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	By the slimmest of vote margins, 2,000 UK petrol-tanker drivers represented by Unite the Union voted to accept a conciliation service&rsquo;s proposal, ending a months-long dispute between drivers and seven contract carriers involving work terms and conditions, including safety and subcontracting.

	The dispute, dating back to February, drove motorists into fuel-hoarding and panic-buying hysteria, mostly triggered by the over-reaction of Prime Minister David Cameron&rsquo;s government. The hysteria included a declaration that 1,400 British military personnel were being trained to deliver fuel oil to retail outlets as a strike precaution.

	An accumulated consultative ballot that was counted on 11 May found that 51% of the 69% of drivers who voted accepted the mediated proposal by UK&rsquo;s Advisory, Conciliation, and Mediation Services (ACAS) after eight days of non-stop bargaining. The vote was a re-ballot of one taken in March following concerns that some drivers were unable to vote.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 130px;height: 130px" width="390" />

	The ACAS-brokered agreement did introduce an industry-wide accreditation system called &ldquo;Passport,&rdquo; which must promptly be implemented to cover health, safety and training. One major concern to drivers was companies using sub-contract workers to deliver fuel, so creation of minimum industry-wide standards is expected to serve as deterrent.

	Unite warned that the overall narrow &ldquo;yes&rdquo; vote left no room for employer complacency. The union said the dispute uncovered deep-seated problems in UK&rsquo;s petrol supply, exacerbated by a mantra of &ldquo;profits before stability.&rdquo;

	&ldquo;This narrow vote in favour lifts the threat of strike action,&rdquo; said Unite Assistant General Secretary Diana Holland, &ldquo;but leaves the companies with no room for complacency. We look forward to the rapid implementation of the ACAS proposals which include an industry-wide &lsquo;Passport&rsquo;.&rdquo;

	Now, Unite, the seven oil companies, UK&rsquo;s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and the Department for Energy, Environment and Climate Change &ndash; the government entity that threatened to break a strike with the military &ndash; must begin implementation of the &ldquo;Passport&rdquo; scheme by 1 June.

	The seven fuel distribution companies involved include the largest Hoyer, with 500 drivers, and Wincanton, DHL, BP, Norbert Dentressangle, JW Sucklings and Turners. Majorities of drivers at DHL, Wincanton, Hoyer, and Turners voted against the proposals, while those at BP, Norbert Dentressangle, and JW Sucklings voted in favour. The accumulated vote was 737 for, 711 against.

	The 2,000 drivers deliver 90% of UK&rsquo;s refined fuel oil products to thousands of retail petrol stations.

UK Truck Drivers Agree to Terms with Seven Fuel Distributing Companies

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	The 26th World Congress of the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF) is now being held in Geneva 15-18 May. A major focus of the Congress is a united condemnation of the appalling behaviour of Swiss-based Nestl&eacute;, the largest food company in the world.

	The IUF has a longstanding campaign for the rights of workers throughout Nestl&eacute;&rsquo;s global facilities. Great victories have been won in Pakistan and Indonesia, but serious rights abuses of Nestl&eacute; workers in those countries continue, as they do other countries.

	This Congress will see affiliates, representing a combined 2.6 million trade union members, formulate a new plan of action to move Nestl&eacute; to act responsibly. The IUF Nespressure Campaign highlights the fast-growing profits of the market leader, CHF 110 billion in sales in 2011, with Nespresso one of the most profitable parts of the company. But even as profits soar for the company, management increases the pressure on its workers everywhere. Wages, conditions, and rights of Nestl&eacute; employees are constantly squeezed.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 120px" width="390">&nbsp;

	A new part of the global campaign will be launched at this week&rsquo;s Ccongress, and serves as a clear example of Nestl&eacute;&rsquo;s disregard for workers&rsquo; core labour rights. The &ldquo;We are the 53!&rdquo; campaign focuses on the vindictive mass-dismissal of 53 workers at a Nescaf&eacute; factory in Panjang, Indonesia. Those workers were sacked because they organised and attempted to assert their rights.

