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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM’s Sub-Sahara Africa Regional Organization (SSARO), together with the United Steelworkers (USW) and the US Solidarity Center, conducted a three-day mine investment conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, last month. Entitled “Making Mining Investment Work for Workers and Communities,” the workshop primarily centered on capitalization projects that the Brazilian mining company Vale is involved in on the African continent. 
 
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa hosted the conference. NUM Deputy President Piet Matosa opened the conference by stating economic opportunities are welcome in Africa, but the concept of decent work must underpin the inflow of all foreign direct investment. 
 
He said the negative impact of mining on communities must be addressed and social networks created to secure local benefits from mine investment initiatives. He said consultation with communities is most important in the negotiation of concession agreements, and communities must be empowered to facilitate negotiations in these concession agreements. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.num piet matosa.jpg" width="74" height="111"/>
NUM Deputy President Piet Matosa
Representatives from Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) of Brazil were in attendance to present a global overview of Vale. Reports were heard from a representative of the ICEM affiliate, the United Workers’ Union of Liberia (UWUL) on the role it is playing between the Liberian government and Vale over iron ore concessions there, and from the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia (MUZ) on its intervention with Vale in the southern Africa country. 
 
Other reports on the Brazilian company came from the unions FSPMICA/CNTG, SYNAMIC/ONSLG, and FESMICA/USTG of Guinea, and SINTICIM of Mozambique. The ICEM affiliate Tanzania Mines and Construction Workers’ Union (TAMICO) gave a report on its difficulties with AngloGold Ashanti and Barrick Gold. 
 
The workshop held three panel forums, including ones on Organising Unions at Mining MNCs, Collective Bargaining at Mining MNCs, and Mining Concessions Agreements: Making Sure They are Transparent and Benefit Workers and Communities. The Southern African Resource Watch also presented the topic “Labour Movements, Transparency and Accountability in the Extractive Industries.” The report highlighted that mining, without robust engagement by unions, is often a zero sum game, and noted the poverty around mine sites when vibrant unions are not present. 
 
The issue of ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, was discussed within the context of inclusion in bargaining concession agreements in efforts to leverage the ratification of Convention 176 in countries. 
 
The conference adjourned with passage of a resolution intended to cement the unions into a multi-MNC ongoing network. That <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Resolution%20Joburg%20Vale%20May%2011.pdf " type="internal">resolution</a> can be found here.

ICEM, USW Hold Mine Investment Workshop in South Africa

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Successful industrial relations between ICEM glass workers’ union Sintravidricol in Colombia and the US-based multinational Ross International has now built on the foundations of a first collective agreement four years ago. The union won a renewal agreement with significant improvements for workers. 
 
See an <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4361-Colombian-Glass-Workers-Seek-to-Build-on-Gains-Made-in-2007" type="internal">ICEM InBrief</a> from last month. Bargaining was finalised on 6 May, months ahead of the expiration of the existing agreement. The scope of the agreement is expanded to cover five plants of Ross International in the two sections of Sintravidricol, La Estrella and Sabanata. 
 
Two divisive other agreements originally signed by the company during a dispute in 2007 which led to the first collective agreement will be scrapped in the new deal. All 250 workers will now be covered by the same governing contract, with slight variations between the sections.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1104.sintravidricol.jpg" width="232" height="174"/>
Salary increases will equal 4.6% in the first year, inflation plus 1.2% in the second year, and inflation plus 1.3% and plus 1.4% for the final two years of the agreement. 
 
Significant improvements also included education allowances for primary, secondary, and university education for workers’ children, also new transport links for shift workers, increased holiday leave, paid leave for union activity, increased housing allowance, and a signing bonus for each worker in each year of the agreement. 
 
All workers will now be employed on indefinite contract status. Prior to the 2007 agreement, 80% or more of the employees were on short-term contracts. 
 
The official signing of the new deal by local management and Sintravidricol’s Section Presidents for La Estrella and Sabaneta, Brahyan Sanchez Henao and Heriberto Giraldo Hernandez, is expected to take place this week. Salary increases will go into effect on 1 September.

