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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Three regions of the ICEM held Regional Conferences in the last three weeks. 
 
The ICEM Asia-Pacific Regional Conference was held in Bangkok on 28-29 June, with 124 participants from 15 countries. The first day was dedicated to discussion on priority issues “Organizing Multinational Corporations (MNCs)” and “Contract Labour”. During the second day, delegates were briefed about the merger process. The strong sense of solidarity and positivity towards merger with the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), and the International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) was manifested by participants. ICEM Asia-Pacific affiliates are well acquainted with the merger process. Eleven representatives of the IMF and ITGLWF joined the meeting and had an opportunity to interact with ICEM member unions, and discuss future joint activities. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.ap regional conference.JPG" width="309" height="161"/>
The Central Europe ICEM Regional Conference was held on 15 June in Balatonszemes, Hungary. Participants were from ICEM member organisations in Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Serbia. The host organisation was the Federation of Trade Unions of Chemical, Energy and General Workers, (VDSz), under President Tamas Szekely. Guests from the IMF and ITGLWF also took part in the conference. 
 
During the conference, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda gave a summary report on the activities of ICEM, campaigning and global framework agreement developments. The creation of a new international industrial federation was discussed. Anatoly Surin reported on ICEM activities in the region, and Mato Lalic on ICEM project activities in the region. 
 
Juraj Blahak, President of EKHOZ Slovakia was re-elected as President of the ICEM Regional Council of Central Europe. All the participants agreed with the application of the Independent Trade Union of Energy workers of Kosovo to become an ICEM member organisation. 
 
The North America Regional Conference on 13-14 June in Ottawa, Canada, passed two resolutions firstly supporting the Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Empresa Industria Vidriera del Potosí S.A. de C.V. (SUTEIVP) glass workers in their conflict with Industria Vidriera del Potosi S.A. The second resolution was a wide commitment of the region to continue support in solidarity for trade union rights in Mexico. The Conference discussed and supported the creation of a new International.

ICEM Regional Conferences Support Creation of New International

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General Electric (GE) workers in America ratified a four-year labour agreement in late June that now sets a pattern for 15,200 unionised GE workers in the US. Members of both ICEM-affiliated United Electrical, Radio, Machine Workers’ of America (UE) and the International Union of Electrical Workers / Communication Workers of America (IUE/CWA), representing 11,500 of those workers, gave approval to the deal in local-by-local voting at some 40 union branches in late June. 
 
The new collective agreement came together on the final expiry day of the past contract, 19 June. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4501-Tentative-Pact-Reached-in-US-for-15-000-General-Electric-Workers" type="internal">ICEM news article</a> of 20 June here.) The contract calls for adequate wage, bonus, and retirement provisions over the next four years, but it also contains concessions on health care coverage.  
 
The UE said the new contract “contains some improvements as well as some major deficiencies,” and blamed the deficiencies on a difficult bargaining climate and GE’s anti-union tendencies in the US. Nevertheless, the UE-GE Conference Board of America’s independent union recommended acceptance of the four-year proposal on 23 June. 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/US IUE CWA.jpg" width="228" height="78" alt=""/>
The IUE/CWA also recommended the agreement. “These were difficult negotiations in a difficult economic climate,” stated said IUE-CWA GE and Aerospace Conference Board Chairman Bob Santamoor. “Members evaluated the package as whole and found it acceptable.” Thirty-four IUE/CWA local branches, representing 7,800 GE workers, voted accumulatively by 70% in separate branch referendums for overall acceptance. The UE did not announce its vote tally. 
 
The agreement calls for a first-year bonus due this month of US$5,000, with benefit increases in proportion to that award. In June 2012, workers will get a 2.25% increase, while in 2013 and 2014, wage hikes of 2.5% and 3% will go into effect. GE will outlay US$76 million for the first-year bonuses. 
 
Union members will receive modest pension benefits over the life of the agreement, and will see an improved cost-of-living formula each year. That benefit represents a 12% improvement over the past formula in inflation protection. The unions also won an additional sick day per year and added vacation days. 
 
Modifications were made regarding the Special Early Retirement Option (SERO), with a window reopener in 2011 for 400 applicants ages 55 to 59 with 30 years of service. A Voluntary Retirement Incentive Payment (VRIP) window was also negotiated for workers 60 years or older. 
 
