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Global worker No1 2022

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Press

Tom Albanese 
 
CEO 
 
Rio Tinto plc 
2 Eastbourne Terrace 
London 
W2 6LG 
United Kingdom 
 
Fax: +44 (0)20 7781 1800 
 
<a href="mailto:tom.albanese@riotinto.com">tom.albanese@riotinto.com</a> 
 

Dear Mr. Albanese: 
 
We are writing to condemn Rio Tinto for the vicious attack on members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) at your mine in Boron, California in the United States. The lockout by Rio Tinto is clearly aimed at destroying the union and the community that has sustained the mine for over 90 years. 
 
Our union still remembers the successful ICEM campaign against Rio Tinto in 2000 that stopped your company’s effort to destroy trade unions in Australia, U.S. and elsewhere. The damage to Rio Tinto’s reputation still lingers, and it hard for any trade union to believe your claims about practicing sustainable development when you continue to attack trade unions and communities. 
 
Rio Tinto’s insistence on having the right to dismiss some workers for any reason; award jobs at will to outside contractors; dismiss miners in dangerous occupations for refusing to work overtime; and discriminate against union supporters and older workers are in violation of the fundamental principles of the International Labor Organization. 
Norway's Government Pension Fund divested $850 million (USD) of Rio Tinto shares in 2008 due to your company’s unethical practices which further damaged your company’s reputation. It is apparent that Rio Tinto cares little for its standing among the investment community or the public. 
 
We fully support the ILWU and the campaign being launched by the ICEM against your company. We demand that you end this unjust lockout immediately and return to the bargaining table. 
 
Sincerely, 
 
 
Name of Union Officer ____________ 
 
Name of Union __________________

Letter of Condemnation of Rio Tinto Lock Out

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
In Thailand, a 28 February deadline awaits for some two million migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos to either register through a complex “Nationality Verification” process, or leave the country. The Royal Thai Government’s Cabinet of Ministers issued this binding and unjust ultimatum on 19 January. 
 
But a groundswell of momentum, both inside and outside of Thailand, is taking shape to convince the government that this is a bad idea, considering alone that 80% of these workers are Burmese who face persecution and imprisonment on ethnic and political grounds if they return to Burma. For migrant workers who have valid 2009 Thai work permits, they will have to submit biographical information to their home governments by 28 February. For those who do not enter the “Nationality Verification” process, they will be deported. 
 
Since the early 1990s, Thai authorities have conducted a somewhat cumbersome, yearly, 30-day registration period in which illegal migrant workers register for a work permit, receive a one-year amnesty to work in Thailand, and then fill many jobs in a bustling economy that most Thai workers do not want. But now with last month’s change, and in just five weeks time, migrant workers have been thrown into unsecure futures where exploitation and possible malicious job treatment await. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Thailand.png" width="250" height="115"/>
The ICEM has joined Thai affiliated unions and NGOs in seeking to relax this ruling. Other Global Union Federations also are expected to take up the call. The ICEM stands behind the 170,000-member State Enterprise Workers’ Relations Confederation (SERC), the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee, and other unions and NGOs who are working to repeal this rule. 
 
An ICEM letter to the Thai Prime Minister can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/10.prime.minister.thailand.pdf" type="internal">here</a>, and ICEM also has written to ILO Director-General Juan Somavia and to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, under the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, calling the 28 February deadline impractical. 
 
From ICEM’s Thai affiliates, and from the Migrant Justice Programme of the Human Rights and Development Foundation, the ICEM has learned that of tens of thousands of migrant workers in Thailand right now are living in fear, confused by the “Nationality Verification” process and concerned whether or not they will have to live and work underground. 
 
The ICEM is deeply concerned that unregulated labour brokers are already duping migrant workers in charging excessive fees to handle the filing process. Reports indicate that fees in the range of 6,000 to 7,000 Thai baht (€130-150) are being charged, despite the official Thai processing fees for “Nationality Verification” being only a fraction of that. 
 
The ICEM is also disturbed that the Thai government has done little in public awareness to make the directive and the deadline known. This has only propagated the confusion and fear of migrant workers. 
 
And one fact underlines the entire Thai migrant policy resolution of 19 January: the overwhelming numbers of migrant workers employed in Thailand are Burmese and ethnic minorities from inside Burma. In many cases, registry with the military junta there, or expulsion from Thailand for failing to register altogether, is a sure ticket to persecution of Burmese workers if they are returned, or of family members if they are not.

