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ICEM affiliate FUB/FS, Brazilian rubber workers union, invited delegates from several Latin American rubber workers’ unions to the recent conference of FUTINAL (Frente Único de Los Trabajadores en Las Indústrias de Neumáticos y Afines de Latinoamerica) at Praia Grande/Sao Paulo, from 5 to 7 December 2007. 
 
Roughly 100 delegates, mostly from ICEM affiliates, including from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and the USA held discussions, among other things on the need to set up more trade union networks for multinational companies. The USW explained the situation surrounding the Goodyear strike in the US and Michael Wolters, ICEM Rubber Industry Officer, reported on the last developments in the rubber sector as well as on the main strategies by the major global tire companies. 
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Unions organising Continental AG plants in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and USA, used the time to coordinate their ideas and activities for the coming International Action Day for all Continental tyre unions from the western hemisphere (13 December 2006) 
 
At the end of the conference, an action plan was adopted for future work. 
<a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0612pptMichaelSaoPaulo.ppt" type="internal">Click here for the ICEM's Presentation at the conference</a>

Latin American Rubber Workers Hold Conference

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On Saturday, 24 March, ICEM Peruvian affiliate Federación Nacional Unitaria de Los Trabajadores Petroleros, Energéticos y Conexos (FENUPETROL) conducted manifestations in the northern region of Talara against trade union abuses by multinational enterprises. The protests drew thousands of workers. 
 
In a mobilisation statement, FENUPETROL said the provincial protests are against abuses of trade union freedom, and for fair collective bargaining and real corporate social responsibility. The union added that it wanted the world to know that it would not tolerate the “violations and laws that are not being respected by transnational companies in our sectors.”
<img height="122" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMOil.JPG" width="120" alt=""/>
It cited seven major companies and five contracting employers for the abuses: Petrotech, Peruana S.A., Petrobras, PlusPetrol, SAPET, Graña y Montero, and Mercantil, among major employers; and Skanska del Peru, Ini del Peru SAC, Petrex, Cosmos, and Energy Service, among service providers. 
 
FENUPETROL said proof of corporate disregard for workers’ rights lies in the “denunciations” made in administrative and judicial proceedings of government.
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FENUPETROL said such abuses occur in freedom of association, collective bargaining, punishment and disciplinary measures, non-payment for overtime work, working time issues, and arbitrary dismissals. “What may be the worse,” read the union’s statement, “is the very frequent use of contract work, which forces workers to accept inadequate conditions, and without receiving social benefits.” 
 
The 24 March manifestation had the support of provincial Mayor Jose Vitonera Infante, who FENUPETROL describes as someone extremely “supportive of our struggle.” The union said Saturday’s protest follows the example set by union martyrs such as Alejandro Taboada, Martín Chomo, Sinforos Benites, and others.

Peruvian Affiliate Leads Protests Against Trade Union Abuses

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NUPENG in the Forefront for VCT.   
ICEM’s blue-collar oilworkers’ affiliate in Nigeria, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), has made good use of the ICEM grant for national activities under the LO/TCO-FNV Mondiaal project. 
 
At the end of last year, NUPENG organised, in cooperation with the senior staff oilworkers’ union PENGASSAN (also an affiliate to the ICEM), a massive “Know your Status” campaign in petroleum refineries in the Port Harcourt area. In a three-day period, about 4,500 people were counselled, and 2,785 agreed to be tested at a mobile VCT facility. This followed a campaign among petrol tanker drivers, also NUPENG members, earlier in 2006. 
 
NUPENG sourced additional funding at national level from AED/SMARTwork for a follow-up round of voluntary counselling and testing in February 2007. A total of 3,200 people were counselled and 885 agreed to be tested. The average rate of people who tested positive was between 5-6%. That is above the national prevalence rate of 3.9%, among adults aged 15 to 49. 
 
Speaking to the ICEM Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator in Abuja, NUPENG’s HIV/AIDS Coordinator Olawale Afolabi expressed great concern that post test programmes are almost unavailable. Those tested positive are sent to referral hospitals. One of these hospitals, in Port Harcourt, the Braithwaite Memorial Hospital, is open only one day a week for PLWHA. They are left to wait from dawn to dust in an open space, clearly marked as HIV/AIDS patients section. 
 
