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Bahrain&rsquo;s authorities and business leaders are retaliating to a general strike led by the national trade union centre GFBTU with a campaign of mass sackings, intimidation, and violence against all workers involved. The general strike was called on 13 March, and ended 22 March, in support of pro-democracy protests inside the island state near the western shore of the Persian Gulf. The agreement to end the strike included a promise to GFBTU, an affiliate of the International Trade Union Confederation, by authorities that strikers would not suffer repercussions. 
 
Estimates suggest over 1,000 workers will be laid-off during the crackdown including at employers Aluminium Bahrain BSC, Bahrain Telecommunications Company, Gulf Air, Bahrain Airport Services and APM Terminals Bahrain at the Khalifa Sea Port. All sackings were due to worker absence during the strike. 
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BAPCO President Abdul Ghaffar Abdul Hussain
The president of the union at Bahrain Petroleum (BAPCO), Abdul Ghaffar Abdul Hussain, has been sacked for his absence during the strike and also for &ldquo;inciting workers to strike&rdquo;. The company will begin legal prosecution of Hussain this week or next. Hussain was central in the creation of the GBFTU. All employees at BAPCO are now fearful of losing their jobs in the coming days. Absenteeism of BAPCO employees on 16-17 March was 60%. 
See <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/27.ICEM.Bahrain.6April.pdf">ICEM's letter to the King of Bahrain</a> here. 
 
Security forces have closed down the GBFTU headquarters and are expected to soon call the organisation&rsquo;s president, Salman Mahfooz, in for questioning. Roads leading to the union office were closed and workers were blocked from reaching the headquarters, most of those workers had been seeking guidance from their union following their sacking. The GBFTU website has been closed. Parliament is calling on the government to immediately refer trade union leaders involved in the strike to the public prosecution office. 
 
All members of the GBFTU executive, spanning all industries, have been suspended from work pending investigations. On top of this cynical multi-faceted attack on Bahrain&rsquo;s independent trade unions, companies are now planning legal cases against the unions in a further attempt to permanently end their activities. 
 
Over 300 activists have been arrested with many missing, and at least 20 killed since protesters took to the street in February, inspired by popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The violent suppression of the Bahraini people&rsquo;s reform protest has been facilitated with armed forces from neighbouring Saudi Arabia. 
 
This disgraceful attack on core human and trade union rights of the Bahraini people must end immediately.

ICEM Angered by Brutal Attack on Trade Unions in Bahrain

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The ICEM Secretariat was stricken with grief on 4 April upon learning of the death of Liv Undheim, former Vice President of Norwegian trade union affiliate IndustriEnergi (IE). Liv Undheim died at 07h00 that morning in an Oslo hospital after a period of illness. She was 61. 
 
She was an ICEM Vice President, representing the Nordic region, and had served on ICEM statutory bodies for the past 20 years, dating to her tenure as an officer of Norsk Kjemisk Forbund, the Norwegian Chemical Workers&rsquo; Association. She was the driving force inside ICEM in the development of gender equality and women&rsquo;s activities. 
 
In a letter to IE President Leif Sande, General Secretary Manfred Warda said her advocacy in this regard made the ICEM a leading Global Union Federation on gender issues. 
 
She began working in an industrial setting in the late 1960s at Figgjo AS, a ceramics and pottery manufacturer near Stavanger. She then became a federal secretary of the Chemical Workers&rsquo; Association and served in that capacity for nine years before being elected organisation secretary of the Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions (LO). In that capacity in 1997, she also became deputy minister with responsibility for energy issues. 
 
In 2001, she became Vice President of the Chemical Workers&rsquo; Association and in 2006, upon the merger of that union with the Norwegian Oil and Petrochemicals Workers&rsquo; Federation (NOPEF), she was elected Vice President of IE. She retired in October 2010 but retained the exemplary role she always performed as IE&rsquo;s head of international affairs.
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She also had served on a number of boards and public bodies, including the research institute FAFO, Norway&rsquo;s Labour Directorate, the Labour Inspection Authority, and many others. 
 
