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After three days of a partial petrol blockade on the federal capital district of Abuja, Nigeria, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, and Mine Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) affiliate, Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the union&rsquo;s tank-truck drivers, lifted the strike on 6 August. That occurred when government ministers and leaders of NUPENG and PENGASSAN, ICEM&rsquo;s Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association affiliate, met and crafted memorandums of understanding on both the worsening conditions of Nigerian roads and the repugnant and growing use of casual labour by oil and gas companies, particularly multinational concerns. 
 
NUPENG did, however, issue a 14-day strike notice to the government on another issue: that of rehabilitation of Nigeria&rsquo;s Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA). If the federal government does not call together a forum to correct the lack of transparency and alleged willful mis-allocation of products to marketers, NUPENG will strike the oil and gas depots of several multinationals across the Niger Delta later in August. 
 
The Geneva, Switzerland-based ICEM supports NUPENG in its direct actions in Nigeria. 
 
&ldquo;There is serious corruption inside the allocation process of petroleum products,&rdquo; said NUPENG President Achese Igwe. &ldquo;We question the activities of the PPPRA in allocating products to marketers of unknown identity, and the PPPRA has shown no interest in revealing records or data on fuel allocations.&rdquo; 
 
Friday&rsquo;s meeting did create separate memorandums on road conditions and on casualisation. Meeting with Minister of Labour and Productivity Chukwuemeka Wogu, Minister of State for Works Chris Ogiemwonyi, officials of both the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) and the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Co. (NNLG), and the employers&rsquo; grouping of multinationals operating in Nigeria, the Oil Producers&rsquo; Trade Section (OPTS), leaders of NUPENG and PENGASSAN did get immediate commitments. 
 
Regarding casualisation and the ever increasing use of temporary or non-regular workers, a tripartite &ldquo;Technical Working Group on Casualisation and Contract Staffing in the Oil and Gas Sector&rdquo; was created. This working group will, between 30 and 90 days, produce a road map that will include analysis on why prior memorandums were not adhered to, and it must issue acceptable guarantees ensuring job security for casual workers. 
 
NUPENG and PENGASSAN insist that such staff, across all oil- and gas-producing companies, be given immediate opportunities for full-time staff positions if they have the prerequisite skills. When this is not possible, the unions demand that conditions of employment be published and strictly adhered to that grant temporary workers all work rights and social benefits that permanent workers get. 
 
Igwe said that the vast number of casual workers in oil and gas have no pension scheme and are without health insurance. 
 
Regarding road conditions, which has caused the deaths of eight NUPENG tanker-truck drivers in the past three months, a Roads Monitoring Team was created that will consist of two members from NUPENG. Within a two-month time frame, this team will monitor roads and determine which ones need immediate improvement. 
 
Igwe stressed the importance of this issue by stating that poor road conditions have caused unnecessary stops, resulting in robberies and kidnappings of truck drivers. The risk to public safety is also inherent since poor roads causing accidents has meant monumental disasters, considering the inflammable cargos that lorries carry. 
 
On the issue of the PPPRA, Igwe said it remains a mystery as to which ministry or department of government the pricing authority reports to. The issue of transparency and accountability by the PPPRA is all-important in Nigeria with the country about to enact the Petroleum Industry Bill. 
 
The ICEM is a Global Union Federation composed of 467 trade union affiliates in 132 countries. 
 
For further information, contact ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin at <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, or +41 22 304 1842 (direct) or +41 79 734 8994 (mobile).

ICEM Supports Direct Action by NUPENG in Nigeria over Roads, Casualisation

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Trade unionists of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) ratified a three-year labour agreement with a subsidiary of Votorantim Cimentos of Brazil on 29 July, ending a 20-week strike at a cement plant in Bowmanville, Ontario. The ratification vote, by 58%, reflected dissatisfaction by the plant&rsquo;s 87 workers for getting stuck with an inferior pension plan in two years time. 
 
And the outcome of the strike itself depicts the uneven playing field in collective negotiations when an employer can dictate terms with no law in place to prevent the use of scab labour during a dispute. 
 
The chief issue was the Brazilian company&rsquo;s subsidiary, St. Mary&rsquo;s Cement, demand that a change was necessary from a defined benefit pension plan to a defined contribution plan. Nowhere in negotiations could the company prove that the current pension plan needed the financial relief that a weaker defined contribution plan would deliver. St. Mary&rsquo;s was also seeking wage and work-rules cuts. 
 