	The 53 are members of IUF affiliate SBNIP there and the union itself have struggled for years for the right to bargain collectively. When the bargaining deadlock forced workers to strike last year, management signed an agreement with the SBNIP to end the strike and subsequently promptly sacked the 53 key union activists.

	Congress will establish a Nestl&eacute; Panjang Justice Fund to assist the workers and their families who now face hardship because of Nestl&eacute;&rsquo;s disturbing actions.

	See more information, and support the online campaign at <a href="http://www.iuf.org/nespressure/en/">IUF&rsquo;s Nespressure website</a>&nbsp;here.

IUF Congress in Geneva Condemns Nestlé

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	From International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF)

	Workers making Olympic sportswear for London 2012 for top brands and high street names including adidas and Next are being paid poverty wages, forced to work excessive overtime and threatened with instant dismissal if they complain about working conditions, according to a recently released report Play Fair 2012 campaign.

	The report, <a href="http://www.itglwf.org/documents/Workers_in_Olympics_Supply_Factories_Human_Rights_25412.pdf">Fair Games? Human Rights of Workers in Olympic 2012 Supplier Factories</a>, uncovers a range of abuses, providing more evidence to increase the pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to act to improve the working conditions in Olympic supply chains in the run up to Rio 2016, says Play Fair.

	Last autumn, researchers working on behalf of Play Fair campaign, which includes the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) and the Clean Clothes Campaign, visited ten factories &ndash; eight of which were producing Olympic goods &ndash; in China, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Across the three countries they talked to 175 workers about their working conditions.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 129px;height: 186px" width="390">

	The &ldquo;Fair Games?&rdquo; report contains many examples where workers making Olympic goods have been badly treated, including:

	&bull; In China, workers at a factory in the Guangdong Province which produces sportswear for Adidas were contracted to work in two separate locations 200km apart so lived in fear of suddenly being sent miles from home for their jobs.

	&bull; Workers at the same Amerseas Enterprises Factory also complained of regularly having to do overtime in excess of the legal minimum (with working hours from 8am to 10pm not uncommon even at less busy times) and of not being able to wear the necessary safety masks to protect against dust because of unrealistic production targets.

	&bull; In the Philippines, workers complained of pay rates so low that they were forced to pawn their ATM cards to loan sharks for &lsquo;pay day loans&rsquo; to see them through the month. Workers in the factories producing for Adidas said they were also told when they started that overtime was compulsory.

	&bull; In Sri Lanka, workers also said that their pay was not enough to meet their basic needs &ndash; those questioned said they earned a maximum of LKR 25,000 a month (&pound;122), little more than half the country&rsquo;s living wage of LKR 45,000 (&pound;220).

	&bull; Workers at the Next Manufacturing factory in Sri Lanka reported how the company used an external agent to hire short-term temporary workers. The agent made the workers do double shifts each day &ndash; after completing a full shift plus overtime at Next, they were transferred to another factory where they had to work until 2.30am. The next morning they had to report for their 8am shift at Next.

	&bull; There were no unions permitted in any of the factories and in China, workers said that anyone talking to colleagues about the need to improve factory conditions would be dismissed instantly.

	Research undertaken by Play Fair camping earlier this year &ndash; which found evidence of child labour, excessive hours, poverty pay and dangerous working conditions in Chinese factories producing pin badges and London 2012 mascots &ndash; the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) agreed to get tougher with the factories in its various supply chains.

	This included making information about employment rights available in Chinese and establishing a Chinese language hotline so that workers could complain about ill treatment. The &ldquo;Fair Games?&rdquo; report shows that the abuse of workers in Olympic supply chains was also happening in other countries.

	To illustrate the extent of the problem and to convince the IOC that it needs to do more to improve the treatment of workers making goods for the next Games in Brazil, UK&rsquo;s Trades Union Congress (TUC) has submitted a number of complaints to LOCOG on behalf of the workers from China and the Philippines who are featured in the report.

	Klaus Priegnitz, General Secretary of the ITGLWF, which wrote the report, said: &ldquo;Prior to the Beijing Olympics Play Fair called on companies to take action to ensure the human rights of all workers in their supply chains were respected.

