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<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="120" height="59" alt=""/>
A five-week strike at a BHP-owned manganese mine and smelter by members of the Kimberley branch of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa ended 5 October with a satisfactory one-year contract. 
 
The resolve came after global pressure was applied by ICEM mining affiliates, as well as attention given BHP’s bargaining indifference at the recent statutory meeting of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and at ICEM’s Sub-Sahara Africa Region Meeting in Lagos, Nigeria, on 15 September. 
 
“We were very fortunate to have international pressure and a COSATU focus on this strike,” said NUM Kimberley Regional Coordinator Lucas Phiri. “The arrogance of this company from the mine level to the Johannesburg office was something I have not seen in 12 years inside the NUM.”
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthAfricaCOSATU2.jpg" width="110" height="120" alt=""/>
The 920 miners and smelting-plant workers at BHP’s Hozatel Manganese operation in the Northern Cape downed tools on 28 August. Their dispute was not just about wages – South African managers, in fact, were cancelling meetings both at the local level and with NUM national officers – but about parity between black and white miners, and for improved conditions for women in this remote mining region of the Northern Cape. 
 
With 90% of the 920 workers black, the NUM discovered that white workers at Hozatel got better medical assistance benefits, and received a transportation allowance of 2,000 rands per month, while blacks received 440 rands. Many miners live in hostels, but others travel from the village of Kuruman to the Hozatel operation. 
 
Due to outside pressure on BHP, local management finally got serious on addressing issues that caused the strike and called for talks on 5 October. Both sides agreed to an 8% pay increase effective 1 September, with a one-off 4,000 rand payment per worker for the period July-September 2009. A prior agreement expired 1 July, and this week’s negotiated settlement will go until 1 September 2010.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0906.NUM.SA.logo.jpg" width="180" height="173" alt=""/>
Another key issue resolved related to NUM’s ability to recruit into membership workers in higher-level classifications. BHP originally demanded a 66% vote, but last Monday’s resolve moved that to the standard 50% plus one, or a simple majority. 
 
Related to the parity issues, the two sides agreed to establish a separate bilateral forum to address and even out the disproportionate medical and transportation benefits between white and black workers. A deadline of 30 December 2009 has been put on resolving that. 
 
The same deadline holds for dealing with the employment equity between women and men, as well as the company’s draconian policy of not granting maternity leave to women who have less than three years of employment service. 
 
The agreement “was not all that we had hoped for,” stated Phiri, “but we are forever thankful for the outside pressure that moved a management that had before been so stubborn to address workers concerns.” 
 
BHP operates Hozatel under its Middelplaats Manganese subsidiary, an asset it acquired with its partial buy-up of Semancor in the 1980s. The mine and ferrochrome smelting facility had originally been part of AngloAmerican.

Union Pressure Helps End BHP Manganese Strike in South Africa for NUM

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ICEM Indonesian affiliate, Federasi Serikat Pekerja Pulp Dan Kertas (FSP2KI), conducted training on collective bargaining and labour law from 4-5 July in Karawang with 30 participants. The union represents workers across the country’s pulp and paper sector. 
 
The training was attended by workplace leaders of Asia Pulp & Paper’s PT Indo Deli, PT Graha Cemerlang, Asia Pacific Resources International’s (APRIL) Riau Andalan paper and power operations, and DSS Karawang. 

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The workshops had the expertise of Akhirnya Asfinawati, the leader of the legal aid service LBH Jakarta; Khamid Istakhori from the Congress States Labour Congress of Indonesia (KSBI); and Odie Hudaya from the Labour Working Group, an Indonesian workers’ training institute. FSP2KI shop-floor leaders were instructed on bargaining techniques and legal procedures as outlined under Peneltian Hukum Indonesia, the country’s legal information guide. 
 
The union intends to provide follow-up training to the 30 participants in order to give maximum protections to trade union members. 
 
Etin Rodiana serves as General Secretary of FSP2KI and Irzan Zulpakar is the President.

