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A third major methane gas explosion in a Russian coal mine has left 10 miners dead. This latest mine blast occurred on 25 June at the Komsomolskaya mine in Vorkuta, in the Russian region of Komi. 
 
Reports cite a popping noise, resulting in a power failure immediate before the explosion occurred. The miners who died were working in two shafts at depths of 900 metres for the company IAO Vorkutaugol. A total of 150 miners were brought from shafts following the blast, while four others were hospitalised with serious injuries. 
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The Vorkuta mining deaths come after a pair of earlier methane explosions in the Kemerovo Region claimed a total of 149 deaths. On 24 May, 39 miners died at the Yubileynaya mine. And earlier, on 19 March, the worst Russian mine disaster in decades occurred at the Ulyanovskaya mine, with 110 miners perishing. Both of these mines are operated by OAO Yuzhkuzbassugol, owned by Russia&rsquo;s second largest steel and metals company, Evraz Group. 
 
These latest mining deaths come just two weeks after Russia&rsquo;s environmental, technological, and nuclear safety agency, Rostekhnadzor, had asked the government to draft amendments to the Code of Administrative Violations, giving it a definite mandate to close unsafe mines. The workers&rsquo; safety watchdog has temporarily closed mines, but companies have used Russia&rsquo;s courts to immediately reopen such enterprises. 
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Rostekhnadzor, in a press release on the eve of OAO Vorkutaugol&rsquo;s mine disaster, said it has begun drafting a methane safety programme for Russian coal mines for the period 2007 to 2010. The agency said 80% of all coal mines contain high methane levels.

Another Coal Mine Blast in Russia Kills 10

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Some 190 Petrol-İş members in Turkey at the Sanovel İla&ccedil;ları pharmaceutical company, located in Silivri, Istanbul, were sacked after joining the ICEM-affiliated Turkish union. 
 
Petrol-İş started an organising effort at the plant a year ago. Sanovel İla&ccedil;ları, one of the top ten pharmaceutical companies in Turkey, dismissed five union members on 4 April 2007, after all production workers joined the union.
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On the 6 June, the company announced that it had terminated the employment of 190 union members. Management said union status disqualified the workers from being able to continue to perform their jobs. 
 
Protesting the firings, all workers at Sanovel İla&ccedil;ları began a protest in front of the plant. 
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Striking workers at Sanovel
A large majority of the workers are paid only the minimum legal wage at Sanovel. The average wage at the company is YTL 500, the equivalent of &euro; 275. While working under extremely difficult conditions, workers are not paid any social benefits. 
 
Public opinion in Turkey is on the side of the sacked workers, and other trade unions, as well as a number of political parties, are backing efforts to get the 190 workers reinstated. On 27 June, Salih Kilic, President of Turk-Iş, the national centre to which Petrol-İş is affiliated, visited the dismissed workers and offered the federation's support.

190 Petrol-Is members in Turkey Dismissed for Belonging to a Union

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A mid-June conference in Berlin between two of German&rsquo;s most important trade unions, ICEM affiliate IGBCE and IG Metall, put forward an innovative plan for the future of the country&rsquo;s automotive supply industry. 
 
Entitled &ldquo;Future Prospects for the Automotive Support Industry, Innovation, Growth, and Jobs,&rdquo; the blueprint calls on all social partners &ndash; political parties and governmental officials, auto manufacturers and suppliers, banks, all levels of management, as well as works councils and the trade unions &ndash; to overcome the barriers to German-made auto parts, and to develop initiatives that strengthen research, and education and training of staff. 
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The plan lists obstacles such as high energy costs, global competition, run-away capital, restrictive credit policies of banks, and an overall lack of commitment for domestic financing that limits innovation in the automotive industry. 
 
The two unions cite a number of changes that must occur, including: more available financing for research and development; a focus on quality and technology-driven innovations that takes precedence over any cost factors; a systematic modernisation of German factories; and an emphasis on creating qualified and highly motivated staff, which will drive the innovative process. 
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And, just as important, IGBCE and IG Metall claim Germany needs a sound financial policy on investors, such as private equity funds and other risk capital ventures, which will stop the closures and plundering of stable domestic auto-supply enterprises. 
 
