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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Upwards of a half million people marched through London on Saturday in a turnout that British trade unions said exceeded their highest predictions. The manifestation, heard around the world, was called “The March for the Alternative: Cuts are not the Cure” and was direct push-back to the deep, rapid, and unfair public sector cuts in the pipeline by the ruling UK Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition. 
 
Turnout for the march and rally at Hyde Park in London’s West End was so massive that the rear of the march had just left the Victoria Embankment staging area when the Hyde Park rally – five kilometres away – began. The front of the march left Victoria and passed by Parliament four hours earlier. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.london march for the alternative - mac urata.jpg" width="365" height="192"/>
photo: Mac Urata
Using the argument that fiscal austerity is needed to reduce UK’s financial deficit, the right-wing government led by David Cameron wants to cripple a social welfare system that will see cuts to people and curtailment of British services. And both will fall disproportionately on the poor and on the workers of Britain. 
 
Deep cuts to education, pensions, and Britain’s 62-year-old National Health Service (NHS) are being laid out on the Con-Dem chopping block. And Saturday’s manifestation – the biggest in London since 2003 and an anti-Iraq war protest – validated the fact that tens of thousands of teachers, doctors, nurses, police and prison guards, municipal council workers, joined by students, retirees, private-sector workers fiercely resist this agenda. 
 
The 26 March manifestation sponsored by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) was civil and peaceful. But the beat of drums, whistles, and chants of resistance made it clear that anger is real. Anger at the fact that for every £4 in spending cuts, there is a £1 tax hike and that mainly is a higher VAT; anger that 50,000 jobs will disappear when the NHS is cut; anger that the brutal cuts will cost 170,000 public-sector jobs. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.london prison union.jpg" width="265" height="189"/>
photo: John MacLennon
Instead of cuts, the “alternative” should be a crackdown on tax avoidance totalling £25 billion alone taken by City of London operators; initiating a Robin Hood tax on banks and financial institutions over their transactions; a stop to exorbitant executive bonuses; and a gradual, sensible, and sustainable deficit reduction plan based on jobs, growth, and tax justice. 
 
At the afternoon rally, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “We will fight these savage cuts and we will not let them destroy services, jobs, and lives. Today we are speaking for the people of Britain, and David Cameron, if you want to meet the Big Society, we’re here in Hyde Park.” 
 
Unite the Union General Secretary Len McCluskey called it the greatest demonstration in London in a generation, and said there is “palpable anger in the country. If the government was brave enough, it would tackle the tax avoidance that robs the British taxpayer.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.lennie london.jpg" width="133" height="150"/>   <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.leo gerrard london.jpg" width="105" height="160"/>
Unite's Len McCluskey, USW's Leo Gerard 
photos: John MacLennon
Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis, whose public-sector union chartered 500 coaches to get people to London, told the assembled at Hyde Park that he wants the Con-Dems “to feel the fear and anger of people who have come here today from every part of the UK to vent their frustration and to stand up for a fairer future.” 
 
Another speaker was USW President Leo Gerard of North America who drew the link between the purge of public services in the UK to what is happening in several US states. He said the real culprits are the greedy banks and corporations who pull the strings of politicians. 
 
“It is their reckless speculation that took down the world economy,” said Gerard, adding, The best way to rob a bank is to manage one. We will stand together, we will march together, and we will fight together to demand that our governments protect the rights of public employees and of all workers.”

500,000 Protest Con-Dem Coalition’s Public Sector Cuts in London

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ICEM’s German affiliate, IGBCE, held yet another mass mobilisation on 24 March in Ludwigshafen, alongside BASF’s massive chemicals complex there. The purpose of the manifestations are to continue to buoy support among rank-and-file chemical workers for the union’s 7% wage demands in national bargaining with the chemical employers’ association, the BAVC. 
 
The second round of federal bargaining covering 550,000 workers in 1,900 companies is set for 30-31 March in Bad Honnef, North Rhine-Westphalia state. The first round of federal talks took place in Hanover on 15 March, with employers refusing to put forward an offer. 
 
