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<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	The Rubber Workers of Argentina, SUTNA re-elected General Secretary Pedro Wasijko in elections on 20-22 March. With a high turnout in a contested election, the victory for Wasiejko serves as a strong testament to the significant achievements of the union in recent years.

	Important benefits for workers have been achieved such as profit sharing at one major company, the establishment of a Health and Hygiene Committee obliged to meet once a month as stipulated in the new sector-wide collective agreement, a new general clause obliging companies to incorporate women into the production work, and importantly the adoption of the fight against precarious work and outsourcing at a time when almost nobody in the Argentinian unions were prioritising this issue.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 266px;height: 159px" width="390" />

	SUTNA has also made important gains in workers&rsquo; salaries in the sector, increasing the purchasing power of rubber workers. Wasiejko pledged to continue this work, continuing to oversee the democratisation of workplaces and to improve working conditions throughout the sector.

	Wasiejko applauded the democratic nature of the appointment, stating that SUTNA&rsquo;s politically rich, democratic culture stood them apart from many other Argentine unions who often present no choice to members in leadership elections.

Argentina’s SUTNA Re-elects General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko

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	Indonesia&rsquo;s largest coal producer, PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC), through its mine services contractor Thiess Pty. Ltd. of Australia, has brutally attacked members of two ICEM-affiliated mine unions through police and military force. The dispute dates to the fourth quarter of 2011 when miners working for KPC, part of Indonesia&rsquo;s Bumi Resources, first took strike action when it became obvious that neither Thiess nor KPC intended to grant a renewal collective agreement.

	But the dispute at KPC&rsquo;s Sangatta mine in Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo turned violent on 24 March when 400 striking workers gathered at the coal company&rsquo;s office in East Kutai district on the counsel of a local citizens group to offer themselves back to work following a second strike dating to last November.

	They were immediately attacked by a regional military brigade serving the interests of Thiess and KPC. Twenty miners were severely beaten and hospitalised. Another 12 were immediately detained and throughout the night of 24 March and into the next day, police and military rounded up yet another four union leaders and jailed them.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 212px;height: 159px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	By last weekend, most of the unionists had been released but police and regional military are still holding two union leaders, the Vice President of the local branch of ICEM affiliate Chemical, Energy, Mines, Oil &amp; Gas Workers&rsquo; Union of FSP-KEP, Sumardi, and the Secretary, Maxi.

	The leader of FSP-KEP, D. Patombong Sjaiful, called the situation now &ldquo;critical&rdquo; and pleaded that global trade union attention is given this grievous repression by brute force. In the second time in a fortnight, Jakarta-based FSP-KEP dispatched a mission last Sunday to east Kalimantan province, this time to win the freedom of the two remaining unionists.

	The other ICEM-affiliated organisation with membership at KPC is the regional mining and energy union FPE, part of the Indonesian confederation SBSI. Some 2,200 miners work at KPC&rsquo;s two open-cast thermal coal mines of Sangatta. FSP-KEP has some 1,400 members, while FPE has 200. KPC also consists of five smaller mines at the nearby Bengalon mine.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 172px;height: 159px" width="390" />

	The dispute began following the expiration of a two-year agreement on 5 October 2011. Thiess Indonesia management foretold its strategy to eliminate the collective agreement by telling the unions a new agreement would not be valid until after negotiations were complete. And then the stalling began.

	The mineworkers&rsquo; only choice was to strike and the first work stoppage occurred from 10 November to 27 December, from which six union leaders were sacked. When the two sides finally did return to bargaining on 28 January 2012, union leaders were summoned to police offices in East Kutai district where they were surprised to see that the police commander representing the company in talks.

	Two days earlier, KPC sent a letter that the status of the six union leaders would not be on the agenda. Miners began a work slowdown resulting in 264 workers getting the sack that, in turn, caused a second strike.

	When Sjaiful and other FSP-KEP leaders visited in mid-March, an agreement was sorted out between the police, a local parliamentarian, and the citizens&rsquo; group calling for the strike to cease, recall of the dismissed workers, and a return to negotiations.

	But Thiesse and KPC rejected that. When strikers came to the company&rsquo;s offices then on 24 March, they were met by police and the mobile brigade wielding batons and other instruments of force.

