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The ICEM Secretariat was stricken with grief on 4 April upon learning of the death of Liv Undheim, former Vice President of Norwegian trade union affiliate IndustriEnergi (IE). Liv Undheim died at 07h00 that morning in an Oslo hospital after a period of illness. She was 61. 
 
She was an ICEM Vice President, representing the Nordic region, and had served on ICEM statutory bodies for the past 20 years, dating to her tenure as an officer of Norsk Kjemisk Forbund, the Norwegian Chemical Workers&rsquo; Association. She was the driving force inside ICEM in the development of gender equality and women&rsquo;s activities. 
 
In a letter to IE President Leif Sande, General Secretary Manfred Warda said her advocacy in this regard made the ICEM a leading Global Union Federation on gender issues. 
 
She began working in an industrial setting in the late 1960s at Figgjo AS, a ceramics and pottery manufacturer near Stavanger. She then became a federal secretary of the Chemical Workers&rsquo; Association and served in that capacity for nine years before being elected organisation secretary of the Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions (LO). In that capacity in 1997, she also became deputy minister with responsibility for energy issues. 
 
In 2001, she became Vice President of the Chemical Workers&rsquo; Association and in 2006, upon the merger of that union with the Norwegian Oil and Petrochemicals Workers&rsquo; Federation (NOPEF), she was elected Vice President of IE. She retired in October 2010 but retained the exemplary role she always performed as IE&rsquo;s head of international affairs.
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She also had served on a number of boards and public bodies, including the research institute FAFO, Norway&rsquo;s Labour Directorate, the Labour Inspection Authority, and many others. 
 
She was diagnosed with cancer several months ago and in February 2011 was stricken and hospitalised with pneumonia, which prevented cancer treatment. The ICEM&rsquo;s Warda said she always delivered a great deal of energy and passion to global trade union work, and &ldquo;we held hope that this same energy and passion would allow her to overcome this illness.&rdquo; 
 
He added: &ldquo;Her passing at the age of 61 is a sad moment for us here. The extraordinary work she performed for the ICEM &ndash; and for all trade unions &ndash; will carry on in her honour. We pledge to re-dedicate the many workers&rsquo; issues that she championed in her memory.&rdquo; 
 
In a statement this week from Oslo, IE President Sande said, &ldquo;Following her long and devoted service to the labour union movement we all felt with all our hearts that Liv had deserved a long and pleasant retirement together with her dear Elisabeth. The holiday to Thailand was booked and she was looking forward to spending her time reading, travelling and generally enjoying life. Instead she was struck down with cancer, having to spend her last days in a hospital. It seems so unfair. She will be deeply missed.&rdquo;
Liv Undheim's funeral will be 14 April in Oslo. Following, a memorial and commemoration of her life will be held at&nbsp;IE's offices&nbsp;there.&nbsp;

ICEM Mourns Death of Presidium Member Liv Undheim

Today, 15 March, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers&rsquo; Union (ICEM), the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) and their Norwegian affiliated trade unions, Fellesforbundet and IndustriEnergi (IE) signed a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with Norsk Hydro ASA in Oslo. 
 
The agreement covers provisions of freedom of association and collective bargaining rights, discrimination, forced labour, child labour, health and safety, wages, working conditions, employment conditions, skills training, HIV/AIDS, and environmental conditions, referencing the standards established by the core labour conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
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From left to right: Arve Bakke, Fellesforbundet President, Jyrki Raina, IMF General Secretary, Wenche Agerup, Norsk Hydro Executive Vice-President, Corporate Staff, Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary, Leif Sande, IndustriEnergi President
Norske Hydro was established more than 100 years ago and today is a leading global supplier of aluminum products and energy solutions. The Hydro companies have a total of 23,000 workers in more than 40 countries worldwide. The production facilities are mainly located in Europe, North America, Australia, and Qatar. 
 
