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ICEM affiliate Çimse-İş, the proud Turkish union representing cement, ceramics, pottery, and glass workers, averted an industry-wide strike recently by agreeing to a three-year labour agreement with the Cement Employers Association (CEIS) recently. The new agreement, extending back to 1 January 2008 and lasting to 31 December 2010, covers 6,000 union members at 46 cement production facilities. 
 
It calls for a first year wage increase of 12%. The second year pay increase will be pegged to the nation’s inflation rate, while the third year increase was set at the inflation rate plus three percent.
<img height="119" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMCement.JPG" width="120"/>
According to the Turkish Institution for Statistics, the current inflation rate for consumer prices is 8.39% and wholesale prices are at 5.94%. The Turkish Central Bank is predicting a 2008 inflation rate of 7.9% for consumer prices. 
 
The negotiations were long and arduous. Çimse-İş was on the verge of a national strike before coming together with CEIS on the new agreement. 
 
In addition, Çimse-İş won for union members a set of bonuses amounting to 120 days of salary. Also, benefits such as the night-shift premium, overtime pay, food allowance, social assistance package, and marriage, birth, death, and natural disaster payments were increased between 50-to-75%. 
 
The ICEM extends congratulations to Turkish cement workers, and to Çimse-İş leaders for posting these gains in the industry.

Turkish Cement Workers, Behind Trade Union Çimse-İş, Achieve New Labour Pact

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Babatunde Ogun, a 17-year member of Nigeria’s senior staff association PENGASSAN, was elected president of the union on 30 April for a three-year term. His election and the elections of several others occurred at the white-collar union’s Second Triennial Delegates’ Conference in Abuja that was attended by 470 branch and zonal leaders. 
 
The two-day conference featured a sharp exchange on the opening day, 29 April, between Minister of Labour and Productivity Dr Hassan Lawal and fiery Adams Oshiomhole, the former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, who is governor-in-waiting in Edo State.
<img height="146" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0805PengassanMayDay.jpg" width="220" alt=""/>
 PENGASSAN members at May Day rally in Abuja 
 

Oshiomhole, who was duly elected a year ago but awaits taking office in Edo due to a legal challenge by the former incumbent governor, called on PENGASSAN to extract no more crude oil at US$120-per-barrel “if the proceeds are to be shared by irresponsible political leadership. That will not be patriotic,” he said. Oshiomhole was referring to alleged corrupt practices of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. 
 
Following the reading of a prepared text from current President Umaru MusaYar’Adua by Lawal, the Labour Minister took exception with Oshiomhole’s comments. He stated that such a call “was out of place, especially since Comrade Oshiomhole has acknowledged the good works President Yar’Adua is doing, especially trying to right some of the wrongs of the immediate past government.” 
 
Lawal added that if the country’s oil workers stopped drilling, the government would take it upon itself to contract such drilling with outside providers. Labour Minister Lawal also remarked on the PENGASSAN upstream strike against Mobil Producing Nigeria, and his efforts to resolve the strike by 1,400 trade union members. He called Mobil’s two-year wage offer of 10% “totally unfair and unacceptable.” 
 
PENGASSAN did present a series of constitutional amendments to delegates, including a new fees formula between the National Secretariat and branches, but due to a logistical glitch, the amendments were not acted upon. Delegates also heard from Dr Muhammad Auwal Umar of Bayero University in Kano, who delivered a stirring address on why labour unions must reposition themselves for a greater role in civil society. 
 
Babatunde Ogun won election to the union’s top over two other candidates, including incumbent Peter Esele. A mechanical engineer who has been employed by Mobil Producing at the Qua Iboe crude export terminal in Eket, Ogun state, for the past 12 years, Comrade Ogun was Deputy President three years ago when he challenged Uche Okoro for the presidency. He lost in that election, held early in 2005, and Esele, elected then as Deputy Vice President, became PENGASSAN’s president when Comrade Okoro was killed in an airplane crash on 10 December 2005 near Port Harcourt.
<img height="147" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaPengassan.JPG" width="140" alt=""/>
“Our oil and gas policies have to have input in the marketplace,” said the 42-year-old Ogun, following his election. “We must close the gap between government and business on the one hand, and labour on the other. We must also close the gap globally in order that multinationals utilise Nigerians and local content in their operations.” 
 