There is a complete absence of confidentiality, and a lack of care as medical staff often does not turn up. If they are attended to, they are made to pay exorbitant fees for services which should be free, or only have a nominal fee. 
 
In Afolabi’s words, “Patients are left to die in instalments. The only way out is suicide or further spread of the disease.” 
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Global Union G8 Campaign 
 
As a follow-up to the article in the March issue of ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin, we give you the links to model letters to be delivered to German embassies before or on 28 April, International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers, or Workers Memorial Day. These letters exist in English, French, German, and Spanish. 
Deutsch <a href="http://www.global-unions.org/pdf/ohsewpT_9Ba.GE.pdf">http://www.global-unions.org/pdf/ohsewpT_9Ba.GE.pdf</a>  
English: <a href="http://www.global-unions.org/pdf/ohsewpT_9Ba.EN.pdf">http://www.global-unions.org/pdf/ohsewpT_9Ba.EN.pdf</a> 
Français: <a href="http://www.global-unions.org/pdf/ohsewpT_9Ba.FR.pdf">http://www.global-unions.org/pdf/ohsewpT_9Ba.FR.pdf</a> 
Español: <a href="http://www.global-unions.org/pdf/ohsewpT_9Ba.SP.pdf">http://www.global-unions.org/pdf/ohsewpT_9Ba.SP.pdf</a> 
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Côte d’Ivoire on the Right Track 
Following the 4th Regional Workshop in Johannesburg in December 2006, affiliates in Côte d’Ivoire have lost no time to put the conclusions of the workshop into practical work on the ground. 
 
Under the able guidance of the National Coordinator, Charlotte Nguessan, numerous meetings have been held with potential partners at national level and from international organisations during the first quarter of 2007. 
 
An analysis of the HIV/AIDS situation, based on a questionnaire to companies, is being completed. In cooperation with the newly-formed Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, which is supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), a sustainable development organisation that does work with the German federal government, and the respective ministries, as well as the national Country Coordinating Mechanism, a project is being elaborated. 
The project will focus on workplace interventions with emphasis on awareness, education, voluntary counselling, and testing and treatment. 
 
The progress so far underlines the importance of having a full-time coordinator in focus countries. This was part of the conclusions of the 4th Regional Workshop and is supported by the LO/TCO-FNV Mondiaal project in 2007-2008. 
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EU Presidency Conference on HIV/AIDS 
Responsibility and Partnership – Together Against HIV/AIDS was the theme of the EU Presidency Conference on HIV/AIDS in Bremen, 12-13 March 2007. 
 
The German Government has chosen HIV/AIDS as the main health policy topic for the German EC Presidency. Angela Merkel gave the keynote speech. HIV/AIDS is “Chefsache,” meaning a topic at the highest level. 
 
The Conference brought together health ministers and health ministry officials from EU countries as well as NGOs and the private sector – notably Daimler Chrysler South Africa – and major pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck and Gilead) as well as the ILO, the Global Fund, and other international organisations. As happens so often, trade unionists were not invited. The ICEM Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator was the only active trade unionist among more than 600 participants. 
 
Important (and understandable because of the German double presidency) was the repeated reference to the G8 Summit. The Chancellor has put HIV/AIDS on the agenda of the Summit. “We will make headway in Heiligendamm,” Merkel promised. A press release from the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) stated that, under the German G8 Presidency, the first ever report on the efforts of the G8 countries in connection with the global fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria will be elaborated. 
 
The Bremen Declaration is available at <a href="http://www.bmg.bund.de/EN/">www.bmg.bund.de/EN/</a>. It does make reference to trade unions in the last article: “We invite the employers and trade unions to ensure non-discriminatory policies for people living with HIV/AIDS and vulnerable groups in the workplace and to reduce fears of infection, stigma and discrimination among staff by providing objective, evidence-based information, and access to prevention, testing, treatment and care according to the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work”. 
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Global Union Programme in Abuja 
Some 20 unionists from Ghana and Nigeria took part in a sub-regional Workshop in Abuja, capital of Nigeria, from 19-21 March. The workshop was organised by the Global Union Coordinator, Clementine Dehwe and the HIV/AIDS Coordinator of the national centre NLC, Maureen Onyia. The ICEM Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator participated on behalf of the GU Steering Committee. 
 
