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“The ICEM (International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions) expresses, on behalf of its 20 million members throughout the world, deep concern over the increasing news of numerous cases of silicosis among jewellery migrant workers in China and India, who are slowly dying of an illness that they contracted through a poor working environment, compounded by a failure to provide adequate medical care. 
We express our heartfelt condolences to the family of Deng Wenping, a chinese migrant worker at a Hong Kong-invested jewellery factory in Southern China who has recently died and is one of the latest victims of silicosis in the sector. 
 
ICEM urges all employers in the jewellery industries, as well as the competent authorities in China, to pay immediate attention to the serious health and safety problems in the industry, to eliminate present dangerous conditions, and to urgently improve both medical care and the social security system. 
 
ICEM believes that only effective and genuine trade union representation of jewellery workers in China can lead to an adequate improvement of working conditions as well as contribute to meaningful industrial relations and social dialogue.” 
<hr/>
<a href="http://www.china-labour.org.hk/public/contents/article?revision%5fid=19186&item%5fid=19182">Click here</a> for a China Labour Bulletin background document on silicosis in China, entitled 'Deadly dust'.

ICEM statement on silicosis in China and India

Nepal’s despotic monarchy ordered a day-long curfew on 20 January, which prevented planned demonstrations in Kathmandu and neighbouring Lalitpur by pro-democracy political parties, including trade union federations GEFONT, DECONT, and NTUC.
Instead, protests sprang up across the capital city on 21 January and were met with excessive force by police using tear gas and brandishing firearms instead of bamboo batons. Some 300 demonstrators were arrested, and many of those remained in custody this morning. In addition, police arrested another 150 political and human rights activists on 19 and 20 January.
<img height="159" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0601NepalBinod.jpg" width="139"/>   <img height="157" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0601NepalMukunda.jpg" width="122"/>
Gefont's Secretary General Binod Shrestha and 
 Chairman Mukunda Neupane 
Senior GEFONT leaders—Chairperson Makunda Neupane and Secretary-General Binod Shrestha—were arrested on 19 January and remain in police custody. Leaders of a seven-party political alliance not already under arrest have called for a general strike across Nepal on 26 January in protest to King Gyanendra’s absolute rule.
More: 
<a href="/index.php?id=7&doc=1630&la=EN" type="internal">ICEM letter to the King of Nepal</a>

Nepal’s Pro-democracy Groups Call for 26 January General Strike

Miners at a uranium mine in Namibia won a 2006 salary agreement from Rössing Uranium after interrupting work for four hours on 10 January to deliver a petition to company management.
<img height="66" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NamibiaFlag.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
Some 450 miners of the Rössing Branch of ICEM affiliate Mineworkers’ Union of Namibia won an 8% pay hike from the mining concern that is 68.6% owned by Rio Tinto, plus a one-off bonus of N$1,000 and substantial housing allowances. When senior managers at the mine where unavailable to accept the petition at the mine’s main entrance, miners boarded buses to Swakopmund, some 70 kilometers away, to present the petition to senior management.
Rio Tinto announced in December that it was investing US$112 million in Rössing Uranium, a move that would extend the life of the mine from 2009 to 2016.

Rio Tinto Miners in Namibia Win Pay Gains

Another mining disaster happened 10 January in South Africa at AngloGold Ashanti’s TauTona gold mine near Carletonville, just outside of Johannesburg.
A rock slide caused by an earth tremor killed three workers, and injured five others, two of them seriously. An investigation into the accident is being jointly conducted by the Ministry of Minerals and Energy, ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers, and AngloGold Ashanti South African Mines. 
<img height="103" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthafricaNUM.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
A similar earth tremor at the TauTona Mine last July killed two miners, while a rock fall at AngloGold’s Mponeny Mine in South Africa in October also killed two miners.

Earth Tremor Kills Three at AngloGold South African Mine

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
A coal mine blast in China that killed four women on 6 April has drawn angry responses from women’s groups. Nine miners died when the explosion occurred at Dongtang Coal Mine in central Hunan Province. Production at the mine had been suspended earlier this year when owners had failed to apply for a work safety certificate. Since 1993, Chinese mine safety law forbids women from working in underground mines. 
 
The gas blast, in which five miners—including two women—managed to escape, caused local police to detain owners and investors of the enterprise. But the production manager of the Dongtang Mine and his wife fled the area as soon as word of the blast occurred. 
 
In a another mine catastrophe, seven miners died and four were injured on 11 April when a shaft collapsed at the Tanhan Coal Mine in Shanxi Province.

Chinese Coal Mine Blast Kills Four Women

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
Protests occurred both outside and inside DuPont’s annual general meeting in the US state of Delaware on 26 April, as labour unions led by the United Steelworkers (USW) and environmental allies pressed the world’s second largest chemicals company to phase out production of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The chemical is used to produce coatings for cookware and stain-repellent coatings for carpets, textiles and fast-food wrappers. 
 
