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Following three days of intense negotiations, 2-4 July, South African state-owned electric utility provider Eskom and three trade unions won 2010 wage terms with increases of 9%, plus long-awaited housing allowances. With the threat of a strike looming during the final week of the World Cup &ndash; despite a labour court ruling now on appeal that deemed the entirety of Eskom an essential service &ndash; the company met the unions wage demands in talks before the nation&rsquo;s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA). 
 
The ICEM affiliated unions National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), and a third union, representing a combined 28,000 workers, are expected to sign the agreement this week, with the across-the board salary increase backdated to 1 June. 
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A major issue throughout bargaining was the housing allowance. In that, a compromise was reached in which workers will receive a R1,500 (US$194) monthly allowance. Entering early July&rsquo;s final mediated bargaining session before workers were prepared to strike, Eskom had an 8.5% wage offer and a R1,000 housing stipend on the table. The unions had demanded R2,500 for housing. 
 
The housing allowance issue was a carry over from last year&rsquo;s bargaining, when Eskom promised to establish a commission by year&rsquo;s end to award a first-ever stipend for staff who work away from home. That never materialized. 
 
Labour unions and management are expected to decide this week when the R1,500 allowance will take effect, with unions arguing it should be backdated. Also this week, talks will continue towards reaching a minimum service agreement, an accord that will determine which Eskom employees are not essential state workers and thus have the right to strike. The unions also have this matter before a labour appeals court. 
 
The NUM represents 16,000 workers at Eskom, while NUMSA represents about 5,000.

Eskom and South African Unions Agree to 9% Wage Hikes

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Seven miners were killed in three separate underground mine accidents in South Africa last week, including five contract workers at Aquarius Platinum&rsquo;s Marikana mine in the Bushveld area near Rustenburg, North West Province. 
 
The other deaths occurred at AngloGold Ashanti&rsquo;s Tau Lekoa gold mine on 7 July, where an explosion took the life the life of a miner, and at Imperial Platinum&rsquo;s Rustenburg mine, where an underground rock slide crushed a worker. Both are also in North West Province, with the Tau Lekoa mine extending into Free State Province. 
 
At Aquarius, two other miners were trapped at the Marikana mine late in the evening of 6 July when a large segment of an underground shaft collapsed. One of those miners suffered serious injuries, while the other was rescued unscathed. Rescue teams from nearby Impala Platinum and a Lonmin mine assisted in the rescue. All workers were employed by Murray and Roberts Cementation. 
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Aquarius has closed the No. 4 shaft of Marikana, which supplies the Australian-based company, the world&rsquo;s fourth largest platinum producer, with 50% of Marikana&rsquo;s production. 
 
The shaft remained closed early this week, and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it would take its mandatory one-day period of mourning once the mine reopens. 
 
&ldquo;Once this suspension is lifted, we will embark on a day of mourning, which means there won't be any work done at the mine on that day,&rdquo; said NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka. 
 
&ldquo;This is a disaster,&rdquo; added NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni. &ldquo;At a time when the industry brags of so-called improved safety, we now have disasters raising their ugly heads again,&rdquo; he added. The NUM has called for a full investigation. 
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NUM General Secretary, Frans Baleni
Impala Platinum&rsquo;s Rustenberg mine death comes 50 weeks after nine miners tragically died at the Lease Mine No. 14 near Rustenburg, which was South Africa&rsquo;s worst disaster in 2009. Impala, the world&rsquo;s number two platinum producer, led all producers in South Africa in mining deaths last year. The country mines and processes 80% of all global platinum, which is used in electronics, catalytic converters, and jewelry. 
 
AngloGold has had a deal in place since 2008 to sell the Tau Lekoa mine to Simmer and Jacks, but internal problems within the latter company has prevented conclusion of the sale.

Seven Die in South African Mining Tragedies Last Week

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With a 75% ratification vote announced late on 7 July, Canadian nickel mining and processing workers represented by United Steelworkers (USW) Locals 6500 and 6200 in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, ended a 360-day strike against Vale SA. The Brazilian mining company and 3,500 USW members now begin a five-year collective agreement after a contentious strike that ended with both sides compromising on terms in mediated bargaining. 
 
