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Some 300 members of Australia&rsquo;s Construction, Forestry, Mine and Energy Union (CFMEU) are locked in a fierce battle with the American door and window-maker Jeld-Wen. Woodworkers of the CFMEU&rsquo;s Forestry, Furnishing and Timber Building Products Division have been on strike &ndash; and locked out five days &ndash; at factories in four Australian states. 
 
The central issue is pay. CFMEU has been negotiating with Jeld-Wen subsidiaries Corinthian, William Russell Doors, and Stegbar since June over a new enterprise agreement, but the meagre wage increases offered over a three-year proposal would mean actual pay cuts for workers. In recent talks, the company reshuffled its pay offer but it still fell far short of Australia&rsquo;s 4.5% cost-of-living rise. 
 
Workers at six factories &ndash; including St. Mary&rsquo;s near Sydney, New South Wales; Dandenong, Cambellfield and Scoresby in Victoria; Regency Park near Adelaide, South Australia; and Canningvale, Perth, Western Australia &ndash; took 48-hour strike actions on 6 September. They then were hit by the five-day lockout on 8 September. Workers immediately undertook further and varying strike actions over the last two weeks at the six worksites. 
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Photo: The Western Weekender
Global labour leaders attending the CFMEU&rsquo;s National Construction Conference in Canberra recently visited the St Mary&rsquo;s picket line on 16 September, and the Building and Wood Workers&rsquo; International (BWI) has picked up the cause and is actively supporting CFMEU members. BWI has launched a protest campaign through its website. Please join that protest <a href="http://www.bwint.org/default.asp?Index=3685&amp;Language=EN">here</a>.&nbsp; 
 
CFMEU National lead Negotiator Phil Davies said the revised pay offer given after the company&rsquo;s lockout ended on 13 September is worse than Jeld-Wen&rsquo;s original &ldquo;non-negotiable&rdquo; pay proposal. If accepted, one-third of all job classifications would actually see a further decline in real wages compared to inflation. &ldquo;All our members want is fair and reasonable pay and conditions,&rdquo; he said. 
 
The company is seeking to abolish an attendance-based bonus scheme as well. Meanwhile, the employer has sent letters to workers warning of future lockouts. 
 
Family-run and closely-held Jeld-Wen, started in 1960 by Richard Wendt, purchased the Corinthian factories in Australia and Asia on the cheap during the Asian financial crisis in the mid-1990s, and in 1999 bought Stegbar from a UK-based company. In North America, Oregon-based Jeld-Wen overextended itself in recent years with diversification into ski resorts and holiday properties at the exact time housing and real estate markets crashed. 
 
Next month, Canadian private equity company Onex is expected to close on a US$860 million infusion into Jeld-Wen, giving it 58% ownership of a company that operates 60 manufacturing and distribution sites in 22 countries. The deceased Wendt&rsquo;s son, Roderick, will cease heading one of the world&rsquo;s biggest door- and window-makers in exchange for an Onex selectee.

US Firm Slams Door on CFMEU Members Trying to Catch Inflation

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Three European industrial trade union federations are on track now for delivering greater strength and power to workers in greater Europe. The European Mine, Chemicals, Energy Federation (EMCEF), the European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (EMF), and the European Trade Union Federation &ndash; Textiles, Clothing and Leather (ETUF-TCL) have adopted a strict timeline in order to conduct dissolution congresses and a founding congress on 15-16 May 2012 in Brussels. 
 
A joint working group is expected to finalise statutes at a meeting on 8 November and that will be followed by discussion and ratification by the federations&rsquo; respective governing bodies in late November and early December. An initial joint executive committee meeting of EMCEF, EMF, and ETUF-TCL will then be held in Brussels on 30-31 January 2012. 
Also in the weeks and months prior to the May 2012 creation of a single European industrial federation, four joint political committees will begin charting the future structure of the organisation. Those political areas are Industrial Policy, Corporate or Company Policy, Social Dialogue, and Collective Bargaining. Future work in the yet-to-be-named federation will happen under those headings. 
 
