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In Iran, Mansour Osanloo was arrested again, on 19 November. Osanloo is the head of the trade union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company,. 
 
He was detained outside his home, by plain-clothed security officials, a day before he was summoned to appear in court. Officials beat him and forced him, at gunpoint, into a car. Osanloo is said to be held at the Evin Prison, where he may be in need of urgent medical treatment. He had had eye-surgery only days before he was detained, the result of injuries suffered during his previous arrest, earlier this year. 
<img height="56" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Iranflag.gif" width="100"/>
On 26 November, Osanloo appeared before an Iranian court, in the absence of his lawyer. No specific charges were cited, however. Osanloo had been released in August 2006, after an international campaign led by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). See: <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/1661-Iranian-Bus-Drivers-Given-Global-Union-Support" type="internal">/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/1661-Iranian-Bus-Drivers-Given-Global-Union-Support</a>. 
 
According to a press communiqué by the Tehran union, also known as Sherkat-e Vahed, three other unionists were also arrested on 3 December: Seyyed Davoud Razavi and Abdolreza Taraazi, members of the Executive Board, and Gholamreza Gholam-Hosseini, a union activist. The three men were detained as they were distributing leaflets. The first two were released later the same day. Gholamreza Gholam-Hosseini was only released this weekend. 
 
The three men are among the 50 bus workers that are currently still without pay since a January 2006 strike. In July, the ITF and the ITUC already lodged a formal protest before the ILO over Osanloo’s initial detention, and over the crackdown on the union Sherkat-e Vahed.
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The ITF has called the re-arrest an “outrageous attempt to crush both a brave individual and all attempts to assert basic trade union rights in the country.” The ICEM fully supports the call of the ITF to continue to apply pressure on Iranian authorities over human and labour rights. 
 
For more information, including the possibility to take action, please click here: 
<a href="http://www.itfglobal.org/solidarity/Osanloo.cfm">http://www.itfglobal.org/solidarity/Osanloo.cfm</a>.

President of Tehran Bus Company Union Arrested Again

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ICEM HIV/AIDS Regional Workshop 
 
National HIV/AIDS Coordinators from ten sub-Saharan African countries participated in the Regional Workshop in Johannesburg from 4 to 7 December 2006. The workshop was the fourth in a series of workshops held in the framework of the HIV/AIDS projects for the African region during the 2005-2006 project cycle. 
It followed two workshops for national coordinators in 2005 (on initiation and strategies and developing the collective bargaining manual) and one earlier in 2006 on peer education. 
 
The objectives of the workshop were: to identify immediate targets for fundraising, to build arguments on co-investment, to develop own workplace programmes and to write HIV/AIDS projects. The workshop was based on website research and project identification and project writing in small groups. 
 
On fundraising for HIV/AIDS activities it was stressed that funding sources are decentralised. Partnerships have to be built at national and international level; “friendly technicians” have to be found to help in the development of proposals as unions lack the capacity to work with non-traditional methods and arguments (public/private partnerships, co-investment). 
The working of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) was explained. The need to have unions on the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) was emphasised. 
 
It was stressed again that unions must take the lead for workers to be tested. Without knowing their status, there can be no follow-up on HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and support services. Unions can only advocate VCT to employers if workers are secure in their employment. 
Testing at company level is a problem if workers are not confident that results are not passed on, with dismissal as a possible consequence. Workplaces policies and clauses in collective agreements are therefore necessary. An objective should also be to pursue training to have unionists as highly-qualified counsellors. 
 
Two outside experts from the ILOAIDS programme and the German GTZ talked about Tripartite Action in the World of Work and the ACCA (AIDS Control in Companies in Africa) and BACKUP (Building Alliances – Creating Knowledge – Updating Partners) programmes respectively. 
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World AIDS Day – 1 December 
 
Workers and their organisations play an important role in making World AIDS Day a success, yet they are often not recognised for their efforts. Global leaders have promised to deliver Universal Access to HIV/AIDS services for prevention, care and support and treatment by 2010. For unions and workers, this promise needs to become a reality in every workplace. 
 