In the fortnight since, IGBCE has deployed a “wage truck” and bus tour of activists to 12 chemical sites, reminding workers that they deserve good money for the hard work they’ve performed in pulling German chemical employers through the financial crisis. Some 30,000 IGBCE members in chemicals have turned out for the rallies thus far. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103.TRUCK_IGBCE.jpg" width="240" height="134"/>
A rally also was held at the Rhein Chemie Rheinau GmbH plant near Mannheim on 24 March and after one on Friday, 25 March, at Boehringer-Ingelheim’s plant in Biberach, the manifestation tour continues today with mobilisations at Hoechst, Merck, and other companies in Frankfurt and in Darmstadt. 
 
The truck and caravan will make another stop tomorrow in Hanau, before culminating for a 30 March demonstration prior to the talks in Bad Honnef. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1103. igbce Demo in Hannover.jpg" width="270" height="152"/>
IGBCE Demo in Hanover
“We expect a conclusion to come” in Bad Honnef, said IGBCE Governing Board member Peter Hausmann, who heads the union’s Collective Bargaining Department. “We expect employers to put a fair offer on the table,” something, he noted, that was absent in Hanover, or in the nine rounds of regional bargaining earlier this year. 
 
IGBCE is adamant that 7% over the next 12 months is fair compensation for workers who absorbed work-time cuts and other social curtailments to help chemical producers weather the economic crisis. The union said the industry has now overcome that crisis. With German production capacities at full levels and sales and profits gushing upward, the time for fairness and justice to the people who delivered this return to prosperity is this week in Bad Honnef.

IGBCE Mobilises for Second Federal Round of German Chemical Talks

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A thorough survey conducted by the global trade union network of AkzoNobel reveals key points inside the Dutch chemical company’s worldwide subsidiaries, particularly related to restructuring. The <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3883-ICEM-Affiliates-Move-to-Form-an-Akzo-Nobel-Workers’-Network" type="internal">AkzoNobel Workers’ Network</a> was created only ten months ago when ICEM affiliate FNV Bondgenoten hosted the inaugural meeting in Amsterdam. 
 
The survey saw response from nearly all workplace leaders and it shows important trends regarding use of temporary labour and contractors, labour-management communication levels, pay comparisons, and health and safety compliance. A full 96.5% of trade union leaders surveyed responded. 
 
Also, for example, responses show that in AkzoNobel’s worldwide facilities – most of which are under 500 workers – the core labour standards regarding freedom of association and collective bargaining are in question, with 17% of all workplaces not unionised. Sixty-three percent of respondents answered that overtime work is compulsory, while 63% again said one form or another of restructuring has taken place in their plants over the past three years. 
 
Regarding legal compliance with local or national regulations, AkzoNobel fares extremely well since 100% responding said the company complies with legal requirements, while the same number said AkzoNobel relies almost totally on legally-binding contracts. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/akzonobel[1].gif" width="235" height="56"/>
Ninety-six percent of the respondents stated that the specialty chemicals and paints and coatings company does abide by adequate health and safety regulations. 
 
Other results of the survey: 
 
• 75% of those responding say that the workforce in their facility is composed of between 1-25% temporary workers, while 18% said there are no temporary workers and 7% said that the composition is between 50-75%; 
• At 70% of the locations, there are regular meetings between trade union representatives and management; 
• A good majority of unions (81%) have contacts with other unions inside or outside of their home country; 
• 81% indicate that wages paid are in correlation to what is paid at respective national levels; 
• 81% also say their worksites offer training possibilities; 
• Regarding restructuring, in nearly all cases consultation took place between workers’ representatives and management; 
• And in the restructurings, in 59% of the cases, 1-25% of the workforce was affected and in 33% of restructurings no workers were affected; 
• And in 46% of AkzoNobel’s restructurings, there were no dismissals, while in 54% there were between 1-25% of workers at the site that lost their jobs. 
 
