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The ICEM teamed up with its UK affiliate Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), resulting in justice for two trade union leaders who were dismissed two years ago by Thai Industrial Gases (TIG), the Thai operations of BOC, a British-based global industrial gases company.
The two key leaders were reinstated after a series of negotiation sessions conducted by Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary, when in Bangkok in late August. These negotiations with regional management of BOC were made possible by the prior insistence of Peter Booth, TGWU National Secretary for Manufacturing. TGWU, along with BOC’s head office in the UK, demanded that such negotiations take place. 

   <img height="86" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/icem-logo.jpg" width="100"/>        <img height="83" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UKTGWU.gif" width="150"/> 
The ICEM and TGWU intervention also guaranteed that ICEM affiliate Petroleum & Chemical Workers’ Federation of Thailand (PCFT) will be fully recognised as bargaining representative for some 800 TIG workers at ten worksites in Thailand. 
 
One of the TIG union leaders, Chatree Jarusuwanwong, was back on the job effective 18 September, while the other, Chatchai Paiyasen, will return 1 October. Both will receive nearly two years’ of back-pay for the period they were dismissed. 
 
The two were sacked on 15 December 2004 for carrying out trade union activities. Two months earlier, after TIG workers formed their union following unilateral benefit cuts by the company, a manager of the subsidiary had confiscated official certification papers issued by the Thai Labour Ministry. The two union leaders were fired because they had pressed for the right of collective bargaining, something managers had promised but never delivered. 
ICEM’s Fred Higgs intervened directly in the matter while in Bangkok. By then, TIG managers had the unfair dismissals tied up in the Thai courts system. Months before Higgs’ visit, ICEM had alerted TGWU, who brought the issue before senior British managers of BOC. 
<img height="67" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ThailandFlag.gif" width="100"/>
Higgs began dialogue with TIG managers, as well as with a Southeast Asia regional manager of BOC. The result was a promise to review the case. The decision to reverse the unfair dismissals and award back-pay came early this week. 
 
“This is an excellent example of what can be achieved through global solidarity with our affiliates,” said Higgs. “We’re extremely grateful to the TGWU and to Peter Booth for their efforts. It made the difference.” 
 
Higgs also noted that one of the demands made to BOC management was that the two Thai union leaders be allowed to continue their legitimate trade union activity. 
 
Brothers Paiyasen and Jarusuwanwong expressed their gratitude to the ICEM and TGWU. In a joint statement, they said, “With this victory, we are determined to work hard to develop the trade union movement so that we can do more to help other sisters and brothers who still struggle for their right to organise.” 
 
Noting that they had been off their jobs for some 654 days, they added, “Working with the ICEM and the British TGWU, we felt their efforts achieved a positive change. Before we met the ICEM and TGWU, we were desperate in our fight for reinstatement. This active communication and coordination really made a difference.”

ICEM, TGWU Intervene To Achieve Justice at Thai Industries Gases Company

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 
As you may be aware at the May meeting of our Executive Committee, I announced my decision to retire from my position as General Secretary of the ICEM as of the end of December 2006. This decision was taken on health grounds. 
In response the Executive Committee mandated the Presidium to appoint an Acting General Secretary to cover this position from January 1st 2007 up to our Congress in November 2007. At yesterday’s meeting of the Presidium, Manfred Warda was unanimously appointed to fill this position of Acting General Secretary.
<img style="WIDTH: 336px; HEIGHT: 221px" height="209" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0610ICEMpresidium6.jpg" width="300"/> 
 
From left to right: Manfred Warda, ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana and Fred Higgs
Manfred is currently the International Officer of IGBCE, our German affiliate, and has had extensive involvement with the ICEM Executive and Presidium activities since our merger Congress in1995. Prior to this, for many years Manfred was deeply involved with the work of the Miners International Federation. Clearly Manfred’s experience in the international trade union movement makes him an ideal candidate to fulfil the demanding role he will be undertaking as Acting General Secretary of the ICEM. 
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the support, comradeship and assistance given to me during my period as General Secretary. I am sure this support will continued to be provided to Manfred. 
I would like to end by saying how proud I am to have been a leader of this great federation and to wish each of you, and the ICEM, every success for the future. 
Yours fraternally, 
Fred Higgs 
General Secretary

ICEM Letter to Affiliates on New Acting General Secretary

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On 18 September, energy company Repsol signed a national framework agreement with the two relevant Spanish ICEM affiliates, FITEQA-CC.OO. and FIA-UGT. Present at the signing in Madrid were the President of Repsol, Antonio Brufau, and the two General Secretaries of the respective unions, FITEQA’s Joaquim González Muntadas, and FIA-UGT’s Antonio Deusa Pedrazo. 
 
