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This is the first issue of the e-bulletin on HIV/AIDS. The e-bulletin will be a regular feature in the ICEM’s information strategy on the pandemic. Emphasis will be on workplace issues. It contains news on international governmental organisation such as the ILO and its Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work, The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS – UNAIDS, the World Health Organisation – WHO and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The e-bulletin features news from the ICEM and other Global Unions as well as business organisations. It also gives links to useful websites and materials for union activists who want to deepen their knowledge and broaden their activities to fight HIV/AIDS. 
 
ICEM affiliates are already engaged in a wide range of activities, some have formal agreements with companies; others run education and awareness programmes at the workplace. To spread the information on new agreements and campaigns and to build on best practices affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to hiv.aids@icem.org. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome. 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an e-mail to press@icem.org. Please put ‘subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin’ in the subject line. 
 
Unfortunately, the e-bulletin can only be published in English. For a free automated (non-ICEM) translation of this HIV-AIDS bulletin into other languages, you may want to try http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr or http://www.google.com/language_tools. 
 
 
Revised Statoil Global Agreement Contains HIV/AIDS Clause 
 
The ICEM and its affiliate NOPEF renewed the Global Agreement with the Norwegian gas and oil producer Statoil. The agreement, which was ICEM’s first when signed in 1998 and has since been reviewed and renewed twice, now contains a clause on HIV/AIDS. The clause stipulates that “the company provides a clear and supportive policy on HIV/AIDS and that this policy is effectively implemented throughout Statoil’s operations.” 
 
In the upcoming review of other Global Agreements and in new agreements, the ICEM will strive to include a clause on HIV/AIDS. 
 
 
Crucial Role of Business Fighting HIV/AIDS 
 
In an interview with Newsweek former US ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who is the CEO of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, stressed the vital role of workplace interventions in the prevention and treatment of the disease. He stated that 95% of all the people in the world who are HIV-positive don’t know it and are therefore spreading the virus for the seven or eight years it lies without any symptoms in a person’s body. Without voluntary but highly encouraged testing and prevention, the amounts spent on treatment will be a bottomless pit. Companies have to get heavily engaged in prevention and treatment. 
 
While he conceded that Africa is at the heart of the problem, he emphasised that it is not just an African disease. The fastest growing rates of the disease are in countries such as Russia, the Ukraine and India, which because of its large population has the first or second largest number of victims already although the prevalence rate is still low. 
 
The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS – www.businessfightsaids.org - has a wide range of case studies of the HIV/AIDS policies and interventions of its member companies. 
(Source: Newsweek, 15 August 2005) 
 
 
Global Fund Replenishment Meeting Falls Short of Target 
 
At the replenishment meeting in London at the beginning of September, government donors pledged USD 3.7 billion to the Global Fund. This commitment, which fell short of expectations, will be sufficient to pay for grant renewals during 2006 and 2007 after the two-year review period and also for the 2005 anticipated shortfall, but it will not cover the cost of any new rounds. The total needs, including cost of new rounds, had been estimated at USD 7 billion. It has to be said, however, that some countries could not yet commit themselves because of their budgetary cycles. Such late pledges and a further replenishment meeting in June 2006 might still bring the commitments to a level to allow for another round of financing. With a commitment of USD 600 million so far the US is well below its target of contributing one third of total funds committed. 
 
The relatively low level of support raises questions about the G8 commitment in July to place on antiretroviral treatment by 2010 all HIV patients who need it. In June the WHO reported that one million people received ARV treatment. The target of 3 million people on ART by the end of this year, the 3 by 5 Initiative of the WHO, is unlikely to be reached. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer Newsletter, Issue 50 of 7 September 2005) 
The GFO is an independent source of news, analysis and commentary about the Global Fund. The Newsletter is provided free of charge; to receive it send an email to receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org. 
 
