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<img height="39" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100"/>
ICEM Turkish trade union affiliate Lastik-İş made good on its 8 May strike notice by calling 4,000 tyre manufacturing workers out at four factories, operated by three multinational tyre companies. The strikes began late on Saturday, 31 May. 
 
Negotiations continued until the early morning hours of that day, with the employers’ association offering last-minute wage and social payment proposals to avert strikes. Those offers were presented to rank-and-file members of Lastik-İş, but were rejected by an accumulative 80% vote.
<img height="178" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0805Turkey3.jpg" width="180"/>
Lastik-İş President Abdullah Karacan 
 

The strikes then began at factories of Bridgestone Brisa Sabanci and Pirelli, and two plants operated and majority- owned by US-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. The four tyre plants are in the Turkish cities of Izmit and Adapazari. The union and management association has been negotiating since September 2007 on a new labour agreement. 
 
“The decision to strike was taken by workers and I believe we shall overcome the employers’ intransigence,” said Lastik-İş President Abdullah Karacan. “The salary offer made by employers is far from meeting the work performed by tyre workers. Our decisiveness for gaining our demands is resolute.” 
 
The union is seeking a 12% wage increase for the first six-month period of a two-year labour agreement, and the Turkish rate of inflation for each six-month period thereafter. The tyre companies are resisting inflation-rate payments for the three six-month periods. The two sides differ also on various social payments customary in Turkish work schemes.
<img height="240" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0805Turkey4.jpg" width="360"/>
Striking Rubber Workers at Pirelli Factory 
All agenda items within the 59-article labour contract, save for the wage and social payment items, have been agreed upon by the two sides. 
 
Goodyear operates an auto, light truck, bus, and heavy equipment tyre plant in Adapazari, employing 800 rubber workers, and a truck, bus, and agriculture tyre plant in Izmit, where 500 workers are employed. Bridgestone Brisa Sabanci, jointly owned by Japanese-based Bridgestone and Sabanci Group of Turkey, manufactures auto, truck, and heavy equipment tyres in Izmit, employing 1,500, while Italian-based Pirelli has another auto and truck tyre plant in Izmit, in which 1,200 workers are employed.

4,000 Turkish Rubber Workers Strike Bridgestone, Goodyear, and Pirelli

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After 14 long months of struggle and dispute with American consumer products company Procter & Gamble, 350 workers represented ably by Sindicato de Trabajadores de Procter & Gamble Industrial Peru (SINTRA P&G) have won their first collective agreement through arbitration. 
 
In the agreement, the union secured fundamental workers’ rights principles guaranteed under ILO standards, particularly the right of freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively. In making the announcement, the Peruvian union thanked the ICEM and other organisations for assistance and solidarity since the new union began organising at the chemicals, soaps, and detergents factory in San Isidro, near Lima, in March 2007.
<img height="105" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0806PandGPeruUnionLogo.jpg" width="140" alt=""/>
  
The contract became viable through arbitration with the Ministry of Labour and Employment Promotion. Procter & Gamble Peru management had resisted going to arbitration throughout, despite the fact that it had engaged in previous such sessions with a predecessor union. 
 
SINTRA P&G has now pledged to take up the cause of 39 trade unionists at the factory who had been fired for asserting their right to form a union. SINTRA P&G stated that despite the resistance from management to form a union, “It is now time to turn the page and encourage all to move forward on the right path” of active trade unionism, referring to organising and collective bargaining. 
 
The union’s intention now is work toward an improved second collective agreement, and SINTRA P&G has opened its doors to all workers who seek healthy work lives. Procter & Gamble Peru also utilizes 400 indirect workers in its production and distributions operations. 
 
The ICEM welcomes the recent success of its future Peruvian affiliate!

SINTRA P&G Successful in First Contract at Procter & Gamble Peru

<img height="39" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
Strategic planning was the focus of an ICEM Latin American/Caribbean Region meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay, from 8-9 May. Following up on ICEM Congress motions, delegates defined actions and activities for the period 2008-2011. 
 
