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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Union members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9508 in the Canadian province of Labrador / Newfoundland last week voted by 80% to accept the recommendations of a government Industrial Inquiry Commission to end an 18-month strike and return to work. But the conciliatory move won’t get the 124 copper and nickel miners any closer to their jobs. 
 
Their employer, Brazilian-based Vale rejects the report’s recommendations out of hand, findings that were drawn up by a neutral commission the company actually embraced three months ago. 
 
The independent commission presented the two sides with its first report – recommendations to settle the dispute – at the end of 2010. The report’s findings caused Vale to initiate a call to Local 9508 for resumption of bargaining, which occurred in remote Goose Bay, Labrador, on 5-6 January. But the company walked away from talks on the second day after disagreeing with the term length of a renewal agreement. 
 
In talks last October, just days before former provincial Premier Danny Willams established the commission, Vale sought a three-year term, while the USW wanted five years from the August 2009 expiry of the last agreement. In its report, the Industrial Inquiry Commission recommended four years. But in this month’s Goose Bay talks, Vale changed its position, seeking a five-year term from the date of ratification, proposing a 31 January 2016 expiry. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101.VoiseyBay.jpg" width="200" height="200"/>
The commission’s report on collective bargaining issues does stand as a workable compromise. While it is critical of both sides for prolonging the strike, it cites the Steelworkers with already making “significant” compromises to end the dispute. The report recommends wage adjustments, a bonus plan based on Vale’s Labrador operations, a back-to-work protocol, and sub-contracting rules. The commission does not have the power to impose a settlement, but it has urged both sides to accept the compromise or submit unresolved issues to binding arbitration. 
 
Most tellingly, however, the report states that Vale’s use of scab workers during the strike is reason for the company’s intransigence. “It is apparent to the Commission that the Employer has an approach that does not contemplate compromise on any basis that might be acceptable to the Union.” 
 
Vale “maintains that it has a desire to conclude a collective agreement, buts its actions and reactions send the opposite message.” The report also cites the company with circumventing “a union’s right to bargain on behalf of its membership.” 
 
Vale is operating its eastern Canadian operations now at full production with the use of replacement workers. But nearly all of those scabs are working in excess of 60 hours per week, creating the obvious safety risks. The Industrial Inquiry Commission’s second report will be issued in late February and it will address the integrity of Vale’s Labrador operations, the strike’s impact on rural communities, the reasons behind the strike, and Vale’s international strategies to re-shape Canadian work-life. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1009.usw.voiseys.bay.darren.cove.2.jpg" width="134" height="130"/>
USW Local 9508 President Darren Cove
The strike by USW Local 9508 began on 1 August 2009, and now has eclipsed by six months a parallel strike by 3,500 steelworkers in Ontario. That strike against Vale, in Sudbury and Port Colborne, went on for 50 weeks and ended on 7 July 2010. 
 
In total, Vale has forced 420 Local 9508 members into strike action in Voiseys Bay and other remote worksites of Labrador. Workers at three of Vale’s contractors, including First Nation electrical and pipefitting firm Ushitou Maintenance and security and catering companies, are on strike due to the mining giant’s recalcitrant positions. In addition, workers of a logistical transport company, Torngat, also represented by Local 9508, will see a collective agreement expire early in 2011. 
 
Local 9508 this week will call on new Labrador/Newfoundland Premier Kathy Dunderdale and Human Resources, Labour, and Employment Minister Darin King to intervene more assertively to resolve the strike. On Saturday, 15 January, the USW purchased a full-page advertisement in a province-wide newspaper the urgent need for further government action. 
 
“It is now clear that Vale is the impediment to a fair settlement,” said USW District Six Representative Boyd Bussey. “It is also clear that, unless our government takes action to bring about a settlement, Vale will continue to use its scab workforce and prolong the hardship for our working families and communities.”

