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	Aminul Islam, a trade union activist in Bangladesh who only two years ago was arrested for his role in protests against the garment industry&rsquo;s miserly low salaries, was found murdered on 5 April on the side of a road near Ghatail, 80 kilometres north of Dhaka.

	Islam, 40, was last seen the day before in the textile manufacturing centre of Ashulia, 30 kilometres north of Dhaka. He worked as a senior organiser for the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity (BCWS), and reportedly closed the NGO office in Ashulia early on 4 April after noting police surveillance outside.

	His tortured body was found half buried with several bruises from the waist down, including his toes and ankles smashed. Police in Ghatail then buried the unidentified body, but a brother identified Islam when his tortured body was shown in a newspaper photograph. His body was exhumed and then re-buried on 9 April in his home village of Kaliakoir.

	He is survived by his wife, two sons and one daughter.

	Aminul Islam was arrested in June 2010 along with some 20 other demonstrators after they violated a ban on protests when the government raised the minimum wage for garment and textile workers only a token amount. Those charges were still pending against him and a few other trade union activists.

	Islam and the BCWS had most recently been leading a campaign of liveable wages and fair treatment against the Shanta Group, a garment supplier to Nike, Ralph Lauren and PVH, the latter a maker of garments for Tommy Hilfiger. He had also assisted in arranging news interviews by an American television network with exploited workers in the Ashulia area.

	The International Trade Union Confederation has written Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina demanding a full and impartial investigation of Islam&rsquo;s death. That letter can be found <a href="http://www.ituc-csi.org/ituc-letter-to-bgd-minister-of.html?lang=en">here</a>.

Garment Workers’ Activist Brutally Murdered in Bangladesh

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	Workers belonging to several unions in Guinea began strike action on 4 April against UC Rusal at the Russian company&rsquo;s Friguira alumina refinery in the city of Fria. The strike by 5,000 workers is termed an indefinite one and started after managers of the company refused to adhere to better working conditions for workers.

	Rusal said the strike is illegal and has urged the Guinean government to intervene. On 10 April, the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow issued a terse statement calling strikers &ldquo;extremist syndicalists,&rdquo; urging the government to take decisive action to end the strike.

	But late last week the government closed the offices of Rusal in the capital of Conakry &ndash; 100 kilometres from Fria &ndash; in violation of environmental regulations at Frigura. In September 2011, Guinea passed a new mining code mandating that a 35% stake of all resource-producing enterprises be placed in state hands. Rusal has resisted that law, even though it bought the bauxite and aluminium operation valued at US$257 million in 2006 for US$19 million.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 200px;height: 92px" width="390" />

	Since, Guinea&rsquo;s government has found that Rusal has evaded some US$860 in taxes due and non-payment of royalties.

	At the Friguira operation, the only aluminium refinery in the West African country which holds roughly two-thirds of the world&rsquo;s bauxite reserves, workers are seeking a doubling of the current US$200 monthly wage and for Rusal to pay their medical expenses. The Frigura refinery can produce 630,000 metric tonnes early of aluminium.

	Rusal has a long history of exploiting workers in Guinea&rsquo;s bauxite industry. In 2009, following an ICEM Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) workshop attended by government officials, the Russian industrial relations manager of the company, Anatoly Pantchenko, was expelled from the country after exposure to practices regarding the use of casual labour.

	It was customary for Rusal to allow front-line managers to establish phantom labour brokering companies in order to hire casual workers at low pay with commissions going to the font-line bosses. The ICEM considered this practice the perpetuation of abject poverty in a country many consider to be the poorest nation on earth.

Guinea’s Unions Take Strike Action Against Rusal’s Aluminium, Bauxite Operations

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	The campaign to free Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, long-time Thai campaigner for labour rights, is growing as the one-year anniversary of his arrest approaches. Somyot is being held in prison only on remand, facing unproven charges of l&egrave;se majest&eacute;, or daring to &ldquo;defame, insult, or threaten&rdquo; the King Bhumipol Adulyadej of Thailand.&rdquo;

	Brother Somyot, a former ICEM Thailand Coordinator, must be freed immediately and unconditionally, states the ICEM.

