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On 17 September, ICEM affiliate la Centrale Générale (FGTB/ABBV) of Belgium organised its Fourth Annual National Action Day to highlight the lack of workplace rights by staff employed by labour agencies. 
 
Union activists distributed the FGTB/ABVV’s annual “Interim Times” in public areas across the country. The publication gives news and facts on agency work, and the inherent social and workplace problems that stem from agency work.
“Interim Times can be found in French <a href="http://www.abvv.be/CODE/fr/Actions/2008/c18_08e18.htm">here</a> and in Dutch <a href="http://www.abvv.be/CODE/nl/Acties/2008/c18_08e18.htm">here</a>.
<img height="78" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Belgium.gif" width="120"/>
FGTB/ABVV organised a national press conference on the day last week, and staged good-humoured activities at different venues across Belgium. At one such event, a cycling track was erected in a Brussels square and pedestrians were invited to ride contorted bicycles with square wheels, symbolising the chaotic nature of labour agency work. 
 
The Belgian trade union seeks functioning equipment and permanent jobs to be the absolute standard model on bicycles and in employment. The union does recognise that contract and agency labour may provide workers some jobs, and might be useful in limited, well-described circumstances. 
 
Examples might be a sudden and unexpected rise in a company’s workload, or a temporary replacement of an absent permanent worker. 
 
Conversely, however, FGTB/ABVV notes the often poor quality of jobs undertaken by such workers, and the fact that temporary or agency labour leads to far more insecurity for workers. One statistic from “Interim Times” is that agency workers in Belgium are twice as likely to have an accident when compared to permanent workers. 
<img height="354" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0809Belgium1.jpg" width="250" alt=""/>
"Join the Chaotic Employment Circuit"
FGTB/ABVV warns against further broadening of current Belgian rules on agency labour, citing risks involved when agency workers are hired on a “try them out” basis. Labour agencies often use one worker after another in such cases, thus terminating one just prior to the point when a worker must be made permanent under the social rules.
The FGTB wants more information to be given to shop stewards in Belgian workplaces on the use of agency work in their company. It also calls for enhanced inspection mechanisms to curb abuses. The Centrale Générale FGTB furthermore firmly rejects the system where agencies themselves directly offer workers a contract of unlimited duration. According to the union, this will lead to situations where there no longer is any link between the salary of a worker and the salary of a comparable worker at the user-enterprise, opening the door for further misuse. 
 
One particular suggestion by the union is to start creating “precarious worker union reps”. i.e. giving one or more union representatives at the company the task of taking care of agency workers. There certainly appears to be a need for this, given that official Belgian figures show a growth of 27% - from 2004 to 2007 - in the number of hours worked by agency workers.

Belgian FGTB/ABVV Holds Action Day, Highlighting Rights for Agency Workers

ICEM Women's Bulletin: September 2008 (No. 31)

On the Global Labour Movement’s Day of Action for Decent work, 7 October 2008, ICEM is intensifying its campaign aimed at improving the working conditions of temporary, short-term contract workers, and staff employed through labour agencies. 
 
Two new major tools to assist unions around the world in their efforts to fight precarious work are launched: a new website and an in-depth guide on contract and agency labour (CAL) world-wide. Both are in support of the ICEM’s call to its affiliates to concentrate on organising CAL workers. 
Action on these “new forms of employment” is increasingly needed, since research reveals that the phenomenon of contract and agency workers - employed through subcontracting companies, or as individual subcontractors themselves, or working on temporary contracts, often through agencies - is growing around the world. 
<img height="126" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CALlogo.jpg" width="294"/>
A <a href="http://cal.icem.org">new site</a> (<a href="http://cal.icem.org">http://cal.icem.org</a>) on contract and agency labour, which will soon also become multi-lingual, is launched by the ICEM today. Aiming to become a first port of call for all ICEM affiliated trade unions, and their members, as well as other trade unionists searching for practical and useful information, the site will continuously provide campaign materials, brochures and guidelines, best practice examples, case studies, and more. 
 
Prominently featured on the site is the new “<a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/icem%20manual%2029092008.pdf">ICEM Guide on Contract and Agency Labour</a>”. Describing numerous CAL situations from around the world – both in developing and developed countries – the guide contains both good and bad stories, the latter outlining some of the horrendous working conditions that workers in precarious employment find themselves in. 
 
