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Juan Linares Montufar was released from jail last Thursday, 24 February, in what trade unionists around the world are calling a victory for international solidarity against the repressive Mexican government. The release comes one week after trade unions around the world conducted a week-long &quot;Global Days of Action&quot; for trade union rights in Mexico. 
 
Linares outwitted a coordinated and nefarious grouping of employers/government/yellow unions in accepting their offer of a pardon in exchange for his turning on his union, the ICEM affiliate, National Union of Mine, Metal, and Steel Workers (SNTMMSSRM), only to announce details of the illegal offer and continued staunch allegiance to his union as soon as the pardon was made official. 
 
Linares was a political prisoner, held illegally since 3 December 2008 and without bond since his arrest. The sham charges against him all relate to the transfer of funds from a Trust created by SNTMMSSRM. His detention is one part of the campaign of trade union intimidation and repression by the Mexican government.
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Juan Linares is the President of the Oversight and Justice Council of the SNTMMSSRM, also known as Los Mineros, and a key member of the union&rsquo;s leadership. He was greeted on his release at 02h00 on 24 February by over 100 Los Mineros members outside the jail. 
 
The transfer of the trust funds was perfectly legal under Mexican law, as well as being a protected exercise of trade union autonomy under ILO Convention 87. Two state charges against Linares were dismissed during his time incarcerated, but a federal charge against him was dragged out while the courts denied him bail. 
 
Linares was held at the Reclusorio Norte prison in Mexico City. He received regular visits from his family, other Mineros leaders, and international trade union delegations. He said to all these visitors, &ldquo;I could walk out of this jail tomorrow if I were willing to betray my union. But I will never do that.&rdquo; 
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Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez
But it was this long-standing offer of freedom with personal payment of millions of pesos that gave Linares his route to freedom. The deal offered to Linares stipulated that he change his chosen defence lawyer, leave the ranks of Los Mineros for a yellow union of miners, and attack Los Mineros leadership. On Linares&rsquo; acceptance of these terms, the yellow union complainants appeared before a judge and withdrew their accusations. 
 
Linares said following his release that his pardon could not be revoked, as stipulated under Article 93 of the Mexican Federal Penal Code, and the pardon was irreversibly ratified. In addressing the court, Linares said that neither he nor Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia had committed any crime, that the complainants of the case were representatives of the company Grupo M&eacute;xico, that during his illegal detainment he was pressured and offered the pardon deal, and that the transfer of bribe money would be made through a contract employing Linares as a &ldquo;labour peace broker.&rdquo; 
 
The pardon deal that Linares signed had no legal foundation, especially as it was reached through intimidation and bribery, and was thus discarded. The ICEM salutes Juan Linares for his dignified victory and loyalty to his fellow Mineros.

Mexican Trade Unionist Juan Linares Released from Jail

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On 19 November 2010, a massive methane gas blast inside Pike River Coal Ltd.&rsquo;s New Zealand colliery killed 29 miners, including 11 members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and 13 contract workers. In the 15 weeks since, the government of Prime Minister John Keys has let down the victims&rsquo; families on the recovery of bodies, and now has barred the EPMU from federal funds for legal representation in the follow up investigation. 
 
On 14 February, the Key government announced legal cost assistance for the EPMU to the Royal Commission of Inquiry&rsquo;s investigation was denied. 
 
Attorney General Chris Finlayson called the union an &ldquo;advocacy organisation&rdquo; and said there should be no extra help extended to the EPMU in &ldquo;doing its job for its members.&rdquo; The government will pay the legal costs for families of victims and for all contractors in the commission&rsquo;s inquiry, which is expected to begin late this year with a report out no later than March 2012. 
 
&ldquo;The EPMU has a material stake in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Pike River coal mine disaster,&rdquo; said National Secretary Andrew Little, adding that any one of the 65 EPMU members in the 120-member staff of Pike River Coal Ltd. could have been a victim. 
 
&ldquo;The government has overlooked the union&rsquo;s legitimate interest in all of this,&rdquo; said Little. 
 
A month before this mid-February decision, the Key government lowered the boom on families of the 29 miners by sealing the South Island mine, announcing a recovery plan had failed, and stating there was no credible way to retrieve the 29 bodies. 
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Families&rsquo; spokesman Bernie Monk
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bloody sad day for New Zealand,&rdquo; said families&rsquo; spokesman Bernie Monk on 14 January. Monk&rsquo;s 23-year-old son Michael died inside the mine. &ldquo;They have not come to the families at all. How the hell are we going to get the truth if they don&rsquo;t go in?&rdquo; 
 
Key said in a press report that he made no promises to family members that remains of victims would be recovered. 
 
