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<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
The ICEM has expressed condolences to the families of victims of a horrible methane gas explosion in Turkey. The blast killed 19 miners and occurred late in the evening, 10 December, at a privately owned mine near Mustafakemalpasa, Bursa province. 
 
The explosion happened some 200 metres underground and caused a cave-in to several narrow mine shafts. Seven miners were rescued and hospitalized with gas poisoning. All of the dead miners’ bodies have now been recovered. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Turkey.png" width="250" height="115" alt=""/>
The Turkish Trade Union of Miners issued a statement following the blast, stating that mines in the country are plagued by lack of proper safety regulations and inadequate inspections. Turkey’s Minister of Labour and Social Security, Omer Dincer, was at the site of the tragedy and said the mine had undergone numerous inspections. 
 
The ICEM has targeted Turkey as a country that must ratify ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. Stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, “The ICEM calls upon the Turkish government and employers to support the ICEM campaign for ratification of ILO Convention 176.

Explosion Kills 19 Inside Coal Mine in Western Turkey

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Industrial actions by 1,000 coal miners employed by New Zealand state-owned Solid Energy and its contractors ended in early December when members of the Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) accepted two-year wage and benefit terms from mine operators. 
The settlement at four mines on both the North and South Islands ends an eight-month dispute that erupted into industrial actions, full strikes, sympathy strikes, and a lockout, covering a period from late October to the end of November. The accord also sets in place the terms of the Multi-employer Collective Agreement (MECA), contract terms that had been elusive since March 2009. 
Miners will receive a 5% salary increase in 2010 and 2011, with miners from the Huntly East colliery on the North Island accepting an 8.5% increase to compensate for shift rotation changes. In addition, staff receive a one-off NZ$2,000 bonus for their roles in Solid Energy posting record 2008 profit results. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector2.JPG" width="120" height="115" alt=""/>
A series of industrial actions started with a “go-slow” job action at the Rotowaro mine on the North Island in late October. That immediately resulted in a lockout by contractor RWE Mining, leading to sympathy strikes at two South Island mines – Stockton and Spring Creek – that are operated by Solid Energy and another contractor. After miners quit the strikes to return to bargaining, the employers again submitted the same regressive terms, resulting in walkouts and renewed sympathy strikes in late during the November. 
With Solid losing millions of dollars each week due to the work stoppages, the two sides reconvened talks on 29-30 November. Shortly after, miners at Huntly East, Rotowaro, and Stockton accepted a revised MECA deal, with miners at Spring Creek ratifying the contract on 3 December. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NewZealandFlag.gif" width="120" height="60" alt=""/>
Stated EPMU Assistant National Secretary Ged O’Connell, “Throughout the dispute, Solid tried to set miners from different areas against each other by offering them different deals within the MECA, but our members stood by each other and made sure that the company knew that an injury to one was an injury to all.” 
This is “a membership,” he added, which was “united in their strength and determination to get a fair deal.”

New Zealand Miners Win New Contract through Solidarity Strikes

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The ICEM participated in the Congress of its affiliate the Vdsz, the Hungarian chemical workers union, in Budapest, 18-20 November. Tamas Szekely was elected as the union’s new president, replacing the retiring Gyorgy Paszternak. Tamas, who is 40 years old has served the union as vice-President for several years. Bela Kiss, 53 years old, was elected Vice-President. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0912.hungary.tamas.jpg" width="130" height="173" alt=""/>
New Vdsz President, Tamas Szekely 
Congress reports showed that there are still many uncertainties about economic developments in the sectors that the union covers. However, although the chemical industry made 40 percent of the workforce redundant earlier this year, many companies have started to rehire. The tyre sector seems to be profiting from the German car-scrappage program, and has in recent weeks even started with overtime work. 
The union was successful in the Works Council elections in Hankook, but still faces problems about trade union recognition with that company and with Bridgestone-Firestone. Tamas and the union contributed considerably to action against Unilever, as part of the 7th October World Day of Decent Work activities in Budapest. He is planning now to start a campaign to organise Unilever (foodworkers are very poorly organized in Hungary and split into several very small unions). 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0912.hungary.2.jpg" width="155" height="152" alt=""/>
Retiring President, Gyorgy Paszternak
Another future plan of Vdsz is to develop cooperation with the construction workers union and seek a future merger with them. Vdsz serves as a bridge between various splits between unions in the manufacturing industries of Hungary, as they are affiliated to the autonomous confederation but maintain close cooperation with the major confederation Mszos. Both confederations were invited to the congress and made speeches, as did ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda.