Re-elected Deputy Vice President was Mustapha Nuhu Wali. The union also elected its first Woman in PENGASSAN, which now is an elected position on the Central Works Committee. That post was won by Orji I. Rose of Chevron Nigeria Ltd. Elected Treasurer was O. Uka Ethelbert, and elected Industrial Relations Officer was Steve Ereyukomhen. 
 
PENGASSAN, an ICEM affiliate numbering 6,000 members, is composed of four zonal offices and some 80 branches, each representing a company segment of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.

PENGASSAN Elects New Leader in Babatunde Ogun

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Rather than negotiate in good faith with print shop members of UK union Unite, a book producer did the unthinkable: it suddenly sacked 287 workers and took the company into liquidation. 
 
Butler and Tanner, a 170-year-old printer in Frome, Somerset, that was bought last year by Media and Print Investments (MPI), had informed UK’s Advisory, Conciliation, and Mediation Service (ACAS) that it was prepared for further talks with Unite over the weekend of 25-27 April in order to avert a planned 30 April industrial action.
<img width="120" height="60" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UKFlag.gif"/>
Instead, Butler and Tanner’s chairman issued a terse letter to all 287 union members, received on 26 April, that the prestigious colour book printer was closing immediately. Unite then learned that the company had deployed labour agency staff to continue operations. 
 
Union members last Tuesday, 29 April, voted to take legal action to recover £12,000 per worker in lost wages and £44,000 in total pension contributions for the workforce. The union also organised a mass rally at the locked plant gates on 2 May. 
 
United National Officer Ann Field called it a “despicable act,” and said the union will demand full recompense. The union’s Assistant General Secretary, Tony Burke, said staff had given their working lives to make Butler and Tanner one of UK’s quality book printers, “but they decided enough was enough when the goalposts for an agreement were constantly moved.” 
 
Print workers had conceded pay cuts and other economic items when private equity company MPI took over in August 2007. The company was currently seeking another £1 million in cost reductions, including radical shift changes, as well as a clause in a proposed new contract that would restrict Unite’s ability to negotiate for workers.

Book Printer Suddenly Closes in UK, Leaving 287 Jobless

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ICEM’s Central European Regional Council was held in Katowice, Poland, on 29 April, and leaders of affiliates from eight Central European countries discussed trends and developments within the ICEM region, as well as global matters. 
 
The problems mentioned by ICEM’s trade union leaders of the region often mirrored those from neighbouring countries. Workers in most countries face problems with stagnant wages – and extremely low minimum wages – as well as high inflation rates. In Croatia, many workers do not earn more than €8 per day.
<img width="160" height="85" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Polandsolidarnosc.jpg" alt=""/>
The ICEM Central European Regional meeting was hosted by Polish trade union sentre Solidarnosc
Unions in Croatia are calling for a minimum wage to be set at the level of 50% of the average wage. Unions in other countries are setting that bar at 60%. In several Central European nations, the current minimum wage is often lower – 40% of the average wage, or even lower.
<img width="120" height="60" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CroatiaFLAG.gif" alt=""/>
Croatia 
Progress is slow on that front, but it is being made. In Slovakia, for example, union and employers are now jointly negotiating a new minimum wage through social dialogue. In Romania, the minimum wage was raised last year from €100 to €150 per month. 
 