Those terms were pieced together in high-level mediation from 19-22 June in Toronto. But final accord still eluded both sides due to differences in setting forth a just process through arbitration of Vale&rsquo;s unilateral sacking of nine strikers. Over 3-4 July, through the insistence of Ontario Provincial Labour Minister Peter Fonseca, a process was established, opening the way for the 6-7 July contract vote. 
 
Still to be resolved, however, is another strike over a separate labour contract between Vale and USW Local 9508 involving 200 steelworkers in Voiseys Bay and Goose Bay, Labrador. Those strikers have been out since 1 August 2009. The USW and Vale are expected to return to bargaining in mid-July in eastern Canada&rsquo;s maritime province, and resolution appears imminent following the Ontario approval. There, 84% of total membership of the two branch unions turned out last week to ratify. 
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The contract acceptance in Ontario thus closes a chapter to one of Canada&rsquo;s most acrimonious labour disputes, a dispute that saw mining and other unions from around the world galvanize behind the USW in efforts to preserve previously negotiated wage and work terms. The ICEM and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) helped coordinate the global campaign. 
 
In a joint statement, ICEM and IMF General Secretaries Manfred Warda and Jyrki Raina said: &ldquo;The perseverance and character of USW members in Ontario and Labrador is what trade unions everywhere will remember about this strike. Their fight became our fight and thus they laid the building blocks on how to wage a coordinated global campaign.&rdquo; 
 
The five-year agreement in Ontario includes yearly wage increases that, coupled with cost-of-living increases, will increase salaries between C$2.25 and C$2.50 per hour over the life of the agreement. The existing defined benefit pension plan for current workers also increases in increments over the contract term, with cost-of-living indexing and life-time health care benefits preserved. 
 
In compromises made by the two sides, a defined contribution pension plan for new hires was agreed to that provides company contributions equal to 8% of employees&rsquo; regular basic earnings, with workers able to contribute additionally between 2% to 6% of regular earnings. This plan includes long-term disability coverage that is the same as that contained in the defined benefit pension plan. 
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The nickel production bonus was retained, although at levels less than the previously negotiated bonus. Workers can still supplement regular earnings by up to C$15,000 per year, with compromise struck on the price of nickel in which the trigger kicks in. The prior trigger of US$2.25 per pound was increased to US$3.75, less than the US$5.00-per-pound originally sought by Vale. 
 
The new contract includes a C$2,000 signing bonus for all returning and retiring employees, with two additional C$1,000 bonuses linked to production numbers in the last one-third of 2010. 
 
It also includes a side agreement setting forth rigid contracting-out criteria, which will serve as a job security measure. 
 
A retirement incentive bonus was negotiated that will give workers with 30 years service a one-time C$30,000 retirement stipend, with C$15,000 granted to those with 27-29 years. A reduction in force was also agreed to of 113 jobs, with those redundancies very likely to come by way of attrition. 
 
The return-to-work agreement calls for Vale to recall USW members beginning in the next to the last week of July, and no later that 11 August. In the separate agreement involving the fate of the nine discharged USW Local 6500 members, the two sides agreed to have the Ontario Labour Relations Board make a determination on whether or not the unjust firings will go to independent arbitration. Those governmental hearings began on 9 July. 
 
In the USW&rsquo;s statement announcing the ratification, District Six Director Wayne Fraser said, &quot;Our members have spoken and I believe everyone respects the decisions they have made in extremely difficult circumstances.&rdquo;

Canadian USW Members Ratify 5-Year Collective Agreement with Vale

Policy positions differ in the trade union movement, both at national and international levels concerning the use of temporary work agencies. Views vary from total bans on such agencies, to partial bans, to strict regulation. There are also differences as to on what basis workers should be covered by collective bargaining agreements. However, there are certain views shared by all Global Unions. 
 
