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The ICEM Colombian affiliate, USO (Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera) has again been targeted with an assassination of one of their activists. Nelson Camacho Gonz&aacute;lez was shot repeatedly by hired killers on motorbikes, 16 June, as he waited at a bus stop for his bus to work. 
 
This murder is the latest in the ongoing violent persecution of the oil workers union, as USO activists are involved in collective struggles with the multinational British Petroleum in Casanare, with Ecopetrol and with TGI (Transportadora de Gas del Interior). 
 
The murder occurred three days after another trade union activist was assassinated, Ibio Efr&eacute;n Caicedo, on 19 June. The trade unionist from the Antioquia Teachers&rsquo; Association (ADIDA) was the seventh unionised teacher to be murdered in 2010 in the Antioquia region, northern Colombia. He was killed the day before the presidential elections in the country. 
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The total number of trade unionists assassinated in Colombia in 2010 is 32. As was recently reported by ICEM, in 2009 there were 101 trade unionists murdered around the world, 48 of them in Colombia. Nearly 3,000 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia in the last 24 years. When Uribe hands power to President-elect Juan Maunel Santos, his legacy will be 529 union leaders killed while conducting collective bargaining, with the hired killers from paramilitary groups acting with impunity. 
 
The ICEM joins USO in calling for a full investigation into this latest crime, to be lead by Colombia&rsquo;s Attorney General. 
 
These killings occurred four weeks after the ILO&rsquo;s Committee on the Application of Standards removed Colombia from the list of 25 countries sanctioned for trade union rights abuses. The surprising decision to remove the most dangerous country for trade unionists from the list was passed on the condition that a high level tripartite ILO delegation to Colombia would take place. The mission was in Bogot&aacute; 6-9 July, conducting a series of meetings with government, employers, and workers. 
 
The delegation took part in numerous meetings with workers rallying outside. Last Wednesday, 7 July, as the delegation met with the Colombian Ministry of Social Protection, hundreds of workers outside chanted slogans such as &ldquo;down with the repressive policies of the Uribe government and the Ministry of Social Protection!&rdquo;. The rally was, as is the norm, under constant intimidation by the notorious ESMAD riot police. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda expressed anger and grief, on behalf of all ICEM affiliates, in a letter to USO President Germ&aacute;n Osman this week.

USO Activist Murdered, ILO Delegation Arrives in Colombia

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Labour, management, and the Liberian government celebrated the signing on 28 June of the second collective agreement between ICEM-affiliated Firestone Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Union (FAWUL) and Firestone Rubber Plantation. Some 4,500 workers and their families will again benefit when the two-year contract takes effect in December 2010. 
 
The ever-evolving labour-management relationship between FAWUL and Firestone is fast becoming a showcase in modern industrial relations for the administration of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. 
<img alt="" src="" width="350" height="262" />
Labour Minister Taiworn Gongloe stated at the celebration that the social relationship &ldquo;has broken from the past,&rdquo; and thanks to enlightened leadership coming from the President, the rights of workers and the interests of the company both are now guaranteed. Added Firestone Managing Director Charles Stuart, &ldquo;What we're celebrating here is the result of management and employees working in a peaceful and respectful manner. Without you we are nothing and together, anything can happen.&rdquo; 
 
It was only a short three years ago that FAWUL was fighting the last vestiges of an illegitimate yellow union that had been propped up by Firestone management for decades. Following free and open elections, and an ambitious years-long union-building project by the US-based United Steelworkers (USW), FAWUL won union certification in 2007. (See ICEM reports <a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/2511-ICEM-Calls-on-Liberia-to-Recognise-Correct-Trade-Union-at-Firestone-Rubber-Plantation ">here</a> and <a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/2526-ICEM-Welcomes-Liberia's-Certification-of-Legitimate-Firestone-Union ">here</a>.) 
 
A year later, on 27 July, FAWUL won its first collective agreement, giving workers a 24% pay increase backdated 19 months, reducing a quota system on tapping natural rubber from trees, and granting new schools and free tuition for the sons and daughters of workers. 
<img alt="" src="" width="320" height="231" />
This second contract goes further: a 3.5% wage increase, the construction of more schools and school transportation, and perhaps the most important gain, a mechanized transport system to haul the rubber latex to weigh stations. For decades, workers had to haul 150-pound buckets of rubber sometimes miles on their shoulders to the stations. 
 
