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The Indonesian national government and Papua province Manpower officials will both participate in bargaining today in Timika, Papua, in further attempts to resolve the wage and benefit issues behind an 11-week strike. The strike is against US-based Freeport-McMoRan by the PT Freeport Indonesia Workers&rsquo; Union of the Chemical, Energy, Mine Workers Union (CEMWU), or SP KEP SPSI. 
 
Meanwhile, as talks continue into the fifth straight week with little progress to report, the union this week is making plans to issue another official notice to extend the strike a fourth time, again a 30-day extension that will continue the stoppage from 15 December to 15 January 2012. Some 10,000 mineworkers have blocked all production from Freeport-McMoRan&rsquo;s Grasberg mines, the world&rsquo;s largest recoverable gold and copper deposits, since the first 30-day strike began on 15 September. 
 
In a report on bargaining to the ICEM late last week, leaders of PT Freeport Workers&rsquo; Union said management has not moved off an average 35% wage offer over two years. (See previous <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4784-Indonesian-Miners-Resume-Talks-Again-Today-with-Freeport-McMoRan">ICEM report</a>.)&nbsp; 
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The union is seeking uniform wage increases for all workers, with a goal of US$7.50 per hour for non-staff workers in the second year. Workers earned a wage of between US$2.13 per hour and US$3.54 at the start of the strike. 
 
The union is seeking a fixed metal bonus scheme, while the PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) subsidiary is insisting on a bonus tied to the company&rsquo;s variable costs. The company has rejected the union&rsquo;s demand for monthly Housing, Education, and Risk Allowance Work benefits of two million rupiah each (&euro;165, US$222) and a daily premium for shift work of 100,000 rupiah (&euro;8.26, US$11). The union met with Indonesia&rsquo;s National Wage Council on Friday over the company&rsquo;s effort to impose a wage deal through the government&rsquo;s mediation process. 
 
The ICEM believes Freeport-McMoRan must do better in its wage and benefits offer to Grasberg miners, many of whom work 12-hour shifts in 4,200- metre altitudes and have an excruciating roster schedule in which they work five days on, two days off, followed by six days on and one day off, and then four days on, three days off. 
 
But if the company wants a return to production and an end to Indonesia&rsquo;s longest work stoppage, it must break from pressures being exerted by other extractive industry employers to hold down wage and benefit offers so their workers do not follow the example set by the PT Freeport Workers&rsquo; Union. Again, PTFI must make a more conciliatory contract offer and the company should take note on how Newmont Mining and Sumitoma Corp. two weeks ago ended a four-day strike at their 49% copper and gold holdings called Batu Hijau on Indonesia&rsquo;s Sumbawa Island. They acceded to workers&rsquo; demands for adequate compensation on overtime work.

Indonesian Mine Talks Continue Today; Union Ready with Another 30-day Strike Notice

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A member of ICEM-affiliated Metallurgical, Mining and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union of Georgia who received serious burns but escaped death in a 27 August 2010 coal mine explosion died inside that same mine in late November due to a shaft cave-in. 
 
Sergi Ashotia, 50, was working inside the Tkibuli-Mindeli Coal Mine of Geo-Coal, owned by the Georgian Industrial Group, when he was buried on 24 November by rock and wooden support pilings. A similar shaft collapse at the accident-prone mine in western Imereti region occurred on 6 November, killing two miners &ndash; 49-year-old Bondo Mikheilidze and 61-year-old Tamaz Gioradze. 
 
Ashotia was one six miners severely burned in the August 2010 methane gas explosion that killed four miners. The ICEM then charged Geo-Coal, also called Saknakhshiri, with failure to install modern ventilation and detection equipment. 
 
Safety issues were a main reason behind a strike by the mine&rsquo;s 200 workers last February. After a January 2011 mine explosion killed one worker, management sacked two low level managers and police in the city of Tkibuli arrested them for safety negligence. Miners then engaged in an open-ended strike on 2 February in support of them and in protest to the company&rsquo;s safety inadequacies.
<img alt="" src="" width="125" height="166" />
Kutasi Meeting, October 2011: Mineworkers' Union Leaders Present&nbsp;
That strike ended when the company agreed to a labour contract empowering the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union to assist with safety improvements. The mine then experienced another fatality on 9 September 2011. 
 