In other AkzoNobel worker news, the Latin American Trade Union Network, held in December 2010 São Paulo, Brazil, created a <a href="http://IWN.AN@groups.facebook.com">group Facebook page</a> called IWN-AN International Workers Network AkzoNobel. The page has an objective to ramp up communications, and post speedy opinions, documents, and other issues that participants wish to share. The facebook group is expected to obtain support for expanding the network via inputs from participants for future communications and discussion. For those wishing to participate, a Facebook account is necessary and then just to IWN-AN International Workers Network AkzoNobel. 
 
The global network’s next activity will be to attend and follow Akzo Nobel’s Annual General Meeting, to take place Wednesday, 27 April, at 14h00 in Amsterdam.

AkzoNobel Network Survey Reveals Pertinent Site-to-Site Facts

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In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report on the approval of Global Fund Round 10 grants, on World Aids Day activities, and on HIV and AIDS targets.
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"/>
Global Fund Approves Round 10 Proposals 
 
The Global Fund Board has approved all 79 Round 10 proposals recommended by the Technical Review Panel (TRP), at a cost of US$1.73 billion over the first two years and US$4.72 billion over five years. This makes Round 10 the third largest round ever, after Rounds 8 and 9, respectively. These decisions were made at the Fund’s 22nd board meeting, held from 13-15 December in Sofia, Bulgaria. 
 
Unlike in previous rounds, the Fund did not have to delay approval of certain proposals pending further funding becoming available; sufficient funding will be available to cover all Round 10 proposals that the TRP recommended for approval. Also, the Board has not required that budgets be reduced. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Global%20Fund%20logo.gif" width="250" height="53"/>
The Board's decision as to which proposals to approve was, as always, entirely based on the advice it received from the TRP, an independent and non-political body of 43 experts from around the world. In total, the TRP reviewed 150 proposals, of which 78 were for HIV/AIDS, 48 for TB, and 24 for malaria. Malaria proposals were by far the most successful in Round 10, with 79% approved (as against 54% for TB proposals and 44% for HIV/AIDS). Over the last three rounds, malaria and TB proposal success rates have always been above 50%, but HIV/AIDS proposal success rates have always been below 50%. 
 
HIV proposals from the countries where the ICEM also has activities did not fare well: proposals from Botswana, DR Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Mauritius, Mongolia, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe were rejected; most of these for repeated rounds. Only the HIV proposals from Guinea, South Africa, Zambia, and a smaller grant for Uganda were approved. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 135 of 16 December. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>; to receive GFO send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
World AIDS Day 2010 
 
ICEM affiliates all over the world organised or participated in activities on 1 December, World AIDS Day. 
 
In Trinidad and Tobago, the Oilfield Workers’ Trace Union (OWTU) organised an HIV/AIDS workshop in cooperation with the Humanity Fund of the Canadian affiliate Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union (see e-bulletin No. 63, December 2010). 
 
The Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (CEPPWAWU) of South Africa focused on their own staff and organised a “Lights for Rights” commemoration at the union’s head office. Mary Nxumalo, National Gender and HIV Coordinator, spoke of a positive step in engaging trade union officials in dealing with the pandemic. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1011.wad%20logo.jpg" width="110" height="96"/>
The Canadian Automobile Workers (CAW) launched its new HIV/AIDS information manual entitled “HIV/AIDS: A Worker’s Issue, A Union Issue” on World AIDS Day. The booklet offers information on HIV/AIDS in Canada, prevention and transmission, model collective agreement language, and a wealth of other data. 
 
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) reports on activities of its affiliates in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Venezuela. In Namibia, the Namibian Transport and Allied Workers’ Union organised a trucker convoy which travelled through the capital Windhoek, distributing male and female condoms and leaflets. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Commentary by the Editor: 
Does the World Need More HIV and AIDS Targets? 
 
“UNAIDS in 2011 – Getting to Zero,” says the feature story on the UNAIDS website which introduces the new UNAIDS strategy 2011-2015 adopted by the Programme Committee Board in December 2010. The strategy aims to advance global progress in achieving country set targets for universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, support, and care and to halt and reverse the spread of HIV and contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development goals by 2015. 
 
Sounds familiar? Well, yes, 2010 just closed without having reached universal access – a commitment from the G8 summit in 2005. And a few years ago the WHO “3 by 5” initiative to provide three million people with antiretroviral treatment by the end of 2005 barely reached more than half of the target. 
 