Hungarian Chemical Workers’ Congress Elects New President

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The 5th congress of the Slovak Chemical Workers was held in Svit, Eastern Slovakia, 25-26 November. It was followed by a merger congress with the energy workers which elected Juraj Blahak as President of the new union. Attempts to get the glass workers and construction workers also interested in the merger had failed before. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0912.Juraj Blahak.slovakia.jpg" width="158" height="207" alt=""/>
Juraj Blahak
Congress heard reports on economic development, very similar to those heard by the Hungarian Chemicals Workers, reported above (InBrief 146). Especially the automobile industry and with it the tyre industry is catching up, but there are still many uncertainties. Different speakers (also from the side of employers and employer associations who were invited) emphasized the relevance of social dialogue in addressing the effects of the global crisis. Employers criticized the government for prioritizing the attracting of investment from foreign companies, while neglecting to do enough for domestic companies.

5th Congress of Slovak Chemical Workers 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The struggle continues for trade union rights for contract workers at Colombia’s vast mining complex, Carbones del Cerrejón. ICEM mining affiliate Sintracarbón has been fighting to organize the contract workers at the mine. 
 
Following the successful organization of mechanics and machinists of the company Chaneme at Cerrejón in November (see InBrief No. 144 <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/" type="internal">here</a>), the new union Sintrachaneme was formed and recognized by Chaneme. Since, the company has refused to discuss even the slightest improvements to salaries and working conditions with either Sintrachaneme or Sintracarbón. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ColombiaSintracarbon.jpg" width="100" height="108"/>
A second union of contract workers under Sintracarbón’s guidance, Sintrans, representing transport workers of the Sotrans company, has seen that employer refuse to recognise the union or to consider any of the bus drivers’ demands. In fact, the sacking of union activists among bus drivers has brought fear and reluctance by workers to engage in union activity. 
 
Sintracarbón, with the full support of ICEM, is focusing efforts towards the consolidation of Sintrachaneme and pressuring the mechanical maintenance contractor to accept the demands of workers. International support is important in the push for a collective agreement between Chaneme and its 300 staff, an accord that will guarantee the existence of the union. 
 
“The Chaneme management, Carbones de Cerrejón management, and the Colombian Ministry of Social Protection must all commit to the process,” said Sintracarbón representative Jaime Deluquez. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="146" height="66"/>
Since workers of Chaneme and Sotrans at Cerrejón took the step to organize, they have suffered a campaign of harassment and persecution from employers. Sintracarbón, consisting of 3,500 direct employed miners at Cerrejón, has denounced complicity by their employer of denial of work rights by contractors, saying Carbones del Cerrejón has “turned a blind eye to the abuses.” 
 
Harassment has included workers being visited at home, with threats of dismissal or offers of perks in return for loyalty to the contractors and a turn against the newly-formed unions. 
 
Cerrejón management is also criticised by its mining workforce for applying double standards, claiming on the one hand that it respects human and trade union rights with rhetoric that it support the free association into unions of workers of contractors, while working covertly with the contractors and units of government to destroy the trade union organization process. 
 
These abuses of the right of association and collective bargaining contravene national law, the Colombian Constitution, and ILO Conventions 87 and 98, ratified by Colombia. 
 
An ICEM Project on Social Dialogue, organized by Colombian Coordinator Carlos Bustos and counting Carbones del Cerrejón as a participant, has achieved exemplary results. The multinational companies holding stakes in one of the world’s largest open-cast coal mining operations – Xstrata, AngloAmerican, and BHP Billiton – must now prove that a commitment to the Social Dialogue Project and to global labour standards is genuine by stepping forward to defend the rights of outsourced workers at its mining operation in La Guajira department in northeastern Colombia.

Union, Contract Workers Continue Fight for Work Rights at Cerrejón in Colombia

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In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report on the new ICEM HIV/AIDS Project, on project work with other sponsors, and on forthcoming events in 2010. 
 
The ICEM Calls on its Affiliates to Contribute to this e-bulletin 
 
ICEM affiliates are engaged in a wide range of HIV/AIDS activities. To spread the information on new agreements, awareness, and prevention campaigns, and educational activities, affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a>. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
New SASK/FNV-sponsored HIV/AIDS Project 
 
Agreement was reached with the Solidarity Support Organisations SASK (the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland) and FNV-Mondiaal of the Netherlands for a new HIV/AIDS project running for three years from 2010 to 2012. 
 
The project will allow the ICEM and its affiliates in sub-Saharan Africa to build on the experience of five years HIV/AIDS project work and intensify activities in a number of countries, as well as continue regional and sub-regional work in Africa. 
 
