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Forty-one national mining unions from 37 countries met 9-11 July in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the ICEM&rsquo;s quadrennial World Conference on Mining and DJGOP. A total of 138 delegates addressed the major changes occurring in the industry. 
 
At the top of the agenda of an ICEM work plan covering the next four years was the continuing health and safety problems occurring at mines throughout the world. 
 
&ldquo;At a time of unprecedented profits in the mining industry, it is an unacceptable situation that much of this profit continues to be stained with the blood of miners,&rdquo; said Senzeni Zokwana, ICEM President and also President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa.
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ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana&nbsp;
Although there are no worldwide figures on mining injuries and fatalities, serious accidents continue to plague mining operations in more developed countries, such as the US and South Africa, as well as in developing nations. South African-based Gold Fields Ltd., the world&rsquo;s fourth largest gold-mining house, was specifically cited for operating dangerous mines and may be a target of ICEM action. 
 
ICEM affiliates attending the Mining Conference approved a continued global campaign for ratification of ILO Convention 196, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. Delegates also approved action to assist uranium miners in Africa in preventing exposure to dangerous radiation. 
 
A further focus to the conference was the continued vertical and horizontal consolidation in the mining and metals industries and the growing power of multinational corporations, including emergent multinational mining companies based in Brazil, China, India, and Russia. Delegates pledged to work together to build networks to confront these companies. 
 
Also designated as part of the work plan was the development of a policy on sustainable development, including support for developing clean coal technologies, challenging the use of contract and agency labour and gaining work rights for such workers, and establishing closer relationships with NGOs that show support for workers. 
 
Featured at the conference was a presentation on the fight between the Mexican mineworkers&rsquo; union, known as Los Mineros, and Grupo M&eacute;xico and the government of Mexico, which has attempted to destroy the union. ICEM affiliates pledged full support to the miners and a stepped up campaign against this company and the government. 
The ICEM mining report can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/2008ICEMMiningReportEN.pdf">here</a>.

ICEM Holds Quadrennial Mining Conference in Russia

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A four-day industrial action by 600 contracted tank-truck drivers will end tomorrow morning, 17 June, at 06h00. But ICEM affiliate Unite has said another four-day action could begin on Friday, 20 June, if fair pay awards are not given in bargaining this week. 
 
The strike, which began in the early morning hours of 13 June, is against Royal Dutch Shell and two of its contract haulers, German-based Hoyer UK and J.W. Suckling Transport Ltd., wholly owned by UK&rsquo;s Harris Holdings. 

Unite Assistant General Secretary and negotiator Len McCluskey, while walking picket lines at Shell&rsquo;s Stanlow refinery in Essex over the weekend, said that mediated talks would resume today with the two companies. The weekend strike has crimped petrol supplies at Shell&rsquo;s 950 retail stations across the UK, and has had a knock-on effect since drivers delivering fuel for BP, Total, and Esso have refused to cross picket lines at Shell&rsquo;s depots and terminals. 

McCluskey said late last week that the &ldquo;dispute could have been resolved if Shell had advanced a fraction of the billions of pounds in profit they make every month&rdquo; to the contract haulers. He said with Shell intervention, the dispute could have been settled &ldquo;for a sum smaller than the chairman's pay increase last year.&rdquo;
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Unite Joint General Secretary Tony Woodley also said Shell could resolve the dispute if it increased payments to the contract companies. He told the British newspaper the Guardian that the Anglo-Dutch company makes profits of &pound;1.5 million a month, and it would cost &pound;1 million to settle the dispute. 
 
Unite is seeking a minimum gross salary of &pound;36,000 per year, about &pound;2,000 more than the contract drivers&rsquo; current gross pay. The drivers work an average 48-hour workweek, including an extra shift added every second week. The contract haulers have offered only a 0.5% wage increase. 
 
Ron Webb, Unite&rsquo;s National Secretary for Road Transport and the chief negotiator, said a second wave of strikes is scheduled for 20-24 June if negotiations before UK&rsquo;s Advisory, Conciliation, and Mediation Services (ACAS) beginning today are not successful. Unite has scheduled a mass meeting of drivers, including tank-truck drivers from other petrol and transport companies, for Wednesday, 18 June, in London. 
 
Shell began contracting out its delivery supplies of petrol in the UK in 1992.

