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The Pulp and Paper sector of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Union (ICEM) elected Jan-Henrik Sandberg, President of Sweden’s Paperworkers Union (Pappers), as chairman of the global sector. Sandberg replaces Jouko Ahonen, President of Paperiliitto of Finland, who will become the head officer for the Council of Finnish Industrial Unions (TP) on 1 June. 
 
Sandberg’s nomination came from a work group meeting of Geneva-based ICEM’s Pulp and Paper sector on 23 May, and the election came on 25 May by the ICEM Executive Committee. 
 
Sandberg, 52, has been President of 18,000-member Pappers since 2006. Prior to that, he worked for 17 years as a recovery boiler operator in the pulp mill of Korsnäs AB in Gävle, Sweden. He served as Pappers local branch chairman at Korsnäs in Gävle from 2001 to 2006 and previously served as education director of the branch union. 
 
Ahonen had served as President of Paperiliitto since 2003. In his new duties with TP, he will oversee collective bargaining and industrial policy for 14 Finnish trade unions. 
 
Both Ahonen and Sandberg steered their respective trade unions through pivotal and successful labour disputes in their countries, Ahonen in a 2005 industry-wide lockout in Finland and Sandberg in a 2010 strike by paperworkers across industry in Sweden. 
 
The ICEM Pulp and Paper sector serves as the global coordinating and support-giving body for 90 trade unions across the world in the pulp, paper, and packaging industries. The ICEM is a global trade union federation representing 20 million workers in 132 countries. 
 
For further information: Dick Blin, ICEM Pulp and Paper Officer, <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 22 304 1842.

ICEM Pulp and Paper Sector Elects New Global Chairman

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A year ago tomorrow, 28 June, Honeywell Inc. ruthlessly locked 228 American steelworkers off their jobs at a uranium conversion plant in Metropolis, Illinois. Two days ago, on 25 June, those union members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669, together with 800 supporters, held a one-year anniversary rally in the Metropolis town square. 
 
The mood was somber but angry due to Honeywell’s economic stranglehold on workers’ lives, yet defiant mainly because the company has dared to risk the safety and well-being of 6,400 residents of this Ohio River city by operating the plant during the lockout. 
 
In Metropolis, Honeywell mills yellow-cake uranium into uranium hexafluoride (UF6) that is frozen and then sold to companies for nuclear power applications. For the past nine months, Honeywell has been using scabs provided by a contractor to do this dangerous work. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.usw honeywell.jpg" width="159" height="199" alt=""/>
USW District 7 Director Jim Robinson
At Saturday’s rally, workers and community members took notice once again to the dangers an outside workforce brings to their city: on 22 June, the US Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) levied 17 serious workplace safety violations against the company and its scab workers. 
 
The violations stem from a 22 December 2010 release of hydrogen fluoride (HF) vapors. OHSA citations include failure to address human factors in operating valves on HF tanks, failure to establish written procedures to maintain the integrity of process equipment, failure to establish and implement written procedures to manage changes to process chemicals, equipment and procedures, and a deficient incident report that did not include factors contributing to the vapor release. The 17 violations mean US$119,000 in fines if Honeywell is unable to negotiate that amount downward. 
 
The 22 December HF vapor release was not the only time Honeywell has put the community at risk. On 5 September 2010, two days after the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission unbelievably gave approval for Honeywell to re-start the final two steps of a four-step uranium hexafluoride converting process, Metropolis was shook by a loud boom. 
 
Inside the plant, accumulated hydrogen reacted with fluorine gas during a venting process, causing the boom. Fortunately, the accident occurred in a non-regulated area of operation, meaning away from the handling of yellow cake uranium. 
 
