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At the Fifth Congress of the Mining and Metallurgical Trade Union of Kyrgyzstan (MMTUK) in Bishkek on 3 June, the union’s Central Committee reported grave safety conditions in both mining and metal operations. The committee said the number of accidents continues to grow yearly, and cautioned its report does not give the full picture since inspections were only carried out in and around 34 union-represented installations. 
 
MMTUK’s technical labour inspection has investigated 111 accidents over the past few years, and found a total of 525 violations. The Central Committee said that between 2005 and 2009, the number of industrial accidents in which persons were injured or killed increased five-fold.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Kyrgyzstan.png" width="230" height="106"/>
It said that number most probably is much higher if inspections were to be done in workplaces without the presence of a union. The union’s statistics also did not take into account illnesses brought on by occupational disease. 
 
MMTUK said four workers died in its operations in 2009. It also said that antiquated equipment was a partial reason for the increased accident reason, and also reported that one-third of all the accidents that the union investigated occurred in road-traffic accidents involving industrial transport. 
 
The Congress also noted that despite several trans-national companies taking up operations in Kyrgyzstan, the global financial crisis, as well as the social, political, and economic upheaval inside the Central Asian country, has caused deteriorating work conditions. 
 
In April, citizens’ unrest forced the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyey and since, civil strife has been a regular occurrence in the southern part of the country.

Mining, Metallurgical Union of Kyrgyzstan Reports Upsurge in Safety Mishaps

Global Unions have released a set of principles to protect the rights of workers by focusing on the impact of temporary employment agencies on employment. The principles address both the exploitation and abuse of workers provided by temporary work agencies as well as the damage to regular employment relationships caused by the misuse of these agencies. 
 
In recent decades, the use of temporary agencies to supply workers has exploded all over the world, spreading also to sectors and occupations that had previously depended on directly employed workers. Not only do temporary agency workers typically receive lower pay and fewer benefits, when the financial crisis rapidly became an employment crisis, temporary agency workers were among its first victims. Many companies simply terminated their contracts with temp agencies so that the workers did not receive the minimum compensation or social benefits that they would have received as direct employees. 
 
The expansion of temporary agency labour, together with other forms of temporary, casual and precarious employment, has been promoted by international organisations like the World Bank, the IMF and the OECD as “labour market flexibility.” It has contributed to a general erosion of workers' ability to exercise their rights to join trade unions and bargain collectively with their employers, thereby posing a major challenge to the labour movement. These principles seek to address that challenge. 
 
Although there are varying approaches taken by trade unions in different countries and sectors to dealing with temporary employment agencies, ranging from total bans to partial bans to strict regulation, all Global Unions have reached agreement on a number of key principles. 
 
They include: 
 
1.) the primary form of employment should be permanent, open-ended and direct; 
2.) agency workers should be covered under the same collective bargaining agreement as other workers in the user enterprise: 
temporary agency workers should receive equal treatment in all respects; 
3.) the use of temporary agencies should not increase the gender gap on wages, social protections, and conditions; 
4.) temporary work agencies must not be used to eliminate permanent and direct employment relationships; and 
5.) the use of agency workers should never be used to weaken trade unions or to undermine organising or collective bargaining rights. 
 
The Global Unions’ principles also emphasise the special dangers for migrant workers, who are often engaged by temporary agencies or other intermediaries. Abuses of migrant workers supplied by agencies are all too common. They include the denial of trade union and other human rights, human trafficking, confiscation of passports, deceptive practices with respect to wages and working conditions, and the denial of legal redress in the countries in which they work. 
 
Governments are called on to seriously address the problems of workers supplied by temporary agencies through legislation that defines the employment relationship and ensures that triangular, or indirect, employment does not result in any loss of rights or social protections. Governments are urged to pay special attention to occupational health and safety hazards faced by agency workers and to strengthen labour inspection, so that laws are properly implemented and respected. 
 
Manfred Warda, General Secretary of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) and chair of group which developed the principles for the Council of Global Unions (CGU), stated: “The Global Unions agreement on Principles on Temporary Work Agencies will lead to better collective action by the international trade union movement. 
 
“Global Unions are rightly focusing on the rights of contract and agency workers and on the impact of precarious employment, a growing practice that is one of the primary reasons for the widespread violation of rights and growing inequalities among workers in our societies. Workers dispatched by temporary work agencies all suffer from the lack of a direct employment relationship with the very employer that controls their work and determines their working conditions. 
 