Negotiations, which resumed only in mid-July, did see the company move on some points, but the new agreement will see the defined contribution plan take effect in September 2012. Cement workers will get a C$1,000 lump sum pay-out both in 2010 and 2011, and will get a 2% wage increase in 2012. 
<img alt="" src="" width="159" height="230" />
CAW President Ken Lewenza
CAW Local 222 members in southern Ontario did prevent the company from outsourcing quarry operations and control room positions. Under the back-to-work protocol, staff began reporting to jobs on 4 August, with the last of the workers to be back on 16 August. 
 
&ldquo;The situation we experienced at St. Mary&rsquo;s Cement over the last number of months is just one example of how foreign-owned corporations, in this case Votorantim Cimentos, have been allowed to buy Canadian resource companies and wreak havoc on the workforce with few, if any, obligations to the country,&rdquo; stated CAW President Ken Lewenza. 
 
&ldquo;Congratulations to these workers for having the courage to stand up for their hard earned gains, including their pension, where our government has failed to do so.&rdquo; 
 
Votorantim is a privately-held S&atilde;o Paulo-based industrial conglomerate that controls one-third of the Brazilian cement market. It purchased Lafarge&rsquo;s Blue Circle cement operations in the US and Canada in 2001 and revived the original name of the company, St. Mary&rsquo;s Cement.

Canadian Auto Workers, Brazilian Cement Company Reach Terms

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The ICEM is very happy to announce the newly available Arabic version of its website. With almost 30 ICEM affiliates in Arabic-speaking countries, the new web pages are aimed at communicating our news and message to those members, as well as to the thousands of Arabic-speaking members of ICEM affiliates throughout the rest of the world. 
 
Prominent on the Arabic page is the campaign for fair labour legislation in Iraq. ICEM Executive Committee member Hashmeya Muhsen Al-Saadawi, President of the General Union of Electricity Workers and Technicians (GUEWT) continues to lead her union under constant government harassment. As reported by ICEM in July, the Electricians union&rsquo;s offices were shut and seized by the authorities on 20 July, under a ministerial order of the government.

ICEM Launches Arabic Website

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The military junta ruling Burma have handed employers increased powers in their efforts to eliminate trade union rights in the country. New legislation passed on 20 August will enable employers to sack any worker involved in industrial protest of any kind. The sacked workers will also be blacklisted. &ldquo;If they don&rsquo;t want to be jobless, they won&rsquo;t protest&rdquo; a military official was quoted as saying. 
 
Previously Burmese authorities have dealt with industrial action by imprisoning protest organizers. The change in tactic of the military government is said to be due to increasing criticism from the international community. Now it will be impossible for workers to conduct protests of any kind, for better rights or conditions. 
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The new law was decreed at a meeting in the capital Rangoon, and was drawn up by industry employers, government ministers and Burmese military officials. 
 
March 2010 saw workers&rsquo; protests, in industrial zones Shwe Pyi Thar, Taung Dagon and Hlaing Thayar, demanding time off during public holidays and increases in overtime pay and salaries. 
 
In March, workers at industries such as launched protests demanding employers give them time off during public holidays and increase their salaries and payments for working overtime hours. 
 
Burmese industrial workers earn between US$20-US$40 per month, far less than a living wage.

Burmese Junta Pass New Decree Banning Industrial Action

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The ICEM Asia-Pacific Region Oil and Gas Industry Network conducted a meeting on 21-22 August, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The meeting was co-hosted by ICEM, FES, VGCL, and the Vietnam Oil and Gas Union. 
 
Mr Koyanagi, representative of JEC Rengo, ICEM&rsquo;s largest sector union in the region, was elected as Chairperson for the meeting. 
 
Keynote presentations were given by ICEM and fellow global union federation the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF). 
 
For ICEM Geneva, Director of Organisation Jim Catterson presented a broad and detailed overview of the state of the sector, touching on current and future/projected industry patterns, emphasizing the ICEM global sectoral meeting scheduled for Stavanger which started today. Catterson highlighted the ICEM/ITF collaboration on and around offshore oilrigs, aiming to achieve unionization &ldquo;from well to wheel&rdquo;. Focus was also on the impact of the 2008 Economic Crisis, the importance of the Caspian area, the expected resurgence of Iraqi oil production, the oil industry ICEM Global Framework Agreements, the growing role of China as an investor and user of oil and gas, and the problem of the growing gap between drilling technology and security and safety technology.
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For the ITF, Mick Doleman, representing the ITF&rsquo;s Offshore Taskforce Group, recalled the 2006 alliance between ITF and ICEM on offshore issues, and along the &ldquo;pit to the port&rdquo; chain. Mick also emphasized the focus of Australian unions in solidarity work in the sub- region, in Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea in particular, stressing the need for the building of strong and active trade unions. 
 
Delegates received country reports by Japan, India, Korea, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia. 
 
