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Justice was slow, but it finally came on 29 June when the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB), multinational drug company Bayer AG, and the National Contact Point for Germany came to agreement on a longstanding case from the Philippines. 
 
With assistance from ICEM affiliate IGBCE and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the agreement grants a trade union leader who was summarily fired in the year 2000 a hefty backpay package, with additional compensation. It also resolves a union dues issue for a chemical workers&rsquo; union that represents workers at Bayer&rsquo;s 600-worker factory in the Canlubang Industrial Estate, Calamba, Philippines.
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&nbsp; 
Juanito Facundo, now 58 and once president of the plant-level union, and the union&rsquo;s treasurer were called into an office in 2000 and fired without notice. Facundo was an electrical engineer and a loyal employee for 30 years. Bayer Philippines said it was merely a matter of redundancy and restructuring, but the victims claimed it was for testifying against managers in an unfair labor practice case and for leading a lawful 1997 strike. 
 
The cases went before the National Labor Relations Commission but after several legal proceedings, the government dropped the complaints. In 2003, DGB picked up the matter and made it a labour rights case under the OECD&rsquo;s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
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&nbsp; 
After tireless work by DGB, Chairman Thomas de Win of the Bayer Works Council in Germany, TUAC, IGBCE, and the Manila office of the Friedrich Ebert Siftung (FES) Foundation, the German company, after visiting the Philippines to conduct its own investigation, came to written terms in late ending the long ordeal.

DGB Successfully Delivers OECD Justice in Bayer Case from the Philippines

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ICEM Argentine affiliate Sindicato Unico Trabajores del Neum&aacute;tico Argentina (SUTNA) wrapped up major tyre talks in the South American nation, but it didn&rsquo;t come easy.
While global tyre producers Pirelli and Bridgestone-Firestone came to terms early and conflict-free at their factories, FATE, a home-owned company which employs 1,200 workers at a factory near Buenos Aires, attempted to impose terms that undercut the gains made by SUTNA at the Italian and Japanese-based companies. 
 
Workers did not take industrial action, but they firmly and repeatedly rejected the inferior FATE contract offers. Finally, in late June, FATE presented SUTNA with terms that equal the Pirelli and Bridgestone-Firestone deals.
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SUTNA members at FATE&rsquo;s San Fernando factory won wage increases totalling 23.2% over the next year. With bonuses, including two front-end ratification payments, the package equals &ndash; and surpasses, in some areas &ndash; contracts for the 1,400 rubber workers at the bigger companies. 
 
SUTNA General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko pledged prior to last spring&rsquo;s national negotiations that no worker would earn less than 2,741 pesos, or &euro;600 per month. 
 
We have attained our goals, Wasiejko said, &ldquo;through transparent and democratic negotiations.&rdquo; He commended the unrelenting worker resolve at the tyre factory, and said holding the line against FATE was made possible by workers &ldquo;gathering in assemblies to freely and openly discuss&rdquo; the company&rsquo;s bargaining stands. He also said FATE workers conducted several democratic votes on many of the issues put forward by the company, votes that fostered unity.
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&nbsp; 
SUTNA&rsquo;s FATE workers won a 12% increase that is retroactive to April; they will get 6% in October 2007, 4% in February 2008, and another 1.23% in June 2008. SUTNA also won job advancements for 82 of the 1,200 workers, a major accomplishment. 
 
At Pirelli and Bridgestone-Firestone, SUTNA negotiated 10% increases in April, with 6.5% coming due in October 2007, 3.5% in March 2008, 2% in April 2008, and 1.23% in June 2008. 
 
The agreement was signed on 28 June, more two months after Pirelli and Bridgestone-Firestone came to terms.

SUTNA in Argentina Meets Goals in Talks with Last Major Rubber Company

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Some 2,400 oil refinery workers at Suncor Energy in Fort McMurray, Alberta, ratified a new three-year labour agreement on 4 July that preserves the National Energy and Chemicals Bargaining Pattern of the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada. 
 