Emphasis in the programme was on group work. Mixed groups discussed activities presented in country reports and the impact of elements of global programme at national level. 
 
Following a presentation by the ICEM Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator on resources and funding, country groups debated country initiatives in place (Global Fund, UNAIDS, WHO, ILO, etc.) and key country programmes by National AIDS Commissions, NGOs, faith-based organisations, and others. These working groups also assessed the role of potential partners and obstacles to work with them. 
 
On the third day, country working groups discussed establishing national coordinating committees and their terms of reference and programmes and initiatives with a plan of action. 
 
Together with the outcome of previous sub-regional workshops organised by the Global Union programme, and the African Consultative and Planning Workshop in Johannesburg, the results and conclusions of the working groups in Abuja have to be analysed, and key elements pulled together and shaped into country programmes for future funding. 
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South Africa Unveils New 5-Year Plan to Fight HIV/AIDS 
 
South Africa unveiled a new five-year plan on 14 March to fight HIV/AIDS, hoping to turn the tide against the disease that affects some 5.5 million of the country’s 47 million people. 
 
The plan will be implemented by the South African National AIDS Council under the leadership of Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. 
 
The plan aims, among others, at reducing new infections by 50% and bringing treatment, care and support to 80% of all HIV-positive people and their families. Availability and uptake of voluntary testing and counselling services is to be increased massively and anti-discrimination and stigma-reduction efforts are to be strengthened. 
 
A report, published in February by the University of South Africa and the market research institute Markinor, showed some unexpected results. The epidemic is not spreading fastest among the poor and the youth, but among the 30- to 34- year-olds of the well-educated middle and upper classes. New wealth, carelessness to practice safe sex, and misguided statements by the government have contributed to this development. 
 
(Source: Reuters World Report, 14 March 2007 and NZZ Switzerland, 1 February 2007) 
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India: Government proposes five fold Increase in HIV/AIDS Funding 
 
According to a recent report in the Hindustan Times, India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has proposed a more than fivefold increase in funding for HIV/AIDS programmes in the country. The proposed $2.6 billion in funding will be administered by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) under the third phase of the country's National AIDS Control Programme. The money will be allocated over the next five years for HIV/AIDS prevention, care, support, and treatment. 
 
The large increase is made possible by massive funding from the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. 
 
About one-third of the $2.6 billion in proposed funding will be allocated for HIV/AIDS care, treatment, and support, while the remaining funds will be allocated for awareness about the disease. Some HIV/AIDS advocates said that although they welcome the increase in funding for HIV/AIDS awareness, the funding allocated for HIV/AIDS treatment is inadequate. The HIV/AIDS control programme's third phase will focus on six states with high HIV prevalence: Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, and Nagaland, although district level allocations will be modified to ensure that other states receive adequate funding as well. 
 
(Source: Article adapted from the ITF HIV/AIDS Update 17, 15 March 2007) 
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News from Global Union Federations 
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has published the first edition of Agenda, an annual publication on HIV/AIDS and transport workers entitled, “How unions can help close the door on HIV.” The objective of the publication is to help affiliates and other relevant stakeholders to develop a trade union perspective of the epidemic. 
 
The publication can be accessed at <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a>. 
 
Since 1994, the Education International (EI) has recognised the urgency for a broad and strong response to HIV/AIDS through schools. It has worked with its affiliates and international organisations to prevent the further spread of the disease. For information on EI’s activities, including its regular bulletin, please visit the website <a href="http://www.ei-ie.org/efaids">www.ei-ie.org/efaids</a>. 
 
Two other Global Union Federations with websites and regular newsletters on HIV/AIDS include the ITF’s (see above) and the ICEM’s at <a href="http://www.icem.org" type="internal">www.icem.org</a>.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 19

The ICEM has condemned the killing of General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) Union Leader Najim Abd-Jasem in a communiqué to Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. 
 
