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Police in Australia are attacking picket lines as minerals and metals giant BHP continues its bid to deunionise parts of its operation there. 
 
Pickets at BHP's Newman site were assaulted by police using batons last night, the mining and allied workers' union CFMEU reports. 
 
And at BHP's Port Hedland site today, 80 police officers broke a picket line. Several people were arrested, including the secretary of the CFMEU's Western Australian Mining &amp; Energy branch, Gary Wood. He has been released on bail, on condition that he does not return to the picket line, and will face court on Friday. 
 
In a hit-and-run incident on another picket line, an officer of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union was knocked down by a BHP car. John Mossington, the AMWU officer, has been hospitalised. Police are investigating. 
 
The CFMEU and AMWU are two of the unions campaigning against a recent radical policy shift in BHP's Australian iron ore operations. Management there has abandoned its traditional cooperative approach to industrial relations in favour of a hard-line policy that denies its workers the right to bargain collectively. 
 
Last November, BHP issued its 1,000 iron ore workers in the Pilbara, Western Australia, with individual staff contracts, saying it was not prepared to negotiate a new collective agreement. The company had previously operated under a collective agreement negotiated with unions. Legislation brought in by Australia's right-wing federal government has made it much easier for employers to evade collective bargaining. 
 
At the global level, the CFMEU and AMWU are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
&quot;We condemn the opportunistic attempts by various multinationals to use current Australian legislation for purposes of union-busting,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Brussels today. &quot;The ICEM is very concerned that BHP has joined the ranks of the union-busters. The company must get back to collective bargaining and to constructive relations with the Australian trade unions.&quot;

BHP&#039;s Union-Busting:  Australian Pickets Attacked

The Communications, Energy, Paperworkers Union of Canada would welcome global trade union support in its effort to block the Canadian government from selling its 19% state in Petro-Canada. Log on to www.cep.ca, click on the &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t Sell Petro-Canada&rdquo; link on the home page, and you can draft and send a short message against divestment to the prime minister that is automatically copied to the finance minister.

CEP of Canada Seeks Petition Help on Petro-Canada

Korean elections on 15 April proved historic for progressive forces including the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and ICEM affiliate Korean Chemical &amp; Textile Workers&rsquo; Federation (KCFT). For the first time in the nation&rsquo;s 56-year history, progressive labour as represented by the DLP won seats in the National Assembly&mdash;ten, to become the country&rsquo;s third largest political party. KCTF is a member of the thriving national labour center, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which backs the DLP.

Korean Elections Bode Well for Union Movement

The crisis in Ukrainian coal mines is worsening by the day. Crippled by customers' unpaid bills and by &quot;reforms&quot; partly dictated by global financial institutions, the industry is continuing to default on wage payments to its workers. 
 
By 1 February, active coalminers were owed between 3 and 14 months' pay, the Miners' Independent Trade Union of Ukraine (MITU) reports. The total wage debt to these miners topped 700 million US dollars last month. The many Ukrainian miners invalided out because of accidents and occupational diseases are faring no better financially. They are now owed some 135 million US dollars' worth of benefits. 
 
Desperate times breed desperate measures. Strikes are spreading rapidly, now involving between 20,000 and 25,000 miners each day. About 200 miners have launched an indefinite sit-in below ground. One miner burned himself to death in a protest last December and more have threatened to do so. 
 
&quot;The miners are demanding that their wages be paid on time, that the arrears be paid and that state financing of the sector be increased during 1999,&quot; MITU President Mikhail Volynets commented yesterday. He said the country's President and government had reneged on a commitment to begin paying off the wage backlog. If the miners' &quot;legimate demands&quot; were not met, MITU would &quot;lead a general miners' strike,&quot; Volynets pledged. 
 
He pointed out that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are pressing the Ukraine to cut coal industry subsidies, close mines and reduce the workforce. 
 
&quot;All this doesn't favour the financial improvement of country in general, and in particular of the coal sector, which is a key Ukrainian industry,&quot; Volynets emphasised. &quot;Because of the tough monetary policy implemented by the government under pressure from the World Bank, many industrial enterprises in related sectors have stopped working. This has also had a negative effect on the working of the mines. 
 
&quot;In this situation, social and psychological tensions are intensifying more and more in the mining regions,&quot; Volynets warned. 
 
At the global level, the MITU is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
&quot;The Ukrainian miners' claim is undeniably just,&quot; ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe commented. &quot;They are simply demanding what they are owed. They have the full support and solidarity of their brothers and sisters worldwide. 
 
&quot;We certainly call upon the Ukrainian mines and the Ukrainian government to ensure payment of the wage debt without further delay,&quot; Thorpe said. &quot;But beyond that, we demand that the institutions of global finance, notably the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, should at last show some social responsibility. At least part of the international finance that now goes into often harmful 'restructuring' in Ukraine and similar economies must instead be earmarked for the payment of the huge debts owed to those countries' workers. Global action is needed now to right this scandalous wrong.&quot;

Ukraine: Mine Strikes Spread As Pay Debt Climbs

ICEM President and Australian CFMEU National Secretary John Maitland officiated at a remembrance 4 April of the 1,600 miners who lost their lives in the mining areas of New South Wales dating back to 1801. The remembrance was the ninth such observance at the United Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation House in Cessnock. CFMEU Northern Mining &amp; Energy Division President Peter Murray said it is important to demonstrate respect and condolences to families who have lost loves ones in the mines and as a result of hazardous mine work.