The first principle is that the primary form of employment shall be permanent, open-ended and direct employment. 
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Concerns and challenges 
 
The use of workers provided by temporary work agencies raises concerns and challenges for trade unions. This includes the effect that the use of temporary work agencies has on workers with regular and permanent employment as well as on the conditions under which work is performed by workers engaged through such agencies. The triangular relationship between the worker, the user enterprise and the temporary work agency that supplies the worker can undermine labour and social protection, as well as the effective realisation of the right of all workers to form or join trade unions and to bargain collectively. 
 
Agency workers must be specifically guaranteed the right to join a union with a collective bargaining relationship with the user enterprise and be part of a bargaining unit comprising direct employees of the user enterprise and be covered by all collective bargaining agreements applying to the user-enterprise. 
 
Using temporary work agencies as a way of replacing direct and permanent employment 
 
There may be legitimate demand-driven or business reasons for using temporary agency workers, including surges of work and seasonal employment, although such work can also be performed through direct employment. However, not all reasons for using temporary agency work are related to staff shortages or the &ldquo;fluctuation of business&rdquo; and it has become common to use temporary agency workers to fill previously permanent and direct positions and to reduce costs. Increasingly, workers provided by agencies are used to fill &ldquo;core&rdquo; jobs but are not given any opportunity to transition to direct permanent employment. In a growing number of instances, entire workforces are provided by temporary work agencies. 
 
Using temporary work agencies to adversely change employment conditions, avoid social responsibilities and evade laws 
 
Employers often use temporary agencies in order to avoid their legal obligations. This can and does lead to abuses such as social dumping and all kinds of discrimination. Work then becomes precarious and workers are denied the employment rights and working conditions to which they would otherwise be entitled. Sometimes these agencies are creations by the company or employer concerned, with the user enterprise becoming the sole client. 
 
Workers provided by agencies frequently receive significantly lower compensation than regular employees performing the same work. Such workers are also often not entitled to the same levels of social protection, such as retirement provision, the right to unemployment compensation, sickness benefits or maternity leave. Employers commonly do not invest sufficiently in the education or training of agency-supplied workers. Inadequate education and training may undermine the quality of service provided by the agency workers, while lack of training on health and safety increases the risk of occupational accidents and diseases. 
 
The cost of downsizing is lower if temporary agency workers are engaged because ending a commercial contract is often less costly than terminating an employment relationship. In various countries and sectors, the financial crisis resulted therefore in massive job losses for temporary agency workers, who are not generally entitled to any of the compensations that are required to be paid in the case of forced redundancies. This experience heightens the danger that as economies recover, employers will increasingly favour temporary agency work as a means to avoid the costs of terminating regular employees. This would add additional instability and volatility to the economy. 
 
Where more and more workers are made &ldquo;disposable&rdquo;, many business risks are shifted from employers to workers. 
 
Using temporary work agencies to weaken trade unions, avoid collective bargaining or prevent union organising 
 
Employers are, at times, deliberately using temporary work agencies to reduce the number of workers covered by collective bargaining at their enterprises or to prevent unorganised sections of the workforce from seeking union representation and exercise their right to bargain with the user enterprise, which effectively controls terms and conditions of employment. 
 
One of the principal reasons why workers do not form or join trade unions is fear of discrimination or dismissal. Temporary agency employment increases this fear because it is a way to avoid dismissal legislation, which has the effect of, indirectly, protecting the right to organise. Too often, contracts are simply ended. In addition, temporary agency employment reduces the workers&rsquo; stake in an enterprise, as well as the opportunity to participate in trade unions. 
 
The use of workers supplied by temporary work agencies to replace striking workers or to undermine industrial action at a user enterprise is a serious violation of trade union rights. 
 
Using temporary work agencies as a means of exploitation. 
 
Where temporary work agencies are permitted to operate, they must be properly regulated and monitored in order to prevent abuses of workers, such as human trafficking or fee charging in cross border placements. When agencies involved in recruiting workers in one country for work in another country charge fees to the workers concerned instead of to the user enterprise, those abuses lead to extreme exploitation, including bonded or slave labour. All recruitment fees, including visa, transportation and hiring fees, must therefore always be borne by the user enterpriser. 
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Fundamental principles on temporary work agencies 
 
&bull; The primary form of employment shall be permanent, open-ended and direct employment. 
 
