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<img height="98" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="200"/> 
The selective strike by ICEM Norwegian oil workers’ union NOPEF ended late on 24 July following a mediated session by the government. The 34-day strike against oil service companies operating on Norway’s Continental Shelf proved highly effective, and produced a new two-year agreement that fulfils NOPEF’s demands toward normalising the national oil services agreement with other collective agreements in the country’s energy sector. 
 
The accord also matches the other agreements in the sector with the first-year wage increase, and provides an even better salary pay-out for 2007. Effective 1 July 2006, oil service workers in Norway, numbering some 2,650, receive a 5.9% wage increase. In 2007, a lump sum bonus of NOK 17,000 (US$2,800) was won. 
 
But more significantly, the 2006-2006 agreement sets forth a protocol that will begin moving oil service companies to the standard rotation schedule of two-weeks on, four-weeks off. Local discussions toward that work schedule will now occur, with NOPEF and the employers’ federation, Oil Industry Association (OLF), meeting in February 2007 to review the progress. 
 
NOPEF also achieved an increase in night work, added pay for holidays, and increases in food and travel pay and arrangements. The union did not achieve pay for waiting time, but that issue will be prioritised for talks in future renewal contracts. Workers will now vote on the new contract, with the vote to be completed by 1 September. 
 
NOPEF’s strike against oil service contractors began on 21 June. The union called but 87 workers out on strike against just a handful of employers, knowing that such a strategy would place pressure on the oil majors in their drilling and development projects. The main employers targeted were Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Weatherford and Oceaneering. 
 
The ICEM salutes NOPEF for carrying out a tactical and effective strike in achieving a national oil services agreement that has proven to be the most difficult in the Norwegian energy sector. The will and discipline from a set of highly-skilled workers and trade unionists has now brought major employers providing oil services closer to the work rules and terms of other companies operating inside Norway’s oil patch.

NOPEF Wins Oil Services Strike in Norway

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Trinidad and Tobago’s Labour Ministry will convene another conciliation meeting tomorrow, 8 August, in order to avert further job actions by trade unionists of ICEM affiliate Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU). Hundreds of OWTU members shut down the country’s only oil refinery at Point-a-Pierre from 23 July to 27 July in protest to state-run oil company Petrotrin’s insufficient three-year contract offer.
OWTU has been attempting to reach an accord with Petrotrin for 1,500 refinery, exploration and production workers since last year. The labour dispute centers on wages and general work terms and conditions. All five labour agreements – covering 5,000 workers – between OWTU and the company have now expired, and the union is seeking a fair and just settlement for renewal agreements dating from 2005 to 2008. 
 
On 24 July, Petrotrin requested government mediation. Refinery workers, frustrated by management’s bargaining table intransigence in a time of booming oil and gas profits, began job actions a day earlier. The two parties met with Labour Ministry officials on 27 July and again on 3 August in attempts to resolve issues, and tomorrow’s meeting is termed pivotal in terms of future actions. 
 
“The demonstration by workers recently was a show of disgust over the company’s meagre offer,” said OWTU President Errol McLeod. “The situation is not stable enough now to assure anybody that more demonstrations will not occur.” 
 
OWTU members at the former Texaco refinery in Point-a-Pierre did strike on 5-6 June over stalled talks, in addition to safety issues. Other Petrotrin workers, including offshore workers, struck a month earlier due to lack of progress in negotiations. In March, refinery workers began the job actions by waging two separate strikes. 
 
The Point-a-Pierre refinery produces 160,000 barrels-per-day of petrol, diesel and oil for domestic consumption and export to other Caribbean nations and the US. The refinery is expanding to include a US$150 million methanol plant for gas to liquids conversion. Petrotrin will have 49% ownership in the new enterprise, with the 2,250 barrel-per-day plant led by New York-based start-up company World GTL

Trinidad’s Oil Workers Take Action for Fair Contract

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ICEM affiliate Mineworkers’ Union of Namibia (MUN) stepped in to resolve a strike by workers at a diamond cutting and polishing factory in the southern African country recently.
The strike, by nearly a quarter of the 500-member workforce at a plant operated by Israeli-based Lev Leviev Diamonds, occurred when management again attempted to impose restrictive individual contracts on workers. The activist-leaders shut down the plant in Namibia’s northern industrial zone on 27 July by effectively blocking entrances, and then demanded representation by the MUN. 
 
After listening to workers’ grievances, MUN General Secretary Joseph Hengari began negotiations with the company. The union convinced strikers to reopen the plant on 31 July, and got the company to drop threatened disciplinary actions against strike leaders. 
 
