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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="120" height="59"/>
The 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’s rich coking-coal mines of Queensland’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 – Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU), and the Communications, Electrical, Plumbing Union (CEPU) – 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’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: “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.” See the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/63.ICEM.BMA.CFMEU,AMWU,ETU,CEPU.Australia.22June.pdf" type="internal">full ICEM letter</a> here. 

The ICEM stands solidly behind BMA workers who begin lawful 12-hour rolling strikes tonight at BMA’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’s tactics reflect poorly on the joint venture’s equal parents – BHP Billiton and Mitsubishi – and on BMA’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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The strike that began on 25 May by 11,000 contract workers at the El Teniente division of Codelco in Chile has dwindled to about 4,000 as many of the more than 20 employers doing sub-contract work for the state-run copper producer have settled with contract staff. 
 
Production of copper cathodes from El Teniente, the company’s most profitable division, had dropped to 40% at the peak of the strike on 8-9 June following blockades that prevented buses carrying Codelco staff from reaching the mine. But by late last week, output grew to 75% or more as some sub-contractors awarded bonuses and increased travel allowances to contract workers to get them to return to work. 
 
Codelco also began ferrying regular staff to the mine-site in central Chile by helicopters after transport buses were stopped and turned back. 
 
The unions representing contract workers have been unsuccessful in getting either Codelco or Chile’s government to engage them on working conditions at El Teniente. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4462-Contract-Workers-Strike-Codelco-at-El-Teniente-Mine-in-Chile" type="internal">ICEM report</a> on the outbreak of the contractors’ strike here.) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.chile%20codelco.jpg" width="240" height="159"/>
Mines and Energy Minister Laurence Golborne said he has been monitoring the strike, but ruled out any possible involvement by Codelco or the government because of “acuerdo marco,” or an agreement in 2007 stating that neither party has an obligation to address the grievances of contract workers. 
 
Regional politician Ricardo Rincón of Chile’s Christian Democrat Party (DC) condemned the government’s unwillingness to address the legitimate grievances of contract workers, stating that turning a deaf ear to workers does not speak well of Codelco management or of the government. 
 
Sub-contract employers have given their staff one-time bonuses of 700,000 pesos (US$1,500) to quit the strike, in addition to the increases in travel allowance. The strike has been marked by daily mobilizations and marches in the nearby city of Rancagua in Region VI, some violence and damage to buses, and arrests of about 80 contract workers. 
 
On 14 June, some 1,000 contract workers boarded 17 buses and travelled to Santiago to deliver petitions to the National Congress and several different ministries. Meanwhile, a day earlier in Rancagua, four women – mothers of striking contract workers – began a water-only hunger strike in the city’s cathedral to protest the government’s negligent lack of involvement in the dispute. 
 
Elsewhere, at Codelco’s Chuquicamata mine, part of the company’s El Norte division, some 1,000 regular staff, union members of branches of Federación de Trabajadores del Cobre (FTC), marched on 15 June in preparation for a strike that could occur at any time. 
 
The FTC branches are manifesting over staffing requirements and possible job retrenchments as Codelco prepares Chuquicamata for conversion from an open-pit copper mine to an underground one. The FTC said protests will continue and possible strike action will occur unless management shows a willingness to engage in talks with workers over plans for the conversion. 
 
The US$2.2 billion conversion project means underground mining will start at Chuquicamata in 2018.

Chilean Contract Workers’ Strike at Codelco Lingers

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
ICEM’s Colombian oil worker affiliate, USO last week condemned oil giant Ecopetrol, and also the Colombian government, for the exploitation of contract workers at the company’s subsidiary Propilco S.A. 
 
USO were particularly angered to see reports of the Colombian government speaking about the importance of decent work at the International Labour Conference of the ILO, while in fact the opposite is true back in Colombia. The government of President Juan Manuel Santos is complicit in the criminalisation of trade unions in Colombia. 
 
On 7 June, outsourced workers operating at the Propilco installations joined a USO union meeting to brief regular workers of their challenging working conditions. In retaliation, immediately following the meeting, the contractor companies blocked their return to the worksite. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMOil.JPG" width="100" height="101"/>
The contractor companies include ASECO-ASAP, Invertrans, and Gomez Mantilla. Propilco S.A. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ecopetrol, and therefore the Ecopetrol is fully responsible for the employees of the above-mentioned contractor firms operating at Propilco. 
 
