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<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
In New Zealand, offshore energy and drilling workers belonging to ICEM affiliate Engineering Printing & Manufacturing Union (EPMU) are expected to ratify a new multi-employer collective agreement that will merge separate onshore and offshore agreements into one agreement. 
 
EPMU issued a strike notice to the five drilling companies and several oil firms involved. The strike was to have started on 24 May. Employers responded by filing a court injunction preventing a work stoppage. 
 
But two weeks ago, employers presented a revised two-year pay offer that EPMU’s oil and gas negotiating committee was recommending for ratification to the 200 workers. Voting is expected to conclude on the contract proposal in the near future.

New Zealand’s Offshore Oil and Gas Workers Get Tentative Agreement

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Mission to Ghana – Breakthrough in ICEM Pilot Project 
 
Key elements of the ICEM Global HIV/AIDS Project are the pilot projects. In identifying areas where we can make a real contribution, the ICEM has developed the concept of such projects in cooperation with major mining companies. 
These projects target health clinics operated by the companies, which provide functioning medical services to their workers and immediate dependents. The clinics can be used to expand their services to the broader community in the area and provide voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) as well as antiretroviral treatment (ART). 
 
The ICEM concept has now received recognition at the AngloGold Ashanti mine in Obuasi, Ghana. Building on discussions between the ICEM and management in Johannesburg, AngloGold Ashanti is now involved in a public-private partnership with the Ministry of Health. The project is intended to provide HIV clinic services, including voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) and antiretroviral treatment (ART) to employees, their dependents and the community of Obuasi. 
In a good example of a co-investment project, the company makes the infrastructure of the hospital and the medical staff available. It provides VCT and ART to its employees and their dependents at its own cost and gets reimbursed for such services provided to the community. 
 
During a joint mission with representatives of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), the ICEM Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator visited the Obuasi mine. Members of the delegation were briefed at the company’s Edwin Cade Memorial Hospital on the HIV/AIDS programme. Weekly health briefings at the Obuasi office of the Ghana Mine Workers’ Union will involve the union in the programme. 
The delegation also visited the Malaria Control Centre which was opened by the President of Ghana on 28 April. The malaria control programme covers the spraying of all houses in Obuasi. 
 
The joint ICEM/GFATM mission was a first for the global union movement. Representatives of the Ministry of Health/Ghana Health Service, as principal recipient of the grants, and members of the Country Coordinating Mechanism were briefed on the advantages of public/private sector co-investment projects for the implementation of Global Fund grants. 
In all meetings the point was made that the private sector includes business and unions. The ICEM can take credit that this concept has been recognised by the Global Fund when exploring further co-investment projects in other countries. 
<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS 
 
Heads of state and government, ministers and more than a thousand representatives of civil society and the private sector gathered in New York for the follow-up to the 2001 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) and a comprehensive review of the progress made in achieving the targets agreed by member states five years ago when the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS was adopted. 
 
Trade unions attending the event have urged government representatives and HIV/AIDS activists to focus on workplace strategies to address stigma and discrimination attached to HIV/AIDS. 90% of the 40 million people who are HIV infected are found in the working age population. Many of them live in daily fear of losing their jobs. 
The workplace is particularly well-positioned to combat discrimination in society and it holds tremendous potential for awareness-raising, prevention, treatment and counselling. More attention must be directed to the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work, which speaks directly to the need for partnership and social dialogue in the workplace. 
 
Trade union representatives have also approached government delegations to seek support for the creation of a high-level G8 Working Group on HIV/AIDS. This ongoing campaign had already targeted health ministers attending the World Health Assembly of the WHO in Geneva in May. It will continue at the International Labour Conference of the ILO in June. 
 
As reported in the May issue of this e-bulletin, the UN produced two reports prior to the meeting, which can be accessed on the UNAIDS website <a href="http://www.unaids.org">www.unaids.org</a>. On the eve of the High Level Meeting, UNAIDS launched the 2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic. This special edition, marking the 10th anniversary of UNAIDS, contains the most in-depth date from countries to date, based on progress reports from 126 countries. 
(The outcome of the Conference and the UNAIDS 2006 Report will be given more detailed attention in the July issue of this e-bulletin). 
<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
Global Fund Calls for Round 6 Proposals 
 
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has issued its Sixth Call for Proposals. The application form and support documentation are available in six languages at <a href="http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/apply/call6">www.theglobalfund.org/en/apply/call6</a>. Proposals have to reach the Global Fund by 3 August. 
 
