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In its decision of May 2011, the Mexican Tribunal for Freedom of Association reported grave violations by the Mexican government of workers&rsquo; freedom to organize unions, and denounced the intensifying climate of violence against union members. 
 
In August, under false premises the Mexican government ordered the detention of General Secretary Martin Esparza Flores and other leaders of the Mexican Electricians&rsquo; Union (SME). The employees of the Workers&rsquo; Support Center (CAT), an organization which supported the unionization of Johnson Controls in Puebla, Mexico, have been publicly charged with destabilizing the situation in that state. 
 
In addition, no just solution has yet been achieved to the conflict of the SNTMMSRM, which is led by Napoleon Gomez and affiliated with the IMF and the ICEM. August marked the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the strikes in Sonora, Taxco, and Sombrerete, with no response from the authorities: collective contracts are not recognized and the independence of the union is not respected. 
 
The IMF, ICEM, ITF, and UNI, together with the Tri-National Union Alliance and the ITUC, stand together with the Mexican unions in their struggle, as was shown by action of unions around the world during the action week of February 2011, as well as by international union participation in the 1 May event in Mexico. 
 
Also in May, the IMF organized a planning workshop attended by representatives of the international union federations and democratic unions of Mexico to jointly design union-building programs. With regard to international solidarity, it was agreed to concentrate work on opposing the PRI-PAN bill on the regressive Labor Reform and the bill on National Security, both of which are on the agenda for the September session of the Mexican Congress. If these reforms are passed, precarious employment will be legalized, employer protection contracts will be strengthened and it will be even more difficult to organize genuine workers&rsquo; unions. 
 
Given that prospect, and added to it the fact that the Government Secretariat intends to remove by 15 September the sit-in protest which the SME Union has been holding on the Zocalo for the last seven months, the unions have been intensifying their action and alliances to confront the new wave of repression. 
 
On 1 September, the fourth anniversary of the Felipe Calderon administration, a &ldquo;National Day of Outrage&rdquo; was held to denounce the disastrous results of his administration for the working class. More than 100 unions and 40,000 people participated in the day; a rally was held in front of the Chamber of Deputies, and later moved to the Zocalo. It demanded an end to the persecution of independent unions and reiterated the importance of building a sustainable and inclusive social model with fairness, justice and democracy.

Greater Unity of Democratic Unions in Mexico against Repression

In Chile, a recent strike by union members of Sindicato No. 1 Escondida of Chile&rsquo;s Federation of Miners (FMC) at the world&rsquo;s largest copper mine galvanized mining unions across the South American country like never before. In unprecedented solidarity, mineworkers&rsquo; unions of the private-sector FMC and those at state-run Codelco, the Federation of Workers of Cobre (FTC), are uniting to lay claim to a bigger portion of the world&rsquo;s copper profits for all Chileans. 
 
Recent joint meetings of the federations have discussed how companies circumvent labour laws and collective agreement conventions at the expense of mineworkers, and how natural resources are exploited to the detriment of Chile&rsquo;s national character. Unions are also united &ndash; at the private-sector multinationals to the Cobres at Codelco &ndash; resist privatisation of Codelco. 
 
Another testament to FMC and FTC unity is at a time when Chile&rsquo;s ministries are eager to meet with them, the federations insist that such meetings will not happen until leaders of the federations meet first. 
 
The labour-management match in Chile happens at a time of soaring demand and high prices for Chile&rsquo;s main export, copper. The same demand and volatile pricing of the red metal worldwide has created a &ldquo;Together We Can&rdquo; cry that says Chile&rsquo;s mineworkers believe unified action can affect the country for the better. 
 
Much was made of the fact that on a single day &ndash; 30 July &ndash; 10% of the world&rsquo;s copper production stopped when FMC miners at Do&ntilde;a In&eacute;s Collahuasi (AngloAmerican and Xstrata) joined a strike by Sindicato No. 1 at Minera Escondida Ltd. (BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto) in a display of simple unity. Although grievances reflected separate sets of negligent circumstances at the two mining complexes, the unity of purpose was clear. 
 
