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The 28 affiliates of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Slovakia (KOZ) have the antidote for centre-right coalition government intent on imposing dreaded labour laws reforms in the Central European country. KOZ and its trade unions have launched a petition drive to change the eight-hour work day to one of seven and a 25-hour work week, with no reduction in salaries. 
 
The campaign already has the necessary 350,000 signatures needed to put an initiative up for vote under Slovakia’s referendum law. But the unions will continue collecting signatures, in part, to galvanise support against Prime Minister Iveta Radicova’s labour code revisions to cut worker protections. 
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KOZ has drawn up a draft referendum that poses three questions to Slovak citizens: Do you want to preserve the current system of worker protections? Do you agree that overtime work should be limited to 80 hours per year? Do you want working time shortened to 35 hours per week? 
 
Leaders in the ruling coalition parties claim that if accepted, employers will reduce costs by furloughing workers. But union leaders argue that reducing the number of work hours can produce jobs if fair and socially correct policies are enacted by the government. 
 
The labour-friendly Smer-Social Democracy Party is the one political party supporting KOZ’s campaign. 
 
In order for a plebiscite to become effective in the Slovak Republic, at least 50% of voting-age people must turn out for the referendum vote. Since 1993, the country has held seven such plebiscites and only once has achieved the necessary 50% – in 2003 when Slovakian citizens voted to join the EU.

Slovak Trade Unions Campaign for 7-Hour Work Day

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A wage strike broke out last week in Argentina’s Zarate-Campana petrochemical complex when members of the Zarate branch of the Federation of Chemical and Petrochemical Workers’ Unions (FESTIQyPRA) walked out at six companies. Workers and their unions are seeking 2011 wage hikes over a series of instalments that will keep pace with the country’s high inflation rate. 
 
The companies affected include Petrobras, Bunge, Rohm and Haas, Lanxess, Atanor, and Dow. At the Petrobras petrochemical plant, production stopped on 5 March due to the company seeking a safe and orderly shutdown. FESTIQyPRA Zarate is negotiating with the Chamber of the Chemical and Petrochemical Industry (CIQyP), and the sides are now in mediation that is being conducted by the Argentina’s Ministry of Work. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM.Solidarity.JPG" width="120" height="117"/>
FESTIQyPRA’s Nelson Palacios said workers are justified in asking for a general 25% pay rise, with minimum wage workers expected to gain more. FESTIQyPRA Zarate also seeks a fixed remuneration sum of ARS 2,463 (€437, US$611) added to the base wage between May 2011 and February 2012. 
 
Palacios said the union’s proposal calls for 30% of the total to be awarded in May 2011, with other increments to follow in October, December, and in February 2012. Several collective agreements in Argentina are on the brink of dispute, including ones in metals, oil and gas, and in service industries. CGT General Secretary Hugo Moyano has stated that a 2011 increase of 28% is in line for workers to meet the rampant run-up in Argentina’s inflation rate. 
 
FESTIQyPRA is affiliated to CGT. The Zarate-Campana petrochemical plants are in northeast Argentina, in Buenos Aires province and situated on the Paraná River.

FESTIQyPRA Zarate Branch in Argentina Strikes 6 Chemical Companies

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The union that attempted to rescue coal miners inside a Soreng district colliery in Pakistan last week has strongly criticised government indifference of the 20 March tragedy. ICEM-affiliated Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF) held an angry protest on 22 March in front of the Quetta press club, demanding two resignations and calling for a judicial enquiry from the Balochistan High Court. 
 
Fifty-two miners died instantly 1,200 metres underground after three methane gas blasts occurred in a mine operated by an unregistered contractor. The mine is state-owned by the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC). 
 
Only two weeks earlier, PCMLF and concerned people in the Soreng area, 35 kilometres east of Quetta, demanded closure of the colliery because of high methane gas levels. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.pakistan sultan.jpg" width="302" height="186"/>
Sultan Muhammad at Quetta Press Club Rally
It took government rescue teams and emergency medical services eight hours to respond to the mine blasts. Miners of PCMLF first entered the mine in the aftermath of the explosions and dug with shovels and bare hands in hopes of finding survivors. What they found and brought to the surface were 12 mangled bodies. A 25-year-old miner who spent much of Sunday, 20 March, on the rescue described high levels of gas fumes and wood support structures that had crumbled, leaving massive debris blocking passageways. 
 
