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	In the ILO&rsquo;s annual report on global labour conditions released early this week, the UN agency predicts that European social unrest will heighten this year as governments continue to forge ahead with ill-advised austerity policies. It also forecasts that over 202 million people worldwide will be unemployed in 2012.

	<a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/world-of-work/">The World of Work Report 2012</a> states that 2012 global unemployment will increase to 202 million from 196 million in 2011. The report says this figure is likely to increase by another five million in 2013, and up to 210 million by 2016.

	&ldquo;Four years into the global crisis, labour market imbalances are becoming more structural, and therefore more difficult to eradicate,&rdquo; the report states. &ldquo;Certain groups, such as the long-term unemployed, are at risk of exclusion from the labour market.

	&ldquo;For a growing proportion of workers who do have a job, employment has become more precarious. In advanced economies, involuntary part-time employment and temporary employment have increased in two-thirds and more than half of these economies.&rdquo;

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 348px;height: 154px" width="390" />

	The ILO report condemns the austerity policies in many industrialised countries, making the inevitable obvious: employers gaining greater latitude to sack workers, lower pay and corresponding social benefits, with an effect of reducing &ldquo;job stability and exacerbate inequalities while failing to boost employment levels.&rdquo;

	The result has been vast increases of long-term unemployed, with upwards of 40% of job seekers in developed nations between the ages of 25 and 49 not having worked in more than a year.

	The ILO said societies are &ldquo;becoming increasingly anxious about the lack of decent jobs.&rdquo; It says that 106 countries surveyed that have available data, 57 of them indicate an increase in the Social Unrest Index for 2011 over 2010.

	&ldquo;The two regions of the world that show the most heightened risk of unrest are Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa but there are also important increases in advanced economies and also in Central and Eastern Europe.&rdquo;

	The ILO report expressed grave concern at the way young people are being shut out of labour markets, as well as the rise of short-term contracts, which, it says, affect young adults and women the most. &ldquo;Youth unemployment rates have increased in about 80% of the advanced economies,&rdquo; the report says.

ILO Report Says Joblessness, Social Unrest Will Persist in 2012

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	Daniel Aguirre Piedrahita, the General Secretary of SINALCORTEROS, Colombia&rsquo;s Nation Union of Sugar Cane Cutters, was assassinated last Friday night, 27 April, as he accompanied his wife, Helena, to make a telephone call in their Casilda neighbourhood of Florida municipality, Valle del Cauca department in west-central Colombia.

	He was shot twice in the head by a cowardly assassin only 70 metres from his home. In a statement, SINALCORTEROS said the cold-blooded murder occurs in a continued context of violence and intolerance of trade union work in Colombia. It urged members and activists not to let this &ldquo;reprehensibly violent action torpedo our union&rdquo; and derail activities, but rather to &ldquo;reaffirm our actions and our mission.&rdquo;

	The government of Colombia did put out a statement early this week condemning the killing. Deputy Minister of Labour David Luna Sanchez said the ministry supports the Interior Ministry&rsquo;s Protection Unit director&rsquo;s call for an investigation to determine if the killing was related to union activity.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 213px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	Aguirre, 35, was a stalwart leader of sugar cane cutters and their fight to bust the chains of servitude inflicted by sugar mill employers who considered them self-employed independent contractors.

	He was instrumental in 2005 in forming SINALCORTEROS, now an affiliate of the International Food and Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF), through strikes. He also led strikes of 18,000 sugar cane cutters in 2008 in both Valle del Cauca and Cauca departments that two years later resulted in collective agreements, labour pacts he instituted that in part made recruitment less cumbersome.

	More recently, he had been advocating revisions to Colombia&rsquo;s labour statutes to bring them up to ILO standards and he was a fierce opponent of the Free Trade Agreement with the US, something he felt would lead to exploitation of workers and the product that they harvested.

	Daniel Aguirre becomes the seventh Colombian trade unionist killed this year, and the 61st since Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos took office in August 2010. He is survived by his wife and three daughters, ages 14, 10 and 4.

	A <a href="http://www.rel-uita.org/internacional/ddhh/Rel-sinalcorteros_asesinato_daniel_aguirre.htm">letter of condolence</a> (in Spanish) from the IUF to SINALCORTEROS President Alfonso Viafara can be viewed here.