Special emphasis in the project will be on the training of peer educators/lay counsellors from affiliates to advocate voluntary counselling and testing and counsel on treatment and care, as well as on the conclusion of HIV/AIDS workplace policies and HIV/AIDS clauses in collective bargaining agreements. 
 
The project will be coordinated from the ICEM Johannesburg Project Office with a consultant based in Geneva. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Sponsors Continue ICEM HIV/AIDS Projects 
 
Several other HIV/AIDS projects will continue in 2010. The Women’s Department of ICEM’s German affiliate, IGBCE, is sponsoring the successful campaigning and advocacy project in Tanzania, in cooperation with ICEM affiliates TAMICO and TUICO. The Humanity Fund of ICEM Canadian affiliate, the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) Union, is supporting the second phase of the HIV/AIDS programme in Trinidad and Tobago in cooperation with ICEM-affiliated Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU). Negotiations are underway to extend the very successful HIV/AIDS project in India, which was sponsored by the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, and to initiate a new project in Jordan with support from the Norwegian affiliate Industri-Energi (IE). 
 
The HIV/AIDS project sponsored by the Danish Solidarity Support Organisation, LO/FTF Council, in cooperation with the Ethiopian affiliate, the National Industrial Federation of Energy, Chemical, and Mine Trade Unions (NIFECM), will be running until the end of 2011. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
A Successful Year in Nigeria 
 
The HIV/AIDS project in Nigeria, jointly sponsored by the Humanity Fund of the Canadian CEP Union, the ICEM HIV/AIDS project, and Nigerian affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN, has been particularly successful. 
 
Almost 8,000 workers and members of the community were mobilised for awareness meetings in a six-month period in 2009. Well over 2,000 agreed to be tested. This number would have been much higher if counsellors had not been limited in the number of people they can counsel in a day. The project also demonstrated how far good cooperation with the business sector can go, since the Nigeria Business Coalition against AIDS (NIBUCCA) provided mobile testing units. 
 
Training of project staff was facilitated by USAID and training of union officials and members was sponsored by SMARTWork, which also provided funding for a project office and for the salaries of three staff members. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
HIV/AIDS Events in 2010 
 
Important HIV/AIDS events will take place in 2010. The 18th International AIDS Conference, a major biannual event, will take place in Vienna, Austria, from 18 to 23 July. The theme of the Conference is “Right Here, Right Now,” and the conference will emphasise the importance of protecting and promoting human rights as a prerequisite to a successful response to HIV and AIDS. 
 
The G8/G20 Meeting in Huntsville, Canada, just outside of Toronto will test the commitment of the world’s leaders to universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support which, they had pledged to achieve by this year. 
 
At the 99th Session of the International Labour Conference in June in Geneva, the second reading and likely adoption of a new ILO instrument on HIV/AIDS and the world of work will take place. 
 
For the Global Fund, 2010 is a key year with the 3rd Replenishment Meeting taking place in the Netherlands in March. The meeting will determine the amount of funding governments will pledge for the years 2011 to 2013. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
US Commits US$1.05 Billion to Global Fund 
 
US President Barack Obama signed a spending bill for the 2010 fiscal year that includes a US$1.05 billion appropriation for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This is the largest sum ever committed by one country to the Global Fund in a single year. 
 
With this amount, the Global Fund is closer to meeting the demand for financing Round 9 grants worth US$2.4 billion over two years. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Press Release of 18 December 2009) 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Asia Close to Winning AIDS Treatment Battle 
 
The departing head of the UNAIDS Programme in the Asia-Pacific Region, Prasada Rao, said that the region is within three years of winning the battle against the AIDS pandemic. Increased treatment coverage and prevention programmes are turning the tide against AIDS. 
 
In Thailand and Cambodia, treatment coverage has reached almost 90%. In India, 50% get treatment, but in China and Burma the number stands at only 30 to 35%. This puts the region on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halting and reversing the epidemic by 2015. 
 
However, access in remote areas in China and India, disrupted AIDS programmes in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and sharp rises in prevalence rates in Indonesia’s Papua province and neighbouring Papua New Guinea leave millions at risk. 
 
(Source: World AIDS Campaign website, accessed on 7 January) 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Zambia: HIV Testing Services Missing the Mark 
 
Voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) services form a critical opportunity to provide risk reduction counselling and HIV prevention information. According to a report by Private Sector Partnerships-One, VCT services in Zambia are squandering this opportunity to reach clients with information about how to reduce their HIV risk. 
 
