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Metalliliitto, Finland&rsquo;s Metalworkers&rsquo; Union, has reached a tentative agreement with KMW Engineering, preventing for now a blockade on construction of the nuclear power reactor Olkiluoto III. On 13 April, the Polish air-conditioning subcontractor agreed to compensate workers for shortfalls in pay required under the Finnish labour standards. 
 
Under the agreement, KMW Engineering did give an accounting that showed arrears in Sunday and overtime pay. It agreed to compensate back wages and pledged to uphold Finnish terms of employment in the future. It also agreed to correct its deficient safety and health standards on the 1.6 gigawatt (1,600 megawatt) nuclear plant.
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Construction of Olkiluoto III 
Photo: YLE/Termonen Tapio&nbsp; 

Metalliliitto had given the subcontractor until 15 April to comply with Finnish social standards, or face a construction-wide blockade that would have halted all work on Finland&rsquo;s fifth nuclear reactor. (See <a href="http:// /en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4343-Finland’s-Metalworkers-close-in-on-Blockade-of-Nuclear-Plant-Work">ICEM report</a> from 28 March.) A Metalworkers&rsquo; blockade had endorsement and would have been honoured by Finland&rsquo;s Construction Trades Union, the Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union, and Proliitto, the union for salaried workers of Finland. 
 
A regional state labour agency of Finland&rsquo;s South-West found in late March that KMW did not keep overtime records as required under the working hours act. It also determined that payment of wages for Sunday and overtime work varied. Failure to comply could have brought state sanctions to the nuclear construction site, which would have affected other contractors. 
 
Metalliliitto Compliance Officer Jyrki Virtanen said the union will now fully monitor future social conduct by KMW Engineering. The Olkiluoto III nuclear power station is owned by private-sector energy concern Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO), and has as general contractor Areva of France. Olkiluoto III, a &euro;3.95 billion project that is now &euro;1.5 billion over budget, is the biggest investment in the history of Finnish industry.

Polish Engineering Firm Concedes to Finland’s Metalliliitto at Nuclear Plant

The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Union (ICEM), a Geneva, Switzerland-based global union federation represented rubber workers across the world, announced today that it would lend its full support to the National Union of Metalworkers&rsquo; of South Africa (NUMSA) in its fight to keep Bridgestone South Africa compelled to wage terms negotiated in the New Tyre Manufacturing Employers&rsquo; Industry Association (NTMEIA). 
 
South African management of the Japanese-based company locked out 1,200 members of NUMSA at two former Firestone tyre producing plants, Brits and Port Elizabeth, on 22 March. At issue is Bridgestone South Africa&rsquo;s defiance of a private&nbsp;arbitrator's award that the tyre manufacturer is bound to certain wage terms contained in a three-year collective agreement that was negotiated between NUMSA and NTMEIA that ended a 30-day strike against four tyre producers on 29 September 2010. 
 
In a 31 March letter to Bridgestone South Africa CEO Kenji Shoda, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, &ldquo;Please know that the current situation in Brits and Port Elizabeth will be communicated to all Bridgestone facilities throughout the world and if your current labour relations conduct is not halted, we will begin to mobilise within these facilities.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM will support NUMSA as it ramps up a campaign against Bridgestone inside South Africa. And it will take that campaign into Bridgestone tyre plants from Japan and throughout Asia, to Europe and in North and South America. The ICEM is adamant that wage rates negotiated by the NTMEIA for 4,000 other rubber workers at Continental, Goodyear, and Apollo-Dunlop factories in South Africa also be instituted at Bridgestone&rsquo;s two factories. 
 
The ICEM is the global union federation for 20 million workers in the energy, chemical, rubber, mining, and other industrial sectors. It is composed of 467 trade unions in 132 countries. 
 
For further information, contact ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin, <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 22 304 1842, +41 79 734 8994.

Global Union Federation Supports Besieged Tyre Workers in South Africa

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Labour strife broke out late last week at Kumho tyre plants Korea. Members of the Kumho Tyre Workers&rsquo; Union, affiliated to the Korean Metal Workers&rsquo; Union (KMWU) and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), staged a one-day warning strike on 25 March at two of three Kumho plants in Korea &ndash; Gwungju and Gokseong. 
 