The health care concession is higher yearly deductibles on medical care and benefit reductions to a co-payment system for health care visits and prescription drugs. These regressive contract changes regarding health care costs bring unionized workers down to levels unilaterally imposed by GE for non-union salaried workers. 
 
Of the majority of 11,500 GE workers represented by the IUE/CWA and UE, the IUE/CWA covers workers at GE Appliance and Lighting Division factories in Louisville, Kentucky, Aviation Division plants in Lynn, Massachusetts, and an Energy Division plant in Schenectady, New York. The UE represents GE Transportation Division workers in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Energy Division workers in Fort Edward, New York. The unions also represent scores of workers at smaller GE worksites that supply products to these bigger factories. 
 
The contract also serves as the template for collective agreements for eight other US unions that represent GE workers.

Four-year GE Pact Takes Effect in USA

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A united grouping of six Belgian trade unions, representing all unionised oil workers, picketed at the gates of the Belgian Refining Corporation (BRC) last Thursday, 30 June, in protest of the sacking of three workers, calling for the company to spend their money on better terms in collective bargaining instead of unnecessary severance pay. 
 
A nationwide action is also planned. 
 
Two of the three sacked workers were union representatives of ICEM-affiliated Centrale Generale – FGTB, making the company even more liable for unfair dismissal. The three are guilty of no misconduct at all, although management have actively spread lies relating to the intimidation of a security guard and his family. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Belgium ABVV.jpg" width="204" height="69"/>
The Swiss management of BRC, under CEO Massenhaurer, has shown itself to be staunchly anti union, but inventing misconduct stories in order to sack union reps is new. 
 
The BRC refinery is located north of the Port of Antwerp at the centre of the ARA region, owned by European refiner Petroplus Holdings. BRC has production capacity of 107,500 barrels per day, and sells primarily inside Benelux. 
 
The ICEM joins calls of the six unions involved, five of which are affiliated, for the immediate reinstatement of all three sacked worker.

Belgium Unions Unite Against Belgian Refining Corp.’s Sackings 

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The ICEM-affiliated Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) issued an ultimatum on 15 June to the Petroleum Equalisation Fund Management Board (PEF) over the continuing victimisation of its Branch Chairman and other executive committee members. 
 
The senior staff union warned the PEF management that if victimization of its officials continues, workers would reply through industrial unrest not only in PEF but the entire Nigerian oil industry. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NigeriaPengassan.JPG" width="143" height="150"/>
PENGASSAN union members hold significant leverage in Nigeria; its members are supervisors at each of the petroleum depots, which transport fuel and diesel throughout the country. The depots are under the control of PEF. 
 
The PEF management has been conducting aggressive interference in union affairs since a recently successful PENGASSAN campaign forced PEF management to promote over 70% of its staff who had stagnated at the same grade for upwards of six years. PEF set up a panel to investigate union member activity in terms of their adherence to union rules, clearly not the jurisdiction of management, and a breach of union independence intended to undermine PENGASSAN. 
 
In a letter to the PEF Executive Secretary, PENGASSAN General Secretary Bayo Olowoshile warned that, “the management of PEF is given a 14-day ultimatum with effect from the date of our earlier letter of June 15, 2011 to respect the Association’s structure, rules, and extant laws on Trade Unions and labour relations or get prepared to face the consequences of full scale national industrial action in the oil and gas industry”.

PENGASSAN Threatens Full-Scale Industrial Action in Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
From the International Metalworkers’ Federation 
 
Dramatic developments take place in Korea at Hanjin Heavy Industries shipyard and Yuseong Piston Ring. Private security forces and riot police forced out protesters from the shipyard and the police issued arrest warrants for Yuseong Piston Ring union leaders who in sign of protest have started a hunger strike in the Buddhist Jogye Temple in Seoul. 
 
Following IMF's recently reported visit on June 24 to the Korean National Assembly where a strong demand was forwarded to the Korean government to stop labour repression and solve the conflict at Yuseong Piston Ring (YPR) and Hanjin Heavy Industries shipyard new dramatic developments have occurred at both places. 
 
