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Some 190 Petrol-İş members in Turkey at the Sanovel İla&ccedil;ları pharmaceutical company, located in Silivri, Istanbul, were sacked after joining the ICEM-affiliated Turkish union. 
 
Petrol-İş started an organising effort at the plant a year ago. Sanovel İla&ccedil;ları, one of the top ten pharmaceutical companies in Turkey, dismissed five union members on 4 April 2007, after all production workers joined the union.
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On the 6 June, the company announced that it had terminated the employment of 190 union members. Management said union status disqualified the workers from being able to continue to perform their jobs. 
 
Protesting the firings, all workers at Sanovel İla&ccedil;ları began a protest in front of the plant. 
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Striking workers at Sanovel
A large majority of the workers are paid only the minimum legal wage at Sanovel. The average wage at the company is YTL 500, the equivalent of &euro; 275. While working under extremely difficult conditions, workers are not paid any social benefits. 
 
Public opinion in Turkey is on the side of the sacked workers, and other trade unions, as well as a number of political parties, are backing efforts to get the 190 workers reinstated. On 27 June, Salih Kilic, President of Turk-Iş, the national centre to which Petrol-İş is affiliated, visited the dismissed workers and offered the federation's support.

190 Petrol-Is members in Turkey Dismissed for Belonging to a Union

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A mid-June conference in Berlin between two of German&rsquo;s most important trade unions, ICEM affiliate IGBCE and IG Metall, put forward an innovative plan for the future of the country&rsquo;s automotive supply industry. 
 
Entitled &ldquo;Future Prospects for the Automotive Support Industry, Innovation, Growth, and Jobs,&rdquo; the blueprint calls on all social partners &ndash; political parties and governmental officials, auto manufacturers and suppliers, banks, all levels of management, as well as works councils and the trade unions &ndash; to overcome the barriers to German-made auto parts, and to develop initiatives that strengthen research, and education and training of staff. 
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The plan lists obstacles such as high energy costs, global competition, run-away capital, restrictive credit policies of banks, and an overall lack of commitment for domestic financing that limits innovation in the automotive industry. 
 
The two unions cite a number of changes that must occur, including: more available financing for research and development; a focus on quality and technology-driven innovations that takes precedence over any cost factors; a systematic modernisation of German factories; and an emphasis on creating qualified and highly motivated staff, which will drive the innovative process. 
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And, just as important, IGBCE and IG Metall claim Germany needs a sound financial policy on investors, such as private equity funds and other risk capital ventures, which will stop the closures and plundering of stable domestic auto-supply enterprises. 
 
Germany&rsquo;s auto manufacturing and auto-supply industries provide a total of 5.3 million jobs, the majority of which find workers represented by either IG Metall or IGBCE. The Berlin conference represents an important cooperative milestone for the country&rsquo;s two largest manufacturing unions. 
 
The conference was co-chaired by Michael Vassiliadis, a member of the IGBCE governing board, and Berthold Huber, IG Metall&rsquo;s vice chairman.

Joint German Forum between IGBCE and IG Metall Shapes Future of Auto Supply Industry

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A month-long strike by 660 chromium miners in Albania escalated eight days ago as 30 of the striking miners began a hunger strike. Last Thursday, 26 June, five of them were hospitalised due to dehydration. Another four were brought to hospital yesterday, Sunday July 1st, with doctors describing their condition as critical. 
 
The strike at the Italian-based Darfo SRL's&nbsp;mine and one of two ferrochrome smelters at Bulqiza, in north-eastern Albania, where a massive protest was also organised yesterday, is backed by ICEM affiliate Trade Union Federation of Industrial Workers of Albania, as well as by the region's citizens and civil society, in particular the NGO Mjaft. 
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Also yesterday, the leader of the strikers&rsquo; committee, Mr. Dilaver Perkoxha, was arrested. According to the latest information, he remains in the Police Commissariat. A meeting on Saturday between the Minister of Economy, Mr. Genc Ruli, and representatives of the miners failed. 
 