Indonesian Pulp, Paper Union, FSP2KI, Conducts Training for Mill-Level Leaders

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As part of the cooperation and alliance between ICEM and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) in the oil and gas industry, the two Global Union Federations (GUFs) cooperated in an ILO tripartite sector meeting called “Promoting Social Dialogue and Good Industrial Relations from Oil and Gas Exploration and Production to Oil and Gas Distribution.” 
 
Lars Myhre, from Norway’s Industri-Energi (IE) Union and the ICEM Energy Industries Chairman, was elected chairperson of the Workers’ Group, while spokesperson Mick Dolman from the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) was elected as Workers’ Group vice chairman. Dolman chaired one of the plenary sessions of the meeting. 
 
ICEM Energy Officer Jim Catterson was elected secretary of the Workers’Group. Ingo Marowski of the ITF closely followed all the discussions and worker delegates from both GUFs participated in both the plenary sessions and the working party, which produced tripartite conclusions following extensive negotiations. 

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The Workers’ Group ensured that as well as a strong focus on trade union rights and the ILO Core Conventions, there was detailed discussion of health and safety issues, especially the adverse long-term health effects of diving on workers. Helicopter safety to and from offshore rigs, given a recent spate of accidents in the Brazil, Canada, and UK, also was a prominent agenda item. 
 
A special solidarity message was sent by the Workers’ Group to the Offshore Divers’ Union in Norway, an organisation that includes many IE-organised divers. The organisation is presently engaged in compensation litigation. Other issues debated at length included the situation of contract and sub-contract workers, the respective responsibilities of operators and contract companies, and the specific problems of contract workers in the Mexican oil industry. The latter was a major issue for ITF, which had nominated both a worker delegate and an advisor from their Mexican affiliates. 
 
The agreed conclusions and report of the meeting’s deliberations, as well as the detailed background report provided at the meeting are available from the ICEM Secretariat. However, it should be noted that the conclusions and report need to be approved at the next meeting of the ILO Governing Body before becoming official documents. 
 
ICEM has begun discussions with the ILO regarding follow-up work from the meeting.

ILO’s Oil and Gas Meeting Promotes Social Dialogue

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The 2009 annual meeting of ICEM’s International Nuclear Workers’ Union Network, (INWUN) took place in Geneva 25-26. INWUN covers all nuclear workers and not just those involved in electric power generation, but also unionised workers producing medical or industrial isotopes, and workers involved in the reprocessing and enrichment of uranium and uranium mining. 
 
The ICEM’s Joe Drexler gave a presentation on the increased investment taking place in uranium mining, as well as a programme on radiological hazards in uranium that began in May in South Africa. 
 
A number of unions attended the network meeting for the first time, showing an increased interest in nuclear power from many countries as a possible contributor to reduced carbon emissions and a “nuclear renaissance” that is clearly linked to climate change discussions. 

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Indeed, interest was shown by a number of unions in the work ICEM has done following the appointment of Brian Kohler late last year as Safety, Health, Sustainability Officer, and in preparations for the UN’s COP 15 Climate Change Conference, scheduled for December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. 
 
A presentation on the sustainability work of ICEM was made by Lars Myhre, chair of the ICEM Energy Industries Section who has also chaired the ICEM sustainable development discussions. 
 
A detailed presentation by Roland Schneider of TUAC on their work at the OECD in Paris and the work of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the OECD led to discussions on how ICEM and INWUN can link to the work of these agencies. 
 
The ICEM’s Energy Officer, Jim Catterson, is in contact with TUAC to take this further. ICEM made a presentation on the present state of the Energy Industries and the future role foreseen for nuclear power. That was followed by an industry viewpoint from an official of the World Nuclear Association. 
 
Next year’s INWUN meeting will be held in connection with the ICEM World Energy Conference, planned for the second half of 2010. This will maximise attendance and increase the input of unions from ICEM’s energy sector attending the world conference. 
 
Unions present made detailed presentations of their own national situations, and these presentations will shortly be loaded to the Energy Industry section of the ICEM website. INWUN is presided over by David Shier of the Canadian Power Workers’ Union (PWU).

Nuclear Workers’ Network Holds Annual Meeting in Geneva

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An oil workers’ trade union, affiliated to Peruvian FENUPETROL, showed its indignation last month at violations of health and safety conditions for workers at ECOPETROL-Knoc, a Colombian/Korean joint venture operating in Peru. The company is guilty of failing to enforce safety standards at its Peruvian subsidiaries called Petro-Tech Peruana SA. 
 
