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The position on climate change and renewable energy sources by the Mining and Energy Division of Australia’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’s stand on renewable energy and a 60% target for greenhouse gas reductions by 2050. 
 
“We would be keen to work with unions like the CFMEU to plan ways to move to an environmentally sustainable approach to energy production,” said Waters, “especially since we already have strong areas of agreement with them on the WorkChoices legislation.” 
 
The CFMEU has begun a television ad campaign in Australia, contradicting the Howard government’s denial that climate change is occurring and promoting immediate action programmes.
<img height="94" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMsustdev.JPG" width="100" alt=""/>
In an article kicking the ad campaign off, Maher says, “Doing nothing on climate change is not an option for the CFMEU.” 
 
Maher writes: “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. 

“The decision to back the campaign did not surprise me – 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.” 

Maher says the key to the union’s position was engagement with members “to create our own policy on greenhouse emissions.” 

He adds, “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. 

“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. 

“But what security is there in refusing to engage in a debate that is raging at this very moment?” Maher writes. 

“From our perspective, security comes in certainty – the certainty of Clean Energy Targets and the certainty of commitments to greenhouse reductions. 
“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.” 

Maher cites examples: “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 – the real challenge is to minimise its harmful impacts.
“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 – backed with a carbon trading regime – we will never have the incentive to invest in these new technologies.” 
CFMEU claims it is the first mining union in the world to take such a stand on the climate change issue.

CFMEU's Green Initiative Applauded in Australia

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN 25

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Energy trade unions from Canada, the US and Mexico met in Montreal, Canada, on 18 August 2007, to challenge efforts by leaders of the three countries, as well as by large multinational corporations, to secretly integrate national energy policies without public oversight or legislative accountability. 
 
North American ICEM affiliates Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) and United Steelworkers (USW) participated in a forum, organised by three networks of various social partners, along with other unions representing workers in the electrical, nuclear and oil sectors in Canada and Mexico. The ICEM also attended the meeting. 
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The ICEM affiliates condemned the legitimacy of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a clandestine effort by the leaders of the three countries and their corporate partners to develop and implement a neoliberal energy policy, aimed at enhancing the interests of corporations and building a growing U.S security apparatus at the expense of workers and the public. 
The forum occurred just two days before the meeting by Presidents George Bush and Felipe Calderon and Prime Minister Stephen Harper with the CEOs of 30 multinational corporations from the three countries, aimed at moving the SPP process forward at a rapid pace. 
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow" target="_blank"><img height="165" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0708Canada3.jpg" width="250" border="0"/></a>
Dave Coles, CEP President and ICEM Vice President, confronting and stopping provocateurs, which were later proven to be police infiltrators. On YouTube <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow">here</a>. 
A statement condemning the SPP was issued following the forum, citing the lack of democratic participation and oversight, as well as the participants rejection of the security agenda. Efforts by the SPP to integrate the electricity grids and natural gas systems of the three countries, exploitation of Canada’s massive tar sands production to serve US corporate and security interests, continued repression of trade union rights in Mexico, and the privatisation of Mexico’s electrical, gas and oil resources were also a particular focus of the forum and the resulting statement. 
 
“These and other elements of the SPP-corporate energy agenda are unsustainable and sacrifice the needs of workers and communities in each country to the profits of energy corporations.” This is an agenda “that fails to address the need for each country to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including a new round of far reaching goals after 2012. Nor does this corporate-continental model of energy development respond to the needs of national economic development or recognize the primary role of energy industries for community economic development. “ 
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CEP President and ICEM Vice President Dave Coles, along with CEP Secretary-Treasurer Gaetan Menard and USW Vice President Gary Beevers presented the statement the next day at another forum, held on 19 August 2007, at the University of Ottawa. ICEM affiliates also joined a large demonstration the same day in Ottawa at the Canadian Parliament and a march to the Mexican and US embassies. 
 
Demonstrations were also taking place on 20 August in Montebello, Canada, where the leaders of the three countries are meeting with corporate CEOs. At the demonstrations, Dave Coles stood up to ‘agents provocateurs’, who later turned out to be police infiltrators: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow</a>. 
 
A copy of the full statement can be found at <a href="http://www.cep.ca">www.cep.ca</a>.

