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International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM)
&nbsp;International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF)
International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) 
Stronger Together - Fighting for a Sustainable Future 

We, the global industrial trade union federations representing workers in the metal, chemical, energy, mining, paper, rubber, textiles, materials, and related sectors, believe we have a golden opportunity to demand that the global economy be transformed from an unsustainable &ldquo;casino&rdquo; model into something that supports a sustainable environment and a sustainable society. 
 
The financial crisis that very nearly destroyed the world&rsquo;s economy is only the most obvious recent result of the same short-sighted thinking that has jeopardized the global environment, threatened human health, and destabilized society. In particular, the runaway gambling by banks, hedge funds and other finance institutions has had catastrophic implications for millions of working people. 
 
Working women and men, their families, and the communities that depend on them have paid heavily for the crash of the casino economy through massive job losses, decreased wages, and reduced benefits. The global trade union movement strongly opposes any attempt to make working people assume the major burden of the financial crisis through regressive tax reforms. We believe it is time for the people who caused this mess to pay to clean it up. 
 
The failure of world leaders in December 2009 in Copenhagen to reach an ambitious, fair and binding agreement on greenhouse gases is another example of short-term greed trumping long-term need. The price of inaction will be paid by future generations. From broad concerns like global warming to more specific examples like the Deepwater Horizon disaster, nothing about a de-regulated market ensures the protection the environment. 
 
The inability of the deregulated financial market to value the long-term health of the economy, the environment, or society must now be clear to any thinking person. The ICEM, IMF and ITGLWF are showing the way to a sustainable future by calling for re-regulation of the global financial market, including among other instruments the introduction of a financial transaction tax that would raise billions to tackle poverty and climate change. We believe this will generate substantial revenues to pay for the costs of the crisis, climate change measures, and official development assistance while reducing the pressures that could cause a renewed financial crisis. Coupled with fair and binding environmental regulations, and strong social programs, we can shape a prosperous and sustainable future. 
 
Industrial workers have a central role to play in building a future that lifts people out of poverty while protecting the environment. Through industrial and political action, our three global federations demand that the world&rsquo;s leaders take decisive actions to solve the economic, social and environmental crises. 
 
The economic crisis has not just been about how things are made, bought and sold, but also about people. Evidence shows that many companies that have begun hiring again are doing so with fixed-term or temporary workers. Such precarious work is bad for all workers. It creates cut-price labor that drives down wages. It increases the gap between rich and poor and amplifies the unfair practices that already disadvantage women, young and migrant workers. 
 
We believe the upcoming G8 and G20 summit meetings in Canada provide an opportunity for world leaders to address the legitimate concerns of industrial workers for social justice and long-term employment policies. The solution lies in global governance. Financial markets must be re-regulated, and the environment must be better protected. Jobs, workers&rsquo; rights, social protection, quality public services, and sustainability are at the heart of our proposal for a new system for global governance. 
 
We therefore call on world leaders to: 
&bull; Ensure that global financial markets are regulated, including as an initial step better disclosure of transactions, strengthened monitoring schemes and regulation of leveraging; 
&bull; Ban the creation or use of financial instruments with no verifiable real-world value, such as certain derivatives and swaps; 
&bull; Introduce an international financial transaction tax system to be levied on transactions between financial institutions. A tiny tax on financial transactions would make a massive difference in the way we face up to the challenges of today. Even at just 0.05 percent experts have estimated that an international transaction tax system could eventually raise as much as $400 billion every year - money that could be used to save our planet and build a future fairer for all. 
&bull; Make sustainable development a criteria of trade and investment deals; with balanced and fair access to markets, and transparent monitoring mechanisms of all trade and investment deals past and future; 
&bull; Assess the social, economic and environmental sustainability impact of potential trade agreements prior to the conclusion of negotiations; 
&bull; Consider the employment repercussions of trade liberalization in the negotiation of multilateral and bilateral trade agreements &ndash; to be assessed with full involvement of trade unions; 
&bull; Respect fundamental workers' and trade union rights as set out in the ILO Core Labour Standards; to be included in all bilateral and multilateral agreements on trade and investments along with effective enforcement mechanisms; 
&bull; Create jobs that meet the ILO definition of &ldquo;decent work&rdquo;. We recognize that industrial change is happening, but challenge the legal and political rules that allow precarious work to flourish; 
&bull; Reach an ambitious, fair, and binding, agreement on greenhouse gases at COP16 in Mexico; and 
&bull; Ensure that funds in the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund earmarked as part of the Copenhagen Accord are available to trade unions for vocational and educational purposes as part of the broader principle of Just Transition. 
 
