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Representatives of the ICEM affiliate, Associated Mineworkers Union of Zimbabwe (AMWZ), will meet with the Chamber of Mines on Thursday 15 January, to put forward their demand to be paid in United States dollars instead of local currency. 
 
Workers are ready to down tools if they receive their next salary payment in Zimbabwe dollars. &ldquo;Mineworkers are reeling in poverty and are starving because they are being paid in local currency when almost everything is being charged in US dollars,&rdquo; stated AMWZ president Tinago Ruzive. &ldquo;The situation is quite bad. If we are not paid in United States dollars, we will go on a collective job action.&rdquo; 

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The mining industry in Zimbabwe is in a near-critical condition, especially in the gold sector where the Reserve Bank is said to owe miners at least US$30 million backdated to 2007. Mining industry management has called the union&rsquo;s ultimatum irrational and unrealistic, considering the current crisis. Ruzive responded, arguing that workers have the right to a decent wage. 
 
Salaries in the local currency do not represent a decent wage as it is no longer being accepted for commercial purposes. This near total dollarization of the economy has rendered the local currency virtuously worthless. 
 
Should the miners decide to strike, they will join the country&rsquo;s teachers and nurses who have been on strike since late 2008.

Zimbabwean Miners Demand Payment in US Dollars

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Australia&rsquo;s Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union&rsquo;s (CFMEU) fight to preserve mining jobs against a MNC&rsquo;s callousness, making workers the victims of an economic downturn, got a ruling in the Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) last week. That ruling, delivered on 8 January, calls for a one-week consultation period &ndash; beginning today &ndash; in which Xstrata must justify its ill-taken decision to sack 230 coal miners at Oaky Creek No. 1 Mine in Queensland. 
 
The case stands as a key test in Australia regarding a company shifting the burden of the recent economic collapse onto workers. CFMEU is not alone at present in fiercely resisting job cuts because of a failed neo-liberal economic agenda. From Russia to Chile, at Europe&rsquo;s largest zinc deposits in Ireland&rsquo;s County Meath, where 670 were retrenched by Tara Mines, to the hundreds of thousands of migrant miners across the world who are out of work with no place to go, it is workers who are paying the unjust price of capital&rsquo;s failure. 
 
The CFMEU fightback is just one example of the necessary, the pivotally necessary response that is needed to re-shape a social agenda. 
 
In Bolivia, the FSTMB mine union federation staged protests on 9 January calling on the country&rsquo;s leftist government to allow no layoffs. That came just after Xstrata&rsquo;s holding partner &ndash; Swiss-based Glencore International &ndash; announced job cuts of 700 zinc and lead mines, and at the Sinchi Wayra smelting plant. Workers threatened to take over the operations if the sackings came. 

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In Brazil, iron ore miners of Vale stopped work last Thursday, 8 January, at a mine in Itabira over the mining company&rsquo;s decision to retrench 1,300 jobs. Itabira, in Minas Gerais state, is where Vale was founded. Mining union Metabase says that as many as 10,000 miners could lose their jobs in Brazil because of economic cuts. 
 
In South Africa, estimates say that 40,000 miners could be out work through 2009 because of the economic meltdown. Many will be migrant workers. ICEM and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) President Senzeni Zokwana predicted the social impact of such sudden and unprecedented joblessness will be far-reaching and disturbing. 

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ICEM President Senzeni Sokwana
In Australia on 16 December, Anglo-Swiss Xstrata levelled a surprise on the 1,800-person town of Tieri, central Queensland, by announcing that the jobs of miners at one part of Oaky Creek&rsquo;s rich coal seams would be indefinitely suspended. 
 
ICEM-affiliated CFMEU took the matter to the AIRC to prevent the sackings. In arbitration hearings on 22 December, and again from 6-7 January in Brisbane, CFMEU argued that Xstrata&rsquo;s price drops are a speck in comparison with its recent coal pricing history has reverted only to early 2008 thermal coal prices to meet slowing demand from the steel industry. Xstrata has an industry-wide reputation, especially over Oaky Creek&rsquo;s high-quality coking coal, of driving prices upward in tight markets, thus making it the industry&rsquo;s price-setter during boom times. 
 
