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Three French unions will join together on 20 June in a strike aimed at backing the government from its proposed merger of state-operated Gaz de France with Suez, a French-Belgian water and power company. Energy sections of CGT, FO and CFE-CGC have planned work stoppages and mass demonstrations for that day. 
 
The government-brokered merger, proposed by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin in order to block a hostile takeover of Suez by Italian energy company Enel, would break a pledge contained in a 2004 French law stating that at least 70% of Gaz de France would remain in state hands. If the &euro;72 billion merger with Suez does occur, only 34% of the combined enterprise would remain under state control.
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Trade unions in France received a boost last week in their efforts to block the merger when French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said the proposal was losing support among lawmakers and government leaders. The day-long strike and demonstrations are timed to coincide with debate beginning this week in Parliament over legislation to authorise the merger.

French Unions to Stage 20 June Strike Over Planned Gaz de France, Suez Merger

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Saturday 17 November 2007&nbsp; 
10.00 &ndash; 17.00 Women&rsquo;s Conference 
 
Sunday 18 November 2007 
09.30 &ndash; 17.00 Women&rsquo;s Conference 
 
Monday 19 November 2007&nbsp; 
09.00 &ndash; 17.30 Presidium 
19:00 Dinner for ICEM Presidium Members and accompanying persons 
 
Tuesday 20 November 2007&nbsp;&nbsp; 
09:00 - 17:00 Executive Committee Meeting 
19.00 Dinner for ICEM Executive Committee Members and accompanying persons 
 
Wednesday 21 November 2007&nbsp;&nbsp; 
09:00 - 17:00 Contract and Agency Labour Conference 
17.00+ Meeting of Congress Credentials Committee 
 
Thursday 22 November 2007&nbsp;&nbsp; 
10.00 Opening of Congress 
17.00 Congress Sessions close 
17:00+ WFIW Integration 
19.30 Dinner 
 
Friday 23 November 2007&nbsp;&nbsp; 
09:00 Congress Sessions continue 
17:30 Congress Sessions close 
19.00 Dinner 
 
Saturday 24 November 2007&nbsp;&nbsp; 
09:00 Final Congress Sessions 
14:00 Congress Closure 
15:00-17:00 New ICEM Presidium meets 
<a href="/en/?id=184&amp;doc=2430&amp;la=EN">Click here for the detailed draft 4th World Congress Agenda 
</a> 
Departure of Delegations

Provisional Programme for the Fourth ICEM World Congress

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On 19 May, ICEM&rsquo;s French affiliate F&eacute;d&eacute;chimie CGT-FO elected, unanimously, Herv&eacute; Quillet as its new general secretary at an extraordinary National Committee meeting. 
 
The new general secretary replaces long-serving and popular general secretary Michel Decayeux, who is retiring, but will remain on as a member of the organisation&rsquo;s Bureau F&eacute;d&eacute;ral as well as of its Commission Ex&eacute;cutive Conf&eacute;d&eacute;rale until the union&rsquo;s next congress. He also remains in charge of European and international relations. Decayeux is a former ICEM Materials Section chairman and an Executive Committee Member of the ICEM.

Michel Decayeux Steps Down as GS of Fédéchimie CGT-FO in France

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ICEM Norwegian affiliate NOPEF and other unions achieved a 2006 wage increase of 4.5% in the offshore oil sector. The accord came on 17 May after offshore workers rejected a 2.5% offer from the Oil Industry Association (OLF). 
 
The agreement covers 6,200 workers and also lays a framework for further dialogue on work conditions including the rising demand for skilled workers in Norway&rsquo;s offshore oil sector. A total of 2.4 million barrels of oil daily is pumped from rigs off the Norwegian continental shelf.

Norway’s Offshore Energy Workers Negotiate 4.5% Raise

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In Russia over the past ten days, three miners were killed and one is still missing in two separate accidents 
in the coal-rich Kuzbass area of central Siberia. The accidents involve the same company, Prokopyevskugol coal mines, a subsidiary of the metallurgical company Novo-Lipetsk. 
 
At the Voroshilovskaya mine the town of Prokopyevsk, a roof collapsed on 22 May, causing two deaths. Fifteen miners managed to escape. On 18 May at the Ziminka mine, one miner was killed when water broke through a clay wall. One other miner is still missing, while 12 managed to escape. 
 
The accidents prompted the governor of the Kemerovo Region of Russia, Vladimir Lisin, to write to the chairman of the board of Novo-Lipetsk to increase financing of measures to ensure proper industrial safety and mineworker protections.

Separate Mishaps, Same Company in Russian Coal Fatalities

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Two strikes in the Colombian coal mining sector broke out recently, giving 3,000 miners of unaffiliated Sintramienerg&eacute;tica a loud voice to express disapproval over working conditions in this resource-rich sector of the South American country. 
A strike by 1,000 miners broke out at Swiss-owned Glencore International&rsquo;s Carbones La Jagua operations in Jagua de Ibirico, Cesar state, on 17 May, and one numbering 2,000 miners started on 22 May at US-based Drummond Coal&rsquo;s LaLoma mines in Cesar, and spread to the company&rsquo;s transport and export terminal operations in Cienaga and Santa Marta. 
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The Drummond strike centers on subcontractors. The privately-held US company refuses to extend collective bargaining rights to thousands of contract workers, mostly at the transport and terminal sites. Sintramienerg&eacute;tica is insisting for these jobs to be made permanent, with full social rights as well as the necessary health care benefits both on and off the job. 
 
