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<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
South Africa's state-run electricity utility, Eskom, is doing all the political manoeuvring to can to ward off a strike by 24,000 unionised workers. 
 
The workers, members of three unions, including ICEM affiliates National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworker of South Africa (NUMSA), were prepared to lower their wage demands in bargaining on 27 June, but Eskom arrived at talks with no will to improve its earlier offer. 
 
Over 100 unionists then gathered at Eskom headquarters in the Sandton area of Johanessburg to protest. They were met by police and private security guards, who fired tear gas canisters to disperse the lawful protestors. 
<img height="102" src="" width="100" alt="" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; <img height="103" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The utility has taken the unusual step of challenging the jurisdiction of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) over a minimum services agreement. In mid-June, a dispute was filed with the CCMA, hoping to get the agency to rule on which groups of Eskom workers were considered essential employees, and which were not. 
That would determine which groups could strike. But Eskom short-circuited the process by taking the unprecedented legal position that CCMA had no jurisdiction in the matter. In 2005, the unions sought a new minimum services agreement with the company, but Eskom unilaterally renewed its &quot;maximum services agreement,&quot; meaning all workers were denied the right to strike. (The company did this unilaterally, without engaging in social dialogue with the workers' representatives.) 
 
A prior labour agreement expired on 30 June. Until the CCMA jurisdictional matter is resolved, workers will continue their protests, including a 24-hour strike beginning on Wednesday night, 4 July. 
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For the 27 June negotiations, workers had given their unions a mandate to move off their 12% wage demands. But Eskom arrived at talks with no desire to even negotiate. 
 
A previous company wage offer totalled only 6%. Electricity workers are seeking a wage increase that gives them a safe cushion against South Africa&rsquo;s inflation rate, which now is 2% higher than April's consumer price index of 6.3%, excluding mortgage costs increases. 
 
The unions are also seeking housing allowances and improved pension benefits. On housing, they seek a R 1,500 allowance, with Eskom offering only R 450. 
 
NUM represents 11,000 of the 24,000 workers engaged in this year's contentious bargaining, while NUMSA represents 6,000.

24,000 South African Electric Workers Poised to Strike

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ICEM affiliate Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Zambia (MUZ), together with another mining union, won a 20% pay increase for 9,000 miners at Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in early July. The pay increase matched what the unions achieved for miners at KCM in 2006. 
 
Negotiations began in mid-May, but KCM, a company that is majority held by London-listed and Indian-owned Vedanta Resources, was slow in meeting the unions&rsquo; demands. In early July, the company did increase its pay offer from 16% to 20%. 
 
The average salary for the lowest paid miner at KCM had been US$400 per month. The other union negotiating the MUZ is the National Union of Mining and Allied Workers (NUMAW). The 20% increase was awarded effective 1 July.
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Meanwhile, last week, Canadian gold and copper producer First Quantum sacked four strike leaders &ndash; including two shop stewards &ndash; over a wildcat strike at the Kansanshi mine near Solez in mid-July. MUZ intervened to halt the strike by 400 miners in the North-Western province of Zambia, and succeeded in getting negotiations back on track. 
 
But the company took the action to terminate the four and place six others on final warning notices. Appeals are expected. 
 
At KCM, a business dispute between Vedenta and minority shareholder Zambian Copper Investments (ZCI) has gone to arbitration and awaits a ruling. Vedenta has an option to buy ZCI&rsquo;s 28.4% stake in KCM, lifting its ownership to 79.4%, but the dispute over share price has blocked the deal. The Zambian government maintains a 20.6% share of KCM.
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KCM comprises copper mines at Nkana, Nchanga, and Konkola, as well as pyrite mining at Nampundwe and a copper smelter at Nkana. This smelter is the biggest in Africa, and is now currently undergoing expansion. Vedanta also has invested at a new site, the Konkola Deep Mine Project, which will be operational in 2010 and will extend KCM&rsquo;s mining life by 30 years. 
 
Vedanta Resources is a major global producer of aluminum, zinc, and copper, and was founded and is currently run by Indian industrial magnate Anil Agarwal.

Zambian Miners Get 20%; Canadian Firm Sacks Leaders of a Copper Strike

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Unless an eleventh hour solution is found today, thousands of members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa will strike six diamond mines of DeBeers on Tuesday, 31 July. A walkout will mark the first full-scale mining strike in South Africa this year as current bargaining across a number of mining sectors remains bogged down in wage disputes. 
 
The NUM issued a strike notice to the world&rsquo;s largest diamond miner on 26 July, following certification from South Africa&rsquo;s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) that talks had hit a standstill. A day earlier, NUM members voted to strike the company, which is 45% owned by AngloAmerican.
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NUM members at DeBeers, numbering about 6,000, are adamant that an 11% pay increase is due them. DeBeers is only offering 8% and a contract for two years. 
 
&ldquo;DeBeers continues to preach 8% and a two-year agreement, and we had said &lsquo;No,&rsquo;&rdquo; stated NUM&rsquo;s lead negotiator for diamond mining, Peter Bailey. He added, &ldquo;Workers have told us in no uncertain terms that double-digit&rdquo; percentage increases are necessary in order to get a settlement, said Bailey. 
 