Common violations of CAL worker rights at Propilco include the following: 
 
ASECO and ASAP retain the worker contracts, meaning workers have no proof of employment, or of their benefits and salary; 
CAL workers are not supplied with transportation to work, meaning it is often necessary to cycle to work, through dangerous industrial cargo routes; 
Loading workers are paid in relation to the weight of cargo they load, with extremely low wages; 
CAL workers do not have access to a canteen; 
Employers disregard their legal responsibility for employee breaks, training, maximum shift length, and holiday leave; 
Some workers have worked 20 years for the contractor, but still do not have adequate housing; 
Invertrans sacked five employees on 8 June, without legal process, causing fear throughout Propilco that involvement in union activities will result in dismissal. 
 
The ICEM joins USO in condemning these conditions for CAL workers.

Colombian Oil Workers Decry Conditions for CAL Workers

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Three European industrial trade union federations are on track now for delivering greater strength and power to workers in greater Europe. The European Mine, Chemicals, Energy Federation (EMCEF), the European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF), and the European Trade Union Federation – Textiles, Clothing and Leather (ETUF-TCL) have adopted a strict timeline in order to conduct dissolution congresses and a founding congress on 15-16 May 2012 in Brussels. 
 
A joint working group is expected to finalise statutes at a meeting on 8 November and that will be followed by discussion and ratification by the federations’ respective governing bodies in late November and early December. An initial joint executive committee meeting of EMCEF, EMF, and ETUF-TCL will then be held in Brussels on 30-31 January 2012. 
Also in the weeks and months prior to the May 2012 creation of a single European industrial federation, four joint political committees will begin charting the future structure of the organisation. Those political areas are Industrial Policy, Corporate or Company Policy, Social Dialogue, and Collective Bargaining. Future work in the yet-to-be-named federation will happen under those headings. 
 
Like integration on the global level between Global Union Federations, the European creation strives to reach workers’ hands across supply chains to make sustainable jobs the bulwark of future economies. The general secretaries of the three federations that are driving this are Michael Wolters (EMCEF), Ulrich Eckelmann (EMF), and Luc Triangle (ETUF-TCL).

EMCEF, EMF, ETUF-TCL Integration to Occur in May 2012 in Brussels

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	The third phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry’s investigation of the Pike River mine explosions of November 2010 that killed 29 concluded in mid-February in Greymouth, New Zealand, and several experts testified to the inherent weak safety mechanisms in place by Pike River Coal Ltd.

	The latest set of hearings also reveal a company that was 18 months behind on orders to deliver  premium metallurgical coal, and in the words of a technical services manager who resigned just days before the first explosion, “There was no way the company would delay coal production” because of safety concerns.

	The manager, Pieter Van Rooyen, testified that workers had given him notice of inadequate methane drainage pipes, requesting that drilling cease until rectified. Despite passing that on in writing to senior operational managers, nothing was done. Van Rooyen said the decision to begin hydro-mining deep within the shaft without constructing a second exit – and in areas of high methane gas build-up – was strictly for “cash-flow purposes.”

	 <img alt="" height="159" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.pike%20river%20mine%20photo.jpg" width="183" /> 

	An electrical engineer who investigated New Zealand’s worst mining accident in 100 years said the faulty Pike River electrical systems multiplied chances for disaster since stray currents in many mechanical instruments produced sparks. Pike River’s main exhaust fan was located underground, an anomaly to modern mining.

	In late October 2010, the company was warned by a regulatory agency that the stability of an expanded roof in an underground area was worrisome, and again nothing was done. A mine safety expert from Australia testified that the blast was caused by a roof collapse deep inside the mine, causing a massive release of gas. When the underground fan failed, the gas could have ignited from a small spark.

	For 16 months now, the bodies of the 29 have remained entombed inside the South Island mine, despite efforts by families to recover their loved ones. In this inquiry round, photos of two miners who were sighted dead near self-rescue units were shown. The photos indicate that the miners might have survived the initial blast on 19 November 2010. In the following days, five more major explosions occurred.

	Pike River Coal Ltd. killed 29 miners, including 26 New Zealanders, a miner from South Africa, one from the UK, and another miner who was an Australian national. The mother of this Australian miner named Josh Ufer is currently speaking out in Australia on the necessity to maintain full trade union involvement in all mine safety matters.

	As the Single Bargaining Unit led by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) wages a battle against BHP Billiton and Mitsubishi to retain union-mandated safety deputies and open cut examiners inside Queensland collieries, Joanne Ufer is versing the dangers inherent in unilateral management control of safety matters in union advertisements.