Coward Guns Down Colombian Sugar Cane Cutters’ General Secretary on 27 April

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	Warning strikes in German metalworking, engineering and electronic sectors will broaden beginning today with the break-down last week of third round bargaining between IG Metall and employers&rsquo; associations in several states.&nbsp; Upon expiration of a labour peace accord on 28 April, 2,500 German metalworkers began the warning strikes at select locations, taking creative and imaginative actions.

	Talks for 3.6 million German workers represented by IG Metall began in several states in late winter. Bargaining was stalemated in the last state talks, on 26 April, after employers put forth a less than satisfactory salary offer. They also refused to agree to union demands assuring full work guarantees for apprentices once their training tenures are over and more job rights for contract and agency workers.

	The offer put forward by employers&rsquo; association Gesamtmetall through its state chapters on 24 April was termed &ldquo;a provocation&rdquo; by IG Metall, thus causing mobilisation over the weekend when the peace accord expired. The proposal saw employers offering a 3% increase over 14 months, of through June 2013. The union is seeking a 6.5% pay rise over 12 months.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 216px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	The union&rsquo;s goal is based on a run-up in productivity development, as well as projected inflation in 2012 and 2013. Guaranteed opportunity for apprentices and contract workers is also based on the fact that Germany currently experiences a shortage of skilled workers.

	The 6.5% wage proposal is indicative of German industrial workers being the driving force in a nation that is Europe&rsquo;s biggest industrial power and strongest economy, with high pay and workers&rsquo; savings being the wellspring of that strength.

	Last weekend&rsquo;s warning strikes began on 28 April in the eastern city of Zwickau in Saxony state, where hundreds of young metalworkers conducted a motorcycle parade. Other demonstrations over the weekend occurred in Bavaria, Berlin, NorthRhine-Westphalia, and Nordenham in northern Germany, where workers from several plants held a protest and mass breakfast early on Sunday morning.

	In Ingolstadt in Bavaria, some 80 apprentices gathered the night before and flashed a light-projector against the wall of a factory expressing their demand for job guarantees. Workers from a TDK factory in Munich held a torchlight parade that same night, and autoworkers from a Daimler Mercedes-Benz plant in Rasiah, Baden-W&uuml;rttemberg state, protested on Sunday.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 272px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;

	The actions continued on 30 April with loud protests in cities and streets near a Daimler Mercedes-Benz factory in W&ouml;erth-am-Main in Rheinland-Pfalz, at a MAN diesel plant in Augsburg, in Baden-W&uuml;rttemberg in Bavaria, where lead talks will resume on 8 May.

	Yesterday on May Day in Hamburg, IG Metall President Berthold Huber pledged that the union will not be deterred from its agenda, and will bring the dispute into June if employers do not adhere to union demands. If upcoming talks do not produced the desired results, IG Metall is planning continuous strike actions commencing on 16 May.

	Besides a number of further warning actions today, mass demonstrations tomorrow, 3 May, are set at an Audi factory on Neckarsulm and a Porsche plant in Stuttgart. Some 900,000 of the 3.6 million workers affected are employed by Germany&rsquo;s primary auto-makers.

German Warning Strikes Begin in Metals, Electronics Sectors

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A year ago tomorrow, 28 June, Honeywell Inc. ruthlessly locked 228 American steelworkers off their jobs at a uranium conversion plant in Metropolis, Illinois. Two days ago, on 25 June, those union members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669, together with 800 supporters, held a one-year anniversary rally in the Metropolis town square. 
 
The mood was somber but angry due to Honeywell&rsquo;s economic stranglehold on workers&rsquo; lives, yet defiant mainly because the company has dared to risk the safety and well-being of 6,400 residents of this Ohio River city by operating the plant during the lockout. 
 
In Metropolis, Honeywell mills yellow-cake uranium into uranium hexafluoride (UF6) that is frozen and then sold to companies for nuclear power applications. For the past nine months, Honeywell has been using scabs provided by a contractor to do this dangerous work. 
<img src="" width="159" height="199" alt="" />
USW District 7 Director Jim Robinson
At Saturday&rsquo;s rally, workers and community members took notice once again to the dangers an outside workforce brings to their city: on 22 June, the US Labor Department&rsquo;s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) levied 17 serious workplace safety violations against the company and its scab workers. 
 
