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<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The coal-mining dispute in Australia between the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) and Peabody Energy at the North Goonyella mine intensified when the US-based company used the country’s new Fair Work law to lock 280 miners from their jobs in central Queensland. Just as CFMEU was to ratchet up industrial actions in protest to a radical Peabody overhaul to an enterprise labour agreement, the company imposed a 10-day, unpaid lockout on 9 December. 
 
The very next day, some 20 CFMEU miners from Mackay, Queensland, flew to Brisbane where they were joined by 100 others in a protest at Peabody’s Australian offices. The Brisbane protest happened while police and private security 800 kilometres away in Mackay erected barricades at mine gates, expecting the protest there. 
 
The dispute started in early November (see InBrief No. 144 article <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3507-CFMEU-Begins-Job-Actions-at-Peabody-Coal-in-Australia" type="internal">here</a>) when strike actions began following Peabody’s intransigence over a CFMEU proposal to again extend the enterprise agreement, while giving a long overdue pay raise. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0912.Peabody-1[1].jpg" width="110" height="226" alt=""/>
Miners at North Goonyella have been without a pay increase since May 2008. The labour agreement expired in March 2008 and was extended for one year. The two sides then began bargaining toward a new agreement but seven months later Peabody’s steep concessionary demands brought forth a formal dispute. 
 
The mining company is seeking a radically changed work shift structure, one that would negatively impact pay grids. CFMEU members are concerned about fatigue and work safety, and also have grievances over living conditions in on-site housing. 
 
A Peabody spokeswoman termed the lockout an employer protective action under the Labour government’s Fair Work law, which took effect 1 July 2009. It is one of the first defensive lockouts used by bosses under the Labour government’s new law. 
 
At last Thursday’s manifestation in Brisbane, CFMEU District Vice President Glenn Power said, “We are here to protest and send a clear message to Peabody that their corporate greed and bullish attitude around the negotiating table needs to be reconsidered.” 
 
The two sides were to meet today, 16 December, for further talks. Peabody mines coking coal from the underground mine at North Goonyella that is exported from Dalrymple Bay, Queensland, and used in steel-making. The mine and the adjacent open-cast Eaglefield mine produce three million short tons of coal per annum. Peabody bought the mines from Germany-based RAG AG in 2003.

Peabody Locks Out CFMEU Coal Miners in Australia

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
A sequence of labour-management stand-offs at paper company Sappi’s Nimjegen, Netherlands, mill on 2-3 December was what it took to bring labour peace, following three months of rancorous dispute. The defining stand-off that ended this dispute was a mill-wide, non-paid lockout by local managers, an anomaly to Holland’s to social bargaining practices. 
 
That lockout, announced during the final hours of a legal 38-hour industrial action by four Dutch unions, including ICEM affiliates FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Bedrijvenbond at Nimjegen, set off high emotions inside the mill and forced fast intervention by Sappi’s European management. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NetherlandsFNVBondgenoten.gif" width="120" height="70" alt=""/>
The result was a one-year rollover of the existing social agreement for 800 workers at the Nijmegen and Maastricht paper mills. The compromise, moreover, preserves “seniorendaggen,” or loyalty days away from the job for long-serving workers. This key issue was resolved with both labour and management agreeing that this social Dutch benefit would be retained until at least 1 July 2014. Accrual of senior days for new workers hired after 1 January 2010 will be eliminated. 
 
Following no response by Sappi to a workers’ proposal to end the dispute on 26 November, 24-hour industrial actions began at both Nijmegen and Maastricht. By 1 December, when Sappi still had failed to respond to a modest union proposal that could have ended the dispute, Nijmegen staff announced a 38-hour strike, while Maastricht workers would down tools for 24 hours starting early on 3 December. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/netherlands.CNV_logo[1].png" width="161" height="88" alt=""/>
The dispute’s turning point then came late on Wednesday, 2 December, at the Nijmegen mill. With tempers short and rumours rife that the shutdown might last longer, mill managers escorted the few staff working off the job, and announced a non-paid lockout. 
 
Sappi also sent a letter to the unions requesting bargaining. Over the next 24 hours, through European corporate involvement, a compromise was hammered out. 
 
One fact that proved helpful for the Dutch unions is that on 15 October they staged a manifestation at Sappi European headquarters in Brussels, presenting senior executives with a petition signed by 800 angry workers. That manifestation was joined by written protests from global pulp and paper unions. 
 