	The final phase of the Pike River Royal Commission of Inquiry will convene next month, with the commission’s report and findings to be issued in September.  See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4681-Pike-River-s-Royal-Inquiry-Sees-Troubling-Safety-Issues-Inside-NZ-Mine-Disaster" type="internal">ICEM report</a> following the commission’s second phase hearings.

‘Disaster Waiting to Happen,’ Pike River 3rd Inquiry Told 

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	With 95% approval yesterday, Local 27 members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) ratified a closure agreement with Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), part of Caterpillar Inc.’s Progress Rail Services, in London, Ontario. The sizeable financial settlement ends a morbid chapter of labour relations abuse by a company, and leaves an economic wound befitting the worst corporate ill-will that can be served up.

	The loss of 465 union jobs is tragedy enough in London, Ontario. EMD proposed in collective negotiations that CAW members reduce wages from C$35-per-hour to C$16-18, and give up a 50% equivalent of all benefits. When workers said no, on 1 January Caterpillar and EMD locked them off their jobs at a rail locomotive manufacturing plant.

	Thirty-four days later Caterpillar/EMD announced it would close the operation, move production to a start-up plant in the low-wage – US$12-16-an-hour – city of Muncie, Indiana, six hours to the south of London, where Caterpillar had already assembled a virulently anti-union management team.

	  <img alt="" height="159" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1201.ken%20lewenza.jpg" width="156" />

	Ken Lewenza

	Angry Canadians could only beg the answer to the question: What are our federal and provincial governments doing on such brazen desecration of our manufacturing base. Caterpillar had bought the London plant in third quarter 2010 and it came with a bed of government tax breaks. Eighteen months later, the plant is shuttered and Canadian-made machinery and technical know-how is now leaving the country.

	CAW President Ken Lewenza said Canada is in desperate need of a manufacturing jobs strategy. He stated that the free movement of global capital from country to country must be stopped because it is undercutting workers’ wages.

	Severance packages exceeded what were required by law, partly driven by public indignation of Caterpillar’s conduct and mostly by CAW’s resolve to get the best possible close-out deals for workers. EMD workers will get three weeks’ pay for each year of service and a C$1,500 lump sum payment. (See the <a href="http://www.caw.ca/assets/images/EMC_RATIFICATION_(2).pdf">CAW closure agreement </a>here.)

	For one-third of the workforce, that means severance payments of 60 weeks’ pay or more, while many will average 20-25 weeks. Workers will gain a measure of extended health care coverage, their pension fund will be fully funded, and EMD agreed to settle all claims and grievances with CAW Local 27. That will amount to a C$350,000 payment to the union within 30 days of yesterday.

	Province of Ontario law says that workers with five years of work service must get one week’s pay for each year worked, with a cap of 26 weeks. In a company statement on the closure and severance agreement, Caterpillar/EMD boasted that 75 workers, who would not receive pay-outs under the Ontario minimum, will do so now in the negotiated agreement.

	That hollow boast fades in juxtaposition to the wider swath of economic carnage Caterpillar has left on southwestern Ontario. Besides the 670 union, clerical and management direct jobs lost, CAW expects the plant closure to impact another 2,100 peripheral jobs.

	(See previous ICEM 2012 reports on Caterpillar in London, Ontario, <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4876-Raging-Insult-to-Final-Injury:-Caterpillar-to-Close-Canadian-Train-Locomotive-Plant" type="internal">here</a>, <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4851-15-000-Manifests-for-Canadian-Auto-Workers-in-Lockout-By-Caterpillar" type="internal">here</a> and <a href="/en/27-North-America/4823-CAW-Members-Victimized-in-Lockout-by-Caterpillar-s-Rail-Division" type="internal">here</a>.)

Severance Deal Reached in Stained Caterpillar Rail Diesel Closure

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	For the first time since the 30 December lockout by Rio Tinto Alcan of 780 union members of Syndicat des Métallos d’Alma in the Canadian province of Québec, bargaining got back on track this week. After a half-day delay caused by a different labour dispute at the Montréal airport on 19 March, provincial mediators Jean Poirer and Jean Nolan travelled to Alma where United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9490 leaders and six members of Alcan’s management met face to face that afternoon.

	Mediation continued throughout the day yesterday, with Syndicat des Métallos d’Alma Local 9490 President Marc Maltais stating that both sides expressed a willingness to settle the 12-week dispute at the aluminium smelter. By late yesterday, the union and company – with the help of government mediators – were establishing a speedy timetable for further talks.

