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The two Spanish ICEM affiliates in the oil and gas sector, FIA-UGT and FITEQA-CC.OO., jointly issued a call for a two-day general strike of all gas and petrol station workers, set for 7-8 November. In total, the strike would affect 41,500 workers, spread over some 8,700 petrol stations across Spain. 
 
The unions are protesting against a series of bad working conditions. Workers often work extra hours just in order to cope financially; they earn only €800-900 euros a month, before taxes. They also face “excessive rotation and temporary work,” including shift and weekend work. Other issues include dangerous working conditions, specifically regarding frequent robberies, and the fact that workers are expected to perform extra shop duties without extra pay. 
<img height="80" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SpainFIAUGT.jpg" width="80"/>        <img height="81" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SpainFITEQA.jpg" width="100"/>
UGT and CC.OO. want a new three-year collective agreement to include a substantial salary increase and a reduction in average working hours. The unions say their demands are very reasonable, certainly given the current profits by the multinationals that control the distribution sector. 
 
And they remain open to negotiations with the employers. A meeting last week, however, failed to bring parties closer to an agreement. The unions and employers are meeting again tomorrow, in a last attempt to avoid a strike. Hopes are not that high though, since negotiations for this sector have been stalled since March.

Spanish Petrol Station Workers Threaten Two-Day Strike

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Neo-conservative Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, issued sharp criticism at China last week for the way in which the country runs its investment projects in developing countries. According to Wolfowitz, Chinese banks should stop their current practice of ignoring workers and human rights when investing abroad. 
 
A key point in Wolfowitz’s assertion was the fact that Chinese banks fail to adhere to the international Equator Principles. 
 
Earlier this year, dozens of commercial banks and lenders signed up to a revised version of the Equator Principles. These principles are a voluntary benchmark for the financial industry, consisting, among other things, of a set of environmental and social standards that should be met by banks when they fund global projects. To date, some 80% of all commercial banks have adopted the guidelines. 
 
Trade unionists everywhere might take an interest in this, since the Equator Principles are partially based on the social and environmental loan conditions of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s lending arm for the private sector. Cause for some optimism is that the IFC, earlier this year, also adopted a new of social standards. These new IFC standards now include a commitment to respect all ILO's core labour standards, including the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. 
 
When all is tallied, this means that a majority of the world’s operating banks, of whom many are involved in mining, oil, gas or other extraction projects in developing countries, have now declared, albeit voluntarily, to demand the respect for the core ILO standards in their projects. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0610ICEMRegGreen.jpg" width="100"/> 
 
Reg Green, ICEM’s Health, 
Safety and Environment Officer
In reacting to a Financial Times article on this subject, Reg Green, ICEM’s Health, Safety and Environment Officer, wrote in a letter-to-the-editor that the World Bank’s quest for further endorsements of the Equator Principles a sound idea. However, in addition to endorsing the principles, he said that countries could, and should, go a step further. 
 
Green wrote, “The single most important asset that African countries currently possess is their mineral wealth. It is also well known that where mineral wealth is concerned there are major temptations to corruption.” 
 
Green said more African countries would do well to commit themselves to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) principles, an international effort to “improve governance in resource-rich countries through the full publication and verification of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining.” ICEM has been supportive of the EITI initiative. In his Financial Times letter, Green describes the EITI as a promising development, even though it is still very young. 
 
Finally, and ironically, the World Bank, which criticises Chinese banks for not abiding by the Equator Principles and the ILO standards, recently issued a highly-circulated publication entitled “Doing Business,” which encourages violation of a number of ILO Conventions by countries in order to make their economies more "investment friendly." 
 
For more information: 
EITI : <a href="http://www.eitransparency.org">http://www.eitransparency.org</a> 
Equator Principles: <a href="http://www.equator-principles.com">http://www.equator-principles.com</a> 
IFC adopting ILO standards: 
<a href="http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991223448&Language=EN">http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991223448&Language=EN</a>

On International Social and Environmental Principles

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Seven trade unions representing Continental AG rubber workers in six countries gathered 18-19 October in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, to discuss the German manufacturer’s labour practices. The meeting was hosted by the independent SNTGTM in Mexico. 
 
A declaration resulted from the conference on undertaking future work, including a Day of Action at Continental’s global worksites on 13 December 2006. The declaration includes a call to IGBCE of Germany, as the major trade union of Conti workers there, to conduct a meeting of Continental trade unions in order to work toward creation of a global union network. 
<img height="225" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0610Continental.jpg" width="300"/>
Continental Tyre unionists 
in front of the San Luis Potosi plant
Trade unionists from Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Germany, Mexico and the US attended the meeting in San Luis Potosi. The host union described how management at this plant sacked some union leaders, with SNTGTM taking the matter to court in order to get reinstatements. With that successful, the union has still found it difficult to bargain with the company each year. 
 
