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The two-week-old strike by miners in Chile against the world&rsquo;s largest copper producer, Minera Escondida Ltda., continues today despite negotiations over the weekend with lead company BHP Billiton. The talks were spurred by Chile&rsquo;s government following a blockade by strikers aimed at preventing the company from operating with replacement workers. 
 
Following talks that failed midway through last week, some 300 miners, members of Escondida Workers&rsquo; Union No. 1, blocked access roads leading to the operations near Antofagasta, some 1,400 kilometres north of the Chilean capital of Santiago. Police attempted to reopen roads, using water canons and other forceful methods. 
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Despite declaring force majeure following the start of the strike on 7 August, BHP Billiton, the majority owner of Minera Escondida, was using replacement workers to carry forth production. The company declared that it was maintaining copper smelting and cathode processing at 40% of capacity, or 3,600 tonnes per day, and extraction processes at 10% capacity using substitute workers. 
 
Miners and police clashed for two days, 17-18 August, before Chilean President Michelle Bachelet ordered Labour Minister Osvaldo Andrade to intercede with mediation efforts. Those talks were held throughout the weekend and BHP Billiton did increase its salary offer. 
 
Some 2,052 members of the union are on strike at Minera Escondida, representing 96% of the company&rsquo;s workers. The union lowered its wage demands from 13% to 10% since the strike began, and BHP&rsquo;s revised salary offer, issued on 19 August, did offer hope that the strike could be settled early this week. 
 
In bargaining last week, BHP Billiton did not move from its wage proposal of 3% above Chile&rsquo;s inflation rate. Escondida Workers&rsquo; Union No. 1 is also seeking a one-off bonus of US$29,629, while the company is offering significantly less. 
 
The union says its demands would only cost the company 1% of its profits for 2006. Since a prior labour agreement was negotiated in 2003, copper prices have increased nearly six fold. The union has secured individual loans totalling up to US$1,841 for each miner, if necessary, to cover their expenses through the end of the month. 
 
Rio Tinto, a Japanese consortium led by Mitsubishi, and the World Bank&rsquo;s International Finance Corp. are the other stakeholders at Escondida, a company that last year produced 8% of the world&rsquo;s copper supply. BHP Billiton owns 57.5% of the copper operation, and is the managing partner.

Chile’s Copper Strike Continues as Miners Clash with Police

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Riot police in southern Peru battled striking contract workers at Chinese state company Shougang Hierro Per&uacute; SA recently, leaving seven seriously injured, including the wives of three workers. Some 600 contract workers employed by three cooperatives began a strike at Peru&rsquo;s only iron ore operation late in the evening on 7 August. 
 
The strike ended on 16 August, but not before police used excessive force to seriously injure the seven, including one person who nearly died. Twenty-eight other workers were detained during the police violence, which occurred on 9 and 10 August as strikers blocked roads leading to the mine in Marcona, department of Ica.
<img height="150" alt="" src="" width="200" /> 
 
C&eacute;sar Garc&iacute;a Hern&aacute;ndez, a contract worker, 
injured by police
One of Peru&rsquo;s national labour centres, the Confederaci&oacute;n General de Trabajores del Per&uacute; (CGTP), which helped resolve the eight-day strike, decried the violence, calling it an &ldquo;inexplicable act by police to protect the interests of a foreign company.&rdquo; Reportedly, police used heavy sticks, their boots and threw tear gas canisters at the strikers in order to disperse them. Eyewitness accounts said police were particularly abusive to women by kicking them as they cooked for the strikers. 
 