	The disgraceful detention and persecution of Somyot is based on two articles published in the journal Voice of Thaksin, but Somyot was not the author of either piece in question and, in fact, the articles do not threaten or insult the king. Brother Somyot was the acting editor of the publication, but was not the legal publisher.

	Indisputably, Somyot is incarcerated purely for his trade union and left-leaning political activism. For those reasons, he also is not receiving a fair judicial process with violations that include hearings being relocated to distant provinces so that key defence witnesses cannot participate.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 88px;height: 178px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Somyot Pruksakasemsuk

	Brother Somyot has been held in inhumane conditions in jail, where cells are overcrowded to the extreme. Through his transfers to distant judicial hearings, Somyot has been transported standing over 4,000 kilometres in a cage on the back of a truck and bound by heavy chains.

	This unacceptable treatment has moved supporters to push hard for Somyot to be released on bail, but the courts have refused such petitions on eight occasions on the grounds that he would flee Thailand, or interfere with witnesses while on bail. Somyot is 50 and suffers from bad health, reasons why he should be released on humanitarian grounds.&nbsp;

	The ICEM joins the large international coalition in condemning the continuing use of the &ldquo;l&egrave;se majest&eacute; law&rdquo; to crack down on legitimate protest in Thailand. The archaic legislation allows for harsh punishment for freedom of expression, an internationally recognised fundamental human right. Brother Somyot faces up to 15 years in prison for each of the two articles, if found guilty.

	Send your protest to <a href="mailto:somyot.righttobail@gmail.com">somyot.righttobail@gmail.com</a>. Use the <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/ICEM%20Somyot%20Protest%20Letter%20April%202012.docx">model letter</a>&nbsp;found here.

	A new trial of Somyot begins today, with prosecution witness hearings every day until 26 April, and defence witness hearings 1-4 May.

	See more on the <a href="http://www.freesomyot.wordpress.com">Free Somyot campaign</a>&nbsp;website here.

	Another labour and human rights defender is also in detention on non-credible charges. Brother Sirichai Mai-ngam of Thailand also has ICEM&rsquo;s full support.

	The ICEM Asia-Pacific Regional Conference resolved last week for the ICEM to launch campaigns supporting the two activists in Thailand so that they are released with all charges dropped.

Free Somyot NOW!  Unionists Urged to Send Letters Demanding Thai Justice!

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	The ICEM-affiliated Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh (PCSS) conducted a two-week tour of activities in Switzerland that concluded this week, educating trade union colleagues on the grave violations of work rights abuses by Holcim Cement of contract workers in India&rsquo;s Chhattisgarh region.

	Causing a stir in the Swiss media, the PCSS together with Swiss union UNIA and Swiss-based human rights organisation <a href="http://www.multiwatch.ch/">MultiWatch</a>, solidarity organisation <a href="http://www.solifonds.ch/node/121">Solifonds</a>, the ICEM and Building and Woodworkers&rsquo; International (BWI) raised increasing awareness through various channels.

	The details of the case are shocking and include the worst examples of workers&rsquo; rights violations around the world, especially in terms of the global trend of outsourcing and engaging precarious employment relationships, which capital sees as a tool to lessen its responsibilities to workers.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 211px;height: 158px" width="390" />

	Holcim AGM Protest

	Holcim invested in the Indian cement industry in 2005 when the Indian government opened up the country&rsquo;s resources to outside investment. Holcim&rsquo;s two subsidiaries, ACC Jamul and Ambuja Cement, had a long history of abusing worker rights, and Holcim has thus far refused to reverse these practices. Instead, the Swiss-based company has overseen an increasing proportion of contract workers that now comprises 80% of the company&rsquo;s total workforce.

	The PCSS represents contract workers at the two plants and Holcim is the largest cement producer in India. Contract workers are protected by Indian law and by a sectoral agreement prohibiting employment in core production work, with all work paid at the same rate that permanent workers receive.