FAWUL Secretary-General Edwin Cisco said the months long bargaining was hard and arduous, but that a &ldquo;new day of social dialogue between management and workers has begun and the days of confrontation and agitation are over.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;This is a major success story in so many ways,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, &ldquo;and we should never lose sight of the fact that the Steelworkers Union of America did the hard and difficult work up front to make it happen. We commend the workers, FAWUL leadership, and Firestone Rubber management, and see a long, productive, and precedent-setting relationship unfolding inside Liberia.&rdquo;

FAWUL, Firestone Rubber Plantation in Liberia Sign Second Two-Year Pact

On April 20, 2010 there was an explosion on the drilling rig &quot;Deepwater Horizon&quot;. 
 
Eleven oil workers were killed. Two days later the rig sank in an ocean of fire. Oil is flowing completely uncontrolled and is still doing so after almost two months. 
 
We do not know what caused the blow out. The ICEM-IMF-ITGLWF Sustainability conference will however declare that: 
 
1) an independent and open inquiry must be held, and trade unions should be granted full insight in the process; 
 
2) at all times the responsibility rest solely on the operator; 
 
3) blow out prevention (BOP) systems should have remote control capabilities, for instance acoustic signal actuators, in addition to traditional BOP controls; 
 
4) when working in new areas, deep water, and other special conditions, it must be demanded that more than one rig be present in the area to ensure safer evacuation in case of an emergency and to be able to start drilling a relief well in case of a blowout. Two months after the blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, it is a catastrophic disaster that the drilling of a relief well had not been started; 
 
5) sufficient and effective oil booms and/or other means to collect oil spillage must be available or in place in all areas where offshore drilling takes place; 
 
6) the demands of deregulation must be reversed. More regulations are needed and the &quot;best available technology&quot; must be demanded, at least in all new and challenging areas.

Global Governance Includes Better Governance of Oil Companies

International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM)
&nbsp;International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF)
International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) 
Stronger Together - Fighting for a Sustainable Future 

We, the global industrial trade union federations representing workers in the metal, chemical, energy, mining, paper, rubber, textiles, materials, and related sectors, believe we have a golden opportunity to demand that the global economy be transformed from an unsustainable &ldquo;casino&rdquo; model into something that supports a sustainable environment and a sustainable society. 
 
The financial crisis that very nearly destroyed the world&rsquo;s economy is only the most obvious recent result of the same short-sighted thinking that has jeopardized the global environment, threatened human health, and destabilized society. In particular, the runaway gambling by banks, hedge funds and other finance institutions has had catastrophic implications for millions of working people. 
 
Working women and men, their families, and the communities that depend on them have paid heavily for the crash of the casino economy through massive job losses, decreased wages, and reduced benefits. The global trade union movement strongly opposes any attempt to make working people assume the major burden of the financial crisis through regressive tax reforms. We believe it is time for the people who caused this mess to pay to clean it up. 
 
The failure of world leaders in December 2009 in Copenhagen to reach an ambitious, fair and binding agreement on greenhouse gases is another example of short-term greed trumping long-term need. The price of inaction will be paid by future generations. From broad concerns like global warming to more specific examples like the Deepwater Horizon disaster, nothing about a de-regulated market ensures the protection the environment. 
 
The inability of the deregulated financial market to value the long-term health of the economy, the environment, or society must now be clear to any thinking person. The ICEM, IMF and ITGLWF are showing the way to a sustainable future by calling for re-regulation of the global financial market, including among other instruments the introduction of a financial transaction tax that would raise billions to tackle poverty and climate change. We believe this will generate substantial revenues to pay for the costs of the crisis, climate change measures, and official development assistance while reducing the pressures that could cause a renewed financial crisis. Coupled with fair and binding environmental regulations, and strong social programs, we can shape a prosperous and sustainable future. 
 
Industrial workers have a central role to play in building a future that lifts people out of poverty while protecting the environment. Through industrial and political action, our three global federations demand that the world&rsquo;s leaders take decisive actions to solve the economic, social and environmental crises. 
 
The economic crisis has not just been about how things are made, bought and sold, but also about people. Evidence shows that many companies that have begun hiring again are doing so with fixed-term or temporary workers. Such precarious work is bad for all workers. It creates cut-price labor that drives down wages. It increases the gap between rich and poor and amplifies the unfair practices that already disadvantage women, young and migrant workers. 
 