The 20-million-member Global Union Federation (GUF) called this “appalling murder another sign of a clearly systematic campaign underway in Iraq to eliminate the leadership of the newly formed independent and democratic unions that strongly oppose sectarianism.”
Abd-Jasem, a husband and father of four children, was abducted in Baghdad on 27 March, and his body was found three days later, 30 March, with clear signs that he was tortured before his death. A staunch trade unionist, even as a member of the underground workers’ democratic movement during Saddam Hussein’s ban on independent trade unions, Abd-Jasem was the elected General Secretary of the Mechanic Workers’ Union of the GFIW. 
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In the message to Nouri al-Maliki, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda cited recent attacks on the head office of the GFIW, as well as previous murders and abduction of trade union leaders. “Workers and trade unionists must be able to carry out their normal activities in your country without fearing for their lives,” said Warda. “We call on you to ensure full respect for the fundamental human and trade union rights of workers.” 
Abd-Jasem was leader of the Mechanics Workers’ Union since 2003. He was also a founder of the Iraq Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) and a trade union leader as the IFTU and two other labour federations merged to create the GFIW. During the Saddam regime, he worked as a mechanic in the Health Ministry, but was dismissed from that job for opposing Saddam’s official union. 
 
The ICEM, a GUF representing 389 trade unions in 124 countries, expresses deep sorrow to the family of Najim Abd Jasem, as well as to the leadership of GFIW, which has lost a true martyr in the struggle for free and democratic trade unions in Iraq.

ICEM Condemns Killing of Iraqi Trade Union Leader

The Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri Al-Maliki, will meet in Baghdad with a delegation of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), led by its President, Hassan Jumaa Awad Alasady, tomorrow, Wednesday, 16 May 2007. 
 
The meeting was hurriedly arranged by the Iraqi Prime Minister in a late attempt to avert threatened strike action that would involve all workers and technicians throughout the oil industry of the South, stopping production in all of the oil companies in Basra, Misan, Thi-Qar and Muthanna and affecting all domestic oil products as well as the export of crude oil. The strike may still take place. 
The trade union delegation will return to Basra on Thursday, 17 May, where the union will decide on further steps according to the outcome of the discussions with the Prime Minister. 
 
This is no idle threat. The IFOU, previously known as the GUOE-Basra, has over 26,000 members throughout the ten state oil companies in the south of Iraq and has a past history of strike action in defence of its members and the industry. 
<img height="263" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0705Iraq1.jpg" width="350"/>
(Photo – from left to right) 
Sue Rogers, Chairperson TUC Iraq Solidarity Committee; Owen Tudor, Head of TUC European Union and International Relations Department; Hassan Jumaa Awad Alasady, President Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU); Jim Catterson, ICEM Director of Organisation; Ralf Erbel Coordinator of the Iraqi Workers Project ITUC, Amman Office 
The union is also at the forefront of the Iraqi trade union struggle against the proposed hydrocarbons law which, as written, would benefit the multinational oil industry far more than the Iraqi people. Indeed, one demand on the table when the meeting takes place is a call for serious consultations to take place with the trade unions on the present contents of the draft law, and that the trade unions must be able to review any proposed legislation prior to any attempted introduction. 
 
ICEM is following the situation closely and will be calling on affiliated trade unions for solidarity action in the event of a strike. 
 
The strike threat was initially made in a 27 April public letter to the Iraqi Oil Minister, following discussion at the union’s Executive Board meeting with broad member representation the previous day in Basra. The meeting formulated a list of demands and the call for a strike was unanimously adopted if the demands were not met by 10 May 2007. 
 
The strike date was postponed from 10 May to 14 May as the union entered negotiations with a committee formed by the Iraqi Council of Ministers. No direct negotiations with the Oil Ministry took place and a second postponement of the strike was due to the intervention of the Prime Minister, and the ICEM hopes that his decision to meet the union delegation personally will be significant. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Iraq.png" width="250"/>
The strike call came after numerous demands of the union that the Iraqi government had promised to implement last year had still not been met. Some outstanding commitments are unfulfilled, after having been made several years ago. 
Many of the demands are related to wages and working conditions, including a demand for wage increases, the payment of a previously agreed bonus that is based on the distribution to workers of a proportion of oil revenues achieved by the company, no salary deductions to be made for granted vacation days, and the delivery of land parcels for housing to workers. 
 
