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A 4 January pipeline leak of some 4.5 tonnes of the chemical hexamethylene diamine (HMDA) at a BASF nylon intermediates plant near Bellingham, Teesside UK, was termed a &ldquo;major incident,&rdquo; causing injuries to 37 workers, including one worker still in serious condition at a North-East UK hospital. 
 
Two other workers had been hospitalised up until late last week. One of the two underwent plastic surgery for burns to the face. Hexamethylene diamine is a component in the manufacture of synthetic material nylons, and is a corrosive substance which causes chemical burns when contact with the skin and eyes is made. It also causes damage if breathed into the lungs. 
 
The incident injured both BASF staff and contract workers employed at the chemical plant. 
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ICEM UK affiliate GMB, which represents some workers at the plant, said it will involve itself fully in investigations now underway by the UK&rsquo;s Health and Safety Executive and the Environmental Agency. &ldquo;When there is an accident of this nature, we always have questions about safety and why it happened,&rdquo; GMB Regional Secretary Tom Brennan told a local newspaper, the Northern Echo. &ldquo;I can assure you, there will be questions raised over safety procedures, equipment, and machinery. There will be a complete review.&rdquo; 
 
Twenty of the workers were decontaminated at the worksite, but 17 others were rushed to hospitals. 
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BASF, the world&rsquo;s largest chemical concern, has had two other serious health and safety occurrences in recent years at this operational site. The German company&rsquo;s previous site, in Wilton, a town close to Bellingham, was struck by a massive fire in 1995. And four years later, a worker who inhaled cyanide fumes died. BASF was fined ₤20,000 in 2002 for that workplace death. 
 
BASF bought the nylon intermediate plant on Seal Sands Road in Bellingham in 1985.

Chemical Leak at BASF in UK Injures 37, One Seriously

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Nigeria&rsquo;s two oil workers&rsquo; unions, NUPENG and PENGASSAN, expressed dismay that no representative from either state or federal government institutions attended last month&rsquo;s funeral of PENGASSAN trade union leader Nelson Ujeya. Ujeya, who was murdered on 20 August 2006, when government forces engaged in a shootout with militants at the time he was to be released, was buried on 16 December in his home town of Uhgelli, Delta State. 
 
Comrade Ujeya was abducted by youth militia on 8 August 2006 in Letugnene, Bayelsa State, and while in the company of senior state authorities. A community liaison officer of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Ujeya and the state officials were inspecting a community development project in Letugnene at the time. 
The circumstances of the kidnapping and murder remain clouded. These circumstances were just one issue in a strike by NUPENG and PENGASSAN last September, a strike that was suspended after two days when, among other promises, the government pledged to conduct a full inquiry into Ujeya&rsquo;s kidnapping and murder. Such an investigation has not yet commenced. 
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PENGASSAN President Peter Esele
&ldquo;We are very sad there were no representatives from the government, especially the Bayelsa State government, at the burial,&rdquo; said PENGASSAN President Peter Esele in a published report. &ldquo;It confirms our long-held argument that our government does not care about us, the ordinary citizens.&rdquo; 
 
Esele added that leaders of the two unions were surprised that not a single representative from either the petroleum or labour ministry paid their respects to Comrade Ujeya. Such absence, Esele continued, reflects the true feelings of top-level governmental officials regarding the promises made to end the September strike. 
Esele did recognise the respect given by SPDC during the aftermath of the murder, in which 10 others were killed, as well as at the funeral. &ldquo;SPDC has provided a lot of assistance, financially, morally, and otherwise to the family to ensure that things are all right,&rdquo; Esele said. &ldquo;So, to SPDC, we appreciate what they have done, but to the government of Bayelsa in whose delegation he was with when abducted and eventually killed, we are very disappointed.&rdquo; 
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Esele delivered a moving eulogy at Comrade Ujeya&rsquo;s funeral: &ldquo;You were, indeed, courageous both in your official duties as a Shell staff member and as a vibrant PENGASSAN activist. Who will ever forget your contributions to the contract staff unionisation and benefits enhancement struggle? Under thick and thin, and under unfriendly and hostile elements, you stood firm with other comrades in 2001 at the height of the contract staff struggle until success was achieved. Today, the lives of contract staff have been improved as a result of the struggle for which you stood firm.&rdquo; 
 
Comrade Ujeye was a Pengassan committee member during a six-week strike that began on 10 May 2001. The strike gave contract staff for SPDC regularised employment with full and vested benefits.

