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The ICEM, the Global Union Federation representing workers in the Mining and Energy sectors, has expressed deep concern over the mine tragedy in the central Donbass region of the Ukraine that occurred yesterday. The Geneva-based federation of trade unions understands the Karl Marx mine near Yenakiyevo to be a low producer of coal and questions whether necessary safety and methane-detection equipment were in place at the time of the blast. 
 
The ICEM has reached out to one of its mining union affilates in the country, the Coal Mining Workers&rsquo; Union of Ukraine (PRUPU), whose members work this particularly mine. The mine produces a low-yield tonnage of coal each day and has a steep gradient of coal veins, which could enhance safety risks if proper safeguards are not met. 
 
&ldquo;We understand this particular mine is barely economically viable, and we question why this mine was even operating,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;Certainly any mining operation that produces coal in Ukraine should and must have proper methane detection devices and other modern safety equipment in place,&rdquo; he added.
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="250" />
This is the second major mine tragedy to have occurred in the Ukraine in the past seven months, and the ICEM calls on the government of the country to take immediate steps toward ratification of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 
 
In the ICEM letter to PRUPU today, the Global Union Federation expressed condolences to the families of miners who have died and extended &ldquo;our greatest hope that rescue efforts will succeed for those who might still be alive inside the mine. 
 
&ldquo;The 20-million-member ICEM stands behind PRUPU in calling on the new Minister of Coal and other Ukrainian authorities to conduct a full investigation of this tragedy.&rdquo; 
 
The Geneva-based International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) represents, on a global level, 467 trade union affiliates in 132 countries, including some 125 national unions in the mining sector.

ICEM Expresses Concern over Latest Ukrainian Coal Mine Blast

In this issue the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin gives information on the procedure leading to the ILO Recommendation on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work. It also takes up the International AIDS Conference, to be held in Mexico City in August.
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The ICEM Calls on its Affiliates to Contribute to this e-bulletin 
 
ICEM affiliates are already engaged in a wide range of HIV/AIDS activities. To spread the information on new agreements, awareness, and prevention campaigns, and educational activities, affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to hiv.aids@icem.org. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome.
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ILO Recommendation on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work 
 
In March 2007, the Governing Body of the ILO decided to place on the agenda of the International Labour Conferences for 2009 and 2010 an item intended for &ldquo;the development of an autonomous Recommendation on HIV and AIDS in the world of work.&rdquo; 
 
The ILO has begun work towards the adoption of a Recommendation in 2010. Under the Constitution and Standing Orders, five reports have to be prepared within specific time limits, with each report to contain specific information. The first report, called a &ldquo;Law and Practice Report,&rdquo; provides an overview of national and international measures taken with respect to HIV/AIDS. This report was published and sent to governments in January 2008. 
 
The Law and Practice Report, which is available at <a href="http://www.ilo.org/aids">www.ilo.org/aids</a>, also contains a questionnaire to which governments, in consultation with employers&rsquo; and workers&rsquo; organisations, are to provide replies to the ILO by the end of July 2008. Consultation usually occurs through national trade union centres. 
The ICEM calls on its affiliates to get fully involved in this process and make sure that substantive replies, with comments which reflect the views of workers, are provided in time. It is only in this way that the second report, which will be prepared by the ILO on the basis of the replies received, reflects the views of workers and their unions. It is worth noting that workers&rsquo; organisations may also provide their comments directly to the ILO. 
(The item above appeared already in the May issue of the e-bulletin. Because of the importance of the campaign, it is repeated here) 

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17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, 3 &ndash; 8 August 
 
The International AIDS Conference (IAC), organised by the Geneva-based International AIDS Society, takes place every two years. The last one was organised in Toronto in August 2006. The Conference is the largest meeting on HIV/AIDS worldwide. Some 25,000 scientists, politicians and activists are expected to participate in the event. This year&rsquo;s IAC is first ever held in Latin America. 
 
Conference organisers are developing a wide variety of plenary sessions around the theme, &ldquo;Universal Action Now.&rdquo; In addition to these sessions there are satellite meetings, exhibitions, and the Global Village. 
 
It is important that union HIV/AIDS activists participate in this event so that labour&rsquo;s voice is heard. In Toronto, the labour movement was well represented, highlighting the impact of HIV and AIDS on the workplace and emphasising the role of workers&rsquo; organisations in fighting the pandemic. 
 
