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While global labour pressure recently succeeded in returning eight Iraqi union activists to their rightful work locations, workers of the Southern Oil Company in Basra demonstrated to prevent another activist from being forcibly transferred. On 4 August, they staged a two-hour sit-in strike at one of the company&rsquo;s Basra offices to prevent transfer of a popular unionist and effective worker. 

The ICEM strongly supports this protest by activists of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), and condemns the Oil Ministry&rsquo;s efforts to weaken IFOU by mandatory transfers of IFOU stalwarts.
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&nbsp;Protest in Basra on 4 August 

Last Monday&rsquo;s sit-in was in protest to the removal of Jabbar Lu&rsquo;aiby from Basra to Baghdad. The demonstration called on Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani to rescind the order to transfer Lu&rsquo;aiby and change his status from Southern Oil staff member to a consultant. 

Protesters said Lu&rsquo;aiby should be praised rather than punished for his role in raising Southern Oil&rsquo;s output from zero to 2.25 million barrels per day in the aftermath of the occupation. Meanwhile, IFOU will join the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) and other civil society groups today, 11 August, in a protest against the proposed Hydrocarbons Law. 
They, as well, are protesting enactment of a recent law by the Finance Ministry that will revise the manner in which promotion of salaries are implemented for workers in the public sector. 

In spring 2008, the Ministry of Oil transferred at least eight IFOU trade union activists away from their homes and co-workers of the Southern Oil Co. in and around Basra so as to erase their trade union activity. Union pressure, notably at the ILO&rsquo;s June 2008 International Labour Conference by the UK&rsquo;s Trades Union Congress, the US AFL-CIO, and Global Union Federations ICEM, Education International (EI), and Public Services International (PSI), brought the eight activists back to Basra and to their rightful jobs in the early days of August. 

The Iraqi government used the same trick in 2005 on leaders of the GFIW-affiliated port workers&rsquo; union in Um Asr in 2005. Global and Iraqi trade union opposition then prevented those transfers.

8 Iraqi Unionists Returned to Basra; Energy Workers Protest Another Forced Expulsion

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Following four months of earnest bargaining between ICEM affiliate Firestone Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Union of Liberia (FAWUL) and management of the Firestone Rubber Plantation in the West African nation, the two sides reached a historic three-year collective agreement on 27 July. 
 
The contract, the first between the two parties and one covering some over 4,500 workers, was signed on 6 August. Two days later, the FAWUL leadership team, together with officers of the newly-merged Liberian Labor Congress, briefed President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on the agreement.
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&nbsp; 
 
The contract comes seven months after the Liberian Supreme Court ruled that the union was the legitimate bargaining representative for Firestone workers. In July 2007, FAWUL defeated a longstanding yellow union in an internationally monitored election. That election came after an arduous union-building project on behalf of plantation workers by the US-based United Steelworkers (USW) and the US Solidarity Center that succeeded in bringing a free and democratic trade union to the plantation. 
 
FAWUL affiliated with the ICEM following the mid-2007 election. 
 
&ldquo;This is a major success story for Firestone Plantation staff, and one which they can be justifiably proud of,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;The efforts of the USW and the Solidarity Center in leading up to these negotiations cannot be understated.&rdquo; 
 
USW President Leo Gerard called the first agreement &ldquo;a new day for workers throughout Liberia. It is also a crucial victory in the global fight for workers&rsquo; rights. This agreement sets a new labor standard for all of Liberia&rsquo;s workers.&rdquo; 
 
The contract grants rubber tappers a 24% wage increase averaged over the contract&rsquo;s term that is retroactive to January 2007. For other workers, a 21% increase was realized, backdated to the same date, which means all plantation staff will receive a 19-month retroactive pay raise. 
 
Agreement was made to reduce by 20% rubber tree quotas, meaning each worker will tap 150 fewer trees. Also, FAWUL and plantation management came to terms on a mechanized system of transporting natural rubber from roads to weigh stations, relieving workers from the 150-pound buckets that had to carry for long stretches.
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&nbsp; 
 
Regarding social improvements, Bridgestone-Firestone will build new high schools, one on the plantation site and the other in the nearby community of Harbel. Students will be able to attend school free of charge through Grade 12. Previously, free education was provided only up to Grade 9. 
 
The ICEM salutes FAWUL President Austin Natee and Secretary-General Edwin Cisco, as well as the entire leadership team of this dynamic trade union for their historic accomplishment.

