English

Español

Français

Русский

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy 

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action Plan 2021-2025

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Campaigns

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Women

Youth

LGBTQI+

Gender, equality, diversity and inclusion (GEDI)

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL 

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia 

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean 

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Logos of IndustriALL Global Union

Press

<img height="39" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100"/>
Meeting in Bogotá, Colombia, on 27 April, the ICEM Latin America/Caribbean Regional Committee gave strong support to non-ICEM affiliate Sintramienergética in the aftermath of its safety strike against US-based Drummond Coal recently. (Details on that strike can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3151-Contract-Worker-Death-Causes-Safety-Strike-at-Drummond-in-Colombia" type="internal">here</a>.) 
 
The regional committee adopted a resolution calling on both Drummond and the government of Colombia to be vigilant in implementing an adequate occupational safety and health prevention programme at Drummond’s coal operations in César state. The resolution also calls on the company to immediately re-employ some 600 miners who lost their jobs due to a legal strike by rail transport workers. 

<img style="WIDTH: 212px; HEIGHT: 98px" height="83" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Colombia.png" width="180"/>
It calls on Colombia and Drummond, one of the owners of the rail transport line, Fenoco, to respect ILO Conventions 87 and 98, the Freedom of Association and Right to Organise Convention, and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention. 
 
Members of a Colombian Mechanics’ and Metal Workers’ Union, Sintraime, staged a month-long strike across Fenoco’s coal transport rail lines from 24 March to 20 April for union recognition and workplace rights. The ICEM supports the efforts of these workers to gain their collective rights. 
 
Fenoco, or the Ferrocarrilies Nacionales de Colombia, was bought by the Colombian government in 2006, but immediately commissioned and re-privatised to a handful of multinationals that mine and sell thermal coal from the rich deposits of César state. Fenoco’s biggest shareholders are Drummond and Xstatra, the latter which recently gained a 40% stake of the rail line with transfer of the Prodeco mining enterprise from its Swiss-based holding company, Glencore. 
 
Workers seeking representation with Sintraime engaged in a days-long blockade of the rail line in mid-April. A regional Supreme Court in northern Colombia ruled the strike legal, but Fenoco has now appealed that decision to the Colombia Supreme Court. 
<img height="180" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0807SergioNovais.jpg" width="120"/>
Sergio Novais
In the resolution, the ICEM regional committee, headed by Chairman Sergio Novais of Brazil, also calls on the Colombian government to provide job security and protection to Drummond’s miners, members of Sintramienergética, and the document points to a current social and economic crisis caused by speculative capital and a failed neo-liberal economic model.

ICEM’s Latin Region Supports Sintramienergética in Colombia Dispute Against Drummond

La agrupación Global Unions, que está integrada por 13 federaciones sindicales internacionales, la Confederación Sindical Internacional (CSI), y el TUAC de la OCDE, sabe cuán importante es que en EE.UU. se apruebe el Acta de Libertad de Elección de los Empleados (EFCA). Sabemos que para tener una economía fuerte, se tiene que dar a los trabajadores la oportunidad de afiliarse a un sindicato y realizar negociaciones colectivas para que se paguen sueldos justos y se eleven las prestaciones sociales de todos los ciudadanos de la sociedad. 
 
Creemos que éste es el aspecto fundamental del Acta de Libertad de Elección de los Empleados. Nuestro sindicato respalda firmemente a los sindicatos norteamericanos en el trabajo que realizan para lograr que el Congreso de Estados Unidos apruebe este proyecto de ley, que cuenta con el apoyo del Presidente Obama. Rogamos informar a los miembros de su sindicato, como también a sus funcionarios sindicales elegidos, que nuestro sindicato apoya plenamente el EFCA, y que consideramos que es un elemento esencial de una sociedad libre que permita a los trabajadores afiliarse a un sindicato, sin que les pongan obstáculos. 
 
(Firmado … Nombre del funcionario sindical) 
(Nombre del sindicato) 
(País)

Llamada Urgente: EFCA Letter ESP

<img height="39" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100"/>
Some 50,000 National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) members amassed in Johannesburg, South Africa, Saturday, 4 October. The mobilisation was in protest to the mining industry’s failed implementation of equality measures in the senior ranks of companies, and racial prejudices that still haunt employment practices. 
 
NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka told the ICEM that the union is seeking transformation – meaning accelerated “employment opportunities for women and for the historically disadvantaged who have been denied senior level positions” by the country’s mining houses. 
 
Seshoka also said transformation means a faster end to same-sex hostels in and around mining enterprises. 
 
Seven of NUM’s 11 regional branches took to the streets on 4 October. They marched some eight kilometres from Beyers Naude Square to Joburg’s city centre and the Chamber of Mines offices. 

<img height="156" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0610NUMFransBaleni1.jpg" width="110"/>
NUM Gen. Sec. Frans Baleni
There, NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni and President Senzeni Zokwana presented a memorandum to mining industry leaders, as well as to Business Unity South Africa, the Mining Qualifications Authority, and the Department of Minerals and Energy. 
 
The NUM is upset that 14 years after adoption of the Mining Charter, the industry is no closer to implementing equality provisions than when the landmark agreement was signed. 
 
Seshoka points to two recent incidents detailing unfairness. At AngloPlatinum Ltd., the world’s largest producer of platinum majority owned by AngloAmerican, the company’s only black general manager was sacked at the Lebowa Atok mine. The person was fired for alleged production shortfalls but, in fact, the mine is rumoured to be up for sale. 
The other incident saw a shop steward at DRDGold’s Blyvoor mine suspended for taking up the case of a worker who claimed racial insults were levelled at him. 

<img height="105" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0810Senzeni3.jpg" width="90" alt=""/>
NUM President Senzeni Zokwana 
 
Saturday’s march and manifestation may not be last the Chamber and its affiliates hears from the NUM. If progress isn’t seen, South Africa’s largest ICEM affiliate will consider work stoppages at selected companies. 
 
Meanwhile, 2008’s death toll in South Africa’s mines rose to at least 130 after four deaths over the past nine days. Two of those deaths occurred at AngloGold’s TauTona mine. A miner was killed underground on 2 October there when ground caved in. On 27 September at TauTona, another miner was killed in a similar incident caused by an earth tremour. 
 
Also on 2 October, a waterjet operator inside Harmony Gold’s Elandstrand mine died 2,900 metres beneath the surface due to a cave-in. The fourth death was an AngloPlatinum miner at Rustenburg who died in a hospital on 1 October from injuries he suffered in a deadly tragedy on 26 August. 
 
On 2 October, 3,000 miners at AngloGold’s Savuka mine stopped work for 24 hours in accord with NUM policy to take a Day of Mourning following a mine death. A comrade died at Savuka, the world’s deepest gold mine (3,777 metres) on 25 September.

NUM Manifestation over Mine Chamber’s Slow Pace toward Racial, Gender Equality

<img height="39" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100"/>
A methane gas explosion killed 13 miners and wounded 14 others at the Petrila site of the National Coal Co. in the Jiu valley, Romania. The tragedy occurred 15 November. 
 
Among the dead were four emergency workers who were killed by a second explosion four hours later. They were attempting to rescue survivors, and recover bodies. All rescue activities were put on hold for 48 hours following the second blast. The final miner died of cardiac arrest early last week at a Bucharest hospital. 
 
The mine was shut down for two weeks, and reopened on 27 November. Workers held a memorial service on 18 November. The company paid the wages and seniority bonuses for the mine’s 1,490 workers during the two-week shutdown. 

<img height="200" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector.JPG" width="200"/>
Romania’s worst mining disaster in 28 years, the two Petrila explosions on 15 November had attracted serious attention by the country’s President. Both called for tougher scrutiny of safety at Romanian mining sites. “This is too big a tragedy not to wonder about the causes,” stated President Traian Basescu. “The inquiry will determine if all protective measures were taken when the first miners went down the shafts and if the rescuers’ intervention was done according to the rules,” said Varujan Vosganian, Romania’s Minister of Economy and Commerce. 
 