As for November&rsquo;s fatalities, the union is involved in the investigation, but Metallurgical, Mining and Chemical Union President Tamazi Dolaberidze said many of the facts are being distorted by people who were present during the cave-ins. He said the managing director is also disturbed by this. 
 
The result has been reinforcement of the terms ending the strike, with a joint labour-management safety committee established for better process control of safety and labour protection systems. Dolaberidzi said he is confident this will positively impact preventative measures. 
 
Geo-Coal, or Saknakhshiri, has granted each of the miners&rsquo; families with the equivalent if US$7,000 and paid for all funeral expenses. The company also took out an insurance policy last February that went into force on 1 November. The policy insures Geo-Coal for up to five fatal accidents per year, and it gave the families of the three miners who perished last month each with US$25,000. 
 
The union also assisted families of dead miners with stipends.

Deaths Continue To Plague Georgia’s Tkibuli-Mindeli Coal Mine

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An agreement was signed in Jakarta today between PT Freeport Indonesia Workers&rsquo; Union (SP KEP SPSI) and management of the world&rsquo;s largest gold and second largest copper mining complex &ndash; Grasberg in Papua province &ndash; that will end a 94-day strike on Saturday, 17 December. The strike pitted a low-wage but determined and enlightened workforce against a global extractive resource company, US-based Freeport-McMoRan that has Grasberg at top of its massive revenue stream. 

The agreement put together in Jakarta this week, with the assistance of the Indonesian government, falls short of workers&rsquo; wage demands, but union-winning gains were made that will allow the 10,000 striking miners to return to their jobs with heads held high. 

Firstly, striking miners will be paid their lost salaries during the three-month strike. Secondly, in a last minute company concession early today, disciplinary action against a number of strikers has been withdrawn and complete amnesty accorded. Further, a central issue in the dispute was resolved in favour of the union. 

All allowances &ndash; health care, housing, education, shift premiums, service-year bonuses, and a metal bonus &ndash; will be calculated on fixed costs rather than Freeport-McMoRan&rsquo;s demand of variable cost schemes. Grasberg miners will receive a 24% increase on their back-dated wages to 1 October 2011. In October 2012, they will receive a 13% increase. 

Some 7,000 of the striking mineworkers, PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) employees termed non-staff workers, had earned between US$2.13 per hour and US$2.54. The 37% falls short of the union&rsquo;s most recent demand to increase wages to US$4.50 per hour this year and then by US$3 per hour in 2012. But the resolve of workers and union leaders alike to bring the world&rsquo;s largest recoverable gold and copper deposits to a grinding halt was a lesson of worker solidarity and unity to trade unions across the globe, and many paid special attention to the developments of this strike. 

&ldquo;We are not entirely happy with the wage deal,&rdquo; said union bargaining committee member Juli Parorrongan. &ldquo;We made the decision to settle due to humanitarian reasons and out of concern for our workers. They have no money, very little to eat, and having no pay checks have pushed them to the brink of poverty. 

&ldquo;But this is not the end, only the beginning. The energy and unity of our struggle now enters the workplace.&rdquo; Much of that energy was concentrated in a fierce blockade by strikers and their families at Mile 28 on the lone road between Timika on the Arafura Sea and Grasberg open-cast and underground mines in the central highlands of Papua.
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Mile 28 Blockade
That pivotal blockade prevented PTFI from getting supplies in and more importantly, it severely hampered the company from making repairs on 114-kilometre slurry lines that carry Freeport-McMoRan&rsquo;s daily 230,000-tonne output to Timika and global markets. Pipelines were vandalized during the early stages of the strike by people seeking to siphon off small portions of the company&rsquo;s riches for sale on black markets. PTFI declared force majeure on 22 October, five weeks into the strike. 

The 15-member bargaining team of PT Freeport Indonesian Workers&rsquo; Union, part of the national Chemical, Energy, Mine Workers Union (CEMWU) of SPSI, will return to Timika from Jakarta tomorrow, 15 December. On 16 December, they will hold a mass meeting with strikers to brief them on the agreement, and then hold a ceremonial end to the blockade at Mile 28. 

One outstanding issue concerning the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) is local police charges in Timika against 12 union leaders. They are under investigation for disturbing the public order in blocking the Grasberg road and access to the mine and milling operations. 

In months-long involvement in this dispute, the ICEM is convinced that Indonesian labour code asserts that PT Freeport Indonesian Workers&rsquo; Union were within their legal rights to engage in strike activity at blockade points. 

