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ICEM affiliate Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Zambia (MUZ), together with another mining union, won a 20% pay increase for 9,000 miners at Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in early July. The pay increase matched what the unions achieved for miners at KCM in 2006. 
 
Negotiations began in mid-May, but KCM, a company that is majority held by London-listed and Indian-owned Vedanta Resources, was slow in meeting the unions&rsquo; demands. In early July, the company did increase its pay offer from 16% to 20%. 
 
The average salary for the lowest paid miner at KCM had been US$400 per month. The other union negotiating the MUZ is the National Union of Mining and Allied Workers (NUMAW). The 20% increase was awarded effective 1 July.
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Meanwhile, last week, Canadian gold and copper producer First Quantum sacked four strike leaders &ndash; including two shop stewards &ndash; over a wildcat strike at the Kansanshi mine near Solez in mid-July. MUZ intervened to halt the strike by 400 miners in the North-Western province of Zambia, and succeeded in getting negotiations back on track. 
 
But the company took the action to terminate the four and place six others on final warning notices. Appeals are expected. 
 
At KCM, a business dispute between Vedenta and minority shareholder Zambian Copper Investments (ZCI) has gone to arbitration and awaits a ruling. Vedenta has an option to buy ZCI&rsquo;s 28.4% stake in KCM, lifting its ownership to 79.4%, but the dispute over share price has blocked the deal. The Zambian government maintains a 20.6% share of KCM.
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KCM comprises copper mines at Nkana, Nchanga, and Konkola, as well as pyrite mining at Nampundwe and a copper smelter at Nkana. This smelter is the biggest in Africa, and is now currently undergoing expansion. Vedanta also has invested at a new site, the Konkola Deep Mine Project, which will be operational in 2010 and will extend KCM&rsquo;s mining life by 30 years. 
 
Vedanta Resources is a major global producer of aluminum, zinc, and copper, and was founded and is currently run by Indian industrial magnate Anil Agarwal.

Zambian Miners Get 20%; Canadian Firm Sacks Leaders of a Copper Strike

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Unless an eleventh hour solution is found today, thousands of members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa will strike six diamond mines of DeBeers on Tuesday, 31 July. A walkout will mark the first full-scale mining strike in South Africa this year as current bargaining across a number of mining sectors remains bogged down in wage disputes. 
 
The NUM issued a strike notice to the world&rsquo;s largest diamond miner on 26 July, following certification from South Africa&rsquo;s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) that talks had hit a standstill. A day earlier, NUM members voted to strike the company, which is 45% owned by AngloAmerican.
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NUM members at DeBeers, numbering about 6,000, are adamant that an 11% pay increase is due them. DeBeers is only offering 8% and a contract for two years. 
 
&ldquo;DeBeers continues to preach 8% and a two-year agreement, and we had said &lsquo;No,&rsquo;&rdquo; stated NUM&rsquo;s lead negotiator for diamond mining, Peter Bailey. He added, &ldquo;Workers have told us in no uncertain terms that double-digit&rdquo; percentage increases are necessary in order to get a settlement, said Bailey. 
 
DeBeers stated that it intends to operate mines with a contingency plan if the NUM takes strike action.

NUM Set to Strike DeBeers Tomorrow in South Africa

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The tense situation in New Zealand&rsquo;s coal pits has eased. But the end to hostilities came only after a wave of sympathy strikes shut down coal production following the lockout of 200 miners by Australian-based contractor HWE Mining on 18 July. 
 
The New Zealand mining industry&rsquo;s collective talks, between ICEM affiliate Engineering, Paper, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and state-owned Solid Energy and its contractors, already had been tense before the three-day lockout. Talks began in April for the 800 miners at some dozen pits but when little progress was made, EPMU miners began taking industrial actions late in June.
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&nbsp; 
The situation intensified when HWE Mining locked out workers at Solid&rsquo;s Rotowaro mine near Huntly 13 days ago. EPMU members at other Solid Energy mines &ndash; particularly Huntly East, Spring Creek, Terrace, and New Vale &ndash; immediately took action and stopped production. 
 
The lockout reminded New Zealanders that Australian mining companies are only too anxious to export the agenda of Prime Minister John Howard of Australia. 
 