Further demands are for the recruitment of new graduates, as well as the promotion of workers where this has been stalled. The union also calls for full time permanent status to be given to workers presently classed as temporary contract workers. 
 
Faced with increased pollution in oil facilities and evidence that there is a major increase in the incidence of cancers among the workforce the union has also tabled health and safety demands. 
 
All of these demands and the strike call were discussed by Hassan Jumaa at a meeting in Amman, Jordan, 1 May 2007 with a delegation from ICEM, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) of the United Kingdom, and the Jordan office of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The aim of the meeting was principally to improve communication channels between Hassan Jumaa’s union and the international trade union movement, as well as to discuss future joint work and cooperation. 
 
Discussions were detailed and wide-ranging and we look forward to increased cooperation in the future. This is already happening with Arabic speaking staff of both the ITUC and the Solidarity Center of AFL-CIO having facilitated communication between IFOU and ICEM and the TUC over recent days. 
Read the letter by the IFOU to the Iraqi oil minister in <a href="/index.php?id=24&doc=2261" type="internal">English</a> or <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0705Iraq.pdf" type="internal">Arabic</a>.
For more information, please contact Jim Catterson, ICEM Director of Organisation, +32-2-626.20.45 or <a href="mailto:jim.catterson@icem.org">jim.catterson@icem.org</a>.

Threatened Oil Industry Strike in Iraq

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The Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada has filed a petition with the country’s National Energy Board (NEB) to block construction of TransCanada’s 2,970-kilometre Keystone Pipeline into the US. The union, together with the Alberta Provincial Federation of Labour, the Parkland Institute, and academics, filed the motion on 15 May with Canada’s federal energy regulatory body. 
 
“We’re shipping our natural resources down to the US so they can create upgraded oil products,” said CEP President Dave Coles. “Meanwhile, we’re missing out on the creation of 18,000 good Canadian jobs, and putting our gas supply at risk in the process.” 
<img height="158" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0610DaveColes.JPG" width="120"/>
CEP President Dave Coles
In its filing, CEP cites a study by an independent research firm, Informetrica, showing that 18,000 jobs could be lost by the export of unprocessed bitumen to the US. 
 
The CEP seeks bitumen from the tar sands to be made into refined petroleum products inside Canada. The Alberta oil sands are currently producing millions of barrels of diluted but unprocessed bitumen each day. 
 
The CEP charges that the NEB, and federal and provincial governments in Canada, have done too little to protect the environment and the social well-being of the public interest in the booming oil sands industry of western Canada. “Hundreds of workers in refineries and petrochemical plants have already lost their jobs because the priority of the NEB has too often been fixed on serving the needs of the US rather than Canadian consumers,” said Coles. 
 
The US$2.1 billion Keystone Pipeline is expected to be complete in 2009, and would transport 435,000 barrels-per-day of crude oil from the province of Alberta to the US state of Illinois.

Crude Oil Pipeline Will Mean Loss of Energy Jobs in Canada, CEP Warns

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A written agreement took effect between strikers at chrome mines and a ferrochrome smelter in Bulqiza, Albania, the ICEM-affiliated Trade Union Federation of Industrial Workers, and Italian-based Darfo SRL, thus ending a month-long strike.
The agreement for hundreds of miners came after intense negotiations on 5 July that involved senior managers of the Italian company, including CEO Dr. Heinz Muller. 

It was signed late in the day on 6 July, and workers returned to work on 9 July. 
 
The agreement also came after more than 200 of the miners and their families demonstrated on the steps of Albania’s Parliament in Tirana, as well as at the Ministries of Economy and Energy and Labour and Social Causes there. Those protests occurred two weeks ago.
<img height="156" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Albania.png" width="340" alt=""/>
  
Parliamentarians, however, avoided the strikers by being driven to the opposite of the building, while the respective government ministers refused to meet with the miners. 
 
