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The 42nd Congress of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) was convened in Mexico City, 5-12 August, under the theme ‘Strong Unions – Sustainable Transport’. The more than 1,000 Congress delegates saw outgoing ITF president Randall Howard deliver his last address as president, as he stands down also from his position as general secretary of the SATAWU South African transport workers’ union. Howard, who was elected at the 2006 Durban Congress, was appointed as an advisor to the South African minister of public services and administration last year. Newly elected president Paddy Crumlin was recommended by ITF’s executive board and unanimously endorsed by the Congress’ 1,500 delegates. 
 
"The ITF finds itself at a critical time for workers around the world following the global collapse of international economies. It is now our responsibility to protect the rights and futures of all transport workers against the excesses of capitalism set against a slow and uncertain recovery of transport related industries." stated Crumlin in his acceptance speech. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Paddy Crumlin. ITF President.jpg" width="194" height="122"/>
Paddy Crumlin, incoming ITF President
Paddy Crumlin, National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), is seen as a driving force in the development of regional strategic alliances and is widely respected for his central role in trade union development in East Timor and Papua New Guinea. He was previously the Chair of the strong Dockers’ section of the ITF. 
 
General Secretary David Cockcroft was reelected by Congress. 
 
One important delegate to the Congress was missed, Mansour Osanloo, the leader of the Vahed Syndicate Tehran bus workers’ union in Iran is still in prison, in spite of a fierce international campaign for his release, and in spite of an announcement last month by the Iranian authorities that he soon would be released. There are 52 other trade unionists in prison currently in Iran. 
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The ICEM participated in the Congress in Mexico City and, together with the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) sought to highlight the struggle of Los Mineros to delegates. 
 
On Sunday 8 August the Congress sponsored a forum on freedom of association, where Los Mineros were centrally featured, along with the Electricians Union SME. The two unions have recently formed an alliance. ICEM Director of Industry & Corporate Affairs Joe Drexler appealed to unions in attendance to join a broad solidarity committee, currently being formed for those free trade unions under attack in Mexico. The symposium educated 400 trade union leaders about the repressive conditions faced by Mexican trade unions.

42nd ITF Congress in Mexico City Elects MUA's Paddy Crumlin President

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Bargaining again will be held in efforts to resolve the bitter 13-month strike between United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9508 in Voiseys Bay, Labrador, and Brazilian-based mining company Vale. Two days of talks will open on 19 September in the eastern Canadian province of Labrador/Newfoundland. 
 
Two previous days of negotiations on 19-20 July proved futile, with the company continuing its harsh push to lower the living standards of Canadian miners. Some 230 members of USW Local 9508 have been on picket lines at rich copper, nickel mines and port and processing plants in eastern Canada since 1 August 2009. 
 
The strike now exceeds, by 42 days, the 360-day strike brought on by Vale in its assault against 3,500 USW miners and nickel processing workers in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, which was settled with a compromise on 8 July but not without much bitterness lingering. 
 
In Voiseys Bay and remote Goose Bay, where many of the USW strikers are First Nation people, Vale is boasting that it is at or near full production by using scab replacement workers and contractors. The company displayed abominable social behaviour following public comments made by USW Local 9508 President Darren Cove after the break-down of the July talks. 
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USW Local 9508 President Darren Cove
Cove said Vale was treating Local 9508 members like second-class citizens because Vale refused to offer similar terms that ended the strike by USW Locals 6500 and 6200 in Sudbury and Port Colborne. Vale responded by filing a defamation lawsuit in Canadian courts against Cove for making that statement. 
 
Besides the 230 members of three bargaining units of Local 9508 on strike, 50 workers employed by Ushitou Maintenance have been on strike since 1 June 2010. These workers are also members of Local 9508, and perform electrical, pipefitting, instrumentation, and other functions for Vale at its Voiseys Bay operations. 
 
The ICEM reminds trade unions across the globe that the high-profile Canadian labour dispute with hugely profitable Vale will not be over until justice reaches the courageous Steelworker strikers of Labrador / Newfoundland Province.