In short we believe that world leaders can no longer ignore the big problems facing the world today. We are calling for an innovative, international regulatory response that will boldly deal with global issues.

ICEM-IMF-ITGLWF Declaration: Toronto, Canada, 19 June 2010

IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 17 June 2010 &ndash; Two Global Union Federations (GUFs) representing a combined 45 million workers will conduct a two-day conference on economic, environment, and social dimensions of sustainability in Toronto beginning tomorrow, aimed at forging a worldwide workers&rsquo; and communities&rsquo; declaration for the upcoming G8 and G20 summits. 
 
The &ldquo;Triple Crisis of Sustainability&rdquo; Conference is sponsored by Geneva, Switzerland-based International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union (ICEM) and International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), and will include voices from 270 trade union and other leaders from over 50 countries. 
 
The conference runs from 9h00 to 17h30 on both 18 and 19 June in the Dominion Ballroom of the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, 123 Queen Street West. 
 
&ldquo;The financial crisis that brought the world&rsquo;s economy to its knees needs correcting and it needs the resonating voices of those most affected by runaway greed and banking calamities,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;Environmental catastrophes, monetary disparities, and destabilized societies all have related origins, and this is the pivotal time for the world&rsquo;s economic and political leaders to correct the imbalances.&rdquo; 
 
Added Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of the IMF: &ldquo;The uncertainties that workers and their families face is now unprecedented. We want guarantees that the G8 and G20 summits address the legitimate concerns of workers for social justice and long-term, sustainable employment, and include the introduction of a global tax on financial institutions.&rdquo; 
 
The two GUFs believe that the crises of failing economies, environmental inaction, and social disorder are interconnected. ICEM and IMF also believe these crises have been produced by absence of global financial and environmental regulations, as well as inept financial governance of markets. The conference will ensure that the voices of global workers are heard on these issues before the G8 and G20 summits convene. 
 
Jobs, workers&rsquo; rights, social protections, quality public services, and sustainability &ndash; both on environmental stewardship and in providing decent work &ndash; will serve as the heart of a common declaration from the conference to the G8 and G20. 
 
A keynote speech on 18 June will be delivered by United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, whose union has been victimized by the merciless globalization and one of the world&rsquo;s largest and most profitable mining companies in Ontario. A panel on the opening day will address the economic crisis. 
 
Other panels will be on topics of sustainable development and climate change, and on corporate governance. On the concluding day, 19 June, David Donnelly, a leading environmental attorney connected with Canada&rsquo;s Blue-Green Alliance, will speak, as will John Evans, the General-Secretary of the Paris-based Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 
 
The conference&rsquo;s programme has been built to allow for maximum comments from the 250 participants in order to gain a wide-ranging discourse over the effects of the social, environmental, and economic crises. 
 
The ICEM counts 467 trade union affiliates in 132 countries, and represents 20 million workers. The IMF represents the collective interests of 25 million metalworkers from more than 200 unions in 100 countries.
Note to Media Outlets: A Press Briefing will occur at the venue at 12h30, 18 June.)
For more, contact: Dick Blin, ICEM Information Officer on-site at <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 79 734 8994 (mobile); or Alexander Ivanou, IMF Communications, <a href="mailto:aivanou@imfmetal.org">aivanou@imfmetal.org</a>, +41 22 308 5033 (land line).

