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On 17-18 November, Finland&rsquo;s Transport Workers Union (AKT) imposed a two-day boycott on handling exports of all Stora Enso wood and paper products from Finland. The boycott occurred because the company allegedly told subcontractors at the Port of Kemi to refrain from signing labour agreements that are in line with the union&rsquo;s pay and benefits package. 
 
The union believes that all goods handled through ports should be done under terms of its labour agreement. Stora Enso insists on lower standards for sub-contract workers. AKT did the same action last summer at the Port of Kemi. 
 
On 17 and 18 November, unionised dockworkers were refusing to unload trains or trucks delivering wood and paper from Stora mills at Kotka and Hamina. Kotka is one of the bigger export points for the Finnish company&rsquo;s products. The Port of Kemi was not affected by last month&rsquo;s two-day boycott. 
 
In other Stora Enso news, the company has completed its mandatory social talks with trade unions at its Imatra and Anjalankoski operations, two mills included in the firm&rsquo;s most recent restructuring which has caused thousands of retrenchments. A total of 330 paperworkers will lose their jobs when paper machines and coating operations are shuttered in 2008. At Imatra&rsquo;s Tainionkoski mill two weeks ago, a worker was killed when he was squeezed inside a roll packing machine. 
 
In Germany, Stora&rsquo;s supervisory board made the decision a week ago to shut down a coated paper machine at the Kabel Mill and endorsed the company&rsquo;s September restructuring announcement that a containerboard machine would be shut at the Baienfurt mill. A total of 520 German jobs will be lost.

Finnish Port Workers Boycott Stora Enso Exports over Subcontractors’ Rights

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The last big pulp and paper employer in Canada&rsquo;s Western region agreed to the pattern labour agreement, as set by ICEM North American affiliate Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union. Some 2,000 workers of Catalyst Paper, the continent&rsquo;s second largest newsprint producer, are expected to agree to terms shortly in balloting at four worksites. 
 
That gives some 12,000 paperworkers in Canada&rsquo;s industry-battered West renewal labour agreements. The CEP still has to negotiate with some smaller pulp and paper employers in the West. The pattern was set when the region&rsquo;s largest pulp and papermaker &ndash; employment wise &ndash; Canfor Pulp Ltd. came to terms for total 10% wage increases over the four-year term of the pattern in early July. 

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That was followed by agreement at multiple mills by Howe Sound Pulp and Paper, Domtar Corp., Kruger Products, and West Fraser Timber Co. The pattern accord also contains significant benefit increases, craft trades allowances, and job security provisions, including good severance packages. 
 
&ldquo;During the tough economic times we are facing, maintaining this pattern across the Canadian West is an important victory,&rdquo; said CEP president Dave Coles. 
 
The CEP covers seven branch unions at Catalyst&rsquo;s four mill sites, Crofton, Powell River, Campbell River, and Port Alberni, all in the province of British Colombia. The agreement for pulp and paper firms operating in the West expired on 1 April 2008. A separate agreement covering 20,000 workers in Canada&rsquo;s East region expires on 1 April 2009.

Last Major Pact in Place for Western Canadian Paperworkers

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Job cuts caused by the financial meltdown are not uncommon. But in Zambia, mining companies are cutting some jobs and holding others hostage in an attempt to overturn higher taxes and payment of higher royalty fees. And they&rsquo;re citing the economic crisis for the job cuts, and threats of more job cuts have become common. 
 
Zambia&rsquo;s rich copper and cobalt reserves &ndash; as well as other minerals such as iron ore, manganese, and soon uranium &ndash; are primarily owned by companies composed of investor groups. 
 
In April 2008, Zambia government passed mineral royalty increases to 3% from 0.6%. The corporate tax rate increased from 25% to 30%. Since, foreign-based mining companies such as Canada&rsquo;s First Quantum Minerals, India&rsquo;s Vedanta Resouces, and others claim the country must revert to old development pacts when the Zambian Consolidated Copper Mines was divested, or further retrenchments will occur. The royalty and tax issue will be taken up in the courts. 

