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French unions will begin mass protests and strikes today across the country over the government’s broken promise, made a short 18 months ago, that Gaz de France (GDF) would remain at last 70% state held. The actions are due to a proposal made public a week ago to merge GDF with the French-Belgian publicly-traded water/power group, Suez. 
<img height="99" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMgas.JPG" width="100"/>
The French government stands in the middle of the deal, which would effectively privatise GDF, with France’s stake only 34%. The government currently holds 80% of GDF. 
 
The merger would have a detrimental effect on Electricité de France, costing mass job losses since Suez and its subsidiaries would supply power to GDF. CFDT Chimie Energie said the proposed merger lacks transparency in that no analysis of the combined industrial plan was presented, and the social aspects of such a Suez-GDF merger had not been studied adequately. 
The deal is an attempt to block Italian energy company Enel’s hostile takeover bid of Suez.

French Unions Strike over Gaz de France Merger Plan

Contents
1. Australia - Companies Benefit from Treating Women Workers Well 
2. Brazil – Women of Colour Receive Half Pay 
3. China – More Protection for Female Migrant Workers? 
4. European Union – Eurostat Publishes Statistics; Commission Issues Gender Equality Roadmap 
5. France – Parliament Adopts Law to Allow Equal Pay for Women 
6. ICFTU – International Women’s Day – Organising Campaign II 
7. South Africa – National Union of Mineworkers Holds 3rd National Women’s Conference 
8. Spain – Equality Law between Men and Women; Agreement to Promote Women in Traditional Men’s Jobs 
9. UNICEF – 4th Annual International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation 
10. United Kingdom – Women and Work Commission Issues “Shaping a Fairer Future” Report 
11. Resources 
 

1. Australia – Companies Benefit from Treating Women Workers Well 
 
Forward-thinking businesses in South Australia are reaping the benefits of treating their female staff well. Paid maternity leave, part-time work and mentoring are features that draw bright female employees to companies with “Employer of Choice for Women” citations. The awards were presented on 21 February 2006 by the Women in the Workplace Agency to a total of 116 companies nationally. 
 
Employees are seen to be selective about where they want to work, and many women use the list as a guide. As a rule, the listed employers have higher numbers of women at senior levels, succession plans for women in management, development plans for high achievers, paid maternity leave, high maternity leave retention rates and the ability to work part-time at all levels. 

2. Brazil – Women of Colour Receive Half Pay 
 
Women of colour in Brazil receive, on average, half the wages paid to white female workers. This was one of the findings of a survey conducted by the Special Secretariat for Women’s Policies, based on data gathered between July and September 2005 in six Brazilian state capitals. 
According to the study, the biggest difference exists in the city of Salvador, Bahia, where women of colour receive on average US$247 per month, compared with white women’s US$598 per month. In Rio de Janeiro, white female workers received US$468 per month, while their black counterparts earned half this amount. 
 
The data indicate that the government should make a greater effort to address the issue of race and gender, invest in schooling and job training for women, and raise awareness about workers’ rights. 
The study, which was completed in December 2005, covered the cities of Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Recife and Porto Alegre. The research was based on data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics’ (IBGE) Monthly Employment Survey. (Source: Public Services International) 
 
 
3. China – More Protection for Female Migrant Workers? 
 
The All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) is stepping up its efforts to protect more migrant workers, especially women, according to a senior official. The ACFTU will work out rules to prevent female migrant workers from doing overtime and protect them from suffering from occupational diseases and sexual harassment. Surveys in different cities show that employers did not abide by the rules when hiring rural women. 
 
Trade unions in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province found that 60 percent of female migrants who were questioned in the provincial capital Harbin did not sign labour contracts with their employers, and 62 percent of them suffered wage defaults. About 653,000 migrants were working in the city last year, and 35 percent of them were women. 
 
 
4. European Union – Eurostat Publishes Statistics; Commission Issues Gender Equality Roadmap 
 
In conjunction with the International Women’s Day on 8 March 2006, Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Community, publishes statistics to provide information on women and men in the European Union (EU). For example, women in the EU live, on average, 6 years longer than men. More women than men aged 20 to 24 had completed at least upper secondary education in 2005 (80% of women compared to 75% of men). Almost a third of managers in the EU are women. 
 
