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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
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

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
In Namibia recently, a collective agreement signed between ICEM affiliate Mine Workers’ Union of Namibia (MUN) and Namdeb Diamond Corp., the DeBeers, Namibian state joint mining venture, had the rubber stamp of a High Court order. That unusual attribute came because a month-long strike/lockout of 1,600 miners developed into a highly charged and fractious split between labour and management that had Namibia’s top political leaders nervous. 
 
The agreement ending the strike, which began 16 August, and the lockout, beginning 20 August, came 11 days ago and was overseen by the country’s Minister of Presidential Affairs. The next day, High Court Judge Dave Smuts made the agreement a court order. 
 
The agreement calls for the two sides to “dedicate themselves in good faith to rebuild relationships.” It calls for empowering a tripartite commission to investigate and resolve the many issues that surfaced in the hostile dispute, and the accord signed at government house in Windhoek also positively resolves the central issue behind the dispute: housing pay when a mine’s resources are spent and workers are transferred. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NamibiaFlag.gif" width="160" height="106" alt=""/>
The dispute started when Namdeb mothballed the remote Bogenfels mine and denied workers their housing and utility allowances in transferring them to new sites. That occurred earlier this year for a small number of the 1,600 union miners, about 125, and the dispute festered with both sides hardening until industrial action started in August. 
 
When MUN decided to conduct a strike vote, Namdeb yelled foul, saying the vote should not be open to all 1,600. That angered MUN which saw it as an overt intervention into the union’s affairs. Then during talks to resolve the strike/lockout, the company angered miners with a counter-offer granting the housing and utility allowances, but then demanded that miners pay rent in their new locales 
 
The recent peace agreement restores to the 125 transferred workers their housing and utility entitlements, and they will not have to pay rent at their new worksites. The accord guarantees no regressions to a 2009 Work Conditions Agreement. The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, which worked staunchly over the past six weeks to resolve the dispute, will coordinate the reconciliation commission. 
 
MUN called attention during to the strike the inequity in opportunities between Namibian citizens and expatriates. The union also singled out a top boss for unfairly denying Namibians jobs because he insists on using polygraph tests on applicants. And MUN has accused this same boss of safety neglect in implementing cost curtailments. Namdeb’s largest operation at Oranjemund has seen two years this year. 
 
Diamond output by Namdeb fell off by 30,000 carats of gems during the dispute. Diamond production accounts for almost 10% of Namibia’s GDP and 40% of foreign exchange funds. 
 
Meanwhile, a MUN branch took strike action 23 September against Rössing Uranium Ltd., 69% owned by Rio Tinto. The 950 uranium miners of the Arandis branch passed a strike authorisation vote 19 September and this is the second strike in three months against Rössing over inequitable bonus pay-outs between managers and workers. With Rio Tinto the lead company, the remainder of Rössing is owned by the Namibian government and South Africa’s Development Corp.

Namibia’s Mineworkers’ Union, Namdeb Reach for Olive Branch

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The ICEM condemns the cowardly assassination of Colombian mineworkers’ leader Rafael Tobón Zea on 26 July. Tobón was shot three times and killed by paramilitaries near his home in the city of Segovia, Antioquía department, about 220 kilometres north of Medellín. 
 
Rafael Tobón, 40, was a leader of the metal and mineworkers’ union Sintramienegética, where he was a founding member of that union at Frontino Gold Mines Ltd. He worked there for 15 years and was still assisting discharged miners of Frontino after the Medellín-based company liquidated and its underground mines were bought last year by Modoro Resources Ltd. of Canada and Gran Colombia Gold S.A. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.sintramienergetica inside story.jpg" width="358" height="75" alt=""/>
He was working in a smaller gold mine in Antioquía department and organising workers there when he was killed last week. Sintramienegética had reported threats to its leaders that were believed to be tied to the contested takeover of Frontino by Modora and Gran Colombia, and the sacking of all miners. 
 
