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<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
ICEM affiliate in Trinidad and Tobago, the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), staged a mass protest on 10 September over delays in bargaining between the union and the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission. The union members’ protest came at the electric authority’s opening of a customer service centre at the company headquarters in Port-of-Spain. 
 
Management was celebrating the opening of a new automatic meter infrastructure and the utility’s award of some TTD700 million in contracts for that system, as well as for a new power station. Much of that money will be used on contractors and contract labourers. 
<img height="93" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/TrinindadOWTU.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
OWTU members, meanwhile, have been without a current collective agreement for over a year, and have been frustrated by salaries that are tied to 2005 levels at a time when Trinidad and Tobago’s inflation rate is high. 
 
The last negotiations session was held in July, and the company’s chairman said management was waiting for direction from the Ministry of Public Utilities. 
 
Meanwhile, another union in Trinidad and Tobago, the Public Service Association, staged another protest through a series of one-day work stoppages against the Water and Sewerage Authority. That occurred on 14 September, three days after a similar protest following a revised management proposal. Water and sewer workers are also protesting delays and a prolonged negotiations period. They are still attempting to resolve a 2005-2007 contract with the public utility, talks that only started in January 2007. 
<img height="115" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/TrinidadAndTobago.png" width="250" alt=""/>
In a related workplace development in the country, five construction workers last week were hospitalised when they were overcome by gas at the state-owned Petrotrin’s Point-a-Pierre refinery. All 700 construction workers were forced to down tools by what Petrotrin said was a leak from an alkaline plant. It marked the second time in two months that building workers at the refinery walked from their jobs in protest to health and safety concerns. 
 
Petrotrin is currently undergoing a gas optimisation modernisation, as well as a gas to liquids project at the west coast refinery. In early August, the state company dropped production by 15,000 barrels-per-day to 47,000 b/d due to safety concerns. That followed a May 2007 drop in crude production from offshore sites, after a gas explosion on an offshore rig in the Soldado field killed one contract worker, and injured two others.

OWTU Members at Electricity Authority in Trinidad and Tobago Protest

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
ICEM affiliate in Mozambique, the National Union of Chemical, Rubber, Paper, and Print Workers (SINTIQUIGRA), has forged a four-union merger with transportation and textile workers’ unions, in an effort to strengthen the union movement of the country. 
 
The merger is partly in honour of Joaquim Fanheiro, former leader of SINTIQUIGRA, who died unexpectedly in March 2007 while serving as general secretary of the Mozambique Workers’ Organisation (OTM), the nation’s leading national labour centre. The other merger partners are the Union of Textile and Footwear Workers’ (SINTIVEC), the National Union of Port and Railway Workers’ (SINPOCAF), and the Ports and Allied Dockworkers’ Union (SINPEOC).
A name for the union has not yet been determined, but a founding general assembly meeting will occur in November 2007 and will address that and other matters. 
<img height="115" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Mozambique.png" width="250" alt=""/>
Union merger discussions in Mozambique began last spring between SINTIQUIGRA and SINTIVEC. They were expanded in the summer to include the transport and dockworkers’ unions. The combined membership of the four unions will be about 25,000. 
Comrade Fanheiro was a long-time trade union activist and main leader of SINTIUIGRA. He was a strong workers’ advocate in 1970-era production councils in Mozambique, which were predecessors to the OTM. Later, he became the distinguished leader of the OTM and played a key role in negotiations with the government over issues such as the annual increases to the statutory minimum wage and the revisions to Mozambique’s labour code. 
 
Trade unions in Mozambique of late have been burdened by downsizings and redundancies, as many large companies have splintered their businesses off to smaller companies, which have cut staff and attempt to slash social costs. The four-union merger is expected to make the labour movement and the OTM stronger and more efficient.

Four-Union Mozambique Merger to Honour Labour Legacy of Joaquim Fanheiro

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North American ICEM affiliate, United Steelworkers (USW), began its largest ever conference of women workers in Toronto, Ontario, yesterday. Over 1,000 trade union women from Canada and the US are expected at the four-day conference, which is entitled “Women of Steel: Building Power, Taking Action.” 
 
