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USW Local 9700, one of the first unions to respond at the time of the 30 December lockout and representing Alcoa ABI workers at Bécancour, Québec, voted unanimously to draw C$25-per-week from their paychecks, donating C$25,000 weekly to Local 9490.<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" style="width: 140px; height: 68px" width="390" />

	Locked-out members of Syndicat des Métallos  d’Alma Local 9490, the United Steelworkers (USW), took their fight against Rio Tinto Alcan to Québec’s largest city, last Friday, 17 February, where Alcan CEO Jacynth Côté was part of a spurious forum on youth in employment, sponsored by the Board of Trade Metropolitan Montréal.

	Some 200 of 780 metalworkers from Alcan’s Alma aluminium smelter in the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region, Québec, boarded buses and travelled 460 kilometres to Montréal for a noisy protest at this business luncheon, their first manifestation away from the 488,000-tonne-per-year smelter. They were joined by another 100 steelworkers from Montréal, and some 100 college students who joined the USW rally in mocking protest to a future youth theme that now sees business teaming with the Liberal provincial government of Québec to raise their university tuition fees.

	<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1202-2.jpg" style="width: 248px; height: 161px" width="390" />

	17 February Manifestation, Montréal

	This “Hot Issues@Lunch” theme was billed to “foster the success of the next generation of Québecers.”   The Syndicat des Métallos d’Alma found deep irony in Jacynth Côté participating, since Alcan in Alma is using a lock-out to replace C$36-an-hour permanent jobs with outsourced and presumably younger workers at C$16-an-hour.

	Côté was not expected to address the lockout at the hot-plate lunch, but when pressed by reporters on the sidelines, she called the dispute a “regional issue” and “it will be settled in Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean” by managers who “have my full confidence.”

	Earlier last week, when the lockout entered week seven and with the remote mining and manufacturing region starting to feel the economic effects of a lost wage base, one such manager told Reuters he “wouldn’t put a timeline to (talks restarting) right now because nothing is scheduled.”

	 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1202-1.jpg" style="width: 199px; height: 159px" width="390" /> 

	Dan Roy and Marc Maltais

	foto: France Paradis/Le-Lac-St-Jean

	With aluminium prices hovering now at very low, the Alma lockout serves as a convenient strategy to restrict supply to lift prices. It also fits Rio Tinto’s strategy of divesting and devaluing Alcan by C$8.9 billion in view of its US$39 billion purchase of the Canadian company in 2007, although the modern and high-tech tooled Alma smelter, with its low-cost hydroelectric supply, will not likely be jettisoned.

	Perhaps this should have been a more apt business theme to the Board of Trade elite last week, and it certainly best explains the anger of metalworkers and students alike gathered on the other side of the barricades. In this vein – with Rio Tinto’s share price dropping – it is worth mentioning that Côté herself exhibited a timely corporate mentality last week by shedding 3,671 shares of Rio Tinto to pocket US$213,500, money not likely to find its way to Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean.

	USW District Five Director Daniel Roy addressed the disparity between full-time, family-supporting jobs in the region to the sub-contract and lower-wage jobs that Rio Tinto is trying create with the. “Accepting this would cause a dramatic downward spiral not only for the workers but for members of the community, which would see income, local business sales and tax revenues drop precipitously.”

	USW Local 9490 President Marc Maltais added, “By using subcontractors to do the work of union members, we are asked to concede on behalf of future generations. This is an attack on our children and grandchildren.”

	The buses departed Montréal late on Friday afternoon for the return trip to Alma, but first stopped at a plant-gate demonstration in Sorel, Québec, where workers and members of ICEM-affiliated FIM-CSN (Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux) at a Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium metal powders plant lent their support. This stop again depicts the long-erected barriers between Canadian trade unions that Local 9490 is erasing inside this lockout.

	     <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1202-3.jpg" style="width: 114px; height: 160px" width="390" />     

	Rio Tinto Alcan CEO, Jacynth Côté

	With Canada currently undergoing an unprecedented rash of corporate hostility, it is notable to witness trade unions and other groups galvanising behind victimised union workers.

	Last week, members of Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 2301 at a Rio Tinto Alcan aluminium smelter in Kitimat, British Colombia, voted to take C$1-an-hour of their pay and donate it to  Syndicat des Métallos  d’Alma Local 9490. That represents C$60,000 per month.

	On 8 February, the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada contributed C$25,000 to the Alma metalworkers, and a day later the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) contributed C$10,000. USW Local 9700, one of the first unions to respond at the time of the 30 December lockout and representing Alcoa ABI workers at Bécancour, Québec, voted unanimously to draw C$25-per-week from their paychecks, donating C$25,000 weekly to Local 9490.