The sympathy strikes of other companies put enough pressure on HWE Mining to come to terms in its portion of the Mining Industry Multi-Employer Collective Agreement. Some half-dozen of the other mining contractors also settled two-year agreements. The EPMU has won yearly pay gains of 5% to 5.5% in this round of talks.
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EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little said the HWE Mining lockout was broken because of &ldquo;huge support from miners across the country.&rdquo; 
 
He added, &ldquo;Our members at Rotowaro stood strong in the face of some extreme employer militancy, and they&rsquo;ve managed to end the lockout and win the decent pay rise and improved conditions they were after. This was only achieved through the collective strength of miners.&rdquo; 
 
To date, the only contractor that has not come to terms with the EPMU is Doug Hood Mining, which operates Solid Energy&rsquo;s Stockton mine near Westport. EPMU members there took a 24-hour strike action on 27 July in protest to the contractor&rsquo;s stall tactics.

NZ Coal: Sympathy Strikes Counter Lockout, Pave Way for New Contracts

The European Works Council (EWC) of Alcan Packaging, facing imminent spin-off by new owner Rio Tinto, won a&nbsp;commitment that an Extraordinary Meeting of the Works Council&nbsp;would be held within 14 days&nbsp;after&nbsp;any announced sale of the company is made. Following frank discussions during EWC meetings on 25 July, where Alcan President and CEO Richard Evans reiterated Rio&rsquo;s intent to sell Alcan&rsquo;s packaging businesses, the commitment to hold a further Works Council meeting immediately following an announced sale is&nbsp;welcome news to packaging industry workers&rsquo; and their trade unions. 
 
The ICEM, a global union federation of 389 trade unions in 119 countries, applauded the commitment, calling it &ldquo;an important check-and-balance on corporate governance.&rdquo; The ICEM also congratulates the EWC and the trade unionists on the EWC for gaining this commitment. 
 
Evans told the EWC that Rio Tinto was hopeful of selling the collection of packaging businesses of as block, that there are serious buyers, and that a sale agreement could be completed soon. Peter Ellis, National Officer of ICEM UK affiliate Unite, welcomed the company&rsquo;s commitment.
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Rio Tinto&rsquo;s newly acquired flexible and specialty packaging businesses throughout the world are vast. The Australian company could realise &euro;5 billion from a sale. In 2003, the Canadian-based company purchased Norsk Hydro&rsquo;s packaging units, and the following year Alcan took over French-based Pechiney in a US$3.9 billion stock and cash deal. Alcan&rsquo;s packaging businesses produce products for the food, personal care, and pharmaceutical sectors.

Alcan Workers Win Commitment from Company at EWC

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Former ICEM Gen. Sec. Fred Higgs was awarded the Transport &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union&rsquo;s (TGWU) highest award on 4 July when the Unite Joint General Secretary, Tony Woodley, awarded him with the Gold Patch at the TGWU&rsquo;s last Policy Conference. 
 
Higgs served as ICEM general secretary from 1999 to his retirement in late 2006. He is a 40-year member of TGWU and began his long service career with the union in 1979. Prior to his election as ICEM general secretary, Higgs served as National Secretary of TGWU&rsquo;s chemicals, oil, and rubber sectors.
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&nbsp;Fred Higgs Speaking at TGWU's Policy Conference 
 

In a speech upon receiving the award, Higgs told delegates of his disgust after reaching Brussels with the UK Labour Party government&rsquo;s complicity in occupying Iraq. He also spoke on global labour solidarity, and gave the story of TGWU&rsquo;s Peter Booth intervening with a British-based company to reinstate two sacked trade union leaders in Thailand. They had been sacked in 2004 for trade union activities, and they turned to the ICEM for help. 
 
Booth not only won their reinstatement but together with Higgs and the ICEM, won a guarantee that trade union organisation would not be interfered with at their plant. In the year since the two leaders have been back at work, they, along with fellow workers grateful to Booth and the ICEM, have organised 11 of the 12 plants that this particular British company operates in Thailand.
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Peter Booth 
 

The TGWU Policy Conference is likely to be the last such biannual gathering since new forums and structures will result in TGWU&rsquo;s merger with Amicus to form Unite. The conference reviewed TGWU&rsquo;s aggressive organising project, demanded the withdrawal of British troops in Iraq, and took a tough stance on the abuse of labour agency workers in the UK. Delegates heard vivid stories of such abuses, including the real life situation of a Polish woman who was forced to live her car after her agency evicted her from living accommodations. 
 