The Global Fund does not have offices in any country. The application process is devolved to the national level. All proposals have to go through the Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCM). The composition of the CCMs is supposed to be representative of all stakeholders in the fight against HIV/AIDS, including civil society, the private sector and organisations of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). 
Very few CCMs include trade unionists. This should not prevent trade unions to work through members of the CCM who are sympathetic to their cause and to find cooperating partners who can develop workplace-related project ideas into proposals for the CCM. 
 
The role of the workplace in the fight against HIV/AIDS is recognised. No workplace activities can be efficiently implemented without unions. The role of national unions and their international bodies, the Global Unions Federations, is acknowledged by international organisations such as the ILO, the WHO and UNAIDS. 
 
The Global Fund is keen to build public/private partnerships and to implement co-investment projects. Without the involvement of the private sector, universal access to voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) and to anti-retroviral treatment (ART) is not possible or will be further delayed. The private sector is business and trade unions as the workers’ representatives. 
The ICEM has worked with the Global Fund to establish this principle in public/private co-investment projects. 
<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
FNV Report Acknowledges Contribution of ICEM Projects 
 
In a report entitled “Trade union support in the struggle against HIV/AIDS”, FNV Mondiaal, the international trade union development organisation of the Dutch national centre FNV, stresses the importance of HIV/AIDS as a trade union issue. 
FNV Mondiaal is currently supporting 12 HIV/AIDS-related projects in cooperation with Global Union Federations and national unions. Fighting the pandemic is one of the priorities of its business plan 2005-2008. 
 
The report cites the ICEM project, which also enjoys the support of the Swedish LO/TCO, as a good example of integrating HIV/AIDS issues in collective bargaining and global framework agreements. 
The report gives credit to the ICEM’s efforts to build partnerships, especially in Ghana, to decrease the incidence of HIV/AIDS in mining companies and to upscale VCT and ART. It further acknowledges ICEM’s role in working with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and national Country Coordinating Mechanisms to involve unions and generate additional funds. 
<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
Australia and AIDS 
 
Two initiatives have been launched in Australia to try to stop the spread of HIV infections in Asia, from where 40% of the disease’s growth is forecast to come over the next few years. 
The first is a partnership between the Australian government and the Bill Clinton Foundation. Australia will provide USD 18 million to work with the Foundation in China, Vietnam and Papua New Guinea to provide test kits and antiretroviral drugs. The government-Clinton coalition will work with a second cooperative effort involving Australian companies that have operations in Asia. 
(Source: The Economist, 1 April 2006) 
<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
South Africa: May Day Focus on HIV/AIDS 
 
Along with a number of trade unions throughout Africa, the Congress of South African Trade Unions focussed its 1 May activities on HIV/AIDS under the theme “AIDS – The New Struggle”. It emphasised breaking the silence and building solidarity with the slogan “Each one teach one! Test, Treat and Fight for Life”. 
Sectoral summits with employers and other stakeholders are planned during 2006 and mining companies will be asked to create a fund to assist with the scaling up of access to care and treatment in Lesotho and Mozambique, where the pandemic has been fuelled by migrant labour to the mines. 
<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
Fighting HIV/AIDS – Lessons from Brazil 
 
In the history of the response to the HIV pandemic, Brazil is best known for its pioneering decision in 1996 to offer free combination antiretroviral treatment to all citizens. 
The government-funded treatment programme has improved the health and extended the survival of countless Brazilians, has saved the country billions in hospital cost and has inspired similar efforts elsewhere – including the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the WHO’s 3x5 Initiative. 
Between 1996 and 2005, the government spent a total of USD 3.5 billion in response to HIV and AIDS, including USD 2 billion for antiretroviral drugs. All the money for drug treatment has come from internal funds; about 11% of total expenditure has come from World Bank loans, spent chiefly for prevention programmes and to establish a national laboratory network for the clinical monitoring of patients. 
 
