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Calling South Africa&rsquo;s mining industry &ldquo;the killing fields within our economy,&rdquo; the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) submitted a report on mine safety 14 November to the National Parliament&rsquo;s Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Energy. 
 
The NUM listed eight recommendations needed to reduce the number of accidents and deaths occurring in South African mines. They include obtaining better detection technology on seismic geological events; legislation that will provide steeper fines on mining houses, up to imprisonment for executives when tragedies do occur; enabling legislation to nationalise mines when mining companies are found negligent in death-related accidents; and a mandatory review and heightened training of safety representatives by companies and the government, which must include risk assessment criteria enabling miners to detect and report hazardous conditions. 
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The report cited the number of deaths and injuries per million hours worked in South Africa&rsquo;s mines since the year 2000. And it specifically highlighted the fact that, even though the Mine Health and Safety Act of 1996 sets forth a procedure for legal prosecution in mine safety negligence, no such prosecution has occurred dating back to the year 2000. 
 
&ldquo;Given the gravity of this situation and the need to send a clear message to employers that profit maximisation must not be pursued at the cost of our members&rsquo; lives,&rdquo; the NUM report concludes, we have no alternative but &ldquo;to embark on a National Strike.&rdquo; 
 
In mid-October, the NUM filed for certification for such a strike with the Commission on Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA). That governmental agency, along with the NUM and the Chamber of Mines, is currently in the consultation process that is mandatory before any legal strike can occur.

NUM Recommends Broad Mine Safety Changes to South Africa’s Parliament

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New Zealand&rsquo;s Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) is giving support to a Private Member&rsquo;s Bill put forward by an MP that would give labour agency workers the right to be covered by a collective agreement. 
 
Labour MP Darien Fenton has submitted the legislation to New Zealand&rsquo;s Parliament, saying contract labourers and agency workers are often placed in a workplace to do the same job that full-time workers perform. But, he added, they are paid less and have fewer rights. 
 
The proposed legislative change is called the Employment Relations (Triangular Employment) Amendment Bill. 
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Fenton saw first-hand the unfairness faced by temporary workers. He recently visited a worksite where temporary workers from an agency are employed. &ldquo;Entitlements are few and far between,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There are no entitlements to breaks apart from lunch. There are no shift payments, no overtime rates, no weekend rates or other allowances, even though directly-employed workers receive these things. 
 
&ldquo;Under my bill, workers like these will be able to join the collective agreement in force at the workplace, thus ensuring they have the same pay and rights as directly-employed workers.&rdquo; 
 
Since Fenton&rsquo;s bill is a Private Member&rsquo;s Bill, in New Zealand it means that it will have to wait to be drawn from the ballot before it is brought before Parliament.

Private Member’s Bill Surfaces in New Zealand on Agency Labour

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French rubber workers at the Goodyear-Dunlop twin plants in Amiens rejected a company restructuring plan that would increase work hours. With a 65% vote, the two factories, totalling 2,700 workers, said &lsquo;no&rsquo; to the American company&rsquo;s plan to reduce weekly rotation teams from five to four, and cut weekend pay for each worker by 10%. 
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All the primary French unions at the plants, including ICEM affiliate CFDT, recommended that workers reject the plan, and following the vote, they urged a quick return to dialogue to re-shape the restructuring plan. 
 
Goodyear&rsquo;s plan would also eliminate 450 jobs over three years through attrition. The company is seeking reorganisation of the plants in northern France in order to implement a &euro;52 million modernisation plan to produce high-performance tyres. But the reorganisation would increase work time by rotation of shifts every eight days. Weekend work would also have increased from 28 to 35 hours, had workers accepted the plan.

French Goodyear Workers Reject Reorganisation that would Increase Work Hours

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Trade unions in the UK are campaigning behind a Private Member's Bill that would give equal treatment to the more than one million contract and agency workers employed in the UK. 
Both the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and UK&rsquo;s largest union, Unite, are campaigning for legislation that will give agency workers the same rights as full-time, permanent staff. Also on board are the unions GMB, Unison, Communication Workers Union, and the Union of Construction, Allied Trades, and Technicians (UCATT). 
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The campaign begins after draft legislation, called the Temporary Agency Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Bill, was brought by Labour MP Paul Farrelly. The unions are also pressing that a European Directive on full rights for contract and agency workers be adopted before the end of the Portuguese Presidency, which ends at year&rsquo;s end.
The TUC said if negotiations on an EU Directive fail to make progress, the British government must pass domestic legislation. The Blair government broke a pledge to support a 2006 Private Member&rsquo;s Bill by Farrelly, a promise that was made in the 2004 Warwick Agreement. Farrelly's bill did get the support of more than 100 Labour MPs. 
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&quot;Too many employers are replacing permanent staff with badly paid, insecure agency staff,&rdquo; said TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber. &ldquo;Far from providing a bridge to permanent work, this runs the risk of creating a whole underclass of temporary workers.&rdquo; 
Barber said the simple solution is an EU Directive that would give UK agency workers new rights to equal treatment from the first day on the job. But UK&rsquo;s government has led a blocking minority at the EU, which has prevented progress on a Directive that would provide equal treatment for contract and agency workers.