Management immediately retaliated that day and on 26 March with a lockout. When some 3,400 workers at the two plants in southwestern Korea tried to return to their jobs, Kumho managers insisted they sign individual agreements pledging not to strike. 
 
The KMWU branch unit issued a statement calling on Kumho to negotiate over a set of disputed issues, and said, &ldquo;The company forced union workers to confirm that they would not take part in (further) strikes.&rdquo; The Kumho Tyre Workers&rsquo; Union is strongly encouraging workers not to sign the statement and not to return to work while the lockout is in force. 
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Kumho&rsquo;s Gwungju Tyre Plant, 25 March
By a 72% vote count, rubber workers on 10 March voted to launch the warning strike. Central among issues is management&rsquo;s refusal to negotiate paid time-off inside the factories for KMWU branch leaders to handle grievances and perform other union business. The union also seeks labour-management dialogue in order to cut excessive noise pollution in the factories, and wants revisions to severance packages. 
 
Kumho, a subsidiary of the Kumho Asiana Group, has shed a great number of jobs over the past two years due to a heavy debt burden and shifting of work to start-up plants in China. Earlier last week, Kumho was hit by a massive recall of tyres made in those Chinese plants because recycled content exceeded the allowable requirements. 
 
Kumho is Korea&rsquo;s second largest tyre manufacturer and the world&rsquo;s tenth biggest. Workers at the company&rsquo;s third tyre plant in Korea, in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi province, where the KMWU also represents staff, are not affected by the current labour strife.

Warning Strike Leads to Lockout at Kumho Tyre Factories in Korea

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Showcasing unions fighting back against austerity cuts will be featured in the line-up for the Global Labour Film Shorts in 2011. Affiliates are invited to submit their films for possible inclusion in the one hour line-up of the best short films from around the world by April 1. 
 
Since the beginning of the global economic crisis, trade unions internationally have denounced its fast and increasing negative impact on workers. Some of this action has been captured on film, an essential platform for communication in many union campaigns and actions today. 
 
Over the last four years, the Geneva Labour Film Shorts Festival has taken place in downtown Geneva enabling unions and working people worldwide to share their stories. This year, in order to reach a wider international audience, the festival is refocusing to an on-line and DVD presentation that will be submitted to over 36 labour related film festivals around the world. The line-up will also be available on DVD for affiliates of all Global Union Federations and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) to use in their own events and activities. 
 
The one-hour DVD will focus on short films that are excellent examples of communicating labour stories and messages and the selection will include a range of different films from different parts of the world. The launch of the Global Labour Film Shorts 2011 will take place at the European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF) &ldquo;Unions in Motion&rdquo; film festival, coming up on June 10-11 at Landschaftspark Nord in Duisburg, Germany. 
 
Please send copies of your films on DVD with a short paragraph describing the film, why it was produced and how it was used. The IMF, coordinating the work, will need unfettered rights to show the film and publish it online, of course with full acknowledgement of who created the material. Due to resource constraints for interpretation, the IMF is only able to accept films in English language or with English subtitles. 
 
We need to receive copies of all possible films by April 1, 2011. 
 
Please send to: 
Cherisse Fredricks 
International Metalworkers' Federation 
Case Postale 1516 
CH1227 Geneva 
Switerland

Fight Back on Film!

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Industrial development in mining and manufacturing sectors will continue to be an essential part of economic development in Latin America, for both the economic giants of Brazil and Mexico and for the other countries in the region, such as Argentina, Peru, Chile and Venezuela. 
 
Despite improvements over the last decade, poverty and inequality continue to be a major feature across the region both within and between countries. Ensuring the benefits of industrial and economic development flow to working people requires a strong and united trade union movement across all sectors, including in mining and manufacturing. 
 
Commodities, particularly oil, silver, copper and iron ore, are generating a lot of wealth in the region and Brazil, Argentina and Mexico have led the way in also developing a significant manufacturing industry, particularly in automotive, petroleum and textiles, on the back of this wealth. 
 
