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Industrial actions by 1,000 coal miners employed by New Zealand state-owned Solid Energy and its contractors ended in early December when members of the Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) accepted two-year wage and benefit terms from mine operators. 
The settlement at four mines on both the North and South Islands ends an eight-month dispute that erupted into industrial actions, full strikes, sympathy strikes, and a lockout, covering a period from late October to the end of November. The accord also sets in place the terms of the Multi-employer Collective Agreement (MECA), contract terms that had been elusive since March 2009. 
Miners will receive a 5% salary increase in 2010 and 2011, with miners from the Huntly East colliery on the North Island accepting an 8.5% increase to compensate for shift rotation changes. In addition, staff receive a one-off NZ$2,000 bonus for their roles in Solid Energy posting record 2008 profit results. 
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A series of industrial actions started with a &ldquo;go-slow&rdquo; job action at the Rotowaro mine on the North Island in late October. That immediately resulted in a lockout by contractor RWE Mining, leading to sympathy strikes at two South Island mines &ndash; Stockton and Spring Creek &ndash; that are operated by Solid Energy and another contractor. After miners quit the strikes to return to bargaining, the employers again submitted the same regressive terms, resulting in walkouts and renewed sympathy strikes in late during the November. 
With Solid losing millions of dollars each week due to the work stoppages, the two sides reconvened talks on 29-30 November. Shortly after, miners at Huntly East, Rotowaro, and Stockton accepted a revised MECA deal, with miners at Spring Creek ratifying the contract on 3 December. 
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Stated EPMU Assistant National Secretary Ged O&rsquo;Connell, &ldquo;Throughout the dispute, Solid tried to set miners from different areas against each other by offering them different deals within the MECA, but our members stood by each other and made sure that the company knew that an injury to one was an injury to all.&rdquo; 
This is &ldquo;a membership,&rdquo; he added, which was &ldquo;united in their strength and determination to get a fair deal.&rdquo;

New Zealand Miners Win New Contract through Solidarity Strikes

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Industrial Union TEAM is the new name, effective on 1 January 2010, of the merged Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union (Kemianliito), an ICEM affiliate, and the Finnish Media Union. The merger of the two is the product of a larger, six-union merger of Finnish industrial unions that failed to materialize in spring 2009. 
 
Kemianliitto and the Media Union, which represents workers in the graphical, print, and print delivery sections, committed to continue union merger talks following the breakdown of the larger merger. By the end of summer holidays, 2009, committees and an organizational structure were in place to complete to merger. 

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On 13 November, an extraordinary Congress of the Media Union approved the merger, while on 26-27 November, the General Council of Kemianliitto gave its consent. Kemianliitto President Timo Vallittu will lead Industrial Union TEAM, and the merged union will have a 20-member governing body. 
 
The merged union numbers 68,000, a figure that includes retirees. Kemianliitto comes in to the merger with some 31,000 active members, while the Media Union brings 14,000. 

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The larger Finnish industrial merger, in talks dating back two years, was proposed between Kemianliitto and the Media Union, as well as including ICEM-affiliated Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union, the Finnish Metalworkers Union, the Wood and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union, and the Finnish Railwaymen&rsquo;s Union. In spring 2009, the Electrical Workers&rsquo; dropped from talks, while a short time later the Metalworkers&rsquo; withdrew from participating by action of its Congress.

Kemianliitto and Media Union Become Finnish TEAM, 1 January

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Industrial action that was to begin today at a pulp and paper mill in the UK has been cancelled because progress was made in redundancy consultation talks last Friday, 11 December. Paperworkers who are members of Unite the Union voted 226 to 30 for industrial action, after Iggesund Paper &ndash; a wholly-owned subsidiary of Swedish Holmen Paper &ndash; announced unilateral job cuts in early November. 
 
Iggesund, operating a softwood pulp mill and paperboard mill in Cumbria, sought to cut 99 of 480 jobs at the facility. Following the announcement, local managers said there was no need for consultation. UK law states that redundancies of less that100 workers must be preceded by a 30-day union-management consultation period, while jobs cuts totaling over 100 workers must see a 90-day consultation. 

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External pressure and the overwhelming vote for industrial action convinced management to discuss its reasons for the redundancies. Peter Ellis, a Unite the Union National Secretary, reported that Friday&rsquo;s talks between the union and Iggesund reduced the number of job cuts by five, with the potential for possibly saving more jobs to occur in coming consultation sessions. 
 
