indirect causes fall into a number of categories: from mistakes in the extraction estimates to assumptions of legal &ldquo;liberalisation&rdquo; of the whole mining safety control system. This makes it virtually impossible for public supervisory agencies, like Rostechnadzor, or the union&rsquo;s own inspectors, to enforce timely closures of unsafe mines. The common denominator for all the categories is a lack of regulatory mechanisms in the industry where the rule of the market is largely unchecked.
&ldquo;The actual methane content of the coal seam at the Ulianovskaya mine turned out to be several times higher than the project estimates,&quot; says Badalov, himself a mining engineer with extensive experience. 
<img height="58" alt="" src="" width="329" />
&ldquo;Moreover, the intensive extraction schedule contributed to the release of still greater amounts of methane into the mine, which was never properly degassed &ndash; a costly procedure. The roof was defined in the project documentation as highly resistant to caving and prone to overhanging. At the same time, the seam liability to rock bumps had been assumed to manifest itself ten metres below the level where the explosion took place. As a result, no precautionary measures, such as preventive degassing of the mine, or induced caving of the roof, had been scheduled. It was during the uncontrolled caving of 70 metres of the overhanging roof that huge amounts of methane were momentarily released into the mine.&rdquo; 
 
Both mines were designed by the same people, belonging to the same school of mining engineering, and while the licensing procedure is still in place, there&rsquo;s no meaningful quality control as the development of the mining science in Russia was hindered by lack of support from the state. 
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Ruben Badalov maintains that, as a purely commercial approach inevitably brings a temptation to simplify processes and disregard relevant specificities, there must be state supervision of all engineering work related to hazardous production processes. 
 
The Kuzbass disasters once again highlight the existing disparity between the fixed component of the coal miner&rsquo;s wages and the productivity-driven parts. The drop in income during outages to less than half of regular wages pushes miners to reckless behaviour. At the Yubileinaya mine, all it took to deceive the gas detection system was a piece of cloth wrapped around a gas sensor. 
 
&ldquo;This doesn&rsquo;t stimulate productivity, this stimulates coal extraction at any cost,&rdquo; says Badalov. In the course of the Federal Industry Agreement negotiations earlier this year, ROSUGLEPROF tabled a proposal to raise the fixed part of the wages to 70%, and although the target could not be achieved uniformly and in full, there were companies who were prepared to take this figure as a reference point.

Three Mining Disasters Take 159 Lives in Russia

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