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A member of ICEM-affiliated Metallurgical, Mining and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union of Georgia who received serious burns but escaped death in a 27 August 2010 coal mine explosion died inside that same mine in late November due to a shaft cave-in. 
 
Sergi Ashotia, 50, was working inside the Tkibuli-Mindeli Coal Mine of Geo-Coal, owned by the Georgian Industrial Group, when he was buried on 24 November by rock and wooden support pilings. A similar shaft collapse at the accident-prone mine in western Imereti region occurred on 6 November, killing two miners &ndash; 49-year-old Bondo Mikheilidze and 61-year-old Tamaz Gioradze. 
 
Ashotia was one six miners severely burned in the August 2010 methane gas explosion that killed four miners. The ICEM then charged Geo-Coal, also called Saknakhshiri, with failure to install modern ventilation and detection equipment. 
 
Safety issues were a main reason behind a strike by the mine&rsquo;s 200 workers last February. After a January 2011 mine explosion killed one worker, management sacked two low level managers and police in the city of Tkibuli arrested them for safety negligence. Miners then engaged in an open-ended strike on 2 February in support of them and in protest to the company&rsquo;s safety inadequacies.
<img alt="" src="" width="125" height="166" />
Kutasi Meeting, October 2011: Mineworkers' Union Leaders Present&nbsp;
That strike ended when the company agreed to a labour contract empowering the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union to assist with safety improvements. The mine then experienced another fatality on 9 September 2011. 
 
As for November&rsquo;s fatalities, the union is involved in the investigation, but Metallurgical, Mining and Chemical Union President Tamazi Dolaberidze said many of the facts are being distorted by people who were present during the cave-ins. He said the managing director is also disturbed by this. 
 
The result has been reinforcement of the terms ending the strike, with a joint labour-management safety committee established for better process control of safety and labour protection systems. Dolaberidzi said he is confident this will positively impact preventative measures. 
 
Geo-Coal, or Saknakhshiri, has granted each of the miners&rsquo; families with the equivalent if US$7,000 and paid for all funeral expenses. The company also took out an insurance policy last February that went into force on 1 November. The policy insures Geo-Coal for up to five fatal accidents per year, and it gave the families of the three miners who perished last month each with US$25,000. 
 
The union also assisted families of dead miners with stipends.

Deaths Continue To Plague Georgia’s Tkibuli-Mindeli Coal Mine

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An agreement was signed in Jakarta today between PT Freeport Indonesia Workers&rsquo; Union (SP KEP SPSI) and management of the world&rsquo;s largest gold and second largest copper mining complex &ndash; Grasberg in Papua province &ndash; that will end a 94-day strike on Saturday, 17 December. The strike pitted a low-wage but determined and enlightened workforce against a global extractive resource company, US-based Freeport-McMoRan that has Grasberg at top of its massive revenue stream. 

The agreement put together in Jakarta this week, with the assistance of the Indonesian government, falls short of workers&rsquo; wage demands, but union-winning gains were made that will allow the 10,000 striking miners to return to their jobs with heads held high. 

Firstly, striking miners will be paid their lost salaries during the three-month strike. Secondly, in a last minute company concession early today, disciplinary action against a number of strikers has been withdrawn and complete amnesty accorded. Further, a central issue in the dispute was resolved in favour of the union. 

All allowances &ndash; health care, housing, education, shift premiums, service-year bonuses, and a metal bonus &ndash; will be calculated on fixed costs rather than Freeport-McMoRan&rsquo;s demand of variable cost schemes. Grasberg miners will receive a 24% increase on their back-dated wages to 1 October 2011. In October 2012, they will receive a 13% increase. 

Some 7,000 of the striking mineworkers, PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) employees termed non-staff workers, had earned between US$2.13 per hour and US$2.54. The 37% falls short of the union&rsquo;s most recent demand to increase wages to US$4.50 per hour this year and then by US$3 per hour in 2012. But the resolve of workers and union leaders alike to bring the world&rsquo;s largest recoverable gold and copper deposits to a grinding halt was a lesson of worker solidarity and unity to trade unions across the globe, and many paid special attention to the developments of this strike. 