As in Toronto, the Conference in Mexico will be preceded by a Labour AIDS Forum organised by the Global Union AIDS Programme. The Labour Forum will prepare union representatives for their role in the IAC and will deal with topics such as the challenges at the workplace and raising resources at national level. 
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Botswana Mine Company Launches HIV Survey 
 
The ICEM-affiliated Botswana Mine Workers' Union (BMWU) is involved in an HIV prevalence survey launched by BLC mine to determine whether current prevention efforts are effective. 
 
The exercise will enable the company to have data on the size and distribution of the epidemic among its workforce, and also to help management assess the dynamic and growth of the epidemic since the last survey in 2003. It will also enable BCL to re-plan its interventions, including resource mobilisation for the programmes if the outcome indicates that the current prevention efforts have been ineffective. 
 
The survey of all employees is an anonymous exercise and is not a substitute to voluntary counselling and testing. 
 
(Source: Africa News, 29 May from The Reporter, Botswana) 
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South African Military AIDS Policy Faces Court Challenge 
 
The South African military's blanket exclusions of HIV positive members is not medically justified and ignores government policy. A lawyer for the South African Security Forces Union, which is attempting to force the military to review its HIV/AIDS policy, said the army had failed to implement its own and the government's policies. 
 
&quot;The HIV policy adopted by the cabinet in relation to the military and the Department of Defence is not consistent with the policy implemented by the SANDF (South African National Defence Forces),&quot; lawyer Gilbert Marcus told a hearing at the high court in Pretoria. &quot;The cabinet has adopted a policy that HIV status should not exclude candidates from appointments to the SANDF, although it may preclude their appointment to positions that require extreme physical fitness.&quot; 
 
President Thabo Mbeki and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang are respondents, alongside the military. 
 
According to Marcus, the SANDF has admitted that some 23 percent of its members are HIV positive. &quot;It is simply impossible at this stage to have an HIV-free defence force. The question is how we accommodate this.&quot; 
 
(Source: Pretoria News, 15 May) 
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PEPFAR Re-authorisation 
 
Treatment clients from free clinics run by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in South Africa, Botswana, and Rwanda lobbied US legislators to ensure that access to lifesaving antiretroviral treatment remains a key component of PEPFAR. 
 
The PEPFAR legislation, which is up for re-authorisation by the US Congress, currently requires that a minimum of 55% of funds be spent on treatment, a provision that has been completely removed from the re-authorisation bill. The group also calls for a significant increase in PEPFAR's treatment goals &ndash; up only 50% in the re-authorisation despite a 330% increase in overall PEPFAR funding. 
 
PEPFAR was the result of the 2003 State of the Union pledge to bring two million HIV positive Africans and others into treatment and prevent seven million new HIV infections via a five-year, $15 billion US-funded program. It currently operates in 15 focus countries and claims to support antiretroviral treatment for 1.4 million people worldwide. 
 
(Source: Africa News, 10 May) 
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The World Bank&rsquo;s Commitment to Fight HIV/AIDS 
 
A World Bank report says African countries must continue to champion HIV prevention efforts to slow and reverse the rate of new infections. According to the report &ldquo;The World Bank&rsquo;s Commitment to HIV/AIDS in Africa: Our Agenda for Action, 2007-2011,&rdquo; for every infected person starting antiretroviral treatment, another four to six become newly infected, even as regional figures show falling prevalence in some countries. 
 
&ldquo;With AIDS the largest single cause of premature death in Africa, we can&rsquo;t talk about better, lasting development there without also committing to stay the course in the long-term fight against the disease,&rdquo; said Elizabeth Lule, Manager of the Bank&rsquo;s AIDS Team for Africa (ACTafrica). 
 
With this new Agenda for Action, the Bank is moving away from its initial &ldquo;emergency response.&rdquo; It would commit at least US$250 million a year over the five-year period for HIV/AIDS initiatives built on strategic objectives. It will also establish a grant incentive fund of US$5 million annually to promote capacity building, analysis, and HIV/AIDS project components in key sectors. 
 
