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Some 45,000 German paperworkers will see a 2.5% wage increase come 1 January. That was the negotiated result in Gernsbach in the third round of bargaining that concluded early on 2 December between ICEM affiliate IGBCE and Deutschen Papierindustrie (VAP), the employers association. 
 
The new collective agreement will run until 30 November 2011 and for the first time, ties together under one collective agreement workers employed at some 220 paper mills in both the western and eastern regions of Europe’s biggest economy. 
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IGBCE and VAP agreed to improve the pension plan effective 1 January 2012 by €100 from €234.98. IGBCE also won improved holiday pay and shift work increases effective 1 January 2011. 
 
Perhaps most significantly, the two sides used a working group to reach a common understanding over the use of temporary workers, thus preventing the abuse of such workers. 
 
IGBCE Chief Negotiator for the Paper Sector, Holger Nieden, called the results satisfactory, stating that some paper industry employers in Germany have weathered the financial crisis in good economic shape, while others have workers that are still employed at still reduced hours.

IGBCE, German Paper Producers Reach Wage Terms for 2011

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By a vote of 521 to 398 on 6 December, members of Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi voted to end a 32-day strike against the world’s third largest copper miner, located in Chile. The Union of Workers of the Collahuasi Copper Mine and Doña Ines de Collahuasi, owned jointly through 44% stakes each by AngloAmerican and Xstrata, resumed talks on 29 November with help from Roman Catholic Prelate Marco Antonio Órdenes, Bishop of Iquique. 
 
The union's Second Director, Carlos Daniel Rojas, told the ICEM that Bishop Órdenes succeeded "in opening the door" with the company when there appeared little hope that talks would resume, and the union took it from there to work out a settlement. 
 
The final resolve came in negotiations on 5-6 December, with an acceptable compromise. 
 
The vote during the evening of 6 December ended the longest private-sector Chilean copper strike, surpassing one of 26 days in 2006 at the Escondida mine, owned 57.5% by BHP Billiton and 30% by Rio Tinto. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1012.collahuasi voting.jpg" width="190" height="142"/>
Members of the Union Vote to Ratify 42-month Contract on Monday, 6 December
Terms of the settlement will give the 1,551 miners of Collahuasi a wage increase of 16.3% over a 42-month period, and a bonus payment of 12 million pesos (US$25,160). Other key issues in the strike, which began on 5 November, were company-paid health care and education costs for miners’ children. The union did make significant advances in both these areas from prior levels paid by the company. 
 
The Collahuasi Miners’ Union also won bonuses for work performed on national holidays, even more of a bonus on Christmas, a 40,000-peso-per-month improvement in the housing allowance, a 400,000-peso housing loan, and dependent scholarship awards for both primary school and university education. 
 
Union President Manuel Muñoz said the contract’s outcome would increase monthly benefits by 120,000 pesos, or US$252 per month. 
 
The strike was marked by a united workforce led by Muñoz and Second Director Rojas. The miners of Collahuasi took up residency in the Santa María School in Iquique, and staged peaceful and near-daily manifestations in that city. Those demonstrations were strategic in order to draw attention to their cause of gaining adequate health coverage and educational stipends from an employer that posted net profits in 2009 of US$1.56 billion due to high copper pricing. 
 
The 6 December vote took place inside the Santa María School. Collahuasi miners returned to return to work high in the Atacama desert of Chile’s northern Region I, some 285 kilometres from the port city of Iquique, during the evening of 7 December. 
 
"The Collahuasi miners and their families showed strength and fortitude in a dignified and peaceful way against an enterprise intent on maintaining production and turning profits," said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. "For that, they have earned the pride and admiration of the world's mining unions." 
 
ICEM coverage of this heroic strike throughout November can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4117-Chile’s-Collahuasi-Copper-Strike-Now-in-Crucial-Stage" type="internal">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4102-Miners-Dig-In-at-Chile’s-Collahuasi-Copper-Strike" type="internal">here</a>.

