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<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
General Electric (GE) workers in America ratified a four-year labour agreement in late June that now sets a pattern for 15,200 unionised GE workers in the US. Members of both ICEM-affiliated United Electrical, Radio, Machine Workers’ of America (UE) and the International Union of Electrical Workers / Communication Workers of America (IUE/CWA), representing 11,500 of those workers, gave approval to the deal in local-by-local voting at some 40 union branches in late June. 
 
The new collective agreement came together on the final expiry day of the past contract, 19 June. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4501-Tentative-Pact-Reached-in-US-for-15-000-General-Electric-Workers" type="internal">ICEM news article</a> of 20 June here.) The contract calls for adequate wage, bonus, and retirement provisions over the next four years, but it also contains concessions on health care coverage.  
 
The UE said the new contract “contains some improvements as well as some major deficiencies,” and blamed the deficiencies on a difficult bargaining climate and GE’s anti-union tendencies in the US. Nevertheless, the UE-GE Conference Board of America’s independent union recommended acceptance of the four-year proposal on 23 June. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/US IUE CWA.jpg" width="228" height="78" alt=""/>
The IUE/CWA also recommended the agreement. “These were difficult negotiations in a difficult economic climate,” stated said IUE-CWA GE and Aerospace Conference Board Chairman Bob Santamoor. “Members evaluated the package as whole and found it acceptable.” Thirty-four IUE/CWA local branches, representing 7,800 GE workers, voted accumulatively by 70% in separate branch referendums for overall acceptance. The UE did not announce its vote tally. 
 
The agreement calls for a first-year bonus due this month of US$5,000, with benefit increases in proportion to that award. In June 2012, workers will get a 2.25% increase, while in 2013 and 2014, wage hikes of 2.5% and 3% will go into effect. GE will outlay US$76 million for the first-year bonuses. 
 
Union members will receive modest pension benefits over the life of the agreement, and will see an improved cost-of-living formula each year. That benefit represents a 12% improvement over the past formula in inflation protection. The unions also won an additional sick day per year and added vacation days. 
 
Modifications were made regarding the Special Early Retirement Option (SERO), with a window reopener in 2011 for 400 applicants ages 55 to 59 with 30 years of service. A Voluntary Retirement Incentive Payment (VRIP) window was also negotiated for workers 60 years or older. 
 
The health care concession is higher yearly deductibles on medical care and benefit reductions to a co-payment system for health care visits and prescription drugs. These regressive contract changes regarding health care costs bring unionized workers down to levels unilaterally imposed by GE for non-union salaried workers. 
 
Of the majority of 11,500 GE workers represented by the IUE/CWA and UE, the IUE/CWA covers workers at GE Appliance and Lighting Division factories in Louisville, Kentucky, Aviation Division plants in Lynn, Massachusetts, and an Energy Division plant in Schenectady, New York. The UE represents GE Transportation Division workers in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Energy Division workers in Fort Edward, New York. The unions also represent scores of workers at smaller GE worksites that supply products to these bigger factories. 
 
The contract also serves as the template for collective agreements for eight other US unions that represent GE workers.

Four-year GE Pact Takes Effect in USA

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
A united grouping of six Belgian trade unions, representing all unionised oil workers, picketed at the gates of the Belgian Refining Corporation (BRC) last Thursday, 30 June, in protest of the sacking of three workers, calling for the company to spend their money on better terms in collective bargaining instead of unnecessary severance pay. 
 
A nationwide action is also planned. 
 
Two of the three sacked workers were union representatives of ICEM-affiliated Centrale Generale – FGTB, making the company even more liable for unfair dismissal. The three are guilty of no misconduct at all, although management have actively spread lies relating to the intimidation of a security guard and his family. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Belgium ABVV.jpg" width="204" height="69"/>
The Swiss management of BRC, under CEO Massenhaurer, has shown itself to be staunchly anti union, but inventing misconduct stories in order to sack union reps is new. 
 
The BRC refinery is located north of the Port of Antwerp at the centre of the ARA region, owned by European refiner Petroplus Holdings. BRC has production capacity of 107,500 barrels per day, and sells primarily inside Benelux. 
 
The ICEM joins calls of the six unions involved, five of which are affiliated, for the immediate reinstatement of all three sacked worker.

Belgium Unions Unite Against Belgian Refining Corp.’s Sackings 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM-affiliated Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) issued an ultimatum on 15 June to the Petroleum Equalisation Fund Management Board (PEF) over the continuing victimisation of its Branch Chairman and other executive committee members. 
 