When mine safety officials did arrive, they blocked further efforts of miners to enter. “Directly and indirectly, many people and many family members are affected by this disaster,” PCMLF General Secretary Sultan Muhammad told the ICEM. “We are helping the families of victims as best we can with our union’s limited resources.” One family reportedly lost seven members in the 20 March tragedy. 
 
“It is a difficult job because miners and their families know they have to go five to seven thousand feet deep inside the mine,” said PCMLF President Bakht Nawab Yousfzai. “Nobody ever knows if they are going on their last journey.” 
 
Efforts to correctly identify the deceased miners were made difficult because the contractor had kept no visible employee roster. 
 
At the Quetta manifestation last Tuesday, PCMLF demanded that PMDC pay one million rupees each (€8,300) to the families of the dead miners. They also demanded the sacking of Baluchistan Mines and Minerals Minister Mushtaq Raisani and Chief Mines Inspector Iftikhar Ahmed. 
 
PCMLF seeks involvement in a tri-partite panel to investigate the blasts. The union also pointed to a number of threatening safety hazards at the same mine in recent months, but reporting of those incidents went unheeded. 
 
In a 22 March letter to PCMLF, ICEM Mining Sector Chairman Andrew Vickers of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia said: “I offer my personal and our collective condolences to the families and friends of miners killed in this latest inexcusable disaster in the coal mining industry. Your suffering is understood and shared by us who have lost too many sons, brothers, and fathers to inexcusable disasters in our mining industry.”

Pakistan Mine Blast Kills 52; ICEM Affiliate PCMLF in Strong Protest

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Second-year salary adjustments for some 20,000 white- and blue-collar Finnish pulp and paper workers ran separate courses over the past 12 days, with ICEM affiliate Ammattiliitto Pro – representing 4,000 salaried professionals – issuing a strike notice on 23 March against one company. A two-week strike will begin on 6 April at all UPM operations if official government mediation beginning today fails. 
 
Meanwhile, Paperiliitto, representing 16,000 workers at some 60 paper operations, agreed to terms with the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF) on 16 March. Workers will receive a guaranteed 2.5%, or €.41-per-hour increase. The union also granted other adjustments in the collective agreement. 
 
Both ICEM affiliates have been negotiating separately with the FFIF on wage terms for the back end of a two-year labour agreement. The parties had until last week to reach accord, or bargaining is automatically shifted into the government’s dispute resolution process. 
 
Ammattiliitto Pro, formerly Toimihenkilöunioni or TU prior to a merger in December with the insurance and banking union Suora, gave the strike warning because FFIF refused to put forward a similar national pay offer as the one given and accepted by Paperiliitto. Instead, there was no increase extended on the national level, with employers saying wage hikes will only be negotiated on a mill-by-mill basis. That stand quickly became an insult to dedicated staff.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.jukka pro finland.jpg" width="100" height="129"/>
Jukka Hämäläinen
“We seek a binding pay formula in this portion of the collective agreement,” said Jukka Hämäläinen, chief Pro negotiator for the paper sector. “We want a system that recognizes the increased work and greater responsibility taken on by our members.” Hämäläinen said only a short few years ago, there were 6,000 white-collar workers in Finland’s pulp and paper sector. That number is now 4,000. 
 
The union will begin an overtime ban on 1 April, the date the current two-year agreement is terminated if no resolve is realized. And then at 06h00 on 6 April, a full strike by 1,000 Pro members at UPM will commence that is certain to affect production at the Helsinki-based company’s Finnish mills. 
 
In the accord between Paperiliitto and the FFIF, blue-collar workers receive effective today a 1.5%, or €.24-per-hour increase, and then another 1% (€.17) will be negotiated on the local level. If that isn’t accomplished by 21 April, then it reverts back to the national level where a process is established to guarantee that increase retroactive to 28 March. 
 
Paperiliitto also agreed to grant local branches the option to increase work shifts from ten hours per day to 12, although it is mandated that there be no accumulative increase in yearly working hours. The union also agreed to a mobility clause, granting paper firms the flexibility to make short-term transfers of new hires employed in maintenance areas to other company operations. For current maintenance workers, companies must get one-time or more consent agreements from the individual for such a temporary transfer. 
 
The union agreed to the mobility language as deterrent to the use of outside contract or agency labour, and to assure that maintenance work will continuously be performed by Paperiliitto members.

