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<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The ICEM condemns the police violence taken against Trinidad and Tobago trade union leader David Abdullah and others on 18 December. Abdullah was one of the organisers of a peaceful protest outside Parliament. He was detained by riot police and charged with “obstruction of free passageway.” The protest was part of the campaign against a proposed Property Bill in the Caribbean islands nation. 
 
A number of other demonstrators, including members of ICEM affiliate Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), suffered injuries during the mid-December demonstration, as police attacked with batons. 
 
The movement opposing the property tax bill, called People’s Democracy, is an umbrella group of trade unions, NGOs, and others in civil society. It organised the 18 December protest outside Parliament to coincide with deliberations on the bill inside the Lower House. OWTU President-General Ancel Roget also participated in the organization of the protest. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1001.david.abdullah.jpg" width="147" height="205" alt=""/>
David Abdullah centre (Photo T&T Newsday)
Several international groups have also condemned the unprovoked police attacks and arrest of Abdullah. UK Trades Union Congress General Secretary Brendan Barber, in a letter to the country’s authorities, urged that “the charges against Mr. Abdullah are dropped and that all citizens are allowed the free exercise of their democratic rights without interference from the State.” 
 
Roget told police, who demanded the manifestation stop any noise making, that they were doing nothing illegal. It was then that police became violent, using batons against protestors holding only placards. Abdullah complained about the violence and was thrown into a police vehicle, while government police beat OWTU members who tried to follow. 
 
Following Abdullah’s arrest on 18 December, four members of the opposition in Parliament came out and joined the march around the Parliament. 
 
Upon release, Abdullah said, “This will further strengthen the resolve of those who are interested in (our country’s) future because we saw physical evidence today of the dictatorship in Trinidad and Tobago. The right to peaceful picketing is a right we will never, ever give up. We have not and will not engage in anything illegal. And even the police could not tell us that we were violating any law by communicating our message by singing, chanting, and clapping our hands.” 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/People/AncelRogetOWTUgenpres.jpg" width="130" height="162" alt=""/>
Ancel Roget
Roget accused the government of beating citizens into submission. 
 
Court action against David Abdullah will continue on 13 January and People’s Democracy members intend to turn out at the court proceedings in support of their leader. The movement picketed the offices of Prime Minister Patrick Manning on Thursday, 7 January. 
 
The campaign against the Property Tax, seen as an ill-advised national policy to offset government shortfalls and wasteful spending, will continue. The campaign can be viewed <a href="http://www.peoplesdemocracytt.org/ ">here</a>.

Trinidad/Tobago Police Use Brutality to Stifle Free Speech, Assembly Rights

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On 14 December 2009, the Supreme Court of Namibia struck down a two-year-old government law that banned labour hire agencies. In a unanimous, five-judge decision, the court said that government must first try to regulate irregular work imposed by labour hire firms before imposing a ban on them. 
 
The court’s decision also cited the law as unconstitutional because it fails to protect the right to practice “occupation, trade or business.” In 20-year-old Namibia, images of an entrenched contract labour system through apartheid are recent, and this labour issue has both the emotions and the memories to make it a leading story in all of Africa. 
 
The Supreme Court itself called it “an emotive and politically charged” issue, and both opponents and proponents of agency labour expressed sharp differences on the court’s ruling. 
 
The decision was the second time within a year that the High Court in Namibia has taken up the case. It had earlier upheld the ban on labour hire agencies, contained inside Section 128 of the 2007 Labour Act. But Namibia’s largest temporary employment agency, Africa Personnel Services (APS), appealed the constitutionality of this section of the labour code on the eve of it taking effect. The 14 December ruling overturns the High Court’s earlier decision, and now places responsibility on the government and civil society to implement stringent regulatory measures on the operations of labour agencies. 
The head of the Namibia Employers’ Federation, Tim Parkhouse, heralded the court’s decision, calling it an investment attraction. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NUNW_logo[1].png" width="133" height="133" alt=""/>
But the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) reacted angrily to the court’s decision, while Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Immanuel Ngatjizeko, said that although the government must abide by the decision, he pledged the government of President Hifikepunye Pohamba will not allow the labour-hire system to continue in its current form. 
 