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The Chamber of Mines denied it was &ldquo;arm-twisting&rdquo; the government over jobs, and said dropping copper prices and the world recession was having an impact. The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions challenged the mining companies to stop using the economic crisis as the excuse for retrenchments. First Quantum, which holds huge cooper assets at Bwana Mkubwa and Kansanshi, and Chinese-based Chambisi Metals, owner of the biggest cobalt mine in Zambia, have recently sacked workers and cited the economic crisis. 
 
President Rupiah Panda, who took over for Levy Mwanawasa following his August death and was elected on 30 October, called on investors with mining stakes to engage in meaningful dialogue with the government and unions in order to prevent retrenchments. Mining investors have tentatively agreed to sit and talk. Meanwhile, Mines and Minerals Development Minister Maxwell Mwale has called for calm in the fierce public debate, falling just short of accusing certain mine industry players of creating panic. 
 
Central to the issue, however, is the question: should massive profits made in the recent past, when copper and mineral prices were at historic highs, have any bearing on jobs now? And Zambians ask: should it not be a matter of social responsibility to keep workers employed even in hard times? Now it is up to the Panda government to strike a social commitment deal with the many stakeholders that hold equity in the country&rsquo;s rich mineral grounds.

Job Cuts in Zambia’s Mining Industry Causing Aggravation

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The General Council of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has called on all Zimbabweans to remove their cash from banks on Wednesday, 3 December. Union heads, leading a march, will present a petition that same day to Gideon Gono, the Governor of Zimbabwe&rsquo;s Reserve Bank, which the International Monetary Fund says is bankrupt. 
 
In Zimbabwe, the government imposed a low cash withdrawal limit, and Wednesday&rsquo;s action by the ZCTU in six regions is expected to challenge that authority. The daily withdrawal limit from automatic tellers is now Z$500, equivalent to R1 South African, or &euro;.08. Gono said in a state-run newspaper recently that the low limits will reduce long queues outside banks. 

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The labour protest is meant not only as a stand against a clamp on banking, but it is against a number of larger issues, including Mugabe dictates giving preferential treatment to some shop owners to trade in foreign currencies. The masses in Zimbabweans are excluded from such shops, and regardless, they have little currency and no means to buy food, medicine, or the necessities of basic life, even if those essentials were on Zimbabwe&rsquo;s shelves. 
 
The ZCTU clearly made that point in making its &ldquo;cash availability&rdquo; announcement following its General Council meeting in Masvingo on 25 November. The union federation estimated that thousands of Zimbabweans have died in recent months simply from inability to buy available medicines. 
 
The ICEM extends support to the ZCTU for its heroic efforts aimed at improving life and bringing dignity to the people of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe Trade Union Congress Calls for Bank Run, 3 December

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Thousands of oil and gas workers held a rally on Thursday, 19 November, in continuation of strong protests against the decision to privatize the Qadirpur gas fields. The company, Oil &amp; Gas Development Company Ltd., will lose huge assets to foreign investors. The government is expecting to receive between US$3 and US$4 billion, whereas many commentators value the assets at more than US$12 billion.
The most recent rally was led by the OGDCL Labour Union President, Chaudry Mohammad Akram. &ldquo;The Qadirpur gas field is a profit-earning entity, making over US$182 million for the state each year, and its privatization will hurt the national interest,&rdquo; he said. 
 
Hundreds of workers in the Dhodhak oil fields staged a demonstration and blocked the Taunsa Sharif-Dera Ismail Khan road for four hours, while dozens of OGDCL workers from the Qadirpur fields staged hunger strikes, demanding that the government reverse the decision. 

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&ldquo;President Asif Ali Zardari should act upon the mission and policies of Ali Bhutto instead of following the policies of IMF-World Bank and the United States,&rdquo; said Badshah Khan Qaiserani, a manager at the Dhodhak oil and gas fields. 
 