At the national level, the organization of companies often sees workers linked through highly integrated supply chains from one sector to the next. For example, in the Maquiladoras of Mexico there is a concentration of textiles, electronics and automotive parts production where workers face similar challenges in organizing and securing a fair share in the profits of the companies. 
 
Solidarity between Mexico&rsquo;s mine workers and automotive parts workers under the leadership of the Mexican Miners&rsquo; Union is creating opportunities for gaining freedom of association previously not achieved, as witnessed in the case of <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=23862&amp;l=2">Johnson Controls in Puebla</a>. After a long struggle and with the support of the Mexican Miners&rsquo; Union, Johnson Controls workers at the Resurrecci&oacute;n plant in Puebla were able to join a union of their choice and through this union reach an agreement at the plant. 
 
Meanwhile, in the Export Processing Zones of the Dominican Republic, textile and electronics workers live and work along-side each other facing many of the same problems and working conditions. Unions here have found that the same strategies are required to organize across both sectors. (See below Gertrudis Santana on cross-sector organizing in Dominican Republic EPZs.) 
 
In Brazil, more than three million workers are employed by mining and manufacturing companies in a very integrated cross-sectoral process. From mine sites to the production lines of airplanes, ships, and cars, workers are organized by mine, chemicals, textiles, and metal workers&rsquo; unions that fight together for better work conditions and benefits. 
 
For unions in Latin America and beyond, a strong international approach will also be required in tackling the transnational corporations that are emerging mostly from Brazil and Mexico in this region. Many of these &ldquo;multilatinas,&rdquo; such as Vale, Gerdau, Cemex, Grupo M&eacute;xico, and Tenaris, have a notorious history of anti-union and poor labour relations, which is being exported by the companies as they expand regionally and globally.

Latin American Industrial Landscape Requires United Cross-sectoral Approach

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More and more employers are moving away from permanent, direct employment in favour of contract, agency or other forms of precarious work. In response to surveys carried out in 2009 and 2010, 66 per cent of ICEM, IMF and ITGLWF affiliates indicated that precarious work had increased in their sector over the last year alone. 
 
Recognising the fact that precarious work was a growing problem in almost every sector, the Global Unions established the Work Relationships Group (WRG) in 2007, with a view to carrying out joint work on the issue. Since then, the group has met ten times and taken joint positions and engaged in a number of joint activities related to precarious work. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda is chairman of the WRG. 
 
A significant step was made last June, when all Global Union Federations agreed a set of Joint Principles on Temporary Agency Work. While acknowledging that there are many different views and approaches within the trade union movement towards dealing with precarious work, the joint principles set out the points which all of the Global Unions agree on. 
 
These include that the primary form of employment should be permanent, open-ended and direct; that agency workers should be covered under the same collective bargaining agreement as other workers in the user enterprise and should receive equal treatment in all respects; that the use of temporary agencies should not increase the gender gap on wages, social protections, and conditions; that temporary work agencies must not be used to eliminate permanent and direct employment relationships; and that the use of agency workers should never be used to weaken trade unions or to undermine organising or collective bargaining rights. 
 
One primary function of the WRG is to facilitate the exchange of information between the Global Unions, and to identify areas where joint action might be appropriate. One such action took place in October 2009, when the General Secretaries of ICEM, IMF, and ITGLWF met with the Turkish Labour Minister, and expressed their support for President Abdullah G&uuml;l&rsquo;s veto of proposed amendments that would have permitted the charging of fees by labour brokers and permitted businesses or individuals to easily become certified as labour agencies. 
 
Since its inception, the WRG has been calling on the International Labour Organization (ILO) to take concrete steps to address the growth of precarious work. Our demands have included that the ILO must equip itself to address the many circumstances under which workers engaged in precarious work are denied the effective right to organize and bargain collectively. 
 
The ILO/ACTRAV Symposium 2011, which takes places in Geneva from October 3-7, will focus on precarious work. Among other topics, the Symposium will look at how different elements of precarious work, including triangular employment relationships and subcontracting, impact workers and their right to bargain collectively.

