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Four French unions are awaiting a meeting by the country&rsquo;s Work Minister to unravel bad-faith bargaining practices by the Plastics Federation, an employers&rsquo; grouping. In joint social talks on 1 February, which were inconclusive, the association indicated it wanted to break from a 2004 protocol over wages. 
 
Unions CGT-FO, CFDT, CFTC, and CFE-CGC filed a stern protest with French Work Minister Xavier Bertrand, and the unions are expecting a meeting. They also have alerted workers in the plastics industry of the dispute, and the unions said they would look &ldquo;very seriously&rdquo; at all forms of action to resist the employers&rsquo; stated aim. 
 
The Plastics Federation wants to re-calculate the formula for which wages are based on, as arranged in the social agreement that came in 2004. The unions charge the federation with deliberately using this issue to place a major impediment in current labour-management talks. They say employers&rsquo; are discarding several years of constructive bargaining by seeking a wage formula recalculation.
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&ldquo;The Fedechimie CGT-FO denounces and condemns this grave lack of respect for signed agreements, a fact that will lead to reduced purchasing power for workers,&rdquo; said the union in a statement. The four unions are adamant for the Work Ministry to find a solution to the &ldquo;irresponsible attitude&rdquo; brought on by the Plastics Federation. The talks affect 155,000 French workers in various plastics industries. 
 
Similarly, in the French glass sector, social talks have also been hindered by unreasonable employer demands. Negotiations broke down in December 2007, and five French labour unions brought the impasse to ministerial level for government intervention on 18 February. The unions at the table in the French glass sector negotiations are FCE-CFDT, CGT-Verre et C&eacute;ramique, FO-Chimie, CFE-CGC-Chimie, and CFTC.

French Unions Condemn Plastics Industry for Seeking Protocol Break to 155,000 Workers

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The President of Uruguay, Tabar&eacute; V&aacute;zquez, opened the 7th Festival of S&aacute;balo with a greeting of welcome to the ICEM, which will hold its World Conference for the Pulp and Paper Industries from 8-10 December 2008 in Montevideo, Uruguay. 
 
V&aacute;zquez made the statement while congratulating ICEM affiliate, the Central Union of Paper and Pulp Workers (CUOPYC), at a 7 February social event celebrating the S&aacute;balo festival in Juan Lacaze. CUOPYC used the occasion to mark 2008 as the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed on 10 December 1948.
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Uruguay President Tabar&eacute; V&aacute;zquez (right) 
and CUOPYC President Walter Silva (centre)
&ldquo;It is a great challenge for CUOPYC, but it is also an excellent opportunity,&rdquo; President V&aacute;zquez said of the ICEM conference. &ldquo;Not just for CUOPYC, but for all in Uruguay, and the national government has committed to organize this event. We declare the organization of this meeting to be of national interest.&rdquo; 
 
V&aacute;zquez commended the union for using proceeds from the festival for improvements to the Olof Palme Childcare Centre, a 20-year-old facility built in cooperation with the ICEM-affiliated Swedish Union, Svenska Pappers. V&aacute;zquez noted that Palme, the late Swedish Prime Minister who was senselessly gunned down in 1986 on a Stockholm street, welcomed to Sweden many Uruguayans in exile and &ldquo;supported the solidarity of struggle of the Uruguayan people to recover their democracy.&rdquo;
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The Swedish-Uruguayan project is located near the FANAPEL pulp and paper mill in Juan Lacaze, west of the capital city Montevideo. CUOPYC used the S&aacute;balo celebration to mark the importance of community involvement, as enshrined in Article 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, &ldquo;Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.&rdquo; 
 
CUOPYC President Walter Silva brought that to the festival in his address. He noted that in 1906, the first cooperative of consumers was organised in Juan Lacaze. And in the following years, he said many community projects were undertaken, including construction of the Olaf Palme Centre in 1988. He paid kind tribute to CUOPYC Secretary-General Omar Diaz, a workers&rsquo; leader, who was unable to make the 7 February event due to a severe illness.