USW President Leo Gerard will address the conference today, 24 September. Also speaking will be Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of US presidential candidate John Edwards, who has won the endorsement of the USW, and progressive American blogger Arianna Huffington. Canadian Member of Parliament Libby Davies, from the New Democratic Party, will also address the conference. 
<img height="74" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/womenlogo.jpg" width="59" alt=""/>
Gerard will introduce to delegates the “Protect Our Kids/Stop Toxic Imports” campaign, which will be unveiled in Canada tomorrow, 25 September. 
 
Workshops will centre on engaging women in the work of the union, skills enhancement, work-life balance, political action, and global solidarity. The USW will host global trade union guests from Brazil, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Africa, and the UK. 
<img height="175" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0709WomenToronto.jpg" width="175" alt=""/>
“Strong unions need women, and it is clear that women in every nation need strong unions,” said USW Assistant to the President Leeann Anderson. USW Women of Steel Director Ann Flener added that union “women know that in today’s global economic society, solidarity must reach across nations to the furthest regions of the world. We must talk with each other, compare situations, and learn best practices from each other’s experiences.”

North American ‘Women of Steel’ Convene Largest Ever Women’s Conference

Umicore, a Belgian metals group specialising in metal technology, chemicals, and catalysts systems, today signed a Global Framework Agreement jointly with the International Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) in Brussels. 
The agreement, initiated by the Belgian union, Centrale Chrétienne du Métal de Belgique (CCMB), is for a 4-year period and contains language establishing a joint committee to review and monitor the agreement. 
<img height="97" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/IMF100.jpg" width="100"/>      <img height="86" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEM100.jpg" width="100"/>
The framework agreement was co-signed by Belgian labour unions/federations Metaal/FGTB-ABVV, CGSLP-ACLVB, and CSC-ACV, the federation which affiliates CCMB. 
 
“We are pleased to join with the IMF in establishing global standards with Umicore,” said ICEM Gen. Sec. Manfred Warda. “Umicore is a company that crosses into a number of sectors, including those both in ICEM and IMF’s range.” 
 
“The significance of the agreement for us is this is our first joint agreement with another global union federation,” said IMF Gen. Sec. Marcello Malentacchi. “We are confident that both the IMF and ICEM, through our affiliates, will uphold the very best in social practices at Umicore.” 
<img height="253" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0709Umicore1.jpg" width="380"/>
From left, Kemal Ozkan and Manfred Warda, ICEM; Thomas Leysen and Ursula Saint-Léger, Umicore; and Marcello Malentacchi, IMF 
The agreement contains 6 articles: Human Rights, Working Conditions, Environment, Implementation of Agreement, Monitoring, and Validity of Agreement. Under Human Rights, Umicore pledges to adhere to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, as well as adherence to ILO core labour standards. 
The latter specifically includes ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, and other Conventions regarding child labour, forced labour, and non-discrimination and equal opportunities practices.
<img height="260" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0709Umicore2.jpg" width="390"/>
Under Working Conditions, the company agrees to ILO Convention 100 on fair and adequate remuneration, and pledges not to compromise on safety and health conditions in any workplace, as well as striving to post continuous improvements in all occupational health and safety performance. The Environmental principles include a 6-point plan centred on sustainable development issues. 
 
In initiating the Global Agreement, the Belgian union CCMB steered Umicore into discussions with the ICEM and IMF. Those negotiations started in earnest in January 2007 and were included in June. The agreement marks the ICEM’s 13th such framework pact with a transnational company, while IMF has now ratified 17 such agreements. 
 
Brussels-based Umicore employs 14,000 staff in 35 countries. It began in 1906 as a Belgian mining company in the Congo, and in 2001 changed its name from Union Miniére to Umicore. With significant divestment in the 1990s, the company since 2000 has focused on 4 businesses: advanced materials, precious metals services, precious metals products and catalysts, and zinc specialities and alloys. 
The text of the agreement can be found <a href="/index.php?id=187&doc=2411&la=EN" type="internal">here</a>. 
 
