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The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa is targeting Hernic Ferrochrome following a 13 December underground mine disaster that crushed and then drowned seven miners in Brits, North West Province. Managers refused to allow NUM representatives to investigate South Africa&rsquo;s deadliest 2004 mine disaster caused by a flood from a dislodged valve that brought a ventilation lattice wall down. &ldquo;The behaviour of this company demonstrates absolute arrogance in the face of calamity,&rdquo; said NUM Gen. Sec. Gwede Mantashe. &ldquo;We will leave no stone unturned in our commitment to ensuring that families of these workers see justice being done.&rdquo; The NUM will be present 15 February when an official Department of Minerals and Energy inquiry commences. Hernic, a high-carbon ferrochrome producer that is just now ramping production up at the Brits mine, is 53.2% owned by Japan&rsquo;s Mitsubishi, 25% by the South African government&rsquo;s Industrial Development Corp., 11.5% by Elg Hansel of Germany, and 7.5% by mine management.

South Africa’s NUM Takes On Hernic Ferrochrome Over Safety

Hubertus Schmoldt, president of ICEM German affiliate IGBCE, drew attention to the challenges and opportunities facing the union movement in an end-of-the-year message. Schmoldt noted that international competition has grown stiffer with no let up in sight and said global trade union work stressing solidarity is welcome, but unions are only at the beginning of such positive developments. He described biogenetics and nanotechnology as key industries for the future but&mdash;particularly in the case of gene technology&mdash; Germany may soon lose research, development and production capacities. Schmoldt stressed the importance of education and training from early childhood to university levels as key.

Germany’s IGBCE Gives Year-End Challenges

That rebuilding effort, however, is proving as troublesome under the provisional Iraqi administration as it was under Saddam&rsquo;s rule, according to the Workers&rsquo; Council of the National Company for Chemicals and Plastics Industries in Baghdad. A statement by the fledgling union says &ldquo;the same fascistic policies of the former regime&rdquo; are still in place including punishments, dismissals, threats and dismissals. The council is demanding raises in the minimum wage to match inflation, rescinding punishments and full pay for 25 workers, and distributing the yearly gains of the company to workers.

Iraqi Occupation Hindering Workplace Progress

Political instability in Iraq and lack of security there was felt dramatically by the ICEM and the global trade movement on 4 January. That day the body of Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) Executive Committee member Hadi Saleh was found at his home in Baghdad after Saleh was strangled by electrical wire. Known as Abu Furat, Saleh, 58, was tortured prior to his murder, a murder in which the IFTU believes was done by remnants of Saddam Hussein&rsquo;s secret police. Saleh was sentenced to death in 1969 by Saddam&rsquo;s regime for engaging in independent trade union activities. After spending five years in prison, he fled Iraq for exile in Sweden. He returned in April 2003 in efforts to build an independent trade union movement. The ICEM and global trade union bodies are working with the IFTU and other Iraqi labour centers to construct a viable and independent union movement in the war-ravaged country.

Trade Union Leader Slain in Iraq

A court injunction 20 November ended a one-day strike by 100 oil workers, members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing &amp; Manufacturing Union (EPMU) of New Zealand. The EPMU members employed at five oil and gas rigs in Taranaki and Taupo struck over lack of progress in NZ&rsquo;s Onshore Oil Exploration Drilling Rig Agreement, a multi-employer collective agreement. EPMU is seeking a 5% wage adjustment, better redundancy provisions, meal provisions, and changes to training time, which is currently done outside of regular work hours. NZ&rsquo;s Employment Court will conduct a full hearing on the temporary injunction gotten by oil drilling employers on 24 November.

Oil Companies Get Injunction to End New Zealand Onshore Strike

The CEP of Canada is requesting the OECD undertake an investigation of labour practices against Finnish papermaker UPM Kymmene under the Parisbased organization&rsquo;s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. At UPM Kymmene&rsquo;s lone Canadian mill in Miramichi, New Brunswick, the firm unilaterally announced closure of the pulp mill&mdash;chopping 400 jobs effective 31 January 2005&mdash;but also engaged in vicious anti-union behaviour. Management turned rabid after the CEP local union protested the closure on grounds the firm&rsquo;s logging licenses for harvesting government lands mandates that it operate the mill. CEP charges UPM Kymmene with creating a &ldquo;cold war&rdquo; atmosphere of labour relations by suspending local union leaders for performing their statutory duties, monitoring and spying on workers&rsquo; activities with a hired security team, and refusing to negotiate with the union or to provide information pertinent to bargaining.

