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Pilkington glass workers in New Zealand, represented by Engineering, Paper and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) will decide tomorrow night, 14 August, whether or not to escalate industrial actions. During the first days of August, EPMU members at the Hamilton glass plant began a seven-day overtime ban because of a pay dispute. 
 
That was extended last week and union members at another Pilkington plant in Auckland met and agreed to support the Hamilton workers&rsquo; job actions. The Auckland workforce, represented by EPMU, was forced to take nine days of job actions last year in a pay dispute. In 2006, UK-based Pilkington was bought by Nippon Sheet Glass for &euro;3.2 billion, in a move to strengthen the Japanese company&rsquo;s presence in Asia, particularly China.
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&ldquo;The company&rsquo;s arguing over a quarter of a percent (in Hamilton), and frankly the members are getting sick of this kind of penny-pinching &hellip; the members are simply asking for their fair share,&rdquo; said an EPMU representative, as quoted on the union&rsquo;s website.

Pilkington Workers in Glass Dispute in New Zealand

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The position on climate change and renewable energy sources by the Mining and Energy Division of Australia&rsquo;s Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) has drawn positive attention. A Green Party candidate for Senate in Queensland praised the CFMEU for its stand, and an opinion piece written by Mining and Energy Division President Tony Maher drew wide appeal in the Australian press. 
 
Queensland Green Party activist Larissa Waters welcomed the division&rsquo;s stand on renewable energy and a 60% target for greenhouse gas reductions by 2050. 
 
&ldquo;We would be keen to work with unions like the CFMEU to plan ways to move to an environmentally sustainable approach to energy production,&rdquo; said Waters, &ldquo;especially since we already have strong areas of agreement with them on the WorkChoices legislation.&rdquo; 
 
The CFMEU has begun a television ad campaign in Australia, contradicting the Howard government&rsquo;s denial that climate change is occurring and promoting immediate action programmes.
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In an article kicking the ad campaign off, Maher says, &ldquo;Doing nothing on climate change is not an option for the CFMEU.&rdquo; 
 
Maher writes: &ldquo;Our rank and file debated and discussed the proposition to campaign on climate change in every single mine and power station around the nation, before voting overwhelmingly to embark on this course of action. 

&ldquo;The decision to back the campaign did not surprise me &ndash; for more than a decade the union has been an active participant in the climate change debate. After all, our members and our families' livelihoods are at the pointy end of the debate.&rdquo; 

Maher says the key to the union&rsquo;s position was engagement with members &ldquo;to create our own policy on greenhouse emissions.&rdquo; 

He adds, &ldquo;We have taken this approach because we want to live in a cleaner world and we want the security for our members, our families and for the coal communities for which we are a vital part. 

&ldquo;Now some may argue that the way to secure the future of coal communities is to stick our heads in the sand and, like John Howard, deny that climate change is occurring. 

&ldquo;But what security is there in refusing to engage in a debate that is raging at this very moment?&rdquo; Maher writes. 

&ldquo;From our perspective, security comes in certainty &ndash; the certainty of Clean Energy Targets and the certainty of commitments to greenhouse reductions. 
&ldquo;Business needs certainty too. If mining companies invest billions into new technology, they must receive a guarantee that such clean energy will have a market share.&rdquo; 

Maher cites examples: &ldquo;Clean coal technologies like carbon capture and geosequestration will reduce the impact of coal on the environment. As most mainstream thinkers agree, coal will remain a large part of the world's energy mix for the foreseeable future &ndash; the real challenge is to minimise its harmful impacts.
&ldquo;At the same time, we need to be investing in and embracing renewable energy sources. Our argument is that without a clear Clean Energy Target &ndash; backed with a carbon trading regime &ndash; we will never have the incentive to invest in these new technologies.&rdquo; 
CFMEU claims it is the first mining union in the world to take such a stand on the climate change issue.

CFMEU&#039;s Green Initiative Applauded in Australia

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If any event defined the strength and vibrancy of a great trade union, that event started on the night of 9 August 1987 when the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) began the Great Mines Strike of South Africa, or &ldquo;21 Days That Shook the Chamber,&rdquo; as it claimed to be called. Although the wage gains the NUM was seeking were not achieved, the strike by 330,000 black miners 20 years ago proved to be a decisive catalyst in the struggle to end apartheid. 
 
