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The United Steelworkers (USW) kicked off a tour of South African trade union leaders of Sappi&rsquo;s US paper mills by conducting a loud and demonstrative protest outside the company&rsquo;s US offices in Boston, Massachusetts. Leaders from the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood &amp; Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) of South Africa joined workers from Sappi mills in the states of Maine, Michigan and Minnesota at the 8 May demonstration. 
 
USW and Sappi are without current labour contracts at three of the company&rsquo;s four US mills, and a contract at the fourth mill &mdash; Cloquet, Minnesota &mdash; expires today. Late last week, CEPPWAWU trade union leaders employed at Sappi mills in South Africa met with their US counterparts at mills in Skowhegan and Westbrook, Maine; Muskegon, Michigan; and in Cloquet.

Sappi’s South African Unionists Visit US Worksites

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A strike planned for today at two DuPont chemical plants in Spain was averted late last week when the American company significantly increased plant closing benefits. 
 
DuPont announced in March it would close both its Catalonia plants in Rub&iacute; and Poliny&aacute;, but union members affiliated with CCOO, UGT and USOC (Workers&rsquo; Trade Union of Catalonia) voted on 8 May to take strike action due to proposed insufficient severance payments. DuPont&rsquo;s European restructuring plan calls for production from the two plants to be shifted to France and Germany, and offers of jobs to Rub&iacute; and Poliny&aacute; workers there. The plan also calls for the closure of a plant in Breda, The Netherlands, and the Hellac Lab in Germany.
DuPont opened talks with the Spanish unions in April by offering to pay buy-outs of only 25 days per year of work. The strike threat found the company returning to the bargaining table and offering 59 paid days per year, six less than the unions&rsquo; original demand. Some 246 workers are affected at the two chemical plants near Barcelona.

DuPont Increases Pay-outs to Avert Strike

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A rare first-contract lockout in the US ended successfully for workers on 2 May when members of ICEM affiliate United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) came to terms with Stepan Chemical in Fieldsboro, New Jersey. Workers ratified an initial contract with the specialty chemicals company with a 33-2 acceptance vote that backed Stepan away from continuing a wage freeze, and making health care cuts. 
 
The lockout began on 26 January 2006 after workers chose UE for representation last year. Typically in the US, a company that loses a union certification vote will merely stall the bargaining process, sometimes for years. But Stepan responded to a spontaneous plant-site protest by the 40 workers by locking out the workforce, and attempting to run the plant with managers and scabs. 
 
Direct action by UE at Stepan&rsquo;s shareholders&rsquo; meeting on 27 April triggered a 180-degree shift by management, and a first contract. UE produced documents that proved the company had spent US$1.8 million on expenses relayed to the lockout, including sums to clean up chemical spills. CEO F. Quinn Stepan, Jr., was shocked at the documentation, believing the figure to be only US$500,000. 
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Within two days, Stepan called offering a return to bargaining. The company and the UE workers&rsquo; representatives, led by Field Organiser Jim Ermi, then hammered together the initial labour agreement. 
 
&ldquo;You shouldn&rsquo;t have to endure a 14-week lockout to get a union,&rdquo; stated UE Director of Organisation Bob Kingsley. &ldquo;A courageous group of workers triumphed at Stepan based on protest and perseverance, but their struggle points out the deepening workers&rsquo; rights crisis facing all of us.&rdquo; 
 
Stepan manufactures intermediates for use in consumer products, and has operations in the US, UK, France, Germany, Indonesia and Brazil.

UE Wins First Contract with Chemical Firm Despite Lockout

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The ICEM condemns the police violence taken against Trinidad and Tobago trade union leader David Abdullah and others on 18 December. Abdullah was one of the organisers of a peaceful protest outside Parliament. He was detained by riot police and charged with &ldquo;obstruction of free passageway.&rdquo; The protest was part of the campaign against a proposed Property Bill in the Caribbean islands nation. 
 
A number of other demonstrators, including members of ICEM affiliate Oilfields Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (OWTU), suffered injuries during the mid-December demonstration, as police attacked with batons. 
 
The movement opposing the property tax bill, called People&rsquo;s Democracy, is an umbrella group of trade unions, NGOs, and others in civil society. It organised the 18 December protest outside Parliament to coincide with deliberations on the bill inside the Lower House. OWTU President-General Ancel Roget also participated in the organization of the protest. 

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David Abdullah centre (Photo T&amp;T Newsday)
Several international groups have also condemned the unprovoked police attacks and arrest of Abdullah. UK Trades Union Congress General Secretary Brendan Barber, in a letter to the country&rsquo;s authorities, urged that &ldquo;the charges against Mr. Abdullah are dropped and that all citizens are allowed the free exercise of their democratic rights without interference from the State.&rdquo; 
 
Roget told police, who demanded the manifestation stop any noise making, that they were doing nothing illegal. It was then that police became violent, using batons against protestors holding only placards. Abdullah complained about the violence and was thrown into a police vehicle, while government police beat OWTU members who tried to follow. 
 