Global Unions Join Forces to Fight Precarious Work

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Neil Reimer, National Director Emeritus of the Canada&rsquo;s Energy and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union (ECWU) &ndash; one of the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union&rsquo;s founding unions &ndash; passed away on 30 March in Edmonton, Alberta. He was 89. 
 
Neil Reimer has been described as a &quot;giant of the labour movement,&quot; and surely no one could argue with that description. 
 
For nearly 70 years, Reimer was a strong and dedicated advocate of workers&rsquo; issues. Beginning his career in 1942 as an organizer for the Oil Workers International Union (OWIU) while working at Consumers Co-operative refinery in Regina, Saskatchewan, he played a major role in organising his first energy workers&rsquo; union there. He 1951, he moved to Edmonton, where he organised oil and chemicals plants. He was also mayor of Edmonton. 
 
He helped found the New Democratic Party (NDP) of Canada in 1961, and was elected the first leader of NDP&rsquo;s Alberta branch in 1963. 
<img src="" width="133" height="190" alt="" />
Neil Reimer
He went on to become leader of the Canadian district of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW), and ultimately founder of the independent Canadian union, the ECWU. 
 
His retirement from this position in 1984 only slowed him some, as he remained active in politics and social justice movements until his death. 
 
Canadian trade unionists and social leaders knew him as a &ldquo;visionary.&rdquo; He did not simply look toward the future, he tried to build it according to the principles he believed in. Those principles included decency, respect, and dignity for workers and their families. 
 
He understood the need to organize and he believed in the independence of the Canadian labour movement. He believed that Canada should control its own natural resources &ndash; especially energy resources &ndash; for the benefit of Canadians. Under his direction, some of the most progressive union policies of the day were produced on topics from energy and the environment, to working hours to national collective agreements, to health and safety. 
 
Neil played a big role inside the ICEM. He was a personal friend of many ICEM elected representatives and staff officers. He was an influential member of the then ICEF Executive Committee up until his retirement, and many of his ideas live on in ICEM policies. 
 
Neil led a long and active life and his accomplishments helped make the world a better place. The Canadian labour movement, the CEP, the ICEM, and indeed all workers have much to thank Neil Reimer for. He will be well remembered and sadly missed.

Canadian Energy Union Stalwart, Neil Reimer, Dies at Age 89

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A three-day workshop in&nbsp;basic safety&nbsp;radiation training for workers employed around uranium and uranium mining was held in Windhoek, Namibia, from 24-26 March. The ICEM-sponsored workshop was the second such workshop, the first one held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in June 2009. 
 
The training was attended by 22 people, including 15 African mine union leaders and seven trainers. Funding came from the ILO and the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES) of Germany. Besides the ICEM, the Power Workers&rsquo; Union (PWU) of Canada, the Untied Steelworkers (USW), and the Canadian Nuclear Workers&rsquo; Council committed resources. Nuclear power companies Cameco and Ontario Power generation also provided support and assistance. 
<img alt="" src="" width="289" height="179" />
The workshop addressed radiation sources, protection, detection measurements, as well as radioactive gases in underground, open cast, and milling workplaces. ILO Conventions 176 and 183 were also reviewed, and sessions on national legislative and regulatory frameworks were held. 
 
Instructors included Dave Shier and Bob Walker of the PWU; Nancy Hutchison of the USW; Michael Schultheiss of FES Namibia; Marko Baran of Cameco; and Brian Kohler of the ICEM. ICEM Sub-Saharan African Regional Officer Fabian Nkomo was also a facilitator and selected the 15 African trade unionists, with the aim to give them basic training in safe uranium&nbsp;processes in order that they carry the training back to their worksites.