&ldquo;We are not entirely happy with the wage deal,&rdquo; said union bargaining committee member Juli Parorrongan. &ldquo;We made the decision to settle due to humanitarian reasons and out of concern for our workers. They have no money, very little to eat, and having no pay checks have pushed them to the brink of poverty. 

&ldquo;But this is not the end, only the beginning. The energy and unity of our struggle now enters the workplace.&rdquo; Much of that energy was concentrated in a fierce blockade by strikers and their families at Mile 28 on the lone road between Timika on the Arafura Sea and Grasberg open-cast and underground mines in the central highlands of Papua.
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Mile 28 Blockade
That pivotal blockade prevented PTFI from getting supplies in and more importantly, it severely hampered the company from making repairs on 114-kilometre slurry lines that carry Freeport-McMoRan&rsquo;s daily 230,000-tonne output to Timika and global markets. Pipelines were vandalized during the early stages of the strike by people seeking to siphon off small portions of the company&rsquo;s riches for sale on black markets. PTFI declared force majeure on 22 October, five weeks into the strike. 

The 15-member bargaining team of PT Freeport Indonesian Workers&rsquo; Union, part of the national Chemical, Energy, Mine Workers Union (CEMWU) of SPSI, will return to Timika from Jakarta tomorrow, 15 December. On 16 December, they will hold a mass meeting with strikers to brief them on the agreement, and then hold a ceremonial end to the blockade at Mile 28. 

One outstanding issue concerning the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) is local police charges in Timika against 12 union leaders. They are under investigation for disturbing the public order in blocking the Grasberg road and access to the mine and milling operations. 

In months-long involvement in this dispute, the ICEM is convinced that Indonesian labour code asserts that PT Freeport Indonesian Workers&rsquo; Union were within their legal rights to engage in strike activity at blockade points. 

&ldquo;The ICEM applauds the resourcefulness of Grasberg miners in carrying out this strategic strike,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, &ldquo;and it is now in the best interests of both the company and workers for local authorities to drop recriminations over what we know to be legitimate strike activity.&rdquo;

Proud Indonesian Miners End Strike with Freeport-McMoRan

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Finland&rsquo;s papermaking unions, Paperiliitto and Ammattiliitto Pro, have new 25-month labour agreements with the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF) that take effect in March 2012. That was assured yesterday, 28 November, after the employers&rsquo; association in the transport, ports, and shipping industry signed&nbsp;an accord with AKT, the Transport Drivers&rsquo; and Port Workers&rsquo; Union. 

Even though the FFIF came to terms with the two ICEM affiliates separately in the pulp and paper sector last Wednesday, 23 November, the FFIF was unwilling to sign off on the agreement until they had a guarantee that&nbsp;strikes would not&nbsp;occur in the transportation and export of pulp and paper products.
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The agreement in the paper sector follows a framework agreement made between the three national trade union confederations &ndash; SAK, STTK and STTK &ndash; and the Confederation of Finnish Industries on 13 October. 

In March 2012, Ammattiliitto Pro members&nbsp;will receive a 1.6% across-the-board wage increase, in addition to an average 0.8% increase that will be negotiated locally and is part of a new salary structure. That amount will reward new work demands, personal skill developments, and greater efficiencies by workers on the local level.
Paperiliitto members will receive a 1.5% increase, with&nbsp;0.9%&nbsp;to be negotiated locally. 

Essentially, this new salary structure was recognized by employers through strike actions taken last spring by Ammattiliitto Pro, Finland&rsquo;s white-collar and clerical workers&rsquo; union, which represents about 4,000 staff at some 50 paper enterprises. 

In April 2013, the wage increase for Ammattillio Pro&nbsp;will be 1.3%, with a 0.6% award won on the new locally-negotiated salary structure. Paperiliitto's 2013 increase will be 1.2%, with 0.7% awarded locally.
<img alt="" src="" width="190" height="46" />
Two other important aspects of the pulp and paper agreement include extra protection for workers when mills close. In effect, employers take on more responsibility for re-training and skill development, as well as workers given the flexibility to take new work in another enterprise and still qualify for redundancy benefits. 