	&ldquo;Four years on we see that the denial of the right to freedom of association, the payment of poverty wages and the widespread use of precarious work is still the norm. Companies need to step up their game and work with unions to support the development of mature systems of industrial relations in their supplier factories.&rdquo;

ITGLWF Report Outlines Abuses of Workers Preparing Olympic 2012 Goods

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	Trade unions in the Czech Republic are mobilising for a large scale manifestation against the austerity measures of the right-wing government of Prime Minister Petr Necas, which aims to make workers pay for the crisis. The pressure is bringing the government close to collapse.

	On 22 May in Wenceslas Square in the centre of Prague, the unions will assemble tens of thousands of workers to manifest and then march through the capital. The unions are threatening a general strike if demands are not met. Top of the list of demands is for the government to postpone planned pension cuts until the economy recovers and a better assessment can occur.

	Further issues put on the table by 30 unions, united under the umbrella of International Trade Union Congress-affiliated CMKOS, include drawing money from the European Union to stimulate growth, and revision of the law on the right to strike.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 311px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	The enormous participation of 120,000 people at a 21 April demonstration against government reforms gave a strong mandate to organisers to continue the campaign.

	The &ldquo;STOP the Government&rdquo; platform includes 75 civil society organisations in partnership with CMKOS, and the campaign is running a permanent information tent in center Prague with public debates each evening with respected guests presenting economic alternatives to austerity.

	Protesters also plan to Occupy government ministries that are proposing damaging social cuts.

	Jaroslav Zavadil, head of CMKOS, tabled union demands in tripartite meetings with government. Employer representatives also want the government to follow EU funding and pro-growth measures. The next tripartite meeting is planned for 4 June, meetings that the unions will boycott if their demands have not been met.

	The Necas government, now half-way through its four-year term wants to introduce a second pillar pension system that will be completely privatised.

Czech Unions to Take Mass Action Against Government Austerity on 22 May

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	The 2007 Global Framework Agreement (GFA) between the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) and Spanish retailer Inditex Group was improved considerably on 4 May when the ITGLWF and Inditex signed a Protocol Agreement that monitors compliance and guarantees union intervention throughout Inditex&rsquo;s supply chain.

	The new accord, signed in Arteixo, Galicia, by ITGLWF General Secretary Klaus Priegnitz and Inditex Director of Corporate Social Responsibility F&eacute;lix Poza, was done in coordination with Spanish union FITEQA-CC.OO, and serves as official guideposts to a 2010 &ldquo;Protocol for Union Follow-Up&rdquo; accord that provides the specifics for involvement in the GFA by ITGLWF affiliates.

	Firstly, the addendum guarantees the ITGLWF and its affiliated unions access to all Inditex information on suppliers&rsquo; workplaces, including the annual update of company information on its production chain. And it commits Inditex to giving the unions the schedule of planned social audits and listing of suppliers to be inspected.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 239px;height: 159px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	5 October 2007 Signing of ITGLWF-Inditex GFA

	Inditex also formally recognises the vital role of union affiliates in monitoring compliance due to proximity and location of unions to textile, garment and footwear manufacturers, and grants unions the right to visit the sites of suppliers.

	It lays out a process of correction actions when violations of the GFA are found, as well as establishing and implementing training programmes among suppliers&rsquo; managers, employees and others on the content of the GFA.

	Isidor Boix of FITEQA-CC.OO, who facilitated the recent Protocol Agreement, reminded that the social responsibility process inside Inditex is constantly on-going with commitments that trade unionism, workers&rsquo; rights and fairness and dignity are upheld and respected.

	Inditex uses some 5,000 suppliers throughout the world. The company operates some 5,500 fashion retail stores in 78 countries under the names Zara, Pull &amp; Bear, Massimo Duti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Uterque and Zara Home.

	The 2007 ITGLWF-Inditex GFA is testament to late ITGLWF General Secretary Neil Kearney who crafted the agreement covering workers throughout the multinational&rsquo;s supply chain after making interventions in factories that supply to the Spanish company when workers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Peru and Turkey were sacked for their trade union activity.