She was diagnosed with cancer several months ago and in February 2011 was stricken and hospitalised with pneumonia, which prevented cancer treatment. The ICEM&rsquo;s Warda said she always delivered a great deal of energy and passion to global trade union work, and &ldquo;we held hope that this same energy and passion would allow her to overcome this illness.&rdquo; 
 
He added: &ldquo;Her passing at the age of 61 is a sad moment for us here. The extraordinary work she performed for the ICEM &ndash; and for all trade unions &ndash; will carry on in her honour. We pledge to re-dedicate the many workers&rsquo; issues that she championed in her memory.&rdquo; 
 
In a statement this week from Oslo, IE President Sande said, &ldquo;Following her long and devoted service to the labour union movement we all felt with all our hearts that Liv had deserved a long and pleasant retirement together with her dear Elisabeth. The holiday to Thailand was booked and she was looking forward to spending her time reading, travelling and generally enjoying life. Instead she was struck down with cancer, having to spend her last days in a hospital. It seems so unfair. She will be deeply missed.&rdquo;
Liv Undheim's funeral will be 14 April in Oslo. Following, a memorial and commemoration of her life will be held at&nbsp;IE's offices&nbsp;there.&nbsp;

ICEM Mourns Death of Presidium Member Liv Undheim

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The ICEM expressed satisfaction today that the Kumho Tyre subsidiary of Kumho Asiana Group lifted its eight-day lockout on 3,400 rubber workers, members of the Korean Metal Workers&rsquo; Union (KMWU). Korea&rsquo;s second biggest tyre maker locked out workers on 25 March at factories in Gwungju and Gokseong following a one-day warning strike. 
 
The lockout ended at 14h30 today. The company rescinded its demand that workers sign individual work agreements promising not to engage in further work stoppages. In return for lifting the lockout, the Kumho Tyre Workers&rsquo; Union said it would end its industrial actions in front of the two plants. 
 
The union executed the warning strike on 25 March because Kumho refused to engage in dialogue over relevant issues in the middle of a two-year labour agreement. Those issues included giving workplace union leaders the right to maintain their union representation duties while on the job, revisions to severance packages, and health factors inside the factories. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4347-Warning-Strike-Leads-to-Lockout-at-Kumho-Tyre-Factories-in-Korea">ICEM report</a> from 28 March.) 
 
In lifting the lockout, the Kumho Tyre Workers&rsquo; Union recognised the company&rsquo;s fragile financial and market situation. The ICEM is encouraged that the two sides engaged in meaningful dialogue to end the mid-term dispute.

Kumho Tyre Lifts Lockout on Metal Workers Union in Korea

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The ICEM was deeply saddened early last week to learn of the sudden passing of Gabriel Miranda, a leader in France of the CGT glass and ceramics section. Comrade Miranda, long active in the ICEM&rsquo;s Materials Sector, died of an aneurysm late in the evening of 21 March. He was 59. 
 
In a statement of sympathy to CGT General Secretary Bernard Thibault, the ICEM said: &ldquo;Many ICEM affiliates across the globe are indebted to Comrade Miranda for his selfless and devoted works of solidarity not only in France, but throughout the world. ICEM recognised Gaby as always the first person to respond to a call for solidarity and he never hesitated to extend support to the struggle of glass workers from Thailand to Korea to Australia and in many other countries.&rdquo; 
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Gabriel Miranda
Miranda served as secretary of CGT&rsquo;s glass sector from 1987 to 2005. He was mayor of his village of Saint-Beno&icirc;t de Carmaux, in province Tarn near Toulouse, beginning in 2009. He served on the town council there since 1983. On the evening of his death, he was leading a meeting of his communist compatriots regarding an agenda on community affairs for upcoming local elections. 
 
He was a working man who stayed true to his political convictions of liberty, freedom, and justice for the common person throughout his life. He fought for retaining post offices in small villages, public-sponsored day-care centers, and public health clinics. 
 
Miranda began as a glass fitter at a factory in Albi and also worked for Saint-Gobain in Tarn province. He had been secretary of the French Saint-Gobain Works Council. He is survived by his wife Brigitte and four children. A celebration of his life and work was held in the Saint-Beno&icirc;t town hall on 25 March.

ICEM Mourns Death of French Glass Sector Leader, Gaby Miranda

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A strike by 450 mostly Hispanic foundry workers in the US enters its second week today. The strike by members of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union (GMP) is against Pacific Steel Castings in Berkley, California. 
 
Workers began the strike at midnight, March 20, at contract expiration after the privately-held company refused to move from a concession-laden contract offer that contained skyrocketing increases to the share of employee-paid health care. A leading American trade union journalist, David Bacon, reported that the out-of-pocket increase in health coverage to US$300-per-month would mean a 10% drop in workers&rsquo; salary earnings. 
 