Resistance Builds Against Thai Migrant Worker Expulsion

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The workers’ trade union of Cosmos Petroleum Services, Peru, has begun an indefinite strike action following two years of unsuccessful attempts to halt abuses of labour rights in the country. Cosmos is an outsource contractor to Brazilian oil and gas multinational Petrobras. Petrobras Peru’s centre of operations is located at Lote X in the El Alto Province, where the conflict is now occurring with workers calling on Petrobras to take responsibility for the conduct of its contractor. 
 
The minimum monthly wage for a Peruvian Petrobras employee is 950 soles, or US$330, and workers of Cosmos are demanding an increase to receive at least that minimum. 
 
Union General Secretary Julio Rigoberto Alarcón Fiestas points to the contract agreed between Petrobras and Cosmos on 28 February 2008, that sets forth the extremely low for contract workers. He said that service contract did not account for overtime or bonuses, and in fact was in breach of Peruvian national legislation. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMOil.JPG" width="140" height="142" alt=""/>
He added that even the minimal contractual responsibilities of Cosmos to its staff have not been respected and the union cites numerous abuses, including wage and social benefits below the contractual minimum and information not being made available to workers. 
 
The workers’ union of Cosmos Petroleum Services asks for support in getting their employer to meet its contractual obligations on wages, and on where and how withheld money is used. 
 
The strike is a brave step for the union, as Cosmos management previously had illustrated its contempt toward union activists in the third quarter of 2008 by suspending workers. The company said financial concerns as the reason, despite that period being a boom in the industry. The suspensions were followed by the cancelling of the workers’ reemployment, along with cancellation of all redundancy payments. 
 
These actions were then endorsed by Petrobras but were later met by rulings from Peruvian labour authorities that opposed the unilateral actions. These rulings were ignored by Cosmos management. 
 
Union officials at Cosmos also criticize management for refusing to seek a solution during collective bargaining when the previous agreement ended last year. 
 
The ICEM calls on Petrobras to take responsibility for its outsourced workers at Cosmos Peru, and encourages the Brazilian company to step in and settle this conflict. 
 
Petrobras is the largest company in Latin America and the largest company headquartered in the Southern Hemisphere, with output of more than two million barrels of oil equivalent per day. It is also a major distributor of oil products.

Workers of Petrobras Contractor in Peru Take Strike Action

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
An ICEM affiliate in Sri Lanka, the Free Trade Zone & General Services Employees’ Union, is celebrating a successful outcome in its campaign for higher wages in the country’s private sector. Until now, wages in the private sector have been governed by the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI), but with no dialogue or input from workers’ representatives. The pay gap between private sector and public sector workers has grown considerably in recent years. 
 
An unskilled public-sector employee can expect a monthly salary of Rs.11,630 (€78), whereas an unskilled private sector employee’s minimum wage is Rs. 6,700 (€43). The trade union pressure placed on national government by the campaign moved the Ministry of Labour to raise private-sector minimum wages up by Rs. 2,500. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1002.sri.lanka.1.JPG" width="278" height="209" alt=""/>
Workers turn out in white to protest low wages
The announcement by Labour Secretary Mahinda Madihahewa signals the government’s intent to raise minimum wage across all of the country’s trading zones, thus angering business leaders which have grown accustomed to nominal raises each year, or outright restrictions on increases in certain regions. 
 
There was no adjustment to salaries in 2009 as employers rejected BOI recommendations, citing the financial crisis. The BOI withdrew its recommendation in 2009 in the face of an adamant employer response against any increase. In 2009, there was no involvement from workers’ representatives in the process. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1002.sri.lanka.2.JPG" width="250" height="188" alt=""/>
The handing over of a 20,000-strong petition
The BOI’s recommendation for salary adjustments in 2010 was for a raise of Rs. 500, limited to factories in a small geographical region. The campaign put forth by the Free Trade Zone & General Services Employees’ Union distributed this information widely and mobilised workers against the low and limited salary. Twenty-thousand signatures were collected protesting the salary revision. These signatures were presented to the office of the Minister of Labour. 
 
The Free Trade Zone & General Services Employees’ Union campaign focused on educating workers throughout Sri Lanka on the issue, and it included a “white dress” protest in which workers came to work dressed in white. Media attention to the protest highlighted the workers’ message and increased pressure on government. The campaign has succeeded with the significant salary hikes, across all private sectors and all regions, and the ICEM congratulates the Sri Lankan union on the campaign.