Firestone Plantation Workers in Liberia Reach Historic First Collective Agreement

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Some 4,000 union members of ICEM affiliate Sindicato Unico Trabajores del Neum&aacute;tico Argentina (SUTNA) launched a 48-hour strike on 25 July against three tyre manufacturing companies, Bridgestone-Firestone, Pirelli, and Argentine-based FATE. The union has been deadlocked since April in 2008 wage negotiations with the major rubber makers. 
 
SUTNA had been conducting protests in the cities of the three factories in recent weeks. With tyre production growing in Argentina due to a boom in automotive production, the union is seeking a salary increase of 35%. 
 
&ldquo;After the employers refused our demands, workers through their asemblies at the factories decided to begin (job actions),&rdquo; said SUTNA Gen. Sec. Pedro Wasiejko. He added that employers offered a two-phase increase of 28%; 13% at present and a noncumulative 15% in January 2009. 
 
&ldquo;This was not accepted by our members,&rdquo; said Wasiejko, citing the fact that the increase would amount amount to only 1,800 pesos (US$600). He said labour costs in the Argentine tyre industry are only 4-to-6% of all production costs.
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&nbsp; 
Japanese-based Bridgestone-Firestone and Pirelli of Italy each employ 1,400 workers in factories near Buenos Aires, while FATE emplys 1,200 at a plant in San Fernando. 
 
Argentina&rsquo;s tyre industry will experience a major change this year with Continental of Germany now entering the retail market. Continental&rsquo;s supply agreement with FATE ends at the end of this year, and the company has established a subsidiary in Argentina in order to import tyres from a factory in Brazil, as well as from Europe. 

Tyre production in the South American country, however, has increased nearly 20% over the first four months of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007.

Rubber Workers in Argentina Begin Job Actions to Gain Fair Pay

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The Graphical, Paper, and Media section of ICEM affiliate Unite in the UK won a key organizing victory on 14 July, when the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) granted workers of Leicester Paper Company (LPC) union recognition with the country&rsquo;s largest trade union. 
 
The ruling, following two hearings in which longtime, union-avoiding LPC tried to subvert a Unite majority by inserting new workers into the proposed bargaining unit, as well as changing the work contracts for others, means the company has until 14 August 2008 to begin negotiations with Unite.
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The union overcame LPC tactics by relying on organizers and activists inside the mill to actively enroll more paperworkers in Unite. A solid majority of the 84 workers at the Kamns towel and tissue mill in Leicester, East Midlands, signaled to the CAC that they want a first-time union contract. 
 
CAC is an independent UK body with statutory powers to rule on applications for formal recognition and de-recognition of trade unions regarding collective bargaining. Hearing testimony from the union and the company&rsquo;s attorneys, a CAC panel upheld Unite&rsquo;s claim for recognition, ruling that there were no circumstances identified in legislation that would merit a ballot of workers. 
 
&ldquo;We have been organizing for years at LPC in what can only be described as very hostile circumstances,&rdquo; said Unite National Secretary Peter Ellis. &ldquo;This fantastic result is a testament to all the hard work done by our organizing team and the resolve of our determined membership. 
 
&ldquo;We look forward to putting the past behind us and engaging the company in a constructive dialogue that will lead to a better working environment for workers at the Kamns mill,&rdquo; added Ellis. 
 
LPC is a privately-held consumer towel and tissue manufacturer, which, in the UK, is the major private-label producer for retail chains Morrison&rsquo;s and Tesco. Besides the Kamns mill, LPC also operates three paper converters in central England, employing another 550 paperworkers. 
 
It has also expanded outside of the UK, by purchasing in 2007 a towel and tissue mill of American-based Kimberly-Clark in Duffel, Belgium. In fact, it was unionized workers then at that location, while reaching out to the ICEM for information on LPC, which spurred Unite to refresh its organizing efforts in Leicester. 
 
The ICEM is continuing to build a network of workers at the company&rsquo;s manufacturing locations in Belgium, France, Sweden, and the UK.

UK: Unite Wins Union Recognition for Workers of Evasive Paper Company

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Strategic and rolling&nbsp;strikes by 500 Canadian miners &ndash; members of the United Steelworkers (USW) &ndash; could occur at any time now within the&nbsp;three mining operations&nbsp; of&nbsp;Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, the world&rsquo;s largest fertiliser company. 
 
On 23 July, three local branches of the USW in the western Canadian province of Saskatechewan issued the necessary 48-hour strike notice against the company. Management countered by giving the unions a 48-hour lockout notice.&nbsp; 
 
Miners have been without a current contract since 30 April 2008. The USW local unions voted by a 96% margin on 21 July for industrial action. 
 
Workers&nbsp;met again on Friday, 25 July, and ballotted for an overtime ban at&nbsp;mines in Allan, Cory, and Patience Lake, beginning the next day, 26 July. In 2007, Canadian steelworkers worked a total of 147,000 overtime hours for Potash Corp., heavily impacting&nbsp;the company&rsquo;s bloated profit sheet. 
 