The meeting was attended by members of the regional committee, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, ICEM Latin America/Caribbean Vice President Sergio Novais, country project coordinators, regional Contact Person Carol Bruce, as well as Regional Secretary Jorge Almeida of the Federación Internacional de Trabajadores de las Industrias Metalúrgios (FITAM), the regional body of the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF).
<img height="165" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0704Manfred.jpg" width="120" alt=""/>
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda 
Warda explained the concrete meaning of many decisions made at Congress, including offering means for social dialogue with multinationals and working toward Global Framework Agreements with companies. He noted that in Latin America, Rhodia, Freudenberg, Endesa, Degussa, SCA, Lafarge, and Umicore are companies in which ICEM has agreements. An effective workers’ rights agenda at those companies can be implemented, he said. 
 
Warda encouraged trade unions in the region to check that these companies adhere to the principals contained in the respective agreements. He also cited Brazilian state oil company Petrobras and the growing global mining house from Brazil, Vale, as companies in which to approach for social dialogue. 
 
The ICEM campaign of Contract and Agency Labour was also thoroughly discussed. Warda said the ICEM is beginning to coordinate this campaign with other Global Union Federations (GUFs) in efforts to counter the worst trends of this phenomenon. It was also noted that in Latin America, there have been excellent examples of meaningful social dialogue with companies on the issue, and that those experiences should be shared with other regions. 
 
The regional committee also moved to commemorate 28 July 2008 as a memorial to the 200 contract workers who lost their lives due to a landslide while constructing a hydroelectric dam 25 years earlier near Ubalá Cundinamarca, Colombia.
<img height="195" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0704Brazilwomen.jpg" width="260" alt=""/>
Brazilian Women March 
ICEM’s HIV/AIDS policy was also confirmed at the regional meeting, as well the GUF’s policy on gender equality. The issue of sustainable development was also introduced. 
 
A major discussion point was cooperation with other GUFs. It was emphasized that GUF cooperation globally is meaningless unless real ties between trade unions are made on the national and regional level. Colombia was cited as one example in which efforts are being made to build a single national trade union centre. 
 
Most countries in Latin America have strong mining economies, but only in a few of those economies does one find a match with equally strong mining unions. It was stressed that mining trade unions must meet the demands that major investment in the sector brings. 
 
Also at the regional conference, the Coordination of Mercosur Trade Unions presented their work. The organisation campaigns for living wage, eradication of child labour, and better distribution of wealth in the region. It has also a working group engaged on the issue of biofuels, as well as a commission encompassing electric power trade unions. 
 
Since all Latin governments in Mercosur are currently progressive and socially-oriented administrations, delegates said it was a good time to draft a model for social development in the region, as well as draft in detail a social charter. The challenge facing the Mercosur Trade Unions is the low degree of efficiency of union organisations, and how to improve that. 
 
The group defined these priorities and conclusions in the region: subcontracting; Global Framework Agreements and trade union rights; HIV/AIDS; the environment; and gender equity. Delegates concluded that networks, social dialogue, and cooperation were the key. 
 
The issue of modernisation of trade union structures and involvement of young workers in the trade union movement was discussed and stressed as imperative in strengthening those structures. This will take further involvement in the ICEM.
<img height="58" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/GermanyFES.jpg" width="120" alt=""/>
Immediately following the strategic planning conference in Uruguay, ICEM organised a meeting in Buenos Aires with trade unions there to heighten relationships. Germany’s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation (FES) lent valuable assistance in order for this to occur.

ICEM Latin American/Caribbean Region Firms Action Plan for 2008-2011

<img height="78" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="160"/>
A 14-day tyre strike by 4,000 members of ICEM affiliate Lastik-İş in Turkey ended Friday night, 13 June, and workers at three multinational rubber companies were back on their jobs for the afternoon shift on 14 June. 
 
The strike ended when a two-year accord was reached between the union and the three employers, who jointly represent the tyre industry in talks. The companies include Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Bridgestone Brisa Sabanci, and Pirelli.
The bargaining on 13 June was the first set of negotiations since the strike began on 31 May. Talks first began on a renewal labour agreement for 2008-2009 for the four tyre factories in September 2007. 
 
The two sides agreed to a 14% pay increase for the year 2008, and an increase equaling the Turkish rate of inflation for 2009. In 2007, the Turkish rate of inflation was 8.39% and is expected to rise above that this year. Lastik-İş had sought a 12% wage hike for the first six months of 2008, with increases matching the inflation rate in each six-month period through 2009. 
 