We believe the upcoming G8 and G20 summit meetings in Canada provide an opportunity for world leaders to address the legitimate concerns of industrial workers for social justice and long-term employment policies. The solution lies in global governance. Financial markets must be re-regulated, and the environment must be better protected. Jobs, workers&rsquo; rights, social protection, quality public services, and sustainability are at the heart of our proposal for a new system for global governance. 
 
We therefore call on world leaders to: 
&bull; Ensure that global financial markets are regulated, including as an initial step better disclosure of transactions, strengthened monitoring schemes and regulation of leveraging; 
&bull; Ban the creation or use of financial instruments with no verifiable real-world value, such as certain derivatives and swaps; 
&bull; Introduce an international financial transaction tax system to be levied on transactions between financial institutions. A tiny tax on financial transactions would make a massive difference in the way we face up to the challenges of today. Even at just 0.05 percent experts have estimated that an international transaction tax system could eventually raise as much as $400 billion every year - money that could be used to save our planet and build a future fairer for all. 
&bull; Make sustainable development a criteria of trade and investment deals; with balanced and fair access to markets, and transparent monitoring mechanisms of all trade and investment deals past and future; 
&bull; Assess the social, economic and environmental sustainability impact of potential trade agreements prior to the conclusion of negotiations; 
&bull; Consider the employment repercussions of trade liberalization in the negotiation of multilateral and bilateral trade agreements &ndash; to be assessed with full involvement of trade unions; 
&bull; Respect fundamental workers' and trade union rights as set out in the ILO Core Labour Standards; to be included in all bilateral and multilateral agreements on trade and investments along with effective enforcement mechanisms; 
&bull; Create jobs that meet the ILO definition of &ldquo;decent work&rdquo;. We recognize that industrial change is happening, but challenge the legal and political rules that allow precarious work to flourish; 
&bull; Reach an ambitious, fair, and binding, agreement on greenhouse gases at COP16 in Mexico; and 
&bull; Ensure that funds in the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund earmarked as part of the Copenhagen Accord are available to trade unions for vocational and educational purposes as part of the broader principle of Just Transition. 
 
In short we believe that world leaders can no longer ignore the big problems facing the world today. We are calling for an innovative, international regulatory response that will boldly deal with global issues.

ICEM-IMF-ITGLWF Declaration: Toronto, Canada, 19 June 2010

IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 17 June 2010 &ndash; Two Global Union Federations (GUFs) representing a combined 45 million workers will conduct a two-day conference on economic, environment, and social dimensions of sustainability in Toronto beginning tomorrow, aimed at forging a worldwide workers&rsquo; and communities&rsquo; declaration for the upcoming G8 and G20 summits. 
 
The &ldquo;Triple Crisis of Sustainability&rdquo; Conference is sponsored by Geneva, Switzerland-based International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union (ICEM) and International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), and will include voices from 270 trade union and other leaders from over 50 countries. 
 
The conference runs from 9h00 to 17h30 on both 18 and 19 June in the Dominion Ballroom of the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, 123 Queen Street West. 
 
&ldquo;The financial crisis that brought the world&rsquo;s economy to its knees needs correcting and it needs the resonating voices of those most affected by runaway greed and banking calamities,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;Environmental catastrophes, monetary disparities, and destabilized societies all have related origins, and this is the pivotal time for the world&rsquo;s economic and political leaders to correct the imbalances.&rdquo; 
 
Added Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of the IMF: &ldquo;The uncertainties that workers and their families face is now unprecedented. We want guarantees that the G8 and G20 summits address the legitimate concerns of workers for social justice and long-term, sustainable employment, and include the introduction of a global tax on financial institutions.&rdquo; 
 
The two GUFs believe that the crises of failing economies, environmental inaction, and social disorder are interconnected. ICEM and IMF also believe these crises have been produced by absence of global financial and environmental regulations, as well as inept financial governance of markets. The conference will ensure that the voices of global workers are heard on these issues before the G8 and G20 summits convene. 
 
Jobs, workers&rsquo; rights, social protections, quality public services, and sustainability &ndash; both on environmental stewardship and in providing decent work &ndash; will serve as the heart of a common declaration from the conference to the G8 and G20. 
 
A keynote speech on 18 June will be delivered by United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, whose union has been victimized by the merciless globalization and one of the world&rsquo;s largest and most profitable mining companies in Ontario. A panel on the opening day will address the economic crisis. 
 