Standard wages do differ between countries. An average wage in Bosnia stands at around €300, whereas the average salary in Poland, before taxes, is around €800. The wage differences between sectors inside some countries are oftentimes wide. Some Polish workers barely earn €300 per month, while others make €1,700.
<img width="120" height="60" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/BosniaFLAG.gif" alt=""/>
 Bosnia-Herzegovina
Overall, unions in Central Europe are generally reporting progress. One such area that is progressing is negotiations with multinational companies. In nearly all countries, privatisation exercises continue and that does cause serious hardship for many trade union members. Unions do report that fair dismissal packages are now being won, a welcome change from previous years. Another positive aspect is that relations with incoming multinational companies are improving. 
 
Engagement in social dialogue is a key priority for most unions, including with several non-European multinational investors. This phenomenon has grown rapidly over the last few years. Multinational companies from Russia, Turkey, India, and South Korea are no longer the exception. Regrettably, industrial relations with some of these firms (for example, Korean Hankook Tire in Hungary) are acrimonious, since some of these newly-arrived companies lack relevant experience with the European social dialogue system. 
 
Nearly all trade union leaders attending the regional meeting also mentioned the positive, and growing, international cooperation between unions in the region. Trade unions and their members are increasingly attending each other’s demonstrations, across borders, and are sharing more and more information. 
 
Also reported was the vastly improved trade union cooperation inside countries. This is occurring between unions that often belong to different national confederations. One clear example came from Poland, where a joint ICEM-EMCEF office is being set up, allowing six industrial unions to speak with one voice. 
 
As a result of this increased cooperation, there also appears to be a growing political will to do away with the problem of having too many unions inside one country. Leaders spoke of the need for consolidation and mergers, in order to avoid situations where unions compete with each other. 
 
Unions in Serbia, for example, spoke of improvements in their own operations, as they manage, frequently after changing internal structures, to halt the drop in union membership and boost affiliation fees.
<img width="120" height="71" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Serbiaflag.gif" alt=""/>
Serbia
Related to these efforts was an overview by Mato Lalic on the South-East European Education Project for ICEM and IUF affiliates. He reported on a number of successes from this project, which is expected to enter its last two-year cycle this year. For over ten years, Lalic has organised over 300 seminars, workshops, and seminars, with over 6,000 trade unionists attending. And some 30-to- 40% of these participants have been women. 
 
Some problems, however, remain country-specific, such as the after-war issue of the non-payment of pensions in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Also, austerity measures were cited as a measure to offset the GDP deficit in Hungary. 
 
Other problems appear simultaneously in all countries. Many spoke, for example, of anticipated difficulties – and possible long and hard struggles – in relation to the expected increases of the statutory pension age in their respective country. The issue of green jobs, and the need to have an ecological balance, but also the possible difficulties that industries may face as a result of a more stringent emissions rights system, were equally mentioned by many.

Reports from Central Europe Regional Meeting Point to Cautious Optimism

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African trade union leader  François Yao announced that a 34-month dispute between ICEM affiliate National Union of Workers in Electricity, Gas, and Water (SYNASEG) in Côte d’Ivoire and Compagnie Ivoirienne d’Electricité (CIE), a subsidiary of French-based Bouygues Group, ended recently with a framework labour agreement calling for continual social dialogue and respect for trade union rights. 
 
The framework accord was signed on 30 April 2008, after five months of intense negotiations between SYNASEG leaders and CIE. Yao, the SYNASEG General Secretary, announced the agreement at a 1 May, Workers’ Day, news conference. 
 
“We have now opened a new spirit of tolerance and dialogue that will ensure harmony and cohesion within (our country’s) electrical sector,” he said. He termed the negotiations “difficult, but frank and sincere,” and credited Bouygues’ chief manager in Côte d’Ivoire, Marcel Zadi Kessy, with providing an atmosphere that made the draft agreement possible.
<img height="66" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/IvorycoastFlag.gif" width="100" border="1"/>
The union will now begin informational meetings with electricity workers across the West African nation in order to inform them of the accord. 
 