Rumours were backed up by relatives that miners had been forced to continue working despite high readings of methane levels six days before the disaster. Smaller gas explosions had occurred in the mine. 
 
Ovidiu Jurca, Vice President of a national trade union bloc, BNS, said, “Its criminal negligence to let these people work when the accepted methane gas level has been topped.”

Thirteen Dead in Romania Mine Blast

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
A massive methane gas explosion in a coal mine in the West Sumatra province of Indonesia, 560 miles northwest of capital Jakarta, killed 31 mineworkers earlier in June. Shafts inside the mine, in Suwahlunto district, collapsed on Tuesday 16 June, following the explosion. 
 
The mine, owned by a local company without union representation, was unregulated by either the central Jakarta government or provincial authorities. 
 
The Sarana Arang Sejati mine has had a history of safety problems. A similar explosion happened in 2007, killing three workers and leading to public calls for the mine to be closed. Instead, the PT Dasrat mine was given a license to mine in December 2008, and then the local enterprise outsourced mining work to the same operator who had previously operated the pit. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/04miningsafety.jpg" width="180" height="132" alt=""/>
Miners were left unprotected with the absence of modern safety measures, and were using traditional methods to mine the coal, including explosives. The ICEM contacted both its mining union affiliates in the country, and urged them to push for ratification of ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 
 
The ICEM also called on the ILO to convene a tripartite meeting in Indonesia as soon as possible on the Convention. 
 
Indonesia is the Asia-Pacific’s second largest coal exporter behind Australia, with a projected output this year of 230 million tones. It is the region’s largest exporter of thermal. It is estimated that there are some 77,000 illegal mines in Indonesia, employing 465,000 workers. The informal mining sector exploits ten times the number of miners than that of the formal sector.

Colliery Deaths in Indonesia Reinforces Call for Ratification of ILO 176

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM hosted leaders of its two oil and gas workers’ unions of Nigeria on 18 June. Elected officers from NUPENG, the blue-collar union, and PENGASSAN, representing white-collar workers, visited the ICEM’s headquarters in Geneva. 
 
With General Secretary Manfred Warda and Energy Officer and Director of Organisation Jim Catterson present, the Nigerian trade unionists discussed the difficulties of security for workers in the Niger Delta brought on violence and kidnappings, and also the growing casualisation arising in oil and gas in Nigeria. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0906NigeriansWgs 002.jpg" width="300" height="159"/>
Taking part in the discussions were PENGASSAN General Secretary Bayo Olowoshile and NUPENG General President Peter Akpatason, as well PENGASSAN leaders Stephen Ereyukomhen, Sunday Oginni, and Adamu Unoru. 
 
On the issue of physical security in the Niger Delta, the trade union leaders said it was wrong for the government to be shifting responsibility to the oil and gas operators in the region. The Nigerians also outlined labour law changes enacted over the past few years that are detrimental to workers. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaPengassan.JPG" width="90" height="95"/>   <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaNupeng100.gif" width="100" height="103"/>
Regarding casualisation, there is constant abuse of agree-upon quotas for expatriate workers, and the oil and gas workers’ leaders emphasized that with the use of more and more casual workers, career development and job careers for Nigerians is being marginalized. 
 
They also expressed concern that outsourcing is being directed at incompetent and poorly trained workers, and that is creating safety hazards in the industry. They expressed regret that the government has not committed to stem the growing use of casual workers. 
 
Finally, NUPENG and PENGASSAN leadership discussed with the ICEM the rising number of Chinese exploration and development companies that are entering the oil patch of southern Nigeria.

ICEM Hosts Nigerian Union Leaders from NUPENG, PENGASSAN

<img height="39" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100"/>
Early this week, workers of a transportation subcontractor at the world’s largest open-pit coal mines, Carbones del Cerrejón in Colombia, will present their demands to managers. Backed by powerful Sintracarbón, the ICEM affiliate representing 4,000 Cerrejón miners, one of those presenting the demands will be Vincente Pomarico, the leader of a transport workers’ organising effort who was summarily dismissed recently on expiration of his short-term contract. 
 