In addition to the agreement, the parties agreed to establish a working group on the US legislation and US practices related to freedom of association and collective bargaining rights. The conclusions of this group&rsquo;s work will provide a basis for revision of the GFA in 2012. 
<img alt="" src="" width="246" height="188" />
Arve Bakke, Jyrki Raina,&nbsp;Wenche Agerup,&nbsp;Manfred Warda,&nbsp;Leif Sande
The parties also committed to work together to build an open channel of network which ensures implementation of the GFA in all Hydro workplaces. 
 
A copy of the agreement in English can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/1103.%20Norsk%20Hydro%20GFA.%20with%20signatures.3.pdf">here</a>. 
 
For further information, contact ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin (<a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>), +41 22 304 1842, +41 79 734 8994 (mobile); or IMF Communications Director Anita Gardner (<a href="mailto:agardner@imfmetal.org">agardner@imfmetal.org</a>), +41 22 308 5032.

ICEM, IMF, Norwegian Unions Sign Global Social Accord with Norsk Hydro

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ICEM&rsquo;s affiliated mining union Sintracarb&oacute;n is calling for pressure to be increased local management of food multination Aramark, to follow their legal requirement and enter into bargaining with the newly formed union. 
 
The 90 workers at Aramark formed a branch of the national Colombian union of food workers, SINAILTRAINAL on 21 February, elected the leadership, and drafted and approved the list of demands which was presented to management the following day, 22 February. 
 
Colombian labour law requires the employer to respond and enter bargaining with the nascent union within five days. This step has not been taken by local Aramark management. 
 
The absence of any mechanism for industrial relations at the contractor had lead workers to frustration on salary, and shift scheduling especially. 
 
Sintracarb&oacute;n has escalated its campaign to organise outsourced workers at Cerrej&oacute;n over the last two years, following a congress vote to change the organisation&rsquo;s statutes and allow inclusion of outsourced workers.

Organised Outsourced Cerrejón Food Workers’ Call for Bargaining Ignored

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The formation of a strike committee by ICEM-affiliated Federation of Chemical, Energy, and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (VDSZ) at Hankook Tyre Magyarorsz&aacute;g Kft. in Hungary prompted the Korean-based company to increase wage rates by an average of 8%. 
 
That happened last week, after the VDSZ Tyre Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union threatened strike action ten days earlier on 3 March. They did so because management had failed to raise salaries to compensate for Hungarian tax changes that went into effect 1 January. 
 
Some 1,700 workers at the 1,800 workforce will receive an average 8% pay hike retroactive to 1 January. In addition, workers will receive HUF 20,000 (&euro;73.40) yearly in non-wage benefits. Hungary&rsquo;s National Interest Conciliation Council was recommending 4-6% increases to offset the tax change. 
<img alt="" src="" width="166" height="221" />
VDSZ President Tam&aacute;s Sz&eacute;kely
The average 8% wage increase surprised many due to the negative labour climate made by Hankook since opening the R&aacute;calm&aacute;s factory near Dunaujv&aacute;ros in 2007. Only last year, Hankook Tyre Magyarorsz&aacute;g was fined by the Hungarian Labour Inspectorate for obstructing VDSZ&rsquo;s legitimate duties of representation inside the plant. And shortly after production began in 2007, Hankook was charged or found guilty of non-payment of overtime remuneration, forcing a six-day work-week, making work mandatory on public holidays, and interrogating workers over their lawful union activities. 
 
Hankook, 10% owned by French Michelin, is the world&rsquo;s seventh largest tyre producer, capable of making 87 million tyres a year from five plants &ndash; the Guemsan and Daejeon factories in Korea, the Jiaxing and Jiangsu plants in China, and R&aacute;calm&aacute;s in Hungary. It is expected to jump to the world&rsquo;s fifth biggest producer after factory start-ups in Liang Jiang, Chongqing province, China, and the Bekasi, Java, Indonesia, over the next few years.