The company, capitalising on high commodity prices, posted its largest quarterly profit margin in second quarter 2008, with C$905.1 million in earnings. Its 2007 net income was C$1.1 billion.
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USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann&nbsp;
USW National Canadian Director Ken Neumann, in an opionion article in a provincial newspaper last week, compared the publicly-listed company&rsquo;s sales figures, together with other potash producers, with royalty fees paid to Canadian units of government. In a decade between 1997 and 2007, the ratio of sales to royalities has dropped from 13% to seven percent. 
 
&ldquo;Record potash prices and continuing provincial giveaways allowed the company to collect an after-tax profit of C$566 million in the first three months of 2008,&rdquo; stated Neumann. 
 
&ldquo;This quarterly profit amounts to well over C$100,000 for each of the company&rsquo;s 5,000 employees,&rdquo; wrote Neumann. &ldquo;Although the company is reveiving far more profit per worker than most mining companies, it pays wages lower than many major Canadian mining operations.&rdquo; 
 
USW Locals 7468, 189, and 7689 also are seeking, in a renewal labour agreement, greater controls over use of contract labour, a bonus scheme, and improvements in pensions and vacation time.
If Potash Corp. does not return to the bargaining table&nbsp;by&nbsp;mid-week, the likelihood of a full-scale strike across all three mines is great.&nbsp;

Canadian Steelworkers Commence Overtime Ban Against Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan

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Mineworkers and port workers of non-affiliated Colombia union, Sintramienerg&eacute;tica, ended a week-long strike on Wednesday, 23 July, against US-based coal producer Drummond. The miners shut one of Drummond&rsquo;s two big open pit mines in C&eacute;sar department, the Pribbenow mine, as well as the company&rsquo;s thermal coal exporting port at Santa Marta. 
 
The strike ended for the 2,700 workers when the two sides compromised on a two-year wage deal. Workers will receive a 9.1% increase this year. For 2009, the union won the Colombian consumer price index plus 1.75%. The union had orginally been seeking a 16% wage hike, while Drummond started bargaining with a 7.5% offer.
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Sintramienerg&eacute;tica also won job security assurances, housing and education improvements, safety and health gains, and needed social investments in the surrounding communities. Striking Drummond miners received strong support from Colombian Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo. 
 
Drummond is Colombia&rsquo;s second largest coal producer, behind Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n in La Guajira department, where ICEM affiliate Sintracarb&oacute;n represents 4,500 miners. 
 
Meanwhile, the country&rsquo;s third largest mining house, Glencore International, came to terms with Sintramienerg&eacute;tica prior to the miners taking strike action in mid-July. The negotiated first year wage adjustment at the Swiss company&rsquo;s La Loma and Lagua mines was set at 9%. Miners at both Drummond and Glencore voted on 8 July to issue ten-day strike notices.

Drummond Coal Mine Strike Ends in Colombia; Accord Also Reached with Glencore

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In early 2008, with support from the ICEM CAL Project, workers at German-owned Thai Industrial Gases (TIG), a subsidiary of Linde, and their union TIGLU, signed a milestone agreement with the company. The accord secured their rights to organise TIG workers across Thailand. 
 
TIG/Linde is Thailand&rsquo;s biggest provider of industrial gases. The agreement came only after a struggle, including a month-long protest at all of the company&rsquo;s 13 work sites. It also saw support and pressure by the ICEM and its global affiliates, including ones in Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium.
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This was a remarkable achievement for the TIGLU, which was established only three years ago. 
 
In one situation, jobs had been contracted out first to Adecco. That temporary agency firm was then replaced by an unknown agency, whose address turned out to be a building under construction. This made the agency seem a sham, making it appear that this was an attempt by TIG/Linde to circumvent the union. 
 
Most workers signed the new work agreements, but nine refused and were fired. Reportedly, some who did sign were threatened with dismissal if they got involved in union activities. 
 
In the end, TIG/Linde agreed to reinstate the nine dismissed workers, who were all truck drivers. The company also agreed not to victimise workers by transferring them, a common tactic used by the company. TIG/Linde also agreed to give the 19 agency workers the same conditions as TIG&rsquo;s regular employees.
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TIGLU has also used the Thai labour inspection service to counter bad employment practices at TIG&rsquo;s branch in Saraburi province, a worksite where agency workers had received lower overtime pay, no sick leave payments, and were issued inadequate safety equipment. After the inspection, the employment agency paid the workers in full, but then retaliated by giving them contracts which had to be renewed every three months. 
 
