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The ICEM joined its UK affiliate Amicus today in denouncing yesterday&rsquo;s alarming announcement by Finnish paper multinational M-real. On Wednesday, workers in the UK were informed, unexpectedly, that the M-real&rsquo;s paper and packaging plant in Sittingbourne, Kent, is about to be closed. 
 
The company&rsquo;s surprise announcement, part of a wider extensive restructuring programme by M-Real, came out of the blue and without any prior consultation or notice. M-real&rsquo;s poor communication techniques therefore not only shocked its own workforce, it also violated a legal requirement that says that the company needs to consult with its own European Works Council first in advance of any decisions such as this one. 
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The closure of the plant, which is owned by Mets&auml;liitto, a Finnish forest industry group - of which M-Real is a subsidiary - would lead to the loss of 350 jobs. The company has also announced plans to close a plant in Wifsta, Sweden, as well as two paper machines in its Gohrsm&uuml;hle plant in Germany, endangering a further 150 jobs. In addition, a cartons unit with sites in Belgium, Hungary and Finland may be divested. 
 
Peter Ellis, Amicus national Officer, said that the union &ldquo;will not take Metsaliitto's proposal to close this site lying down. We owe it to our members and their families, who are angry, bitter and devastated, to do everything in our power to help&rdquo;. He continued to say that he was &ldquo;extremely disappointed&rdquo; with M-Real's proposal to close this site, which is very important to the local economy. 
 
In challenging the company&rsquo;s sudden decision, Amicus said it would certainly want to co-operate with paper unions in the other countries involved, including Finnish Paperiliitto, which also recently faced an M-Real closure when the company, on 11 October, closed a carton plant in Jarvenpaa. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs vowed that &ldquo;the ICEM will give every assistance to its affiliates in challenging the decisions by the company, and will liaise with other affiliates with membership in this company in countries world-wide.&rdquo; 
 
The Amicus press release on the issue, including further contact details, can be found <a href="http://www.amicustheunion.org/default.aspx?page=4721">here</a>.

Anger at M-real’s decision to close large UK paper plant

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ICEM Affiliate Federaci&oacute;n de Industrias Qu&iacute;micas y Afines de Comisiones Obreras (Fiteqa) has, together with the Spanish metalworkers union, Federaci&oacute;n Estatal Minerometal&uacute;rgica, both of which affiliate to CC.OO., published a guide book on how to deal with safety related problems at work. 
 
The guide book follows a change in the law in Spain, which affects both refineries and chemical complexes, and gives workers guidance on how to act in case of an accident. 
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According to the authors, the guide should be a helpful tool to get more companies in the said sectors to accept propositions by Spain&rsquo;s social partners to create more health and safety committees. The handbook discusses the urgent need to create such committees in all enterprises. 
 
The guide highlights the need for more and better information and communications between the largest companies in the sector. Its full name in Spanish is &ldquo;Gu&iacute;a para la implantaci&oacute;n de la Coordinaci&oacute;n de Actividades Empresariales. Desarrollo de la Ley de Prevenci&oacute;n de Riesgos Laborales en las Refiner&iacute;as y complejos petroqu&iacute;micos de Espa&ntilde;a.&rdquo;&nbsp; It can be found <a href="http://www.fiteqa.ccoo.es/salud/Documentos/GuiaImplanta.CoordinacionActividadesEmpres..pdf">here</a>.

Spanish Health/Safety Guide for the Chemical/Metal Sector

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A miners' strike in Kazakhstan that started following the deadly 20 September methane blast in a coal mine that killed 41 has ended. Some 24,500 workers at eight coal mines in central Kazakhstan, owned by the world's largest steelmaker, Arcelor Mittal Steel, returned to their colleries on 5 October after safety and pay demands were partially met. 
 
The strike, which started on 25 September, was joined a few days later by steelworkers from Mittal's steel enterprises in the Karaganda region, as well as by iron ore miners employed by the company. 
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The metalworkers' union had experienced little movement in two months of negotiations prior to the strike, but significant wage gains were won on that front as well. Arcelor Mittal officials admitted that the strike, which stopped production at all eight coal mines, had caused a 30% decline in steel output. 
 
The Korgau coal miners' trade union reported that Arcelor Mittal gave pledges of new mining equipment to replace antiquated machinery already in use prior to 1995, the year that the company purchased the mines as well as vast steelmaking facilities from a state-run company. Miners also realised a doubling, effective 1 October, of their pay. New pay packets will now be the equivalent of US$700 per month. 
 