	This stipulation has been flouted at Holcim India, where contract workers work side by side with permanent workers in core production, and they are denied proper protective equipment and paid one-third that of permanent workers. They also do not receive proper benefits and have greatly reduced rights to organise and bargain collectively.

	Contract workers of Holcim India have been punished for attempting to organise into the democratic PCSS union and as well, they have been punished for informing global Holcim management of the abuses. In fact, the majority of the PCSS members at Holcim are now excluded from work in the companies due to their union involvement.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 130px;height: 98px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Shalini Gera of PCSS with UNIA&#039;s Rolf Beyeler

	Global pressure has forced Holcim to pay attention to these violations in India, but when Holcim Executive Paul Hugentobler visited ACC Jamul recently, contract workers were all moved to a different shift and workers&rsquo; representatives were banned from taking part in meeting with him. Instead, representatives of the sham company union, OP Banchore, were involved.

	The Supreme Court of Chhattisgarh ruled in favour of the PCSS, instructing the company to award permanent employment contracts to those temporary employees, some of whom have remained on rolling temporary contracts for over 20 years. Holcim India even went so far as to reject India&rsquo;s court ruling and instead committed large financial resources to extend the legal process.

	The PCSS, supported by ICEM, met last week with the National Contact Point of the OECD in Switzerland as part of the process of the complaint on breaches of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises at Holcim India.

	PCSS was welcomed at the ILO on 13 April, where explanations of the violations in India were met with serious concern and proposals for possible action.

	Public events in Zurich, Bern, and Geneva spoiled Holcim&rsquo;s 100-year anniversary celebrations. A demonstration outside Holcim&rsquo;s Annual General Shareholders meeting yesterday presented management with a new book documenting the group&rsquo;s abuses around the world, and a manifesto for which signatures are being collected around the world, already signed by global figures such as Noam Chomsky.

Holcim Cement Tainted in Switzerland by Work Rights Abuses in India

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	All eyes are on the Rotten Row magistrates&rsquo; court in the Zimbabwe capital Harare today, 21 March, as six political activists will hear their sentences after being found guilty of &ldquo;conspiring to commit public violence.&rdquo;

	The five men and one woman face up to a decade in jail simply for screening a video of the Arab Spring during an innocent academic meeting on 19 February 2011.

	The repressive Mugabe regime is manipulating the judiciary to stamp out and persecute any opposition; in this case by sentencing activists, and in many other cases by indefinitely dragging out court cases based on fabricated charges.

	The six Zimbabwean activists, Munyaradzi Gwisai, Tafadzwa Choto, Tatenda Mombeyarara, Edson Chakuma, Hopewell Gumbo, and Welcome Zimuto, face jail sentences of up to ten years. They confessed to plotting to overthrow the 88-year-old Mugabe, but these confessions were made while being tortured in custody. They were beaten with wooden planks.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 200px;height: 92px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	The verdict was delivered on 20 March in a packed courtroom with riot police in position, after magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini rejected the group&rsquo;s claim that last year&rsquo;s meeting had meant no harm to Mugabe&rsquo;s regime.

	&ldquo;Watching a video like the one in question is not a crime. But the manner of watching had no good intention,&rdquo; the court was told by magistrate Jarabini, a relative of President Mugabe.

	They were arrested last year, together with 39 other people and initially were charged with treason, which carries the death penalty. But during the course of court proceedings, the charges were reduced and the other 39 people cleared.

	Three of the six, Munyaradzi, Tafadzwa and Tatenda, work with the Zimbabwe Labour Centre a non-profit organisation that gives legal support to unions and workers on labour matters and&nbsp;provides educational programmes. Gwisai is a law lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. Chakuma is a trade union leader.&nbsp;

	The right to meet, discuss events in the world, share ideas and speak openly and freely is a basic human right for which activists should not be victimised and vilified.&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Send your SMS text message &quot;Do NOT send the 6 Harare activists to jail!&quot; now to:

	Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena + 263 712 801 172

	Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri + 263 712 808 290

	Police Minister Kembo Mohadi +263 712 605 424

	Security Minister Didymus Mutasa +263 0712 200 532

Global Indignation over Jail Time That Faces Zimbabwean Activists

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	Schlumberger, the world&rsquo;s largest oilfield services company, has sent a clear indication of its unwillingness to seek solution to a damaging labour relations situation at its Egyptian operations.

