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ICEM&rsquo;s six Colombian affiliates &ndash; Sintraelecol, Sintracarbon, Sintravidricol, Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera (USO), Fenaltec, and Sintracarcol &ndash; escalated their coordinated struggle against Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) at a seminar held from 26-28 July in Bogot&aacute;. 
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<div>Attended by more than 200 representatives, the seminar welcomed delegates from Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, and Spain. The ICEM was represented by its Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal &Ouml;zkan, while regional leadership of other Global Union Federations &ndash; International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), UNI, and Public Services International (PSI) &ndash; as well as the FNV national centre of the Netherlands attended. A number of local union and NGO representatives were also present. </div>
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Organized and coordinated by ICEM Colombian Coordinator Carlos Bustos, the meeting was opened by &Ouml;zkan, who highlighted ICEM&rsquo;s global campaign against Contract and Agency Labour. Attendees also listened to presentations from major Colombian national confederation leaders, including the presidents of CUT, CTC, and CGT. All underscored the need to pay close attention to the measures that the union movement as a whole must take to end all forms of precarious employment. 
 
They also spoke of the need to establish mechanisms by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the ITUC&rsquo;s Americas regional arm, the CSA, to eliminate precarious employment and the scourge of poverty that it creates. 
 
International delegates as well as Colombian union representatives saluted the meeting with messages of their actions against irregular employment. 
 
The phenomenon of precarious employment is seen in transformation of technological advances, rapid globalisation, industrialisation, expansion of capital, and competitive measures and increasing capital accumulation by only a few. This makes impaired working conditions possible, most participants agreed.
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<div>In Colombia, unemployment reached to 12.8% in February in 2011. In 2010, the figure of underemployment was 32.6%, while the informal sector employs some 58% of all workers. Union density, however, remains at less than 4% over the last several years. 
 
High rates of unemployment are presented as an excuse for the increased irregular forms of employment. In such high unemployment, employers try to reduce working conditions, and use the refrain &ldquo;there will always be someone waiting for the job.&quot; 
 
As stated by Carlos Bustos, the seminar aimed at to characterize the phenomenon of precarious employment in Colombia, particularly in sectors where ICEM affiliates are active, and it achieved a full exchange of experiences from the legal, economic, political, and social points of view. The successful experiences achieved by USO, Sintravidricol, and Sintracarbon attracted much attention, since these unions have managed to recruit workers who are on non-regular employment contracts. 
 
Finally, a joint declaration (read the <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/FINAL%20DECLARATION%20-%20ES.pdf">Spanish language version</a> here) was developed and approved. It exhibits firmness and decisiveness by participating organizations to tackle Contract and Agency Labour issues.</div>