The NUM marked the anniversary last week in South Africa as an event that &ldquo;will be remembered for shaking the industry in a manner that was never seen before.&rdquo; It also solemnly noted the deaths of nine striking miners at the hands of apartheid police, and the 50,000 miners who were fired by mining companies for actively leading the strike.
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During 1987 wage bargaining between the employers&rsquo; Chamber of Mines and the Council of Mining Unions, representing white miners and officials, the unions accepted a 15% wage gain. But in separate bargaining with the NUM, the Chamber only offered 17% to black miners, who were paid much lower salaries than whites. NUM had lowered its demands to 24% at the time of the strike. 
 
Despite this, employers &ndash; led by the AngloAmerican Corporation, which employed the vast majority of unionised black miners &ndash; unilaterally implemented its offer. That caused the NUM to strike the first of some 60 gold and coal mines on 9 August. The Council of Mines thought the NUM too weak to sustain the early strikes, or to call out miners at more sites. 
 
But as the strike spread and more and more mines were idled, that proved to be a fallacy. 
 
A mining trade publication at the time reported: &ldquo;The union has shown itself to be much better organized, its strike call well supported from the outset. The Chamber appears to have expected the NUM action to last only a few days as in earlier years and was somewhat surprised at the duration and solidarity of the union&rsquo;s action and by its organisational capabilities, determination, and skill during the strike.&rdquo;
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NUM General Secretary Cyril Ramaphosa, the son of a Soweto policeman who was then only 35, provided strong leadership and staunch resolve. He also proved to be a visionary by calling 1987 the year that black mineworkers &ldquo;take control &hellip; to start controlling our lives in the mines, in the hostels, and the places we live. 
 
He also said, &ldquo;In the next few years, we are also going to take control of the work process, which dates back 100 years, when gold was discovered, during which the black workers have been like captive labour.&rdquo; Ramaphosa also said of the 1987 strike, &ldquo;The struggle we are involved in on the mines is a training ground for our people, for the ultimate goal which is liberation.&rdquo; 
 
The need for struggle was epitomised in May 1987, shortly after the NUM adopted the South African Freedom Charter, began a coalition with the United Democratic Front, and marched with the slogans of the banned African National Congress. On the night of 7 May 1987, with NUM&rsquo;s offices headquartered in the COSATU House in Johannesburg, special security police used explosives to blow the building up. A short three weeks later, NUM declared dispute with the mining houses over disparate wages, deficient health and safety practices for black miners, overcrowded hostels, and other grievances. 
 
Two weeks into the August mass strikes, realising that the NUM&rsquo;s resolve could not be broken, mining companies used a quirk in South African industrial law that allowed employers to dismiss workers even when they are engaged in a legal strike. Some 50,000 NUM members were fired. That and the very survival of the NUM caused regional strike committees to decide to end the strike, and on 30 August black mineworkers returned to work with their heads held high. 
 
The mining journal said the NUM &ldquo;has gained considerable stature as a result of its action,&rdquo; adding that the union&rsquo;s &ldquo;influence is now widespread throughout the mining industry and that unionisation of black miners is likely to increase.&rdquo;
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About half of the 50,000 mines were eventually re-hired to mining jobs over the next few years, and many proved to be key organisers and effective trade union leaders. The strike also taught the NUM something about self-reliance. As an outgrowth of it, the NUM formed non-profit organisations that mitigated job losses in mining with skill development, as well as labour cooperatives and welfare funds for dependants of miners. 
 
Today, that influence is evident. With roughly two-thirds of NUM members regularly attending union meetings and a shop-steward structure second to none, the NUM stands as a beacon of light for safe, sustainable jobs in South Africa&rsquo;s mining industry.

9 August: 20-Year Anniversary of NUM’s Great Mines Strike in South Africa

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In South Africa last week on 9 August, people celebrated National Women&rsquo;s Day in commemoration of the brave women one and two generations ago who first stood up against the racially-dividing Pass Laws of the apartheid government. 
 
Men and women gathered at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, site of an August 1956 march by 20,000 women in protest of the Pass Laws that were enacted on 9 August 1956. In Cape Town last week, 700 women and children marched and demanded that the government immediately implement the Domestic Violence Act. The march to government buildings there was against the abuse and rape of women and children.
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And across South Africa, unions, civil society organisations, and other groups used the 9 August holiday to urge more governmental action on HIV/AIDS-related work and treatment centres. Women are the worst affected by the scourge of the HIV virus. 
 
