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<img height="39" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100"/>
An ash cloud from Iceland's spewing volcano halted air traffic across most of Europe on Thursday 15 March, with air travel still impossible today throughout Northern Europe, and beyond. 
 
The cancelled flights have disrupted ICEM’s activities, leaving staff members and affiliates stranded. 
 
ICEM’s President Senzeni Zokwana is still unable to fly home to South Africa from London, while General Secretary Manfred Warda was unable to fly to meetings in Germany, Singapore, and Australia over the last few days. 
 
Joe Drexler, Director of Corporate Affairs, is attempting to return to Geneva from North America. 

<img height="115" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Iceland.png" width="250"/>
ICEM Officers are currently unable to travel, and therefore unable to reach planned activities and meetings. Kemal Ozkan, Rubber and Chemicals Sector Officer, and Brian Kohler, Sustainability Officer, are unable to leave Istanbul. Dick Blin, Information, Pulp and Paper Officer is unable to leave London. Fons Vannieuwenhuyse, ICEM Projects Officer was also unable to fly to Singapore. 
 
Many ICEM affiliates are also stranded, Jørgen Juul Rasmussen, General Secretary of the Danish Union of Electricians (Dansk El-Forbund), is unable to return home for important union business in Denmark following the ICEM CAL event in Singapore. The Danish Union of Electricians' members will be balloted on a new agreement, if it is voted against a national strike will begin Sunday.  
 
This unforeseen disruption will continue to affect ICEM actions and work over the coming days. We hope affiliates and colleagues will understand.

Special Notice: ICEM Work Disrupted, Iceland’s Volcanic Ash Stops Air Travel

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Some 70 protestors from the UK, Netherlands, and Belgium demonstrated with locked-out members of the US International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in London last week. The venue was the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Rio Tinto, the global mining company that maliciously, on 31 January, locked 560 members of ILWU Local 30 off their jobs in Boron, California, before reaching impasse in collective bargaining. 
 
The manifestation at the AGM was organised by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), with support from the ICEM and the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF). Several NGOs, including the London Mining Network, joined the labour rally, bringing with them a host of Rio Tinto's environmental atrocities from Papua New Guinea to Indonesia, to Madagascar, and Mongolia. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.rio.tinto.london.6.jpg" width="360" height="240"/>
Dick Blin, Dave Irish, Ray Familathe, Tony Burke
Inside the meeting, Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese fielded questions regarding the company's conduct for nearly two hours. Local 30 bargaining committee member Dave Irish queried why Rio Tinto was willing to take deep revenue drops through lost production brought on by the lockout, while at the same time imposing economic hardships on 560 working families. 
 
Albanese's answer was polite, but succinct in capturing the general philosophy of corporations everywhere: prioritising profits before people. He said Rio Tinto's rollbacks on working terms and conditions at Boron were necessary in order to bring ILWU Local 30's collective agreement more in line with other company enterprises in North America. 
 
That answer was clear. Despite massive profits driven mainly by iron ore, copper, and coal -- and even by the relatively small Rio Tinto Minerals, which controls a 45% market share of the global borates business -- the London/Melbourne-based mining house subscribes to "the race to the bottom" philosophy of suppressing human and social benefits. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.rio.tinto.london.5.jpg" width="163" height="231"/>
Dave Irish left, locked out Local 30 worker, and ILWU VP Ray Familathe
Following the meeting, ILWU Vice President Ray Familathe caught up with Albanese in a corner of the Queen Elizabeth II Convention Centre. He told him the company's strong-arm bargaining methods in California will surely backfire, including galvanizing the global trade union movement to pressure the company in any way possible. 
 
The ILWU has already begun that backlash by vigorously lobbying the US government to delay a land swap between the government and Rio Tinto in the state of Arizona in which the company was to gain valuable copper deposits. 
 
For the ILWU, the European trip also meant a strongly worded resolution in support of Local 30 be the European Works Council of Alcan, a Canadian-based metals producer that Rio Tinto acquired in 2007. That effort was spearheaded by the Metalworkers' affiliate of French CGT. 
 