The strike is over safety -- two miners were killed deep in a mine shaft on 11 June -- pay, life insurance, and a bettering of general working conditions. The miners and KSSH placed the demands before&nbsp;Darfo a full six years ago, but neither the mine and smelter management nor the Albanian government officials acted on the pay request or on the abhorrent safety conditions. 
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&quot;We are seeking more information on this dispute,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, &quot;but what we have learned is that in tripartite negotiations, both the government and Bulqiza mine management have been indifferent. 
 
The striking miners and the Federation of Industrial Workers deserve and will get our full support and solidarity.&quot; 
 
The ongoing health and safety deficiencies were manifested when two mineworkers, Hysni Lezni and Avni Duri&ccedil;i were killed 1,000 metres underground in Darfo's chromium mine. The pay dispute is over the fact that mine and smelting workers receive sub-standard monthly salaries compared to other industrial workers in the central European country.

Albanian Chrome Miners Strike over Safety, Pay, and Work Conditions

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ICEM affiliate Petroleum, Mining, Chemical Workers&rsquo; in Palestine (GUPMCWP) undertook a two-day course in Ramallah on trade union education and committee building. The workshops took place 27-28 April. 
 
The training for 25 workers is a continuation of programmes and practices that the union is engaged in to build a democratic trade union movement. 
 
In February, some 60 Palestinian labour activists took part in a similar seminar, also in the Palestinian West Bank city of Ramallah. 
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Workers in Palestine have suffered immeasurably due to restrictions by the Israeli military on freedom of movement to and from jobs. The production of goods from Palestine and the providing of services have also stricken the country&rsquo;s economy, in what the ICEM has stated is &ldquo;collective punishment of a people.&rdquo; 
 
Viable and democratic trade unions hold the future for growth and a measure of prosperity for millions of Palestinians, the ICEM believes. To help achieve that, the ICEM has established a programme with GUPMCWP that includes training for women workers inside Birzeit Pharmaceutical, a factory that has experienced shortages of raw products due to delays caused by the Israeli authorities. 
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GUPMCWP President Mohammad Mousa Jadallah 
GUPMCWP President Mohammad Mousa Jadallah said that the Palestinians that are hurt the most by Israel&rsquo;s blockade on movement, trade, and revenues are women, children, and the elderly. 
 
Jadallah said the union&rsquo;s workers&rsquo; training programmes will heighten awareness to potential gains that can be made for all Palestinian workers. 
 
Nabeel Mahmmoud, GUPMCWP&rsquo;s International Director, said the training serves as basic organising, and that building of democratic committee structures inside workplaces &ndash; particularly Birzeit Pharmaceutical &ndash; is a necessity in Palestine to alleviate poverty.

Palestine Trade Union GUPMCWP Conducts Further Trade Union Courses

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The ICEM has expressed shock and anger at the mid-April killing of General Federation of Iraq Workers (GFIW) Vice-President Moaaid Hamid and his wife. The two were killed in the province of Nineveh during a clash between forces of the Iraqi army and terrorist elements inside the province. 
 
Hamid was a contributor to the founding of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions in 2003, before that trade union centre evolved into the GFIW. He had been a victim of Saddam&rsquo;s regime against free and independent trade unions, and after the invasion, had been abducted and tortured by terrorists before he was freed by Iraqi security forces. 
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In a letter to the GFIW, the ICEM wrote, &ldquo;This appalling violence, coming as it does so soon after the abduction, torture, and subsequent murder of Najim Abd-Jasem, the General Secretary of the Mechanic Workers&rsquo; Union of your Federation, strengthens our view that there is a systematic campaign to eliminate the leadership of the newly formed independent and democratic unions that strongly oppose sectarianism.&rdquo; 
 
The letter was sent by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda on 29 April 2007.

ICEM Mourns Killing in Iraq of GFIW Vice-President

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ICEM affiliate Argentine Federation of Private Oil and Workers Union (FASPyGP) launched a series of rolling strikes to oil and gas production on 3 May across several provinces of the South American nation. The dispute is over a continued wage impasse between the union and several companies, covering 35,000 workers. 
 