Colombia Glass Workers Get Great Gains in Settlement

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
An illegal coal mine in Mexico’s Coahuila state that was operating for only 20 days exploded on 3 May, killing 14 miners. The tragic methane gas blast occurred a short distance from the Pasta de Conchos colliery, where 65 miners employed by Grupo Mexico perished in a similar underground gas explosion in February 2006. 
 
Beneficios Internacionales del Norte SA (Bansa) was listed as the company operating the mine near Sabinas in the rich Coahuila coal belt of northern Mexico. Immediately after the powerful explosion that saw three of the dead blown completely out of the 60-metre-deep tunnel, officials could not determine the owner because of conflicting data in local registry citings. 
<img alt="ICEM ILO 176" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ilo_small.jpg" width="175" height="247"/>
It was days after the blast that Bansa was determined to be the operator of the 340-acre mine site through a concession from local authorities. A local official defended that concession, telling press that when the federal government awards a concession, generated income goes to coffers in Mexico City, with nothing allocated for the community. 
 
The colliery employed 25 non-union miners and had no certification or registry regarding safety. The Mexican federal government closed the mine and is now involved in body recovery and investigation. 
 
The underground explosion rocked the surface so strongly that a 15-year-old minor who was picking coal off an external conveyer belt had to have both arms amputated and is in serious condition in a hospital. 
 
The 3 May tragedy in northern Mexico stands as yet another example of safety risks and dangers by unregistered and unreliable mining installations when demand and pricing of a mineral is at a premium.

Mine Blast Near Pasta de Conchos Kills 14 in Mexico

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Some 400 train drivers and car examiners at Rio Tinto iron ore operations in the Pilbara of West Australia have voted by 82% for a first collective agreement. The union that won those rights, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), now presents the three-year agreement to Fair Work Australia for approval. 
 
“When Rio Tinto gave in principle support for the historic collective agreement back in June (see <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4505-CFMEU-Wins-Bargaining-Rights-for-Rio-Tinto-s-Pilbara-Train-Drivers" type="internal">ICEM report</a> then), it marked a major milestone in industrial relations in the resources sector,” said CFMEU West Australia Mining and Energy Secretary Gary Wood. 
 
We have now “moved a little bit closer to greater workplace protection for the hardworking iron ore miners of the Pilbara.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.cfmeu%20wood.jpg" width="169" height="160"/>
Gary Wood
Wood added that the new agreement “and the strong support for it open up opportunities for negotiations down the track for further collective agreements at BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.” 
 
The agreement is precedent-setting because it blows away a major barrier that for decades has stymied collective negotiations and collective action in the Pilbara. That has been the long-standing use of individual work agreements by mining houses to avoid enterprise agreements and to remain union-free. CFMEU breaks that barrier with this agreement and deserves hearty congratulations for doing so. 
 
Many of the 400 transport workers are fly-in, fly-out staff and move a good share of Australia’s resource wealth to global markets. They are also to be commended because their unified vote means that the door has been flung wide open for future collective gains, be them big or small through the CFMEU.

Historic Collective Pact Takes Root for Rio Trainmen in Australia

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The unjust decision to dismiss Rodolfo Vecino Acevedo, President of ICEM affiliate Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), was reversed on 12 January. Heavy pressure was exerted on the Colombian government and the management of Ecopetrol, the 95% state-owned oil company. 
 
Letters were sent to Ecopetrol president Javier Gutierrez Pemberthy from all corners of the world, from trade union organisations and activists angered by the blatant attempt to derail the union and punish Vecino for his role in the strong campaign for improved conditions and salaries at Canadian-based Pacific Rubiales. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1201.vecino uso.jpg" width="216" height="159"/>
Rodolfo Vecino centre, with Manfred Warda and Carlos Bustos
The decision to dismiss Vecino and end his 27-year employment at Ecopetrol was taken on 13 December by the company’s Office for Internal Discipline, and was only overturned after the company president bowed to pressure and instructed overturn the office’s decision. 
 
This victory must now send a strong message to Ecopetrol’s Office for Internal Discipline that they must end the ongoing attempts to dismiss other USO officials and activists. The USO General Secretary Edgardo Lozano was to be the next target. 
 
The shoddy charge used to dismiss Vecino had been linked to his participation at a political event marking the anniversary of the death of a previous Vice-President of the CUT. 
 