	Management of the French-based company in numerous locations and levels throughout the world responded over the past month to letters of different trade unions and activist organisations with a similar response each time, outlining their supposed readiness to solve the dispute in Egypt and launch an investigation.

	However, when ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda offered to come to Egypt to meet Amr Essawi, the Area Manager for Schlumberger in Cairo on 8 March, the offer was ignored.

	In May 2011, the process to establish an independent company-level trade union at Schlumberger Egypt was finalised, as part of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU), the trade union centre established during the final days of the Mubarak regime.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" height="159" src="" width="263" />&nbsp;

	EFITU Founding Congress, February 2012

	On 11 May, when local management was informed of the new union structure, it responded with threats and dismissed the union branch&rsquo;s General Secretary Mohamed, Abd Elrahman. On 3 July, the day of the union&rsquo;s founding general congress, local management then dismissed the union&rsquo;s President, Brother Essam.

	On 5 July, local management summoned union members to the head office and threatened them with dismissal if they did not leave the union. And then on 7 July, local management followed through on an earlier threat and dismissed the union&rsquo;s Assistant General Secretary, Ayman Abd Elmonem.

	No reason or dismissal letter was given to Abd Elmonem. He was simply blocked from entering the workplace. On 12 July, another union member was dismissed in similar circumstances, Mr. Hossam Al-deed Mostafa, again with no written dismissal notice.

	ICEM affiliates who represent Schlumberger employees in Europe and North America have approached management at their prospective national level, each have been promised that the company is committed to find a solution and establish mature systems of industrial relations throughout the company&rsquo;s operations and specifically in Egypt.

	But the leaders of the nascent company-level union for Schlumberger workers in Egypt remain sacked from their positions and refusal to discuss the situation with the ICEM is concerning.

	The ICEM, therefore, intends to expand its campaign with the next phase targeting Schlumberger&rsquo;s clients, the major oil and gas multinationals. Schlumberger employs 2,500 workers in Egypt, 40% of who work for subcontractors at 10 different worksites.&nbsp;

	Register your protest to Schlumberger Chairman Andrew Gould, CEO Paal Kibsgaard, and Egypt Area Manager Amr Essawy by clicking&nbsp;<a href="mailto:gould1@exchange.slb.com;%20pkibsgaard@exchange.slb.com;%20AEssawi2@exchange.slb.com">here</a>.

Schlumberger Ignores ICEM’s Offer of Dialogue

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On 1 January, Rio Tinto&rsquo;s aluminium subsidiary Alcan threw 780 Canadian members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9490 out of work at the Alma smelter and refinery in Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region, Qu&eacute;bec. 
 
The callous lockout, as reported here in this <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4837-USW-Affiliate-in-Québec-Locked-Out-by-Rio-Tinto-at-Aluminium-Plant ">ICEM dispatch</a>, came exactly at contract expiration of a prior five-year labour pact and simultaneously, Rio Tinto did little to hide the fact that because global aluminium prices had slumped, a full 11% of Alcan&rsquo;s workforce would face layoffs. 
 
Last week, the ICEM and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) lodged a strong complaint with Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese over the assault by lockout on Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos d&rsquo;Alma members at this most modern of Alcan&rsquo;s smelting/refining facilities. That letter can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/3.ICEM-IMFletterRioTintoAlma1.18Jan.pdf ">here</a>. 
<img alt="" src="" width="239" height="160" />
photo: lapresse.ca
Trade union affiliates across the world are now being asked to also send letters to Albanese. We ask you to take the attachment herein, modify appropriately, place on your letterheads, and fax to Rio&rsquo;s corporate offices in London and Melbourne. 
 
