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Dear Colleagues, 
 
Svenska Pappers, the Swedish Paperworkers Union, and the Forest Industry Employers’ Association (SFIF) reached excellent union-friendly terms on a collective agreement last night, 26 April, just minutes before a second wave of strike action at six further Swedish pulp and paper mills was to begin. (See ICEM report of a week ago <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3709-Swedish-Paper-Strike-Continues" type="internal">here</a>.) 
 
The union and its negotiating committee, led by President Jan-Henrik Sandberg, deserves a solid congratulatory note from all for holding firm against a business-backed employers’ group that was attempting to use the financial crisis to short-change workers. Indeed, the terms of this settlement reflect the very best industrial package achieved in and beyond Sweden of late, and Pappers truly deserves your congratulations. Please send a note in your own words, and your own language to Mikke Sterbeck at <a href="mailto:mikke.sterbeck.fk@pappers.se">mikke.sterbeck.fk@pappers.se</a>. 
 
Pappers is very pleased with the settlement, as well they should be. Following an 11-day strike at six mills, and on the verge of striking another six mills, the employers agreed to terms giving 18,000 paperworkers a 3.3% wage increase over 22 months. The first year’s increase will be given 1 May, instead of the 1 June date that employers sought, and the second increase comes on 1 April 2011, again ahead of when the employers wanted to give it. Actually, in calculating the total pay package, it comes out to 3.4%, considering other items, including a 0.4% additional increase for the lowest paid workers in the sector. 
 
Pappers won excellent language regarding workers (and on behalf of these workers) who are hired through labour agencies, and the union won company-paid compensation for retirees in an aspect of the pension scheme that was at issue. In addition, Pappers won an additional month of company-paid maternity/paternity leave. The union is holding a teleconference with branch unions on Tuesday morning, 27 April, to explain this excellent package, a package that came about mainly due to the fact that 99.9% of its members were willing and did take industrial action. For this, the union deserves a congratulatory note from everyone in the global pulp and paper sector. Again, send to <a href="mailto:mikke.sterbeck.fk@pappers.se">mikke.sterbeck.fk@pappers.se</a>.

Settlement in Sweden; Union Deserves Congratulations

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The page was visibly turned in Turkey on 1 May as 150,000 workers marched from three directions into Taksim Square in Istanbul, marking the first time in 33 years that the historic square was officially open for Workers’ Day. May Day was officially designated as a workers’ holiday by Turkey’s government in 2009, and with it came reopening of the symbol that marks Turkish worker rights – Taksim Square. 
 
It was on “Bloody May 1” of 1977 that 37 workers were killed celebrating May Day in Taksim and a few years later, the military banned demonstrations inside Taksim. Only two years ago, in 2008, small groups of trade union leaders attempted to assemble there. They were met by tear gas and police force. Over 500 were arrested. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.turkey.mayday.2.jpg" width="240" height="154"/>
Photo: Mac Urata/ITF
This year was different. On Saturday, a festive mood prevailed, with many speakers remembering the fallen of 33 years ago. 
Mustafa Kumlu, President of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (TÜRK-İŞ), President of the Turkish Electricity, Water, and Gas Workers’ Union (Tes-İş), and an ICEM Executive Committee member, spoke: “We remember the friends we lost from the depths of our hearts. We rejoice in the fact that Taksim Square has been opened, and we thank our friends who struggled for this cause.” 
 
A day before the celebration, the global unions came together in Istanbul to discuss the current state of trade union rights inside Turkey and to share experiences. According to ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal Özkan, the meeting is certain to increase coordination for Turkish trade unions by global union federations. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.turkey.mayday.3.jpg" width="240" height="159"/>
Photo: Mac Urata/ITF 
“The global unions explained their strategies for boosting solidarity, while their Turkish trade union affiliates put forward their successful campaigns through the support of the international organizations,” he said. “The end result will be more joint activities, more joint campaigns, with the struggle for full workers’ rights in Turkey defined as a priority by the global union movement. 
 
Participating in the day-long meeting, besides the ICEM, were the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). Education International (EI), International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF), International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), the International Union of Food and Allied Workers’ Association (IUF), Public Services International (PSI), and Union Network International (UNI).

Istanbul’s Taksim Square Reopens on May Day; Global Union Conference Held

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Efforts to end the stalemate in the Canadian nickel strike between the United Steelworkers (USW) and Vale through independent mediation failed yesterday, with the USW giving a practical solution to the 239-day strike: a return to work offer and unresolved issues between the two parties submitted to binding arbitration. 
 