	Syndicat des Métallos  d’Alma’s  journey to Montréal to confront Rio Tinto Alcan CEO Jacynth Côté is just the first sally outward. This week Local 9490 leaders will visit Rio Tinto’s borax miners in California, where members of ICEM affiliate International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30 defended themselves courageously in a Rio Tinto-imposed lockout. And they’ll follow that solidarity visit with to Australia to meet with unions represented Rio Tinto there.

	On March 31, a day after the ICEM North American region meets in Alma, a manifestation will occur there with scores of global trade union leaders attending. And on 1 April, a workshop will occur in Alma to verse an exact fightback strategy against Rio Tinto on the global level.

Locked-out Alcan Workers Take Dispute to Canadian Business Doorstep

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	From the ITGLWF website

	On the evening of 12 February 2012, the President and General Secretary of the Coats Bangladesh Ltd. Employees Union went to the Coats Head Office at Novo Tower, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka in order to try to meet and discuss with company management with a view to resolving an industrial dispute.

	Instead of negotiating with the union leaders, company officials confiscated their mobile phones and forcibly detained them in their building overnight only releasing them when trade union colleagues alerted the local newspaper media of their disappearance.

	Management at the thread factory called Coats Ltd. in Bangladesh had failed to reach agreement with trade union negotiators. Having exhausted the bargaining procedures, a vote of the workers resulted in 98.12% in favour of strike action. The management somehow obtained a court order declaring the strike illegal.

	 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Bangladesh.png" style="width: 180px; height: 83px;" width="390" /> 

	The workers at Coats Ltd. are paid poverty wages of only BD TK1,625 (US $18.90). The trade unions in Bangladesh consider BD TK7,000 to be the minimum that could be considered a living wage.  During the negotiations, the local trade union negotiators reduced their demand from 100% to 30% pay rise. The union demands also included increases in housing and other allowances all of which were refused by the management negotiators.  Despite trade union compromises the employer remained intransigent and refused to bargain in good faith.

	The Coats Employees’ Union is part of the Bangladesh Garments Textile & Leather Workers Federation (BGTLWF), which is an affiliate of the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF).  The BGTLWF has called for solidarity from the wider trade union movement.  The ITGLWF is preparing a complaint to the OECD Contact Point for the UK over the matter.  Coats Plc. is based in the UK and is a leading global company that manufactures thread.

	The ITGLWF has written to Mr Paul Forman, CEO of Coats Plc. demanding that they intervene.

	Klaus Priegnitz, ITGLWF General Secretary, said to the Coats CEO, “Your employees have clearly been mistreated and exploited for some considerable time.  Theunion hasacted responsibly and with restraint in pursuing their justifiable and moderate demands.  We call on you to instruct your local management to engage in constructive dialogue with the local trade union with a view to resolving this dispute on terms which are acceptable to the workers.”

	See the joint ICEM-IMF letter to Coats management <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/18%20ICEM-IMFletterCoats%20Bangladesh%2022Feb.pdf" type="internal">here</a>.

Bangladesh Union Leaders Held Captive by Factory Managers

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 39px;" width="390" />

	Automotive and supplier sectors in Thailand have been booming. Some say Thailand is on the way to becoming the “Detroit” of Asia. The export oriented industry is overwhelmingly located in the cities of Bangkok, Chonbori, Rayong, Samutprakaran and Pathumthani.

	Thailand’s tyre industry is made up of 16 companies, most of them multinationals, and operating in 20 factories employing 30,000 direct employees. Only nine factories are unionized, and those unions come from different sector and regional labour bodies in Thailand.

	Some 33 union representatives from factories of French-based Michelin’s two plants, US-based Goodyear, Japanese-based Bridgestone and Yokohama, Taiwan-based Maxxis, and the Thai national company, Siam Rubber, came together in an ICEM workshop held 18-19 February in Bangkok. The meeting’s purpose was to organize a common union view of the tyre industry at both global and regional levels, introduce international labour standard applications, and chart the future union strategies in rubber in Thailand.

	 <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1202-thai-rubber-group.jpg" style="width: 369px; height: 144px;" width="390" /> 

	“The Thai tyre industry has developed and international’s support of the sector’s unions is a must,” said ICEM Thai Council Chair Prakob Parimon in opening the meeting. Chaiyuth Choosakul, the new President of ICEM affiliated Petroleum and Chemical Workers’ Federation (PCFT) said six out of 18 unions belonging to his federation are active in the tyre industry.

	“We need knowledge, experience and support from the outside to better serve our members in the tyre industry,” said Choosakul in his initial remarks.