Other panels will be on topics of sustainable development and climate change, and on corporate governance. On the concluding day, 19 June, David Donnelly, a leading environmental attorney connected with Canada&rsquo;s Blue-Green Alliance, will speak, as will John Evans, the General-Secretary of the Paris-based Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 
 
The conference&rsquo;s programme has been built to allow for maximum comments from the 250 participants in order to gain a wide-ranging discourse over the effects of the social, environmental, and economic crises. 
 
The ICEM counts 467 trade union affiliates in 132 countries, and represents 20 million workers. The IMF represents the collective interests of 25 million metalworkers from more than 200 unions in 100 countries.
Note to Media Outlets: A Press Briefing will occur at the venue at 12h30, 18 June.)
For more, contact: Dick Blin, ICEM Information Officer on-site at <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 79 734 8994 (mobile); or Alexander Ivanou, IMF Communications, <a href="mailto:aivanou@imfmetal.org">aivanou@imfmetal.org</a>, +41 22 308 5033 (land line).

Global Trade Unions Meet in Toronto for Sustainability Conference

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ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş, the Petroleum, Chemical, and Rubber Workers&rsquo; Union of Turkey, used manifestations and ICEM intervention to win reinstatement for 11 union activists at a plastics factory in Orhangazi, Bursa province. The factory is owned by French-based auto-parts supplier Faurecia. 
 
A month after the successful conclusion of renewal negotiations between Petrol-İş and the company, talks underscored by the fact that auto exterior parts-maker Faurecia Polifleks Otomotiv Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. would be expanding and adding 50 new workers, local management on 23 July sacked the 11 union activists, including two local branch leaders and a shop steward. No reason was given for the firings. 
<img alt="" src="" width="240" height="180" />
Petrol-İş reported that the hostile actions easily escalated tensions inside a factory employing 306 in Turkey&rsquo;s automotive manufacturing hub. On 27 July, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda intervened, and in a letter to Faurecia Chairman and CEO Yann Delabriere, said: 
 
&ldquo;The ICEM understands that an enterprise collective agreement was concluded between Petrol-İş and Faurecia Polifleks Otomotiv Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. on 21 June 2010. But just after signing the agreement, management immediately dismissed 11 trade union members of Petrol-İş, including the chief trade union representative and two local branch officers. The ICEM considers this egregious discrimination against workers who practice legitimate trade union rights. Further, this is a flagrant violation of international-recognised labour standards.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="240" height="144" />
At the front of the factory, scores of Petrol-İş members took up protests, while talks between the union&rsquo;s executive members and managers started to address the discharges. Finally, on 29 July, the talks ended in a &ldquo;mutual framework of goodwill,&rdquo; according to Petrol-İş, and local mangers agreed to reinstate the union leaders. 
 
&ldquo;In this process,&rdquo; said Petrol-İş General Secretary Mustafa &Ccedil;avdar, &ldquo;international support and solidarity provided by the ICEM contributed to solve the conflict. Many thanks to the ICEM for its valuable contributions.&rdquo; Petrol-İş has had a collective bargaining relationship with the company dating back to 1985. 
 
Faurecia operates some 190 factories in 30 countries, producing car seats, auto-exhaust systems, vehicle interior and door modules, and exterior parts. PSA Peugeot Citro&euml;n controls 57% of Faurecia&rsquo;s stock, while One Equity Partners &ndash; a private equity company from which Faurecia recently bought US-based auto-exhaust factories &ndash; holds a 17% share.

Petrol-İş Gets Jobs Back for Turkish Activists at Auto-Parts Supplier Faurecia

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A 17-day strike by members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU) ended last Wednesday, 15 September, against Megabolt Australia Pty. Ltd., a Campbellfield, Victoria, producer of nuts, bolts, roof plates and other metal gear primarily sold to the mining industry. The 25 metalworkers won an exceptional contract in their first enterprise labour agreement with the company, owned by the Hutchins family&rsquo;s Wham Investments. 
 
