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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Today in Brazil, the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) will begin a 100-kilometre, 10-day march from Campinas in São Paulo state to the city of São Paulo itself in honour of International Women’s Day. The march, celebrating 100 years of the announcement of International Women’s Day and under the banner “We’ll Keep Marching Until Every Woman is Free,” will highlight the continuing fight for common rights and public services, peace and demilitarization, economy autonomy, and an end to violence against women. 
 
A main objective of the pilgrimage will be CUT’s drive for total wage equality between men and women. Even though Brazil has ratified ILO Convention 100, the 1951 Equal Remuneration Convention, the South American country has a long ways to go in order to achieve wage parity. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1003.cut.women.2.jpg" width="226" height="233"/>
CUT Secretary of Working Women, Rosane Silva, said that every nation that has ratified ILO Convention 100 must speed up laws and practices to ensure that the articles of the convention are met. In Brazil, as a means to enhance subsidies to meet that goal, CUT has done a national study on wage disparities. Throughout 2010, the national labour centre will present those figures before governing bodies and employers to get them to comply with Convention 100. 
 
Also today in São Paulo, Sindicato Nacional dos Papeleiros (SINAP), the ICEM pulp and paper affiliate that is part of CNQ/CUT, will conduct a manifestation demanding equal rights for women in front of the Suzano paper mill.

CUT-Brazil to Conduct 100-kilometre, 10-Day Women’s March

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The negotiations towards a new national collective agreement for the manufacturing industry in Denmark had been deadlocked, see ICEM report <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3634-Danish-Contract-Negotiations-Deadlocked-on-National-Level" type="internal">here</a>, but the renewal of the agreement was signed on Monday 22 February by the ICEM-affiliated general union, Central Organization of Industrial Employees in Denmark (CO-industri) and the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI). However the HK private trade union rejected the agreement. 
 
Gains for workers across the sector include two additional weeks for parental leave, improved redundancy pay, improved monitoring of health and safety for night-shift workers, improved working conditions for shift workers, and newly created authority on equal pay. 
 
The collective bargaining round directly affects 240,000 workers in the manufacturing industry. But it also indirectly affects an additional 350,000 workers in the private sector. As previously reported by ICEM, historically, the manufacturing agreement is used as a blueprint for other negotiations. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/DenmarkFLAG.gif" width="160" height="121" alt=""/>
Both Hans Christensen, the negotiator for DI business, and Co-industri President Thorkild E. Jensen, were content with the renewed agreement, after negotiators worked through the night to beat a deadline which would have moved negotiations to a tribunal. Jensen described the agreement as “balanced and guaranteed our members’ jobs”. The agreement is valid for the period 1 March 2010 to 1 March 2012. 
 
Night workers were a priority for trade union negotiators in the talks, with free health exams provided every two years and for those employees who are advised against night work, their employer must find them another job. Night workers will also be eligible for up to ten extra days off annually. Changes to the rules on pension contributions will discourage employers from moving to precarious contracts. Apprentices see a 4.5% pay increase over the two years. 
 
The deal has been described as a “crisis agreement” and sees trade unions agreeing to only a small pay increase and for the first time since 1991, no increase in pension contributions.

Danish Manufacturing Collective Agreement in Place

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ICEM’s three Italian affiliates, FILCEM–CGIL, FEMCA–CISL, UILCEM–UIL, are campaigning together against a recent decision by British multinational Glaxo Smith Kline to close its research centre in Verona, and put 550 employees out of work. 
 
A joint trade union delegation met four government ministers from the Ministries of Economic Development, and of Welfare and Health. The trade union leaders argued that the plant is profitable and also contributes to the profitability and growth of the company worldwide. Government Ministers were in agreement with the trade union arguments, and rejected the explanation of the company that the closure is part of the overall restructuring of the company. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Italy.FEMCA.CISL.jpg" width="120" height="102"/>  <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ITALYFILCEM.jpg" width="95" height="116"/>  <img style="WIDTH: 126px; HEIGHT: 95px" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ITALYUILCEM.gif" width="126" height="71"/>
The Italian Government Ministers Scaiola, Sacconi, Fazio, and Martini, have announced the establishing of an arbitration committee, which will seek to analyse in detail the reasons for Glaxo’s decision to close its Verona facility, and hope to find a solution that will reverse their decision. The arbitration committee will be formed next month. 
 
The Verona employees of Glaxo who are set to lose their jobs have taken to the street in protest of the decision. See a slideshow of photos of the demonstrations <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cgilnazionale/sets/72157623383165437/show/">here</a>.

