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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
With a 1 March deadline looming, bargaining has temporarily stalled between the ICEM-affiliated general union, Central Organization of Industrial Employees in Denmark (CO-industri) and the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI). Negotiations are aimed at renewing collective agreements across the country’s industrial sector. CO-industri represents 276,000 employees in the trade and service industries, while DI is the leading business lobbying organisation. 
 
The collective bargaining round directly affects 240,000 workers in the manufacturing industry and indirectly affects an additional 350,000 workers in the private sector. Historically, the manufacturing agreement is used as a blueprint for other negotiations. 
 
Business leaders set the tone for negotiations even before it began. DI CEO Hans Skov Christensen outlined his priority for the talks as an opportunity to “restore the competitiveness of Danish companies,” adding that wages are not the only element in competitiveness, but still a “highly central part.” These remarks were made by Christensen at the 6 January press conference, immediately prior to the start of discussions with CO-industri. 

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The chief negotiator and President of CO-industri, Thorkild Jensen’s, said the union’s clear primary demand in talks is the continued positive development of real wages. The secondary demands include improvements in social clauses, including improved pay during sick leave, improved maternity allowances, and improved conditions for shift workers and apprentices. 
 
Equal pay across the gender divide is also high on the agenda for this negotiation, as is the review of a special rule in prior agreements affecting clerical workers. Currently, clerical workers are only covered by the collective agreement if over 50% of workers in a specific company are members of HK, the union for commercial and clerical employees. 
 
Co-industri is following the guidance of the recently established European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF) policy resolution that calls “for more secure employment, against precarious work.” This will be included in union demands in terms of increased investment in training and education of workers, and protections for temporary agency workers. 
 
The parties will continue to work towards an agreement without the conciliation of the Ministry of Labour. According to CO-industri’s rulebook, every agreement must be put to a ballot, with a simple majority needed for ratification.

Danish Contract Negotiations Deadlocked on National Level

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Four French unions last week, 18 February, approved average wage increases for 60,000 EDF (Electricité de France) workers of 4.4% for 2010. CFDT, CGT, CFTC, and CFE-CGC won workers a progressive and far-sighted wage accord that has a base salary increase, plus increases based on seniority, training, incentives, and promotions. 
 
The 80% state-owned EDF will see half of its workforce retire over the next ten years, with 45% of the company’s nuclear workers alone set to retire by 2015. An industry-wide increase of 1.2% that was negotiated last November and took effect on 1 January is also factored into the 4.4% average boost in salaries. The agreement also includes individual incentives of up to 1.8%. 

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Over two-thirds of the 60,000 workers, those employed in distribution and high-voltage electric utility positions, will realize average wage packages increases of 4.2%. The agreement also prioritises training and career advancement opportunities, and likely will prevent the labour unrest within EDF that was characterized by several industrial actions in 2009. 
 
The CFDT termed the agreement satisfactory, while the CGT, which for the first time in many years joined the other unions in approving the results of this bargain, said the new agreement makes up some of the lost purchasing power of the recent past. 
 
The company characterized the wage agreement as “not exorbitant” and said it reflects the will of management to heighten social dialogue with the unions, particularly on job formation and skill upgrades. The positive global financial results posted by EDF in 2009 also contributed to the amiable wage negotiations, with the company stating that the various wage packages granted French workers should contribute to optimal operational performance in 2010. 
 
EDF is the world’s largest operator of nuclear power plants, with some 17 plants and 58 reactors in France alone.

French Unions, EDF Agree to Positive 2010 Wage Terms

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The largest union at South African state-owned electric provider Eskom, ICEM-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), has threatened national strike action if demands on housing allowances and promoting temporary workers to full-time positions are not met. 
 
The NUM engaged in marches and manifestations at Eskom facilities in three provinces last week, and a 16 February central march was undertaken by the union to present a petition of the demands to Eskom management at its at its Klerksdorp headquarters in Matlosana, North West province. 

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Those demands include delays in the finalization of housing allowances, deferred from last summer’s collective negotiations; the banning of labour brokers and absorbing temporary workers onto full-time employment rolls; and opposition to the higher, proposed electricity tariffs of 35% in each of the next three years. 
 
“We cannot have a situation in which some labour brokers are still around to exploit our members,” said NUM Regional Coordinator Eldris Mphahlete, who also expressed his displeasure that the housing allowance issue is still unresolved. “Strike action is on the horizon,” he added. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthAfricaCOSATU2.jpg" width="102" height="111" alt=""/>
The Congress of South African Unions (COSATU), and its regional branches are supporting the NUM in its demands. The NUM represents some 16,000 of Eskom’s 28,000 employees in South Africa. 
 
