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In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report on how the HIV/AIDS project in India includes women, on ART adherence in Ethiopia, and reflect on the UN’s efforts to match commitment and declarations with concrete results. 
 
Indian Mineworkers’ Federation Involves Women 
 
In the framework of the HIV/AIDS project in India, which is sponsored by the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, the Indian National Mineworkers’ Federation (INMF) organised a training programme for women peer educators and counsellors in Kolkata. Twenty-one participants from five different coal companies, most of them para-medical staff from company clinics, attended the two-day course. 
 
Participants discussed the basics of HIV and AIDS, voluntary counselling and testing services, perspectives of people living with HIV and AIDS and behaviour change. The ILO Delhi office sent a resource person to talk about the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work and the new Recommendation No. 200 concerning HIV and AIDS and the World of Work. Participants also elaborated an action plan for activities in their workplaces and communities. 
 
On International Women’s Day, 8 March, two one-day programmes on HIV/AIDS and the workplace were organised in Dhanbad and Asansole. A total of 63 women attended the programmes which were organised by two master trainers who had received training in earlier stages of the project. 
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US Confirms Pledge to Global Fund, Other Donors Backtrack 
 
The US Congress agreed on 15 April that the US will give US$1.05 billion to the Global Fund during the fiscal year that ends on 30 September 2011. This is the same amount that the US committed for the previous year. 
 
After Republicans took control of the House, they moved to cut this to US$0.6 billion. Eventually, after much backroom negotiation, agreement was reached on the US$1.05 billion figure. Congress passed the legislation, and President Barack Obama signed it. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Global%20Fund%20logo.gif" width="250" height="53"/>
However, one standard aspect of such legislation is that the US will give no more than 33% of the total given by all countries to the Global Fund. Thus, if all other donors do not give twice as much as the US commits, the US contribution will be reduced. 
 
It is not yet known whether other donors will give twice as much as the US has promised. One problem is that a new trend has emerged whereby a few donors do not live up to their commitments. The most notable example of this is Italy, which has not paid any part of its 2009 and 2010 pledges of US$ 183 million per year. In addition, Spain has only paid US$134 million of the US$250 million it pledged for 2010, and Ireland has only paid US$11 million of the $48 million it pledged for 2010. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 144 of 20 April. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>; to receive GFO send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 
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Ethiopia to Boost ART Adherence 
 
Patients taking their antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs irregularly risk developing drug-resistant strains of the virus. A three-month campaign by Addis Ababa's health bureau hopes to boost adherence to ARVs in the Ethiopian capital by improving communication between patients and health service providers. 
 
A 2009 study by the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO) found that on average, 72.3% of patients on ARVs were still on first-line medication one year after starting treatment. The remaining people are lost. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Ethiopia.png" width="170" height="78"/>
Insufficient food, high transport costs to drug collection points, and stigma-related issues such as fear of disclosure are some of the main reasons why HIV-positive Ethiopians fail to stick to ARVs. Such failure can hasten progress from HIV to AIDS; patients taking their drugs irregularly also run the risk of developing drug-resistant strains of the virus, requiring significantly more costly second- and third-line ARVs. 
 
Addis Ababa's health bureau is partnering with the national AIDS Resource Centre (ARC) on the three-month campaign, launched in March and funded by the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Through a mass-media campaign and the use of toll-free telephone HIV/AIDS information services, it seeks to promote "astewai" (responsible patients), and "tagash" (tolerant service providers) as part of its efforts to improve adherence. 
 
Some 26 state-run health centre, five state-run hospitals and 13 private facilities that provide ART in Addis Ababa will participate in the campaign, with a plan to roll it out to the rest of the country should it prove successful. 
 
(Source: IRIN Plus News, Addis Ababa, 13 April) 
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Global Fund Selects Co-Chairs for Expert Panel on Corruption 
 
The Global Fund has selected two prominent people to co-chair the panel of experts that will be conducting an independent review of the Fund’s financial safeguards. They are former President of Botswana, Festus Mogae, and former US Health and Human Services Secretary, Michael O. Leavitt. 
 