Hankook Tyre Averts Hungary Strike with Pay Rise

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The mineworkers of Collahuasi, Chile, won a heroic strike dispute in November, December 2010, against the third largest copper miner. Now local management is taking legal action in an attempt to crush the union. The 32-day strike was the longest ever in Chile&rsquo;s private copper sector. 
 
Settlement, accepted by a 521-398 vote on 6 December, gave 1,551 miners a 16.3% wage increase and a bonus of US$25,160, as well as other advances in housing, education, and health. Union President Manuel Mu&ntilde;oz said at the time that the contract&rsquo;s outcome would increase monthly benefits by 120,000 pesos, or US$252 per month. 
<img alt="" src="" width="224" height="149" />
Collahuasi miners, during the strike
This price has clearly been deemed too expensive by management, whose courtroom attack of last week will make it very difficult for the current leadership of the union to continue effectively representing workers. The employer posted net profits in 2009 of US$1.56 billion. 
 
The company&rsquo;s criminal charge against union leaders Manuel Mu&ntilde;oz, Juan Barraza, Loncol Espinoza, Victor Cubillos, Cristian Arancibia, Carlos Rojas, and Jaqueline Cerda, argues that under articles 417 and 418 of Chile&rsquo;s penal code, these trade unionists are guilty of libel against the company for statements made during last year&rsquo;s dispute in the May Six Atipa&ntilde;a newspaper online and in print, and should all serve three years in prison. 
 
The Collahuasi copper mine, in the Atacama Desert of Chile&rsquo;s northern Region I, some 285 kilometres from the port city of Iquique, is jointly owned by multinationals Xtrata and AngloAmerica, each with a 44% stake. The remaining 12% is owned by Japan&rsquo;s Mitsui. 
 
The hypocrisy of the charges is highlighted by the strong smear campaign that the company conducted in the media during the conflict, and the illegal offers of bribes to workers to leave the union, both strategies clearly against the law.

Chile Miners Attacked with Flawed Libel Case

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The Thai Industrial Gases Labour Union (TIGLU), part of ICEM affiliate Petroleum and Chemicals Workers&rsquo; Federation of Thailand (PCFT), continues efforts to cement trade union rights for workers who supply industrial gases to the manufacturing and food sectors. The ICEM continues to provide support to what is a courageous and uphill struggle against intransigent employers. 
 
The union is currently engaged on two fronts with multinational companies: German-based Linde and French-based Air Liquide. At both, the union is fighting for reinstatement of workers who have been fired for exhibiting trade union activism. 
 
At Linde, TIGLU is approaching the expiration of a 21-month collective agreement at a plant in Saraburi province. That contract&rsquo;s expiry is in a week&rsquo;s time, on 21 March. Although the two sides are negotiating, proposals by the union relate to information demands, hiring agency workers into full-time jobs, and retuning union activist Wasan Ruengloikham to his rightful job. Linde Thailand seeks to eliminate union involvement clauses that were successfully won in 2008. 
<img alt="" src="" width="358" height="190" />
TIGLU members at Air Liquide
TIGLU wants managers to utilise Linde&rsquo;s &ldquo;Golden Rule&rdquo; corporate responsibility language to address the sacking of Wasan Ruengloikham in common dialogue with the union. Ruengloikham was sacked on23 September 2010. 
 
The union is also demanding paternity leave, and full-time employment for agency workers and three-year tank-truck drivers Pornpitsanu Puenpha and Surachai Singpasta. 
 
Upon receiving the union&rsquo;s proposals, managers at the Talan plant submitted their own contract-gutting demands. Linde Thailand seeks to cancel a clause that allows union participation in disciplinary actions, and it seeks to void contract language that allows for company facilitation of six hours per year of education on workers&rsquo; rights for all staff. 
<img alt="" src="" width="150" height="186" />
Wasan Ruengloikham
At Air Liquide&rsquo;s Nong-kae plant, also in Saraburi province, one month ago five trade union leaders were given the sack over hideous &ldquo;causing disturbance&rdquo; allegations. The matter was due for a hearing at the provincial Labour Ministry on 11 March, at the request of Air Liquide&rsquo;s Nong-kae managers. But just minutes before the session was to begin, management sent a fax stating they would not attend and the five would remain discharged. 
 