Vale’s Arrogance to Eastern Canadian Miners, Communities, Government Continues

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The attack by U.S. Steel against 900 members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1005 and even more retirees – 9,000 in total – will receive a boost 29 January when thousands of Canadian trade unionists converge on Hamilton, Ontario, for a Day of Action. A lockout was derisively imposed by the American steelmaker there on 7 November after Local 1005 refused to vote on steep cuts proposed in a renewal contract. (See prior ICEM report <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4101-Flawed-Investment-Canada-Act-Again-Seen-in-Steel-Lockout " type="internal">here</a>) 
 
The manifestation, organising by the Ontario Federation of Labour (CLC), will begin with speakers at 13h00 on Saturday, 29 January, at Hamilton City Hall, 71 Main Street West, and then a march will wind through the streets of the city centre. 
 
The lockout ten weeks ago became the latest affront by a multinational to the Investment Canada Act. When U.S. Steel received Canadian government approval to buy Ontario-based steelmaker Stelco three years ago, it pledged to maintain job and production levels. But within a year, it had levied layoffs on USW members at both of Stelco’s mills, in Hamilton and Nanticoke, Ontario, and began supplying Canadian customers with products made in its US mills. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101.US Steel March.jpg" width="365" height="123"/>
The Canadian Attorney General in 2009 brought a lawsuit against the company for failing to comply with the Investment Canada Act. U.S. Steel’s obstruction and delay in addressing the suit was set back late last month when a federal appellate court judge upheld the right of the union and other parties to intervene in the breach of the Act. 
 
In bargaining last autumn, U.S. Steel pressured Local 1005’s bargaining committee to accept a two-tier pension scheme in which new hires would be closed off from a longstanding defined benefit plan. The company also proposed de-indexing the pension benefits for retirees, a losing proposition for 9,000 retirees against inflation. U.S. Steel sought as well cuts to active workers’ cost-of-living adjustments, and proposed cutting two weeks of vacation time. 
 
When the steel producer demanded the bargaining committee put the concessions to a vote of active members and union leadership refused, the lockout began. U.S. Steel immediately cut off all health and disability benefits. Under Ontario provincial labour law, a company has the right to mandate a one-time only vote on a final contract offer. But U.S. Steel has not exercised that option, knowing full well that Local 1005’s 2010 contract mobilisation campaign would produce a decisive “no” vote. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USAUSW.jpg" width="140" height="77"/>
In fact, at a union meeting on 8 December, when a motion was put forward to put the company’s proposals to a vote, a full 90% of Local 1005’s members defeated it. 
 
The union already has received overwhelming support from Canadian unions, including the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Union. At a Hamilton picket line on 5 January, CUPE National President Paul Moist presented the locked-out local with C$10,000, and said, “Defending Steelworker pensions is a fight CUPE and the entire labour movement must be part of. If private sector pensions are eroded, the public sector will be next. 
 
CAW also has contributed to USW Local 1005 and President Rolf Gerstenberger addressed the CAW National Council of Delegates in early December. Gerstenberger called for a nation-wide campaign to resist the growing strength of international corporations in Canada and a political overhaul in order to revamp the loopholes in the Investment Canada Act. 
 
(See the mobilisation call for the 29 January Hamilton Day of Action <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/20110129USSteel.pdf">here</a>.)

Rally Slated 29 January in Canada to Support Locked-out Steelworkers

6 January 2011 
 
To All ICEM Affiliated Unions: 
 
 
 
Job Posting for ICEM Mining/DGOJP Officer 
 
Firstly, I extend the Best Wishes from ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana and myself to all of you in the New Year. 
 
I write to inform you that the ICEM is seeking applicants for the position of Mining/Diamond, Gems, Ornaments, and Jewelry Production Officer. Joe Drexler, who has served in that capacity, has decided to leave the ICEM and resume his duties with the United Steelworkers. 
 
I attach a job description in English for the post, which will be based in Geneva, Switzerland. I would be grateful if you could distribute details of this vacancy throughout your trade union organisation, and should a candidate wish to apply for the position, please have them send full details of their background in cover letter in English, along with their CV, to myself, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, manfred.warda@icem.org, and Finance and Administration Officer Marie-France Sarfati, mariefrance.sarfati@icem.org, or it can be faxed to Manfred Warda and Marie-France Sarfati at +41 22 304 1841. 
 
Fluent written and spoken English is essential, and IT skills also are essential. There also is a requirement for some travel from Geneva. The deadline for application is February 15, 2011. 
 