The panel is part of a broader set of measures that the Global Fund is implementing to strengthen the Fund’s financial and risk management systems. Some of these measures, including the panel, were in response to the recent media coverage of corruption in the administration of Global Fund grants in a few sub-Saharan African countries, and to the reaction of some donors to the corruption revelations. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1105.unaids.botswana pres.jpg" width="128" height="169"/>     <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1105.unaids.american.jpg" width="136" height="169"/>
Festus Mogae, Michael O. Leavitt
The co-chairs will select a small group of eminent persons and experts to join the panel. The Global Fund says that the panel will assess the Fund’s current practices in financial oversight, and will make recommendations to help strengthen the Global Fund’s fiscal controls and anti-corruption measures. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 142 of 17 March. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>; to receive GFO send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 
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Burundi: ‘Die-in’ Protest over Lack of HIV Care 
 
NGOs fear the erratic drug supply could lead to the deaths of people living with HIV. Hundreds of Burundians living with HIV/AIDS recently staged a demonstration in the capital, Bujumbura, to protest against a lack of treatment. 
 
Men, women, and children lay on the ground for 10 minutes to "show the government that if nothing is done rapidly - this week, this month – we will all die," said Jeanne Gapiya, a leading Burundian HIV activist. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/Burundi.png" width="170" height="78"/>
The protest was staged on 29 March by REMUA, Reseau de Reinforcement Mutuel des Acteurs de la Première Ligne, a network of six NGOs providing HIV treatment to more than 9,000 people – about one-third of all people receiving antiretrovirals in Burundi. 
 
The protest was staged on 29 March by REMUA, Reseau de Reinforcement Mutuel des Acteurs de la Première Ligne, a network of six NGOs providing HIV treatment to more than 9,000 people – about one-third of all people receiving antiretrovirals in Burundi. According to Gapiya, despite funding from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2010, organizations caring for HIV-positive people had not signed agreements with the National Council for HIV/AIDS Control (CNLS) to access the cash. 
 
The Global Fund approved about US$35 million to fight HIV in Burundi under its eighth round of grants. An estimated 150,000 Burundians are living with HIV; the pandemic has left more than 20,000 orphans in the central African country. 
 
(Source: IRIN Plus News, Bujumbura, 4 April) 
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News from Global Unions 
 
The <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">International Transport Workers’ Federation</a> (ITF) in its latest HIV/AIDS updates No. 104 and 105 in April, reports on HIV training courses for Burmese migrant workers, mainly fishermen, in Thailand and on a Southern Africa workshop on HIV/AIDS and TB in the transport sector, organised in cooperation with the ILO and UNAIDS. 
 
Dr Syed Asif Altaf, the ITF Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator has published, together with Robert Lovelace, Senior Fellow for the Trade Union Sustainable Development Unit, an article in the upcoming issue of the UN Chronicle on Labour, HIV and the Workplace – <a href="http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/chronicle/">Working to Get the Job Done</a>.  
 
The EFAIDS (Education for All and HIV and AIDS Education) project of the Education International (EI) is ending after five successful years. Life saving skills training has been implemented by 80 member organisations in 48 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. An independent evaluation of the five-year programme is being conducted and the findings will be shared at the EFAIDS closing conference in mid-May. 
 
The Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) reports that its affiliate in Zambia reached out to hundreds of workers through HIV/AIDS workplace education. During the educational activities, workers were trained in the usage of condoms and care and support while at the same time linking the training to health and safety. 
 
The latest issue of the SWHAP (The Swedish Workplace HIV and AIDS Programme) Newsletter can be accessed at <a href="http://www.swhap.org">www.swhap.org</a>. The website also gives useful links to a Peer Educators’ Monitoring Booklet and How to Start a Workplace Programme. SWHAP is a joint programme of the International Council of Swedish Industry (NIR) and the Swedish Industrial and Metalworkers’ Union (IF Metall). It is sponsored by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). 
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Five Years Ago: From the May 2006 Issue (No. 8) 
 
The first issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin was published in October 2005. In current issues, we refer to an article from the same month five years ago and reflect on developments. 
 
