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South Africa&rsquo;s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) estimates that between 20,000 and 50,000 jobs will be lost in the country due to the world financial crisis. No mining sector has been spared, but perhaps worst hit is the platinum sector. 
 
In recent days, platinum mining house Lonmin announced 4,000 job cuts, 3,000 at its Western Platinum mine and 1,000 at the Eastern Platinum mine in Marikana. The mining house also plans to suspend operations at its Baobab shaft in Limpopo, causing untold job losses. 
 
These announcements were made by Lonmin CEO Ian Farmer, who claimed the redundancies had been agreed to with unions. But NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka countered that claim, saying it was false, accusing the company of bad planning in the run-up to the start of the crisis last September. 
 
In February, Anglo Platinum CEO Neville Nicolau hinted during a call related to the company&rsquo;s financial results that 10,000 jobs would be cut because of the economic climate. Again, the NUM was critical, citing bad planning and the fact that corporate chieftains publicly proclaim job losses before even consulting with the union, which serves only to frighten miners. 

<img height="150" src="" width="106" alt="" />
Frans Beleni
&ldquo;When platinum prices reached US$2,000 per ounce in May 2008, you could see the reckless spending perpetrated by management,&rdquo; said NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni on a recent South African radio programme. &ldquo;If true leadership prevailed, we could have prevented this bloodbath of job losses,&rdquo; added Baleni. 
 
Platinum is currently selling for about US$1,070 per ounce. 
 
Under Section 189 of South Africa&rsquo;s Labour Relations Act, termed the &ldquo;retrenchments clause,&rdquo; management must confer with labour in order to give an accounting of reasons behind any redundancies. An employer must prove there is a need to cut jobs, otherwise the matter lands in the courts. 
 
One successful intervention occurred at a Simmer &amp; Jacks gold mine in Buffelsfontein in February. The junior miner sought to cull 500 jobs from a production staff of 5,000. But with the help of South Africa&rsquo;s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration, and full dialogue with trade unions, those cuts were reduced to five senior contract workers, with 65 other contract workers becoming permanent staff. 
 
In return, unions, led by the NUM, agreed to miners working one extra shift per month throughout 2009. 
 
In the gold mining sector last week, 4,000 NUM members at Pamodzi Gold went on strike at two mines over non-payment of wages. Miners at the Steyn mine in Free State and at a mine in East Rand began strike action on 6 March after receiving only 20% of their wages for February. 
 
It was the second time this year that Pamodzi faced a shut-down because of its financial outlook. In January, 2,000 miners stayed away from the Free State operation because water supplies had been cut due to unpaid bills. On 5 March, the company announced it was seeking to secure a bridge loan to pay its workers and creditors until its UK and German financiers came through with a loan.

South African Miners Hard Hit by Global Financial Crisis

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Oil workers of Australia&rsquo;s Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU)&nbsp;ratified a renewal three-year enterprise labour agreement on 11 March Royal Dutch Shell&rsquo;s Clyde refinery and Gore Bay terminal in Sydney harbour, but it won&rsquo;t take the sting from Shell&rsquo;s brazen anti-union conduct over the past three months. 
 
Shell manipulated negotiations that began in November 2008 in efforts to force aspects of the draconian WorkChoices law on to the union, seeking to break an enterprise agreement and begin individual work contracts before repeal of former Prime Minister John Howard&rsquo;s anti-worker laws commence on 1 July 2009. 
 
The company initially tabled a proposal reducing a 47-page agreement to 14 pages, stripping away such clauses as workers&rsquo; training, &ldquo;Roles and Responsibilities of Operators,&rdquo; and removing standard manning requirements, thus opening the way for more contractors. Managers also proposed a reduction in operators&rsquo; wages by A$12,000 per year. 

<img height="121" alt="" src="" width="121" />
The 86,000 barrel per day Clyde refinery underwent an extended maintenance shutdown beginning in November, giving the company an opportunity to deploy another union-busting move. That was a demand that its regressive proposals be approved by 30 January 2009, the expiration date of the prior three-year contract, or the CFMEU would face a lock-out. 
 
To prepare for that, Shell&rsquo;s imported managers began bringing in scabs for 18-day training periods as operators, and recruited retired workers from another Australian state. By early February, obviously frustrated with CFMEU&rsquo;s rightful reluctance to accept the concessions, the company applied to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to submit its proposals directly to workers in a secret-ballot vote. 
 
That ballot was defeated on 20 February by a resounding 82%, which not only forced Shell back to the bargaining table, but forced it to change its agenda. 
 
The enterprise agreement that 150 workers&nbsp;voted&nbsp;to accept on 11 March is far better than what Shell managers had sought. It calls for a 12% wage increase over the three years, and full protection of all current work language. 
 