Also, shop stewards and safety representatives who receive slightly higher pay for their responsibilities will get a 10% supplement on top of that higher pay. The two unions also won a universal three-day paid leave annually for vocational training and education. 

Both Petri Vanhala, President of Paperiliitto, and Markku Palokangas, Pro&rsquo;s Vice President for the Industrial Sector, expressed satisfaction with the 25-month agreement, especially with&nbsp;the gains made&nbsp;through the national framework agreement. Paperiliitto represents some 19,000 blue-collar workers across Finland&rsquo;s pulp and paper industry.

Finnish Pulp, Paper Unions Make Gains in 2012-2014 Industry-wide Pacts

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The ICEM Brazilian affiliate, Federac&atilde;o &Uacute;nica dos Petroleiros (FUP), or Oil and Gas Workers&rsquo; Unified Federation, carved important new safety protections for deepwater oil platform workers in a new collective agreement recently approved. 
 
The union twice came to the edge of beginning strike actions, but postponed walkouts when the Brazilian state company agreed to better pay and more FUP and worker involvement in safety matters on the platforms in the Campos and Esp&iacute;rito Santo Basins, as well as across the company nationally. 
 
Following the FUP General Board accepting a revised company proposal that spells out specific safety requirements on 22 November, the contract won favour from 35,000 oil workers in local meetings, many coming on 26 November. 
<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="110" />
The new contract stipulates mandatory union representation of 150 safety specialists on platforms in the Campos Basin, for instance, and it requires three annual inspections per rig. Petrobras is underway with a US$225 billion investment in downstream and upstream projects, including exploration and development of 19 new wells next year in the deepwater Campos Basin off S&atilde;o Paulo state. 
 
FUP leaders throughout seven rounds of bargaining called for the same safety criteria that Norwegian state company Statoil has with ICEM affiliate IndustriEnergi (IE). Since the 2001 killing of 11 workers in the explosions and subsequent sinking of its P36 platform in the Roncador offshore fields, Petrobras has seen some 80 workplace fatalities, including one in September from a fire on a diesel fuel tanker. 
 
The FUP in 2010 forced suspensions on both Platforms 33 and 35 off Brazil, and the company itself shut operations on different vessels in both January and February this year over safety concerns. 
 
Worker safeguards in the agreement came only after FUP set a second strike deadline of 16 November. Following a first strike threat some weeks before, Petrobras agreed to improve health and pension fund benefits for workers. 
 
The pay package, another key issue throughout talks, will see Petrobras oil workers get a 10.71% pay rise, which represents 3.4% in real wages when factoring in Brazil&rsquo;s inflation rate.

Strike Threat Gets FUP Major Safety Protections for Brazil’s Petrobras Workers

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Workers throughout Britain are scrambling to fight to protect their pensions, as companies follow the government&rsquo;s tactics of attacking pension schemes. Last week members of three joint affiliates of ICEM and the International Union of Food, Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF) at the food and cosmetics manufacturing multinational Unilever voted to strike. 
 
Unilever is attempting to unilaterally scrap the final salary pension scheme for existing members and replace it with a career-average scheme that would cut as much as 40% of the expected retirement benefits of long serving employees. 
 
The company already blocked the final salary scheme to new entrants in 2008, but this plan to move 5,000 existing members has caused outrage, especially as part of the justification for the 2008 move was to preserve the benefits of existing members. 
<img alt="" src="" width="90" height="90" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="175" height="70" />
If the company does not act swiftly to avert the strikes, it will be the largest strike action it has faced in its 80 year history, and the first time a FTSE 100 company has faced a strike purely on the issue of pensions. 
 
5,000 workers producing well-known products such as Persil detergent and Marmite voted resoundingly in favour of the strike ballot. 85% of Unite members, and 75% of GMB members, and a large majority of USDAW members all voted on 28 November in support of the strike which will probably be conducted at 12 factories in December. 
 
