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The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) again mourns the deaths of miners in South Africa. On 20 July, two miners perished 3,000 metres underground at AngloGold Ashanti&rsquo;s Moab Khotsong mine near Orkney in Free State. 
 
The two miners became trapped when the ground around them caved in. Their bodies were recovered on 22 July. A third miner was rescued in the cave-in and was reported in stable condition in a hospital.
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The two deaths push AngloGold&rsquo;s death rate in South Africa to 11 this, and the total recorded number of recorded deaths in the country&rsquo;s mining sector to 110. AngloGold&rsquo;s sister company, AngloPlatinum, leads all mining concerns in South Africa in recorded deaths with 17.
A day after the bodies at Moab Khotsong mine disaster were found, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica visited the site. She took the unusual step of ordering the mine closed, pending an investigation. Speaking to reporters, she said that her ministry would begin more rigid inspections and that profits must not come before lives. 
 
Because of the rising death toll in South Africa&rsquo;s mines this year, the NUM has called for an urgent tripartite meeting to rescue South Africa's Mining Health and Safety Summit in order to address the current deficiencies in mine safety.

Two Workers Killed at AngloGold’s Mine in Free State, South Africa

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The national labour centres of South Africa and Zimbabwe are advising that the world better get ready for a humanitarian crisis, since Zimbabwe&rsquo;s economy is on the verge of a meltdown. 
 
In a joint statement, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said if current mediation efforts in Zimbabwe by the Southern Africa Development Community fail, the country&rsquo;s &ldquo;economy will collapse completely, with dire consequences for the poor of that country and the region.&rdquo;
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The statement came following meetings between COSATU and ZCTU in Johannesburg on 15 July, at which time COSATU committed to begin preparations for a possible humanitarian crisis. 
 
The two national centres agreed that now is the time to mobilize alliance partners and all of civil society for a humanitarian package for suffering Zimbabweans who have fled, and likely will flee in great numbers if Zimbabwe&rsquo;s current economic reality continues. COSATU Sec. Gen. Zwelinzima Vavi said 5,000 Zimbabweans are arrested each week now as they attempt to enter South Africa.

National Labour Centres in South Africa, Zimbabwe Predict Refugee Crisis

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ICEM German affiliate IGBCE is crediting worker actions in rubber company enterprises for producing a new labour accord in the sector. On 18 July, the union announced that a 15-month agreement had been reached for 60,000 rubber workers in Germany. 
 
The agreement, which will run until 31 August 2008, awards each worker a 3.7% increase effective 1 September 2007, with workers receiving monthly additions for June through August, 2007.
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&nbsp; 
 
Additionally, the agreement calls for a two-stage payment of 3.1% effective on 1 September 2007, and 0.6% on 1 June 2008. Rubber employers also agreed to lift pension compensation to offset reductions for those workers choosing to take early retirement. 
 
IGBCE said the economic situation in the rubber industry drove negotiators to a 15-month labour agreement. It also said employers needed a firm reminder that the union&rsquo;s pay demands were serious, and they got just that by numerous job actions inside the enterprises of rubber producers and manufacturers.

IGBCE, Workers’ Activism Nets Solid Gains in German Rubber Industry

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For over the past month, 200 workers at a paper mill in Giresun on the Black Sea in northeastern Turkey have picketed their worksite. The daily protests are just one further example of what can happen to workers when an enterprise is privatised. 
 
The Giresun newsprint mill had been operated by state-owned Turkiye Seluloz ve Kagit Fabrikalari (SEKA), a company that was privatized a few short years ago. A paper distributor called MILDA bought this SEKA mill.
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In late spring, with working conditions deteriorating and salaries not being paid on time for five consecutive months, workers joined ICEM affiliate Seluloz-Is, the paperworkers&rsquo; union in the country. As soon as managers learned of the unionization, wages that were due were paid but they demanded that workers quit the union. 
 
When workers rejected this, MILDA fired 250 of the 286-member workforce and closed the mill. This occurred on 15 June 2007. Seluloz-Is President Ergin Alsan has met with management, but they have used the excuse that lack of raw materials has resulted in the closure, not unionization.
<img height="87" alt="" src="" width="190" />
&nbsp;The fact that 250 workers who signed up with different were sacked says differently. 
 
Each day, the workers picket and protest MILDA&rsquo;s unfair dismissals. They are helped out financially by other unions in the region, as well as by NGOs in the area. 
 
