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At the 61st United Nations General Assembly, on 13 September 2007, member nations formally adopted the important Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People, a UN milestone that was marked by 25 years of debate. The vote was 143 nations in favour, four against, with 11 abstentions. 
 
The four nations that rejected the Declaration are Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US. 
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The non-binding charter protects the human rights of 370 million native people, and sets out individual and collective rights to protect their lands and resources, as well as to maintain their unique cultures and traditions. The declaration includes provisions on fundamental needs, including food, health, and education. It also prohibits discrimination against indigenous peoples and promotes their full and effective participation in all matters that concern them. 
 
The UN&rsquo;s Human Rights Council adopted the Declaration in June 2006. The General Assembly deferred consideration of the Declaration late last year over member nations&rsquo; objections to language defining self-determination and indigenous people. 
 
The 107th and 108th Meetings of the 61st General Assembly produced the historic passage of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. UN Delegates from Peru introduced the Declaration. The 11 nations that abstained in the vote include: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burundi, Colombia, Georgia, Kenya, Nigeria, Russia, Samoa, and Ukraine.

UN General Assembly Adopts Historic Indigenous Peoples Declaration

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Following the lead taken by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the ICEM has registered strong condemnation of the heavy jail sentences given to six labour activists by Burma&rsquo;s military junta. On 7 September, a closed trial inside Insein prison sentenced four of the activists to 28 years in prison, while two others received 20-year sentences. 
 
The ICEM calls the prison terms &ldquo;unjustified and scandalous.&rdquo; 
 
Four of the six were charged with attending a labour rights seminar at the American Centre of the US Embassy on 1 May 2007, and two others were unjustly convicted for bringing attention to the arrests days later. The six were found guilty of sedition and organising an unlawful gathering. 
The six men, all labour activists in their 20s, were among 30 Burmese citizens detained at the Labour Day event. While most of those attending were released within hours, Thurein Aung, Kyaw Kyaw, Shwe Joe, Wai Lin, Aung Naing Tun, and Nyi Nyi Zaw were held. On 4 May, Shwe Joe and Aung Naing Tun were released. 
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Thurein Aung, Wai Lin, Myo Min, and Kyaw Win were sentenced to 28 years, while Nyi Nyi Zaw and Kyaw Kyaw received 20-year prison terms. Kyaw Win and Myo Min were arrested on 10 May for travelling to the Thai-Burmese border to get word out of the country about the May Day arrests.&nbsp;
In the ICEM protest letter to the senior leader of the military junta, the global union federation stated that it &ldquo;learned all six men were found guilty of &lsquo;inciting hatred or contempt for the government&rsquo; during a trial held inside Rangoon&rsquo;s Insein prison, and that some were convicted for being members of &lsquo;illegal associations.&rsquo;&rdquo; 
 
The letter added, &ldquo;&hellip; detaining and sentencing workers who exercise their right to freedom of association is a clear violation of international labour standards, including ILO Convention 87, which has been ratified by your country.&rdquo; 
 
The Burmese junta has a long history of unwarranted attacks on the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB), the legitimate labour organisation that defends workers&rsquo; rights in Burma. 
 
The ICEM demands the immediate and unconditional release of the six. The ICEM protest letter can be found <a href="/en/7-Asia-Pacific/2397-ICEM-protest-letter-to-Burmese-Junta">here</a>.

28-Year Prison Sentences Given to Labour Activists Inside Burma

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North American ICEM affiliate, United Steelworkers (USW), began its largest ever conference of women workers in Toronto, Ontario, yesterday. Over 1,000 trade union women from Canada and the US are expected at the four-day conference, which is entitled &ldquo;Women of Steel: Building Power, Taking Action.&rdquo; 
 
USW President Leo Gerard will address the conference today, 24 September. Also speaking will be Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of US presidential candidate John Edwards, who has won the endorsement of the USW, and progressive American blogger Arianna Huffington. Canadian Member of Parliament Libby Davies, from the New Democratic Party, will also address the conference. 
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Gerard will introduce to delegates the &ldquo;Protect Our Kids/Stop Toxic Imports&rdquo; campaign, which will be unveiled in Canada tomorrow, 25 September. 
 
