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US paperworkers employed at International Paper Co., members of ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers (USW), voted to accept a precedent-setting master labour agreement with the firm on 23 August. 
 
The four-year accord covering workers at 14 pulp and paper mills in the US contains wage increases on top of negotiated local (or mill-by-mill) agreements, improvements in health insurance benefits, and lays the groundwork for improved health and safety standards, as well as labour-management cooperation on public policy issues. 
 
But perhaps most importantly, the framework pact contains a &quot;successorship clause,&quot; meaning if the company sells any of its unionised mills, the new owner must, as part of the sale agreement, retain all workers, recognise the USW as bargaining representative, and honour the collective bargaining agreement. 
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&quot;The overwhelming support for this agreement shows how united our members are in pursuing master agreements in the paper industry,&quot; said USW President Leo Gerard. 
 
&quot;Successorship clauses protect workers from the unconscionable behaviour of corporations that sell a mill, then disregard the union and the collective bargaining agreement and summarily fire hundreds of people who have dedicated their lives to work there,&quot; added Gerard. 
 
The wage portion of the agreement amounts to a 2% increase upon expiration of local agreements, and another 2% on the second anniversary of the contracts. In addition, workers will receive a US$1,000 lump sum payment on the first and third anniversaries of the contracts. The USW represents 8,200 International Paper employees at mills, paper converters, and packaging plants in the US.

US Steelworkers Ratify Master Framework Agreement with International Paper

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN 25

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The Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada has appealed to Canada&rsquo;s Federal Cabinet the recommendations made by the National Energy Board (NEB) that would allow construction of the 2,970-kilometre Keystone Pipeline from the province of Alberta to the US. 
 
The proposed pipeline would increase Canadian exports of crude oil from the rich Alberta tar sands three-fold, the CEP said. The pipeline&rsquo;s builder, energy company TransCanada Corp., recently applied to the NEB for further pumping capacity to increase export volume from the planed 435,000 barrels-per-day to 590,000 bpd.
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The Ottawa-based ICEM affiliate has strongly asserted throughout the Keystone approval process, as well as with other crude oil pipelines destined to the US, that allowing such exports is directly contrary to the creation of good, sustainable refinery jobs in Canada. 
 
In a study issued earlier this year, the CEP said 18,000 jobs would be lost if Keystone were allowed to export raw crude oil across Canadian borders. Keystone is a US$5.2 billion pipeline project intended to bring unprocessed bitumen from Alberta&rsquo;s tar sands to US refining points in Wood River and Patoka, the US state of Illinois, and to Cushing, Oklahoma. 
 
The CEP is demanding that Canada&rsquo;s Federal Parliament set aside the NEB&rsquo;s recommendations, and refer the issue to the Standing Committee on Natural Resources. 
 
&ldquo;We think parliamentarians and the public need to have the chance to examine this pipeline proposal in the overall good of the country and of Canadians,&rdquo; said CEP President Dave Coles. The CEP is insisting that the Natural Resources Committee conduct full hearings on the pipeline deal, and take up transparency issues regarding the NEB as well.
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CEP President Dave&nbsp;Coles&nbsp;
TransCanada is just now finalising ownership of the pipeline, which has already seen high cost overruns. ConocoPhillips has an option coming soon to purchase a 50% equity stake in the pipeline. In the US, the project also includes conversion of an existing 864-kilometre pipeline from natural gas to crude oil service. 
 
CEP represents 35,000 workers in Canada&rsquo;s oil, gas, and chemicals sectors. Overall, the union numbers 150,000 members.

CEP Calls on Canadians to Reject Keystone Oil Pipeline into the US

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A key precedent was set in the UK in late October 2007 when an Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that UK Coal must pay 330 miners back-wages for a sudden pit closure in 2005. The paltry &pound;2 million pay-out, however, pales next to the precedent now set; that UK workers made redundant are entitled to the same benefits as EU workers. This especially includes mandatory consulting with trade unions on redundancy matters. 
 
The National Union of Mineworkers&rsquo; of the UK filed the case on safety issues when bosses suddenly closed UK Coal&rsquo;s Ellington Colliery in northeast England in January 2005. The mine was flooded by higher waters from the North Sea.
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UK Coal averted dialogue with the union, citing external forces as the cause of the flooding, thus claiming to be exempt from a mandatory 90-day consultation period with the union over safety issues. The Employment Appeal Tribunal, however, disagreed and upheld a May ruling by a lower jobs court that UK Coal has to pay the miners&rsquo; the 90-day pay, or between &pound;4,000-7,000 per worker. 
 