ICEM’s Colombian Affiliates Band Together to Fight Contract, Agency Labour

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Members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669 in Metropolis, Illinois, ratified a three-year labour agreement with Honeywell, Inc., on 2 August, officially ending a lockout that began on 28 June 2010. The ratification vote came a full 13 days following conclusion of a negotiated settlement (see <a href="/en/3-Energy-Oil-and-Gas/4564-USW-Union-at-Honeywell-Reaches-Tentative-Labour-Agreement">ICEM report</a> of 22 July). 
<div>The extraordinary long time between the tentative settlement and the ratification came because Honeywell managers at the uranium converting facility neglected to give explicit job assignments to locked-out workers in a separate back-to-work agreement. </div>
Terms of the agreement take effect today with the majority of USW members attending re-certification sessions at an area college.
The 228 steelworkers at Honeywell convert milled uranium, known as yellow-cake uranium, into uranium hexafluoride (UF6) which is used in nuclear fuel enrichment. The lock-out was marked by Honeywell&rsquo;s decision to resume full production nine weeks into the company&rsquo; s work stoppage and then re-start operations with inexperienced scab replacement workers. Twice in the months that followed, the plant saw near-miss tragedies due to mishandling of dangerous chemicals.
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<div>The period between the 20 July 2011 tentative agreement and the 2 August ratification, which occurred with a 113-75 vote, was as contentious as the entire lockout was. Honeywell managers told Local 7-699 that it wanted experienced workers to return to the jobs they knew best, but then submitted a back-to-work roster which saw job postings many of the locked-out workers had never worked before. </div>
It took Local 7-669 leaders enormous time and effort in the 13-day interval to sort out the return-to-work roster. Meanwhile, Honeywell managers publicly denounced the union for not conducting the ratification vote. &ldquo;They were trying to force a vote before our people knew exactly which job they would return to,&rdquo; said local union spokesman John Smith.
Local 7-669 members begin the return-to-work ritual today with training and re-certification as mandated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Forty workers will return two weeks later for the same, and the remainder two weeks after that. The unionised workforce will number about 220 workers when the experienced and qualified USW members are fully back to work. 
The negotiated settlement preserves most of the key union-protection provisions that Honeywell was trying to strip at the start of the lockout, including seniority, job bidding, overtime, and retention of a defined benefit pension plan for existing workers, as well as retiree medical benefits that go along with that plan. 
On wages, the new three-year collective agreement calls for no increase in the first year, 1% effective 15 August 2012, and 2% on 15 August 2013. Local 7-669 proposed in bargaining over a year ago a freeze on wages and continuation of all terms and conditions of a prior three-year contract. But Honeywell seemed intent on taking away pension benefits, the accompanying health care benefits, as well as union-protection provisions. 
Honeywell abandoned most of those contract concessions, perhaps realising that it needed experienced steelworkers to effectively operate the plant safety and productively. Production had plummeted to a reported 35% of pre-lockout levels and Honeywell was not meeting its order demand for UF6. 
USW Local 7-669 waged an extraordinary campaign in preserving most of their work standards. The workers traveled to Madison, Wisconsin, to stand with public employees protesting the gutting of their collective bargaining rights by Governor Scott Walker; they journeyed to Europe and won support from major trade union federations, as well as Honeywell&rsquo;s European Works Council (see that <a href="/en/3-Energy-Oil-and-Gas/4429-EMCEF-EMF-EPSU-Condemn-Honeywell-Lockout-in-US">ICEM update</a> here); and they connected with immigrant groups in Los Angeles, California, to block Honeywell from gaining a water-services contract there.

USW Local 7-669, Honeywell Accord Takes Effect Today, Ending US Lockout

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The Mexican government of President Felipe Calder&oacute;n Hinojosa ordered the army and police to use brute force to take over the country&rsquo;s second largest electrical power distributor, Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LyFC) in October 2010 via an executive decree. This unilateral decree also meant shutting down the 95-year-old Mexican Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union (SME) and sacking 44,000 workers. 
 
The Calder&oacute;n administration has conducted a multifaceted campaign to destroy the SME, one of only a handful of independent trade unions in Mexico, as part of the government&rsquo;s systematic plan to eliminate any workers&rsquo; group which stands in the way of business interests and unencumbered markets. In July 2010, SME members reelected General Secretary Mart&iacute;n Esparza, but Calder&oacute;n&rsquo;s regime has refused to certify the election, citing bogus voting irregularities. 
 
The SME has had its union bank accounts frozen, 13 union activists are political prisoners in jail, and now arrest warrants have been issued for the SME leadership. This shocking campaign of state violence against a trade union must be combated with global solidarity. 
 
The ICEM encourages affiliates and trade union supporters to be heard on this matter. Click here for a <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/SME-CARTA%20DESPLEGADO%20%20(2).doc">model letter</a>, in Spanish, to Calder&oacute;n and his cronies. Put the letter on your organisation&rsquo;s letterhead, or individually with your name, and <a href="mailto:pp_mdo@yahoo.com.mx; aidesparzasosfuturo@gmail.com">send it electronically</a> to SME here.&nbsp; 
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Letters Needed to Aid Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union, SME

