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<img height="55" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="138"/>
Svenska Pappers, the ICEM paperworkers’ affiliated union in Sweden, could strike ABB Power Technologies at its Figeholm mill near Oskarshamn tomorrow. 
The union won a unanimous victory in a Swedish labour court last week, giving it the right to strike as well as granting sympathy actions by unions representing electrical, construction and transport workers. 
A Swedish-based multinational primarily engaged in engineering and papermaking equipment, the pressure now is on ABB to settle. The company has been stonewalling a collective agreement for 130 workers at the paperboard mill for two years, refusing to match work and social standards already in place in Sweden’s paper sector. “ABB simply has refused to give paperworkers at the ABB Figeholm mill their rights, which exist for the rest of paperworkers in Sweden,” said Sune Ekbåge, president of Svenska Pappers. 
The positive labour court ruling did prompt ABB to return to talks with the union on 12 November and again today in efforts to prevent a strike.

Swedish Labour Court Ruling Reinforces Svenska Pappers

The three-month-long dispute between 750 New Zealand miners, members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), and state-run Solid Energy ended 19 July with a negotiated settlement. The union won a 5% wage increase for year 2005, plus 2% cash payment in 2006. In addition, EPMU won pay parity for miners in underground and open pit mines on both New Zealand’s North and South Islands. Workers at some mines will get an additional 3% next year, others will receive 2%, and miners at two of those coal mines will receive an extra 1.5% wage boost at the end of the two-year agreement in 2007. “This agreement sees another significant group of workers win a 5% pay rise, as well as re-establishing a national industrial agreement,” stated EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little. He added that it was “a milestone for the mining industry.” Since EPMU launched its “Five in ‘05” campaign in February, the union has negotiated 5% first-year wage settlements in 219 of 245 labour agreements negotiated across several different sectors.

EPMU Wins 5% for NZ's Solid Energy Miners

In Iraq, oil workers in Basra at the Southern Oil Co. brought the company to a 24-hour standstill on 17 July with a strike. Some 15,000 workers took part in the strike that was intended to force the company and Iraq’s Oil Ministry to take a portion of Southern Oil’s vast profits and use it to build Basra’s local economy. Backed by the General Union of Oil Employees (GUOE) and the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq, last week’s work stoppage could be a precursor to a general strike in Iraq’s south if allocations from the country’s largest crude oil producer are not used for basic infrastructure needs such as sewage systems, electrical grids and medical services. GUOE is also seeking a wage increase for workers, land allowances, and risk payments, something that Southern Oil’s managers already receive.

Oil Workers in Southern Iraq Strike

Turkish ICEM affiliate Selülöz-Is received mass support from two national trade union centers 4 March in its continued occupational of the SEKA paper mill in Izmit. The Selülöz-Is center, DISK, and TURK-IS mobilized affiliated unions to join the occupation that day. Some 700 paperworkers of Selülöz-Is plus family members have occupied the mill since 20 January in order to block privatisation of state-run company SEKA. Scores of ICEM affiliates from around the world have registered strong letters of protest to Turkish affiliates in their countries as a result of a 16 February ICEM Circular.

Support for Paper Mill Occupation in Turkey Growing

A book authored in part by Paul Lootens, FGTB's Federal Secretary in Belgium, reveals the comprehensive legal maneuvering following the nation's worst mining accident. In August 1956, near the Belgian city of Charleroi, 262 coalminers perished due to equipment failure and subsequent chain of events.
<img height="134" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/paullootens.jpg" width="120"/>
FGTB's Paul Lootens  
The aftermath of this tragic worksite story is depicted in a book entitled Tutti Cadaveri: The Trial of the Catastrophe at the Bois du Cazier in Marcinelle by Lootens, also an ICEM vice president, and historians Marie-Louise De Roeck and Julie Urbain. The book’s title, Tutti Cadaveri, comes from the Italian rescuer who, after surfacing from the mine, said, tragically, “All corpses.” 
 
The book takes the reader through the legal wranglings of an employer intent on avoiding guilt over safety shortcomings, and the victims’ families who seek the truth. 