&ldquo;The ICEM applauds the resourcefulness of Grasberg miners in carrying out this strategic strike,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, &ldquo;and it is now in the best interests of both the company and workers for local authorities to drop recriminations over what we know to be legitimate strike activity.&rdquo;

Proud Indonesian Miners End Strike with Freeport-McMoRan

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The right wing government of Viktor Orb&aacute;n in Hungary has systematically over the past year and a half dismantled many trade union freedoms and social dialogue relationships. The new Labour Code is not only completely undermining workers&rsquo; ability to fight for just conditions in the workplace, but is now empowering companies to re-open old conflicts and punish trade union activists for actions taken under the previous legislation. 
 
ICEM affiliated unions were shocked to be informed at Congress of Japanese rubber conglomerate Bridgestone&rsquo;s move to initiate a penal procedure against Tam&aacute;s Sz&eacute;kely, president of VDSZ, the Hungarian chemical workers union. The case against the union president is focused on a 2009 report in the union journal &ldquo;Vegyipari Dolgoz&oacute;&rdquo; or &ldquo;Chemical Worker&rdquo; on the treatment of a company employee. 
<img src="" width="128" height="170" alt="" />
VDSZ President Tam&aacute;s Sz&eacute;kely
Tibor Skoflek suffered occupational health problems in the spring of 2009 and Bridgestone at the time rejected any responsibility for this. Local management even failed to supply transport to hospital for Tibor Skoflek, and he was taken by a bus driver. 
 
This is the first time in 20 years of Hungarian trade union work that a company initiates a penal procedure against a union leader with absolutely no negotiations or consultation beforehand. 
 
The clear policy of the Orb&aacute;n regime is to create fear among Hungarian workers so that they rescind trade union membership. 
 
The ICEM condemns in the strongest terms this crackdown on fundamental labour rights in Hungary, and specifically in this case against Tam&aacute;s Sz&eacute;kely, and will be exerting pressure at company and government levels.

Bridgestone Hungary forces the President of VDSZ to court

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IG BCE together with Verdi, the service sector union of Germany, reached agreement in bargaining with German energy group RWE on 29 November on a 13 month deal for the company&rsquo;s 25,000 employees in Germany. The new deal provides a 2.7% salary increase from 1 December 2011, and sets out new talks on improving job security and trainee prospects. 
 
European utility provider RWE is the second largest energy producer in Germany. The issue of fair salaries at RWE has caused widespread discontent through the workforce in recent times. In January the ICEM reported on warning strikes of IG BCE members at RWE who were close to full strike action. (See the <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4216-German-Power-Workers-Close-to-Full-Dispute-with-RWE">ICEM report</a> here) More strikes were averted in January by a company offer of 3.4% salary improvement. Unions again threatened warning strikes in mid-November in the run up to settlement. This latest deal will see the union negotiating committee push for continued and better salary improvements in the collective agreement for 2013. 
 
A key achievement in this settlement was the binding agreement to open discussions in the second quarter of 2012 on the renewal of the Job Security Agreement, due to expire end of 2012, to safeguard jobs in the group. 
 
The union bargaining committee recommended the deal for adoption by the joint tariff committee.

German IG BCE Secures 2.7% Increase for 25,000 Energy Workers

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Finland&rsquo;s papermaking unions, Paperiliitto and Ammattiliitto Pro, have new 25-month labour agreements with the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF) that take effect in March 2012. That was assured one week ago, on 28 November, after the employers&rsquo; association in the transport, ports, and shipping industry signed an accord with AKT, the Transport Drivers&rsquo; and Port Workers&rsquo; Union. 
 
Even though the FFIF came to terms with the two ICEM affiliates separately in the pulp and paper sector on 23 November, the FFIF was unwilling to sign off on the agreements until they had a guarantee that strikes would not occur in the transportation and export of pulp and paper products. 
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The agreement in the paper sector follows a framework agreement made between the three national trade union confederations &ndash; SAK, STTK and STTK &ndash; and the Confederation of Finnish Industries on 13 October. 
 
In March 2012, Ammattiliitto Pro members will receive a 1.6% across-the-board wage increase, in addition to an average 0.8% increase that will be negotiated locally and is part of a new salary structure. That amount will reward new work demands, personal skill developments, and greater efficiencies by workers on the local level. 
 
Paperiliitto members will receive a 1.5% increase, with 0.9% to be negotiated locally. 
 
