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On 24 February, Juan Linares was released after spending two years in jail. His release came just days after worldwide mobilization of unions in the 14-19 February global days of action demanding trade union rights in Mexico. Linares has been a member of SNTMMSRM (or Los Mineros) since 1972 as a mine worker at the ArcelorMittal Sicartsa steel mill. 
 
Why were you imprisoned and what was the impact of this on your union? 
 
I was imprisoned under false charges of fraud, on which no evidence was ever presented. This is clearly an anti-union measure taken by the government of Felipe Calder&oacute;n to undermine and attack the Miners' Union. There was an investigation and an audit was carried out which shows that there has been no embezzlement of funds at all. The anti-union attacks from the government have been constant, firstly starting with the accusations against the General Secretary Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia; secondly, the freezing of the bank account and thirdly, imprisoning me. This just serves the government&rsquo;s intention to finish off our union. 
 
How did you manage to secure your release after two years in jail? 
 
International support, particularly from the IMF, ICEM, AFL-CIO, and the United Steelworkers, that mobilized international opinion about my case and in particular the global days of action held in February had considerable impact on my release. I was imprisoned for two years, two months and 20 days. 
 
Is the government persecution of Los Mineros continuing? 
 
Yes, the government continues daily to persecute Los Mineros and this is because it is a right wing government. This already started in the time of Vicente Fox and is now continuing with Felipe Calder&oacute;n. Persecution is particularly harsh from the Minister of Labour. 
 
What is the situation for Los Mineros and the independent trade union movement in Mexico today? 
 
I think that things are slowly improving. The questions that we are discussing today on the merger at the global level will be particularly beneficial for Mexico. For example, another union under attack - SME - will soon be together with us and I think that we could achieve a really strong and independent labour movement in Mexico. 
 
How can international solidarity support Los Mineros and other independent unions in your struggle? 
 
One thing in which we need the support from the international organizations is to be able to continue organizing and recruiting new members in our union and that is what we would ask the international organizations to which we are affiliated. I also would like to share with you my great joy because we just heard on 25 May that our leader Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez has now been cleared of all accusations against him and we are looking forward to having him back with us in Mexico and to continue our struggle. We believe that the union movement in Mexico is really advancing.

Interview: Juan Linares, National Mexican Mine and Metal Workers Union (SNTMMSRM)

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What are the main challenges facing women members of the CFMEU? 
In the mining, energy, and petrochemicals sectors there are a very low percentage of women in the workforce especially in New South Wales. In a male-dominated work environment, it is a challenge to encourage women to take jobs in these sectors and then into union positions. 
We have gone through over 11 years of a very right-wing, conservative government that stripped a lot of conditions out of our agreements. For the last two years, we have had a Labour government and we are trying to claw back the things that were lost over that period. 
Aside from ongoing gender issues, one major challenge now facing women is allowances for those coming off maternity leave at Shell. The employer is discriminating against mothers by inflexibility on shift scheduling. Operators work 12-hour shifts, rotating nights and days. Shell&rsquo;s inflexibility means women do not have the right to become mothers and also stay on their job. 
Can you tell us about the Women&rsquo;s structure inside the CFMEU? 
Our newly-formed Women&rsquo;s Committee elected me as Secretary. It consists of three executives, and three rank-and-file members from the mining, forestry, and construction industries. An early priority is to run education and training programmes for women, to encourage women to work in our industries. I was also recently appointed to the Central Council of the central leadership body of CFMEU through a new policy on affirmative action and women&rsquo;s involvement. 
 
What about unity among women of other trade union organisations?
This has been greatly facilitated by the strong support of CFMEU&rsquo;s central leadership. I actively serve on the Asia-Pacific Regional Committee of the ICEM Women&rsquo;s Committee, uniting women workers from India, Pakistan, Australia, and many other nations. 
My long-term involvement in Australia&rsquo;s Women In Male-Dominated Organisations and Industries has seen a building of cross-sector coordination of industrial women. We are seeking grants for training and education, through the Skills Councils, and looking to run programmes in schools for girls looking at careers in industry. 
 
What is the action way forward&nbsp;for the Women&rsquo;s Section of an integrated global industrial federation? 
I would like to see a lot more programmes established, firstly on a regional level and especially on issues such as domestic violence. All the problems that we face across the spectrum would be much easier to combat if women were in a position of strength and able to support themselves. The most important priority is training and education for women. Training and education that lead to better jobs, better organisations, increased diversity and seniority inside unions, and increased possibilities for women to escape bad situations at work and at home. Our long-term goal is simply be to have more women being more active.