The senior staff union warned the PEF management that if victimization of its officials continues, workers would reply through industrial unrest not only in PEF but the entire Nigerian oil industry. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaPengassan.JPG" width="143" height="150"/>
PENGASSAN union members hold significant leverage in Nigeria; its members are supervisors at each of the petroleum depots, which transport fuel and diesel throughout the country. The depots are under the control of PEF. 
 
The PEF management has been conducting aggressive interference in union affairs since a recently successful PENGASSAN campaign forced PEF management to promote over 70% of its staff who had stagnated at the same grade for upwards of six years. PEF set up a panel to investigate union member activity in terms of their adherence to union rules, clearly not the jurisdiction of management, and a breach of union independence intended to undermine PENGASSAN. 
 
In a letter to the PEF Executive Secretary, PENGASSAN General Secretary Bayo Olowoshile warned that, “the management of PEF is given a 14-day ultimatum with effect from the date of our earlier letter of June 15, 2011 to respect the Association’s structure, rules, and extant laws on Trade Unions and labour relations or get prepared to face the consequences of full scale national industrial action in the oil and gas industry”.

PENGASSAN Threatens Full-Scale Industrial Action in Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
From the International Metalworkers’ Federation 
 
Dramatic developments take place in Korea at Hanjin Heavy Industries shipyard and Yuseong Piston Ring. Private security forces and riot police forced out protesters from the shipyard and the police issued arrest warrants for Yuseong Piston Ring union leaders who in sign of protest have started a hunger strike in the Buddhist Jogye Temple in Seoul. 
 
Following IMF's recently reported visit on June 24 to the Korean National Assembly where a strong demand was forwarded to the Korean government to stop labour repression and solve the conflict at Yuseong Piston Ring (YPR) and Hanjin Heavy Industries shipyard new dramatic developments have occurred at both places. 
 
According to the reports of the IMF affiliate Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) Hanjin workers were flushed out of the shipyard with the exception of some protesters who tied themselves to Crane 85. Private contractors hired by the Hanjin management cut off electricity and tried to limit KIM Jinsuk's possibilities to communicate with the outer world. Ms. KIM Jinsuk is carrying out an aerial sit-in protest on a company crane. The protest has gone on for 175 days now. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.kmwu.jpg" width="239" height="161"/>
The KMWU also informed IMF that the police issued arrest warrants for the YPR union leaders who staged an unlimited hunger strike in the Buddhist Jogye Temple in Seoul to bring their unjust situation to the attention of the general public. 
 
On June 29 mass rallies took place in Seoul and Busan to protest against attacks on workers whose only crime is their wish to work under secure conditions and to have their collective bargaining rights respected. 
 
The IMF urgently calls on all its affiliates to send letters of protest to the President of Korea, Mr. Lee Myung-bak (e-mail <a href="mailto:president@president.go.kr">president@president.go.kr</a>) and to demand: 
• To pull back riot police and private security forces occupying the workplaces at Hanjin Heavy Industries shipyard and Yuseong Piston Ring YPR factories. 
• To start collective bargaining in good faith in order to withdraw unilateral mass dismissals at Hanjin. 
• To lift the illegal lockout of Yuseong Piston Ring workers and to reinstate union members to their original positions in their original plants (Asan and Yeongdong YPR plants). 
• To stop the persecution of Yuseong Piston Ring and Hanjin Heavy Industries union officials, union members and their sympathizers. 
 
Render solidarity support to the striking workers by sending messages of support to the KMWU international department at: <a href="mailto:inter@metal.nodong.org">inter@metal.nodong.org</a>, with copies to IMF at <a href="mailto:info@imfmetal.org">info@imfmetal.org</a>.

KMWU Calls for Urgent Solidarity Support

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
A branch of ICEM Indonesian affiliate FSP-KEP (SPSI), the Trade Union of Chemical, Energy, and Mine Workers (CEMWU), ended an eight-day strike on 13 July against US-based Freeport-McMoRan at the Grasberg copper and gold mine in eastern Papua province on New Guinea Island. Some 10,000 of the mine’s 18,000 workers downed tools on 4 July after management refused to hear wage demands of the PT Freeport branch of FSP-KEP, instead firing six trade union leaders. 
 