The ICEM will continue to monitor the plight of these victimized paperworkers and assist them in any possible as their struggle continues.

Turkish Workers, Union Protest Sackings at Former SEKA Paper Mill

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South Korea&rsquo;s new Irregular Workers&rsquo; Protection Law went into effect on 1 July 2007, but even before then Korean civil society got a glimpse of how little protection the new law affords contract workers. 
 
A number of Korean employers fired irregular workers who had less than two years employment immediately before 30 June. 
 
The most notable of these companies is E-Land Group, a retail clothing outlet that operates a number of Homever and New Core stores. The company sacked 900 workers in June, including 300 cashiers, which caused two strikes. In July, thousands of labour activists &ndash; together with many women who had been sacked &ndash; conducted sit-ins in 13 stores.
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On 20 July, riot police used batons and police shields to forcibly break up the sit-ins. They hauled the protestors to police stations. Arrest warrants were then issued for the labour activists who organized the protests. The police force comes just a short month after the Labour Ministry granted 70,000 irregular workers in the public sector permanent status as an example for the private sector. 
 
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), which calls for completely amending the new statute and proposes, in part, to have equal pay for equal work provisions in the law, has demanded reinstatement for the discharged E-Land workers. KCTU has mounted a campaign on behalf of the sackings. 
 
The firings violate provisions of a collective agreement between E-Land and unions, which state that those employed over 18 months would not face lay-offs. Many of the 900 workers were very close to two years service employment.
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In December 2006, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and his Grand National Party used political maneuvering to pass the irregular workers&rsquo; bill in the waning days of a National Assembly session. The law allows employers with 300 or more workers this year to use contract or agency workers for up to two years before making them permanent employees. 
 
The ICEM predicted that the new law would create a &ldquo;revolving door&rdquo; for employers to use and then discard contract workers within the two-year period. The example at E-Land bears this out. 
 
In order to evade relevant provisions in the new law, said the KCTU, E-Land, with help from the riot police and the Roh Moo-hyun government, terminated the contractors for cashiers and others. 
 
&ldquo;The KCTU has consistently asserted that the new bill would lead to more irregular workers because the law, which was suppose to give permanent status to irregular workers, has left the door open to evade such measures, such as outsourcing and termination of contracts,&rdquo; said the labour federation. 
 
Recent statistics by the South Korean government reveal the number of irregular workers is growing. A 2007 study found that a full 35.5% of Korea&rsquo;s 15 million workforce is in this category.

Actions by E-Land Group Proves Failures of Korea&#039;s Contract Workers’ Law

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ICEM&rsquo;s Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union affiliate in Finland, Kemianliitto, has taken exception to the recent sale by the Finnish government of its stake in Kemira GrowHow to a Norwegian concern. 
 
In a statement issued immediately following Finland&rsquo;s 24 May sale of its 30.05% stake in the phosphates and fertiliser company to Oslo-based Yara International ASA, Kemianliitto President Timo Vallittu said the sale sends the wrong kind of investment message concerning Finnish industry.
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&nbsp; 
&ldquo;With this decision to sell, it is very reasonable to ask why anybody would go on investing in Finnish industry when even the State abandons a holding of its own,&rdquo; said Valliuto. 
 
The union was not critical of the sale price, or of the buyer, and vowed to hold both the State and Yara to commitments made in the 24 May announcement that jobs in Finland would be retained and production enhanced. 
 
Yara paid &euro;12.12-per-share for the government&rsquo;s stake in Kemira GrowHow, or &euro;672 million. A Kemira stock market filing said Yara, which was spun off from Norsk Hydro in 2004, will continue business operations in Finland as usual and there would be no effects on personnel. The company would continue phosphate rock mining, phosphoric acid, and other production at Siilinjarvi and Uusikaupunki in Finland, and Yara would seriously consider opening phosphate production at the Sokli mine in Finnish Lapland. 
 
Yara is the world&rsquo;s largest producer of nitrogen-based fertilisers, while Kemira GrowHow is a leader in feed phosphates with production facilities in eight countries. Under Finland&rsquo;s Securities Market Act, Yara is now obligated to place tender offers for the remainder of Kemira GrowHow&rsquo;s shares at &euro;12.12-per-share, a 30% premium over the Finnish&rsquo;s firm&rsquo;s 23 May trading price. The merged company will control about 7% of the world&rsquo;s fertiliser market.