On 27 January, a chief coroner&rsquo;s inquest said all 29 likely died within minutes of the first blast on 19 November. On 24 November, a second major blast rocked the horizontal mine shafts and then two more explosions occurred in the days following. 
 
A major issue in all investigations is sure to be location of large ventilation fans inside the mine, an unusual location in coal mining where methane gas is prevalent. Initial reports state that an electrical outage shut two large ventilation fans inside the mine. The coroner&rsquo;s inquest said an electrician, Russell Smith, ventured into the mine to check on the outage and simultaneously, at 15h44 on 19 November, a 50-second explosion occurred. Some 600 metres in the mine, Smith came upon 24-year-old Daniel Rockhouse, an equipment operator who had been thrown from his machine. 
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NZ Congress of Trade Unions President Helen Kelly with Ian Murray and Tim Whyte, CFMEU Australia, at Pike River Memorial Service
The two managed to escape 108 metres up a ladder inside a ventilation shaft, exiting the mine at 17h26. The coroner&rsquo;s inquest grants death certificates to the families. But their bodies remain locked inside the Pike River mine. 
 
In a twist of fate last week, the trustee for the Pike River Disaster Relief Trust, Greymouth Mayor Tony Kokshoorn, urged donors to shift their contributions to Kiwi earthquake relief efforts. The mine trust has received over 20,000 contributions totaling NZ$7 million. 
 
Some donations, Kokshoorn said, were earmarked for specific purposes, while NZ$6.5 million is targeted to provide financial help to families of the 29. He said the fund would begin transferring funds into individual family trusts, with a priority to place funds in trust deeds of dependents of the victims.

Aftermath of NZ’s Pike River Mine Tragedy Turns Ugly

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ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person Phee Jungsun reached out last week to New Zealand trade union affiliates in the immediate aftermath of the 22 February earthquake. The 6.3 magnitude quake has claimed the lives of 147 people, with another 200 persons missing and feared dead. 
 
National Distribution Union (NDU) General Secretary Robert Reid said the building his union&rsquo;s offices are housed and NDU partly owns, the Christchurch Trade Union Centre on Armagh Street, was badly damaged from the quake. Return to work there is uncertain. The NDU&rsquo;s Christchurch offices are on the fourth floor of the labour building. 
 
&ldquo;All NDU staff and we think all our members in Christchurch are OK, although many have damage to their homes,&rdquo; he added. 
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NDU General Secretary Robert Reid
National Secretary Andrew Little of the Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) said, &ldquo;EPMU personnel are unscathed but we are still ascertaining the impact on our members and their workplaces.&rdquo; 
 
Little said Christchurch, New Zealand&rsquo;s second largest city, suffered &ldquo;a lot of destruction and it will take a long time for the city to recover.&rdquo; He added: &ldquo;The shake was a very violent one.&rdquo; 
 
Some 600 search and rescue teams are at work in Christchurch and the estimated damages range from NZ$4 billion (US$3 billion) to NZ$16 billion (US$12 billion.) 
 
The 22 February earthquake is the second in less than six months in New Zealand. In September, a 7.1 quake hit some 40 kilometres from Christchurch, but caused less damage because it occurred in a less populated and rural area. Several Kiwi cities sit atop a series of faults connected to Alpine Fault, a subterranean mass where the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates slide across one another.

NDU Christchurch Offices Damaged in New Zealand Earthquake

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The 55th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women is running in New York City at UN headquarters. The annual Commissions runs from 22 February to 4 March and some 2,000 delegates from 27 nations are in attendance. On opening day, they heard former Chile President and current UN Under-Secretary General for Women Michele Bachelet. 
 
Nearly 200 trade union women are participating in the annual conference, which this year has as its theme access and participation for girls and women in education, training, science, and technology. 
 
