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The already-limited freedoms of association in Iraq are under further attack. Last month, the Cabinet arbitrarily dismissed the executive board of the country&rsquo;s largest trade union organisation, the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW), and established a new committee to take over all union structures and assets, oversee and control upcoming union elections. 
 
Cabinet Decrees 95 and 96 were issued on 17 April, withdrawing recognition of the GFIW and appointing a &ldquo;Ministerial Preparatory Committee&rdquo; (MPC), consisting of un-elected, politically bias officials, mostly from the Sadrist Party. MPC employees have already begun distributing union membership cards, arbitrarily choosing members favourable to their faction. Further to this, union offices have been taken over with support from police and military personnel. Upcoming union elections are expected to be held inside the Sadrist Party offices. 
 
The deeply concerning developments follow a recent distribution of government ministries between the various political factions of the coalition. The carving up of responsibilities saw the labour ministry taken over by the small, Shia sectarian Sadrist movement, followers of Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. 
 
Eight years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, his regime&rsquo;s regressive labour laws have not been replaced, meaning all public sector employees have no right to organise or bargain collectively. The vast majority of workers in Iraq are affected by this law. But this latest attack is even in breach of the Saddam legislation. 
 
The TUC in the United Kingdom has been on the front line of a global union backlash, calling on the Iraq government to back down. TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber wrote to Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki explaining that the TUC will exercise its veto right to block the government-nominated workers&rsquo; delegate to the ILO Annual Conference (ILC) in June, unless the attack is reversed. 
 
Support the <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=917">Labourstart campaign</a>, and send your protest message to Iraq Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki here. Also send your opposition to this attack on the GFIW to the Iraqi Embassy in your country. International pressure has proved effective in Iraq over recent years. The labour ministry decree has been publically condemned by the Minister of Civil Society in Iraq. Build the pressure, join the campaign. 
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Oil workers protest in Basra for fair wage
Iraqis continue to bravely organise in face of the government attacks. Oil workers in Basra last week, 10 May, walked out and threatened to stop production at the state-run South Oil Corporation, demanding fair salaries and benefits to match those of oilworkers at the international corporations operating in Iraq. Foreign workers were to be blocked from entering oil fields yesterday, but Basra Governor Khalaf Abdul Samad Khalaf agreed to meet the unions and averted the escalation of the protest, for the time being.

Iraqi Government Moves to End Free Trade Unions, Remove Recognition of National Centre

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The ICEM Turkish affiliate &Ccedil;IMSE-İş, the Cement, Ceramics, Pottery and Glass Industry Workers&rsquo; Union, decided at its presidential committee meeting on 2 June to call strikes at 45 cement factories. The decision, occurring in Ankara, comes after disagreement in cement sector collective bargaining negotiations. 
 
The bargaining has hit an impasse, blocking achievement of a new collective agreement. The union and the Cement Industry Employers&rsquo; Federation (CEIS) have been negotiating since 7 January. Bargaining in January and February did reach consensus on some 40 provisions on normative regulations. 

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&Ccedil;IMSE-İş President Zekeriye Nazlım 

But in the months since, no further progress has been made. &Ccedil;IMSE-İş decided to call a walkout on the entire industry at last week&rsquo;s meeting of the presidential committee, composed of the union&rsquo;s Executive Committee members and branch chairmen. The committee decided to take the necessary preparations for strike actions without delay. 
 
Some 5,800 union members are employed at the 45 cement plants. 
 
According to the Strike and Lock-out Law, &Ccedil;IMSE-İş can lawfully strike within a 60-day period after announcing the strike. The union will soon determine the exact day to start the strike.

ÇIMSE-İş Calls for Strike Actions at 45 Turkish Cement Plants

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ICEM and the Building &amp; Wood Workers&rsquo; International (BWI) are actively continuing the campaign of the Indian Cement Workers Federation (INCWF) for equal rights, better conditions, and higher salaries for contract workers at Swiss-based cement multinational Holcim. Union busting and police harassment were increased at Holcim-India over the last two weeks, and a worker rally at the Labour Ministry was organized in response. 
 
The renewed worker anger was sparked by an incident on 19 May with the arrest Bhagwati Sahu, who was falsely accused of stealing Rs. 3,500 and a mobile phone. Brother Sahu is a trade union organizer for contract workers at the Holcim-Ambuja plant in Rawaan. 
 
