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<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBriefAlert.jpg" width="120" height="59"/>
By acclamation, Senzeni Zokwana was re-elected President and Manfred Warda re-elected General Secretary of the 20-million-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Union (ICEM) at the Global Union Federation’s 5th Statutory Congress in Buenos Aires on 25 November. 
 
Some 800 delegates from over 200 national trade unions are attending the ICEM’s Congress, which closes today with an address by Argentina Labour and Social Security Minister Dr. Carlos Tomada. Delegates also elected, by region, a 59-member governing Executive Committee that includes 20 Vice Presidents. 
 
The Congress postponed electing representations from the Middle East / North Africa Region due to political unrest in several countries, with statutory representation from the MENA region expected to come at the regional conference in March 2012. (The complete <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1111.ICEM_EXCO_PRESIDIUM_LISTS_FINAL[1][1].pdf" type="internal">listing of ICEM Executive / Presidium members</a> can be found here.) 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Manfred Warda PREFERRED.jpg" width="141" height="140"/>    <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1111.0908.senzeni.trinidad[1].jpg" width="143" height="140"/>
Newly re-elected ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, President Senzeni Zokwana
Day two of the Congress on 25 November also saw delegates adopt a forward-looking Action Plan that is meant to continue the trade union activism of the ICEM as it enters integration next year with two other GUFs – the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF). The ICEM Congress today will pass a definitive resolution to dissolve the ICEM in June 2012, followed by a founding Congress of a new industrial trade union organization. That will occur from 18-20 June in Copenhagen. 
 
Zokwana, the President of the powerful National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa, begins his second full term at the helm of the ICEM. First elected in a special election in October 2005, he began his trade union activism in 1980 in apartheid-era South Africa at the President Steyn gold mine in the Free State. 
 
He at first was a shift overseer on safety matters and in 1995 he joined the NUM staff as a Safety Officer, after proving himself a forceful advocate of modern mine safety techniques. In 2000, he was elected President of the 300,000-member NUM and besides his leading global role today on mine safety matters, he is an outspoken anti-poverty campaigner throughout Africa. 
 
Warda has served as General Secretary of ICEM since 1 January 2007, and began his trade union career in 1971 with Germany’s Mineworkers' Union in his home city of Bochum, North Rhine Westphalia. After serving as assistant and then Head of the President’s Office, he was head of the International Department of the country’s Industrial Mining and Energy Union (IGBE) from 1991-1997. Following the merger of IGBE and IG Chemie in 1997, he was named head of the International Department of IGBCE. 
 
The Congress concludes today with debate on resolutions regarding furthering the ICEM’s work in the MENA region, particularly with Iraqi and Palestinian unions; on an active response to the financial crisis and support for a Financial Transaction Tax; labour rights in Colombia; repressive postures of governments in Hungary and other European countries; European-based companies hampering trade union and human rights in Turkey; electric energy; the Trans-Pacific trade partnership agreement; and on support to the striking PT Freeport Indonesia Workers’ Union in Papua Province in their courageous struggle against the multination Freeport-McMoRan.

Zokwana, Warda Re-elected ICEM Leaders at Buenos Aires Congress

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The ICEM joins the wide condemnation of the Malawi government’s vicious crackdown on human and trade union rights. A raft of recent legislative changes has systematically curtailed civil liberties, freedom of the press, and increased impunity of government agencies and officials. 
 
In the African nation, Section 46 of the Penal Code was amended, allowing the Minister of Information to ban publications which are deemed to be contrary to the public interest. The Civil Procedure Bill was also amended, denying plaintiffs the right to instant relief when their rights are under threat by a government agency or officer. This latter amendment also allows police to search any house without a search warrant.</div>
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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Civil society groups have given President Mutharika until 17 August to respond to their grievances. "If nothing happens, the nation will hear from us," stated Robert Mkwezalamba, General Secretary of the Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU), referring to a petition of grievances submitted to the President. 
 
Nationwide popular protests on 20 July were brutally repressed by shocking police violence, leaving 19 people dead including a 13-year-old boy. The violence used by the Malawi government has been widely condemned, and attention is now on Mutharika’s regime to peacefully reach agreement with protest groups, and reverse the country’s archaic legislation. 
 
