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The announced 5.5% wage cut for 15,000 employees of Czech mining company OKD will not occur and instead, through negotiations with mining unions, a compromise has been reached. That compromise, occurring on 30 April, calls for a decrease in the number of agency workers used, and a partial reduction in the number of employees from supplier companies. 
 
The demand for cuts is due to the impact of the world&rsquo;s financial crisis. 

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The company originally proposed an across-the-board decrease in salaries of 5.5%, cancellation of some bonuses, and a reduction in staff of 2,600 regular employees and 900 workers employed by supplier companies. The negotiated compromise preserves all full-time jobs, with job reductions coming from among the 3,000 agency workers that OKD used and from staff of some suppliers. 
 
A mining union spokesman called the compromise the lesser of two evils. 
 
OKD, the Czech Republic&rsquo;s largest hard coal producer, is wholly owned by New World Resources of the Netherlands, an investment company focusing on assets in Central Europe. In 2008, OKD produced 12.7 million tonnes of coal, of which 7.4 million tonnes was coking coal.

Czech Mining Unions Preserve Pay; OKD to Cut Agency Staff, Suppliers’ Staff

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On 15-16 April, the ICEM organised an Asia/Pacific-wide conference on Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) in Singapore. The conference, attended by 50 trade unionists, was held with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) of Germany. 
 
Participants spoke candidly on the ongoing problems of short-term contract and agency work, and other forms of precarious work, and how it affects their daily lives. The experiences expressed made it abundantly clear that the phenomenon is wide-spread, still on the rise, and detrimental to labour relations in Asia-Pacific countries. Such contributions, in addition to those from the ICEM and the FES, came from Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Nepal and Korea, as well as from Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. 
 
An omnipresent problem is that, in almost every Asian country, regular, permanent, and direct-employed workers are being replaced by CAL workers, who are often paid less than permanent workers. They never get the same benefits, nor do they have much of a job future. In Malaysia, for example, it was said that CAL in the past used to be almost uniquely a problem for migrant workers. This is no longer so. In Pakistan, trade unionists note a sharp increase in the use of &ldquo;piece-rate workers.&rdquo; 

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A concurrent issue expressed by all participants is the fear factor. Contract and agency workers are afraid even to discuss union issues, let alone join a union, since this often translates to an end to their fixed-term contracts. It appears to be a simple matter for companies operating in Asia to remove workers from their workforce, or to shift them to less secure jobs. 
 
Among the numerous other problems mentioned was the lack of respect for law where there is some semblance of existing legal protections, such as in the Philippines, India, or Indonesia. Another problem voiced is that oftentimes there are too many unions in some countries, making cooperation difficult. 
 
The positive news is that unions, slowly but surely, are starting to deal with the problem at all three levels that the global ICEM campaign on CAL is aimed at: legislative changes that not only protect workers from abuses, but also leading to more direct and permanent employment (a promising bill is being readied in the Philippines); work at company level, including making the issue key in collective bargaining as well as an organising priority; and evaluating internal union structures to ensure that CAL workers can effectively join trade unions. This has occurred in Thailand, Malaysia, India, Singapore, and Korea. 
 
An important concern on this latter point, as acknowledged by all, is the need to organise more trade union work at industry or sector level, steering away from company-unionism, where it is often easy for employers to &ldquo;divide and conquer&rdquo; the two sets of workers. 
 
Unfortunately, there are currently still many more problems than success stories. One specific example is the continuing problem in stemming the number of CAL workers at Linde in Thailand, an industrial gases company, and granting full-time, permanent employment to such workers. 
 
Adverse examples given of &ldquo;CAL employment techniques&rdquo; in Asia include the use of standard 17-month contracts, in which the collective agreement calls for more rights and benefits for workers after 18 months. Another is supervisors who openly discriminate against CAL workers linked to a union. In the Philippines, companies have used blank resignation letters, asking CAL workers to sign before they even start work. Other workers have been asked to re-enter their current job, but under another name, thus preventing them from gaining increased benefits, or becoming part of the permanent workforce.

ICEM Singapore Conference Illuminates Problems for Contract, Agency Workers in Region

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The ICEM will change its Secretariat headquarters from Brussels to Geneva, Switzerland, effective 1 April 2008. A letter to all affiliates and others can be found <a href="/index.php?id=12&amp;doc=2609&amp;la=EN">here</a>.