In the lead-up to the industrial ballot, the ICEM delivered nearly 100 messages of support from global pulp and paper unions to Unite the Union, messages that were distributed on the shop floor of the paper company.

Industrial Action at Iggesund Paper Mill in UK Suspended

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As part of the monitoring of implementation of their global framework agreement, ICEM and central management of French-based chemicals multinational Rhodia carried out a joint mission in the USA from 6-11 December. A similar joint mission occurred first in China in 2007 and in Brasil last year. The principal objective was to ensure that the global agreement is properly implemented at specific workplaces. 
ICEM was represented by its General Secretary Manfred Warda and Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan, while Group Vice-President, Human Resources, Yolene Coppin and Vice President, Sustainable Development, Jacques Kheliff from Rhodia were present. 
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ICEM delegation with plant management
At the first day of the meeting at the headquarters of the North American zone, headed by Jim Harton, Rhodia&rsquo;s North American business was introduced to the mission. Following ICEM&rsquo;s presentation on its general activities and particular efforts on global agreements, there was a special discussion on the US economic and legal situation. Employing around 1600 workers in 18 manufacturing units, the North American section of Rhodia has four categories of operations which are Novacare, Eco Services, Silcea and Polyamide. The majority of the production workers of Rhodia in North America are organised by ICEM-affiliated trade unions, USW, IBT and LIUNA. 
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ICEM delegation with plant union reps
The mission visited the headquarters of the USW at Pittsburgh and met International President Leo Gerard and his Assistant Jerry Fernandez. President Gerard introduced USW and its activities, particularly the drives to secure manufacturing and industrial employment in the US. The mission later travelled to Houston where Rhodia has a plant of Eco Services, organised by the USW. After the meeting with the factory union committee and local officers of the USW, the local management team briefed the group on the plant&rsquo;s activities and labour relations, followed by a site tour. The Rhodia North American team also informed the ICEM about the company&rsquo;s policies and programmes on human resources, employee benefits, and community relations. 
&ldquo;Between 2007 and 2009, in the framework of our global agreement, we have realised various missions in all the zones where Rhodia has business. This clearly demonstrates our engagement with a multinational company at a global scale, and it works very well,&rdquo; commented ICEM General Secretary Warda. &ldquo;We believe that that global agreements can and should play a meaningful and constructive role in labour relations, and our recent visit has shown this.&rdquo;

ICEM and Rhodia in joint mission of monitoring in the USA

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The International Textiles, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) held its Tenth World Congress in Frankfurt, Germany, from 2-4 December. The ITGLWF adopted several major decisions regarding the coming work re-organization. The theme of this Tenth Congress was &ldquo;Organise = Decent Work = Decent Life,&rdquo; and it brought together 214 delegates from 97 trade unions in 68 countries. 
 
It also paid moving tribute to the necessary humanitarian contributions made by the late ITGLWF General Secretary, Neil Kearney. Kearney&rsquo;s daughters were at the Congress and told of their father. 
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Neal Kearney&rsquo;s daughters, Nicole and Caroline
The Congress was hosted by IG Metall at its Frankfurt headquarters. 
The Congress took place just two weeks after General Secretary Neil Kearney died from a heart attack while doing important ITGLWF work in Bangladesh. The global trade union movement was shocked and saddened. Kearney, the ITGLWF General Secretary for the past 21 years, performed some of the toughest and most meaningful work in the world. 

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The Frankfurt Congress confirmed the appointment of Patrick Itschert as the new General Secretary. Itschert has led the European regional organization of ETUC:TCL, for nearly two decades. He will continue in both roles. 
 
Congress unanimously elected Hisanobu Shimada of Japan as the organisation&rsquo;s new president. Hisanobu Shimada is the General Secretary of ITGLWF affiliate UI Zensen. Outgoing president Manfred Schallmeyer of IG Metall received a special message of appreciation from Congress, for his work during the past five years as president. 
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Manfred Schallmeyer hands over the presidency to Hisanobu Shimada 
The ITGLWF&rsquo;s Congress elected fifteen Vice-Presidents, eight of whom are women, and formally approved the membership of the Executive Committee. 
 