UK Coal is an enterprise created from the privatisation of British Coal in 1993. 
 
The ruling in Great Britain made the business elite jittery. Associations quickly called meetings of HR staff and others to dissect the ruling and its effect on other EU-UK comparisons regarding work standards. UK Coal responded by deflecting the union&rsquo;s call for a quick pay-out so that money owed will help working families this Christmas. The company said it needed time to study the court ruling before deciding whether or not to appeal the case further.

UK Coal Ruling Lifts British Standards Regarding Redundancies

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Some ten coal mine disasters in China were recorded over the past month, leaving 100 dead. And last week, the China State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) issued an alert stating that the number of coal mine accidents might increase in the coming months, as production accelerates to meet winter demand. 
 
October was another deadly month in China&rsquo;s coal mines, where an estimated 20,000 workers die each year from industrial accidents, methane explosions, floods, and illegal mining. 
The latest reported tragedy occurred on Friday, 2 November, when a shaft tunnel collapsed, killing nine miners. This occurred at the licensed Shanxi Jinle Coal Mine in Xinzhou city, in China&rsquo;s northern Shanxi province. A few days earlier, on 28 October, in Jiangxi provice at the Lingzian colliery, at a township-owned mine, floods poured into mine shafts, taking the lives of nine miners. One worker was rescued, but only after three days. 
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On 26 October, nine perished in northwest Shanxi province, also because of flooding. This occurred at the Yaotou coal mine near Weinan City. The mine is a registered private mine, with annual output of 60,000 tonnes. 
 
A day earlier, on 25 October, a small, illegal mine was rocked by an underground explosion, killing 11. That happened at the Yuejin coal mine, Chongqing, southwest China. The board chairman, local manager, and two other senior managers were arrested a few days after the explosion. 
On 22 October, a newly dug transport tunnel at the Yinying coal mine in Taiyuan, northern China, collapsed, killing 13 people living in row houses above the mine. Some of the dead were miners and family members. The incident occurred in the middle of the night and no one was working the mine at the time. 
Also on 22 October, three Chinese miners died and seven were injured following an explosion inside a township-run mine at Puqian in Hengfeng county, northeastern Jiangxi province. The miners were 285 metres underground performing maintenance work. On 13 October, 19 miners were buried alive after a gas explosion caused a massive coal slide that came rumbling down a 30-metre-wide tunnel. This also occurred in Jiangxi province. Some 261 miners managed to escape the deadly accident at the Jianxin colliery. 
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Jianzin also was the mine that claimed the lives of 49 miners in 2003 from a gas explosion, and in August 2006, five were killed from a blast. 
 
On 7 October, eight died, including three rescue workers, following flooding of the Chankeng mine in Fujian province. And a day earlier, on 6 October, ten miners died from a methane explosion at the Shunxing mine in eastern Yunnan province. The mine was legal but a week prior to the blast, a county mine safety inspector had ordered Shunzing to suspend production in order that the mine&rsquo;s shafts undergo repairs. 
 
Last year, China saw a 2.04 death rate for every one million tonnes of coal mined. Total Chinese coal production is expected to top 2.5 billion tonnes this year, with annual production growth this year over last year expected to be 11.5%. SAWS, on 1 November, announced it was soliciting public submissions on a draft plan regarding 604 safety production standards to go into effect between 2007 and 2010. The proposed standards are in 10 work sectors, including coal mines, non-coal mining, and chemicals and fireworks production.

Mine Deaths Continue to Plague China, State Work Safety Administration

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With the ICEM&rsquo;s Bangkok Congress just two weeks away, the familiar privatisation saga of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) is again back in the news. The ICEM has given a vibrant global voice to this struggle for four years, and we&rsquo;re proud now to bring trade unionists of the world an update. 
 
In March 2006, the Supreme Administrative Court ordered Thaksin&rsquo;s EGAT privatisation plan cancelled, and in September 2006, Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra himself was cancelled. EGAT-LU, the 18,000-member ICEM affiliate at the national utility, helped make that happen through relentless four years of strikes and marches to stop Thaksin&rsquo;s 25% stock float of their power company. 
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EGAT-LU demonstration in 2006
This year, Thailand&rsquo;s interim government resurrected parts of the failed EGAT privatisation plan, revising portions into something called the Energy Operation Bill. EGAT-LU has called for mobilisation against this draft measure; it has quickly brought consumer groups back in opposition; and demonstrations are sure to intensify this week when the bill is scheduled to be heard in the National Legislative Assembly. 
 
Part of the opaque leftovers from Thaksin&rsquo;s plan are included in the interim government&rsquo;s bill. Specifically, the draft bills calls for creation of a privatisation policy committee having too few members, but having wide latitudes to determine all privatisation matters. 
 
