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With the United Steelworkers (USW) currently voting local-by-local on adoption of a US National Oil Bargaining Policy, one thing is certain when talks with oil refiners get underway early in 2012: union-initiated process safety improvements will lead the agenda. 
 
Some 300 local USW leaders convened in Dallas, Texas, in late September and adopted a bargaining policy. That policy is now up for ratification by USW branch unions representing oil workers and once 75% of local unions agree, the agenda will be tabled when bargaining begins early in 2012. A current three-year labour agreement between USW and a majority of US downstream oil and petrochemical employers expires 1 February 2012. 
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Gary Beevers
USW Vice President Gary Beevers, who heads the sector, said achieving process safety will be the main issue in this round of talks. &ldquo;We must have meaningful and enforceable safety provisions if we are going to save lives, and we are prepared to strike, if necessary, to get that,&rdquo; said Beevers, an ICEM Executive Committee member. 
 
Process safety refers to a safe and functioning engineering and management controls system that prevents explosions, fires, and toxic releases caused by the highly hazardous chemicals used in refining. USW will strive to get a union-trained safety specialist in each of the 69 refineries where it represents workers as part of that process safety system. 
 
The USW reports that during the term of the current labour agreement, up through early September 2011, there were 131 reported fires in US refineries, about one per week. The USW lost seven union members, including some who were Local 12-591 leaders, in the deadly 2 April 2010 explosion at Tesoro Corp.&rsquo;s Anacortes, Washington, refinery. 
 
The Tesoro explosion was caused by a heat exchanger in a naphtha unit that blew apart due to cracks in a welded area, an obvious flaw in process safety. The Washington State Department of Labour and Industry determined that the Texas-based company failed to test equipment for cracks and fined Tesoro US$2.39 million, a fine the company appealed. 
 
The USW represents 30,000 workers at a total of 168 production, refining, marketing, transportation, and pipeline installations, and its membership in the US&rsquo;s 69 oil and petrochemical refineries gives it representation covering 64% of all workers in the US downstream sector. 
 
Oil bargaining in the US is termed pattern bargaining in which USW selects a lead company to negotiate with and then those terms are presented and expected to be accepted by other companies. Traditionally, the USW and its predecessor unions have selected Royal Dutch Shell as the lead company.

Safety Central Issue in Upcoming US Downstream Oil Talks

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Over 200 Global Mining and Maritime trade unions representing millions of workers around the world met in Durban, South Africa at the fourth International Mining and Maritime Conference. The conference has previously been held in Australia and the USA and was being held for the first time in Africa. The conference was hosted by the South African Trade Unions participating in the initiative. These Trade Unions are NUM, SATAWU, and CEPPWAWU. Most of the National Unions participating in the Mining and Maritime initiative are affiliates of the ICEM and participate in their individual capacities. The Mining and Maritime initiative is an independent loose alliance of national trade unions across the globe in the Mining and Maritime value chain, committed to global solidarity across the value chain of the Mining and Maritime industries. 
 
Intensive deliberations were held over three days of the conference on a wide range of issues across the mining and maritime value chain. A declaration was adopted at the end of the conference that commits the initiative to a plan of action in the next three years before the next conference. 
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Unlike previous conferences, the Durban conference reflected the influence and articulation of African Trade Union issues and agenda and this was extensively covered in the Declaration. Noteworthy in the declaration was the establishment of a truest fund to support the SATAWU initiative to recognize, albeit posthumously, Akhona Geveza, a victim of sexual assault and murder in the workplace, while on a Maritime scholarship in Australia 
 
The ICEM President, Senzeni Zokwana opened the conference and ICEM General Secretary, Manfred Warda, was one of the key note speakers at the conference. Both leaders gave the assurance of the ICEM&rsquo;s support for the initiative&rsquo;s solidarity campaigns and programmes. 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s Mining Officer, Glen Mpufane gave a presentation on the State of the Current Global Extractive Resources Industries, which was well received by the conference delegates. The Chairperson of the Initiative, Mick Doleman, recognized the presentation as an invaluable resource material for the Mining and Maritime. 
 