Italian Pharmaceutical Workers Protest Plant Closure, 550 Jobs Lost

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The mining and maritime unions, under the umbrella of the Mining and Maritime Initiative, met in Los Angeles, California 16-17 February, to discuss ongoing global campaigns in the sector. The ICEM plays a central role in the initiative, with seven ICEM affiliates in attendance: CFMEU (Australia), ILWU, USW (USA), NUM, NUMSA, CEPPWAWU (South Africa), and Maden (Turkey). The International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) also attended. 
 
Meeting delegates discussed the struggles at <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3607-Rio-Tinto-Engaged-in-Savage-Union-Busting-at-California-Borates-Mine" type="internal">Rio Tinto in Boron California</a>, <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3608-Cananea-Miners-Reject-Grupo-México-Severance;-Strike-Continues " type="internal">Grupo Mexico</a>, and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3589-Talks-Prove-Futile-in-Ending-Vale’s-Eastern-Canada-Mine-Strike " type="internal">Vale Inco</a>, and the global campaigns around these disputes, led in part by the ICEM, as each conflict involves ICEM affiliates. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1003.m.m.2.JPG" width="274" height="167"/>
The meeting issued a statement on the violations of worker rights in Boron California by Rio Tinto and by Grupo Mexico and the Mexican Government. View the statement here. Many of the unions involved in Mining and Maritime have had conflicts with Rio Tinto in the past, and stand in strong solidarity with the members of ILWU 30, who have been locked out by the company, as they refuse an extremely concessionary contract. The unions present pledged to “escalate the campaigns in defence of workers at Rio Tinto and Grupo Mexico immediately, dramatically and strategically to make them global battles”. 
 
A Campaign Committee was created, which includes ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Joe Drexler. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1003.mining.maritime.logo.png" width="360" height="73"/>
Meeting delegates then attended a large march and rally in support of the Rio Tinto miners in Boron. The participation of Maden, the main mining union in Turkey, was of special significance, since Rio Tinto uses the state-owned Turkish mining company as a supplier to its customers. Maden is a strong supporter of the Boron strikers.

Mining, Maritime Unions Meet 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Mexico.UNTYPP.jpg" width="93" height="139" alt=""/>
The 30,000 technical and professional employees of PEMEX, Mexico’s large state-owned petroleum company, finally won the right to unionize upon their third attempt. The new union, “Unión Nacional de Técnicos y Profesionistas Petroleros” (UNTyPP), received its registration on 16 December, and its leadership was officially recognized for the period beginning 18 March, 2008 through 17 March, 2012. The first two attempts at unionization (ONTCIP and UNTCIP) were denied registration by the government and the leaders fired. 
 
Following the successful court battle, culminating in registration from the Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare’s office for the Registration of Associations (STPS), members of the new union were informed by company management that in order to retain their jobs they were required to sign two documents, one calling for the cancellation of the registration and the other a resignation from the union. 
 
Those who refused, along with organisers of the UNTyPP, were fired and violently removed from their workstations by paramilitaries, including the entire National Executive Committee of the union1. These workers must be immediately reinstated, and their rights respected under both Mexican and International law. PEMEX is also being urged by the international labour movement to accept union calls to come to the bargaining table and establish a working relationship with them. 
 
UNTyPP organisers have faced continued intimidation and threats throughout their campaign for registration. 
 
PEMEX is the 10th largest oil company in the world, and is the sole supplier of all commercial petrol and diesel stations in Mexico. Annual company revenue is US$78 billion. 
 
Visit the Labourstart site to write to President Calderón and the PEMEX management, condemn the violations of labour and human rights of members and officers of the new UNTyPP trade union.

Mexican PEMEX Workers Win Registration for New Union, Face Continued Repression

The Global Union Federation representing workers in the food, agriculture, and services sector, the International Union of Food and Allied Workers’ Association (IUF), has written to John Ruggie, UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, requesting that the relationship between precarious work and the effective realisation of human rights be incorporated into his investigations and recommendations as a matter of priority. 
 
In June 2008, Ruggie proposed a policy framework which was unanimously welcomed by the Human Rights Council. The "Protect, Respect, Remedy" framework is made up of three pillars: the state duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business; the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, by avoiding infringing on the rights of others; and greater access by victims to effective remedy, judicial and non-judicial. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/John.Ruggie.UN.png" width="145" height="73"/>
John Ruggie 
In preparing to make operational the framework, Ruggie is currently consulting with a wide range of actors, including through an online consultation forum, that can be found <a href="http://www.srsgconsultation.org">here</a>, the forum for which the IUF used for its submission. 
 