All levels of social benefits will also increase by the inflation rate over the life of the labour agreement. The ICEM, the Global Union Federation covering the chemicals, rubber, plastics, and pharmaceutical sectors, considers the 2008-2009 Turkish rubber agreement a major achievement, considering wage and social benefit gains were stymied in the late 1990s and early years of this decade due to strike bans imposed by the Turkish government.
<img height="178" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0805Turkey3.jpg" width="180"/>
 Lastik-İş President Abdullah Karacan 
 

“We didn’t make any concessions, we preserved our contractual and work-rule provisions, and we posted substantial economic gains,” stated Lastik-İş President Abdullah Karacan. “The decisiveness of our union members at these four factories was effective and ultimately proved successful in bargaining.” 
 
The four tyre plants, which saw workers return to work at 16h00 on 14 June, include two of US-based Goodyear in Izmit and Adapazari, and one operated by Bridgestone Brisa Sabanci, a joint venture between Japan-based Bridgestone and the Turkish Sabanci Group, and the other owned by Italian-based Pirelli. Both the Bridgestone and Pirelli plants are located in Izmit.

Turkey’s 14-Day Rubber Strike Ends with 14% First year Wage Gain

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Negotiations today in Baku, Azerbaijan, between ICEM affiliate Oil and Gas Industry Workers’ of Azerbaijan (OGWUA), Agip Azerbaijan BV, and Keppel FELS of Singapore will attempt to resolve issues surrounding a strike by 1,000 contractors of Agip that occurred on Wednesday, 11 June.
Agip, a subsidiary of Italy-based Eni, is constructing offshore oil rigs at Caspian Shipyards Co. Ltd., owned and operated by Keppel.
The contractors, mostly Azeri citizens, seek salaries that match those paid foreign workers and corrections to their labour agreements, according to OGWUA Chairman Jahangir Aliyev. The workers also seek improvements in food allowances, and they seek to have their salaries paid in the national currency of Azerbaijan.
<img height="203" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0711Azerbaijan2.jpg" width="280"/>
OGWUA Chairman Jahangir Aliyev
The ICEM supports the demands made by the workers, and states that they made the correct decision in turning to OGWUA for help in negotiations.
In late 2005, workers constructing rigs for US-based McDermott International struck for union recognition, and OGWUA stepped in to win important gains. Since, the union which once only represented workers of Azeri state company Socar, has aptly represented 20,000 oil and gas workers in the western Caspian region, workers employed by many oil and gas service companies.

Contract Workers of Agip in the Caspian Strike for Equal Pay

<img height="35" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids ribbon.jpg" width="25" alt=""/>
HIV/AIDS Project in India Launched 
 
The ICEM HIV/AIDS Project, in cooperation with affiliates in India and sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim, a German world leader in pharmaceuticals, was launched with a planning workshop in Delhi on 3-4 July. 
 
The workshop was attended by 16 participants from ICEM affiliates in the cement, diamond, chemicals, and coal mining sectors. The workshop benefited from the participation of SM Afsar, Technical Specialist, HIV/AIDS South Asia, and National Programme Coordinator, HIV/AIDS and the World of Work, and his assistant, Joshila. Coal India Limited was represented by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer of a regional coal mine, Dr Anurag Verma. The talk by Ms. Bhagwati, an HIV+ person invited by the ILO, was exceptional. She radiated will-power and confidence. 
 
At the beginning of the implementation phase of the project, the ILO will do the initial training of a select group of master trainers from coal mining, chemicals, diamonds, and the cement sectors as technical support. This will be based on their trainers’ manual for HIV/AIDS peer educators. These master trainers will, in turn, train the peer educators. 
 
The course for master trainers will be held in Kolkata, 18-20 August. In September 2008, the training of peer educators/lay counsellors by the master trainers will commence. It is envisaged that 500 peer educators will be trained (400 mining, 50 cement, and 25 each for chemicals and diamonds). 
 
With the conclusion of the training of the peer educators, they will carry it to workers, family members, and members of the community. In the period to December 2009, each peer educator should reach 1,000 people. This is ambitious, but participants were enthusiastic and confident that this goal can be achieved. 
 <img height="35" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="25" alt=""/>
CEP Humanity Fund Supports HIV/AIDS Project in Nigeria 
 
The Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada agreed to support a joint project in cooperation with the ICEM HIV/AIDS Project and affiliates in Nigeria. Through the union’s Humanity Fund, CEP is contributing to train HIV/AIDS counsellors within ICEM’s two oil and gas union affiliates, NUPENG and PENGASSAN. 
 