The Brazilian mining company rejected the union’s attempt to resolve the dispute, which is marked this Saturday, 13 March, by 3,400 union families being on picket lines for eight months. 
 
Now, global trade unions will ramp up strategic plans on behalf of the USW, first by riding into Sudbury, Canada, in two weeks time to reinforce support to striking nickel miners of the USW. A two-day “Bridging the Gap” manifestation, 22-23 March, will bring trade union leaders from the Brazilian mining company’s world-wide operations to northern Ontario province. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USAUSW.jpg" width="231" height="127"/>
The unionists, to include ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, will join the strikers of USW Local 6500 and their families in a march down Sudbury’s main street on 22 March, with a global strategy forum scheduled the next day. That forum will include plans for “Global Days of Action” against Vale, due to occur 5-11 April. 
 
Delegates from Vale and other worksites affiliated with the world’s second largest mining house could come from as far away as Brazil, Mozambique, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Norway, and South Africa to attend the event. The early April days of action are meant to give a visible display of disgust inside Vale operations, as well as in front of Vale offices, over the company’s insistence that the USW give it unprecedented contract concession in negotiations with Local 6500 of Sudbury, Ontario, and Local 6200 of Port Colborne, Ontario, two unions that share a common labour agreement. 
 
Vale’s bargaining intransigence again stood out, after a flicker of hope late last month when the company agreed to sit down with an independent mediator for exploratory talks to end the strike. Those talks began at month’s end, but failed on 7 March when mediator Kevin Burkett declared, “I am disappointed to report that agreement is not possible at this time. I have therefore broken off discussions.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0909sudbury.jpg" width="260" height="195"/>
The mediation did produce an unprecedented offer by the USW to return to work in Sudbury and Port Colborne, with a three-member binding arbitration panel to hear the unresolved issues. The USW proposed that Burkett chair the arbitration panel, with the union and Vale each selecting the other two panel members. Vale adamantly rejected the proposal. 
 
In Labrador/Newfoundland Province, meanwhile, a provincial conciliator will again attempt to reconcile differences between USW Local 9508 and Vale in a return to bargaining on 15-16 March. The union and its 250 members in Goose Bay and Voiseys Bay, Labrador, began a strike against Vale’s copper and nickel operations in Canada’s maritime province on 1 August 2009. Local 9508 and Vale did attempt to resolve differences through provincial mediation in late January, but those efforts broke off on 24 January in St. Johns, Newfoundland. 
 
The breakdown of talks between USW Locals 6500 and 6200 and Vale in Toronto yesterday come just a few weeks before a scheduled 30 March hearing before the Ontario Labour Relations Board on a charge brought by the USW that the company is guilty of bad-faith bargaining. Vale had insisted it would not resume bargaining until USW Locals 6500 and 6200 made a willingness to accede to the concessionary demands of the company. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/People/0703WayneFraser.jpg" width="150" height="151"/>
Wayne Fraser, USW District 6 Director
Those concessions – common before Local 9508 as well – include retirement decreases, creation of a two-tiered pension scheme, with a defined contribution plan for new hires, steep downgrades to a production bonus, and unilateral company discretion concerning outsourcing. USW has insisted throughout that it wants a return to bargaining under no pre-conditions. 
 
The charge before the Ontario Labour Relations Board claims Vale has prolonged the strike by its refusal to bargain, and USW is asking the agency to order the company to pay lost wages and benefits to workers, as well as reimburse the union for strike benefits. 
 
This strike of 239 days likely now will surpass the longest mining strike in Canadian history. That occurred from September 1978 to June 1979 – 267 days – between the USW and Vale’s predecessor in Sudbury, Inco Mining. The one distinction between this strike and several skirmishes between the USW and Inco, however, is that Canadian-based Inco never attempted to operate the mines, smelting, and other operations with replacement workers, as Vale is doing now.

Global Support Again Comes to Canada’s Vale Strike; USW Gives Solution to End It

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Swiss specialty chemical company Clariant has announced a further 400 job cuts at the Muttenz site, near Basel, as the company seeks to move production and increase profits. Clariant CEO, Hariolf Kottmann, oversaw the cutting of 137 jobs last year. Clariant turnover is around $8 billion and the company is a world leader in the supply of chemicals and colors for the textile, leather, paper, packaging, plastics, and printing. The proposed further job cuts will be made between now and 2012, as the company seeks to relocate production to Asia, where production costs are lower. 
 