Essentially, this new salary structure was recognized by employers through strike actions taken last spring by Ammattiliitto Pro, Finland&rsquo;s white-collar and clerical workers&rsquo; union, which represents about 4,000 staff at some 50 paper enterprises. 
 
In April 2013, the wage increase for Ammattillio Pro will be 1.3%, with a 0.6% award won on the new locally-negotiated salary structure. Paperiliitto's 2013 increase will be 1.2%, with 0.7% awarded locally. 
<img alt="" src="" width="190" height="46" />
Two other important aspects of the pulp and paper agreement include extra protection for workers when mills close. In effect, employers take on more responsibility for re-training and skill development, as well as workers given the flexibility to take new work in another enterprise and still qualify for redundancy benefits. 
Also, shop stewards and safety representatives who receive slightly higher pay for their responsibilities will get a 10% supplement on top of that higher pay. The two unions also won a universal three-day paid leave annually for vocational training and education. 
 
Both Petri Vanhala, President of Paperiliitto, and Markku Palokangas, Pro&rsquo;s Vice President for the Industrial Sector, expressed satisfaction with the 25-month agreement, especially with the gains made through the national framework agreement. Paperiliitto represents some 19,000 blue-collar workers across Finland&rsquo;s pulp and paper industry.

Paper Unions in Finland Make Gains in 2012-2014 National Labour Accord

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The ICEM Brazilian affiliate, Federac&atilde;o &Uacute;nica dos Petroleiros (FUP), or Oil and Gas Workers&rsquo; Unified Federation, carved important new safety protections for deepwater oil platform workers in a new collective agreement recently approved. 
 
The union twice came to the edge of beginning strike actions, but postponed walkouts when the Brazilian state company agreed to better pay and more FUP and worker involvement in safety matters on the platforms in the Campos and Esp&iacute;rito Santo Basins, as well as across the company nationally. 
 
Following the FUP General Board accepting a revised company proposal that spells out specific safety requirements on 22 November, the contract won favour from 35,000 oil workers in local meetings, many coming on 26 November. 
<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="110" />
The new contract stipulates mandatory union representation of 150 safety specialists on platforms in the Campos Basin, for instance, and it requires three annual inspections per rig. Petrobras is underway with a US$225 billion investment in downstream and upstream projects, including exploration and development of 19 new wells next year in the deepwater Campos Basin off S&atilde;o Paulo state. 
 
FUP leaders throughout seven rounds of bargaining called for the same safety criteria that Norwegian state company Statoil has with ICEM affiliate IndustriEnergi (IE). Since the 2001 killing of 11 workers in the explosions and subsequent sinking of its P36 platform in the Roncador offshore fields, Petrobras has seen some 80 workplace fatalities, including one in September from a fire on a diesel fuel tanker. 
 
The FUP in 2010 forced suspensions on both Platforms 33 and 35 off Brazil, and the company itself shut operations on different vessels in both January and February this year over safety concerns. 
 
Worker safeguards in the agreement came only after FUP set a second strike deadline of 16 November. Following a first strike threat some weeks before, Petrobras agreed to improve health and pension fund benefits for workers. 
 
The pay package, another key issue throughout talks, will see Petrobras oil workers get a 10.71% pay rise, which represents 3.4% in real wages when factoring in Brazil&rsquo;s inflation rate.

Strike Threat Gets FUP Major Safety Protections for Brazil’s Petrobras Workers

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Workers throughout Britain are scrambling to fight to protect their pensions, as companies follow the government&rsquo;s tactics of attacking pension schemes. Last week members of three joint affiliates of ICEM and the International Union of Food, Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF) at the food and cosmetics manufacturing multinational Unilever voted to strike. 
 
Unilever is attempting to unilaterally scrap the final salary pension scheme for existing members and replace it with a career-average scheme that would cut as much as 40% of the expected retirement benefits of long serving employees. 
 
The company already blocked the final salary scheme to new entrants in 2008, but this plan to move 5,000 existing members has caused outrage, especially as part of the justification for the 2008 move was to preserve the benefits of existing members. 
<img alt="" src="" width="90" height="90" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="175" height="70" />
If the company does not act swiftly to avert the strikes, it will be the largest strike action it has faced in its 80 year history, and the first time a FTSE 100 company has faced a strike purely on the issue of pensions. 
 