Namibia: ICEM Conducts Second Uranium Training Programme

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Employment law changes in New Zealand&nbsp;took effect 1 April have given all employers the right to dismiss employees within a first 90-day &ldquo;trial&rdquo; period, with no rights to&nbsp;grievance procedure. This rule previously applied for small businesses of fewer than 20 employees.
Now it applies in all workplaces, no matter the side of the workforce.&nbsp; 
 
The regressive changes also include restrictions on trade union access to a worksite, relaxation of&nbsp;fairness tests on dismissals, the ability&nbsp;of employers to bypass the union in collective negotiations, the possibility to exchange holiday days for money, the&nbsp;right to shift public holidays without payment, and the right for employers to demand a medical certificate for one day&rsquo;s sick leave. 
 
There is nothing fair in the workplace law changes, according to ICEM-affiliated Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU). 
<img alt="" src="" width="130" height="124" />
EPMU National Secretary, Andrew Little
Click here to sign the <a href="http://www.epmu.org.nz/petition-2/">EPMU&rsquo;s petition</a>. 
 
&quot;We are approaching employers with either collective bargaining claims to stop things like the 90 day no rights law, or the new rules on medical certificates being used by employers, or seeking a pledge that they will not reduce themselves to the low level that the law represents,&quot; said EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little. Some employers have already agreed not to use the bad new law, including Telecom, which employs 7,000 employees in New Zealand.

New Zealand Labour Law Changes Damage Worker Rights

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A long and drawn out court battle in Chhattisgarh state, India, saw exploited contract workers of Holcim Cement again win regularisation of their jobs in March through a High Court appeals ruling. But Holcim Cement of Switzerland is refusing to implement the court&rsquo;s order. 
 
The result is that hundreds of contract workers at one of Holcim&rsquo;s Indian subsidiaries, Associated Cement Co. Ltd. (ACC), and supporters are staging an ongoing&nbsp;&ldquo;dharna,&rdquo; or strike at the Bhilai Industrial Estate statue of Shankar Guha Niyogi, the legendary workers&rsquo; leader and founder of the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (CMM) political party who was assassinated in 1991. 
<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="150" />
Shankar Guha Niyogi
The CMM-associated labour union Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh is carrying the struggle for the contract workers, much like Niyogi did for irregular workers in mining, metalworking, and textiles three decades ago. 
 
The rightful fight for contract workers at ACC Jamul Cement to gain full wages, provident fund benefits, and even proper safety equipment dates back nearly 20 years. Holcim bought controlling interest in ACC and Ambuja Cement in 2006-2007 and has continued resistance to the legitimate rights of contract workers at its Indian cement plants. 
 
In 2006, an Industrial Court ruled that some 573 contract workers at ACC Jamul, many subsequently fired, must be made regular employees, with their wages and working conditions tied to the Cement Wage Board, or the&nbsp;Nevatia Award. Holcim, Lafarge, the Aditya Birla Group&rsquo;s Ultratech, and other major cement producers are tied to the Wage Board by hard fought strikes of the past. 
 
The Wage Board agreement has tight restrictions on the use of contract labour, limiting it to loading and unloading raw materials but with pay at the same rate as permanent workers. 
 
Holcim defied the Industrial Court&rsquo;s ruling by paying only between two-to-five days salary per month &ndash; at US$2 per day &ndash; because that is how few days contract workers were on the job at the time of the Industrial Court filing because Holcim was trying to get them to resign. 
 
Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh filed a writ petition with the High Court, and that portion of litigation is still pending. However, on 21 March, the High Court did rule that the paper arrangements between irregular workers and Holcim&nbsp;are &ldquo;sham and bogus&rdquo; and directed management&nbsp;to regularise over 100 contract workers. However, the ruling neglected to recognise the rights of about 400 who were coerced into accepting voluntary resignations. 
 
India is the world&rsquo;s second largest cement producer behind China. The country has an annual growth rate in cement of 11%, which has seen the leading cement producers make major investments and acquisitions. 
 
But multinationals like Holcim and Lafarge are doing nothing to stabilise employment and bring decent work to&nbsp;rural people who are recruited and then exploited as contract workers. Alone in Chhattisgarh state in central India, it is estimated that 3,200 permanent workers are employed in the cement industry, while 11,000 others toil as short-term, expendable contract workers.

Holcim Defies India Court Ruling on Rights for Contract Workers

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