(Source: World Bank Press Release, 14 May) 
 
Comment by the editor of the e-bulletin: 
While this long-term commitment is laudable, it is surprising that after the Global Union/World Bank consultations on HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa in Washington in December 2007, workers&rsquo; organisations or trade unions are not even mentioned among the organisations which were consulted in devising this new strategy. It is also surprising that the World Bank stresses the importance of providing people with integrated health services when its policies over years have helped to dismantle public health systems. 
 
Following the consultations last December, the ICEM is pursuing a selective approach, in the sectors it represents, to get its affiliates involved in projects financed by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. The objective is to devise effective workplace activities and capacity building for unions. 
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ILO Says Caribbean Making Progress on AIDS in Workplace 
 
The &quot;Saving Lives, Protecting jobs&quot; report (see e-bulletin no. 32, May 2008) indicates that 70 enterprises in Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago have implemented policies and HIV/AIDS education programmes to promote responsible sexual behaviour, and reduce the level of discrimination faced by people living with the disease. 
 
The report shows a 34% increase in awareness about HIV/AIDS services on the job among workers in the tourism, manufacturing, banking, and finance sectors, as well as taxi drivers. Guyana's largest employer, the Guyana Sugar Company, has been lauded for sustaining the initiatives it implemented five years ago.
It has adopted an HIV/AIDS workplace policy and offers HIV services to workers and managers. An official of the Guyana Trade Union Congress said that 78% of partnering enterprises in Guyana have allocated official working hours to HIV/AIDS education during the last six months. 
 
Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago were also praised for their efforts to target members of the informal economy. The governments of both countries have adopted national policies on HIV/AIDS and recently Trinidad and Tobago took it a step further by launching a National Workplace Policy on HIV/AIDS. 
 
The ILO report, however, pointed out that despite the progress being made in some countries, the region continues to grapple with rising levels of infection, even as treatment reaches more people. The Caribbean has the second highest rate of HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world, after Sub-Saharan Africa. 
 
(Source: Caribbean Media Corporation website, Bridgetown, 21 May) 
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Commentary: Dropping the Ball 
(The following is an abbreviated version of an article which appeared in the Global Fund Observer No. 87, 17 April 2008. It was written by Wycliffe Muga, a Kenyan journalist who is the BBC World Service&rsquo;s &ldquo;Letter from Africa&rdquo; correspondent) 
 
If you stopped an ordinary man in the street here in Kenya and told him that there is a Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria which gives money to help Kenya fight the three diseases, he would probably be pleasantly surprised. For not many people here have any idea that such a fund exists. 
 
And if you then told him that at present, Kenya is only receiving about half of the money it could receive from this fund &ndash; not because the money is being diverted to private bank accounts, but because the people charged with preparing proposals and submitting them to the Fund have been unable to come up with proposals which are acceptable &ndash; the likely response would be one of outrage. 
 
In a country where far too many people die of the diseases which this money is intended to fight, anything less than a perfect proposal prepared well in advance would seem like criminal negligence. 
 
For each of Rounds 1 through 6, the Global Fund's announcing of its &ldquo;Call for Proposals&rdquo; led to a flurry of activity in most developing countries: CCMs met, task teams were put together and consultants were sought. As the deadline for proposal submission got closer, people got more and more frantic. 
It was largely because of this &ldquo;controlled chaos&rdquo; that the Fund agreed two years ago that the Call for Proposals will always be on March 1. Thus, people know months beforehand when the Call will be issued. The idea is to enable CCMs to spend those extra months planning what their forthcoming proposals will focus on and seeking technical support. 
 
So it came as a real surprise when one month AFTER this year's Call for Proposals, rather than two months BEFORE it, UNAIDS headquarters sent out an email to UNAIDS offices around the world, instructing them to take action supporting CCMs as they prepare their proposals and seek technical support. 
 
This was not some unexpected deadline which was arbitrarily imposed on the CCMs. It is a deadline that comes around every year, on a date that is known well in advance. How can it possibly be justified that this great effort is being made this late in the day? 
 
Everybody dropped the ball here &ndash; the civil society groups that pressured UNAIDS to take action, but didn't do so until well after the Call for Proposals; UNAIDS itself, for not getting moving on this until it was pushed by the civil society groups; and those many CCMs that delayed strategizing regarding their Global Fund applications until months later than they should. 
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
News from the Global Union Programme and Global Unions 
 
The Global Union AIDS Programme is organising an HIV/AIDS African Regional Consultative and Planning Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 12-13 June. The ICEM will be represented by Project Management Assistant Paula Ndessomin. 
 