The project will extend ICEM’s work in Nigeria in training peer counsellors to provide HIV and AIDS awareness, education, and testing for workers and their families. 
 
CEP’s Humanity Fund is unique in that funding comes through negotiated agreements with Canadian employers. To date, some 100 CEP locals, numbering 30,000 workers, have successfully negotiated payments into the Humanity Fund with employers. In 2007, contributions to the Humanity Fund increased by 30%. The CEP currently is also funding a project in partnership with the Fédération des Travailleurs de Québec on HIV/AIDS awareness with an oil workers’ union in Chad. 
 
CEP heralds the fund as not charity, but rather solidarity in “building partnerships with workers’, community, and women’s organisations in developing countries.” 
 <img height="35" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="25" alt=""/>
News from Affiliates 
 
ICEM affiliates in Nepal have mainstreamed HIV/AIDS in Occupational Safety and Health training. In a workshop, attended by 31 participants and resource persons, information on transmission and prevention was given. Participants resolved to intensify awareness campaigns at the grass-root level. 
 
NUPENG and PENGASSAN, ICEM affiliates in Nigeria, continued their successful HIV/AIDS activities with a training workshop for peer educators/lay counsellors in Ibadan on 4-6 June 2008. The workshop was organised by national HIV/AIDS coordinator Olawale Afolabi. Twelve unionists received intensive training on peer education and counselling skills. Resource persons from SMARTWork facilitated technical sessions of the workshop. 
 
The United Mineworkers’ Union (UMU) of Sierra Leone organised two workshops at the end of May. The workshops were aimed at building capacity for shop stewards, grassroots diggers, and community members, and to promote behaviour change and advocacy of VCT. 
 
In Zambia, ICEM affiliates Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia (MUZ) and the National Union of Commercial and Industry Workers (NUCIW) have started on a series of follow-up workshops for peer educators to ascertain the achievements and difficulties faced by peer educators trained in previous years. Long working hours and the unwillingness of management to allow time for talks on HIV/AIDS were cited as the main difficulties. 
 
In Côte d’Ivoire, national coordinator Charlotte Nguessan organised a training course for VCT counsellors from the unions. The course was spread over five weekends and included pre- and post-test counselling and practical cases at CIRBA, a medical centre which also facilitated the training. 
 <img height="35" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="25" alt=""/>
ICEM Sub-Saharan Women Draft Women’s Charter; Global Women’s Committee Adopts Action Plan on Zimbabwe 
 
The Women’s Committee of ICEM’s Sub-Saharan Africa Region met in Accra, Ghana, on 5-7June to draft a women’s charter for Africa. After a brainstorming session, three major issues were identified: decent work, gender justice, and HIV/AIDS. 
 
In relation to HIV/AIDS, the women unionists from ten Sub-Saharan African countries discussed cultural features, such as polygamy and female genital mutilation, which present particular challenges to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. 
 
The ICEM Women’s Committee, meeting in Geneva on 19 June, adopted an Action Plan on Zimbabwe. The violence by the bankrupt ZANU-PF government has hit women particularly hard. Those affected by HIV/AIDS are most vulnerable. Proper treatment to prevent spread from mother to child is not available. In their desperation, women have become commercial sex workers and hence, add to the spread of the virus. 
 
Operations of all NGOs, which have been a major conduit for HIV/AIDS services, have been suspended. Although it was reported that more than 400 organisations working in the HIV/AIDS sector would be allowed to operate again, war veterans and ZANU-PF militants have prevented them doing their valuable work in areas of dire need. 
 <img height="35" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="25" alt=""/>
UN High-level Meeting on HIV/AIDS – Union Leader Speaks up on Workplace Interventions 
 
The UN General Assembly organised a high-level meeting on 10-11 June to review progress on the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS. 
 
While progress has been made on reducing infections, bringing down the death rate, and increasing the number of people on anti-retroviral treatment (ART), the number of people newly infected still outnumber the number of people who have been treated in 2007 by five-to-two, i.e. 2.5 million newly infected as compared to one million on ART (see article below). 
 