Nigerian Government Ignores Funeral of Nelson Ujeya

Finland&rsquo;s national trade union centre, SAK, has given the issue of contract and agency labour top priority in the nation&rsquo;s parliamentary elections, and promises it will be a primary topic in parliamentary discussions on the opening of labour markets following the 18 March elections. 
 
A SAK task force has already worked out proposals to protect workers employed under fixed-term contracts or by agencies, a phenomenon that has increased dramatically in the Nordic nation in recent years. Finland legalised agency labour over a decade ago. Legislation, however, has not kept pace and offers little in the way of protections for contract workers. 
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One proposal by SAK would be to make agency workers regular employees of the job agencies, a remedy which would guarantee them certain salaries even during periods when their agencies are unable to find them work. SAK believes adoption of such a proposal would limit redundancies of regular workers in favour of contract workers. 
 
Another proposition by the task force is to give shop stewards the right to represent contract workers or agency labourers at their worksites. This would also include the right of shop stewards to have full information on the pay, benefits, and working terms of contract or agency labour. 
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SAK&rsquo;s agenda is not one to eliminate the use of contract or agency labour. &ldquo;For some people, such as students, fixed-term employment and agency labour may be proper,&rdquo; states SAK&rsquo;s Nikolas Elomaa, the confederation&rsquo;s expert on working conditions. &ldquo;However, the rapid growth of agency-hired work and its expansion to industries it was not meant to be applied to is worrying.&rdquo; 
 
SAK estimates that 2005 revenues of labour agencies doing business in Finland topped &euro;650 million.

Finnish Labour Prioritises Contract Labour Issue on National Agenda

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The Federation of Workers&rsquo; Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI) recently organised a major workers protest against fuel price hikes, on 27 December, in Basra at the Petrochemical State Company. On 12 January, the union also participated in a successful demonstration against corruption in the electrical industry of Karbalā, a city some 100 kilometres south of Baghdad. 
 
The strike at the massive petrochemicals plants in Basra last month was marked by slogan-wearing workers denouncing an Iraqi government policy. The government is increasing costs on all commodities, a move aimed at facilitating privatisation. FWCUI is adamant that rising production costs &ndash; mainly coming through fuel increases &ndash; will render the Basra&rsquo;s state refineries complex, where some 5,000 Iraqi workers are employed, uncompetitive, thus ripe for privatisation. Such a scenario is certain to produce job cuts. 
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Strike at Iraq's Petrochemical State Co., 27 December 
&ldquo;Under the pretext of a lack of production profits, layoffs of thousands of workers will come,&rdquo; said FWCUI President Falah Alwan. Throughout the country, millions of Iraqis are suffering severe economic harm, as price increases have far outpaced pay and salary increases. The lifting of fuel subsidies, with another one due to be scrapped in March, will only make matters worse. 
 
At the successful secular protest in Karbalā this weekend, multi-sector FWCUI was a major participant. The protest saw workers from many sectors, Shia and Sunni alike, march and protest against rampant corruption inside the regional authority&rsquo;s electric administration. 
 
FWCUI has called for the end to the military occupation in Iraq, and believes it necessary that workers take a real and active role in determining the structures, labour laws, and constitution of the Iraqi government.

Iraqi Trade Union FWCUI Condemns Fuel Price Hikes, Corruption with Protest

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ICEM HIV/AIDS Regional Workshop 
 
National HIV/AIDS Coordinators from ten sub-Saharan African countries participated in the Regional Workshop in Johannesburg from 4 to 7 December 2006. The workshop was the fourth in a series of workshops held in the framework of the HIV/AIDS projects for the African region during the 2005-2006 project cycle. 
It followed two workshops for national coordinators in 2005 (on initiation and strategies and developing the collective bargaining manual) and one earlier in 2006 on peer education. 
 