5,000 workers producing well-known products such as Persil detergent and Marmite voted resoundingly in favour of the strike ballot. 85% of Unite members, and 75% of GMB members, and a large majority of USDAW members all voted on 28 November in support of the strike which will probably be conducted at 12 factories in December. 
 
&quot;The vote also shows that ordinary workers will not stand idly by to watch profitable employers like Unilever jumping on the pensions robbery bandwagon,&quot; stated Allan Black, national officer at GMB and ICEM Executive Committee member. 
 
Union negotiators offered the company alternatives to reduce the risk of the final salary scheme and cap benefits, but were frozen out of discussions by the talks by management. 
 
This month Unilever CEO Paul Polman received shares worth &pound;1,069,986. 
 
Unilever also just announced 600 redundancies in closing the Alberto Culver plant in Melrose Park near Chicago, Illinois in 2013. Workers at the 50 year old factory are members of United Steelworkers Local 9777, most of whom are very long-serving employees. The factory produces well known products VO5, TRESemme and Nexxus shampoos and conditioners, and St. Ives lotions and body wash.

UK Unilever Workers Vote to Strike to Protect Pensions

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In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report on the ICEM&rsquo;s HIV/AIDS Project in 2010, on why the Global Fund is in the headlines for the wrong reasons, and on the five countries to watch in 2011 on the development of the pandemic. 
 
The ICEM Calls on its Affiliates to Contribute to this e-bulletin 
 
ICEM affiliates are engaged in a wide range of HIV/AIDS activities. To spread the information on new agreements, awareness, and prevention campaigns, and educational activities, affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a>. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome. 
<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
The ICEM HIV/AIDS Project in 2010: Another Successful Year 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s HIV/AIDS Project implemented a full programme in 2010, the first year of a new cycle with sponsorship from solidarity support organisations SASK of Finland and FNV Mondiaal of the Netherlands. 
 
At sub-regional level, the feminisation of the HIV/AIDS pandemic has been addressed in a women&rsquo;s workshop that was an overwhelming success. In some countries, activities only for women were organised taking the experience of women who had attended the workshop to the national level. 
 
Two sub-regional workshops for English and French speaking West Africa and for Southern Africa focussed on HIV/AIDS workplace policies and programmes. They also made participants familiar with the new ILO Recommendation No. 200, concerning HIV and AIDS and the World of Work. The concept of a worker&rsquo;s passport, which gives basic information on HIV and AIDS, as well as information on sites and clinics where support and care are available, was discussed and endorsed by participants. 
 
At national level, programmes were implemented in 11 sub-Saharan African countries. The space in this newsletter is not sufficient to give a full account of activities in all 11 countries, which include C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire, the DR Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Mauritius, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 
 
In Zimbabwe, training courses were again organised after an interruption of many years. Good examples in some countries, especially Nigeria and Tanzania, prompted the national coordinator in Ghana to organise the first VCT campaign under the auspices of the HIV/AIDS project in the country. In Mauritius, the national coordinator overcame the difficulty to access workers at their workplace by producing a DVD on HIV/AIDS and distributing it to shop stewards. Excellent results can also be reported from C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire where companies have been cooperating with trade unions on HIV/AIDS. Guinea is a relatively new target country. New foreign investment in the mining sector gives additional significance to the HIV/AIDS project in Guinea. 
 
Gratefully, additional funding from the Humanity Fund of the ICEM affiliate, the Communication, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada enabled us to run additional HIV/AIDS activities in Nigeria and Trinidad and Tobago. 
 
In the first six months of 2010, programmes also continued in India with the support from the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, which has agreed to continue its support in 2011. 
 
With a financial contribution from the ICEM affiliated Industri Energi (IE) of Norway, the ICEM broke ground with a first HIV/AIDS workshop in a Middle Eastern country, Jordan. 
 
The second phase of the VCT campaign, sponsored by the Women&rsquo;s Department of the German ICEM affiliate IG BCE, was successfully implemented in Mwasa, Tanzania. 
 
The Danish solidarity support organisation LO/FTF continued support for the HIV/AIDS project in Ethiopia in cooperation with ICEM affiliate, the National Industrial Federation of Energy, Chemical, and Mine Trade Unions (NIFECM). 
<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
HIV/AIDS &ndash; Five Countries to Watch in 2011 
 
Things are generally more positive on the global HIV front: the number of new infections is down, treatment figures are up, and headway is being made in the fight to end discrimination against people living with HIV. However, there is still work to be done and progress in the fight against the pandemic has been uneven. IRIN/PlusNews lists five countries that could determine the future of the pandemic this year: 
 
South Africa - The sheer size of the epidemic in South Africa means it cannot be ignored: more than one million people are on treatment &ndash; the biggest antiretroviral programme in the world - and more than five million people are living with HIV. 
 
