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<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
South African chemicals company Sasol had yet another fatality at its Secunda, Mpumalanga, synfuels plant. And again it involved a contract worker. On 15 March, a worker for US contractor Fluor was killed in an accident inside the plant’s pipe fabrication shop. 
The fatality is the seventh major incident at Sasol operations since a contract employee at Secunda allegedly caused a blast last September, killing ten and injuring 360. Welilo Nolingo, General Secretary of ICEM affiliate Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union, was on site following the death to talk to workers. 
CEPPWAWU said Sasol was refusing to take responsibility for this latest incident. Last month, CEO Pieter Cox said the company was reviewing safety procedures for all contractors after safety related incidents at both Secunda and a refinery in Sasolburg, Free State. A South African radio station reported after this latest death that another contractor performing maintenance work for Sasol was doing that work without the necessary permits.

Contract Worker Victim at Sasol Chemicals in South Africa

A pattern oil bargaining agreement for 30,000 US workers was reached last week, a year before the current four-year labour agreement was due to expire. ICEM affiliate PACE and Shell came to terms on a three-year extension that will now be carried to other oil companies primarily operating in the US downstream sector. The contract contains wage gains of 3.5% for 2006, 3.5% in 2007, and 3.7% in 2008, plus gives workers a US$1,500 ratification bonus. Perhaps most importantly, however, as a measure to address a problem common in many US labour-management talks is creation of a joint union/management Health Care Strategic Committee that will devise solutions to lessen the impact of soaring health costs on all parties.

PACE Gets US Oil Bargaining Pattern with Deal at Shell

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
The worst US refinery explosion in over a decade happened at a BPAmoco complex in Texas City, Texas, on 23 March. PACE represents some 1,100 workers at the refinery with a total workforce of 1,800, counting contract employees. 
A total of 15 workers—all employed by contractors—died in the blast that occurred near an isomerization unit that boosts octane levels of petrol. The unit was being restarted at the time of the explosion after undergoing scheduled maintenance. 
Over 100 other workers were injured and about 80 of those are employed by contractors. Major contractors, who together with BP will share responsibility for the explosion, include Jacobs Engineering, JE Merit and Fluor.

BP Explosion in US State of Texas Deadly for Contract Workers

Strike ballot preparation by Transport & General members in the UK began last week at two sites of French-based Imerys. Imerys late last year unilaterally closed off the final pension scheme to new workers and changed the accrual rate for existing workers that effectively downgrades their benefit levels. Some 2,500 workers are involved. T&G said Imerys took a pension holiday between 2000 and 2003 that turned a large pension surplus into a deficit. If no move is made by Imerys to reverse its pension takeaways, the two workplaces in Devon and Cornwall could face strikes by mid-May.

Strike Ballot Readied by UK Unions at Imerys

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
About 120,000 South Korean workers staged a four-hour strike Friday, 1 April, that should serve as a prelude to a larger, nationwide strike if the National Assembly passes legislation to liberalise the use of contract and agency labour. 
Some 231 workplaces took part in the four-hour shutdown called by the Korean Federation of Trade Unions. 
In addition to the bill on the use of non-regular workers, unions are calling on the government to come down hard on companies abusing South Korea’s so-called “anti-illegal dispatch law,” meant as a control to illegal employment practices but a statute continually violated by multinational companies.

Korean Workers Strike Over Labour Reform Bill

America’s second and fourth largest industrial unions merged 12 April, creating North America’s largest industrial union. ICEM affiliates United Steelworkers and PACE are officially one following a resounding voice vote of approval from delegates representing PACE local unions at a special convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Steelworkers’ Executive Board had already approved the merger in January. The merged union now has 850,000 members and is called the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied-Industrial and Service Workers International Union, or simply USW.

PACE and USWA in US Officially Merge

A strike by 21,000 members of NUM of South Africa ended in the Free State 6 April when the union and Harmony Gold came to terms over a number of issues, including an independent audit panel to examine racism issues at Harmony’s Free State operations. Other issues resolved include conversion of hostels into family units with increased housing allowances, rectification of inaccurate pay deductions and workers’ rights to choice in health care treatments. Although the agreement did not cover the unilateral retrenchment of 4,900 miners in the Free State, talks are expected to continue on that issue.

NUM Ends Strike Against Harmony Gold in South Africa

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has put in play an A$8 million advertising campaign against the Howard government’s sweeping industrial relations reforms. 
The radio and television campaign began 19 June and runs intensely this week, a National Week of Action in which 30 June—a day before testy conservatives take hold of the Australian Senate—is designated a national strike day. On Thursday, hundreds of thousands of workers will strike by massing in major cities, despite threats by the Howard labour ministry that steep fines will be given to those workers that strike illegally. Howard’s agenda is to limit collective bargaining by expanding the use of individual contracts with workers, reduce minimum wage levels, and abolish the federal states’ industrial relations systems. He’s needlessly agitated trade unions by making the country’s 38-hour workweek now open for discussion. 
Trade unions behind the ACTU now have an important ally on their side, academia. Industrial relations experts at Australian universities have formally banded to disparage Howard’s reforms, predicting they will weaken workplace fairness and not have a positive effect on economic productivity or job growth.

Australian Unions Go on Offensive over Labour Reform

PACE, as lead union in ICEM’s ExxonMobil Network, has an excellent website containing topical and informative data and news articles on the world’s largest energy concern. It can be found at www.exxonmobil-solidarity.org.

PACE in US Establishes ExxonMobil Network Website

Strikes, marches and mass demonstrations in The Netherlands may be over as ministers for the center-right government have backed away from cuts to the Dutch social welfare system. Dutch unions, employers and the government reached an accord 6 November that will save social programmes from the budget axe, including early retirement rights, the current work-week and holiday entitlement, and industry-wide wage agreements. In return, the unions have pledged restraint in wage talks next year.

NL Center-Right Government Backs Off Social Welfare Cuts

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