The June National Assembly of FENUPETROL analysed the poor record of safety in the industry in Peru. Petro-Tech Peruana owns numerous petroleum companies, including Diving Del Peru Sac. The union there submitted numerous complaints over failed safety and health protections for members by Jaime Velasco, director of Human Relations, by Luis Navarro Vilela, director of Industrial Relations, and by plant manager Finlay Macdonald. 
 
Twenty-two workers at the company were suspended on 18 April 2009 for refusing to work in unsafe conditions. 

<img height="139" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMoil3.JPG.JPG" width="140"/>
The company failed to even respond to communiqués by the union to address safety concerns, which include placing inexperienced supervisors in charge of dangerous operations. That has led to two serious accidents in the days preceding the union’s National Assembly. In one, a worker lost his air supply while cleaning a suction filter under water at an offshore oil rig. 
 
The dangerous, illegal, and lax attitude of ECOPETROL towards workers’ safety received international condemnation, with the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) speaking out last month. In a letter to ECOPETROL Vice President Lic Navarrete, following an accident which hospitalized a worker with first and second degree burns, LO called for an immediate change in the safety culture. 
 
Other fatal examples by affiliates of ECOPETROL have seen divers die after being trapped under water without supervisors even noticing. 

<img height="93" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Peru.png" width="200"/>
Petro-tech Peruana has also come under heavy criticism for its continued refusal to adopt a social development programme, a plan that would install gas connections to homes. Such a plan would create jobs. The company has made pledges on social responsibility, but has repeatedly refused to enter into dialogue with inhabitants in Talara Province. 
 
The ICEM demands swift improvement to the health and safety policies and practices of ECOPETROL and its subsidiaries. The ICEM will work together with new Colombian oil workers’ affiliate, USO, to improve health and safety within the company.

ECOPETRO-Knoc in Peru Criticised for Lax Health, Safety Conditions

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The ten-year existence of the ICEM’s BASF Workers' Network in South America was celebrated on 30 June 2009 in São Paulo, Brazil. The event was attended by more than 100 guests, partners from the trade union movement, employers, workers, and managers from throughout the chemicals industry in Brazil. 
 
As the experiences of the first ten years of the network's operations were recalled from both trade union and company point of view. The network coordinator mentioned the main struggles that occurred and went into the network's future challenges. Those include the issues of subcontracting, health and safety, and unfair dismissals. 

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The ten-year anniversary celebration of ICEM’s most successful regional workers’ network came between two, full working days of the Network, on 29 June and July 1. 
 
The presentation by Wagner Brunini, BASF Human Resources Director for South America, gave evidence to the company’s commitment to the network and its appreciation to all forms of workers' representation. Brunini defined one challenge: informing and training all management staff to create a new management culture. 

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Michael Vassiliadis 
Thematic panels were also held during the event on social dialogue, presented by IGBCE Board Member Michael Vassiliadis, and on sustainable enterprises, presented by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. 
 
Vassiliadis emphasised that the workers' experience at BASF in South America ought to serve as a social dialogue example for other companies. According to Vassiliadis, society's interest in this labour relations practice has to be awakened. 
 
"We need trade unions and trade unionists who cultivate a sensible relationship with companies,” he added. “It is necessary to define our requirements and to know where we need to go with dialogue." 
 
Warda pointed to important fundamentals for sustainable enterprises: "Listen to what the other side is saying, comprehend its needs, and exercise mutual respect." 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0907.basf.group.jpg" width="344" height="160"/>
At the end of the ceremony, an excellent publication was distributed, entitled, "Rede de Trabalhadores na BASF América do Sul: 10 anos de Solidariedade Sindical e Diálogo Social," a homage to those who conceived of and founded the network. 
 
ICEM Latin America/Caribbean Vice President Sergio Novais coordinated the event, which was also attended by the IGBCE International Officer Michael Wolters, and the President of BASF South America, Dr Rolf-Dieter Acker.