Germany&rsquo;s auto manufacturing and auto-supply industries provide a total of 5.3 million jobs, the majority of which find workers represented by either IG Metall or IGBCE. The Berlin conference represents an important cooperative milestone for the country&rsquo;s two largest manufacturing unions. 
 
The conference was co-chaired by Michael Vassiliadis, a member of the IGBCE governing board, and Berthold Huber, IG Metall&rsquo;s vice chairman.

Joint German Forum between IGBCE and IG Metall Shapes Future of Auto Supply Industry

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A month-long strike by 660 chromium miners in Albania escalated eight days ago as 30 of the striking miners began a hunger strike. Last Thursday, 26 June, five of them were hospitalised due to dehydration. Another four were brought to hospital yesterday, Sunday July 1st, with doctors describing their condition as critical. 
 
The strike at the Italian-based Darfo SRL's&nbsp;mine and one of two ferrochrome smelters at Bulqiza, in north-eastern Albania, where a massive protest was also organised yesterday, is backed by ICEM affiliate Trade Union Federation of Industrial Workers of Albania, as well as by the region's citizens and civil society, in particular the NGO Mjaft. 
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Also yesterday, the leader of the strikers&rsquo; committee, Mr. Dilaver Perkoxha, was arrested. According to the latest information, he remains in the Police Commissariat. A meeting on Saturday between the Minister of Economy, Mr. Genc Ruli, and representatives of the miners failed. 
 
The strike is over safety -- two miners were killed deep in a mine shaft on 11 June -- pay, life insurance, and a bettering of general working conditions. The miners and KSSH placed the demands before&nbsp;Darfo a full six years ago, but neither the mine and smelter management nor the Albanian government officials acted on the pay request or on the abhorrent safety conditions. 
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&quot;We are seeking more information on this dispute,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, &quot;but what we have learned is that in tripartite negotiations, both the government and Bulqiza mine management have been indifferent. 
 
The striking miners and the Federation of Industrial Workers deserve and will get our full support and solidarity.&quot; 
 
The ongoing health and safety deficiencies were manifested when two mineworkers, Hysni Lezni and Avni Duri&ccedil;i were killed 1,000 metres underground in Darfo's chromium mine. The pay dispute is over the fact that mine and smelting workers receive sub-standard monthly salaries compared to other industrial workers in the central European country.

Albanian Chrome Miners Strike over Safety, Pay, and Work Conditions

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ICEM affiliate IGBCE and German paper industry employers reached a new collective agreement on 16 May, covering 44,000 workers. The 17-month labour accord calls for wage increase of 3.2%, retroactive to 1 May 2007, with a further increase of 2% to take effect on 1 May 2008. 
 
The contract runs until 30 September 2008. 
Effective next month, a single payment for each worker was won, totalling &euro;95. Apprentices will receive &euro;35. Another achievement, reached in arbitration, was an add-on to the long-term savings plan for each worker. In addition to the &euro;478.57 each year paid per worker by an employer, an extra &euro;13 will be allotted for each &euro;100 contributed by the worker to this supplemental retirement plan. 
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IGBCE Chief Negotiator Holger Nieden commended workers&rsquo; solidarity in achieving the contract. &ldquo;We obtained a fair and equitable amount after substantial pressure was applied,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The proportional increases are appropriate, they correspond with the situation of the industry, and they fit the overall economic framework.&rdquo;

Wage Pact Reached in Germany’s Paper Industry

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Anglo Coal is the target of coal strikes in central Queensland, Australia, by two unions, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and the Construction, Forestry, Mining &amp; Energy Union (CFMEU). The unions took strike action again last week over concessionary terms that the subsidiary of Anglo American Group is attempting to impose at its massive Dawson mining complex near Moura, Queensland.
In the wake of an A$1.3 billion expansion that will lift coal output from 11 million tonnes annually to 16 million tonnes, Anglo Coal is seeking to extend 12-hour work shifts with another 45 minutes, as well as instituting further disciplinary and dispute procedures in the enterprise agreements. 
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Miners are allotted only two 30-minute breaks at the sprawling open cast set of mines, which would lead to obvious safety hazards. They also reject the company&rsquo;s plan to conduct random and compulsory health and fitness exams. 
 
Some 700 AMWU members staged a 24-hour strike on 14 May, and plan another one today. The union did four-hour stop-work actions on 27 and 30 April. At the Dawson Central mine on 13 May, 360 CFMEU miners took strike action. They had previously conducted a warning strike in mid-March. 
 
