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<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39" alt=""/>
A study conducted by a Stanford University Law School professor reveals that there are significantly fewer fatalities and injuries in underground unionized coal mines in the US than in non-union ones. Alison Morantz examined coal mine safety statistics between 1993 and 2008 and found that traumatic injuries in unionized mines were from 17-33% fewer than in non-union mines, and the rate of fatalities ranged from 33-72% less. 
 
Of specific note, Professor Morantz found that the non-traumatic injury rate in US coal mining is higher and she suggested that is because injury reporting practices are more common in union mines than non-union mines. 
 
During the 15-year period that was studied, there was a decrease in the number of mine-related injuries per hours worked, although the number of traumatic injuries has remained relatively level. During the same period, the rate of unionization in US mining dropped from 21% in 1993 to 10% in 2008. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/RobertsCecimwal.jpg" width="100" height="139"/>
UMWA President Cecil Roberts 

Morantz used numbers pegged to per man-year, or the average time worked in a year. She found that there are .037 traumatic injuries per man-year at union mines, and .047 at non-union mines. Regarding fatalities, the rate is .0003 per man-year at unionized mines and .0006 at non-union mines. The aggregate injury rate, reflecting better reporting at union mines, is .126 at union mines and .115 at non-union ones. 
 
Morantz concluded of her finding that there is “a strong presumption that a union safety effects exists in US coal mining.” 
 
The study parallels the exemplary work that ICEM affiliate United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) has done over the past decades regarding safety and health in mines, including getting the US government to ratify ILO Convention 176 in the late 1990s. The UMWA has institutionalised comprehensive safety programmes and advanced training for on-the-job safety experts in its represented mines. 
 
“Miners have long known that there is a union safety effect, as the study calls it," said UMWA President Cecil Roberts. “Working in a union-represented mine, with the backing of our Local Union safety committees and our International Union safety experts, makes a huge difference. I am pleased to see that has been confirmed by a comprehensive, independent scientific study." 
 
Dr. Morantz’s independent study was funded by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/110304MorantzCoalMineSafetyUnions.pdf" type="internal">full study</a> can be accessed here.

In US, Unionised Coal Mines Far Safer, Study Discloses

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The ICEM, as the global trade union federation representing 20 million workers in the mining, energy, chemicals, and materials industries, together with EMCEF, the European Mine, Chemical, Energy Workers’ Federation, are following with concern present discussions towards establishing a Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Colombia. 
 
Free Trade Agreements represent opportunities to improve labour and human rights in more countries around the world, and can increase access to international markets for developing countries. An FTA between the European Union (EU) and Colombia would, however, symbolically endorse the appalling labour rights violations in the most dangerous country in the world for a trade unionist, and also significantly weaken the pressure on the Colombian government to fulfill its human rights obligations. 
 
The EU signing one of its very first FTAs with a government that has been so clearly complicit in the abuse of labour and human rights is an insult to workers everywhere, and to the core principles of freedom and justice. The effect of this FTA on Europe would be political, not economic, as only 0.3% of EU trade is with Colombia.  
 
Norway, and initially the US, blocked their own FTAs with Colombia, citing human and labour rights concerns. The EU must follow this example. 
 
It is important to note that Colombia is already bound by strong language requiring adherence to key UN and ILO human and trade union rights conventions, under the EU Generalised System of Preferences (GSP+). This agreement instructs the European Commission to mount an investigation and ultimately suspend GSP+ status where key UN and ILO rights conventions are breached. Disregarding repeated UN and ILO recommendations, the European Commission renews Colombia’s GSP+ status without investigation. 
 
So replacing current “binding” labour standard provisions with weaker, “non-binding” provisions in an FTA is not reasonable. Labour rights in the FTA’s Sustainable Development chapter are not subject to the FTA’s dispute settlement mechanism. If Colombia were to breach a central clause on human rights, there would be no mechanism available to suspend the agreement. 
 