A national campaign in Thailand calling for recognition of workers&rsquo; rights for temporary or agency workers, and their right to unionise and join the same union as permanent workers, has now been started through support of the ICEM campaign. Union networks have been formed to organise and protect agency and contract workers throughout Thailand.

Positive Developments for Agency Workers in Thailand

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Manpower, the second largest employment agency in the world, has announced the creation of a &ldquo;Manpower Equaltreatment&rdquo; subsidiary in Germany. 
 
Thomas Reitz, the head of Manpower-Germany explains: &ldquo;We have recently set up this new subsidiary, Manpower Equaltreatment Gmbh, in which temporary workers will be paid at the same level as the permanent workers of the companies where they work. Other conditions and benefits will also be similar.&rdquo;
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&nbsp; 
 
In doing this, Manpower has given a powerful signal to employers everywhere that the climate regarding temporary work is changing. 
 
&ldquo;We want to remain attractive as an agency, and there is a demand for these kinds of solutions,&rdquo; continued Reitz. 
 
Some collective work agreements within Germany&rsquo;s major industrial enterprises like Audi, BMW, and Airbus already call for temporary and permanent staff to have similar pay and conditions. 
 
Calls for the &ldquo;equal pay for equal work&rdquo; motto in all German enterprises are reinforced by a recent campaign by ICEM affiliate IGBCE and other major trade unions in Germany, which is putting pressure on companies to grant equal pay to temporary workers.
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Manpower estimates that its new Manpower Equaltreatment subsidiary will employ several thousands of temp agency workers in the next few years. It will provide both high-skilled specialty staff and also less-skilled workers. &ldquo;Companies prefer good agency workers,&rdquo; concluded Thomas Reitz, (because) they hope they later become permanent staff, so they need a good pool of workers to choose from.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

Equal Pay for All Workers Gains Ground in Germany

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General President Jack O&rsquo;Connor of Ireland&rsquo;s Services, Industrial, Professional, and Technical Union (SIPTU) welcomed the new EU Directive on Agency Work. 
 
In a statement, he said, &ldquo;It will improve people&rsquo;s rights at work in Ireland. Indeed, in the absence of the EU, working conditions in Ireland would still be very primitive. This decision will begin the process of alleviating the plight of tens of thousands of our most vulnerable workers.&rdquo;
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Legislation in Ireland to regulate the use of temporary agency workers has been opposed for years by employers. Although not yet fully adopted, once ratified by the European Parliament, the Directive must be implemented through national legislation within three years. It has thus given a considerable push to people&rsquo;s rights at work in Ireland. 
 
The recent Irish referendum rejecting the Lisbon Treaty would appear to have no effect on the Directive, since existing treaties already cover the details of implementation.

Irish Labour Movement Welcomes EU Directive on Agency Work

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Despite earlier opposition by Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Poland, and the UK, which have stubbornly opposed any compromise agreement for the past five years, the EU&rsquo;s Employment and Social Affairs Council agreed on 10 June 2008 to a draft Directive on Temporary Agency Workers. 
 
Temporary agency work has continued to swell, there can be no denying that. In Denmark, Italy, Spain, and Sweden, for example, it has increased five fold over the past 20 years. In most other EU nations, it has at least doubled in recent years. Each year, some six million workers in the EU are newly registered with agencies. 
 
And in the new member states, it is crucial that minimum employment regulations are established to avoid undercutting already set standards in pay and working conditions.
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More and more, companies are utilising temporary agency workers to cut costs and to increase flexibility, such as allowing them to adjust staffing needs at short notice. 

Employers can find workers with specific skills, when and as needed, without recruitment expenses, or when restructurings or downsizing occurs. 
 
In general, agency workers tend to be less satisfied with their jobs and work conditions than permanent staff. They also tend to have less control over their work, receive less training, have higher accident rates, and perform more shift work than permanent workers. Mostly, they get lower wages for similar work, and are excluded from bonuses and benefits. They also have less job security. 
 
The EU Directive would set minimum European-wide standards that create a level playing field for all companies in all member-states. The Directive is also aimed at stimulating the EU as a knowledge-based economy. 
 
The draft Directive currently states that temporary agency workers must not be treated less favourably regarding basic work conditions (pay, working time, rest periods, holidays, etc.) than permanent workers doing &ldquo;comparable&rdquo; work, a principle that would apply as of day 1. 
 
Exceptions would be permitted to this principle where the social partners come to an agreement at the national level, as recently happened in the UK, for example, where agency workes are to get equal treatment after 12 weeks, six more than what is proposed in the EU Directive.

European Directive on Agency Work Gets Closer to Passage

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