 
Mozambique/South Africa: Catastrophic AIDS Death Toll Among Miners 
 
The level of mortality from AIDS among Mozambican miners in South Africa has reached catastrophic levels, according to the Mozambican Deputy Labour Minister. In the last four years at least 2,500 Mozambican miners had died of AIDS. This figure almost certainly understates the true mortality, since it only includes known cases of the disease. There are currently about 46,000 Mozambicans working in South African mines. The article states that some South African mining companies have adopted discriminatory practices, immediately repatriating miners when they are known to have been infected. Miners who suffer this fate die in Mozambique and are thus not included in the South African figures. 
(Source: www.allafrica.com from Agencia de Informaçao de Moçambique, 13 September 2005) 
 
 
ILOAIDS Website 
 
Visit the website of ILOAIDS, which was re-designed in the course of the year. 
www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/trav/aids/index.htm. 
New features include a step-by-step guide to workplace action, a registration facility to keep you informed of events and new materials and a 24-hour news service focusing specifically on HIV/AIDS in the world of work. You can also find the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and World of Work in some 20 languages.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 1

Hundreds of thousands of Australian workers will take to the streets 15 November to protest the Howard government’s proposed reforms to industrial relations, reforms that are expected to be tabled in Parliament by late October. Called a National Day of Community Protest, the event is being coordinated by the Australian Council of Trade Unions and will feature a satellite link-up to hundreds of locations across Australia spelling out the loss of workers’ rights if the reforms are adopted. The nationwide Union Meeting, as it is billed, is expected to become a one-day national strike against the union-smashing measures being put forward by Prime Minister John Howard following the Conservatives new majority in the Parliament’s Senate.

Australians to Protest Labour Reform 15 November

New Zealand’s unions will embark on a third round of stop-work actions at Carter Holt Harvey’s (CHH) wood and paper operations starting tomorrow. ICEM affiliates Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and the National Distribution Union are protesting the company’s inferior pay offers of 2.8% to 4%. NZ unions have set a minimum pattern of 5% across all sectors. On 12 September, workers at five CHH wood products plants and one paper converting operation engaged in one-day strikes, and subsequent rolling work stoppages occurred at other jobsites. Workers at one of the company’s pulp and paper mills—Kinleith—are also protesting a poor pay offer. A set of three-day talks between CHH and EPMU there concluded on 2 September with the company offering only 4% and less for some job classifications. The labour unrest comes when the 50.5% majority stakeholder of CHH, US based International Paper Co., has received a US$1.5 billion sale offer for sale to NZ’s richest individual, Graeme Hart and his Rank Group Investment Ltd. CHH’s board of directors, however, has recommended shareholders vote down the offer, saying it is 9.1% under the company’s true market value.

Carter Holt Harvey Targeted over Wage Deficiencies

ICEM Jordanian affiliate General Trade Union of Workers in Mining and Metal Industries has promised to strike if their demands are not met for deeds to 100 housing units built near the Shidiyeh Mines in Maan, Jordan. The union is demanding the housing be turned over to miners and their families, as promised by King Abdullah, before Jordan Phosphate Mines Co. (JPMC) is privatised, which is expected by the end of the year. The Jordanian trade union, protecting the rights of the 1,350 JPMC workers, warned it will stand firm on the housing rights issue as a precursor against curtailment of any set of rights or workers’ benefits once the company is privatised.

Jordanian Affiliate Demands Housing for Miners

As ICEM Thai affiliate EGAT-LU prepares for a 17 May public hearing to block privatising the nation's electric and water industries, the Brussels-based global union federation-on the request of EGAT-LU-has declared 24-28 May as "International Week of Action." Trade unions across the world are asked to express a visible means of support for EGAT-LU and other unions in Thailand that are resisting the government's rush to privatise the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). 
 
 
"The members of EGAT-LU, as well as members of the Metropolitan Electric-City Authority Union (MEA) and the Provincial Electric-City Authority City (PEA), have brought common cause to all citizens of Thailand in calling on the government to abandon this misguided privatisation effort," said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. 
 
"The ICEM has pledged to the Thai unions that it would keep workers around the world informed of their struggle and would continue the expressions of solidarity. Throughout the last week of May, we're asking the world's trade unions to take direct action." 
 
