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Metalliliitto, Finland&rsquo;s Metalworkers&rsquo; Union, has reached a tentative agreement with KMW Engineering, preventing for now a blockade on construction of the nuclear power reactor Olkiluoto III. On 13 April, the Polish air-conditioning subcontractor agreed to compensate workers for shortfalls in pay required under Finnish labour standards. 
 
Under the agreement, KMW Engineering did give an accounting that showed arrears in Sunday and overtime pay. It agreed to compensate back wages and pledged to uphold Finnish terms of employment in the future. It also agreed to correct its deficient safety and health standards on the 1.6 gigawatt (1,600 megawatt) nuclear plant.
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Construction of Olkiluoto III 
Photo: YLE/Termonen Tapio&nbsp; 
&nbsp;
Metalliliitto had given the subcontractor until 15 April to comply with Finnish social standards, or face a construction-wide blockade that would have halted all work on Finland&rsquo;s fifth nuclear reactor. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4343-Finland’s-Metalworkers-close-in-on-Blockade-of-Nuclear-Plant-Work">ICEM report</a> from 28 March.) A Metalworkers&rsquo; blockade had endorsement and would have been honoured by Finland&rsquo;s Construction Trades Union, the Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union, and Proliitto, the union for salaried workers of Finland. 
 
A regional state labour agency of Finland&rsquo;s South-West found in late March that KMW did not keep overtime records as required under the working hours act. It also determined that payment of wages for Sunday and overtime work varied. Failure to comply could have brought state sanctions to the nuclear construction site, which would have affected other contractors. 
 
Metalliliitto Compliance Officer Jyrki Virtanen said the union will now fully monitor future social conduct by KMW Engineering. The Olkiluoto III nuclear power station is owned by private-sector energy concern Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO), and has as general contractor Areva of France. Olkiluoto III, a &euro;3.95 billion project that is now &euro;1.5 billion over budget, is the biggest investment in the history of Finnish industry.

Finnish Metalworkers, Polish Firm Agree on Backpay at Nuclear Plant

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The ICEM has joined the Swiss union Unia in a community campaign to save 550 paper mill jobs. Sappi, a global leader in the manufacture of coated papers, announced on 31 March that it intends to close its Biberist graphic papers mill, an asset it purchased late in 2008 along with three other European printing and writing papers mills from M-real. 
Unia, with membership numbering only one-tenth of the total Biberist workforce, has taken the lead to preserve jobs. Workers, managers, mill suppliers, and area businesses of Canton Soleure have joined the effort. Sappi&rsquo;s European Works Council (EWC) also has argued for retaining production. A <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Sappi%20Fine%20Paper%20Europe.pdf">Sappi EWC resolution</a>&nbsp;can be found here.
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&nbsp;Biberist: A Community United to Save Jobs
Unia held a manifestation in Biberist on 16 March that was attended by hundreds of area residents. The ICEM generated some 15 letters from pulp and paper trade unions around the globe supporting Biberist workers and managers who are in the fight to keep the mill open. Those letters were read at the rally. 
Workers also placed a vivid reminder, namely heavy paper rolls, at a round-about in Biberist to remind the public of what&rsquo;s at stake. A German-language <a href="http://www.papierfabrik-biberist.ch">special website for the workers&rsquo; campaign</a> can be found here.
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20,000 Motorists Daily Will Get a Stark Reminder
Unia&rsquo;s campaign asks Sappi to do one of three things, with a priority being the first: maintain operations because production, productivity and sales have been buoyant since Sappi bought the mill; re-think the decision to shutter the mill completely, and sell it to an enterprise that will operate it; if layoffs occur, ensure that superior severance is paid, and job re-training and other social criteria are met to the fullest. 
Sappi will begin consultations with workers&rsquo; representatives in mid-May, with the company scheduling a first set of layoffs as early as late May. The mill could close by late summer. 
In a 14 April letter to Unia Co-Presidents Renzo Ambrosetti and Andreas Rieger, General Secretary Manfred Warda said: ICEM finds it &ldquo;disgraceful that barely two years after Sappi bought four European graphical paper mills of M-real, they intend to close down the second one. To buy enterprises with the intent to shutter them in order to limit competition and maintain high pricing on a product grade is truly despicable.&rdquo;
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Unia Manifestation on 16 April&nbsp;in Biberist
The Global Union Federation also intervened at a Sappi EWC meeting on 20 April that was held in Maastricht, Netherlands, and that <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/ICEMletters/33.ICEM.SAPPI.UNIA.18April.pdf">ICEM message</a> can be found in English here. At that meeting, Biberist was the main topic of discussion, with the EWC expressing dismay over Sappi&rsquo;s decision. 
The EWC argued that Sappi must try to find other paper product grades for manufacture from Biberist, or find a buyer for the mill. Sappi Europe CEO Berry Wiersum said if a good solution can be found, the company might re-consider. 
The EWC also stressed the importance of a substantial redundancy package for workers and if one is not presented, another special meeting of the EWC would be convened. The company responded that such a plan would be done in accord with Swiss law.