In the May 2006 issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin, we reported on the comprehensive review the UN General Assembly undertook on the targets agreed by member states at the 2001 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS). UNGASS adopted the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. This Declaration provides a comprehensive framework to halt and reverse the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2010 and includes specific and measurable milestones for 2003, 2005, and 2010. Few of the targets have been met. 
 
Interestingly enough, the Declaration says in chapter 49: “By 2005, strengthen the response to HIV/AIDS in the world of work by establishing and implementing prevention and care programmes in public, private and informal work sectors, and take measures to provide a supportive workplace environment for people living with HIV/AIDS.” 
 
The General Assembly in 2006 adopted a Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS, without setting new targets but reaffirming the targets of the 2001 Declaration of Commitment. The Millennium Development Goals still stand. They say in Article 6.A: “Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS” and 6.B: “Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it.” As stated in various UN and UNAIDS documents, targets for “universal access” do not necessarily require 100% coverage. 
 
In June 2011, the General Assembly will undertake a comprehensive review of the progress achieved in realising the Declaration of Commitment and the Political Declaration in High Level Meeting (UNGA-HLM, see e-bulletin 67, April 2011).
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This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter – How to Subscribe 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an email to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put “subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin” in the subject line.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 68, May 2011 

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In line with a 2001 agreement with US-based rubber multination Firestone, the ICEM-affiliated SUTNA announced on 9 May that 980 members at Firestone received a profit share bonus of 4,000 Argentine pesos (686 euros). It is the fourth time workers have received this kind of bonus since 2001. 
 
SUTNA General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko is now pushing for similar profit sharing to be extended to all workers in Argentina and enshrined in the country’s labour law. The agreement was reached between workers and management during a difficult economic period for the tyre and automobile sectors in Argentina. Workers then agreed to take a reduction in wages in line with the downturn in company profits, to ensure the company would recover. Now the tyre and auto sectors are performing well, workers are rewarded with the substantial bonus. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0811PedroWasiejkoArgenSutna.jpg" width="149" height="164"/>
Pedro Wasiejko
According to the agreement, workers receive the bonus payment when annual profits reach more than 6%. Workers receive one third of the amount above the 6% mark, whatever that figure is equal to. 
 
See the video of the <a href="http://ejes.com/enc23mc6a2">press conference</a> where the announcement was made here.  
 
Wasiejko, also General Secretary of Industrial Workers’ Federation FETIA, and Hugo Yasky, General Secretary of the CTA national centre, argue that the Bill currently passing through the consultation phase within Congress ought to formalise the profit sharing bonus, and for those payments not to be taxed. This would encourage investment on the local level, and also from multinationals.

Argentinean Rubber Workers Receive Profit Share Bonus

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A study entitled “Oil and Casualisation of Labor in the Niger Delta” was released recently by the US Solidarity Center. It vividly depicts the social erosion occurring to the livelihoods of Nigerian oil workers due to casualisation, or contract or outsourced work. 
 
The <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1105.pubs_nigeria_degradationofwork.pdf " type="internal">study</a> can be found here. 
It states that casualisation in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector is facilitated by the widespread poverty, joblessness, and plundering of natural resources along the Niger Delta. “As a result, Nigerian oil workers are vulnerable to a new kind of attack – quiet but more potent – an industry-wide shift away from regular, full-time work toward forms of cheaper temporary labour and short-term contracting,” reads a part of the executive summary of the study. 
<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/0805BayoOlowPenGS.jpg" width="120" height="180"/>
Bayo Olowoshile
The 36-page study says that under one-half of the country’s oil and gas workers are unionised, down from 60% in 2003. The rate of women in the union ranks is even less, 20%. It attributes the decline and low level of women in unions to increased use of casual workers in “an attempt to replace full-time unionised workers with lower-paid, less-protected workers and to relegate legal and managerial responsibilities to one or more third-party contractors. 
 
“The casualisation model enables employers to ignore workplace standards and workers’ social needs and to create a strong barrier against workplace organising.” 
 
Bayo Olowoshile, the General Secretary of ICEM salaried staff affiliate PENGASSAN, told the ICEM that major multinationals are to blame. “Companies have been allowed to adopt their human resource techniques and styles to deplete full-time staff and grant favour to dubious contractors.” He also blamed neo-liberal business models and government agencies willing to go along with those models for the anti-social trend. 
 