“If we want more, rather than less social justice, this issue must become a priority not only for trade unions, but for governments and employers throughout the world.” 
 
For the full text of “Global Union Principles on Temporary Work Agencies,” click <a href="/en/73-Contract-and-Agency-Labour/3861-Global-Union-Principles-on-Temporary-Work-Agencies" type="internal">here</a>. 
 
“Global Unions” is a term for Global Union Federations (GUFs), which represent national trade unions by sector and occupation, together with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD, which represent national trade union centres (multi-sectoral).For more information on Global Unions, visit its site <a href="http://www.global-unions.org">here</a>.  
 
For further information, contact Fons Vannieuwenhuys, ICEM, <a href="mailto:fons@icem.org">fons@icem.org</a>, +32 2 224 0341 or +32 473 18 6770 (mobile); or Jenny Holdcroft, International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), <a href="mailto:jholdcroft@imfmetal.org">jholdcroft@imfmetal.org</a>, +41 22 308 5034 or +41-79-616 0103 (mobile).

Global Unions Adopt Set Principles on Temporary Agency Work

International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM)
 International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF)
International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) 
Stronger Together - Fighting for a Sustainable Future 

We, the global industrial trade union federations representing workers in the metal, chemical, energy, mining, paper, rubber, textiles, materials, and related sectors, believe we have a golden opportunity to demand that the global economy be transformed from an unsustainable “casino” model into something that supports a sustainable environment and a sustainable society. 
 
The financial crisis that very nearly destroyed the world’s economy is only the most obvious recent result of the same short-sighted thinking that has jeopardized the global environment, threatened human health, and destabilized society. In particular, the runaway gambling by banks, hedge funds and other finance institutions has had catastrophic implications for millions of working people. 
 
Working women and men, their families, and the communities that depend on them have paid heavily for the crash of the casino economy through massive job losses, decreased wages, and reduced benefits. The global trade union movement strongly opposes any attempt to make working people assume the major burden of the financial crisis through regressive tax reforms. We believe it is time for the people who caused this mess to pay to clean it up. 
 
The failure of world leaders in December 2009 in Copenhagen to reach an ambitious, fair and binding agreement on greenhouse gases is another example of short-term greed trumping long-term need. The price of inaction will be paid by future generations. From broad concerns like global warming to more specific examples like the Deepwater Horizon disaster, nothing about a de-regulated market ensures the protection the environment. 
 
The inability of the deregulated financial market to value the long-term health of the economy, the environment, or society must now be clear to any thinking person. The ICEM, IMF and ITGLWF are showing the way to a sustainable future by calling for re-regulation of the global financial market, including among other instruments the introduction of a financial transaction tax that would raise billions to tackle poverty and climate change. We believe this will generate substantial revenues to pay for the costs of the crisis, climate change measures, and official development assistance while reducing the pressures that could cause a renewed financial crisis. Coupled with fair and binding environmental regulations, and strong social programs, we can shape a prosperous and sustainable future. 
 
Industrial workers have a central role to play in building a future that lifts people out of poverty while protecting the environment. Through industrial and political action, our three global federations demand that the world’s leaders take decisive actions to solve the economic, social and environmental crises. 
 
The economic crisis has not just been about how things are made, bought and sold, but also about people. Evidence shows that many companies that have begun hiring again are doing so with fixed-term or temporary workers. Such precarious work is bad for all workers. It creates cut-price labor that drives down wages. It increases the gap between rich and poor and amplifies the unfair practices that already disadvantage women, young and migrant workers. 
 
We believe the upcoming G8 and G20 summit meetings in Canada provide an opportunity for world leaders to address the legitimate concerns of industrial workers for social justice and long-term employment policies. The solution lies in global governance. Financial markets must be re-regulated, and the environment must be better protected. Jobs, workers’ rights, social protection, quality public services, and sustainability are at the heart of our proposal for a new system for global governance. 
 