	The resumption of bargaining came five days after a general union meeting and news conference where Maltais and USW Deputy District Five Director Guy Farrell reported on their two-week mission to the US West and Australia and New Zealand in order to ratchet up pressure on Rio Tinto with the company’s militant workers and unions.

	 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1203 turkey mine workers for alma zoom in.jpg" style="width: 345px; height: 161px;" width="390" /> 

	Turkish Union Maden-İş Displays Solidarity with Syndicat des Métallos d’Alma

	Maltais said at the news conference that both sides needed to compromise on the single issue that caused the company’s lockout, outsourcing. The union seeks to stop the continual erosion of permanent jobs by establishing limits to outsourcing, while Alcan used that issue to lock-out the entire workforce before other bargaining issues were even tabled.

	Farrell told the ICEM that pressure has mounted on the company to settle the dispute because of an escalating global campaign against Rio Tinto, and the realization across Québec that Alcan is cashing in handsomely during the lockout by selling excess hydro-electric power to the province.

	Under an agreement with Québec dating to 2006 when Alcan was a stand-along Canadian company, Rio Tinto is selling its unused hydro-electric power back to the province while it operates the Alma smelter at only one-third capacity. Throughout the near four-month lockout, Rio Tinto Alcan has been enriching itself by C$15 million per month at taxpayer expense while holding a community’s top-paying jobs hostage. Meanwhile, the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region economy of central Québec is losing C$1.8 million per week in lost salaries and benefits.

	      <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1203 rio tinto in aus.jpg" style="width: 320px; height: 141px;" width="390" /><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1203 rio tinto in aus.jpg" style="width: 320px; height: 141px;" width="390" />

	USW’s Guy Farrell Speaks at Brisbane Manifestation

	Another driving force that undoubtedly has pushed the company to return to the bargaining table is the current rise of aluminium prices on the London Metals Exchange. After dropping 25% from a high of US$2,500 per tonne in spring 2011 to the end of last year, prices have since rebounded by US$400 per tonne and aluminium is selling this week at US$2,245 a tonne.

	The Alma smelter is one of the world’s most modern, low-cost operations and with access to cheap hydro-electric power, the facility is too valuable for Rio Tinto not to run at full capacity. In Europe, Rio Tinto Alcan will permanently shutter its North East aluminium smelter in Northumberland, UK, on 29 March, sacking nearly 500 workers. It also announced on Monday that it would sell or close the Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, Savoie, France, smelter because of inability to reach an electric-power rate deal with EDF. 

	Maltais said this week that despite talks resuming, a mass rally in Alma slated for 31 March will go ahead. The union is expecting to draw 5,000 to 10,000 at the manifestation, which will occur a day after the ICEM’s North America affiliates convene for its bi-annual regional meeting in Alma.

	Protestors will assemble at 13h00 at the Galeries Lac St-Jean shopping mall and march to Parc le Festiv Alma for the manifestation that begins at 15h. (See <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/RTA_CARD4ENG_high.pdf">full manifestation flyer</a> here.)

	The solidarity-building trip by Maltais and Farrell through the American West and then on to Australia and New Zealand saw them get support from Rio Tinto’s borax miners in Southern California. International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30 faced its own lockout by Rio Tinto from late 2009 to spring 2010.

	From those late February meetings in both Boron and Los Angeles, California, Maltais and Farrell journeyed to the state of Utah where they met with USW local union leaders at Rio’s Kennecott Copper mines. Some 1,000 steelworkers and members of other unions, including the International Association of Machinists (IAM), waged a bitter six-month strike there in 2002-03.

	From 4 to 9 March, the Canadians were in Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, their message was heard by hundreds of delegates at separate forums of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) in Brisbane. On 5 March, Australian supporters including members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the MUA, AMWU and Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) joined Maltais and Farrell in a protest against Rio Tinto on Queen Street in Brisbane.

	        <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1203-marc-at-mua.jpg" style="width: 87px; height: 155px;" width="390" />        

	Local 9490’s Marc Maltais at MUA Forum

	At the mass MUA meeting there on 6 March, the two were surprised to see the MUA selling Syndicat des Métallos d’Alma’s trademarked orange shirts, emblazoned “Australia and New Zealand Mining and Maritime Union Fight War on Rio Tinto’s Workers.” Proceeds and other donations were given the two for Local 94990 back home, including at a stop at Rio Tinto’s Bell Bay, Tasmania, aluminium smelter that was hosted by the AWU, the union fighting for a first enterprise agreement there.