Global Trade Unions Meet in Toronto for Sustainability Conference

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The ICEM was shocked and angered by the arrests of labour and political rights advocate, Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, and Associate Professor Suthachai Yimprasert, in Thailand, and will be detained until earliest 6 June.
The pair presented themselves to police on hearing of their arrest warrants.&nbsp;Neither of them were members of the core Red Shirt group, they were following events closely in their capacity as journalist and academic.
Both friends of the international labour movement, Somyot and Suthachi are detained at the Adisorn Army Base in Saraburi, 115km north of capital Bangkok. Suthachai is on hungar strike in protest of his arrest.
ICEM affiliates and supporters around the world are requested to write to your local Thai embassies and call on the release of both men.
Somyot is a former ICEM project coordinator in Thailand. 
The arrest warrants were issued in connection&nbsp;to the incident on 21 May 2010 at 13.00, when Somyot and Suthachai, in the name of the 24th of June Democracy Group, held a press conference in front of the House No. 111 Foundation. This was a completely peaceful event.
The ICEM joins calls for the immediate release&nbsp;of both men.

ICEM Angered by Thai Arrests

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The Workers&rsquo; Network of Bayer meeting, held 6-7 May at the Hotel Terras Altas in Itapecerica da Serra, S&atilde;o Paulo, was supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) of Germany and was attended by workers, members of factory committees, and managers from Bayer plants in Brazil and Argentina. This eighth meeting was also attended by representatives by CNQ/CUT, the National Confederation of Chemical Industry, the Social Observatory Institute, CUT&rsquo;s Multi Action on Multinationals Project from the Brazilian national labour centre&rsquo;s International Relations Secretariat. 
 
The participation of comrades from the pharmacists' union in Argentina stimulated the discussion on the regional expansion of the network and also allowed a better understanding of the reality of Bayer employees in that country. The Argentine trade unionists spoke on collective agreements, benefits, restructuring and acquisitions in the region, and on relations between business, workers, and unions. 
 
According to CNQ International Relations Secretary Antenor Nakamura, the network must engage in regional expansion, but in order to do that it has to consider the differences in trade union structures in the region. According to Eder Correa, manager of labor relations at Bayer in Brazil, the company acknowledges the Brazilian network, but emphasized that the Brazilian structure cannot interfere in Bayer&rsquo;s positions in other countries. &quot;We can&rsquo;t guarantee recognition of the network in other regions, but we can make a strategic disclosure of the dialogue practices,&quot; he said. 
The impact of nanotechnology for workers was another topic discussed during this eighth meeting. The coordinator of the research institute Renanossoma, Dr. Paulo Martins, introduced the theme and spoke about the lack of regulation for products made with nano particles and the lack of research investment and that impact on processes. 

<img src="" width="227" height="180" alt="" />
&quot;Nanotechnology allows the creation of new products, but we still do not know if they are safe. The social, environmental, and ethical concerns should be taken into consideration,&quot; he stated. 
 
During the two-day meeting, workers and Bayer managers covered topics such as fundamental rights at work, moral harassment in the corporate world, control system of working hours, incorporation of benefits, dissemination of social dialogue in all areas of the company, newsletters, and the functioning and structure of the network. The next meeting of workers network at Bayer will be held in April 2011. 
 
At the social dialogue forum, Bayer representatives were present during the whole meeting and discussed all themes proposed by workers. They presented an overview of the business in the country and its prospects for the future. The President of Bayer Brazil, Dr. Horstfried Laepple, stressed the importance of transparency in dialogue with workers, unions, and factory committees. In his institutional presentation, Laepple spoke about the positive results of the company in 2009 in Brazil, with R$3.8 billion in sales, about the possibility of business expansion, and also the positive projections for 2010. That includes investment of R$180 million in technology upgrades and amplification of plants. 
 
The company also presented the project Hamonia, a people management tool that uses the methodology of skills. The tool has recently been installed in its plant in Belford Roxo, in order to align human resource practices between the two businesses in that plant and set career tracks, as well as giving more transparency to the criteria for evaluation, promotion, and remuneration. The theme of &quot;Jobs and Wages,&quot; discussed by the Bayer Workers&rsquo; Network until 2008, was one of the instigators to this project. 
 