The study found that although condom use was emphasised only one in three clients received counselling on reducing their number of sexual partners and even fewer were advised on how to disclose their HIV test results to partners. The research also found that VCT services were mainly accessed by the most educated segments of the population and were largely failing to reach those who have no or only primary school education. 
 
Zambia has a prevalence rate of 14.3% but the infection rate is as high as 20% in some urban areas. 
 
(Source: IRIN PlusNews, 5 January) 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Travel Restrictions Based on HIV Status Lifted 
 
The UN, UNAIDS and HIV/AIDS organisations all over the world welcomed the elimination of travel restrictions based on the HIV status of a person by the US and the Republic of Korea. The US policy change was announced by President Barack Obama in October 2009 (see <a href="/en/72-HIV-AIDS/3492-ICEM-HIV-AIDS-e-bulletin-No.-50-November-2009" type="internal">ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin No. 50</a> of November 2009). 
 
Some 57 countries still have some form of restrictions on entry, stay, and residence based on the HIV status of a person. UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé called for freedom of movement for people living with HIV in 2010, the year when global leaders have committed to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support. 
 
(Source: UNAIDS Press Statement, 4 January) 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
Global Fund Board Addresses Risks of Treatment Disruptions 
 
The Global Fund is taking action to minimise the risk of treatment disruptions arising from interruptions in Global Fund financing and from weaknesses in country-level procurement and supply management systems. 
 
Inadequate stock management and poor state of medical warehouses, non-transparent procurement and late submission of disbursement requests are among the reasons which contribute to the danger of treatment disruptions. 
 
A report of the Portfolio and Implementation Committee to the Global Fund Board contains detailed measures to prevent treatment disruptions, which are a death sentence to people on anti-retroviral drugs. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 113 of 18 December. GFO is a free service of Aidspan (<a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>); to receive GFO send an email to 
<a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
TAC Receives FES Human Rights Award 
 
On 10 December, Human Rights Day, Germany’s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) awarded its Human Rights Prize to the South African Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). TAC has been in the forefront to advocate better HIV/AIDS services and fight for treatment in South Africa. 
 
(Source: News from the FES, 14 December) 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
SWHAP Conference: Business Combating HIV/AIDS 
 
The Swedish Workplace HIV/AIDS Programme (SWHAP) organised a major conference in Stockholm on World AIDS Day, 1 December, on the role of the world of work in combating HIV/AIDS. Close to 100 representatives from business and trade unions in sub-Saharan Africa and from Swedish companies and unions took part in the event. It was co-organised with the ILO. 
 
In this occasion, Atlas Copco South Africa was awarded the SWHAP 2009 Achievement Award for its commitment and support of HIV/AIDS workplace programmes since 2003. 
 
(Source: SWHAP Newsletter December 2009) 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/image_aids_ribbon.gif" width="40" height="40"/>
This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter – How to Subscribe 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an email to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put “subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin” in the subject line.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 52, January 2010

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM reported <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3571-Safety-Benefits-Won-by-Iraqi-Leather-Workers-after-53-Day-Strike" type="internal">here</a> of the successful leather workers’ strike that concluded in December in Iraq, a strike that spawned a shorter strike in the clothing and textile sector in the Baghdad area. Both workers’ units come under the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI), a national labour centre that counts two ICEM affiliates to its rolls. 
 
In January, the Ministry of Industries has retaliated by predictably reverting to something that other Iraqi ministries have done: It has taken the leader of the textile strike, FWCUI President Falah Alwan, and transferred him from a Cotton Industry enterprise, under the State Company for Textiles, to another enterprise in order to suppress his union activities. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0611Falah.jpg" width="100" height="119"/>
Falah Alwan
The ICEM condemns this action and urges trade unionists and human rights activists globally to protest. The ICEM notes that global protests in the past produced reversals for other Iraqi trade unionists who were exiled for trade union building, including port workers of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) in Um Asr and eight leaders of ICEM-affiliated Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) in the Basra area. 
 
Please send an e-mail in your own words to Minister of Industry and Minerals, Fawzi Hariri, <a href="mailto:minister.office@industry.gov.iq">here</a> and <a href="mailto:minister@industry.gov.iq">here</a>, and copy the State Company for Textiles <a href="mailto:textile@industry.gov.iq">here</a>. 
 
Trade unions in Iraq are under constant pressure, considering neither the occupation forces nor the Iraqi government has lifted the draconian Saddam era Decree150 that prohibits independent unions from existing in the all-encompassing public sector. The Iraqi government has also failed to pass into law a meaningful labour code, a set of fair and universally accepted statutes that have been drawn up by Iraqis with assistance from experts at the ILO.