For workers and community supporters who gathered Saturday, these incidents have become a daily reminder of the threats posed by a hugely profitable company as it unnecessarily tries to spiral downward work terms and conditions on a skilled and unionised workforce. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.honeywell safety matters.jpg" width="131" height="214" alt=""/>
Metropolis, Illinois, is Concerned with Safety
To be sure, USW Local 7-669 and Honeywell would already have a new labour contract and experienced workers would have been back on the job if it had not been for the company reneging on a deal. In bargaining on 6 June, the two sides reached a compromise and a tentative agreement was imminent. Honeywell’s negotiators said it would draft the agreed-upon language and formally present it the next day in talks. 
 
But on 7 June, the company withdrew bargaining table agreement from the day before to maintain overtime pay after eight and 12 hours worked, and returned to its original and regressive proposal of time-and-a-half pay only after 40 hours had been worked. Local 7-669’s bargaining team already had made compromises to end the lockout. But Honeywell’s bad-faith reversal meant the company was not ready for the lockout to end. 
 
The effect was another insult aimed at the community and at steelworkers of Local 7-669, who most assuredly will return – perhaps soon – to their jobs but with a bitter taste in their mouths about all things Honeywell. 
 
In the three weeks since the failed settlement, Honeywell has publicly chastised Local 7-669 for failing to provide the company with further bargaining dates. Local union President Darrell Lillie made it clear at the 25 June anniversary rally that Honeywell can now end the lockout with a telephone call or fax over the final conclusive issues. 
 
The overtime issue is foremost. Other issues to be resolved, but not considered deal threatening, are company insistence that workers who take Family and Medical Leave under the US federal statute, must concurrently take vacation leave; a different pension pan for future new hires; and company-paid meal allowance for staff who work overtime hours. 
 
At the Saturday, 25 June rally, headlined by USW District 7 Director Jim Robinson, who travelled seven hours together with steelworkers from Chicago and northern Indiana on buses to southern Illinois to support Local 7-669, Illinois state legislators Brandon Phelps and Gary Forby told the community that they will now commence hearings in the state capital of Springfield on Honeywell’s reckless disregard for community safety. 
 
ICEM coverage of the US company’s callous social conduct in its home country can be found at these four links: <a href="/en/3-Energy-Oil-and-Gas/4429-EMCEF-EMF-EPSU-Condemn-Honeywell-Lockout-in-US " type="internal">15 May 2011</a>, <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4120-Talks-Again-Fail-in-Honeywell-s-US-Lockout-of-Steelworkers " type="internal">29 November 2010</a>, <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4066-Talks-Fail-Between-USW-Honeywell-in-US-Uranium-Lockout " type="internal">18 October 2010</a>, <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3977-Lockout-of-USW-represented-Uranium-Processing-Plant-in-US-Continues " type="internal">6 September 2010</a>.

Steelworkers Mark Year-long Honeywell Lockout in US

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In New Zealand over the weekend, ICEM joined host union, Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia in calling for recovery of the bodies of 29 miners killed inside Pike River Coal Ltd.’s colliery. The unions want the miners’ remains returned to families before the mine is sold and reopened. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, ICEM Japanese Affiliates Federation (JAF) General Secretary Yoshio Sato, and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person Phee Jungsun joined EPMU leaders on 1 July in making the demand at Greymouth and then again the next day at the Pike River mine in New Zealand. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.pike river mine photo.jpg" width="183" height="159"/>
At a press briefing in Greymouth, the trade unionists said it was morally irresponsible for New Zealand’s government to allow the trustee of the mine, PricewaterhouseCoopers, to sell the mine and allow production to begin before bodies are recovered. The unionists also met with families of the deceased miners, their representative Bernie Monk, and Greymouth District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn, who is adamant that victims’ families get a full accounting of events of the November 2010 methane gas explosions. 
 
The ICEM delegation on 2 July laid a wreath in memory of the 29 at the Pike River colliery, New Zealand’s largest underground mine laden with seams of premium metallurgical coal under the Paparoa Range of the South Island. 
 