For further information, please contact 
Dick Blin, ICEM: +32-474-88.00.54. or <a href="mailto:Dick.blin@icem.org">Dick.blin@icem.org</a> 
Kristyne Peter, IMF: +41-79-205.44.58 or <a href="mailto:kpeter@imfmetal.org">kpeter@imfmetal.org</a>

ICEM, IMF Sign Global Accord with Umicore

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US Affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) won an important court victory in its pursuit of justice for workers at shuttered Continental tyre and rubber plants in America. On 31 July, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court in the state of Ohio ruled that the German company must fulfill union contractual obligations to retired workers regarding health care.
<img height="100" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMrubber.JPG" width="100" alt=""/>
In December 2006, some 2,000 retirees from closed Continental plants in Charlotte, North Carolina; Mayfield, Kentucky; and Byron, Ohio, filed a class action lawsuit with the support of the union. Along with the cost-savings plant closings, the company shifted a large part of health care costs onto retirees. 
In the lawsuit, USW retirees, many of whom had been sacked at the time of the plant closures, sought restoration of the previous health insurance programme, and they argued for refunds on premium payments and other compensation. 
Judge Jack Zouhary of US. District Court in Toledo, Ohio, ruled in a summary judgment that the company had improperly reduced the benefit levels for retirees and their spouses. The judge’s decision stated that since the company was unable to force its terms with the USW during contract talks, it unilaterally and illegally began implementing the cuts. 
Continental North America argued it had the right to lower retiree benefits, because the labour contracts had expired. Zouhary ruled that retiree benefits must remain separate from wages and benefits of active workers since there is "inference" in labour agreements that "those benefits ... continue as long as the beneficiary remains a retiree."
<img height="158" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0609USARonHoover.jpg" width="120"/>
 USW's Ron Hoover 

USW President Leo Gerard praised the judge’s decision. “The fact that the court issued summary judgment shows just how disgraceful Continental was in abandoning its contractual obligations to American tire builders who gave the company a lifetime of work.” 

Continental has stated it will appeal the judge’s decision, but the USW is calling on the company to make the payments even if it does appeal. “This is an international corporation that has made massive profits throughout this sorry affair,” said USW Executive Vice President Ron Hoover. “It is time for them to finally stand up and fulfill the promises” made to workers.

Continental Tyre Owes USW’s Retirees Medical Pay, Judge Rules

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Pilkington glass workers in New Zealand, represented by Engineering, Paper and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) will decide tomorrow night, 14 August, whether or not to escalate industrial actions. During the first days of August, EPMU members at the Hamilton glass plant began a seven-day overtime ban because of a pay dispute. 
 
That was extended last week and union members at another Pilkington plant in Auckland met and agreed to support the Hamilton workers’ job actions. The Auckland workforce, represented by EPMU, was forced to take nine days of job actions last year in a pay dispute. In 2006, UK-based Pilkington was bought by Nippon Sheet Glass for €3.2 billion, in a move to strengthen the Japanese company’s presence in Asia, particularly China.
<img height="50" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/NewZealandFlag.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
“The company’s arguing over a quarter of a percent (in Hamilton), and frankly the members are getting sick of this kind of penny-pinching … the members are simply asking for their fair share,” said an EPMU representative, as quoted on the union’s website.

Pilkington Workers in Glass Dispute in New Zealand

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
Similar to non-union coal miners at the fateful Sago mine in the US state of West Virginia (<a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/1583-Sago-Mine-Disaster:-Safety-Workers’-Rights-Victimized-by-Bankruptcies" type="internal">click here for more</a>), miners at Murrau Energy Corp., in the state of Utah, have designated ICEM affiliate United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) as their representative in discussions with the company and the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). 
 
Those discussions and subsequent investigation follow the tragic cave-in at Murray's non-union Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, which killed six trapped miners on 6 August and another three miners on 16 August during a rescue effort. The disaster took place at 600 metres underground. 
<img height="109" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector6.jpg" width="100"/>
Under US mine safety law, non-union miners can request the expertise of the UMWA in the event of a disaster, or safety occurrence. That happened at the Sago Mine in early 2006 when 12 miners perished due to an underground explosion. Then, International Coal Group and its owner, New York investor Wilbur Ross, blocked UMWA safety experts from entering the mine following the blast. The union and MSHA had to sue the non-union company to gain access in order to uphold the law. 
 
