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Dear Sisters, Brothers and Comrades: 
 
You may have heard that I am departing the ICEM and returning to North America and my union, the United Steelworkers (USW). This was a very difficult decision for me, which was determined largely by personal factors. Manfred and the USW have worked out an arrangement for me to assist the ICEM in the transition with replacement staff, so feel free to contact me at jdrexler@usw.ca if I can be of assistance. 
 
While my original leave of absence to work at the ICEM was for two years, the leave was extended and I am finishing with almost 3 ½ years of service to the ICEM. I had an extraordinary opportunity that few trade unionists ever have. I was able to see the world through the eyes of wonderful colleagues and comrades in the many unions I came in contact with. Working together, we were able to build a stronger and more vibrant ICEM North America Region and make important strides in building power against greedy and sometimes brutal multinational employers. 
 
Serving as the ICEM Mining Sector Officer was particularly rewarding. Mining trade unions in much of the Global South play a pivotal role in the broader trade union movements and may well determine the future of civil society in many countries. The struggle to ensure responsible mining investment and sustainable development, the right to organize trade unions without employer interference, improved health and safety of miners, and stopping the scourge of tragic mining accidents remain major challenges. 
 
I express special thanks and appreciation to Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary; Senzeni Zokwana, ICEM President; Andrew Vickers, Chair of the ICEM Mining Sector; Ken Neumann and Dave Coles, Co-Chairs of ICEM North America; and the ICEM staff for their support and counsel throughout my tenure at the ICEM. 
 
I wish all the ICEM affiliates the very best in the future. I know with continued hard work and perseverance that we will build a new and better life for working people throughout the world. 
 
In solidarity, 
 
 
 
Joe Drexler 
 
ICEM - Director of Industry & Corporate Affairs, Mining Secretary and North American Coordinator

Joe Drexler's Letter to ICEM affiliates on his departure

Paperworkers across Spain, belonging to the two major national labour federations, began strike action today in frustration to futile year-long bargaining that has left them nothing. They will repeat the 24-hour action on 3 March. The bargaining between ICEM affiliates FIA-UGT and FSC-CCOO and the employers’ grouping, Aspapel, is for 2010-2012 national sector talks and covers 17,500 workers at some 120 mills and plants. 
 
The dispute is not just over salaries, but adverse salary structures that employers are trying to impose that will prove detrimental to workers in the long term. The dispute also is over Aspapel’s aggressive methods to liberalise work rules, a pivotal factor in worker frustration and not getting a pay increase in 2010. Spanish paperworkers need to hear from us. 
 
Please cut and paste this message, and send to the e-mails below: 
 
Dear Spanish Comrades, 
 
We have heard through the ICEM of your current strike actions and we support you. We are appalled that pulp and paper bosses under Aspapel have stalled bargaining since 2009. Please inform all FIA-UGT and FSC-CCOO paperworkers in Spain of our Solidarity toward their courageous industrial actions. 
 
(Signed) 
 
<a href="mailto:internacional@fsc.ccoo.es">internacional@fsc.ccoo.es</a> 
<a href="mailto:jrodriguez@fct.ccoo.es">jrodriguez@fct.ccoo.es</a> 
<a href="mailto:jcruiz@fia.ugt.org">jcruiz@fia.ugt.org</a> 
 
Early this week, the two unions conducted a picket at the headquarters of Spanish paper company SAICA. Other companies met with strike action today include Torraspapel, Iberpapel, SmurfitKappa, Holmen, SCA, Newark, Papertech, and several others. Paperworkers at one company have pledged to carry out day-long strikes once every week until April. 
 
The two sides are not widely apart on wages, but it is the rabid flexibility changes and revisionist consumer price index (CPI) re-structuring demands that are anti-social. Employers have been very outspoken in their demand of this as a consequence to Spain’s economic situation. Worker frustration over this injustice is very evident in this dispute. 
 
Entering a mediation session at Servico Interconfederal de Mediación y Arbitraje (SIMA) in Madrid yesterday, paperworkers through their unions are seeking a retroactive I January 2010 increase of 3%, with a 1 January 2011 increase of between 1.5 and 2%. In 2012, the unions seek 2-2.5% increases, depending on pay scale structures. Employers are offering one percent less. Please do your part by sending the above message.

