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M onday, 8 March, is International Women's Day, and the ICEM is encouraging affiliates, institutions and the general public alike to carry a workplace Human Rights message through to 1 May and beyond. That message is &quot;Respect for Workers' Rights, Respect for Women Workers.&quot; 
 
 
Artwork from Confederaci&oacute;n 
de Comisiones Obreras, Spain 
The 20-million-member ICEM, composed of over 400 affiliates in 125 countries in the oil, mining, chemical, pharmaceutical and processed industries, has joined with other global union federations and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) to promote a season of action in which the theme is &quot;Unions for Women, Women for Unions&quot; will be used to organize workers employed in the burgeoning informal sectors of both developed and developing countries. 
 
In the heavily unionized global sectors in which many members of ICEM affiliates work, some 30% of those workers are women. &quot;Against the background of rising militarisation and continuous attacks on Women's Rights, it is now more important than ever that the world commemorate International Women's Day as a day to say 'We can do better,'&quot; stated ICEM Women's Officer Carol Bruce. 
 
The ICEM points to appalling circumstances the world over that need immediate attention and remedies. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is a common military tool to use rape to terrorize, humiliate and punish an enemy. In free trade zones in Central America and Central Europe, worksites exist in which women must produce their sanitary towels each month to prove they are not pregnant. 
 
Women make up over 50% of all HIV/AIDS victims, and in many cases the cause is infection from their own husbands. Because of lack of empowerment, they do not dare insist that their husbands use a condom, nor do they dare refuse sex with their husbands. 
 
Besides the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the ICEM has identified challenges in its own sectors. Women workers in Thailand in the diamond industry who work in sweatshop conditions need a living wage. In Russia, one out of two women working in the chemicals industries are exposed to hazardous conditions with high gas and dust content. Many trade unions still do not provide for women's representation by statute. In the global pharmaceuticals industry, not nearly enough women are organized in trade unions that would bring higher pay and a better level of benefits. 
 
On International Women's Day, the ICEM does herald notable achievements. In South Africa, a negotiated commitment between ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers and the country's Council of Mines has been made to bring the level of women workers in mining up to 10%. Pharmaceutical companies operating in Central Europe now have record numbers of women managers. Women are putting forward their own demands in collective bargaining in Brazil as negotiators. 
 
The ICEM urges affiliates and others to make visible the message &quot;Respect for Workers' Rights, Respect for Women Workers&quot; through the 1 May holiday, and then to practice this message in everyday life.

8 March: Working Women Need Improvements at their Jobs

Eighteen Russian miners have been underground now for nearly a week, engaged in a hunger strike against mine operator Sakhalinugol in Uglegorsk area on Sakhalin Island over unpaid wages. The miners are due 34 million roubles (US$114,000) dating back to 2002. They have mined 44,000 tonnes of coal so far in 2005, yet have been paid nothing by interim management following financial failure by the company. The miners, protesting 142 meters below the surface, got the support of Sakhalin Governor Ivan Malakhov, who declared, &ldquo;The failure to pay the wages miners&rsquo; have earned is a direct violation of law.&rdquo; Wives and children of the 18 were expected to join the protest today at the mineshaft.

Russian Miners in Far East Stage Hunger Strike

Another USW metals strike, now entering its eighth week in the Canadian province of British Colombia, will get a chance for resolve with renewed mediation on 9 September. The union and Teck Cominco Ltd. At a zinc, lead and metals refinery in Trail, BC, are locked in dispute over wage and pension benefits conceded in the 1990s. USW maintains the current windfall of high zinc and metal prices has lifted Teck&rsquo;s bottom line, and such profitability warrants adequate adjustments for the 1,300 strikers. British Colombia provincial leaders, however, have turned a deaf ear to legitimate demands by the USW that it halt the company&rsquo;s sale of hydrogenerated power across the border to the US while Canadian steelworkers of Teck Cominco are on strike.

USW&#039;s Teck Cominco Strike in Canada Continues

The 1,550 USW copper-mining members who are on strike in the states of Arizona and Texas against Grupo Mexico&rsquo;s Asarco got a boost last month when thousands of Mexican mining and metallurgical workers engaged in hour-long stop-work actions in support of both the American trade unionists, as well as Mexican steel mill workers on strike in L&aacute;zaro C&aacute;rdenas, Michoac&aacute;n state. The US copper strike, begun at different locations in late June and early July, has now been complicated by the Mexican subsidiary filing bankruptcy in US federal court in Texas. That action, the USW says, is result of non-investment in facilities while copper prices were low, thus restricting Asarco&rsquo;s ability now &ldquo;to reap the full rewards of the ongoing copper boom.&rdquo;