The trade union women, behind their union banners and in step with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Education International (EI), and Public Services International (PSI), also used opening day to join New York area trade unionists at Fox News broadcast offices in Manhattan to protest legislative attacks on public-sector collective bargaining rights in the state of Wisconsin. &ldquo;We are Wisconsin&rdquo; was the unified chant protesters shouted at America&rsquo;s right-wing mouthpiece. 
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Michele Bachelet
Inside the 55th UN Women&rsquo;s Commission, trade union women called for full rights and protections for domestic workers by adoption of a Domestic Workers&rsquo; Convention. The Convention is to be considered at this June&rsquo;s 100th Labour Conference of the ILO. EI Deputy General Secretary Jan Eastman delivered a statement on the subject in a plenary calling for &ldquo;full opportunities for education and training for girls and women &hellip; leading to productive employment and decent work.&rdquo; 
 
This year&rsquo;s Commission on the Status of Women sees the merger of four UN gender institutions into one, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and Women&rsquo;s Empowerment. Bachelet said in her opening remarks this &ldquo;has a unique and clear mandate to help ensure a seamless relationship&rdquo; between Member States and UN activities on overcoming gender imbalances. 
 
Bachelet warned not to postpone actions for women&rsquo;s empowerment on account of the global jobs crisis, stating that progress to date has been &ldquo;uneven and fragile.&rdquo;
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Canadian Trade Unionists Surround Rona Ambrose 
 
photo: CAW Women&rsquo;s Programs, Canada
Bachelet said: &ldquo;As we sit in this room today, there are still too many women and children being trafficked; too many domestic workers who left their families to live in new places, unprotected by labour laws or policies; too many girls forced to leave school or marry too early; too many women and girls who lack access to services. And worldwide,&rdquo; she added, &ldquo;there are too few women who are at decision-making tables where peace, trade or climate change agreements are being negotiated.&rdquo; 
 
Canadian trade union women attending the Commission got a chance to question Rona Ambrose, Canada&rsquo;s Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women. She spoke at the Commission on 24 February. The union representatives questioned Canada over lack of action and lack of outrage over 800 Canadian women being killed by men, on lax gun registry laws that perpetuate violence, and Canada&rsquo;s misuse of federal funds for programmes and work on missing and murdered Aboriginal women.

UN Commission on Status of Women Underway in New York City

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Turkish union leaders and militants of the Thrace region convened in early February for solidarity and support in a number of cases of industrial discord occurring in the rapidly-growing manufacturing zone. Five affiliates of the ICEM, the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) and the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) met and organized a demonstration at the Free Trade Zone of Corlu. 
 
The protest was in support of a two-month strike by ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş and dismissal of trade unionists by India-base Polyplex company, a plastics and polyester company. (The ICEM has launched a LabourStart campaign on this dispute; please join the <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=868">protest</a> now.)&nbsp; 
 
The demonstration also centered on other trade union infringements, particularly at worksites where organising is underway, and as well on the Turkish government&rsquo;s recent efforts to modify labour legislation regarding casual, temporary, and precarious work. Thrace is an area of Turkey experiencing a high of foreign industrial investments, ranging from metals to textiles to natural gas, chemicals, and rubber development. 
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Petrol-İş President Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkın (center) Speaks at Joint Demonstration
Attended the formation of this regional coalition of trade unions were union Petrol-İş President Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkın, Birleşik Metal-İş President Adnan Serdaroğlu, TEKSTIL President President Ridvan Budak, a member of the ITGLWF, Deri-İş President Musa Servi, also of the ITGLWF, representing leather and shoe workers, and the President of ICEM-affiliated Kristal-İş, Bilal &Ccedil;etintaş, the Glass Workers&rsquo; Union of Turkey. These leaders were also accompanied by local branch union leaders of several unions, political party representatives, and NGO representatives. 
 
The five unions cited above pledge to support each other in the Thrace region in ongoing strikes and recruitment drives. 
 
Nearby to Corlu, 12 factories have been targeted for union organizing, but many union activists have been dismissed from their jobs because of their union membership. Besides Polyplex (a prior <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4212-Organising-Campaigns-of-Petrol-İş-of-Turkey-continue-but-with-Pain-">ICEM report</a> can be found here), factories of Yeşil Kundura (shoes), Disa Otomotiv (an auto supplier), Anakonda (metal fabrication), Astaş Al&uuml;minyum (aluminum), and Grup Suni Deri (leather) have been targeted for unionisation, and evidence of that can be found with several tents of picketers to be found in front of the plants. In some workplaces, achievements have been made while solidarity and support activities continue, as does several court cases. 
 