On 5 July, some 3,000 people turned out near the Belgian town of Marcinelle, just south of Charleroi, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the country’s worst coal mining tragedy in history. The event occurred in Bois du Cazier, where on 8 August 1956, 262 miners perished in a fiery inferno caused by an electrical blast from a shaft elevator. 
<img height="213" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0607marcinelle1.JPG" width="320"/>
The majority at the 5 July event were descendants and friends of 136 Italian miners, who together with the 152 others, died from the fire and subsequent carbon monoxide poisoning when the elevator blocked the flow of fresh air. 
The commemoration also was vitalized by trade union members and the colours of the Belgian socialist union FGTB, as well as their comrades from the Italian trade union, Patronato INCA-CGIL. 
 
The commemoration also included the unveiling of a sculpture marking the tragic event, a bronze globe commissioned by INCA-CGIL and made by Italian artist Antonio Nocera. The sculpture sits in front of the main mine shaft, now a museum, in which miners from 12 different nations died in 1956. 
<img height="300" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0607marcinelle4.JPG" width="200"/>
A surviving miner in front of Antonio Nacero's sculpture
At Bois du Cazier on the actual day of the 50th anniversary, 8 August, a bell tower clock will ring out 262 times, beginning at 08h00, with the name of each victim read out. At 10h00, flowers will be laid at the monument dedicated to the many accidents occurring at the mine, from 1901 to the 8 August 1956 underground firestorm. At 11h00, a ceremony will occur at the Marcinelle cemetery, and then at 12h30, another commemoration will occur at Bois du Cazier. 
 
The French language book, Tutti Cadavreri, by Lootens, De Roeck and Urbain, was published only on 1 May 2006, but is already in its second printing. It is available from Aden Publishers for €22, and can be ordered by contacting Aden at <a href="mailto:editionsaden@skynet.be">editionsaden@skynet.be</a>, or calling +32 2534 46 61. 
More information on the book can also be found <a href="http://www.aden.be/tutti_cadaveri.html">here</a>. It can be ordered online <a href="http://www.rezolibre.com/librairie/detail.php?article=526 ">here</a>.

Book Depicts Aftermath of Belgium's Bois du Cazier Mine Tragedy

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
The strike by ICEM oil and gas affiliate NOPEF against oil service companies on Norway’s continental shelf has intensified. The Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF), representing the companies, and NOPEF have not met since the start of the strike on 21 June. 
 
The selective strikes against a handful of oil service firms, including Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Weatherford and Oceaneering, has had serious impact on drilling, exploration and well maintenance for a number of companies. Statoil, ConocoPhillips, and Norske Hydro have been seriously impacted to date, with Statoil forced to halt drilling at its Snøhvit and Kristin fields. 
<img height="75" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NorwayFlag.gif" width="100"/>
If the strike lasts too much longer, drilling and development efforts undertaken by ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell will be impacted. OLF said the strike has disrupted production of 37,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day. 
 
The strike was caused when the oil service providers refused to harmonise its national collective agreement in Norway with other national contracts in the oil sector. That has been the central demand by NOPEF, which seeks to win for workers regular weekly schedules and such items as compensation for waiting time, something that is common in other oil sector agreements.

NOPEF Strike against Oil Service Providers Continues in Norway

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
The steering committee of ICEM’s Bridgestone Network met in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26-27 June, and resolved to prepare a comprehensive health and safety declaration at local plants, with support and cooperation from managers, for presentation at next year’s conference. 
 
ICEM trade union affiliates from Brazil, Japan, South Africa and the US are represented on the steering committee, and Gomurengo, the Japanese Rubber Workers’ Union Confederation, chairs the network. 
This sixth meeting of the steering committee heard about the economic situations in each country, received reports on tyre sector activity, and reviewed industrial policies of the Japanese company within the different plants. 
<img height="144" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Michael.JPG" width="100"/>. 
ICEM's Michael Wolters
ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Sector Officer Michael Wolters presented the main report on current developments inside the rubber industry, as well as on major technical innovations in tyre manufacture. Wolters also presented, and the steering committee, discussed a recent UN report stemming from an investigation on working and living conditions at a Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia.