Ngatjiseko, in a Windhoek newspaper, said: “It is ironic that a provision of the Namibia Constitution that was intended to eradicate apartheid practices that subjected black workers to the injustice and humiliation of job reservation, influx control and the like has now been interpreted to turn a blind eye to commercial arrangements for the rental of human labour in order to avoid the protections afforded to workers by the labour laws.” 
 
Ngatjiseko said the current system in Namibia, where labour hire firms are allowed to employ people who then provide these people to clients, is exploitative and reminiscent of the apartheid contract labour system because workers in Namibia with few or no other options for gainful employment fall into the clutches of labour agencies. 
 
The NUNW, linked in history with the ruling South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO) 
political party and a union itself banned in the pre-Namibia days of the 1970s and 1980s because it dared to challenge the apartheid labour system, was more blunt in its assessment of the court’s decision. “We firmly believe that one cannot regulate slavery and thereby give it a human face,” said the federation. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="146" height="66" alt=""/>
The court’s decision last month provoked wide opinions, proving again the intensity of the labour hire issue inside Namibia and in all of Africa. 
 
The New Era, a Windhoek publication, predicted, “There is no denying that labour hire is a niece of the contract labour system that we have supposedly got rid, but when weak regulations are approved, the Supreme Court would be left with no choice but to stick to what is lawful on paper.” 
 
An editorial in The Namibian, another Windhoek newspaper, stated, “The principal of labour hire may be an important one, especially in a country with a very high unemployment rate, but it cannot be allowed to perpetuate exploitation of workers to the benefit of middlemen; to provide ways around employer adherence to the Labour Code; and to shut out unions.” 
 
On 5 July 2007, the country’s National Assembly passed an amendment to the labour code stating that “no person may, for reward, employ any person with a view to making that person available to a third party to perform work for the third party.” The law was to take effect on 1 March 2009. But on 27 February, the High Court suspended implementation of the law to hear APS’s appeal.

Namibian Supreme Court Strikes Down Labour Hire Bill

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The ICEM’s new global Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) Coordinator/Consultant began work in her new duties last week. Ashling Seely comes from the International Textiles, Garment, and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) and will continue working for the ITGLWF part-time as coordinator for the Global Union Federation’s Sportswear Project and as Policy Assistant to the General Secretary. 
 
Through her work as the new global Coordinator/Consultant on CAL, it is anticipated that more will be done, including support work to affiliates of ICEM, ITGLWF, and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) in their daily struggles and solidarity actions on CAL and precarious work. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Ashling.Seely.JPG" width="164" height="175"/>
New ICEM Global CAL Coordinator, Ashling Seely
Other work at this level will include preparing interviews and newsletters for the ICEM’s special CAL website, preparing country reports, assisting other ICEM staff on the issue of short-term and irregular work, and assistance in work related to the Council of Global Unions. 
 
All affiliates are encouraged to directly contact Ashling Seely with any issues they have over CAL. She can be reached <a href="mailto:aseely@itglwf.org">here</a>. View the ICEM CAL website <a href="http://cal.icem.org/">here</a>.

ICEM Welcomes New Global CAL Coordinator, Ashling Seely

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The publicity and organising campaign launched in the town of Duzce, Turkey, (see report <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3333-Turkey’s-Petrol-Is-Launch-Creative-Organising-Campaign" type="internal">here</a>), by ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş, Turkey's Oil, Chemical and Rubber Workers Union, in mid-2009, has now been built on in the towns of Bursa and Gebze, both areas that have a high density of workers. 
 
The main aim of the campaign is to strengthen public confidence in unions, and to convey the union's positive message about unionising, not only to unorganised workers at their worksites, but also to families and within the local communities. 
 
The campaign adopted an approach which seeks to break down the negative public prejudices and attitudes towards unions. Petrol-İş plans to expand the drive to cover all Turkey. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1001.petrol.is.campaign.png" width="280" height="210" alt=""/>
Petrol-İş President Mustafa Oztaskin launches recruitment drive 
Using campaign materials, including local newspaper ads, billboard posters, local TV and radio spots and adverts, the union calls on workers to exercise their constitutional right to unionise. 
 
