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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
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

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
ICEM Central European affiliate, the Independent Trade Union of Chemistry and Non-Metal Workers of Bosnia-Herzegovina (SSHN-FBIH), held its Congress is Sarajevo on 8 December 2010, and high on the agenda was ICEM involvement in a bitter backpay dispute last year with one of the union’s major employers. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda spoke at the Congress. The union re-elected the woman who fought selflessly to bring a successful conclusion to the backpay and health and safety dispute. SSHN-FBIH President Kata Iveljic was enthusiastically acclaimed again as leader of the trade union. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101.bosnia congress(1).jpg" width="220" height="141" alt=""/>
The dispute involved 1,250 workers employed by Global Ispat Koksana Industtrija Lukavac (GIKIL), a sodium carbonate plant that produces coking coke for steelmaking. The enterprise is a unit of the nefarious Global Infrastructure Holdings, owned by Pramod Mittal of the Indian steel-making family. 
 
Management of GIKIL, which is operated by the Indian company but jointly owned with the Canton of Tuzla, had unilaterally rolled back wages 55% to 2003 levels, failed to pay wages during the last quarter of 2009, and neglected to heed SSHN-FBIH’s call for proper safety and health attention around coke ovens that had caused numerous cases of cancer. 
 
At last month’s Congress, Warda congratulated the union for mobilizing support beyond the borders of Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as for two successful strikes in late 2009 and early 2010 which forced the absentee Mittal brother to respond to workers’ grievances. Warda also praised the government of the Canton of Tuzla for stepping into the fray and forcing Global Infrastructure Holdings to react. The 2009 pay arrears were fully paid in February 2010 through the joint ICEM/SSHN-FBIH campaign. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006.Mato.Lalic.jpg" width="170" height="128" alt=""/>
ICEM Central European Project Coordinator Mato Lalic
Warda also told SSHN-FBIH delegates in Sarajevo that the ICEM will continue to monitor GIKIL’s social conduct and health and safety inside the factory, located in the northern city of Lukavac. 
 
Other guests at the Congress included ICEM Central European Project Coordinator Mato Lalic and representatives from trade unions of Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia.

Chemistry, Non-Metal Workers’ Union Holds Congress in Sarajevo, Bosnia

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM this month began a search for qualified candidates to assume the duties of Mining/Diamond, Gems, Ornaments, and Jewelry Production Officer. The vacancy was created when Joe Drexler decided to leave the ICEM to resume his duties with the United Steelworkers in North America. 
 
The position will be based in Geneva. The successful candidate must have fluent written and spoken English language skills, as well as IT skills. The Mining/DGOJP position at ICEM offers an excellent salary and level of benefits. 
 
Candidates must send full details of their background in a cover letter in English, along with a CV to General Secretary Manfred Warda and ICEM’s Finance and Administration Officer Marie-France Sarfati <a href="mailto:marie-france.sarfati@icem.org">here</a>, (or to fax no. +41 22 304 1841) by 15 February 2011. 
 
The letter of job posting can be found <a href="/index.php?id=5&la=EN&doc=4203" type="internal">here</a>, and a job description for the position in English can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Job%20description%20mining%20and%20DGJOP%20Officer.pdf" type="internal">here</a>.

ICEM Seeks Mining Officer Based in Geneva

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="100" height="49"/>
After review of the deadly clash between workers and police at Advanced Chemical Industries Ltd. (ACI) in Siddhirganj, Bangladesh, on 23 January, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine & General Workers’ Union (ICEM) finds ACI’s conduct contemptible and the root cause of the violence that left one worker dead and over 100 hospitalised. 
 
The Geneva-based ICEM also supports trade unions in Bangladesh who are risking repression and have demonstrated since last Sunday in opposing the heavy-handed use of police force in central Narayanganj district in putting down the legitimate protests of ACI workers on 23 January. 
 
After numerous attempts to correct disparities inside the 407-worker ACI Pharmaceutical plant, full-time and temporary workers alike attempted to stage a peaceful protest. ACI’s response to the worksite protest was to call police, who caused mayhem by firing rubber bullets and some 30 canisters of tear gas at the protestors. 
 
