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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.
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&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;
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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.
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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;
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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;
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&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.
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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>.

Home to Half of World’s Union Murders, Colombia Excluded from ILO’s Sanctions List

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Four days of difficult talks between United Steelworkers (USW) Locals 6500 and 6200 and Brazilian mining company Vale in Canada were adjourned on 7 June,&nbsp;because the schedule of mediator Kevin Burkett could not permit a continuance. A settlement in&nbsp;the now 11-month strike at nickel and copper mines, a smelter, and production facilities in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, rest in resumption of talks that will take place 19 June in Toronto. 
 
Burkett issued a statement following adjournment on 7 June stating &ldquo;progress was made&rdquo; and the USW and Vale &ldquo;have agreed to continue two party negotiations on certain issues&rdquo; until formal and mediated talks resume this Saturday. 
 
Burkett statement said the 4-7 June time frame &ldquo;set aside to complete the task of negotiating a renewal collective agreement was insufficient.&rdquo; A news blackout has been honoured by both sides regarding negotiations. The early June re-start of bargaining was the third time since late February that the USW and Vale had engaged in talks with Burkett in the middle.
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Meanwhile, in the Canadian province of Labrador/Newfoundland, where 250 steelworkers have been on strike against Vale since 1 August 2010, talks between the company and Local 9508 resumed in late May. Negotiations there also adjourned in order for respective bargaining committees to review issues. 
 
Since many of the same issues are common to both Ontario and the Goose Bay and Voiseys Bay workers in Labrador, it is thought that settlement will come first in Sudbury/Port Colborne. 
 
Pressure did come to bear on Vale when, on 1 June, 50 workers of Ushitou Maintenance in Voiseys Bay downed tools when their contract expired. The company is a contract provider for Vale and workers are members of another bargaining unit of Local 9508. Vale announced that the contractor will use replacements workers during the work stoppage. 
 
In Ontario, the road to a negotiated agreement was made somewhat easier in a 17 May decision rendered by the Ontario Labour Relations Board. The provincial labour board directed the two sides to return to bargaining, but ordered an issue over the reinstatement of nine fired strikers to be set aside in mediated talks. Vale has been steadfast in insisting that even with agreement, the nine &ndash; including two bargaining committee members are not welcome back &ndash; while the USW is insisting that reinstatement must be part of thee settlement. 
 
In Sudbury and Port Colborne, some 3,500 members of USW Locals 6500 and 6200 began strike actions on 13 July 2009 over Vale&rsquo;s efforts seeking a two-tier pension scheme, sharp reductions in a production bonus, and company prerogatives on outsourcing, which threaten job security.

Difficult USW, Vale Canadian Mine Talks to Continue This Week

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The ICEM and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) will jointly hold the &ldquo;Triple Crisis of Sustainability&rdquo; Conference this week, 18-19 June, in Toronto, Canada, to give a full workers&rsquo; airing to the economic, environment, and social consequences brought on by global financial crisis. The Conference&rsquo;s aim is to prepare a worldwide workers&rsquo; and communities&rsquo; declaration for the G8 and G20 summits, also to be held in Toronto the following week. 
 
As of today, 14 June, 270 trade union and other leaders from over 50 countries are registered to attend. The conference runs from 9h00 to 17h30 on both 18 and 19 June at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, 123 Queen Street West.
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Both ICEM and IMF share the belief that the crises of failing economies, environmental inaction, and social disorder have occurred due to lack of financial and environmental regulations, as well as inept financial governance of markets. The conference will ensure that the voices of global workers are heard on these issues before the G8 and G20 summits convene, and then presented to financial and political leaders in a common declaration. 
 
Jobs, workers&rsquo; rights, social protections, quality public services, and sustainability &ndash; both on environmental stewardship and in providing decent work &ndash; is expected to serve as the core of the declaration. 
 
