English

Español

Français

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy 

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action Plan 2025-2029

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Campaigns

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Women

Youth

LGBTQI+

Gender, equality, diversity and inclusion (GEDI)

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL 

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia 

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean 

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Logos of IndustriALL Global Union

Press

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The ICEM affiliated oil and gas workers’ trade unions in Nigeria, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), are threatening mass strike action if the Nigerian government continues efforts to pass a new legislation without their consultation that will deregulate the sector. 
 
NUPENG and PENGASSAN have the power to shut down all oil and gas installations in the West African country, and are threatening to do so if the government continues unwise implementation of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). 
 
Workers have been frustrated at being excluded from the drafting process, while global oil corporations have been at the centre of negotiations. Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, relies heavily on its oil resources. Although the predominately state-owned company is guilty of inefficiency, NUPENG and PENGASSAN oppose the sell-off of the industry to foreign investors without proper protections for the Nigerian economy and for protection of labour rights in this sector. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaNupeng100.gif" width="100" height="103" alt=""/>
NUPENG and PENGASSAN has issued appeals and demands to the Joint Committee on Petroleum, the Inter-Governmental Committee, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Petroleum and Labour Ministers, and also in writing to President Goodluck Jonathan. These appeals call attention to the ambiguity in areas of the legislation that could easily be exploited by corporations. 
 
The new legislation stands to cancel existing protections set up to rollback casualisation and the outsourcing of labour, already a dramatically growing problem in the sector. 
 
PENGASSAN and NUPENG National Presidents, Babatunde Ogun and Achese Igwe, made a joint statement last week expressing shared concerns and demands. Also co-signing the statement were General Secretaries Bayo Olowoshile of PENGASSAN and Elijah Okougbo of NUPENG. 
 
The ICEM supports the demands of both its affiliates, that the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill should be halted at least until it is made available for scrutiny by all affected parties. The progress of such a strategically important law must be transparent. The Joint Committee of the National Assembly and the Petroleum Minister must include oil workers’ trade unions in all deliberations and all legislation drafting.

Nigerian Oil Unions Threaten Strike over PIB Implementation

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
ICEM’s ongoing Turkey Organising and Social Dialogue Project, through the support of the Dutch national labour centre FNV, organised its seventh regional workshop in Bursa on 15-16 September 2010. 
 
Located in northwestern Turkey, Bursa is the country’s fourth largest city with a population of 1.86 million. The city is an industrial and culturally charged one, once serving as one of the ex-capitals of the Ottoman Empire. Bursa is also referred to as Turkey’s “Detroit” because it is the centre of Turkish auto and auto-component industries. 
 
Auto factories such as FIAT and Renault are located near Bursa, as are auto-supply factories operated by Bosch, Mako, and Contitech. In addition, textile and food industries are equally strong in the city. Traditionally, Bursa used to be famous for being the largest center of silk trade in the Byzantine and later the Ottoman empires, during the period of the lucrative Silk Road. The city is still a major center for Turkish textiles. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1010.bursa.JPG" width="370" height="116" alt=""/>
A number of national and multinational companies within ICEM’s sectors have operations in Bursa. Recently, a labour conflict at French-based auto-plastics supplier Faurecia was provoked when the company sacked shop-floor leaders belonging to ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş. ICEM intervention and vigorous Petrol-İş manifestations won the jobs back. 
 
Trade unions are seeking to organise factories using new and modern tools, and the ICEM’s Dutch project aims to provide those tools. 
 
The Bursa seminar was attended by around 70 trade union leaders, shop stewards, and militants from ICEM-affiliated unions, as well as leaders of other unions in the metals and textiles sectors. The meeting also welcomed national level union officials, namely Mustafa Öztaşkın, President of Petrol- İş, and Alaaddin Sari, Vice-President of Lastik-İş. 
 
The Bursa seminar also hosted several international trade union leaders, including ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, FNV Bondgenoten Trade Union Officer Celil Çoban, Spanish FITEQA-CC.OO International Secretary Isidor Boix, and Phee Jungsun and Kemal Özkan from the ICEM staff. All guests exchanged their knowledge and experiences with participants. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1010.bursa.2.JPG" width="257" height="154" alt=""/>
Warda gave a detailed presentation about ICEM’s structure, policies, and agenda on the first day, and also explained the global union movement’s position and activities on job losses brought on by the global economic crisis. He also spoke on ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, and the necessity for Turkey to ratify this Convention. He discussed ICEM strategies regarding social dialogue, Global Framework Agreements, workers’ networks, sustainable employment, and the cooperation and integration process with other GUFs. 
 