	The workshop examined general trends, and challenges economically and socially that affect labour matters, presentations by ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal Özkan. Participants also warmly welcomed the Secretary of the European Works Council from Michelin, Cyrille Poughon, a member of ICEM’s French affiliate FCE-CFDT.

	   <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1202-thai-chems-3.jpg" style="width: 261px; height: 160px;" width="390" />   

	from right to left: FCE-CFDT's Cyrille Poughon, Kemal Ozkan, ICEM Thai Council Chair Prakob Parimon

	Poughon provided detailed information on the French union and collective bargaining structures, as well as rubber industry collective agreements with details such as wages, work hours, labour relations in France and in Europe, as well as Michelin’s corporate situation. ICEM’s Asia Multinational Companies and Social Dialogue Project Coordinator Yoon Hyowon addressed international labour standards such ILO Conventions, OECD Guidelines, the UN’s Global Compact, and other instruments.

	The participants then extensively discussed their difficulties, challenges, strong points, opportunities and future ideas on cooperation and solidarity. Widespread union de-recognition practices by employers in the sector was specifically mentioned. Differences in wages and social payments between different tyre companies, even among subsidiaries of the same companies, were noted as important challenges to overcome.

	At the meeting’s conclusion, delegates unanimously agreed to form a national tyre union network for defending the interests and rights of employees in the sector. The participants further agreed that regular network activities must materialize in the near future. Continuation of ICEM’s leading role was underlined. Participants from Michelin asked French union representatives to assist them in upcoming negotiations to break the negative attitude of local management by intervening with senior management.

	“The ICEM is proud to take the lead in a workers’ voice in the start-up of the Thai tyre network,” said Özkan. “Following the initiative to form a national network in India last December, ICEM will follow the same decisiveness in Thailand to ensure that effective union networking occurs in the tyre sector.”

Thailand’s Tyre Unions Join Forces into National Network

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A day-long strike on 30 November in the UK brought a standstill to public services and a stark reminder that the Tory-led coalition government’s proposed rollbacks to public-sector pensions is intolerable and will be met by street resistance. An estimated two million British workers conducted strikes at over 1,000 separate manifestations and it marked the country’s largest mass actions since the “Winter of Discontent” strikes in 1979. 
 
Dubbed “Pensions Justice Day of Action,” 30 unions in the UK held strike votes in the months before 30 November against a government trying to impose austerity measures that include making public-sector employees work longer and pay more into what will result in smaller pension benefits. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1112. uk pensions demo.jpg" width="269" height="161"/>
Photo: Mac Urata
The rallying cry on 30 November was that it was bankers and lack of government oversight that caused revenue shortfalls, so why should the men and women who make Britain’s public services work pay the price with lower pensions and more working years? 
 
The 30 November strikes brought 75% of all schools to a close, with teachers protesting more work through larger class sizes and less pay and pension money. Work stoppages brought reduced services inside hospitals, to National Health Service agencies, to public transport, in the courts, and throughout government departments and agencies. 
 
Perhaps the shrillest message against the Cameron/Osborne government’s austerity plan came from civil servants at the Tax Ministry. A full 90% of them abandoned their jobs and took part in the day of protest last week. 
 
A group from Occupy London used the day to protest against global mining company Xstrata and its CEO Mick Davis. Activists were arrested at a sit-in inside Xstrata’s London headquarters near Piccadilly Circus. They were protesting Davis’s £18 million compensation packaging, the largest among executives of the FTSE 100. 
 
Mass demonstrations shut down the city centre of Manchester, brought picket lines to government buildings and a 25,000 march through Liverpool, made 150,000 court workers leave their jobs, delaying and postponing court dockets, and saw the largest strike in Northern Ireland history where 10,000 civil servants rallied at city hall in Belfast. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1112.bangladesh uk solidarity.JPG" width="252" height="160"/>
NGWF, ITGLWF lead Bangladesh solidarity march for UK strikers
The UK strikes were felt globally as well. The ICEM was informed that the National Garment Workers’ Federation (NGWF) of Bangladesh held a sympathy strike for British workers in Dhaka at mid-day on 30 November that included addresses by NGWF President Amirul Haque Amin and International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation Education Secretary Steve Grinter. 
 
The Tory coalition government’s public-sector austerity plan calls for an increase in the pension age from 60 to 66 in the year 2020, and then to 67 in 2026. It seeks increased pension contributions to come out of the pockets of workers, and a pension formula based on average lifetime earnings rather than the current end-of-career pay. 
 
And a day before the 30 November strikes, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne further fueled worker discontent by announcing that when the current public-sector pay freeze expires in 2012, the government will insist on a 1% cap to salary increases over the following two years.