According to the reports of the IMF affiliate Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) Hanjin workers were flushed out of the shipyard with the exception of some protesters who tied themselves to Crane 85. Private contractors hired by the Hanjin management cut off electricity and tried to limit KIM Jinsuk's possibilities to communicate with the outer world. Ms. KIM Jinsuk is carrying out an aerial sit-in protest on a company crane. The protest has gone on for 175 days now. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.kmwu.jpg" width="239" height="161"/>
The KMWU also informed IMF that the police issued arrest warrants for the YPR union leaders who staged an unlimited hunger strike in the Buddhist Jogye Temple in Seoul to bring their unjust situation to the attention of the general public. 
 
On June 29 mass rallies took place in Seoul and Busan to protest against attacks on workers whose only crime is their wish to work under secure conditions and to have their collective bargaining rights respected. 
 
The IMF urgently calls on all its affiliates to send letters of protest to the President of Korea, Mr. Lee Myung-bak (e-mail <a href="mailto:president@president.go.kr">president@president.go.kr</a>) and to demand: 
• To pull back riot police and private security forces occupying the workplaces at Hanjin Heavy Industries shipyard and Yuseong Piston Ring YPR factories. 
• To start collective bargaining in good faith in order to withdraw unilateral mass dismissals at Hanjin. 
• To lift the illegal lockout of Yuseong Piston Ring workers and to reinstate union members to their original positions in their original plants (Asan and Yeongdong YPR plants). 
• To stop the persecution of Yuseong Piston Ring and Hanjin Heavy Industries union officials, union members and their sympathizers. 
 
Render solidarity support to the striking workers by sending messages of support to the KMWU international department at: <a href="mailto:inter@metal.nodong.org">inter@metal.nodong.org</a>, with copies to IMF at <a href="mailto:info@imfmetal.org">info@imfmetal.org</a>.

KMWU Calls for Urgent Solidarity Support

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
Some 1,145 Bangladeshi coal miners went on strike against state-owned Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Ltd. (BCMCL) and a Chinese contractor, led by the Bakapukuria Coal Mine Miners’ and Workers’ Union. The five-day strike ended today but workers did not return to their jobs, instead suspending the strike until 3 September while they celebrate the Eid vacation, an Islamic period of family gatherings. 
 
Negotiations two weeks ago between union leaders, BCMCL, and bosses for the China National Import and Export Corp. (XMC), the coal extraction contractor, failed on 22 August and staff stopped work at 6h on 23 August. 
 
All strikers are employed by XMC. They recently witnessed 226 BCMCL get huge pay bonuses due to profitability from the mine near Dinajpur. BCMCL Managing Director Md Quamruzzaman said profit sharing is only for BCMCL staff and miners working for XMC “should get their bonus from their employer if there was any agreement in this regard.” 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Bangladesh.png" width="250" height="115"/>
In the talks that ended early last week, however, BCMCL did step in with an offer. But it was insignificant. While the Miners’ and Workers’ Union is demanding a bonus of BDT 30,000 (€280), management’s offer was but BDT 4,200 (€40). 
 
For at least three years now, the Bangladeshi miners also seek regularisation of their employment terms. As contract workers, they are not entitled to certain social protections, insurance, and pension benefits. The union staged a four-day strike in late March 2010 in which some pay gains were won. In both this strike and last year’s, the union is enforcing blockades to prevent some 350 Chinese workers from working. And in last week’s walkout, the strikers held BCMCL workers in offices as a symbolic protest to the discrimination in granting bonus pay-outs. 
 
Ironically, BCMCL was attempting to part ways with its Chinese partner when a contract ended last October. But after searching for bids, XMC, which has operated the mine complex since 2005, was the only bidder and BCMCL re-awarded the contract in May. At that time, the state company also installed a contractor to monitor wage levels paid by XMC in order to “discourage (workers) from launching frequent demonstrations,” in the words of the company. 
 
BCMCL produces to mine one million tonnes annually of thermal coal and is one of several subsidiaries of state-held Bangladesh Oil, Gas, Mineral Corp. (PETROBANGLA).

Bangladesh: Coal Contract Staff Strikes State Firm, Chinese Operator

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
The ICEM affiliate Paper & Paper Products Manufacturing Employees’ Union (PPPMEU) of Malaysia won ground-breaking collective agreement language on Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) with Kimberly Clark, a global paper products company. In July at the company’s Kluang pulp and hygiene products mill, PPPMEU and KC agreed to change a management rights clause in the Union Recognition article to specifically state that “Contract workers are within the scope of the agreement.” 
 