Pledge Support to Paperworkers’ Strike Actions in Spain

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Turkish union leaders and militants of the Thrace region convened in early February for solidarity and support in a number of cases of industrial discord occurring in the rapidly-growing manufacturing zone. Five affiliates of the ICEM, the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) met and organized a demonstration at the Free Trade Zone of Corlu. 
 
The protest was in support of a two-month strike by ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş and dismissal of trade unionists by India-base Polyplex company, a plastics and polyester company. (The ICEM has launched a LabourStart campaign on this dispute; please join the <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=868">protest</a> now.)  
 
The demonstration also centered on other trade union infringements, particularly at worksites where organising is underway, and as well on the Turkish government’s recent efforts to modify labour legislation regarding casual, temporary, and precarious work. Thrace is an area of Turkey experiencing a high of foreign industrial investments, ranging from metals to textiles to natural gas, chemicals, and rubber development. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.turkey.ICEM-ITGLWF-IMF.jpg" width="280" height="186"/>
Petrol-İş President Mustafa Öztaşkın (center) Speaks at Joint Demonstration
Attended the formation of this regional coalition of trade unions were union Petrol-İş President Mustafa Öztaşkın, Birleşik Metal-İş President Adnan Serdaroğlu, TEKSTIL President President Ridvan Budak, a member of the ITGLWF, Deri-İş President Musa Servi, also of the ITGLWF, representing leather and shoe workers, and the President of ICEM-affiliated Kristal-İş, Bilal Çetintaş, the Glass Workers’ Union of Turkey. These leaders were also accompanied by local branch union leaders of several unions, political party representatives, and NGO representatives. 
 
The five unions cited above pledge to support each other in the Thrace region in ongoing strikes and recruitment drives. 
 
Nearby to Corlu, 12 factories have been targeted for union organizing, but many union activists have been dismissed from their jobs because of their union membership. Besides Polyplex (a prior <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4212-Organising-Campaigns-of-Petrol-İş-of-Turkey-continue-but-with-Pain-" type="internal">ICEM report</a> can be found here), factories of Yeşil Kundura (shoes), Disa Otomotiv (an auto supplier), Anakonda (metal fabrication), Astaş Alüminyum (aluminum), and Grup Suni Deri (leather) have been targeted for unionisation, and evidence of that can be found with several tents of picketers to be found in front of the plants. In some workplaces, achievements have been made while solidarity and support activities continue, as does several court cases. 
 
“For many days we have been striking at workplaces individually,” said Petrol-İş President Öztaşkın. “But today all the unions striking in the regional come together. We have unified our powers. We have decided to walk together and to organize joint demonstrations and actions. Our hope is that this bond now starting in Thrace will spread to the whole of the country.” 
 
“Regardless of distinction or which confederation the union belongs,” added Birleşik Metal-İş President Serdaroğlu, “we will defend the rights of dismissed workers.” 
 
Musa Servi, President of the ITGLWF affiliate Deri-İş, said, “Employers will try to exploit by establishing factories in free trade zones where union rights are weak. If we act together, we can change this.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.KEMAL BEY TEKSIF KONGRE 2.JPG" width="263" height="167"/>
ICEM’s Kemal Özkan Addresses TEKSIF Congress
To cement this bond between ICEM in its sectors, and metals and textiles, ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries Officer Kemal Özkan spoke at the 18th Congress of the Turkish Textile, Knitting, and Clothing Industry Workers’ Union (TEKSIF), an ITGLWF affiliate, on 19-20 February 2011 in Ankara. 
 
The Congress was attended and addressed by the President of ITGLWF, Hisanobu Shimada, and one agenda item was to conduct an intensive organizing campaign in textiles and related industries where over two million Turkish workers are employed. The campaign will also include a large support and solidarity with Turkish and international unions. 
 
In his letter of congratulations addressed to Nazmi Irgat, unanimously re-elected President of TEKSIF, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said: “We are thankful for active support of the Turkish unions to the work toward creating a joint manufacturing and energy workers’ international. We know Turkish affiliates affiliated to all three organisations will play an effective role and take important responsibilities through support and solidarity.”