On 26 October, EGAT-LU called for mobilisations at EGAT worksites across Thailand. Small rallies have already begun against the Energy Operation Bill, and the union conducted bigger ones last week at EGAT&rsquo;s headquarters in Nonthaburi. After experiencing difficult and prolonged negotiations with the government over privatisation, EGAT-LU has called for the bill to be scrapped, particularly with the military&rsquo;s interim government coming to an end. Democratic elections are scheduled to take place on 23 December 2007 in Thailand.
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&nbsp;&ldquo;Privatisation affects all people in this country and such an important matter cannot be left to just a handful of authorities that have not been elected by the people,&rdquo; said EGAT-LU Chairman Sirichai Main-gam. &ldquo;The bill gives sweeping power to one committee to supervise privatisation schemes,&rdquo; he said, adding that the committee is vacant of any &ldquo;people&rsquo;s participation.&rdquo; 
 
EGAT-LU and its allied consumer and human rights groups know something about civilian participation in the affairs of state. They did it between 2002 and 2006. It is part of the fallen Thaksin legacy. They now insist that a critical issue such as privatising EGAT cannot occur before the democratic voice of the country is heard.

EGAT-LU Fights to Stop Thai Interim Government’s ‘Energy Operation Bill’

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Contract workers represented by ICEM UK affiliate Unite began the first of industrial actions at a Kimberly-Clark paper mill in Northfleet, Kent, on 12 October. The 38 workers of TDG, formerly called Transport Development Group, staged a 12-hour strike on that day, and they plan a further 24-hour strike over tomorrow and Wednesday, 23-24 October. 
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The London-based employer responded by replacing the members of the Amicus section of Unite on 12 October. The dispute is over lack of parity in 2007 pay raises between Kimberly-Clark workers at Northfleet, also members of Unite, and the TDG workers. In previous years, the company had matched raises that Kimberly-Clark workers received. 
 
At another UK tissue mill of Kimberly-Clark near Barrow-in-Furness, in Cumbria in northwest England, TDG did just that this year, granting a 4.5% pay increase. The TDG workers at both sites work in the warehouses of the American-based company. TDG has provided contract services for the paper-maker since 2002, and is a major European logistical and supply-chain distributor of chemicals and consumer goods. 
 
Trade unionists are encouraged to send letters of support to Unite&rsquo;s representative, Paul Baker, at <a href="mailto:paul.baker@unitetheunion.org">paul.baker@unitetheunion.org</a>.

Paper Mill Logistic Workers Take Industrial Action in UK

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Despite increased labour and human rights pressure on the Islamic regime, Iran&rsquo;s government is still refusing access and giving misleading reports on the condition of imprisoned transport union leader Mansour Osanloo. The International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) is calling recent efforts to reach Osanloo by Indonesian activists a &ldquo;cynical catalogue of dirty tricks&rdquo; by Iran. 
 
The government assured Indonesian trade unionists seeking to visit Osanloo in Tehran&rsquo;s Evin prison the week of 8 October that the he was receiving treatment for a two-year-old eye injury. The Indonesian activists, as well as Osanloo&rsquo;s wife, Parvenah, were told by authorities that they could not visit the 47-year-old trade unionist because he was receiving treatment.
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But a prison doctor admitted to the Indonesians later that, if he is not treated within the next two weeks, he could go blind. The Indonesians that visited Iran were Hanafi Rusrandi, Seafarers' Union president and ITF's national coordinating committee chairman, and Syukur Sarto, the general secretary of national centre FSPSI.
&ldquo;The Iranian government is piling outrage on outrage, digging deeper and deeper into a barrel of dirty tricks,&rdquo; said ITF general David Cockroft. &ldquo;All the evidence we have is that this is a cold blooded and deliberate attempt to weaken and undermine the most significant union leader in Iran today.&rdquo; 
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Osanloo was arrested for the third time on 10 July 2007, following a tour of European labour institutions and labour unions, in which he spoke openly of labour abuses and restrictions on freedom of association in Iran. He has been in prison since. In May 2005, he sustained eye injuries when beaten by Iranian security forces. Osanloo is the leader of Sherkat-e Vahed, the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Workers&rsquo; Union. 
 
