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Mediated talks will resume today in New Zealand in an effort to end a lockout by regional electric provider Top Energy of 58 members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU).
The lockout began on 4 February and mediation to end it failed last week when the North Island utility continued to seek work-rule changes that would affect the lives of linemen. Top Energy has met the EPMU’s demand of a 5% wage increase, but concessionary proposals put in front of workers through mediation undermines that pay increase.
The EPMU is encouraging trade union activists to write letters seeking a fair contract offer to Top Energy’s Trustees’ chairman, Brian Thorburn. His e-mail address is <a href="mailto:b.thorburn@xtra.co.nz">b.thorburn@xtra.co.nz</a>.

Lockout by New Zealand Power Company Continues

The FNV labour federation in The Netherlands is engaged today, 9 March, in an emergency meeting with the nation’s tripartite Social Economic Council to address the misuse by Dutch employers of workers from Central and Eastern Europe.
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ICEM affiliate FNV Bondgenoten is conducting a protest outside the Council’s building as the meeting is in progress. The meeting will also focus on the negative effects of a new health insurance system introduced in the country. 
Workers from Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries have flocked to The Netherlands in search of work. They have often been met by unscrupulous employers who use these workers on a term-limited contract basis, or as self-employed workers, in an effort to undermine collective bargaining agreements. The resulting payment of lower wages has a direct effect on all Dutch citizens. 
<img height="70" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NetherlandsFNVBondgenoten.gif" width="120" alt=""/>
FNV Bondgenoten has been successful in its “Equal Pay for Equal Work” campaign, which has brought union membership to a significant number of Central and Eastern European workers, particularly Poles. “We are not against Polish workers coming to The Netherlands for employment, but we insist they be treated fairly, and so do they,” said FNV President Agnes Jongerius.

Dutch Protest Today Points at Exploitation of Central and Eastern European Workers

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A major demonstration set for tomorrow, 30 May, in Sofia, Bulgaria, by trade union organisations there has the full support of the ICEM. The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), together with another labour federation, will protest over government and employer disinterest in social dialogue talks with trade unions over a national income policy. 
 
The protest will also center on workers’ rights over their legitimate right to strike in Bulgaria, as well as gaining that rights for civil servants. 
In March 2006, the average monthly income of a Bulgarian family stood at €241, while average household expenditures rose to over €226 per month, according to the National Statistical Institute. “Bulgaria is the only one among the countries that are acceding to the European Union that does not have an income policy bargained at the national level,” said CITUB President Zhelyazko Hristov. 
 
In a poll taken last month, over 60% of Bulgarian trade union members insisted on national protest actions for the end of May, while 40% said they would join a national strike over the income and other issues if one were called. For ICEM’s letter of support to affiliate National Labour Federation of Chemistry and Industry on the 30 May demonstration, <a href="/index.php?id=9&doc=1810" type="internal">click here</a>.

Bulgarians Protest Tomorrow over Low Wages, Labour Rights

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Oil workers in southern Iraq conducted a one-day strike 21 February as grievance to the Oil Ministry’s neglect for work conditions and the infrastructure of the company. The strike at the Oil Transport Company of Basra was brought by the General Union of Oil Employees (GUOE) in Basra. 
The strike took place due to the deliberate and targeted neglect of the transport company by the ministry and government; for improvements in workers’ living conditions; and as a demand to pay money promised to workers by the Oil Ministry but never paid.

Iraqi Oil Workers Strike Oil Ministry in Basra

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An 18-day lockout of 58 members of Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union in New Zealand ended on 21 February after workers ratified a mediated settlement with a North Island regional electrical provider, Top Energy. 
The two-year accord gives the linemen a 5% wage increase, backdated to 1 July 2005, and a 4% wage increase in July of this year. The agreement also retains for workers key work-rule conditions, items that the community-owned electric distributor tried to take from workers in initiating the lockout.

Lockout Ends at Top Energy in New Zealand

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ChevronTexaco Nigeria Ltd. and one of its contractors, US-based Elper Engineering, face strike actions if the companies do not live up to terms of a collective agreement put in place five years ago. ICEM affiliate NUPENG met again last week in Nigeria with the two companies to resolve the dispute over back wages and severance, but the employers rebuffed efforts to settle the issue. 
The union declared its intent to resolve the dispute through social dialogue, but warned that NUPENG members working inside the two companies would strike if ChevronTexaco and Elper continue to avoid the issue. The two firms have granted the contractual obligation to a few employees, but have denied it to most. Contract workers at ChevronTexaco’s massive Escravos operations in Ugborodo, Delta State, and its shallow-water platform Funiwa off Bayelsa State are affected.

Dispute Festering in Nigeria Between NUPENG, ChevronTexaco

Following a two-day strike on 22 and 23 February, a two-week cooling off process is now underway between ICEM Belgian affiliate ABVV-FGTB and ExxonMobil at a polymers plant near Antwerp. The entire workforce of 350 totally shut down operations at the Zwijndrecht plant in a contract dispute for a 2006-2007 renewal. 
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Workers were incensed at the wage offer presented to them. Also in dispute is management’s proposal to reduce staff by increasing automation. 
Determined worker unity under the guidance of ABVV-FGTB brought the company back to the table, where a conciliator did remove some obstacles to a new agreement on 27 February, the day the two-week cooling off period took effect. Labour and management will return to talks on 14 March.

Belgian ExxonMobil Strike Over; Talks will Resume 14 March

Inside Thailand’s current political turmoil and Prime Minister’s Thaksin Sinawatra’s rush to elections next month to solidify his authority rests the issue of privatisation and whether or not a country’s resources belong in public control or sold off to capital markets. 
 