Finnish Paper Sector Wage Accords Divert Between ICEM Affiliates

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The already-limited freedoms of association in Iraq are under further attack. Last month, the Cabinet arbitrarily dismissed the executive board of the country’s largest trade union organisation, the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW), and established a new committee to take over all union structures and assets, oversee and control upcoming union elections. 
 
Cabinet Decrees 95 and 96 were issued on 17 April, withdrawing recognition of the GFIW and appointing a “Ministerial Preparatory Committee” (MPC), consisting of un-elected, politically bias officials, mostly from the Sadrist Party. MPC employees have already begun distributing union membership cards, arbitrarily choosing members favourable to their faction. Further to this, union offices have been taken over with support from police and military personnel. Upcoming union elections are expected to be held inside the Sadrist Party offices. 
 
The deeply concerning developments follow a recent distribution of government ministries between the various political factions of the coalition. The carving up of responsibilities saw the labour ministry taken over by the small, Shia sectarian Sadrist movement, followers of Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. 
 
Eight years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, his regime’s regressive labour laws have not been replaced, meaning all public sector employees have no right to organise or bargain collectively. The vast majority of workers in Iraq are affected by this law. But this latest attack is even in breach of the Saddam legislation. 
 
The TUC in the UK has been on the front line of a global union backlash, calling on the Iraq government to back down. TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber wrote to Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki explaining that the TUC will exercise its veto right to block the government-nominated workers’ delegate to the ILO Annual Conference (ILC) in June, unless the attack is reversed. 
 
Support the <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=917">Labourstart campaign</a>, and send your protest message to Iraq Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki here. Also send your opposition to this attack on the GFIW to the Iraqi Embassy in your country. International pressure has proved effective in Iraq over recent years. The labour ministry decree has been publicly condemned by the Minister of Civil Society in Iraq. Build the pressure, join the campaign. 
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Basra Oil Workers’ Protest
Iraqis continue to bravely organise in face of the government attacks. Oil workers in Basra last week, 10 May, walked out and threatened to stop production at the state-run South Oil Corporation, demanding fair salaries and benefits to match those of oil workers at the international corporations operating in Iraq. Foreign workers were to be blocked from entering oil fields yesterday, but Basra Governor Khalaf Abdul Samad Khalaf agreed to meet the unions and averted the escalation of the protest, for the time being.

Repression Continues on Iraqi Trade Unions

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The European Trade Union Confederation’s (ETUC) 12th Congress in Greece from 16-19 May adopted the “Athens Manifesto,” calling for necessary financial governance and tax changes in a social Europe. The manifesto also rejects deregulation and flexibility measures as false solutions to the sovereign debt crises hovering over several European countries – including Greece. 
 
Some 500 delegates from 36 European nations attended, with those delegates consisting of representatives from 82 national labour centre federations and 12 continental union federations. 
 
The manifesto states that wages are not the enemy of the economy, but rather the motor of it and that the autonomy of social partners in collective bargaining must be respected. “The ETUC will fight for a European New Deal for workers against austerity governance and for European economic governance that serves the interests of the European people and not the markets,” ETUC said. It places a priority on combating youth unemployment and a priority to improve the working conditions of all European workers. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1105.etuc congress french woman.jpg" width="200" height="206"/>
Bernadette Ségol
The confederation said: “The ETUC commits to demand effective and stringent regulation of financial markets and ratings agencies and to campaign and claim that fundamental social rights take precedence over economic freedoms and consequently enshrine this principle in a Social Progress Protocol in European treaties, in a revised Posted Workers Directive and in internal market regulation known as Monti II. An action day has been approved to promote the Manifesto's aims.” 
 
The Congress also debated a minimum wage and pay coordination across national borders. Outgoing ETUC Secretary-General John Monks set the tone for the week on opening day, 16 May, by saying, “Austerity is not working.” 
 
In a letter to European finance ministers that accompanied an emergency resolution at the start of the Congress, Monks wrote, “The ETUC calls on you to immediately change course. Brutal austerity, both in terms of public finance and in terms of wages, is not working but instead undermining the economies of countries such as Greece and Ireland.” 
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EMCEF Delegation at ETUC Congress
In a secret-ballot election, the longest-serving member of ETUC’s executive committee, Bernadette Ségol, head of Uni Europa, was elected Secretary-General to replace Monks. A French national, she previously worked at the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) and at one of Uni’s predecessor unions, the banking and commerce federation Euro-FIET. 
 