On 19 November 19, a horrid methane gas blast killed 29 miners, including 11 members of ICEM affiliate EPMU. It was the worst New Zealand mine disaster in 119 years, killing 24 Kiwi nationals, two Australians, two UK citizens, and one South African. A subsequent explosion occurred on 24 November, after which authorities declared the miners dead, and in the days that followed two further explosions occurred. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.pike river manfred lays wreath.jpg" width="196" height="160"/>
Warda lays wreath
“Mine workers have a special bond with one another and we will use our influence globally to assure that production at Pike River does not re-start until the bodies are recovered,” said Warda. 
 
EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little and Assistant National Secretary Ged O’Connell were part of the delegation. Little said New Zealand’s government must be mindful that the Pike River catastrophe had reverberations world-wide, highlighting the nation’s lax mine-safety regulations. 
 
O’Connell said recovery of miners’ bodies remains a priority for the EPMU. The trustee or prospective owners, he said, “must have a recovery plan for those bodies to the satisfaction of the families before they consider mining coal, or making money out of that mine.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.ID of missing miners pike river.jpg" width="215" height="161"/>
Name badges of those miners still to be recovered from the mine
PricewaterhouseCoopers became receiver of the mine in January after Pike River Coal Ltd., an enterprise previously owned by New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd. with minority stakes held by Indian and Asia steel-making concerns, filed for bankruptcy due to the tragedy. The mine ramped up to full production only in 2010. It contains reserves of 17.6 million tones of hard coking coal. 
 
PricewaterhouseCoopers had hoped to sell the mine’s assets by June, but a possible sale has now been pushed backed until later in the year. Meanwhile, a Royal Commission conducting an inquiry into the search and rescue attempts, and the safety and government regulatory policies surrounding the Pike River tragedy. The Commission held a preliminary hearing in Greymouth on 5 April (see <a href="/en/97-Sustainable-Development-Health-and-Safety/4385-Royal-Commission-Convenes-over-Pike-River-New-Zealand-Mine-Deaths " type="internal">ICEM report</a> here), and will begin full proceedings on 11 July. 
 
Prior to visiting the South Island and the Pike River mine site, the ICEM delegation laid a wreath in the city of Christchurch near the Canterbury Television site in memory of a Turkish student, 31-year-old Didem Yaman, who was killed there by an earthquake earlier this year. She is the niece of a member of ICEM-affiliated Petrol-Is in Turkey.

New Zealand: ICEM Wants Bodies Recovered from Inside Deadly Pike River Mine

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Three regions of the ICEM held Regional Conferences in the last three weeks. 
 
The ICEM Asia-Pacific Regional Conference was held in Bangkok on 28-29 June, with 124 participants from 15 countries. The first day was dedicated to discussion on priority issues “Organizing Multinational Corporations (MNCs)” and “Contract Labour”. During the second day, delegates were briefed about the merger process. The strong sense of solidarity and positivity towards merger with the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), and the International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) was manifested by participants. ICEM Asia-Pacific affiliates are well acquainted with the merger process. Eleven representatives of the IMF and ITGLWF joined the meeting and had an opportunity to interact with ICEM member unions, and discuss future joint activities. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.ap regional conference.JPG" width="309" height="161"/>
The Central Europe ICEM Regional Conference was held on 15 June in Balatonszemes, Hungary. Participants were from ICEM member organisations in Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Serbia. The host organisation was the Federation of Trade Unions of Chemical, Energy and General Workers, (VDSz), under President Tamas Szekely. Guests from the IMF and ITGLWF also took part in the conference. 
 
During the conference, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda gave a summary report on the activities of ICEM, campaigning and global framework agreement developments. The creation of a new international industrial federation was discussed. Anatoly Surin reported on ICEM activities in the region, and Mato Lalic on ICEM project activities in the region. 
 
Juraj Blahak, President of EKHOZ Slovakia was re-elected as President of the ICEM Regional Council of Central Europe. All the participants agreed with the application of the Independent Trade Union of Energy workers of Kosovo to become an ICEM member organisation. 
 