Contract Tank-Truck Drivers Ready for Round 2 Petrol Strike in UK

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Negotiations today in Baku, Azerbaijan, between ICEM affiliate Oil and Gas Industry Workers&rsquo; of Azerbaijan (OGWUA), Agip Azerbaijan BV, and Keppel FELS of Singapore will attempt to resolve issues surrounding a strike by 1,000 contractors of Agip that occurred on Wednesday, 11 June.
Agip, a subsidiary of Italy-based Eni, is constructing offshore oil rigs at Caspian Shipyards Co. Ltd., owned and operated by Keppel.
The contractors, mostly Azeri citizens, seek salaries that match those paid foreign workers and corrections to their labour agreements, according to OGWUA Chairman Jahangir Aliyev. The workers also seek improvements in food allowances, and they seek to have their salaries paid in the national currency of Azerbaijan.
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OGWUA Chairman Jahangir Aliyev
The ICEM supports the demands made by the workers, and states that they made the correct decision in turning to OGWUA for help in negotiations.
In late 2005, workers constructing rigs for US-based McDermott International struck for union recognition, and OGWUA stepped in to win important gains. Since, the union which once only represented workers of Azeri state company Socar, has aptly represented 20,000 oil and gas workers in the western Caspian region, workers employed by many oil and gas service companies.

Contract Workers of Agip in the Caspian Strike for Equal Pay

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&nbsp;The European Mine, Chemical, Energy Federation (EMCEF) conducted its Fourth Congress 11-13 June in Prague, Czech Republic. The Congress was attended by over 300 delegates from 29 countries, with participants re-electing President Hubertus Schmoldt and Reinhard Reibsch as General Secretary. 

Schmoldt is the President of ICEM and EMCEF affiliate IGBCE of Germany. Reibsch has served as head of the European federation since the year 2000.
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In his keynote speech, Schmoldt stressed that the interests of European workers cannot fall victim to unbridled market forces. &ldquo;We must ensure that European trade unions move a social dimension to the center of all European policy,&rdquo; he said. 

Schmoldt also emphasized the need for close cooperation and collaboration between European trade union federations in the chemicals, energy, mining, metals, leathers, and textile sectors. EMCEF&rsquo;s General Assembly adopted such a resolution in 2006 in Istanbul, Turkey. 

The Congress heard thorough reports on the Secretariat, as well from EMCEF&rsquo;s four standing committees &ndash; Collective Bargaining, Works Councils, Industrial Relations (including environment, health and safety), and Social Dialogue. 
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Main speakers included John Monks, Secretary General for the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), and Manfred Warda, General Secretary of ICEM, who attended the EMCEF Congress with ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana.
Warda credited the many European trade unions, which play such vital roles in creating global solidarity with ICEM affiliates worldwide. &ldquo;For us in ICEM, the link with EMCEF is of the highest value and of top priority,&rdquo; said Warda. &ldquo;A united, strong and successful EMCEF is an essential base for all that ICEM does.&rdquo; 

The 2.5-million-member EMCEF was created in 1996 with the merger of separate chemicals and mining federations. The federation now has 128 affiliated unions in 35 countries.

EMCEF Congress Concludes in Prague with Re-election of Schmoldt and Reibsch

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The aftermath of the early morning, 8 June, coal mine explosion inside the Karl Marx Mine near Yenakiyevo in the Ukraine is remarkable in that only 12 miners perished. The blast was so powerful that it ripped cable couplings on an elevator shaft to metal shreds, causing sparks, thus enhancing the explosion. 
 
The elevator, with nine miners aboard, plummeted down a mine shaft. Those nine and another three miners, who were buried by debris, died. Twenty-four miners were rescued some 36 hours after the explosion. The explosion was so potent that it injured five workers on the surface. 
 
The mine, owned by the state company Ordzhonikidzevuhillia, is a small producer of anthracite coal, with production of only 250 tonnes per day. It is also a high-cost operation. Had the mine been a major producer, meaning hundreds more miners would have been at work, the death toll would have been much higher.
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The government&rsquo;s State Committee of Health and Safety at Work, as well as a Mining Oversight Committee, has put the blame on management. They said mining at this colliery, 40 kilometres east of the regional capital of Donetsk, had been banned two days earlier due to high methane levels. 
 
In fact, according to ICEM affiliate Coal Mining Workers&rsquo; Union of Ukraine (PRUPU), production had officially stopped, but a skip hoist was in use at the time of the explosion, lifting some 700 tonnes of coal to the surface. The coal had already been mined and was in storage at one of the colliery&rsquo;s levels. 
 