During the civil society hearing, workplace responses were addressed by Romano Ojiambo Ochieng, General Secretary of the Ugandan Amalgamated Transport and General Workers’ Union. He emphasised that HIV/AIDS is a workplace issue, linked to the broader issues of economic growth and sustainable development. 
 
The potential of the workplace as a vital entry point for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programmes continues to be overlooked. Many national plans to fight the pandemic still lack a strategy for the world of work. 
 
Many companies began to act when they realised that HIV/AIDS programmes were not only good for corporate social responsibility, but also essential for corporate self-interest, evening some cases, the company’s survival. The position of labour unions in the workplace makes them ideally placed to help workers who are reluctant to submit to testing for fear of discrimination. 
 
Ochieng came out with a number of recommendations, including companies seeking new co-investment opportunities must collaborate with unions to strengthen the impact of interventions; to increase investment in training for union activists; to introduce policies keeping with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work; and representation of unions and employers on national HIV/AIDS consultative and policy-making bodies. 
 
(Sources: UN Press Releases and ITF HIV/AIDS Update 46 of 1 July) 
 <img height="35" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="25" alt=""/>
Three Million Now Receiving Life-saving Drugs 
 
The close of 2007 marks an important step in the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Nearly three million people are now receiving anti-retroviral treatment (ART) in low- and middle-income countries, according to a new report jointly launched on 2 June by WHO, UNAIDS, and UNICEF. 
 
The report, Towards Universal Access: Scaling Up Priority Interventions in the Health Sector, also points to other gains. These include improved access to interventions aimed at preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), and expanding testing and counselling. 
 
According to the authors of the report, the close of 2007 saw nearly one million more people receiving ART, bringing the total to almost three million. This figure was the target of the 3x5 initiative that sought to have three million HIV-positive people on treatment by the end of 2005. Although that target was not achieved until two years later, it is widely credited with jump-starting the push towards ART scale-up. 
 
(Source: WHO press release, 2 June) 
 <img height="35" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="25" alt=""/>
Risk Factors for Spread of HIV in Afghanistan High 
 
Although the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is relatively low in Afghanistan, the country’s Ministry of Public Health recently said that the potential risk factors for the spread of the virus are high. These include war, poverty, illiteracy, massive internal and external displacement, the existence of commercial and unsafe sex, and unsafe injection practices and blood transfusions. 
 
There is widespread stigma and a lack of awareness about the disease in Afghanistan. The World Bank has granted US$10 million to the country’s Health Ministry for identifying and creating public awareness among groups most at risk of HIV/AIDS. 
 
(Source: <a href="http://www.news–medical.net">www.news–medical.net</a>, published 28 May and based on a report by Reuters) 
 <img height="35" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Aids%20ribbon.jpg" width="25" alt=""/>
News from the Global Union Programme and Global Unions 
 
In its most recent HIV/AIDS Updates, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) (<a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a>) reports, among other things, on the publication of the ILO report entitled “Saving Lives, Protecting Jobs” on the SHARE project. According to the report, workplace attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS and acceptance of condom use and other preventive measures have increased in the countries covered by the SHARE project. 
 
It further reports on inroads made against the epidemic in Cambodia and the dangers of a potential increase of infections in Sri Lanka because of the large number of commercial sex workers, internally displaced people and migrant workers. In Kiev, the ITF organised an Eastern European sub-regional HIV/AIDS workshop.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin

<img height="126" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CALlogo.jpg" width="294" alt=""/>
What is your experience with contract and agency labour in Denmark? 
 
Firstly, the Danish Trade Unions are organised by trade. This means, for example, that you can have five different trade unions representing the employees in a power plant. The Danish Union of Electricians organises all skilled electrical workers in Denmark. We have collective agreements with most companies in the country, with some dating back to early in the 20th century. 
 
Secondly, contract and agency work is still a growing phenomenon in Denmark. Our union has three strategies for dealing with the issue. First of all, we try to agree on equal rights and equal pay for agency workers in the collective agreements. Already 10 or 15 years ago, we agreed on an appendix in the largest collective agreement between Danish Industries (DI) and CO-Industry, covering 9 unions, with regard to agency workers that are employed in blue-collar jobs. Through this appendix, agency workers in power plants receive the same rights and benefits as their permanent colleagues from day one. 
 