Workshops will centre on engaging women in the work of the union, skills enhancement, work-life balance, political action, and global solidarity. The USW will host global trade union guests from Brazil, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Africa, and the UK. 
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&ldquo;Strong unions need women, and it is clear that women in every nation need strong unions,&rdquo; said USW Assistant to the President Leeann Anderson. USW Women of Steel Director Ann Flener added that union &ldquo;women know that in today&rsquo;s global economic society, solidarity must reach across nations to the furthest regions of the world. We must talk with each other, compare situations, and learn best practices from each other&rsquo;s experiences.&rdquo;

North American ‘Women of Steel’ Convene Largest Ever Women’s Conference

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ICEM affiliate in Mozambique, the National Union of Chemical, Rubber, Paper, and Print Workers (SINTIQUIGRA), has forged a four-union merger with transportation and textile workers&rsquo; unions, in an effort to strengthen the union movement of the country. 
 
The merger is partly in honour of Joaquim Fanheiro, former leader of SINTIQUIGRA, who died unexpectedly in March 2007 while serving as general secretary of the Mozambique Workers&rsquo; Organisation (OTM), the nation&rsquo;s leading national labour centre. The other merger partners are the Union of Textile and Footwear Workers&rsquo; (SINTIVEC), the National Union of Port and Railway Workers&rsquo; (SINPOCAF), and the Ports and Allied Dockworkers&rsquo; Union (SINPEOC).
A name for the union has not yet been determined, but a founding general assembly meeting will occur in November 2007 and will address that and other matters. 
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Union merger discussions in Mozambique began last spring between SINTIQUIGRA and SINTIVEC. They were expanded in the summer to include the transport and dockworkers&rsquo; unions. The combined membership of the four unions will be about 25,000. 
Comrade Fanheiro was a long-time trade union activist and main leader of SINTIUIGRA. He was a strong workers&rsquo; advocate in 1970-era production councils in Mozambique, which were predecessors to the OTM. Later, he became the distinguished leader of the OTM and played a key role in negotiations with the government over issues such as the annual increases to the statutory minimum wage and the revisions to Mozambique&rsquo;s labour code. 
 
Trade unions in Mozambique of late have been burdened by downsizings and redundancies, as many large companies have splintered their businesses off to smaller companies, which have cut staff and attempt to slash social costs. The four-union merger is expected to make the labour movement and the OTM stronger and more efficient.

Four-Union Mozambique Merger to Honour Labour Legacy of Joaquim Fanheiro

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ICEM affiliate in Trinidad and Tobago, the Oilfields Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (OWTU), staged a mass protest on 10 September over delays in bargaining between the union and the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission. The union members&rsquo; protest came at the electric authority&rsquo;s opening of a customer service centre at the company headquarters in Port-of-Spain. 
 
Management was celebrating the opening of a new automatic meter infrastructure and the utility&rsquo;s award of some TTD700 million in contracts for that system, as well as for a new power station. Much of that money will be used on contractors and contract labourers. 
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OWTU members, meanwhile, have been without a current collective agreement for over a year, and have been frustrated by salaries that are tied to 2005 levels at a time when Trinidad and Tobago&rsquo;s inflation rate is high. 
 
The last negotiations session was held in July, and the company&rsquo;s chairman said management was waiting for direction from the Ministry of Public Utilities. 
 
Meanwhile, another union in Trinidad and Tobago, the Public Service Association, staged another protest through a series of one-day work stoppages against the Water and Sewerage Authority. That occurred on 14 September, three days after a similar protest following a revised management proposal. Water and sewer workers are also protesting delays and a prolonged negotiations period. They are still attempting to resolve a 2005-2007 contract with the public utility, talks that only started in January 2007. 
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In a related workplace development in the country, five construction workers last week were hospitalised when they were overcome by gas at the state-owned Petrotrin&rsquo;s Point-a-Pierre refinery. All 700 construction workers were forced to down tools by what Petrotrin said was a leak from an alkaline plant. It marked the second time in two months that building workers at the refinery walked from their jobs in protest to health and safety concerns. 
 
