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<img height="39" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100"/>
In August 2007, 13 ICEM affiliates created an ICEM Turkish Coordination Committee. At that time, Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) was defined as one of the priorities on which joint activities would occur. 
 
In cooperation with Germany’s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), a Turkish national conference of those affiliates was held on 31 January – 1 February, 2008, in İstanbul on CAL. Some 80 trade unionists, journalists, and university professors attended. 
The conference opened with a speech by Mustafa Kumlu, an ICEM Executive Committee member and President of the Turkish Electricity, Water, and Gas Workers’ Union, Tes-Iş. He is also the current president of the country’s biggest national labour centre, Türk-Iş. The meeting also saw the active participation of ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, and FES’s İstanbul representative, Bettina Luise Rürup. 
<img height="212" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0802Turkey1.jpg" width="350"/>
ICEM's Kemal Özkan and Manfred Warda, EMCEF's Reinhard Reibsch
After presentations by ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal Özkan on the the Global Union Federation’s CAL Project, by the ILO’s Slava Egorov on ILO actions on contract labour, the employment relationship, and agency work, and by EMCEF General Secretary Reinhard Reibsch on the European situation, the conference heard national experiences from Germany, Sweden, and The Netherlands. 
 
In Germany, IGBCE’s Michael Wolters reported there are now 630,000 agency workers employed by 19,000 labour agencies in the country. This constitutes 10-15 % of the total workers in industries in which the German union operates. Agency workers earn 30 % less than permanent workers. 
 
According to Hans Palmqvist of Swedish IF Metall, there is an Authorisation Board in Sweden that controls 450 private agencies, employing 43,000 workers. A Swedish trade union has managed to reach a collective agreement with one such agency, C&L. 
<img height="142" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CALhorse.jpg" width="100"/>
The agency labour issue is also a burning issue inside The Netherlands. Celil Coban and Osman Elmaci from FNV Bondgenoten, both Turkish-originated trade union officials for the union, reported that only 1,200 agencies out of 12,000 are operating with official certification. Even when FNV Bondgenoten negotiates with employment agencies for collective agreements, wages remain low and working conditions are sub-standard for agency workers. 
 
The three examples from Germany, Sweden, and Holland clearly shows that the unionisation rates for agency workers are far less than those for permanent workers. 
 
The conference also heard detailed reports and analyses on Contract and Agency Labour in Turkey. During the conference, a major explosion at an unregistered factory operating in the black economy resulted in 23 deaths. 
 
According to statistics, the number of workers employed in the informal economy in Turkey is 4.7 million, according to Mustafa Öztaskin of ICEM affiliate Petrol-Iş. Dating to the 1980s, the problem in Turkey is that new owners in privatised sectors have used subcontracting in order to eliminate union representation. 
 
Metin Bozkurt, Organising Secretary of Cement Workers Union, Çimse-Iş, reported that multinational companies in the cement industry use subcontractors in all facets of production. Privatisation has also caused problems in energy, reported Murat Aytemiz, Vice-President of Tes-Iş. According to Aytemiz, some 50% of the workforce in the energy sector is employed by subcontracting firms. 
 
The situation in the mining sector was defined as thus by Dr. Fikret Sazak, Director of Education Department of Mine Workers Union, Maden-Iş: “Our mining areas have become mole holes after privatisation and subcontracting.” He reported that contract labour in pits is overwhelming, for example, in a main coal mining area, 2,750 out of 10,500 miners are subcontractors. 
<img height="285" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0802Turkey3.jpg" width="380" alt=""/>
In public services as well, subcontracting and agency labour is a major factor in lowering salaries and weakening the working environment. Ismail Hakki Kurt of Belediye-Iş pointed out that “trade unions have real difficulties in bargaining because permanent workers are the minority, while agency workers are not unionised.” 
In the glass industry, according to Can Safak, Director of the Collective Bargaining Department at Kristal-Iş, subcontracting first appeared in nonqualified and side jobs. Kristal-Iş tried to tackle the problem through reclassification of positions. The union also managed to get language in the sectoral level collective glass agreement, stating that no subcontractor can be employed at the production level. 
 
At the end of the discussions, it was agreed that a series of joint activities on organising, in general, would be undertaken. And then, specifically, the issue of Contract and Agency Labour in Turkey will now come under the ICEM’s global project. 
 