&ldquo;Shell&rsquo;s agenda was nothing but union-busting,&rdquo; said Lorraine Usher, CFMEU&rsquo;S New South Wales District Secretary. The company&rsquo;s &ldquo;actions have left a work force seething with resentment and it will be a long time before trust in the workplace is regained.&rdquo; 
 
Two British managers of Shell at Clyde and Gore Bay were responsible for bringing on the anti-worker agenda. &ldquo;I believe they did everything in their power to escalate the dispute,&rdquo; said Usher. The former Operations Manager at Clyde, Paul Lunt, was retained to handle negotiations. The other was Mark Stevens, who was brought in from Singapore&rsquo;s Shell operations.

Australian Oil Workers at Shell Ratify Contract, But Scars Will Linger

pulp and paper/pâte et de papier/pulpa y papel

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ICEM'in Latin Amerika/Antiller B&ouml;lgesi ile S&uuml;rd&uuml;r&uuml;lebilir Gelişme İ&ccedil;in Uluslararası &Ccedil;alışma Vakfı (Sustainlabour) ve Amerika Kıtası Sendikalar Konfederasyonu'nun işbirliğiyle (TUCA), 14-16 Nisan g&uuml;nlerinde Brezilya'nın S&atilde;o Paolo kentinde iş sağlığı ve g&uuml;venliği konusunda uluslararası bir konferans d&uuml;zenlenecek. 
 
Toplantı, Uluslararası Kimyasal Y&ouml;netimine Stratejik Yaklaşım'ın () uygulanmasını kolaylaştırmaya y&ouml;nelik program &ccedil;er&ccedil;evesinde d&uuml;zenleniyor. SAICM kimyasal maddelerin sağlıklı y&ouml;netimini sağlamak amacıyla Birleşmiş Milletler tarafından geliştirilen bir politikayı i&ccedil;eren bir program. Kimya sekt&ouml;r&uuml;nde &ccedil;alışanların işyerindeki risklerini azaltmayı ama&ccedil;layan program Kasım 2007'de başlatıldı. 

<img height="90" alt="" src="" width="134" />
The tripartite coordination, between ICEM, Sustainlabour ve TUCA arasındaki ortak girişim &ccedil;alışmalarını Kasım 2008 ile Ekim 2010 arasında Brezilya, Şili ve Uruguay'da s&uuml;rd&uuml;recek. Konferans kimya işkolunda iş sağlığı ve g&uuml;venliğini iyileştirmeyi, bu alanda bilgi alışverişini ve devletler arasında işbirliğinin geliştirilmesini hedefliyor.

Kimya Sektöründe İş Sağlığı ve Güvenliği Konusunda SAICM Konferansı – 14-16 Nisan

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ICEM'e ge&ccedil;en hafta sonu gelen haberlere g&ouml;re, Irak'ta devlete bağlı petrokimya şirketi SCPI'nın y&ouml;netimi Basra Petrokimya İş&ccedil;ileri Sendikası'nın y&ouml;neticilerinden Karim Johi Sahan'a disiplin cezası vermişti. 
Kimya tesislerinden altı ay uzaklaştırma cezası verilen Sahan, ayrıca, bu nedenle en d&uuml;ş&uuml;k &uuml;creti alacak. Ocak ayı sonlarında barış&ccedil;ıl bir protesto eylemi d&uuml;zenlediği i&ccedil;in bu cezaya maruz bırakılan Karim Johi bu eylemi nedeniyle acımasızca sorgulanmış ve bunun sonucunda kalp rahatsızlığı ge&ccedil;irmişti. 
Irak Sanayi ve Maden Bakanlığı SCPI hisselerinin y&uuml;zde 100'&uuml;n&uuml; elinde tutuyor. 
<img height="161" alt="" src="" width="180" /> 
Karim Johi (ortada) bildiri dağıtıyor 
ICEM Genel Sekreteri Manfred Warda Irak Maden ve Sanayi Bakanı'na bu hafta g&ouml;nderdiği mektupta şunları vurguladı: &ldquo;Karim Johi Sahan'a verilen bu disiplin cezası onun temel insan haklarının ihlalidir. Karim Johi uluslararası d&uuml;zeyde kabul g&ouml;ren s&ouml;z &ouml;zg&uuml;rl&uuml;ğ&uuml;n&uuml; ve barış&ccedil;ıl toplantı yapma hakkını kullandı ve bu nedenle yaşamı tehlike altında. Devlet Petrokimya Şirketi'ndeki y&ouml;neticileriniz tarafından verilen bu kararın derhal geri alınmasını talep ediyoruz.&rdquo; 
 
ICEM adalet sağlanana kadar bu konudaki baskısını s&uuml;rd&uuml;recektir.