USW is part of a coalition entitled “Dupont Shareholders for Fair Value” that pressed for adoption of a resolution calling on management to produce a report on options to accelerate the phase-out of PFOA. The proxy question put before shareholders garnered a 27.3% vote, considered extremely high on matters of social and ethical responsibility for US-based companies. Further information on the union’s shareholder actions can be found through the USW site <a href="http://www.uswa.org/uswa/program/content/2916.php">here</a>.

Protest of PFOA at DuPont’s Annual Meeting

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
Soaring gas and electricity prices, coupled with Britain’s pension funding crisis, has caused the closure of a recycled paper mill in Fife, Scotland. Smith, Anderson & Co. Ltd. announced closure of its Fettykill Mills operation, resulting in the loss of 106 jobs. 
 
ICEM affiliate Amicus has been working with the owners of the 146-year-old mill to get the government to address high energy prices, rates which have risen 50% since last year when a restructuring plan was implemented in efforts to save the mill.
<img height="102" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMpaper3.jpg" width="100"/>
 “Once again, high energy prices and the pension crisis in the UK have contributed towards the decision to close another mill,” stated Amicus Assistant General Secretary Tony Burke. “This is a devastating blow to the paper industry in the UK and manufacturing in Scotland,” said Burke, adding the union’s priority now is to work with staff in order that they find other jobs. 
 
Smith, Anderson & Co. will continue to run paper converting operations for the manufacture of paper bags from two Scottish plants, employing 245 staff, but the company’s recycling collection company, Securecycle, will likely be sold. 
In Scotland over the past eight years, 11 paper mills have been closed, leaving only six in operation. In the past two years alone, 800 Scottish paperworkers have faced redundancies.

Energy Prices, UK’s Pension Crisis Leads to Closure of Scottish Paper Mill

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
French materials producer Imerys has reneged on a commitment made two years ago to British workers. The promise, made in 2004 when the company moved some jobs from Southwest England to Brazil, guaranteed that 800 other jobs would remain. 
 
However, in early July, Imerys dropped a proposed restructuring plan on all former English China Clay mining and manufacturing operations, which Imerys bought in 1999, near Cornwall and Devon, telling the communities that all 800 jobs would be gone and production will move to Brazil by 2008. With Imerys being the region’s largest private employer, such a scenario would be fatal to the economic lifeblood of the Southwest. The ICEM will again join with UK’s Transport & General Workers’ Union (TGWU), and two other UK trade unions representing Imerys workers, to resist the company’s destructive restructuring plan. 
<img height="50" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UKFlag.gif" width="100"/>
Early in 2005, Cornwall and Devon workers, together with their unions, fiercely resisted Imerys insistence on closing the final pension scheme and downgrading benefit levels for existing workers and retirees. That fight was waged to retain the spending power that thousands of workers and retirees had rightfully earned due to years on the job. Now the fight is survival. 
 
Since the proposed plan was uncovered just a week ago, TGWU has already organised a general stewards’ meeting and demanded from Imerys an immediate and preliminary meeting. In addition, an MP from the area, Matthew Taylor, representing Truro and St Austell, has scheduled an emergency debate on the economic consequences to the region in Parliament tomorrow, 11 July.

French-based Imerys Drops Bombshell on Southwest England

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
US affiliate United Auto Workers (UAW) has successfully organised two PPG Industries auto-glass plants in recent weeks, and has a US government-conducted election scheduled at a third on 27 July. 
 
On 28 June, workers at a flat-glass plant in Evansville, state of Indiana, voted for UAW bargaining representation, and a week earlier, glass staff at a PPG factory in Crestline, state of Ohio, joined the UAW. The Evansville plant employs nearly 400 workers, while the Crestline factory has 260 bargaining unit jobs. 
The UAW election on 27 July is at a PPG Industries plant in O’Fallon, state of Missouri. The operation, a former Chemfil company worksite, produces metal and other fastenings for glass destined for the auto industry. The UAW currently represents workers at four American PPG plants and is active in the 16-union Joint Union Council of PPG Industries in North America.

UAW in US Succeeding in Organising Auto-Glass Factories

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
The United Steelworkers (USW) in America on 30 June selected Michelin’s BF Goodrich tyre operations as the bargaining template in order to achieve a master rubber contract for 27,000 workers in North America. Talks with three major tyre producers, Michelin, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, and Bridgestone/Firestone (BSF), have already started. 
 
The current master labour agreement for the US tyre-making sector expires with all companies on 22 July, but the USW and the major tyre producers generally go beyond that deadline in negotiations. Smaller manufacturers in the US, such as Yokahoma, also follow the bargaining pattern. 
<img height="53" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USAFlag.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
USW represents some 4,000 Michelin workers at three BF Goodrich plants, while it covers 17,000 Goodyear workers at 12 plants and 6,000 BFS workers at eight tyre facilities. 
 
“Significant in the selection of BF Goodrich is the fact that we believe that we can set an industry pattern that looks after our retirees, enhances job security and protects standard of living for our active and retired members,” stated USW Lead Negotiator and Executive Vice President Ron Hoover.

Michelin Chosen for Tyre Bargaining Pattern in US Talks

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