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South Africa&rsquo;s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) granted the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) certification to go on a 24-hour strike. The strike occurs on 4 December. The CCMA simultaneously worked out agreement between the powerful 300,000-member South African trade union and the Chamber of Mines over a safety protocol. 
 
Tomorrow&rsquo;s walkout marks the first time in 20 years that a general strike has occurred across the gold, diamond, platinum, and coal mining sectors in South Africa. Some 60 companies will be affected. 
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The strike certification comes with a successful protocol pact between the NUM and the Chamber of Mines, one that includes the right to a national mine-safety strike on 4 December. The agreement cites &ldquo;involvement of all role players&rdquo; to improve mine health and safety, including least senior employees in mining enterprises. 
 
It also creates a high-level, senior task force between the NUM, the mining houses, and the Department of Minerals and Energy that will engage and take actions early in 2008. The companies, through the Chamber, agreed to cooperate with all union structures to improve workplace conditions, and will better utilise NUM&rsquo;s health and safety representatives. The two sides agreed to expeditiously review and analyze existing recommendations regarding health and safety. 
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NUM and the Chamber also agreed to hold a full dialogue on the outcome of a presidential audit on mine health and safety. That audit will start this month in over 700 South African mines, and is a direct result of 3,200 miners being trapped at Harmony Gold&rsquo;s Elandsrand mine in October. 
 
In the meantime, the death rate in and around South African mines keeps climbing. 
 
Goldfields recorded two deaths within a day of each other on 23-24 November at separate worksites, and the same happened at two South African mines of Australian-based Aquarium Platinum &ndash; on 15 November and 24 November. Also, a NUM member at Impala Platinum&rsquo;s Marula mine in Limpopo province was killed on 22 November. All of these recent deaths were due to rock slides, except one of at Goldfields, where a worker was struck and killed by a train at Driefontein.

Safety Agreement Reached in South Africa; National Strike Tomorrow

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Less than a month after the US-based Ross International company agreed to joint talks with ICEM Colombian affiliate Sintravidricol at three factories, the company reversed course and said it would not recognise the union at two of those plants, or at two others in Colombia. The company manufactures metal moulding for the glass industry, and is a specific supplier to glassmaker Peldar, the Owens-Illinois subsidiary in South America. 
 
This labour relations shift is another attempt by owner Larry Ross to avert unionisation by both direct workers and contract workers at four of five of his Colombian factories. Sintravidricol has a collective agreement at Moldes Medellin, Ross&rsquo;s plant in Sabaneta, and it was in late October that the company agreed to hold joint, three-plant talks with Sintravidricol at Moldes Medellin, as well as at two other Ross businesses: Andes Tooling and Andes Cast Metals. 
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For over a year, the ICEM and its US affiliate, the United Steelworkers (USW), have campaigned, together with Sintravidricol, to pressure Ross, which established four other Colombian factories staffed with contract workers to weaken the union at Moldes Medellin. 
 
But in spite of the October guarantee by the company, Ross is not willing to recognise Sintravidricol at the other four plants. Colombian management recently informed the union that Larry Ross is not willing to sign any agreement that recognises trade union rights for workers in the other plants. 
 
Sintravidricol began a strike at the three factories on 27 November. In a letter to the company, the ICEM again reiterated its demand to Ross International that Sintravidricol workers are engaged in a basic &ldquo;struggle for trade union freedom.&rdquo; 
 
Among items Sintravidricol was hoping to resolve at the joint bargaining table are redress to low salaries, and a check on the widespread use of contract and agency labour. 
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In the US as well, the USW has again picked up the campaign against the privately-held, Pennsylvania-based company. The union has nominated Larry Ross as &ldquo;Grinch of the Year&rdquo; within the US-based labour and community organisation, &ldquo;Jobs with Justice.&rdquo; The union has submitted Ross&rsquo;s name as an example of a company &ldquo;engaging in a global race to the bottom, in search of low wages and the ability to violate workers' rights.&rdquo; 
 
The USW is allied with &ldquo;Jobs with Justice,&rdquo; an activist grouping that holds an annual election to get the grinch which has done most to harm working families. To cast your vote for Larry Ross, please go here: <a href="http://www.jwj.org/grinchnominate.html">http://www.jwj.org/grinchnominate.html</a>.