The signing of a term that will deal with Bayer's commitment to adopt and respect the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in the restructuring theme should be discussed by company and workers network in the future.

Bayer Workers’ Network Seeks Regional Expansion Across Latin America

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Errol McLeod, the former head of the Oilfields Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (OWTU) of Trinidad and Tobago, was named Minister of Labour on Friday, 28 May, by newly-elected Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the first woman to ever lead the twin island republic in the Caribbean. 
 
McLeod, also a former ICEM Executive Committee member, will head a Cabinet ministry entitled Labour, Small, and Macro Enterprise Development. He retired as President of OWTU a year ago after 21 years as leader of one of the world&rsquo;s most militant trade unions. 
 
The newly-founded Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) political party, which counted McLeod as a candidate for elections to Parliament a week ago, is part of a multi-party coalition&nbsp;called the People&rsquo;s Partnership that elected Persad-Bissessar and won 29 of 41 seats in Parliament on 24 May. 

<img height="167" alt="" src="" width="180" />
Those elections proved a crushing defeat to former Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his People&rsquo;s National Movement party. 
 
McLeod came on the political scene as a strong and charismatic leader of workers in the early 1980s when he founded the Committee for Labour Solidarity in Trinidad and Tobago. Even prior, his confident demeanor and apt leadership were apparent in the 1960s when he first worked at the former Texaco refinery in Pointe-&agrave;-Pierre. That complex is now part of state-owned Petrotrin and sits at the vanguard of workers&rsquo; militancy in Trinidad and Tobago. 
 
McLeod&rsquo;s fearless, honest, and tactful leadership over 30 years won working class gains for tens of thousands not just in his home country, but all across the Caribbean and the Commonwealth nations. 
 
&ldquo;The entire family of ICEM trade unions extends its hearty congratulations to Errol,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;His great number of achievements on behalf of workers bodes well for all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago and we truly look forward to working again with him.&rdquo;

Errol McLeod Named Labour Minister in Trinidad and Tobago

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ICEM&rsquo;s Colombia affiliate, the National Oil Workers&rsquo; Union (USO), is seeking continued international solidarity in its conflict with British-based BP in eastern Colombia. As reported in an ICEM briefing that can be seen <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3660-Oil-Workers-in-Colombia-Suffer-Police-Repression">here</a>, USO has waged a hard fought campaign for union rights, improved wages, and a new collective agreement, including conducting strike actions between January and April. 
 
They have suffered through police violence and on 15 February, union members were hospitalised at a BP plant at Tauramena, part of the Cusiana oil fields in Casanare. 
 
Workers at the plant deployed new tactics in their struggle last week, blocking the entrance to the facility and curtailing production of the Centro de Producci&oacute;n de Fluidos (CPF) for five days. The peaceful occupation of the Cusiana CPF was misrepresented by local BP management, through a campaign of misinformation in the local town of Tauramena. Faulty company reports claim union intimidation and obstruction of food deliveries and people through the blockade. 
<img alt="" src="" width="150" height="152" />
Access to the gas processing facility is now jointly controlled by USO and BP&rsquo;s private security firm, as USO is wary of industrial sabotage being carried out that would be blamed on the union and used to undermine the negotiation process. The ICEM demands that BP fully recognise workers&rsquo; right to organise and bargain collectively under the guidance of USO. The oil multinational must also implore its contracting firm, SAR Energy, to respect the union and the negotiating process. 
 
The Colombia Solidarity Campaign is organising another picket of BP at its London headquarters, between 14h00 and 18h00 on Wednesday, 2 June, at 1 St James Square. 
 
Protest messages demanding peaceful negotiations with the workers of Casanare can be sent to BP Chief Executive, Tony Hayward at <a href="mailto:tony.hayward@bp.com">tony.hayward@bp.com</a>. Messages of solidarity and support can be sent to the workers at <a href="mailto:movimientoporcasanare@yahoo.es">movimientoporcasanare@yahoo.es</a>. 
 