The guide also provides an overview of some of the recent changes on this issue in national and international labour laws and standards. It further deals with combating this phenomenon at company level. Useful and often encouraging examples from different parts of the world are provided throughout the guide, as well as various strategy options. 
 
Also on the new ICEM CAL site is the “<a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/shortguide%20A4%20english.pdf">Short Guide for Negotiators on How to Deal with Contracting Out, Outsourcing and/or Agency Labour</a>,” an instrument to assist trade unionists at the plant level. It provides practical suggestions on what to do when (or before) the issue comes up. This short guide is also available in <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/shortguide%20A4%20french.pdf">French</a>, <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/shortguide%20A4%20spanish.pdf">Spanish</a>, <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/shortguide%20A4%20russian.pdf">Russian</a> and <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/shortguide%20A4%20japanese.pdf">Japanese</a>. 
 
“We join with other Global Union Federations and the International Trade Union Confederation in making this Global Day of Action a turning point for workers victimised by the forces of globalisation,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “And for the ICEM, that means more emphasis on bringing workplace rights and protections to contract and agency workers.”

ICEM intensifies Campaign on Contract and Agency Labour with New Site and New Publications

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After four years of existence, the Global Union Research Network (GURN), a joint ILO and global unions research forum, unveiled a more user-friendly and attractive web site. Users will find it much easier to navigate and search for documents and information on the many topics covered by the institute. 
 
A new addition to the site is the topic on Public-Private Partnership, which allows GURN to provide information on eleven important research topics: Corporate Governance; Economic Alternatives and Poverty Eradication; Global Trade Union Strategies (Union Renewal); Health Politics and Trade Unions; Migration; OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises; Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) & International Financial Institutions (IFIs); Public-Private Partnerships; Sustainable Development; Trade; and Wages and Collective Bargaining 
 
The new Public-Private Partnership (PPP) page is created to shed light on the issues and concerns related to PPPs in different countries. 
 
GURN is a platform for trade unionists and researchers dealing with the challenges of globalization from a labour perspective. Partners to it include the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) of the OECD, the Global Union Federations, the ILO’s Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV), and the ILO’s Institute for Labour Studies. 
 
The new site can be found <a href="http://www.gurn.info/en/">here</a>.

GURN Launches New Website

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Some 125 trade union leaders from the pulp and paper sector of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) conclude deliberations today in Uruguay toward shaping strategies for the sector. In the final session of day two of the 8-10 December conference in Piriápolis yesterday, delegates from 35 countries embarked on a four-point work plan focusing on national collective bargaining schedules in 2009. 
 
Delegates received a thorough mapping of the different trade unions representing pulp and paper workers in the sprawling Brazilian pulp and paper sector, as well as those in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. Day two also featured a trade union panel that probed the consequences on workers of the current global recession. 
 
The theme of the conference is “North Meets South: Global Unity, Global Strength,” and ICEM Pulp and Paper Chairman Jouko Ahonen said networking between trade unions of the North and the burgeoning South – even with project curtailments brought on by the sudden economic collapse – is essential. “This strategic plan is ambitious and we did get commitment that unions in South America, Asia, and the traditional pulp and paper-producing of the North will come together to forge common a programme,” said Ahonen, who serves the ICEM sector as President of Paperiliitto Union of Finland. 

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The work plan, which can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/EN%20PulpPaper2009WkPl.pdf" type="internal">here</a>, centers on establishment of a global communications and support network for the many national unions that have bargains in 2009. Sector-wide negotiations will occur in the Nordic countries, as well as eastern Canada and several European countries. Major agreements also come due at mills in Australia, the US, and Argentina and union leaders pledged to monitor talks and take global action when requested. 
 
The work plan also addresses strategies aimed at renewal talks of Global Framework Agreements with Norske Skog of Norway and SCA of Sweden, which occur in 2009. And in line with the conference’s theme, the plan includes intensive work toward greater harmony and association between trade unions inside Brazil, together with unions in the other Mercosur countries of Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. That effort will occur through a proposed project undertaken by Finnish trade unions of the sector and the global solidarity arm SASK, part of Finland’s national labour centre. 
 
On Monday, 8 December, delegates heard presentations from Ilkka Hämälä, President and CEO of Metsa-Botniä Oy, and Jeronimo Ruiz, Director of Pulp and Paper for BRACELPA in São Paulo State and also the head of Collective Bargaining for Brazil’s employers’ association. Workers’ representatives queried the industry leaders on the delivered cost of pulp from the South to the North, and on wood supply issues. 
The conference also heard on day one from Uruguay Industry and Energy Minister Daniel Martinez and Labour and Social Security Minister Eduardo Bonomi. Both spoke on issues related to the country’s developing pulp and forestry sectors, and efforts by the left-leaning government to balance environmental and social standards of common Uruguayans with that agenda. 
 
