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	IndustriALL Global Union, which will be established in June 2012 and will bring together affiliates of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM), the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF), and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), will prioritise the fight against contract and agency labour, and other forms of precarious work.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 125px" width="390" />

	IndustriALL will build on the work which has been done through the ICEM&rsquo;s Contract and Agency Labour campaign, the IMF&rsquo;s &lsquo;Precarious Work Affects Us All&rsquo; campaign and the ITGLWF&rsquo;s work on insecure employment in countries such as Peru, Cambodia, India and Turkey.

	The campaign against precarious work will be launched by IndustriALL at its founding congress in June, and the new Global Union will call on all affiliates to mobilise around this issue on the World Day for Decent Work on 7thOctober.

IndustriALL to Prioritise Fight Against Precarious Work

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	The ICEM&rsquo;s Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) project publishes a quarterly newsletter intended to bring the latest news, developments, and trade union initiatives against the growing use of precarious work.

CAL Newsletter March 2012

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	The ICEM affiliate in Sierra Leone, United Mineworkers&rsquo; Union (UMU), stepped in last week to negotiate a partial resolve to a strike by casual workers employed by subcontractors of iron ore producer African Minerals Ltd. That strike, lasting from 17 April to 23 April, was marked by police violence in the north-central Sierra Leone town of Bumbuna that saw one woman killed by police gun fire and at least nine others seriously injured.

	The agreement reached on 24 April near Bumbuna between the UMU, African Minerals and several Sierra Leone ministry officials &ndash; including ministers of Labour and Social Security and Mineral Resources &ndash; produced several remedial measures to last week&rsquo;s spontaneous strike by some 500 casual workers.

	UMU General Secretary Ezekiel Dyke said he hoped his union&rsquo;s intervention would move the London-based mining company that relies almost totally on subcontractors to finalise a collective agreement with the UMU. African Minerals earlier this year began production at Sierra Leone&rsquo;s Tonkolili project near Bumbana, containing the world&rsquo;s largest reported magnetite iron ore reserves of 12.8 billion tonnes.

	<img alt="" height="140" src="" style="cursor: default" width="123" />

	Ezekiel Dyke

	UMU has been in talks with African Minerals since last year over a collective agreement. Last week&rsquo;s strike by nearly half of the workforce of 1,000 casual workers was caused by delayed salaries to some, meagre pay to all, lack of medical care, and on-going lack of union representation as production ramped up and rail shipments to the capital of Freeport began.

	On the strike&rsquo;s second day, 18 April, violence ensued when Bumbuna towns-people joined strikers and blocked entrances to the Tonkolili project. Riot police then stormed protestors in the village, firing live ammunition, wielding batons and shooting tear gas directly at strikers and their community supporters. The police action created a stampede that tore through a marketplace in Bumbuna.

	Killed instantly was Musu Conteh, a woman in her 30s employed by the catering firm ATS. Some nine others were seriously injured by bullet wounds to their legs, said the UMU&rsquo;s Ezekiel Dyke, while perhaps 20 others were treated in an ill-equipped medical centre in nearby Makena for gas inhalation and police-inflicted wounds.

	Dyke said upwards of 40% of the casual workers employed throughout the Tonkolili project are women.

	The remedial agreement reached will see African Minerals immediately pay owed back salaries of up to two months for casual workers who work on the mine&rsquo;s rail link. It establishes a framework whereby casual workers will become permanent employees of either African Minerals or their subcontracting firm after three months of employment, or in some cases extended to six months.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="cursor: default;width: 200px;height: 92px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	It also mandates that African Minerals provide a full review of salaries, work conditions and job categories within two weeks. The primary employer also agreed to investigate and pay compensation to the deceased woman&rsquo;s family within two weeks, as well as provide compensation to injured victims in that same period. African Minerals also agreed to pay compensation to market vendors &ndash; mostly women &ndash; for their losses from the 18 April violence.

	There will also be a thorough investigation of the unchecked police force used on 18 April.