Leader of the opposition political party JI, Liaqat Baloch, assured the demonstrators that political parties would support their cause. &ldquo;We will launch a massive countrywide political move if government fails to withdraw its privatization decision.&rdquo; 
 
The Pakistan Muslim League-N has also strongly opposed the move to privatize. Information Secretary, Ahsan Iqbal, described the Qadirpur gas fields as &ldquo;the spinal cord of the Pakistan economy. The country is already facing an energy crisis, this would further worsen the situation.&rdquo; 
 
Elsewhere in Pakistan, workers from WAPDA Hydro Electric Central Labour Union held a rally, demonstrating against recent price hikes, unemployment and lawlessness.

Workers in Pakistan Unite Against Oil, Gas Privatisation

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Fourteen Turkish trade unions, comprising the ICEM Coordinating Committee of Turkey, met in Ankara on 20 November and formulated an ambitious agenda related to union-building activities. 
 
Led by the ICEM Secretariat, Turkey&rsquo;s leading trade union officials agreed to an Organising and Social Dialogue Project, sponsored by the global arm of the Dutch national labour center, FNV Mondiaal; they agreed to launch a cross-border series of solidarity activities with Iraqi unions; and they agreed to begin a campaign on getting Turkey&rsquo;s government to ratify ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 
 
The meeting was hosted by Tes-İş, the Turkish Energy, Water, and Gas Workers&rsquo; Union, and chaired by Mustafa Kumlu, the union&rsquo;s President, who also serves on the ICEM Executive and is President of Turkish national labour center T&uuml;rk- İş. He addressed the negative effects brought on by the global financial crisis inside Turkey&rsquo;s industrial sectors. 

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Tes-İş President, Mustafa Kumlu
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan presented the two-year FNV Mondiaal project for Turkey and the necessity for ratification of Convention 176. Later, T&uuml;rkiye Maden-İş, the largest mining union in Turkey, agreed to lead the ratification effort. 
 
The project will consist of eight activities in which 500 trade unionists will come together to begin recruitment exercises, create proper workers&rsquo; representation systems within workplaces, and to develop techniques to establish constructive bargaining and social dialogue practices with employers. 
In Coordinating Committee business, Turkish union leaders decided to establish a technical committee to prepare background information to the full committee. Besides Tes-İş and T&uuml;rkiye Maden-İş, other trade unions participating included: &Ccedil;imse-İş, Cement, Ceramics, Pottery, and Glass Workers&rsquo; Union; Belediye- İş, the Municipal and General Workers&rsquo; Union; Petrol-İş, Oil and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union; Genel Maden-İş, representing Mine Workers; and Dev Maden-Sen, another union representing Mine Workers. 
 

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Participants at ICEM's Coordinating Committee
 
Also, Lastik-İş, Petroleum and Rubber Workers&rsquo; Union; ESM, or the Energy, Industry, and Mining Union of Public Employees; Sel&uuml;loz-İş, Pulp, Paper and Paper Products Union; Kristal-İş, Glass, Cement, Ceramic and Soil Workers&rsquo; Union; T&uuml;rk-Enerji-Sen, the Energy, Mine, Metal, Petroleum and Chemistry Branch Employees&rsquo; Union; T&uuml;mka-İş, the All Pulp and Paper Workers&rsquo; Union; and T&uuml;rk Tarim Orman-Sen, a Union of agricultural, forestry, and environmental services&rsquo; workers. 
 
The ICEM Secretariat delegation also received commitments from &Ccedil;imse-İş and Kristal-İş to co-host ICEM&rsquo;s 2009 World Conference for the Materials Industry. Also attending the Coordinating Committee meeting was Michael Mersmann, head of the International Department of German affiliated union, IGBCE.

