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French unions geared up for late summer and autumn general strikes by partially shutting some gas and electric operations last week. The protest is in opposition to government posting 22% of Gaz de France’s (GdF) shares in an initial public offering. Five unions—including FCECFDT and FO—took strike action 20 June in response to GdF’s initial privatisation. The one-day strike crippled underground gas supplies at Gournay and Manosque, and at three nuclear and coal-powered electric generating sites. Last week’s strike actions could well be a prelude to bigger strikes in October when the French government expects to place shares of the much larger state-operated Électricité de France on bourses.

French unions shut down operations in gas and electricity sector

Contents: 
 
1. 2005 Nobel Peace Prize 
2. ICEM Africa Regional Women's Meeting 
3. Collective Bargaining Training in Chile 
4. ICEM Colombia Women's Meeting 
5. Diagnosis in Costa Rica 
6. UK - T&G Women's School 
7. Negotiations in Spain 

 
1. Nobel Peace Prize 
 
The names of nine Nepali women, included in a list of 1000 women worldwide to be nominated as a single entity for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, were made public on 29 June. The list includes among others Binda Pandey, GEFONT Nepal and Vice-President of ICEM. The 1000 women have been collectively nominated as a single candidate for the prestigious prize. Of the 1000 women nominees, 157 have been nominated from South Asia, the most of any region. The project aims to make women's efforts visible to counter injustice, discrimination, oppression and violence. 
 
 
2. ICEM Africa Regional Women's Meeting 
 
A meeting was held on 2 June 2005 in Johannesburg before the ICEM Africa Regional Committee meeting to formally establish the Africa Regional Women's Committee and to review activities in the region. 
 
Information was provided on ICEM global programs on HIV/AIDS and contract and agency labor. It was agreed that in both issues women are disproportionately affected, and special attention needs to be paid to impacts on women. The Shop Steward Development Program in Africa has a potential for developing teams of women at national level, and ICEM is asked to increase the scope and level of activity targeted at women within this project. 
 
Monitoring the recruitment and development of women in unions is difficult if there are no women's structures; without women's structures we act individually. Without a commitment to funding, however, it is difficult to initiate activities in the region for women. Thought should be given to developing a fund for women's activities in the region, and any ideas should be passed on to Vida Brewu at vbrewu@yahoo.co.uk. 
 
The ICEM Africa Women's Committee was established and made up of one representative each from Ghana, Botswana, DRC, Nigeria and South Africa. The committee will meet annually before the African regional committee. 
 
 
3. Collective Bargaining Training in Chile 
 
Erica Hidalgo Barrahona, ICEM women's committee, held a two-day training course for women in collective bargaining together with the Chilean oil workers' union FENATRAPECH. It was the last event scheduled in the FNV/SASK Equal Opportunities Project in Latin America. It was attended by 24 women. 
 
The topics included were labor relations and collective bargaining, changes in the company and their impact on collective bargaining, new and old contents of collective bargaining, gender issues and negotiations. Power relations were also discussed. Simulations were done. Public speaking was practiced. Cooperation with other organizations was also arranged. 
 
 
4. ICEM Colombia women's meeting 
 
ICEM Colombia held two women's meetings, from 30 March to 1 April, and from 1 to 3 June 2005. The themes were women and labor market, changes in women's work, gender division of labor, work, gender and globalization, women's working conditions, and equal opportunities and equal pay between women and men. 
 
These meetings were held in the framework of the FNV/SASK equal opportunities project. 
 
The women analysed their own experiences to understand the changes in their working lives. They analysed what jobs women have done, what the stereotypes are for women's work that have been passed down, and how women's and men's roles have been defined, with women and men doing different jobs and carrying out different functions. 
 
Women and men are assigned different roles, with men assigned to public space and women to the home. Thus the two sexes are segregated, and what they do is valued differently. Work is evaluated on the basis of what it contributes to creating wealth. Globalization has made the sexual division of labor more acute and women's work more precarious, leveling the existing differences downwards. The demands for more qualifications that the economic model requires have not been matched by qualified jobs. Nowadays women are better educated, but they have more precarious jobs with lower pay. The most precarious jobs are in the informal sector, which is mostly covered by women. Equality between men and women is recognized with a lowering of standards for both. 
 