BASF South American Network Celebrates Ten Fruitful Years

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Workers at the Bridgestone aerospace tyre plant in Frameries, Belgium, will hit the five-week mark on strike this Thursday, 16 July. The strike was brought on by the Japanese-based company’s refusal to negotiate. A company decision on whether or not to close down a 140-worker re-treading factory in Frameries has not been communicated to workers and their majority representative, Belgian affiliate Centrale Générale-FGTB, and the union exhausted all legal means before striking on 11 June. 
 
That strike came when Bridgestone unilaterally decided to dismiss all 8 workers in one area of the factory without proper social talks. Many of those workers had been on the job for over 20 years. One of the dismissed workers is a senior trade union officer and secretary of the Works Council, who has been working at the plant since 1980. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0906.bridgestone.strike.jpg" width="250" height="171"/>
Bridgestone has disrupting social harmony in Frameries, despite a formal commitment to protect jobs in the current collective bargaining agreement. Centrale Générale-FGTB insisted that the company exam all options to safeguard employment, including part-time redundancy, early retirement, in-house transfers, time credit, or other such social options. The union also stresses that 14 workers are employed at Frameries on short-term contracts. 
 
Local management at Bridgestone-Frameries has continued its anti-labour practices throughout the strike. Instead of seeking reasonable solutions through dialogue, managers will not even answer telephone calls to address issues. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0905.rubber.conf.jpg" width="276" height="183"/>
Centrale Générale-FGTB condemns such practices, calling them immoral and reprehensible and also condemns the company for criminalizing its own workers who are only defending their rights. 
 
The ICEM also condemns such social behaviour. “At the heart of Europe, in Belgium, a multinational company is deciding on issues of employment outside the lawful prerequisites of the social model,” said General Secretary Manfred Warda. He added that ICEM’s Bridgestone Global Union Network addressed this strike recently in its deliberations and put the issue forward to Japanese senior management. 
 
Bridgestone on the corporate level has not responded. The ICEM is asking global affiliates to send a solidarity message in your own words and your own language to Bridgestone-Frameries workers by clicking <a href="mailto:alain.denooze@accg.be">here</a>.

Bridgestone Tyre Re-treading Strike Continues in Belgium

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ICEM affiliate the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), this month, has stepped up its campaign for improved safety and health conditions for its members, working at BHP Billiton’s operations in Western Australia. The concerns follow two rockslides at the Leinster mine in a month. 
 
Workers refused to work in the unsafe conditions until the mine had been officially declared safe. West Australia Mines and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore had “serious safety concerns” for the entire site; the Minister raised the possibility that the Perseverance mine could be closed on safety grounds. “I have asked the state mining engineer to give me his professional advice whether there is reason to stop the Perseverance mine from continuing operations.” 
 
The moral of workers at the site was reported to be low. “The crew are not in a good state of mind and are traumatised,” stated one mineworker. 

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The first rock fall, on 10 June, triggered by a small tremor, brought down 500 tonnes of rock. Twenty-five tonnes of the rock fell close to a worker, Jason Rose, who was trapped more than a kilometre below ground for 16 hours 
 
The July rock fall was triggered by a seismic tremor, up to ten times more severe than that of the previous month. A driller was trapped underground for more than two hours, and another was injured 
 
AMWU secretary Steve McCartney said that these incidents added to a long string of safety problems at BHP mines. He added that repeated calls by the union to local government, to improve mine safety in Western Australia, had been ignored. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/04miningsafety.jpg" width="180" height="132"/>
Five BHP employees have been killed in the last 10 months on the company’s iron ore sites in the Pilbara region, in the north of Western Australia. There are disproportionally more accidents at BHP Billiton mines, in the state, than at mines run by other companies. 
 
Further safety concerns over BHP workers at the Leinster nickel mine have been worrying the AMWU and ICEM. It has emerged that when workers return home for their break, the majority drive long distances after 18 hours without sleep. This is equivalent to taking the road with a blood alcohol level over the limit. The company acknowledge the danger but have refused to change the shift times, or flight times home back to Perth. 
 
“It seems that the workers at Leinster are not only subjected to safety problems at work but this latest information shows they are also at risk on their way home,” AMWU Secretary McCartney said.