The objectives of the workshop were: to identify immediate targets for fundraising, to build arguments on co-investment, to develop own workplace programmes and to write HIV/AIDS projects. The workshop was based on website research and project identification and project writing in small groups. 
 
On fundraising for HIV/AIDS activities it was stressed that funding sources are decentralised. Partnerships have to be built at national and international level; &ldquo;friendly technicians&rdquo; have to be found to help in the development of proposals as unions lack the capacity to work with non-traditional methods and arguments (public/private partnerships, co-investment). 
The working of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) was explained. The need to have unions on the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) was emphasised. 
 
It was stressed again that unions must take the lead for workers to be tested. Without knowing their status, there can be no follow-up on HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and support services. Unions can only advocate VCT to employers if workers are secure in their employment. 
Testing at company level is a problem if workers are not confident that results are not passed on, with dismissal as a possible consequence. Workplaces policies and clauses in collective agreements are therefore necessary. An objective should also be to pursue training to have unionists as highly-qualified counsellors. 
 
Two outside experts from the ILOAIDS programme and the German GTZ talked about Tripartite Action in the World of Work and the ACCA (AIDS Control in Companies in Africa) and BACKUP (Building Alliances &ndash; Creating Knowledge &ndash; Updating Partners) programmes respectively. 
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World AIDS Day &ndash; 1 December 
 
Workers and their organisations play an important role in making World AIDS Day a success, yet they are often not recognised for their efforts. Global leaders have promised to deliver Universal Access to HIV/AIDS services for prevention, care and support and treatment by 2010. For unions and workers, this promise needs to become a reality in every workplace. 
 
ICEM affiliates all over the world commemorated World AIDS Day. In summary it can be said that there has been a big improvement in the involvement and activities. Leaders are taking leadership on the issue more seriously and the reported involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS is encouraging. 
 
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, companies and unions organised rallies with banners &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s kill AIDS!&rdquo; In Mali, fairs with information on HIV/AIDS were organised. In C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire, companies and unions campaigned for testing. In Tanzania, trade unions and PLWHA were represented at the central event in the northern part of the country. Testing and treatment were advocated at a number of mines. 
 
Stigma was the central theme in Botswana where peer educators organised stalls on wellness to drive home the fact that HIV is a condition like others. Apart from the main government-sponsored event in Namibia, the MUN and companies organised HIV/AIDS activities in three southern mines. In Nigeria, NUPENG branches, in cooperation with companies, organised &ldquo;Know Your Status&rdquo; campaigns with testing facilities on site. PERESSA organised prevention campaigns in remote communities. 
 
In Zambia, the union was involved in condom promotion and VCT advocacy. In Ghana, the GMWU worked with Gold Fields in Tarkwa to launch the workplace policy and to inaugurate the VCT centre at the Tarkwa district hospital, which was refurbished with a grant from Gold Field and AngloGold Ashanti. 
 
In India, INMF branches and the Institute for Miners and Metal Workers&rsquo; Education were particularly active in Chhattisgarh state with rallies, debates and competitions on prevention. 
 
On 1 December, the Financial Times published a special supplement on Business and AIDS. 
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Violence against Women and HIV/AIDS 
 
In conjunction with World AIDS Day (December 1) and International Women Human Rights Defenders Day (November 29), the Center for Women's Global Leadership launched the online version of its new human rights report, Strengthening Resistance: Confronting Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS. 
 
Women in both the global South and North face not only staggering rates of HIV infection, but also un-abating levels of violence, whether at the hands of male partners, police, or community members. While most see these as distinct, women around the world are now calling attention to the ways these experiences can be fundamentally linked. 
When women are - or are even perceived - to be HIV positive, they are at risk of violence, discrimination and other human rights violations. And when women are sexually assaulted, whether in conflict situations or in their homes, they are at risk of contracting HIV. 
 