The ICEM takes deep exception to this conduct. On 15 February, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda personally intervened with local managers, calling them out for violating Air Liquide&rsquo;s global values. Specifically, the ICEM cited Air Liquide social responsibility code that its enterprises &ldquo;commit to encouraging and respecting social dialogue&rdquo; and the &ldquo;respect for human rights and enforce respect for the dignity of their employees.&rdquo; Review the <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/7.ICEM.Air%20Liquide.Thailand.pdf">full letter</a> here. 
 
The ICEM will continue to monitor the negotiations at Linde, as well as work to rectify Air Liquide&rsquo;s harmful social conduct in eastern Thailand.

Thai Union at Odds with Linde in Talks; Dispute Air Liquide’s Sackings

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Spring sunshine shone on March 2, 2011 as an unprecedented crowd, estimated by organisers at 70, 000 people, gathered in the central Inonu Square in the old part of Nicosia and at the nearby Kyrenia Gate at the north of the circular city wall. This was by far the largest of a number of recent demonstrations organised by the trade union movement in the north of this divided island. It was also largely peaceful with the police and military taking a low profile in comparison to earlier demonstrations. (See prior ICEM reports <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4211-Northern-Cyprus-Resists-Ankara’s-Reforms-">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3946-ICEM-Urges-Northern-Cyprus-Administration-End-Trade-Union-Repression">here</a>.) 
 
Unprecedented numbers? Well 70, 000 people is a truly incredible figure when you consider that the entire population of Turkish Cypriots is said to be 260,000. 
 
The protest was organised by a &ldquo;Trade Union Platform&rdquo; which brings together the entire trade union movement in the North of Cyprus and ICEM affiliate, EL-SEN, the Turkish Electricity Authority of Cyprus Workers Trade Union was at the forefront of the demonstration with almost all of their membership present, together with family members. The demonstration was called principally to fight privatisation, threatened as part of a series of austerity measures by the government, that would both attack trade union rights and enforce privatisation of the electric power company, the airport and even universities. All the trade union movement was present as were all of the opposition political parties, the latter at the rear of a demonstration that was clearly trade union organised and led. 
<img alt="" src="" width="288" height="192" />
Workers resent deep private and state sector salary cuts, which were announced last year, following negotiations between the Turkish Cypriot leadership and the government in Turkey, which bankrolls this area with about US$600 million a year. Turkish Cypriot trade unions have vowed to fight the austerity package, which includes rolling back entry level salaries by 40 per cent, taxing pensions and cutting the taxable income threshold from 17 to 10 per cent. The package also foresees selling off state enterprises to private Turkish business interests and such a massive privatisation is deeply unpopular, not only with effected trade unions and workers , but with the wider population. 
 
ICEM Energy Officer, Jim Catterson, joined our affiliate EL-SEN on the protest march and at the demonstration. The day began outside the trade union office by the head office of the electric power company where El-Sen members gathered in the morning, together with union President, Tuluy Kalyoncu and other leadership of the union. The atmosphere was both lively and friendly with many families present as well as a number of retired members &ndash; still eager to show their support for their union. Similar meetings of other unions were clearly taking place across the city. 
<img alt="" src="" width="256" height="192" />
After a series of short speeches, where ICEM solidarity on this and previous occasions were applauded, the EL-SEN contingent set out to march to the square and demonstration. Traffic was brought to a standstill but most motorists sounded their horns in support of the marchers. Gradually a whole series of marches coalesced into one and marched into the square, dominated by a massive stage, where in between speeches music was played to entertain the massive crowd. 
 
Despite this massive demonstration the government has so far refused to change policy. Indeed while the demonstration took place the government announced that the council of ministers will send the privatization proposed law to the parliament this week. 
 
