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Some 1,100 rubber workers, members of ICEM affiliates Transport &amp; General Workers Union (TGWU) and Amicus, voted to take industrial action at two Pirelli tyre plants in the Midlands. Workers were balloted after the Italian tyre-maker offered only a 2.2% wage increase.
The balloting, which took place between 10 July and 3 August, showed that a full 75% of workers at Pirelli&rsquo;s plants in Burton-on-Trent and Carlisle accept industrial action as means to a fair contract. TGWU represents about 900 of the workers at the two plants, while Amicus represents 200. 
 
&ldquo;The overwhelming vote in favour of industrial action shows the strength of feeling against the company&rsquo;s 2.2% final pay offer,&rdquo; said TGWU National Manufacturing Organiser Peter Booth. &ldquo;Pirelli Tyres is one of the most profitable parts of the group and our members clearly feel that a below-inflation offer does not reflect their expectations, particularly with rising energy costs.&rdquo; 
 
The unions have submitted the vote to the company, and asked Pirelli to reconsider its pay offer. The exact industrial action agenda will be released today. Pirelli had previously announced its intention to issue an initial public offering for its tyre division, but early in July cancelled any spin-off of this business

UK Unions TGWU, Amicus Vote for Industrial Action Against Pirelli

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ICEM South African affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) ended an eight-day strike today against Kumba Resources. Following a series of meetings over the weekend at branch level with NUM&rsquo;s 4,000 members employed at Kumba, the strike ended after top executives of the company entered talks. 
 
National union leaders joined the talks beginning on Friday, and consultations continued with the company over the weekend. 
 
&ldquo;Our members are pleased with the outcome as presented to them after our talks with the chief executive of Kumba,&rdquo; said NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni. &ldquo;The discipline of our members while on strike deserves praise and their ability to compromise for purposes of settling the strike is commendable.&rdquo; 
 
The strike severely affected operations at some six Kumba mines, including iron ore pits, three coal mines and a dolomite mine. The NUM was the largest of four unions in negotiations with Kumba, currently 67% controlled by AngloAmerican. The union struck on 30 July and union members of the Black Allied Mining and Construction Workers&rsquo; Union (BAMCWU) followed NUM out on strike. Trade union Solidarity staged a two-day strike on 31 July and 1 August, but then accepted the company&rsquo;s wage offer. ICEM affiliate National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) represents a small number of workers at Kumba 
 
NUM struck in efforts to achieve an equitable wage package, and to gain maternity leave improvements and housing increases. Those issues were achieved, with top leaders of the company agreeing to the NUM&rsquo;s demand of 9% for low-wage workers over the weekend. NUM&rsquo;s demand for an 8% pay hike for higher wage earners was compromised when the union accepted 7.75%. But it is understood that various allowances will now be implemented to push that to 8%. The NUM paid special tribute to the 900 workers of BAMCWU who stood strong with South Africa&rsquo;s dominant miners&rsquo; union. 
 
Kumba is a product of South Africa&rsquo;s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). AngloAmerican is currently in the process of splitting the company in half, with the global mining house to retain iron ore operations. Kumba&rsquo;s coal and base metals production, including zinc and titanium, will be split into South Africa&rsquo;s largest black controlled company, Exxaro Resources, after sale is finalised to Eyesizwe of South Africa. That is expected to occur later this year.

South Africa’s NUM Ends Strike at Kumba Resources

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Fifty years ago, on 8 August 1956, 262 coal miners at Bois du Cazier in the Belgian town of Marcinelle lost their lives in a gruesome chain of events inside a 975-metre mine shaft. On 8 August 2006, the timing of those events will be commemorating on the hour they occurred. 
 
Beginning at 08h00, the time when a shaft elevator malfunctioned and crashed, clipping high-voltage electrical lines, a bell tower clock at Bois du Cazier will ring 262 times as the name of each victim is read. At 10h00, flowers will be laid at a monument at the mine that is dedicated to the many accidents that have occurred at Bois du Cazier since 1901. At 11h00, a ceremony will be held at the Marcinelle cemetery, followed by another commemoration at 12h30 at the mine site, now a museum. 
 