Following Abdullah&rsquo;s arrest on 18 December, four members of the opposition in Parliament came out and joined the march around the Parliament. 
 
Upon release, Abdullah said, &ldquo;This will further strengthen the resolve of those who are interested in (our country&rsquo;s) future because we saw physical evidence today of the dictatorship in Trinidad and Tobago. The right to peaceful picketing is a right we will never, ever give up. We have not and will not engage in anything illegal. And even the police could not tell us that we were violating any law by communicating our message by singing, chanting, and clapping our hands.&rdquo; 

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Ancel Roget
Roget accused the government of beating citizens into submission. 
 
Court action against David Abdullah will continue on 13 January and People&rsquo;s Democracy members intend to turn out at the court proceedings in support of their leader. The movement picketed the offices of Prime Minister Patrick Manning on Thursday, 7 January. 
 
The campaign against the Property Tax, seen as an ill-advised national policy to offset government shortfalls and wasteful spending, will continue. The campaign can be viewed <a href="http://www.peoplesdemocracytt.org/ ">here</a>.

Trinidad/Tobago Police Use Brutality to Stifle Free Speech, Assembly Rights

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ICEM Women’s Bulletin No. 37/ Boletín de noticias de la mujer de la ICEM No. 37

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For all in the global ICEM family 2009 became a painful year due to the global crisis. But again union action and solidarity beyond borders proved to be the essential asset to defend and advance the interest of workers. Let us continue to build unity, let us strengthen global solidarity, let us together make sure there is a way forward and success for the workers that we represent. ICEM wishes you, your members and your families the best of luck and success in 2010. HAPPY NEW YEAR. 
Manfred Warda
ICEM General Secretary

Happy Holidays from the ICEM

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In Mexico on 25 August, an appellate court overturned the government&rsquo;s freeze on bank accounts of the National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros. But a week later, on 2 September, Mexico&rsquo;s Attorney General reissued an order freezing those accounts. 
 
The appeals court ruled that the government&rsquo;s asset freeze on union accounts could only be imposed on specific evidence, not on a general suspicion of money laundering. The court thus ruled against a decree from late last year that continued a freeze on the union&rsquo;s funds, now tied up for nearly three years. 
 
The Attorney General&rsquo;s office again used Article 181 of Mexico&rsquo;s penal code to freeze the union&rsquo;s assets.
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Los Mineros will continue to appeal this order, despite not having the necessary information from the government in order to wage its legal fight. 
 
Meanwhile, a special working group of the Mexican Senate has agreed to accept videotape testimony from the union&rsquo;s leader in exile, Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia, over the Cananea mine strike. Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez, who is in exile in Canada, will be allowed to testify on Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s complicity in alleged human rights abuses at the mine where SNTMMSRM members have now been on strike for 25 months. 
 
The Mexican Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union was approved for ICEM affiliation during the 23-24 June Executive Committee meetings.

Los Mineros Bank Assets Unfrozen, Then Frozen Again

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United Steelworker (USW) members at Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Co. in the US will begin voting later this week on a four-year labour agreement, covering over 10,000 workers at seven American factories. A tentative agreement between the USW and Goodyear, America&rsquo;s biggest tyre manufacturer, was reached late in the evening on 29 August, just hours before a second contract extension was due to expire. 
 
Collective agreements between North America&rsquo;s largest industrial union and the US&rsquo;s three major tyre-makers &ndash; Goodyear, Bridgestone Americas LLC, and Michelin&rsquo;s BF Goodrich subsidiary &ndash; expired on 18 July, but the USW and Goodyear and Michelin North America twice extended negotiation deadlines. 
 
On 15 August, the union and Michelin reached accord on a three-year contract covering 2,500 workers. Workers at two of the company&rsquo;s plants, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Fort Wayne, Indiana, ratified the agreement some eight days later by an 83% affirmative vote. A third Michelin plant, in Opelika, Alabama, that employs 1,000 is set to close on 31 October, and the union and North American management of Michelin negotiated a satisfactory plant-closing pact several months ago.
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&nbsp; 
 
Talks with Bridgestone, covering 4,500 workers at seven of nine of the Japanese company&rsquo;s US plants, are still ongoing. Workers covered under that master agreement are employed now under day-by-day extensions, with each side required to give a five-day notice before contract termination. 
 
The USW&rsquo;s chief goals in US tyre talks this summer have been job security, investment in facilities, and improvements in worker and retiree benefits, specifically related to company-sponsored health care coverage. 
 
At the Goodyear manufacturing plants, USW members are now involved in informational sessions spelling out the terms of the proposed accord, with site-by-site voting to follow. The Goodyear plant sites include: Union City, Tennessee, where auto and light truck tyres are made; Topeka, Kansas, a plant manufacturing commercial truck, bus, and off-road equipment tyres; Gadsden, Alabama, auto and light truck; Fayetteville, North Carolina, auto and light truck; Danville, Virginia, commercial truck and bus tyres, and aircraft tyres; and Akron, Ohio, race-car tyres. 
 
