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ICEM Belgian affiliate CG-FGTB has condemned Glaverbel Glass and its Japanese parent Asahi Glass in management&rsquo;s continued refusal to engage in dialogue on irrational restructuring at AGC Automotive Fleurus in southern Belgium. The union, along with white-collar SETCa-FGTB, has been on strike now for three months after the company announced in December 284 job cuts at the 840-worker flat glass factory. Glaverbel has unilaterally said it would relocate some production from Fleurus, drastically rationalize both production and maintenance, insert forced flexibility by use of agency labour, and now has discredited and even blacklisted union delegates in their efforts to achieve dialogue over the restructuring. CGFGTB insists that only through real consultation with workers and their delegates will the operation become &ldquo;liveable, profitable and productive.&rdquo; ICEM is applying maximum pressure on the Japanese company to resolve the strike and begin good-faith dialogue with the Belgian unions.

Belgian Union Resisting Asahi’s Glass Plant Restructuring

An eight-day lockout of CFMEU miners at an Xstrata coal mine operated by Thiess Contracting Pty. ended a week ago when Thiess and the union agreed to a three-year deal. CFMEU won 4% pay hikes for the 250 miners in each year, higher superannuation increases and a payout to workers living in their own homes in Collinsville, Queensland. The miners were locked out after they had planned a four-day strike.

Lockout of CFMEU Members at Australian Coal Mine Ends

Nigerian ICEM affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN 28 February issued an ultimatum to Shell and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) to correct workforce deficiencies or face industrial action. In a joint statement, the unions demand consultation on all future redundancies, an end to contract employment, a stop to abuse of expatriate quotas, and a review of the government&rsquo;s downstream deregulation policy. If management of Shell and state-owned NNPC do not address these issues, industrial action could commence 21 March.

Nigerian Oil Affiliates Issue Ultimatum to Shell, NNPC

More killings to Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) leaders happened in Baghdad late in February. The ICEM condemns these cowardly acts and expresses support and sincere condolences to the IFTU. On 18 February, Ali Hassan Abd (Abu Fahad), a leader of the Oil and Gas Workers&rsquo; Union at Baghdad&rsquo;s Al Doura refinery, was shot and killed in front of his young children outside his home. On 24 February, gunmen attacked and killed Ahmed Adris Abass of IFTU affiliate Transport and Communications Union in Martyr&rsquo;s Square.

ICEM Condemns Murders of Iraqi Trade Unionists

A near-fatal death attempt in Colombia on the life of another trade union leader occurred 2 March. Rafael Cabarcas Cabarcas, a key leader of ICEM ally Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera de la Industria Del Petr&oacute;leo (USO), was seriously injured when assassins riding a motorcycle opened fire on him and a bodyguard outside Funfedhin Institute of Education in Cartagena. A bullet entered the neck of Cabarcas and lodged in his jaw, while the bodyguard was shot in the abdomen. Cabarcas had been a member of the National Executive of USO during last spring&rsquo;s successful strike against Ecopetrol, a strike in which ICEM spearheaded international support and attention. USO had warned the government of death threats against its leaders since the end of that strike and despite the fact that the Organisation of American States had recommended security tighter measures for USO leaders, none were put in place.

Assassination Attempt on Colombian Oil Union Leader

In Canada, affiliate Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) is holding a rally today in the New Brunswick town of Miramichi over UPM Kymmene&rsquo;s September announcement that it would shutter a kraft pulp mill at year&rsquo;s end, thus costing 400 workers their jobs. CEO contends the Finnish firm has a legal responsibility to operate the mill it purchased in year 2000 because of a signed agreement to preserve manufacturing jobs in exchange for three Crown licenses granting the firm harvesting rights on government timberlands.

CEP Intent on Keeping Canadian Pulp Mill Open

The latest development in the paper strike in Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada is that a two-day blockade by 500 picketers at the mill ended 16 February when the number of picketers was scaled back again to six, as before. The dispute is between Finland&rsquo;s UPM Kymmene and 770 members of ICEM affiliate Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Union, who have been on strike since 16 December 2004. The workers sought to maintain pressure on the company to delay dismantling of an economically viable kraft pulp mill across the Miramichi River from the paper mill. Some 65 managers claim they were trapped inside the mill for over 24 hours, even though CEP local 689 maintains strikers never refused anyone wishing to exit the mill to leave, as long as they did so on foot. A day after the action on 17 February, a company representative stated demolition of the pulp mill would begin early this week.

Strikers Block UPM Kymmene’s Pulp Mill in Canada

The ICEM has written to French-based energy concern Total asking the company to rethink its position concerning investment in Burma. As one of the few remaining large foreign investors in Burma, Total&rsquo;s business enterprises prop the country&rsquo;s dictatorial junta behind a constant flow of foreign currency. Burma is a country that spends over 40% of its national budget on military expenditures, while 0.4% of GDP is spent on health and education. The letter anticipates an upcoming high profile NGO campaign against Total because of its links with Burma.

Total Must Disinvest from Burma’s Military Junta

The ICEM's North American Regional Coordinating Committee on 17 February pledged its support to the USWA in these talks. The ICEM will urge the company to negotiate a new contract consistent with the standards already set with other tyre makers, and will take global action to support the USWA in win a fair and just labour agreement. The ICEM NA committee also took action urging German rubber company Continental to back down from its concessionary agenda in mid-term reopening contract talks with the USWA. The ICEM is calling on Continental to also face its contractual obligations on pay and benefits over the company's plant closing of a Mayfield, Kentucky, tyre facility.

North American ICEM Region Takes Action Over Tyre Stalemates

The United Mine Workers of America has successfully negotiated new collective bargaining agreements with Pittsburg &amp; Midway Coal Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of energy multinational Chevron. 
 
Union members at the company's Kemmerer, Wyoming, mine voted on Aug. 1, overwhelmingly ratifying the agreement by 82%. 
 
The miners were lent significant support by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the UMWA is affiliated at a global level. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs had written to Chevron CEO David O'Reilly, urging the company to settle the dispute. In addition, ICEM oil union affiliates from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, India, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States all communicated their concern to Chevron. 
 
Important assistance came from the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE), which represents approximately 2,000 Chevron workers in the United States. PACE mobilised its members at Chevron's oil refineries and chemical plants and urged the company to settle the coal dispute. 
 
&quot;We're very pleased with this agreement, and, obviously, so are our members,&quot; said UMWA Vice-President Jerry Jones, who led the union's negotiations. &quot;We are extremely grateful for the solidarity and support we have received from the ICEM and from its oil worker union affiliates around the world.&quot; 
 
&quot;This is a great example of what can happen when union workers stand up for one another across borders and across industry lines,&quot; he said. 
 
&quot;Solidarity is what won this strike,&quot; added UMWA President Cecil Roberts. &quot;The members of this local union, along with their family members and our supporters, really proved that if we stick together, we can prevail.&quot; 
 
210 UMWA members were involved in the strike at the Kemmerer mine, which started on May 28. 
 
UMWA members at the company's McKinley mine, near Window Rock, Arizona on the Navajo Nation, will vote on the tentative agreement covering that operation on Sunday, Aug. 6. The McKinley strike, involving 310 UMWA members, began on May 14.

US Miners Win Chevron Agreement

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