Thank you for your kind attention in distributing this announcement throughout your organisation. 
 
Fraternally, 
 
 
 
 
Manfred Warda 
General Secretary 
 
Enclosure: Job Description (EN)

Job Posting for ICEM Mining/DGOJP Officer 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Sintracarbón, the ICEM trade union affiliate organising workers at Carbones del Cerrejón, the world’s largest open-pit set of coal mines, is on the verge of a walkout following a 99.9% strike vote last week. The 4,000-member union and Cerrejón, which is owned by multinationals BHP Billiton, Xstrata, and AngloAmerican, have come up against difficult bargaining since December as they seek to renew the two-year collective bargaining agreement. 
 
Following frustrating talks Cerrejón management, the union conducted a vote of its members between strike and arbitration tribunal, in line with Colombian legislation. Members decisively backed strike action in ballots collected last Friday, 28 January. On Saturday, 29 January, an assembly of Sintracarbón delegates, was held in the city of Riohacha, and ratified the decision to strike with unanimity. 
 
Significantly, management has indicated that it will present a new offer to workers today, 31 January. If the offer is satisfactory to Sintracarbón, a new collective agreement might not be far off. If not, a strike likely will occur before 6 February. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Colombia.png" width="180" height="83"/>
Talks began between the union and management on 9 December, and expired with no agreement following the end of the 40 days of bargaining and an extension on 17 January. 
 
In a letter to the President of Carbones del Cerrejón, León Teicher, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda criticised the company’s tactic during negotiations, of contacting individual union members personally by phone. 
 
The main issues in talks are wage gains, status of subcontracted workers, pensions, and local community needs that have been displaced by the mine. 
 
The huge open-pit mining complex in the northern state of Guajira produces highly desirable low-sulphur thermal coal. The mine produces 32 million tonnes annually, with a majority of that shipped to Europe. But exports recently began also to China, a country sustaining industries that have a huge demand for coal. 
 
View the full ICEM letter to the company <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM%20Carta%20Cerrejon%2019%20enero%202011.pdf" type="internal">here</a>.  
<img style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 8px; PADDING-RIGHT: 8px; PADDING-TOP: 8px" id="il_fi" alt="" src="http://vthumb.ak.fbcdn.net/hvthumb-ak-snc4/hs1274.snc4/158598_180633368638345_180632468638435_32364_1896_t.jpg" width="160" height="90"/>
President of Sintrachaneme, Jairo Fernando Solano Cervantes
Also of concern to the ICEM at Cerrejón, trade union organising of mechanics at the Chaneme company is still being scrutinized, with workers harassed and intimidated by management. Sintracarbón changed its Statutes so that it could include outsourced workers at the mine complex, and played an important support role in the formation of the union Sintrachaneme a year ago. See previous ICEM report <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3573-Union-Contract-Workers-Continue-Fight-for-Work-Rights-at-Cerrejón-in-Colombia" type="internal">here</a>. President of Sintrachaneme, Jairo Fernando Solano Cervantes, is being targeted by sustained intimidation and harassment, stepped up since 14 December. 
 
This harassment has included a suspicious vehicle being parked outside his house that is conducting surveillance on Solano and his family. On one occasion, Solano was chased by unrecognized cars. In Colombia, the world’s most dangerous country for a trade unionist, Solano must be protected by his employers. The ICEM is angered by this illegal intimidation, which is an attempt to crush the organizing of contract employees at Cerrejón.

Strike Set as Cerrejón Miners Face Off with Managers in Fierce Colombia Bargaining 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="120" height="59"/>
Tomorrow, 8 March, marks the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day (IWD). It is also 16 days before the ICEM’s largest Women’s Conference ever, when 160 participants from 40 countries convene in Sevilla, Spain. 
 
(There is still time to register and attend the ICEM Women’s Conference from 23-25 March. Please refer to the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/En%20Draft%20Agenda_Nove2010%201.pdf" type="internal">invitation</a>, <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/EN%20Women%20Attendance%20Form-March%202011.doc" type="internal">registration form</a>, and <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/En%20Draft%20Agenda_Nove2010%201.pdf" type="internal">tentative agenda</a>. The cover art for this article is courtesy of ICEM German affiliate IGBCE, which has as theme this year, “Lay Tomorrow’s Foundation Today.”) 
 
