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Austrian trade union federation OeGB will hold a candle-lighting ceremony in front of its headquarters in Vienna on Friday, 27 April, to mark Workers’ Memorial Day. OeGB President Rudolf Hundstorfer will also speak at this public event. 
<img height="78" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/AustriaOeGB.jpg" width="199" alt=""/>
Hundstorfer's speech will mark the start of the federation's drive to have the 28 April day recognised by the government of Austria as the official International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers. The federation has urged its member unions across Austria to conduct similar public events, and is encouraging trade unionists to mark the day with candle-lighting ceremonies inside their workplaces.

Austria: National Centre OeGB to Conduct Commemorative Event on 27 April

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ICEM affiliate National Union of Petroleum Workers in Côte-d’Ivoire (SYNTEPCI-UGTCI) is using the days around 28 April’s International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers to mark a milestone: refinery workers have now worked 2,000 consecutive days at the Société Ivoirienne de Raffinage in Abidjan without a work accident. 
 
SYNTEPCI has already marked the event with a 19 April “Open Door” at the refinery to highlight the achievements at the enterprise, as well as a 21 April National Day on Health and Safety. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CotedIvoire.png" width="250"/>
On 26-27 April, the refinery’s Health and Safety Committee will take part in a training seminar, which will specifically address establishing national coordination of all workplace safety and health committees. 
 
On 28 April, the union will pay tribute to comrades working at the refinery in a ceremony attended by the president of the country. Later that day, the Ministries of Work and Public Affairs will air a message on safety at work across Côte-d’Ivoire radio and television. 
 
The ICEM congratulates the workers at this oil enterprise for their exemplary safety record, as well as SYNTEPCI and its General Secretary Adolpe Gyayoro for organising the work-safety events in Côte-d’Ivoire.

Ivory Coast: Petrol Affiliate Celebrates 2,000 Days Without a Work Accident

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In Japan, “karoshi,” or death from overwork, is not a new phenomenon. But now it has become a topic inside the Japanese parliamentary system, as lawmakers of the Diet begin considering revisions to the Labor Standards Act, which regulates work time and salary. 
 
At the centre of the political debate is the issue of excessive overtime, as well as the question if overtime pay should be raised from the current 1.25 times regular pay for work performed over and above eight hours a day, or 40 hours per week. According to the Japan Times, the government drafted a bill to raise overtime pay, but also included a white-collar exclusion rule to overtime pay. Supervisory and management ranks are already excluded from overtime pay. 
<img height="115" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Japan.png" width="250" alt=""/>
The issue is expected to be hotly contested in political debates this year, and into the future. Employers are seeking workplace flexibility by giving workers a choice in the hours they work, figuring this will bring greater efficiency. But the unions counter that the white-collar exclusion rule will lead to heavier work loads and continuation of conditions that bring on “karoshi.” 
 
In 2003, the Japanese government began collecting figures on “karoshi,” using application and awards of workers’ compensation to family members. In 2003, the number of applications was 213, of which 158 cases were recognised as death due to overwork. In 2005, the number of applications rose to 336, but the government only recognised 157 of those as being the result of “karoshi.”

Japan: ‘Death from Overwork’ Real Concern to Labour Unions, Government

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As an election nears for workers at the Firestone Rubber Plantation in Harbel, Liberia, violence broke out during a three-day strike. Riot police stormed a picket line on 27 April, clubbing and tear gassing strikers. Some two-dozen workers were hospitalised, at least two seriously. 
 
The police violence came one month before some 6,000 agriculture workers will vote on their choice of union representative. An insurgent union, called the Firestone Agriculture Workers Union (FAWU), has strong support among workers tapping rubber at this million-acre rubber plantation owned by Bridgestone Corporation of Japan. 
 
The FAWU succeeded on 9 April in getting Liberia’s Labor Ministry to conduct the election against the General Agriculture and Allied Workers’ Union (GAAWUL), the recognised union that FAWU activists accuse of malfeasance and providing little or no representation. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Liberia.png" width="250"/>
The police force, which included electric shocks from batons, occurred after strikers had questioned contract workers who were unloading rubber from trucks. The three-day strike was nearing an end at the time, with Firestone managers and workers nearly in agreement on issues related to the strike. 
 
Government and local officials denied calling out the police, and indications are that Firestone Rubber Plantation managers called for the forceful police raid. NGO and trade unions, who have been monitoring the longstanding trouble surrounding this rubber plantation, videotaped some of this police violence. 
 