The country also offers the best-case scenario in terms of HIV/AIDS funding since the government is largely responsible for financing the country's AIDS efforts. South Africa does not rely heavily on external resources as other countries do. After years of dragging its feet, the government has introduced policies and initiatives aimed at strengthening the HIV/AIDS response, including a national HIV counselling and testing campaign, and the decentralization of ARV treatment, from doctors prescribing at hospitals, to nurses providing the drugs at health facilities. This year will provide an idea of how these measures pan out. 
 
Russia - With 37% of the country's estimated 1.8 million intravenous drug users (IDUs) believed to be living with HIV, Russia is dealing with one of Eastern Europe's largest HIV epidemics. The country has been heavily criticized for its refusal to adopt evidence-based, harm-reduction techniques for treatment of drug users. Russia prefers instead to put IDUs in prison, where clean needles are harder to find, thereby raising the HIV threat. Experts say unless the drug policy changes, HIV prevalence is likely to continue increasing. 
 
Uganda - Once hailed as a beacon in the fight against HIV, Uganda&rsquo;s prevalence rate fell from 18% in 1992 to about 6.1% in 2004. The government's aggressive prevention campaigns focused on abstinence, sexual fidelity, and condom use, becoming the foundation of national HIV prevention programmes across sub-Saharan Africa. Today, however, UNAIDS reports that the country's HIV prevalence is between 6.5 to seven percent. 
 
There is also evidence of apparent reversals in preventive sexual behaviour in the general population, reports the Uganda AIDS Commission. The proportion of adults who say they had sex with a person who was not a permanent partner has grown since 1995, from 12% to 16% for women and from 29% to 36% for men. 
 
Haiti - The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit the country a year ago damaged its health infrastructure extensively. While most patients who were on life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs before the quake were traced and put back on treatment, the country's HIV programmes remain unstable. 
 
Reports of sexual abuse and transactional sex in Port-au-Prince's tent cities raise the possibility of increased infections, while the threat of tuberculosis in the overcrowded camps is also high. As the country continues to rebuild basic services this year, it will be important for the government, faced with multiple competing interests, to ensure that HIV/AIDS receives the attention it needs. 
 
India - More than 80% of all donor-funded antiretroviral drugs used in developing countries are Indian-manufactured generics. However, an imminent Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union could potentially see the country lose its ability to produce the cheap generic medicines so vital to healthcare in poor nations. 
 
The EU is pushing for data exclusivity, which means Indian generic manufacturers would no longer be able to use existing drug trials to make identical generic drugs. Instead, they would be required to conduct their own clinical trials, delaying access to poor countries for these drugs for several years. EU officials say data exclusivity clauses in the FTA will take into consideration the role India plays in producing generic medicines for the developing world. 
 
With increasing pressure on India and other developing nations to adhere to tighter intellectual property laws, 2011 could be critical to the future of HIV treatment in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions. 
 
(Source: PlusNews, Nairobi, 28 January) 
<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
Global Fund in the Headlines 
 
On 23 January, the Associated Press (AP) ran a long story about the Global Fund entitled, &quot;Fraud Plagues Global Health Fund.&quot; The story was picked up by nearly 200 media outlets in the U.S. and 50 in other parts of the world. 
 
The story stated that in Mali, the Fund's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that US$4 million in funding was misappropriated. Half of Mali's TB and malaria grant money went to supposed &quot;training events,&quot; for which signatures were forged on receipts for per diem payments and travel expense claims. Mali has arrested 15 people suspected of committing fraud, and its health minister resigned without explanation two days before the audit was made public. 
<img alt="" src="" width="250" height="53" />
The AP story added that in Mauritania, the OIG found &quot;pervasive fraud,&quot; with US$4.1 million &ndash; 67% of an HIV grant &ndash; lost to faked documents and other fraud. And in Djibouti, the OIG found that about 30% of grant funding they examined was lost, unaccounted for, or misused. Much of this money went to buy motor vehicles. Almost US$750,000 was transferred out of one account with no explanation. 
 