Conference delegates declared continued support for the global campaign for Los Mineros in Mexico, development of a global network of unions at mining multinational Vale, and to reenergise the Rio Tinto global network. The declaration prioritised the fight for women&rsquo;s rights and participation. Specific support was pledged to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 21 in their fight for good jobs at EGT Development&rsquo;s grain terminal in the Port of Longview, Washington, USA. EGT Development is a joint venture of Japan-based Itochu Corp, South Korea&rsquo;s STX Pan Ocean and Bunge North America. The ILWU President Robert McEllrath surrendered himself on 26 September to authorities, as police abuse their powers to harass the Longview strikers. McEllrath was arrested on the same day as another ICEM North American trade union leader, Dave Coles of the CEP in Canada was arrested on Parliament Hill, Ottawa during a protest against the Keystone XL pipeline.

Mining and Maritime: Durban, South Africa 5-7 October 2011

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Former ICEM Sub-Sahara Africa Regional Organisation (SSARO) Chairman Rayford Mbulu was named on 1 October to be Deputy Minister for Labour, Sport, Youth and Gender in Zambia. He enters the new government of Michael Sata and the Patriotic Front Party (PF), which won Zambian elections on 23 September. 
 
Mbulu takes the government posting along with the head of the reconstituted Labour Ministry, Fackson Shamenda, former President of the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and once the African Regional Secretary of Global Union Federation Uni. 
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Rayford Mbulu
Mbulu is past President of the Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Zambia (MUZ), a position he was elected to in 2005 after serving as MUZ Deputy General Secretary in 2004. He left the MUZ late last year after challenging for the presidency of ZCTU. On the day of the election, he was disqualified by the Labour Minister under the previous Movement for Multiparty Democracy Party after his mining employer, state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM), terminated his employment. 
 
Mbulu worked for many years at ZCCM&rsquo;s Nkana Division. He served as ICEM&rsquo;s SSARO Chairman from 2007 until his resignation in March 2011. Mbulu also becomes a Member of Zambia&rsquo;s Parliament from the Kalululushi constituency in the Copperbelt. 
 
On his swearing-in, Labour, Sports, Culture and Gender Minister Shamenda said the PF leadership would work to raise the minimum wage, reduce casualisation of employment, and strive to get better working conditions for all Zambians. President Sata reduced the number of government ministries from 23 to 19, combining some ministries including Sports, Culture and Gender with Labour.

Rayford Mbulu Named Deputy Labour Minister in Zambia

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A branch union of the ICEM-affiliated National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (FNTMMSP) of Peru is continuing its struggle for a decent new collective agreement at the Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde copper and molybdenum mine in southern Arequipa region. For the first time in the 40 year history of the mine, national government declared industrial action to be legal, as all 1,220 FNTMMSP members downed tools on 29 September for indefinite strike action. 
 
The legal status for the strike means the ministry of labour will arbitrate negotiations, with both sides meeting this afternoon, Monday, for talks. Striking miners are being replaced with 600 scabs and management staff in company efforts to continue production, breaching Peruvian labour law. If company negotiators continue to push regressive proposals, the union will demand the government and Congress send labour inspectors to determine operations are in line with regulations. This would paralyse all production. The branch union general secretary Leoncio Amudio Pe&ntilde;a alerted labour authorities to the pending request for inspections on 8 October. 
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Cerro Verde is offering workers a rise of less than US$1 per day, whereas the union seeks US$3. Local management also wants to replace future salary increases with a production bonus. As well as improved wages, strikers are demanding improved working conditions and better health and safety conditions. Branch general secretary Pe&ntilde;a reports that the company only offers solutions to 4 out of 40 union demands. Union and management positions are also far apart on the length of the agreement, with the union wanting a one-year duration and the company originally seeking 5 years, now 3. The previous agreement which expired 31 August was 3-year, but that was extended as a one off in exchange for company concessions. 
 
The strike was preceded by a 48-hour work stoppage in early September and an indefinite strike mid-September that was suspended due to a technicality making it illegal. 
 
Cerro Verde produced 312,336 tonnes of copper in 2010, 2% of the world&rsquo;s copper creating a net profit of US$1.05 billion. The open-pit mine is owned by US-based Freeport-McMoRan (53.7%), SMM Cerro Verde Nederlands (21%), a unit of the Japanese Sumitomo Corp., and Peru-based Compania de Minas Buenaventura (19.3%). Mining profits are soaring on global markets due to increased metals prices, with massively increased profit margins not shared with workers.