Canadian Negotiations to Resume Between Vale, USW in Bitter Voiseys Bay Strike

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Meeting under the banner Med Dig, För Dig, Nära Dig (With You, For You, Close to You), Pappers, Sweden’s Paperworkers Union, held its 23rd Congress from 3-5 September in Norrköpping. The weekend Congress came two weeks before national elections in Sweden, elections that quite likely will determine whether or not the modern Swedish social model will survive. 
 
That point was driven home by Pappers President Jan-Henrik Sandberg, Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) President Wanja Lundby-Wedin, and Mona Sahlin, the leader of the Social Democrats and the desired Prime Minister-to-be in the 19 September elections. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1009.pappers.3.jpg" width="205" height="154"/>
Pappers President Jan-Henrik Sandberg
Sandberg told delegates in his opening remarks that the socialistic and democratic ideals of the party of Olof Palme had traditionally prioritized and delivered policies good for all people, not just a few people. He also reminded delegates that after four years of a conservative governing alliance masquerading as a party of the people, all that has occurred is a shredded social safety net, a spike in unemployment, and fewer opportunities for the young people of Sweden. 
 
Sandberg also endorsed the platform of the red-green alliance that was put forward on 31 August. The alliance of the Social Democrats with the Left Party and the Green Party stands as the best chance, he said, for return to fair taxation and security of income. Improvement to the platform could occur, Sandberg added, if it were to include an energy policy that prioritized replacement of outdated nuclear reactors. 
 
Lundby-Wedin said that four years of a right-wing government has not destroyed Sweden’s social model, but cautioned regional and section leaders of the 18,000-member union that four more years of conservative rule will indeed destroy the model. 
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The leader of Sweden’s Social Democrats, Mona Sahlin 
Sahlin, speaking on day two of the Congress, said she was “provoked and angry” that the right-wing alliance of four parties has defined itself as the new workers’ party. She said a true workers’ party does not eliminate welfare schemes for those sick and disabled; it does not disqualify 500,000 from an unemployment fund; and it does not allow one in four young people to go without jobs. 
 
She also outlined six policy initiatives in which the red-green alliance will prioritise job creation, including keeping the energy provider Vattenfall a state-owned company, an entity the “arrogance alliance” seeks to fully privatize over the next four years if it remains in power. 
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The Congress featured a series of break-outs, as well as an interesting pair of workshops involving managing directors from three Swedish forest products companies (Holmen, SCA, and Södra) speaking frankly on future sustainability initiatives inside the paper industry. The other workshop produced frank discussion on whether or not a small union can survive in the new industrial age, or if a merger might become a matter of necessity. That issue likely will be revisited by Pappers after its new four-year Congress period. 
 
Sandberg was re-elected President, while Bengt Sjöholm was re-elected Secretary and Henry Heiniö was re-elected Treasurer. The six other members of Pappers’ nine-member governing board also won re-election. They include Lars-Olof Pettersson, Carina Magnusson-Fernlund, Lars-Göran Johansson, Pelle Eriksson, Mikael Lilja, and Nils-Erik Andersson. 
 
A total of 149 delegates from the union’s 60 sections attended the Congress.

Pappers Conducts Congress at Crucial Political Juncture in Sweden

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A first-ever, tri-nation forum to unite trade unions struggling for democratic autonomy in Mexico with US and Canadian unions was held in Toronto, Canada, on 20 June. Some 120 trade unionists, NGO representatives, and Canadian civil society activists gathered for the one-day “Building Solidarity with the Democratic Labour Movement in Mexico” conference. 
 
As Dave Coles, President of the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada said, the meeting brought together trade union leaders from Mexico who never would be allowed to similarly gather inside Mexico. Those leaders included Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, the exiled President of the National Union of Mine, Metalworkers’, and Allied Workers’ Union (SNTMMSRM), Martín Esparza Flores of the Mexican Union of Electrical Workers (SME), Francisco Hernández Juárez of the Mexican Telephone Workers’ Union (Telefonistas), and others mentioned below. 

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Los Mineros General Secretary, Napoleón Gomez
The conference consisted of presentations by two Mexican-based labour attorneys, who told of the legal and political institutional obstacles to a free and democratic trade union movement in Mexico, and it also detailed the dreaded but common protection contracts, which inhibit true trade union rights. 
 
A central focus throughout the conference was the continuing harmful effects of the now 16-year-old North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, Mexico, and the US. 

