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Placer Dome, the world's third-biggest gold miner, faces a global trade union campaign over its retrenchment of 2,895 South African workers. 
 
South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will table a resolution to that effect during the World Gold Forum in Durban on 28 October. 
 
At the global level, the NUM is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). The ICEM is organising the World Gold Forum, which will bring together representatives of gold industry unions and companies and of gold consumers. Together, they will examine the future of the sector and propose action to safeguard it. 
 
The forum precedes the ICEM World Congress (Durban, 3-5 November), which will be mapping out a trade union response to globalisation. 
 
Through the ICEM, the NUM is already receiving pledges of support from unions in other countries where Placer Dome operates. This will include picketing in Australia to coincide with an NUM rally in South Africa on 31 October. 
 
"Placer Dome is a transnational," commented NUM General Secretary Gwede Mantashe in Johannesburg today, "so we in the unions cannot fight separate battles. We can win only if we campaign globally. The problem facing us today is a problem for our colleagues in the unions of all countries where Placer Dome operates. That's why, at the World Gold Forum, we will be asking the ICEM to declare a global campaign on Placer Dome." 
 
Placer Dome, which also produces significant quantities of copper and silver, has operating mines in Australia, Canada, Chile, Papua New Guinea and South Africa. 
 
In recent years, it has been involved in a number of environmentally controversial projects. These include planned operations in Central and South America (Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Venezuela), as well as mines in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. 
 
The Marcopper mine, a Philippines site part-owned by Placer Dome, discharged tons of toxic mill tailings into the Boac river in 1996. Since then, the mine has ceased to operate. ICEM Philippines affiliate the National Mines and Allied Workers' Union (NAMAWU) carried out a study on the social impact of this disaster, which was widely publicised in the country. The study, which highlighted the plight of the communities affected by the accident, was sponsored by the ICEM with the support of donor organisations. 
 
In South Africa, the NUM is organising a rally on 31 October to protest against Placer Dome's sackings. The rally will be held at Western Areas, the site near Johannesburg where Placer Dome operates. 
 
Placer Dome originally argued that the South African sackings were necessary because of the low gold price. Since the recent massive recovery in the price of gold, the multinational has changed its story and is now blaming the retrenchments on the NUM's refusal to accept the introduction of full calendar operations (FULCO) on the company's own terms. 
 
Job losses on this scale are a potentially explosive issue in South Africa, which has an unemployment rate of over 30 percent. 
 
"Our South African brothers and sisters are right to oppose these retrenchments," said ICEM Vice-President John Maitland in Sydney today. He is National Secretary of ICEM Australian affiliate the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU). 
 
"I will certainly address the NUM rally and bring to it a message of solidarity from workers in Australia and worldwide," Maitland said. "The CFMEU will also organise a picket of Placer Dome offices in Australia on the morning of 1 November - just a few hours after the South African rally." 
 
"The ICEM has considerable experience of coordinating global campaigns against irresponsible multinationals," stated ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe in Brussels. "We shall not hesitate to use that expertise in the case of Placer Dome if needed." 
 
"Placer Dome must live up to its global social and environmental responsibilities," NUM President James Motlatsi insisted. He is ICEM Vice-President and President of the ICEM's African region. 
 
"If the company does not shoulder its responsibilities," Motlatsi warned, "then the ICEM together with its affiliates in Placer Dome mines worldwide will apply global pressure."

Placer Dome Faces World Union Campaign Over South African Sackings

The ICEM’s first thematic conference will be held this week, 16-17 September in Brussels. In-depth discussion will originate around a thorough working paper that will be presented on contract and agency labour across the world. The conference will develop future campaign activities for the ICEM on the subject of contract and agency labour. Some 140 trade unionists of ICEM affiliates are registered to attend.

Contract and Agency Labour Workshops to he held in Brussels

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Two life-taking industrial accidents over the past two weeks can be blamed on unsafe work practices of contract labour. On 9 September inside a copper mine near Kure, northern Turkey, a gas leak was ignited by a welding torch that killed 19 workers and injured scores of others. 
The mine had been privatized in February 2004 by Turkish state mining enterprise Etibank, which then shifted all work to Turkish construction firm STFA. Family members of those killed and injured by the torrid fire said many miners lacked oxygen masks and other safety equipment. (The other fatalities occurred at a Sasol chemical plant in South Africa: See Recent Blast at Sasol in South Africa Kills Seven.)