After two years of operation, the plant’s workers still have not been granted permanent status, instead held to 12-month temporary contracts. This round of temporary work agreements were issued in July, with the company demanding a signed return by 31 July. The individual contracts disqualified workers from earning a basic salary unless they reached certain production goals. Commissions would be paid to workers only when work exceeded a daily target of eight stones per day, or 170 diamonds per month. 
 
Hengari said the contracts fail on all counts of basic workers’ rights. He said that no overtime is ever paid, and standard double pay for work performed on Sundays and holidays is ignored. The MUN is awaiting official word from the company that it recognises the union, since nearly all workers have designated MUN as bargaining representative. 
 
Lev Leviev Diamonds is the world’s largest cutter and polisher of precious gems and a major source of rough stones to other cutters. The conglomerate also owns a gold mine in Kazakhstan, two diamond mines in Angola, and a multitude of other global business ventures, stretching from real estate, to petrol stations to Vash Telecanal, Israel’s Russian television station. The company, operated by Lev Leviev, a 1971 immigrant to Israel from the former Soviet Union state of Uzbekistan, has a long history of opaque transactions, particularly in diamond and gem trading.

Namibian Diamond Polishers Seek Representation by Mineworkers’ Union

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ICEM South African affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) ended an eight-day strike today against Kumba Resources. Following a series of meetings over the weekend at branch level with NUM’s 4,000 members employed at Kumba, the strike ended after top executives of the company entered talks. 
 
National union leaders joined the talks beginning on Friday, and consultations continued with the company over the weekend. 
 
“Our members are pleased with the outcome as presented to them after our talks with the chief executive of Kumba,” said NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni. “The discipline of our members while on strike deserves praise and their ability to compromise for purposes of settling the strike is commendable.” 
 
The strike severely affected operations at some six Kumba mines, including iron ore pits, three coal mines and a dolomite mine. The NUM was the largest of four unions in negotiations with Kumba, currently 67% controlled by AngloAmerican. The union struck on 30 July and union members of the Black Allied Mining and Construction Workers’ Union (BAMCWU) followed NUM out on strike. Trade union Solidarity staged a two-day strike on 31 July and 1 August, but then accepted the company’s wage offer. ICEM affiliate National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) represents a small number of workers at Kumba 
 
NUM struck in efforts to achieve an equitable wage package, and to gain maternity leave improvements and housing increases. Those issues were achieved, with top leaders of the company agreeing to the NUM’s demand of 9% for low-wage workers over the weekend. NUM’s demand for an 8% pay hike for higher wage earners was compromised when the union accepted 7.75%. But it is understood that various allowances will now be implemented to push that to 8%. The NUM paid special tribute to the 900 workers of BAMCWU who stood strong with South Africa’s dominant miners’ union. 
 
Kumba is a product of South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). AngloAmerican is currently in the process of splitting the company in half, with the global mining house to retain iron ore operations. Kumba’s coal and base metals production, including zinc and titanium, will be split into South Africa’s largest black controlled company, Exxaro Resources, after sale is finalised to Eyesizwe of South Africa. That is expected to occur later this year.

South Africa’s NUM Ends Strike at Kumba Resources

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Some 1,100 rubber workers, members of ICEM affiliates Transport & General Workers Union (TGWU) and Amicus, voted to take industrial action at two Pirelli tyre plants in the Midlands. Workers were balloted after the Italian tyre-maker offered only a 2.2% wage increase.
The balloting, which took place between 10 July and 3 August, showed that a full 75% of workers at Pirelli’s plants in Burton-on-Trent and Carlisle accept industrial action as means to a fair contract. TGWU represents about 900 of the workers at the two plants, while Amicus represents 200. 
 
“The overwhelming vote in favour of industrial action shows the strength of feeling against the company’s 2.2% final pay offer,” said TGWU National Manufacturing Organiser Peter Booth. “Pirelli Tyres is one of the most profitable parts of the group and our members clearly feel that a below-inflation offer does not reflect their expectations, particularly with rising energy costs.” 
 
The unions have submitted the vote to the company, and asked Pirelli to reconsider its pay offer. The exact industrial action agenda will be released today. Pirelli had previously announced its intention to issue an initial public offering for its tyre division, but early in July cancelled any spin-off of this business

UK Unions TGWU, Amicus Vote for Industrial Action Against Pirelli

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The two-week-old strike by miners in Chile against the world’s largest copper producer, Minera Escondida Ltda., continues today despite negotiations over the weekend with lead company BHP Billiton. The talks were spurred by Chile’s government following a blockade by strikers aimed at preventing the company from operating with replacement workers. 
 
