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Australian affiliate CFMEU sent a clear message to the Howard government last week on how it would resist proposed radical industrial relations reform: together with the Maritime Union, it dispatched 400 trade unionists from Perth to Collie in Western Australia to support striking construction workers at BHP Billiton&rsquo;s new Worsley alumina refinery. Throughout February, strikers&mdash;including CFMEU members and members of ICEM affiliates Communications, Electrical &amp; Plumbing Union (CEPU) and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU)&mdash;downed tools over pay and dispute over their classification as individual contractors under the federal awards system, a system already denying them basic workplace rights. Under the proposed Howard reform plan, among other regressive measures, such individual workers could be sued for taking strike action. Last week&rsquo;s 200 km solidarity caravan to Collie convinced two of BHP Billiton&rsquo;s site contractors to settle the pay dispute and if another agrees to the higher pay, construction workers could be back to work early this week.

CFMEU Will Resist Howard Government’s Labour Reforms

A new ICEM Workers' Network of SAPPI paperworkers will be formed 30-31 March near Hannover, Germany. ICEM affiliate Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers' Union (CEPPWAWU) of South Africa will be the lead union for the network. SAPPI, headquartered in South Africa, has paper mills in Austria, Germany and the US.

South African CEPPWAWU Affiliate to Head ICEM’s SAPPI Network

US affiliate PACE has re-introduced a website dedicated to tracking the ongoing labour dispute in America with French-based Imerys. The website, www.imerys-solidarity.org, will cover the dispute at the company's Sylacauga calcium carbonate plant in Alabama, as well as upcoming talks between PACE and Imerys at a kaolin operation in Dry Branch, Georgia, USA.

PACE in US Renews Website Dedicated to Imerys’ Abuses

South Africa affiliate NUM has called the Harmony/Gold Fields decision by the South Africa Competition Commission last week &ldquo;heart warming&rdquo;, as it took a number of the union&rsquo;s concerns to heart. As part of an ongoing saga featuring two South African gold companies, where the Harmony Gold Mining Company wants to take over Gold Fields, the Commission set a condition for the merger: it shall eliminate no more than 1,500 managerial or supervisory jobs. &ldquo;The recommendation to save jobs, particularly at the bottom of the ladder, is most comforting&rdquo;, said NUM.

Preserving Jobs Chief Concern to Harmony’s Goldfields Takeover

US affiliate United Steelworkers of America (USWA) ratcheted up the bargaining pressure on Bridgestone/Firestone 16 February by conducting handbilling at some 200 Nissan auto dealerships across America. The &quot;Day of Action&quot; at non-union Nissan North America was meant to remind Nissan customers of quality problems the last time the Japanese tyre manufacturer imposed a labour dispute on 6,000 USWA members employed at Bridgestone/Firestone. The union and company are currently locked in intense talks on the master rubber agreement in the US.

USWA Pressuring Bridgestone Over new Tyre Contract

China was regrettably not alone in mining disasters of late. In Russia as well, mining accidents are the order of the day. Here too, they are frequently the consequence of aging equipment, lack of safety regulations and economic pressures. On 9 February, 22 miners died in the Yesaulskaya mine in the Kemerovo region in Siberia where an explosion in a mine was fatal for most of the 30 workers that were present in the shaft at the time.

Gas Blast Kills 22 in Siberian Mine

Over 200 workers have died in what has been the biggest mining disaster in China for more than half a century. In spite of promises by the Chinese authorities to increase the overall safety in mines, through legal efforts as well as through education, the 15 February explosion in the Sunjiawan mine, near Fuxin in northeast China, stands as further proof of the continuing dangerous conditions inside Chinese mines. China accounts for 80% of deaths in the mining industry, while only producing 35% of the world&rsquo;s coal. 6,000 workers are said to have died in 2004 in Chinese mines. The accident also shows the necessity and timeliness of the ICEM-led effort on safety in Chinese mines. According to a memorandum signed as a result of this effort in December 2004 by eight different parties, more technical cooperation with the Chinese mining entities is urgently needed to start improving the safety and health situation in the mines in China.