Effective Date of ICEM Move to Geneva: 1 April 2008

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The ICEM joined trade union leaders from Canada, the UK, the US, and Ukraine at the Canadian Nuclear Association&rsquo;s annual meetings in Ottawa, Canada, from 27-29 February. 
 
A strong trade union contingent at the nuclear association&rsquo;s annual seminar brought representatives from local branches of the United Steelworkers (USW) and Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada, together with national labour leaders from the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), the Power Workers&rsquo; Union (PWU) of Ontario, Unite of the UK, and the Nuclear Power and Industry Workers&rsquo; of Ukraine (Atomprofspilka).
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All are ICEM affiliates. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and other international guests attended at the invitation of the PWU. Atomprofspilka President Valeryi Matov attended, as did UWUA President D. Michael Langford from the US. Representing Unite was Bill Tynan, who heads up Trade Unions for Safe Nuclear Energy in the UK. 
 
Among speakers at this year&rsquo;s event were Canadian astronaut Dr. Marc Garneau, environmentalist Steward Brand, and Province of New Brunswick Energy Minister Jack Kier.
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&nbsp;Manfred Warda, left, with protesting CEP members at Petro-Canada in Ottawa 
 

The ICEM&rsquo;s Warda utilised the visit to Canada&rsquo;s capital city to also participate in CEP&rsquo;s 29 February National Day of Action. He helped to handbill PetroCanada retail petrol outlets in Ottawa. Members of CEP Local 175 have been locked out by the company since 17 November 2007 at a refinery in Montr&eacute;al. The union is urging Canadians not to buy petrol or other products from the Alberta, Canada-based company.

Labour Leaders Attend Canadian Nuclear Association’s Annual Event

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Late in February, a 150-page judgement by an Employment Tribunal in Aberdeen, UK, granted offshore oil and gas workers 14 days of paid holidays under the European Union&rsquo;s Working Time Regulations. 
 
The ruling puts to rest a four-year battle between UK unions and the industry group, Oil and Gas UK, in which employers were trying to count break time while working offshore toward the four-week holiday entitlement.
Amicus, the predecessor to UK&rsquo;s largest union, ICEM affiliate Unite, brought the case before the tribunal on behalf of 500 workers, who filed claims for added holiday pay entitlements. The effects of the ruling, however, will give two weeks of extra holiday pay to some 25,000 workers, mostly drillers, sub-sea workers, catering and other service staff. 
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An agreement between Amicus, GMB Union, and the Offshore Contractors Association last year gave 10,000 other offshore workers involved in the production process four weeks&rsquo; paid leave. This ruling covers other offshore workers and is significant because paid leave must be granted to workers when they are offshore, not during periods when they are onshore between work shifts. 
 
North Sea workers generally work two weeks offshore, before getting two weeks onshore leave. The ruling states that workers are entitled to the paid holidays, which on the pro rata basis out of four weeks&rsquo; work, is equivalent to 14 days of paid annual leave under the EU&rsquo;s Working Time Directive. 
 
&ldquo;Paid holidays for offshore workers are no longer a gift from employers, but a legal right,&rdquo; said Unite Regional Officer Graham Tran. He called on offshore operating companies not to appeal the ruling, which could drag the issue on for another five years. &ldquo;I call on all companies operating offshore to accept this ruling and to meet with the recognised unions to discuss how best to implement the ruling,&rdquo; said Tran.

UK Offshore Oil/Gas Workers Win Work-Time Ruling, and Two Weeks’ Holiday Pay!

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A broken social accord by employers&rsquo; groupings in Slovenia has caused the nation&rsquo;s largest trade union federation, Zveza Svobodnih Sindikatoc Slovenije (ZSSS), to call a mass strike for this Wednesday, 12 March. The strike, which could bring up to 200,000 workers and their families to the streets and eclipse Slovenia&rsquo;s largest mass strike ever, on 17 November 2007, will be joined by union members from other Slovenian national trade union centres.
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After negotiating for six months on pay, holiday bonuses, and other work-related expenses, social partners came to a deal on 25 January, thus halting plans for a mass strike scheduled for 6 February. But when it came time to sign the agreement in early February, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Employers&rsquo; Association (ZDS), backed away from the deal that would have given gains equal to Slovenia&rsquo;s spiralling inflation rate. 
 