Like integration on the global level between Global Union Federations, the European creation strives to reach workers&rsquo; hands across supply chains to make sustainable jobs the bulwark of future economies. The general secretaries of the three federations that are driving this are Michael Wolters (EMCEF), Ulrich Eckelmann (EMF), and Luc Triangle (ETUF-TCL).

EMCEF, EMF, ETUF-TCL Integration to Occur in May 2012 in Brussels

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The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) held its first mass mobilisation since a new team took over the 82-member confederation last spring. The 17 September march and manifestation in Wroclaw, Poland, against austerity platforms delivered the obvious: jobs and wages are not the enemy of the economy, but the engine. 
 
Some 40,000 trade unionists, representing national labour centres across Europe, manifested in the southwestern Polish city to meet head on the two-day meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN). They demanded that austerity measures not be part of any revamped European financial integration. 
 
While Member State economic and finance ministers were in Poland to craft greater monetary discipline in crisis-time Europe, unionists and their leaders said better economic governance must come in improved employment opportunities and higher social standards. 
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The ETUC condemned the European Central Bank, the Commission, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for pressuring Member States &ldquo;to adopt an overambitious pace of fiscal consolidation, to deregulate job and social protection systems, to weaken and decentralise wage formation and collective bargaining systems.&rdquo; 
 
ETUC General Secretary Bernadette S&eacute;gol said, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re here to tell our politicians that they shouldn&rsquo;t be sawing through the branch they are sitting on.&rdquo; She said salary cuts and social benefit reductions do not lead to growth and do not reduce debt. 
 
&ldquo;We believe there are other options,&rdquo; said S&eacute;gol, &ldquo;such as European (finance) obligations, taxing financial transactions, ending tax havens and tax evasion&rdquo; and implementing a fair system of taxation. (See the <a href="http://www.etuc.org/a/9013 ">ETUC statement to ECOFIN</a> here.) 
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The Wroclaw manifestation was held jointly with ETUC&rsquo;s two Polish national labour centres, Solidarność and the All Poland Alliance of Trade Unions (OPZZ). The colourful march started at Olympic Stadium and passed in front of Centennial Hall conference centre &ndash; venue for ECOFIN &ndash; before ending up in Wroclaw&rsquo;s old city. Throughout, the chants of jobs, workers&rsquo; rights, social rights, and solidarity were heard. 
 
ETUC President Ignacio Fern&aacute;ndez Toxo, the President of CC.OO of Spain, said neoliberal financial ideology has proven to be a failure and warned that current austerity agendas will not solve the crisis but only deepen it. ETUC Deputy General Secretary Jozef Niemiec, a former engineer from Krakow, Poland, and stalwart of NSZZ Solidarność, reiterated those comments, stating austerity measures &ldquo;will only worsen the current economic and social situation.&rdquo; 
 
The ETUC rally was attended by trade unionists from Spain, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Lithuania, and Slovenia, with the largest delegation hailing from Poland, which currently holds the presidency of Europe.&nbsp;

Economic Growth Through Jobs, ETUC Tells Euro Finance Ministers

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On 18-20 June 2012, a new Global Union Federation (GUF) will see daylight at a founding congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. 
 
But what shall the new International be called? Now you have the chance to make a proposal. 
 
The organization will unite 50 million workers in more than 140 countries in mining, energy, metal, electronics, chemicals, paper, rubber, materials, garments, shoe, leather textile industries. 
 
It aims to connect workers, fight for labour rights and build global solidarity across entire supply chains. It will be a strong counterweight to multinational companies and promote social justice, democracy and a sustainable future for the whole world. 
 
Such a powerful organization needs a fresh and identifiable name. Your contribution is welcome. Please send your proposal by e-mail to <a href="mailto:imf.icem.itglwf@gmail.com">imf.icem.itglwf@gmail.com</a> at the latest by 31 October 2011. 
 
A joint Executive Committee meeting of the IMF, ICEM, and ITGLWF will decide upon a name at the end of February 2012.

What Name for New GUF? Suggest It!