While plantation workers count down to a union election, scheduled by the government for the last week of May, Bridgestone is defending itself in a US court against charges of longstanding child labour practices, other slave-like employment practices, and environmental degradation at the Firestone plantation. The Alien Tort Claims Act lawsuit in a US federal courtroom has been brought by the International Labor Rights Fund and 35 plaintiffs, including ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers.

Police Beat Insurgent Unionists at Firestone Rubber Plantation in Liberia

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More than 300 rubber workers mobilised to direct action recently in Callao, Argentina, seeking a negotiated settlement already agreed to with major rubber companies. The workers marched to the office of the Work Ministry behind the banner of ICEM affiliate Sindicato Unico Trabajores del Neumático Argentina (SUTNA), demanding the negotiated package that is already in place at the major tyre producers, Bridgestone, Pirelli, and FATE. 
 
The labour dispute is currently before a government conciliation process. 
<img height="93" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Argentina.png" width="200"/>
Earlier this year, SUTNA won 38% wage increases for 4,000 workers at the major firms. SUTNA Gen. Sec. Pedro Wasiejko also has pledged that, in this round of national rubber bargaining, no worker would earn less than 2,741 pesos (€ 600) per month. 
 
The 300 rubber workers in Callao have placed this minimum monthly salary demand as a priority. They also seek the pay packages earned at the tyre factories. 
 
Wasiejko said that across the entire Argentine rubber sector, labour costs are but a small fraction of total production costs. According to the Argentine labour leader, rubber companies can afford the pay raises. Such labour cost increases will not affect the customer or the consumer.

Rubber Workers Take Action in Argentina to Achieve Pattern Agreement

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Italy’s three major unions came together on 23 April for an eight-hour strike against Pfizer pharmaceutical. The unions protested Pfizer’s destructive job losses at a time in which the US-based company is posting record earnings. 
 
Italian unions FILCEM-CGIL, FEMCA-CISL, and UILCEM-UIL rallied 2,400 workers at a manifestation in Rome at the offices of the Labour Ministry and the Economic Development Ministry. 
Inside a mass worldwide restructuring plan, Pfizer has targeted the sacking of 440 research and development staff in Italy, as well as curtailment of antibiotic production in Varese, Italy. The unions also object to the February sale of a business in Nerviano, and cite some 2,200 staff that have been discharged since 2003. 
<img height="80" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ItalyFEMCACISL.jpg" width="110" align="absMiddle"/>    <img height="92" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ITALYFILCEM.jpg" width="75" align="absMiddle"/>    <img height="71" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ITALYUILCEM.gif" width="126" align="absMiddle"/>
Workers at the Rome manifestation included staff from four Pfizer worksites – Latina, Ascoli, Pisticci, and Nerviano – which are affected under the giant drug-maker’s restructuring plan. 
 
Pfizer earlier this year announced that 10,000 jobs would be cut worldwide. The company announced this in the face of quarterly profit returns of US$9.45 billion. Pfizer cited competition from generic drug-makers as a reason for the 2007 restructuring.

Italian Unions Protest Pfizer’s Cuts in Rome

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Union members of ICEM affiliate Engineering Printing & Manufacturing Union (EPMU) in New Zealand were back to work on 4 May, following a three-day lockout imposed by Australian-based Amcor paper and packaging company. 
 
Fifty EPMU members were locked off their jobs at a paper converting facility in Auckland on 1 May. The workers were resisting staffing cuts that would have reduced the factory to unsafe manning levels. 
 
“These workers were prepared to stick this out as long as it took,” stated EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little. “They are relieved this dispute has come to a close so quickly.” 
<img height="143" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0705EPMU.jpg" width="390" alt=""/>
Amcor lock-out in New-Zealand
Added Little, “Our members tried to negotiate in good faith and were met with the most extreme and militant response an employer can make. It’s good to see common sense has prevailed and they can now get back to doing their jobs under fair and equitable circumstances.” 
 
The negotiated end of the lockout consisted of maintaining staffing levels without redundancies, an extra week’s service and shift leave, the industry standard pay raise, and a day’s pay to cover part of the lockout period. 
 
Amcor, a major global producer of flexible packaging, last week announced a European restructuring plan that could cut 900 of the company’s 7,600-member workforce in Europe. The plan focuses on shifting work to Eastern and Southern Europe. The company triggered this restructuring in February, by announcing construction of a plastic extrusion facility in Poland.