The campaign's key slogan, “Be unionized,” is accompanied by the messages “Union is your strength,” “Union is your right,” “Union is the future,” and “Union means solidarity”. The campaign website and brochures give specific information about unions, and the importance of “being unionized,” designed for potential new members. 
 
The Petrol-İş campaign aims to ensure that workers can freely, legitimately, and effectively exercise their right to organise, a basic human right.

Petrol-Iş Continues Aggressive Recruitment Drives in Turkey

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
On 12 January, European unions and the European Mine, Chemical, Energy Federation (EMCEF) formally signed an agreement creating a European Works Council (EWC) for American pulp and paper producer, International Paper (IP). Chartered under the UK transposition of the EU Directive on EWCs, the council will cover IP worksites in Poland, France, Italy, Spain, and Belgium. 
 
Discussions on creating a EWC with the American-based company have been two years in the making. IP employs some 8,000 direct employees inside EU nations. The EWC composition will consist of two representatives from Poland, and one each from France, Italy, Spain, and Belgium. EMCEF and Belgium will be represented by Peter Ellis, a National Officer for UK’s Unite the Union, who negotiated the agreement along with trade union representatives from the countries. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0810PaperRollArt.jpg" width="180" height="109"/>
“This has been a long set of negotiations, held in the main, in a cordial and professional manner,” said Ellis. He added that the manner and procedures conducted during negotiations “bodes well for a constructive and fully-functional European Works Council.” 
 
Ellis said the new EWC will benefit by the fact that it will hold two meetings per year and that, in addition, two meetings annually of a select committee will also be held, a panel to serve as a steering committee. IP will also fund a union expert to be in attendance at all meetings, with that representative to be EMCEF’s Belgium delegate. 
 
IP operates two integrated pulp and paper mills in Europe, the Saillant mill in Saillat-sur-Vienne, central France, and the Kwidzyn, Poland, mill. In addition it operates 19 corrugated packaging plants: eight in Spain, including two in the Canary Islands; 7 in France, including one on the island of Guadeloupe, and four in Italy.

Trade Unions, Work Partners Form EWC with International Paper

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="120" height="59"/>
The Geneva, Switzerland-based International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) announces that it gives its unequivocal support to the 560 miners of US affiliated union, International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), who were locked off their jobs by the Rio Tinto subsidiary, US Borax and Chemical Corp., on Sunday, 31 January. 
 
The workers were refused entry to the mine and processing plant in Boron, California, when they showed for their work shift at 06h00 on Sunday. 
 
“We note that all 500 members of ILWU Local 30 voted against the company’s contract proposal on Saturday night,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “This should have served as a message to Rio Tinto Minerals to continue negotiating, continue seeking the necessary compromises in order to achieve a mutually acceptable collective agreement.” 
 
A prior contract expired on 4 November 2009. Management is seeking unprecedented changes to workers’ seniority, shift and overtime assignments, and the way in which promotions are made, as well as seeking unilaterally to impose flexibility changes that favour the company to the detriment of workers. 
 
The ICEM condemns the company for its announcement that it will continue production with replacement workers during the company-initiated lockout. The ICEM will use its role, as the leading Global Union Federation in the mining industry, to alert trade unions around the globe, particularly those representing Rio Tinto workers, of the lockout and urge them to take action on behalf of ILWU Local 30 in California. 
 
Borax, or sodium borate, is a mineral used in detergents, glass, building materials, and other uses such as an ingredient in chemicals. The ICEM represents 20 million workers worldwide that are part of 467 affiliated trade unions in 132 countries. 
The ICEM urges all affiliates and supporters to send their own letter to Rio Tinto, condemning the lockout.  Click <a href="/index.php?id=5&la=EN&doc=3600" type="internal">here</a> for a model, paste the text onto your letterhead, and send to Rio Tinto CEO Albanese at <a href="mailto:tom.albanese@riotinto.org">tom.albanese@riotinto.org</a>, copied to <a href="mailto:joe.drexler@icem.org">joe.drexler@icem.org</a> and <a href="mailto:info@ilwu.org">info@ilwu.org</a>.

