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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 39px; " width="390" />

	The ICEM affiliate in Sierra Leone, United Mineworkers’ Union (UMU), stepped in last week to negotiate a partial resolve to a strike by casual workers employed by subcontractors of iron ore producer African Minerals Ltd. That strike, lasting from 17 April to 23 April, was marked by police violence in the north-central Sierra Leone town of Bumbuna that saw one woman killed by police gun fire and at least nine others seriously injured.

	The agreement reached on 24 April near Bumbuna between the UMU, African Minerals and several Sierra Leone ministry officials – including ministers of Labour and Social Security and Mineral Resources – produced several remedial measures to last week’s spontaneous strike by some 500 casual workers.

	UMU General Secretary Ezekiel Dyke said he hoped his union’s intervention would move the London-based mining company that relies almost totally on subcontractors to finalise a collective agreement with the UMU. African Minerals earlier this year began production at Sierra Leone’s Tonkolili project near Bumbana, containing the world’s largest reported magnetite iron ore reserves of 12.8 billion tonnes.

	<img alt="" height="140" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1111.CAL sierra leonne.png" style="cursor: default; " width="123" />

	Ezekiel Dyke

	UMU has been in talks with African Minerals since last year over a collective agreement. Last week’s strike by nearly half of the workforce of 1,000 casual workers was caused by delayed salaries to some, meagre pay to all, lack of medical care, and on-going lack of union representation as production ramped up and rail shipments to the capital of Freeport began.

	On the strike’s second day, 18 April, violence ensued when Bumbuna towns-people joined strikers and blocked entrances to the Tonkolili project. Riot police then stormed protestors in the village, firing live ammunition, wielding batons and shooting tear gas directly at strikers and their community supporters. The police action created a stampede that tore through a marketplace in Bumbuna.

	Killed instantly was Musu Conteh, a woman in her 30s employed by the catering firm ATS. Some nine others were seriously injured by bullet wounds to their legs, said the UMU’s Ezekiel Dyke, while perhaps 20 others were treated in an ill-equipped medical centre in nearby Makena for gas inhalation and police-inflicted wounds.

	Dyke said upwards of 40% of the casual workers employed throughout the Tonkolili project are women.

	The remedial agreement reached will see African Minerals immediately pay owed back salaries of up to two months for casual workers who work on the mine’s rail link. It establishes a framework whereby casual workers will become permanent employees of either African Minerals or their subcontracting firm after three months of employment, or in some cases extended to six months.

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	It also mandates that African Minerals provide a full review of salaries, work conditions and job categories within two weeks. The primary employer also agreed to investigate and pay compensation to the deceased woman’s family within two weeks, as well as provide compensation to injured victims in that same period. African Minerals also agreed to pay compensation to market vendors – mostly women – for their losses from the 18 April violence.

	There will also be a thorough investigation of the unchecked police force used on 18 April.

	Major contractors for African Minerals in Sierra Leone include the company BCM, doing production work, while UK-based engineering and construction companies Dawnus and Hawk also employ casual workers, as does South African-based Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon (WBHO). There are scores of Sierra Leone-based companies that reportedly also exploit workers.

	Between the latter half of 2011 and last month, China-based Shandong Iron & Steel Group Co. Ltd. of state-owned Shandong Province Asset Commission purchased 25% of the Tonkolili project from African Minerals, along with the same percentage of related rail and port subsidiary companies for nearly US$1.5 billion.

	UMU currently has collective agreements in Sierra Leone with iron ore miner London Mining, BSG Resources’ Koidu Holdings, a diamond miner, Cluff Gold, Baomahun Gold Mines, and Sierra Rutile, a miner of titanium dioxide.

Mineworkers’ Union in Sierra Leone Intervene on Behalf of Oppressed Contract Workers

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 39px;" width="390" />

	The 2007 Global Framework Agreement (GFA) between the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) and Spanish retailer Inditex Group was improved considerably on 4 May when the ITGLWF and Inditex signed a Protocol Agreement that monitors compliance and guarantees union intervention throughout Inditex’s supply chain.

	The new accord, signed in Arteixo, Galicia, by ITGLWF General Secretary Klaus Priegnitz and Inditex Director of Corporate Social Responsibility Félix Poza, was done in coordination with Spanish union FITEQA-CC.OO, and serves as official guideposts to a 2010 “Protocol for Union Follow-Up” accord that provides the specifics for involvement in the GFA by ITGLWF affiliates.

	Firstly, the addendum guarantees the ITGLWF and its affiliated unions access to all Inditex information on suppliers’ workplaces, including the annual update of company information on its production chain. And it commits Inditex to giving the unions the schedule of planned social audits and listing of suppliers to be inspected.