The three-day ICEM forum was preceded by a two-day conference, 6-7 December, on forest certification programmes sponsored by the global union federation, Building and Woodworkers’ International (BWI). 
 
Delegates to the ICEM conference also stepped out of their sector and passed a resolution supporting American trade unionists of affiliated union United Electrical, Radio, Machine Workers (UE) for its occupation of the shuttered Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago. The resolution specifically commended US President-Elect Barack Obama for his published support of the action. The resolution can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Emergency%20Resolution.pdf" type="internal">here</a>. 
 
The 20-million-member ICEM, the dominant global union federation representing workers in the pulp, paper, and paper converting sector, represents 467 affiliated trade unions in 132 countries on the global level. 
 
For further information, contact Dick Blin, ICEM Information and Pulp and Paper Officer, +41 79 734 8994, or +41 79 734 9052.

ICEM Pulp/Paper Conference in Uruguay Focuses on 2009 Collective Negotiations

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A six-day occupation of a factory in the US by ICEM affiliate United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers Union of America (UE) in Chicago served notice that American workers will take militant action to protect their interests, specifically against the US banking industry, which ultimately was responsible for the Chicago dispute. 
 
The occupation at Republic Windows and Doors ended on 11 December when a negotiated settlement came together between UE and a consortium of capital entities. The plant takeover started on 5 December when 200 workers occupied the Chicago factory after being given only three days notice of Republic closing the plant.
<img height="136" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM.Solidarity.JPG" width="140" alt=""/>
American law requires 60 days pay for workers victimized by plant closures that are the size of Republic. UE Local 1110 members were denied this in the liquidation of their factory, and they were denied accrued and unused vacation time as well. The employer, Republic, pleaded it could not pay because Bank of America had cut off the company’s line of credit, while the credit-troubled bank claimed it was the company’s responsibility to pay workers. 
 
After six days of living and sleeping inside the plant, UE members and workers won a backpay settlement that included accrued vacation time and job benefits, and they won much more. Bank of America agreed to guarantee pay to cover the lawful plant-closing requirement, JPMorgan Chase – 40% owner of Republic Windows and Doors – agreed to contribute US$400,000, and Republic itself agreed to come up with US$114,000 to meet its payroll obligations for the week leading up to the plant takeover. 
 
Also in the negotiated settlement, workers will receive extended health insurance coverage. The victory inspired the UE to open a “Window of Opportunity” fund in order to find a way to keep the factory operating. 
 
The plant occupation sends a stark reminder regarding civil priorities in this period of bank bailouts, and the circumstances surrounding plant closures in the first place. It caught the attention of US President-elect Barack Obama, who said, workers were “right” to occupy the plant, because they “understand that what’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across the economy.” 
 
The UE sent a potent message on how to protect workers’ benefits during the bailout bonanza. The ICEM commends its US trade union affiliate for taking – and winning – this timely workplace action.

Chicago Plant Takeover Vivid Reminder Amidst American Banking Bailout

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A critical meeting was held in Basra at the headquarters of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI) on 29 November. Iraqi union leaders of FWCUI’s branches met in a general session with an emphasis on preparing for elections in the oil sector. 
 
The meeting was attended by 36 trade union leaders of the oil sector, including workers’ representatives from the northern Rumaylah fields, the southern Rumaylah fields, as well as the Birjisiya, Shiayba, and Saltt stations, the pipelines company, the petrochemical company, and the headquarters unit of the Southern Oil Co. 

<img height="200" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0812.iraq meeting.JPG" width="267"/>
The meeting was chaired by Thair Ismaieel, coordinator of FWCUI’s preparatory committee, and was attended by Raiad Mahmoud and Haydar Abd Alilah, charged with administrative and financial affairs, for the union, and by Kareem Johi, Secretary of FWCUI’s Petro-Chemicals Branch. 
 
The meeting produced a set of recommendations intended to determine responsibilities of the union’s supreme committee regarding elections, and a call to respect the instructions issued by this committee. 
 
The recommendations also include mechanisms to empower union members to shape the federation as an independent organization, to encourage women to join unions of the federation, a call to unionists to be willing and able to support workers’ activities in all sectors, and publishing and distribution of FWCUI’s newspaper in all workplaces. 
 