In that submission, the IUF argues that a meaningful investigation of the relationship between business and human rights must address how the degeneration of traditional employment relationships has impacted on workers’ human rights. Non-traditional forms of working arrangements, such as agency work, contract work and bogus self-employment, are being used to undermine trade union organising and bargaining. Says the IUF, this is a “fundamental human rights issue demanding a strong response rooted in a comprehensive human rights framework.” 
 
The IUF draw attention to the ILO’s 2008 report on industrial relations at Coca-Cola’s Colombia bottlers, which found that the company was systematically denying and restricting the ability to join a union by outsourcing many core jobs. In order to redress this and ensure that workers are capable of fully exercising their rights the global union calls for urgent, systematic action by governments and business to restrict the use of precarious work.

IUF Urges UN Special Representative to Probe Precarious Work 

Lacking job security and decent working conditions creates a great deal of stress, particularly in people who are struggling to support a family. Medical researchers discovered, in the 1930s, that stress by itself could produce physical effects. Since then, there has been an ongoing effort to better understand the stress response. 
 
The strict scientific definition of stress is "any stimulus, or group of stimuli, that provokes a physiological or psychological response." A more useful definition of stress in the work context might be "conditions that exceed a person's normal coping capacity." In occupational health, we are particularly concerned with the stressful effects on workers of conditions in the workplace. 
 
What are the negative effects of excessive stress on health - and by health, we mean all aspects of physical, mental, and social well-being? 
 
The symptoms of stress are generally thought to arise from the "fight or flight response." In our evolutionary history, human beings were adapted to respond to a threat by preparing to either fight, give chase, or run away. The body instinctively reacts in certain ways designed to prepare itself for a sudden, short-term, all-out effort to survive. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.cal.stress.png" width="126" height="95"/>
At first, the sense heightens, blood pressure goes up, heart rate accelerates, respiration increases, blood flow to the muscles is increase, muscles tense, and the digestive system shuts down. Your body temperature may change, provoking sweating. In our evolutionary past, these responses prepared you mentally and physically to meet a threat that would be resolved, for better or for worse, within a few minutes. 
 
The problem in modern terms is that our bodies seem unable to distinguish between the "threat" posed by a cave-bear, a bullying boss, or perpetual fear of job loss. The fight-or-flight response, maintained or repeated too often, results in chronic or long-term damage. These can include hypertension and cardiovascular disease, ulcers, colitis, compromised immune systems, headaches, and psychological changes. 
 
To further complicate things, different people respond to chronic stress in different ways and with different symptoms. Faced with the same workplace stressors, Jane may experience diseases of her digestive system while John may develop high blood pressure. These inconsistent symptoms have made it very difficult to get stress symptoms recognized as a legitimate occupational disease. 
 
All working people experience some degree of career stress; but workers who toiled under Contract and Agency Labour (CAL), who lack even minimal job security and often work for lower wages and in poorer conditions than their full-time counterparts, experience much more. Career stress should be thought of as adding to all the other stresses caused by every aspect of a person's life. 
 
To control stress in the workplace, the same hierarchy of controls that are considered in the control of any other hazard should be used. Control the hazard at the source, if possible; failing that, control the hazard before it reaches the worker (along the exposure path); and as a last resort, control the hazard at the worker. 
 
CAL workers have less scope to seek these controls. They may be subjected to heavy work demands, a poor workplace environment, harassment or bullying, shift work, role uncertainty, a lack of training, unrealistic expectations, lack of input or control over the work, poor ergonomic factors, a high degree of scrutiny or monitoring, and of course job insecurity. Stress at work can have a synergistic effect on stress away from work, capable both of exacerbating and being exacerbated by: family problems, financial problems, sleep and fatigue problems, financial problems, and a feeling of powerlessness and low self worth. 
 
Unlike full-time workers, who often experience a level of loyalty to their employer and their work, CAL workers can feel less commitment. In the long term, this can increase the risk of burn-out. Job performance will come to consist of doing just enough to get by, and this can spill over into personal life as the burned out worker fails to look after their own health, relationships, and families. 
 
Stress is not a trivial condition that can be dealt with simply by willing it away. It is a serious problem, and a proven cause of a wide range of medical conditions 
 
Control of the hazard at the source, would in this case mean the conversion of contract and agency jobs to secure, decent work. 
 
Contract and Agency Labour can and does make workers sick.

Contract and Agency Labour … and Stress 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="120" height="59"/>
The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Union (ICEM), the dominant global trade union federation for the mining industry, endorses a letter by its Liberian union affiliate to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf protesting proposed rail passage through the West African nation by Brazilian-based Vale SA. 
 
Recently, Vale purchased a 51% stake from BSG Resources of iron ore blocks near Simandou in eastern Guinea. The mining house intends to create a rail and logistics corridor from Guinea through Liberia to the Atlantic Ocean coast. 
 