ICEM affiliates all over the world commemorated World AIDS Day. In summary it can be said that there has been a big improvement in the involvement and activities. Leaders are taking leadership on the issue more seriously and the reported involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS is encouraging. 
 
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, companies and unions organised rallies with banners “Let’s kill AIDS!” In Mali, fairs with information on HIV/AIDS were organised. In Côte d’Ivoire, companies and unions campaigned for testing. In Tanzania, trade unions and PLWHA were represented at the central event in the northern part of the country. Testing and treatment were advocated at a number of mines. 
 
Stigma was the central theme in Botswana where peer educators organised stalls on wellness to drive home the fact that HIV is a condition like others. Apart from the main government-sponsored event in Namibia, the MUN and companies organised HIV/AIDS activities in three southern mines. In Nigeria, NUPENG branches, in cooperation with companies, organised “Know Your Status” campaigns with testing facilities on site. PERESSA organised prevention campaigns in remote communities. 
 
In Zambia, the union was involved in condom promotion and VCT advocacy. In Ghana, the GMWU worked with Gold Fields in Tarkwa to launch the workplace policy and to inaugurate the VCT centre at the Tarkwa district hospital, which was refurbished with a grant from Gold Field and AngloGold Ashanti. 
 
In India, INMF branches and the Institute for Miners and Metal Workers’ Education were particularly active in Chhattisgarh state with rallies, debates and competitions on prevention. 
 
On 1 December, the Financial Times published a special supplement on Business and AIDS. 
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Violence against Women and HIV/AIDS 
 
In conjunction with World AIDS Day (December 1) and International Women Human Rights Defenders Day (November 29), the Center for Women's Global Leadership launched the online version of its new human rights report, Strengthening Resistance: Confronting Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS. 
 
Women in both the global South and North face not only staggering rates of HIV infection, but also un-abating levels of violence, whether at the hands of male partners, police, or community members. While most see these as distinct, women around the world are now calling attention to the ways these experiences can be fundamentally linked. 
When women are - or are even perceived - to be HIV positive, they are at risk of violence, discrimination and other human rights violations. And when women are sexually assaulted, whether in conflict situations or in their homes, they are at risk of contracting HIV. 
 
UNAIDS estimates that there are 17.7 million women living with HIV. There is an urgent need for activists and policymakers to create links between these two crises as they create and reinforce each other. Strengthening Resistance focuses on the points of intersection in the social, political and public health crises of violence against women and HIV/AIDS. 
It provides an overview of the most salient issues, including challenges presented by restrictive and ideologically-driven government donor policies, as well as information on coalition building across HIV and women's movements. It is designed for activists, human rights defenders and policy makers alike. The report highlights nine creative advocacy initiatives from different countries and regions, including South Africa, Haiti, Vietnam, Spain and India. 
 
(Source: Press Release of the Center for Women's Global Leadership, 30 November. The report is available at 
<a href="http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/publications/strengthening.pdf">http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/ 
publications/strengthening.pdf</a>.)
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Global Fund and PEPFAR Announce New Treatment Numbers 
 
The Global Fund and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) announced on December 1, World AIDS Day, that between them they are now supporting antiretroviral treatment for 1.2 million people living with AIDS. This represents a three-fold increase in the total number of people receiving treatment in low- and middle-income countries since December 2003, and a doubling over the course of the past year. 
 
“Four years ago, almost nobody in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world was receiving treatment. That well over one million people with AIDS are now on treatment through the support of Global Fund and PEPFAR is a remarkable achievement,” said Richard Feachem, Executive Director of the Fund. 
 
In their joint statement, the Fund and PEPFAR said that at the end of September 2006, 822,000 people received support for treatment through PEPFAR’s bilateral programs, in fifteen focus countries. The Global Fund supported treatment for 770,000 people worldwide. Approximately 400,000 people in PEPFAR focus countries received treatment support from both PEPFAR and the Global Fund, and are thus counted in the totals for each organisation. 
 