The companies have balked at paying 2007 wage increases of 20%, an amount FASPyGP claims is only 45 minutes of combined production in oil and gas fields. The strikes have occurred at gas deposits near Mendoza and Salta, and other energy extraction in the provinces of Tierra del Fuego, Chubut, and Neuqu&eacute;n y Santa Cruz. 
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The companies being targeted include Repsol YPF, Argentine-British Pan American Energy, Apache, Argentina&rsquo;s PlusPetrol, as well as units of major energy producers, such as Petrobras and ExxonMobil. The industry has offered only 15% increases. 
 
Oil and gas companies doing exploratory and extraction work in Argentina have increased gas output by 5.2% in the first quarter of 2007, while oil production has jumped 4.9%. The companies export some 65% of all production and with oil and gas prices remaining high, multinationals have prospered from the country&rsquo;s natural resources. 
 
The government of Nestor Kirchner has called on oil and gas companies to expand their investment efforts in Argentina&rsquo;s energy sector, as well as to compensate oil and gas workers fairly as a means to curbing consumer price inflation.

Argentina Oil Union, FASPyGP, Launches Oil, Gas Strike

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A gem-polishing dispute that saw intense ICEM involvement in 2001 has flared again at Almond Jewellery in Bangkok. The New York-based jewellery exporter locked out 254 workers on 9 April. 
 
Workers are in protest over the firing of two key leaders of the plant-level union, which occurred in September 2006, and management&rsquo;s refusal to enter into to obligatory social talks over renewed labour terms. Workers began picketing the factory on 17 April. On 19 April, 200 of Almond&rsquo;s workers marched to the Government House in Bangkok and presented a petition. They were joined by trade union leaders from ICEM&rsquo;s Thai-affiliated unions. 
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Almond unionists marched to Govt House on 19 April
A government representative met with leaders of the workers at Almond, and pledged to investigate the lockout within seven days. That is now in progress. 
 
Almond is continuing to operate the gem-polishing factory with a small number of regular workers and some 400-500 agency workers. 
 
The contract dispute started in late January, after the union requested the re-opening of contract talks. Managers responded by demanding benefits back from workers that had previously been obtained during negotiations. Managers then made threats of dismissal to workers if they engaged in union activity, and they have forced some workers to sign petitions indicating their withdrawal from the union. 
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The ICEM obtained bargaining rights for workers at Almond&rsquo;s factory in Bangkok in late 2001. Then, Almond had sacked over 50 workers, including the entire leadership of the plant-level committee. The ICEM pressured Almond&rsquo;s owners to reinstate the workers, begin negotiations with the union, and to drop lawsuits the company brought against leaders for legitimate trade union activity. 
 
Almond&rsquo;s New York-based leader Jonathan Mandelbaum agreed to a four-point charter, which included the above. Since 2001, gem-polishing workers made positive gains in negotiations with managers. Almond&rsquo;s managers now seek to dismantle those gains. 
But workers have been tested before, and the 19 April march and protest at the Government House signals renewed resistance. Workers are demanding the re-hiring of plant-level President Patoom Kamdeewan and Committee Member Akom Thongdeewan, and are insisting on backpay for both, as well as for all locked-out workers.
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Former ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs&nbsp;talking to 
Thai Almond workers in 2001
The united workforce is seeking a 5% wage increase, plus a bonus payment. Workers seek a monthly-wage pattern, instead of daily wages, and demand that Almond pay them a transportation allowance. 
 
They also are demanding inclusion of contract and agency workers under terms of the collective bargaining agreement. 
 
The ICEM supports these demands as fair and just.

Thai Gem-Polishing Firm Again Bringing Labour Problems to the Fore

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The ICEM teamed with the International Transport Workers&acute; Federation (ITF) in applying pressure on President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The ICEM also lodged strong protest to Kabila over the dispute by workers at the Soci&eacute;t&eacute; Mini&egrave;re de Bakwanga (MIBA), a diamond extraction company. 
 