The agreement calls for regular, quarterly meetings between the new social partners. It also pledges both parties to a common goal of profitability and lifting the living conditions of CIE’s workforce. And specifically, SYNASEG won full participation in the affairs of the Mutual Investment Fund, a fund established years ago for training, placement, and workers’ needs. It was the company taking unilateral control of that fund in 2006-2007 that brought the dispute to a near strike in March 2007. Workers make contributions to the fund.
<img height="101" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Maps/CotedIvoire.png" width="220" border="1"/>
  
The dispute itself began in 2005 when CIE began systematic attacks on SYNASEG. That was seen as retaliation against the union for its backing of a then government plan to renationalise the utility and end Bouygues’ 15-year contract. The ICEM had brought the dispute to both global attention, and to the attention of French social partners. 
 
The ICEM commends both its Côte d’Ivoire affiliate and the Bouygues affiliate for reaching a framework agreement that will ensure social harmony. “We are sure that this recently achieved milestone of mutual respect and joint confidence will carry the SYNASEG-CIE partnership to greater rewards for both workers and the company,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda.

Three-year Dispute Between Côte d’Ivoire’s SYNASEG and Bouygues Subsidiary Ends

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Two ICEM affiliates in Turkey, Kristal-İş and Lastik-İş, are bracing for industry-wide strikes in the coming weeks due to break-downs in negotiations. The unions have been negotiating with employers’ associations since autumn 2007, but without achieving final resolves. 
 
Salary issues are the main stumbling blocks in both sets of talks.
<img height="41" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/TURKEYKRISTALIS.jpg" width="160" alt=""/>
Kristal-İş, representing glass workers, is now in its twenty-first term of industry negotiations with the Turkish Glass, Cement, and Soil Industry Employers’ Association. The bargaining covers 6,000 workers at 11 plant sites operated by glassware companies Paşabahçe, Trakya Cam, Anadolu Cam, and Cam Elyaf. 
 
All are entities of the Siscam Group, the fast-growing glasswares multinational that has factories in Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia, and Georgia. 
 
After months of stalled negotiations, on 5 May, the last session, the glass association made a miniscule offer covering social bonuses, while failing to put any offer forward regarding salary increases. With no further progress in talks since that date, the Kristal- İş Executive Committee decided on 9 May to pursue strike action. 
 
In the tyre industry, Lastik-İş has been negotiating with three rubber multinationals – Bridgestone Brisa Sabanci, Pirelli Lastikleri, and Goodyear Lastikleri. The talks cover 4,000 workers at four factories in the cities of Izmit and Adapazari.
<img height="120" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/TURKEYLastikIs.jpg" width="160" alt=""/>
Some 29 agenda items out of 59 have been concluded in the industry-wide collective talks, but the remainder are at impasse. A recent mediation session did not produce results. The main disagreements cover salaries for new hires, annual paid holidays, the use of temporary workers, and work hours. 
 
Lastik İş is demanding a wage increase of 12% for the first six-month period of a two-year contract, and the Turkish rate of inflation for each six-month period over the remaining 18 months. 
 
The union is also adamant in retaining rights gained in the past 50-year history of collective negotiations, and seeks to exclude industry-proposed rules regarding work flexibility. 
 
The rubber employers’ association has not put forward proposals concerning salaries or social bonuses. The Executive Committee of Lastik-İş, on 8 May, decided to endorse strike action.
<img height="101" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Turkey.png" width="220" alt=""/>
While Kristal- İş has not announced a date for it strike to begin, Lastik İş President Abdullah Karacan told the Anatolia News Service that a rubber strike has been set for 31 May. Under Turkey’s Collective Agreements, Strikes, and Lock-outs Law, work stoppages must now occur within a two-month period from the time a petition was submitted. In the past, however, strikes called by both unions were banned by the government because of so-called “national security” issues. 
 
In tyre talks in 2004, a government decree prohibiting an industry-wide strike was overturned by Turkey’s Supreme Court. That fact brought the rubber association to agreeable terms with Lastik- İş. 
 
The ICEM will continue to follow developments and lend unequivocal support to its two affiliates in their respective industry-wide collective talks. 
 