The violations stem from a 22 December 2010 release of hydrogen fluoride (HF) vapors. OHSA citations include failure to address human factors in operating valves on HF tanks, failure to establish written procedures to maintain the integrity of process equipment, failure to establish and implement written procedures to manage changes to process chemicals, equipment and procedures, and a deficient incident report that did not include factors contributing to the vapor release. The 17 violations mean US$119,000 in fines if Honeywell is unable to negotiate that amount downward. 
 
The 22 December HF vapor release was not the only time Honeywell has put the community at risk. On 5 September 2010, two days after the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission unbelievably gave approval for Honeywell to re-start the final two steps of a four-step uranium hexafluoride converting process, Metropolis was shook by a loud boom. 
 
Inside the plant, accumulated hydrogen reacted with fluorine gas during a venting process, causing the boom. Fortunately, the accident occurred in a non-regulated area of operation, meaning away from the handling of yellow cake uranium. 
 
For workers and community supporters who gathered Saturday, these incidents have become a daily reminder of the threats posed by a hugely profitable company as it unnecessarily tries to spiral downward work terms and conditions on a skilled and unionised workforce. 
<img src="" width="131" height="214" alt="" />
Metropolis, Illinois, is Concerned with Safety
To be sure, USW Local 7-669 and Honeywell would already have a new labour contract and experienced workers would have been back on the job if it had not been for the company reneging on a deal. In bargaining on 6 June, the two sides reached a compromise and a tentative agreement was imminent. Honeywell&rsquo;s negotiators said it would draft the agreed-upon language and formally present it the next day in talks. 
 
But on 7 June, the company withdrew bargaining table agreement from the day before to maintain overtime pay after eight and 12 hours worked, and returned to its original and regressive proposal of time-and-a-half pay only after 40 hours had been worked. Local 7-669&rsquo;s bargaining team already had made compromises to end the lockout. But Honeywell&rsquo;s bad-faith reversal meant the company was not ready for the lockout to end. 
 
The effect was another insult aimed at the community and at steelworkers of Local 7-669, who most assuredly will return &ndash; perhaps soon &ndash; to their jobs but with a bitter taste in their mouths about all things Honeywell. 
 
In the three weeks since the failed settlement, Honeywell has publicly chastised Local 7-669 for failing to provide the company with further bargaining dates. Local union President Darrell Lillie made it clear at the 25 June anniversary rally that Honeywell can now end the lockout with a telephone call or fax over the final conclusive issues. 
 
The overtime issue is foremost. Other issues to be resolved, but not considered deal threatening, are company insistence that workers who take Family and Medical Leave under the US federal statute, must concurrently take vacation leave; a different pension pan for future new hires; and company-paid meal allowance for staff who work overtime hours. 
 
At the Saturday, 25 June rally, headlined by USW District 7 Director Jim Robinson, who travelled seven hours together with steelworkers from Chicago and northern Indiana on buses to southern Illinois to support Local 7-669, Illinois state legislators Brandon Phelps and Gary Forby told the community that they will now commence hearings in the state capital of Springfield on Honeywell&rsquo;s reckless disregard for community safety. 
 
ICEM coverage of the US company&rsquo;s callous social conduct in its home country can be found at these four links: <a href="/en/3-Energy-Oil-and-Gas/4429-EMCEF-EMF-EPSU-Condemn-Honeywell-Lockout-in-US ">15 May 2011</a>, <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4120-Talks-Again-Fail-in-Honeywell-s-US-Lockout-of-Steelworkers ">29 November 2010</a>, <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4066-Talks-Fail-Between-USW-Honeywell-in-US-Uranium-Lockout ">18 October 2010</a>, <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3977-Lockout-of-USW-represented-Uranium-Processing-Plant-in-US-Continues ">6 September 2010</a>.

Steelworkers Mark Year-long Honeywell Lockout in US

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The&nbsp;ICEM today condemned the bad-faith bargaining strategy of BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) in coal talks in Australia. At the same time, it pledged full support to Queensland miners, who today commence a second justified set at industrial actions inside BMA&rsquo;s rich coking-coal mines of Queensland&rsquo;s Bowen Basin. 

The Geneva-based ICEM, representing 20 million workers globally, condemns BMA for side-stepping the Single Bargaining Unit (SBU) of 4,000 workers and attempting to justify its regressive workplace demands in the public arena. 