The strike had the effect of shutting the mine since some 900 permanent workers, trade unionists of ICEM affiliate Federaci&oacute;n Nacional de Trabajores Mineros, Metal&uacute;rgicos Y Sider&uacute;rgicos del Per&uacute; (FNTMMSP), honoured strike lines. In June, following a week-long strike, the union won wage and bonus increases for the permanent workforce. 
In a statement, FNTMMSP condemned the social conditions that contract workers of the three cooperatives work under, including failure by the companies to recognise workers&rsquo; collective bargaining rights. FNTMMSP called the establishment of the cooperatives a scam &ldquo;to evade all kinds of legal responsibilities and obligations.&rdquo; The union said the contracting companies fail to provide a decent and just salary, violate standard work rule requirements, and do not provide extra wages for night work or allow contract workers to take holidays. 
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The three cooperatives are Sercolima Sac, La Cooperativa del Solar Ltda., or Coopsol, and Cooperativa Santo Domingo de Intermediaci&oacute;n Laboral de Shougang. 
 
The strike ended after negotiations occurred between the primary employer, the subcontractors, the CGTP, and the government. Contract workers did not achieve all salary objectives, but did gain a US$1-per-day salary increase. The parties also reconciled some of the outstanding grievances, including the immediate reinstatement of three workers who had been discharged.

Police Attack Striking Contract Workers at Peru’s Iron Ore Mine

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Copper Miners in Chile at Minera Escondida Ltda. were set to strike today, at 08h00, following an unacceptable wage offer made by management on Friday, 4 August. With 8% of the world&rsquo;s copper supply originating from Escondida in northern Chile, this dispute is being watched closely because it could send copper prices to new highs. 
 
Escondida Workers&rsquo; Union No. 1, representing over 2,000 copper miners, said over the weekend that an improved company offer still fell short of union demands. Management, led by BHP Billiton, had asked the government for the mandatory five-day cooling off period last week, making any strike before today illegal. 
 
The company&rsquo;s offer Friday raised a one-off traditional pay bonus for each worker to US$21,481 from US$15,000, but it held firm on its prior salary offer of 3% above Chile&rsquo;s inflation rate. The proposal also promises social improvements in the community of Antofagasta, as well as interest-free loans to workers. 
 
The union is seeking a 13% salary increase due to high inflation rates plaguing Chile&rsquo;s booming mining areas. It also seeks zone allocation pay and a US$29,629 one-off bonus. Workers&rsquo; Union No. 1 also claims that management has failed to address certain conditions for working women, particularly truck drivers. 
 
Any Escondida salary settlement is expected to be the defining pattern for upcoming wage and benefit negotiations with other mining enterprises in Chile, including bargaining units within huge state-run copper company Codelco. 
 
Minera Escondida Ltda., with two open pit mines in Chile&rsquo;s northern Region II, is 57.5% owned by BHP Billiton, 30% by Rio Tinto, 10% by a consortium of Japanese companies led by Mitsubishi, and 2.5% by the World Bank&rsquo;s International Finance Corporation.

Copper Miners Poised to Strike Today in Chile

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A pattern-setting agreement in the US rubber sector was achieved 5 August, following successful ratification by 4,000 members of United Steelworkers (USW) at three Michelin plants. The three-year labour agreement, now effective at Michelin&rsquo;s BF Goodrich plants in Fort Wayne, state of Indiana, and Opelika and Tuscaloosa, both in the state of Alabama, preserves job security and prevents future layoffs at the three plants for the contract&rsquo;s duration. 
 
USW trade unionists at all three facilities voted in favour of the agreement. The common contract needed acceptance by workers at two of the three plants in order to pass. 
 
&ldquo;We believe we achieved our industry goals when it comes to protecting retiree health care benefits and securing additional job protection measures for our active members,&rdquo; stated USW Executive Vice President Ron Hoover. 
 
The BF Goodrich agreement does grant the company some lowered operational costs. The accord makes room for 435 rubber workers at the combined plants to take retirement with an enhanced package that includes up to 40 weeks of pay, depending on length of employment. 
 
USW will now shift bargaining efforts to Bridgestone/Firestone (BSF), talks which have already begun. The union represents 6,000 BSF employees at eight manufacturing plants. The USW and Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber also are in negotiations, but the two sides are far apart on job security and other work terms. Goodyear is the biggest tyre-maker in the US, and the USW represents 17,000 workers at 12 plants. 
 