<a href="/index.php?id=73&doc=2593&la=EN" type="internal">To access presentations at the Conference, click here</a>.

ICEM Turkish Affiliates Gather to Discuss Contract and Agency Labour

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This Friday, 29 February, is a Day of Action for ICEM North American affiliate Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) against Petro-Canada. CEP members will protest and handbill at many of the company’s petrol stations country-wide to draw attention to an unfair, 15-week lockout imposed by Petro-Canada on 267 workers at an oil refinery in Montreal, Quebec. 
 
Teams of locked-out workers are also travelling Canada, speaking at union meetings and other forums. They are also warning the public at home, in Montréal, of the safety risks that the Calgary, Alberta-based company is taking by operating the refinery with managers and scabs. The union has called on Quebec’s Environmental Office, as well as on city of Montréal regulators, to inspect reports of leaks and malfunctions.
<img height="266" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0801Canada2.jpg" width="200"/>
 CEP Local 175 members at a January rally
A provincial Ministry of Labour team, which visited the refinery late in January, found that at least 26 replacement workers are grouped with bosses in working long hours to maintain throughput. Employing replacements during a labour dispute in Quebec is a labour law violation. But worse, the company is jeopardizing the safety and welfare of the community, since bosses and scabs – some 120 in total, compared to 267 skilled and trained CEP members – have each been working in excess of 70 hours per week. 
 
The refinery, which saw a production increase from 105,000 barrels-per-day to 130,000 in 2006, is located in a residential area called Point-aux-Trembles, in the east end of Montreal. 
 
Among the contract concessions the company is seeking from CEP Local 175 is elimination of a health and safety prevention officer. Petro-Canada is seeking to break the CEP’s National Energy and Chemical Bargaining Programme for 2007-2008, a pattern that was set in May 2007 in a three-year agreement between the CEP and Petro-Canada at a refinery in Edmonton, Alberta. 
 
Management in Montréal is seeking a six-year term, and also is demanding unwanted changes to scheduling, job assignments, and an accelerated training programme that will further jeopardize health and safety. 
 
Petro-Canada bought the refinery from Fina in 1981. The lockout began on 17 November 2007. 

Petro-Canada is seeking to break the CEP’s National Energy and Chemical Bargaining Programme for 2007-2008, a pattern that was set in May 2007 in a three-year agreement between the CEP and Petro-Canada at a refinery in Edmonton, Alberta. Management in Montréal is seeking a six-year term, and also is demanding unwanted changes to scheduling, job assignments, and an accelerated training programme that will further jeopardize health and safety.

CEP Brings Ills of Petro-Canada’s Montréal Lockout Across the Country

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With majority support, Eastern Canadian pulp and paper union officers voted to enter talks a full year early in efforts to preserve job security and find solutions to the forestry crisis in Canada. Meeting in Montréal, Quebec, last week, 250 local union leaders of ICEM affiliate Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) Union, from both the East and the West of Canada, drew up common strategies on bargaining agendas. 
 
CEP and the lead company chosen in the East, Canadian-based AbitibiBowater, will begin talks on 2 March, 13 months before the expiry of labour agreements in the East. CEP will be seeking a contract extension in these talks.
<img height="102" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMpaper2.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
CEP represents 5,500 AbitibiBowater workers in about 15 eastern Canadian pulp and paper mills. The bargaining pattern set there will then be used for contract extensions at other pulp and paper companies in the East, which employ another 20,000 paperworkers. 
 
In the West, contracts at CEP-represented mills expire on 1 April 2008. CEP President Dave Coles said key issues in both East and West negotiations will be job security, probing operational processes in order to achieve productivity gains, and contract term lengths.
<img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/canadacep.gif" width="120"/>
Coles said the challenges in these talks will be to find modern ways to enhance productivity, without wage and benefit cuts. “This will not be done by making economic cuts in our collective agreements,” he said. “We think it is better to optimize productivity than to cut wages.” 
 
Pulp and paper local unions in both parts of Canada are currently under five-year labour accords, with the ones in the East due to expire on 1 April 2009.