	In New Zealand, the visit from 7-9 March sponsored by ICEM affiliate Engineering Printing & Engineering Union (EPMU) and the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ), included a meeting with Rio Tinto aluminium producing workers at the Tiwai Point smelter in Invercargill. It also included another demonstration, this time on 9 March in front of Rio Tinto offices in Wellington.

	Throughout the western US trip and the Australia/New Zealand union-building visits, Maltais and Farrell had along a union banner to which trade unionists signed their names and pledged to join the Alma lockout fight. That banner was unfurled and hung in Local 9490’s union hall last week.

	While the two were concluding their trip in New Zealand, back home in Alma, on 8 March, International Women’s Day, women’s-only forum was held attended by 100 spouses and women workers. The event was billed as a unique chance to share experiences of the then 68-day lockout, the hardships, the loss of income and the emotional turmoil inflicted by a rich multinational on citizens of Québec’s Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region.

	To read further information on this corporate attack on working families, click <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4908-Locked-out-Alcan-Workers-Take-Dispute-to-Business-Doorstep" type="internal">here</a>, <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4875-Rio-Tinto-s-Euro-Works-Council-Irate-over-Québec-Aluminium-Lockout" type="internal">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4837-USW-Affiliate-in-Québec-Locked-Out-by-Rio-Tinto-at-Aluminium-Plant" type="internal">here</a>.

Negotiations Restart between USW, Rio Tinto Alcan in Canadian Lockout

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	The ICEM is following with concern the implementation process of the new Industrial Relations law in Pakistan, a process which should include trade unions. Writing to Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani on 13 March, the day before the Industrial Relations Bill went before the National Assembly, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda urged against further delays to the process

	“The five ICEM affiliated trade unions in Pakistan have the support of an influential network of trade unions in 132 countries. These unions and all workers in Pakistan are entitled to proper legislation protecting their basic human and labour rights, legislation that provides proper industrial dispute adjudicating mechanisms, and most importantly the right for trade unions to exist,” stated Warda. (See the full <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/27.ICEM%20Pakistan%20Labour%20Legislation.pdf" type="internal">ICEM letter</a> here.)

	The urgency was due to the pending expiration of the promulgated Industrial Relations Ordinance 2011 on 17 March. In a legal vacuum following earlier expirations of labour legislations, labour issues were devolved to the provinces by the subsequent 18th Amendment to the Constitution. A 2 June 2011 ruling by the country’s Supreme Court abolished the role of the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) because the relevant federal legislation no longer existed.

	 <img alt="" height="185" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1010.pakistan.jpg" width="246" /> 

	Leaders of ICEM's Pakistan Affiliates

	The legal existence of trade unions in Pakistan was thus threatened. Encouragingly, the new bill was passed by the National Assembly on 14 March without amendment, as it was by the Senate on 7 March. The Pakistani government announced the new legislation as a landmark achievement that will promote harmonious employer-employee relations and protect the rights of the labour community. Politicians across political parties agreed that mature systems of industrial relations in Pakistan will contribute to industrial and economic growth.

	The ICEM hopes that the new law will effectively rationalise the labour law in Islamabad and at the trans-provincial level with regards to formation of trade unions, trade union federations, and to regulate employer-worker relations.

	A key stipulation of the bill instructs the government to constitute a NIRC with the power to adjudicate and rule on industrial disputes in the capital and at the trans-provincial level, also on industrial disputes of national importance. Local level industrial relations will remain covered by provincial labour governance.

	Elsewhere in Pakistan, yesterday, 20 March, the Labour Appellant Tribunal dismissed appeals of local Syngenta management and ruled in favour of the ICEM-affiliated Pakistan Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Union (PCEM) in declaring all 50 workers of a factory as permanent employees of Syngenta Pakistan. The ICEM salutes the PCEM in its victory in regularising these workers to permanent employee status.

	Shockingly, the Swiss-based agrichemicals multinational Syngenta has ignored past court rulings in favour of the contract workers’ right to full time employment. The Syngenta Employees Union Pakistan, belonging to PCEM, has faced serious violations, including unjustified dismissals of its leaders. See last year’s <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4219-ICEM-Fights-for-Reinstatement-of-Union-Leader-in-Pakistan-" type="internal">ICEM report</a> here.