FMC President Cristi&aacute;n Arancibia said that workers are hearing a national calling, that unions of his federation feel a responsibility to the people and communities of mining regions. He said agreement has been reached with the FTC that mineworkers will not be &ldquo;accomplices to Chile&rsquo;s resources sold away for foreign investment.&rdquo; 
 
This very specifically is FMC recognition that Codelco is chipping away at FTC&rsquo;s membership in order to partially privatise the world&rsquo;s largest copper company. 
 
On 30 July, union branches of the FTC supported the symbolic strike of the two FMC branches. Now with common understanding that tripartite dialogue will occur over Chile&rsquo;s export revenues, the unity, decisiveness, and single voice of FMC and FTC will ensure that all Chileans have a stake in copper.

Chile: Mineworkers’ Unity in Times of High Mineral Prices

The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) today registered strong condemnation with the Government of the Republic of Georgia over the police crushing of a legitimate workers&rsquo; strike and formation of a trade union at Euroasian Steels in Kutaisi, Georgia. Police began using forceful tactics last Thursday evening, 15 September, to break a peaceful strike at the 400-worker steel mill, and on 16 September and over the weekend, arrested, detained, and threatened scores of union workers seeking union representation at Euroasian Steels. 
 
In a letter today to Georgian President Mikheil Saakasvhili and Prime Minister Nika Gilauri, the ICEM calls for restoration of human and trade union rights to members of the ICEM affiliate, Metallurgical, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers&rsquo; Trade Union of Georgia, and immediate release without charge of three leading union activists, who were picked up and arrested Saturday, 17 September, on bogus charges obviously related to trade union activity. They ICEM also demands job reinstatements for some 20 other workers. 
 
Emilo Gumberidze, Irakli Iobidze, and Milkhaz Gogiava will appear today in court in the provincial capital of Kutaisi and they could face jail sentences. Last Thursday, Georgian police, unprovoked, broke up a strike by 200 metalworkers in front of the Euroasian steel rolling mill in Kutaisi. They detained up to 40 strike participants and the next day police officers raided the homes of many workers, ordered them into police cars, and then incredulously took them to the factory for work shifts. (An <a href="/en/4-Chemicals-Pharmaceuticals/4667-ICEM-Scorns-Blatant-Police-Repression-in-Putting-Down-Georgian-Metal-Strike">ICEM report</a> on this is here.) 
 
In today&rsquo;s formal complaint to Georgia&rsquo;s Government over the police actions, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda wrote, &ldquo;This is an embarrassment to Georgia, a serious stain on Georgian trade and commerce, and it is the opinion of the ICEM that these overt acts of repression bring Georgia back to another time era.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM charges Georgian police and the country&rsquo;s Internal Affairs Ministry with blatant violation of guaranteed social and human rights common in several international charters. The ICEM pledged to stand with the union and the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC) in their fight for workers&rsquo; rights at Euroasian Steels. 
 
The ICEM is demanding that internal Georgian security forces stop acting as a front for Euroasian Steels, a two-and-a-half-year-old steelmaking enterprise in Kutaisi that has failed to establish even a rudimentary system of employee relations. The enterprise is 87.5% owned by Dubai-based Euroasian Ventures Ltd., itself owned by Indian steel company Manaksia Ltd., and 12.5% by a holding concern controlled by Georgian national Paata Chkhenkeli, who himself is connected to Georgia&rsquo;s political and economic elite. 
 
The ICEM is a Geneva, Switzerland-based Global Union Federation, representing 20 million workers that belong to 467 trade union affiliates in 132 countries. 
 
For further information, contact ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin, <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 22 203 1842.