In its most recent HIV/AIDS Update (No. 42 of 1 May 2008), the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) (<a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a>) gives a detailed analysis on travel restrictions against people living with HIV. The creation of an International Task Team is a critical opportunity to move towards the elimination of all travel restrictions against HIV-positive people.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin

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Twenty delegates from ten nations attended meetings in early May in Lom&eacute;, Togo, intended to lay the groundwork for dissolution of the former World Federation of Industry Workers&rsquo; (WFIW&rsquo;s) Pan African Federation of Industry Workers into the ICEM&rsquo;s Sub-Saharan African Region. 
 
Resolutions were passed to that effect, and full integration of the two regional structures will occur at next week&rsquo;s ICEM regional meeting in Accra, Ghana. The meeting was attended by Italo Rodomonti, former WFIW General Secretary and ICEM Vice President, and Rayford Mbulu, ICEM&rsquo;s Sub-Saharan African Region Chairman, who also is President of the Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Zambia.
<img height="110" src="" width="240" alt="" />
Togo&nbsp;
Among some of the resolutions passed includes a recommendation to establish networks within the ICEM region to counter the power of multinationals, and one asking the ICEM region to encourage synergy within countries between former WFIW trade unions and ICEM affiliates. Also, a recommendation was passed requesting observer status for the former WFIW regional unions on the ICEM&rsquo;s Presidium, Executive Committee, and Sub-Saharan African Regional Women&rsquo;s Committee. 
 
Former WFIW delegates attending the meetings came from Togo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leon, Morocco, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as Rodomonti from Belgium and Jan Voets from ACV Hout en Bouw, also 
of Belgium.

Structure of Former WFIW Absorbed Into ICEM’s Sub-Saharan Africa Region

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Zonguldak is the capital of Turkey&rsquo;s hard coal region, an area in the West Black Sea region of the country. First production of coal was in 1848, after the mineral was first discovered by a soldier named Uzun Memet in 1845. 
And it was there, on 26-28 May, in which ICEM affiliate Genel Maden-İş co-hosted the 16th National Coal Congress of Turkey, called by union President Ramazan Denizer of the Zonguldak Mine Workers&rsquo; Union (Genel Maden-İş). ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda delivered the opening address. 
 
The Congress was also hosted by the Zonguldak Branch of the Mining Engineers Chamber, a 10,000-member organisation of mine technicians and engineers. The Zonguldak Branch numbers 1,200 engineers.
<img height="200" src="" width="300" alt="" />
Manfred Warda Speaking at the Turkey's Hard Coal Conference
Warda gave a detailed presentation on recent developments in the global coal industry, and presented conclusions from the late 2007 International Coal Mining Conference in Calcutta, India. The underlying fact, he said, is that while energy prices continue to increase, the demand for hard coal escalates. 
 
&ldquo;Subsidies for coal mines must be a joint decision by governments and by tax-payers as insurance against a future downturn,&rdquo; said Warda. &ldquo;Without secure domestic coal production, we cannot secure our future energy supplies, and the security of our jobs and the industry.&rdquo; 
 
Warda then announced that the ICEM is in full support of 5,000-member Genel Maden-İş&rsquo;s position for more jobs in the growing production pits of Zonguldak. In the 1960s, 65,000 miners worked in the area. Today, that employment figure is 10,000. 
 
Turkey&rsquo;s hard coal production is 20 million tonnes per year, with 5.5 million tonnes used in domestic steel production.
<img height="173" src="" width="260" alt="" />
At grave of Semsi Denizer (At right, Maden-Is President Ramazan Denizer, younger brother of Comrade Semsi Denizer)
The ICEM General Secretary&rsquo;s visit drew large press attention, with Warda doing a live television broadcast. The visit also was personal for him, because he was present in Zonguldak in 1991 during a mass strike and protest march conducted by Genel Maden-İş. The ICEM leader visited the grave of strike leader Semsi Denizer, as well as to a memorial erected on behalf of the 4,500 miners who have perished in the region&rsquo;s mine pits.