Recent Turkish Safety Fatalities Fault of Contract Labour

In South Africa at an ethylene plant run by Sasol, seven workers were killed following a gas blast on 1 September. The section of the plant in Secunda, Mpumalanga, where the explosion occurred was down for maintenance while some 450 contract workers and 100 permanent employees worked in the area. Reportedly, a valve was mistakenly opened. It was the third accident at the Sasol complex over the past three months in which deaths occurred. ICEM affiliate CEPPWAWU, one of three unions representing workers at Sasol, is attempting to be part of the investigation team, but the South African firm is trying to limit the probe.

Recent Blast at Sasol in South Africa Kills Seven

The hostile Trade Union Act in Nigeria may have begun to fall apart in the country’s Senate. Amendments to President Olusegun Obasanjo’s union-busting measure passed last week included removal of a “no strike” clause to the bill, as well as language making all union membership voluntary. The General Assembly’s lower chamber began debate late last week with the leader of the All Nigerian People’s Party, Salik Ahmed, calling for outright dismissal of the bill.

Nigerian Unions Paring Worst Aspects from Labour Reform Bill

ICEM affiliate CFMEU was forefront during mid-September international actions protesting building materials firm James Hardie’s dodge of asbestos liabilities in Australia. The company in 2001 shifted its headquarters from Sydney to The Netherlands in a move seen as cutting its liability for over 60 years of asbestos exposure to workers in Australia. On 15 September, 20,000 workers rallied across Australia—still home to the vast number of Hardie shareholders—while a contingent of mesothelioma victims with trade union leaders including the CFMEU’s Lindsay Fraser went to Amsterdam for James Hardie’s AGM on 17 September. A damning report on the company was issued September 21 by an Australian state government inquiry, which found that the chief executive had misled investors and the company developed a “culture of denial.”

Australian Unions Angry Over James Hardie’s Asbestos Cover-ups

Gold-mining members of ICEM affiliate Turkiye Maden-Is marched and rallied in Bergama, Turkey, 14 September to convince the government to re-open Newmont Mining Corp.’s mine there. An administrative court in Izmir ordered the mine shut on 19 August due to overstated environment concerns. The closure cost the jobs of 169 Maden-Is members, plus 300 contract workers.

Mining Affiliate in Turkey Seeks to Reopen Closed Newmont Mine

FCE-CFDT also announced the draft of a social responsibility agreement with Electricité de France (EdF), discussions which have involved the ICEM. Besides standard language upholding health and safety standards, social conditions and consistent policies on worker training and mobility, the draft contains commitments by EdF to provide access to electricity to those least able to afford it, careful and demanding selection of contractors, and stringent defence of the environment with the necessary equipment to promote energy efficiency.

French EdF Signs Social Responsibility Pact in Electric Sector

Political instability in Iraq and lack of security there was felt dramatically by the ICEM and the global trade movement on 4 January. That day the body of Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) Executive Committee member Hadi Saleh was found at his home in Baghdad after Saleh was strangled by electrical wire. Known as Abu Furat, Saleh, 58, was tortured prior to his murder, a murder in which the IFTU believes was done by remnants of Saddam Hussein’s secret police. Saleh was sentenced to death in 1969 by Saddam’s regime for engaging in independent trade union activities. After spending five years in prison, he fled Iraq for exile in Sweden. He returned in April 2003 in efforts to build an independent trade union movement. The ICEM and global trade union bodies are working with the IFTU and other Iraqi labour centers to construct a viable and independent union movement in the war-ravaged country.

Trade Union Leader Slain in Iraq

Members of Canadian affiliate Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Local 689 struck Finnish papermaker UPM Kymmene 16 December in Miramichi, New Brunswick, over the firm’s refusal to table the paper industry’s pattern agreement for eastern Canada. Some 790 CEP members at a kraft pulp mill and a fine papers mill are striking to gain the pattern set when CEP signed a six-year accord with Abitibi-Consolidated last July.

CEP in Canada Strikes Finnish Paper Company UPM Kymmene

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