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Two global union federations are urging the Mexican government and Mexican armed forces to use restraint in any attempt to secure Grupo México’s Cananea copper mine in Sonora State. The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) are deeply concerned that a court ruling last week will precipitate violence between armed Mexican troops and miners represented by an affiliate of the two Geneva-based labour federations, Mexico’s National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (SNTMMSRM). 
 
The caution to Mexican authorities comes following an 11 February decision by a labour appellate court upholding a Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board declaration to end a 31-month strike by the union, and terminating the collective agreement between SNTMMSRM and Grupo México. 
 
The ICEM and IMF are aware that federal troops have been dispatched to northern Sonora State. The ICEM and IMF are also in direct contact with the Mexican trade union and believe miners at Cananea are resolved to continue occupying the mine until a fair and equitable labour agreement is reached. 
 
“This week is a very critical time at Cananea and we urge the Mexican government to order its forces to use prudence and abeyance in dealing with workers,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “If the mine is to reopen, we insist that Grupo México, the government, and the union engage in honest dialogue to address the issues that are unresolved, and to recognise the union in a productive spirit.” 
 
“The use of violence of any kind will serve only to further isolate the parties,” said IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina. “We understand that the legal process has now been exhausted, so we urge respect and balance and hopefully a negotiated resolve can occur that will put the miners back to work in a region of Mexico that desperately needs income-generating jobs.” 
 
Together, the ICEM and IMF represent 45 million workers globally. The ICEM serves as the umbrella global union federation for 467 trade unions in 132 countries, while the IMF represents the interests of 200 trade unions in 100 countries.

ICEM, IMF Urge Restraint by Mexico at Cananea Copper Mine

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The renegade Indian steel company run by Pramod Mittal was made to pay back wages to 1,250 members of ICEM affiliate Independent Trade Union of Chemistry and Non-Metals of Bosnia-Herzegovina (SSHN-FBIH) this month. A deadline of 15 February was met by Mittal’s company, Global Ispat Koksana Industtrija Lukavac (GIKIL), which manages and half-owns the sodium carbonate plant, and wages were paid through December 2009. 
 
Workers at GIKIL, also half-owned by the Canton of Tuzla, and SSHN-FBIH’s President Kata Ivelijc assured that back wages were paid by the delinquent Mittal through their vigilant strikes and determination. They received assistance outside of Bosnia-Herzegovina from the ICEM, the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), and the European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF). 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1002.tuzla.group.manfred.ws.jpg" width="338" height="189"/>
Manfred Warda (centre) with Central European Project Coordinator Mato Lalic (next to Warda), and Kata Ivelijc, 5th from left
After receiving no pay for work performed over the final quarter of 2009, SSHN-FBIH took a week-long strike action on 6 January. That strike gained them back-pay for October and November, and then the outside intervention and workers’ actions at the plant and inside Tuzla got them December’s pay by the deadline, 15 February, a date in which workers were braced to take another strike action. 
 
The empowerment by workers in highly industrialized northern Bosnia was widely noted across Europe. But it stands as a reminder that such victories can be fleeting against wayward companies like Mittal’s. Both the ICEM and SSHN-FBIH pledge unified vigilance on future salaries to be paid on time, justified increases to those salaries, and improved health and safety conditions at GIKIL. (Read the background to this dispute and information on Pramod Mittal’s companies <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3588-ICEM-IMF-Decry-Mittal’s-Pay-Delinquencies-in-Bosnia-Herzegovina" type="internal">here</a>.)  
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1002.tuzla.factory.ws.jpg" width="272" height="161"/>
GIKIL Factory in Lukavac
On 9 February, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda visited the area and together with workers’ leaders, met with Tuzla Canton Prime Minister Enes Mujić and three of his ministers. The meeting produced a promise to seriously question Mittal, in a scheduled and upcoming meeting with government authorities, over his management neglect. The trade union delegation also impressed on the Tuzla government that health and safety concerns around the plant’s coking ovens must also be addressed. 
 
The government took up the matter at its regular 11 February session and determined that workers’ strike actions were justified and legitimate. Those and other conclusions favouring the union were then forwarded to the Assembly of the canton on 16 February. 
 