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has initiated an <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1074">electronic campaign</a> through LabourStart. Please support it here. </div>

Campaign to Halt the Bloody Repression of Malawi Trade Unionists

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st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }</style>The Confederación Nacional de los Metalúrgicos (CNM) affiliated to the CUT trade union central, and globally to the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), is mobilising workers for a 2011 wage campaign. The one-million-strong metalworker federation represents 50% of all Brazilian metalworkers, and is now pushing for deserved pay increases in collective agreements across the sector.</div>
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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Some regions have made good gains, while negotiations continue elsewhere, ahead of a 1 September deadline.</div>
The campaign in São Paulo State was kick-started on 21 July when 2,000 unionists of 14 trade unions manifesting in front of Industry Federation of São Paulo (FIESP). CNM/CUT President Paulo Cayres addressed the gathering, along with the presidents of the 14 unions, representing 250,000 workers in the state. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1108.cnm cut sao paulo gathering.jpg" width="242" height="160"/>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Included in the demands is the extension of maternity leave from 120 days to 180. Other demands include: automatic increase of salary in line with inflation, increased wages, improved minimum wage, freedom of organisation in all workplaces, reduction of work week to 40 hours with no reduction in wages.</div>
Demands were delivered to the Industry Federation of the Minas Gerais region on 29 July.
Metalworkers of Sapiranga, Southern Brazil, settled on an 8% salary increase and 10% hike in the minimum wage, as well as solid improvements to social allowances, including education, child care, and pensions.
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CNM/CUT President Paulo Cayres
ABC regional workers in São Bernardo rejected an offer last Tuesday from management and issued a strike warning.
Metalworkers of Itu, Porto Feliz, Boituva, and Cabreúva, 100 kilometres west of São Paulo, were organising united fronts at plants from 3-10 August, ahead of difficult bargaining with management.
United in the struggle for a fair wage increase, workers in the southern city of São Leopoldo halted production at two large companies in the area last week. Unionists linked arms at the gates of Rossi and Taurus 05, paralysing the sites for four hours on Thursday morning, 11 August. Similar scenes occurred in neighbouring Inpel on Wednesday 10 August, where a large mobilisation caused a one-and-a-half hour work stoppage.

CNM/CUT in Brazil Mobilises Campaign for Salary Gains

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Jack Layton, the soul of a progressive Canada and leader of the NDP, passed away Monday, 22 August, of cancer. For the past decade and more, Layton has led a populist surge in Canada that has given NDP, the party of fairness and justice, the official opposition stamp – since May 2011 – to the ruling neo-liberal Tories. Layton was 61. 
 
Layton had recently been diagnosed with his second bout against cancer. He died at 4h45 on 22 August in his home and surrounded by his family. 
 
Layton’s energy and conviction inspired ordinary Canadians and statements on his passing testified to that. Statements by North American unions said Layton’s inspiration, ideas, and vision must push faster forward. 
 
In a statement to Canadian unions, the ICEM said, “What happens in Canada has global significance” (see full <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/100.ICEM.Jack%20Layton.Canada.23August.pdf" type="internal">ICEM letter</a>). The ICEM remembers Layton as a courageous fighter for social justice, depicted best in his own words on the labour strife brought by Vale, the Brazilian mining giant, or to the Mexican government on its union smashing. 
 
In Sudbury at the beginning of a bitter year-long strike Vale provoked against Canadian living standards, Layton stood among thousands of miners, and emphatically said, “They cannot take away what working people have built over generations in this country, or this town.” 
<img src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1108.jacktributepanorama2.jpg" width="290" height="161" alt=""/>
Toronto: Tributes to Jack Layton
In 2009, Layton was part a global labour mission to Mexico sponsored by the ICEM and International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF). He accurately summarised the full trade union climate in Mexico: “We made it clear that the government’s interference in union governance, it’s jailing of union leaders and freezing union bank accounts, declaring strikes illegal and failing to prosecute the killers of union leaders, are serious and unacceptable violations of basic human rights.” 
Dave Coles, President of the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada said: “I knew Jack Layton as a principled social democrat who was utterly committed to social justice and peace. Thousands of our members knew Jack by his first name, as a leader who had reached out to them in their workplaces and communities. Jack Layton paid attention to our members’ deepest concerns and gave them unqualified support in their struggles.” 
Ken Neumann, Canadian National Director of the Untied Steelworkers (USW), said: “Jack reawakened Canadians to the reality that government can – and must – play a positive role in ensuring the economic and social wellbeing of its citizens. Steelworkers will help lead the way in honouring Jack’s legacy by carrying on his fight to build a better Canada and a better world.” 
Ken Lewenza, President of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) said in a message to the NDP: “At Jack’s passing, your voice of conscience is needed more than ever. Your efforts can and will make a difference in the direction of our country.” The CAW also said in mourning, progressive Canada must reflect on Jack’s vision for Canada “and how we can endeavour to make some of his cherished ideas a reality.” 
 