In a letter issued on 6 February, ZSSS President Du&scaron;an Semolič said the various employers&rsquo; associations were now &ldquo;manipulating&rdquo; inside individual companies, by forcing contracts with low percentage pay adjustments to workers. The union federation then called the 12 March strike on 18 February.
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In December 2007, the country&rsquo;s gross average monthly earnings, based on inflation-adjusted terms, had risen by less than 1%, compared to the same period in 2006. The country&rsquo;s inflation rate in December 2007 had grown to 6.4%. A short 11 months earlier, when Slovenia adopted the euro as currency, its inflation rate had been 2.8%. 
 
The ZSSS-led strike has broad support among both European trade unions and global unions. Meanwhile, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has called for a demonstration on 5 April 2008 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, over the European Central Bank&rsquo;s (ECB) loud public cry for wage moderation. The protest will occur at the same time that the ECB Governing Council meets with EU Finance Ministers on economic and monetary policies in Ljubljana.

Labour Unions Mass for General Strike in Slovenia on 12 March

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After five days of talks intended to probe solutions to Canada&rsquo;s forest products crisis, negotiations ended 6 March between ICEM affiliate Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) and AbitibiBowater, the major paper producer in the Canadian East. 
 
&ldquo;CEP members came to these negotiations one year early to achieve more stability for the Canadian pulp and paper industry and to stop the bleeding of thousands of jobs,&rdquo; stated CEP President Dave Coles. &ldquo;However, instead of working with the union and their employees, the negotiations were ended by the company because CEP would not agree to major concessions concerning the pension plan and other issues.&rdquo;
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CEP President Dave Coles&nbsp; 
 

In February, delegates from the union&rsquo;s pulp and paper sector voted to enter talks early for 5,500 AbitibiBowater workers at some 13 eastern Canadian pulp and paper mills. The talks, a full 13 months before contracts for 20,000 paperworkers in eastern Canada were set to expire, were aimed at getting contract extensions and initiating productivity and efficiency practices inside Canadian mills. 
 
&ldquo;We are very disappointed in this outcome,&rdquo; added Coles. But &ldquo;we must send a clear and strong message to the industry that our position will not change one year from now when our contracts expire.&rdquo; 
 
In the Canadian West, the CEP is currently in talks with paper companies. Contracts there expire on 1 April 2008.

Early Talks Fail with AbitibiBowater in Eastern Canadian Pulp, Paper Industry

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ICEM affiliate Toimihenkil&ouml;unioni TU has taken the global forestry company Stora Enso to a Court of Law in Finland over a breach of the country&rsquo;s statutes. The salaried workers&rsquo; union of Finland is holding the Nordic-based company responsible for violating the Act of Cooperation Within Untertakings, a 1978 statute and part of the country&rsquo;s labour code. 
 
That is according to TU News, the union&rsquo;s newsletter. The suit alleges that Stora Enso began unilaterally cutting back operations at its Summa paper mill in southeast Finland before statutory consultations with stakeholders had begun. This related to Stora&rsquo;s harsh restructuring announcement in October 2007, in which the company said it would close mills in Finland and Sweden, and cut jobs elsewhere in Europe as well. 
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Toimihenkil&ouml;unioni notes that the mandatory consultation process began in early November 2007, and ran until January 2008. Yet, Stora&rsquo;s marketing team was told in October not to book any further orders from the newsprint and book papers mill, and the company cancelled all raw material orders then as well. The newsletter states that no 2008 budget for the mill was ever in planning.
Union President Antti Rinne was astonished that the Finnish government, a sizeable stockholder of Stora Enso, was not informed of the company&rsquo;s abrupt curtailments. The alleged illegal actions by Stora surfaced when Finnish Defense Minister Jyri H&auml;k&auml;mies, the statutory head of all enterprise ownership, admitted at a union forum in Helsinki on 29 January that the government had not been given advance notice. 
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A day later, Stora shut one paper machine at the 450-worker Summa mill, and then the next day &ndash; 31 January &ndash; the company switched off the mill&rsquo;s other paper machine, effectively closing the operation. 
 
&ldquo;During negotiations, it was no longer a question of a plan to close the mill,&rdquo; said the newsletter, but it became evident in talks that &ldquo;the decision itself&rdquo; had been &ldquo;implemented simultaneously with the negotiations.&rdquo; Finland&rsquo;s Act on Cooperation Within Undertakings is intended to improve work conditions and to further cooperation between employers and staff. 
 