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Three trade union leaders at Euroasian Steels in Kutaisi, Georgia, will be released from jail late this week after serving ten-day administrative arrests. Emilo Gumberidze, Irakli Iobidze, and Malkhaz Gogiava were rounded up in a marketplace in Kutaisi eight days ago, three days after <a href="/en/4-Chemicals-Pharmaceuticals/4667-ICEM-Scorns-Blatant-Police-Repression-in-Putting-Down-Georgian-Metal-Strike">Georgian police brutally broke a strike</a> there by ICEM affiliate Metallurgical, Mining and Chemical Industry Workers&rsquo; Trade Union of Georgia. 
 
The three were charged with narcotics possession/consumption and given drug tests. All three plainly passed. But in expressing the ridiculousness of the charge, the three were cited with disrespecting police. On 19 September, the Kutaisi City Court sentenced Gumberidze, Iobidze, and Gogiava to ten days in jail. 
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The sentence was a ruse to lock up trade unionists who are leading a legitimate workers&rsquo; movement decrying a two-year-old worksite that has no wage structures, no plan on safety and health, no adherence to global labour standards, no overtime pay, but limitless and mandatory work at low pay. When workers exercised their global right to strike under such conditions, they were met by a police crackdown reminiscent of a police state. Twenty-nine steelworkers at Euroasian, or known locally as Hercules, have been fired in recent weeks for exerting their voice over the horrid and despicable working conditions. 
 
Euroasian Steels is an Indian-Georgian enterprise, 87.5% owned by Manaksia Ltd.&rsquo;s Euroasian Ventures, and 12.5% by Paata Chkhenkeli, a Georgian construction engineer who has close ties with a government eager for business but void of labour or regulatory statutes. Hercules is a mini-mill that rolls rebar and steel billet from molten iron scrap and then sells the steel bar to central Asia&rsquo;s construction industry. 
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Georgian police brutally break strike: 15 September 
Photo: RIA Novosti 
It employs 400 workers, including 130 Indian nationals who are segregated from the Georgian workers and who themselves are treated like indentured servants. Their passports are held by management, their salaries sent back to India, and they are given a small stipend to live on. On 21 September &ndash; separate from the Metallurgical, Mining, Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union&rsquo;s clash &ndash; Indian workers went on a two-hour work stoppage to protest their dire conditions. It was their second strike in recent months. 
 
The situation at Euoasian Steels in Kutaisi is gaining widespread attention, which cannot be good for the Georgian business climate or the country&rsquo;s social record. The ICEM sent a sharp letter of protest to Georgia President Mikheil Saakasvhili and Prime Minister Nika Gilauri on 19 September over the previous week&rsquo;s blatant human rights abuses by police and government authorities. (An <a href="/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/4668-ICEM-Condemns-Georgia-Police-in-Suppressing-Union-Rights-at-Euroasian-Steels">ICEM news release</a> is here.)&nbsp; 
 
LabourStart has started a new <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1101">Georgia campaign</a> on the most recent repression and can be found here.&nbsp;And several protest actions by the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC), NGO, and others in Georgian civil society were held last week at government ministries in Tbilisi and provincial offices in Kutaisi. These will continue this week, culminating in a mass action at Georgia&rsquo;s parliament on 1 October.

Georgian Trade Union Leaders Jailed for Passing Drug Test

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Government-mediated talks broke off last week and labour relations further soured between Freeport-McMoRan and 8,000 striking Indonesian miners of ICEM affiliate FSP-KEP (SPSI), the Trade Union of Chemical, Energy, and Mine Workers (CEMWU). The PT Freeport Indonesia Workers&rsquo; Union of CEMWU this week meets the halfway mark of its 30-day strike that now could be prolonged at the world&rsquo;s largest gold and third largest copper mining complex &ndash; Freeport McMoRan&rsquo;s Grasberg mine in eastern Papua Province, New Guinea Island. 
 
