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The Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri Al-Maliki, will meet in Baghdad with a delegation of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), led by its President, Hassan Jumaa Awad Alasady, tomorrow, Wednesday, 16 May 2007. 
 
The meeting was hurriedly arranged by the Iraqi Prime Minister in a late attempt to avert threatened strike action that would involve all workers and technicians throughout the oil industry of the South, stopping production in all of the oil companies in Basra, Misan, Thi-Qar and Muthanna and affecting all domestic oil products as well as the export of crude oil. The strike may still take place. 
The trade union delegation will return to Basra on Thursday, 17 May, where the union will decide on further steps according to the outcome of the discussions with the Prime Minister. 
 
This is no idle threat. The IFOU, previously known as the GUOE-Basra, has over 26,000 members throughout the ten state oil companies in the south of Iraq and has a past history of strike action in defence of its members and the industry. 
<img height="263" alt="" src="" width="350" />
(Photo &ndash; from left to right) 
Sue Rogers, Chairperson TUC Iraq Solidarity Committee; Owen Tudor, Head of TUC European Union and International Relations Department; Hassan Jumaa Awad Alasady, President Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU); Jim Catterson, ICEM Director of Organisation; Ralf Erbel Coordinator of the Iraqi Workers Project ITUC,&nbsp;Amman Office 
The union is also at the forefront of the Iraqi trade union struggle against the proposed hydrocarbons law which, as written, would benefit the multinational oil industry far more than the Iraqi people. Indeed, one demand on the table when the meeting takes place is a call for serious consultations to take place with the trade unions on the present contents of the draft law, and that the trade unions must be able to review any proposed legislation prior to any attempted introduction. 
 
ICEM is following the situation closely and will be calling on affiliated trade unions for solidarity action in the event of a strike. 
 
The strike threat was initially made in a 27 April public letter to the Iraqi Oil Minister, following discussion at the union&rsquo;s Executive Board meeting with broad member representation the previous day in Basra. The meeting formulated a list of demands and the call for a strike was unanimously adopted if the demands were not met by 10 May 2007. 
 
The strike date was postponed from 10 May to 14 May as the union entered negotiations with a committee formed by the Iraqi Council of Ministers. No direct negotiations with the Oil Ministry took place and a second postponement of the strike was due&nbsp;to the intervention of the Prime Minister, and the ICEM hopes that his decision to meet the union delegation personally will be significant. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="250" />
The strike call came after numerous demands of the union that the Iraqi government had promised to implement last year had still not been met. Some outstanding commitments are unfulfilled, after having been made several years ago. 
Many of the demands are related to wages and working conditions, including a demand for wage increases, the payment of a previously agreed bonus that is based on the distribution to workers of a proportion of oil revenues achieved by the company, no salary deductions to be made for granted vacation days, and the delivery of land parcels for housing to workers. 
 
Further demands are for the recruitment of new graduates, as well as the promotion of workers where this has been stalled. The union also calls for full time permanent status to be given to workers presently classed as temporary contract workers. 
 
Faced with increased pollution in oil facilities and evidence that there is a major increase in the incidence of cancers among the workforce the union has also tabled health and safety demands. 
 
All of these demands and the strike call were discussed by Hassan Jumaa at a meeting in Amman, Jordan, 1 May 2007 with a delegation from ICEM, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) of the United Kingdom, and the Jordan office of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The aim of the meeting was principally to improve communication channels between Hassan Jumaa&rsquo;s union and the international trade union movement, as well as to discuss future joint work and cooperation. 
 
Discussions were detailed and wide-ranging and we look forward to increased cooperation in the future. This is already happening with Arabic speaking staff of both the ITUC and the Solidarity Center of AFL-CIO having facilitated communication between IFOU and ICEM and the TUC over recent days.&nbsp;
Read the letter by the IFOU to the Iraqi oil minister in <a href="/index.php?id=24&amp;doc=2261">English</a> or <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0705Iraq.pdf">Arabic</a>.
For more information, please contact Jim Catterson, ICEM Director of Organisation, +32-2-626.20.45 or <a href="mailto:jim.catterson@icem.org">jim.catterson@icem.org</a>.

