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At 6:30 AM this morning, 4 June 2007, oil workers struck the pipeline company in Basra, Iraq, bringing an immediate stop to the free flow of oil products, including kerosene and gas through pipe number 42. 
 
The pipe transfers oil and gas to Baghdad and the governorates of the central region of the country. The workers are members of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU). 
 
The IFOU, previously known as the GUOE-Basra, and led by President Hassan Jumaa Awad Alasady, has over 26,000 members throughout the ten state oil companies operating in the south of Iraq. The union has a past history of strike action in defense of its members, and the oil industry as a whole of southern Iraq. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMoil2.JPG" width="100"/>
The ICEM, the global union federation of national energy unions throughout the world, supports the IFOU in their strike action today. 
 
Earlier strike calls in May were postponed after the union gained a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki. That meeting, on 16 May, resulted in the creation of a committee tasked with working on finding solutions acceptable to both sides. The ICEM understands that although several of the union demands have been fully agreed to by Iraqi authorities, the IFOU is still far from having all their demands fulfilled. This is what led to today’s strike. 
 
The union is currently focussing on two core demands in its strike at the pipeline company:
• They demand that the Oil Ministry take action to force the general manager of the pipeline company to resign; and 
• They demand that the company be financially and administratively independent from the Baghdad-based central ministry, and that the pipeline company be managed locally.
ICEM is informed that the reason for the first demand, and the catalyst for today’s action, is that the general manger of the pipeline company, Adel Aziz, who is based in Baghdad rather than in Basra, blocked the orders of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Mailiki to release delayed benefits due workers. Moreover, he stopped a Iraqi Dinar (IQD)50,000 allowance which the workers are regularly entitled to. 
 
The background is available at: 
<a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/2260-Threatened-Oil-Industry-Strike-in-Iraq" type="internal">/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/2260-Threatened-Oil-Industry-Strike-in-Iraq</a> 
 
A second phase of the strike has been threatened to begin tomorrow morning, again at 6.30 AM, in the event the IFOU does not receive signs signalling compliance with their demands. The second phase would expand the strike by closing pipeline number 48, which feeds the southern governorates with oil products. 
 
ICEM, together with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), US Solidarity Center, and the UK’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) of the UK is following developments closely, and will keep trade union affiliates and the public fully informed on developments in this key dispute. 
 
For further information, contact Jim Catterson, Intl. Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine & General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) Energy Officer: +32 2 626 2045 - <a href="mailto:Jim.catterson@icem.org">Jim.catterson@icem.org</a>

ICEM Supports IFOU in Today’s Oil Industry Strike in Basra

Today, 12 June, is the World Day Against Child Labour, as designated by the ILO. This year focus is the elimination of child labour in agriculture, and the ILO marks the occasion with an event at its International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. 
 
The ICEM, the Global Union Federation representing trade unions in the mining, energy, and process industry sectors, calls for the elimination of all child labour in all sectors. The ICEM calls attention to the great number of children who work in mining in many parts of the developing world. 
<img height="91" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/csrhs.jpg" width="100"/>
It also cites a coal mine explosion in early February in Gámeza, Boyacá state, Colombia, in which eight people were killed. One of the eight was a 13-year-old boy. 
 
The ICEM demands that all enterprises respect ILO Conventions 138 and 182 regarding child labour. The World Day Against Child Labour is observed throughout the world each year on 12 June. It serves as a catalyst to halt the growing demand for use of child labourers in all facets of work.

ICEM Calls for End to Child Labour

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
After 18 months of negotiations and consultations, workers UK’s ICEM affiliate Unite – the merged union of Amicus and Transport and General Workers Union – ratified a national agreement on behalf of 3,000 workers in the paper manufacturing industry. 
 
The new accord comes under a framework “Partnership Agreement” put in place earlier this year between the two unions and UK’s GMB trade union, and the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI), an employers’ association of pulp, paper, and converting companies. 
 
“I believe this new agreement raises the employment standards for workers in the paper manufacturing industry,” said Unite (Amicus section) National Officer Peter Ellis. “It reaffirms the commitment of Unite members and those conforming companies of the CPI Paper Sector to a modern and sustainable approach to good industrial relations, so necessary for the security of our members’ jobs in a stable business environment.” 
<img height="203" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UK.png" width="200" alt=""/>
The agreement includes significant language regarding temporary and agency work, model information and consultation language, extra personal time, an expanded industry sick pay benefit, up to ten days’ pay for paternity leave, and up to five days’ bereavement leave pay. 
 