&bull; Workers provided by temporary work agencies must be accorded equal treatment and opportunities, including equal pay for equal work, with regular and permanent employees with respect to terms and conditions of employment. 
 
&bull; Workers employed through temporary work agencies must have a recognised and enforceable written contract of employment, specifying their terms and conditions of employment. 
 
&bull; Where agencies are permitted to operate, they must be strictly regulated, including through licensing. 
 
&bull; Temporary work agencies must not be used to eliminate permanent and direct employment relationships, diminish the conditions under which work is performed, avoid collective bargaining relationships with trade unions or effectively make it impossible for an agency worker to join a trade union. 
 
&bull; Employers should consult trade unions before agency workers are used and negotiate over any effects that the use of these agency workers might have on regular employees, on working conditions or on the collective agreement. 
 
&bull; The use of temporary agencies should be restricted to cases of legitimate need. As a minimum, there should be defined limits on the use of agency workers, as well as restrictions on the duration of such employment. 
 
&bull; Workers provided by temporary work agencies must be guaranteed access to information on health and safety regulations in the workplace and be given the same equipment, induction and training as permanent workers. 
 
&bull; Adequate and continuous social protection for agency workers, including social security coverage, must be ensured by employers and government alike. 
 
&bull; Temporary work agencies must treat workers without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic origin, colour, sex, sexual orientation, religion, political opinion, nationality, social origin, age, disability or any other form of discrimination. Appropriate regulatory frameworks (governmental, co-regulation or self-regulation) on private employment agencies should include and promote these principles, rights and obligations. These include the minimum standards outlined in ILO Convention No. 111. 
 
&bull; Given the general over-representation of women in agency employment and the disparity in wages between permanent and agency workers, particular attention must be given to ensure that the equal pay provisions of Convention No. 100 are applied, including equal pay for work of equal value. 
 
&bull; The ILO should play a much more active role in ensuring that temporary employment agencies respect basic labour standards, as well as in collecting data on abuses and best practices, while at the same time monitoring and analysing trends in employment in both the private and public employment agency sector. This research should focus on issues relating to the economic crisis and the Global Jobs Pact. The Global Unions should participate in this work. 
 
&bull; Workers supplied by temporary work agencies must never be used to replace striking workers or undermine industrial action. 
 
&bull; Temporary work agencies must not charge any fees to workers for dispatching them. 
 
&bull; The user-enterprise must be held liable for all financial and other obligations with respect to temporary agency workers should the agency fail to honour its responsibilities. 
 
 
Principles of public policy with respect to temporary agency work 
 
&bull; Governments have the responsibility to protect the interests of society in stable employment relationships and to ensure the applicability of labour law, the branch of law developed to protect workers in both public and private sectors, in their unequal relationship with employers. 
 
&bull; Governments can limit or ban the use of temporary work agencies in order to protect these broader societal interests. 
 
&bull; Government must set strict regulations and licensing conditions if agencies are permitted to operate. 
 
&bull; Governments should consult trade unions on issues related to working and employment conditions of the agency workers, as well as on conditions of use of temporary agency work prior to making changes in the regulatory framework. 
 
&bull; The respective roles, obligations and rights of the workers, the temporary work agency and the enterprise using the worker must be clarified when there is an employment relationship between a temporary work agency and a worker. 
 
&bull; Governments must take genuine and concrete measures such as changes in legislation to ensure that workers dispatched by temporary work agencies are able to effectively exercise their right to join or form trade unions. This includes the right to join a union with a collective bargaining relationship with the user enterprise and be part of a bargaining unit comprising direct employees of the user enterprise and be covered by all collective bargaining agreements applying to the user-enterprise. 
 
&bull; Governments should strengthen labour inspection, including through providing adequate resources, in order to effectively apply labour law and regulations to employment via temporary work agencies. 
 
&bull; Governments should provide effective mechanisms to protect all workers from health and safety hazards and ensure health &amp; safety conditions of temporary agency workers are the same as of permanent ones. Governments should introduce sanctions for user-enterprises, public and private, not complying with health &amp; safety requirements. 
 