ICEM Forefront at Turkey&#039;s Hard Coal Conference

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A hunger strike inside one of the bauxite mines of the world&rsquo;s largest aluminium producer &ndash; United Company RusAl &ndash; again occurred last week, following the company&rsquo;s refusal to engage in meaningful talks with the Miners&rsquo; Independent Trade Union of Russia. 
 
A ten-day strike at the mine in the Sverdlovsk Region of the North Ural Mountains ended on 4 April after RusAl&rsquo;s Sevuralboksitruda (SUBR) subsidiary pledged to begin earnest talks with the union. That dispute was reported by the ICEM on 7 April.
<img height="161" alt="" src="" width="220" />
On 13 April, the strike flared up again, when 75 miners resumed the hunger strike inside the Krasnaya Shapochka, or Little Red Riding Hood Mine. The ICEM affiliate, Russian Trade Union of Metal Workers in Nickel, Cobalt, and Platinoids Industries, asked the ICEM to intervene on behalf of the Miners&rsquo; Independent Trade Union. A letter was then dispatched to SUBR President and General Manager Alexander Bulygin. 
 
The 40 miners who remained inside the mine at week&rsquo;s end surfaced following a 19 April meeting of 3,500 miners on the grounds of the company&rsquo;s Kalyinskaya mine. The meeting produced a set of 16 demands that are now being passed to management.

Russian Bauxite Strike Again Flares, Then Ends at RusAl’s Krasnaya Shapochka Mine

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Strikes and protests by contract workers in Chile have shut over one-half of production at the world&rsquo;s largest copper producer, Codelco. The strikes and road blockades began on 16 April and intensified over the weekend as access to the state-run company&rsquo;s second largest mine, El Tiniente, was blocked. 
 
Contract workers, some 28,000 in number that are employed by a multitude of companies providing food, transportation, and other services to Codelco&rsquo;s five mines in northern and southern Chile, are firmly behind their union, Confederaci&oacute;n de Trabajadores del Cobre (CTC), in demands that Codelco implement the agreed upon terms that ended a 37-day strike by workers last summer.
<img height="115" src="" width="250" alt="" />
The strike appears to have the support of the main miners&rsquo; union, Federaci&oacute;n de Trabajadores del Cobre (FTC), which has demanded that Codelco and the government halt all mining until the total security of all miners can be assured. Codelco employs about 15,000 full-time miners. 
 
At El Tiniente, the world&rsquo;s largest underground copper mine south of the capital city of Santiago, contract workers blocked roads beginning Friday evening, 18 April, preventing miners from entering the mine for two work turns. Reportedly, mining resumed yesterday afternoon. 
 
Since 16 April, copper mining and processing has been completely closed at Codelco&rsquo;s Andina and El Salvador mines in the north of the country due to road blockades. The industrial actions are the third set of strikes by contract workers of Codelco since January 2006, when they launched a 17-day strike. This round of action comes shortly after Codelco negotiated wage increases for miners of FTC and other mining unions.
<img height="134" src="" width="140" alt="" />
The strikes by CTC do have the support of the main national labour centre, the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Chile (CUT). At a forum in Santiago late last week, CUT President Arturo Mart&iacute;nez said it is Codelco and the government&rsquo;s responsibility to negotiate directly with the contract workers. He added that private companies serving Codelco take advantage of legal loopholes to avoid negotiating with the CTC, or other workers&rsquo; representatives. 
 
Codelco has maintained throughout &ndash; including again last week &ndash; that it is not responsible for negotiating with workers of subcontracting firms.

Contract Workers Again Strike Codelco’s Copper Mines in Chile for Fulfilment of Terms

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
ICEM affiliate &Ccedil;imse-İş, the proud Turkish union representing cement, ceramics, pottery, and glass workers, averted an industry-wide strike recently by agreeing to a three-year labour agreement with the Cement Employers Association (CEIS) recently. The new agreement, extending back to 1 January 2008 and lasting to 31 December 2010, covers 6,000 union members at 46 cement production facilities. 
 