UK Unions Campaign for Legislation Granting Agency Workers Full Rights

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The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) are calling for another &ldquo;Day of Action&rdquo; on 6 March 2008, demanding the release of two trade unionists locked inside Iran&rsquo;s prisons. The two global federations are calling on trade unions worldwide to lobby their relevant governments, as well as public officials, regarding visits to Iran in order to win the release of the two trade unionists. 
 
The ICEM joins the ITUC and ITF in demanding the release of Mansour Osanloo, the leader of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Workers&rsquo; Union, and the release of Mahmoud Salehi, the founding member of the Saqez Bakery Workers&rsquo; Association. 
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ITUC and ITF chose the date of 6 March because it is just prior to Iran parliamentary elections, as well as the Iranian New Year. 
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 of the labour abuses and restrictions on freedom of association by Iran&rsquo;s Islamic regime. He was taken from Evin Prison on 24 January to a hospital where he underwent a second surgery for an eye disorder, an injury caused by beatings from government agents. 
Despite doctors recommending that he remain in the hospital for a month, he was returned to the harsh conditions of Evin Prison on 2 February. The ITF&rsquo;s website page on Osanloo can be found here <a href="http://www.freeosanloo.org">www.freeosanloo.org</a>. 
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Mahmoud Salehi, an Iranian Kurd, is also in ill-health, suffering from kidney disease. He also had to be hospitalized in December 2007. He was arrested for union activities in April 2007. 
 
Already last week, the Indonesian Seafarers Union, an ITF affiliate, has written to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, urging him to cancel a planned trip to Iran in protest to the incarcerations, or face harsh political reprisals both at home and abroad. 
 
The ICEM strongly encourages affiliated trade unions to take meaningful action on 6 March.

Action Day in Support of Iranian Trade Unionists Set for 6 March

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Turkish has been added as the eighth language on the ICEM website. By clicking <a href="/tr">/tr</a>, Turkish-speaking and Turkish-reading trade unionists around the world can now follow the topical developments from the world of work, as reported on the ICEM site. 
 
This came about because of the work and assistance of ICEM&rsquo;s Turkish affiliates, particularly Petrol-İş. Many existing web-pages were translated into Turkish over the past several months, as well as the interface, including basic information on the ICEM, pages with information on ICEM activities, such as Contract and Agency Labour, Global Framework Agreements, HIV/AIDS, as well as many recent ICEM industry reports. 
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Through its Turkish homepage, the ICEM aims to continue updating the world&rsquo;s Turkish-speaking audience &ndash; in Turkey and beyond &ndash; on ICEM developments, as well as on relevant and useful news from ICEM&rsquo;s sectors. This new communication channel will also be used for updates on specific issues that are important to ICEM Turkish affiliates. Welcome, Turkish brothers and sisters!

ICEM Introduces Turkish Language News, Content to Its Website

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The ICEM is asking trade unionists to write protest letters to Unilever&rsquo;s vice president for Global External Affairs, drawing attention to trade union rights violations in Pakistan and India. The ICEM is assisting its sister Global Union Federation, the International Union of Food Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF), in protests to the company over its conduct at food and beverage plants. 
 
In November 2007, Unilever management at a factory in Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan, fired all but five of the plant&rsquo;s temporary workers, following a Pakistani union&rsquo;s announcement that it would allow membership to the workers and fight to secure permanent status for them. 
 
The fired workers were replaced by staff from a labour agency. The sacked workers were forced to sign termination letters in front of armed police and Elite Troops forces, who were called into the plant by local management.
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This latest incident coincides with an IUF complaint to the UK contact point over violations of the OECD&rsquo;s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. 
 
Additionally, Unilever managers at a plant in Assam, India, have actively undermined trade union leaders in that factory. Management has sponsored creation of a yellow union there in the course of a long lockout aimed at supplanting the legitimate trade union. 
 
A model letter can be found <a href="/index.php?id=7&amp;doc=2576&amp;la=EN">here</a>, that includes the name, address, and fax number of Unilever&rsquo;s Global External Affairs vice president. Please send a copy of your letter to ICEM&rsquo;s Chemicals Officer, Kemal &Ouml;zkan, at <a href="mailto:kemal.ozkan@icem.org">kemal.ozkan@icem.org</a>.