A day after the London AGM of April 15, the American union also did protest actions against Rio Tinto at British consulate offices in the US cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, and in Vancouver, Canada. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.rio.tinto.london.4.jpg" width="205" height="154"/>
Perhaps not coincidentally within last week's trade union actions, Rio Tinto Minerals and ILWU Local 30 did return to bargaining on 14-15 April, the first set of talks since the lockout began. It was a fact noted by Albanese from the dais of the AGM, but clearly missing was any willingness by Rio Tinto to budge from its concessionary proposals. In California, the two sides adjourned late on 15 April without making any meaningful progress. 
 
This week, on 22 April, Rio Tinto is scheduled to replicate its AGM in Melbourne and the ILWU will be there. Shareholders will hear Secretary-Treasurer Willie Adams and locked-out Local 30 activist Terri Judd tell of the anguish faced by Mojave Desert, California, families. They will have the support of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA). 
 
Again, Albanese will be questioned on why the company he heads needs unprecedented givebacks by workers of their holidays, their seniority rights, their health care protections, and why Rio Tinto needs to infringe on full-time, direct employment in seeking to gain greater latitude to outsource jobs. 
Hear the RadioLabour interview with Dave Irish <a href="http://www.radiolabour.net/ICEM/rio-tinto-180410.mp3">here</a>. 
 
See a short video of the demo in London <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsK2iwccL7k">here</a>.

US ILWU Members Take California Lockout to Rio Tinto AGM

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Negotiations to end a national dispute across Sweden's pulp and paper sector failed last night, 18 April, at midnight when ICEM affiliate Svenska Pappers and the employers' Forest Industry Association (SFIF) adjourned bargaining. 
 
The two sides are to try again today, 19 April, at 18h00. 
 
The union held true to its promise to strike six pulp and paper mills on 16 April. Those six mills, employing 3,000 of Sweden's 18,000 paperworkers, are now facing ongoing strikes. 
 
They include: Billerud Skarblacka; Holmen Braviken; the Holmen Iggesund mill in Korsnas; Stora Enso’s Skoghall Mill; SCA Packaging in Munksund; and Sodra Cell's Varo pulp mill. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0810PaperRollArt.jpg" width="240" height="145"/>
On 15 April, two days following a marathon bargaining session also failed, the Swedish Paperworkers' Union (Svenska Pappers) announced that workers at six more mills would strike at 18h00 on Monday, 26 April, if no agreement is made. 
 
Those mills include: Smurfit-Kappa's mill at Pitea, the SCA Obbola mill, Stora Enso's Fors mill, the Korsnas Frovi mill, Billerud's Gruvon mill, and Sodra's Monsteras pulp mill. Those six mills employ 2,800 Pappers members. 
 
The central issues are pay and ensuring that Swedish paperworkers receive a 2010 salary increase backdated to 1 April, the date of a prior three-year contract expiration; items related to a pension scheme; an adequate increase for the lowest paid workers in the industry; and an assurance on union consultation when temporary workers or labour agencies are used for employment. 
 
For ICEM's solidarity call in support of Swedish paperworkers, click <a href="/en/19-Pulp-Paper/3704-Urgent-Action-Needed:-Swedish-Paperworkers-Appel-à-l'aide-d'urgence:-Travailleurs-du-secteur-pâte-et" type="internal">here</a>.

Swedish Paper Strike Continues

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.mayday.jpg" width="283" height="93" alt=""/>
With the ashes from the global financial crisis still about us, the ICEM has joined with the 11 other Global Union Federations (GUFs), as well as the International Trade Union Confederation and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD in issuing a joint 1 May statement. That statement follows below. 
May Day 2010 
Jobs, Justice and Public Services – Getting the Economy to Work 
The Council of Global Unions, the voice of the global labour movement, has issued the following statement to mark May 1, 2010 
 
On today of all days, trade unionists around the world demand fresh steps to reform the global economy in favour of social justice, investment in jobs and fairness in society. This is no time for business as usual. 
 
Neo-liberal economists and reckless financial dealings have created a crisis that has put millions of people out of work and forced many more into precarious employment to survive. Social safety nets are being torn apart. Public spending that provides for cohesive communities is being savagely cut. 
 
