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A miners' strike in Kazakhstan that started following the deadly 20 September methane blast in a coal mine that killed 41 has ended. Some 24,500 workers at eight coal mines in central Kazakhstan, owned by the world's largest steelmaker, Arcelor Mittal Steel, returned to their colleries on 5 October after safety and pay demands were partially met. 
 
The strike, which started on 25 September, was joined a few days later by steelworkers from Mittal's steel enterprises in the Karaganda region, as well as by iron ore miners employed by the company. 
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The metalworkers' union had experienced little movement in two months of negotiations prior to the strike, but significant wage gains were won on that front as well. Arcelor Mittal officials admitted that the strike, which stopped production at all eight coal mines, had caused a 30% decline in steel output. 
 
The Korgau coal miners' trade union reported that Arcelor Mittal gave pledges of new mining equipment to replace antiquated machinery already in use prior to 1995, the year that the company purchased the mines as well as vast steelmaking facilities from a state-run company. Miners also realised a doubling, effective 1 October, of their pay. New pay packets will now be the equivalent of US$700 per month. 
 
Steelworkers, who previously had an average pay of US$300 per month, won a 1 October increase of 20%, and will receive another 10% in February 2007. 
 
The methane explosion at the Lenin mine that claimed the 41 lives was the worst mining disaster on record in the central Asian republic. Last week, Arcelor Mittal announced that it made a one-time allowance equivalent to ten years' pay to each of the deceased miners' families. In addition, those families with children under 18 will receive monthly allowances. The one-off payments, however, hardly compensate for the pain and loss of a primary wage-earner. The average payment amounts to US$63,000. 
 
The strikes and protests that followed the explosion, which also seriously injured six miners, had the support and endorsement from Kazakhstan's government. The lower house of Parliament, the Majilis, moved to seek a change in the Kazakh labour code in which core industries such as mining and metallurgy have defined and set levels of minimum pay. 
 
&quot;Foreign investors economise on everything from equipment to sick leave, making miners work in inhuman conditions,&quot; said Parliament Deputy Mukhtar Tinikeyev. He added that Arcelor Mittal had attempted to shift blame of the Lenin Mine disaster &quot;to three person -- the chief engineer and two mechanics. But the blame rests with foreign investors who economise on equipment.&quot; 
 
Arcelor Mittal, with 61 steel plants in 27 countries, derives 8% of its total steel-making capacity from its operations in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan.

Kazakh Miners&#039; Strike Ends with Significant Gains

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN 23

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With private equity funds in 2006 going on unprecedented buying sprees totaling US$725 billion, the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers (IUF) has published a 36-page booklet entitled &ldquo;Workers&rsquo; Guide to Private Equity.&rdquo; 

The booklet is aimed at trade unions and their members, and highlights the threat of private equity companies when they take over companies. The IUF says the heavy debt loads that companies often carry following such buy-outs means they pay less in taxes, thus creating a more increased tax burden for individuals and small businesses. 
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The IUF also says cost-slashing following takeovers by private equity funds means that research and development budgets of major companies are cut, so new product innovations go by the wayside. The sole corporate investment strategy by such funds is maximum short-term financial returns to shareholders. 
&ldquo;Workers&rsquo; Guide to Private Equity&rdquo; includes chapters on the Impact to Unions and Undercutting the Public Interest. It also contains two &ldquo;Trade Union Action&rdquo; programmes, one on the &ldquo;organising challenge,&rdquo; the other entitled &ldquo;mobilising and intervening for re-registration.&rdquo; The booklet, in its appendix, lists the top 50 private equity buy-out funds. It also contains an IUF Public Equity Buyout Watch. 
A&nbsp;PDF version of the booklet can be viewed <a href="http://www.iufdocuments.org/www/documents/A%20Worker's%20Guide%20to%20Private%20Equity-e.pdf">here</a>.&nbsp; The IUF is selling the booklet for CHF 5 each (plus postage), or for CHF 3 (plus postage) each for bulk copies of ten or more. 
The IUF also has a part of its web-site decidated to the private equity problem: <a href="http://www.iuf.org/buyoutwatch">http://www.iuf.org/buyoutwatch</a>.

IUF Offers ‘Workers’ Guide to Private Equity’

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The Federation of Energy, Geology, and Mining Trade Unions of Mongolia held its Fourth Extraordinary Conference in Ulaanbaatar late in May, and elected a new President for the 15,000-member union. 
Ganbold Sukhbaatar, a mining engineer, was elected to succeed Chultem Baljinyam. Ganbold is a 15-year veteran of the mining industry, and has been active in elected positions in trade unions for the past ten years.

Mongolian Mining Union Federation Elects New President

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ICEM affiliate, the United Electrical, Radio, Machine Workers of America (UE), and the IUE-CWA reached tentative four-year agreements with General Electric Co. (GE) yesterday. 
 
