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The Taiwan Electric Power Labour Union (TPLU) has been protesting in Taipei for clarification of their pension status. Some 6,000 members of the ICEM affiliate, working at several water and electric enterprises, turned out 2 June at the Legislative Yuan to manifest and then to march. 
 
Under current law, workers at the enterprises are considered neither workers nor civil servants, meaning their pension pay-outs are miniscule, not paid out in monthly installments, their retirement earnings are not covered by a state-legislated pension insurance programme, and they are without the preferred interest rate on pension savings accounts.
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TPLU Members Marching on 2 June&nbsp; 
 

Under three classifications of work in Taiwan, employees are classified as civil servants, workers, or civil servants and workers. Public sector engineers and administrators, for example, have the latter classification, which grants them more in terms of pension benefits and better regulated retirement schemes. 
 
But workers at Taipei Power Company (Taipower) and water and other enterprises are considered neither workers nor civil servants, meaning they have the advantages of nether and bear the disadvantages of both. 
 
We are orphans under a system that does not recognise our rights and does not provide any safeguards, said a TPLU spokesperson close to President Guo-Kang Hu. TPLU wants lawmakers and the Ministry of Economic Affairs to amend the provisions of the &ldquo;State-Run Enterprise Administrative Act&rdquo; that better reflects a high court ruling in 1990 that sets forth details on retirement and retirement benefits. 
 
Taipower management supports the workers demands and has laid out three schemes that would correct the legal status. The ICEM also has endorsed TPLU&rsquo;s campaign to achieve fairness and a sense of balance into Taiwanese pension schemes.

Taiwanese Power Workers Protest Over Slight in Pension Laws

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The former ICEM Projects Coordinator in Thailand, Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, was released last night, 13 June, from a prison at a Thai army base. He had been imprisoned since 24 May, together with academic Suthachai Yimprasert from Chulalongkom University, after the two presented themselves to police after they heard arrest warrants had been issued for them. 
 
Yimprasert was released 5 June from a prison at the Adisorn military base in Saraburi, 115 kilometres north of Bangkok. Both were arrested under the government&rsquo;s Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES), a hastily put together decree stemming from May&rsquo;s political turbulence in Thailand.
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Somyot&nbsp;Pruksakasemsuk
The release of Brother Somyot follows a criminal court&rsquo;s decision rejecting the CRES arrest order. Even after that decision, the government held him for another seven days. 
 
The CRES charges against him were for inflaming public sentiment against the government for holding a news conference on 21 May in which he called for the resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. He also edited a newspaper that supported the viewpoints of the Red Shirts in recent political strife. 
 
The ICEM called the charges a serious breach of universal free speech rights. 
 
International human rights groups throughout the world, as well as several Global Union Federations, sent protests to the Thai government over the unfair arrests of Somyot and Suthachai. An online appeal by the Dutch-based Clean Clothes Campaign also generated pressure on the government.

Thai Labour Activist Somyot Pruksakasemsuk Finally Released

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The ICEM is demanding that PT Kayan Putera Utama Coal (KPUC), an Indonesian company, stop its attacks on the SPE-SBSI Mining Union in eastern Borneo in Indonesia. Recently, the Samarinda-based company dismissed seven trade union leaders at the Desa Separi mine near Tenggarong in the Kalimantan Timur coal fields and enlisted another organisation to attack the union. 
 
In a letter to KPUC managing director Arifin Harun in Samarinda, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, &ldquo;If you do not cease and desist from your actions, we will take further steps to bring the weight of the ICEM and its affiliates comprising some 20 million members to bear on this situation.&rdquo; A copy of the letter was also sent to Andrew Vickers, Chairman of ICEM&rsquo;s Mining Sector and General Secretary of the Mining Division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia.
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The ICEM cited clear violations of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom association and collective bargaining in the letter. The letter can be seen <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/1006%20Indonesia%20KPUC.pdf">here</a>. 
 
The ICEM intends to conduct a full investigation of the situation if it is not resolved. It will work closely with its affiliate, the Indonesia Prosperity Trade Union Central Board, the largest trade union representing miners in Indonesia. Indonesia is a major supplier of coal to China, and is now the largest exporter of thermal coal in the world. In the wake of the surge in coal mining in Indonesia, employers have become increasingly hostile to trade unions. 
 
PT Kayan Putera Utama Coal is listed as Indonesia&rsquo;s 42nd largest coal producer, with the latest figures citing it produced 322,826 tonnes of coal in 2008. 