The seminars also provide leadership training with what it means to be a woman leader. An analysis was provided on differences between women's and men's leadership, as well as power relationships. Equal opportunities and equal pay were discussed in connection with collective bargaining and the importance of including gender in negotiations. 
 
 
5. Diagnosis in Costa Rica 
 
On 10 June a seminar was held in Costa Rica to define policies for women and men in collective bargaining. It was attended by 12 women and 8 men. The point was to do mapping and to see where women have been excluded from the oil industry up to now. Up to now women have only been doing certain things. A questionnaire was developed. A diagnosis was also developed of the situation with youth. The young people were asked their aspirations. The demand was to include people under 40 years of age in the trade union induction process. This work will be continued and expanded in the first week of July. 
 
 
6. UK - T&G National Women's School 
 
A National women's school was held from 12 to 17 June 2005 organised by the Transport and General Workers Union in Eastbourne, UK. The group was divided up into four to cover getting involved in the union, women in the workplace and winning for women. The subjects covered, among others, union structures, branch equality officers, women's health, equal pay and equal pay audits, family friendly policies, work-life balance, and trade union conference procedures. Sisters attended from all levels within the union, from newly elected reps to more experienced colleagues. The women gained more confidence and went out to encourage more women to take their rightful place within the unions. 
 
 
7. Negotiations in Spain 
 
FITEQA CCOO in Spain managed to achieve certain extra payments for families in their 2005 negotiations. 
 
These extra payments are still not widespread, but they cover certain advantages such as scholarships, assistance for children, for education. This is something that has to be analysed more in detail because it has to do with the fact that companies seem to be more willing to pay out limited amounts of money. It may also be due to the fact that some employment structures are getting younger, so that these advantages can be directly relevant to young families. Because of the fact that pay is not equal, these payments are considered to be a form of compensation. These payments do have their merits, but nevertheless, it is wages and salaries that pay for work, and trade unions should still keep their eye on non-discrimination in pay and negotiate on equal pay for work of equal value and the necessary processes of evening out pay.

ICEM Women’s bulletin No. 2 – July 2005

Rio Tinto, the world's biggest mining corporation, will face protests from a broad alliance of international campaigning organisations inside and outside its Annual General Meeting at London's Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre tomorrow 12 May. 
Prominent among the protesters is the Australian miners' union CFMEU and its supporters from the UK and other countries. The unions are targeting Rio Tinto's continued refusal to recognise basic trade union rights in its Australian operations. 
 
Leading the Australian contingent is CFMEU National Secretary John Maitland. He is also Vice-President of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the CFMEU is affiliated at the global level. Maitland commented: 
 
"Rio Tinto continues to use labour laws in Australia which in March of 1998 were found by a committee of experts of the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) to violate international standards on collective bargaining rights and freedom of association. Rio Tinto is directly implicated in this because they helped the Australian government to draft this legislation. Since the ILO ruling, Rio Tinto has neither apologised nor sought to reverse its input into the Australian government's breach of international law. 
 
"Rather, the company is actively seeking to deunionise its Australian operations by replacing unionised workers with non-union labour and by forcing workers onto individual employment contracts instead of trade union collective agreements." 
 
ICEM British Vice-President Fred Higgs announced today that the ICEM had discussed the Australian situation with Rio Tinto CEO Leon Davis at a recent meeting. "We offered the services of the ICEM to find a resolution to the issues in Australia," Higgs said. "We are extremely disappointed that Rio Tinto has not so far taken up this offer, and we will continue to campaign on behalf of our Australian affiliate." 
<ul>
 <li>A Stakeholders' Report on Rio Tinto will be distributed to shareholders and others at the AGM tomorrow. Published by the ICEM in cooperation with a wide range of organisations campaigning on rights and environmental issues, the report severely criticises Rio Tinto's performance in many parts of the world. It also raises questions about the company's non-standard reporting of profits and the sustainability of its current dividend pay-outs. </li>
 <li>A motion was tabled in Britain's House of Commons today criticising Rio Tinto's human rights performance and calling on the British government to press the company to comply with international standards. Rio Tinto is headquartered in London. The Commons motion was brought in by Labour Member of Parliament Michael Clapham and others. </li>
 <li>This week, US unions in Rio Tinto operations agreed to step up their participation in the worldwide campaign. 
 </li>
</ul>