The co-hosting Vietnam Oil and Gas Union presented themselves and the political context in which they operate, detailing union membership at 45,000-51,000 in the industry, at 129 workplaces. Current challenges faced by the union are growing use by employers of contract and agency labour (CAL); and union officials paid by management. 
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ICEM Asia-Pacific responded by recalling the developing contact with VO&amp;GU since 1993, now moving towards formal affiliation, and commended the detailed and structured report presented. 
 
There was a strong emphasis on the importance of solidarity and support amongst and between affiliates themselves. The value of regular sectoral meetings at the regional level was agreed, but the need for active information exchange and interaction between any such meetings was stressed. 
 
The meeting received motivation for two solidarity resolutions, on Linde Group&rsquo;s ongoing anti-union practices in Thailand, and in support of Los Mineros in Mexico, as well as one recommendation to the World Energy Conference. The three resolutions were unanimously accepted.

ICEM Asia-Pacific Region Oil and Gas Industry Network Meets

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The United Auto Workers (UAW) union became the eighth US trade union to join the Blue Green Alliance, a well-honed collaboration in place between major trade unions and major environmental groups in America. The announcement two weeks ago weds one of the US&rsquo;s founding industrial unions to a commitment to build cleaner and more fuel-efficient automobiles. 
 
&ldquo;We are thrilled to become part of this unique partnership of working people and environmentalists who are striving to build a cleaner, more efficient and more prosperous American economy,&rdquo; stated UAW President Bob King in the announcement that brought US auto industry labour into the alliance. &ldquo;We have enormous opportunities to revitalize this industry, and the American economy, by embracing the clean energy economy of the future.&rdquo; 
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UAW President, Bob King
The Blue Green Alliance started in 2006 between the United Steelworkers (USW) and the Sierra Club, and since has grown as a labor-environmental bond between leading American unions and both the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). 
 
The Blue Green Alliance now has 8.5 million American workers pursuing Good Jobs, a Clean Environment, and a Green Economy. Besides the leading role the USW has taken in forming the alliance, other US-based unions include the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA), Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), the Service Employees&rsquo; Union (SEIU), and the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association (SMWIA).

American Auto Workers Join Blue Green Alliance

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ICEM&rsquo;s Canadian affiliate the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union has lead the way in donating CA$30,000 to the relief efforts in flood hit Pakistan 
 
The CEP first donated CA$25,000 through its Humanity Fund, with the money going to Oxfam&rsquo;s emergency flood relief. The union followed with a second donation of CA$5,000. 
 
&ldquo;The need continues to be great in Pakistan and CEP members and their families have a proud tradition of helping those in need&rdquo; stated CEP President Dave Coles. 
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CEP President, Dave Coles
The CEP Humanity Fund is a member-supported fund that helps people facing disasters and poverty, promotes decent work and supports equitable development in Canada and around the world. 
 
In addition to the CEP&rsquo;s very generous flood relief contribution, thousands of workers at the Pakistan Steel Mills donated one day&rsquo;s salary to Prime Minister Syed Yousef Raza Gilani Flood Relief Fund. A leader of the Pakistan Steel People&rsquo;s Workers Union presented a check in the amount of Rs 15.5 million (US$180,000) to the Prime Minister in Islamabad. 
 
And workers of Pakistan Petroleum Ltd. donated a flat sum payment of Rs 20 million (US$233,000), plus one day&rsquo;s salary of management staff to the PM&rsquo;s Flood Relief Fund. It also sent large consignments of relief goods to flood-stricken areas. From Turkey, a freight train completely filled with relief goods was sent through a Turkey-Iran-Pakistan rail link in late August.

Canada’s CEP Donates $30,000 to Pakistan Emergency Flood Relief Effort

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A ten-day strike by the ICEM North American affiliate Teamsters Union against a subsidiary of Swiss-based Holcim ended 25-26 August when 130 union members at two branch locals ratified a three-year collective agreement with a 90% vote. 
 
The strike in the US state of Massachusetts was highlighted by Teamsters members from three other local branches blockading some 20 cement plants and terminals in Massachusetts and neighbouring New Hampshire. Those locals have contracts that expire in the future, making the show of support to truck drivers and plant operators of Locals 25 and 170 an exemplary example of solidarity. 
 
The strike and rolling actions came against Aggregate Industries, a wholly-owned Holcim subsidiary in the US and UK. 
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Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 25, Mark Harrington
The Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 25, Mark Harrington, described terms of the new agreement as satisfactory, with the union solidly protecting wages, pensions, and health care coverage, while compromising with American management over some work rules. 
 