Have such ambitious targets positively affected global HIV/AIDS efforts? Two views on targets are current. “People need targets,” says Sheila Tlou, UNAIDS head in eastern and southern Africa. “Aim for the sky and you’ll reach somewhere. Had countries been given lower targets, chances are they would only have realised half of that.”
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101.unaids.jpg" width="218" height="109" alt=""/>
However, Alan Whiteside, executive director of the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division at the University of KwaZulu-Natal says “unreachable targets are demoralising and unfair to health workers expected to meet them with often inadequate resources.” 
 
A closer look at the details of targets also reveals that “universal” and “zero” do not necessarily mean what is commonly understood by it. The G8 universal access to treatment target was achieving “as close as possible to universal access to treatment of all who need it by 2010.” As close is possible was often defined as 80%. 
 
And do not be deceived by the fancy zero in the UNAIDS “Getting to Zero” logo. The goal for 2015 is: sexual transmission of HIV reduced by half. Universal access to antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV who are eligible for treatment is also to be achieved by 2015. But that was already the target for the year that just ended. 
 
We may need targets but we must not forget that the people who are held responsible for missing them are not the people who rolled them out, but the people on the ground charged with implementing them. And we must also consider that sometimes the goal posts shift and targets become more distant, as was the case when the WHO raised the recommended threshold for starting treatment form a CD4 count of 200 to one of 350. 
 
(Source: IRIN PlusNews, Johannesburg, 1 December 2010; circular World AIDS Campaign of 13 December and feature story UNAIDS, 30 December)
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Drug Kit Helps Mothers to Protect Babies 
 
Close to 400,000 African babies are infected with HIV every year, in pregnancy, during birth, and through breastfeeding. The situation points back to the high HIV prevalence among women of reproductive age. Zambia, where some 85,000 women in the age group 15 to 40 are HIV positive, is one of the countries recognised for making progress in addressing the problem. 
 
The introduction of a new drugs kit called Mother-Baby Pack is expected to further reduce transmission. The kit is a pre-packaged set of medicines including maternal and baby prophylactic anti-retroviral medicines in line with WHO Guidelines. 
 
(Sources: IPS, Lusaka, 30 November) 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Indonesia: Dramatic Increase in New HIV Infections in Bali 
 
Bali's dramatic increase of HIV prevalence among sex workers has changed the face of the epidemic on this famed tourist destination of 3.9 million local residents. In 2010, 25.9% of Bali’s 3,945 sex workers were living with HIV, up from 1.6% in 2000, according to the provincial health department. The HIV prevalence rate among sex workers nationwide in 2007 was 10.4%. 
 
The virus is taking hold of the general population in Bali as some 100,000 clients engage with commercial sex workers, of whom more than half do not consistently use a condom, and then go home to their regular partners. 
 
A decade ago, Bali's HIV problem – as was the entire country’s – was concentrated among intravenous drug users (IDUs). HIV in heterosexual men and women began its steady upward climb in 2005 in Bali, as the number of new infections of IDUs living with HIV steadily declined. Needle exchange programmes as part of an overall “harm reduction” initiative targeting drug users since 2007 helped to bring down new drug-related infections. 
 
(Source: IRIN PlusNews, Denpasar, 3 January 2011)
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Ethiopia: 5-Year Plan to Half New HIV Infections 
 
Ethiopia's government has come up with an ambitious plan to halve new HIV infections, quadruple its annual condom distribution and put 85% of people who need life-prolonging HIV medication on treatment within five years. 
 
An estimated 1.2 million Ethiopians are HIV-positive. According to the government, the country's national prevalence is 2.4%, with stark differences between urban HIV prevalence, which stands at about 7.7% and rural levels of under one percent. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Ethiopia.png" width="180" height="83" alt=""/>
According to UNAIDS, Ethiopia has already managed to bring down new HIV infections by over 25% since 2001. The country's HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO) says prevalence among young people is dropping even more; in the capital it was halved. 
 