ICEM’s Bridgestone Network Meets

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Oil and gas trade unions, including the ICEM, were represented for the first time at the annual Caspian Oil & Gas Exhibition last month in Baku, Azerbaijan. The eighth running of the show included oil and gas workers’ unions from Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey, and Norway. 
 
Trade unions representing the ICEM’s Caspian Energy Project, together with staff from the Brussels Secretariat, manned colourful booths and distributed brochures, pins, banners and histories of their respective unions. Materials on HIV/AIDS, health and safety, contract and agency labour, and general labour relations were also presented to oil and gas company trade representatives.

ICEM’s Caspian Energy Network Debuts at Oil & Gas Trade Show

<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
Affiliates in Colombia Organise First Seminar on HIV/AIDS
ICEM affiliates in Colombia organised their first seminar on HIV/AIDS and the workplace in cooperation with UNAIDS and the Ministry of Social Protection. 
 
The seminar concluded that there was a lack of consistent campaigning on the part of companies and also unions. To overcome ignorance, discrimination and stigmatisation participants recommended including clauses in collective agreements and drawing up workplace policies based on the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work.
The seminar formulated an action plan which includes the formation of workplace committees, workshops, information material, revision of collective agreements and gender-oriented programmes. Each union is to nominate a focal point to coordinate implementation of the action plan. 
 
Company representatives were invited to the seminar but only Carbones del Cerrejón, which represents the interests of BHP Billiton, Glencore and Anglo American, participated. 
<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
Mongolia Union Concerned about Increase in Reported HIV Infections 
In a report to the ICEM's Asia-Pacific Regional Committee, the Mongolia Mining and Energy Union expressed concern about the recent increase in HIV prevalence in the country. Despite the still very low prevalence rate, the potential for a further increase due to unsafe sex, high infection rates among migrant workers and mobile traders and lack of education among young people is high. 
 
Workplace prevention programmes are at the initial stage in the country. Only recently, trade unions organised a national seminar in collaboration with the employers’ federation and the ILO on the introduction of workplace prevention programmes. 
<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
A Quarter of a Century of AIDS
The world has changed in 25 years since physicians saw the earliest cases of AIDS in hospitals in the United States and in Africa. The world was slow to recognise the gravity of the new health crisis and in the years in which AIDS remained off the political agenda, the infection took a foothold that it has not yet relinquished.
Over the last quarter century nearly 65 million people were infected with HIV and an estimated 25 million have already died of AIDS.
Today it is estimated that close to 40 million live with HIV – yet the vast majority are unaware of their status. More than 4 million became newly infected with HIV and almost 3 million died in 2005. 
 
With the establishment of the WHO Global Programme on AIDS in 1987 and UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) in 1996, the United Nations moved to address the epidemic not as an isolated health problem, but as a human development issue. 
 
At the 2001 Special Session of the UN General Assembly on AIDS (UNGASS), 189 nations agreed that HIV/AIDS was a national and international development issue of the highest priority, signing the historic Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS that promised innovative responses, coordinated efforts and accountability for progress against the epidemic.
The Declaration set a comprehensive list of time-bound targets to support the Millennium Development Goal 6 of halting, and beginning to reverse the epidemic by 2015. 
 
In 2003, UNAIDS and the WHO promoted the 3 by 5 Initiative (3 million people living with HIV/AIDS on treatment by the end of 2005). Although the initiative did not meet its target, it focused attention on treatment and increased the number from 400,000 in December 2003 to 1.3 million in December 2005.
When new targets such as universal access by 2010 are set it is hoped that these are not empty promises but there is a real commitment behind them which includes the massive financial resources required. 
 