Under Finnish law, the suit brought by Toimihenkil&ouml;unioni on behalf of its members, if successful, could mean pay-outs of up to &euro;30,000 for each worker who was sacked.

Salaried Trade Union, Toimihenkilöunioni, Places Stora in the Dock in Finnish Court

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Two days ago, on Saturday, 8 March, the world celebrated International Women&rsquo;s Day (IWD). The day was first officially recognised as a day to honour the achievements of women at a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1911, but it actually had its origin in a women&rsquo;s march in New York City three years earlier. 
 
Then, in 1908, 15,000 women marched through the streets of New York demanding shorter hours, better pay, and voting rights in the US. The first national women&rsquo;s day was declared in the US on 28 February 1909. It wasn&rsquo;t until 1977 that the UN established 8 March as IWD.
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This year, events, reports, and surveys worldwide drew attention to accomplishments by women in both work and in life, as well as highlighting the necessity to continue the fight for gender equality. Perhaps nowhere is 8 March celebrated like it is in Russia, where, in 1917, it was declared a national holiday. 
 
It was in that year that Russian women gained the right to vote. Today, 8 March is a day of tribute to all women of Russia, with flowers presented to them and road police commonly ignoring minor traffic violations committed by women. Two days ago, women of Nizhny Novgorod in the Volga region played chess on a giant carpet in the city square, using men as the chess pieces. Women commanded their every move, as the men were dressed in masks and gowns. 
 
In Latvia, a poll shows that 53% of all citizens consider IWD an important holiday and they celebrate it, despite the government downgraded the day after separation from the former USSR in 1991. In Georgia, women who are beyond the ages of 90 and 100, received special gifts from their government this year.
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But in many countries, actions took a more serious note over the weekend. In Iraq on Saturday, hundreds of women gathered or a rally in front of the Babylon Hotel in Baghdad&rsquo;s central Karada neighbourhood to call for an end to violence toward women in the war-torn country. 
 
The Iraqi call also was for women to be granted the freedom to choose their husbands themselves, as well as their careers. Following the rally, a conference on women&rsquo;s rights was held in a hotel. One of the speakers was the Iraqi Minister for Women&rsquo;s Rights, Nariman Mahmoud Othman, who earlier had led a delegation of women to the offices of Mahmoud Mashhadani, head of Parliament, with a list of women&rsquo;s rights issues. 
 
Also in Iraq, an NGO report, issued two days before IWD, showed that 64% of Iraqi women surveyed say that violence against them had increased since the 2003 invasion by occupation military forces.
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Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas used IWD to give a speech at his Ramallah headquarters, calling for peace between the impoverished nation and Israel. &ldquo;Despite all the Israeli attacks, we call for peace and we are keen on peace built through international legitimacy,&rdquo; said Abbas, in calling for renewed peace talks with Israel. 
 
In the Philippines, over 1,000 women on 8 March marched to the presidential palace of Gloria Arroyo. The march was led by feminist groups, who called on Arroyo to resign over allegations that her husband and a political ally sought financial kickbacks from a Chinese company in a national internet broadband deal. 
 
Arroyo used the day prior to IWD to announce two programmes aimed at giving Filipino women technical training and to assist them in entrepreneur endeavours.
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Taiwan Vice President Annette Lu dedicated the opening of the Taiwan National Women&rsquo;s Hall in Taipei on Saturday. It will serve as a venue for women&rsquo;s groups to hold exhibitions, meetings, and to host international women&rsquo;s delegations. &ldquo;Usually people think history is the story of men, hence the word &lsquo;history&rsquo;,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;But in the future, there should also be the story of &lsquo;herstory,&rsquo; and when the two words are combined, they become &lsquo;human story&rsquo;,&rdquo; she remarked. 
 
In Australia, IWD was marked by a celebratory rally in Sydney&rsquo;s Hyde Park in honour of a new domestic violence law that took effect in the state of New South Wales (NSW). The law introduces a specific change regarding domestic violence that allows the state to name and shame offenders. 
 
NSW now places a &ldquo;black mark&rdquo; next to the names of repeat offenders, so that such people are highlighted before the justice system. Previously, domestic violence offenders were tagged only with general assault charges. Meanwhile, the Kevin Rudd government has begun the process toward making Australia a partner to the optional protocol of the UN&rsquo;s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
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In Nepal, women&rsquo;s and human rights groups activists staged protests calling for an end to the statutory 35-day limitation in the Himalayan country for filing rape charges. Jagaran Nepal, an NGO working for women&rsquo;s rights, peace, and governance, also conducted events, as did the organisation Walking for Working Women, which held a march in Kathmandu that culminated in music and performance at Three Kings Monument in the city. 
 