Canadian Paperworkers Vote to Enter Eastern Talks Early

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An important new law was enacted in the US state of Illinois on 6 August 2007, when the state’s governor, Rod Blagojevich, signed into force a bar on construction companies falsely classifying workers as “independent contractors.” The new law in the midwestern state is seen as a harbinger for what could occur across the US nationally, considering the coming political ballots, and George Bush’s mandatory departure. 
 
“Misclassification of employees as independent contractors is one of the devices that greedy employers use to cheat workers out of their benefits,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who joined Blagojevich and other proponents of the regulation at the 6 August signing ceremony. 
<img height="120" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0709sweeney.jpg" width="120" alt=""/>
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
The measure, passed by the Illinois Senate and House of Representatives early in the year, had broad support, including labour and scores of legitimate construction companies. These firms, relying on skilled, generally unionised workers, have been left at a competitive disadvantage by unscrupulous employers, who deliberately mis-classify workers as contractors in order to reduce their operating costs. In Illinois, estimates say that such nefarious enterprises save an average of 24% in submitting bids on projects. 
The law in Illinois, introduced as the Employee Classification Act, presumes all workers are regular employees unless certain conditions exist, such as being a partner or sole proprietor, a specific business or profession, or providing a service outside of the usual course of business. The law, the fifth such statute among the US’s 50 state laws, includes US$2,500 penalties on companies that deliberately misclassify construction workers. Repeat offenders can face felony charges. 
<img height="202" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CALhorse.jpg" width="142"/>
A university study found Illinois losing an average of US$125.7 million annually in tax revenue over a five-year period in the early 2000s. Cut-rate employers avoid paying Social Security, workers’ compensation benefits, jobless relief, state and federal taxes, and other social costs. Sweeney stated that such tax revenue losses deprive governments of immediate funds that could address “so many vital programs.” 
 
The US Congress, in the House of Representatives, took up the independent contractor issue in hearings last March, but has yet to act on legislation that could update US labour code on this crucial workplace issue.

US Building Workers Win Ban on Contract Labour in Illinois State

This week, on Wednesday, 26 September, 84 strikers in the Antalya Free Trade Zone of Turkey will mark one year on picket lines at Novamed, a pharmaceutical manufacturer, owned by Fresenius Medical Care of Germany. Eighty-two of the strikers are women. 
 
The ICEM has continued to champion the cause of the strikers and the Turkish union Petrol-Iş that organised this workplace, and stands by them. Judging from the inhumane treatment, it is easy to see why. Workers – mainly women – were forced to apply to management if they wished to marry. They were forbidden to talk to one another on the job. And they were forced to undergo breath tests following breaks to enforce a no-smoking ban. 
<img height="150" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0709Novamed1.jpg" width="200"/>
Picket sign states: "We decide when we give birth"
Workers at Novamed freely elected Petrol-Iş as their collective representative. Novamed managers did begin negotiations with the union and the workers in April 2006. But when talks broke down, managers quit the negotiations and began a harassment and intimidation campaign aimed at dislodging union support. On 26 September 2006, 84 workers expressed their discontent by striking. 
 
The first anniversary of this just strike has gained a sizeable and significant voice inside Turkey. Through actions and a fortnight of constant press coverage, leading up to the one-year anniversary, civil society across Turkey is acutely aware of the Novamed strike. Handbilling, mass meetings among trade unions, NGOs, and Turkish women’s groups, as well as rolling actions in support of the strike have all happened. 
<img height="215" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0709Novamed2.jpg" width="300"/>
In Istanbul, a coalition of trade unions, women’s groups, and others have formed a “Women’s Platform for Solidarity with Novamed Strikers,” which has carried out a number of actions over the past two weeks. In the cities of Izmir and Adana, actions and forums in support of the strike have occurred.
A petition drive to the National Parliament has also started, aimed at mandating better work conditions for women, thanks to the courage of the Novamed strikers. Various actions for justice at Novamed are backed by all Turkish confederations, trade unions, and, increasingly, by civil society groups. And today and tomorrow, busloads of supporters will descend on Antalya for the one-year strike anniversary. 
<img height="99" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Turkeypetrolis4.jpg" width="100"/>
The ICEM called attention to the deplorable conditions that caused the strike from the outset. In May, the strike received firm commitment from the ICEM Executive Committee. Currently, a four-person ICEM Women’s Committee is in the Antalya trade zone to support the strikers. They will join the strikers and Turkish activists in a forum, documentary film, and a social event on 25 September, and then accompany the strikers to the front of company offices on 26 September for a lively protest. 
 
