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The World Federation of Industry Workers (WFIW) held its Dissolution World Congress in Houffalize, Belgium, on 14 June 2007. The 80 participants at this historic meeting, from 25 countries, unanimously took the decision to integrate the WFIW structures into the ICEM, a process which will be finalised at the ICEM's 4th World Congress in November 2007 in Bangkok. 
 
The WFIW is one of the International Trade Federations formerly affiliated to the World Confederation of Labour (WCL), the international trade union confederation which, together with the former ICFTU, recently merged to create the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). 
 
The Dissolution Congress, with ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda present, was just one step in a longer process to prepare the WFIW&rsquo;s integration into the ICEM. That process starting in 2004 at a WFIW meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria. 
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From left to right: Justin Daerden; Carlos Geatan; Italo Rodomonti; Bart Bruggeman; Manfred Warda; Achille Dutu and Romuald Nuwopke
Further essential decisions were taken at the May 2005 WFIW Congress, held in Dakar, Senegal, where the WFIW adopted a resolution entitled &ldquo;Solidarity and Future Actions,&rdquo; which gave the WFIW Executive Committee a mandate to continue the integration process with the ICEM. That paved the way for the WFIW dissolution Congress in Houffalize last month. 
 
Most WFIW affiliated unions, roughly two-thirds of the WFIW's membership, operate in ICEM sectors, and are expected to join the ICEM at or following its Bangkok Congress. 
 
WFIW General Secretary Italo Rodomonti said he strongly believes that &ldquo;after the integration of the WFIW members into the ICEM, pluralism within the international trade union confederation will form a firm basis for a stronger international trade union federation.&rdquo; 
 
The Dissolution Congress elected Italo Rodomonti, as well as Achille Dutu from Romania, as future ICEM Presidium members. Brazil's Wilson Wanderlei Viera and Alphonse Beya Tshimbu from the Democratic Republic of Congo were elected to become ICEM Executive Committee members. 
 
The Dissolution Congress was followed by a two-day seminar, which highlighted the many problems related to immigration, with discussions centring on possibilities regarding social dialogue in this complex area.

WFIW Dissolution Congress Prepares Integration of its Affiliates in the ICEM

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Nepal&rsquo;s reconstruction efforts, in progress since trade unions and their peaceful civil protests ended martial law a year ago in the Himalayan country, have now been snubbed. The country&rsquo;s National Planning Commission has excluded the three national labour centres from participation on the National Development Forum. 
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The General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), the Nepalese Trade Union Congress (NTUC), and the Democratic Confederation of Nepalese Trade Unions (DECONT) all have had their leaders excluded from the 222-member National Development Forum. 
 
&ldquo;Though it is designed to finalise the three-year National Interim Plan, which includes different organisations, civil society, NGOs, political parties, women&rsquo;s and ethnic groups, it excludes the working class representatives who cover more than half of the population of the country,&rdquo; the three labour centres said in a statement. 
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&ldquo;We are shocked by the decision of the government and consider it an insult to the entire working population of the nation.&rdquo; 
 
To protest the snub, trade union leaders intend to stage a strike at the hotel in which the National Development Forum is meeting unless members of Nepal&rsquo;s planning commission issue a public apology, and place union representatives on the forum.

GEFONT and Nepal’s Other National Labour Centres Condemn Exclusion

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A week-long strike by 28,000 contract employees working for employers doing business with Chilean state-run copper miner Codelco turned ugly on 25 June. Protestors blocked roads and burned buses leading into one of Codelco&rsquo;s five mines, El Teniente. 
 
On 28 June, they did the same at Radomiro Tonic, Codelco&rsquo;s second largest copper mine. The contract workers are members of the Copper Confederation of Workers (FTC), a union representing workers at some 400 sub-contractors of Codelco, the world&rsquo;s largest copper producer. 
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At the weekend, Chile&rsquo;s President Michelle Bachelet ordered government mediators to step in and resolve the dispute. The FTC, which is not affiliated to the ICEM, is seeking wage parity with Codelco&rsquo;s miners, as well as performance bonuses, better health care, housing, and education benefits. 
 