There have been 200 trade unionists killed in Colombia in the past three years, simply for exercising their basic rights. The murders are carried out by the army, police, and paramilitaries. Perpetrators are not being brought to justice, and are free continue to act 
 
with impunity. The death tally this year is already over 30. Activists are also silenced by imprisonment on false charges. 
 
The ICEM and EMCEF are absolutely opposed to the EU-Colombia FTA while our sisters and brothers in Colombia continue to be brutally murdered and violently intimidated. 
 
We support and will work closely together with all trade union initiatives of our affiliates all over the world. 
 
One source to take action against the EU-Colombia FTA, or to learn more about the situation facing workers in Colombia is <a href="http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/?link=3_0_3">Justice for Colombia</a>.

ICEM, EMCEF Totally Oppose EU-Colombia Free Trade Agreement

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="146" height="66"/>
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda used his plenary address on 8 June to the 100th session of the ILO’s International Labour Conference to denounce the labour practices of Swiss multinational Holcim, specifically against contract workers at two cement plants in India. 
 
Holcim subsidiaries ACC in Jamul and Ambuja Cement Limited in Rawaan are blatantly violating Indian labour legislation. The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act of India stipulates that contract workers may only be hired to perform non-core functions, and that those who perform the same or similar kinds of work as regular workers must receive equal treatment in terms of wages and conditions. However, contract workers in both plants are employed to carry out tasks which are fundamental to production, but receive only one third of permanent workers’ wages. 
 
Holcim-ACC has refused to respect a Chhattisgarh State High Court ruling that it is using “sham and bogus” contracts, and should regularise 27 contract workers. A recent report found that contract workers at the plant do not have basic personal protective equipment, such as gloves, boots and masks, and are denied access to medical facilities, including basic first aid, in the factory. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.manfred%20ilo.2.JPG" width="327" height="160"/>
Between September 2010 and March 2011, 80 members of Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh (PCSS), the union representing the contract workers, were dismissed by Holcim-Ambuja. Management of the plant repeated refused to participate in conciliation efforts by the Regional Labour Commissioner at Raipur, and in early March the RLC directed the company to reinstate the workers by 25 March. Two days later, the company filed false criminal charges against leaders of the PCSS through two of its security officers. Addressing the ILO’s plenary, Warda said: “We demand that such malicious prosecution, which is an instance of union-busting and illegal labour practice under Indian labour law, be withdrawn and the management negotiate with the union on its justified demands, failing which we will be constrained to take action under international law.” 
 
Warda denounced as “deplorable” the refusal of the Labour Minister of the State of Chhattisgarth to meet with 250 Holcim workers who had travelled to Raipur to demand implementation of the High Court ruling and reversal of the criminal charges against the union leaders. 
 
The ICEM General Secretary also made clear that it is incumbent on the ILO to urgently address the trend towards precarious employment relationships that is undermining the effectiveness of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 for workers all around the globe. 
 
The <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM_Manfred_Warda_ILC_Plenary_Speech%20_8_June%20FINAL.pdf" type="internal">full text</a> of the speech is available here. 
More information about Holcim India’s practices can be found <a href="http://blogs.bwint.org/mnc/category/mnc-info/holcim/">here</a>.

ICEM General Secretary Spotlights Holcim as Contract Workers’ Abuser at ILO

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="146" height="66"/>
In late 2010, the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) carried out research into working conditions in 83 sportswear-producing factories in Asia, together employing over 100,000 workers. One key finding of the research was that Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) is being routinely used by employers in the industry as a way to evade employment responsibilities. 
 
In Indonesia, ITGLWF affiliates SPN and Garteks found that agency workers are being denied basic entitlements including written contracts, pay when taking annual leave and sick pay. In factories supplying multinational sports brands, up to 80% of the entire workforce were found to be on fixed term contracts. 
 