&nbsp;

Indonesian-based Coal Mining Company Sacks 7 Union Leaders

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Scores of letters were sent to Mexico President Felipe Calder&oacute;n from ICEM affiliates last week, responding to an ICEM call for dialogue not brute force to resolve the three-year long strike by 1,200 workers of Section 65 of the Mexican National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (SNTMMSRM) at the Cananea copper mine in northern Sonora State. On 6 June, Mexican federal police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse strikers at the mine and inside Section 65&rsquo;s union hall. (See ICEM report <a href="/en/5-Mining-DGOJP/3838-ICEM-Calls-on-Mexico-to-Halt-its-Violence-at-Cananea">here</a>.) 
 
By the end of last week, following a 10 June skirmish between miners and police that injured eight, a truce was declared by leaders of Section 65, as they held meetings on 10 and 11 June with Sonora Governor Guillermo Padr&eacute;s El&iacute;as in Hermosillo and the Mexican Interior Secretary, Fernando G&oacute;mez-Mont. 
 
In the latter meeting on 11 June, G&oacute;mez-Mont said he would work to arrange a meeting between the union and the Southern Copper Corp. of Grupo M&eacute;xico, owners of the mine, this week. Following the meetings, Section 65 Secretary-General Sergio Tolano Lizarr&aacute;go said the government now appears committed to bringing the two sides together for dialogue. 
 
For the union&rsquo;s part, the Strike Committee is adamant that Southern Copper halt all &ldquo;illegal hirings&rdquo; of contractors in order to re-start the 230,000-ton copper mine. The 10 June confrontation started in the early morning hours when strikers rolled huge rocks on to an access road of the Cananea mine to block contractors from entering. Federal police responded by taking control of the entrance, and then fired tear gas and pepper spray at some 150 miners, who had retreated into nearby hills.
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According to reports, in four days of altercations, 16 people have been injured, including four miners, 2 police, and the remainder civilians, mostly family members of strikers and others overcome with gas poisoning. 
 
Responding to the ICEM for intervention, South African affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it would organise protests at the opening World Cup match on 11 June between South Africa and Mexico. The action involved members of NUM, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), the Chemical, Energy, Pulp, Paper, Wood, and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union (CEPPAWU), and the South African Transport and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union (SATAWU). 
 
In coordination with the taking of Cananea, federal forces also forcibly took control of Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s coal mine at Pasta de Conchos in Coahuila state. There, they overcame the widows and family members of 65 dead miners still entombed in shafts following a methane gas explosion in February 2006. The women and family members had been on a long vigil, with demands that the state and company recover the bodies of their cherished ones. 
 
The Mexican government and Grupo M&eacute;xico refused that plea, and stopped others in search by cutting off electricity. Halting the search, many felt, served to hide evidence of management responsibility for the accident. The mine was sealed permanently following police actions on 6 June. Widespread criticism has been made of the company's continued failure to properly compensate families of the dead. 
 
The legal strike at Cananea began on 30 July 2007 when Section 65 of SNTMMSRM, or Los Mineros, refused to work in dangerous conditions, similar to those causing the Pasta de Conchos explosion. During the attack of 6 June, police arrested five Los Mineros members, Rodolfo Valdez Serrano, Everardo Ochoa Ballesteros, Luis Alonso Borb&oacute;n P&eacute;rez, Luis Alonso Torres, and Marcelo Lara L&oacute;pez.
<img alt="" src="" width="160" height="120" />
Sergio Tolano and Juan Guti&eacute;rrez Ballesteros, a Los Mineros National Executive Member from Section 65, also faced arrest warrants on 6 June, but both won court injunctions preventing their incarcerations. 
 
At an economic forum Friday, 11 June, in Peru, where Southern Copper also holds mining assets, President and CEO Oscar Gonzalez Rocha said the police takeover of Cananea enables the US-based subsidiary to begin an investment plan and re-start copper production early next year. He said Southern Copper will invest US$50 million in Cananea. 
 
On another level, at the ILO&rsquo;s International Labour Conference in Geneva on 10 June, the Mexican situation was brought up before the Committee on the Application of Standards. Specifically, debate arose with regard to ILO Convention 155, the Health and Safety at Work Convention. Although Mexico&rsquo;s government and employers&rsquo; representatives, together with a Grupo M&eacute;xico representative, pointed to increased numbers of inspectors at worksites, workers&rsquo; representatives from around the world criticised the disregard for working people shown by the government of President Felipe Calder&oacute;n. 
 