The contract employees earn roughly half of what Codelco&rsquo;s 15,000 miners receive. 
 
Codelco said the strike has costed the company US$20 million in lost production. It also said it has limited ability to conduct negotiations with the contract workers, since they are employed by other enterprises. 
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The strike is supported by Chile&rsquo;s national labour centre, the Central Workers Union (CUT), which has called for equality for all contract workers in the South American country. CUT has made it a priority to also improve labour conditions for contract and agency workers. 
 
The FTC and the Chilean private miners&rsquo; society, Sonami, did issue a statement condemning the violence that occurred throughout last week at El Teniente, Radomiro Tomic, Codelco Norte, El Salvadoe, Andina, and at a Codelco smelter in Ventanas. 
 
Scores of contract workers were arrested, and one was killed when he was struck by a truck owned by his company, Zublin engineering, while he was blocking a road. 
 
The strike by the contract workers was the second at Codelco&rsquo;s operations in the last 18 months. The workers staged a 17-day strike in January 2006, but did not receive wage parity or bonus payments at the time. They did, however, win some improvements in working conditions.

Contract Workers of Codelco Copper in Chile Strike

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ICEM affiliate United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE) Union won a decision by an ILO committee in favour of public-sector bargaining rights in the US state of North Carolina. The Freedom of Association case is now passed on to the ILO&rsquo;s Governing Body with a recommendation that it monitor progress. 
 
State statutes in North Carolina, as well as in some other US states, prohibit public employees from having collective bargaining rights. The UE, on behalf of municipal and state workers in North Carolina, filed the ILO complaint, and the committee requested that certain sections of the state statute be repealed. It also asked that the government promote the establishment of a collective bargaining framework.
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The committee noted that ILO Conventions 87, 98 and 151 are being violated. &ldquo;Although these Conventions have not been ratified by the United States, the complainants rely on the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in support of the argument that the government is obligated to respect, promote and realize the principles embodied in these Conventions regardless of ratification.&rdquo; 
 
The committee&rsquo;s conclusions cited, &ldquo;&hellip; the failure to assure compliance with freedom of association principles in North Carolina has resulted in grievous working conditions for many public sector workers who report health and safety violations in their workplace, unconscionable wages, unreasonable and unsafe hours of work, extreme under-staffing, unreasonable forced overtime, favouritism, and disrespectful treatment from supervisors, as well as inconsistent grievance procedures devoid of any notion of due process.&rdquo; 
 
The UE took the international action on behalf of members of its Local 150 in North Carolina. That branch union is comprised of low-wage, public-sector workers such as janitors, garbage haulers, housekeepers, groundskeepers, medical helpers, and bus drivers.

US Union Gets Affirmation that Public Sector Bargaining Applies in North Carolina

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Workers, members of three of Peru&rsquo;s mining and metals unions, struck the copper and lead smelting operations of Doe Run Company last week for three days. The strike and blockade of smelting operations in the city of La Oroya caused nearly a 70% production decline, which affected markets. 
 
The 2,000 miners and metal workers took the job action to protest the company&rsquo;s 2006 dividend pay awards. The workers took struck action from 2-4 April and completely blocked the central motorway near La Oroyo from Lima on 1 April. La Oroyo is 175 kilometres away west of Lima. 
 
A branch union of ICEM affiliate FNTMMSP is one of the three unions involved in the pay dispute. The strike was called off after workers&rsquo; representatives and managers met on the afternoon of 4 April.
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Doe Run is a privately-held US company that began operating in Peru in 1997. It mines, mills, and smelts some 59,000-tons-per-yar of copper, 129,000 of lead, 40,000 of zinc, and minor amount of gold and silver. In the US, Doe Run operates in the states of Arizona, Missouri, and Washington in lead recycling and lead smelting. 
 
