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The 20-million-member ICEM, based in Brussels, fully supports the actions of Belgian workers tomorrow to strike to protect their pension system and the country's current social security plan. 
 
ICEM Belgian affiliate FGTB-ABVV announced earlier in the week that it would stage a 24-hour general strike on 7 October in order to send a clear message to government and business that it will not tolerate the burden of social restructuring placed on workers. 
 
 

<img height="236" alt="" src="" width="300" />
FGTB-ABVV&rsquo;s call: To defend a proper pension system, 
decent jobs for all and adequate social security, 
we strike before it&rsquo;s too late 
&quot;We stand firmly behind FGTB-ABVV in their call for a strike,&quot; stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;It is unfair to place all of the burden on workers when attempting to change the social security structure.&quot; 
 
Unions and employers' associations have been negotiating with the government of Belgium for changes in the retirement system that could lead to eroding conditions for workers preventing them from retiring with full benefits. 
 
The FGTB-ABVV is fighting to preserve the current age at which workers can retire; resisting penalties placed on workers who fall victim to redundancies and restructurings; proposing more jobs programmes for young workers; and coming up with new methods to refinance social security, including placing a greater burden on the wealthy and no additions to the value added tax. 
 
Read more:
FGTB's Call for Strike (in French) 
<a href="http://www.fgtb.be/PDF/fr/Actions/2005/Greve/Greve24heures.pdf">http://www.fgtb.be/PDF/fr/Actions/ 
2005/Greve/Greve24heures.pdf</a>
Issues on This Strike from Affiliate La Centrale 
Generale FGTB (in French) 
<a href="http://www.accg.be/news/be-fr/Tract%20préavis%20FR.pdf">http://www.accg.be/news/be-fr/Tract%20pr&eacute;avis%20FR.pdf</a>

ICEM Supports Belgian Affiliate&#039;s General Strike

US affiliate United Steel Workers (USW) intends to file a lawsuit in a federal courtroom in the state of South Carolina over Giant Cement&rsquo;s improper reporting of hazardous wastes emitted from the company&rsquo;s plant in Harleyville, South Carolina.
<img height="99" src="" width="100" alt="" />
USW claims Giant failed to report the identity and quantity of hazardous wastes burned at the plant, as well as hazardous chemicals used and stored on the jobsite of late. The suit will allege violations of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986
&nbsp;Giant, a subsidiary of Spain-based Cementos Portland Valderrivas, is operating the cement plant with replacement workers and some 50 of the 138 workers who struck the plant in August 2005. The strike ended on 24 September, but the company has refused to take back the majority of unionised workers.

US Steelworkers File Environment Suit Against Spanish Cement Firm

French multinational Saint-Gobain in Thailand is using contract employees as well as logistics and maintenance workers to continue a lockout at an auto-glass assembly plant in Rayong province.
<img height="97" src="" width="100" alt="" />
After Saint-Gobain Sekurit presented, on 5 January, a pay offer that included an inferior bonus payment for 2005, some 300 workers protested outside the plant. The company locked out the workers the next day.
The plant has increased production since Saint-Gobain Sekurit gained auto-glass assembly contracts from General Motors Holden in Australia last year, a move inspired by the Howard government&rsquo;s free-trade agreement with Thailand that cost 120 jobs at two Pilkington auto-glass factories. The plant also fits glass for Toyota and Ford automobiles.
Thai union members at Saint-Gobain Sekurit, affiliated with the Federation of Thailand Automobile Workers&rsquo; Unions, are facing management proposals calling for reductions in Sunday overtime pay, a reduction from five days to three on &ldquo;private leave,&rdquo; and extending the retirement age.

Saint-Gobain Lockout in Thai Glass Sector

ICEM Nigerian affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN have threatened to pull all oil workers from the Niger Delta unless the government moves to improve security and rebel groups cease using violence to gain political ground. Since four expatriate workers were kidnapped on 11 January at the Shell-operated EA offshore field, a spate of attacks at other installations has killed 22 workers.
<img height="104" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="105" alt="" src="" width="100" />
In a joint statement, NUPENG and PENGASSAN said, &ldquo;If the restiveness and consequent harassment and violence on workers in the oil and gas industry persist, we shall not hesitate to withdraw our members in the various oil and gas companies operating in the region.&rdquo;
The unions called on the government to urgently resolve tensions in an amicable way and to use peaceful means to secure the release of abducted oilmen. They also called on kidnappers to release the Shell contract workers, and demanded militia groups to stop the &ldquo;violence unleashed in the Niger Delta on our members, leading to the loss of 22 lives, the taking of oil workers as hostages and the shutting down of a flow station in Benisede in Bayelsa State.&rdquo;

Nigerian Oil Affiliates Seek Halt to Niger Violence

Nepal&rsquo;s despotic monarchy ordered a day-long curfew on 20 January, which prevented planned demonstrations in Kathmandu and neighbouring Lalitpur by pro-democracy political parties, including trade union federations GEFONT, DECONT, and NTUC.
Instead, protests sprang up across the capital city on 21 January and were met with excessive force by police using tear gas and brandishing firearms instead of bamboo batons. Some 300 demonstrators were arrested, and many of those remained in custody this morning. In addition, police arrested another 150 political and human rights activists on 19 and 20 January.
<img height="159" alt="" src="" width="139" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="157" alt="" src="" width="122" />
Gefont's Secretary General Binod Shrestha&nbsp;and 
&nbsp;Chairman Mukunda Neupane 
Senior GEFONT leaders&mdash;Chairperson Makunda Neupane and Secretary-General Binod Shrestha&mdash;were arrested on 19 January and remain in police custody. Leaders of a seven-party political alliance not already under arrest have called for a general strike across Nepal on 26 January in protest to King Gyanendra&rsquo;s absolute rule.
More: 
<a href="/index.php?id=7&amp;doc=1630&amp;la=EN">ICEM letter to the King of Nepal</a>

Nepal’s Pro-democracy Groups Call for 26 January General Strike

The ICEM is calling on Nepal&rsquo;s monarchy to immediately release the top two leaders of Nepalese trade union federation General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), as well as scores of senior leaders of a seven-party political coalition who were rounded up yesterday and early today and placed under a 90-day detention order. Early today, authorities arrested GEFONT senior leaders Chairperson Mukunda Neupane and Secretary-General Binod Shrestha at their homes. 
 