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) issued a statement commemorating both the brave women of the anti-pass struggles, and the brave miners who stood up to white bosses in the Great Mining Strike of 1987.
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&ldquo;We salute the heroes and heroines of these struggles and call on employers to improve the welfare of women and workers in general as a tribute,&rdquo; stated NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni. &ldquo;The good wage agreements we enter into this year are a tribute to the fallen heroes and heroines of these struggles. 
 
The anti-pass protests and deaths from those protests had a galvanizing effect against the control-minded apartheid government of the late 1950s and 1960s. The Pass Laws prevented the free movement of black people. The laws defined the very essence of oppression and racism then in South African apartheid life. White citizens, although required to have identity documents, were not required to carry them. Black South Africans had to carry passes. 
 
The Afrikaners called it bewysboek (Book of Proof). Blacks called it dompas (stupid pass). The laws gave the police the opportunity to detain any black African who was unemployed. And since statutes said that &ldquo;pass bearers&rdquo; could not be officially classified as employees, blacks saw further discrimination in terms of workplace conditions and trade union rights. 
 
On 21 March 1960, an anti-pass protest was met by the ruthlessness of police in the township of Sharpville, south of Johannesburg. Police fired on demonstrators, killing 69 of them &ndash; many shot in the back as they were retreating &ndash; and wounded 178 others. Many of the organisers were arrested.
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Considered the leader of South Africa&rsquo;s anti-pass movement was Margaret Gazo, the woman with the idea for the 20,000-person march in August 1956. She died in 1974, but spent five years in prison due to her activism. The Pass Laws were repealed in 1987, with some aspects of the statutes repealed earlier. 
 
The ICEM salutes South African working men and women of today for honouring the groundbreaking achievements of women of the anti-pass movement, and echoes NUM&rsquo;s Baleni in paying tribute to these pioneers of the early anti-apartheid era.

9 August: National Women’s Day in South Africa Celebrates ‘Anti-Pass’ Struggles of Apartheid

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The ICEM is in strong support of oilworkers&rsquo; trade unions in Iraq over the most recent denial of their rights. Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Sharistani, through his legal adviser Laith abd al Hussein Shahir, issued a formal directive to the country&rsquo;s oil companies, ordering them not to deal with trade unions and to exclude trade unionists from work committees. 
 
The directive, in effect, is meant to silence Iraq&rsquo;s oil unions from having an effect on the proposed Hydrocarbon Law. That law, which allows outside companies to exploit Iraq&rsquo;s wealth, has been approved by the Iraqi government and now is before the country&rsquo;s parliament. Iraq&rsquo;s oil workers and their unions have become the most outspoken opponents to the measure, arguing that it would ignite already dangerous regional rivalries and enrich global oil companies at the expense of ordinary Iraqis.
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Sharistani&rsquo;s directive, which states that &ldquo;unions do not enjoy any legal status to work inside the government sector,&rdquo; is a repeat of the Coalition Provisional Authority&rsquo;s Decree 8750, issued by the occupational forces in 2003 to prevent public-sector oil workers from forming trade unions. It is also a replay of Saddam&rsquo;s Decree 150, which banned all public-sector unions. 
 
&ldquo;The promotion and development of free and democratic trade unions, and the necessary social dialogue attached to that is essential for the reconstruction and reconciliation in Iraq,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We stand with our Iraqi brothers and sisters, and ask that this draconian directive be rescinded.&rdquo; 
 
Iraq&rsquo;s constitution, passed in 2005 with great hoopla praise from the occupational forces, enshrines the right of forming and joining professional associations and unions, and states this will be set in law. Sharistani&rsquo;s directive of 18 July 2007 is directly contradictory to Iraq&rsquo;s constitution. Iraq has also ratified ILO Convention 98 on Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining, and thus has international obligations to promote voluntary unionism and collective bargaining rights.
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Hassan Jumaa Awad, president of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Workers, representing 26,000 workers in the Southern Oil Companies, said his members would not recognise the directive since &ldquo;we are working for Iraq.&rdquo; He had called the oil law a &ldquo;planned theft of Iraqi oil disguised as &lsquo;The Hydrocarbon Law.&rsquo;&rdquo; 
 
The General Union of Oil Workers and Technicians (GUOWT), part of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW), sent a delegation on 6 August to meet with the oil minister. Sharistani refused to meet, but sent the Information director of the ministry to tell the trade unionists that the oil minister &ldquo;will not meet with people that represent unions in the oil sector&rdquo; because there are no workers in this sector, only &ldquo;state employees.&rdquo; 
 
The GFIW delegation did deliver a letter, which demanded that Sharistani withdraw the directive.

