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The ICEM congratulates Comrade Babatunde Ogun on his re-election as President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff of Nigeria (PENGASSAN). Ogun won re-election for a second three-year term. 
 
PENGASSAN branch and sector leaders elected Ogun on 2 June at the Third Triennial National Delegates&rsquo; Conference in Abuja. The conference also elected eight other members of the salaried staff&rsquo;s Central Working Committee. 
 
Ogun won a contested election with 287 votes, while his opponent, Ethelbert Uka, received 109 votes. 
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Ogun confirmed that the election of a new leadership team for PENGASSAN would &ldquo;energise a strong and modern industrial relations system in the oil and gas industry &hellip; and build a knowledge-based system in which all branch executives will be tutored on the emerging trends in industrial relations.&rdquo; 
 
Other election pledges of the re-elected President include pressure on the Labour Ministry&rsquo;s company inspectors to perform, improved safety auditing at refineries and other installations, equipping PENGASSAN&rsquo;s research department, and improving lobbying capabilities. 
 
The other elected officials on 2 June were Adamu Emmanuel Umoru, Deputy President; Hygenius Chika Onuegbu, National Industrial Relations Officer; Segun Jaiyeola, Auditor; Segun Timimene Amanah,&nbsp;Auditor 1; Sunday Ogadi, National Financial Secretary; Zaid Kolawole, National Publicity Secretary; Ijeoma Dom-Nwachukwu, Chairperson of Women-in-PENGASSAN; and David Amanah, Auditor 2; Musa Achimugu, National Treasurer; Rev. Sunday Folorunso Oginni, Lagos Zone Chairman; Friday Otono, Port Harcourt Zone Ag. chairman; Elvis Irefo, Warri Zone Chairman; Muhammed Bulama Saidu, Kaduna Zone Chairman; Fidelis O. Osuagu, Lagos Zone Secretary; Micahel Amadi, Port Harcourt Zone Secretary; Emmanuel Ojugbana, Warri Zone Secretary; and&nbsp;Temitope Oyegbade, Kaduna Zone Secretary.
Bayo Olosohile remains the appointed General Secretary of PENGASSAN, while Lumumba Okugbawa is the appointed Deputy General Secretary.&nbsp;

PENGASSAN Re-elects Babatunde Ogun as President

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The ICEM&rsquo;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 &ldquo;Making Mining Investment Work for Workers and Communities,&rdquo; 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. 
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NUM Deputy President Piet Matosa
Representatives from Central &Uacute;nica 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&rsquo; 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&rsquo; 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&rsquo; 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 &ldquo;Labour Movements, Transparency and Accountability in the Extractive Industries.&rdquo; 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="/wp-content/migration/icem/Resolution%20Joburg%20Vale%20May%2011.pdf ">resolution</a> can be found here.

ICEM, USW Hold Mine Investment Workshop in South Africa

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A study conducted by a Stanford University Law School professor reveals that there are significantly fewer fatalities and injuries in underground unionized coal mines in the US than in non-union ones. Alison Morantz examined coal mine safety statistics between 1993 and 2008 and found that traumatic injuries in unionized mines were from 17-33% fewer than in non-union mines, and the rate of fatalities ranged from 33-72% less. 
 
Of specific note, Professor Morantz found that the non-traumatic injury rate in US coal mining is higher and she suggested that is because injury reporting practices are more common in union mines than non-union mines. 
 
During the 15-year period that was studied, there was a decrease in the number of mine-related injuries per hours worked, although the number of traumatic injuries has remained relatively level. During the same period, the rate of unionization in US mining dropped from 21% in 1993 to 10% in 2008. 
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UMWA President Cecil Roberts 

Morantz used numbers pegged to per man-year, or the average time worked in a year. She found that there are .037 traumatic injuries per man-year at union mines, and .047 at non-union mines. Regarding fatalities, the rate is .0003 per man-year at unionized mines and .0006 at non-union mines. The aggregate injury rate, reflecting better reporting at union mines, is .126 at union mines and .115 at non-union ones. 
 