The company also seeks to increase the yearly deductible for health coverage from the current US$1,500 to US$6,000. 
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Bacon reported that Pacific Steel Castings is seeking a two-year wage freeze, with only miniscule raises after that. Workers of GMP Local 164B have gone without pay raises for the past two years. 
 
Pacific Steel also wants work-rule changes that will inhibit seniority and promote job speed-ups, discrimination, and favouritism. GMP International Vice President Ignacio De La Fuente told Bacon that wage freezes over the past two years were meant to offset rising private health insurance costs. 
 
On 22 March, Berkeley police in riot gear used force to disperse strikers who were attempting to discourage truck drivers from making deliveries into the plant. A seven-month pregnant worker, Norma Garcia, was pushed to the ground and hospitalised. 
 
Pacific Steel&rsquo;s customers are in the petroleum, truck assembly and repair, and heavy equipment industries. It is one of the largest steel casting foundries in the US with revenues totalling US$100 million annually. It is wholly-owned by the holding company Tri-Pacific &amp; Pvt. 
 
GMP was a long-time affiliate of the ICEM but dropped global union activity in the early 2000s. The ICEM has been encouraging the Media, Pennsylvania-based union to return to the ICEM family because of joint work being done in the glass industry in Colombia.

Bitter Strike Breaks Out Between US GPM Union, Pacific Steel Castings

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The governing body of Metalliliitto, Finland&rsquo;s Metalworkers&rsquo; Union, gave leadership of the union authority to establish a blockade of construction at Olkiluoto III, the country&rsquo;s long-delayed fifth nuclear power reactor now underway on the southwestern coast. The approval for industrial action was given because of wage arrears and noncompliance of Finnish social standards by a Polish subcontractor, KMW Engineering. 
 
The blockade could come as early as this week and will largely depend on an audit report by a regional state agency, and on further negotiations between the union and contractors. The blockade has the support of Finland&rsquo;s Construction Trades Union, the Finnish Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union, and Pro, the union for salaried workers in Finland. 
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Photo: YLE/Termonen Tapio
The Polish company is hundreds of thousands of euros in wage arrears, has failed to keep overtime pay records, and reportedly has been negligent over health and safety matters. Metalliliitto has asked for pay records for all of 2009 and 2010. The union also claims that KMW&rsquo;s employment practices are substandard to those established in the national metal sector collective agreement. 
 
The French nuclear company Areva is the main contractor for Olkiluoto III , which is being built alongside two other nuclear reactors by the private-sector Finnish energy company Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO). Metalliliitto has attempted to negotiate with all parties connected to the 1.6 gigawatt (1,600 megawatt) nuclear project but none have been willing to hold KMW responsible for its social dumping. KMW is building cooling units at Olkiluoto III. 
<img alt="" src="" width="96" height="128" />
Metalliliitto President Riku Aalto
Metalliliitto President Riku Aalto said the union has consistently been denied even the bare minimum of data on its information requests. He said social dumping continues at Olkiluoto III, in part, because unions in Finland are restricted from filing legal cases to stop such practices. Aalto said that is not the case in countries such as Sweden, Norway, and Germany. 
 
Olkiluoto III is already three years behind schedule, with construction now scheduled to end late in 2012. Commissioning of the reactor would then happen late in 2013. The original &euro;3.95 billion project is reported to be &euro;1.5 billion over budget and has been marked by litigation among contractors and between contractors and TVO.

Finland’s Metalworkers close in on Blockade of Nuclear Plant Work

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Second-year salary adjustments for some 20,000 white- and blue-collar Finnish pulp and paper workers ran separate courses over the past 12 days, with ICEM affiliate Ammattiliitto Pro &ndash; representing 4,000 salaried professionals &ndash; issuing a strike notice on 23 March against one company. A two-week strike will begin on 6 April at all UPM operations if official government mediation beginning today fails. 
 
Meanwhile, Paperiliitto, representing 16,000 workers at some 60 paper operations, agreed to terms with the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF) on 16 March. Workers will receive a guaranteed 2.5%, or &euro;.41-per-hour increase. The union also granted other adjustments in the collective agreement. 
 
Both ICEM affiliates have been negotiating separately with the FFIF on wage terms for the back end of a two-year labour agreement. The parties had until last week to reach accord, or bargaining is automatically shifted into the government&rsquo;s dispute resolution process. 
 