Meanwhile, Petrol- İş, another Turkish affiliate of the ICEM, has taken strike action at Nese Plastics, a company operating in the city of Gebze. Some 141 union members are striking. Negotiations began on 5 December 2007, but management of Nese Plastics has not made a wage offer, insisting on paying current salaries despite high inflation rates in Turkey.

ICEM’s Turkish Glass, Tyre Unions Readied for Strike Action

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The ICEM filed strong protest with the government of South Korea last week over the detention and deportation of two leaders of the Migrants’ Trade Union (MTU). President Tornu Limbu and Vice President Abudus Sabur were arrested outside the union’s offices in Seoul on 2 May, and held in the Cheongju Detention Centre. 
 
The two were deported by South Korea’s Justice Ministry on 15 May, according to a release issued by Amnesty International. Due process was denied them, as they were not given legal rights to challenge the deportation order.
<img height="101" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthKorea.png" width="220"/>
“It is very clear to the ICEM, and its 475 affiliates in 173 countries, that the two have been incarcerated because of their trade union activities, a clear violation of accepted international norms and standards,” stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda in a letter to the Korean head of Mission at the UN in Geneva last week. “Migrant workers, like all other workers, deserve the respect and treatment afforded them under freedom of association, as enshrined in ILO Convention 87.” Click <a href="/en/7-Asia-Pacific/2652-ICEM-Letter-to-Korea-Over-Detention-Expulsion-of-Migrant-Workers'-Leaders" type="internal">here</a> to find the ICEM letter. 
 
Reportedly, both Tornu Limbu, a citizen of Nepal, and Abudus Sabur, from Bangladesh, were beaten while in detention. The crack-down occurred just following newly-elected South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s public vow that foreign workers in the country, who are without the necessary papers, will be flushed out of Korea even through use of force. 
 
Limbu, 42, and Sabur, 39, had been effectively organising migrant workers in the country for 16 and nine years, respectively. Limbu has been a vocal critic of the difficulties and unfairness inherent in the work permit process in Korea for foreign workers.
The MTU and the fight for rights for migrant workers have the backing of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. On 18 March, the plight of migrant workers in Korea was the central focus of a seminar in Geneva, which called on the United Nations to take strong action to ensure that migrant workers work with dignity as part of their basic human rights.

ICEM Protests Expulsions by Korea of Migrant Workers’ Union Leaders

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An expected conclusion to the 11-day strike in Namibia at Skorpion Zinc yesterday did not occur, due to company insistence that wages be tied to ICEM affiliate Mineworkers’ Union of Namibia (MUN) withdrawing a pending court case. During negotiations yesterday – talks that were expected to finalise a new labour agreement and end the strike – management “took a full u-turn” on many issues resolved over the weekend, according to MUN President Andries Eiseb. 
 
The MUN has suspended the strike, but has given no guarantee that a further walk-out by its 450 union members at the zinc mining and smelting operation near Rosh Pinah in southwestern Namibia will not occur. 
 
In talks yesterday, management linked a 12% pay offer to Skorpion, owned by major mining house AngloAmerican, gaining an exemption from Namibia’s Labour Ministry to move to continuous operations. MUN gave the company a promise that it would support such an application to the government, but that pledge hinged on workers immediately gaining the pay hike 
 
Also, Skorpion management changed the effective date of any new agreement, from 1 May 2008 to the effective date of signing.
<img height="66" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NamibiaFlag.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
The court matter, dating to 2004, involves compensation – specifically, overtime pay – on the operation’s shift to continuous operations. MUN has argued that overtime pay be tied to the basic requirements contained in Namibia’s labour code. 
 
“The company’s demand that the wage issue can only be settled once the court action has been withdrawn has crippled the whole negotiation process,” said Eiseb. “We feel we are being kept at ransom to a pending court case, said Eiseb, adding that the company’s negotiation posture has been one of “bad faith, intimidation, harassment, and arrogance.” 
 