UNAIDS estimates that there are 17.7 million women living with HIV. There is an urgent need for activists and policymakers to create links between these two crises as they create and reinforce each other. Strengthening Resistance focuses on the points of intersection in the social, political and public health crises of violence against women and HIV/AIDS. 
It provides an overview of the most salient issues, including challenges presented by restrictive and ideologically-driven government donor policies, as well as information on coalition building across HIV and women's movements. It is designed for activists, human rights defenders and policy makers alike. The report highlights nine creative advocacy initiatives from different countries and regions, including South Africa, Haiti, Vietnam, Spain and India. 
 
(Source: Press Release of the Center for Women's Global Leadership, 30 November. The report is available at 
<a href="http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/publications/strengthening.pdf">http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/ 
publications/strengthening.pdf</a>.)
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Global Fund and PEPFAR Announce New Treatment Numbers 
 
The Global Fund and the US President&rsquo;s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) announced on December 1, World AIDS Day, that between them they are now supporting antiretroviral treatment for 1.2 million people living with AIDS. This represents a three-fold increase in the total number of people receiving treatment in low- and middle-income countries since December 2003, and a doubling over the course of the past year. 
 
&ldquo;Four years ago, almost nobody in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world was receiving treatment. That well over one million people with AIDS are now on treatment through the support of Global Fund and PEPFAR is a remarkable achievement,&rdquo; said Richard Feachem, Executive Director of the Fund. 
 
In their joint statement, the Fund and PEPFAR said that at the end of September 2006, 822,000 people received support for treatment through PEPFAR&rsquo;s bilateral programs, in fifteen focus countries. The Global Fund supported treatment for 770,000 people worldwide. Approximately 400,000 people in PEPFAR focus countries received treatment support from both PEPFAR and the Global Fund, and are thus counted in the totals for each organisation. 
 
Note from the GFO Editor: When the Global Fund and PEPFAR say that they &ldquo;support&rdquo; treatment for a specific number of people worldwide, this does not mean that their grants &ldquo;provide&rdquo; all aspects of treatment to that many people. 
This is because other funders, including national governments, employers, and the infected people themselves, make significant contributions to the costs of providing treatment to many of the people included in the Global Fund and PEPFAR numbers. For instance, in Country X, the Fund and/or PEPFAR might pay for something like clinical testing or second line medications, with all other costs for those same patients being covered by other players. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer Issue 69, 14 December 2006 &ndash; GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org/">www.aidspan.org</a>) 
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New Report Focuses on Stigma 
 
The stigma associated with HIV works as a barrier to take advantage of medical advances as it often prevents people affected by HIV from accessing testing or treatment services. This is the conclusion of a new report, Unveiling the Truth, published jointly by Health and Development Networks (HDN) and the global AIDS-Care-Watch Campaign on World AIDS Day. Based on presentations made at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, in August 2006, 40 articles deal with the continuing presence of stigma. 
 
According to the report, hospitals, clinics and other health care settings are among the places where people living with HIV still experience HIV-related stigma. &ldquo;HIV-relate stigma cannot be tackled until health systems are strengthened at the local level so that everyone has access to basic health care&rdquo;, comments Mary Robinson, President of Realising Rights in her foreword. &ldquo;Adopting this approach with those affected by HIV and AIDS must be central to all our endeavours.&rdquo; 
 
(Source: Break the Silence &ndash; Issue 1 &ndash; December 2006 and Press Release HDN, 30 November. The report can be downloaded from <a href="http://www.hdnet.org">www.hdnet.org</a>) 
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Workers and Employers Joint Action in Africa 
 
The African Regional Organisation of the ITUC and the International Organisation of Employers jointly organised a capacity-building meeting on HIV/AIDS for workers and employers in Kampala, 12-14 December 2006 with the support of the ILO and the International Training Centre, Turin. 
 