Morantz concluded of her finding that there is &ldquo;a strong presumption that a union safety effects exists in US coal mining.&rdquo; 
 
The study parallels the exemplary work that ICEM affiliate United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) has done over the past decades regarding safety and health in mines, including getting the US government to ratify ILO Convention 176 in the late 1990s. The UMWA has institutionalised comprehensive safety programmes and advanced training for on-the-job safety experts in its represented mines. 
 
&ldquo;Miners have long known that there is a union safety effect, as the study calls it,&quot; said UMWA President Cecil Roberts. &ldquo;Working in a union-represented mine, with the backing of our Local Union safety committees and our International Union safety experts, makes a huge difference. I am pleased to see that has been confirmed by a comprehensive, independent scientific study.&quot; 
 
Dr. Morantz&rsquo;s independent study was funded by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/110304MorantzCoalMineSafetyUnions.pdf">full study</a> can be accessed here.

In US, Unionised Coal Mines Far Safer, Study Discloses

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As a policy from ICEM&rsquo;s 2007 Congress in Bangkok, meaningful social dialogue with employers at global level is intended to build trust, understanding, and the search for a climate to conduct joint actions and initiatives. In this framework, the action plan by ICEM&rsquo;s World Conference for the Chemical Industries last year instructed the Secretariat to continue to wage efforts to develop social dialogue forums with global employers&rsquo; organisations. 
 
This included to organisation of a special event with the chemical industry employers in a short time frame. 
 
With this, the ICEM and the International Chemical Employers&rsquo; Labour Relations Committee (LRC) jointly organized a first &ldquo;Global Social Dialogue Meeting in the Chemical Industry&rdquo; on 26 May in Geneva. The meeting was attended by more than 30 representatives from both LRC and ICEM, as well as union and employers&rsquo; representatives from Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Norway, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and UK. ILO Sector, ILO ACTEMP, and International Employers&rsquo; Organization (IOE) representatives were also present. 
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The meeting was co-chaired by Wolfgang Goos, President of LRC, and Tomas Nieber, Chairman of the ICEM Chemical Industries Sector. Both expressed their commitment to social dialogue at the outset. ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana stressed that political decisiveness for social dialogue initiatives in the chemical industry is one of the best examples of this commitment. Lutz M&uuml;hl, LRC General Secretary, and Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary, presented structures and major priorities of their respective organisations at the meeting. 
 
Both ICEM and LRC consider ILO platforms and meetings as important instruments for developing social dialogue. The meeting received a detailed report from Yasuhiko Kamakura of ILO Sector on agenda, technical details, and preparations for forthcoming ILO meetings in the chemical industry. The ILO will be organizing a Tripartite Meeting on Promoting Social Dialogue on Restructuring and its Effects on Employment in the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries in Geneva on 24-27 October 2011, and a Global Dialogue Forum on initiatives to promote decent and productive work in chemicals, which will be held in Geneva in 2012-2013. The 26 May meeting fully supported ILO meetings on developing social dialogue in the industry. 
 
Participants discussed cooperation framework, principal topics, and follow-up for developing global social dialogue in the chemical industry. The meeting also took up the globally celebrated &ldquo;International Year of Chemistry &ndash; 2011&rdquo; with a role and contribution in social dialogue. Following deliberations, the meeting agreed to release a joint ICEM and LRC statement called the &ldquo;<a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/lrc%20joint%20declaration.pdf">Geneva Declaration</a>.&rdquo;&nbsp; 
 
Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM&rsquo;s Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs, and the Chemical and Rubber Industries&rsquo; Officer, underlined ICEM&rsquo;s commitment for social dialogue: &ldquo;The industry has a long-standing culture of social dialogue in major chemical-producing countries. Our duty as social partners at global level is to do our best to strongly follow-up the initiative which we established at this meeting.&rdquo;

ICEM, Chemical Employers Begin Global Level Social Dialogue Process

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The ICEM Turkish affiliate &Ccedil;IMSE-İş, the Cement, Ceramics, Pottery and Glass Industry Workers&rsquo; Union, decided at its presidential committee meeting on 2 June to call strikes at 45 cement factories. The decision, occurring in Ankara, comes after disagreement in cement sector collective bargaining negotiations. 
 