ICEM Pledges Support to Locked-Out Rio Tinto Workers in US State of California

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Workers of ICEM affiliated union GMB in the UK will likely see issuance of a ballot for industrial action this week British Gas, the largest gas supplier in the country that is a part of Centrica Plc. The intended job actions are in response to an opaque but and aggressive flexibility and management performance agenda that could cost up to 5,000 jobs. 
 
In a survey of its members, GMB reported that out of 3,000 responses, by a margin of eight to one, workers say there is a “bullying management culture” within British Gas. The survey directly contradicts the company’s own Employee Engagement programme, and affirms that workers are facing unnecessary pressure and feel alienated from the company due to poor planning and bad management. 
 
The situation has been exacerbated by the fact that workers have been forced to work long hours during the coldest winter in decades, all the while hearing mixed messages and getting competing demands from management. Contained in British Gas internal documents, the company is proposing that 5,000 jobs be cut, which could mean job loss for many skilled engineers who work on domestic appliances. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/GarySmith.GMB.jpg" width="256" height="170" alt=""/>
Gary Smith
“Our members are starting to understand that there is a threat to the terms and conditions of employment that we have fought for over many years,” said GMB National Secretary Gary Smith. “Employees are sick to the back teeth of the pressure they face day to day from senior management.” 
 
Much of the staff anger is pointed at Managing Director Phil Bentley, who has not given the union a straight answer on the job cuts and stands accused by GMB of creating a “new macho management” culture, with its only purpose to cut costs. This cost cutting is across the board and affects such things as the purchase of parts for boilers. Bentley’s new work culture, for example, means creation of an arbitrary performance management process that could lead to easy discipline of employees. 
 
In an e-mail, Bentley stated that at One British Gas, the retail arm of the utility, “the big, hairy, audacious goal I’ve thrown down on One British Gas is to reduce our non-customer-facing full-time employment equivalent by 25%.” The 5,000 job cuts, if they materialize, could prove devastating for British Gas and Scottish Gas workers in Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leicester, Southampton, Uddingston near Glasgow, and Edinburgh. 
 
If the industrial ballot is issued this week, it will be counted and assessed in late February. 
 
Centrica serves 15.6 million residential electricity and gas customers in the UK, largely under the British Gas name. Through its Direct Energy subsidiary, Centrica also supplies residential gas and power service in the US, Canada, Europe, Egypt, Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago.

GMB to Take Strike Ballot at British Gas This Week

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Miners of Mexico’s National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros, have rejected a severance package put forward by Grupo México at the strike-hit Cananea copper mine. Some 1,200 workers at Cananea in northern Sonora state have been on strike since July 2007, a strike the company and the Mexican government have tried unsuccessfully to end through administrative edict and by formally dissolving the union’s collective agreement. 
 
Since last year, Mexico’s Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board has declared the strike illegal three times, but each time a court has reversed the rulings. Last month, Grupo México tried to break miners’ resolve by offering a US$13,000 payment per worker to sever with the company. Reports indicated that only 20 miners accepted the buy-out. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/04miningsafety.jpg" width="300" height="219" alt=""/>
“The company is offering workers leftovers and calling it liquidation,” stated SNTMMSRM Section 65 leader Mario García. Grupo México is attempting to break the union, and then restructure and re-start Cananea, a mining complex capable of producing 48% of Mexico’s copper output. 
 
The company has also lodged lawsuits against striking workers and strike leaders for alleged damage at the mine. The union has asked Grupo México to withdraw those actions, and instead negotiate a revised collective agreement with Los Mineros that will raise salaries and benefits, and improve safety and hygiene, chief among reasons why miners struck in the first place. 
 
Grupo México has stated that is has lost US$1.5 billion in sales due to the mine being shut. Cananea has capacity to produce 190,000 tonnes per year of copper, with 70% of that in copper concentrates and the remainder in copper cathode. 
 
The ICEM continue to support and campaign on behalf of Los Mineros in its fight for justice against the Mexican government and the ruthless affront posed by Grupo México throughout the country.

