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For third time since management shut the copper, lead, and zinc mining and smelting operations of Doe Run Per&uacute; at La Oroya in June 2009, members of a branch of ICEM affiliate National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (FNTMMSP), along with two other unions, agreed to extend the shutdown until 29 April, only this time the 3,200 mines and metalworkers will receive 70% of their salaries and labour benefits. 
 
That agreement was reached late last week and extends an enforced vacation agreement that first went into effect in August 2009. The shutdown then lasted three months with workers receiving 63% of pay, and an extended 90-day negotiated vacation shutdown took effect in November 2009, which saw workers receive 65% of their standard pay. That expired at the end of January. 

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FNTMMSP Gen. Sec. Luis Castillo Carlos
FNTMMSP General Secretary Luis Castillo Carlos said the union&rsquo;s number one priority is to reopen the La Oroyo complex in Yauli Province, 175 kilometres east of Lima, with all workers receiving full pay and full benefits. Castillo said the company also agreed to meet weekly with unions to apprise them of financial developments in regard to re-opening. 
 
Doe Run Per&uacute; has been hard hit by debt, including money owed ore suppliers and financiers. The Peruvian Congress has given the company until 27 July 2010 to restart, a deadline that also saw the government give a 30-month extension to the American company for environmental clean-up that will cost US$156 million. 

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The company&rsquo;s troubles were also compounded early this month when it was expelled from Peru&rsquo;s National Society of Mining, Oil, and Energy (SNMPE) for violations of three codes of conduct: negligent health and safety conditions for workers, disregard for the environment, and mining exploration that fails to comply with Peruvian legislation. The smelter is known to have caused serious lead poisoning along the River Mantaro. 
 
Doe Run is owned by privately-held Renco Group, a New York-based holding company controlled by industrialist Ira Rennart. Renco also owns AM General, a maker of armored vehicles for military use, and US Magnesium. Its Doe Run affiliate also has lead recycling and processing operations in the US states of Arizona, Missouri, and Washington. 
 
In Peru in 2008, Doe Run&rsquo;s La Oroya smelter produced 114,259 tonnes of lead, 53,831 tonnes of cooper, and 43,440 tonnes of zinc. The polymetallic smelter also produced a host of minor metals as well.

Peruvian Miners Give Doe Run Management until 29 April to Reopen

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Difficult talks in the Netherlands between Akzo Nobel and trade unions climaxed in late January when the Dutch chemicals company came to social terms with 5,000 workers. Negotiations had dragged on since last autumn, but talks on 26 January quickly produced results following 24-hour strike actions a day earlier. 
 
Those results are favourable to workers thanks to the four unions: FNV Bondgenoten, CNV Vakmensen, De Unie, and VHP AkzoNobel. The new labour accord will now extend through the end of 2011. 

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The highlights include the existing social plan stays in force, incentives are realized for workers between ages 57 and 60 are in place, and there&rsquo;s an improved sickness benefit. In addition, workers will receive a 1.25% wage increase over 15 months, and the unions negotiated added severance benefits and more financial assistance in job help for workers made redundant. Some 150 Dutch jobs have been cut by the company. 
 
A commitment to examine and improve the pension scheme in separate, upcoming talks was also a result of the 26 January settlement. The wage increases include a retroactive 0.5% hike to April 2009, 0.75 in January 2010, and a one-off raise of 0.5% in January 2011. 
 
On 25 January, union members conducted a highly successful strike at 12 Akzo Nobel worksites in the Netherlands, actions that proved pivotal in the company acceding to workers&rsquo; demands.

Strike Action Brings Akzo Nobel to Terms with Dutch Unions

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Workers of ICEM affiliated union GMB in the UK will likely see issuance of a ballot for industrial action this week British Gas, the largest gas supplier in the country that is a part of Centrica Plc. The intended job actions are in response to an opaque but and aggressive flexibility and management performance agenda that could cost up to 5,000 jobs. 
 
In a survey of its members, GMB reported that out of 3,000 responses, by a margin of eight to one, workers say there is a &ldquo;bullying management culture&rdquo; within British Gas. The survey directly contradicts the company&rsquo;s own Employee Engagement programme, and affirms that workers are facing unnecessary pressure and feel alienated from the company due to poor planning and bad management. 
 