Specifically, ICEM is calling on unions to write protest letters to the Thai embassies in their countries, and to plan demonstrations at those embassies in support of the agenda of EGAT-LU, MEA and PEA. Unions are encouraged to utilize other innovative means of protest to the Thai government as well. 
 
In Thailand, the unions will also observe the week by bringing mass numbers of rural citizens to picket lines in front of EGAT; the unions with consumer groups will coordinate protests outside the offices of the IMF and World Bank in Thailand; the use of yellow ribbons will increase as the symbol against privatising essential public services; and industrial actions will escalate, although the unions remain steadfast that electricity supplies will be maintained. 
 
The 17 May public meetings in Bangkok before the Senate Commission of Inquiry will be the first public hearings since January and February when the government sent low-level bureaucrats to staff the hearings. At a hearing 25 January at EGAT offices in Bang Kruai, many EGAT-LU members were denied the opportunity to speak, resulting in a demonstration and abrupt halt to the hearing when workers walked out. 
 
EGAT-LU, MEA and PEA are seeking adherence to a 23 April memorandum between the unions and the new chairman of EGAT stating that privatising state utilities of electricity and water will not occur, and the State Enterprise Act of 1999 that enables the privatisations be abandoned. Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra negated that commitment on 26 April by announcing privatisation would go forward. 
 
The unions also seek a return to negotiations where they are prepared to propose new and broader efficiencies for the utilities. The unions also will spell out corrupt practices inside the utilities such as the insider trading schemes and other irregularities, and ask for full disclosure on government plans to expand EGAT into Laos and Burma, as well as clarifications on IMF loans and the conditions of those loans. 
 
The ICEM asks that global trade unions cover those points in letters to Thai authorities. The unions have adopted the theme "Don't Sell Us Out" as their battle cry for this phase of the escalating campaign to block privatisation inside Thailand.

Global Week of Action to Support Thai Electric Union

The ICEM's Executive Committee, the global union federation's governing body, interrupted its annual session in Brussels today to stage a demonstration at the Embassy of Thailand in Belgium. Some 120 trade union leaders from 40 countries converged on the embassy in protest against the government's continued privatisation push of the nation's electric and water services. 
<img height="228" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/themb1s.jpg" width="350"/>
The noon-hour demonstration was part of an "International Week of Action" on behalf of ICEM affiliate EGAT-LU and Thai unions Metropolitan Electric-City Authority Union (MEA) and Provincial Electric-City Authority (PEA). The unions have succeeded to date in delaying the privatisation of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), but the government of Prime Minister Thaskin Shinawatra is still intent on making EGAT a publicly traded company. 
<img height="158" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/themb2s.jpg" width="350"/>
 
After pushing up to the door of the Thai embassy with letters of protest from their respective unions, Brussels police informed the ICEM's union leaders that a 50-meter distance rule exists on mass assembly in front of a nation's foreign mission. The delegates then crossed a boulevard and ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, President John Maitland and ICEM Vice President Paul Lootens from AC/CG-FGTB in Belgium entered the embassy with the letters. 
 
"We were received by the first secretary of the embassy in the absence of a Thai ambassador in Belgium at this time," said Higgs, who visited the ongoing protests by the Thai unions in Bangkok in late April. "We were able to convey the views of the international trade union movement on the Thai government's intent to privatise and the officer assured that responses to the letters would be forthcoming." 
 
ICEM affiliates throughout the world used 24-28 May as a week in which to register their protests with Thailand over the privatisation matter. 
 
In Thailand, the week of action produced more protests and more direct action against the government's plans.

Protest at Thai Embassy in Brussels over Privatisation

A fter five days of attempting to persuade corporate officials of a Taiwanese firm in intervene in a longstanding American labour dispute, five trade union members and representatives of Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical, Energy (PACE) Workers' Union, an ICEM affiliate, launched a hunger strike in Taipei today. 
 
