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<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
Industrianställda I Norden, or Nordic IN, is the new name of a merged labour union federation covering five Nordic countries—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Two federations—Nordic Metal and NIF, representing workers in chemicals, paper and textile industries—merged 1 January in a move bringing 22 national unions into a single Nordic industrial federation.
Nordic IN intends to safeguard the Nordic social model, characterized by modern and efficient social security systems, equality, democratic influence, and bargaining structures at both the local and national levels. Former ICEM Officer Jyrki Raina is the general secretary of the new federation.

Five-Country Nordic Industrial Trade Union Federation Forms

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
Contract maintenance workers at BP’s Kwinana refinery, who are members of ICEM affiliate Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), won a five-week strike in mid-December 2005. The 86 workers, employed by United Group, won their full pay demands of nearly A$10 per hour over three years, which will give them parity with BP’s maintenance workers. 
The strikers along with other United Group contract workers at both the Alcoa refinery in Wagerup and the Ravensthorp nickel project were targeted by the Howard government’s watchdog Building and Construction Commission for conducting unprotected strike actions under the government’s new and regressive Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act.

Maintenance Contractors End BP Australian Strike

The ICEM is backing a struggle by workers affiliated with Brazilian union SINAP-CUT in the state of Maranhão. Without warning and refusing to engage in dialogue with unions, Brazilian company Group João Santos sacked 227 workers last month in the remote northern town of Coelho Neto at its paper and agricultural enterprises, Itapagé SA and Agrimex SA.
<img height="99" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/BrazilFLAG.gif" width="140"/>
The company has refused to honour social payments due to workers, or to recognise the economic hardships created in the town. Group João Santos is responsible for 90% of the formal jobs in the rural town and controls 90% of the land around Coelho Neto. 
The workers and their families, backed by ICEM affiliate SINAP-CUT, together with an agricultural union, established a camp in front of the company’s Coelho Neto offices. The camp’s inhabitants have been threatened by military police, which has been summoned by the company. 
Workers and their unions issued “claims guidelines” against Group João Santos, calling for the company to return land to the community, maintain the town’s schools and school personnel, and rehire the workers to employment levels as of November 2005. The ICEM supports such demands, and has expressed such in letters to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the country’s minister of Labour and Employment, and the state’s General Attorney for Labour.

ICEM Lends Support to Brazilian Paperworkers’ Union

Some 500 delegates attended the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Women’s Conference on 16-18 February in Rosherville, near Johannesburg. The South African union elected a national leadership team, put in place a workable plan of action, and developed a concise and practical programme that will be presented at NUM’s National Congress in May.
<img width="120" height="124" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthafricaNUM.gif"/>
Delegates heard from three prominent women in South African labour: Minerals and Energy Minister Lindiwe Hendricks, COSATU Second Vice President Violet Sebone, and ANC Women’s League’s General Secretary Themba Kgasi. The NUM Women’s Structure was formed in 1998, and since has become a leadership front for women both nationally and internationally. “As women in the NUM, we have passed the stage of being told what to do,” said Women’s Structure Chairperson Rose Mohale. “We have stood firm and demonstrated we can add our voice to programmes of the organisation.”

NUM in South Africa Holds Women’s Conference

“The ICEM (International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions) expresses, on behalf of its 20 million members throughout the world, deep concern over the increasing news of numerous cases of silicosis among jewellery migrant workers in China and India, who are slowly dying of an illness that they contracted through a poor working environment, compounded by a failure to provide adequate medical care. 
We express our heartfelt condolences to the family of Deng Wenping, a chinese migrant worker at a Hong Kong-invested jewellery factory in Southern China who has recently died and is one of the latest victims of silicosis in the sector. 
 
ICEM urges all employers in the jewellery industries, as well as the competent authorities in China, to pay immediate attention to the serious health and safety problems in the industry, to eliminate present dangerous conditions, and to urgently improve both medical care and the social security system. 
 
ICEM believes that only effective and genuine trade union representation of jewellery workers in China can lead to an adequate improvement of working conditions as well as contribute to meaningful industrial relations and social dialogue.” 
<hr/>
<a href="http://www.china-labour.org.hk/public/contents/article?revision%5fid=19186&item%5fid=19182">Click here</a> for a China Labour Bulletin background document on silicosis in China, entitled 'Deadly dust'.