With all of this in mind, Global Unions call on policymakers and democrats everywhere to support a new paradigm of recovery and social justice that will: 
 
• Reassert in government at all levels the primacy of public interest over private gain and ensure that the protection of citizens’ rights is made a cornerstone of social and economic development; 
 
• Defend the rights of workers and trade unions; 
 
• Mobilise for the creation of sustainable, secure and good quality jobs for all workers, that allow workers and their families to live in dignity; 
 
• Ensure that social justice is a central mission of government and take concrete measures to reduce income disparities and increase equality, in particular gender equality; 
 
• Eliminate market abuse through short-term speculation and manipulation of financial markets by imposing binding and effective regulation; 
 
• Promote sustainable development with job-centred policies, effective social protections and reversal of global warming and environmental degradation; 
 
• Renew commitment to public service values in society and enhance the contribution of quality public services to fairer and more efficient societies, and to finance these services through progressive systems of taxation that provide sufficient resources while improving social equity; 
 
• Commit to education for all and provide resources needed to achieve the enrichment of society that comes from high quality education and training; 
 
• Improve the quality of people’s lives by providing universal access to health care and other vital social welfare services, as well as such fundamental issues as clean water and adequate nutrition, and breathing new life into efforts to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. 
 
May Day 2010 is a moment to change course, to meet the aspirations of workers and communities for a new beginning, to put to flight self-serving politics and corporate greed, and, above all, to build a new solidarity in society in support of people-centred values that will enrich the lives of all. 
 
 
The PDF of the statement can be found <a href="http://www.world-psi.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&CONTENTFILEID=29028&TEMPLATE=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm">here</a>.

Global Labour’s Joint 1 May Statement

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Four members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) will travel from Australia to Zug, Switzerland, this week to make their voices heard before shareholders of Xstrata, the global mining company with a dual base in Zug and London. The CFMEU, to be assisted by the ICEM, will be at Xstrata’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 5 May. 
 
CFMEU will contrast the 41% pay increase given to CEO Mick Davis with the aggressive demands made on coal miners in the profitable collieries of New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland. Davis saw his annual salary jump in 2009 to US$7.75 million from US$5.5 million in 2008. 
 
At the Tahmoor colliery in New South Wales, Xstrata used a week-long lockout in February in efforts to force mineworkers to take unfair concessions. Some 300 miners there have been without a collective enterprise agreement for nearly 14 months. Miners are preparing to take further industrial action by mid-May if conciliation efforts by Fair Work Australia do not succeed. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/XstrataPoison.jpg" width="300" height="95"/>
The union has also protested against unfair staff cuts at the Ulan and Bulga mines in New South Wales. At Bulga, a three-year enterprise agreement between CFMEU and Xstrata did come into effect this spring, but not without protests and resistance to the company’s attempt to rollback language that was consistent with former Prime Minister John Howard’s draconian WorkChoices laws. 
 
Xstrata also has tried to weaken working conditions at its Newlands, Oaky Creek, Rolleston, and Togaro North coal mine in Queensland. In NSW, the CFMEU is also resisting Xstrata and its attempt to return to Howard’s individual work agreements at the Liddell and Glendell mines. 
 
CFMEU Mining and Energy Vice President Wayne McAndrew said Xstrata’s coal mining operations in Australia are some of the company’s most profitable worldwide. “Yet one quarter of Xstrata’s Australian coal mining operations currently face industrial disputes or unrest because of the company’s anti-worker stance.” 
 
McAndrew, who will be accompanied to Zug by Tahmoor miner Lee Webb, Newslands miner Ben Davison, and CFMEU Northern NSW District President Grahame Kelly, added, “Xstrata is a company that is engaging in activities that are harming the future profits of the company and this has the potential to affect its overseas mergers and acquisitions.”

CFMEU to Take Australia Coal Dispute to Xstrata’s AGM

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1004.mayday.jpg" width="283" height="93"/>
With the ashes from the global financial crisis still about us, the ICEM has joined with the 11 other Global Union Federations (GUFs), as well as the International Trade Union Confederation and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD in issuing a joint 1 May statement. That statement follows below. 
May Day 2010 
 
Jobs, Justice and Public Services – Getting the Economy to Work
The Council of Global Unions, the voice of the global labour movement, has issued the following statement to mark May 1, 2010 
 
On today of all days, trade unionists around the world demand fresh steps to reform the global economy in favour of social justice, investment in jobs and fairness in society. This is no time for business as usual. 
 