The CFMEU sought a four-week period for the consultative process. The AIRC gave the process a week to work. The CFMEU seeks to get Xstrata to place retrenched workers in its other Queensland operations, specifically Oaky Creek North, a separate longwall operation. The company resists. The union has charged Xstrata with stonewalling the AIRC process, relying on former Howard government work laws to justify its privilege to inflict social degradation on workers. 
 
&ldquo;Xstrata has chosen to take advantage of John Howard&rsquo;s WorkChoices laws and argues heartlessly that they are not required to afford workers natural justice in the redundancy process,&rdquo; said CFMEU Mining and Energy Vice President Stuart Vaccaneo. &ldquo;This really is corporate cowboy stuff.&rdquo; 
 
For the company&rsquo;s part, in December, a spokesman called CFMEU guilty of political posturing by wasting the AIRC&rsquo;s time in bringing the legal case. Vaccaneo called that the &ldquo;height of arrogance,&rdquo; given what 230 Queensland families face. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not about politics&mdash;it&rsquo;s about the future of (these) workers and their families.&rdquo; 
 
Following the 8 January AIRC ruling mandating this week as the week for labour-management consultation, a company spokesman said Xstrata will talk to the union, but &ldquo;we have appropriately managed those people&rdquo; affected. 
 
Some 450 job cuts were announced in December in Queensland. Although the Xstrata Oaky Creek case is the most high profile one, other mining enterprises in the region like Macarthur Coal Ltd. and Oz Minerals, a zinc producer, have also fired miners. 
 
Oaky Creek, first starting production in 1983, was bought by Xstrata when it took over MIM Holdings in 2003. Xstrata owns 55% of Oaky Creek, while Japanese companies Sumisho Coal, Itocho Coal, and ICRA OC Ltd. hold remaining ownership. Oaky Creek exports 11 million metric tonnes annually to steel mills in Europe, Japan, and North and South America.

Xstrata, CFMEU in Australia Battle Over Mining Jobs in Economic Downturn

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Find this article in Arabic <a href="/index.php?id=78&amp;la=EN&amp;doc=2994">here</a>.
The first cargo plane full of humanitarian supplies for the people of Gaza landed last week, 8 January, at Al-Areesh, Egypt, courtesy of the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF). Both the ITF and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) are actively engaged in trade union relief operations to deliver food, water, and medical assistance to Gaza, following nearly three weeks bombing by Israel.
The supplies, collected from transport trade unions and other across the Middle East, were passed to the Red Crescent in Gaza. ITF Representative for the Arab World, Bilal Malkawi, also chief leader of Jordan&rsquo;s General Trade Union of Workers in Air Transport and Tourism, supervised a cargo that included mostly vital medical supplies purchased by the ITF. 

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Bilal Malkawi was aboard the aircraft as it landed in Egypt late last week. The ITF-affiliated union has headed up the collection of essential supplies that were transported on Royal Jordanian planes, donated by the airline for the cause. Further relief flights will follow. 
 
&ldquo;We hope that this will be the first of several mercy flights carrying humanitarian supplies,&rdquo; said ITF General Secretary David Cockroft. &ldquo;Vital though these medical supplies are, they do not lessen in any way the need for an immediate cease fire in Gaza.&rdquo; 

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The ICEM called for an immediate cease fire in a statement issued on 31 December. &ldquo;The loss of innocent Palestinian lives is deplorable, and an immediate and fully respected ceasefire by both Israel and Hamas is now clearly the only way forward,&rdquo; the&nbsp;ICEM statement read.&nbsp; 
 
Labour groups worldwide, particularly in the Middle East, have condemned Israel&rsquo;s disproportionate attacks on Gaza. Late last week, the ICEM-affiliated General Trade Union of Public Utilities of Egypt issued a call for the international community &ldquo;to exercise and exert pressure on Israel to bring an end to Palestinian suffering, and to stop the violent and atrocious aggression on the armless people of Gaza.&rdquo; 

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The ITUC is working in cooperation with national labour centres in Palestine and Jordan (the PGFTU and GFJTU) to bring trade union aid for Gaza&rsquo;s citizens. The ITUC has set up an account called &ldquo;Trade Union Aid for Gaza.&rdquo; Information on bank transfer donations can call +32 2 224 0211 for information. 
 