ICEM Applauds Resolve of Collahuasi Miners in Chile at Strike’s End

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Bargaining in UK’s corrugated paperboard industry concluded this week, with negotiators for Unite the Union and GMB coming to 2010 wage terms with the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI). The CPI, representing major corrugated boxboard and packaging employers at some 50 plants mainly belonging to D.S. Smith, SmurfitKappa, and SAICA, agreed to raise their wage offer from 2.1% to 2.5%. 
 
The offer, if accepted by paperworkers from the two unions in January, will be retroactive to 1 September 2010, the date a prior one-year accord expired. Unite National Officer Peter Ellis said the tentative settlement falls into the upper level of median pay awards in all industries in the UK this year, and Unite’s bargaining panel will strongly recommend acceptance.
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Unite National Officer Peter Ellis
The settlement averts a vote for industrial action, a ballot both Unite and GMB members were about to file for on 10 January. Unite represents 2,500 workers in the corrugated industry, while GMB covers some 800 workers in the industry. 
 
Contract talks began in July, but became bogged down in October when CPI offered a pay hike of less than half of the retail price index. 
 
Meanwhile, Unite and Kimberly Clark reached an early accord recently for 2011, covering 500 workers at two towel and tissue mills, the Northfleet mill in Kent and the Barrow-in-Furness mill in Cumbria. The 2011 pay award, effective 1 February, will be 1.5%, with Unite also winning a lump sum bonus of £1,450. That lump sum will also be calculated into the pension contribution, thus raising the benefit level.

UK’s Unite, GMB Settle Corrugated Paper Talks; Vote to Come in January

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Some 1,000 union leaders from across Canada in the energy, paper, media, and telecomms sectors met 19-23 September in Toronto for the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union’s biennial convention. Delegates denounced the Canadian federal government’s ineptitude in handling forestry and pension crises, and they heard from noted economists that the greed of a few has caused grave financial damage to millions of workers worldwide. 
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CEP President Dave Coles at offices of Brookfield Asset Management 
The Convention also saw the re-election by acclamation of President Dave Coles and Secretary-Treasurer Gaétan Ménard. Delegates to the convention also took to the streets of Toronto in protest, directing it at one culprit responsible for the financial collapse. CEPers marched on the downtown Toronto offices of Brookfield Asset Management, a US-based equity firm that took over and then led Fraser Paper into bankruptcy. 
CEP delegates passed a number of resolutions, including a continued CEP policy to press forward on a national pharmacy plan. They also heard about the structural economic flows in the existing financial system from US economist James Galbraith and Haitian economist Camille Chalmers. And the Canadian political landscape was also covered by NDP leader Jack Layton, Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) President Ken Georgetti, and Toronto Star columnist Thomas Walkom. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/People/Gaetan.Menard.CEP.SecTres.JPG" width="140" height="93"/>
CEP Secretary-Treasurer Gaétan Ménard
In opening the convention, Coles leveled harsh criticism at the federal government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper for its inaction in the face of many crises, including the forest industry one, pensions, and foreign control of traditional Canadian-owned industries. “These idealogues have failed to lift a finger to aid forest communities, and if they win the next election, other sectors will meet the same fate,” stated Coles. 
 
Delegates to the convention displayed their generosity by raising and donating more that C$100,000 to the union’s Canadian charity of choice, the Spina Bifada and Hydrocephalus Association, an organization focused on spinal birth defects and abnormal brain fluids. The CEP’s Woman of Distinction Award was given to Joy Langan, an activist, proud trade unionist, former Member of Parliament, and tireless advocate for women’s rights who passed away on 30 July 2009. She received the award posthumously, with the CEP honouring her by changing the name of the award to the Joy Langan Women of Distinction Award.

CEP Holds Biennial Convention in Toronto, Canada

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The ICEM affiliated oil and gas workers’ trade unions in Nigeria, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), are threatening mass strike action if the Nigerian government continues efforts to pass a new legislation without their consultation that will deregulate the sector. 
 