The situation has been exacerbated by the fact that workers have been forced to work long hours during the coldest winter in decades, all the while hearing mixed messages and getting competing demands from management. Contained in British Gas internal documents, the company is proposing that 5,000 jobs be cut, which could mean job loss for many skilled engineers who work on domestic appliances. 

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Gary Smith
&ldquo;Our members are starting to understand that there is a threat to the terms and conditions of employment that we have fought for over many years,&rdquo; said GMB National Secretary Gary Smith. &ldquo;Employees are sick to the back teeth of the pressure they face day to day from senior management.&rdquo; 
 
Much of the staff anger is pointed at Managing Director Phil Bentley, who has not given the union a straight answer on the job cuts and stands accused by GMB of creating a &ldquo;new macho management&rdquo; culture, with its only purpose to cut costs. This cost cutting is across the board and affects such things as the purchase of parts for boilers. Bentley&rsquo;s new work culture, for example, means creation of an arbitrary performance management process that could lead to easy discipline of employees. 
 
In an e-mail, Bentley stated that at One British Gas, the retail arm of the utility, &ldquo;the big, hairy, audacious goal I&rsquo;ve thrown down on One British Gas is to reduce our non-customer-facing full-time employment equivalent by 25%.&rdquo; The 5,000 job cuts, if they materialize, could prove devastating for British Gas and Scottish Gas workers in Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leicester, Southampton, Uddingston near Glasgow, and Edinburgh. 
 
If the industrial ballot is issued this week, it will be counted and assessed in late February. 
 
Centrica serves 15.6 million residential electricity and gas customers in the UK, largely under the British Gas name. Through its Direct Energy subsidiary, Centrica also supplies residential gas and power service in the US, Canada, Europe, Egypt, Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago.

GMB to Take Strike Ballot at British Gas This Week

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Gabon&rsquo;s oil workers agreed to call off a strike that was to begin 13 March, when government officials entered into negotiations with the 20,000-member National Organisation of Petroleum Workers (ONEP). The strike was set to commence over Gabon&rsquo;s set of revised regulations governing the sector. 
 
The government has angered workers in the sector by proposing to place the energy sector onto the list of services that must remain uninterrupted, together with health services and transport. The move would make it impossible for workers to take legitimate strike action in future disputes, and would undermine an equal playing field regarding collective bargaining. The industry already suffers from unequal and low salary levels, as well as inadequate protection over working hours. 

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Both sides have announced their commitment to reaching agreement soon, and open negotiations are continuing in the West African country. 
 
The strike threatened to halt production of about 250,000 barrels of crude per day in Gabon, Africa's seventh largest producer.

Strike Avoided in Gabon’s Oil Sector

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PENGASSAN&rsquo;s Peter Esele won re-election as President-General of Nigeria&rsquo;s Trade Union Congress (TUC), the national trade centre for senior staff associations. Esele won a contested election for a second three-year term at the 8th Triennial National Delegates Conference in Benin, Edo State, from 17-20 March. 
 
Esele, a former President of the ICEM-affiliated Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), is credited &ndash; together with re-elected Secretary-General John Kolawole &ndash; of building permanent structures into the TUC, a federation comprised of 24 senior staff unions. 

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Nigeria TUC President, Peter Esele
Esele is also credited with heightening the roles of women in the TUC, from mandating seats to women on TUC&rsquo;s National Administrative Council to creating a Women&rsquo;s Wing of the TUC to conducting ILO-sponsored workshops for development of women in trade union leadership roles. 
 
&ldquo;I am proud to honour the diverse contributions of women in advancing the common cause of freedom, justice, and equality,&rdquo; said Esele, who used International Women&rsquo;s Day to call on the government to use 8 March as a work-free day in respect of what women have accomplished. 
 
Esele served as Deputy Vice President of PENGASSAN prior to 2005 and the tragic airplane crash of 10 December 2005 that claimed the life of PENGASSAN President Uche Okoro. He took over those duties then, winning re-election later in 2006. In 2008, already in his first term as TUC leader, he was defeated for the Presidency of PENGASSAN by Babatunde Ogun. 
 
The TUC is one of two national labour centres in Nigeria. The other, representing workers enrolled in the country&rsquo;s blue-collar unions, is the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC).

Peter Esele Re-Elected Head of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria

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The 30,000 technical and professional employees of PEMEX, Mexico&rsquo;s state-owned petroleum company, finally won the right to unionize on their third attempt. The new union, Uni&oacute;n Nacional de T&eacute;cnicos y Profesionistas Petroleros (UNTyPP), received its registration on 16 December 2009, and its leadership was officially recognized for the period 18 March 2008 to 17 March 2012. 
 