	 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1205-inditex-signing-2007.jpg" style="width: 239px; height: 159px;" width="390" /> 

	5 October 2007 Signing of ITGLWF-Inditex GFA

	Inditex also formally recognises the vital role of union affiliates in monitoring compliance due to proximity and location of unions to textile, garment and footwear manufacturers, and grants unions the right to visit the sites of suppliers.

	It lays out a process of correction actions when violations of the GFA are found, as well as establishing and implementing training programmes among suppliers’ managers, employees and others on the content of the GFA.

	Isidor Boix of FITEQA-CC.OO, who facilitated the recent Protocol Agreement, reminded that the social responsibility process inside Inditex is constantly on-going with commitments that trade unionism, workers’ rights and fairness and dignity are upheld and respected.

	Inditex uses some 5,000 suppliers throughout the world. The company operates some 5,500 fashion retail stores in 78 countries under the names Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Duti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Uterque and Zara Home.

	The 2007 ITGLWF-Inditex GFA is testament to late ITGLWF General Secretary Neil Kearney who crafted the agreement covering workers throughout the multinational’s supply chain after making interventions in factories that supply to the Spanish company when workers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Peru and Turkey were sacked for their trade union activity.

ITGLWF, Inditex Global Agreement Improved with Specific Monitoring Devices

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 39px;" / width="390">

	From International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF)

	Workers making Olympic sportswear for London 2012 for top brands and high street names including adidas and Next are being paid poverty wages, forced to work excessive overtime and threatened with instant dismissal if they complain about working conditions, according to a recently released report Play Fair 2012 campaign.

	The report, <a href="http://www.itglwf.org/documents/Workers_in_Olympics_Supply_Factories_Human_Rights_25412.pdf">Fair Games? Human Rights of Workers in Olympic 2012 Supplier Factories</a>, uncovers a range of abuses, providing more evidence to increase the pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to act to improve the working conditions in Olympic supply chains in the run up to Rio 2016, says Play Fair.

	Last autumn, researchers working on behalf of Play Fair campaign, which includes the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) and the Clean Clothes Campaign, visited ten factories – eight of which were producing Olympic goods – in China, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Across the three countries they talked to 175 workers about their working conditions.

	<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1205-play-fair-report.jpg" style="width: 129px; height: 186px;" / width="390">

	The “Fair Games?” report contains many examples where workers making Olympic goods have been badly treated, including:

	• In China, workers at a factory in the Guangdong Province which produces sportswear for Adidas were contracted to work in two separate locations 200km apart so lived in fear of suddenly being sent miles from home for their jobs.

	• Workers at the same Amerseas Enterprises Factory also complained of regularly having to do overtime in excess of the legal minimum (with working hours from 8am to 10pm not uncommon even at less busy times) and of not being able to wear the necessary safety masks to protect against dust because of unrealistic production targets.

	• In the Philippines, workers complained of pay rates so low that they were forced to pawn their ATM cards to loan sharks for ‘pay day loans’ to see them through the month. Workers in the factories producing for Adidas said they were also told when they started that overtime was compulsory.

	• In Sri Lanka, workers also said that their pay was not enough to meet their basic needs – those questioned said they earned a maximum of LKR 25,000 a month (£122), little more than half the country’s living wage of LKR 45,000 (£220).

	• Workers at the Next Manufacturing factory in Sri Lanka reported how the company used an external agent to hire short-term temporary workers. The agent made the workers do double shifts each day – after completing a full shift plus overtime at Next, they were transferred to another factory where they had to work until 2.30am. The next morning they had to report for their 8am shift at Next.

	• There were no unions permitted in any of the factories and in China, workers said that anyone talking to colleagues about the need to improve factory conditions would be dismissed instantly.

	Research undertaken by Play Fair camping earlier this year – which found evidence of child labour, excessive hours, poverty pay and dangerous working conditions in Chinese factories producing pin badges and London 2012 mascots – the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) agreed to get tougher with the factories in its various supply chains.

	This included making information about employment rights available in Chinese and establishing a Chinese language hotline so that workers could complain about ill treatment. The “Fair Games?” report shows that the abuse of workers in Olympic supply chains was also happening in other countries.

	To illustrate the extent of the problem and to convince the IOC that it needs to do more to improve the treatment of workers making goods for the next Games in Brazil, UK’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) has submitted a number of complaints to LOCOG on behalf of the workers from China and the Philippines who are featured in the report.

	Klaus Priegnitz, General Secretary of the ITGLWF, which wrote the report, said: “Prior to the Beijing Olympics Play Fair called on companies to take action to ensure the human rights of all workers in their supply chains were respected.

	“Four years on we see that the denial of the right to freedom of association, the payment of poverty wages and the widespread use of precarious work is still the norm. Companies need to step up their game and work with unions to support the development of mature systems of industrial relations in their supplier factories.”