Megabolt workers took up the AMWU banner after being stymied by a thriving company over wages. Some employees had worked up to ten years at wages of A$15 an hour, barely above the Australian minimum wage.
<img src="" width="156" height="117" alt="" />
photo: Tim Laurence
After maintaining 24-hour picket lines since the strike started on 30 August, Megabolt General Manager Tom Hutchins admitted he wanted labour peace and a resumption of production because, as he stated in a local newspaper, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got more business to win and jobs to create &hellip; I don&rsquo;t want anything more than to get a resolution.&rdquo; 
 
That resolution came in the excellent three-year accord. Workers won a 10% wage increase, backdated to 2 June 2010, with 4.5% increases to come each in 2011 and 2012. In addition, the AMWU won an A$750 ratification bonus for each worker, and the union negotiated permanent and full-time work status for all casual workers who have been on the job for longer than six months. 
 
Other gains include monthly rostered days off, improved redundancy provisions, an award-aligned classification structure, language on use of contractors, as well as health and safety and union rights. 
 
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re ecstatic with the outcome,&rdquo; said AMWU delegate Zelko Cimboro inside Megabolt. &ldquo;We got the outcome we wanted and the workers definitely feel stronger together now.&rdquo;

Australia: Vigilant Strike Leads to Superior Gains for AMWU Members at Megabolt

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The Mining and Energy section of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) welcomed remarks by BHP Billiton CEO Marius Kloppers last week that carbon pricing in Australia must be part of the mix in meeting the challenges of climate change. 
 
CFMEU National President Tony Maher said in a statement on 17 September that BHP Billiton&rsquo;s breaking from the rest of industry on a future carbon tax is &ldquo;a big step in the right direction.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;As the world&rsquo;s largest mining company, BHP has laid down a challenge to the other mining operations and the Minerals Council,&rdquo; said Maher. &ldquo;The scare campaigns on climate change cannot be repeated,&rdquo; he added, referring to a hot-button issue inside Australia that was at top of the list in the toppling of the Kevin Rudd government.
<img src="" width="80" height="120" alt="" />
CFMEU National President Tony Maher&nbsp;
Kloppers made his comments in a speech on 15 September at a lunch in Sydney to a forum of the Australia-British Chamber of Commerce. He said eventually a global initiative regarding carbon pricing will come and when it does, &ldquo;Australia will need to have acted ahead of it to maintain its competitiveness.&rdquo; 
 
The BHP executive said, &ldquo;Carbon emissions need to have a cost impact in order to cause the consumer and companies to change behaviour and favour low-carbon alternatives.&rdquo; Before the business leaders, Kloppers called for &ldquo;a mosaic of initiatives&rdquo; to reduce carbon emissions, including a &ldquo;combination of a carbon tax, land use actions and limited (carbon) trading systems&rdquo; covering power plants. 
 
The speech marked a dramatic shift in public views voiced by resource-rich mining houses and industry alike on the climate change debate in Australia. Following the speech, both business and industry leaders denounced the speech. 
 
However, CFMEU suggested BHP Billiton&rsquo;s shift, along with the appointment of Parliamentarian and former Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Secretary Greg Combet as new Minister for Climate Change, has turned the tide on the debate. The Labour Party&rsquo;s Combet is currently assembling a climate change committee in hopes that legislation implementing a carbon pricing system will be readied by 2012. Opposition parties in Australia, the Liberals and Conservatives, are boycotting the committee.

CFMEU Applauds BHP Billiton’s Shift to a Carbon Tax in Australia

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Members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa strongly rejected last Thursday (16 September) a weak wage proposal from Northam Platinum Ltd., thus extending a 15-day strike by 8,600 miners at the company&rsquo;s Zondereinde mine in Limpopo province. The two sides will meet again tomorrow, 21 September, under auspices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) in Polokwane, but the two sides are far apart. 
 
The strike started with the night shift on 5 September, following NUM strike notice served to the South African-based company on 2 September. In August, a certificate of non-resolution was served by the CCMA.
<img height="92" alt="" src="" width="200" />
Last week&rsquo;s company wage offer of 8.5% is less than fair for NUM members at Northam, who are paid notoriously low wages. The offer was presented as &ldquo;a take-it-or-leave-it&rdquo; proposition from bosses, and NUM members at Zonereinde rejected it resoundingly with a heavy &ldquo;no&rdquo; vote. 
 
Northam&rsquo;s offer was a mere half-percent above its original proposal, and it rather miserly raised its monthly living-out allowance in last week&rsquo;s offer from 1,600 rand to 1,700, or US$237. The NUM is seeking a wage increase of 15% plus a living-out stipend twice the company&rsquo;s offer, 3,500 rands per month, or US$485. 
 