&quot;The vote also shows that ordinary workers will not stand idly by to watch profitable employers like Unilever jumping on the pensions robbery bandwagon,&quot; stated Allan Black, national officer at GMB and ICEM Executive Committee member. 
 
Union negotiators offered the company alternatives to reduce the risk of the final salary scheme and cap benefits, but were frozen out of discussions by the talks by management. 
 
This month Unilever CEO Paul Polman received shares worth &pound;1,069,986. 
 
Unilever also just announced 600 redundancies in closing the Alberto Culver plant in Melrose Park near Chicago, Illinois in 2013. Workers at the 50 year old factory are members of United Steelworkers Local 9777, most of whom are very long-serving employees. The factory produces well known products VO5, TRESemme and Nexxus shampoos and conditioners, and St. Ives lotions and body wash.

UK Unilever Workers Vote to Strike to Protect Pensions

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A day-long strike on 30 November in the UK brought a standstill to public services and a stark reminder that the Tory-led coalition government&rsquo;s proposed rollbacks to public-sector pensions is intolerable and will be met by street resistance. An estimated two million British workers conducted strikes at over 1,000 separate manifestations and it marked the country&rsquo;s largest mass actions since the &ldquo;Winter of Discontent&rdquo; strikes in 1979. 
 
Dubbed &ldquo;Pensions Justice Day of Action,&rdquo; 30 unions in the UK held strike votes in the months before 30 November against a government trying to impose austerity measures that include making public-sector employees work longer and pay more into what will result in smaller pension benefits. 
<img alt="" src="" width="269" height="161" />
Photo: Mac Urata
The rallying cry on 30 November was that it was bankers and lack of government oversight that caused revenue shortfalls, so why should the men and women who make Britain&rsquo;s public services work pay the price with lower pensions and more working years? 
 
The 30 November strikes brought 75% of all schools to a close, with teachers protesting more work through larger class sizes and less pay and pension money. Work stoppages brought reduced services inside hospitals, to National Health Service agencies, to public transport, in the courts, and throughout government departments and agencies. 
 
Perhaps the shrillest message against the Cameron/Osborne government&rsquo;s austerity plan came from civil servants at the Tax Ministry. A full 90% of them abandoned their jobs and took part in the day of protest last week. 
 
A group from Occupy London used the day to protest against global mining company Xstrata and its CEO Mick Davis. Activists were arrested at a sit-in inside Xstrata&rsquo;s London headquarters near Piccadilly Circus. They were protesting Davis&rsquo;s &pound;18 million compensation packaging, the largest among executives of the FTSE 100. 
 
Mass demonstrations shut down the city centre of Manchester, brought picket lines to government buildings and a 25,000 march through Liverpool, made 150,000 court workers leave their jobs, delaying and postponing court dockets, and saw the largest strike in Northern Ireland history where 10,000 civil servants rallied at city hall in Belfast. 
<img alt="" src="" width="252" height="160" />
NGWF, ITGLWF lead Bangladesh solidarity march for UK strikers
The UK strikes were felt globally as well. The ICEM was informed that the National Garment Workers&rsquo; Federation (NGWF) of Bangladesh held a sympathy strike for British workers in Dhaka at mid-day on 30 November that included addresses by NGWF President Amirul Haque Amin and International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation Education Secretary Steve Grinter. 
 
The Tory coalition government&rsquo;s public-sector austerity plan calls for an increase in the pension age from 60 to 66 in the year 2020, and then to 67 in 2026. It seeks increased pension contributions to come out of the pockets of workers, and a pension formula based on average lifetime earnings rather than the current end-of-career pay. 
 
And a day before the 30 November strikes, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne further fueled worker discontent by announcing that when the current public-sector pay freeze expires in 2012, the government will insist on a 1% cap to salary increases over the following two years.

2 Million Strike in Resistance to UK’s Public-Sector Cuts

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The Indonesian national government and Papua province Manpower officials will both participate in bargaining today in Timika, Papua, in further attempts to resolve the wage and benefit issues behind an 11-week strike. The strike is against US-based Freeport-McMoRan by the PT Freeport Indonesia Workers&rsquo; Union of the Chemical, Energy, Mine Workers Union (CEMWU), or SP KEP SPSI. 
 