In addition, Warda briefed the participants on labour relations, trade union structures, and social dialogue in his home country of Germany during the second day of the workshop. 
 
ICEM’s Özkan gave a perspective on the various parameters of globalisation, the changing structure of industrial production, global union structures and challenges, Contract and Agency Labour, and various international institutions such as ILO, OECD, Global Compact, and EU instruments. ICEM’s Phee Jungsun shared his experiences in ICEM’s Asia-Pacific Region on organising within multinational companies, social dialogue, and labour practices in Asian countries. 
 
Participants heard a presentation by Turkish trade union expert Üzeyir Ataman, Director of Education and Collective Bargaining of Lastik-İş, on union history and the current labour relations situation in Turkey. Later, the seminar focused on Power and Weak Points, Challenges and Opportunities, and Concrete Organising Targets inside Turkey, with contributions and inputs by participants from the different towns around Bursa. 
 
“The Bursa seminar was very well attended,” said Özkan. “Participants expressed hunger for these workshops, allowing them to better know international trade union instruments at hand. 
 
“I once again realise how important this project is in Turkey,” added Özkan, the coordinator of the two-year project. 
 
The project will continue with an upcoming special youth organising seminar, scheduled for 21-22 October 2010 in Kusadasi in the Eagean region. The project’s two-year run will end with a final conference at the end of November in Ankara.

ICEM’s Dutch FNV Project Conducts Workshop in Turkey

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Oppression of the 30,000 technical and professional employees of PEMEX, Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company, continued on 22 October when the General Secretary of Local 1 of the National Union of Technical and Professional Petroleum Workers (UNTyPP) was given “forced retirement.” 
 
The sacking of Moisés Flores Salmerón of Coatacoalcos, Veracruz State, is a clear attempt to intimidate workers and to block effective organising. He was informed of his “retirement” by the manager of labour relations of PEMEX, Francisco Javier Ramirez Rodriguez. There was no disciplinary procedure of any kind, and ironically came nine days after the PEMEX CEO appeared before the Mexican House of Deputies on 13 October, and expressed recognition and respect for UNTyPP. 
 
PEMEX white-collar staff of UNTyPP achieved official trade union recognition on 19 December 2009, following several years of struggle. After this successful legal battle, culminating in certification from the Secretary of Labour and Social Welfare 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/ICEMoil3.JPG.JPG" width="110" height="109"/>
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. 
 
A global campaign putting pressure on the Mexican House of Deputies from March 2010 did lead to some reinstatements of those sacked, and to some limited progress in negotiations, although the PEMEX management chooses to conduct dialogue mostly with the corrupt union STPRM, with whom “protection contracts” have been agreed. 
 
This is the second time that Moisés Flores Salmerón has been sacked by PEMEX for trade union activity. The first sacking came seven years ago. He was reinstated last year. 
 
Also in Mexico, the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) held a strategy meeting on union building in Mexico City on 13-14 October, seeking ways to jointly build democratic union power in Mexico. The meeting, which included participation by the ICEM, was a follow-up to the <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3882-Mexican-Teach-in-Charts-North-American-Union-Solidarity" type="internal">Mexico Teach-In</a> conference in Toronto, 20 June. The ICEM proposed to carry out action days at Mexican embassies and a tour for Mexican trade unionists in the US and Canada.

Leader of White-Collar PEMEX Union in Mexico Sacked

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Scores of electrical workers descended on the headquarters of the National Power Authority (NPA) in Freeport, Sierra Leone, on 25 October, protesting the failed implementation of promised wage increases. Their target was Energy, Power, and Water Minister Ogunlade Davidson, who workers claim does not even know the number of staff employed at NPA. 
 
The manifestation was not a strike, but a strike is threatened if the government does not follow through on a negotiated 60% wage increase plus other social provisions that are due. In Sierra Leone, a country that is still struggling to come out of an 11-year civil war, the standard of living for workers is among the world’s lowest. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SierraLeone.png" width="150" height="69"/>
At the 25 October protest, electricity workers chanted slogans saying they were tired of waiting for long-awaited salary increases, and growing weary of supporting the government’s Agenda for Change. One demand calls for workers in the meter reading and disconnection service of NPA, some of whom have been working for NPA as casual staff for up to eight years, to finally be put on the official payroll. 
 
