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NUM, meanwhile, welcomed South Africa’s first woman to high office. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former minister of Minerals and Energy Affairs, was sworn in last Thursday as deputy president. She replaces the former number two official in South Africa, Jacob Zuma, who was sacked by President Thebo Mbeki in connection with a bribery scandal. Mlambo- Ngcuka, 49, a leader in the anti-apartheid struggle, was elected from the ANC party to Parliament in 1994 in the country’s first all-race elections, and served as head of Minerals and Energy beginning in 1999, a post from which she helped draft the Mining Charter giving more black South Africans ownership in mines. 
In welcoming her selection by Mbeki, NUM General Secretary Gwede Mantashe cautioned against the position being caught up in politics. “We are concerned that she’s been thrown into a lion’s den, given the controversies surrounding the office of the deputy president at this juncture. We therefore hope that she is not compromised as a result. We trust that her experience of overcoming challenges in her past portfolio will come to the fore.”

Mines, Energy Minister Appointed South Africa's Deputy President

US affiliate USW proved Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. workers, no matter which process is used, will choose unionization every time. On June 14-15, in a secret ballot election conducted by the US government, workers in Asheboro, North Carolina, chose USW representation by a 173- 147 count. It marked the second time a majority of workers at the steel and tyre cord plant chose the USW. 
As part of the September 2003 collective agreement between the union and Goodyear, card check and company neutrality language was established. That means workers can choose union representation through a show of support by signing cards, as is the case in most countries. Regrettably an anti-union organisation given free reign over the Bush administration’s labour board challenged that portion of the collective agreement on legal grounds, and the remedy to the challenge was the government-supervised election two weeks ago.

Steelworkers in US Organise Goodyear Tire and Rubber Workers

In Chile, 500 miners are striking at Placer Dome’s Zaldivar copper mine in the northern region. The miners, members of Zaldivar Mining Union No. 1, rejected a pay offer 23 June, but Placer Dome invoked Chilean law calling for a return to talks before a strike could occur. In those talks, the Canadian company stuck to its 3.5% wage offer, far below Chile’s 6% inflation rate and the union’s bottom line, and miners struck 4 July. 
The company last week said it would attempt to resume 75% of production at the mine using supervisors and contract workers. The Zaldivar mine produced 148,000 tonnes last year and accounts for 1% of the world’s copper supply. Placer Dome, which operates 17 mines in seven countries, is the world’s fifth largest gold miner. The company is also engaged in contentious salary talks behind the Chamber of Mines in South Africa with the National Union of Mineworkers.

Copper Miners in Chile Strike Placer Dome

Another North American mining contract involving the USW was settled peacefully. Some 900 miners in the state of Montana ratified a three-year contract last week with Stillwater Mining, the US’s only producer of palladium and platinum. The workers at a mine and metal recovery facility won pay and benefit increases. Stillwater is majority owned by Russia’s Norilsk Nickel, the world’s leading nickel and platinum metals miner.

USW Comes to Terms with US's Only Pladdium/Platinum Miner

The labour dispute between New Zealand’s state-run coal company Solid Energy and ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) has heated up again. Some 200 union members at two of the company’s mines were locked out by Solid Energy and by one of its operating contractors for engaging in limited industrial action. Some 700 miners are seeking EPMU’s national call for a 5% pay increase and a commitment to pay parity at underground and surface mines on both New Zealand’s North and South Islands. Solid Energy, posting windfall profits this year due to high prices of coking coal, is offering only 10% over three years.

EPMU, Solid Energy Dispute Continues in New Zealand

USW members in the US at Bridgestone/Firestone tyre plants ratified a master agreement late in June with the Japanese rubber manufacturer. The agreement runs until next year, 2006, and USW won job security for workers and capitalization commitments from the company at most plants grouped in the master agreement. BSF has committed some US$200 million in capital improvements through 2006. USW took no concessions, gained value on a pension plan, and made the company pay past cost-of living advances. Some 6,000 USW members had collective agreements lapse in 2003, and a majority of union members in six bargaining units tied to the master pact voted acceptance. At two other BSF US plants not tied to the master contract, one workforce voted for the agreement while one did not.

Bridgestone Workers in US Ratify Collective Agreement

US affiliate PACE, together with national center AFL-CIO and a host of other ExxonMobil shareholders convinced the Texas-based company to include a statement of intent to uphold the ILO’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in its 2004 Corporate Citizenship Report. The union, Amnesty International and other socially concerned stockholders, owning an accumulative 7.2 million shares, agreed to withdraw a shareholder proposal mandating the firm to adopt a workplace human rights policy based on the 1998 ILO Declaration.

PACE, Others Hold ExxonMobil Accountable on ILO’s Work Rights

US affiliate PACE criticized ExxonMobil for discriminatory practices against Native Americans in the state of New Mexico at a gas production site. After organizing with PACE two years ago, workers are still without a first collective agreement. ExxonMobil has denied the mostly Native American workforce a pay raise now for the second consecutive year. “To single out Native Americans after a year in which ExxonMobil achieved US$21.5 billion in profits, its CEP garnered US$28.7 million in total compensation, and almost all ExxonMobil employees received some wage increase, to treat them differently from other workers appears overtly discriminatory to us,” said PACE Executive Vice President Jim Pannell. He cited union data that the gas workers earn US$1.30-to-$2.66 per hour less than other company workers in the US.

PACE Takes on ExxonMobil Over Native American Rights

The CEP of Canada is requesting the OECD undertake an investigation of labour practices against Finnish papermaker UPM Kymmene under the Parisbased organization’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. At UPM Kymmene’s lone Canadian mill in Miramichi, New Brunswick, the firm unilaterally announced closure of the pulp mill—chopping 400 jobs effective 31 January 2005—but also engaged in vicious anti-union behaviour. Management turned rabid after the CEP local union protested the closure on grounds the firm’s logging licenses for harvesting government lands mandates that it operate the mill. CEP charges UPM Kymmene with creating a “cold war” atmosphere of labour relations by suspending local union leaders for performing their statutory duties, monitoring and spying on workers’ activities with a hired security team, and refusing to negotiate with the union or to provide information pertinent to bargaining.

CEP of Canada Takes Paper Dispute to OECD

A court injunction 20 November ended a one-day strike by 100 oil workers, members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union (EPMU) of New Zealand. The EPMU members employed at five oil and gas rigs in Taranaki and Taupo struck over lack of progress in NZ’s Onshore Oil Exploration Drilling Rig Agreement, a multi-employer collective agreement. EPMU is seeking a 5% wage adjustment, better redundancy provisions, meal provisions, and changes to training time, which is currently done outside of regular work hours. NZ’s Employment Court will conduct a full hearing on the temporary injunction gotten by oil drilling employers on 24 November.

Oil Companies Get Injunction to End New Zealand Onshore Strike

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