In Pakistan, Working Women Organisation (WWO) organised a seminar on Saturday at the Lahore Press Club. Human rights activists presented their thoughts regarding women&rsquo;s role in building democracy and justice. &ldquo;Even though the situation is extremely gloomy&rdquo; in Pakistan, said a WWO letter, &ldquo;one thing which keeps our hopes alive is that workers, women&rsquo;s organisations, trade unions, lawyers, and media never stop to raise their voices against government suppression.&rdquo; 
 
Also in Pakistan, social service organisations, NGOs, and some political parties paid tribute to the contributions of women in the fields of politics, science, education, the medical profession, and arts and literature. The Pakistan People&rsquo;s Party directed all of its branch offices across the country to hold ceremonies in honour of its slain chairperson, Benazir Bhutto. 
 
In Ireland on 7-8 March, the Irish Council of Trade Unions held a Women&rsquo;s Conference in Tralee that focused on gender pay and the pension gap, support for working families, childcare, equality, and women in leadership. Some 180 delegates attended.
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A motion from the trade union SIPTU to the conference centered on pay inequality. The union stated that traditional ways of measuring the pay gap between men and women does not fully reflect the real disparities. &ldquo;Issues such as pensions and paid leave must be factored in,&rdquo; read SIPTU&rsquo;s motion. 
 
The union called for research to be commissioned in Ireland in order to provide more accurate and holistic statistics for comparing income throughout the life cycle. SIPTU also calls on trade unions to place the pensions disparity between men and women forefront in future collective negotiations. 
 
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) used IWD to release a survey on women&rsquo;s presence in leadership positions inside trade unions. The ETUC survey, the first of what will become an annual poll of member organisations on gender issues, reveals a paradox between women in trade union leadership positions and the fact that women&rsquo;s job growth is sharply curbing the decline in union membership. 
 
Eighteen European national labour centres have reported rises in female union membership, ranging from 0.2% to 2.5% over just the past year. This compares with a general drop in union membership for men. &ldquo;There is significant room for improvement and it is time to implement concrete measures&rdquo; for more women leadership roles in trade unions, states the ETUC.
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Meanwhile, the ITUC last week issued a report on the occasion of IWD, entitled The Global Gender Pay Gap. Using statistics from 63 countries, the report puts the worldwide gender pay gap on average at 16% less for women than for men. 
 
The report does show that collective bargaining by trade unions in some countries swerves to narrow the gap in salaries. But the report cautions that the actual pay gap may be higher than 16% when considering the hundreds of millions of informal workers toiling in low-wage jobs today. 
 
Another report last week was issued by the ILO. Called Global Employment Trends 2008, the report says creation of greater gender equality is dependent on access to decent work and productive employment. The report states that even though women are entering the workforce in greater number, the jobs women get are generally low-paid and vulnerable, leaving them with few social protections or basic rights. 
 
The ILO noted that the most successful region in terms of economic growth over the past 10 years &ndash; East Asia &ndash; is also the region with the highest employment-to-population ratio for women at 65.2%. East Asia is characterized as a region with low jobless rates for both men and women, and relatively small gender gaps in pay and status. 
 
IWD is observed officially as a national holiday by 14 nations. They include: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Global Events Mark International Women’s Day, 8 March

Brussels, 7 March 2008 
 
Dear Colleagues, 
 
Following a decision taken by our Congress, last November 2007, the ICEM will move its headquarters to Geneva, Switzerland. 
 
As from 1st April the new address for ICEM will be: 
54bis route des Acacias 
1227 Geneva, Switzerland 
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The transfer of the headquarters will implement some technical issues with the transfer of the IT server to Geneva. Indeed ICEM will be &lsquo;cut&rsquo; from any internet, e-mail or network communication from 21 March 2008 until most probably 6 April 2008 included. 
 
We apologies for the inconvenience the situation could cause you and we thank you very much in advance for your understanding. 
In case of emergency situation or issues, you can contact us by fax on +32-2/648-43-16 and we will do our best to help you. 
 
Looking forward to welcoming you in Geneva. 
 
In solidarity, 
 
Manfred Warda 
General Secretary

ICEM is moving to Geneva

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