Salaries at Northam are as low as 3,500 rands per month before taxes, about US$480. Very recently, South African Mvelaphanda Resouces sold a 12.2% stake in Northam to London-based but Asian-centered Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. Plc. for 2.2 billion rand (US$295.9 million). 
 
Two other NUM strikes, both in South Africa&rsquo;s mineral sands sector, ended in September. A CCMA dispute between the NUM and Richards Bay Minerals, a 50/50 joint venture between Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton in northern KwaZulu-Natal, was resolved with a three-year labour accord that ended a week-long strike in early September. Richards Bay Minerals produces titanium minerals mined from sand dunes, such as zircon, titanium slag and rutile, and titanium dioxide. 
 
The other strike, against Exxaro&rsquo;s KZN Sands operation also in KwaZulu-Natal that involved 600 miners, ended on 14 September with a satisfactory 2010 wage gain and re-writes to job grades. That strike began 24 August.
&nbsp;<img height="156" alt="" src="" width="110" />
NUM Spokesman Lesiba Seshoka
In other NUM news, the powerful union continues its longstanding policy of downing tools for a day in remembrance to comrades killed on the job. That will again happen this week, following the 14 September death of a NUM member at AngloGold&rsquo;s TauTona mine near Carletonville. The death was caused by an underground tram accident and workers at TauTona will observe the tragedy this week, in the words of NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka, &ldquo;to ensure that the company gets the message loud and clear that if you continue to claim the lives of innocent workers, we will claim your profit.&rdquo;

NUM Members at Northam Platinum in South Africa Reject Inferior Offer

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Mineworkers&rsquo; in northern Spain in September have taken to blocking roads, clashing with police, and staging sit-down strikes deep inside coal mines to protest wage arrears brought on by the government&rsquo;s inaction in renewing subsidies for utilities that operate coal-fired power plants. 
 
The series of strikes, blockades, and other manifestations in the provinces of Palencia and Leon have led now to leaders of energy unions of the nation&rsquo;s two labour federations calling for four days of a general coal strike &ndash; starting this Wednesday, 22 September &ndash; across Spain. That announcement came after senior union leaders, on 15 September, failed to convince Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian to remedy wage arrears for hundreds of Spanish coalminers and to implement a decree passed last February renewing the subsidies. Some 8,000 coal miners are expected to take part in the four days of strikes. 
 
When last week&rsquo;s meeting failed to move the government, the senior trade union leaders blockaded themselves overnight in an Industry Ministry room in Madrid as symbolic protest to miners at collieries in the north who are striking underground.
<img alt="" src="" width="160" height="56" />
Leaders of the UGT and CC.OO announced general coal strikes for 22-23 September and 29-30 September. The 29 September strike will tie in with a Spanish and Euro-wide day of mobilization against austerity and labour market reforms being pushed by governments and monetary institutions. 
 
For 19 days now, 52 miners of the Uni&oacute;n Minera del Norte (UMINSA) company have locked themselves 500 metres underground in the Las Cuevas colliery near Guardo in Palencia province because wages have not been paid since mid-July. Above ground, as many as 3,000 family members and supporters have led protests that have snarled roads and blocked train lines in and out of the northern part of the province. 
 
Despite a promise to the Industry Ministry weeks ago that it would pay wages, UMINSA owner Victorino Alonso, who also heads the coal producers&rsquo; association Carbunion, said poor cash flow by companies brought on by reduced buying of domestic coal has meant no ability to meet payroll, pay taxes, or make social security contributions. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not paying anything. We have no liquidity,&rdquo; he said. 
 
On 6 September, 14 miners repeated the Las Cuevas action by beginning a sit-down strike inside the Alto Bierzo company mine near Tremor de Arriba in Leon province. That strike was followed by 200 supporters manifesting in Ponferrada, as well as several traffic tie-ups on roads between Leon and Oviedo. 
 
The government of Prime Minister Jos&eacute; Luis Rodr&iacute;guez Zapatero has been reluctant to implement the decree from last February that would renew the subsidies to utilities using Spanish coal rather than imported coal. The government&rsquo;s reluctance is based on official European Commission objections to the subsidies. A Commission ruling has called for all state subsidies for domestically-mined coal to end by 31 December 2010.

Spain’s Miners Feel Pain as Government Coal Subsidies Shrink

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