ICEM Joins Swiss Workers’ Campaign to Keep Sappi Paper Mill Open

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Six weeks after an earthquake and tsunami decimated the six nuclear reactors inside the Fukushima power plant in northeastern Japan, union members and staff of Denryoku Soren, the ICEM-affiliated Federation of Electric Power Related Industry Workers&rsquo; Union of Japan, work voluntary week-long shifts to contain radiation leakage. They work inside a 20-kilometre zone in which Japanese rescue teams searching for the dead are prohibited from entering due to radiation levels. 
 
Few know it, but inside the offices of Denryoku Soren in Tokyo most work stations are empty. The reason is most union staff workers have volunteered to fill the shortage of workers needed at Fukushima. 
They sleep on concrete floors at Fukushima and consume only bottled water and biscuits for fear that food sources are contaminated. <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Japanese%20Nuke%20Measures.pdf">Denryoku Soren&rsquo;s letter</a> to the ICEM describing what it is up against can be found here. 
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Last week, ICEM Asia-Pacific Contact Person Phee Jungsun visited Denryoku Soren offices in Tokyo and filed this report: 
 
&ldquo;It is&nbsp;painful to see union officers here in Tokyo, who are exhausted and worried about their fellow workers at the Fukushima site. Those who have returned after their one-week voluntary shifts are calm and doing paperwork, but signs of fatigue show on their faces. 
 
&ldquo;President Seiichi Taneoka, who himself has been to the site, is working hard every minute, organising volunteer shift teams and talking to TEPCO control centre officials on a dedicated telephone line. He is also trying to get assistance from local units of government and local police to locate and reach those union members and their families who are missing and haven&rsquo;t been heard from.&rdquo; 
 
Although the exact total death count is impossible to know, some ICEM affiliates in Japan have started to make assessments. JEC Rengo, the Japanese Federation of Energy and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Unions, confirms that well over 100 of its members are missing, with destruction of members&rsquo; homes totaling over 1,000 in the northeastern Prefecture. The same number is estimated by Zenkoku, the Federation of Gas Workers&rsquo; Unions in Japan. 
 
Other ICEM affiliates in Japan have registered plants and workplaces that have been affected. The Japanese Pulp and Paper Workers&rsquo; Federation has reported mills of Nippon Paper, Mitsubishi Paper Mills, and Oji mills closed or running on limited production. The same is reported at Sumitoma Rubber by Gomu-Rengo, the Rubber Workers&rsquo; Union. UI Zensen, the Textile, Chemical, Food and Commercial Union, also has reported damages and vast devastation to workers, their homes, and places of employment. 
 
Six days after the disaster, the ICEM put a call out to affiliates to provide funds to the ICEM Japanese Affiliates&rsquo; Federation (JAF) for disaster relief. The response was unprecedented, with over US$1 million sent to date to JAF. ICEM Asia-Pacific Region Vice President Kiyoshi Ochiai and JAF General-Secretary Yoshio Sato, through the ICEM, expressed gratitude for the solidarity and generosity: &ldquo;We got heartfelt sympathy and encouragement from all over the world. We deeply appreciate the solidarity and fraternity of ICEM affiliates. We really feel that ICEM is one big family.
<img alt="" src="" width="177" height="156" />
&nbsp;Kiyoshi Ochiai
&ldquo;Our brave members of Denryoku Soren are working hard to speed up recovery efforts in a very difficult situation. The Japanese people are working together to overcome numerous hardships and to get things back to normal with effort and patience. And ICEM JAF keeps engaging in the reconstruction effort.&rdquo; 
 
In typical Japanese fashion, on 28 March, Denryoku Soren withdrew its wage demands on TEPCO that was part of the spring offensive &ldquo;shunto.&rdquo; The union&rsquo;s decision reflects the belief that it cannot continue negotiations for now because of the ongoing tragedies of human life and the devastation in the electric power sector at Fukushima.
Due to a misunderstanding of information that ICEM received there was an incorrect description of events in this article, for which ICEM apologised. See the <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/ICEMletters/37.ICEM.IMFJC.Japan.27April.pdf">letter to IMF-JC</a> here.