Unite, the CPI, and the UK’s Department of Trade and Industry will formally launch the agreement in the days ahead as part of the new “Partnership Agreement,” which has as its motto, “Work Together, Grow Together, Stay Together.”

Paperworkers of UK’s Unite Ratify Partnership Accord with Industry Association

Mr. Mikhail E. Fradkov 
Chairman 
Government of the Russian Federation 
 
Fax: +7 495 205 67 70 
 
ICEM, 
Brussels, 
27 June 2007 
 
 
Dear Mr. Prime-Minister, 
 
I am writing you on behalf of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) representing over 20 million workers in 125 countries of the world. 
The Oil, Gas, and Construction Workers’ Union of RF, our Russian affiliate, has informed me that on June 25, 2007, 30 employees of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise State Institute of Organic Synthesis Technology (FGUP GITOS) began a hunger strike for an indefinite period. The employees were pushed towards this extreme measure by the still unresolved dispute over wage arrears dating back to 2003. 
The ICEM is highly concerned about the unacceptable situation at the FGUP GITOS and appeals to you to use your authority to ensure that the conflict is resolved and the wage arrears are settled in full and without delay. 

Sincerely Yours, 
Manfred Warda 
General Secretary 
ICEM 
 
 
Cc: 
Victor B. Khristenko, Minister of Industry and Energy of the RF 
Lev. A. Mironov, Chairman Russian Oil, Gas and Construction Workers’ Union

ICEM letter to Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation on FGUP GITOS hunger strike

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
A week-long strike by 28,000 contract employees working for employers doing business with Chilean state-run copper miner Codelco turned ugly on 25 June. Protestors blocked roads and burned buses leading into one of Codelco’s five mines, El Teniente. 
 
On 28 June, they did the same at Radomiro Tonic, Codelco’s second largest copper mine. The contract workers are members of the Copper Confederation of Workers (FTC), a union representing workers at some 400 sub-contractors of Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer. 
<img height="142" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CALhorse.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
At the weekend, Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet ordered government mediators to step in and resolve the dispute. The FTC, which is not affiliated to the ICEM, is seeking wage parity with Codelco’s miners, as well as performance bonuses, better health care, housing, and education benefits. 
 
The contract employees earn roughly half of what Codelco’s 15,000 miners receive. 
 
Codelco said the strike has costed the company US$20 million in lost production. It also said it has limited ability to conduct negotiations with the contract workers, since they are employed by other enterprises. 
<img height="115" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Chile.png" width="250" alt=""/>
The strike is supported by Chile’s national labour centre, the Central Workers Union (CUT), which has called for equality for all contract workers in the South American country. CUT has made it a priority to also improve labour conditions for contract and agency workers. 
 
The FTC and the Chilean private miners’ society, Sonami, did issue a statement condemning the violence that occurred throughout last week at El Teniente, Radomiro Tomic, Codelco Norte, El Salvadoe, Andina, and at a Codelco smelter in Ventanas. 
 
Scores of contract workers were arrested, and one was killed when he was struck by a truck owned by his company, Zublin engineering, while he was blocking a road. 
 
The strike by the contract workers was the second at Codelco’s operations in the last 18 months. The workers staged a 17-day strike in January 2006, but did not receive wage parity or bonus payments at the time. They did, however, win some improvements in working conditions.

Contract Workers of Codelco Copper in Chile Strike

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
Over 200 jewellery and gem polishers in Bangkok, Thailand -- mostly women -- staged a spontaneous rally outside their workplace on 5 September in protest to a Belgian company's suspension of the union leader and its blatant union intimidating. The workers were angry at the sacking, 3 September, of Wisoot Chomwihok, president of ICEM-affiliated Ornament Industry Workers' Union. 
 
The company is Siam Stars Co. Ltd., which is controlled by Antwerp-based IGC Group, a world diamond cutting and gem polishing enterprise. 
 <img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMDiamant.JPG" width="100"/>
Wisoot was fired with a formal suspension order last week, less than three months after he received a series of demotions and another suspension from managers at the 600-worker factory. The suspension order means he will continue to receive a minimum and basic wage while his sacking goes to an employment court. But he is denied other benefits contained in the collective bargaining agreement, including food and transport vouchers and a bonus based on piece rate and production. 
 