Massive Mine Disaster in China Kills Over 200

The Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) is very concerned about the kidnapping of Mr. Moaid Hamed, General Secretary of the IFTU in Mosul. Mr. Moaid Hamed was abducted on 11 February, in Mosul, by gunmen who attacked him and took him away. At the end of January 2005, the president of the IFTU in Mosul had already been abducted for a week, at which time he was severely tortured. Prior to his release on 1 February, he was told to stop his trade union work or be killed. The ICEM demands the immediate release of Mr Moaid Hamed and strongly supports the campaign by the IFTU to end terrorism against trade unionists in Iraq and to organise Iraqi workers into free trade and democratic unions.

Another Iraqi Trade Union Leader Abducted

Venezuela's new emergency decree has been roundly condemned by twelve labour internationals representing more than 120 million workers worldwide. 
 
Measures in the decree adopted by the Venezuelan National Constituent Assembly include: 
 
 
- the complete dissolution of national and regional trade union confederations and federations 
 
- the annulment of trade union leaders' mandates 
 
- a ban on union leaders' travelling abroad 
 
- a 90-day suspension of election processes within all labour-related bodies 
 
- the seizure of trade union property and assets. 
 
 
In a joint statement issued in Panama on 16 August, the union internationals stress that the measures are a flagrant violation of the Conventions of the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) and also breach UN and Interamerican treaties on basic human rights. As the unions point out, the decree &quot;contradicts in every respect&quot; the &quot;great transformations that the Venezuelan government plans to undertake in order to steer the country's destiny back towards the paths of Democracy, Justice, Transparency and Freedom.&quot; 
 
The union internationals demand that Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez and National Assembly chairman Luis Miquelena should: 
 
- revoke the decree 
 
- relaunch national dialogue between the Venezuelan trade union movement and the government 
 
- fully guarantee the free exercise of trade union activity in Venezuela. 
 
Signing the unions' joint statement were the regional representatives of the International Federation of Building and Woodworkers (IFBWW), the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), the International Federation of Commercial, Clerical and Technical Employees (FIET), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the International Graphical Federation (IGF), the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF), the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF), the Postal, Telegraph and Telephone International (PTTI) and Public Services International (PSI).

World Labour Condemns Venezuelan Union Ban

In a signal victory for Australian miners' union the CFMEU, workers from the closed-down Oakdale mine are now to receive the A$6.3 million owed to them in entitlements. Reached on Tuesday night, this decision follows a 24-hour nationwide coal strike last Friday over the Oakdale case. 
 
The pay-out marks a major about-face by Australia's right-wing federal government. The money is to come from the industry's existing centralised long-service leave fund. The government had been intending to abolish this fund and hand all the money in it back to the employers. This policy was part of its plan to make all such provisions &quot;enterprise-based&quot;, and therefore dependent on employer patronage. 
 
Oakdale closed in June after its owner was declared insolvent. Entitlements owed to the miners there included accrued sick leave, annual leave and redundancy pay. In such situations, Australian employees are regarded as unsecured creditors. Often, they receive only a few cents in the dollar after all assets have been sold and secured creditors paid. 
 
Following the outcome of the Oakdale case, there are now proposals for some kind of national scheme - perhaps insurance-based - to stop the same thing happening to other workers in other industries. 
 
Overall, this is a major victory for the labour movement, and a particularly big win for the CFMEU, which at the global level is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The biggest loser is Peter Reith, Australia's union-bashing Minister for Workplace Relations. The strike forced him into a very public climbdown, and his conservative colleagues now feel that his anti-union crusade has substantially damaged the government's standing with the electorate. 
 
As Kim Beazley, leader of the opposition Labor Party, pointed out, it took a strike costing A$33 million in lost output to convince the government to allow miners access to 6.3 million dollars' worth of owed entitlements.

Australian Miners&#039; Victory: Strike Forces Debt Pay-Off

Archive

CFMEU Will Resist Howard Government’s Labour Reforms

South African CEPPWAWU Affiliate to Head ICEM’s SAPPI Network

PACE in US Renews Website Dedicated to Imerys’ Abuses

Preserving Jobs Chief Concern to Harmony’s Goldfields Takeover

USWA Pressuring Bridgestone Over new Tyre Contract

Gas Blast Kills 22 in Siberian Mine

Massive Mine Disaster in China Kills Over 200

Another Iraqi Trade Union Leader Abducted

World Labour Condemns Venezuelan Union Ban

Australian Miners' Victory: Strike Forces Debt Pay-Off

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