The contract, achieved through hard talks, is considered key because Suncor operates the second largest oil-sands project in the booming energy industry of northern Alberta, a Canadian province in the west of the country. The agreement preserves the pattern established on 13 May when 300 CEP members of Local 501A ratified a pact at a Petro-Canada refinery near Edmonton, Alberta. Like nearly all Canadian oil refineries in the west, that 135,000 barrel-per-day facility is expanding to meet the need for increased processing capacity brought by the oil-sands crude.
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The labour agreement ratified by CEP Local 707 at Suncor&rsquo;s Fort McMurray refinery contains an increase retroactive to 1 February of 5%. It also includes the same retroactivity in a special 2% &ldquo;oil-sands supplement&rdquo; which brings the increase to 7%. Local 707&rsquo;s 2,400 members won a 6% increase for 2008, which includes a 1.5% supplement, and will see the same 6% tacked on to salaries in 2009. 
 
CEP Western Region Vice President Don MacNeil said the contract also includes local wage incentives and other adjustments. The CEP and Suncor will continue to negotiate over a delicate overtime issue; due to the oil-sands boom, refinery workers are forced to work excessive amounts of overtime due to a skilled labour shortage in the region. 
 
CEP Local 707 President Dave Drummond said the overtime issue is a major concern to the union, because it is having a detrimental effect on family life. He called the Suncor contract &ldquo;a fair deal&rdquo; that involved &ldquo;very tough bargaining,&rdquo; and said 73% of the local union&rsquo;s members voted to accept the agreement.
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In another oil refinery bargain that met the national pattern, CEP members at Federated Cooperative&rsquo;s Consumers&rsquo; Cooperative Refineries LTD in the neighbouring province of Saskatchewan voted on 10 July to accept the wage increases contained in the national energy pattern. The 500 CEP members did authorise a strike during the week of 2 July, but management then increased its offer. Consumers&rsquo; is a 100,000 barrel-per-day refinery that is undergoing a C$1 billion expansion. 
 
The CEP continues to negotiate the pattern established at Petro-Canada in Edmonton for some 7,000 other oil and chemical workers across Canada.

CEP Maintains National Energy Pattern in Canada with Sizeable Gains at Suncor Refinery

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With the Canadian economy in the throes of an industrial melt-down, the government has felt the heat and appointed a task force on competition and foreign investment. But the Tories, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have appointed only their friends to the five-member panel formally called the &ldquo;Competition Policy Review Panel.&rdquo; 
 
Those appointments, announced last week on the very day that Canada&rsquo;s biggest foreign takeover occurred, Rio Tinto&rsquo;s C$45 billion buy-out of aluminium producer Alcan, has angered Canadian labour. ICEM Vice President Ken Neumann, the United Steelworkers&rsquo; Canadian Director, called it an insult to the workers and citizens most affected by the government&rsquo;s unsound fiscal policies, lack of any industrial strategy, and the current run of sell-offs to Canadian-based companies.
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&nbsp;USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann 

&ldquo;It is time for working people to have meaningful input into reforming the legislative agenda on these issues,&rdquo; Neumann said. &ldquo;Our members have been on the receiving end of unregulated corporate globalisation&rdquo; far too long. 
 
The panel, charged with reviewing the rules of the Canadian Investment Act, is composed of former CEOs of Canadian companies that have split apart, as well as representatives of banking and finance. Neither labour nor community representatives received appointment to the panel. It is chaired by the former head of a telecommunications company that tore apart from Bell Canada, and also has on it the CEO of a splintered Canadian retail conglomerate. 
 
Canada has been plagued by rampant joblessness in rural, single-industry communities due to the increasing value of the Canadian dollar. Now, the Bank of Canada has raised interest rates by one-quarter percent to 4.5%, and a similar increase is expected by year end. 
 
&ldquo;Higher interest rates will accelerate the rise of the Canadian dollar,&rdquo; Neumann said, &ldquo;which has already been responsible for wiping out more than a quarter-million manufacturing jobs in this country. 
 