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Ben Davis, US Solidarity Center
Ben Davis of the US Solidarity Center did provide several inspiring examples on how SNTMMSRM, or Los Mineros, continues to organize workers despite overt suppression by the Mexican government. He also outlined work done at the US federal level to press the Obama administration to take a stronger stance against Mexican trade union repression. And on the global level, Davis told of work being done at the ILO over protection contracts, as well as institutional shareholder pressure against Grupo México, the major corporate protagonist of Los Mineros. 
 
Jorge Robles of the Mexican Authentic Workers’ Front (FAT) addressed inherent deficiencies in current labour law reform inside Mexico, while Alberto Espinosa Rocha, Secretary-General of the National Union of General Tire/Continental Workers’ Union (SNTGTM), spoke on the harmful effects of the free trade agreement. 

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Alberto Espinosa Rocha, Secretary-General SNTGTM
Espinosa said NAFTA has been “evil for Mexico” since previous good wages and benefits have eroded. He said in both the tyre industry and auto-parts industry, “year-to-year, employers are taking contractual rights away.” 
 
Espinosa was fired in 2003 for impeding General Tire’s agenda during collective negotiations, but remained a union activist for the three years he was off the job. In 2006, he was reinstated as a maintenance mechanic and in 2008, was elected Secretary-General of SNTGTM. 
 
At the conference conclusion, delegates shaped a strategic plan that includes insertion of strict worker protections in NAFTA, continuation of work on Mexican protection contracts, and solidarity and campaign work on specific Mexican labour struggles. 
 
The conference was sponsored by several North American trade unions, the ICEM, the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), and Union Network International (UNI).

Mexican Teach-in Charts North American Union Solidarity

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ICEM’s global level company networks now include a new one: Akzo Nobel. Over 20 trade unionists from the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Indonesia, Turkey, and Brazil decided to form a global network among the unions organising the Dutch-based chemicals company. 
 
The formation meeting which was held on 31 May-1 June 2010 in Amsterdam, upon invitation of ICEM’s Dutch affiliate FNV-Bondgenoten. The host union considers international networking within multinational companies as a priority, and as a result, the union established the FNV Company Monitor some years ago as a tool for research on Dutch multinationals, and to build networks of unionists within them. 
 
AkzoNobel is the largest global paints and coatings company and a major producer of specialty chemicals. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company employs 55,000 people in over 80 countries. 
The meeting was opened by Henk Van der Kolk, President of FNV-Bondgenoten. 
 
“Organizing labour across borders is difficult and therefore much slower than transferring capital all over the world,” he said. “We all know that. And I wish you fruitful discussions about how we can cooperate in organizing and empowering workers at Akzo Nobel plants all over the world to strengthen our unions.” 

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President of FNV-Bondgenoten, Henk Van der Kolk
After the presentation by Kemal Özkan, ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries’ Officer, on the global chemicals industry and Akzo Nobel’s global picture, trade unionists gave country-based reports on labour relations in their respective countries. 
Ron Vos, FNV Bondgenoten’s National Officer for Akzo Nobel, explained the situation in the company’s homeland, the Netherlands, and he defined employment, pensions, wages, a flexible workforce and use of temporary workers, the health of an aging workforce, and sharing results with the company on a major trade union agenda. 
 
Sergio Carasso from Brazil reported national and regional level networking activities within Akzo Nobel and the former British company, ICI, now absorbed by the Dutch company. According to his report, the first network of Akzo Nobel workers in Brazil was formed in 2002, and yearly meetings began at national level. 
 
The range of this national network was later extended to Argentina and Mexico. The network conducted a research for making a comparison between different workplaces on various items. A strategy on communications was also developed through bulletins and a web- blog. 
 
Helmizan Sakrani from Indonesia reported on union activities at an Akzo Nobel plant located Cimanggis-Depok. He reported that his plant has 280 permanent employees and 167 of them are union members. Founded in 1983, the union has good relations with the company through plant level social dialogue with some positive result. 

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Erhan Kaplan and Hokan Koçak from Petrol-Iş of Turkey reported their union’s organizing activities in general and at unorganized Akzo Nobel plants. They reported a constructive cooperation and solidarity with the Dutch union on doing so. 
 