Rio Tinto AGM Faces Protests Over Rights Abuses

Contents: 
 
1. Algeria - Drop-in Assistance Center for Sexual Harassment Victims 
2. Bayer Honored as Top Company for Working Mothers 
3. Women Expose Rapes by Military Regime 
4. Colombia - Message from Beatriz Chinchilla 
5. FNV Netherlands - Women and Development Project Evaluation Asia 
6. International Transport Federation ITF - Women's Conference 
7. Rwanda - Women's Leadership Spreads to Villages 
8. South Africa - New Equality Inspectors 
9. Spain - Workshop on Sharing Domestic Responsibilities 
10. United Nations Human Development Report 
11. UNIFEM - Progress of the World's Women 2005 
12. UN Division Dialogue on Violence Against Women 
13. United States - Women's Health Resources 
14. World Bank - Equity and Development 2006 
15. World March of Women 

1. Algeria - Drop-in Assistance Center for Sexual Harassment Victims 
 
The General Union of Algerian Workers, the country's largest labor body, has set up and funded a Drop-In Assistance Center for Female Sexual Harassment Victims. One of the goals of the institution is to break the silence around harassment, and another is to create a non-governmental organization which can tackle harassment more vigorously. However, relatively few of those who visit the center have taken the step of filing complaints against their aggressors. Women are afraid the crime is difficult to prove and they will end up losing their jobs and their livelihoods. In response to these difficulties the National Committee of Working Women and human rights groups have been conducting a campaign in recent months to convince women to take harassers to court.
 
2. Bayer Honored as Top Company for Working Mothers 
 
Bayer Corporation has been recognized by Working Mother magazine as one of 100 best companies in the United States for working mothers for the third time. Bayer was honored for its policies and programs in connection with childcare, culture, flexibility, parental leave, women's advancement, total compensation, work-life culture and family friendly programs. The complete list of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers is available on the magazine's site <a href="http://www.workingmother.com/mainstory.html">www.workingmother.com/mainstory.html</a> 
 
 
3. Burma - Women Expose Rapes by Military Regime 
 
Burmese female activists working to expose the military regime's systematic violence against women, including rape as a tool of counter-insurgency, won an international women's rights award from the Gruber Foundation. Women from the Shan Women's Action Network and the Women's League of Burma traveled to New York and Washington to raise awareness around the globe about human rights violations under the Burmese military dictatorship. In 2002 women in the activist network published the report License to Rape which detailed the incidents of rape since 1996 as part of the military's crackdown on ethnic dissidents. According to the report 83 percent of the rapes were committed by officers, and women who dared speak out were fined, detained, tortured or killed. Many women have fled the civil strife that embroils Burma and settled in neighboring countries. These groups have banded together in exile to help other survivors. Many initially joined student and ethnic organizations along Burma's borders in Thailand, India and Bangladesh. Later they started to focus on protecting female refugees and fighting to make women a respected part of the pro-democracy movement. Burma has kept Aung San Suu Kyi, a leading democratic opposition leader and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, under house arrest since she and her supporters were attacked by government-affiliated forces in 2003. She has been detained numerous times since 1990, when her party, the National League for Democracy, won 80 percent of parliamentary seats in the last elections held in Burma. 
 
 
4. Colombia - SINTRAELECOL Women's Committee - Message from Beatriz Chinchilla 
 
The national women's committee of SINTRAELECOL Colombia carried out the first regional meeting in the Atlantic coast region from 15 to 17 September, attended by 25 women from the electric power sector, mothers from the community, independent women and university workers, together with 5 men from other unions. The committee worked on free trade agreements, HIV/AIDS and work-related illnesses, gender and women's participation in politics, and social energy. 
 