Meanwhile, as talks continue into the fifth straight week with little progress to report, the union this week is making plans to issue another official notice to extend the strike a fourth time, again a 30-day extension that will continue the stoppage from 15 December to 15 January 2012. Some 10,000 mineworkers have blocked all production from Freeport-McMoRan&rsquo;s Grasberg mines, the world&rsquo;s largest recoverable gold and copper deposits, since the first 30-day strike began on 15 September. 
 
In a report on bargaining to the ICEM late last week, leaders of PT Freeport Workers&rsquo; Union said management has not moved off an average 35% wage offer over two years. (See previous <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4784-Indonesian-Miners-Resume-Talks-Again-Today-with-Freeport-McMoRan">ICEM report</a>.)&nbsp; 
<img alt="" src="" width="170" height="78" />
The union is seeking uniform wage increases for all workers, with a goal of US$7.50 per hour for non-staff workers in the second year. Workers earned a wage of between US$2.13 per hour and US$3.54 at the start of the strike. 
 
The union is seeking a fixed metal bonus scheme, while the PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) subsidiary is insisting on a bonus tied to the company&rsquo;s variable costs. The company has rejected the union&rsquo;s demand for monthly Housing, Education, and Risk Allowance Work benefits of two million rupiah each (&euro;165, US$222) and a daily premium for shift work of 100,000 rupiah (&euro;8.26, US$11). The union met with Indonesia&rsquo;s National Wage Council on Friday over the company&rsquo;s effort to impose a wage deal through the government&rsquo;s mediation process. 
 
The ICEM believes Freeport-McMoRan must do better in its wage and benefits offer to Grasberg miners, many of whom work 12-hour shifts in 4,200- metre altitudes and have an excruciating roster schedule in which they work five days on, two days off, followed by six days on and one day off, and then four days on, three days off. 
 
But if the company wants a return to production and an end to Indonesia&rsquo;s longest work stoppage, it must break from pressures being exerted by other extractive industry employers to hold down wage and benefit offers so their workers do not follow the example set by the PT Freeport Workers&rsquo; Union. Again, PTFI must make a more conciliatory contract offer and the company should take note on how Newmont Mining and Sumitoma Corp. two weeks ago ended a four-day strike at their 49% copper and gold holdings called Batu Hijau on Indonesia&rsquo;s Sumbawa Island. They acceded to workers&rsquo; demands for adequate compensation on overtime work.

Indonesian Mine Talks Continue Today; Union Ready with Another 30-day Strike Notice

<img alt="" height="39" src="" width="100" />

	From the International Metalworkers&#039; Federation

	Trade unionists around the world will mobilize during the week of February 19-25, calling on the Mexican government to stop its attack on workers and implement steps to allow for workers to organize independent democratic trade unions of their choosing. 
	 
	Last year more than 50,000 union members, students and human rights activists from some 40 countries participated in the Global Days of Action, launched on February 14 in Mexico and Australia simultaneously. For six days union members came together in an unprecedented show of solidarity. Thousands of letters were sent to the Mexican government, more than 50 meetings were held at Mexican Embassies throughout the world, and massive demonstrations throughout the week, inside and outside of Mexico, marked the strength and urgency of our message: STOP the attack on workers, we demand Trade Union Rights in Mexico, NOW! 
	 
	The impact of our global actions were felt around the world. On February 24, just weeks after Global Action Days launched, political prisoner Juan Linares of the National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union of Mexico was released from jail after being unjustly imprisoned for more than two years. Building on our 2011 actions, independent unions in Mexico, together with their respective global union partners, have come together as a movement of force, challenging retrogressive labour legislation, Mexico&rsquo;s scandalous &ldquo;Protection Contract&rdquo; system, and exposing corporate and political corruption.

	<img alt="" height="160" src="" width="113" />

	Despite an escalation in action and outcry from unions in Mexico and at the international level, workers continue to be denied fundamental rights, independent unions face violent and political attack, and corporate impunity is at an all time high. 
	 