The future of the ITGLWF was a major issue on the agenda. Congress recognised the need for a powerful trade union force across manufacturing industries, in response to corporate restructuring and obvious synergies created within the continual overlaps of the world&rsquo;s manufacturing sectors. The ITGLWF Congress resolved that the Global Union Federation make all necessary efforts to ensure the creation of a new GUF for manufacturing, and that it be concluded no later than 2011.&nbsp;

Memories, Accomplishments of Neil Kearney Cited at ITGLWF Congress

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The Geneva, Switzerland-based International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) announces that it gives its unequivocal support to the 560 miners of US affiliated union, International Longshore &amp; Warehouse Union (ILWU), who were locked off their jobs by the Rio Tinto subsidiary, US Borax and Chemical Corp., on Sunday, 31 January. 
 
The workers were refused entry to the mine and processing plant in Boron, California, when they showed for their work shift at 06h00 on Sunday. 
 
&ldquo;We note that all 500 members of ILWU Local 30 voted against the company&rsquo;s contract proposal on Saturday night,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;This should have served as a message to Rio Tinto Minerals to continue negotiating, continue seeking the necessary compromises in order to achieve a mutually acceptable collective agreement.&rdquo; 
 
A prior contract expired on 4 November 2009. Management is seeking unprecedented changes to workers&rsquo; seniority, shift and overtime assignments, and the way in which promotions are made, as well as seeking unilaterally to impose flexibility changes that favour the company to the detriment of workers. 
 
The ICEM condemns the company for its announcement that it will continue production with replacement workers during the company-initiated lockout. The ICEM will use its role, as the leading Global Union Federation in the mining industry, to alert trade unions around the globe, particularly those representing Rio Tinto workers, of the lockout and urge them to take action on behalf of ILWU Local 30 in California. 
 
Borax, or sodium borate, is a mineral used in detergents, glass, building materials, and other uses such as an ingredient in chemicals. The ICEM represents 20 million workers worldwide that are part of 467 affiliated trade unions in 132 countries. 
The ICEM urges all affiliates and supporters to send their own letter to Rio Tinto, condemning the lockout.&nbsp; Click <a href="/index.php?id=5&amp;la=EN&amp;doc=3600">here</a> for a model, paste the text onto your letterhead, and send to Rio Tinto CEO Albanese at <a href="mailto:tom.albanese@riotinto.org">tom.albanese@riotinto.org</a>, copied to <a href="mailto:joe.drexler@icem.org">joe.drexler@icem.org</a> and <a href="mailto:info@ilwu.org">info@ilwu.org</a>.

ICEM Pledges Support to Locked-Out Rio Tinto Workers in US State of California

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The world&rsquo;s biggest steelmaker announced to workers and trade unions at its December European Works Council (EWC) that the company likely will continue to reduce its global workforce in 2010. Trade union projections suggest that ArcelorMittal plans to cut some 10,000 jobs, or 3.5% of its total global workforce, as the company seeks cost savings of US$500 million. 
 
Arcelor Mittal currently employs 285,300 people worldwide. The Luxembourg-based company aims to regain lost market share. Company spokesman Bill Steers told the EWC at a plenary meeting on 9 December that &ldquo;global workforce reductions [will be] due mainly to natural attrition and optimisation of production.&rdquo; 

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The company has said that most of the cuts will affect US and Europe, where its growth potential is limited. ArcelorMittal workers in South Africa were relieved to be told that the announcement of 10,000 job losses would not affect them. Some of ArcelorMittal's facilities in the U.S. and South America are struggling, particularly those producing flat rolled steel for the auto industry. 
 
Dave McCall, District 1 director for the ICEM-affiliated United Steelworkers (USW), said the union did not expect mass job cuts in the US, as demand there is picking up some in the wake of the financial crisis. 
 
Overall, demand for steel is rising again, after most steelmakers took a major hit in 2009 and were forced to cut their production in response to a slump in demand. ArcelorMittal has put a bid down on Zimbabwe's Zisco; it has invested in a mill in India; and is looking at further Brazilian operations to match iron-ore supplies there. The company has operations in 60 countries around the world. 
 
The cuts are expected to affect workers who were temporarily laid off at plants idled last year. 
 
The company had originally planned to eliminate 9,000 positions in its administrative and commercial functions during 2009, but ended up cutting 36,000 jobs, of which 50 percent were in Europe.

ArcelorMittal to Cut 10,000 Jobs This Year

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While the campaign for retention of coal-mining jobs and a fair contract by the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) with Xstrata in Australia continues, another union is resisting proposed mining and metallurgical job cuts by the Anglo-Swiss mining house. 
 