One worker, a 25-year-old temporary worker, Enamul Huq, died in a hospital from wounds inflicted from police. Scores others remain hospitalised and the police now have unfairly issued arrest warrants for workers involved in the protest.
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101.bangladesh.jpg" width="123" height="151" alt=""/>
Arrest warrant: Beaten Striker
The ICEM determines that responsibility for the melee belongs with ACI, which too long neglected the pleas of both workers and their plant-level trade union in addressing legitimate workplace concerns. Workers’ grievances center on failure to give temporary workers full-time, permanent work status, with some temporary staff working as long as 12 years in those unsecured position and without the level of benefits that permanent workers receive; refusal to allow temporary workers to join the plant-level union; and failure to address extremely low wage rates for both permanent and full time workers. 
 
“The fact that nearly all 400 workers, temporary and full-time alike, participated in this disaffection and that is one signal that management of ACI failed in its duties,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “We’re in total support of workers’ grievances and call on ACI to adopt a higher level of social conduct.” 
 
The ICEM also reminds civil society that Bangladesh has ratified ILO Conventions 87 and 98, freedom of association/right to organise/right to organise/bargain collectively conventions, and the Bangladesh government has a duty to ensure these global standards are applied. 
 
The ACI plant produces drug aids for human use. The plant employs 167 full-time workers and 240 temporary workers. ACI is major Asian manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of drug aids, agri-chemical and pesticide products, and basic consumer products. 
 
The ICEM is a Global Union Federation representing 20 million workers, encompassing 467 trade unions in 132 countries. 
 
For further information, contact: ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin, <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 22 304 1842, or +41 79 734 8994.

ICEM Condemns ACI Conduct in Deadly Bangladesh Chemical Plant Riot

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The global mobilization of trade unions affiliated to four Global Union Federations, calling for trade union rights in Mexico, is now two weeks away. Affiliates of the ICEM, International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), and UNI have planned coordinated actions across the world during the week that marks the five-year anniversary of the Pasta de Conchos mine disaster. 
 
In February 2006, an explosion happened in that mine and 65 miners were killed. The tragic blast followed continued pleas by the Mexican Miners Union, Los Mineros, for improved safety conditions at the mine. 
 
The campaign has now made available posters, hand-bills, and information backgrounders in various languages, available <a href="/en/5-Mining-DGOJP" type="internal">here</a>.  
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101. Mexico days of action.jpg" width="368" height="87"/>
In Geneva, a high-level delegation from the four coordinating GUFs will meet with the Mexican ambassador to the UN in the Swiss city, to communicate the demands of the global action and seek explanations on sustained efforts to bust unions by the Calderón government. An action in front of the Mexican mission in Geneva will be joined by other Global Union Federations, including the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI), Public Services International (PSI), and the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers (IUF). 
 
Mexico’s assault against trade unions, specifically against Los Mineros, continued last Monday, 24 January, when a US representative of the USW, Manny Armenta, was arrested by Mexican customs police on his way to assist attorneys for Los Mineros. He was accused of driving a stolen vehicle. Armenta immediately presented documentation for the car, but was still instructed to pay a fine to a corrupt officer of US$15,000. On refusing to pay, Armenta was arrested and detained, until Los Mineros posted a bond of US$7,500 for his release. Armenta’s car is still impounded and his wallet was returned to him by police minus US$700. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101.manny armenta.png" width="261" height="177"/>
USW's Manny Armenta in Mexican Prison Cell
Steelworker President Leo Gerard stated, “It is ironic that although Mexican courts have issued 20 warrants for Germán Larrea – the owner of Grupo México – the government has never been able to arrest him. Yet they can arrest Manny because he is in Mexico helping the mineworkers defend their rights.” 
 
In a further clear example of the Calderón government’s complicit support for union-busting efforts, three leaders of the Los Mineros Section 142 were arrested at 5.30am on 26 January. Ministerial police violently pulled the men from their homes, still in their underwear in an effort to intimidate the section, currently on strike at the El Cubo mine, in Guanajuato. 
 
Those arrested were Juan Andrés Villa Licea, President of the Strike Committee, Martín Reina Cruces, and Jorge Ramón Monsiváis Ortega, all senior members of the union.