Claims of police complicity with the company were compounded when the local police opposed bail and spuriously calling Sahu a &ldquo;habitual offender, dangerous, and a threat to law and order.&rdquo; Numerous witnesses came forward to testify that Bhagwati was elsewhere at the time of the incident. Lakhan Sahu, a fellow union activist, was also charged with the same crime. He was attending a family funeral in Raipur, a one-day drive south of Rawaan. 

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The fake charges, intended to break the union organising of contractors at Holcim, also targeted six other union activists. 
 
Join the <a href="http://www.bwint.org/default.asp?Index=3442&amp;Language=EN">campaign</a> yourself by sending a message to the Holcim CEO via the BWI website here. 
 
INCWF, an affiliate of both the ICEM and BWI, has conducted a long-running campaign calling for equal rights for contract workers, as stipulated under Indian law. Holcim-India continuously neglects this legislation, specifically at its subsidiaries of ACC in Bhilai and Ambuja Cement in Baloda Bazar. 
 
On 26 May, 250 contract workers reached Raipur to meet the Labour Ministry and Labour Secretary to demand the implementation of the High Court order directing regularization, and the withdrawal of the false cases against their union leaders. Both the minister and secretary avoided meeting the workers though their subordinates made &ldquo;assurances&rdquo; of looking into the workers&rsquo; grievances. 
 
The BWI, ICEM, and Swiss trade union UNIA are planning to send a delegation to India to investigate the grievances. 
 
Holcim is the second largest producer of cement in the world. An average salary for Indian contract workers of US$2.17 a day and India&rsquo;s large quantities of limestone are reasons why Holcim has shifted production to the Asian sub-continent from countries such as Spain and the US.

Holcim, India’s Police Team to Resist Contract Worker Organising

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Four French unions, led by the CGT and the CFDT, carried out four-hour strikes at Lafarge cement plants today, 6 June, in protest to the company&rsquo;s intended plans to shut its Frangey cement facility near L&eacute;zinnes, L&rsquo;Yonne province, some 170 kilometres southeast of Paris. Workers began blocking trucks this morning at the Frangey plant and work stoppages were occurring at other French Lafarge sites in support of the 74 workers who could lose their jobs. 
 
Besides CGT and CFDT, FO and CFTC endorsed the industrial actions at some 11 Lafarge plants in France. The CGT and CFDT are the unions with membership at the Frangey plant. 
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Lafarge announced on 25 May at an extraordinary Works Council meeting that it would close the plant in three stages between now and the end of 2012. However, the initial redundancies &ndash; expected in August &ndash; will likely reduce employment to only 20. The company used over capacity and the small market that the plant serves as reasons for closure. 
 
Lafarge also said environmental factors were part of the decision, although the facility has received environmental certification. The Frangey plant produces 300,000 tons of cement annually and a system of cogeneration covers 50% of the plant&rsquo;s energy needs. 
 
The company said workers would be offered a chance to transfer to other Lafarge facilities. CGT delegate Jean-Claude Rives said the decision is unjustified because the plant provides a major benefit both in wages and in cement production to the L&rsquo;Yonne department. 
 
Twenty contractors also work at Frangey and they likely will lose their jobs. The French unions left open the possibility that further job actions would occur to protest the announced closure.

French Unions Conduct 4-Hour Strike at Lafarge Today

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Mansour Osanloo, the leader and co-founder of Vahed Syndicate, a union of bus drivers in and around Tehran, Iran, was released from an Iranian jail on 2 June after four years imprisonment. But his freedom came conditionally. He needed to post payment of a bond and release was granted on grounds that he maintain &ldquo;good behaviour.&rdquo; 
 
His only offence against the state was to form a free and democratic union of bus drivers in 2005. 
 
In a statement by the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF), which has been fighting for his freedom and full recognition of his union, General Secretary David Cockroft said, &ldquo;He is free because trade unions worldwide demanded justice. 
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&ldquo;That bail has been set falls short of the full pardon we all wanted, and which the Iranian government promised, but for now we can just take a moment to savour his richly deserved return to his family.&rdquo; (See the full <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/6047">ITF statement</a> here.)&nbsp; 
 
The ITF reminded that two of Osanloo&rsquo;s colleagues of the Vahed Syndicate, Reza Shahabi and Ebrahim Madadi, are innocent victims still locked inside Iran&rsquo;s prisons. 
 