ICEM Iraklı Sendikacılara Verilen Cezaları Protesto Ediyor

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Collaboration between ICEM&rsquo;s Latin American/ Caribbean Region, the International Labour Foundation for Sustainable Development, Sustainlabour, and the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA), will result in an international conference on health and safety in the Chemicals Sector in S&atilde;o Paolo, Brazil, next month, 14-16. The venue is Fundacentro, or Brazil&rsquo;s National Labour Centre. 
 
The meeting is part of the program to facilitate the implementation of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), a United Nations policy framework that fosters sound management of handling of chemicals. This particular program was initiated in November 2007 with the objective of reducing workplace risks to staff in the chemicals sector. 

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The tripartite coordination, between ICEM, Sustainlabour, and TUCA, will focus activities in Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay between November 2008 and October 2010. This conference will seek to strengthen the alliance between the three groups for the common goal of improving health and safety in the chemical industry. Further objectives of the conference are to share information on health and safety in the industry and to look to developing partnership with governments. 
 
Nilton Freitas of the ICEM affiliate, Sindicato dos Qu&iacute;micos do ABC, is playing a leading role in organizing the conference on behalf of the ICEM and its partners. 
 
Find the registration form and program for the conference at <a href="http://www.fundacentro.gov.br">www.fundacentro.gov.br</a>.

SAICM Conference on Health, Safety in Chemical Sector – 14-16 April

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The Serbian union, EPS Trade Union, has made a stand for some 7,200 displaced Kosovo workers, who lost their jobs from state-run Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) in 1999 due to war. Since then, unemployed workers have received 60% of median wages from the utility. 
 
But beginning in January, a government decree from the Ministry of Energy and Mining ordered that amount reduced to the minimum state-level wage, reneging on an agreement it had with the union in a 2008 EPS business plan. On 19 February, 5,000 of those workers showed up in freezing temperatures and a sleet storm in Gracanica and Priluzje to protest the cuts. EPS Trade Union President Milan Đorđević intervened to block the rollbacks, and the union has pledged to be vigilant in retaining the 60%. 

<img height="142" alt="" src="" width="130" />
Milan Đorđević
Separately, EPS Trade Union has issued a five-day deadline for earnest negotiations to begin with the government over several issues involving the public utility&rsquo;s mines and businesses. One of the chief demands is fulfilment of an agreement signed with the government on 23 October 2008 and another is dialogue on the 2009 business plan. 
 
Other demands include full consultation on several operational issues, as well as possible privatisation plans by EPS. 
 
The union will hold a press conference tomorrow in Belgrade to discuss the government&rsquo;s failure in February to address the demands and will follow that up with a protest on Thursday, 12 March, in front of the Government of Serbia building in Serbia&rsquo;s capital city.

Serbian Union Preserves Wage Payments for Kosovo Electric Workers

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Following a failed mediation session on 4 March, some 65,000 Polish coal miners are poised to strike state run and operated Kompania Weglowa (KW), Europe&rsquo;s largest coal producer. Miners, forcefully united behind the country&rsquo;s three main mining unions &ndash; ICEM affiliate NSZZ Solidarność, Kadra, and the Polish Miners&rsquo; Trade Union &ndash; have been denied a fair wage proposal for 2009. 
 
Mediated talks will resume tomorrow, 10 March, but if no resolve occurs, Kompania Weglowa will face a two-hour warning strike on 12 March. If that doesn&rsquo;t force a change of stance by the company&rsquo;s board, a full strike at all of KW&rsquo;s 16 mines will then commence. 
 
Reportedly, the company&rsquo;s directors are offering a wage hike of 1.5%, while the unions are seeking 6%. In last week&rsquo;s mediated talks, the unions revised their proposal to delay the 6% increase from January to March. Miners are seeking increases in daily subsidies as well. 

<img height="120" alt="" src="" width="120" />
Also locked in wage talks are 40,000 miners at two other state-owned coal servicing and production companies, Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa (JSW) and Katowicki Holding Weglowy. Both companies are seeking to impose a wage freeze on miners this year. 
 
Talks with the same unions at JSW will continue on 11 March. But the unions consider KW the lead company, despite the managing board&rsquo;s reluctance to engage in earnest dialogue. In fact, the dispute has become exasperating because management has issued conflicting economic data. 
 
In January, the KW board boasted of significant profits from 2008, but countered that recently by informing the unions about losses. Meanwhile, KW&rsquo;s board members received a 6.9% salary increase for 2009 as part of a procedure in all Ministry of State Treasury enterprises, further inflaming the dispute. 
 
KW&rsquo;s coal production is 47 million tonnes annually, and it holds a 50% market share inside Poland&rsquo;s healthy coal-driven economy.