Steelworkers, who previously had an average pay of US$300 per month, won a 1 October increase of 20%, and will receive another 10% in February 2007. 
 
The methane explosion at the Lenin mine that claimed the 41 lives was the worst mining disaster on record in the central Asian republic. Last week, Arcelor Mittal announced that it made a one-time allowance equivalent to ten years' pay to each of the deceased miners' families. In addition, those families with children under 18 will receive monthly allowances. The one-off payments, however, hardly compensate for the pain and loss of a primary wage-earner. The average payment amounts to US$63,000. 
 
The strikes and protests that followed the explosion, which also seriously injured six miners, had the support and endorsement from Kazakhstan's government. The lower house of Parliament, the Majilis, moved to seek a change in the Kazakh labour code in which core industries such as mining and metallurgy have defined and set levels of minimum pay. 
 
&quot;Foreign investors economise on everything from equipment to sick leave, making miners work in inhuman conditions,&quot; said Parliament Deputy Mukhtar Tinikeyev. He added that Arcelor Mittal had attempted to shift blame of the Lenin Mine disaster &quot;to three person -- the chief engineer and two mechanics. But the blame rests with foreign investors who economise on equipment.&quot; 
 
Arcelor Mittal, with 61 steel plants in 27 countries, derives 8% of its total steel-making capacity from its operations in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan.

Kazakh Miners&#039; Strike Ends with Significant Gains

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A severe industrial explosion at DuPont&rsquo;s Guarulhos facility, in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, reportedly injured three local workers on 5 October. One worker was seriously wounded and brought to hospital, allegedly with burns on 50% of his body. 
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Information on the accident is limited. According to the ICEM affiliated Brazilian chemical union, Sindiqu&iacute;micos, the local DuPont company declined to provide information on the accident. The union was not allowed to enter the plant, further stating that &ldquo;not even the number of victims&rdquo; was communicated by the company. 
Jim Rowe, United Steelworkers (USW) Local 943&rsquo;s president from New Jersey, visited both the Guarulhos and Cama&ccedil;ari DuPont facilities in Brazil in August 2006, together with USW Director Joe Drexler. The company denied them the opportunity to tour the plants. In a USW news release on the current accident, Jim Rowe wonders how &ldquo;DuPont continues to maintain its reputation as a safe company and sell its safety program to other companies in the wake of serious accidents?&rdquo; 
<img height="304" src="" width="350" alt="" />
Workers at DuPont&rsquo;s Guarulhos facility, waiting for information
The tour of the facilities in Brazil was part of a larger effort by the USW to draw attention to safety and environmental problems stemming from DuPont plants worldwide. 
 
The USW states in its news release that, last year, a worker was killed by an explosion at the Cama&ccedil;ari facility. According to a report from the State of Bahia in Brazil at the time, DuPont was blamed for failing to implement control devices to prevent the explosion. Three serious accidents also happened over the last two years at a US DuPont plant in Niagara Falls, state of New York. 
 
The USW is the lead union in ICEM&rsquo;s Global DuPont Workers&rsquo; Network.

Explosion at DuPont Plant in Brazil

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ICEM affiliate and Russian power workers&rsquo; union El&egrave;ctroprovsoy&ugrave;z held its Congress in Moscow on 7-8 December. Debate centered on electric utility RAO UES&rsquo;s reform plan.
RAO UES is dividing the utility&rsquo;s assets in the drive for profits, which brings a severe threat to jobs and workers&rsquo; protections. Val&egrave;ry Vakhr&ugrave;shkin was elected president, and the union reinforced its commitment to international trade union cooperation through the ICEM in the face of globalisation.
El&egrave;ctroprovsoy&ugrave;z, which numbers 775,000 members, celebrated 100 years of trade unionism in Russia at this Congress, which drew 310 delegates of whom more than a third were women.

Russia’s Electric Power Workers’ Union Holds Congress

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The issue of changing the work schedule for contract employees of Esso Australia Resources Ltd. and BHP Billiton Resources in the offshore oil and gas industry will likely reappear in talks now underway between employers, including the ExxonMobil subsidiary, and Australian unions.
In spring 2004, Esso and the contractors locked out workers for a three-week period in an attempt to terminate the enterprise labour agreement in order to impose a two-week on, two-week off work schedule. The Australian Industrial Relations Commission rejected the application, and Esso and contractors, led by Halliburton&rsquo;s KBR subsidiary, the joint venture of Worley Group and ABB, and Corke Instrument, appealed the decision.
The current work schedule is a seven-day roster, which workers and their unions contend is more family friendly. Esso and BHP operate oil and rigs in waters of the Bass Straight off Victoria, and Esso also runs energy processing plants in Longford and Long Island Point, Victoria.