It was argued that work performed by employees on short-term contracts or through labour agencies accounts for 60% of the entire Mexican workforce. Those workers are given few social protections, thus leading to statistics that are askew, including occupational safety accidents. On the issue of health and safety in Mexico, it is the worker who must provide burden of proof for accidents or injuries, and since labour tribunals often take years to issue rulings, companies tend to act with impunity.

Tense Truce Takes Hold at Mexico’s Cananea Copper Mine

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The ICEM Colombian affiliate, USO (Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera) has again been targeted with an assassination of one of their activists. Nelson Camacho Gonz&aacute;lez was shot repeatedly by hired killers on motorbikes, 16 June, as he waited at a bus stop for his bus to work. 
 
This murder is the latest in the ongoing violent persecution of the oil workers union, as USO activists are involved in collective struggles with the multinational British Petroleum in Casanare, with Ecopetrol and with TGI (Transportadora de Gas del Interior). 
 
The murder occurred three days after another trade union activist was assassinated, Ibio Efr&eacute;n Caicedo, on 19 June. The trade unionist from the Antioquia Teachers&rsquo; Association (ADIDA) was the seventh unionised teacher to be murdered in 2010 in the Antioquia region, northern Colombia. He was killed the day before the presidential elections in the country. 
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The total number of trade unionists assassinated in Colombia in 2010 is 32. As was recently reported by ICEM, in 2009 there were 101 trade unionists murdered around the world, 48 of them in Colombia. Nearly 3,000 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia in the last 24 years. When Uribe hands power to President-elect Juan Maunel Santos, his legacy will be 529 union leaders killed while conducting collective bargaining, with the hired killers from paramilitary groups acting with impunity. 
 
The ICEM joins USO in calling for a full investigation into this latest crime, to be lead by Colombia&rsquo;s Attorney General. 
 
These killings occurred four weeks after the ILO&rsquo;s Committee on the Application of Standards removed Colombia from the list of 25 countries sanctioned for trade union rights abuses. The surprising decision to remove the most dangerous country for trade unionists from the list was passed on the condition that a high level tripartite ILO delegation to Colombia would take place. The mission was in Bogot&aacute; 6-9 July, conducting a series of meetings with government, employers, and workers. 
 
The delegation took part in numerous meetings with workers rallying outside. Last Wednesday, 7 July, as the delegation met with the Colombian Ministry of Social Protection, hundreds of workers outside chanted slogans such as &ldquo;down with the repressive policies of the Uribe government and the Ministry of Social Protection!&rdquo;. The rally was, as is the norm, under constant intimidation by the notorious ESMAD riot police. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda expressed anger and grief, on behalf of all ICEM affiliates, in a letter to USO President Germ&aacute;n Osman this week.

USO Activist Murdered, ILO Delegation Arrives in Colombia

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Labour, management, and the Liberian government celebrated the signing on 28 June of the second collective agreement between ICEM-affiliated Firestone Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Union (FAWUL) and Firestone Rubber Plantation. Some 4,500 workers and their families will again benefit when the two-year contract takes effect in December 2010. 
 
The ever-evolving labour-management relationship between FAWUL and Firestone is fast becoming a showcase in modern industrial relations for the administration of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. 
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Labour Minister Taiworn Gongloe stated at the celebration that the social relationship &ldquo;has broken from the past,&rdquo; and thanks to enlightened leadership coming from the President, the rights of workers and the interests of the company both are now guaranteed. Added Firestone Managing Director Charles Stuart, &ldquo;What we're celebrating here is the result of management and employees working in a peaceful and respectful manner. Without you we are nothing and together, anything can happen.&rdquo; 
 
It was only a short three years ago that FAWUL was fighting the last vestiges of an illegitimate yellow union that had been propped up by Firestone management for decades. Following free and open elections, and an ambitious years-long union-building project by the US-based United Steelworkers (USW), FAWUL won union certification in 2007. (See ICEM reports <a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/2511-ICEM-Calls-on-Liberia-to-Recognise-Correct-Trade-Union-at-Firestone-Rubber-Plantation ">here</a> and <a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/2526-ICEM-Welcomes-Liberia's-Certification-of-Legitimate-Firestone-Union ">here</a>.) 
 