Mark Cieslikowski, a local union leader from US affiliate United Steelworkers (USW), told delegates of the harsh manner in which Continental closed a tyre factory in Charlotte, state of North Carolina, this year. Brazilian trade unionists told how, despite a collective agreement in place, managers at a facility in Canaçari block union representatives from entering the plant to speak with or organise workers. 
 
Jörg Schustereit, IGBCE member and member of the works council of ContiTech, called “Euroforum,” spoke about the process and workings of that council, while ICEM’s Rubber Sector Officer, Michael Wolters, reported on Conti’s economic situation, as well as the company’s current business strategy. 
 
The ICEM will update Rubber Sector trade unions about developments at Continental, as well as alert unions at Continental worksites about the Day of Action, 13 December 2006.

Rubber Unions Gather to Discuss Continental; Issue Declaration

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Miners of the United Steelworkers (USW) in Canada are on strike at the Iron Ore Co. of Canada for better workplace protections and reductions to subcontracting. The strike, by 1,300 USW members at a mine and pellet plant in Labrador City, Newfoundland, and an export water facility at Sept-Iles, Quebec, also involves wages and benefits. 
 
Major mining house Rio Tinto owns 59% of Iron Ore Co. of Canada.
<img height="138" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Canada.png" width="300"/>
USW members in Labrador City, over 1,000 strong, walked out on 8 March, while port workers of another USW branch union joined the strike last week. The two sides have not held talks since the strikes began. 
 
Management forced the strike with an inadequate pay package, and refusal to address the contractors’ issue, a matter that has brought hundreds of grievances by maintenance staff and production workers alike. 
 
“The tipping point in this dispute included such fundamental issues as seniority rights,” stated USW District 6 Director Wayne Fraser. “It’s all about corporate control. Workers deserve to have their most basic rights respected.”
<img height="141" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0703WayneFraser.jpg" width="140" alt=""/>
USW Disrtict 6 Director Wayne Fraser
Just minutes after the strike deadline on 8 March, management slid a revised offer under the office door of the branch unions’ bargaining committee. The company did move some on wages, and dropped its unfettered right to contract out any job at the mine site and pellet plant. But it was too little to stop the strike. 
 
The two USW unions in Labrador City, Locals 5795 and 6731, have 500 grievances pending for arbitration. Many of these grievances involve work being performed by contractors, work that could be done by USW miners. Despite movement on the wage and benefit package, the company’s 8 March offer still falls short of what other mining companies in eastern Canada pay. 
 
“This fight is about recognizing the intrinsic value our members bring to this operation,” stated USW Local 5795 President George Kean. The year “2006 broke all production records and our members gave the company the biggest profit in its history.” 
 
Kean said employee morale is at an all-time low, citing a company survey of workers revealed that 87% of them felt they were not treated with respect and dignity. Management has turned a deaf ear to the survey. 
 
USW Locals 5795 and 6731, on 1 March, voted by 98% to strike. The 250 port and dock workers at Sept-Iles, represented by USW Local 9344, voted to strike on 14 March, also with a 98% ballot. 
 
The grievances and subcontracting issues date to 2004, when workers at the two locations undertook a 12-week strike to win a renewal labour agreement.

Work Issues, Subcontracting Cause Mining Strike at Canadian Rio Tinto Subsidiary

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A Unity Accord was developed 19-21 March in Canada for unions representing workers at Brazilian-based Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD). Last year, the giant Brazilian iron ore, coal, and metal mining company took over Canadian-based, the western world’s leading nickel producer. 
 
Signing the accord, which contains six priorities for the trade unions, were the United Steelworkers (USW) of Canada, host of the unity event in Sudbury, Ontario, and trade unions from Brazil, Mozambique, and New Caledonia. ICEM Vice President Ken Neumann, USW’s National Director for Canada, opened the conference.
<img height="157" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0605KenNeumann.jpg" width="140"/>
USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann 
The unions participating include the National Confederation for Workers in the Mineral Sector (CNTSM) and Sindi-Metals (CNM-CUT) of Brazil, the National Union of ConstructionWorkers (SINTICIM) of Mozambique, and Union des Syndicate d'Ouvriers et Employés de Nouvelle-Calédonie (USOENC) of New Caledonia, the largest mining union on the French territorial islands. They were joined by branch unions of the USW from five CVRD/Inco locations in Canada.
<img height="77" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USAUSW.jpg" width="140"/>
USW President Leo Gerard, a former miner at Inco in Sudbury, said the Unity Accord was not signed in an adversarial or confrontational manner. “When there are companies as big as CVRD, it is tremendously important that workers come together in solidarity and unity, in order to build on each other’s victories and to minimize each other defeats,” said Gerard at a press conference, as reported in the Sudbury Star newspaper. 
 