Cananea Miners Reject Grupo México Severance; Strike Continues

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The Guyana Bauxite & General Workers’ Union (GB&GWU) ramped up protests on the deaf ear its government is giving a pitched labour dispute it has with Russian metals company RusAL by picketing last week the offices of the Minister of Labour, Human Services, and Social Security, as well as the company’s offices in Georgetown. 
 
Some 60 union members and supporters staged the manifestations on 4-5 February, and picketing is expected to continue this week. The GB&GWU has broad support across the northern South American country for reinstatement of 57 union activists that were sacked following a spontaneous strike action in late November. The strike was conducted by some 200 of 500 miners employed at the Aroraima bauxite operations in the central portion of the country. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1002.guyana.JPG" width="256" height="192"/>
GB&GWU picketed the offices of Labour Minister Mansoor Nadir on 4 and 5 February
The strike occurred following an exchange of contract proposals in efforts to reach a renewal collective agreement. 
 
Immediately after the strike and sackings, the Bauxite Co. of Guyana Inc. (BCGI), 90% owned by RusAl, made the unilateral announcement that it no longer recognised the GB&GWU, a violation – the ICEM believes – this runs against international labour standards, as well as Guyana’s Trade Union Recognition Act. 
 
Despite numerous attempts by the union to involve Guyana Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Labour, Human Services, and Social Security Minister Mansoor Nadir in efforts to resolve or mediate the dispute, those initiatives have gone unheard. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1002.guyana.2.JPG" width="320" height="159"/>
On 5 February, union pickets the Georgetown offices of RusAl
Thus lacking a formal avenue to remedy the dispute, the GB&GWU took the matter to the Ethnic Relations Commission, since all 57 discharged miners were of African descent. In an early January hearing, the GB&GWU asked the commission to convene a full public inquiry into the sackings but instead, the commission’s chairman went to the worksite to interview bosses and workers without the union present. 
 
The ICEM is concerned that for the past two months BCGI management is coercing and intimidating miners to sign statements abandoning the union, a contradiction to Guyanese law and global freedom of association standards. The ICEM has written to the Russian mining and metals multinational in hopes that it will correct the unfair decisions of its BCGI managers regarding the terminations and abrogation of the collective bargaining relationship and that letter can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/5.rusal.letter.29jan.pdf" type="internal">here</a>.

Guyana Bauxite Workers’ Union Pickets Government, RusAl Offices in Georgetown

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
On 21–22 January in Kiev, Ukraine, ICEM together with the Freidrich Ebert Foundation (FES) organized an international conference on “Restructuring of Mining and Energy Companies in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe.” Present were trade union representatives from Bulgaria, Belarus, Hungary, Serbia, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, as well as specialists and experts from the ILO, and the Independent Institute on Coal Markets. 
 
Industry-wide restructuring and privatisation is occurring throughout the region, with the process at different stages in different countries. There are major concerns over jobs. Experiences differ, from negative ones in Ukraine, to some of the best experiences reported in Uzbekistan. In Belarus, restructuring has not occurred to the same extent as in other CIS states. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1002.kiev.conf.jpg" width="269" height="138"/>
ICEM Vice-President Ivan Makohnachuk chairs the meeting
The presentation by Valery Zadenvarg, of the Independent Institute of Coal Markets, addressed the three stages of restructuring in Russia that have resulted in the closing of unprofitable mines and a decrease in coal mining jobs from 800,000 to 180,000. Currently there are 23 more mines in Russia that are slated for closing due to an inability to compete in the marketplace. The presentation by Nikolay Rogovsky of the ILO addressed socially-sensitive restructuring. 
 
The meeting heard that although Poland has ratified ILO 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, it is not being implemented in the country, which is evident by continued coal mine disasters. 
 
The seminar concluded with a request by the affiliates to hold another such seminar in 2011 to gain more knowledge on the experience of restructuring in Western Europe, and on lessons to be learned from ICEM affiliates in those countries.

ICEM, FES Hold Conference on Mining, Energy Restructuring in Central, Eastern Europe

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