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The mining and maritime unions, under the umbrella of the Mining and Maritime Initiative, met in Los Angeles, California 16-17 February, to discuss ongoing global campaigns in the sector. The ICEM plays a central role in the initiative, with seven ICEM affiliates in attendance: CFMEU (Australia), ILWU, USW (USA), NUM, NUMSA, CEPPWAWU (South Africa), and Maden (Turkey). The International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) also attended. 
 
Meeting delegates discussed the struggles at <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3607-Rio-Tinto-Engaged-in-Savage-Union-Busting-at-California-Borates-Mine">Rio Tinto in Boron California</a>, <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3608-Cananea-Miners-Reject-Grupo-México-Severance;-Strike-Continues ">Grupo Mexico</a>, and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3589-Talks-Prove-Futile-in-Ending-Vale’s-Eastern-Canada-Mine-Strike ">Vale Inco</a>, and the global campaigns around these disputes, led in part by the ICEM, as each conflict involves ICEM affiliates. 

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The meeting issued a statement on the violations of worker rights in Boron California by Rio Tinto and by Grupo Mexico and the Mexican Government. View the statement here. Many of the unions involved in Mining and Maritime have had conflicts with Rio Tinto in the past, and stand in strong solidarity with the members of ILWU 30, who have been locked out by the company, as they refuse an extremely concessionary contract. The unions present pledged to &ldquo;escalate the campaigns in defence of workers at Rio Tinto and Grupo Mexico immediately, dramatically and strategically to make them global battles&rdquo;. 
 
A Campaign Committee was created, which includes ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Joe Drexler. 

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Meeting delegates then attended a large march and rally in support of the Rio Tinto miners in Boron. The participation of Maden, the main mining union in Turkey, was of special significance, since Rio Tinto uses the state-owned Turkish mining company as a supplier to its customers. Maden is a strong supporter of the Boron strikers.

Mining, Maritime Unions Meet

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The Kumho Tyre Workers&rsquo; Union announced last Thursday 4 March that they will launch a general strike on 16 March, in response to the company&rsquo;s announcement of a massive layoff plan, which saw 1,200, of the total 5,000, workers receive redundancy notices. 
 
The 1,200 workers to lose their jobs were told they will be laid off on 2 April under the restructuring plan; however the management has said that 1,000 of those will be rehired by outsourced contractors, at the factories in Gwangju. 
 
The parent company of Kumho Tyres, Kumho Asiana Group, is close to bankruptcy due to the failure of their subsidiary Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co. which they purchased in 2006. These economic conditions will be used to the advantage of Kumho Tyres, as they seek to outsource their workforce to precarious employment, and move production to China where production costs are lower. 

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The Kumho Tyre Workers&rsquo; Union, which is through the Korean Metal Workers&rsquo; Union (KMWU), affiliated to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), sought to negotiate with management to avoid job losses. The union leaders offered management the chance to reduce salaries and bonuses, with management refusing the offer. 
 
A state arbitrator has stepped in to negotiate a settlement. If either of the two parties refuses the final settlement of this committee, workers are legally permitted to strike. The Tyre Workers&rsquo; Union has pledged its willingness to negotiate with management to find a solution, but has said that it is ready to fight should management continue its unreasonable stance. 
 
The KCTU has pledged its full support to the Kumho Tyre workers.

Korean Tyre Workers Plan General Strike in Reaction to Job Cuts

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ICEM&rsquo;s Spanish affiliates in the Chemicals industry have agreed a renewal of the&nbsp;collective agreement for the sector. The previous agreement expired in December 2009. The agreement, signed 9 February by ICEM affiliates FITEQA-CC.OO. and FIA-UGT, was described by CC.OO.&rsquo;s Communications Officer Fernando Lezcano, as a model to be followed by others in overcoming the financial crisis. 
 
The Agreement will be valid for three years, from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2012. 
 
The economic and financial crisis caused the loss of 1.5 million jobs in Spain over the last 18 months, making negotiations between business and trade unions more significant. Spain is now in its seventh consecutive quarter of recession and unemployment is at 4 million for the first time in Spain&rsquo;s history. 
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The unions accepted the limitations of what could be achieved in the negotiations, but prioritised commitments on job stability and changes that would stop the rise of precarious work. The new agreement recommends that local collective agreements place emphasis on permanent jobs and a reduction of temporary work. Also equal opportunities for women and young people must be prioritised. These issues will be continually negotiated on during the period of the agreement, in the newly-created Follow-up Committee. 
 