	Major contractors for African Minerals in Sierra Leone include the company BCM, doing production work, while UK-based engineering and construction companies Dawnus and Hawk also employ casual workers, as does South African-based Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon (WBHO). There are scores of Sierra Leone-based companies that reportedly also exploit workers.

	Between the latter half of 2011 and last month, China-based Shandong Iron &amp; Steel Group Co. Ltd. of state-owned Shandong Province Asset Commission purchased 25% of the Tonkolili project from African Minerals, along with the same percentage of related rail and port subsidiary companies for nearly US$1.5 billion.

	UMU currently has collective agreements in Sierra Leone with iron ore miner London Mining, BSG Resources&rsquo; Koidu Holdings, a diamond miner, Cluff Gold, Baomahun Gold Mines, and Sierra Rutile, a miner of titanium dioxide. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Mineworkers’ Union in Sierra Leone Intervene on Behalf of Oppressed Contract Workers

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	ILO Deputy Director General and long-time trade unionist Guy Ryder is receiving full support from the ICEM and its affiliates to be elected as the 10th Director-General of the ILO on 28 May.

	The 56 titular members of the ILO Governing Body are eligible to vote in the election; half are from governments, and a quarter each from employers and workers&rsquo; groups. ICEM affiliates are lobbying their home governments. Write to your government today. Ten of the government seats are permanently held by major industrialized countries. The remaining seats are filled on a rotating basis, for three-year terms. The employers and workers elect their own representatives.

	The Governing Body met on 30-31 March for hearings of candidates and the election will be held on 28 May. The outgoing Director-General, Juan Somavia will leave the post on 30 September 2012. The Director-General is elected for a five-year term.

	<img alt="" height="97" src="" style="cursor: default" width="129" />

	Ryder is running on a platform of strengthening the ILO in order to fulfill its mandate of promoting social justice and beating the global jobs crisis, with particular emphasis on youth who are becoming increasingly excluded from society.

	Ryder seeks to concretise the fundamental principle of tripartism throughout the work operations of the ILO and beyond, and to unite the ILO&rsquo;s constituents to deliver on the decent work agenda. Ryder argues that only through consistent technical excellence can the organisation consolidate its authority in the world of work.

	Another important priority of Ryder&rsquo;s candidacy is to seek to reverse the increasing global trend of growth in the informal economy.

	Guy Ryder&rsquo;s vast experience and knowledge of the mechanisms and work of the ILO, of leadership of complex organisations in transition as General Secretary of the ICFTU and ITUC, and of all issues in the world of work combine to make him clearly the deserved candidate to succeed Somavia as Director-General.

	The candidature of Guy Ryder is formally submitted by ITUC President Michael Sommer and Luc Cortebeeck, trade union members of the ILO Governing Body.

	See Ryder&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/documents/correspondence/wcms_175249.pdf">CV</a>&nbsp;and <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/documents/correspondence/wcms_175250.pdf">Vision Statement</a>&nbsp;for the candidature here.

ICEM Affiliates Rally Behind Guy Ryder to Head ILO

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	Some 80 representatives from 20 Turkish affiliated trade unions of the ICEM, the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) and the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) came together in a Precarious Employment Conference in Ankara on 25-26 April 2012.

	Generously supported by Germany&rsquo;s Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES), the meeting coincided with Turkey government consideration of new employment strategies, policies that have seen wide debated inside the country&rsquo;s union movement.

	Following the conference, General Secretaries of the three Global Union Federations (GUFs) &ndash; Manfred Warda of ICEM, Jyrki Raina of IMF and Klaus Priegnitz of ITGLWF, along with ICEM&nbsp; Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal &Ouml;zkan &ndash; met with Faruk &Ccedil;elik, Turkey&rsquo;s Minister of Labour and Social Security. The meeting surfaced the important conclusions of the conference and the country&rsquo;s record regarding enforcement of trade union freedoms.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 389px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	Turkish Union Leaders, from left, Nazmi Irgat, Adnan Serdaroglu, Mustafa Kumlu, Ferudun Tankut

	The trade union leaders demanded that the government take the necessary measures to ease the concerns of Turkish unions on both counts. The global delegation also met with Kemal Kılı&ccedil;daroğlu, Chairman of Republican&rsquo;s People Party (CHP), main opposition party at the National Parliament, on several draft bills modifying labour life regulations on trade union rights, flexible working forms and occupational health and safety.

