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The ICEM is fully supportive of French affiliates Filpac-CGT and FCE-CFDT, and the French paper workers, in their manifestation Saturday, 17 December, in Lille, France. The unions are protesting against the actions of several multinational paper companies, who are firing workers and closing mill and paper converters, or have plans to do so, in the Nord/Pas-de-Calais area of northern France. 
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According to Filpac-CGT, paper companies are creating &ldquo;a genuine social earthquake&rdquo; with job losses and closures in the region. 
Paper companies Stora Enso of Sweden and Finland, International Paper of the US, Cascades of Canada and Smurfit-Kappa of Ireland and The Netherlands have all announced harmful restructurings in the Nord/Pas-de-Calais area. Over 1,000 jobs might be lost in total. 
Companies are ignoring their social responsibilities and cite external causes, such as surplus capacity, the overall economic situation or global energy costs. 
 
According to the unions, however, the real reasons lie elsewhere. Stora Enso is pursuing its Profit 2007 initiative aimed at adding another &euro;300 million to its annual pre-tax profit in 2007. FCE-CFDT reminds us that Stora Enso, as part of this initiative,&nbsp;intends to&nbsp;get rid of 2,500 work places world-wide, with 500 of them in France,&nbsp;for the sole purpose of making more profit.&nbsp;
Cascades is equally seeking improved profitability of its boxboard unit, while pointing to capacity build-up in China and the pressures of Asian exports as the reason for the possible closure. 
International Paper (IP) first refused to sell its Maresquel mill to a potential buyer earlier in the year and then gave local managers just two months to find investors, demonstrating that it is more interested in closing this operation than having to live with a potential competitor. Lastly, the closure of a paper converter in Gravelines, along with another converting plant in Cevennes, was announced by a Smurfit subsidiary immediately after the merger between Smurfit and Kappa Packaging. 

The manifestation on 17 December begins at 9h00. For more information, visit Filpac-CGT&rsquo;s website at <a href="http://www.filpac.cgt.fr">http://www.filpac.cgt.fr</a>&nbsp;or FCE-CFDT's site: <a href="http://www.fce.cfdt.fr/n1/2005/12/bra%5Fpacart%5F97.doc">http://www.fce.cfdt.fr/n1/2005/12/bra%5Fpacart%5F97.doc</a>.

Paper Multinationals plan to eliminate jobs in France

The ICEM expresses sadness and grief on news of the death of PENGASSAN President Uche Okoro in an airline crash Saturday, 10 December, in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Comrade Okoro was one of the 108 passengers killed when a commercial airliner crashed on approach to the Port Harcourt airport. 
 
Having the distinction of serving as president of both Nigeria&rsquo;s white-collar oil and gas workers&rsquo; union, PENGASSAN, and the blue-collar union, NUPENG, Okora was a grass-roots organizer and activist who stood for free and democratic trade unions in Nigeria. His life-long dedication to democratic principles and fairness to workers, particularly during the Abacha military regime, proved invaluable in building Nigeria&rsquo;s oil unions, as well as today&rsquo;s Nigerian labour movement.
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He became president of PENGASSAN in 2005. He left the blue-collar ranks of NUPENG when he was promoted to senior staff of the oil company employing him. He was seen as a unifying force between PENGASSAN and NUPENG, as well as all of labour in Nigeria. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, in a letter to PENGASSAN, called Okora a &ldquo;fierce defender of workers&rsquo; interests in Nigeria and all of Africa. I am sure that both (PENGASSAN and NUPENG), and civil society as a whole in Nigeria, will miss Comrade Okora&rsquo;s presence.&rdquo;

ICEM Mourns Tragic Death of PENGASSAN Leader in Nigeria

EPS Trade Union of Serbia-Montenegro elected new officers last week. Elected president was Miroslav Veličković, and elected to serve as vice president was Žikica Đorđević.
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Veličković had been a union vice president who got his start in union matters shortly after EPS Trade Union was founded in 1992. He served as president of the Ni&scaron; branch of the union, and began working in the Electric Power Distribution Co. of Ni&scaron; in 1977. 
He has a background in electrical engineering. Veličković is a founder and acting president of a democratic and free trade union confederation of unions serving public enterprises in the Balkan country.

EPS Trade Union in Serbia Elects New Officers

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A study commissioned by the Swedish Employment Ministry states that companies with ten or more employees should be limited to hiring only full-time workers.
The study also says that part-time or temporary workers employed for three years should be given the right to demand a full-time job from their employer. At least 200,000 Swedes&mdash;75% of whom are women&mdash;are stuck in part-time jobs but seek full-time employment, according to the study.
&nbsp;

Swedish Government Study Calls for More Full-time Jobs

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The General Confederation of Labour in Greece (GSEE) has called for national strikes this week, on 14 and 15 December, over the conservative government&rsquo;s planned revisions to public sector employment.
One such revision is to phase out permanent jobs for DEKO workers employed at public utilities, and replace them with employees on private-sector contracts. The strikes have been called together with ADEDY, the public sector union of civil servants.
The proposed changes, crafted by the government of Premier Costas Kamanlis, also would affect collective bargaining. This week&rsquo;s strikes will get a prelude today when all public transport will stop between the hours of 11 AM and 4 PM.

Strikes in Greece This Week over Cuts to Permanent Jobs

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French affiliate FCE-CFDT has grown impatient with progress in wage negotiations in France&rsquo;s chemicals sector. 
The union refused last week to sign a memorandum on the chemicals sector wage policy. FCE-CFDT termed results of a joint committee meeting on 18 November as unacceptable. In 11 months of futile bargaining on the wage issue, FCE-CFDT&rsquo;s agenda and goals have not been realized.
The union expressed dissatisfaction with that in a letter to the chemical employers&rsquo; federation and to the Minister of Employment. FCE-CFDT week is meeting this week with the other French trade unions in the sector to formulate future action.