ICEM Condemns Georgia Police in Suppressing Union Rights at Euroasian Steels

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State police in Georgia brutally broke a strike by metalworkers last week in Kutaisi, in western Georgia. In the evening of day three (15 September) of a walkout by some 200 workers at Eurasian Steels that was sparked by ICEM affiliate Metallurgical, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers&rsquo; Trade Union and the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC), dozens of police cars escorted Imereti Region Governor Lasha Makatsaria across picket lines and into the steel rolling mill. Police then left those cars and rushed the strikers, taking many away. 
 
As some strikers fled, police rounded them up. Around 40 strikers, including four hunger strikers at the factory&rsquo;s plant gates, were taken to police headquarters. They were held for several hours, lectured on strike activity, and then made to sign a document stating they would engage in no further action. Some of the 40 were summarily fired by the police who issued dismissal papers from Euroasian Steels. 
 
Twenty-one trade union activists have now been sacked at Euroasian Steels, or Hercules Steel, as it is called, including six on 11 August. Last week&rsquo;s mass strike was on their behalf, and on many inept management practices that have plague the newly built plant over the past two years. A two-hour warning strike occurred on 2 September that was joined in support by the Georgia Automobile Transport and Highway Workers&rsquo; Union, the Independent Trade Union of Agricultural Workers, a food processing union, and two professional unions &ndash; the Representatives of Educators and Scientists and the Union of Artists. 
 
Management of the steel mill, led by a prominent Georgian, has refused to address the union or the workers&rsquo; serious concerns. 
 
The ICEM reacted with contempt to last week&rsquo;s police actions. &ldquo;We witnessed Georgia&rsquo;s internal police use force to break a strike and now attempt to manage the labour conduct inside this enterprise,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;It is ludicrous, against all rationality, and there has to be sinister reasons behind it. We demand to know why our affiliated trade union&rsquo;s concerns on behalf of workers have not been heard.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
<img alt="" src="" width="280" height="210" />
ICEM will continue the stand with Metallurgical, Mining, Chemical Ubnion of Georgia and with the GTUC. (In 2010, ICEM's Warda and GTUC President Iraki Petriashvile, left)&nbsp; 
 

After the round-up and release of strike activists in the early morning hours of 16 September, police then began raiding the homes of many Euroasian workers &ndash; including several strikers from the day before &ndash; and forcibly brought them to work. A report said a worker not involved in the strike and who was scheduled to work a late shift on 16 September, was forcibly taken from his home and bought in earlier than usual to work. 
 
Police are controlling shift attendance by workers and internal reports are regularly made to police authorities. When workers inquire as to why the police involvement, they are told it is necessary to prevent another strike. 
 
On Friday, workers returning to the steel mill were met with a mandate to either sign a statement denouncing Metallurgical, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers&rsquo; Trade Union, or face dismissal within three days. The ICEM has learned many are resisting and believes this is due to a core group of 180 union activists who are gaining in strength and remain steadfast in their determination not to be deterred from a union voice at Hercules.
The ICEM has vowed to support them through an international outcry in coordination with other labour groups. 
 
Meanwhile, there has been a constant police presence outside the factory over the weekend, 16-18 September. At 13h on Saturday, 17 September, internal security&nbsp;police rounded and arrested three union leaders: Emilo Gumberidze, Irakli Iobidze, and Malkhaz Gogiava. 

The three have been key in coordinating support for the 21 dismissed union members&nbsp;among civil society groups,&nbsp;and the ICEM calls the Georgian government out on violating common&nbsp;freedom of association principals. 

Euroasian Steels is an Indian-Georgian enterprise, 87.5% owned by Dubai-based Euroasian Ventures Ltd., which itself is owned by India&rsquo;s 12th largest steelmaker, Manaksia Ltd., a company specializing in caps, crowns, and metal containers as well as a metal trader. The Kutaisi mill began in spring 2009 to produce rebar and steel billet for a Central Asian market. Built on the former site of a concrete structures plant in Kutaisi, it employs 400 workers, including 130 Indian nationals. 
 
They are treated like indentured servants. Management is in possession of their passports, their salaries are sent back to India, they are given meagre stipends to live on in Kutaisi, and they are instructed not to make contact with Georgian workers. The Indians work dirty and dangerous jobs on four of the operation&rsquo;s eight furnaces and they work apart from Georgian workers. 
 