Uruguay’s Pulp/Paper Union, CUOPYC, Lives ‘Declaration of Human Rights’ Spirit

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Joining many others in the internet community, the ICEM is now also offering RSS news feeds on its website. Through this system of automatic (news headlines) links, ICEM news can be brought to you automatically via your RSS reader, or even via your website. 
 
RSS is a tool used in different ways for information distribution on the internet. It&rsquo;s most widespread usage is distributing news headlines. 
RSS (news) reader programmes allow you to easily check updates from your favourite (news) sites, or blogs. Headlines are brought to one centralised place (the RSS reader), and the user doesn&rsquo;t have to go to different websites directly. All that is necessary is to &ldquo;subscribe&rdquo; to the feed. A major advantage is getting the information you want, without spam, since the user doesn&rsquo;t need to provide his/her e-mail. 
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For those unfamiliar with RSS feeds, an easy way to find out more about the basics of RSS is this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU">short three-minute video on YouTube</a>. Another, shorter introduction can be found through <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/view/#directory-welcome-page">Google Reader</a>, one of the most used &ldquo;RSS feed readers&rdquo;. A short explanation on RSS feeds can also be found <a href="http://www.akimedia.eu/web-agency/news/fils-rss.html">here</a> in French on the web-site of Belgian Akimedia. The various language sites of Wikipedia can also be a source to find out more about RSS feeds in your own language. 
 
RSS feeds can also be inserted into e-mail applications such as Microsoft Outlook 2007 (for more, click <a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA101595391033.aspx">here</a> - this page also includes general information on RSS feeds). 
 
There is one ICEM RSS feed per language used on the ICEM site, allowing you to only get the updates in the language that you are interested in. The ICEM web pages to go to in order to subscribe to the ICEM RSS news feed are as follows: 
English: <a href="/feed_en.rss">/feed_en.rss</a> 
French: <a href="/feed_fr.rss">/feed_fr.rss</a> 
German: <a href="/feed_de.rss">/feed_de.rss</a> 
Japanese: <a href="/feed_ja.rss">/feed_ja.rss</a> 
Russian: <a href="/feed_ru.rss">/feed_ru.rss</a> 
Spanish: <a href="/feed_es.rss">/feed_es.rss</a> 
Swedish: <a href="/feed_sv.rss">/feed_sv.rss</a> 
Turkish: <a href="/feed_tr.rss">/feed_tr.rss</a>
You can also click on&nbsp;<img height="14" alt="" src="" width="14" /> in&nbsp;the address line of your internet browser next to the ICEM address. (This may not be visible in certain older browsers). 
 
Through RSS feeds, there also is a possibility for your website to automatically publish ICEM news on one or more of your own web pages. You can easily have a part of your organisation&rsquo;s homepage, or of your international pages, to automatically carry ICEM news headlines. Once the system is set up, these pages will, through automatically renewed links, show the latest news headlines from the ICEM's homepage, in your prefered language, making the full ICEM articles available through a click of a button.

ICEM Introduces RSS News Feeds from its Website

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ICEM French affiliate Chemical and Energy Workers Union, FCE-CFDT, hosted a group of 15 Japanese trade union leaders and five managers from Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) in France last week. The two-day visit, organised by the ICEM, followed a day-long orientation at the ICEM offices on 5 February in Brussels. 
 
The French portion of the trip tightened the bonds of unity between French trade union leaders in the energy sector and their Japanese counterparts. The 20-member Japanese delegation visited two worksites of Groupe V&eacute;olia, a global waste management concern, and received extensive briefings on a number of labour and French social issues in the offices of FCE-CFDT.
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Japanese, French trade unionists at FCE-CFDT offices&nbsp;
Besides presentations on French social legislation and collective bargaining relations, participants discussed European energy concerns for the future and the corresponding social aspects that are at stake. The Japanese delegation posed queries on workers&rsquo; rights inside energy companies, as well as on the union rights of FCE-CFDT members at these companies. 
 
The Japanese delegation also asked questions regarding women&rsquo;s rights at work, as well as their work-life balance in French society. 
 