ICEM’s Turkish Coordinating Committee Takes on Dutch Project

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The ICEM was saddened to learn comrade Vitaly Ivanovic Butko, Vice-President of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR), passed away on 4 January 2009. He was 59, and died from complications of an illness. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda sent a letter of condolence to Ivan Mohnachuk, President of the Russian Independent Coal Employees&rsquo; Union (Rosugleprof). &ldquo;We honour his important role in the establishment of democracy after the fall of the Soviet Union. We also remember him as a brilliant leader who made sure that the interests of the mineworkers were not neglected in the difficult years and many struggles of economic transition,&rdquo; stated Warda. That letter is <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Letter%20of%20condolence%20Vitaly%20Butko.pdf">here</a>. 

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Born in the city of Kemerevo, in the major coal mining region of the Kutnetsk Basin, 2,164 miles east of Moscow, Butko worked as a drift miner, a foreman, the trade union convener at the Kuzbas mine, and then as Chair of the Kuzbas Territorial TU Committee of the Coal Industry Workers&rsquo; Union of the USSR. From 1991 until 1998, Budko held the elected position of President of Rosugleprof. In 1998, he headed the Russian Federal Agency for Regulation of Natural Monopolies in Transportation. Since March 1999, he had worked as Vice President of FNPR. 
 
He will be remembered as an outstanding trade union leader, who dedicated his strength, experience and work to workers&rsquo; struggle.

ICEM Mourns Passing of Russian Trade Union Leader, Vitaly Butko

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Some 60,000 South Africans filled Absa Stadium in East London on 10 January for unveiling of the African National Congress&rsquo;s (ANC) 2009 election manifesto. And one of the main pieces of that five-year legislative plan &ndash; contained within a pledge to expand employment &ndash; is regulating the burgeoning number of labour brokers in the country. 
 
The manifesto cites an ANC mandate now to better regulate labour-hire agencies and short-term contract work. It states, &ldquo;to avoid exploitation of workers and ensure decent work for all workers as well as to protect the employment relationship, (the ANC will) introduce laws to regulate contract work, subcontracting, and outsourcing, address the problem of labour brokering, and prohibit certain abusive practices.&rdquo; 
 
The ANC&rsquo;s election platform is strong on labour and work rights, and clearly reflects the influence of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). The platform aims to generate jobs through creation of more labour-intensive production methods, as well as procurement policies that support local jobs. 

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The ANC intends to make the creation of decent work the central focus in all of the party&rsquo;s economic policies. The central points contained in the manifesto call for more public investment in infrastructure projects; expanding public employment; establishing assistance programmes in the fight against poverty; and introduction of a state-funded health insurance system. 
The manifesto was unveiled by ANC President Jacob Zuma, who called it a product of 15 years of ANC experience in governing South Africa. Zuma told those assembled in the stadium that South Africa would work earnestly to find solutions to the African continent&rsquo;s major flashpoints, from Zimbabwe to Somalia to the Democratic Republic of Congo. 
 
Parliamentarian elections in South Africa must be held by April, although no date has yet been set.

Curbing Labour Brokers Main Tenet of ANC Manifesto in South Africa

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A comprehensive study entitled &ldquo;Temporary Agency Work and Collective Bargaining in the EU&rdquo; expertly lays out the many differences in the 27-member union on laws and regulations, the broad shapes temporary work takes from country to country, and collects vital collective bargaining data on an issue that is the world&rsquo;s biggest threat to decent work. 
 
The study was compiled by surveying 28 national labour centres last March. It was done by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound). The research was done by Eurofound&rsquo;s European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO). 
 
The 48-page study can be found in pdf <a href="http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/docs/eiro/tn0807019s/tn0807019s.pdf">here</a>. 
The study charts agency work growth, country by country, from 2004 to 2007, both in numbers of workers and in revenue growth and it also graphs male, female ratios, and percentages in young and old workers. 

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Regarding laws relating to agency work, the study includes Norway&rsquo;s 1977 Work Environment Law as the earliest statute on the books in greater Europe. The late 1980s witnessed Belgium, Austria, and Portugal adopting statutes. Eurofound&rsquo;s study finds that today, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Malta are without clear legal frameworks. 
 