Some ICEM affiliates have already held IWD events. In Thailand, ICEM-affiliated unions joined other civil society groups in a 6-7 March symposium at Thammasat University in Bangkok. A key point made was that hundreds of thousands of Thai women work longer than eight hours per day at low wages and without social benefits.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.women thai aranya.jpg" width="140" height="215"/>
ICEM Thai Project Coordinator Aranya Pakapath and GOPTU’s Araya Kaewpradap
Araya Kaewpradap of the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation Labour Union (GOPTU) said at the symposium that the majority of Thai women are employed under short-term, fixed contracts, although in reality most have worked 20 or more years in such jobs. She said women are discriminated from entitlements, upward wage adjustments, social benefits, maternity protection, and they do not have access to the national social security scheme. 
 
The importance of Thailand ratifying ILO Convention 183 on Maternity Protection was also brought out at the symposium, which was televised throughout the country. Symposium participants and thousands of others will march tomorrow from Democracy Monument to the Government House in Bangkok to mark IWD.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.women thailand.jpg" width="320" height="141"/>
IWD Thai Symposium at Thammasat University 
In Spain, ICEM’s two affiliated trade union federations, UGT and CC.OO, which will jointly co-host the Sevilla Women’s Conference in two weeks time, issued a common IWD statement that is critical of Spain’s government for labour revisions, “which, far from creating employment, is contributing once again to the dismantling of too few labour guarantees.” 
 
The statement also said: “The elimination of the Ministry of Equality (now part of the Ministry of Health) means a step backwards on gender polices and a violation of the commitments of equality made at European and international levels that instruct governments to treat equality themes at high levels of responsibility.” 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SPAIN.CC.OO.gif" width="150" height="52" alt=""/>   <img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SPAIN.UGT.gif" width="90" height="90" alt=""/>
Across the world, a great number of “bridge walks” will occur tomorrow and throughout the rest of the week. The bridge walks, developed last year by programme directors for Women International in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), symbolise awareness toward women facing crises in war-torn countries. 
 
That is sadly reflected now in many countries of North Africa and the Middle East. And it was also on vivid display on Saturday, 5 March, when Israeli border police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Palestinian women, who were holding an IWD manifestation at the Qalandiya border crossing north of Jerusalem. 
 
IWD is meant to be a global day to celebrate the economic, political, and social achievements of women past, present, and future, regardless of national, ethnic, or social divisions. In 1910, Clara Zetkin of Germany’s Social Democratic Party tabled the idea at the Second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, Denmark. 
 
A year later, on 19 March, IWD was officially recognised by Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. In 1913, IWD was moved to 8 March. Today, it is an official holiday in 25 countries: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Kazakhstan, Kyrgzstan, Laos, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia, Tajikistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia. 
 
In the US, March is Women’s History Month and it will take on special significance this month. It was in New York City, on 25 March 1911, when 146 mostly girls and young women, ages 14 to 23, perished in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. The seamstresses were unable to escape the burning building after owners had locked stairwells and exits. US trade unions will commemorate this horrible affront to working women in several different events across the month of March. 
 
ICEM affiliates are encouraged to report their IWD actions and activities to <a href="mailto:carol.bruce@icem.org">Carol Bruce</a>, ICEM’s Women’s Officer.

100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day!

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
An <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4103-Two-Dead-in-Dynamite-Blast-Near-Chile-s-San-José-Mine-Rescue-Site" type="internal">ICEM report</a> from November 2010 told how inexperienced miners with no training detonated explosives on their first day of work inside the Los Reyes copper mine in northern Chile, killing 2. The incident happened only three weeks after the fabled rescue of 33 copper miners and only 70 kilometres from the San José mine in Chile’s Region II. 
 
Now some rather startling facts have surfaced courtesy of an expose on Chile’s mine safety practices in the newspaper El Mercurio. As reported originally, the owner of the company, a Mexican national named Germán Zayas Bazán, fled Chile and within six hours of the 8 November explosion landed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on a flight from Chile. 
 