The ICEM calls on the government of Colombia and the authorities in Segovia and Antioquía state to spare no resource in apprehending and bringing to justice the perpetrators of this heinous crime. Let there be no impunity for the miscreants of Colombia who take the lives of trade unionists in cold blood.

Mineworkers’ Leader, Rafael Tobón, Gunned Down in Antioquía, Colombia

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 39px;" / width="390">

	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

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 39px;" width="390" />

	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

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 39px" / width="390">

	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

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 39px;" width="390" />

	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.

	 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Swaziland.png" style="width: 200px; height: 92px;" width="390" /> 

	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

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" style="width: 120px; height: 59px" / width="390">

	Indonesia’s largest coal producer, PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC), through its mine services contractor Thiess Pty. Ltd. of Australia, has brutally attacked members of two ICEM-affiliated mine unions through police and military force. The dispute dates to the fourth quarter of 2011 when miners working for KPC, part of Indonesia’s Bumi Resources, first took strike action when it became obvious that neither Thiess nor KPC intended to grant a renewal collective agreement.

	But the dispute at KPC’s Sangatta mine in Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo turned violent on 24 March when 400 striking workers gathered at the coal company’s office in East Kutai district on the counsel of a local citizens group to offer themselves back to work following a second strike dating to last November.

	They were immediately attacked by a regional military brigade serving the interests of Thiess and KPC. Twenty miners were severely beaten and hospitalised. Another 12 were immediately detained and throughout the night of 24 March and into the next day, police and military rounded up another four union leaders and jailed them.

	By this weekend, most of the unionists had been released but police and regional military are still holding two union leaders, the Vice President of the local branch of ICEM affiliate Chemical, Energy, Mines, Oil & Gas Workers’ Union of FSP-KEP, Sumardi, and the Secretary, Maxi.

	The leader of FSP-KEP, D. Patombong Sjaiful, called the situation now “critical” and pleaded that global trade union attention is given this grievous repression by brute force. In the second time in a fortnight, Jakarta-based FSP-KEP today dispatched a mission to east Kalimantan province, this time to win the freedom of the two remaining unionists.

	The other ICEM-affiliated organisation with membership at KPC is the regional mining and energy union FPE, part of the Indonesian confederation SBSI. Some 2,200 miners work at KPC’s two open-cast thermal coal mines of Sangatta. FSP-KEP has some 1,400 members, while FPE has 200. KPC also consists of five smaller mines at the nearby Bengalon mine.

	The dispute began following the expiration of a two-year agreement on 5 October 2011. Thiess Indonesia management foretold its strategy to eliminate the collective agreement by telling the unions a new agreement would not be valid until after negotiations were complete. And then the stalling began.

	The mineworkers’ only choice was to strike and the first work stoppage occurred from 10 November to 27 December, from which six union leaders were sacked. When the two sides finally did return to bargaining on 28 January 2012, union leaders were summoned to police offices in East Kutai district where they were surprised to see that the police commander representing the company in talks.

	Two days earlier, KPC sent a letter that the status of the six union leaders would not be on the agenda. Miners began a work slowdown resulting in 264 workers getting the sack that, in turn, caused a second strike.

	When Sjaiful and other FSP-KEP leaders visited in mid-March, an agreement was sorted out between the police, a local parliamentarian, and the citizens’ group calling for the strike to cease, recall of the dismissed workers, and a return to negotiations.

	But Thiesse and KPC rejected that. When strikers came to the company’s offices then on 24 March, they were met by police and the mobile brigade wielding batons and other instruments of force.

	The ICEM condemns Thiess, part of Australian Leighton Holdings Ltd. (LEI), whose ultimate parent is the German global construction giant Hochtief AG, for utilising police and military intervention to avert legitimate collective negotiations. It also holds Bumi Resources accountable for this contemptible display of anti-social conduct in its home country.

Thiess, Operating in Indonesia, Uses Police to Bludgeon Striking Coal Miners

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" style="width: 110px; height: 50px;" width="390" />

	The ICEM’s Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) project publishes a quarterly newsletter intended to bring the latest news, developments, and trade union initiatives against the growing use of precarious work.

CAL Newsletter March 2012

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