The prior three-year labour agreement in the US rubber sector expired on 22 July.

US Steelworkers Ratify Contract with Michelin’s BF Goodrich Unit

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South Africa&rsquo;s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will conduct week-long commemorations all this week in tribute to a defining mining strike that occurred 60 years ago on 12 August. 
 
Hundreds of miners, then part of NUM&rsquo;s predecessor, the Black Mineworkers&rsquo; Union, struck on that day in 1946 at Witwatersran for a wage increase of 60 shillings and an end to single sex hostels. The strike was met by white police and the private security forces of the mining bosses, who violently put down the strike, maiming and killing several mineworkers in the process. 
 
&ldquo;It is important to recall the contributions made by these black mineworkers, their resilience and resistance under difficult times,&rdquo; stated NUM President Senzeni Zokwana, who also is President of the ICEM. Zokwana specifically mentioned the names of J.B. Marks, J.J. Majoro, and Thabo Mofutsanyane as courageous trade union leaders who made a stand on behalf of black mineworkers. 
 
&ldquo;The fact that the NUM is here today is due to the early efforts of these leaders and workers in organising mineworkers,&rdquo; Zokwana said. 
 
The commemorations started yesterday when African National Congress Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe addressed a NUM memorialisation event in Welkom, Free State. All of NUM&rsquo;s 11 regions will conduct activities this week that will culminate in a march on Saturday, 12 August, on the offices of the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg. On Wednesday, 9 August, a tribute honouring the 50th Anniversary of the Women&rsquo;s March to Union Buildings will be held. This will recognise the constraints still facing women who work in South Africa&rsquo;s mining industry, as well as honouring women who have lost their husbands in mining accidents.

60th Anniversary of South Africa’s Witwatersran Mining Strike Occurs This Week

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ICEM affiliate Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Namibia (MUN) stepped in to resolve a strike by workers at a diamond cutting and polishing factory in the southern African country recently.
The strike, by nearly a quarter of the 500-member workforce at a plant operated by Israeli-based Lev Leviev Diamonds, occurred when management again attempted to impose restrictive individual contracts on workers. The activist-leaders shut down the plant in Namibia&rsquo;s northern industrial zone on 27 July by effectively blocking entrances, and then demanded representation by the MUN. 
 
After listening to workers&rsquo; grievances, MUN General Secretary Joseph Hengari began negotiations with the company. The union convinced strikers to reopen the plant on 31 July, and got the company to drop threatened disciplinary actions against strike leaders. 
 
After two years of operation, the plant&rsquo;s workers still have not been granted permanent status, instead held to 12-month temporary contracts. This round of temporary work agreements were issued in July, with the company demanding a signed return by 31 July. The individual contracts disqualified workers from earning a basic salary unless they reached certain production goals. Commissions would be paid to workers only when work exceeded a daily target of eight stones per day, or 170 diamonds per month. 
 
Hengari said the contracts fail on all counts of basic workers&rsquo; rights. He said that no overtime is ever paid, and standard double pay for work performed on Sundays and holidays is ignored. The MUN is awaiting official word from the company that it recognises the union, since nearly all workers have designated MUN as bargaining representative. 
 
Lev Leviev Diamonds is the world&rsquo;s largest cutter and polisher of precious gems and a major source of rough stones to other cutters. The conglomerate also owns a gold mine in Kazakhstan, two diamond mines in Angola, and a multitude of other global business ventures, stretching from real estate, to petrol stations to Vash Telecanal, Israel&rsquo;s Russian television station. The company, operated by Lev Leviev, a 1971 immigrant to Israel from the former Soviet Union state of Uzbekistan, has a long history of opaque transactions, particularly in diamond and gem trading.

Namibian Diamond Polishers Seek Representation by Mineworkers’ Union

After nearly three weeks of relentless bombing and ground attacks by Israel in Lebanon, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) today added its voice to the calls for an immediate cease fire by both Israel and the militia of Hezbollah. 
 