 
Migrant workers dispatched through temporary agencies face specific problems. 
 
&bull; Migrant workers should receive details of their living and working conditions in a language they understand before leaving their country of origin. 
 
&bull; Governments must take active measures to prevent human trafficking and the exploitation of migrant workers by labour intermediaries, both public and private, including temporary work agencies. 
 
&bull; Governments should ensure that immigration legislation governing migrant workers recruited through agencies does not conflict with labour laws by imposing restrictions on migrant workers&rsquo; rights to join trade unions or bargain collectively. 
 
&bull; Workers should not be required to pay deposits, visa, transportation and hiring fees. In the case of agencies dispatching workers to other countries, the agencies should be required to repatriate workers in the event that their employment ends or the user company disappears. 
 
&bull; Workers must not be required to surrender their passports or other travel or identity documents. 
 
&bull; Temporary migrant workers should have full rights to legal redress in the country where they work.

Global Union Principles on Temporary Work Agencies

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Svetlana Klochok was elected to lead the ICEM affiliate, Belarusian Chemical, Miners&rsquo;, and Oil Workers&rsquo; Union (Belchimprofsoyuz) early this month, despite heavy intrusion by the national labour centre Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FPB) and its president, Leonid Kozik. The election and Belchimprofsoyuz&rsquo;s Fifth Congress took place on 3 June in Minsk. 

During the final week of preparations for the Congress, strong pressure was exerted on the 197 delegates to place into leadership a colleague of Kozik&rsquo;s. The effort failed and Klochok won in a free and democratic vote of delegates, signaling a very strong slap to FPB for meddling in the internal affairs of an affiliated union. 

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Klochok had served as Vice President of the union. She succeeds Ludmila Grushetskaya who, after many years leading the union, decided not to run for re-election. 
 
The Congress took note of the global financial crisis, and despite it, the Belchimprofsoyuz secretariat reported the union did remarkably well in protecting working collectives, particularly in the oil and chemical industries. It achieved higher salary levels and maintained the number of jobs at levels near the number before the crisis. 
 
Some 90% of all workers in Belchimprofsoyuz&rsquo;s sectors are union members. The union&rsquo;s membership is 153,000, and it added 12,000 new members over the past four years. 
The Congress was attended by international trade union delegates from Russia and Italy, and the ICEM was represented by its Central Europe and Eastern Europe/Central Asia Coordinator Anatoly Surin. 
 
The ICEM welcomes the new President of Belchimprofsoyuz, Svetlana Klochok, and looks forward to continued good and fruitful relations with the Belarusian union.

Belarus Affiliate Wards Off National Centre Interference, Elects Democratic President

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From 1-3 June, the second meeting of unions organizing in Spanish multinationals was held in Bogot&aacute;. It was attended by 25 trade unions from across Latin America. The meeting was organized by ISCOD, the Spanish Trade Union Development Institute that is connected to one of Spain&rsquo;s national labour centres, the UGT, as well as ICEM and Union Network International (UNI). 
 
The main objective of the meeting was to monitor the activities and to provide for measures to assure trade union rights are adhered to in Spanish multinationals. The activities must be geared to strengthening union organization, promoting unity processes, and reinforcing trade union alliances as well as campaigns for equality. 
 
Representatives were present from the private oil and gas workers&rsquo; federation of Argentina, CNQ Brazil, Sintraelecol of Colombia, and UGT delegates from Endesa, Gas Natural-Fenosa, and Repsol in Spain. 
 
One of the aims of holding the meeting in Colombia was to address the issue of murders of trade unionists. Sub-contracting in Colombia as it contributes to union busting is a further concern. The recent passing of the Free Trade Agreement between Colombia and the European Union was one further topic of discussion. The meeting demanded assurances for respecting trade unions, citizens and consumers.
<img src="" width="120" height="131" alt="" />
ICEM Latin American/Caribbean Region Vice Presdient Sergio Novais&nbsp;
Sergio Novais, ICEM Vice-President for the Latin American/Caribbean Region, said, &ldquo;At this second meeting, we insist that multinationals have the same conduct in Latin America as they do at home. In the specific case of Colombia, there is no guarantee that trade union leaders can perform their duties with impunity. ICEM has seven affiliates in Colombia, and leaders of all of them have to carry out their activities with bodyguards. We have been denouncing this outrage for many years.&rdquo; 
 
The participants were concerned about the impacts of the crisis in Spain and the possible effects on Spanish multinationals and their employees in Latin America. A more profound exchange of experience was seen to be one way to avoid abuses. This project is on-going through the auspices of ISCOD and ICEM&rsquo;s Spanish affiliate, the FIA-UGT, who are thanked and congratulated for their support.