Threatened Oil Industry Strike in Iraq

The Executive Committee of the ICEM condemns the position taken by many global multinational companies, especially those companies originating from democratic countries, which are negatively influencing the decision making process of the Chinese government concerning the new Chinese labour law for workers in China. 
 
Whereas, the current and new legal requirements by the Chinese government, in the eyes of the international trade union movement, are far below international standards as commonly accepted, 
 
Whereas, many multinational enterprises doing business in China oppose implementation of these requirements. 
<img height="67" src="" width="100" alt="" />
Whereas, ICEM is concerned about the work conditions in China, and also about the influence that Chinese labour standards have on the position and working conditions of workers world-wide. 
 
Be it Resolved, that ICEM calls upon multinational companies not to oppose these new requirements by the Chinese government, which, even though set at a level well below internationally accepted standards, can be considered progress. 
 
Be it further Resolved, that ICEM calls upon multinational companies not to oppose the struggle by workers towards free, strong and independent trade unions in China. 
 
Be it further Resolved that, multinational companies, originating from China, apply high-quality labour standards for their workers throughout their global operations.

ICEM Executive Committee - 10-11 May 2007 

ICEM Resolution on Chinese labour law in multinational companies

The ICEM Executive Committee, meeting in Brussels on 10 and 11 May 2007, deplored the fact that the strike by 82 women workers at Novamed in Antalya, Turkey, is continuing without settlement since September 2006. 
 
In 2007 we can no longer permit practices such as employers granting permission to women to become pregnant and other measures to limit women&rsquo;s rights to maternity and family. These practices no longer belong in the 21st century. 
 
Maternity is a social responsibility. Women may not be penalized by meeting their obligations as mothers. On the contrary, society must acknowledge women&rsquo;s roles as mothers and workers and provide the conditions for them to perform these roles. 
<img height="66" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The practice of restricting women&rsquo;s maternity rights is against ILO Conventions and EU directives and does not suit a country applying for membership in the European Union. 
 
ICEM urges the company to respect its obligations toward international and European law. 
 
ICEM on behalf of 20 million members worldwide expresses its wholehearted solidarity and support to the strikers at Novamed and Petrol-Is. 
 
ICEM Executive Committee 
Brussels, 10 May 2007

ICEM resolution on strike by women workers at Novamed, Antalya, Turkey

<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
1. Costa Rica - Parliament Approves Law to Penalize Violence against Women 
2. Denmark - From our readers: Marianne Bruun, 3F, writes 
3. Ecuador - Women Workers&rsquo; Coordinate and Meet 
4. India - Women&rsquo;s Ceremony for Children of Worker Victims 
5. Iraq - May Day in Basra 
6. Korea - Women Workforce Expands 
7. Mexico - Mexico City Legalises Abortion 
8. Morocco - Women&rsquo;s Network Holds Workers&rsquo; Memorial Day Cause 
9. South Africa - Pushes for Constitutional Guarantees of Gender Equality 
10. Resources
<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
1. Costa Rica &ndash; Parliament Approves Law to Penalize Violence Against Women
On 12 April 2007, the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly passed pioneering legislation to penalize violence against women. The aim is to protect the rights of the victims of violence and to sanction such in all its forms &ndash; physical, psychological, sexual, property &ndash; in the context of a relationship of power or confidence. This will only be the second time in the world, after Spain, that this type of legislation has been passed. 
The law implies a change in the penal code and the traditional concept of related crimes. Women should thus have better protection against violence in relations with partners. Costa Rica is now a reference point in the Americas in terms of legislation against violence against women. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
2. Denmark
From our readers: Marianne Bruun, 3F, writes: 
Average male earnings are higher than average female earnings in the Danish labour market. Depending on how hourly wages are calculated, the unadjusted pay differences, i.e., the percentage difference between the average earnings of men and women, is between 12-19%. 
The main single explanation of the pay differences between men and women in Denmark is that women work in other professions than men, and that people working in those professions are generally paid less than people working in the typically male professions. 
 