NUPENG and PENGASSAN have the power to shut down all oil and gas installations in the West African country, and are threatening to do so if the government continues unwise implementation of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). 
 
Workers have been frustrated at being excluded from the drafting process, while global oil corporations have been at the centre of negotiations. Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, relies heavily on its oil resources. Although the predominately state-owned company is guilty of inefficiency, NUPENG and PENGASSAN oppose the sell-off of the industry to foreign investors without proper protections for the Nigerian economy and for protection of labour rights in this sector. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaNupeng100.gif" width="100" height="103" alt=""/>
NUPENG and PENGASSAN has issued appeals and demands to the Joint Committee on Petroleum, the Inter-Governmental Committee, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Petroleum and Labour Ministers, and also in writing to President Goodluck Jonathan. These appeals call attention to the ambiguity in areas of the legislation that could easily be exploited by corporations. 
 
The new legislation stands to cancel existing protections set up to rollback casualisation and the outsourcing of labour, already a dramatically growing problem in the sector. 
 
PENGASSAN and NUPENG National Presidents, Babatunde Ogun and Achese Igwe, made a joint statement last week expressing shared concerns and demands. Also co-signing the statement were General Secretaries Bayo Olowoshile of PENGASSAN and Elijah Okougbo of NUPENG. 
 
The ICEM supports the demands of both its affiliates, that the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill should be halted at least until it is made available for scrutiny by all affected parties. The progress of such a strategically important law must be transparent. The Joint Committee of the National Assembly and the Petroleum Minister must include oil workers’ trade unions in all deliberations and all legislation drafting.

Nigerian Oil Unions Threaten Strike over PIB Implementation

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ICEM’s ongoing Turkey Organising and Social Dialogue Project, through the support of the Dutch national labour centre FNV, organised its seventh regional workshop in Bursa on 15-16 September 2010. 
 
Located in northwestern Turkey, Bursa is the country’s fourth largest city with a population of 1.86 million. The city is an industrial and culturally charged one, once serving as one of the ex-capitals of the Ottoman Empire. Bursa is also referred to as Turkey’s “Detroit” because it is the centre of Turkish auto and auto-component industries. 
 
Auto factories such as FIAT and Renault are located near Bursa, as are auto-supply factories operated by Bosch, Mako, and Contitech. In addition, textile and food industries are equally strong in the city. Traditionally, Bursa used to be famous for being the largest center of silk trade in the Byzantine and later the Ottoman empires, during the period of the lucrative Silk Road. The city is still a major center for Turkish textiles. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1010.bursa.JPG" width="370" height="116" alt=""/>
A number of national and multinational companies within ICEM’s sectors have operations in Bursa. Recently, a labour conflict at French-based auto-plastics supplier Faurecia was provoked when the company sacked shop-floor leaders belonging to ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş. ICEM intervention and vigorous Petrol-İş manifestations won the jobs back. 
 
Trade unions are seeking to organise factories using new and modern tools, and the ICEM’s Dutch project aims to provide those tools. 
 
The Bursa seminar was attended by around 70 trade union leaders, shop stewards, and militants from ICEM-affiliated unions, as well as leaders of other unions in the metals and textiles sectors. The meeting also welcomed national level union officials, namely Mustafa Öztaşkın, President of Petrol- İş, and Alaaddin Sari, Vice-President of Lastik-İş. 
 
The Bursa seminar also hosted several international trade union leaders, including ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, FNV Bondgenoten Trade Union Officer Celil Çoban, Spanish FITEQA-CC.OO International Secretary Isidor Boix, and Phee Jungsun and Kemal Özkan from the ICEM staff. All guests exchanged their knowledge and experiences with participants. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1010.bursa.2.JPG" width="257" height="154" alt=""/>
Warda gave a detailed presentation about ICEM’s structure, policies, and agenda on the first day, and also explained the global union movement’s position and activities on job losses brought on by the global economic crisis. He also spoke on ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, and the necessity for Turkey to ratify this Convention. He discussed ICEM strategies regarding social dialogue, Global Framework Agreements, workers’ networks, sustainable employment, and the cooperation and integration process with other GUFs. 
 