Murders, Union Rights Discussed at Observatory of Spanish Firms in Bogotá Meeting

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On the heels of a gainful first contract victory against with Covanta on the US east coast, a branch of the ICEM affiliate Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) mounted another mobilisation in the US Midwest to stave off unneeded concessions, winning another excellent collective agreement. 

This one was with DTE Energy, the electric and gas provider that formerly was known as Detroit Edison. Some 4,000 UWUA Local 223 are now voting on a three-year labour agreement that will give them 3% annual salary increases, plus a US$750 contract signing bonus.
<img src="" width="220" height="146" alt="" />
&nbsp;UWUA President Mike Langford, at 1 June Local 223 meeting. At left, Executive Vice President Steven VanSlotten and Local 223 President Rich Hawkins. At right, Local 223 President Jim Harrison
The proposed agreement, negotiated in contentious bargaining that went right up to the 6 June expiry of a prior three-year agreement, came primarily because of workers&rsquo; anger in being presented with concessionary proposals by a company posting rich (US$230 million) net profits in first quarter 2010, and then handsomely rewarding its top executives. 

DTE Energy had proposed huge increases to the portion of worker-paid health care coverage, elimination or cuts to retiree health care, and the stripping of job security provisions. On 1 June in a fiery, over-full mass union meeting that needed the police of Livonia, Michigan, for crowd control, Local 223 members voted 97% to give strike authorization to the bargaining committee. 

Workers were angry that they contributed US$100 million in continuous improvements at Edison and MichCon. At the mass meeting, UWUA President Mike Langford said, &ldquo;The national union will not allow this to happen. We won&rsquo;t let DTE line the pockets of executives while it empties the wallets of our workers.&rdquo;
<img src="" width="300" height="200" alt="" />
Local 223 members turned out in force on 1 June to resist DTE Energy&rsquo;s takeaways&nbsp; 

Bargaining resumed the next day and by the time weekend (4-6 June) talks concluded, the company had moved from its entire slate of concessions. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re proud that we were able to work together to achieve an outcome that values our employees, serves our customers and supports Michigan&rsquo;s economic recovery,&rdquo; appropriately stated the company in a joint news release. 

UWUA Local 223 represents electric line workers, skilled trades-persons, technical staff, power plant operators, electric and gas service and distribution workers, and customer service, office, and clerical staff. Local 223 members also serve as first responders in times of crisis and in times of life and death situations in Detroit and surrounding communities.

US Utility Workers Win Again, This Time with Detroit Electric Company

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UK&rsquo;s Unite the Union held its first Policy Conference 31 May to 3 June at the Manchester Central Convention Complex with 700 delegates present. Entitled &ldquo;Working for Working People,&rdquo; the biannual event was the first jointly held conference since the 1 May 2007 merger between the Transport and General Workers Union and Amicus that created Unite. 

Central themes of the four-day conference included winning back the British Labour Party for working people, keeping a sturdy manufacturing base in the UK, stopping erosion of public services and public sector workers against Tory assaults, and addressing the bullying affront by British Airways against the union&rsquo;s cabin crew members. 

The conference also took up several intentional topics, including support for Canadian strikers of the United Steelworkers (USW) at mining company Vale, strong condemnation of Israel&rsquo;s aggressive policies against Palestinians, support to Latin American unions resisting capitalist demands, and, closer to home, a hearing over the lack of rights for Unite&rsquo;s Moroccan members working in Gibraltar.
<img alt="" src="" width="302" height="193" />
Tony Woodley, USW&rsquo;s Gerald Fernandez, Canadian Vale striker Bob Belowos, United Executive Council Chair Tony Woodhouse, and Derek Simpson&nbsp; 

Some 180 policy issues were tabled. 