The transport matter concerned the unfair and arbitrary arrest of trade unionist Leon Ngoy Bululu, vice-president of ITF-affiliated Solidarit&eacute; Syndicale des Travailleurs et Cadres du Congo (SOLIDARITE). 
He was arrested on 20 April 2007, following an appearance on a 14 March television programme on the Moli&egrave;re channel. In the broadcast, he reportedly spoke out against ongoing mismanagement of the national transport company, Office National des Transports (ONATRA). Mr. Bululu was arrested at his office by agents of the Brigade Criminelle du parquet de la Gombe and detained, following a complaint by the management of the transport company. 
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ONATRA employs 17,800 workers throughout DRC&rsquo;s five provinces: Kinshasa, Bas-Congo, Bandungu, Equateur and the Province Orientale. Among the issues raised by Comrade Bululu was the fact that the company keeps hiring new workers, over 1,200 recently, even though wages for current workers are delayed by four months. 
 
Bululu was first imprisoned at the &quot;Parquet de Grande Instance de la Gombe.&quot; Later, he was transferred to the notorious Makala prison, where he finds himself incarcerated without due and diligent legal processes. Efforts to find out more about his current condition have, so far, been without result. 
 
Both ICEM and ITF call for his immediate release, which they say is clear and calculated trade union repression. 
 
The diamond mining dispute at state-run Soci&eacute;t&eacute; Mini&egrave;re de Bakwanga (MIBA), a diamond extraction operation near Mbuji-Mayi, in south-central Kasai-Oriental Province, has forced a strike by workers also over non-payment of wages. The strike began 23 April. 
MIBA is some seven months behind in paying wages.
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A joint trade union delegation is furthermore demanding a return of social benefits that the government has taken away from diamond miners and others, and calls on the company to provide adequate equipment to guarantee health and safety. 
 
Participating unions in the strike are FENAMICO, SYTRAME, CTP, GST, SYGEMI, SLC, FGTK, FTF, all of which are ICEM affiliates, and FOSYCO, which is affiliated to the International Energy &amp; Mines Organisation (IEMO).

ICEM protests Congo’s Transport, Diamond Injustices

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Some three months after miners of AVVS de Moederbond trade union in Suriname staged a strike at a Canadian-based gold-mining enterprise, called IAM Gold, they know their rewards. A new collective agreement was formally signed 25 April 2007, giving 900 miners their first collective agreement. 
 
It was the second strike within a year at the two-year-old gold pits &ndash; both against Canadian mining houses. IAM Gold bought the central Suriname site from Ciambor Inc. late in 2006. AVVS de Moederbond hit already that Canadian company with a strike that lasted four days in May 2006. 
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This first labour accord serves as a strong precedent in the resource-rich South American country, since new mining development is occurring and IAM Gold is keenly interested in moving into eastern Suriname. 
 
In this initial three-year collective agreement, miners will receive a 24% increase, retroactive to 1 January 2007. They will also receive a 10% raise in 2008. In 2009, the union and management will negotiate a further raise.
In addition, the union won improved medical care and child benefits, while the vacation scheme was enhanced. In signing the agreement on 25 April, IAM Gold, a company with assets in Botswana, Ghana, Mali, Peru, and other South American countries, expressed public conviction to AVVS de Moederbond President Errol Snijders that it will build a trusting, cooperative relationship with the mining union. 
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President Errol Snijders
IAM Gold, founded in 1996, holds joint venture stakes with AngloGold Ashanti in Mali, Goldfields in Ghana, and owns the Mupane gold mine in Botswana. Mupane is a shared enterprise with the state, and the ten-year lease with civil society comes due in the year 2013. 
 
IAM Gold was a takeover target of Goldfields in the recent past, but the deal failed when shareholders of Goldfields rejected it. IAM Gold, in 2006, acquired Gallery Gold, and has several shared investments with Battle Mountain Gold. It also has mining interests in Senegal and Tanzania in Africa, and in Argentina, Brazil, and Ecuador in South America. 
 
The Toronto-based company also holds mining interests in Canada and collects mining royalties on Canadian precious-metal mining.