The employment rate, that is the percentage of the working age population that has an employment, was lower for women than for men in all member states, 56% for women and 71% for men. The female employment rate varied between 34% in Malta and 71% in Denmark and Sweden. On average about a third of working women were in part-time jobs, compared to 7% of men. Women work longer hours than men, however, including domestic work. Only in the United Kingdom and Sweden are the number of hours worked by women and men almost equal. 
 
Eurostat also produces a study entitled How is the time of women and men distributed in Europe? For more information on both publications, see <a href="http://www.eu.int/comm/eurostat">http://www.eu.int/comm/eurostat</a>. 
 
The European Commission adopted a “Roadmap for equality between men and women 2006-2010” in view of International Women’s Day. The roadmap sets out six priority areas for action in the 2006 to 2010 period: 
<ul>
 <li>
 <div>Achieving equal economic independence for women and men; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>Enhancing reconciliation of work, private and family life; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>Promoting equal participation of men and women in decision-making; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>Eradicating gender-based violence and trafficking; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>Eliminating gender stereotypes in society, and; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div>Promoting gender equality outside the EU. </div>
 </li>
</ul>
The Committee on Women’s Rights and Equality of the European Parliament has also adopted a number of texts, including on the future of the Lisbon strategy from a gender perspective and on the call for the Gender Equality Institute. 
 
 
5. France – Parliament Adopts Law to Allow Equal Pay for Women 
 
The French government adopted, on 23 February 2006, a law aimed at guaranteeing equal pay rights for women, who currently earn - on average - one-fifth less than their male counterparts. The text sets a five-year target for wiping out pay inequalities, calling for more negotiations between companies and unions, but does not provide for any sanctions. 
A national review, to be carried out in three years’ time, will decide whether to introduce financial penalties for employers who are in breach of the regulations. The law requires French companies to carry out their own audits every year, including a comparison of salaries by gender. 
 
 
6. ICFTU – International Women’s Day – Organising Campaign II 
 
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, ICFTU, is launching phase two of the Global Unions’ Organising Campaign “Unions for Women, Women for Unions” on 8 March. The ICFTU Women’s Committee decided that phase two will aim at a significant increase in female membership rates in trade unions, particularly amongst women workers in the export processing zones, in the informal economy, among migrant women workers and young women, as well as a net increase in women’s representation in decision-making levels of trade unions. 
 
Through the campaign unions will continue to advocate for women workers’ rights. More focus will also go to transforming the cultural and structural barriers that prevent women from becoming active members and leaders. For more information see: <a href="http://www.icftu.org">www.icftu.org</a>. 
 
 
7. South Africa – National Union of Mineworkers Holds 3rd National Women’s Conference 
 
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) held its 3rd National Women’s Conference from 16 to 18 February 2006 in Johannesburg. The conference was held against the background of the 50th Commemoration of the Women’s March to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, in 1956. It also was a prelude to the NUM Congress in May 2006. 
 
The theme of the conference was “Mobilise, organise and lead against chains of domination, exploitation and oppression of women.” 285 delegates attended the conference, including some 30 men. NUM’s emphasis is on women’s development in order to generate cadres. NUM’s structures must also be an engine to generate women activists. There are now women in the regional structures in 5 of the 11 national regions. 
 
In 2004, when the Mining Charter was adopted, women made up 1.5% of the workforce in South African mines. Now it is 6%. Growing numbers of women are also engine drivers. In addition, there are currently much more women in the mining engineering school than before. 
 
 
8. Spain – Equality Law between Men and Women; Agreement to Promote Women in Traditional Men’s Jobs 
 
Draft legislation was approved in Spain on equality between women and men. The aim is first to transpose the European directive into Spanish law and to define direct and indirect discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying. The sanctions to punish these violations are already set. 
 
Parental rights are defined and broadly extended. Measures to improve work-life balance are also provided for. Furthermore, gender-related social security rights are improved. The path is open for positive action measures to eliminate inequality. 
 
