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Global worker No1 2022

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With great sorrow, we announce the passing of Ann Browne, Projects Officer of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Ann died peacefully in a Brussels clinic on Friday night, at the end of a long fight against cancer. She is remembered by her fellow trade unionists worldwide, both as a kind and charming colleague and as an effective builder of trade unions for those who need them most. 

<img height="279" alt="" src="" width="200" />
Ann Browne was born on 18 October 1949 in Strabane, Northern Ireland. After her studies, she joined the Chile Solidarity Campaign and was particularly active in its programme for refugees. Many people in Chile remember her from those days. 
 
In 1982, she joined the Miners' International Federation (MIF), a forerunner of the present ICEM. At the MIF, she had responsibility for projects and particularly for Latin America. After the MIF's merger into the ICEM, she became the ICEM Projects Officer. 
 
Whilst Ann was rigorous in her presentation of projects, reports and accounts, she was never a bureaucrat. She saw her work as that of a militant serving the affiliated trade unions. Never afraid to speak out, she was also no stranger to physical risks and hardship, particularly during her work with trade unions in Latin America. After one visit to Peru, the newspapers there described her as a dangerous activist. 
 
She will also be remembered for initiating the Global Health and Safety Project in the mining industry, for her work with women in mining communities and for her campaigns against the use of child labour in mines. Year after year, she played a crucial role in supporting the Colombian coal miners' union Sintracarbon as it struggled against repression and for the right to collective bargaining. Today, Sintracarbon is one of Latin America's most militant and effective miners' unions. 
 
Ann's struggle against cancer began ten years ago. It was a difficult and often painful fight. Everyone admired her ability to surmount the disease and to carry on her important work in spite of it. Her determination to keep on serving her ideals helps explain her remarkably long resistance to cancer. 
 
Ann's ready laughter, her fine sense of humour and her kindness were blended with a huge working capacity and great willpower. Her address book was full of friends all over the world. She could not conceive of visiting affiliates or attending conferences without arranging side meetings from dawn until late at night. 
 
Yet she had time for people. She cared deeply. And she is deeply missed.

Ann Browne: A Tribute

Successful negotiations were concluded between Colombian affiliate Sintracarb&oacute;n and Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n, the profitable coal mining and export company owned jointly by Anglo-American, BHP Billiton and Glencore International. The two-year agreement calls for 8% pay raises in addition to three monthly bonus payments as compensation for agreement on legislative changes.

Sintracarbon in Colombia Posts Excellent Gains at Coal Firm

December proved to be another deadly month for mine workers in China. No less than four major accidents were recorded and publicized, claiming the lives of 100 workers. On 9 December, a gas explosion at the Daxian mine near Yangquan, Shanxi Province, killed 33, including five workers as they were being rescued. In Guizhou Province on 12 December, 36 workers were trapped and drowned when the Xujiuabe Tianchi mine was flooded. Two days later near the town of Tanjiashan, Hunan Province, another gas blast killed 18 workers. Then on 22 December, 13 workers were killed at the Nanwugou mine near Linfen in northern Shanxi Province when a build up of gas overcame the workers in a mineshaft.

Mining Deaths Continue to Plague China’s Coal Industry

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa is targeting Hernic Ferrochrome following a 13 December underground mine disaster that crushed and then drowned seven miners in Brits, North West Province. Managers refused to allow NUM representatives to investigate South Africa&rsquo;s deadliest 2004 mine disaster caused by a flood from a dislodged valve that brought a ventilation lattice wall down. &ldquo;The behaviour of this company demonstrates absolute arrogance in the face of calamity,&rdquo; said NUM Gen. Sec. Gwede Mantashe. &ldquo;We will leave no stone unturned in our commitment to ensuring that families of these workers see justice being done.&rdquo; The NUM will be present 15 February when an official Department of Minerals and Energy inquiry commences. Hernic, a high-carbon ferrochrome producer that is just now ramping production up at the Brits mine, is 53.2% owned by Japan&rsquo;s Mitsubishi, 25% by the South African government&rsquo;s Industrial Development Corp., 11.5% by Elg Hansel of Germany, and 7.5% by mine management.