Sappi did rearrange its contract terms in the days following the Brussels manifestation, but still wanted to be rid of having to grant senior days. The four unions decided to put Sappi’s offer to joint vote, but Dutch paperworkers rejected it by 99%. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0810PaperRollArt.jpg" width="180" height="109"/>
The industrial actions a fortnight ago, leading to the Nijmegen lockout, brought the dispute to a head. The compromise reached keeps the 2008 social agreement from Maastricht in place at both locations until 1 October 2010, and grants a one-year salary increase of 1.2%, backdated to 1 July 2009. 
 
The workers’ strikes at Nijmegen were the first such industrial stoppages in the history of the mill, while the walkouts in Maastricht were in first in over 30 years. 
 
“We are grateful for the messages of support from trade unionists all over the world,” said Ans van den Akker of FNV Bondgenoten. “A special thanks goes to our Belgian colleagues who made sure that no struck work was brought to them at the Lanaken mill.” 
 
The ICEM commends the courage and collective power displayed by workers of all four unions at Nijmegen and Maastricht. It was through their common resolve that they retained the rights most important to them, while earning the respect of Sappi management in doing so.

Dutch Lockout by Sappi Spurs One-Year Labour Accord

ICEM Women’s Bulletin No. 33

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This month’s 98th Session of the ILO Conference adopted a landmark Global Jobs Pact on 19 June. The accord, called a Jobs Pact, was agreed to by governments, trade unions, and employers, and lays out a template for economic recovery and reform. 
 
Jobs, workers’ rights, social protections, quality public services, and sustainability are at the heart of the proposal for a new system of global governance, said International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Secretary Guy Ryder. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Guy.Ryder.jpg" width="129" height="97"/>
ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder
Global labour unions fear that the ILO will return to a course of business as usual, and that world economic institutions will continue with the failed policies of free-market radicalism. Some commentators say that the financial crisis has already bottomed out and recovery is now imminent, but voices at the 19 June ILO session argue that the affect of lost jobs will be lasting and devastating. 
 
The Jobs Pact is seen as an alternative to shocking ILO projections that the crisis will push 50 million workers into unemployment, and that 200 million of the world’s population will be pushed into extreme poverty. The creation of sustainable jobs is essential, as is the fight against climate change. 
 
Another aspect of the Jobs Pact is the high level of importance given to tripartite dialogue, social dialogue, and collective bargaining. High standards of working conditions and improved wages are vital, along with education and training programmes for the unemployed. The Jobs Pact calls for increased implementation of public-sector job creation schemes. 
 
The Global Jobs Pact signifies an important and significant step forward. Implementation must now occur. The ICEM supports demands for concrete results before the next G20 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, on 24-25 September 2009.

ILO’s Jobs Pact; a Solid Proposal for Exiting the Financial Crisis

<img height="39" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100"/>
Germany’s two biggest industrial unions, ICEM affiliate IGBCE and IG Metall, urgently called upon elected officials and employers within Germany to begin a constructive dialogue on overcoming the consequences of the current global crisis. The unions recently issued a joint statement to draw attention to the fact that economic and industrial policy challenges cannot be undertaken with mere "cosmetic adjustments without a genuine substance." 
 
In cooperation with the Hans Böckler Foundation, IGBCE and IG Metall organised a joint conference in Oberhausen, Germany, entitled “Industrial Policy for Tomorrow.” 
 
“The industrial base of our economy must be strengthened to lay the foundations of sustained growth and prosperity,” said IGBCE board member Michael Vassiliadis. 

<img height="109" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/GermanyIgMetall.jpg" width="110"/>
Added Berthold Huber, President of IG Metall, “We need a bridge over the crisis and it must lead to the other shore and not back to the same shore. We must now have a model for a sustainable industrial policy.” 
 
In the joint statement, the unions warn of the danger that industrial cores could be lost and entire value-chains in industrial processes might collapse. Therefore, the unions call on the German government to provide “short term loans and guarantees, and to generate additional demand.” 
 
Specifically, IGBCE and IG Metall call for a public equity fund, effective protections for companies to secure jobs, the adoption of a sustainable industrial policy that would replace unregulated markets, comprehensive social-democratic participation rights, decent work, regulated labour markets, and a coordinated industrial policy for all of Europe.