The shaft elevator blocked the flow of fresh air and the resulting electrical explosion created a firestorm. Some of the 262 coal miners, including 136 Italian immigrants, died from the furnace-like firestorm caused by the blast, while others who may have found refuge from the fire died from subsequent carbon monoxide poisoning. The deadly day of 8 August 1956 at Bois du Cazier stands as the worst industrial accident in Belgium&rsquo;s history. 
 
The aftermath of this tragic worksite story is depicted in a book entitled &ldquo;Tutti Cadaveri: The Trial of the Catastrophe at the Bois du Cazier in Marcinelle,&rdquo; co-authored by Belgian FGTB trade union Federal Secretary Paul Lootens. The book&rsquo;s title, &ldquo;Tutti Cadaveri,&rdquo; comes from the Italian rescuer who, after surfacing from the mine, said, tragically, &ldquo;All corpses.&rdquo; 
 
This French language book, by Lootens and historians Marie-Louise De Roeck and Julie Urbain, was published only on 1 May 2006, but is already in its second printing. It is available from Aden Publishers for &euro;22, and can be ordered by contacting Aden at <a href="mailto:editionsaden@skynet.be">editionsaden@skynet.be</a>, or calling +32 2534 46 61. 

More information on the book, plus ordering information,&nbsp;can&nbsp;be found at <a href="http://www.aden.be/tutti_cadaveri.html">www.aden.be/tutti_cadaveri.html.</a>.

Worst Belgian Industrial Disaster: 8 August 1956

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&ldquo;Hadi Never Died: Hadi Saleh and the Iraqi Trade Union Movement&rdquo; is a recommended book just released about the continuing fight to establish free and democratic trade unions in Iraq. Written by Abdullah Muhsin and Alan Johnson, and published by UK&rsquo;s Trades Union Congress, all proceeds of the book benefit Iraqi trade unions. 
 
Hadi Saleh might best exemplify the decades-long fight for open and free trade unions inside Iraq. The country was once moderately tolerant of such unions, which made it an economic and social model for the Middle East. Hadi Saleh, then a leader in the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), was strangled to death with electrical wire in his home after being tortured on 4 January 2005 by assassins aligned with the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein. He was 58. 
 
In 1969, Hadi Saleh was sentenced to death during the early years of a repressive regime for engaging in activities for free and independent trade unions. He was imprisoned for five years and then fled, taking exile in Sweden. At the height of the invasion in spring 2003 which toppled Saddam Hussein, he returned to Iraq to continue the fight for legitimate trade unions. 
 
At the time of his death, he was the International Secretary of the IFTU, now called the Iraqi Workers&rsquo; Federation (IWF). 
 
Hadi Saleh has not been the only trade union advocate since commencement of the Iraqi occupation to meet his death for trade union activity. In 18 February 2005, Ali Hassan Abd of the Oil &amp; Gas Workers&rsquo; Union was shot and killed while walking home with his children. Less that a week later, Ahmed Adris Abas of the Transport &amp; Communications Workers&rsquo; Union was gunned down in Martyrs&rsquo; Square in Baghdad. 
 
On 25 January 2006, Alaa Issa Khalaf of the Mechanics&rsquo;&rsquo; trade union of the General federation of Iraqi Workers was assassinated and in late April of this year, Thabet Hussein of the General Union for Health Sector Workers was murdered. In June, Shukry Al Shakhly, a founder of the IFTU, was also murdered. 
 
Others have been kidnapped, or have been victims of senseless killings that occur every day now in Iraq. 
 
Author and IWF liaison Abdullah Muhsin voiced the beliefs of Hadi Saleh at the recent launch of the book: &ldquo;Free and independent unions will play an important role in making sure investment provides quality jobs and decent public services. 
 
&ldquo;But unions are also important in forming Iraq&rsquo;s democratic future and national identity,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;Our independence makes us a home to all Iraqis irrespective of gender, ethnicity, and religion. Unions are an antidote to the sectarian poisons of extremism in Iraq.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;Hadi Never Died: Hadi Saleh and the Iraqi Trade Union Movement&rdquo; can be ordered for ₤10 at <a href="http://www.tuc.org.uk/publications">http://www.tuc.org.uk/publications</a>, or by e-mailing <a href="mailto:media@tuc.org.uk">media@tuc.org.uk</a>, or calling +44 20 7467 1294.