Following the discussions, the delegation toured, with FCE-CFDT delegates from Groupe V&eacute;olia, two plants in the greater Paris area. Workers at these plants tear apart and recycle electric appliance components.
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Tour of Applicance Recycling Plant
The sites are located in Saint Ouen l&rsquo;Aum&ocirc;ne and Gonesse. &ldquo;With respect for the environment and sustainable development, the recycling of appliances is seen as a value to the communities,&rdquo; said FCE-CFDT Representative Jacques Caltot. 
 
Groupe V&eacute;olia is a world leader in water, waste, and energy transformation, with some 270,000 employees in 64 countries. Osaka-based KEPCO is Japan&rsquo;s second largest utility, and employs 30,000 workers. The company operates over 150 hydro, fossil fuel, and nuclear energy plants in Japan.

FCE-CFDT Hosts Japanese Kansai Electric Power Leaders in France

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The Ceylon Mercantile, Industrial, and General Workers&rsquo; Union (CMU) will commemorate its 60th year as a democratic mass organisation of workers on 1 February, 2008, a milestone deserving of recognition. 
 
The union has deep roots that go back even 20 years earlier in then, British-occupied Ceylon. A union of clerical workers organised others employed in mercantile houses that were mainly operated by British interests. 
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CMU General Secretary Bala Tampoe
The ICEM recognises CMU as a strong force in Sri Lankan civil society. CMU has been at the forefront in resisting efforts to weaken labour legislation. And CMU successfully resisted a police-enforced ban of 1 May as a public holiday in the 1990s, a feat deserving of acclaim. CMU also has proven to be a unifying force between public and private sector workers in Sri Lanka. 
 
CMU&rsquo;s Executive Committee will host a number of activities on 1 February, including a tribute to General Secretary Bala Tampoe, who has headed CMU throughout with great distinction. 
 
The ICEM congratulates CMU on this anniversary, a milestone for a trade union that brings cohesion and unity to the country&rsquo;s workers.

ICEM Sri Lankan Affiliate, CMU, Celebrates 60 Historic Years

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The ICEM was saddened to learn of the death on, 17 January 2008, in Japan, of Daisaku Kouchiyama, chairman of ICEM-JAF from 1992 until 2001. He was 68. 
 
&ldquo;Brother Kouchiyama was a driving force in establishing the present structure of the ICEM,&rdquo; stated General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We have lost a brother and a leader whose name will be remembered in the context of the successes that, first, the ICEF achieved, and then the ICEM reached.&rdquo; 
 
Warda alerted many present and past leaders of the ICEF, MIF, and ICEM of his passing. That brought many written tributes and testaments that were forwarded to his family at his funeral on 20 January. Brother Kouchiyama was a leader in the reformation of the modern Japanese labour movement, as well as a champion of the rights of workers globally. 
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Daisaku Kouchiyama
He served as a Vice President and Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Region of the ICEF and ICEM until his retirement in 2001, and was one of the key negotiators in the merger between the ICEF and Mineworkers&rsquo; International Federation (MIF). In 1854, he started working at Takeda Pharmaceutical, and rose through the trade union ranks of Zenka Domei and later, UI Zensen labour federation. 
 
In Japan, he served on a number of important committees, including the Council on Statutory Social Insurance, the Council of Chemical Products, the Price Stabilization Committee, the Central Labour Relations Commission, and the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO. 
 
Brother Kouchiyama had been bed-ridden since mid-December 2007, suffering from the last stages of cancer. The ICEM extends its condolences to his family, and to the trade union movement in Japan over his passing.

ICEM Mourns Death of Daisaku Kouchiyama Japan

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In a 3 January letter to the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of Iraq, Hassan Juma&rsquo;a Awad al Assadi, leader of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), demanded enactment of a draft labour law upholding workers&rsquo; rights to join unions and bargain collectively. 
 