The first two attempts at unionization, with union acronyms of ONTCIP and UNTCIP, were denied registration by the government and the leaders fired. 
 
Following the successful court battle, culminating in registration from the Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare&rsquo;s office for the Registration of Associations (STPS), members of the new union were informed by company management that in order to retain their jobs, they would be required to sign two documents: one calling for the cancellation of the registration, the other a resignation from the union. 

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Those who refused, along with organisers of the UNTyPP, were fired and violently removed from their workstations by paramilitaries, including the entire National Executive Committee of the union. These workers must be immediately reinstated, and their rights respected under both Mexican and international law. PEMEX is also being urged by the international labour movement to accept union calls to come to the bargaining table and establish a working relationship with them. 
 
UNTyPP organisers have faced continued intimidation and threats throughout their campaign for registration. 
 
PEMEX is the 10th largest oil company in the world, and is the sole supplier of all commercial petrol and diesel stations in Mexico. Annual company revenue is US$78 billion. 
 
Visit the Labourstart campaign website <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=654 ">here</a> to write to President Calder&oacute;n and PEMEX management, condemning these violations of labour and human rights against the new UNTyPP trade union.

Despite Winning Recognition, Mexico’s White-Collar Pemex Workers Still Repressed

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Two separate, yet distinct mill occupations by paperworkers in France and Spain in March drew attention and support for ICEM-affiliated trade unions determined to protect workers&rsquo; interests in cases of employer recalcitrance and joblessness brought on by a failed paper mill sale. 
 
In both situations, the sit-ins proved successful. In France, in the southwestern department of Dordogne, a nine-day strike by FILPAC-CGT and 700 workers of Papeteries de Condat ended only after the union&rsquo;s bargaining committee held management&rsquo;s team captive inside the shut mill on day six of the strike. 

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That tactic at the integrated pulp and coated printing papers mill gave a satisfactory result to 2010 contract negotiations. After five years of going without a raise, management&rsquo;s initial proposal of 1% was unsatisfactory. Workers of FILPAC were seeking at least a 3% increase. 
 
The indefinite strike began on 3 March and when managers still wouldn&rsquo;t budge by 8 March, the committee backed by throngs of strikers on the outside of the mill in Le Lardin St. Lazare, took matters into hand. The sequestering produced a compromise two days later, when Papeteries de Condat agreed to pay 1% retroactive to 1 January 2010, and another 1% on 1 July. Additionally, the union won full-time employment rights for ten of 24 temporary workers. 
 
&ldquo;Certainly, we did not win everything that we deserved,&rdquo; said FILPAC assistant regional secretary Tahar Messaoudi. &ldquo;But we are satisfied and we returned to work with our heads held high.&rdquo; 
 
Papeteries de Condat is owned by the Spanish-based Lecta Group, which itself is wholly owned by CVC Capital Partners of London. Besides the 540,000 metric tonnes per year Condat mill, Lecta runs paper operations in Spain, the Torraspapel mills, and in Italy, the Garda mills. 

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At the Papelera de Basaya mill in Torrelavega, Spain, 110 members of both CC.OO and UGT paper branches occupied their mill for four days from 6 March to 9 March. The issue was the Spanish chemicals company Snaice SA&rsquo;s decision to back out of a deal to buy the shuttered mill in Cantabria state in north-central Spain. 

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Snaice had agreed to purchase the mill on 19 January, but backed out a month later when it learned the debt-load of the operation was twice what it had anticipated. The mill&rsquo;s works council began the sit-in upon learning at a meeting that the previous owner was to declare insolvency. Works council members were immediately joined by 80 other workers. 
 
The sit-in braved extremely cold weather, and was met by heralded support by citizens of Torrelavega, local politicians, and even Snaice management, which operates an adjacent pulp mill in the city. Twice each day, for two-hour periods, family members of the workers joined them in tearful displays of solidarity. 
 
The occupation ended when the regional government of Cantabria pledged to find a buyer for the mill, with Snaice agreeing to operate it until that happens. The 80,000 metric tonnes per year mill producing uncoated printing papers had been idle since October 2009. 
 
Joaquina Rodr&iacute;guez Torrej&oacute;n of CC.OO told the ICEM that 16 paper mills have been closed in Spain between 2007 and 2009. She credited the heroic actions of workers at Papelera de Basaya this month with giving this mill an opportunity to re-start. 
 