2 Million Strike in Resistance to UK’s Public-Sector Cuts

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Some 6,000 members of the Pascagoula Metal Trades Council – four US union organisations – have an early three-year contract extension with shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries at work-yards in the state of Mississippi. That came off because of a 60% ratification vote by unionised workers on 1 December. 
 
Huntington Ingalls, a spin-off of major US defense contractor Northrup Grumman, builds and maintains the US Navy’s surface combatant fleet at Pascagoula, a coastal city on the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
The agreement covers workers who are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM), the Office Professional Employees Union (OPEIU), and a security workers’ union, and comes four months before the March 2012 expiry of the current agreement. 
 
Journeymen workers will see a US$.60-per-hour rise in their base wage on 9 January 2013, with another US$.60 coming a short two months later on 11 March. Effective 10 March 2014, a US$.70-per-hour increase will occur. 
 
Workers will receive a one-off US$1,000 payment early in 2012 to forego a 2012 cost-of-living adjustment but the COLA will return in the other years. Workers will absorb some increases in their health care insurance coverage in the new pact. 
 
Huntington Ingalls is a major contractor to the US Navy and Coast Guard and besides Pascagoula, where it is responsible for 70% of US surface fleet, it operates the Newport News, Virginia, shipyards, where it builds both nuclear and non-nuclear ships and submarines for the US government. It also controls AMSEC LLD and Continental Maritime of San Diego (CMSD). 
 
Huntington Ingalls is currently partnering in Newport News with French nuclear specialist Areva in building a US$360 million facility for construction of heavy components used in nuclear reactors.

Shipbuilders at Pascagoula, US Mississippi, Ratify 3-Year Contract Extension

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In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report on the ICEM World Congress and ICEM’s involvement in ICASA, as well as the problems the Global Fund is facing. 
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ICEM World Congress 
 
HIV and AIDS featured prominently at the 5th ICEM World Congress held in Buenos Aires from 24-26 November. 
 
The Congress publication of Global Info highlighted the ICEM’s HIV and AIDS work in a two-page spread. The Action Programme, which was unanimously adopted by delegates, makes repeated reference to the importance of the role of trade unions in fighting the pandemic at the workplace. With the adoption of the Action Programme delegates expressed their full support for the merger with the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF). HIV and AIDS work will take a prominent place in the new organisation which will come into existence in June 2012. 
 
At the Congress, the ICEM HIV/AIDS Consultant maintained a command post that contained HIV and AIDS material and he talked to many delegates on the ICEM’s work on HIV and AIDS, as well as on the importance of the ILO Recommendation No 200 concerning HIV and AIDS and the World of Work, which was distributed at the Congress in print form. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
ICEM at ICASA 
 
The ICEM and its affiliate in Ethiopia, the National Industrial Federation of Energy, Chemical and Mine Trade Unions (NIFECM), made a great impact at the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa when the NIFECM President, Firew Bekele Afework, gave the oral presentation of an abstract on the HIV and AIDS work in the mining sector in Ethiopia, which is supported by the Danish LO/FTF Council. 
 
The abstract, entitled “HIV and the Workplace, Awareness and Prevention in the Mining Sector in Ethiopia – Trade Unions Take their Responsibility,” raised much interest among participants and drove home the message of the importance of workplace HIV and AIDS interventions, and the role of trade unions, whose potential is often underestimated. 
 
ICASA was held in Addis Ababa from 4-8 December under the theme “Own, Scale up and Sustain”. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Global Fund Cancels Round 11 
 
The Global Fund Board has cancelled Round 11 in light of the Global Fund’s financial difficulties. This difficult decision was made at a two-day Board meeting in Accra, Ghana, 21-22 November. The wording for the resolution did not include the word “cancel” or anything implying it. Instead, the Board resolved “to convert Round 11 into a new funding opportunity in 2014.” 
 
The original decision to launch Round 11 in August 2011 was made at a Board meeting in December 2010. At its meeting in May 2011, the Board did not make any changes to its plans for Round 11 as an estimated US$1.6 billion would be available for that round. But the estimate of funds available for Round 11 declined to US$0.8 billion in September 2011, and then to a negative amount in November. 
 
The Global Fund has long had a policy that the financing of Phase 2 renewals of existing grants has a higher priority than the financing of new grants. As a result, the Board concluded that almost all of the US$8.2 billion in revenues that is now projected to arrive by the end of 2013 will be needed for renewals, leaving no money for Round 11. The next replenishment period will be 2014–2016. Given that there is no money for Round 11, the next opportunity for countries to apply for new grants will be during the 2014–2016 period. 
 