While this progress is impressive, stigma and ignorance are still common among young people. According to a recent study, a considerable percentage of young people had never heard of condoms or had no exposure to them. One third of young people aged 12-24 felt that moral people do not use condoms; 48% of young people felt that condoms should not be used within marriage; and roughly half felt that condoms are used by promiscuous people. 
 
According to the five-year plan, the government also plans to increase the coverage of antiretroviral therapy from 60 to 85%. Close to 400,000 Ethiopians require treatment for HIV. 
 
(Source: IRIN PlusNews, Addis Ababa, 23 December 2010) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
News from Global Unions 
 
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF – <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a>) in its latest HIV/AIDS update No. 97 of 1 to 15 December, reports on World AIDS Day activities of its affiliates (see article on WAD above). 
 
The ITF also published an HIV/AIDS survey in the civil aviation sector in order to improve understanding of the impact of HIV and AIDS in the aviation industry.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/unions/ITF.jpg" width="80" height="80" alt=""/>    <img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/unions/BWI New.jpg" width="90" height="81" alt=""/>
The Building and Woodworkers’ International (BWI – <a href="http://www.bwint.org">www.bwint.org</a>) reports on in its work with loggers in Guyana. Guyana, a country of around 750,000, has an HIV prevalence of 2.5% in the age group 15 to 49. Thanks to the cooperation with the ILO and the support from the workplace programme of the US Department of Labor, HIV/AIDS workplace education and prevention programmes are now reaching even the most remote areas of the country, such as logging sites. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Five Years Ago: From the January 2006 Issue 
 
The first issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin was published in October 2005. In current issues, we refer to an article from the same month five years ago and reflect on developments. 
 
In the January 2006 issue of the e-bulletin, we reported on the long overdue commitment by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to ensure continued funding for treatment-based grants when they are denied Phase 2 funding, or they are approaching the end of their term. (Global Fund grants are approved for five years but can be suspended on the basis of a review after two years). Concern had earlier been raised over the fate of the people on treatment when a grant is suspended. 
 
The situation in South Africa, at the time, was characterised by denial at the highest level of government. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) joined activist group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) to push for a new approach to AIDS. In a joint statement with TAC and the South African Council of Churches, COSATU said, “We lament the continued refusal of our national government to declare the seriousness of the epidemic and to mobilise a response on the scale that is needed.” The new campaign, which was launched on World AIDS Day 2005, was designed to more deeply involve unions, employers, and churches in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The organisations demanded that by the end of 2006, at least 200,000 AIDS patients were enrolled for anti-retroviral treatment (the figure at the end of 2005 was 70,000). By the end of 2009, nearly one million were on ART; yet, according to UNAIDS, that is still only 37% of those needing drugs. 
<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. 64, January 2011

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Industri Energi (IE), one of ICEM’s Norwegian affiliates, announced opening of the nomination process for the Second Annual Arthur Svensson International Award for Trade Union Rights. The prestigious award comes with a cash prize of NOK 500,000 (€65,000) and is awarded to a person or organisation for contributing greatly to promoting trade union rights and the strengthening of trade unionism on both international and national levels. 
 
Nominations are due by 1 March 2011, and can be made by Norwegian trade unions, by trade union affiliates associated with global unions, or the global unions themselves. A nomination must contain a solid justification for the candidate, make clear who is nominating the candidate, and spell out the nominator’s relationship with the candidate. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1003.Arthur.Svensson.jpg" width="130" height="145"/>
Arthur Svensson
In 2010, Wellington Chibebe, the General Secretary of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), was awarded the prize at IE’s Congress in Oslo in October. (See the ICEM news article <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4056-Zimbabwe’s-Wellington-Chibebe-Receives-First-Norwegian-Labour-Prize" type="internal">here</a>.) The 2011 award winner will be announced on 16 June. 
 
The award is named after Arthur Svensson, a long-time leader of Norsk Kjemisk Forbund, the Norwegian Chemical Workers’ Association, which merged in 2006 with NOPEF to create 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 union leadership position in developing Norway’s 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. 
 