Meanwhile in Spain, 275 paperworkers are to begin a 10-day strike today against Iberpapel at its Papelera Guip&uacute;zcoa de Zicu&ntilde;aga mill in Hernani, Guip&uacute;zcoa state. The strike is over shift-work bonuses, pension entitlements, sickness and accident benefits, and new work-time rules for the summer. The pulp and paper mill produces 342,000 metric tonnes of woodfree uncoated papers from three paper machines.

Plant Occupations at Spanish, French Paper Mills Produce Results

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ICEM workshops in Tanzania on 12-13 March reveal blatant abuses of freedom of association by subsidiary mining enterprises of AngloGold Ashanti and Barrick Gold. The workshops were done specifically for ICEM affiliate Tanzania Association of Mining and Construction Workers&rsquo; Union (TAMICO), under the auspices of ICEM&rsquo;s Sub-Saharan African Regional Organisation (SSARO), with ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana and ICEM/SSARO staff person Fabian Nkomo leading the important sessions. 
 
In attendance were the secretaries of TAMICO&rsquo;s four regions, plus district secretaries and key Tanzanian union activists. This ICEM project, called the Organizational Growth Project, is sponsored jointly by FNV Mondiaal of the Netherlands and LO-TCO of Sweden. 

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ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana
The focus of the two-day meeting was on AngloGold&rsquo;s 100%-owned Geita Holdings Ltd. and African Barrick Gold Plc., 75% owned by Barrick Gold of Canada and an asset that this week will see an initial public offering of the remaining 25% on the London Stock Exchange.. Both companies, separately, have engaged in labour relations conduct that is counter-productive to adherence of ILO Conventions 87 and 98, the basic workers&rsquo; rights of freedom of association and right to organise and bargaining collectively. 
 
At Geita Gold, management illegally screens all TAMICO membership forms, and has refused union recognition to those workers that it does not want in the union. Despite the union recruiting 900 mill and mine workers into TAMICO, Geita management in the Mwanza Region of Tanzania only recognizes 400 workers as members of the union. The ICEM has long known that Geita human resources director Philemon Tano openly discriminates against union membership, and this issue has been brought before AngloGold, a company that is obligated to respect labour and other standards with the ICEM through a Global Framework Agreement. 
 
From the outcome of these workshops, SSARO will again lodge a compliant with AngloGold Ashanti in Johannesburg, South Africa, on this inappropriate conduct. 

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Fabian Nkomo
At Barrick&rsquo;s, Tanzania&rsquo;s largest gold producer with mines at Bulyanhulu, Buzwagi, North Mara, and Tulawaku, management has continued to issue dismissals as a method to discourage membership in the union. In 2007 at the Bulyanhulu mine, following a break-down in negotiations between TAMICO and management over salaries, working conditions, and medical care that caused a strike by some 1,000 miners, Barrick&rsquo;s summarily fired all strikers. Reports at the workshop stated that TAMICO members are sacked almost on a daily basis by African Barrick Gold Plc. 
 
(On 16 March, three miners were killed at the underground Bulyanhula mine when a cave-in brought giant rock down on the miners. The ICEM extends deep sympathies to the families of the miners &ndash; Dickson Kadelema, Vedasstus Wilfred Tandise, and Joel Nicholas &ndash; and calls on Barrick&rsquo;s to ensure proper safeguards are in place inside its mines in Tanzania and elsewhere.) 
 
The 12-13 March ICEM workshops in Dar es Salaam did produce an aggressive action plan. Participants vowed to strengthen organizationally TAMICO, particularly the union&rsquo;s regional structures and the development of mandates from the union&rsquo;s leadership. This plan was put forth to better monitor and record AngloGold and Barrick&rsquo;s employment and trade union abuses. TAMICO&rsquo;s four regional secretaries attending the workshops pledged to recruit a total of 12,000 new members in 2010. 
 
Participants also launched a campaign specifically at AngloGold&rsquo;s Geita subsidiary to win full union recognition by the end of June 2010. South Africa&rsquo;s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which already works closely with TAMICO, will ramp up efforts through SSARO to strengthen the Tanzanian union&rsquo;s structures in order to meet the workshop&rsquo;s goals.