Reckless and Repressive Union-Busting by Iraqi Oil Minister

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Turkish affiliates of the ICEM, some 13 in total, have come together to form a committee with a view to working efficiently and being actively involved in the activities of the ICEM. 
 
The first meeting of the ICEM Turkish Coordination Committee was held in Ankara on 2 August 2007. Chaired by Mustafa Kumlu, President of Turkish Electricity, Water and Gas Workers&rsquo; Union (Tes-İş), which hosted the historic gathering, the meeting was attended by 30 representatives from the affiliates. 
 
At his opening speech, Mustafa Kumlu, an ICEM Executive Committee member, said, &ldquo;Turkey is situated in a unique part of the world. On the one hand we have Europe and the Balkans, and on the other Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Middle East and Mediterranean basin.
<img height="260" alt="" src="" width="390" />
&nbsp;From left, ICEM&rsquo;s &Ouml;zkan and Warda; Mustafa Kumlu, President of Tes-İş; and Mustafa &Ouml;ztaskin, president of Turkish ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş 
&ldquo;This gives us very important, but very difficult tasks,&rdquo; he added. Kumla said part of the difficulty lies with the fact that the Turkish trade union movement is facing an era of privatisation, rampant subcontracting, trade union rights violations, and redundancies that are steadily growing. &ldquo;We expect the ICEM to support us in promoting trade union rights and freedoms, as well as to provide solidarity in time of conflicts, especially during organising drives,&rdquo; Kumla said. 
 
Turkish unions, he stressed, want to make their own inputs into the activities of the ICEM, as well as support and solidarity worldwide. &ldquo;One of the important pillars of our trade union work is to reinforce international solidarity and transnational cooperation,&rdquo; Kumla said. 
 
But there can be no denying that Turkish labour legislation is wilfully lacking in meeting international standards, particularly ILO conventions. Turkey&rsquo;s trade union leaders are well aware that the ILO&rsquo;s Committee on Applications of Standards has placed the country and employers operating in the country on the agenda at its meetings this year. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda presented the federation&rsquo;s activities, and spoke of the developments in connection with ICEM&rsquo;s 4th World Congress in November in Bangkok, Thailand. He also spoke on the different projects of the ICEM, including HIV/AIDS and Contract and Agency Labour. He also addressed regional-based projects, and said that it was essential that affiliates use the ICEM&rsquo;s Global Framework Agreements to organise inside multinational companies. 
 
Warda took up potential cooperation areas and joint initiatives in which Turkish unions are welcome and invited to participate. Specifically, he mentioned the ICEM&rsquo;s role in bringing free and democratic trade unions in Iraq and other countries in the Middle East, as well as further involvement in the highly successful energy project in the Caspian Region.
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="250" />
&nbsp; 
The ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industry Officer, Kemal &Ouml;zkan, informed participants about ICEM&rsquo;s specific services for affiliates, such as efforts to create a Turkish language version on the ICEM website. &Ouml;zkan, a trade unionist who spent many years in the Turkish labour movement, also cited specific projects for the country in the coming months, including a workshop on Contract and Agency Labour in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES). 
 
Commenting on the reports given, the participants expressed their appreciation to the ICEM as it actively continues to back ongoing industrial actions and strikes in different industries inside Turkey.

ICEM’s Turkish Affiliates’ Coordinating Committee Meets in Ankara

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Jeff Lawrence, the 17-year president of ICEM affiliate Liquor, Hospitality, and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU), won selection last week as Secretary-elect of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). 
 
He will succeed Greg Combet, who will stand down late this year as the day-to-day leader of the Australia&rsquo;s national labour centre and run for Parliament from the New South Wales district of Charlton in 2007 elections. Combet has served as secretary of the 1.9-million-member ACTU since the year 2000. 
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Jeff Lawrence, new ACTU Secretary-elect
Lawrence, 55, was the only person nominated for the post at the ACTU&rsquo;s Organising Conference on 13 June at the University of New South Wales. He began his trade union career in 1977 for the Federated Miscellaneous Workers Union, one of several predecessor unions to the 130,000-member LHMU. 
 