Why was Round 11 launched and then cancelled? And what does the decision to cancel Round 11 tell us about the Global Fund’s financial condition? Unlike what some news reports suggest, the Global Fund has billions of dollars in the bank, with billions more expected to arrive during the next two years. The problem is that most of that money is needed for the current and renewal phases of existing grants. In addition, the Fund has introduced a more cautious methodology for estimating how much funding it will receive in future. 
 
Primarily because of these two factors, the Global Fund now estimates that until 2014, it will have almost no money for new grants. Hence, the need to cancel Round 11. It is not accurate to say that Round 11 was cancelled because of decisions by donors since May to cancel, reduce or delay their pledges, because that is not happening, although the Fund has serious problems with a few donor countries. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issues 167 and 170 of 23 November and 9 December respectively. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>; to receive GFO send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 
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Global Progress in HIV Response 
 
Global progress in both preventing and treating HIV emphasizes the benefits of sustaining investment in HIV and AIDS over the longer term. The 2011 joint report by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and UNAIDS Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Response indicates that increased access to HIV services resulted in a 15% reduction of new infections over the past decade and a 22% decline in AIDS-related deaths in the last five years. 
 
Advances in HIV science and programme innovations over the past year add hope for future progress. In times of economic austerity, it is essential to rapidly apply new science, technologies and approaches in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of HIV programmes in countries. 
 
While there are successes in increased access to testing of pregnant women and subsequent treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission, as well as an expansion of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in general, a lot still needs to be done. More than half of the people who need antiretroviral treatment are still unable to get access to it (and many do not even know that they are infected). 
 
Worldwide, the vast majority (64%) of young people aged 15-24 living with HIV today are female. The rate is even higher in sub-Saharan Africa where girls and young women make up 71% of all young people living with HIV - essentially because prevention strategies are not reaching them. 
 
In 2010, HIV epidemics and responses in different parts of the world vary with shifting trends, progress rates and outcomes. Sub-Saharan Africa has reached an ART coverage rate of 49%. But prevention is still lacking with 1.9 million new infections in the region, where 22.9 million people, two thirds of the world’s total, are living with HIV. Asia shows a stabilizing epidemic overall, but new infections are very high in some communities. Of the 4.8 million people living with HIV in Asia, nearly half (49%) are in India. Eastern Europe and Central Asia presents a dramatic growth in HIV, with new infections increasing by 250% since 2001. Middle East and North Africa records the highest number of HIV infections ever in the region (59,000) in 2010, which represents a 36% increase over the past year. Latin America and the Caribbean have a stabilizing epidemic with 1.5 million living with HIV in Latin America and 200,000 in the Caribbean. 
 
The report is also critical about the decrease in funding in the wake of the financial crisis. 
 
Echoing these developments and figures, UNAIDS released a separate report called “2011 UNAIDS World AIDS Day Report.” 
 
(Source: UNAIDS Press Release, 30 November) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Botswana: Mogae in Call to Legalise Homosexuality, Prostitution 
 
Botswana should decriminalise homosexuality and prostitution to prevent the spread of HIV, said Festus Mogae, former President of Botswana. Mogae, who heads the government-backed Botswana AIDS Council, said it was difficult to promote safe sex when the practices were illegal. He also called for condoms to be distributed in prisons. 
 
Mogae said that Botswana should not regard homosexuals as criminals. Similarly, arresting prostitutes does not help to protect them or their clients from being infected. He also said that the government’s failure to give prisoners condoms has worsened the pandemic. “If people go to prison HIV negative and come out of it HIV positive, it means that prisons are one of the sources of infection,” he told the BBC. 
 
Botswana has one of the highest infection rates in the world – 17% of the population are HIV positive. When Mogae was President, it became the first sub-Saharan country where antiretroviral drugs were widely available for free. 
 
(Source: BBC News, 19 0ctober) 
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Burundi: ‘Die-in’ to Protest Lack of HIV Care 
 
Hundreds of Burundians living with HIV and AIDS recently staged a demonstration in the capital, Bujumbura, to protest against a lack of treatment. Men, women and children lay on the ground for ten minutes to "show the government that if nothing is done rapidly - this week, this month – we will all die," said Jeanne Gapiya, a leading Burundian HIV activist. 
 
According to Gapiya, despite funding from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2010, organizations caring for HIV-positive people had not signed agreements with the National Council for HIV/AIDS Control, CNLS, to access the cash. 
 
The Global Fund approved about US$35 million to fight HIV in Burundi under its eighth round of grants. An estimated 150,000 Burundians are living with HIV; the pandemic has left more than 20,000 orphans in the central African country. Global Fund grants to Burundi are channelled through a coordinating body called the Intensification and Decentralization Programme for the Fight against HIV/AIDS (PRIDE), which funds CNLS, which in turn pays for HIV-positive people’s healthcare. 
 