Factors such as re-distribution of work, shorter working hours, and a program of partial retirement along with replacement contracts, are seen as important tools to avoid redundancies. 
 
Wage policies for the next three years were agreed by the trade unions and employers&rsquo; organizations, raising salaries by 2.5% over the three years of the agreement.

Spain: Renewed Collective Agreement for the Chemicals Sector

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Efforts to end the stalemate in the Canadian nickel strike between the United Steelworkers (USW) and Vale through independent mediation failed yesterday, with the USW giving a practical solution to the 239-day strike: a return to work offer and unresolved issues between the two parties submitted to binding arbitration. 
 
The Brazilian mining company rejected the union&rsquo;s attempt to resolve the dispute, which is marked this Saturday, 13 March, by 3,400 union families being&nbsp;on picket lines for eight months. 
 
Now, global trade unions will ramp up strategic plans on behalf of the USW, first by riding into Sudbury, Canada, in two weeks time to reinforce support to striking nickel miners of the USW. A two-day &ldquo;Bridging the Gap&rdquo; manifestation, 22-23 March, will bring trade union leaders from the Brazilian mining company&rsquo;s world-wide operations to northern Ontario province. 

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The unionists, to include ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, will join the strikers of USW Local 6500 and their families in a march down Sudbury&rsquo;s main street on 22 March, with a global strategy forum scheduled the next day. That forum will include plans for &ldquo;Global Days of Action&rdquo; against Vale, due to occur 5-11 April. 
 
Delegates from Vale and other worksites affiliated with the world&rsquo;s second largest mining house could come from as far away as Brazil, Mozambique, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Norway, and South Africa to attend the event. The early April days of action are meant to give a visible display of disgust inside Vale operations, as well as in front of Vale offices, over the company&rsquo;s insistence that the USW give it unprecedented contract concession in negotiations with Local 6500 of Sudbury, Ontario, and Local 6200 of Port Colborne, Ontario, two unions that share a common labour agreement. 
 
Vale&rsquo;s bargaining intransigence again stood out, after a flicker of hope late last month when the company agreed to sit down with an independent mediator for exploratory talks to end the strike. Those talks began at month&rsquo;s end, but failed on 7 March when mediator Kevin Burkett declared, &ldquo;I am disappointed to report that agreement is not possible at this time. I have therefore broken off discussions.&rdquo; 
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The mediation did produce an unprecedented offer by the USW to return to work in Sudbury and Port Colborne, with a three-member binding arbitration panel to hear the unresolved issues. The USW proposed that Burkett chair the arbitration panel, with the union and Vale each selecting the other two panel members. Vale adamantly rejected the proposal. 
 
In Labrador/Newfoundland Province, meanwhile, a provincial conciliator will again attempt to reconcile differences between USW Local 9508 and Vale in a return to bargaining on 15-16 March. The union and its 250 members in Goose Bay and Voiseys Bay, Labrador, began a strike against Vale&rsquo;s copper and nickel operations in Canada&rsquo;s maritime province on 1 August 2009. Local 9508 and Vale did attempt to resolve differences through provincial mediation in late January, but those efforts broke off on 24 January in St. Johns, Newfoundland. 
 
The breakdown of talks between USW Locals 6500 and 6200 and Vale in Toronto yesterday come just a few weeks before a scheduled 30 March hearing before the Ontario Labour Relations Board on a charge brought by the USW that the company is guilty of bad-faith bargaining. Vale had insisted it would not resume bargaining until USW Locals 6500 and 6200 made a willingness to accede to the concessionary demands of the company. 

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Wayne Fraser, USW District 6 Director
Those concessions &ndash; common before Local 9508 as well &ndash; include retirement decreases, creation of a two-tiered pension scheme, with a defined contribution plan for new hires, steep downgrades to a production bonus, and unilateral company discretion concerning outsourcing. USW has insisted throughout that it wants a return to bargaining under no pre-conditions. 
 
The charge before the Ontario Labour Relations Board claims Vale has prolonged the strike by its refusal to bargain, and USW is asking the agency to order the company to pay lost wages and benefits to workers, as well as reimburse the union for strike benefits. 
 