Some months ago, the Indian workers staged a strike of their own, which resulted in the beating of the Indian plant director, Raji Kumar Sureika. 
 
At Euroasian Steels in the Imereti region, sweatshop conditions persist. There is no Human Resources department, no wage structures, and no adherence to internationally recognised work standards. Work-weeks can last up to 80 hours, there is no overtime pay, workers are routinely refused to use paid vacations, and there is an inordinate amount of industrial injuries.
<img alt="" src="" width="205" height="154" />
As in 2010 in Georgia, ICEM will&nbsp;Vehemently Protest Trade&nbsp;Union Repression in Georgia&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 

In July 2010, workers protested because of wage arrears. Seven of the leaders of that protest were arrested and were jailed for 20 days. 
 
The Georgian who controls Euroasian Steels and whose holding company owns a 12.5% stake is Paata Chkhenkeli. He is general director of the operation and in 2005, he formed a joint venture with the Manaksia Group called Georgia Metalix Ltd. in order to export scrap steel from Georgia. A short time later, he bought a controlling stake of the Georgia-based scrap-metal salvage firm Meoshavliti, and the deal was soon realised between Chkhenkeli, Manaksia, and the Georgian government to construct the Kutaisi mill. 
 
Paata Chkhenkeli, 52, has close connections to senior level figures in the Georgian government. From 2000 to 2003, fresh from a 11-year tenure as director of Iberia Construction Co. in Russia and Georgia, he served as state advisor to Georgia&rsquo;s Minister of Economy. 
 
The ICEM this week will lodge protests with the Georgian government over last week&rsquo;s ruthless actions. While union activity inside Euroasian is certain to be stymied temporarily because of last week&rsquo;s police put-down, the flames of discontent are still very much alive. ICEM will remain connected to shop-floor activists in Kutaisi and their union representatives of the Metallurgical, Mining, Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union and GTUC.

ICEM Scorns Blatant Police Repression in Putting Down Georgian Metal Strike

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The President of an ICEM affiliate in Chile, Fenatrapech, the National Federation of Oil Workers, passed away at 5h30 on 23 August. Comrade Jorge Matute was 61 years old and dedicated 41 years to trade union work for Chile&rsquo;s oil workers. Twenty of those years were with Fenatrapech. 
 
Matute was the key oil workers&rsquo; leader during pivotal moments and struggles in Chile&rsquo;s energy. Unpopular Chilean President Sebasti&aacute;n Pi&ntilde;era has attempted to sell off the nationalised oil assets into private hands, along with other major nationalised industries. Workers at the National Petroleum Company, ENAP, have been under attack over the last two years, as government attempts to weaken the union to facilitate privatisation. 
<img alt="" src="" width="149" height="161" />
Jorge Matute was central in fighting to protect workers in this process, negotiating redundancy packages and against job cuts. 
 
An example of this struggle led by Matute was at the Bio Bio refinery in Central Chile. In tribute, his remains were taken there on the day of his death, before moving him to Valparaiso for his funeral on 24 August. 
 
Matute had suffered the disappearance of his son, Jorge Matute Johns. Trade union comrades in Chile now take comfort in the belief that Matute is reunited with his son. 
 
Words of support and mourning have been offered from many sides for the popular union leader. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda conveyed sincere condolences to Fenatrapech on behalf of the ICEM, calling for his good work and struggles on behalf of workers to be continued. &ldquo;We honour the life of a great fighter,&rdquo; said Warda. 
 
ENAP oil workers&rsquo; union President Alejandro Avenda&ntilde;o said that Matute had &ldquo;taught us the important value of the struggle for workers rights in Chile.&rdquo;

Jorge Matute: 1950-2011

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Madhukar Kashinath Pandhe, a steadfast champion of workers in India and elsewhere, died of a heart attack on 20 August in a New Delhi hospital. M K Pandhe was a champion for decades in India of carving gains for all workers, from unorganised workers in the informal sector to the skilled workers that drive India&rsquo;s economy. He was 86. 
 