&ldquo;I am determined to work hard to see off the Howard government and its unfair IR laws,&rdquo; Lawrence stated. &ldquo;As ACTU Secretary, I want to work with Australian working families to ensure that they and their rights are given respect. (That includes) respect for them to be heard &hellip; in the workplace and in society in general; respect for their role as parents and carers; (and) respect for their skills and their ability to improve themselves. 
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&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what WorkChoices, the Howard government&rsquo;s industrial law, has taken away.&rdquo; 
ACTU President Sharan Burrow called Lawrence a trade unionist who has led the charge against the Howard government&rsquo;s draconian labour relations reforms. &ldquo;He is from a union that has members at the forefront of the impact of WorkChoices,&quot; she said. &ldquo;I look forward to working with Jeff Lawrence and to developing a new partnership to lead the community campaign to restore the rights of working Australians taken away by the Australian government.&rdquo;

LHMU’s Jeff Lawrence to Succeed Greg Combet as head of Australian Council of Trade Unions

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Stefan L&ouml;fven was elected President of Nordic IN at a Congress held 15 June in Reykjavik, Iceland. Nordic IN is a regional trade union federation, representing 1.2 million workers of 22 affiliated national unions in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. 
 
L&ouml;fven, who is the president of Swedish ICEM affiliate, IF Metall, the metal and chemical workers&rsquo; union, succeeds Kjell Bj&oslash;rndalen, who retired. Nordic-In&rsquo;s biennial Congress, attended by 70 delegates, also elected Thorkild Jensen, from Denmark's CO-industri, and Mari-Ann Krantz, from Sweden's Sif, as vice presidents. Jyrki Raina continues as general secretary. 
<img height="170" src="" width="150" alt="" />
New Nordic IN President Stefan L&ouml;fven
The federation&rsquo;s action programme 2008-2009 adopted at the Reykjavik Congress states that Nordic unions will work together to: 
<ul>
 <li>
 <div>safeguard the Nordic model with a high unionisation rate, strong collective agreements, social security and workers' participation; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>work towards fair globalisation and to ensure the respect of trade union rights in all parts of the world; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>promote proactive trade, energy and environmental policies; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>train union officers and European Works Council members on networking and on how to handle cross-border restructuring cases in multinational companies; and to </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>promote recruitment of new members and stronger union structures in the Baltic states. </div>
 </li>
</ul>
As part of the Congress, a thematic session was held that included participation by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and trade union leaders representing the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF), the European Metal Workers&rsquo; Federation (EMF), and the European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Workers&rsquo; Federation (EMCEF). 
<img height="139" src="" width="98" alt="" />
Nordic IN General Secretary Jyrki Raina
That session centered on discussion on the future of the trade union movement in the global economy. &ldquo;The work Nordic IN is doing is a prime example of what can be accomplished when trade unions unite and follow a common agenda,&rdquo; said the ICEM&rsquo;s Warda. 
 
Nordic IN, founded on 1 January 2006 with the merger of Nordic Metal and the Nordic Industry Workers&rsquo; Federation (NIF), has as a basic mission to coordinate the policies and action of Nordic trade unions, especially within European industry federations EMF, EMCEF and the European Textile, Clothing, and Leather Federation, as well as within ICEM, IMF, and ITGLWF. 
 
The Congress confirmed that Nordic unions will continue to work to bring industrial workers into one federation in Europe and in the world, in order to maximise our resources in a globalised world.

Nordic IN Holds Biennial Congress in Reykjavik, Iceland

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One of ICEM&rsquo;s UK affiliates, Unite, has released a comprehensive study detailing the use and misuse of agency workers in the UK. The union, Britain&rsquo;s largest and the product of a recent merger between Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union, released the results of the study to the Department of Trade and Industry early this month. 
 
The study finds systematic abuse and misuse of agency and temporary workers at some of the most visible corporations operating in UK, including Coca-Cola, BMW, Harper Collins Publishers, Norwich Union, Honda, Unisys, and WH Smith. The study was conducted by Unite&rsquo;s Amicus section, throughout the sectors of manufacturing, finance, construction, and graphical/media. 
<img height="142" src="" width="100" alt="" />
&ldquo;Regardless of how you define a McJob, many employers are using agency workers to undermine pay and conditions, and replace permanent workers with cheaper, less qualified labour, leaving hundreds of thousands in a cycle of insecure and low-paid employment,&rdquo; stated Derek Simpson, Unite Joint General Secretary. 
 