BP will invest more than US$300 million in Colombia in 2010 and 2011 as it expands its gas and oil production, BP Exploration Colombia President Alberto Galvis confirmed. Colombia has increased its oil production to nearly 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 500,000 bpd in the last three years. According to Galvis, the Cusiana gas facility will be expanded to process 2.8bn cubic metres (bcm) per annum by September 2010. This is in spite of BP&rsquo;s massive clean-up bill for its Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Oil multinationals are increasing investment in Colombia following corporate friendly fiscal changes by outgoing President Uribe.

Colombian Oil Workers Block Gas Facility, Protesting BP’s Reversal

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The Guyana Bauxite &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union (GB&amp;GWU) is seeking corrective measures by the government of the South American nation in order to continue representing 500 miners of the Bauxite Co. of Guyana Inc. (BCGI), which is 90% controlled by the Russian metals company RusAl. 
 
Following six months of intense struggle, which crested in December 2009 when RusAl unilaterally withdrew recognition of the union at the Aroaima and Kwakwani bauxite mines in contradiction to Guyanese labour law, GB&amp;GWU finally got a hearing last week, on 25 May, before Guyana&rsquo;s Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board. 
 
But that hearing proved inconclusive, with the union seeking remedial action by the Labour Ministry before a ballot is put before miners on whether or not they want to retain the longstanding union. Fifty-seven GB&amp;GWU activists remain sacked after they led a strike on 22 November 2009. 
<img alt="" src="" width="256" height="192" />
GB&amp;GWU picketed the offices of Labour Minister Mansoor Nadir on 4 and 5 February 
The union wants redress for the Labour Minister refusing to act or to conduct an investigation that followed the end of the strike. BCGI prepared a de-authorization petition and coerced workers into signing it, denouncing the GB&amp;GWU. In April, it surfaced that BCGI management at both Aroaima and Kwakwani conspired to organise a workers&rsquo; committee for a rival union, one connected with the ruling People&rsquo;s Progressive Party (PPP) in Guyana. (The GB&amp;GWU has been traditionally aligned with the opposition People&rsquo;s National Congress Reform, PNCR). 
 
&ldquo;What we are asking,&rdquo; said GB&amp;GWU Secretary-General Lincoln Lewis, &ldquo;is that the laws of the country be upheld before any ballot at BCGI is held. That means that BCGI&rsquo;s one-sided de-authorization be addressed, victimization of union leaders be addressed, the illegal firings be heard, and its blatant interference over freedom of association rights be addressed. 
 
&ldquo;Now, that has not happened. We cannot enter a ballot until these complaints are answered. If we do, it opens an unwanted precedent for any union in Guyana &ndash; no matter the political alignment &ndash; for both national laws and international labour standards to be ignored in undermining a legitimate union.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="198" />
GB&amp;GWU Secretary-General Lincoln Lewis 
The dispute is now highly politically charged with PNCR representatives in the National Assembly bringing a no-confidence motion on Labour, Human Services, and Social Security Minister Mansoor Nadir inside the Legislature. The Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy has called for his resignation. 
 
The labour dispute initially started in wage negotiations last November. BCGI submitted three proposals and asked miners to vote and accept one. When they accepted the one least desirable to BCGI, managers began meeting with groups of workers to convince them to change their position. For those who stood by the democratic vote, management made it known they would be the first terminated. 
 
Management&rsquo;s bullishness, thus, caused the strike, a strike in which BCGI terminated union leaders, withdrew recognition, and subsequently has tried to introduce another union. The ICEM did intervene with the Guyanese government, but received only a curt reply that all laws and procedures are being adhered to. The ICEM will continue to stand by the GB&amp;GWU until full justice prevails.

Guyana Bauxite Union Still Seeking Justice from RusAl, Government

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Dutch-Irish pulp and paper company SmurfitKappa withdrew a signed social agreement with ICEM affiliate FGTB on a redundancy package, after claiming managers at the Mettet paper converter in the Walloon region of Belgium were coerced into signing it. The company announced in February that is was closing the Cartomill plant near Namur, thus terminating 69 workers. 
 
Late on 30 April and early 1 May, FGTB representatives and plant managers were negotiating the social package in the plant&rsquo;s offices when, after several hours into the night, an agreement was reached on transition and education terms, as well a &euro;30,000 per worker redundancy settlement. The company had originally offered only the Belgian minimum, &euro;28,000. 
 