The mass job cuts would be in breach of the collective agreement and of Swiss labour law. Workers are legally entitled to a period of consultation where alternative employment opportunities can be examined, before any jobs can be cut. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1003.clariant.demo.png" width="201" height="151"/>
ICEM Swiss affiliate UNIA, together with the Clariant Workers Council, is pressing the company to first preserve these jobs, or at least provide acceptable redundancy packages. Demands include replacement jobs for every worker affected by the cuts, practical training and education programs, and no further cuts at the Schweizerhalle pharmaceuticals site. 
 
UNIA and the Clariant workers are organising a demonstration at Clariant headquarters on Thursday 11 March, starting at 5.15am. From there the demonstration will move to Liestal, meeting at the train station at 9am, before marching to the local government building ‘Landratsgebäude’ to call on district councilors to step in to preserve local jobs. 
 
The protesting Clariant workers have a Facebook page with more information.

Swiss Chemical Workers Protest Job Cuts

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we introduce the revised ICEM HIV/AIDS website and report on the G8 “Days of Action,” and how the Zimbabwe energy sector deals with HIV/AIDS.
The ICEM Calls on its Affiliates to Contribute to this e-bulletin 
 
ICEM affiliates are engaged in a wide range of HIV/AIDS activities. To spread the information on new agreements, awareness, and prevention campaigns, and educational activities, affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a>. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
ICEM HIV/AIDS Website Revamped 
 
The ICEM HIV/AIDS website has seen a major overhaul in the past few weeks. A key article on how the ICEM responds to HIV and AIDS reports on the achievements of ICEM’s HIV/AIDS work. It also gives a brief description of all projects in cooperation with Solidarity Support Organisations and ICEM affiliates. 
 
As in the past, a link is provided to important HIV/AIDS websites, such as ILO/AIDS, UNAIDS, the Global Fund and others with updated information on these organisations. 
 
A new and especially practical feature on the link to useful materials are examples of an HIV/AIDS Policy for unions and an HIV/AIDS Workplace Policy. These were initially developed in the LO/FTF-sponsored HIV/AIDS project for the mining sector in Ethiopia. Generic versions enable affiliates to draft their own policy and negotiate a comprehensive workplace policy with companies. 
 
Also useful for training activities are four new PowerPoint presentations on Basic Facts about HIV/AIDS, on HIV/AIDS and the Workplace, on Elements of an HIV/AIDS Workplace Policy, and on Negotiating on HIV/AIDS. 
 
A key feature of the website is the inclusion of this e-bulletin. Directly available are also the two major ICEM publications: The HIV/AIDS Training Manual for Collective Bargaining and the Guide on HIV/AIDS Resources and Funding. 
 
Discover the revised ICEM HIV/AIDS website by going to <a href="http://www.icem.org" type="internal">www.icem.org</a> and click on HIV/AIDS! Please give us your feedback. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
African, Canadian Unions Plan ‘Days of Action’ on AIDS for G8 
 
Trade unions throughout Africa and in Canada will join forces in a week of action, 21 – 27 March, to lobby the G8 and G20 for the provision of universal access to HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment, and care. The action is timed to precede a meeting of the foreign ministers of the G8 and G20 countries in Ottawa, 29 – 30 March. 
 
National trade union centres in Africa will deliver messages to the Canadian embassies in their country calling on the Canadian Prime Minister to play a leading role in convincing his fellow leaders to take quick and decisive action on HIV and AIDS. As the host country, Canada will preside over the G8 Summit and will co-host with South Korea the G20 Summit in June. 
 
It may be recalled that 2010 is the target year for the G8 commitment to achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care made in 2005, and for achieving the second target of Millennium Development Goal 6, universal access to treatment. 
 
(Source: Press Release of the Canadian Labour Congress, 23 February) 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
The 2010 Universal Access Promise 
 
Trade union HIV/AIDS activists need not be reminded that 2010 marks the year when the goal of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care is to be achieved. But just how much progress has been made, and more importantly, how much remains to be done may not be as well known. 
 
To learn more about the extent of the unfinished business visit the UNAIDS website at <a href="http://www.unaids.org">www.unaids.org</a> where you can find an interactive map which shows the extent of the work that remains to be done. 
 
A key statistic is central to the union response: 7,400 people become infected with HIV every day and the majority of these people are of working age. Unfortunately, workplace-based prevention strategies often have a low priority in national strategies where prevention itself is often a low priority compared to treatment. When for every three people put on antiretroviral treatment, there are five new infections, the case for prevention is clear. This calls for strong union advocacy efforts this year calling on world leaders to deliver on their commitment for universal access so that workers and their families do not continue to bear the brunt of HIV infections. 
 