Turkish Coalition of ICEM, IMF, ITGLWF Unions Forms in Thrace

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The 55th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women is running in New York City at UN headquarters. The annual Commissions runs from 22 February to 4 March and some 2,000 delegates from 27 nations are in attendance. On opening day, they heard former Chile President and current UN Under-Secretary General for Women Michele Bachelet. 
 
Nearly 200 trade union women are participating in the annual conference, which this year has as its theme access and participation for girls and women in education, training, science, and technology. 
 
The trade union women, behind their union banners and in step with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Education International (EI), and Public Services International (PSI), also used opening day to join New York area trade unionists at Fox News broadcast offices in Manhattan to protest legislative attacks on public-sector collective bargaining rights in the state of Wisconsin. “We are Wisconsin” was the unified chant protesters shouted at America’s right-wing mouthpiece. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.michelle bachelet.jpg" width="132" height="188"/>
Michele Bachelet
Inside the 55th UN Women’s Commission, trade union women called for full rights and protections for domestic workers by adoption of a Domestic Workers’ Convention. The Convention is to be considered at this June’s 100th Labour Conference of the ILO. EI Deputy General Secretary Jan Eastman delivered a statement on the subject in a plenary calling for “full opportunities for education and training for girls and women … leading to productive employment and decent work.” 
 
This year’s Commission on the Status of Women sees the merger of four UN gender institutions into one, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. Bachelet said in her opening remarks this “has a unique and clear mandate to help ensure a seamless relationship” between Member States and UN activities on overcoming gender imbalances. 
 
Bachelet warned not to postpone actions for women’s empowerment on account of the global jobs crisis, stating that progress to date has been “uneven and fragile.”
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.women UN.jpg" width="320" height="153"/>
Canadian Trade Unionists Surround Rona Ambrose 
 
photo: CAW Women’s Programs, Canada
Bachelet said: “As we sit in this room today, there are still too many women and children being trafficked; too many domestic workers who left their families to live in new places, unprotected by labour laws or policies; too many girls forced to leave school or marry too early; too many women and girls who lack access to services. And worldwide,” she added, “there are too few women who are at decision-making tables where peace, trade or climate change agreements are being negotiated.” 
 
Canadian trade union women attending the Commission got a chance to question Rona Ambrose, Canada’s Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women. She spoke at the Commission on 24 February. The union representatives questioned Canada over lack of action and lack of outrage over 800 Canadian women being killed by men, on lax gun registry laws that perpetuate violence, and Canada’s misuse of federal funds for programmes and work on missing and murdered Aboriginal women.

UN Commission on Status of Women Underway in New York City

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In a powerful display of international solidarity, the “Global Days of Action for Trade Union Rights in Mexico,” 14-19 February, were marked by events in over 40 countries, on five continents, including 17 cities in the US and Canada. 
 
The International Textile, Garment, & Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) called for fundamental rights in the Mexican garment sector, where “protection contracts” deny workers of their basic labour rights, as is the case throughout Mexico. 
 