The strike by 680 miners at one of the world’s richest zinc operations began on 9 May. The ICEM believes that the MUN and its membership has been a steadfast partner in an operation which has provided the London-based company with its largest profit contribution of late. Since Skorpion came fully on line in 2005, zinc prices on global markets have risen more than 300%.

Skorpion Reneges; Deal to Settle Zinc Dispute in Namibia is Scuttled

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South Africa’s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) granted the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) certification to go on a 24-hour strike. The strike occurs on 4 December. The CCMA simultaneously worked out agreement between the powerful 300,000-member South African trade union and the Chamber of Mines over a safety protocol. 
 
Tomorrow’s walkout marks the first time in 20 years that a general strike has occurred across the gold, diamond, platinum, and coal mining sectors in South Africa. Some 60 companies will be affected. 
<img height="103" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthafricaNUM.gif" width="100"/>
The strike certification comes with a successful protocol pact between the NUM and the Chamber of Mines, one that includes the right to a national mine-safety strike on 4 December. The agreement cites “involvement of all role players” to improve mine health and safety, including least senior employees in mining enterprises. 
 
It also creates a high-level, senior task force between the NUM, the mining houses, and the Department of Minerals and Energy that will engage and take actions early in 2008. The companies, through the Chamber, agreed to cooperate with all union structures to improve workplace conditions, and will better utilise NUM’s health and safety representatives. The two sides agreed to expeditiously review and analyze existing recommendations regarding health and safety. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthAfrica.png" width="250"/>
NUM and the Chamber also agreed to hold a full dialogue on the outcome of a presidential audit on mine health and safety. That audit will start this month in over 700 South African mines, and is a direct result of 3,200 miners being trapped at Harmony Gold’s Elandsrand mine in October. 
 
In the meantime, the death rate in and around South African mines keeps climbing. 
 
Goldfields recorded two deaths within a day of each other on 23-24 November at separate worksites, and the same happened at two South African mines of Australian-based Aquarium Platinum – on 15 November and 24 November. Also, a NUM member at Impala Platinum’s Marula mine in Limpopo province was killed on 22 November. All of these recent deaths were due to rock slides, except one of at Goldfields, where a worker was struck and killed by a train at Driefontein.

Safety Agreement Reached in South Africa; National Strike Tomorrow

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Several Belgian trade unions, as well as NGOs, will be forming a human rights chain at the Brussels Palace of Justice on 10 December, International Human Rights Day. Among the Belgian trade unions that have signed on to the event are ICEM-affiliated La Centrale Générale FGBT/ABVV, ACV/CSC, LBC-NVK, and CNE. 
 
Also taking part will be the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists, the Global Union Federation for journalists and allied workers. 
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Focussing on the dangerous situations for trade unionists around the world, participating organisations will target a number of specific countries where trade unionists are in every-day danger of violence, kidnapping, or even assassination. The 10 December event in Brussels will highlight the cases of Jonas Burgos from the Philippines, Pedro Zamora from Guatemala, and Ana Sylvia Melo de Rodríguez from Colombia. 
<img height="203" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Belgium.png" width="200"/>
All are people who were either murdered or disappeared in 2007. Jonas Burgos, an agriculturist working with peasant groups in the Philippines, disappeared on 28 April. He is the son of free speech advocate and opposition newspaper owner Malaya Jose Burgos. Ana Sylvia Melo, a trade unionist with CGT-SINDIMANUELA in Colombia, was assassinated on 19 May. And Pedro Zamora, the leader of Guatemalan dockworkers’ union STEPQ, who campaigned to rid corruption in the privatisation of Puerto Quetzal, was murdered on 15 January. 
 
The action starts at 19h30 on Monday, 10 December. For more information in Dutch, click <a href="http://www.wereldsolidariteit.be/dmdocuments/10.12.07_affiche%20+%20pamflet%20ned ">here</a>. For the French version, click <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/affiche%20+%20pamflet%20fra%20def.pdf">here</a>.

Trade Union/Human Rights Chain Happening in Brussels 10 December

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