&ldquo;Those who claim that the loss of these jobs does not have a significant impact on the economy are not living in the real world of unemployment, lower standard of living, and the devastation experienced by many communities across the country.&rdquo; 
 
The Competition Policy Review Panel is expected to make recommendations that could liberalise the rules governing foreign investment deals inside Canada. The panel, however, composed of global marketers and finance people with little experience in creating Canadian jobs, will have to seriously re-think Tory and Liberal Party priorities in order to do to recommend policies that resuscitate the livelihoods of millions of ordinary Canadians.

Steelworkers-Canada Blasts Government’s One-Sided Economic Review Panel

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Jury selection began last week in a US courtroom in the state of Alabama over Drummond Coal&rsquo;s alleged authorisation of the murders of three trade union leaders in Colombia. The company, in a case brought by ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) and the International Labor Rights Fund, is being accused of aiding, abetting, and funding the murders of the three trade unionists in 2001 by right-wing paramilitaries. 
 
The case was filed on behalf of family members of the slain union leaders under the US&rsquo;s Alien Torts Claims Act, which allows foreigners to file civil suit against US companies for millions of dollars in damages for crimes committed outside the US. The plaintiffs won a key victory on 5 March 2007 when the US Federal District Court of Northern Alabama ruled that there was enough evidence against Drummond for the charges to go to trial. Drummond is based in Alabama.
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The lawsuit contends that in 2001, Valmore Lacarno, Victor Oracasita, Gustavo Soler, all labour leaders in the Colombian mining union Sintramienerg&eacute;tica, &ldquo;were ultimately murdered by paramilitary employees and/or agents working for (Drummond) to eliminate effective leaders from the trade union representing Drummond workers, and to intimidate other workers from joining the union or assuming a union leadership position.&rdquo; 
 
In 10 March 2001, Valmore Lacarno Rodr&iacute;guez and Victor Hugo Orcasita were pulled from a Drummond-chartered bus on their way to work at the company&rsquo;s La Loma mine. They were then shot execution style. Lacarno was the president of the union, while Orcasita was the vice president. 
 
Some months later, the new president of Sintramienerg&eacute;tica, Gustavo Soler, was assassinated. 
 
On behalf of the estates of the three, the USW and the Human Rights Fund will present affidavits from those who witnessed the horrific deeds, as well as present in court witnesses who had direct knowledge of Drummond&rsquo;s alleged complicity in the killings. They include a former Colombian army combatant, who later became a part of a right-wing paramilitary group, and a bodyguard to Drummond&rsquo;s director of Community Relations, who witnessed a large monetary pay-off from the company&rsquo;s managing director to paramilitaries. 
 
If the civil suit is successful and punitive damages are awarded, it will mark the first time in US history that the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act has been used to find a company guilty of crimes abroad.

Trial Begins in US on Drummond Coal’s Alleged Murders of Colombian Trade Unionists

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A written agreement took effect between strikers at chrome mines and a ferrochrome smelter in Bulqiza, Albania, the ICEM-affiliated Trade Union Federation of Industrial Workers, and Italian-based Darfo SRL, thus ending a month-long strike.
The agreement for hundreds of miners came after intense negotiations on 5 July that involved senior managers of the Italian company, including CEO Dr. Heinz Muller. 

It was signed late in the day on 6 July, and workers returned to work on 9 July. 
 
The agreement also came after more than 200 of the miners and their families demonstrated on the steps of Albania&rsquo;s Parliament in Tirana, as well as at the Ministries of Economy and Energy and Labour and Social Causes there. Those protests occurred two weeks ago.
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&nbsp; 
Parliamentarians, however, avoided the strikers by being driven to the opposite of the building, while the respective government ministers refused to meet with the miners. 
 
The agreement only came about after senior managers of Darfo in northern Italy intervened. 

Unfortunately, the dispute was marked by fierce controversy between two unions: the Federation of Industrial Workers, affiliated to the national centre KSSH, and the Albanian Independent Trade Union Miners (SPMSH), an affiliate of the dissolved WFIW affiliate now seeking global union affiliation. Both groups claim to represent the chrome miners and smelting workers, with SPMSH claiming it had signed a similar ageement with the company in early June. 
 