Further, a commission was established to make corrections to salaries in accord with a previous collective agreement. The commission also will be charged with investigating the health hazards inside the plant. The ICEM is confident that the union and GIKIL workers are now well placed to monitor and participate in the commission’s full work. 
 
Kata Ivelijc thanked the ICEM, IMF, and EMF for “the cooperation and support” and said the intervention “left a strong impression on the institutions and media” in the region.

GIKIL Pays Back Wages to Bosnian Workers; Monitoring Begins

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The ICEM North American affiliate, Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), continues to win legal victories for 140 Massachusetts workers of Covanta, a private sector waste-to-energy company specializing in public solid-waste contracts that burns the waste for creation of electric energy. 
 
On 26 March, an administrative law judge of the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that the company owes the 140 workers nearly US$1 million for withholding wage increases and bonuses in retaliation for staff exercising their lawful right to join the UWUA in May 2008. 
 
The 49-page ruling requires Covanta to repay to workers the money illegally withheld, plus interest, and to bargain with UWUA Local 369 a first collective agreement at a Rochester, Massachusetts, incinerator before it makes any unilateral workplace changes. 
 
The company’s illegal conduct caused workers to lose between 8% and 11% of their annual income in 2009. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/covanta-smoke-4-copy.jpg" width="216" height="160"/>
The judge’s ruling involves the administrative phase of numerous workplace charges brought by the union against Covanta’s unfair labour practices following the NLRB-conducted union authorization vote nearly two years ago. Late in 2009, the labour agency invoked its powers under US labour law to petition a federal court for injunctive relief against Covanta for labour law violations. 
 
The NLRB invokes Section 10(j) of the labour code only rarely, and only when it deems cases are egregious enough to warrant federal court intervention. The injunction petition is currently pending before a federal court in Boston. 
 
Covanta is likely to appeal the administrative law judge’s ruling to the five-member NLRB, but the recent ruling should lend credence before the federal court. 
 
We’ve “long known that Covanta viciously punished these workers because they organized and demanded dignity and a voice in the workplace,” said Local 369 President Gary Sullivan. “This ruling lets the rest of the world know that, without question, Covanta broke the law and will have to put things right.” 
 
The company operates some 40 solid waste facilities in the US. As Covanta has tried to expand its waste-to-energy business into the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Canada, the ICEM has assisted the UWUA to illuminate the American company’s work rights violations, as well as health/safety infractions and certain environmental practices before communities and trade unions in those countries. 
 
For more information on the UWUA’s Campaign for Justice at Covanta, visit the campaign website <a href="http://www.cjcw.org/ ">here</a>.

UWUA Wins US$1 Million Judgment for Covanta Workers 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM has issued stern rebuke to the cowardly perpetrators of an assassination attempt on two union officers of the National Oil Workers’ Union (USO) of Colombia, and calls on the government of President Álvaro Uribe to apprehend and prosecute those responsible. On 27 March, in the city of Villavicencio, in Meta Department south of Bogotá, hired killers on a motorcycle fired automatic weapons at Fernando Navarro and Yesid Prieto, two USO subcommittee officers of Bogotá. 
 
Although both escaped unharmed, their bodyguard, Antonio Pedro Carreño, was shot and killed. 
 
The attack comes days after USO marked the eight-year anniversary of the assassination of the union’s Director, Rafael Jaimes Torra, by paramilitaries. Rafael Jaimes’ nephew, the only witness to the attack, was also murdered shortly after. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Colombia.png" width="250" height="115"/>
ICEM-affiliated USO reported the attack to the Attorney General’s office, as well as to national and regional government officials and to the government’s ombudsman. USO and the ICEM call on Colombian authorities to investigate this attack as a matter or urgency and to bring those responsible to justice. The union wants assurances from the government, as well as from the state oil company Ecopetrol, that their right to life and right to conduct trade union activities are protected. 
 
Paramilitary groups, such as Cuchillo (Knife) and El Loco Barrera (the Crazy Barrera), intimidate workers and trade unionists in the oil fields without reprimand. Recent public statements by paramilitaries that they receive regular payment from oil companies, has added weight to USO’s claim that complicity at many levels is involved in the trade union murder-for-hire racket. 
 