Nominations can be e-mailed or faxed to Svensson Award Committee Chairperson <a href="http://liv.undheim@industrienergi.no">Liv Undheim</a>, fax no. +47 23 06 13 60. Further information on the award, in English, can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101.arthur%20svensson%20flyer%20EN.pdf " type="internal">here</a>.

Industri Energi’s Second Arthur Svensson Union Rights Award Opened

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The spate of horrid flooding in the Australian state of Queensland has brought out the best in Australian trade unionism. Nearly all unions have either dedicated money to one relief agency or another, with some setting up their own benevolent funds to assist those in need. 
 
The Mining and Energy Division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union’s (CFMEU) Central Council on 12 January authorised A$250,000 to help families caught up in the devastating Queensland floods. 
 
“The donation is our first step in providing hands on relief,” stated Energy and Mining General Secretary Andrew Vickers, who also serves as Chairman of ICEM’s Mining Sector. “Queensland and all of Australia will be affected by these floods as coal production grinds to a halt. The union will be there every step of the way supporting workers and communities.” 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/AUSTRALIAAMWU.jpg" width="90" height="90" alt=""/>
The Queensland branch of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) has established a fund and kick-started it with A$20,000 in seed money. The funds will go to the <a href="http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html ">Queensland Premier’s Flood Relief Appeal</a>. 
 
“This is an important way for our large union membership to show solidarity and make a positive difference to the devastated communities,” said State Secretary Andrew Dettmer. “The floods have had an impact on tens of thousands of AMWU members, their homes and workplaces in Rockhampton, Brisbane, Toowoombia, and throughout the south-east and Central Queensland. 
 
Donations to the AMWU fund can be made to: AMWU Disaster Appeal Account; Bank: NAB; BSB: 082 057; Account Number: 188 989 948. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Australia AWU.jpg" width="140" height="73" alt=""/>
As of last week, members of the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) have collectively donated A$100,000 to the Queensland Premier’s Flood Relief Appeal. In addition, the AWU federal office has contributed A$50,000 and the Victorian branch of the union also has donated. The AWU’s Queensland branch office was closed for a week due to the floods, and only reopened today. 
 
The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has established the Australia Flood Appeal Fund, with both the national office and the Queensland branch each seeding A$5,000 into the fund. The MUA has many port workers and seamen affected since the Port of Brisbane was shut last week, with vessels directed out to sea. 
 
The MUA’s Appeal Fund for international money transfers: MUA-General Fund; Bank: Maritime Mining and Power Credit Union, George Street, Haymarket, NSW 2000, Australia; BSB Number: 062-006; Account number: 10001 0464; CBA Swiftcode: CTBAAU2S.

Australian Unions Give Generously to Flood Relief in Country

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Unit chapel leaders at some 50 corrugated paper operations in the UK, representing some 2,500 Unite the Union members, recently recommended acceptance of a 2010 pay package. Paperworkers represented by both Unite and GMB will now vote in the coming weeks on a pay accord that was agreed to with Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) in mid-December. 
 
The CPI, representing major corrugated boxboard and packaging employers at plants mostly owned by DS Smith, SmurfitKappa, and SAICA, agreed to raise their wage offer from 2.1% to 2.5% last month in response to the unions moving forward on a ballot for industrial action. 
 
The offer, when accepted by members of the two unions, will be retroactive to 1 September 2010, the date a prior one-year accord expired. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1011.peter.ellis.unite.gif" width="140" height="109" alt=""/>
Unite National Officer Peter Ellis
Unite and GMB were set to file for an industrial ballot on 10 January. Unite represents the majority of workers in the UK’s corrugated paper sector, while GMB represents some 800 workers in the sector. 
 
The 14-member joint union/CPI bargaining body began 2010 negotiations in July, but talks became bogged down in October when CPI offered a pay hike of less than half of the retail price index. Unite National Officer Peter Ellis says now that the tentative settlement falls into the upper level of median pay awards in all industries in the UK this year. 
 
Meanwhile, Unite and Kimberly Clark reached an early accord for 2011 that was agreed to by workers in December. The agreement covers 500 workers at two towel and tissue mills, the Northfleet mill in Kent and the Barrow-in-Furness mill in Cumbria. The 2011 pay award, effective 1 February, will be 1.5%, with Unite also winning a lump sum bonus of £1,450. That lump sum will also be calculated into the pension contribution, thus raising the benefit level.