Management spite was apparent at the strike&rsquo;s start on 15 September and it worsened following the breakdown of three days of talks with the Manpower Ministry in Jakarta on 22 September. PT Freeport managers relieved 138 union shop stewards of their job duties on Friday. The union responded by stating the strike likely will be extended beyond 15 October. 
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Since the wage, pension, and community funds strike started, managers have coerced workers to return to work with threats of dismissal, they have pressed contractors&rsquo; employees into production, and now they try to decimate the union by sacking union stewards and isolating the branch union&rsquo;s other leaders. 
 
PT Freeport management has attempted to coerce workers to sign a statement saying they will return to work or face getting fired. But despite this, only 500 workers are manning operations and many are staff of contractors. (See a <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/1109.indo%20contractors.docx ">list of contractors</a> here.) 
 
Freeport-McMoRan last week issued a statement last week saying it was losing three million pounds of copper production daily, and 5,000 ounces of lost gold output daily. To increase pressure on miners to abandon the strike, the company also warned of lost revenues to the Indonesian government and to the seven native groups around Timika, Papua, that Freeport-McMoRan is obliged to support. 
 
The opening salvo came at the strike&rsquo;s outset when Managing Director Armando Mahler announced a &ldquo;no-work, no-pay&rdquo; policy. After last week&rsquo;s mediation failure, union and government sources said &ldquo;complete distrust&rdquo; exists between Mahler and his team and the union. 
 
Thus, PT Freeport Indonesia Workers&rsquo; Union asked that US-based Freeport-McMoRan Chairman James Moffett enter discussions. Mine union leaders remember Moffett&rsquo;s visit a few years ago when he encouraged workplace leaders to engage in &ldquo;win-win&rdquo; principles of labour relations. 
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At last week&rsquo;s mediation, PT Freeport, 91% owned by Freeport-McMoRan and 9% by Indonesia&rsquo;s government, said it would not budge from a wage offer of 11% in each year of a two-year accord. (The bi-annual contract comes due on 1 October.) The average miner&rsquo;s wage rate at Grasberg is US$1.50-per-hour. The union was seeking a doubling of that to US$3-an-hour but in mediation last week, the FSP-KEP miners&rsquo; branch union offered a compromise and proposed a 65% increase. The company would not move from 11%. 
 
It has offered slight increases in education and housing support and in shift pay, but has said it would not deviate from wage increments that other foreign investors pay in Indonesia. It also refuses to base a pension scheme &ndash; 50% paid into by workers &ndash; on multiplied years of service, or hear the union&rsquo;s demands for enhanced development and opportunities for the indigenous people of Papua. 
 
Grasberg is Freeport-McMoRan&rsquo;s biggest revenue maker and a year ago, the company&rsquo;s chief financial officer called it &ldquo;very low cost and a high cash flow generating asset with a very long life.&rdquo; The company&rsquo;s revenues this year from Grasberg are expected to be lower because it is mining lower-grade sections of the open pit mine. But Freeport-McMoRan is bullish on the future; it is developing a deep underground mine adjacent to Grasberg that contains high grades of copper and gold in the same ore body. 
 
The ICEM has intervened in this dispute and through its Indonesian Affiliates&rsquo; Union Chairman, D. Patombong Sjaiful of FSP-KEP, is giving direct aid and support to the Grasberg strikers. They need the solidarity and support of all miners and all trade unions in mining and other industrial sectors. Please send a short message in your own words to the <a href="mailto:Puk.fsp.kep.spsi.ptfi@yahoo.com; 2391936@gmail.com; Sudiro_930haulage@yahoo.com; pp.fspkep_spsi@yahoo.co.id; parorronganjuli@gmail.com; me2union@yahoo.co.id">PT Freeport Indonesia Workers&rsquo; Union</a>. 
 
In ICEM outreach to the union, when asked to characterise the strike, one officer responded by saying, &ldquo;determination. That&rsquo;s the one word that describes workers. We&rsquo;re determined to change our future through the work we do for this company.&rdquo;

PT Freeport Mine Managers Turn Rabid on Indonesian Grasberg Strikers

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Although wage negotiations will continue this week at Zambia&rsquo;s largest copper mine, a strike there on 3-4 January ended early last Thursday when the Minister of Labour, Sport, Youth and Gender directly intervened to correct glaring mineworker exploitation. 
 