In the negotiated end to the strike that included the union, managers, and local government representatives, Freeport-McMoRan agreed to reinstate the six with backpay for duration of the strike and to also pay the 10,000 strikers their wages over the eight days. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.indonesia freeport mine.jpg" width="184" height="89"/>
4 July March to Kuala Kencana
Grasberg Managing Director Armando Mahler also agreed to fully recognise the democratically-elected leaders of PT Freeport, and to commence full negotiations toward a new collective agreement on 20 July. Union miners are seeking a doubling of their pay from the equivalent of US$1.50 per hour to US$3. Of Freeport-McMoRan’s eight global mining enterprises, Grasberg is the company’s biggest profit contributor, but also pays the lowest salaries. 
 
The company said it was losing US$23 million per day due to the strike. In the opening day of the strike, thousands of miners marched from Timika city to Kuala Kencana, the company’s mining town complex, where they were met by hostility from company security teams. 
 
Grasberg is the world’s largest gold mine and third largest copper mine. The open-cast mining operations sit atop a peak of the Puncak Jaya, Indonesia’s highest mountain. The company has a history there of providing only a small fraction of revenues for development, which in part has caused political friction between ethnic Melanesian Papuans and the Indonesian provincial and federal government authorities. 
 
In non-related Indonesian news regarding the 2004 Social Security law, a key ruling was made by the National Court of Central Jakarta on 13 July. The court found the Indonesian President, Vice-President, eight Ministers, and the Head of Parliament all guilty of failing to implement the national law. The court called on the defendants to implement the legislation immediately. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.INDO COURT ROOM.jpg" width="255" height="160"/>
National Court, Central Jakarta
The law represents a significant step towards improving the lives of ordinary people in Indonesia. However, the government of General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has failed to properly implement the legislation. The Social Security law demands programmes to cover five major policy areas: health insurance, employment injury, old-age, pensions, and death benefits. Employers are obliged to enroll their employees in the Social Security schemes and to jointly pay the contributions. 
 
The three large national trade union confederations KSPI, KSPSI, and KSBSI are united in support of this important reform legislation. A final decision is expected to be made on 22 July.

Indonesia Mine Union Wins Strike, Reinstatement of Sacked Union Leaders

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The second union-wide Conference for the Electric Power Industry was held in Boston USA on 12-13 July, with 60 delegates from 19 countries attending. The ICEM conference was aptly hosted by the Utility Workers’ Union of America (UWUA), which turned out delegates from several electric power branch unions. 
 
Delegates adopted a strong statement condemning recent trends in electric power that prioritise profit-making at the expense of the public good. The statement said unions must continue to promote democratic energy policies, and noted, “Increased globalisation in the Electric Power sector necessitates increased international contacts between unions in the parent multinational country with unions in the countries subject to new investments by these companies.” (The full ICEM Electric Power <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1Conclusions%20of%20ICEM%20World%20Conference%20for%20the%20Electric%20Power%20Industry%20Boston%20July%2012.pdf" type="internal">Conference conclusions</a> can be viewed here.) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.boston. electricity japanese.jpg" width="245" height="160"/>
Denryoku Soren’s Manabu Sasaki
A highlight of the event was a thorough presentation on the work done to save the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant station in Japan following the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. Members of the ICEM-affiliated Federation of Electric Power Related Industry Workers’ Union of Japan, or Denryoku Soren, gave heart-rendering descriptions of their work to cool down reactors after the tsunami cut power to the northeast Japan power station. 
 
The union’s policy officer, Takashi Wakasugi, who hails from Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), said that no one has died from radiation exposure at Fukushima, although two young workers were trapped and killed by the tsunami in the turbine building basement of the 4th reactor. That reactor was on a maintenance shutdown at the time. Eleven Denryoku Soren members and another 180 family members lost their lives away from the plant and over 6,000 homes of union members have been destroyed. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.boston. electricity num.jpg" width="129" height="161"/>
NUM Education Chairperson Helen Diatile Inspired Delegates for Greater Solidarity
Since mid-March, the union has dispatched some 3,500 volunteers from Denryoku Soren in aid and rescue missions. The Japanese unionists, including Kiyoaki Kotabe and Manabu Sasaki, stressed that the natural disaster also affected coal-fired power stations in Fukushima Prefecture, including the Haramachi power plant where some workers were killed. Nuclear power, Sasaki said, accounts for less than 30% of Japan’s power mix. With total electric supply decreasing to 55% after the twin natural disasters, the bulk of the loss came from outages at coal- oil- and gas-fired plants. 
 