The North America Regional Conference on 13-14 June in Ottawa, Canada, passed two resolutions firstly supporting the Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Empresa Industria Vidriera del Potosí S.A. de C.V. (SUTEIVP) glass workers in their conflict with Industria Vidriera del Potosi S.A. The second resolution was a wide commitment of the region to continue support in solidarity for trade union rights in Mexico. The Conference discussed and supported the creation of a new International.

ICEM Regional Conferences Support Creation of New International

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
General Electric (GE) workers in America ratified a four-year labour agreement in late June that now sets a pattern for 15,200 unionised GE workers in the US. Members of both ICEM-affiliated United Electrical, Radio, Machine Workers’ of America (UE) and the International Union of Electrical Workers / Communication Workers of America (IUE/CWA), representing 11,500 of those workers, gave approval to the deal in local-by-local voting at some 40 union branches in late June. 
 
The new collective agreement came together on the final expiry day of the past contract, 19 June. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4501-Tentative-Pact-Reached-in-US-for-15-000-General-Electric-Workers" type="internal">ICEM news article</a> of 20 June here.) The contract calls for adequate wage, bonus, and retirement provisions over the next four years, but it also contains concessions on health care coverage.  
 
The UE said the new contract “contains some improvements as well as some major deficiencies,” and blamed the deficiencies on a difficult bargaining climate and GE’s anti-union tendencies in the US. Nevertheless, the UE-GE Conference Board of America’s independent union recommended acceptance of the four-year proposal on 23 June. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/US IUE CWA.jpg" width="228" height="78" alt=""/>
The IUE/CWA also recommended the agreement. “These were difficult negotiations in a difficult economic climate,” stated said IUE-CWA GE and Aerospace Conference Board Chairman Bob Santamoor. “Members evaluated the package as whole and found it acceptable.” Thirty-four IUE/CWA local branches, representing 7,800 GE workers, voted accumulatively by 70% in separate branch referendums for overall acceptance. The UE did not announce its vote tally. 
 
The agreement calls for a first-year bonus due this month of US$5,000, with benefit increases in proportion to that award. In June 2012, workers will get a 2.25% increase, while in 2013 and 2014, wage hikes of 2.5% and 3% will go into effect. GE will outlay US$76 million for the first-year bonuses. 
 
Union members will receive modest pension benefits over the life of the agreement, and will see an improved cost-of-living formula each year. That benefit represents a 12% improvement over the past formula in inflation protection. The unions also won an additional sick day per year and added vacation days. 
 
Modifications were made regarding the Special Early Retirement Option (SERO), with a window reopener in 2011 for 400 applicants ages 55 to 59 with 30 years of service. A Voluntary Retirement Incentive Payment (VRIP) window was also negotiated for workers 60 years or older. 
 
The health care concession is higher yearly deductibles on medical care and benefit reductions to a co-payment system for health care visits and prescription drugs. These regressive contract changes regarding health care costs bring unionized workers down to levels unilaterally imposed by GE for non-union salaried workers. 
 
Of the majority of 11,500 GE workers represented by the IUE/CWA and UE, the IUE/CWA covers workers at GE Appliance and Lighting Division factories in Louisville, Kentucky, Aviation Division plants in Lynn, Massachusetts, and an Energy Division plant in Schenectady, New York. The UE represents GE Transportation Division workers in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Energy Division workers in Fort Edward, New York. The unions also represent scores of workers at smaller GE worksites that supply products to these bigger factories. 
 
The contract also serves as the template for collective agreements for eight other US unions that represent GE workers.

Four-year GE Pact Takes Effect in USA

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
A united grouping of six Belgian trade unions, representing all unionised oil workers, picketed at the gates of the Belgian Refining Corporation (BRC) last Thursday, 30 June, in protest of the sacking of three workers, calling for the company to spend their money on better terms in collective bargaining instead of unnecessary severance pay. 
 