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The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) voiced fierce opposition to government&rsquo;s decision to bail out the authoritarian and illegitimate Swaziland rule of King Mswati III. On 3 August, South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced a R2.4 billion (US$354 million, &euro;259 million) loan to the repressive regime to offset revenue shortfalls from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).
&ldquo;This decision by the South African government to give King Mswati&rsquo;s regime a financial bail-out is a direct assault on our solidarity efforts to free and liberate the people of Swaziland from this hyena&rsquo;s tyranny,&rdquo; said NUMSA in a statement, making direct reference to Mozambique&rsquo;s 1987 Nkomati Accord with South Africa&rsquo;s apartheid regime.
Then, African National Congress (ANC) President Oliver Tambo said &ldquo;our brothers and sisters in Mozambique have hugged and kissed the most hated hyena in the world.&rdquo;
The South African loan to Mswati&rsquo;s absolute monarchy comes when all political parties have been banned, trade unionists are jailed, and a bureaucracy surrounding Mswati that has proven corrupt and ineffectual in tending to the needs of the impoverished country of 1.2 million. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party also oppose the loan.
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<div>Swaziland had gone to the European Union, the African Development Bank, and the World Bank for loans but turned down Africa&rsquo;s last absolute monarchy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has refused to extend credit for what it calls blatant irresponsibility in handling budgetary processes.</div>
The first instalment of South Africa&rsquo;s loan is to be paid out late this month, the second in October and the final in February 2012. South Africa is to recoup payment over five years through Swaziland&rsquo;s share of SACU revenue sharing. 
Although there are some conditional requirements to the loan, none are readily transparent. Vague &ldquo;confidence-building measures&rdquo; by the Swazi regime, adherence to fiscal and technical reforms by the IMF (reforms that failed in past loans), and capacity-building support by the South African government are listed as those conditions.
COSATU was point-blank in its assessment of South Africa&rsquo;s loan: &ldquo;So long as there are no strict conditions to compel the regime to concede democratic reforms and to share the country&rsquo;s wealth among the people, the loan will simply be used to perpetuate the status quo. Mswati&rsquo;s lavish lifestyle and the royal family&rsquo;s extravagance, impunity and lack of accountability will continue unabated, while the conditions of misery for the majority get even worse.&rdquo;
NUMSA said the loan essentially squanders the &ldquo;hard-earned money generated through taxes&rdquo; of South Africans while continuing Mswati&rsquo;s &ldquo;order to unleash state terror and starve the people of Swaziland.&rdquo;

NUMSA Opposed to South Africa’s Non-Transparent Swaziland Loan

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Some 400 train drivers and car examiners at Rio Tinto iron ore operations in the Pilbara of West Australia have voted by 82% for a first collective agreement. The union that won those rights, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), now presents the three-year agreement to Fair Work Australia for approval. 
 
&ldquo;When Rio Tinto gave in principle support for the historic collective agreement back in June (see <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4505-CFMEU-Wins-Bargaining-Rights-for-Rio-Tinto-s-Pilbara-Train-Drivers">ICEM report</a> then), it marked a major milestone in industrial relations in the resources sector,&rdquo; said CFMEU West Australia Mining and Energy Secretary Gary Wood. 
 
We have now &ldquo;moved a little bit closer to greater workplace protection for the hardworking iron ore miners of the Pilbara.&rdquo; 
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Gary Wood
Wood added that the new agreement &ldquo;and the strong support for it open up opportunities for negotiations down the track for further collective agreements at BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.&rdquo; 
 
The agreement is precedent-setting because it blows away a major barrier that for decades has stymied collective negotiations and collective action in the Pilbara. That has been the long-standing use of individual work agreements by mining houses to avoid enterprise agreements and to remain union-free. CFMEU breaks that barrier with this agreement and deserves hearty congratulations for doing so. 
 
Many of the 400 transport workers are fly-in, fly-out staff and move a good share of Australia&rsquo;s resource wealth to global markets. They are also to be commended because their unified vote means that the door has been flung wide open for future collective gains, be them big or small through the CFMEU.

Historic Collective Pact Takes Root for Rio Trainmen in Australia

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A Mexican coal mine explosion inside a Coahuila colliery of Altos Hornos de M&eacute;xico (AHMSA), a subsidiary of the Grupo Acerero del Notre steel and transport conglomerate, killed four miners early on 26 August. The explosion occurred at AHMSA&rsquo;s &ldquo;La Esmeralda,&rdquo; or No. 5 mine in the municipality of San Juan de Sabinas. 
 
Six other miners managed to escape the blast, which occurred during the 25 August night shift. The explosion caused a roof inside the mine to collapse, burying the miners who were operating machines. A total of 132 miners were at work at the No. 5 mine at the time of the blast. Bodies of the four dead miners were recovered late on 26 August. 
 
They are: Miguel Hern&aacute;ndez Mart&iacute;nez, 33; Mario Alberto Flores Mart&iacute;nez, 38; &Aacute;ngel Gonz&aacute;lez Pineda, 32; and Jes&uacute;s Tob&iacute;as Hern&aacute;ndez, 36. 
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The ICEM and Metalworkers&rsquo; affiliate, National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros, blasted the yellow union set up at La Esmeralda for remaining silent on the mine tragedy, just as it had when a 27 March 2011 tragedy happened at another AHMSA mine that killed two and injured three. That occurred at AHMSA&rsquo;s Monclova No. 7 mine, also in Coahuila state. 
 