Three unions affiliated with the ICEM &ndash; Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU), and the Communications, Electrical, Plumbing Union (CEPU) &ndash; are legitimately enjoined as the SBU, but have seen BMA reject honest dialogue on major issues such as work rights, salaries, and social benefits for subcontract workers, and job security for Australian workers employed by BMA and legitimately represented by the three unions. 

BMA instead has flaunted its unwanted agenda in paid advertisements and shameless pay boasting in central and eastern Queensland. Because of this, the ICEM fully and unequivocally supports the 24 June second round of strike actions at BMA&rsquo;s seven mines and alerts miners and other workers of BMA that they have a firm global ally in the ICEM with their three unions. 

In a 22 June letter to leaders of the three unions, ICEM General Secretary Warda said: &ldquo;As miners and others in Queensland at BMA begin a second round of industrial actions this weekend, please extend to each and every one of them the principled Support and Solidarity of the ICEM and its family of 467 trade unions throughout the world. Let them know that the eyes of the global trade union movement are on their courageous fight to get a just and deserved enterprise labour agreement with BMA.&rdquo; See the <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/63.ICEM.BMA.CFMEU,AMWU,ETU,CEPU.Australia.22June.pdf">full ICEM letter</a> here. 

The ICEM stands solidly behind BMA workers who begin lawful 12-hour rolling strikes tonight at BMA&rsquo;s Blackwater mine, and then Saturday and Sunday nights, 25-26 June, at Saraji, Norwich Park, Gregory Crinum, Peak Downs, and Goonyella Riverside mines. And the ICEM condemns the attack on the strike by BMA, as if it was illegitimate. It is not. 

The ICEM believes BMA&rsquo;s tactics reflect poorly on the joint venture&rsquo;s equal parents &ndash; BHP Billiton and Mitsubishi &ndash; and on BMA&rsquo;s standing in metallurgical coal markets. Following the breakdown of talks on 20-21 June, the ICEM will monitor this dispute and stands ready in the event it escalates.

ICEM Condemns Tactics of BHP Billiton, Mitsubishi in Australia Coal Talks

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On 19 November 2010, a massive methane gas blast inside Pike River Coal Ltd.&rsquo;s New Zealand colliery killed 29 miners, including 11 members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and 13 contract workers. In the 15 weeks since, the government of Prime Minister John Keys has let down the victims&rsquo; families on the recovery of bodies, and now has barred the EPMU from federal funds for legal representation in the follow up investigation. 
 
On 14 February, the Key government announced legal cost assistance for the EPMU to the Royal Commission of Inquiry&rsquo;s investigation was denied. 
 
Attorney General Chris Finlayson called the union an &ldquo;advocacy organisation&rdquo; and said there should be no extra help extended to the EPMU in &ldquo;doing its job for its members.&rdquo; The government will pay the legal costs for families of victims and for all contractors in the commission&rsquo;s inquiry, which is expected to begin late this year with a report out no later than March 2012. 
 
&ldquo;The EPMU has a material stake in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Pike River coal mine disaster,&rdquo; said National Secretary Andrew Little, adding that any one of the 65 EPMU members in the 120-member staff of Pike River Coal Ltd. could have been a victim. 
 
&ldquo;The government has overlooked the union&rsquo;s legitimate interest in all of this,&rdquo; said Little. 
 
A month before this mid-February decision, the Key government lowered the boom on families of the 29 miners by sealing the South Island mine, announcing a recovery plan had failed, and stating there was no credible way to retrieve the 29 bodies. 
<img alt="" src="" width="136" height="104" />
Families&rsquo; spokesman Bernie Monk
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bloody sad day for New Zealand,&rdquo; said families&rsquo; spokesman Bernie Monk on 14 January. Monk&rsquo;s 23-year-old son Michael died inside the mine. &ldquo;They have not come to the families at all. How the hell are we going to get the truth if they don&rsquo;t go in?&rdquo; 
 
Key said in a press report that he made no promises to family members that remains of victims would be recovered. 
 
On 27 January, a chief coroner&rsquo;s inquest said all 29 likely died within minutes of the first blast on 19 November. On 24 November, a second major blast rocked the horizontal mine shafts and then two more explosions occurred in the days following. 
 