Workers of Denryoku Soren Face Dire Plight at Fukushima Nuclear Site

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The General Secretary of the Ghana Mine Workers&rsquo; Union (GMWU), Prince William Ankrah, was elected regional chairman of ICEM&rsquo;s Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Organisation (SSARO) at mid-month. Over 100 delegates from nearly all sub-Saharan African countries attended SSARO&rsquo;s 14-15 April regional conference and meeting in Accra, Ghana. 
 
Comrade Ankrah replaces Rayford Mbulu of the Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) as the ICEM Vice President for the region. Mbulu resigned the position at the meeting. 
 
The meeting also adopted three resolutions and put forth an action plan based on those resolutions. One resolution called for political stability and sustainable development for creation of jobs, especially for the youth of Africa. Noting the political upheaval and suppression of citizens by despotic rulers in several countries, the resolution condemns military and police repression on people who peacefully advocate for a political system based on economic and social justice. 
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The resolution also condemns &ldquo;the role of the United Nations and the international community which seek to influence the African political landscape to the benefit of the West at the expense of the African people.&rdquo; 
 
A second resolution calls on governments to create an environment for economic growth and job creation, including a realization that 10% of national budgets be allocated to agriculture for food security. It also states that MNCs be allowed to invest in Africa on terms favourable to improving economic growth, preventing environment degradation, creating employment, and improving working conditions. 
 
The third resolution noted African trade unions being weak in membership, collection of fess, and other union-provided services, and calls for continuation of trade union organizational building to reverse those stigmas. It also signaled the proposed integration of the ICEM, International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), and the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) as &ldquo;a progressive move that unites workers and builds international solidarity.&rdquo; 
 
The body pledged to continue current campaigns, including HIV/AIDS awareness and testing processes, decent work and decent pay, continued safety training on radiation in mining, shop steward and other interchanges between unions of different countries, promotion of the ILO&rsquo;s Maternity Protection Convention 183, and pressing countries to ratify the Mine Safety and Health Convention, ILO No. 176, a campaign in which the GMWU is charged with heading. 
 
The African Regional Organisation Secretary-General of the International Trade Union Confederation, Kwasi Adu-Amankwah of Ghana, addressed delegates. 
<img alt="" src="" width="118" height="132" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<img alt="" src="" width="114" height="132" />
Christine Olivier&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Kwasi Adu-Amankwah
Christine Olivier, Second Vice President of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), was elected as SSARO Women&rsquo;s Chairperson, replacing Jane Ragoo of Mauritius, while Frans Baleni of South Africa, Achese Igwe of Nigeria, and Paul Felex Bayiha of Cameroon were confirmed as ICEM Executive Committee members for three of SSARO&rsquo;s seats on the governing body.

ICEM’s African Region Elects Prince William Ankrah as Chairman

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Glyphosate, known by its International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) name phosphonomethylamino or acetic acid, is manufactured for use as a herbicide. Depending on specific purpose, it may be used as such, or as an ammonium salt, isopropylamine salt, or potassium salt. 
 
It is most well-known as the main active ingredient in the chemical company&rsquo;s Monsanto's &quot;Roundup.&quot; But since the Monsanto patent has expired, it is also used in similar formulations by a number of manufacturers. It works as a plant hormone inhibitor, by interfering with this metabolic process in plants, it kills the plants. 
 
In handling glyphosate, it is essential to have an up-to-date Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), which can be obtained from a company that manufactures products with it in it. It is also essential to minimise exposure through engineering controls, isolation, effective ventilation, and where worker exposure is unavoidable, personal protective equipment. 
There are two stories on glyphosate, one by its original manufacturer, Monsanto, and unfortunately accepted by most regulatory agencies worldwide, the other by opponents of glyphosate use, who claim much information about it has been suppressed. 
 