In this month's Utah tragedy, again, production and the pursuit of profit led to mining deaths. Murray Energy had been engaged in retreat mining at the south end of the 5,000-acre Crandall Canyon Mine when a bump -- or shift of earth and rock resulting from excavation -- occurred. 
 
Retreat mining is when grids supporting a shaft's ceiling are deliberately removed in order to cause a controlled cave-in. Murray, which bought the mine in 2006, had been ordered by MSHA to halt the practice of retreat mining on the north end of the mine in March 2007, but the federal agency did grant permits for retreat mining on the south side. 
<img height="88" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USA.png" width="200"/>
The UMWA termed the practice "a recipe for disaster," since mining was happening between two sections that already had been excavated. On 16 August, another bump occurred during the rescue, killing the three rescue workers and injuring six others. 
 
Cleveland, Ohio-based Murray Energy is owned by the controversial Robert Murray, holder of 19 coal mines in five US states. His mines have been hot with 32 serious safety infractions so far this year. He also violated US labour law previously when he threatened to sack UMWA members at a mine in the state of Pennsylvania if they talked openly about a brewing labour dispute. 
 
Murray told reporters last week that he would permanently close the Crandall Canyon Mine, thus entombing the six miners. But he reversed that public stand the very next day.

US Non-Union Miners Turn to UMWA in Aftermath of Utah Coal Tragedy

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
On Monday 20 August, a one-month long strike ended in the South African tyre sector, in which 6,000 members of the ICEM affiliated National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) had been participating. The strike included workers from six major tyre manufacturing plants, including Goodyear and Continental in Port Elizabeth, Dunlop in Durban and Ladysmith, and Bridgestone in Port Elizabeth and Brits, North West. 
 
The strike ended after the union reached a historic agreement with the South African Employers’ New Tyre Industry Association. 
<img height="102" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/SouthafricaNumsa100.jpg" width="100" alt=""/>
The three-year agreement brings important achievements for the union members. Wage increases are set at 8% for the first year, and at 7.5% for the second and third year. Other advantages gained include skill-based development grading, five months maternity leave, an annual leave of 15 working days, and a 10.5% increase in employers’ contribution to the provident (or pension) fund. Agreement was also reached on another important NUMSA demand, namely on the scrapping of the use of labour brokers. 
 
In addition, Goodyear in Port Elizabeth agreed to absorb about 100 contract workers into its permanent staff, out of a total of 250 employees hired under labour brokerages. A consolidated process to phase out the remaining 150 agency jobs will be started. 
<img height="100" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMrubber.JPG" width="100" alt=""/>
During the strike, NUMSA organised many different actions, including protest marches at Bridgestone-Firestone, Goodyear and Continental. About 4,000 union members handed over a memorandum to the New Tyre Manufacturing Industry Association’s spokesperson Attie Higgs at the Continental plant. Another 2,000 strikers in Durban and Ladysmith gave their memoranda to the Dunlop management, as did the workers of Bridgestone in Brits. 
 
The Union had also organised industry-wide solidarity protest actions, which involved more than 15,000 employees in the auto manufacturing industry, where NUMSA has already signed an agreement which substantially improves the conditions of employment, while, at the same time, taking a long-term view to the continued growth of this sector.

One-month Tyre Industry Strike Ends in South Africa with Historic Agreement

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Pointed with direction from ICEM Norwegian affiliate Industri Energi, the Nordic country's national labour centre, LO, has advised state oil company Statoil not to open an office in Iraq. 
<img height="100" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/statoil.gif" width="100"/>
The reason cited is Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani's letter from July 2007, which bans trade unions in the public sector. His decree replicates the ban on unions in the country's oil sector imposed by both the regime of Saddam Hussein and the occupational forces following the 2003 invasion. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2357-Reckless-and-Repressive-Union-Busting-by-Iraqi-Oil-Minister" type="internal">here</a> for more). 
Statoil is planning to open the office in the northern Iraq city of Erbil. According to a Norwegian press report, LO President Roar Flåthen said the opening of the office shows poor judgement on Statoil's part. The LO has also officially called on Norway's government to block Statoil from moving into Iraq at this time. The Norwegian government is the majority shareholder of Statoil. 
<img height="150" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0708LONorwayFlathen.jpg" width="150"/>
LO Norway's President Roar Flåthen 
LO and Industri Energi's stand on this issue is also supported by the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFOU), a collection of some ten oil workers' unions in southern Iraq. IFOU President Hassan Jumaa Awad al Assadi has warned both Statoil and Norway's government that, until full recognition of trade unionism occurs, the company should not carry out any activity inside Iraq.