A nationwide action is also planned. 
 
Two of the three sacked workers were union representatives of ICEM-affiliated Centrale Generale – FGTB, making the company even more liable for unfair dismissal. The three are guilty of no misconduct at all, although management have actively spread lies relating to the intimidation of a security guard and his family. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Belgium ABVV.jpg" width="204" height="69"/>
The Swiss management of BRC, under CEO Massenhaurer, has shown itself to be staunchly anti union, but inventing misconduct stories in order to sack union reps is new. 
 
The BRC refinery is located north of the Port of Antwerp at the centre of the ARA region, owned by European refiner Petroplus Holdings. BRC has production capacity of 107,500 barrels per day, and sells primarily inside Benelux. 
 
The ICEM joins calls of the six unions involved, five of which are affiliated, for the immediate reinstatement of all three sacked worker.

Belgium Unions Unite Against Belgian Refining Corp.’s Sackings 

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The ICEM-affiliated Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) issued an ultimatum on 15 June to the Petroleum Equalisation Fund Management Board (PEF) over the continuing victimisation of its Branch Chairman and other executive committee members. 
 
The senior staff union warned the PEF management that if victimization of its officials continues, workers would reply through industrial unrest not only in PEF but the entire Nigerian oil industry. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaPengassan.JPG" width="143" height="150"/>
PENGASSAN union members hold significant leverage in Nigeria; its members are supervisors at each of the petroleum depots, which transport fuel and diesel throughout the country. The depots are under the control of PEF. 
 
The PEF management has been conducting aggressive interference in union affairs since a recently successful PENGASSAN campaign forced PEF management to promote over 70% of its staff who had stagnated at the same grade for upwards of six years. PEF set up a panel to investigate union member activity in terms of their adherence to union rules, clearly not the jurisdiction of management, and a breach of union independence intended to undermine PENGASSAN. 
 
In a letter to the PEF Executive Secretary, PENGASSAN General Secretary Bayo Olowoshile warned that, “the management of PEF is given a 14-day ultimatum with effect from the date of our earlier letter of June 15, 2011 to respect the Association’s structure, rules, and extant laws on Trade Unions and labour relations or get prepared to face the consequences of full scale national industrial action in the oil and gas industry”.

PENGASSAN Threatens Full-Scale Industrial Action in Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
From the International Metalworkers’ Federation 
 
Dramatic developments take place in Korea at Hanjin Heavy Industries shipyard and Yuseong Piston Ring. Private security forces and riot police forced out protesters from the shipyard and the police issued arrest warrants for Yuseong Piston Ring union leaders who in sign of protest have started a hunger strike in the Buddhist Jogye Temple in Seoul. 
 
Following IMF's recently reported visit on June 24 to the Korean National Assembly where a strong demand was forwarded to the Korean government to stop labour repression and solve the conflict at Yuseong Piston Ring (YPR) and Hanjin Heavy Industries shipyard new dramatic developments have occurred at both places. 
 
According to the reports of the IMF affiliate Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) Hanjin workers were flushed out of the shipyard with the exception of some protesters who tied themselves to Crane 85. Private contractors hired by the Hanjin management cut off electricity and tried to limit KIM Jinsuk's possibilities to communicate with the outer world. Ms. KIM Jinsuk is carrying out an aerial sit-in protest on a company crane. The protest has gone on for 175 days now. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.kmwu.jpg" width="239" height="161"/>
The KMWU also informed IMF that the police issued arrest warrants for the YPR union leaders who staged an unlimited hunger strike in the Buddhist Jogye Temple in Seoul to bring their unjust situation to the attention of the general public. 
 
On June 29 mass rallies took place in Seoul and Busan to protest against attacks on workers whose only crime is their wish to work under secure conditions and to have their collective bargaining rights respected. 
 