In a commentary, GFO Editor Bernard Rivers wrote, &ldquo;When any entity gives multi-million dollar grants, there will always be corruption. The key issue is what is being done to unearth the corruption and minimise losses. The Global Fund is far better at investigating allegations of corruption and at recovering stolen monies than most or all other major aid donors.&rdquo; 
 
Another thing that distinguishes the Global Fund from other donors is its willingness to publish the details of the corruption that it has unearthed. In that sense, the Global Fund has become the victim of its own toughness and transparency. The Global Fund says that it has a &ldquo;zero tolerance&rdquo; policy with respect to corruption. That's the right approach! Every stolen Global Fund dollar is a dollar that can't be spent on saving lives. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 139 of 27 January. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>; to receive GFO send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>)
<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
Ethiopia: Transport Sector Launches HIV Policy 
 
The Ethiopian government has unveiled an HIV policy for its transport sector, which has grown significantly in recent years alongside the rapidly expanding road network. Various national studies have shown that those working across the transport sector - especially drivers and their assistants - are vulnerable to HIV infection as they spend considerable time away from their families. 
<img alt="" src="" width="200" height="92" />
The country's Federal Transport Authority (FTA) and commercial transporters jointly issued the policy in December (Comment from the editor: no mention of the union having been consulted or involved). It sets up a national taskforce to raise funds from state and non-state actors to finance projects, including condom distribution, and helping transport staff and family members living with the virus. 
 
Transport workers often have sex with local sex workers when on the road for days at a time. According to the latest UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS country progress report on Ethiopia, a 2009 study found that truckers and intercity bus drivers formed 22% of the client base of sex workers. 
 
A 2009 government survey from mobile counselling and testing clinics in 40 towns located on the major transportation corridors that link Addis Ababa to Ethiopia's borders, found that 25.3% of the sex workers were HIV-positive. 
 
(Source: IRIN PlusNews, Addis Ababa, 17 January 2011) 
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South Africa: Fighting Back 
 
With only 0.7% of the world&rsquo;s population, South Africa has 17% of its HIV/AIDS sufferers &ndash; some six million in a population of almost 50 million. After a decade of denial by the government, authorities are fighting back. 
 
South Africa has the world&rsquo;s biggest antiretroviral treatment programme, providing ARVs to around one million patients. This means that two-thirds of those in need of ARVs are now getting them. But the target of 80% by the end of 2011 is unlikely to be hit, mainly because of the lack of medical staff. 
 
South Africa has also launched the world&rsquo;s biggest testing campaign aimed at checking 15 million people within 15 months. But although new infections fell by a third between 2002 and 2008, they are still running at more than 400,000 a year. According to research in South Africa, barely four out of ten sexually active men use condoms. Another reason for the continued spread is the exceptionally high rape rate. 
 
(Source: The Economist, 4 December 2010) 
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News from Global Unions 
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The International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF &ndash; <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a>) in its latest HIV/AIDS update No. 98 of 15 December and 1 January, reports on a seminar organised by the Communication and Transport Workers Union of Tanzania (COTWU-T) on HIV/AIDS workplace policies and collective bargaining. COTWU-T believes that serious and continued HIV/AIDS workplace interventions can minimize or control the transmission of HIV to workers. It is therefore the union&rsquo;s strategy to ensure that there are guidelines for implementation so as to combat the epidemic from the grassroots. As long as the Collective Bargaining Agreement is a tool for improving working conditions, a clause specifically mentioning the fight against HIV/AIDS and its impacts should be openly elaborated. This is why COTWU-T looks for every opportunity to establish and conclude a CBA with a clause on HIV/AIDS. 
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Five Years Ago: From the February 2006 Issue 
 
The first issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin was published in October 2005. In current issues, we refer to an article from the same month five years ago and reflect on developments. 
 
In the February 2006 issue of the e-bulletin, we reported on the preparations for the 16th International AIDS Conference (IAC), which was to be organised in Toronto in August. In cooperation with the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), a Global Labour Forum was planned to be organised during the IAC to underline the impact and effectiveness of HIV/AIDS policies and actions at the workplace to fight the pandemic. Labour has since made sure that its voice be heard at subsequent International AIDS Conferences. 
 
We also gave figures which had been jointly released by China&rsquo;s Ministry of Health, the WHO, and UNAIDS on 25 January 2006 and which estimated the number of people living with HIV at 630,000 in 2005, down from an estimate of 840,000 in 2003. This was not necessarily a success story in prevention but rather due to errors in estimates. 
 