The tentative pact, covering over 14,000 workers, will now be reviewed by the two unions&rsquo; conference boards, and then put to ratification votes of all workers by 28 June. A prior labour agreement in the US at GE plants expired at midnight, last night. 
 
The tentative accord reached yesterday includes significant improvements in wages, pensions, and benefits. It also contains agreement to accelerate joint efforts between GE and the unions to address the difficult and costly health care system in America. The unions also won a new holiday in talks, Veterans Day (also known as Armistice Day) in November. 
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&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s an agreement our members will recognise as a good one,&rdquo; stated UE General President John Hovis. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m especially pleased with the provisions that affect (less senior) people at the locations we represent.&rdquo; Both the UE and the IUE-CWA are recommending the tentative contract for approval to their members. 
 
Terms of this accord will now be offered to US-based unions covering another 6,000 GE workers at their locations.

US Union Reach Tentative Contract with General Electric

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The jobs crisis in the paper and wood sectors of Canada has taken further hard blows. Early this month, Finnish pulp and paper company UPM Kymmene announced a temporary 9-to-12 month closure of its paper and groundwood mills in Miramichi, New Brunswick, thus idling 600 workers. 
 
That came just a week after US-based Weyerhaeuser Co. officially announced, on 31 May, the permanent closure of a wood mill in the same town. The closing will cost 150 jobs. Workers at both mills are represented by ICEM affiliate Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada. 
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While meeting with company officials of UPM Kymmene in Miramichi on 8 June, CEP local union leaders left the meeting not very hopeful. They were told that the odds of re-starting the mill next year stand at only 20% unless investments are made. 
 
Speaking at the New Brunswick Federation of Labour&rsquo;s convention in Edmunston on the day that UPM broke the news, 5 June, CEP President Dave Coles said, &ldquo;These communities are a microcosm of what is going on in more than four dozen communities (across Canada).&rdquo; He said that over the past three years, more than 12,000 pulp, paper, and sawmill workers have lost their jobs in Canada. 
 
What makes matters worst for mill workers, particularly at UPM, is that the Finnish company continues to cut and export raw logs off government forestlands through three leases it holds in the province of New Brunswick. CEP local leaders were told at the 5 June meeting that the company was going to do trial shipments of wood to Finland, something CEP and community leaders oppose while the paper mill is idle. 
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&ldquo;Employers, especially in the forestry sector, have deliberately taken the money they have earned from our publicly-owned natural resources and invested it elsewhere in the world,&rdquo; stated Coles at the provincial labour convention. 
 
The recent bad news hasn&rsquo;t been limited to New Brunswick. On 15 June, forestry company Tembec Inc. announced it was temporarily shutting three wood mills in Quebec and one in Ontario, affecting nearly 900 workers. 
 
That came a day after Commonwealth Plywood announced the closure of 18 mills in Quebec, six of which find workers represented by the CEP. The Commonwealth closures will mean the loss of 1,200 jobs. 
 
The CEP has pressed the federal government of Canada for intervention in the jobs crisis of the nation&rsquo;s forestry sector.

Forest Sector Jobs Continue to Drop in Wake of Eastern Canada Mills Closings

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After 18 months of negotiations and consultations, workers UK&rsquo;s ICEM affiliate Unite &ndash; the merged union of Amicus and Transport and General Workers Union &ndash; ratified a national agreement on behalf of 3,000 workers in the paper manufacturing industry. 
 
The new accord comes under a framework &ldquo;Partnership Agreement&rdquo; put in place earlier this year between the two unions and UK&rsquo;s GMB trade union, and the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI), an employers&rsquo; association of pulp, paper, and converting companies. 
 
&ldquo;I believe this new agreement raises the employment standards for workers in the paper manufacturing industry,&rdquo; said Unite (Amicus section) National Officer Peter Ellis. &ldquo;It reaffirms the commitment of Unite members and those conforming companies of the CPI Paper Sector to a modern and sustainable approach to good industrial relations, so necessary for the security of our members&rsquo; jobs in a stable business environment.&rdquo; 
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The agreement includes significant language regarding temporary and agency work, model information and consultation language, extra personal time, an expanded industry sick pay benefit, up to ten days&rsquo; pay for paternity leave, and up to five days&rsquo; bereavement leave pay. 
 
Unite, the CPI, and the UK&rsquo;s Department of Trade and Industry will formally launch the agreement in the days ahead as part of the new &ldquo;Partnership Agreement,&rdquo; which has as its motto, &ldquo;Work Together, Grow Together, Stay Together.&rdquo;

Paperworkers of UK’s Unite Ratify Partnership Accord with Industry Association

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The revamped ICEM International Nuclear Workers&rsquo; Unions Network (INWUN) held its annual meeting on 13-14 June, and some 26 nuclear workers&rsquo; union leaders from ten countries attended. The meeting were held at ICEM headquarters in Brussels. The meeting was the first nuclear network meeting since INWUN became an official ICEM network. 
 