This strike of 239 days likely now will surpass the longest mining strike in Canadian history. That occurred from September 1978 to June 1979 &ndash; 267 days &ndash; between the USW and Vale&rsquo;s predecessor in Sudbury, Inco Mining. The one distinction between this strike and several skirmishes between the USW and Inco, however, is that Canadian-based Inco never attempted to operate the mines, smelting, and other&nbsp;operations with replacement workers, as Vale is doing&nbsp;now.

Global Support Again Comes to Canada’s Vale Strike; USW Gives Solution to End It

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Ugandan trade unions have brought to light de-humanising work conditions imposed by foreign investors in some of the country&rsquo;s workplaces. In a meeting with President Yoweri Museveni in Entebbe on 1 September, leaders of the Central Organisation of Free Trade Unions (COFTU) said abuse of workers and mistreatment is increasingly on the rise in private businesses controlled by outside investors. 
 
Although COFTU did not name employers, the worst of the abusive practices were by small businesses. Dr Sam Lyomoki, COTFU&rsquo;s General Secretary and a member of the Uganda Parliament, presented a petition to the President that outlined general shortcomings in pay and work conditions, as well as failure by some employers to remit income tax and social security deductions to the government. 
 
But the biggest shock came when labour leaders told of denigrating practices imposed by bosses on workers. Specific incidents were cited. One involved a small-business owner who forced an employee to mop an office floor with her tongue. Another boss in a food and detergent manufacturing plant locked a female worker in a toilet in retaliation for her using the toilet before a scheduled break. 
 
Reports said Museveni was visibly shaken upon hearing such accounts. He ordered the Labour Ministry to immediately investigate the abuses. He also told the trade union federation that he would support establishment of labour institutes within the country that would monitor employer misconduct, as well as safeguard workers&rsquo; health and safety. 

&nbsp;

Degrading Work Abuses Brought Forward in Uganda

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Women of Steel, the women&rsquo;s organization of ICEM North American affiliate United Steelworkers (USW), has called on the US government to take stronger action against the Honduran military, following the 28 June coup of democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya. 
 
The union&rsquo;s women&rsquo;s group pointed to at least 19 cases of rape by police officers since the coup began, and cited a report by Feministas de Honduras en Resistencia that said police are using rape and other forms of sexual assault against women leaders of the resistance to blunt a return to democracy. 
 
In a 31 August letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Women of Steel Director Ann Flener said, &ldquo;We call upon you and President Obama to denounce the repression and basic human rights violations being carried out by the current illegitimate government and to take all necessary steps to restore President Zelaya, including the withdrawal of the US Ambassador to Honduras; the end of all economic assistance to the coup regime, including monies granted by the Millennium Challenge Corp., and to freeze all assets of the coup leaders. 
 
&ldquo;As women, we ask you to speak out and stand up against this violence against women &hellip;&rdquo; The letter also asked Secretary of State Clinton to denounce the gender violence in Honduras, similar to her denouncement of violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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Some of USW's Women of Steel&nbsp;
The letter was copied to President Barack Obama, US First Lady Michelle Obama, 17 women members of the US Senate, and several other US government officials. 
 
While the US government has verbally called for the return to power of Zelaya, it has officially refrained from terming the overthrow a coup, which would legally require it to suspend all economic and military aid. The US is Honduras&rsquo;s chief trade partner. 
 
Most European Union governments have withdrawn their ambassadors, and EU countries in total have suspended US$90 million in aid to the Central American country. 
 
On 30 July, Carlos Reyes, General Secretary of International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers&rsquo; (IUF) affiliated STIBYS, was brutally attacked by Honduran police squads while he was peacefully protesting the military coup in the northern city of Tegucigalpa. Reyes, an IUF Executive Committee member, suffered a severely broken arm and other serious injuries. 

&nbsp;

USW Women call on US Government to Take Definitive Action in Honduras

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A summer-long Korean labour dispute that spiraled into a 25 August lockout by Kumho Tire Co. at three manufacturing plants was resolved Saturday, 5 September, when South Korea&rsquo;s second largest tyre maker and the Kumho Tire Workers&rsquo; Union of the Korean Metal Workers&rsquo; Union (KMWU) reached a compromise settlement. 
 
That compromise will preserve 733 of 4,000 jobs that Kumho had proposed be cut. The union, in turn, will extend a 2008 wage freeze through 2009. The Kumho Tire Workers&rsquo; Union also agreed to forego scheduled 2008 bonuses, with talks over 2009 bonus schemes to be held in the first quarter of 2010. 
 