Those fax numbers are +44 20 7781 1800 (London) and +62 3 9283 3707 (Melbourne). Be sure to e-mail this letter as well to the <a href="mailto:info@icem.org">ICEM</a>, <a href="mailto:unionrights@imfmetal.org">IMF</a>, and the <a href="mailto:bdavis@usw.org">USW</a>. As the USW&rsquo;s global campaign against Rio Tinto for fairness and justice mounts, more and more activity will ensue. 
 
Already, several Canadian trade unions and a few international ones have reached out to the USW and to Local 9490 to offer aid, assistance and support. One notable example came last week when another union representing metalworkers in the region, Le Syndicat National des Employ&eacute;s de l&rsquo;aluminium d&rsquo;Arvida (SNEAA), an affiliate of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), presented USW Local 9490 with an interest-free loan of C$1 million. 
<img alt="" src="" width="229" height="160" />
SNEAA President Alain Gagnon and Local 9490 President Mark Maltais
In making the presentation, SNEAA President Alain Gagnon expressed deep concern over Rio Tinto/Alcan&rsquo;s intransigence in bargaining with fellow Alma metalworkers. 
 
This intransigence is reflected in the single biggest issue in the dispute &ndash; the company&rsquo;s desire to have unlimited contracting out rights. Alcan has substituted the retirement of each full-time, USW-represented worker with a subcontracting employee. Company documentation reveals that the expected ratio of hours worked by subcontractors will go from 10% in 2010 to 27% this year. 
 
When Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos d&rsquo;Alma attempted to put a floor on outsourced work, or to put guidelines on addressing subcontract work, Alcan refused to address such issues. And at midnight, 31 December, Rio Tinto/Alcan showed its contempt toward any such dialogue with a lockout. 
 
Make sure your union takes action and registers its protest with Rio Tinto.&nbsp;

ICEM, Metalworkers Urge Action in Rio Tinto Canadian Lockout

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An agreement was reached yesterday, 22 January, after a marathon 15-hour bargaining session between Bulgarian state-owned Maritsa East Mines (BEH-EAD) and two ICEM affiliates. The settlement ends a seven-day coalminers&rsquo; strike in Stara Zagora province that saw ICEM intervention last week. 
 
The strike started at 20h00 on 15 January and was carried out jointly, cooperatively, and ultimately successfully by the Federation of Independent Miners&rsquo; Unions (KNSB/CITUB) and Podkrepa&rsquo;s Miners&rsquo; Federation. The settlement produced a partial payment to a bonus that was promised the 7,000 miners last July, but more importantly, calls for improved working conditions, an increase in investment at the three open-cast mines, and a commitment not to consider privatisation. 
 
Also, the settlement outlines guidelines to improve health and safety at Bulgaria&rsquo;s largest mining complex, a key point raised in the ICEM intervention. The unions won assurances that the state company will make BGN 20 million (&euro;10.2 million) available for safety. 
<img alt="" src="" width="122" height="159" />
The final talks occurred overnight on 21-22 January in Radnevo in south-central Bulgaria, center of the Maritsa mining and power generation facilities. 
 
In the <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/5.ICEM.Maritsa%20East%20Mines,%20Bulgaria.20Jan.pdf ">ICEM letter</a> to Prime Minister Boyco Borissov and Economy, Energy, Tourism Minister Traicho Traikov, General Secretary Manfred Warda said, &ldquo;Although remuneration issues are part of the dispute, we are of the certain belief that health and safety, lack of adequate equipment, and refusal of mine management to engage in social dialogue as mandated by European social charters are legitimate reasons for miners to withhold their labour.&rdquo; 
 
Maritsa East Mines CEO Evgeni Stoykov had sought to get the strike declared illegal, but on 20 January BEH-EAD withdrew such a petition submitted to a Bulgarian court. Also on that day, the state National Electricity Company (NEK) suspended electric power exports to Turkey, Greece, Serbia and Macedonia in order to cover its own domestic needs. In 2011, NEK exported a total of 10.5 billion KWH to those countries. 
 