The study cites a situation at Unisys in which a contract employer, Right4Staff Agency, had up to five South African data-processing workers share one bed. The workers took turns sleeping, with those not sleeping being at work. At a Honda Civic plant in Swindon, due to growth in sales, the Japanese automaker found it needed an additional 800 workers. But rather than hire and train full-time, permanent staff, local managers turned to an agency called Best Connection. Workers from this agency are paid ₤2-an-hour less than the Honda starting rate and receive a third less holidays. 
 
At Coca-Cola in Wakefield, an agency specifically recruits Polish workers to do quality checking at ₤7-an-hour, nearly half the hourly wage negotiated by Amicus at the plant, and they miss out on a 38% shift allowance. At a BMW plant in Hams Hall, the company&rsquo;s canteen operates with a two-tier pricing system &ndash; with prices higher for temporary staff. Some temp workers at BMW here have laboured for more than five years without being called for full-time employment. 
<img height="50" src="" width="100" alt="" />
Unite blames the UK government with failing to provide equal employment rights to agency and temporary workers, despite a commitment from the 2004 Warwick agreement to do so. That agreement saw the Blair government pledge to implement the measures contained in the proposed EU Directive on Temporary and Agency Workers. Nothing was done. 
 
&ldquo;We expect the new leadership of the Labour government to right this wrong, and implement the measures contained in the proposed (directive),&rdquo; said Simpson. 
 
Earlier this year, a private member&rsquo;s bill in Parliament brought by Labour MP Paul Farelly of Newcastle-under-Lyme was introduced that would have given agency workers the same rights, pensions, and working conditions as full-time workers. But the bill was talked out and denied a vote in the House of Commons.

Unite Study in UK Finds Rampant Abuse of Agency Workers

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With the last hurdle cleared on 13 June for the public stock listing next year of German mining, energy, and chemicals company RAG, IGBCE succeeded in getting workers&rsquo; future security guaranteed, as well as winning retirement security for coalminers in the event mining of anthracite coal ceases in 2018. 
 
The central tenet to a negotiated agreement between German politicians, IGBCE, RAG CEO Werner M&uuml;ller, and others is the creation of a new foundation that will hold a 25.1% in the company, which is expecting a new name once it is listed. The foundation would sell shares in the chemicals, energy, and real estate portion of RAG, with proceeds estimated to range from &euro;6 billion to &euro;8 billion to cover pension and other liabilities. 
<img height="83" alt="" src="" width="66" />
Additionally, RAG will make &euro;3 million available to immediately assist workers at the insolvent Deilmann Haniel Mining Co. in Dortmund. IGBCE President Hubertus Schmoldt thanked M&uuml;ller for his leadership during the six months of difficult talks. IGBCE also endorsed the decision for M&uuml;ller to hold the central strategic position of the new public-traded company. 
 
&ldquo;It is now finally clear that we will go forward to the stock exchange with an integrated company involving chemicals, energy, and real estate,&rdquo; stated Schmoldt. &ldquo;This is a solid basis for future jobs,&rdquo; adding that financial promises also have been made for the loss of coal-mining jobs, thus meeting that social obligation. 
 
The 13-member board of the new company will include Schmoldt, as well as the current Works Council chairman of RAG.

German IGBCE Wins Financial Security for Workers of RAG

Archive

Pilkington Workers in Glass Dispute in New Zealand

CFMEU's Green Initiative Applauded in Australia

9 August: 20-Year Anniversary of NUM’s Great Mines Strike in South Africa

9 August: National Women’s Day in South Africa Celebrates ‘Anti-Pass’ Struggles of Apartheid

Reckless and Repressive Union-Busting by Iraqi Oil Minister

ICEM’s Turkish Affiliates’ Coordinating Committee Meets in Ankara

LHMU’s Jeff Lawrence to Succeed Greg Combet as head of Australian Council of Trade Unions

Nordic IN Holds Biennial Congress in Reykjavik, Iceland

Unite Study in UK Finds Rampant Abuse of Agency Workers

German IGBCE Wins Financial Security for Workers of RAG

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