In the letter, dated 13 May, the Forestry, Logging, and Industry Workers of Liberia (FLIWUL) calls on President Johnson-Sirleaf to fully examine Vale’s global social record before her government grants the rail concession. Among several irresponsible social acts, Vale has a forced a bitter strike – now in its eleventh month – on 3,500 nickel and copper miners in Canada. 
 
“We are aware of many serious issues surrounding Vale and its mistreatment of workers and communities where it operates around the world,” writes FLIWUL Secretary-General David D. Sackoh. 
 
“Organizations in Mozambique, Brazil, Canada, Peru, Chile, Germany, Italy, and New Caledonia have declared that Vale ‘infringes human rights, exploits both male and female workers, imposes precarious working conditions, destroys nature and disrespects traditional communities.’ It appears that every place where Vale operates, communities are displaced, the environment is harmed and workers’ rights are not respected. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Liberia.png" width="250" height="115"/>
“We are disturbed at the treatment that Vale has given to its workforce in Canada. The company provoked a strike through its demands for deep concessions from its workers despite the fact that the company has made billions of dollars in profit in recent years. 
 
“Madame President, following many years of civil war and turmoil the Liberian people finally enjoy peace and has a promising future under your leadership. This behemoth Vale with its suspect actions could potentially destroy our fragile economy for the benefit of a greedy few. As key stakeholder in the infrastructural and economic development of Liberia, FLIWUL wishes to urge the government to carefully study the situation and ensure that transitional companies investing in Liberia do so responsibly.” 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda soundly endorsed the letter, and said the Geneva-based federation will also raise Vale’s investment in Guinea with trade unions there, and with the government of Guinea. “We cannot accede to Vale’s investment agenda anywhere while the company brings pain and suffering on workers,” said Warda. “The atrocities that Vale is inflicting on people and their communities in Ontario and Labrador in Canada must stop and we give sound warning that we will follow this mining company everywhere and repeat FLIWUL’s message.” 
 
The ICEM is a global union federation consisting of 467 trade unions in 132 countries, and represents 20 million workers worldwide. 
 
For further information, contact ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin, <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 79 734 8994 (mobile) +41 22 304 1842 (direct line).

ICEM Commends Liberian Affiliate for Opposing Vale Investment

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Strike actions in April and a flurry of trade union activities over the past two weeks have succeeded in bringing formal recognition to the ICEM affiliate, Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Industry Workers’ Trade Union of Georgia. Some 5,800 workers at the Zestafoni Ferroalloys Plant and the Georgian Manganese mines, some 40 kilometres from Zestafoni in Chiatura, now have a free and democratic trade union to call their own. 
 
That was reinforced on 13 May after the union, backed by the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC), and top managers met for a second conciliation commission session and made headway towards resolving a host of demands put forward by workers. 
 
Miners and metalworkers were buoyed massively when, ten days after a three-day strike ended on 25 April that got management’s rapt attention, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal Özkan travelled to western Georgian to meet with workers. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.georgia.2.JPG" width="300" height="225"/>
(LtoR) Irakli Petriashvili, President of GTUC, Manfred Warda, GTUC interpreter, Kemal Özkan
Bringing pledges of solidarity from the ICEM and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), Warda told Georgian workers they were not alone. And speaking before regional news media and to workers directly, Warda assured all that the combined strength of the two federations was ready and willing to take this fight beyond central Asia if that was needed. 
 
The message underscored a resolve borne through several months of struggle, culminating in a series of April incidents, including grievous intimidation tricks (see prior ICEM report here) by management that served only to bring more staff into the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers’ fold. 
 
Initially in last week’s second conciliation session, managers and their attorneys sought involvement of an existing but dying “yellow” union in the talks. But the seven union members of the joint, bilateral commission threatened to walk out and lead renewed strike actions. The union and GTUC representatives then showed managers a large number of power-of-attorney statements by workers that expressed their allegiance to the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers’ Union. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.georgia.3.JPG" width="300" height="142"/>
Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers’ Union Members
Recognition was achieved. The numerous petitions that workers demand to improve their working lives were then open for discussion. Foremost among them were wages. In the hours leading up to the talks, the ICEM and IMF scrambled to gather and succeeded in delivering wage rates from associated ferroalloy plants in Ukraine, owned by the metals arm of PrivatBank. 
 
Miners at the Georgian Manganese complex are paid an average monthly wage of GEL (lari) 450, or US$238, €192. Metalworkers at the ferroalloy plant in Zestafoni earn a monthly average of GEL 562, or US$298, €240. With both sides having already agreed to 1 May as the effective date for salary adjustments, management proposed a 15% increase for shift workers and 8% for day workers. 
 