It calls for a first year wage increase of 12%. The second year pay increase will be pegged to the nation&rsquo;s inflation rate, while the third year increase was set at the inflation rate plus three percent.
<img height="119" alt="" src="" width="120" />
According to the Turkish Institution for Statistics, the current inflation rate for consumer prices is 8.39% and wholesale prices are at 5.94%. The Turkish Central Bank is predicting a 2008 inflation rate of 7.9% for consumer prices. 
 
The negotiations were long and arduous. &Ccedil;imse-İş was on the verge of a national strike before coming together with CEIS on the new agreement. 
 
In addition, &Ccedil;imse-İş won for union members a set of bonuses amounting to 120 days of salary. Also, benefits such as the night-shift premium, overtime pay, food allowance, social assistance package, and marriage, birth, death, and natural disaster payments were increased between 50-to-75%. 
 
The ICEM extends congratulations to Turkish cement workers, and to &Ccedil;imse-İş leaders for posting these gains in the industry.

Turkish Cement Workers, Behind Trade Union Çimse-İş, Achieve New Labour Pact

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Unite the union, ICEM&rsquo;s largest British affiliate, will take 48-hour strike action next week, 27-28 April, at Ineos Group Holdings&rsquo; Grangemouth petrochemicals complex near Falkirk, Scotland. 
 
The action will come due to company intentions to close the final pension scheme to new workers, and planned imposition of other adverse work terms. The polyolefins and oil derivatives plants at Grangemouth employ 1,200 workers, the vast majority of them Unite members.
<img height="60" src="" width="120" alt="" />
In late March, workers balloted for strike action. That vote passed with a 98% affirmative for industrial action. 
 
Unite is hopeful negotiations will resume this week, but will only return to the bargaining table if the company signals it&rsquo;s intent to move away from shutting the pension scheme to new hires and removing the proposed and negative work terms. In talks last Friday, 18 April, Ineos refused to budge from its proposals, causing United to issue the strike notice. 
 
&ldquo;The company is profitable, and the pension scheme in its present form is well funded and affordable,&rdquo; said United National Secretary Phil McNulty, who also is an ICEM Vice President. &ldquo;The changes to the scheme Ineos are proposing are unreasonable, unnecessary, and have forced our members at Grangemouth to take industrial action for the first time,&rdquo; he added.
<img height="120" src="" width="120" alt="" />
Ineos is seeking to withdraw &pound;40 million from the pension fund, and Unite said other changes at the 200,000-barrels-per-day refinery could cost workers up to &pound;10,000 annually. Grangemouth manufactures petrochemicals for uses in all manners of transport fuels and other uses. 
 
Since the strike notice was issues three days ago, the company has begun shutdown procedures at the complex near Glasgow. The shutdown, 48-hour strike, and subsequent start-up are expected to crimp fuel supplies across Scotland, England, and Northern Ireland. Ineos operates the petrochemicals complex with only a week&rsquo;s supply of refined fuels as reserves. 
 
Ineos was created in 1998 through a management buyout. In December 2005, the UK-based company purchased Grangemouth from BP&rsquo;s Innovene chemicals division. The US$9 billion deal also brought the company petrochemicals plants in Lav&eacute;ra, France, as well as seven chemical manufacturing operations in Europe and nine in North America.

Unite Ready to Strike Giant Petrochemicals Complex in Scotland

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On 15-16 April, ICEM German affiliate IGBCE and the BAVC Chemical Industry Association came to 2008 and 2009 wage terms for some 550,000 chemical workers. The union achieved desirable pay gains, but more importantly, posted enhancements to future training opportunities for young workers, as well as a flexible, part-time work arrangement for older workers. 
 
The agreement, which came during the second round of national industry talks, contains a pay increase of 4.4%, retroactive to either 1 March or 1 April, or effective 1 May, depending on the respective IGBCE region. That extends for 13 months. Then, effective in 2009 for 12 months, chemical industry workers won a 3.3% pay raise. 
 
Additionally, on 1 July 2008, workers will realize a one-off payment of 13 times 0.5% of their monthly wage. That will be determined by workers and managers in individual companies, depending on a firm&rsquo;s profitability. The agreement covers some 19,000 German chemical companies.
<img height="166" alt="" src="" width="125" />
&nbsp;IGBCE Head of Collective Bargaining Werner Bischoff
&ldquo;The 2008 chemical accord has set a milestone,&rdquo; stated IGBCE Head of Collective Bargaining Werner Bischoff. He said that not only has the number of training places for young workers in chemicals been dramatically increased in this set of talks, but an &ldquo;occupational bridge&rdquo; has been created through the flexible work scheme. It replaces one due to expire next year. 
 