A major issue in all investigations is sure to be location of large ventilation fans inside the mine, an unusual location in coal mining where methane gas is prevalent. Initial reports state that an electrical outage shut two large ventilation fans inside the mine. The coroner&rsquo;s inquest said an electrician, Russell Smith, ventured into the mine to check on the outage and simultaneously, at 15h44 on 19 November, a 50-second explosion occurred. Some 600 metres in the mine, Smith came upon 24-year-old Daniel Rockhouse, an equipment operator who had been thrown from his machine. 
<img alt="" src="" width="250" height="157" />
NZ Congress of Trade Unions President Helen Kelly with Ian Murray and Tim Whyte, CFMEU Australia, at Pike River Memorial Service
The two managed to escape 108 metres up a ladder inside a ventilation shaft, exiting the mine at 17h26. The coroner&rsquo;s inquest grants death certificates to the families. But their bodies remain locked inside the Pike River mine. 
 
In a twist of fate last week, the trustee for the Pike River Disaster Relief Trust, Greymouth Mayor Tony Kokshoorn, urged donors to shift their contributions to Kiwi earthquake relief efforts. The mine trust has received over 20,000 contributions totaling NZ$7 million. 
 
Some donations, Kokshoorn said, were earmarked for specific purposes, while NZ$6.5 million is targeted to provide financial help to families of the 29. He said the fund would begin transferring funds into individual family trusts, with a priority to place funds in trust deeds of dependents of the victims.

Aftermath of NZ’s Pike River Mine Tragedy Turns Ugly

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ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person Phee Jungsun reached out last week to New Zealand trade union affiliates in the immediate aftermath of the 22 February earthquake. The 6.3 magnitude quake has claimed the lives of 147 people, with another 200 persons missing and feared dead. 
 
National Distribution Union (NDU) General Secretary Robert Reid said the building his union&rsquo;s offices are housed and NDU partly owns, the Christchurch Trade Union Centre on Armagh Street, was badly damaged from the quake. Return to work there is uncertain. The NDU&rsquo;s Christchurch offices are on the fourth floor of the labour building. 
 
&ldquo;All NDU staff and we think all our members in Christchurch are OK, although many have damage to their homes,&rdquo; he added. 
<img src="" width="196" height="200" alt="" />
NDU General Secretary Robert Reid
National Secretary Andrew Little of the Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) said, &ldquo;EPMU personnel are unscathed but we are still ascertaining the impact on our members and their workplaces.&rdquo; 
 
Little said Christchurch, New Zealand&rsquo;s second largest city, suffered &ldquo;a lot of destruction and it will take a long time for the city to recover.&rdquo; He added: &ldquo;The shake was a very violent one.&rdquo; 
 
Some 600 search and rescue teams are at work in Christchurch and the estimated damages range from NZ$4 billion (US$3 billion) to NZ$16 billion (US$12 billion.) 
 
The 22 February earthquake is the second in less than six months in New Zealand. In September, a 7.1 quake hit some 40 kilometres from Christchurch, but caused less damage because it occurred in a less populated and rural area. Several Kiwi cities sit atop a series of faults connected to Alpine Fault, a subterranean mass where the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates slide across one another.

NDU Christchurch Offices Damaged in New Zealand Earthquake

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The 55th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women is running in New York City at UN headquarters. The annual Commissions runs from 22 February to 4 March and some 2,000 delegates from 27 nations are in attendance. On opening day, they heard former Chile President and current UN Under-Secretary General for Women Michele Bachelet. 
 
Nearly 200 trade union women are participating in the annual conference, which this year has as its theme access and participation for girls and women in education, training, science, and technology. 
 
The trade union women, behind their union banners and in step with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Education International (EI), and Public Services International (PSI), also used opening day to join New York area trade unionists at Fox News broadcast offices in Manhattan to protest legislative attacks on public-sector collective bargaining rights in the state of Wisconsin. &ldquo;We are Wisconsin&rdquo; was the unified chant protesters shouted at America&rsquo;s right-wing mouthpiece. 
<img alt="" src="" width="132" height="188" />
Michele Bachelet
Inside the 55th UN Women&rsquo;s Commission, trade union women called for full rights and protections for domestic workers by adoption of a Domestic Workers&rsquo; Convention. The Convention is to be considered at this June&rsquo;s 100th Labour Conference of the ILO. EI Deputy General Secretary Jan Eastman delivered a statement on the subject in a plenary calling for &ldquo;full opportunities for education and training for girls and women &hellip; leading to productive employment and decent work.&rdquo; 
 
This year&rsquo;s Commission on the Status of Women sees the merger of four UN gender institutions into one, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and Women&rsquo;s Empowerment. Bachelet said in her opening remarks this &ldquo;has a unique and clear mandate to help ensure a seamless relationship&rdquo; between Member States and UN activities on overcoming gender imbalances. 
 