Interview: New South Wales Energy District Secretary Lorraine Usher, CFMEU

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The ICEM Thai Committee and the Thai Electronics Automobile Metalworkers (TEAM), the structure for IMF affiliates in the Southeast Asian country, joined hands and chanted for labour rights on May Day in Bangkok. They were a major part of a 1 May manifestation at Parliament and march along Ratchademnoen road to Democracy Monument. It drew 5,000 workers. 
It was one of two May Day protests in Bangkok and both demanded attention from the government on some of the same issues. The Thai Labour Solidarity Committee and the State Enterprises Relations Confederation (SERC) joined the ICEM-TEAM work forces. 
Both demonstrations demanded that the government ratify ILO Conventions 87 and 98, the core labour standards, and rescind Thailand&rsquo;s 1999 privatisation laws. The two manifestations also called for Social Secrurity reform in terms of better protections made in administrative reform and tax exemptions on workers&rsquo; final payment schemes.
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The ICEM-TEAM protest made other, worthy demands including protection for informal sector workers and migrant workers, creation of a specific government agency on job-related health and safety, revocation of the Public Assembly Bill, and allowing workers to vote in areas where they work rather than in their hometowns. 
Many that marched along Ratchademnoen road to Democracy Monument chanted political slogans and criticisms of the current government as the time draws for national elections in Thailand.

TEAM, ICEM Thai Committee March Together on May Day

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The Independent Trade Union of Miners&rsquo; of Ukraine (NPGU) held its Sixth Congress at mid-month in Kiev and besides hearing a 2005 to 2011 report on the union&rsquo;s activities, the Congress elected governing bodies and adopted several resolutions. 
 
Mikhail Volynets was re-elected President of the Independent Miners Union by secret ballot. The Congress was attended by the ICEM and representatives from the ILO, the US Solidarity Center, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) of Germany, representatives of Ukrainian ministries and departments, deputies of the Verkhovnaya Rada, or Parliament, the leaders of other trade unions of Ukraine. 
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Mikhail Volynets (left) and NPGU Vice President Anatoly Akimochkin
Delegates and speakers voiced concern that the new law on Social Dialogue in Ukraine, adopted by the Rada, with many stating that it jeopardizes the gains made over the past 20 years. Specific resolutions of the Congress singled out harmful passages of the Social Dialogue law regarding pension reform and health and safety in Ukraine&rsquo;s coal mines. 
 
The Congress also resolved to: demand that the state establish a system of preferences for employees who are actively involved in creating safe working conditions and for employers who prove that they maintain a steady level of safe working conditions; demand that the work state mine regulatory agencies do be judged on hours worked without incidents, accidents, and fatalities, rather than on the number of orders, reprimands, and fines issued; demand that public institutions in the field of occupational safety and health should be an integral part of safety and health management systems. 
 
Delegates also called on the Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers not to adopt the draft law on pension reform; develop wage reform aimed at legalizing the maximum wage and to significantly increase the wage proportion in a company's production costs to the level of 20-25% to serve as the basis for calculating pension contributions; eliminate the corruption phenomenon in the extractive industries where the shadow market of coal reaches three million tons per year, and to close coal mining off to so-called &ldquo;slave labour,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Kopanki&rdquo;; and improve legislation for heightened liability against employers for violating workers&rsquo; rights.

Independent Miners’ Union of Ukraine Holds Sixth Congress

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On 13 May in Madrid, two great unions from the Spanish UGT confederation merged to form a new union, the 150,000-member FITAG-UGT, the UGT&rsquo;s new union for food and industrial workers. 
 
Dissolution congresses of the two predecessor unions, FTA-UGT for food and FIA-UGT for chemicals and industrial, preceded the founding congress, with delegates voting better than 97% in both congresses to go ahead with the merger. Antonio Deusa Pedrazo was elected General Secretary of FITAG-UGT. The new Executive is made up of 17 members, six of whom are women. Roughly 32% of the new union&rsquo;s membership is women. 
 
The union will negotiate 31 collective agreements in sectors that cover 10% of Spain&rsquo;s total industrial base. 
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Mari Luz Rodriguez
The founding Congress made it clear that special attention will be given to sectors that are more difficult to organise such as ones containing small- and medium-sized companies. One focus will be immigrants who work in great numbers in some of the sectors that the new federation will represent. 
 
Spanish Secretary of State for Employment, Gender and Youth, Mari Luz Rodriguez, spoke at the founding 
Congress. She recognized the new union for its reinforced union structures and for defending the interests of workers. 
 
FITAG-UGT also made it clear it was laying the foundation for facing the challenges that confront trade unions, both at national and international levels. Those include: to respond to globalization and fight neoliberalism; strengthen the union role and strengthen European Works Council roles in facing multinationals; to make the most of international trade unions; to demand and get more stable and secure employment with more rights; and to demand more appropriate social protections and defend the welfare state. 
 
