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Some 30 Central European trade unionists from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia participated in the meeting of the ICEM Regional Conference for Central Europe, which took place in Balatonszemes, Hungary, on 5-6 June 2007. The meeting was hosted by Hungarian ICEM affiliate Federation of Trade Unions of the Chemical, Energy and General Workers (VDSZ). 
 
In spite of the many stories in the mainstream media recently on the positive economic growth in the region, reports at the meeting often painted a bleak economic picture for many of the countries, with delegates reporting on complicated and often difficult situations in their countries. 
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ICEM Regional President Juraj Blahak and ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda
Widespread austerity measures, for example in Hungary and Slovakia, and the effects of years of privatisation and liberalisation, such as what's been happening in Bosnia or Serbia, are taking their toll on trade unions, workers, and ordinary citizens. Even in those countries that are now part of the European Union, economic problems persist. They include problems with immigration of workers to richer countries in Europe, often the result of low national wages. That is the case in Romania and Poland. Another endemic problem is that of high unemployment, for example in the Balkan countries. 
 
There was also good news, however. In several, if not most, Central European countries, unions reported successes, with some winning more and better benefits for workers. Improvements also exist in the area of social dialogue with employers, often after pressure on governments. 
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Unions in the region reported on the increased cooperation with other national or industry unions, with some constructive mergers processes now underway. Croatia was listed as one such example. Many participants also mentioned the positive role played by the ICEM/IUF South-East Europe union modernisation project. 
 
Juraj Blahak, President of Slovakian ICEM affiliate OZ Chémia SR, was re-elected as the Vice-President for the Central European region. And Elena Petrovici, from Romanian ICEM affiliate Petrom, was re-elected as the president of the Central European Women’s Committee. She was elected at the ICEM Central European Women’s Conference, which took place just prior to the regional conference.

ICEM's Central European Regional Conference Held in Balatonszemes, Hungary

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The annual meeting of the Steering Committee of ICEM’s Bridgestone Global Union Network of Workers was held in Tokyo, Japan, on 22-23 June. The Japanese Rubber Workers’ Union Confederation (GOMU-RENGO) hosted this seventh annual meeting of the network, and also chairs the Bridgestone network. 
 
As decided at the 2006 meeting of the network, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, participants presented very detailed reports on occupational health and safety. The unions present gave the numbers of accidents occurring in 2006 at their respective factories, and presented their efforts on how they are attempting to prevent accidents. 
 
Along with the extensive safety reports, participants reported on general economic conditions of the tyre industry, as well as on work and economic conditions in their particular plants and respective countries and regions. The Bridgestone Workers’ Union of Japan also submitted substantive information and data on Bridgestone. 
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Participants at the ICEM Bridgestone meeting
The union representatives on the steering committee include the São Paulo Rubber Workers Union of Brazil (FUB), representing Latin America; the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA), representing Africa; the Federation of Related Industries of Spain (FIA-UGT), representing Europe; the United Steelworkers of the US, representing North America; and ICEM’s Japanese Affiliates Federation (ICEM-JAF), representing the Asia-Pacific Region, as well as GOMU-RENGO, which chairs the network. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda gave participants a Secretariat report, and spoke on the Global Union Federation’s general policies, specifically global union networks and global framework agreements. He referred to motions to be submitted to the 4th ICEM World Congress, to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, in November 2007, particularly one on “social dialogue and corporate campaigns.” 
 
ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries Officer Kemal Ozkan, presented a general report on recent developments in the rubber industry, including raw materials, market trends, new technologies, and industrial policies, such as nanotechnology. He also reported on the Strategic Approach of International Chemicals Management (SAICM) and on CO2 emissions. 
 
He pointed to trends in the non-tyre rubber industry and the close links that the sector has with the auto industry. Ozkan also summarised networking activity of the ICEM in the rubber industry and talked about the recent collective bargaining outcomes in the US, Australia, and Argentina. 
 
The steering committee took a decision to hold the 2008 Bridgestone Global Union Network of Workers in the US, upon the invitation of the USW.

ICEM’s Bridgestone Rubber Workers’ Network Meets in Japan

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The national labour centres of South Africa and Zimbabwe are advising that the world better get ready for a humanitarian crisis, since Zimbabwe’s economy is on the verge of a meltdown. 
 
In a joint statement, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said if current mediation efforts in Zimbabwe by the Southern Africa Development Community fail, the country’s “economy will collapse completely, with dire consequences for the poor of that country and the region.”
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The statement came following meetings between COSATU and ZCTU in Johannesburg on 15 July, at which time COSATU committed to begin preparations for a possible humanitarian crisis. 
 