The new arrangement, however, is more extensive. A fund will be established, on 1 January 2010, that will be paid for by employers, with employee payments added supplementary. The fund, to be governed by works councils, will be used for flexible transition to retirement, including part-time work, partial pension benefits, health incentives, and added insurance for inability to work, to name just a few of the benefits.
<img height="138" alt="" src="" width="140" />
In 2003, IGBCE and BAVC first agreed to create future training opportunities for young workers. In last year&rsquo;s negotiations, for 2007 and 2008, the parties agreed to fund training places for 16,800 young workers in the chemicals sector. In last week&rsquo;s concluding talks, agreement was reached to increased that to 18,200 for 2009 and 2010. 
 
&ldquo;The strong increase in incomes corresponds to the current inflation situation and we met our goal &ndash; a higher pay raise than in 2007,&rdquo; said Bischoff. &ldquo;But the success story of this collective agreement is that &lsquo;Training for the Future&rsquo; has been updated, and we have succeeded in achieving a full flexible transition to retirement.&rdquo;

IGBCE Achieves Novel ‘Job Bridging,’ More Youth Opportunities in Chemical Pay Talks

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
ICEM affiliate Paperiliitto of Finland and that country&rsquo;s Forest Industries Federation jointly announced a 22-month labour agreement, covering 22,000 workers at 70 pulp and paper mills. The new accord comes seven weeks before expiration of an existing agreement, with both sides commending the negotiations for meeting the challenges of the changing Nordic paper sector, while taking into account workers&rsquo; needs and development. 
 
&ldquo;The agreement includes numerous positive changes in workers&rsquo; conditions of employment,&rdquo; stated Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen. &ldquo;One important goal of the agreement is to increase real cooperation at the confederation and local level. I also consider it positive that we were able to reach an agreement in good time before the expiration of the current agreement, without outside assistance and without confrontation.&rdquo;
<img height="151" alt="" src="" width="180" />
&nbsp;Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen
The new pact will run from 1 June 2008 to 31 March 2010. 
 
Wage levels will rise annually by 4% each in the first two years. For the third year, an increase will be negotiated by the union and industry in an autumn 2009 set of talks. If the parties fail then to reach accord on the remainder of the pact, the agreement can be terminated. 
 
The pay system for Finnish paperworkers is being reformed in this collective agreement and their job security improved in the face of restructurings by the major paper companies. Workers made redundant due to financial or production-related reasons will be entitled to full pay for a paid-notice period, even if that worker gets a job with another employer. 
 
The re-employment obligation by companies for workers&rsquo; made redundant was extended from nine months &ndash; the applicable period by Finnish labour law &ndash; to 15 months, from the date of the employment termination relationship. Further, the employer is obligated to inform redundant workers of new vacancies for another nine months beyond that. 
 
Perhaps most importantly to Paperiliitto, is that terms and conditions for outsourcing and lay-offs remain unchanged.
<img height="164" alt="" src="" width="160" />
Paperworkers also gained a three-day sick period without proof of medical certificate, a first inside Finland&rsquo;s industrial sectors. The new agreement allows for flexible work time if workers and employers, with union approval, agree to it on the local level. The two sides can also agree on regular 10-hour work days. 
 
The new pay system to be implemented will promote multi-skilled jobs. It provides opportunities, incentives and personal training for diversity of tasks, and for workers to acquire new competencies. This agreement was also achieved outside of Finland&rsquo;s traditional tripartite incomes policy of employer association, national labour centres, and government, but leaves open the possibility to return to the national incomes policy in spring 2010. 
 
Toimihenkil&ouml;unioni TU, ICEM salaried workers&rsquo; affiliate in Finland, which represents white-collar workers in the pulp and paper sector, has currently just begun talks with the Finland Forest Industries Federation on a new labour agreement. That pact also expires 31 May 2008.

Paperiliitto, Finnish Pulp/Paper Industry Come to Amiable Terms

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Paperiliitto, Finnish Pulp/Paper Industry Come to Amiable Terms

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