Note from the GFO Editor: When the Global Fund and PEPFAR say that they “support” treatment for a specific number of people worldwide, this does not mean that their grants “provide” all aspects of treatment to that many people. 
This is because other funders, including national governments, employers, and the infected people themselves, make significant contributions to the costs of providing treatment to many of the people included in the Global Fund and PEPFAR numbers. For instance, in Country X, the Fund and/or PEPFAR might pay for something like clinical testing or second line medications, with all other costs for those same patients being covered by other players. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer Issue 69, 14 December 2006 – GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org/">www.aidspan.org</a>) 
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New Report Focuses on Stigma 
 
The stigma associated with HIV works as a barrier to take advantage of medical advances as it often prevents people affected by HIV from accessing testing or treatment services. This is the conclusion of a new report, Unveiling the Truth, published jointly by Health and Development Networks (HDN) and the global AIDS-Care-Watch Campaign on World AIDS Day. Based on presentations made at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, in August 2006, 40 articles deal with the continuing presence of stigma. 
 
According to the report, hospitals, clinics and other health care settings are among the places where people living with HIV still experience HIV-related stigma. “HIV-relate stigma cannot be tackled until health systems are strengthened at the local level so that everyone has access to basic health care”, comments Mary Robinson, President of Realising Rights in her foreword. “Adopting this approach with those affected by HIV and AIDS must be central to all our endeavours.” 
 
(Source: Break the Silence – Issue 1 – December 2006 and Press Release HDN, 30 November. The report can be downloaded from <a href="http://www.hdnet.org">www.hdnet.org</a>) 
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Workers and Employers Joint Action in Africa 
 
The African Regional Organisation of the ITUC and the International Organisation of Employers jointly organised a capacity-building meeting on HIV/AIDS for workers and employers in Kampala, 12-14 December 2006 with the support of the ILO and the International Training Centre, Turin. 
 
The objective of the meeting was to evaluate programmes and activities implemented within the IOE-ICFTU joint agreement on HIV/AIDS of 2003 and the action plan agreed in Geneva in 2004, as well as to build capacity in project management. The meeting also discussed ways of strengthening partnerships with key agencies at national level and of mobilising resources – particularly through the Global Fund – in order to scale up joint employer and union action on HIV/AIDS through the workplace. 
 
(Source: ILO website <a href="http://www.ilo.org">www.ilo.org</a> where the recommendations can also be found) 
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Clinton Announces Breakthrough in HIV/AIDS Treatment for Children 
 
On the eve of World AIDS Day, former US President Bill Clinton announced in New Delhi that his Foundation has negotiated new agreements to lower the price of HIV/AIDS treatment for children. 
 
Indian drug companies Cipla and Ranbaxy will price the new child-friendly product – a three-in-one dispersible tablet that replaces individual solutions which need refrigeration – for less than USD 60 per year for an average child. 
UNITAID, the new international drug purchase facility established in October 2006 (see ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin No. 14, November 2006), will provide the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) with USD 35 million in 2007 to buy medicines and diagnostics and CHAI will contribute USD 15 million for technical assistance to work in 40 countries to treat more than 100,000 additional HIV-positive children in 2007. 
 
“Though the world has made progress in expanding HIV/AIDS treatment to adults, children have been left behind. Only one in 10 children who need treatment is getting it,” said President Clinton. 
 
(Source: Clinton Foundation Press Release, 30 November)
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ILOAIDS 2006 Report on HIV/AIDS and Work 
 
A new ILO report estimates that more than a million new jobs a year are being lost because of AIDS. It says the workplace should become a major focus for prevention and access to treatment. 
The relentless advance of HIV/AIDS is markedly reducing economic and employment growth in the countries hit hardest by the epidemic, jeopardizing their efforts to reduce poverty, create new jobs for young people and fight child labour, says a new ILO report released on 1 December. 
HIV/AIDS and work: global estimates, impact on children and youth, and response 2006 reports that about 36.3 million people of working age are now living with HIV/AIDS - the vast majority in sub-Saharan Africa. 
 
Moreover, the report says that a reduction in employment growth resulting in 1 million fewer jobs per year in the worst-hit countries is attributable to the epidemic. 
The report presents an economic model which captures the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on economic and employment growth in 43 countries with over 1 per cent HIV/AIDS prevalence, for which sufficient data were available. This made it possible to arrive at an estimate of the annual cost to the global economy in terms of curtailed job growth. 
 