Elected Deputy General Secretaries were Patrick Itschert, General Secretary of ITGLWF and of ETUC-TCL, and Jozef Niemiec, the lone holdover from the Monks era on ETUC’s seven-member Secretariat leadership team. Itschert is Belgian and advocates an ETUC that “turns political developments into actions.” Niemiec is Polish, was an engineer in Krakow and member of NSZZ Solidarność during trade union revival in Poland, and was involved in European integration of his home country. 
 
Elected confederal secretaries were Judith Kirton-Darling, formerly with the European Metalworkers’ Federation; Veronica Nilsson, who worked at TUAC and since March 2010 served as special advisor to ETUC; Claudia Menne, previously with the German DGB national labour centre; and Luca Visentini, from the Italian labour centre UIL. 
 
ETUC statutes dictate a single term for the Presidency of the confederation. Wanja Lundby-Wedin of Sweden thus stepped down and Ignacio Fernández Toxo, President of CC.OO of Spain, was elected President of ETUC for the next four years.

ETUC Adopts ‘Athens Manifesto’ at 12th Congress

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The Independent Trade Union of Miners’ of Ukraine (NPGU) held its Sixth Congress at mid-month in Kiev and besides hearing a 2005 to 2011 report on the union’s activities, the Congress elected governing bodies and adopted several resolutions. 
 
Mikhail Volynets was re-elected President of the Independent Miners Union by secret ballot. The Congress was attended by the ICEM and representatives from the ILO, the US Solidarity Center, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) of Germany, representatives of Ukrainian ministries and departments, deputies of the Verkhovnaya Rada, or Parliament, the leaders of other trade unions of Ukraine. 
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Mikhail Volynets (left) and NPGU Vice President Anatoly Akimochkin
Delegates and speakers voiced concern that the new law on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, adopted by the Rada, with many stating that it jeopardizes the gains made over the past 20 years. Specific resolutions of the Congress singled out harmful passages of the Social Dialogue law regarding pension reform and health and safety in Ukraine’s coal mines. 
 
The Congress also resolved to: demand that the state establish a system of preferences for employees who are actively involved in creating safe working conditions and for employers who prove that they maintain a steady level of safe working conditions; demand that the work state mine regulatory agencies do be judged on hours worked without incidents, accidents, and fatalities, rather than on the number of orders, reprimands, and fines issued; demand that public institutions in the field of occupational safety and health should be an integral part of safety and health management systems. 
 
Delegates also called on the Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers not to adopt the draft law on pension reform; develop wage reform aimed at legalizing the maximum wage and to significantly increase the wage proportion in a company's production costs to the level of 20-25% to serve as the basis for calculating pension contributions; eliminate the corruption phenomenon in the extractive industries where the shadow market of coal reaches three million tons per year, and to close coal mining off to so-called “slave labour,” or “Kopanki”; and improve legislation for heightened liability against employers for violating workers’ rights.

Independent Miners’ Union of Ukraine Holds Sixth Congress

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Mega sports events, like the Olympics and the World Cup, can have a tremendous positive influence on workers. Too often, however, we hear stories of accidents on construction sites and horrendous sweatshop-like conditions in factories. Workers who build the stadia and manufacture the merchandise suffer behind the glamorous facade of the games. 
The Play Fair alliance, which joins unions and NGOs from around the world, began in 2003 and since then has been campaigning to put workers’ rights on the agenda of the International Olympic Committee and FIFA. Many of Play Fair’s demands have not been met, but the campaign has had some positive achievements. For the London 2012 Olympics all official merchandise must be sourced from factories which pay workers a living wage and provide “regular employment.” Workers in these factories must have access to a complaints mechanism, and grievances must be investigated in a timely fashion. For the first time, the 2016 Olympic bid questionnaire asked prospective hosts to demonstrate how labour standards would be taken into account in making sourcing decisions for licensed goods. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1105.joint newsletter Eunice Cabral at Play Fair Brazil Launch.JPG" width="132" height="197"/>
In addition to sporting bodies, the Play Fair campaign has been targeting the brands and retailers who supply the team kits worn at sports events. Companies like adidas, which last year paid its board members almost €11.5 million, and Puma, which have a sponsorship deal with Usain Bolt reportedly worth £21 million, yet who refuse to commit to paying workers in their supply chain a living wage. Progress in improving brand practices has been slow, but a significant step forward will be made next month when Indonesian suppliers, their buyers, unions and NGOs come together to sign a protocol guaranteeing unions the right to freedom of association, including releasing an agreed number of union officials from work duties and providing adequate office and communication spaces, and time off for workers for union activities. 
In 2014 and 2016 Brazil will become the first country ever to host the World Cup and the Olympics within two years of each other. Taking advantage of this unique opportunity, Brazilian unions from the construction and textile sectors have joined forces to demand decent work for all those who contribute to the games. 250 people attended the public launch of the campaign on 1 April in front of the main gate of the Maracana Stadium, and the ITUC, BWI, ITGLWF and their affiliates exchanged messages of solidarity. 
The prevalent theme of the messages was a demand that the Brazilian World Cup and Olympics leave a positive legacy based on respect for workers’ rights.