In the Philippines, despite the fact that Article 280 of the Labour Code prohibits the use of contracts workers to perform core functions, a full 25% of workers were employed precariously. In one factory in Cavite, 50% of the workforce were employed on a contract basis. After five months, workers were forced to join the in-house manpower cooperative before being rehired on a new contract. The Filipino Labour Code prohibits the contracting out of work through an in-house agency. 
 
In both Indonesia and the Philippines, the vast majority of CAL workers were not union members. The workers who were interviewed told researchers that the main reason for this was fear that if management found out they had unionised their contract would not be renewed. 
 
A summary of the research findings is available <a href="http://www.itglwf.org/lang/en/documents/ITGLWFSportswearReport2011_000.pdf">here</a>.

ITGLWF Research Shows CAL rife in Sportswear Industry

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/CAL_en.jpg" width="146" height="66"/>
A new update has been published by the ICEM of its PowerPoint presentation on “Contract and Agency Labour and the ICEM CAL Campaign”. This regularly updated presentation, which can be used by anyone, contains not only a considerable number of updated key statistics on Contract and Agency Labour and other forms of precarious work, including the ICEM’s own statistics, but also a wide range of national and international “best practice examples,” highlighting, among other, what unions around the world have done successfully to counter the problem. 
 
The full-length English version of the <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/11-05-19%20CAL%20ICEM%20PPT%20for%20website.2.ppt" type="internal">presentation</a> can be found - and downloaded - here.

New ICEM CAL Facts and Figures Overview

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
ICEM-affiliated United Mine Workers’ of America (UMWA) members ratified a front-end loaded and pattern-setting US national coal collective agreement on 17 June. The contract with the Bituminous Coal Operators’ Association (BCOA) was ratified by 70% of miners voting at 125 UMWA local branches, and comes six months before expiry of an existing national contract. 
 
The five-and-a-half-year agreement replaces the existing one and takes effect on 1 July. It will cover 10,000 miners and preserves the long UMWA tradition of providing excellent salaries, pension benefits, and health care coverage to US miners and retired miners. 
 
The US$6-an-hour wage increases over the life of the contract will now serve as a national pattern in union and non-union mines across North America. More importantly, that pattern is extended to include pension benefits – including health care benefits – for tens of thousands of retired miners and for workers and retirees of many coal and energy companies outside of the BCOA. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/RobertsCecimwal.jpg" width="100" height="139"/>
UMWA President Cecil Roberts
“Our members will receive the largest pay increase in the 121-year history of our union,” said UMWA President Cecil Roberts. “In addition, we were able to preserve full health care benefits for active and retired members and their dependants, as well as preserve pensions for current and future retirees with no cuts in benefits.” 
 
The national accord includes two US$1-per-hour increases in the first six months of the new agreement, on 1 July and again on 1 January, which is an average 8.2% increase over current wages. Wages will be increased by US$1-per-hour on 1 January in each successive year until 2016. 
 
The UMWA preserved health care benefits for active and retired miners with no cuts. The agreement preserves a pension plan that sees a company-contributed US$5.50-man-hour-worked into a pension fund that ensures the benefits are paid in full. 
 
The UMWA posted several other improvements in the proposed agreement, including pay increases for shift work, increased sickness, accident, vision and dental benefits, and better life insurance terms. 
 
The ICEM termed the new collective accord exemplary on several fronts. “This contract again is verification of the tremendous power that UMWA holds for a social America,” said General Secretary Manfred Warda. “It deserves attention and wide applause.”

UMWA Wins Excellent Terms in US National Coal Talks

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Ammattiliitto Pro, ICEM’s salaried workers’ trade union affiliate in Finland, is asking that white-collar workers at several paper companies not take on extra work in the coming weeks. The union seeks such global unity as it begins its third wave of lawful strikes next week, and continues ones tomorrow against the intransigent employers of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF). 
 