ITGLWF, Inditex Global Agreement Improved with Specific Monitoring Devices

USW Local 9700, one of the first unions to respond at the time of the 30 December lockout and representing Alcoa ABI workers at B&eacute;cancour, Qu&eacute;bec, voted unanimously to draw C$25-per-week from their paychecks, donating C$25,000 weekly to Local 9490.<img alt="" src="" style="width: 140px;height: 68px" width="390" />

	Locked-out members of Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos &nbsp;d&rsquo;Alma Local 9490, the United Steelworkers (USW), took their fight against Rio Tinto Alcan to Qu&eacute;bec&rsquo;s largest city, last Friday, 17 February, where Alcan CEO Jacynth C&ocirc;t&eacute; was part of a spurious forum on youth in employment, sponsored by the Board of Trade Metropolitan Montr&eacute;al.

	Some 200 of 780 metalworkers from Alcan&rsquo;s Alma aluminium smelter in the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region, Qu&eacute;bec, boarded buses and travelled 460 kilometres to Montr&eacute;al for a noisy protest at this business luncheon, their first manifestation away from the 488,000-tonne-per-year smelter. They were joined by another 100 steelworkers from Montr&eacute;al, and some 100 college students who joined the USW rally in mocking protest to a future&nbsp;youth theme that now sees business teaming with the Liberal provincial government of Qu&eacute;bec to raise their university tuition fees.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 248px;height: 161px" width="390" />

	17 February Manifestation, Montr&eacute;al

	This &ldquo;Hot Issues@Lunch&rdquo; theme was billed to &ldquo;foster the success of the next generation of Qu&eacute;becers.&rdquo; &nbsp;&nbsp;The Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos d&rsquo;Alma found deep irony in Jacynth C&ocirc;t&eacute; participating, since Alcan in Alma is using a lock-out to replace C$36-an-hour permanent jobs with outsourced and presumably younger workers at C$16-an-hour.

	C&ocirc;t&eacute; was not expected to address the lockout at the hot-plate lunch, but when pressed by reporters on the sidelines, she called the dispute a &ldquo;regional issue&rdquo; and &ldquo;it will be settled in Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean&rdquo; by managers who &ldquo;have my full confidence.&rdquo;

	Earlier last week, when the lockout entered week seven and with the remote mining and manufacturing region starting to feel the economic effects of a lost wage base, one such manager told Reuters he &ldquo;wouldn&rsquo;t put a timeline to (talks restarting) right now because nothing is scheduled.&rdquo;

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 199px;height: 159px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Dan Roy and Marc Maltais

	foto: France Paradis/Le-Lac-St-Jean

	With aluminium prices hovering now at very low, the Alma lockout serves as a convenient strategy to restrict supply to lift prices. It also fits Rio Tinto&rsquo;s strategy of divesting and devaluing Alcan by C$8.9 billion in view of its US$39 billion purchase of the Canadian company in 2007, although the modern and high-tech tooled Alma smelter, with its low-cost hydroelectric supply, will not likely be jettisoned.

	Perhaps this should have been a more apt business theme to the Board of Trade elite last week, and it certainly best explains the anger of metalworkers and students alike gathered on the other side of the barricades. In this vein &ndash; with Rio Tinto&rsquo;s share price dropping &ndash; it is worth mentioning that C&ocirc;t&eacute; herself exhibited a timely corporate mentality last week by shedding 3,671 shares of Rio Tinto to pocket US$213,500, money not likely to find its way to Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean.

	USW District Five Director Daniel Roy addressed the disparity between full-time, family-supporting jobs in the region to the sub-contract and lower-wage jobs that Rio Tinto is trying create with the. &ldquo;Accepting this would cause a dramatic downward spiral not only for the workers but for members of the community, which would see income, local business sales and tax revenues drop precipitously.&rdquo;

	USW Local 9490 President Marc Maltais added, &ldquo;By using subcontractors to do the work of union members, we are asked to concede on behalf of future generations. This is an attack on our children and grandchildren.&rdquo;

	The buses departed Montr&eacute;al late on Friday afternoon for the return trip to Alma, but first stopped at a plant-gate demonstration in Sorel, Qu&eacute;bec, where workers and members of ICEM-affiliated FIM-CSN (Conf&eacute;d&eacute;ration des Syndicats Nationaux) at a Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium metal powders plant lent their support. This stop again depicts the long-erected barriers between Canadian trade unions that Local 9490 is erasing inside this lockout.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 114px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Rio Tinto Alcan CEO, Jacynth C&ocirc;t&eacute;

	With Canada currently undergoing an unprecedented rash of corporate hostility, it is notable to witness trade unions and other groups galvanising behind victimised union workers.