For years we have asked for statistical tools that would show pay inequalities in various lines of business and job categories. The Danish government has now adopted legislation requiring that major enterprises prepare gender-separated statistics. 
If they prefer it, the enterprises may instead prepare reports on equal pay, provided employees agree with this. Such reports must contain information about matters that have an impact on male and female employees&rsquo; pay in the enterprise, and must also describe initiatives taken by the enterprise to avoid pay inequality. 
 
The new legislation applies to enterprises with 35 or more full- and part-time employees and have at least ten people of each gender employed in the same job function. Enterprises that do not have any groups of at least ten men and ten women do not have to prepare gender-separated pay statistics. 
 
In the trade union movement, we are not at all pleased with this limitation, which means that only a small proportion of our members will be covered by the new legislation. We have therefore decided to create a number of supplementary tools that can be used by union representatives in most workplaces, thus enabling them to collect data on pay themselves and to identify any pay inequality issues in their own enterprise. 
Paternity leave 
In connection with the recently finalised collective bargaining in Danish industry, we have achieved two very important improvements in the field of equal opportunities for men and women. 
 
First of all, a number of weeks have been earmarked for leave for fathers. Danish legislation provides a total of 32 weeks of leave to be shared by parents (in continuation of the mother&rsquo;s 14-week maternity leave). However, in most cases it is the woman that takes the entire &rsquo;shared&rsquo; leave, while men are rarely keen to take leave. One reason is that women want to have the entire leave; another is that colleagues and employers are reluctant to let men take time off to go on paternity leave. 
 
It has now been agreed that a family is entitled to full pay in nine of the thirty-two weeks of leave, but that either parent may only take leave for six of those nine weeks. This means that at least three weeks are earmarked for leave for the father if the family wants to receive full pay for nine weeks. We hope this will make more men go on paternity leave. 
 
Another important aspect is that we will now do something about the fact that women who take maternity leave lag behind in terms of pensions, as they do not contribute to any pension scheme while they are on leave. The new collective agreements compensate a bit for that. 
Reconciliation between family and working life
We have long discussed our members&rsquo; need for a better work-life balance, so in order to find out what our members mean when they say they want a better balance between work and family life, we have carried out a questionnaire survey. 
 
Our members, first of all, point out that they believe this particular issue should be one of the union&rsquo;s focus areas. They also express a strong wish to have family policy included in our collective agreements, which it has not previously been in Denmark. 
 
The survey also shows that stress is a common phenomenon among our members. This is particularly true of women members, not least single mothers. The distribution of work in families is still far from equal, which means that most women work full-time outside the home and also have to do the housework. That is why our focus will be, to an increasing extent, targeting labour market demands that can possibly make daily work-life easier for families with young children. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
3. Ecuador &ndash; Women Workers&rsquo; Coordinate and Meet
The Eighth Meeting of the Coordination of Andean Women Workers took place on 2-3 May in Manta, Ecuador, with the proposal to fight for equal opportunities between men and women. About 20 women from trade union national centres met in Bolivia. Representatives from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela attended the meeting of COMUANDE. 
 
The meeting adopted a proposal to be passed on to the Andean Community of Nations that equal opportunities between men and women must become reality once and for all. COMUANDE meets once a year in regional assembly at rotating venues. It is a space for coordination and exchange to make proposals regarding trade unions, social policy, and politics in the process of Andean integration. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
4. India &ndash; Women&rsquo;s Ceremony for Children of Worker Victims 
In the framework of Workers&rsquo; Memorial Day, 28 April, the Society for Working Life held a women&rsquo;s meeting in New Delhi to organise a candle ceremony with children of worker victims. Local trade unions in Bihar state also organised a similar commemoration. SWL, the Society for Working Life, is involved in the Women, Work, and Health Initiative, and works with NGOs in Bihar to create awareness of HIV/AIDS among migrant workers. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
5. Iraq &ndash; May Day in Basra 
<img height="285" alt="" src="" width="380" />
&nbsp;The GFIW Says Strong Unions Need Women 
<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
6. Korea &ndash; Women Workforce Expands
Women comprise more than 42% of the Korean workforce, according to a recent survey by the state-run Korean Employment Information Service. This marks a steady increase over the years. 
 