Also last week, the NUM began an indefinite strike at Idwala Lime, a sodium carbonates and industrial materials business owned by Black Economic Empowerment company Tiso Group and private equity entities Ethos and Old Mutual. Operations are located near Danielskuil, Northern Cape province. A vast majority of the 300 workers have selected the NUM as bargaining representative, but management has refused formal recognition despite prolonged dialogue. NUM Regional Organizer Botshelo Lebelo said Idwala Lime is “opting for a confrontational approach” to labour-management relations.

Housing Allowances, Labour Brokers Bring NUM to Edge of Strike at Eskom

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An inquiry into the fatal helicopter crash that killed 17 workers and crew headed to Canadian offshore oil platforms on 12 March 2009 continued earlier this month. In the days following the early February continuation, former Labrador-Newfoundland Supreme Court Justice Robert Wells, who heads the inquiry undertaken by the nation’s Transportation Safety Board, issued immediate procedural changes a full seven months before his commission’s report. 
 
Those changes are based on testimony from local union officers and staff of Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union, which represents 700 workers at two of three offshore platforms some 300 kilometres off Newfoundland. 
 
One mandate calls on the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, the agency regulating the offshore oil industry, to ensure that a fully equipped search-and-rescue helicopter is on standby at St. John’s, Newfoundland, and ready to respond within 15 to 20 minutes of any mayday call. It took the charter service contractor, Cougar Helicopters Ltd., between 45 minutes to an hour to equip and launch a rescue helicopter last year on 12 March. 

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The other instruction by Wells restricts night flights to only emergencies until a dedicated helicopter is available that is equipped with an auto-hover and forward-looking infrared device in the event a rescue mission is necessary at night. Both recommended changes were accepted by the Offshore Petroleum Board and the agency was informing lead oil companies at the platforms of the directives last week, including ExxonMobil, Suncor, Husky, Chevron Canada, and ConocoPhillips. 
 
The immediate precautionary changes stem from testimony that CEP leaders gave on 9 February, and also last October and November when the inquiry began. Officers of CEP Local 2121, representing workers at the Hibernia and Terra Nova platforms, expressed concerns that response time, non-fitting survival suits, and lack of underwater breathing devices typify a corporate culture that is lax on transport safety. They testified that in the North Sea oilfields, a separate agency singly monitors air transport to the platforms and a 15-minute response time in the event of an emergency is mandated. 
 
The union also pointed out that Cougar’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico provides search-and-rescue emergency service in 20 minutes time. 
 
The CEP also brought to question why no 24-hour military search-and-rescue helicopters are stationed at St. John’s, the closest point and major port serving the offshore rigs. Such military craft, called Cormorants, are located in Gander, in central Newfoundland, a travelling time of up to two hours air time to the flight paths used by Cougar. Canadian military officials have neglected to address this issue, or to join the inquiry. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMoil3.JPG.JPG" width="120" height="119" alt=""/>
Also of concern to oil workers, according to Local 2121 President Sheldon Peddle and Vice President Brian Murphy and the lone survivor of the March 2009 ditching, Robert Decker, is the fact that Cougar’s Sikorsky S-92A helicopters are equipped with a large fuel tank inside the cabin that complicates emergency exiting. Decker testified at the Wells inquiry on 6 November 2009. 
 
Peddle said that simulators used for worker safety exercises do not have such cabin impediments. 
 
On 12 March 2009, a Cougar Sikorsky S-92A helicopter carrying two crew members and 16 oil workers ditched into North Atlantic waters, eight minutes after oil pressure readings dropped from instruments that monitor the helicopter’s engine gearbox. Two of the 18 on board managed to get out of the cabin after the crash, with only Decker managing to survive in the frigid waters. 
 
The issue of helicopter safety is of utmost importance to the ICEM-International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) Joint Onshore-Offshore Task Force, particularly in view of recent tragedies. On 1 April 2009, 16 workers died tragically in the North Sea when a Eurocopter Super Puma AS 332L2, operated by Bond Offshore Helicopters, ditched on its way to BP’s Miller platform in the ETAP oilfields. 
 
On 26 February 2008, the same make craft crashed in southern Atlantic waters, killing five of 17 workers and crew heading to a Petrobras rig. That caused members of ICEM-affiliated FUB, the Oil Workers’ Federation of Brazil, to boycott the Super Pumas for the next six months. Two other Super Pumas also crashed in the South China Sea in January 2007 and November 2006. And two other ditchings occurred in North Sea waters in the first half of 2009 where, miraculously, nobody was killed.

CEP Testimony in Canadian Offshore Helicopter Crash Leads to Changes

Noting that: 
 
Since Vale, the second largest mining company in the world, acquired nickel miner Inco in 2006, there has been a downward spiral in labor relations globally. 
 
In 2009 labor negotiations with USW, Vale claimed they needed deep concessions despite $13.2 billion (USD) net profit in 2008 and generous compensation for top execs. 
 