Iraq needs passage of the Labour and Social Security Law for stability, Hassan Juma&rsquo;a Awad said, and he also proposed that Iraq formalize a multiple trade union federation and union structure, based on professions and industries. That structure would be headed by a central council of labour federations &ldquo;to promote and advance the democratic work&rdquo; necessary to build trade unions that protect the best interests of the Iraqi workers, he wrote. 
<img height="306" alt="" src="" width="230" />
Hassan Juma&rsquo;a Awad, IFOU leader, speaking at the ICEM Congress in Bangkok
Hassan Juma&rsquo;a Awad and the IFOU call on the government to comply immediately with the part of the 2005 Constitution, which &ldquo;guarantees the right of forming and joining professional organisations and unions.&rdquo; The draft labour law, written in 2006, is now delayed up by Iraq&rsquo;s Council of Ministers, preventing it from reaching the Parliament. 
 
The Labour and Social Security Law, if passed, would guarantee trade union rights, for instance, to elect shop floor representatives. It would ensure full freedom of association, and it would grant protection from discriminatory actions, such as death or threat of death, due to trade union activity. 
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Hassan Juma&rsquo;a Awad&rsquo;s letter urged the Labour and Social Ministry to implement &ldquo;a pluralistic approach whereby sectoral federations and professional organisations are recognised in the union work.&rdquo; He also stressed that union participation must begin with trade union committees on shop floors in order &ldquo;to follow the bottom-top approach&rdquo; to building unions and trade union federations.
The ICEM insists that the Iraqi government act now to adopt this rights-bearing labour law. Reconciliation can really begin when living standards rise. The ICEM has condemned the union-crippling measures that were implemented by the occupying forces following the 2003 invasion, as well as renewal of those decrees by the Iraqi government since. 
 
The IFOU is a 30,000-member labour federation based in Basra that is the workers&rsquo; voice in some ten oil businesses connected with the Southern Oil Co.

Iraqi Labour Law Must Be Enacted Now, Says IFOU Leader

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Tomorrow, 29 January in Helsinki, Finland, ICEM pulp and paper affiliates Paperiliitto and Toimihenkil&ouml;unioni TU will hold a Public Meeting over Stora Enso&rsquo;s decision to close two mills in Finland, as well as a paper machine at a third mill. 
 
The event, entitled &quot;Work - Not a Support Package,&quot;&nbsp;is expected to draw thousands of concerned Finnish citizens, as the two unions and other groups bring pressure to bear on Stora Enso, as well as the Finnish government, which holds 16% of the company&rsquo;s stock. 
 
Concern is also expected to arise at the meeting over Stora&rsquo;s decision to close the Norrsundet mill in Sweden, and the company&rsquo;s cutting of white-collar jobs in several European countries. 
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The Public Meeting, to be held at the Marina Congress Center in Helsinki, will feature a panel discussion led by Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen and Toimihenkil&ouml;unioni TU President Antti Rinne. The panel discussion will include representatives from the government, including Defence Minister Jyri H&auml;k&auml;mies, who is responsible for enterprise ownership steering for the Nordic nation. It is hoped that Stora Enso&rsquo;s senior managers will also attend. 
 
The Public Meeting will feature an address entitled &ldquo;Life in the Shadow of a Mill&rdquo; by noted Finnish actor and film director, Kari V&auml;&auml;n&auml;nen. 
 
The meeting will begin at 10h00 outside the Congress Center with a meal of soup, and the programme opens inside at 12h00. Also addressing concerned Finnish citizens will be Lauri Ihalainen, President of SAK, the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions; Jaakko Kiander, Director of the Labour Institute of Economic Research; and Heikki Nivala, leader of a mass movement at Kemij&auml;rvi, one of the Finnish mills targeted for closure. 
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In late October 2007, Stora Enso announced another restructuring, this time aimed at closing mills, reducing paper capacity, and chopping jobs &ndash; 1,700 in total. Some 1,100 of those jobs were to be cut in Finland. 
 
Following incomplete social dialogue in mid-January, the company announced that the job losses in Finland would total 985. But it also announced that closure to its Summa, Finland, newsprint and book papers mill in Kymenlaakso would occur at the of January 2008, costing 450 jobs; the Kemij&auml;rvi pulp mill, employing 214, would shut, in April 2008; and a paper machine at the Anjala mill would stop producing in November 2008, costing 122 jobs. 
 