A Sporting Chance for Workers: Launch of Play Fair Brazil

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The ICEM Thai Committee and the Thai Electronics Automobile Metalworkers (TEAM), the structure for IMF affiliates in the Southeast Asian country, joined hands and chanted for labour rights on May Day in Bangkok. They were a major part of a 1 May manifestation at Parliament and march along Ratchademnoen road to Democracy Monument. It drew 5,000 workers. 
It was one of two May Day protests in Bangkok and both demanded attention from the government on some of the same issues. The Thai Labour Solidarity Committee and the State Enterprises Relations Confederation (SERC) joined the ICEM-TEAM work forces. 
Both demonstrations demanded that the government ratify ILO Conventions 87 and 98, the core labour standards, and rescind Thailand’s 1999 privatisation laws. The two manifestations also called for Social Secrurity reform in terms of better protections made in administrative reform and tax exemptions on workers’ final payment schemes.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1105.TEAM.jpg" width="200" height="150"/>
The ICEM-TEAM protest made other, worthy demands including protection for informal sector workers and migrant workers, creation of a specific government agency on job-related health and safety, revocation of the Public Assembly Bill, and allowing workers to vote in areas where they work rather than in their hometowns. 
Many that marched along Ratchademnoen road to Democracy Monument chanted political slogans and criticisms of the current government as the time draws for national elections in Thailand.

TEAM, ICEM Thai Committee March Together on May Day

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What are the main challenges facing women members of the CFMEU? 
In the mining, energy, and petrochemicals sectors there are a very low percentage of women in the workforce especially in New South Wales. In a male-dominated work environment, it is a challenge to encourage women to take jobs in these sectors and then into union positions. 
We have gone through over 11 years of a very right-wing, conservative government that stripped a lot of conditions out of our agreements. For the last two years, we have had a Labour government and we are trying to claw back the things that were lost over that period. 
Aside from ongoing gender issues, one major challenge now facing women is allowances for those coming off maternity leave at Shell. The employer is discriminating against mothers by inflexibility on shift scheduling. Operators work 12-hour shifts, rotating nights and days. Shell’s inflexibility means women do not have the right to become mothers and also stay on their job. 
Can you tell us about the Women’s structure inside the CFMEU? 
Our newly-formed Women’s Committee elected me as Secretary. It consists of three executives, and three rank-and-file members from the mining, forestry, and construction industries. An early priority is to run education and training programmes for women, to encourage women to work in our industries. I was also recently appointed to the Central Council of the central leadership body of CFMEU through a new policy on affirmative action and women’s involvement. 
 
What about unity among women of other trade union organisations?
This has been greatly facilitated by the strong support of CFMEU’s central leadership. I actively serve on the Asia-Pacific Regional Committee of the ICEM Women’s Committee, uniting women workers from India, Pakistan, Australia, and many other nations. 
My long-term involvement in Australia’s Women In Male-Dominated Organisations and Industries has seen a building of cross-sector coordination of industrial women. We are seeking grants for training and education, through the Skills Councils, and looking to run programmes in schools for girls looking at careers in industry. 
 
What is the action way forward for the Women’s Section of an integrated global industrial federation? 
I would like to see a lot more programmes established, firstly on a regional level and especially on issues such as domestic violence. All the problems that we face across the spectrum would be much easier to combat if women were in a position of strength and able to support themselves. The most important priority is training and education for women. Training and education that lead to better jobs, better organisations, increased diversity and seniority inside unions, and increased possibilities for women to escape bad situations at work and at home. Our long-term goal is simply be to have more women being more active.

Interview: New South Wales Energy District Secretary Lorraine Usher, CFMEU

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