3,500 USW members responded by going on strike in mid-July. Since USW struck Vale, the company has hired replacement workers in an attempt to operate the facilities without the striking workers. 
 
Vale has refused to negotiate in good faith since the strike began. When they did meet with the USW, Vale has remained completely inflexible and unwilling to reach a fair and equitable settlement. 
 
The ICEM and its affiliates, working together with the IMF, have played an instrumental role in a global campaign for justice at Vale. This has included campaigning on behalf of Brazilian, Indonesian and Canadian Vale workers in their struggles for new labor agreements. 
 
ICEM affiliates in South Africa, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Indonesia, Liberia, Zambia and throughout the ICEM Sub-Sahara Region have offered particularly critical support in this campaign. 
 
The global campaign has already improved conditions for workers in Brazil and Indonesia. 
 
The final outcome of this struggle will have implications throughout the global mining industry and beyond. 
 
Affiliates resolve: 
 
We condemn the actions of Vale to refuse to negotiate a fair and just settlement to the dispute in Canada. 
 
We will support the ongoing struggle for justice for workers at Vale, including the struggle for fair new labor agreements in Canada, in every way possible.

Resolution in Support for Struggle for Justice at Vale

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Some 60,000 trade union members of five Romanian union confederations manifested in Bucharest’s Victoriei Square on 19 May, demanding that the government not implement its planned cuts on public-sector wages, pensions, and social services. 
 
Trade unions, civil society groups, and doctors, teachers, and ordinary citizens promise a general strike that could begin tomorrow, 31 May, if the center-right government of Prime Minister Emil Boc moves ahead with its plan to cut public-sector pay by 25%, pensions and unemployment benefits by 15%, and public services by 15% on 1 June. 
 
The cuts were made in a letter of intent to the US-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for a US$20 billion loan from the IMF and the EU in order to balance the country’s budget. Prior to the 19 May manifestation, the IMF made public its concern against such drastic cuts, expressing a preference for a balance between public curtailments and new revenue sources such as taxes. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.romania.public.jpg" width="250" height="188"/>
19 May Manifestation in Victoriei Square
Trade unions are calling for a system of progressive taxation, with the right to retain a decent job, the right to education opportunities, and the right to retire in dignity without fear of dire poverty. The trade union confederations propose that Romanian government ministries cut their bureaucracies. 
 
The government’s austerity programme includes a 15% cut in child and child-rearing allowances. Currently, women workers receive 85% of their pre-maternity average pay after childbirth. The government’s proposed cuts would slash that to 60%. In an already understaffed national medical system in which doctors earn average monthly pay of only €350, the cuts would mean another 10% of doctors would leave Romania for countries that have higher salaries. Education has already been affected. Some 15,000 teachers will be sacked this year because of the austerity plan. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1005.romania.public.2.jpg" width="250" height="188"/>
For ICEM affiliated trade unions in the public sector, including FSLI-Petrom at the state oil company, Chimie-Petrochimie Lazar Edeleanu, Chimie-Petrochimie CSI, and Centrala Nationala Minera Federation, the cuts could be devastating since some 80,000 public-sector jobs would be lost, and there is sure to be a spin-off effect into private sector employment. 
 
The five labour confederations resisting the government’s wide-ranging social cuts comprise unions in the mining, metallurgical, chemicals, agriculture, textile, transportation, and education sectors. They include the Fratia National Confederation of Free Trade Unions (CNSLR-Fratia), the Cartel Alfa National Trade Union Confederation (CNS Cartel Alfa), the National Trade Union Bloc (BNS), the Meridian National Trade union Confederation, and the Democratic Trade Union Confederation of Romania (CSDR). 
 
The trade union confederations have already declared 19 May as a historic day of national solidarity against injustice in the central European country, and vow that any attempt by the government to impose its terms will bring the nation to its biggest social crisis of the past 20 years.

Proposed Austerity Cuts Bring Mass Protests Inside Romania

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The ICEM was shocked and angered by the arrests of labour and political rights advocate, Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, and Associate Professor Suthachai Yimprasert, in Thailand, and will be detained until earliest 6 June.
The pair presented themselves to police on hearing of their arrest warrants. Neither of them were members of the core Red Shirt group, they were following events closely in their capacity as journalist and academic.
Both friends of the international labour movement, Somyot and Suthachi are detained at the Adisorn Army Base in Saraburi, 115km north of capital Bangkok. Suthachai is on hungar strike in protest of his arrest.
ICEM affiliates and supporters around the world are requested to write to your local Thai embassies and call on the release of both men.
Somyot is a former ICEM project coordinator in Thailand. 
The arrest warrants were issued in connection to the incident on 21 May 2010 at 13.00, when Somyot and Suthachai, in the name of the 24th of June Democracy Group, held a press conference in front of the House No. 111 Foundation. This was a completely peaceful event.
The ICEM joins calls for the immediate release of both men.