DeBeers stated that it intends to operate mines with a contingency plan if the NUM takes strike action.

NUM Set to Strike DeBeers Tomorrow in South Africa

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The tense situation in New Zealand&rsquo;s coal pits has eased. But the end to hostilities came only after a wave of sympathy strikes shut down coal production following the lockout of 200 miners by Australian-based contractor HWE Mining on 18 July. 
 
The New Zealand mining industry&rsquo;s collective talks, between ICEM affiliate Engineering, Paper, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and state-owned Solid Energy and its contractors, already had been tense before the three-day lockout. Talks began in April for the 800 miners at some dozen pits but when little progress was made, EPMU miners began taking industrial actions late in June.
<img height="60" src="" width="120" alt="" />
&nbsp; 
The situation intensified when HWE Mining locked out workers at Solid&rsquo;s Rotowaro mine near Huntly 13 days ago. EPMU members at other Solid Energy mines &ndash; particularly Huntly East, Spring Creek, Terrace, and New Vale &ndash; immediately took action and stopped production. 
 
The lockout reminded New Zealanders that Australian mining companies are only too anxious to export the agenda of Prime Minister John Howard of Australia. 
 
The sympathy strikes of other companies put enough pressure on HWE Mining to come to terms in its portion of the Mining Industry Multi-Employer Collective Agreement. Some half-dozen of the other mining contractors also settled two-year agreements. The EPMU has won yearly pay gains of 5% to 5.5% in this round of talks.
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EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little said the HWE Mining lockout was broken because of &ldquo;huge support from miners across the country.&rdquo; 
 
He added, &ldquo;Our members at Rotowaro stood strong in the face of some extreme employer militancy, and they&rsquo;ve managed to end the lockout and win the decent pay rise and improved conditions they were after. This was only achieved through the collective strength of miners.&rdquo; 
 
To date, the only contractor that has not come to terms with the EPMU is Doug Hood Mining, which operates Solid Energy&rsquo;s Stockton mine near Westport. EPMU members there took a 24-hour strike action on 27 July in protest to the contractor&rsquo;s stall tactics.

NZ Coal: Sympathy Strikes Counter Lockout, Pave Way for New Contracts

The European Works Council (EWC) of Alcan Packaging, facing imminent spin-off by new owner Rio Tinto, won a&nbsp;commitment that an Extraordinary Meeting of the Works Council&nbsp;would be held within 14 days&nbsp;after&nbsp;any announced sale of the company is made. Following frank discussions during EWC meetings on 25 July, where Alcan President and CEO Richard Evans reiterated Rio&rsquo;s intent to sell Alcan&rsquo;s packaging businesses, the commitment to hold a further Works Council meeting immediately following an announced sale is&nbsp;welcome news to packaging industry workers&rsquo; and their trade unions. 
 
The ICEM, a global union federation of 389 trade unions in 119 countries, applauded the commitment, calling it &ldquo;an important check-and-balance on corporate governance.&rdquo; The ICEM also congratulates the EWC and the trade unionists on the EWC for gaining this commitment. 
 
Evans told the EWC that Rio Tinto was hopeful of selling the collection of packaging businesses of as block, that there are serious buyers, and that a sale agreement could be completed soon. Peter Ellis, National Officer of ICEM UK affiliate Unite, welcomed the company&rsquo;s commitment.
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Rio Tinto&rsquo;s newly acquired flexible and specialty packaging businesses throughout the world are vast. The Australian company could realise &euro;5 billion from a sale. In 2003, the Canadian-based company purchased Norsk Hydro&rsquo;s packaging units, and the following year Alcan took over French-based Pechiney in a US$3.9 billion stock and cash deal. Alcan&rsquo;s packaging businesses produce products for the food, personal care, and pharmaceutical sectors.

Alcan Workers Win Commitment from Company at EWC

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Former ICEM Gen. Sec. Fred Higgs was awarded the Transport &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union&rsquo;s (TGWU) highest award on 4 July when the Unite Joint General Secretary, Tony Woodley, awarded him with the Gold Patch at the TGWU&rsquo;s last Policy Conference. 
 
Higgs served as ICEM general secretary from 1999 to his retirement in late 2006. He is a 40-year member of TGWU and began his long service career with the union in 1979. Prior to his election as ICEM general secretary, Higgs served as National Secretary of TGWU&rsquo;s chemicals, oil, and rubber sectors.
<img height="200" alt="" src="" width="300" />
&nbsp;Fred Higgs Speaking at TGWU's Policy Conference 
 

In a speech upon receiving the award, Higgs told delegates of his disgust after reaching Brussels with the UK Labour Party government&rsquo;s complicity in occupying Iraq. He also spoke on global labour solidarity, and gave the story of TGWU&rsquo;s Peter Booth intervening with a British-based company to reinstate two sacked trade union leaders in Thailand. They had been sacked in 2004 for trade union activities, and they turned to the ICEM for help. 
 