Book Celebrates Determined Comrades Fighting for Free Iraqi Trade Unions

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Trinidad and Tobago&rsquo;s Labour Ministry will convene another conciliation meeting tomorrow, 8 August, in order to avert further job actions by trade unionists of ICEM affiliate Oilfield Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (OWTU). Hundreds of OWTU members shut down the country&rsquo;s only oil refinery at Point-a-Pierre from 23 July to 27 July in protest to state-run oil company Petrotrin&rsquo;s insufficient three-year contract offer.
OWTU has been attempting to reach an accord with Petrotrin for 1,500 refinery, exploration and production workers since last year. The labour dispute centers on wages and general work terms and conditions. All five labour agreements &ndash; covering 5,000 workers &ndash; between OWTU and the company have now expired, and the union is seeking a fair and just settlement for renewal agreements dating from 2005 to 2008. 
 
On 24 July, Petrotrin requested government mediation. Refinery workers, frustrated by management&rsquo;s bargaining table intransigence in a time of booming oil and gas profits, began job actions a day earlier. The two parties met with Labour Ministry officials on 27 July and again on 3 August in attempts to resolve issues, and tomorrow&rsquo;s meeting is termed pivotal in terms of future actions. 
 
&ldquo;The demonstration by workers recently was a show of disgust over the company&rsquo;s meagre offer,&rdquo; said OWTU President Errol McLeod. &ldquo;The situation is not stable enough now to assure anybody that more demonstrations will not occur.&rdquo; 
 
OWTU members at the former Texaco refinery in Point-a-Pierre did strike on 5-6 June over stalled talks, in addition to safety issues. Other Petrotrin workers, including offshore workers, struck a month earlier due to lack of progress in negotiations. In March, refinery workers began the job actions by waging two separate strikes. 
 
The Point-a-Pierre refinery produces 160,000 barrels-per-day of petrol, diesel and oil for domestic consumption and export to other Caribbean nations and the US. The refinery is expanding to include a US$150 million methanol plant for gas to liquids conversion. Petrotrin will have 49% ownership in the new enterprise, with the 2,250 barrel-per-day plant led by New York-based start-up company World GTL

Trinidad’s Oil Workers Take Action for Fair Contract

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The selective strike by ICEM Norwegian oil workers&rsquo; union NOPEF ended late on 24 July following a mediated session by the government. The 34-day strike against oil service companies operating on Norway&rsquo;s Continental Shelf proved highly effective, and produced a new two-year agreement that fulfils NOPEF&rsquo;s demands toward normalising the national oil services agreement with other collective agreements in the country&rsquo;s energy sector. 
 
The accord also matches the other agreements in the sector with the first-year wage increase, and provides an even better salary pay-out for 2007. Effective 1 July 2006, oil service workers in Norway, numbering some 2,650, receive a 5.9% wage increase. In 2007, a lump sum bonus of NOK 17,000 (US$2,800) was won. 
 
But more significantly, the 2006-2006 agreement sets forth a protocol that will begin moving oil service companies to the standard rotation schedule of two-weeks on, four-weeks off. Local discussions toward that work schedule will now occur, with NOPEF and the employers&rsquo; federation, Oil Industry Association (OLF), meeting in February 2007 to review the progress. 
 
NOPEF also achieved an increase in night work, added pay for holidays, and increases in food and travel pay and arrangements. The union did not achieve pay for waiting time, but that issue will be prioritised for talks in future renewal contracts. Workers will now vote on the new contract, with the vote to be completed by 1 September. 
 
NOPEF&rsquo;s strike against oil service contractors began on 21 June. The union called but 87 workers out on strike against just a handful of employers, knowing that such a strategy would place pressure on the oil majors in their drilling and development projects. The main employers targeted were Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Weatherford and Oceaneering. 
 
The ICEM salutes NOPEF for carrying out a tactical and effective strike in achieving a national oil services agreement that has proven to be the most difficult in the Norwegian energy sector. The will and discipline from a set of highly-skilled workers and trade unionists has now brought major employers providing oil services closer to the work rules and terms of other companies operating inside Norway&rsquo;s oil patch.