The two national centres agreed that now is the time to mobilize alliance partners and all of civil society for a humanitarian package for suffering Zimbabweans who have fled, and likely will flee in great numbers if Zimbabwe’s current economic reality continues. COSATU Sec. Gen. Zwelinzima Vavi said 5,000 Zimbabweans are arrested each week now as they attempt to enter South Africa.

National Labour Centres in South Africa, Zimbabwe Predict Refugee Crisis

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The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) again mourns the deaths of miners in South Africa. On 20 July, two miners perished 3,000 metres underground at AngloGold Ashanti’s Moab Khotsong mine near Orkney in Free State. 
 
The two miners became trapped when the ground around them caved in. Their bodies were recovered on 22 July. A third miner was rescued in the cave-in and was reported in stable condition in a hospital.
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The two deaths push AngloGold’s death rate in South Africa to 11 this, and the total recorded number of recorded deaths in the country’s mining sector to 110. AngloGold’s sister company, AngloPlatinum, leads all mining concerns in South Africa in recorded deaths with 17.
A day after the bodies at Moab Khotsong mine disaster were found, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica visited the site. She took the unusual step of ordering the mine closed, pending an investigation. Speaking to reporters, she said that her ministry would begin more rigid inspections and that profits must not come before lives. 
 
Because of the rising death toll in South Africa’s mines this year, the NUM has called for an urgent tripartite meeting to rescue South Africa's Mining Health and Safety Summit in order to address the current deficiencies in mine safety.

Two Workers Killed at AngloGold’s Mine in Free State, South Africa

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If any event defined the strength and vibrancy of a great trade union, that event started on the night of 9 August 1987 when the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) began the Great Mines Strike of South Africa, or “21 Days That Shook the Chamber,” as it claimed to be called. Although the wage gains the NUM was seeking were not achieved, the strike by 330,000 black miners 20 years ago proved to be a decisive catalyst in the struggle to end apartheid. 
 
The NUM marked the anniversary last week in South Africa as an event that “will be remembered for shaking the industry in a manner that was never seen before.” It also solemnly noted the deaths of nine striking miners at the hands of apartheid police, and the 50,000 miners who were fired by mining companies for actively leading the strike.
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During 1987 wage bargaining between the employers’ Chamber of Mines and the Council of Mining Unions, representing white miners and officials, the unions accepted a 15% wage gain. But in separate bargaining with the NUM, the Chamber only offered 17% to black miners, who were paid much lower salaries than whites. NUM had lowered its demands to 24% at the time of the strike. 
 
Despite this, employers – led by the AngloAmerican Corporation, which employed the vast majority of unionised black miners – unilaterally implemented its offer. That caused the NUM to strike the first of some 60 gold and coal mines on 9 August. The Council of Mines thought the NUM too weak to sustain the early strikes, or to call out miners at more sites. 
 
But as the strike spread and more and more mines were idled, that proved to be a fallacy. 
 
A mining trade publication at the time reported: “The union has shown itself to be much better organized, its strike call well supported from the outset. The Chamber appears to have expected the NUM action to last only a few days as in earlier years and was somewhat surprised at the duration and solidarity of the union’s action and by its organisational capabilities, determination, and skill during the strike.”
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NUM General Secretary Cyril Ramaphosa, the son of a Soweto policeman who was then only 35, provided strong leadership and staunch resolve. He also proved to be a visionary by calling 1987 the year that black mineworkers “take control … to start controlling our lives in the mines, in the hostels, and the places we live. 
 
He also said, “In the next few years, we are also going to take control of the work process, which dates back 100 years, when gold was discovered, during which the black workers have been like captive labour.” Ramaphosa also said of the 1987 strike, “The struggle we are involved in on the mines is a training ground for our people, for the ultimate goal which is liberation.” 
 
The need for struggle was epitomised in May 1987, shortly after the NUM adopted the South African Freedom Charter, began a coalition with the United Democratic Front, and marched with the slogans of the banned African National Congress. On the night of 7 May 1987, with NUM’s offices headquartered in the COSATU House in Johannesburg, special security police used explosives to blow the building up. A short three weeks later, NUM declared dispute with the mining houses over disparate wages, deficient health and safety practices for black miners, overcrowded hostels, and other grievances. 
 