The IMF urgently calls on all its affiliates to send letters of protest to the President of Korea, Mr. Lee Myung-bak (e-mail <a href="mailto:president@president.go.kr">president@president.go.kr</a>) and to demand: 
• To pull back riot police and private security forces occupying the workplaces at Hanjin Heavy Industries shipyard and Yuseong Piston Ring YPR factories. 
• To start collective bargaining in good faith in order to withdraw unilateral mass dismissals at Hanjin. 
• To lift the illegal lockout of Yuseong Piston Ring workers and to reinstate union members to their original positions in their original plants (Asan and Yeongdong YPR plants). 
• To stop the persecution of Yuseong Piston Ring and Hanjin Heavy Industries union officials, union members and their sympathizers. 
 
Render solidarity support to the striking workers by sending messages of support to the KMWU international department at: <a href="mailto:inter@metal.nodong.org">inter@metal.nodong.org</a>, with copies to IMF at <a href="mailto:info@imfmetal.org">info@imfmetal.org</a>.

KMWU Calls for Urgent Solidarity Support

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
A branch of ICEM Indonesian affiliate FSP-KEP (SPSI), the Trade Union of Chemical, Energy, and Mine Workers (CEMWU), ended an eight-day strike on 13 July against US-based Freeport-McMoRan at the Grasberg copper and gold mine in eastern Papua province on New Guinea Island. Some 10,000 of the mine’s 18,000 workers downed tools on 4 July after management refused to hear wage demands of the PT Freeport branch of FSP-KEP, instead firing six trade union leaders. 
 
In the negotiated end to the strike that included the union, managers, and local government representatives, Freeport-McMoRan agreed to reinstate the six with backpay for duration of the strike and to also pay the 10,000 strikers their wages over the eight days. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.indonesia freeport mine.jpg" width="184" height="89"/>
4 July March to Kuala Kencana
Grasberg Managing Director Armando Mahler also agreed to fully recognise the democratically-elected leaders of PT Freeport, and to commence full negotiations toward a new collective agreement on 20 July. Union miners are seeking a doubling of their pay from the equivalent of US$1.50 per hour to US$3. Of Freeport-McMoRan’s eight global mining enterprises, Grasberg is the company’s biggest profit contributor, but also pays the lowest salaries. 
 
The company said it was losing US$23 million per day due to the strike. In the opening day of the strike, thousands of miners marched from Timika city to Kuala Kencana, the company’s mining town complex, where they were met by hostility from company security teams. 
 
Grasberg is the world’s largest gold mine and third largest copper mine. The open-cast mining operations sit atop a peak of the Puncak Jaya, Indonesia’s highest mountain. The company has a history there of providing only a small fraction of revenues for development, which in part has caused political friction between ethnic Melanesian Papuans and the Indonesian provincial and federal government authorities. 
 
In non-related Indonesian news regarding the 2004 Social Security law, a key ruling was made by the National Court of Central Jakarta on 13 July. The court found the Indonesian President, Vice-President, eight Ministers, and the Head of Parliament all guilty of failing to implement the national law. The court called on the defendants to implement the legislation immediately. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.INDO COURT ROOM.jpg" width="255" height="160"/>
National Court, Central Jakarta
The law represents a significant step towards improving the lives of ordinary people in Indonesia. However, the government of General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has failed to properly implement the legislation. The Social Security law demands programmes to cover five major policy areas: health insurance, employment injury, old-age, pensions, and death benefits. Employers are obliged to enroll their employees in the Social Security schemes and to jointly pay the contributions. 
 
The three large national trade union confederations KSPI, KSPSI, and KSBSI are united in support of this important reform legislation. A final decision is expected to be made on 22 July.

Indonesia Mine Union Wins Strike, Reinstatement of Sacked Union Leaders

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The second union-wide Conference for the Electric Power Industry was held in Boston USA on 12-13 July, with 60 delegates from 19 countries attending. The ICEM conference was aptly hosted by the Utility Workers’ Union of America (UWUA), which turned out delegates from several electric power branch unions. 
 