Brazil’s persistent and aggressive efforts to prevent new HIV infections have probably played an equal if not greater role than treatment in slowing down the spread of the virus and containing the country’s epidemic. At the beginning of the 1990s, the epidemics in Brazil and South Africa were at a similar stage, with a prevalence rate of about 1.5% among adults of reproductive age. 
 
However, by 1995, the year before Brazil’s treatment programme was established, the epidemic in South Africa began to explode with a prevalence already greater than 10%, whereas the infection rate in Brazil had declined by half. The early success of prevention efforts allowed its national treatment programme to be feasible logistically and financially by limiting the number of people infected. 
In turn, access to free treatment has made Brazilians more willing to be tested and has made it easier to address the types of behaviour associated with transmission. 
 
In Brazil, during the week before Carnival, citizens who ventured to catch a bus, buy a beer or mail a letter were likely to be reminded by their government to use condoms. Postal costumers received condom brochures along with their stamps. Public health officials, contracted with Coca-Cola distributors, delivered condom posters to bars along with the soft drinks. Prevention efforts targeting high-risk parts of the population have achieved impressive success, particularly among injection-drug users and commercial sex workers. 
 
An important factor in making the programme affordable was the expertise of the domestic pharmaceutical industry, which allowed the country to produce generic versions of antiretroviral drugs with patents that had been registered before 1996, predating Brazil’s signing of the TRIPS agreement. 
For newly developed drugs, Brazil may still decide to issue compulsory licenses in the future on the basis of the WTO Doha declaration that the TRIPS agreement should be interpreted and implemented by member countries “in a manner supportive of WTO members’ rights to protect public health, and in particular, to promote access to medicines for all”. 
 
(Source: The New England Journal of Medicine, No. 19, 11 May 2006) 
<img height="28" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="20"/>
News from ILOAIDS 
 
A new brochure “The workplace: gateway to universal access”, published in April, gives a succinct overview of the role of the ILO in reducing discrimination and increasing access to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. 
 
Published in May, “Saving lives, protecting jobs” is an interim report of the International HIV/AIDS Workplace Education Programme, also known as Strategic HIV/AIDS Responses by Enterprises (SHARE) and financed by the US Department of Labor. Under the programme, almost 2,800 government officials and key members of workers’ and employers’ organisations have received in-depth training on developing policies and implementing programmes on HIV/AIDS. Over 2,000 workers have been trained as peer educators. 
 
Both publications can be accessed at <a href="http://www.ilo.org/aids">www.ilo.org/aids</a>. 
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REMINDER TO ICEM AFFILIATES 
 
This is your newsletter – contribute to it! 
 
ICEM affiliates are already engaged in a wide range of activities; some have formal agreements with companies; others run education and awareness programmes at the workplace. 
 
To spread the information on new agreements and campaigns and to build on best practices, affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to hiv.aids@icem.org. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 9

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The refusal by oil service companies doing business in Norway’s oil patch to harmonise a national agreement with other collective agreements in the oil industry has caused selective strikes. The strikes began on 21 June by ICEM affiliate NOPEF, and threaten to disrupt North Sea oil production, as well as impacting development and well maintenance work. 
 
NOPEF called 87 workers out on strike after arbitration between the union and the Oil Industry Association (OLF) failed on 20 June to achieve a new two-year pay deal. The oil service companies struck include Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Weatherford and Oceaneering. The companies affected primarily maintain wells, aid new drilling exploration, and assist drilling production operations in the North Sea. 
<img height="140" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0604Lars.jpg" width="150"/> 
NOPEF's Lars Myhre
NOPEF is seeking to harmonise the oil service agreement with other national agreements covering testing, drilling, tug-piloting, catering and other operational areas, agreements that already have common working conditions. “Oil service companies do not want staff on regular weekly schedules and regular rotations,” said NOPEF’s Lars Myhre, ICEM’s Energy Section chairman, adding, “They are only interested in their own flexibility demands.”