South Africa’s NUM Takes On Hernic Ferrochrome Over Safety

Hubertus Schmoldt, president of ICEM German affiliate IGBCE, drew attention to the challenges and opportunities facing the union movement in an end-of-the-year message. Schmoldt noted that international competition has grown stiffer with no let up in sight and said global trade union work stressing solidarity is welcome, but unions are only at the beginning of such positive developments. He described biogenetics and nanotechnology as key industries for the future but&mdash;particularly in the case of gene technology&mdash; Germany may soon lose research, development and production capacities. Schmoldt stressed the importance of education and training from early childhood to university levels as key.

Germany’s IGBCE Gives Year-End Challenges

That rebuilding effort, however, is proving as troublesome under the provisional Iraqi administration as it was under Saddam&rsquo;s rule, according to the Workers&rsquo; Council of the National Company for Chemicals and Plastics Industries in Baghdad. A statement by the fledgling union says &ldquo;the same fascistic policies of the former regime&rdquo; are still in place including punishments, dismissals, threats and dismissals. The council is demanding raises in the minimum wage to match inflation, rescinding punishments and full pay for 25 workers, and distributing the yearly gains of the company to workers.

Iraqi Occupation Hindering Workplace Progress

Political instability in Iraq and lack of security there was felt dramatically by the ICEM and the global trade movement on 4 January. That day the body of Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) Executive Committee member Hadi Saleh was found at his home in Baghdad after Saleh was strangled by electrical wire. Known as Abu Furat, Saleh, 58, was tortured prior to his murder, a murder in which the IFTU believes was done by remnants of Saddam Hussein&rsquo;s secret police. Saleh was sentenced to death in 1969 by Saddam&rsquo;s regime for engaging in independent trade union activities. After spending five years in prison, he fled Iraq for exile in Sweden. He returned in April 2003 in efforts to build an independent trade union movement. The ICEM and global trade union bodies are working with the IFTU and other Iraqi labour centers to construct a viable and independent union movement in the war-ravaged country.

Trade Union Leader Slain in Iraq

A court injunction 20 November ended a one-day strike by 100 oil workers, members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing &amp; Manufacturing Union (EPMU) of New Zealand. The EPMU members employed at five oil and gas rigs in Taranaki and Taupo struck over lack of progress in NZ&rsquo;s Onshore Oil Exploration Drilling Rig Agreement, a multi-employer collective agreement. EPMU is seeking a 5% wage adjustment, better redundancy provisions, meal provisions, and changes to training time, which is currently done outside of regular work hours. NZ&rsquo;s Employment Court will conduct a full hearing on the temporary injunction gotten by oil drilling employers on 24 November.

Oil Companies Get Injunction to End New Zealand Onshore Strike

The CEP of Canada is requesting the OECD undertake an investigation of labour practices against Finnish papermaker UPM Kymmene under the Parisbased organization&rsquo;s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. At UPM Kymmene&rsquo;s lone Canadian mill in Miramichi, New Brunswick, the firm unilaterally announced closure of the pulp mill&mdash;chopping 400 jobs effective 31 January 2005&mdash;but also engaged in vicious anti-union behaviour. Management turned rabid after the CEP local union protested the closure on grounds the firm&rsquo;s logging licenses for harvesting government lands mandates that it operate the mill. CEP charges UPM Kymmene with creating a &ldquo;cold war&rdquo; atmosphere of labour relations by suspending local union leaders for performing their statutory duties, monitoring and spying on workers&rsquo; activities with a hired security team, and refusing to negotiate with the union or to provide information pertinent to bargaining.

CEP of Canada Takes Paper Dispute to OECD

A vote by two UK unions for industrial action against Imerys has moved the French materials company back to the negotiations table over a contentious pension issue. Union members of ICEM affiliates Transport &amp; General (T&amp;G) and GMB voted to take industrial action at Imerys&rsquo; English China Clay at several southwestern UK worksites. Rather than face an angry 2,500 workers ready to disrupt operations over pensions being chopped, Imerys agreed to negotiate after a meeting between T&amp;G General Secretary Tony Woodley and corporate managers of the company. 
Imerys previously had refused any dialogue over its plan to close the pension scheme to new workers and cut anywhere from 33-40% in pension benefits to existing workers. In the US, Imerys workers in Dry Branch, Georgia, represented by another ICEM affiliate, USW, ratified a three-year agreement with the company, but fellow USW union members in Sylacauga, Alabama, still seek a commitment from management that it cease union-busting.

UK Unions, Imerys Agree to Re-start Pension Talks

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