The suspension emboldened striking miners, with several hundred manifesting outside the headquarters of the company on 21 January. That sparked the urgency of weekend talks and produced the accord, which both unions said meet their requirements in ending the strike. 
 
The Maritsa East Mines, Bulgaria&rsquo;s largest deposits of lignite coal, supply 90% of the coal for the country&rsquo;s power industry. The mines supply coal to four thermal power stations, three that are state-owned by BEH-EAD and the other one that is owned by ContourGlobal of the US. 
 
Central to the dispute was revocation of an agreement signed on 12 July 2011 over a bonus premium for exceeding 2011 production levels. A targeted level of 27 million tonnes was surpassed and miners, who work 12-hour shifts, produced a total of 33 million tonnes, bringing a revenue stream to the company of BGN 500 million (&euro;255 million). 
 
Although miners did not get their full bonus demands, BGN 1,000 per worker (&euro;509), that was offset by management retreating from cuts to a staffing plan which would have seen 450 jobs, or 6% of the workforce, furloughed. Such downsizing would have affected safety. The unions also won commitments to improve on continual shortages of equipment, spare parts and monitoring devices, which also impacted safety. 
 
Maritsa East miners earn average monthly salaries of BGN 1,500 (&euro;767).

Week-Long Coal Strike Ends in Bulgaria

<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="59" />
The ICEM has responded with anger and outrage over the latest cold-blooded murder of a trade unionist in Colombia. Mauricio Redondo, 36, and his wife, Janeth Ord&oacute;&ntilde;ez Carlosama, were murdered in their home in the village of Tetey&eacute;, in the southern department of Putumayo, on 17 January at 19h30 by two gunmen. 
 
Mauricio Redondo was a provincial leader of ICEM Colombia affiliate Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera (USO) and both he and his wife were activists in a community group that advocated for better working conditions, environmental stewardship, and labour and human rights in the booming oil and natural gas fields of the Putumayo basin in southwest Colombia.
<img alt="" src="" width="240" height="141" />
In fact, four days before the killings,&nbsp;a meeting in the municipality of Orito,&nbsp;at a&nbsp;forum&nbsp;called Primer Foro Petrolero por el Derecho al Trabajo, la Reivindicaci&oacute;n Social y Econ&oacute;mica de Orito, Redondo was an active speaker in talks to open public protests over these issues. According to initial reports, the two gunmen were wearing work uniforms of the local oil contracting company Empresa de Energ&iacute;a del Bajo Putumayo, EEEP (Energy Company of Lower Putumayo) and fired multiple gunshots into the couple. Redondo and Ord&oacute;&ntilde;ez are survived by five young children. 
 
&ldquo;Once again we witness the price that dedicated trade unionists in Colombia pay when they attempt to stand up for a dignified way of life,&rdquo; said General Secretary Manfred Warda, who was in Colombia when the murders happened. 
 
&ldquo;Along with USO, we mourn the grisly deaths of Mauricio Redondo and Janeth Ord&oacute;&ntilde;ez and we call on Colombia&rsquo;s federal and provincial prosecution teams to expend all efforts in apprehending and bringing to justice those responsible.&rdquo; 
 
Mauricio Redondo was employed by Medellin-based P.E.I. Energy, an upstream oil and gas drilling company. He was a leader of the 220-member USO committee in Orito, in which 40% are employees of Ecopetrol and 60% employed by contract companies of the state-held energy company. 
 
The deaths of the couple came just days after three other USO Orito leaders &ndash; Manuel Coronado, Jos&eacute; Socimo Erazo and Julio Vargas &ndash; were threatened by calls made to their mobile telephones. It also came after a bomb threat was directed at the USO regional office in Orito.
<img alt="" src="" width="140" height="105" />
Said Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) Human Rights Director Alberto Vanegas, the worst aspect of the 17 January heinous crimes are that &ldquo;five children were left as orphans. This is what we leave with such murders: orphans and widows throughout the country.&rdquo; 
 
The killings of Mauricio Redondo and Janeth Ord&oacute;&ntilde;ez mark the first murders of trade unionists in Colombia in 2012. In 2011, at least 29 trade union leaders were killed in calculated and cold-blooded political assassinations.