ICEM Angered by Thai Arrests

Some 2,000 Mexican federal troops used force last night to gain control over the Cananea copper mine. The federal police used tear gas and executed arrest warrants for union leaders of Section 65 of ICEM-affiliated Mexican National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (SNTMMSRM) in northern Sonora state. 
 
Mexican troops overtook striking miners at 20h00 on 6 June at the gates to the mine. Reports early this morning said that troops stormed Section 65’s union hall early on 7 June, also tossing tear gas that dispersed women and men present inside the building. 
 
The ICEM today issued another letter to Mexican President Felipe Calderón, insisting that he “stop the violent actions taken yesterday and today by your government against trade union members and their families.” (The full letter can be seen <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/64.ICEM.Emergency.Cananea.7June.pdf" type="internal">here</a>.)
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Mexico.SNTMMSRM.jpg" width="90" height="109"/>
It was the second time that the ICEM has sent a letter to Calderón urging him to use restraint in this volatile labour dispute. In February 2010, the ICEM and International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) cautioned Mexico against using force to break the strike. 
 
The arrest warrants that arrived last night were for Section 65 Secretary-General Sergio Tolano Lizarrágo and Juan Gutiérrez Ballesteros, a National Executive Member of SNTMMSRM, or Los Mineros. 
 
The Cananea copper mine, owned by Grupo México, has been shut since April 2007 when 1,200 miners began a strike over health and safety concerns and trade union rights. 
 
The ICEM is calling on trade unions to send a similar letter to the Mexican government as the one linked above, or use the model letter <a href="/index.php?id=5&la=EN&doc=3840" type="internal">here</a>.

ICEM Calls on Mexico to Halt its Violence at Cananea

7 June 2010 
 
 
Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa 
President 
United States of Mexico 
Residencias Oficial de los Pinos 
Case Miguel Alemán 
Col San Miguel Chapultepec 
11850 Mèxico, D.F. 
 
Sent to fax numbers +52 55 5093 4901, +52 55 52772376, 
e-mail <a href="mailto:felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx">felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx</a>  
 
Dear President Calderon: 
 
On behalf of our --- members, I urge you to stop the violent actions taken yesterday and today by your government against trade union members and their families of Section 65 of Mexican National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union (SNTMMSRM) in Cananea, Mexico. 
 
The ICEM has continually urged a negotiated end to the conflict in Cananea, and we condemn your decision to send in federal police and attack trade union members. 
 
We call upon you to immediately withdraw your forces, and seek a peaceful and negotiated end to the conflict. 
 
Sincerely,

Calderón Model Letter

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The Associated Mine Workers’ of Zimbabwe (AMWZ) suspended its five-day strike today after receiving a show-cause order from the country’s Labour Ministry late on Friday, 14 May. “It is necessary for us to inform miners to return to their jobs or they could face dismissal,” said AMWZ President Tinago Ruzive. 
 
The Labour Ministry will hold a hearing on 20 May to determine the validity of the strike, a walkout the ICEM declared justified last week because several mining houses affiliated with Zimbabwe’s Chamber of Mines failed to deliver on wage adjustments that came in an arbitration award last year. 
 
That arbitration award should have meant a total salary increase of US$140.00 for the final three months of 2009, but most employers failed to enact the increase. For the vast majority of Zimbabwe’s mineworkers, they have seen no increase in wages in over a year. 

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Upwards of 20,000 miners struck some 45 different mining companies on 12 May, shutting down a good portion of Zimbabwe’s platinum, diamond, gold, and production. This came after the AMWZ filed the necessary 14-day intent-to-strike notice in April. The Chamber of Mines did petition the Labour Ministry for a show-cause order then, but after two meetings, the Chamber’s offer of a US$9.50-per-month increase was insufficient. 
 
Some mining houses, including Imperial Platinum’s Zimplats Holdings and Aquarius’ Mimosa Investments, did pay salary increases and were not part of last week’s strikes. But others, including certain operations of Rio Tinto, Metallion Gold, Duration Gold, Redaurum’s River Ranch mine, and Pan African Mining’s Maligreen gold mine, saw production curtailed by the strike. 
 
The AMWZ has proposed a current wage adjustment of US$496 on top of miners’ total salaries. The union also insists that mining companies which have neglected to remit contributions to the Mining Industry Pension Fund, monies owed to the National Employment Council for the Mining Industry, and to the AMWZ for subscriptions be forced to meet these obligations. 
 
Depending on the outcome of the 20 May hearing, the AMWZ could issue another 14-day strike notice and resume strike activity in June, said Ruzive.

Zimbabwe Mine Strike Suspended by Decree of Labour Ministry

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