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A colliery in northern Notre de Santander state, Colombia, again became a death trap for miners. The La Preciosa coal mine in Sandinata municipality, where 38 miners have already perished over the past three years, was rocked by a methane gas explosion at the morning shift change on 26 January that saw 21 miners die. 
 
The locally-owned mine by La Preciosa Ltda. employs 110 staff and was ordered closed by the National Institute of Geology and Mines (Ingeominas) following the explosion. Twenty miners were killed inside a 600-metre horizontal shaft, while one worker died in an ambulance on the way to medical care. Six miners were rescued and are hospitalised in the city of C&uacute;cuta. 
 
The bodies of 16 miners were retrieved on the day of the disaster, while four were received on 27 January. 
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La Preciosa Miners Worry About Future
In unexpected candor, the Colombian government admitted that its mine safety laws and resources for stricter mine safety regulations are inadequate. Mining Minister Carlos Rodado arrived in Sandinata on 27 January and said the government lacks funds and staff &ndash; Ingeominas exploys only 17 mine inspectors &ndash; to monitor 6,000 legal mines. 
 
La Preciosa, which produces 3,000 tonnes of coal per month, is a legally-operated mine. But in October 2010, six miners died due to gas asphyxiation. In 2007, 32 miners died in a similar gas explosion to the one that occurred last Wednesday. In 2007, the mine stayed close for five months. 
 
A representative from an ICEM-affiliated miners&rsquo; union at another mine in Colombia said the government is too quick to award operating licenses to small- and medium-size companies which do not have the necessary mechanisms in place to monitor safe mining practices. Colombia has not ratified ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 
 
At a funeral service in the mountain town of San Roque on 28 January where ten of the 21 miners were remembered, thousand of residents turned out to mourn, with most residents of the mountainous town affixing Colombian flag to their homes. The mayor of Sandinata, Yamile Ragel, called the tragedy &ldquo;a crime&rdquo; that will &ldquo;not go unpunished.&rdquo; The ten were buried in a local cemetery following a Roman Catholic service. 
 
Ingeominas said that in 2010, Colombia recorded 84 mine accidents in which 173 workers died.

Methane Blast in Colombian Coal Mine Kills 21

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An ICEM and Public Services International (PSI) affiliated trade union, Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), has raised issue with the insolent social conduct of US managers of a subsidiary of GDF SUEZ. The conduct is pointedly contrary to standards GDF SUEZ only in November agreed to in a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with three Global Union Federations (GUFs). 
 
The matter involves a US subsidiary of French-based GDF SUEZ, United Water Services Inc., a private utility that employs about 400 UWUA members in the US. UWUA called on the ICEM and PSI to rebuke United Water over an environment indictment levied in December by the US Justice Department, as well as troubling public comments made by United Water executives to minimize the seriousness of the alleged crimes. 
<img alt="" src="" width="112" height="112" />
After consulting with the third GUF that is signatory to the 16 November 2010 GFA, Building and Woodworkers International (BWI), the ICEM and PSI on 19 January issued the first complaint of this particular agreement, calling United Water&rsquo;s overall conduct a breach of GDF SUEZ corporate social responsibility. (That complaint can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/2.GDFSUEZunitedwatLet.pdf ">here</a>.) 
On 8 December, the US government issued a set of 26 indictments against United Water for conspiracy and felony violations of the US Clean Water Act. The GDF SUEZ subsidiary and two of its executives are charged with tampering and manipulating water quality measurements at a Gary, Indiana, wastewater treatment plant that it had operated on behalf of the municipality&rsquo;s Sanitation Board. 
 
Specifically, over a five-year period, the US Justice Department charged United Water with a scheme that increased chlorine input levels immediately before US government E.Coli monitoring samples were taken, and then lowering the input levels afterward as cost-savings measures. United Water is accused of doing this 68 times. 
<img alt="" src="" width="220" height="69" />
The practice, the US government claims, poses a serious health risk to the public. 
 