Ammattiliitto Pro, formerly Toimihenkil&ouml;unioni or TU prior to a merger in December with the insurance and banking union Suora, gave the strike warning because FFIF refused to put forward a similar national pay offer as the one given and accepted by Paperiliitto. Instead, there was no increase extended on the national level, with employers saying wage hikes will only be negotiated on a mill-by-mill basis. That stand quickly became an insult to dedicated staff.
<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="129" />
Jukka H&auml;m&auml;l&auml;inen
&ldquo;We seek a binding pay formula in this portion of the collective agreement,&rdquo; said Jukka H&auml;m&auml;l&auml;inen, chief Pro negotiator for the paper sector. &ldquo;We want a system that recognizes the increased work and greater responsibility taken on by our members.&rdquo; H&auml;m&auml;l&auml;inen said only a short few years ago, there were 6,000 white-collar workers in Finland&rsquo;s pulp and paper sector. That number is now 4,000. 
 
The union will begin an overtime ban on 1 April, the date the current two-year agreement is terminated if no resolve is realized. And then at 06h00 on 6 April, a full strike by 1,000 Pro members at UPM will commence that is certain to affect production at the Helsinki-based company&rsquo;s Finnish mills. 
 
In the accord between Paperiliitto and the FFIF, blue-collar workers receive effective today a 1.5%, or &euro;.24-per-hour increase, and then another 1% (&euro;.17) will be negotiated on the local level. If that isn&rsquo;t accomplished by 21 April, then it reverts back to the national level where a process is established to guarantee that increase retroactive to 28 March. 
 
Paperiliitto also agreed to grant local branches the option to increase work shifts from ten hours per day to 12, although it is mandated that there be no accumulative increase in yearly working hours. The union also agreed to a mobility clause, granting paper firms the flexibility to make short-term transfers of new hires employed in maintenance areas to other company operations. For current maintenance workers, companies must get one-time or more consent agreements from the individual for such a temporary transfer. 
 
The union agreed to the mobility language as deterrent to the use of outside contract or agency labour, and to assure that maintenance work will continuously be performed by Paperiliitto members.

Finnish Paper Sector Wage Accords Divert Between ICEM Affiliates

Dear Pulp &amp; Paper Comrades, 
 
The month-long struggle for a fair national collective agreement by 4,000 members of ICEM affiliate Ammattiliitto Pro continues today. In fact, in anything, following a two-week strike against UPM that ended last week, the union has ramped up lawful industrial action. 
 
A <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4394-Paper-Dispute-in-Finland-Worsens;-Strike-Expands">full ICEM report</a> from yesterday, 25 April, can be read without going into too many details here. 
 
In short, a scheduled two-week strike action that was to have started on Wednesday, 27 April, has been moved up to today. The strike actions, this time numbering 1,500 Pro members, will be against all Stora Enso operations in Finland, as well as against Mets&auml;liitto and its related and partly-owned paper companies &ndash; Mets&auml;-Botnia, M-real, and Mets&auml; Tissue. The reasons for moving strike action up are primarily Stora Enso&rsquo;s heavy-handed attempt to bust a lawful overtime ban the union has put in place, and the fact that Proliitto enters government-mediated bargaining today over the dispute with the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF). 
 
In your own short words, send a message of congratulations to Pro leaders for waging this gutsy fight on behalf of union members, and send them another note of solidarity. They are <a href="mailto:Antti.rinne@proliitto.fi">Antti Rinne</a>, <a href="mailto:Jukka.hamalainen@proliitto.fi">Jukka Hamalainen</a>, and <a href="http://Matti.koskinen@proliitto.fi">Matti Koskinen</a>. 
 
They truly have ratcheted up pressure against the industry in Finland and by doing this, it will ensure that white-collar, technical, and clerical workers in the pulp and paper sector in Finland will get their fair share.
&nbsp;
<hr />
Campaign to Save Sappi&rsquo;s Paper Mill in Biberist, Switzerland 
 
Another hot issue in European pulp and paper is Swiss union Unia&rsquo;s campaign to prevent Sappi from closing a printing and writing papers mill (one Sappi bought from M-real) in Biberist, Switzerland. 
 
A <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4393-ICEM-Joins-Swiss-Workers’-Campaign-to-Keep-Sappi-Paper-Mill-Open">full ICEM report</a> can be accessed here. 
 
The campaign is exciting because the whole community of Biberist, located some 40 kilometres north of Bern, has rallied to Unia&rsquo;s campaign. The mill manager is bucking Sappi Europe&rsquo;s decision to close what now has become a productive and profitable mill. And last week, the Sappi EWC pleaded with management to keep the mill open. Full details can be found in the ICEM story. 
 