Olowoshile said it is a common problem with his union and the blue-collar ICEM affiliate NUPENG, but that the union representing junior staff have had more opportunities to organise casual workers. 
 
Olowoshile said the issue of casualisation will get more attention in the coming weeks in Nigeria with the release of a tri-partite position paper stemming from a PENGASSAN/NUPENG strike last August. That strike centered on infringement of workers’ rights for casuals. He said the unions and employers may not agree on all tenets contained in the paper, but that it must serve as a basis for dialogue to correct the economic and social imbalances inherent in the trend toward irregular employment.

Study: Stark Effects to Casualisation in Nigeria’s Oil Sector

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The ICEM today vehemently condemned the deepening trade union repression occurring in Iraq. In recent days, a youth leader of the Mechanics’ and Printers’ Union of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) and three others were rounded up and presumably jailed, and Jamal Abdul-Jabbar, President of the Oil and Gas Workers’ Union of the GFIW in Kirkuk was forcibly transferred from his job at Northern Oil Company to a remote location due to his union activities. 
 
On 27 May, plainclothes Iraqi security police in a civilian ambulance grabbed the four young activists as they were on their way to demonstrate in Tahrir Square, the central Baghdad flashpoint this year for protests. Taken away were Jihad Jalil, 27, a worker and Mechanics’ and Printers’ Union activist; Ahmed Alaa al Baghdaddi, 19; Moyaid Fasil al Taib, 29; and Ali Abdul-Khaliq, 24. 
 
They were on their way into Tahrir Square near the Green Zone to manifest for trade union rights, jobs, basic services, political reform, and an end to corruption when police apprehended them for merely attempting to express their internationally recognised human rights, as well as rights under the Iraqi constitution. 
 
In Iraq’s north, Jamal Abdul-Jabbar was forcibly transferred from his position at major Northern Oil installations in Kirkuk to a remote and isolated company site. He had led a walk-out in defence of contract workers at Kirkuk about a month ago. The transfer of elected union leaders away from any mass concentration of workers has been commonplace in Iraq over the past several years. 
 
“The ICEM is angry that the Al-Maliki government is escalating trade union repression,” ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said in a letter to the government. “Rather than persecuting Iraqi citizens for engaging in their fundamental human rights, the government must institutionalise free and independent trade unions in a modern labour law for peace and prosperity of all Iraqis.” 
 
The ICEM expressed disheartenment that Iraq’s government is moving away from democratic reforms. It noted the implementation of Cabinet Decrees 95 and 96 in mid-April, which in part stripped away recognition of the GFIW and replaced it with a committee of non-elected and politically-biased officials from the Sadrist Party. The GFIW is affiliated to the ICEM. 
 
Eight years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, his regime’s prohibition against trade unions not officially connected to the Baathist regime continues, only with a different political covering. “By restricting trade unions and the right of workers to freely engage in democratic assemblies that will benefit their work lives, and Iraqi society as a whole, your government appears to be stepping back in time,” wrote the ICEM to Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki. 
 
The ICEM also notes that last week’s apprehension of a Mechanics’ and Printers’ Union leader is not something new. On 27 March 2007, the union’s leader, Najim Abd-Jasem, was abducted from his home and three days later his body was found with clear signs he had been tortured before his murder. 
 
For further information, contact ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin, <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 22 304 1842.