EPMU Members Win Guarantees in Short Lockout by Amcor Packaging

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1. Costa Rica - Parliament Approves Law to Penalize Violence against Women 
2. Denmark - From our readers: Marianne Bruun, 3F, writes 
3. Ecuador - Women Workers’ Coordinate and Meet 
4. India - Women’s Ceremony for Children of Worker Victims 
5. Iraq - May Day in Basra 
6. Korea - Women Workforce Expands 
7. Mexico - Mexico City Legalises Abortion 
8. Morocco - Women’s Network Holds Workers’ Memorial Day Cause 
9. South Africa - Pushes for Constitutional Guarantees of Gender Equality 
10. Resources
<img height="31" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="25"/>
1. Costa Rica – Parliament Approves Law to Penalize Violence Against Women
On 12 April 2007, the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly passed pioneering legislation to penalize violence against women. The aim is to protect the rights of the victims of violence and to sanction such in all its forms – physical, psychological, sexual, property – in the context of a relationship of power or confidence. This will only be the second time in the world, after Spain, that this type of legislation has been passed. 
The law implies a change in the penal code and the traditional concept of related crimes. Women should thus have better protection against violence in relations with partners. Costa Rica is now a reference point in the Americas in terms of legislation against violence against women. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="25"/>
2. Denmark
From our readers: Marianne Bruun, 3F, writes: 
Average male earnings are higher than average female earnings in the Danish labour market. Depending on how hourly wages are calculated, the unadjusted pay differences, i.e., the percentage difference between the average earnings of men and women, is between 12-19%. 
The main single explanation of the pay differences between men and women in Denmark is that women work in other professions than men, and that people working in those professions are generally paid less than people working in the typically male professions. 
 
For years we have asked for statistical tools that would show pay inequalities in various lines of business and job categories. The Danish government has now adopted legislation requiring that major enterprises prepare gender-separated statistics. 
If they prefer it, the enterprises may instead prepare reports on equal pay, provided employees agree with this. Such reports must contain information about matters that have an impact on male and female employees’ pay in the enterprise, and must also describe initiatives taken by the enterprise to avoid pay inequality. 
 
The new legislation applies to enterprises with 35 or more full- and part-time employees and have at least ten people of each gender employed in the same job function. Enterprises that do not have any groups of at least ten men and ten women do not have to prepare gender-separated pay statistics. 
 
In the trade union movement, we are not at all pleased with this limitation, which means that only a small proportion of our members will be covered by the new legislation. We have therefore decided to create a number of supplementary tools that can be used by union representatives in most workplaces, thus enabling them to collect data on pay themselves and to identify any pay inequality issues in their own enterprise. 
Paternity leave 
In connection with the recently finalised collective bargaining in Danish industry, we have achieved two very important improvements in the field of equal opportunities for men and women. 
 
First of all, a number of weeks have been earmarked for leave for fathers. Danish legislation provides a total of 32 weeks of leave to be shared by parents (in continuation of the mother’s 14-week maternity leave). However, in most cases it is the woman that takes the entire ’shared’ leave, while men are rarely keen to take leave. One reason is that women want to have the entire leave; another is that colleagues and employers are reluctant to let men take time off to go on paternity leave. 
 
It has now been agreed that a family is entitled to full pay in nine of the thirty-two weeks of leave, but that either parent may only take leave for six of those nine weeks. This means that at least three weeks are earmarked for leave for the father if the family wants to receive full pay for nine weeks. We hope this will make more men go on paternity leave. 
 
Another important aspect is that we will now do something about the fact that women who take maternity leave lag behind in terms of pensions, as they do not contribute to any pension scheme while they are on leave. The new collective agreements compensate a bit for that. 
Reconciliation between family and working life
We have long discussed our members’ need for a better work-life balance, so in order to find out what our members mean when they say they want a better balance between work and family life, we have carried out a questionnaire survey. 
 
Our members, first of all, point out that they believe this particular issue should be one of the union’s focus areas. They also express a strong wish to have family policy included in our collective agreements, which it has not previously been in Denmark. 
 
The survey also shows that stress is a common phenomenon among our members. This is particularly true of women members, not least single mothers. The distribution of work in families is still far from equal, which means that most women work full-time outside the home and also have to do the housework. That is why our focus will be, to an increasing extent, targeting labour market demands that can possibly make daily work-life easier for families with young children. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="25"/>
3. Ecuador – Women Workers’ Coordinate and Meet
The Eighth Meeting of the Coordination of Andean Women Workers took place on 2-3 May in Manta, Ecuador, with the proposal to fight for equal opportunities between men and women. About 20 women from trade union national centres met in Bolivia. Representatives from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela attended the meeting of COMUANDE. 
 