Both contracts are said to contain pay increases of 30%. Further negotiations will occur in the weeks ahead, and another 20% pay increase will be discussed. If that is won for the Bulqiza miners, their wage demands of 50% will be realised.
The miners have demanded wage increases in each of the past six years, but these demands were ignored by both the company and Albanian government officials. 
Safety, working conditions, and housing &ndash; equally important demands by miners in this dispute &ndash; will also be discussed in the weeks ahead. 
 
The June strikes by workers lined up with the Federation of Industrial Workers also included hunger strikes that began on 25 June. Thirty miners at a time embarked on such strikes, with the number of them needing to be hospitalised. The demonstrations in Tirana by the union and KSSH also brought a sharp focus to the dispute. 
 
In the negotiated end to the strike, managers of Darfo, and its Austrian-based trading partner, Deco Metals, agreed that no miner would be disciplined for striking, and all miners would be paid for the full period of the strike, which began on 1 June. 
 
In 2001, Darfo signed a pair of 30-year license agreements with the Albanian government to mine and process chromium and iron ore in the Balkan country.

Chrome, Hunger Strikes End in Albania

Two trans-Atlantic unions that have plans to merge, the United Steelworkers (USW) of North America and Unite of the UK, launched a joint campaign on 21 June to highlight the negative role that private equity companies are having on the global economy. The two unions called on governments and world economic bodies to fairly regulate such capital entities. 
 
The two unions, both ICEM affiliates, announced the joint campaign at the opening of merger talks in London. 
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&quot;Our two unions will work closely together to lobby governments in Europe and North America to restrict the activities of corporate raiders, to protect the jobs and the pay conditions of working people,&rdquo; stated Unite Joint General Secretary Derek Simpson. 
 
&ldquo;Private equity firms highlight the reason that we are exploring a merger with Unite,&rdquo; added USW President Leo Gerard. &ldquo;Global finance must be confronted by global labor.&rdquo; 
 
Unite&rsquo;s other Joint General Secretary, Tony Woodley, said, &ldquo;Private equity funds are the world&rsquo;s largest source of cash, funded mostly by workers&rsquo; pensions, paying little or no tax. There&rsquo;s something seriously wrong in any country where this happens.&rdquo; 
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The unions seek transparency into the activities of private equity companies, and they seek a closure of tax loopholes that reward short-term manipulation at the expense of job creation and workers&rsquo; income. 
 
It is estimated that workers&rsquo; pension funds now provide up to 25% of private equity capital. In 2006 alone, private equity funds raised a total of US$221 billion, up from US$33 billion ten years ago. To illustrate the harm that takeovers, buy-outs, and the inevitable restructurings bring, last year, a total amount of US$730 billion in leveraged deals was done. That compares to only $37 billion a short five years ago. 
 
The tax paid by managers of such deals, who make sometimes tens of millions of dollars in a single deal, is sometimes less that tax paid by an ordinary worker.

USW of the United States and Unite of the UK to Challenge Greed of Private Equity Funds

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Negotiations in the gold, platinum, chrome, diamond, coal, and iron ore mining sectors of South Africa head into July with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and major mining companies being far apart on wages. 
 
Disputes have been declared in nearly all the talks, with NUM seeking two-year increases ranging from 11% at DeBeer's diamond-mining operations to higher at platinum and gold mining operators. Contracts expired on 30 June but talks are likely to continue throughout July, under the guidance of the CCMA, the governmental agency where NUM has filed for dispute resolution. Such filings are necessary before a union can legally take strike action. 
<img height="103" alt="" src="" width="100" />
This set of negotiations comes amidst an escalating South African inflation rate, especially food and fuel costs. The talks also come when commodity prices are high, and the mining houses are reaping huge profits. 
 