The ITF, last week, released a video entitled &ldquo;Freedom Will Come&rdquo; on his story and the story of bus workers&rsquo; efforts to organise in Tehran. It was posted late last week on YouTube and will shortly be available on DVD. The London-based Global Union Federation has also launched a petition campaign in support of Osanloo. It can be found <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/freeosanloo.cfm">here</a>.&nbsp;

‘Dirty Tricks’ Imposed by Iranian Government over Imprisonment of Mansour Osanloo

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A series of rolling strikes will occur at Unilever plants in The Netherlands until the Dutch foods and chemicals company backs away from a restructuring plan that targets as many as 12,000 European workers for the unemployment queue.
Late on the evening of 9 October, Dutch workers &ndash; led by FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Voeding &ndash; struck six plants for 40 hours. The strikes followed a failure of negotiations toward a new contract and Unilever&rsquo;s unilateral decision to initially close three Dutch plants, costing almost 500 jobs.
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ICEM at a Unilever Protest in July 2007

Last week, on 16 October, workers again mounted strikes in the company&rsquo;s home country, the first coming at the Loosdrecht plant, a maker of Knorr food products. The next day, workers at Vlaardingen, where consumer products Lever and Cif products are made, struck. Unilever announced plant closings for those two plants, as well as at its Delft plant, where Calv&eacute; food products are made. 
 
&ldquo;We see no need for this,&rdquo; stated FNV Bondgenoten&rsquo;s Lucas Vermaat, FNV Bondgenoten&rsquo;s chief negotiator with the company. &ldquo;For Unilever, this is solely about cutting costs in our country. Beyond that, the directors have no strategy to increase revenue. There is no reason to close factories and not to guarantee jobs.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM and the Dutch unions call on European unions to monitor the transfer of production to other plants during the rolling strikes. The ICEM also is calling on all global affiliates to write messages of support to Dutch Unilever workers through Vermaat at <a href="mailto:l.vermaat@bg.fnv.nl">l.vermaat@bg.fnv.nl</a>. 
 
In early August, the company announced that is was embarking on a four-year reorganisation that would cut 20,000 jobs worldwide, the majority of which would come in Europe. It would close or dramatically reduce production at some 50 of its 300 global operations. Regarding the European closures, Unilever did this without consulting with the European Works Council of the company. 
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European unions are gearing up for a week of actions against the Anglo-Dutch firm in the first week of December, which will include a mass march and rally on 4 December in Rotterdam.
Meanwhile, the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF) has asked for protest letters over the company&rsquo;s conduct at a foods and tea factory in Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan. Management has called in armed militia and elite police troops to quell workers&rsquo; protests over a plan to replace 950 permanent jobs, out of 1,200, with casual and contract workers. Unions are invited to lodge protests with Unilever Pakistan Ltd.&rsquo;s External Communications manager, Fareshteh Aslan, at <a href="mailto:fareshteh.aslam@unilever.com">fareshteh.aslam@unilever.com</a>.

Strikes Begin as Unilever Takes Wrecking Ball to Workers’ Jobs

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Today, in S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil, a country-wide network of Freudenberg workers is being launched in the rubber, chemicals, metals, and textile sectors. The meetings today and tomorrow, 23 October, will be attended by six unions and is organised by ICEM affiliate Rubber Workers Union of Brazil (FUB) and ICEM Vice President Sergio Novais. 
 
The conference will include representatives from all six Freudenberg plants in S&atilde;o Paulo state, the Latin American Rubber and Tyre Workers' Federation (FUTINAL), and ICEM affiliate IGBCE from Germany. Also due to play a key role in the formation is Bernd Schneider, the secretary and chief workers&rsquo; representative from the Freudenberg European Works Council. Schneider is an IGBCE member.
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Brazil is the major manufacturing country of Freudenberg in Latin America, where 1,400 company workers are employed. The German company also has manufacturing operations in Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela. The aim of the 22-23 October conference is to establish a workers&rsquo; network in Brazil, and then to expand network activities to the other Latin American countries next year. 
 
Discussion will occur on the ICEM&rsquo;s Global Framework Agreement with Freudenberg, as well as on common work aspects and problems inside the six plants. Delegates attending will also visit Freudenberg-NOK&rsquo;s rubber and metals suspension plant in Diadema.
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Worker representatives from that plant, as well as the company&rsquo;s Kl&uuml;bler Lubrificantes plant in Baurueri, its Vibracoustic business in Taubat&eacute;, Brugmann business in Campinas, and textile operations in Jacare&iacute; and Novo Hamburgo will attend. Two other operations in Diadema &ndash; Freudenberg&rsquo;s after-market Corteco production of rubber gaskets and seals and its Simrit auto components business, both also shared partly by Japanese-based NOK &ndash; will have worker representatives attending.
The formation of the workers&rsquo; network is getting major support and participation from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) of Germany.

Network of Freudenberg Brazilian Workers Begins Today

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