The unionists were critical of Japan’s current government administration for laying blame on the utilities and on workers. They said the government insists on imposing indemnity on the affected utilities, and has submitted a bill to Parliament that ultimately would encourage layoffs of Denryoku Soren members and the lowering of working conditions to the bare minimum. 
 
“We at Denryoku Soren will continue to fight to stabilise the situation at Fukushima Daiichi,” stated Sasaki, the union’s Social and Industrial Policy Officer. “We will face all predicaments bravely to secure the safety of the Japanese people and by all and any means, we will restore and revitalize East Japan, which suffered devastating damage. 
 
“What has supported us while we fight for this has been the strong solidarity by the member unions of the ICEM.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.boston. electricity langford.jpg" width="151" height="162"/>
UWUA President Mike Langford
The Electric Conference also included panels on campaigning and on networking, with the latter including the ICEM’s Asia-Pacific Electric Power Workers’ Network by Japanese Affiliates’ Federation (JAF) General Secretary Yoshio Sato, the Nuclear Workers’ Network by David Shier, and an inspired presentation by Ndlela Radebe of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on the newly created Southern Africa Energy Network. 
 
Campaign presentations were made by UWUA Local 389 President Dave Leonardi on the successful UWUA-ICEM campaign to achieve a first collective agreement with waste-to-energy company Covanta in the US, and on privatisation fight-backs by David Black of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees (COPE) in British Colombia and by Saffet Asiksou and Huseyln Sonmezoglu of the Turkish Electricity Authority of Cyprus Workers’ Union (El-Sen). 
 
UWUA President Mike Langford also directly addressed the “virus” of the US that is slowly permeating both developed and developing nations of the world, and said trade unions must rise up to unite against such “anti-people, anti-society practices.”

ICEM’s Electric Conference Condemns Profiteering by Private-Sector Providers

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The annual meeting of ICEM’s International Nuclear Workers’ Union Network, (INWUN) took place in the US city of Boston on 14 July, preceded by a two-day ICEM Electric Power conference. Some 30 union delegates from ten nations attended, including unions representing nuclear power station workers, uranium miners, and staff employed along the nuclear supply chain, including fuel conversion and enrichment processes. 
 
INWUN was founded inside the ICEM in 2004 and was incorporated as an official workers’ network of the Global Union Federation (GUF) in 2008. It is presided over by David Shier of the Canadian Power Workers’ Union (PWU), who stressed the importance of adding more unions to the network once conclusion of a new GUF is built with the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers’ Federation. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.icem boston electric Ralf IGBCE.jpg" width="120" height="159"/>
IGBCE’s Ralf Barttels
This year’s event featured in-depths looks at the US lockout by Honeywell of members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669 in Metropolis, Illinois, as well as a spirited question and answer session of leaders of the 220,000-member Japanese affiliate Denryoku Soren, or the Federation of Electric Power Related Industry Workers’ Union. That focused on the cooling down and aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station following March’s earthquake and tsunami. 
 
Denryoku Soren leaders Takashi Wakasugi, Kiyoaki Kotabe, and Manabu Sasaki spoke of the courage that came to workers and union staff working at Fukushima in the days immediately following when hundreds of ICEM affiliates poured moral and physical support to the Japanese union. “Your encouragement and solidarity enabled all of us to press forward with restoration work as strenuous as it was,” said Wakasugi, Denryoku Soren’s Policy Officer. 
 
The USW was represented at INWUN by Vice President James “Kip” Phillips, Local 7-669 President Darrell Lillie, and the local’s Vice President, Tim Goines. The lockout by Honeywell, ongoing now for 55 weeks (see recent ICEM <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4538-Honeywell-Threatens-Safety-by-Extending-Lockout-of-USW-Members-" type="internal">news dispatch</a> here), pits a multinational company against a group of 228 workers, who represent the safety and security of a community of 6,400. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.boston ukraine inwun.jpg" width="249" height="161"/>
Ukraine Atomprofspilka President Valeriy Matoc, with Lesia Semeniaka Seated
Since last July, Honeywell has been attempting to operate the uranium conversion plant with scab workers and several near-miss safety and environmental occurrences have happened. INWUN delegates condemned the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decision to grant licenses to Honeywell to operate the plant with scab workers, and a letter to that extent was sent to the American agency. 
 