ICEM Demands Release of Iraq Mechanics’ Union Leader

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The framework of a new industrial Global Union Federation (GUF) made a major step forward on 25 May in Geneva when a joint meeting of the IMF-ICEM-ITGLWF Executive Committees produced a clear mandate to forge ahead with integration of the three GUFs. 
The Executives met in joint session at the ILO and confirmed the commitment that global industrial workers in all sectors must integrate into a unified GUF for greater strength. Such a federation will number 55 million workers and it will unite textile workers with rubber, plastics, and autoworkers in the automotive sector; mineworkers’ with steel, smelting workers in basic metals; and chemical and electronic workers in high-tech and other industries. 
The commitment is to build a strong and responsive GUF that will unite and organise workers across entire supply chains. The new GUF will tackle tough social issues to reverse the global wealth imbalance including broader trade union rights in more countries, reducing the harmful trend in society of informal and precarious labour, and it will ensure there is just transition and decent work in green industries. 
It will also promote and build democratic and self-reliant trade unions across all industrial sectors. And through networks that communicate and respond, it will stand as protector of workers’ rights and social justice against errant multinationals throughout the world. 
The uniform consensus coming out of the 25 May meeting is paralleled by the work that IMF, ICEM, and ITGLWF already do jointly in Thailand, Turkey, Mexico, Canada, and several other countries. It is manifested in common policies put together inside forums between the three GUFs regarding climate change, economic disparity, and global finance flaws. 
The meeting of the joint Executives outlined new structures that will guide an integration process to a founding Congress. The secretariat will be headquartered in Geneva and the new GUF will have a President, three Vice Presidents, a General Secretary, and three Deputy General Secretaries. It will also have an Executive Committee with at least 30% women’s representation. 
It was recognised that the new organisation must be built on solid financial footing and a common set of affiliation fees will be established during the initial four-year Congress period. Regional structures will exist that both implement the global policies of the GUF, as well as discuss and act on matters specific to the region. There was agreement on continuing strong sector work and enhance supply-chain coordination among workers and their unions. 
A joint working group of the three GUFs will continue its work to finalise statutes. Another working group will be set up to develop an action plan for the new organisation. Final approval to the process is expected to come at ITGLWF’s Executive Committee in September, ICEM’s Congress in late November, and IMF’s Central Committee in early December. 
A contest for affiliates of the three GUFs to name the new organisation will be introduced in the coming weeks through a letter. Nordic trade unions offered to host dissolution Congresses and a founding Congress in Copenhagen. The proposed dates are 18-20 June 2012.

Creation of New Industrial GUF Takes Shape

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Klaus Priegnitz of IG Metall, the German Metalworkers’ Union, has become the new General Secretary of the ITGLWF. 
Klaus was a former officer of the clothing and textile workers union Gewerkschaft Textil/Bekleidung till the integration of GTB with IG Metall in 1998. 
He has been closely involved in the work of the ITGLWF over the past two decades and was elected a Vice-President of the ITGLWF at the 10th World Congress in 2009. 
Klaus was elected General Secretary at a special meeting of the Executive Committee held on 25 May in Geneva. 
He replaces the outgoing General Secretary Patrick Itschert who was recently elected Deputy General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).

ITGLWF Elects New General Secretary

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On the 18 April, 16 union leaders from the ICEM affiliate United Workers Union of Liberia (UWUL) and the IMF affiliate Metal, Mechanical Electrical Communications and Allied Workers Union (MMECAWU) met in Monrovia to discuss the possibility of a merger and to develop a program of cooperation. 
It is now 15 years since civil war left Liberia in ruins. Not only is there much work to be done in this post war era to re-establish infrastructure, the country is also engaged in nation building including revitalizing the educational, health, security, economic and governance sectors. For the last seven years Liberians have been consolidating peace, receiving support for development from the international community and making strides in securing foreign investment attracted by the countries abundant natural resources. 
Whilst some multinationals like Firestone have been in Liberia for many decades, ArcelorMittal and BHP Billiton are the new kids on the block, with substantial recent investments in iron ore extraction. Historically, foreign companies that have been granted concessions have been expected to take care of service delivery to people in the area, in the form of housing, education and health services. This system still exists today and further disempowers workers to challenge employers as it is not only their jobs at stake but also their homes. 
Organised labour has recognized that unity is needed for bargaining power to stand up to these multinational companies and meet the challenges to build worker rights, create decent work and improve the lives of workers. Liberia's two labour federations have united to form a strong single federation in the country. The forestry union and mining union merged to create UWUL. Now, building on these successful mergers and encouraged by their benefit for worker power, UWUL and MMECAWU have agreed to work towards a merger. 
 
At the April meeting, the unions formulated and signed a memorandum of understanding committing to form a joint committee to develop a programme of collaboration that would culminate in a merger within a 24 month period. Central to the joint work would be organizing workers of multinational companies. 
The unions agreed to take the memorandum of understanding to their constituencies to gain the support of workers for the merger. The IMF has offered support and guidance to the unions' efforts in the interest of building strong worker representation in Liberia.