The struggle continues. After the demonstration and after the government statement, the Trade Union Platform took a decision to take the next demonstration directly to the government. Unless these policies are changed, March 25 will see the next demonstration both in front of and inside the parliament building. 
 
Still facing the privatization of their employer our affiliate, EL-SEN has decided to call an indefinite strike to begin no later than 25 March, 2011. 
 
ICEM will continue to offer all support and solidarity to the brave struggle of our affiliated trade union.

El-Sen in N. Cyprus Conducts Historic Manifestation

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In the US, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed into law on 11 March legislation that will strip 200,000 state public employees of their collective bargaining rights, as well as target them for deep health-care benefit cuts. The signing comes after a month of fierce citizen protest inside the state&rsquo;s capitol building in Madison, the likes of which had not been seen in America in decades. 
 
It also came just days after the state&rsquo;s Republican senators used a secretive and probably illegal legislative manoeuvre to circumvent the necessary 60% quorum to conduct a vote. With Democratic senators taking hiatus out of Wisconsin to block Republicans from pushing through the regressive measures (see <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4267-Five-Things-to-Know-About-Protests-in-US-State-Wisconsin ">prior ICEM article</a>), the majority party removed fiscal items from the legislation so that the bill needed only 50% present. Republicans control the senate in Wisconsin 19-13. 
 
Late in the evening on 9 March, the 19 voted 18-1 to eliminate collective bargaining for public workers, except police and firefighters. This trickery exposed the real truth to Walker and right-wing America&rsquo;s assault on US trade unions as played out in Wisconsin: the legislation was never about public budget deficits, but rather stripping Wisconsin public-sector employers of their legitimate work rights. 
<img alt="" src="" width="291" height="218" />
But the manoeuvre appears to have violated Wisconsin&rsquo;s Open Meeting Law, which requires public notice of a meeting be given &ldquo;24 hours prior to the commencement of such meeting unless for good cause such notice is impossible or impractical.&rdquo; The late 9 March legislative vote was held on two hours notice. 
 
An emergency request for an injunction was immediately filed to block signing, but a judge on 11 March denied the emergency request. A further court hearing will occur this week to stop enactment on a non-emergency basis, and other court action has already been filed. 
 
Labour unions and other public groups have begun recall petition drives to throw Walker and eight Republican legislators out of office. But that could take a year for Walker and ten junior Republicans. In Wisconsin, the recall law states that elected officials must be in office for one year before being recalled. Walker has been governor of Wisconsin only since January. 
 
The law must now be officially and publicly published before it takes effect. If it does, it will make public workers contribute more to their pensions and health coverage, amounting to an 8% pay cut. It also eliminates their right to bargain collectively on anything except wages and only up to the rate of inflation. 
 
Walker&rsquo;s law makes all public-sector unions recertify each year with the approval of 50% plus one of workers eligible to vote. It stipulates all union fees be paid on a voluntary basis. 
 
Reaction last week by US trade unions was swift and sharp to the midnight raid on workers&rsquo; rights. United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard said the attack on workers in Wisconsin is far from isolated. &ldquo;This is a nation-wide campaign by billionaires and country-club conservatives, to terminate workers&rsquo; rights, giving unfettered power to corporations.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="189" height="175" />
Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt
Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt said Walker and Republicans &ldquo;have been lying throughout this entire process and we have been telling the truth.&rdquo; 
 
Neuenfeldt added: &ldquo;Republicans have exercised the nuclear option to ram through their bill attacking Wisconsin&rsquo;s working families in the dark of night. (They) acted in violation of state open meeting laws &hellip; and have demonstrated they will do or say anything to pass their extreme agenda that attacks Wisconsin&rsquo;s working families.&rdquo; 
 
Similar assaults on unions in America&rsquo;s statehouses are currently underway in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.