	The FES conference saw delegates from Turkey and elsewhere define objectives of the government&rsquo;s revamped strategies, including: dissemination of employment of definite periods; legitimization of hiring workers through private employment agencies; inserting different forms of flexible work into the nation&rsquo;s labour code; abolishing the current severance payment system with a new system that will lower employers&rsquo; direct responsibilities; changing minimum legal wage applications, such as lower wages for young workers and different regional minimum wage systems; and workplace security instead of employment security.

	Speakers at the meeting&rsquo;s opening underscored the potential repercussions of the new strategies on work life. &ldquo;Flexible working forms, unlike what we are told, are costly and create problems rather solutions,&rdquo; said Mustafa Kumlu, ICEM Executive Committee member President of both the Turk-İş Confederation and Tes-İş trade union.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1205 Meeting with Turkey Labour &amp; Social Security Minister.jpg" style="width: 239px;height: 159px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Meeting with Turkey Labour &amp; Social Security Minister

	&ldquo;New strategies will claim to bring together flexibility and security, but we know what is waiting us &hellip; unsecured jobs and more poverty, just like what exists now in the textile industry,&rdquo; said Nazmi Irgat, who is an ITGLWF Vice-President, President of Teksif union and Organizing Secretary of Turk-İş.

	&ldquo;The government proposes a new modern slavery system with this employment strategy, and we will never accept it,&rdquo; added Adnan Serdaroğlu, President of IMF affiliate Birleşik Metal-İş, who also serves as General Secretary of DISK Confederation. Ferudun Tankut, President of another IMF affiliate, &Ccedil;elik-İş, and Vice-President of the Hak-İş Confederation, said the government&rsquo;s strategy &ldquo;has been put into place without soliciting opinions, proposals or agreements of social partners. Our country is missing an important opportunity.

	The participants listened to Erhan Batur, Deputy Undersecretary of Ministry of Labour and Social Security, who gave an overview on the legislative efforts of the government for bettering work life in Turkey. Warda, Raina and Priegnitz briefed the assembled on the foundation of the new GUF, IndustriALL Global Union, and defined the struggle against precarious employment that the organization will undertake as a global priority.

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	The three strongly cited the difficulties Turkish workers have in being able to exercise fundamental trade union rights such as freedom of association because of poor labour legislation.

	ICEM&rsquo;s &Ouml;zkan, IMF&rsquo;s Jenny Holdcroft and ITGLWF&rsquo;s Ashling Seely gave specific examples from their respective sectors on the rise of precarious employment throughout the world. Participants also welcomed union representatives Horst Mund from IG Metall of Germany, Sascha Meier from FNV Bondgenoten of the Netherlands, Berivan &Ouml;ng&ouml;r&uuml;r from Unionen and Mats Svensson from IF Metall, both of Sweden, and all shared their experiences and union policies on precarious employment in their countries.

	The conference heard extensive reports from Turkish participants through three panel discussions on precarious employment in Turkey. The panels had themes of economic, social and legal settings; the ggovernment&rsquo;s employment strategy and possible repercussions to work life; and fighting against precarious employment through union organizing. Luc Demaret from ILO-ACTRAV gave a report on international labour standards and protections of precarious employment.

	In the summary and conclusions, Turkish and global unions underlined the importance of solidarity and active campaigning against all forms of precarious employment. Turkey has been defined as one of the countries where IndustriALL will embark on a campaign against precarious work. Delegates mandated the global unions to take action, vis-&agrave;-vis the government for overcoming potential challenges arising from its strategies.

FES Turkish Confab Defines Precarious Work as Priority for New GUF

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	Join the fast growing online <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1383&amp;src=icem">Labourstart campaign</a>&nbsp;calling for freedom for Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, a trade unionist, activist and journalist in Thailand. Somyot has been in jail since April 2011 on charges of l&egrave;se majest&eacute;. The charges allege that he has defamed the King of Thailand by publishing two articles in the magazine he edited, The Voice of Thaksin. Brother Somyot faces up to 15 years in prison for each of the two articles, if found guilty.