	The ICEM condemns Thiess, part of Australian Leighton Holdings Ltd. (LEI), whose ultimate parent is the German global construction giant Hochtief AG, for utilising police and military intervention to avert legitimate collective negotiations. It also holds Bumi Resources accountable for this contemptible display of anti-social conduct in its home country.

Thiess, Operating in Indonesia, Uses Police to Bludgeon Striking Coal Miners

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	Over 8,000 trade unionists and supporters rallied in Alma, Qu&eacute;bec, Saturday, 31 March, on behalf of locked-out workers belonging to Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos d&rsquo;Alma Local 9490, an affiliate of the United Steelworkers (USW). Some 780 workers at an aluminium smelter of Rio Tinto&rsquo;s Alcan subsidiary have been ruthlessly locked out of their livelihoods now for 14 weeks, and the economic stranglehold Rio Tinto has on the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region of Qu&eacute;bec is clear to all.

	Bus-loads of union militants from across Qu&eacute;bec converged on Alma, a community of 30,000, to stand with the victimised Alma steelworkers. And the USW organised convoys and buses as well from elsewhere in Canada, including Toronto, Hamilton and other industrial cities in Ontario province.

	Some 50 international trade unionists also attended, representing workers employed at Rio Tinto or Alcan in Australia, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, US, and other nations. A day prior to the manifestation, the ICEM held its bi-annual North American regional meeting in Alma as a global signal to the 780 Alma workers that they are not alone in their struggle for fairness on the job.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 190px;height: 143px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" style="width: 190px;height: 143px" width="390" />

	Manfred Warda, Jyrki Raina Address Rally

	The well-organised rally started with speeches at an Alma shopping mall, before a march complete with sound truck playing working-class music wound its way through the streets of the city to an amphitheatre. There, political and union leaders continued to chastise the world&rsquo;s second largest resources company for delivering economic devastation to workers&rsquo; doorsteps in central Qu&eacute;bec.

	ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda pledged that global labour will mobilise Rio Tinto workers across the globe in this struggle.

	&ldquo;If the ruthless social agenda of Rio Tinto cannot be defeated here in Qu&eacute;bec, there will be little hope that it can be stopped when others face company attacks,&rdquo; Warda said. Rest assured, &ldquo;we will take the indignities committed by Rio Tinto Alcan here throughout the world until this company agrees to stop the attacks against your community and your union.&rdquo;

	Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), said, &ldquo;If Rio Tinto wants to prosper, it cannot break the delicate balance that connects it to the community.&rdquo;

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 239px;height: 159px" width="390" />

	ICEM Vice President and USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann had a message for the Conservative government of Stephen Harper in his country, where the federal government has turned a deaf ear to several attacks by multinationals on Canadian workers.

	&ldquo;Stephen Harper clearly fell short of his task by failing to impose conditions on the sale of Alcan to Rio Tinto in 2007 and to protect jobs,&rdquo; said Neumann. &ldquo;For someone who is so bent on involving himself in labour relations, why doesn&rsquo;t he intervene with Rio Tinto to put an end to this abhorrent lockout?&rdquo;

	That lockout was brought about by Local 9490&rsquo;s rightful effort to stop erosion of permanent jobs that pay a living wage of C$34-an-hour against Alcan&rsquo;s labour plan, which is aimed at replacing those jobs with outsourced work that pays half that amount.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 212px;height: 159px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Turkish Mineworkers Expressed Solidarity for Locked-out Steelworkers

	By late afternoon on Saturday, about an hour after the final speeches were given at Parc le Festiv Alma, Rio Tinto Alcan issued a defensive statement criticising the&nbsp; USW event, and saying&nbsp; a &ldquo;calmer climate&rdquo; was necessary in order to carry on with negotiations.

	But for nearly three months &ndash; until 19 March when Qu&eacute;bec public pressure mounted primarily because Alcan was capitalising on the lockout by selling excess hydro-electric power back to the province &ndash; the company shunned bargaining, preferring instead to operate the modern and low-cost Alma smelter at reduced capacity while waiting for global aluminium prices to rise. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4943-Negotiations-Restart-between-USW-Rio-Tinto-Alcan-in-Canadian-Lockout">ICEM report</a> from 21 March.)

	Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos Local 9490 and Alcan did return to talks for two days in March, with the help of provincial mediators, and two more days of negotiations occurred on 28-29 March. The two sides will in all likelihood meet again this week.

