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Eighteen Russian miners have been underground now for nearly a week, engaged in a hunger strike against mine operator Sakhalinugol in Uglegorsk area on Sakhalin Island over unpaid wages. The miners are due 34 million roubles (US$114,000) dating back to 2002. They have mined 44,000 tonnes of coal so far in 2005, yet have been paid nothing by interim management following financial failure by the company. The miners, protesting 142 meters below the surface, got the support of Sakhalin Governor Ivan Malakhov, who declared, “The failure to pay the wages miners’ have earned is a direct violation of law.” Wives and children of the 18 were expected to join the protest today at the mineshaft.

Russian Miners in Far East Stage Hunger Strike

<img height="55" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="138" alt=""/>
Five global union federations, including ICEM, joined together on 31 October and 1 November to start the union-building modernisation project in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. 
The launch of the three-year project occurred in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and included unions from the host country, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Russia and Ukraine are also included in the project. 
Vsevolod Barbaneagra was appointed project coordinator, and an education unit of the unions will be established in Bishkek by the end of the year. 
Besides ICEM, GUFs involved include IFBWW, ITF, IUF and UNI. The project is funded by FNV Mondiaal of The Netherlands.

Joint GUFs Project in Central Asia Kicks Off

<img height="55" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="138" alt=""/>
A compromise was reached in the pension dispute at Shell Nederland that nearly shut all operations of the company in Holland, including the giant gas fields and plants of NAM Nederland BV, the joint venture between Shell and ExxonMobil. 
ICEM affiliate FNV Bondgenoten and Christian union CNV Chemie en Energie reached the compromise on 3 November, three days after shutdown procedures began at the Pernis oil refinery in Rotterdam and a petrochemicals plant in Moerdijk. Workers at Shell and NAM won through their unions an agreement that the early retirement age would stay at 60, while pension contributions by workers would not exceed more than 2% annually. 
Some 10,800 Shell and NAM employees are covered under the pension scheme.

Pension Dispute at Shell Nederland Ends

<img height="55" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="138"/>
Copper-mining and smelter workers, members of US affiliate United Steelworkers (USW), voted 12 November to accept a collective agreement. The ratification ends a four-and-a-half month strike at Asarco, a unit of rich Grupo Mexico SA de CV, now a global mining company enjoying healthy profits from high metals pricing. 
Strikes by 1,550 steelworkers and members of other US unions at six mine and smelting operations in Arizona and Texas began in late June and early July and were followed by Grupo Mexico taking Asarco into US bankruptcy protection. 
Formal US government labour law complaints against Asarco moved creditors to settle the strikes, and the resignation recently of Asarco Chairman and President Daniel Tellechea helped clear the way for agreement. 
The dispute centered on further wage and pension freezes at a time when world copper prices are at an all-time high. Two other US affiliates of the ICEM have minority representation in some of the six Asarco southwestern US worksites, including the Boilermakers (IBB) and Operating Engineers (IUOE).

Copper Strike in American Southwest Ends

<img height="67" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefalert.gif" width="150"/>
Just hours before 130 paperworkers of the ICEM affiliate Svenska Pappers were about to strike an ABB Power Technologies paper mill near Oskarshamn, Sweden, on 15 November, a settlement was reached between the union and Swiss-based engineering firm. 
The agreement actually exceeds the standards in place in Sweden's paper sector. It guarantees workers at the paperboard mill the right to health care, education, all benefits and income development, plus ABB will pay Svenska Pappers 1.5% of the total salary cost for follow up and administrative costs during the term of the agreement. 
Pressure to resolve the two-year-long dispute was brought on management when, on 10 November, a Swedish labour court ruled the workers not only had the right to strike, but that sympathy strikes by other unions operating at the mill were lawful. 
The threat of a strike also was heightened when Finnish union Paperiliitto, another ICEM affiliate, announced it would engage in industrial action against ABB if Swedish workers at the ABB's Figeholm mill struck. Svenska Pappers was instrumental last spring and early summer in sympathy actions in support of Paperiliitto during a 7-week lockout of Finland's paper sector, affecting 25,000 paperworkers. 
"We are happy to avoid a strike," said Svenska Pappers Negotiations Secretary Lennart Olovsson. "But I am more relieved over the fact that we could stand up against ABB and their intention to introduce a completely new and inferior collective agreement into the Swedish paper industry."