North American Trade Unions Condemn Secret and Undemocratic Efforts to Map New Energy Future

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Kimberly Clark has, after more than three weeks of strike action at its two South African tissue plants, finally settled its industrial dispute with the ICEM-affiliated Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union (CEPPWAWU). 
 
On August 22, when the CEPPWAWU was determined to step up support for their striking Kimberly Clark members by launching a secondary strike that would have targeted the company’s raw material suppliers and retailers, Kimberly Clark decided to accept the terms of the Pulp and Paper Employers Association, as negotiated in the Wood and Paper Bargaining Council just before July 30. The terms include, among other things, an 8.5% wage increase and demands for permanent employment of temporary workers. 
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The CEPPWAWU victory in the Kimberly Clark industrial dispute, during which the union received international support from various parts of the world, ended the last of the national strikes which the union launched across its sectors on July 30, after negotiations at the Chemical and Wood and Paper Bargaining Councils became deadlocked. 
 
The ICEM congratulates its affiliate on this resounding success which vividly demonstrated that international solidarity support can effectively augment the strength unions derive from the unity and resolution of their members and leadership.

Kimberly Clark Settles South African Paper Dispute with CEPPWAWU

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US paperworkers employed at International Paper Co., members of ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers (USW), voted to accept a precedent-setting master labour agreement with the firm on 23 August. 
 
The four-year accord covering workers at 14 pulp and paper mills in the US contains wage increases on top of negotiated local (or mill-by-mill) agreements, improvements in health insurance benefits, and lays the groundwork for improved health and safety standards, as well as labour-management cooperation on public policy issues. 
 
But perhaps most importantly, the framework pact contains a "successorship clause," meaning if the company sells any of its unionised mills, the new owner must, as part of the sale agreement, retain all workers, recognise the USW as bargaining representative, and honour the collective bargaining agreement. 
<img height="82" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USAUSW.jpg" width="150" alt=""/>
"The overwhelming support for this agreement shows how united our members are in pursuing master agreements in the paper industry," said USW President Leo Gerard. 
 
"Successorship clauses protect workers from the unconscionable behaviour of corporations that sell a mill, then disregard the union and the collective bargaining agreement and summarily fire hundreds of people who have dedicated their lives to work there," added Gerard. 
 
The wage portion of the agreement amounts to a 2% increase upon expiration of local agreements, and another 2% on the second anniversary of the contracts. In addition, workers will receive a US$1,000 lump sum payment on the first and third anniversaries of the contracts. The USW represents 8,200 International Paper employees at mills, paper converters, and packaging plants in the US.

US Steelworkers Ratify Master Framework Agreement with International Paper

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Negotiation partners reached an agreement in early August on the future of the mining sector in Germany. Following months of discussions, a programme was agreed that sets out a path on how to deal with Germany's 200-year-old coal industry over the coming years. The agreement, which was brokered by, among others, the cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and ICEM affiliate IGBCE, intends to have a gradual phase-out of coal subsidies. 
 
The plan will now go to the parliament’s lower and upper houses for approval. A fully approved law is needed, so that compensation payments can be prepared for the industry’s 34,000 workers. Besides payments to the workers, the plan also projects to deal with the overall social and environmental effects of coal mining in the country. 
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Germany's federal and state governments will, as per the agreement, subsidise the coal sector with an estimated €21.6 billion until 2018. In addition, the agreement foresees the creation of a foundation for the coal company RAG, which will hold a substantive share of the company. This foundation will administer, until 2018, the funds for the eight remaining German coal mines, as well as the money that is intended to go to the mining workers. 
 
Shares in RAG, currently a consortium in which ThyssenKrupp, Arcelor, E.On and RWE are involved, will be transferred to the new foundation. Besides that, preparations have also been made to float RAG shares (for its profitable non-mining activities, such as power stations, real estate and chemicals production) on the stock exchange as of next year. This initial public offering is expected to yield €5 to 8 billion, which will also be used to help cover the costs of the phasing out of the coal industry. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector.JPG" width="100"/>
Following efforts by the IGBCE, a clause was added to the agreement, which calls for a serious re-examination of the plan in 2012, taking into account not only the possibility of an unexpected drop in energy reserves, but also that other energy sources might become prohibitively expensive 
 
IGBCE President and ICEM Vice President Hubertus Schmoldt called the decision one of “historic consequence." The union’s members will be given the opportunity to end their careers gradually and the miners that work in those mines that will close earlier will receive compensation when they loose their jobs.