Petrotrin is currently undergoing a gas optimisation modernisation, as well as a gas to liquids project at the west coast refinery. In early August, the state company dropped production by 15,000 barrels-per-day to 47,000 b/d due to safety concerns. That followed a May 2007 drop in crude production from offshore sites, after a gas explosion on an offshore rig in the Soldado field killed one contract worker, and injured two others.

OWTU Members at Electricity Authority in Trinidad and Tobago Protest

This week, on Wednesday, 26 September, 84 strikers in the Antalya Free Trade Zone of Turkey will mark one year on picket lines at Novamed, a pharmaceutical manufacturer, owned by Fresenius Medical Care of Germany. Eighty-two of the strikers are women. 
 
The ICEM has continued to champion the cause of the strikers and the Turkish union Petrol-Iş that organised this workplace, and stands by them. Judging from the inhumane treatment, it is easy to see why. Workers &ndash; mainly women &ndash; were forced to apply to management if they wished to marry. They were forbidden to talk to one another on the job. And they were forced to undergo breath tests following breaks to enforce a no-smoking ban. 
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Picket sign states: &quot;We decide when we give birth&quot;
Workers at Novamed freely elected Petrol-Iş as their collective representative. Novamed managers did begin negotiations with the union and the workers in April 2006. But when talks broke down, managers quit the negotiations and began a harassment and intimidation campaign aimed at dislodging union support. On 26 September 2006, 84 workers expressed their discontent by striking. 
 
The first anniversary of this just strike has gained a sizeable and significant voice inside Turkey. Through actions and a fortnight of constant press coverage, leading up to the one-year anniversary, civil society across Turkey is acutely aware of the Novamed strike. Handbilling, mass meetings among trade unions, NGOs, and Turkish women&rsquo;s groups, as well as rolling actions in support of the strike have all happened. 
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In Istanbul, a coalition of trade unions, women&rsquo;s groups, and others have formed a &ldquo;Women&rsquo;s Platform for Solidarity with Novamed Strikers,&rdquo; which has carried out a number of actions over the past two weeks. In the cities of Izmir and Adana, actions and forums in support of the strike have occurred.
A petition drive to the National Parliament has also started, aimed at mandating better work conditions for women, thanks to the courage of the Novamed strikers. Various actions for justice at Novamed are backed by all Turkish confederations, trade unions, and, increasingly, by civil society groups. And today and tomorrow, busloads of supporters will descend on Antalya for the one-year strike anniversary. 
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The ICEM called attention to the deplorable conditions that caused the strike from the outset. In May, the strike received firm commitment from the ICEM Executive Committee. Currently, a four-person ICEM Women&rsquo;s Committee is in the Antalya trade zone to support the strikers. They will join the strikers and Turkish activists in a forum, documentary film, and a social event on 25 September, and then accompany the strikers to the front of company offices on 26 September for a lively protest. 
 
The delegation is headed by ICEM Women&rsquo;s Committee Chair Evgenia Esenina of Russian Oil and Gas Workers&rsquo; Union (ROGWU), and includes Elena Petrovici of the Oil Workers&rsquo; Union of Romania (PETROM), Ramona Parra of the Chemical, Textile, and Leathern Workers of Spain (FITEQA-CCOO), and Carol Bruce, ICEM Women&rsquo;s Officer.

Broad Turkish Attention Given One-Year Novamed Strike

Senior General Than Shwe 
Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, 
c/o Attorney General 
Pyinmana 
Burma 

Re : Extremely harsh prison sentences for labour activists
Dear General Than Shwe, 
 
The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), representing 20 million workers from 384 industrial trade unions in 118 countries, joins the wide-ranging international protest against the extremely heavy prison sentences that have been imposed, on Friday 7 September 2007, on six labour activists, after these had wanted to organise a seminar at the US Embassy's American Centre in Rangoon earlier this year. 
 
Thurein Aung, Kyaw Kyaw, Shwe Joe, Wai Lin, Aung Naing Tun and Nyi Nyi Zaw were arrested, on 1 May 2007, after holding a May Day celebration and having plans to discuss labour issues at the American Centre. This event was immediately cancelled after the arrests. Two of the arrested activists, Shwe Joe and Aung Naing Tun, were released on 4 May. On 10 May, two other men, Kyaw Win and Myo Min, were arrested for going to the Thai-Burma border to inform the outside world about these May Day arrests. 
 
