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The Australian Federal Court today ordered mining and materials multinational BHP to cease offering and entering into individual contracts with members of its Pilbara workforce. 
 
The decision is a stunning victory for the Australian unions and for collective bargaining, with the court upholding all three grounds in the unions' case. 
 
The unions submitted that there was a "serious arguable case" that BHP had breached the law through its industrial bribery in the Pilbara by: 
 
- Prejudicing employees because of their union membership 
 
- Inducing employees to leave their union 
 
- Breaching a term of the Contract of Employment which provided that BHP should honour collective bargaining and not enter into individual contracts. 
 
The court's decision is the biggest victory for the Australian trade union movement since the waterfront dispute of 1998. 
 
"BHP should immediately abandon its disastrous deunionisation campaign and respect the right of Australian workers to bargain collectively through their unions," commented Australian mining and allied workers' union the CFMEU today. 
 
At the global level, the CFMEU is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which has been backing the campaign for labour rights at BHP.

BHP Must Halt Individual Job Contracts in Australia

With great sorrow, we announce the passing of Ann Browne, Projects Officer of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Ann died peacefully in a Brussels clinic on Friday night, at the end of a long fight against cancer. She is remembered by her fellow trade unionists worldwide, both as a kind and charming colleague and as an effective builder of trade unions for those who need them most. 

<img height="279" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ann.jpg" width="200"/>
Ann Browne was born on 18 October 1949 in Strabane, Northern Ireland. After her studies, she joined the Chile Solidarity Campaign and was particularly active in its programme for refugees. Many people in Chile remember her from those days. 
 
In 1982, she joined the Miners' International Federation (MIF), a forerunner of the present ICEM. At the MIF, she had responsibility for projects and particularly for Latin America. After the MIF's merger into the ICEM, she became the ICEM Projects Officer. 
 
Whilst Ann was rigorous in her presentation of projects, reports and accounts, she was never a bureaucrat. She saw her work as that of a militant serving the affiliated trade unions. Never afraid to speak out, she was also no stranger to physical risks and hardship, particularly during her work with trade unions in Latin America. After one visit to Peru, the newspapers there described her as a dangerous activist. 
 
She will also be remembered for initiating the Global Health and Safety Project in the mining industry, for her work with women in mining communities and for her campaigns against the use of child labour in mines. Year after year, she played a crucial role in supporting the Colombian coal miners' union Sintracarbon as it struggled against repression and for the right to collective bargaining. Today, Sintracarbon is one of Latin America's most militant and effective miners' unions. 
 
Ann's struggle against cancer began ten years ago. It was a difficult and often painful fight. Everyone admired her ability to surmount the disease and to carry on her important work in spite of it. Her determination to keep on serving her ideals helps explain her remarkably long resistance to cancer. 
 
Ann's ready laughter, her fine sense of humour and her kindness were blended with a huge working capacity and great willpower. Her address book was full of friends all over the world. She could not conceive of visiting affiliates or attending conferences without arranging side meetings from dawn until late at night. 
 
Yet she had time for people. She cared deeply. And she is deeply missed.

Ann Browne: A Tribute

French unions in Elf Antargaz called a strike on 8 February, as a pledge to sell the company sparked fears of major job losses. 
 
Owned by Elf-Aquitaine, Antargaz is France's second-biggest supplier of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). 
 
Elf's pledge to sell Antargaz was one of the main elements cited by the European Commission yesterday when it announced its approval of a merger between Elf and TotalFina. The new company will be the world's fourth-biggest oil group. 
 
To secure the go-ahead from the EU Commission, the companies also undertook to sell off 70 TotalFina service stations along the French motorways and Elf's jet fuel supply business at Lyon and Toulouse airports. 
 
Elf Antargaz workers have been mobilised by French energy unions the FCE-CFDT and CFE-CGC. Some 200 demonstrators marched to the headquarters of Elf Antargaz and TotalFina, where they lobbied the human resources director. 
 