The request also comes after government conciliator Esa Lonka today was unable to shape a compromise proposal because of FFIF intransigence in official mediation in Finland. It was the third consecutive week that employers failed to resolve a downward spiralling labour dispute by not recognising the unfair job demands on 4,000 clerical, technical, and front-line supervisory personnel. 
 
Because of redundancies and speed-ups over the past several years in the Finnish pulp and paper sector, Pro members are asked to work more without adequate compensation, or without recognition of higher job competencies. 
 
In addition to an overtime ban across all pulp and paper companies, strikes that began on 26 April by 1,500 Pro members are continuing this week at Stora Enso, Metsäliitto, Metsä-Botnia, M-real, and Metsä Tissue and a renewed strike will begin tomorrow by 1,000 salaried workers at UPM. 
 
That strike will begin at 06h00 on 4 May and run until 06h00 on 7 May. It is the second strike action against UPM – the first one running from 6-20 April – and production at UPM’s six mills, as well at an administration centre in Tempere and an export facility at the port of Kotka will again be affected. 
 
Ammattiliitto Pro expects employers to try to break the strike by bringing in replacement workers, moving administrative work elsewhere, and to continue to bully Pro members in order to get them to ignore the overtime ban and strike actions. (See prior <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4394-Paper-Dispute-in-Finland-Worsens;-Strike-Expands" type="internal">ICEM report</a> here.) 
 
“Pro appeals for solidarity from workers of UPM-Kymmene, Stora Enso, Metsäliitto, Metsä-Botnia, M-real, Metsä Tissue, and Sappi in other countries not to perform any extra work of the type covered by the strikes, as the companies seek to break the strike by transferring the work abroad,” said the union. 
 
The ICEM is calling on paperworkers throughout the world to support Ammattiliitto Pro in this critical dispute in Finland, and to monitor the administrative, financial, services workload in these pulp and paper companies in order to comply with the union’s request. Also, notes of solidarity should be sent to Pro President <a href="mailto:Antti.rinne@proliitto.fi">Antti Rinne</a>, and collective bargaining directors <a href="mailto:Jukka.hamalainen@proliitto.fi">Jukka Hämäläinen</a> and <a href="mailto:Jari.uschanov@proliitto.fi">Jari Uschanov</a>.

Mediation Fails in Finnish Paper Strike; Strikes Continue

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Deteriorating safety conditions inside Rio Tinto’s Australian coal mines in New South Wales was brought to the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) in Perth on 5 May. ICEM affiliate Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) delivered a sharp attack on the company’s laxness over health and safety at majority-held Hunter Valley coal mining and processing operations. 
 
CFMEU NSW Northern District Vice President Robin Williams said that a significant number of accidents and incidents are not reflected in Rio Tinto’s annual report. Williams and a workplace leader from each of three coal operations were vocal and critical of the company’s coal-mine safety before shareholders at the AGM last week. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1105.cfmeu nsw northern district.jpg" width="366" height="99"/>
Williams said Rio Tinto has “an adversarial approach to mine safety” at Coal & Allied Ltd., which includes mines at Mount Thorley/Warkworth, the Hunter Valley operations, and Bengalla. He said a “culture of fear” permeates the workplaces where threats of discipline and common and are “outdated and should have no place in modern Australian mining. 
 
“We do not want a situation,” Williams added, “where workers are uneasy about speaking out in case they face disciplinary procedures. If there is an accident or incident at a mine site, we want a proper investigation to make sure that it doesn’t happen again, not a scapegoat who is disciplined.” 
 
The mineworkers told shareholders that the company’s goal of zero harm and reality are far apart. They said the culture of fear that exists at Hunter Valley actually exacerbates risks. Rio owns 76% of the Hunter Valley coal operations. 
 
CEO Tom Albanese also had to address the near overflow this year of a tailings pond at Rio’s 68% held Ranger uranium mine in the Northern Territory. The company’s Energy Resources of Australia Ltd. (ERA) shut production in January due to heavy rains. Albanese said the company will inject A$220 million into ERA for updated water treatment and management systems.