The objective of the meeting was to evaluate programmes and activities implemented within the IOE-ICFTU joint agreement on HIV/AIDS of 2003 and the action plan agreed in Geneva in 2004, as well as to build capacity in project management. The meeting also discussed ways of strengthening partnerships with key agencies at national level and of mobilising resources &ndash; particularly through the Global Fund &ndash; in order to scale up joint employer and union action on HIV/AIDS through the workplace. 
 
(Source: ILO website <a href="http://www.ilo.org">www.ilo.org</a> where the recommendations can also be found) 
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Clinton Announces Breakthrough in HIV/AIDS Treatment for Children 
 
On the eve of World AIDS Day, former US President Bill Clinton announced in New Delhi that his Foundation has negotiated new agreements to lower the price of HIV/AIDS treatment for children. 
 
Indian drug companies Cipla and Ranbaxy will price the new child-friendly product &ndash; a three-in-one dispersible tablet that replaces individual solutions which need refrigeration &ndash; for less than USD 60 per year for an average child. 
UNITAID, the new international drug purchase facility established in October 2006 (see ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin No. 14, November 2006), will provide the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) with USD 35 million in 2007 to buy medicines and diagnostics and CHAI will contribute USD 15 million for technical assistance to work in 40 countries to treat more than 100,000 additional HIV-positive children in 2007. 
 
&ldquo;Though the world has made progress in expanding HIV/AIDS treatment to adults, children have been left behind. Only one in 10 children who need treatment is getting it,&rdquo; said President Clinton. 
 
(Source: Clinton Foundation Press Release, 30 November)
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ILOAIDS 2006 Report on HIV/AIDS and Work 
 
A new ILO report estimates that more than a million new jobs a year are being lost because of AIDS. It says the workplace should become a major focus for prevention and access to treatment. 
The relentless advance of HIV/AIDS is markedly reducing economic and employment growth in the countries hit hardest by the epidemic, jeopardizing their efforts to reduce poverty, create new jobs for young people and fight child labour, says a new ILO report released on 1 December. 
HIV/AIDS and work: global estimates, impact on children and youth, and response 2006 reports that about 36.3 million people of working age are now living with HIV/AIDS - the vast majority in sub-Saharan Africa. 
 
Moreover, the report says that a reduction in employment growth resulting in 1 million fewer jobs per year in the worst-hit countries is attributable to the epidemic. 
The report presents an economic model which captures the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on economic and employment growth in 43 countries with over 1 per cent HIV/AIDS prevalence, for which sufficient data were available. This made it possible to arrive at an estimate of the annual cost to the global economy in terms of curtailed job growth. 
 
The 43 worst-hit countries lost, on average, 0.5 percentage points in their rate of economic growth every year between 1992 and 2004 due to the epidemic. Among them, 31 countries in sub-Saharan Africa lost 0.7 percentage points of their average annual rate of economic growth and forfeited 0.5 percentage points in employment growth. Altogether, the job shortfall is put at 1.3 million a year, of which 1.1 million were lost in Africa alone. 
The impact of the epidemic is particularly severe for children and young people whose lives, hopes and future are blighted directly or indirectly by HIV/AIDS. Globally, 2.3 million children live with AIDS and there are an estimated 15 million AIDS orphans. When children in worst-affected countries do reach working age, they face a severe shortage of legitimate job opportunities. 
 
(Source: ILO ACTRAV Human Rights at Work 6, December 2006 and ILOAIDS website, where the report can be downloaded)&nbsp;

