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A four-hour general strike across Italy is scheduled for 25 November in protest to the Berlusconi government&rsquo;s proposed 2006 budget. 
All three major trade union federations&mdash;CGIL, CISL and UIL, numbering 11.2 million workers&mdash;have called for the strike.
The Berlusconi budget, which must be approved by Parliament by year&rsquo;s end, calls for US$24 billion in spending cuts, plus regressive revenue-raising measures. Among the proposed cuts are US$2.4 billion in social security costs that companies now must pay for the welfare of workers.

Italy Poised for General Strike on 25 November

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A two-day strike by hundreds of Eni workers in Nigeria brought the Italian energy company and state-owned NNPC to the bargaining table. The strike occurred over wage arrears. 
The 19-21 October strike by ICEM Nigerian affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN was won when Eni&rsquo;s direct subsidiary Agip agreed to expedite pay. The strike affected Agip&rsquo;s Brass River export terminal on the southern coast. 
Eni is responsible for 7% of Nigerian oil production

Eni Oil Strike in Nigeria Ends

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ICEM President Senseni Zokwana, president of the National Union of Mineworkers, gave an inspirational appeal at the Congress of ICEM affiliate South African Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union (SACWU) to fight even harder against the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa. 
The Congress was held in Johannesburg from 3-5 November and included a skit by SACWU members on HIV/AIDS as well as speech by a motivational speaker delivering a strong message on fighting the disease.

SACWU Congress in South Africa Focuses on HIV/AIDS

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A 12-day hunger strike by five members of Colombian oil workers&rsquo; union Sindical Obrera de la Industria Del Petroleo (USO) ended 3 November. 
The hunger strikers ended their fast after winning assurances from the archbishop of Cartagena and the governor of Boliv&aacute;r state that they would present a public proposition to the national government to prohibit privatisation of state-run Ecopetrol&rsquo;s oil refinery in Cartagena. Archbishop Jorge Enrique Gim&eacute;nez and Gov. Libardo Simancas have committed to present the plan within 30 days. 
The Uribe government has plans to sell 51% of Colombia&rsquo;s second largest oil refinery. The hunger strikers of USO, which solely represents Ecopetrol workers in Colombia, included Rodolfo Vecino, Hernando Meneses, Rafael Cabarcas, &Eacute;dgar Mojica, and Jorge Ortega.

Hunger Strike in Colombia Over Refinery Privatisation Ends

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US-based glassmaker Owens Illinois has discriminated against union members by sacking workers inside a Peldar glass plant in Peru. 
Early in October the company made redundant 11 workers from the factory but later that month recalled five of the workers. The six who were not recalled included representatives - two of whom were past general secretaries - of the Sindicato de Trabajadores de Owens Illinois Per&uacute;. 
The ICEM, in lodging a protest with the American company, cited the firm with a clear violation of trade union rights. The trade union discrimination matter has also been taken up by Peruvian national labour centre CGTP, and is before the country&rsquo;s labour courts.

Owens Illinois Discriminating Against Union Officers in Peru

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Members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing &amp; Manufacturing Union (EPMU) of New Zealand staged a two-day strike on 7-8 November at Carter Holt Harvey&rsquo;s (CHH) Kinleith pulp and paper mill. 
The strike by the mill&rsquo;s 270 production workers was over CHH&rsquo;s refusal to meet the country&rsquo;s recognised wage standard this year of 5%, and a demand by the company to cut annual leave time for shift workers. EPMU and CHH were scheduled to resume talks this week. 
CHH is now 70% owned by Graeme Hart&rsquo;s Rank Group Investments, an Auckland-based trader that has a NZ$3.3 billion hostile bid in play for the company. US-based International Paper Co. has divested its 50.3% stake in CHH to Hart.