The survey analysed the nation&rsquo;s employment structure based on gender, salary, and occupational category. The female workforce increased most in the chemical industry, with a 6.5% rise. On the other hand, the number of women&rsquo;s jobs decreased by 4.1% percentage points in the industrial arts and furnishing services. And fewer women took jobs in the electric and telecommunication sectors. 
 
An earlier survey by the Korea Institute of Finance showed that women had outpaced men in the tight job market. According to the National Statistical Office, women took 154,000, or 69.4%, of about 222,000 new jobs in various high-paying professions in 2006. Those jobs included lawmakers, high-ranking government officials, lawyers, doctors, and professors. 
 
Men claimed the remaining 68,000 new jobs. The number of lawmakers, corporate executives, and managers reached 571,000 in 2006, down 3,000 from 2005, but the number of women increased by 2,000 during the same period. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
7. Mexico &ndash; Mexico City Legalizes Abortion 
 
The Mexico City legislature passed a bill to legalize abortion during the first three months of pregnancy. This occurred on 24 April. 
 
Feminists hailed the decision as a victory. For decades women, especially poor women, have been forced by way of backstreet abortions and questionable practices to end unwanted pregnancies. Thousands die every year due to botched abortions. 
 
Mexico City has now become the largest entity in Latin America after Cuba and Puerto Rico where women may have abortions on demand in the first three months of pregnancy. Most other states in Mexico only allow abortion in cases of rape or danger to the woman&rsquo;s health. 
 
Opponents have condemned this measure, passed in this highly Catholic country. Court battles and clashes are bound to be launched. It may ultimately be challenged by the Supreme Court. The Pope publicly condemned the bill. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
8. Morocco &ndash; Women&rsquo;s Network Holds Workers&rsquo; Memorial Day Cause 
The women&rsquo;s network &ldquo;Women and Sustainable Development&rdquo; lit candles on 28 April to commemorate victims in countries without protective legislation. They also rang out an alarm at fetal deformities due to cancer in women because of health hazards on the job, or pollution. 
 
The women called on politicians to pay more attention to health and safety, and for trade unions to be more involved in job-related safety issues in Arab-Muslim countries. The network appealed to women throughout the world to stand in solidarity against victims of injustices, and with women in areas of conflict in order to promote peace. 
 
The network aims to connect with women workers throughout the world in order to promote sustainable development and occupational safety. It started with women in Arab-Muslim countries, and now extends to Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Kuwait, Tunisia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, Sudan, Somalia, United Arab Emirates. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
9. South Africa Pushes for Constitutional Guarantees of Gender Equality 
 
South Africa&rsquo;s Cabinet is 42% women, one of the highest percentages in the world. South Africa&rsquo;s Commission on Gender Equality has called consultations on a draft protocol to break new ground to make first-time commitments on gender equality in a sub-regional document. 
 
In August, the Heads of State of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will be called upon to elevate the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development to a more biding Protocol. NGOs have audited the 1997 declaration and decided that non-binding measures have not worked. Legally binding measures are now being sought to move SADC to implementation. 
 
The African Union has come out in favour of gender parity, but it has not set targets. 
 
Setting targets has the effect of mobilising those who lag behind, since no country wants to be seen as the worst performer. All SADC countries, except Botswana, have increased the proportion of women in parliament. The increases have been particularly marked in Swaziland, Malawi, and Mauritius. On average, women comprise 20% of the region&rsquo;s legislators, second only to the Nordic countries. 
 