The ICEM clearly considers the suspension order and sacking of Wisoot Chomwihok as an unfair labour practice, and an effort by management to intimidate union members and leaders as they prepare for collective negotiations early next year. The spontaneous 5 September rally after working hours, the ICEM feels, is full proof that Siam Stars workers know and recognise the fact the company is out to destroy their union, and they will fight to strengthen it in the months to a June 2008 collective agreement expiration. 
In June, Siam Stars Co. had demoted Wisoot from one department to another, resulting in 30% loss of wages and denial of his ability to carry out union leadership duties. Following the Ornament Workers' Union filing charges with a regional labour ministry on the demotion, Siam Stars retaliated by issuing its first suspension order on Wisoot on 11 June 2007. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Thailand.png" width="250"/>
The union took the matter up with the Thai Human Rights Commission, which caused the company to reinstate Wisoot, but at the lower wage and in the inferior job classification. The company cited "no work" in the higher-level department, yet on 20 June it promoted three employees to that department. 
 
The Ornament Industry Workers' Union attempted to negotiate a compromise with managers by offering to keep Wisoot in the assigned department, but at his previous wage and benefit level. The union also sought a commitment that managers would not discriminate against unionised workers. Siam Stars refused to accept. 
 
In November 2006, IGC Group closed a diamond and gem production facility near Bangkok called Thai-Belgium Industrial Co. Ltd., making 230 workers redundant and transferring 70 others to the sister Siam Stars factory in Lak Si. The ICEM will continue to monitor this unfair dismissal, and lend support to workers at Siam Stars as they continue to strengthen their union.

Belgian Gem Employer Sacks Union Leader in Thailand

Senior General Than Shwe 
Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, 
c/o Attorney General 
Pyinmana 
Burma 

Re : Extremely harsh prison sentences for labour activists
Dear General Than Shwe, 
 
The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), representing 20 million workers from 384 industrial trade unions in 118 countries, joins the wide-ranging international protest against the extremely heavy prison sentences that have been imposed, on Friday 7 September 2007, on six labour activists, after these had wanted to organise a seminar at the US Embassy's American Centre in Rangoon earlier this year. 
 
Thurein Aung, Kyaw Kyaw, Shwe Joe, Wai Lin, Aung Naing Tun and Nyi Nyi Zaw were arrested, on 1 May 2007, after holding a May Day celebration and having plans to discuss labour issues at the American Centre. This event was immediately cancelled after the arrests. Two of the arrested activists, Shwe Joe and Aung Naing Tun, were released on 4 May. On 10 May, two other men, Kyaw Win and Myo Min, were arrested for going to the Thai-Burma border to inform the outside world about these May Day arrests. 
 
The ICEM has learned that all six men were found guilty of "inciting hatred or contempt for the Government" during a trial held inside Rangoon's Insein prison, and that some of them were convicted for being members of "illegal associations". Thurein Aung, Wai Lin, Myo Min and Kyaw Win were sentenced to 28 years in prison, and Nyi Nyi Zaw and Kyaw Kyaw to 20 years. As you and your government know well, detaining and sentencing workers who exercise their right to freedom of association is a clear violation of international labour standards, including ILO Convention 87, which has been ratified by your country. 
 
We have also been informed that the interrogations of the six above-mentioned activists by your country’s security agencies specifically focused on finding links with the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB). The FTUB is recognised by the entire international trade union movement, as well as by the wider global community, as a legitimate organisation that defends workers' rights in Burma. 
 
I am therefore urging you to use your good offices and make sure that the relevant authorities within your government do away with these unjustified and scandalous prison sentences and order the immediate and unconditional release of our six colleagues. 
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
Manfred Warda 
ICEM General Secretary

ICEM protest letter to Burmese Junta

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
ICEM affiliate in Trinidad and Tobago, the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), staged a mass protest on 10 September over delays in bargaining between the union and the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission. The union members’ protest came at the electric authority’s opening of a customer service centre at the company headquarters in Port-of-Spain. 
 
Management was celebrating the opening of a new automatic meter infrastructure and the utility’s award of some TTD700 million in contracts for that system, as well as for a new power station. Much of that money will be used on contractors and contract labourers. 
<img height="93" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/TrinindadOWTU.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
OWTU members, meanwhile, have been without a current collective agreement for over a year, and have been frustrated by salaries that are tied to 2005 levels at a time when Trinidad and Tobago’s inflation rate is high. 
 
The last negotiations session was held in July, and the company’s chairman said management was waiting for direction from the Ministry of Public Utilities. 
 