In Mexico, the independent labour movement conducted over 27 actions throughout the country, including visits to embassies of 23 countries, a march and demonstration in Mexico City from the Angel of Independence to the offices of Grupo México, seminars, and a protest rally at the Monument of the Revolution. Each day of action was marked inside Mexico. The leaders of Los Mineros and the SME signed a pact of national unity. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.Mexico City.JPG" width="368" height="163"/>
Mexico City
An agreement was reached with the US embassy in Mexico City to begin regular discussions on the complaints presented, in particular the cases of Los Mineros and SME.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.Mex Toronto.jpg" width="200" height="150"/>
Toronto, Canada
In Canada, high-level trade union delegations met with Mexican ambassadors and consuls in four cities, while pickets continued outside. The Vancouver action was marked by speeches from Los Mineros General Secretary Napoleón Gómez, SME General Secretary Martin Esparanza, and Jorge Castillo Magaña, Assistant General Secretary of the Telefonistas union. See video footage of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/D3Steel#p/a/u/0/Bu_BPIrvlaA">Vancouver, Canada, action</a> here. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.mex washington dc.jpg" width="250" height="175" alt=""/>
Washington DC, USA
In the US, rallies, meetings with ambassadors and consuls, and pickets, sent the clear message to the Mexican Calderón government that pressure is building inside the country’s largest trading partner that labour rights abuses must end. See video footage of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usyexGRbDgI&feature=player_embedded">Washington DC rally</a> in front of the Mexican Embassy here. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu83ni7mQHM&feature=player_embedded">San Francisco</a>, <a href="http://www.fox11az.com/news/local/Mexican-consulate-picketed-by-angry-miners-116483178.html">Tucson Arizona</a>, <a href="http://www.house.state.tx.us/video-audio/press-conference/player/?ram=1102181PCB&id=98&session=82 ">Austin Texas</a>. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.mex geneva.jpg" width="336" height="185"/>
Geneva, Switzerland
In Switzerland, the office of the Ambassador to the United Nations was targeted by a rally, while ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, IMF Assistant General Secretary Fernando Lopes, and UNI SCORE Director Adriana Rosenzvaig met with the ambassador to convey the demands of the action. Ambassadors around the world expressed some concern, but generally denied wrongdoing by the Mexican government. Many made promises to follow-up on the demands. The dialogue and pressure will continue. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.mex australia.jpg" width="220" height="148" alt=""/>
100 unionists rallied on the lawn in front of Parliament House in Canberra
See a video of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoImqEw00_M&feature=player_embedded">Australia action</a> here, where a high-level, cross-sector delegation met with the Mexican Ambassador, and a large rally was organised in front of Parliament House in Canberra. 
 
Some of the other events around the world during the Global Days of Action included: 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.mex japan.jpg" width="281" height="183" alt=""/>
Mexico Embassy, Tokyo: meeting with the Japan Councils of the four GUFs, along with JTUC-RENGO 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.mex sweden.jpg" width="220" height="147" alt=""/>
Sweden: IF Metall met with the Mexican Ambassador in Stokholm
Letters and press releases in Turkey 
 
Meetings and letters in Spain with Mexican Ambassador, Spanish Government, European Parliament. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.mex bangkok.jpg" width="365" height="179" alt=""/>
A joint rally in Bangkok, Thailand, Ministry of Labour, as well as letters to the Mexican Ambassador. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.Embassy of Mexico Moscow.jpg" width="252" height="192"/>
A picket was conducted in front of the Mexican Embassy in Moscow, in temperatures of -25°C, demands were transferred to the Ambassador
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.mex brussels.jpg" width="242" height="203"/>
In Brussels, the Mexican embassy was picketed, with a union delegation meeting the Ambassador, a meeting was conducted with the EU-Mexico Joint Parliamentary Committee
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.mex peru.png" width="280" height="186" alt=""/>
The Mexican Embassy in Peru was picketed
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.mex Jakarta Indonesia.JPG" width="279" height="210"/>
Picket of the Mexican Embassy in Indonesia
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.mex new zealand.jpg" width="261" height="169" alt=""/>
Picket of the Mexican Embassy in New Zealand
Letters were sent from affiliated trade unions from Poland to Puerto Rico, from Norway and Germany to Bangladesh, and many others. 
 
Join the <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=863">LabourStart campaign</a> here and join thousands of protestors in writing to Calderón. 3,000 messages were sent via the campaign in the first week, and the numbers are growing every day. 
 
The actions took place around the fifth anniversary of the Pasta de Conchos mine explosion, where the continued failure to exhume and recover the bodies of 63 of the 65 miners who died there, or to take responsibility for the “industrial homicide” of those workers, and properly compensate their families continues to anger the international labour movement. 
 
The action in support of the democratic and independent trade unions in Mexico was initiated by unions from around the world affiliated to the ICEM, International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), UNI Global Union, and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

Mexico Days of Action Occur Worldwide in Over 40 Countries

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM has joining with sister Global Union Federations, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and the Building and Wood Workers International (BWI), in supporting the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU) in its pivotal role in the peaceful uprising in Bahrain. 
 
On Saturday, 19 February, the GFBTU called for a general strike in protest to the violent put-down of peaceful protests inside Manama's Pearl Square. The strike was called off when their demands were met, namely that tanks be withdrawn from the square and peaceful protests allowed to continue. 
 