Finnish Union Kemianliitto Displeased with State’s Sale of Kemira GrowHow

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The ICEM, together with its Norwegian paperworkers&rsquo; union affiliate, Fellesforbundet, conducted its annual Norske Skog Global Framework Agreement review in Oslo on 21 May. The parties have been signatory to a Global Framework Agreement since June 2002, and the agreement was extended on 21 May for another two-year period. 
 
Chief among items discussed were proposals by the ICEM and Fellesforbundet for the agreement to incorporate the ILO&rsquo;s Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS, and to initiate a consultation process between the company and its trade unions prior to management at particular worksites engaging contract labourers or agency labour providers.
<img height="103" src="" width="120" alt="" />
&nbsp; 
Another request put before senior managers of Norske Skog by the unions was to drop a lawsuit brought by managers at the Tasman paper mill in New Zealand against ICEM affiliate Manufacturing and Construction Workers&rsquo; Union. Members of the union did stop-work actions after managers failed to fully consult with the union over cost-cutting measures concerning the elimination of back-up shifts. Such elimination presents serious safety concerns for workers. 
 
Norske Skog is reviewing that situation. The company has pledged to fulfil a section of the Global Agreement which states that employment in the company &ldquo;shall, as a main rule, be based on permanent employment. Temporary and part-time employees should as a main rule receive the same relative terms and conditions as full-time permanent employees.&rdquo;

ICEM Conducts Global Agreement Review Meeting with Norske Skog

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Arrests and injuries from police gun-fire haunt Democratic of Congo&rsquo;s (DRC) trade unions, as activists struggle to exert their rights in the war-torn but resource-rich African country. 
 
On 22 May, General Secretary Jean-Benoit Ntando of the ICEM affiliated mining and energy trade union, Organisation des Travailleurs Unis du Congo (OTUC), was arrested near Kinshasa. He was leading a demonstration of Foire Internationale de Kinshasa (FIKIN) workers and along with two other union leaders, was detained at a police detention centre in Limete, Kinshasa. 
 
The three were released two days later.
<img height="130" src="" width="280" alt="" />
&nbsp; 
 
The main reason for industrial action by the FIKIN workers&rsquo; was non-payment of salaries and other benefits, a persistent problem in the DRC. In spite of the many promises by the company, workers, as well as middle managers, suffer from non-payment of wages for up to 17 months. Trade unionists also were protesting against the abusive dismissal of co-workers, and the employer&rsquo;s failure to consult with the union on important decisions, as required by the company&rsquo;s statutes. 
 
In a memorandum addressed to the DRC&rsquo;s Minister of Portfolio, Jeannine Mabunda, on 22 May, the FIKIN trade union delegation called for the removal of the company&rsquo;s top-level management. 
 
The situation for the workers at the state-run diamond mine called Soci&eacute;t&eacute; Mini&egrave;re de Bakwanga (MIBA) near Mbuji-Mayi, in south-central Kasai-Oriental Province, also remains precarious. 
 
A strike there by some eight ICEM-affiliated mining unions over non-payment of wages began on 23 April, but was suspended four weeks later after a new interim management team was installed. Although the company did pay one month&rsquo;s back wages, the dispute regressed when MIBA used police force against workers. 
 
Ngandu Ntumba, a union leader of the ICEM-affiliated SYTRAME-CDT, disappeared for 48 hours into the hands of DRC&rsquo;s security forces, while another SYTRAME trade unionist named Tshimpaka was shot in the leg by police, and then was trampled by police forces as they rushed other protesters. This occurred in mid-May. 
 
The victim remains in a hospital in Bonzola in eastern DRC, after doctors removed a bullet from his left leg. But he is still without proper medical necessities. The ICEM is cooperating with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in order to get the necessary care and medicines to him.
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&nbsp;L&eacute;on Ngoy Bululu 

Also in the DRC, Vice President L&eacute;on Ngoy Bululu of the Solidarit&eacute; Syndicale des Travailleurs et Cadres du Congo, an affiliate of the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) was released from Makala prison in Kinshasa on 15 May. Bululu was arrested on 20 April following an appearance on local television, where he criticised the state-owned transport agency ONATRA. 
 
A hearing on 11 May had already acquitted him of all charges. Both ITF and ICEM had demanded his release.

Dangerous Times for Mining Union Activists in Congo

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The Amicus section of newly-formed UK union, Unite, has accused ExxonMobil of an attack on North Sea oil drilling jobs. In a letter to the UK Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alistair Darling, the union says ExxonMobil&rsquo;s decision to suspend drilling in the Beryl field for a period of three years will cost 70 jobs. 
 