Neo-liberal economists and reckless financial dealings have created a crisis that has put millions of people out of work and forced many more into precarious employment to survive. Social safety nets are being torn apart. Public spending that provides for cohesive communities is being savagely cut. 
 
With all of this in mind, Global Unions call on policymakers and democrats everywhere to support a new paradigm of recovery and social justice that will: 
 
• Reassert in government at all levels the primacy of public interest over private gain and ensure that the protection of citizens’ rights is made a cornerstone of social and economic development; 
 
• Defend the rights of workers and trade unions; 
 
• Mobilise for the creation of sustainable, secure and good quality jobs for all workers, that allow workers and their families to live in dignity; 
 
• Ensure that social justice is a central mission of government and take concrete measures to reduce income disparities and increase equality, in particular gender equality; 
 
• Eliminate market abuse through short-term speculation and manipulation of financial markets by imposing binding and effective regulation; 
 
• Promote sustainable development with job-centred policies, effective social protections and reversal of global warming and environmental degradation; 
 
• Renew commitment to public service values in society and enhance the contribution of quality public services to fairer and more efficient societies, and to finance these services through progressive systems of taxation that provide sufficient resources while improving social equity; 
 
• Commit to education for all and provide resources needed to achieve the enrichment of society that comes from high quality education and training; 
 
• Improve the quality of people’s lives by providing universal access to health care and other vital social welfare services, as well as such fundamental issues as clean water and adequate nutrition, and breathing new life into efforts to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. 
 
May Day 2010 is a moment to change course, to meet the aspirations of workers and communities for a new beginning, to put to flight self-serving politics and corporate greed, and, above all, to build a new solidarity in society in support of people-centred values that will enrich the lives of all. 
 
 
The PDF of the statement can be found <a href="http://www.world-psi.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&CONTENTFILEID=29028&TEMPLATE=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm">here</a>.

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
ICEM’s Colombian affiliate the National Oil Workers Union (USO) called for international solidarity in their conflict with British Petroleum (BP). Workers at the BP plant at Tauramena, part of the Cusiana oil field in Casanare, Eastern Colombia, have been striking since 22 January for improved wages. On 15 February the notorious ESMAD, Colombia's notorioius riot police, were sent in to attack the strikers’ picket line. Three USO members are still in hospital with injuries sustained from the police attack. 
 
View a union video of the attack <a href="http://www.usofrenteobrero.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=519:trabajadores-petroleros-de-tauramena-agredidos-por-el-emad-video&catid=60:tauramena&Itemid=100">here</a>.  
 
Last week BP attempted to bring in scabs to the central processing plant, but they were stopped by strikers who chained themselves to the entrance gates. This sparked local BP management to come to an agreement with the USO Bargaining Committee; however the outsourced contractors, SAR Energy, operating at Tauramena refused to recognize the agreement. Negotiations have been ongoing since then, through five negotiating committees: labour problems, social investment, goods and services, environment, and human rights, these temporary committees are working toward a deadline of 16 April, when agreement must be reached. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1003.uso.london.png" width="271" height="180"/>
USO supporters outside BP Headquarters, London
USO’s call for solidarity actions was answered last Friday, 5 March, when protestors demonstrated noisily opposite the BP Headquarters in London. The action was organised by the Colombia Solidarity Campaign. USO urges its supporters to continue to mobilise while the negotiations are ongoing. The ICEM supports the call on the Colombian government to insist that oil companies operating in Colombia respect the rights of workers to organise and to take strike action. USO is also calling for an official enquiry into the close links between paramilitary groups, and oil exploitation companies. 
 
Send protest messages to BP CEO, demand that the company conducts peaceful negotiations with the union, and condemns the ESMAD police repression. Send your message to Executive Director and Group Chief Executive Tony Hayward at email: <a href="mailto:tony.hayward@bp.com">tony.hayward@bp.com</a> 
 
Send messages of solidarity to the workers via USO Human Rights Commission email: <a href="mailto:usopaz@yahoo.com">usopaz@yahoo.com</a> 
 
Visit the Colombia Solidarity Campaign website <a href="http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/content/view/486/">here</a>.