The delegation is headed by ICEM Women’s Committee Chair Evgenia Esenina of Russian Oil and Gas Workers’ Union (ROGWU), and includes Elena Petrovici of the Oil Workers’ Union of Romania (PETROM), Ramona Parra of the Chemical, Textile, and Leathern Workers of Spain (FITEQA-CCOO), and Carol Bruce, ICEM Women’s Officer.

Broad Turkish Attention Given One-Year Novamed Strike

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A Youth Action Day by German affiliate IGBCE, on 19 September, produced a commitment by the federal state of North-Rhine Westphalia to create 205 training positions, funded at €10,000 each, to offset lost employment opportunities from the recent agreement in the coal industry. 
 
The commitment came after youth leaders of the IGBCE met with North-Rhine/Westphalia Employment Minister Karl Josef Laumann. 
 
Some 2,000 students and young workers of IGBCE’s Youth Network protested in Düsseldorf on that day. They came from youth committees from several German companies, including BASF and Evonik Industries. Evonik is the new publicly-traded company created from state coal company RAG. It comprises RAG’s power stations, chemicals, and real estate businesses, and was formed in discussions on the future of Germany’s coal industry. 
 <img height="133" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0709IGBCEVassiliadis.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
IGBCE's Michael Vassiliadis
“The actions of the young workers of our union have made this a success,” said Michael Vassiliadis, head of IGBCE’s Youth Activities. “Now we will undertake all efforts so that the 205 young persons will be afforded the opportunity to start their work lives with the necessary training.” 
 
The IGBCE stressed that the €10,000-per-job commitment from the state will fund only part of the training. Funds have been set aside for this purpose from the hard-coal agreement, and the union said social partners from the employer side must step forward to provide additional training funds.

IGBCE Youth Action Network Wins Training Positions

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One year ago, New Zealand’s labour unions, led by its national centre, the Council of Trade Union (NZCTU), successfully prevented a regressive bill from becoming law. The so-called Probationary Employment Amendment Bill would have made it easy for employers to hire and then sack temporary workers during their first 90 days of employment. 
 
The unions did it with mass demonstrations and outreach to many groupings that effectively generated mass support among New Zealanders. 
<img height="142" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CALhorse.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
Now labour unions and the CTU are pushing for passage of legislation that would aid contract workers. The Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill is now before the Parliament, and the measure has a good change of passing. The proposed law would assure that people doing work under individual contracts are at least paid New Zealand’s minimum wage. 
 
Currently, many of the people that are economically dependent on the sale of their labour are not defined by the law as employees, thus not afforded protections under the country’s minimum wage law. 
<img height="115" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NewZealand.png" width="250" alt=""/>
“Most contractors in New Zealand are remunerated well above the minimum wage,” stated CTU Secretary Carol Beaumont. “But this bill would help certain groups of workers who are being unfairly disadvantaged by contracting relationships, and are being paid below the minimum wage.” 
 
Added Beaumont, “The minimum wage marks a minimum standard in New Zealand that is considered acceptable for anyone being paid for their efforts. That standard deserves to be extended to everyone.” 
 
The bill was introduced in July and received its first reading late in August. It could pass NZ’s Parliament next month.

New Zealand Labour Pushing Law to Protect Contract Workers

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Dear Colleagues, 
 
It is a pleasure to welcome you to the 4th World Congress of the ICEM. It is with a great deal of pride that we hold this Congress in Thailand, a country in which the ICEM has played a role in a number of labour and social causes. 
 
There has been discussion on why the ICEM would hold a Congress in a country that only a year ago experienced a military coup. We consulted with our Thai affiliates on this matter, and they assured us that our presence would be a symbol of hope and expectation that free and democratic elections will occur soon in Thailand. We take this as proof of both the quality of work that ICEM has done in Thailand, and the work that still must be done in this great nation. 
<img height="125" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Senzeni.jpg" width="101"/>
Senzeni Zokwana, ICEM President
This Congress marks a historic moment for the ICEM. With forces of globalisation rapidly impacting the lives of workers in today's world, the global trade union movement has come together and made the commitment that it will unite to protect workers' interests. 
The ICEM's 4th World Congress will engage several major issues, including enhancing cooperation with the family of Global Union Federations and other world trade union organisations. 
<img height="125" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0704Manfred.jpg" width="91"/>
Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary 

We will begin a process to establish a strong sustainable development policy across all ICEM sectors, and we will reaffirm our commitment to challenge the growing threat of Contract and Agency Labour and the scourge of HIV/AIDS in our workplaces and in workers' lives. 
 