 
5. FNV Netherlands - Women and Development Project Evaluation Asia 
 
FNV Netherlands has carried out extensive evaluation of its women and development projects with Asian trade unions. The report is available both in English and Spanish and can be requested from ICEM - ask <a href="mailto:carol.bruce@icem.org">carol.bruce@icem.org</a>. 
 
 
6. International Transport Federation ITF - Women's Conference. 
 
ICEM participated in the Women's Conference organized by the ITF on 22 and 23 September where the changing transport workforce in terms of gender and globalization was examined. The transport workforce is losing its character of male dominance in particular jobs, sometimes due to restructuring. In addition there are now less typical male operational transport jobs and more jobs that are in white-collar, technology-driven fields. In the ITF the fastest growing sector for women's jobs is road transport, although much of this employment is office-based. There are many overlaps between ICEM and ITF, including in the oil industry and more and more in logistics. ICEM and ITF have a strategic alliance in oil and gas. We will be working together on women in the oil industry and women offshore. 
 
 
7. Rwanda - Women's Leadership Spreads to Villages 
 
In Rwanda women hold nearly 49 percent of the seats in the lower house of parliament. Several women are cabinet members, including the minister of justice. A woman is deputy police chief and another heads the National Reconciliation Commission, which has been working to ease the country's deeply entrenched ethnic wariness lingering from genocide. Much of the women's rise in power is due to the absence of men. As a result of the conflict women outnumber men 7 to 1. Now as the country struggles to rebuild, political organizers are pushing for more women to take charge of local government in hopes of extending women's political gains into the future. Marte Sabre is head of the Rwandan Women's Caucus and runs country-wide workshops for women to teach lobbying and campaigning techniques as well as media relations. She says that while women are making strides in leadership, they still cope with maintaining family responsibilities and overcoming deeply ingrained gender stereotypes that keep men as head of the household. Domestic violence remains a real concern in Rwanda. Female politicians are aware of the importance of gender development for men. Before the genocide about 10 percent of women were literate. Now the figure is over 50 percent. The next step is to transform the numbers into real influence that will transform women's lives. Many women suffer the wounds of war, including rape and physical violence as well as the trauma of witnessing the deaths of family members. The spread of HIV/AIDS continues, with 13 percent of Rwandans infected, although many do not get tested. Life expectancy fell to 39 in 2003 from 45 in 1990. 
 
 
8. South Africa - New Equality Inspectors 
 
The South African Department of Labour is going to set up a roving team of inspectors to ensure compliance with the Employment Equity Act. The team should be in place by November. Inspectors are currently undergoing training and will undertake unannounced inspections on companies and government departments with an aim to ensuring compliance with legislation. The legislation requires employers with 50 or more employees to draw up equality plans, display them on notice boards, and discuss them with either workers or their representative trade unions. The team of inspectors will operate like a special task force. The Department has taken this step to improve enforcement of equity legislation. The Department has indicated that companies who fail to comply with the equity laws could be prevented from bidding for lucrative government contracts in the future. 
 
 
9. Spain - Workshop on Sharing Domestic Responsibilities 
 
The Pamplona local council will organize workshops for women and men geared to sharing domestic responsibilities. The point will be for women to learn to do the tasks generally done by men and vice versa. The women's workshop will include plumbing and heating, electricity, bricklaying and other domestic repairs. The men, on the other hand, will learn cooking and baking, cleaning and dishwashing, and mending clothes and ironing. The courses are free and open to 15 participants. 
 
 
10. United Nations Human Development Report 
 
The UN Development Programme UNDP released the 2005 Human Development Report on 6 September, a report well known for its human development index, a ranking of 177 countries on the basis of performance on health and education, in addition to per capita income. This year's report focuses on global aid, trade and security policies and their respective roles in lifting the world's poorest people out of poverty. It highlights the world's unfair trade practices which undermine the livelihoods of those who survive on less than 1 USD a day. Poverty is the obstacle to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The Human Development Report can be downloaded from http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005 and is also available in other languages. 
 