Germán Bazán was in Chile on a tourist visit. His whereabouts now are unknown and there has been no attempt to extradite him by Chile’s government, reportedly because the mine accident is still under investigation. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector.JPG" width="120" height="120"/>
What is known is that on 15 September 2010, the Los Reyes mine was ordered by the National Service of Geology and Mining (SERNAGEOMIN) inactive. But Bazán somehow managed to get local authorities to reverse the order. At the same time, Bazán was openly advertising in Copiapó and elsewhere, seeking people to work long shifts for high pay, no qualifications required. 
 
The deadly incident happened on the first day of work for three workers, ages 37, 26, and 21, were inside the mine. None had license to handle dynamite, they were without hard hats and mining lights, and the mine was without a fixed telephone line. El Mercurio reported that after the blast, Bazán drove the 21-year-old worker – who lost an eye from an exploding stone – to a hospital and then fled to the Copiapó airport. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Chile.png" width="200" height="92"/>
In new light of safety ills that beset Chile’s mine industry, the SERNAGEOMIN inspector charged with overseeing the mine’s official closure was sacked and the regional director then resigned. Sill in question is how Bazán managed to acquire a deal to sell copper and other metals to Empresa Nacional de Mineria (Enami), a state-owned firm that processes and sells metals. 
 
Separately from Los Reyes, SERNAGEOMIN has acknowledged that only 7%, or 27 of 394 small-scale mines in Region II are operating legally. Currently there is legislation drafted in Chile to reform SERNAGEOMIN. Part of the bill would institute a mining regulator that would be charged with overseeing exploration and mine development plans. The new regulator will have oversight on mine safety too. 
 
In January, the Chile Mining and Energy Ministry did approve a 62% increase in the agency’s funding, which is expected to raise the number of mine safety inspectors across the country from 18 to 45. But with over 4,000 mining operations, that number is far too low and it is still too early to judge the effect revisions in the proposed legislation will have.

2010 Chile Copper Mine Blast Reveals Regulation Gaps

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="100" height="49"/>
The ICEM Secretariat was stricken with grief on 4 April upon learning of the death of Liv Undheim, former Vice President of Norwegian trade union affiliate IndustriEnergi (IE). Liv Undheim died at 07h00 that morning in an Oslo hospital after a period of illness. She was 61. 
 
She was an ICEM Vice President, representing the Nordic region, and had served on ICEM statutory bodies for the past 20 years, dating to her tenure as an officer of Norsk Kjemisk Forbund, the Norwegian Chemical Workers’ Association. She was the driving force inside ICEM in the development of gender equality and women’s activities. 
 
In a letter to IE President Leif Sande, General Secretary Manfred Warda said her advocacy in this regard made the ICEM a leading Global Union Federation on gender issues. 
 
She began working in an industrial setting in the late 1960s at Figgjo AS, a ceramics and pottery manufacturer near Stavanger. She then became a federal secretary of the Chemical Workers’ Association and served in that capacity for nine years before being elected organisation secretary of the Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions (LO). In that capacity in 1997, she also became deputy minister with responsibility for energy issues. 
 
In 2001, she became Vice President of the Chemical Workers’ Association and in 2006, upon the merger of that union with the Norwegian Oil and Petrochemicals Workers’ Federation (NOPEF), she was elected Vice President of IE. She retired in October 2010 but retained the exemplary role she always performed as IE’s head of international affairs.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NorwayIE.jpg" width="112" height="150"/>
She also had served on a number of boards and public bodies, including the research institute FAFO, Norway’s Labour Directorate, the Labour Inspection Authority, and many others. 
 
She was diagnosed with cancer several months ago and in February 2011 was stricken and hospitalised with pneumonia, which prevented cancer treatment. The ICEM’s Warda said she always delivered a great deal of energy and passion to global trade union work, and “we held hope that this same energy and passion would allow her to overcome this illness.” 
 
He added: “Her passing at the age of 61 is a sad moment for us here. The extraordinary work she performed for the ICEM – and for all trade unions – will carry on in her honour. We pledge to re-dedicate the many workers’ issues that she championed in her memory.” 
 