(Source: IRIN/PlusNews, Bujumbura) 
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Health Effects of Financial Crisis: A Greek Tragedy 
 
Greece has been affected more by the financial crisis than any other European country. There are signs that budget cuts in health care have led to worsening health outcomes, especially within vulnerable groups. 
 
A significant increase in HIV infections occurred in late 2010. The latest data suggest that new infections will rise by 52% in 2011, compared to 2010, with half of the currently observed increases attributable to infections among intravenous drug users. Budget cuts in 2009 and 2010 have resulted in the loss of a third of the country’s street work programmes. Many new HIV infections are also linked to an increase in prostitution and associated unsafe sex. 
 
Overall, the picture of health in Greece is disturbing. It reminds us that, in an effort to finance debts, ordinary people are paying the ultimate price: losing access to care and preventive services, facing higher risk of HIV and in the worst cases losing their lives. 
 
(Source: <a href="http://www.thelancet.com">www.thelancet.com</a>, volume 378, 22 October) 
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News from Global Unions 
 
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF – <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a>), in its latest HIV/AIDS updates 115 and 116 of 1 and 15 November, respectively, reports on a week-long organising and VCT campaign in the road transport sector in Togo, UNESCO’s new AIDS strategy, on education sessions for Cambodian fishermen and on the effects of austerity measures in Europe, especially on infections by drug users. 
 
On 30 November, on the occasion of World AIDS Day 1 December, the ITF launched the report on a comprehensive and cross-regional HIV and AIDS survey in the port sector. The survey examines the impact of HIV and AIDS among port communities and illustrates the need for union action and support. It also highlights the importance of ILO Recommendation 200 concerning HIV and AIDS and the World of Work. 
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Five Years Ago: From the December 2006 Issue (No. 15) 
 
The first issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin was published in October 2005. In current issues, we refer to an article from the same month five years ago and reflect on developments. 
 
In the December 2006 e-bulletin, we reported on the initial HIV and AIDS workshop in India in Puri, Orissa, in November. The objectives of the workshop included the achievement of a solid knowledge about the HIV/AIDS epidemic; the introduction and advocacy of the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work; the development of workplace policies and of a work plan of activities with sustainable funding sources. From this initial workshop the Indian National Mineworkers’ Federation (INMF) in cooperation with the ICEM developed a comprehensive programme which has been running from 2008 to the end of 2011. Corporate partnership with funding from the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim made this project possible. 
 
We also reported on the latest HIV and IADS figures published in the UNAIDS/WHO 2006 Epidemic Update. An estimated 39.5 million people were living with HIV. There were 4.3 million new infections in 2006 with 2.8 million (65%) of these occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and important increases in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where in some countries infection rates have risen by more than 50% since 2004. In 2006, 2.9 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses. The 2010/2011 look a bit better (see article above). 
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This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter – How to Subscribe 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an email to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put “subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin” in the subject line.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 75, December 2011

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ICEM’s two affiliated oil workers’ unions – the white-collar Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) – joined the call of Nigeria’s two labour federations in a nationwide strike today over the government’s sudden 1 January removal of consumer fuel subsidies. 
 
The indefinite strike by Nigerian workers in all sectors was authorized last week by the executive boards of both the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). NUPENG’s board approved today’s walkout at a meeting of union leaders yesterday, while PENGASSAN’s National Executive Council (NEC) gave strike approval on 5 January. 
 
In a statement issued after the NEC meeting in Lagos, PENGASSAN President Babatunde Ogun called government’s fuel subsidy removal “illegal, hasty, without consultation, and lacking of transparency.” The union challenged the government of President Goodluck Jonathan to work on behalf of Nigerian people rather than for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. 
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Both PENGASSAN and NUPENG called on the government to rescind the New Year’s Day elimination, roll back fuel prices to 2011 levels, and then engage the unions of Nigeria in honest dialogue. 
 
The lifting of subsidies immediately shot fuel prices up as much as 225% one week ago. It also sparked a price rise in food and transport costs across Nigeria. Many human rights groups and civil liberty organizations began protests last week. Petrol filling stations in many states were blockaded and protests spilled into many roads across the country, blocking traffic. 
 
Even though Nigeria produces about 2.4 million barrels of crude oil, the government is forced to import roughly 70% of its gasoline supply because of inadequate and run down refineries. The country of 160 million people depends on only three operable refineries for retail consumption. 
 