ITGLWF Report Outlines Abuses of Workers Preparing Olympic 2012 Goods

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	ICEM Colombia Coordinator Carlos Bustos reports that a two-day seminar of young trade unionists from the three Global Union Federations (GUFs) that next month will form IndustriALL came to important conclusions last week. The participation of 20 trade unionists under the age of 30 brought young men and women together from throughout Colombia on 10-11 May.

	Participating unions included International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF)affiliates Utramicol and Fetramecol, and Martina Sanguinetti of the Uruguayan Metalworkers (UNTMRA). Also participating were representatives of ICEM, and CUT and CTC national labour centres.

	The meeting sought to find ways to increase the active participation of youth. A key issue for participants was not for them to be consulted more, but to be centrally involved in decision-making and to be involved and represented at all levels inside unions. This includes deciding the politics and the future of the Colombian trade union movement.

	 <img alt="" height="146" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910Carlos.bustos.jpg" width="180" /> 

	Carlos Bustos

	A commitment was reached to establish a permanent network for communication and information.

	The joint youth project of the three GUFs that also included the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) and was funded by the Finnish Solidarity Organisation, SASK. This project will connect similar processes that are ongoing in Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, and Nicaragua with that in Colombia.

	ICEM project coordinator Patricio Sambonino evaluated the two-day Colombian seminar, saluting the important contribution and participation of the young trade unionists, moving towards generational change for the movement.

Young Colombian Trade Unionists of ICEM, ITGLWF, IMF Connect

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Bargaining will resume today in the lockout of 25,000 paperworkers in Finland. The Executive Committee of Paperiliitto on 5 June rejected a mediator’s proposal that, on the whole, sided with many of the concessionary proposals put forward by the Finnish Forest Industries Federation. Those proposals would have given paper companies the unlimited right to outsource work that would see as many as one-third of all full-time paper sector jobs disappear, and would have weakened worker protections against layoffs. 
Employers have now extended the lockout to six weeks, or until 29 June. EMCEF announced that it will investigate whether Finnish paper firms forced the lockout in order to increase paper prices through reduced supply and the ICEM continues to encourage paper sector unions across Europe not to accept work orders from Finnish paper mills and converters.

Finnish Affiliate Rejects Paper Companies Harsh Concessions

A dispute has surfaced between ICEM affiliate Associated Mineworkers of Zimbabwe and that country’s Council of Mines. The employers’ group walked out of negotiations after refusing to award reasonable wage and salary adjustments, and then unilaterally granted inferior pay hikes amounting to half of what AMWZ considers a liveable wage. Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Labour has intervened and ordered the matter be put before conciliation.

Mining Dispute in Zimbabwe Centers on Wages

The Communications, Energy, Paperworkers Union of Canada picked Suncor Energy last month as the pattern-setter for this year’s round of oil talks. That means some 10,000 CEP members at five majors and several smaller companies will have similar terms in pay hikes, shift increases and other wage-related premiums at their bargains. General pay hikes agreed to at Suncor are 3%, 3.5% and 3% over three years. The Suncor agreement has a unique company contribution to CEP’s Humanity Fund, the union’s assistance fund to workers in developing nations. Union leaders have made it clear that CEP members across Canada’s oil sector are determined to get the same terms as those achieved at Suncor.

Canadian CEP Sets Oil Pattern with Suncor

The CEP, meanwhile, welcomed 340 Shell oil workers from Montreal into their ranks. An unaffiliated local union there voted to join Canada’s dominate energy, paper and communications union and will become CEP Local 121.

Shell Stand-Alone Union in Montreal Joins Canadian CEP

The National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa still has not received answers to the sudden lay-offs of 400 diamond miners employed by Antwerp-based Rex Diamond Mining at the Loxton Mine in the Northern Cape. Despite inquiries by the NUM and ICEM over the status of the miners, the firm has said only the retrenchments are of a “short term arrangement,” yet has provided no information that would clarify the benefits due the workers.

South Africa’s NUM Awaits Answers from Rex Diamond

ICEM Dutch affiliate FNV Bondgenoten and four other unions at DSM’s chemical plant in Geleen engaged in a stop-work march and rally 12 April at the firm’s headquarters in nearby Heerlen in the southern NL province of Limburg. Some 2,500 workers participated in this first-ever such action against DSM. Under the slogan “Stop the Breakdown of DSM Employment in Limburg,” the unions protested DSM’s recent announcement that 1,000 workers at sprawling industrial chemicals operations would be made redundant this year. DSM intends to replace the 1,000 with 500 contractors. The Geleen complex once had 15,000 employees. Prior to this most recent announcement, it employed 5,000.

FNV Bondgenoten Protests DSM’s Retrenchments in the Netherlands

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