The UWUA, ICEM, and PSI also took serious issue following the US Justice Department indictment with public comments made by United Water&rsquo;s president and senior vice president for Corporate Communications downplaying the charges. They stated that the indictments are mere technical disagreements, with the president of United Water, Robert Iacullo, calling the government&rsquo;s environmental charges &ldquo;an abuse of prosecutorial discretion.&rdquo; 
 
In the addendum to the GFA, GDF Suez states that it has &ldquo;responsibilities to society&rdquo; and that &ldquo;it will respect national law and regulations.&rdquo; The agreement also states: &ldquo;Among it activities, GDF Suez distributes energy and water, essential to the health and well-being of society.&rdquo; The ICEM/PSI intervention notes, &ldquo;If the US government&rsquo;s charges prove true, the discharge of untreated, or sub-standard wastewater into waterways poses a serious public health threat.&rdquo; 
 
The GUFs are currently awaiting reply from GDF SUEZ over the complaint.

US Affiliate, UWUA, Challenges GDF SUEZ Inside Global Agreement

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The lockout by U.S. Steel against 900 active workers and 9,000 retirees and widows at a steel mill in Hamilton, Ontario, gained national Canadian attention on 29 January when over 10,000 trade unionists assembled and manifested in wet snow in Hamilton. Some 75 busloads of citizens came to what&rsquo;s known in Canada as &ldquo;Steeltown,&rdquo; angry at their government and manifesting under the slogan &ldquo;The People vs. U.S. Steel.&rdquo; 
View video footage of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAb_uR-UFv0">Hamilton Rally</a>. 
 
The Hamilton Day of Action for locked-out members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1005 served as a national rallying cry against the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper and other parliamentarians have failed to make accountable foreign multinationals which buy Canadian assets and then immediately furlough workers and cut living standards. 
 
Both the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL/CLC) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) lent heavy support in making 29 January this rallying cry, as well as national signal that this unprovoked lockout marks undeniably that Canadian investment law is deeply flawed. 
<img alt="" src="" width="269" height="179" />
Quebec Steelworkers in Hamilton 
Photo: John Maclennan
The day&rsquo;s speeches, placards, and slogans stated just that that. Local 1005 is defending workers, retirees, and widows against an American predator that three years ago bought Ontario-based steelmaker Stelco but immediately began side-stepping a weakened Investment Canada Act. The OFL claims that contrary to provisions in the Investment Canada Act, U.S. Steel has cut 2,200 jobs Stelco jobs in Hamilton and the Nanticoke Works in those three years. 
 
One of the main speakers of the day, USW President Leo Gerard, minced no words in describing the head-lock that corporations have on workers and governments: &ldquo;Everywhere on earth, these corporate bastards are trying to pick our pockets. I&rsquo;ll be damned if I&rsquo;m going to stand by and let them take our pensions. We have to demand that Harper stand up for Canada.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="231" height="169" />
USW President Leo Gerard. (At right, USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann) 
Photo: John Maclennan
The Investment Canada Act is supposed to provide a &ldquo;net benefit&rdquo; to Canadians when foreign ownership acquires Canadian-based assets. Steelworkers of Local 1005, along with retirees and widows from the Hamilton Works, made the strong statement Saturday that they are victims, thrown off their jobs because they refuse to have their rightful benefits stripped from them.
The U.S. Steel lockout, now beginning its 13th week, centers on the company&rsquo;s demand that retirees and widows lose pension indexing calculations, a sum meant to meet inflation costs amounting to C$30 per year, depending on different pension levels. U.S. Steel also wants to close off the defined benefit plan for new workers, certainly no &ldquo;net benefit&rdquo; to young Canadian workers. 
<img alt="" src="" width="369" height="161" />
Photo: John Maclennan
Bus-loads of loyal steelworkers from Quebec arrived and made USW Local 1005 supporters proud that such national unity crosses provincial boundaries. Buses of steelworkers also came from Sudbury, Ontario, where a foreign multinational also has slashed jobs and living standards, as well as from U.S. Steel&rsquo;s Great Lakes mill in the US state of Michigan. 
 