	But ever since the company prematurely halted negotiations and imposed the lockout on 30 December before a majority of workplace issues could even be tabled, Rio Tinto has been content to rob the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region of C$1.8 million per week in lost salaries and benefits.

	With or without a settlement to the Alma lockout, the 31 March manifestation will stand as the prelude to a global fight against Rio Tinto to resist its anti-social agenda that has become all too common everywhere it does business.

Mass March, Manifest Lifts Locked-out Steelworkers in Alma, Canada

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	Week-long strikes at seven Queensland, Australia, metallurgical coal mines ended today, but a dogged 16-month labour dispute between three ICEM union affiliates there and the BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) continues. On 27 March, just when progress was being made on a new version of an enterprise labour agreement after two weeks of steady talks, BMA reneged on pivotal language, causing the latest round of protected industrial actions.

	For the 3,500 miners of Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU), and the Electrical Trades Union of Communications, Electrical, Plumbing Union (CEPU), the setback means they are no closer to a collective agreement under Fair Work Australia than when bargaining began in December 2010.

	For BMA, which twice now has rejected the unions&rsquo; Single Bargaining Unit (SBU) offer of third-party mediation, it means more disruption at the world&rsquo;s largest coking coal mine pits with workers likely to take yet another legal round of stop-work actions next week.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 145px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	On 2 April, BHP Billiton, the lead operator of the 50/50 joint venture, announced force majeure to customers in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, India, Latin America and Europe. It informed steel producers that it would be unable to meet its coal-delivery contracts due to the labour disruptions and wet weather in the Bowen Basin of central Queensland.

	Management also announced at the outset of last week&rsquo;s seven-day strike that at the end of April it would again use its Fair Work law privilege to conduct a second mail ballot directly to workers without SBU involvement. The first time it did such, last October, miners rejected the throwback management rights&rsquo; proposals by 92%. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4731-Australian-Miners-Reject-BMA-s-Contract-Proposal-by-92">ICEM report</a> here.)

	Last week&rsquo;s failed bargaining saw BMA regress on commitments it made in earlier days and earlier rounds of bargaining over family-friendly work rosters and other language that had been tentatively agreed to in principle. Issues that remain in dispute include the role of unions in safety matters, working hours, housing, and inequality for contract workers.

	On the company&rsquo;s backtracking, the strike leader of the largest union representing BMA miners, CFMEU Queensland District President Stephen Smyth said, &ldquo;The level of contempt they&rsquo;re showing for their workers is truly astonishing.&rdquo;

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 241px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	Stephen Smyth

	That contempt rests in the belief that BHP Billiton believes it can cling to one-sided work rules common in the dead-and-gone WorkChoices legislation of pre-2009. The contempt toward miners and current Australian labour law is also evident in a leaked early March e-mail from BHP Billiton Coal Division CEO Marcus Randolph. In it, he told his Bowen Basin mine managers &ldquo;this is the fight we had to have&rdquo; and the work-rule issues in dispute &ldquo;are not negotiable, not now, not next month and not next year.&rdquo;

	Meantime, with BMA&rsquo;s seven Queensland mines that produce one-fifth of the world&rsquo;s metallurgical coal, prices are soaring and the ripple effect from Australia&rsquo;s nastiest labour dispute in decades is being felt in rail and seaborne transport, and in steel-making centres across the globe.

	(An <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4879-Queensland-Coal-Strikes-to-Resume-against-BHP-Billiton-Mitsubishi-Alliance">ICEM report on SBU</a> strikes from February 2012 can be found here.)&nbsp;&nbsp;

Intentional BHP Billiton Strife in Australian Coal Dispute Continues

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	A Charter of Demands by the Coats Employees&rsquo; Union, part of the Bangladesh Garment, Textile &amp; Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (BGTLW), in turn affiliated to the ITGLWF, was agreed to last month after intense pressure was placed on British-based threads maker Coats by the global textile federation and its Asian regional body, the Textile Workers&rsquo; Asia Regional Organisation (TWARO).

	The agreement comes after a 13 to 29 February strike against Coats Bangladesh Ltd. in the Tejgaon Industrial Area of Dhaka, and following several earlier months of fruitless bargaining. That bargaining reached a low on 12 February when union leaders, attempting to once again negotiate with factory mangers, had their mobile telephones confiscated by bosses and were forcibly detained overnight in company offices. (Read the <a href="http://www.itglwf.org/lang/en/UnionLeadersHeldCaptivebyFactoryManagersinBangladesh.html">ITGLWF release</a> here.)