ICEM Condemns Assassination of USO Leader, His Wife in Colombia

<img alt="" height="59" src="" width="120" />

	Tuluy Kalyoncu, the President of ICEM affiliate Turkish Electricity Authority of Cyprus Workers&rsquo; Trade Union, or EL-SEN, easily admits it: without the ironclad clenched collective fist of each and every one of his union&rsquo;s 600 members, the state-run electric company, KIB-TEK, would be on unimpeded course straight into the hands of a private-sector generating company favorable to Ankara.

	And with that, so would a number of other state-owned enterprises in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus become pawns to the profiteers. EL-SEN, together with its national labour centre, T&Uuml;RK-SEN, deploying both fortitude and strategic vision, are clearly leading a growing mass movement in Northern Cyprus that includes opposition political parties, NGOs and most other unions.

	A sampling of that mass movement took place when many of those groups held a first-step manifestation in Lefkoşa on 30 January. This action was tame, but unless the ruling government retreats from Turkey&rsquo;s neo-liberal agenda, upcoming street actions will be powerful and ever more demanding.

	<img alt="" height="161" src="" width="224" />

	EL-SEN Leaders at 30 January Manifestation

	The EL-SEN and T&Uuml;RK-SEN leadership of this movement was vividly seen in a series of events that began 19 January with a paralyzing strike that shut the electric grid, except for parts that the union and its members deemed life-essential. And that was then reflected in government&rsquo;s retreat, albeit temporarily, when it published in its official gazette a union-submitted restructuring plan for KIB-TEK.

	That restructuring calls for a board of directors that is fully autonomous from the government, and one that will take decisive action to make KIB-TEK feasibly sound. EL-SEN objects to all government departments, agencies, and quasi-public institutions receiving free electrical power from KIB-TEK, for instance.

	The government&rsquo;s publication of the union&rsquo;s restructuring plan came five days after it declared the strike illegal and four days after EL-SEN did quit the strike, but continued a work stoppage through civil disobedience. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4849-Northern-Cyprus-Imports-Scabs-to-Break-Electric-Utility-Work-Stoppage">ICEM news article</a> here.) It also came after the union received broad support, including remarkable solidarity from the Free Pancyprian Union of Electricity Authority Employees (FPUEAE) on the Greek side of the island, who made sure no power from the south was exported northward.

	But the struggle is far from over. The ruling government still has a draft bill before the Northern Cypriot Parliament to push ahead with privatisation. EL-SEN has put forth a different legislative proposal that would keep the utility in state hands and restructure it into a viable, low-cost energy provider that benefits all citizens of Northern Cyprus.

	EL-SEN leadership and Prime Minister İrsen K&uuml;&ccedil;&uuml;k and his team will meet this week to discuss this alternative legislation. Most importantly, a plan must come forward to make the ill-managed company solvent.

	&ldquo;Our struggle is now with the strength of our membership,&rdquo; said EL-SEN President Kalyoncu. &ldquo;We have proven that 600 workers can stand and resist a political decision,&rdquo; adding that resilient vigilance has now taken hold by El-SEN union members and it must resonate with all citizens of Northern Cyprus.

El-SEN Draws Cypriot Government into Electric Privatisation Stalemate

Archive

Garment Workers’ Activist Brutally Murdered in Bangladesh

Guinea’s Unions Take Strike Action Against Rusal’s Aluminium, Bauxite Operations

Free Somyot NOW! Unionists Urged to Send Letters Demanding Thai Justice!

Holcim Cement Tainted in Switzerland by Work Rights Abuses in India

Global Indignation over Jail Time That Faces Zimbabwean Activists

Schlumberger Ignores ICEM’s Offer of Dialogue

ICEM, Metalworkers Urge Action in Rio Tinto Canadian Lockout

Week-Long Coal Strike Ends in Bulgaria

ICEM Condemns Assassination of USO Leader, His Wife in Colombia

El-SEN Draws Cypriot Government into Electric Privatisation Stalemate

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