Agreement on Future of the German Coal Industry

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The main points at the ICEM Latin American and Caribbean Regional Conference, held on 27 and 28 June in Salvador, Brazil, were presentations on the different industrial sectors and regional networks, on Contract and Agency Labour, and on women issues. 
 
The BASF South American network was a particular highlight. The network has regular meetings at regional level, and all its costs are borne by BASF. Also, Elena Gutierrez from ICEM affiliate SITRAPEQUIA in Costa Rica reported on the workshop on HIV/AIDS and women workers held in May in Sao Paulo. 
<img height="236" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0707ICEMLAConf2.jpg" width="236"/>
Re-elected ICEM Vice President Sergio Novais 
from CNQ/CUT Brazil
A new and expanded regional committee was elected which includes all countries and industries, as well as 30% women members. Certain amendments to the regional statutes were also approved. The region welcomed the prospect of new energy, women's and mining projects, as well as the continuation and expansion of the work on networks. Sergio Novais, CNQ/CUT of Brazil was re-elected as regional vice president. 
The ICEM regional conference was preceded by the regional Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) conference on 25 and 26 June, also in Salvador, organised with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES). The conference was attended by some 60 representatives from ICEM affiliates in Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil. 
<img height="142" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CALhorse.jpg" width="100"/>
The main conclusions of that meeting included that: 
• a company's core functions must not be outsourced; 
• the number of contract workers should be limited, and the terms of their contracts have to be limited; 
• trade unions must be consulted in contracts that affect permanent workers' terms and conditions; 
• contract workers should have the same terms and conditions as permanent workers; 
• outsourcing must not lead to redundancies of permanent workers; 
• contract workers must not finish work started by a permanent worker; 
• collective agreements must include mechanisms for trade unions to monitor the use of contract workers; 
• international organisations such as ILO, OECD, Global Compact, the Interamerican Court can be called for issues relating to Contract and Agency Labour; 
• trade union representation of contract workers in the main company must be guaranteed; 
• CAL must be included in networks, global agreements and social dialogue, and 
• ICEM should launch a campaign against outsourcing permanent jobs.

ICEM Latin American and Caribbean Regional Conference held in Salvador, Brazil

The 20-million-member ICEM joined North American-affiliated trade union United Steelworkers (USW) in congratulating agricultural workers at the Firestone Rubber Plantation in Harbel, Liberia, in their historic vote early this week. 
Some 4,700 members of the newly-chartered Firestone Agriculture Workers Union (FAWU) of Liberia chose their union leadership on Sunday, 8 July 2007, in an election that marked the first time in the 85-year history of the rubber plantation that workers elected union leaders, free of manipulation.
<img height="285" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0707Liberia2.jpg" width="380"/>
“We not only congratulate rubber workers’ in Liberia for this historic first, but also congratulate the USW of North America for its diligence and hard work in assuring that a free and fair vote occurred,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. 
 
The USW not only monitored the election, but, together with the US-based Solidarity Center, conducted training programmes, workshops, and basic trade union representation methods to Firestone plantation workers seeking self-representation. The peaceful and transparent election also puts an end to the corrupt and undemocratic practices of the General Agriculture and Allied Workers’ Union (GAAWUL), a labour organisation that plantation managers had recognised for decades but provided little or no representation to workers. 
<img height="274" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0707Liberia1.jpg" width="380"/>
The ICEM salutes and recognises Augustine Natee as the new president of FAWU, as well as Joseph Tarnue, Vice President; Edwin Pispo, Secretary General; Comfort Willie, Treasurer; and Abel Fallah, Grievance Chairman. 
 
The ICEM also commends Liberia’s Labour Ministry for its decision last spring to authorise free and open elections under a special elections committee. 
 
The Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia, now owned by Bridgestone Corp. of Japan, is a million-acre reserve in the West African country that has seen worker abuses for decades, including child labour practices, lack of adequate housing and sanitation facilities, as well as salaries as low as US$3 per day.

ICEM Welcomes New Rubber Workers’ Union at Firestone’s Liberian Plantation

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A written agreement took effect between strikers at chrome mines and a ferrochrome smelter in Bulqiza, Albania, the ICEM-affiliated Trade Union Federation of Industrial Workers, and Italian-based Darfo SRL, thus ending a month-long strike.
The agreement for hundreds of miners came after intense negotiations on 5 July that involved senior managers of the Italian company, including CEO Dr. Heinz Muller. 