There is little question of where Thaksin stands, judging from his own business dealings and his government’s actions to break up the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), as well as Metropolitan and Provincial electric utilities. 

<img height="67" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ThailandFlag.gif" width="100"/>
A central demand by the political opposition, which seeks Thaksin’s resignation, is immediate debate and introduction of new constitutional amendments. Thaksin is seeking a quick victory, allowing him to continue setting constitutional precedents, including the ones he has used as the means to sell public-vested enterprises to investors. Initial listing of EGAT on the stock markets was scheduled for November 2005, but has been suspended pending a court review. 
 
New debate also has surfaced over privatising the regional electric power authorities, scheduled for later this year. Last month, the Thai Finance Ministry raised uncertainties on privatising these utilities by stating electricity rates are set by government policy, raising questions on profitability and revenue forecasts. Even more to the point, a ministry official said new investment decisions cannot necessarily be made just on commercial reasoning, but also must be made on social needs. 
“The plan to shift transmission wires underground will in no way help boost profits, but rather is aimed at improving service quality and the community,” the official told the Bangkok Post. The outcome in Thailand over the next several weeks promises to be the watershed that will shape political decision-making well into the future.

Electric Privatisation Cloaked in Thailand’s Political Tempest

Going against the flow of today’s business mantra on ethical and sustainable behaviour, China and India continue to sign energy agreements with the military dictators in Burma. 
Only last Friday, Indian President Abdul Kalam sealed such a new deal, which will allow India to tap into a part of Burma’s vast natural gas reserves. As part of that deal, yet another pipeline will be built. In Burma, more pipelines mean more slave labour, and more misery for the Burmese people. 
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This latest Indian deal follows the announcement late last year that the Burmese junta decided to sell a portion of its gas from the large Shwe project to China. 
By granting this and other rights to PetroChina and CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corp.), the military dictators opened up Burma’s new natural gas resources to both regional superpowers, continuing their old habit of creating rivalries between them. Some gas will now, in part, be produced by Indian companies, but sold to China. Both nations are hungry for resources to drive their energy needs. 
 
These deals concern recently discovered offshore gas reserves, including the massive Shwe Project, operated by consortiums of Asian companies, including South Korea’s Daewoo and India’s state owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC). 
This is in addition to the other ‘older’ gas fields in the region, such as Yadana and Yetagun, which are mainly operated by a mixture of OECD-based and regional companies, including Total, Unocal (now Chevron), Nippon Oil and Petronas of Malaysia. 
 
The ‘newer’ fields are still largely in their test-drilling phases. Estimates on their combined size vary, but range from twice the size of the combined Yadana and Yetagun fields, to ten times as much. 
Together with a few recently discovered oil fields, they are likely to become the latest and maybe largest pool of resources at the hands of Burma’s military cartel, widely known as one of the most horrific dictatorial regimes in the world. Burmese generals spend roughly half of their nation’s budget on the army, a tool used to terrorize Burma’s population. Spending on education or health services is nearly non-existent. 
  <img height="67" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ChinaFLAG.gif" width="100"/>     <img height="66" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/IndiaFlag.gif" width="100"/>
With the Chinese and Indian investments comes a startling fact: the projects will entail at least two new pipelines built inside Burma, one to India and one to China. 
While China is “studying” building a pipeline from the Arakan coast to the Chinese province of Yunnan, India reportedly agreed with Burma to build a pipeline that will now be much longer than originally anticipated, bypassing Bangladesh and going via Burma into northeast India. 
 
“We all know about the consequences of building pipelines in Burma: countless Burmese civilians may be subjected to forced labour and suffer from it, ranging from having to work under slavery conditions at gunpoint, at best, to being murdered at worst“ said Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary. 
 
History is clear about what happens when pipelines are built in Burma. While the onshore part of the pipeline that links the Yetagun and Yadana gas fields with Thailand is only 65 kilometres in length, construction of it brought serious human rights concerns with it. 
Forced labour was used in connection to the building of the pipeline by the omnipresent army, officially there to protect operations. Land confiscation without compensation, something common throughout Burma, is another likely consequence of the investment. Estimates on the current number of people forcibly displaced already range from a few hundred thousand to a few million. 
 
All this will be no different this time. According to the ILO, the United Nations agency that deals with labour issues, forced labour is still widespread in Burma.
Multinational companies still have to enter into joint-venture deals with Burmese state-run companies, in this case MOGE, the Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise, a company owned and controlled by the army, which continues to control virtually all aspects of life in Burma.

India and China to boost forced labour in Burma

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A United Steel Workers (USW) local union in the US is alleging Bridgestone/Firestone (BFS) blocked a plant-gate effort to raise money for Firestone rubber plantation workers in Liberia. This would violate workplace rules as defined under the national US labor law statute. 
USW Local 1055 in LaVergne, state of Tennessee, filed the charges last month with the US government over management’s action at a BSF auto/truck tyre plant employing 1,500 workers. The branch union was blocked by the company from collecting funds and sending the voluntary proceeds to some 6,000 plantation workers in war-infested Liberia, who, with their families, have been exposed to toxic chemicals in the cultivation of natural rubber. 
 
“We’ve stood for years collecting for members who are ill or other locals on strike,” said USW Local 1055 President Lewis Beck. “Most recently, we collected to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.” The US government’s labor board will now investigate the charges and issue a ruling.

Steelworkers in US Press Charges Against Bridgestone Management

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