The bargaining has hit an impasse, blocking achievement of a new collective agreement. The union and the Cement Industry Employers&rsquo; Federation (CEIS) have been negotiating since 7 January. Bargaining in January and February did reach consensus on some 40 provisions on normative regulations. 

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&Ccedil;IMSE-İş President Zekeriye Nazlım 

But in the months since, no further progress has been made. &Ccedil;IMSE-İş decided to call a walkout on the entire industry at last week&rsquo;s meeting of the presidential committee, composed of the union&rsquo;s Executive Committee members and branch chairmen. The committee decided to take the necessary preparations for strike actions without delay. 
 
Some 5,800 union members are employed at the 45 cement plants. 
 
According to the Strike and Lock-out Law, &Ccedil;IMSE-İş can lawfully strike within a 60-day period after announcing the strike. The union will soon determine the exact day to start the strike.

ÇIMSE-İş Calls for Strike Actions at 45 Turkish Cement Plants

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ICEM and the Building &amp; Wood Workers&rsquo; International (BWI) are actively continuing the campaign of the Indian Cement Workers Federation (INCWF) for equal rights, better conditions, and higher salaries for contract workers at Swiss-based cement multinational Holcim. Union busting and police harassment were increased at Holcim-India over the last two weeks, and a worker rally at the Labour Ministry was organized in response. 
 
The renewed worker anger was sparked by an incident on 19 May with the arrest Bhagwati Sahu, who was falsely accused of stealing Rs. 3,500 and a mobile phone. Brother Sahu is a trade union organizer for contract workers at the Holcim-Ambuja plant in Rawaan. 
 
Claims of police complicity with the company were compounded when the local police opposed bail and spuriously calling Sahu a &ldquo;habitual offender, dangerous, and a threat to law and order.&rdquo; Numerous witnesses came forward to testify that Bhagwati was elsewhere at the time of the incident. Lakhan Sahu, a fellow union activist, was also charged with the same crime. He was attending a family funeral in Raipur, a one-day drive south of Rawaan. 

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The fake charges, intended to break the union organising of contractors at Holcim, also targeted six other union activists. 
 
Join the <a href="http://www.bwint.org/default.asp?Index=3442&amp;Language=EN">campaign</a> yourself by sending a message to the Holcim CEO via the BWI website here. 
 
INCWF, an affiliate of both the ICEM and BWI, has conducted a long-running campaign calling for equal rights for contract workers, as stipulated under Indian law. Holcim-India continuously neglects this legislation, specifically at its subsidiaries of ACC in Bhilai and Ambuja Cement in Baloda Bazar. 
 
On 26 May, 250 contract workers reached Raipur to meet the Labour Ministry and Labour Secretary to demand the implementation of the High Court order directing regularization, and the withdrawal of the false cases against their union leaders. Both the minister and secretary avoided meeting the workers though their subordinates made &ldquo;assurances&rdquo; of looking into the workers&rsquo; grievances. 
 
The BWI, ICEM, and Swiss trade union UNIA are planning to send a delegation to India to investigate the grievances. 
 
Holcim is the second largest producer of cement in the world. An average salary for Indian contract workers of US$2.17 a day and India&rsquo;s large quantities of limestone are reasons why Holcim has shifted production to the Asian sub-continent from countries such as Spain and the US.