&ldquo;For many days we have been striking at workplaces individually,&rdquo; said Petrol-İş President &Ouml;ztaşkın. &ldquo;But today all the unions striking in the regional come together. We have unified our powers. We have decided to walk together and to organize joint demonstrations and actions. Our hope is that this bond now starting in Thrace will spread to the whole of the country.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;Regardless of distinction or which confederation the union belongs,&rdquo; added Birleşik Metal-İş President Serdaroğlu, &ldquo;we will defend the rights of dismissed workers.&rdquo; 
 
Musa Servi, President of the ITGLWF affiliate Deri-İş, said, &ldquo;Employers will try to exploit by establishing factories in free trade zones where union rights are weak. If we act together, we can change this.&rdquo; 
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ICEM&rsquo;s Kemal &Ouml;zkan Addresses TEKSIF Congress
To cement this bond between ICEM in its sectors, and metals and textiles, ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan spoke at the 18th Congress of the Turkish Textile, Knitting, and Clothing Industry Workers&rsquo; Union (TEKSIF), an ITGLWF affiliate, on 19-20 February 2011 in Ankara. 
 
The Congress was attended and addressed by the President of ITGLWF, Hisanobu Shimada, and one agenda item was to conduct an intensive organizing campaign in textiles and related industries where over two million Turkish workers are employed. The campaign will also include a large support and solidarity with Turkish and international unions. 
 
In his letter of congratulations addressed to Nazmi Irgat, unanimously re-elected President of TEKSIF, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said: &ldquo;We are thankful for active support of the Turkish unions to the work toward creating a joint manufacturing and energy workers&rsquo; international. We know Turkish affiliates affiliated to all three organisations will play an effective role and take important responsibilities through support and solidarity.&rdquo;

Turkish Coalition of ICEM, IMF, ITGLWF Unions Forms in Thrace

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A dispute has arisen in South Africa between ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Xstrata Coal over the apparent discharge of 12 HIV-positive miners. The miners were first sacked last fall from their jobs at the Tweefontein collieries in Mpumalanga province, but the NUM interceded on their behalf before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) and won reinstatement to their jobs. 
 
But in mid-February, Xstrata Coal South Africa informed the NUM that it would re-sack the 12 and appeal the CCMA&rsquo;s decision to a labour court. At issue is whether or not Xstrata knew of their HIV status through a joint NUM-Xstrata Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCR) programme that is strictly confidential. Hundreds of Tweefontein miners were tested through the programme in October and November 2010. 
 
It is uncertain if Xstrata Coal gained access to results of the screenings, but the NUM alleges that the company does know the results. A private service provider was contracted to do the screenings and results are supposed to be shared only with the individual.
<img alt="" src="" width="225" height="169" />
Left: NUM Regional Secretary Paris Mashego
NUM Highveld Regional Secretary Paris Mashego accused the company of dragging backward the campaign to test for the pandemic and said the NUM will continue to press for the real motive behind Xstrata&rsquo;s reversal. Late this week, NUM delegates and shop stewards from many Xstrata worksites will descend on the company&rsquo;s Johannesburg headquarters to manifest against the injustice. 
 
&ldquo;What we experience here with Xstrata is the same thing our Australian comrades of the CFMEU experience with the company,&rdquo; said Mashego. &ldquo;They cannot accept official rulings and must always appeal their losses in order to get their way. Only in this case, there is something fundamentally wrong, the anonymity and confidentially of HIV-positive workers.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="70" height="100" />
The National Education, Health, and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union (NEHAWU) of South Africa also responded negatively to Xstrata Coal&rsquo;s alleged actions. &ldquo;This ghastly and barbaric behaviour by a company is a clear sign of how some big companies are failing to abide by the ILO or the OECD Codes of Conduct by violating workers&rsquo; rights and working conditions. 
 
&ldquo;This alleged discrimination against workers who are HIV-positive is a huge blow to the government&rsquo;s fight against AIDS,&rdquo; stated a NEHAWU spokesman, &ldquo;because it sends a message to those who have the disease that they will lose their jobs if they come out.&rdquo; 
 
Xstrata Coal South Africa, 20% owned by African Rainbow Minerals Ltd., operates 11 coal mines in South Africa, and is currently developing three new projects &ndash; the Arthur Taylor Colliery Opencast Mine (ATCOM) East development, the Goedgevond coal project, and optimisation of the Zonnebloem project, all in Mpumalanga province. Together with the Tweefontein optimisation project now nearing completion, the projects will eventually produce 90% of the company&rsquo;s South African coal output.