The new union, called SINTRAS, would be the first union of subcontractors at Cerrejón, owned jointly by BHP Billiton, AngloAmerican, and Xstrata, to organize. Sintracarbón, recognizing the social harm inflicted by a key contractor who only gives fixed-term contracts to its workers of six months or up to one-year, seeks to make that happen and set a precedent for workers employed by other subcontracting firms on the mine site. 
 
SINTRAS, now counting some 80% of 150 drivers and others as bonafide members, has met fierce resistance in gaining recognition from SOTRANS, the transport company that grew from a very small Guajira department transport firm to a major service-provider at the world’s richest coal reserves. Contract workers, together with Sintracarbón members, have not backed down, conducting recent mobilizations, marches, and meetings with several work groups at Cerrejón. 

<img height="115" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Colombia.png" width="250"/>
The contract company has shown willingness to talk with workers’ representatives, but has adamantly refused to enter into a collective agreement. 
 
Firstly, workers are unionizing because they want stability in employment. They want full-time and permanent status. Besides Pomarico, one other SOTRANS worker saw his employment severed because he was promoting the union. Both have been designated as bargaining committee members. 
 
Secondly, workers want pay increases and levels of social benefits that meet minimum standards in Colombia. SOTRANS workers deserve monthly salaries that are better than the US$250 they now receive, particularly with the profitability of the company. 
 
Contract workers are receiving much assistance from Sintracarbón and its President, Jairo Quiroz Delgado, as well as from the regional committee of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Colombia (CUT) in Guajira department. Who they are not receiving support from is the multinational Carbones del Cerrejón. 

<img height="89" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ColombiaCUT.jpg" width="100"/>
Sintracarbón’s Jairo Quiroz rejects his employer’s “passive” stance on the matter, and states that Cerrejón’s claim of “enterprise autonomy” is unacceptable, considering the mining concern’s own social pact with his union and miners and communities in the region. Jairo Quiroz says many contract employees at Cerrejón are employed in “semi-slave or enslaved” conditions. 
 
CUT-Guajira charges SOTRANS with denial of basic freedom of association by coercing and frightening workers. It also challenges Carbones del Cerrejón to fulfill its social obligations by pressing for the right of trade union representation at its transport contracting agent. 
 
The ICEM supports formal establishment of the new transportation union, SINTRAS, and pledges to monitor the rights of contract employees at Carbones del Cerrejón.

Sintracarbón Seeks Unionisation for Subcontractor at Cerrejón in Colombia

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Members of the ICEM’s Executive Committee discussed and deliberated on the effects of the world’s financial crisis on day two of the statutory body’s annual meetings 24 June. The discussion started with ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda outlining the unified strategy that Global Union Federations (GUFs), together with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and TUAC of the OECD, are pursuing in order to shift from the failed policies of global capital. 
 
Those strategies include stricter engagement with the world’s financial institutions in order to make meaningful structural changes. The ICEM invited Peter Bakvis, the GUFs’ and ITUC coordinator in Washington, DC, who monitors activity of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the regional development banks. 
 
Bakvis gave the underlining causes to the crisis, and the warning signs that were given by global labour to the institutions in the years leading up to the 2008 crisis. He also told ICEM Executive members of the trade union response since the collapse of last autumn. His presentation can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/icem%20pb%20geneva.bakvis.pdf" type="internal">here</a>. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0906.ICEM.Exec.JPG" width="337" height="181"/>
ICEM Executive Committee, Tuesday 23 June
Some 25 members of the Executive then gave overviews and crisis responses from their unions and countries. Their testimony saw reviews of safety nets in various countries for the growing number of unemployed, as well as specific situations within ICEM sectors that have been deeply affected. 
 
A resolution on the crisis was presented. That document was amended by delegates to warn against governments adopting stringent protectionist measures, and it also denounced trends toward racism, xenophobia, and any move toward political parties that reflect such anti-social conduct. 
 
Delegates also denounced companies which have used the crisis as a pretext to implement destructive social measures. The ICEM Executive Committee’s Resolution can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ExecResFinCri2009EXEC.pdf" type="internal">here</a>. 
 