But following the signing, plant managers conferred with corporate management and the decision was taken to invalidate the agreement, with Cartomills managers stating they were held against their will throughout the evening and forced to sign. Pascal Vivone of FGTB denies the assertion. &ldquo;I do not understand how they can come up with that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;At no point did they indicate they were being held against their will.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="245" height="100" />
The two parties, nonetheless, are now continuing the dialogue to reach a fair and equitable settlement. Both sides have agreed to conduct the negotiations off site. 
 
In another recent European paper dispute, the French unions &ndash; CGT-Filpac and CFE-CGC &ndash; won favourable wage terms through industrial action against French paper producer ArgoWiggins. The pay package covers some 2,000 workers at six French mills. The settlement came after several two-hour work stoppages dating back to mid-April. Workers won 2% average pay increases that includes bonus entitlements. ArjoWiggins is owned by the private equity group Sequana Capital.

SmurfitKappa Reneges on Signed Redundancy Package at Belgian Paper Plant

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Some 60,000 trade union members of five Romanian union confederations manifested in Bucharest&rsquo;s Victoriei Square on 19 May, demanding that the government not implement its planned cuts on public-sector wages, pensions, and social services. 
 
Trade unions, civil society groups, and doctors, teachers, and ordinary citizens promise a general strike that could begin tomorrow, 31 May, if the center-right government of Prime Minister Emil Boc moves ahead with its plan to cut public-sector pay by 25%, pensions and unemployment benefits by 15%, and public services by 15% on 1 June. 
 
The cuts were made in a letter of intent to the US-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for a US$20 billion loan from the IMF and the EU in order to balance the country&rsquo;s budget. Prior to the 19 May manifestation, the IMF made public its concern against such drastic cuts, expressing a preference for a balance between public curtailments and new revenue sources such as taxes. 
<img alt="" src="" width="250" height="188" />
19 May Manifestation in Victoriei Square
Trade unions are calling for a system of progressive taxation, with the right to retain a decent job, the right to education opportunities, and the right to retire in dignity without fear of dire poverty. The trade union confederations propose that Romanian government ministries cut their bureaucracies. 
 
The government&rsquo;s austerity programme includes a 15% cut in child and child-rearing allowances. Currently, women workers receive 85% of their pre-maternity average pay after childbirth. The government&rsquo;s proposed cuts would slash that to 60%. In an already understaffed national medical system in which doctors earn average monthly pay of only &euro;350, the cuts would mean another 10% of doctors would leave Romania for countries that have higher salaries. Education has already been affected. Some 15,000 teachers will be sacked this year because of the austerity plan. 
<img alt="" src="" width="250" height="188" />
For ICEM affiliated trade unions in the public sector, including FSLI-Petrom at the state oil company, Chimie-Petrochimie Lazar Edeleanu, Chimie-Petrochimie CSI, and Centrala Nationala Minera Federation, the cuts could be devastating since some 80,000 public-sector jobs would be lost, and there is sure to be a spin-off effect into private sector employment. 
 
The five labour confederations resisting the government&rsquo;s wide-ranging social cuts comprise unions in the mining, metallurgical, chemicals, agriculture, textile, transportation, and education sectors. They include the Fratia National Confederation of Free Trade Unions (CNSLR-Fratia), the Cartel Alfa National Trade Union Confederation (CNS Cartel Alfa), the National Trade Union Bloc (BNS), the Meridian National Trade union Confederation, and the Democratic Trade Union Confederation of Romania (CSDR). 
 
The trade union confederations have already declared 19 May as a historic day of national solidarity against injustice in the central European country, and vow that any attempt by the government to impose its terms will bring the nation to its biggest social crisis of the past 20 years.