A year later, on 27 July, FAWUL won its first collective agreement, giving workers a 24% pay increase backdated 19 months, reducing a quota system on tapping natural rubber from trees, and granting new schools and free tuition for the sons and daughters of workers. 
<img alt="" src="" width="320" height="231" />
This second contract goes further: a 3.5% wage increase, the construction of more schools and school transportation, and perhaps the most important gain, a mechanized transport system to haul the rubber latex to weigh stations. For decades, workers had to haul 150-pound buckets of rubber sometimes miles on their shoulders to the stations. 
 
FAWUL Secretary-General Edwin Cisco said the months long bargaining was hard and arduous, but that a &ldquo;new day of social dialogue between management and workers has begun and the days of confrontation and agitation are over.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;This is a major success story in so many ways,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, &ldquo;and we should never lose sight of the fact that the Steelworkers Union of America did the hard and difficult work up front to make it happen. We commend the workers, FAWUL leadership, and Firestone Rubber management, and see a long, productive, and precedent-setting relationship unfolding inside Liberia.&rdquo;

FAWUL, Firestone Rubber Plantation in Liberia Sign Second Two-Year Pact

On April 20, 2010 there was an explosion on the drilling rig &quot;Deepwater Horizon&quot;. 
 
Eleven oil workers were killed. Two days later the rig sank in an ocean of fire. Oil is flowing completely uncontrolled and is still doing so after almost two months. 
 
We do not know what caused the blow out. The ICEM-IMF-ITGLWF Sustainability conference will however declare that: 
 
1) an independent and open inquiry must be held, and trade unions should be granted full insight in the process; 
 
2) at all times the responsibility rest solely on the operator; 
 
3) blow out prevention (BOP) systems should have remote control capabilities, for instance acoustic signal actuators, in addition to traditional BOP controls; 
 
4) when working in new areas, deep water, and other special conditions, it must be demanded that more than one rig be present in the area to ensure safer evacuation in case of an emergency and to be able to start drilling a relief well in case of a blowout. Two months after the blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, it is a catastrophic disaster that the drilling of a relief well had not been started; 
 
5) sufficient and effective oil booms and/or other means to collect oil spillage must be available or in place in all areas where offshore drilling takes place; 
 
6) the demands of deregulation must be reversed. More regulations are needed and the &quot;best available technology&quot; must be demanded, at least in all new and challenging areas.

Global Governance Includes Better Governance of Oil Companies

International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM)
&nbsp;International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF)
International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) 
Stronger Together - Fighting for a Sustainable Future 

We, the global industrial trade union federations representing workers in the metal, chemical, energy, mining, paper, rubber, textiles, materials, and related sectors, believe we have a golden opportunity to demand that the global economy be transformed from an unsustainable &ldquo;casino&rdquo; model into something that supports a sustainable environment and a sustainable society. 
 
The financial crisis that very nearly destroyed the world&rsquo;s economy is only the most obvious recent result of the same short-sighted thinking that has jeopardized the global environment, threatened human health, and destabilized society. In particular, the runaway gambling by banks, hedge funds and other finance institutions has had catastrophic implications for millions of working people. 
 
Working women and men, their families, and the communities that depend on them have paid heavily for the crash of the casino economy through massive job losses, decreased wages, and reduced benefits. The global trade union movement strongly opposes any attempt to make working people assume the major burden of the financial crisis through regressive tax reforms. We believe it is time for the people who caused this mess to pay to clean it up. 
 
The failure of world leaders in December 2009 in Copenhagen to reach an ambitious, fair and binding agreement on greenhouse gases is another example of short-term greed trumping long-term need. The price of inaction will be paid by future generations. From broad concerns like global warming to more specific examples like the Deepwater Horizon disaster, nothing about a de-regulated market ensures the protection the environment. 
 
The inability of the deregulated financial market to value the long-term health of the economy, the environment, or society must now be clear to any thinking person. The ICEM, IMF and ITGLWF are showing the way to a sustainable future by calling for re-regulation of the global financial market, including among other instruments the introduction of a financial transaction tax that would raise billions to tackle poverty and climate change. We believe this will generate substantial revenues to pay for the costs of the crisis, climate change measures, and official development assistance while reducing the pressures that could cause a renewed financial crisis. Coupled with fair and binding environmental regulations, and strong social programs, we can shape a prosperous and sustainable future. 
 