INWUN delegates also heard reports from individual countries, including the German union IGBCE on the de-commission of all nuclear facilities by the year 2022. IGBCE Representative Ralf Barttels made clear that although the union accepts closure of power stations in harmony with the wishes of the German public, the union has lobbied successfully to retain uranium enrichment, nuclear fuel production, research and development, and manufacture of nuclear components. 
 
French delegates told of their ongoing efforts to achieve a Global Framework Agreement with Areva, as well as their court efforts to block outsourcing by the global nuclear provider in France. Delegates to INWUN also pledged to build a more coordinated dialogue with employer federations in the nuclear industry, particularly around safety. A representative from the industry-based World association of Nuclear Operations (WANO) also addressed the group.

INWUN Conference Hears Heroic Deeds of Japanese Nuclear Workers

<img width="100" height="39" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg"/>
A two-year organizing campaign conducted by ICEM Turkish affiliate Petrol-İş, the Oil, Chemical, and Rubber Workers’ Union, has faced serious difficulties at targeted worksites. The anti-union Turkish labor legislation, which has been criticized by the ILO and whose major conventions have been ratified by Turkey, as well as hostile employer actions are the main reasons why. 
 
Petrol- İş has been picketing several factories to showcase this absence of genuine union rights. The ICEM was recently in Turkey supporting the union’s organizing drives. General Secretary Manfred Warda and Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal Özkan visited in early July to lend support. 
 
They first visited workers at Polyplex in the Corlu free trade zone, close to the Bulgarian border. Workers at Polyplex were in their 240th day of struggle after joining Petrol-İş in November 2010. When management learned of the drive, they used different tactics to get rid of the union, including firing 22 workers seen as union activists. 
<img width="256" height="171" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.petrol-is - polyplex.jpg"/>
Manfred Warda Addresses Workers of Polyplex Europa
The Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social Security authorized Petrol-İş as the lawful bargaining unit on 5 January 2011. But managers immediately used the anti-labour provisions of Turkish legislation to delay collective bargaining by filing an appeal at a local labor court alleging that Petrol- İş had not signed up the required majority of workers. This stood as clear signal that Polyplex Europa would not recognize the union’s existence. Such an appeal could run for two years, thus denying workers union rights. Both ICEM and Petrol-İş asked the company for a meeting to reconcile, but Petroplex consistently refused. Union representatives met with the General Consulate of India in Istanbul and stressed that the current situation brings a bad public image to the reputation of India. 
 
“I am here on behalf of the entire ICEM family to show our solidarity,” said Warda. “We applaud the workers’ honorable struggle and we vehemently protest the Indian company Polyplex because of disrespect to workers’ rights guaranteed by international conventions.” 
 
Warda and Özkan later visited dismissed workers at the Aroma-Polifarma pharmaceutical company in the same region. A large majority of 300 workers at Aroma-Polifarma became Petrol-İş over the last few weeks. This came because of inhumane working conditions such as extended working hours, up to 16 hours per day; short breaks, only a maximum 30-minute break for lunch; inadequate drinking water in which some workers developed kidney problems; and most shamefully, cameras in the dressing rooms, even in the women’s room. 
<img width="248" height="162" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.petrol-is polifarma.jpg"/>
Warda and Petrol-İş President Mustafa Öztaşkın (center) with Polifarma Workers
The day before the ICEM visit, Polifarma dismissed some 150 workers because they were suspected of joining the union. In his letter to the owners of the company, the Kumrulu family, Warda said the sackings are clear violations of basic human and labour rights which can never be accepted or tolerated. “I am sure most of these practices are subject to measures in Turkish penal and labor legislation,” he wrote. “Under all these circumstances, on behalf of the whole ICEM family, I vehemently protest all that you’ve done … and urge you to immediately” cease and desist. 
 
The ICEM delegation also went to the city of Gebze where dismissed workers of German-based Bericap were in their 200th day of resistance to the company’s mass dismissals. Petrol-İş organised workers at Bericap in July 2009, following dismissal of six workers initally for attempting to unionise. On 26 January 2010, a collective agreement was agreed to in hopes of a mature labour relations relationship. 
 
But local management never intended to fully recognize the existence of Petrol-İş and began implementing a hostile attitude against the union and union members. Under such negativity, four union members were dismissed without justification on 25 December 2010 with no union rights being adhered to. In response, some 100 Petrol-İş members started an industrial action in front of the workplace. Local management terminated employment contracts of all those protesting and failed to provide any severance compensation. The Bericap situation became a prominent case in Turkey, which created an environment against the company and workers won the support of different community groups. (A short video of a <a href="http://www.evrensel.net/news.php?id=9396">Bericap Manifestation</a> can be seen here.)  
 