The FCE-CFDT said it will be "extremely demanding" on the conditions for the Antargaz sale. In particular, the union will "reject any dismantling of the enterprise, because separate disposal of different activities (butane, propane, small-scale bulk, bottled gas ...) would mean ceding market share and sacrificing jobs." 
 
Any purchaser of Antargaz must, the FCE-CFDT insists, "be in a position to implement industrial and commercial policies that will guarantee the development of the enterprise and of employment." 
 
Current collective agreements for oil industry workers must continue to apply in Antargaz after any sell-off, the union emphasises. 
 
The TotalFina-Elf case led the FCE-CFDT to criticise the inadequacy of unions' information and consultation rights in the case of company mergers - see ICEM UPDATE 3/2000. 
 
The French union, which is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), is pressing for better EU legislation on this.

TotalFina-Elf merger: French Unions Protest over LPG Sell-off

UPM Kymmene in Canada has heightened the discord in a five-week strike at a kraft pulp mill and coated papers mill in Miramichi, New Brunswick. The Finnish company sought and won a court order in a New Brunswick court to limit the number of picketers at the mill’s five gates. The 700 members of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Local 689 are holding strong in this threat to their livelihoods with strike pay from the national CEP, plus a supplement derived from contributions from other paper-sector members of the CEP. The strike was caused when UPM Kymmene refused to table the paper industry’s pattern agreement for eastern Canada. No bargaining has been held since the 16 December strike began.

UPM Kymmene Intensifying Paper Strike in Canada

Three months after European chemical unions and employers jointly applied for Social Dialogue with the European Commission, the EC granted it last month. New Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimir Spidla, welcomed the formal establishment of the Dialogue Committee on 14 December. EMCEF, lead organization for the unions, and the European Chemical Employers Group intend to use the formalized dialogue in the interests of both workers and the industry to create initiatives and enhance competitiveness of the European chemical industry.

European Social Dialogue Will Begin in Chemicals Sector

ICEM affiliate Indian National Cement Workers’ Federation’s annual Congress was held in mid-December and G. Sanjeeva Reddy was elected as President. Re-elected as General Secretary was N. Nanjappan. C.L. Dudhia chaired the union’s general meeting, held at Mumbai.

India’s Cement Workers’ Conduct Congress

The ICEM has challenged Norwegian chemical producer Jotun’s record of facts in a Turkish dispute at a paint factory where workers are represented by ICEM affiliate Petrol-Is. Jotun is violating global social standards by hiring more supervisors to avoid majority representation. The company is also misdirected with a public statement that strikers at the factory in Cerkeznöy, Turkey, are responsible for equipment sabotage. The ICEM and Petrol-Is assert outside contractors inexperienced with Jotun’s equipment were inside doing the strikers’ work.

ICEM Questions Norwegian Chemical Firm’s Facts in Turkey

ICEM Japanese affiliate UI Zensen’s Central Committee has announced it will launch a Spring Offensive this year aimed at achieving basic wage increases. Japanese workers have faced double trouble in terms of battered family finances after years of wage neglect, and heavier tax and social security burdens placed on working class citizens. UI Zensen’s courageous leadership is calling for a unified wage hike of ¥1,000 or 2.5% as the goal for the offensive.

Japanese Affiliate UI Zensen Aims at Wage Increase

The Ukrainian Trade Union Federation (FTUU) turned to ICEM Vice President Alexander Yurkin for leadership at a FTUU Council late in January. Yurkin, who heads ICEM’s nuclear sector and was president of Nuclear Power and Industry Workers’ Union of Ukraine, was elected chairman of the national union center. At a 31 January meeting of the ICEM-affiliated Nuclear Power Workers, former Vice President Valeryi Matov was elected to succeed Yurkin.

ICEM Ukrainian Leader Takes Top Post of National Centre

Elsewhere on 8 March, trade unions participated in the launch of a Letter to Humanity, written collectively in forums across all continents. The letter emphasizes freedom, justice, peace and solidarity. In Brazil, CUT organized a march in which 35,000 women participated and then passed the letter to activists in Argentina. CNG-CUT in Brazil demonstrated at factory gates and at other events denouncing violence against women.

South American Women Take Action on International Woman’s Day

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