Jonathan acted on the recommendation of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), a body notorious for irregularities and one that has paid billions of naira to so-called “brief-case companies” and middle men in import subsidies. 
 
Nigeria’s National Industrial Court ruled on 6 January that Labour’s indefinite strike would be illegal but similarly to a mass national strike in 2003 when a previous government attempted to lift remove fuel subsidies, strikes across the country went ahead today and are expected to continue throughout the week.

Nigerian Oil Workers’ Unions Strike in Fuel Subsidy Removals

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The president of the Colombian Oil Workers’ Trade Union (USO) was dismissed from his employment at 95% nationally-owned Ecopetrol on 13 December, in an attempt to remove the democratically elected leader of the union and weaken the organisation. The move was based on national legislation blocking individuals holding public office becoming involved in politics, following Vecino’s participation at a speaking event involving a political candidate of the left wing Polo Democrático, the event was held to commemorate the death of Jorge Ortega, Vice President of the CUT. The law should only apply to individuals holding managerial responsibilities inside a company which president Rodolfo Vecino Acevedo does not. It is absurd to attempt to use this legislation against a union leader, who necessarily seeks to affect the politics of a company as well as of the country, in the interest of the workers s/he represents. The vast majority of USO members are supporters of the Polo Democrático. 
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USO President Rodolfo Vecino
The blatant attack on union freedom and autonomy follows a long historical trend of intimidation and harassment of ICEM’s militant affiliate USO. In 2011 USO conducted a strong campaign for improved pay and conditions for its members at foreign multinational corporations (MNCs), especially Canadian-based Pacific Rubiales. Many see the Colombian government and authorities repeatedly prioritising the interests of foreign MNCs far above those of Colombian workers. A further pernicious reason for the arbitrary sacking of president Vecino could be the strong opposition from USO to the government attempts at privatising Ecopetrol. It is a core value of USO that oil industry operations in Colombia must be publically owned, instead of foreign companies exporting profits from their oil wealth. 
 
The ruling also blocks president Vecino from holding office for a period of 10 years. 
 
The investigation against Vecino was carried out by Ecopetrol’s Office of Disciplinary Inspection, which is conducting a wide ranging systematic attack on the union, with the clear intention to destroy USO all together. Three other USO officials targeted by the office are General Secretary Edgardo Lozano, Jaime Rodriguez, Head of the pipeline subcommittee, and Joaquín Padilla in Cartegena province. There are over 1,000 investigations by the office on USO activists. 
 
During the Pacific Rubiales campaign at the end of 2011 threats from alleged paramilitaries increased, with USO leaders receiving verbal and written threats of kidnap, torture and death for their role in the strike in the eastern department of Meta. Pacific Rubiales publically condemned the threats. In his 27 years as a trade union activist, president Vecino has suffered the attempted kidnapping of his children, two attacks, and multiple threats. View a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x0W9F-REMNk">video of Vecino</a> describing this here. 
 
The ICEM Congress in Buenos Aires, last November, resolved to support Colombian workers, under vicious attack by employers and many aspects of the state. Write to <a href="mailto:presidencia@ecopetrol.com.co">Ecopetrol President Javier Gutierrez Pemberthy</a> here. See the Belgian <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1201%20fgtb%20letter%20to%20ecopetrol.pdf" type="internal">Centrale Generale FGTB’s</a> letter to Pemberthy here. 
 
4,500 trade unionists have been assassinated in Colombia in the last 25 years. The trend of violence has not been stopped by new national president Juan Manuel Santos.

ICEM Affiliates Called on to Support Sacked Colombian USO President Rodolfo Vecino

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	French oilfields services’ giant Schlumberger is continuing to resist attempts by a genuine independent trade union in Egypt to organize workers at its operations.

	ICEM affiliates representing workers throughout the world are continuing to press the company on behalf of workers who were dismissed soon after the founding Congress of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU), under which a Schlumberger workers’ branch is affiliated to.

	The pressure has begun to attract the attention of senior management of the company. While Egyptian management ignored a request by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda to meet to resolve the dispute, ICEM has now been informed that the company recently sent a “fact-finding committee” to Egypt consisting of the legal and recruitment managers of Schlumberger’s regional office in Dubai.

	The two company representatives met with the President and the General Secretary of the independent local branch union, both of whom are among the dismissed workers, including some of the workers who were forced to resign from the union.

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	Schlumberger demonstration in Cairo

	In this meeting, ICEM was informed that the managers did appear to listen carefully to the whole story, but made no promises. However, they hinted at the possibility of giving them financial compensation, claiming that is was too difficult to reinstate them since this would be seen as Schlumberger admitting its behavior was wrong.