So far, equality plans are voluntary, but companies with more than 250 workers ought to try to set up such plans. 
 
An agreement was signed between the Education and Science Council, the Spanish Chemical Employers’ Federation, the CCOO Chemical and Textile Workers’ Federation (FITEQA-CCOO) and the UGT Industrial Federation (FIA-UGT) to increase the number of girls taking vocational training courses in sectors that are not traditionally feminine. The point is to develop programmes and activities in secondary schools to help avoid discrimination in the chemical industry. 
 
 
9. UNICEF – 4th Annual International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation 
 
6 February was UNICEF’s 4th Annual International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). UNICEF operates programmes in 18 of the 28 countries where this traditional practice exists. Of these 28 countries, 14 countries have passed anti-FGM laws. However, according to the London-based Foundation for Women’s Health, Research and Development, only Burkina Faso, Ghana and Kenya actively uphold those laws. 
 
Countries have been under international pressure to ratify the African Union’s Maputo Protocol banning FGM. However, they simultaneously face opposition to cultural change from many traditional ruling classes within their own societies. The African Union needs to set up a monitoring mechanism to follow compliance with the protocol. In addition, rights groups are needed to do field work to follow up at local level. 
 
 
10. United Kingdom – Women and Work Commission Issues “Shaping a Fairer Future” Report 
 
On 27 February 2006 the UK Government issued a report by the Women and Work Commission, entitled “Shaping a Fairer Future”. The commission was chaired by former Deputy General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union (and also former Chair of ICEM Women’s Committee) Baroness Prosser. 
 
According to the report, women work in the lowest paid jobs, the so-called “five c’s”: catering, cleaning, cashiering, clerical work and caring. The report claims that the equal pay gap is bad for the British economy and recommends 40 measures to boost women’s careers and earnings. 
 
British trade unions, however, had mixed reviews about the report. The Transport and General Workers’ Union (T&G) welcomed the report but also said the commission should have gone further and recommend a mandatory pay audit. “Being a woman still means being paid less – a quarter less than men, which is the highest gap in Europe,” said Diana Holland, T&G’s National Organiser for Women, Race and Equalities. 
“Audits simply ensure an employer is complying with the law. Without an audit, employers will be vulnerable to thousands of individual, costly equal pay cases.” 
For more information, see: 
<a href="http://www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk/women_work_commission/index.htm">http://www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk/ 
women_work_commission/index.htm</a> 
 
 
11. Resources
<ul>
 <li>WEDO's (Women’s Environment and Development Organisation) Latest Global Monitoring Report: Beijing Betrayed. 
 
 In this appraisal of the status of women worldwide, which comes 10 years after governments adopted the groundbreaking “Beijing Platform for Action”, women in 150 countries assess the progress in the implementation the commitments. For the report, available in five languages, see <a href="http://www.wedo.org">www.wedo.org</a>. 
 
 </li>
 <li>UNESCO launched its initiative “Women Make the News” to ensure that the issue of gender equality must remain at the forefront of each society’s agenda. See <a href="http://www.unesco.org/march8">www.unesco.org/march8</a>. 
 
 For news and information on the global action on gender and the media see <a href="http://www.whomakesthenews.org">http://www.whomakesthenews.org</a>. 
 
 </li>
 <li>The view the minimum wage and equality campaign in New Zealand, see <a href="http://www.supersizemypay.com">www.supersizemypay.com</a>. 
 
 </li>
 <li>Play an interactive game on working time at <a href="http://www.worksmart.org.uk">http://www.worksmart.org.uk</a>. 
 
 </li>
 <li>For a resource on good quality, affordable childcare, see the British TUC: <a href="http://www.tuc.org.uk/equality/tuc-11300-f0.cfm">www.tuc.org.uk/equality/tuc-11300-f0.cfm</a>. 
 
 </li>
 <li>To learn about women’s vital contributions to peace and security, see <a href="http://www.womenwagingpeace.net">www.womenwagingpeace.net</a>. 
 