The 43 worst-hit countries lost, on average, 0.5 percentage points in their rate of economic growth every year between 1992 and 2004 due to the epidemic. Among them, 31 countries in sub-Saharan Africa lost 0.7 percentage points of their average annual rate of economic growth and forfeited 0.5 percentage points in employment growth. Altogether, the job shortfall is put at 1.3 million a year, of which 1.1 million were lost in Africa alone. 
The impact of the epidemic is particularly severe for children and young people whose lives, hopes and future are blighted directly or indirectly by HIV/AIDS. Globally, 2.3 million children live with AIDS and there are an estimated 15 million AIDS orphans. When children in worst-affected countries do reach working age, they face a severe shortage of legitimate job opportunities. 
 
(Source: ILO ACTRAV Human Rights at Work 6, December 2006 and ILOAIDS website, where the report can be downloaded)

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 16

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The Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI) recently organised a major workers protest against fuel price hikes, on 27 December, in Basra at the Petrochemical State Company. On 12 January, the union also participated in a successful demonstration against corruption in the electrical industry of Karbalā, a city some 100 kilometres south of Baghdad. 
 
The strike at the massive petrochemicals plants in Basra last month was marked by slogan-wearing workers denouncing an Iraqi government policy. The government is increasing costs on all commodities, a move aimed at facilitating privatisation. FWCUI is adamant that rising production costs – mainly coming through fuel increases – will render the Basra’s state refineries complex, where some 5,000 Iraqi workers are employed, uncompetitive, thus ripe for privatisation. Such a scenario is certain to produce job cuts. 
<img height="192" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0701Iraq1.jpg" width="300"/>
Strike at Iraq's Petrochemical State Co., 27 December 
“Under the pretext of a lack of production profits, layoffs of thousands of workers will come,” said FWCUI President Falah Alwan. Throughout the country, millions of Iraqis are suffering severe economic harm, as price increases have far outpaced pay and salary increases. The lifting of fuel subsidies, with another one due to be scrapped in March, will only make matters worse. 
 
At the successful secular protest in Karbalā this weekend, multi-sector FWCUI was a major participant. The protest saw workers from many sectors, Shia and Sunni alike, march and protest against rampant corruption inside the regional authority’s electric administration. 
 
FWCUI has called for the end to the military occupation in Iraq, and believes it necessary that workers take a real and active role in determining the structures, labour laws, and constitution of the Iraqi government.

Iraqi Trade Union FWCUI Condemns Fuel Price Hikes, Corruption with Protest

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The National Federation of Mining, Metallurgy, and Steel Workers UNION (FNTMMSP) of Peru will hold a national session of all its affiliates in Lima on 22-23 November in order to formulate plans for a national strike. 
 
The ICEM affiliate said its discontent is aimed not at mining companies, but rather at the government. A bill now before Peru’s Congress aims to change the way profit-sharing plans are regulated. The union also seeks to get the government to regulate and enforce the manner in which contract workers are employed.
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“Our problem is a political problem,” said FNTMMSP General Secretary Carlos Luis Castillo in a published Reuters report. “On November 22 and 23, we will have a national session with delegates from all the country’s unions, and we’ll define the start date for the strike. 
 
Castillo added that in an era of high demand and high prices for base metals, “we show that we aren’t passive about things that are happening either because of government inaction or because of laws before Congress.” 
 
Mining companies operating in Peru have seen huge profits coming from high global pricing of metals. FNTMMSP has consistently backed the needs of people living in mining areas by seeking more social investment and environmental safeguards for these areas. 
 
Peru’s is the world’s third largest producer of copper and zinc, and ranks fifth in global output of gold.

ICEM’s Peruvian Mining Affiliate Braces for National Strike

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A total and complete shutdown of subsea contractors in the UK’s North Sea oil fields by divers and their support staff proved effective, with all 900 of them gaining a 44% wage increase over two years. 
 