The renewal three-year agreement also gives all workers, some 500 in total, a 6% wage increase retroactive to 1 January 2011. In the month since the new agreement went into effect, 130 of the 180 temporary workers directly employed by Kimberly Clark have joined PPPMEU, a fact that speaks for itself. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0810PaperRollArt.jpg" width="180" height="109"/>
All contract workers of Kimberly Clark Products Malaysia, beginning in 2012, will have entitlement to full social benefits, bonus payouts, public holidays, annual leave, retirement benefits, and all allowances as full-time staff. Many of the economic and social conventions in the renewal agreement applied retroactively to contract workers as well. 
 
Further wage increases will come in 2012 and 2013. The PPPMEU and Kimberly Clark in Malaysia bargained in the first half of 2011, but unwillingness to recognise all public holidays and other stumbling blocks prevented a timely agreement. In the end, PPPMEU deserves commendation in gaining from Kimberly Clark Products Malaysia an outstanding achievement on behalf of contract workers in the formal recognition of their union rights. 
 
There are still 100 third-party contractors working at Kimberly Clark’s Kluang, Johor state, mill remain outside the scope of the collective agreement. These sub-contractors work for local companies. But for now, PPPMEU will continue recruitment inside the American company’s Malaysian enterprise in order to build greater union power. The PPPMEU has had longstanding labour relations with Kimberly Clark dating to the 1980s. The company has had a market presence in Malaysia since 1969 and built its first manufacturing enterprise in 1983. About ten years ago, Kimberly Clark expanded at Kluang with nappie production. 
 
The ICEM congratulates PPPMEU in getting this ground-breaking collective agreement that brings immediate improvements to the work-lives of contract employees.

Malaysian Paperworkers’ Union Scores Big for Kimberly Clark Contract Workers

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The President of an ICEM affiliate in Chile, Fenatrapech, the National Federation of Oil Workers, passed away at 5h30 on 23 August. Comrade Jorge Matute was 61 years old and dedicated 41 years to trade union work for Chile’s oil workers. Twenty of those years were with Fenatrapech. 
 
Matute was the key oil workers’ leader during pivotal moments and struggles in Chile’s energy. Unpopular Chilean President Sebastián Piñera has attempted to sell off the nationalised oil assets into private hands, along with other major nationalised industries. Workers at the National Petroleum Company, ENAP, have been under attack over the last two years, as government attempts to weaken the union to facilitate privatisation. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1108.jorge matute inside.jpg" width="149" height="161"/>
Jorge Matute was central in fighting to protect workers in this process, negotiating redundancy packages and against job cuts. 
 
An example of this struggle led by Matute was at the Bio Bio refinery in Central Chile. In tribute, his remains were taken there on the day of his death, before moving him to Valparaiso for his funeral on 24 August. 
 
Matute had suffered the disappearance of his son, Jorge Matute Johns. Trade union comrades in Chile now take comfort in the belief that Matute is reunited with his son. 
 
Words of support and mourning have been offered from many sides for the popular union leader. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda conveyed sincere condolences to Fenatrapech on behalf of the ICEM, calling for his good work and struggles on behalf of workers to be continued. “We honour the life of a great fighter,” said Warda. 
 
ENAP oil workers’ union President Alejandro Avendaño said that Matute had “taught us the important value of the struggle for workers rights in Chile.”

Jorge Matute: 1950-2011

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A branch of the Indonesian trade union FSP-KEP (SPSI), the Trade Union of Chemical, Energy, and Mine Workers (CEMWU), will renew strike action this week, 15 September, with a month-long walkout at a leading global copper and gold mining complex, the Grasberg operation of US-based Freeport-McMoRan in eastern Papua province on New Guinea Island. 
 
The strike by 8,000 Indonesia miners would follow an eight-day strike in July that saw six union leaders sacked, only to be returned to their jobs when mine management relented and agree to re-start pay talks. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4549-Indonesia-Mine-Union-Wins-Strike-Reinstatement-of-Sacked-Union-Leaders " type="internal">ICEM news article</a> on that initial strike.) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.indonesia%20freeport%20mine.jpg" width="184" height="89"/>
4 July March to Kuala Kencana
Those talks did resume in Timika on 20 July but after a number of sessions, no agreement was reached on pay for 2011 to 2013 and negotiations broke off on 5 September. The FSP-KEP branch is seeking a doubling of miners’ US$1.50-per-hour wage rate, while PT Freeport is offering only an 11% increase, mostly in the form of bonuses. 
 