Union wishing to contribute to the ITF, Jordanian Air Transport Workers Union efforts can do so by contacting Bilal at <a href="mailto:malkaw_bilal@itf.org.uk">malkaw_bilal@itf.org.uk</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Relief Aid Begins Reaching Gaza through ITF and ITUC Efforts

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Dutch delegates to the recent two-day Congress of FNV Bondgenoten re-elected Henk van der Kolk as chairman of the largest trade union in The Netherlands. The Congress was held in Rotterdam. 
 
Also re-elected were General Secretary Ellen Dekkers, Federal Secretary Anja Jongbloed, and Treasurer Willem Noordham. The end of the Congress on 30 January thus began third terms for this leadership team. 

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Henk van der Kolk FNV Bondgenoten Chairman
In his speech to open the Congress, van der Kolk called on Dutch social partners to initiate a new employment scheme come 1 March when the Working Hours Reduction plan expires. That plan was initially put in place in November 2008 to address the financial crisis, and was extended in January. It allows distressed companies to reduce the hours of workers, with those workers assured of receiving full pay through state funds. 
 
&ldquo;There must be something new after March 1,&rdquo; van der Kolk said, adding the crisis likely will continue throughout 2009 and into 2010. He said the government must be committed to re-training and job creation. He also warned the Social Affairs and Employment minister not to increase the pension age. 
 
Van der Kolk has headed Bondgenoten since the end of 2002, prior to which he was a director for the national centre, FNV. From 1989 to 1997, he worked for the General Union of Education Staff, the predecessor union to Algemene Onderwijsbond (AOb).

FNV Bondgenoten Congress Re-Elects Henk van der Kolk for 4-Year Term

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A general strike in the French West Indies territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique turned deadly last week when a fifty-year-old union leader, Jacques Bino, was killed as he approached a road block set up by disenfranchised youths in Point-&agrave;-Pitre, the largest city of Guadeloupe. His car was hit three times by 12-gauge shotgun slugs, one of which hit the tax and union official in the chest. 
 
Six policemen were also wounded in Guadeloupe that same evening, 17 February, as widespread rioting took place on the Caribbean island. It is thought that Bino may have been killed after being mistaken for a plainclothes policeman. 
 
The general strike started 20 January by a grouping of 50 trade unions and associations, under the banner &ldquo;Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon&rdquo; (Stand Up Against Exploitation). The strike is over a social caste system that harkens back to the days of slavery on the islands. 
 
On 14 February, thousands of workers marched through the town of Le Moule to the chant, &ldquo;Guadeloupe is ours, it&rsquo;s not theirs.&rdquo; 

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Elie Domota
Elie Domota, spokesperson for the Stand Up Against Exploitation stated, &ldquo;Guadeloupe is a colony, because in a French department they would never have let the situation deteriorate this much before intervening.&rdquo; Demonstrators have targeted the island&rsquo;s &lsquo;b&eacute;k&eacute;s&rsquo;, descendants of white plantation owners who still control much of the island&rsquo;s economy. They account for less than 1% of Guadeloupe&rsquo;s 450,000 population. 
 
Citizens of Guadeloupe are victimised because most food is imported and is far more expensive than in France. However, wages are much lower and unemployment levels reach 20%. The Sarkozy administration in Paris has refused calls to recognise a demanded &euro;200 per month increase in the minimum wage, or to address a demand that price cuts to basic essentials such as food and fuel be lowered by 20%. 
 
It took until the fourth week of the strike, only last week, before Sarkozy did intervene. He spoke of the need for profound changes in the island&rsquo;s economy, but failed to give any concrete proposals. 
 
Similar demonstrations have occurred in neighbouring Martinique, while the strike has threatened to spread to the territories of French Guyana in South America, and the Indian Ocean island of Reunion. Protests could spread to mainland France in the coming days and weeks.