Corrugated Paper Agreement to be Voted on By Unite, GMB Members

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The Building & Woodworkers International (BWI) is calling for trade unionists to register protests with the Indonesia minister of Manpower and Transmigration over jailing of a trade union leader of SP KAHUTINDO, a BWI affiliate. 
 
Sister Nurimah, a KAHUTINDO plant level chairperson at the San Yu Frame Moulding company in Semarang, was detained on 9 December and is still being held at a state prison in Bulu, Semarang, for an alleged assault charge from June 2006. Her arrest conveniently comes at a time when the KAHUTINDO branch was pressing for its first negotiation with the wood-products manufacturer. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101.indonesia.bwi.jpg" width="180" height="135" alt=""/>
In June 2009, 434 of the company’s 700 workers registered for KAHUTINDO representation. A series of union actions had forced the company to the bargaining table, but BWI believes the arrest of Nurimah has been orchestrated by management to intimidate workers and halt bargaining. 
 
To register your protest with the Indonesian government, click <a href="http://www.bwint.org/default.asp?index=3236&Language=EN ">here</a>.

Take Up Protest for Woman Trade Unionist Jailed in Indonesia

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The lockout by U.S. Steel against 900 active workers and 9,000 retirees and widows at a steel mill in Hamilton, Ontario, gained national Canadian attention on 29 January when over 10,000 trade unionists assembled and manifested in wet snow in Hamilton. Some 75 busloads of citizens came to what’s known in Canada as “Steeltown,” angry at their government and manifesting under the slogan “The People vs. U.S. Steel.” 
View video footage of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAb_uR-UFv0">Hamilton Rally</a>. 
 
The Hamilton Day of Action for locked-out members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1005 served as a national rallying cry against the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper and other parliamentarians have failed to make accountable foreign multinationals which buy Canadian assets and then immediately furlough workers and cut living standards. 
 
Both the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL/CLC) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) lent heavy support in making 29 January this rallying cry, as well as national signal that this unprovoked lockout marks undeniably that Canadian investment law is deeply flawed. 
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Quebec Steelworkers in Hamilton 
Photo: John Maclennan
The day’s speeches, placards, and slogans stated just that that. Local 1005 is defending workers, retirees, and widows against an American predator that three years ago bought Ontario-based steelmaker Stelco but immediately began side-stepping a weakened Investment Canada Act. The OFL claims that contrary to provisions in the Investment Canada Act, U.S. Steel has cut 2,200 jobs Stelco jobs in Hamilton and the Nanticoke Works in those three years. 
 
One of the main speakers of the day, USW President Leo Gerard, minced no words in describing the head-lock that corporations have on workers and governments: “Everywhere on earth, these corporate bastards are trying to pick our pockets. I’ll be damned if I’m going to stand by and let them take our pensions. We have to demand that Harper stand up for Canada.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101.hamilton leo gerard.jpg" width="231" height="169"/>
USW President Leo Gerard. (At right, USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann) 
Photo: John Maclennan
The Investment Canada Act is supposed to provide a “net benefit” to Canadians when foreign ownership acquires Canadian-based assets. Steelworkers of Local 1005, along with retirees and widows from the Hamilton Works, made the strong statement Saturday that they are victims, thrown off their jobs because they refuse to have their rightful benefits stripped from them.
The U.S. Steel lockout, now beginning its 13th week, centers on the company’s demand that retirees and widows lose pension indexing calculations, a sum meant to meet inflation costs amounting to C$30 per year, depending on different pension levels. U.S. Steel also wants to close off the defined benefit plan for new workers, certainly no “net benefit” to young Canadian workers. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101.hamilton rallypanorama1.jpg" width="369" height="161"/>
Photo: John Maclennan
Bus-loads of loyal steelworkers from Quebec arrived and made USW Local 1005 supporters proud that such national unity crosses provincial boundaries. Buses of steelworkers also came from Sudbury, Ontario, where a foreign multinational also has slashed jobs and living standards, as well as from U.S. Steel’s Great Lakes mill in the US state of Michigan. 
 