French FCE-CFDT Union Expresses Chemicals Bargaining Concerns

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British Gas engineers and technicians, members of ICEM affiliate GMB in the UK, began the first of five 24-hour strikes today at 7 AM on the company&rsquo;s insistence to close the final pension scheme to new employees.
The 6,000 union workers will strike again on 19 and 21 December, and on 6 and 9 January. GMB members will also suspend off-hour service and repair from 8 PM to 8 AM from today to 23 December, and again from 4-10 January.
The union said it would keep service workers available to the utility&rsquo;s most vulnerable customers, and is urging British Gas to supply customers that experience furnace problems with electric heaters. The union asks for British Gas to pay their electric bills as well.

GMB Members at British Gas Launch Strike Actions

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In Nepal, on International Human Rights Day this past Saturday, police used water canons and unnecessary force to arrest 130 activists, trade union leaders and academics who tried to conduct a protest in Kathmandu&rsquo;s Ratna Park.
The protest, led by a multi-NGO coalition called Citizens&rsquo; Movement for Democracy and Peace, was to focus attention on continued restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly imposed by King Gyanendra&rsquo;s suspension of the government and his imposition of authoritarian rule last February. Ratna Park in Kathmandu&rsquo;s city centre is declared a restricted area by Nepalese authorities.
The head of the UN&rsquo;s Human Rights office in Nepal, Ian Martin, on the occasion of the 10 December observance of the UN&rsquo;s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, said that the number of torture cases by security forces in the Himalayan country has shown no sign of letting up over the past several months.

Security Forces Crush Human Rights Day Demonstration in Nepal

The 20-million-member ICEM, the Global Union Federation for electric power industry trade unions, is calling on state-run Swedish utility Vattenfall AB to intervene with its German subsidiary to resolve a labour dispute with three German unions affecting 20,000 workers. 
 
The unions, ICEM affiliate IGBCE, and IG Metall and Ver.di, are seeking a common collective agreement with Germany&rsquo;s third largest utility in order to remove wage disparities and harmonise all terms and conditions. The three unions will stage a mass protest tomorrow, 1 March, in Berlin at the annual general meeting of Vattenfall Europe AG, the German subsidiary. (Smaller rallies by the three unions have been held at three sites since 21 February in protest to the deadlock in negotiations.) 
 
 

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21 February 2006 : rally in Cottbus, Germany 
&ldquo;We feel the time is now that the Swedish parent step in and grant equitable wages and conditions to all its German employees,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &ldquo;Vattenfall has integrated its acquisitions throughout Germany over the past few years, now it must harmonise wages and conditions.&rdquo; 
 
The three unions have been negotiating for a common accord with the Swedish subsidiary for two years. Besides bringing pay equity and uniform work conditions to workers, the unions are seeking an agreement from Vattenfall Europe AG that sale of any operations to another company will include the common collective agreement. 
 
IGBCE&rsquo;s Jobst Weissenborn, the union&rsquo;s chief negotiator in the energy sector, said the company&rsquo;s bargaining posture has provoked the rallies. He said the unions are prepared to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that the social standards of all Vattenfall workers in Germany come under a common agreement. 
 
 

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21 February 2006 : rally in Cottbus, Germany 
 
ICEM affiliate IGBCE is the dominant union in east Germany&rsquo;s power generation and distribution units, including the company&rsquo;s lignite mines and the former LAUBAG enterprise, now held by Vattenfall. In the 1990s, Ost-Bewag came under control of Bewag, which has been 90% owned Vattenfall since 2002. 
 
In 2001, Vattenfall acquired a majority stake in HEW, the Hamburg electric company that had previously been held by E.ON&rsquo;s Bewag subsidiary. IG Metall is the primary union in Hamburg. Vattenfall also acquired its Berlin operations through buy-up of Bewag, giving it control of over 80% of the power market in Berlin, as well as 30% of the heating market. The company also has telecommunications, water and gas interests in Berlin, and public-service union Ver.di is the dominant union there. 
 
Vattenfall&rsquo;s Europe division also includes utility holdings in Poland and&nbsp;The Netherlands. The company is a major electric and power producer and provider in the Nordic countries. 
 
Protests last week leading up to tomorrow&rsquo;s major demonstration in Berlin saw 2,000 workers take to the streets on 21 February. Anther demonstration was held in the east German mining community of Cottbus on the same day, while on 23 February, over a thousand protested in Hamburg.

ICEM Supports Common German Contract for Vattenfall Utility Workers

Some 500 delegates attended the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Women&rsquo;s Conference on 16-18 February in Rosherville, near Johannesburg. The South African union elected a national leadership team, put in place a workable plan of action, and developed a concise and practical programme that will be presented at NUM&rsquo;s National Congress in May.
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Delegates heard from three prominent women in South African labour: Minerals and Energy Minister Lindiwe Hendricks, COSATU Second Vice President Violet Sebone, and ANC Women&rsquo;s League&rsquo;s General Secretary Themba Kgasi. The NUM Women&rsquo;s Structure was formed in 1998, and since has become a leadership front for women both nationally and internationally. &ldquo;As women in the NUM, we have passed the stage of being told what to do,&rdquo; said Women&rsquo;s Structure Chairperson Rose Mohale. &ldquo;We have stood firm and demonstrated we can add our voice to programmes of the organisation.&rdquo;

NUM in South Africa Holds Women’s Conference

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