Strike Threat, Finnish Pressure Wins Paper Mill Dispute in Sweden

<img width="100" height="99" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMpaper.jpg" alt=""/>
Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on 15-16 November 2005, 65 global trade union delegates from 17 countries at the ICEM World Conference for Pulp and Paper Industries, adopted the following statement: 
 
We recognise the current business difficulties in the global paper industry and inevitable restructuring, affecting workers and their families. However, the conference adopted a Resolution, making it clear to the Pulp/Paper Industry that continued International Trade Union Solidarity will be utilised to protect the interests of workers and their families at this difficult time in the global paper sector. 
 
The Conference also took note of the recent unprecedented international solidarity actions. This lays the ground for further international networking in the Pulp and Paper Industry. 
 
Such actions clearly demonstrate the will of ICEM global trade union affiliates in the Pulp and Paper Sector to use International Solidarity to resist harsh and inhumane attacks on workers and their collective bargaining agreements to achieve business goals. 
 
The conference adopted the following proposals: 
<ul>
 <li>During the next four-year period until the next ICEM World Conference for the Pulp and Paper Industries, affiliates will seek to initiate dialogue and achieve further ICEM Global Framework Agreements with pulp and paper companies; 
 </li>
 <li>Affiliated Trade Unions will adopt new and innovative international networking methods to further enhance Global Trade Union Solidarity; 
 </li>
 <li>Trade Unions in the industry will be fully joined to the ICEM’s campaign against the abusive use of Contract and Agency Labour in all facets of work; 
 </li>
 <li>Affiliates will exercise greater vigilance in monitoring and ensuring responsible behaviour by global pulp and paper companies with regard to health, safety and the environment; 
 </li>
 <li>Affiliated Trade Unions will undertake to increase their efforts regarding the all-important gender issue, and seek to ensure Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value, and the elimination of all gender-based discrimination at workplaces. </li>
</ul>
It is the determination of all Affiliates and the ICEM to ensure that they are able to report real achievements on the above agenda at the next World Conference for the Pulp and Paper Industries. 
 
Adopted on 16 November 2005 
Brussels, Belgium 

For more information on this conference, including background documents and presentations, click <a type="internal" href="/index.php?id=147">here</a>.

ICEM Declaration on the Pulp and Paper Sector

<img height="113" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMsustdev.JPG" width="120"/>
A lot of health and safety dangers exist at the many different locations and workplaces in the global materials industries, which includes the glass, cement and ceramics sectors. In addition, these industries also face a huge number of environmental challenges. 
 
At the ICEM World Conference for the Materials Industries, in Brussels, on 17-18 November 2005, a comprehensive overview of these risks and challenges was presented by Reg Green, ICEM officer for Health, Safety & Environment. 
 
The presentation, entitled ‘Towards a Safe and Sustainable Materials Sector’, provides an in depth overview of the hazards and health dangers for each of the industrial sectors in the materials industries. It discusses a wide range of issues, going from the use of irritant coloring agents over toxic substances, heat problems or noise pollution to the many products used, such as asbestos, that are know to cause cancer. 
 
The document also suggests a hierarchy of preventive controls to avoid problems to happen in the first place, as prevention is, or - at least - should be, one of the key priorities in this area. 
Click <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0511REGmaterialsppt.ppt" type="internal">here</a> for the complete presentation.
For more information on this conference, including background documents and presentations, click <a href="/index.php?id=148" type="internal">here</a>.