The ten-day strike, led by UK’s Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) Union, an affiliate of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), and an important member of the ICEM/ITF Global Oil and Gas Industry Trade Union Alliance, ended Friday, 10 October, after divers and their support teams ratified the agreement with an 84% vote.
<img height="99" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMoil3.JPG.JPG" width="100"/>
"By any standard, this is a tremendous victory for a group of workers who have displayed grit, determination, and complete solidarity in their campaign to win a fair pay increase,” said RMT General Secretary Bob Crow. 
“The strike was total from the first moment, and it is to our members’ immense credit that not one diving support vessel was operational throughout the stoppage.” 
 
The strike shut down seven oil-service companies who operate in both UK and Norwegian waters. RMT divers working in the energy sector in Egypt and Singapore also reportedly joined the strike. 
Late in October, divers and support teams rejected by better than a two-to-one margin an employer association offer of 37% over three years. They struck on 1 November, and the rock-solid strike proved too much for the companies, who attempted to get divers to sign individual agreements. The divers do installation and maintenance on underwater wells and pipelines. 
<img height="130" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0611RMTDivers.jpg" width="200"/>
The RMT members, who have some of the most dangerous jobs in the North Sea working at depths of up to 130 feet, or 40 metres, won an immediate 25% pay increase, with a further 5% increase coming in April 2007. And then further increases occur throughout 2007 and 2008. They also won entitlement pay for eight public holidays, up from the four that they previously had. 
 
The seven employers that are party to the UK Offshore Diving Industry Agreement include: Acergy, Technip, KD Marine, Integrated Subsea Services (ISS), RBG Ltd., Subsea7, and Well-Ops.

UK’s North Sea Divers and Support Staff Win 44 Percent Salary Increases

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The oil industry of Argentina saw two strikes over the past two weeks, as workers protested against current and exorbitant taxation rules. A third strike was postponed to allow labour and management to continue bargaining. 
 
The strikes affected the leading oil and gas producing provinces of Neuquen, Chubut, Santa Cruz, and Rio Negro. 
 
Both ICEM affiliates from Argentina’s energy sector, Federación de Trabajadores de la Energía de la Republica Argentina (FeTERA) and Federación Argentina Sindical del Petróleo y Gas Privados (F.A.S.P.Y.G.P), were involved in the actions. 
<img height="69" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ArgentinaFeTERA.jpg" width="120" align="middle"/>         <img height="80" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ArgentinaFASPYGP.gif" width="58" align="middle"/>     
Oil and gas production plant workers first went on strike, just under two weeks ago. Their strike ended five days later after an agreement guaranteeing a bonus, ranging from US$30 to US$180 per month, to compensate for high taxes on overtime pay. A bill exempting food and transportation costs from income taxes was hastily put through Congress at the same time.
Early last week, a second strike broke out, this time by the supervisory staff of the oil & gas production plants. Supervisors were seeking the same benefits granted to other workers in the plants. Here, as well, talks between supervisors and their employers, mediated by the Ministry of Labour, resulted in an agreement, on 22 November. In addition to agreeing on tax reductions, supervisory personnel also won the right to have their own collective bargaining agreement. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMoil2.JPG" width="100"/>
A third strike, by Argentina’s 18,000 oil refinery workers, also seeking similar benefits, was postponed, as workers agreed, on 21 November, to abstain from striking to allow for a one-week period of negotiations. That was then extended to 15 days. Oil refineries, as well as upstream operations affected by the strikes and potential strikes include facilities and fields owned by Repsol, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Petrobras. 
 
Full blown strikes of the refineries would have a serious impact on the country’s petrol supplies, since any shut down of operations would take weeks to re-open production. 
 
“For the moment, there are no refineries on strike,” said Alberto Roberti, Organisational Secretary of F.A.S.P.Y.G.P., quoted in the country’s press late last week. “We will use this window of opportunity to talk, even though, so far, we have not seen any changes from the employer’s side.”

Strike Actions Hit Argentina’s Oil Sector

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Following failed bargaining between negotiators for the United Steelworkers (USW) and the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. from 14 to 17 November, the ICEM North American affiliate has heightened its safety and awareness campaign against the US tyre-maker. 
 