The survey therefore cautioned against complacency, saying the figure was still rising and the virus was spreading from high-risk groups to the general population. Experts have warned that China&rsquo;s increasingly mobile population faces a broader risk as more infections occur through drug injection and sexual contact. 
 
It is interesting to note that now on the UNAIDS website, AIDSinfo, on which country fact sheets can be accessed, information is given in graphs with rather wide brackets. One has to look very closely to determine that about 750,000 people were living with HIV in China in 2009. The band width is an extraordinary 550,000 to one million. Only one fact can be determined with certainty: the number of infected people has gone up constantly. 
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This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter &ndash; How to Subscribe 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an email to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put &ldquo;subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin&rdquo; in the subject line.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 65, February 2011

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A strike by 400 miners of ICEM affiliate Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Trade Union of Georgia ended peacefully yesterday when management of Saknakhshiri, or Geo-Coal, gave recognition to the union and agreed to good-faith negotiations. 
 
Those negotiations will begin Monday, 7 February, and will commence over safety issues and pay for surface transportation workers, the lowest paid workers at Tkibuli-Mindeli, a set of two underground mines in the Imereti region of western Georgia. Saknakhshiri is wholly-owned by the Georgian Investment Group (GIG), a diverse conglomerate controlled by the Georgian political figure, Davit Bezhuashvili. 
 
The agreement yesterday, brokered between the company and the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemicals union and the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC), gives parity to the union regarding social issues and gives the union full status on a commission to revamp safety and health conditions, a major contributing factor to the strike action this week. 
 
Tkibuli-Mindeli employs some 1,050 Georgian workers, including 650 miners, 200 transportation workers, and 250 administrative personnel.
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Following a methane gas explosion on 21 January that killed one and seriously injured four others &ndash; the third deadly gas blast in less than a year at Tkibuli-Mindeli &ndash; workers and their new union demanded modern mine safety equipment than the Soviet-era devices in place, and demanded improved work and pay conditions. 
 
The situation was exasperated last week when police arrested two lower-tier managers for safety negligence in the 21 January explosion. In support of the two and as protest to the overall work and safety conditions, miners staged a two-hour warning strike on 31 January and then embarked on an open-ended strike on 1 February. 
 
That strike brought broad public support and generated regional media coverage. Meanwhile, the ICEM affiliate and GTUC were actively engaged with Saknakhshiri in addressing issues. Yesterday&rsquo;s agreement produced a 13-point commitment by the Georgian mining company to address all issues in respectful social dialogue, including new labour agreements that replace non-regular employment, pay and overtime concerns, and a joint safety structure to replace outdated equipment and correct deficiencies. 
 
For the union, it signed a four-point commitment to protect social guarantees of workers, take full part in development, training, and implementation of new safety features, and &ldquo;will popularize and foster social dialogue, between the administration and employees, as a means of civilized resolution&rdquo; of conflicts. 
 
GTUC Vice President Gocha Alexandria said the critical aspect to yesterday&rsquo;s agreement is time deadlines. The union and company have strict time frames to reach accord on different issues. For instance, a joint study and policy directive on mine safety will be completed by 20 February; a wage increase for transportation workers will be readied by 7 February, with implementation on 1 March; and pay and other conditions for miners must be introduced by 10 March and implemented soon afterward. 
 
Talks on Monday will also firmly resolve the issuance of protective wearing apparel for workers, another grievance that led to the dispute. Yesterday&rsquo;s accord also establishes a time frame in which a first collective agreement for Tkibuli-Mindeli miners of the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Trade Union will be achieved. That date is set at 20 March 2011. 
 
Workers began joining the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Trade Union of Georgia following a 27 August 2010 methane gas explosion that killed four and severely injured six other miners. On 3 March, another gas explosion killed four, this time severely burning one miner. 
 
The ICEM salutes the union, the capable leadership at GTUC, and the workers at Tkibuli-Mindeli for taking direct that led to this successful outcome. A report this week can be found here on <a href="/en/5-Mining-DGOJP/4228-ICEM-Supports-Safety-Strike-at-Georgian-Coal-Mine">ICEM support</a> for the Georgian miners.

Strike Ends, Georgian Miners Recognized at Tkibuli-Mindeli Colliery

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