The situation and activities of the company’s European Works Council (EWC) were also discussed by Belgian, Dutch, and German participants. It was agreed to handle the problems and challenges in this context. The meeting also communicated with union representatives from Akzo Nobel in the US, from ICEM affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) via teleconference. 
 
Following the presentation by Kemal Özkan on ICEM’s activities of networking, it was unanimously decided to form a global network of Akzo Nobel unions. In this, FNV Bondgenoten takes the lead for coordination of the network. It was also decided to develop an effective communications system among the participating unions, with an aim to enlarge it to non-participating organizations. 
 
“After the successful organizing of this network, our intention is to develop a dialogue and an interaction with the company, hopefully with the goal to ultimately reach a Global Framework Agreement with Akzo Nobel, “said Özkan, who used the company’s motto regarding this: “Today, we find answers of tomorrow.”

ICEM Affiliates Move to Form an Akzo Nobel Workers’ Network

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In an attempt to find common ground in a seven-month dispute between the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers’ Union (GB&GWU) and RusAl’s Bauxite Company of Guyana (BCGI), the ICEM met in Geneva with the country’s Labour, Human Services, and Social Security Minister, Mansoor Nadir. 
 
The meeting occurred on 15 June and included Jerry Goolsarran, the representative for the Guyanese employers’ association, who sits on the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board, and Lydia Greene, an assistant in the Labour Ministry. 
 
Discussion during the meeting reviewed the deep divisions resulting from a November 2009 strike by GB&GWU and the subsequent unilateral, and what the ICEM believes is illegal de-authorization by BCGI of the union at the 500-worker mine in central Guyana. The government owns 10% of the bauxite operations. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006.guyana.manzoor.mw.employers.rep.jpg" width="252" height="191"/>
Left to Right: Labour Minister Nadir, Manfred Warda, Employers' Representative Goolsarran
Labour Minister Nadir gave the ICEM a thick dossier of events leading into and beyond the strike, and he pledged to facilitate a meeting between the union and management of the company in order to begin necessary dialogue. The ICEM believes that management of the Russian-based aluminum company has a legal responsibility to meet with leaders of the GB&GWU, and also feels it is the duty of the Labour Ministry to arrange such a meeting. 
 
Responding to the entrenched positions of both labour and management in a follow-up letter to the labour minister, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, “The hard work of engagement through tripartite voluntary dialogue must now commence, and we were happy to hear of your willingness to facilitate this dialogue between GB&GWU and BCGI. Therefore, as you agreed to in our 15 June meeting, we call on you to immediately call both parties together to start open and honest talks.” (The full letter can be seen <a href="/index.php?id=26&la=EN&doc=3886" type="internal">here</a>.) 
 
In the letter, the ICEM also expressed displeasure over the company’s undue coercion and harassment tactics in obtaining signatures by miners following the strike to decertify the GB&GWU. If a de-authorisation ballot is to go before workers by the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board, the ICEM is insistent that the government uphold its own law, and global labour standards, ensuring that management of BCGI not interfere in workers’ free choice for or against union representation. 
 
The ICEM has also offered to be part of dialogue in Guyana to assist in resolving the dispute.

ICEM, Guyana Labour Minister Meet to Air Concerns in Bauxite Mine Dispute

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International pressure and attention has been building around the 19-year strike of 340 Fiji Mineworkers Union (FMU) members at the Emperor Gold Mine in Vatukoula, Fiji, as a resolution becomes possible following Government intervention. 
 
Executive member of ICEM’s Asia-Pacific Regional Committee, Robert Reid, also the General Secretary of the National Distribution Union of neighbouring New Zealand, has been particularly vocal, “This is perhaps the longest running strike in the world and it is time it was resolved,” Reid stated. 
 
The Executive of the FMU met with Permanent Secretaries of the Fiji Government Wednesday, 16 June, the miners presented a compensation claim of US$8,000 per miner for every year of striking. The Government delegation consisted of Permanent Secretaries for Lands and Mineral Resources, Labour, Defence, and the Attorney General's office, as well as for Prime Minister Bainimarama. 

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Permanent secretary to the Prime Minister's Office, Pio Tikoduadua, said a response on the government's position would be made within the next 10 days. 
 
The strike stems from the Emperor Gold Mine Company choosing to close down the mine, instead of negotiating a settlement over worker grievances of poor labour conditions, substandard housing and environmental damage at the mine. 
 