Oil Workers in Colombia Suffer Police Repression

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
ICEM’s Spanish affiliates in the Chemicals industry have agreed a renewal of the collective agreement for the sector. The previous agreement expired in December 2009. The agreement, signed 9 February by ICEM affiliates FITEQA-CC.OO. and FIA-UGT, was described by CC.OO.’s Communications Officer Fernando Lezcano, as a model to be followed by others in overcoming the financial crisis. 
 
The Agreement will be valid for three years, from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2012. 
 
The economic and financial crisis caused the loss of 1.5 million jobs in Spain over the last 18 months, making negotiations between business and trade unions more significant. Spain is now in its seventh consecutive quarter of recession and unemployment is at 4 million for the first time in Spain’s history. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SpainFIAUGT.jpg" width="130" height="131"/>    <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SpainFITEQA.jpg" width="155" height="126"/>
The unions accepted the limitations of what could be achieved in the negotiations, but prioritised commitments on job stability and changes that would stop the rise of precarious work. The new agreement recommends that local collective agreements place emphasis on permanent jobs and a reduction of temporary work. Also equal opportunities for women and young people must be prioritised. These issues will be continually negotiated on during the period of the agreement, in the newly-created Follow-up Committee. 
 
Factors such as re-distribution of work, shorter working hours, and a program of partial retirement along with replacement contracts, are seen as important tools to avoid redundancies. 
 
Wage policies for the next three years were agreed by the trade unions and employers’ organizations, raising salaries by 2.5% over the three years of the agreement.

Spain: Renewed Collective Agreement for the Chemicals Sector

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus in Trinidad and Tobago, will hold a colourful afternoon event this Thursday, 11 March, in honour of International Women’s Day. Entitled “From One to Many: Techno-Politics, Revolution, and the Art of the Possible,” the forum will be hosted by the university’s Institute of Gender and Development Studies. 
 
It will feature three lectures, the final one – by Dr. Alexis DeVeaux of the US’s University of Buffalo at SUNY – to be followed by a question and answer session. Dr. DeVeaux will speak on “Audre Lorde and the Longing for Home(land).” 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/TrinindadOWTU.jpg" width="150" height="139" alt=""/>
Preceding her will be Dr. Gabrielle Jamela Hosein speaking on “A Revolution is a Way of Life,” and Sonitha Krishnan on “Impassioned by Silence: Where Do I Begin.” 
 
The forum has the support and endorsement of the ICEM affiliate on the Caribbean nation-islands, the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU).

Women’s Symposium to be Held in Trinidad and Tobago, 11 March

<img height="86" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM100.jpg" width="100"/>     <img height="87" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/IMF100.jpg" width="90"/>
Two global trade union federations whose affiliates represent over 45 million workers, together with four Norwegian trade unions, have asked the Council on Ethics of the Government Pension Fund of Norway to divest its holdings in the Mexican mining conglomerate Grupo Mexico because of alleged labor and environmental violations. 
 
The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mining and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) and the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) sent a <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Ltr_to_Ethical_Council-Mexico.pdf">letter</a> requesting the divestment to the Council on Ethics, which is charged with overseeing responsible investments of the Government Pension Fund, the second largest pension fund in the world. Grupo Mexico is accused of labor rights violations, environmental destruction and shareholder fraud. The letter also requests divestment in Southern Copper, Grupo Mexico’s wholly-owned subsidiary. 

<img height="147" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Arve.Bakke.jpg" width="190"/>
Arve Bakke, Fellesforbundet President
“We are supporting this action on behalf of trade unionists in Mexico to call attention to the extreme abuses of Grupo Mexico and to ask the Council on Ethics to drop Grupo Mexico as an investment in accordance with the Fund’s very high standards and Norwegian law,” said Fellesforbundet President Arve Bakke. “The wealth of future generations in Norway must not be invested in companies which systematically attack labor unions and damage the environment, as Grupo Mexico has done.” 
 
Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary, stated, “We have national mining unions in over 60 countries, and nowhere have we found more despicable behavior than that demonstrated by Grupo Mexico.” 
 
The overt attempt by Grupo Mexico to crush the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM or Los Mineros) and gross violations of workers’ rights to freely associate and collectively bargain as defined by the International Labor Organization are core arguments for divestment set forth in the letter. 
 
“The illegal practices of Grupo Mexico, unfortunately supported by a corrupt Mexican government, include seizing the union’s assets, attempting to replace the legitimate union with one selected by the company, and launching a protracted campaign of repression against the union’s leadership,” said IMF General Secretary Jryki Raina, 
 
In August 2007 the government and Grupo Mexico forced workers at eight mines to join a company-sponsored union using “elections” in which workers had to vote publicly in front of their employer. One union leader has been imprisoned without bond since December 2008. There are also credible allegations that Grupo Mexico is responsible for the violent deaths of two workers on two separate occasions. 
 
Despite these attacks, Los Mineros continues to negotiate wage increases across the country that average twice the government-imposed wage cap, which unions believe is a major motivation for Grupo Mexico’s attacks. It is especially noteworthy that Los Mineros maintains non-confrontational labor relations with most employers and has some 70 collective bargaining agreements with multinational employers such as Goldcorp, Bombardier and ArcelorMittal. 

<img height="145" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Mexico.SNTMMSRM.jpg" width="120"/>
The company is accused of gross health and safety violations at the Pasta de Conchos mine, where 65 workers died in an explosion in 2006, and the copper mine at Cananea, where workers have been on strike since July 2007. 
 
Studies of Grupo Mexico smelter operations in Mexico illuminate the company’s shameful environmental record where abnormal levels of toxic minerals such as lead, zinc, copper, cadmium, mercury, and magnesium were found among the general populations, including high levels of arsenic and cadmium among children. In Peru, Grupo Mexico was forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to remediate its contamination of water and air. In Chile the company is accused of developing a mining project on indigenous land without consultation with local natives or assessing environmental damage. 
 
According to sources cited by the trade unions submitting the letter, the cost to shareholders of Grupo Mexico’s abysmal labor practices exceeds $3 billion (USD) on top of the hundreds of millions required to remediate the company’s environmental destruction in Peru. Grupo Mexico was convicted by a U.S. court in 2009 of defrauding shareholders of a wholly-owned subsidiary. Another subsidiary has been linked to drug trafficking. 
 
Covalence Ethical Quotation System, which tracks the ethical reputation of multinational companies, ranked Grupo Mexico 573rd out of 581 global companies in 2009. 
 
The trade unions and labor federations submitting the request for disinvestment anticipate that the Council on Ethics will thoroughly investigate the information and make an expedient decision to divest. 
 
Los Mineros is affiliated with both the ICEM and IMF. The Norwegian trade unions signing the letter include Fellesforbundet, Handel og Kontor i Norge, Industri Energi and Norsk Arbeidsmandsforbund. 
 
The ICEM represents 467 trade unions in 132 countries and the IMF covers over 200 trade unions in 100 countries. 
 
For more information see the <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?n=663&l=2 ">IMF</a> and <a href="/en/67-Search-ICEM-site?keywords=los+mineros" type="internal">ICEM</a> websites. 
________________________________ 
 
For further information, please contact: 
Dick Blin, ICEM, +41 22 304 1842 
Anita Gardner, IMF, +41 22 308 5032

Trade Unions Ask Norwegian Pension Funds to Divest of Grupo Mexico Shares

Archive

Special Notice: ICEM Work Disrupted, Iceland’s Volcanic Ash Stops Air Travel

US ILWU Members Take California Lockout to Rio Tinto AGM

Swedish Paper Strike Continues

Global Labour’s Joint 1 May Statement

CFMEU to Take Australia Coal Dispute to Xstrata’s AGM

Global Labour’s Joint 1 May Statement

Oil Workers in Colombia Suffer Police Repression

Spain: Renewed Collective Agreement for the Chemicals Sector

Women’s Symposium to be Held in Trinidad and Tobago, 11 March

Trade Unions Ask Norwegian Pension Funds to Divest of Grupo Mexico Shares

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