Meanwhile, the USW is bracing for a 17 September deadline in which President Barack Obama must decide on a US International Trade Commission (ITC) recommendation to impose higher tariffs on low-end Chinese tyres entering the American marketplace. The USW petitioned the ITC for relief because of a 215% increase between 2004 and 2008 in Chinese tyre exports to the US. The case is seen as a litmus test for Obama on whether or not he keeps a campaign pledge to protect US-based jobs.

US Tyre Talks Near Complete

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The Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia has launched a campaign against global mining giant Xstrata to preserve coal mining jobs in New South Wales (NSW). The Swiss-based company, on 31 July, announced it was cutting 122 of 550 jobs at its Ulan Mine in western NSW, and 158 more jobs at its Tahmoor colliery in southern NSW. 
 
The CFMEU disputes Xstrata&rsquo;s claim that the scheduled redundancies are intended to improve efficiencies by &ldquo;realigning employee numbers with the current operating environment.&rdquo; To Xstrata, that means reduced pricing on thermal coal brought by the global financial crisis.
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The union claims Xstrata&rsquo;s real intent is to hire more contractors at Ulan, specifically as the company prepares development of major new coal deposits at Ulan West. 
 
CFMEU National President Tony Maher called the cuts callous and offensive. &ldquo;We highlight this as corporate greed, as this is a very profitable mine,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There are times when retrenchments are unavoidable. This is not one of those times.&rdquo;
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&nbsp;CFMEU&rsquo;s Tony Maher 
 

The Ulan mine is forecast to post an A$140 million profit this year, down from A$330 million in 2008, but still extremely healthy profits considering the global recession. The CFMEU has brought forced dismissal cases before the Australian Industrial Relations Commissions, but a 24 August hearing to block the Ulan redundancies failed. 
 
Some 500 people marched last week in Mudgee, NSW, near Ulan as the first wave of layoffs was to begin. The mayor of Mudgee, a community of 7,000 some 260 kilometres west of Sydney, said the cuts will have a serious knock-on effect to other jobs in the town. The CFMEU says for every high-paid mining job that is lost, another four service or retail jobs will be affected. 
 
The union has started a website on Xstrata&rsquo;s job cuts at Ulan. It can be found <a href="http://www.xstratafacts.com">here</a>. 
 
Xstrata bought majority control of Ulan in 2001 and controls a 90% stake in the mine. Mitsubishi Development owns the other 10%. At Tahmoor, a mine producing coking coal that Xstrata bought from Centennial Coal in 2007, the company used the same excuse for issuing redundancy notices: market prices are not strong enough to support the current level of 493 jobs. 
 
Xstrata&rsquo;s job curtailments at the two collieries are not the only sites in Australia where the company is forcing redundancies. In June, the tightly held mining concern said it was terminating thermal coal mining at its United Colliery in the Hunter Valley region of NSW. That colliery is to cease operating by March 2010. And in January 2009, Xstrata announced job cutbacks at the Oaky Creek No. 1 mine in central Queensland. 

&nbsp;

CFMEU Seeks to Protect Xstrata Coal Mining Jobs in Australia

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Leaders from ICEM trade union affiliates in India met in Kolkata on 3-4 September and officially formed an Indian ICEM Affiliates&rsquo; Council, with BK Das of the Indian National Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation (INMF) selected as coordinator. At last week&rsquo;s meetings, the 21 delegates also formed a strategy around ICEM&rsquo;s Contract and Agency Labour Campaign, aimed at recruiting such workers into their unions. 
 
Union leaders from the Mining, Chemicals, Cement, and Diamond Polishing sectors took part in the two-day meeting, sponsored in part by the FES India office. The forum was organised as part of a strategic planning workshop on the impact of the economic crisis over employment conditions and challenges faced by unions.
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ICEM Gen. Sec. Manfred Warda Indian trade union leaders&nbsp; 

It was attended by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Phee Jungsun, ICEM Materials Officer and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person. 
 
Warda assured the Indian affiliates that they will receive sufficient resources to recruit contract and agency workers, as well as for the fight against HIV/AIDS. The ICEM is readying to staff a full-time project coordinator in India. 
 
India&rsquo;s ICEM affiliates agreed to select two delegates each to the Affiliates&rsquo; Council, with meetings held twice annually. A key emphasis will be improving the weak financial structures of most national level unions, with each affiliate promising to produce a report on its existing financial structure by December 2009. 
 
Delegates also committed to organize a level of 10% of contract or agency workers into their unions, as well as to construct a new joint project proposal on union-building with a priority on contract and agency workers. 
 
The Council also committed to explore ICEM affiliation with Indian petroleum unions, trade unions in the electric power sector, as well as those in the country&rsquo;s burgeoning pharmaceutical sector. 
 
While in India, Warda also attended a master training programme on HIV/AIDS awareness and education, sponsored by the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer. He said this particular project in India has dedicated and committed trade unionists, people &ldquo;who are focused on bringing attention and then eradicating the HIV/AIDS pandemic on the Indian sub-continent.&rdquo; 

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ICEM Affiliates in India Form Council, Ready to Organise Contract and Agency Workers’

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