NOPEF Seeks Harmonisation of Norwegian Oil Contracts by Striking Service Companies

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In Peru, 800 iron ore miners, members of Sindicato de Obreros Mineros, an affiliate of Federación Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros, Metalurgicos y Siderurgicos del Peru (FNTMMSP) began a strike 19 June against Chinese state-run Shouda Iron and Steel Group (Shougang). 
 
The strike at Peru’s only iron ore mine at Marcona, 350 kilometres south of Lima, was caused when managers of Shougang Hierro Peru failed to meet wage demands of miners, who are among the lowest paid in the country’s mining industry.
<img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector.JPG" width="100"/>
The mine union, connected with ICEM affiliate FNTMMSP, is seeking wage increases equivalent of US$1.69-a-day, while Shougang offered only the equivalent of US$0.42-a-day. Shougang’s miners earn a salary of only US$13-a-day, far below the average Peruvian mining salary of US$33-a-day, according to Peru’s National Society of Mining, Petroleum and Energy. 
 
Union members at the mine last week blocked the entrance, preventing the company from using contract work to continue the work. Meanwhile, Peru’s government has declared the strike a legal one, meaning the company must continue negotiating with the union and the Labour Ministry can impose an increase to workers’ salaries if work is to be re-started. 
 
Shougang declared force majeure on all iron ore exported from Peru, the majority of which is destined for Japan and China. The Chinese state company bought the mine in 1992 from a state-run Peruvian company for US$118 million, and has increased production since 2002 by an average of 20% per annum. 
The increased production has caused numerous safety concerns, which have not been addressed, and Peru’s Energy and Mines Ministry says the company has not met investment commitments tied to the sale.

Miners Strike Chinese Iron Ore Operations in Peru

A book authored in part by Paul Lootens, FGTB's Federal Secretary in Belgium, reveals the comprehensive legal maneuvering following the nation's worst mining accident. In August 1956, near the Belgian city of Charleroi, 262 coalminers perished due to equipment failure and subsequent chain of events.
<img height="134" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/paullootens.jpg" width="120"/>
FGTB's Paul Lootens  
The aftermath of this tragic worksite story is depicted in a book entitled Tutti Cadaveri: The Trial of the Catastrophe at the Bois du Cazier in Marcinelle by Lootens, also an ICEM vice president, and historians Marie-Louise De Roeck and Julie Urbain. The book’s title, Tutti Cadaveri, comes from the Italian rescuer who, after surfacing from the mine, said, tragically, “All corpses.” 
 
The book takes the reader through the legal wranglings of an employer intent on avoiding guilt over safety shortcomings, and the victims’ families who seek the truth. 

On 5 July, some 3,000 people turned out near the Belgian town of Marcinelle, just south of Charleroi, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the country’s worst coal mining tragedy in history. The event occurred in Bois du Cazier, where on 8 August 1956, 262 miners perished in a fiery inferno caused by an electrical blast from a shaft elevator. 
<img height="213" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0607marcinelle1.JPG" width="320"/>
The majority at the 5 July event were descendants and friends of 136 Italian miners, who together with the 152 others, died from the fire and subsequent carbon monoxide poisoning when the elevator blocked the flow of fresh air. 
The commemoration also was vitalized by trade union members and the colours of the Belgian socialist union FGTB, as well as their comrades from the Italian trade union, Patronato INCA-CGIL. 
 
The commemoration also included the unveiling of a sculpture marking the tragic event, a bronze globe commissioned by INCA-CGIL and made by Italian artist Antonio Nocera. The sculpture sits in front of the main mine shaft, now a museum, in which miners from 12 different nations died in 1956. 
<img height="300" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0607marcinelle4.JPG" width="200"/>
A surviving miner in front of Antonio Nacero's sculpture
At Bois du Cazier on the actual day of the 50th anniversary, 8 August, a bell tower clock will ring out 262 times, beginning at 08h00, with the name of each victim read out. At 10h00, flowers will be laid at the monument dedicated to the many accidents occurring at the mine, from 1901 to the 8 August 1956 underground firestorm. At 11h00, a ceremony will occur at the Marcinelle cemetery, and then at 12h30, another commemoration will occur at Bois du Cazier. 
 