(Source: Contribution from Robert E. Lovelace, GUAP HIV/AIDS Consultant, Washington) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
South Africa: Younger Teachers more open about HIV 
 
Younger teachers in South Africa are taking the lead in talking to students about HIV but are not practicing what they preach, according to a study by the University of KwaZulu-Natal. 
 
Younger educators, who feel that they are more informed about HIV and less inclined to stigmatise infected people, are also more likely than their older colleagues to talk to students about HIV-related issues because they are closer in age and because they are more likely to know someone living with HIV. 
 
The study, which surveyed 34 schools in the Free State province, also found that younger teachers were not immune from taking chances with their own health and that of their partners. Almost 50% of the teachers did not know their HIV status and most said they did not use condoms. 
 
(Source: IRIN PlusNews, global HIV/AIDS news and analysis, 9 February at <a href="http://www.plusnews.org">www.plusnews.org</a>) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Zimbabwe: HIV/AIDS Policy for the Energy and Textile Sectors 
 
Employers’ and workers' representatives in the energy and textile sectors have come up with new policies in an attempt to foster debate around HIV/AIDS at the workplace. The unions want to make the debate part of the "boardroom agenda" at executive meetings. The project is supported by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). 
 
To reduce employment-related stigma and discrimination against persons living with HIV and AIDS, employers and unions are embarking on a campaign to raise awareness and getting commitment at the highest corporate level, in a programme dubbed, "Making HIV and AIDS a Boardroom Agenda." Successful and comprehensive HIV and AIDS intervention strategies will only happen provided there is board buy in and support. 
 
Zimbabwe Energy Workers' Union (ZEWU) President, Angeline Chitambo, said there was need for the government and employers to take issues of HIV/AIDS more seriously. "HIV is now a topical workplace issue which cannot be ignored. We want the government and employers implement what the policy says," said Chitambo, who is also an ICEM Vice President. 
 
(Source: Zimbabwe Standard, Harare, 27 February) 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Labour Advocacy Toolkit now Available 
 
The Labour Advocacy Toolkit is now available on the website of the World AIDS Campaign (WAC) <a href="http://www.worldaidscampaign.org">www.worldaidscampaign.org</a> under Constituencies / Labour. 
 
The ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin reported on the development of the Toolkit in its issue No. 50 of November 2009. The toolkit, with the subtitle, “Organising to Achieve Universal Access to HIV Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support,” can help trade union AIDS activists assess whether key indicators for the national AIDS response meet the needs of the working people, determine where unionists are positioned in national discussions about AIDS, and suggest how they can build campaigns to make sure that universal access is achieved. 
 
Trade unions are among the best positioned mass organisations at country level to create change. This is no less true when it comes to union mobilising the response to HIV and AIDS. This Toolkit is for those who have not run campaigns on HIV and AIDS as well as for more experienced campaigners looking for new campaign tools. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
News from Global Unions 
 
In its most recent issues of the fortnightly HIV/AIDS updates of January and February, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) at <a href="http://www.itf.org.uk">www.itf.org.uk</a>) reports on awareness campaigns for the maritime sector in India. In Ukraine, a campaign to promote safe sex was organised at the Odessa National Maritime Academy, which has about 4,000 students. Ukraine is experiencing one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the world with a prevalence rate of 1.6%. 
 
An extensive article deals with the anti-gay legislation in Uganda. The proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill would, if enacted, broaden the criminalisation of homosexuality by introducing the death penalty for people who have previous convictions, are HIV positive, or engage in same-sex acts with people under 18 years of age. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter – How to Subscribe 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an email to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put “subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin” in the subject line.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 54, March 2010

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The 30,000 technical and professional employees of PEMEX, Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company, finally won the right to unionize on their third attempt. The new union, Unión Nacional de Técnicos y Profesionistas Petroleros (UNTyPP), received its registration on 16 December 2009, and its leadership was officially recognized for the period 18 March 2008 to 17 March 2012. 
 
The first two attempts at unionization, with union acronyms of ONTCIP and UNTCIP, were denied registration by the government and the leaders fired. 
 