As Monsanto tells it, glyphosate is generally considered to be one of the safest herbicides. There is a fairly well-established potential for temporary skin and eye irritation, and gastrointestinal irritation if ingested. These can even be severe if the chemical is encountered in its pure form and not promptly washed off the skin. A survey of recent MSDSs reveals that it is officially considered practically non-toxic, and, in several animal studies, has produced no officially recognized evidence of carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, or teratogenicity. 
 
However, MSDSs are often less than complete. There are some rather alarming suggestions of a link between glyphosate exposure and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) by some researchers. Monsanto's claim that there is no severe adverse effect has been traced back to Swedish researcher Hans-Olov Adami, who in turn has been linked to a consulting group called Exponent. 
 
Exponent has ties to Monsanto and other chemical companies and is known for its rebuttals of concerns about chemicals in the environment. Findings about glyphosate that contradict Monsanto have rarely been given much attention. 
 
There are suggestions that it may be an endocrine disruptor or a genotoxin. For example, Gilles-Eric S&eacute;ralini, a French biochemist, has claimed that his studies of the effects of glyphosate on human embryonic cells, fetal cells, and placental cells; and that glyphosate is likely an endocrine disruptor in humans. This effect was shown for &ldquo;Roundup&rdquo; formulations, rather than pure glyphosate. Indeed, one of the issues with any chemical testing is how it will affect humans or the environment in the complex mixture of chemicals encountered in the real world, as compared with its study in isolation in a laboratory. 
The statistical significance of the association between glyphosate and NHL is low. Monsanto's defenders have suggested that errors in the assessment of exposure levels, or chance, are the likely explanations for the association between glyphosate exposure and NHL. As for S&eacute;ralini's observations, it is unclear whether the effects S&eacute;ralini observed were due to the glyphosate, or the surfactants (detergents) that are always part of a pesticide formulation. 
 
Regardless, from a pure occupational health point of view, the best way to handle any chemical is with caution. Minimise the opportunities for worker exposure with the best possible engineering designs that isolate the chemical from human contact. Install effective drainage and ventilation systems to safely remove any chemical that escapes from the closed system. Finally, since despite these precautions some chance of exposure may remain, appropriate personal protective equipment must be provided and maintained. 
 
The safest level of exposure is always no exposure.

Handling and Use of Pesticide Glyphosate: Things to Know

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A preliminary hearing of the Royal Commission over the Pike River mine disaster opened in Greymouth on April 5. The inquiry, which will begin hearings and full deliberations on 23 May, will run for 15 weeks. 
 
On November 19, 2010, a massive methane gas blast inside Pike River Coal Ltd.&rsquo;s colliery killed 29 miners, including 11 members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), in the worst Kiwi mining disaster in 119 years. 
 
This month&rsquo;s preliminary hearing began with a one minute silence in memory of the 29. It was also marked by the unsettling announcement by receivers of the bankrupt company that it did not have the funds to fully participate in the inquiry. An attorney for the receivers, PricewaterhouseCoopers, said its priority is to repay secured creditors, not to provide witness briefs and compilations of others documents to the Royal Commission. 
<img alt="" src="" width="160" height="80" />
The Commission, headed by Judge Graham Panckhurst and including Stewart Bell, Queensland, Australia, Commissioner for Mine Safety and Health and a recognised expert on methane gas in coal mines, will conduct the inquiry under four phases: context, search and rescue, what happened at Pike River, and policy aspects. 
 
Parts of those issues were introduced on April 5. An attorney representing the EPMU said New Zealand&rsquo;s mine regulations were two decades behind developed mine safety programmes, such as what exists in Australia. &ldquo;Our members want to see a significant increase in the safety and health standards required for working in mines,&rdquo; said Nigel Hampton, representing the EPMU. 
 
The EPMU is also asking that the expertise and counsel that exists in Australian mineworkers&rsquo; unions and the mining industry be heard before the Commission. One question that surely will arise is why an Australian mine rescue team that was on-site 36 hours after the blast occurred on 19 November was sidelined by local police who were supervising the rescue. 
 
Another will be the location of large ventilation fans inside the Pike River mine, an unusual placement for electrical charged equipment when methane gas is prevalent. Initial reports state that an electric outage shut the two ventilation fans in the minutes before the explosion. 
 
The issue of deception and disrespect to families in the days following the November 19 explosion will also be heard. An attorney for the families said at the opening that families only want the truth and clarity on how and why the disaster happened. 
 