Xstrata Coal South Africa Accused of Sacking HIV-Positive Miners

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In France, European paper and packaging giant SmurfitKappa was made to move up on a 2011 wage offer for 2,500 corrugated packaging workers following a day-long strike on 23 February. The French paperworkers are employed at 18 SmurfitKappa paper plants and French union CGT-FILPAC staged successful strikes at all 18 that increased 2011 earnings. 
 
The agreement calls for a 2.35% wage increase spread across 2011. SmurfitKappa had offered only 1.4% prior to the strike, with half of that &ndash; 0.7% -- first due on 1 April. CGT-FILPAC won a one percent on 1 March, with the remainder due sooner this year than the company&rsquo;s now discarded proposal dates. 
 
The union also won an added increase for lower-salaried workers, effective 1 October 2011, and posted an increase in holiday pay as well. 
 
Last week&rsquo;s industrial action was the second within a month in the French paper sector over what constitutes a fair 2011 pay increase. Some 400 UPM paperworkers at the Chapelle Darblay newsprint mill had been staging twice-weekly two-hour strikes across all three work shifts to get the Finland-based company to meet French cost-of-living demands. 
 
And to illustrate the deadly risks inside the paper sector, also in France, in late January a contract worker was killed at Emin Leyder&rsquo;s paperboard mill in Nogent-sur-Seine, Aube, when a gas explosion occurred inside a pulp tower. The 47-year-old contractor was working on the roof of a pulping tower with another worker and was blown off the roof by the blast. The 300,000 tonne-per-year corrugated medium and linerboard mill is the smaller of Emin Leyder&rsquo;s two French mills, owned by the holding company FINEL SA.

24-Hour Paper Strike Gives Accord to CGT-FILPAC, SmurfitKappa

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The ICEM today expressed sadness and anger at the deaths of two members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500 in Sudbury, Ontario, on Wednesday night, 8 June. The two miners died 900 metres underground at Vale&rsquo;s Stobie nickel and copper mine when an overflow of broken rock, sediment, and water &ndash; known as muck &ndash; buried them. 
 
The miners were identified yesterday as Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26. The two men were operating a scooptram at the No. 7 ore pass inside Stobie. An ore pass is a junction where ore is dropped from one level to the next. Sixty miners were working in the mine on the night shift when the fatalities occurred. 
 
In a letter today to USW President Leo Gerard, himself a former mineworker in Sudbury, USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann, and USW Local 6500 President Rick Bertrand, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda stated: &ldquo;It is a terrible tragedy and makes clear the inherent dangers for workers whose livelihoods are dependent on the mining industry. Please convey the sympathies of the entire ICEM global family of unions to the families of the two miners, as well as to all union members of Local 6500.&rdquo; (See the full <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/54.ICEM.USW.Sudbury%20Deaths.Canada.10June.pdf">ICEM letter</a> here.) 

<img alt="" src="" width="144" height="168" />
Vale&rsquo;s Stobie nickel and copper mine
The ICEM also noted that USW&rsquo;s expert team of safety and health investigators will probe the tragic circumstances to uncover what went wrong and to ensure a similar tragedy does not happen again. The ICEM stated the sad irony of the 8 June is that only eight days before the miners&rsquo; deaths, Vale was honoured with an award by the Canadian Institute of Mining as having the safest two metal mines in Canada. 
 
Although the mines receiving the award were at Vale&rsquo;s nickel operations in Thompson, Manitoba, mines from Sudbury won the same award consecutively from 2006 to 2009. 
 
In a statement, Local 6500 President Bertrand said, &ldquo;The Steelworkers will be involved in this investigation every step of the way. Once the investigation is complete we will work hard for the workplace to be restored to safe condition before it starts up again.&rdquo; 
 
The Stobie mine in Sudbury consists of two adjoining mines, an open cast one and an underground one where the tragedy occurred. Canada has not ratified ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention.

ICEM Saddened by Mine Deaths of Two Steelworkers at Vale in Sudbury, Canada

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Suez Environnement, a subsidiary of French-based GDF SUEZ, was hit with an OECD petition pursuant to the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises yesterday by ICEM affiliate Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA). The petition was for alleged environmental failures and unfair labour practice complaints issued by the US government against United Water, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suez Environnement. 
 
GDF SUEZ is signatory to a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with three Global Union Federations (GUFs), including ICEM and Public Services International (PSI). Both ICEM and PSI have jointly criticised the parent company for the insolent social conduct of it&rsquo;s subsidiary in the US Suez Environnement is 35% held by GDF SUEZ. 
 