US Ross Company Breaks Colombian Pledge, Glass Workers Strike

Mr. Seung Hwa Suh 
CEO Hankook Tire Co., Ltd. 
647-15 Yoksam-dong, Kangnam-gu 
Seoul, 135-723 
South Korea 
 
By Fax: +82-2-2222-1100 
 
 
Dear Mr. Suh, 
 
The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which represents 20 million workers from 118 countries, held its 4th World Congress in Bangkok last week, from 22 to 24 November. Present at the meeting were over 800 trade unionists, from 176 national trade unions in 75 countries, many of which are operating in the chemical and rubber sectors within their countries. 
 
After having heard about the ongoing dispute between the management of your company in Hungary and the local Hankook workers in Dunaujvaros, represented by ICEM Affiliate VDSZ (Federation of Trade Unions of the Chemical, Energy and General Workers in Hungary), the ICEM World Congress unanimously adopted a solidarity statement in response to the ongoing violation of workers&rsquo; rights by Hankook Tire Hungary Ltd. 
 
The statement reads: &ldquo;We protest, on behalf of 20 million workers, against this employer&rsquo;s behaviour, as it has been shown by Hankook Tire in South Korea and Hungary. It is unacceptable that the employer does not acknowledge an organisation set up by the workers voluntarily and rejects every request for bargaining. 
 
It is furthermore unacceptable that a multinational company keeps hurting the laws of countries and does not accept the rules relating to workers&rsquo; rights. 
 
ICEM cannot accept this behaviour and insists on the start of negotiations. Today, social partners all over the world promote bargaining, Hankook should not be an exception. Workers - who increase the value of the company through their work - want to bargain with the management of the company on the working conditions and the collective agreement. 
 
The behaviour by the owners and the leaders of the company against the workers is not acceptable. We support all the workers whose rights have been violated by Hankook Tire.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM, who agrees with VDSZ that refusing negotiations from your side is against the content of the Labor Code, therefore strongly insists for your company to enter into meaningful negotiations with the Hungarian Hankook workers, represented by VDSZ. 
 
Pending a fair and swift solution to the problem, we will use our offices to make sure that this trade union violation is known to all, and act, together with our affiliates, towards an end of this violation of workers&rsquo; rights. 
 
 
Manfred Warda 
ICEM General Secretary 
 
 
Cc: VDSZ, Hungary 
Mr. Lee Eung Young, 2459 R&aacute;calm&aacute;s, Hankook t&eacute;r 1., Hungary 
FKCU - Federation of Korean Chemical Workers' Union 
KCTF - Korea Chemical &amp; Textile Workers' Federation

ICEM letter to Hankook Tyre Ltd.

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Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. of South Korea received sizeable development and training subsidies in 2006 from the Hungarian government when it built an auto and light truck tyre plant in Dunaujv&aacute;ros, south of Budapest. A year later and several months following the start of production, the pay-back has been broken labour laws and blatant discrimination of trade unionists. 
 
The world&rsquo;s seventh largest tyre producer, 10% owned by Michelin, has paid fines for labour code violations, has seen large portions of its subsidies suspended by the Hungarian government, and has sacked one leader of the VDSZ Tire Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union, while refusing to negotiate with the ICEM affiliate, the Federation of Chemical, Energy, and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (VDSZ).
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Since production start-up early this year, the company has circumvented EU labour standards, and has violated ILO Conventions at its 28,500-unit-per-day tyre factory, now employing 800 blue-collar workers. Hankook Tire Magyarorszag Kft. has been found guilty or charged with non-payment of overtime pay, unsanitary work conditions, forcing a six-day work-week before a two-day leave, making work mandatory on public holidays, interrogating workers on their lawful right to join a union, and illegal dismissing workers. 
 