Miners’ Strike Looms in Poland at Europe’s Biggest Coal Company

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A strike by 190 Turkish paperworkers, members of ICEM affiliate T&uuml;mka-İş, against Procter &amp; Gamble is now 16 days old, with little progress made in recent negotiations. The wage dispute began 21 February at a factory in Gebze, just outside of Istanbul, where the American company manufactures paper towels, tissue, and hygiene products, including nappies. 
 
Strikers and supporters held a rally at plant gates on 26 February, where messages of support were read from a number of trade unions from around the world. The ICEM, which generated the support, also lodged a protest with Turkish management of the company. That letter can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0903.Turkey.p&amp;g.pdf">here</a>. 
 
On the day of the manifestation, managers revised upward their wage offer, but not significantly. They also told leaders of T&uuml;mka-İş they were content to allow paper products once marketed from the Gebze plant to originate from expanded Procter &amp; Gamble operations in Poland. 

<img height="132" alt="" src="" width="180" />
Gebze Manifestation, 26 February
A prior two-year labour agreement expired on 31 August 2008. 
 
The wage revision proposal 11 days ago saw the company move its offer from no increase to 2% for the first six months, followed by three increases, separated in six-month segments, of two-thirds the rate of Turkish inflation. The union is seeking an 8% increase for the first six months, and revised its proposal for the remaining three periods to match Turkey&rsquo;s inflation rate. 
 
T&uuml;mka-İş General President Kemal Yilmaz and Erg&uuml;n Tavşanoğlu, a union Executive Committee member who is the central T&uuml;mka-İş leader at the Procter &amp; Gamble plant, expressed gratitude to the family of ICEM trade unions in the Paper and Packaging sector who extended their support at the outset of the strike.

Little Progress Made to Resolve Two-Week Procter &amp; Gamble Strike in Turkey

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French trade unions confirmed in late February that they will issue a call for a day of mobilization on Thursday, 19 March, &ldquo;resulting in strikes and demonstrations throughout the country.&rdquo; The joint statement was made by members of the Inter-Eight group at CFTC headquarters. 
 
The CFDT, FO, CFTC, CFE-CGC, CGT, FSU, Solidaires, and UNSA continue to show their trade union unity, building on the one-day general strike of 19 January 
 
Although the 19 January action did lead to some changes to government legislation, such as establishing a social investment fund, ICEM&rsquo;s French affiliates regard the measures as too fragmentary to change the course of economic policy in these trying times. 
 
French President Nicolas Sarkozy refused to increase the minimum wage, to change his policy on public sector employment, and refused to return taxes on overtime pay. Other factors in organizing the 19 March strike are continued job cuts, further trends toward partial unemployment, and heavy reductions in workers&rsquo; purchasing power, all of which amplify the current economic recession for French workers. 

<img height="136" alt="" src="" width="140" />
Several workers&rsquo; protests began last week. French workers from two Grenoble area factories of US-based Caterpillar protested in the French Alpine city and then marched in Paris over announced plant closure. Rubber workers at a Continental tyre factory north of Paris also protested due to a threatened closure. 
 
And in Lyon on 3 March, 40 workers of auto-parts firm Preciturn began a 30-hour sit-in at the offices of a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Scotland. The highly debt-laden subsidiary, an accounting firm, had abandoned its contract with Preciturn, leaving unpaid bills and an inability to meet salaries. 
 
In extending its joint declaration of 5 January, the eight trade unions listed their targeted goals as: &ldquo;Upholding public and private employment; Fighting against job insecurity and social and economic deregulation; Calling for compensation policies that maintain the purchasing power of wage earners, the unemployed and pensioners; and Defending the collective framework of solidarity and social protection.&rdquo; 
 
The social protests which began last week are expected to gain momentum between now and 19 March, with calls for mobilization among employees in the education sector, doctors and hospital staff, as well as police. According to a 2 March opinion poll, 58% of company executives support the manifestation of 19 March. Workers at Air France have already confirmed that they will take part in the strike. 
 
The group of eight unions will meet again 20 March 2009.

French Unions Call Workers Out on Strike 19 March

Archive

South African Miners Hard Hit by Global Financial Crisis

Australian Oil Workers at Shell Ratify Contract, But Scars Will Linger

pulp and paper/pâte et de papier/pulpa y papel

Kimya Sektöründe İş Sağlığı ve Güvenliği Konusunda SAICM Konferansı – 14-16 Nisan

ICEM Iraklı Sendikacılara Verilen Cezaları Protesto Ediyor

SAICM Conference on Health, Safety in Chemical Sector – 14-16 April

Serbian Union Preserves Wage Payments for Kosovo Electric Workers

Miners’ Strike Looms in Poland at Europe’s Biggest Coal Company

Little Progress Made to Resolve Two-Week Procter & Gamble Strike in Turkey

French Unions Call Workers Out on Strike 19 March

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