In his opening statement, Judge Panckhurst said the mission is to find out &ldquo;what happened at the mine, why it did happen and what can be done to prevent it happening again. In short &hellip; why and what must change for the future good.&rdquo; 
 
The mine was sealed in January and the bodies of the 29 have not been recovered. PricewaterhouseCoopers has assessed the mine, which contains seams of premium coking coal, to be worth NZ$6 million, but it could take 20 times that to re-start it. The global firm is hoping to have it sold in June.

Royal Commission Convenes over Pike River, New Zealand, Mine Deaths

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While basking in world admiration following the successful rescue of 33 workers from inside the San Jos&eacute; copper mine, Chile President Sebasti&aacute;n Pi&ntilde;era announced on October 18, 2010, on BBC&rsquo;s HARDtalk, to a global television audience, that his country would ratify ILO Convention 176 and reform a disjointed national mine safety programme &ldquo;within 90 days.&rdquo; 
 
It turned out to be a lie. 
 
Near that 90-day mark in mid-January, ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana and General Secretary Manfred Warda met with senior government officials in Santiago and were told there is nothing on the agenda to reform internal safety standards or to adopt global standards. And, indeed, since there has been no movement inside Chile for reform, except from the trade union federations there who are now working hand-in-hand with the ICEM. 
 
In February, the ICEM organized a three-prong campaign to pressure Pi&ntilde;era to fulfil his promise. Over 4,000 messages were delivered by ICEM affiliates and our friends in the labour movement! The Pi&ntilde;era government is being forced to answer embarrassing questions about why his government has so far reneged on a promise made in the celebratory aftermath of the San Jos&eacute; rescue. 
 
The ICEM continues to be optimistic that the Chilean government will remember how important reality is; that the country is only one mining accident away from losing the good-will and technical credibility it won by marshalling a rescue of historic dimensions. 
 
And the Pi&ntilde;era government must face another reality: if it is world-class in any way, it is as a world-class producer of minerals, especially copper, and that means it must develop and implement world-class safe mining practices. So far it hasn&rsquo;t. 
<img alt="" src="" width="191" height="128" />
San Jos&eacute; Mine Rescue
In the days just preceding Pi&ntilde;era&rsquo;s brash HARDtalk declaration, the President fell back on a culture dating to the Pinochet regime. In the commission he set up to investigate San Jos&eacute;, no trade union representatives were invited to sit on it. ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, states that workers and their trade unions shall participate in mine inspections and accident investigations. 
 
At San Jos&eacute;, Union No. 2 of Campa&ntilde;ia Minera San Esteban repeatedly warned of safety hazards and once even presented a legal challenge to close the mine. But the common refrain from both government and industry when unions warn on safety and health conditions is that the union&rsquo;s duty is to negotiate economics, not to take part in safety or health matters. 
 
After a miner was killed in 2007, San Jos&eacute; was shut for a brief period by SERNAGEOMIN, the National Service of Geology and Mining. But it quickly reopened on orders from another government official who failed to read the closure report, and relied on the owner&rsquo;s pledge that deficiencies would be corrected. 
 
One such pledge was to install a ladder through a ventilation shaft as a second exit, a standard in Convention 176. That was not done, there were no follow-up inspections, and the lack of a second exit, in fact, led to the 69-day entrapment of the 33 miners. 
 
SERNAGEOMIN is not a health and safety inspectorate. It plays that role, but so do bureaus inside six Chilean ministries. Chile has overlapping safety agencies inside the six that cover all sectors of work. None of them have judicial powers to enforce the few regulations there are in mining and all are without the technical capabilities to inspect and prevent accidents before they happen. 
 
In short, all prerequisites of Convention 176 are missing in Chile: regular inspections, set procedures to report and investigate dangerous occurrences and accidents, trade union consultation, regulatory bodies with the authority to shut dangerous mines, the right to refuse unsafe work, workers&rsquo; ability to select their own safety representatives, and employer obligations to provide training. Convention 176 places responsibility on employers to not only remove workplace hazards, but to remove the causes of those hazards. 
 
Despite the Chilean government&rsquo;s &ldquo;head-in-the-sand&rdquo; approach to mine safety now that the cameras and microphones so prominent at San Jos&eacute; have disappeared, the ICEM will continue to press Pi&ntilde;era alongside a renewed coalition we have developed with the mineworkers&rsquo; federations of the country.