Jack Layton was born in Hudson, Quebec, into a political family. He entered public service in 1982 as a member of the Toronto City Council after leaving academia. His years on the city council of Canada’s largest city were marked by many accomplishments concerning poverty, homelessness, public transport, and environmental stewardship. In 2004, Layton won election to the federal Parliament as NDP leader, and the NDP has grown steadily to where it now is the logical political choice for a social Canada, and beyond. The ICEM letter said Jack stood always for workers, the poor, the disenfranchised. 
 
Jack is survived by his wife, Olivia, his dedicated political partner; and a son, Mike, a member of the Toronto City Council, and daughter, Sarah, who works for the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

ICEM Mourns Passing of Canadian Stalwart Jack Layton

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The ruling National Party in New Zealand took a correct industrial safety decision two weeks ago when the conservative government of Prime Minister John Key authorised NZ$1.5 million annually from an existing account to create a high hazards unit in the mining, and oil and gas industries. The decision comes in the wake of the tragic Pike River coal mine deaths nine months ago, a damning indictment on National’s business-friendly agenda of the 1990s, but the decision also comes with strong voice that more must come regarding regulations and stringent deterrents to protect all workers on the job in New Zealand. 
 
New Zealand’s Labour Party also said more must be done, stating check inspectors must be re-established on company payrolls to ensure monitoring and compliance. The Nationals eliminated mandatory worksite safety specialists in 1992 in deregulatory measures pushed by business. 
 
The ICEM states the hazards unit is a positive step coming just after first-phase hearings of the Pike River Royal Commission finished, and commends the New Zealand government for improving industrial safety in the country. The ICEM also encourages New Zealand through the Royal Commission to examine the safety structure at Pike River, compare it with best-practice standards of the world, and then begin a process to ratify and implement the tenets inside <a href="/en/209-ILO " type="internal">ILO Convention 176</a>. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1107.pike%20river%20mine%20photo.jpg" width="183" height="159"/>
Establishment of the high hazards unit also comes a year after a government review of health and safety and environmental issues in the offshore petroleum industry. The review recommended an increase in the number of safety inspectors. 
 
The high hazards unit will have three inspectors, plus a chief inspector each in the mines and energy sector, and a support and research staff of three. In comparison, New Zealand has only two mine inspectors – one position now being vacant – and it has only a single oil and gas inspector to cover upstream production over a wide expanse. 
 
The NZ$1.5 million will be funded from a special levy that the government has collected over the years in a Health and Safety in Employment Memorandum Account. 
 
Ged O’Connell, Assistant National Secretary of the Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), said it was a breakthrough for the government, “but more still needs to be done. There is the need for decent regulations and reinstatement of the check inspector role to provide the full check and balance required.” 
 
New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) President Helen Kelly said first-phase Pike River testimony before the Royal Commission made it clear that stronger mine safety regulations are critical. “We can’t wait and risk another disaster when we already know that other measures are also necessary,” said Kelly. 
 
Phase one of the Royal Commission’s inquiry into the deadly string of Pike River Coal Mine explosions that took 29 lives ended on 22 July 2011. Phase two hearings will start on 5 September in Greymouth, near the Pike River mine on the South Island, and run until 23 September. Phase two will centre on time and circumstance of death for the 29, safety and rescue efforts, and site effectiveness in the horrid weeks after the 19 November 2010 initial explosion.

New Zealand Updates Energy, Mine Safety Regime 

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Trade union movements in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK will protest at Fiji missions in their respective countries this week over escalating union and civil society repression imposed by Fijian military dictator Josaia Voreque Bainimarama. These manifestations – in addition to protests at embassies of Fiji in several other countries – occur as Daniel Urai, President of the Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC), and Dinesh Gounder, of the National Union of Hospitality, Catering, Tourism Employees, face a court hearing this week, 2 September, on charges of holding a union meeting without a permit. 
 
Gounder and Urai, formerly of ICEM affiliate Fiji Electricity Workers’ Union who also serves as General Secretary of the Hospitality, Catering, Tourism union, were arrested on 3 August for violating a four-day-old decree aimed at disempowering trade union activities. 
 
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) will conduct two manifestations while Urai and Gounder are in the dock; one at the Fiji Consular General’s office at 100 North Walker Street, North Sydney, the other at the Fiji High Commission in Canberra, 19 Beale Crescent. Both demonstrations begin at 11h.
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1108.fiji%20daniel%20urai.jpg" width="120" height="120"/>      <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1108.fiji%20Dinesh%20Gounder.jpg" width="120" height="120"/>
Daniel Urai, Dinesh Gounder
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) will conduct a protest at 12h30 on Friday, 2 September, at Fiji’s High Commission offices at 31 Pipitea Street, Thorndon, Wellington. 
 