Last month, public health and environmental groups filed a petition against Peru before the human rights division of the Organisation of American States over contamination from Doe Run&rsquo;s La Oroya operations. The complaint charges the Peruvian government with failing to put in place pollution controls, thus trampling &ldquo;the human rights of the town&rsquo;s citizens.&rdquo;

Strike Crimps Production at US-based Firm’s Peruvian Mining, Smelting Operations

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Oil workers in Chad, two weeks ago, ended a three-day strike in the rich Doba oil fields, but warned further walkouts could occur. Some 500 workers are angry about job safety and security, as well as delays in meeting pay demands. US-based ExxonMobil operates the vast number of production sites in the Doba fields, as well as a controversial 1,063 kilometre pipeline to Kribi, the Atlantic port of neighbouring Cameroon. 
 
The oil workers, led by Chad&rsquo;s national labour centre UST, took three-day strike actions twice last July over pay disparities. The workers were then paid barely a third of what oil workers&rsquo; in Cameroon earn. Although the 2006 strikes did narrow that gap some, there is still a huge pay differential between oil workers in the two countries. 

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ExxonMobil operates the Chad-Cameroon pipeline with Patronas of Malaysia and Chevron of the US as partners. The rich Doba fields of southern Chad are now producing 150,000-barrels-per-day, and are expected to yield 200,000 in the near future. Doba has reserves estimated at 900 billion barrels over the next 25 years. 
 
Development of the Doba oil fields, together with the three-year-old pipeline to Kribi, has been mired in World Bank controversy. That included a year-long suspension of Bank funds for the project. Construction of the pipeline was also plagued by labour and human rights violations. Many contract workers for Chad-Cameroon Constructors, the building consortium put together by the oil companies, were not paid their wages. As well, an HIV/AIDS rate along the pipeline is three times the national averages of Chad and Cameroon, figures that reflect poorly on the partnering companies&rsquo; social responsibility.

Esso-Tchad Workers Strike for Higher Pay

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A string of three-day lockouts by management of Bridgestone Australia at a tyre plant near Salisbury has only toughened the resolve of members of three unions to gain fair wage increases. Managers locked out workers for three-day periods over the weekends of 23-25 March and again on 30 March to 1 April, and also from 27-29 March. 
 
The 500 workers and their unions have been locked in a pay dispute for nearly a year with the Japanese-based rubber company. Production workers, numbering about 450, are represented by ICEM affiliate Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU), while maintenance workers at the auto and truck tyre plant are represented by the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU) and the Communications, Electrical, and Plumbing Union (CEPU), both also ICEM affiliates.
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&nbsp;Bridgestone is offering a mere 2% wage increase for each year of a proposed three-year contract, while workers and their unions are seeking 4% per year. The cost-of-living in Australia is 3.3%. 
 
A LHMU spokesman said rubber workers have struggled over the past several years to win pay increases that keep pace with inflation. Prior to 2006, annual raises totalled just 3% and now Bridgestone seeks to pay even less.
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&nbsp;The lockouts have been described by union representatives as aggressive and irresponsible, and come as Bridgestone Australia is asking staff to make improved productivity changes, while earning less money. 
 
Beginning in early March, workers began job actions, which included four-hour strikes and overtime bans. The company has admitted that the job actions have significantly disrupted production during the month of March, but it remains unwilling to reopen talks with the union. Instead, Bridgestone re-issued its insufficient salary adjustments in letters to individual workers that included the lockout notices.

Lockouts Strengthen Resolve of Bridgestone Rubber Workers in Australia

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Labour relations in Trinidad and Tobago tilt pointedly toward turbulent unrest, as witnessed by mounted riot police and barricades that met 200 labour protestors on 29 March at Whitehall, the prime minister&rsquo;s offices in Port-of-Spain. The 200 peaceful marchers were forced by the barricades and mounted patrols away from the site of their strategic protest, and into an adjacent park.
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Workers employed at national and global companies &ndash; firms that have either stalled collective negotiations, or refused to engage in them &ndash; marched on Whitehall during a cabinet meeting with PM Patrick Manning in protest of high food prices and nagging inflation. This economic hit on workers comes at a time when bosses are delaying salary increases. 
 