Los Mineros leveled blame on the company and the &ldquo;irresponsibility, greed, and arrogance&rdquo; of AHMSA that caused the deaths, comparing it to Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s negligence in the 2006 Pasta de Conchos mine explosion that killed 65 miners. 
 
AHMSA is Mexico&rsquo;s largest vertically integrated steel producer and third largest overall, and is a company that strives to supply its own coal and iron ore reserves. The company, which was state owned until 1992, also has become a heavyweight in cross-border transport and export of pipe and tube, rolled steel products, carbon steels, and other iron and steel products. Construction of AHMSA&rsquo;s sixth blast furnace recently as part of the F&eacute;nix project, has lifted the firm&rsquo;s annual steel-making capacity to over five million tonnes annually. 
 
The La Esmeralda mine began production in 1999. 
 
Over two dozen mine deaths have occurred so far this year in Coahuila state, including 14 who died after an explosion in an illegal coal mine on 3 May. That <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4413-Mine-Blast-Near-Pasta-de-Conchos-Kills-14-in-Mexico ">Mexican safety travesty</a> can be read here in an ICEM May 2011 account.

Coal Mine Blast at Mexican Steel Company Unit Kills 4

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Australian union members of three trade union organisations are livid with the announcement that BlueScope Steel will lop 1,400 jobs in New South Wales and Victoria. Members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU), the Australian Workers Union (AWU), and the Electrical Trades Union of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (ETU-CEPU) met in Wollongong on 25 August and sternly moved to resist all restructuring until further labour-management consultations can occur. 
 
Today in Canberra, the unions met with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and urged her Labour Government to launch an inquiry into Australia&rsquo;s manufacturing crisis. 
 
BlueScope, formed in 2002 when BHP Steel was spun off in the BHP and Billiton merger, announced on 22 August that it was shedding nearly half of its Port Kembla Steelworks staff of 3,100 and another 200 jobs at a hot-strip steel mill in Hastings, Victoria. 
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AMWU&rsquo;s Dave Oliver (left), AWU&rsquo;s Paul Howes, ETU National Secretary Peter Tighe (right) at Port Kembla Steelworks, 22 August
Photo: Illawarra Mercury
Last Thursday&rsquo;s heated union meeting came when workers also learned that senior managers of the troubled company are awarding themselves A$3.05 million in bonuses, including A$721,000 for CEO Paul O&rsquo;Malley. The company recently posted an operating loss of A$118 million plus an asset write-down of A$900 million, mainly from a rising Australian dollar, high raw material costs, and depressed order books. 
 
The BlueScope job cuts come at a time when booming Australian resource exports are driving up currency exchange rates to the detriment of Australia goods and product manufacturing. BlueScope is chopping 1,200 full-time and contract labour jobs by idling a blast furnace, coking battery, slab caster, and oxygen-based steelmaking vessel at Port Kembla south of Sydney, and the 200 steel-rolling jobs on Victoria&rsquo;s Mornington Peninsula. 
 
Speaking at Port Kembla the day BlueScope made the announcement, AMWU National Secretary Dave Oliver said, &ldquo;The benefits of the mining boom come with very big downsides and 1,400 families have learnt today the hard way about the downsides. &ldquo;Today is a massive wake-up call for to state and federal governments to take more action on this issue.&rdquo; 
 
In news interview yesterday, 28 August, before today&rsquo;s meeting with Gillard, Oliver said the federal government must take immediate action to bolster manufacturing. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s acceptable that 90% of the gear that goes into a resource project is imported from overseas,&rdquo; he said. 
 
AWU National Secretary Paul Howes called on the federal government and the Reserve Bank Australia (RBA) also to kick into action. Howes said the Labour government must impose &ldquo;robust&rdquo; anti-dumping measures, pressure China to stop currency manipulation of the Yuan, and he called on the RBA to lower interest rates in order to promote Australian manufacturing. 
 