The meeting took up the challenges to the 1987 Saddam-era Decree 150 – still in force –which prohibits independent trade unions in the public sector, and also explored ways to expand membership. FWCUI is focused on making its unions power tools in the hands of workers.
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A week after the meeting, on 5 December, FWCUI issued a strong statement against the so-called “Security Agreement” between the US and the government of Iraq. That statement rejects the agreement and invites other Iraqi parties that reject the agreement “to place their opposition in the political arena (in order) to widen the public discourse and to transform the rejection of this agreement to an empowerment of the people.” 
 
FWCUI members of the supreme committee for elections includes: Thaier Ismaieel, President; Mustapha Ahmed and Mahdi Bishara, Vice Presidents; Raid Abd Alqader, Secretary; Ghazi Abd Alqader, Secretary Assistant; Dhaher Auda, Administrative and Financial Affairs Officer; Nashwan Faisal, Administrative/Financial Assistant; Kareem Johi, Communications Officer; Mukhlis Faisal, Public Relations Officer; and Saffa Talib and Muayad Hamad, respective assistants in those latter areas.

FWCUI in Iraq Holds Crucial Meeting Leading Up to Elections

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ICEM leaders and senior managers of French-based chemicals multinational Rhodia travelled to Brazil from 2-5 December for a second round of monitoring the Global Framework Agreement. This kind of joint mission was first realised last year in China with a view toward making sure the agreement is properly implemented at specific workplaces. 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, ICEM Latin America/Caribbean Vice-President Sérgio Novais, and Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal Özkan represented the ICEM, while Rhodia’s Exeuctive Vice-President Bernard Chambonö, Sustainable Development Director Jacques Kheliff, and Communications Vice President Lucia Dumas participated, as did the Brazilian team of Rhodia, headed by Latin American President Marcos De Marchi. 
<img height="210" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0812.rhodia.JPG" width="280"/>
The social partners discussed the global agreement in Brazil in general, and specifically, at the regional headquarters in São Paulo. The delegation visited plants in Paulinia, Santo André, and Cubatao, and met with local trade union leaders at those worksites. 
The ICEM team was informed about products, technology, safety, health, and environmental matters, and received information on salaries, social benefits, staffing, and local community relations in the plant visits. 
In terms of trade union representation, all Rhodia workplaces are organised by six different unions, each with collective agreements. The ICEM proposed a network among these different unions so coordination can occur and a common dialogue can happen at the national level. 
<img height="210" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0812.rhodia2.JPG" width="280"/>
“I am pleased by the positive results of our agreement with Rhodia,” commented Warda. “The successful visit to Brazil, coordinated effectively by management, has shown us that a GFA can be a positive tool in industrial relations at the global level. 
“It also secures an understanding on how local and national level social dialogue can proceed in a cooperative manner,” Warda added. The Global Framework Agreement with Rhodia was renewed in March 2008, and now contains succinct language related to union recruitment and company neutrality.

ICEM, Rhodia Monitor Global Agreement at Brazilian Plants

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Australia’s Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union’s (CFMEU) fight to preserve mining jobs against a MNC’s callousness, making workers the victims of an economic downturn, got a ruling in the Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) last week. That ruling, delivered on 8 January, calls for a one-week consultation period – beginning today – in which Xstrata must justify its ill-taken decision to sack 230 coal miners at Oaky Creek No. 1 Mine in Queensland. 
 
The case stands as a key test in Australia regarding a company shifting the burden of the recent economic collapse onto workers. CFMEU is not alone at present in fiercely resisting job cuts because of a failed neo-liberal economic agenda. From Russia to Chile, at Europe’s largest zinc deposits in Ireland’s County Meath, where 670 were retrenched by Tara Mines, to the hundreds of thousands of migrant miners across the world who are out of work with no place to go, it is workers who are paying the unjust price of capital’s failure. 
 
The CFMEU fightback is just one example of the necessary, the pivotally necessary response that is needed to re-shape a social agenda. 
 
In Bolivia, the FSTMB mine union federation staged protests on 9 January calling on the country’s leftist government to allow no layoffs. That came just after Xstrata’s holding partner – Swiss-based Glencore International – announced job cuts of 700 zinc and lead mines, and at the Sinchi Wayra smelting plant. Workers threatened to take over the operations if the sackings came. 