&ldquo;The strategy worked,&rdquo; said Harrington. &ldquo;By extending picket lines we were able to impact the company economically.&rdquo; 
 
Harrington himself extended gratitude to Swiss trade union Unia for its intervention in the strike. He said company negotiators made note of that fact &ndash; with some surprise &ndash; at the US federal mediation session on 25 August that produced the settlement. The ICEM also intervened with Holcim during the strike. 
 
Teamsters Locals 42, 633, and another unit of Local 25 that has a different expiration date with Aggregate Industries not only honoured roving pickets at the company&rsquo;s New England operations, but members of those local branches joined the pickets. 
 
Regarding those solidarity actions, the ICEM considers it heroic deeds in defending and winning a new labour agreement because the Holcim subsidiary was readying the hire of replacement workers as its strategy to break the strike.

US Teamsters Union Settles Holcim Cement Strike in US

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Latin America&rsquo;s largest company by market value, Petrobras, was hit hard by a one-day warning strike on 3 September. Eighty percent of ICEM-affiliated Federa&ccedil;&atilde;o &Uacute;nica de dos Petroleiros&rsquo;s (FUP) 35,000 members shut refineries, distribution terminals, offshore platforms and rigs, and administration offices across Brazil last Friday in a stern message to the largely state-owned company that it will not be shortchanged in current negotiations. 
 
In a statement, the FUP umbrella grouping of unions &ndash; by far the largest at Petrobras &ndash; said workers&rsquo; intent was to &ldquo;interrupt the main operations, keeping only the essential activities operating for the maintenance and security of equipment.&rdquo; 
 
The union was angry that Petrobras had granted large bonuses to senior managers while negotiations were in progress, and then suddenly halting talks. 
<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="122" />
Some seven refineries in Brazil stopped producing, as did 30 offshore drilling platforms and countless other facilities. FUP is seeking the Brazilian inflation rate from September 2009 to August 2010, or 5%, and also seeks productivity pay totaling 10% for undertaking training and development programmes. 
 
The union federation also wants guaranteed safeguarding of labour standards and establishment of a national forum as a dialogue platform to discuss structural changes with management over health, safety, and the environment. 
 
The company&rsquo;s response to the warning strike was that it would conduct an &ldquo;open and transparent&rdquo; set of negotiations with workers&rsquo; representatives. 
 
The warning strike came on the same day that Petrobras announced it would conduct a massive stock offering in order to raise US$64.5 billion in capital funds.

FUP Launches Day-Long Warning Strike Against Petrobras

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Australian building materials maker James Hardie Industries lost a tax appeal case in a courtroom on 1 September that likely will inhibit the troubled company&rsquo;s ability to make payments under terms of the Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund. Under a mandatory agreement with the state government of New South Wales, Hardie must pay 35% of its annual cash flow to the fund. 
 
A federal court judge ruled last week that James Hardie owes back taxes to the government in the amount of A$357.4 million, plus interest, for dodging taxes in 1998 when it formally moved ownership of US subsidiaries out of Australia. 
 
The 1 September decision by a federal court judge in Australia, upholding a Taxation Office ruling from that 1998 case, means that Hardie will need a fresh infusion of money to meet its liability commitments to victims of asbestos and asbestos-related diseases, according to the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU). Lawyers who represent victims also expressed fear that the company will completely default on immediate and future obligations. 
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The AMWU said prior to last week&rsquo;s ruling that if James Hardie were to win the appeal, it would demand that the A$275 million cash windfall due the company go directly to the compensation fund. The AMWU said James Hardie has not made a payment into the fund in 2009-2010, and the bottoming-out of the home-building market inside the global financial crisis seriously jeopardizes the compensation fund. 
 
The AMWU further states that victims&rsquo; claims average A$110 million per year, but that James Hardie has made sufficient profits only once in the past seven years to cover a full year&rsquo;s of liability. 
 
Last week&rsquo;s case involved the company&rsquo;s wholly-owned affiliate RCI Pty. using a tax avoidance scheme, as determined by the Tax Commissioner, for the purpose of the subsidiary gaining a tax benefit. 
 
One Australian press account said last week&rsquo;s verdict &ldquo;cements the reputation of James Hardie&rsquo;s board and management of the 1990s and early 2000s as putting more effort into minimizing liabilities than was good for the company. 
 
&ldquo;James Hardie has been mired in scandal after using legal arguments in 2004 to deny liability to pay asbestos compensation,&rdquo; said the press report. &ldquo;The furor over asbestos, which forced the company to resume responsibility, was prompted by a global restructure in 2001, which built on a 1998 restructure that is at the centre of the tax dispute.&rdquo;

Asbestos: James Hardie’s Failed Tax Appeal Clouds Victims’ Payments

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