Besides using Hungarian subsidies to get the plant up and running this year, Hankook has used aid totalling nearly &euro;100 million from the European Commission. The company has reciprocated by paying fines for illegally employing 32 Korean workers and missing deadlines on registering employees to social security programmes. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="250" />
Hankook&rsquo;s anti-social behaviour in Dunaujv&aacute;ros was a major talking point in mid-September discussions between South Korean Prime Minister Han Duk Soo and Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcs&aacute;ny. 
 
VDSZ is adamant that Hankook respect EU, ILO, and Hungarian standards and regulations. The ICEM supports VDSZ in its struggle with Hankook. In a further letter to Hankook&rsquo;s managing director on 23 November, VDSZ President Gy&ouml;rgy Pasztern&aacute;k stressed that a Hungarian court has certified the union&rsquo;s Tire Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union as bargaining representative, and that the company must negotiate terms and conditions with the union, as well as deal with the VDSZ branch on matters related to EU Works Council elections.
At its 4th World Congress in Bangkok, from 22 to 24 November, the ICEM adopted unanimously adopted a solidarity statement in response to the ongoing violation of workers&rsquo; rights by Hankook Tire Hungary Ltd. The statement was conveyed by the ICEM in a <a href="/index.php?id=20&amp;doc=2495&amp;la=EN">letter to the company</a>.

Korea’s Hankook Tire Company Setting Bad Precedents in Hungary

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Tuesday, 4 December, is Unilever Day of Action in Europe, and beyond. European trade unions will manifest in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Unilever workers throughout the world are expected to take action. The Anglo-Dutch consumer products conglomerate is inflicting job cuts on 20,000 workers worldwide. 
 
Half those numbers are occurring in Europe. Already, Unilever&rsquo;s reorganisation has cost hundreds of jobs in The Netherlands, UK, and Italy. 
<img height="150" alt="" src="" width="150" />
The Rotterdam agenda tomorrow includes a 13h00 forum at De Doelen conference centre, Kruisplein 40, that will highlight adverse Unilever case studies of job abuse from six countries. European labour leaders will also speak. At 15h00, a march to Unileverhouse in central Rotterdam will happen. 
 
The ICEM has joined with the International Union of Food Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF) to call attention to this Action Day against Unilever in workplaces and at union meetings globally. Unilever initially avoided proper social dialogue in its recent European reorganisation, and the company has violated workers&rsquo; rights in India, Pakistan, Chile, Colombia, and South Africa. IUF has brought abuses in India and Pakistan before the UK National Contact Point for OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. 
 
ICEM and IUF encourages Unilever workers throughout the world to distribute the joint statement that can be found <a href="/index.php?id=154&amp;doc=2488&amp;la=EN">here</a>. 
Take action against Unilever on European Day of Action, 4 December!

Day of Action on Unilever Rings Tomorrow in Europe

On August 2nd, Unilever announced to the financial community its intention to cut 20,000 jobs world-wide over the next three years, with 60 factories to be closed or disposed of. 
 
Under pressure from shareholders and ratings agencies, Unilever has over the last 7 years closed or sold off over 125 factories around the world, halving the global workforce to 179,000. Over these years, profits have steadily risen. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="" width="100" align="absMiddle" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="86" alt="" src="" width="100" align="absMiddle" />&nbsp;&nbsp; 
Systematic outsourcing has led to the elimination of permanent jobs at Unilever in many parts of the world and the creation of vast complexes of precarious labour. Outsourcing is now set to increase from 15 to 25% of volume. Many workers who produce for Unilever have been employed on renewable, &quot;temporary&quot; contracts for over a decade! 
 
By looting its own resources, Unilever management has been paying itself bonuses and buying back its own shares with cash made available through job cuts and outsourcing. Cash freed up through restructuring will be used to finance &euro;25-30 billion in dividends and share buybacks. The money will not be invested in the long-term future of the company. 
 