 </li>
 <li>Mama Cash works for social transformation and the advancement of women’s rights worldwide. She strives for a peaceful and just world where women are free to make their own choices and secure their human rights: <a href="http://www.mamacash.nl">http://www.mamacash.nl</a>. 
 
 </li>
 <li>The International Transport Federation ITF has a campaign site that includes news on activities around the negotiation of equal rights for women airline employees in Jordan, the demonstrations outside train stations in France and India, and on surveys of women members in New Zealand. For information on strengthening women’s participation in transport unions, see <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org/women/NetworkNews.cfm">www.itfglobal.org/women/NetworkNews.cfm</a>. 
 
 </li>
 <li>For information on the long-term earnings gap in the United States, Still a Man’s Labor Market: The Long-term Earnings Gap, see the web site of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research: <a href="http://www.iwpr.org">www.iwpr.org</a>. </li>
</ul>

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN N° 9

<img height="40" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief.gif" width="100" alt=""/>
A potentially deadly offshore oil disaster was averted last week in the North Sea by quick action from platform firefighting teams. The incident occurred at Shell Exploration & Production’s 180-worker Tern Alpha platform, 105 miles northeast of Shetland Islands, and caused the evacuation of 128 workers. 
 
The fire started in the early hours of 16 March when a high voltage electrical motor in the gas compression module overheated. Onboard emergency teams fought the fire for four hours, during which time coast guard helicopters from the UK and Norway, as well as a BP rescue team, ferried the 128 to other platform installations. 
 
The fire, in an area of compressed gas, could have triggered a major disaster had it not been for the trained emergency teams. Shell Exploration operates Tern Alpha for Shell and Esso in the Hudson fields of the North Sea. The platform began production in 1989.

Emergency Response Teams Prevent North Sea Catastrophe

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
International Coal Group (ICG), the US-based company responsible for 12 mining deaths last week in the state of West Virginia, operates 21 US coal mines in America, all non-union. Yet, three emergency-response teams from nearby United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) staffed mines, plus the ICEM affiliate’s Health and Safety director were involved in rescue efforts at ICG’s Sago mine on 2 January after 13 miners became trapped following a gas explosion.
ICG has become a major eastern US coal supplier to utility companies at a time of high demand and high prices. The company is a creation of Wilbur L. Ross, a bankruptcy buyout opportunist who has a two-decade-long record in steel, textile and now coal bankruptcies. Ross uses US court bankruptcy proceedings to gain tax deferrals and cancel workers’ bargaining rights, pension benefits and retiree health care.
<img height="48" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/USAUMWA.jpg" width="150"/>
ICG bought bankrupt Horizon Natural Resources, Anker Coal Group and CoalQuest Development, among others over the past few years. ICG gained a stake in Anker, the former owner of Sago, in the early 2000s and increased his holding as the company weakened and entered bankruptcy in 2002.
He only recently finalised buyout of the company for US$173 million, adding some eight coal mines and loading facilities to ICG. Also in late 2005, Ross took ICG—founded only in 2004—public, infusing US$250 million cash into the firm, and causing Ross to state: “It’s all new money for the company. Neither my firm nor the founding shareholders are selling any stock on the offering at all.” Ross’s controlling stake increased from 9.2% to 13.7% on the initial public offering. 
 
It is evident Ross’s “new money” and current coal revenue profit-taking are not intended for miners’ social welfare, whether it be retirement benefits or job safety. On 30 August 2004, 17 UMWA members were arrested by police when they and 800 others protested before a US bankruptcy court in Louisville, Kentucky. Some 3,000 UMWA members, both active and retired, were about to lose job security, and health care coverage as Ross and IGC took control of Horizon at a discount value in the bankruptcy court.
Early last week, the UMWA was actively involved in saving lives at the Sago mine. In a statement by the union expressing deep sadness to miners’ families, and reflecting on the “inexplicable confusion” over initial reports that the miners were alive, President Cecil Roberts said, “Though not members of UMWA, the miners who work in the Sago mine include neighbors and relatives of UMWA members.” The efforts of rescuers, he added, “demonstrate once again that we are all brothers and sisters in the coal fields, and we pull together to help each other in times like these.”
Roberts had another message last week, published in a West Virginia newspaper. It concerned the effect that energy demand and high coal prices have on marginal properties with inferior safety records when pressed into service: “We hope we don’t lose the focus on how dangerous this business is,” stated Roberts.