CEP of Canada Takes Paper Dispute to OECD

Venezuela's new emergency decree has been roundly condemned by twelve labour internationals representing more than 120 million workers worldwide. 
 
Measures in the decree adopted by the Venezuelan National Constituent Assembly include: 
 
 
- the complete dissolution of national and regional trade union confederations and federations 
 
- the annulment of trade union leaders' mandates 
 
- a ban on union leaders' travelling abroad 
 
- a 90-day suspension of election processes within all labour-related bodies 
 
- the seizure of trade union property and assets. 
 
 
In a joint statement issued in Panama on 16 August, the union internationals stress that the measures are a flagrant violation of the Conventions of the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) and also breach UN and Interamerican treaties on basic human rights. As the unions point out, the decree &quot;contradicts in every respect&quot; the &quot;great transformations that the Venezuelan government plans to undertake in order to steer the country's destiny back towards the paths of Democracy, Justice, Transparency and Freedom.&quot; 
 
The union internationals demand that Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez and National Assembly chairman Luis Miquelena should: 
 
- revoke the decree 
 
- relaunch national dialogue between the Venezuelan trade union movement and the government 
 
- fully guarantee the free exercise of trade union activity in Venezuela. 
 
Signing the unions' joint statement were the regional representatives of the International Federation of Building and Woodworkers (IFBWW), the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), the International Federation of Commercial, Clerical and Technical Employees (FIET), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the International Graphical Federation (IGF), the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF), the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF), the Postal, Telegraph and Telephone International (PTTI) and Public Services International (PSI).

World Labour Condemns Venezuelan Union Ban

In a signal victory for Australian miners' union the CFMEU, workers from the closed-down Oakdale mine are now to receive the A$6.3 million owed to them in entitlements. Reached on Tuesday night, this decision follows a 24-hour nationwide coal strike last Friday over the Oakdale case. 
 
The pay-out marks a major about-face by Australia's right-wing federal government. The money is to come from the industry's existing centralised long-service leave fund. The government had been intending to abolish this fund and hand all the money in it back to the employers. This policy was part of its plan to make all such provisions &quot;enterprise-based&quot;, and therefore dependent on employer patronage. 
 
Oakdale closed in June after its owner was declared insolvent. Entitlements owed to the miners there included accrued sick leave, annual leave and redundancy pay. In such situations, Australian employees are regarded as unsecured creditors. Often, they receive only a few cents in the dollar after all assets have been sold and secured creditors paid. 
 
Following the outcome of the Oakdale case, there are now proposals for some kind of national scheme - perhaps insurance-based - to stop the same thing happening to other workers in other industries. 
 
Overall, this is a major victory for the labour movement, and a particularly big win for the CFMEU, which at the global level is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The biggest loser is Peter Reith, Australia's union-bashing Minister for Workplace Relations. The strike forced him into a very public climbdown, and his conservative colleagues now feel that his anti-union crusade has substantially damaged the government's standing with the electorate. 
 
As Kim Beazley, leader of the opposition Labor Party, pointed out, it took a strike costing A$33 million in lost output to convince the government to allow miners access to 6.3 million dollars' worth of owed entitlements.

Australian Miners&#039; Victory: Strike Forces Debt Pay-Off

Eight thousand Indonesian oil rig workers ended a six-week strike on August 7, after winning many of their demands. 
 
The strikers are members of the Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union (SBSI). They are employed in central Sumatra by PT Tripatra, a contractor for Caltex Petroleum, which is a joint venture between oil giants Chevron and Texaco. 
 