IGBCE, IG Metall in Germany Combine to Demand Sustainable Industrial Policy

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Two miners in South Africa died on 20 June deep inside South Africa’s biggest gold mine, the Driefontein mine owned by Gold Fields. They died when an earth tremor, registering 3.5 on the Richter scale, caused a shift of rock. Eight other miners were rescued, three of whom were hospitalized. One miner is suffering with serious injuries. 
 
It was the second accident caused by a shift ground at Gold Fields’ mines in a month. On 20 May, two miners died deep in the earth at the company’s Kloof mine near Westonia in West Rand. A day earlier, one miner at Kloof died in a similar but separate accident. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector.JPG" width="90" height="90" alt=""/>
The tragedy that occurred 20 June at Driefontein near Carletonville caused mine production to halt for four days. The spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Lesiba Seshoka, called the latest accident deeply disappointing. “There doesn’t seem to be any willingness to improve safety,” he said. 
 
Gold Fields, the world’s fourth largest gold miner with operations in Australia, Ghana, Peru, and South Africa, said in a statement to financial markets late last week that it has had 20 mining fatalities since July 2008. All have occurred in South Africa. In the first six months of 2008, 23 of 87 mine fatalities in South Africa occurred in mines operated by Gold Fields.

Gold Fields Struck by 5 South African Mining Deaths in Past Month

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The day following the ICEM’s 9 October Presidium meeting in Hannover, Germany, ICEM Vice Presidents and several others, including representatives from host German union IGBCE, piled on a bus for a four-hour trip to the North Sea port of Brunsbüttel. 
 
Their mission: to meet the Hong Kong-flagged MV Fedagawa, a vessel laden with 35,000 tonnes of copper concentrates that originated in Voiseys Bay, province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, where union members of the United Steelworkers (USW) have been on strike against Vale-Inco since 1 August. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.vale.ship.1.jpg" width="290" height="218"/>
The purpose of the trip was to alert the ship’s captain and crew of the Canadian strike, who hopefully in turn would relay that message to Vale and the end-users of the copper. The mission proved successful, in large part, because of the intervention of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and its Hamburg and area ports Inspector Ulf Christiansen. 
The mission was planned meticulously by the IGBCE’s International Department, together with the USW and the supporting Global Union Federations. At about 19h00 on 10 October, a team of six representatives from the international trade union contingent entered the locked-down Brunsbüttel port authority and met with the ship’s captain and a representative of the ship’s owner. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.vale.ship.4.jpg" width="275" height="206"/>
Senzeni Zokwan and Manfred Warda
That delegation consisted of ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana, General Secretary Manfred Warda, USW Canadian National Director and ICEM Vice President Ken Neumann, USW Local 9508 striker Curtis Saunders from Voiseys Bay, USW Local 6500 striker Aaron Beaudry from Sudbury, Ontario, and IGBCE International Department Officer Michael Wolters. 
Neumann reported that both the captain and the ship owner’s representative were supportive and promised to raise the issue directly with Vale-Inco and with the metal companies that were purchasing the Brazilian company’s resources. Following the visit, the USW rank-and-file strikers left for Rônnskär, Sweden, where the MV Fedagawa was delivering part of the copper cargo to a nearby Boliden smelter. The copper concentrates had been stockpiled in eastern Canada since before the strike. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.vale.ship.2.jpg" width="257" height="233"/>
Federal Nakagawa's captain and the ship owner’s representative
The 9 October ICEM Presidium meeting opened with a review of the three-month Vale-Inco strike at three Canadian locations, and a unanimous resolution by the body to give support to striking USW members in every way possible. “We’ve had labour disputes with Inco before,” Neumann told the Presidium, “but since Vale bought out Inco in 2006, this is the first time they have tried to use scabs to begin production. This struggle will not be won by just walking picket lines, but with linking arms with global trade unions everywhere.” 
 
The strike by 3,500 miners and metalworkers began on 13 July in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, following Vale-Inco’s demand for steep pension concessions, relaxed language on the company’s right to contract out bargaining unit work, an elimination of a production bonus. The strike spread to Voiseys Bay after 500 of the miners, working under a separate labour agreement, faced the same rash concessions. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.vale.ship.Ulf.jpg" width="160" height="226"/>
Ulf Christiansen
“We owe tremendous gratitude to the ITF and especially Ulf Christiansen for arranging this intervention,” said the ICEM’s Warda. “This is just more evidence that the ICEM, together with its trade union partners, will broaden the strike to ensure that Vale knows, and its customers know, that mineral resources from Vale-Inco in Canada will be challenged in the global marketplace.”