In a statement this week from Oslo, IE President Sande said, “Following her long and devoted service to the labour union movement we all felt with all our hearts that Liv had deserved a long and pleasant retirement together with her dear Elisabeth. The holiday to Thailand was booked and she was looking forward to spending her time reading, travelling and generally enjoying life. Instead she was struck down with cancer, having to spend her last days in a hospital. It seems so unfair. She will be deeply missed.”
Liv Undheim's funeral will be 14 April in Oslo. Following, a memorial and commemoration of her life will be held at IE's offices there.

ICEM Mourns Death of Presidium Member Liv Undheim

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
In Namibia recently, a collective agreement signed between ICEM affiliate Mine Workers’ Union of Namibia (MUN) and Namdeb Diamond Corp., the DeBeers, Namibian state joint mining venture, had the rubber stamp of a High Court order. That unusual attribute came because a month-long strike/lockout of 1,600 miners developed into a highly charged and fractious split between labour and management that had Namibia’s top political leaders nervous. 
 
The agreement ending the strike, which began 16 August, and the lockout, beginning 20 August, came 11 days ago and was overseen by the country’s Minister of Presidential Affairs. The next day, High Court Judge Dave Smuts made the agreement a court order. 
 
The agreement calls for the two sides to “dedicate themselves in good faith to rebuild relationships.” It calls for empowering a tripartite commission to investigate and resolve the many issues that surfaced in the hostile dispute, and the accord signed at government house in Windhoek also positively resolves the central issue behind the dispute: housing pay when a mine’s resources are spent and workers are transferred. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NamibiaFlag.gif" width="160" height="106" alt=""/>
The dispute started when Namdeb mothballed the remote Bogenfels mine and denied workers their housing and utility allowances in transferring them to new sites. That occurred earlier this year for a small number of the 1,600 union miners, about 125, and the dispute festered with both sides hardening until industrial action started in August. 
 
When MUN decided to conduct a strike vote, Namdeb yelled foul, saying the vote should not be open to all 1,600. That angered MUN which saw it as an overt intervention into the union’s affairs. Then during talks to resolve the strike/lockout, the company angered miners with a counter-offer granting the housing and utility allowances, but then demanded that miners pay rent in their new locales 
 
The recent peace agreement restores to the 125 transferred workers their housing and utility entitlements, and they will not have to pay rent at their new worksites. The accord guarantees no regressions to a 2009 Work Conditions Agreement. The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, which worked staunchly over the past six weeks to resolve the dispute, will coordinate the reconciliation commission. 
 
MUN called attention during to the strike the inequity in opportunities between Namibian citizens and expatriates. The union also singled out a top boss for unfairly denying Namibians jobs because he insists on using polygraph tests on applicants. And MUN has accused this same boss of safety neglect in implementing cost curtailments. Namdeb’s largest operation at Oranjemund has seen two years this year. 
 
Diamond output by Namdeb fell off by 30,000 carats of gems during the dispute. Diamond production accounts for almost 10% of Namibia’s GDP and 40% of foreign exchange funds. 
 
Meanwhile, a MUN branch took strike action 23 September against Rössing Uranium Ltd., 69% owned by Rio Tinto. The 950 uranium miners of the Arandis branch passed a strike authorisation vote 19 September and this is the second strike in three months against Rössing over inequitable bonus pay-outs between managers and workers. With Rio Tinto the lead company, the remainder of Rössing is owned by the Namibian government and South Africa’s Development Corp.

Namibia’s Mineworkers’ Union, Namdeb Reach for Olive Branch

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
International pressure – both inside and out of Georgia – caused a change of course last week by police and political authorities in the aftermath of the belligerent 15 September strike-breaking at Euroasian Steels in Kutaisi. Not only were over 30 sacked workers offered their jobs back, but police questioned the Indian managing director and two aides at Euroasian, also known as Hercules Steel, on 29 September. 
 
The next day the top boss was sacked. An ongoing police investigation is underway over his conduct inside the steel mill. 
 