In the UK, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) will hold a protest together with Amnesty International outside of Fiji’s High Commission in London on Thursday, 1 September, from 16h to 17h. This Fiji mission is located at 34 Hyde Park Gate, London SW7 5DN. 
 
LabourStart has launched an online campaign in which opponents of this blatant repression of trade unionism can respond directly to the Fiji government. The <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1086 ">LabourStart campaign</a> can be found here. 
 
The Fiji military regime has tightened the noose on human and trade union rights over the past months and it has flaunted it in full view of the international community. In May 2011, the regime imposed a draconian anti-social amendment to the Employment Relations Promulgation 2007 law that eliminates public-sector workers from the scope of the regulation. On 29 July, the regime of Commodore Bainimarama then published the Essential National Industries (Employment) Decree, effectively banning all industrial actions, voiding existing collective agreements in weeks to come, curbing overtime pay, and canceling wage adjustments and certain work terms in designated industries. The decree will severely hamper union ability to gain bargaining rights and maintain representation status. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/New%20Zealand%20NZCTU%20New.jpg" width="117" height="44"/>    <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/AustraliaACTUsmall.jpg" width="110" height="41"/>    <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/UKTUC.jpg" width="100" height="46"/>
The decree also prohibits people from holding union office unless employed by the respective company, and those that do not face large fines and jail sentences. The right to was previously limited, but the Essential National Industries decree now makes it near impossible, with strike authorisation only granted by government approval. 
 
The military regime last week also banned the annual conference of Fiji’s Methodist Church because church leaders refused to accept a government demand that pro-democracy church leaders step down from their church roles. The Methodist religion is Fiji’s largest religious affiliation. 
 
The ICEM joins national labour centres and other labour organisation in pressing Fiji to reverse these archaic decrees, as well as calling on Fiji to conduct free and democratic elections in the near future.

Days of Action This Week Against Fiji: Join!

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ICEM-affiliated United Steelworkers (USW) in the US is fighting to keep pension and healthcare benefits for 125 highly skilled mould repairmen at Owens-Illinois, and 175 at Ross International. US-based glass packaging manufacturers Owens-Illinois and Ross International are attempting to discriminate against younger workers by providing inferior retirement benefits to new staff. 
Also under attack in current negotiations are healthcare benefits contained in the two-tier proposals. The ICEM condemns this draconian stance of Owens-Illinois and Ross International in their collective negotiations. 
 
As reported by ICEM in July this year, Owens-Illinois has been attempting to squeeze more profit out of its operations elsewhere in the world by cutting workers’ benefits. In Colombia, ICEM-affiliated Sintravidricol members were forced to work dangerously long periods after restructuring at the plants in Envigado, Cogua, and Soacha. The company filled gaps by outsourcing work unilaterally, ignoring Sintravidricol’s pleas for dialogue. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1108.tim tuttle.jpg" width="150" height="161"/>
Tim Tuttle
Ross International also has a record of bitter disputes with ICEM affiliates. However, Sintravidricol in Colombia did achieve recognition and a collective agreement from the company following a 23-day strike in 2007. 
 
Both companies are now targeting USW members’ social benefits and those of future generations. These workers repair the moulds used to manufacture containers in the beer, wine, spirits, and food sectors of glass and other packaging. 
 
Tim Tuttle, Chairman of USW’s Glass Industry Conference, reports that a further meeting with management is scheduled for Wednesday, 31 August, the same day the current agreement expires. Additional dates in September will be sought to continue discussions. 
 
In a letter to Owens-Illinois CEO, Albert Stroucken, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda condemned the company’s stance against a fair contract for employees. “This is an attempt by Owens-Illinois to bolster its bottom line on the backs of vulnerable retirees. It also appears to be a cynical attempt by Owens-Illinois to undermine the union by sewing divisions within it between current workers and newly hired workers,” stated Warda. 
 
As Warda warned the CEOs of both glass packaging manufacturers, the ICEM will mobilise international support if managements fail to alter their regressive stance in North American bargaining.

USW Resists Concessions in Owens-Illinois, Ross International Bargaining 

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At the triennial United Steelworkers Convention in Las Vegas, US, on 16 August, the union covering members in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean moved closer to formalising a unified North American trade union together with oppressed National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros. 
 