The ICEM has learned that all six men were found guilty of &quot;inciting hatred or contempt for the Government&quot; during a trial held inside Rangoon's Insein prison, and that some of them were convicted for being members of &quot;illegal associations&quot;. Thurein Aung, Wai Lin, Myo Min and Kyaw Win were sentenced to 28 years in prison, and Nyi Nyi Zaw and Kyaw Kyaw to 20 years. As you and your government know well, detaining and sentencing workers who exercise their right to freedom of association is a clear violation of international labour standards, including ILO Convention 87, which has been ratified by your country. 
 
We have also been informed that the interrogations of the six above-mentioned activists by your country&rsquo;s security agencies specifically focused on finding links with the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB). The FTUB is recognised by the entire international trade union movement, as well as by the wider global community, as a legitimate organisation that defends workers' rights in Burma. 
 
I am therefore urging you to use your good offices and make sure that the relevant authorities within your government do away with these unjustified and scandalous prison sentences and order the immediate and unconditional release of our six colleagues. 
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
Manfred Warda 
ICEM General Secretary

ICEM protest letter to Burmese Junta

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A key precedent was set in the UK in late October 2007 when an Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that UK Coal must pay 330 miners back-wages for a sudden pit closure in 2005. The paltry &pound;2 million pay-out, however, pales next to the precedent now set; that UK workers made redundant are entitled to the same benefits as EU workers. This especially includes mandatory consulting with trade unions on redundancy matters. 
 
The National Union of Mineworkers&rsquo; of the UK filed the case on safety issues when bosses suddenly closed UK Coal&rsquo;s Ellington Colliery in northeast England in January 2005. The mine was flooded by higher waters from the North Sea.
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UK Coal averted dialogue with the union, citing external forces as the cause of the flooding, thus claiming to be exempt from a mandatory 90-day consultation period with the union over safety issues. The Employment Appeal Tribunal, however, disagreed and upheld a May ruling by a lower jobs court that UK Coal has to pay the miners&rsquo; the 90-day pay, or between &pound;4,000-7,000 per worker. 
 
UK Coal is an enterprise created from the privatisation of British Coal in 1993. 
 
The ruling in Great Britain made the business elite jittery. Associations quickly called meetings of HR staff and others to dissect the ruling and its effect on other EU-UK comparisons regarding work standards. UK Coal responded by deflecting the union&rsquo;s call for a quick pay-out so that money owed will help working families this Christmas. The company said it needed time to study the court ruling before deciding whether or not to appeal the case further.

UK Coal Ruling Lifts British Standards Regarding Redundancies

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Some ten coal mine disasters in China were recorded over the past month, leaving 100 dead. And last week, the China State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) issued an alert stating that the number of coal mine accidents might increase in the coming months, as production accelerates to meet winter demand. 
 
October was another deadly month in China&rsquo;s coal mines, where an estimated 20,000 workers die each year from industrial accidents, methane explosions, floods, and illegal mining. 
The latest reported tragedy occurred on Friday, 2 November, when a shaft tunnel collapsed, killing nine miners. This occurred at the licensed Shanxi Jinle Coal Mine in Xinzhou city, in China&rsquo;s northern Shanxi province. A few days earlier, on 28 October, in Jiangxi provice at the Lingzian colliery, at a township-owned mine, floods poured into mine shafts, taking the lives of nine miners. One worker was rescued, but only after three days. 
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On 26 October, nine perished in northwest Shanxi province, also because of flooding. This occurred at the Yaotou coal mine near Weinan City. The mine is a registered private mine, with annual output of 60,000 tonnes. 
 