The meeting adopted a proposal to be passed on to the Andean Community of Nations that equal opportunities between men and women must become reality once and for all. COMUANDE meets once a year in regional assembly at rotating venues. It is a space for coordination and exchange to make proposals regarding trade unions, social policy, and politics in the process of Andean integration. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="25"/>
4. India – Women’s Ceremony for Children of Worker Victims 
In the framework of Workers’ Memorial Day, 28 April, the Society for Working Life held a women’s meeting in New Delhi to organise a candle ceremony with children of worker victims. Local trade unions in Bihar state also organised a similar commemoration. SWL, the Society for Working Life, is involved in the Women, Work, and Health Initiative, and works with NGOs in Bihar to create awareness of HIV/AIDS among migrant workers. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="25"/>
5. Iraq – May Day in Basra 
<img height="285" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0705Iraqwomen.jpg" width="380"/>
 The GFIW Says Strong Unions Need Women 
<img height="31" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="25"/>
6. Korea – Women Workforce Expands
Women comprise more than 42% of the Korean workforce, according to a recent survey by the state-run Korean Employment Information Service. This marks a steady increase over the years. 
 
The survey analysed the nation’s employment structure based on gender, salary, and occupational category. The female workforce increased most in the chemical industry, with a 6.5% rise. On the other hand, the number of women’s jobs decreased by 4.1% percentage points in the industrial arts and furnishing services. And fewer women took jobs in the electric and telecommunication sectors. 
 
An earlier survey by the Korea Institute of Finance showed that women had outpaced men in the tight job market. According to the National Statistical Office, women took 154,000, or 69.4%, of about 222,000 new jobs in various high-paying professions in 2006. Those jobs included lawmakers, high-ranking government officials, lawyers, doctors, and professors. 
 
Men claimed the remaining 68,000 new jobs. The number of lawmakers, corporate executives, and managers reached 571,000 in 2006, down 3,000 from 2005, but the number of women increased by 2,000 during the same period. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="25"/>
7. Mexico – Mexico City Legalizes Abortion 
 
The Mexico City legislature passed a bill to legalize abortion during the first three months of pregnancy. This occurred on 24 April. 
 
Feminists hailed the decision as a victory. For decades women, especially poor women, have been forced by way of backstreet abortions and questionable practices to end unwanted pregnancies. Thousands die every year due to botched abortions. 
 
Mexico City has now become the largest entity in Latin America after Cuba and Puerto Rico where women may have abortions on demand in the first three months of pregnancy. Most other states in Mexico only allow abortion in cases of rape or danger to the woman’s health. 
 
Opponents have condemned this measure, passed in this highly Catholic country. Court battles and clashes are bound to be launched. It may ultimately be challenged by the Supreme Court. The Pope publicly condemned the bill. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="25"/>
8. Morocco – Women’s Network Holds Workers’ Memorial Day Cause 
The women’s network “Women and Sustainable Development” lit candles on 28 April to commemorate victims in countries without protective legislation. They also rang out an alarm at fetal deformities due to cancer in women because of health hazards on the job, or pollution. 
 
The women called on politicians to pay more attention to health and safety, and for trade unions to be more involved in job-related safety issues in Arab-Muslim countries. The network appealed to women throughout the world to stand in solidarity against victims of injustices, and with women in areas of conflict in order to promote peace. 
 
The network aims to connect with women workers throughout the world in order to promote sustainable development and occupational safety. It started with women in Arab-Muslim countries, and now extends to Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Kuwait, Tunisia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, Sudan, Somalia, United Arab Emirates. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="25"/>
9. South Africa Pushes for Constitutional Guarantees of Gender Equality 
 
South Africa’s Cabinet is 42% women, one of the highest percentages in the world. South Africa’s Commission on Gender Equality has called consultations on a draft protocol to break new ground to make first-time commitments on gender equality in a sub-regional document. 
 
In August, the Heads of State of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will be called upon to elevate the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development to a more biding Protocol. NGOs have audited the 1997 declaration and decided that non-binding measures have not worked. Legally binding measures are now being sought to move SADC to implementation. 
 
The African Union has come out in favour of gender parity, but it has not set targets. 
 
Setting targets has the effect of mobilising those who lag behind, since no country wants to be seen as the worst performer. All SADC countries, except Botswana, have increased the proportion of women in parliament. The increases have been particularly marked in Swaziland, Malawi, and Mauritius. On average, women comprise 20% of the region’s legislators, second only to the Nordic countries. 
 