Sago Mine Disaster: Safety, Workers’ Rights Victimized by Bankruptcies

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
Contract workers, employed by some 400 companies providing services to world leader copper producer Codelco in Chile, are striking for bonuses to gain a fair share of rising copper prices that have reached record highs on international markets. 
The 28,000 contract employees, working from food service to transport, struck all four divisions of state-owned Codelco’s across Chile two weeks ago and are seeking bonuses totalling US$970. On 4 January, police used tear gas to disperse strikers from roads leading to the El Teniente mine, the world’s largest underground copper mines and one of the four divisions. 
Contract workers earn less than half of what the 15,000 full-time, unionised workers of Codelco earn. Copper currently is selling at a record high of US$4,575 a tonne, and Chile through its Codelco earnings realized US$5.3 billion in profit through export of copper in 2005.

Contract Workers in Chilean Copper Mines Strike

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
US oil supermajor ConocoPhillips has defied both Australian and East Timorese oil and maritime workers by employing a flag of convenience ship to transport liquid natural gas from Australia to Japan. The company, which owns 64% of the Bayu-Undan gas field in the Timor Sea, was set to send it first shipment of LNG to Japanese utility customers last week from Darwin, in northern Australia. 
The company has hired no Timorese or Australian crew members to work on the vessel, said the Maritime Workers Union of East Timor. ConocoPhillips had earlier ignored East Timor government initiatives to build a gas processing facility on East Timor soil for the new field, choosing instead to build a 500-kilometre pipeline to Darwin. 
The Bayu-Undan field is in disputed East Timorese waters off the country’s southern coast. The Maritime Union of Australia has pledged to get East Timorese workers involved in Bayu-Undan’s new production, and both unions promise an international campaign against ConocoPhillips. This will become a topic of the newly-organised Joint ICEM-ITF Oil and Gas Trade Union Alliance.

ConocoPhillips Snubs Union Labour in Shipping

<img height="40" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/InBrief 1.gif" width="100"/>
In the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, members of ICEM affiliate International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) voted 2 January to continue their five-month strike against US-based National Gypsum. Some 90 IUOE Local 721B members are striking the company at a quarry in Milford and at a loading dock in Burnside, over proposed changes to their pension plan, contracting out demands, and weakening of seniority rights. 
A proposal put forward by a provincial mediator, late in 2005, produced no significant changes from the company’s initial offer. The strike began 10 August 2005, some five months after a prior contract expired. The quarry produces rock used in building materials for the US housing market. National Gypsum has been attempting to operate the two workplaces with replacement workers.

Operating Engineers Remain on Strike in Canada

The 20-million-member ICEM calls on the government of Serbia-Montenegro to meet the legitimate pay demands by ICEM-affiliated EPS Trade Union at three enterprises of the state-run electric power generation and distribution services, i.e. the PE Electric Power Industry of Serbia, the PE Elektromreža Srbije (the Serbian Transmission System and Market Operator) and the PE Underground Pit Mine Extraction. 
<img width="100" height="100" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/ICEMelectricity.JPG" alt=""/>
Workers at these three enterprises are owed wage arrears for 2004 and 2005. The government has failed to respond to union demands, as well as to make an adequate wage offer for 2006. Workers at the three enterprises began a series of one-hour strikes on 10 January in protest of the non-payment of wages, and have conducted similar one-hour strikes every day since. 
 
“The inflation rate in Serbia in 2005 reached 17%,” said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. “It is unconscionable that the government is withholding payment of wages due for past years and refusing to make an acceptable offer this year.” 
 
Serbia-Montenegro’s government had requested that EPS Trade Union postpone any strike action until the end of February 2006. The ICEM says that such a request is irresponsible considering the non-payment of wages in 2004 and 2005. 
 