One recently example was the 13 March killing of the teachers’ union ADIDA activist, Duvian Dario Rojo Cadavid, who was gunned down together with his wife a day after speaking to media about armed groups who extort money from teachers. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0704Manfred.jpg" width="100" height="138"/>
Manfred Warda
“The ongoing deaths, assassination attempts, and common forms of threats and intimidation by telephone and other means against trade unionists have got to stop,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “If the Colombian government continues not to take action, then it is up to the world community to take sharp measures against the government of Colombia and its denial that violence impedes free, democratic trade unionism.”

Assassination Attempt on USO Leaders in Colombia Kills Bodyguard 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The Third General Assembly of the South-East European Regional Energy Trade Unions Network took 
place in Belgrade, Serbia, on 19 September 19, under the chairmanship of Milan Kovacevic of EPS Trade Union, the host union. 
 
The gathering brought together delegations from both electric power and oil and gas trade unions from throughout the former Yugoslavia. Also present were the unions from Greece, Albania, Turkey, Cyprus, and Romania. 
 
Jim Catterson represented ICEM and EMCEF, with Public Services International (PSI) and the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) being represented by Josef Krejbych, PSI’s Secretary for Central Europe. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.belgrade.jpg" width="356" height="120" alt=""/>
The meeting gained considerable press attention with the opening covered by Serbian TV. 
 
Held under a banner proclaiming that “Energy is a Public Good in All Countries of the World,” the conference focused on building a countervailing force to the neo-liberal politics that had created an “economy of chaos” in the region. Delegates all gave a report on their situation and developments in the energy sectors of their respective countries. 
 
Many interventions called for closer cooperation between their international and European organisations, with the unions being a mixture of affiliates to ICEM and PSI, together with a number of unions unaffiliated internationally. The network is formally independent of the international union structures although ICEM traditionally has always participated, when invited, to the South-East European Energy Trade Union Network. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Serbiaflag.gif" width="170" height="101"/>
Delegates agreed to a number of statutory changes and increased the size of the Executive Committee to include the Presidents of each member union. A discussion also focused on expanding membership, with hopes expressed that the grouping would be able to bring in presently uninvolved unions from all the Vizegrad countries, as well as more unions from Bosnia, Cyprus, and Greece 
 
The conference closed with the unanimous endorsement of a series of resolutions, including a political declaration from the network, a strategy document towards the Social Forum and Energy Community’s Ministerial Council for South East Europe, and a warning to the Serbian Government against privatization. 
 
An appeal was made to all South-East European trade unions to join the network and a further appeal was made to the international and European organisations to increase joint work and create unity. The network finally decided to hold its next General Assembly in Romania.

South-East Europe’s Energy Unions Meet in Serbia in September

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A steep three-month wage, bonus, and vacation scheme cut to 35,000 miners and metalworkers in Kazakhstan was lifted, effective 1 October. JSC ArcelorMittal Temirtau, owner of a network of coal mines and a massive steel mill in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan, negotiated the cuts with Steel and Coal Divisions Trade Unions within the company last spring in hard bargaining. 
 
ArcelorMittal Temirtau cited the global economic crisis for proposing the cuts, saying the Kazakhstan unit had taken a US$100 million operating loss in first quarter 2009. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Kazakhstan.png" width="250" height="110" alt=""/>
After a series of difficult negotiations through a bi-lateral Conciliation Commission, representatives of the unions and management agreed on a compromise that saw coal mining wages cut by 14% and metal-working remuneration cut by 9%. In addition, vacation schedules contained in collective agreements were reduced and production bonus schemes halted. The company had initially sought 30% salary cuts 
 
Extension of the so-called “anti-crisis agreement” beyond 30 September remained an option, but on that day management said it would not extend it and the prior wage base and benefit levels would be restored, according to the chair of a miners’ trade union at a processing plant. 
 
In 2008, ArcelorMittal Temirtau announced it would construct a new four-million-tonne steel mill in the region, but in August plans for that new steel mill were shelved. 
 
ArcelorMittal is the world’s largest steelmaker, with some 67 steel mills in 27 countries. About 8% of its steel-making capacity comes from its Temirtau operations. It operates eight coal mines in the Karaganda region, employing about 24,000 miners.

Wages Restored to Miners, Metalworkers at ArcelorMittal Temirtau in Kazakhstan

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
ICEM’s two-year project in Turkey on Organising and Social Dialogue, supported by a Dutch labour confederation’s international solidarity arm, FNV Mondiaal, moved forward with its second seminar on 5-6 November, this time in the western Turkish city of Izmir, where ICEM-affiliated trade unions have a strong presence. 
 
