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<img height="55" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief1.gif" width="138"/>
China’s second worst mine disaster of 2005 occurred yesterday when a gas explosion struck the Dongfeng Coal Mine in Qitaihe, Heilongjiang province. Some 250 miners were inside shafts of Heilongjiang Longme Group, a consortium of four state-owned coal businesses, when the explosion hit. The bodies of 51 miners were recovered, another 160 are still trapped, and 40 managed to escape. 
Year 2005’s worst mine disaster in China occurred on 14 February when 214 coal miners perished when a gas explosion rocked a mine in Liaoning province. Last Thursday, 24 November, 17 miners drowned inside shafts after flooding at the Gaocun Coal Mine, Tuancheng Township, Hebei province.

Gas Blast in China on 27 November Kills Hundreds

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Some 6,000 trade union members of UK affiliate GMB have voted by a four-to-one margin for industrial action against British Gas, wholly-owned by British-based Centrica Plc. 
The workers are resisting company attempts to close the final salary pension scheme to new workers. GMB has offered to review the pension scheme at the next actuarial valuation, but Centrica is insistent on achieving £200 million in costs savings immediately and final salary pension benefits for new hires is on the company’s hit list. 
The 6,000 are technicians and engineers who install, service and repair domestic furnaces. GMB shop stewards will decide this week on dates of action.

British Gas Engineers Vote for Industrial Action

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ICEM’s Latin America/Caribbean Regional Coordinating Committee meeting in São Paulo, Brazil, on 18 and 19 May, discussed and took action on two pressing matters involving ICEM sectors in South America. 
 
The Committee resolved, considering the steps taken by the Bolivian people to institute a process of nationalisation of certain natural resources, to call on the governments and companies involved to be coherent in a wise and prudent response so that the rights of workers in these enterprises are not adversely affected. 
<img height="81" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UruguayFlag.gif" width="120"/>        <img height="80" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ArgentinaFLAG.gif" width="120"/>
Regarding the dispute between Argentina and Uruguay and the construction of two paper mills on the Uruguay side of the Uruguay River, the ICEM’s Committee vowed to put pressure on both governments to immediately resolve the matter. The resolution stated that it was important that the opinions of trade unionists be considered in the combined US$1.7 billion projects by Metsä-Botnia AB of Finland and Grupo Empresarial Ence of Spain. 
 
The resolution also said “it was advisable not to ignore contributions made by those at the international level” in this debate. “In our double role as workers and trade unionists, we have to make sure, as we have done in the past, that control mechanisms exist which guarantee ecological and environmental sustainability for our people,” ICEM’s Latin America/Caribbean Committee declared. 
To read the resolution (in Spanish), <a href="/index.php?id=26&doc=1814&la=ES" type="internal">click here</a>.

Nationalisation and Paper Mills: ICEM’s Latin Delegates Take Fresh Look at Two Regional Dilemmas

The ICEM joined its UK affiliate Amicus today in denouncing yesterday’s alarming announcement by Finnish paper multinational M-real. On Wednesday, workers in the UK were informed, unexpectedly, that the M-real’s paper and packaging plant in Sittingbourne, Kent, is about to be closed. 
 
The company’s surprise announcement, part of a wider extensive restructuring programme by M-Real, came out of the blue and without any prior consultation or notice. M-real’s poor communication techniques therefore not only shocked its own workforce, it also violated a legal requirement that says that the company needs to consult with its own European Works Council first in advance of any decisions such as this one. 
<img height="99" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMpaper.jpg" width="100"/>
The closure of the plant, which is owned by Metsäliitto, a Finnish forest industry group - of which M-Real is a subsidiary - would lead to the loss of 350 jobs. The company has also announced plans to close a plant in Wifsta, Sweden, as well as two paper machines in its Gohrsmühle plant in Germany, endangering a further 150 jobs. In addition, a cartons unit with sites in Belgium, Hungary and Finland may be divested. 
 