In addition, countries would be required to specify that in case there is a conflict between customary and state law, the national constitution will take precedence, as is the case in South Africa. Customary laws govern most women&rsquo;s lives in the region, so that this change may be the most significant of all. These changes are slow but necessary if the root inequalities are to be eliminated. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="" width="25" />
10. Resources
The World Bank&rsquo;s Global Monitoring Report on the Millenium Goals shows that progress toward gender equality is lagging. Available on the World Bank&rsquo;s website: 
<a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21296903~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html">http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS 
/0,,contentMDK:21296903~pagePK:64257043~ 
piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html</a>
Coalition of Labor Union Women, the working women&rsquo;s organization in the United States: 
<a href="http://www.cluw.org">www.cluw.org</a>
The Berger-Marks Foundation assists organizations in organizing: 
<a href="http://www.bergermarks.org">www.bergermarks.org</a>
Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2007 (draws attention to gender inequalities) 
<a href="http://www.unescap.org/publications/detail.asp?id=1205">www.unescap.org/publications/detail.asp?id=1205</a>

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN 22

<img height="40" src="" width="100" alt="" />
ICEM affiliate Petroleum, Mining, Chemical Workers&rsquo; in Palestine (GUPMCWP) undertook a two-day course in Ramallah on trade union education and committee building. The workshops took place 27-28 April. 
 
The training for 25 workers is a continuation of programmes and practices that the union is engaged in to build a democratic trade union movement. 
 
In February, some 60 Palestinian labour activists took part in a similar seminar, also in the Palestinian West Bank city of Ramallah. 
<img height="115" src="" width="250" alt="" />
Workers in Palestine have suffered immeasurably due to restrictions by the Israeli military on freedom of movement to and from jobs. The production of goods from Palestine and the providing of services have also stricken the country&rsquo;s economy, in what the ICEM has stated is &ldquo;collective punishment of a people.&rdquo; 
 
Viable and democratic trade unions hold the future for growth and a measure of prosperity for millions of Palestinians, the ICEM believes. To help achieve that, the ICEM has established a programme with GUPMCWP that includes training for women workers inside Birzeit Pharmaceutical, a factory that has experienced shortages of raw products due to delays caused by the Israeli authorities. 
<img height="129" src="" width="100" alt="" />
GUPMCWP President Mohammad Mousa Jadallah 
GUPMCWP President Mohammad Mousa Jadallah said that the Palestinians that are hurt the most by Israel&rsquo;s blockade on movement, trade, and revenues are women, children, and the elderly. 
 
Jadallah said the union&rsquo;s workers&rsquo; training programmes will heighten awareness to potential gains that can be made for all Palestinian workers. 
 
Nabeel Mahmmoud, GUPMCWP&rsquo;s International Director, said the training serves as basic organising, and that building of democratic committee structures inside workplaces &ndash; particularly Birzeit Pharmaceutical &ndash; is a necessity in Palestine to alleviate poverty.

Palestine Trade Union GUPMCWP Conducts Further Trade Union Courses

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The ICEM has expressed shock and anger at the mid-April killing of General Federation of Iraq Workers (GFIW) Vice-President Moaaid Hamid and his wife. The two were killed in the province of Nineveh during a clash between forces of the Iraqi army and terrorist elements inside the province. 
 
Hamid was a contributor to the founding of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions in 2003, before that trade union centre evolved into the GFIW. He had been a victim of Saddam&rsquo;s regime against free and independent trade unions, and after the invasion, had been abducted and tortured by terrorists before he was freed by Iraqi security forces. 
&nbsp;<img height="36" alt="" src="" width="300" />
In a letter to the GFIW, the ICEM wrote, &ldquo;This appalling violence, coming as it does so soon after the abduction, torture, and subsequent murder of Najim Abd-Jasem, the General Secretary of the Mechanic Workers&rsquo; Union of your Federation, strengthens our view that there is a systematic campaign to eliminate the leadership of the newly formed independent and democratic unions that strongly oppose sectarianism.&rdquo; 
 
The letter was sent by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda on 29 April 2007.

ICEM Mourns Killing in Iraq of GFIW Vice-President

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
ICEM affiliate Argentine Federation of Private Oil and Workers Union (FASPyGP) launched a series of rolling strikes to oil and gas production on 3 May across several provinces of the South American nation. The dispute is over a continued wage impasse between the union and several companies, covering 35,000 workers. 
 