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to face the reality of the manufacturing crisis that&rsquo;s before us,&rdquo; said Howes. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t accept job losses as the norm and we can&rsquo;t rely on imported goods in our strategic sectors.&rdquo; 
 
The announcement of BlueScope&rsquo;s job losses in Australia last week came a week after steelworkers, members of New Zealand&rsquo;s Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), downed tools for 24 hours in a protest over outsourcing at New Zealand Steel, a wholly owned subsidiary of BlueScope. Over 850 EPMU members engaged in the industrial action on 15 August at a steel roll mill at Glenbrook, south of Auckland, and at company iron mines at Waikato North Head and Taharoa.

BlueScope Steel Sackings Reveal Crisis in Australian Manufacturing

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Jack Layton, the soul of a progressive Canada and leader of the NDP, passed away Monday, 22 August, of cancer. For the past decade and more, Layton has led a populist surge in Canada that has given NDP, the party of fairness and justice, the official opposition stamp &ndash; since May 2011 &ndash; to the ruling neo-liberal Tories. Layton was 61. 
 
Layton had recently been diagnosed with his second bout against cancer. He died early in the morning on 22 August in his home and surrounded by his family. 
 
Layton&rsquo;s energy and conviction inspired ordinary Canadians and statements on his passing testified to that. Statements by North American unions said Layton&rsquo;s inspiration, ideas, and vision must push forward at a faster pace now. 
 
In a statement to Canadian unions expressing condolences over Layton&rsquo;s passing, the ICEM said, &ldquo;What happens in Canada has global significance&rdquo; (see full <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/100.ICEM.Jack%20Layton.Canada.23August.pdf">ICEM letter</a>). The ICEM remembers Layton as a courageous fighter for social justice, depicted best in his own words on the labour strife brought by Vale, the Brazilian mining giant, or to the Mexican government on its union smashing. 
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Toronto: Tributes to Jack Layton
In Sudbury at the beginning of a bitter year-long strike Vale provoked against Canadian living standards, Layton stood among thousands of miners, and emphatically said, &ldquo;They cannot take away what working people have built over generations in this country, or this town.&rdquo; 
 
In 2009, Layton was part a global labour mission to Mexico sponsored by the ICEM and International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF). He accurately summarised the full trade union climate in Mexico: &ldquo;We made it clear that the government&rsquo;s interference in union governance, it&rsquo;s jailing of union leaders and freezing union bank accounts, declaring strikes illegal and failing to prosecute the killers of union leaders, are serious and unacceptable violations of basic human rights.&rdquo; 
 
Dave Coles, President of the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada said: &ldquo;I knew Jack Layton as a principled social democrat who was utterly committed to social justice and peace. Thousands of our members knew Jack by his first name, as a leader who had reached out to them in their workplaces and communities. Jack Layton paid attention to our members&rsquo; deepest concerns and gave them unqualified support in their struggles.&rdquo; 
 
Ken Neumann, Canadian National Director of the Untied Steelworkers (USW), said: &ldquo;Jack reawakened Canadians to the reality that government can &ndash; and must &ndash; play a positive role in ensuring the economic and social wellbeing of its citizens. Steelworkers will help lead the way in honouring Jack&rsquo;s legacy by carrying on his fight to build a better Canada and a better world.&rdquo; 
 
Ken Lewenza, President of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) said in a message to the NDP: &ldquo;At Jack&rsquo;s passing, your voice of conscience is needed more than ever. Your efforts can and will make a difference in the direction of our country.&rdquo; The CAW also said that in mourning, progressive Canada must reflect on Jack&rsquo;s vision for Canada &ldquo;and how we can endeavor to make some of his cherished ideas a reality.&rdquo; 
 
Jack Layton was born in Hudson, Quebec, into a political family. He entered public service in 1982 as a member of the Toronto City Council after leaving academia. His years on the city council of Canada&rsquo;s largest city were marked by many accomplishments concerning poverty, homelessness, public transport, and environmental stewardship. In 2004, Layton won election to the federal Parliament as NDP leader, and the NDP has grown steadily to where it now is the logical political choice for a social Canada, and beyond. The ICEM letter said Jack stood always for workers, the poor, the disenfranchised. 
 