The Grasberg mine is 91% owned by Freeport-McMoRan and 9% by the Indonesian government, and serves as the American mining company’s biggest revenue producer. The mining house, which also faces a copper strike at its 53.7% held Cerro Verde copper mine in Peru, recorded a second quarter 2011 profit of US$1.37 billion. 
 
The FSP-KEP (SPSI) branch of CWMWU, the PT Freeport Indonesia Workers' Union, is reportedly asking now to negotiate directly with Freeport-McMoRan’s chairman and non-elective board member James Moffett, who took in a total compensation package last year of US$21.5 million. 
 
Grasberg is the world’s largest gold mine and second largest producer of copper concentrates, with daily output of 61,000 tonnes of copper and gold ore. The eight-day strike in July cost the company 16,000 tonnes of copper output and 60,000 ounces of gold production.

Indonesian FSP-KEP (SPSI) Union Set to Renew Grasberg Mine Strike

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief100.jpg" width="100" height="39"/>
ICEM Presidium Members and leaders of major affiliates paid a visit to Japan to convey a message of condolence and solidarity on the occasion of the National Conventions of Denryoku Soren and UI ZENSEN. The delegation was led by President Senzeni Zokwana and General Secretary Manfred Warda, composed of Dave Coles from CEP, Canada, Andrew Vickers from CFMEU, Australia, Michael Mersmann, IGBCE of Germany, David Shier from Canada’s Power Workers Union, and Phee Jungsun, ICEM Regional Contact Person. 
 
On 6 September, a meeting was conducted with representatives of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Union of Denryoku Soren. President Taneoka of Denryoku Soren and Mr. Yoshio Sato, General Secretary of ICEM-JAF facilitated the discussion on the current situation in the Fukushima plants. The chaotic and desperate situation immediately following the Tsunami attack was described, when about 600 workers on the site fought against the melt-down and were also concerned about the safety of their families. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1109.Meeting with Fukushima union (2).JPG" width="303" height="161"/>
International Delegation meets Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Union of Denryoku Soren
The delegation paid tribute to those workers who sacrificed themselves in the recovery operations at the damaged power plants. According to the report from Mr. Hasekawa Takahiro, Unit Union Chair of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Union of Tokyo Electricity (TEPCO) Union and Mr. Yukio Arai, President of the Tokyo Electricity (TEPCO) Union, two reactors out of the three that were destroyed and melted down are now under control in terms of cooling down and recycling radiated water. The level of radiation has been decreased to normal radiation outside of reactors. Robot equipment is being used to check the situation inside the reactors. A total of six workers had been exposed to radiation above the standard levels. The full scale report has just been constructed and submitted to the IAEA Board Meeting, to be held in late September. 
 
Manfred Warda commended workers still under precarious conditions, saying "you are heroes" and offered any necessary solidarity and technical assistance from ICEM and its affiliates. TEPCO has been working on the financial plan for compensation that requires more than US$2.5 Trillion and needs state subsidy. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1109.Manfred UI ZENSEN.JPG" width="222" height="160"/>
Manfred Warda addresses UI Zensen National Convention
The ICEM delegation then moved to attend the National Convention of UI Zensen in Yokohama, President of which is Brother Ochiai, Vice President of ICEM and Chair of the Asia Pacific Region. UI ZENSEN has worked strenuously on an organizing drive, and now becomes the largest industrial federation in Japan with 1.2 million members. Brother Ochiai congratulated the merger agreement of the three GUFs and confirmed full support for the new organization. Manfred Warda expressed solidarity towards relief and recovery efforts and complimented the firm spirit of the Japanese people. "We have come to express the grief we share with you and again convey to you, all your members and their families, to the Japanese people and to your country, our condolences for the loss of so many people, relatives, friends, neighbours – and we know that many of your members and their families were among the victims of the disaster. But let me also applaud you for the immediate determination you showed to take tremendous efforts to come to the assistance of all who needed your support and for all the personal sacrifices that you and many of the members of your union devoted during the process of rescue operations."

ICEM Solidarity, Condolence Visit to Japan

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