ICEM affiliate Oilfields Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (OWTU) organised the demonstration, together with its national ally, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and Non-Government Organisations (FITUN). 
 
The 29 March demonstration comes amidst a wave of job actions on the Caribbean island nation, including a strike two weeks ago by OWTU members at state-owned oil company Petrotrin. Job actions also included a dockworkers&rsquo; strike last week. 
 
At the Whitehall standoff, workers from Petrotrin, Trinmar, PowerGen, Hilton Hotels, Telecommunications Service (TSTT), and University of West Indies (UWI) marched to the beat of a rhythm section right up to the barricades. TSTT and UWI workers demand that their employers negotiate with their chosen trade unions, while Hilton protested their management&rsquo;s refusal to negotiate a pension plan.
<img height="204" src="" width="200" alt="" />
Errol McLeod, OWTU President
Errol McLeod of OWTU said workers&rsquo; patience is grows thin due to the slow pace of wage negotiations at several private and public companies. Dockworkers, in fact, represented by Seamen and Waterfront Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (SWWTU), struck port facilities in Port-of-Spain because wage talks continue now for two years. 
 
McLeod said government officials and companies must realize that by settling wage demands will result in the desired effect of economic growth. The absence of that, he added, either by government, or on the part of management in the public or private sector, will bring only further unrest. 
 
&ldquo;If employers were to meet the just demands of unions, then there would be no need to protest,&rdquo; FITUN President David Abdullah said in a news report. FITUN has been heavily engaged with the Communications Workers&rsquo; Union (CWU) is its fight to get TSTT managers into meaningful collective bargaining. 
 
From 26-30 March, some 400 OWTU took job actions at oil-well facilities of Petrotrin, and protested in front of the company&rsquo;s Santa Flora production headquarters. The OWTU is protesting improper safety practices, brought on mainly through under-staffing. OWTU members also protested Petrotrin&rsquo;s failure to upgrade temporary workers &ndash; some who have worked for as long as 25 years &ndash; to permanent and full-time jobs.

Workers in Trinidad/Tobago Fight High Food Costs, Delays to Wage Increases

The ICEM has condemned the killing of General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) Union Leader Najim Abd-Jasem in a communiqu&eacute; to Iraq&rsquo;s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. 
 
The 20-million-member Global Union Federation (GUF) called this &ldquo;appalling murder another sign of a clearly systematic campaign underway in Iraq to eliminate the leadership of the newly formed independent and democratic unions that strongly oppose sectarianism.&rdquo;
Abd-Jasem, a husband and father of four children, was abducted in Baghdad on 27 March, and his body was found three days later, 30 March, with clear signs that he was tortured before his death. A staunch trade unionist, even as a member of the underground workers&rsquo; democratic movement during Saddam Hussein&rsquo;s ban on independent trade unions, Abd-Jasem was the elected General Secretary of the Mechanic Workers&rsquo; Union of the GFIW. 
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In the message to Nouri al-Maliki, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda cited recent attacks on the head office of the GFIW, as well as previous murders and abduction of trade union leaders. &ldquo;Workers and trade unionists must be able to carry out their normal activities in your country without fearing for their lives,&rdquo; said Warda. &ldquo;We call on you to ensure full respect for the fundamental human and trade union rights of workers.&rdquo; 
Abd-Jasem was leader of the Mechanics Workers&rsquo; Union since 2003. He was also a founder of the Iraq Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) and a trade union leader as the IFTU and two other labour federations merged to create the GFIW. During the Saddam regime, he worked as a mechanic in the Health Ministry, but was dismissed from that job for opposing Saddam&rsquo;s official union. 
 
The ICEM, a GUF representing 389 trade unions in 124 countries, expresses deep sorrow to the family of Najim Abd Jasem, as well as to the leadership of GFIW, which has lost a true martyr in the struggle for free and democratic trade unions in Iraq.