Some 2,000 miners, the majority represented by ICEM affiliate Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Zambia (MUZ), took strike action against Canadian-based First Quantum Minerals Ltd. at the 231,000-tonne-per-year Kansanshi mine after negotiations slowed late in 2011. 
<img src="" width="190" height="138" alt="" />
Workers returned to jobs on 5 January after Labour Minister Fackson Shamenda, MUZ President Oswell Munyenyembe, management representatives, and an officer of the National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW) brokered a deal late the night before. 
 
The deal is reported to displace short-term contracts with permanent and pensionable conditions of work, as well as a company pledge to review 12-hour work shifts. Miners are seeking an eight-hour day. The brokered settlement also saw First Quantum agree to award a 13th pay check beginning this year. 
 
Negotiations for a general increase in salaries will occur this week. Workers through their unions seek a 20% hike, while management has offered only 9%. The open-cast Kansanshi operation, begun in 2005, is First Quantum&rsquo;s flagship mine and began expanding last year to where it will produce 400,000 tonnes annually of copper concentrates and copper cathode by 2015. Construction of a new concentrator also is underway this year and is scheduled for commissioning in 2014.

Two-Day Strike at Zambian Kansanshi Mine Ends with Permanent Contracts

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Thousands of trade unionists around the world are writing to Prime Minister Lucas Papademos of Greece, calling on the government to drop charges against a dozen members of the GENOP/DEI trade union of power workers, including union president Nikos Photopoulos. The group will make their first court appearance at 9am tomorrow, 10 January, charged with protesting against the harsh austerity measures imposed on the Greek people by the International Monetary Fund and European Union technocrats. 
<img src="" width="200" height="136" alt="" />
Nikos Photopoulos
During extremely difficult economic times in Greece, the austerity package sets out to once again make workers pay for a crisis they did not cause. The specific austerity measure that the GENOP/DEI activists are charged with protesting against is a new arbitrary property tax which is a flat rate for all, regardless of income or ability to pay. Those who refuse to pay or are unable to pay the regressive tax have their power supply to their homes cut off. For fighting for these families to remain connected to the power supply, and conducting a peaceful occupation of a government office,&nbsp;the trade unionists now face up to five years in prison. 
 
Support the campaign for these charges to be dropped and send a message through <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1231">LabourStart</a> here.&nbsp; 
 
The GSEE trade union confederation is leading the calls inside Greece for president Photopoulos and his comrades to be free from all charges. 
 
View the <a href="http://strongerunions.org/2012/01/09/greek-trade-unionists-say-thanks-for-solidarity-messages/">message of thanks</a> from GENOP President Nikos Photopoulos for all the international support on the UK TUC &ldquo;Stronger Unions&rdquo; website here.&nbsp;

Greek Trade Union Leaders in Court Tomorrow, Facing Jail for Protesting Austerity

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Workers employed by Rio Tinto Alcan, the global mining giant&rsquo;s aluminium producer, were locked off their jobs in the Canadian province of Qu&eacute;bec on 1 January in a dispute centering on the company&rsquo;s ceaseless subcontracting. Some 780 metalworkers, represented by Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos d&rsquo;Alma Local 9490, affiliated to the United Steelworkers (USW), were thrown off their jobs at contract expiration at one of the company&rsquo;s most modern plants, the Alma, Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region, Qu&eacute;bec smelter. 
 
The three bargaining units of the union voted to reject a new contact late in December after the company refused to limit subcontracting. The lockout at the end of a prior five-year contract comes before USW Local 9490 had even submitted demands regarding salary adjustments, vacations, or benefits. 
 