Through closures, job cuts, outsourcing and labour contracting, Unilever is destroying jobs and livelihoods across the globe, harming communities, and weakening the collective strength of Unilever unions. 
<img height="161" alt="" src="" width="150" />
Europe is now being targeted in a major way: 10-12,000 of the announced job cuts will be carried out there. 
 
On Tuesday, December 4th, Unilever unions in Europe will organise a day of action featuring a protest march and public assembly in Rotterdam. Concurrently and throughout the week, unions will stage actions at Unilever plants throughout Europe. 
 
Unilever's attack on jobs in Europe is only the latest in a continuing world-wide attack on employment. Unilever unions throughout the world are called on to support their comrades in Europe and to take global action as part of the fight to halt the global job destruction and to expand global union power at Unilever!

4 December 2007 Joint ICEM/IUF Unilever Message

The 20-million-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) is lending its support to the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation Local Union (GPOLU), and its allies, in calling for defeat of draft legislation that would, effectively, privatise Thailand&rsquo;s pharmaceutical drug industry. 
The ICEM is in full support of a manifestation on Monday, November 12, at the Ministry of Public Health in Nonthaburi. That rally, beginning at 13h00, is being organised by GPOLU, the Confederation of State Enterprise Unions (SERC), and allied consumer and civil society organisations. The ICEM encourages Thai citizens to attend. 
<img height="255" alt="" src="" width="300" />&nbsp;
Rawai Pupaga, GPOLU President and 
Chairman&nbsp;of the ICEM Thai Labour Committee
&ldquo;We lend the name of the global trade union for all chemical and pharmaceutical workers to defeat this bill,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We believe that removing the government as a provider of essential health needs, in any form, is a recipe for higher costs, with a bigger portion of the population going without adequate health care.&rdquo; 
In a letter to be read at the manifestation, the ICEM pledged to stand with the GPOLU as they &ldquo;prevail upon current government ministers and lawmakers &hellip; that government procurement of pharmaceuticals, first and foremost, must benefit Thailand&rsquo;s citizens.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM, representing 384 trade unions in 118 countries, will be holding its 4th Congress, 22-24 November, at the Queen Sirikit Convention Center in Bangkok. Some 880 trade union leaders from national unions representing workers in the oil, gas, mining, chemicals, pharmaceutical, and processed industries such as pulp, paper, cement, rubber, glass industries will attend the ICEM&rsquo;s quadrennial Congress.

Global Union Federation, ICEM, Calls for Defeat of Thai Public Health Amendments

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An ICEM affiliate in New Zealand, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), has rebuked a report from the New Zealand Institute, which suggests the country ought to follow rather than lead the climate control debate to avoid having businesses leave due to &ldquo;carbon flight.&rdquo; 
 
EPMU challenged that assertion, and said the country can not afford to follow on climate change, saying that a policy response &ldquo;must ensure a just transition for workers in emission-intensive industries.&rdquo;
<img height="50" src="" width="100" alt="" />
EPMU said the report brings forth the debate on just transition. 
 
&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t want to see good, highly skilled jobs going offshore with no thought about how that skilled labour may be redeployed,&rdquo; said the EPMU in a statement. &ldquo;A just transition means encouraging investment in new technologies that demand new skills and therefore investment in training for the future. 
 
&ldquo;However, this should not be used as an excuse to drag our heels on climate change as the New Zealand Institute and other business lobby groups appear to be suggesting. The long term economic consequences of doing nothing are far more costly than emission-reduction actions now.&rdquo; The EPMU represents 50,000 New Zealanders, including workers in coal mining, manufacturing, electricity generation, and oil extraction.

EPMU Says New Zealand Must Lead, Not Follow Climate Change Transition

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In February 2006, 550 trade unionists and academics from around the world gathered in New York City for a conference called &ldquo;Global Companies, Global Unions, Global Research, Global Campaigns.&rdquo; Now, a book called &ldquo;Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital Through Cross-Border Campaigns&rdquo; has been published from the conference. 
 