ICEM Will Continue to Press Chile over Mine Safety Standards

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Birlesik Metal-Is, an affiliate of the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation, is fighting for basic trade union freedoms at German-based GEA in Gebze, Turkey. In a cynical move, local management locked out 62 workers while claiming they had conducted illegal strike action. That illegal strike action coincided with break times at the company, and separate investigations have proven that no strike action took place. The ICEM joined the growing international campaign calling for an end to the lock-out, full reinstating of four workers dismissed on 31 May, and an end to the police protection being awarded to the company in its anti-union struggle. 
 
The company behaviour in Turkey is in breach of an international minimum standards agreement with the IMF, in which it pledges respect of labour rights throughout its international operations. The IMF reminded the company and locked out workers of this fact at the picket line, as part of a large international solidarity visit to the GEA factory gates. 
<img alt="" src="" width="241" height="161" />
ICEM was also present at the picket, and a <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/ICEM_Letter_to_Workers.pdf">message of solidarity</a> was read out. See also the <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/ICEM%20Letter%20to%20GEA%20Group%20(17%2011%202011).pdf">ICEM letter</a> to the company here.&nbsp; 
 
Support the <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1167">LabourStart campaign</a>, and write to company management here. 
 
The ICEM has been invited and will participate at the Congress of Birlesik Metal-Is on 16-18 December.

Turkish Metal Workers Still Locked Out by GEA

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
The right wing government of Viktor Orb&aacute;n in Hungary has systematically over the past year and a half dismantled many trade union freedoms and social dialogue relationships. The new Labour Code is not only completely undermining workers&rsquo; ability to fight for just conditions in the workplace, but is now empowering companies to re-open old conflicts and punish trade union activists for actions taken under the previous legislation. 
 
ICEM affiliated unions were shocked to be informed at Congress of Japanese rubber conglomerate Bridgestone&rsquo;s move to initiate a penal procedure against Tam&aacute;s Sz&eacute;kely, president of VDSZ, the Hungarian chemical workers union. The case against the union president is focused on a 2009 report in the union journal &ldquo;Vegyipari Dolgoz&oacute;&rdquo; or &ldquo;Chemical Worker&rdquo; on the treatment of a company employee. 
<img src="" width="128" height="170" alt="" />
VDSZ President Tam&aacute;s Sz&eacute;kely
Tibor Skoflek suffered occupational health problems in the spring of 2009 and Bridgestone at the time rejected any responsibility for this. Local management even failed to supply transport to hospital for Tibor Skoflek, and he was taken by a bus driver. 
 
This is the first time in 20 years of Hungarian trade union work that a company initiates a penal procedure against a union leader with absolutely no negotiations or consultation beforehand. 
 
The clear policy of the Orb&aacute;n regime is to create fear among Hungarian workers so that they rescind trade union membership. 
 
The ICEM condemns in the strongest terms this crackdown on fundamental labour rights in Hungary, and specifically in this case against Tam&aacute;s Sz&eacute;kely, and will be exerting pressure at company and government levels.

Bridgestone Hungary forces the President of VDSZ to court

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
IG BCE together with Verdi, the service sector union of Germany, reached agreement in bargaining with German energy group RWE on 29 November on a 13 month deal for the company&rsquo;s 25,000 employees in Germany. The new deal provides a 2.7% salary increase from 1 December 2011, and sets out new talks on improving job security and trainee prospects. 
 
European utility provider RWE is the second largest energy producer in Germany. The issue of fair salaries at RWE has caused widespread discontent through the workforce in recent times. In January the ICEM reported on warning strikes of IG BCE members at RWE who were close to full strike action. (See the <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4216-German-Power-Workers-Close-to-Full-Dispute-with-RWE">ICEM report</a> here) More strikes were averted in January by a company offer of 3.4% salary improvement. Unions again threatened warning strikes in mid-November in the run up to settlement. This latest deal will see the union negotiating committee push for continued and better salary improvements in the collective agreement for 2013. 
 
A key achievement in this settlement was the binding agreement to open discussions in the second quarter of 2012 on the renewal of the Job Security Agreement, due to expire end of 2012, to safeguard jobs in the group. 
 
The union bargaining committee recommended the deal for adoption by the joint tariff committee.

German IG BCE Secures 2.7% Increase for 25,000 Energy Workers

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