Booth not only won their reinstatement but together with Higgs and the ICEM, won a guarantee that trade union organisation would not be interfered with at their plant. In the year since the two leaders have been back at work, they, along with fellow workers grateful to Booth and the ICEM, have organised 11 of the 12 plants that this particular British company operates in Thailand.
<img height="300" alt="" src="" width="200" />
Peter Booth 
 

The TGWU Policy Conference is likely to be the last such biannual gathering since new forums and structures will result in TGWU&rsquo;s merger with Amicus to form Unite. The conference reviewed TGWU&rsquo;s aggressive organising project, demanded the withdrawal of British troops in Iraq, and took a tough stance on the abuse of labour agency workers in the UK. Delegates heard vivid stories of such abuses, including the real life situation of a Polish woman who was forced to live her car after her agency evicted her from living accommodations. 
 
The Policy Conference made history by electing the first and last woman to chair this year&rsquo;s proceedings. &ldquo;Same old story &hellip; as soon as a woman gets to the top, the job is abolished,&rdquo; joked Brenda Sanders. &ldquo;This union will be carrying forwards our finest traditions together with our colleagues in Amicus as we build Unite to a powerhouse in the world of work and the 21st century,&rdquo; she added.

Fred Higgs Receives Gold Patch Award from Transport &amp; General Workers in the UK

ICEM white-collar affiliate PENGASSAN in Nigeria is calling for complete transparency and full accountability in the acquisition by state Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) of African Petroleum (AP). PENGASSAN is standing with workers of AP who now face uncertain futures at the hands of NNPC following the official 6 July take-over of debt-ridden AP. The companies have not agreed to terms and even a panel of inquiry set up by the government to ascertain debt level cannot reach a decision on the matter. PENGASSAN believes it is wrong for NNPC to acquire AP before due process and an investigation into AP&rsquo;s indebtedness happens. PENGASSAN President Uche Okoro stated that NNPC should take &ldquo;a more civilized approach to recover the debt and not wake up one morning and take over AP or stop if from doing business. That will have a lot of impact on our workers of AP and we are not comfortable with that.&rdquo;

PENGASSAN Demands Transparency in NNPC&#039;s Buy-up

In Baghdad, the Iraq Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) has formed workers&rsquo; committee inside affiliate Electricity and Energy Workers Union to better the conditions of employees at the city&rsquo;s Main Water Agency. The campaign aims to secure interest-free payments to workers, deal with administrative and financial corruption inside the agency, get unpaid holiday pay for workers, and make it easier for them to collect pay checks. Currently, Water Agency workers must pass through arduous security and administrative delays at banks in order to receive their pay. The Electricity and Energy Workers Union has won reinstatement for scores of cleaning workers who had been sacked at the Main Water Agency.

Baghdad&#039;s Electrical Workers Organise

In Iraq, oil workers in Basra at the Southern Oil Co. brought the company to a 24-hour standstill on 17 July with a strike. Some 15,000 workers took part in the strike that was intended to force the company and Iraq&rsquo;s Oil Ministry to take a portion of Southern Oil&rsquo;s vast profits and use it to build Basra&rsquo;s local economy. Backed by the General Union of Oil Employees (GUOE) and the Federation of Workers&rsquo; Councils and Unions in Iraq, last week&rsquo;s work stoppage could be a precursor to a general strike in Iraq&rsquo;s south if allocations from the country&rsquo;s largest crude oil producer are not used for basic infrastructure needs such as sewage systems, electrical grids and medical services. GUOE is also seeking a wage increase for workers, land allowances, and risk payments, something that Southern Oil&rsquo;s managers already receive.

Oil Workers in Southern Iraq Strike

A mass rally and march will occur next month in Botswana over the government&rsquo;s failure to intervene in the dismissal of 461 workers last year at diamond-mining enterprise Debswana. The Botswana Federation of Trade Unions is conducting the strike, and it is also a protest by the country&rsquo;s unions against Debswana&rsquo;s refusal to recognise new leadership of ICEM affiliate Botswana Mining Workers&rsquo; Union. Trade unions are seeking a re-work of employer-favoured labour legislation passed in May 2004, legislation which Debswana&mdash;a joint venture between DeBeers and the government&mdash;used to sack the 461 for striking illegally.

Mass Rally in Botswana over Debswana&#039;s Intransigence

Archive

24,000 South African Electric Workers Poised to Strike

Zambian Miners Get 20%; Canadian Firm Sacks Leaders of a Copper Strike

NUM Set to Strike DeBeers Tomorrow in South Africa

NZ Coal: Sympathy Strikes Counter Lockout, Pave Way for New Contracts

Alcan Workers Win Commitment from Company at EWC

Fred Higgs Receives Gold Patch Award from Transport & General Workers in the UK

PENGASSAN Demands Transparency in NNPC's Buy-up

Baghdad's Electrical Workers Organise

Oil Workers in Southern Iraq Strike

Mass Rally in Botswana over Debswana's Intransigence

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