The workers had gone on strike on June 21, following PT Tripatra's failure to follow an Indonesian Ministry of Manpower directive to pay the workers compensation and make them permanent employees. PT Tripatra responded by firing all the strikers on July 6 and using the Indonesian security forces to harass and intimidate the strikers. In a July 23 incident, the security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowd of strikers, shooting one in the head, and assaulting several others. 
 
The SBSI took its case to the Indonesian parliament, the National Commission on Human Rights and the US embassy in Jakarta on July 29, decrying the company's actions and its use of the Indonesian military to try to break the strike. 
 
The 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) mobilised protests by its oil worker affiliates around the world. Among those who took action were two ICEM Vice Presidents - Robert Wages of the US union PACE and Fred Higgs of the British TGWU - who immediately lodged protests with Chevron and Texaco. In addition, the ICEM and the the US labour federation AFL-CIO organised a demonstration of 150 people at Texaco's Washington offices. This drew media attention both in the USA and in Indonesia. 
 
As a result of the pressure in Indonesia and internationally, Caltex and PT Tripatra did an about-face. In an August 6 settlement mediated by a committee of the Indonesian parliament, the union agreed to end the strike and the company agreed to reinstate all the strikers. Although the workers did not win the severance payment they wanted, PT Tripatra did agree that when its five-year contract with Caltex expires in 2003, the workers will have permanent status and will receive the full compensation under the law. 
 
Muchtar Pakpahan, General Chairman of the SBSI, today thanked the ICEM, the AFL-CIO and the American Center for International Labor Solidarity for their efforts in support of the oil strikers. Together with the union's lobbying effort at the Indonesian parliament, he said, &quot;this work helped bring the strike to a just conclusion.&quot; 
 
&quot;As a result,&quot; Pakpahan said, &quot;the 8,000 workers at PT Tripatra will work under fairer and more secure conditions.&quot; 
 
&quot;We are gratified that a settlement could be reached that reinstates all the strikers with some measure of justice,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe. &quot;We will remain vigilant to ensure that PT Tripatra and Caltex live up to their obligations to these workers.&quot;

Indonesian Oilworkers Win Strike With World Union Support

Semsi Denizer, President of the Turkish miners' union Genel Maden-Is, was shot dead outside his home last Friday evening. 
 
The union, which is based in the mining town of Zonguldak, was in the middle of its three-day Congress. Semsi Denizer was murdered a few hours after addressing the opening day's session. He was shot six times in the head. Police arrested a man immediately afterwards. 
 
Denizer was also General Secretary of the Turkish labour confederation T&uuml;rk-Is. Recently, he had been leading a broadly based campaign against government proposals to raise the age of retirement in Turkey. This plan, strongly opposed by Turkish workers, is part of the government's response to demands by the International Monetary Fund for tougher austerity measures. 
 
The motives for last Friday's shooting are unclear. A T&uuml;rk-Is spokesman told ICEM UPDATE this morning that the unions were insisting on a full police investigation, and would reserve further comment until all the facts are known. 
 
Semsi Denizer will best be remembered for leading 50,000 striking miners in an epic protest march from Zonguldak to Ankara in 1991. This dramatic demonstration helped to prevent mine closures in the region and to improve pay and conditions. 
 
Semsi Denizer was on the Executive Committee of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which Genel Maden-Is is affiliated. The ICEM has expressed its profound condolences to his family and his union. In a tribute, the ICEM described Semsi Denizer's death as &quot;a great blow to the Turkish miners whom he led to victory in 1991 and to the international trade union movement as a whole.&quot;

Turkish Miners&#039; Leader Murdered

Archive

South Africa’s NUM Takes On Hernic Ferrochrome Over Safety

Germany’s IGBCE Gives Year-End Challenges

Iraqi Occupation Hindering Workplace Progress

Trade Union Leader Slain in Iraq

Oil Companies Get Injunction to End New Zealand Onshore Strike

CEP of Canada Takes Paper Dispute to OECD

World Labour Condemns Venezuelan Union Ban

Australian Miners' Victory: Strike Forces Debt Pay-Off

Indonesian Oilworkers Win Strike With World Union Support

Turkish Miners' Leader Murdered

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