Several government leaders were allowed to address the demonstrators but when Davidson himself attempted to speak, he was shouted down. 
 
The leader of the Senior Staff Association for Energy and Water Resources, Emmanuel Wilson Taylor, said 20% of the negotiated increase had been awarded, but the remaining 40%, which was suppose to take effect in early October, was not granted. At a follow-up meeting on 21 October, government officials told union representatives that the remaining salary increase would only be made if workers agreed to forego the many social improvements they were offered. 
 
The ICEM supports the electricity workers of Sierra Leone in their justified efforts to improve their working lives and their livelihoods.

Public Sector Electrical Workers Protest in Sierra Leone

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person Phee Jungsun visited ICEM affiliates in India and Pakistan 18-22 October. The mission was to increase understanding of the challenges facing ICEM members in those countries, and to coordinate ICEM support. 
 
The activities in India included a joint meeting with the four ICEM Indian affiliates, in Nagpur, 19 October. Those unions are the Indian National Mineworkers’ Federation (INMF), The Indian National Cement Workers’ Federation (INCWF), the Indian National Diamond & Ornaments Workers’ Federation (INDOWF), and the HMS Chemical Mazdoor Federation. 
 
The National Chemical and Petroleum Federation joined the meeting as an observer. The meeting was chaired by Warda and Brother BK Das, INMF General Secretary, who also serves as the India Representative of the Council of ICEM Indian affiliates, formed in 2009. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1010.india.meeting.JPG" width="275" height="183" alt=""/>
The common focus of the four unions is on issues of Contract and Agency Labour (CAL), and organizing. The INMF reported on progress in mines in the state of Orissa, where a collective bargaining agreement was obtained to provide equal benefits of social security for CAL workers. In the cement sector, around 60% of all workforces are CAL workers. Several unions were set up by CAL cement workers, who then either joined INCWF or applied for membership directly to ICEM. Cement employers sack CAL workers whenever they try to form union or to join. 
 
The proposal was agreed by affiliates to hold a joint rally and symposium in New Delhi, the capital of India, on the issue of national legislation and social security benefits for CAL workers. It will be a joint action with the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and the International Textiles, Garment, Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF). 
 
In the chemicals sector, due to common characteristics of small numbers of employees in a company, trade unions are not powerful, except for in the large state-owned fertilizer or petro-chemical companies. 
 
Pharmaceutical unions in MNCs were active until ten years ago, but have been destroyed by aggressive relocation strategies of employers, seeking unorganized workforces. Contrary to the high economic growth rate every year, trade unions in the manufacturing sector are in decline, especially in private companies. The unification of trade unions in Indian manufacturing seems more and more necessary. 
 
The mission continued to Karachi, Pakistan, on 21-22 October, where meetings were held with the three ICEM affiliates: the Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF), the Pakistan Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Union (PCEM), and the Pakistan National Federation of Chemical, Energy, and Pharmaceutical Workers’ Union. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1010.pakistan.jpg" width="246" height="185" alt=""/>
ICEM Mission to Pakistan
The Secretary General of the PCMLF, Sultan Muhammad Khan, and Pir Muhammad, Education Secretary, presented the challenges of the major industry federation, based in Quetta, Balochistan Province. It is the largest mining union in Pakistan, with a total membership of 130,000. Members suffer from occupational diseases, including TB, and Hepatitis A and C, with high numbers of fatal accidents at work. The numbers of death at work cases are 136 per year, with little help from the government since many labour inspectors are corrupt. 
 
The PCEM, led by General Secretary Muhammad Suhail, has 2,000 members, and is based in Karachi, Sindh Province. 
 
The Pakistan National Federation of Chemical, Energy, and Pharmaceutical Workers’ Union, led by General Secretary Khalil Ur Rehman, has 1,500 members, and is also based in Karachi. The union has national affiliation to the APFOL-PWF, an ITUC affiliate.

ICEM Supports Pakistan, India Affiliates in Tough Challenges

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
As the mineworkers’ strike at Gammon Gold’s El Cubo mine in Mexico’s Guanajuato State was deferred to the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board, the authority abandoned all activities and took summer vacations until August. 
 