<img height="99" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/BrazilFLAG.gif" width="140"/>
In Brazil, iron ore miners of Vale stopped work last Thursday, 8 January, at a mine in Itabira over the mining company’s decision to retrench 1,300 jobs. Itabira, in Minas Gerais state, is where Vale was founded. Mining union Metabase says that as many as 10,000 miners could lose their jobs in Brazil because of economic cuts. 
 
In South Africa, estimates say that 40,000 miners could be out work through 2009 because of the economic meltdown. Many will be migrant workers. ICEM and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) President Senzeni Zokwana predicted the social impact of such sudden and unprecedented joblessness will be far-reaching and disturbing. 

<img height="117" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0810Senzeni3.jpg" width="100"/>
ICEM President Senzeni Sokwana
In Australia on 16 December, Anglo-Swiss Xstrata levelled a surprise on the 1,800-person town of Tieri, central Queensland, by announcing that the jobs of miners at one part of Oaky Creek’s rich coal seams would be indefinitely suspended. 
 
ICEM-affiliated CFMEU took the matter to the AIRC to prevent the sackings. In arbitration hearings on 22 December, and again from 6-7 January in Brisbane, CFMEU argued that Xstrata’s price drops are a speck in comparison with its recent coal pricing history has reverted only to early 2008 thermal coal prices to meet slowing demand from the steel industry. Xstrata has an industry-wide reputation, especially over Oaky Creek’s high-quality coking coal, of driving prices upward in tight markets, thus making it the industry’s price-setter during boom times. 
 
The CFMEU sought a four-week period for the consultative process. The AIRC gave the process a week to work. The CFMEU seeks to get Xstrata to place retrenched workers in its other Queensland operations, specifically Oaky Creek North, a separate longwall operation. The company resists. The union has charged Xstrata with stonewalling the AIRC process, relying on former Howard government work laws to justify its privilege to inflict social degradation on workers. 
 
“Xstrata has chosen to take advantage of John Howard’s WorkChoices laws and argues heartlessly that they are not required to afford workers natural justice in the redundancy process,” said CFMEU Mining and Energy Vice President Stuart Vaccaneo. “This really is corporate cowboy stuff.” 
 
For the company’s part, in December, a spokesman called CFMEU guilty of political posturing by wasting the AIRC’s time in bringing the legal case. Vaccaneo called that the “height of arrogance,” given what 230 Queensland families face. “It’s not about politics—it’s about the future of (these) workers and their families.” 
 
Following the 8 January AIRC ruling mandating this week as the week for labour-management consultation, a company spokesman said Xstrata will talk to the union, but “we have appropriately managed those people” affected. 
 
Some 450 job cuts were announced in December in Queensland. Although the Xstrata Oaky Creek case is the most high profile one, other mining enterprises in the region like Macarthur Coal Ltd. and Oz Minerals, a zinc producer, have also fired miners. 
 
Oaky Creek, first starting production in 1983, was bought by Xstrata when it took over MIM Holdings in 2003. Xstrata owns 55% of Oaky Creek, while Japanese companies Sumisho Coal, Itocho Coal, and ICRA OC Ltd. hold remaining ownership. Oaky Creek exports 11 million metric tonnes annually to steel mills in Europe, Japan, and North and South America.

Xstrata, CFMEU in Australia Battle Over Mining Jobs in Economic Downturn

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Representatives of the ICEM affiliate, Associated Mineworkers Union of Zimbabwe (AMWZ), will meet with the Chamber of Mines on Thursday 15 January, to put forward their demand to be paid in United States dollars instead of local currency. 
 
Workers are ready to down tools if they receive their next salary payment in Zimbabwe dollars. “Mineworkers are reeling in poverty and are starving because they are being paid in local currency when almost everything is being charged in US dollars,” stated AMWZ president Tinago Ruzive. “The situation is quite bad. If we are not paid in United States dollars, we will go on a collective job action.” 

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The mining industry in Zimbabwe is in a near-critical condition, especially in the gold sector where the Reserve Bank is said to owe miners at least US$30 million backdated to 2007. Mining industry management has called the union’s ultimatum irrational and unrealistic, considering the current crisis. Ruzive responded, arguing that workers have the right to a decent wage. 
 
Salaries in the local currency do not represent a decent wage as it is no longer being accepted for commercial purposes. This near total dollarization of the economy has rendered the local currency virtuously worthless. 
 
Should the miners decide to strike, they will join the country’s teachers and nurses who have been on strike since late 2008.

Zimbabwean Miners Demand Payment in US Dollars

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