The agreement with Spain’s largest oil company includes specific protocols on work and family life, on the hiring of people with disabilities, on equal opportunities between men and women, and on victim protection when family violence occurs. 
    <img height="98" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SpainFITEQA.jpg" width="120" alt=""/>        <img height="100" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SpainFIAUGT.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
Affecting 15,000 Repsol workers in Spain, the agreement also contains a salary increase, a clause on maintaining purchasing power, and language on partial retirement at age 60 for some 1,000 workers. These workers will all be replaced by other workers, all with permanent contracts.
Many other issues are dealt with in the agreement, from a reduction in work time for about 7,000 workers, pension plans and training and education, to the recognition of seniority acquired while working under temporary work contracts. The agreement is valid for three years. 
 
FITEQA’s Joaquim González Muntadas said in his speech at the signing that Spanish national labour federations CC.OO. and UGT have begun work on similar industrial relations issues in other regions where Repsol operates, referring specifically to Latin America, and to Argentina in particular. He added that he hopes Repsol engages in maximum collaboration in those efforts. 
 
In a report in the Spanish publication El Mundo Bursatil, Repsol President Brufau stated, “The signing of this framework agreement is not only a reflection of our ability to dialogue, but also of the confidence we have in one another and of the transparency in the relationship between the management of the company and the union representatives.”

Repsol Signs Spanish National Agreement with Two ICEM Affiliates

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On the five-year anniversary of the Toulouse, France, chemicals explosion at the AZF plant, ICEM affiliate FCE-CFDT has called on French energy company, Total, to explain the reasons why it disagrees with reports by multiple experts on the cause of the blast. 
 
On 21 September 2001, one of the worst industrial explosions in France occurred in Toulouse, killing 29 workers and injuring 2,442 others. The nitrogen fertiliser and chemical intermediates facility was then owned by TotalFinaElf. 
 
FCE-CFDT said that the conclusive and final expertise reports state that it was an accident that could have been prevented had the proper safeguards been in place. “Total, for its part, does not agree with the conclusions of the expert magistrates. It is, for that reason that FCE-CFDT insists that the management of Total come out with its own explanation on why the tragedy occurred.” 
<img height="150" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/FranceFCECFDT.jpg" width="115"/>       <img height="50" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/FranceFedechimieCGTFO.jpg" width="150" align="absMiddle"/>
The union’s statement added that the experts’ reports bring pressure both on not only the société Grande Paroisse, Total’s chemicals and fertilisers business, but also on senior Total management itself to explain its contradictions. “For the truth to come out is the best way to honour the victims of the tragedy. Without the real reasons, society cannot learn the lessons needed to avoid such future industrial accidents,” stated the union. 
 
Many of the workers killed or injured in southern France on that fateful day were members of FCE-CFDT, or ICEM affiliate Fédéchimie CGT-FO.

Total Pressed to Explain It’s Side to 2001 Toulouse Blast

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The ICEM is alarmed at the number and scope of mining accidents that have occurred during the month of September. The Global Union Federation calls on mining houses to undertake more thorough precautionary measures regarding safety and health inside their enterprises. A look at September’s most public tragedies reveals that companies have compromised safety for greater production, spurred by the current high commodity pricing of natural resources. 
 
Mining accidents in September brought death to hundreds of miners in India, Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan. The death toll rose also in China’s mining sector in September. In Australia, a contractor was killed inside a nickel mine; in New Zealand, ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) mourned the death of a coal miner on the South Island. 
<img height="66" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/IndiaFlag.gif" width="100"/> 
 
India 
The catastrophe that struck deep inside a coal mine in India’s eastern state of Jharkhand on 6 September is characteristic of countless accidents occurring in the mineral rich Dhanbad area which usually kill small numbers of miners regularly. Only this time, at the Bhatdih mine of state-owned Bharat Coking Coal Ltd., 54 miners died. The tragic accident occurred when methane gas caused a tremendous explosion some 460 metres underground. Miners, associated to ICEM-affiliated Indian National Mineworkers’ Federation (INMF), had plumbed to that level to extricate coal from a pit known as the 17th Incline. 
 