Rockslides at Australia’s BHP Billiton, Concerns over Mine Safety

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The ICEM has received information from the Federation of Workers Councils Unions in Iraq (FWCUI) that one of their leading women activists is under attack. The management of the General Company for Leather Industries (GCLI) has punished Sawsan Mahmoud, by transferring her to another company. The decision follows her leadership and participation in a strike at the beginning of April 2009, after protesting against the company's failure to make all outstanding payments due to workers in April. 
 
The company's management, in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Minerals, has transferred the trade union activist to Elez Company, a subsidiary of the Ministry. Sawsan has appealed to the Minister for the cancellation of the transfer. As a result the Ministry required the company’s reasons for the transfer, which were reported by the company as being her participation and incitement of workers to go on strike at the beginning of last April, “strike instigators are not keen on the stability of the country". The company reiterated its reply to the Ministry that the transfer was due to the recent events, referring to its workers' last strike. Subsequently the management of the company also proceeds now to punish another six workers for the same reasons. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0611Falah.jpg" width="120" height="143"/>
FWCUI President Falah Alwan
The FWCUI has taken up her case and that of the other victimised workers, mounting a media campaign and a legal case against the company and the Ministry. They have called on the international trade union movement to publicise the case and protest the action of the Ministry and the company. ICEM has done so and is in communication with ITGLWF about further support action. 
 
In a letter to Fawzi Franso Hariri, the Iraqi Minister of Industry and Minerals, ITGLWF General Secretary Neil Kearney expressed his concern over the treatment of Sawsan Mahmoud. Kearney stated that the company’s behaviour “represents a blatant breach of the right of freedom of association which protects the right of workers to strike as a means of defending their interests. This fundamental right is enshrined in the Iraqi Constitution as well as in Conventions 87 and 98 of the International Labour Organisation, which apply to Iraq by virtue of its membership of the ILO”.

Iraqi Labour Federation Protests Attack from Industry and Government Ministry

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The members of ICEM affiliate, the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers' Union (CEPPWAWU) have engaged in a protected strike in companies around the country. The strike began on 20 July. The Union’s 40,000 striking workers are demanding wage increases of between 13-15%, while employers are willing to pay between 8-10%. The negotiations have taken over two months and a dispute was officially declared last month, Skhumbuzo Phakathi, CEPPWAWU’s International Coordinator, informed the ICEM. 
 
A countrywide march is planned for today. Thabane Mdlalose, the deputy general secretary of CEPPWAWU says the pulp and paper section met with employers at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration last Monday, without agreement. “All our members are still picketing,” he added. The labour union also wants six months paid maternity leave and temporary employees to be made permanent staff members. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM.Solidarity.JPG" width="140" height="136"/>
The union’s Bargaining Council for the Wood and Paper Sector (NBCWPS), oversees the strike in the country’s Pulp and Paper industry, focused at SAPPI and Mondi. The wage demand is 13% and the offer from the employer is 7.5%. 
 
CEPPWAWU’s National Bargaining Council for Chemical Industries (NBCCI) has the following sectors currently on strike; Pharmaceutical, where the demand of 13.6% is countered with an offer of 7%, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), where the demand is 10% and offer is 8%, Industrial Chemicals, with a demand of 11% versus an offer of 8%. 
 
CEPPWAWU’s compromise position is a rise of 10% across all sectors, for settlement. Employers have offered 8 percent, which was the rate of inflation in May. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthAfricaCOSATU2.jpg" width="102" height="111"/>
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has come out in support of the CEPPWAWU mass action, warning that if employers do not better their wage offer, the federation's 2 million members will come out in support of its affiliate. 
 
In the petroleum sector, employers have settled for an acceptable offer covering a two year period, with 40% for maternity leave. 
 
Some of the major companies currently facing strikes are; Adcock Ingram, Air Liquide, Aspen Pharmacare, Barloworld Decorative, Umicore Autocat. Others are Afrox, Johnson and Johnson, Plascon paints, Dulux Paints, Unilever, Colgate/Palmolive, Lake International, Mondi, Sappi, and others across the different sectors. 
 
The ICEM will report developments as strikes continue.

South African Wage Strikes Continue

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