Meanwhile, another union in Trinidad and Tobago, the Public Service Association, staged another protest through a series of one-day work stoppages against the Water and Sewerage Authority. That occurred on 14 September, three days after a similar protest following a revised management proposal. Water and sewer workers are also protesting delays and a prolonged negotiations period. They are still attempting to resolve a 2005-2007 contract with the public utility, talks that only started in January 2007. 
<img height="115" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/TrinidadAndTobago.png" width="250" alt=""/>
In a related workplace development in the country, five construction workers last week were hospitalised when they were overcome by gas at the state-owned Petrotrin’s Point-a-Pierre refinery. All 700 construction workers were forced to down tools by what Petrotrin said was a leak from an alkaline plant. It marked the second time in two months that building workers at the refinery walked from their jobs in protest to health and safety concerns. 
 
Petrotrin is currently undergoing a gas optimisation modernisation, as well as a gas to liquids project at the west coast refinery. In early August, the state company dropped production by 15,000 barrels-per-day to 47,000 b/d due to safety concerns. That followed a May 2007 drop in crude production from offshore sites, after a gas explosion on an offshore rig in the Soldado field killed one contract worker, and injured two others.

OWTU Members at Electricity Authority in Trinidad and Tobago Protest

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
ICEM affiliate in Mozambique, the National Union of Chemical, Rubber, Paper, and Print Workers (SINTIQUIGRA), has forged a four-union merger with transportation and textile workers’ unions, in an effort to strengthen the union movement of the country. 
 
The merger is partly in honour of Joaquim Fanheiro, former leader of SINTIQUIGRA, who died unexpectedly in March 2007 while serving as general secretary of the Mozambique Workers’ Organisation (OTM), the nation’s leading national labour centre. The other merger partners are the Union of Textile and Footwear Workers’ (SINTIVEC), the National Union of Port and Railway Workers’ (SINPOCAF), and the Ports and Allied Dockworkers’ Union (SINPEOC).
A name for the union has not yet been determined, but a founding general assembly meeting will occur in November 2007 and will address that and other matters. 
<img height="115" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Mozambique.png" width="250" alt=""/>
Union merger discussions in Mozambique began last spring between SINTIQUIGRA and SINTIVEC. They were expanded in the summer to include the transport and dockworkers’ unions. The combined membership of the four unions will be about 25,000. 
Comrade Fanheiro was a long-time trade union activist and main leader of SINTIUIGRA. He was a strong workers’ advocate in 1970-era production councils in Mozambique, which were predecessors to the OTM. Later, he became the distinguished leader of the OTM and played a key role in negotiations with the government over issues such as the annual increases to the statutory minimum wage and the revisions to Mozambique’s labour code. 
 
Trade unions in Mozambique of late have been burdened by downsizings and redundancies, as many large companies have splintered their businesses off to smaller companies, which have cut staff and attempt to slash social costs. The four-union merger is expected to make the labour movement and the OTM stronger and more efficient.

Four-Union Mozambique Merger to Honour Labour Legacy of Joaquim Fanheiro

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
North American ICEM affiliate, United Steelworkers (USW), began its largest ever conference of women workers in Toronto, Ontario, yesterday. Over 1,000 trade union women from Canada and the US are expected at the four-day conference, which is entitled “Women of Steel: Building Power, Taking Action.” 
 
USW President Leo Gerard will address the conference today, 24 September. Also speaking will be Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of US presidential candidate John Edwards, who has won the endorsement of the USW, and progressive American blogger Arianna Huffington. Canadian Member of Parliament Libby Davies, from the New Democratic Party, will also address the conference. 
<img height="74" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="59" alt=""/>
Gerard will introduce to delegates the “Protect Our Kids/Stop Toxic Imports” campaign, which will be unveiled in Canada tomorrow, 25 September. 
 
Workshops will centre on engaging women in the work of the union, skills enhancement, work-life balance, political action, and global solidarity. The USW will host global trade union guests from Brazil, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Africa, and the UK. 
<img height="175" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0709WomenToronto.jpg" width="175" alt=""/>
“Strong unions need women, and it is clear that women in every nation need strong unions,” said USW Assistant to the President Leeann Anderson. USW Women of Steel Director Ann Flener added that union “women know that in today’s global economic society, solidarity must reach across nations to the furthest regions of the world. We must talk with each other, compare situations, and learn best practices from each other’s experiences.”

North American ‘Women of Steel’ Convene Largest Ever Women’s Conference

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