Over 5,000 miners and family members gathered at the Bhatdih mine site, and were upset by management’s failure to check gas levels or other safety hazards at regular intervals. INMF President Rajendra Prasad Singh, arrived at the site immediately, together with other trade union accidents. He demanded for a high-level commission to be established to investigate the causes and identify the persons responsible. 
 
Brother Singh stated that management must be held accountable. He also criticised management’s practice of not going underground for testing and safety checks. 
<img height="66" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UkraineFlag.gif" width="100"/> 
 
Ukraine 
In the Ukraine, a series of coal-mining accidents across mid-September claimed 17 miners’ lives in the eastern Donetsk region. The worst was at the Zasyadko mine, where 13 workers either suffocated or died instantly due to a gas explosion 1,300 metres underground. That tragedy occurred 20 September when 400 miners were deep in Zasyadko’s mine shafts. Sixty-one other miners were seriously injured. 
Ukraine's Independent Industrial Trade Union of Miners, an ICEM affiliate, had one of its members killed and another injured in the accident. The union's President Michael Volynets is part of the investigation team. 
 
The Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine (FPU) made a decision at its presidium to provide financial assistance to the families of the deceased in the Zasyadko tragedy. FPU has also called on member organisations to do the same. 
 
On the same day, at the Dobropilka coal mine in the same area, three workers died of gas poisoning. They were found 450 metres down, after they had been granted permission to stop work and return to the surface because of high gas levels. On 21 September, a Ukrainian miner was crushed in a rock fall in Kirovska. Gas inhalation caused seriously trauma and injury to three miners inside the Fominske mine also on the same day. 
 
Energy markets are partly to blame for the deadly coal-mining accidents in Ukraine, numbering 133 to date this year. The country suffers from rapidly escalating natural gas prices, and the government has ordered coal production to increase by one-third or 80 million tonnes, by 2007. 
<img height="67" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/RussiaFlag.gif" width="100" border="1"/> 
 
Russia 
The mine tragedy in Russia’s Chita region of Siberia on 7 September was different, but no less tragic. Twenty-five miners died inside a gold mine operated by London-based Highland Gold Mining, owner of several gold mines in Russia’s Far East. The cause of the deaths inside the 105-year-old Darasun mine was a fire. Wooden supports are believed to have caught fire during welding. 
 
What marks this negligence was that the company had no evacuation plan in place, a ventilation system was old and decrepit, and the last notation in a safety logbook was dated May 2006, according to BBC. “Many foreign companies, in order to increase their value … economise when it comes to observing industrial safety rules,” stated a Russian official from the Natural Resources Inspectorate in another published report. 
<img height="67" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/KazakhstanFlag.gif" width="100"/> 
 
Kazakhstan 
In Kazakhstan, a 20 September methane explosion killing 41 in a colliery owned by Arcelor Mittal Steel turned into a full-fledged labour dispute over the course of last week. The blast occurred at the Lenin mine in the Karaganda region of the central Asian country, as 374 were working inside. The preliminary cause of the blast, determined by the Kazakh Minister of Emergency Situations, was the result of negligence and breach of safety rules. 
 
“The cause is a lack of organisation and coordination in the operations of (maintenance),” stated Minister Shalbai Kulmakhanov. It has been determined that ventilation pipes were being repaired when the explosion rocked the mine 560 metres underground. 
 
Six days after the disaster, coal miners struck for better working conditions and higher wages to compensate the dangerous work they do. By Friday, 29 September, they were joined by all 24,500 miners of the eight Kazakh collieries owned by Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steelmaking concern. By week’s end, 30 September, many steelworkers and iron ore miners of the India-based company – some 6,000 in total – joined the coal miners in a government-sanctioned rally at the headquarters of the company in the city of Termirtau. 
<img height="50" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NewZealandFlag.gif" width="100"/> 
 
New Zealand 
In New Zealand on 8 September, 47-year-old Bernard Green, an EPMU member, was crushed to death when a shaft collapsed 800 metres underground near the town of Blackball on the South Island’s west coast. He was employed by Roa Mines, a private NZ coal company. 
 