The French language book, Tutti Cadavreri, by Lootens, De Roeck and Urbain, was published only on 1 May 2006, but is already in its second printing. It is available from Aden Publishers for €22, and can be ordered by contacting Aden at <a href="mailto:editionsaden@skynet.be">editionsaden@skynet.be</a>, or calling +32 2534 46 61. 
More information on the book can also be found <a href="http://www.aden.be/tutti_cadaveri.html">here</a>. It can be ordered online <a href="http://www.rezolibre.com/librairie/detail.php?article=526 ">here</a>.

Book Depicts Aftermath of Belgium's Bois du Cazier Mine Tragedy

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The strike by ICEM oil and gas affiliate NOPEF against oil service companies on Norway’s continental shelf has intensified. The Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF), representing the companies, and NOPEF have not met since the start of the strike on 21 June. 
 
The selective strikes against a handful of oil service firms, including Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Weatherford and Oceaneering, has had serious impact on drilling, exploration and well maintenance for a number of companies. Statoil, ConocoPhillips, and Norske Hydro have been seriously impacted to date, with Statoil forced to halt drilling at its Snøhvit and Kristin fields. 
<img height="75" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NorwayFlag.gif" width="100"/>
If the strike lasts too much longer, drilling and development efforts undertaken by ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell will be impacted. OLF said the strike has disrupted production of 37,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day. 
 
The strike was caused when the oil service providers refused to harmonise its national collective agreement in Norway with other national contracts in the oil sector. That has been the central demand by NOPEF, which seeks to win for workers regular weekly schedules and such items as compensation for waiting time, something that is common in other oil sector agreements.

NOPEF Strike against Oil Service Providers Continues in Norway

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The steering committee of ICEM’s Bridgestone Network met in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26-27 June, and resolved to prepare a comprehensive health and safety declaration at local plants, with support and cooperation from managers, for presentation at next year’s conference. 
 
ICEM trade union affiliates from Brazil, Japan, South Africa and the US are represented on the steering committee, and Gomurengo, the Japanese Rubber Workers’ Union Confederation, chairs the network. 
This sixth meeting of the steering committee heard about the economic situations in each country, received reports on tyre sector activity, and reviewed industrial policies of the Japanese company within the different plants. 
<img height="144" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Michael.JPG" width="100"/>. 
ICEM's Michael Wolters
ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Sector Officer Michael Wolters presented the main report on current developments inside the rubber industry, as well as on major technical innovations in tyre manufacture. Wolters also presented, and the steering committee, discussed a recent UN report stemming from an investigation on working and living conditions at a Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia.

ICEM’s Bridgestone Network Meets

Nigerian oil workers' unions PENGASSAN and NUPENG today held a joint press conference in Lagos to vehemently demand nine oil-service contractors be released unharmed immediately.
"We warn the perpetrators of this criminal act to desist from hostage taking as this is entirely against our domestic and international laws and conventions which Nigeria has ratified," stated PENGASSAN President Peter Esele and NUPENG President Peter Akpatason.
The joint press conference by the ICEM-affiliated unions also produced sharp criticism at the government. "It is sad to mention that a government, which has a good part of its national budget spent in defense, cannot equip its security operations to protect the lives of innocent workers," added Esele. The joint statement by the two unions said the government's "lukewarm attitude towards job creation and empowering the youths of the Niger Delta" is a major part of the problem.
<img height="105" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaPengassan.JPG" width="100"/>      <img height="114" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaNupeng.gif" width="110"/>
The expatriate employees of US-based Wilbros, a Shell contractor working the Escravos-Lagos pipeline in the Niger Delta, were kidnapped from a barge on 18 February. Renegade militiamen also exploded oil installations in and around the Forcados Oil Terminal platform at the time of the kidnappings.