Keynote speakers will include United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard, David Donnelly, a leading environmental attorney connected with Canada&rsquo;s Blue-Green Alliance, and John Evans, the General-Secretary of the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD 
 
Specific panels will address the economic crisis, sustainable development and climate change, and corporate governance. The conference&rsquo;s programme has been built to allow for maximum comments from all those wishing to be heard on the effects of the social, environmental, and economic crises.

Toronto’s Sustainable Jobs, Environment Confab a Precursor for G8/G20 Meetings

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At the 26th Constitutional Convention of the US&rsquo;s largest national labour center last week in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, delegates elected Richard Trumka as president. Trumka, a member of ICEM-affiliated United Mine Workers&rsquo; of America (UMWA), had been serving as secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO since 1995. 
 
A third generation miner from western Pennsylvania, Trumka pledged to reinvigorate the American labour movement by recruiting more young people into the ranks of organised labour. In his acceptance speech, Trumka promised to build &ldquo;a new kind of labour movement &ndash; one shaped to meet the needs of Americans in a changing economy.&rdquo; 
 
Trumka succeeds John Sweeney of the Office, Professional Workers&rsquo; Union, who retired after three terms as head of the AFL-CIO. A labour attorney by training, Trumka worked in the Legal Department of the UMWA starting in 1974. In 1982, he was elected as president of the UMWA, a position he held until joining Sweeney as part of a new AFL-CIO leadership team in 1995.
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Arlene Holt-Baker, Richard Trumka, and Liz Shuler&nbsp; 
 

Elected last week to replace Trumka as secretary-treasurer of the 56-union, ten-million-member federation was Liz Shuler, a member of the Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union (IBEW) from the state of Oregon. She served most recently as executive assistant to the president of the IBEW. Elected as executive vice president was Arlene Holt-Baker. A member of the public employees&rsquo; union, AFSCME, she has held that position since 2007 after being appointed by the AFL-CIO Executive Council . 
 
Among some 70 resolutions passed, two dealt with Iraq. One called on US President Barack Obama&rsquo;s administration to use its influence on the Iraqi government to adopt internationally-accepted work rights, including passage of an ILO-written labour law that assures the legitimacy of trade unions in Iraq. The other calls on the US government to end its military occupation and bring a speedy withdrawal home of both troops and US armed contractors from the Middle Eastern country. 
 
Another resolution calls on the US to sanction the military regime in Honduras by withdrawing the US ambassador, freezing assets of those responsible for the June 2009 coup, and for the US government to seriously consider suspending all trade with Honduras until Manuel Zeleya is restored as President of a democratic Honduras.

US Mineworker, Richard Trumka, Elected Head of AFL-CIO

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ICEM French affiliate F&eacute;d&eacute;ration Chimie-Energie (FCE-CFDT) denounced market reforms that the government of France recently announced and has planned for EDF, the state-run electricity provider. In a statement issued 17 September, FCE-CFDT said reforms proposed by the government would put at risk the entire enterprise if it had to share revenues from nuclear generation with competitors.
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Electricity market reform in France, with a proposed effective date of 1 July 2010, would destabilize the company, FCE-CFDT warns, with competitors able to buy power at rates far below EDF&rsquo;s production costs. The union said such reforms would also prevent the competition from engaging in their own investments, and calls for a plan that would mandate all electricity providers to make investments. 
 
Further, FCE-CFDT states that although there are supposed safeguards in the reform plan, nothing in the plan would protect consumers from electricity price hikes. The union is calling for the French energy regulatory body, the Commission Champsaur, to re-work its proposals, giving redress to economic development issues, social cohesion, and climate change challenges.

FCE-CFDT Issues Caution Against French Electric Reform Concerning EDF

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The profitable electrical and gas distributor National Grid Plc. has provoked industrial actions in the UK with plans to outsource service work to India. British trade unions GMB and Unison, representing some 2,500 workers, are planning further strike actions in company operations in the near future. 
 