Legislation had been manipulated which stipulates individuals holding public office cannot be involved in partisan politics. This legislation clearly should not apply to trade unionists, and this decision being overturned has avoided a dangerous new precedent. 
 
See more details in the <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4832-ICEM-Affiliates-Called-on-to-Support-Sacked-Colombian-USO-President-Rodolfo-Vecino" type="internal">ICEM news article</a> here.

Global Pressure Gets USO President Reinstated at Ecopetrol

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With company after company in the UK private sector seeking to shut off workers’ final pension schemes, it comes as a relief that one company heeded a union’s concerns and cancelled such a plan for now. 
 
ICEM affiliate Unite the Union on 12 January convinced German luxury auto maker BMW to back away from closing its final pension salary scheme to new workers, and to retreat from implementing a loophole in Britain’s new Agency Workers’ Regulation (AWR) that would allow BMW to directly employ agency workers on contracts that pay as much as 20% less than permanent workers of the company. 
 
The loophole, Regulation 10 of the AWR and also known as the “Swedish Derogation” language, would allow an employer to take workers employed by labour hire firms onto their payrolls, but to avoid the equal-pay for equal-work principal of the AWR. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1201.bmw.jpg" width="103" height="160" alt=""/>
In December when BMW announced its intention to move ahead with the two regressive changes, Unite responded that it would consult workplace leaders towards an industrial ballot. If voted and approved, such possible strike action would have occurred for 7,000 Unite members at four BMW plants, including Swindon, Cowley, Hams Hall near Birmingham, and the Rolls Royce factory in Goodwood. 
 
But talks between Unite, its BMW shop stewards and management two weeks ago convinced UK management to forego closing off the pension scheme to new hires and not to use the “Swedish Derogation” model. Instead, BMW agreed to engage Unite and its shop-floor leaders from all four plants in dialogue on a positive path forward without the harsh workplace changes. 
 
Unite National Officer Roger Madisson commented, “As always we are prepared to have meaningful discussions with companies in the car industry. Unite is determined to protect all the terms and conditions of our members and ensure that agency workers are treated fairly, in the true spirit of the agency workers’ legislation.” 
 
Unite’s Cowley plant Convenor Chris Bond told the Oxford Mail, “I am over the moon about it. The company has listened to our concerns. (Industrial action) has been averted for now.” 
 
As for UK BMW management, it said in a statement, “The company and Unite, the union, have jointly agreed to enter into discussions relating to the use of agency staff. We agreed to go back into discussions with the union on the pensions scheme and the AWR.”

In UK, BMW Backs Off Closing Pension Scheme, Implementing Temp Work Exception

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="120" height="59"/>
Stefan Löfven, President of Sweden’s largest industrial union, IF Metall, was elected today by the Presidium of the Social Democratic Party as Chairman of the resurgent political party. Löfven was nominated yesterday, 26 January, by the party’s Executive Committee to replace Håkan Juholt, who resigned last weekend. 

In a congratulatory note sent by General Secretary Manfred Warda yesterday, the ICEM said, “We cannot think of a better, more effective and progressive leader for Sweden.” The <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/9.ICEM%20Stefan%20Lofven.26Jan.pdf" type="internal">full ICEM letter</a> can be found here. 

Löfven has been President of 355,000-member IF Metall since the union was formed on 1 January 2006 with the merger of the Swedish Industrial Union (Industrifacket) and the Swedish Metalworkers’ Union (Metall). Previously, he served as Vice President of Metall from 2002. The 55-year-old Löfven had been employed by that union since 1995, first as a national bargaining officer, then as Secretary, and from 1999 to 2002 as head of the Organising Department. 

“With his very long and solid background in the trade union movement, Stefan will be an excellent leader of the Social Democratic Party,” said IF Metall and ICEM Vice President Anders Ferbe. “He has the power that can give stability and strength to our party.” 

The Social Democratic Party had long been the dominant political party in Sweden, establishing the Nordic nation as a model of social fairness and justice both inside Sweden and throughout the world. But in consecutive elections in 2006 and 2010, the leftish party was dethroned and a center-right ruling coalition government took control. 