The overall objective of the project is to help contribute to the unions’ ability to recruit new members, as well as to discuss the establishment of a base to create a functioning industrial relations system, prioritizing human and trade union rights, and to promote healthy social dialogue in Turkey’s industrial relations system. 
 
The seminar was opened by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, who presented the Global Union Federation’s activities and current work plan. The 60 trade union leaders in attendance then heard a report from ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries Officer Kemal Özkan called, “In the Framework of Globalisation and the European Union Organising and Social Dialogue.”
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911Turkey1.jpg" width="330" height="248" alt=""/>
Delagtes at ICEM/FNV Project Workshop in Izmir 
Besides Turkish local trade union leaders, shop stewards, and militants in attendance, the meeting also saw participation by several international trade union leaders from the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. Celil Çoban and Mail Ürker of FNV Bondgenoten, the Netherlands, exchanged their experiences and knowledge with Turkish colleagues, while Fons Welters, Chairman of Works Council of the Dutch chemicals company, Akzo Nobel, explained social dialogue inside his company. 
 
Akzo Nobel operates in Turkey without union representation. In this framework, FNV Bondgenoten and ICEM Turkish affiliate Petrol-İş made a pact to cooperate on organising Akzo Nobel’s staff in Turkey. 
 
Other speakers, giving their respective country perspectives and presenting their trade union structures, included Michael Mersmann, Head of the International Department, Germany’s IGBCE; Jorgen Juul Rasmussen, the General Secretary of Dansk El-Forbund, Denmark’s Electricians’ Union; and Mats Svensson, Advisor to the President of IF Metall in Sweden.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0911Turkey2.jpg" width="260" height="195" alt=""/>
A presentation by ICEM’s Information, Campaigns, Pulp & Paper Officer, Dick Blin, on the trade union situation in the US attracted much attention, specifically by participants who compared the many similarities to the current Turkish union model “imported” from America in the late 1940s following World War II. 
 
The last presentation was made by Üzeyir Ataman, Director of Education and Collective Bargaining of Turkish union Lastik-İş, who covered the history and current situation of the union movement in his country. 
 
Comrade Ataman’s presentation focused on Power and Weak Points, Challenges and Opportunities, and Concrete Organising Targets inside Turkey. Each of the near 60 participants took the floor and put forward his opinions on these issues in Turkey. 
 
“Our seminars in Izmit and Izmir have clearly shown that there is a major need in Turkey to reinforce capacity of trade union leaders on organising and social dialogue,” said the ICEM’s Özkan, who runs the project. “Turkey has big potential in terms of trade union growth, and our objective is to mobilise this growth. So far, we are gaining on that objective.” 
 
The FNV project will encompass several more issue-focused seminars through 2010. The next one will be a special women’s seminar, scheduled for 15-16 December in İstanbul. In 2010, there will be seminars in the cities of Adana and Bursa, as well as in the region of Tracia.

FNV’s Organising, Social Dialogue Forum in Turkey Comprehensive

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The ICEM was saddened today to learn of the passing of Neil Kearney, the General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF). Kearney died of a massive heart attack in his sleep last night in Dhaka, Bangladesh. 
 
Kearney was a tireless advocate in halting ill-willed sweatshop practices around the world, child labour in its worst forms, and the horrid working conditions he saw throughout the developing world, conditions that Neil saw as a disgrace on humanity. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ITGLWF100.jpg" width="100" height="100"/>
“He was a friend, a fighter for workers’ rights, and an extremely dedicated trade union leader,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “His passing must now stand as a juncture where all of global labour re-dedicates itself to the causes he strongly championed, the dignity, compassion, and justice for the dispossessed who work in the worse scenarios imaginable.” 
 
Kearney, 59, became the General Secretary of ITGLWF in 1988. Born in Donegal, Ireland, he started his trade union career with the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers in 1972. In 1998, he received the “IL Natale, La Notta della Vita” International Award for his work on the elimination of child labour worldwide. A year later, he received the “Work and Environment Award” of the Associaiazione Ambiente e Lavoro for his work to improve working conditions in the developing world. 
 