General Strike in Guadeloupe Turns Deadly; Finally Gets French Attention

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At a founding meeting in the US city of Pittsburgh, state of Pennsylvania, on 9 February, five unions organised the North American Cement and Building Materials Union Network. The founding of the network was sponsored by the ICEM, in cooperation with the Building and Woodworkers&rsquo; International (BWI). 
 
The unions include US affiliates of the ICEM: the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB), the United Steelworkers (USW), the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), the Laborers International Union (LIUNA), and the Teamsters Union. 
 
The IBB and the USW will coordinate the network, and meetings will be held biannually. 
 
&ldquo;The creation of this network is a major step in dealing with multinational companies in this sector,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We believe companies will pay attention to our demands when the various unions are unified and working jointly together.&rdquo; 

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Global companies operating in North America, whose unionised employees make up the network, include Lafarge of France, Holcim of Switzerland, Buzzi Unicem and Essroc of Italy, Cemex of Mexico, and Heidelberg of Germany. Delegates to the initial conference passed a resolution in support of the UMWA at Lafarge&rsquo;s Joppa cement facility in Grand Chain, Illinois. The union has organised 120 workers at this Ohio River cement plant, but managers are attempting to decertify the UMWA as bargaining representative. 
 
The resolution calls for French senior managers of Lafarge to dispatch its Reference Group to the site to investigate whether or not American managers are violating the Global Framework Agreement, which ICEM and BWI are signatory to with Lafarge. 
 
The network&rsquo;s aims are presenting a unified message to the North American cement industry; pursuing organising neutrality at non-union worksites; enforcing Global Agreements in North America; promoting higher standards and better working conditions; developing coordinated collective bargaining strategies; recruiting and developing the next generation of union leaders; promoting labour-management dialogue on sustainable development; and continuing to coordinate with unions globally at key multinational employers.

ICEM Fosters Start-Up of North American Cement Unions’ Network

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The body count was still being tabulated early today in China&rsquo;s deadliest coal-mine accident in over 14 months. But at least 74 miners were confirmed dead, following a gas explosion that occurred at the Tunlan Coal Mine early Sunday, 22 February. The mine is owned by the Shanxi Jiaomei Group. 
 
Dozens more are still trapped and the death toll could rise to nearly 100. search and rescue efforts were called off at midday today, 23 February. The tragedy occurred at Gujiao City, Shanxi Province, at the company&rsquo;s Shanxi Coking Coal Co. 
 
Yesterday, family members of some of those trapped received mobile phone calls from miners&rsquo; deep underground, perhaps hearing their loved ones voices for the last time. 

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A total of 436 miners were working at the time of the explosion, and some 300 miners managed to escape. Some 114 of those had been hospitalised, and at least 21 of those faced death-threatening circumstances. The Shanxi Jiaomei Group is a private coal and petroleum company. 
 
The disaster was China&rsquo;s worst coal-mine blast since 105 miners perished on 5 December 2007 at the Xinyao coal mine, also in Shanxi Province. Four months earlier, 181 miners died inside shafts of two adjoining mines in Shandong Province when the mines flooded. 
 
Earlier this month, on 13 February, eight Chinese miners were killed in a gas explosion inside the Zhijin mine in Zhijin County, Guizhou Province, which is in the China&rsquo;s southwest region. Those victims were identified as migrant workers from nearby Chongquing. Twenty-five miners managed to escape that explosion.

Mine Explosion Brings Weekend Death Toll to 74 at Major Chinese Colliery

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ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda last week congratulated mining unions in India, especially the ICEM affiliated Indian National Mineworkers'&nbsp; Federation (INMF)&nbsp;and its General Secretary BK Das, who took&nbsp;a leading role in achieving a new wage agreement. 
 
The National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA-VIII) gives 500,000 miners across India pay increases totalling 24% over five years. 
 
The agreement, signed in New Delhi on 24 January, also improves working conditions. MK Pandhe, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) President, commended the successful negotiations that were made possible by the unified work of five national federations, CITU, INTUC, BMS, AITUC, and HMS. 
 