Campaign for Higher Private Sector Salaries in Sri Lanka Succeeds

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
In a month’s time, global trade unions will begin actions around the World Day for Decent Work, 7 October. And similarly to last year, the 20-million-member ICEM will focus activities on its Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) campaign, with specific emphasis this year on events in Thailand and Turkey. 
 
In Thailand, the ICEM’s Thai Affiliates’ Committee has already begun joint preparations with Thai Electronics, Automotive, and Metalworking (TEAM) affiliates and trade unions affiliated to the Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) to bring unionization to CAL workers. The emphasis as well will be on stopping victimization and interference in union activities by both the Thai government and multinational employers. 

World Day for Decent Work in Thailand will also focus on the necessity for the government to ratify ILO Conventions 87 and 98, the freedom of association and right to organise and right to collective bargaining conventions. In addition, the ICEM Thai Affiliates’ Committee will work with the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers’ Association (IUF) on injustices committed by Unilever.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Thailand.png" width="230" height="106"/>
 
Thai activities are likely to include a national trade union seminar, a march, media outreach, and literature and posters made available inside worksites. A further planning meeting on Thai actions around 7 October will occur this week. 
 
In Turkey, the Work Relations Group of the Council of Global Unions, together with Turkish trade union federations, will conduct activities throughout the early days of October against a backdrop of the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Those meetings are to be held on 6-7 October in Istanbul. 
 
On 1 October, the ICEM will lead Turkish affiliated unions and others into a meeting in Ankara with the country’s Minister of Labour and Social Security. The purpose of that will be to press the Turkish government for full work rights for temporary and precarious workers. On 2 October, in Istanbul, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Secretary Guy Ryder, and other global labour leaders will hold a press conference related to World Day for Decent Work.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Turkey.png" width="240" height="110"/>
Four Turkish trade union federations – TÜRK-İŞ, DİSK, KESK, and HAK-İŞ – have been asked to produce examples of abuse to precarious workers. TÜRK-İŞ is organizing a series of symposiums across the country on the issues of unemployment insurance and hired labour. One such forum is scheduled at Gazi University in Ankara on 7 October. 
 
In July, the ICEM teamed with affiliated Turkish unions and the federations to block a “Private Labour Offices” bill, proposed legislation that would have made it easy for individuals to register as labour brokers and then to dispatch temporary workers to enterprises. 
 
The draconian legislation was vetoed on 9 July by President Abdullah Gül. Although the immediate political climate is not suitable for the bill’s return, it is far from dead and ICEM and trade unions hope to use 7 October activities to bury the measure for good. An ICEM report on the legislation can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3316-Turkey:-Labour-Hire-Veto-Applauded-More-Work-Demanded" type="internal">here</a>.

ICEM’s World Day for Decent Work Focus on Thailand, Turkey

<img height="39" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100"/>
Global labour’s World Day for Decent Work next month will reveal a wide swath of economic, social, and gender neglect that assails millions of workers, but nowhere is that neglect as evident anywhere as it is to contract and agency workers. The ICEM, in unity with several other Global Union Federations (GUFs) and the Council of Global Unions, will use the day – 7 October, and indeed, the days before and after – to highlight the need to bring respectability and work rights to contract and agency workers.
<img height="180" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0704CALThailand.jpg" width="240"/>
 
As part of ICEM’s ongoing Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) Campaign, we are cooperating with other GUFs and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) to call on affiliated trade unions and their members to participate actively in events in their countries. The ITUC is continually updating a website that lists events country by country. It can be found <a href="http://www.wddw.org">here</a>. 
 
The ITUC has produced a Campaign Guide for World Day for Decent Work, which can be found at that site, complete with ideas for actions, media events, and providing literature for worksites. The <a href="http://cal.icem.org/">ICEM’s CAL Campaign site</a> contains the ICEM's CAL manual and other useful tools. 
In addition, the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) has produced material on Precarious Work for this years' 7 October, which can be used by all, as all Global Union Federations, as well as the ITUC, signed of on it. The <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/PW_English.pdf ">booklet</a>, entitled, “Precarious Work Affects Us All”, as well as the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/PW_Poster_Print2.pdf">poster</a> can be, along with other materials for 7 October, found on the <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?n=696&l=2">IMF's campaign site</a>. 
 