Following talks that failed midway through last week, some 300 miners, members of Escondida Workers’ Union No. 1, blocked access roads leading to the operations near Antofagasta, some 1,400 kilometres north of the Chilean capital of Santiago. Police attempted to reopen roads, using water canons and other forceful methods. 
<img height="66" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ChileFLAG.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
Despite declaring force majeure following the start of the strike on 7 August, BHP Billiton, the majority owner of Minera Escondida, was using replacement workers to carry forth production. The company declared that it was maintaining copper smelting and cathode processing at 40% of capacity, or 3,600 tonnes per day, and extraction processes at 10% capacity using substitute workers. 
 
Miners and police clashed for two days, 17-18 August, before Chilean President Michelle Bachelet ordered Labour Minister Osvaldo Andrade to intercede with mediation efforts. Those talks were held throughout the weekend and BHP Billiton did increase its salary offer. 
 
Some 2,052 members of the union are on strike at Minera Escondida, representing 96% of the company’s workers. The union lowered its wage demands from 13% to 10% since the strike began, and BHP’s revised salary offer, issued on 19 August, did offer hope that the strike could be settled early this week. 
 
In bargaining last week, BHP Billiton did not move from its wage proposal of 3% above Chile’s inflation rate. Escondida Workers’ Union No. 1 is also seeking a one-off bonus of US$29,629, while the company is offering significantly less. 
 
The union says its demands would only cost the company 1% of its profits for 2006. Since a prior labour agreement was negotiated in 2003, copper prices have increased nearly six fold. The union has secured individual loans totalling up to US$1,841 for each miner, if necessary, to cover their expenses through the end of the month. 
 
Rio Tinto, a Japanese consortium led by Mitsubishi, and the World Bank’s International Finance Corp. are the other stakeholders at Escondida, a company that last year produced 8% of the world’s copper supply. BHP Billiton owns 57.5% of the copper operation, and is the managing partner.

Chile’s Copper Strike Continues as Miners Clash with Police

The ICEM has expressed disgust and dismay over the circumstances in which a Nigerian trade unionist was killed earlier this week in the Niger Delta. Nelson Ujeya, a member of white-collar oil workers’ union PENGASSAN, was apparently murdered as he was about to be released by a militant youth group in Bayelsa State. 
 
Reports say that Brother Ujeya was killed when troops of Nigeria’s Joint Military Task Force ambushed the militants at a time when he was about to be released. In all, 11 people were killed in the ambush that took place on 20 August. 
<img height="50" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaFlag.gif" width="100"/>
On 8 August, Nelson Ujeya, the Community Liaison Officer for Shell Petroleum Development Company Ltd., was abducted on an official visit to Letugbene community while he was accompanied by senior Bayelsa State government officials to inspect community projects. 
The ICEM denounces the Bayelsa State government and the federal government of Nigeria for failing to provide timely and relevant information on the abduction and subsequent killing of Nelson Ujeya to his family and to the leadership of PENGASSAN. 
Further, in a <a href="/index.php?id=25&doc=1926&la=EN" type="internal">letter to PENGASSAN President Peter Esele</a> that was also sent to Nigerian government entities and other organisations, the Brussels-based trade union federation said: 
 
“The 20-million-member ICEM, the Global Union Federation for oil and gas workers, finds it reprehensible that such indiscriminate use of force by Nigerian government militia be used in such a situation. The ICEM stands firmly behind PENGASSAN in holding both the government of Bayelsa State initially responsible for the abduction of Brother Ujeya while in the presence of state officials, and the federal government for its new policy of ‘force by force’ in dealing with kidnappings that occur in the Niger Delta.
<img height="105" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaPengassan.JPG" width="100"/>
“The ICEM calls on all energy companies operating in Nigeria to apply the same effort and resources in securing the release of kidnapped Nigerian workers as they do for their foreign national employees.” 
 
PENGASSAN and the blue-collar Nigerian oil workers’ union, NUPENG, will hold a joint National Executive Council meeting in Benin City, Nigeria, on 30 August to take up the matter of security for oil workers’ employed in the Niger Delta. The ICEM notes that the combined voice of the two unions, operating under the aegis of NUPENGASSAN, has been one of reason and soundness in efforts to curb the kidnappings and violence of the area. 
 
That voice has called for both the government of Nigeria and the oil companies operating in the region to provide greater and better employment opportunities to the youth and indigenous of the region through skills training and other social development initiatives.