Liberian Unions Work Towards a Merger

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Since last year, ICEM affiliates in Colombia have been participating in a project to create strong national unions for IMF affiliates in Colombia, Fetramecol and Utrammicol. The project’s objective is to strengthen trade union unity. 
 
The ICEM and the IMF have a common interest in strengthening trade unions in Colombia and both federations have been concerned about the situation of Colombian trade unions. Union membership is among the lowest in Latin America due to anti-trade union practices and to the obstacles to trade union activity created by the government. The creation of “employment cooperatives” (cooperativas de trabajo asociado - CTAs) has led to a deterioration in the quality of jobs, nullified inalienable workers’ rights and made jobs precarious. 
 
In 2009, a project was started to create national unions for the IMF affiliates in Colombia, Fetramecol and Utrammicol. This project was supported by IF Metall and LO-TCO of Sweden and its main objective was to strengthen metalworkers’ unions, improve co-operation between affiliates at the national level and strengthen trade union unity. 
 
Three regional workshops and one national workshop take place four times a year and the project is due to conclude in 2012. To date, these workshops have discussed such issues as collective agreements and collective bargaining and developed proposals to deal with the problems that face trade unionism at the national level. This year’s central theme is trade union structures. 
 
When the project began, the main objective was to create the conditions to unite IMF affiliates in Colombia into one national organisation. However, the project, which also covers Chile, is now focusing on the creation of broader industrial unions and political alliances in the regions, in the context of the merger of three major international trade union federations (IMF, ICEM and ITGLWF). 
 
In 2010, Carlos Bustos, ICEM coordinator in Colombia, invited IMF affiliates to participate in the federation’s current activities and in various national meetings. Meanwhile, Colombian ICEM affiliates began to attend the project seminars, explains Nohora Tovar, of Fetramecol and joint national coordinator of the project. 
 
Bustos adds that this year it was decided to increase participation of ICEM colleagues in the three regions where the project is operational (Bogotá, Boyacá and Medellín). Luis Velázquez of Utrammicol, who is the other joint national coordinator, says that participation has been very good and IMF affiliates have welcomed the initiative as well. 
 
Both explain that at the end of 2010 the National Council formed by Fetramecol and Utrammicol was renamed the Unity Council and extended to include the ICEM affiliates. This council established committees to draft statutes and, along with ICEM colleagues, established an action plan with a dual focus: first, initiatives to promote unity and second, development of education and training. 
 
Marino Vani, from the IMF’s Regional Office, explains that the project has forced each organisation to assess the situation and promote joint actions to strengthen their unions and formulate common objectives. The project proposal to discuss particular issues with a view to developing a trade union agenda has provoked discussion and resulted in new trade union practices, although the unions have yet to develop a broader consensual strategy with a unified agenda and action. It is hoped that the project will encourage union members to learn and to understand the need to create united and representative national trade unions that include precarious and outsourced workers and in this way strengthen the position of all members.

Creating strong unions in Colombia

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Ten US trade unions, working together as the Coordinating Bargaining Council (CBC) of General Electric (GE) Unions, are negotiating with the industrial and financial giant toward a 19 June expiration of a four-year agreement covering 15,000 workers. 
 
The ICEM-affiliated United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) and the International Union of Electronic Workers/Communications Workers (IUE/CWA) are the largest US unions at GE, representing 11,000 industrial workers. Collective agreements for the UE and IUE are national in scope. 
 
UE Local 506 in Erie, Pennsylvania, hosted a CBC rally on Saturday, 4 June, in which a larger-than-expected gathering of 4,000 trade unionists took part. The bargaining manifestation was held at Gannon University in the western Pennsylvania city. 

<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1106.ue general electric.jpg" width="285" height="160"/>
UE-led Bargaining Rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on 4 June
Negotiations began in New York City on 24 May and after five rounds of bargaining it is evident that pension issues and health care costs have become the main agenda items. GE is trying to separate all new hires from a defined pension plan and shift them to an inferior plan. It also wants higher cost-sharing on medical insurance from workers and introduction of inferior option plans. The unions and GE resume bargaining tomorrow, 7 June. 
 