Following the successful court battle, culminating in registration from the Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare’s office for the Registration of Associations (STPS), members of the new union were informed by company management that in order to retain their jobs, they would be required to sign two documents: one calling for the cancellation of the registration, the other a resignation from the union. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Mexico.png" width="280" height="130"/>
Those who refused, along with organisers of the UNTyPP, were fired and violently removed from their workstations by paramilitaries, including the entire National Executive Committee of the union. These workers must be immediately reinstated, and their rights respected under both Mexican and international law. PEMEX is also being urged by the international labour movement to accept union calls to come to the bargaining table and establish a working relationship with them. 
 
UNTyPP organisers have faced continued intimidation and threats throughout their campaign for registration. 
 
PEMEX is the 10th largest oil company in the world, and is the sole supplier of all commercial petrol and diesel stations in Mexico. Annual company revenue is US$78 billion. 
 
Visit the Labourstart campaign website <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=654 ">here</a> to write to President Calderón and PEMEX management, condemning these violations of labour and human rights against the new UNTyPP trade union.

Despite Winning Recognition, Mexico’s White-Collar Pemex Workers Still Repressed

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PENGASSAN’s Peter Esele won re-election as President-General of Nigeria’s Trade Union Congress (TUC), the national trade centre for senior staff associations. Esele won a contested election for a second three-year term at the 8th Triennial National Delegates Conference in Benin, Edo State, from 17-20 March. 
 
Esele, a former President of the ICEM-affiliated Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), is credited – together with re-elected Secretary-General John Kolawole – of building permanent structures into the TUC, a federation comprised of 24 senior staff unions. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaPengassanPeterEsele.jpg" width="113" height="115" alt=""/>
Nigeria TUC President, Peter Esele
Esele is also credited with heightening the roles of women in the TUC, from mandating seats to women on TUC’s National Administrative Council to creating a Women’s Wing of the TUC to conducting ILO-sponsored workshops for development of women in trade union leadership roles. 
 
“I am proud to honour the diverse contributions of women in advancing the common cause of freedom, justice, and equality,” said Esele, who used International Women’s Day to call on the government to use 8 March as a work-free day in respect of what women have accomplished. 
 
Esele served as Deputy Vice President of PENGASSAN prior to 2005 and the tragic airplane crash of 10 December 2005 that claimed the life of PENGASSAN President Uche Okoro. He took over those duties then, winning re-election later in 2006. In 2008, already in his first term as TUC leader, he was defeated for the Presidency of PENGASSAN by Babatunde Ogun. 
 
The TUC is one of two national labour centres in Nigeria. The other, representing workers enrolled in the country’s blue-collar unions, is the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC).

Peter Esele Re-Elected Head of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
ICEM’s Norwegian affiliated union, Industri Energi (IE), has established a trade union rights award in the name of the late trade unionist, Arthur Svensson. The award, to come with a cash prize, will be given to a person or organization for outstanding contributions for promoting trade union rights and the strengthening of trade unionism on the international and national levels. 
 
Deadline for nominations for this initial Arthur Svensson International Award for Trade Union Rights is 1 May 2010. The announcement of the winner will be made on 11 October 2010. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1003.Arthur.Svensson.jpg" width="150" height="168"/>
Arthur Svensson
The award comes with a prize of NOK 500,000, equal to €61,016 or US$82,784. ICEM Vice President Liv Undheim (also Vice President of IE) is coordinated the award. Nominations can be sent to her at <a href="mailto:liv.undheim@industrienergi.no">liv.undheim@industrienergi.no</a>, or faxed to +47 23 06 1360. 
 
Arthur Svensson was a long-time leader of Norsk Kjemisk Forbund, the Norwegian Chemical Workers’ Association, which merged with NOPEF on 4 September 2006 to form IE. Svensson died in 2008, but left a legacy in Norway and beyond as a man who promoted global peace, disarmament, and a nuclear weapons-free world. 
 
He was also a driving force from his leadership positions of Norsk Kjemisk Forbund in Norwegian environment law, and a strong proponent of clean energy to drive clean industries. But first and foremost, he was a dedicated trade unionist, maintaining membership in LO-Norway for 61 years, the final 48 of those years with the Chemical Workers. 
 
Announcement of the award can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/industrienergi_annonse_ENG.pdf" type="internal">here</a>.

Norway’s IE Union Announces Arthur Svensson Labour Rights Award

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Gabon’s oil workers agreed to call off a strike that was to begin 13 March, when government officials entered into negotiations with the 20,000-member National Organisation of Petroleum Workers (ONEP). The strike was set to commence over Gabon’s set of revised regulations governing the sector. 
 