Bachelet warned not to postpone actions for women&rsquo;s empowerment on account of the global jobs crisis, stating that progress to date has been &ldquo;uneven and fragile.&rdquo;
<img alt="" src="" width="320" height="153" />
Canadian Trade Unionists Surround Rona Ambrose 
 
photo: CAW Women&rsquo;s Programs, Canada
Bachelet said: &ldquo;As we sit in this room today, there are still too many women and children being trafficked; too many domestic workers who left their families to live in new places, unprotected by labour laws or policies; too many girls forced to leave school or marry too early; too many women and girls who lack access to services. And worldwide,&rdquo; she added, &ldquo;there are too few women who are at decision-making tables where peace, trade or climate change agreements are being negotiated.&rdquo; 
 
Canadian trade union women attending the Commission got a chance to question Rona Ambrose, Canada&rsquo;s Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women. She spoke at the Commission on 24 February. The union representatives questioned Canada over lack of action and lack of outrage over 800 Canadian women being killed by men, on lax gun registry laws that perpetuate violence, and Canada&rsquo;s misuse of federal funds for programmes and work on missing and murdered Aboriginal women.

UN Commission on Status of Women Underway in New York City

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Turkish union leaders and militants of the Thrace region convened in early February for solidarity and support in a number of cases of industrial discord occurring in the rapidly-growing manufacturing zone. Five affiliates of the ICEM, the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) and the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) met and organized a demonstration at the Free Trade Zone of Corlu. 
 
The protest was in support of a two-month strike by ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş and dismissal of trade unionists by India-base Polyplex company, a plastics and polyester company. (The ICEM has launched a LabourStart campaign on this dispute; please join the <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=868">protest</a> now.)&nbsp; 
 
The demonstration also centered on other trade union infringements, particularly at worksites where organising is underway, and as well on the Turkish government&rsquo;s recent efforts to modify labour legislation regarding casual, temporary, and precarious work. Thrace is an area of Turkey experiencing a high of foreign industrial investments, ranging from metals to textiles to natural gas, chemicals, and rubber development. 
<img alt="" src="" width="280" height="186" />
Petrol-İş President Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkın (center) Speaks at Joint Demonstration
Attended the formation of this regional coalition of trade unions were union Petrol-İş President Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkın, Birleşik Metal-İş President Adnan Serdaroğlu, TEKSTIL President President Ridvan Budak, a member of the ITGLWF, Deri-İş President Musa Servi, also of the ITGLWF, representing leather and shoe workers, and the President of ICEM-affiliated Kristal-İş, Bilal &Ccedil;etintaş, the Glass Workers&rsquo; Union of Turkey. These leaders were also accompanied by local branch union leaders of several unions, political party representatives, and NGO representatives. 
 
The five unions cited above pledge to support each other in the Thrace region in ongoing strikes and recruitment drives. 
 
Nearby to Corlu, 12 factories have been targeted for union organizing, but many union activists have been dismissed from their jobs because of their union membership. Besides Polyplex (a prior <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4212-Organising-Campaigns-of-Petrol-İş-of-Turkey-continue-but-with-Pain-">ICEM report</a> can be found here), factories of Yeşil Kundura (shoes), Disa Otomotiv (an auto supplier), Anakonda (metal fabrication), Astaş Al&uuml;minyum (aluminum), and Grup Suni Deri (leather) have been targeted for unionisation, and evidence of that can be found with several tents of picketers to be found in front of the plants. In some workplaces, achievements have been made while solidarity and support activities continue, as does several court cases. 
 