Peter Ellis, Amicus national Officer, said that the union “will not take Metsaliitto's proposal to close this site lying down. We owe it to our members and their families, who are angry, bitter and devastated, to do everything in our power to help”. He continued to say that he was “extremely disappointed” with M-Real's proposal to close this site, which is very important to the local economy. 
 
In challenging the company’s sudden decision, Amicus said it would certainly want to co-operate with paper unions in the other countries involved, including Finnish Paperiliitto, which also recently faced an M-Real closure when the company, on 11 October, closed a carton plant in Jarvenpaa. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs vowed that “the ICEM will give every assistance to its affiliates in challenging the decisions by the company, and will liaise with other affiliates with membership in this company in countries world-wide.” 
 
The Amicus press release on the issue, including further contact details, can be found <a href="http://www.amicustheunion.org/default.aspx?page=4721">here</a>.

Anger at M-real’s decision to close large UK paper plant

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French utilities, construction and telecommunications company Bouygues is taking revenge on ICEM Cote d’Ivoire affiliate SYNASEG, the country’s electric and gas trade union. 
Prior to a 15-year Bouygues contract for management of water and electric supplies that expired earlier this year, the government announced plans to repatriate the utilities as national entities. SYNASEG publicly supported such a move. But then the government reversed itself and granted Bouygues another 15-year contract.
The company has now retaliated against SYNASEG by refusing to honour check off procedures over union dues. In September, Bouygues neglected to deduct dues from workers’ pay checks and, in October and November, it did make the deductions but refused to forward the funds to SYNASEG.

French-based Bouygues Creating Union Problems in Cote d’Ivoire

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ICEM Australian affiliates AMWU and CFMEU, along with public health groups, picketed James Hardie’s profit announcement meeting last week in Sydney because of company delays in signing a final compensation package for victims of asbestos-related diseases. 
After heavy pressure, the building products company agreed last December to sign an A$4.5 billion package over 40 years for workers inflicted with the deadly diseases. James Hardie was announcing a half-year’s profit jump of 67%, or A$141 million. 
The company, meanwhile, instigated, a labour dispute at two Queensland plants beginning 26 October when it locked out 110 workers, represented by Australian Workers Union (AWU), at one of the plants. Some 120 workers at the other launched an immediate sympathy strike. The dispute is over James Hardie’s intent to divide the common enterprise agreement shared by workers of the two plants. 
AWU calls the company action one of greed, timed to coincide with passage of proposed industrial relations reform that would, among other things, severely weaken enterprise agreements. 
The 26 October lockout and strike at Meeandah and Carole Park plants near Brisbane lasted 28 hours and have been repeated twice in the ensuing weeks. Managers at the two plants have also punished workers by withholding scheduled production bonuses, amounting to A$1,200 per worker.

James Hardie Still Problematic in Australia

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All in all, South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is pleased with DeBeers’ finalised Black Economic Empowerment plan. 
But one major flaw persists: a 15% set-aside for “key” employees has been inserted into the agreement that has weighted the 26% stake held by newly-created Ponahalo Investment Holdings. Conforming to statute, DeBeers spun that portion of its Consolidated Diamond Mines in South Africa into a minority stake that will be 50% owned by workers and former workers, and another 50% owned by community interests and business people. 
But “spoiling the apple-pie,” the NUM states, is the 15% set-aside of this latter stake to key employees, which could lead to patronage or even racism. 
NUM Gen. Sec. Gwede Mantashe singled out the positive fact that Ponahalo, or “emergence” in the Setswana language, will be headed by a former diamond worker and trade unionist. “This new partnership with DeBeers will lead to the betterment of workers and the communities of diamond mineworkers,” he said.