In addition, countries would be required to specify that in case there is a conflict between customary and state law, the national constitution will take precedence, as is the case in South Africa. Customary laws govern most women’s lives in the region, so that this change may be the most significant of all. These changes are slow but necessary if the root inequalities are to be eliminated. 
<img height="31" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="25"/>
10. Resources
The World Bank’s Global Monitoring Report on the Millenium Goals shows that progress toward gender equality is lagging. Available on the World Bank’s website: 
<a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21296903~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html">http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS 
/0,,contentMDK:21296903~pagePK:64257043~ 
piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html</a>
Coalition of Labor Union Women, the working women’s organization in the United States: 
<a href="http://www.cluw.org">www.cluw.org</a>
The Berger-Marks Foundation assists organizations in organizing: 
<a href="http://www.bergermarks.org">www.bergermarks.org</a>
Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2007 (draws attention to gender inequalities) 
<a href="http://www.unescap.org/publications/detail.asp?id=1205">www.unescap.org/publications/detail.asp?id=1205</a>

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN 22

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Three gold miners, jailed on 17 December, for illegal gold mining in the southern Zimbabwe region of Matabeleland, died six days after their arrest from exhaustion and starvation. The three died after days of filling trenches without being given food or enough water by the police forces of Robert Mugabe’s government. 
 
In a country with 80% unemployment and an inflation rate that hit a new high of 1,281% in December, the three miners were arrested with 12 other gold diggers as part of the government’s crackdown on illegal mining, called Operation Makorokoza Zvakwana by the Mugabe police forces. 
<img height="111" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Zimbabwe%20ZCTU.gif" width="107"/>
One police officer told ZimOnline, Zimbabwe’s independent news agency, that when the workers tried to resist the continuous trench filling, or complained of hunger, they were beaten “because that’s how our bosses had instructed us to treat them.” 
 
The three died at separate times on 24 December after experiencing extreme dizziness before collapsing. 
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s labour leaders, who were severely beaten in September after police forces broke up an anti-poverty rally, have sued top Mugabe aides for unlawful arrests and injuries incurred to them. Zimbabwe Council of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Sec. Gen. Wellington Chibebe and 14 other labour leaders sued Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, and several other police officers for Z$1.34 billion (US$9.13 million), which includes general damages, and unlawful arrest and deprivation of liberty. 
<img height="140" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0609ZCTU3.jpg" width="120" alt=""/>
ZCTU Secretary General Wellington Chibebe 
In the lawsuit, attorneys for the labour leaders cite violations of the Zimbabwe constitution, Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 5 of the African Charter for Human and People’s Rights, Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Treatments. 
The labour leaders, on 12 and 13 September, were subjected to beatings that caused bone fractures, serious cranial/facial bruising, and head injuries. Some 256 ZCTU activists were arrested at the time. 
 
The current economic crisis in Zimbabwe, which saw the inflation rate jump a full 182% from November to December 2006, has caused mass labour strikes in the health care and education sectors, not to mention in mining and energy industries, because salaries have become miniscule compared to the vast inflation jumps. For example, staff of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority staged a two-day strike on 3-4 January, when an internal memo was released stating that salaries would only increase by 50%.

Mugabe Regime Starves Jailed Gold Miners

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Belgian unions FGTB/ABVV and CSC/ACV have boosted their joint project in Colombia to draw attention to human and trade union rights. The unions now have a petition drive underway on the project’s website, aimed at the government of Colombia, including members of Parliament. The petition drive also addresses the management of both Colombian and multinational companies to take action. 
The project, called Syndicol, is operated by the two Belgian unions, in full cooperation with all three Colombian national labour centres, CUT, CGT, and CTC. A number of ICEM’s Colombian affiliates are directly involved in the project.      
<img height="42" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Belgiumfgtb.jpg" width="123" align="absMiddle"/>        <img height="71" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/BelgiumACV.gif" width="120" align="absMiddle"/>
Syndicol’s action plan is to bring aid and solidarity to the workers of Colombia. Its aim is to build broad campaigns of information around the abuses of human and trade union rights in the South American country, including the many assassinations of trade union leaders. 
The current petition, located on Syndicol’s French language website at <a href="http://www.syndicol.be/Petition">http://www.syndicol.be/Petition</a>, states that over 3,000 trade unionists have been assassinated since 1990, and calls on government and business leaders to take immediate action to end this state of terror. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Colombia.png" width="250"/>
“The flagrant and inadmissible violations of human rights and, in particular, of the rights and trade union freedoms are a denial of justice, and disgraceful for those who commit the crimes, as well as their protectors. The systematic assassination of trade unionists and human rights defenders is a throwback to another age and what’s worse, the perpetrators enjoy impunity from the Colombian legal system and the country’s authorities.” 
 
ICEM affiliates and activists are encouraged to visit the website to sign the petition.

Belgian Unions Team on Colombia Petition Drive

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