Australian Mine Union Marks Death Toll in NSW

US refinery workers of BP in Whiting, Indiana, will take their case for preserving health care benefits to the AGM of the company in London this week. Members and officials from affiliate PACE will ask BP managers and shareholders 15 April why a firm based in a nation that guarantees universal health care to all citizens is taking advantage of a US system in which health insurance is unaffordable and unattainable for 45 million citizens. Although a collective agreement between BP and PACE Local 6-1 in Whiting does not expire until February 2006, the company is using a health care re-opener in mid-term to demand a 10% hike in out-of-pocket costs for current workers and retirees. BP seeks to increase what workers and retirees now pay for health care from 20% to 30%, and it seeks to eliminate health coverage altogether for retirees hired after 1 April 2004.

PACE US Workers Take Health Care Issue to BP’s AGM

The NUM in South Africa said it would withdraw from bargaining and the current work-term agreement it has with Harmony Gold Mining Ltd. if means are not found to reduce Harmony&rsquo;s projected job cuts. Harmony announced outside of talks on 2 April that it was closing six shafts due to insufficient financial returns and the strong Rand. Some 5,000 jobs are at stake. NUM agreed to continuous seven-day-a-week operations with Harmony to ensure marginal mines stay operational, but now SA&rsquo;s largest gold producer has reneged on that pledge. NUM was in talks with Harmony when the firm made the surprise announcement about shuttering the six shafts.

NUM in South Africa Takes Issue with Harmony Gold&#039;s Job Cuts

Despite a complete and full victory by Kristal-Is at Sisecam Group glass plants in Turkey, ICEM affiliate Maden-Is&mdash;the General Mine Workers&rsquo; Union&mdash;is still in dispute with the glassmaker. Fifty-five miners at Sisecam&rsquo;s Cam-Is Quartz Mining operations in Yalikey, Istanbul, were sacked one year ago for becoming members of Maden-Is, and 16 others have been on strike at the mine since last August. Sisecam has shown no willingness to recognize the rights of the miners to join the union.

Turkish Maden-Is Union Seeks Rights for Glass Workers

The ICEM sent a letter of condolences to the families and colleagues of mineworkers who perished in an 11 April gas explosion in western Siberia. The letter was sent through the Russian Independent Coal Employees&rsquo;&rsquo; Union (Rosugleprof). The explosion trapped and killed 44 miners some 600 meters down a mine in the village of Taizhina, Osinniki, in Russia&rsquo;s Kuzbass mining region.

Explosion in Western Siberia Kills 44 Russian Miners

Organised labour is regrouping to meet new challenges. Union mergers have become an important source of strength in many countries. 
 
That process took a big step further in the USA this week with the creation of PACE, the 320,000-member Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Intl. Union. PACE results from a merger between two major US unions, the paperworkers' UPIU and the oil, chemical and atomic workers' OCAW. 
 
PACE immediately gave top priority to organising (i.e. actively recruiting new members) and to international trade union solidarity. Like both its forerunners, the new union is affiliated at the global level to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
First President of PACE is Boyd Young, who until now headed the UPIU. 
 
&quot;We intend to set the pace for organising, a progressive vision and international solidarity,&quot; Young said. &quot;The members of this great new union deserve to be and are prepared to be on the cutting edge as labour advances into a new century. We must fight for our future.&quot; 
 
The Executive Vice-President of PACE is Robert Wages, up to now President of the OCAW. He will take on key responsibilities in the union's organising programme and will continue to coordinate national oil bargaining. 
 
&quot;When the merger discussions started with the UPIU, President Young and I committed to a basic premise,&quot; said Wages. &quot;We were not interested in merging for the sake of being larger; we were interested in creating a new, more powerful and progressive union prepared to do the work our membership expects.&quot; 
 
Global trade unionism was highlighted during the merger Convention in a speech by the leader of locked-out Texan oilworkers. Crown Central Petroleum has kept unionised workers shut out of its Pasadena refinery since February 1996. Oil multinational Statoil has now told Crown that its contract to refine Statoil crude for the North American market will not be renewed unless Crown establishes normal relationships with the union. This pressure from Norwegian-based Statoil follows representations by the ICEM-affiliated Norwegian oilworkers' union NOPEF. During the PACE convention, the president of the Crown workers' union local paid tribute to this effective international solidarity. 
 
PACE has members in pulp, paper, oil, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, nuclear energy, cement, automobile parts, appliance manufacturing and a wide variety of other industries. 
 
The advent of the new union was warmly welcomed by ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe, who attended the merger Convention. &quot;PACE represents a substantial consolidation of the ICEM's American membership,&quot; Thorpe commented. &quot;We now have a powerful new affiliate with a strong commitment to global solidarity. This is good news for workers everywhere.&quot;

Pace-setting Union Merger Boosts US And Global Labour

Archive

BHP's Union-Busting: Australian Pickets Attacked

CEP of Canada Seeks Petition Help on Petro-Canada

Korean Elections Bode Well for Union Movement

Ukraine: Mine Strikes Spread As Pay Debt Climbs

Australian Mine Union Marks Death Toll in NSW

PACE US Workers Take Health Care Issue to BP’s AGM

NUM in South Africa Takes Issue with Harmony Gold's Job Cuts

Turkish Maden-Is Union Seeks Rights for Glass Workers

Explosion in Western Siberia Kills 44 Russian Miners

Pace-setting Union Merger Boosts US And Global Labour

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