	Somyot is innocent of these charges, a position supported by expert witnesses and human rights organisations. An international campaign has been underway for the last 12 months to secure his release, which has included demonstrations across the region and a hunger strike by Somyot&#039;s son, Tai, for 112 hours earlier this year. Somyot is charged under Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code. The campaign is supported by a number of international and national trade unions and human rights organisations, including the ICEM, IFJ, Article 19, and the National Human Rights Commission in Thailand.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 332px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	30 April Protests outside Thai Parliament 

	Brother Somyot, a former ICEM Thailand Coordinator, must be freed immediately and unconditionally, states the ICEM.

	Indisputably, Somyot is incarcerated purely for his trade union and left-leaning political activism. For those reasons, he also is not receiving a fair judicial process with violations that include hearings being relocated to distant provinces so that key defence witnesses cannot participate.

	Somyot is now in the last week of hearings and we are concerned that a fair trial takes place. He has been denied bail nine times and is experiencing extraordinarily harsh conditions. Thai trade unions held a demonstration outside Parliament and the UN delegation in Bangkok on the 30 April.

	The final stage of Somyot&rsquo;s trial began two weeks ago, with prosecution witness hearings ending 26 April, and defence witness hearings 1-4 May.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 104px;height: 159px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	See more on the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.freesomyot.wordpress.com/">Free Somyot campaign</a>&nbsp;website here.

	Another labour and human rights defender is also in detention on non-credible charges. Brother Sirichai Mai-ngam of Thailand also has ICEM&rsquo;s full support.

	In a significant development today, a verdict to a separate case on l&egrave;se majest&eacute; which was due today for Ms Chiranuch Premchaiporn was delayed by one month. This is likely to be connected to the large international attention on these archaic rulings.

	Somyot is one of the few remaining defendants to refuse to plead guilty. Help maintain the international pressure in these last few days of his trial.

URGENT: Join the Labourstart Campaign, Justice for Somyot!

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	A two-day strike by ICEM Indonesian affiliate KSP2KI at one of the world&rsquo;s largest paper mills this week produced sizeable salary increases for over 13,000 workers. With strike support from nearly all workers at Asia Pulp and Paper&rsquo;s (APP) PT Pindo Deli&rsquo;s twin mills in Karawang, West Java, the union achieved substantially more than the minimum government-mandated increase that APP was at first willing to distribute.

	The two-year accord becomes retroactive to 1 April and grants workers, in some cases, a doubling of that provincial government minimum. KSP2KI, or &nbsp;Federasi Serikat Pekerja Pulp Dan Kertas, the Pulp and Paper Union of Indonesia, announced a three-day strike on 7 May but by yesterday, management had resumed talks and agreed to across-the-board increases.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 249px;height: 150px" width="390">

	Last month, managers of the 900,000-metric-tonnes-per-year paperboard, writing papers and tissue mills had unilaterally decided on the minimum increase while still in bargaining. The strike and yesterday&rsquo;s bargaining lifted the wage increase from 9.14% to 18% for most workers, with increases to 14.14% and 11.14% in other job classifications.

	That translates to an average IDR (Indonesia Rupiah) monthly increase of 139,363 (US$15.12). The minimum monthly pay at PT Pindo Deli in Karawang had been IDR 1,450,000 (US$157), so the pay grid for most workers will climb to above US$180-per-month.

	The ICEM commends the KSP2KI &ndash; a union with 7,650 members at the twin Karawang mills &ndash; for the well-organised strike action and subsequent result, and encourages all workers at Karawang, including workers of outsource companies operating inside the mills, to take up union membership.

	APP is part of Indonesian Sinar Mas Group and operates some ten paper machines and 14 paper-coating machines in the Karawang No. 1 and No. 2 mills in West Java. It also operates wholly-owned or majority-controlled pulp and paper mills &ndash; some nine in total &ndash; in other parts of Indonesia.