Anglo Coal is connecting three large open pit mines, spanning some 120 kilometres across central Queensland, with its minority partner, Mitsui of Japan. Miners also seek a bigger pay package from Anglo Coal in the face of huge company profits and escalating housing costs in this booming coal-export region of Australia.

Australian Miners Strike Anglo Coal in Queensland

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The Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada has filed a petition with the country&rsquo;s National Energy Board (NEB) to block construction of TransCanada&rsquo;s 2,970-kilometre Keystone Pipeline into the US. The union, together with the Alberta Provincial Federation of Labour, the Parkland Institute, and academics, filed the motion on 15 May with Canada&rsquo;s federal energy regulatory body. 
 
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re shipping our natural resources down to the US so they can create upgraded oil products,&rdquo; said CEP President Dave Coles. &ldquo;Meanwhile, we&rsquo;re missing out on the creation of 18,000 good Canadian jobs, and putting our gas supply at risk in the process.&rdquo; 
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CEP President Dave Coles
In its filing, CEP cites a study by an independent research firm, Informetrica, showing that 18,000 jobs could be lost by the export of unprocessed bitumen to the US. 
 
The CEP seeks bitumen from the tar sands to be made into refined petroleum products inside Canada. The Alberta oil sands are currently producing millions of barrels of diluted but unprocessed bitumen each day. 
 
The CEP charges that the NEB, and federal and provincial governments in Canada, have done too little to protect the environment and the social well-being of the public interest in the booming oil sands industry of western Canada. &ldquo;Hundreds of workers in refineries and petrochemical plants have already lost their jobs because the priority of the NEB has too often been fixed on serving the needs of the US rather than Canadian consumers,&rdquo; said Coles. 
 
The US$2.1 billion Keystone Pipeline is expected to be complete in 2009, and would transport 435,000 barrels-per-day of crude oil from the province of Alberta to the US state of Illinois.

Crude Oil Pipeline Will Mean Loss of Energy Jobs in Canada, CEP Warns

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At a spirited rally at the Rotterdam portion of Unilever&rsquo;s AGM on 15 May, ICEM Dutch affiliate FNV Bondgenoten issued a stern warning to the giant food and chemicals concern: focus more on long term stability and the concerns of all stakeholders, rather than on a current call by investors to restructure for quick profits. 
 
Union members and their allies, namely the 40,000-member Association of Shareholders, a collection of institutional and individual shareholders, called on the company to resist the break-up, the closure of certain businesses, or the selling-off to private equity funds, or other market capital funds. 
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ICEM's presence at Rotterdam rally, including&nbsp;Chemical officer Kemal Ozkan and ICEM Vice-President Ben Roodhuizen (centre)
The rally preceded Unilever&rsquo;s general meeting at Rotterdam&rsquo;s World Trade Centre. The following day, 16 May, the company held the London portion of its annual meeting, at which time Mike Treschow was installed as Unilever chairman. Treschow is a noted master of retrenchments, having previously maximized quick profits at the expense of jobs at Ericsson telecom and Electrolux. 
 
FNV Bondgenoten warned that the strategy of creating excessive shareholder value at Unilever is now playing too large a role. &ldquo;I fear that in the short term, Unilever will become prey to activist hedge funds,&rdquo; stated Bondgenoten President Henk van der Kolk. &ldquo;In the eyes of these funds, Unilever is a company from which more profit can be squeezed.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;Unilever has always been a company with a good name, a company that has looked out for the interests of its workers,&rdquo; van der Kolk added. &ldquo;Now workers are only seen as a cost factor. The less you have, the better. That now appears to be the thinking at Unilever.&rdquo; 
<img height="232" src="" width="200" alt="" />
FNV Bondgenoten President Henk van der Kolk
On 1 June, the union will submit a work plan to senior management of Unilever. FNV Bondgenoten is asking shareholders to support that plan, which couples social responsibility with curtailment of the power of shareholders. Jobs and job security are high on its agenda, as is upcoming collective bargaining in The Netherlands. Bondgenoten said that the first part of the work plan applies to Dutch operations of the multinational, but that the plan could also be applied more broadly to the company&rsquo;s 200,000 workers worldwide. 
 