Union delegations turned out in full from the Canadian Autoworkers&rsquo; Union (CAW), Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The OFL and CLC led the larger call across Canada. Scores of trade union delegations from teachers&rsquo; unions, to the Ontario Public Service Union, to ICEM-affiliated Power Workers Union (PWU) and the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union also lent their support. 
<img alt="" src="" width="218" height="163" />
Bill Mahoney
Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina, an outspoken critic of U.S. Steel&rsquo;s conduct in his city, spoke at Saturday&rsquo;s &ldquo;The People vs. U.S. Steel&rdquo; manifestation, as did MP Chris Charlton, the leading national politician currently out to refine the Investment Canada Act. Other speakers included CLC President Ken Georgetti, OFL President Sid Ryan, and Bill Mahoney, a victim himself who has put to words what Local 1005&rsquo;s fightback symbolises. 
 
Called the &ldquo;Protest Poet,&rdquo; Mahoney has been retired from Stelco&rsquo;s Hamilton Works for five works and has penned some 25 poems on social erosion. One, entitled &ldquo;Scrooge Comes to Town,&rdquo; reads: 
We are fighting for our dignity, united young and old 
All across the country, the story is being told 
Of our proud community whose dignity won&rsquo;t be sold 
We are fighting for our country, Canada is our home. 
Prior ICEM reports on the struggle by USW Local 1005 in Hamilton can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4101-Flawed-Investment-Canada-Act-Again-Seen-in-Steel-Lockout ">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4190-Rally-Slated-29-January-in-Canada-to-Support-Locked-out-Steelworkers ">here</a>.

Over 10,000 Manifest in Hamilton Against Canadian Government, U.S. Steel

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The global mobilization of trade unions affiliated to four Global Union Federations, calling for trade union rights in Mexico, is now two weeks away. Affiliates of the ICEM, International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF), and UNI have planned coordinated actions across the world during the week that marks the five-year anniversary of the Pasta de Conchos mine disaster. 
 
In February 2006, an explosion happened in that mine and 65 miners were killed. The tragic blast followed continued pleas by the Mexican Miners Union, Los Mineros, for improved safety conditions at the mine. 
 
The campaign has now made available posters, hand-bills, and information backgrounders in various languages, available <a href="/en/5-Mining-DGOJP">here</a>.&nbsp; 
<img alt="" src="" width="368" height="87" />
In Geneva, a high-level delegation from the four coordinating GUFs will meet with the Mexican ambassador to the UN in the Swiss city, to communicate the demands of the global action and seek explanations on sustained efforts to bust unions by the Calder&oacute;n government. An action in front of the Mexican mission in Geneva will be joined by other Global Union Federations, including the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI), Public Services International (PSI), and the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers (IUF). 
 
Mexico&rsquo;s assault against trade unions, specifically against Los Mineros, continued last Monday, 24 January, when a US representative of the USW, Manny Armenta, was arrested by Mexican customs police on his way to assist attorneys for Los Mineros. He was accused of driving a stolen vehicle. Armenta immediately presented documentation for the car, but was still instructed to pay a fine to a corrupt officer of US$15,000. On refusing to pay, Armenta was arrested and detained, until Los Mineros posted a bond of US$7,500 for his release. Armenta&rsquo;s car is still impounded and his wallet was returned to him by police minus US$700. 
<img alt="" src="" width="261" height="177" />
USW's Manny Armenta in Mexican Prison Cell
Steelworker President Leo Gerard stated, &ldquo;It is ironic that although Mexican courts have issued 20 warrants for Germ&aacute;n Larrea &ndash; the owner of Grupo M&eacute;xico &ndash; the government has never been able to arrest him. Yet they can arrest Manny because he is in Mexico helping the mineworkers defend their rights.&rdquo; 
 
In a further clear example of the Calder&oacute;n government&rsquo;s complicit support for union-busting efforts, three leaders of the Los Mineros Section 142 were arrested at 5.30am on 26 January. Ministerial police violently pulled the men from their homes, still in their underwear in an effort to intimidate the section, currently on strike at the El Cubo mine, in Guanajuato. 
 
Those arrested were Juan Andr&eacute;s Villa Licea, President of the Strike Committee, Mart&iacute;n Reina Cruces, and Jorge Ram&oacute;n Monsiv&aacute;is Ortega, all senior members of the union.