The agreement only came about after senior managers of Darfo in northern Italy intervened. 

Unfortunately, the dispute was marked by fierce controversy between two unions: the Federation of Industrial Workers, affiliated to the national centre KSSH, and the Albanian Independent Trade Union Miners (SPMSH), an affiliate of the dissolved WFIW affiliate now seeking global union affiliation. Both groups claim to represent the chrome miners and smelting workers, with SPMSH claiming it had signed a similar ageement with the company in early June. 
 
Both contracts are said to contain pay increases of 30%. Further negotiations will occur in the weeks ahead, and another 20% pay increase will be discussed. If that is won for the Bulqiza miners, their wage demands of 50% will be realised.
The miners have demanded wage increases in each of the past six years, but these demands were ignored by both the company and Albanian government officials. 
Safety, working conditions, and housing – equally important demands by miners in this dispute – will also be discussed in the weeks ahead. 
 
The June strikes by workers lined up with the Federation of Industrial Workers also included hunger strikes that began on 25 June. Thirty miners at a time embarked on such strikes, with the number of them needing to be hospitalised. The demonstrations in Tirana by the union and KSSH also brought a sharp focus to the dispute. 
 
In the negotiated end to the strike, managers of Darfo, and its Austrian-based trading partner, Deco Metals, agreed that no miner would be disciplined for striking, and all miners would be paid for the full period of the strike, which began on 1 June. 
 
In 2001, Darfo signed a pair of 30-year license agreements with the Albanian government to mine and process chromium and iron ore in the Balkan country.

Chrome, Hunger Strikes End in Albania

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Jury selection began last week in a US courtroom in the state of Alabama over Drummond Coal’s alleged authorisation of the murders of three trade union leaders in Colombia. The company, in a case brought by ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) and the International Labor Rights Fund, is being accused of aiding, abetting, and funding the murders of the three trade unionists in 2001 by right-wing paramilitaries. 
 
The case was filed on behalf of family members of the slain union leaders under the US’s Alien Torts Claims Act, which allows foreigners to file civil suit against US companies for millions of dollars in damages for crimes committed outside the US. The plaintiffs won a key victory on 5 March 2007 when the US Federal District Court of Northern Alabama ruled that there was enough evidence against Drummond for the charges to go to trial. Drummond is based in Alabama.
<img height="129" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Colombia.png" width="280" alt=""/>
The lawsuit contends that in 2001, Valmore Lacarno, Victor Oracasita, Gustavo Soler, all labour leaders in the Colombian mining union Sintramienergética, “were ultimately murdered by paramilitary employees and/or agents working for (Drummond) to eliminate effective leaders from the trade union representing Drummond workers, and to intimidate other workers from joining the union or assuming a union leadership position.” 
 
In 10 March 2001, Valmore Lacarno Rodríguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita were pulled from a Drummond-chartered bus on their way to work at the company’s La Loma mine. They were then shot execution style. Lacarno was the president of the union, while Orcasita was the vice president. 
 
Some months later, the new president of Sintramienergética, Gustavo Soler, was assassinated. 
 
On behalf of the estates of the three, the USW and the Human Rights Fund will present affidavits from those who witnessed the horrific deeds, as well as present in court witnesses who had direct knowledge of Drummond’s alleged complicity in the killings. They include a former Colombian army combatant, who later became a part of a right-wing paramilitary group, and a bodyguard to Drummond’s director of Community Relations, who witnessed a large monetary pay-off from the company’s managing director to paramilitaries. 
 
If the civil suit is successful and punitive damages are awarded, it will mark the first time in US history that the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act has been used to find a company guilty of crimes abroad.

Trial Begins in US on Drummond Coal’s Alleged Murders of Colombian Trade Unionists

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With the Canadian economy in the throes of an industrial melt-down, the government has felt the heat and appointed a task force on competition and foreign investment. But the Tories, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have appointed only their friends to the five-member panel formally called the “Competition Policy Review Panel.” 
 