ICEM Encourages Unilever Protest Letters on Company’s Pakistan, India Conduct

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BHP Billiton&rsquo;s hostile bid for mining rival Rio Tinto escalated last week, just prior to a 6 February deadline by the UK Takeover Panel to either increase a November 2007 bid or walk away from the takeover for a period of six months. BHP Billiton increased its share-swap offer by 13%, offering 3.4 shares of BHP stock for one Rio Tinto share. 
 
In November, BHP offered a three-to-one share swap, meaning the price of the takeover would be US$120 billion. This latest unsolicited bid raised that price to US$147 billion. If successful, the combined company would dominate world production and sales of bauxite, coal, copper, diamonds, lead, silver, titanium, and uranium. It would also rank a high second, behind Brazilian Vale, in iron ore output, but would control vital markets of Australian ore destined for China. 
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The proposed takeover would represent the world&rsquo;s second biggest corporate takeover. Only Vodafones&rsquo;s US$172 billion buy-up of Mannesmann in the year 2000 surpasses BHP&rsquo;s current bid to Rio Tinto shareholders. Rio Tinto executives said the latest offer still undervalues the assets of the Australian- and UK-based company. 
BHP was pressed to increase its offer following a 1 February purchase of some US$14 billion of Rio&rsquo;s London-traded shares by Aluminium Corp. of China (Chinalco), a state-run mining company. Chinalco put up US$12.8 billion, while US-based Alcoa put in US$1.2 billion. Together, they now own 9% of Rio Tinto, and the share price paid increased the valuation of Rio Tinto by 23%. The premium share purchase was seen as a blocking move by Chinalco that is sure to complicate a further, enhanced bid by BHP Billiton. 
 
According to Sweden&rsquo;s Raw Materials Group, a combined BHP Billiton/Rio Tinto would control a full 17% of world production of mined resources. If constituted under the latest bid, Rio Tinto shareholders would hold 44% of the combined company, an increase from the 36% under terms of the offer posed in early November.

BHP Billiton Raises Stakes in Pursuit of Rio Tinto

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The British labour movement came together last week to push a Private Member&rsquo;s Bill into committee stage of the House of Commons. That bill, authored by Labour MP Andrew Miller, would give labour agency workers the same rights and benefits as full-time, permanent workers. 
 
On 6 February, labour unions, led by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), held a mass day of lobby at Westminster, spotlighting a second hearing of Miller&rsquo;s bill that saw trade unions produce gruesome testimonies of abuse by agency workers themselves. British work sectors &ndash; from service to foods to industrial &ndash; have been flooded by labour agency firms offering low-wage, no-strings-attached workers to employers.
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&nbsp;Last week&rsquo;s turnout moved the Private Member&rsquo;s Bill to a House hearing, which will occur on 22 February. The day of lobby also came six days after the Labour Party&rsquo;s Executive Committee voted to endorse it, an action that Labour Party Prime Minister Gordon Brown cannot ignore without serious fall-out from trade unions. 
 
&ldquo;The Labour Party committed to introduce UK legislation to protect agency workers before the last election,&rdquo; said Chairman Tony Dubbins of the Trade Unions for Labour Organisation, &ldquo;and now we and 1.4 million agency workers in the UK&rdquo; have been promised it again. &ldquo;Now we need the government to act on that promise by backing Andrew Miller&rsquo;s bill.&rdquo; 
 
But that may not come easy, just like it didn&rsquo;t during the Blair government, despite a Labour Party commitment for equal rights to all workers contained in the 2004 Warwick Agreement. British business groups are opposing the measure, claiming it would hold back achieving flexible labour markets, and often, serve as a means for gaining a full-time job. 

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said, &ldquo;Far from providing a bridge to permanent work, this runs the risk of creating a whole underclass of temporary workers who cannot get permanent work. Many employers are using agencies to replace secure jobs with reasonable terms and conditions with insecure, badly paid agency staff.&rdquo; 
The TUC points out that employer&rsquo; interests will advance when temporary workers gain equal workplace rights, at the same time as receiving fair pay and social benefits. The union federation said there is a disturbing lack of awareness among employers on how maximizing experience and skills of workers out of labour agencies can benefit their enterprises. 
Besides Barber, the day of lobby also featured Tony Woodley, Joint General Secretary of Unite, and Bill Hayes, General Secretary of the Communications Workers&rsquo; Union. Woodley called passage of the agency worker bill a &ldquo;defining moment&rdquo; for the British government &ldquo;because people are looking for equal treatment.&rdquo;
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In Ireland, trade unions are pressuring their government to stop acting as a barrier to a European Directive for equal treatment for contract and agency workers. Blair Horan, representing the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said trade unions will withhold affirmative support to the Irish government for passage of the Lisbon Treaty referendum until the government reverses its agency-worker stand in Brussels. Ireland, Germany, Poland, and the UK have blocked a European Directive on Agency Workers.