Nigerian Unions Cry Out for Peace and Security

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While Nepal’s King Gyanendra took the unprecedented decision to call for talks with the Nepalese opposition parties this past weekend, the ICEM believes he must go much further. His request for talks has already been ruled out by the pro-democracy political coalition, and they have vowed to make their protests even stronger.
All through last week, and again on 20 February, the King was forced to release a number of political prisoners after the country’s courts abolished the powerful anti-corruption commission that had imprisoned many of them. Among the dozens released were trade union leaders, political activists and students. All of them had been arrested at different stages of the now year-long wave of royal dictatorial repression in Nepal. 
Amid the released trade union leaders was General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) Secretary-General Binod Shrestha. Many of the other detained GEFONT leaders, in total 33, were also set free. 
Upon his release, Binod Shrestha thanked the many international organisations that helped make his release possible. “Our freedom became possible because of continuous fight of you comrades in the home and broad support & strong solidarity by the international working class family from the aboard." By way of a special press release, GEFONT thanked the international community again on 20 February. 
Many Nepal Trade Union Congress (NTUC) leaders were also released. 
<img height="159" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0601NepalBinod.jpg" width="139"/>
Gefont's Secretary-General Binod Shrestha
Despite these releases, dozens of other trade unionists, along with hundreds of political activists, remain in detention or under house arrest. And today, the monarchist regime proved it would push-back against the courts system by re-arresting a top leader of one of the political parties, Krishna Sitaula. 
The series of releases came shortly after the 8 February municipal elections in Nepal, which were a dismal failure with virtually no candidates registered and few voters showing up. The lack of participation was the result of a boycott from all sides, including the alliance of seven major political parties. These elections were widely seen, nationally and internationally, as attempts by the king to legitimise his autocratic rule and elect municipal loyalists in preparation for possible national elections next year. 
 
In order to install himself as the supreme leader, King Gyanendra swept aside democracy in February 2005. Since then, hundreds of opposition members, a term potentially applying to virtually everyone in today’s Nepal, have been imprisoned. With many now locked up for months, others have been released within days or weeks, and still others—like Krishna Sitaula—are being re-arrested. After nearly 13 months, civil and political rights are still non-existent in Nepal, states the ICEM, and the despotic Gyanendra must make meaningful retreats from autocratic rule in order for democratic institutions such as trade unions to function. 
 
 

<img height="185" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0602Nepalfree.jpg" width="350"/>
 
Together with the Nepalese trade union confederations GEFONT, NTUC, and the Democratic Confederation of Nepalese Trade Unions (DECONT), the ICEM calls for all trade union leaders and members to be released. The ICEM also supports the national Charter of Demands that was presented last week by the three Nepalese confederations to the Nepalese Labour Minister, in an important demonstration of trade union unity. 
 
In an effort to counter the regime’s attempts to amend the labour law by decree and ignore labour rights, this charter includes demands on, among other issues, basic trade union rights, wages and an end to all discrimination. 
 
At a press conference last week, GEFONT Chairman Mukunda Neupane said the regime’s only real option to avoid bitter labour unrest was not to derail social dialogue. He further warned that the "unions request to fulfil the demands within a period of 35 days."

Nepal’s GEFONT Secretary General Among Recent Releases, Others Remain Imprisoned

(Date) 
 
Mr Jukka Härmälä 
Chief Executive Officer 
Stora Enso Oyj 
Kanavaranta 1, PO Box 309 
FIN-00160 Helsinki 
FINLAND 
 
Transmitted to Fax Number +358 2046 21206 
or to E-Mail <a href="mailto:info@storaenso.com">info@storaenso.com</a> 

Dear Mr. Härmälä: 
 
We have been informed by the ICEM, the Global Union Federation, of the lockout that your company has imposed on the workers of the Port Hawkesbury Mill in Nova Scotia who are members of the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada. 
 
After going 20 months without a current collective labour agreement and working during that period for the betterment of Stora Enso, we find it appalling that your company has locked out these 600 workers in efforts to deviate from the pattern labour agreement in Eastern Canada that has already been negotiated with all other paper companies doing business there. 
 
We call on you to use your offices to immediately resume negotiations with the union and to negotiate a fair and just agreement that meets the pattern for the pulp and paper sector in Eastern Canada. 
 
Sincerely Yours, 
 
(signed) 
 
(Name, 
Position, 
Name of the Union)

Model letter to Stora Enso in support of striking Canadian Stora Enso workers

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