14-19 February Mexico Days of Action Draws Near

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Uni&oacute;n Obrera Metal&uacute;rgical (UOM), the national Metalworkers&rsquo; Union of Argentina, reached accord with six employers&rsquo; associations recently in wage negotiations for 2010. Some three weeks after mandatory government reconciliation stopped a scheduled 10 April strike, the UOM and four employer groups agreed to a two-phase wage increase for 2010 that totals 26.5%. 
 
In early May, two other employer federations &ndash; the household goods association (FEDEHOGAR) and the metallurgical industry association (ADIMRA) &ndash; agreed to the salary package, which gives a 15% increase backdated to 1 April with another 10% due on 1 July 2010. The latter increase will be adjusted according to inflation, and workers should realize 11.6%. 

<img alt="" src="" width="250" height="116" />
The contracts cover 260,000 workers and will run until 31 March 2011. The four employer federations that initially agreed to terms included the small and mid-size metallurgical chamber (CAMINA), the auto and other component association (AFAC), electronic parts manufacturers (AFARTE), and the related metals industry association (CAIAMA). The UOM affiliates to the ICEM on its members in the nuclear power sector. 
 
The union had sought a one-stage 25% adjustment, which it said would cover what was lost due to Argentina&rsquo;s high inflation rate in 2009. Initially, employers offered 15% in three stages, but amended that to 20% in three phases upon the threat of a strike. 
 
The metals pact in Argentina is expected to serve as the benchmark for bargaining in other industrial sectors. Javier Sanchez of the UOM&rsquo;s Nuclear Branch credited UOM Secretary-General Antonio Cal&oacute; with leading difficult negotiations in delivering just wage adjustments for metalworkers without an industrial conflict.

Metalworkers in Argentina Negotiate 2010 Wage Gains of 26.5%

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The ICEM affiliated Kuwaiti union, the Oil and Petrochemical Industries Workers&rsquo; Confederation, vehemently opposed a Privatisation Bill that passed through the Persian Gulf country&rsquo;s Parliament, especially the inclusion of the oil industry of the country. 
 
The ICEM had closely monitored the situation since the legislation received strong backing in Parliament, on Thursday 15 April. Thirty-three MPs backed it, including the entire cabinet. This backing moved processing of the Bill to the Financial and Economic Committee of Parliament, where significant opposition moved the Committee&rsquo;s secretary, MP Yusif Zalzlah, to announce on 3 May that the panel advised against the inclusion of the oil and natural gas sectors in the legislation. 
 
The ICEM will remain alert to the threat of this legislation returning in the future, as MP Zalzlah stated that the government will remain &ldquo;very flexible&rdquo; on the issue in the future. 

<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="120" />
The Oil and Petrochemical Industries Workers&rsquo; Confederation opposed privatisation of the oil sector, seeing it as a transfer of government assets into the hands of a small number of wealthy individuals. The confederation, which serves as the umbrella organisation for six unions representing Kuwaiti workers in the sector, pointed to the recent privatisation of petrol stations in Kuwait, which saw high levels of job losses. 
 
A total of 94% of Kuwait&rsquo;s revenues come from oil. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, in a letter to members of the Kuwaiti Parliament, stated, &ldquo;Kuwait&rsquo;s system of cradle-to-grave welfare is an example to all around the world; we believe strongly that the handing over of your oil assets would seriously jeopardise this welfare system.&rdquo; See the full letter <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/39.ICEM.Kuwait.Parliament.Oil.10May.pdf">here</a>. 
 
The Privatisation Bill was passed by Kuwait&rsquo;s Parliament on 5 May, but did exclude oil and gas production, as well as health and education. The bill angers Kuwaiti trade unionists, especially in sectors that were privatised. One trade union leader was forcibly removed from the public gallery during the parliamentary debate, for shouting slogans against the law. 
 
The new law will be effective in six months time and opens up public services to private ownership. A &ldquo;Higher Privatisation Council&rdquo; will be created, to be headed by the Prime Minister, and this council will oversee sale of public assets. 
 
There will be some regulation, with the law ensuring that when a public company is sold, 40% of its shares must first be offered for sale to Kuwaiti citizens, followed by 20% to be held by government, and 5% to Kuwaiti employees. The remaining 35% will be sold at auction to a local or foreign investor. 
 