&ldquo;For many days we have been striking at workplaces individually,&rdquo; said Petrol-İş President &Ouml;ztaşkın. &ldquo;But today all the unions striking in the regional come together. We have unified our powers. We have decided to walk together and to organize joint demonstrations and actions. Our hope is that this bond now starting in Thrace will spread to the whole of the country.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;Regardless of distinction or which confederation the union belongs,&rdquo; added Birleşik Metal-İş President Serdaroğlu, &ldquo;we will defend the rights of dismissed workers.&rdquo; 
 
Musa Servi, President of the ITGLWF affiliate Deri-İş, said, &ldquo;Employers will try to exploit by establishing factories in free trade zones where union rights are weak. If we act together, we can change this.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="263" height="167" />
ICEM&rsquo;s Kemal &Ouml;zkan Addresses TEKSIF Congress
To cement this bond between ICEM in its sectors, and metals and textiles, ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan spoke at the 18th Congress of the Turkish Textile, Knitting, and Clothing Industry Workers&rsquo; Union (TEKSIF), an ITGLWF affiliate, on 19-20 February 2011 in Ankara. 
 
The Congress was attended and addressed by the President of ITGLWF, Hisanobu Shimada, and one agenda item was to conduct an intensive organizing campaign in textiles and related industries where over two million Turkish workers are employed. The campaign will also include a large support and solidarity with Turkish and international unions. 
 
In his letter of congratulations addressed to Nazmi Irgat, unanimously re-elected President of TEKSIF, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said: &ldquo;We are thankful for active support of the Turkish unions to the work toward creating a joint manufacturing and energy workers&rsquo; international. We know Turkish affiliates affiliated to all three organisations will play an effective role and take important responsibilities through support and solidarity.&rdquo;

Turkish Coalition of ICEM, IMF, ITGLWF Unions Forms in Thrace

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A dispute has arisen in South Africa between ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Xstrata Coal over the apparent discharge of 12 HIV-positive miners. The miners were first sacked last fall from their jobs at the Tweefontein collieries in Mpumalanga province, but the NUM interceded on their behalf before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) and won reinstatement to their jobs. 
 
But in mid-February, Xstrata Coal South Africa informed the NUM that it would re-sack the 12 and appeal the CCMA&rsquo;s decision to a labour court. At issue is whether or not Xstrata knew of their HIV status through a joint NUM-Xstrata Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCR) programme that is strictly confidential. Hundreds of Tweefontein miners were tested through the programme in October and November 2010. 
 
It is uncertain if Xstrata Coal gained access to results of the screenings, but the NUM alleges that the company does know the results. A private service provider was contracted to do the screenings and results are supposed to be shared only with the individual.
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Left: NUM Regional Secretary Paris Mashego
NUM Highveld Regional Secretary Paris Mashego accused the company of dragging backward the campaign to test for the pandemic and said the NUM will continue to press for the real motive behind Xstrata&rsquo;s reversal. Late this week, NUM delegates and shop stewards from many Xstrata worksites will descend on the company&rsquo;s Johannesburg headquarters to manifest against the injustice. 
 
&ldquo;What we experience here with Xstrata is the same thing our Australian comrades of the CFMEU experience with the company,&rdquo; said Mashego. &ldquo;They cannot accept official rulings and must always appeal their losses in order to get their way. Only in this case, there is something fundamentally wrong, the anonymity and confidentially of HIV-positive workers.&rdquo; 
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The National Education, Health, and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union (NEHAWU) of South Africa also responded negatively to Xstrata Coal&rsquo;s alleged actions. &ldquo;This ghastly and barbaric behaviour by a company is a clear sign of how some big companies are failing to abide by the ILO or the OECD Codes of Conduct by violating workers&rsquo; rights and working conditions. 
 
&ldquo;This alleged discrimination against workers who are HIV-positive is a huge blow to the government&rsquo;s fight against AIDS,&rdquo; stated a NEHAWU spokesman, &ldquo;because it sends a message to those who have the disease that they will lose their jobs if they come out.&rdquo; 
 
Xstrata Coal South Africa, 20% owned by African Rainbow Minerals Ltd., operates 11 coal mines in South Africa, and is currently developing three new projects &ndash; the Arthur Taylor Colliery Opencast Mine (ATCOM) East development, the Goedgevond coal project, and optimisation of the Zonnebloem project, all in Mpumalanga province. Together with the Tweefontein optimisation project now nearing completion, the projects will eventually produce 90% of the company&rsquo;s South African coal output.

Xstrata Coal South Africa Accused of Sacking HIV-Positive Miners

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