Gold and platinum, two natural resources in which South Africa leads the world in production, have seen rising demand, resulting in higher pricing. Gold was selling for US$420 an ounce in early 2005. In June 2007, it was selling for nearly US$653 an ounce. And platinum, which finds South Africa supplying 75% of the world's markets, has seen price rises of 18% since the beginning of 2007. 
 
NUM is seeking wage increases for the two years in most sectors of about 15%. 
 
&quot;When we talk of double-digit (increases) we mean business and we are not in the business of playing games with our members' mandates,&quot; said NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni. 
<img height="142" alt="" src="" width="100" />
NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni
To date in talks, the mining companies have put forward wage offers that fall far short of South African inflation. The Chamber of Mines, representing AngloGold Ashanti, Goldfields, and Harmony in gold talks, have offered only 6%. DRDGold is bargaining outside the chamber, but its current offer is insufficient. 
 
The same can be said for the chamber's low offer in coal negotiations. In platinum, where AngloPlatinum, Impala Platinum, Lonmin, and Northam are the country's leading producers, the employers' wage offer of between 6-7% falls short of NUM goals. 
 
At Kumba Resources, an iron ore producer, the NUM is seeking 13.5%, while DeBeers offer to diamond miners is 7% next to NUM's demand for 11%. 
 
The NUM knows that no mining settlement has ever been reached without a fight. Now, as negotiations head into July, South Africa's largest and most militant trade union expects just that.

Disputes Declared in South Africa&#039;s Mining Negotiations

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South Africa's mining industry is getting more dangerous, judging from a rash of deaths in June in the country's gold and platinum sectors. Overall, mining deaths in 2007 far outpace those occurring in preceding years, making a 2003 goal by the Chamber of Mines of achieving zero workplace deaths by 2013 difficult to imagine. 
 
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), ICEM's largest trade union affiliate in South Africa, believes mining houses are spending large sums to increase production in this period of high precious commodity pricing, but very little on safety prevention. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="" width="100" />
A&nbsp;study done by a South African organisation, Bench Marks Foundation, cites an audit done by AngloPlatinum, a company hit with the most June mining deaths. The audit reveals that an AngloPlats review of its deaths in mining shows more emphasis is placed on establishing blame &quot;rather than on identifying causes and instituting measures to prevent the occurrence of accidents.&quot; 
The world's largest producer of platinum, 75% owned by AngloAmerican, witnessed five June deaths in its South African operations, which caused the company to close its massive Rustenburg operations for seven days on 18 June in order to conduct a safety audit. 
 
AngloPlatinum is responsible for 17 deaths in South African mines so far in 2007. Twelve of those came at Rustenberg. That compares with a total of 19 in 2006, 17 of which came at Rustenburg.
AngloPlat's sister company, AngloGold Ashanti, has fared no better. Globally, in the first quarter of 2007, AngloGold experienced its worst quarter of mining deaths since 2004. Fourteen miners perished in the first three months of 2007, including nine in the company's South African gold operations. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="250" />
Rival Goldfields is responsible for ten mining deaths in South Africa so far in 2007. 
 
Last year, a total of 199 mining deaths were recorded in the country's mines, including 113 in gold operations and 40 in platinum. If the recent May-June spate of nearly 50 deaths continues, the 2007 death toll will far exceed those occurring in 2006. 
 
The NUM has formally called for an urgent tripartite meeting to resuscitate South Africa's Mining Health and Safety Summit in order to address the current deficiencies in mine safety. Even the Chamber of Mines, at its third annual health and safety meetings early in June, said that drastic action is needed now to curb the high level of mining deaths. 
 
The NUM endorsed the chamber's statement, but says mining houses must begin to &quot;walk the talk.&quot; In the Bench Mark's study, commissioned by the three major platinum producers, AngloPlatinum, Impala, and Lonmin, the NGO said the dramatic increase in production levels is responsible for an adverse effect on safety. 
 