We therefore call on world leaders to: 
• Ensure that global financial markets are regulated, including as an initial step better disclosure of transactions, strengthened monitoring schemes and regulation of leveraging; 
• Ban the creation or use of financial instruments with no verifiable real-world value, such as certain derivatives and swaps; 
• Introduce an international financial transaction tax system to be levied on transactions between financial institutions. A tiny tax on financial transactions would make a massive difference in the way we face up to the challenges of today. Even at just 0.05 percent experts have estimated that an international transaction tax system could eventually raise as much as $400 billion every year - money that could be used to save our planet and build a future fairer for all. 
• Make sustainable development a criteria of trade and investment deals; with balanced and fair access to markets, and transparent monitoring mechanisms of all trade and investment deals past and future; 
• Assess the social, economic and environmental sustainability impact of potential trade agreements prior to the conclusion of negotiations; 
• Consider the employment repercussions of trade liberalization in the negotiation of multilateral and bilateral trade agreements – to be assessed with full involvement of trade unions; 
• Respect fundamental workers' and trade union rights as set out in the ILO Core Labour Standards; to be included in all bilateral and multilateral agreements on trade and investments along with effective enforcement mechanisms; 
• Create jobs that meet the ILO definition of “decent work”. We recognize that industrial change is happening, but challenge the legal and political rules that allow precarious work to flourish; 
• Reach an ambitious, fair, and binding, agreement on greenhouse gases at COP16 in Mexico; and 
• Ensure that funds in the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund earmarked as part of the Copenhagen Accord are available to trade unions for vocational and educational purposes as part of the broader principle of Just Transition. 
 
In short we believe that world leaders can no longer ignore the big problems facing the world today. We are calling for an innovative, international regulatory response that will boldly deal with global issues.

ICEM-IMF-ITGLWF Declaration: Toronto, Canada, 19 June 2010

Meeting in Toronto on 19 June, 270 national trade union leaders from 50 countries put forward a stern Declaration to the G8 and G20 that a radically changed global social order must occur, one prioritizing security of employment and preservation of the environment. The Declaration, pointed at the G8 and G20 summits this week in Toronto, came from a “Triple Crisis of Sustainability” forum, a meeting of union leaders representing 55 million workers from industrial and manufacturing sectors. 

The Declaration was a joint undertaking of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM), the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), and the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF). It was done with local cooperation by five trade unions representing industrial and other workers in Canada: Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), the Power Workers Union (PWU), the United Steelworkers (USW), and the International Association of Machinists (IAM).
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006Canada8.jpg" width="280" height="186"/>
  
Gianni Alioti, Federazione Lavoratori Metalmeccanici, FLM, Italy
At the core of the Declaration is a demand that finance and political ministers put in place a stringent global financial governance system, introduce an international financial transaction tax, and reach an ambitious and binding agreement on greenhouse gas emissions at Cop16 in Mexico later this year. 

The 10-point Declaration also calls for guarantees that fundamental workers’ and trade union rights be respected in trade and investment deals; that sustainable development be made a criteria in trade and investment agreements; and that thorough assessment and assurance of social, economic, and environment well-being is contained in trade agreements. The full Declaration can be found <a href="/en/97-Sustainable-Development-Health-and-Safety/3875-ICEM-IMF-ITGLWF-Declaration:-Toronto-Canada-19-June-2010" type="internal">here</a>.
“Industrial workers have a central role to play in building a future that lifts people out of poverty while protecting the environment,” states the Declaration. “Through industrial and political action, our three global federations demand that the world’s leaders take decisive actions to solve the economic, social, and environmental crises.” 

Regarding the timing of the Declaration, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, “The global economy is still on life-support and continued stimulus is needed. Re-regulating markets, a move to full employment, and a set of social stabilizers to reduce a rapid slide into poverty by hundreds of millions of people is essential.”
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006Canada5.jpg" width="280" height="187"/>
IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina 
Added IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina: “Industry is the locomotive of national economies, as a provider of good quality jobs with decent wages and working hours, and the right to join a union. We need to limit precarious work by legislation and collective agreements, and develop industrial policies for sustainable development both in industrialised and developing countries." 
 
Geneva-based ICEM has 467 trade union affiliates in 132 countries, and represents 20 million workers. The IMF, also based in Geneva, represents the collective interests of 25 million metalworkers from more than 200 unions in 100 countries. The Brussels-based ITGLWF covers 217 trade unions in 110 countries. 

For more, contact: Dick Blin, ICEM Information Officer, <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +1 416 361 1000 Ext. 3344, +41 79 734 8994 (mobile); or Alex Ivanou, IMF Communications, <a href="mailto:aivanou@imfmetal.org">aivanou@imfmetal.org</a>, +41 22 308 5033.

Global Union Federations Demand New Priorities from G8, G20 Summits

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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

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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>.

Archive

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Global Labour’s Joint 1 May Statement

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Global Labour’s Joint 1 May Statement

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