Los Mineros President Napoleón Gómez Urrutia addressed the 3,000 delegates via teleconference from Canada, where he has been in exile for the last five years. These same charges blocked Gómez from travelling to the Las Vegas Convention. His wife, Oralia, gave an emotional speech instead. It had been planned that Los Mineros leader Juan Linares would sign the agreement, but he was blocked from leaving Mexico by authorities who are conducting a relentless campaign against Los Mineros. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1108.mineros usw alliance.png" width="246" height="161"/>
“A strong, unified union is needed to fight for workers from the northern tip of Canada to the most southern tip of Mexico, particularly in the age of the North American Free Trade Agreement,” stated USW President Leo Gerard. 
 
Among other things, the agreement establishes worker councils for employees at multinationals in the three countries, "to facilitate exchange of information, strategic cooperation, solidarity support, and organizing initiatives." 
 
The two trade unions formed a commission, charged with increasing strategic cooperation and exploring a fusion together following the aggressive police attacks on workers and their families at Cananea and Pasta de Conchos on 6 June 2010, announcing the bi-lateral trade union commission at the global "Triple Crisis of Sustainability” conference in Toronto on 19 June 2010. 
 
The commission was made up of five members from each of the union’s leaderships, and will now be expanded to include the USW general counsel and director of international affairs. Los Mineros will get two additional representatives. 
 
The USW represents 850,000 workers in the US, Canada and the Caribbean, while Los Mineros represents about 180,000 in Mexico.

USW, Mexico’s Los Mineros Strengthen Alliance

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ICEM Belgian affiliate Centrale Générale-FGTB and the chemicals company Clariant Benelux made temporary peace nine days ago in a pitched industrial strike by blue-collar workers in Louvain-la-Neuve. Following talks between the union and the Swiss-based company, the blue-collar workforce accepted reinstatement of one of two discharged shop stewards (see previous <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4604-FGTB-Delegates-Sacked-at-Clariant-Chemicals-Plant-in-Belgium" type="internal">ICEM article</a>) and resumption of social dialogue based on trade union rights and safeguards of freedoms.  
 
Mohamed Loukili and Kemal Bennaceur were sacked by Clariant on 27 July for faithfully carrying out union responsibilities inside the workplace. The recent negotiations came after a spirited strike manifestation and in the talks, FGTB won reinstatement for Loukili, while Bennaceur decided earlier to accept a pay-out package and depart the company. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1108.clariant%20settlement.jpg" width="231" height="164"/>
Strikers Surround Mohamed Loukili (top, center) at 17 August Manifestation
The 17 August strike manifestation at Clariant plant gates in Louvain-la-Neuve saw 200 workers and supporters call on Clariant to reverse the anti-social sackings. Three days before the annual summer shut-down, managers announced dismissal of the two union representatives. That caused a strike by the entire 45-worker blue-collar unit, a strike that threatened the safety of some 100 white-collar staff when work resumed two weeks ago. 
 
The ICEM congratulates the FGTB on winning this important union rights test, and takes note that it is the second time in a month that Belgium’s Socialist Union has won reinstatement rights for sacked job leaders. It happened at Belgian Refining Corp. (BRC), near the Port of Antwerp, when two union delegates were reinstated through dialogue on 15 July between FGTB-ABVV and BRC managers. (See that <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4558-BRC-Belgium-Conflict-Settled-Sacked-Oil-Workers-Reinstated" type="internal">ICEM story</a> here.)  
 
Clariant’s chemical plant in Louvain-la-Neuve is part of the Swiss company’s Masterbatches division and produces colour chemicals for inks and textiles.

Belgium: FGTB Succeeds in Getting Staff Rep’s Job Back at Clariant

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The ICEM congratulates RadioLabour on reaching the significant milestone of 30,000 listeners worldwide. RadioLabour is the “labour movement’s radio service", broadcasting views, issues, and events daily Monday to Friday. In a world where media is dominated by a handful of conglomerates, RadioLabour service is unique and important. The service is less than two years old. 
 
The ICEM is proud to provide access to this important labour communications tool. Click on the RadioLabour logo at the bottom-right of any ICEM webpage. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1101.%20RadioLabour.jpg" width="174" height="24"/>
The Solidarity News shows are five minutes long Monday to Thursday, the Friday show is ten minutes long and summarises the news of the week. 
 
RadioLabour's news programmes are presented by noted international labour educator, Marc Bélanger, and broadcaster, Irma Arkus. 
 
RadioLabour is also accessible via its <a href="http://www.radiolabour.net/">website</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/radiolabour">Facebook</a>, mobile phones, <a href="http://www.radiolabour.net/itunes-instructs.html">iTunes</a>, UnionBook and <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/radiolabour">Twitter</a>. 
 
Bélanger’s team specialises in news about workers and unions in the developing world. Access RadioLabour interviews with union leaders from the Global South on their website.

RadioLabour Achieves Significant Milestone

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