The Policy Conference made history by electing the first and last woman to chair this year&rsquo;s proceedings. &ldquo;Same old story &hellip; as soon as a woman gets to the top, the job is abolished,&rdquo; joked Brenda Sanders. &ldquo;This union will be carrying forwards our finest traditions together with our colleagues in Amicus as we build Unite to a powerhouse in the world of work and the 21st century,&rdquo; she added.

Fred Higgs Receives Gold Patch Award from Transport &amp; General Workers in the UK

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A caustic strike by 800 miners of state-owned Solid Energy and its contractors was suspended by the union last week as &ldquo;good faith&rdquo; leading into government-mediated talks. The miners are represented by New Zealand ICEM affiliate Engineering, Paper, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU). 
 
But 200 miners took further strike action early on 13 July, just days after industrial actions were halted. Only this occurred not at Solid but at HWE Mining, an Australia contractor working Solid Energy&rsquo;s Rotowaro mine near Huntley. The miners&rsquo; issue there is over pay. HWE Mining has recently been bought by Leighton Contractors in Australia, and it also is a major contractor to the big mining houses.
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&nbsp; 
EPMU&rsquo;s HWE unit struck the Rotowaro mine for 20 hours on 29 June. Other rolling stoppages in this three-week-old dispute have happened at the Terrace Mine, the Stockton mine near Ngakawa, as well as at other Solid facilities. 
 
At the underground Spring Creek mine near Greymouth on 2 July, Australian workers doing development work at the site, refused to cross picket lines of EPMU members, thus ratcheting up pressure on the mining bosses. 
 
The industrial actions, which begun 26 June, are over a break-down in June of talks on renewal of the Mining Industry Multi-Employer Collective Agreement. The employer table consists of Solid Energy and some eight of its major contractors.
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EPMU Organising Director Ged O&rsquo;Connell said last week ago that miners would suspend their nationwide overtime ban and campaign of spontaneous rolling stoppages &ldquo;as a show of good faith, and miners at the Spring Creek and Terrace Mines agreed to suspend their eleven day strike&rdquo; in order for meaningful mediation to occur. 
 
The dispute became pitched in late June when management at the Spring Creek mine and the Terrace mine near Reefton refused to provide the customary transportation within the jobsites. The curtailment was retaliatory, since it was taken immediately after miners took their initial industrial actions. It also angered miners, due mainly to the fact that it stranded 42 workers in an unsafe environment. 
 
O&rsquo;Connell called it &ldquo;immature behaviour&rdquo; by Solid. A report quoted him as saying, &ldquo;Responsible employers do not put their workers&rsquo; safety at risk just so they can prove a point, whatever the circumstances might be.&rdquo; 
 
The 800 miners of Solid Coal and its contractors were also involved in a three-month standoff in 2005 with the employers. That ended with 5% pay raises won.

Union Halts Industrial Action to Talk in NZ’s Coal Fields, But EPMU Miners Walk Out on Contractor

The 20-million-member ICEM joined North American-affiliated trade union United Steelworkers (USW) in congratulating agricultural workers at the Firestone Rubber Plantation in Harbel, Liberia, in their historic vote early this week. 
Some 4,700 members of the newly-chartered Firestone Agriculture Workers Union (FAWU) of Liberia chose their union leadership on Sunday, 8 July 2007, in an election that marked the first time in the 85-year history of the rubber plantation that workers elected union leaders, free of manipulation.
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&ldquo;We not only congratulate rubber workers&rsquo; in Liberia for this historic first, but also congratulate the USW of North America for its diligence and hard work in assuring that a free and fair vote occurred,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. 
 
The USW not only monitored the election, but, together with the US-based Solidarity Center, conducted training programmes, workshops, and basic trade union representation methods to Firestone plantation workers seeking self-representation. The peaceful and transparent election also puts an end to the corrupt and undemocratic practices of the General Agriculture and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union (GAAWUL), a labour organisation that plantation managers had recognised for decades but provided little or no representation to workers. 
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The ICEM salutes and recognises Augustine Natee as the new president of FAWU, as well as Joseph Tarnue, Vice President; Edwin Pispo, Secretary General; Comfort Willie, Treasurer; and Abel Fallah, Grievance Chairman. 
 