The agreement provides a minimum benefit hike of 24% of gross wages effective 1 July 2006, and an annual increment of 3% with cumulative effect. It provides for an open-ended pay scale which ensures no wage stagnation for any employee during the period of the agreement. The agreement also gives a 50% increase in all allowances, effective 1 January 2009. The underground allowance will be 12.5% of the basic scale, and will be treated as part of the basic wage. 

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The agreement will ensure a minimum weekly base wage for a coalminer at INR 9,346 (US$188), the highest in the Indian public sector. 
 
Under the agreement, employees will be provided with a uniform and a monthly washing allowance of INR 75, as well as a transport subsidy of at least INR 10.50 per day. The underground allowance will continue to be paid at 12.5% of the revised basic salary, along with an attendance bonus of 10% of basic pay and a special dearness allowance of 17.95% of the attendance bonus. Annual leave with wages will continue to be governed by the provisions of the Indian Mines Act of 1952. 
 
The unified mining workers rebuffed efforts by management to make the agreement ten years in length. 
 
Current challenges facing INMF are the struggle against privatization, outsourcing, corruption, unsafe working conditions, and the rise of Contract and Agency Labour in the Indian mining sector. 
 
The ICEM joins INMF, CITU, and other union federations in appealing to all coal miners to strengthen the unity achieved with this contract to continue bringing short-term contract and agency workers into the union fold. 
 
During a visit to India recently by Warda, he met with the Committee of the Indian Mineworkers&rsquo; Union on Health and Safety, encouraging the union to work towards an ICEM-sponsored tripartite meeting late this year on Indian ratification of ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 
 
Warda also inaugurated a workshop on Contract &amp; Agency Labour (CAL) that was held in Puri on 15-16 February that was attended by 28 contract workers from the Mahanadi Coalfields, Ltd. He supported the efforts of CITU to organise fixed-term and agency workers. It was reported that since the federation started its campaign to organise, 30,000 CAL workers had joined unions. 

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Kanti Mehta
The ICEM General Secretary also unveiled the life-size bronze statue of the late Kanti Mehta, the founder of the INMF, who passed away on 20 October 2007 at the age of 87. The unveiling occurred on 15 February, on what would have been his 90th birthday.

ICEM Salutes Indian Mining Unions in Wage Accord for 500,000 Miners

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The US labour board has issued a blanket unfair labour practice complaint against Covanta Energy at more than 50 worksites across America. The charge was brought by ICEM-affiliated Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), which organised Covanta staff at a worksite in Rochester, Massachusetts, in May 2008, but has since been unable to secure a first collective agreement because of company intransigence. 
 
Covanta is a waste-to-energy company that operates incinerators and then sells electric power generated from those incinerators to local grids. The ICEM has assisted the UWUA in its first contract fight over the past several months by tracking the company as it seeks new contracts in Ireland and the UK. The ICEM has alerted trade unions, public officials, and environmental groups of the Chicago-based company&rsquo;s anti-union bias. 
 
The US labour law complaint, issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), cites the company with numerous illegal work rules, as outlined in its employees&rsquo; manual. Such violations include threatening to terminate workers for providing any information &ndash; such as environmental or health and safety &ndash; to government regulators, news media, or other &ldquo;outside representatives.&rdquo; 

<img height="160" alt="" src="" width="216" />
The NLRB complaint also challenges a Covanta rule prohibiting distribution of &ldquo;unauthorised&rdquo; material on &ldquo;company property&rdquo; or on &ldquo;company time,&rdquo; a form of anti-union bias that has been illegal in the US for 60 years. Other Covanta workplace policies ruled illegal include guidelines prohibiting workers from discussing their wages with each other, or from wearing &ldquo;political slogans&rdquo; while at work. 
 
The UWUA filed the charge in Massachusetts but since Covanta uses the same employees&rsquo; manual at all US worksites, the NLRB issued the nationwide complaint at all company locations. Only a handful of Covanta&rsquo;s 50 plus workplaces are unionised. 
 
&ldquo;We want Covanta employees everywhere to know that our union will stand up for their rights, not only in Massachusetts but at every other Covanta location,&rdquo; said Gary Sullivan, President of UWUA Local 369, which represents the 130 Covanta workers in Massachusetts. 
 