	The Charter of Demands reached includes pay upgrades in job grades that will at least lift workers&rsquo; salaries to what is considered by the BGTLWF to be the bare living wage in Bangladesh, BTK 7,000 (US$85.60) per month from a previous pitiful quarter of that.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 180px;height: 83px" width="390" />

	The wage increase is retroactive to October 2011. In addition, BGTLW&rsquo;s perseverance in this dispute won increases in a host of other areas including housing rents, lunch allowances, medical and hospitalisation betterments, and education allowances.

	The agreement also ensures that striking workers will not be retaliating against, and that salaries during the strike will be paid. The Charter also addresses contract workers, stating that they will not be retaliated against for joining the strike, and grants them first priority for permanent jobs when such positions open up.

	In a message to the ITGLWF, BGTLF General Secretary Mohammad Abu Taher expressed gratitude to both the Brussels-based federation and TWARO for its &ldquo;accelerating interventions&rdquo; to solve the dispute.

	&ldquo;We believe that peace and tranquillity are the only elements to make an industry more productive, profitable and vibrant and management eventually understood this and signed the agreement,&rdquo; stated Abu Taher.

ITGLWF Intervention with UK Firm Coats Delivers in Bangladesh

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	Turkish workers of rubber manufacturer Standard Profil, organised by ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş over a year ago, are more determined than ever to get a collective agreement from a recalcitrant employer. On 2 April, some 500 workers gathered with union President Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkin outside plant gates in the northern Anatolian city of D&uuml;zce to publicly state that union and workers will not be deterred in gaining their universally recognised collective bargaining rights.

	The ICEM as well joined the demonstration, the first such outward display by workers amidst a climate of management fear and intimidation, and promised that pressure will continue against the private equity firm that controls Standard Profil, a maker of weather-sealing door and window units for the automotive industry.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 206px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	ICEM&#039;s Dick Blin Displays Alert to a Company Customer

	The rally saw a number of Anatolian labour leaders participate along with &Ouml;ztaşkin, Petrol-İş Organising Secretary Nimetullah S&ouml;zen and regional Organiser Ǘnal Akbulut. Gathering under the banner &ldquo;One Year is Enough: Standard Profil Workers Are Unionised &ndash; They Want Their Right to Collective Bargaining,&rdquo; the manifestation was conducted under the watchful eyes of managers who dispatched transport buses through in an effort to disrupt it.

	Following a Petrol-İş organising drive from December 2010 to February 2011 that saw well over half of 2,300 workers from the plant in D&uuml;zce and a sister factory in Bursa select the union as their bargaining representative, Turkey&rsquo;s Labour and Social Security Ministry in March and April 2011 formally granted a pair of certifications stating Petrol-İş was both the correct sectoral union &ndash; rubber &ndash; for Standard Profil workers, and that it had exceeded the simple majority needed for representation.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 241px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	Despite Petrol-İş and ICEM invitations to both Istanbul executives of Standard Profil and the UK-based private equity firm to form a positive labour-management relationship, the company chose an adversarial path by wasting company funds in legal challenges to both certifications in an effort to block workers from their legitimate workplace rights.

	Standard Profil managers further muddied the waters by sacking 37 union activists inside the larger D&uuml;zce factory, a grievous factory-level ploy to intimidate others against the union. Judging from Monday&rsquo;s determined and vocal manifestation, workers are not intimidated. But they are growing short of patience with management&rsquo;s stalling strategy through frivolous legal appeals.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 365px;height: 128px" width="390" />

	One Year is Enough&nbsp;

	Petrol-İş President &Ouml;ztaşkin made it clear at the one-year anniversary that a new era has now begun. The union will move in a different direction to get Standard Profil to the bargaining table. &ldquo;We cannot and will not accept this employer&rsquo;s attempts to block the internationally rights and freedoms of workers,&rdquo; he said.

	The ICEM has begun to take the rights abuses outside Turkey. Standard Profil&rsquo;s major auto-making customers have been identified and efforts are underway to alert trade unions and automotive factory managements of the company&rsquo;s dereliction. In some instances, Volkswagen/Audi and Daimler for instance, global labour pacts contain strict guidelines that suppliers must comply with basic workplace rights.