This is unsatisfactory to the union side of the commission. But they are confident that further negotiations today and tomorrow, 17-18 May, and again on 20 May, will bring the long overdue percentage increases higher. The union did get a commitment at the 13 May set of talks that the enterprises will begin to comply with Georgia labour law regarding sick leave payments, including retroactive compensation for those workers who have been denied such pay. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.georgia.5.JPG" width="205" height="154"/>
“It is a big step forward,” said Gocha Aleksandria, Vice President of the GTUC, who is a member of the 14-member conciliation commission. “The administration now accepts our union, but the hardest part is still ahead. We intend to achieve the obvious, meaningful, and tangible results for our members and that is permanent labour contracts that address all issues.” 
 
Some of those issues include raising the number of yearly paid leave days from 30 (metal) and 32 (mining) to 35; creation of a joint contributory pension fund to supplement a miserly state pension; better safety and health conditions; and an upgrade to medical facilities. 
 
Even prior to the first commission negotiations, on 7 May, management reacted to workers’ militancy and ICEM’s mission statement of that week by agreeing to permanent work contracts, as well as reinstatement of two union leaders who were discharged for strike activities. (At the 13 May session, management agreed to pay the two their full April salaries.) 
 
Another accomplishment in the recent bargaining is that union leaders will bring their demands directly to Georgian shareholders of the enterprises. The complex ownership of the ferroalloy plant and manganese mines has stock ownership by privately-held Stemcor Holdings of the UK. Shares are also traded publicly on the Georgian bourse with Georgia entrepreneurs and the Ukrainian oligarch Gennadiy Boholyubov and his manganese empire that is tied to PrivatBank holding vast sums. 
 
For now, 3,600 miners and 2,200 metalworkers have a free and democratic union they can call their own – the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Industry Workers’ Trade Union of Imereti Region. But as Aleksandria states, the journey now begins in earnest: erstwhile dialogue to gain the wage levels, benefits and work conditions that they justly deserve.

Free Trade Union Recognised for Miners, Metalworkers of Georgia

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The horrid twin explosions inside mine shafts in Russia’s Kuzbass basin on 8-9 May that killed 90 underscored the need for more countries to ratify ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. Since Convention 176 was adopted in 1995, only 24 nations have ratified it. 
 
In Moscow last week, while rescue efforts at the Raspadskaya Coal Co. mine were underway 3,500 kilometres to the east, both ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Russian Independent Coal Employees’ Union (ROSUGLEPROF) President Ivan Mokhnachuk went on BBC World Service Radio to plead for Russia and other resource-rich countries to take up the important call for ratification of Convention 176. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0703Ivan.jpg" width="140" height="164"/>
ROSUGLEPROF President Ivan Mokhnachuk
ROSUGLEPROF represents workers at Raspadskaya, a mine jointly owned by Russia’s second largest steel and metals group, the Evraz Group, and Cypress-based Corber Enterprises Ltd. A union vice president made his way to the mine immediately following the tragedy. 
 
But it is still not clear if ROSUGLEPROF will be allowed to participate in an investigation that hopefully will lead to the cause of the blasts. At the end of last week, the government halted investigation efforts because mine shafts are still too dangerous. 
 
It is still too early to speculate about cause. What is known is that the mine in the Kemerovo region of western Siberia does have some of the best methane gas detection and ventilation equipment available. And that the first blast, occurring just before midnight local time on 8 May, killed at least 50 miners. The second explosion, four hours later, killed other miners as well as all 19 rescue workers who were sent in. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ilo_small.jpg" width="175" height="247"/>
What is not known is did a negligent Russian pay system contribute? That system sets an extremely low flat-rate monthly wage, with the vast share of all mining salaries based on production. Volume, productivity, and profits drive wages higher. This means that detection equipment, safety procedures, and other protection devices are oftentimes disabled or ignored in order to boost monthly pay. 
 
That was the case on 19 March 2007 when 110 miners died at the nearby Ulyanovskaya mine, owned by another mining subsidiary of Evraz. It was the worst mining tragedy in 60 years in Russia and the former Soviet Union. The Raspadskaya disaster of eight days ago stands as the second worst. 
 
ILO Convention 176 improves mine safety and health by forcing improved national mining laws. But Convention 176 does something else; it places responsibility on employers to not only correct hazards, but remedy the cause of the hazards themselves. In Russia, that could well be construed to mean corrective laws to fix a faulty pay system in coal mining.

Russian Mine Disaster Restates Immediacy for ILO Convention 176

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