Holcim, India’s Police Team to Resist Contract Worker Organising

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Four French unions, led by the CGT and the CFDT, carried out four-hour strikes at Lafarge cement plants today, 6 June, in protest to the company&rsquo;s intended plans to shut its Frangey cement facility near L&eacute;zinnes, L&rsquo;Yonne province, some 170 kilometres southeast of Paris. Workers began blocking trucks this morning at the Frangey plant and work stoppages were occurring at other French Lafarge sites in support of the 74 workers who could lose their jobs. 
 
Besides CGT and CFDT, FO and CFTC endorsed the industrial actions at some 11 Lafarge plants in France. The CGT and CFDT are the unions with membership at the Frangey plant. 
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Lafarge announced on 25 May at an extraordinary Works Council meeting that it would close the plant in three stages between now and the end of 2012. However, the initial redundancies &ndash; expected in August &ndash; will likely reduce employment to only 20. The company used over capacity and the small market that the plant serves as reasons for closure. 
 
Lafarge also said environmental factors were part of the decision, although the facility has received environmental certification. The Frangey plant produces 300,000 tons of cement annually and a system of cogeneration covers 50% of the plant&rsquo;s energy needs. 
 
The company said workers would be offered a chance to transfer to other Lafarge facilities. CGT delegate Jean-Claude Rives said the decision is unjustified because the plant provides a major benefit both in wages and in cement production to the L&rsquo;Yonne department. 
 
Twenty contractors also work at Frangey and they likely will lose their jobs. The French unions left open the possibility that further job actions would occur to protest the announced closure.

French Unions Conduct 4-Hour Strike at Lafarge Today

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Mansour Osanloo, the leader and co-founder of Vahed Syndicate, a union of bus drivers in and around Tehran, Iran, was released from an Iranian jail on 2 June after four years imprisonment. But his freedom came conditionally. He needed to post payment of a bond and release was granted on grounds that he maintain &ldquo;good behaviour.&rdquo; 
 
His only offence against the state was to form a free and democratic union of bus drivers in 2005. 
 
In a statement by the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF), which has been fighting for his freedom and full recognition of his union, General Secretary David Cockroft said, &ldquo;He is free because trade unions worldwide demanded justice. 
<img alt="" src="" width="80" height="80" />
&ldquo;That bail has been set falls short of the full pardon we all wanted, and which the Iranian government promised, but for now we can just take a moment to savour his richly deserved return to his family.&rdquo; (See the full <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/6047">ITF statement</a> here.)&nbsp; 
 
The ITF reminded that two of Osanloo&rsquo;s colleagues of the Vahed Syndicate, Reza Shahabi and Ebrahim Madadi, are innocent victims still locked inside Iran&rsquo;s prisons. 
 
Vahed Syndicate and Osanloo, 51, had been under heavy state repression since the founding of the union six years ago. Osanloo had been jailed twice between 2005-2006 and was beaten and had his tongue slit while in prison. Then in early summer 2007, just a month after he had been at a meeting of the ITF in London and another with trade union leaders of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in Brussels, he was jailed again and sentenced to five years for &ldquo;acting against national security&rdquo; and &ldquo;propaganda against the state.&rdquo; Last year, another year was added to his sentence. 
 
Osanloo is suffering from poor health from the harsh treatment inflicted on him in Iran&rsquo;s prisons. A previous <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2439--�Dirty-Tricks-Imposed-by-Iranian-Government-over-Imprisonment-of-Mansour-Osanloo ">ICEM report</a> on his treatment can be found here, while <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2327-Iran-Again-Arrests-Mansour-Osanloo-Following-His-European-Labour-Visits ">another ICEM report</a> of his 2007 arrest following his European trade union visit can be found here.

After Four Years, Mansour Osanloo Released from Iran Jail

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The Independent Trade Union of Miners&rsquo; of Ukraine (NPGU) held its Sixth Congress at mid-month in Kiev and besides hearing a 2005 to 2011 report on the union&rsquo;s activities, the Congress elected governing bodies and adopted several resolutions. 
 