Delegates adopted a strong statement condemning recent trends in electric power that prioritise profit-making at the expense of the public good. The statement said unions must continue to promote democratic energy policies, and noted, “Increased globalisation in the Electric Power sector necessitates increased international contacts between unions in the parent multinational country with unions in the countries subject to new investments by these companies.” (The full ICEM Electric Power <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1Conclusions%20of%20ICEM%20World%20Conference%20for%20the%20Electric%20Power%20Industry%20Boston%20July%2012.pdf" type="internal">Conference conclusions</a> can be viewed here.) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.boston. electricity japanese.jpg" width="245" height="160"/>
Denryoku Soren’s Manabu Sasaki
A highlight of the event was a thorough presentation on the work done to save the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant station in Japan following the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. Members of the ICEM-affiliated Federation of Electric Power Related Industry Workers’ Union of Japan, or Denryoku Soren, gave heart-rendering descriptions of their work to cool down reactors after the tsunami cut power to the northeast Japan power station. 
 
The union’s policy officer, Takashi Wakasugi, who hails from Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), said that no one has died from radiation exposure at Fukushima, although two young workers were trapped and killed by the tsunami in the turbine building basement of the 4th reactor. That reactor was on a maintenance shutdown at the time. Eleven Denryoku Soren members and another 180 family members lost their lives away from the plant and over 6,000 homes of union members have been destroyed. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.boston. electricity num.jpg" width="129" height="161"/>
NUM Education Chairperson Helen Diatile Inspired Delegates for Greater Solidarity
Since mid-March, the union has dispatched some 3,500 volunteers from Denryoku Soren in aid and rescue missions. The Japanese unionists, including Kiyoaki Kotabe and Manabu Sasaki, stressed that the natural disaster also affected coal-fired power stations in Fukushima Prefecture, including the Haramachi power plant where some workers were killed. Nuclear power, Sasaki said, accounts for less than 30% of Japan’s power mix. With total electric supply decreasing to 55% after the twin natural disasters, the bulk of the loss came from outages at coal- oil- and gas-fired plants. 
 
The unionists were critical of Japan’s current government administration for laying blame on the utilities and on workers. They said the government insists on imposing indemnity on the affected utilities, and has submitted a bill to Parliament that ultimately would encourage layoffs of Denryoku Soren members and the lowering of working conditions to the bare minimum. 
 
“We at Denryoku Soren will continue to fight to stabilise the situation at Fukushima Daiichi,” stated Sasaki, the union’s Social and Industrial Policy Officer. “We will face all predicaments bravely to secure the safety of the Japanese people and by all and any means, we will restore and revitalize East Japan, which suffered devastating damage. 
 
“What has supported us while we fight for this has been the strong solidarity by the member unions of the ICEM.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.boston. electricity langford.jpg" width="151" height="162"/>
UWUA President Mike Langford
The Electric Conference also included panels on campaigning and on networking, with the latter including the ICEM’s Asia-Pacific Electric Power Workers’ Network by Japanese Affiliates’ Federation (JAF) General Secretary Yoshio Sato, the Nuclear Workers’ Network by David Shier, and an inspired presentation by Ndlela Radebe of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on the newly created Southern Africa Energy Network. 
 
Campaign presentations were made by UWUA Local 389 President Dave Leonardi on the successful UWUA-ICEM campaign to achieve a first collective agreement with waste-to-energy company Covanta in the US, and on privatisation fight-backs by David Black of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees (COPE) in British Colombia and by Saffet Asiksou and Huseyln Sonmezoglu of the Turkish Electricity Authority of Cyprus Workers’ Union (El-Sen). 
 
UWUA President Mike Langford also directly addressed the “virus” of the US that is slowly permeating both developed and developing nations of the world, and said trade unions must rise up to unite against such “anti-people, anti-society practices.”

ICEM’s Electric Conference Condemns Profiteering by Private-Sector Providers

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