A real breakthrough in funding came with the launch of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) in December 2002. More than 20% of all international financing to fight HIV/AIDS is currently channelled through the Global Fund, which has approved close to 400 grants to government and civil society partners in 131 countries.
Funds contributed and pledged to the Global Fund by donors totalled US$8.5 billion. But even such a large amount pales when resource requirements for 2007 are estimated to be US$18 billion, while resources expected to be available from all sources are estimated at US$10 billion. Despite substantial increases in donor funding, huge gaps remain.
(Source: UNAIDS 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic – see below. Read also: Newsweek, 5 June "AIDS at 25") 
<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
UNAIDS Publishes Report on the Epidemic
As reported in the June issue of ICEM's e-bulletin, UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, launched the 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic on the eve of a United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS. This special edition, marking the 10th anniversary of UNAIDS, contains the most in-depth data from countries to date, based on progress reports from 126 countries as well as independent data from more than 30 civil society organisations. 
 
The Report cites positive trends, and states that the epidemic appears to be slowing down globally but new infections are continuing to increase in certain regions and countries. The Report also shows that important progress has been made in country responses, including increases in funding and access to treatment and decreases in HIV prevalence among young people in some countries over the past five years.
It states, however, that HIV/AIDS remains an exceptional threat. The response is very diverse with some countries doing well on treatment but poorly on HIV prevention efforts and vice-versa. 
 
An estimated 38.6 million people are living with HIV worldwide. This is lower than the 40.3 million given in the UNAIDS December 2005 Epidemic Update. The lower estimate is partly due to genuine declines in HIV prevalence in several countries. However, most of the differences are due to increased availability of reliable data.
Rising mortality have also caused HIV prevalence to level off although the numbers of people living with HIV have continued to rise, due to population growth and antiretroviral treatment. 
 
The report can be accessed at <a href="http://www.unaids.org">www.unaids.org</a>. It includes profiles of the 126 countries surveyed. 
(Source: UNAIDS Press Release, 30 May 2006) 
<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS
Unlike the 2001 UN General Assembly Session on HIV/AIDS, relatively few world leaders attended the United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS which took place in New York from 29 May to 2 June.
Civil society organisations have criticised the final declaration of this meeting. Difference over prevention strategies, such as abstinence and condom use, intellectual property rights, and the naming of vulnerable groups have resulted in a weaker declaration and in serious omissions.
In deference to Muslim and conservative Latin and Vatican opposition, the Declaration refers only to “vulnerable groups” at risk for infection without naming sex workers, homosexuals, or intravenous drug users as in need of particular attention. Civil society also noted an insufficient commitment to women’s rights. 
<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
Global Fund Progress Report Shows Substantial Impact 
 
Performance results from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria show that as of the end of April, 544,000 people have begun antiretroviral treatment through Global Fund-supported programmes – up from 384,000 six months ago. 
 
Global Fund support for efforts to combat AIDS, TB and malaria account for 56% of the total US$5.4 million committed to date for programmes in 131 countries to fight the three diseases. Some 400 grants have been approved so far. Of the US$3 billion allocated to AIDS, half is dedicated to prevention activities while the other half is allocated to treatment. 
 
In 2005, the Global Fund was responsible for an estimated 20% of all international funding in support of efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, and approximately two-thirds of global funding for programmes against TB and malaria. 
 
What is encouraging is that civil society organisations are strong implementers as compared to government agencies, with 30% of their grants over-performing and the remaining 70% showing satisfactory performance. 
There are strong indications that countries can drastically increase their national absorptive capacity by channelling more of its health spending through non-governmental and faith-based organisations and the private sector. 

(Source: Global Fund Press Release, 29 June 2006)
<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
Focus on the Caribbean
According to the UNAIDS Report (see above), AIDS-related illnesses are the leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 44 in the Caribbean, accounting for more than 27,000 deaths in 2005. 
 
While the Bahamas, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti have contained the progress of HIV, Guyana has a serious epidemic underway.
The Caribbean remains the region most affected by HIV/AIDS after Africa. According to UNAIDS estimates 330,000 HIV-positive people were living in the Caribbean at the end of 2005, 51% of whom were women.
This status as second-most affected region masks substantial country differences in the extent and intensity of the epidemic. Prevalence rates range from 0.1% in Cuba to more than 2% in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, and exceeding 3% in the Bahamas and Haiti. New infections among women are far surpassing those among men, ranging from twice the likelihood for teenage girls to be infected in Jamaica to six times in Trinidad and Tobago. 
 