Pakistan Enacts New Labour Legislation with Pressure from Unions

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	In an astonishing development, the Bavet town governor in Cambodia has admitted to shooting three young women who were striking last month at a shoe factory in Svey Rieng province, but he was only questioned and then released.

	Chhouk Bandith appeared before a provincial prosecutor on 16 March and said he fired shots on 20 February into a crowd of thousands of mostly women strikers at the KaoWay Sports Ltd. footwear factory. But despite the confession, no arrest warrant was issued and he was allowed to go free. (See previous <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4926-Cambodian-Public-Official-Accused-in-Shooting-of-Footwear-Strikers" type="internal">ICEM report</a> on story.)

	When questioned by the Cambodian press in what has now become a serious stain on Cambodia’s judicial system, the Svey Rieng prosecutor said it was his right not to order the arrest of Chhouk Bandith. He also called the incident unimportant.

	 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1202-choukk-bandith.jpg" style="width: 130px; height: 160px" width="390" /> 

	Chhouk Bandith

	A majority of 6,000 workers at KaoWay, a supplier of shoes for the German company Puma, were in their second wave of strike action when Bandith exited the factory and fired a high-powered weapon equipped with a silencer at them. The shooting was caught on the factory’s security cameras before he fled in a car accompanied by a bodyguard and a uniformed police officer.

	The three women, ages 23, 21 and 18, were seriously injured with one – Buot Chinda – near death. She has recovered and after filing a criminal complaint against Bandith, is now in hiding. Reportedly, the three were offered sums of money for their silence ranging from US$500 to US$1,000. None have accepted the bribes.

	Because of the shootings, Chhouk Bandith was terminated from his duties as town governor on 6 March by a special decree from Prime Minister Hun Sen.

	Led by the union representing the striking workers, the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), an affiliate of the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF), some 27 civil society groups issued a joint statement urging “this case become an example of rule of law, not another reflection of impunity.”

	The statement continued: “Recognizing that the Minister of Interior Sar Kheng has identified the suspect of the shooting as being Bavet town governor, Chhouk Bandith, we strongly urge the Royal Government of Cambodia to make the suspect’s arrest an utmost priority. We also urge a proper trial and judgement in accordance with the law.

	“We remind the Royal Government of its obligation to ensure that human rights throughout Cambodia be respected. We also remind the Royal Government of its obligation to ensure that every Khmer citizen shall be equal before the law, regardless of rank, title or association.”

Cambodian Governor Confesses to Shooting Strikers, but No Arrest Made

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	A merger of labour federations in Swaziland has set the stage for a struggle toward democracy and independent political parties in the country. On 10-13 March, the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) convened its first Congress and priority number one is to establish a multi-party political system, or to boycott sham elections next year.

	TUCOSWA, formulated last year, was officially launched at its Congress in Matsapha and its first order of business was to demand registration and participation of political parties in Africa’s last absolute monarchy, run by despotic King Mswati III.

	The new labour federation amalgamates the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU), the Swaziland Federation of Labour (SFL), as well as the most powerful single trade union, the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT). The 50,000-member federation vowed that there will either be open and fair Parliamentary elections next year, or Mswati would face a boycott of next year’s elections.

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	Political parties have been banned in Swaziland since 1973 and Mswati and his cronies have mismanaged the economy so severely that public sector salaries have gone unpaid. At this month’s founding Congress, TUCOSWA announced it would embark on a nationwide education campaign, and as part of that, major protests likely to occur in April and May.

	Such manifestations will no doubt be met forcefully by Swazi police loyal to Mswati. In fact, at a meeting in Lubombo in January by leaders of TUCOSWA to discuss the monarch’s introduction of a value added tax, police broke it up after the unionists refused a demand to call off the meeting.

	“Workers are more prepared now to go to grassroots levels and into the communities to shed light on what the government should be doing,” said TUCOSWA President Barnes Dlamini.

	TUCOSWA General-Secretary Vincent Ncongwane used his speech at the end of this initial Congress to rally civil society – including faith-based groups and cultural entities – to frustrate next year’s scheduled electoral farce.

	In Swaziland, Mswati operates with what is called a tinkhundla regime, an undemocratic system whereby all power is vested in him with administrative matters put in the hands of tribal chiefs dependent on his patronage. The Swazi Parliament has few powers, with Mswati making appointments to many of the seats in the House of Assembly and Senate.

Merged Swaziland Labour Federation to Advance Cause of Democracy

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