The recess forces workers to continue the strike with no possibility of settlement before labour authorities return to litigate and rule on the legality of the strike. The authority gave no instruction to Canadian-based Gammon to start negotiating with the workers. 
 
The 409 workers are represented by Section 142 of ICEM-affiliated National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Related Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMRM), or Los Mineros, at the mine in south-central Mexico. 
 
As previously reported by ICEM, the strike began 30 June, primarily because of Nova Scotia-based Gammon’s refusal to make profit-share payments to workers, a condition that had been agreed to in bargaining with the union in return for a lengthening of miners’ work days from eight- to ten-hour shifts. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/04miningsafety.jpg" width="180" height="132"/>
In the absence of a profit-sharing arrangement, union leaders took strike action, demanding a bonus of 50,000 pesos (US$3,968) per worker. A further demand was that the company improve safety standards at the mine, following five deaths at the site in recent months, accidents which were not properly investigated or even sometimes not recorded by authorities. The families of the five dead miners have not received any compensation. 
 
As was predicted by the ICEM in an earlier, 28 June, report (see <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3896-El-Cubo-Mexican-Mine-Shut-in-Attempt-to-Crush-Union" type="internal">here</a>), the company has moved to restart production with scab labour. This decision was authorised by Labour Minister Javier Lozano, who pushed through a ruling via the Federal Conciliation Board for 70 “emergency personnel.” The obvious anti-union stance of the Mexican government is again illustrated by these rulings and lack of pressure from the authorities on Gammon to negotiate with Section 142. 
 
Gammon Gold has repeatedly claimed that it does not have the financial resources for profit-sharing payments, which are mandated by law, or to make improvements to worker safety at the mine. Los Mineros filed for a fiscal audit to be conducted by the Mexican Treasury into Gammon, in May 2010. In typical government inaction regarding Los Mineros, there has been no response to this request. 
 
In a familiar trend now used in Mexican labour conflicts, workers at El Cubo were physically attacked by the company’s private security team on 18 June. 
 
Gammon Gold recorded US$207 million in revenue from gold and silver mining operations in 2009. The company operates exclusively in Mexico, with a large gold-silver complex in the northern state of Chihuahua, known as Ocampo. Exploration work is on-going at the neighbouring Guadalupe y Calvo gold-silver mine, and Gammon recently acquired the El Mezquite and Venus projects in the states of Zacatecas and Chihuahua, respectively. 
 
Gammon Gold’s director in Mexico, Luis Chavez, was previously the Director of Mines in the Ministry of Finance, and then Director of Mines in Coahuila State government, a position he held when 64 miners died inside the Pasta de Conchos mine in February 2006. After protecting Grupo México in the wake of the accident, Chavez moved to his current position as head of Gammon Gold. The corrupt links between the Mexican government and Gammon Gold are deep. 
 
Politicians in the country’s Senate and House of Representatives demanded that Labour Secretary, Javier Lozano, act as mediator to the conflict.

Mexico Government No Help in Resolving Gammon Gold Mine Strike

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Hundreds of trade unionists backed by their unions and led by New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) President Helen Kelly fiercely manifested outside the National Party’s annual conference in Auckland on 18 July, protesting the ruling party’s treachery in launching anti-worker revisions to the country’s Employment Relations Act. 
 
Inside, Prime Minister John Key used his keynote to state that the party’s legislative mandate will now aim to roll back workers’ rights and union rights. For starters, the Nationals intend to pass a law extending the rights-less, 90-day probationary period, now at workplaces with fewer than 20 workers, to all workplaces. 
 
The policy paper that formed Key’s surprise keynote speech broke earlier commitments made by the prime minister to trade unions and the NZCTU that hard-line changes to the Act would not occur. Several NZ unionists at the manifestation showed their anger by skirting security to take the protest inside the Auckland casino/hotel where the National Party was meeting. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1007.Helen-Kelly.NZCTU.jpg" width="100" height="150" alt=""/>
NZCTU President Helen Kelly
By Thursday, 23 July, trade unions had met and jointly devised an aggressive mobilization campaign against the legislation. 
 