In the midst of this positive reversal, the ICEM, however, took deep exception to remarks made last week by the Georgian business ombudsman, George Pertaia. On 6 October, Pertaia said the September strike by workers was manipulated and instigated by ICEM affiliate Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers’ Trade Union “to justify its existence.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1110.georgia.jpg" width="125" height="166"/>
Polish Solidarnoşç Union Members and ICEM Meet with Hercules Steel Workers, 28 September
Pertaia said that workers at Hercules have individual contracts and had no right to strike. “If the contract is signed, and you have already agreed with certain conditions, then you have no right to refuse those conditions,” he said. 
 
The ICEM reminds Pertaia that global labour standards do exist, including the right to join a union and to bargain collectively. Considering that Euroasian Steels, or Hercules, has no wage schedule in place, no health and safety plan, it pays no overtime, and workers are forced to work mandatory and long work days, industrial action was justified. 
 
The ICEM also invites Mr. Pertaia to examine the working conditions of 130 Indian workers employed at Hercules. They live eight to a room in a dormitory adjacent to the mill, their passports were being head by the managing director, Raji Kumar Sureika, their salaries are sent back to India, and they are given a miniscule stipend to support themselves off the job. 
 
In fact, it is believed that the managing director was sacked and is under police investigation because of treatment of the Indian workers. 
 
On 18 September, three strike leaders – Emilo Gumberidze, Irakli Iobidze, and Malkhaz Gogiava – were rounded up and jailed by police on bogus charges. They were given ten day jail sentences. (A <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4673-Georgian-Trade-Union-Leaders-Jailed-for-Passing-Drug-Test" type="internal">prior ICEM article</a> is here.)  
 
Upon release from the Kutaisi jail on 28 September, the three immediately called Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers’ Union President Tamazi Dolaberidze and pledged their continued support to the union. On 30 September, the new acting managing director of Hercules personally called each of the three to offer them their jobs back. The reversal gave Hercules metalworkers renewed momentum following the strike’s crushing and that registered both with Georgian workers and with Indian workers. 
 
Several points of global and internal civil pressure caused deep embarrassment to the Georgian government. There was high-level diplomatic pressure involved, especially after an international delegation that included the ICEM and top leaders from Poland’s Solidarnoşç union exposed the fact that the Indian workers at Hercules might just be treated worse than Georgian workers. 
 
The strike last month by 200 Hercules metalworkers was sparked after the Metallurgical, Mining, Chemical Union gained written support from a majority of the Georgian workers and then requested labour-management dialogue. After several weeks, the request was ignored and the strike started, including hunger strikes by four workers in front of the mill.

ICEM Rebuts Georgian Business Ombudsman for Remarks over Steel Mill Dispute

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Former ICEM Sub-Sahara Africa Regional Organisation (SSARO) Chairman Rayford Mbulu was named on 1 October to be Deputy Minister for Labour, Sport, Youth and Gender in Zambia. He enters the new government of Michael Sata and the Patriotic Front Party (PF), which won Zambian elections on 23 September. 
 
Mbulu takes the government posting along with the head of the reconstituted Labour Ministry, Fackson Shamenda, former President of the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and once the African Regional Secretary of Global Union Federation Uni. 
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Rayford Mbulu
Mbulu is past President of the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia (MUZ), a position he was elected to in 2005 after serving as MUZ Deputy General Secretary in 2004. He left the MUZ late last year after challenging for the presidency of ZCTU. On the day of the election, he was disqualified by the Labour Minister under the previous Movement for Multiparty Democracy Party after his mining employer, state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM), terminated his employment. 
 
Mbulu worked for many years at ZCCM’s Nkana Division. He served as ICEM’s SSARO Chairman from 2007 until his resignation in March 2011. Mbulu also becomes a Member of Zambia’s Parliament from the Kalululushi constituency in the Copperbelt. 
 
On his swearing-in, Labour, Sports, Culture and Gender Minister Shamenda said the PF leadership would work to raise the minimum wage, reduce casualisation of employment, and strive to get better working conditions for all Zambians. President Sata reduced the number of government ministries from 23 to 19, combining some ministries including Sports, Culture and Gender with Labour.

Rayford Mbulu Named Deputy Labour Minister in Zambia

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