Added USW District Canadian District 6 Director Wayne Fraser, “As companies become more global, it’s no longer a matter of flag-waving for your union. You need to be a global union network, because you are dealing with a global, transnational company.” 
 
The six priorities of the CVRD Unity Accord include: stronger collective agreements; pushing for more capital expenditures to ensure job security in mining communities; safe and healthy workplaces, and environmentally sustainable operations; respecting the human rights within communities, including the right to organise and bargain collectively; full access from CVRD on acquisitions, mergers, or other reorganizations; and eliminating outsourcing and contract labour.

Union Mining Alliance Comes Together Around CVRD of Brazil

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A report issued by the Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA), an employers grouping, says that reversing the Howard government’s WorkChoices law related to individual work agreements will reduce mining productivity, and cost Australia A$6 billion in exports. 
 
But labour unions contest that assertion, claiming mining employers are “scaremongering” while anticipating that a victory by the Labour Party in federal elections this year will reverse Prime Minister John Howard’s radical changes to industrial relations law. The worst of those changes, called the Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs), or individual work pacts that replace enterprise agreements, took effect a year ago. 
 
The erroneous report, issued at the AMMA’s resources conference in Perth last week, states that 80% of all workers in the resource sector are on AWAs. It also falsely claims that AWAs have not been detrimental to workers’ employment conditions.
<img height="155" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0703GregCombet.jpg" width="120"/>
ACTU Sec. Greg Combet
“The AMMA’s arguments don’t stack up,” said Australian Council of Trade Unions Secretary Greg Combet. “The suggestion that getting rid of AWAs will hurt the economy is scaremongering, and all that we’re seeing is big business getting between the Howard’s government’s industrial relations laws.” 
 
Combet refuted the AMMA study by stating that the coal sector, which is overwhelmingly comprised of enterprise or collective labour agreements, has far outpaced productivity in metals mining over the past ten years. 
 
“We are opposed to AWAs for a very good reason,” said Combet. “They have been used to exclude people being represented by a union.”

Mining Bosses ‘Scaremongering’ to Preserve Australian Individual Work Agreements

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A scheduled strike was set to begin this morning, 26 March, by union members of Le Syndicat National des Agents du Secteur de l’Electricité (SYNASEG), ICEM’s electric affiliate in the Ivory Coast. The strike is against CIE, the country’s electricity operator and a subsidiary of French-based Bouygues Group. 
 
The dispute is over pay. SYNASEG and CIE last negotiated on 20 March, with officials of the Labour Ministry, Mines and Energy Ministry, and a representative of Ivory Coast’s work inspectorate mediating. When the company did not provide a response to the union’s ultimate proposal by late last week, the strike was called for early today. A meeting is scheduled for 15h00 today in Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast.
<img height="171" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/FrancoisYao.jpg" width="120" alt=""/>
SYNASEG Gen. Sec. François Yao
“We agreed to lower our salary demands from 25% to 15%,” stated SYNASEG Gen. Sec. François Yao. “We consider this our final offer.” 
 
CIE and government officials held a private meeting late last week on the dispute, but did not inform the union of the contents of that meeting, an obvious breach of common social dialogue. 
 
Besides a 15% salary hike for workers, SYNASEG is demanding 12% for supervisors. CIE’s did increase its salary proposal in talks prior to 20 March, but only to 7% for workers and 5% for supervisors.

Electric Workers Strike Set to Begin Today in Ivory Coast

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Another victory for workers in Iraq was won last week with major significance. A sit-in by street vendors in the southern city of Nasiriya produced a compromise by authorities in negotiations. Street vendors are represented by the Union of Unemployed in Iraq (UUI), part of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI). 
 
On 22 March, scores of street vendors staged a sit-in and protest aimed at municipal and occupational authorities, who previously have evicted the vendors under a “reconstruction plan of cities” dictum. Last week’s action forced negotiations with street vendor leaders, the UUI, and authorities. The compromise gives street vendors “an alternative location to set up their kiosks/carts on which they depend to support their families,” according to UUI Nasiriyah Branch President Almad Salem. 
 