The ICEM fully supports the strikes, and has offered assistance to the 43,000-member EPS Trade Union in meeting their pay demands.

ICEM Calls on Serbia to Pay Backwages, Reach 2006 Pay Terms

<img height="86" alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/icem-logo.jpg" width="100"/>
Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on 17-18 November 2005, trade union delegates at the ICEM’s World Conference for the Materials Sector, encompassing the Cement, Glass, and Ceramics Industries, adopted the following statement: 
 
The state of the business scenario in the Cement, Glass, and Ceramics Industries has been one of mergers, acquisitions and re-location of production. The ICEM’s World Conference for the Materials Sector recognized the disruption such business conditions cause to workers and their families. The Conference adopted measures to safeguard the trade union members and their families from the uncertainty caused by the consolidation of companies and the economic consequences brought to workers and their families. The Conference resolved to take all necessary steps to protect the interests of workers in the Materials Sector. 
 
The Conference adopted the following proposals: 
<ul>
 <li>During the next four-year period until the next ICEM World Conference for the Materials Sector, affiliates will seek to initiate dialogue and achieve further Global Framework Agreements with companies associated with the Materials Sector; 
 </li>
 <li>Affiliated Trade Unions will adopt new and innovative networking methods between themselves to further enhance Global Trade Union Solidarity; 
 </li>
 <li>Affiliated Trade Unions fully joined the ICEM’s campaign on the abusive use of Contract and Agency Labour in all facets of work; 
 </li>
 <li>Affiliated Trade Unions moved to become more vigilant in monitoring and ensuring responsible behaviour by global companies in cement, glass and ceramics industries regarding health, safety and the environment. Specifically, unions will fully monitor and engage with employers, as well as campaign against the menace of asbestos and silicosis caused by hazardous materials used in these industries; 
 </li>
 <li>ICEM membership within this sector will engage effective workplace measures to educate and raise awareness of the risk of HIV/AIDS infection, and to ensure that meaningful programmes for anti-discrimination of those living with HIV/AIDS be put in place. 
 </li>
 <li>Affiliated Trade Unions will undertake to increase their efforts regarding the all-important Gender Issue of Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value, and to ensure that any and all gender-based discrimination is eliminated from workplaces. </li>
</ul>
It is the determination and commitment of the ICEM-affiliated Trade Unions in the Materials Sector to take sufficient and meaningful action to meet this agenda and produce a full report on the progress of these initiatives at the next World Conference for the Materials Sector. 
 
Adopted 18 November 2005 
Brussels, Belgium 
 
For more information on this conference, including background documents and presentations, click <a href="?id=148" type="internal">here</a>.

ICEM Declaration on the Materials Sector

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Global unions worldwide condemned the government of Iran’s brutal suppression of bus drivers in Tehran and surrounding areas on 15 February. The condemnations came from the Global Union Federations, national unions and the ICFTU, but also were heard strongly from transport and oil unions in Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco and Tunisia. Rail workers and maritime unions in some of those North African and Middle East countries also participated in the Day of Action in support of Iranian bus drivers.
The government’s Intelligence Ministry and its security militia, Basij, has deployed brute force since spring 2005 to put down strikes by drivers who have been seeking unpaid wages. And since December, the repression has become more violent with the government using a variety of means to silence drivers’ protests. 
On 28 January, 30 drivers were seriously injured and up to 1,400 were jailed for demonstrating. A few days later, family members and spouses of the jailed drivers gathered outside Iran’s parliament, Majiles, and were met by security forces. The leader of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Co. (Sherkat-e Vahed), Mansour Osanloo, has been held since the government arrested leaders of the union on 22 December.
Because Iranian security teams have used beatings to force drivers out on routes, workers have resorted to a continual “lights on” protest of buses to draw attention to the violent crack-down of workers’ rights by Iran’s authorities. The ICEM sent a strong letter of protest to the government of Iran on the 15 February Day of Action, which can be found at <a href="/index.php?id=24&doc=1658.&la=EN" type="internal">/index.php?id=24&doc=1658.&la=EN</a>

Iranian Bus Drivers Given Global Union Support

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