<img height="44" alt="" src="" width="372" />
The Global Union Federation (GUF), covering 20 million workers from the energy and chemicals sectors to mining and process industry sectors, also is calling on King Gyanendra to immediately rescind a 16 January dictum that forbids peaceful protest and assembly in Kathmandu and neighbouring Lalitpur. 
 
The order banning all assemblies, processions and political sit-ins is aimed at blocking scheduled non-violent protests for tomorrow, 20 January, as well as future pro-democracy rallies. 
 
&ldquo;We call for immediate release of GEFONT&rsquo;s leaders and others,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &ldquo;To arrest these people only deepens our resolve, and the resolve of pro-democracy voices inside Nepal for an end to the absolute rule of this monarchist regime.&rdquo; 
 
Higgs added, &ldquo;The political coalition that has taken shape in Nepal has proven through its peaceful mass protest in Janakpur on 12 January that non-violent dissent is a legitimate vehicle for an end to the suppression of political rights,&rdquo; said Higgs. &ldquo;The ICEM supports the people of Nepal to participate in such non-violent protests and demonstrations.&rdquo; 
 
Further, the ICEM condemns the regime&rsquo;s recent curfews, changes in media law placing stricter controls on radio stations, and today&rsquo;s cut-off of mobile phone transmissions. 
 
The Brussels-based GUF also voices its opposition to recent amendments to Nepal&rsquo;s Labour Code, which have been orchestrated by government ministries intended for the royal seal. Such amendments, the ICEM feels, will restrict workers&rsquo; rights and trade union rights, as well as imposing undue foreign influence inside Nepal&rsquo;s worksites.

ICEM Calls for Release of Nepal Trade Union Leaders, Restoration of Rights

The 20-million-member ICEM calls on the government of Serbia-Montenegro to meet the legitimate pay demands by ICEM-affiliated EPS Trade Union at three enterprises of the state-run electric power generation and distribution services, i.e. the PE Electric Power Industry of Serbia, the PE Elektromreža Srbije (the Serbian Transmission System and Market Operator) and the PE Underground Pit Mine Extraction. 
<img width="100" height="100" src="" alt="" />
Workers at these three enterprises are owed wage arrears for 2004 and 2005. The government has failed to respond to union demands, as well as to make an adequate wage offer for 2006. Workers at the three enterprises began a series of one-hour strikes on 10 January in protest of the non-payment of wages, and have conducted similar one-hour strikes every day since. 
 
&ldquo;The inflation rate in Serbia in 2005 reached 17%,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &ldquo;It is unconscionable that the government is withholding payment of wages due for past years and refusing to make an acceptable offer this year.&rdquo; 
 
Serbia-Montenegro&rsquo;s government had requested that EPS Trade Union postpone any strike action until the end of February 2006. The ICEM says that such a request is irresponsible considering the non-payment of wages in 2004 and 2005. 
 
The ICEM fully supports the strikes, and has offered assistance to the 43,000-member EPS Trade Union in meeting their pay demands.

ICEM Calls on Serbia to Pay Backwages, Reach 2006 Pay Terms

&nbsp;<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
ICEM Norwegian affiliate Fellesforbundet has taken in the Norwegian Graphical Workers&rsquo; Union in a merger that will give the union greater strength in the graphical, cardboard and packaging sectors of Norway. The merger became effective 1 January. 
Fellesforbundet&rsquo;s executive board will increase by four seats with the addition of three members from the Graphical Division, plus former President Ander Skattkjaer, who will also direct Fellesforbundet&rsquo;s Collective Bargaining Department.

Norwegian Fellesforbundet, Graphical Union Merge

&nbsp;<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
In Nepal, GEFONT along with two other labour federations and the Teachers&rsquo; Union of Nepal have called on the Maoist Communist Part of Nepal to continue its cease-fire. The unions also ask the same from the monarchist regime. A four-month cease-fire by the Maoist front ended New Year&rsquo;s Day. 
Nepal&rsquo;s labour unions are in the lead calling for a peaceful restructuring of society toward democracy. The autocratic King Gyanendra has refused to listen to such a call. Instead, he is turning his back on initiatives from a 7-party coalition seeking peace and restoration of democracy. &ldquo;We demand with both the regime and Maoists not to push the nation and people towards bloodshed and the game of death again,&rdquo; read the declaration by the trade union federations.

Nepalese Unions Take Lead for Peace, Democracy

Archive

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ICEM Supports Belgian Affiliate's General Strike

US Steelworkers File Environment Suit Against Spanish Cement Firm

Saint-Gobain Lockout in Thai Glass Sector

Nigerian Oil Affiliates Seek Halt to Niger Violence

Nepal’s Pro-democracy Groups Call for 26 January General Strike

ICEM Calls for Release of Nepal Trade Union Leaders, Restoration of Rights

ICEM Calls on Serbia to Pay Backwages, Reach 2006 Pay Terms

Norwegian Fellesforbundet, Graphical Union Merge

Nepalese Unions Take Lead for Peace, Democracy

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