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 16

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Seventeen contract workers in Bangkok won a mixed decision on 30 November in a central labour court case dating back nearly three years. Goodyear Thailand Ltd. was ordered to pay more than one year&rsquo;s backpay to the 17, who were sacked by the US-based company in October 2005 for exerting their legitimate right to collective bargaining. 
Despite several of the 17 contract employees working at Goodyear&rsquo;s tyre-making plant back to 1996, the court ruled that backpay awards only be granted them from the effective date of the collective agreement inside the factory, August 2004, to their dismissal dates. The union representing the workers, the Tyre Makers&rsquo; Union of ICEM affiliate Petroleum and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Federation (PCFT), is studying an appeal to the decision, while Goodyear has appealed the ruling. 
<img height="92" alt="" src="" width="200" />
The 17 contract workers had previously won an Industrial Court Commission ruling, calling for reinstatement. But when they turned up at the factory for work on 3 May 2006, management refused entry. 
On 31 October 2006, another contract employee, Chalom Kongnok, won backpay totalling one year of work service, plus 50,000 baht for his dismissal. Chalom&rsquo;s dismissal came in December 2005, when he refused to sign a one-year renewal of his temporary work contract.
The workers were all long-term contract workers employed in the warehouse and rubber stock department of Goodyear&rsquo;s Bangkok tyre factory. 
<img height="82" alt="" src="" width="150" />
Goodyear Newsletter
The United Steelworkers, currently on strike against Goodyear in the US and Canada published&nbsp;the global newsletter, called &lsquo;Global Solidarity. The&nbsp;'Newsletter for Unionised Goodyear Workers Worldwide&rsquo;, is available&nbsp;on the ICEM web-site in&nbsp;<a href="/en/111-Goodyear/2052-Global-Solidarity-a-Newsletter-for-Unionised-Goodyear-Workers-Worldwide">English</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="/es/?id=111&amp;doc=2052">Spanish</a>.

17 Goodyear Contract Workers Win Year’s Backpay at Thai Tyre Factory

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November, and to date December, have been two of the cruellest months in Chinese coal mines regarding tragedies and deaths. Disasters occurred in such frequency over the last weekend of November &ndash; 102 deaths in five separate coal mine mishaps &ndash; that the director of China&rsquo;s State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), Li Yizhong, lashed out at operators, provincial regulators and local authorities during a teleconference of safety officials on 28 November. 
 
Li called the month of November &ldquo;unprecedented&rdquo; in terms of death and family loss in the country&rsquo;s collieries. In a rare departure from the customary Chinese norm by top officials of reserve and calm, Li expressed outrage during his animated and angry teleconference. In some provinces, he told of corrupt practices in which closed mines are reopened, unlicensed mines are allowed to operate, and local and provincial officials, upon getting orders to shut a certain mine, intentionally close a smaller, less profitable one in the area in order that a higher producing mine stays open. 
 
&ldquo;How many lives do we have to lose before they learn from the lesson?&rdquo; Li asked. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t let unscrupulous mine owners kill more people in their final frenzy to make a profit.&rdquo; In November, the accident rate was nearly 22% over that of October, with some 440 miners dying in a total of some 150 accidents. In Shanxi province alone, a methane gas explosion at an unlicensed mine which killed 24 on 25 November drove the death toll for the month in the province to over 100. 
<img height="67" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The rash of mine accidents of late stems from extremely high demand as the winter peak season approaches. Operators and mine regulators have ignored orders to close unsafe mines, and are flouting safety rules in order to meet current demand. 
 
Over the final weekend of November, besides the gas blast at the unlicensed mine in Shanxi province, two other mine tragedies on 25 November killed a total of 56 miners, while the next day at the Linaying coal mine near Leding city, Jiangxi province, nine were killed and seven others injured in yet another explosion. The 25 November tragedies occurred at the privately-owned Chanyuan mine in Yunnan province where 32 miners perished, and at the Yuanhua mine in Heilongjiang province in which 26 died. 
 
At the Chanyuan mine, local authorities had been under orders to close the two-year-old mine that contains over six million tonnes of coal reserves because of inadequate safety equipment, but had changed those orders and closed a smaller mine instead. 
 