Wisconsin Eliminates Public Sector Bargaining; Resistance Continues

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />&nbsp;
Japan's strongest ever earthquake and consequent tsunami has caused devastation along Japan&rsquo;s North-eastern coast. The ICEM is shocked and extremely concerned for all those affected, including many union members. Large numbers of messages of support and solidarity are being communicated from unions around the world to Japan. ICEM have offered heartfelt condolences for the loss of life. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda wrote to Japanese affiliates, via ICEM-JAF General Secretary Yoshio Sato, and President Ochiai, &ldquo;It is with deep sadness that I and all in ICEM are receiving ever more news of the disastrous effects of the earthquake and Tsunami. All our solidarity is with the people of Japan. And our special thoughts are now with the comrades of Denryoku Soren. Please convey to them my best and heartfelt wishes that their members will be safe and the dangers that may come from the Fukushima power plant, which was so terribly hit by the earthquake, can be tackled.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="177" height="156" />
ICEM-JAF President, Kiyoshi Ochiai
The scale of the devastation and safety of union members and their families is now being assessed, and that process will take some time. Early reports are that all headquarter staff of ICEM affiliates, in Tokyo, are safe but there is much concern for their colleagues and members unaccounted for in the coastal region, especially the Tohoku area and workers in the electric and petroleum industries. ICEM-JAF General Secretary Sato today reported that the death toll in the Tokhoku Region could go well into the tens of thousands, and that the current situation there is desperate, with severe shortage of water, food, electricity, and gas. Train services have been severely disrupted, movement inside Japan is difficult. 
 
Sato-san also reports that brave members of Denryoku Soren are risking their lives working to contain the difficult situation at the Fukushima Power Plants, following explosions at reactors 1 and 3. They managed to prevent the spread of radiation, but continuing hydrogen explosions have injured operators. Engineers from Toshiba, members of the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation are working on the Fukushima reactors. The International Atomic Energy Agency and experts from abroad are present and assisting at the Fukushima plant. 
<img alt="" src="" width="156" height="222" />
ICEM-JAF General Secretary, Yoshio Sato
&ldquo;We are touched with and appreciate from our heart your support and solidarity!&rdquo; stated ICEM-JAF. 
 
ICEM affiliates can send <a href="mailto:icemjaf@blue.ocn.ne.jp">messages of condolence</a> and support to ICEM-JAF General Secretary Bro. Yoshio Sato here. Sato-san has explained that the ICEM-JAF are very grateful for the numerous offers of assistance, and that they need to first assess the situation and respond once it is known where the help is needed most. 
 
Top-level union officials are meeting today on coordinating volunteer rescue efforts and an aid fund. 
 
Dangerous aftershocks will continue, hindering rescue efforts. And another tsunami has not been ruled out. Damage to energy plants is causing wide reaching power-cuts, beginning today in Tokyo.

ICEM Concern for the People of Japan

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
The ICEM has been joined by Global Union Federations, national unions, and trade union activists the world over in pressing the government of Chile the ratify ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 
 
Since ICEM and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) delivered a <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/11.ICEM.IMF.Chile176.1March.pdf">joint call</a>. 
 
to their respective affiliates on 2 March to write Chile President Sebasti&aacute;n Pi&ntilde;era demanding he begin mine-safety reforms, some 70 affiliates have responded with <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/ENGLISH%20ChileModLet%20(2).doc ">letters</a> like this. 
 
The International Union of Food, Agricultural Workers' Association (IUF) picked up the call, sending an action alert that generated over 1,000 messages to Pi&ntilde;era. And then last week LabourStart initiated a campaign and 2,500 messages so far have been sent to Chile Mine Minister Laurence Golborne. Join the <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=891">LabourStart campaign</a> with a message to Golborne, who during the Michele Bachelet administration was a supermarket chain manager. 
<img alt="" src="" width="175" height="247" />
Hazards, the vibrant safety and health newsletter of UK&rsquo;s Trades Union Congress (TUC), then sent a Chile mine safety message through its listserv of hundreds of global health/safety specialists at unions, NGOs, and educational institutions, many of whom responded with their own pointed message to the Pi&ntilde;era government. 
 