Also speaking at the rally were a member of parliament and workers from Mumbai, India, which are members of the Hindustan Lever Employees Union. Their situation depicts Unilever at its worst. In order to avoid social dialogue with that union, which is an affiliate of the International Union of Food &amp; Allied Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF), management sold the operation to a shell company in order to avoid its lawful social obligations.

FNV Bondgenoten Warns of Unilever Break Up

In the name of God the most merciful and graceful 
From: Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions&nbsp; 
 
 
His Excellency The Oil Minister, 
Subject: Entitlements 

Sincere Salutations,
It was our hope, after the fall of that statue, to witness the dawn of a new era marked by the recognition of the legitimate rights of our members in the oil sector. This sector that for so long has suffered injustice and been denied equity. 
Since the advent of this new era, we focused our efforts into effectively thwarting all attempts to exploit this sector and tamper with our resources. You have been informed of how we stalled foreign companies in their attempts to control our oil fields and refineries, and how we forced them to leave. 
In addition, we worked hand in hand with the ministries and agencies to accelerate the pace of oil production, and to safeguard the means of production, and raise awareness amongst workers of investing to boost the chances of success for the new era. 
Unfortunately, our demands for entitlements were ignored, despite four years of continued promises by ministry and government officials. In fact, we took our demands to the highest levels of the government. We kept the prime minister apprized of our demands, but were disappointed when we came to realize that our demands fell on deaf ears. 
Throughout this period we worked to defuse anger and resentment and address criticism leveled by our members who mistakenly thought of us as the ones failing to put forth their legitimate demands. Henceforth: 
 
After extensive deliberations, and based on the resolutions that came out of an Executive Board meeting with broad member representation on Thursday 26 April, 2007 at the Gas Corporation's premises in Basra, a strike was unanimously adopted, scheduled for May 10, 2007 in all the company's branches in the south and in the following provinces Basra/Missan Dhi Kar/Al Mouthnana. 
The strike will go ahead, should the following demands not be completely met: 
1. Make a determination on land allotment in the Shiite Province 52 and land distribution owned by oil companies, and the parcel in the Tannouma area, a property of the Southern Oil Company.
2.&nbsp;Make a determination on oil companies' profits margins on the basis of the amendments to which you agreed and to determine those margins according to the certification/attestation from the south region financial/tax jurisdictions, not according to the formula adopted by the Minister that has been deemed detrimental to our membership. 
3. Approval of accumulated ordinary unused vacations, and all vacations outstanding for more than 180 days. There is no justification for withholding any of these vacations. We also believe that the resolution issued by the State Advisory Council is not binding, for lack of legal foundation. We empathically insist that there be no salary deductions over the next few years for granted vacations days. 
4. Granting full time status to temporary workers, notwithstanding the length of service but rather apply a more humanistic approach with those workers who are Iraqi nationals and who deserve a life in this country. 
5. To hire new graduates of the last two classes.
6. Rescind the new unified payment schedule which benefits only a very small number in the sector.
7. Promote holders of elementary certificates to the next grade on par to their dismissed colleagues (for political reasons) and address the issue of stalled promotions for workers and others. 
8. Rescind the 20% deduction from profits paid to the army and recovery of previous years' deductions.
9. We ask that those premises become employee-run, similar to other state-owned agencies. We deem the wait and see policy inappropriate, and we are wondering why the oil sector is treated so unfairly. 
 
As we are stating the legitimate demands of our membership, it is our hope to obtain the support of those on whom we rely, and whom we supported with our blood in making the political process succeed. 
It is our hope to reinstate the rights of those who were aggrieved by Iraqi government officials, and eliminate the injustices bestowed on the southern region. 
We feel, up to the moment of this statement's drafting, that discrimination is continuing, and that the south is treated as the cash cow of Iraq. 
Our region gave so much to Iraq, but gained little in return. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that pollution in oil facilities has reached a peak, and the incidence of cancer has topped exceeded predictions. We also note, that the ministry pays little to no attention to these incidences that primarily impact the inhabitants in the southern area. 
We feel as if they are predestined to such a fate - to always give in vain. We are cautioning, that there is a limit to our tolerance. 
We ask that our demands be met. We feel that enough is enough. 