The first such strike, a 24-hour one, occurred on 11 September when workers at a service center in Newcastle walked off jobs and manifested at a public square. Some 181 invoicing, procurement, and other jobs could be lost in Newcastle if National Grid gets its way to offshore jobs. Hundreds of other jobs are at risk in the company fulfills its planned agenda.
<img src="" width="140" height="139" alt="" />
&nbsp; 
Further job actions likely will occur in Warwick and Newcastle. National Grid is the major owner and operator of electric grid distribution and gas distribution in England and Wales, serving 52 million customers. It also controls lucrative electric and gas distribution networks through its private enterprises in the US. 
 
GMB National Secretary Gary Smith says it is &ldquo;absolutely immoral&rdquo; that the company would consider turning its back on UK workers and transferring work to India. &ldquo;It is a shameful example of corporate greed that a hugely profitable UK business is threatening to sack loyal and dedicated staff.&rdquo; 
 
National Grid posted profits of &pound;3 billion in 2008 and the company and workers have identified &pound;3 million in cost savings. Yet, National Grid has already narrowed a search to two contract companies that would outsource the service work to India. 
 
GMB and Unison are getting strong support from North American ICEM affiliate Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA). In a recent trip to the US, Smith met with UWUA-represented workers employed by National Grid subsidiaries in the state of Massachusetts, and engaged first-hand with the UWUA in is first contract battle with waste-to-energy company Covanta. ICEM-affiliated GMB, as well as other UK unions, have assisted the UWUA in bringing to light Covanta&rsquo;s derisive anti-worker practices in the US just as the company attempts to expand into the UK.
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In a letter to GMB&rsquo;s Commercial Services Section, UWUA President Michael Langford called National Grid &ldquo;one of the most profitable, privatised monopolies in the world.&rdquo; He added, &ldquo;In our view, it is unacceptable (for the company) to turn its back on the employees who have sacrificed so much to make National Grid a success.&rdquo; 
 
On 7 September, GMB and Unison counted ballots, revealing a 97% vote for industrial action. Those strikes likely will occur in the coming weeks if the electric/gas distributor does not retreat from its outsourcing plans.

UK Unions GMB, Unison Begin Industrial Actions Against National Grid

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The ICEM extends its condolences to the families of miners killed and injured in a deadly Polish mine explosion on Friday, 18 September, as well as to all mining unions representing workers at the Katowicki Holding Weglowy (KHW) company. 
 
A methane gas explosion followed by a fire at KHW&rsquo;s Wujek-Slask mine in the coal-dominated Silesa region of southwestern Poland killed 13, and seriously injured 18 other miners with severe burns. A total of 40 miners were hospitalized following the explosion. 
 
The deadly blast and fire, Poland&rsquo;s second worst in recent years, ripped through mine shafts 1,050 metres underground at mid-morning on Friday near the town of Ruda Slaska. 
 
The Polish government has declared today and Tuesday, 22 September, a two-day national period of mourning due to the horrible workplace tragedy.
<img src="" width="120" height="120" alt="" />
&nbsp; 
 
A Polish website, Pracownik, reported that a miner at the Wujek-Slask colliery made a video last April, showing methane measurements over four times the levels that are considered safe from such an accident occurring. The video was aired on a Polish TV station late Friday. 
 
Mine-safety activists in Poland hinted that any investigation must centre on whether or not methane reading instruments inside shafts had been tampered with in order to boost production. 
 
State-run KHW had merged the Wujek and Slash collieries in 2004 into a single enterprise in order to save costs. In November 2006, 23 miners perished in another Ruda Slaska mine called Halemba, owned by the state-operated Kampania Weglowa (KW). This was the worst Polish mine tragedy in three decades. The Halemba mine had been idled for eight months then, and the company had sent workers 1,000 metres below the surface to retrieve equipment when the blast occurred.

13 Perish in Poland’s Worst Coal Mine Disaster Since 2006

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