He is survived by his wife, Jutta, and two daughters, Nicole and Caroline. Funeral arrangements are pending. The ICEM mourns the loss of a humanitarian in the truest sense of the word.

ICEM Mourns Death of Neil Kearney, ITGLWF General Secretary

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Two ICEM Belgian affiliates and members of the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (CSC/ACV) consummated a merger Congress in the city of Gent on 5 June. CSC/ACV Energy and Chemicals Union and CSC/ACV Construction Union merged to create a stronger union structure representing 284,000 Belgian workers.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006CSCBIElogo.jpg" width="100" height="59"/>
The union will be known in French as CSC Bâtiment-industrie & Énergie (CSC-BIE), while its Flemish name is ACV Bouw-industrie & Energie (ACV-BIE). The merged union will cover workers in many sectors, including construction, chemicals, gas, electric, and oil, graphical and paper, pharmaceutical, wood products, leather, and even hairdressing and beauty fitness.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006ACVBelgium.jpg" width="180" height="120"/>
Vice President Alfons De Potter and President Luc Van Dessel  

The prior president of the Construction Union, Luc Van Dessel, was elected President and Alfons De Potter, previously the President of the Energy and Chemicals Union, was elected Vice President. De Potter will continue in his role as a member of the ICEM Presidium, and two of the newly-elected National Secretaries of the merged union, Justin Daerden and Franćois Laurent, will also remain active in ICEM structures.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006ACVBelgium2.jpg" width="200" height="143"/>
Newly elected leadership of ACV-BIE/CSC-BIE
The merger Congress was a celebratory event, with song and dance throughout. It also contained an overview of the union’s new statutes. CSC/ACV Confederation President Luc Cortebeeck delivered a video speech from Geneva, where he was attending the 99th Session of ILO’s International Labour Conference. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda also attended the congress.
The new union will have 15,000 elected shop-floor delegates.

CSC Chemicals and Energy, Construction Unions Merge in Belgium

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On the heels of a gainful first contract victory against with Covanta on the US east coast, a branch of the ICEM affiliate Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) mounted another mobilisation in the US Midwest to stave off unneeded concessions, winning another excellent collective agreement. 

This one was with DTE Energy, the electric and gas provider that formerly was known as Detroit Edison. Some 4,000 UWUA Local 223 are now voting on a three-year labour agreement that will give them 3% annual salary increases, plus a US$750 contract signing bonus.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006.uwua.2.jpg" width="220" height="146" alt=""/>
 UWUA President Mike Langford, at 1 June Local 223 meeting. At left, Executive Vice President Steven VanSlotten and Local 223 President Rich Hawkins. At right, Local 223 President Jim Harrison
The proposed agreement, negotiated in contentious bargaining that went right up to the 6 June expiry of a prior three-year agreement, came primarily because of workers’ anger in being presented with concessionary proposals by a company posting rich (US$230 million) net profits in first quarter 2010, and then handsomely rewarding its top executives. 

DTE Energy had proposed huge increases to the portion of worker-paid health care coverage, elimination or cuts to retiree health care, and the stripping of job security provisions. On 1 June in a fiery, over-full mass union meeting that needed the police of Livonia, Michigan, for crowd control, Local 223 members voted 97% to give strike authorization to the bargaining committee. 

Workers were angry that they contributed US$100 million in continuous improvements at Edison and MichCon. At the mass meeting, UWUA President Mike Langford said, “The national union will not allow this to happen. We won’t let DTE line the pockets of executives while it empties the wallets of our workers.”
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006.uwua.3.jpg" width="300" height="200" alt=""/>
Local 223 members turned out in force on 1 June to resist DTE Energy’s takeaways  

Bargaining resumed the next day and by the time weekend (4-6 June) talks concluded, the company had moved from its entire slate of concessions. “We’re proud that we were able to work together to achieve an outcome that values our employees, serves our customers and supports Michigan’s economic recovery,” appropriately stated the company in a joint news release. 

UWUA Local 223 represents electric line workers, skilled trades-persons, technical staff, power plant operators, electric and gas service and distribution workers, and customer service, office, and clerical staff. Local 223 members also serve as first responders in times of crisis and in times of life and death situations in Detroit and surrounding communities.

US Utility Workers Win Again, This Time with Detroit Electric Company

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