To meet these goals, FITAG-UGT resolved to organise more workers in all sectors that the new union serves, and to get more shop stewards to be present in all workplaces and to increase the union&rsquo;s influence. The union believes better training, information, and structures will be put in place to achieve these goals. 
 
ICEM affiliate FIA-UGT itself is a product of mergers in Spain&rsquo;s labour movement. The former Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union first merged with UGT branches representing oil and gas workers and then merged again with branches of miners and textile workers.

Industrial, Food Workers of UGT in Spain Merge

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The ICEM today expressed sadness and anger at the deaths of two members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500 in Sudbury, Ontario, on Wednesday night, 8 June. The two miners died 900 metres underground at Vale&rsquo;s Stobie nickel and copper mine when an overflow of broken rock, sediment, and water &ndash; known as muck &ndash; buried them. 
 
The miners were identified yesterday as Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26. The two men were operating a scooptram at the No. 7 ore pass inside Stobie. An ore pass is a junction where ore is dropped from one level to the next. Sixty miners were working in the mine on the night shift when the fatalities occurred. 
 
In a letter today to USW President Leo Gerard, himself a former mineworker in Sudbury, USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann, and USW Local 6500 President Rick Bertrand, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda stated: &ldquo;It is a terrible tragedy and makes clear the inherent dangers for workers whose livelihoods are dependent on the mining industry. Please convey the sympathies of the entire ICEM global family of unions to the families of the two miners, as well as to all union members of Local 6500.&rdquo; (See the full <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/54.ICEM.USW.Sudbury%20Deaths.Canada.10June.pdf">ICEM letter</a> here.) 

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Vale&rsquo;s Stobie nickel and copper mine
The ICEM also noted that USW&rsquo;s expert team of safety and health investigators will probe the tragic circumstances to uncover what went wrong and to ensure a similar tragedy does not happen again. The ICEM stated the sad irony of the 8 June is that only eight days before the miners&rsquo; deaths, Vale was honoured with an award by the Canadian Institute of Mining as having the safest two metal mines in Canada. 
 
Although the mines receiving the award were at Vale&rsquo;s nickel operations in Thompson, Manitoba, mines from Sudbury won the same award consecutively from 2006 to 2009. 
 
In a statement, Local 6500 President Bertrand said, &ldquo;The Steelworkers will be involved in this investigation every step of the way. Once the investigation is complete we will work hard for the workplace to be restored to safe condition before it starts up again.&rdquo; 
 
The Stobie mine in Sudbury consists of two adjoining mines, an open cast one and an underground one where the tragedy occurred. Canada has not ratified ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention.

ICEM Saddened by Mine Deaths of Two Steelworkers at Vale in Sudbury, Canada

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Suez Environnement, a subsidiary of French-based GDF SUEZ, was hit with an OECD petition pursuant to the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises yesterday by ICEM affiliate Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA). The petition was for alleged environmental failures and unfair labour practice complaints issued by the US government against United Water, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suez Environnement. 
 
GDF SUEZ is signatory to a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with three Global Union Federations (GUFs), including ICEM and Public Services International (PSI). Both ICEM and PSI have jointly criticised the parent company for the insolent social conduct of it&rsquo;s subsidiary in the US Suez Environnement is 35% held by GDF SUEZ. 
 
The US National Labour Relations Board authorised unfair labour practice complaints against United Water at two separate locations where the UWUA represents workers and is now negotiating with United Water over renewal agreements. The US agency&rsquo;s charge against management involves failure to provide relevant information to the union related to bargaining. 
 
United Water is demanding steep cuts in employee retirement benefits. Failure to adequately exchange information related to bargaining clearly violates Article 7 of the GDF SUEZ GFA, &ldquo;Respect for Trade Union Rights,&rdquo; which references transparency in labour-management forums. The agreement also refers to the OECD Guidelines and the ILO Tripartite Principles, both of which have clear language regarding exchange of information for &ldquo;meaningful negotiations&rdquo; in social partnerships. 
 