The US National Labour Relations Board authorised unfair labour practice complaints against United Water at two separate locations where the UWUA represents workers and is now negotiating with United Water over renewal agreements. The US agency&rsquo;s charge against management involves failure to provide relevant information to the union related to bargaining. 
 
United Water is demanding steep cuts in employee retirement benefits. Failure to adequately exchange information related to bargaining clearly violates Article 7 of the GDF SUEZ GFA, &ldquo;Respect for Trade Union Rights,&rdquo; which references transparency in labour-management forums. The agreement also refers to the OECD Guidelines and the ILO Tripartite Principles, both of which have clear language regarding exchange of information for &ldquo;meaningful negotiations&rdquo; in social partnerships. 
 
The GFA, signed in November 2010, covers all of the group&rsquo;s businesses, even ones in which the company holds a minority stake. In a letter last month to GDF SUEZ CEO G&eacute;rard Mestralett, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and PSI General Secretary Peter Waldorff said, &ldquo;The ICEM and PSI are angry and disappointed with the callousness, indifference, and negative conduct of United Water management in relation to the Global Framework Agreement and abidance to GDF SUEZ&rsquo;s core social principles.&rdquo;
<img alt="" src="" width="260" height="173" />
UWUA President Michael Langford&nbsp; 

The alleged environmental infractions also saw the GUFs take issue with United Water. In December 2010, the US government issued a criminal indictment charging that United Water intentionally manipulated E.coli bacteria monitoring tests at a wastewater treatment plant outside of Chicago. The indictment alleges that United Water engaged in a scheme in which it increased chlorine levels when government-mandated E.coli inspections took place, and then lowered input levels after as a costs-savings measure. The allegations, if proven true, stand as an obvious menace to public health. United Water has pleaded not guilty to the charges. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4208-US-Affiliate-UWUA-Challenges-GDF-SUEZ-Inside-Global-Agreement">ICEM report</a> on that here.) 
 
The UWUA symbolically filed the OECD petition yesterday, along with the American NGO Food and Water Watch, at the French embassy in Washington, DC, as well as to the US government&rsquo;s National Contact Point. UWUA Local 1-2 in New York City also distributed informational leaflets on United Water&rsquo;s detrimental conduct outside the French mission to the UN. Under the OECD complaint process, both the US and French governments are obligated to forward the submission to the French parent company and to the US subsidiary for a formal reply. 
 
UWUA President Michael Langford said, &ldquo;Utility workers have been astonished at the bad faith conduct of United Water in labour negotiations in the US.&rdquo;

US Utility Workers File OECD Complaint Against Suez Environnement

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Addressing the Plenary sitting of the 100th session of the International Labour Conference today, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda called for action on precarious work, workers' health and safety in the mining industry, and attention to the violation of rights of Holcim employees in India, as well as on abuses to glass workers in Mexico. 
 
Warda condemned the shocking attempt by Swiss-based cement multinational Holcim to crush the union representing its employees in India, with unsubstantiated claims leading to the 19 May arrest of union leaders engaged during a legal battle for the reinstatement of 80 members illegally sacked at the Holcim-ACC unit at Jamul.
Referring to the recent attempt of those outsourced workers to voice their concerns to the authorities, Warda continued, &ldquo;It is deplorable that Mr. Chandrashekhar Sahu, the Labor Minister of the State of Chhattisgarth of India, attending this Conference, refused to meet 250 Holcim workers who had walked long distances to appeal to him for observation of basic trade union rights.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="327" height="160" />
Warda called on governments and employers to move towards ratification and implementation of ILO Convention 176 and its associated Recommendation 183, on safety and health in mines. With Ukraine soon to become the 25th country to ratify the Convention, this represents far too few adoptions, while miners are continuing to be killed and injured every day around the world. 
 
Finally, Warda focussed on the ILO complaint&nbsp;No. 2774 by Mexican affiliated union SUTEIVP. The complaint is being fully supported by the ICEM, following a 2008 mass dismissal of hundreds of workers at Industria Vidriera del Potosi S.A., a manufacturer of glass bottles used by Corona beer. The sacked workers were covered by a collective bargaining agreement and included the executive committee of the SUTEIVP at the plant. A protection contract was then established by the employer. 
 
See the <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/ICEM_Manfred_Warda_ILC_Plenary_Speech%20_8_June%20FINAL.pdf">full text of the speech</a> here.

ICEM General Secretary Addresses International Labour Conference

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