It didn&rsquo;t stop there. The global campaign was joined simultaneously by unions affiliated with Chile&rsquo;s two main mine union federations, representing workers at both state-run copper company Codelco and at the major mining companies that own large-scale copper and gold operations. Leaders of branch leaders at both federations were versed on what the ICEM was doing globally in pressing Pi&ntilde;era and Golborne and it is those Chilean mine union leaders that know more than anybody the frailties of the country&rsquo;s mine safety culture. 
 
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Secretary Sharon Burrow wrote to Pi&ntilde;era stating, &ldquo;It is our belief that Chile&rsquo;s sustainable development must start from a cohesive and coherent mine safety culture, that includes representation by mineworkers and their trade unions and the respect of their rights, and is composed of necessary components of monitoring, technical expertise, and judicial powers&rdquo;.
<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="97" />
Late last week the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) sent a release, stating, &ldquo;After soaking up the publicity, the government is now backing away from its commitments. Journalists groups in Latin America and around the world are shocked by this cynical behaviour and we fully support the trade union demand that Chile cleans up its act and gets into line with international mining standards. 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s decision targeting Chile to overhaul its mine regulations and to ratify Convention 176 stems from a brash world statement made by Pi&ntilde;era to the world while basking in the success of the rescue of 33 miners on 13 October 2010. While in London five days later, he told the world that Chile had learned its lesson; it would amend its mine safety laws and adopt global standards enshrined in Convention 176 &ldquo;within 90 days.&rdquo; 
 
In mid-January, ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana and General Secretary Manfred Warda met with then Chilean Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Camila Merino over that pledge. The ICEM was told Convention 176 is not on Chile&rsquo;s agenda, but that it might consider the more general ILO Convention 187, the Promotional Framework for Occupational Health and Safety Convention. 
<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="100" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="89" height="100" />
The ICEM reminded that just as Pi&ntilde;era and Golborne lifted the nation&rsquo;s world status during the San Jos&eacute; copper mine rescue, Chile is of major global consequence because it is a rich exporter of basic metals and minerals. If it is to be world-class in any way, it must implement world-class safe mining practices for Chilean workers who dig those riches. 
 
An example is in the commission Pi&ntilde;era appointed to investigate the cause of the 5 August San Jos&eacute; accident. There were no workers&rsquo; representatives invited to join that commission. Chile&rsquo;s mine unions do sound the alarm frequently over safety deficiencies and on the reasons why accidents happen. But they are told from government and industry alike that it is the union&rsquo;s duty to negotiate economic issues, not to involve itself in safety or health. 
<img alt="" src="" width="152" height="160" />
Chile Mine Minister Laurence Golborne 
Chile has over 8,000 mines from north to south. It has a total of 16 mine inspectors to cover those operations. It has an archaic system of overlapping safety agencies covering all sectors of work, including mining, that reside in six different ministries. And none of the agencies have judicial powers to enforce the few regulations in place or the technical capabilities to inspect and prevent accidents before they happen. 
 
Regarding mining in Chile, all the prerequisites contained in Convention 176 are missing: regular inspections, set procedures to report and investigate dangerous occurrences and accidents, trade union consultation, regulatory bodies with the authority to shut and keep shut dangerous mines, a miner&rsquo;s right to refuse unsafe work, workers&rsquo; rights to select their own health and safety representatives, and employer obligations to provide safety training and safety programmes. 
 
That is why the ICEM and the IMF &ndash; and now unions everywhere &ndash; have targeted Chile for reformation of internal mine safety laws and for ratification, implementation, and adherence to standards set down in ILO Convention 176. Do your part. Contact Chile&rsquo;s political leaders and insist in change.

Global Unions Target Chile for Mine Safety Overhaul

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