NOPEF Wins Oil Services Strike in Norway

Probes into deadly coal mine disasters in the Americas earlier this year are now coming into focus. And at two of the worst &ndash; the Sago mine blast in the US state of West Virginia on 2 January and the 19 February explosion at Grupo Mexico&rsquo;s Pasta de Conchos No. 8 mine in Mexico&rsquo;s Coahuila state &ndash; inadequate government safety monitoring and a reckless company safety culture are just part of the causes.
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&nbsp; 
In Mexico, a report issued last week by the government&rsquo;s National Human Rights Commission said, in 2004, safety officials of Mexico&rsquo;s Labour Department identified 48 major problems in Grupo Mexico&rsquo;s Minera Mexicana mine. The report added, however, that nothing was done to correct the deficiencies until just 12 days before the explosion. Sixty-five miners were killed in the February 2006 mine blast, the majority of them contract workers who were given no training and inadequate oxygen supply devices. Some 25 of the miners killed were members of Mexico&rsquo;s Miners &amp; Metalworkers Union (SNTMMSRM). 
 
The Human Rights Commission stated that Labour Department officials tolerated carelessness and neglect on behalf of company safety representatives, and that they &ldquo;had full knowledge of the working conditions of the mine where the catastrophe occurred (that) infringed on security standards,&rdquo; said a statement from the agency. The government knew of problems with lighting and underground signal systems, as well as gas and oil leaks and a faulty smoke-release system. 
 
In the US, a joint state and federal investigation into the Sago disaster that killed 12 miners has found that company officials had workers falsify documents. Testimony saw workers admitting they had signed documentation brought to them by bosses that they had attended safety classes and training, when, if fact, they had not. Sago is owned by the Wolf Run Mining Co., one of many coal mines in the eastern United States bought in bankruptcy proceedings by US-based investment house International Coal Group (IGC).
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&nbsp;An in-depth investigation done by a Pennsylvania newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also found that seals inside the non-union Sago mine&rsquo;s safety chambers were poorly constructed, using materials unable to withstand the force of a methane explosion. 
 
IGC attempted to bar safety officials from ICEM affiliate United Mineworkers of America (UMWA) from playing a role in the Sago disaster&rsquo;s investigation, even though miners and family members of victims sought such help. Under mine safety regulations in the US, such union assistance in non-union worksites is permissible if so requested. IGC had private security forces physically stop UMWA safety officials from entering the mine property following the explosion, and the US government had to sue the company in order that the mine safety law was honoured. A US District Court ruled in favour of UMWA involvement late in January, but IGC appealed that ruling to a higher court. Last month, the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court&rsquo;s verdict.

Mine Safety Probes in the Americas Progress

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With the supply of European energy sources becoming increasingly political, German affiliate IGBCE has called on the EU to update its coal regulatory policies in order to become less reliant on imported resources. In a letter to the European Commission calling on consultation to begin on re-working a 2002 regulation on coal mining, IGBCE said it is strategically important for the EU to have access to domestic raw materials. 
 
&ldquo;The development of world energy markets with dramatic price increases and increasing energy use,&rdquo; said IGBCE President Hubertus Schmoldt, &ldquo;makes it clear that Germany and Europe cannot let go of its own energy sources.&rdquo; The union continues to advocate for a balanced energy mix, but says the Commission&rsquo;s regulation must include promotion of domestic hard coal beyond the year 2010.

IGBCE Calls on EU to Develop Domestic Energy Sources

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Contract workers for Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber in Bangkok, Thailand, won another victory for fairness and justice recently. Goodyear was ordered by the country&rsquo;s Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to reinstate 18 contract workers&mdash;some working up to 10 years under single-year term agreements&mdash;who were sacked last year for attempting to exert collective bargaining rights. The contract workers are members of the Tyre Makers Union, which is affiliated to ICEM member Chemical Federation of Thailand (PCFT). 
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The workers, employed in rubber stock and warehouse operations of Goodyear&rsquo;s 40-year-old factory in Bangkok, now will press again for collective bargaining rights. A hearing on that matter was held in a separate court on 26 April, but an outcome was delayed by a new judge who was just assigned to the case. 
 