The Kiwis call the trial 2008 probationary measure “the 90-Day Fire-at-Will” law. Kelly said that nearly one-quarter of all workers employed under the existing scheme for small employers have been sacked. And 47% of those firings are workers under the age of 23. 
 
Other provisions to the National Party agenda erode existing labour law. The test for justified dismissal under the Employment Relations Authority gets weakened; union access to worksites to defend workers gets restricted; workers can trade one of four annual leave weeks for money to stay on the job; observance of statutory holidays can be changed; and stricter proof of illness in order to take sick-day leave will apply if revisions to New Zealand’s labour law takes effect. 
 
“Unfair dismissal changes are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Kelly, citing other draconian provisions of the proposed legislation, including cuts in entitlement, meal breaks, union education funding, and axing the Pay and Employment Equity Unit of government. “To make matters worse, we believe government will also make it more difficult for the Employment Court to question the reason why any worker has been dismissed.” 
 
The country’s Labour Party had introduced legislation to repeal the 90-day probationary law. That party will now coalesce with the Green Party and the Maori Party to attempt to block the Nationals anti-worker agenda. But the biggest voice expected to halt the labour law roll backs will be the nation’s 400,000 trade unionists who will work tediously through their unions to block these spurious changes to labour law.

New Zealand Unions Protest National Party’s Draconian Labour Proposals

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Two weeks after a pair of Norwegian unions, together with ICEM and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) signed a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with Norsk Hydro ASA, two workers’ representatives of the aluminium and energy company’s board of directors journeyed to Pará state in northern Brazil to brief workers and trade union leaders there. 
 
Sten Roar Martinsen, a process operator and full-time union representative from the Kopervik extrusion plant, and Billy Fredeagsvik, also an operator and union representative at Hydro’s Høyanger aluminium smelter, met with workers’ representatives of Brazilian trade unions on 30 March and 1 April. Martinsen and Fredeagsvik are representatives of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) on Hydro’s 11-member board. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1104.norsk hydro. sten roar.jpg" width="100" height="150"/>    <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1104.norsk hydro. billy fredagsvik.jpg" width="100" height="150"/>
Sten Roar Martinsen    Billy Fredeagsvik
The mission, according to Norsk Hydro’s website, was to brief Brazilian workers at a former Vale bauxite mine and aluminium smelter and refinery on the structure and principles for trade union dialogue at Hydro, as well as the impact and significance of the GFA that was signed on 15 March. 
 
In late February, Norsk Hydro concluded the purchase of Vale assets in northern Brazil for US$3.5 billion. Those assets include a 51% stake in the aluminium smelter Albrás in Barcarena, Pará state, 57% of the Alunorte refinery, and a 61% stake in the future Companhia de Alumina do Pará (CAP) alumina plant, which will start up in 2012. A Japanese consortium of 17 companies holds the minority stakes in these companies. 
 
Also, on 30 March, Martinsen and Fredeagsvik met with union leaders at the former Vale bauxite mine Paragominas. As part of the deal, Hydro bought 60% of the 9.9 million tonne mine, as well as other bauxite mineral rights of Vale in Brazil. Hydro will now call its Brazilian mining assets Mineração Paragominas. Hydro will purchase the remaining 40% in 2013 and 2015 for US$200 million in each year. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NorwayFellesforbundet.gif" width="240" height="52"/>    <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NorwayIE.jpg" width="80" height="107"/>
The Norwegian board members also discussed local issues with Pará state workers including access to housing in the rural areas, and health and education. 
 
“This was an important first step,” said Martinsen, “towards establishing the right framework for including our Brazilian colleagues in Hydro’s internal arenas for dialogue, to ensure that the interests and views of all employees in Hydro are represented in the appropriate forums and decision-making processes.” 
 
Added Fredeagsvik, “Through these initial meetings, we have created a solid foundation for further work together. The meetings have been interesting, positive, and highly constructive.” 
 
Besides ICEM and IMF, Norwegian trade unions IndustriEnergi and Fellesforbundet are signatory to the GFA.

Norsk Hydro’s Worker Reps Talk with Trade Unionists in Brazil 

<img height="39" width="100" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" alt=""/>
Bahrain’s authorities and business leaders are retaliating to a general strike led by the national trade union centre General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU) with a campaign of mass sackings, intimidation, and violence against all workers involved. 
 