In the region fewer than one in four people needing antiretroviral drugs are actually receiving them. 

(Source: UNAIDS 2006 Report as compiled by Medical News Today, 5 June 2006) 

<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
Global Unions Demand G8 Permanent Working Group on HIV/AIDS 
In the run-up to the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg, 15-16 July, a Global Union delegation met Russian President Putin.
Among other items, they put forward the demand for a permanent Working Group on HIV/AIDS. At last year’s Summit in Gleneagles, there was a time-bound commitment to fighting the epidemic but since then there has not been a clear follow-up and monitoring mechanism to reach the objective of universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care by 2010.
The call for a permanent Working Group was also made at the ILO’s International Labour Conference in Geneva in June when Global Unions delivered letters to government, workers’ and employers’ delegations and to the Health Ministers gathered at the WHO annual World Health Assembly in May.
(Source: OECD-TUAC Press Release, 5 July and Global Union Statements) 
<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
International AIDS Conference 
 
The ICEM abstract written for the International AIDS Conference, Toronto, Canada, 13 to 18 August, was accepted for a poster exhibition.
The ICEM was also invited to speak on “The importance of social dialogue and workers’ participation in public/private partnerships” at a Satellite Meeting Session with the theme: “From the workplace to the community – Co-investment to access prevention, treatment and care in public/private partnerships”. 

<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
ICEM Resources on HIV/AIDS 
 
This is a reminder that HIV/AIDS materials are available on our website <a href="http://www.icem.org" type="internal">www.icem.org</a>. You can download the ICEM Leaflet on HIV/AIDS as well as power point presentations and find links to other interesting websites and materials.
Latest addition is the HIV/AIDS Training Manual for Collective Bargaining. Written by the ICEM Africa Regional HIV/AIDS Coordinator Shirley Miller with input from the national coordinators from sub-Saharan Africa the manual is a rights-based practical guide for unionists to deal with HIV/AIDS at the workplace and bargain for clauses safeguarding against discrimination and victimisation. The manual can also be found in three different languages at:
English: <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0606ICEMHIVAIDSManualEN.pdf" type="internal">/files/PDF/Key_issues_pdfs/ 
AIDS/0606ICEMHIVAIDSManualEN.pdf</a>
French: <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0606ICEMHIVAIDSManualFR.pdf" type="internal">/files/PDF/Key_issues_pdfs/ 
AIDS/0606ICEMHIVAIDSManualFR.pdf</a>
Spanish: <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0606ICEMHIVAIDSManualSP.pdf" type="internal">/files/PDF/Key_issues_pdfs/ 
AIDS/0606ICEMHIVAIDSManualSP.pdf</a>

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No.10

Mid-July proved to another deadly period in the coal mines of China. In total, over 100 miners lost their lives in six separate and recorded tragedies occurring over in just over a week’s time.
<img height="80" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ChinaFLAG.gif" width="120"/>
 The largest number of industrial deaths occurred in north China’s Shanxi Province, at the Linjiazhuang Coal Mine in Lingshi county. A coal dust explosion on 15 July killed 57 miners, with only six miners managing to escape. Also on 15 July, a flash flood in the central Chinese province of Hunan killed 14 workers at the Shenjiawan Coal Mine. Only one of those workers was underground at the time, but the flooding also trapped rescue workers. 
 
Another mine flood in yet another province on 15 July took the lives of 18 miners. This occurred at the village-run Pianpoyuan Coal Mine in southwest China’s Guizhou province, near the town of Anshun. On 16 July, an explosion at the Lilan Coal Mine in Junlian county, province of Sichuan province, claimed the lives of five miners. Thirty-four coalminers managed to escape. 
 
Eight miners were feared drowned inside a mine shaft that flooded on 10 July. This occurred in Shanxi province at the Dongchuan Coal Mine in Luliang City. Ten miners escaped, but rescue efforts were hampered by the necessity to pump some 2,000 cubic metres of water from mine shafts. On 8 July, a colliery in neighbouring Liulin county of Shanxi province, saw six miners trapped and presumed dead by flooding.

Spate of China Coal Mine Accidents Occur in Mid-July

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