Industrial workers have a central role to play in building a future that lifts people out of poverty while protecting the environment. Through industrial and political action, our three global federations demand that the world&rsquo;s leaders take decisive actions to solve the economic, social and environmental crises. 
 
The economic crisis has not just been about how things are made, bought and sold, but also about people. Evidence shows that many companies that have begun hiring again are doing so with fixed-term or temporary workers. Such precarious work is bad for all workers. It creates cut-price labor that drives down wages. It increases the gap between rich and poor and amplifies the unfair practices that already disadvantage women, young and migrant workers. 
 
We believe the upcoming G8 and G20 summit meetings in Canada provide an opportunity for world leaders to address the legitimate concerns of industrial workers for social justice and long-term employment policies. The solution lies in global governance. Financial markets must be re-regulated, and the environment must be better protected. Jobs, workers&rsquo; rights, social protection, quality public services, and sustainability are at the heart of our proposal for a new system for global governance. 
 
We therefore call on world leaders to: 
&bull; Ensure that global financial markets are regulated, including as an initial step better disclosure of transactions, strengthened monitoring schemes and regulation of leveraging; 
&bull; Ban the creation or use of financial instruments with no verifiable real-world value, such as certain derivatives and swaps; 
&bull; Introduce an international financial transaction tax system to be levied on transactions between financial institutions. A tiny tax on financial transactions would make a massive difference in the way we face up to the challenges of today. Even at just 0.05 percent experts have estimated that an international transaction tax system could eventually raise as much as $400 billion every year - money that could be used to save our planet and build a future fairer for all. 
&bull; Make sustainable development a criteria of trade and investment deals; with balanced and fair access to markets, and transparent monitoring mechanisms of all trade and investment deals past and future; 
&bull; Assess the social, economic and environmental sustainability impact of potential trade agreements prior to the conclusion of negotiations; 
&bull; Consider the employment repercussions of trade liberalization in the negotiation of multilateral and bilateral trade agreements &ndash; to be assessed with full involvement of trade unions; 
&bull; Respect fundamental workers' and trade union rights as set out in the ILO Core Labour Standards; to be included in all bilateral and multilateral agreements on trade and investments along with effective enforcement mechanisms; 
&bull; Create jobs that meet the ILO definition of &ldquo;decent work&rdquo;. We recognize that industrial change is happening, but challenge the legal and political rules that allow precarious work to flourish; 
&bull; Reach an ambitious, fair, and binding, agreement on greenhouse gases at COP16 in Mexico; and 
&bull; Ensure that funds in the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund earmarked as part of the Copenhagen Accord are available to trade unions for vocational and educational purposes as part of the broader principle of Just Transition. 
 
In short we believe that world leaders can no longer ignore the big problems facing the world today. We are calling for an innovative, international regulatory response that will boldly deal with global issues.

ICEM-IMF-ITGLWF Declaration: Toronto, Canada, 19 June 2010

IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 17 June 2010 &ndash; Two Global Union Federations (GUFs) representing a combined 45 million workers will conduct a two-day conference on economic, environment, and social dimensions of sustainability in Toronto beginning tomorrow, aimed at forging a worldwide workers&rsquo; and communities&rsquo; declaration for the upcoming G8 and G20 summits. 
 
The &ldquo;Triple Crisis of Sustainability&rdquo; Conference is sponsored by Geneva, Switzerland-based International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union (ICEM) and International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), and will include voices from 270 trade union and other leaders from over 50 countries. 
 
The conference runs from 9h00 to 17h30 on both 18 and 19 June in the Dominion Ballroom of the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, 123 Queen Street West. 
 
&ldquo;The financial crisis that brought the world&rsquo;s economy to its knees needs correcting and it needs the resonating voices of those most affected by runaway greed and banking calamities,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;Environmental catastrophes, monetary disparities, and destabilized societies all have related origins, and this is the pivotal time for the world&rsquo;s economic and political leaders to correct the imbalances.&rdquo; 
 
Added Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of the IMF: &ldquo;The uncertainties that workers and their families face is now unprecedented. We want guarantees that the G8 and G20 summits address the legitimate concerns of workers for social justice and long-term, sustainable employment, and include the introduction of a global tax on financial institutions.&rdquo; 
 
The two GUFs believe that the crises of failing economies, environmental inaction, and social disorder are interconnected. ICEM and IMF also believe these crises have been produced by absence of global financial and environmental regulations, as well as inept financial governance of markets. The conference will ensure that the voices of global workers are heard on these issues before the G8 and G20 summits convene. 
 