The chief researcher to the year-long study recommends that bonuses of top executives be linked closely to safety performances. 
<img height="161" alt="" src="" width="130" />
NUM and ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana
NUM President Senzeni Zokwana said, &quot;Workers feel let down by the state's judicial system since no employer has ever been hauled before a court of law in the circumstances in which people lose their lives, although legislation is clear on that.&quot; 
 
&quot;Miners are losing their lives and limbs, while the majority of accidents are preventable,&quot; added NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni. The NUM insists that all parties concerned in South Africa, from the relevant governmental agencies to all levels of management inside the mining companies, give the matter of health and safety in mining the top priority it deserves.

2007 Mining Deaths Become Worrisome in South Africa

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On June 25, 2007, 30 employees of the Russian &ldquo;State Institute of Organic Synthesis Technology&rdquo; (or FGUP GITOS) went on a hunger strike for an indefinite period. They were driven to this extreme measure by the inability of the Federal Agency for Industry to settle wage arrears, going back to 2003. 
 
In the past, FGUP GITOS was involved in technology research and development, including on highly toxic substances. When Russia signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993, the R&amp;D work at the Institute ended. 
<img height="99" alt="" src="" width="100" />
All conversion schemes subsequently launched at the enterprise have failed. Since June 2004, the FRUP GITOS, the only industrial employer in the town of Shikhany, in the Russian Saratov Region, has been going through a bankruptcy procedure, which has been persistently obstructed by the Federal Agency for Industry. 
 
In June 2005, the Federal Agency set up one of the business units of the FGUP GITOS as a separate entity and transferred production floors, the infrastructure , the State order, and 230 employees of the FGUP GITOS to the new legal entity. In April 2006, the FGUP GITOS itself, with the remaining 200 employees, was declared bankrupt and put into receivership. Currently, all employees of the FGUP GITOS have received redundancy notices. 
 
In July 2006, in an attempt to prevent a hunger strike announced by the FGUP GITOS union, a Joint Commission was formed, with representatives from the Federal Agency for Industry, the Interregional Trade Union Association SODRUZHESTVO, affiliated to Russian Oil and Gas Workers Union (ROGWU, ICEM affiliate), the Government of the Saratov Region, the local authorities of Shikhany, and the workforce. The Commission had the task of determining the amount of wages and social benefits owed to both former and current GITOS employees and finding a way to settle the arrears. 
<img height="67" alt="" src="" width="100" border="1" />
Some efforts towards financial assistance were arranged. However, most failed, and others were manifestly insufficient. 
 
In February 2007, the FGUP GITOS union announced its decision to picket the Federal Agency for Industry. After they were first told that it was &lsquo;all their own fault&rsquo;, promises were made to the workers that the enterprise would be reorganised. Those promises were never fulfilled. 
 
More workers are determined to join their 30 striking colleagues if nothing is done. The workers also intend to organise a march to Moscow and file a mass complaint with the European Human Rights Court. 
 
Alerted to the situation by ROGWU, the <a href="/index.php?id=8&amp;doc=2309&amp;la=EN">ICEM sent a letter to the Russian Prime Minister</a>, stating its grave concern and urging the Federal Government to ensure an immediate resolution of the dispute and settlement of all social benefits and wage arrears which currently stand at RUB 88 million (&euro; 2.5 million), including wage arrears, union dues, payments to the pension fund and health benefits.

Russian Chemical Workers start Hunger Strike

Archive

DGB Successfully Delivers OECD Justice in Bayer Case from the Philippines

SUTNA in Argentina Meets Goals in Talks with Last Major Rubber Company

CEP Maintains National Energy Pattern in Canada with Sizeable Gains at Suncor Refinery

Steelworkers-Canada Blasts Government’s One-Sided Economic Review Panel

Trial Begins in US on Drummond Coal’s Alleged Murders of Colombian Trade Unionists

Chrome, Hunger Strikes End in Albania

USW of the United States and Unite of the UK to Challenge Greed of Private Equity Funds

Disputes Declared in South Africa's Mining Negotiations

2007 Mining Deaths Become Worrisome in South Africa

Russian Chemical Workers start Hunger Strike

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