Unite, the merged unification of Amicus and Transport and General Workers&rsquo; Union, is requesting that Britain&rsquo;s Trade and Industry agency investigate the US supermajor&rsquo;s decision, and to suspend the company&rsquo;s license to operate in the field if necessary.
<img height="60" src="" width="120" alt="" />
The loss of jobs would affect Aberdeen, Scotland, based KCA Deutag, ExxonMobil&rsquo;s main drilling contractor at the 40-year-old Beryl field production site. Workers at KCA Deutag, long represented by Amicus, say that over the past year, ExxonMobil has spent more that ₤20 million in preparing rigs for a renewed five-year drilling project. 
 
Unite&rsquo;s Aberdeen-based regional officer, Graham Tran, said that Deutag detailed the project&rsquo;s work to staff, guaranteeing they had a long-term future on Beryl field platforms. He said the drilling contractor had instituted a two-weeks-on, three-weeks-off rotation schedule for staff.
<img height="139" src="" width="140" alt="" />
&ldquo;ExxonMobil has now put the drilling programme on hold for three years, which has put around 70 drilling jobs at risk,&rdquo; said Tran. &ldquo;The behaviour is disgraceful and deceitful. (ExxonMobil is) being dishonest to the employees, and also to the UK government and the UK taxpayer,&rdquo; he added, alluding that ExxonMobil just might be attempting to get out of North Sea oil production. 
 
&ldquo;I am therefore calling on the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to investigate this matter and if ExxonMobil refuses to reverse this decision, then government should take the necessary steps to remove its operating license and make this productive field available to operators who believe in the future of the North Sea.&rdquo;

ExxonMobil Accused of Job Destruction in North Sea

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A 14-month-long freedom of association fight on behalf of workers of Lafarge subcontractors in Korea ended on 28 May when the company and ICEM affiliate Korean Chemical and Textile Workers&rsquo; Federation (KCTF) signed an accord granting the workers employment rights and union rights. 
 
The agreement ends a bitter dispute that started when workers of Woojin Industry, a Lafarge subcontractor at its Okgye, South Province, cement plant, joined the KCFT in March 2006. Thirteen of the workers were sacked, and Lafarge cancelled its contract with Woojin, moving the jobs and the company&rsquo;s equipment to two other subcontractors.
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Under terms of last week&rsquo;s agreement, covering six workers who still sought their rightful return to work, Lafarge Halla management in Korea will make &ldquo;best efforts&rdquo; for the former Woojin workers to be employed by three subcontractors now on site. The agreement also pledges to ensure that none of the subcontractors, Sehwa Sanup, Daewon Sanup, and Soogwang Maintenance, will discriminate against the workers because of their union membership. 
 
Additionally, all legal complaints, petitions, and requests for remedies &ndash; from both sides &ndash; were to be withdrawn. 
 
The ICEM, together with the Building and Woodworkers&rsquo; International (BWI), the two global union federations signatory to a Global Framework Agreement with Lafarge, had ardently pressed the issue of freedom of association for the contract workers before senior managers of the company in Paris on several occasions.
<img height="165" src="" width="120" alt="" />
ICEM Gen. Sec. Manfred Warda
&ldquo;We commend our affiliate, the Korean Chemical and Textile Workers&rsquo; Federation, for its diligence in seeing that justice was delivered for these contract workers,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;This serves as a strong example that trade unions have an important role to play in protecting labour standards that contract workers and agency workers are entitled to.&rdquo;

Lafarge Agrees to Give Employment, Union Rights to Korean Contract Workers’

Archive

Two Workers Killed at AngloGold’s Mine in Free State, South Africa

National Labour Centres in South Africa, Zimbabwe Predict Refugee Crisis

IGBCE, Workers’ Activism Nets Solid Gains in German Rubber Industry

Turkish Workers, Union Protest Sackings at Former SEKA Paper Mill

Actions by E-Land Group Proves Failures of Korea's Contract Workers’ Law

Finnish Union Kemianliitto Displeased with State’s Sale of Kemira GrowHow

ICEM Conducts Global Agreement Review Meeting with Norske Skog

Dangerous Times for Mining Union Activists in Congo

ExxonMobil Accused of Job Destruction in North Sea

Lafarge Agrees to Give Employment, Union Rights to Korean Contract Workers’

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