The government has angered workers in the sector by proposing to place the energy sector onto the list of services that must remain uninterrupted, together with health services and transport. The move would make it impossible for workers to take legitimate strike action in future disputes, and would undermine an equal playing field regarding collective bargaining. The industry already suffers from unequal and low salary levels, as well as inadequate protection over working hours. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Gabon.png" width="250" height="115" alt=""/>
Both sides have announced their commitment to reaching agreement soon, and open negotiations are continuing in the West African country. 
 
The strike threatened to halt production of about 250,000 barrels of crude per day in Gabon, Africa's seventh largest producer.

Strike Avoided in Gabon’s Oil Sector

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The latest in a series of Caspian Sea Oil & Gas Workers’ Network meetings took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 22-23 February, again with support fro the German Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES). FES’s local representative in Baku, Rashad Huseynli, actively participating in the event. 
 
Lars Myhre, chair of ICEM’s Energy Industries Section and a founder of Norwegian affiliate Industri Energi (IE), again headed this year’s discussions. IE has played a strong role in the network since its inception and has carried out extensive bilateral programmes and exchanges with the host union, the Oil and Gas Workers Union of Azerbaijan. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1003.baku.conference.jpg" width="280" height="174"/>
Some of the participants at the Caspian Workers’ Network 
Delegates attending came from the Russia Oil & Gas Workers’ Union (ROGWU), led by President Lev Mironov, and included representatives from the trade union structures of both Gazprom and Rosneft. The host union delegation, led by President Jahangir Aliev, included a representative from the Lukoil trade union in Azerbaijan, as well as the newly-elected chairman of the trade union branch at the Caspian Shipyard Company. 
 
Workers here had seen the success of oil workers’ organising at various contract company operations and began organising themselves. The union is the latest branch structure to affiliate to the Oil and Gas Workers’ Union of Azerbaijan, which has successfully organised over 400 of the 650 workers at the shipyard. Apologies for absence were received from ICEM affiliates Petrol-Iş of Turkey and the Oil Workers of Kazakhstan, active members of the network. Both unions were unable to attend because of important meetings in their respective countries. 
 
After an opening session and delegate introductions, updates were given on ICEM activities in Eastern Europe/Central Asia by ICEM Regional Coordinator Anatoly Surin. Jim Catterson, ICEM’s Energy Industries Officer, gave an overview of the oil and gas sectors globally. Delegates then shared detailed information on the latest situations in their country’s energy sectors, covering such issues as organising, terms and conditions of employment, and recent investments by various multinational companies. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1003.baku.conference.2.JPG" width="290" height="194"/>
Front, from left: Oil and Gas Workers’ Union of Azerbaijan Leader Jahangir Aliyev, ICEM’s Anatoly Surin, and Lev Mironov, President of ROGWU 
Lars Myhre gave a detailed presentation on the various agreements that IE has covering Statoil in Norway. 
 
The previous meeting of the Network had formulated a declaration of common social standards to aim for in national negotiations, and this meeting focused on the potential for engaging the multinational companies operating in the Caspian region in a regional social dialog forum. Detailed presentations covering their operations in the Caspian were given by management representatives of both Statoil of Norway and SOCAR, the state-owned company of Azerbaijan that is in the process of expanding regionally, having recently purchased a refinery in Turkey. Both presentations led to lively question and answer sessions. 
 
After a general presentation by Jim Catterson on ICEM activities regarding Social Dialog including Global Framework Agreements (GFAs), presentations were made by Myhre and Lev Mironov on the GFAs that ICEM has with Statoil and Lukoil. 
 
In conclusion, delegates emphasized that the meeting had been extremely useful and had led to a considerable exchange of valuable information. It was time, however, to make the work of the Network more comprehensive and to ensure an effective information exchange occurs between network meetings. 
 
With this in mind, ICEM was asked to create a section of the ICEM website which would initially include the background material and presentations made at the meeting, as well as a report on the discussions. ICEM would also circulate a questionnaire asking all network members to detail the companies that operate in their section of the Caspian and give information on workforce numbers, trade union organization, and terms and conditions of employment. 
 
The results of the questionnaire would also be published. The study would also give a basis as to which companies to approach in order to establish routine social dialog at this regional level. Since ROGWU is considering introducing a system of video-conferencing for routine communication with regions across the Russian Federation, ICEM will also explore the use of this technology for more frequent exchanges. 
 
The work of the Caspian Sea Oil & Gas Workers’ Network will also form part of the agenda of the forthcoming ICEM World Conference for the Energy Industries, to be held in Stavanger, Norway, from 6-8 September.

Energy Workers’ Network of Caspian Meets in Baku

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