	The rubber manufacturer&rsquo;s assets are controlled by Bancroft Private Equity LLP, a holding company that has been trying to dispose of Standard Profil since last year. The ICEM has made it clear to Bancroft &ndash; and to the buyers of Standard Profil&rsquo;s products &ndash; that a positive and respectful labour relations bond with Petrol-İş is far better than an adversarial one to ensure a productive and profitable future for the auto supply company.

One Year On, Turkey’s Standard Profil Still Delays Workers’ Bargaining Rights

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Sintracarb&oacute;n at Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n is held up as a strong example of positive industrial relations, with tough collective bargaining achieving considerable protections for 4,000 direct employees at Colombia&rsquo;s largest coal mines, and stable communications channels between workers and management.&nbsp; Sintracarb&oacute;n&rsquo;s fight now is over the basic rights of outsourced contract workers at the largest set of coal mines in the world, a joint venture of three multinational mining conglomerates, BHP Billiton, Xstrata and AngloAmerican.

	First adopting a policy to fight outsourcing in 2008, Sintracarb&oacute;n&rsquo;s initial research noted the strategic policies of multinational corporations (MNCs) to increasingly outsource employment and weaken workers&rsquo; job security, social benefits, wage levels, and ability to organise and bargain collectively.&nbsp;

	The research also discovered that over 50% of workers at MNCs operating in Colombia are employed through contract companies, and that these workers had considerably lower standards of employment and no collective agreements.&nbsp; Almost every attempt by Contract or Agency Labour (CAL) workers to reach a collective agreement in Colombia prior to 2008 had been met with mass dismissals.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 201px;height: 135px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	At Cerrej&oacute;n, 6,000 of the total 11,000 workers are precariously employed by contractors.&nbsp; In the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, Sintracarb&oacute;n achieved a clause stating that Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n management is &ldquo;committed to ensuring respect for the unionisation of all workers, including CAL workers.&rdquo;

	The first attempt to organise CAL workers, in 2010, was at the company that provides transportation to the mine workers, SOTRANS.&nbsp; The effort of 500 members of SINTRANS was crushed with mass dismissals and harassment.

	The second attempt was at Chaneme, a company conducting maintenance of heavy machinery. &nbsp;This effort was successful and 50 workers remain under a CBA as members of Sintrachaneme.

	Through Sinaltrainal, a national union, employees of food supplier Aramark won a collective agreement for 200 workers in March 2011.

	Over recent months, mechanics at EPROFQ and ASEOCOLBA also have won struggles and achieved collective agreements.&nbsp; In the case, of EPROFQ the convention was signed after an eight-day strike.

	ICEM affiliates at glass supplier Ross and at Prodeco have also won victories over short-term, casual employment, bringing the total to 1,560 CAL workers organised in Colombia in ICEM sectors.

Sintracarbón, Colombian Unions Make Big Strides in Organising Against Outsourcing

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	The 20 February shooting at strikers &ndash; mainly women &ndash; of the KaoWay Sports Ltd. footwear factory in Bavet, Svey Rieng province, Cambodia, appears to have been committed by the governor of Bavet region, Chhouk Bandith. Three women were shot and seriously wounded after a man dressed in police-style khakis got out of a vehicle and began firing at people.

	The factory produces shoes primarily for the German apparel company Puma. According to ITGLWF affiliate, the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers&rsquo; Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), thousands of the 6,000 employed at the factory engaged in strike action on 17-18 February. When strikes resumed on 20 February, Chhouk Bandith allegedly jumped out of a Lexus 470 with a bodyguard and a policeman upon exiting the factory and fired shots from a high-power gun equipped with silencer at strikers.

	After firing, he fled in a Toyota Camry and truckloads of police moved in to quell disbelieving and angry strikers. Police have questioned Chhouk Bandith, and C.CAWDU believes he was held for three days, but has since been released.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 130px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Chhouk Bandith

	The entire incident, occurring about 09h00, was captured by a KaoWay factory security camera. Puma has been conducting its own investigation since the outset, together with an NGO.&nbsp;

	Buot Chinda, 21, was shot through the chest with bullets that narrowly missed her heart and severely punctured her lung. She was near death, but now is in stable but serious condition at a Phnom Penh hospital. The two other women who were shot and injured are Keo Neth, 18, and Nuth Sakhorn, 23.&nbsp;

	A senior ILO official, who monitors a programme called Better Factories Cambodia, said in press comments, &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t look good for Cambodia when this type of violence is concerned.&rdquo;

	Puma&rsquo;s shoe workers, employed by Taiwanese-based KaoWay, were striking over better transport and food allowances, and better pay and conditions overall. Due to the industrial action &ndash; and Puma&rsquo;s rapid response to the random violence &ndash; the strike has ended and all workers&rsquo; demands have been met in full.