The US unionists have been locked off their jobs in Ponca City, Oklahoma, by Continental Carbon Co. (CCC), a subsidiary of the giant Koos Group of Taiwan, since 8 May 2001. The PACE contingent arrived in Taiwan on Monday expecting a meeting with senior members of the Koo family to resolve the dispute. They did meet 10 June with company officials from China Synthetic Rubber Co. and Taiwan Cement-the two Koo companies that control carbon black producer CCC-but a second meeting with senior officials of the Koos Group was denied. 
 
Instead, the Taiwanese conglomerate issued a statement on the visit by the American trade unionists, accusing them of distorting the truth about the lockout and environmental problems surrounding the Oklahoma plant. "Such action has misled the people of Taiwan and has caused great harm to the reputation and public image of our two companies," the statement read. "With this in mind, we have asked the Taiwan government and law enforcement agencies to use all available legal means to protect the interests of our companies." 
 
The hunger strike by PACE members still legally employed by CCC and union representatives began after the Annual General Meeting of Taiwan Cement where the US visitors together with Taiwanese supporters staged a protest. 
 
"We are appalled that a company will call upon all the instruments of the state in order to silence legitimate protests by people whose livelihoods are at stake," said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. "We are confident that Taiwanese officials will not be provoked by such rash and hostile statements." 
 
The Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions (TCTU) is giving local support to the American protestors. Earlier in the week, the PACE members and representatives, together with the TCTU, met with officials of the Taiwanese labour ministry and officials of the Ministry to Foreign Affairs to explain to them the circumstances surrounding the three-year lockout in Oklahoma, as well as environmental lawsuits against CCC brought by PACE and the Oklahoma's Ponca Tribe of Native Americans.

US Unionists Begin Hunger Strike in Taiwan

T he ICEM today signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Paris, France, that will establish standards and criteria on which diamonds and precious stones are mined and traded. The signing between the 20-million-member global union federation, Antwerp-based Belgian Diamonds and Precious Stones Federation (BDPSF), and Global Witness came during an international gems conference organized by the European Precious Stones Conference. 
 
The Memorandum of Understanding establishes an international non-profit agency entitled the Bureau of Minerals and Gemology that will now undertake responsibility to establish rules, standards and guidelines for companies mining diamonds and precious stones, as well as traders, manufacturers and others involved in the industry. 
 
"This is a very significant agreement, a first of its kind in this sector," said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. "We're hopeful that not only the consumer, but industrial users of diamonds recognise that a standard will exist that assures internationally recognized workers' rights are in place and the products come conflict-free and corruption-free." 
 
Historically, the diamond trade has relied on a certification system characterized by the four Cs: cut, clarity, carat and color. The three organisations now hope to add a fifth C to certification-that of confidence, meaning that consumers and others can be confident diamonds and other gems are corruption-free, conflict-free, free of child labour, as well as mined, processed and polished under conditions in which workers' rights are upheld. 
 
Such standards have not previously existed in the diamonds and precious stones trade. 
 
Global Witness is a London-based non-governmental organisation that tracks exploitation of natural resources and human rights abuses. BDPSF is a trade group that encompasses diamond merchants and companies that buy and sell diamonds and precious stones. The ICEM is the dominant trade union federation in mining, energy and processed industries with over 400 affiliated unions in 125 countries.

ICEM Inks MOU Creating Standards for Diamond Sector

The 20-million-member ICEM has vowed to strengthen the UN’s Global Compact by pushing for integrity measures that would make the Compact more credible for corporations signing onto the principles of social responsibility. A week after a watershed Leaders Summit in New York City on UN General Security Kofi Annan’s four-year-old initiative, General Secretary Fred Higgs issued a summary report on the Compact and laid out global labour’s future involvement.
<img height="197" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/FH-GCS.jpg" width="350"/>
 
Higgs was one of four members of the Global Compact’s 17-member Advisory Committee charged with drafting integrity measures leading into the June 24 Leaders Summit. 
 