The companies have balked at paying 2007 wage increases of 20%, an amount FASPyGP claims is only 45 minutes of combined production in oil and gas fields. The strikes have occurred at gas deposits near Mendoza and Salta, and other energy extraction in the provinces of Tierra del Fuego, Chubut, and Neuqu&eacute;n y Santa Cruz. 
<img height="66" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The companies being targeted include Repsol YPF, Argentine-British Pan American Energy, Apache, Argentina&rsquo;s PlusPetrol, as well as units of major energy producers, such as Petrobras and ExxonMobil. The industry has offered only 15% increases. 
 
Oil and gas companies doing exploratory and extraction work in Argentina have increased gas output by 5.2% in the first quarter of 2007, while oil production has jumped 4.9%. The companies export some 65% of all production and with oil and gas prices remaining high, multinationals have prospered from the country&rsquo;s natural resources. 
 
The government of Nestor Kirchner has called on oil and gas companies to expand their investment efforts in Argentina&rsquo;s energy sector, as well as to compensate oil and gas workers fairly as a means to curbing consumer price inflation.

Argentina Oil Union, FASPyGP, Launches Oil, Gas Strike

Trade unionists from across Belgium and international delegates converged on an industrial suburb of Li&egrave;ge, Belgium, this morning. They were protesting over plans by tyre giant Continental to shut down production of truck tyres there. 
 
After a meeting outside the gates of the Continental plant, hundreds of workers marched round the industrial estate. Later, a motorway was blocked by demonstrators. 
 
 

<img height="287" src="" width="380" alt="" />
CONTINENTAL'S BELGIAN CLOSURE: 
700 JOBS AT RISK 

Continental's closure plan jeopardises 700 jobs in an area that has already suffered greatly from the delocalisation strategies of the multinationals. 
Today's demo was organised by Belgian general workers' union the Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale-FGTB and salaried staffs' union SETCa-FGTB, both of which are affiliated at the global level to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Union (ICEM). Co-organiser was the chemical workers' union CSC-Chimie. 
 
&quot;The workers around the world are watching,&quot; ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs told the demonstrators, &quot;and they are insisting that workers in Belgium be treated with respect and dignity.&quot; An ICEM contingent took part in the demonstration, carrying the banners of the international. 
 
The ICEM has launched a worldwide solidarity campaign in support of the Belgian Continental workers. 
 
Continental's announcement has caused widespread outrage in Belgium. Its plant there is one of the most modern in the company, and its Belgian workers had accepted a whole series of job cuts and pay reductions since 1997 in order to safeguard the Belgian operation. &quot;Today,&quot; says the Central G&eacute;n&eacute;rale, &quot;the workers note that all this simply served to generate profits for the multinational, which invested them elsewhere.&quot; 
 
The unions had called for a moratorium on the closure until the end of this year at the very earliest, so as to give time for serious negotiations on job preservation measures and compensation. The management's response was to speed up the closure plans. &quot;A provocation,&quot; say the unions. 
 
There is no doubt where the real responsibilities lie, Michel Nollet told the demonstrators this morning. He is the President of the Belgian national trade union federation FGTB. Multinational companies had undertaken closure after closure, Nollet said. This proved that governments had lost control of their economies. Noting the absence of politicians from today's demonstration, Nollet challenged governments worldwide to reassert their authority over the multinational corporations. And he called for international trade union solidarity to fight Continental's closure plan.

Outrage Over Continental Tyre&#039;s Belgian Closure Plan

Workers now have information and co-determination rights on the supervisory board of Franco-German chemicals giant Aventis. 
 
An important precedent for European worker participation is set by the agreement, which has just been finalised by the French and German chemical workers' unions, the company and the European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers' Federation (EMCEF). 
 
German law provides for Mitbestimmung (worker co-determination) in big companies at two levels - the works council and the supervisory board. Within the European Union (EU) as a whole, meanwhile, worker participation so far has been at the level of European Works Councils. 
 
The supervisory board is one of the two tiers within German company boards. It determines overall corporate policy and appoints the management board, which is in charge of the day-to-day running of the company. The management board answers to the supervisory board for its conduct of the company's business. 
 