The general strike was called on 13 March, and ended 22 March, in support of pro-democracy protests in the Persian Gulf island-state. The agreement to end the strike included a promise to GFBTU, an affiliate of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), by authorities that strikers would not suffer repercussions. 
 
Estimates suggest over 1,000 workers will be laid-off during the crackdown, including staff at Alba Aluminum Bahrain BSC, Bahrain Telecommunications Company, Gulf Air, Bahrain Airport Services, and APM Terminals Bahrain at the Khalifa Sea Port. All sackings were due to worker absence during the strike. 
<img height="169" width="140" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1104.abdul hussain bahrain.jpg" alt=""/>
BAPCO Union President Abdul Ghaffar Abdul Hussain
The president of the union at Bahrain Petroleum (BAPCO), Abdul Ghaffar Abdul Hussain, has been fired for his absence during the strike and also for “inciting workers to strike.” The company has begun legal prosecution of Hussain. BAPCO also fired nine other workers, and is investigating the cases of 230 workers who participated in the strike. 
 
BAPCO union President Hussain was central in the creation of the GBFTU. All employees at BAPCO are now fearful of losing their jobs in the coming days. Absenteeism of BAPCO employees on 16-17 March was 60%. 
 
(See <a type="internal" href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/27.ICEM.Bahrain.6April.pdf ">ICEM's letter to the King of Bahrain</a>.) 
 
Last week, security forces closed down the GBFTU headquarters and are expected to soon call the organisation’s president, Salman Mahfooz, in for questioning. Roads leading to the union office were closed and workers were blocked from reaching the headquarters. Most of those workers had been seeking guidance from their union following their sacking. 
 
The GBFTU website has been shut down. Parliament is calling on the government to immediately refer trade union leaders involved in the strike to the public prosecutor’s office. 
 
All members of the GBFTU executive, spanning all industries, have been suspended from work pending investigations. On top of this cynical multi-faceted attack on Bahrain’s independent trade unions, companies are now planning legal cases against the unions in a further attempt to permanently end their activities. 
 
Over 300 activists have been arrested with many missing and at least 20 killed since protesters took to the streets in February, inspired by popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The violent suppression of the Bahraini people’s reform protest has been facilitated by armed forces from neighbouring Saudi Arabia. 
<img height="126" width="108" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/People/Somavia.jpg" alt=""/>
ILO Director-General Juan Somavia
This disgraceful attack on core human and trade union rights of the Bahraini people must end immediately, global trade unions say. ILO Director-General Juan Somavia issued a statement on 6 April calling repercussions to the strike “extremely alarming, in particular as the GFBTU had called on workers to return to work and had been given assurances by State officials that they will not face any punitive measures for their participation in strikes.”

Kingdom of Bahrain Retaliates Against Trade Unions for General Strike

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
A strike by the ICEM affiliate, Pan-Hellenic Federation of Employees in Petroleum Products, Refineries, and the Chemical Industry (POEPDHV), was extended another week until 19 April. The strike began at Hellenic Petroleum’s (ELPE) flagship refinery in Aspropyrgos on 3 April, and then spread to Hellenic’s two other refineries at Elfsina and Thessaloniki after a judge declared the walkout legal. 
 
Greek oil workers are striking over inadequate staffing levels and safety issues at ELPE’s new refinery units at Elfsina and Thessaloniki, as well as resistance to company plans to curb pay gains and link pay with productivity. The strikes, originally of 10-day durations, came with orderly shutdowns to ensure operational integrity of the refineries is maintained, and with assurances that full safety compliance is followed. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1104.greek petro strike.jpg" width="240" height="166"/>
On Thursday, 7 April, POEPDHV announced another week of strike action, due to occur 12-19 April. Three days earlier, a judge denied ELPE’s request for injunctive relief in an effort to declare the strike illegal. POEPDHV President Nikos Orfanos said the extension is in full support of the workers’ struggle and on demand from refinery workers. Further bargaining between the union and ELPE is scheduled for 13 April. 
 
ELPE operates three of Greece’s four refineries and controls 50% of the country’s downstream market. The company is 35.5% owned by the Greek government. 
 
The ICEM fully support its Greek trade union affiliate and calls on the company to adequately staff its new refining units for safety reasons, as well as to justly compensate oil refinery workers.

Greek Petrochemical Union Extends Refinery Strikes until 19 April

Archive