Those appointments, announced last week on the very day that Canada’s biggest foreign takeover occurred, Rio Tinto’s C$45 billion buy-out of aluminium producer Alcan, has angered Canadian labour. ICEM Vice President Ken Neumann, the United Steelworkers’ Canadian Director, called it an insult to the workers and citizens most affected by the government’s unsound fiscal policies, lack of any industrial strategy, and the current run of sell-offs to Canadian-based companies.
<img height="202" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0605KenNeumann.jpg" width="180"/>
 USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann 

“It is time for working people to have meaningful input into reforming the legislative agenda on these issues,” Neumann said. “Our members have been on the receiving end of unregulated corporate globalisation” far too long. 
 
The panel, charged with reviewing the rules of the Canadian Investment Act, is composed of former CEOs of Canadian companies that have split apart, as well as representatives of banking and finance. Neither labour nor community representatives received appointment to the panel. It is chaired by the former head of a telecommunications company that tore apart from Bell Canada, and also has on it the CEO of a splintered Canadian retail conglomerate. 
 
Canada has been plagued by rampant joblessness in rural, single-industry communities due to the increasing value of the Canadian dollar. Now, the Bank of Canada has raised interest rates by one-quarter percent to 4.5%, and a similar increase is expected by year end. 
 
“Higher interest rates will accelerate the rise of the Canadian dollar,” Neumann said, “which has already been responsible for wiping out more than a quarter-million manufacturing jobs in this country. 
 
“Those who claim that the loss of these jobs does not have a significant impact on the economy are not living in the real world of unemployment, lower standard of living, and the devastation experienced by many communities across the country.” 
 
The Competition Policy Review Panel is expected to make recommendations that could liberalise the rules governing foreign investment deals inside Canada. The panel, however, composed of global marketers and finance people with little experience in creating Canadian jobs, will have to seriously re-think Tory and Liberal Party priorities in order to do to recommend policies that resuscitate the livelihoods of millions of ordinary Canadians.

Steelworkers-Canada Blasts Government’s One-Sided Economic Review Panel

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ICEM Argentine affiliate Sindicato Unico Trabajores del Neumático Argentina (SUTNA) wrapped up major tyre talks in the South American nation, but it didn’t come easy.
While global tyre producers Pirelli and Bridgestone-Firestone came to terms early and conflict-free at their factories, FATE, a home-owned company which employs 1,200 workers at a factory near Buenos Aires, attempted to impose terms that undercut the gains made by SUTNA at the Italian and Japanese-based companies. 
 
Workers did not take industrial action, but they firmly and repeatedly rejected the inferior FATE contract offers. Finally, in late June, FATE presented SUTNA with terms that equal the Pirelli and Bridgestone-Firestone deals.
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SUTNA members at FATE’s San Fernando factory won wage increases totalling 23.2% over the next year. With bonuses, including two front-end ratification payments, the package equals – and surpasses, in some areas – contracts for the 1,400 rubber workers at the bigger companies. 
 
SUTNA General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko pledged prior to last spring’s national negotiations that no worker would earn less than 2,741 pesos, or €600 per month. 
 
We have attained our goals, Wasiejko said, “through transparent and democratic negotiations.” He commended the unrelenting worker resolve at the tyre factory, and said holding the line against FATE was made possible by workers “gathering in assemblies to freely and openly discuss” the company’s bargaining stands. He also said FATE workers conducted several democratic votes on many of the issues put forward by the company, votes that fostered unity.
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SUTNA’s FATE workers won a 12% increase that is retroactive to April; they will get 6% in October 2007, 4% in February 2008, and another 1.23% in June 2008. SUTNA also won job advancements for 82 of the 1,200 workers, a major accomplishment. 
 
At Pirelli and Bridgestone-Firestone, SUTNA negotiated 10% increases in April, with 6.5% coming due in October 2007, 3.5% in March 2008, 2% in April 2008, and 1.23% in June 2008. 
 
The agreement was signed on 28 June, more two months after Pirelli and Bridgestone-Firestone came to terms.

SUTNA in Argentina Meets Goals in Talks with Last Major Rubber Company

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