Stora Enso also intends to close the Norrsundet pulp mill in Sweden by the end of the year, idling 350 workers who are represented by Swedish ICEM affiliates Svenska Pappers and Unionen, the white-collar private-sector union in Sweden. 
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Paperiliitto and white-collar union Toimihenkil&ouml;unioni in Finland seek to delay the closings, and if necessary, to force Stora Enso through the state to sell the mills to companies or enterprises that will operate them. The unions have taken job actions over the past two weeks at the mills, with Toimihenkil&ouml;unioni also taking strike action last week at other Finnish companies partly owned by the state, including Finnair, telecommunications operators Elisa and TeliaSonera, alcohol manufacturer Altia, and Patria, a weapons manufacturer. 
 
The ICEM is strongly supporting the efforts of Finnish trade unions, as well as those in Sweden for job retention and a continuation of dialogue among social partners on Stora Enso&rsquo;s restructuring plan. Scores of protest letters were sent last week by global pulp and paper unions, as well as trade unions from the graphical and wood-products sectors, calling on the company to re-think its plans. 
 
In a letter to Stora Enso CEO Jouko Karvinen, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda urged the company to &ldquo;seriously consider the multiplied devastation&rdquo; that the job losses will have in the affected communities. 
 
&ldquo;Stora Enso can expect this issue to arise within its own global operations, the operations of other pulp and paper companies worldwide, as well as with stakeholders who are concerned with good governance,&rdquo; the ICEM wrote.

Public Meeting in Finland on 29 January to Address Stora Enso’s Ill-Advised Paper Cuts

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A preliminary hearing of the Royal Commission over the Pike River mine disaster opened in Greymouth on April 5. The inquiry, which will begin hearings and full deliberations on 23 May, will run for 15 weeks. 
 
On November 19, 2010, a massive methane gas blast inside Pike River Coal Ltd.&rsquo;s colliery killed 29 miners, including 11 members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), in the worst Kiwi mining disaster in 119 years. 
 
This month&rsquo;s preliminary hearing began with a one minute silence in memory of the 29. It was also marked by the unsettling announcement by receivers of the bankrupt company that it did not have the funds to fully participate in the inquiry. An attorney for the receivers, PricewaterhouseCoopers, said its priority is to repay secured creditors, not to provide witness briefs and compilations of others documents to the Royal Commission. 
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The Commission, headed by Judge Graham Panckhurst and including Stewart Bell, Queensland, Australia, Commissioner for Mine Safety and Health and a recognised expert on methane gas in coal mines, will conduct the inquiry under four phases: context, search and rescue, what happened at Pike River, and policy aspects. 
 
Parts of those issues were introduced on April 5. An attorney representing the EPMU said New Zealand&rsquo;s mine regulations were two decades behind developed mine safety programmes, such as what exists in Australia. &ldquo;Our members want to see a significant increase in the safety and health standards required for working in mines,&rdquo; said Nigel Hampton, representing the EPMU. 
 
The EPMU is also asking that the expertise and counsel that exists in Australian mineworkers&rsquo; unions and the mining industry be heard before the Commission. One question that surely will arise is why an Australian mine rescue team that was on-site 36 hours after the blast occurred on 19 November was sidelined by local police who were supervising the rescue. 
 
Another will be the location of large ventilation fans inside the Pike River mine, an unusual placement for electrical charged equipment when methane gas is prevalent. Initial reports state that an electric outage shut the two ventilation fans in the minutes before the explosion. 
 
The issue of deception and disrespect to families in the days following the November 19 explosion will also be heard. An attorney for the families said at the opening that families only want the truth and clarity on how and why the disaster happened. 
 
In his opening statement, Judge Panckhurst said the mission is to find out &ldquo;what happened at the mine, why it did happen and what can be done to prevent it happening again. In short &hellip; why and what must change for the future good.&rdquo; 
 
The mine was sealed in January and the bodies of the 29 have not been recovered. PricewaterhouseCoopers has assessed the mine, which contains seams of premium coking coal, to be worth NZ$6 million, but it could take 20 times that to re-start it. The global firm is hoping to have it sold in June.