Breaches of Freedom of Association Rife at AngloGold, Barrick Gold Mines in Tanzania

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A historic protocol agreement between ArcelorMittal and ICEM-affiliated Forestry, Logging, and Industrial Workers&rsquo; Union of Liberia (FLIWUL) will guarantee that a collective labour contract is in place when the world&rsquo;s largest steelmaker begins revenue-earning operations at an iron ore enterprise. The two parties agreed to an &ldquo;Interim Procedural Agreement&rdquo; on 6 March that assures 3,000 workers will have trade union protections once ArcelorMittal comes on line with a US$1.5 billion mining, rail, and export operation in the West African country. 
 
The deal also sets forth the process in which FLIWUL now begins to build a free and democratic trade union inside the country-wide branch union, called ArcelorMittal Workers&rsquo; Union FLIWUL No. 4. This week, from 24 to 28 March, FLIWUL will begin conducting on-site nominations and elections from among the existing 750 workers at mine sites in northern Nimba County to the port of Buchanan, some 250 kilometres south on the Atlantic Ocean. 

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FLIWUL General-Secretary David Sackoh said the union will then begin electing shop stewards at mines near Yekepa, two company hospitals, transport workers along the rail link, and port workers at Buchanan. The final step, starting about mid-year, according to Sackoh, will be an extensive survey inside the various work units that will &ldquo;transform our compilations into collective bargaining proposals.&rdquo; 
ArcelorMittal has not been always this cooperative to work with FLIWUL in Liberia. A short 11 months ago, the company attempted to subvert a lawful union recognition vote with strong-arm tactics. (See prior ICEM news dispatch <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3153-Despite-Interference-FLIWUL-Wins-Union-Rights-for-ArcelorMittal-Workers-in-Liberia">here</a>.)&nbsp;But a Labor Ministry ruling declaring the union certification fair and legal, as well as intervention by the US-based United Steelworkers (USW) directly with the company&rsquo;s CEO and founder, Lakshmi Mittal, convinced Liberian management that recognizing and working with FLIWUL was in the best interests of the company. 
 
Sackoh said the company is now moving in mining equipment and completing work on the rail link. By mid-year, employment should reach 2,000, and then climb to over 3,000 by the time ore is ready for export in first quarter 2011. ArcelorMittal has a 25-year concession with the Liberian government to mine some one billion cubic metres of iron ore reserves in Nimba County, at the point where the Liberian, Guinean, and C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire borders meet. 

<img alt="" src="" width="149" height="112" />
FLIWUL activists in Harbel
The mining assets were once owned by the Liberian American Swedish Chemicals Company (LAMCO), but production ceased and the assets started to deteriorate when civil war started in 1989. 
 
The &ldquo;Interim Procedural Agreement&rdquo; contains basic framework standards covering health and safety conditions, protection of the environment, current working conditions, and protection of communities. It also contains a grievance process for workers. FLIWUL&rsquo;s union-building efforts now will assure worker input in a collective agreement due to take effect next year, a workers&rsquo; contract that most certainly will stand as a model in Liberia. 
 
&ldquo;FLIWUL has much to be proud of in achieving this milestone,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;The assistance they received from the USW &ndash; both on-the-ground in Liberia and intervention at the corporate level &ndash; is also exemplary and will guarantee that miners, transport workers, and other staff have an excellent collective agreement.&rdquo;

FLIWUL, ArcelorMittal in Liberia Reach Accord at Iron Ore Operation

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st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }The Coordinating Committee of ICEM affiliates in Colombia conducted a second educational seminar for trade union officers, 8-12 August, in Girardot Cundinamarca, 100 kilometres south-west of Bogot&aacute;. The educational program aims to develop an improved, stronger leadership of trade unions in the country.</div>
A total of 38 participants to the seminar came from ICEM six affiliates in Colombia, and trade union friends of the ICEM in the South American country. As in previous meetings, representatives of the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) in Colombia participated, one activist from Sintraindumecol and two from Sintrametal.
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<div>Topics covered included precarious work, globalization, political economy, and communications.</div>
The intensive workshop totalled 110 hours, with each participant receiving a diploma as an activist of ICEM Colombia. The participants will continue this training and development in 2012.
The organisers&rsquo; goal is to hold a major conference after 15 years of the programme, bringing together the large number of trade union activists who have been trained and educated by the program. This will represent a significant group of activists who can then influence management and government strategy.

ICEM Colombia Seminar of Trade Union Activists

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