Peruvian Cerro Verde Miners Launch Legal Indefinite Strike

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Several hundred garment workers conducted a hunger strike in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka on 29 September, demanding payment of outstanding wages and allowances of workers at five garment factories. Protestors also sought legal compensation for dismissed workers from four garment factories. The pressure exerted achieved payment of the moneys owed by some, but not all of the employers. 
 
The strike was organised by the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF), a highly active member trade union of the International Textile, Garment &amp; Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF). The hunger strike action was followed by the submission of a memorandum to the Ministry of Labour by a five-member delegation led by NGWF General Secretary Ms Safia Parveen. The memorandum called for immediate government intervention. 
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Each of the five garment factory employers had failed to pay wages since July, with overtime and other payments also outstanding. This affected 900 workers at S Nahar Garments of Kawran Bazar in Dhaka city, 200 workers at Bristi Garments of Tikatuli, 200 workers work in Jas Fashion of the Dab Star group in Arambagh, 1000 workers of Reo Fashion of the Dab Star Group also in Arambagh, and 350 workers at Millennium Garments of Tikatuli. Following the protest, Bristi, Jas, Reo, and Millenium groups made the payments, with Nahar promising to pay by today. 
 
Protestors also called on the government to intervene in the struggle for compensation to illegally dismissed workers of four garment factories, 97 at Benson Apparels of Tejgaon, 30 at Riz Fashion of Matuail, 25 at Aditi Apparels of Mirpur, and 45 at Bristi Garments. All saw their jobs disappear in cost cutting efforts over the last two years. Bristi has since paid, while Aditi promised to make payments by today. 
 
Focus now concentrates on Benson and Riz fashion. 
 
Speakers called for more action from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) to whom the NGWF submitted a grievance on 15 July. See prior <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4557-Bangladesh-Garment-Workers-Take-Hunger-Strike-Actions-over-Delinquent-Employers">ICEM report</a>.&nbsp; 
 
NGWF President Amirul Haque Amin presided over the hunger strike. Speakers included, Coordinator of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Unity Council Salauddin Swapan, General Secretary of the Bangladesh Garment Trade Union Centre Ruhul Amin, NGWF leaders Ms Safia Parveen, Mohammad Faruk Khan, Mrs Sultana Aktar, Mohammad Kabir, workers&rsquo; representatives of the affective factories spoke on the occasion, and Harun Chowdhury of the Bangladeshi Communist Party.

Bangladeshi Garment Workers’ Hunger Strike Achieves Owed Wages

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The ICEM expressed outrage and condemned the cold-blooded assassination on 26 September of a Colombian contract worker who was working with affiliate Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera (USO) to bring trade union rights to temporary workers at Ecopetrol&rsquo;s Barrancabermeja refining and petrochemicals complex in the Santander department. 
 
Isidro Rivera Barrera, 45, was repairing a washing machine in front of his home in Barrancabermeja when a gunman jumped off the back of a motorcycle and shot him three times at point-blank range. The assassin and accomplice then escaped on the high-powered motorcycle. 
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In a press statement on the killing, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, &ldquo;This cowardly act again reminds us that Colombia is a deadly country for those exercising freedom of association and free speech rights. We reiterate our trade union affiliate USO&rsquo;s call that Colombia&rsquo;s public prosecution office uses all means to apprehend and prosecute the criminals and masterminds behind this heinous crime.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM also called on Ecopetrol, its major contractor at Barrancabermeja, Foster Wheeler AG, and all other sub-contractors to ensure the security of all oil industry workers in the city. The ICEM further called on 90% state-owned Ecopetrol and its contractors to create workplace climates where freedom of association and rights to join unions and bargain collectively are considered common civil liberties. 
 
Isidro Rivera was shot twice in the shoulder and once in the throat. He died within minutes of the shooting, slumped across the chair he was working on and in front of neighbours who came running after hearing the shots. Isidro Rivera was a recognised union member by Ecopetrol who was attempting to spread the trade union message to contract workers inside Colombia&rsquo;s biggest downstream oil and petrochemical facilities. He is survived by three children.