In Kuwait&rsquo;s oil sector, striking workers at the Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery returned to work 14 May after a five-day strike was resolved. Workers at the utility unit, employed by the Kuwait National Petroleum Co., were protesting a cut in the workforce. Mohammad al-Hamlan, deputy president of the workers' union, reported that management had agreed to the union&rsquo;s demands, ending the strike. The utility unit workers had been joined in solidarity by the facility&rsquo;s tank farm workers since 11 May. The refinery is the country&rsquo;s largest, with production of 460,000 barrels per day.

Kuwaiti Oil Workers Succeed in Damping Sector from Privatisation

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The Guyana Bauxite &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union (GB&amp;GWU) is seeking corrective measures by the government of the South American nation in order to continue representing 500 miners of the Bauxite Co. of Guyana Inc. (BCGI), which is 90% controlled by the Russian metals company RusAl. 
 
Following six months of intense struggle, which crested in December 2009 when RusAl unilaterally withdrew recognition of the union at the Aroaima and Kwakwani bauxite mines in contradiction to Guyanese labour law, GB&amp;GWU finally got a hearing last week, on 25 May, before Guyana&rsquo;s Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board. 
 
But that hearing proved inconclusive, with the union seeking remedial action by the Labour Ministry before a ballot is put before miners on whether or not they want to retain the longstanding union. Fifty-seven GB&amp;GWU activists remain sacked after they led a strike on 22 November 2009. 
<img alt="" src="" width="256" height="192" />
GB&amp;GWU picketed the offices of Labour Minister Mansoor Nadir on 4 and 5 February 
The union wants redress for the Labour Minister refusing to act or to conduct an investigation that followed the end of the strike. BCGI prepared a de-authorization petition and coerced workers into signing it, denouncing the GB&amp;GWU. In April, it surfaced that BCGI management at both Aroaima and Kwakwani conspired to organise a workers&rsquo; committee for a rival union, one connected with the ruling People&rsquo;s Progressive Party (PPP) in Guyana. (The GB&amp;GWU has been traditionally aligned with the opposition People&rsquo;s National Congress Reform, PNCR). 
 
&ldquo;What we are asking,&rdquo; said GB&amp;GWU Secretary-General Lincoln Lewis, &ldquo;is that the laws of the country be upheld before any ballot at BCGI is held. That means that BCGI&rsquo;s one-sided de-authorization be addressed, victimization of union leaders be addressed, the illegal firings be heard, and its blatant interference over freedom of association rights be addressed. 
 
&ldquo;Now, that has not happened. We cannot enter a ballot until these complaints are answered. If we do, it opens an unwanted precedent for any union in Guyana &ndash; no matter the political alignment &ndash; for both national laws and international labour standards to be ignored in undermining a legitimate union.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="198" />
GB&amp;GWU Secretary-General Lincoln Lewis 
The dispute is now highly politically charged with PNCR representatives in the National Assembly bringing a no-confidence motion on Labour, Human Services, and Social Security Minister Mansoor Nadir inside the Legislature. The Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy has called for his resignation. 
 
The labour dispute initially started in wage negotiations last November. BCGI submitted three proposals and asked miners to vote and accept one. When they accepted the one least desirable to BCGI, managers began meeting with groups of workers to convince them to change their position. For those who stood by the democratic vote, management made it known they would be the first terminated. 
 
Management&rsquo;s bullishness, thus, caused the strike, a strike in which BCGI terminated union leaders, withdrew recognition, and subsequently has tried to introduce another union. The ICEM did intervene with the Guyanese government, but received only a curt reply that all laws and procedures are being adhered to. The ICEM will continue to stand by the GB&amp;GWU until full justice prevails.

Guyana Bauxite Union Still Seeking Justice from RusAl, Government

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Dutch-Irish pulp and paper company SmurfitKappa withdrew a signed social agreement with ICEM affiliate FGTB on a redundancy package, after claiming managers at the Mettet paper converter in the Walloon region of Belgium were coerced into signing it. The company announced in February that is was closing the Cartomill plant near Namur, thus terminating 69 workers. 
 