Wages are also a major issue with both companies, since coal&rsquo;s high prices and the rich value of Colombian&rsquo;s high-grade resource in America and Europe has left miners short-changed. Miners&rsquo; demands also include significant investment, particularly by Glencore, on environmental projects, and for both companies to begin providing medical assistance to communities that have been adversely affected by the mining enterprises. 
 
Columbia&rsquo;s national labour center, Central Unitaria de Trabajores (CUT), has warned that company security units have made the strike scenes extremely volatile, and has called for constructive dialogue from both the national government and the two companies. CUT, saying the two strikes are lawful, said the companies refused to find solutions to the union&rsquo;s demands over the past two months, and that the demands have the overwhelming support of the miners. 
Glencore recently sold its 33% share in another rich coal mining and export operation in eastern Colombia, Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n, to Xstrata, a global mining house in which Glencore owns a 15% stake.

Colombia’s Coal Industry Hit with Two Strikes

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Baltic trade union solidarity was at its best last week when the Lithuanian Confederation of Trade Unions picketed and presented a formal letter of protest to the Estonian embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania. At the same time, on 25 May, Estonian trade union federations EAKL and TALO were demonstrating in the Estonian capital of Tallinn. 
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The joint protest is over the Estonian government&rsquo;s proposed Employees&rsquo; Representatives Act, put forward by the Social Affairs Ministry. If passed into law, the measure would exclude legitimate trade union representatives from information and consultation procedures inside worksites, as well as give employers the leverage to sack trade union delegates. 
 
EAKL Chairman Harri Taliga said the proposed legislation was shaped only with the narrow interests of employers in mind. The ICEM has written to Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip to express concern with the bill, specifically citing it with violating ILO Conventions 98 and 135, as well as a European Union directive on trade union rights.

Lithuanian Labour Protests Estonia’s Anti-Union Legislation

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A five-day glass plant strike in Bulgaria by ICEM affiliate National Federation of Chemical Workers of Podkrepa ended 19 May. Some 700 workers, the majority of them members of the union, won a 17% increase in their total financial package, including a 10% raise in their basic salary. 
 
The strike action occurred at Turkish-owned Sisecam&rsquo;s Trakya Glass Bulgaria (Shishejam), a new facility that only went into production in February 2006 in the town of Targovishte. The Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union had conducted a one-hour protest outside the factory on 8 May over local management&rsquo;s refusal to address several issues. 
The flat-glass plant is the second of three plants that Sisecam has opened recently in Targovishte. A household glass plant opened for production in August 2005, while a potassium-glass plant and mirror operation will open in the northern Bulgarian town late in 2006.

Glass Strike Ends in Bulgaria with Wage Gains

BAE, Kang-wook 
President 
Korean Chemical and Textile Workers Federation (KCTF) 
Third floor, Woosung Building 
94-14 Yeongdeungpo-dong 7-ga 
Yeongdeungpo 
Seoul 150-037 
SOUTH KOREA 
 
by fax: + 82-2-26.32.47.55 
by&nbsp;e-mail: <a href="mailto:kctfim@hanmail.net">kctfim@hanmail.net</a> 

Dear Sisters and Brothers of KCTF-KCTU in Korea, 
 
We are informed by the ICEM that your union has been, since 2004, the victim of an anti-union repression by GS Caltex, and that you now have decided to launch a boycott campaign against GS Caltex products in Korea. This letter is meant to offer our union&rsquo;s support and encouragement in your courageous fight against the unfair labor practices by GS Caltex. 
 
We understand that some 30 union leaders at GS Caltex have been dismissed in August 2004 and that eight have faced criminal charges for carrying out their legitimate union duties. It is clear that GS Caltex wanted to punish these dedicated trade unionists, as well as the KCFT-KCTU itself, for its trade union actions. This behavior by the company is abhorrent and far from what can and should be expected in developed and civilized nations. GS Caltex needs to start bargaining in good-faith. 
 
It is also deplorable that the South Korean Government has collaborated with the management of GS Caltex by assisting in the suppression of reasonable union demands through dispatching anti-riot police units and arresting union members. 
 
We salute KCFT-KCTU for undertaking this brave struggle in defense of basic trade union rights, particularly the fight for freedom of association. Please know that the members and leaders of our union stand firmly with you in your pursuit of justice and dignity. 
 
Fraternally, 
 
 
(Name) 
(Title) 
(Union)

Model Letter of Support to KCTF

<a href="http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1582&amp;L2=1&amp;L3=106">OUTSOURCING GROWS UP</a> 
 
Written in early 2005 by two partners of the McKinsey&rsquo;s London office, this article shows that the ICEM views on contract and agency labour are beginning to be accepted by influential Management Consultants. 
 
According to the article, the main objective of the first companies using outsourcing, was purely to reduce costs. That has changed somewhat. It is now generally accepted that companies also use contract and agency labour to improve their operational performance. 
 
The authors&rsquo; research shows that, in spite of this change,&nbsp;few companies changed the way they make their deals. They also say that that &ldquo;up to 50% of outsourcing arrangements fail to deliver the expected value&rdquo;. 
 
Examples are given of companies experiencing severe problems during the operation of the contract, due to the fact that they did not have a clear strategy at the beginning of the process. Towards the end, the article argues to work with all the internal stakeholders that will be affected by the move, including union representatives. 
The article can be found here: 
<a href="http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1582&amp;L2=1&amp;L3=106">http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/ 
article_page.aspx?ar=1582&amp;L2=1&amp;L3=106</a>

Useful Background Articles on Contract and Agency Labour

Archive