UK Push for Law Granting Equal Rights to Temp Workers

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In August 2007, 13 ICEM affiliates created an ICEM Turkish Coordination Committee. At that time, Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) was defined as one of the priorities on which joint activities would occur. 
 
In cooperation with Germany&rsquo;s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), a Turkish national conference of those affiliates was held on 31 January &ndash; 1 February, 2008, in İstanbul on CAL. Some 80 trade unionists, journalists, and university professors attended. 
The conference opened with a speech by Mustafa Kumlu, an ICEM Executive Committee member and President of the Turkish Electricity, Water, and Gas Workers&rsquo; Union, Tes-Iş. He is also the current president of the country&rsquo;s biggest national labour centre, T&uuml;rk-Iş. The meeting also saw the active participation of ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, and FES&rsquo;s İstanbul representative, Bettina Luise R&uuml;rup. 
<img height="212" alt="" src="" width="350" />
ICEM's Kemal &Ouml;zkan and Manfred Warda, EMCEF's Reinhard Reibsch
After presentations by ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan on the the Global Union Federation&rsquo;s CAL Project, by the ILO&rsquo;s Slava Egorov on ILO actions on contract labour, the employment relationship, and agency work, and by EMCEF General Secretary Reinhard Reibsch on the European situation, the conference heard national experiences from Germany, Sweden, and The Netherlands. 
 
In Germany, IGBCE&rsquo;s Michael Wolters reported there are now 630,000 agency workers employed by 19,000 labour agencies in the country. This constitutes 10-15 % of the total workers in industries in which the German union operates. Agency workers earn 30 % less than permanent workers. 
 
According to Hans Palmqvist of Swedish IF Metall, there is an Authorisation Board in Sweden that controls 450 private agencies, employing 43,000 workers. A Swedish trade union has managed to reach a collective agreement with one such agency, C&amp;L. 
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The agency labour issue is also a burning issue inside The Netherlands. Celil Coban and Osman Elmaci from FNV Bondgenoten, both Turkish-originated trade union officials for the union, reported that only 1,200 agencies out of 12,000 are operating with official certification. Even when FNV Bondgenoten negotiates with employment agencies for collective agreements, wages remain low and working conditions are sub-standard for agency workers. 
 
The three examples from Germany, Sweden, and Holland clearly shows that the unionisation rates for agency workers are far less than those for permanent workers. 
 
The conference also heard detailed reports and analyses on Contract and Agency Labour in Turkey. During the conference, a major explosion at an unregistered factory operating in the black economy resulted in 23 deaths. 
 
According to statistics, the number of workers employed in the informal economy in Turkey is 4.7 million, according to Mustafa &Ouml;ztaskin of ICEM affiliate Petrol-Iş. Dating to the 1980s, the problem in Turkey is that new owners in privatised sectors have used subcontracting in order to eliminate union representation. 
 
Metin Bozkurt, Organising Secretary of Cement Workers Union, &Ccedil;imse-Iş, reported that multinational companies in the cement industry use subcontractors in all facets of production. Privatisation has also caused problems in energy, reported Murat Aytemiz, Vice-President of Tes-Iş. According to Aytemiz, some 50% of the workforce in the energy sector is employed by subcontracting firms. 
 
The situation in the mining sector was defined as thus by Dr. Fikret Sazak, Director of Education Department of Mine Workers Union, Maden-Iş: &ldquo;Our mining areas have become mole holes after privatisation and subcontracting.&rdquo; He reported that contract labour in pits is overwhelming, for example, in a main coal mining area, 2,750 out of 10,500 miners are subcontractors.&nbsp;
<img height="285" src="" width="380" alt="" />
In public services as well, subcontracting and agency labour is a major factor in lowering salaries and weakening the working environment. Ismail Hakki Kurt of Belediye-Iş pointed out that &ldquo;trade unions have real difficulties in bargaining because permanent workers are the minority, while agency workers are not unionised.&rdquo; 
In the glass industry, according to Can Safak, Director of the Collective Bargaining Department at Kristal-Iş, subcontracting first appeared in nonqualified and side jobs. Kristal-Iş tried to tackle the problem through reclassification of positions. The union also managed to get language in the sectoral level collective glass agreement, stating that no subcontractor can be employed at the production level. 
 
At the end of the discussions, it was agreed that a series of joint activities on organising, in general, would be undertaken. And then, specifically, the issue of Contract and Agency Labour in Turkey will now come under the ICEM&rsquo;s global project. 
 
<a href="/index.php?id=73&amp;doc=2593&amp;la=EN">To access presentations at the Conference, click here</a>.

ICEM Turkish Affiliates Gather to Discuss Contract and Agency Labour

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