On 27 November, a coal supply tower collapsed at a mine in Guizhou province, killing four workers. And then a day after Li&rsquo;s tirade, on 29 November, 11 died near Wuwei city, Gansu province, when the vice-director of an illegal mine opened a closed shaft for further production. He was one of the 11 killed from the sudden gas explosion.
<img height="88" alt="" src="" width="200" />
December began with the same death wave inside China&rsquo;s mines. On 1 December, the privately-owned and properly licensed Chengjin coal mine near Jixi city, Heilongjiang province, witnessed a gas blast that killed eight. Two days later, a roof collapsed at the Guanyin mine in Lianyaun city, Hunan province, killing 12. SAWS had revoked the safety license of the mine at the time of the accident. Interestingly, after the mine owner fled to avoid arrest, a relative of his stepped forward and sent 300,000 Yuan (US$38,000) to the local government to offset the cost of the rescue. 
 
Last week, on 7 December, walls burst and flooding occurred at the Ping&rsquo;an coal mine in Fuxin, Liaoning province. The tragedy killed eight, with the bodies of two missing miners only recovered yesterday. A day after the Liaoning flood, on 8 December, another flood, only this time at a gold mine in Shaanxi province, drowned six miners. That occurred when officials of Tongma Mining Co., which administers the mine, illegally set off underground explosives in order to open an abandoned mine shaft. The shaft had filled with water. 
 
These human errors were similar to one exactly a month earlier, which began this latest death wave inside China&rsquo;s mines. On 8 November, 13 miners died inside the Xinpo coal mine near Leiyang city, Hunan province, when a boss, seeking higher production, ordered electric drills into a shaft despite high readings of methane gas levels.

China Sees Rash of Mine Tragedies in November and December

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Some 600 members of ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South African struck gold acquisition and producing company Centurion Gold Holdings Inc. in Germiston, near Johannesburg, on 7 December. Several hundred miners at the company&rsquo;s Primrose mine and ore processing plant went on strike because management reneged on a pledge to keep all standing agreements intact from a previous employer, according to the South African Press Association. 
 
Miners are also seeking a doubling of their salaries. Miners at the Primrose mine are some of the lowest paid in the Central Rand gold belt, with monthly salaries totalling only R1,000 per month. Since Johannesburg-based Centurion bought the mine and processing plant from privately-held Glencairn Mining Co. in February 2004, the company has doubled production and has begun processing ore at Primrose from two other gold mines it owns in South Africa. 

<img height="103" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The company has refused to bargain with the NUM branch union over conditions, and a union spokesman said the NUM has taken the matter to South Africa&rsquo;s labour courts. Miners have seen a rollback in the number of annual leave days that they received under Glencairn, as well as a death benefit, and other working conditions have worsened as well. 
 
Centurion has indicated it would evict strikers from company-owned hostels, and the NUM is petitioning the courts to prevent that. The NUM national Executive Committee, meeting on Friday, 8 December, gave the strike and Centurion&rsquo;s callous behaviour over union recognition and inferior work conditions its full attention.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;
<img height="92" alt="" src="" width="200" />
Centurion was formed in 2003 to acquire and operate mine properties in South Africa and elsewhere. The company boosts that it was formed to &ldquo;exploit&rdquo; South African legislation passed in 2004 that cedes mining claims back to the public trust if they go undeveloped within a designated time frame. 
The company, publicly traded in the US, carries out prospecting and development of mining lands. Besides Primrose, it operates the Omaruru gold mine in Mpumulanga, the Sellies gold mine near Johannesburg, as well as a chrome-bearing mining operation. It is also currently involved in development of the Naboom platinum project in South Africa.

South African Miners Strike Gold Mine to Retain Work Standards

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The International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) has marked today, 11 December, as an international Day of Action in support of Napoleon G&oacute;mez Urrutia, the trade union official from the Mexican National Miners and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (SNTMMSRM) who has been removed by the federal government. 
The IMF&rsquo;s &ldquo;Call for Justice&rdquo; campaign includes demonstrations and actions at Mexican embassies and consulates throughout the world, backing up a mass march in Mexico City and industrial actions around the country. 
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G&oacute;mez, who was elected General Secretary of SNTMMSRM in 2002, was unpopular with a large part of the ruling elite as he organised a free and democratic union. 
On 19 February 2006, an explosion occurred at the Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s Pasta de Conchos coal mine in the northern Mexican State of Coahuilla. Information on the cause of the explosion, which killed 65 miners, including 40 contract workers, was scarce and inconsistent. G&oacute;mez then termed the disaster an &ldquo;industrial homicide&rdquo; and charged both company and government safety officials with neglect for Mexico&rsquo;s worst mine tragedy this year. 
 