	Last week, members of Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 2301 at a Rio Tinto Alcan aluminium smelter in Kitimat, British Colombia, voted to take C$1-an-hour of their pay and donate it to &nbsp;Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos&nbsp; d&rsquo;Alma Local 9490. That represents C$60,000 per month.

	On 8 February, the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada contributed C$25,000 to the Alma metalworkers, and a day later the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) contributed C$10,000. USW Local 9700, one of the first unions to respond at the time of the 30 December lockout and representing Alcoa ABI workers at B&eacute;cancour, Qu&eacute;bec, voted unanimously to draw C$25-per-week from their paychecks, donating C$25,000 weekly to Local 9490.

	Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos&nbsp; d&rsquo;Alma&rsquo;s&nbsp; journey to Montr&eacute;al to confront Rio Tinto Alcan CEO Jacynth C&ocirc;t&eacute; is just the first sally outward. This week Local 9490 leaders will visit Rio Tinto&rsquo;s borax miners in California, where members of ICEM affiliate International Longshore &amp; Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30 defended themselves courageously in a Rio Tinto-imposed lockout. And they&rsquo;ll follow that solidarity visit with to Australia to meet with unions represented Rio Tinto there.

	On March 31, a day after the ICEM North American region meets in Alma, a manifestation will occur there with scores of global trade union leaders attending. And on 1 April, a workshop will occur in Alma to verse an exact fightback strategy against Rio Tinto on the global level.&nbsp;

Locked-out Alcan Workers Take Dispute to Canadian Business Doorstep

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 140px;height: 68px" width="390" />

	&nbsp;

	Job security and job creation was the foundation behind a new two-year national labour agreement between social partners in Denmark. That came together in marathon bargaining over the weekend, 11-12 February, in framework talks for 240,000 Danish manufacturing workers and 6,000 enterprises, the latter represented by Dansk Industri.

	The trade unions, led by the eight making up Co-Industri, including 3F, Dansk Metal and HK/Pivat, in concert with the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), set an agenda of wage moderation, instead focusing on winning excellent and precedent-setting job preservation protections such as training, seniority, and reduced work hours at full pay for both old and young workers.

	This industrial social accord now establishes the parameters for other work sectors. The agreement will run from 1 March 2012 to 1 March 2014. The national industrial agreement did establish minimum wage guideposts, but exact wage increases will now be negotiated at local levels and inside company agreements.

	The framework agreement grants training at full pay with business downturns and when reductions in work time occur, and it also allows older workers to reduce their working time within five years of retirement by continuing their income levels through salaries and partial pension benefits. Workers will also have the option to tap into current pension plans as a supplement to salaries.

	A key element in the new agreement is an additional &euro;.05-per-hour worked will be added to the national Industrial Training fund.

	Employee discretion in taking training options increases from two weeks to six weeks, in some cases, and full seniority is granted to workers when they are called back from lay-offs within nine months. Previously, it was six months. As well, paid sick leave occurs after six months on a job rather than the previous nine months.

	The new pact is also kinder to lower-income earners and gives better pay-outs when such workers are laid off. Parental leave was made more flexible and added pension accrual was put in place for weekend, holiday or extra work performed.

	The recommended minimum wage increase is &euro;.18-per-hour effective 1 March, and the same amount again on 1 March 2013. A pay supplement of 1.4% each year is available for performing difficult work, and apprentices, trainees and interns will get a 2.25% pay hike in each year.

	The bargaining, which began in early January, nearly reached dispute when HK/Privat , the Commercial and Clerical Workers&rsquo; Union, sought to drop the 50% benchmark regarding number of staff needed before a collective agreement takes effect. A compromise was struck that gives employers the opportunity to sign labour agreements without the 50% threshold and HK/Privat coverage also was expanded to include administrative staff working as trainees and college students.