In addition, Warda briefed the participants on labour relations, trade union structures, and social dialogue in his home country of Germany during the second day of the workshop. 
 
ICEM’s Özkan gave a perspective on the various parameters of globalisation, the changing structure of industrial production, global union structures and challenges, Contract and Agency Labour, and various international institutions such as ILO, OECD, Global Compact, and EU instruments. ICEM’s Phee Jungsun shared his experiences in ICEM’s Asia-Pacific Region on organising within multinational companies, social dialogue, and labour practices in Asian countries. 
 
Participants heard a presentation by Turkish trade union expert Üzeyir Ataman, Director of Education and Collective Bargaining of Lastik-İş, on union history and the current labour relations situation in Turkey. Later, the seminar focused on Power and Weak Points, Challenges and Opportunities, and Concrete Organising Targets inside Turkey, with contributions and inputs by participants from the different towns around Bursa. 
 
“The Bursa seminar was very well attended,” said Özkan. “Participants expressed hunger for these workshops, allowing them to better know international trade union instruments at hand. 
 
“I once again realise how important this project is in Turkey,” added Özkan, the coordinator of the two-year project. 
 
The project will continue with an upcoming special youth organising seminar, scheduled for 21-22 October 2010 in Kusadasi in the Eagean region. The project’s two-year run will end with a final conference at the end of November in Ankara.

ICEM’s Dutch FNV Project Conducts Workshop in Turkey

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Oppression of the 30,000 technical and professional employees of PEMEX, Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company, continued on 22 October when the General Secretary of Local 1 of the National Union of Technical and Professional Petroleum Workers (UNTyPP) was given “forced retirement.” 
 
The sacking of Moisés Flores Salmerón of Coatacoalcos, Veracruz State, is a clear attempt to intimidate workers and to block effective organising. He was informed of his “retirement” by the manager of labour relations of PEMEX, Francisco Javier Ramirez Rodriguez. There was no disciplinary procedure of any kind, and ironically came nine days after the PEMEX CEO appeared before the Mexican House of Deputies on 13 October, and expressed recognition and respect for UNTyPP. 
 
PEMEX white-collar staff of UNTyPP achieved official trade union recognition on 19 December 2009, following several years of struggle. After this successful legal battle, culminating in certification from the Secretary of Labour and Social Welfare office for the Registration of Associations (STPS), members of the new union were informed by company management that in order to retain their jobs, they would be required to sign two documents, one calling for the cancellation of the registration, the other a resignation from the union. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMoil3.JPG.JPG" width="110" height="109"/>
Those who refused, along with organisers of the UNTyPP, were fired and violently removed from their workstations by paramilitaries, including the entire National Executive Committee of the union. 
 
A global campaign putting pressure on the Mexican House of Deputies from March 2010 did lead to some reinstatements of those sacked, and to some limited progress in negotiations, although the PEMEX management chooses to conduct dialogue mostly with the corrupt union STPRM, with whom “protection contracts” have been agreed. 
 
This is the second time that Moisés Flores Salmerón has been sacked by PEMEX for trade union activity. The first sacking came seven years ago. He was reinstated last year. 
 
Also in Mexico, the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) held a strategy meeting on union building in Mexico City on 13-14 October, seeking ways to jointly build democratic union power in Mexico. The meeting, which included participation by the ICEM, was a follow-up to the <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3882-Mexican-Teach-in-Charts-North-American-Union-Solidarity" type="internal">Mexico Teach-In</a> conference in Toronto, 20 June. The ICEM proposed to carry out action days at Mexican embassies and a tour for Mexican trade unionists in the US and Canada.

Leader of White-Collar PEMEX Union in Mexico Sacked

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Scores of electrical workers descended on the headquarters of the National Power Authority (NPA) in Freeport, Sierra Leone, on 25 October, protesting the failed implementation of promised wage increases. Their target was Energy, Power, and Water Minister Ogunlade Davidson, who workers claim does not even know the number of staff employed at NPA. 
 