This Congress also marks the full integration into the ICEM of trade unions from the World Federation of Industry Workers. We welcome those unions and we know that your participation and involvement in our structures will make us stronger. 
 
Let us have great success at this Congress, and let us come away fully invigorated with the energy of Unity and Solidarity in order to fulfill the necessary work that we face! 
 
Fraternally, 
Senzeni Zokwana and Manfred Warda

Fraternal Greetings to the ICEM's 4th Statutory Congress!

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Three weeks after suspending a scheduled 12 September strike, 2,000 copper mining and smelting workers in Peru downed tools on 2 October in an indefinite strike. The strike, against Grupo México’s Southern Copper Corporation, came after the mining and metals federation – ICEM affiliate FNTMMSP – halted strike action after miners voted on 11 September to give government mediated talks a chance to work. 
 
Following the start of last week’s strike, the FNTMMSP called on Labour Minister Susana Pinilla to quicken the dialogue in order to find solutions to unresolved issues. FNTMMSP will mobilise toward a national strike across the mining sector on 5 November unless issues get resolved at Southern Copper and other mining enterprises.
<img height="124" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/PeruFNTMMSP.jpg" width="130"/>
The strike by Peruvian miners at troubled Grupo México instantly raised copper prices nearly 1% on world markets. The strike occurred at Southern Copper’s Toquepala and Cuajure mines, and at its Ilo smelter. Workers are demanding a fair pay package of 11%, while Grupo México seeks longer shifts and proposes a pay offer of less than half of what the union seeks. The company predicts a strike of any duration will cause 2007 production losses to exceed 10%. Southern Copper produces 370,000 tonnes of copper annually from its Peruvian operations. 
 
Southern Copper’s miners took short strike actions in May and June of this year. The company’s chief attack has been to file charges with the government claiming the strikes are illegal. 
<img height="61" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/MexicoFlag.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
Grupo México is also fighting miners in Mexico. Since 30 July, Mexican mining and metals union, SNTMMRM, has been striking three operations of the company, including the Cananea copper mine in northern Mexico, near the US border. The other two mines are a silver, lead, and zinc mine, near Taxco in Guerrero state, and the San Martín zinc mine in Zacatecas. 
 
Mexican miners are striking over demands for collective agreements, and better health and safety conditions. Grupo México has responded by announcing mine closures, citing depletion of resources, and seeking to declare the strikes illegal.

Grupo Mexico’s Miners in Peru Strike for Fair Pay

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Tuesday, 4 December, is Unilever Day of Action in Europe, and beyond. European trade unions will manifest in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Unilever workers throughout the world are expected to take action. The Anglo-Dutch consumer products conglomerate is inflicting job cuts on 20,000 workers worldwide. 
 
Half those numbers are occurring in Europe. Already, Unilever’s reorganisation has cost hundreds of jobs in The Netherlands, UK, and Italy. 
<img height="150" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0711Unileverlogo150.jpg" width="150"/>
The Rotterdam agenda tomorrow includes a 13h00 forum at De Doelen conference centre, Kruisplein 40, that will highlight adverse Unilever case studies of job abuse from six countries. European labour leaders will also speak. At 15h00, a march to Unileverhouse in central Rotterdam will happen. 
 
The ICEM has joined with the International Union of Food Workers’ Association (IUF) to call attention to this Action Day against Unilever in workplaces and at union meetings globally. Unilever initially avoided proper social dialogue in its recent European reorganisation, and the company has violated workers’ rights in India, Pakistan, Chile, Colombia, and South Africa. IUF has brought abuses in India and Pakistan before the UK National Contact Point for OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. 
 
ICEM and IUF encourages Unilever workers throughout the world to distribute the joint statement that can be found <a href="/index.php?id=154&doc=2488&la=EN" type="internal">here</a>. 
Take action against Unilever on European Day of Action, 4 December!

Day of Action on Unilever Rings Tomorrow in Europe

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