The dispute began in June when management demanded another wage freeze, non-payment of bonuses, a job-sharing plan that would cut work hours, thus reducing salaries between 20-to-30%, and the redundancies, totaling 18% of the entire workforce. The union then began a series of industrial actions, and was prepared to escalate job actions after Kumho reported its restructuring plan to the Ministry of Labour on 24 August.
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Instead, the company imposed lockouts at tyre facilities in Gwangju, Gwanngju province, Gokseong, South Jeolla province, and Pyeonggtaek, Gyeonggi province. When Kumho lifted the lockouts some ten days later, workers embarked on sit-in strike actions. Those ended at the weekend with the negotiated compromise. 
 
The union also retreated on a &ldquo;no work/no pay&rdquo; demand by Kumho for the strike days, and salaries will not be paid during periods of strike. The dispute mirrored some of the negative results from the recent Ssangyong Motor struggle. 
 
Kumho Tire is part of the conglomerate Kumho Asiana Group, a holding company that took on massive debt in 2006 with the purchase of Daewoo Engineering &amp; Construction Co. The group&rsquo;s debt-to-equity ratio rose five-fold and Kumho has tried to reduce debt by reducing labour costs. 
 
Kumho Tire has severed its workforce by 130 each year since ill-advised purchase of Daewoo, but last year, in July, a four-day strike by the Kumho Tire Workers&rsquo; Union convinced the company to withdraw 431 announced redundancies. In the past year, however, Kumho opened its second plant in China, a truck and bus tyre facility in the city of Nanjing. 
 
The Tire Workers&rsquo; Union, through the KMWU, is affiliated to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). 

&nbsp;

Korean Tyre Dispute at Kumho Ends in Compromise

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A record number 364 union and management participants attended a Social Dialogue Conference in Thailand last week, 31 August, sponsored by the ICEM, the Thai Ministry of Labour, FNV Mondiaal of the Netherlands, LO-TCO of Norway, and the Employers&rsquo; Federation of Thailand (ECOT). 
 
The title of the conference was &ldquo;International Labour Standards and the Wisdom of Co-Existence,&rdquo; and central in purpose was to shape a common understanding of ILO core labour standards, as well as building responsible social governance between Thai labour unions and multinational companies. 
 
Over 150 people more than were expected turned out for the conference, held at the Siam City Hotel in Bangkok. Managing directors and human resource executives from 28 companies attended, including representatives from Esso, Linde-TIG Industrial Gases, Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Co., and Norske Skog paper company.
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Part of the Partipants at the Social Dialogue Conference
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda congratulated those present, and expressed hope that a true commitment to a new era of labour-management relations in Thailand was at hand. He also pledged to extend the resources of the Global Union Federation to Thailand in order that the country ratify core labour conventions, namely Conventions 87 and 98, freedom of association and right to collection bargaining, and Convention 111, the Discrimination in Employment and Occupation Convention. 
 
&ldquo;It is imperative that values of mutual faith and cooperation be built between managers of transnational companies and Thai labour unions,&rdquo; said Warda. &ldquo;For this to effectively begin, the Thai government must lead by starting the process toward ratification of ILO core labour standards.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM organized the conference, jointly with the Thai Ministry of Labour, as a follow-up to a resolution from its 2007 Bangkok Congress. There, delegates recognized a Thai labour-management system structured on authoritarianism and hierarchal in industrial relations.
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&nbsp;Yoshio Sato of Japan, representing ICEM's Asia-Pacific Region; in rear,&nbsp;ICEM Thai Chairman Rawai Pupaga, ECOT Gen. Sec. Siriwan Romchat-thong, and the Thai Labour Ministry&rsquo;s Somchai Chumrat
&nbsp;
ECOT General Secretary Siriwan Romchat-thong confirmed in her opening remarks that the employers&rsquo; federation would support ratification of Conventions 87 and 98. A panel discussion composed of labour, management, and governmental leaders showed a consensus toward ratification in the immediate future. 
 
The Thai Permanent Secretary of the Labour Ministry, Somchai Chumrat, stressed the mutual benefit that can be gained through trust between labour and management by dialogue and understanding. &ldquo;Employers cannot live in a vacuum,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Managers and workers&rsquo; representatives must sit together to discuss the wisdom of conducting labour relations in peaceful cooperation.&rdquo; 
 
He added that although Thailand recognizes the benefit of foreign investment, senior executives of multinationals must clarify the roles of local managers in Thailand so that they act according to international labour standards and national laws. 
 