The GFA, signed in November 2010, covers all of the group&rsquo;s businesses, even ones in which the company holds a minority stake. In a letter last month to GDF SUEZ CEO G&eacute;rard Mestralett, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and PSI General Secretary Peter Waldorff said, &ldquo;The ICEM and PSI are angry and disappointed with the callousness, indifference, and negative conduct of United Water management in relation to the Global Framework Agreement and abidance to GDF SUEZ&rsquo;s core social principles.&rdquo;
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UWUA President Michael Langford&nbsp; 

The alleged environmental infractions also saw the GUFs take issue with United Water. In December 2010, the US government issued a criminal indictment charging that United Water intentionally manipulated E.coli bacteria monitoring tests at a wastewater treatment plant outside of Chicago. The indictment alleges that United Water engaged in a scheme in which it increased chlorine levels when government-mandated E.coli inspections took place, and then lowered input levels after as a costs-savings measure. The allegations, if proven true, stand as an obvious menace to public health. United Water has pleaded not guilty to the charges. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4208-US-Affiliate-UWUA-Challenges-GDF-SUEZ-Inside-Global-Agreement">ICEM report</a> on that here.) 
 
The UWUA symbolically filed the OECD petition yesterday, along with the American NGO Food and Water Watch, at the French embassy in Washington, DC, as well as to the US government&rsquo;s National Contact Point. UWUA Local 1-2 in New York City also distributed informational leaflets on United Water&rsquo;s detrimental conduct outside the French mission to the UN. Under the OECD complaint process, both the US and French governments are obligated to forward the submission to the French parent company and to the US subsidiary for a formal reply. 
 
UWUA President Michael Langford said, &ldquo;Utility workers have been astonished at the bad faith conduct of United Water in labour negotiations in the US.&rdquo;

US Utility Workers File OECD Complaint Against Suez Environnement

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Addressing the Plenary sitting of the 100th session of the International Labour Conference today, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda called for action on precarious work, workers' health and safety in the mining industry, and attention to the violation of rights of Holcim employees in India, as well as on abuses to glass workers in Mexico. 
 
Warda condemned the shocking attempt by Swiss-based cement multinational Holcim to crush the union representing its employees in India, with unsubstantiated claims leading to the 19 May arrest of union leaders engaged during a legal battle for the reinstatement of 80 members illegally sacked at the Holcim-ACC unit at Jamul.
Referring to the recent attempt of those outsourced workers to voice their concerns to the authorities, Warda continued, &ldquo;It is deplorable that Mr. Chandrashekhar Sahu, the Labor Minister of the State of Chhattisgarth of India, attending this Conference, refused to meet 250 Holcim workers who had walked long distances to appeal to him for observation of basic trade union rights.&rdquo; 
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Warda called on governments and employers to move towards ratification and implementation of ILO Convention 176 and its associated Recommendation 183, on safety and health in mines. With Ukraine soon to become the 25th country to ratify the Convention, this represents far too few adoptions, while miners are continuing to be killed and injured every day around the world. 
 
Finally, Warda focussed on the ILO complaint&nbsp;No. 2774 by Mexican affiliated union SUTEIVP. The complaint is being fully supported by the ICEM, following a 2008 mass dismissal of hundreds of workers at Industria Vidriera del Potosi S.A., a manufacturer of glass bottles used by Corona beer. The sacked workers were covered by a collective bargaining agreement and included the executive committee of the SUTEIVP at the plant. A protection contract was then established by the employer. 
 
See the <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/ICEM_Manfred_Warda_ILC_Plenary_Speech%20_8_June%20FINAL.pdf">full text of the speech</a> here.

ICEM General Secretary Addresses International Labour Conference

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ICEM &uuml;yesi T&uuml;rkiye &Ccedil;imento, Seramik, Toprak ve Cam Sanayi İş&ccedil;ileri Sendikası &Ccedil;imse-İş, 2 Haziran tarihinde yapılan Başkanlar Kurulu toplantısında, 45 &ccedil;imento fabrikası i&ccedil;in grev kararı aldı. Grev kararı, &ccedil;imento sekt&ouml;r&uuml;nde devam etmekte olan toplu iş s&ouml;zleşmesi g&ouml;r&uuml;şmelerinde ortaya &ccedil;ıkan uyuşmazlığın ardından geldi. 
 
&Uuml;ye sendikamız &Ccedil;imse-İş ile T&uuml;rkiye &Ccedil;imento İşverenleri Sendikası (&Ccedil;EİŞ) arasında 7 Ocak tarihinden bu yana s&uuml;rmekte olan m&uuml;zakereler, yeni bir toplu iş s&ouml;zleşmesi imzalanmasına olanak vermeyecek şekilde tıkanıklık i&ccedil;erisinde girmiş durumda. Ocak ve Şubat ayında yapılan g&ouml;r&uuml;şmelerde 40 civarında idari h&uuml;k&uuml;m &uuml;zerinde mutabakat sağlanmıştı. 
<img alt="" src="" width="154" height="140" />
&Ccedil;imse-İş Genel Başkanı Zekeriye Nazlım
Fakat ge&ccedil;en aylar s&uuml;resince başkaca bir ilerleme sağlanamadı ve bunun &uuml;zerine &Ccedil;imse-İş Sendikası, genel merkez y&ouml;netim kurulu &uuml;yeleri ve şube başkanlarından oluşan Başkanlar Kurulu&rsquo;nu toplayarak t&uuml;m sekt&ouml;r&uuml; kapsayan bir grev kararı aldığını ilan etti. Başkanlar Kurulu ayrıca, grev uygulaması i&ccedil;in gerekli hazırlıkların vakit ge&ccedil;irilmeden yapılması hususunu da karara bağladı. 
 