“In developing these procedures,” wrote Higgs, “it became clear there would be a need to for some ultimate sanction if all other efforts in getting a company to comply failed.” That sanction, he added, “would be to de-list the company from the Global Compact register.” 
 
Higgs also identified another hurdle to clear to make the Compact work. “At the same time as these integrity measures were being developed, other logistical problems regarding management of the Global Compact initiatives were being realized. The most significant of these is the inadequate administrative resources available to manage an initiative involving now over 1,500 companies.” 
<img height="166" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/GCS.jpg" width="350"/>
 
Higgs reiterated in the report what he said during a speech at the opening of the summit: “A prerequisite for the ongoing support of the global unions for this initiative was that any reconstituted structure for taking the Compact forward would need to include integrity measures and an ultimate sanction for those companies that clearly have no intention of applying the ten principles for which they had signed up to.” 

Higgs is one of two labour leaders on the Advisory Committee, and has been labour’s voice on the Compact. Kofi Annan announced at the close of the Leaders Summit that a small group would examine the current structure and governance of the Global Compact over the next 12 months. 
 
The Global Compact’s principles are now voluntary and encompass areas of human rights, labour standards and the environment. The labour standards include freedom of association, right to collective bargaining, abolition of forced, compulsory and child labour, and elimination of employment and job discrimination. At the summit, the tenth principle was added, an anti-corruption measure. The ICEM welcomed the addition and calls it “a necessary standard that by its very nature calls for review through workable integrity measures.” 
 
The ICEM is the dominant trade union federation in mining, energy and process industries sectors with over 400 affiliates in 125 countries. 
For a report by Fred Higgs on the UN Global Compact Summit, <a href="/index.php?id=97&doc=1395&la=EN" type="internal">click here</a>.

UN’s Global Compact Needs Enforcement Mechanism, Says ICEM

A lingering labour dispute in Argentina with Bridgestone/Firestone has caused the ICEM to seek immediate assistance from global trade unions. The 20-million-member global union federation is asking affiliates and others to use 16-17 July as Days of Protest against the Japanese tyremaker's roughshod manner regarding Argentine labour law and rubber workers at a factory near Buenos Aires. 
 
In a mass circular, ICEM is asking supporters of labour rights to write letters of protest to Japanese embassies or missions in their respective countries, and to protest at Bridgestone/Firestone factories and other commercial sites on either 16 or 17 July. (List of Japanese missions attached to electronic version of this release.) 
 
The labour dispute is at a factory in Llavallol, Pcia, Buenos Aires. Bridgestone management circumvented its legal obligations under Argentina's labour code by refusing to bargain with ICEM affiliate Sindicato Unico de Trabajadores del Neumático Argentina (SUTNA) when the company imposed new work rules last year. Some 90 workers at the 700-worker plant were summarily dismissed. The collective agreement contained a stability clause preventing any workforce reduction without first negotiating with SUTNA. 
 
In the last quarter of 2003, the Labour Ministry for the state of Buenos Aires ordered the workers reinstated with backpay, but Bridgestone refused to obey that order. In February 2004, the National Minister of Labour harshly condemned the company's actions, and reaffirmed the order to abide by the labour agreement, recognise industrial relations policy of Argentina and to reinstate the workers. Bridgestone/Firestone again failed to comply. 
 
ICEM has written to Bridgestone managers in North America that oversee South American operations asking for clarification and adherence but that also was ignored. 
 
In the meantime, a dispute with the company is brewing in North America. ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers of America has been without a labour agreement since March 2003 for 6,000 Bridgestone workers at ten tyre plants in the US. 
 
The ICEM is asking affiliates and other sympathizers to stress the fact that the Japanese firm is ignoring Argentine labour law regarding its unilateral downsizing in Argentina. The ICEM further asks unions to handbill their letters of protest to workers at Bridgestone/Firestone plants and commercial sites across the world. The company maintains production operations in Thailand, Indonesia, France, Italy, Spain, US, Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

ICEM Seeks Urgent Action Against Bridgestone Rubber

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