Union delegations turned out in full from the Canadian Autoworkers’ Union (CAW), Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The OFL and CLC led the larger call across Canada. Scores of trade union delegations from teachers’ unions, to the Ontario Public Service Union, to ICEM-affiliated Power Workers Union (PWU) and the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union also lent their support. 
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Bill Mahoney
Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina, an outspoken critic of U.S. Steel’s conduct in his city, spoke at Saturday’s “The People vs. U.S. Steel” manifestation, as did MP Chris Charlton, the leading national politician currently out to refine the Investment Canada Act. Other speakers included CLC President Ken Georgetti, OFL President Sid Ryan, and Bill Mahoney, a victim himself who has put to words what Local 1005’s fightback symbolises. 
 
Called the “Protest Poet,” Mahoney has been retired from Stelco’s Hamilton Works for five works and has penned some 25 poems on social erosion. One, entitled “Scrooge Comes to Town,” reads: 
We are fighting for our dignity, united young and old 
All across the country, the story is being told 
Of our proud community whose dignity won’t be sold 
We are fighting for our country, Canada is our home. 
Prior ICEM reports on the struggle by USW Local 1005 in Hamilton can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4101-Flawed-Investment-Canada-Act-Again-Seen-in-Steel-Lockout " type="internal">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4190-Rally-Slated-29-January-in-Canada-to-Support-Locked-out-Steelworkers " type="internal">here</a>.

Over 10,000 Manifest in Hamilton Against Canadian Government, U.S. Steel 

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ICEM Colombian affiliate Sintracarbón averted a strike last week at the world’s largest set of coal mines, and accepted a two-year labour accord with Carbones del Cerrejón, the producer of rich thermal coal from La Guajira state that is owned jointly by AngloAmerican, BHP Billiton, and Xstrata. 
 
In a statement, the ICEM praised the new contract, calling it a result of respectful social dialogue, a process set in place with ICEM assistance back in 2004. The economic stakes counting down to a planned 8 February by 4,200 Sintracarbón members were so high that Colombia Vice President Angelino Garzón and Vice Minister of Labour Relations Ricardo Echeverry brokered final talks. 
 
The two-year labour accord between the mining union and Cerrejón calls for a first-year wage increase of 6.5%, retroactive to 1 January 2011, and a 2012 increase of the greater between 5% or 2% above the Consumer Price Index. 
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But more importantly, Sintracarbón continued to make improvements at the bargaining table for the communities surrounding the massive coal complex and tangible gains for over 5,500 contract workers employed at Carbones del Cerrejón and Puerto Bolivar, the company’s deep-water port 150 kilometres from the mine. 
 
The union recorded improvements in health benefits for workers and their families, transportation stipends to reach medical care, education and scholarships for family members, and an increase in the number of housing loans for workers. 
 
Cerrejón stood firm on a first-year wage offer of 6% but following a 27 January strike ballot in which workers voted 96.4% for industrial action, the company first raised its offer to 6.3% and then 6.5% in mediation in Bogotá with the Vice President. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/People/Manfred Warda PREFERRED.jpg" width="120" height="119"/>
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda
“We have witnessed both sides reach the brink of negotiations in the past several sets of two-year talks,” said General Secretary Manfred Warda in the ICEM statement. “The fact that Sintracarbón and Cerrejón have not had a strike in over 20 years is testament to mutual respect and shared responsibility by both the union and management in looking after the welfare of communities, workers, and their families.” 
 
The ICEM congratulates the union members of Sintracarbón for mobilising for job action and then winning a deserved 2011 pay increase of 6.5%, better than double Colombia’s current 3.19% CPI. The ICEM notes that Cerrejón is a highly profitable enterprise for the parent companies, as well as for Colombia, which exported 76 million tonnes of coal in 2010 – 31 million tonnes of which was generated by the members of Sintracarbón.

Sintracarbón, Cerrejón Reach Satisfactory Terms in Colombia

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