Toplu iş s&ouml;zleşmesi g&ouml;r&uuml;şmeleri 45 fabrikada &ccedil;alışan 5800 civarında sendika &uuml;yesini kapsamaktadır. 
 
Toplu İş S&ouml;zleşmesi, Grev ve Lokavt Yasası&rsquo;na g&ouml;re, &Ccedil;imse-İş Sendikası grev kararı alınmasının ardından 60 g&uuml;nl&uuml;k s&uuml;re i&ccedil;erisinde grev uygulamasına başlayacak. Sendika grev uygulamasının ne zaman yapılacağını daha sonra a&ccedil;ıklayacak.

Çimse-İş Türkiye’deki 45 Çimento Fabrikası için Grev Kararı Aldı

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23 Mayıs tarihinde toplanan ICEM Başkanlık Kurulu, Kemal &Ouml;zkan&rsquo;ın &ouml;rg&uuml;t&uuml;n yeni Sekt&ouml;rel Faaliyetler ve&nbsp;End&uuml;stri&nbsp;İlişkileri Direkt&ouml;rl&uuml;ğ&uuml;&rsquo;ne 1 Haziran tarihi itibarı ile atanmasına ilişkin kararı onayladı. &Ouml;zkan yeni g&ouml;revini, 2007 yılı başından bu yana s&uuml;rd&uuml;rmekte olduğu Kimya ve Lastik İşkolları Sorumluluğu g&ouml;revi ile birlikte y&uuml;r&uuml;tecek. 
 
Ekonomi ve işletme y&ouml;netimi alanındaki master derecesi ile beraber m&uuml;hendislik eğitimi almış olan &Ouml;zkan, ICEM&rsquo;de &ccedil;alışmaya başlamadan &ouml;nce, 15 yıldan uzun bir s&uuml;re T&uuml;rk &uuml;yemiz Petrol, Kimya ve Lastik Sanayii İş&ccedil;ileri Sendikası&rsquo;nda g&ouml;rev yapmıştı. Sendikacı bir aileden gelmekte olan &Ouml;zkan&rsquo;ın babası, 1980 yılında T&uuml;rkiye&rsquo;de yapılan askeri darbe sırasında d&ouml;rt yıl tutuklu olarak cezaevine konulmuştu. 
 
Konuyla ilgili konuşan &Ouml;zkan, &ldquo;ICEM&rsquo;in yeni Sekt&ouml;rel Faaliyetler ve&nbsp;End&uuml;stri İlişkileri Direkt&ouml;rl&uuml;ğ&uuml;&rsquo;ne getirilmekten onur duymaktayım&rdquo; diyerek, &ldquo;Bu durum, &ouml;rg&uuml;t&uuml;m&uuml;z&uuml;n başarısı i&ccedil;in bana daha fazla sorumluluk y&uuml;klemektedir. ICEM&rsquo;in sekt&ouml;rel faaliyetleri ve end&uuml;stri ilişkileri alanındaki &ccedil;alışmalarını g&uuml;&ccedil;lendirmek i&ccedil;in elimden geleni yapacağım&rdquo; şeklinde a&ccedil;ıklamasını bitirdi. 
ICEM Genel Sekreteri Manfred Warda da yaptığı a&ccedil;ıklamasında, &ldquo;Kemal &Ouml;zkan, bilgisi, başarısı ve canlılığı ile bu g&ouml;revi haketmektedir. Kendisi ICEM i&ccedil;erisinde daha fazla sorumluluk almaya hazır olduğunu her vesile ile g&ouml;stermiştir. Yeni g&ouml;revi ile birlikte Kemal &Ouml;zkan&rsquo;ın bayrağımızı geleceğe taşımak i&ccedil;in hazır olduğunu g&ouml;stereceğinden eminim&rdquo; dedi. 
 
42 yaşında olan &Ouml;zkan, Selma Başak Hanım ile evlidir.

Özkan, ICEM Sektörel Faaliyetler ve Endüstri İlişkileri Direktörlüğü’ne Getirildi

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