Abhorrent Circumstances Surround the Killing of PENGASSAN Member in Nigeria

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The Mineworkers’ Union of Namibia (MUN) has scored an important victory for fixed-term contract workers at a diamond-cutting and polishing factory in the capital city of Windhoek. Last week, ICEM affiliate MUN successfully completed negotiations with the Namibian managers of Israel-based Lev Leviev Diamonds LLD. The agreement will make 356 mainly young workers into permanent employees, complete with rights and benefits. 
 
“Workers are happy about the fact they have representation,” MUN General Secretary Joseph Hengari told the ICEM. “There have been many shortcomings in work procedures since this factory started and our duty now is to bring these technicalities to a close to the benefit of workers.” 
<img height="237" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NamibiaNUM.jpg" width="200" alt=""/>
In late July, about a quarter of the workers at the Lev Leviev enterprise struck after they were given an ultimatum by managers to sign new 12-month-long individual contracts for the third time. Strike leaders contacted the MUN, whose intervention ended the strike and began collective negotiations with the company. 
 
MUN’s involvement also proves beneficial to the company, which had been operating without knowledge of local laws, without a functioning human resources department, and without a proper method of salary calculations. In fact, one major grievance that led to the 27 July strike was the fact that individual contracts disqualified the workers from getting a basic salary unless they reached certain production quotas. 
 
MUN will soon become the official bargaining representative at the Lev Leviev plant. During two weeks of intense negotiations in August that covered a number of employment issues including salary and remuneration, MUN and the company agreed to make the 356 workers permanent effective 1 September. All 356 applied for membership to the MUN. In addition, another 56 were classified as trainees, but will progress from that status to permanent workers in the near future. The company also says it intends to bring another 120 trainees into the plant, with the aim of having a total of over 500 permanent workers. 
 
The diamond-cutting and polishing operation opened in mid-2004 and has a capacity to produce 25,000 carats of polished stones monthly. The factory currently is dependent on rough stones mined from another Lev Leviev enterprise, the Sakawa Mining Corporation of The Netherlands, located in offshore areas of southern Namibia. But the company is attempting to convince the Namdeb Diamond Corporation, the country’s joint venture with DeBeers, to supply rough stones to the factory in order to fully promote local beneficiation of Namibian diamonds.

ICEM Namibian Affiliate Succeeds in Making Diamond Polishing Jobs Permanent

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Conflicting information has reached the ICEM about a recent strike in southern Iraq’s oil fields. What does seem clear is that industrial actions, including strikes, occurred at the Basra-based Southern Oil Company on 22 and 23 August. The strike action was also clearly successful and effective. 
 
The two-day strike, which, as news agency Reuters reported, closed the main pipeline supplying Baghdad with refined products, was ended when Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani agreed to issue a document assuring immediate pay raises. The Labour Ministry also committed to meet with the union to discuss all demands. 
<img height="100" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMoil4.JPG.JPG" width="100" alt=""/>
Reports quote Hassan Al-Asadi, the head of the union group representing over 700 employees from the General Company for Oil Lines and Pipes in the southern cities of Basra and Nassiriya. He said, "We received a document from the ministry of oil. It is a document to increase our salaries and to pay us (a) share in seasonal profits." 
 
The strike action took place after both government and company had failed to respond to workers’ demands over recent months. Those demands include receiving pay in a timely fashion, making good on unpaid overtime worked, compensating for unused annual leave, compensation to workers for their profit-sharing incentives, raising minimum salaries, creating equal opportunity for advancement of all workers, and converting contract workers into full-time, permanent staff. 
 
Workers and unions of the various divisions of Southern Oil are said to be poised for further industrial actions if these and other demands are not met.

Strike Hits Southern Iraq’s Oil Sector

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A strike by glass workers in New Zealand enters its second week today. About a dozen night-shift workers at Pilkington Glass in the Auckland suburb of Mt. Wellington began the strike late on 30 August. They were joined by the plant’s 50 other workers the next morning. 
 
The glass workers are represented by ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union (EPMU). Workers are seeking the standard 5% contained in nearly all EPMU-negotiated collective agreements, but Pilkington, now a subsidiary of Nippon Sheet Glass, is offering only 4%. Union members are also seeking an increase in the daily shift allowance from NZ$3.25 to NZ$10.00. 
<img height="152" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0608EPMUALittle.jpg" width="100" alt=""/> 
EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little
“(Workers) claims are quite modest – nothing more than the going rate,” stated EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little. “The company says it can’t afford it, but the New Zealand operation made a NZ$14 million net profit in the year up to March 2005, with a global profit of more than NZ$600 million.” 
 
The 60 glass workers started industrial action during the week of 7 August when they conducted two stop-work actions. The next week saw EPMU members begin a ban on all overtime work.

Pilkington Glass Workers in New Zealand Strike for 5% Pay Gains

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