The global economic collapse over the past year has adversely affected most workers in nearly all sectors. But none more so than workers on the fringes of society, workers who live and toil in the shadows of humanity in conditions that will never be termed decent. Equal rights and equal treatment for temporary and agency workers is a prerequisite for a fair and just way of life for all.
<img height="51" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0807DecentWorkDecentLife.jpg" width="300"/>
Workers’ representatives from throughout the world will speak in a unified voice in the days leading up to and following 7 October. That voice will call for a new globalisation that includes stable and quality jobs, better social protections, assurances that every worker has the right to form and join a trade union, to bargain collectively for the betterment of all, and most especially, a voice aimed at lifting the lowest among us to better and sustainable livelihoods. 
 
The ICEM encourages everyone to take part in activities around the Global Day of Action for Decent Work.

World Day for Decent Work, 7 October, Points to Plight of Contract, Agency Workers

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia has launched a campaign against global mining giant Xstrata to preserve coal mining jobs in New South Wales (NSW). The Swiss-based company, on 31 July, announced it was cutting 122 of 550 jobs at its Ulan Mine in western NSW, and 158 more jobs at its Tahmoor colliery in southern NSW. 
 
The CFMEU disputes Xstrata’s claim that the scheduled redundancies are intended to improve efficiencies by “realigning employee numbers with the current operating environment.” To Xstrata, that means reduced pricing on thermal coal brought by the global financial crisis.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/XstrataPoison.jpg" width="240" height="76"/>
 
The union claims Xstrata’s real intent is to hire more contractors at Ulan, specifically as the company prepares development of major new coal deposits at Ulan West. 
 
CFMEU National President Tony Maher called the cuts callous and offensive. “We highlight this as corporate greed, as this is a very profitable mine,” he said. “There are times when retrenchments are unavoidable. This is not one of those times.”
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0712CFMEUMaher.jpg" width="90" height="135"/>
 CFMEU’s Tony Maher 
 

The Ulan mine is forecast to post an A$140 million profit this year, down from A$330 million in 2008, but still extremely healthy profits considering the global recession. The CFMEU has brought forced dismissal cases before the Australian Industrial Relations Commissions, but a 24 August hearing to block the Ulan redundancies failed. 
 
Some 500 people marched last week in Mudgee, NSW, near Ulan as the first wave of layoffs was to begin. The mayor of Mudgee, a community of 7,000 some 260 kilometres west of Sydney, said the cuts will have a serious knock-on effect to other jobs in the town. The CFMEU says for every high-paid mining job that is lost, another four service or retail jobs will be affected. 
 
The union has started a website on Xstrata’s job cuts at Ulan. It can be found <a href="http://www.xstratafacts.com">here</a>. 
 
Xstrata bought majority control of Ulan in 2001 and controls a 90% stake in the mine. Mitsubishi Development owns the other 10%. At Tahmoor, a mine producing coking coal that Xstrata bought from Centennial Coal in 2007, the company used the same excuse for issuing redundancy notices: market prices are not strong enough to support the current level of 493 jobs. 
 
Xstrata’s job curtailments at the two collieries are not the only sites in Australia where the company is forcing redundancies. In June, the tightly held mining concern said it was terminating thermal coal mining at its United Colliery in the Hunter Valley region of NSW. That colliery is to cease operating by March 2010. And in January 2009, Xstrata announced job cutbacks at the Oaky Creek No. 1 mine in central Queensland.

CFMEU Seeks to Protect Xstrata Coal Mining Jobs in Australia

South Africa's national power utility Eskom has no right to fix wage increases unilaterally, the Labour Court in Johannesburg has ruled. 
 
The verdict is a signal victory for the country's electricity unions, who launched a nationwide strike on Tuesday after Eskom attempted to impose wage hikes lower than those sought by the unions. 
 

<img height="159" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/numlogo.gif" width="161"/>  <img height="166" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/numsalogo.gif" width="170"/>
Eskom wanted to unilaterally implement pay increases of between 7 and 9 percent. The unions say these rises would not be enough even to maintain the electricity workers' meagre purchasing power, and would "lead to serious poverty and misery." The electricity unions are demanding 11 percent for the lowest-paid workers and 9 percent for the highest-paid. 
 