Iraqi Government Reprimands Falah Alwan by Exiling His Work Posting

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
Hashmeya Muhssin Saadawi, ICEM Executive Committee member and President of the Basra Electricity Workers’ Union, has long been fighting for the rights and welfare of women, as well as for men, in Basra, Iraq, for many years. She has now launched a campaign inside the worn-torn country for social security, a campaign funded in large part by money awarded to her upon winning the Dutch Human Rights Award, the FNV’s prestigious Febe Elisabeth Velasquez Trade Union Award. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0707 iraqHashmeyaElectUnion.jpg" width="175" height="118" alt=""/>
Hashmeya Muhssin Saadawi
She was awarded that on 12 May 2009, after being nominated by the ICEM, for her courageous work under challenging circumstances and great personal risks, in the furthering of the trade union struggle in Iraq. (See report of that award <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3218-Dutch-FNV-Trade-Union-Award-to-Goes-to-Iraq’s-Hashmeyia-Muhsin-Saadawi " type="internal">here</a>.) 
 
The elements of the social security campaign are equality and social equality, as well as security, social security, work, housing, and education. Land needs to be redistributed, health insurance has to be provided, and cures for different diseases have to be found. Click <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/denicezelmalombard/IraqSocialSecurity#">here</a> to view the campaign manual in English.  
 
Hasmeya Muhssin is the first female trade union leader in the Arab-speaking world.

Hashmeya Muhssin Launches Social Security Campaign in Iraq

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The ICEM French trade union affiliate, the Federation of Chemical and Energy Workers (FCE-CFDT) Union, will conduct a day of action this week, 19 November, against the country’s plastics manufacturers over a long simmering wage dispute. Some 150,000 workers in plastics, employed by 3,700 big and small plastics companies, have not seen any wage increase since 2006. 
 
Early in 2008, the employers’ federation abrogated a 2004 labour agreement which automatically gave liveable wage increases that at least matched French inflation. In the more than three years since the last pay hike, three pay grids in French plastics have fallen below the nation’s minimum wage levels. 
 
Despite ongoing negotiations since May 2008, the employers’ grouping and French unions have been unable to reach acceptable wage standards, or a threshold on maximum seniority pay.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMchemical2.jpg.JPG" width="100" height="98"/>
The manifestation will occur at 10h30 on Thursday, 19 November, in front of the Fédération de la Plasturgie, at 65 rue de Prony in Paris. A joint union-management commission charged with resolving the longstanding impasse will again meet that day. 
 
FCE-CFDT said in a statement that many companies in the sector have profited handsomely from the three-year wage freeze, adding that thousands of workers are expected to take advantage of sick leave provisions on 19 November in plant-level protests. The union will hold a press conference on the foot-dragging by employers on Wednesday, 18 November. 
 
Since spring 2008, several manifestations have occurred across France over the lack of a current wage accord in this sector.

French Plastics Workers to Do Another Manifestation This Week

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Rolling work stoppages began at a Peabody Energy coal mine in central Queensland on 7 November. The legal industrial actions, brought on by the American company’s proposed rollbacks in an enterprise labour agreement at its North Goonyella mine, could intensify in coming weeks, as members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) balloted this weekend on whether or not to take further industrial actions. 
 
A prior enterprise agreement expired early in 2008. But that was extended one year, until 31 March 2009. The dispute now centers on work rosters, rates of pay, and conditions of living in a mining camp. 
 
The CFMEU members took four three-hour work stoppages over a 24-hour period in the middle of last week. Further three-hour industrial actions could occur this week, and if this weekend’s ballot passes, legalized work stoppages could extend to 24- or 48-hour periods. Unrelated to the dispute, Peabody announced on 11 November that 34 miners would be made redundant by year’s end at North Goonyella.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Australia.png" width="200" height="102" alt=""/>
Peabody owns other coal-mining operations in Queensland and New South Wales, and is the major stakeholder of other collieries that operate with sub-contractors. All miners at these enterprises are represented by the CFMEU. Peabody bought the North Goonyella colliery from RAG AG as part of a three-mine purchase in 2003. 
 
The US multinational began mining coal in Australia through predecessor companies in the 1950s. Over the years, the CFMEU has developed close ties with the US mining union, ICEM affiliate United Mine Workers’ of America (UMWA), over Peabody’s collective agreements and organizing efforts.

CFMEU Begins Job Actions at Peabody Coal in Australia

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