The ICEM will continue to update trade union responses to the financial crisis on its website under “Financialisation,” and the first effort in that regard can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/EFFECTS%20of%20the%20GLOBAL%20FINANCIAL%20CRISIS%20on%20WORKERS.pdf" type="internal">here</a>.

Financial Crisis Effects Key Focus of ICEM Executive

The ICEM lodged strong protest early this week demanding Turkey President Abdullah Gül veto a bill giving “Private Labour Offices” broad rights to place temporary workers in enterprises. On 9 July, President Gül did veto the bill, and now the ICEM demands the Turkish Parliament not bring it back. 
 
The bill was submitted by Parliament to Gül in late June after it cleared the legislative body without hearings or direct input from the country’s labour federations. The ICEM calls attention to this anti-social fact because global unions are targeting actions in Turkey and Thailand on Day of Decent Work, 7 October 2009, specifically over the precarious labour issue. 
 
The legislation, as written, would have given fees to labour brokers and it would have created a slave market composed of short-term contract workers. The proposal read that any person or entity could establish a private labour hire agency with a modest investment of TL 20,000, or €9,250. 
 
“We applaud President Gül and his administration for doing the right thing to veto this,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “We now call on the global community to assist our Turkish comrades to make sure this bill does not surface again.” 
 
The ICEM credits Turkey’s three trade union federations for immediate and effective opposition to the legislation. The ICEM now calls on the Turkish Parliament to abandon this anti-people measure. 
 
Mustafa Kumlu, President of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (Türk-İş), said accurately it would render existing mechanisms between unions and government useless. Kumlu, an ICEM Executive Committee member, said “social rights, social security, and other benefits” would disappear under this legislation. 
 
In the 7 July letter to Gül, Warda said creating such a labour system in a society is equivalent to “placing dynamite under the social structures.” He called it a “21st century employment relationship based on slavery.” 
 
ICEM work leading up to 7 October and after will partly focus on Turkish failure – in the eyes of the ILO – to implement Labour Conventions that the country has already ratified. A focus will also ensure that transparency and fairness become full partners in all social discussions leading to possible Turkish ratification of ILO Convention 181, the Private Employment Agencies Convention. 
 
The ICEM said in the letter to the Turkish government that the proposed law is not in compliance with the EU Directive on Temporary Agency Work, a standard passed in October 2008 that the ICEM insists must be adhered to by Turkey. The ICEM also labels the legislation a misguided response to the economic crisis, and an inhumane practice to even pronounce it as a measure to reduce operating costs. 
 
For further information, contact the ICEM’s Kemal Özkan at <a href="mailto:Kemal.ozkan@icem.org">Kemal.ozkan@icem.org</a> of +41 79 734 9044, or Dick Blin, <a href="mailto:Dick.blin@icem.org">Dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 79 734 8994.

Turkey: Labour Hire Veto Applauded, More Work Demanded

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
ICEM Indonesian affiliate, Federasi Serikat Pekerja Pulp Dan Kertas (FSP2KI), conducted training on collective bargaining and labour law from 4-5 July in Karawang with 30 participants. The union represents workers across the country’s pulp and paper sector. 
 
The training was attended by workplace leaders of Asia Pulp & Paper’s PT Indo Deli, PT Graha Cemerlang, Asia Pacific Resources International’s (APRIL) Riau Andalan paper and power operations, and DSS Karawang. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0907.indonesian.paper.JPG" width="293" height="144" alt=""/>
The workshops had the expertise of Akhirnya Asfinawati, the leader of the legal aid service LBH Jakarta; Khamid Istakhori from the Congress States Labour Congress of Indonesia (KSBI); and Odie Hudaya from the Labour Working Group, an Indonesian workers’ training institute. FSP2KI shop-floor leaders were instructed on bargaining techniques and legal procedures as outlined under Peneltian Hukum Indonesia, the country’s legal information guide. 
 
The union intends to provide follow-up training to the 30 participants in order to give maximum protections to trade union members. 
 
Etin Rodiana serves as General Secretary of FSP2KI and Irzan Zulpakar is the President.

Indonesian Pulp, Paper Union, FSP2KI, Conducts Training for Mill-Level Leaders

Archive