Edited by Kate Bronfenbrenner, the book contains 11 narratives from the best of the papers submitted at the conference. It contains essays on Global Framework Agreements, Transnational Companies and Human Rights Abuse in the Global South, and National or European: Local Trade Union Politics within Transnational Business. 
<img height="169" alt="" src="" width="120" />
George Becker,&nbsp;1928 - 2007
The conference was organised by the New York State Industrial and Labour Relations School of Cornell University, and had strong support from the AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers (USW). The book is dedicated to former USW President George Becker, who was gravely ill at the time of the conference. A special tribute to him at the conference focused on his steadfast work during the 1994-95 strike at Bridgestone-Firestone in the US, and the international work that influenced that strike. 
 
The 280-page book is available by visiting <a href="http://www.Cornellpress.cornell.edu">www.Cornellpress.cornell.edu</a>, and orders and sales can be made by contacting Nathan Gemignani at <a href="mailto:ndg5@cornell.edu">ndg5@cornell.edu</a>. The book&rsquo;s cost is US$22.50, GB&pound;11.50, or A$39.95.

Book from New York Labour Conference Available from Cornell University Press

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The ICEM was saddened by the news on 20 October 2007 of the death of Shri Kantibhai Mehta, or Kanti Mehta, the great former leader of ICEM affiliate, Indian National Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation (INMF). He was 87. 
 
In a 23 October letter to the INMF, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda wrote, &ldquo;All of us will miss our great friend and most respected leader. Brother Kandi Mehta devoted his whole life to the development of the Indian trade union movement and played a key role in international labour work.&rdquo; 
 
Born in Calcutta, Kanti Mehta worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi, as well with other Indian leaders, including Kakasaheb Kalelkar and Vinoba Bhave. In 1942, he left university to join the Freedom Movement, at the side of Gandhi. He organised port and dock workers, and textile workers, before becoming a leader in the Indian National Trades Union Congress in 1948.
<img height="204" src="" width="150" alt="" />
&nbsp;Kanti Mehta in 1983 
 

A year later he helped found the INMF, and went on to serve as the trade union&rsquo;s General Secretary and President. He was the primary reason that some one million mineworkers&rsquo; united in India between the years 1956 and 1970. In honour, the Mineworkers&rsquo; International Federation (MIF) held its 1975 Congress in New Delhi. 
 
He was known for his selfless work on behalf of India&rsquo;s rural workers, reflected in the fact that so many mineworkers&rsquo; unified behind a collective voice, the INMF&rsquo;s. He served 15 years as a staunch workers&rsquo; representative on the ILO Governing Board. A deputy director general of the ILO called Brother Mehta one of just a few from the workers&rsquo; side &ldquo;who had first hand knowledge of the needs and problems&rdquo; of those in villages, small townships, as well as in urban areas. 
 
He was a strong advocate for worker education, and was founder of the Institute for Miners and Metalworkers Education, which later became known as the Ghandi Labour Foundation (GLF) in Puri, India. He headed the GLF for many years after his 1995 retirement. In 1978, he was recipient of the Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal Award for Industrial Peace. 
<img height="139" alt="" src="" width="300" />
He was an unlikely candidate for articulation of social issues affecting rural workers. He was born into a wealthy family of diamond merchants, and his life&rsquo;s work became diametric opposite to his upbringing. The quiet dignity that he learned at the side of Gandhi in his early 20s shaped his life. 
 
&ldquo;He will always be a role model in MIF unions,&rdquo; stated Warda. &ldquo;He more than anybody was responsible for bringing the first trade union in from Eastern or Central Europe when the Hungarian miners&rsquo; union joined MIF at the 1990 Berlin Presidium. And his final achievement globally was strong support for the MIF-ICEF merger in 1995.&rdquo; 
 
In 2005, a book was published on his life, entitled &ldquo;The Unsung Kohinoor: Kanti Mehta.&rdquo; That book can be found at the GLF website, <a href="http://www.gandhilabourfoundation.org">www.gandhilabourfoundation.org</a>.

ICEM Mourns Death of Indian Mineworkers’ Union Leader, Kanti Mehta

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