Peace and grace be upon you. 
Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions 
4/27/2007 
To: Top executives of oil companies 
CC: all media

Letter by the IFOU to Iraqi Oil Minister

The Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri Al-Maliki, will meet in Baghdad with a delegation of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), led by its President, Hassan Jumaa Awad Alasady, tomorrow, Wednesday, 16 May 2007. 
 
The meeting was hurriedly arranged by the Iraqi Prime Minister in a late attempt to avert threatened strike action that would involve all workers and technicians throughout the oil industry of the South, stopping production in all of the oil companies in Basra, Misan, Thi-Qar and Muthanna and affecting all domestic oil products as well as the export of crude oil. The strike may still take place. 
The trade union delegation will return to Basra on Thursday, 17 May, where the union will decide on further steps according to the outcome of the discussions with the Prime Minister. 
 
This is no idle threat. The IFOU, previously known as the GUOE-Basra, has over 26,000 members throughout the ten state oil companies in the south of Iraq and has a past history of strike action in defence of its members and the industry. 
<img height="263" alt="" src="" width="350" />
(Photo &ndash; from left to right) 
Sue Rogers, Chairperson TUC Iraq Solidarity Committee; Owen Tudor, Head of TUC European Union and International Relations Department; Hassan Jumaa Awad Alasady, President Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU); Jim Catterson, ICEM Director of Organisation; Ralf Erbel Coordinator of the Iraqi Workers Project ITUC,&nbsp;Amman Office 
The union is also at the forefront of the Iraqi trade union struggle against the proposed hydrocarbons law which, as written, would benefit the multinational oil industry far more than the Iraqi people. Indeed, one demand on the table when the meeting takes place is a call for serious consultations to take place with the trade unions on the present contents of the draft law, and that the trade unions must be able to review any proposed legislation prior to any attempted introduction. 
 
ICEM is following the situation closely and will be calling on affiliated trade unions for solidarity action in the event of a strike. 
 
The strike threat was initially made in a 27 April public letter to the Iraqi Oil Minister, following discussion at the union&rsquo;s Executive Board meeting with broad member representation the previous day in Basra. The meeting formulated a list of demands and the call for a strike was unanimously adopted if the demands were not met by 10 May 2007. 
 
The strike date was postponed from 10 May to 14 May as the union entered negotiations with a committee formed by the Iraqi Council of Ministers. No direct negotiations with the Oil Ministry took place and a second postponement of the strike was due&nbsp;to the intervention of the Prime Minister, and the ICEM hopes that his decision to meet the union delegation personally will be significant. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="250" />
The strike call came after numerous demands of the union that the Iraqi government had promised to implement last year had still not been met. Some outstanding commitments are unfulfilled, after having been made several years ago. 
Many of the demands are related to wages and working conditions, including a demand for wage increases, the payment of a previously agreed bonus that is based on the distribution to workers of a proportion of oil revenues achieved by the company, no salary deductions to be made for granted vacation days, and the delivery of land parcels for housing to workers. 
 
Further demands are for the recruitment of new graduates, as well as the promotion of workers where this has been stalled. The union also calls for full time permanent status to be given to workers presently classed as temporary contract workers. 
 
Faced with increased pollution in oil facilities and evidence that there is a major increase in the incidence of cancers among the workforce the union has also tabled health and safety demands. 
 
All of these demands and the strike call were discussed by Hassan Jumaa at a meeting in Amman, Jordan, 1 May 2007 with a delegation from ICEM, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) of the United Kingdom, and the Jordan office of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The aim of the meeting was principally to improve communication channels between Hassan Jumaa&rsquo;s union and the international trade union movement, as well as to discuss future joint work and cooperation. 
 
Discussions were detailed and wide-ranging and we look forward to increased cooperation in the future. This is already happening with Arabic speaking staff of both the ITUC and the Solidarity Center of AFL-CIO having facilitated communication between IFOU and ICEM and the TUC over recent days.&nbsp;
Read the letter by the IFOU to the Iraqi oil minister in <a href="/index.php?id=24&amp;doc=2261">English</a> or <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/0705Iraq.pdf">Arabic</a>.
For more information, please contact Jim Catterson, ICEM Director of Organisation, +32-2-626.20.45 or <a href="mailto:jim.catterson@icem.org">jim.catterson@icem.org</a>.

Threatened Oil Industry Strike in Iraq

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