Regarding overall safety, the Karl Marx Mine should not have been in operation. But it should be noted that there are few employment opportunities in this area of the central Donbass region, and coal mining provides livelihoods for thousands of families. The 8 June explosion at Yenakiyevo cries out for state-of-the-art mining technology, enhanced safety methods, as well as other, sustainable forms of employment for the region&rsquo;s citizens. 
 
Early Saturday, 14 June, in the community of Gorlovka, Ukraine, just 20 kilometres from Yenakiyevo, 15 miners were hospitalized with sulfur poisoning. The accident occurred when a sulfuric acid cloud was released from a chemical operation adjacent to a coal mine. The factory is owned by JSC Concern Stirol, a make of chemicals and fertilizers. The incident happened when the chemicals producer was re-start of a sulfuric acid plant.

12 Dead, 24 Rescued in Last Week’s Coal Mine Explosion in Eastern Ukraine

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ICEM Turkish affiliate Kristal-İş and the country&rsquo;s Glass, Cement, and Soil Industry Employers&rsquo; Association came to terms on a 2008-2009 sector-wide collective agreement, covering 6,000 glass workers. The settlement occurred on 2 June, a day prior to the strike date set by the union&rsquo;s Executive Committee. 
 
The new contract gives workers a 13% pay increase in 2008, with a 2009 wage hike to equal the Turkish rate of inflation in 2008. Additionally, all social benefits will be adjusted upward, ranging from 15% to 66%.
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The new wage adjustment means the base average salaries for glass workers in Turkey rises to YTL 1,678-per-month, or &euro;890 or US$1,364. Kristal-İş also won a new wage system in which the minimum salary for new hires was dramatically improved. 
 
The new two-year labour agreement covers workers at 11 plant sites operated by glassware companies Paşabah&ccedil;e, Trakya Cam, Anadolu Cam, and Cam Elyaf. All are entities of the Siscam Group, the fast-growing glasswares multinational that has factories in Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia, and Georgia. 
 
The Kristal-İş Executive Committee decided on 9 May to take strike action and later in May, set a 3 June date for a sector-wide glass strike.

Turkish Glass Workers Reach Two-year Accord on Eve of Strike

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A 14-day tyre strike by 4,000 members of ICEM affiliate Lastik-İş in Turkey ended Friday night, 13 June, and workers at three multinational rubber companies were back on their jobs for the afternoon shift on 14 June. 
 
The strike ended when a two-year accord was reached between the union and the three employers, who jointly represent the tyre industry in talks. The companies include Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Co., Bridgestone Brisa Sabanci, and Pirelli.
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The 13 June bargaining was the first set of negotiations since the strike began on 31 May. Talks first began on a renewal labour agreement for 2008-2009 at the four tyre factories in September 2007. 
 
The two sides agreed to a 14% pay increase for the year 2008, and an increase equaling the Turkish rate of inflation for 2009. In 2007, the Turkish rate of inflation was 8.39% and is expected to rise above that this year. Lastik-İş had sought a 12% wage hike for the first six months of 2008, with increases matching the inflation rate in each six-month period through 2009. 
 
All levels of social benefits will also increase by the inflation rate over the life of the labour agreement. The ICEM considers the 2008-2009 Turkish rubber agreement a major achievement, considering wage and social benefit gains were stymied in the late 1990s and early years of this decade due to strike bans imposed by the Turkish government.
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Lastik-İş President Abdullah Karacan
&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t make any concessions, we preserved our contractual and work-rule provisions, and we posted substantial economic gains,&rdquo; stated Lastik-İş President Abdullah Karacan. &ldquo;The decisiveness of our union members at these four factories was effective and ultimately proved successful in bargaining.&rdquo; 
 
The four tyre plants, which saw workers return to work at 16h00 on 14 June, include: two of US-based Goodyear in Izmit and Adapazari, and one each operated by Bridgestone Brisa Sabanci, a joint venture between Japan-based Bridgestone and the Turkish Sabanci Group, and by Italian-based Pirelli. Both of the latter two are located in the city of Izmit.

Turkey’s 14-Day Rubber Strike Ends with 14% First year Wage Gain

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Elbranschernas Fackforbund BF, the ICEM&rsquo;s Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union affiliate in Finland, has mounted a health and safety campaign against the use of creosote-treated wooden utility poles, reports Trade Union News of Finland. The union has targeted the Swedish firm Vattenfall, which has recently expanded the use of creosote on and inside of electrical poles in Finland. 

Direct evidence leaves little doubt that contact with creosote causes rashes and irritation, and could possibly lead to harmful damage to respiratory organs, reports the newsletter. Creosote is used as a preservative on and inside of wooden utility poles. 

The Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union claims it is impossible for utility workers not to have contact with creosote-stained poles in their daily work. Union Bargaining Secretary Sauli Vantti said the only alternative is for stakeholders of all utilities to implement an immediate cessation of wood treated with the resin fibre. 

In 2001, the European Council adopted a Directive that limits the use of creosote. But the Directive did not forbid its injection into electrical poles, or application on poles. 

The union is asking utility companies to find less harmful means to preserve wooden utility poles.

Finland’s Electrical Workers’ Union Wants Utility Pole Creosote Use to End

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An estimated 80% of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) 1.8 million members participated in a national strike on 6 August, protesting rampant inflation. The day-long strike marked the culmination in a series of four work stoppages calling for relief to rising electric and food costs. COSATU also issued a stern demand for a decent living wage to counter a June inflation rate that hit 12.2%. 

In the South African capital of Pretoria last week, 30,000 trade unionists marched on a government building while the cabinet of President Thabo Mbeki was meeting inside. In Cape Town, another 40,000 staged a four-hour march.
<img height="101" alt="" src="" width="220" />
&nbsp; 

Across South Africa, some 18 pockets of mass strike activity and protests took place. Nearly all the major mining houses were forced to cease operations because miners heeded their union&rsquo;s call to stop work, and three auto assembly plants were also shut by striking workers. 

The nation&rsquo;s workers and consumers demanded a roll back of a government-imposed 27.5% tariff increase in July atop already high electricity costs from state-owned utility Eskom. They also vowed to resist another two-cent-per-kilowatt increase due in September. 

They also protested a hike to food prices totaling 17% in recent months, interest rates that just broke the 20% mark, and fuel prices that rose a full 35% from 2007 to 2008. 

The first national strike called by COSATU this year happened on 9 July. The national labour centre followed that up with strikes on 16 July, targeting the provinces of Kwazulu Natal, Western Cape, Mpumalange, Free State, and Northern Cape. On 23 July, the day-long stay-aways expanded to Gauteng, Eastern Cape, North West, and Limpopo provinces.
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&nbsp;NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni 

The 320,000-member National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), COSATU&rsquo;s largest affiliate, fully endorsed the walk-outs. NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni said fuel costs alone have made it prohibitive for many miners to travel from worksites to their homes to visit families when they are not working. 

&ldquo;We need to send a very strong message that the poor of our society are deeply affected&rdquo; by this current economic crisis, said Baleni. &ldquo;Electricity, food, and everything else is quickly becoming beyond reach.&rdquo;

South African Unions Conduct Wave of National Strikes, Protesting Energy, Food Costs

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Strategic, year-long pressure by the Pulp and Paper Workers&rsquo; Branch of Australian ICEM affiliate Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) appears to have severed a supply contract between retail grocery chain Woolworths and Indonesian-based Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). The supply arrangement was for kitchen towels and tissue products. 

The pressure, countering Woolworth&rsquo;s environmental claim on packaging of its Select private-label towel and tissue products, came to a head last week when Woolworths announced it had &ldquo;concluded its contract commitments for the supply of Select paper products.&rdquo; 
The CFMEU is now looking for Australia&rsquo;s largest retailer to tell the country&rsquo;s consumers that it will, in fact, rely only on paper producers that adhere to sustainable forest practices. 

&ldquo;If Woolworths has finally decided to do the right thing, they need to show us by a clear and unequivocal statement they will never go back to APP,&rdquo; said CFMEU&rsquo;s Pulp and Paper Secretary Alex Millar. They must now prove &ldquo;they will source their product from Australia and support Australian jobs the way they expect Australian consumers to support them.&rdquo; 
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The CFMEU campaign focused on a Woolworths packaging claim that its Select products were sourced from an &ldquo;environmentally managed company.&rdquo; In fact, Indonesia&rsquo;s Centre for International Forestry Research in 2007 found that APP relies on 60-70% of its wood fibre from clearing first-growth, protected forests in Sumatra. And much of that is by using illegal logging practices. 

The campaign then discovered that many Select products are made in APP&rsquo;s Chinese mills, where much of the wood fibre used is also derived through illegal means. 

After CFMEU appeals to Woolworths shareholders, most notably in November 2007, the retail chain pulled the Select brands from its shelves. But a few weeks later, those brands were back on the retail market, but without the environmental friendly claim. 

Millar says the CFMEU will now recommend to Woolworths paper-producing companies inside Australia which use proven, sustainable fibre sourcing in paper manufacturing.

CFMEU Forces Woolworths Hand on Sustainable Forest Products

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