His death prompted the EPMU to reassert a longstanding call for a return of “check inspectors” in the country’s mining industry. Check inspectors are rank-and-file workers who are trained in safety procedures and who go down with miners at each and every shift. 
 
“Check inspectors are health and safety people who are elected by the workers,” said EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little. “They make sure the worksite is safe, the guys have the right equipment, and the right procedures are being followed.” 
 
Little added, “Anything that minimises the danger must be pursued, and check inspectors are a good start. This is a very important issue for our guys, and we’re going to make sure their voices are heard at the highest levels.” The positions were eliminated with the reform of NZ’s Health and Safety in Employment Act. 
<img height="50" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/AustraliaFLAG.gif" width="100"/> 
 
Australia 
In West Australia on 22 September, a contract worker was crushed to death by falling rocks inside a nickel mine owned by Consolidated Minerals Ltd. This occurred at the Kimbalda Beta Hunt mine. The 43-year-old victim, an airleg operator, had been working there for two-and-a-half years.

September’s Global Mine Tragedies Bring Concern to All

Meeting in Brussels today, the ICEM Presidium passed a strong resolution calling for Thailand’s military to immediately end martial law, and called on interim Prime Minister Surayud to restore full civil rights and democratic freedoms to the country’s citizens. 
 
According to the ICEM Presidium motion, the immediate priority is to end martial law in Thailand and move free and unencumbered elections to the earliest possible date. The ICEM feels that the current schedule for elections – October 2007 – is too far in the future, and Thailand’s population deserves to have elections held as soon as possible. 
<img height="67" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ThailandFlag.gif" width="100"/>
Today’s action by the ICEM body was delivered in a letter to Thailand’s interim leaders. 
 
“We feel it a matter of urgency that Thailand’s coup leaders lift the broad range of restrictions placed on Thai citizens, particularly the ban on assembly, on the media, and the inherent rights of people to engage in democratic processes,” stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. 
 
The Thailand military coup occurred on September 19. The country’s 1997 constitution was suspended, the Parliament, Senate and constitutional court system was dissolved, and political gatherings of more than five people were banned. The ICEM also noted that other restrictive measures were put in place, including prolonged detention without charges being brought, media censorship, and the shutting of some schools and universities. 
 
ICEM is scheduled to hold its Fourth World Congress in Bangkok next year, from 22 to 24 November 2007. The ICEM is a Global Union Federation with 379 affiliated trade unions in 123 countries.
The ICEM letter to the Thai Interim Government can be found <a href="/index.php?id=7&doc=1982&la=EN" type="internal">here</a>.

ICEM Presidium Calls for Immediate Lifting of Thailand’s Martial Law

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The ten-month dispute between ICEM affiliate Oilfield Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) and the Trinidad and Tobago state oil company Petrotrin ended early this month when a new three-year agreement was agreed to.
Agreements were reached for all five Petrotrin bargaining units, covering 5,000 workers in total. The different labour agreements are similar, sharing many of the advances reached, for example a 15% salary increase over three years. 
<img height="93" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/TrinindadOWTU.jpg" width="100"/>
Differences between the five agreements can be found in the periods that the agreements cover, with some going back to 2005, and others to February 2006. The 1,500 refinery workers, for example, will receive a 6% wage increase backdated to February 2006. They will be given a 5% increase in 2007 and a further 4 % in 2008. 
 
Agreement was reached on a wide set of issues, includes on health and safety topics and on cost of living allowances. According to an OWTU Spokesman, the union regards the agreement as a good agreement, given the circumstances. 
 
The dispute was marked by several industrial actions by the refinery workers at the Pointe-a-Pierre set of plants, as well as by marches on the company's corporate offices by OWTU members of all the bargaining units.

Trinidad's State Oil Company Comes to Terms with Workers

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The modus operandi by US multinational Ross International on human rights reads like the script of ‘how to behave badly in a globalised world.’ The company, which manufactures moulds for the glass container industry, appears to follow a handbook on how to subcontract and outsource work, while eliminating trade unions at the same time. 
<img height="66" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Colombiaflag.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
In a letter to the company last week, ICEM took on the company’s anti-union techniques in Colombia. ICEM Colombian affiliate Sintravidricol is running a campaign in that country to get the company to deal responsibly with its workforce. 
 