In opening bargaining statements delivered on 24 May, UE President John Hovis spoke of GE’s role in the financial crisis in which a bursting real estate bubble and accompanying credit crunch had dramatically cut GE’s stock price, its dividend payouts, and loss of GE’s AAA credit rating. Hovis reminded GE executives they had “lectured more than once in past negotiations” how GE Capital represented a more important and profitable component of the company than its industrial and manufacturing businesses. 
 
“The irony did not escape UE members when in the wake of the crisis, GE scrambled to persuade investors that it should once again be viewed as an industrial company,” Hovis said. 
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Despite the crisis, GE is faring well in the marketplace and American unions will resist any rollbacks to pension schemes and health care costs. And they will seek a significant yearly wage increase and cost-of-living improvements. GE paid out three dividends to shareholders in the past year and recorded US$14.2 billion in gross profits in 2010. GE’s cash surplus was US$82 billion in first quarter 2011, and UE claims GE workers produced an average of US$42,000 each in net profit for the company last year. 
 
View a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/ueunion?blend=24&ob=5">UE YouTube video</a> of 2011 bargaining here.  
 
The CBC of GE Unions in the US consists of the UE, the IUE/CWA, International Association of Machinists (IAM), NABET/CWA, the United Steelworkers (USW), the United Auto Workers (UAW), the International Federation of Professional and Technical Employees (IFPTE), the Electrical Workers (IBEW), Sheet Metal Workers Union (SMWIU), the United Association of Plumbing and Pipefitting Union (UA), the Firemen & Oilers division of the Service Employees Union (SEIU). 
 
The national set of talks for UE is occurring on behalf of GE Transportation workers in Erie and for GE Energy staff at Fort Edward, New York, while the IUE/CWA has a common pact for GE Aviation in Lynn, Massachusetts, and GE Appliances in Louisville, Kentucky. Simultaneous bargaining for single-site agreements with the same 19 June expiry date also continues for the UAW and IAM at GE Aviation in Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as at some 30 other GE worksites, including plastics and chemical operations. 
 
Jim Clark, the head of IUE/CWA, is chairman of the CBC.

American Unions in Tough Talks for 15,000 General Electric Staff

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Some 2,000 iron ore miners and pellet-plant workers in northern Québec, members of four United Steelworkers (USW) locals, came to excellent wage, pension, and work terms with ArcelorMittal Mines Canada. 
 
The six-year agreement, ratified by 75% of union members on 3 April, came after arduous bargaining dating to last November. A prior labour agreement in Québec between the USW and the world’s largest steelmaker expired in February. 
 
The contract will give hard-rock miners and processing-plant workers a 45% pay increase over the six years, inclusive of enhanced bonuses and hefty improvements to the yearly cost-of-living adjustment. The hourly wage increase will average 4.1% per year, and 25.6% over the six years. 
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USW Region Five Director Daniel Roy
Additionally, USW Québec region and local branch negotiators withstood a management affront to create a two-tier pension scheme, with a proposal to cast new hires into a defined contribution plan. Not only did the bargaining units retain a defined benefit pension plan, but they made improvements to it as well. 
 
Workers with 30 years of service will realise a monthly increase of C$210 per month, or 18%, and the union negotiated a 3% increase for current retirees. Steelworkers under the new agreement are employed at the Mont-Wright and Firelake mines near Fermont in northern Québec, along a 400-kilometre rail link, and at an ArcelorMittal pellet plant at Port-Cartier on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
“This employment contract reflects the mining boom currently underway in the north coast and Québec region,” stated USW Region Five Director Daniel Roy. “It is also the product of difficult negotiations, during which the committee showed determination and solidarity. 
 
“I invite non-unionised mine workers a take a look at what we accomplished at ArcelorMittal Mines.” 
 
The labour agreement contains new restrictions on outsourcing by strengthening the union-rostered stability list. Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal purchased the iron ore assets in 2006 from Québec Cartier Mining Co., then owned by an investment company. ArcelorMittal produces 40% of Canada’s iron ore output.

Steelworkers Achieve Exemplary Labour Pact with ArcelorMittal in Québec

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