As Covanta seeks to expand its trash to electric energy business globally, the ICEM will continue to alert social partners of its anti-worker policies in the US.

Covanta Energy Violates US Labour Law

Motion on ICEM Project work 
ICEM Executive Committee, June 2008 
 
Whereas it is acknowledged that there is a need for a clear, transparent and open ICEM policy in regard to ICEM projects and ICEM project related activities; 
 
Whereas, due to the global structure of the ICEM, the number of affiliates in need exceeds the number of affiliates that are able to offer structural assistance. 
 
Whereas it is commonly known that the expectations and demands of affiliates for international support action exceed the services that the ICEM can provide to its affiliates as a global union organisation, working only through income from affiliation fees; 
 
Whereas it is recognised that there is a wide array of possible external funding organisations, ranging from traditional donor organisations, usually trade union organisations themselves, or organisations set up by unions, over union-friendly and/or union-related organisations and governmental, or government-related, organisations, to companies and/or corporate or employer organisations; 
 
Whereas project related activities can consist of ICEM-organised activities and programs through extra-budgetary funding, as well as through in-kind contributions by external organisations; 
 
Whereas there is a need, given the envisaged closer cooperation of ICEM with other Global Union Federations, in particular IMF, ITGLWF and BWI, to also recognise their work, specific experience, and objectives in the area of project work; 
 
Whereas projects are expected to contribute to the general development aid objectives of creating world-wide justice and equality, concentrating especially on decent work, trade union building, the strengthening of unions at national level, as well as on the strengthening of international mutual support at the regional and global level, 
 
Whereas the ICEM, as part of these discussions, decided at its Executive Committee meeting in Bangkok, in November 2007, on a list of activities that should be given priority in 2008/2009; 
 
 
There is need for a regular evaluation of ongoing projects in regard to targets set, as well as for a timely discussion on future activities; 
 
Linked to the above, good and regular follow-up and input from ICEM affiliates is required, including at ICEM-meetings at regional and international level; 
 
It is recommended that the internal debate in the ICEM should be based on the principles, views and objectives listed here below. 
 
 
The ICEM considers project work, where well chosen and effectively managed, to be a strategically important addition to the regular day-to-day activities of the ICEM; 
 
ICEM project work should concentrate on assisting those in need and those that need our international assistance the most. This issue does not only need to be looked at from a geographical angle. To some extent, sectoral issues also come in to play. The mining sector is an example of an area with, on the one hand, a great deal of activity in developing countries, and, on the other, a decreasing membership base in the majority of the OECD countries. 
 
The ICEM continues to believe that project work should be an integral part of the normal national and international daily trade union activities. Project work will be planned with links to, and in support of, other ICEM day-to-day work, or otherwise contribute directly to the main ICEM goals. In addition, and in return, the aim should be that where a donor funds a particular project, it gets the assistance of the whole international organisation; 
 
Projects will therefore be selected, chosen and agreed upon, on the basis of their capacity to advance the realisation of key ICEM priorities, especially those set at ICEM Congresses; 
 
Project work can be used, as long as it is linked to the ICEM&rsquo;s key priorities, to realise both the organisation&rsquo;s overall general global main objectives, as well as certain specific, at times, detailed goals; 
 
The ICEM believes that its work can not only greatly profit from cooperation with the traditional, trade-union-friendly solidarity support organisations (SSOs), but also from cooperation with other donors, including private/public partnerships, provided the integrity and independence of the ICEM as an international trade union organisation is not compromised; 
 
The ICEM does recognise, nevertheless, that there is a need to continue to monitor, at all times, the risk to become too dependent on external funding. Internal assessments shall therefore be made, including through appraisals on a continuous basis; 
 
Wherever possible, project work will make an effort to simultaneously advance different ICEM priorities. Particular emphasis in social dialogue, or framework agreement discussions, for example, could go to such ICEM key issues as contract and agency labour, HIV/AIDS, or health and safety. Reinforcing unions through improving negotiations skills on these issues, as a union-strengthening effort, is a similar example; 
 