“This agreement is a first-timer in the recent history of our class struggles with the governorate and will mobilise more of the exploited and oppressed to come forward in unified ranks around their real representatives in order to demand their rights,” he added.
<img height="165" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0703Iraq 1.jpg" width="220" alt=""/>
Iraqi street vendors' protest on 22 March 
Stated FWCUI Nasiriya Branch Head Ahmad abdel-Sattar, “Authorities did not move towards solving the problem or planning in any way to rid the hundreds of thousands of the unemployed from this decades’ old situation (of poverty). Moreover, they have deepened the crisis by dividing work opportunities among sectarian and political party groups. These authorities further exposed their irresponsibility when they announced their plan of eviction of all street vendors.” 
 
Last week’s breakthrough is only the initial victory in the long fight for Iraqi workers in their attempt to live and earn decent livings under dire and frightful circumstances. The FWCUI has issued a call to all the people of Nasiriyah to support the street vendors’ just and humane demands, and the ICEM supports that call to trade unions everywhere.

FWCUI in Iraq: Sit-in Action Moves Nasiriya Authorities to Respect Street Vendors

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The International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) is heading a global union campaign to draw attention to occupational cancer, the most common work-related cause of death. Titled “Occupational Cancer/Zero Cancer,” the campaign is endorsed by all Global Union Federations, as well as the ITUC, and contains materials and useful information for preventing cancer in the workplace. 
 
Those materials, and background information, can be found at <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/cancer">www.imfmetal.org/cancer</a>. 
 
An IMF cancer prevention guide, for instance, states that an occupational cancer death occurs once every 52 seconds. The IMF maintains that one in ten cancer cases can be prevented because that percentage, at the very least, is due to predictable workplace exposure. 
 
“Asbestos alone accounts for an estimated 100,000 deaths each year and yet there is not a worldwide ban on its use,” said IMF Gen. Sec. Marcello Malentacchi. The IMF says too little attention is given to preventing workplace hazards by employers and government regulators, and Malentacchi points to the fact that “only a small minority of countries have signed up to the ILO conventions on occupational cancer and asbestos.”

IMF Spearheads Global Campaign on Occupational Cancer

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Nigeria’s two oil workers’ unions, NUPENG and PENGASSAN, expressed dismay that no representative from either state or federal government institutions attended last month’s funeral of PENGASSAN trade union leader Nelson Ujeya. Ujeya, who was murdered on 20 August 2006, when government forces engaged in a shootout with militants at the time he was to be released, was buried on 16 December in his home town of Uhgelli, Delta State. 
 
Comrade Ujeya was abducted by youth militia on 8 August 2006 in Letugnene, Bayelsa State, and while in the company of senior state authorities. A community liaison officer of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Ujeya and the state officials were inspecting a community development project in Letugnene at the time. 
The circumstances of the kidnapping and murder remain clouded. These circumstances were just one issue in a strike by NUPENG and PENGASSAN last September, a strike that was suspended after two days when, among other promises, the government pledged to conduct a full inquiry into Ujeya’s kidnapping and murder. Such an investigation has not yet commenced. 
<img height="115" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaPengassanPeterEsele.jpg" width="113" alt=""/>
PENGASSAN President Peter Esele
“We are very sad there were no representatives from the government, especially the Bayelsa State government, at the burial,” said PENGASSAN President Peter Esele in a published report. “It confirms our long-held argument that our government does not care about us, the ordinary citizens.” 
 
Esele added that leaders of the two unions were surprised that not a single representative from either the petroleum or labour ministry paid their respects to Comrade Ujeya. Such absence, Esele continued, reflects the true feelings of top-level governmental officials regarding the promises made to end the September strike. 
Esele did recognise the respect given by SPDC during the aftermath of the murder, in which 10 others were killed, as well as at the funeral. “SPDC has provided a lot of assistance, financially, morally, and otherwise to the family to ensure that things are all right,” Esele said. “So, to SPDC, we appreciate what they have done, but to the government of Bayelsa in whose delegation he was with when abducted and eventually killed, we are very disappointed.” 
<img height="101" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMOil.JPG" width="100"/>
Esele delivered a moving eulogy at Comrade Ujeya’s funeral: “You were, indeed, courageous both in your official duties as a Shell staff member and as a vibrant PENGASSAN activist. Who will ever forget your contributions to the contract staff unionisation and benefits enhancement struggle? Under thick and thin, and under unfriendly and hostile elements, you stood firm with other comrades in 2001 at the height of the contract staff struggle until success was achieved. Today, the lives of contract staff have been improved as a result of the struggle for which you stood firm.” 
 
Comrade Ujeye was a Pengassan committee member during a six-week strike that began on 10 May 2001. The strike gave contract staff for SPDC regularised employment with full and vested benefits.

Nigerian Government Ignores Funeral of Nelson Ujeya

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