New Zealand Workers Strike Carter Holt Harvey’s Kinleith Mill

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Svenska Pappers, the ICEM paperworkers&rsquo; affiliated union in Sweden, could strike ABB Power Technologies at its Figeholm mill near Oskarshamn tomorrow. 
The union won a unanimous victory in a Swedish labour court last week, giving it the right to strike as well as granting sympathy actions by unions representing electrical, construction and transport workers. 
A Swedish-based multinational primarily engaged in engineering and papermaking equipment, the pressure now is on ABB to settle. The company has been stonewalling a collective agreement for 130 workers at the paperboard mill for two years, refusing to match work and social standards already in place in Sweden&rsquo;s paper sector. &ldquo;ABB simply has refused to give paperworkers at the ABB Figeholm mill their rights, which exist for the rest of paperworkers in Sweden,&rdquo; said Sune Ekb&aring;ge, president of Svenska Pappers. 
The positive labour court ruling did prompt ABB to return to talks with the union on 12 November and again today in efforts to prevent a strike.

Swedish Labour Court Ruling Reinforces Svenska Pappers

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South Korea&rsquo;s business-oriented government has set its agenda for industrial relations reform, including weakening the regulations on use of irregular, or contract and agency workers. 
The ruling Uri Party has defined 24 issues that are contained in four bills now in Parliament. The proposed legislation will meet a crucial test in an extraordinary session of Parliament scheduled for February. The reforms, if passed, would allow multiple unions on a jobsite, give employers the right to use temporary workers during strikes, and grant bosses longer time periods for contract and agency workers. 
The government on 26 October erroneously reported that the number of non-regular workers this year over last decreased to 5.03 million, or 33.6% of the Korean workforce. Two days later it retracted those statistics and said the figure, in fact, was nearly a half-million workers more&mdash;5.48 million, or 36.6% of the workforce. The number of irregular workers this year had grown by 90,000 over 2004.

Fate of Contract Labourers Before South Korea’s Parliament

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Tomorrow, the Australian labour movement will take to the streets in several cities with hundreds of thousands of protestors aimed at the Howard government&rsquo;s proposed industrial relations reforms. Introduced into Parliament on 2 November, WorkChoices legislation is draconian workplace reform reminiscent of conditions that produced wholesale class warfare a century ago. 
Howard&rsquo;s Conservatives, now controlling both houses of Parliament, pushed the reform through the lower chamber on 10 November by initiating &ldquo;gag and guillotine&rdquo; rules that prevented opposing MPs from speaking. 
The package of worker restrictions now goes to a Senate committee, and is expected to be brought to the full Senate chamber on 28 November. The reform will extinguish established collective enterprise agreements in favour of individual contracts; restrict trade union rights in representation matters; create unfair workplace dismissals; limit the range of issues unions can bring into bargaining; and will weaken annual leave provisions and remove the right to public holidays enjoyed by some workers, among just a few of the harsh measures. 
Australian trade unions have responded in typical fighting fashion, for example, by countering the affront to the country&rsquo;s lowest paid workers with introduction of 4% hikes in the minimum wage in five separate states. The proposals were made to state industrial relations commissions, agencies the Howard government want abolished in lieu of federal control over workplace laws. Tomorrow&rsquo;s rallies, like ones staged 30 June just prior to Conservatives taking control of both houses of Parliament, will show Australian workers are bitterly opposed to turning the clock back on industrial relations.

Australian Lab our Movement Rallies on 15 November

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A strike by over 300 paperworkers at Stora Enso's newsprint and publication papers mill in Gent, Belgium, ended 8 November. 
The strike ended after 56% of the workers voted to continue the 11-day strike and 43% voted to return to work. The workforce had imposed a rule that at least 60% of the 330 blue-collar workers at Stora Enso's Langerbrugge mill must vote for continuation of any job action. 
The strike's end means that an inferior wage offer presented by management on 7 November will go into effect. The wage package will cover two years. The strike was over management's posture at the negotiations table, which was bargaining by ultimatum rather than honest social dialogue to resolve the pay and other serious issues inside the mill. 
The paper mill's managing director never entered talks, but rather other managers issued terse and reactive ultamatums at workers' representatives, stating such dictates were coming from him. The strike involved members of ICEM affiliate ABVV-FGTB, the socialist union in Belgium, as well as two other unions with membership inside the paper mill.

Strike Ends at Stora Enso Paper Mill in Belgium

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