The ICEM also commends Liberia&rsquo;s Labour Ministry for its decision last spring to authorise free and open elections under a special elections committee. 
 
The Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia, now owned by Bridgestone Corp. of Japan, is a million-acre reserve in the West African country that has seen worker abuses for decades, including child labour practices, lack of adequate housing and sanitation facilities, as well as salaries as low as US$3 per day.

ICEM Welcomes New Rubber Workers’ Union at Firestone’s Liberian Plantation

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Jeff Lawrence, the 17-year president of ICEM affiliate Liquor, Hospitality, and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU), won selection last week as Secretary-elect of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). 
 
He will succeed Greg Combet, who will stand down late this year as the day-to-day leader of the Australia&rsquo;s national labour centre and run for Parliament from the New South Wales district of Charlton in 2007 elections. Combet has served as secretary of the 1.9-million-member ACTU since the year 2000. 
<img height="187" alt="" src="" width="200" />
Jeff Lawrence, new ACTU Secretary-elect
Lawrence, 55, was the only person nominated for the post at the ACTU&rsquo;s Organising Conference on 13 June at the University of New South Wales. He began his trade union career in 1977 for the Federated Miscellaneous Workers Union, one of several predecessor unions to the 130,000-member LHMU. 
 
&ldquo;I am determined to work hard to see off the Howard government and its unfair IR laws,&rdquo; Lawrence stated. &ldquo;As ACTU Secretary, I want to work with Australian working families to ensure that they and their rights are given respect. (That includes) respect for them to be heard &hellip; in the workplace and in society in general; respect for their role as parents and carers; (and) respect for their skills and their ability to improve themselves. 
<img height="56" alt="" src="" width="350" />
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what WorkChoices, the Howard government&rsquo;s industrial law, has taken away.&rdquo; 
ACTU President Sharan Burrow called Lawrence a trade unionist who has led the charge against the Howard government&rsquo;s draconian labour relations reforms. &ldquo;He is from a union that has members at the forefront of the impact of WorkChoices,&quot; she said. &ldquo;I look forward to working with Jeff Lawrence and to developing a new partnership to lead the community campaign to restore the rights of working Australians taken away by the Australian government.&rdquo;

LHMU’s Jeff Lawrence to Succeed Greg Combet as head of Australian Council of Trade Unions

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Stefan L&ouml;fven was elected President of Nordic IN at a Congress held 15 June in Reykjavik, Iceland. Nordic IN is a regional trade union federation, representing 1.2 million workers of 22 affiliated national unions in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. 
 
L&ouml;fven, who is the president of Swedish ICEM affiliate, IF Metall, the metal and chemical workers&rsquo; union, succeeds Kjell Bj&oslash;rndalen, who retired. Nordic-In&rsquo;s biennial Congress, attended by 70 delegates, also elected Thorkild Jensen, from Denmark's CO-industri, and Mari-Ann Krantz, from Sweden's Sif, as vice presidents. Jyrki Raina continues as general secretary. 
<img height="170" src="" width="150" alt="" />
New Nordic IN President Stefan L&ouml;fven
The federation&rsquo;s action programme 2008-2009 adopted at the Reykjavik Congress states that Nordic unions will work together to: 
<ul>
 <li>
 <div>safeguard the Nordic model with a high unionisation rate, strong collective agreements, social security and workers' participation; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>work towards fair globalisation and to ensure the respect of trade union rights in all parts of the world; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>promote proactive trade, energy and environmental policies; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>train union officers and European Works Council members on networking and on how to handle cross-border restructuring cases in multinational companies; and to </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>promote recruitment of new members and stronger union structures in the Baltic states. </div>
 </li>
</ul>
As part of the Congress, a thematic session was held that included participation by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and trade union leaders representing the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF), the European Metal Workers&rsquo; Federation (EMF), and the European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Workers&rsquo; Federation (EMCEF). 
<img height="139" src="" width="98" alt="" />
Nordic IN General Secretary Jyrki Raina
That session centered on discussion on the future of the trade union movement in the global economy. &ldquo;The work Nordic IN is doing is a prime example of what can be accomplished when trade unions unite and follow a common agenda,&rdquo; said the ICEM&rsquo;s Warda. 
 