Pande was an early leader of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU). When he died, he was Vice President of CITU. He had served as the trade union&rsquo;s Secretary, General Secretary, and President. 
<img alt="" src="" width="127" height="121" />
He was also President of the All India Coal Workers&rsquo; Federation. The ICEM knew him as a tireless and dedicated partner on coal supply, work rights, pay, health, safety and other issues in the mining industry. 
 
Pande was born in Pune, Maharashtra, and joined the Communist Party in 1943. He joined the Goa liberation struggle against the Portuguese and after the Communist Party in India divided, be became a leader a CPI(M) &ndash; the Communist Part India (Marxist) party. 
 
His high prestige in India as a trade union negotiator who delivered for the working class was earned because Pandhe did it across all industrial sectors, from mining, steel, energy to all forms of transport, and from navy to shipping to aviation to many other jobs. He served on numerous national level bodies formed by the government, and his steady voice inside all of them never wavered from the defense of the working class. 
 
M K Pandhe is survived his wife, Pramile, a key leader in CPI(M) and also leader in the All India Democratic Women&rsquo;s Association, and a son.

M K Pandhe: 1925-2011

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At the triennial United Steelworkers Convention in Las Vegas, US, on 16 August, the union covering members in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean moved closer to formalising a unified North American trade union together with oppressed National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros. 
 
Los Mineros President Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia addressed the 3,000 delegates via teleconference from Canada, where he has been in exile for the last five years. These same charges blocked G&oacute;mez from travelling to the Las Vegas Convention. His wife, Oralia, gave an emotional speech instead. It had been planned that Los Mineros leader Juan Linares would sign the agreement, but he was blocked from leaving Mexico by authorities who are conducting a relentless campaign against Los Mineros. 
<img alt="" src="" width="246" height="161" />
&ldquo;A strong, unified union is needed to fight for workers from the northern tip of Canada to the most southern tip of Mexico, particularly in the age of the North American Free Trade Agreement,&rdquo; stated USW President Leo Gerard. 
 
Among other things, the agreement establishes worker councils for employees at multinationals in the three countries, &quot;to facilitate exchange of information, strategic cooperation, solidarity support, and organizing initiatives.&quot; 
 
The two trade unions formed a commission, charged with increasing strategic cooperation and exploring a fusion together following the aggressive police attacks on workers and their families at Cananea and Pasta de Conchos on 6 June 2010, announcing the bi-lateral trade union commission at the global &quot;Triple Crisis of Sustainability&rdquo; conference in Toronto on 19 June 2010. 
 
The commission was made up of five members from each of the union&rsquo;s leaderships, and will now be expanded to include the USW general counsel and director of international affairs. Los Mineros will get two additional representatives. 
 
The USW represents 850,000 workers in the US, Canada and the Caribbean, while Los Mineros represents about 180,000 in Mexico.

USW, Mexico’s Los Mineros Strengthen Alliance

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
ICEM-affiliated United Steelworkers (USW) in the US is fighting to keep pension and healthcare benefits for 125 highly skilled mould repairmen at Owens-Illinois, and 175 at Ross International. US-based glass packaging manufacturers Owens-Illinois and Ross International are attempting to discriminate against younger workers by providing inferior retirement benefits to new staff. 
Also under attack in current negotiations are healthcare benefits contained in the two-tier proposals. The ICEM condemns this draconian stance of Owens-Illinois and Ross International in their collective negotiations. 
 
As reported by ICEM in July this year, Owens-Illinois has been attempting to squeeze more profit out of its operations elsewhere in the world by cutting workers&rsquo; benefits. In Colombia, ICEM-affiliated Sintravidricol members were forced to work dangerously long periods after restructuring at the plants in Envigado, Cogua, and Soacha. The company filled gaps by outsourcing work unilaterally, ignoring Sintravidricol&rsquo;s pleas for dialogue. 
<img alt="" src="" width="150" height="161" />
Tim Tuttle
Ross International also has a record of bitter disputes with ICEM affiliates. However, Sintravidricol in Colombia did achieve recognition and a collective agreement from the company following a 23-day strike in 2007. 
 