David Shier of the Power Workers Union of Canada was elected as chairman of the network, and delegates also adopted an 11-point &ldquo;Terms of Reference&rdquo; for the network, which will stand as guidelines for the network. 
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ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, ICEM Energy Industries Chairman Lars Myhre and David Shier, Chairman of the ICEM INWUN Network
Those include promoting solidarity and cooperation with trade union worldwide, as well as supporting a balanced energy generation policy across all jurisdictions. Objectives also include promotion of effective and thorough national regulatory procedures and practices in the nuclear industry, and seek to ensure that some eight nuclear regulatory agencies and governmental entities are kept informed of the viewpoints of unionised nuclear workers. 
Delegates to the 13-14 June meeting heard a presentation from Hans Riotte, head of Radiation Protection and Waste Management of the Nuclear Energy Agency, which is part of the OECD. They also had a lively exchange on nuclear safety programmes within the various countries represented. Work conditions in those countries were also debated. 
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They also heard a presentation on women in the nuclear industry. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and ICEM Energy Industries Chairman Lars Myhre of Norway&rsquo;s Industri Energi Union addressed the delegates. 
 
Countries from which trade unionists attended included: Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, and the UK.

ICEM’s Nuclear Workers’ Network Meets in Brussels

Today, 12 June, is the World Day Against Child Labour, as designated by the ILO. This year focus is the elimination of child labour in agriculture, and the ILO marks the occasion with an event at its International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. 
 
The ICEM, the Global Union Federation representing trade unions in the mining, energy, and process industry sectors, calls for the elimination of all child labour in all sectors. The ICEM calls attention to the great number of children who work in mining in many parts of the developing world. 
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It also cites a coal mine explosion in early February in G&aacute;meza, Boyac&aacute; state, Colombia, in which eight people were killed. One of the eight was a 13-year-old boy. 
 
The ICEM demands that all enterprises respect ILO Conventions 138 and 182 regarding child labour. The World Day Against Child Labour is observed throughout the world each year on 12 June. It serves as a catalyst to halt the growing demand for use of child labourers in all facets of work.

ICEM Calls for End to Child Labour

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Around 100 African trade union delegates, from 15 countries, attended the ICEM regional conference of the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Organisation (SSARO), held in Gaborone, Botswana, on 5 and 6 July 2007. 
 
Welile Nolingo, regional chair and General Secretary of South African ICEM affiliate CEPPWAWU, opened the conference and reported on the improved political situation in the region, where several countries are recovering from a period of war. Though corruption is still a serious problem in many of those countries, often badly hampering economic development, trade unions are showing their determination in challenging their governments to deal with these, and other, negative aspects of their governance. 
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Welile Nolingo, General Secretary of South African ICEM affiliate CEPPWAWU
The organisational development of the region was discussed, with delegates agreeing that the ICEM members need to be more involved in ICEM activities in the region. This applies not only to the donor funded projects, but also to the need to develop more bilateral contacts and activities. 
 
It was further stressed that the ICEM affiliates in the region need to develop a strategic plan, focussing on the continuing development of strong and democratic unions. A plan was proposed by the secretariat to that extent. Contract and Agency Labour (CAL), HIV/AIDS, Global Framework Agreements (GFA) and Company Networks were also listed as topics that increasingly need to become core business. 
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Rayford Mbulu, incoming ICEM regional chair and General Secretary of the Mine Workers Union of Zambia 
Recognising the growth of activity in the ICEM industries in the region (mining, oil, gas, chemicals), the ICEM General Secretary reconfirmed his engagement to devote more attention within the secretariat to this specific region. He also mentioned the need to empower trade unions and their leaderships in Western Africa, and made an appeal to all members to focus on closer cooperation between members, but also with representatives and affiliates of other GUF&rsquo;s. The integration of the WFIW into the ICEM was expected to lead to additional strength in the region, especially in Francophone countries. 
 
The conference adopted several statutory changes, of which the most important was on formally establishing a Women&rsquo;s Committee within the regional structure. 
 
The conference elected Brother Rayford Mbulu, General Secretary of the Mine Workers Union of Zambia, as the next Regional Chair. Sister Baru Gaaithoboge of the Botswana Diamond Sorters and Valuators Union was elected as the Regional Women&rsquo;s Chair at the Regional Women&rsquo;s Conference, which was held just prior to the SSARO Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.

ICEM Sub-Saharan African Regional Conference held in Gaborone, Botswana

Archive

Kazakh Miners' Strike Ends with Significant Gains

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN 23

IUF Offers ‘Workers’ Guide to Private Equity’

Mongolian Mining Union Federation Elects New President

US Union Reach Tentative Contract with General Electric

Forest Sector Jobs Continue to Drop in Wake of Eastern Canada Mills Closings

Paperworkers of UK’s Unite Ratify Partnership Accord with Industry Association

ICEM’s Nuclear Workers’ Network Meets in Brussels

ICEM Calls for End to Child Labour

ICEM Sub-Saharan African Regional Conference held in Gaborone, Botswana

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