The biggest debate occurred on 2 June over whether or not Britain ought to scrub its &pound;76 billion Trident nuclear weapon system when its service life ends in 2024. The debate centered on peace and disarmament versus jobs and workers&rsquo; livelihoods, with discussion on how cancelling the programme can liberate monies for public services, such as health, education, and social services. After a fierce debate, Unite&rsquo;s Executive Council recommendation for peace and disarmament won out. 

On 2 June, UK&rsquo;s Trades Union Congress (TUC) Secretary General Brendan Barber spoke. He said that manufacturing must become the centerpiece of a new economy. &ldquo;Whether it&rsquo;s high-speed trains or electric vehicles, whether it&rsquo;s wind turbines or more efficient airplane engines, we have the skills, the experience, and the expertise to build them here.&rdquo;
<img alt="" src="" width="180" height="120" />
Woodley and Simpson
Barber lashed out at the consequences hoisted on British society by financiers. &ldquo;It is just plain wrong that our schools, hospitals, and local councils should pay the price for a crisis inspired by the free-market dogma, created in the City of London, and caused by the richest minority of the richest minority.&rdquo; 

Unite&rsquo;s Joint General Secretary Tony Woodley had harsh words for the Labour Party. &ldquo;It is a scandal that at the end of 13 years of Labour government, the right to strike is hanging by a thread. (It is) at the mercy of employers who would rather sue than settle, and Tory judges who &hellip; think strikes are OK as long as they don&rsquo;t inconvenience the bosses. 

&ldquo;So I want to make one thing clear to all Labour leadership contenders. Our vote should only go to the candidate who pledges &ndash; unequivocally, no mealy-mouthed phrases, to do what Labor was set up to do &ndash; create a level playing field at work, and scrap the anti-union laws.&rdquo;
<img alt="" src="" width="240" height="160" />
&nbsp;Unite Delegates Voting on a Policy Measure 

Speaking on the conference&rsquo;s final day, 3 June, Joint General Secretary Derek Simpson &ndash; who will retire at year&rsquo;s end &ndash; addressed Unite&rsquo;s merger coordination with the United Steelworkers of North America, called Workers Uniting. He said it was the UK&rsquo;s failure to implement social partnership models, common throughout Europe, which has left the markets to rule in the UK &ndash; as well as in the US. 

&ldquo;If you need to fight the employer on a multi-national field,&rdquo; said Simpson, &ldquo;you need a multi-national union and the USW feels the same way.&rdquo; 

While Simpson will retire this year, Woodley will follow him to retirement in the next calendar year. Unite branches are conducting nominations and five candidates announced their intent to succeed Woodley, with elections to start in October of this year.

UK’s Unite Takes Policy Initiatives at First Tactical Conference

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A proposed agreement between social partners FNV Bondgenoten and employers&rsquo; federations, reached 4 June over reform of the basic retirement pension (AOW) in the Netherlands, will now go to a vote of union membership. 
 
The social plan under consideration calls for the Dutch retirement age to rise from age 65 to 66 in the year 2020, and possibly to 67 in 2025. That would occur only if a national evaluation of higher life expectancy after 2020 warrants it. Workers would still have the option to retire at 65, but they would face a 6.5% reduction in pension benefits. And the lowest-paid workers, and workers who do heavy physical jobs, would be exempt from the rise in the pension age. 
 
FNV Bondgenoten is organizing what is expected to be hotly-debated membership meetings across the country from 21-23 June to discuss the pension reform plan. Union members will vote on the plan between then and 30 June. In early July, the 480,000-member general union will consult leaders of the Dutch national labour center, FNV, if the proposal is accepted. 
 