Vahed Syndicate and Osanloo, 51, had been under heavy state repression since the founding of the union six years ago. Osanloo had been jailed twice between 2005-2006 and was beaten and had his tongue slit while in prison. Then in early summer 2007, just a month after he had been at a meeting of the ITF in London and another with trade union leaders of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in Brussels, he was jailed again and sentenced to five years for &ldquo;acting against national security&rdquo; and &ldquo;propaganda against the state.&rdquo; Last year, another year was added to his sentence. 
 
Osanloo is suffering from poor health from the harsh treatment inflicted on him in Iran&rsquo;s prisons. A previous <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2439--�Dirty-Tricks-Imposed-by-Iranian-Government-over-Imprisonment-of-Mansour-Osanloo ">ICEM report</a> on his treatment can be found here, while <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2327-Iran-Again-Arrests-Mansour-Osanloo-Following-His-European-Labour-Visits ">another ICEM report</a> of his 2007 arrest following his European trade union visit can be found here.

After Four Years, Mansour Osanloo Released from Iran Jail

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Some 10,000 workers employed at El Teniente by sub-contractors of Codelco, Chile&rsquo;s state-run copper and molybdenum miner, have been on strike now for 13 days. Even though the walkout falls outside Chile&rsquo;s labour law, the strike is legitimate: contract employees demand that Codelco engage their unions in direct dialogue. 
 
The strike started 25 May against over 20 contracting firms and Codelco. It is happening at El Teniente, one of five Codelco divisions, which is the world&rsquo;s largest underground copper mine located 90 kilometres south of Santiago. Contract workers at cleaning, catering, supply and other firms want a primary employer to come to the table to address failed bonus schemes, unpaid hours, no job security and other grievances. They also demand that there be no recriminations over strike actions, a clear sign of the fear, precariousness, and trade union discrimination at El Teniente. 
Codelco is standing by the &ldquo;acuerdo marco,&rdquo; or framework agreement of 2007 in maintaining it has no obligation to address grievances of contract workers. Codelco CEO Diego Hern&aacute;ndez said the company&rsquo;s legal responsibility ends at health and safety compliance, and social security compliance of the sub-contracting firms. Unions representing contract workers want a re-write of the marco agreement. 
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Contract Workers Strike at El Teniente
The job actions have gained the support of civic officials and political leaders in the region and the ICEM commends contract workers at El Teniente for taking direct action in an effort to get a primary company to address its concerns. 
 
The three branches of the Federaci&oacute;n de Trabajadores del Cobre (FTC) at El Teniente, representing 2,300 direct Codelco workers, issued a statement on 30 May, in part, stating that the Cobres federation &ldquo;has always maintained a stance of solidarity with the legitimate aspirations of the employees of sub-contractors. The FTC has been a key player to open talks between unions representing workers, contractors themselves, and the client company Codelco, in order to see positive agreements. 
 
&ldquo;The FTC expresses its solidarity with the contract workers and their representative trade union organizations, and we clearly do not support the manipulation and exploitation of a legitimate movement to promote interests other than that of workers.&rdquo; 
 
The dispute was peaceful during the first nine days of the strike, but turned unruly on Friday, 3 June, when contract workers blocked roads leading to the mine complex. The blockade caused buses carrying regular workers to be turned away. 
 
Codelco, the world&rsquo;s largest copper producer, saw its first quarter pre-tax profit balloon to US$2.31 billion due to high copper and molybdenum prices. That is an 87% increase over the same period in 2010 and is partially due to the state company&rsquo;s sell-off of its 40% share of electrical producer Edelnor. 
 
Separately, the Federaci&oacute;n de Sindicatos de Supervisores y Profesionales Rol A Codelco (FESUC), the supervisory and professional union federation at Codelco, charged that senior managers are transforming the company solely for the purpose of privatisation. This comes at a time when supervisors at some divisions are being furloughed without the option to transfer. 
 
FESUC President Ricardo Calder&oacute;n said layoffs, precarious employment, and outsourcing are the precursor for privatization, while another FESUC leader called on CEO Hern&aacute;ndez to publicly state the company would not be sold off to private investors.

Contract Workers Strike Codelco at El Teniente Mine in Chile

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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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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