Nordic IN, founded on 1 January 2006 with the merger of Nordic Metal and the Nordic Industry Workers&rsquo; Federation (NIF), has as a basic mission to coordinate the policies and action of Nordic trade unions, especially within European industry federations EMF, EMCEF and the European Textile, Clothing, and Leather Federation, as well as within ICEM, IMF, and ITGLWF. 
 
The Congress confirmed that Nordic unions will continue to work to bring industrial workers into one federation in Europe and in the world, in order to maximise our resources in a globalised world.

Nordic IN Holds Biennial Congress in Reykjavik, Iceland

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One of ICEM&rsquo;s UK affiliates, Unite, has released a comprehensive study detailing the use and misuse of agency workers in the UK. The union, Britain&rsquo;s largest and the product of a recent merger between Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union, released the results of the study to the Department of Trade and Industry early this month. 
 
The study finds systematic abuse and misuse of agency and temporary workers at some of the most visible corporations operating in UK, including Coca-Cola, BMW, Harper Collins Publishers, Norwich Union, Honda, Unisys, and WH Smith. The study was conducted by Unite&rsquo;s Amicus section, throughout the sectors of manufacturing, finance, construction, and graphical/media. 
<img height="142" src="" width="100" alt="" />
&ldquo;Regardless of how you define a McJob, many employers are using agency workers to undermine pay and conditions, and replace permanent workers with cheaper, less qualified labour, leaving hundreds of thousands in a cycle of insecure and low-paid employment,&rdquo; stated Derek Simpson, Unite Joint General Secretary. 
 
The study cites a situation at Unisys in which a contract employer, Right4Staff Agency, had up to five South African data-processing workers share one bed. The workers took turns sleeping, with those not sleeping being at work. At a Honda Civic plant in Swindon, due to growth in sales, the Japanese automaker found it needed an additional 800 workers. But rather than hire and train full-time, permanent staff, local managers turned to an agency called Best Connection. Workers from this agency are paid ₤2-an-hour less than the Honda starting rate and receive a third less holidays. 
 
At Coca-Cola in Wakefield, an agency specifically recruits Polish workers to do quality checking at ₤7-an-hour, nearly half the hourly wage negotiated by Amicus at the plant, and they miss out on a 38% shift allowance. At a BMW plant in Hams Hall, the company&rsquo;s canteen operates with a two-tier pricing system &ndash; with prices higher for temporary staff. Some temp workers at BMW here have laboured for more than five years without being called for full-time employment. 
<img height="50" src="" width="100" alt="" />
Unite blames the UK government with failing to provide equal employment rights to agency and temporary workers, despite a commitment from the 2004 Warwick agreement to do so. That agreement saw the Blair government pledge to implement the measures contained in the proposed EU Directive on Temporary and Agency Workers. Nothing was done. 
 
&ldquo;We expect the new leadership of the Labour government to right this wrong, and implement the measures contained in the proposed (directive),&rdquo; said Simpson. 
 
Earlier this year, a private member&rsquo;s bill in Parliament brought by Labour MP Paul Farelly of Newcastle-under-Lyme was introduced that would have given agency workers the same rights, pensions, and working conditions as full-time workers. But the bill was talked out and denied a vote in the House of Commons.

Unite Study in UK Finds Rampant Abuse of Agency Workers

Archive

Zambian Miners Get 20%; Canadian Firm Sacks Leaders of a Copper Strike

NUM Set to Strike DeBeers Tomorrow in South Africa

NZ Coal: Sympathy Strikes Counter Lockout, Pave Way for New Contracts

Alcan Workers Win Commitment from Company at EWC

Fred Higgs Receives Gold Patch Award from Transport & General Workers in the UK

Union Halts Industrial Action to Talk in NZ’s Coal Fields, But EPMU Miners Walk Out on Contractor

ICEM Welcomes New Rubber Workers’ Union at Firestone’s Liberian Plantation

LHMU’s Jeff Lawrence to Succeed Greg Combet as head of Australian Council of Trade Unions

Nordic IN Holds Biennial Congress in Reykjavik, Iceland

Unite Study in UK Finds Rampant Abuse of Agency Workers

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