The manifestation was not a strike, but a strike is threatened if the government does not follow through on a negotiated 60% wage increase plus other social provisions that are due. In Sierra Leone, a country that is still struggling to come out of an 11-year civil war, the standard of living for workers is among the world’s lowest. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SierraLeone.png" width="150" height="69"/>
At the 25 October protest, electricity workers chanted slogans saying they were tired of waiting for long-awaited salary increases, and growing weary of supporting the government’s Agenda for Change. One demand calls for workers in the meter reading and disconnection service of NPA, some of whom have been working for NPA as casual staff for up to eight years, to finally be put on the official payroll. 
 
Several government leaders were allowed to address the demonstrators but when Davidson himself attempted to speak, he was shouted down. 
 
The leader of the Senior Staff Association for Energy and Water Resources, Emmanuel Wilson Taylor, said 20% of the negotiated increase had been awarded, but the remaining 40%, which was suppose to take effect in early October, was not granted. At a follow-up meeting on 21 October, government officials told union representatives that the remaining salary increase would only be made if workers agreed to forego the many social improvements they were offered. 
 
The ICEM supports the electricity workers of Sierra Leone in their justified efforts to improve their working lives and their livelihoods.

Public Sector Electrical Workers Protest in Sierra Leone

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ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person Phee Jungsun visited ICEM affiliates in India and Pakistan 18-22 October. The mission was to increase understanding of the challenges facing ICEM members in those countries, and to coordinate ICEM support. 
 
The activities in India included a joint meeting with the four ICEM Indian affiliates, in Nagpur, 19 October. Those unions are the Indian National Mineworkers’ Federation (INMF), The Indian National Cement Workers’ Federation (INCWF), the Indian National Diamond & Ornaments Workers’ Federation (INDOWF), and the HMS Chemical Mazdoor Federation. 
 
The National Chemical and Petroleum Federation joined the meeting as an observer. The meeting was chaired by Warda and Brother BK Das, INMF General Secretary, who also serves as the India Representative of the Council of ICEM Indian affiliates, formed in 2009. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1010.india.meeting.JPG" width="275" height="183" alt=""/>
The common focus of the four unions is on issues of Contract and Agency Labour (CAL), and organizing. The INMF reported on progress in mines in the state of Orissa, where a collective bargaining agreement was obtained to provide equal benefits of social security for CAL workers. In the cement sector, around 60% of all workforces are CAL workers. Several unions were set up by CAL cement workers, who then either joined INCWF or applied for membership directly to ICEM. Cement employers sack CAL workers whenever they try to form union or to join. 
 
The proposal was agreed by affiliates to hold a joint rally and symposium in New Delhi, the capital of India, on the issue of national legislation and social security benefits for CAL workers. It will be a joint action with the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and the International Textiles, Garment, Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF). 
 
In the chemicals sector, due to common characteristics of small numbers of employees in a company, trade unions are not powerful, except for in the large state-owned fertilizer or petro-chemical companies. 
 
Pharmaceutical unions in MNCs were active until ten years ago, but have been destroyed by aggressive relocation strategies of employers, seeking unorganized workforces. Contrary to the high economic growth rate every year, trade unions in the manufacturing sector are in decline, especially in private companies. The unification of trade unions in Indian manufacturing seems more and more necessary. 
 
The mission continued to Karachi, Pakistan, on 21-22 October, where meetings were held with the three ICEM affiliates: the Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF), the Pakistan Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Union (PCEM), and the Pakistan National Federation of Chemical, Energy, and Pharmaceutical Workers’ Union. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1010.pakistan.jpg" width="246" height="185" alt=""/>
ICEM Mission to Pakistan
The Secretary General of the PCMLF, Sultan Muhammad Khan, and Pir Muhammad, Education Secretary, presented the challenges of the major industry federation, based in Quetta, Balochistan Province. It is the largest mining union in Pakistan, with a total membership of 130,000. Members suffer from occupational diseases, including TB, and Hepatitis A and C, with high numbers of fatal accidents at work. The numbers of death at work cases are 136 per year, with little help from the government since many labour inspectors are corrupt. 
 