On 2 December, the USW will dispatch hundreds of strikers and supporters to 13 cities in the US and Canada to handbill Goodyear retail outlets. The effort, following a similar one on 18 November, will call attention to possible safety defects of Goodyear tyres to be sold in America. The company is attempting to run production at several of the 16 plant sites that are currently on strike with managers and temporary workers. 
<img height="109" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0611GoodyearAlert.jpg" width="350"/>
The USW has erected an “Investor Alert” website, <a href="http://www.usw.org/goodyearalert">www.usw.org/goodyearalert</a>, aimed at some 15,000 industry analysts, in an effort to drive the company’s stock price down. The site calls into question Goodyear’s third-quarter earnings report, and gives a truthful account of the company’s future while skilled crafts-people are on strike. 
 
A total of 55% of the company’s outstanding shares is owned by ten institutional investors.
The USW has also begun using a video-sharing site called YouTube to educate the public about the strike and the safety concerns stemming from union members being out. That site can be found at <a href="http://www3.youtube.com/watch?v=QDKGJu5eMZo">http://www3.youtube.com/watch?v=QDKGJu5eMZo</a>. 
The union has moreover begun targeting the NASCAR racing circuit, which is 100% supplied by Goodyear, providing high-quality and expensive race car tyres. USW begins a renewed radio advertising campaign this week, targeting consumers in the New York City area with the safety alert. 

<img height="50" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CanadaFLAG.gif" width="100"/>        <img height="53" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USAFlag.gif" width="100"/>
That alert is reminiscent of the campaign the union engaged in against Bridgestone/Firestone some 11 years ago. After that lockout, researchers at Princeton University in the US state of New Jersey examined the causes of the Ford Motor recall of 14.4 million Firestone tyres, and linked it to the temporary workers utilised during the dispute. 
 
These tyres were later linked by the US National Highway Safety Transportation Authority to some 271 road fatalities and more than 800 injuries. 
The Goodyear strike at the 16 US and Canadian tyre and auto accessory plants by 15,000 steelworkers began on 5 October, after America’s biggest rubber company proposed harsh concessions and refused to guarantee job security at the unionised plants. 
<img height="80" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMrubber.JPG" width="80"/>       
The proposed concessionary terms include closing company-paid health care coverage for retirees and a two-tier wage scheme in which new employees will be paid US$13-per-hour with no future opportunity to make what current rubber workers earn. The company also seeks to close at least one tyre-making plant, in Tyler, Texas, where 1,100 workers are employed. 
 
In the mid-November bargaining – the first talks since the strike began – Goodyear proposed to create a US$600 million trust fund for retiree health care. The Akron, Ohio-based company, however, carries a US$1.2 billion liability for retiree care. The proposed US$600 million trust would only provide current retirees with six years of coverage, leaving nothing for future retirees. 
 
The USW has promised to escalate the campaign to an even higher level if the strike is not settled by the first of 2007. The Steelworkers’ general website on all Goodyear related activity can be found at <a href="http://www.gkdsolidarityexpress.org">http://www.gkdsolidarityexpress.org</a>.

Steelworkers Ramp up Campaign Surrounding North American Goodyear Strike

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Balloting is underway among paperworkers represented by three UK unions to turn the page on the adversarial relationship that has dominated the country’s papermaking industry. 
 
A new framework “Partnership Agreement” has been agreed to by senior industrialists and national officers of Amicus, the Transport & General Workers Union (TGWU), and GMB, together with Britain’s Confederation of Paper Industries, an employers’ grouping of pulp, paper, and converting companies. 
<img height="62" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UKAmicus.jpg" width="120" align="middle" alt=""/>      <img height="70" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UKGMB.gif" width="70" align="middle" alt=""/>       <img height="55" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UKTGWU.gif" width="100" align="middle" alt=""/>
The agreement sets out modern approaches to the employment relationship across the sector, and includes as its motto “Work Together, Grow Together, Stay Together.” The three unions briefed local branch leaders on the agreement earlier in November, and union leaders are recommending that workers now accept the concept. 
 