Short Strike Wins Big Pay Gains at APP Paper Mills in Karawang, Indonesia

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 80, May 2012

International mining unions declared Rio Tinto their number one target for global campaigning, due to the company&#039;s legendary anti-union, anti-worker, unsustainable labour, community and environmental practices worldwide.

	The unions were gathered at the ICEM World Mining Conference, held in Sydney, Australia on April 17 to 19, 2012 with unions representing mine workers from every continent and with a combined membership of over 50 million.

	A <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Resolution_ICEM_World_Mining_Conference_April_2012.pdf" target="_blank">resolution</a> unanimously passed at the conference noted that Rio Tinto, like many transnational miners, was recording strong profit growth while engaging in brutal and unethical practices. The global union body resolved to commit resources to drive a global campaign against Rio Tinto leading up to the London Olympics and beyond.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 220px;height: 148px" width="390">

	The<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Resolution_ICEM_World_Mining_Conference_April_2012.pdf" target="_blank"> resolution</a> called for a number of actions, including:
<ul>
	<li style="text-align: justify">
		The re-launch of an Xstrata and BHP-Billiton Global Network</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify">
		To support affiliates in resource rich countries in the negotiation and implementation of a mineral resource tax</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify">
		To support affiliates in their demands to have the ILO Convention 176 ratified in their countries</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify">
		To initiate a white ribbon trust to be managed by the NUM in recognition of gender violence and the memory of Pinky Mosiane, a woman miner who was brutally murdered in one of the mines in South Africa.</li>
</ul>

	&quot;Mineworkers continue to die in the killing fields of the mining industry as health and safety continue to be sacrificed at the altar of profit and Mining Companies undermine efforts to ratify ILO Convention 176,&quot; stated the <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Resolution_ICEM_World_Mining_Conference_April_2012.pdf" target="_blank">resolution</a>, adding, &quot;the Mining sector continues to be a site of struggle for gender oppression and liberation, the continued discrimination, sexual harassment and violence against women, and a glaring violation of decent work and a severe signal of gender inequality.&quot;

	Conference participants pledged their full support for the many struggles going on in the industry and vowed to make sure issues raised in the meeting would remain front and center on the agenda of the new global union, IndustriALL&nbsp;

Mining unions announce global campaign against Rio Tinto

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	Some 200 delegates and international guests gathered 11 May in the Serbian city of Kragujevac for the founding Congress of Industrija, Energija, Rudarstvo, or IER Nezavisnost, the new 35,000-member industrial front of UGS Nezavisnost that brings together the ICEM-affiliated Chemicals, Non-Metals and Mining Trade Union, or GSHNER Nezavisnost, with the federation&rsquo;s metalworking union (GSM Nezavisnost), and the Trade Union of Textile, Leather and Shoe Industries (GSTKO Nezavisnost), an affiliate of the International Federation of Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF).

	The merger marked the first time in Serbia that trade unions combined to gain greater strength, rather than past trends of pulling apart.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 221px;height: 79px" width="390">

	Guest speaker, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, made note of this fact and drew the parallel of this historic achievement to what is now occurring on the global level with the creation of IndustriALL.

	The founding Congress was held in Serbia&rsquo;s fourth largest city, a community now gearing up with production of a 2,500-worker Fiat automotive plant in which union recruitment will be essential. The Congress saw guests come from the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), the European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (EMF), IndustriEnergi (IE) of Norway, FIM-CISL of Italy, FNME-CGT of France, Petrom of Romania, EKN of Croatia and KNG of Slovenia.

	Also in attendance were several representatives from regional-based companies, which signal realistic expectations that tri-partite and bi-lateral social dialogue is on the horizon.

	The Congress elected former GSHNER Nezavisnost President Milorad Panović as President and Dragon Vesić of that former union as General Secretary. Elected as Vice Presidents were former GSM Nezavisnost President Nenard Matić and former GSHNER Nezavisnost Vice President Zoran Pantelić. GSTKO Nezavisnost is represented on the eight-member Executive Committee by Bo&scaron;ko Karalić.

Serbian Branches of UGS Nezavisnost Merge Into Single Industry, Energy, Mine Union

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