Proposed Austerity Cuts Bring Mass Protests Inside Romania

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The ICEM is coordinating with other Global Union Federations, the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation, and UNI, as well as with North American affiliates Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada and the United Steelworkers (USW), and the Solidarity Centre in Mexico, to conduct a teach-in event in Toronto, aimed at raising solidarity with and understanding of the struggle by democratic trade unions in Mexico. The event will be held on 20 June, as part of the Peoples&rsquo; Forum events around the G8 and G20 summits. It is an open event. View the agenda <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Mexico%20Forum%20-%20Agenda%20-%20Public%20_EN_.pdf">here</a>. 
 
Entitled the &ldquo;Conference on Building Solidarity with the Democratic Labour Movement in Mexico,&rdquo; the forum is targeted at making an impact in both Mexico and Canada, following Mexican President Felipe Calder&oacute;n&rsquo;s recent visit to the Canadian Parliament, and the continued anti-union strategy of the Mexican government. 
 
The ICEM Executive Committee last week issued a resolution against mining giant Grupo M&eacute;xico and the Calder&oacute;n government following unprovoked violence by federal police against workers in the city of L&aacute;zaro C&aacute;rdenas in the Michoac&aacute;n region. Read the complete resolution <a href="/index.php?id=5&amp;la=EN&amp;doc=3795">here</a>. 
<img alt="" src="" width="267" height="346" />
This latest attack is an attack on the autonomy of the National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM), also known as Los Mineros. The violence follows the arrest of Mario Garc&iacute;a Ort&iacute;z, Los Mineros&rsquo; special delegate for the State of Michoac&aacute;n, also the Alternative General Secretary of the union and President of the recent Convention of the union. When a delegation of Section 271 went to the police station to ask the reason for the arrest, they found Ort&iacute;z in the process of being released. Without provocation, the police ordered the mineworkers to lie on the street, and then brutally beat the union members. 
 
Mario Ort&iacute;z was seriously injured in the attack and hospitalised. Following the attack, the Section 271 members were detained by police, only being released when their 3,000 fellow Section 271 members stopped work at the ArcelorMittal steel facility in protest. 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s governing body last week demanded that the Calder&oacute;n government respect the democratic decision of the recent Los Mineros Congress, which re-elected Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez as General Secretary. G&oacute;mez is forced to lead the union from exile in Canada, as the Mexican government and Grupo M&eacute;xico continue sham legal processes against him. The treatment of Los Mineros official Juan Linares acts as stark reminder of what Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez risks facing if he returns to his country. Juan Linares was arrested in September 2008 at an airport on his return from Canada, where he was a guest at a Canadian labour conference. 
 
&ldquo;ICEM affiliates in Canada and the US have put fourth extraordinary efforts assisting our sisters and brothers in Mexico to stand up against a repressive government and some ruthless employers,&rdquo; stated Joe Drexler, ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs and Coordinator for the ICEM North American Region. 
<img alt="" src="" width="220" height="148" />
(Photo: International Metalworkers Federation)
Mexican union leaders from different sectors will share experiences of repression and their fight for decent work, under the four following agenda items: Legal &amp; Political Framework of the Labour Movement Crisis; The Mexican Labour Movement in Crisis; Organizing Strategies in Response to the Crisis; Solidarity Strategies in Response to the Crisis. 
 
The event will take place at 89 Chestnut St., Chestnut Residence Hotel, University of Toronto, 2nd floor. Registration is at 08h30am. For more information, write to <a href="mailto:mbeauregard@cep.ca">mbeauregard@cep.ca</a>. 
 
There was positive news at Johnson Controls in the Mexican state of Puebla this weekend, when a long-fought struggle came to fruition. Johnson Controls officially recognizing the SNTMMSRM as the representative trade union of its employees, ending its relationship with a yellow union. 
 
Management was brought to the table just three days after a work stoppage, as the union timed a strike to stop production just before shipments to key customers including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Chrysler, Nissan, and Volkswagen. Johnson Controls was at risk of large fines if supplier contracts were not met. The settlement also sees 80 contract and agency workers given full employment by the American-based company. The US Solidarity Centre in Mexico reports that international pressure was vitally important in reaching this settlement, serving as a clear indication of the need to continue the overall campaign.

Mexico ‘Teach-In’ Organised to Build Trade Union Solidarity

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