ICEM statement on silicosis in China and India

Nepal’s despotic monarchy ordered a day-long curfew on 20 January, which prevented planned demonstrations in Kathmandu and neighbouring Lalitpur by pro-democracy political parties, including trade union federations GEFONT, DECONT, and NTUC.
Instead, protests sprang up across the capital city on 21 January and were met with excessive force by police using tear gas and brandishing firearms instead of bamboo batons. Some 300 demonstrators were arrested, and many of those remained in custody this morning. In addition, police arrested another 150 political and human rights activists on 19 and 20 January.
<img height="159" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0601NepalBinod.jpg" width="139"/>   <img height="157" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0601NepalMukunda.jpg" width="122"/>
Gefont's Secretary General Binod Shrestha and 
 Chairman Mukunda Neupane 
Senior GEFONT leaders—Chairperson Makunda Neupane and Secretary-General Binod Shrestha—were arrested on 19 January and remain in police custody. Leaders of a seven-party political alliance not already under arrest have called for a general strike across Nepal on 26 January in protest to King Gyanendra’s absolute rule.
More: 
<a href="/index.php?id=7&doc=1630&la=EN" type="internal">ICEM letter to the King of Nepal</a>

Nepal’s Pro-democracy Groups Call for 26 January General Strike

Miners at a uranium mine in Namibia won a 2006 salary agreement from Rössing Uranium after interrupting work for four hours on 10 January to deliver a petition to company management.
<img height="66" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NamibiaFlag.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
Some 450 miners of the Rössing Branch of ICEM affiliate Mineworkers’ Union of Namibia won an 8% pay hike from the mining concern that is 68.6% owned by Rio Tinto, plus a one-off bonus of N$1,000 and substantial housing allowances. When senior managers at the mine where unavailable to accept the petition at the mine’s main entrance, miners boarded buses to Swakopmund, some 70 kilometers away, to present the petition to senior management.
Rio Tinto announced in December that it was investing US$112 million in Rössing Uranium, a move that would extend the life of the mine from 2009 to 2016.

Rio Tinto Miners in Namibia Win Pay Gains

Another mining disaster happened 10 January in South Africa at AngloGold Ashanti’s TauTona gold mine near Carletonville, just outside of Johannesburg.
A rock slide caused by an earth tremor killed three workers, and injured five others, two of them seriously. An investigation into the accident is being jointly conducted by the Ministry of Minerals and Energy, ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers, and AngloGold Ashanti South African Mines. 
<img height="103" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthafricaNUM.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
A similar earth tremor at the TauTona Mine last July killed two miners, while a rock fall at AngloGold’s Mponeny Mine in South Africa in October also killed two miners.

Earth Tremor Kills Three at AngloGold South African Mine

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A coal mine blast in China that killed four women on 6 April has drawn angry responses from women’s groups. Nine miners died when the explosion occurred at Dongtang Coal Mine in central Hunan Province. Production at the mine had been suspended earlier this year when owners had failed to apply for a work safety certificate. Since 1993, Chinese mine safety law forbids women from working in underground mines. 
 
The gas blast, in which five miners—including two women—managed to escape, caused local police to detain owners and investors of the enterprise. But the production manager of the Dongtang Mine and his wife fled the area as soon as word of the blast occurred. 
 
In a another mine catastrophe, seven miners died and four were injured on 11 April when a shaft collapsed at the Tanhan Coal Mine in Shanxi Province.

Chinese Coal Mine Blast Kills Four Women

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Protests occurred both outside and inside DuPont’s annual general meeting in the US state of Delaware on 26 April, as labour unions led by the United Steelworkers (USW) and environmental allies pressed the world’s second largest chemicals company to phase out production of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The chemical is used to produce coatings for cookware and stain-repellent coatings for carpets, textiles and fast-food wrappers. 
 
USW is part of a coalition entitled “Dupont Shareholders for Fair Value” that pressed for adoption of a resolution calling on management to produce a report on options to accelerate the phase-out of PFOA. The proxy question put before shareholders garnered a 27.3% vote, considered extremely high on matters of social and ethical responsibility for US-based companies. Further information on the union’s shareholder actions can be found through the USW site <a href="http://www.uswa.org/uswa/program/content/2916.php">here</a>.

Protest of PFOA at DuPont’s Annual Meeting

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