The most common type of corporate-level co-determination in Germany requires equal numbers of employee-elected and shareholder-elected representatives within the supervisory board. However, at least one of the employee representatives is a senior manager and the chairman is, in practice, an extra shareholder representative with a casting vote. Nonetheless, there is strong pressure to maintain consensus within the supervisory boards, which also play a crucial role in German unions' information about trends within the company. 
 
The German labour minister has tabled proposals to further update and strengthen the country's co-determination system. But the growing economic integration of the EU has raised some issues. Labour legislation varies greatly from one EU country to another, and the creation of a European company statute could complicate the question of co-determination rights. 
 
So an important test case was created in 1999 by the merger of German-based chemicals multinational Hoechst AG with French-based Rh&ocirc;ne-Poulenc S.A. to form Aventis S.A. 
 
Aventis is headquartered just outside Strasbourg, France. Hoechst AG continues to exist as a German-registered firm, but it is now an intermediate holding company affiliated to Aventis, which owns about 97% of the Hoechst shares. 
 
Immediately after the merger, the German and French chemical workers' unions set about ensuring worker participation within the new company. An agreement in principle was reached with the Aventis management last year. But the new arrangement, the first of its kind at the European level, ran into problems on the ground. The additional agreement just signed clears up the practical details. 
 
The package is a &quot;viable compromise,&quot; commented Hubertus Schmoldt. He is President of the German chemical workers' union IG BCE and of EMCEF, and Vice-President of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
&quot;The decisive point,&quot; Schmoldt said, &quot;is that we are making a start on the qualified representation, in practice, of workers on the boards of transnational corporations.&quot; 
 
Four of the six worker representatives - two French and two German - will be voted on to the supervisory board of Aventis S.A. by the company's shareholder assembly. The worker representatives will have the same rights as the ten representatives of capital on the board. 
 
The two other worker seats on the board are those required by French law, which assigns them to the works council (comit&eacute; d'entreprise). Under the Aventis agreement, EMCEF will nominate the candidate for one of these two seats. In return for the works council's agreement to this, it will have the right to be represented on the Aventis &quot;European Dialogue Committee&quot;. 
 
The unions see this package as a milestone on the way to co-determination within European companies. 
 
The agreement now goes to the Aventis AGM for formal approval. 
 
Aventis employs around 95,000 people in more than 120 countries. In November 2000, it announced that it intends to focus on pharmaceuticals and will divest its activities in agriculture.

Aventis Worker Participation Deal Is European First

Countries must have the right to buy AIDS medication at an affordable price. 
 
That call was issued in Copenhagen this morning by the leader of trade unions in the world's pharmaceutical industry. 
 
Fred Higgs, General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), was speaking as a crucial court case opened in South Africa today. 
 
Developing countries' access to medication is at issue in the test case between the South African government and 39 big pharmaceutical companies. 
 
To protect their patents, the major drug corporations are asking the court to stop the implementation of a South African law aimed at providing cheaper medicines. The law would permit the country's health minister to use parallel importation of drugs, compulsory licensing and generic substitution (cut-price &quot;copy&quot; drugs) where necessary. 
 
Application of this Act has already been delayed for several years by the legal wrangles. The measure is particularly important to the fight against HIV/AIDS in South Africa, which has one of the world's highest rates of HIV infection. 
 
&quot;As part of the ICEM's programme to combat HIV/AIDS, we believe that South Africa and other countries must have the right to buy the appropriate pharmaceuticals at prices that they can afford,&quot; said Higgs this morning. He was in South Africa last week at an ICEM conference where African and Asian unions adopted a programme of action on HIV/AIDS. 
 
&quot;We hope that the South African courts will defend South Africa's rights in this regard,&quot; Higgs added. &quot;We ask ICEM-affiliated unions to express their support for the South African government's position.&quot; 
 
ICEM affiliates include pharmaceutical workers' unions worldwide. 
 
Higgs was speaking at the congress of the ICEM-affiliated Danish Women Workers' Union (KAD), which is celebrating its centenary this year. Over a thousand delegates are attending the congress.

AIDS Drug Test Case: World&#039;s Pharma Unions Back South Africa

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