In another significant legal move, Eskom yesterday withdrew an application for a court order restraining workers involved in "minimum essential service" electricity provision from joining the strike. One of the unions involved, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), commented: "We always insisted that the company's urgent application was irresponsible and unnecessary in the light of the unions' written undertaking that the workers in the essential services will not participate in the strike action. We are now vindicated and feel victorious that the matter has been withdrawn. The company should not play double standards but must concentrate on resolving the issue of wages rather than focusing on court interdicts." 
 
So far, though, Eskom has made little real effort to end the dispute. As the unions have repeatedly pointed out, the strike could have been avoided altogether if Eskom had sent competent senior managers to this year's bargaining round. Instead, it used junior executives who had little real authority to negotiate. 
 
Eskom has still not got the message. During an attempted conciliation session yesterday, the company's attitude remained the same. 
 
The session "failed dismally," a clearly irritated NUMSA said, because "the company was not taking the unions seriously. The company requested a caucus after the trade unions presented their proposals at 14H30. The junior negotiators of the company went to the caucus for 5 hours and came back to the plenary insisting that they still do not have the mandate and would not reciprocate on our demands. The meeting ended without a settlement. The biggest question that everyone should ask is, what is it that they were caucusing about for 5 hours?" 
 
Conciliation bids are due to continue today, but the unions insist that, if the talks are to succeed, Eskom will have to bring in some real negotiators. "We believe that the essence of any wage negotiations is on compromises in order to break the deadlock," the unions state, "and such talks should be based on fairness, transparency and proper vision to deal with sensitive issues. This is critical, in order to ensure a speedy resolution to the strike action. The Eskom junior negotiators have not been properly orientated to wage negotiations because they are not prioritising the matter under dispute." 
 
The Eskom strike remained solid yesterday. The unions reported "overwhelming support from the majority of the workers with a turnout of 90 percent. Protest marches were held at different cities and towns throughout the country, with thousands of workers taking part in the action. Memorandums were handed to Eskom head office and regional offices." 
 
Again, Eskom showed a remarkably poor grasp of human relations. A middle-ranking manager was delegated to receive the main petition. Seeing this as an insult, union members occupied Eskom's offices until company chairman Ruel Khoza deigned to fetch the memo in person. 
 
The nationwide protests were peaceful. The only incident occurred when police teargassed demonstrators at a power station in the province of Mpumalanga as Eskom attempted to bring in strikebreakers. "The police must learn that they do not have to interfere in legal strike action," NUMSA commented. 
 
Two of the main unions involved in the power strike, NUMSA and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The ICEM has declared full solidarity with the South African power workers, and with the country's miners, who have given the NUM a massive mandate for strike action over a wage claim and other issues (details in ICEM UPDATE 46/2001). 
 
Some mining companies have finally met the union's demands in full, but the NUM yesterday issued strike notices to the three most recalcitrant coalmining employers - Ingwe, Eyesizwe and Anglocoal. 
 
Ingwe is owned by mining multinational Billiton, whose share price fell by 4.19 percent on the Johannesburg stock exchange following yesterday afternoon's NUM announcement. 
 
Anglo American, owner of Anglocoal, fared even worse. By the end of trading yesterday, its share price had plummeted by 8.18 percent. 
 
Talks with the mining employers, particularly the gold producers, are scheduled to resume tomorrow.

Court Victory For SA's Power Workers; Shares Drop for Mining Firms

A US employers' organisation is threatening to boycott Norway. 
 
At issue is the plan by Norwegian oil union NOPEF to black the shipping provider Trico Supply ASA unless Trico's parent company in the US gives an assurance that it will respect American workers' right to organise and to bargain collectively. 
 
Now, the President of Norway's trade union federation LO has received a threatening letter from Robert Alario, President of the Offshore Marine Service Association. The OMSA is an association of US companies that contract out services to the offshore oil and gas industry. 
 
Alario tells LO President Gerd Liv Valla that, if Trico fails to obtain contracts in Norway as a result of a NOPEF boycott, then "we will have to inform the US offshore industry that Norway does not take into consideration US Acts, custom and culture. We will be forced to call on our members to be careful with doing business in Norway." 
 
"This is a threat," commented NOPEF President Leif Sande, "and we cannot accept that a US employers' association threatens the industry of another country because the employers in the US do not manage to come to terms with their own trade union movement." 
 
OMSA's ultimatum to a whole country should perhaps be taken with several pinches of sea salt, but it does shed a very crude light on employer attitudes in America's offshore marine services.  
 
Sande called attention to OMSA's website. 
 