Stop-Work Actions in Mexico for US Miners

Today marks Labour Day in North America and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB) Local 484 in Meredosia will more than double the 1,100-populated town in west-central Illinois with a march and rally. 
The union has been locked out since 6 June by Celanese, an emulsions, adhesives and polymers producer owned by corporate trading goliath Blackstone Group. The rally will feature pro-labour Illinois State Governor Rod Blagojevich. An ICEM Circular last month produced scores of Solidarity messages to the 148-member branch union. 
<img height="147" src="" width="125" alt="" />
&ldquo;The support letters from all around the world really mean a lot to our members,&rdquo; said IBB Local 484 Secretary-Treasurer Paul Craig. &ldquo;It let us know that we are not fighting this battle alone.&rdquo; Blackstone bought the plant in February and when workers rejected harsh health care concessions and company plans to cut 41 jobs in favour of contractors, management locked out workers. 
Following Local 484&rsquo;s second rejection of the same company proposal in late June, Celanese came to the bargaining table in July demanding 20- 40% in pay cuts.

US Boilermakers&#039; Lockout Gains Global Attention

The Global Employee Forum of Norwegian pulp and paper producer Norske Skog has issued a strong statement in support of ICEM affiliate Fellesforbundet. The union is seeking to keep open a 380-worker book and newsprint mill in Skien, Norway, called Norske Skog Union. But the company is intent on closing in order to reduce capacity even though buyers have lined up to acquire the mill. The firm&rsquo;s Global Employee Forum has charged management that it has not &ldquo;prioritized and not taken advantage of the book market&rsquo;s shortage of book paper.&rdquo; Norske Skog has said &ldquo;no to inquiries from customers in this market&rdquo; and the employees&rsquo; forum calls on the company to exhibit the necessary social responsibility to &ldquo;see that production at Norske Skog Union is maintained, at least with new owners.&rdquo;

Norske Skog Workers Protest Closure of Norwegian Paper Mill

A broad workers&rsquo; movement in Nepal backed by global trade union confederations will convene next weekend, 10-12 September, in Katmandu. The conference will call for full restoration of human and trade union rights in the Himalayan kingdom and will issue a road map to that end. Some 1,500 trade union leaders from both inside and outside Nepal will attend. National trade union center GEFONT, one of four Nepalese organisations organising the event, said the conference &ldquo;will declare common mechanism among all workers to fight and safeguard workers&rsquo; rights,&rdquo; adding the conference will &ldquo;train grassroots representatives at once on necessity of democracy for trade unions.&rdquo; Even though a state of emergency issued by the monarchy was lifted last spring, trade union rights continue to be suspended and human rights violations continue to occur.

Labour, Human Rights Conference in Nepal

The ICEM's Asia-Pacific Union Network of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. met in Manila, Philippines, 8-9 August, and attention focused on the American rubber company's fierce resistance to unionisation drives of contract workers in Thailand and Malaysia. Goodyear plant union leaders also discussed the company's retreat from ownership of natural rubber plantations at a time when natural rubber demand coupled with shortages is increasing. Some 21 leaders from Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand took part.

Goodyear AP Meeting Studies Contract Labour Issue

Over the course of the summer, an asbestos scandal hit Japan and has been getting a lot of press attention ever since. According to reports, around 3,000 people die every year from asbestos cancer in Japan and it is feared that these numbers may rise considerably in the coming years. When in 1987, lobbyists began to call for a ban of crocidolite, used, amongst other purposes, in Japanese schools, the government failed to take the necessary action. Similarly in the 1990s, when a move to ban asbestos was blocked after &quot;relentless opposition from within the asbestos industry.&quot;

Asbestos Issue Surfaces in Japan

Following rebel harassment, Unilever Nepal decided on August 17 to close its factory in Basamadi in the Makwanpur district, west of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu. The decision to suspend operations indefinitely was taken after threats by the Maoist insurgents in Nepal to &ldquo;close the factory by force.&rdquo; The events come only one month after another multinational, Colgate-Palmolive, was forced to close its toothpaste factory in the same district. Unilever Nepal is one of the country&rsquo;s largest exporters and has been a target for rebel threats before. Bombs already exploded at the factory on several occasions in previous years. The Nepal Independent Chemical and Iron Employees' Union, an ICEM affiliate, made an appeal to the National Human Rights Commission, as well as to other rights organisations that have been known to mediate with the rebels, asking to demand the guerrillas to withdraw their threat.

Unilever&#039;s Colgate-Palmolive Factory in Nepal Closed

Archive

8 March: Working Women Need Improvements at their Jobs

Russian Miners in Far East Stage Hunger Strike

USW's Teck Cominco Strike in Canada Continues

Stop-Work Actions in Mexico for US Miners

US Boilermakers' Lockout Gains Global Attention

Norske Skog Workers Protest Closure of Norwegian Paper Mill

Labour, Human Rights Conference in Nepal

Goodyear AP Meeting Studies Contract Labour Issue

Asbestos Issue Surfaces in Japan

Unilever's Colgate-Palmolive Factory in Nepal Closed

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