Just two days before the explosion, the Mexican government had &ldquo;withdrawn recognition&rdquo; of G&oacute;mez as General Secretary of the union, after it received an unauthenticated request from supposed members of the union&rsquo;s Vigilance and Justice Committee to remove him. 
 
G&oacute;mez was accused of corruption in relation to a trust fund, and removed from his post by the Labour Ministry. He was replaced by Elias Morales, a person close not only to officials inside the Labour Ministry, but also to officials of Grupo M&eacute;xico. Many members of SNTMMSRM refuse to accept the allegations against G&oacute;mez, and numerous strikes broke out in support of him. During a police intervention in one such strike in April, two miners were killed. 
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The facts behind the fraud and corruption case appear to be inconsistent. For example, one of the suspicious and alleged unauthorised transfers of money abroad was the payment of affiliation fees to the IMF. The IMF is calling for &ldquo;efforts to be made to inform the public about the use of the trust fund.&rdquo; 
 
The removal of Napoleon G&oacute;mez from his post is clearly a breach of the union&rsquo;s autonomy and needs to be seen as a violation of the ILO Convention No. 87 on freedom of association, which has been ratified by Mexico. Any decision to remove the trade union leader from duty is up to the SNTMMSRM and its democratic structures. 
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Napoleon G&oacute;mez has the active support of ICEM North American affiliate United Steelworkers (USW). In a press communication last month, the USW stated, &ldquo;The government of Mexico violated the NAFTA labour side agreement when it removed the leader of the National Mineworkers&rsquo; Union from office.&rdquo; The USW has had a solidarity pact with the Mexican Mineworkers since 2004, and solidly supports the return of G&oacute;mez to his rightful union leadership position. 
 
More information, including a report of a fact-finding mission to Mexico, can be found on the IMF&rsquo;s website at this link: <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/main/index.cfm?n=47&amp;l=2&amp;c=14233">http://www.imfmetal.org/main/index.cfm?n=47&amp;l=2&amp;c=14233</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;

IMF Supports Mexican Mining Leader Napoleon Gómez in ‘Day of Action’

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It took a four-month-long struggle, but workers at the F&aacute;brica Neum&aacute;ticos de Avanzada (NA), a competition-tyre making company in C&oacute;rdoba, Argentina, finally reached an agreement with their company. Workers were represented by ICEM affiliate Sindicato &Uacute;nico de Trabajadores del Neum&aacute;tico Argentino (SUTNA) throughout the dispute. 
 
As reported in Issue 67 of InBrief, from 16 October, (<a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/1991-SUTNA-Rubber-Dispute-in-Argentina-Hardens">/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/1991-SUTNA-Rubber-Dispute-in-Argentina-Hardens</a>), trade union representatives and their family members had been threatened, harassed, and intimated after the company, in early August, sacked 25 SUTNA members.
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The bitter dispute followed a historic agreement, signed last summer, between SUTNA and the country&rsquo;s rubber employers&rsquo; association, which covers the entire rubber sector. NA refused to go along with the accord, and began discriminating against workers who were SUTNA members. 
 
With the support of SUTNA, workers at NA now have their rights fully recognised. The agreement includes the reinstatement of two dismissed workers, as well as full compensation payments for all workers that were dismissed. 
 
Pedro Wasiejko, General Secretary of SUTNA, welcomes the step forward, but also said that the union &ldquo;will continue to take action on the accusations of intimidation against workers during the dispute, so that measures can be taken against those responsible for these inadmissible acts.&rdquo;

Argentinean Rubber Workers Reach Agreement with Specialty Tyre-maker

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