CFMEU Takes Coal Safety Concerns to Rio Tinto’s AGM

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Glen Mpufane of South Africa officially took up duties as ICEM’s Mining and Diamond, Gems, Ornament, and Jewellery Production (DGOJP) officer on 2 May. He comes to the ICEM after a long career in South Africa’s trade union movement preceded by 18 years of work in the apartheid-era gold mining industry. 
 
“We are privileged to bring a person who not only has depth and knowledge of the mining industry, but one who displays great activism as a trade unionist,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. 
 
Mpufane, 52, is a native of Daveyton in Gauteng province, and worked for Ergo mining at the Brakpan mine, then an AngloAmerican and later an AngloGold concession. He worked as a fitter mechanic and helped form the Ergo Branch of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in 1982. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Glen Mpufane.jpg" width="179" height="165"/>
New ICEM Mining/DGOJP Officer, Glen Mpufane
He served as a shop steward, health and safety secretary, branch chairman, and then full-time health and safety steward for the branch. He also served as NUM regional secretary for health and safety, before taking a position at NUM in 2000 in health and safety. In 2004, he was named International Department Head for the NUM, a post he held until 2010. 
 
He worked as head of Secretariat for ICEM South Africa affiliate Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) for six months in 2010-11, prior to coming to Geneva to join the ICEM. 
 
“There are huge challenges in mining, not the least is safety and health,” said Mpufane. “We have many challenges, including the challenge to deliver decent collective agreements to mineworkers.” 
 
Mpufane is married with four children, the youngest, Amo, is 16 months old.

Glen Mpufane Joins ICEM as Mining/DGOJP Officer

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The United Steelworkers (USW) submitted shareholder resolutions demanding boards of directors at four US oil companies take safety seriously. The resolutions were aimed at general meetings of Marathon Oil (27 April), Valero Energy (28 April), Tesoro Corp. (4 May), and it will appear before ConocoPhillips shareholders this week, 11 May, in Houston. 
 
The USW also filed a safety transparency resolution with Sunoco, but it was withdrawn when the Philadelphia-based company agreed to comply with the contents of the resolution. The resolutions call on the companies to prepare a report of the “steps the company has taken to reduce the risk of accidents” within 90 days of the shareholders’ meeting. 
 
The resolution, meant to achieve greater safety at oil refineries and other company operations, calls on the board of directors of each company to disclose the board’s oversight on process safety management, staffing levels, and also the inspection and maintenance of refineries and other equipment. The American national labour center, AFL-CIO, and its asset fund assisted with the shareholder propositions. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0811GaryBeeversUSW.jpg" width="110" height="159"/>
Gary Beevers
USW Vice President Gary Beevers voiced the significance in taking safety to the board rooms: “If these companies had to tell their shareholders and the public how they were staffing their refineries, how much overtime people were working, and how long units were going without basic inspection and maintenance, we know they’d try harder to fix the problems.” 
 
The USW cited two months of last year – April and May 2010 – as being particularly deadly and dangerous times that should have awaken the US oil and petrochemical industries to poor safety practices. There were 13 fires, 19 deaths, and 25 serious injuries in those two months, including a 2 April 2010 explosion at Tesoro’s 130,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Anacortes, Washington, that killed seven USW Local 12-591 activists. 
 
Tesoro workplace leaders, including Mark Laurence from Anacortes, spoke on behalf of the safety resolution at the company’s 4 May AGM in San Antonio, Texas. Last year’s Tesora tragedy was caused by a heat exchanger that blew apart because of cracks in a welded area. 
 
The Washington State Department of Labour & Industry determined that Tesoro had failed in its duty to correctly test equipment for cracks. The state agency imposed a fine of US$2.39 million, but Tesoro is currently appealing the fine.

USW Makes Safety Oversight a Corporate Issue on US Oil Industry

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