ICEM Condemns Killing of Iraqi Trade Union Leader

Trade union leaders from Guinea, who have been leading efforts to topple the corrupt regime of President Lansano Cont&eacute; in the west African country, were in Brussels on 26-27 March, and they appealed to global trade unions to continue to apply pressure for democratic change there. 
 
The national centre leaders, which included the leader of ICEM&rsquo;s mining union affiliate in Guinea, visited the ICEM on 27 March. They told of the continued impasse to dissolve the corrupt and authoritative government of Cont&eacute; &ndash; despite the appointment of an acceptable prime minister &ndash; and they addressed the rampant poverty that has swallowed the resource-rich country, due primarily to that corruption. 
 
The three included: Rabiatou Sereh Diallo, General Secretary of the National Confederation of Workers of Guinea (CNTG); Dr. Ibrahima Fofana, General Secretary of the Trade Union of Workers of Guinea (USTG); and Yamodou Tour&eacute;, General Secretary of the National Organisation of Free Trade Unions of Guinea (ONSLG), who also heads the National Union of Mine and Quarry Workers (SYNAMIC). 
<img height="253" alt="" src="" width="380" />
From left to right: Ibrahima Fofana, Rabiatou Sereh Diallo, Manfred Warda and Yamodou Tour&eacute;
Guinea&rsquo;s trade unions have become the voice and courage for all of civil society as they led mass strikes against Cont&eacute; and his military regime last year, and again in January and February of this year. In January, the three leaders were arrested for leading the three-week general strike, and the arrests were interlocked with direct negotiations with Cont&eacute;, talks that did make modest progress toward democratic reform. 
Cont&eacute;'s presidential guards killed a total of 113 people during this year's crisis. 
 
The Brussels visit was made possible by the ITUC, and included a visit to the European Union&rsquo;s Commission. 
 
At the ICEM, Rabi Diallo said the January-February general strike was only a partial success, and civil society is now waiting for new Prime Minister Lansana Kouyate to re-shape a government that will address the needs of the people. &ldquo;The stumbling block is that the president is still in power,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;The commitments we have gained have not been implemented, so our struggle continues. Nothing is a given yet.&rdquo; 
 
Dr. Fofana added, &ldquo;We have initiated the first step, that government must be responsible to the people. We took action, the state tried to stop us, but we have persevered.&rdquo; Fofana and the others are calling for an international conference of trade union and civil society groups to be held in Guinea this year. The conference is intended to promote proper social dialogue inside the country, as well &ldquo;as to show the whole world what is occurring in Guinea today,&rdquo; according to Fofana. 
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Yamodou Tour&eacute; said the two biggest obstacles facing workers in Guinea are corrupt bosses, and the need for overhaul and drastic revisions to labour code and collective labour agreements. The three trade union leaders specifically told ICEM of the problems in Guinea&rsquo;s mining sector, where taxes that are charged to global companies end up in personal accounts of Cont&eacute; and his cronies. 
 
The country holds roughly half of the world&rsquo;s reserves of bauxite, the chief mineral in the manufacture of aluminium, and also is a significant producer of copper, gold, and diamonds. 
 
The trade unionists said Russian bauxite producer RUSAL is a real problem in Guinea. The company, which operates the Friguia alumina plant, as well as serving as the managing partner in a joint venture with Cont&eacute;&rsquo;s corrupt regime, called Compagnie des Bauxite de Kindia, utilises child labour in many of its work areas. The company also relies heavily on subcontractors, &ldquo;phantom&rdquo; companies which are tied to Cont&eacute;&rsquo;s associates. 
 
These enterprises operate in the black, and are the worst abusers of workers&rsquo; rights in a country in which workplace rights are nearly non-existent. 
 
After meeting with ICEM Gen. Sec. Manfred Warda and ICEM staff, Warda stated, &ldquo;The people of Guinea deserve our support and solidarity. They are living and working under the worst circumstances imaginable. It is incumbent for global trade unions to follow the lead of Guinea&rsquo;s heroic unions, and to join their struggle for justice and democratic reforms.&rdquo;

Struggle Continues for Trade Unionists in Bringing Democracy to Guinea

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