	During the week of February 19-25, 2012, in honour of the Pasta de Conchos miners who died in a mine blast on February 19, 2006, members of the international labour movement are again asked to take action. 
	 
	POSSIBLE ACTIONS INCLUDE:

	Request a meeting with Mexican Embassy/Consulate representatives to discuss trade union rights in Mexico.
<ul>
	<li>
		<div align="justify">
			Organize a small delegation to deliver a statement or letter to your local Mexican Embassy/Consulate.</div>
	</li>
	<li>
		<div align="justify">
			Send a letter to your local Mexican Embassy/Consulate.</div>
	</li>
	<li>
		<div align="justify">
			Engage national policy makers to join meetings with</div>
	</li>
	<li>
		<div align="justify">
			Embassy representatives or to send similar letters to the Government of Mexico.</div>
	</li>
	<li>
		<div align="justify">
			Publicize actions taken in defense of trade union rights in Mexico on your union&rsquo;s website and in its publications.</div>
	</li>
</ul>

	Print-ready posters and model letters are available to be used for actions and mobilizations. Posters are available in English, French, Spanish and Russian. The original In design artwork file is also available upon request if you wish to add logos or additional information, contact: <a href="mailto:unionrights@imfmetal.org">unionrights@imfmetal.org</a>. Model letters are available in English, Spanish, French, Russian and German. 
	 
	Please be sure to keep us informed of all actions taken, send photos, letters, and reports to: <a href="mailto:unionrights@imfmetal.org">unionrights@imfmetal.org</a> and <a href="mailto:tom.grinter@icem.org">tom.grinter@icem.org</a>.

Mexico Days of Action 2012, February 19-25

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ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, Latin America/Caribbean Regional Vice-President Sergio Novais, and Regional Contact Person Carol Bruce conducted a mission to Ecuador, Colombia, and Costa Rica from 13 to 20 January 2010 to visit affiliates, make new contacts and attend a Social Dialogue conference in Colombia. 
 
The ICEM mission started the round in Ecuador on 13 January and the next day the Electricity Workers&rsquo; Union was visited. This union was instrumental in creating the new confederation of public sector workers, which is made up of 70,000 members in the electricity sector, as well as in health, the oil industry, national telephone, public workers, education and transport. It took three years to build the confederation. 
<img alt="" src="" width="253" height="160" />
The most innovative factor about the confederation is a new approach, moving from protest to proposal. In the meantime, the realization has arisen that tripartite dialogue is necessary. The idea is to develop the state with workers&rsquo; participation. The confederation supports the process of the citizens&rsquo; revolution. It broadcasts a radio program to educate and inform workers. Steps are being taken to limit outsourcing according to the recent legislation. 
 
ICEM can expect to receive an application for affiliation from the Electricity Workers&rsquo; Union of Ecuador in the near future. 
 
The delegation arrived in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, on 15 January. The social dialogue conference was held the next day and the only employer that attended were two managers from the Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n mine, who praised the cooperation with ICEM which has enabled the mine to enjoy labor peace. The unions who participated were Sintraelecol, Sintragasquimed, Sintracarb&oacute;n, Sintravidricol, Sintracarcol, Fenaltec and USO, as well as the IMF affiliate, Sintracerramotoso. 
 
These conferences have been going on since 2004. One recurring theme is sub-contracting. The question is to know whether conflicts are solvable on the basis of dialogue and whether dialogue has contributed to collective bargaining. Social dialogue is an innovative process in a country marked by entrenched violence. The idea is to contribute to peace in Colombia. 
 
Warda explained some of the Congress resolutions, especially concerning the creation of the new Global Union Federation. He stressed that Colombia would continue to be a priority. 
 
Novais clarified that the value of social dialogue is to continue to speak and negotiate regularly with the other side, and not just during wage negotiations. He explained that ICEM is working on multi-Latinas in the region to get workers organized in those companies. One priority in the region is networks, and 12 networks are up and running. It will be up to ICEM to pass our values and experience on to the new organisation. 
 