The ICEM believes that Israel&rsquo;s actions have reached an unbearable level, particularly after the killings on 30 July of 56 civilians and children in Qana, southern Lebanon, by an Israeli air strike. 
 
&ldquo;The ICEM condemns the totally disproportionate use of military force by Israel in Lebanon,&rdquo; stated General Secretary Fred Higgs. &ldquo;Israel has effectively imposed collective punishment on all Lebanese people and destroyed the viability of the Lebanese state by destroying the country&rsquo;s infrastructure.&rdquo; 
 
Higgs stressed, &ldquo;There must be an internationally-imposed cease fire immediately so that a genuine and lasting peace for the region can commence.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM says the abusive way in which Israel is punishing the Lebanese people in hopes of destroying Hezbollah has created a humanitarian crisis that can only be addressed with the immediate cessation of lethal force and the acceptance by all parties to begin a process for a lasting peace. 
 
Across the Middle East Region as a whole, peace will only be achieved with resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, including the formation of a viable, independent Palestinian state. 
 
The ICEM is the Global Union Federation for the energy, chemicals, mining and other industrial sectors with affiliated trade union unions in both Lebanon and Palestine. The ICEM has 20 million members worldwide through its 403 affiliated trade unions in 122 countries. 
Click here for an <a href="/index.php?id=77&amp;doc=1898&amp;la=AR">Arab translation of this news release</a>.
Click here for an <a href="/index.php?id=24&amp;doc=2000&amp;la=AR">Arab translation of the Global Info article on an ICEM visit to Palestine</a>.

ICEM News Release: Call for an Immediate End to Israeli Aggression

Mid-July proved to another deadly period in the coal mines of China. In total, over 100 miners lost their lives in six separate and recorded tragedies occurring over in just over a week&rsquo;s time.
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&nbsp;The largest number of industrial deaths occurred in north China&rsquo;s Shanxi Province, at the Linjiazhuang Coal Mine in Lingshi county. A coal dust explosion on 15 July killed 57 miners, with only six miners managing to escape. Also on 15 July, a flash flood in the central Chinese province of Hunan killed 14 workers at the Shenjiawan Coal Mine. Only one of those workers was underground at the time, but the flooding also trapped rescue workers. 
 
Another mine flood in yet another province on 15 July took the lives of 18 miners. This occurred at the village-run Pianpoyuan Coal Mine in southwest China&rsquo;s Guizhou province, near the town of Anshun. On 16 July, an explosion at the Lilan Coal Mine in Junlian county, province of Sichuan province, claimed the lives of five miners. Thirty-four coalminers managed to escape. 
 
Eight miners were feared drowned inside a mine shaft that flooded on 10 July. This occurred in Shanxi province at the Dongchuan Coal Mine in Luliang City. Ten miners escaped, but rescue efforts were hampered by the necessity to pump some 2,000 cubic metres of water from mine shafts. On 8 July, a colliery in neighbouring Liulin county of Shanxi province, saw six miners trapped and presumed dead by flooding.

Spate of China Coal Mine Accidents Occur in Mid-July

The month-long strike by Norway&rsquo;s NOPEF union that is beginning to cripple energy production across the country&rsquo;s oil patch will get an airing today before a state mediator. It will be the government&rsquo;s second attempt to resolve issues that prompted NOPEF to strike a selective list of oil service companies on 21 June. 
 
Efforts just prior to the start of the strike by the state mediator failed.
<img height="90" alt="" src="" width="120" />
&nbsp; 
The strategic strike by 87 NOPEF trade unionists is aimed at normalising the national oil services&rsquo; work agreement with other national contracts inside Norway&rsquo;s energy sector. Work schedules and working terms and conditions common to other staff inside the sector remains the central issue to the strike. 
 
