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The ICEM is encouraging affiliates to write Drummond Coal in the US protesting the firm’s labour record and human rights abuses in Colombia, as well as mine shutdowns in its home state Alabama. The firm refuses any good faith bargaining with mining union Sintramienergetica, and is accused of human rights abuses. US affiliate USWA is spearheading the effort. Write: Garry Drummond, CEO, Drummond Co., 5366 Overton Road, Birmingham, AL 35210- 4009 USA.

US’s Steelworkers Call Attention to Drummond Coal in Colombia

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has ordered the government to ensure full payment of wages owed to the country's nuclear workers. Staff at Ukraine's five nuclear power stations, including Chernobyl, are owed more than US$15 million. They are threatening to launch an indefinite strike unless they are paid in full. 
 
A meeting took place on Monday afternoon between President Kuchma, leaders of the nuclear workers' union ATU, government ministers and top management of the national nuclear power utility Energoatom. 
 
ATU President Alexander Jurkin and the power station workers' leader O. Litch told Kuchma that the nuclear workers will maintain their protest campaign until the wage debt is fully paid. Emphasising the highly responsible line taken by the nuclear union so far, they informed the President that pressure from the union's rank-and-file for full strike action is continuing to grow. A strike originally called for this Monday was postponed to allow further talks on the dispute. 
 
According to information just received by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the ATU is affiliated, President Kuchma immediately ordered the Ukrainian government to settle the dispute and put the country's debt-ridden energy sector back on a sound financial footing. In particular, he told Deputy Prime Minister V. Kurachenko, who was present at the meeting, to take personal charge of resolving the crisis. He also ordered Kurachenko to attend a plenary meeting with the union, scheduled for 30 March. 
 
During Monday's meeting, Kuchma is understood to have telephoned the heads of the National Bank, of the state prosecutors and of the security services. He reportedly told the National Bank to facilitate the opening of new credit lines for the nuclear industry. The prosecutor's office and the security services were ordered to stop harassing the ATU's branch offices. 
 
Protesting workers are continuing to gather in the "canvas cities" of tents pitched around the nuclear power stations.

Chernobyl Crisis: Wages Must Be Paid, Ukrainian President Says

Strong protests by Brazilian union Sindicato Quimicos Unificasos (SQU) against Unilever’s plan to make redundant 150 workers at a factory in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo State, have proven successful with management and union leaders engaged in dialogue to find other opportunities within the factory for the 150. Unilever has announced it would build another factory in Ipojuca, Pernambuco State, to manufacture toothpaste.

Brazilian Protests Against Unilever Preserve Jobs

The Fourth National Congress of the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) set an intentional course of creating new tiers of young leaders as the national center continues its fight to restore democracy in Nepal. Stepping down as secretary general was Bishnu Rimal, a founding member of GEFONT 15 years ago who now becomes vice chairperson for Policy and Planning. Former Treasurer Binod Shrestha became the new secretary general. Binda Pandey, ICEM vice president and past chief of GEFONT’s Education Department, is on the vanguard of the youth movement as she was elected one of three deputy secretary generals.

Nepal’s GEFONT National Centre Emphasizes Youth

Trade union leaders from ten sub-Saharan African nations met at the NUM’s Elijah Barayi Training Center outside Johannesburg in May to discuss forming a Workers’ Network of Eskom employees. Utility union leaders from Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe—along with representatives of the electricity provider—were present. Agreement was reached to launch a study tour to the countries to determine actual working terms and conditions of Eskom workers in each nation.

African Unions Formulate Plans for Eskom Utility Network

A three-day general strike in Nigeria ended 11 June after a federal court in Abuja ordered petrol and fuel prices lowered. The government of President Olusegun Obasanjo has sought to remove petrol subsidies in the oil-rich nation, a move that drove up fuel prices and pushed inflation levels to 20%. Two strikers were shot and killed 10 June by aggressive police forces outside the offices of the Nigerian Labour Congress after they accompanied NLC leaders on a mission to monitor petrol prices. Both ICEM affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN were front and center in the strike. Obasanjo retaliated against the nationwide shutdown by threatening to amend the Trades Union Act of 2003 that effectively would dissolve the NLC and other democratic unions, but popular sentiment by both legislators and the general populace make this an unlikely action.

Nigerian Unions Win General Strike with Petrol Price Decrease

US affiliate PACE’s five hunger strikers ended their protest in Taiwan 17 June after seven days of only consuming water. The hunger strike is in protest to Continental Carbon’s 37-month lockout of 86 workers at a carbon black in Ponca City, Oklahoma. The hunger strikers and supporters did enter the AGM of one of the company’s parents, China Synthetic Rubber Corp., but were denied the opportunity to speak by armed security guards. For detailed information on the Americans’ protest in Taiwan this month, see www.fightbackonline.org.

PACE Union Members End Hunger Strike in Taiwan

The Executive Board of the Woodworkers Union has approved merger terms with ICEM affiliate USWA. Local branches of the 55,000-member Industrial Wood & Allied Workers of Canada (IWA-Canada) will now vote between 12 July and 27 August on the merger.

Canadian Woodworkers Set to Merge into USWA

CFMEU of Australia won an important court decision late last week that will broaden its organising strength in development-rich Western Australia. A federal court refused to ban the union from a construction site on the Barrup Peninsula where an A$650 million ammonia plant is being built. Contractors last January blocked CFMEU from entering, saying employees already had individual work contracts under the Howard government’s Australian Workers’ Agreements. The decision is expected to have far-reaching effects across Australia for union organizers.

CFMEU Wins Case against Howard Government’s Work Contracts

Following Japan’s worst nuclear accident in history on 9 August in which four workers were killed and seven injured seriously, Kansai Electric Power announced it would temporarily close all 11 of its nuclear plants for inspections of pipes for corrosion. The deadly accident occurred at Kansai’s Mihama nuclear plant north of Kyoto when a steam pipe ruptured. The pipe reportedly never had been inspected since the plant opened in 1976, and investigators after the accident found the once ten-millimetre-thick pipe had worn away to a thickness of only 1.4 millimetres. Minimum safety requirements mandate such pipes carrying superheated steam be at least 4.7 millimetres thick.

Japan’s Worst Nuclear Accident Occurs at Kansai Power Plant

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