Mikhail Volynets was re-elected President of the Independent Miners Union by secret ballot. The Congress was attended by the ICEM and representatives from the ILO, the US Solidarity Center, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) of Germany, representatives of Ukrainian ministries and departments, deputies of the Verkhovnaya Rada, or Parliament, the leaders of other trade unions of Ukraine. 
<img src="" width="209" height="207" alt="" />
Mikhail Volynets (left) and NPGU Vice President Anatoly Akimochkin
Delegates and speakers voiced concern that the new law on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, adopted by the Rada, with many stating that it jeopardizes the gains made over the past 20 years. Specific resolutions of the Congress singled out harmful passages of the Social Dialogue law regarding pension reform and health and safety in Ukraine&rsquo;s coal mines. 
 
The Congress also resolved to: demand that the state establish a system of preferences for employees who are actively involved in creating safe working conditions and for employers who prove that they maintain a steady level of safe working conditions; demand that the work state mine regulatory agencies do be judged on hours worked without incidents, accidents, and fatalities, rather than on the number of orders, reprimands, and fines issued; demand that public institutions in the field of occupational safety and health should be an integral part of safety and health management systems. 
 
Delegates also called on the Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers not to adopt the draft law on pension reform; develop wage reform aimed at legalizing the maximum wage and to significantly increase the wage proportion in a company's production costs to the level of 20-25% to serve as the basis for calculating pension contributions; eliminate the corruption phenomenon in the extractive industries where the shadow market of coal reaches three million tons per year, and to close coal mining off to so-called &ldquo;slave labour,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Kopanki&rdquo;; and improve legislation for heightened liability against employers for violating workers&rsquo; rights.

Independent Miners’ Union of Ukraine Holds Sixth Congress

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On 13 May in Madrid, two great unions from the Spanish UGT confederation merged to form a new union, the 150,000-member FITAG-UGT, the UGT&rsquo;s new union for food and industrial workers. 
 
Dissolution congresses of the two predecessor unions, FTA-UGT for food and FIA-UGT for chemicals and industrial, preceded the founding congress, with delegates voting better than 97% in both congresses to go ahead with the merger. Antonio Deusa Pedrazo was elected General Secretary of FITAG-UGT. The new Executive is made up of 17 members, six of whom are women. Roughly 32% of the new union&rsquo;s membership is women. 
 
The union will negotiate 31 collective agreements in sectors that cover 10% of Spain&rsquo;s total industrial base. 
<img alt="" src="" width="239" height="159" />
Mari Luz Rodriguez
The founding Congress made it clear that special attention will be given to sectors that are more difficult to organise such as ones containing small- and medium-sized companies. One focus will be immigrants who work in great numbers in some of the sectors that the new federation will represent. 
 
Spanish Secretary of State for Employment, Gender and Youth, Mari Luz Rodriguez, spoke at the founding 
Congress. She recognized the new union for its reinforced union structures and for defending the interests of workers. 
 
FITAG-UGT also made it clear it was laying the foundation for facing the challenges that confront trade unions, both at national and international levels. Those include: to respond to globalization and fight neoliberalism; strengthen the union role and strengthen European Works Council roles in facing multinationals; to make the most of international trade unions; to demand and get more stable and secure employment with more rights; and to demand more appropriate social protections and defend the welfare state. 
 
To meet these goals, FITAG-UGT resolved to organise more workers in all sectors that the new union serves, and to get more shop stewards to be present in all workplaces and to increase the union&rsquo;s influence. The union believes better training, information, and structures will be put in place to achieve these goals. 
 
ICEM affiliate FIA-UGT itself is a product of mergers in Spain&rsquo;s labour movement. The former Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union first merged with UGT branches representing oil and gas workers and then merged again with branches of miners and textile workers.

Industrial, Food Workers of UGT in Spain Merge

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