This appended agreement, unfortunately, only covers the blue-collar workers, not white- collar, or professional or technical workers. This is something we are still fighting for, and we hope that the new European Directive on Agency Work will help in this. Even though blue-collar agency workers have, at present, equal rights from day one, there still are some problems. Many of the social rights, such as the right to full sick pay, or the right to training and education, call for a minimum employment period of 6 or 9 months. Agency workers often don’t work long enough to get that far.
<img height="124" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0807JJR.jpg" width="165" alt=""/>
 Dansk El-Forbund Gen. Sec. Jørgen Juul Rasmussen 
 
 


What is your union’s experience on how employers handle their responsibilities regarding agency workers? 
 
Danish employers try hard to find different ways to ignore these agreements. A few years ago, for example, we saw a sudden increase in the use of electricians as agency workers in the construction sector. In our agreement that covers this work (DEF-Tekniq), agency work is not mentioned. This is where our second strategy takes hold. We take the employers’ organisation to court to enforce our contracts and the law. And so far, we have always won. In this particular case, the court decided that the agency workers should be paid according to the general stipulations within the DEF-Tekniq agreement. If not, it would have been seen as a violation of the agreement. They hold that it is the responsibility of primary employers to treat contract or agency workers the same as the permanent employees. 
 
Now, employers will try to circumvent this. They will claim that the workers they hire are subcontractors themselves, or self-employed people. We continue to bring such claims before the courts and so far, we have been winning.
<img height="87" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/DenmarkFLAG.gif" width="115" alt=""/>
How difficult is it to organise contract or agency workers into your existing union structures? 
 
This is exactly the third strategy. We are very pro-active in organising agency workers or so-called subcontractors into our existing unions. We approach these workers inside their companies and on building sites. The problem we encounter is that contract workers of a specific company might be spread out widely over a geographic area, and oftentimes they switch between company to company, so the problem of reaching them is hard. 
 
In the near future, we will keep taking employers who attempt to avoid their responsibilities to labour court; we will continue to organise contract and agency workers; and where we can, and we encourage more unions in Denmark to actively organise these workers as well. Until now, we are the only union in Denmark to do so. But we hope that more unions in Denmark will join us.

Interview with Jørgen Juul Rasmussen, General Secretary, Danish Union of Electricians (Dansk El-Forb

<img height="126" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CALlogo.jpg" width="294" alt=""/>
Unilever has not always been top of the class in its treatment of agency workers in Asia. In 2004, when Unilever Pakistan sold off a plant producing Dalda brand edible oils and fats to a group of company managers, it came as no surprise that the new Dalda managers began applying the lessons learned at Unilever. 
 
As well as buying out the competition, their labour relations’ behaviour involved reducing permanent employment and keeping potential union influence to a minimum. Dalda workers, however, are challenging the denial of trade union rights to agency workers, and are currently fighting back through a newly formed union. 
 
They were encouraged by a successful challenge to casualisation at Coca-Cola Pakistan, and then contacted the IUF and the Coca-Cola union for support. Over 430 workers have signed up as members of the Dalda Food Employees Union, which then applied for official recognition from Pakistan’s relevant authority.
<img height="120" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/unions/IUF.jpg" width="120" alt=""/>
Since they feared a backlash, and were aware of Unilever’s savage reprisals against temporary workers’ at the company’s Rahim Yar Khan factory in Pakistan in November 2007, the union applied to the courts for a “stay order.” This blocked the company from firing workers, or closing the plant. But management violated the order and fired 266 workers at the end of May 2008. 
 
By early June, the union had received official union registration, and with the support of the IUF-affiliated Pakistan National Federation of Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Workers’ Union, applied for collective bargaining status. 
 
Dalda management challenged this, and workers have set up a permanent encampment in front of the plant with support from the Federation. With daily visits from representatives of trade unions, political, and civil society organisations, the camp has become a living symbol of the struggle against Pakistan’s repressive regime of outsourcing and use of casual labour.

Pakistani Food Workers Challenge Unilever’s Casualisation

<img height="39" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100"/>
ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa last week declared wage disputes with three mining houses, DeBeers, Exxaro Resources, and Kumba Resources’ Sishen Iron Ore mine. The wage dispute filings come just days after NUM announced that it would take industrial action at Gold Fields’ four mines in August. 
 
The world’s fourth largest gold producer, Gold Fields, has let safety lapse in South Africa, accounting for 23 of the country’s 87 mining deaths between January and June, 2008. 
 