Warda, in his letter, pledged that the ICEM “will stand with you in order that the Social Democratic Party once again not only leads Sweden, but continues to serve as the stellar social model for all the world to follow.”
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Sweden.IFMETALL.png" width="140" height="45" alt=""/>
Löfven was born in Stockholm but grew up in Ådalen, Ångermanland, Sweden. His first industrial job was at a sawmill in Domsjö in 1979, but he then went to work that same year as a welder at the military and all-terrain vehicle manufacturer Hägglunds and Söner AB, now part of UK-based BAE Systems. He served as shop steward, sector president and branch president. 

Before his nomination was publicly announced by the Social Democrats’ Executive yesterday afternoon, he addressed staff of IF Metall, and said, “I will keep my roots and my ideas about working life and social welfare for the benefit of all workers, not least of all the members of IF Metall.”

IF Metall’s Löfven Takes Reigns of Sweden’s Social Democratic Party

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="130" height="63"/>
A joint Executive Committee meeting of three European trade union federations on 31 January put the final touches on statutes, a political programme, and nominated candidates for leadership in what is to become a united eight-million-member industrial workers’ federation. The meeting, held near Mechelen, Belgium, was attended by 150 national union leaders from 25 nations. 
 
The European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers’ Federation (EMCEF), European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF) and the European Trade Union Federation for textiles, Clothing, Leather and Footwear (ETUF-TCL) are now geared to formally merge on 16 May 2012 in Brussels, with dissolution Congresses coming a day earlier. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1109.euro merger logos.jpg" width="200" height="74"/>
The joint Executive decreed that the new federation will strive to become a fighting force for a dynamic economic framework that allows industry to thrive as the motor for jobs and sustainable growth across Europe. The three current federations vowed that “social progress and the European social model cannot be sacrificed at the altar of ultra-liberal dogma.” 
 
Although the new grouping has yet to formally adopt a name, its temporary moniker is the European Industrial Workers’ Federation (EIWF). 
 
Michael Vassiliadis, President of Germany’s IGBCE, was nominated to serve as President, while current EMF General Secretary Ulrich Eckelmann was nominated to be General Secretary. Anders Ferbe of IF Metall, Sweden, Renzo Ambrosetti, UNIA, Switzerland, and Valeria Fedeli, CGIL FILCTEM, Italy, were nominated as Vice Presidents, while Sylvain Lefebvre, EMCEF, Bart Samyn, EMF, and Luc Triangle, ETUF-TCL, were nominated as Deputy General Secretaries. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0907.Michael%20Vassiliadis.jpg" width="165" height="140"/>
Michael Vassiliadis
The new federation will consist of four policy committees – Collective Bargaining and Social Policy, Company Policy Committee, Industrial Policy Committee, and Social Dialogue Policy Committee. It will also be composed of eight regions: South, Benelux, Central, South-East, Eastern, British, Nordic/Baltic, and South-West.

Trade Union Industrial Federation Takes Shape for Europe

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Rather than bargain in good faith, Caterpillar’s Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) dropped a bombshell 3 February on locked-out Canadian workers: the company announced it was closing its train locomotive plant in London, Ontario. The US-based heavy equipment maker now leaves no doubt that it was playing a vile game of economic blackmail through collective negotiations with the Canadian Auto Workers’ (CAW) union. 
 
The announced shutdown comes five weeks after Caterpillar’s Progress Rail Services, the corporate entity of EMD, locked out 465 CAW Local 27 members after trying to slice their pay to C$16.50-per-hour from C$34 in collective bargaining. EMD also sought to eliminate a defined benefit pension plan and reduce overtime pay and holiday time. 
 
Friday’s announcement comes only 18 months after Caterpillar bought the plant and was awarded C$5 million in tax breaks from the Canadian government to promote industrial development. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1201.ken%20lewenza.jpg" width="156" height="159"/>
Ken Lewenza
“Caterpillar had no intention of keeping this plant open,” said CAW President Ken Lewenza. “From day one, we believed that Caterpillar was trying to provoke a crisis, by forcing deep cuts that were not possible.” 
 
This sting to Canada’s industrial base comes seven days after Caterpillar reported record annual reports of US$4.9 billion in 2011, an 83% jump over 2010 earnings of US$2.7 billion. The closure announcement also came a day before Progress Rail Services was to hold a jobs fair in Muncie, Indiana, where the company opened a similar diesel locomotive plant in October 2011 and is now one-third toward a staffing level of 650. 
 