Bondgenoten President Henk van der Kolk admitted the proposed AOW is a step backwards, but argued it could be a workable solution considering shortfalls in both public and private pension funds and proposals put forward by political parties.
<img src="" width="166" height="130" alt="" />
Henk van der Kolk
The agreement came days ahead of the 9 June general elections in the Netherlands, elections in which three of the four political parties campaigned on pension reform that had worse terms than the proposed social agreement between Bondgenoten and employers. In that vote, parliamentary gains by the center-right Liberal Party (VDD) &ndash; considered the winner in the vote &ndash; and the racist Freedom Party (PVV) will make a Dutch coalition government difficult to put together. 
 
The VDD&rsquo;s platform consists of an increase in the pension age of two months each year, dating back to 2007, with retirement at 67 proposed for the year 2023. The pre-election agreement cobbled together by the labour-business social partners, which likely will carry much weight with any future coalition government, if accepted, also means Holland has ten years to straighten out financial matters. The proposed reform plan, if moved ahead, would cover both state and private pensions.

FNV Bondgenoten Members to Vote on Pension Reform Plan

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In 2009, according to the annual survey of the International Trade Union Confederation&rsquo;s (ITUC), 101 murders of trade unionists occurred worldwide. Colombia again was the leader among countries with 48. Despite the gruesome repeat, the ILO&rsquo;s Committee on the Application of Standards, on 5 June, excluded Colombia from the list of 25 countries sanctioned for trade union rights abuses. 
 
The ICEM expresses disbelief over the omitting of Colombia, and itself sanctions employers&rsquo; representatives at the ILO for manipulating the exclusion. The ICEM also calls attention to the fact that President &Aacute;lvaro Uribe V&eacute;lez immediately used Colombia&rsquo;s elimination to promote free trade agreements with North American nations and the European Union. 
 
It was the first time in 20 years that Colombia, far and away the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists to carry out their activities, was left off the list. The ITUC reports that over the last decade, 63% of all trade union murders occurred in Colombia. It counts at least 10,887 acts of violence against unionists, and over the past 24 years, 2,832 murders occurred. 
 
&ldquo;The ICEM is appalled at the political power play by employers&rsquo; representatives, both from Colombia and elsewhere, to exclude Colombia from the list of 25,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;Not only do murders, telephone threats, physical assaults continue there on a regular basis, but despite government rhetoric, impunity for such crimes is nearly always certain.&rdquo; 
 
The exclusion, at the 99th Session of ILO&rsquo;s International Labour Conference in Geneva, came days before Colombia hosted the US Secretary of State in another effort to get America to implement its end of the 2006 United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Act. The US Congress has held up a vote over implementing it because of Colombia&rsquo;s horrid labour and human rights record. 
 
Uribe welcomed the US foreign minister to Colombia by stating the ILO&rsquo;s move was a &ldquo;harbinger of your visit&rdquo; to the Latin nation. 
 
Similar free trade agreements are also currently pending between Colombia and both Canada and the European Union. Resistance by constituencies, including labour unions, against such foreign trade deals also hinge on human and union rights abuses. 

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Colombia&rsquo;s murder rate speaks for itself. In the first five months of 2010, 17 Colombian trade union activists were murdered. And on 5 June, the same day the ILO&rsquo;s tripartite committee excluded the country, Hern&aacute;n Abdiel Ordo&ntilde;ez Dorado, treasurer of the prison workers&rsquo; union ASEINPEC, was shot dead by unknown assailants on motorbikes in Cali. The number of assassinated trade unionists in Colombia in 2010 is 18. 
 
In 2009, 22 of Colombia&rsquo;s 48 killings were made against senior trade union leaders, with five of those being women. 
 
Overall, again according to the ITUC statistics, murders of trade unionists jumped 30% in 2009 over 2008, when 76 killings were recorded. But it is a known fact that many murders, and other abusive violations aimed at trade unionists, go unreported. 
 
Compared to Colombia&rsquo;s 48 trade union murders in 2009, 16 happened in Guatemala, 12 in Honduras, six each in Mexico and Bangladesh, four in Brazil, and three each in the Dominican Republic and the Philippines. 
 
The ITUC survey provides detailed documentation of harassment, intimidation, and other measures on anti-union persecution in 140 countries. The survey can be found <a href="http://survey.ituc-csi.org/+-Whole-World-+.html?lang=en">here</a>.

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