	The agreement was widely praised in Denmark as the necessary building block to restore some 80,000 industrial and manufacturing jobs that have been lost in the country since the onset of the financial crisis.

Enlightened Industrial Labour Pact Set in Place in Denmark for 240,000 Workers

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
An agreement was reached yesterday, 22 January, after a marathon 15-hour bargaining session between Bulgarian state-owned Maritsa East Mines (BEH-EAD) and two ICEM affiliates. The settlement ends a seven-day coalminers&rsquo; strike in Stara Zagora province that saw ICEM intervention last week. 
 
The strike started at 20h00 on 15 January and was carried out jointly, cooperatively, and ultimately successfully by the Federation of Independent Miners&rsquo; Unions (KNSB/CITUB) and Podkrepa&rsquo;s Miners&rsquo; Federation. The settlement produced a partial payment to a bonus that was promised the 7,000 miners last July, but more importantly, calls for improved working conditions, an increase in investment at the three open-cast mines, and a commitment not to consider privatisation. 
 
Also, the settlement outlines guidelines to improve health and safety at Bulgaria&rsquo;s largest mining complex, a key point raised in the ICEM intervention. The unions won assurances that the state company will make BGN 20 million (&euro;10.2 million) available for safety. 
<img alt="" src="" width="122" height="159" />
The final talks occurred overnight on 21-22 January in Radnevo in south-central Bulgaria, center of the Maritsa mining and power generation facilities. 
 
In the <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/5.ICEM.Maritsa%20East%20Mines,%20Bulgaria.20Jan.pdf ">ICEM letter</a> to Prime Minister Boyco Borissov and Economy, Energy, Tourism Minister Traicho Traikov, General Secretary Manfred Warda said, &ldquo;Although remuneration issues are part of the dispute, we are of the certain belief that health and safety, lack of adequate equipment, and refusal of mine management to engage in social dialogue as mandated by European social charters are legitimate reasons for miners to withhold their labour.&rdquo; 
 
Maritsa East Mines CEO Evgeni Stoykov had sought to get the strike declared illegal, but on 20 January BEH-EAD withdrew such a petition submitted to a Bulgarian court. Also on that day, the state National Electricity Company (NEK) suspended electric power exports to Turkey, Greece, Serbia and Macedonia in order to cover its own domestic needs. In 2011, NEK exported a total of 10.5 billion KWH to those countries. 
 
The suspension emboldened striking miners, with several hundred manifesting outside the headquarters of the company on 21 January. That sparked the urgency of weekend talks and produced the accord, which both unions said meet their requirements in ending the strike. 
 
The Maritsa East Mines, Bulgaria&rsquo;s largest deposits of lignite coal, supply 90% of the coal for the country&rsquo;s power industry. The mines supply coal to four thermal power stations, three that are state-owned by BEH-EAD and the other one that is owned by ContourGlobal of the US. 
 
Central to the dispute was revocation of an agreement signed on 12 July 2011 over a bonus premium for exceeding 2011 production levels. A targeted level of 27 million tonnes was surpassed and miners, who work 12-hour shifts, produced a total of 33 million tonnes, bringing a revenue stream to the company of BGN 500 million (&euro;255 million). 
 
Although miners did not get their full bonus demands, BGN 1,000 per worker (&euro;509), that was offset by management retreating from cuts to a staffing plan which would have seen 450 jobs, or 6% of the workforce, furloughed. Such downsizing would have affected safety. The unions also won commitments to improve on continual shortages of equipment, spare parts and monitoring devices, which also impacted safety. 
 
Maritsa East miners earn average monthly salaries of BGN 1,500 (&euro;767).

Week-Long Coal Strike Ends in Bulgaria

<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="59" />
The ICEM has responded with anger and outrage over the latest cold-blooded murder of a trade unionist in Colombia. Mauricio Redondo, 36, and his wife, Janeth Ord&oacute;&ntilde;ez Carlosama, were murdered in their home in the village of Tetey&eacute;, in the southern department of Putumayo, on 17 January at 19h30 by two gunmen. 
 