	ICEM supports the dismissed workers who reject any financial compensation, and insist on returning to their work and activities inside the union. ICEM will continue the campaign until this issue has been resolved.

	In an earlier escalation of the dispute, Schlumberger Egypt arranged meetings with workers of subcontractors in in the operations. Numbering some 1,500 workers, they account for approximately half of the company’s workforce in Egypt. In meetings at the Kattamia base and the head office, company representatives gave instructions to all subcontract workers that Schlumberger intended changing subcontracting companies, so they demanded that workers resign from their current contracts and then would receive new contracts under new subcontractors later.

	The new contracts would not take into account previous working periods, thus allowing companies to dismiss workers during the first three months without compensation, according to Egyptian law.

	But Egyptian Labour Law is presently uncertain and largely unusable. In theory, the old Mubarak era law, remains in force while there are at least three new proposed labour laws, drafted by different political groups, circulating in Parliament. The last trade union elections of 2007 in the former unitary government controlled trade unions, all part of ETUF, have been invalidated for corruption and the former governing structures of these unions dissolved with appointed oversight committees put in place to run the organizations until new elections take place – under a new law in the future.

	The situation allows companies such as Schlumberger to take advantage of the situation to prevent genuine trade representation of their workforces.

	Prior coverage of the Schlumberger dispute in Egypt can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4946-Schlumberger-Ignores-ICEM-s-Offer-of-Dialogue" type="internal">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4899-Oil-Services-Giant-Schlumberger-Pressured-over-Egyptian-Union-Busting" type="internal">here</a>.

Schlumberger Continues Destruction of Independent Egyptian Trade Union

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	The Steering Committee of ICEM’s Bridgestone Global Union Network met in Osaka, Japan, on 14-15 April, following a year-long break in activities due to the severe effects of last year’s devastating natural disasters in the company’s home country.

	The 11th meeting of the committee was hosted by the ICEM Japanese affiliate, the Japanese Confederation of Rubber Workers’ Union Affiliates (GOMU-RENGO, in coordination with the coordinating organisation of the network, the Bridgestone Union (BSU).

	Chaired by GOMU-RENGO’s new President, Susumu Seo, the meeting was attended by representatives from different countries, Akihiro Nagasawa, President, Daisuke Shintani, Board member, and Kazutaka Nishihira, Vice-President, BSU; Terezinho DaMartins, President, Daniel Demetrio, Regional Vice-President, and Joao Batista Goncalves, Assistant to the President, Sao Paulo Rubber Workers’ Federation of  Brazil; Pedro Wasiejko, President, Argentina Rubber Workers’ Union (SUTNA); Jesus Delgado, Secretary of the European Works Council of Bridgestone, and José Ignacio Fernandez, Burgos, Spain, shop steward, of the Spanish FIA-UGT; Yoshio Sato, General Secretary, and Norihiro Tokunaga, Assistant General Secretary, ICEM’s Japanese Affiliates Federation (ICEM-JAF); and Kemal Özkan, ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs, who also heads up the Chemicals and Rubber sectors.

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	The meeting also welcomed Masahiko Ichinowatari, Shinya Iwai, Masaki Andoh, and Masayuki Aso from Japanese Council of Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF-JC) as observers.

	“Continuity and the firm commitment of participants have been the major features of our Bridgestone Network,” said Susumu Seo in opening of the meeting. “Attendance of our colleagues from IMF-JC gives us great hope and opportunity as our new global union, IndustriALL, takes shape in combining efforts in the automotive and related supply chains that includes the tyre industry.”

	The participants received a report from Özkan on the general trends and challenges in global tyre and rubber sectors, and the effects these have had on employees. He noted that the economic recession of 2008 and 2009 has seen some recovery through mid-year 2011, with a gaggle of the world’s largest tyre-makers reporting 25% revenue growth collectively through the middle of last year.

	Sales of the ten largest tyre manufacturers  have collectively topped US$100 billion for the first time, and Özkan’s report noted Chinese made tyres account for about one-quarter of the world's total. China is now the largest manufacturer, exporter, and consumer of tyres in the world.

	This ICEM report was followed by individual country reports from participants.

	As a regular exercise to the Bridgestone Network, the meeting contained a lengthy discussion on occupational health and safety conditions inside the company’s plants, including accidents and diseases registered over the last year. The Japanese and Brazilian delegates presented individual accident cases with the remedies taken and involvement of trade unions.

	The cases presented brought the meeting to a discussion on the role of unions in preventing and handling similar industrial accidents.

	The next meeting of the Steering Committee is scheduled to take place in June 2013 in Brazil.

ICEM Bridgestone Global Workers’ Network Meets in Japan

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