ExxonMobil and Contractors in Australia Return to Bargaining

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Halliburton, the US construction and oil services company, continues to restrict union representation of the unaffiliated Chemical, Energy, Mines, Oil &amp; Gas, and General Workers&rsquo; Union (FSP KEP) in Jakarta, Indonesia.
&nbsp;The company is attempting to withdraw certification of the Jakarta branch union of FSP KEP because branch leaders elected include workers from the information technology department. Halliburton Energy Services of Indonesia claims IT workers have access to sensitive company data, thus should not be eligible to hold union office.
Halliburton delayed a collective agreement for FSP KEP members for a two-year period up until recently because of management turnover and attempts to cut workers&rsquo; benefits. Halliburton is deployed as a contract services provider to several multinational oil companies doing business in Indonesia, including state-run Pertamina, the Chinese government&rsquo;s CNOOC, ConocoPhillips, BP, Total and Caltex.

Halliburton Interferes with Indonesian Union’s Elected Officers

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The USW in the US supports the decision by the federal Labor Department to refer the consequences of BP&rsquo;s fatal 23 March 2005 explosion at an oil refinery in Texas City, Texas, to the US Justice Department for possible criminal indictments.
Fifteen workers&mdash;all contract employees&mdash;were killed and another 170 were workers injured when the blast occurred during start-up of an isomerisation unit at the former Amoco refinery. BP issued its final report on the US&rsquo;s worst industrial disaster in two decades last week by identifying root causes, including &ldquo;Processs safety &hellip; had not been set and consistently reinforced by management.&rdquo;
In September, the US Labor Department&rsquo;s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the firm with over 300 &ldquo;egregious and willful&rdquo; violations and fined the British firm US$21.4 million.

BP’s Texas Oil Refinery Blast May See Criminal Indictments

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The United Steelworkers (USW) in Canada has endorsed the mega-mining merger of Inco Ltd. and Falconbridge Inc., two Canadian mining houses that combined would comprise the world&rsquo;s largest nickel producer.
The C$13 billion friendly takeover was given approval at a USW press conference in Sudbury, Ontario, on 7 December with the announced formation of a Steelworker Inco/Falconbridge Council made up of 8,500 workers at 15 USW bargaining units.
USW said the merged company will be &ldquo;good for Canada, good for communities and good for building bargaining power across the continent.&rdquo;
The merger is threatened by a possible hostile bid by Swiss-based Xstrata Plc., the Glencore International-controlled mining giant which purchased a 20% stake in Falconbridge in August. Inco has extended to 27 January its offer to Falconbridge shareholders, who must sell at least two-thirds of the company&rsquo;s outstanding shares to Inco before the deal becomes final.

USW in Canada Endorses Inco, Falconbridge Mining Merger

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&nbsp;Electricit&eacute; de France (EDF) announced last week that it would eliminate 6,500 jobs through the end of 2007 in an apparent attempt to boost the share price of the newly privatised company.
The French government placed shares totalling 15% of the company on the Paris bourse 21 November in hopes of raising capitalisation of &euro;7 billion. It offered EDF shares at &euro;32 to small investors and &euro;33-per-share to institutional investors.
On 7 December, prior to the job cuts announcement, EDF stock was selling at &euro;31.66. EDF said the jobs would be lost by not replacing roughly 70% of the 9,000 workers expected to retire by the end of 2007.

EDF Announces Job Cuts to Boost Share Price

Archive

Anger at M-real’s decision to close large UK paper plant

Spanish Health/Safety Guide for the Chemical/Metal Sector

Kazakh Miners' Strike Ends with Significant Gains

Explosion at DuPont Plant in Brazil

Russia’s Electric Power Workers’ Union Holds Congress

ExxonMobil and Contractors in Australia Return to Bargaining

Halliburton Interferes with Indonesian Union’s Elected Officers

BP’s Texas Oil Refinery Blast May See Criminal Indictments

USW in Canada Endorses Inco, Falconbridge Mining Merger

EDF Announces Job Cuts to Boost Share Price

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