In North America, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) launched a campaign in northern Ontario in mid-December to preserve 676 copper and nickel smelting and refining jobs at Xstrata&rsquo;s Kidd Creek metallurgical plants in Timmons, Ontario. The company announced on 8 December that it was permanently shuttering a smelter and refinery, effective 1 May 2010, thus heaping further economic havoc on a region already beset by job losses and a strike. 

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The proposed job losses come on top of 725 mineworker layoffs by Xstrata in February 2009, when it temporarily shut three mines in the region. CAW Local 598 of Sudbury, Ontario, which is currently engaged in negotiations with Xstrata Nickel toward a 1 February contract expiration, has made recall of those jobs its number one bargaining table priority. 
 
In Timmons, CAW Local 599 has started a public campaign aimed at drawing business and government pressure on Xstrata Copper Canada to reverse the Kidd Creek closure. A major part of the campaign is aimed at the federal government, which, the union contends, must protect Canadian jobs as part of the C$19 billion sale of these former Falconbridge assets to Xstrata in 2006. 
 
That issue is similar to one included in the campaign by the United Steelworkers (USW) in its strike against Brazilian Vale. The CAW has supported USW Local 6500 on picket lines and with financial support in its current six-month strike against Vale, and it has also joined USW in calling on the Canadian Parliament to enact legislation that would give transparency to deals made under the Investment Canada Act. 
 
In the corporate takeovers of both Vale buying Inco and Xstrata paying a premium to get Canadian-based Falconbridge, many details between the federal government and the foreign mining houses were kept secret, and the job-slashing now &ndash; the unions feel &ndash; could have been prevented had more disclosure come in 2006. 
 
CAW Local 599 is pursuing an aggressive petition campaign calling for both retention of the Kidd Creek facility and for government action on the proposed job cuts. Visit the union&rsquo;s website <a href="http://www.caw599.ca">here</a> to learn more and to join the petition. 

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In Australia, CFMEU&rsquo;s campaign against Xstrata in New South Wales on redundancies and lack of a current enterprise agreement continues. Last summer, Xstrata announced it was cutting 180 coal-mining jobs at two collieries, Tahmoor and Ulan. 
 
The union has been engaged in lawful industrial actions at Tahmoor over the past several months (see past ICEM coverage <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/">here</a>), with miners conducting a march through Tahmoor on 21 December to coincide with a 24-hour work stoppage. Other industrial actions included the refusal to load coal on to trains for shipment to Port Kembla. 
 
Early in the new year, the industrial actions were halted so coal could be loaded on to trains and eventually shipped to German steelmaker ZKS. That request came from metalworkers in Germany due to low inventories and in order to keep operations at ZKS in production. 
See the CFMEU's campaign website <a href="http://www.xstratafacts.com/">here</a>.

Mine Unions in Australia, Canada Reject Xstrata’s Job Cuts

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At a press conference on 8 January in Mexico City, during an ICEM North American Regional Coordinating Committee meeting there, Canadian and US ICEM leaders denounced the Mexican government of Felipe Calder&oacute;n Hinojosa&rsquo;s anti-union conduct in dissolving the Mexican Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union (SME) and its continuing persecution of the National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (SNTMMSRM, or Los Mineros) and its General Secretary Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia. 
 
The regional forum, led by ICEM North American Vice Presidents Ken Neumann of the United Steelworkers (USW) and Dave Coles of the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada, stressed that the repressive tactics heaped upon trade unions by the Calder&oacute;n government is an affront to human rights and that these actions will receive world-wide attention. 

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ICEM North American leaders at press conference 
The North American ICEM leaders also said the anti-union policies subject millions of Mexican workers to poverty. They also called attention to Mexican trade union leaders like Los Mineros&rsquo;s Juan Linares Mont&uacute;far who have been jailed for their legitimate union activities. The press conference was attended by members of Los Mineros, by several ICEM North American delegates, and by ICEM&rsquo;s Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Joe Drexler. 
 
Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez himself has escaped jail in Mexico by fleeing to Canada, with the Mexican government now seeking his extradition. 

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Neumann, the USW&rsquo;s National Director for Canada, said that there is evidence that the charges against Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez are unfounded and purely an invention by the Mexican government in sync with the mining company, Grupo M&eacute;xico. &ldquo;Mexico is a NAFTA partner with Canada and the United States and we will not sit back and allow these repressions to occur,&rdquo; said Neumann. 
 