Ross International owns one facility in Colombia where a collective bargaining agreement exists, called Moldes Medellin Ltda. Reportedly, this modern facility operates at only 50% capacity and is constantly reducing its number of workers, with a prohibition in place on hiring new ones. The company also owns four other factories in Colombia, which all are enlarging their capacity. 
 
New jobs at these facilities come with far less job security and at lower salaries, with most workers being hired through temporary work agencies. On top of that, Ross International ignores union requests in the one plant with an agreement. It also refuses to comply with earlier agreements in that plant. 
<img height="71" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USAUSW.jpg" width="130" alt=""/>
In the US, where the company is headquartered in the state of Pennsylvania, ICEM North American affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) faces very similar problems. There as well, union members are the victims of Ross efforts to downsize mould shops, and outsource work that has, for years, been performed by USW members. The serious reductions in staff at Ross International’s US operations affect three of the four company plants in the US: Penn Mould, Ross Mould, and Brockway Mould. 
 
Another sign that the company is not taking its obligations towards its workers seriously is that representatives of the USW have had seriously difficulties to even get a meeting with the management of the company to discuss the issues of downsizing, layoffs and possible solutions. 
 
As a mould manufacturer, Ross International serves both Owens-Illinois and Saint Gobain Container, Inc.

Ross International: Labour Problems in Colombia and US

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A severe industrial explosion at DuPont’s Guarulhos facility, in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, reportedly injured three local workers on 5 October. One worker was seriously wounded and brought to hospital, allegedly with burns on 50% of his body. 
<img height="74" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/BrazilSindiquimicos.gif" width="73"/>          <img height="66" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USAUSW.jpg" width="120" align="absMiddle"/>
Information on the accident is limited. According to the ICEM affiliated Brazilian chemical union, Sindiquímicos, the local DuPont company declined to provide information on the accident. The union was not allowed to enter the plant, further stating that “not even the number of victims” was communicated by the company. 
Jim Rowe, United Steelworkers (USW) Local 943’s president from New Jersey, visited both the Guarulhos and Camaçari DuPont facilities in Brazil in August 2006, together with USW Director Joe Drexler. The company denied them the opportunity to tour the plants. In a USW news release on the current accident, Jim Rowe wonders how “DuPont continues to maintain its reputation as a safe company and sell its safety program to other companies in the wake of serious accidents?” 
<img height="304" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0610BrazilDupont.jpg" width="350" alt=""/>
Workers at DuPont’s Guarulhos facility, waiting for information
The tour of the facilities in Brazil was part of a larger effort by the USW to draw attention to safety and environmental problems stemming from DuPont plants worldwide. 
 
The USW states in its news release that, last year, a worker was killed by an explosion at the Camaçari facility. According to a report from the State of Bahia in Brazil at the time, DuPont was blamed for failing to implement control devices to prevent the explosion. Three serious accidents also happened over the last two years at a US DuPont plant in Niagara Falls, state of New York. 
 
The USW is the lead union in ICEM’s Global DuPont Workers’ Network.

Explosion at DuPont Plant in Brazil

The 20-million-member ICEM, the Global Union Federation (GUF) representing workers in the chemical, energy, mining and other industrial sectors, gives full support to the general strike in South Africa tomorrow, 18 May, called by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and some 21 trade unions there. 
 
The one-day strike, part of COSATU’s “Jobs and Poverty” Campaign, is in protest at employers’ continuous retrenchment of workers and failure to create jobs, as well as a demand for government intervention in scaling back a national jobless rate that is now at 40%. 
 
“Trade unions in South Africa are justifiably angry over high unemployment, stagnant wages, and increasing use by employers of casual and agency labour,” said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. “We fully support the decision by workers to use this day to make a strong statement.” 
<img height="124" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthafricaNUM.gif" width="120" alt=""/> <img height="122" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthafricaNumsa.jpg" width="120" alt=""/> <img height="120" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthAfricaCEPPWAWU.gif" width="120" alt=""/>
At the forefront of the general strike will be trade union members of the ICEM-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), and the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood & Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU). 
 
Striking workers will protest in several towns and cities in South Africa tomorrow, with marches scheduled to converge on selective industrial sites, offices of chambers of business organisations, and on governmental buildings.

Strike Warranted: South Africa’s 40% Jobless Rate Unacceptable

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