Do your part: send a short message to Unia&rsquo;s representatives that you support the union&rsquo;s initiatives. They are <a href="mailto:Manuel.wyss@unia.ch">Manuel Wyss</a>, <a href="mailto:Markus.baumann@unia.ch">Markus Baumann</a>, and <a href="mailto:David.binder@sappi.com">David Binder</a>.
&nbsp;

Finnish Paper Strike Heats Up; Further Help Needed

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The ICEM affiliate, National Union of Mine, Metal, and Steel Workers (SNTMMSSRM) of Mexico, or Los Mineros, and the union&rsquo;s General Secretary, Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia, were announced last week as the 2011 recipients of the Meany-Kirkland Human Rights Award by the US national labour centre, AFL-CIO. 
 
The award, created in 1980, is named for the first two presidents of the AFL-CIO, George Meany and Lane Kirkland, and is awarded annually to a person and organisation exemplifying outstanding courage in the struggle for human rights through trade unionism.
<img alt="" src="" width="160" height="107" />
&nbsp;Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia 
 

In an AFL-CIO resolution, G&oacute;mez is cited for his &ldquo;courageous commitment to defend the aspirations of Mexican workers to higher living standards, democratic labor unions, rule of law and a better future for their country.&rdquo; G&oacute;mez lives in exile in Canada, after being forced to leave Mexico, where he continues to negotiate collective agreements for workers in Mexico. 
 
Los Mineros, despite massive repression in Mexico, is bargaining contracts and organising new workplaces with the help of trade union allies such as the United Steelworkers (USW). Some of the most egregious attacks on trade unions by the Mexican government have come against Los Mineros. 
 
The 2010 recipient of the Meany-Kirkland Award was given to Egyptian workers, the Center for Trade Union and Worker Services (CTUWS), and the independent Real Estate Tax Authority of Egypt. In 2009, the award was presented to Yessika Hoyos of Colombia and her organisation, Sons and Daughters Against Impunity and for the Memory of the Fallen. Hoyos is the daughter of Jorge Dario Hoyos Franco, a Colombian trade union leader who served inside the Miners&rsquo; International Federation, a predecessor Global Union Federation of the ICEM.

Los Mineros 2011 Recipient of Meany-Kirkland Award in US

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The ICEM-affiliated Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF) condemned the recent actions of managers at a joint venture copper-gold project in Baluchistan province owned by Barrick Gold of Canada and Antofagasta Ltd. of the UK. Managers at the Reko Diq project of Tethyan Copper Co. (TCC) suddenly turned its back on a budding social dialogue forum with the TCC Employees&rsquo; Union and suspended 12 union activists. 
 
This despite a pledge by Tethyan Copper managers to engage the All Pakistan Labour Federation (APLF) in signing a charter of demand to begin serious discussions over workplace matters at the set of 19 gold and copper deposits in the Chagai District of the southwestern Pakistani province. The charter ended a hunger strike in front of the company&rsquo;s offices in Nok Kundi.
<img src="" width="294" height="170" alt="" />
&nbsp;Sultan Mohammad Khan (center) at News Briefing 

But shortly after, Tethyan Copper reneged on reinstating five of the 12 workers, sacking them, and then of 14 April fired four TCC Employees&rsquo; Union leaders, including President Ghulam Hayder Baloch and Chairman Mazir Ahmad Baloch. At a press conference at the Quetta press club on 17 April, PCMLF General Secretary and APLF leader Sultan Mohammad Khan denounced the company&rsquo;s backpeddling and urged journalists and others to apply pressure for reinstatement. 
 
&ldquo;Management of Tethyan Copper ignored an environment of brotherhood and refused to fulfil its commitment,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The workers of Reko Diq are of the view that TCC is not offering them anything other than a job, and that job hangs by a loose thread. They feel helpless and powerless now in front of this company because if they demand their legal rights, they feel they will be terminated.&rdquo;
<img src="" width="230" height="142" alt="" />
Australian-based TCC was bought by Antofagasta in 2006 and immediately Barrick&rsquo;s joined as a joint venture partner on the Reko Diq project to help alleviate Antofagasta&rsquo;s debt burden. The copper-gold porphyry mineral deposits are said to be worth US$100 billion, with copper reserves of 12.3 million tonnes and gold reserves of 20.8 million ounces. In 2010, the enterprise drew 1.98 million ounces of gold from Reko Diq.

Mine Workers’ Federation Condemns Barrick Gold, Antofagasta in Pakistan

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