Both companies are now targeting USW members&rsquo; social benefits and those of future generations. These workers repair the moulds used to manufacture containers in the beer, wine, spirits, and food sectors of glass and other packaging. 
 
Tim Tuttle, Chairman of USW&rsquo;s Glass Industry Conference, reports that a further meeting with management is scheduled for Wednesday, 31 August, the same day the current agreement expires. Additional dates in September will be sought to continue discussions. 
 
In a letter to Owens-Illinois CEO, Albert Stroucken, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda condemned the company&rsquo;s stance against a fair contract for employees. &ldquo;This is an attempt by Owens-Illinois to bolster its bottom line on the backs of vulnerable retirees. It also appears to be a cynical attempt by Owens-Illinois to undermine the union by sewing divisions within it between current workers and newly hired workers,&rdquo; stated Warda. 
 
As Warda warned the CEOs of both glass packaging manufacturers, the ICEM will mobilise international support if managements fail to alter their regressive stance in North American bargaining.

USW Resists Concessions in Owens-Illinois, Ross International Bargaining

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In the midst of national unrest facing Chile President Sebasti&aacute;n Pi&ntilde;era, Mineworkers&rsquo; Federations meet together today in Iquique to push forward support for 1,500 union members of Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi, a major affiliate of Chile Federation of Miners (FMC), the trade union covering miners and workers employed by the world&rsquo;s major mining houses. 
 
The Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Collahuasi and FMC have set 2 September as a 24-hour day for industrial action, mainly in protest to the company sacking six workers during the last 24-hour strike, on 29-30 July. The union&rsquo;s planned strike is also in protest to the miners&rsquo; employer, Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi, reneging on collective agreement conventions put in place in the past. 
 
A delegation from Federaci&oacute;n de Trabajadores del Cobre (FTC), the Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation representing state-run copper company Codelco&rsquo;s staff, will likely participate in today&rsquo;s meeting. 
<img alt="" src="" width="215" height="161" />
Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi, the world&rsquo;s third largest copper mine, is jointly owned through 44% stakes each by AngloAmerican and Xstrata. The 29-30 July strike at Collahuasi was also done in support of a strike at another FMC major branch, Sindicato No. 1 de Trabajadores de Minera Escondida. Then, 2,375 miners where in a middle of a 15-day strike at Minera Escondida, the world&rsquo;s largest copper producer, owned by BHP Billion (57%) and Rio Tinto (23%). 
 
In the past few weeks, FMC President Cristi&aacute;n Arancibia has visited several mines where workers are represented by FMC branches and urged support for Collahuasi miners as the global copper enterprise ramps up for even more production. 
 
Today&rsquo;s meeting comes on the heels of a prior successful FMC-FTC solidarity meeting in Antofagasta &ndash; on 28 July &ndash; just prior to Collahuasi miners joining Escondida miners in a symbolic day-long shutdown of 10% of the world&rsquo;s copper supply. Another coordinating meeting between the Collahuasi mineworkers&rsquo; branch and the Escondida branch on 20 August produced official support from the Escondida union. And the Cobres have met amongst themselves to discuss ways to support the FMC Collahuasi miners, as well as narrowing issues in which to engage Codelco on. 
 
Dialogue has occurred between mine management at Collahuasi and Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi, reports FMC branch President Manuel Mu&ntilde;oz, but that dialogue is undermined by supervisors intentionally giving workers mis-information. Relations between Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi and mineworkers have been frayed for over a year and the two sides were pitted in a bitter 33-day strike late last year that still is being felt. 
 