The striking NOPEF members are employed by Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Weatherford and Oceaneering. Other oil service companies such as Aker Kvaerner, Geoservices, and Acergy are also affected. Major oil companies that are losing time and money on well development projects, new drilling exploration, and maintenance include Statoil, ConocoPhillips, Norsk Hydro, Shell, ExxonMobil, and Chevron. 
 
Work has been interrupted at Statoil&rsquo;s Snorre and Stratford platforms, and at the Norwegian state company&rsquo;s northern Sn&oslash;hvit and Kristin oil fields, while the strike has slowed work at Norsk Hydro&rsquo;s Heidrun and Oseberg platforms, and at ConocoPhillip&rsquo;s Ekofisk platform.

Mediation Today in NOPEF’s Oil Services Strike

The UK&rsquo;s Transport &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union (TGWU) has enlisted a core of allies, including the ICEM, to resist 800 job redundancies and closures to English China Clay (ECC) operations in the South West by Imerys. TGWU has mapped a comprehensive community and global campaign against the French-based building materials group, which purchased ECC in 1999, in efforts to block the sackings.
<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="51" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp; <img height="100" alt="" src="" width="100" />
&nbsp; 
The TGWU, together with two other UK trade unions representing Imerys workers in the South West, Amicus and the GMB, have already placed the dire economic consequences of the sackings squarely in front of both local and national government officials. They will now engage a full community awareness campaign aimed at pressuring Imerys to honour a pledge made two short two years ago. That pledge, made after some jobs were lost in the South West, promised that 800 other jobs would remain. 
 
The campaign will consist of mass meetings, rallies, and a petition that will be taken door-to-door across towns and villages of the region. The campaign is also aimed at the British government in hopes that initiatives can be put in place to retain the jobs. The ICEM will head up the campaign on the global level. 
 
The proposed restructuring plan of Imerys fell like a bombshell on the economic fragile South West, where the average Imerys worker earns an annual salary of ₤23,000, some ₤4,500 higher than the local incomes average. Imerys&rsquo; surprise announcement in early July said that by the start of 2008, nearly all ECC mines and processing facilities across Cornwall, Devon and Lee Moor would be shuttered, as it moves production of kaolin and high-grade coatings for the paper industry to Brazil. The company cited high energy costs as the reason. 
 
At an emergency debate session in the House of Commons on 11 July, MP Matthew Taylor from the South West said one in five households in the region would be directly affected by the proposed restructurings, &ldquo;and the number is probably one in three when the knock-on effects are taken into consideration.&rdquo; Taylor said besides the 800 direct jobs on the line, 800 other jobs likely would be lost due to reduced spending power in the South West.
<img height="119" alt="" src="" width="120" />
&nbsp; 
The European Works Council (EWC) of Imerys responded with a terse 17 July message directed at the company. The statement condemned an Imerys decision to close a 100-member workplace in France, as well as the proposed mass layoffs in the UK. The EWC &ldquo;objects against the recent decisions of the group of closing a site in France and a huge restructuring in the United Kingdom,&rdquo; read the statement. 
 
&ldquo;This strategy of de-localisation of the activities, here to Hungary and to Brazil, is guided only by the search for higher profits. The members of the EWC Committee require Imerys, which is in excellent economic and financial health, to assume the full social consequences of these decisions, both in France and in the United Kingdom. The EWC will also be extremely vigilant on the conditions of employment for the workers in Hungary and Brazil. 
 
&ldquo;It is not enough that the director of Human Resources for the group, challenged on these subjects during the meeting of 6 July, claims to be open to social dialogue and negotiation. It is also his responsibility to make certain that this policy is applied by the local HR directors. As regarding social relations and also issues of health and safety, local management has carried out actions in total contradiction with principles posted by the Imerys group.&rdquo; 
 
The overall financial health of Imerys, according to first quarter 2006 disclosures, has not been affected by high global energy prices. The company&rsquo;s first quarter results show that sales had increased 10.8% over the same period in 2005, and net income was up 13.2% over that of the first quarter of last year.

Campaign Mounts to Block Shift of UK Jobs by Imerys

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