	The strike and shootings had a different scenario at a separate Cambodian dispute, this one at Singapore-based Medtecs, a health textiles and apparel maker located in Kampong Siem district, some 125 kilometres from Bavet. While 2,000 strikers pelted the factory with rocks, police at the scene were unarmed and at stand-down because of the KaoWay shootings.

	The Medtecs strike was over the company failing to live up to decisions handed down by a binding Arbitration Council. It has been resolved due to the strike action.

Cambodian Public Official Accused in Shooting of Footwear Strikers

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Trade unions from around the world agree on plans to establish IndustriALL Global Union in June 2012, a new global union to represent workers in manufacturing, energy,&nbsp;mining,&nbsp;and textile sectors at the global level.

	Meeting at the ILO in Geneva on 29 February, more than 200 trade union leaders from around the world spoke of the serious challenges working people face in the current political and economic climate. Having greater strength and building power across the supply chain at the global level is the motivating force for the creation of the new global union.

	The new organization will bring together affiliates of International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM), the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF), and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF).

	The joint executive committee meeting of the ICEM, ITGLWF and IMF discussed the draft Statutes and Action Plan for the new organization and agreed on the proposed new name IndustriALL and logo.

	The joint meeting noted the proposed candidates for the political leadership of the new organization. The importance of including women in both the political leadership and representative structures of the new global union was argued for and included in the proposed Statutes.

	A founding Congress of the new organization will take place in Copenhagen, 18-20 June 2012. The proposed name, Statutes and Action Plan will be decided on at the founding Congress.

IndustriALL Name of New Global Union Federation

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 59px" width="390" />

	Union members, affiliated to Unite the Union in the UK, rejected 5 March a redundancy proposal from Austrian packaging company Mayr-Melnhof that would have ended a 19-day lockout at a plant in Merseyside, near Liverpool. Workers rejected it 138-1 largely because management still insists on its own discretionary powers in disbursing redundancy packages to 49 workers.

	Unite has escalated a campaign against the Vienna-based paper carton and packaging company primarily because Mayr-Melnhof has retracted and reduced buy-out terms in this set of talks, and has substantially broken from redundancy pay-outs and terms commonly established in past consultations.

	In talks on 29 February and again on 3 March, the company proposed a social fund to bridge the difference paid in its 2008 and 2010 layoffs, with lesser packages offered now. But the social fund would be discretionary, based on subjective criteria unilaterally set by the company, which underscores Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s bargaining posture throughout this set of 2012 talks.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 160px;height: 97px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Workers at the Bootle, Merseyside, plant began lawful industrial actions on 10 February over Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s intransigence with six-hour &ldquo;switch strikes.&rdquo; &nbsp;Walkouts rotated from 06h to noon, and from noon to 18h. On 18 February, managers locked workers out and began manoeuvring to move equipment and product out of the factory.

	Workers then entered the factory and staged a shop-floor sit-in to prevent removal. Despite several sets of talks since, Mayr-Melnhof has steadfastly resisted any workable compromise proposed by Unite, and the lockout has continued.

	The union has brought the dispute to Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s Packaging Division workers in Germany, and the ICEM has issued a call for <a href="/en/19-Pulp-Paper/4918-Packaging-Workers-Need-Support-">Solidarity Action</a>, which can be viewed and acted upon here. Trade unionists inside the company&rsquo;s Karton Division, led by Austrian affiliate PRO-GE, have brought attention to the company&rsquo;s hostile UK labour relations inside Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s eight European paper mills, and PRO-GE has also protested loudly to CEO Wilhelm Hoermansedar.

	Unite, meanwhile, is preparing an industrial ballot at Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s other UK packaging plant, in Deeside, North Wales, on grounds that the company is worsening redundancy terms and conditions from previously agreed. The Bootle plant produces food packaging from tea bags to breakfast cereal to pet food packaging, with Kellogg&rsquo;s the plant&rsquo;s biggest customer.

Mayr-Melnhof Lockout Continues at UK Packaging Plant

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