Late on 30 April and early 1 May, FGTB representatives and plant managers were negotiating the social package in the plant&rsquo;s offices when, after several hours into the night, an agreement was reached on transition and education terms, as well a &euro;30,000 per worker redundancy settlement. The company had originally offered only the Belgian minimum, &euro;28,000. 
 
But following the signing, plant managers conferred with corporate management and the decision was taken to invalidate the agreement, with Cartomills managers stating they were held against their will throughout the evening and forced to sign. Pascal Vivone of FGTB denies the assertion. &ldquo;I do not understand how they can come up with that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;At no point did they indicate they were being held against their will.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="245" height="100" />
The two parties, nonetheless, are now continuing the dialogue to reach a fair and equitable settlement. Both sides have agreed to conduct the negotiations off site. 
 
In another recent European paper dispute, the French unions &ndash; CGT-Filpac and CFE-CGC &ndash; won favourable wage terms through industrial action against French paper producer ArgoWiggins. The pay package covers some 2,000 workers at six French mills. The settlement came after several two-hour work stoppages dating back to mid-April. Workers won 2% average pay increases that includes bonus entitlements. ArjoWiggins is owned by the private equity group Sequana Capital.

SmurfitKappa Reneges on Signed Redundancy Package at Belgian Paper Plant

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Some 60,000 trade union members of five Romanian union confederations manifested in Bucharest&rsquo;s Victoriei Square on 19 May, demanding that the government not implement its planned cuts on public-sector wages, pensions, and social services. 
 
Trade unions, civil society groups, and doctors, teachers, and ordinary citizens promise a general strike that could begin tomorrow, 31 May, if the center-right government of Prime Minister Emil Boc moves ahead with its plan to cut public-sector pay by 25%, pensions and unemployment benefits by 15%, and public services by 15% on 1 June. 
 
The cuts were made in a letter of intent to the US-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for a US$20 billion loan from the IMF and the EU in order to balance the country&rsquo;s budget. Prior to the 19 May manifestation, the IMF made public its concern against such drastic cuts, expressing a preference for a balance between public curtailments and new revenue sources such as taxes. 
<img alt="" src="" width="250" height="188" />
19 May Manifestation in Victoriei Square
Trade unions are calling for a system of progressive taxation, with the right to retain a decent job, the right to education opportunities, and the right to retire in dignity without fear of dire poverty. The trade union confederations propose that Romanian government ministries cut their bureaucracies. 
 
The government&rsquo;s austerity programme includes a 15% cut in child and child-rearing allowances. Currently, women workers receive 85% of their pre-maternity average pay after childbirth. The government&rsquo;s proposed cuts would slash that to 60%. In an already understaffed national medical system in which doctors earn average monthly pay of only &euro;350, the cuts would mean another 10% of doctors would leave Romania for countries that have higher salaries. Education has already been affected. Some 15,000 teachers will be sacked this year because of the austerity plan. 
<img alt="" src="" width="250" height="188" />
For ICEM affiliated trade unions in the public sector, including FSLI-Petrom at the state oil company, Chimie-Petrochimie Lazar Edeleanu, Chimie-Petrochimie CSI, and Centrala Nationala Minera Federation, the cuts could be devastating since some 80,000 public-sector jobs would be lost, and there is sure to be a spin-off effect into private sector employment. 
 
The five labour confederations resisting the government&rsquo;s wide-ranging social cuts comprise unions in the mining, metallurgical, chemicals, agriculture, textile, transportation, and education sectors. They include the Fratia National Confederation of Free Trade Unions (CNSLR-Fratia), the Cartel Alfa National Trade Union Confederation (CNS Cartel Alfa), the National Trade Union Bloc (BNS), the Meridian National Trade union Confederation, and the Democratic Trade Union Confederation of Romania (CSDR). 
 
The trade union confederations have already declared 19 May as a historic day of national solidarity against injustice in the central European country, and vow that any attempt by the government to impose its terms will bring the nation to its biggest social crisis of the past 20 years.