Jack is survived by his wife, Olivia, his dedicated political partner; and a son, Mike, a member of the Toronto City Council, and daughter, Sarah, who works for the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

Jack Layton: 1950-2011

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The ICEM affiliate Paper &amp; Paper Products Manufacturing Employees&rsquo; Union (PPPMEU) of Malaysia won ground-breaking collective agreement language on Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) with Kimberly Clark, a global paper products company. In July at the company&rsquo;s Kluang pulp and hygiene products mill, PPPMEU and KC agreed to change a management rights clause in the Union Recognition article to specifically state that &ldquo;Contract workers are within the scope of the agreement.&rdquo; 
 
The renewal three-year agreement also gives all workers, some 500 in total, a 6% wage increase retroactive to 1 January 2011. In the month since the new agreement went into effect, 130 of the 180 temporary workers directly employed by Kimberly Clark have joined PPPMEU, a fact that speaks for itself. 
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All contract workers of Kimberly Clark Products Malaysia, beginning in 2012, will have entitlement to full social benefits, bonus payouts, public holidays, annual leave, retirement benefits, and all allowances as full-time staff. Many of the economic and social conventions in the renewal agreement applied retroactively to contract workers as well. 
 
Further wage increases will come in 2012 and 2013. The PPPMEU and Kimberly Clark in Malaysia bargained in the first half of 2011, but unwillingness to recognise all public holidays and other stumbling blocks prevented a timely agreement. In the end, PPPMEU deserves commendation in gaining from Kimberly Clark Products Malaysia an outstanding achievement on behalf of contract workers in the formal recognition of their union rights. 
 
There are still 100 third-party contractors working at Kimberly Clark&rsquo;s Kluang, Johor state, mill remain outside the scope of the collective agreement. These sub-contractors work for local companies. But for now, PPPMEU will continue recruitment inside the American company&rsquo;s Malaysian enterprise in order to build greater union power. The PPPMEU has had longstanding labour relations with Kimberly Clark dating to the 1980s. The company has had a market presence in Malaysia since 1969 and built its first manufacturing enterprise in 1983. About ten years ago, Kimberly Clark expanded at Kluang with nappie production. 
 
The ICEM congratulates PPPMEU in getting this ground-breaking collective agreement that brings immediate improvements to the work-lives of contract employees.

Malaysian Paperworkers’ Union Scores Big for Kimberly Clark Contract Workers

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Some 1,145 Bangladeshi coal miners went on strike against state-owned Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Ltd. (BCMCL) and a Chinese contractor, led by the Bakapukuria Coal Mine Miners&rsquo; and Workers&rsquo; Union. The five-day strike ended today but workers did not return to their jobs, instead suspending the strike until 3 September while they celebrate the Eid vacation, an Islamic period of family gatherings. 
 
Negotiations two weeks ago between union leaders, BCMCL, and bosses for the China National Import and Export Corp. (XMC), the coal extraction contractor, failed on 22 August and staff stopped work at 6h on 23 August. 
 
All strikers are employed by XMC. They recently witnessed 226 BCMCL get huge pay bonuses due to profitability from the mine near Dinajpur. BCMCL Managing Director Md Quamruzzaman said profit sharing is only for BCMCL staff and miners working for XMC &ldquo;should get their bonus from their employer if there was any agreement in this regard.&rdquo; 
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In the talks that ended early last week, however, BCMCL did step in with an offer. But it was insignificant. While the Miners&rsquo; and Workers&rsquo; Union is demanding a bonus of BDT 30,000 (&euro;280), management&rsquo;s offer was but BDT 4,200 (&euro;40). 
 
For at least three years now, the Bangladeshi miners also seek regularisation of their employment terms. As contract workers, they are not entitled to certain social protections, insurance, and pension benefits. The union staged a four-day strike in late March 2010 in which some pay gains were won. In both this strike and last year&rsquo;s, the union is enforcing blockades to prevent some 350 Chinese workers from working. And in last week&rsquo;s walkout, the strikers held BCMCL workers in offices as a symbolic protest to the discrimination in granting bonus pay-outs. 
 
Ironically, BCMCL was attempting to part ways with its Chinese partner when a contract ended last October. But after searching for bids, XMC, which has operated the mine complex since 2005, was the only bidder and BCMCL re-awarded the contract in May. At that time, the state company also installed a contractor to monitor wage levels paid by XMC in order to &ldquo;discourage (workers) from launching frequent demonstrations,&rdquo; in the words of the company. 
 
BCMCL produces to mine one million tonnes annually of thermal coal and is one of several subsidiaries of state-held Bangladesh Oil, Gas, Mineral Corp. (PETROBANGLA).

Bangladesh: Coal Contract Staff Strikes State Firm, Chinese Operator

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