Royal Commission Convenes over Pike River, New Zealand, Mine Deaths

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While basking in world admiration following the successful rescue of 33 workers from inside the San Jos&eacute; copper mine, Chile President Sebasti&aacute;n Pi&ntilde;era announced on October 18, 2010, on BBC&rsquo;s HARDtalk, to a global television audience, that his country would ratify ILO Convention 176 and reform a disjointed national mine safety programme &ldquo;within 90 days.&rdquo; 
 
It turned out to be a lie. 
 
Near that 90-day mark in mid-January, ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana and General Secretary Manfred Warda met with senior government officials in Santiago and were told there is nothing on the agenda to reform internal safety standards or to adopt global standards. And, indeed, since there has been no movement inside Chile for reform, except from the trade union federations there who are now working hand-in-hand with the ICEM. 
 
In February, the ICEM organized a three-prong campaign to pressure Pi&ntilde;era to fulfil his promise. Over 4,000 messages were delivered by ICEM affiliates and our friends in the labour movement! The Pi&ntilde;era government is being forced to answer embarrassing questions about why his government has so far reneged on a promise made in the celebratory aftermath of the San Jos&eacute; rescue. 
 
The ICEM continues to be optimistic that the Chilean government will remember how important reality is; that the country is only one mining accident away from losing the good-will and technical credibility it won by marshalling a rescue of historic dimensions. 
 
And the Pi&ntilde;era government must face another reality: if it is world-class in any way, it is as a world-class producer of minerals, especially copper, and that means it must develop and implement world-class safe mining practices. So far it hasn&rsquo;t. 
<img alt="" src="" width="191" height="128" />
San Jos&eacute; Mine Rescue
In the days just preceding Pi&ntilde;era&rsquo;s brash HARDtalk declaration, the President fell back on a culture dating to the Pinochet regime. In the commission he set up to investigate San Jos&eacute;, no trade union representatives were invited to sit on it. ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, states that workers and their trade unions shall participate in mine inspections and accident investigations. 
 
At San Jos&eacute;, Union No. 2 of Campa&ntilde;ia Minera San Esteban repeatedly warned of safety hazards and once even presented a legal challenge to close the mine. But the common refrain from both government and industry when unions warn on safety and health conditions is that the union&rsquo;s duty is to negotiate economics, not to take part in safety or health matters. 
 
After a miner was killed in 2007, San Jos&eacute; was shut for a brief period by SERNAGEOMIN, the National Service of Geology and Mining. But it quickly reopened on orders from another government official who failed to read the closure report, and relied on the owner&rsquo;s pledge that deficiencies would be corrected. 
 
One such pledge was to install a ladder through a ventilation shaft as a second exit, a standard in Convention 176. That was not done, there were no follow-up inspections, and the lack of a second exit, in fact, led to the 69-day entrapment of the 33 miners. 
 
SERNAGEOMIN is not a health and safety inspectorate. It plays that role, but so do bureaus inside six Chilean ministries. Chile has overlapping safety agencies inside the six that cover all sectors of work. None of them have judicial powers to enforce the few regulations there are in mining and all are without the technical capabilities to inspect and prevent accidents before they happen. 
 
In short, all prerequisites of Convention 176 are missing in Chile: regular inspections, set procedures to report and investigate dangerous occurrences and accidents, trade union consultation, regulatory bodies with the authority to shut dangerous mines, the right to refuse unsafe work, workers&rsquo; ability to select their own safety representatives, and employer obligations to provide training. Convention 176 places responsibility on employers to not only remove workplace hazards, but to remove the causes of those hazards. 
 
Despite the Chilean government&rsquo;s &ldquo;head-in-the-sand&rdquo; approach to mine safety now that the cameras and microphones so prominent at San Jos&eacute; have disappeared, the ICEM will continue to press Pi&ntilde;era alongside a renewed coalition we have developed with the mineworkers&rsquo; federations of the country.

ICEM Will Continue to Press Chile over Mine Safety Standards

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