Goodyear found itself under considerable pressure last October when it discharged the contract workers, in spite of deducting union dues from them through a check-off system for as long as four years. In an effort to correct its mistake, the American-based company halted direct employment of contract workers, and brought in a labour agency to handle employment. 
 
Eighteen of 25 contract workers refused employment with the agency, preferring instead full-time employment with Goodyear. The IRC ruling in early April calls for Goodyear to reinstate the workers. Two of the 18 contract workers cited in the victory have passed away in the meantime, one due to heart disease in 2005, the other of cancer the day before the IRC issued its ruling.

Contract Workers Triumph at Goodyear in Thailand

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In Finland on 1 May, a new policy takes effect that will no longer restrict the free movement of labour from the new EU Member States. Over the past two years, since the addition of ten new countries into the EU, Finnish control mechanisms have been put in place through a subscriber liability law. The legislation now makes it harder to abuse foreign workers, and also puts meaningful stops to the grey economy. 
 
Companies are now obligated to investigate the handling of taxation, social security payments and work practices of their subcontractors. The Finnish government will also seek to tighten control over foreign agency labour through a new policy that requires foreign workers from EU states to register at an employment bureau within two weeks of arrival. Finnish trade unions have fully endorsed the policy changes. 
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In the United States on May Day, a day that bosses in the late 19th century stripped of significance so that American workers would not have the same Labour Day, immigrant workers will wage a general strike as well as a consumer strike. The strikes are further protests against restrictive measures against immigrants that have surfaced in the US Congress. 
The day will vividly illustrate not only the jobs that immigrants fill in America, but also the purchasing power they have in the marketplace. Leading up to the twin strikes, businesses and companies in several large US cities have fired thousands of migrant workers who participated in marches in March and April. 
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In Belgium on 1 May, trade unionist Paul Lootens and historians Marie-Louise De Roeck and Julie Urbain will unveil their new book, Tutti Cadaveri: The Trial of the Catastrophe at the Bois du Cazier in Marcinelle. The book depicts the aftermath of Belgium&rsquo;s worst mining tragedy in history, a fire that raged inside a coal mine near the Wallonian town of Marcinelle, killing 262 miners. 
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The tragedy occurred on 8 August 1956 and the book marks the 50th anniversary of the devastating loss of so many lives. The book&rsquo;s title, Tutti Cadaveri, comes from an Italian rescuer who, after surfacing from the mine, said, &ldquo;All corpses.&rdquo; 
The book is available from Aden Publishers for &euro;22 and can be ordered from Aden by contacting editionsaden@skynet.be, or calling +32 2534 46 61. The ICEM will bring further attention to the 50th Anniversary events as the August date draws closer. 
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On Monday, 1 May, German IGBCE President Hubertus Schmoldt will deliver a major speech in Osnabr&uuml;ck on some fundamental issues affecting Germany and its trade unions, including joblessness, health reform and an energy policy. 
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The trade union leader will warn against the notion that the German economy can be strengthened by lowering wages, or through increasing the number of hours in the work week. IGBCE also calls for minimum standards, including wage levels, to be maintained for all sectors of the economy. 
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From Argentina on May Day comes a greeting from ICEM affiliate SUTNA. The union reminds us of the origins of International Workers&rsquo; Day&mdash;the fight for an eight-hour workday in the US city of Chicago, which produced a mass general strike that was met by brutal repression and then execution of those leading the strike by the state. &ldquo;SUTNA salutes, on the occasion of this International Workers&rsquo; Day, all workers who continue the excellent work that was started by the martyrs of Chicago.&rdquo; 
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The All Pakistan Trade Union Federation, which has organised huge May Day rallies for Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Rawalpindi/Islamabad and Quetta, sends this message: &ldquo;The growing economic might of multinationals and transnational corporations, and the imposition of policies of globalisation, have led to an unprecedented large-scale offensive against the democratic and social achievements of working people, and against the trade union movement.&rdquo; 
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And from Azerbaijan, Jahangir Aliyev, chairman of the Oil and Gas Industry Workers Trade Union (OGWU), expresses &ldquo;health, happiness and great progress for the welfare of all labour people.&rdquo;

May Day Actions, Greetings from Around the World

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