Leader of Contract Workers Struggle in Colombia Assassinated

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An agreement was reached 29 September between Lafarge and the French Central Works Council regarding the Frangey cement plant in the L&rsquo;Yonne province of Burgundy. The compromise agreement ended a ten-day hunger strike at Lafarge offices in the Paris suburbs by 12 workers plus the mayor of the nearest town to the plant, L&eacute;zinnes. 
 
Mayor Jean-Claude Galaud joined protesting workers in the hunger strike on 19 September. Workers and community members alike were fighting to reverse Lafarge&rsquo;s decision from last May to entirely close the 74-worker cement plant. In social dialogue on 29 September, Frangey workers submitted three proposals through the Works Council to group management while hunger strikers were visible outside Lafarge headquarters in Saint-Cloud. 
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In the days before, French trade unions CFDT and CGT were also conducting stop-work actions at 14 Lafarge cement plants in support of Frangey&rsquo;s 74 workers. 
 
The proposal that was agreed to includes extending the life of the plant from November 2011 to 31 March 2012, and then maintaining it as a grinding operation thereafter with an employment level of 40. That will include 35 workers plus five others who are within a few years of retirement. 
 
Lafarge will then seek to sell the grinding operation to another company for continued production. The workers who will be made redundant next year will be offered severance packages and jobs at other Lafarge plants in France. 
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The hunger strikers were treated as heroes when they returned to L&eacute;zinnes by bus in the early morning hours of 30 September. Fellow workers and towns-people greeted them with celebratory hugs and kisses. The hunger strikers lost on average between seven and ten kilos, but their day-to-day protests captured the attention of French politicians and many citizens. 
 
Mayor Galaud described the ordeal as a tough battle, but to keep industrial work at the Frangey plant at some level was a victory. &ldquo;This action created strong bonds between the (hunger strikers),&rdquo; said Galaud. &ldquo;I made 12 friends and it was an incredible life lesson.&rdquo; 
 
CFDT union leader Laurent Carrilero said the actions across France, as well as the hunger strike made it possible to guarantee substantial severance deals for workers who will be laid off next year. Previous ICEM coverage of this story can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4676-Hunger-Strikers-Protest-Lafarge-s-French-Cement-Plant-Closing">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4466-French-Unions-Conduct-4-Hour-Strike-at-Lafarge-Today ">here</a>.&nbsp;

Lafarge Closure Deal Reached for French Workers at Frangey

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The Sixth Ordinary Congress of the Norwegian union Fellesforbundet is underway in Oslo with 465 delegates attending. The quadrennial Congress began on 7 October under the banner &ldquo;Organising for Welfare and Wealth Creation,&rdquo; and concludes with votes on a host of resolutions on 12 October. 
 
On the opening day, delegates approved a transfer of 7.5 million kroner (&euro;1 million) to the youth wing of Norway&rsquo;s Labour Party to rebuild Ut&oslash;ya Island. 
 
Deeded to the youth wing by Norwegian national labour centre LO in the 1980s, Ut&oslash;ya is the fateful place where on 22 July a racially motivated person killed 69 mostly young progressive Norwegians. In 2010, Fellesforbundet sold two summer camps in the Nordic nation and delegates moved to donate the proceeds from that to rebuild Ut&oslash;ya. LO Norway is trying to raise at least 15 million kroner to remake the island to reflect the inclusiveness of traditional Norwegian values. 
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Arve Bakke, left, with Jyrki Raina, Finn Erik Thoreson, and Liv T&oslash;rres following &lsquo;Trade Unions and the World&rsquo; forum
The Congress is taking up a number of structural changes, including statutory ones. One that was passed is another major step in the evolution of the 23-year-old union from a collection of work-based sectors to a unified and cohesive trade union federation. 
 
Instead of a 12-member executive body of five leading officers and seven federal secretaries heading around work sectors, delegates eliminated the specific occupation sectors and formed a seven-member executive. Early today, Arve Bakke was re-elected President of Fellesforbundet, or the United Federation of Norwegian Workers. 
 
Another statutory change that has been debated and will be voted on this week is returning a greater portion of the union&rsquo;s return on equity to local branches. A major policy change also up for a vote is revising the collective bargaining structure to a vertical system in order to strive for a single collective agreement across an entire company covering workers of all unions within a company. 
 