ICEM, ITF, IGBCE in German Port Protest Against Vale-Inco Mine Shipment

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Trade unions of the pulp and paper sector affiliated to the ICEM acted in concert with Dutch unions last week in their protest against inferior contract terms put forward by Sappi. On 15 October, 50 protesters from ICEM Netherlands affiliates FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Bedrijenbond, along with two other Dutch unions, made their way to Sappi’s European headquarters in Brussels to present a petition signed by the 800 workers of the two paper mills stating they are dissatisfied with contract terms presented. 
 
The 50 shop-floor leaders from Sappi’s mills in Nijmegen and Maastricht were joined by scores of protest letters by ICEM affiliates of the sectors. 
 
In mid-September, Dutch workers of all four unions rejected a 21-month pay deal with a 95% vote that would have provided only a miniscule pay rise. Sappi proposed a 0.4% increase effective on 1 July 2009, with a 0.9% increase proposed for 1 April 2010. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Netherlands.png" width="180" height="183" alt=""/>
What’s perhaps worse, the South African-based company proposed elimination of “seniorendagen” for workers 55 years or older. This is the Dutch system of granting days off annually to workers when they reach ages 45, 50, 55 years or older. The days-off do not amount to many per year, but are seen as a just reward to senior workers who have given valuable years of service to the company. 
 
Sappi told union negotiators that its pay proposal as presented was low because Nijmegen and Maastricht workers refuse to give up the senior days. In the ICEM’s letter to Sappi European CEO Berry Wiersum on 15 October, General Secretary Manfred Warda said, “The ICEM, and its family of 470 unions in 143 countries, finds this type of dialogue repulsive, and implore you to intervene on behalf of a socially responsible company to change this type of attitude.” 
 
The ICEM and affiliated unions in the pulp and paper sector will be monitoring Sappi’s collective bargaining dispute at its Dutch mills, as well as a developing contract dispute at a Sappi mill in North America and upcoming redundancy talks at three Sappi mills in South Africa, where the company is attempting to pare 500 jobs from ICEM affiliate Chemical, Energy, Pulp, Paper, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union (CEPPWAWU).

Pulp, Paper Unions Assist Dutch Unionists in Contract Dispute with Sappi 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The ICEM held a regional conference in São Paulo from 27-29 October to consolidate activities in the region. The conference was called “ICEM – A Modern, Dynamic and Efficient Organisation,” and was attended by 25 trade union leaders from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, Uruguay, and the Dominican Republic. 
 
One of the aims of the conference was to integrate the unions of the former World Federation of Industrial Workers (WFIW), who had joined ICEM at the 2007 Congress. The other aim was to develop programmes for young workers and women. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0910.italo.rodimonti.JPG" width="220" height="125" alt=""/>
Italo Rodomonti, centre
Italo Rodomonti, ICEM Vice-President, gave a presentation on trade union democracy and representation, which explained why strengthened trade union structures are a question of democracy. It cannot be that those who are dissatisfied with one union find another, he said. Democracy is not advanced by a proliferation of trade unions, but by the idea to have fewer and better and stronger trade unions. Trade union leaders must never forget those whom they represent, said Rodomonti. 
 
Working groups met on the topic of trade union democracy and came up with the following conclusions: 
• Women and young people must be incorporated in greater numbers in ICEM and its affiliated unions; 
• Training and education continue to be important, and train the trainer programs must be given priority. Every union must have its own education programme; 
• Neoliberalism and multinationals continue to dominate the agenda. Neoliberalism had nefarious effects on young people because they are more individualistic and have no relation to trade unions. Overcoming these trends is part of the challenge that has to be met in attracting young people to join unions; 
• Trade unions continue to be weak. Emphasis still has to be put on recruitment. Trade unions still suffer from financial weaknesses and non-payment of dues. These challenges must be overcome; 
• Migrant and workers employed in the informal sector are more and more present, and ICEM must develop policies to address issues faced by workers in these groups; 
• Communication has to be improved; meetings and communication with the assistance of SKYPE are being investigated for the regional committee. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/People/0807SergioNovais.jpg" width="120" height="180" alt=""/>
Sergio Novais
ICEM Vice-President for Latin America and the Caribbean, Sergio Novais, made a presentation on ICEM programmes and structures. One of the main priorities in the region is on workers’ networks. The networks are one way of controlling multinationals which have become more powerful than some governments in the region. 
 