The three bargaining committees are seeking a floor of 750 unionised jobs at the Alma facility and a halt to subcontracting that reduces full-time, stable jobs to levels below that. In recent years, since Rio Tinto purchased Canada-based Alcan for US$39 billion in 2007, Alma management has used each worker retirement and other reductions in force as a means to reduce costs and manpower by contracting out more and more work. 
<img alt="" src="" width="105" height="160" />
USW District Five Director Daniel Roy
Last year, USW District Five Director Daniel Roy said Rio Tinto has removed some C$7.4 million in salaries and purchasing power alone from the resource-rich region. Roy and leaders of Local 9490 will hold a press conference in Alma on 13 January to highlight the negative economic impact of the lockout and Alcan&rsquo;s insistence on unlimited contracting out rights. 
 
The union states that the average C$36-an-hour unionized wage rate is reduced to about C$16 with each subcontract employee. 
 
On 3 January, Alcan succeeded in Qu&eacute;bec Superior Court in obtaining a temporary injunction limiting the number of pickets at the main plant gate to 20. Locked-out picketers must remain at least 500 feet from the entrance. A full hearing on that injunction will happen tomorrow, 10 January. 
 
Rio Tinto Alcan announced force majeure at the aluminium smelter on 3 January, stating that it would operate only 122 of 432 electrolytic production cells. Alcan said it would operate at one-third capacity with use of 200 management and other personnel. The USW has lodged a complaint with the provincial labour board that Alcan is violating Qu&eacute;bec legislation by using scab or replacement workers during a labour dispute. 
 
The Alma operation at full capacity can produce 438,000 tonnes annually and in 2010 Alma accounted for 11% of Rio Tinto&rsquo;s global aluminium production. Rio Tinto Alcan operates two smelters in the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region and has a 25% stake in a third, in B&eacute;cancour where Alcoa is the majority partner.

USW Affiliate in Québec Locked Out by Rio Tinto at Aluminium Plant

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UK mobilisation in front of a second wave of Unilever strikes to begin on 17 January occurs tomorrow when three affiliates of the ICEM and the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF) protest in front of Unilever&rsquo;s London headquarters at 100 Victoria Embankment. 
 
Unite the Union, the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), and GMB will conduct the rally beginning at 12 noon on 10 January over the food and consumer products company&rsquo;s insistence on scrapping the final pension scheme for 7,000 workers. Unilever&rsquo;s proposal would gut between 20-40% of pension earnings for one-third of its UK workforce. 
<img alt="" src="" width="241" height="160" />
Unite Battle Bus
Unite will dispatch its &ldquo;battle bus&rdquo; to Unilever&rsquo;s corporate offices tomorrow. It will leave Unite&rsquo;s Holborn Street building at 10h30. The action comes four days after a joint union delegates&rsquo; conference of Unilever worksite leaders met in Liverpool and decided to unleash a second set of strike actions to begin 17 January and to run 12 days. 
 
On 9 December, some 5,000 union members staged a 24-hour work stoppage at 11 Unilever plants in the UK, the first industrial action in UK history at the Anglo-Dutch multinational. The lawful strike saw Unilever bosses retaliate with the petty act of cancelling staff Christmas parties and withdrawing a &pound;15 holiday gift voucher to strikers. 
 
Unilever&rsquo;s gutting of the pension scheme for active workers is further insult by the company, which in 2008 eliminating the pension scheme for new hires. The company and unions negotiated late last week but there was no sign that Unilever would accept a union compromise on the pension scheme. 
<img alt="" src="" width="141" height="159" />
Unite's Jennie Formby
Unite National Officer Jennie Formby said, &ldquo;Our members have dedicated their time and hard work to help Unilever build leading brands. We have shown the company that there is no need to destroy the reputation of a blue chip company because there is a solution on the table if they will talk with the union.&rdquo; 
 
Unilever&rsquo;s factories where strike actions have occurred and where workers will again strike on 17 January are located in Purfleet, Warrington, Trafford Park, Port Sunlight, Wirral, Manchester, Leeds, Glocester, Burton-on-Trent, Chester, and Crumlin. 
 
Unilever produces Dove soap, Marmite, PG Tips, Pot Noodle, Hellman&rsquo;s mayonnaise, and several other consumer products at these plants.

UK Unions Hold Key Unilever Manifestation Before Second Strike Wave 17 January

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