Jobs, workers&rsquo; rights, social protections, quality public services, and sustainability &ndash; both on environmental stewardship and in providing decent work &ndash; will serve as the heart of a common declaration from the conference to the G8 and G20. 
 
A keynote speech on 18 June will be delivered by United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, whose union has been victimized by the merciless globalization and one of the world&rsquo;s largest and most profitable mining companies in Ontario. A panel on the opening day will address the economic crisis. 
 
Other panels will be on topics of sustainable development and climate change, and on corporate governance. On the concluding day, 19 June, David Donnelly, a leading environmental attorney connected with Canada&rsquo;s Blue-Green Alliance, will speak, as will John Evans, the General-Secretary of the Paris-based Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 
 
The conference&rsquo;s programme has been built to allow for maximum comments from the 250 participants in order to gain a wide-ranging discourse over the effects of the social, environmental, and economic crises. 
 
The ICEM counts 467 trade union affiliates in 132 countries, and represents 20 million workers. The IMF represents the collective interests of 25 million metalworkers from more than 200 unions in 100 countries.
Note to Media Outlets: A Press Briefing will occur at the venue at 12h30, 18 June.)
For more, contact: Dick Blin, ICEM Information Officer on-site at <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 79 734 8994 (mobile); or Alexander Ivanou, IMF Communications, <a href="mailto:aivanou@imfmetal.org">aivanou@imfmetal.org</a>, +41 22 308 5033 (land line).

Global Trade Unions Meet in Toronto for Sustainability Conference

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
Some 5,400 members of the United Steelworkers (USW) in the US gave approval to a four-year labour agreement on 24 June with Alcoa Inc., the world&rsquo;s second largest aluminum producer. The accumulated vote, by workers at 11 company facilities in eight US states, was 68% in favour, and comes three-and-a-half weeks after USW and Alcoa narrowly escaped a strike. 
 
The new labour accord was a compromise, with the USW fending off a complete overhaul to workers&rsquo; health care coverage that would have included a two-tier system, denying all new hires any future retiree health coverage whatsoever. In return, the union agreed to an increase in worker-paid health premiums and a slight decrease to medical coverage in the existing plan. 
 
The agreement also contains lump-sum payments in the first two years instead of percentage salary increases, with 2.5% increases won for 2012 and 2013. The final agreement also contains an increase in the pension benefit pay-out, and preserves longstanding seniority provisions. 
 
But most significantly, the USW&rsquo;s Alcoa Aluminum Negotiating Council &ndash; consisting of leaders from 11 branch unions in addition to four smaller unions &ndash; rejected Alcoa&rsquo;s &ldquo;Choices&rdquo; health care plan that would have dramatically reduced coverage while increasing workers&rsquo; out-of-pocket costs. 

<img src="" width="156" height="206" alt="" />
USW District 7 Director, Jim Robinson
&ldquo;The new contract does raise employee premiums, but they will still be much less than paid by Alcoa salaried and non-union employees,&rdquo; said USW District Seven Director and Alcoa Negotiating Chair Jim Robinson. 
 
&ldquo;Alcoa was not only insisting on implementing a plan that would have required our members to pay much higher costs for a lower level of coverage, but Alcoa also wanted the right to set future costs and coverage at whatever the company deemed appropriate,&rdquo; said Robinson. 
 
Alcoa US workers covered under the contract will receive a ratification bonus of US$1,250, with another bonus in 2010 amounting to US$1,000. In 2011, they will receive a lump-sum pay-out of US$1,750. 
 
The workers are employed at smelters and rolling-mill operations in Alcoa, Tennessee; two plants in Massena, New York; Badin, North Carolina; Warrick, Indiana; Lafayette, Indiana; Davenport, Iowa; Gum Springs, Arkansas; Point Comfort, Texas; Rockdale, Texas; and Wenatchee, Washington. The facilities comprise 40% of all US aluminum production. 
 
The USW and Alcoa negotiated for six weeks in April and May in Cincinnati, Ohio, to achieve a tentative accord. Late on 31 May, with USW branch unions poised to strike, the two sides extended bargaining for 11 hours into 1 June in a successful effort to avoid a strike. 
 
The contract will be backdated to 1 June and will run to 15 May 2014.

Steelworkers Ratify Four-Year US Labour Agreement with Alcoa

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