A day earlier, on 25 October, a small, illegal mine was rocked by an underground explosion, killing 11. That happened at the Yuejin coal mine, Chongqing, southwest China. The board chairman, local manager, and two other senior managers were arrested a few days after the explosion. 
On 22 October, a newly dug transport tunnel at the Yinying coal mine in Taiyuan, northern China, collapsed, killing 13 people living in row houses above the mine. Some of the dead were miners and family members. The incident occurred in the middle of the night and no one was working the mine at the time. 
Also on 22 October, three Chinese miners died and seven were injured following an explosion inside a township-run mine at Puqian in Hengfeng county, northeastern Jiangxi province. The miners were 285 metres underground performing maintenance work. On 13 October, 19 miners were buried alive after a gas explosion caused a massive coal slide that came rumbling down a 30-metre-wide tunnel. This also occurred in Jiangxi province. Some 261 miners managed to escape the deadly accident at the Jianxin colliery. 
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Jianzin also was the mine that claimed the lives of 49 miners in 2003 from a gas explosion, and in August 2006, five were killed from a blast. 
 
On 7 October, eight died, including three rescue workers, following flooding of the Chankeng mine in Fujian province. And a day earlier, on 6 October, ten miners died from a methane explosion at the Shunxing mine in eastern Yunnan province. The mine was legal but a week prior to the blast, a county mine safety inspector had ordered Shunzing to suspend production in order that the mine&rsquo;s shafts undergo repairs. 
 
Last year, China saw a 2.04 death rate for every one million tonnes of coal mined. Total Chinese coal production is expected to top 2.5 billion tonnes this year, with annual production growth this year over last year expected to be 11.5%. SAWS, on 1 November, announced it was soliciting public submissions on a draft plan regarding 604 safety production standards to go into effect between 2007 and 2010. The proposed standards are in 10 work sectors, including coal mines, non-coal mining, and chemicals and fireworks production.

Mine Deaths Continue to Plague China, State Work Safety Administration

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With the ICEM&rsquo;s Bangkok Congress just two weeks away, the familiar privatisation saga of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) is again back in the news. The ICEM has given a vibrant global voice to this struggle for four years, and we&rsquo;re proud now to bring trade unionists of the world an update. 
 
In March 2006, the Supreme Administrative Court ordered Thaksin&rsquo;s EGAT privatisation plan cancelled, and in September 2006, Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra himself was cancelled. EGAT-LU, the 18,000-member ICEM affiliate at the national utility, helped make that happen through relentless four years of strikes and marches to stop Thaksin&rsquo;s 25% stock float of their power company. 
<img height="387" alt="" src="" width="250" />
EGAT-LU demonstration in 2006
This year, Thailand&rsquo;s interim government resurrected parts of the failed EGAT privatisation plan, revising portions into something called the Energy Operation Bill. EGAT-LU has called for mobilisation against this draft measure; it has quickly brought consumer groups back in opposition; and demonstrations are sure to intensify this week when the bill is scheduled to be heard in the National Legislative Assembly. 
 
Part of the opaque leftovers from Thaksin&rsquo;s plan are included in the interim government&rsquo;s bill. Specifically, the draft bills calls for creation of a privatisation policy committee having too few members, but having wide latitudes to determine all privatisation matters. 
 
On 26 October, EGAT-LU called for mobilisations at EGAT worksites across Thailand. Small rallies have already begun against the Energy Operation Bill, and the union conducted bigger ones last week at EGAT&rsquo;s headquarters in Nonthaburi. After experiencing difficult and prolonged negotiations with the government over privatisation, EGAT-LU has called for the bill to be scrapped, particularly with the military&rsquo;s interim government coming to an end. Democratic elections are scheduled to take place on 23 December 2007 in Thailand.
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&nbsp;&ldquo;Privatisation affects all people in this country and such an important matter cannot be left to just a handful of authorities that have not been elected by the people,&rdquo; said EGAT-LU Chairman Sirichai Main-gam. &ldquo;The bill gives sweeping power to one committee to supervise privatisation schemes,&rdquo; he said, adding that the committee is vacant of any &ldquo;people&rsquo;s participation.&rdquo; 
 
EGAT-LU and its allied consumer and human rights groups know something about civilian participation in the affairs of state. They did it between 2002 and 2006. It is part of the fallen Thaksin legacy. They now insist that a critical issue such as privatising EGAT cannot occur before the democratic voice of the country is heard.

EGAT-LU Fights to Stop Thai Interim Government’s ‘Energy Operation Bill’

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