Delegates are expected to turn down a resolution asking the Norwegian government to adopt the European Union&rsquo;s directive on temporary work. Norway is not a member of the EU, but has adopted many of its directives. 
<img alt="" src="" width="240" height="160" />
Photo: Morten M. L&oslash;berg
On Sunday, 9 October, the Congress conducted a session &ldquo;Trade Unions and the World&rdquo; that featured the importance of work in the developing world. The session served as a precursor for a resolution in support of creation of a Palestinian state. It included Norwegian Peoples&rsquo; Aid leaders Liv T&oslash;rres and Finn Erik Thoresen, and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation&rsquo;s Jyrki Raina. 
 
Tomorrow, 11 October, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will spend a half day with delegates, addressing the Congress and then fielding questions and listening to debate. 
 
In his opening comments to the Congress, Arve Bakke said the 153,000-member union has taken in 73,000 new members in the past four-year Congress period, but is 7,000 less members than it was in 2007 mostly due to the effects of the global financial crisis. One positive note, he reported, is that 23% of active members are under the age of 30. 
 
Fellesforbundet was born in 1988 as an amalgamation of trade unions from the paper, wood, forestry, building construction, textile, and metal sectors. In 2005, unions from inside the printing and hotel and restaurant industries joined.

Fellesforbundet Takes Meaningful Action to Rebuild Norway’s Utøya Island

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Today in Belgrade, the ICEM affiliate Federation of Chemical, Non-Metal, Energy and Mining Trade Union will lead a joint main board meeting with two other Serbian unions on the final stages of a three-way merger. The 40,000-member ICEM affiliate will be joined by the Trade Union of Metalworkers and the Textile, Leather and Shoe Workers&rsquo; Union in an effort to create a single entity with strong growth prospects in the Central European nation. 
 
The new labour organisation is expected to be called the Trade Union of Industry and Energy and an integration Congress will be held in early May 2012. The 2,000-member Metalworkers&rsquo; union was weakened by a split in that organisation in 2010 and the Textile, Leather Union, numbering now only 1,000 dues-paying members, has been plagued by operational difficulties. 
 
Today&rsquo;s meeting is expected to set an agenda in which the two smaller unions will operate as boards of the Chemical, Non-Metal, Energy and Mining Trade Union until next year&rsquo;s merger. Zoran Stojanovic of the ICEM affiliate said the action plan being developed calls for a merged union to actively organise and provide updated services to Serbian industrial workers, particularly in the different energy sectors.

Serbia’s Chemicals, Metal, Textile/Leather Unions Set Agenda for Merger

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The North American Cement and Building Materials Union Network (NACBMUN) met at the headquarters of the United Steelworkers (USW) in the US city of Pittsburgh on 20-21 October. This third network meeting was co-chaired by Steve Brady, Chair of the USW Cement Conference, and Jim Pressley, Vice President of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB). 
 
The main activity of the network, created in 2008, is information exchange via a collective bargaining database, which includes full analysis of each collective agreement in the cement and building products sector. The database is updated annually. Six managers from Lafarge, Cemex&rsquo;s St. Mary&rsquo;s Cement, Essroc were invited to receive a report on business trends and human resource issues. 
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Phee Jungsun, ICEM Materials Industries&rsquo; Officer, presented an industry report and explained the new global labour instruments on protection of trade union rights in supply chains, including the revised OECD Guidelines and the UN Governing Principles on Business and Human Rights. Ongoing labour disputes at Holcim Cement in India and in Guatemala, and a global action plan to combat Holcim&rsquo;s unfair labour practices were reported. 
 
The network extended full solidarity support to contract workers at Holcim&rsquo;s Ambuja Cement in India, who have long been fighting for the right to join a union and to bargain collectively. 
 
The meeting discussed a plan to regularly conduct social dialogue with human resource managers, and participants agreed to extend the dialogue agenda to cover comprehensive subjects including subcontracting and union work along supply chains. A plan on a common organizing drive at unorganized workplaces is set as the main agenda item for a 2012 network meeting, to be held in Canada.

North American Cement, Building Materials Network Meets in Pittsburgh

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