It is agreed that the following are among the most important priorities for ICEM project work: 
 
&bull; The strengthening/modernisation of trade unions continues to be a high priority for the ICEM. Many of our affiliates still are in need of external and international assistance. Indeed, many affiliates identified this kind of solidarity as an important contribution to become equal partners to the world&rsquo;s (multinational) companies, as well as to their governments. Related to this is the continued need, within numerous affiliates, to improve internal structures, and to train union leadership, shop stewards and trade union members on a range of subjects, from basic trade union issues, over international economy and international trade union rights, to globalisation issues and ways to deal with multinational companies. Examples of specific subject matters include International Financial Institutions, Global Framework Agreements, ILO standards and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises; 
 
&bull; Of specific importance for project work in this area is the need to build strong branch or industrial unions, at national and/or regional level. Many affiliates use this project support to move away from company unionism; 
 
&bull; Linked to the above is the need for union consolidation at national level. In too many cases, unions are in competition with each other at national level, and, as a result, not strong enough to bargain effectively with their employers; 
 
&bull; Defending basic trade union rights, and fighting violations thereof, also continues to be an essential part of project work, albeit to various extents, depending on national situations and practices; 
 
&bull; The work on multinational companies is one of the major focal points of the ICEM&rsquo;s project work. The many priorities here include work and discussions on global framework agreements and, most certainly, international company networks, which already centre prominently in the ICEM&rsquo;s current project work. The setting up of such international networks for ICEM affiliates and their members, working with and for the same multinational company, or within the same industry, has proven to be a valuable tool for workers and is widely seen, for various reasons, as one of the main achievements within the ICEM&rsquo;s project work; 
 
&bull; A key priority in the work with MNEs, but also with other companies, is the issue of social dialogue. The ICEM will give priority to projects that deal with this issue. Not only as they are in high demand, but also as this is an area where the ICEM has a good and longstanding expertise, and because it is an area where the organisation can make a difference. Closely related to social dialogue, collective bargaining, and improvements thereof, also remains a highly important priority within the ICEM&rsquo;s project work; 
 
&bull; Another key aspect, and obvious necessity in relation to multinational companies, but also beyond, is the organising of new members. Almost all ICEM projects already support organising efforts; 
 
&bull; The issue of contract and agency labour &ndash; unquestionably one of the key threats currently for not only the ICEM, but also many other global union federations, as well as countless unions around the world &ndash; is not only an important factor in our strengthening-of-unions exercises, it also plays a vital role in the ICEM&rsquo;s work vis-&agrave;-vis multinational enterprises; 
 
&bull; The work on HIV/AIDS will also continue to be a key project priority, given the success of the current HIV/AIDS project. This can not only be measured by the goals it has already achieved, but also because of the positive effects it has in attracting lesser-traditional funding in this area; 
 
&bull; The gender dimension is a central part of all ICEM project work. This work includes efforts to look at how to better involve women in union work, and improve their participation in leadership structures; 
 
&bull; Health and safety also remains a priority for the ICEM&rsquo;s project work, including as a topic for international social dialogue. Health and safety in the mining sector is a concrete example of an issue where the ICEM could be highly instrumental in making further progress at the international level. Project activities should, where possible, support the ICEM&rsquo;s campaign to sign on to the principles of the ILO Convention 176 on health and safety in mining; 
 
&bull; Linked to the work on health and safety is the subject of sustainable development, an subject matter that is increasingly gaining in importance, not only in project-related work. On a slightly different level, but also related to the sustainability effort is the work on corporate social responsibility; 
 
&bull; As, of course, not all multinational companies are equally looking forward to working with the international trade union movement, failed efforts to establish a meaningful and positive social dialogue can, and in many cases, should be offset by corporate campaigns, which can also be a substantial part of project work; 
 
&bull; Finally, particular emphasis will go to the problems of trade unions in those regions and countries that were given priority in the most recent set of ICEM Congress resolutions, such as the Middle East, Iraq, Burma, Colombia, Palestine and Zimbabwe.

ICEM Executive Committe Motion on Project Work

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