In late June, NUM and diamond miner DeBeers agreed on salary adjustments for 2008 of 12%. But the company pulled the offer and “put forward a different draft that spoke a different language,” said the NUM. DeBeers offered 11% over a two-year period, an obvious slight to miners, with run-away inflation in South Africa with due to rising food and fuel prices.
<img height="120" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector.JPG" width="120"/>
 
The two sides will meet on 21 July before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) in an effort to resolve the dispute. If agreement is not reached, some 6,000 miners at six DeBeers operations will then take industrial action. 
 
The dispute at Exxaro’s three coal mines is over wage disparities between the collieries that are both inside and out of the Chamber of Mines. NUM is also seeking to establish minimum wage levels. Exxaro is majority owned by private equity company Main Street, with AngloAmerican Plc. holding 9.84%. 
 
At the Sishen Iron ore mine, where 4,000 miners are employed, the dispute is over wages promises that have not been met. 
 
But the continuing story in the South African mining industry revolves around safety. The NUM held a Safety Imdaba from 3-4 July in Boksburg. There, NUM Health and Safety Chairman Peter Bailey stated bluntly, “We need to have the same passion about safety as we did in defeating apartheid.”
<img height="243" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0807NUMpeterBailey.jpg" width="220" alt=""/>
 NUM's Peter Bailey 
 

The summit caused South African Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica to call on the nation’s Justice Ministry to join it in investigating and then prosecuting companies negligent over safety. Despite 1,500 workers dying in the mines in the past five years, the Justice Ministry has not taken up a single prosecution case. A new Mine Health and Safety bill is under consideration in South Africa’s Parliament. It is intended to mandate stricter enforcement measures, and impose harsher fines on those responsible for safety lapses. 
 
At Gold Fields, the company experienced 15 mining deaths between late April to early May at its South Deep and Driefontein mines. And then on 29 June at its 15,000-worker Kloof mine near Westonaria in West Rand, just hours after the company boasted that it had achieved one million fatality-free shifts, two miners were crushed and died 3,000 metres underground due to a ground shift.
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The company’s most egregious accident occurred on 1 May. Nine miners, including two from the same family, plunged 2,880 metres to their deaths at South Deep when a lift cable snapped on a cage that was carrying them. Sonjica said then that the deaths could have been avoided if the infrastructure had been properly checked and maintained. "When you don't service equipment, it will collapse,” she told a South African newspaper. 
 
Six other miners employed by Gold Fields, including five at Driefonteion, had died because of rock falls or earth tremors in the week before.

NUM Files Strike Notice on 3 South Africa Mining Houses; Safety Strike Looms at Gold Fields

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The second meeting of the Brazilian National Network of Unions representing Belgian chemicals and pharmaceutical company Solvay was held from 9-11 June in São Paulo, Brazil. The network was created in September 2007 when Brazilian trade unions at nine worksites gathered to create coordination and solidarity. 
 
Chaired by ICEM Latin America/Caribbean Regional Vice President Sérgio Novais, the network is coordinated by Juvenil Nunes da Costa from the ABC Regional Chemical Workers’ Union of Brazil. With support from the Brazilian national labour centre CUT, the National Confederation of Chemical Workers’ of Brazil (CNQ-CUT), as well as from the ICEM, the meeting also had the full solidarity from Belgian union Centrale Générale and the European Works Council (EWC) of Solvay.
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The EWC sent a solidarity message and a detailed presentation, explaining composition and activities of Solvay’s structure. 
 
Along with the global economic situation of the company, participants gave reports from the nine Brazilian plants. Enhancing integration and solidarity of Solvay’s workers, complying with the major ILO Conventions regarding trade union rights, combating all forms of discrimination, protecting workers’ health and safety, and maintaining the fight against outsourcing were defined as important principles for the network’s activities. 
 
Delegates also decided to seek all opportunities for social dialogue with the company, to increase global solidarity with trade unions throughout the world, and to enter into deeper relations with the EWC. 
 
The Solvay Brazilian Network published a first edition of a newsletter following last September’s meeting, and will do another one shortly to inform all Brazilian Solvay workers of its activities. 
 
Another network meeting has been scheduled for December 2008, again in São Paulo.

Brazilian Solvay Chemicals Network Organises Second Meeting

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