 
11. UNIFEM - Progress of the World's Women 2005 
 
Progress of the World's Women 2005: Women, Work and Poverty makes the case for an increased focus on women's informal employment as a key pathway to reducing poverty and strengthening women's economic security. It provides the latest available data on the size and composition of the informal economy and compares national data on average earnings and poverty risk across different segments of the informal and formal workforces to show the links between employment, gender and poverty. It looks at the costs and benefits of informal work and their consequences for women's economic security. It also provides a strategic framework with good practice examples for how to promote decent work for women informal workers and shows why strong organizations of workers in the informal economy are vital to effective policy reforms. This should be a call to make poverty history. The report is available at www.unifem.org. 
 
 
12. UN Division Dialogue on Violence Against Women 
 
The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women is hosting a three-week online dialogue to combat violence against women. It will go until 14 October 2005. The online discussion is intended to provide a forum for activists around the world to feed into and help inform the UN work to combat violence. Visit the website to see reports from expert groups on data and statistics, good practice, consultations on key issues and action, a guidance for NGO inputs and the UN Secretary General's report, including the outline of the study. <a href="http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/index.htm">www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/index.htm</a>. 
 
 
13. United States - Women's Health 
 
The US Department of Health and Human Services publishes a newsletter on women's health which can be accessed at www.womenshealth.gov. It is also available in Spanish at www.womenshealth.gov/Spanish/ 
 
 
14. World Bank - Equity and Development 2006 
 
Inequality of opportunity, both within and among nations, sustains extreme deprivation, results in wasted human potential and often weakens prospects for overall prosperity and economic growth, concludes the 2006 World Development Report, the World Bank's annual publication. To correct this situation and reduce poverty more effectively, Equity and Development recommends ensuring more equitable access by the poor to health care, education, jobs, capital, and secure land rights, among others. It also calls for greater equality of access to political freedoms and political power, breaking down stereotyping and discrimination, and improving access by the poor to justice systems and infrastructure. For more information about this report see www.econ.worldbank.org/wdr. 
 
 
15. World March of Women 
 
The World March of Women has published a document critical of the Millennium Development Goals, providing a feminist vision of the 8 goals. It makes suggestions to improve the indicators and to really eliminate poverty as well as violence against women. See www.marchemondiale.org/en/index.html - which is also available in French and Spanish. 
 

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ICEM Women’s bulletin No. 5 – October 2005

In the 1990s, the ICEM led the global labour movement by innovative use of the early Internet for instant and effective solidarity. The Wall Street Journal, in a front page 1999 article, said the ICEM “is changing the face of traditional labor protests by moving strikes, pickets and other union actions into cyberspace.” A mining house spokesman admitted in the same article it was the advent of labour activists “trying to globalize via the Internet.” 
<img height="86" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/icem-logo.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
The 20-million-member Global Union Federation launched a new and improved website this past weekend, effectively and seamlessly tying together countless struggles, issues, and worker-related facts on all things relevant in the ICEM’s six major industrial sectors as well as the world of labour with a new website that replaces the global labour movement’s initial, trend-setting static website. 
 
The new site maintains the same address as the old: http://www.icem.org, and visitors are welcome to explore the ICEM’s topical website. 
 
The site provides information in ICEM’s seven statutory languages—English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish and Russian. 
 
“We are proud to present our affiliates, firstly, with a practical and useful website as an aid to built strong trade union structures,” said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. “The new website takes full advantage of the most modern communication technologies to support and advance our work with our affiliates.” 
 
The ICEM website contains a wealth of materials and documents on current ICEM projects and campaigns such as Contract and Agency Labour, HIV/AIDS relief, Gender Issues, Health/Safety and Sustainable Development, Global Framework Agreements and Global Union Networks. In easily accessible archives are all ICEM News Releases, InBrief newsletters, Circulars (direct action calls), and other ICEM documents and information from past events. All materials are indexed by ICEM regions and major industrial sectors, and by individual country as well. 
 