Two weeks into the August mass strikes, realising that the NUM’s resolve could not be broken, mining companies used a quirk in South African industrial law that allowed employers to dismiss workers even when they are engaged in a legal strike. Some 50,000 NUM members were fired. That and the very survival of the NUM caused regional strike committees to decide to end the strike, and on 30 August black mineworkers returned to work with their heads held high. 
 
The mining journal said the NUM “has gained considerable stature as a result of its action,” adding that the union’s “influence is now widespread throughout the mining industry and that unionisation of black miners is likely to increase.”
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About half of the 50,000 mines were eventually re-hired to mining jobs over the next few years, and many proved to be key organisers and effective trade union leaders. The strike also taught the NUM something about self-reliance. As an outgrowth of it, the NUM formed non-profit organisations that mitigated job losses in mining with skill development, as well as labour cooperatives and welfare funds for dependants of miners. 
 
Today, that influence is evident. With roughly two-thirds of NUM members regularly attending union meetings and a shop-steward structure second to none, the NUM stands as a beacon of light for safe, sustainable jobs in South Africa’s mining industry.

9 August: 20-Year Anniversary of NUM’s Great Mines Strike in South Africa

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At a spirited rally at the Rotterdam portion of Unilever’s AGM on 15 May, ICEM Dutch affiliate FNV Bondgenoten issued a stern warning to the giant food and chemicals concern: focus more on long term stability and the concerns of all stakeholders, rather than on a current call by investors to restructure for quick profits. 
 
Union members and their allies, namely the 40,000-member Association of Shareholders, a collection of institutional and individual shareholders, called on the company to resist the break-up, the closure of certain businesses, or the selling-off to private equity funds, or other market capital funds. 
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ICEM's presence at Rotterdam rally, including Chemical officer Kemal Ozkan and ICEM Vice-President Ben Roodhuizen (centre)
The rally preceded Unilever’s general meeting at Rotterdam’s World Trade Centre. The following day, 16 May, the company held the London portion of its annual meeting, at which time Mike Treschow was installed as Unilever chairman. Treschow is a noted master of retrenchments, having previously maximized quick profits at the expense of jobs at Ericsson telecom and Electrolux. 
 
FNV Bondgenoten warned that the strategy of creating excessive shareholder value at Unilever is now playing too large a role. “I fear that in the short term, Unilever will become prey to activist hedge funds,” stated Bondgenoten President Henk van der Kolk. “In the eyes of these funds, Unilever is a company from which more profit can be squeezed.” 
 
“Unilever has always been a company with a good name, a company that has looked out for the interests of its workers,” van der Kolk added. “Now workers are only seen as a cost factor. The less you have, the better. That now appears to be the thinking at Unilever.” 
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FNV Bondgenoten President Henk van der Kolk
On 1 June, the union will submit a work plan to senior management of Unilever. FNV Bondgenoten is asking shareholders to support that plan, which couples social responsibility with curtailment of the power of shareholders. Jobs and job security are high on its agenda, as is upcoming collective bargaining in The Netherlands. Bondgenoten said that the first part of the work plan applies to Dutch operations of the multinational, but that the plan could also be applied more broadly to the company’s 200,000 workers worldwide. 
 
Also speaking at the rally were a member of parliament and workers from Mumbai, India, which are members of the Hindustan Lever Employees Union. Their situation depicts Unilever at its worst. In order to avoid social dialogue with that union, which is an affiliate of the International Union of Food & Allied Workers’ Association (IUF), management sold the operation to a shell company in order to avoid its lawful social obligations.

FNV Bondgenoten Warns of Unilever Break Up

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China's second worst coal mine disaster in modern history came on 17 August 2007, when 181 miners were trapped and died inside two mines in the Shandong Province. The tragedy was the result of both flash flooding and negligence by privately-owned Huayuan Mining Co. when a levee broke on the nearby Wenhe River. 
 
Two smaller mines in the same area were evacuated due to heavy rains near the town of Xintai, in this eastern Chinese province. But Huayuan company officials kept mining operations going in crowded mine shafts, some 860 metres below the surface. A total of 584 miners managed to escape the flash flooding, after a 50-metre wide gap in the levee gave way adjacent to the mine. 
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It is believed this mine disaster only trails a February 2005 gas explosion at the Sunjiawan coal mine in Liaoning Province, killing 214 miners, as China's worst mining tragedy. 
 
In the days following the Huayuan coal mine disaster, at least three other mining accidents in China claimed the lives of another 22 miners. 
 