NUM Sees Flaw in DeBeers’ Black Empowerment Deal

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A two-day strike by hundreds of Eni workers in Nigeria brought the Italian energy company and state-owned NNPC to the bargaining table. The strike occurred over wage arrears. 
The 19-21 October strike by ICEM Nigerian affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN was won when Eni’s direct subsidiary Agip agreed to expedite pay. The strike affected Agip’s Brass River export terminal on the southern coast. 
Eni is responsible for 7% of Nigerian oil production

Eni Oil Strike in Nigeria Ends

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The nearly five-month strike by Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada at a plant of chemicals company Invista ended 28 October when the workforce to 350 voted by 77% to return to work. 
A back-to-work accord was reached in Ottawa on 25 October, and bettered the back-to-work protocol workers rejected 19 September that would have voided seniority provisions. CEP Local 28 and Invista, a wholly-owned subsidiary of giant US energy company Koch Industries, had agreed to terms contained in the new three-year agreement earlier. 
The strike at the nylon intermediates and polymer plant in Ontario began on 4 June.

Invista Strike By CEP in Canada Ends

Trade Union delegates to the ICEM’s quadrennial World Conference for the Pulp and Paper Industries vowed to continue building links of solidarity between unions in this sector. 
 
The conference, held in Brussels, Belgium, from 15 to16 November, was attended by 65 trade union leaders from pulp and paper unions in 17 countries, and produced a five-point action plan to be implemented over the next four years. 
 
“This conference came at the right time in an industry facing difficult business conditions,” said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. “Unions in the paper industry this year have responded with resounding solidarity to each other when faced with employer attacks. We intend to build and strengthen these efforts.” 
 
The conference opened with reports on the unprecedented solidarity actions across the industry this year. First and foremost were product blockades and sympathy strikes in Nordic countries as well as across Europe in defence of Finnish paperworkers, some 25,000 of whom were locked out by Finland’s paper companies for six weeks in May and June. Another dispute—entwined with the lockout in Finland—occurred in the Canadian province of New Brunswick where 700 members of Communications, Energy, Paperworkers Union there struck the global Finnish company UPM Kymmene in order to achieve the paper industry pattern agreement for eastern Canada. 
 
Both disputes were won, in part due to the quick and efficient networking between trade unions within the same multinational companies in different countries. This networking was coordinated by ICEM and its sister federation, the European Mine, Chemical and Energy Federation (EMCEF). 
 
The Brussels Declaration on the Pulp and Paper Sector states: “We recognise the current business difficulties in the global paper sector and the inevitable restructuring, affecting workers and their families.” But, the declaration added, pulp and paper companies must be advised “that continued International Trade Union Solidarity will be utilised to protect the interests of workers and their families in this difficult time in the global paper sector.” 
 
This year’s Solidarity actions “lay the ground for further international networking in the Pulp and Paper Industry. Such actions clearly demonstrate the will of ICEM global trade union affiliates … to use International Solidarity to resist harsh and inhumane attacks on workers and their collective bargaining agreements to achieve business goals.” 
 
The five-point action plan for the next four years includes affiliates initiating dialogue and attempting to sign new Global Framework Agreements with companies in the sector, and adopting new and innovative networking methods to enhance Solidarity efforts. Affiliated trade unions in the sector will also fully join ICEM’s campaign against the abusive use on contract and agency labour, use vigilance to ensure responsible behaviour by companies on health, safety and the environment, and ensure that Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value is achieved, in addition to ending all gender-based discrimination in workplaces. 
<img height="265" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0511paperpresident.jpg" width="350"/>
Jouko Ahonen (left) congratulated by Walter Zwierschutz, international secretary of Austria's Chemiegewerkschaft 
 
Jouko Ahonen, president of Finland’s paperworkers’ union Paperiliitto, was elected on 16 November as chairman of ICEM’s Pulp and Paper Sector to a four-year term. 
<hr/>
For the text of the adopted declaration, <a href="/?id=19&doc=1509&la=EN" type="internal">click here</a>
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For more information on this conference, including background documents and presentations, click <a href="/index.php?id=147 " type="internal">here</a>.
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ICEM’s World Pulp and Paper Conference Builds Bonds of Solidarity

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