14-19 February Mexico Days of Action Draws Near

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
A tentative labour agreement reached 26 January will likely be ratified late tonight, ending the 18-month strike between Brazilian multinational Vale and United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9508 in the Canadian province of Newfoundland/Labrador. The union is conducting the last of six explanation and ratification votes to members on the north coast of Labrador today, and by all indications the 124-member Local 9508 will approve a five-year labour agreement with Vale. 
 
The expected approval ends a bitter strike in which Vale – purchaser in 2006 of all mining assets of Canadian-based Inco – sought to roll back living conditions and work terms for 3,500 steelworkers in Voiseys Bay/Goose Bay, Labrador, and in Ontario. 
 
The Eastern Canadian tentative agreement last week came following intense pressure placed on Vale from a special provincial Industrial Inquiry Commission. That independent inquiry issued recommended solutions to end the strike early in January. (see recent ICEM report <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4188-Vale’s-Arrogance-to-Eastern-Canadian-Miners-Communities-Government-Continues" type="internal">here</a>.) The settlement, if approved tonight, comes just weeks before that same panel is scheduled to issue a second report on the integrity of Vale’s operations in Labrador. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101.VoiseyBay.jpg" width="200" height="200"/>
The company has been operating nickel, copper, and cobalt mining and processing operations with scab replacement workers. On 22 January, a leak from a retention pond in Voiseys Bay went undetected for eight hours, causing a processing plant there to stop production for nearly five days. 
 
On the last day of that shut-down, Vale managers called Local 9508’s bargaining committee into talks and the two sides and with the aid of mediator Bill Wells struck a compromise deal. 
 
The new contract would begin tomorrow, 1 February, and run until 1 February 2016. A back-to-work protocol was also adopted in which all striking workers will be recalled to their jobs within a maximum of seven weeks. Workers returning will receive an immediate C$2,000 retention bonus and another such C$2,000 bonus after completing seven days of work orientation and training. 
 
USW Local 9508 achieved adequate wage increases, retained cost-of-living increases, and won excellent language regarding contracting-out practices. A compromise was made on a production bonus, the so-called nickel bonus. Although still achievable, several Vale-demanded components were added such as cash flow return on site investment and overall operational efficiency that are generally out of workers’ hands. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1009.usw.voiseys.bay.darren.cove.2.jpg" width="134" height="130"/>
USW Local 9508 President Darren Cove
A C$.20-per-hour wage increase is gained in each year of the agreement, and workers’ starting wages, following return to work, will be lifted with the first increase plus accrued cost-of-living adjustments from 2009 and 2010. Future cost-of-living increases will be accrued quarterly and paid out on a yearly basis. 
 
Local 9508 won a extra’s holiday, bringing from 11 to 12 the number of statutory holidays; staff working night shifts will receive a first-ever C$.30-per-hour shift differential; and a 10% work-site premium for work performed in remote areas will be added to salaries. 
 
The union’s contracting-out language was expanded positively to prevent Vale from using outside contractors for the purpose of reducing full-time staff. 
 
The expected end of the 18-month strike today will likely mean settlements in the next few weeks of strikes by USW Local 9508 members at three contract companies on Vale’s Labrador/Newfoundland properties. Those contractors represent security, catering, and a First Nation skilled-mechanics company called Ushitou Maintenance. Nearly 300 union members of Local 9508 have been on strike at those firms since mid-2010. 
 
The ICEM and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), Geneva-based Global Union Federations that have supported Canadian steelworkers in the long-running Vale disputes in Newfoundland/Labrador and Ontario, congratulate the members of Local 9508 for their resilience, as well as USW District Six in Canada for exemplary worker representation in facing off with an extremely adversarial mining house.

Pressure Mounts, Vale Settles in Eastern Canada

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
An ICEM and Public Services International (PSI) affiliated trade union, Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), has raised issue with the insolent social conduct of US managers of a subsidiary of GDF SUEZ. The conduct is pointedly contrary to standards GDF SUEZ only in November agreed to in a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with three Global Union Federations (GUFs). 
 