ICEM and Petrol-İş several times tried to initiate dialogue with Bericap in order to reinstate the dismissed workers, but reciprocal good will from the company never resulted. ICEM also informed its German affiliate, the IGBCE, the German Metalworkers’ Union, IG Metall, and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), since the German unions represent workforces there. Labor inspectors appointed by the Labour and Social Security Ministry recently disclosed their report after investigations. The report clearly states that local managers abused workers’ rights. Bericap Turkey is now liable and must pay compensation to the dismissed workers. In addition, local management must pay penalties since deficiencies and legislative misalignments were found during the inspection. 
 
“Bericap cannot behave irresponsibly to its employees,” said Warda in his address to striking workers on the picket line. “We will give a last chance to the company to solve this problem in a peaceful way. Otherwise an international ‘shame campaign’ will be launched.” Immediately after the visit, ICEM sent another letter to Bericap Managing Director Alexander Krautkramer to take immediate actions to restore good-faith labour relations. 
 
“We are pleased to have the support and solidarity of the ICEM in these struggles,” said Petrol-İş President Mustafa Öztaşkın. “Our international partner has offered tremendous support in all our organizing drives and we know success will come with global solidarity from all workers of these companies worldwide.”

ICEM Lends On-site Support to Workers Organising with Turkey’s Petrol-İş 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/en-header.jpg" width="160" height="49"/>
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’s mine workers and automotive parts workers under the leadership of the Mexican Miners’ 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&l=2">Johnson Controls in Puebla</a>. After a long struggle and with the support of the Mexican Miners’ Union, Johnson Controls workers at the Resurrección 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’ 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 “multilatinas,” such as Vale, Gerdau, Cemex, Grupo México, 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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Organizing has always been a top priority of unions, requiring significant effort and resources to be successful. Particularly challenging is organizing workers in union hostile areas like Export Processing Zones (EPZs). 
 
The IMF affiliate in Dominican Republic, Federación Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros y Metalúrgicos (FENATRAMIM), through the Federación Nacional de Trabajadores de Zonas Francas (FENATRAZONAS), is specialized in organizing at EPZs, also known locally as Zonas Francas. 
 
When Gertrudis Santana, the national education secretary of FENATRAZONAS, first became active with her union, she was working at a shoe factory in one of the zonas francas of Dominican Republic. She became an organizer at the EPZ in San Pedro de Macoris. Soon Santana was responsible for organizing at other zonas francas, including both textile and electronics sectors. 
 
“Initially,” explains Santana, “in the EPZs of the Dominican Republic one could see only textile factories present. Later on production of electronic chips also moved in and the metal sector became present through the use of gold in cloth manufacturing.” 
 
Nowadays Santana does not organize workers directly; she is more involved in the political work within her union. As national secretary of education, she trains activists on issues of organizing. Her union constantly has to deal with challenges in organizing due to the problem of restricted access to workers. 
 
“The working conditions in EPZs these days have changed,” continues Santana. “Before workers used to have fixed working hours, now they are paid for finished product. Despite claims that this will result in higher earnings, in practice workers’ income has shrunk and working hours have increased.” 
 
From her experience Santana notes that in organizing at EPZs the organizing tactics and strategies in different industrial sectors are very similar as the conditions are often the same. However some of the sectors, like welding in metalworking, are notorious with health hazards, while in textiles it is much easier for an employer to change the location of an enterprise as in most cases the machines are rented. 
 
“Freedom of association is still a dream for us,” says Santana, giving the example of the EPZ in San Pedro de Macoris, which is the largest electronics industry area in the Dominican Republic. 
 
According to national legislation a union can be established with at least 25 workers. However the creation of a union is not the final goal, since these workers will achieve little at an enterprise employing thousands of workers. Instead the main goal is to form a union big enough to bargain collectively. The union’s current campaign, “Fuerte” (from Spanish “strong”), has organizers communicate with workers at factory gates, bus stops and also try to obtain their addresses in order to contact them at home and convince them to join the union. 
 
The results of this work are promising: nine collective agreements were concluded by FENATRAMIM in EPZs, and considering that 50% plus one rule is an obligation for the union to start collective bargaining, this is a very serious achievement.

Gertrudis Santana on Cross-sector Organizing in Dominican Republic EPZs

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