Mauricio Redondo was a provincial leader of ICEM Colombia affiliate Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera (USO) and both he and his wife were activists in a community group that advocated for better working conditions, environmental stewardship, and labour and human rights in the booming oil and natural gas fields of the Putumayo basin in southwest Colombia.
<img alt="" src="" width="240" height="141" />
In fact, four days before the killings,&nbsp;a meeting in the municipality of Orito,&nbsp;at a&nbsp;forum&nbsp;called Primer Foro Petrolero por el Derecho al Trabajo, la Reivindicaci&oacute;n Social y Econ&oacute;mica de Orito, Redondo was an active speaker in talks to open public protests over these issues. According to initial reports, the two gunmen were wearing work uniforms of the local oil contracting company Empresa de Energ&iacute;a del Bajo Putumayo, EEEP (Energy Company of Lower Putumayo) and fired multiple gunshots into the couple. Redondo and Ord&oacute;&ntilde;ez are survived by five young children. 
 
&ldquo;Once again we witness the price that dedicated trade unionists in Colombia pay when they attempt to stand up for a dignified way of life,&rdquo; said General Secretary Manfred Warda, who was in Colombia when the murders happened. 
 
&ldquo;Along with USO, we mourn the grisly deaths of Mauricio Redondo and Janeth Ord&oacute;&ntilde;ez and we call on Colombia&rsquo;s federal and provincial prosecution teams to expend all efforts in apprehending and bringing to justice those responsible.&rdquo; 
 
Mauricio Redondo was employed by Medellin-based P.E.I. Energy, an upstream oil and gas drilling company. He was a leader of the 220-member USO committee in Orito, in which 40% are employees of Ecopetrol and 60% employed by contract companies of the state-held energy company. 
 
The deaths of the couple came just days after three other USO Orito leaders &ndash; Manuel Coronado, Jos&eacute; Socimo Erazo and Julio Vargas &ndash; were threatened by calls made to their mobile telephones. It also came after a bomb threat was directed at the USO regional office in Orito.
<img alt="" src="" width="140" height="105" />
Said Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) Human Rights Director Alberto Vanegas, the worst aspect of the 17 January heinous crimes are that &ldquo;five children were left as orphans. This is what we leave with such murders: orphans and widows throughout the country.&rdquo; 
 
The killings of Mauricio Redondo and Janeth Ord&oacute;&ntilde;ez mark the first murders of trade unionists in Colombia in 2012. In 2011, at least 29 trade union leaders were killed in calculated and cold-blooded political assassinations.

ICEM Condemns Assassination of USO Leader, His Wife in Colombia

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Trade unionists are encouraged to apply for the Global Labour University&rsquo;s (GLU) two upcoming Masters programmes, one at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India, the other in Germany at the University of Kassel and Berlin School of Economics. Both programs begin on 1 July 2012, and have 1 March deadlines for applying. 
 
The India programme is entitled Globalisation of Labour, while the German curriculum is titled Labour Policies and Globalisation. Both are 14-week semesters of course offerings followed by an internship placement with trade unions or labour research institutes, thus offering the chance to engage inside the labour movement in different countries and at the international level. 
 
In Germany, the Hans Boeckler Foundation has extended its grant programme for Labour Policies and Globalisation programme, which grants scholarships to colleagues from EU Member States. Further information and applications to the German programme can be obtained <a href="http://www.global-labour-university.org/74.html ">here</a>, or contact directly the coordinator, <a href="mailto:Glu.germany@uni.kassel.de">Simone Buckel</a>. 
 
For information and application to the GLU&rsquo;s Tata Institute programme, contact <a href="mailto:gluindia@gmail.com">Mandira Zutshi</a>. Or visit <a href="http://www.global-labour-university.org/">GLU&rsquo;s website</a> to complete and overall information. 
 
The GLO, part of the ILO, has trained 214 trade unionists in economics and social sciences since 2004, giving young national and local trade union activists the opportunity to learn specific curriculums tailored to improve their skills at home. 
 
Course offerings are in English, and the GLU awards a limited number of scholarships to participants from developing and transition countries. Applicants must have the endorsement of a trade union to apply for a scholarship.&nbsp;

1 March Close for Global Labour University’s Masters Applications in India, Germany

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