The GFBTU joined a social alliance on 24 February, pushing the autocracy of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa to place constitutional limits on the king’s power. The alliance called for the immediate release of all political prisoners, for electoral reforms, and for an immediate investigation to find those guilty for the deaths of seven protestors when they were attacked by government forces. Some 308 political prisoners have been freed. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1102.bahrain gfbtu gs mahfoodh.jpg" width="195" height="155"/>
GFBTU General Secretary Salman Mahfoodh 
But the king refuses to meet other preconditions of dialogue with the opposition alliance, to dismiss his ministers, or to amend the constitution. 
 
GFBTU General Secretary Salman Mahfoodh warned last week, "We also want the government to know that if the police force or army comes again to suppress the protest that we will strike. And we would also strike if we find that a political solution is not forthcoming or if sides aren't negotiating genuinely." 
 
Workers and trade unionists from numerous sectors announced their readiness to back a national strike. Many of those workers are now fighting against punishment over their involvement in the protests. Some have been threatened with job loss, while the majority face docked wages for the days out on strike or protest. The GFBTU is calling for absolutely no disciplinary action taken against workers using their right to protest. The federation contacted the Labour Ministry to inform them of this. 
 
The GFBTU is associated with close to 70 unions, representing more than 20,000 workers. 
 
Bahrain declares itself a constitutional monarchy, but the Parliament gives the royal family, which is Sunni, absolute authority in the Shiite majority nation.

Bahrain’s Trade Unions Key in Popular Uprising for Rights

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="150" height="73"/>
The ICEM, as the global trade union federation representing 20 million workers in the mining, energy, chemicals, and materials industries, together with EMCEF, the European Mine, Chemical, Energy Workers’ Federation, are following with concern present discussions towards establishing a Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Colombia. 
 
Free Trade Agreements represent opportunities to improve labour and human rights in more countries around the world, and can increase access to international markets for developing countries. An FTA between the European Union (EU) and Colombia would, however, symbolically endorse the appalling labour rights violations in the most dangerous country in the world for a trade unionist, and also significantly weaken the pressure on the Colombian government to fulfill its human rights obligations. 
 
The EU signing one of its very first FTAs with a government that has been so clearly complicit in the abuse of labour and human rights is an insult to workers everywhere, and to the core principles of freedom and justice. The effect of this FTA on Europe would be political, not economic, as only 0.3% of EU trade is with Colombia.  
 
Norway, and initially the US, blocked their own FTAs with Colombia, citing human and labour rights concerns. The EU must follow this example. 
 
It is important to note that Colombia is already bound by strong language requiring adherence to key UN and ILO human and trade union rights conventions, under the EU Generalised System of Preferences (GSP+). This agreement instructs the European Commission to mount an investigation and ultimately suspend GSP+ status where key UN and ILO rights conventions are breached. Disregarding repeated UN and ILO recommendations, the European Commission renews Colombia’s GSP+ status without investigation. 
 
So replacing current “binding” labour standard provisions with weaker, “non-binding” provisions in an FTA is not reasonable. Labour rights in the FTA’s Sustainable Development chapter are not subject to the FTA’s dispute settlement mechanism. If Colombia were to breach a central clause on human rights, there would be no mechanism available to suspend the agreement. 
 
There have been 200 trade unionists killed in Colombia in the past three years, simply for exercising their basic rights. The murders are carried out by the army, police, and paramilitaries. Perpetrators are not being brought to justice, and are free continue to act 
 
with impunity. The death tally this year is already over 30. Activists are also silenced by imprisonment on false charges. 
 
The ICEM and EMCEF are absolutely opposed to the EU-Colombia FTA while our sisters and brothers in Colombia continue to be brutally murdered and violently intimidated. 
 
We support and will work closely together with all trade union initiatives of our affiliates all over the world. 
 
One source to take action against the EU-Colombia FTA, or to learn more about the situation facing workers in Colombia is <a href="http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/?link=3_0_3">Justice for Colombia</a>.

ICEM, EMCEF Totally Oppose EU-Colombia Free Trade Agreement

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="146" height="66"/>
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda used his plenary address on 8 June to the 100th session of the ILO’s International Labour Conference to denounce the labour practices of Swiss multinational Holcim, specifically against contract workers at two cement plants in India. 
 