The FMU moved the ILO’s Committee of Experts to analyse and resolve the dispute, this process was begun in December 2009. However, with those deliberations on-going, the miners’ picket has been removed and workers are now being threatened with eviction from their homes for arrears in rent. 
 
In a letter to Fijian Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda urged Bainimarama “on humanitarian grounds and in accordance with provisions of the International Labour Organization to reach a fair and equitable resolution of this dispute.”

International Support for Fiji Miners’ 19-Year Strike

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ICEM affiliated trade unions in Central and Eastern Europe discussed challenges in the chemicals and pharmaceutical industries with a view to reinforcing representation, industrial relations, and social dialogue in an 8-9 June seminar in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. The meetings, hosted by ICEM’s Slovakian affiliate, the Chemical and Energy Workers Union (ECHOZ), were supported by the German Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), one of the principal project partners in the world. 
 
The meeting was chaired by Juraj Blahak, ICEM’s Vice President for Central Europe, who underlined the importance of the meeting for unions in chemicals who face restructurings, including privatisation that has had severe impacts on employment and trade unions. 
 
Clemens Rode, representing FES in the region, stressed the role of trade unions in shaping economic and social life in Central Europe. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda gave specific attention to the togetherness of Central and Eastern European trade unions, calling exchanges of information and experience in restructurings as vitally important. Warda also made a specific presentation on precarious employment and ICEM’s global Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) campaign. 

<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1006.bratislava.JPG" width="256" height="192" alt=""/>
 
Attended by around 30 trade union leaders from Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Belorussia, and Tadjikistan, the meeting received an extensive report from the ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries’ Officer, Kemal Özkan, on global chemical and pharmaceutical trends, with specifics on the Central and Eastern Regions and individual countries. 
 
The meeting also got a presentation from Mr. Roman Karlubik, President of the Association of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industry of the Slovak Republic, who drew the overall picture of the Slovak chemical industry and social dialogue with ECHOZ. 
 
The industry in Central and Eastern Europe suffered through the economic crisis in parallel to many economies in the region posting negative GDP growth, with some countries suffering near financial meltdown. Prior to the crisis, the region was seen as a good place to invest. For the pharmaceutical industry, generic medicines represent around half the industry in the region, with a number of number of companies including KRKA, Gedeon Richter, Polpharma, and Zentiva specifically focusing on generics. 
 
Central and Eastern European countries are projected to spend an estimated US$157.1 billion on healthcare in 2015, equal to 6.9% of total GDP. At present, only 30% of spending in the region is private, but over 85% of this is composed of out-of-pocket payments by people. 

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The Bratislava meeting agreed that in Central and Eastern Europe, chemical and pharmaceutical industries are still in the restructuring process, although levels differ from country to country. Restructuring occurs in ownership, particularly with privatisation, production, technology, and labour relations, which brings fear and challenges trade union recognition and survival. The participants agreed that there could an important exchange of experience on privatisation between Central and Eastern Europe, particularly for countries now undergoing privatisation, namely Belorussia. 
 
Another important point stressed was that the region’s chemical industry is still under the dominance of basic chemicals, like fertilizers in Central Asia for example, which brings sustainability problems regarding jobs to workplaces. 
 
Occupational Health and Safety was specifically mentioned since current production systems create serious problems on this issue. A need for capacity building for unions in the region was underlined by the participants. 

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Participants also drew attention to the effects of the standards such as REACH and ETS, which regulates the environment where the chemical industry operates over employment. Outside of the European Union, there are also initiatives in the individual efforts of countries, such as Russia, to be able to harmonise their chemical legislations for survival of the industries. A need for a specific work about this particular area was mentioned by the participants. 
 
At the end of the meeting, it was agreed that networking, regular exchange of information and experience, capacity building on industry matters, collective bargaining, and trade union issues should be continued. 
 
“The Bratislava meeting has clearly shown to us that Central and Eastern Europe is still the area where the ICEM needs to focus its activities in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry,” said Kemal Özkan. “Coming just months before ICEM’s World Chemical Conference in October 2010 in Istanbul, Turkey, the meeting has given us a great overview on what to do for having genuine global union activities in this industry.” 
 