Not a site for sore eyes. It is, the Norwegian union leader says, "horrible reading". 
 
As indeed it is. And no page more so than a recent, now hidden, little piece headed Slow, but Sure? 
 
Penned by Alario himself, it gets straight to the point: "For over two years, OMSA and its members have worked hard and steadily to design and develop a solid and successful strategy to prevent unions from penetrating our industry. So far, so good!" 
 
So far so bad for OMSA-affiliated Trico, which has been desperately trying to convince Norwegians that it recognises US workers' right to join a union. 
 
But Alario is just getting into his stride. Onward and upward he marches, merrily shooting his member company in both feet. On the US unions' organising drives, he believes that "we have been and continue to be largely successful against such an aggressive well-financed machine." This, he enthuses, "can and should give us confidence that we are beating them, that we can beat them again, and that we will, finally, beat them in the end." Employers are, however, sternly warned against complacency: "This fight is not over. There is much more to be done." 
 
For Alario's sense of mission reaches far beyond a few boats and choppers: "The fight is for everyone - offshore drilling contractors, offshore diving and construction contractors, seismic, well servicing, contractors - everyone - not just helicopter or vessel operators. Surprisingly, other sectors of our industry and our suppliers have been relatively slow to fully appreciate and act on the threat posed by these unions to all of us, although we have seen signs, recently, that we and others have been making at least a slight dent in the general apathy that has frustrated us mightily for two years." 
 
There is much more in similar vein. If nothing else, the piece gives some deep insights into Alario's state of mind. He describes union organising drives as "infiltration of companies under attack" and warns other employers that American unions are "working below industry radar". 
 
All of which explains why US mariners face a tough task in organising offshore services - and why NOPEF is so keen to help them. 
 
NOPEF is affiliated both to the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which is lending global support to the campaign. There have already been some successes in persuading Norwegian-based oil companies to review their relations with Trico, and the case has also been raised in the Norwegian parliament.

US Firms To Boycott Norway?

The success of Africa's economic renaissance will depend on its ability to convert the continent's raw materials into value-added goods both for domestic and international consumption. 
 
That was the main conclusion drawn by African labour leaders meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, last week. They were taking part in the African Regional Executive Committee of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The ICEM African unions emphasised the importance of "sustainable programmes around the development of our human resources, sharing of skills between our countries, promoting better trade relations, securing dignified labour standards, strengthening friendship and solidarity exchanges and mutual assistance in the development of our continent. 
 
"In this context, the role of trade unions is vital," they noted. "To this end, the ICEM Africa Region has adopted a five-year programme of action to achieve these noble goals." 
 
ICEM African Regional President Senzeni Zokwana made a strong plea for workers in Africa to unite, organise and strengthen worker-to-worker solidarity in order to bring about peace, democracy and economic development. 
 
Zokwana, who is President of South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), said that the consensus reached by African governments on the New African initiative presents an historic opportunity for the people of Africa, as a whole, to end the scourge of the scourge of poverty, civil conflict and underdevelopment. 
 
"The resources and skill needed to launch a war on this front exist in abundance," he noted. "What is now needed is the political will and commitment to include all sectors of the population in the reconstruction and development programmes of the continent. This process must inevitably involve the full participation of the trade unions and other progressive mass movements on the continent. This is a struggle too important to be left to governments alone." 
 
He urged trade unions to be vigilant and to bring their organisational skills to bear on this process. Only a strong, vibrant, united and well-organised trade union movement in Africa could contribute effectively and qualitatively to the movement for change currently taking root on the African continent. 
 
"The daily struggles of workers, for decent work, a living wage and improved quality of life for their families must be seen in the light of the broader struggle against poverty, resulting from corporate globalisation and the plundering of Africa's wealth," said Zokwana. "The tragedy of our times has been that whilst Africa is richly endowed with natural resources, the beneficiaries have been outsiders, notably those from the rich North. Africa must no longer remain a producer and exporter of raw materials to the North. 
 
"In most instances, mining interests of the North fuel the conflicts we see in Africa today," Zokwana added. "There is clear evidence that the wars in the Great Lakes Area, Sierra Leone and Angola are aided and abetted by the multinational mining corporations seeking to exploit us, without regard to the sanctity of life of native Africans. The international community is aware of the dynamics of these conflicts but has chosen to look the other way as Africa bleeds. This must end."

Unions Back African Renaissance

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