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America&rsquo;s second and fourth largest industrial unions merged 12 April, creating North America&rsquo;s largest industrial union. ICEM affiliates United Steelworkers and PACE are officially one following a resounding voice vote of approval from delegates representing PACE local unions at a special convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Steelworkers&rsquo; Executive Board had already approved the merger in January. The merged union now has 850,000 members and is called the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied-Industrial and Service Workers International Union, or simply USW.

PACE and USWA in US Officially Merge

Fifty-three Serbian miners won job protections and guaranteed work rights with a seven-day hunger strike at the Kostolac coal mine. The workers, part of mine maintenance and geological research of Serbian power company EPS now coming under a new enterprise called Georad, will retain the same contract provisions and rights under the EPS collective agreement. They also won job protections from EPS if the new enterprise fails. The miners&rsquo; action plus skilled bargaining tactics by leaders of ICEM affiliate EPS Trade Union Workers won the guarantees. The strike lasted one full week, 18-24 March.

Serbian EPS Union Wins Rights for Mine Maintenance Workers

Strike ballot preparation by Transport &amp; General members in the UK began last week at two sites of French-based Imerys. Imerys late last year unilaterally closed off the final pension scheme to new workers and changed the accrual rate for existing workers that effectively downgrades their benefit levels. Some 2,500 workers are involved. T&amp;G said Imerys took a pension holiday between 2000 and 2003 that turned a large pension surplus into a deficit. If no move is made by Imerys to reverse its pension takeaways, the two workplaces in Devon and Cornwall could face strikes by mid-May.

Strike Ballot Readied by UK Unions at Imerys

A pattern oil bargaining agreement for 30,000 US workers was reached last week, a year before the current four-year labour agreement was due to expire. ICEM affiliate PACE and Shell came to terms on a three-year extension that will now be carried to other oil companies primarily operating in the US downstream sector. The contract contains wage gains of 3.5% for 2006, 3.5% in 2007, and 3.7% in 2008, plus gives workers a US$1,500 ratification bonus. Perhaps most importantly, however, as a measure to address a problem common in many US labour-management talks is creation of a joint union/management Health Care Strategic Committee that will devise solutions to lessen the impact of soaring health costs on all parties.

PACE Gets US Oil Bargaining Pattern with Deal at Shell

Forest Industries Federation of Finland has provoked an industrial dispute with paperworkers represented by affiliate Paperiliitto. Since late in 2004 when the employers&rsquo; federation dropped from the national incomes policy agreement, it has engaged in a consistent pattern of intentionally not coming to any deal with the union. The foot-dragging has caused Paperiliitto to issue an overtime ban, which began 30 March. The union represents 29,000 paperworkers in the sector. Paperiliitto has charged employers with breaking a &ldquo;principle on equality&rdquo; commitment in negotiations.

Finnish Paper Employers Provoke Industrial Dispute

Multiple gold strikes by affiliate NUM in South Africa may have been tempered some by a court decree late last week declaring an end to one strike, Gold Fields involving 30,000 miners. But ongoing stoppages and potential strikes could still pull 100,000 NUM members out, shutting down the country&rsquo;s gold mining industry. On 23 March, 21,000 NUM miners at Harmony Gold&rsquo;s Free State mines struck after the company reneged on a labour agreement from last summer. Harmony unilaterally terminated that agreement and announced job cuts to 4,900 workers without NUM consultation, thus shredding an understanding between Harmony and NUM reached last July. 
The 30,000 Gold Fields miners could return to strike lines once NUM serves a legal notice. A key issue at Gold Fields is housing. The company still provides only common-sex hostels in mining areas, a throwback to apartheid days. Pay disparity between black workers and white workers also is an issue, as is the fact that white women receive maternity leave while black women do not. At the weekend, NUM worksite leaders from South Africa&rsquo;s other third big gold mining house, AngloGold Ashanti, were meeting to consider their options.

Retrenchments Cause of Mining Strikes in South Africa

ICEM affiliate NUM has called for the South African government to revoke the mining license of Durban Roodeport Deep (DRDGold). NUM cites DRDGold&rsquo;s atrocious safety record, as well as its negative labour relations practices. On 9 March, an earth tremor struck the firm&rsquo;s North West mine operations at Hartebeestfontein leaving scores of miners trapped for several hours due to DRDGold&rsquo;s insufficient rescue abilities. Two miners died and 23 were injured. And then a week later the company suddenly closed the Blyvooruitzicht mine near Carltonville without giving the necessary statutory notice. Some 300 women who haul waste rock from that mine for residual gold processing by DRDGold lost their jobs. NUM wants DRDGold to exit the mining business and hand operations off to a company with more integrity and more concern for workers.

NUM in South Africa Seeks License Revocation of DRDGold

ICEM Dutch affiliate FNV Bondgenoten and four other unions at DSM&rsquo;s chemical plant in Geleen engaged in a stop-work march and rally 12 April at the firm&rsquo;s headquarters in nearby Heerlen in the southern NL province of Limburg. Some 2,500 workers participated in this first-ever such action against DSM. Under the slogan &ldquo;Stop the Breakdown of DSM Employment in Limburg,&rdquo; the unions protested DSM&rsquo;s recent announcement that 1,000 workers at sprawling industrial chemicals operations would be made redundant this year. DSM intends to replace the 1,000 with 500 contractors. The Geleen complex once had 15,000 employees. Prior to this most recent announcement, it employed 5,000.

FNV Bondgenoten Protests DSM’s Retrenchments in the Netherlands

The National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa still has not received answers to the sudden lay-offs of 400 diamond miners employed by Antwerp-based Rex Diamond Mining at the Loxton Mine in the Northern Cape. Despite inquiries by the NUM and ICEM over the status of the miners, the firm has said only the retrenchments are of a &ldquo;short term arrangement,&rdquo; yet has provided no information that would clarify the benefits due the workers.

South Africa’s NUM Awaits Answers from Rex Diamond

The Communications, Energy, Paperworkers Union of Canada picked Suncor Energy last month as the pattern-setter for this year&rsquo;s round of oil talks. That means some 10,000 CEP members at five majors and several smaller companies will have similar terms in pay hikes, shift increases and other wage-related premiums at their bargains. General pay hikes agreed to at Suncor are 3%, 3.5% and 3% over three years. The Suncor agreement has a unique company contribution to CEP&rsquo;s Humanity Fund, the union&rsquo;s assistance fund to workers in developing nations. Union leaders have made it clear that CEP members across Canada&rsquo;s oil sector are determined to get the same terms as those achieved at Suncor.

Canadian CEP Sets Oil Pattern with Suncor

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