Norway's Unions Tell Statoil to Stay Out of Iraq for Now

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The last three major mining disasters in Russia’s Kemerovo and Vorkuta Regions, which took 159 lives in three months, are a clear indication that the system of mining safety in the country is making miners hostages of profitability. 
 
Officially, the two methane explosions in Kemerovo resulted from faulty cables, which short-circuited and detonated the mixture of methane, air, and coal dust. Systems used at the mine to automatically localise and suppress explosions all failed (and were later prohibited for use in all Russian mines). 
<img height="95" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMminingsector4.jpg" width="100"/>
The high concentration of methane remained undetected because the mines’ gas detection systems were tampered with. Meters showed methane concentration in the mines to be significantly less than it actually was, and the complete power shut-down, which would normally prevent any short-circuiting in such situations, therefore never took place. 
 
Ruben Badalov, First Vice President of the ICEM-affiliated Russian Independent Coal Miners’ Union (ROSUGLEPROF), and a member of the Russian State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament, was on the federal investigatory team at the Ulianovskaya mine. Probing beyond the immediate causes, he exposes several indirect ones, whose nature cannot be reduced simply to matters of production discipline. 
<img height="185" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0708Russia1.jpg" width="240"/>
These indirect causes fall into a number of categories: from mistakes in the extraction estimates to assumptions of legal “liberalisation” of the whole mining safety control system. This makes it virtually impossible for public supervisory agencies, like Rostechnadzor, or the union’s own inspectors, to enforce timely closures of unsafe mines. The common denominator for all the categories is a lack of regulatory mechanisms in the industry where the rule of the market is largely unchecked.
“The actual methane content of the coal seam at the Ulianovskaya mine turned out to be several times higher than the project estimates," says Badalov, himself a mining engineer with extensive experience. 
<img height="58" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/RussiaRosugleprof2.jpg" width="329"/>
“Moreover, the intensive extraction schedule contributed to the release of still greater amounts of methane into the mine, which was never properly degassed – a costly procedure. The roof was defined in the project documentation as highly resistant to caving and prone to overhanging. At the same time, the seam liability to rock bumps had been assumed to manifest itself ten metres below the level where the explosion took place. As a result, no precautionary measures, such as preventive degassing of the mine, or induced caving of the roof, had been scheduled. It was during the uncontrolled caving of 70 metres of the overhanging roof that huge amounts of methane were momentarily released into the mine.” 
 
Both mines were designed by the same people, belonging to the same school of mining engineering, and while the licensing procedure is still in place, there’s no meaningful quality control as the development of the mining science in Russia was hindered by lack of support from the state. 
<img height="88" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Russia.png" width="200"/>
Ruben Badalov maintains that, as a purely commercial approach inevitably brings a temptation to simplify processes and disregard relevant specificities, there must be state supervision of all engineering work related to hazardous production processes. 
 
The Kuzbass disasters once again highlight the existing disparity between the fixed component of the coal miner’s wages and the productivity-driven parts. The drop in income during outages to less than half of regular wages pushes miners to reckless behaviour. At the Yubileinaya mine, all it took to deceive the gas detection system was a piece of cloth wrapped around a gas sensor. 
 
“This doesn’t stimulate productivity, this stimulates coal extraction at any cost,” says Badalov. In the course of the Federal Industry Agreement negotiations earlier this year, ROSUGLEPROF tabled a proposal to raise the fixed part of the wages to 70%, and although the target could not be achieved uniformly and in full, there were companies who were prepared to take this figure as a reference point.

Three Mining Disasters Take 159 Lives in Russia

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