On 23 August, a water break at a coal mine in Panzhihua city, in the south-western province of Sichuan, drowned eight miners. A gas explosion on 24 August at the Xinglong Mine in Chongqing claimed the lives of seven miners, while 18 others escaped. 
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And on 25 August, another gas blast killed seven. That occurred at the Liyuan coal mine in Huolin city, Inner Mongolia. The Liyuan mine was undergoing reconstruction and should not have been producing coal. 
 
China's State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) Director Li Yizhong has targeted closure of another 1,000 small mines by the end of the year, bringing up to 10,000 the number of such mines officially closed. These mines are defined as producing less than 30,000 tonnes per year, and are generally considered as unsafe or operating illegally. 
 
In contrast, the Huayuan mine in Shandong Province, which was state-owned until 2004, produces between 600,000 and 700,000 tonnes of coal per annum.

Floods Kill 181 in China's Second Most Deadly Mine Disaster

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Australia will be left with only one tyre manufacturing plant at the close of 2008, following Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.’s decision to close its wholly-owned subsidiary, South Pacific Tyres. The company announced on 26 June that 600 rubber workers will lose their jobs when its Somerton car and light truck tyre operation shuts in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria. 
 
The decision is blamed on imports, the high value of the Australian dollar, and supplier contracts that allow manufacturers the option to demand lower prices during the life of a supply contract. Australia’s National Union of Workers (NUW), the union representing the majority of Somerton’s workers, said the closure could cause a ripple effect costing 2,000 other jobs in some 130 other supplying companies. 
 
The NUW blamed South Pacific for closing a heavy truck tyre plant in Australia in the year 2000. The union said the company missed out on the opportunity to capitalise on the current mining boom, with manufacture of heavy tyres for trucks and equipment servicing that sector.
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“They showed a lack of foresight then, and are lacking foresight now by acting ahead of a refocusing of Australian automotive that should deliver a sustainable future for local industry based on production of more efficient and greener vehicles,” said Antony Thow, NUW’s Victoria Secretary. 

Australia is currently undergoing a review of the automotive sector by former Victoria Premier Steve Bracks. His commission is aimed at revamping the country’s Automotive Competitiveness and Investment Scheme, as well as a green car fund proposed by the Kevin Rudd government. The Bracks Commission is examining whether to retain the 10% tariff on imports beyond 2010, or half it to 5%, as recommended by the Productivity Commission. 

The Somerton plant produces Dunlop, Goodyear, and Olympic tyres, and supplies 100% of Ford’s new car tyres, as well as a product to Toyota. It also sells to major retail outlets in the after-market. The plant opened in 1961 and currently produces 10,000 units per day. 

Goodyear took a 50% stake in South Pacific with Pacific Dunlop in 1987. The American company retained that stake when Ansell Ltd. bought Pacific Dunlop’s assets. And then in January 2006, Goodyear bought Ansell’s 50% stake for US$90.3 million.
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In first quarter 2007, Goodyear shuttered a South Pacific tyre plant near Wellington, New Zealand, costing 430 unionised workers their jobs. The Somerton closing, in which workers are expected to receive up to 18 months in severance payments through their enterprise labour agreement, is part of a Goodyear restructuring to achieve US$150 million in costs savings by reducing tyre production by 25 million units per day. Somerton accounts for three million annual units, and Goodyear will realise a US$35 million in costs savings. 

Following 31 December 2008, Australia’s lone remaining tyre production facility will be the Bridgestone Salisbury plant near Adelaide, South Australia.

Goodyear to Close South Pacific Tyre Plant in Australia at End of 2008

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The seven unions representing more than 3,000 workers at a Michelin tyre plant in the northern Spanish province of Alava have united behind a comrade stricken with Mesothelioma. The unions last week sent a petition to both the company and to the regional Institute of Work Security to trace the presence of asbestos in the 42-year history of the plant. 
 
The Michelin plant is in the city of Vitoria and manufactures 36,000 units per day of car and heavy equipment tyres. In early June, the regional health and safety authority reopened an investigation after a worker employed by Michelin for 30 years was diagnosed with the cancer caused by asbestos exposure.
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Workplace representatives of ICEM affiliates CCOO and UGT were joined by five other unions in the call to clarify the causes of the illness. Michelin denies that it currently uses or has any form of asbestos in the plant, but the company did import the product in years past to insulate the factory’s heating pipes. 
 
The Vitoria workers, through their union representatives, sent a pledge of solidarity to the stricken worker, as well as committed to conduct voluntary tests of other workers and to assist in the investigation in any way possible.

Unions Mount Pressure on Cause of Asbestos inside Spanish Michelin Plant

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