ICEM sectors: Energy including Oil, Gas and Nuclear; Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals; Mining/Diamonds and Gems; Pulp and Paper; Rubber; and Materials, which includes Glass, Ceramics and Cement. 
 
ICEM’s website design is compatible with the many and varied web browsers available. This means the site can also be read on small-screen and mobile information technology. Conversely, the website has been deliberately designed to allow easy access and easy download for the many workers of the world in regions where only slow internet service exists. 
 
The ICEM, based in Brussels, has 420 affiliated trade unions in 125 countries.

ICEM Introduces New, Advanced Website

Mass protests rather than a general strike have begun in Nigeria to protest the government’s 26 August fuel price hike. ICEM oil workers’ union affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN have joined the rallies, which began 14 September to continue for two weeks. The government hiked the price of gas and diesel fuels by 40% in efforts to reduce subsidies and bring the price in line with global prices. Despite being one of the world’s leading exporters of crude, Nigeria depends on imports of refined fuels to meet domestic demand because the country’s five refineries under-perform from lack of capitalization. Nigerian unions are using the protests to get the government to roll back the fuel price hikes, as well as to demand higher wages incorporating cost-of-living increases.

Nigerians to Stage Protests Against Fuel Price Hikes

In Nepal from 10-12 September, presence of top-level global trade union leaders made a march and working seminar entitled Wider National Workers’ Conference both peaceful and unprecedented for the Himalayan country. Some 1,800 workers and their representatives from Nepal’s three national union centers marched from Dilli Bazaar in Katmandu into a mass meeting at Padmakanya High School in Naya Baneshwore on 10 September denouncing the Nepalese monarchy’s autocratic rule and calling for an “absolute democracy” that ensures workers’ and human rights. The conference adopted a 15-point resolution and a declaration calling the weekend event a turning point for all Nepal’s workers to escape the killings, torture, suppression and harassment imposed on them by both the ruling monarchy and extremist political forces inside Nepal.

Nepal Conference to Challenge Authoritarian Rule

Eight trade union leaders of ICEM Malaysian affiliate National Union of Employees in Companies Manufacturing Rubber Products (NUECMRP) are still seeking reinstatement to their jobs at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in Selangor after more than a year’s time. The eight were dismissed for various reasons after the union called attention to unfair treatment of workers from Nepal, Burma and Vietnam. The union also has protested strongly against the contract and agency labour practices of Goodyear, which utilizes a firm that deploys workers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to avoid employment responsibility. Efforts at achieving justice for the eight have been blocked by the Malaysian Human Resource Minister’s refusal to bring the dismissals before an industrial court. Goodyear has continued to exploit foreign workers at the 500-worker factory with lower pay, and denying them annual leave and medical leave per employment standards. The US-based company has also rebuffed NUECMRP’s requests to create permanent, domestic jobs when vacancies occur at the factory.

Malaysian Affiliate Still Sees Problems with Goodyear

French oil refinery workers at Total began partial disruptions to production late on 6 September, successfully making the global oil company modify its disciplinary actions against four workers the next day. The four were exclusively blamed for a fuel leak on 7 August at a refinery in Marseille. The refineries in which job actions occurred included Donges, Saint-Nazaire; Normandie, LeHavre; Grandpuits near Paris; Feyzin, Lyon; and the Provence refinery, Marseille.

French Total Workers Strike over Disciplinary Measures

French ICEM affiliate Fédération Chimie Energie CFDT is calling for a tripartite commission to be established to resolve wage talks in the paper carton industry of France. The trade union rejects the inferior minimum levels put forward by the trade industry grouping Nationale des Industries Papetières pour les Affaires Sociales (l’Unipas). FCE-CFDT says the heavy pressure to hold down wages will not be good for this papermaking sector since workers will become reluctant to take promotions into jobs requiring higher technical skills.

French Affiliate Seeks Wage Hikes in Paper Sector

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