It was signed late in the day on 6 July, and workers returned to work on 9 July. 
 
The agreement also came after more than 200 of the miners and their families demonstrated on the steps of Albania’s Parliament in Tirana, as well as at the Ministries of Economy and Energy and Labour and Social Causes there. Those protests occurred two weeks ago.
<img height="156" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Albania.png" width="340" alt=""/>
  
Parliamentarians, however, avoided the strikers by being driven to the opposite of the building, while the respective government ministers refused to meet with the miners. 
 
The agreement only came about after senior managers of Darfo in northern Italy intervened. 

Unfortunately, the dispute was marked by fierce controversy between two unions: the Federation of Industrial Workers, affiliated to the national centre KSSH, and the Albanian Independent Trade Union Miners (SPMSH), an affiliate of the dissolved WFIW affiliate now seeking global union affiliation. Both groups claim to represent the chrome miners and smelting workers, with SPMSH claiming it had signed a similar ageement with the company in early June. 
 
Both contracts are said to contain pay increases of 30%. Further negotiations will occur in the weeks ahead, and another 20% pay increase will be discussed. If that is won for the Bulqiza miners, their wage demands of 50% will be realised.
The miners have demanded wage increases in each of the past six years, but these demands were ignored by both the company and Albanian government officials. 
Safety, working conditions, and housing – equally important demands by miners in this dispute – will also be discussed in the weeks ahead. 
 
The June strikes by workers lined up with the Federation of Industrial Workers also included hunger strikes that began on 25 June. Thirty miners at a time embarked on such strikes, with the number of them needing to be hospitalised. The demonstrations in Tirana by the union and KSSH also brought a sharp focus to the dispute. 
 
In the negotiated end to the strike, managers of Darfo, and its Austrian-based trading partner, Deco Metals, agreed that no miner would be disciplined for striking, and all miners would be paid for the full period of the strike, which began on 1 June. 
 
In 2001, Darfo signed a pair of 30-year license agreements with the Albanian government to mine and process chromium and iron ore in the Balkan country.

Chrome, Hunger Strikes End in Albania

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Jury selection began last week in a US courtroom in the state of Alabama over Drummond Coal’s alleged authorisation of the murders of three trade union leaders in Colombia. The company, in a case brought by ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) and the International Labor Rights Fund, is being accused of aiding, abetting, and funding the murders of the three trade unionists in 2001 by right-wing paramilitaries. 
 
The case was filed on behalf of family members of the slain union leaders under the US’s Alien Torts Claims Act, which allows foreigners to file civil suit against US companies for millions of dollars in damages for crimes committed outside the US. The plaintiffs won a key victory on 5 March 2007 when the US Federal District Court of Northern Alabama ruled that there was enough evidence against Drummond for the charges to go to trial. Drummond is based in Alabama.
<img height="129" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Colombia.png" width="280" alt=""/>
The lawsuit contends that in 2001, Valmore Lacarno, Victor Oracasita, Gustavo Soler, all labour leaders in the Colombian mining union Sintramienergética, “were ultimately murdered by paramilitary employees and/or agents working for (Drummond) to eliminate effective leaders from the trade union representing Drummond workers, and to intimidate other workers from joining the union or assuming a union leadership position.” 
 
In 10 March 2001, Valmore Lacarno Rodríguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita were pulled from a Drummond-chartered bus on their way to work at the company’s La Loma mine. They were then shot execution style. Lacarno was the president of the union, while Orcasita was the vice president. 
 
Some months later, the new president of Sintramienergética, Gustavo Soler, was assassinated. 
 
On behalf of the estates of the three, the USW and the Human Rights Fund will present affidavits from those who witnessed the horrific deeds, as well as present in court witnesses who had direct knowledge of Drummond’s alleged complicity in the killings. They include a former Colombian army combatant, who later became a part of a right-wing paramilitary group, and a bodyguard to Drummond’s director of Community Relations, who witnessed a large monetary pay-off from the company’s managing director to paramilitaries. 
 
If the civil suit is successful and punitive damages are awarded, it will mark the first time in US history that the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act has been used to find a company guilty of crimes abroad.

Trial Begins in US on Drummond Coal’s Alleged Murders of Colombian Trade Unionists

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