Average salaries in the start-up Muncie plant range from US$12-16-per-hour. (See prior <a href="/en/27-North-America/4823-CAW-Members-Victimized-in-Lockout-by-Caterpillar-s-Rail-Division" type="internal">ICEM report</a> on this dispute.) On 1 February, Indiana became the first US state since 2001 to adopt a right-to-work (for less) law, meaning companies and trade unions are forbidden from entering into union security clauses in collective agreements. This means workers have the choice whether or not to pay union fees, yet are entitled to representation if their workplace has union certification. 
 
Caterpillar lobbied the Indiana state legislature ardently for passage and in full likelihood will zealously resist unionisation of the Muncie facility, a former ABB manufacturing site. This comes amidst Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman enjoying 2011 salary and perks of US$10 million, while his company was out to gouge C$30 million from the 465 CAW members in London. 
 
In Caterpillar’s announcement to close the 62-year-old Ontario plant, it cited London’s cost structure and the fact that assembly of locomotives will be shifted to plants in North and South America. Besides Muncie, EMD operates locomotive diesel plants in Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais state, Brazil; Sahagún, Hidalgo state, Mexico; and in the US city of LaGrange, Illinois, where members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) continue to work without a current collective agreement. 
 
The 1 January lockout and forthcoming plant closure in London has been met with complete indifference by the Tory-led Canadian federal government of Stephen Harper, as well as the Liberal Ontario provincial government of Dalton McGuinty. Only three days before the closure announcement and a month into this extortionist lockout, McGuinty urged EMD to return to the bargaining table. “So far the owners of Electro-Motive have failed to live up to Ontarians expectations,” he said in a speech to the London Chamber of Commerce. 
 
Within days, his words became hollow. The CAW’s Lewenza pointed at government inaction and stated these job losses are casualties of an outdated and dysfunctional Investment Canada Act that attaches no commitment between Canadian jobs and corporate takeovers. 
 
“The Stephen Harper government is entirely in the pocket of the corporate elite,” Lewenza said. “I am disgusted at this government and its indifference towards the suffering of workers and the unemployed.”

Raging Insult to Final Injury: Caterpillar to Close Canadian Train Locomotive Plant

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Disappointed with a draft of the UN Global Compact document “Corporate Sustainability Leadership: A Framework for Action at Rio+20 and Beyond,” global labour’s two representatives on the body – ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings – worked to get stronger trade union language adopted by the Global Compact for the UN’s June 2012 World Summit on Sustainable Development, dubbed “Rio+20.” 
 
That effort succeeded last week when the Global Compact accepted inclusion of a better accounting of the social dimension of sustainability. All UN agencies, including the Global Compact, have been preparing their input to that summit. 
 
At the insistence of Warda and Jennings, the document now calls on businesses fully respect human rights, including the rights of workers. Governments are called on to guarantee a high standard of social protection, and to establish programmes that support a Just Transition to a future with sustainable jobs and decent work in both existing industries and in new and greener ones. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM100.jpg" width="100" height="86"/>     <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UNI New.jpg" width="51" height="100"/>
ICEM and UNI worked to get reference to fairness, equity, justice, social dialogue, and Global Framework Agreements in the document. 
 
The document, while a compromise, is a significant step forward that will allow further elaboration on these ideas at future Global Compact meetings. In addition, these words will support and strengthen other trade union inputs for Rio+20. 
 
The <a href="http://unglobalcompact.org/docs/news_events/9.1_news_archives/2011_11_1/UNGC_Rio+20_Submission.pdf ">full document</a> can be read here. 
 
The Global Compact was started by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the year 2000 to motivate businesses to work towards a sustainable future and now includes ten principles. 
 
Among the ten are two related to basic human rights, four regarding labour rights (freedom of association/right to collective bargaining; abolition of child labour; elimination of forced and compulsory labour; and elimination of employment discrimination), three on environment (businesses supporting a precautionary approach to environmental challenges; undertaking initiatives for greater environmental responsibility; and to encourage the development and diffusion of environmental friendly technologies), and an anti-corruption principle.

Explicit Trade Union Language Adopted by UN’s Global Compact for Rio+20

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