In a 24 August letter to the company, Mu&ntilde;oz said that the company&rsquo;s Human Resource facilities have failed and the company is vulnerable to workers and supervisors leaving Collahuasi for other employment. He alluded to common misunderstandings that could get resolved in honest negotiations, but instead have become serious confrontations. 
 
Meanwhile, Codelco recognised that popular Chilean unrest in both mining and the general society is not good for the country&rsquo;s business climate. Last week, the company and the Cobres signed a framework agreement intended to remove communication barriers between labour and management. The agreement sets the conditions under which workers&rsquo; opinions are fostered for shaping the future direction of the company. 
 
FTC President Raimundo Espinoza said the framework agreement gives FTC stature to help develop Codelco&rsquo;s divisions &ldquo;including an analysis of the current and future workforce and compliance with the law for contract workers.&rdquo; The framework agreement results from a one-day strike on 11 July at Codelco mines over privatisation threats.

Mine Federations Meet Today in Support of Collahuasi Strike

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Trade union movements in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK will protest at Fiji missions in their respective countries this week over escalating union and civil society repression imposed by Fijian military dictator Josaia Voreque Bainimarama. These manifestations &ndash; in addition to protests at embassies of Fiji in several other countries &ndash; occur as Daniel Urai, President of the Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC), and Dinesh Gounder, of the National Union of Hospitality, Catering, Tourism Employees, face a court hearing this week, 2 September, on charges of holding a union meeting without a permit. 
 
Gounder and Urai, formerly of ICEM affiliate Fiji Electricity Workers&rsquo; Union who also serves as General Secretary of the Hospitality, Catering, Tourism union, were arrested on 3 August for violating a four-day-old decree aimed at disempowering trade union activities. 
 
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) will conduct two manifestations while Urai and Gounder are in the dock; one at the Fiji Consular General&rsquo;s office at 100 North Walker Street, North Sydney, the other at the Fiji High Commission in Canberra, 19 Beale Crescent. Both demonstrations begin at 11h.
<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="120" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="120" height="120" />
Daniel Urai, Dinesh Gounder
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) will conduct a protest at 12h30 on Friday, 2 September, at Fiji&rsquo;s High Commission offices at 31 Pipitea Street, Thorndon, Wellington. 
 
In the UK, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) will hold a protest together with Amnesty International outside of Fiji&rsquo;s High Commission in London on Thursday, 1 September, from 16h to 17h. This Fiji mission is located at 34 Hyde Park Gate, London SW7 5DN. 
 
LabourStart has launched an online campaign in which opponents of this blatant repression of trade unionism can respond directly to the Fiji government. The&nbsp;<a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1086 ">LabourStart campaign</a> can be found here. 
 
The Fiji military regime has tightened the noose on human and trade union rights over the past months and it has flaunted it in full view of the international community. In May 2011, the regime imposed a draconian anti-social amendment to the Employment Relations Promulgation 2007 law that eliminates public-sector workers from the scope of the regulation. On 29 July, the regime of Commodore Bainimarama then published the Essential National Industries (Employment) Decree, effectively banning all industrial actions, voiding existing collective agreements in weeks to come, curbing overtime pay, and canceling wage adjustments and certain work terms in designated industries. The decree will severely hamper union ability to gain bargaining rights and maintain representation status. 
<img alt="" src="" width="117" height="44" />&nbsp; &nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="110" height="41" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="100" height="46" />
The decree also prohibits people from holding union office unless employed by the respective company, and those that do not face large fines and jail sentences. The right to was previously limited, but the Essential National Industries decree now makes it near impossible, with strike authorisation only granted by government approval. 
 
The military regime last week also banned the annual conference of Fiji&rsquo;s Methodist Church because church leaders refused to accept a government demand that pro-democracy church leaders step down from their church roles. The Methodist religion is Fiji&rsquo;s largest religious affiliation. 
 
The ICEM joins national labour centres and other labour organisation in pressing Fiji to reverse these archaic decrees, as well as calling on Fiji to conduct free and democratic elections in the near future.

Days of Action This Week Against Fiji: Join!

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