Proposed Austerity Cuts Bring Mass Protests Inside Romania

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
The ICEM is coordinating with other Global Union Federations, the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation, and UNI, as well as with North American affiliates Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada and the United Steelworkers (USW), and the Solidarity Centre in Mexico, to conduct a teach-in event in Toronto, aimed at raising solidarity with and understanding of the struggle by democratic trade unions in Mexico. The event will be held on 20 June, as part of the Peoples&rsquo; Forum events around the G8 and G20 summits. It is an open event. View the agenda <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Mexico%20Forum%20-%20Agenda%20-%20Public%20_EN_.pdf">here</a>. 
 
Entitled the &ldquo;Conference on Building Solidarity with the Democratic Labour Movement in Mexico,&rdquo; the forum is targeted at making an impact in both Mexico and Canada, following Mexican President Felipe Calder&oacute;n&rsquo;s recent visit to the Canadian Parliament, and the continued anti-union strategy of the Mexican government. 
 
The ICEM Executive Committee last week issued a resolution against mining giant Grupo M&eacute;xico and the Calder&oacute;n government following unprovoked violence by federal police against workers in the city of L&aacute;zaro C&aacute;rdenas in the Michoac&aacute;n region. Read the complete resolution <a href="/index.php?id=5&amp;la=EN&amp;doc=3795">here</a>. 
<img alt="" src="" width="267" height="346" />
This latest attack is an attack on the autonomy of the National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM), also known as Los Mineros. The violence follows the arrest of Mario Garc&iacute;a Ort&iacute;z, Los Mineros&rsquo; special delegate for the State of Michoac&aacute;n, also the Alternative General Secretary of the union and President of the recent Convention of the union. When a delegation of Section 271 went to the police station to ask the reason for the arrest, they found Ort&iacute;z in the process of being released. Without provocation, the police ordered the mineworkers to lie on the street, and then brutally beat the union members. 
 
Mario Ort&iacute;z was seriously injured in the attack and hospitalised. Following the attack, the Section 271 members were detained by police, only being released when their 3,000 fellow Section 271 members stopped work at the ArcelorMittal steel facility in protest. 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s governing body last week demanded that the Calder&oacute;n government respect the democratic decision of the recent Los Mineros Congress, which re-elected Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez as General Secretary. G&oacute;mez is forced to lead the union from exile in Canada, as the Mexican government and Grupo M&eacute;xico continue sham legal processes against him. The treatment of Los Mineros official Juan Linares acts as stark reminder of what Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez risks facing if he returns to his country. Juan Linares was arrested in September 2008 at an airport on his return from Canada, where he was a guest at a Canadian labour conference. 
 
&ldquo;ICEM affiliates in Canada and the US have put fourth extraordinary efforts assisting our sisters and brothers in Mexico to stand up against a repressive government and some ruthless employers,&rdquo; stated Joe Drexler, ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs and Coordinator for the ICEM North American Region. 
<img alt="" src="" width="220" height="148" />
(Photo: International Metalworkers Federation)
Mexican union leaders from different sectors will share experiences of repression and their fight for decent work, under the four following agenda items: Legal &amp; Political Framework of the Labour Movement Crisis; The Mexican Labour Movement in Crisis; Organizing Strategies in Response to the Crisis; Solidarity Strategies in Response to the Crisis. 
 
The event will take place at 89 Chestnut St., Chestnut Residence Hotel, University of Toronto, 2nd floor. Registration is at 08h30am. For more information, write to <a href="mailto:mbeauregard@cep.ca">mbeauregard@cep.ca</a>. 
 
There was positive news at Johnson Controls in the Mexican state of Puebla this weekend, when a long-fought struggle came to fruition. Johnson Controls officially recognizing the SNTMMSRM as the representative trade union of its employees, ending its relationship with a yellow union. 
 
Management was brought to the table just three days after a work stoppage, as the union timed a strike to stop production just before shipments to key customers including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Chrysler, Nissan, and Volkswagen. Johnson Controls was at risk of large fines if supplier contracts were not met. The settlement also sees 80 contract and agency workers given full employment by the American-based company. The US Solidarity Centre in Mexico reports that international pressure was vitally important in reaching this settlement, serving as a clear indication of the need to continue the overall campaign.

Mexico ‘Teach-In’ Organised to Build Trade Union Solidarity

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