"The new agreement is an important step in securing modern working terms across the industry, such as work-life balance, actively promoting learning and skills, providing safer workplaces, promoting dignity at work and giving employees an opportunity to be informed and consulted, and actively involved in improving the performance of their workplace," said Amicus Assistant General Secretary Tony Burke. 
<img height="102" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMpaper3.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
According to the independent chairman of CPI, Professor Frank Burchill, “The agreement provides an essential framework for all the parties to work as partners in tackling the challenges in securing a healthy future for the papermaking industry." 
 
The agreement, if passed, is expected to take effect in early 2007. 
 
UK’s papermaking industry employs over 10,000 people in over 60 worksites, but has struggled to remain competitive in the face of reduced output coupled with high energy costs. Papermaking, along with printing in the UK, is one of the few industries to have industry-wide bargaining.

UK Unions Could Embark on New Partnering Relationship in Paper Sector

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ExxonMobil workers in Belgium returned to work on 21 November after a week-long strike in protest of the unfair dismissal of five workers at a refinery in Virton. Work continued inside the refinery behind closed plant gates, preventing any trucks from driving in or out. 
 
On 23 November, workers were forced to reopen the gates after the company had sought and won a legal injunction. According to Belgian union representatives, industrial actions will continue as workers pledge to do whatever it takes to get the US-based oil multinational to respect their rights. 
The spontaneous strike started when it became known that the five workers had been dismissed for “not respecting the ethics of the company.” Reportedly, the workers were found to have exchanged pornographic e-mails. In addition to the five employees that were dismissed, ten others were temporarily suspended for four days.
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While acknowledging that company e-mail networks are not to be used for distribution of erotic material, ICEM affiliated unions from both national centres, FGTB and CSC, claim management’s reaction was completely out of proportion. The dismissals are extreme and drastic punishments, condemning workers and their families to hardship. The unions contend that ExxonMobil has suffered no moral or financial harm as a result of the e-mails. 
The unions’ statement said that there are privacy laws in Belgium which ExxonMobil can not violate. Workers and unions denounced the company’s radical position on the matter, saying it can, under no circumstances, agree with a company that believes it owns the right to decide what is right and what is wrong. 
 
The unions have taken the matter to court and demand the reinstatement of the workers. They also call on ExxonMobil to bring its “code” before the unions for discussion. The code, FGTB and CSC believes, must conform to Belgian law.

Belgian ExxonMobil Workers Strike after ‘Unethical E-mail’

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A delegation that returned recently from Guatemala said that serious concerns exist in the investigation of Pedro Zamora, general secretary of the STEPQ Dockers’ Union in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. The 10-member delegation, headed by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and the ITUC, found there was vital evidence missing and that police failed to properly secure the crime scene. 
 
Zamora, 43, was killed in a hail of bullets on 15 January after gathering his children, ages 3 and 5, from medical appointments. As the STEPQ union leader lay critically wounded in the front seat of his car, one of the assailants came up to him at close range and shot him in the face. His 3-year-old son was severely wounded in the attack.
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 Port workers in Quetzal, led by Zamora, have been campaigning to preserve their trade union in the face of privatisation. STEPQ is seeking job security and decent work for port workers through a programme of investment and modernisation, but government and port officials have ignored workers’ expertise on the port’s expansion. 
 
The trade union delegation, in Guatemala from 28 January to 2 February, also found that police were pursuing only a single line of investigation – that of a family and domestic violence case, thus ignoring telephone death threats and suspicious followings, which occurred before the 15 January death of Zamora. 
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While in Guatemala, the delegation, comprised of Spanish, US, and Venezuelan unionists, along with ITF and ITUC leaders, called for the reinstatement of 9 STEPQ members at the port. They were fired in October for their trade union activities. 
 
“One of the key recommendations to come out of the visit is that the global union campaign for justice for Zamora should be expanded to support STEPQ and its leaders whose lives remain under threat,” said ITF Assistant Gen. Sec. Stuart Howard. The ITF and ITUC have submitted a formal ILO complaint against the Guatemalan government on the assassination of Zamora and infringement of trade union rights. 
 
Trade unions and activists are encouraged to join the ITF’s Guatemalan Charter for Justice Campaign by visiting: <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/zamora.cfm">http://www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/zamora.cfm</a>.

‘Serious Concerns’ in Murder Investigation of Guatemalan Dockworkers’ Leader

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