In Bulgaria, trade unions and businesses have sought a legal remedy for the triangular employment relationship, but disagreements on content in any proposed law has prevented passage both in 2006 and 2008. In Estonia and Lithuania, legislation is non-existent but there are licensing systems for agency labour firms. The study also points out that in Denmark, uniquely, strict regulation occurs inside the social dialogue process. The Danish model is considered by many to be the most evolved. 
 
In late October 2008, the European Parliament passed the Directive on Temporary Agency Work, premised on the principle of equal treatment for temporary workers. &ldquo;Temporary Agency Work and Collective Bargaining in the EU&rsquo;s&rdquo; value, clearly, can be found in the fact that this Directive allows countries to have exemptions or derogations, specifically with collective bargaining and social dialogue between partners. 
 
The study cites 10 countries that have umbrella employer associations which bargain collectively with trade unions on behalf of temp agency firms. All 10 are original EU member states. The study also says that, nearly without exception, there is not any role defined for collective bargaining in regulating temp work in the new member states. 
 
The survey of labour organisations cites 10 countries with having estimates of trade union density for agency workers. It ranges from Denmark (50%) and Finland (44%), to Slovenia (0.18%), France (0.9%), Italy (1.4-1.7%), to Austria and Luxembourg (5% each), and the Netherlands (17%). In Sweden, a difference is noted between white-collar (17%) and blue-collar (50%), the latter figure, the study says, &ldquo;might reflect higher exposure to trade unions in the user companies.&rdquo; 
 
The study notes that the CGT in France was the earliest to sign a collective agreement with a temp firm &ndash; Manpower in 1968 &ndash; and that all three Italian trade union organisations (CGIL, CISL, UIL) established, in the late 1990s, internal units to represent temporary workers. It says the trend now in most countries is for agency workers to join the trade union closest to their sector or job. 
The study contains scores of useful pieces of information, best characterising the broad effects the issue paints across all worklife in EU countries. In Austria and Germany, for instance, agency work is found more often in the blue-collar jobs of metalworking and manufacturing. In Finland, some two-thirds of agency workers are employed by firms for less than a year, with an average assignment of 94 days. In Denmark, 13% of the government&rsquo;s &ldquo;work and stay&rdquo; permissions since 2004 have been granted to east Europeans hired through labour agencies. Temporary workers in France have the shortest average work lengths, 1.9 weeks, while in the UK, one in five agency workers have been on a single job&nbsp;for an average of&nbsp;18 months. 
 
Eurofound&rsquo;s 2008 study compilation, done by its EIRO research arm, is a valuable document in terms of developing a substantive view on the effects and proliferation of agency labour in Europe.

Temp Agency Work in EU Clearly Defined in Eurofound Study

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Representatives of the ICEM affiliate, Associated Mineworkers Union of Zimbabwe (AMWZ), will meet with the Chamber of Mines on Thursday 15 January, to put forward their demand to be paid in United States dollars instead of local currency. 
 
Workers are ready to down tools if they receive their next salary payment in Zimbabwe dollars. &ldquo;Mineworkers are reeling in poverty and are starving because they are being paid in local currency when almost everything is being charged in US dollars,&rdquo; stated AMWZ president Tinago Ruzive. &ldquo;The situation is quite bad. If we are not paid in United States dollars, we will go on a collective job action.&rdquo; 

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The mining industry in Zimbabwe is in a near-critical condition, especially in the gold sector where the Reserve Bank is said to owe miners at least US$30 million backdated to 2007. Mining industry management has called the union&rsquo;s ultimatum irrational and unrealistic, considering the current crisis. Ruzive responded, arguing that workers have the right to a decent wage. 
 
Salaries in the local currency do not represent a decent wage as it is no longer being accepted for commercial purposes. This near total dollarization of the economy has rendered the local currency virtuously worthless. 
 
Should the miners decide to strike, they will join the country&rsquo;s teachers and nurses who have been on strike since late 2008.

Zimbabwean Miners Demand Payment in US Dollars

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