The matter involves a US subsidiary of French-based GDF SUEZ, United Water Services Inc., a private utility that employs about 400 UWUA members in the US. UWUA called on the ICEM and PSI to rebuke United Water over an environment indictment levied in December by the US Justice Department, as well as troubling public comments made by United Water executives to minimize the seriousness of the alleged crimes. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/PSIlogo.jpg" width="112" height="112"/>
After consulting with the third GUF that is signatory to the 16 November 2010 GFA, Building and Woodworkers International (BWI), the ICEM and PSI on 19 January issued the first complaint of this particular agreement, calling United Water’s overall conduct a breach of GDF SUEZ corporate social responsibility. (That complaint can be found <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/2.GDFSUEZunitedwatLet.pdf " type="internal">here</a>.) 
On 8 December, the US government issued a set of 26 indictments against United Water for conspiracy and felony violations of the US Clean Water Act. The GDF SUEZ subsidiary and two of its executives are charged with tampering and manipulating water quality measurements at a Gary, Indiana, wastewater treatment plant that it had operated on behalf of the municipality’s Sanitation Board. 
 
Specifically, over a five-year period, the US Justice Department charged United Water with a scheme that increased chlorine input levels immediately before US government E.Coli monitoring samples were taken, and then lowering the input levels afterward as cost-savings measures. United Water is accused of doing this 68 times. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/GDF SUEZ logo.jpg" width="220" height="69"/>
The practice, the US government claims, poses a serious health risk to the public. 
 
The UWUA, ICEM, and PSI also took serious issue following the US Justice Department indictment with public comments made by United Water’s president and senior vice president for Corporate Communications downplaying the charges. They stated that the indictments are mere technical disagreements, with the president of United Water, Robert Iacullo, calling the government’s environmental charges “an abuse of prosecutorial discretion.” 
 
In the addendum to the GFA, GDF Suez states that it has “responsibilities to society” and that “it will respect national law and regulations.” The agreement also states: “Among it activities, GDF Suez distributes energy and water, essential to the health and well-being of society.” The ICEM/PSI intervention notes, “If the US government’s charges prove true, the discharge of untreated, or sub-standard wastewater into waterways poses a serious public health threat.” 
 
The GUFs are currently awaiting reply from GDF SUEZ over the complaint.

US Affiliate, UWUA, Challenges GDF SUEZ Inside Global Agreement

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
A colliery in northern Notre de Santander state, Colombia, again became a death trap for miners. The La Preciosa coal mine in Sandinata municipality, where 38 miners have already perished over the past three years, was rocked by a methane gas explosion at the morning shift change on 26 January that saw 21 miners die. 
 
The locally-owned mine by La Preciosa Ltda. employs 110 staff and was ordered closed by the National Institute of Geology and Mines (Ingeominas) following the explosion. Twenty miners were killed inside a 600-metre horizontal shaft, while one worker died in an ambulance on the way to medical care. Six miners were rescued and are hospitalised in the city of Cúcuta. 
 
The bodies of 16 miners were retrieved on the day of the disaster, while four were received on 27 January. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101.colmobia.mine.accident.png" width="209" height="145"/>
La Preciosa Miners Worry About Future
In unexpected candor, the Colombian government admitted that its mine safety laws and resources for stricter mine safety regulations are inadequate. Mining Minister Carlos Rodado arrived in Sandinata on 27 January and said the government lacks funds and staff – Ingeominas exploys only 17 mine inspectors – to monitor 6,000 legal mines. 
 
La Preciosa, which produces 3,000 tonnes of coal per month, is a legally-operated mine. But in October 2010, six miners died due to gas asphyxiation. In 2007, 32 miners died in a similar gas explosion to the one that occurred last Wednesday. In 2007, the mine stayed close for five months. 
 
A representative from an ICEM-affiliated miners’ union at another mine in Colombia said the government is too quick to award operating licenses to small- and medium-size companies which do not have the necessary mechanisms in place to monitor safe mining practices. Colombia has not ratified ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 
 
At a funeral service in the mountain town of San Roque on 28 January where ten of the 21 miners were remembered, thousand of residents turned out to mourn, with most residents of the mountainous town affixing Colombian flag to their homes. The mayor of Sandinata, Yamile Ragel, called the tragedy “a crime” that will “not go unpunished.” The ten were buried in a local cemetery following a Roman Catholic service. 
 
Ingeominas said that in 2010, Colombia recorded 84 mine accidents in which 173 workers died.

Methane Blast in Colombian Coal Mine Kills 21

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