The PCEM, led by General Secretary Muhammad Suhail, has 2,000 members, and is based in Karachi, Sindh Province. 
 
The Pakistan National Federation of Chemical, Energy, and Pharmaceutical Workers’ Union, led by General Secretary Khalil Ur Rehman, has 1,500 members, and is also based in Karachi. The union has national affiliation to the APFOL-PWF, an ITUC affiliate.

ICEM Supports Pakistan, India Affiliates in Tough Challenges

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As the mineworkers’ strike at Gammon Gold’s El Cubo mine in Mexico’s Guanajuato State was deferred to the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board, the authority abandoned all activities and took summer vacations until August. 
 
The recess forces workers to continue the strike with no possibility of settlement before labour authorities return to litigate and rule on the legality of the strike. The authority gave no instruction to Canadian-based Gammon to start negotiating with the workers. 
 
The 409 workers are represented by Section 142 of ICEM-affiliated National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Related Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMRM), or Los Mineros, at the mine in south-central Mexico. 
 
As previously reported by ICEM, the strike began 30 June, primarily because of Nova Scotia-based Gammon’s refusal to make profit-share payments to workers, a condition that had been agreed to in bargaining with the union in return for a lengthening of miners’ work days from eight- to ten-hour shifts. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/04miningsafety.jpg" width="180" height="132"/>
In the absence of a profit-sharing arrangement, union leaders took strike action, demanding a bonus of 50,000 pesos (US$3,968) per worker. A further demand was that the company improve safety standards at the mine, following five deaths at the site in recent months, accidents which were not properly investigated or even sometimes not recorded by authorities. The families of the five dead miners have not received any compensation. 
 
As was predicted by the ICEM in an earlier, 28 June, report (see <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3896-El-Cubo-Mexican-Mine-Shut-in-Attempt-to-Crush-Union" type="internal">here</a>), the company has moved to restart production with scab labour. This decision was authorised by Labour Minister Javier Lozano, who pushed through a ruling via the Federal Conciliation Board for 70 “emergency personnel.” The obvious anti-union stance of the Mexican government is again illustrated by these rulings and lack of pressure from the authorities on Gammon to negotiate with Section 142. 
 
Gammon Gold has repeatedly claimed that it does not have the financial resources for profit-sharing payments, which are mandated by law, or to make improvements to worker safety at the mine. Los Mineros filed for a fiscal audit to be conducted by the Mexican Treasury into Gammon, in May 2010. In typical government inaction regarding Los Mineros, there has been no response to this request. 
 
In a familiar trend now used in Mexican labour conflicts, workers at El Cubo were physically attacked by the company’s private security team on 18 June. 
 
Gammon Gold recorded US$207 million in revenue from gold and silver mining operations in 2009. The company operates exclusively in Mexico, with a large gold-silver complex in the northern state of Chihuahua, known as Ocampo. Exploration work is on-going at the neighbouring Guadalupe y Calvo gold-silver mine, and Gammon recently acquired the El Mezquite and Venus projects in the states of Zacatecas and Chihuahua, respectively. 
 
Gammon Gold’s director in Mexico, Luis Chavez, was previously the Director of Mines in the Ministry of Finance, and then Director of Mines in Coahuila State government, a position he held when 64 miners died inside the Pasta de Conchos mine in February 2006. After protecting Grupo México in the wake of the accident, Chavez moved to his current position as head of Gammon Gold. The corrupt links between the Mexican government and Gammon Gold are deep. 
 
Politicians in the country’s Senate and House of Representatives demanded that Labour Secretary, Javier Lozano, act as mediator to the conflict.

Mexico Government No Help in Resolving Gammon Gold Mine Strike

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