On 7 June 2010 a regional ICEM Central Europe Council meeting took place in Bratislava, Slovakia. Trade Union representatives from Hungary, Macedonia, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia took part in the meeting. The meeting was headed by Juraj Blahak, ICEM Vice-President and President of the Central European regional Council.

Challenges to Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals Focus in Central, East Europe Forum

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The second world congress of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), meeting in Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada, 21-25 June, elected Sharon Burrow to become the first woman to head the global trade union body. Burrow succeeds Guy Ryder as the second General Secretary of the ITUC, which was created in Vienna in 2006, and leaves her position as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), a post that she has held since 2000. She has been President of the ITUC and its predecessor the ICFTU, since 2004. 
 
In her acceptance speech, Burrow described herself as a "warrior" for women and committed the ITUC to continuing to champion women's rights. 
 
Hosted by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), over 1,400 delegates assembled in Vancouver under the theme, ‘Now the People, from the crisis to global justice’, as the main focus was around issues related to labour’s demands for restructuring and reform of the global economy. Delegates criticised the recent trend of governments, especially in Europe, introducing deficit control and austerity measures, under pressure the same banks that caused the economic crisis to begin, instead of keeping jobs at the centre of the recovery. This, according to Burrow, is turning the possibility of a double-dip recession into a probability. 

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ITUC General Secretary, Sharon Burrow
Among the 13 resolutions passed by the congress, were strong declarations on democracy, peace, gender equality, fighting HIV/AIDS, and on sustainable development and a just transition. See those resolutions in full at the link below. 
 
The congress called on G20 governments to increase economic stimulus to create more jobs. On Thursday, 24 June, over 1,000 Congress delegates conducted a rally outside the Vancouver Convention Centre, calling on world leaders to move towards global justice. 
 
Michael Sommer, DGB (Confederation of German Trade Unions), Germany, was elected ITUC President. Jaap Wienen was elected Deputy General Secretary. Luc Cortebeeck, CSC (Confederation of Christian Trade Unions) Belgium, was elected ITUC Deputy President. Nair Goulart, Força Sindical (Brazil), was elected ITUC Deputy President. 
 
View the ITUC second world congress web page <a href="http://www.ituc-csi.org/+-congress-+.html">here</a>.

ITUC Congress Elects Sharon Burrow General Secretary

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Canada-based mining house Gammon Gold ‘suspended indefinitely’ operations at the El Cubo mine, in Guanajuato State in southern central Mexico, in a bid to end union demands on profit sharing and shift length. It is predicted that management aim to re-open the mine via a contractor, and therefore block union organising and collective bargaining. 
 
The mine closure sees 397 workers sacked, while the company has filed criminal charges against 7 union leaders. Workers are represented by Section 142 of the Mining Union of the Mexican Republic (El Sindicato Minero de la Republica Mexicana). The dispute was addressed by Napoleón Gomez, General Secretary of Los Mineros, at the recent ICEM / IMF “Triple Crisis of Sustainability Conference” in Toronto. 
 
The miners’ only demand is that they receive their legally entitled share of the company’s profits, a condition agreed to by Nova Scotia-based Gammon when management lengthened miners’ working day from 8 to 10 hour shifts. In the absence of a profit-sharing arrangement, union leaders are demanding a bonus of 50,000 pesos (US$3,968) per worker. 

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As is often the case in Mexico, the government has been criticised for siding with the company, against workers. Another familiar problem was seen earlier in the dispute, as workers were physically attacked by the company’s private security firm on 18 June. 
 
Gammon Gold recorded US$207 million in revenue from gold and silver mining operations in 2009. The company operates exclusively in Mexico, with a large gold-silver complex in the northern state of Chihuahua, known as Ocampo, exploration work is on-going at the neighbouring Guadalupe y Calvo gold-silver mine, and Gammon recently acquired the El Mezquite and Venus projects in the states of Zacatecas and Chihuahua, respectively. 
 
The union is studying the legal options for keeping El Cubo open, and have strongly stated that they will block operations re-starting with contracted scabs. The potential at the mine corresponds to 14% of the overall company net assets as well as 24% of overall gold production for 2010, and is therefore too valuable for the company to close completely.

El Cubo Mexican Mine Shut in Attempt to Crush Union

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