On 10 October 2009, the Calder&oacute;n government swept in with federal agents and armed police to shut down the country&rsquo;s second largest utility, the Mexico City regional Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LyFC), or Central Light and Power. Calder&oacute;n used an executive decree to merge the electric power distributor with the Federal Electricity Commission and to disband the 95-year-old and 60,000-member SME. 
 
The North American ICEM representatives condemned the government for not proceeding through legal channels if it suspected there were misdeeds inside the utility.

ICEM North Americans Use Mexican City Press to Condemn Calderón’s Labour Policies

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On 14 December 2009, the Supreme Court of Namibia struck down a two-year-old government law that banned labour hire agencies. In a unanimous, five-judge decision, the court said that government must first try to regulate irregular work imposed by labour hire firms before imposing a ban on them. 
 
The court&rsquo;s decision also cited the law as unconstitutional because it fails to protect the right to practice &ldquo;occupation, trade or business.&rdquo; In 20-year-old Namibia, images of an entrenched contract labour system through apartheid are recent, and this labour issue has both the emotions and the memories to make it a leading story in all of Africa. 
 
The Supreme Court itself called it &ldquo;an emotive and politically charged&rdquo; issue, and both opponents and proponents of agency labour expressed sharp differences on the court&rsquo;s ruling. 
 
The decision was the second time within a year that the High Court in Namibia has taken up the case. It had earlier upheld the ban on labour hire agencies, contained inside Section 128 of the 2007 Labour Act. But Namibia&rsquo;s largest temporary employment agency, Africa Personnel Services (APS), appealed the constitutionality of this section of the labour code on the eve of it taking effect. The 14 December ruling overturns the High Court&rsquo;s earlier decision, and now places responsibility on the government and civil society to implement stringent regulatory measures on the operations of labour agencies. 
The head of the Namibia Employers&rsquo; Federation, Tim Parkhouse, heralded the court&rsquo;s decision, calling it an investment attraction. 

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But the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) reacted angrily to the court&rsquo;s decision, while Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Immanuel Ngatjizeko, said that although the government must abide by the decision, he pledged the government of President Hifikepunye Pohamba will not allow the labour-hire system to continue in its current form. 
 
Ngatjiseko, in a Windhoek newspaper, said: &ldquo;It is ironic that a provision of the Namibia Constitution that was intended to eradicate apartheid practices that subjected black workers to the injustice and humiliation of job reservation, influx control and the like has now been interpreted to turn a blind eye to commercial arrangements for the rental of human labour in order to avoid the protections afforded to workers by the labour laws.&rdquo; 
 
Ngatjiseko said the current system in Namibia, where labour hire firms are allowed to employ people who then provide these people to clients, is exploitative and reminiscent of the apartheid contract labour system because workers in Namibia with few or no other options for gainful employment fall into the clutches of labour agencies. 
 
The NUNW, linked in history with the ruling South West African People&rsquo;s Organisation (SWAPO) 
political party and a union itself banned in the pre-Namibia days of the 1970s and 1980s because it dared to challenge the apartheid labour system, was more blunt in its assessment of the court&rsquo;s decision. &ldquo;We firmly believe that one cannot regulate slavery and thereby give it a human face,&rdquo; said the federation. 

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The court&rsquo;s decision last month provoked wide opinions, proving again the intensity of the labour hire issue inside Namibia and in all of Africa. 
 
The New Era, a Windhoek publication, predicted, &ldquo;There is no denying that labour hire is a niece of the contract labour system that we have supposedly got rid, but when weak regulations are approved, the Supreme Court would be left with no choice but to stick to what is lawful on paper.&rdquo; 
 
An editorial in The Namibian, another Windhoek newspaper, stated, &ldquo;The principal of labour hire may be an important one, especially in a country with a very high unemployment rate, but it cannot be allowed to perpetuate exploitation of workers to the benefit of middlemen; to provide ways around employer adherence to the Labour Code; and to shut out unions.&rdquo; 
 
On 5 July 2007, the country&rsquo;s National Assembly passed an amendment to the labour code stating that &ldquo;no person may, for reward, employ any person with a view to making that person available to a third party to perform work for the third party.&rdquo; The law was to take effect on 1 March 2009. But on 27 February, the High Court suspended implementation of the law to hear APS&rsquo;s appeal.

Namibian Supreme Court Strikes Down Labour Hire Bill

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