Another speaker that echoed the immediate need for a changed culture was Rawai Pupaga, chairman of the ICEM Thai Affiliates Committee and President of Government Pharmaceutical Employees&rsquo; Association (GPOTU). As a first step, he called on Thai workers and managers alike to show respect for workers&rsquo; rights by taking part in World Day for Decent Work activities on 7 October. 
 
Other resource people calling for a different labour-management culture were Tim de Meyer, senior specialist for the ILO on International Labour Standards and Labour Law, and Lae Dilokwidhayarat of Chulalongkorn University. Dilokwidhayarat stressed that the globalisation of capital and freedom of movement demands respect for the concept of decent work, meaning adequate compensation, trade union representation, and stability, security, and protection of workplace rights. 

A side meeting to the Social Dialogue Conference occurred between the ICEM, local executives of Linde and its Thai Industrial Gases subsidiary, and ICEM affiliate TIG Local Union. The Thai subsidiary of Linde has been neglectful over trade union rights at some 20 Thai workplaces, particularly in respect to work rights and full-time opportunities for short-term contract and temporary workers. The meeting did produce an understanding that TIGLU and the company&rsquo;s managing and human resource directors would meet in the near future to discuss problems and strive for a better relationship.
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&nbsp; 
Visit to the Norske Skog Mill in Singburi 

One employer that has practiced exemplary social responsibility in Thailand has been the Norwegian paper company Norske Skog. On 1 September, Warda, Rawai Pupaga, ICEM Thai Project Coordinator Aranya Pakapath, and ICEM&rsquo;s Asia-Pacific Contact Person, Phee Jungsun, visited the factory in Singburi, where workers and local managers, including Managing Director Torpong Thongcharoen, hailed a relationship that can serve as a standard within Thailand. Notably, the collective agreement at Norske Skog in Singburi has strict language regarding the use of contract and agency labour, language that both sides respect and adhere to.

ICEM Social Dialogue Conference in Thailand Exceeds Expectations

ICEM Women’s Bulletin No. 35/Boletín de noticias de las mujeres de ICEM No. 35

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The members of ICEM affiliate, the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers' Union (CEPPWAWU) have engaged in a protected strike in companies around the country. The strike began on 20 July. The Union&rsquo;s 40,000 striking workers are demanding wage increases of between 13-15%, while employers are willing to pay between 8-10%. The negotiations have taken over two months and a dispute was officially declared last month, Skhumbuzo Phakathi, CEPPWAWU&rsquo;s International Coordinator, informed the ICEM. 
 
A countrywide march is planned for today. Thabane Mdlalose, the deputy general secretary of CEPPWAWU says the pulp and paper section met with employers at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration last Monday, without agreement. &ldquo;All our members are still picketing,&rdquo; he added. The labour union also wants six months paid maternity leave and temporary employees to be made permanent staff members. 

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The union&rsquo;s Bargaining Council for the Wood and Paper Sector (NBCWPS), oversees the strike in the country&rsquo;s Pulp and Paper industry, focused at SAPPI and Mondi. The wage demand is 13% and the offer from the employer is 7.5%. 
 
CEPPWAWU&rsquo;s National Bargaining Council for Chemical Industries (NBCCI) has the following sectors currently on strike; Pharmaceutical, where the demand of 13.6% is countered with an offer of 7%, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), where the demand is 10% and offer is 8%, Industrial Chemicals, with a demand of 11% versus an offer of 8%. 
 
CEPPWAWU&rsquo;s compromise position is a rise of 10% across all sectors, for settlement. Employers have offered 8 percent, which was the rate of inflation in May. 

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The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has come out in support of the CEPPWAWU mass action, warning that if employers do not better their wage offer, the federation's 2 million members will come out in support of its affiliate. 
 
In the petroleum sector, employers have settled for an acceptable offer covering a two year period, with 40% for maternity leave. 
 
Some of the major companies currently facing strikes are; Adcock Ingram, Air Liquide, Aspen Pharmacare, Barloworld Decorative, Umicore Autocat. Others are Afrox, Johnson and Johnson, Plascon paints, Dulux Paints, Unilever, Colgate/Palmolive, Lake International, Mondi, Sappi, and&nbsp;others across the different&nbsp;sectors. 
 
The ICEM will report developments as&nbsp;strikes continue.

South African Wage Strikes Continue

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