Holcim subsidiaries ACC in Jamul and Ambuja Cement Limited in Rawaan are blatantly violating Indian labour legislation. The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act of India stipulates that contract workers may only be hired to perform non-core functions, and that those who perform the same or similar kinds of work as regular workers must receive equal treatment in terms of wages and conditions. However, contract workers in both plants are employed to carry out tasks which are fundamental to production, but receive only one third of permanent workers’ wages. 
 
Holcim-ACC has refused to respect a Chhattisgarh State High Court ruling that it is using “sham and bogus” contracts, and should regularise 27 contract workers. A recent report found that contract workers at the plant do not have basic personal protective equipment, such as gloves, boots and masks, and are denied access to medical facilities, including basic first aid, in the factory. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.manfred%20ilo.2.JPG" width="327" height="160"/>
Between September 2010 and March 2011, 80 members of Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh (PCSS), the union representing the contract workers, were dismissed by Holcim-Ambuja. Management of the plant repeated refused to participate in conciliation efforts by the Regional Labour Commissioner at Raipur, and in early March the RLC directed the company to reinstate the workers by 25 March. Two days later, the company filed false criminal charges against leaders of the PCSS through two of its security officers. Addressing the ILO’s plenary, Warda said: “We demand that such malicious prosecution, which is an instance of union-busting and illegal labour practice under Indian labour law, be withdrawn and the management negotiate with the union on its justified demands, failing which we will be constrained to take action under international law.” 
 
Warda denounced as “deplorable” the refusal of the Labour Minister of the State of Chhattisgarth to meet with 250 Holcim workers who had travelled to Raipur to demand implementation of the High Court ruling and reversal of the criminal charges against the union leaders. 
 
The ICEM General Secretary also made clear that it is incumbent on the ILO to urgently address the trend towards precarious employment relationships that is undermining the effectiveness of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 for workers all around the globe. 
 
The <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM_Manfred_Warda_ILC_Plenary_Speech%20_8_June%20FINAL.pdf" type="internal">full text</a> of the speech is available here. 
More information about Holcim India’s practices can be found <a href="http://blogs.bwint.org/mnc/category/mnc-info/holcim/">here</a>.

ICEM General Secretary Spotlights Holcim as Contract Workers’ Abuser at ILO

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="146" height="66"/>
In late 2010, the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) carried out research into working conditions in 83 sportswear-producing factories in Asia, together employing over 100,000 workers. One key finding of the research was that Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) is being routinely used by employers in the industry as a way to evade employment responsibilities. 
 
In Indonesia, ITGLWF affiliates SPN and Garteks found that agency workers are being denied basic entitlements including written contracts, pay when taking annual leave and sick pay. In factories supplying multinational sports brands, up to 80% of the entire workforce were found to be on fixed term contracts. 
 
In the Philippines, despite the fact that Article 280 of the Labour Code prohibits the use of contracts workers to perform core functions, a full 25% of workers were employed precariously. In one factory in Cavite, 50% of the workforce were employed on a contract basis. After five months, workers were forced to join the in-house manpower cooperative before being rehired on a new contract. The Filipino Labour Code prohibits the contracting out of work through an in-house agency. 
 
In both Indonesia and the Philippines, the vast majority of CAL workers were not union members. The workers who were interviewed told researchers that the main reason for this was fear that if management found out they had unionised their contract would not be renewed. 
 
A summary of the research findings is available <a href="http://www.itglwf.org/lang/en/documents/ITGLWFSportswearReport2011_000.pdf">here</a>.

ITGLWF Research Shows CAL rife in Sportswear Industry

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="146" height="66"/>
A new update has been published by the ICEM of its PowerPoint presentation on “Contract and Agency Labour and the ICEM CAL Campaign”. This regularly updated presentation, which can be used by anyone, contains not only a considerable number of updated key statistics on Contract and Agency Labour and other forms of precarious work, including the ICEM’s own statistics, but also a wide range of national and international “best practice examples,” highlighting, among other, what unions around the world have done successfully to counter the problem. 
 
The full-length English version of the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/11-05-19%20CAL%20ICEM%20PPT%20for%20website.2.ppt" type="internal">presentation</a> can be found - and downloaded - here.

New ICEM CAL Facts and Figures Overview

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