ICEM must attempt to tackle the areas where it does hold power to change things, leaving the general work with governments up to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). As always, sub-contracting and outsourcing were major themes of discussion. 
 
A new project is soon to be launched with the help of the Spanish ISCOD to train 60 women across the region in negotiating skills. The pulp and paper project sponsored by Finnish SASK for the Mercosur countries of Latin America also was discussed. 
 
It is worth remembering that the process of trade union consolidation is ongoing – the process begun with the merger between the ICFTU and the WCL is continuing. The ICEM is leading the work to consolidate the international trade union federations with work on cooperation with the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) and the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF). The WFIW’s regional organisation, FLATIC, will be joining the ICEM regional committee with six additional members, two of whom will be women. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/FLATIC.jpg" width="80" height="104" alt=""/>
The meeting expressed its concern over the disregard on behalf of the provincial government in Chubut, Argentina, on the collective agreement with the utility union, Luz y Fuerza. The provincial government is defying all national and international standards and agreements governing freedom of association and the right to collective bargain. 
 
The meeting also adopted the following resolution on Honduras. It reads, in part: 
 
“ICEM regional committee, meeting in São Paulo, Brazil, aware of the political situation prevailing in the sister republic of Honduras in the wake of the reactionary military coup which overthrew the democratically elected government of Honduras, denounces the following: 
 
“The majority will of the people has been attacked in the service of obscure economic interests that are hostile to the country. Workers and their trade unions and popular organizations have been repressed. 
 
“Therefore the regional committee, representing delegates from eight countries, agrees the following: 
 
“To call upon all democratic countries in the international community to not recognize the de facto government nor the elections called by it; to pass on our militant solidarity to the men and women workers and their trade unions; to promote a campaign of concrete solidarity with the people of Honduras and to denounce this situation at the ILO and before other workers’ organizations, ensuring that a copy of these declarations are sent to the trade unions in Honduras.” 
 
Finally, on 29 October, a meeting was held to discuss the new energy project which will soon start with the support of the Spanish foundation Paz y Solidaridad. The meetings in São Paulo were held in a spirit of camaraderie and solidarity. Many thanks to the Dutch FNV, as well as to Belgian affiliate CSC Energie Chimie for their support of the meetings.

ICEM’s Latin America/Caribbean Regional Delegates Meet in São Paulo Last Week

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Peruvian mineworkers of the Chinese-owned Shougang Hierro company lifted a 15-day strike on 13 October, following agreement with management. As previously reported by the ICEM, the Chinese state-owned steel company, Shougang Group, owns Peru’s only iron ore mine, Marcona, and the company had been living up to its reputation of paying the lowest wages in the entire Peruvian mining sector. 
 
The strike began with management’s refusal to follow through on commitments made in July 2008 to raise miners’ salaries by a mere US$1.91 a day. That July agreement was reached through arbitration by Peru’s Labour Ministry. All 1,200 mineworkers at the Marcona mine, in the Ica region of Peru’s south, joined the strike, with an industry report suggesting that the company lost some 500,000 tonnes of iron ore output during the 15-day strike. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0907.peru.miners.jpg" width="240" height="172"/>
The settlement will see the company pay the promised wage raise to workers, along with an outstanding bonus payment of US$35 to each worker. The company also committed not to retaliate against the workers following their strike action, said union leader Rey Fernandez Patiño. 
 
Production at the mine last year reached 7.49 million tones. The Chinese company is undertaking a US$1 billion expansion, which will increase production to ten million tonnes annually. Mining makes up 60% of Peru’s GDP. 
 
The ICEM affiliate, National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (FNTMMSP) successfully carried out a national mining strike on 19-20 October, with one of the top priorities giving support and solidarity to the Shougang miners. The FNTMMSP was also demanding compliance from the Labour Ministry for the negotiated raise to Shougang Hierro miners’ wages. The national strike, as well, demanded the signing of a mining retirement bill by the government. In addition, FNTMMSP is seeking passage and enactment of mining-profits legislation from the country’s National Assembly, a law which will assist all miners financially.

Shougang Mineworkers Reach Settlement to End Strike

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