ICEM presentation on the Health and Safety risks in the Materials Industries

23 November 2005 
 
His Excellency Dr Thaskin Sinawatra 
Prime Minister 
Kingdom of Thailand 
Government House 
Pitsunalok Road 
Bangkok 10300 
Thailand
Dear Sir, 
 
I write on behalf of the 20-million-member ICEM on a serious labour matter affecting your country. It is the unregulated and unceasing use of contract and agency labour by major employers in Thailand. 
 
In assessing a number of labour disputes in Thailand, some of which are in ICEM sectors such as energy and rubber, others in sectors such as metals and food, covered by other, fraternal Global Union Federations, the issue of extensive use of contract labour is at the forefront. I ask you to consider the harm such labour practices bring to the overall social development in Thailand. 
 
I write this prior to a group of trade unionists—many of whom are members of trade unions affiliated to the ICEM—bringing this issue forward in a rally outside the Ministry of Labour, and I implore you to hear their voice as it calls forth the ill-effects brought to workers, their families and entire communities when permanent jobs are replaced by contractors and agencies. 
 
I invite you to meet with these trade unionists, and I invite the Thai Government to initiate discussions on this critical issue affecting workers and the communities in which they live. 
 
The ICEM is leading a global campaign on contract and agency labour. We would be quite willing to join a dialogue between your government and trade unionists in Thailand who are recognising the dangers, and rightfully speak out on this issue. The ICEM realizes that it is not practical to call for a total ban on contract and agency labour. 
 
But what we do seek is that contract and agency labour be properly controlled to avoid the unnecessary displacement of direct workers and when there is a need to utilize contract or agency arrangements, trade union representatives be consulted and dialogue occur prior to contracts being signed. The logic to this in terms of productive enterprises, and well-being of workers, families and the communities in which they live is clearly evident. 
 
The ICEM is promoting such simple and precise language for employers, governments and inter-governmental institutions to adopt. Again, I respectfully request that your government give this labour issue serious attention, and I and the ICEM stand ready to assist in any manner possible. 
 
Sincerely, 
 
 
Fred Higgs 
General Secretary 
 
CC Mr Somsak Thepsuthin, Labour Minister, Thailand

ICEM letter to the Prime Minister of Thailand on Goodyear Contract labour problems

Led by ICEM German affiliate IGBCE, 3,000 protestors on 23 November demanded that tyre maker Continental rescind its decision to fire 320 workers at its Stöcken plant in Hannover. 
<img height="263" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0511IGBCEContinentalpicture.jpg" width="350"/>
A day before the rally that occurred at the company’s headquarters in Hannover, Conti chief executive Manfred Wennemer reneged on a deal to maintain jobs and production levels by stating growth rates at the plant were not high enough. Despite profitability and cooperation from the IGBCE on workplace matters, Wennemer’s announcement stung workers and politicians alike, particularly in view of prior production shifts to plants in eastern European countries. 
IGBCE board member Werner Bischoff, vice president of Continental’s Supervisory Board, promised the matter will get full attention at the Supervisory Board’s 6 December meeting, and said any further cooperative efforts with the company are now in danger.

German Union Protests Continental Tyre Decision

<img height="55" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief1.gif" width="138" alt=""/>
Pressure brought by potential sympathy strikes at an ABB Power Technologies paper mill near Oskarshamn, Sweden, and promised industrial actions at the company’s Finnish installations, proved too much for the Swiss-based engineering firm. 
Within hours of a 15 November strike deadline by 130 paperworkers, members of ICEM affiliate Svenska Pappers, ABB abandoned a two-year-long effort to undercut established social standards in Sweden’s paper sector. 
The resulting two-year labour agreement actually surpasses the social norms of the sector. ABB agreed to pay the union 1.5% of the total salary cost for administrative costs of the long overdue collective agreement at the paperboard mill. 
ICEM Finnish affiliate Paperiliitto said it would target ABB in Finland if a strike at the Figeholm mill near Oskarshamn were to occur, and a labour court in Sweden issued a unanimous ruling that a strike by the 130 workers, as well as any sympathy actions surrounding the mill’s operations would be legal.

Solidarity Fashions New Labour Contract at ABB Paper Mill in Sweden

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