Philippe Potdevin from the Cerrej&oacute;n mine offered ICEM the possibility to develop an agreement along the lines of a Global Agreement based on the Global Compact. This might be an incentive for other companies in Colombia to take a greater interest in social dialogue, and he also indicated that he would urge other companies to work together with ICEM. 
<img alt="" src="" width="202" height="160" />
Manfred Warda, Rodolfo Vecino, Carlos Bustos
Two conflicts were mentioned in particular. First was the conflict with Rudolfo Vecino, President of USO, which fortunately was solved favourably with his reinstatement just before the delegation arrived in Colombia. The second is still pending and refers to the ex-President of Sintraelecol, Danuil Gomez, who is faced with death threats. His employer Gas Natural has been asked to transfer him to Bogot&aacute;, otherwise his life is in danger in C&oacute;rdoba. 
 
Marcelino Lopez, also from Sintraelecol, is also at similar risk. Some companies apparently work openly or covertly with paramilitaries in the dirty war. 
 
USO and Sintracerramatoso operate in areas that are controlled by the paramilitaries. It is very difficult for them to have access to workers. Union members are harassed and sacked and threatened and even killed, while many multinationals work with security companies that are linked to paramilitaries. The request is to organise a meeting for the unions in the energy and mining sectors to develop joint strategies to confront the government and to design a work plan. 
 
USO considers itself faced with annihilation of the union. Ecopetrol is facing privatization, and in addition, because of sub-contracting, there are six times more contract workers than direct employees, or 10,000 direct workers to 60,000 contractors. 
 
In conclusion, Warda summed up by proposing putting pressure on Endesa and Repsol to join the social dialogue process. His final comment, however, was a criticism of Colombian unions &ndash; something in their structures apparently stands in the way of women&rsquo;s participation. 
 
In the meantime, ICEM is attempting to put a forum together in Madrid where Spanish multinationals would pledge to reject violence in Colombia and to work toward eliminating the killing of trade unionists. The UGT Spanish foundation ISCOD is working with human rights lawyers in Colombia, and ICEM Colombia Coordinator Carlos Bustos will be invited to join them. 
<img alt="" src="" width="334" height="159" />
On 18 January, the delegation met with the board of Sitrapequia in San Jos&eacute;, Costa Rica. The discussion focused on the importance of public-sector unions in Costa Rica and the difficulty of organizing unions in the private sector. One possibility will be the attempt to organise the Bridgestone/Firestone plant in San Jos&eacute;, since there is an opening just now with the company manager for the Americas. This opportunity will be explored together with SUTNA, ICEM&rsquo;s rubber workers&rsquo; union affiliate from Argentina.

ICEM Mission Visits Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
Some 360,000 Indian miners, many of them represented by the ICEM affiliate, the Indian National Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation (INWF), have a new five-year labour agreement achieved under the National Coal Wage Agreement. The agreement with the world&rsquo;s largest coal company, state-owned Coal India Ltd. (CIL), and five unions calls for 25% wage increases over the term of the agreement. 
 
Signed on 31 January in Delhi, it is backdated to 1 July 2011. The agreement was finalised by the joint bipartite consultative committee (JBCC) on 27-28 January. 
<img src="" width="221" height="160" alt="" />
&ldquo;After discussions, the management agreed to a 25% minimum guaranteed benefits on gross wages,&rdquo; said General Secretary S Q Zama of INMF, affiliated to the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC). Along with Brother Zama, INMF and INTUC leaders Sanjeeva Reddy, Rajendra Prassad Singh, S Panigrahi, GVR Sarma, B Venkat Rao and R Algamkar took part in the signing. 
 
An increase in all basic allowances of 88% will take effect throughout the agreement, and higher housing allowances in non-urban areas and management substitution bonuses were also won for workers filling those roles. 
 
Further gains will be made when reports are submitted and agreed to on retirees&rsquo; medical benefits, and on aspects pertaining to contract workers. 
 
The other unions involved in this ninth set of National Coal Wage talks are affiliates of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), and the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC). The new accord will cost CIL US$788.6 million over the five-year period.

India’s Mine Unions, Coal India Reach 5-Year Labour Agreement

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