Gold Miners in Suriname Win Two-year, 34% Wage Hikes

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A mass strike in Peru has proven successful, despite government efforts to downplay the effect the strike has had on a number of mining enterprises. The strike was called by ICEM affiliate National Federation of Mining, Metallurgy, and Steel Workers Union (FNTMMSP) on 30 April and, by all accounts, over 40 copper, nickel, zinc, iron, gold, and silver mining operations have lost high levels of production since last week. 
 
The strike can easily be said to be a success, with the government already guaranteeing higher social benefits for contract and agency workers at the outset of the strike. After the union&rsquo;s return to tri-partite bargaining on 4 May, and following cessation of the strike, FNTMMSP is now pushing for further regularisation of the contract labour status, which needs to include the right to unionisation for contract workers. 
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The strike by the 28,000-member FNTMMSP saw roughly half of Peru&rsquo;s 110,000 miners participating. This included a good number of the mining sector&rsquo;s 50,000 contract or agency workers. 
Peru&rsquo;s Labour Minister Susanna Pinilla, however, has taken to the airwaves and has been quoted in the business press playing down the success of the strike. Throughout last week&rsquo;s strike, she kept providing a regular narrative of mining operations in Peru that continued production. 
 
The mining union federation, FNTMMSP, covering some 75 individual site-level unions, has complained bitterly to the government for some time that the Labour Ministry and other monitors have failed to keep pace with the burgeoning number of agencies or contract labour providers doing business in Peru&rsquo;s booming mining industry. Many of these agencies and service providers operate in the black. 
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&ldquo;The over-exploitation of these workers has been going on for too long,&rdquo; said FNTMMSP Sec. Gen. Luis Castillo Carlos, who himself has participated in ICEM conferences on Contract and Agency Labour. &ldquo;The miners&rsquo; strike was called because the authorities lack the political will to enforce labour rights,&rdquo; he added. 
 
FNTMMSP and its affiliated mining unions are seeking strict regularisation of mining employment agencies; enhanced profit-sharing arrangements for its members and newly-established profit-sharing for contract and agency workers; shorter work days; and improved pension benefits.
The 30 April strike actually started two days earlier when miners from two sites of Grupo Mexico-connected Southern Peru Copper Co. blocked roads around Ilo, Peru. Southern Peru&rsquo;s mines in Toquepala and Cuajone suffered deep production losses during the strike. FNTMMSP held marches in several regions on 1 May, and also conducted rallies on 2 May and 4 May at the Labour Ministry in Lima. 
A sampling of mining operations in Peru affected by the strike includes: Southern Peru Copper Co.; US-operated Doe Run&rsquo;s La Oroya copper and lead smelting operations; several of Volcan Cia Minera SA&rsquo;s zinc smelters; BHP Billiton&rsquo;s Tintaya copper operations in Cusco; Chinese state-run Shougang Hierroperu&rsquo;s iron ore mines in the country&rsquo;s south; Glencore International AG&rsquo;s Los Quenuales zinc operation; Cia. De Minas Buenaventura; and zinc producers Cia. Minera Santa Luisa SA and Cia. Minera Raura SA. 
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At US-based Newmont Mining&rsquo;s Yanacocha SRL&rsquo;s gold mine and smelter, South America&rsquo;s largest gold operation, miners conducted a march and protest in support of FNTMMSP&rsquo;s strike. 
 
One already achieved result of the strike is that the government did commit to increase the number of labour inspectors in Peru from 100 to 250 by the end of the year. That should help in monitoring and in getting agency labour agencies to comply with Peruvian law. 
 
Despite Labour Minister Pinilla downplaying the effect of the strike, one cabinet minister did publicly confirm the significance of the strike. &ldquo;The demands voiced by these workers are fair,&rdquo; stated Energy and Mines Minister Juan Valdivia in a published report. 
 
Referring to the vast proliferation of service-providing entities inside Peru&rsquo;s mining sector, he added, &ldquo;There are companies that comply and others that don&rsquo;t. The ones that do not respect labour rights should be punished,&rdquo; said Valdiva.

Mining Strike in Peru Produces Gains for Contract Workers

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